บท 138: A Guy's Day

The crisp and cool morning air felt good on my skin as I made my way to the greenhouse first thing, after spending a lovely night with Daisy. We hadn't seen each other since Pewter, so there was quite a bit of time to make up for.

She was amazed to see that all of my scars really had been healed, and was infinitely curious as to how that had happened. Daisy also noted that my body felt much more firm and defined than before, which I counted as a good thing since I've upped my training significantly since then.

Once I arrived at the greenhouse I opened the reinforced door, only to be greeted by a small swarm of Combee.

"Bee Bee!" One of them happily stated.

"Good morning to you too." I replied while patting him on top between the wings.

Needless to say I was really surprised to learn that Vespiquen had more than doubled her hive by eliminating a rival, and earning their loyalty. Now the greenhouse was FILLED with Combee, and they were able to produce more honey than ever before.

It was for that reason that I left the door open behind me, allowing the Combee to enter and exit as they pleased, before proceeding further into the greenhouse to find my pokemon. I still had the vast majority of my pokemon here with me since the professor had removed my carry limit to help us deal with Surge, and it had yet to be reinstated.

For the most part everyone was either still asleep or just waking up, aside from a small commotion I could hear further in the interior. I followed the noise. And was greeted by a sight that made me shake my head wryly.

At the base of the largest tree in the greenhouse, which Sceptile claimed for himself, I found a small crowd of pokemon spectating a sparring match between Lucario, and May's newly evolved Blaziken.

Her Combusken had managed to evolve during the battle against Surge's grunts, reaching her final stage and now being able to pull out all of her strength. Even now, only a day after it had evolved, I could feel that Blaziken was already significantly stronger, her flaming kicks and punches heating the very air around her as it attacked.

Meanwhile, I could tell Lucario was studying Blaziken, analyzing her movements and fighting style while he easily avoided every single attack. The fucker was trying to learn Blaze Kick.

It was a strategy that Lucario, still Riolu at the time, and I had developed a couple years ago to help increase his move pool. Through studying the movements and aura of those around him, as well as trying to mimic the moves they used, he was eventually able to learn the move Copycat.

Copycat was a unique move that allowed the user to use the same move that their opponent, or ally, used last, even if it was a move that was originally impossible for them to use. Unfortunately this move would have its limitations in actual battles, like if the opposing pokemon was strong against that move type, as well as the user being nowhere near as proficient in its use as the original.

Lucario and I had found a more effective use for it though. By using Copycat, he would be able to test a variety of moves that would be difficult to learn without a TM, and then train while recalling how they felt when he used them the first time. It was how he managed to learn moves like Poison Jab, Bulldoze and Swift.

And that was exactly what he was doing here, studying Blaziken and preparing to use Copycat in order to learn Blaze Kick later.

Soon enough the moment of truth arrived as Blaziken used Blaze Kick once again, only Lucario's foot caught fire as well as it shot up to meet Blaziken's in the air.

*BOOM!*

There was a small explosion of flame that resulted in Blaziken being blasted backwards, as her strength and endurance was nowhere near Lucario's. Who was still standing incidentally.

"You did well." Lucario told Blaziken while offering a paw.

"Blaze..." She responded, accepting the help up while a few pink hues entered her aura.

I smirked at the sight before glancing at a couple of spectating pokemon, Absol and Prinplup. The former had an air of indifference about her, while the latter was fuming at Blaziken.

"You're turning into quite the lady-killer there partner." I commented while approaching him.

"I don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about." Lucario retorted, though I could tell he knew EXACTLY what I was talking about.

"Well let's see.... There's Blaziken, Prinplup, Absol, and I heard that one of the pokemon you helped the other day seemed quite taken with you. I believe she was a Gardevoir?"

"""!!!"""

All three of the aforementioned pokemon looked at Lucario in alarm, to which he appeared indifferent as he commented, "such things are unnecessary. Training to master oneself takes precedence over such trivial and pointless matters."

