章節 18: 7-8
Leo woke to the sound and smell of something cooking. The heavenly aroma had him salivating even before he sat bolt upright in bed – and when did he move into the bed? Last he remembered he was on the floor – eyes wide open and searching for the food being cooked. It only dawned on him after he locked eyes with the other inhabitant of the cabin that someone had to be cooking the food.
"Glad to see you're alive," the woman said gruffly, raising one eyebrow at him as she stirred whatever was in the skillet she was holding, the mix of veggies and meat tossing grease and flavor into the air. Leo could practically taste it with his eyes, though the fact he had finally met another person took immediate precedence.
"Um," was Leo's eloquent response as he took in the sight of another human being. She was tall and muscular, with long brown hair pulled into a rough ponytail and wearing a black t-shirt that showed off the whipcord strength in her arms. A furrett lay draped across her shoulders like a living scarf, its beady black eyes watching Leo as the woman focused on what she was cooking, eyes facing front. A fire crackled in the metal oven, not the fireplace, and filled the small cabin with a steamy warmth.
"You're a smart brat, you know that? Mew knows why you're all the way out here but you would've died had you not gotten that fire started…and curled up with all those blankets, and your slowpoke." she continued, removing the pan from the heat, setting it to the side and fixing Leo with a stare that spoke volumes as to what she was thinking. Her almost charcoal-colored eyes bored straight into Leo, and he just smiled at her.
"Thank you, but I probably would've died had that absol not shown me to the cabin," Leo said, scratching the back of his neck and kicking off the mess of blankets covering him. Sunlight filtered in through the cabin window, and Leo took a deep breath.
"You know what an absol is?" she asked.
"White furred, scythe for a horn, and a canine? Said to herald disasters, but came to warn me of one? Yes, I know what an absol is," Leo said, raising one eyebrow at her.
"Well that explains some things at least," the woman murmured, scratching the furrett behind the ears and making it coo in response. "I'd been tracking a non-native species through the mountains for a few days now, and imagine my surprise when the tracks of a young human join up with it. Followed them here and arrived an…hour or two after the snowstorm hit? Pokemon tracks vanished off into the night, not that I was going much further in a snowstorm, and you were sleeping in front of the fire. But an absol, of all bloody things…what on earth convinced you to follow an absol?" she demanded.
"It led me here," Leo said, furrowing his brows in confusion. "There was a snowstorm coming, I'm shirtless and had no supplies, and figured I had to try something to survive. The absol seemed to want me to follow it, so I did," the woman nodded, folding her arms and smiling when Leo's eyes darted to the still-sizzling pan of food.
"Well, we can talk details later. First, it looks like you need to eat," she said, and Leo couldn't agree more, ignoring the aching of his limbs as he leapt to his feet and sought food.
He demolished the entirety of the food she had prepared in record time, inhaling the divine goodness that was salt and pepper – sprinkled over the mess of veggies and diced meat liberally – and swearing up and down that it was the greatest thing he'd ever tasted. The woman – who named herself as Victoria – only laughed and told him to try it again after he'd eaten real food for a while. "Everything tastes better in the wild," she said, which while Leo could confirm that, he didn't much care. She apparently was not famous for her cooking, a joke which had Leo coughing on his food while he struggled not to laugh.
"So, what's a kid like you doing out here anyway?" Victoria asked, seating herself on the floor while she watched Leo run his finger on the plate he had been given, determined to get every last drop of flavor. It beat everything he'd eaten so far – unseasoned foodstuff was bland.
"Dunno, fell through a hole in the sky," Leo answered before he could even think. Victoria blinked at him.
"What?" She asked.
"I don't know," Leo clarified, looking up at her. "Got lost, I guess. Something like that anyway – I just…woke up and found myself in the middle of a slowpoke herd,"
"Really," Victoria said deadpan, raising her eyebrows at Leo and not masking her disbelief.
"Really. The truth is stranger than fiction, I promise," Leo countered, setting his plate to the side and scratching the head of the still-sleeping slowpoke as it lay curled up at the foot of the bed.
"And how long have you been out here?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Months," Leo replied. At this, Victoria whistled but didn't look overly surprised. Leo supposed he looked the part of a wild child – his hair was long and undoubtedly greasy, and his clothes might as well be made of dirt and mud at this point. Her eyes lingered on the scars on his chest – leftover from the sneasel attack. They were thin and small, nothing to truly be concerned about, and Leo hadn't given the fact that they had scarred much thought.
"…where are your parents?" she asked after a moment, looking back up to meet Leo's eyes. He frowned and shook his head, barely registering the dull throb of his heart when he thought of his parents. He'd…never see them again, and he'd had how many months to dull that ache? He didn't even know anymore, but Leo supposed it was a blessing in disguise that he'd been so preoccupied with survival that he hadn't really had time to mourn the loss of his old world, and everything in it.
"I see," Victoria said, falling silent. Leo half expected to hear her attempt comforting words, or pry deeper into the situation but she remained silent. He was almost glad for it, considering how hollow those words would have sounded to him – and didn't that thought surprise him. For some reason Leo thought he had taken being shoved into another world better, but maybe he had just put those thoughts on the backburner, and now that he was in the presence of another person, arguably safe now, they were coming to the front.
Thoughts for later.
"I was on a mission to track that absol – didn't know it was an absol until now, so thanks for that – but I'm pretty sure this takes priority. C'mon, kid. I'll take you to the nearest police station, they'll know what to do with you," Victoria said suddenly, standing up and dusting off her green cargo-pants legs, the furrett squeaking in protest as it was jostled out of its position and leapt to the floor with a thud.
"Now? Didn't it just snow?" Leo asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She laughed and threw open the cabin door, revealing the world painted in white…or so Leo expected. There had to have been at least four inches of snow on the ground at some point, and it was still visible in the drifts that formed near trees and boulders, but the sun was shining bright and the snow was already starting to melt off. Some patches of ground were even bare now, if a little muddy.
"Late-summer snows aren't that uncommon in the Silver Mountains, kid. It's already sixty degrees outside, and the snow will be melted off by nightfall," she explained, grabbing a red jacket from where it lay crumpled on the floor and tossing it to Leo, but not before taking a handful of red and white orbs out of the pockets, sticking them into her pants pockets. "Wear that, since you don't have a shirt. It'll keep the wind off,"
"Uh, thanks," Leo muttered, fanning out the jacket and scanning it momentarily. It was plain, a simple red jacket made of a thick, demin-like material that he quickly struggled on. It was too big, the sleeves dwarfed his arms, but Leo was at least glad he had something to wear again.
"Bran here will get us to the nearest town in just a few hours, so jump on and hang on tight," Victoria said, pulling one faded pokeball from her pocket and releasing a three-headed bird in a flash of red light. Leo blinked, awestruck by the sight of a pokemon materializing before him for the first time. The dodrio cawed sharply, two of the three heads pecking at the middle one before Victoria snapped her fingers, the sharp sound immediately gaining the attention of all of its heads. "Behave yourself," she chided, brushing a hand against the dodrio's flank and glancing back, smirking.
Leo tried, and failed, to wipe the gobsmacked look off his face. That big bird – easily six feet tall – had just appeared out of thin air, and it looked much cooler than in the games. Much like a three-headed ostrich, but meaner and with far longer and sharper beaks, and feathers the color the rich brown chocolate. As much as he had known academically that this would happen, he still wasn't prepared for it.
