"You met Celebi? Really?"
Jasmine and Pete were eating breakfast an hour before noon after their late encounter. Jasmine had just woken up and sat down in front of Pete.
"Yeah, it told me that it approved of my plan and wished me good luck with 'bringing more life to the meadow'. It was surreal, especially because it spoke to me in my thoughts with words," Pete responded with a far-away look.
"You're the first person I know that talked to an actual legendary pokemon," Jasmine mumbled with stars in her eyes. "Too bad I slept through it, though."
"I mean, you were asleep very suddenly, I kinda think that was Celebi's doing."
"So it only wanted to meet you... I guess that makes sense," Jasmine said with a quiet sigh.
"It still left a gift with your Turtwig. Have you tried to communicate with her yet?"
"Nope. What kind of gift are you talking about?"
"Well, all pokemon were drowsy or asleep, same as you as Celebi flew out of the forest, even Golurk. But all my grass and psychic pokemon, including your Turtwig, were wide awake and brimming with energy. Since those are its two typings, I think it imparted them something," Pete tried to explain.
"Impart? Like what?"
"I haven't finished talking to them all, but Solosis said Celebi demonstrated the move Future Sight to her, like a real TM. Not actual divination or time magic, but a move that deals a lot of damage in a certain area based on a prediction of where the enemy is going to be. Girafarig mentioned to me that her training with psychic energy is a lot smoother now. Maybe Celebi raised her affinity?" Pete started to describe the boons his pokemon received from Celebi.
"And the grass types?" Jasmine asked with an incredulous expression.
"Most of them got the same treatment as Girafarig, I think, just with grass type energy. Except for Sunkern. He showed me a water type move earlier... I have a sneaking suspicion it was Life Dew, a crazy overpowered healing move. His version of the move barely did anything except for scattering a few drops of water that simply smelled very fresh... and Sunkern immediately went to sleep once more when he was done. But it's crazy that he learned it with a single... training memory... by Celebi, not even Solosis pulled that off with Future Sight, and she is kind of a genius. And the weirdest thing, too. I don't think Sunkern and Sunflora should be able to learn water type moves," Pete finished explaining with furrowed brows.
"Sounds like you've found yet another topic for a research paper for Professor Elm?" Jasmine asked in a curious voice.
"Ha, yeah. Honestly, it really does. Who knows, maybe Snivy will surprise us all and show us Ancient Power. I think Celebi might know it, but the Snivy line doesn't usually get access to rock type energy either," Pete joked with a wry smile.
During their very late breakfast, Sophie and the construction crew joined the two, and the day started once more. Carl, Machamp, and the Machokes were about to finish the roof.
Meanwhile Luna, her Lairon, and Magneton finished the wiring. In a surprise twist that Pete did not expect, the Machops were building the furniture Pete and Luna had chosen for the house that the crew brought with them today.
The smart fighting type pokemon were clever and dexterous enough to actually screw together kitchen cabinets, two big wardrobes, and various other furniture. Pete's Timburr wanted to help, but one broken door hinge later, the two eager pokemon were relegated to moving duty. Only when the pieces of furniture were structurally sound were they allowed to pick them up and place them in the rooms.
When Luna was done installing all the lighting that in the end was still missing the glass finish from Cianwood City, Pete joined her to install the kitchen. The counters were in the familiar granite-wood that Pete had already used for the raised vegetable beds, though these pieces were in much higher quality.
They were done just in time... well, they were a little late for lunch. Using his kitchen for the first time, Pete worked up quite a sweat with Growlithe's help who has asked to replace Rapidash in the kitchen for today to train her fire energy control.
And it worked just fine, but the much less refined control meant the kitchen became much hotter than usual, and together with helping out building the kitchen, Pete had worked up quite the sweat.
After eating his lunch on the patio facing the lake, Pete went exactly there for a refreshing dip. Sophie and Jasmine stayed behind to decorate one of the guest rooms they had more or less claimed permanently, which Pete was okay with.
Dressing down to his swimming trunks, he already got quite the mileage out of, Pete relaxed with all the pokemon that followed him. Eventually, they were joined by four Feebas, in which the one that ate the Prismatic Scale was included.
