Chapter 6: C006 - Reaching New Bark Town
"You ever been to New Bark town or its surrounding, Rapidash?"
At the very edge of a forest, Pete had hung up his tent tarp with the holes in it because that's the only thing he had right now. Right now, Pete and his pokemon were at the foot of the mountain that stood between Kanto and Johto.
The sun was slowly setting over the forest in front of them.
The journey through the cave quickly ended after that Parasect horror episode ended, and the rest of the climb was tedious but uneventful. There was no flora where the cave ended, and the rocky mountain pass they ended up in only housed a few Sandshrews and Sandslashs that hurried away at the sight of the group.
"Rapidash!"
The mother softly called out in affirmation from her lying position next to her Ponyta foal.
"Hmm, you think we'll reach it tomorrow?"
Rapidash nodded to confirm.
"Will it be dangerous? According to the map, there shouldn't be any super strong pokemon down in the forest stretch before we're in New Bark. If we're unlucky, we'll run into some Heracross looking for a spar, but the rest should leave us alone with you guiding us," Pete asked with the atlas in his lap, studying the next stretch of his journey.
Solosis was impressed with Rapidash's show of strength earlier and was a little jealous of the praise Pete gave Minccino for knowing a water move, so she was quietly training her psychic powers on side by lifting rocks.
Both Minccinos were sitting in Pete's lap and playing what looked like Rock-Paper-Scissors. Pete taught the game to the two cute little rodents, hoping it would increase the dexterity of their paws. It was worth a try and the two sisters really liked the game.
Rapidash, meanwhile, thought for a little while before effectively doing what looked to be a shrug. It was a little awkward coming from a giant horse taller than himself, but Pete was getting more and more familiar with pokemon in the last few days.
"Hmm, Professor Elm is my ticket to a quiet life. Really hoping everything goes according to the plan," Pete mused as he ate another serving of potato stew. This time, with a few Bocan mushroom pieces, he ripped up with his hands. The flavor was instantly elevated by a few levels. He could even convince the Minccino who tasted his stew before that his cooking level wasn't completely hopeless.
"Will egg groupings be enough then? Should I tell him about my understanding of egg moves? Hmm, gen four evolutions of Johto pokemon like Gligar turning into Gliscor at night with a dragon type's razor sharp fang should be pretty exciting to the professor, same with Sneasel evolving to Weavile with a dragon type's razor sharp claw. The third evolution of the Swinub line from Piloswine into Mamoswine if the pokemon knows Ancient Power? How I got this information is way too hard to explain, same with the Girafarig and Dunsparce evolution... Dusk Stones! I have like six or seven of these from the containers, and there's Misdreavus turning into Mismagius and Murkrow turning into Honchkrow. That's super easy to show, uh... if Professor Elm has one of those two pokemon..."
It was Pete's first night out in the open instead of the supposed safety of a house. Understandably, his sleep was very light, and the constant calling sounds of the Hoothoots' and Noctowls' in the forest woke him up often.
Very late into the night, Pete looked into the forest only to get scared shitless of how big a Noctowl actually was. When it landed on a branch on the tree closest to them to observe them, the branch bent down almost comically low. If it didn't sit a little hunched together, Pete was sure the bird was almost as tall as him. And its red eyes, wow they looked menacing even more menacing despite the fact that the light the moon provided him was enough to see the pokemon was merely curious about the camping group.
When the sun rose from the mountain on their back, Rapidash urged the rest of the group to get up, and they all looked well rested. All except Pete, who didn't sleep a wink after that Noctowl stared at them for an hour.
"Ugh, what a horrible night. I think the Hoothoot line might be my least favorite pokemon I've seen so far. Well, after Parasect. Really, all of you look so cute and expressive, how come a pokemon exists that's just all teeth, ugly cancerous growths, uneven beady pale eyes and murder. I don't think I can ever unsee that," Pete narrated in a terrible mood.
His mood wasn't lifted when he heard at least three distinct different snickers.
"Keep it up and I'll let you travel in the pokeball," Pete spat with no real heat behind his threat. He knew he was just moody for a lack of sleep.
