The rest of the trip towards Pewter City was completed within two days. On the way, Ash did actually come across some more pokemon, but it was only a few Caterpie and Pidgey. And he couldn't muster up the desire to capture them. He already caught pokemon of their line bother and it would feel a bit like a betrayal to train up a replacement.

Still, he and his three new pokemon managed to make some decent progress over the two days. Machoke and Nidorino had both reached level 19, and the fighting type got the hang of Fire Punch within the first of the two days and moved on to trying Thunderpunch, and Nidorino quickly learned how to use Poison Sting after he got Beedrill to show the attack off. Beedrill himself worked hard to learn Solarbeam and saw the most growth of any of the team, getting right up to level 17.

...It was still a bit weird going by a numerical indicator. But 'when in Kalos, do as the Kalosians do'.

'This isn't what I was expecting at all.' Ash thought to himself as he walked through the sparse market area of Pewter City, set up in in the same street as the Pokemon Centre and the gym. Like Viridian, it had a much more rustic rural theme going for it, and the city had an even smaller population than Viridian had.

Pewter had been a frontier village when it was founded back where he was from. But this...it was almost like the city had only been formed in the last few decades at most.

"Come get your fresh veg! Nice and cheap!" One vendor called as Ash passed him by.

"Top of the line pokeballs! Just got them in this morning!" another called, his eyes flickering to the three pokeballs strapped to Ash's belt.

He shot the man an apologetic shrug before continuing on. He had plenty of pokeballs, no need to buy anymore.

There was no need for his pokemon to visit the Pokemon Centre, any injuries they'd received so far had been pretty minor and some berries fixed them up naturally.

Ash had just stepped out of the line of the market stalls and began approaching the surprisingly bland and normal building that was the Pewter City Gym when an interesting shout floated through his ears.

"Come one, come all!" a man bellowed, "Check out this amazing pokemon! Something a family member picked up out of region, no idea what it is personally myself but it's something never seen in Kanto before! I guarantee it!"

The obvious hype in his voice was a ruse to grab customers. But with his interest peaked at what it could possibly be, Ash turned around and looked at the man. He was standing in front of a decently sized stall with a tarp hanging over the top hiding the contents of the stall itself.

The man was dressed up in thick overalls and a tan squat hat, typical fisher gear. Did something swim from another region and get pulled up maybe then?

People gave him a few curious looks, but none approached. Weird. Still, as much as buying pokemon didn't appeal to him much. Ash couldn't deny his curiosity.

"What kind of pokemon is it?" Ash asked, making his way over.

The man grinned almost sleazily, reminding him a bit of Meowth, "No idea sonnie! Though I think it might be some kind of super bug type!" he replied, gesturing grandly at the stall, "You look like a tough trainer! It will definitely be a good addition to any team you're building I can tell."

Well, he already had a bug type on hand. But, at this point he would take what he could get.

"Let's see it then," Ash said, nodding his head at the stall. "If it's as great as you say, I'll take it." he had plenty of money on him right now. Easily enough to buy a large house and have half left over back home.

"Alright then take a look son!" the vendor grinned and yanked the tarp off.

Ash's eyes widened as he beheld the sight of a large cage sitting atop the stall and inside it, laying on the bottom and peering up at them with inquisitive green eyes was a very familiar pokemon.

'A Vibrava!' Ash gasped inwardly. Sure they weren't exactly super rare, but it never even occurred to him it might have been one of these. And what luck too! A ground and dragon type! Flygon was basically the antithesis of an electric type alongside Garchomp.

The vendor grinned when he caught sight of Ash's shock, "See, what did I tell ya? Something special alright ain't it?" he asked, elbowing the boy lightly on the shoulder, prodding him a bit, "It's a bit expensive course since it's so rare, but I'm willing to cut ya' a deal and sell you the thing for an even ten thousand."

The way he talked, Ash could tell he was trying to butter him up and lead him into over spending on it. But...what? A mere ten thousand for a Vibrava? You could get half of that back home for supplying the league with basic captured pokemon to domesticate and use as starters. The likes of Rattata, Pidgey, Zigzagoon and the like.

Vibrava weren't exactly super rare, but they were still a middle stage dragon type. They were worth way more than paltry ten thousand. Ten thousand was a pittance too, beginner trainers made that much easily in a couple weeks if they had the talent.

..At least where he was from.

"..Alright, I'll take it," Ash nodded, "If it agrees to be my pokemon that is." he honestly couldn't believe his luck here. Flygon would be a perfect pokemon to take on Zapdos with. And once it evolved flying on it would make travelling this world so much easier. This wasn't really a journey, he wasn't really content to just stick to walking everywhere.

