-----

While the girls glower I text the ranch about the catch. I can’t help but wonder how I have signal clear out here in the woods with legit cliffs between us and any town, “What does L5P even mean?”

Naomi raises a brow, “Your phone? It means you’re on a limited access, dedicated five Porygon network. But really Kurt, there's a proper way to catch Pokemon and that wasn’t it.”

Oh and attacking them out of the blue is any better? I’ll not crush their traditional ideals with the absurd moral implications today but common, they could hop off their high horse.

“Hey!”

A young boy with purple hair in a spiky bun is poking his head out from a ledge up the cliff.

“Did you guys see any Bagon? We were tracking one this way and I think it jumped.”

I call up, “Sorry bud, we caught one a bit ago, probably what you were after.”

The kid’s voice echoes down from whatever cave mouth he’s standing in, “Shit some old guy says he caught it.”

A girl's voice, “But we found it first!”

Then a second girl, “Make it him battle you for it Nick, if you wanna move up in the clan a Bagon is the least you can have.”

‘Nick’ waffles, “That, I don’t know Harley, he caught it fair and we never even got in sight of it.”

The rude girl snorts, “The dragon clan aren’t pushovers and if you want to waste time as an outer court disciple another year then don’t expect me to wait up.”

Jane whispers, “Seriously? Do we let this keep going?”

Nudging her shoulder, “Shush, It's getting to the good part.”

The first girl’s voice, “I heard Astro caught a Zweilous.”

Oooooohh!

Nick reappears with a grim expression, “Hey old man! We were after that dragon pokemon first, I challenge you for it!”

The two girls step to the ledge and come in sight, one has silky straight black hair and the other an elaborate bunch of loops in a bun. All three are in some type of traditional asian clothes.

On the one hand, I could crush him probably, everything about this area is to Blue’s advantage. Or we could counter them with a triple battle. I should at least try to be an adult first I guess.

“You know we could hear everything you three said?”

Nick cringes while the two girls at least have the decency to look embarrassed.

Jane opts to act the punk, “Dude you let those girls work you over, it’s kind of pathetic.”

Naomi nods, “Toxic friends aren’t really friends worth keeping.”

“She’s saying ditch the bitches and be a man.” Jane folds her arms and stares the boy in the eyes.

Sheesh, I wasn’t gonna be that harsh on the poor kid.

Loop hair girl practically growls, “How Dare you! It’s battle time Fiora!”

“Agreed,” the other girl pulls out a pokeball, “Come out Gloria!”

A Niobat and Goomy appear in front of us as the kids slide and leap down from the ledge.

Nick just sighs in resignation and clicks his ball, “let's just get this day over.” A Solrock appears in front of him. Even it looks unenthused for this battle.

Glancing at my team, both girls are fired up and releasing their pokemon.

“Let's go Delphi!”

“Crunch time Crooky!”

Well, he’s already out here somewhere, “You’re up Blue.”

Noibat, Goomy, and Solrock versus Floette, Sandile, and my Phantump.

Miss rude calls first, “Whirlwind!”

Her noibat starts flying around the clearing flapping heavily to create a strong gust of wind.

Naomi laughs, “You call that wind? Leaf Tornado!”

And now there are sharp sticks flying everywhere, “Girls! I think we can do this without the wind thanks!” Aaaand they're not listening.

Jane points at the goomy, “Sand attack!”

Our not so little sand croc starts kicking up dirt. Of Course it’s caught in the wind and even though it hit the little slime, it’s also hitting everyone else.

The Goomy fires of a water gun in response but that just makes mud fly about.

Nick blocks the wind with his arm and calls out, “Sunny, use Rock throw!”

Fist sized stones levitate up and also get caught in the wind on their way towards Noami’s flower sprite but at this rate they’re just as likely to hit Naomi.

“Enough is enough!” I step in front of Naomi and catch the rock that was flying for her face, “Blue, grab all of them.”

A child's giggle eerily fills the clearing even over the wind but suddenly roots burst from the ground to grab the Goomy, a vine whip from a nearby tree and snares the Noibat. A second root stabs towards the Solrock but a small flare of fire burns it away.

Nick at least has something in his skull, “Use Sunny Day.”

The wind drops along with all the flying debris to reveal six people covered in mud, twigs, and leaves.

I look at the five kids, “If that is how triple battles normally go I think I’ll pass.”

The black haired girl with the Goomy seems actually distraught about the stains in her yukata while the rude one is untangling a stick from her hair loops. Neither seem concerned about taking responsibility.

As for the girls I’m responsible for, “You two, we’ll plan around combinations in the future but let's leave mud twisters as a backup okay.”

They nod while returning their pokemon.

Back to boy toy, “Nick right?”

He sheepishly nods.

“Of the three pokemon I see here, your Solrock is definitely the best trained.” I’m not blowing smoke either, the floating sun rock is glimmering in the sunlight and happily floating around it’s trainer.

The other two are still tied up, their trainers failed to notice and are still fussing about their outfits.

I point that out to the boy, “You can do better, with girls and pokemon. Now,” I show him the Bagon ball, “This is going towards a work commission so I’m not handing it over. It’s a profession, not a fun time hobby or social trend, remember that.”

We leave them in the ruined clearing and start making our way back to town. It’s not exactly a short walk and the silence is annoying.

So I look at the girls, “Neither of you got hit with the rocks right?”

Naomi shakes her head while muttering a thanks.