"You want me to ride him?" Leo asked rhetorically, meeting the gaze of all three of the dodrio's heads. The middle head snapped its beak at him irritably, and he took a calm, not-at-all intimidated step back.
"Like I said, Bran should be able to get us to town in just a few hours," Victoria said, amusement clear in her voice as she casually smacked the beak of the middle head. "So just come here, hop on, and let's go,"
"Let me grab my stuff at least," Leo protested, glancing back into the cabin to look at his backpack and the sleeping slowpoke.
"Hurry up then," Victoria said impatiently, waving Leo forward. After a brief moment Leo scrambled, darting into and about the cabin as he picked up his scattered supplies. Apparently in his exhausted haze he didn't have the presence of mind to keep most of his backpack together, so it was all over the place. Thankfully Archibald's book was still where it was supposed to be though.
Once he darted out of the cabin, slowpoke strapped into his backpack once more and shoes crunching the snow underfoot, Victoria grabbed him by the collar and bodily hauled him onto the back of Bran, the dodrio hardly even flinching at Leo's weight. Said boy briefly scowled at the casual reminder of how small he was now, but that was shoved out of his head when Victoria patted Bran's side, the three-headed bird crouching slightly to allow her on behind him.
"Um, no saddle? Can Bran carry both of us?" Leo asked, placing his hands in the spaces between the dodrio's three necks to brace himself as it rose back to full height. Victoria wrapped one arm around his waist as she shifted behind him.
"Nah, no need for a saddle. You weigh hardly anything, and Bran here's a big boy. He can take it," she said gruffly, whistling sharply. Bran lurched forward with a shriek, a caw, and a coo as the third head turned around and pecked affectionately at Victoria, who batted the head away. Leo bounced up and down a bit as Bran worked up speed, a relatively warm wind brushing through Leo's hair as it bound through the river valley, leaping clear over large boulders and bushes.
Leo laughed aloud, any hesitation vanishing and replaced by a manic grin as the dodrio sprinted down the length of the river. This was, undeniably, fun.
Leo was starting to get annoyed. The first day had been a blur – Victoria had got him to town, he'd checked in with the police station and at the small clinic built in the small mountain town, he'd been given some actual clothes even if they were hand-me-downs from the station lost-and-found, and then he'd eaten a hamburger. He didn't even know what kind of meat it was, but he had inhaled that thing quicker than he could breathe in, fries and all. It was divine, and heavenly, and Leo had almost swooned. That had been the highlight of his day beyond, you know, arriving in a town and taking a shower.
He had to have spent at least an hour, just letting the hot water run over him. It was nice, having modern amenities again. Lights at night so he could do things other than sleep or fiddle with sticks in the firelight, and air-conditioning during the day so he didn't get too hot…yes, it was nice. Too bad he didn't have any money so he could buy food. He wanted sweets, so freaking bad.
Later the police had allowed him to spend the night in the clinic – which he abhorred, sleeping in an uncomfortable cot-like bed while surrounded by the unnaturally sterile scents of the clinic, though it was better than his pine-needle bed – after which followed today. The day Leo told them his story, and about finding Archibald Oak's journal.
He hadn't been expecting the upset that would cause. At first the police hadn't believed him, but when he showed them the book and essentially proved that it was the ex-champion's journal they got real excited real quick. They grilled him over his story for hours, and when the media somehow caught wind of the entire thing…well, that led to his current situation, where he stuck to his room in the clinic more to hide from reporters and more questions than for any other reason.
"I regret even mentioning this stupid book," Leo grumbled, rubbing his forehead to fight off the budding headache as he sat on the clinic bed. He had forgotten how tiring people could be.
"Well, I wouldn't have been able to warn you against it really," Victoria said from where she stood next to the clinic room door, her furrett curled up around her feet. "Honestly I didn't expect you to be hiding this kind of secret. But I suppose it's to be expected – finding the journal of an ex-champion is a big deal, kid,"
"You don't say," Leo drawled, fixing Victoria with a dry look. She had been the first human contact he had ever received in this world, and Leo was just glad she had stuck around. Even if it was, in her own words, until he was dealt with. Something about her duty? Leo wasn't sure, though he'd had a grand old time going tit-for-tat with her. She was a sarcastic jerk, just like him!
"Well, the best is yet to come," Victoria said cryptically, pushing herself off the wall and stretching, her back popping audibly.
"Joy," Leo muttered, holding his head in his hands. After a brief moment a thought occurred to him, and Leo looked up. "Let me guess, Professor Oak himself is coming to verify whether or not the journal is his father's," thankfully it had been confirmed earlier that Archibald had, in fact, been the father of Samuel Oak, just like Leo had suspected.
As if on cue the door clicked open and in walked a clean-shaven man with greying hair and wearing a thick brown jacket. His eyes traced the room quickly, settling on Victoria. A smile split his face as he stepped forward, extending a hand for her to shake.
"Ah, Victoria! It is good to see you again. How goes the training?" the older gentleman asked. The younger woman smiled at him and shook his hand genially, her bicep bulging as she squeezed his hand tightly. To the man's credit, however, he didn't even flinch which immediately gave Leo respect for the man. Victoria's grip was no joke.
"Well enough I suppose, so long as I don't keep getting interrupted. How have you been, Professor?" Victoria asked, and Leo's eyes widened as he fixated a stare at the older man, who he could only assume was Professor Oak. Now that he looked…he still couldn't quite make out the resemblance from the anime. He was much younger, for one, and his hair hadn't quite gone fully grey yet. His brown hair was peppered with grey streaks, true, but it wasn't all grey yet and, for another thing, it was hard to replace a real person with a cartoon character.
"Well enough, I suppose. Not what I was expecting to be doing today, but I suppose I can't complain about it. Still had to wrap up a few things before I hopped on Mizuchi, my dragonite, but I got here quick as I could," he said, releasing Victoria's hand and turning to Leo. "Speaking of which, I suppose you're Leo?" he asked.
"Uh, yes, sir," Leo said, standing and extending a hand to Professor Oak. He smiled and took Leo's hand, being gentle with his grip despite Leo ensuring he had a firm grip. Once again Leo was reminded of how small he was now, and once again he found himself utterly frustrated by it. They were treating him like a child, and while that may work out well for him in the legal sense – what with him needing an entire new identity now - it did nothing for his pride.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Leo. I am Professor Samuel Oak. I hear you found my father's journal?" He asked slowly, and Leo nodded, pointing to the worn, leather-bound journal.
"It's right there," Leo said. Oak smiled at Leo and moved over to the book, carefully stepping over the sleeping slowpoke, who was sprawled out on the floor, and gingerly grabbing it. Leo watched with bated breath as Oak flipped it open, eyes scanning the contents yet his face remaining perfectly neutral.
"It is indeed my father's. I recognize the signature and the writing style from his old reports," Oak said after a few minutes, flipping to the front cover and running his hand along the page. "Where on earth did you find this?" he asked, turning back to Leo.
"In a cave. It was hidden inside a backpack, next to Archibald…I mean, Mr. Oak's skeleton. There was a cave-in, he was crushed. I, uh, do also have the remains of his pokemon's pokeballs though. It was his last action to release his team," Leo said, suddenly remembering the rusted pokeballs he had discovered and diving into his backpack – which was hanging from the foot of the bed – after them. He pulled the two balls out after a brief moment, handing them over.
