Chương 30: C030 - Meeting the construction team leaders
"Ahhh, this is life," Sophie moaned out as she floated on the hot water.
Jasmine's rosy cheek turned a darker shade of red as she heard her sister's lewd sounds. She meekly sat a good distance away from Pete and his floating pokemon.
"So Pete, who do you think is cuter in a bikini. Me or Jasmine?"
"Are you.. do you want me to answer that, honestly? You are identical twins, you both have the exact same haircut, and the only difference between your bikinis is the color of the seams," Pete answered in a weak voice.
He knew that wasn't an answer a woman wanted to hear, but Sophie has been trying to egg him on the last two days and he ran out of witty answers while Sophie was thick-skinned enough to brush past most of them anyway.
"Oh? You looked so hard you noticed the seams of my all-black bikini are blue, while Jasmine's seams are pink?"
"Jasmine's seams are red, and yours are leaf green," Pete responded absent-mindedly.
"Hehehe. See, sis? I knew he'd take a good look," Sophie whispered to her sister. She double-checked if Pete's eyes were still closed and asked another question when she saw they were closed.
"Do you think the bikini with red seams matches Jasmine's silver nail polish?"
"It does match her nail polish, but her nails are golden," Pete answered without thinking.
Jasmine's cheeks by now were crimson red, and it wasn't because of the hot water.
"Mhm, you have good taste, Pete. I have high hopes for your farm. Did you already decide on a design?" Sophie changed the topic on her own. She wanted to cause a little bit of trouble, not cause her sister to faint from embarrassment.
"Not really. Have you ever been to Professor Elm's lab in New Bark? I'd really love a glass dome or at least full glass front. The rest is not too important as long as it is big enough but not so big that I have to run five minutes to the bathroom," Pete mused as he finally opened his eyes.
Jasmine noticed how hot her cheeks were and hurriedly grabbed Azurill to gently play with it while facing away from Pete.
"Hmm, I hope this Luna lady is really good at her job then and has some directions for the design. Good thing I'm here and my taste is impeccable."
Sophie earned herself a wave of water to the face from Pete as she uttered those words.
"Ugh *cough*, you dare!?" Sophie shot up from her floating position and angrily looked at Pete as she coughed up the water she had just swallowed.
What followed was a five minute water fight that was only possible because the twins, Pete, and his pokemon were alone in the bath. They all lost horribly once the two Marill decided to join in on the fun. Water type energy was busted in a splash fight.
After the battle, they all went to their respective rooms to turn in for the night. Pete had used his psychic link to get in touch with Solosis during the bath. It was the first time they had used their link over such a distance, and the strain was bigger than usual. Still, it was pretty manageable because both Solosis' and Pete's training was going pretty well.
Since Solosis assured him that his pokemon were doing well and had been fed properly, Pete fell asleep with the Marill family in his bed.
It was just before dawn when Pete woke up without needing an alarm. The Azurill had rolled its body into Pete's hand, where it fit nicely. The little blue ball was snoring in a cute, high-pitch tone.
Pete managed to get out of bed without waking up any of the three pokemon that had shared his bed. There was breakfast for early risers like him, which Pete followed up by ordering breakfast for his full team and going to the pasture to look for his pokemon.
He was a little paranoid about the two color variants and rare Unova pokemon getting stolen out of the hotel pasture overnight, but apparently, the scary looking Exeggutor and fully grown Rapidash combined with the hotel security were intimidating enough.
When he arrived, Rapidash, the older non-shiny Miltank, and Girafarig were already up, same as Exeggutor.
He greeted the pokemon that were up with a warm smile and some scratches. Once he shared a short talk with his pokemon, Pete teleported to the lake with Girafarig and Exeggutor.
There were quite a few pokemon already active at the lake. Sadly, none of them were Girafarig from his pokemon's herd. Pete urged the normal/psychic pokemon to ask around if anybody had seen a Girafarig, but that turned out to be a bust. Not even the majestic Pidgeot who claimed to have flown all day last day had seen any living Girafarig nearby.
"Don't lose hope. How about we come here again tomorrow, and if there's still nobody from your herd showing up here, we will come again? Provided Exeggutor is okay with it, I don't see why we should stop," Pete suggested with a warm smile.
