Chapter 1: Relief

I had been wondering, my entire odd sixteen years of life in Kanto what version of the Pokemon world I was in. I knew it was more expansive than the games of course, but I'd never had major confirmation on what world changing plots were going on.

The answer came as I was studying for my Advanced Class exams from Pokémon Tech just outside of my new life's home of Saffron City.

I looked out of my window to see a horde of the Beginner Class students hurrying over to the small arena favored by the stronger underclassmen for study and training. The Beginner Class was so broad that students from ten to fourteen appeared. I clasped my hands together over my head and stretched, looking over to my starter, a currently slumbering nidorina, who my parents in this life had never really understood why I picked.

"Want to go see what the noise is all about, Cleo? I know you've been annoyed at me staying cooped up in here to study for this biology exam," I spoke at a normal volume, knowing her sensitive ears would pick up everything I said.

Indeed, her ears twitched twice as she blinked herself awake and nodded back at me, slowly pushing herself up onto her legs and extending backwards in a quick stretch. I had had rabbits on Earth, and she reminded me of them. Well, perhaps if I had had the rabbit from Monty Python as a pet at least. She padded over to the door and headbutted it impatiently as I stood up with a laugh.

"Hold your rapidash there, little lady! I've got to toss my shoes on!" Quickly I readied myself for a little jaunt, casually tossing on my pokeball belt and pulling on a pair of boots that were basically Kanto's versions of Dr Martens, though I'd opted for a work pair not a fashion pair like many of the other trust fund brats that I went to school with.

Of course, in this life, I was also one of those trust fund brats. While initially my father had just been a normal researcher for Silph Co, right after I started boarding school here at the Tech he'd been tapped to help with the fossil revival project in Cinnabar. Needless to say he'd very quickly become a big deal, and unfortunately my mother in this world was completely different from the mother of my previous life and had eaten the attention all up.

The only upside of the lifestyle they'd thrown themselves headfirst into was that I occasionally got to talk with actual serious scientists at the parties they threw or attended when I was on breaks from school.

In fact, after I'd had a go or two at the Indigo League Conference I fully planned on trying to join Professor Cerise's institute. I'd met him at a party last year and the man had seriously impressed me with his early phases of his Poke-Energy Radar, which I knew he may eventually be able to use to hunt down legendary pokemon!

My musings were cut short by Cleo and I's arrival in the small arena where almost the entire Beginner Class was watching one of their top students, in fact one I had recognized and taken a bit under my wing earlier in the year, battle someone that I definitely recognized.

Ash Ketchum. It was weird seeing him so young and feeling like I not only knew him but knew what he could become.

Orange Island, Battle Frontier, and Alola Champion. Wielder of a demon of a pikachu as well as such monsters as Charizard, Sceptile, Dragonite, and Lucario.

And here he was, struggling slightly against a sandshrew with a pikachu that had yet to learn any of its signature moves, still relying almost exclusively on Thundershock and Quick Attack.

I snorted at the embarrassing loss Giselle suffered when Cubone's own Bonemerang was dodged, and he knocked himself out on the rebound.

As she expressed her surprise at her loss I couldn't resist and stepped in to interfere.

"Giselle, now what has your friendly upperclassman told you about trained pokemon versus wild pokemon in the databases?"

She winced and turned around to face me, "That trained pokemon have a higher likelihood of atypical strategies and movesets..." she grumbled, "But it's ridiculous! This kid is a total dunce, why should I have expected-"

"Battle tactics?" I supplied.

"Yes!" She shouted and Cleo at my side chuffed in amused exasperation.

Realizing how ridiculous she sounded Giselle blushed and hung her head.

"Hey!" A dramatically overenthusiastic voice chimed in, "Who are you?"

I sighed, right, Kanto-Ash was...a cliché dumbass anime protagonist.

"I'm one of the Advanced Class students, Isaac Cedar, nice to meet you, Ash was it?"

His eyes bugged out, "Wait! They said if you pass the Advanced Class it counts as like...five badges!"

