Chương 28: C028 - Convincing Miltank with a Hyper Beam
AN: If you missed it last chapter, I made a map on my tablet for what I think Evergreen Meadow and how the rough layout of the farm would look like.
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Pete, Jasmine, and Sophie were sitting on the shore with their backs against an overturned log. Whitney was sitting on a rock opposite them with Azurill in her lap. She had by now accepted Pete's explanation about the rare birth of Azurill and the fact that it is a fairy type pokemon, which meant they were rare to begin with.
Even Marill's weren't very widespread. They were among the most commonly raised fairy pokemon, however.
"So you came here for Miltanks but didn't find any?"
"Yep, their milk is simply too good to pass up for a farm. Ideally, I would get a small herd, to be honest," Pete answered Whitney with a sigh.
"Hmm, your information isn't wrong, there is a small Miltank herd that comes here for water," Whitney said as she was looking at the map on Pete's tablet.
"So I was just unlucky?"
"Yeah, very likely. Or what you said about that poor Girafarig herd happened to the Miltank herd, too," Whitney mused with a sad look and shook her head.
Pete looked to Girafarig, who shook her head, too. The pokemon didn't know if this happened regularly to other herds. Her herd had kept mostly to themselves.
"You don't think your uncle would sell me a few Miltank?" Pete asked the young gym leader with a worried look.
"No chance, my uncle would not part with his Miltank no matter how much money you offer," Whitney immediately answered.
"Then I'll just have to either come back later or try another Miltank hotspot like the two routes between Olivine and Ecruteak," Pete sighed. Jasmine and Sophie looked bummed out because Pete's plan didn't work out.
"Well, we could try a different spot that your map didn't mention. My Miltank isn't one of my uncle's but from a herd of wild Miltank that refused to live on my uncle's farm. It's in a valley, here let me show you on the map?"
Whitney stood up with Azurill in her arms and sauntered over. She bent down with straight legs in front of Pete to point at the map he had open on the tablet.
"See there? Your map probably doesn't mention any pokemon there because it wasn't long that this valley was completely flooded and home to a Kingdra couple. They were super territorial, too. Nobody could get close. But one day, the deep lake filling the are was gone and only the valley was left," Whitney said.
"So it dried out? What happened?" Sophie asked curiously.
"My mom said it was Entei, but I'm not too sure about that. Because, if Entei was truly angry with the Kingdra and dried out the valley, why would it not go out of its way to make it a place for fire pokemon to thrive in?"
"What if Suicune watched over Entei and calmed it down before it went too far? It did happen near water," Pete said while thinking out loud.
Whitney looked at Pete and wanted to answer, but she tried to think of a comeback and couldn't find one. With a pout, she sat back down and played with Azurill in her hands.
"Alright, who wants to keep Girafarig company while she waits for others of her herd, and who wants to stay here?" Pete asked to see who wanted to do what. He wanted to keep the team together, but he also wanted to accomodate Girafarig, who had only just joined and still wanted to wait here at the lake.
Rapidash, Blitzle, and Ponyta wanted to come along, so Pete had to leave Golett here to look after Zorua, the two Minccino and Sunkern. The rest was coming with him in their pokeballs. The Marill were positively vibrating on the spot at the prospect of leaving the lake for the first time.
Once ready, Pete and Whitney showed Exeggutor the map, and the pokemon understood where to go quickly.
They arrived in the valley and quickly looked around. Exeggutor let out a soft hum to calm everyone. It didn't detect any hostile pokemon nearby.
Whitney released her Miltank and asked her to look for her original herd, which the cow pokemon happily did right away.
When the group eventually found a group of Miltank, the eyes of Pete's three Farfetch'd shone like stars, and they immediately waddled over to participate.
Roughly twenty Miltank were standing near a cliff wall, and one Miltank looked like a drill sergeant as she ordered the other Miltank to use Rollout against the wall one after the other.