With three teary eyes, two in the front, one in the back, Girafarig nuzzled her front-head into Pete's palm. The other head nodded. Having an in-depth talk with the pokemon with two heads for the first time was a little weird, but Pete got over it quickly. It wasn't the weirdest thing he brushed over since coming to this world.
By the time some of his pokemon were awake to eat the hotel's breakfast, Pete had to get going for his meeting with Carl and his daughter Luna at the south gate of the city.
"Holy canoli, is that a huge Exeggutor," a voice Pete immediately recognized as Carl's rang out when Pete and Exeggutor teleported over.
"I'll assume you're Carl? We talked to each other over the phone yesterday? Hi, I'm Pete," Pete greeted as he looked toward a mountain of a man two heads taller than himself.
"You got that one right, hiya Petey-boy," the black haired man with more muscle than a Machoke greeted.
"Dad, please. Can you use your indoor voice if you're going to speak so much nonsense so early in the morning?"
Pete had to lean his head to the side because he couldn't look over Carl's shoulder to see who was speaking. What he saw was a young woman just as tall as Carl dressed in a no-sleeve crop-top, jeans one size too large, sunglasses, and black hiking boots that weren't properly tied. Her black was done in a pixie haircut.
The woman was clearly taking after her father because she too looked ripped. It was still a feminine look, but her bizep were bigger than Pete's, and her crop-top showed off part of her very defined abs.
"Uh, Luna then, I take it?"
"A smart cookie, are you?" The woman in question scoffed. "Sorry, it's just, I'm a little cranky this early in the morning. I'm no morning person. But my dad did agree to meet, so there was no way to cancel."
"Sorry about that, Whitney only mentioned to ask for you with no further explanation, and then laughed the entire meal when I told her about my call with your father," Pete said in apology.
"Don't worry. It's my old man's fault to begin with."
"Hey, I'm right here, homies," Carl shouted in dismay.
"Why are you like this, dad..."
There was a cafe right at the gate that Pete had called ahead for a spot. The cafe was very popular because of the wait staff. He ordered a tea and light snacks for the table and let the father-daughter pair order some drinks for themselves.
"So, what do you need us to do? Dad didn't write anything down and was very vague when I asked him last night after coming home from my training," Luna asked after practically inhaling half of her cup of coffee the second it was placed down by the Mr Mime waiter.
Pete took out his tablet and opened the map of Evergreen Meadow.
"I'm an assistant professor and researcher of Professor Elm's team, and I want to open a farm here. This is Evergreen Meadow next to-"
"Yeah, next to Ilex Forest. Everyone in Goldenrod knows the fields of war. Why would you want to live there? Right smack-dab in the middle of a never-ending turf war between a giant Ariados tribe and everyone else?" Luna showed a grimace. Like this whole thing was yet again too early in the morning for her.
"Well, I have a plan for a cease-fire. It would result, hopefully, in these regions becoming habitable once the scales tip in my favor," Pete answered without explaining too much. Parts of the map started to light up.
"If the terrain is anything like this map suggests, I want the house to be somewhere in the north of this patch of grassland circled in the forked river. I'll need a bridge here and here for the possible pasture and crop field plans, but I think I can manage to do that with my pokemon. I think I could do most of it, even if it won't be pretty, but electricity and plumbing is something I want professionals to do. Also, windows. I have no experience properly setting windows. In an ideal world, I want a tall glass dome looking at the gigantic lake right at the bay here," Pete pointed to the lake, "but I also want to be realistic. It's a farm. Functionality and frugality come first."
"Fru...gality? Mate, buddy, pal, Whitney already wired over P$280.000 as down-payment. If you can convince us we won't die a spidery death when working there and got a good grip on how to handle logistics, we'll build you a veritable glass palace," Carl said with a weirded out expression.
"She did what?" Pete frowned. Whitney didn't say anything about such a huge amount of money.
"Yeah, something about feeling bad about blackmailing you."
"Yeah, what was that about?" Luna chimed in.
"She didn't blackma- I mean she kinda did. But I was going to wring some benefits out of her one way or another. Definitely not in the range of P$280.000, though."
Chương 31: C031 - Reaching the Evergreen Meadow
"Well, that's about it, I guess. I'll send you the specification of my generator once I'm back at the hotel and a picture of the terrain once I find the spot later in the day," Pete said outside the cafe.
