P.S. All credit to respective owners.

P.P.S. I understand it would not be exactly accurate to the Pokedex, but it will mention type rather than species. IE: Fire Lizard - Fire Type.

Noah leaned on the gate leading to the road, idly adjusting the straps on his battered X-transceiver and checking his poke balls were secure. He was double checking the pokemon locations against the general path most trainers use to collect the gym badges before the Indigo Conference. He already had six pokemon on his belt but that to Oak being able to hook his Gym Account to his Trainer Account, he was allowed a total of twelve pokemon on him. One set of six poke balls for his personal team and another six for 'league rental' pokemon in Kanto. His account for Umbal worked a bit different as the moment you caught first six that was all you get to carry Gym Leader or not. Umbal had actively been trying to keep the league from getting in contact and were subverting the rules as hard as they could. With his relocation to Kanto and the rules for all Gym Leaders pretty clear cut now, he could start this journey as most normal trainers did despite the powerhouses already with him.

He had wanted to travel, but he didn't want to do it alone, being a Gym Leader wasn't exactly lonely, but human interaction was usually lacking.

Plus, he wanted to see what sort of trainers Oak had sponsored this year, Leaf and John seemed decent enough but Gary was not worth trying to help. Ash on the other hand was the good sort, especially with how he was willing to brush off disappointment and keep going forward. Ash's luck was not great today but he didn't care and decided that if he couldn't get wanted he would do with what he got. Noah appreciated that attitude — he had gone through it himself — so he thought it would be nice to help Ash really become strong.

And soon enough he saw Ash walking towards him, Abra silently hovering behind him, "Hey Noah. What are you doing here?"

Noah grinned, "I was hoping you wouldn't mind if I tagged along with you for the Gym Circuit as this is my first time in traversing Kanto. These sorts of trips always seem more fun with a bit of company, don't you think?"

Ash beamed, "That would be awesome! I'd get to have a Gym Leader help me and my friends grow strong! How could I pass that up?"

Noah pushed off the gate and dusted his jacket, "Then lets go."

"So what move did you get from Oak?" Noah inquired after a few minutes of trekking.

"He gave Abra Psyshock!" Ash said eagerly, causing Noah to raise an eyebrow with a low whistle.

"That's not a weak attack Ash." He commented, "How often can Abra pull it off?"

Ash rubbed the back of his head, "Only a few times before it starts to strain him a bit, but we've only just started. I know we'll need to slow down a bit and train before attacking Brock with all I got. Awesome as Abra is, his main strategy is teleport then attack then teleport."

Abra tilted it's head in agreement.

"I see."Noah nodded absentmindedly, "You do seem to have a bit of an issue in regards to variety at the moment. You don't have too many options in regards to how you can attack an opponent without falling into a predictable pattern. Abra isn't a tank and is relatively frail. It's one of the reasons it very first move in the wild is teleport, so it can escape danger without too much trouble."

"Any ideas?" Ash queried.

"Nothing concrete." Noah explained, "Expand your team a bit to make up for it, train them to be a decent counter, and look into how the battle might play out. You'd have to study how Brock likes to approach his battles with other trainers. You know that many trainers have a certain style to their attacks and Gym Leaders are perfect examples of that. I did a brief overview once I had gotten my Kanto license approved and found preferred method that each of the Gym Leaders employ. Take a Gym Leader like… Koga, his battle style is probably different than most trainers as he centers a lot of his attacks around status condition, mainly poison. His entire team is made up of pokemon that excel in poisoning his opponents and then waiting them out until they pass out. That isn't to say his pokemon can't hit hard, but when a pokemon is already hurting from poison spreading through their system? It's a devastating one-two punch. Then take a look at Blaine, he is all about overwhelming power and output from the very get-go, the guy's a flamethrower without a end to his gas tank. He was a former Elite Four and that mean he's got power in spades and each blow is meant to put his opponent down and down hard."

Ash looked at Noah in surprise, "You know a lot."

Noah let out a bark of laughter, "I studied a lot. if you want to beat your opponents, you need to look at any information you can find and see what they like to do. Then you need to be able to pick out weaknesses and advantages that you can exploit. And that doesn't mean to neglect your team either, what moves they can learn and how best to apply it. I was a Gym Leader at one time too, and in the beginning I had to learn the hard way that power alone wouldn't cut it to really reach our fullest potential. My team's power was undeniable, but so much was wasted in overpowered and overwhelming attacks. Now though? We drilled with finesse so that we don't waste an iota of power, lasting longer and fighting better every single day. In fact, control exercises like that might really benefit your Abra as they way he doesn't need to overpower his moves that still do normal damage."

Ash frowned but determination blazed in his eyes, "That sounds hard. But there is no way that's enough to scare me! I know that Abra and I can do it!"

"Then put the work in." Noah advised, "There are no shortcuts if you want to really want to be a pokemon master. You need to be smart and strong, not one over the other, keep pushing the limit until it shatters."

Ash nodded, "Right!"

