The next day Ash was woken up by a shock from Pikachu, which made Ash literally jump out of bed. 'How Original Ash got used to that I will never know' Ash thought as he decided to look at the time, 6:00 A.M., 'Haven't had to wake up this early since my college days'.

Ash changed and got out of his room, Yellow was expectedly still sleeping. So he decided to ask Joy if there was a place he could train his Pokemon.

"Yes, there is a clearing near the Pokemon center provided for all trainers to train their Pokemon," answered Nurse Joy after Ash asked.

As he moved left the Pokemon center and arrived at the clearing it was a relatively large space, there were a few stadiums for trainers to battle, but other than that there wasn't anything else.

Ash then released all his Pokemon and had them line up, "Ok everyone, we have a lot of work to do before we can even take down the first Gym." Ash said in his best general impression. "The Indigo League will be starting in a few months and we need to be ready. During that time we need to train, travel, and gain at least the 8 Gym badges from the Gyms backed by the League."

Unsurprisingly Spearow & Pidgey were the most excited to participate in a tournament. And they made it known.

Ash decided to motivate them with a famous quote, "A wise man once said If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

"So what do we know, the first Gym is a Rock type specialist. So unfortunately Spearow and Pidgey you two will not participate in this battle." Ash said, receiving an annoyed but understanding look from the two birds.

Seeing this he continued, "So that leaves Bellsprout, Oddish, Poliwag, and Pikachu are the only ones left. And as we are now we don't stand a chance at winning, so we will be training hard."

He looked over to see all of their reactions, Spearow & Pidgey looked annoyed, Bellsprout and Poliwag looked like they couldn't wait to train, Oddish looked tired, and Pikachu was Pikachu.

"So we will start with EV training then you will all work on improving the moves you already have." Ash said then turning to the Birds, "Spearow and Pidgey, you two will not participate in the Gym battle, so you two can train with us if you want or go train with each other."

So He started training, he started by having all of them race with each other, for one part to increase their Speed Evs, and another to increase their stamina so that they would get tired in the middle of a battle.

As soon as they were all done he set up their training, Poliwag would focus on Health and Defense for the time being it has not been decided if he would become a physical or special attacker.

Bellsprout and Pikachu would work on Physical attack, both were decent mixed attackers but they don't need special attacks for the time being. They did this with Poliwag bracing himself to be used as a punching bag and being healed after he couldn't take anymore.

Oddish was the only one who trained in Special Attack, he did this by meditating and practicing with Absorb.

Spearow and Pidgey wanted to join in and they both trained in Physical attack, though they divided to train on each other. Which eventually turned into a full-out brawl.

After some time Ash decided to let them stop so they could all eat. At this time Yellow had woken up and joined them. Ash gave them all their food and Pokebloks so they could relax for some time before they continued. And Yellow decided to ask Ash about what he did to Pidgey that day.

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(Meanwhile)

Flint was currently watching Ash train his Pokemon, he was impressed he expected the kid to run headfirst into the Gym to challenge Brock like most kids who come and challenge Brock. But as the first Gym, his job was to thin out those kinds of kids who think that this is a game that any 4-year-old could play.

Well, there was that one kid that came in on a car with a bunch of cheerleaders and won on the first try. But knowing Brock he was probably distracted trying to impress the cheerleaders and then crying after they rejected him.

But here was another kid who didn't jump to fight at the first opportunity and knew what Brock specialized in, it was honestly refreshing, he wanted to talk to him later in the evening to tell him about Brock and his predicament.

(Back to Ash)

Yellow had just asked about what he did to Pidgey in the forest, thankfully he already prepared a lie for this situation, "Well I was born with these weird powers, I can sense the emotions of People and Pokemon, I didn't understand it but one day when my pokemon where hurt I could Heal them, but I can't control it too well, and it leaves me exhausted."

Yellow believed him with no hesitation, 'Maybe I should have been an actor or a politician with how much People believe my lies.' He thought to himself.

Yellow seemed happy to finally meet someone who had the same powers as her, her uncles had said there were others but she thought he only said that to make her feel better about being different.

"Well I can also do that, see," Yellow said in an excited tone as she moved over to Poliwag and healed him, then looked back at Ash who put on his best-surprised face.