"I'll start on the design based on your wishes right away, and my dad will start gathering the materials. Don't worry, he's isn't fully right in the head, but he does take the job seriously," Luna responded with a firm handshake.
"Hey, kids. I can hear you," Carl mumbled in a defeated voice.
"Talk to you later, Carl," Pete said in goodbye and started walking back to the hotel. Eventually, he got Solosis' attention through their psychic link, and she came over with Exeggutor to teleport him back to the hotel entrance.
The three went back to the pasture after Pete grabbed a few of his bags. He could finally greet his now awake team for the day. Jasmine was there too, sitting next to a pond and talking to Corsola.
"So Exeggutor is about to drop us off at the Meadow. Sorry that we'll have to split like that. I'm happy you'll get to meet two potential new pokemon in Ecruteak City, but I want to get started on my future home already," Pete spoke up as he sat close to the pond to watch his Minccino wash their tails.
"Ah, no worries. If they decide to join me and everything is in order, I will just introduce Gligar and Phanpy to you later. Still really sad that Numel is still in recovery at the Cianwood City poke center for a few days. I wish I could meet the poor girl a little earlier," Jasmine responded with a sad sigh at the end.
"Do you know what I could give Exeggutor as thanks for all the jumping around he's doing for us? I feel like I owe him big time for all the extra work he's doing," Pete asked to change the topic to a more jovial one.
He didn't like that the pokemon had to go through something that would take two full months of recovery either, but he didn't find the right words for comfort. Neither of them met the young fire/ground pokemon yet.
"Hmm, I think we're already doing him a favor by getting him out of the house. But have you heard of flower chains? In Alola, they call them lei. I heard my dad say once that during a trip to Alola's Poni Island, the natives gifted him one and loved it dearly. Inhabitants of that island apparently revere Exeggutor a lot and don't discriminate based on form," Jasmine explained, so she left out an explanation on what she meant with the last part.
Pete was strangely knowledgable about all the things like region variants and unique evolutions, so she was sure Pete knew about Alola's super tall Exeggutor with the dragon gene.
"I see, I'm sure the meadow has some nice flowers I can work into a lei. Thanks for the tip! And good luck with the two pokemon later," Pete thanked with a short one-armed hug as he left toward his pokemon with his Minccino happily climbing his legs to take their rightful position on his shoulders.
He didn't look back to see Jasmine's happy smile and red cheeks.
"Okay, team. The day has finally come. Let's see our future home," Pete announced as all his pokemon gathered around him.
"We don't know what to expect, so always stay vigilant. As best as you can, show mercy to the Ariados tribe, but never at the cost of your safety. They are a predatory species, so they should understand the cost of loss," Pete instructed as he balled one pokemon after another.
Twenty-two pokemon of his were balled up. Only three were left out. Solosis, Girafarig, and Nidorino. The two psychic pokemon would once again experience the Teleport used by Exeggutor to get a feeling for their own use of psychic energy, but Nidorino was a different case.
"Nidorino, I've seen you train the past few days, and I feel like you're probably strong enough. So I'd like for you to go into this fight as strong as you possibly could be," Pete addressed Nidorino with a solemn tone as he took out a black stone with a purple hue from his bag.
"Are you ready to evolve into a Nidoking?"
Nidorino instantly agreed, and Pete placed the pear-sized stone in the form of a bean with rough edges in the pokemon's mouth. He stepped back a little to record the evolution process with his tablet. Jasmine had stood up from the pond to take a good look at it, too, but she didn't come much closer.
A few moments after putting the stone into Nidorino's mouth, the pokemon was enveloped into white light. It wasn't bright enough that you couldn't take a look, so Pete looked at the process with rapt attention.
Just like with the Aipoms' evolution, sickening crunches and tearing sounds rang in the air. The silhouette of Nidorino slowly grew and eventually sat upright in a bi-pedal posture. When it was done growing to roughly thrice its original size, the growing process stopped. It was now about one head shorter than Pete if you discounted the tail, but twice as wide.
After the evolving pokemon stopped growing, the sound of bones shifting was still heard a few moments later. Then suddenly, all sounds stopped together with the light to reveal Nidorino, now Nidoking.
"How do you feel?"
Nidoking looked at his arms and 'hands' and flexed them. Then he looked at Pete and nodded with a grateful expression.
"Ready to eat some stinky spiders then for your poison affinity training?"