Jane shows me a tear in her sleeve, “Just a scratch, the leather took most the edge of a sharp branch.”

Our princess pales, “I’m sorry…”

I pat her shoulder, “It can happen, we’re still a new team. We’ve got plenty of time to coordinate better tactics. Honestly it wasn’t even a bad combination, just not the kind of thing for when we’re all in the same small clearing.” Looking back at Jane, “So they were a part of the hidden village I’m guessing.”

“Less hidden these days,” she confirms while hoping over a fallen log in the path, “once Zinnia became champion here in Hoenn, other regional dragon tribes started sending youths here. Challenging the next big name Dragon Master you know. Now it's kind of an international dragon clan thing. Very traditional, and super competitive.”

Naomi looks like she’s about to add on but points ahead of us instead.

We spot the familiar faces of team Alpha Dragon battling what might be that same flock of Swablu.

Amy’s Flaaffy is sending sparks to ward off the flock while Chet’s Combusken lands a kick against a lone bird.

I signal to go around.

A moment passes before we hear the cheers from all three boys.

Jane grins, “Good for them. Next time we battle they’ll actually have dragons.”

Naomi giggles, “But mine will be better.”

“Okay,” I can’t help but smile, “Actually, I have my Skrelp, you gonna catch a dragon Jane?”

She raises a brow, “I have Ares… Otherwise, do you know who Cynthia is? She’s also a Crown winner, her Mega Garchomp is beyond amazing.”

Huh, “I think I saw that Garchomp can be found here in Hoenn?”

Naomi adds in while carefully avoiding a prickly looking fern, “A small population can be found in the dunes north of Mauville. An experimental introduction that got loose after the last major eruption of Mt.Chimney.”

“Well I guess we’ll add it to our endless to do list.”

The girls chatted away the rest of the trek, thoroughly distracted from the awful battle earlier... And my non-standard catch.

-----

We stop at the pokemon center on the way home where Cindy introduces me to rather intimidating Staraptor. The bird is black and white with a rebellious red plume of feathers on his head.

Jane looks enamoured while I read the letter he flew in with, along with a small courier case. I place the Bagon’s ball inside and give the bird a nod.

Like a black bolt the four foot bird of prey disappears into the sky. Twenty minutes later while I’m turning the corner to Lacy’s street I receive notification of the package's safe arrival to the ranch and a deposit in my Poke Account.

“Coming up on Fifty mil.” The total in my account is staggering personally, even if I know the exchange rate means some of those zeros are fluff. Even lemonade costs three digits here.

Naomi doesn’t pay attention but Jane nearly trips, “How’d that all add up so fast old man?”

“The boat sale percentage was the majority.”

Now Wattson nods, “There is a very limited supply of large ships built internationally each year.”

Right, if each country has only one small shipyard at best.

Jane cuts my thoughts off, “You recognise that truck Kurt?”

In Lacy’s driveway is a white truck, the same sort I saw parked at Birch’s pokemon lab.

As we get closer a large green turtle head pokes up over the front hedges and watches us approach. The basketball sided face is attached to a neck that gets longer and longer as we get closer until I’m face to shell with a brontosaurus in tortoise form. The opening it’s long neck stretches from looks like a massive lily flower that smells heavenly.

My dex app pings, “Mega-Meganium, native to Johto, Meganium are the peacekeepers of the subtropical forests. Their breath revitalises dying plants with a steroid like pheromone.”

Geez, “Everyone has a Mega something don’t they?”

A brunette woman in jean overalls and a green shirt laughs from the doorway, “Just the best Kurt, It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Lyra, I work with Professor Elm at the Pokemon Lab in Johto. Professor Birch told us you were part of the cross regional egg project so I’m here to see how yours is doing.”

Jane, ever the pro fan, points, “You’re in the Johto Elite Four! The Sacred Garden Priestess!”

She pouts, “Ya, that. Anyway your lovely fiance was just showing me your team’s Eggs!”

We enter under the quiet gaze of the long necked, flower tortoise.

Some equipment is set up in the living room with both eggs resting on pillows. Small suction cups with wires attached run to a laptop looking monitor that’s showing two resting heart rates.

Lacy is in full doctor mode and uniform, applying some gel to what looks like an ultrasound device, “You three are finally back, well, I guess we've only been waiting thirty minutes, but the center here in Rustboro doesn’t have an egg monitor this high end!”

She starts with Naomi’s ralts egg. On the monitor we can see a black and white image of what looks like a flowering plant bulb.

Lyra smiles, “She’s perfect and almost ready to come out, tomorrow or the next day in fact!”

Naomi hops a bit before biting her lip, “Can this tell if she’s the blue variant? Her mother is a shiny.”

I catch the lab gal rolling her eyes but her response is polite as can be, “unfortunately not, there’s no light to expose color. This just allows us to see the shape in high detail and those devices let us listen to the pokemon’s heart, breathing, and detect what type of natural energy the pokemon radiates.”

I chuckle, “So basically everything But color.”

Lacy smiles as she moves on to my egg, “Now for the real experiment.”

We see the image that looks like a balled up anteater, a pangolin from earth. The little armor plates even come to points instead of square like a normal sandshrew. The little back foot claws twitch at the egg shell.

Lyra checks the measurements, “A male, four, five days at most till he hatches. Vitals are very strong . The readings show ground and steel type energy.” He lips curl up, “Seems we’re on track for a successful hybrid.”

--------