The travel from Viridian City to Pewter City was underway, though with a stern warning from the league to keep his mouth shut on what happened. Though unbeknownst to him Team Rocket now knew the general locations of devil fruits that the league knew of but couldn't locate the exact position. Some of these devil fruits were quite powerful with the Yami Yami no mi rumored by some league personnel to be a family heirloom for Agatha and her descendants—part of a clan that's been involved in founding the league following the warring period. They took it upon themselves to protect that devil fruit in particular due to its ability to nullify other devil fruit powers. Only the clan leader could eat it and they made sure that the clan leader died next to a fruit and in a secure location. To make sure that the Yami Yami no mi always reincarnated in the same spot every time.
But then there was Pikachu and now Pidgey was getting in on the action of claiming that Ash was a Nika. Whatever the hell that meant, Ash was pretty sure that they were both delusional in some way. Everyone knew the Gomu Gomu no mi was a weak devil fruit. The only consolation was that it was immune to electricity and thus only electricians sought the devil fruit out. Everyone else avoided eating it because it did nothing in combat and some even called it the weakest. Ash was determined to prove them wrong, mainly because he was sick of being babied.
Everyone treated him like he was incapable of protecting himself and that he couldn't fight because of his devil fruit. Especially when compared to the logias that both his older siblings got their hands on. His mom was the worst in this regard though he also realized that Pokemon were generally fiercely protective parents. So he gave her a pass considering that she was a Pokemon. It was his experiences with his mom that made him very weary of wild Pokemon, if the Pokemon had offspring then he gave them an even wider berth.
Shoving all of that to the back of his mind, Ash began to think of possible strategies. He did do some research while at Professor Oak's lab so he knew that Brock was a rock type specialist and that his two Pokemon were weak against rock types. So he had to be smart with this. You can't go into a gym and expect to win against them with brute force. However, Ash suspected that was why so many trainers failed to reach the Indigo Plateau in their first year—considering you needed 8 badges to reach the conference and those badges didn't carry over to the next year. That made time management and planning vital for any trainer. If there was one thing that Ash did well, it was planning. He spent days going over a map of Kanto with all the routes. He even researched the gym leaders and figured out the difficulty of each one. Which ones were the easier ones and which ones were more of a challenge? Ash also knew that the gym leaders adjusted their teams to match the badges their challengers had so the harder ones were made even more difficult to take down by simply having more badges.
So Ash made a point of coming up with a general route while leaving enough flexibility to adjust to any problems that cropped up. Trainers who couldn't adjust their schedules and plans for unforeseen difficulties would never get past 8 badges. Sabrina and Giovanni in particular were brutal to fight against and Blaine was tough to find. Blaine made that a part of the test for trainers, to see how well they picked up on subtle hints and clues. Being able to put two and two together was needed as sometimes the winning trainer was the one who picked up subtle hints. It could be anything, from certain habits of the trainer or Pokemon that you could exploit to injuries that the Pokemon gained during battle to battlefield abnormalities. But the battle was half of it as what most rookie trainers didn't realize was that understanding the psychology and mindset of your opponent was also important. If you could make your opponent emotional and think less critically then they would make mistakes. Mistakes that a seasoned veteran would seize the moment it presented itself. That was one reason why gym leaders like Lt Surge were so demeaning. If they could make their opponent lose their cool or make them angry that they tried to brute force their way then the more experienced gym leader could have an easier time defeating the challenger.
That was one reason why people like Lance always kept a cool head. That and the fact that panicking never helped anyone. Panicking was the second reason if they couldn't throw off their opponent by making them angry then panicking was the next best thing. However, some rookies knew ahead of time what they were trying to do and denied them any chance of throwing them off. Keeping a cool head and sticking with the strategy with the flexibility to switch things up when it wasn't working was a trait not many of them had. That was another common flaw, especially in this current generation of trainers, they were inflexible and stuck with a strategy when it wasn't working.