"""!?!"""

"Blaze!" Blaziken declared as she leapt up and planted a Blaze Kick right into the back of Lucario's head.

"PRRRRRRRRRRRRINPLUP!" Prinplup also cried as she unleashed a powerful Bubble Beam right at him.

"SOL!" Absol declared on indignation as she sent a Night Slash at him.

And while normally Lucario would be able to sense and avoid such attacks, that apparently wasn't the case this time as ALL THREE connected while his guard was down.

I shook my head at Lucario as he lay on the ground twitching, having taken the most damage from the Blaze Kick, and said, "looks like you need more training in the matters of a woman's heart."

"..."

Obviously my comment went unanswered, either from Lucario genuinely being unconscious or from the shame he felt in being taken down so easily.

I then glanced around at the spectating pokemon, Sceptile, Tyrunt, Cubone, Cranidos, Machop, Dragonite, Dratini, Blastoise, Golbat, and a few others, and said, "let's go then while these three teach Lucario a thing or two."

There were a few cries of affirmation to my comment, while a few pokemon seemed more interested in watching what was going to happen to Lucario next. It wasn't everyday they saw him take a hit after all.

Soon I got them all moving before we spread out throughout the greenhouse, rousing and collecting the rest of my pokemon before regrouping at the entrance. Once we were outside I called out the rest of my pokemon that were unable to enter the greenhouse for one reason or another, Onix, my Gyarados, Milotic and Snorlax.

The former three because they were all too big, while Snorlax was banned from entering the greenhouse, PERIOD. If allowed in, I had no doubt that he'd pick every single fruit-bearing tree and bush clean within the hour.

With everyone gathered we then proceeded to go through our usual morning routine, with Chansey using Gravity on us while we warmed up. By this point nearly everyone was completely used to training under it, even Machop, with the only exceptions being Bulbasaur and Dratini. Dragonite appeared completely unfazed by it as well as he joined our morning workout.

While keeping the Cerise lab in sight, we jogged around the property for a little over a mile before settling on a clear patch of grass to do our actual workout. Though I did most of my usual exercises, I cut my own workout short to spend more time with Bulbasaur and Dratini.

This was both of their first training session, so I needed to spend some time with them to decide which areas they needed to focus on. And that's what led to the current situation of Dratini hanging from my arm by her tail, doing as many sit-ups as she could.

"You can do it!"

"Tini!"

"Just one more!"

"Tini..."

"That's it!"

"..."

Dratini, now thoroughly exhausted, was lying on the ground after uncoiling her tail from my arm.

"Dro Dro." Dragonite said encouragingly, making Dratini smile.

"You did really well." I told her, rubbing her head in a way that prompted a trill of contentment.

It was then that I noticed someone's gaze on all of us, and turned to see a figure watching us from a window in Cerise lab.

Using aura to enhance my vision, I realized who it was and flashed them a smile while waving at them in greeting. They immediately became flustered at the gesture, and ducked down in an attempt to hide themselves from view after realizing they were spotted.

Chloe can be pretty cute.

"Are you flirting again?" Daisy asked as she appeared behind me, pushing a cart laden with bowls of food for my pokemon.

"Always." I replied without any shame, prompting Daisy to roll her eyes at me even as she passed the food out.

"Snore!" Snorlax exclaimed excitedly, reaching for the food to help himself.

*PA!*

"No!" Daisy reprimanded him while slapping his hand, preventing him from eating ALL of the food. Surprisingly, Snorlax just looked at her as if he had been wronged somehow, to which Daisy just continued while picking up a specific bowl that was larger than the others,

"Here is yours, Snorlax."

"Snore!"

As if his earlier hurt appearance had been just a facade, Snorlax tore into the food with gluttonous relish.

"We've had to up the dosage of his Pokeblocks recently due to his appetite increasing. But I guess I can't be too surprised when I see the training regimen you're putting them all through." Daisy told me in a sly voice, as if trying to keep Snorlax from hearing.

