Chương 47: C047 - Whitney's first visit to the farm
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..."
Chương 48: C048 - Plans upon plans after completing a plan
A few days later, it was time for Professor Elm's visit. Since the Meowth was out of the sack, Pete had discussed logistics with him a little, and the professor agreed to bring a few things he hadn't thought to bring before. Most important of all were his pokemon.
To get full research potential out of his TM, Professor Elm had ordered several TMs of every typing. And to round out what he is able to teach his pokemon who were eager to train, Pete had asked if the professor could bring some TMs with him.
Goldenrod's stores didn't have too much diversity in what they sold to the public, and Pete, who could have maybe asked Whitney but didn't, had no connections with Silph Co or Devon Corp at this point in time.
Pete's pokemon, at least some of them, had made sparring, and team-battles their go-to hobby if they weren't helping out on the farm. For that, they had even created a battlefield near the lake where Pete usually swam with his Milotic. Those battle-hungry pokemon of his were eager to get new sparring partners with the tribe leaders the professor was the trainer of. Jasmine's pokemon were no exception to that.
For battle pokemon that would likely accompany him on his trips to other regions, Nidoking was the clear leader. The three Farfetch'd and surprisingly the shiny Miltank were close behind, but all four of them were rather young Pete had deduced in his time spent with them.
His shiny Duosion was, of course, exluded from the list because no matter what, Duosion would accompany Pete. His first pokemon in this world had only ever grown closer to him since her training bore fruit, and she learned almost every typing all of his pokemon were capable of. So far only dark and dragon type energy eluded her.
Sunflora used to have a very apparent drive to become stronger for a short while, but that more or less stopped with his evolution just as quickly. Now, he was simply content with tending to Pete's berry trees, using Life Dew on his vegetable beds, and socializing with the Glooms, Vileplumes, and Bellossoms.
But there was still a grass pokemon in Pete's team that was more than eager to battle: Snivy. Frustrated with his inability to learn Dragon Claw, it had surprisingly taught itself the dragon move Twister two days after having 'learned' the TM.
Only very few pokemon of his were able to figure out how to use dragon type energy through the TM. Those who did got a few tips from Pete on how to form moves with it. He described the moves Dragon Breath and Dragon Pulse to them, as well as Dragon Rush and Dragon Tail with the Breaking Swipe variant.
The Milotic were the only ones making any progress with it, but it was still too early to tell. Especially since Snivy would probably figure out even more moves the moment he evolved.
The Marill, no it should be Azumarill, the Azumarill family would likely also want to tag along, if only for the fact they would love to see the world. That might also be true to Zorua and the two Minccino, but they had recently started competing in who would build the more comfortable nest with the towels and pillows Luna had brought when she finished the interior design for Pete.
Speaking of that, yesterday was the day the rush order for the sky light glasses from Cianwood finally arrived, and Luna and Carl had finished the house in record time.
Well, it would have been record time in Pete's old world, but with pokemon and some miraculous items, it wasn't unheard of to build a two bedroom house in less than four days.
Instead, they had finished a one master bedroom, two bathroom, and four guest room house with a giant open kitchen and a study/lab above it in a glass dome in a good week as promised. And, Pete already had plans to increase the size of it all.
It wasn't strictly an extension of the house, but he would start building a sort of stable with his own hands and the help of his pokemon soon. A stable that would lead to a big warehouse-esque room inside the hill, same as with Herbert's company, and would be connected to the hallway of his house.
Winter didn't really lead to snow and frost in the climate of the Evergreen Meadow, but some of his pokemon would likely still prefer to have shelter from the cold and rain of the winter time.
Did he want an outdoor bath or even hotspring mayb-
"What are you thinking about?"
Jasmine's voice roused Pete from his musings. Right at this moment, he was on the first floor of the glass dome at his work desk, but no reports or other files were open on it or the tablet sitting in his lap. Clearly, Pete was just sitting here.
"Hmm? Oh, it's just with the house done there's still so much to do! I was thinking about what to prioritize," Pete answered with a warm smile as he faced the young gym-trainer-to-be.