"Hey Rapidash, care to haul my lazy butt for a while? I know I'm being cranky, but having to walk without a proper shower and tired as I am, I'll just get more and more moody," Pete pleaded his case with his most powerful pokemon.
Rapidash looked at him with an amused glint and nodded with neigh that sounded like a chuckle more than anything.
He fed his pokemon some poke treats and asked Rapidash to find a stream with clean water first before making her way to New Bark town.
"Thanks again for doing this, Rapidash," Pete expressed his gratitude as he climbed on the flaming back of the toweringly tall unicorn.
At a stream that was a little wider than he is tall, Pete filled up two buckets, poured some of the vitamins he had in it for the young pokemon to grow quickly and healthily. So far, he hadn't used the same vitamin twice.
"Here, quickly drink up little ones. I think I saw a Tentacruel downstream, and I don't want to find out if they attack people for no reason. Why a Tentacruel of all pokemon lives in a stream as small as this is a mystery to me anyway," Pete said to hurry along the breakfast of the group.
When the little ones were done drinking their fill, Rapidash emptied the two buckets with a few big gulps, and Pete used one of the buckets once emptied to wash up a little and drink too, though with regular water he got from the stream.
Instead of a stew or any other form of proper breakfast, they all shared a handful of Oran berries in hopes of getting a proper lunch in New Bark town. If he couldn't find Professor Elm, Pete would pay for groceries with a pokeball if he had to.
Wait. Pokeballs? He still had three scuffed up pokeballs he had found in the metal case along with the Solosis egg! He didn't open them before in fear a foreign trainer's pokemon would act hostile toward him, but he had Rapidash now!
"Hey, before we continue. Rapidash, I have three pokeballs with me that hold pokemon I don't know. They could be wild and untamed or belong to a trainer and would act hostile on release. You think you could protect me when I release them one by one?" Pete asked in a hopeful voice.
Pokemon were in a kind of suspended state when inside a pokeball, but now that he remembered, he didn't want to drag it out much longer. A minimum of four days had already passed and these pokemon were surely hungry and bored. If not pissed and angry beyond compare.
With an unsure look, Rapidash looked to Solosis. The result was the image of the sun slowly moving in the sky and three cabins next to each other, likely put there by Solosis after a short mental conversation between the two.
"Later? After we reached town?" Pete asked a little unsure if he got that right.
Rapidash nodded.
"Yeah, I can live with that. They were stuck so long, a few more hours won't make much of a difference," Pete agreed.
"Let's get moving then," Pete suggested as he packed up the buckets again and climbed back on Rapidash. It was really crazy to him that he was sitting on actual flames but didn't feel any heat coming from the flames running along Rapidash's mane that went all the way from the horn on her head to her tail.
A little past noon when the sun shone brightest, Rapidash with Pete on her back and Ponyta next to her saw roofs on the horizon from the hill they were on.
"Hang on a sec, big girl," Pete suggested.
"Bear with me for a while, you guys stand out a little too much," Pete apologized as he pulled out the pokeballs for all four pokemon that weren't Rapidash. He also got out the tent and wrapped up his expensive bags of holding to make it look like all he was carrying was a makeshift knapsack with random items.
His travel weary and tired look sold the image of someone who had narrowly survived the storm. Which was kinda true.
A few minutes later, Rapidash and Pete stepped into New Bark town under the gaze of several people talking in the streets.
There was no entrance fee, nobody stopped him for an ID so the security was kinda lax in Pete's mind. The fact that he arrived with a fully grown Rapidash, however, had raised a few alarm bells in the town people.
"Hey buddy, could you please put that fire giant in a pokeball? This town has wooden houses mostly, and Old Moses, our resident water pokemon expert and firefighter, is out of town," a frowning middle-aged man with graying hair shouted at Pete from the window of his house.
"Huh? No worries, if nobody attacks us, my big girl has perfect control, see?"
To demonstrate his point, Pete ran his hand over Rapidash's mane and gently scratched her ears. The pokemon neighed in delight.
"Look, no burns," Pete held up his hand for the nosy man to see. There was no way he would ball his most powerful pokemon when he was just running through the streets.
"Hmph, you better be right, or I'll send my Murkrows after you, if it's the last thing I do," the man grunted, clearly displeased that he was rebuffed.
