For those wondering about the title, no I didn't misspell Renaissance. Renascence means the revival of something that has been dormant. Renaissance however means a revival of or renewed interest in something.
Brock found dealing with Ash a refreshing change of pace. Being forced to parent nine younger siblings had been a nightmare at first and only got 'easier' once he got into a working rhythm. He supposed part of the reason he liked Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny was because they had been a godsend in the early weeks and had offered him quite a bit of advice that made his life easier.
Ash was quite adept at foraging for food, mostly out of experience because she spent a lot of time outside exercising. Well that and to fed Pichu treats, since she didn't want anyone to know she was spoiling a wild Pokémon.
Her mother, when she did eventually find out, had laughed and had allowed the tiny electric mouse to stay in the house. He liked to curl up against her at night in bed, and it was rather soothing.
Even if she had to use special products to deal with the inevitable static issues that came from sleeping next to a baby Pokémon.
As they were heading to Mt. Moon, Ash pulled out a well used pole and went fishing.
Brock was enjoying the laid back journey, so he made no comment about taking a break. So you could imagine his surprise when Ash kept pulling out Magikarp with a look of annoyance.
"Still not the right one..." she muttered. She walked a bit deeper in and tried again.
Brock wasn't sure what she was looking for...until she pulled out the ugliest fish he had ever seen in his life.
"What on earth is that?" he asked. It wasn't a fish he recognized, and he didn't see why she was so happy to find one in an unremarkable river.
"A Feebas...specifically a shiny Feebas."
"Shiny?" said Brock, baffled.
"See the coloration? That indicates it's a shiny one," said Ash. "Shiny Magikarp, for example, are gold. When it evolves the scales are red colored instead of the usual blue."
Brock looked fascinated.
"What's the difference between a shiny and a regular colored Pokémon?" asked Brock.
"Not much, outside of the coloration," admitted Ash. "It's just super hard to find them...I would have been happy with a normal Feebas, but a shiny one is so much harder to find. Besides, the most anyone catches out of places like this are Magikarp or if you're lucky a Poliwag, hence why I went in deeper."
Sure, Feebas were about as useful as a Magikarp in a fight...but Ash knew very well they evolved into one of the most beautiful Pokémon...Milotic. Besides, that wasn't counting egg moves and the occasional TM's.
She had great difficulty hiding her cackling when she had it checked at the next Pokémon center and found out her new Pokémon knew Dragonbreath.
This was going to be hilarious.
Brock had to wonder what Ash told the Sensational Sisters to make them that pissed off after she beat them using her 'ugly' fish. None of them had seen the Feebas as a threat...right up until it started shooting out dragon-type moves.
"Do I want to know what you told them before we left?" he asked.
"Gary hasn't hit this gym yet," explained Ash darkly. "And it turns out they know Erika in Celadon, so I asked them to pass along a message for when he gets there."
Brock winced...Ash had explained (more like vented for fifteen minutes) about what an ass this "Gary Oak" was. Considering how inconsiderate and spoiled the kid sounded, he could understand why she was so pissed with him.
It was one thing to dump normal tree sap on someone's hair...it was another thing entirely to take something you knew was going to be used as research later when you didn't know what it was and dump it so close to the scalp.
Ash had pictures. She was a rather pretty girl with neck-length hair before that incident...she had to get a really short haircut after. Fortunately Giovanni used the before picture instead of a current one, as Ash was hiding the horrible hair cut underneath a cap.
Considering how the sisters clearly cared about their appearance, Ash had informed them what he had done and politely asked that they warn Erika so she knew not to allow such an uncouth and uncivilized brat into her gym.
Gary would not be amused when the sisters gave him a hard time and kept putting off his ability to challenge the gym for a full week. And even then the only reason he was able to finally battle was because Misty had come back to get some clothes.
(She was equally displeased with his actions once the situation was explained, but at least gave him the battle he wanted for the badge.)
As the two traveled, Brock learned a bit more about Ash's character. She was very mature for her age, yes, but at the same time she had her own bouts of childishness.
He had seen her get into ridiculous arguments over things he didn't think were that important...and then there was the incident with the Charmander and Squirtle.
Brock almost winced at the memory of how Ash reacted upon learning the "Squirtle Squad" was comprised of starters that had been abandoned.
Though that was nothing compared to the apoplectic fury she had finding a nearly dead Charmander abandoned by his callous trainer. Even Brock would openly admit the little shit deserved every bit of the tongue-lashing she gave him, and he ignored his usual reaction to Nurse Joy to make sure the Charmander was okay.
He did have to wonder why she named the little fire-type "Neville" though.
As part of her morning routine (Ash was an early riser, though hated waking up that early) Ash dragged Brock and all their Pokémon into some meditation.
Ash was a firm believer in self defense, so much so she goaded Brock into learning some as well. She mostly taught him things like Aikido which was more about turning your opponent's energy around against them.
Brock, for the most part, rather enjoyed it as it let him clear his head and take his mind off things. He particularly enjoyed the fact Ash refused to let him shoulder all the chores, and insisted on switching who cooked and cleaned what days and who didn't.
On the days he cooked and cleaned, Ash would train with their Pokémon if they weren't heading to a particular location. The tiny Charmander was swiftly becoming a real powerhouse, as Ash coaxed the fire lizard into concentrating it's fire more and more to intensify the heat. Squirtle, once you calmed him down a bit, was incredibly powerful though his sprays tended to go wild.