They stopped under a tree to eat some lunch when Ash noticed Noah didn't seem to want to catch a pokemon despite the six empty ultraballs hanging from his left hip and the rattata and pidgey around them. Also, Noah took his time on prepping the meals for his team, adding dashes of spices and flavors to the pokechow rather than just pouring it out. Soon each trainer had a cup of water and a sandwich in their hands and were ready to have a meal.

"Aren't you gonna catch a pokemon?" Ash inquired while Abra and Noah's dragons dug into their respective meals.

"Eventually." Noah replied, chewing on a bite of his sandwich with a thoughtful expression before expanding, "But I want to kinda check the fields around and see what I want. I can't exactly use my dragons right now, they'd be overkill on anything around here. So I want to consider my options. Right now I think a Nidoran will do, they would probably get along famously with Girac given their similar battle styles and might learn a lot under Astarot thanks to their typing."

"But you can't just catch them right off the bat can you?"

"That is much more simple for me than you think. Think of that Pikachu back at the lab? Even if joined me do you think it wouldn't try to shock me the moment I told it anything? There are much more even-tempered Pikachus in the Viridian Forest, heck catch one there if you want a good electric-type. Pikachu isn't a weak pokemon and Raichu is more tanky than people give it credit for. Of course any of the high speed attacks you'll learn are only available in the Pichu and Pikachu stages, but it is a solid electric-type for any team. I think I'll see if I can nab a Pichu myself."

Ash coughed as water went down the wrong pipe, "Why a pichu? Aren't they too weak to withstand their own attacks?"

"They are just so cute though!" Noah gushed in a high-pitched tone.

Ash stared at him in incredulous dismay and his dragons choked as the sputtered through their equivalent of hysterical laughter.

"On a more serious note." Noah waved away the act, "Yes a Pichu does have that handicap but they also only develop the necessary electric sacs to use one of the most powerful moves in their whole evolutionary line when they spend enough time as a Pichu. And the more they grow as the baby, the more powerful their subsequent evolutions become. I am trying to cover all my bases as I will be running the circuit with a whole new team so it won't be wildly unfair. Then again, I do want to thrown down with the Gym Leader's personal team if their up for it, I know my dragons are up for it and get restless if they don't scrap often."

"Personal team?" Ash asked cluelessly.

Noah laughed at his face, "You don't think what ever league team the Gym Leaders throw first at you is all they have do you? They've been trainers way longer than you and are part of the pillars that support the league go keep the position of power they need to actually enforce law and order over the whole of Kanto. Heck, my gym trainers and I were practically the only real law enforcement back in Umbal City given we had to tear apart and take down the gangs that tried to take over the city. Do you honestly think Gym Leaders can do something like that with a team taken down by rookie trainers? No way. They have a league team and then their personal teams that they have raised from when they started. Those personal teams they raised are the real tests of power, some ambitious trainers start another circuit right after their last gym where they redo the whole thing, challenging the Leader's real team as a test to themselves and as an idea of what you can expect at the higher ranks of the conference."

Ash leaned back and looked at the sky, "There's a long way we have to go…"

"Hey, you're getting a pretty big information dump and realizing the top is a lot higher up than before, it's fine. You don't need to worry about those sort of things right now. Set your current goal, do it, then move onto the next. Just keep putting one foot in front of another and you'll find yourself scaling to the top like a madman soon enough. Heck if you want to vary up the order of Gyms you face you can do that too, there is no rule that you have to go to Brock first. Of course it is kinda unspoken that Brock is the 'weakest' and things only ramp up from there so he is recommended."

Ash and Noah came across hordes of Rattata, Spearow, and Pidgey as they walked down the route one to Viridian City. Ash had peppered Noah with questions about what he could expect going forward, it didn't take a genius to realize Ash was the type to throw him and his pokemon into situations without a lot of thought. Perfectly expected for any newbie trainer, but the really good ones knew better than to repeatedly plug the same variable into the same equation and expect something different to happen.

Hopefully Noah could curb the 'without a lot of thought' part enough that Ash wouldn't just get frustrated when he lost for the first time. Noah was happy to contribute some of his personal thoughts and revelations to Ash about pokemon and their abilities. Noah explained that while moves had their direct application, you needed to play with moves to see if they could be applied differently than intended. Ash seemed to go quiet with that and Noah was happy to leave him with his thoughts, Ash was a creative kid and didn't really seem the type to squander good advice.

It was then that Noah noticed a small river and he got an idea for Ash that would help him a lot for the future.

"Hey Ash…" Noah began, "Want a new pokemon?"

Ash's head jerked up, eyes gleaming in excitement, "Do you even have to ask?"

Noah grinned and pulled one of his fishing rods, "Then let's go fishing!"

Ash blinked as he was handed a fishing rod.

Fishing was a task that required patience, Noah had done it enough with some of his Gym trainers to have that knowledge.

Ash was a boy who had anything but patience.

Thank Arceus for Abra being able to nudge Ash into silence when he got antsy or started fidgeting. Noah also made sure Ash was aware that if he pulled a pokemon up, he would have to be ready to battle and catch it. That also helped keep Ash focus as his eyes got an eager glint at the idea of testing Abra's power, especially with its new move.

It had taken an — agonizing — hour of Ash fishing before he finally managed to reel in a pokemon from the river.