"Say, do you know if Professor Elm is present? Before the storm started and I had to hide in a cave near Tohjo Falls for a few days. I was on my way here to apply as a research assitant," Pete asked with his pre-prepared lies.
Sadly, he couldn't really tell a white lie about the direction he came from, that would raise suspicions, but he could lie about where he stayed so that potential Team Rocket investigators would dismiss him as a suspect. Well, that was what he came up with after going over his options. He was an engineer first and a hobby writer second - not a criminal mastermind.
"Hmm, the professor is in town, yes. Can't tell you if he's home, though. Just follow this road and head right at the Noctowl post office. Can't miss his lab," the man reluctantly helped. Professors really commanded a lot of respect in this world, something Pete counted on.
When Pete reached the mentioned post office, he saw a bunch of sleeping Noctowls through its window and clenched his fist at the sight. Truly, an irrational dislike was born yesterday.
Boy, that old man wasn't kidding. There was no way to miss the lab among all the other buildings. While the rest of the town was all built with regular wooden houses, roughly 80 of those, the professor's lab was like a futuristic version of that on one side, with the other side looking into the forest being just a giant glass dome with what looked like two floors of desk spaces and observation platforms. Furthermore, on yet another side, a very large fenced-in pasture with a whole bunch of different pokemon lazily interacting with one another.
A press of the doorbell started a bunch of chaos inside the lab, followed by barking, shouting, and what sounded like a bunch of chairs falling over.
"Damnit, almost had it! Granbull! The tooth needs to be pulled! Don't be such a baby. It won't get better on its own!"
A man's voice rang out from inside. The doorbell had clearly interrupted someone's effort to treat a pokemon in pain, so he was kind of reluctant to press it again.
But he didn't even need to.
"Yes? Who might you be?"
A very tall, bespectacled man with short brown hair and a white lab coat over colorful green pants and a blue and green patterned dress shirt opened the door. If he was annoyed that his treatment was interrupted, he didn't show it.
"Hi, Professor Elm, I'm Pete. I wanted to get an interview with you to hopefully become an assitant professor under your employ or whatever open post you might have," Pete introduced himself with a calm smile.
"Ah, did I announce an opening? But I already have Valentino, Fred, and Becca as assitants, no?" The professor looked a little unsure of what to make of this.
"Uh, if you did, it would be news to me, too. You see, I kinda escaped my family's arrangements back home in Unova to pursue my true passion instead of working in the family business. In my travels, I heard you're the leading expert in breeding and evolutions, and that's exactly my dream job," Pete 'clarified' while scratching his head.
"Hmm, and why do you look like like you didn't sleep in a week?"
"Professor, I would gladly answer all that, but... it might be presumptuous of me, could we do it inside instead of at the door?" Pete was getting a little awkward. He looked like a hobo, and only the majestic Rapidash at his back gave him any kind of credibility. If he could sit in a comfortable chair and maybe get a light, human snack, his job in convincing the professor would surely go over a little smoother.
"Ah yes, how rude. Sure, come on in, young Pete. But uh, would you mind leaving your good friend Rapidash outside or putting her in a ball? If she behaves, she can rest a little on the pasture to the side," Professor Elm offered.
"Yeah, sure. I'll release your son, so make sure you keep an eye on him. No playing with fire, okay?" Pete addressed Rapidash and gave her some light instructions. Ponyta wasn't a troublemaker to begin with, so Pete was rest assured.
Pete released Ponyta with a wink and asked Rapidash to go over on her own. Surely she was smart enough to operate the pasture's door. Probably most of the pokemon were.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Nuclide
Nuclide As mentioned in the synopsis, the chapter lengths are about to get smaller.
He'll probably stay at Professor Elm's place for like 6-10 chapters at this rate.
Chapter 7: C007 - Getting to know Professor Elm
"So, you're from Unova, Pete?"
"Yeah, I could release my Solosis to convince you?"
"Sure, I've never actually seen one before, a great regret of mine! Their species are so totally unique with their physiology - it would make a great topic for a research paper," Professor Elm gushed.