Oak accepted the rusted balls silently, broken open as they were, and flipped them over and over. His fingers traced once section of the balls almost reverently, and though Leo thought for a moment he could see Oak's hand shake but that could've been his mind playing tricks on him. Still, watching Oak was starting to get to him. It made him think of his own family. He had just given Professor Oak some sort of closure to his father's disappearance, but Leo? He wouldn't be able to hear the voices of his parents ever again.
"Thank you, this means a lot to me," Oak said, meeting Leo's eyes. Leo shrugged carelessly and averted his gaze, looking at the bed and resisting the urge to fidget uncomfortably. The appreciation in Oak's voice touched Leo a bit closer to home than he had expected.
"Yeah, well, I mean, I would do a lot to hear my father's voice again, so I thought…you might want the same, or something," Leo said, immediately regretting what came out of his mouth. That wasn't what you wanted to say! What you wanted to say was "it was the right thing to do!" he mentally yelled at himself. Well sooorry, but I panicked and that's what I said, just roll with it! He argued back.
Oak turned out to be Leo's saving grace from himself, as he sighed and sat down on the bed, unzipping his jacket. "That does bring up a good point Leo. How did you end up in the Silver Mountains anyway?" Oak asked.
"I fell through a hole in the sky," Leo drawled without thinking, snapping his mouth shut and once more cursing himself at his thoughtless comment. It was easy enough to play of as a joke though…at least, that was what he expected to have to do. Instead he watched Oak narrow his eyes and lean forward on the bed, clasping his hands together and smiling a little too…genially to be a real smile. His gaze flickered to Victoria, who nodded.
The interaction made Leo frown, then curse himself as he remembered a few things. He'd made a few comments about the hole in the sky and Lunala, more accurately describe as, in his own words, "the stupid bat made of stars," with Victoria around. She must have some connection with Oak, who had enough information to piece it all together.
"What, it's just a joke," Leo grumbled half-heartedly, figuring he might as well try to pass it off.
"No, it's not," Oak said, smiling thinly. "Leo, I need you to be very detailed on what you remember, okay? This is important. You said you fell through a hole in the sky, can you describe it for me?"
Leo felt his nerves spike, and he narrowed his eyes, meeting Oak's gaze and trying to gauge his reaction. The seriousness in his gaze
"It was a big hole in the sky that showed the stars in the middle of the day," Leo said slowly. "Honestly didn't think anyone would take me seriously when I said it. What made you?"
Oak didn't immediately answer, sharing a look with Victoria who shrugged. Indecision marred Oak's expression for a brief moment before he sighed and shook his head.
"What I'm about to tell you is to be a secret, ok? Don't tell anyone," Oak said, and Leo nodded, choosing to ignore Oak's tone – like he was speaking to a child. "That hole in the sky you fell through, we believe to be something called an ultra-wormhole. It's a phenomena that only recently has begun to be researched, and my cousin is spearheading the research in Alola. The specifics aren't important, but your mentioning of a 'bat made of stars,' and the hole in the sky were too coincidental to pass up," Oak explained softly.
"The fact is, you may be in an entirely different world than where you were born," Victoria said bluntly, and Oak shot her a withering glare. Leo, on the other hand, kept his expression neutral. Tell me something I don't know. He scoffed mentally. "Better to get it over with now, professor," she said with a shrug.
"I'm pretty sure I understand," Leo said, cutting of the conversation. "I kinda floated around for a while in ultra-space for a while, I'm pretty sure. Was an…interesting experience,"
"You know about ultra-space?" Oak asked, surprised.
"Information about it wasn't exactly restricted where I'm from, but I don't know a lot," Leo said quickly, thinking fast. Already his secret was out, far quicker than he had anticipated, so he needed to come clean in a way. It would be easier to share some of his knowledge and twist a story around the half-truths than it would be to forge a backstory of lies. Especially with psychic pokemon around, Leo had no idea whether they could tell if he was lying or not. Of course, there were some parts he would leave out though.
Things like being from a world where pokemon was a video game, or him actually being much older than his current body would suggest? Those are best left unsaid.
"…that makes things easier," Victoria said after a moment, raising her eyebrows at Leo.
"Mm. I can't tell you much more about the wormholes other than what I just said, other than that they lead to parallel worlds or something? I think people can pass through them with some equipment and such, though there's a lot of room for error from what I remember. You never know where you might end up. I do know that the legendary pokemon Solgaleo and Lunala – Lunala was actually the one who snagged me out of ultra-space and dropped me in the mountains – can travel freely through ultra-space though," Leo explained. A small nudge against his leg had him looking down to see slowpoke banging his head against his leg.
The pink creature looked up at him with dopey eyes and cooed softly, in the way he always did when he was hungry. At least I know he's a he now, Leo thought to himself. A kind nurse had confirmed it for him, and showed him how to tell a slowpoke's gender.
"I…see. And you said you were in the Silver Mountains for a number of months, correct? That would put you there sometime around early spring?" Oak asked.
"I'm pretty sure it was the day of the spring equinox, or something like that. Your dad's Slowking was the one who helped me figure that out," Leo said casually.
"Longinus is still alive?!" Oak barked, sitting bolt upright and making Leo flinch with the outburst.
"Yes, and so is Tyrus. So, Longinus is Slowking's name then? He never actually told me what it was. It might be a good idea for you to go visit him, he was pretty adamant that I help return Archibald's book to you. He'd probably be able to give you more closure than I ever could," Leo said, moving over to sit on the plastic stool set in the corner of the clinic room, right next to one of the cabinets.
Oak pressed his index and thumb to the bridge of his nose and let out a breath, shaking his head.
"Let's take one thing at a time here. My father can wait, we need to figure out your situation first. You are aware then of your own circumstances," Oak asked, looking up at Leo.
"Sort of. I was kind of raised in a backwater," not a lie, Leo added mentally, I was raised in a small town. "And I never really got to see much of the world or anything so I might be pretty ignorant about things," Which was more of a lie, he'd actually travelled a whole bunch in his old world.
"I see," Oak said. "I must say, you are taking this remarkably well,"
"I've had six months to come to terms with it all. It's not perfect, but I'm managing," Leo admitted with a shrug. Oak was silent for a moment then, the quiet cut abruptly short when his phone started to ring. The older man blinked and pulled the device out of his pocket – it looked vaguely reminiscent of what Leo remembered a pokedex looking like – scowling at the front screen for just a moment before standing and giving Leo an apologetic look.
"Sorry, I have to take this. Give me just a moment, please," Oak said, tapping the phone and answering it with a "Hello," as he swiftly exited the room. Leo blinked in surprise and glance at Victoria, who shrugged.
"He's an important man," she said, pushing herself off the wall and moving to the door. "Give me a moment and I'll be back. See if I can't get your slowpoke any food. Want anything?" she asked.
"Chocolate," Leo answered immediately, having been craving that since he woke up. Next on his agenda would be ice cream, but eating so many heavy foods too quickly would be hard on his stomach too, so Leo had to pace himself lest he face the wrath of a stomachache. "If there is any, I want chocolate,"
"Of course you do," Victoria said with a snort. "Gypsy will stay here to keep you company, I won't be long," she said, her furrett raising her head when Victoria said her name to watch her trainer leave. Leo hummed as his slowpoke once again butted his head against his leg, calling out once more in a desperate bid for attention.
"Well, that was something," he said, bending down and picking up the slowpoke, absently scratching his head as he pondered what had just transpired. Things had gone…remarkably well, he thought. All that was left now was to become a trainer or find some way to support himself, so he wasn't mooching off of the kindness of strangers. That sort of thing left a bad taste in his mouth, after all.