Pete once more did his routine of complimenting them in his hopes to get a Milotic lake guardian to ensure the lake's safety. But when he asked Solosis to float over his bag, Pete found a problem.
"I'm out of berries? Uh, I want to say how 'did this happen...' but we've kinda used up more than ten to twenty berries a day since coming here, didn't we?"
Pete scratched the back of his head as he looked to his pokemon. Solosis showed him an amused expression but made him picture his 'heart tree' as he had decided to name it.
The first tree that Pete had tried grafting on in this world and received a blessing from the Vileplume when it was planted did carry berries already. Pete wasn't quite sure when they would ripen. He was sure, though, that it wasn't far off.
Still, this put a damper in his plan to feed the Feebas and further befriend them.
"Sorry, boys and girls. There's no berries for today. Maybe tomorrow? Surely you four can miss a day of eating these beautifying berries. You are all already the prettiest Feebas I know," Pete praised without shame.
Technically, these four were the only Feebas he knew, so they really were the prettiest Feebas he had ever seen. The ugliest, too, but don't let them hear it.
"Wait a moment, I might have another gift for you," Pete pitched to the fish pokemon as he searched for another scale in his bag.
The containers at the start of his journey in the world held a little box with three of these scales, after all.
"This pretty scale here is the for the one amongst you that thinks he or she is the prettiest," Pete offered.
He was trying to trick these Feebas into thinking they are beautiful on their own with word play since simple compliments didn't seem to work.
The Feebas all looked to each other in a competitive staredown, but two Feebas quickly looked down, all depressed. The other two looked to each other and, not willing to lose out, both of them swam forward. One of them was the Feebas that had already swallowed a scale a few days before.
When they swam forward with conviction burning in their eyes, it finally happened. Both Feebas were enveloped in a bright light and slowly began getting longer and longer for their evolution.
Pete cursed himself as he fumbled to get the thankfully waterproof tablet out to record the evolution. The beginning wasn't in the video, but with the proof of two non-evolved Feebas nearby, Pete finally had video-confirmation that Milotic was indeed the evolution of Feebas. He had talked to Professor Elm about it, and the professor actually hadn't heard about this little tid-bit ever.
"Wow, you two look even prettier now. This scale pales in comparison!" Pete once more praised, though very sincerely this time around, as he packed the prismatic scale back in his bag sneakily.
The two Milotic looked to each other before turning to Pete and slowly swimming toward him to curl around the assistant professor for a sort of hug.
"Can I trust the two of you to keep this lake safe? I read somewhere that Milotic are mythical lake guardians who bring peace and tranquility to any lake they choose to live in. I'd sleep much calmer if I knew you two are up to the task," Pete inquired with a warm smile as he brushed the red... what were they? Eyebrow fins? Scaled, floppy dog ears?
Well, one Milotic had much longer red eyebrow fin dog ears as the other, so Pete deduced that one was female, while the other one was male.
Instead of answering him, the two pokemon actually instantly opened up a bond to him that made a tingle run down his spine. A fourth affinity was awoken in Pete, water. He really was the ideal farmer in this world.
Just as Pete wanted to offer teaching the two Milotic some TMs to broaden their move pool and force Sunkern over to teach the two water pokemon the move Life Dew, a shout was heard.
"PETE!" Sophie sounded panicked, and Pete feared for the worst. With a gentle but hurried touch, the two Milotic released him from the hug they had enveloped him in, and he turned to face Sophie.
"Sophie, calm down. What is it?" Pete asked in a hurry as he swiftly ran to land. But Sophie didn't answer and just look to the two Milotic with an open mouth.
"Hey, Sophie! Answer! It sounded urgent!" Pete saw Jasmine run over with Steelix following closely behind since she heard Sophie's shout, too.
"Uhhh... I... I thought some pokemon attacked you," Sophie shily answered with a slight blush.
"Soph, what happened?" Jasmine asked while taking deep breaths from running over. She looked left and right until her eyesight fell on the two Milotic, and she stiffened.
