Raging Sea and Burning Ash

Chapter 4

-Percy-

Yawning, Percy walked down to the lobby of the hotel, bag already packed and slung over his shoulder. After the incident at the Pokémon center he, Ash, and the other trainers who had been there got moved to a local hotel to wait until a League Representative could come to get their reports and check on reports about the criminal lunatics who'd started throwing explosives and reciting poetry. "Morning Percy!" Looking over, Percy saw his travelling companion currently walking back from the breakfast buffet, two plates piled high.

"Jeez dude, how much do you eat?" Percy gaped at the sheer amount of food the 'Chosen One' had gotten for themselves.

"What?" Ash grumbled, only slightly red faced "I'm hungry."

"I can tell." Percy snorted amused, "I just hope you left something up there for me to eat."

"There should be plenty left." Ash rolled his eyes back at him as Percy went to go fill up his own plate, nodding to the other handful of trainers who had been in the Center when it exploded.

"So," Percy joined Ash back at the table, sweat dropping when he saw that Ash was over halfway through with the massive feast the trainer had gotten for himself, "I heard that there's a Gym here, are you going to challenge it?"

He wasn't expecting Ash's response to be deep belly laughs.

"What? What's so funny?" Percy blinked in confusion as Ash worked to calm down from his laughing fit.

"Sorry, sorry." Ash waved it off "I know you didn't know, but I'd get my teeth kicked in if I tried. The Gym leader of this city has lost maybe three times in his entire tenure as a Gym Leader, well over twenty years. He's strong enough that he got special permission from the League to put up extra restrictions on his Gym. You can't even go through the door to try until you have seven Kanto Gym Badges."

"Pretty specific with the Kanto bit. I'm guessing someone tried being clever?" Percy raised an eyebrow even as he started eating.

"Some xenophobic prick from Unova a few years ago." Ash snorted, It got streamed by someone with him. He apparently considered Kanto to be 'the boonies' and made no effort to hide that opinion. He went around to a bunch of other regions as soon as he got his started to get a badge from each."

"I don't get how that works as clever. Did he just go to the low ranked ones?" Percy frowned in confusion.

"The idea of 'low ranked' Gyms is a bit misleading." Ash shook his head, "Every Gym leader that's worth the title is by FAR the best trainer in their general area and if they use their proper teams then typically only the elite four, champion, or other Gym Leaders can beat them. Granted there are some that aren't that strong of course. New Gym leaders who are still pretty green, those who got the job just because of inheritance without putting in the work, that sort of thing. What all the leagues actually do is that the challenge rating of each Gym Battle is based on how many badges you've collected in that specific region once you're enrolled in the League challenge."

"So, he figured if he got the lowest from seven other regions then he'd get past the local Gym Leader's rule of 'Seven Badges first' so he could fight their weakest team." Percy realized, knowing just how petty assholes could be when they felt spiteful or entitled.

"Yep." Ash smirked "Everyone knew that the guy was trying to 'malicious compliance' his way through this but it didn't go his way. I saw the clip and Giovanni just smirked and utterly destroyed the prick using a low levelled but highly efficient and tactical team. The man was just that damned good at training his Pokémon."

"karma." Percy sing songed in amusement, "So, no battle here. Where do you plan to start?"

"Probably Pewter or Celadon." Ash shrugged lazily, "Heracross has advantage in Pewter and Pikachu in Celadon. Probably a good idea to for Gyms I have at least Neutral status toward until I can build my team up more."

Percy nodded at that, letting his mind wander until Ash said something he wasn't able to catch "Sorry, what?" Percy shook himself to refocus, silently cursing the Demigod variant of ADHD. Great for battle, horrible for everything else.

"I asked if you plan on challenging the Gyms or if you're going to do something else." Ash repeated as Percy paused to give the question some thought.

"I don't think the Gym circuit is for me." Percy admitted after a bit, "I'm more than willing to cheer you on but I've never been the biggest fan of performing in front of a crowd myself." Plus, he just knew someone would try to raise hell about him using Kyogre in the League and he'd rather just avoid that whole mess outright.

"So being a coordinator is out too." Ash nodded, eyeing the buffet like he was considering seconds "So what do you want to do?"

"I…you mentioned something about Rangers before, right?" Percy asked between bites, his mind thinking back to his experiences before coming to this world. The Greek gods were embodiments, incarnations of various concepts whether they be of society or nature itself and his father was distinctly tied to nature. The instincts that came with that, along with how he'd seen the suffering of the various nature spirits and lesser gods and his friendship with Grover about the Wild, had him wanting to do something about it.

"A ranger?" Ash looked surprised.

"Yeah." Percy grinned, the idea sounding better and better by the minute "Protecting wild places, stopping poaching, that sounds great. Hell, maybe I'll even get myself a ship and go after pirates."

"Hell yeah!" Ash grinned in excitement at Peryc having a named goal now, offering a fist bump "That sounds awesome! You'd probably want a flying type as well as one that can move fast on land to cover your bases." Realizing that Zeus couldn't do jack shit to him for flying here, Percy's grin started growing wider, eagerly returning the fist bump.

Before he could continue the conversation the doors burst open to reveal a truly gargantuan mountain of a man "Ash!" the muscle bound behemoth rushed over and began fretting over Percy's companion.

"Hi Dad!" Ash wheezed out through the bear hug.

"This is your Dad?" Percy blinked in surprise before looking at the size of the man's frame, "Is this why you were after my workout routine?"

"Just a bit." Ash gasped as he finally escaped the bear hug "Percy, this is my dad, Bruno of the Elite Four."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Percy." The smiling mountain shook Percy's hand, showing the same jolly energy as the rest of the Ketchums, "Delia told me all about what happened and since I was already heading down here, I offered to collect statements from you and the others that were in the center."

"You were already heading down here?" Ash looked surprised at that as Bruno grinned, smugly bringing out three plane tickets.

"Yep, it was the plan once Delia mentioned what she learned when Percy here got his starter. Given that whole mess you two are apparently in, I decided to get you both some serious training to start off your journey in the same place where I first learned. Galar's Master Dojo! So get ready boys, you're going to get put through the ringer!"