"Well?" Victoria's voice cut the silence of the empty lounge as Oak snapped his phone shut, sighing heavily. The older man looked up at the younger woman and sighed.
"That was Giovanni. He's just being nosy again, asking if it is truly my father's journal. Makes sense that he would be interested, in a way, as this little town is technically in the jurisdiction of Viridian," Oak answered, rubbing his forehead. Dealing with Giovanni always gave him a headache, even if their conversations were usually pleasant. He didn't know why, but it always felt like he had to keep his guard up around the Viridian City Gym Leader.
"That's not what I care about, but okay," Victoria deadpanned, crossing her arms across her chest and arcing an eyebrow at Oak, who shook his head. "I'm wondering what you think of the boy's story,"
"He is telling the truth. Alakazam was monitoring his brainwaves the entire time, and most everything he said was truthful," Oak answered. "Even the timing of his appearance in the Silver Mountains matches the timing of ultra-space related phenomena Samson, your father, recorded in Alola. Around the spring equinox, of course,"
Victoria grunted, pulling a crumpled wad of bills out of her pocket and feeding one into one of the lobby vending machines, forcing the wrinkled bill into the feeder when it didn't want to accept it. Oak watched her struggle with the machine for a moment, the woman gradually getting more and more frustrated as it continually refused to accept her money. Sometimes it was hard to connect the image of her with her father, his own cousin Samson Oak, in his head. Her drive to train and become stronger was nothing like her father, who desired nothing more than to research and spread knowledge, nor was her short temper anything like the genial Samson Oak.
"The smart thing to do would be to hand him over to InterPol. They're the ones who handle ultra-space related incidents, as few and far between as those are," Oak continued, speaking more to himself than to anyone else. Victoria slammed a fist against the vending machine, grumbling angrily to herself as it finally accepted her bills.
"But you know exactly what they're going to do with him if you do that," Victoria said, punching in a number on the machine. "What was that poor girl's name again?" Oak internally winced upon Victoria bringing that up. He recalled how excited Samson had been when a girl had appeared out of an ultra-wormhole, and how equally devastated he'd been when said girl, untrained as she was, was killed not but a few months later on a mission for the International Police.
"I don't recall. Samson would know," Oak said, shaking his head. The newly-dubbed UB-project, spearheaded by InterPol, was a hot mess in Oak's humble opinion. Ever since Alola had opened up to the Leagues ten years ago, InterPol and other inter-regional organizations had become supremely interested in the islands' happenings, especially in the ultra-wormhole phenomena. Oak himself was only privy to certain information regarding said phenomena because they had consulted him on the appearance of legendary-class pokemon, dubbed Ultra Beasts, a few years prior.
"What I do know is that I cannot, in good conscience, condemn a child to the sort of life InterPol would consign him to," Oak continued, rubbing the bridge of his nose. InterPol had started the UB project to combat these Ultra-Beasts in the same way they had entire squadrons dedicated to combatting legendaries, should those pokemon ever threaten human civilization. He knew very little about the UB project other than that, it was more the jurisdiction of his cousin Samson, but what he did know was that ultra-beasts were drawn to the energy given off by ultra-wormholes, and those who passed through the wormholes retained some of that energy.
Which, while Kanto was nowhere near the hot-spot (and wasn't that a misnomer, considering the rarity of the phenomenon) for ultra-wormholes that Alola was, meant Leo had a very real chance of being chased down by legendary-class pokemon for the rest of his life. InterPol would try to prepare him and train him for that, but, if their prior history held true, InterPol would most definitely toss him into the fray without any training whatsoever if they thought it necessary.
"…earth to Professor Oak, you still in there?" Victoria's voice broke Professor Oak out of his thoughts, jolting the old man back to awareness. "I was asking what your plan is. I don't know anything about these holes in the sky other than what you've told me, which isn't a lot. Are they dangerous?" she asked.
"No, not particularly. What comes out of them, on the other hand, are potentially very dangerous," Oak admitted.
"And are you one hundred percent certain that he came out of one of the ultra-wormholes?" Victoria pressed, making Oak pause, then shake his head.
"The fact that he knows what an ultra-wormhole is makes me want to say yes, but the only way to be certain would be to test him for the energy ultra-wormholes give off," Oak muttered, rubbing his chin in thought. "I'll probably need to keep an eye on him regardless, though."
"Because he found your father's journal," Victoria said, bending down to pull a chocolate bar out of the vending machine.
"Partly, yes," Oak said. "But I am not sure if helping him is the right choice in this situation. There are too many variables to take into account," Victoria hummed and shrugged her shoulders, one hand resting on her belt of pokeballs.
"Take your time to think about what you're going to do. He's shown interest in being a trainer, you know, so you might be able to help him there. Hell, he seems pretty smart. Could probably become a Youngster if he tried," she said, turning to head out of the empty lobby. Oak scowled at the idea. The legal age in which one could become a trainer was fourteen – though that limit could be circumvented by taking a test to get a Youngster License, a license that essentially allowed anyone under the age of fourteen to become a trainer provided they stick to certain rules and remain on designated Routes.
Oak had been against the law allowing Youngster Licenses being passed, and he was all for the growing movement to repeal said bill now. Anything younger than fourteen was too young to be allowed to train the powerful beings known as pokemon. Unfortunately, Leo being skilled enough to survive in the wild for six months on his own – in addition to his perceived maturity – would most likely allow the young boy to pass the test.
Too many children had died as a result of that law for Oak to be comfortable allowing that.
Well, let's just keep it to myself then, Oak thought, sticking his hands in his pockets and feeling the familiar, comfortable shapes of his team's pokeballs. If he doesn't know all the options, then he won't be able to choose the Youngster License.
8
Leo hadn't known what he had been expecting when he met Giovanni for the first time, but it hadn't been what he found. He had been searching for Professor Oak for the past hour or so, his freshly-named slowpoke, Santiago, following at his heels. He'd found a solution for his predicament in the form of the Youngster License (wasn't the news a wonderful thing? Even if all it did was disparage said License – rightfully so, in Leo's opinion – at least it gave him the information he needed to circumvent the age-fourteen trainer restriction) and wanted to push the idea onto Oak.
He knew the man probably wouldn't like the idea, as Leo was just a kid in Oak's eyes, but if he had proved anything at all it was that he could take care of himself. So, he searched Oak out, tried to think of a convincing argument, and ran into the group of Oak, Victoria, and a well-dressed man he came to know as Giovanni having an intense discussion by the river.
"…is not any of your business, Giovanni," Oak said in a firm tone, crossing his arms and glaring at the sharply dressed man. Leo's eyebrows rose at the name, and he faltered in his steps as he observed the leader of Team Rocket.
His first impression? The man was classy. His charcoal-colored suit was immaculate, while the silver wristwatch he wore spoke of wealth. The way he held himself – back straight, shoulders set but not over-exaggerated – projected an air of cool confidence that left Leo with little doubt he could be the leader of the pokemon equivalent of the mafia.
"Of course not, forgive my curiosity. It is simply not every day one gets to examine the records of a former champion," Giovanni said coolly, a placating smile on his face.
"There's a reason for that. Champions like to keep their secrets," Victoria grunted out.
"All Masters like their secrets, Victoria. Including both you and myself," Giovanni countered coolly, turning to smile at the woman and, with that motion, spotting Leo. "Would that happen to be…?" he asked, looking back at Oak and indicating Leo.