Eventually, it was Whitney's Miltank's turn, and once it did well, the drill sergeant herd leader looked very pleased. She did, however, look very confused when the three Farfetch'd walked over with their spring onions and started hitting the rocks with the vegetables.
When she wanted to tell them to stop, the Farfetch'd used flying type energy and left some shallow cuts on the rock without destroying the stalks. Done with their show, they proudly waddled over to the drill sergeant and saluted. The leading Miltank didn't really know what to make of this and returned the salute before turning a questioning look to Whitney's Miltank.
"Helloooo~ Are you excited to see me again? I kept my promise. Your daughter is my ace and is very well trained," Whitney greeted with a cute smile. The leading Miltank's eyes turned to hearts. It was apparent it liked Whitney very much. The two exchanged a few more words and moos.
"I brought some friends with me this time. One of them was looking for some strong and cute Miltank like you guys to live on a faraway farm. He said he will have to battle some scary and ugly spiders first before he can make his home there. Do you think some Miltank in your herd are interested in that?"
Whitney still acted all cute, and the leading Miltank ate it all up. But when it came to moving the herd's home of letting some members of her herd leave, she became serious.
The Miltank regarded Pete, then eyed most of his pokemon one by one. The Farfetch'd were weird. The Blitzle and Ponyta looked young and weak, but the Rapidash looked like a power house.
"Miltank!"
The Miltank moved over to Rapidash, and it looked like she wanted to initiate a spar. If it was a test, Pete didn't know what for. So when Rapidash looked to him to ask if she was supposed to agree, Pete could only shrug.
"How about this, Miltank; you have the Thick Fat ability, which means you likely won't take too much damage from the potential burns. I still don't want my Rapidash to be hurt too much. Can you decide the winner in one move?"
The Miltank nodded, thinking a well placed Body Slam should make quick work of the big horse.
The cow pokemon moved with a speed and nimbleness you wouldn't expect from such a rounded body. Yet it didn't matter at all.
Rapidash had heard the words 'decide in one move', and there was only one move she had that would make sure she won. Hyper Beam. She opened her mouth lightly, gathered the needed energies, and for the first time since learning the move, shot the Hyper Beam at her target.
Rapidash had practice aiming such a beam of energies with her move Flamethrower, so Hyper Beam hit Miltank square in the chest despite her fast speed. The herdleader was smashed into the rocky wall the herd had used as target practice for Rollout and didn't stand up immediately. She would have never agreed if she had known that Rapidash knew such a move.
Yes, it was powerful. But even though Miltank couldn't stand up to retaliate in the short term, the Rapidash had to take deep breaths to get back her bearings and was more or less rooted on the spot. It was the perfect move for a one-move showdown. In a full fight it wasn't certain who would stand up first after the Hyper Beam to continue the fight.
Pete walked over to Rapidash and fed the pokemon a full Leppa berry to fill up her stamina. Then he walked over to Miltank and handed her an Oran berry.
"Here. Sorry, I kind of took advantage of you a little bit, right?"
The Miltank accepted the berry and ate it in one, peel and all. Once done with the chewing, Miltank shook her head and said a few words and moos that made it sound like Miltank didn't mind losing in such a fashion.
After standing up and shaking her messed up fur back into place, Miltank led the group of people to the rest of the herd. Not all the members were fighters, and they trained in shifts, so Pete was shocked to find a herd that, including the ones training, had a good 90 pokemon. Not all of them were Miltank.
Pete spotted two male Tauros, a few Sandslash, and a bunch of Girafarig, for example. Since Miltank were an all female species, the new Miltanks had to come from somewhere.
The girls were oddly quiet the whole time. At first, they didn't want to mess up Pete's chances with the Miltank, especially the twins. Whitney had already done her part she felt like and only wanted to observe the 'cute boy'.
She would have never expected one of his pokemon to know Hyper Beam. It didn't look very powerful, but if Rapidash only learned it recently, there was still a whole lot of room for growth.
The leading Miltank told the group to wait while the girls looked at Pete and Rapidash with mesmerized expressions, all for different reasons.
