After some food went into everyone, and Mankey was woken up and humbled by nearly everyone, Ash started setting up his training.
He gave him the Power Anklet and Power Bracer to put on, which served as more specialized weights. And had him train in Attack and Speed, he would hold off in teaching him moves for a bit since Mankey would play a big part in his strategy for the next gyms.
Speaking of which, Ash hadn't taught his Pokemon any new combo moves or continued trying to find how Pikachu could learn electromagnetism, for now anyway he would do it later, the reason being is because he was trying to recreate a move so good even Paul had to steal it.
That's right he was talking about Counter Shield, which now that he thought about it Sinnoh Ash was probably the smartest tactician of his variations. Counter Shield, Ice Aqua jet, Electrified Iron Tail, Electro Bolt, and eating the Energy Ball, plus probably more he can't remember off the top of his head.
So many good techniques to steal, which to start with, but putting that in the back of his mind, so far he hasn't found much success. Pikachu, who was probably his most talented when it came to this didn't get it down at all, so he is probably doing something wrong.
But besides that, Fearow and Pidgeotto were excited and itching to finally get to battle, since Ash did promise them this gym was theirs, their main concern was finding out who would go first.
Those two have been doing their own private training and are good to go, in fact, he could probably just challenge the gym as soon as he gets into town with those two and Charizard in the back, he's not going to but he could.
On the topic of the gym, Erika's team is going to be annoying, not hard just annoying since Grass types are known to be bad in direct fights, but are way more resourceful, especially with all the effect spores they could and probably would be putting on his team.
And her team is annoying too, for starters since this is his 4th gym she will be using 5 Pokemon, which will be so annoying to deal with, her team changes but on the 4th gym, she always has a Tangela, Victreebel, and a freaking Venusaur, other than that the other two change depending on the situation.
Tangela is a defensive tank with an Eviolite, her Victreebel is a special attacker with a Salac Berry, meaning combined with Gluttony it will outspeed most of his Pokemon, and Venusaur is actually built to be a bulky physical attacker with Leftovers. And that is only 3 there are 2 more he won't know about.
So he would probably need a day of prep time, he was planning on going to the department store in Celadon first to any held items he would need for the near future, also he needed to go to the botany to try and find some of the mints, if they were anywhere they would probably be there.
But for now, he couldn't do much.
As Ash was thinking he got flicked in the head by Yellow, "Hey Ash are you ok."
Before he could say anything Misty interrupted, "Are you kidding me?! Yellow got you first, she is the last living thing on this planet I thought would do that."
Yellow took a proud stance raising her head and chest to the air," UmU, and that's revenge for all the times you flicked me on the head."
Ash smiled and rubbed his head, "Alright you got me, but I hope you realize this means war, I will get you back, you won't know what I will do, nor when it will happen, you will only know that when the inevitable comes, you won't be able to stop it," Ash said putting on a evil smile.
Yellow seemed to crash, then slowly looked towards Ash, "Hey you don't mean t-that d-do you?"
Ash only responded with a smile as he got up and walked away, leaving Yellow to sulk and Misty to pat her back, "Welp it was nice knowing you."
"W-what you're not going to help me?" Yellow looked at Misty with a betrayed expression.
"Well you brought this upon yourself," Misty shrugged, acting like she hadn't been planning to do the same thing.
Meanwhile, Brock leaned into Ash's ear, "So are you really going to prank Yellow."
"Oh of course not, but don't tell her that, I want to see how long she tries to stop nothing from happening," Ash said nonchalantly.
"Has anyone ever told you you act like a 90's cartoon villain sometimes?" Brock said as his nonexistent eye twitched.
"I think I was told that once or twice, but hey at least I don't break out into a villain song."
—
With Ash's other side.
Ash finally arrived in Celadon, he would have arrived sooner but there was a random Biker gang blocking the main road, and they also tried to mug him and beat him up, but thankfully he kept Victreebel on him.
Victreebel made short work of them and tied them to a tree, someone will probably come to get them on a hike, probably.
Anyway, as soon as he got into town he put Victreebel away into the now-connected storage he had with this clone body and his main body, which would be fun to abuse later.
Immediately he ignored most of the shops and chose to walk away from the Gym and businesses, instead walking towards the Casino.
No one paid him any mind, he was currently wearing a trenchcoat and a scarf covering his face, and he didn't have a hat so his hair slightly covered his eyes. So he looked like a normal tourist.
The casino itself was probably one of the biggest selling points of the Celadon, it was a large building with dancing lights everywhere, even now when the sun was still out the neon lights still stood out.
He walked in and saw many people on machines from a variety of ages on the machines or around tables betting absorbent amounts of money.
"I lost again! This machine is rigged!" Some bowl-cut man yelled out from one of the newer machines.