'Welp time to act my age' Ash got up and looked at Yellow with stars in his eyes, "Wow! I thought I was the only one, how did you do that, can you teach me, what else can you do." Ash said, cringing at himself that he had to act like this.

For the next few hours of the day, Ash would continue training his Pokemon and have them practice their moves. Specifically Pikachu's Iron Tail, Bellsprout's Vine Whip, and Oddish's Absorb.

Yellow had gone inside at this point to go to the cafeteria and Ash told her that he would meet her there in a bit. Before turning towards the hiding flint.

"You can come out now I know you're hiding back there" Ash shouted out causing Flint to walk towards him.

"What gave me away?" Flint asked

"You're about as sneaky as Geodude in a glass factory, if I didn't know you I would have called the Police. So did you want to tell me something?" Ash responded.

"You are very unique, follow me. I need to show you something." Flint said as he walked off.

Ash already knew what would come next and followed Flint to climb a fence and Spy on a house.

Once they saw it they could see 10 people in total, and the tallest one was currently wearing an apron and cooking. Then a little girl walked forward and pulled on his pants leg, "I tore my skirt."

"Don't worry I will sow it up for you" the teen said while turning, showing a teen with closed eyes, black spiky hair, and tanned skin. It was Brock.

"That is Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader. And his 9 siblings" Flint said, clearly trying to hold back his voice from cracking.

"Why are you showing me this?" Ash said as they jumped off the fence and started walking back.

Flint took a deep breath, "Brock doesn't want to be a Gym leader, but he can't leave Pewter to follow what he wants because he has to take care of his 9 other siblings."

"What about his parents, like his mother, or his father? Why aren't they helping him?" Ash said, directing the second part directly at Flint.

Flint looked like he was trying not to cry, "His Good for nothing Father left town to try and become a Pokemon trainer but they never heard from him again". Flint said, taking a breath barely keeping his persona together.

"And his mother wanted to take over the Gym, but since she was a water type expert the League didn't allow her to take over, leaving Brock to take over, then his mother also left to try and find a way to take over the Gym or to find the father that abandoned them, but unlike the father, she comes by to visit whenever she could."

Ash was surprised, Brock's mother was alive, wasn't she dead? (This Guy only watched the Dub)

At this time Flint was about to cry so he turned around and tried to walk away, "I should go."

"Flint" Ash said getting him to stop, "Criticism feels like an attack when you're not ready to take responsibility for your actions, you should go talk to him instead of slandering yourself, even if you think he hates you, there's always time to fix your mistake."

Hearing that Flint spun around in shock, but Ash was already walking away.

___________________________

As Ash got into the Pokemon center he moved to the cafeteria seeing Yellow feed her Pokemon, he went over and sat down and ordered food for himself and his Pokemon. 'It's nice to be sponsored by Oak. It's like having a black card I can use for anything I need.'

During this time Yellow had asked why he took so long to get inside, so Ash told her about the situation with Flint and Brock, but he kept out the part about Flint being the father for now.

"That's so sad, but what will we do now?" Yellow asked

"Well I was planning on training for a week or so before fighting Brock since there's no way I can beat him if the videos of him battling are anything to go by," Ash said as he released his Pokemon so they could eat.

And he received a thumbs-up from Yellow.

___________

The next week of training went by relatively quickly as Ash had them train and then gave them a rest day before continuing. Over the Week he didn't see Flint around, he wasn't even at his stand selling his Rocks.

Pikachu benefited the most from this training, learning Double Team and improving Iron Tail to an advanced level. Bellsprout improved Vine Whip and Wrap to advanced as well. Oddish also improved Absorb, it was useful when he learned the better draining moves, but much more importantly he learned Leech Seed.

Spearow and Pidgey spent the week sparring with each other, causing Spearow to learn Tailwind and Pidgey to learn Double team. They seemed to have gained a rivalry with each other, but they seemed to respect each other.

And the time came when Ash was standing in front of the Pewter City Gym, Yellow wished him luck before running over to the bleachers leaving Ash in front of the Gym alone with Pikachu on his shoulder.

He took a deep breath and walked inside.