Author's Note:

Guest review responses-

Reader 2- SO Ash gets his Primeape early because the Kanto season travel map is a total mess that makes no sense so I combined it with the Electric Tale of Pikachu comic canon and had him catch Mankey around Mt Moon. You'll see me do that a good bit actually. And yes that is my implication with the aerodactyl.

DonnyTur (assuming you are also DonnyTurtle?)- A lot! And that's why I want to make that more his post-League arc! I also do generally agree with that theory, though in some cases I think it might be more difficult.

BugTop- I don't want to derail Ash's journey that much, plus as I mentioned to Donny, I think regional form rediscovery would be an amazing post-League arc for him while he develops his science credentials.

Sidenote: I should have more long conversations between characters. The dialogue can really pad out a word-count. Being autistic I'm a very internalized person and I think that definitely pushes its way into my writing style and is definitely something I should keep an eye out for.

Chapter 8: Come Sail Away

Events were just different enough from the show for me to question my foreknowledge as I got on the SS Anne. First of all Brock and Misty had been able to get Ash aboard as a guest of the two gym leaders, which made a whole lot more sense.

However, the place was still packed because there had been some kind of sweepstakes that had supposedly gotten out of hand.

Which clued me in that Team Rocket was definitely still around with their hand in the cookie jar.

Merchandise being sold everywhere, people showing off and trading pokemon, and battles galore. There was an official tournament with the prize being a voucher for a pokemon from the prize counter at the Game Corner in Celadon City. I wondered if that was legit or not. But there were plenty of small free-battle arenas for people to show off their skills or even just show off powerful pokemon that they wished to trade.

We arrived near the middle of the convention instead of directly before launch due to Ash not taking the extra time by losing to Surge initially. We'd still spent a good number more days than I'd expected on training Ash up however.

The trade center is what I really wanted. While we weren't all sporting Rotom-phones or C-gear yet, most trainers had some form of wireless communication device. Either a low-end Pokegear or Nav. Ash was somewhat an exception at the moment. Even Brock and Misty had emergency League gears on them. Though apparently they were poor service.

So I collated my spare Pokemon on my PokeNav and posted it to the local hub run off the ship as "For Trade, LF Ground, Rock, or Steel types of uncommon or better species or ability".

I got a frustrating number of people asking if a run of the mill geodude or onix counted before I caught the fish I wanted.

Someone was a big world traveler and he wanted to trade his Galarian forms for Kanto forms, and we both had meowths.

When I met the man I knew that there was a lot more to the story than that.

"Professor Samson Oak!" I greeted, "I didn't recognize your handle, I am guessing this is much more involved than wanting to swap regional forms?"

The elderly but laid back and very tan professor scratched the back of his head, "Well you caught me young Cedar. I've been going around and trading regional forms from other regions to promising young trainers I have found here at home before I jump off to the next region for study. I just got back from Galar and will be heading over to Alola for a few years next. It's quite like Cinnabar I hear so I should enjoy it."

Samson Oak was notorious for picking only the most plush and tourist friendly places for his bases when he did his travel studies.

"Well I'm glad to see you again, Professor. It's been a while since I showed Brinker off to you at that convention! He is about ready for me to find him an Ice Stone to evolve now!"

"Ah yes, your wonderful sandshrew! I hope to find many of his cousins when I go ski-I mean surveying that mountain!"

"So I take it you're transferring ships at Porta Vista when we arrive?"

If we arrived, I sardonically thought to myself.

"Hmm…ideally. Though my brother might call me away and I'll have to teleport out before then. He had some last minute experiments he wanted my opinion on and I'm not sure if I'll be needed in person."

"Well your brother wouldn't call you away for something small, so I hope to be reading about it after it finishes review!"

"Oh I'm sure you will, now, I believe you wanted a sharp and prickly meowth?"

I laughed, "Are they really that bad? I'd read they could be…prickly but that they are also great fighters, and I must say I do need a few steel-types to balance out my team. Brinker's been great, but I've recently seen some coverage gaps in my offense pointed out to me."

The professor nodded knowingly, "Yes, the curse of the type-specialists. Though you lucked out more than most connecting well with three types as opposed to the normal one or two."

I shrugged, "Most rock-type specialists also connect with ground-types just as well so I'd say it's closer to two anyways. Though it would be great to one day stand tall enough to give Steven Stone a run for his money I don't think that's really where I see myself going."

"Oh? And where do you see yourself after you've made a run of the League a time or two?"

I grinned sheepishly in response before he continued.

"Yes I bumped into your father the other day, he can't stop bragging about you taking out Surge for your eighth badge instead of 'beating up some teachers'. In fact your school is also placing some clips of that fight on their ads for the coming year. They're preparing for you to be a dark horse in the League this year."

I sighed, "Yeah…well it's hard to get anywhere in this world in a pokemon related field without a little exposure. So I figured I'd run two or three leagues over the next few years and then work on an academic field degree."