"Fantastic!" the vendor eagarly rubbed his hands together. Really, he played the slimy merchant so well it was almost a cliche.

Moving forward a bit, Ash met the small green winged dragons eyes and crouched down so he was level with it, "Heya buddy." he greeted it.

"Brae." it nodded, lifting a small foot towards him in a wave.

"You're not stupid and you obviously heard what me and this guy were talking about," Ash continued, jutting a thumb over his shoulder at the vendor. The dragon nodded. "You want to come with me? Not gonna lie, I'm gonna get into some tough battles in the future, but you'd be perfect to help me achieve what I want."

"Va?" it perked up at his words and Ash smiled. It looked him over for a few moments before smiling, "Vibra!" it nodded eagerly.

"Alright then," Ash continued smiling and reached into his pocket, lifting out a shrunken pokeball and enlarging it. He set it down in front of the dragon who eagerly looked it over before butting its head against the white button, forcing the ball to open with a click before digitising the small ground and dragon type and sucking it inside.

"Weird pokeball you've got there son," the vendor noted. Ash raised an eyebrow as he turned back to the man. It was just a standard pokeball. What was so weird about it? Before he could question him though, the man held out his palm, "Payment please." he demanded, eyes shining with greed

The amber eyed Pallet native rolled his eyes at the man but dutifully reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He opened it up and counted out a few notes, not paying attention to the man as he gasped and went wide eyed at the amount of money he had. He counted out a pair of five thousand notes and then slapped them in the guys palm.

"Pleasure doing buisness with you mister." Ash grinned, picking up Vibrava's new pokeball and walking away spinning it deftly on his finger in victory before the man came to his senses and made to demand more now that he saw the kind of cash Ash was packing.

Once he cleared the line of stalls again, Ash pulled out his pokedex and aimed it at the pokedex, "Let's see what I'm working with here." he hummed, eyeing the pokeball with interest.

Pokemon Species - Vibrava

Nickname - N/A

Type: Ground/Dragon

Gender - Male

Height - 3'10

Weight - 37.8 lbs

Attacks Known - Dragon Breath, Gust, Sunny Day, Rock Slide, Crunch

Ability - Levitate

Level - 22

'Not bad, not bad at all.' Ash grinned. It even had Sunny Day. He'd need to see about teaching this guy Solarbeam as well and getting him to pass Sunny Day along to Beedrill. And even better, it was at a decently higher level than any of the three pokemon he currently had.

He still wasn't sure exactly how the levels worked to indicate strength. But if he went on experience he had with his old pokemon, he'd say the three he had other than Vibrava were around the same strength range of Pidgeotto, Pikachu and Butterfree when he first took on Brock way back when in his own world.

So Vibrava should be a bit stronger than that. And he could definitely work with that. He had a lot of experience raising dragon types and pokemon with dragon characteristics like Sceptile and Lapras now after all.

After strapping Vibrava's pokeball to his belt alongside the others, Ash made his way into the Pewter City gym. And boy was he surprised. It was so different compared to the one he was used to.

The front doors opened up into a long corridor that then led Ash into a wide open room. Both the right and left sides of the room were stacked high with observatory stands for people to sit in, while in the middle of the room, a massive ring similar to rings for fighting types back home sat alone.

At the far end of the room, opposite of the entrance he came in, was an observatory deck with windows to look through.

Ash was rooted in spot though as soon as he entered the plain, albeit large room. A figure stood in the centre of the ring, with a large Onix curled around him. Tall and shirtless with tan skin, spiky brown hair and very familiar narrow eyes.

It was Brock. He looked just like his best friend and older brother figure. But even from just seeing him once, Ash could already see a different air about him.

"Who might you be?" the unfamiliar Brock asked, turning to look at Ash and crossing his arms over his shirtless chest, pushing out his pecs. It might have been done to intimidate him, but he wasn't sure. It was more amusing than anything.

..Ash wasn't really impressed. The Brock he was familiar with was much bulkier than this one in build. He knew that quite well with how much his friend had been showing off his newly improved build all the time in Alola.

His latest attempt to woo the ladies. Get big muscles and abs. Even Ash could have told him that approach back in their first run through Kanto.

Ash shook his head, ridding himself of thoughts about his Brock. This was just like the mirror world he told himself mentally. They looked similar and were probably quite similar in personality. But the people of this world, were not his friends and family.

"I'm Ash Ketchum," he replied, walking over towards the ring, "I'm here for a gym battle."