"Ah, Leo. I thought you were doing…research, was it?" Oak asked as more of a statement.
"Yeah, I was looking up stuff about tyranitar but I got distracted," Leo said, eyeing Giovanni. He couldn't help but feel a little nervous knowing he was approaching a literal mafia boss, but having Professor Oak and Victoria there – Oak being an ex-champion and Victoria apparently being a Master of the normal type (which Leo hadn't realized was a rank, not just a title, until Oak spelled it out for him) made it a bit easier to bear.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Leo. My name is Giovanni, Leader of the Viridian Gym," the man himself said, stepping around Victoria to greet Leo, who looked up at him silently. Giovanni stood a good head and a half taller than him, clean shaven and with immaculately groomed hair, his calculating grey eyes maintaining a respectful eye contact.
Leo resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow at him, but extended his hand in greeting regardless. "Leo. It's a pleasure," he said. Giovanni smiled and shook his hand, giving him a proper, firm handshake.
"Your story has gripped the hearts of many, young Leo. Surviving the Silver Mountains for six months, without a pokemon partner no less? Even experienced Rangers may have trouble with that," Giovanni praised, though Leo doubted Rangers would even get themselves into that situation in the first place. Plus, he had gotten lucky. Extremely lucky.
"Thanks, but it was a lot of luck involved," Leo said with a shrug, gently shoving Santiago away as the small slowpoke tried to eat his shoe foot and all. "Knock it off, Santiago," he muttered, glancing down at the slowpoke.
"You finally named your slowpoke?" Victoria asked, picking up on the name. Leo nodded, grinning as he remembered how he had come up with that name.
"Yeah, it's actually quite the story. While I was reading something he was down by the river, right? He's down there for at least a good half-an-hour, so when I finish reading I go down there to find him, only to see him digging his feet into the ground as he struggled up the hill, tail in the water, and the biggest freaking magikarp I've ever seen hanging onto it. I honestly could only stand there as he struggled his way up the hill, pulling the magikarp that was easily twice his size out of the water, where he just plopped down and stared up at me. The magikarp ended up letting go of his tail and flopping away, but it was still pretty funny. Anyway, Santiago was a famous fisherman I'd read about back home, so that's how he got the name," Leo explained, bending down and rubbing Santiago's head fondly.
It had been a good two hours since then, so Santiago had enough time for a nap and to regain some energy. Hence why he was now following Leo around, rather than being carried.
"Slowpoke are known for the fishing talents," Professor Oak allowed, smiling tiredly. "What brings you here though, Leo?" he asked, and Leo blinked, having momentarily forgotten his purpose.
"I was reading the newspaper today, and had an idea. Why don't I apply for the Youngster License? I've got the survival skills for training, and I'm pretty sure I'd be able to pass any test that may be given to me," Leo said bluntly, forgoing mentioning that basic pokemon knowledge may be lost on him. Things like habits of rarer or more dangerous pokemon, or how they used their abilities and whatnot. But that was what the internet and libraries were for, and it wasn't like Leo couldn't learn.
That's probably a pretty arrogant thought, Leo realized after a moment. I can't learn everything by myself, and just because I got lucky for those six months doesn't mean that trend will continue. Not that I'm looking for a repeat, either…he grumbled to himself.
"No," Oak said flatly, and Leo winced. He'd been expecting that, he'd admit, but had been hoping Oak would think otherwise.
"With his skills it would be a cakewalk for him to pass the test…the practical exam, anyway. His…pokemon would be a problem, however," Giovanni added thoughtfully, earning himself a glare from Oak.
"The slowpoke is a little young to be used in battles," Victoria said, and Leo wilted a bit further. That was true, but he could always catch a pidgey or something to use until Santiago grew up, right? Using a pokeball should make the capture process much easier.
"Regardless, it is not a good idea for you to begin your journey so young, Leo," Oak said. "Especially not one in your position," Leo frowned at that and scratched the back of his head, agreeing now that he thought about it but still unsure what else to do. He couldn't work – too young – and it wasn't like he could expect the winnings of a trainer would cover all of his expenses.
But on the flip side, there was no way in hell he was going back to school for another four years. He'd done that song and dance, and in no way, shape, or form did he want to revisit his elementary/middle/high school years again. It wasn't like he could ask Oak to take care of him for the next few years, either. That wouldn't be fair to the man, regardless of whether Leo found Archibald's journal or not.
Sure, Leo would like some help from the kind Professor, but still.
"Indeed. Funds for orphans don't extend that far, after all," Giovanni said. "Training can get expensive, just as it is lucrative,"
Leo sighed and nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. He hadn't given up, not yet, but there was definitely some more thinking he had to do. Ways to make money so he wasn't dependent on the generosity of Professor Oak; heck, he needed to see if there was some sort of League-sponsored fund for people in a situation similar to his. Meaning, people without backing.
"He could always join my Trainer Initiative," Giovanni suggested casually, and Leo whipped his head to look at the man so fast his neck popped. Coming from anyone else, that statement was innocuous, or perhaps hopeful. Coming from Giovanni? Leo was suspicious. Seeing as he was a mob boss, it was likely he used this "Trainer Initiative" for some purpose involving Team Rocket.
"What's that?" Leo asked, and Giovanni smiled knowingly.
"It is a program I am supporting in Viridian. It aids young trainers in becoming the absolute best they can be, teaching and training them for when they might, eventually, start their journeys," Giovanni explained. Oak's snort of amusement caught Leo's attention, but his gaze remained fixed on Giovanni, his mind processing what he heard and filing it away for later perusal. He didn't actually know if Giovanni was genuinely being chivalrous here or if there was some underlying scheme.
What he did know was the he needed to warn Professor Oak about Giovanni potentially being the leader of Team Rocket. The Trainer's Initiative was sending up all kinds of red flags. Perhaps a screening process, for potential grunts?
"I do not think that will be necessary, Giovanni. I intend to bring Leo back to Pallet Town – at least for a while," Oak said firmly, earning himself another look from Leo. He hadn't been told anything about plans for the future yet.
"The legendary Samuel Oak is intending to tutor a child? Now that is interesting news indeed," Giovanni said humorously, making Victoria chuckle for whatever reason and Oak frown. "Relax, Professor, I am not one to spread gossip. I leave that to the gossip mongers, of course. Their reach extends far enough even without my aid," Giovanni said with a laugh that sounded like he had enough experience with the topic. Even Oak cracked a bitter smile, nodding his head in agreement.
Leo glanced down at Santiago, gently shoving him away from Giovanni's lacquered black shoes with his foot. Don't try to eat Giovanni's shoes, you little idiot, Leo thought with a shake of his head. I've attracted enough of his attention as it is.
The next day Leo sat in Oak's lab, still blinking away the disorientation of being teleported an hour prior as he sat on a cold, metal table, bare-chested and many wires and monitoring devices attached to his body. Professor Oak sat staring at a computer screen directly to Leo's right, his fingers typing at blazing speed as he "constructed an algorithm," as he had called it, while the man's alakazam levitated cross-legged in front of Leo, watching him curiously.
"So, what are we doing again?" Leo asked.
"Wormhole energy," Professor Oak replied as he stared at the screen, absolutely no help at all. He'd been like this for the past half-an-hour, after ushering Leo inside his lab and doing a few things to prepare for whatever test he wanted to run. Leo frowned and scratched at one of the pads on his chest, wiggling uncomfortably. This was all kinds of weird.