But even if he did hear he was in his own little world as he practically inhaled the food, before his entire body bloated and he rolled over to go to sleep.

I returned Snorlax to his pokeball and turned my attention to all of the others as they ate.

"Alright everyone listen up!" I called out, earning me their attention.

"We're going to stay here for the next few days while waiting for the SS. Anne. So if you want to, you can get some extra training during the day since we won't be traveling. HOWEVER, we are guests of professor Cerise. So I expect ALL of you to respect the land around his lab. Understood?"

There was a chorus of noise as my pokemon cried out in affirmation, though I looked specifically at a couple of them, Charizard and my rock types.

With them promising to behave though, Daisy and I made our way to Cerise lab where everyone else was gathering for breakfast.

"Morning everyone!" I greeted them as the two of us entered.

"Haaaaaaa.... Morning Aniki..." Ash greeted me in return while stifling a yawn.

"Hey Ace, have you seen Prinplup anywhere?" Dawn asked me curiously as I sat down at the table, which was covered in numerous breakfast dishes that Joy had prepared for everyone.

"Yeah. She's busy teaching Lucario a lesson regarding women's hearts with Blaziken and Absol."

The girls that were all seated snickered in amusement at that image, while I too cracked a smile.

"Why does Lucario need to learn about a woman's heart?" Ash asked curiously, now waking up to scarf down the food set out in front of him.

"I'll tell you when you're older."

"We're the same age, Aniki..."

"No we are not. I'm a few minutes older than you."

Ash just gave me a deadpan look as I pulled out my ever trustworthy 'older sibling' card. But then Goh appeared with his face in his phone like usual, and I frowned.

Then again, maybe I SHOULD give Ash the talk about the Pidgy and the Combee...

"Good morning everyone." Professor Oak suddenly said as he appeared.

"Morning professor. How are the pokemon we rescued coming along?" I asked, referring to the pokemon we had saved from the warehouse.

"They're doing well for the most part, at the very least they seem comfortable in Cerise park. But I fear that a few of them may have suffered too much trauma from the experiences they were put through..." He answered in a solemn voice.

"That's fine." Professor Cerise said as he too appeared, along with Chloe cowering behind him.

"The majority of them will probably be sent back to their home regions, but those who are too traumatized or are unable to live on their own will be welcomed at Cerise park for as long as they want. I've already sent a request to the Joy clan about obtaining a Chansey to help take care of them. Though I don't know how that'll go since they're very particular about their Chansey."

As he said that everyone turned to look at me pointedly, to which I shrugged while asking. "what?"

They all rolled their eyes before Joy, our own residential expert on the subject, piped up.

"I think it might be approved due to the circumstances, or at the very least a Nurse Joy may be assigned to work here temporarily." She said thoughtfully, making professor Cerise sigh as he said,

"That's a relief to hear. And at least I'll have the help of the world famous professor Oak until the SS. Anne arrives!"

Clapping professor Oak on the shoulder as he said so, the older man smiled as he said, "indeed. There's too much work here for one person, and there are numerous pokemon present that I've never had a chance to work with before."

The professor adopted an expression resembling a child on Christmas, to which several of us shook our heads wryly.

Professor Cerise then turned back to us and asked, "so what are you all going to be up to today?"

The words were barely out of his mouth when May leapt up, and excitedly declared, "my new wardrobe finally came in yesterday! So now I need to fill it while also picking out some cute outfits for the SS. Anne!"

"Oh! A shopping spree!" Dawn exclaimed in excitement.

"Vermillion has some of the best options for shopping in the entirety of Kanto, thanks to it being a port city! Count me in!" Misty declared.

"I've never gotten to go on a big city shopping spree before!" Daisy added, voicing her desire to join them.

But as the girls began to get fired up, I began to shrink back into my seat while avoiding eye contact. I can already hear my wallet crying, and I had my own things to buy today. Preferably WITHOUT the girls.

