Chapter 76: C076 - The Comfey Fields
After the tournament was over and with all the interviews done, Pete teleported home with a group of women that would and did make him the envy of most people.
Valerie dragged him to his house to prepare for the evolution of Spritzee. The rest of the girls followed Iris to the loud sounds she heard echoing rhythmically in the meadow.
Courtney went with the group of girls after she saw them arrive back from the trip and congratulated Jasmine on yet another victory. Sophie was currently not at the farm.
When they reached the source of the sound, Jasmine, Courtney, Clair, Whitney, and Iris watched Pete's pokemon play some weird combination of tennis and baseball. Two giant Conkeldurr were using pillars to swat a melon sized ball back and forth, each standing between two posts acting as goals.
There was a net between them and ten pokemon on each side. The rules were simple and a little unrefined, but it served as a great pastime for a lot of his pokemon.
Once one of the Conkeldurr missed, the team behind him had to bring the ball back to the 'batter' while the other side would set one pokemon forward to run around the net. Each successful lap around the net gave a point while getting hit by the ball before turning back to the team behind the goal posts meant the pokemon is out, and the team loses three points.
The two Conkeldurr, who were the two original Timburr Pete hatched ages ago, were the main-batters for this sport. Under Pete's tips and encouragement, the two had developed this sport, Pete jokingly called Poke Ball into a fun team sport that even younger pokemon would have fun participating in. Though nobody ever had fun if either of the Conkeldurr played against another batter.
Only the Farfetch'd came close, but they had technique over sheer power going for them, and the playstyle and field was only truly fair if two Farfetch'd took on one Conkeldurr.
"This house is even prettier than the video of the interview suggested," Valerie said in wonder as she watched Pete prepare some snacks for the guests in the big, open kitchen of his farm house.
Pete looked up with a warm smile and found the young fairy pokemon trainer smitten with his two Cinccinos who were at the side mixing flour for some kind of dough.
"Thanks, Jasmine and her twin sister Sophie probably have the biggest share in the beauty of this place. I barely decided what it would look like when I drew up some plans for the construction company. Most decorations are put up by those two."
"They have great taste then."
Pete finished up a sort of pink shake with the blender and handed it to Valerie for taste testing, "Here, try this."
"Mmmh, I mean, I saw you put in some kind of berries, but I don't recognise the taste. It's amazing!"
Pete took a sip as well before answering, "Usually, I like it a little sour, but Mago Berry juice has that fairy typing pink hue that would fit well with you, I thought. It's just Moomoo Milk, Alcremie Cream, two sliced Mago Berries, a dash of dried vanilla, and a drop of Combee honey. If it's too sweet, just tell me, and I'll make something else. The recipe is like that for Courtney's sake. She has a bit of a sweet tooth."
"No, it's lovely. Thank you," Valerie quickly denied and drank even more of the shake. "Uh, what's Alcremie Cream?"
"Hmm? I thought you read all my papers? Milcery's evolution Alcremie. A pure fairy pokemon discovered in Galar. Can produce a sweet cream similarly to a Miltank's milk. Courtney and Sophie constantly pester me and my pokemon to make desserts for them since they found out. Wait, I didn't release that paper on the different forms of Alcremie now that I think about it," Pete explained and looked outside, "It's getting dark. If we want to try it out today, we'll have to be quick about it."
He placed a few tall glasses for the shakes on a tray and called out to his shiny Reuniclus mentally, 'hey girl, mind delivering some refreshments while I head out to the flower patch near the hydrocultures?'
A good twenty minutes later, Pete, Valerie, her three pokemon Spritzee, Mawile, and Sylveon reached Pete's field for hydrocultures near the river and just before reaching Spice Island. Valerie asked nonstop questions about this Alcremie and its different forms, but so far Pete only had two Alcremie and two different forms, vanilla and salted which prompted his newest research paper. His singular other Milcery wasn't yet ready to evolve.
The hydrocultures in this field were mostly for the seeds Ludicolo had gifted him back on his first Hoenn trip. They pretty much grew and behaved just like rice plants, so he made a sort of rice field with actual rice and the gifted seeds. Once he grew one seed into a plant carrying several, he could finally test out what he had gotten.
One of them was likely the Energy Seed because it behaved much like an Oran and Leppa Berry combination, aiding in wound and stamina recovery. Yet another was highly likely a Joy Seed and came closest to what Pete would assume is a Rare Candy in this world.