By now, Pete and the professor were seated in a wide open room at a lunch table that could easily fit ten people. The professor, seeing Pete's miserable form, had even allowed him to wash up a little in his restroom and was now serving him snacks the professor's wife had made before. Leppa berry pie.
It was also the very first time Pete saw himself in the mirror and was kind of confused that his young late teenage face from his last life was looking at him. It was a more welcome surprise than looking completely different, so that was okay. He had short, light-brown hair with eyes you couldn't tell if they were blue or green. He was passably handsome in his own opinion and he still held a kind smile, something he liked most about his face.
"Not to brag, but my girl is even more unique! I managed to luck out and hatch a shiny one," Pete boasted as he pulled out Solosis' pokeball.
"Are you okay with me releasing her?" Pete asked as he looked to Professor Elm. It would be rude to just release a pokemon in someone's home without permission. Some might even directly order their own pokemon to attack.
And, despite his good first impression, he was still just a stranger to the professor.
"Yesyes, go ahead," Professor Elm excitedly gave his permission.
The cranky Granbull lurking behind a corner, however, tensed up. It would jump in to defend the professor at a moments notice.
"Ohh, a luxury ball. You don't see those often in Johto," Professor Elm praised as Pete held up the ball to release his pokemon.
"Hey, Solosis. The professor is really excited to meet one of your kind. Is it okay if he asks you a few questions and takes a good look at you?"
'If you're not comfortable, just say so. We want him to like us, but not at the expense of you,' Pete thought at the same time he asked the question from before.
Solosis in kind nodded by rolling her entire body up and down midair.
"Marvelous! Color variants are always a sight to behold. You look magnificent, Solosis," Elm praised. As a professor obsessed with pokemon, he, of course, knew how to become friendly with a pokemon.
Pete watched from the side how the professor worked with Solosis and learned quite a few little things he never really thought about. He even learned that upon evolution, the two ice cream balls that make up her real body would split and then partly reabsorb each other to form Duosis.
Elm had the hypothesis that that would make it so the pokemon had two independent brains, which in turn would greatly boost its psychic powers. Elm asked Pete to absolutely record the evolution if possible and send him a copy.
Pete himself had written about evolutions but had never seen it happen with his own eyes, so he kept quiet mostly and didn't weigh in.
"Getting to meet you was already more than worth the pie your trainer ate, Solosis. Thank you for being so cooperative," Elm said as he finished fussing over the pokemon. Elm was afraid he would reach the limit of its patience.
"Have you ever met a Minccino? I recently hatched two lovely little girls," Pete suggested as the professor sat down again.
"Ah yes, I have met some Cinccinos during my travels. My good friend Professor Juniper has two to help her clean her laboratory. Otherwise, it would probably look as messy as my lab, haha," Elm answered. "Though, sure. You can release them. Granbull loves fussing over little ones, and it might help her calm down a little."
Pete released his two Minccino, and they looked around curiously before Granbull came over eyeing the two. Pete didn't know, but Granbull checked if they were raised and cared for properly, so Pete's standing in Granbull's eyes rose a little when she checked the healthy and cheerful little chinchilla pokemon.
"Those two look very healthy. You're doing a good job," Elm praised.
"Oh, actually, I didn't really do much. They hatched while I was out in the wilderness with no real resources to care for them. So far, they haven't even gotten a proper cooked meal or anything. And they love taking care of each other's fur - so that's not to my credit, too," Pete responded with an awkward chuckle.
"Oh? You know how to cook proper food for these two yourself?"
"Yep, I have a few ideas, and ideally, I want to cook for all my pokemon eventually. Ideally, I want to raise them on a farm and be self-sufficient with the food. I don't have the tools for cooking right now, though. The storm barely left me with a few necessities and a few riches," Pete explained.
"Hmm, so you were surprised by the storm and were made to hide in that cave you mentioned?"
"Yeah, I hid there for a few days. Luckily, Rapidash was able to keep us warm. Though I lost the bag with all the travel utensils along the way, so camping wasn't really a fun endeavor. No cutlery, my tent was damaged. Ugh, it was terrible," Pete narrated, trying his hardest to sound convincing.
"Ah, that's certainly unlucky." And apparently, it somehow worked.