"Six, Ash!" Misty chimed in.

I turned to look at her, wow Misty was young at twelve. I thought back to the mega gyarados she would have one day and almost shivered.

"That's even more!" Well, Ash was right, six WAS more than five, "Hey! Who's that pokemon?"

I almost fell flat on my ass as Ash did the cliché pokedex scan of Cleo.

"Nidorina, the Poison Pin Pokemon," The robotic voice began, "The female's horn develops slowly, thus it prefers physical attacks such as biting and scratching. When resting deep in its burrow, its thorns always retract. This is proof that it is relaxed,".

Is it weird to feel calmed by a robotic voice you'd previously only heard in an anime?

Before I could muse too long I learned that there was one difference between this world and the anime.

Apparently Team Rocket wasn't entirely incompetent.

There was no warning motto before a smokescreen, a burst of earth, and a flash of a Quick Attack appeared.

It was only our training over the last three years that saved the pokeballs on the belts of the underclassmen.

Cleo immediately intercepted the speeding pokemon with a Double Kick, it ended up being Team Rocket's Meowth, who let out a grunt of pain as he was sent skidding along the arena floor a good dozen feet.

Senses sharpening for battle I palmed two pokeballs and released them. In twin bursts of light, my own cubone, Estella, and a sparkling light blue Alolan sandshrew, Brinker, appeared for battle.

We can reflect on my obvious homesickness by naming all my pokemon after literary characters from Earth later, right now, I had some criminals to school.

Or I thought I did.

Ash and Misty it appeared had taking care of Team Rocket down to a science. Before I could even give commands or Brock could run down from the stands all the way both Ekans and Koffing had been blasted back into the criminals' arms by Pikachu and Starmie respectively.

As I was blinking in shock the two criminals collected their three pokemon and skedaddled.

"Uh...should we call Officer Jenny or?" I was honestly unsure at this point.

Ash shrugged, "I dunno, they always seem to get away from the Jennys. It's really annoying!"

And then Ash spotted my pokemon I had yet to return, "WHOA!" Oof I could hear the caps in that one, "I've never seen a sandshrew like that before!"

Ah, right, Ash had fought AJ's already at this point, "Brinker here is from the Alola region, over there sandshrew adapted to the area around a really snowy mountain and are ice and steel typed! I caught him on a ski trip with my parents last year!"

This floored Ash, and honestly regional-variant pokemon were still a relatively new field. As previously there'd been hot debate about whether they should simply be entirely different species or not.

"There's a special Alolan raichu, too!" I remarked to Ash, knowing Pikachu would never willingly evolv-well actually if his meeting with Surge went differently Pikachu could possibly not go that route. Interesting idea but not one I will push to bring about.

"Can I battle it?" Ash bit out finally, taking me a bit aback if I am honest, "Pikachu's a bit tired but maybe Butterfree could have a go?"

Oh no, that earnest face, I just couldn't say no to it.

"Alright, kid," I turned to my pokemon, "Cleo and Estella you go keep Giselle some company, I've got a tutoring session it appears!"

"Hey!" Oh yeah the yelling was going to get annoying, "What do ya mean tutoring? I've got two badges!"

"Then you're on par with the Beginners I regularly tutor!" I grinned with a sickly sweet facetious smile, "But it's impressive at your age nonetheless! Now, Brinker, to arms!"

With a nod Brinker rolled out onto the field in a ball before popping back out onto his hind legs.

"Go, Butterfree!" Ash called out summoning the first pokemon he ever caught. Oh I really hoped he didn't let him go this time around, that was really heart-wrenching for me as a child.

Er...my first time as a child?

"You get first move, Ash, I think the theme of this lesson is going to be what I call the Aggressive Defense!"

Ash looked confused at my declaration, but the kids of the Beginners Class were on the edge of their seats. I was one of the more approachable upperclassmen and truly enjoyed teaching myself so I tended to give demonstrations pretty regularly where I actually explained why and what I was doing for my strategies.

