章 26: C026 - Documenting an unprecedented evolution
It was after lunch. Pete and Jasmine stood outside a small shop, looking a little lost.
"Are you sure you don't want to go inside?"
"I... Sophie will buy enough for both of us. I shouldn't," Jasmine answered with a small, strained smile.
"You trust her cute radar fully then?"
"You still want to go to the Goldenrod Farmlands east of the city, right? Someone needs to be reasonable," Jasmine mumbled with a difficult expression.
"Well, maybe Exeggutor drops me off, I tell him the direction I'll run to, and you join when you're done?"
"We'd find you really easy in that case," Jasmine's head snapped to Pete and she looked really excited.
"Yep, let's do it like that then. No need to skip something you wanna do for my sake," Pete suggested with a warm smile that Jasmine answered in kind.
Pete, a smaller Pete that was really just Zorua, and Jasmine moved to an alley next to the shop where the big Exeggutor wouldn't bother anybody as he teleported and like that, Pete split up with Jasmine, who stayed behind to wait for Exeggutor to come back.
When Pete looked around and got his tablet out to check where he was, he noticed the long Alph mountain ridge to the south-east. Since he was closer now, it looked even more imposing than his short look from across the Alph mountain delta back on the outskirts of Cherrygrove City that Herbert had teleported to with him on his first jump.
Pete had to decide where to go so he wouldn't make Jasmine and Exeggutor wait too much. Since this was close to his future home, Pete had already transferred some info on tribes and pokemon sightings from the net and his old trusted atlas from the cabin into the map of the tablet.
He got his bearings fast and pointed north-east, then at his tablet with a zoomed in and marked place on the map.
"That's the direction I'll take. This is my rough destination for today. Thanks again for the lift, buddy."
Exeggutor merely had one face of his smile and jumped back.
Pete released all his pokemon once he was sure where he was. Before they moved, Pete got out some boxes of fresh food from his bag, so his pokemon were well fed for their journey. He once again bemoaned his lack of water pokemon as he got a large canister filled with water out of his bag. He should really find a place with fresh water for his future home.
At the end of their lunch, Pete turned around the tablet to show them where they were and where they were going. Not all of his pokemon were smart enough to read and understand a map, but Pete counted on the few who were like Rapidash and Golett. And, eventually, the rest would get it, too.
To train his psychic affinity, he once more deepened his psychic link with Solosis and started heading towards a meadow with sparse trees and bushes. A few Hoppip and its evolutions were flying around here and there, and in general, this place looked very chill.
"Okay guys. Don't provoke anyone into a fight. That goes for you especially, Nidorino. And try to be respectful of other pokemon's space. We're here to potentially find a few Miltank to join us, not to train in a life and death situation," Pete ordered as they entered the deeper into the bushes.
Pete could so confidently walk forward with his pokemon because he had learned a trick with his psychic affinity. It wouldn't cost a lot of energy to keep up, but if he flexed this psychic ability just right, Pete could sense pokemon in a small radius around him. That should warn him before an imminent attack. For everything else, he had Golett, who had learned Protect with the TM.
On the side of this meadow, Pete saw a dense forest that he had planned to skirt around. From its branches, he saw countless Aipom swinging around, playing 3D catch while annoying the Pineco in the trees as best as they could, from what it looked like.
Eventually, Pete and his team found a small lake fed by a river barely as wide as Pete was tall. Several pokemon tribes were gathered here to drink. A small group of Lickitung, who looked absolutely grotesque with their super long tongues were playing around in shallow water. A few Butterfree were fluttering over the waters in a sort of dance.
Three Persian were looking over a group of Meowth cleaning themselves gingerly near the water. A small horde of Sentret and Furret were washing something that Pete thought looked like fruit or maybe even berries in the water.
A lone Stantler was drinking water and looking around cautiously, especially in the direction of an Ursaring and its two Teddiursa cubs. However, nobody attacked anyone. As if this lake was a safezone, and Pete wasn't going to change that.
This water source was one of the bigger ones on the map, so Pete had hoped he could find some Miltank here and lure them in to stay with him on the promise of a safe farm where they could eat delicious food whenever they wanted. Sadly, no Miltank was here right now.
This was close to the place Pete pointed out to Exeggutor, so Pete decided to stay here for a moment and enjoy the nice weather in this safezone. His pokemon were talking amongst themselves and playing. Pete also expanded his ground sense for a while.
Eventually, a group of Aipom came over to look at Zorua and the two Minccino. Pete, Rapidash, and Golett turned vigilant, but it turned out they only wanted to learn Rock-Paper-Scissors. Their tails were made for the game, it felt like.
Seeing a whole bunch of Aipom play with three of his smallest pokemon, Pete decided to record it all with his tablet and a warm smile. A few minutes in, Pete decided to make this interesting.
His two Minccino had learned the move Double Hit and knowing the move would enable an Aipom to evolve. In his short time in this world, Pete hadn't seen an evolution with his own eyes. Surely, there were some Aipom among the group who were strong enough.
"Hey, Minccino. How about you combine the game with the move Double Hit? You could play two or even three matches at the same time. All you have to do is teach the move to your new friends there," Pete suggested with a knowing smirk. His Minccino didn't catch on and demonstrated the move happily to the Aipoms.
Pete managed to set up his tablet to stream a copy directly to Professor Elm's computers and eventually the professor caught on and asked Pete why he would set up a video of his Minccino playing around with some wild Aipom. Elm didn't mind much and was simply curious.
Pete explained the rumor he had 'heard' that Aipom can evolve as long as they know Double Hit and the professor was immediately intrigued.
Ten minutes later, the Aipom were still trying their best to learn the move, when Pete spotted a lone Girafarig limping to the lake. Its tail-head was missing an eye, and his hindlegs were covered in dried blood and bite marks. The limp came from his left front leg that looked broken and burned.
'Hey, Solosis. I don't want to scare that Girafarig. Could you go over alone and offer your help with Heal Pulse?' Pete thought through his psychic link with Solosis.
He didn't expect anything to come out of it, but the Girafarig looked pitiful, and it didn't cost him anything to be nice. Not when this looked to be a safezone.
Solosis flew over, happy to put her new move to good use.
Pete looked on but was eventually forced to look back to the group of Aipom, who were suddenly making a ruckus.
One Aipom was shrouded in white light, and the sickening sound of bones breaking and shifting rang in the vicinity. The white light morphed and reformed with the sound, and a few moments later, as the light receded, the first discovered Ambipom of the Johto region stood proudly among his kind and flexed both of his arms.
Spurned on by the success of the first evolution, the other Aipom hurriedly tried to learn Double Hit with Ambipom's and the two Minccinos' help. A good ten minutes later, Pete was able to watch four more Aipom evolve. It looked like the others weren't strong enough yet because they all had successfully learned the move.
The monkey pokemon were making a lot of noise in celebration which annoyed a few other pokemon, but nobody bothered attacking them. They all recognized that this would help them immensely in protecting their tribe, so celebrations of some kind were understandable.
With five successful demonstrations caught on camera, Professor Elm immediately called Pete to thank him for his hard work and amazing discovery. It would lay the foundation for all his future discoveries where special moves were needed to be known for a pokemon to evolve and since the professor had already heard a few rumors Pete was trying to prove, Elm was very excited.
Finding and sponsoring Pete really seemed like his good luck.
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