Chương 41: C041 - Warning the regions of hidden dangers
It was late at night. Luna and Carl had left after getting dinner from Pete in exchange for bringing some groceries tomorrow.
Pete and his pokemon were lounging on top of the cliff near the forest's edge in case of an Ariados attack. The only human present was presently finishing the report on Klink he had promised the professor.
"Aaaand sent. Alright, let's do what I put off for way too long already," Pete murmured to himself as he took out a pen and some pieces of paper.
"If my death was anything to go by, I'm not good enough with computers to do this stealthily in a world with data come to life in the form of Porygon... so let's do it old-school."
Pete took out his notebook written in his native language last and browsed some sections to make sure he got everything he wanted to write. There were four letters he was going to send out. One to Courtney in Hoenn. One to Leon in Galar. One to Cynthia in Sinno. And finally, one to Professor Oak in Kanto.
For Oak, Pete wrote the most cryptic message to reveal as little about himself as possible. He gave the professor some leads on Team Rocket bases in Kanto and Johto as described some of the experiments they have likely started already like Dr Namba's Rage Crown that would lead to a destroyed town north of Viridian City in the future because a prototype was mishandled during transportation.
He also included a vague plot to Blackthorn City so that Professor Oak would seek out the current champion Lance, who was born there. Pete, however, did not mention that Giovanni was the current leader. All his vague insinuations would backfire if he 'knew' the identity of such a high-ranking leader.
For Leon, Pete barely wrote anything. Leon and Rose, the main villain of the game series taking place in that region, currently had a very good relationship. Rose was even the biggest reason Leon could become the champion as Rose was his biggest sponsor.
However, Pete did warn Leon that when something called "Dynamax" was introduced by Macro Cosmos, he should be vigilant and secretly investigate its source. Pete also told Leon to look out for Oleana and involve her in the investigation.
Who knew, maybe Pete played matchmaker between the two, they would certainly fit well together. Well, Pete didn't find anything on Oleana online yet, so maybe he was way too early for this piece of information. In that case, he would probably need to find Leon personally so that the world wouldn't be at the mercy of any god pokemon intervening in the awakening of Eternatus
When he wrote the letter for Cynthia, Pete wasn't quite sure what to write. Team Galactic, the main villainous organization running rampant in Sinnoh, was still just a small team in Sunyshore City under a different name. Cyrus, their leader, was a simple, very well-educated sociopath working in a repairshop for Silph Co.
It was only after he was asked to fix a certain black market item developed by Team Rocket that he would start his ambitions and only when he stumbled upon some hidden lore would he start his plan to wipe out the universe by enslaving any pokemon of the creation trio.
So, in the end, Pete revealed the existence of the lake guardians Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf. He asked Cynthia to look out for their well-being since these three were too naive despite being able to read minds.
For anything else, Pete would need to keep an eye open for news in Sinnoh and then maybe reveal himself to Cynthia by presenting her his 'research' to prevent the creation trio from stomping Sinnoh out of existence in anger.
And lastly, Pete got to the letter for Courtney. He decided to visit Hoenn soon to buy a pokeblock kit and tell Steven or Wallace, whoever was champion at that point, his 'worrying discoveries' in person.
Pete still didn't know why there were no blenders sold in Johto, so he would need to buy the berry blender in Hoenn or pay an absolute premium for no reason.
Courtney's backstory wasn't really covered in the games or anime, except for the fact that she was likely a pokemon contestant and possibly a friend of Gary Oak's older sister before becoming a Team Magma Admin.
In the backstory Pete wrote, Courtney was indeed a contestant but was banned from participating based on a scheme by Team Aqua Admin Matt, which she would eventually discover and join Team Magma to get back at them. In her time in Team Magma, she would become weirdly dependent on the team leader Maxie.
Maxie himself was a master manipulator who somehow convinced a whole group of peaceful environmentalists to release an ancient legendary pokemon under his sole control to increase the landmass of Hoenn.
Sure, by then he had seeded the organization with enough grunts and lowlives to do the dirty work and do sublte propaganda, but still. He still convinced all of them that would lead to a more peaceful region. The guy was clearly amazing at changing narratives and twisting facts.