"Ah! There it is, following or surpassing your parents?"

I groaned, "I suppose in a way both? With my type-specialty it would be a waste for me to not go into the paleontology field you know? But…I want to take it a step further. In fact…maybe you can work with me one day. Because I want to keep a foot in both yards so to speak. I want to study extinct regional variants of pokemon!"

Oak's eyebrows lifted high, "Now that's an ambition! They've only been speculated upon based on archaeological evidence of strange looking versions of species we know from places like Sinnoh and Oblivia. Professor Carolina swears up and down that some fossilized tracks are not ursaring tracks but actually a regional second evolution! Wouldn't that be something?"

I nodded, "It definitely would be! Furthermore I really want to, oh man this feels bad, but we need to improve the fossil resurrection process. I'm fairly certain not all of these pokemon were inexplicably part rock-type."

Samson snorted and almost choked himself trying to contain his laughter. "Yes, that has been a criticism of the…presentation of the facts surrounding much of your father and his coworkers' research."

"Now, the kabuto and omanyte lines I definitely could see it happening. And aerodactyl too, now that I think of it. The preserved pieces of the shells definitely lends to the rock-type analysis. But look at the Sinnohan shieldon! I bet you that the shieldon line was steel and ground in their own time. And don't get me started on amaura!"

"Yes, I too follow the originally mono-typed theory for amaura."

I shook my head to disperse my rambling, "Sorry to go off like that, Professor! But uh…yeah the meowth? It's a feisty one I am guessing then?"

"Indeed! Young, decently house-broken though, he has been staying on my brother's ranch so you know he'll not be extremely difficult, just stubborn perhaps. No nickname, you'll be able to give it one yourself, which I know you like."

I nodded, "Sounds great! So only knows a few special moves?"

"Yes, Fake Out and Hone Claws stand out. Though analysis has shown it may have a proficiency for Night Slash, meaning a thievul is somewhere in the family line."

I nodded, that was all workable, "Well I have a few months to get him ready for the League anyways! Sure he won't be going in for the finals if I get there but I am sure he'll be a demon in the qualifiers!"

Samson wished me luck and we commenced with the trade. I had moved most of the pokemon I put up for trade into a temporary digital stasis box for easy transport as opposed to having to call the ranch and set things up live. This left me with Cleo, Brinker, Artagnan, Estella, and most importantly Huck in my party outside of the new meowth.

With that in mind I swung by Ash and the group as they observed a match, "Hey guys, I just traded for a Galarian meowth with Professor Oak's brother so I'm going to go to my suite and introduce it to my team. Toss me a ring if you need me before dinner, if not see ya there!"

I breezed out of there with a grin on my face as I heard Ash finally process what I said.

"Wait…Professor Oak has a BROTHER? Galar has a special type of meowth?! Wait…Brock what does he mean 'traded'?"

Back in my decently plush suite, man dad had been raking in the cash and endorsements with the fossil revival stuff this year, I released Cleo.

"Hey, girl! I got us a new team member so I thought I'd introduce him to you first and we'd go from there?"

She nodded. We hadn't gotten a new team member since the very beginning of the school year, when I'd gotten Artagnan from a Safari Zone excursion.

I released the meowth onto the middle of the floor and he popped right up, looking around curiously before turning his bright yellow eyes to me and raising his paws and giving out an adorable light growl.

I chuckled a bit, even as Cleo stepped in front of me, "So did Samson tell you he was planning to find you a good trainer?"

The meowth growled back at me but nodded. Good, so he was responsive and likely just posturing.

"Well, my name is Isaac Cedar, this here is Cleo, and we would like you to join our team."

Thankfully Samson had prepared his catches for the prospect of trade so things went about as smoothly as they could.

The little meowth jumped around and postured a bit but when I pulled out a bit of steel wool and a Pokeblock and started giving him scritches behind the ear while feeding him a treat he was the calmest kitten you could imagine.

"Hmm…what to name you." I ran through literature and play names in my head like I usually did. But the one I landed on that felt like it fit gave me a good chuckle. "Well I hate the play but for some reason it feels like Rum Tum Tugger fits you. How do you like that? Rum Tum?"

"Meoow!" He licked up the remaining crumbs of the Pokeblock.

"We'll go with that, then!"

I returned Cleo and let our new little guy stay out for some bonding and made my way back downstairs to rejoin my friends.

I vaguely remember a tv episode of some show from my old life where a guy goes out to get pizza and comes back and everything is on fire.

It was kind of like that, Ash was mid-battle in one of the small rings but he was using Charmander and well…I think Charmander was getting a little angry at his opponent. An oddly nimble machop that I suspected was using Detect to dodge around every blast of fire sent its way.

"Come on Charmander! You can do it! We just have to hit him once!"

Oh dear, I suppose Ash still had some of his season one tendencies even if he was improving.