"Hoh?" Not-Brock raised an interested eyebrow, "Bold one aren't you? Well, why not? Onix and I have been training hard since yesterday to overcome our weakness after we were defeated twice in a row, it will be good to see how far we've come already."

"Good to hear." Ash grinned. He jumped up onto the ledge of the ring in a single bound and slid in between the ropes.

Brock hummed again in interest, "Quite the agile one aren't you?" he noted. His narrowed eyes flickered down to Ash's belt, "Now which of these pokemon will you chose? I will be using Onix and stick to a one on one."

Interesting Brock was making no move to leave the ring, even as Onix wound up and readied itself for a fight.

Did trainers have to actively take part in the battles in this world? Interesting approach, Ash couldn't deny it. Dangerous, but interesting.

His hand went to his belt and he grabbed the first pokeball in the line of four, "Come on out, Machoke!" he said, releasing the first pokemon he caught in this world.

"Choke!" his massive burly fighting type bowed his head respectfully to Ash before turning to face the serpentine rock pokemon, slipping into a loose stance on the tips of his toes, one fisted hand forward while the other was in a loose guard in front of his face.

A basic boxing stance that could flow well with kickboxing. Ash had trained in plenty of dojo's over his travels to pick up the basics of quite a few fighting styles.

"An impressive specimen!" Brock complimented before crouching down, "Now prepare yourself, we're going to start off strong. Onix, Rock Throw!"

The older teen barely even gave Ash any warning before he started things off. His pokemon opened its massive maw a white light glowing in its throat before it fired a barrage of small boulders three times the size of Ash's head.

"Karate Chop." Ash countered calmly.

Machoke nodded and stepped forward into the barrage of rocks, arms glowing white with power. Bouncing on his feet, Machoke lashed out with a series of slashing chops, shattering any of the rocks that shot at him.

A few were off target and nearly hit Ash. But he was rather disappointed to be honest at how slow they were. It was quite simple for him to just tilt his head or torso to the side slightly to avoid them without problem. And the inaccuracy of that Rock Throw was kind of sad really.

It wasn't something he'd expect out of a gym leader. Especially not Brock who had grown in leaps and bounds since starting his journey with Ash himself. Ash was one of the vaunted users of Mega Evolution these days and was capable of giving some Elite Four members a tough battle with his Steelix. Heck, he'd even taken to using Ash's Counter Shield technique with all his pokemon.

..It was honestly a massive and shocking difference comparing this Brock, to the one he knew well and saw just the other week before he returned to his studies to become a doctor.

When the barrage ended, Brock nodded approvingly, "Your Machoke is well trained," he complimented, "You might just turn out to be a challenge after all."

"Say those words when you manage to survive our next move." Ash countered, shaking his head.

"An impressive boast." Brock chuckled and raised his hand and motioned for the black haired trainer to bring it on.

Onix was a massive target. The best possible option for a first battle to allow Machoke to test out the power of their Z-moves on an opponent.

"Ready Machoke?" Ash asked his pokemon.

"Choke!" his fighting type nodded resolutely and eased his feet outwards a bit, anchoring his body.

Ash copied the pokemon, "Time to synch up!" he declared. As one both he and Machoke punched forward with their right hands, then followed with their seconds.

"What are yo-?" Brock went to ask, but his narrowed eyes actually flew open in shock as an orange aura began to build around Ash's body like a blazing flame originating from his core before billowing forward and wrapping around Machoke.

"Now! All Out Pummeling!" Ash shouted. And together, both he and Machoke began to fire a rapid series of blindingly quick punches.

The orange aura billowing from Ash into Machoke warped around the fighting types fists, and then with each punch he released, a massive orange fist of compressed energy launched through the air.

One, two, four, eight, sixteen. In the span of a few seconds, dozens upon dozens of massive energy fists were launched through the air.

Onix looked almost like a Deerling caught in headlights as the attacks barraged the massive rock and ground type. It had no chance to dodge. Each impact of every single individual fist rocked the ring hard

And when Ash cut off the feed of power he was releasing into Machoke. Onix fell limp with a heavy crash. Unable to continue.

"..What the heck?" Brock looked over at him in shock.

"Well, looks like we win," Ash smiled. "Don't take it too hard Brock, Z-moves are probably far beyond anything you've had to deal with before." That said, he walked over and patted Machoke on the shoulder to congratulate him on the win.

Brock just continued to stare at the younger boy for a few moments before shaking his head, "Return Onix," he brought back his pokemon. To his credit, Brock actually shook off his shock and smiled at Ash, "A Z-move huh? Never heard of anything like that before. Where did you get such a power?"