Before nightfall, the first bathroom and most of the rooms of the house were finished. Some decorations, the lighting panels, the second bathroom and the finishing touches of the two-story glass dome with Pete's future lab and study were still missing, but Luna and Carl assured Pete before leaving that they would be finished with his house tomorrow.
Seeing as the house was now liveable, Sophie decided to spend her first night in the meadow, too. Before, she didn't want to intrude in on the 'tent life' that Jasmine and Pete shared, and it really wasn't for her either.
And the night before that, Sophie had an appointment in Goldenrod City and decided it was safer to be already there, in the hotel.
The two Milotic had followed Pete up the house earlier in the day so that they could both learn TM moves and they also topped off the watertank. Pete had enjoyed a nice warm shower and a comforting, stressfree sleep in his new home for the first time that night.
Almost a full week later, Luna and Carl arrived with the remaining glass panels from Cianwood City to install the completed fake sky light system, and they brought an extra guest with them, Whitney.
A lot has happened this past week. The Vileplume and especially the Bellossom were spread all over Pete's farm and constantly used Grassy Terrain as they hung out in the sun and enjoyed the pristine sunlight in the meadow. That lead to most of his vegetables being ready for a first harvest in record speed, as well as Pete being able to get berries from the 'heart tree' he had planted in front of his house.
So far, they seemed to have the same effect as the their regular 'look-alikes' despite all growing on the same Oran Berry tree, but Pete noticed very faintly that they might all share the healing, nurturing Oran Berry effect despite being different kinds of berries. He needed to absolutely observe this in the future.
For his pokemon, Pete was quite astonished to note down some evolutions. With Celebi's blessing, it was no wonder that Girafarig quickly got the psychic move Twin Beam down when she concentrated on it for a few days. She had learned Psy Beam during the last fight with the Ariados, so it was only a matter of time.
Weirdly enough, the tail head that was missing the eye moved up the Farigiraf's neck and formed a sort of 'hoodie' over the pokemon's head, and it was still missing that eye. Pete would have thought the evolution would fix it, but that wasn't the case.
Professor Elm was intrigued, too, and had asked Pete to write notes and observations down for him. Same as his wife, he also mentioned the surprise visit in a few days but asked Pete not to tell Vivian that he spilled the beans. Naturally, Pete agreed while inwardly laughing at the antics of the married couple.
The next evolutions were the two Marill parents who had learned Life Dew suspiciously fast before evolving to Azumarill in a rare double evolution at the exact same time.
Watching them with longing eyes was Solosis. Pete was sure the evolution of all his newly hatched pokemon would take quite some time, but Solosis evolved into Duosion the same day.
Professor Elm actually cursed in the live video chat at the time and promised he will move the visit up by a day when he saw through the blinding light of the evolution that Solosis from inside her skin-sack actually split in two before fusing into one pokemon once more. His theory about the pokemon having two brains was likely true.
And just the day before, Sunkern, for the first time, didn't simply hang out in the meadow to enjoy the sun, but asked Pete to use a Sun Stone on him. Pete had since read up that Sunkern, as weak as they were, usually had a shorter time before evolving, so he agreed to the request and was now the trainer of a Sunflora. The newfound smile as the sun pokemon waddled along the orchard among the Vileplume and Bellossom and cast Sunny Day every so often was truly infectious.
Three more eggs have hatched, too. Trapinch, Eevee, and one of the Miltank eggs have joined the pokemon on his farm. No shinies, sadly, but the odds were never in his favor with how lucky he had gotten in the past weeks.
That left Pete with one Miltank egg and two Oddish eggs the Vileplume had given him to fill up the incubators before he was done hatching eggs for the first time since coming to this world.
Coming back to the day of Whitney's visit.
Whitney, surrounded by her Miltank, a father and daughter pair of Girafarig, a Clefable and a young Lickitung that only joined her recently, walked all over the farm with glittering eyes.
She had asked Pete for the 'favor' he owed her, so Pete called over Nidoking and Rapidash so they could show off Hyper Beam and explain it to the gym leader's pokemon. His two Milotic joined as they were taught the move through TM the other day but didn't get to use it yet.
