บท 12: C012 - Bonding time
AN: I made a very basic map to help out with where we currently are where we're currently going. I got the actual map on wikipedia and painted on it in red.
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"Oh my, oh my. Look at you three. Meganium, could you please try your best to calm down the Zorua? And Rapidash, could you try to calm down the Blitzle? Feraligatr, please keep a look out on the... that's a Golett, right? A color-variant even?" Professor Elm ordered, and the pokemon softly stepped forward. Rapidash even carried a bowl of Pete's food with her because both Zorua and Blitzle looked very starved. Their ribcages were clearly seen through the taut fur lining their chests.
"Uh, Feraligatr, I think it's okay. Golett, could you please come over?" Pete ordered in an unsure tone.
The shiny Golett wasted no time and walked over with its stubby legs. It looked hilarious, but Pete swiftly noticed that its supposedly heavy steps made no sound at all. It didn't even leave any footprints. Ghost pokemon are truly a breed of their own.
'Wait, this pokemon has no gender. Can they breed in this world? Did I mention it in my story at all? Golett and Golurk were in the mineral egg group, were they not? Arceus, what were you thinking?'
'Ugh, mineral egg group. Why are you the way that you are,' Pete thought bitterly.
"It listens to you already? Why?" Professor Elm was immediately intrigued once more.
"When it looked to me, it somehow felt like a bond between us snapped into place. It's very much different from what Solosis and I share, but I'd have to take a while to describe it in more detail," Pete explained with a warm smile.
"An instantaneous bond? Fascinating! I think I've read an old book once that this particular pokemon seemed to be a manufactured pokemon made out of clay that serves and protects their master without question. So it made you its master on first sight? Did it not have one before? Ah, so many questions!"
Professor Elm excitedly ran around Golett and looked at every part of him, already losing his initial vigilance toward the unflinching automaton.
"I'll rely on you in the future, Golett. Anything you need me to do? I don't think your kind requires regular food?"
The golem moved its head left and right to indicate it didn't need anything.
"Sweet! You're quite the sight, by the way, you know that?"
The golem nodded a full-body nod as an answer, which only brightened Pete's smile. It looked a little robotic overall with magic parts instead of metal, but Golett was not an unfeeling piece of clay. That was great news to Pete, who wouldn't want to trust another cold robot anytime soon after his untimely demise.
"Alright, thanks for choosing me as your master and you do you for a while. I'll go calm down these two over there," Pete said while patting Golett's shoulder. Solosis had already confirmed their genders, so he wouldn't mess up his address in a moment. Zorua was a young boy while Blitzle was a young girl. Who knew? She might just hit it off with Rapidash's foal in the future. If she decides to stay with him, that is.
Blitzle was a little overwhelmed right at this moment. When she hatched, some mean people had caught her in a pokeball after putting her to sleep, and she was rarely released. She was only given tasteless kibble and plain water and no affection at all.
Having Rapidash, who looked a little like her, fuss over her made Blitzle's heart flutter for the very first time. Of course, she was smart enough to know that Rapidash was a different species. Somehow, all pokemon knew that by birth.
She was enjoying some amazing food for the first time in her life, and Rapidash had even hurried over with a bucket of crystal-clear water for her.
"Ah, hey Blitzle. You seem to be enjoying the food, hmm? Hope you like it. Here, I'll make the water tasty, too," Pete greeted with a warm smile as he diluted some carbos and freshly pressed Oran into the water.
Blitzle was very much wary of Pete. She really didn't have the best of luck since she was born. But not only were all the grown pokemon around her very calm, one look to Rapidash told her that Pete might be different. The bigger pokemon looked at Pete with clear adoration in her eyes.
"Hey Rapidash, how about you bring Ponyta over? You left him in the pasture because we didn't know who was inside the pokeballs, but now we know we have potentially found him a playmate, no?"
Rapidash's eyes shone like flood lights, and she immediately sprinted off to get her son.