"Fret not, youngling. Oak simply wishes to understand the effects of travelling through the space-tear. He fears it may have effects on your body," A voice whispered inside Leo's head. He jumped about a foot into the air at the suddenness and strangeness of the event, noticing the voice as not his own not because he could tell the difference between the voice and his own, inner thoughts, but because he knew his own mind, and he didn't construct sentences like that.
"Was that you?" he whispered to the alakazam, earning himself a nod and an amused smile from the psychic type.
"It is a pleasure to finally speak with you, Friend of the Slowpokes. I did not expect your mind to be so…mature, upon first touching it," Alakazam said.
"I'll take that as a compliment," Leo thought back, remembering his interaction with Queen and making the sentence the foremost thought in his mind, almost burning the words into his subconscious so the alakazam could read it. He didn't know how psychic powers worked here, so he figured he'd just test it out to find the boundaries.
"It is indeed. Tell me, for I am interested, what is it you wish to do in this world?" Alakazam asked, and Leo frowned. The question itself was simple, but that was not all the alakazam was asking. The full weight of its curiosity was imposed on that question, pressing down on Leo's mind and enfolding it like a blanket, wrapping it in the emotions the alakazam felt – curiosity, excitement, concern, wonder – and the depth of the question itself. It wasn't just asking what Leo wanted to do casually, it meant it down from the very fundamental level of Leo's being. What was it he wanted?
Leo's mind screeched to a halt as he considered the question, no real words coming to mind. There was much he wanted to do. And to give full credit to how he felt about the situation, he figured putting it to words would not do it justice. So, Leo did what he did with Queen, and brought forth all his emotions on the matter. He thought of finding Jack, his best friend whom he wondered if he would ever see again, he thought of finding his own purpose in the world (tied to the feeling of having his old life, and any purpose he found therein, stripped away), he thought of warmth of family, of the intense joy he found in exploring the world. Leo remembered playing for the bellossom and watching Tyrus fight, but most of all he impressed his own idea of what he must do in the face of adversity.
Stand up, and keep going.
Alakazam was silent for a moment, regarding Leo as it parsed through his thoughts, eyes glowing blue for brief moments. Finally, it nodded.
"I do doubt my friend will allow one as young as you leave on a journey so early. Him allowing you to leave before you have reached fourteen years of age would be nothing short of a miracle from Mew," alakazam said. Leo smiled.
"It's a good thing I'm not actually ten then, isn't it?" he asked, and the alakazam smiled.
"We will see," it said cryptically, and said no more. Leo was silent as well, trying his hardest to not think as he sat on that table, occasionally scratching at the wires and watching Oak as he typed away like a madman, examining whatever he was finding with intense scrutiny.
It was another good hour before Professor Oak finally finished, standing up and rubbing his eyes tiredly. Leo had long since laid down, content to nap even though the table was anything but comfortable, though he still opened one eye at Oak's movement.
"Seems like there's no serious abnormalities. He does radiate wormhole energy, but on a scale that seems manageable. Still no guarantee, but…Merri, would you go over this again with me? I want to make sure I'm looking at this right," he muttered. The alakazam, whose name was apparently Merri, floated forward and peered over Oak's shoulder. Leo frowned, something about that statement tugging at a memory in his head. But what was it…? Something about the wormhole energy Oak mentioned, but he couldn't quite recall all the details of the Sun and Moon games, and he never really watched the anime.
After a few moments Professor Oak sighed and stood, stretching and groaning, which in turn prompted Leo to sit up.
"I am getting too old to be sitting in this chair all the time," he grumbled, turning and smiling at Leo. His smile didn't quite reach his eyes, however. "The good news, Leo, is that travelling through ultra-space didn't have any unforeseen consequences on your body. We already knew you were healthy enough due to the medical exams you took, but I just wanted to do a deeper scan just in case,"
"Good to know," Leo said, nodding. "What happens now then? All you told me was that we were coming to Pallet Town, not what was going to happen after."
Professor Oak hummed, pinching the bridge of his nose and wincing. "I will not lie to you, Leo, your situation is precarious and unique. There is a chance legendary-class pokémon may come through an ultra-wormhole and chase after you, due to you also having come through a wormhole," Leo sucked in a deep breath, eyes widening. How could he have forgotten such a crucial piece of information from the games? Sure it was just, like, one line in the post-game that said ultra-beasts did that, and he hadn't played that game in years, but still!
"Which leaves us here. In Pallet you will be relatively safe, my team from my Champion days still resides around the ranch, and we have enough firepower to fight off a legendary if need be. Victoria, too, is near Elite level, though she is in town with less frequency than I. It would not be a bad idea for you to get a Youngster License, if that is your wish, but I still advise against it. Of course, there is always Giovanni's Trainer Initiative," Oak rattled off, stroking his chin thoughtfully. Leo chewed his lip for a moment then, his mind made up, nodded.
Outing Giovanni would cause insane ripples, no matter what version of the world he was in, but it would be remiss of Leo to not do anything, either.
"Not Giovanni. In my world, he was the leader of a terrorist organization called Team Rocket," Leo said bluntly, giving Oak pause.
"You're joking," he deadpanned, and Leo shook his head. "That's…news. I will take that into due consideration," he said, falling silent for a moment. Leo allowed the man to absorb the bombshell he dropped, but eventually his patience wore thin and he cleared his throat.
"Uh, you were saying about the Youngster License and stuff?" Leo asked, eyes flicking to Merri for any hints as to his thoughts. Merri shrugged, giving him no information to go off of. He decided, however, to assume that Oak would fight him on getting the License, even though there really was only one choice for Leo here. He had to get strong enough to fight off any ultra-beasts that may come after him. If he didn't, that was dangerous not only for himself, but for all those around him.
It wasn't like Oak could dedicate his life to protecting Leo, nor did he want that. In fact, Leo realized, he was treating the news much like he had thought about his own survival in the mountains. Either he got better and polished his skills, or things go haywire. Simple.
"Right, that. I'll see what I can do about Giovanni though – you do understand that we cannot make a move against him without proper evidence. Even more so if he is in charge of a Team," Oak warned, and Leo nodded. He expected nothing less. "Good, good. Where was I? Right, Leo's options. Thank you, Merri,"
"I want the Youngster License," Leo blurted out, cutting the man off. "If legendary pokemon will come after me, I don't want to put anyone else in danger. So, I should travel, gather a team, and get stronger while I can," he said.
Oak tried, and failed, to hide a grimace. "I can let you take the test, but what if you fail?" he asked. Leo hummed thoughtfully.
"I can take the test once every three to six months, right? I'll probably study, then keep taking it until I pass," Leo reasoned. It's not like Santiago can battle right now anyway. I need to pass that test if, for no other reason, than to get a combat-ready pokemon. I believe the article said something about handing out starters to trainers even if they already have a pet, right? Does Santiago count as a pet?
"Tell you what. Pass the test, and you go on your journey. Fail, and you can stick around and help out around the ranch. We could always use more help, and I was raising growlithe litters by your age," Oak reasoned. Leo's eyebrows raised and he once more glanced at Merri, whose expression was unreadable. This was suspicious, but…helping out around a pokemon lab? This was an opportunity, wasn't it? This way, Leo almost wouldn't mind if he failed…almost. He'd be pissed if Oak sabotaged him somehow.