The older Girafarig, however, was pulled aside with his daughter so that Pete's Farigiraf could explain Twin Beam to the pokemon. Pete still needed definite proof that the evolution after knowing Twin Beam wasn't a fluke after all.
"Suddenly, I'm feeling I didn't bring enough compensation," Whitney mumbled with red cheeks as she watched the exotic pokemon teach her two Girafarig a move previously unknown for an undocumented evolution.
"Huh? Didn't you already pretty much pay for my house? As far as I'm concerned, we're even," Pete waved off. Luna had by now told Pete that Whitney did a little more than pay the P$280.000 down-payment, she had also pretty much sprung for all the expensive furniture Pete had chosen and used personal connections to speed up the delivery processes. All materials and pieces of furniture were of the highest quality.
"Money is a tacky gift. I have always wanted to do more. Hyper Beam is, after all, way too precious," Whitney stubbornly argued as she pulled out a stack of TM CDs from her bag.
"My uncle, during his time as gym leader, recorded quite a lot of TMs for Silph Co and always asked for his own copies. These are some of the more rare moves you don't usually find in stores. Especially 'Hidden Power'. My uncle told me that it was the hardest move to make a TM out of among all the TMs he had created," Whitney said as she handed over the five TM CDs.
"Hidden Power, Rest, Dig, Surf, and... wait, you're seriously giving me a TM of Dragon Claw? Aren't dragon type move TMs super rare? Shouldn't this alone more than pay for an afternoon of Hyper Beam demonstrations?" Pete asked with a weirded out expression as he read the labels on the TMs.
"Hmph! You may think me shallow and brash, but I felt bad about how I got this opportunity from a new acquaintance. I realised I may have been fast friends with the twins, but you don't owe me anything," Whitney spoke confidently but with a bright blush.
"Okay... I mean, don't worry, I didn't think that at all. But wasn't your uncle a normal type gym leader, same as you? None of these moves are normal type moves. You could argue Hidden Power is, maybe," Pete inquired with a raised brow as he mumbled the last sentence.
"Well, these were all moves my uncle's pokemon knew. Versatility is what I like most about my cute pokemon anyway," Whitney replied with a shrug and brought the conversation to a short stop.
He would accept the TMs now because three of them were TMs for typings he couldn't yet teach with TMs. His pokemon were doing a good job helping each other out in that regard, but it wouldn't hurt to teach new moves through some TMs to broaden their foundations.
"Pete, I decided I want to raise a pokemon," Sophie spoke as she walked closer to the two who were watching their pokemon train with determined steps.
"Uh, okay?"
"Yeah, I was wondering if you could show me how you got those ugly Feebas to evolve into those super pretty Milotic!"
"You sure? I get that they are very pretty, but you didn't strike me as someone who wanted to be a pokemon trainer."
"But you don't get it! If I want to work in fashion, having a pokemon as pretty as that would make it so much easier to get my career going," Sophie argued.
"You want to raise your pokemon as a fashion statement?" Pete furrowed his brows. He did not see much hope for Milotic to be happy and stay with her if that was true.
"Of course not! Ugh, how do I explain this... Some of your pokemon like the Minccino, Eevee and Growlithe are super, super cute, right?"
Whitney nodded with a weirdly serious glint in her eyes at Sophie's try to explain.
"But I don't want cute, I don't even want powerful. I want a pretty pokemon! And no pokemon I've ever seen is as pretty as your two Milotic," Sophie finished.
"You'll have to take good care of it every day, though. A Milotic is very powerful. It could hurt you if you're a bad trainer. It could even simply walk away if it's unsatisfied," Pete explained unsurely.
"That's what my sis and I talked about the whole week. We researched how to best take care of a Milotic! I've been the one to take care of her Corsola these days in preparation. The cutey was down a little anyway because she didn't fit in with the new ground pokemon sis decided to raise. Maybe... uh maybe I'll take care of Corsola and Milotic both so they have each other," Sophie answered with a fluster.
"Uh, sure. Let's wait until my two Milotic are done with the training and have them call over some Feebas. You see, to get them to evolve, I had to..."
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