บท 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.