"Deal," Leo said, shaking Oak's outstretched hand. The older man smiled, and Leo inwardly scowled as he ripped off all the monitoring equipment still strapped to him and followed Oak out the room.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Here, for Santiago," the older man said, pulling a red and white orb out of his coat pocket and handing it to Leo. His irritation momentarily forgotten, Leo accepted the pokeball and stared at the metal ball almost reverently. "You can officially catch him now, if you want. He'll be registered to me until you get a license, but transferring a pokemon to another trainer is a relatively pain-free process. There's a few things I want to catch up on since I'm back in the lab. I'll show you around a bit later, and show you where you'll be sleeping," Oak said, planting a hand on Leo's head and ruffling his hair. Leo scowled at him but the Professor didn't see, having already moved off to talk to another white-robed lab assistant to talk about whatever.
Leo shook his head and headed out of the lab, following the long, white-tiled hall out to the lobby where Santiago was keeping himself entertained with the help of the friendly secretary, the brown-haired man casually tossing a small, blue ball across the room for the little slowpoke to trundle after. Acts more like a dog than anything else, Leo thought, amused, as he watched Santiago bat the ball into the wall with his head.
"Thanks," Leo said to the secretary, nodding to him before kneeling down next to Santiago, pressing the center button on the pokeball and nearly dropping it when it expanded. "Now, how does this work? Do I just," Leo muttered, pressing the ball against Santiago and dropping it when it snapped open, sucking the slowpoke in with a flash of red light.
It didn't wiggle. No lights blinked. Instead the ball just sat there, and, to the soft congratulations of the secretary, Leo sarcastically congratulated himself on his first capture. It wasn't much of a capture. Not really, but what did Leo expect? It was a baby pokemon. Still, that didn't mean Leo wasn't excited about it. He couldn't contain his grin as he picked the ball up, pressing the button once more to see if it would release his slowpoke and, to his pleasure, the ball cracked open. Santiago appeared on the floor in a flash of red, blinking up at Leo owlishly.
"Sloooow?" It called.
"Trippy, huh?" Leo asked, rubbing the slowpoke's head and glancing out the sliding glass doors of the lab. Outside sat the rest of Pallet, the small town a good mile from the front of the lab, with rolling green hills and the Silver Mountains looming in the distance. Orange blobs played on the hillside outside, watched over by the massive, majestic form of an arcanine.
A pang of excitement rolled through Leo as he watched the growlithe play. He should probably answer Oak's challenge by going to study or something but, dogs were playing outside. Puppies. More importantly, fire-breathing puppies. He had to go say hi, didn't he? Besides, this would just be practical experience right? He'd need a lot of that to be a trainer, Leo was sure. At least, that's what he told himself as he rushed out the front door, excitement coursing through his veins as he rushed out of the lab, Santiago following behind with a low call of excitement, to go play with the growlithe. After, of course, he made sure the arcanine watching over them was ok with it.
He didn't want to piss the fire-breathing hound off, after all. Leo didn't fancy becoming barbeque.
Oak hummed idly to himself as he examined Leo's test, eyes tracing the papers for the umpteenth time. The boy had, in truth, surprised him. His grasp on pokemon biology and the way pokemon moves worked was shoddy at best, some of his answers to the essay questions sounding more like educated guesses than anything concrete. But still…he had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of pokemon species and their evolutions, not to mention being able to deduce the type of a pokemon relatively easily and, while not wholly impressive on its own, had memorized the type chart. How far his knowledge of pokemon descended, Oak wasn't sure, as most of the questions involved base-level knowledge in that category.
What really intrigued Oak was some of Leo's answers to pokemon evolution. How in the name of Mew did he know a slowpoke could evolve into Slowking with a king's rock? The official stance was that slowpoke evolved when a shellder bit them on the head, using a king's rock was a far more specialized way that resulted in far more intelligent slowking – slowking like his father's Longinus. Oak had added that question to the test on a whim, but now he was glad he did. He'd have to talk to Leo about that later.
Sighing, Professor Oak set the papers down and looked out the window of his lab, watching the subject of his current headache as he animatedly described his adventures in the Silver Mountains to Gary and Daisy Oak, his grandchildren. The eight and thirteen-year-olds listened on, enraptured, as Leo re-enacted some form of combat with a growlithe, the energetic little fire-hound all too happy to wrestle and play. Oak smiled, glad to see his grandchildren having fun, laughing at Leo as he tried, and failed, to shove the growlithe off of him as it enthusiastically licked his face.
Daisy smiled and laughed less after their parents – Oak's daughter – had died two years ago. Gary, being six, didn't remember much, but he tended to catch onto his sister's moods. Time was healing the children, but it was slow.
"Did he pass?" Victoria asked, slipping into the room behind Oak, who resolutely ignored the pain in his chest at the memories of his daughter.
"No," Oak said truthfully, handing the test to Victoria, who took it and scanned over the questions with a frown, brushing away an errant strand of brown hair that hung over her eyes. "But I also didn't give him the Youngster exam. Didn't stop him from passing the practical exam, which I expected, but his theoretical and battling skills need work," Oak ran a hand through his hair, fixating his gaze on the ceiling and counting the black dots on the plastic panels.
"He would've passed the Youngster exam," Victoria stated more than asked, flipping through the test and shooting the Professor a glare. "You do realize that you can't actually keep him here like this. He may very well go behind your back and take the exam elsewhere – kid's smart, I wouldn't put it past him," she deadpanned, and Oak grumbled, standing and looking out the window.
"I know, I know. But he needs this. Ten is too young for him to go adventuring, staying on the Youngster Routes or not. This way I can keep an eye on him, and make sure his education is up to snuff," Oak reasoned, shoving his hands into the pockets of his long, white lab coat. "At least for a few years. Maybe until he's twelve or thirteen; that's when I started my journey. But things were different back then. We needed trainers more than we do now,"
That wasn't the only reason, of course. Privately, Oak felt like Leo could most definitely cut it as a trainer if he left right now – he showed maturity beyond his years, and though his book knowledge was lacking he did do well on the practical exams – but he also wasn't one to send someone out underprepared. Leo needed a deeper understanding of the world he lived in now, because he suspected there was quite the difference between where he had been, and where he was now. More than Leo let on.
On another hand, Oak didn't want to be seen as supporting the Youngster License. It wasn't as bad an idea as some of the news outlets made it out to be – deaths were actually relatively low, quite a few of which due to unavoidable mishaps like natural disasters – but Oak still wanted the law gone. Given a year or two, it very well might be rescinded, what with all the flak Champion Marvin has been taking for the bill. Even if the current Champion didn't make a move to rescind the law, the next champion very well might. That young dragon tamer, Lance, was a promising candidate, though dragons were notoriously slow to grow…
"Isn't this the exam you give to Starter applicants?" Victoria asked, tossing Leo's exam onto the desk next to Oak, who nodded. "And he still got a forty percent on it?"
"He did decidedly well, considering that. Most of his wrong answers were founded in solid logic too, he just lacks a deeper understanding of the mechanics involved. Who knows, I might even be able to give him one of the Kanto Starters if he studies hard enough," Oak said, grinning. It was unlikely, there were plenty of brilliant young trainers vying for the prestigious reward of the regional starters, but still a possibility.
Victoria stared at him searchingly, the gruff woman folding her arms across her chest and staring at Professor Oak long enough to make him feel uncomfortable. Then she grinned cheekily.
"Sounds like you've found yourself a protégé," she said mockingly, and Oak's smile immediately flipped into a frown. "Don't give me that, you're taking him under your wing! Taken an interest in him, or feel bad because of his sob-story?" she asked, and Oak frowned harder, fixing her with a glare.