"Oh? How high on the list is helping my sister get a Milotic?" Jasmine asked with a wide grin.
"Ugh! I don't know if there are other Feebas in the lake just yet. I still can't believe your sister thought it was a good idea to start with an insult and then offer to make them prettier. Those two Feebas looked so heartbroken as they fled the shore," Pete responded with an exasperated sigh.
"Can't your Milotic call them over again? I feel like they would listen to them. And Sophie could try her tactic again, this time start out with her offer because she already said the hurtful words," Jasmine offered while surpressing her snicker.
"Yeah, can't hurt to try... let's hope she is convincing," Pete relented as he picked up a bag and placed his tablet inside.
"Let's go grab your sister."
An hour later, Pete and Jasmine were watching Sophie stand in the lake in a bikini, anxiously waiting for Pete's Milotic to come back. Growlithe was on Pete's lap, getting her fur brushed with a blissful expression on her face.
"What do you think her chances are?" Pete asked in a quiet voice to not disturb Growlithe's relaxed mood.
"Pretty good. She told me her game plan just now, and I think it could work," Jasmine whispered back.
Eventually, the two Milotic popped out of the water with two Feebas following behind.
"Ah! There you two are! Wa- WAIT! Don't flee again! Please let me finish my point from before! I'm so sorry for being so insulting the other day," Sophie pleaded as the two Feebas turned tearful at seeing Sophie's face and were about to spin around and swim away.
"Look at me, I'm really pretty, right? That's because I hold the secrets to becoming pretty!" Sophie continued as the Feebas stayed behind reluctantly.
Pete looked to Jasmine as if asking if Sophie was serious, but Jasmine, her identical twin, just kept looking ahead with a slight blush on her face for the shameless proclamation of her sister. She didn't dare to face Pete after she had told him she approved of her sisters chances after hearing her plan.
"You see, come closer, and I'll share that secret with you two. The two Milotic next to you, I can make you just as pretty as them," Sophie offered with a conspiratorial grin.
The two Feebas looked at each other and then to the two super pretty Milotic in envy. As if deciding that their life wasn't worth much if they don't get prettier now, they swam forward to Sophie with determination blazing in their eyes.
"Yes, yes! Come to me, my pretties," Sophie mumbled with a crazed expression on her face, but she quickly composed herself when she heard her sister's cough.
Sophie proceeded to take out a make-up kit with waterproof colors as well as some berries she had gotten from Pete's farm and started to paint on the two unsuspecting fish pokemon and feed them some more 'beautifying berries'.
Pete kind of wished he was anywhere but here as he saw a hideous Feebas becoming even uglier with bright pink eye-shadow and cherry red lipstick. The two of them looked like clowns in his opinion, but then Sophie's plan fell in place.
She whispered into the ears of one Feebas, and it looked to the other painted Feebas in shock before it started to evolve with a mirthful smile on its face.
Sophie turned to the other and whispered something in its ears, too, before it started evolving with an astonished look.
Pete got the entire process on camera, proving once and for all that Feebas evolved into Milotic. But he still had to ask Sophie how she did it. Later, he would cut out that part of the video and make something up in his report.
"What did you tell them, Sophie?" Pete asked as he walked forward to Sophie into knee-high water.
"Huh? Oh, the first one I told that I made sure it was prettier than the other, so I gave it ugly makeup and made his extra pretty. For the second one, I told it that it was painted in the same pretty makeup as the other one, and it was so pretty that it instantly evolved. The second one would either evolve with it or look at me as if I was stupid," Sophie whispered back so the evolving Feebas wouldn't hear it.
"Wow, that's... kinda mean, just like your first try," Pete responded in a low voice with a deadpan expression.
"Ugh, I know! I don't think they'd have given me a second try, though, so I was desperate," Sophie admitted with an embarrassed expression.
"Well, you still have to convince them to stick with you. Any other manipulations planned for that?"
Sophie looked at Pete with a pout, but then Pete sensed something and looked back to the beach. Someone was teleporting here.
"Oh my! We came a minute too late! Pete stop pointing the camera in our direction, get it all on video!" Professor Elm shouted from the shore with Vivian, who had their son Benny on her arm.
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