"Don't worry, I think you two will hit it off, Blitzle," Pete softly spoke when the little foal was a little startled by Rapidash's sudden escape. He tried reaching out to pet her, but the little zebra flinched back.
"Ah, I see. No worries. I'll give you your time before you realise I'm quite the nice dude. Keep enjoying your food and remember to drink something. Nobody's gonna steal your portion. Well, maybe Ponyta will, but I could just make you more," Pete assured Blitzle and calmly stepped back.
He didn't know, but Blitzle was inwardly already counting her blessings for having met Pete. Since apparently he was the one who could make more of this delicious food, Pete's standing in Blitzle's little heart was immediately elevated. She'd have to ask Rapidash to be sure. Since she was more or less starved and fed tasteless dregs since birth, food was very important to her.
"Ah, there they are. Calm down, Ponyta. She's still enjoying her food. You two can bond once she's done." Pete looked back to see Rapidash and Ponyta running over, but Ponyta wasn't slowing down, so he reprimanded the young foal a little.
Rapidash nodded toward him to tell him that she would make sure he would behave, so Pete walked over to the last of the three pokemon.
Meganium and Professor Elm were making no headway with the little trickster. It was backing off for every step you would take forward. It also eyed the food greedily but didn't show any signs of wanting to eat it.
'Hey, Solosis, could you check what's bothering the little Zorua besides the obvious?' Pete asked inside his mind, addressing his trusted psychic pokemon.
Solosis nodded from her floating position a step behind Pete and flew forward in Zorua's direction.
The dark type pokemon eyed her just as warily as the rest, but eventually, his guarded stance lessened.
"Ah, the blessings of having a trusted psychic pokemon around. I still mourn the day my friend Hypno passed away," Professor Elm sighed with a sad smile.
"Oh no, what happened?"
"He was my father's pokemon and died of old age. It wasn't a tragic kind of death, but he had really helped out a lot in my early years as an assistant. I miss him dearly," the professor explained without looking away from Solosis, who was doing her best to calm down Zorua.
When she turned around to look to Pete, pictures of teeth appeared in his mind along with a feeling of hurt. Pete could guess from there what Zorua's problem with the food was.
"Hey, professor. Do you happen to have your pliers with you in your coat? The ones you used on Granbull's teeth yesterday?"
"Ah yesyes," the professor exclaimed as he hurriedly patted down his lab coat and took out some pliers from his pockets.
"Hey Zorua. If I understood Solosis correctly, your teeth hurt, right? That's perfectly normal because sometimes they grow the wrong way or they get inflamed when you're not healthy. You probably didn't get a lot of good food since you hatched, just like Blitzle, right? That's why it happened," Pete narrated his theory while calmly stepping closer with a warm smile to reassure the pokemon. Solosis had explained to him her opinion on Pete, so Zorua's vigilance was lessened by a lot, and his word made sense to the foxes' limited understanding.
"If I pull the problem tooth out, it's going to hurt a little bit more for a short moment, but I promise it will immediately get better after. I'll even give you some soft Oran berry pieces that will reduce the pain and help you get better more quickly, alright?"
By now, Pete sat down on the ground a little over an arm's length away. He didn't want to force the pokemon as much as possible, so he sat down and would make Zorua come to him. The pokemon was smart enough to decide on its own. And Pete had Solosis in his corner, so he had good chances, he judged.
Zorua slowly and cautiously walked to Pete, who had gotten an Oran berry from the front pocket of his hoodie. Pete peeled it and put the pieces on a bowl he had brought with him.
Pete left a few pieces whole but mashed a few others to get some juice for Zorua to lick and some berry mush to place where he pulled the tooth. According to his story, that would help lessen the pain of a pokemon for a short moment, and that's what he hoped for.
"Here, lick some of the juice. It should help with the pain," Pete suggested as he held the bowl over and tilted it in Zorua's direction so he could easily reach the juice.
With one last look to Solosis, Zorua did as told.
"Okay buddy, great job enduring. If you feel you're ready, sit in front of me, and we'll get the problem tooth out together, okay?"