Some time later, Miltank came back with two Miltank and an egg in each han- in both hooves.
One of the new Miltank looked battle-hardened and likely a little old. It had a few scars here and there, especially on her back, and she was missing one of the two small horns Miltank usually had.
The other new Miltank looked much younger. And, most importantly, it wasn't the same pink color as the other Miltank. No, this was a skyblue shiny! All three girls let out an unnatural squeal when they noticed the variant Miltank.
Chương 29: C029 - Wrapping up the first day in Goldenrod City
"I can't believe it. This was only the second time I've seen Hyper Beam in my entire life! And, the only other time was a Dragonite trained by Lance, the Elite Four dragon trainer!"
Whitney was completely out of it. She had been screaming in disbelief for the entire return trip to the lake, the short wait for more Girafarig, and subsequent trip to Goldenrod City.
Sophie was impressed with the move but was too busy playing with Azurill now that Whitney had relinquished her choke hold of the poor baby pokemon.
Jasmine was once again quiet, but she, too, had a feverish expression. As an aspiring gym leader, having a pokemon who knows Hyper Beam would be a big deal. Internally, she was weighing the pros and cons of asking Pete and his Rapidash to teach the move to her Onix.
"I mean, Rapidash still has to train the move. That should have been her first use," Pete, who had two Marill riding on his shoulder, said for the Xth time.
This was the first visit to a city for the two Marill, and they were excitedly pointing at everything. Sometimes, they even grabbed Pete's ear to have him go somewhere so they could get a better look. That included a novelty trashcan in the look of a Golbat. Solosis, the only other pokemon Pete had out right now, was amused when Pete had to palm his face.
"That's still so super impressive, Pete! Hyper Beam is usually only taught by the leader of a super powerful tribe to their direct offspring, and those kinds of pokemon are way too proud to join a trainer normally. Why would they? They know Hyper Beam! They are the top of the foodchain," Whitney was screaming again. Thankfully, they were on the road leading to the hotel now, and there were barely any people close by.
"Yeah, once she trains the move a little more, Rapidash will be in a league of her own," Jasmine added with a firm nod.
"Haaa, hey Whitney. I know this is a little abrupt, but do you know a reputable construction company in the city that could start on a project this week?" Pete asked to try to change the subject. They've been talking about it for a bit now, and Pete wasn't really ready to talk about the TM and the TM-CD for the move he had yet.
"Yeah, I do. But when I refer you, you'll have Rapidash try and train my pokemon for an afternoon," Whitney demanded with a pout.
"Hey, isn't it enough that I got a cute little Girafarig to join your team?"
When they were at the lake to pick up Girafarig and the others who didn't join for the trip to the Miltank herd, two Girafarig had joined Pete's Girafarig.
A father and his young daughter, it turned out, and Whitney was immediately smitten with the daughter. After a long discussion, Whitney managed to convince the pair to follow her instead of staying with Pete and his Girafarig.
She had even promised to have them taught Teleport with a TM so they could visit anytime. Pete would have fought the notion of the two Girafarig not joining him, but he was okay with having a few less pokemon to worry about for now. And who knew? Exeggutor would teleport both him and Girafarig to the lake tomorrow morning to see if there were still any other survivors.
"Ugh, can't you be a little less reasonable? Ugh, okay! Here, I'll forward you a number. Ask for Luna. She's my interior designer, but she and her father build houses, too," Whitney complied as she forwarded a contact to Pete's tablet.
Pete's first stop at the hotel was the pasture to release all his old and new pokemon. That included an Azurill, two Marill, a Girafarig, and two Miltank. What a fruitful trip.
Pete's food reserves were running low, so he told his pokemon to bear with it as he ordered the premium food from the hotel instead of making his own. The Farfetch'd were very understanding and saluted Pete. But only because he gifted the three birds a reserve leek he had bought in the city earlier.
After that, Pete went up to his room with only the Marill family coming along. They were too curious to look at everything and didn't want to stay in the pasture.