I also had a tendency towards entertaining flamboyance which I am certain helped.

"Well, whatever! If you're going to be on the defense Butterfree has this in the bag!"

"Careful, Ash!" Brock cautioned from the sidelines, "I'm sure he knows what he's doing!"

I tossed Brock a grin, "Don't ruin all the fun, Gym Leader!" I joked, "Well, Ash? What has your butterfree got beating between those wings?"

"A Sleep Powder!" Ash commanded and the little guy, well alright a butterfree is the size of a pretty decent eagle back on Earth so not so little, sped forth with his wings abuzz and a sparkling powder flying off towards Brinker.

"A solid defense against powder moves is a fast moving wind of any kind. You don't always need a flying move to generate it either! Rapid Spin!"

Brinker curled up into a ball and began spinning, well...rapidly, causing a small vortex that picked up sand, dust, and the Sleep Powder and swirling it around him and right back up into the air.

"Rapid Spin is useful for dispersing many persistent effects on the battlefield!" I lectured.

"Fine! Butterfree use Whirlwind!"

Without my command Brinker took off from the Rapid Spin into a Rollout, not actually targeting the opponent however, just evading the attack.

"The move also raises your speed, though not as much as a proper Agility," Ash's face was turning red with a mix of embarrassment and frustration.

Good, in the anime Ash always learned the most from his defeats. So perhaps this lesson here could kickstart his tactical thinking that only really began to shine around the Battle Frontier.

"Confusion!" Ash finally called out a more direct attack and I grinned, the second I had said 'aggressive defense' earlier Brinker had known what was going to happen.

He popped out of the Rollout and his icy blue plates began to glow a light lavender just before the Confusion hit.

They flared a darker purple and Ash looked like he had been struck by his pokemon's own move for all he anticipated what was going to happen next.

"Mirror Coat, students," I explained, "Can take an indirect or 'Special' attack and reflect it back at the attacker...doubled."

Ash paled at my words, but it was too late, the energy burst back forth from my sandshrew and slammed into the butterfly pokemon, sending it hurtling backwards and to the ground.

The two-badge trainer returned his pokemon morosely.

"Hey," I said as I began to walk over and Brinker rolled up to my side, "You did great! Starting out the battle with a status inducing move was exactly what I would have done with a butterfree! I feel almost certain I'll be seeing you at the Indigo Plateau this year when I compete!"

This surprised all the surrounding students however, my declaration that I planned to compete this year, the same year I passed my Advanced Exams, was essentially a declaration of war upon the staff at the school.

Because you see, once you pass your Advanced Exams you self-study and get tutoring until you get win a gym circuit style match against five staff members. That's how you graduate. Technically you could jump right in to the challenges from finishing your Advanced Exams, though it wasn't recommended. Most students took two more years and graduated at around eighteen. Training battle teams was not as easy as the professionals made it appear. Or the movies in this world. Plus it gave the school an excuse to drag a few more years of tuition out of their more middle of the pack in skill students.

I had just said I wanted to graduate before this year's conference. That was in just under eight months, I'd be turning seventeen.

I had no illusions that I was going to be a Lance, a Leon, or an Ash though. I'd be content being good enough to have a research gym like Blaine or Roark after doing a few conferences and a fellowhsip with Professor Cerise.

And that meant I had to make a show of it.

"Wow!" Ash exclaimed, not understanding the full implications of that, "Then I'll be beating you in a rematch!"

I chuckled, "Well I look forward to watching you try,".

My sincerity bled heavily into that sentence and as they walked off to continue towards Vermilion City I saw both Brock and Misty looking back at me in curiosity.

Notes:

Isaac's Revealed Pokemon:

Nidorina- Cleo

Cubone- Estella

A-Sandshrew- Brinker

So summer is my big creative period because I do a kind of working vacation and travel with my wife for her job and just have more creative time than I do at my normal job during the rest of the year. But I need to practice my writing so you'll be seeing chapters of some of my less serious and plotted out pieces.