But back to Courtney, who was coincidentally banned from pokemon contests on the same exact day that Pete was placed on this planet. Courtney right now should still live in the small apartment she had bought for herself, a very old Magmar from her late father, and a Numel she had found in the wild.
In a different life, she might have even become a fire type gym leader because the way Pete wrote her, she was very talented and had awakened her fire type affinity as a young girl.
'But what can I offer her that she couldn't get herself? A chance to move to another region from a stranger sounds super creepy... She lives in Rustboro City on the far west. Could I get her to catch some pokemon for me until or if I meet her? That's feasible, though she would still wonder why I didn't get the services of actual poachers. Would it be enough to tell her that I had heard about her fishy ban, liked her work ethic with pokemon, and wanted to offer her a chance at earning money by doing something that she would like?'
Pete was in deep thought for this last letter. All the plans he thought off before were thrown out when he was about to put them to paper because they all sounded like straight creepy stalker material written down in a letter to a stranger.
'Okay, think about what she could catch near Rustboro City so that I can keep my visit to Hoenn on the eastern border and have her meet me. Lotad, Roselia, and Shroomish are all somewhere around Rustboro and Petalburg City, right? What about Sewaddle and Cottonee? She would have the typing advantage over a Tropius, but are they really smart to have caught by a poacher for me? A Tropius is probably smart and freespirited to a degree that it would resent me for going about it like that...'
Eventually, Pete decided to give her the chance to catch the first five pokemon and listed a few of the rare pokemon living in Hoenn as a bonus. This letter would be the only one sent as a parcel together with a bunch of luxury balls he still had left over.
When Pete was done and gave Courtney a time and date for one month in the future in Lilycove City, Pete still felt like an idiot sending it over to Courtney like this with a box of free luxury balls. He didn't fear Team Rocket finding out about him through it, but he didn't even know Courtney and sent her a box worth about P$15.000 without actually knowing her.
In the end, he still decided to go through with sending it. He had a gut feeling that he would appreciate the outcome, and while money was still an issue in the short term, Pete felt like he didn't miss out on much by helping the young woman.
Worst case scenario, she will sell the items and use that money to move by herself, and Team Magma had one less capable trainer in their midst.
"Okay. That's that. Solosis, you and Zorua head to Goldenrod City tomorrow when Exeggutor dropped off Luna and Carl. Zorua, like we discussed, I want you to drop these off at the post office we saw there with the look of a random young boy. Can you two do that and come back on your own?"
Solosis had by now learned the move Teleport, but Pete feared that she didn't have enough reserves for both ways, that was why he arranged it like that.
Solosis agreed to the plan via telepathy with happy feelings. Zorua looked up with a yawn and nodded. He had trained too hard today and since it was almost dusk, the tricky fox was rather sleepy.
"Thank you two! Alright, everybody who wants to take a nap, do so now. I'll get one in as well, so don't be shy. Golurk, we'll rely on you to be our sentinel once more," Pete suggested to his whole team before giving the giant golem pokemon a sincere smile.
After packing away his things and taking a nap for a good three hours, Pete was woken by the earth below him shaking.
Pete quickly got up and looked around everywhere but saw no enemies. He looked to Golurk, his eyes drooping a little before asking his pokemon what that was about.
The answer he received in the form of pictures were a good 30 Ariados currently running toward them slowly but steadily on the ground from inside the forest. And if 30 of them were running on the ground, just how many of them were in the trees?
"Hey, Vileplumes, we got incoming!" Pete shouted before adressing his team, "everyone wake up. Put your game faces on!"
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Nuclide
Nuclide Ugh, this chapter was way too hard to write. I had to cross check every piece of lore so that I don't contradict anything and I'm still not sure about the timeline of it all... but realistically, timeline was the least of my worries as long as I don't accidentally use plot from the Legend Arceus games :D
Anyway, this won't be Pete's last warning to other professors/champions, but these were the ones I thought could be kinda urgent. Except for the Leon one probably...
Chương 42: C042 - The second battle for the meadow
Twice as many Ariados as the last attack arrived this time around. Pete felt his back sweating a little at that revelation.