"Haha, you lost more money again, you really need to go home to your wife or she'll kill you for losing so much money." Another man next to him laughed.
"I'm not having any trouble here, maybe I stole all your luck haha," An old man said, as he was on the infamous machine that had better RNG than the rest.
"Then give it back, all I need is one win to make it all back then I'm done, forever." the first man said going back to gambling away.
Ash didn't pay any attention to these guys or any of the people gambling their life away. Walking through the casino, he saw a poster with a large R on it, it seemed to be modeled in a way that didn't give too much suspicion. But anyone worth their salt knows what's really there.
It was right next to the Prize Booth with a man sitting there looking through his phone, bored out of his mind, he did periodically look up but he went back to his phone quickly after.
Ash walked up to him and got his attention, he looked at Ash up and down with cold and bored eyes.
"Are you here to exchange or purchase chips?"
"No I want to join," Ash said looking at him in the eyes
That made the man raise his eyebrows and he seemed to press a button under the table as he responded, "You want to work in this casino, sorry kid we ain't hiring, you're probably too young anyway."
"We both know that's not why I'm here, I want to join and I want power."
The man studied Ash's response then pressed what appeared to be an earpiece, he listened to something and nodded.
"Of course, that prize is on the back, follow me." The man said, not loudly but loud enough for everyone to hear him, but loud enough for anyone close by or listening in would hear him.
He pushed a button revealing a staircase leading down, and then he started walking and presumably, he wanted Ash to do the same.
The people in the casino didn't seem to notice or care, they were too focused on their games or just thought that is where the good stuff was.
As Ash followed him down he spoke, "I'm not sure how you know about this, but at the same time I don't care, you're lucky in any other circumstance you would have been rejected since the recruitment is about to start, but we have an uneven number of recruits so we needed one more."
Eventually, they got onto an elevator and went down, outside of the window he could see the entire base, there were countless people everywhere, wearing the traditional black outfits.
"You will go to the testing room, it is the first door on the left hallway, I already told them about you." The man said as he stayed on the elevator and went back up.
Ash went ahead and started walking to the place, taking note of everything as he did.
In the room he saw a number of people, young and old standing around, not including him there were 15 people, some were talking to each other but most looked nervous, and on the podium, he could see 2 People.
There was one boy with blond hair and red eyes standing on point, he had a scar on his neck and cheek and wore a custom Team Rocket uniform with red buttons and sleeves, it looked to be designed off a military uniform.
From the side a girl who looked to be at most 13-14, walked to the stage, she had purple hair and purple eyes with her hair covering one eye. And a Custom-made uniform that looked like a combination between a Victorian-style dress and a jumpsuit.
"Welcome everyone, we will be overseeing this examination, but introductions are in order," She said, snapping her finger and signaling to the boy behind her.
"I am Owari, rank Grunt, that is all you need to know," the boy said coldly.
"As for me I am known as Sayoko, rank Admin," She said smiling and making Owari click his tongue in annoyance.
Sayoko clapped her hands together gathering everyone's attention, "Ok, now names are unimportant for the time being, firstly we will see if you can become Grunts."
Then a tray of Pokeballs came out of the room next to her being wheeled by a different man, appearing much older.
Owari stepped forward, "Each of you will receive a Pokemon, we will then go through a small tournament, the first battle will decide if you become a Grunt, if you win congratulations you are a Grunt, but if you lose you will become suppliers, they supply other members with food and money in the field, however, you may have an opportunity to become one later."
Sayoko took the lead again, "You can choose your Pokemon now, be warned these Pokemon are untrained and newly caught, we have not done anything to them and they are completely random, it will be your job to convince them to fight for you, if you fail then you will forfeit and become a supplier."
Immediately most People ran forward and grabbed random Pokeballs, Ash was one of the last to choose, so he reached in and grabbed one.
Looking around at everyone else, some got Ekans, Koffing, Rattata, Spearow, Pidgey, or Mankey.
He looked at his and tossed it out, revealing a small cat sitting down with a coin on her head, a Meowth.
Ash went onto one knee and put his finger out, which she looked at, then swiped at it playfully, so Ash picked her up in the cradle position and was playing with her.
Looking around People were looking at him shocked to see how fast they got on friendly terms, since when a Pokemon is not caught by the person using it, they mainly become hostile or ignore them completely.
And that was happening. Most People were being ignored and one even got a Koffing who shot gas on him, but he was saved by a Golbat from Owari, and taken out for medical treatment.
"Everyone you will be given one day to prepare your Pokemon, learn their moves, try to tame them, whatever. You will be given a temporary room and limited access to facilities, in the room are rations and you may ask someone to bring you something but they are not obligated to listen."
Sayoko looked through everyone and for just a split second Ash could have sworn that the eye covered by hair shined, "Well you all should prepare because tomorrow is do or die."