A Poliwag.

Noah sighed, he'd only been pulling up Magikarp.

And yes he knew sooner or later they would become a Gyarados — a beast once they grew to the sea-serpents that were terrible threat when they decided to attack — but he didn't expect to get any massive gains by forcing a fish to flop beside him through the forest. That was just cruel and unnecessary torture, and frankly he wanted to really work on his pokemon without harming them. Sprains and bruises were a part of getting stronger, gasping for air in a habitat that would damn near kill them would only be barbaric and mean. Either way, this meant Ash would finally get his first taste of catching a pokemon and hopefully the test would go well for him.

Abra levitated over and the Poliwag turned as it eyes narrowed at the human and pokemon that yanked it out of the water.

It fired a jet of water at the psychic and Ash stepped back out of range of the fight as he immediately issued his commands, "Teleport and then Psyshock!"

Abra vanished just as the gout of water would've hit his chest and appeared behind the startled tadpole pokemon. It held out a hand and a dome of pink spheres of psychic energy encircled the poliwag, giving it nowhere to run. With a clench of Abra's hand, the spheres rocketed down, hammering down the Poliwag with concussive force. The small water type let out a cry of pain but despite being battered, refused to fall under the barrage of hits. It fired a mud shot off at Abra, but the teleporting psychic drifted out of the way of the spray of mud. It refused to be deterred and fired another water gun.

"Barrier then teleport!" Ash called.

Abra raised both hands and a translucent pink layer of energy blossomed from its hands as the the blast of water impacted against it. Cracks immediately began to spread from the point of impact, but all Abra needed was a split-second to vanish and appear a few feet away. The poliwag was encased in pink layer of energy and tossed towards the tree line, away from the river. Despite the obvious pain it was in, it refused to stay down as it staggered back to its feet and glared at Abra. It opened its mouth and fired off rings of water at the Abra who drifted out of the way only for the rings to curve their trajectory to follow.

"Water Pulse!" Noah called out, "It homes in on the target!"

"Abra teleport out!" Ash called out frantically.

The Abra vanish in a twist of its will just before the attack struck, appearing a few feet away in an attempt to avoid the attack. Unfortunately for Abra, the Poliwag hadn't waited for the next move and blasted Abra the moment he reappeared with another Water Pulse. The psychic cried out as it was knocked onto its hands and knees from his psychic hovering due to the pain.

Ash eyes narrowed at the attack that tagged his pokemon, "Abra!"

The Poliwag — despite fighting Abra at the moment — preened at the fact that it scored a hit on the enemy.

Unfortunately, it forgot one critical thing.

Abra was still there and was now pissed that it was hurt.

"Blast it with a Psyshard!" Ash commanded .

The Abra hand glowed with energy and instead of making the standard psyshock that would surround the water-type, it overlaid the manipulation of energy in front of his hands, each pulse condensing his conjured projectiles into varying-sized bolts rather than the expected spheres. the projectiles rocketed forwards and the Poliwag managed to inhale and exhale, a desperate water pulse spewing from its mouth in a desperate attempt to counter the attack. The rings of water managed to meet the attack and exploded into fine mist, but did little but destroy a few bolts from the focused buckshot of psychic bolts before they pushed through the mist of water and hammer into Poliwag's face before exploding violently. The Poliwag had an immediate introduction to the concept of flight and crashing as it slammed into a tree. It fell from the rough bark of the tree and hit the ground with a soft thud as it was completely unconscious. Ash didn't dither and fished out a poke ball from his pocket, throwing it with expert accuracy to hit the pokemon in the head. Light flared as the poke ball sucked the unconscious water-type in before it landed on the floor. It rocked three times before a quiet ping sounded and launching itself towards Ash who caught it reflexively.

He stared at the poke ball in awe before a massive grin split his face, "I caught it! I did it!"

Noah smiled in nostalgia at the sight, catching one's first pokemon was always a monumental experience as it was a major confidence boost and a sign of things to come.

"You were fantastic Abra!" Ash cheered as he rushed to hug the psychic-type, who despite radiating exasperation, endured the hug with remarkable composure.

"Congrats."Noah called out, "Very innovative use of psyshock and I didn't expect the barrier Abra made of psychic energy. How did that come about?"

Ash grinned, "Abra and I were thinking of how to better work on it's versatility that you said Kadabra had and that moves could be changed to do different things. Abra won't be able to use some of the moves that will really help it out without the use of TMs. We didn't have one for Light Screen, Reflect, or even Protect so I asked if he could do something like what they could with his psychic abilities, and he was willing to give it a shot. We only have the one for Psyshock, so we decided to focus on what we could make from it. Abra and I already used Psyshock back in Pallet to see it in action, and I asked Abra how he used it. Once he had a good idea how to manipulate it, we threw some idea around and we came up with the idea Psyshard. Less accurate, but much more force behind it, Abra already good at aiming so I thought that would be the best move to use it."

Noah whistled, "That's impressive! I thought it take at least a month before you got innovative like that Ash."

Ash rubbed the back of his head, "Well… you did say it could be done, so I figured why not try it at least…"