Nidoking gave Pete a scary smirk and a 'Nidoking!'-shout that surely wanted to express: 'Leave it to me!"
After balling Nidoking, Pete looked to Exeggutor, closed the recording, and opened the map once more.
"Alright, just like we discussed. I'd like to start out somewhere here," Pete said as he pointed on the map. There was a place marked as 'Farmhouse + Barn'.
"Do you think you can get us either there or on top of the waterfall? Mind you, next to the waterfall. I mean on top of that cliff so we can get a nice view," Pete patiently explained.
Exeggutor nodded with a solemn look, then tapped his foot twice to say he would need two jumps. The distance wasn't the problem, so Pete thought it might have been a short jump first and then another once Exeggutor saw the destination.
The travel was once again over before it started. The first jump was to a beach, Pete's guess was it was south of Goldenrod, but he had no clues to verify it and no time to check on the tablet. The second jump was only moments later, and Pete stood on a hill where the grass was a little taller than his knees all around him.
The air quality here was incredible. There wasn't really any smog, even in the bigger cities Pete had been to, but this place had simply incredible air quality.
Pete looked up ahead and saw a gigantic lake to the right and a strait cut in half by a narrow island connecting the lake to the ocean in the far distance to the left. A little more to the left, Pete saw the river that fed the lake, which was about three times as wide as he was tall.
To the right, there was an eight story high cliff with a waterfall falling into the lake fed by the same river that fed the lake. It forked somewhere at his back.
Everywhere he looked, there was the same knee-high grass. The meadow had barely any trees, but there were countless flowers hiding in the grass.
Pete called out all his pokemon, starting with his two ground type pokemon Golett and Nidoking. Right now, they were the strongest and most useful pokemon in his line-up to prepare for the inevitable attack of the Ariados tribe.
As much control as she has, Rapidash could still potentially start a wildfire here, not that it ever even happened in the forests Rapidash fought other pokemon in before. Though realistically, she could still clean house with one well-placed and well-timed Hyper beam.
"Okay, team. We're here. If my plan goes smoothly, this is where we will live in the future," Pete announced with a wide smile. His pokemon were just as excited as he was.
Once they were in the clear with no imminent disastrous attack threatening their lives, Pete sent Exeggutor to look around a little followed by sending him to the hotel once he found nothing amiss.
The Evergreen Meadow housed quite a few wild pokemon. There was the biggest faction fighting for peace: the Vileplume tribe, meaning everywhere he looked, the grass Pete was seeing could belong to an Oddish.
For ground pokemon, there were a lot of Digletts, a few Geodude's near cliffs and rocky patches in the north, and Sandshrews living near the beaches.
For bug pokemon, Pete knew for sure that Caterpie, Venonat, and Ledyba lived here. At the lake and near the rivers, there were also Yanma skulking about. That's, of course, leaving out the biggest 'villains' in this meadow: the Spinarak, and their evolved form Ariados.
These Ariados had a sort of pact with a gigantic Beedrill hive that lived in Ilex Forest, and they had a few Koffing and Weezing living among them for poison types.
Normal pokemon had the least variety here in the meadow considering the large number of different normal type species. Only Rattata, Sentret, and various flying pokemon were sighted here in the last few years.
Pete still hoped for a small miracle and was prepared to look for some Smeargle and Kangaskhan living here, though they weren't seen in the meadow for a long time.
Smeargle was kind of a unique pokemon, all things considered. They weren't very popular pokemon for battle, but they had their own strengths with the move Sketch. He wasn't a big art fan, but Pete was sure he would appreciate a splash of color on his farm.
The water pokemon were too many to list and had an ever-changing roster in both the bay area and the lake. The river held mostly Slowpoke, Poliwag, Remoraid, and Goldeen.
Grass pokemon, while dominated by the huge amount of Oddish and its evolutions, still had Hoppip, Tangela, Sunkern, and the occasional Chikorita present.
For other typing, there were some Nidoran families, a few Pikachu, and a small tribe of Skarmory nesting near a cliff at the forest edge present.
Way further in the north, several Machop lived together with a Mareep herd near the ocean somewhere between where Pete was and Goldenrod City.
"Let's find some Vileplume then and see if we can come to an agreement. Golett, please look out for a nice sturdy spot where you think a house would do nicely."
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