Zorua didn't wait this time and sat in front of Pete's crossed legs.
"Alright, bear with it. Try your best not to bite me, but don't worry if you do. I'll understand. Just don't use a dark-type move like Bite. That way, my hand will survive," Pete explained as he calmly reached forward to look inside Zorua's maw.
"Ohh, yeah. That's gotta hurt. Okay buddy, I found the problem. I'll pull on three, and it's gonna hurt. But if you calm down, we can apply some of the berry mush, and it will quickly get better, you savvy?"
Pete was probably... well, let's say half. He was half as scared and anxious as Zorua, so he was starting to spew nonsense.
"Okay, 1 - 2 - 3!"
A short yowl and a long wimper later, Pete, who had survived the ordeal without losing a drop of blood, had some Oran berry mush on his index and middle finger and looked toward the hurting Zorua.
"Hey buddy, you've done great so far. I have the mush here, open your mouth one last time, and I can apply it," Pete said as he regarded Zorua with a sympathising half-smile.
With tears in his eyes and a healthy amount of ire in his glare that wasn't truly directed at Pete, but the two teeth he held in his pliers, Zorua opened his mouth.
"There you go, buddy, is that better?"
Zorua was still glaring and was very tense. But when he heard Pete's question, he blinked. He looked at Pete's finger that had applied the mush, then at Pete with a reverent gaze, and nodded his head.
"That's great! Do you want more mush, or do you think you can eat the berry pieces as they are? I think you'd want to wait a little before you eat the food I made," Pete offered and advised as he put the bowl toward Zorua. He started peeling a second Oran for the young fox while waiting for his answer.
With a short look to Pete, Zorua put his head in the bowl and cautiously ate the piece instead of waiting for more mush. He did, however, chew with the side that wasn't affected.
"You've quite the tenacious spirit, eh?"
Zorua enjoyed the praise but was too busy finally eating something.
"That was great work, Pete! You really have a way with pokemon," Professor Elm praised as he stepped closer.
"Thanks for letting me do it, professor," Pete thanked sincerely.
"Nonesense, they were your find! And really, I wanted to make extra sure that I chose right, haha," the professor quipped with a wink and a cheeky smile.
"Haha, oka-"
Pete had wanted to stand up as he quipped back, but the moment he touched his hand to the ground, fireworks went off in his mind. A whole new sense started to take root among his other senses.
บท 13: C013 - Spending all his money
"Did you forget anything? ID card, enough bag space? All the pokemon you want coming along?" Vivian's loud voice rang out as Pete walked toward the entrance.
"Yep, just finished getting the veggie broth off the stove!" Pete shouted back.
He had just finished his, by then, very late breakfast after spending a good hour with Zorua, Blitzle, and Golett.
He had unlocked his Ground-type affinity, which he was really giddy about, but it could wait. Thanks to his instant bond with Golett, the affinity was jumpstarted, but before it grew and he spent some time getting a feeling for it, he couldn't do much with the affinity. It will take some time. Getting the ground affinity was still a really great thing for Pete as an aspiring farmer.
After he calmed down, Pete talked a little more with Zorua and inspected the grey-furred fox together with Professor Elm, who was positively beaming to get the chance. The illusive Zorua line was rarely studied because its Illusionist ability allowed it to almost always get away from unwanted company.
Rapidash had more or less adopted Blitzle, who was given another serving of breakfast after Ponyta stole a bit. If she wasn't still very hungry at the time, it didn't look like she minded, though. It looked like the start of a great friendship between the two young foals.
For Golett, Pete symbolically broke apart the automaton's old pokeball and placed him in a luxury ball. Pete would wait a little to ask Zorua and Blitzle if they wanted to join him first.
After a while, the two Minccino finally joined them outside. They were a little sad to have missed the action but were bonding with Zorua after their short pout. They tried teaching the fox Rock-Paper-Scissors, but it looked like his paws lacked the needed dexterity. If his determined glint was any indication, that wouldn't be the case for long.