Pikachu though... Pikachu honestly worried Brock some days because it was learning things way too fast and it's power levels were beyond ridiculous. It was like it had absorbed something from Ash and was using every opportunity to learn how to use that energy in a fight. It was also very protective of Ash.
Gible was still a feisty little thing, but Brock could tell the little guy was close to evolving into whatever the next stage of his evolution was.
On the days Ash cooked and cleaned, she encouraged Brock to do his own things, like mixing medicines using local plants so he could familiarize himself with the process and learn from trial and error.
Brock...was honestly surprised Ash had a little notebook as well as a trail guide regarding berries with notations on how to improve their effectiveness. And what was more, they actually worked.
When they reached Vermillion, the first thing they did was visit the Pokémon center.
Ash carefully watched Brock for his 'bad habits'.
It made her want to sigh and put her hands in her face. She was not a damn therapist, and yet she seemed to be the only one displaying common sense and logic.
Seeing Brock about to start, Ash spoke up.
"Brock, what did we talk about?" she asked calmly.
Brock winced.
"I need to stop projecting onto any Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny I come across."
Ash had a serious sit down with Brock after the third time he started declaring immediate love towards them despite only meeting them once. She knew it made them uncomfortable and to be honest it was just weird.
It had taken a few 'sessions' for her to come to a general idea of what was causing that bad habit, and once Brock realized he was still suffering from the stupidity of his father it had helped to cut back on most of it.
Brock was honestly closer to his mother than Flint (more so after Flint's behavior) and he instinctively saw the Jenny and Joy clan members as surrogate mother figures. His 'interest' in them was likely a side effect of having to shoulder far too much responsibility on top of how often he had to lean on their help during the early days and having a closer relationship with them than most gym leaders did.
Hell, the entire reason he even became a gym leader was because Flint pressured him into it and his mother thought it would be a good experience for him to have such impressive qualifications.
No one expected Flint to dump the responsibility of being a gym leader and a parent on his oldest son the second he realized how hard being a single father was after his wife was given that job opportunity.
Ash felt zero sympathy because the second Brock tricked Flint into handing over his wallet, he found the contact information his mother left behind in case of emergencies and let her know exactly what was going on. Flint had taken it with him when he scarpered.
Brock's mother was coming home the second she could do so without damaging her research. She was rather pissed off about the whole matter and would have come back immediately had she known.
Nurse Joy seemed confused, but kept her usual pleasant demeanor. It wasn't until she mentioned it to her cousin in another city one town over that she realized who the teen was and was heartily glad that the young trainer next to him seemed to have a handle on that behavior.
After all, she already had a boyfriend and she wasn't into fifteen year olds.
In the gym...
Ash took one look at Lt. Surge and winced. She immediately pegged him as a bully who used his position and power over trainers to be an utter ass.
Which was why she was going to play to her strengths and not try to overpower him. He was bragging about how he evolved his Pikachu the second he caught one, which meant he cared more about power over anything else.
The first match was Neville against his Voltorb, who was a nasty bit of work. The second match was against her Gible, who evolved into a Gabite. The final match...it was an utter nightmare.
Pikachu clearly disliked Surge's Raichu, but respected her enough that it didn't try to overpower him.
Instead he used his superior speed to perform hit and run tactics, wearing down Raichu to the point it finally fainted after a particularly nasty headbutt.
Surge had a dumbfounded expression on his face. However he handed over the badge without a word, wondering how the hell she managed to beat him with just a Pikachu.
As Ash was preparing to go get something to eat, she noticed her egg starting to show signs of hatching. Brock watched from the doorway, mostly because he knew Pokémon imprinted on the first thing they saw once they hatched.
So you could imagine their surprise when not one, but twin Nidoran hatched from the egg.
"...How on earth did you get an egg with fraternal twin Pokémon inside?"
Ash cuddled the two, which were male and female respectively, before answering him.
"I swear it's my luck," she said. They were rather adorable though.
As if that wasn't enough, they ran into Giovanni there on official business. His expression learning there were twin Pokémon inside the egg was rather amusing.
Brock didn't know this, but while he was out resupplying their medicines and food, Ash spent some time around Giovanni who made her an interesting job offer.
"Isn't Team Rocket the group that goes around harassing trainers and tricking them out of their Pokémon?" said Ash dryly.
"What gave you that impression?" asked Giovanni.
"There's this trio who keeps trying to capture Pikachu and Gible. Honestly if they put half the energy into capturing other Pokémon and not harassing me, they could probably be rather efficient at gathering large numbers of them. Not everything requires a convoluted plan to pull off."
Giovanni thought back on who he had been berating recently for not doing anything worthwhile and knew immediately it had to be Jesse, James and Meowth.
"So is that a no?" he asked carefully.
Ash had a rather odd expression on her face that was downright mischievous.
"I'm saying that rather be a traditional member of Team Rocket, why not hire me to test out the lower ranks. If they can't prevent their operations from being dismantled by a bloody ten year old on their first run through the league, then how in the name of Arceus do they expect to avoid the cops cracking down on them and causing you endless headaches?"
Giovanni blinked, thought that one over and had to agree with her assessment. It was rather embarrassing to have their operations dismantled by a ten year old.
"How does hiring on commission sound? For every operation you dismantle, I expect a report on what they did wrong and why. The more extensive the report, the better the paycheck," he countered.
"Deal," said Ash, and they shook on it.
For a criminal group, Team Rocket was actually fairly tame. She had heard rumors of other groups that were far worse, and knowing her luck she'd run head first into them sooner or later. She'd rather have the backing of a similar group than go against them solo.
Besides, at least this time she was being paid for her chaotic luck and general snooping.