The idiot trio makes their appearance, and the boss too, and he's no joke with that Rhyperior. A Sandile from him is unexpected, wonder why he did that?

Charmander and Pichu for his first two, good choice. Guess Pikachu will be caught as a Pichu first then, and quite a prankster at that.

Update Pls

This is a really fun story! I love the blend of anime lore and game lore, and the worldbuilding!

Heads up... Jasmine was transferred from the safari ball back during the safari zone. It was mentioned in this chapter that Ash released her from one.

Yeah. Ash is starting to get on my nerves. It’s the same ignorance to basics that drove me away from the anime. Beyond that, he still hasnt even made an attempt to train with Sobek and his moxie, or at the very least, it hasn’t been addressed to us, the readers. There needs to be a massive overhaul in mindset soon because he’s on his fifth badge. Getting carried with a talented team crippled the important losses he shouldve faced at the start of his journey that would’ve taught him strats and tactics. I was wanting Pikachu’s incident to light a fire under him but from what I can see, all he did was do the same old but with extra training.

(That last comment was for the last chapter, whoops)

I’m a little annoyed that Ash thought it was smart to bring Eevee to look for a Scyther. As if some Weaville didn’t just cleave his Pickachu apart during his last dumb take. Should’ve done Douse imo as he is at least capable of protecting himself and would have even more reason to want to cool off in the lake, not to mention being his friendlest Pokemon for Dratini.

I’m personally not a fan of the MC having more than six Pokemon unless he can increase the amount he carries on-hand. Having to swap Pokemon back and forth would realistically become a massive bottleneck and hinder his progress as there is no way he can train them all at once. I also think this mindset is hypocritical to Ash’s desire to have a strong enough team that can curbstomp everyone.

Call me cruel but I like that Ash was forced to face the consequences of his actions. I was frustrated that he chose to attack the Rocket base and thought that despite the more mature Ash in this novel, he would still be that same old moron who somehow bumbled his way through the plot. My annoyance with Ash peaked when he destroyed the test tube because the kids were throwing out attacks inside a testing lab full of abused Pokemon... with no foresight as to how said attacks would impact them, not to mention the fact that he destroyed crucial evidence in his three-man quest to become a vigilante.

I'm hopeful that this chapter will be a turning point for our MC. His middle name is Red so maybe he has that potential for greatness in him that Ash never had and needed life to hit him hard enough in the face to bring it to the surface. I want to see Ash make more careful decisions and become a little more realistic.

I liked how you handled baby Pokémon. It’s similar to psuedo-legends in that that growth is slow but the potential is high. I also liked the explanation for Volt Tackle and the secondary organs as an explanation for the move.

Update

This story has consistently made Pokemon-both the creatures themselves, their powers and their effects on society more mature, developed and profound, both in the physical destruction Pokemon powers can cause, the effects of battling, the lifecycles and growth of Pokemon and how the society that exists in this story has adapted to cope with this new reality!

There are darker, more mature themes in this story without losing sight of what made the canon Pokemon so popular and successful-the exploration of strange new places and the bonds close friends create with one another!

The human characters are more developed as well, with more strengths and weaknesses and depth than the canon.

I look forwards to learning more about this world in the coming year!

Its getting old reading these battles that are so close

Just a quick point, Jasmine isn't in a safari ball, you said they transferred her to a regular pokeball so they could recycle and reuse the safari balls

i am Indonesian and i realized that "sobek" is Indonesian "sobek" means tear or rip