However, now it was time for Pete's shopping trip. Solosis had asked to stay behind with Zorua, but Pete guessed she wanted some time alone to train a little. She did just learn a new move before sleeping last night with the help of the TM.
With the rest of his pokemon outside at the pasture bonding, Pete only had Golett with him in his pokeball. Protection wasn't needed from his side because Vivian brought her Quilava, the assistant chef of the house, with them.
"Okay, I think you'd want to start at the Silph Co department store. They are the only shop in town that sells clothes for young people like you. There'd be more variety in a big city, don't worry," Vivian explained as they started walking into town.
Coincidentally, the Silph Co store was the first destination they walked by. The store was catered towards pokemon trainers, especially league trainers, as they got discounts on most of the stuff sold here. Which meant they had pokemon utilities like pokeballs and potions, survival gear like tents and climbing gear, and clothes clearly meant for active outdoors people.
It didn't matter much to Pete, as what needed most was underwear and a few shirts and maybe some back-up pants and shoes. If they were durable and meant for outside, all the better.
Thrifty as he was, Pete didn't overdo it with buying the clothes. Maybe he'd find a cheaper store with better clothes in a bigger city. It was his first store in the pokemon world, after all. So he only bought two of each of the listed items, except for the underpants that he bought a few more of. Can't ever pack one too many pairs of boxers.
For sizes, Pete really had to rely on Vivian's critical eye because the sizes were a lettering system he wasn't familiar with at all. It was a good thing that most of the clothes were made with a stretchy material and the shoes he had obviously tried on before. They were a kind of sturdy sneaker with a deep profile at the soles that would give you traction even on wet rocks.
When he was done with choosing the clothes, Pete went over to the food section to get some cooking utensils. Pete didn't have much of a prizing sense, so he listened to Vivian she said he could get proper pots, knives, and pans somewhere else.
However Pete did get a portable electric stove that he could hook up to the generator he had gotten and a large 'berry box' that allowed you to store berries inside a bag of holding more comfortably and extend the time plucked berries remained fresh. It worked as a kind of module you could place into the prepared slot in the bag, a real nifty piece of engineering that went completely over Pete's head despite his education.
He got an extra large variety berry box that cost a whopping P$35.000. As a small town store, Pete bought the actual show piece because they didn't even have this expensive variant on stock here. The prize of the box was almost half the pokedollar he had received as a 'signing bonus' from Professor Elm, but Pete thought of it as an investment. He would, after all, plant a lot of berry trees at his farm later.
Done picking up what Vivian suggested he get at this store and then some, Pete went and rang up the items. The only employee of the store wore a bright smile because apparently he would get a comission for every purchase over P$40.000 and Pete's total came to P$45.400, most of which was the berry box, the stove at P$3.350 and a cooling box that sadly wasn't a bag module that cost P$3.100 because of its durability and the fact that it worked inside a bag of holding or as this store employee called it 'pokebag', but he was wrong.
That left P$3.950 for all the clothes, two different sizes of fur brushes, and a small mountain of different flavor poketreats he wanted to try out with his various pokemon. Maybe Pete would find one of his pokemon's favorite flavors among these.
With everything paid and safely stored inside the empty bag he brought, Vivian brought Pete to the next store, a metal workshop run by a middle-aged woman called Clara with a Lairon and two Aron lounging around in the shop.
"Hey Clara, I brought the newest addition to my husband's team of pokenerds. Pete, meet Clara, one of my oldest friends. Clara, meet a young man from Unova who's in dying need of some great cookware," Vivian introduced.
Clara, a tall woman with fiery red hair and steely grey eyes, stepped forward and held out her hand with a bright smile.
"Always nice to meet a fella who knows his way around a kitchen," Clara quipped.
"Oh, like you wouldn't believe it! He cooked for us twice and I already loathe the fact that my husband had to hire him before I could get him as a personal chef," Vivian praised and Pete actually started blushing as his hand was held in Clara's vice-grip of a handshake.