"A shopping spree, huh? That sounds great! Chloe can show you all around!" Professor Cerise said as he stepped out from in front of his daughter.

"EH?!?!?!?"

Chloe appeared distressed at the sudden offer her father made, seemingly not knowing what to say or do in this situation.

But May and Dawn were both quick on the draw, their eyes adopting a predatory gleam like a pair of Sharpedo that smelled blood in the water.

"That's perfect! She can show us where all the good sales are!"

"AND we can have some quality girl time!"

Leaving now room for argument, the two of them quickly hook each of Chloe's arms in one of theirs, before proceeding to march out of the lab while dragging her between them.

"Eh!? Wait! Hold on a second!" Chloe cried as she struggled to get free. But no one helped her.

Instead, Misty and Daisy both followed after the trio, leading Joy along between them as well since she worked herself so much, and could use this chance to relax.

"Phew..." I breathed out a sigh of relief that I managed not to wrangled into an all day girls shopping spree.

"I feel that." Professor Cerise said to my obvious relief. He himself had probably been wrangled into a few shopping trips with his wife and daughter.

"Fufu, I take it that you had some plans yourself Ace?" Professor Oak asked with an amused look.

"Actually, yes." I replied, already planning something similar to the girls. But I didn't want them around for it so I could surprise them.

"I'm thinking that after this, Pikachu and I will get some training in!" Ash declared as he swallowed a large mouthful of food.

"Oh yeah? I think not." I responded, surprising him since I was usually pushing him for more training.

"Why not?! I have to prepare for a REAL Gym battle against Vasquez!" Ash declared. Yep, I figured he'd still want to battle Vasquez.

"Because it's been a while since you and I actually spent some time together, little brother. Why not spend the day hanging out with me after I finish a couple of errands?" I told him, which was truthful.

Ash may be a handful, but I had spent literally my entire life with him up until we departed on our separate journeys. It wasn't a bad thing to spend some time with him when there was nothing better to do.

"That sounds great!" Professor Cerise exclaimed as he clapped Goh on the shoulder.

"While the girls are out having a girls day with Chloe, you guys can have yourself a guys day! And I'm sure Goh would love to show you around as well!"

"Eh?"

...

"..."

I fought back a groan as four of us walked down the streets of Vermillion, heading to our first destination of the day.

"I can't believe it, but I actually agree with you..." Gary, who professor Oak had also volunteered to join us, said as the two of us watched Ash and Goh talk ahead of us.

Tracey was also supposed to come, but he declined in order to help the two professors look after the rescued pokemon.

"Well at least you can't see his aura..." I commented under my voice.

Not only was Goh the stereotypical know-it-all, but I could also see his aura gravitating towards Ash the more they talked.

"So do you REALLY intend to capture Mew?" Ash asked him.

"Of course! Ever since I was little I wanted to capture Mew in order to learn more about it and understand it! People say it can't be done, but I don't believe that! I believe the future is in the palm of my hand!"

In response to Goh's inspirational speech, I just shook my head wryly. Apparently he didn't take my advice the slightest bit seriously.

"Hey..." Gary whispered to me without either of them hearing.

"You're the expert on Legendary pokemon. Think he's got any chance?"

"PFT! As if." I responded while trying to hold in my laughter.

"Not only is Mew the ancestor of every single pokemon on the planet, but it also possesses the same powers and abilities every single one can use. It may not be a competitor on the cosmic scale of Arceus, Palkia, Dialga and Giratina, but I highly doubt anyone or anything on this planet can faze it."

Gary was silent as he digested what I said, while I thought about the mischievous little Legendary and Mewtwo. It had been a while since I had seen it or Mewtwo, ever since the two of them went off on their own for a while.

But as I thought about Mew, I decided to try something.

Closing my eyes, I focused entirely on my psychic senses as I spread them out to my surroundings, like a thin net. As I did so, I came into contact with all of the minds around me, Gary, Goh, Ash, and anyone else within range.