"In another Region called Alola." Ash answered. Honestly, as poorly trained as Onix seemed, it was a credit to its strength that it managed to withstand quite a few of the energy fists. He'd been told time and time again when he was in Alola that when he used Z-moves, they were a lot more powerful than usual.

It drove poor Kiawe spare trying to figure it out sometimes. The answer came to Ash a few moves into his time in Alola when he met Professor Kukui's Lucario. Aura. He had always had a vastly more powerful aura than other people. Sir Aaron's Lucario had made that quite evident with him repeatedly stating that it was on par with his masters, the legendary aura guardian hailed as the strongest aura user in history.

And unlike Sir Aaron, Ash hadn't been trained in aura since his childhood to make his aura even stronger.

He supplemented his own pokemon's power with his own aura, supercharging their abilities when using Z-moves. The fact that he could actively direct his aura and had so much of it, meant that unlike other people, his Z-moves were much more potent.

"Alola, I've heard of it in passing, I may have to take a trip there one day," Brock mused as he walked over. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a very familiar small grey coloured badge, "Well, here you are then Ash, as the winner of our battle I present you with a Boulder Badge."

It was a bit odd to be presented with a badge he'd already won before. But it might be helpful to have on hand. So he accepted it gracefully. And then his eyes widened and he had to withhold a gasp as he felt his aura surging under his skin the moment he made contact with the badge.

"What's wrong?" Brock asked.

"Nothing." he waved the older boy off and pocketed the badge. What the hell was that!?

"Alright.." Brock looked at him weirdly for a moment before shaking his head, "So what are your plans from here on out?"

"I'm heading to Cerulean City after this through Mount Moon," Ash replied, "There's somewhere I want to check near there." in the past, in his world, there used to be an old Power Plant near Cerulean that was said to have been a place Zapdos was rumoured to have been sighted at multiple times. He was hoping it was similar here and he could get a at least a look at one of the legendary birds here.

"Oh, what are you looking for?" Brock asked in interest.

"Oh, just some strong an interesting pokemon." Ash lied with a shrug.

"Oh?" Brock hummed, "Well, if you're looking for strong pokemon, there is a Magmar said to live on the the rock plateau's on the way to Mount Moon. I at least know it exists since I've had to help drive it off a few times. And it's said not far from there in the Diglett Cave it's not uncommon to come across fossils of ancient pokemon."

..Well now, wasn't that interesting? And he did need a fire type to help even out his new team.

"Good to know, thanks Brock!" Ash beamed happily. He might have to check out the Diglett Cave as well. He doubted there was anywhere around to get them revived here, but the process was something he could afford to have done nowadays back home. And he could probably just get Gary to do it, since he was one of the main researchers at a facility dedicated to reviving and studying ancient pokemon. Last he'd heard, Gary's Shieldon had evolved into a Bastiodon not long ago.

The prize money he got for beating Brock, was kind of pitiful to be honest. Not that he really needed it, but only a few hundred for beating a Gym Leader? That was like the cost of a single potion and the average veteran trainer went through them like tap water when training hard.

Thank whatever Legendary was looking out for him that he stocked up his wallet before he came here.

With Brock defeated and having a taste of the power of the gym leaders of the Region, Ash was now quite confident in how things were going for him. And the information he got from Brock as a hell of a boon too.

He decided to head towards Mount Moon and look for the Magmar Brock told him about. The fossils were tempting to go for, but they'd be there later. And he couldn't exactly do anything with them until he got back home. For now, he wanted Magmar, and to go to Mount Moon to try and find a Moon Stone for Nidorino. If he did end up running into Zapdos at the Power Plant, another ground type on hand would be a big help.

He might even pick up one of the Geodude line while there for a third ground type. A bit excessive, but he was going to be dealing with a legendary pokemon after all. no matter the type advantage, it would still be an incredible challenge to overcome.

So thirty minutes later, Ash was walking along the grassy plains outside of Pewter City and towards Mount Moon. It was about a days travel to reach the mountain entrance itself according to his map.

He stopped when he found a good open spot and set his bag down. It was as good a time as any for lunch and to get some training in. He tapped the pokeballs on his belt and released his four pokemon.

Three sets of eyes immediately landed on Vibrava who looked over Machoke, Nidorino and Beedrill in curiosity. "Hey guys, this is Vibarva, I picked him up not long ago in Pewter City." he introduced them gesturing towards the dual dragon and ground type who flickered his wings rapidly and buzzed about the air leisurely.

Machoke nodded respectfully and Beedrill happily greeted the new addition to his team by waving one of his lances and buzzing excitedly, fluttering over to converse with the small insectoid dragon.