"Is that right? Tell me then, little Pete. What do you need?" Clara let go of his hand and patted his shoulder with a wink. Likely telling him to relax because they were just teasing him. At least, that was what Pete thought this whole interaction meant.
"Uh yea, I'd like to see some extra large pans, think serving sizes for ten plus pokemon, and same goes for pots. I'd especially like one pot that's more high than wide and then I'd like to see kitchen knives, if you have any," Pete got his composure back and started listing some kitchen stuff he needed first and foremost.
Clara nodded at the list. She liked when people had an idea of what they wanted, especially if they needed so much. She brought Pete over to the items he requested and he directly chose three pans of varying sizes, five pots, only three matching lids for the pots, a wok that he saw by the side and a few long-gripped ladles and extra large spatulas that were stored close-by. Though he had to double check if they would all even fit inside his bag first and had to choose a number smaller than he would have liked on the pan.
When it came to the knives, Pete was really excited. Kitchen knives and how to sharpen them was something he really bonded over with his grandfather while his brother was outside rummaging in the dirt with their grandma.
Due to his excitement and the amazing quality he found them in, Pete probably bought a few too many knives, not that Clara minded.
He got a full set of knives, from a regular chef's knife that was a little larger than usual to fives different parings knives for all kinds of vegetables, to a boning knife all the way to even a big cleaver to get through actual bone, if needed.
He even custom-ordered a tomato knife with a serrated edge in a wave cut that Clara didn't have in her shop. Lairon had helped make it after he explained what he wanted to Clara and the pokemon, and from an already made knife to using some precise steel-type energy, the knife was done in less than five minutes.
Pete demonstrated what the serrated edge would do to a tomato she had in her kitchen, and Clara immediately agreed that the design helps a ton with softer vegetables.
In a small town like this, she rarely gets big customers like Pete. She didn't really need the money, which is why she could live here to begin with, but it was nice to see someone appreciate the work of her and her pokemon.
Starting from the time they customized the tomato knife, Pete also discussed some interesting points with her when he asked if her pokemon helped in all the smithing steps, and they even exchanged numbers to talk about metalwork if they ever felt like it.
Usually, with the wares he picked, Pete's total would have come to P$9.200, but Clara decided an enthusiastic fellow like Pete was deserving of her wares and chipped 200 pokedollars off of the total. All he had to do was invite her over for a meal he had cooked with the help of her items while he was still staying with the professor, to which both Vivian and Pete readily agreed.
"Okay, that was much more intense than I would have thought. You're really into kitchen knives, huh?"
Pete could only chuckle awkwardly.
"Pfft, never mind. What else is on your list?"
"Hmm, just some necessities like spare toothbrushes and soap. This town doesn't have a seed store, right?"
"A seed store, hmm... Ah! Not a store, but two days from now, we have market day, and Herbert from Cherrygrove City on the other side of route 29 sells flowers and sometimes seedlings and offshoots. I'll shoot him a message that a big spender is going to attend the market," Vivian joked as she laughed at Pete's expense, but Pete just laughed along. He really already blew through over a third of the huge pile of money Professor Elm had graciously paid him as monthly salary plus the bonus.
He didn't quite yet know what his salary was and how much the bonus was. Pete was too embarrassed to ask, but his league ID had a balance of P$150.000 when he received it. With everything else he got from the professor, like the gracious invitation to his house, the ID, and then even incubators, Pete felt more than fairly compensated.
And no matter. If Pete truly wanted money, he'd try selling a TM on the black market and probably make a good half a million pokedollars or possibly even more if they didn't take advantage of him.
After their fun little back and forth, Vivian and Pete finished buying the rest he needed in a sort of grocery store run by an older couple who looked at Pete a little weird when he bought twenty toothbrushes. This time, however, the total barely came to around P$800, so no more new material to tease Pete for Vivian. Though she did try to tease him about the toothbrushes, which failed because Pete was very unapologetic about the fact that he wanted to be able to brush his teeth before bed without fail.
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