The girls were right now freshening up for dinner at the hotel restaurant, so Pete did the same. In the hotel room, he transferred the two Miltank eggs he had received to his bag holding the other eggs and checked up on the incubators. None of his other eggs were hatching.
Usually, an egg takes somewhere between a week to hatch for weaker pokemon like Caterpie or up to fifteen weeks for stronger pokemon like Dratini. So he still couldn't say there was anything wrong with the other eggs.
To get it over with, Pete called the number Whitney had forwarded him. Sadly though, it seemed like Luna was currently out, so Pete had to talk it out with her father Carl.
"Okay, so you'll meet with me at Goldenrod City southern gate tomorrow morning at 8?" Pete asked again to make sure. This Carl person didn't really sound like a reliable contractor.
"*No problemo, dude. I'll be there as sure as a Wingull when you drop some fries,*" Carl answered with a weird sing-song voice.
"And you will bring your daughter Luna?"
"*Yeah, yeah. You asked like ten times already. She'll be there, too. Are you trying to set up a secret date with my pretty munchkin?*"
"Haaa, no, I'm not. I need you guys to build a farmhouse and some other stuff for me," Pete answered with a sigh. This call really took a lot of energy out of him.
*knock knock*
A minute after he hung up on Carl, someone knocked on the door.
"Peeeete~! Hurry up, we're all hungry," Whitney's voice came through the door as he walked to it.
"Coming," Pete shouted back as he picked up the keycard for his room and the bag with his tablet and ID.
The food turned out to be very delicious. Pete was an okay cook, but compared to the chef of such a high-class hotel, he naturally couldn't hold a candle. During the meal, Pete had retold his tiring call with Carl, and Whitney could only answer with giggles.
"I told you to ask for Luna. Her father is an amazing foreman, but his people skills are... kinda bad," Whitney said between chuckles.
"Yeah, well, Luna was out," Pete huffed back.
"Tihi, that's what he always says. But 9 out of 10 times, he just says that, hahaha. Nobody would hold a conversation, hehehe, with him if he wouldn't do it like that," Whitney squeezed out between laughs.
"Sounds like you got got, Pete," Sophie chimed in with an amused expression.
"Haa, okay, anyway. I'll meet them at 8. I'll be at the lake before that with Exeggutor and Girafarig, so please leave him out in the pasture if you don't want me to wake you that early," Pete answered with a roll of his eyes.
"Ugh, why don't you start your days a little later?" Sophie groaned.
"We should be a little more like him instead," Jasmine sighed. She wouldn't deny that she was terrible at getting out of bed early, but she really wanted to get better at it. If not to get more training done, then at least to have more time with Pete right now.
They finished the dinner and said goodbye to Whitney. The gym leader really only wanted to eat lunch outside today but instead spent her entire day away and even caught two new pokemon she was eager to introduce to her other pokemon.
It was a good thing that there were no fights scheduled for today. Before she left, she once again reminded Pete of the training session for Hyper Beam she had blackmailed out of him and left with a giant smile.
Pete excused himself from the twins and went toward the massage parlor of the hotel after picking up a robe from his hotel room. He had asked around earlier, but only the two Miltank were comfortable with a massage here at the hotel. Maybe that would change once the two Miltank brought back good reviews.
The masseuse for Pete was a middle-aged man who did a decent job. His Marill, however, got a show of two giant Machoke kneeding the two Miltank into cow-shaped pudding. Pete was a little disturbed by the sounds the two newest additions to his team were making on the other side of the paper room divider.
Once he stepped outside with a conflicted expression after asking the two Machoke to bring his Miltank to the hotel's pasture once they woke up, Pete put on some swim trunks and went to the hot spring bath of the hotel.
He was relaxing in the hot water with the Marrill and Azurill floating around him in bliss as he heard two voices getting closer.
"That mud bath was kinda weird. The Quagsire was just staring at us with his tongue out the entire time."
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