"Get out," he said, though the statement held no heat. Victoria laughed and held her hands up defensively, backing out of the room and shutting the door behind her. Oak sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, fighting off the oncoming headache. He just hoped Leo wasn't as quick to learn as Oak feared he would be, judging by his already impressive knowledge base for his age, or else keeping him on the ranch would be a chore. Not to mention, somehow the boy had gotten Merri onto his side. The alakazam hadn't been subtle in telling Oak Leo was ready for an adventure.
Another glance out the window of his office, and Oak relaxed slightly as he watched Leo roughhouse with Gary, the brown-haired boy picking Gary up in a bear-hug and spinning him in a circle, head tossed back in a laugh while Daisy watched, smiling to herself. Kids should be kids, Oak thought firmly, then pushed all those thoughts out of his mind. He had a project to finish, after all, and what a project it was.
Hopefully he'd be able to finish his pokemon encyclopedia prototype before Daisy left on her own pokemon journey in a year. Though all trainers would benefit he hoped above all else that it would help keep his grandchildren safe. That was all he could hope for. It was all he wanted, anymore.
True to his word, Professor Oak had Leo working on the ranch in a farm-hand type position the day after he had shown Leo that he failed the test. It wasn't a surprise, the written test was way harder than Leo thought (not that tests were his forte anyway), and Leo had promptly shut down the ugly voice in his head that suggested Oak had rigged the test. As it were, working on the ranch, and by proxy in the pokemon lab, was doing wonders for his knowledge of pokemon.
He learned more by doing, after all, and it didn't get much more hands-on than wrangling the hordes of pokemon Oak kept around his lab. Nidoran, growlithe, lakes full of water-types, tauros, rapidash, and seemingly a thousand other kinds of pokemon called the Oak ranch their home, and Leo loved it. Daisy Oak had helped him out a lot in the beginning, guiding him around showing him which pokemon were too ornery to deal with, or how to get around that ornery-ness, what they ate, how to soothe them…honestly, there was so much to remember Leo's head felt like exploding sometimes, but he threw himself into learning the processes with all the gusto he could muster.
Though he still never studied. He hated studying. And tests. He did, however, look up things that interested him – such as tyranitar. Now that he was on his way to becoming a trainer, Leo had his heart and mind set on capturing a larvitar. It would happen.
He also met Ash Ketchum for the first time, the little black-haired kid being just as energetic as Leo remembered from what little he watched of the anime. He didn't actually interact with the boy as much as he might've liked, but seeing as how he and Gary Oak were still friends at this point, Leo ended up getting to know him at least a little. But Oak kept him pretty busy regardless.
At one point, about a month into Leo's stay, (Professor Oak had a repurposed room above his garage he let Leo stay in, and though it seemed like a cozy enough home, it seemed lonely with just him, the Professor, and his two grandchildren to occupy it. But it felt wrong for him to ask about the children's parents, or about Oak's wife, so he didn't pry) Professor Oak enrolled Leo in the Pallet Town elementary/middle school.
Leo protested by ditching class. Repeatedly. As in, Oak would drop Leo off, and as soon as the man was gone Leo was racing off into the forests surrounding Pallet Town. He'd tried to show up for science class on the first few days, but they'd been learning such basic stuff Leo had forgone all idea of attending. He knew the mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell. Couldn't file his taxes properly, but he knew about the mitochondria.
One good thing did come from those few classes he did attend though; he'd found out something that had been bothering him for a while about people eating were two different, official classifications for certain pokemon. Domestic, and Wild. Wild were the ones used in battle, while Domestic often enough never evolved, never got stronger, and didn't show the intelligence Wild pokemon tended to. Not all species of pokemon were differentiated this way either, as not all pokemon had Domestic variants.
Leo hadn't really understood what it all meant until Victoria had shown him her tauros, Duke, next to a domestic tauros. Duke had been intelligent and prideful, his almost-black fur shining in the sun and eyes boring into Leo with relentless determination and the unquenchable fury of a perpetually angry bull. The domestic tauros, in comparison? They were just cows. Big cows, with the capability to occasionally use attacks when startled.
People ate domestic pokemon. They shied away from eating Wild ones.
When Oak found out Leo had been ditching school he wasn't too happy, and had immediately sicced his arcanine on Leo, who brought him back to school happily and covered in dog drool. Leo, true to his nature, didn't let that deter him and turned it into a game, eventually roping Merri, Oak's dragonite Mizuchi, and even Victoria into the mix whenever she was around. Leo jokingly called the game "Escape of the prisoner," because he felt much like a convict escaping the law. Victoria called it "Find the F-ing brat and beat some sense into him." Leo found that amusing and, say what you will about how often he was caught, Leo got really good at hiding and running away.
It was on one of these little escapades that Leo had surprised Victoria by showing her he knew at least a little bit of martial arts, shoddy and rusty though they were. She had responded by transforming the game of chase from metaphorically trying to beat some sense into Leo, into literally trying to beat some sense into him. She tried to disguise it by calling it sparring. Leo knew better. She was just annoyed he kept doing this, especially because she was so brutal about it. Very rarely did he not have bruises from those sessions.
What really got to Leo wasn't those "sparring" sessions though. It was when she would use her Persian to chase him down. He could run from Oak's arcanine, who acted more like a puppy than any growlithe, and dragonite all day long – especially dragonite. The kindly-yet-battle-scarred dragon more often than not took him on joy-rides through the blue skies of Kanto rather than take him back to school, and Leo made sure to always treat the noble creature with respect. But Victoria's Persian? That thing was terrifying, and it truly enjoyed scaring the daylights out of Leo. Many a time he found himself flat on his back, the cat's claws pressing dangerously into his skin, as it stared at him with deep green eyes that pierced his soul, fangs bared and poised above his throat.
Leo shuddered every time he remembered it.
By the time the sixth month of Leo's stay in Pallet Town rolled around, he was getting pretty good at escaping even if it was officially winter now. He'd never truly been successful, mind you, but Victoria wasn't always around and Oak's pokemon weren't willing nor able to always keep an eye on him. On those days Leo would slip into the woods and vanish for hours on end, playing with Santiago, the slowpoke steadily growing bigger and more intelligent with each day even if he picked up more than one bad habit from the growlithe litters plaguing the Oak Ranch, and harassing wild pokemon.
He whistled and sang for bellossom as they danced, his own bellossom leaf having finally withered, dove into snowdrifts to go hunting for ice-types whenever snowstorms rolled in, stalked rattatta, poked pineco as they hibernated beneath tree roots, and raced with the pidgey as they flew south, some flocks much later than others.
Unfortunately during this time there had been no moves to oust Giovanni either, and very little actual news about any Team Rocket. Which Oak said was because there was no real evidence that Giovanni was the Leader of Team Rocket. Irritating as it was, Leo figured it made sense. One did not simply become the leader of the Viridian Gym and lead a terrorist organization, especially in this world, where Gym Leaders were essentially Governors of their respective territories, without knowing how to cover your tracks. (The government in this world was weird, Leo was still trying to figure out how it all worked with Leaders and Councilmen, and Elites and Champions even with Oak's patient explanations.)
And every three to four months, Leo would try to pass the increasingly Youngster exam, failing each and every time. Until, a year and a half after his arrival at Oak's ranch and at the beginning of his second year in the pokemon world, he suddenly didn't.
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