Worst of all, at least to Pete as a human who wasn't the biggest fan of spiders, was the Ariados that was much, much bigger than the rest. Instead of having the size of a go-kart, this one was almost the size of a small car. He hadn't seen any pokemon with the so-called giant-gene yet, but he somehow doubted that was what he was seeing.
All pokemon species were slightly different from each other in that regard, but most bug pokemon shared that they did indeed grow with age. And if that was true, this Ariados was likely a decade or two old. Which meant it was powerful because as a pokemon species of predators, there was no way this Ariados survived constant hunting by being a weakling.
"Okay, team, get ready. Golurk and Nidoking, I want you as vanguard like we discussed. Keep up the Ponyta and Growlithe, I want you to power up Rapidash whenever her Flashfire ability cools off. Rapidash, only target groups. Your big moves will be needed early and especially on the flanks. Solosis, I want you to use Heal Pulse as often as you can the moment Nidoking and Golurk start taking damage," Pete ordered once more.
He had already explained the overall strategy to them since Jasmine and her pokemon weren't here, but it wouldn't hurt to do it again.
"Everyone, look alive. Keep in mind to come to me immediately in case you get poisoned. And Girafarig, try to use this fight to get the move Psybeam down. That should be the first step to you learning Twin Beam and evolving," Pete advised once more as everyone got into position.
Two massive Sandstorms were started and slowly enhanced each other as Golurk and Nidoking got closer to the spider pokemon slowly leaving the forest.
The Vileplume and Bellossom flanked both of them as they formed a defensive line with them to cover Pete and his other pokemon staying behind.
A few Ariados were fearless or simply impatient and started running toward the two biggest obstacles in front of them. But that turned out to be a huge mistake. Both pokemon had learned the move Rock Throw since the last fight and immediately smashed a couple of pokemon to death before the fight properly started.
Last fight, Golurk was still a Golett. But this time, he showed everyone how much power he had gained since two nights ago. Once an Ariados using Agility and Double Team got closer, Golurk showed the move Fire Punch which one-shot the Ariados and hurt several pokemon behind it by sheer force of the body crashing into them as well as the flames burning the pokemon.
The Ariados didn't get a chance to relax or replan, though, because the Fire Punch was the prelude to more fire. The fire move Inferno was a very low accuracy move in the games. The same is true for this world, but it simply had enough area of effect in this situation that Rapidash hit quite a few pokemon with this literal inferno of fire.
And then Growlithe and Ponyta hit the pokemon with a few Embers once more, so Rapidash unleashed a second Inferno on another side shortly after. After that, it was time for Rapidash to regain a bit of stamina and prepare for the next big attack.
They should have gotten a bit of time with Rapidash's brutal fire attacks, but the Ariados tribe was undeterred. The big one in the back simply ordered more pokemon to try and get through the defensive line, kill the back line, and then get rid of the pokemon fighting them from two sides.
Almost a dozen Ariados used Dig at the same time to get to Pete, but not even half of them reached the group and resurfaced on the other side because Golurk had stomped its foot to smash the sneaky pokemon under it into paste with Stomping Tantrum.
Its vastly superior ground affinity not only allowed Golurk to sense them using ground type energy below him but also overpower them and use the ground against them.
The four Ariados that did reach Pete and his group were in for a rude awakening. Three Farfetch'd teamed up to immediately take care of one of them, and with flying energy coated leeks, it was a short fight.
One Ariados was squished between two Miltank using Rollout and sandwiching the spider pokemon between them.
Then there were the two Minccino helped by Zorua, who all used multi-attack moves in quick succession, not giving the enemy Ariados any time for retalation.
That left the last Ariados who revealed himself closest to Pete. Blitzle ran at it and combined Horn Attack, which it was taught to by Rapidash, and Wild Charge.
The Ariados survived, but that was when two Timburr slapped its head with their two-by-fours in what looked like a very weak Brick Break, followed by two gears of Klink flying at it with the move Gear Grind where both Klink gears put the torso of the pokemon in a sort of vise.