Nidorino on the other hand just snorted before trudging over and laying down beside Ash. The black haired boy shook his head, "Come on now, no need to be so anti-social, we're a team." he prodded the horned poison type, but he just huffed and placed his head atop his paws closing his eyes and pretending to go to sleep.

Ash chuckled fondly, but didn't prod any further. Nidorino was a bit like his Bayleef. He didn't much care for the others on the team. He only really paid attention to Ash and was quite eager to get his attention. When they were training, that meant being a little try hard and going above and beyond whatever Ash asked. When they weren't battling, he tended to just curl up as close to Ash as he could get and just bask in their closeness, he'd even taking to sleeping in his tent with him. Ash didn't really mind, Nidorino made for a good heater since he didn't have Pikachu with him.

The amber eyed trainer studiously ignored the pang of homesickness he felt when thinking of his starter pokemon. He missed his little buddy. His shoulder felt so empty without him. He hoped Pikachu and the others were taking good care of Riolu as well. That feisty little guy was liable to pick a fight with Charizard and any strong pokemon that caught his eye. But he was still just a baby a week old before Ash landed here.

To get his mind off of being apart from Pikachu and the others, Ash began pulling out the gear to set up camp. It was a bit early to set up camp really, but honestly, spending a full day training without worrying about travelling was something his team really needed right now.

While he did that, he turned his attention to his newest pokemon chatting with Beedrill, "Hey Vibrava, Beedrill can you check out the area for me and see if you can spot a certain pokemon for me?" Ash asked.

The little dragon turned away from Beedril and trilled, nodding while Beedrill happily saluted him with one of his lances. "Thanks guys," he thanked them. He pulled out his pokedex and brought up a picture of a Magmar, "Can you guys see if you can spot a pokemon like this? A Magmar and if you do, let me know will you? I want to catch it."

They both buzzed and nodded to his instructions before taking off high into the air to get a good look over the area. And with them doing that, Ash returned his attention to setting up the campsite.

Ash's Pokemon

Machoke - Level 19 - Male - Guts - Attacks Known: Low Kick, Karate Chop, Seismic Toss, Knock Off, Fire Punch

Nidorino - Level 19 - Male - Hustle - Attacks Known - Horn Attack, Peck, Double Kick, Confusion, Poison Sting

Beedrill - Level 17 - Male - Sniper - Attacks Known - Poison Sting, String Shot, Iron Defense, Twin Needle, Pin Missile, Solarbeam

Vibrava - Level 22 - Male - Levitate - Attacks Known - Dragon Breath, Gust, Sunny Day, Rock Slide, Crunch

Honestly, I'm just basically writing for most shit these past two weeks huh? Been a while since I updated this, and honestly, I'm trying to get back into liking Ash again after my sheer disappointment of the Sun and Moon anime.

On that note, I've made a few changes to earlier chapters and left an edit notice on the first AN of the first chapter. Just to let you know this Ash currently reflects where he is currently in the anime. Being the Alola Champion, and having recently caught his Dragonite, Genegar and Riolu. I'm still not a big fan of the art style, nor Ash's attitude. And god do I hate Gou. But I can at least admit, our boii isn't being done dirty this time around in regards to his captures.

As you can see, Ash caught Vibrava this chapter and stomped Brock. To be honest. That was always the plan. I figured the market area was one of the most believable points for Ash to get a hold of Vibrava at this point without leaving the region. And as for Brock..well, Brock's Onxi in the manga got one shot by a Thundershock. A literal Thundershock, and not like with Ash where Onix was weakened and doused with water . Red's Pikachu just hit it with a Thundershock and it exploded into a bunch of separated boulders.

But more on the side of Ash. Ash has seven regions worth of experience at this point and is a literal champion with Z-moves to call on. And he's not being given the idiot ball like in canon. On top of that, the pokdex was just made in the manga-verse at the point Ash is right now, and is currently being filled by Red and Blue. Ash already has a complete pokedex filled with massive amounts of data on pokemon. And his world is much more advanced than the manga-verse.

...Anyway, I'm kind of going way off topic here. I just want to say, that I'm going to try and get this updated more alongside a few more of my Ash-centric stories like World Class Skill. And I've even been toying with the idea of possibly starting up Working Sinnoh With Skill again. Many of you are constantly asking for it and well, who knows how things will go soon with the Covid19 bullshit going on? Returning to my fanfiction routes during the quarantine is kinda poetic in a sense. That or I'm just too tired right now to think about how absolutely stupid I sound.

Anyway, I hope you guys are all doing well during this crisis. Remember to stay home, and wash your damn hands. Don't die motherfuckers. I need my sweet sweet reviews to make my ego swell after all.