Once eaten, it helped pokemon grow at astonishing rates. But nothing came for free. The fast growth meant having to put twice as much effort into training a pokemon's own coordination, and it did nothing to help with typing energy training. So, while it might help them grow up faster, it did not really increase their power by a lot.
Something Pete didn't yet test was the long-term consequences of prolonged consumption. He feared the results a bit and didn't want to find a guinea pig for testing.
Yet another seed was something he sometimes put in the diet of himself and the girls living on the farm. It was either the Life Seed or the Tiny Reviver Seed based on the fact that it energizes the person or pokemon by a good margin and provides an endless well of stamina for a short while. Pete found out its boon for the bedroom by accident.
The last seed was like a mythical carrot on crack. Once eaten in large enough quantities, it permanently increased his already good eyesight by quite a lot. It was the seed he cultivated the most and planned to have sold through Jasmine's family company in the near future to permanently cure bad eyesight for people and pokemon alike.
Pete wasn't quite sure what it was because from his vague recollection of the Mystery Dungeon games. There should have been a few seeds that cured eye-related status effects.
Next to this field for the miracle seeds and rice, Pete had planted a field of flowers with Courtney's help. He called it the Comfey Fields endearingly because his Comfey enjoyed floating around here and picking flowers for their... vines? that made up the flower filled ring of a healthy Comfey.
Valerie looked at the various fairy pokemon flittering about here and there with shining eyes and mumbled, "Wow, this is heaven..."
At the river's bank next to the flower field, a few Marill and Azurill were currently playing around under the watchful eyes of a few Azumarill, the two original parents who were grandparents by now included.
Two Cottonee were playfully dodging a few non-threatening water attacks while three Whimsicott were playing hide and seek in the flower bed. While two Comfey cheered the one searching on.
Three pokemon, a Dedenne, a Ralts, and an Igglybuff came close to Pete and made cute, pleading sounds. With a bright smile, he bent down to pick them up and place them on his shoulders for a ride-along. The Dedenne chose to sit on his head instead, and his hair softly started floating up from the static charge.
Clearly, the electric/fairy pokemon knew what it was doing based on its mischievous giggle, but Pete knew how to counter this prank by circulating his ground type energy to get rid of the static charge.
"Alright, Spritzee. Point us to some flowers you think smell really nice and we'll gather you a beautiful bouquet. How about it?"
Spritzee looked around in wonder at the countless different fairy pokemon and just like her trainer felt like she had arrived in heaven. When she heard Pete's suggestion, she snapped toward him and eagerly nodded.
Valerie followed Pete's example, took off her shoes, and slowly walked behind the trainer who greeted all the pokemon he came across. With one Comfey floating down to give him a pokemon flower necklace, the fairy pokemon riding on his head and shoulders and the group of Whimiscotts taking a break from their game to hug his legs and dance around him, Pete really did look like the god of fairy pokemon.
The romantic, flattering lighting of the sunset in the distance, the pink ethereal energies of the combined fairy moves Misty Terrain, and the Togetic that came barreling down to land in his arms from out of nowhere only cemented that image in Valerie's heart.
While Valerie soaked the image of the beautiful scenery in her mind and gained inspiration for a few new outfits, Pete gathered a big handful of flowers for Spritzee.
Pete held the flowers up for the approval of the Comfey around his neck. When the little fairy pokemon happily rotated in place around his neck, Pete handed over the flowers to Spritzee.
Just like he suspected, the pokemon did not evolve right at this instant. Spritzee looked a little down because of it. She heard from Valerie how Pete knew about how she could get stronger.
Pete saw the sad expression and reassured the pokemon, "No worries. This is just our first try. We'll find out the 'how' in no time. I don't know how to make perfume, but we'll find out what it is."
Spritzee didn't look too convinced, so Pete continued in a whisper, "I'll hop into my hot spring later. We'll use these flowers to make you a fragrant bath if your trainer decides to stay."
Then he looked back to Valerie but concentrated on Mawile. The pokemon had relatively low stats, so it wouldn't be too crazy if it had an evolution, but instead, it had a confirmed mega evolution that wasn't yet known to the world.
Was there more? Were there more evolutions of Comfey? Dedenne? Klefki? There were quite a few 'weak' fairy pokemon that had low-ish base stats and would deserve some love.
Just as he mused over hidden evolutions that weren't part of the games and their possibility, a voice was heard that wasn't Valerie's.
"Pete, I came over to hear about mega evolutions from you," a visibly uncomfortable Clair asked. For a woman with such a powerful dragon affinity, this field filled with fairy pokemon must induce a migraine.
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