If Pete didn't know any better, the Klink had combined the steel type move Gear Grind with Vise Grip, a normal type move. Which was a crazy thought because Klink was born this same day, but it already knew to not only combine moves but even moves with two different typings. Pete was also sure Gear Grind was one of the later moves it should learn, suggesting it was a more powerful steel move.
In that case, Klink turned out to be some kind of battle savant, just like Solosis. Pete doubted it was his suggestions, and his training disguised as playing that made his pokemon so powerful, so he got kind of lucky with all his pokemon so far.
The only pokemon to make a move yet were Sunkern and the Marill family, but that changed when the Ariados started attack the Vileplume head on.
One of the Marill used a clearly psychic move that Pete was sure it didn't learn from Girafarig or Solosis, which begged the question what that was. Was it Hidden Power? Why would a random Marill from some lake somewhere in the middle of nowhere know Hidden Power?
And then, the other Marill used Supersonic to confuse the Ariados into attacking each other. Pete was sure that was an egg move, too. What kind of pokemon bred to make these two Marill?
The fight went almost like the last one, and the Vileplume overwhelmed the enemy pokemon by combining Petal Blizzard on two flanks of the fight.
However, a good 80 Ariados, including the big one, had not yet joined the fight. When it looked like the spider pokemon sent to fight would not make it, the big Ariados screeched, and they all retreated to behind it. It made some noises towards Pete, his pokemon, and the Vileplume. From among them, the oldest Vileplume that Pete had met several times by now stepped forward. A few steps later, it looked to Pete and waved.
"Wait, we're negotiating? Already?"
Pete looked on in disbelief as Solosis gave him a confirmation in his mind and slowly flew forward herself.
"That's...way too easy, no? Either that's a scheme, or they'll demand something ridiculous," Pete mumbled as he followed Solosis. When he crossed Golurk and a panting Nidoking who had stopped using Sandstorm, the giant Golurk followed behind Pete silently as a guardian. Solosis threw a few more Heal Pulse on Nidoking for good measure as they passed.
The Ariados, if Pete could even judge the expression of such a pokemon, looked at him and Solosis with disdain. It was barely acknowledging their existence as it looked to the Vileplume and Golurk.
The Vileplume made some noises, and the Ariados responded as Solosis did her best to tell Pete what was happening.
'So the Vileplume had already asked for a ceasefire, and this tribe leader had come to see if they had the strength to even negotiate instead of being mere food trying to plea from their betters?'
As Solosis continued to explain, it was clear that even with the outcome of this fight, the Ariados tribe was reluctant to become moss farmers instead of eating fresh pokemon. And, all the deliberations ended in the Ariados wanting to decide the terms by trial of combat in a one-on-one duel.
Pete, as the one to want to start the talks for a ceasefire with the spider pokemon, was naturally the one who had to choose a fighter. The Vileplume had the natural disadvantage of not only fighting at night as grass pokemon but also the typing disadvantage of bug versus grass.
As Pete went over his options, he was sure Rapidash would be the best choice for the fight. But since the flaming unicorn didn't want to be a fighter as much as Nidoking did, Pete eventually settled on him. With ground/poison typing, he was more or less as good as immune to poison attacks and resistant to bug attacks. He knew rock and a single fire move for the typing advantage, and he had a trump card he could use only once to decide the fight.
"Alright. I agree to the one-on-one fight if you allow my fighter a five minute rest. After all he just fought while you watched your tribe lose," Pete demanded in a moment of rare bravado which he instantly regretted as the Ariados looked at him like a man would look when a fly lands on his food.
'Dear Arceus, was that the move Scary Face, or are they just naturally intimidating?'
Pete shivered a little as he went to Nidoking for a short pep-talk and some much needed berry supplements.
After feeding Nidoking an Oran, Leppa, and Lum Berry, Pete whispered some instructions to his Nidoking. The fire in his eyes for the chance to fight the tribe leader only ignited even brighter the more Nidoking listened to Pete.
"You got this, Nidoking. And remember to surrender if it's impossible. We don't know how powerful this pokemon is after all," Pete ordered once the five minutes were over.
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