I tried to filter out the noise of so many minds, also fighting back the headache that was beginning to form from the use of my powers, and focused solely on the one being I wanted. Mew.

Though any old psychic could potentially do this, in theory, I doubt they would be able to pull it off due to having never met Mew to begin with. I on the other hand had met Mew several times, and even experienced its power for myself when it healed my body.

I focused on those experiences now while trying to call it to me, like a psychic sonar. But even as I tried, I got nothing but a much more intense headache.

I recalled my consciousness and opened my eyes in defeat, only to see a little Pichu standing in front of me.

"Chu?"

"Well long time no see." I said with a wry smile, realizing immediately that the Pichu before me was a fraud.

"Chu..." Mew, with the appearance of a Pichu, clicked its tongue at the fact that I saw through its disguise before climbing my leg to reach my back, and then my shoulder.

As it did so, I kept an eye on Goh and Ash to make sure neither of them noticed what was going on. But they were in their own world as they talked about Pokemon. Maybe I really SHOULD worry...

"Is that really...." Gary asked beside me, drawing my and Mew's attention to him as he stared at it in disbelief.

"Yep. But keep your voice down." I whispered to him, while the 'Pichu' on my shoulder made a shushing motion.

"So how's Mewtwo?" I asked while reaching up to scratch it between the ears.

"Chuuuuuuuuuuu..." It sighed in contentment at the scratches, before a series of images flashed through my mind.

In them, there was a perpetually angry looking little Pichu surrounded by a whole group, all of which were nuzzling and trying to play with him.

"Looks like his training is going well." I commented quietly with a wry smile. After all, I HAD told Mewtwo before that his biggest weakness was the fact that he couldn't use the full scope of his powers properly.

Judging from what Mew showed me, it was trying to teach him exactly that by having him turn into pokemon and living as them. Or maybe it was just messing with him for shits and giggles.

Probably both...

I raised my fist up towards Mew, who bumped it with its own tiny paw.

"Chu Chu? Chu pi pi Chu?" Mew asked, wondering what I called out to it for.

"I was mostly just wondering if it would work, but also there's someone I wanted to point out to you." I told Mew while pointing at Goh.

"See him?"

"Chu?"

"His goal is to someday capture you and make you his pokemon."

"..."

Mew was silent as it digested what I said, looking between Goh and I repeatedly.

"Wanna mess with him?"

Mew smiled at my suggestion before giggling mischievously, leaping off of my shoulder before changing into its true form.

"!!!"

I could feel the shock radiating off of Gary as he ACTUALLY saw Mew for the first time, but thankfully he didn't make any noise that would alert Ash and Goh.

I took out my Pokenav and turned on the camera, prompting Mew to begin taking numerous poses behind and around Goh without him being any the wiser.

First it got right beside Goh while doing a double peace sign, then it acted like it was sitting on his head in a pose resembling the Thinker, then it did one like it was doing a handstand.

A few more poses later, Mew flew back over to me before draping itself on top of my head like it usually did. So I did the natural thing and took a selfie.

Just like with Goh, Mew and I took a few more pictures together with the two of us posing instead of just one, all while Gary watched in disbelief. Once we were done, I held a hand out to Mew, who smacked it for a high-five, and told it, "Thanks for stopping by Mew."

"Mew Mew!"

Mew cried out loudly at my thanks, alerting Ash and Goh as they both turned back to look at us, only for Mew to shoot by them in a pink streak before disappearing into thin air.

"Wait.... Was that...."

"Yep." I answered Goh's question with a shit-eating grin on my face, before holding up my Pokenav to show him the pictures we just took.

"B$*GF%*GY^&R*&&%FIUVU^%E%#$D*YG*&R^%EDRD*&%^!"

I just watched with amusement as Goh devolved into unintelligible garble, while Ash was staring dumbly at the place where Mew had vanished.

"Come on little brother." I said while clapping my hand onto his shoulder, dragging him along with me as we continued on our way without even giving Goh a backwards glance.