บท 3: Choose Your Pokemon!
Leon and his family gathered around the table, they were eating fish and mashed potatoes. This fish wasn't a Pokemon, it was just a regular fish. Leon discovered a while ago that such animals also existed here.
This was the same when it came to rabbits and other types of animals.
Around the table were his parents, brothers, and his little sister—who had only just turned 6 years old recently. Yes, Leon had a fairly large family, which even surprised him when he started to really evaluate it.
"Have you guys been studying? You'll need to know the weaknesses of Pokemon and the types they are in order to strategize and fight against them and others."
Leon's mom was the first to speak, she usually kept up with everyone's education overall.
"I don't know about them, but I know that I've been studying these things. I can proudly say that I've completely mastered everything by this point." Leon said confidently.
Of course, he had long known the weaknesses of Pokemon, in fact, he obviously knew everything there was to know about them.
"You're not the only one, I've also been studying. I'm confident that I can ace any test that mom throws at me."
Luke stood up and spoke dramatically, he wasn't going to be outdone. Leon only side-eyed Luke, this guy had been competing with him since they started training.
He didn't pay any attention to it; it was dumb and pointless—Leon only hoped that he would grow out of this phase.
"That's good, I will be testing you guys tomorrow. What about you, Larson?" She turned to Larson and asked with knitted brows.
"I've been studying, but I still haven't gotten all of it down yet, sorry." Larson scratched the side of his face and smiled bitterly.
"It can slide for now, but you only have a year to get with the program. They won't test you on something like this anyway. However, this can be a lifesaver down the line, the more you know, the better."
Their mom's expression was both grave and serious. She had seen many of her friends die because they lacked information and observation skills.
"I'll study harder and try to remember these things." Larson could only nod and say as such.
"Mom, I'm smart. I'm studying too." Leon's little sister spoke this time with an immature tone.
"Of course, Leona, you're really smart." She had to give it to this little girl, her memory was amazing. There wasn't any intense training for her yet, so she was being educated mentally for now.
Leon only smiled, he expected this. Leona had been secretly studying with him throughout the years. What served as a big motivation for this—was that Leon promised to give her a special gift if she passed Mom's advanced test.
This test was by no means easy, you'd even have to know the weaknesses of certain Pokemon you may not have seen before.
These tests weren't easy for any of them here, but it would be a breeze for someone like Leon. He merely feigned ignorance during these tests and scored low so as to not draw too much attention.
This was especially so from his competitive and annoying little brother.
Leon continued to chow down on the well-seasoned fish and mashed potatoes. There was a nice side of cold Oran Berry Juice to go with it.
"I wanted to talk about Team Rocket with you guys for a bit. Is this okay?" Leon had something important he wanted to say when it came to them being affiliated with Team Rocket.
"Oh, what would that be?" Leon's father suddenly looked up with a bit of surprise. His mom, of course, was also interested to hear what Leon had to say.
This subject was too touchy and couldn't be talked about so casually, especially in public.
"I want to earn enough Team Rocket points to break our ties with Team Rocket. How much is this going to cost, so I'd know ahead of time."
Leon continued to stuff his face with mashed potatoes and fish while asking.
"....."
"....."
Both his parents looked at him with wide eyes, it was honestly the most ridiculous thing they had heard in a while.
Larson and Luke's expressions also showed change, they were informed about such things early in their lives—pertaining to their situation with Team Rocket.
Leona was confused and didn't understand what was going on, but she didn't say anything after seeing how serious it was.
"This is impossible, just work towards liberating yourselves. We'll probably be stuck as Team Rocket members until we die." Leon's father shook his head, he was open about this and didn't hold back.
"That's correct, focus on freeing yourselves for now. It's cheaper for grunts to buy their freedom with merit points, but for those higher-ups—things start to get really costly." Leon's mother sighed.
In fact, his parents were paid a great deal of Team Rocket points just for having kids.
The higher-ups wanted more Team Rocket youngsters to be born in the organization to train. It was to the point where they began to reward couples that did have kids.
"Alright." Leon gave a simple reply, but this didn't mean he wasn't going to do what was said.
He knew if he kept talking about it; they would start getting annoyed. It was best to just act on it instead of talking about it so much.