"Well, I made it here with no harm to me and my pokemon. So it could have been worse. The other stuff I can just buy again. Thankfully, I kept the other eggs from Unova save."
"Oho? You have some more eggs? Let me take a look."
Pete agreed because that would be a great conversation starter on the value he could bring as an assistant.
"You see, my family wasn't treating pokemon very well. They trained a whole bunch of dark types like the Sandile line and the Vullaby line to steal eggs from pokemon in the wild to sell them. My grand uncle even has a Spiritomb with the Infiltrator ability for risky snatches. They were poachers, really. But I wanted nothing to do with stealing away another's offspring. So when I planned getting away from there, I hid on a shipment of theirs and made my escape. I packed all the eggs I could get away with to save them from being given to unfit trainers and looked into where I could go now, so far away from home. That led me to you."
Pete's made-up story was based on facts. Not him being part of it, but dark-type pokemon with a naturally more vicious nature were often used to poach pokemon in his story. And if it wasn't a villain group like Team Rocket doing it, big families did 'business' with them.
"Me? You said you wanted to run a farm, no?"
"Yeah, true. But the farm is just so I have all the resources I need to see more of pokemon eating habits and how certain diets influence their growth, behavior, and mating habits," Pete explained with a serious expression.
"That... certainly sounds like an interesting topic. You raise good questions, though to start out, the topic is a little broad, don't you think?"
"Ah yeah, I don't think I'll get definitive results for more than a few species in the first five to ten years."
Professor Elm began to think. The dietary habits were not yet a part of his focus in breeding research, so he could totally justify hiring someone with Pete's goal. But if it would be Pete, he had to be sure, "do you have any credentials, diplomas from Unova? Any background in research at all?"
"No, sorry, professor. My family wouldn't let me attend courses like that. But I do have several observations I have noted down over my years listening in on the poachers of my family, with most of them verified with my own eyes. I believe I even figured out why certain pokemon that came from two different species parents know certain moves they shouldn't. A concept I call 'egg moves'," Pete shamelessly bragged. Breeding wasn't a part of his story, but his world building did include certain rules, some existed in the games, some he made 'more realistic'.
"'Egg moves' you say?"
"Yeah, Minccino - come over here for a second," Pete ordered, shortly forgetting that he had two and he didn't say which one he needed. They both came over hurriedly, much to Granbull's chagrin.
"Sorry, little ones. But this is just as well. You're the cutie who knows Aqua Tail, right? Could you show us?" Pete looked at one Minccino in particular. Over the span of two short days, Pete became really good at telling them apart.
The one that knows Aqua Tail was the more excitable one. She was a bit of a tomboy - if that even was a thing for pokemon.
As it was showing off, Pete started to explain, "you see, Minccino knew this move without being shown and without being introduced to water type energy. I believe it is very likely one of her parents or grandparents was a Floatzel, because they are both in something I call 'egg groups', and the Minccino and Buizel line are both in the egg group I call 'Field', which is mostly pokemon that resemble the rodent classification."
"So you're saying it hatched knowing a move its species shouldn't because a parent of her knew the move and passed it on? Fascinating... I knew about these 'egg moves', but I was still searching for the cause. It makes so much sense! And you know about 'egg groups', too? I only just coined the phrase in a research paper that I sent to my friend Samuel Oak for review!"
Professor Elm didn't think Pete stole any research from him because the young man in front of him explained some concepts, classifications, and terms he didn't yet have enough data to verify. In his mind, the professor already made up his mind to sponsor this promising young man with everything he needed. But he was too engrossed in the discussion to voice his plans.
And since Pete didn't know about that, but was also too afraid to just ask, he kept bringing up some of his hypothesis on classifications, especially the very controversial 'mineral' egg group. He also brought up 'his thoughts' on the fact that several different water pokemon egg groups existed - so far, the only typing group he had 'observed' that had more than one.
Their talks about this lasted until Vivian, Professor Elm's wife, entered the lab with a toddler in her arms and an Aipom behind her, carrying some groceries.
Only now the two noticed that is was already almost time for dinner. And they even forgot inspecting all the eggs.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Nuclide
Nuclide
A little shorter at 1.7k words, as announced.
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