Ash though had one thing going for him and that was the fact that his mom taught him about Pokemon when he was younger. It was basic stuff as she didn't have the time to teach him more advanced stuff due to Team Rocket. But it was enough to at least get him started with Professor Oak finishing his education which he was grateful for. So Ash knew that Brock's Pokemon could tank more hits than his and that they dealt more damage with more moves available to them. Ash was limited in that flying and electric-type moves wouldn't be that effective. But if he just stuck with one specific move against Brock, that would make him predictable. Brock would know what to expect and would be able to counter more easily than Ash. Then it struck him, what if he used electric and flying-type moves to make himself look like your typical incompetent rookie? Brock would underestimate him and wouldn't take him as seriously. This would in turn let Ash play off that and surprise him with dig, iron tail, and steel wing for a double whammy. This would throw Brock off temporarily which would allow Ash to take the offensive and hit him with all he had.
"Ok but just in case I'm going to get myself a grass type" Ash figured having one wouldn't be a bad thing just in case plan A failed.
"Now where do I find one in this forest?" Ash asked himself. Looking around all he saw was trees everywhere.
"Perhaps if I start walking I will run across one" With that Ash restarted his journey.
"After I catch one it will be time for training" Ash smiled.
Ash continued his way through Viridian Forest while talking with Pikachu who was sitting on his shoulder to stave off boredom. Take regular breaks to train both Pikachu and Pidgey and battle any wild Pokemon they come across. Besides that, though nothing else happened that could be considered interesting at least until they were halfway through the forest when a samurai kid pointed a sword at Ash's face.
"Are you from Pallet Town?" He asked.
"I suppose you could say that I am from there" Ash answered.
"Is that a yes or no" The kid replied.
"Well I wasn't born there but I got my starter from there" Ash clarified.
"Good enough for me I challenge you to a battle" The kid declared while sheathing his sword.
"All right then" Ash accepted the duel.
"How many Pokemon do you have?" Samurai kid asked.
"Two" Ash answered.
"Ok, then a two-two battle no substitutions allowed" The kid laid out the rules for the upcoming battle.
"Ok let's go Pikachu"
"Pinsir I choose you"
The battle was underway
"Pinsir Vise Grip" Pinsir charged Pikachu ready to squash that rodent.
"Pikachu use nuzzle" The Pinsir got close enough to Pikachu to be paralyzed and had damage dealt to it as well. The samurai kid wasn't particularly happy with the turn of events.
"Now let's use this to our advantage Quick Attack and Thunder Shock" Ash ordered. Pikachu then proceeded to run into the Pinsir at full speed with Quick Attack and then used Thunder Shock to deal even more.
"Damn it, with my Pinsir paralyzed he can't move as effectively especially since Pikachu has Quick Attack" The Samurai kid growled.
"Give up?" Ash asked.
"Never" The kid yelled defiantly.
"All right then Pikachu use a quick attack" Pikachu slammed into the Pinsir once again knocking the Pokemon out.
"Pinsir return, go Metapod" The trainer released his next Pokemon which turned out to be a Metapod.
"Ok, Pikachu let's have Pidgey take this one on" Pikachu returned to his trainer's side while Ash released Pidgey.
"Metapod harden"
"Pidgey use tackle" Pidgey began flying at the Metapod which used harden at the same time. The damage dealt to Metapod was lessened by harden.
"You know if you keep using harden then we're going to be here forever" Ash pointed out.
"Harden is the only move a Metapod can use though" the Samurai kid replied.
"Yes, which begs the question why use a Metapod in the first place?" Ash asked.
"Well, how else am I supposed to get it to evolve into a butterfree?" The Samurai kid yelled.
"Uh rare candies" Ash pointed out.
"Do you know how expensive those things are" Samurai kid yelled.
"Well, you could" Ash got cut off.
"Enough talking, we have a battle to continue" The Samurai kid practically screeched. So continued what you could consider the most boring battle to ever occur. With Metapod only able to use harden while Pidgey wailed on it with gust, tackle, and quick attack. Metapod would eventually go down but not until Pidgey almost dropped dead from exhaustion. But victory would be theirs and they got another bonus from the battle as well.
"Well here are your winnings" The Samurai kid grumbled seeming a little miffed about losing.
"Are you being a sore loser" Ash caught on quickly to the fact that the kid wasn't very happy about losing.
"No" The Samurai kid denied.
"Ok then, well Pidgey want to return to your Pokeball?" Ash asked.
Pidgey squealed before glowing white and proceeded to evolve right before Ash's eyes.