Both of his parents sighed in relief, they thought Leon was going to continue to pursue the subject. He didn't know better from their perspective, but in this business; these kids had to grow up fast.
With the drop of that topic, another topic was brought up. It was about the trial and what they may be facing when they get there.
"We've been saving up Merit points to get you guys some Pokemon to start your trials with. It's about time you guys got your first Pokemon, but we may not have enough to get you a really good one."
Lian, who was their mom—was really disappointed by this. There were other children from different Team Rocket couples. There was no denying that these kids would have some fairly good Pokemon in the beginning.
However, there was a limit to what they could get for their kids, at least, buy for them. There was a list of Pokemon they could buy for their children.
It was as followed.
-----
-Beginner starter list
-Intermediate starter list
-Advanced starter list
-----
"I wanted to talk to you guys about this, I'm going to show you all of the Pokemon on these lists. You can decide what Pokemon you want, and we'll tell you if we can get it or not." Their mom stood up and went towards the kitchen counter to grab a file folder.
"Here's the list, the Three of you can check it out." Lian placed the three lists in front of them, but she told them they could forget about the Advanced starter list.
Most high officials may even have trouble buying them, or at least—didn't dare to waste their points on them for their children.
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--Beginner starter List
-Rattata, Weedle
-Pidgey, Spearow, Sandshrew, Spinarak, Meowth
-Pineco, Rattata(Alolan), Hoothoot, Poochyena, Zubat
-----
--Intermidiate starter List
-Venonat, Ekans, Koffing, Meowth(Alolan), Grimer
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--Advanced starter List
-Houndour, Murkrow, Sneasel, Nidoran♂, Nidoran♀
-----
Reading the names on the list, Leon noticed that the majority of them were home to Kanto and Johto. There were a few exceptions to this, but they were Pokemon that fit Team Rocket's criteria for this lineup.
The list of Pokemon wasn't the only thing in this folder.
There were even pictures of these Pokemon, so people could better know what they were dealing with. They even had information about the Pokemon in the pictures, with them being colored with full-featured details.
Both Luke and Larson showed expressions of excitement, but who wouldn't at their age? Lian smiled when she saw their excitement. However, Lian noticed that Leon had shown little to no emotion when he saw the list.
Leona ran over to have a look for herself, she was also curious about these Pokemon.
"Is there something wrong, Leon?" Lian asked.
"Oh, no, there's nothing wrong." Leon smiled and nodded her way.
"I've made my decision, I definitely want this Ekans. Its appearance is intimidating and sharp, I should be able to get an advantage over anyone. Mom, you have the evolved form of this Pokemon, so you know how strong it is, right?"
Luke made his choice almost immediately. His mom already had the evolution, and it looked powerful and fierce.
"That's right, it's really powerful. An Ekans is about 13,000 Merit points, so we can buy it for you but it'll cost more to get a really talented one." It was a stretch, but Lian wanted to at least get her son's a [Yellow Aptitude] Pokemon.
This would surely put them ahead of a large amount of participating children. But at best, they could buy them all [Orange Aptitude] Pokemon.
If anything, they could only give one of their children a [Yellow Aptitude] Pokemon if they were going to give Two of them a Pokemon.
This would mean that one of them would have to forget about getting a Pokemon to make that happen.
"How many merit points do you have at your disposal?" Leon asked after some thought.
"We have a total of 35,000 we can use on you Three, so we're calculating the fees when buying a decently talented Pokemon." Leon's father, who was named Linus—finally spoke up after a while.
By this point, everyone had finished eating.
"It's okay, you can give them a Pokemon," Leon concluded, he didn't need a Pokemon to begin with.
"What? What are you saying? Could it be that you don't like any of the Pokemon here? You can't be picky Leon, you can capture different Pokemon later, so choose something!"
Lian speculated that this was the reason for Leon's dull and unmoved expression from earlier.
"It isn't that, it's just that I've caught a Pokemon already. When I was out a week ago, I bought a Pokeball with the little allowance I had saved up."
Leon stated that he caught an injured Sneasel in an alleyway a week ago and nursed it back to health secretly.
Everyone looked at him with utter shock and disbelief—was he joking right now?
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