8 Unnamed

The next morning Carl woke with two pokemon draped over him. Smiling at the pair, he carefully wriggled out from under the two of them.

Exiting the tent, he opened the Warehouse and used the bathroom there to do his business and clean up. Just because he was roughing it for the sake of finding pokemon didn't mean he had to fully give up the luxury of a modern bathroom when he had it available.

Once Carl had breakfast ready, he called Fiona and the Ralts over. The two were enthusiastic for breakfast, bringing a smile to Carl's face.

After cleaning up again, Carl smiled gently at the Ralts. "Would you like to join me and Fi on our journeys?" Carl got straight to the point, seeing as the Ralts seemed to want to hang around them. The Ralts firmly nodded yes.

"Okay, I'm going to need to bind you to a pokeball so you can stay with us. It's also for your protection. If you are ever injured, putting you back in the pokeball will keep you stable until we can get you healed. Don't resist the pulling sensation, okay?" Carl asked.

Seeing the Ralts nod, Carl pulled out a pokeball and gently tossed it next to her. She was easily sucked in to the pokeball. A pokeball binds to a single pokemon. Once bound, it wouldn't change unless you took the ball to a factory for a reset.

Carl picked up the ball, and soon activated it, letting the Ralts out again. Carl smiled at the Ralts encouragingly. He then reached out and connected mentally with her like he had with Fiona.

In the past world, when Carl was 27 he could connect to 5 people at a time, which made the sex with his girls beyond fantastic, when everyone could share mentally what they wanted or what made them feel good.

Now that Carl was 12 again, he felt like 2 mental links were his limit, until he grew and trained up again.

[This is Carl.] Carl transmitted to the Ralt's amazement. [I've connected a mental bond between the three of us. What should we call you?]

[I don't have a name.] The Ralt shyly said.

[How about the name Rhona? Does that sound like a good name for you?]

Rhona nodded enthusiastically, sending feelings of happiness across the bond. Carl looked over at Fiona and saw she too was happy their team had grown by one.

"Well, now that we're a team, its best we get used to each other's moves and abilities so we can work together without getting in each other's way." Carl stated. He then opened the portal to his warehouse, and led Rhona inside.

He explained about his warehouse ability and how they would use it to help the team. He lead Rhona over to the obstacle course and training setup he'd put up the previous day, to find Fiona already waiting for them.

"Okay, first thing we're going to do is a timed obstacle course. Don't worry about how long it takes you, or if you're doing good or bad. Just do your best. This is only to see where your abilities are. Fi, will you go first to show Rhona how it's done?"

At Fiona's nod, Carl called "Go!" while starting the timer. Carl and Rhona watched as Fiona zoomed through the obstacle course, juking left and right through the obstacles, bouncing over and under the fences. She soon arrived at the end point. "Good job, Fiona. 1 minute 43 seconds." Carl recorded her time in his laptop.

"Okay, your turn, Rhona. Ready? Go!" Carl started the timer. Rhona was noticeably slower, taking nearly twice as long as Fiona. "Time. 3 minutes 23 seconds. Good job, Rhona."

Rhona looked heartbroken at her slow time. [I'm so slow, though.] She complained.

Fiona moved over and nudged her encouragingly. [Don't worry about it, Rhona. I'm just exceptionally fast.] She half bragged, half consoled. [Just because you're not as fast as me doesn't mean you're bad. Remember, you're a Ralts while I'm a Fennekin. We're good at different things, so don't feel bad.]

After hearing that encouragement from Fiona, Rhona looked over at Carl, as if to question if that was true.

"What Fiona said is right, Rhona. Everyone has things they are good at, and I'm sure you've got talents that Fiona won't have. That's why we work as a team, to help each other be stronger than we would be alone." Carl gave an impromptu pep talk.

Seeing that Rhona perked up at that, Carl smiled. "Okay, next test will be-"

[Wait. You haven't gone yet, Carl!] Fiona pointed out.

[Yeah, yeah! It's Carl's turn!] Rhona joined in.

Carl laughed. "Okay, it's my turn." Carl gave in. He did say they were a team, after all. He has to put in as much work as any other member. He handed the stopwatch to Rhona and showed her how to start and stop the watch.

[Go!] Fiona called out.

Carl ran the course, actually having fun making use of his parkour skills to go as fast as he could. The ingenious course was set up to be variable in size, depending on who was running it. So the size of the obstacles adjusted to be larger for him.

[Time!] Rhona called out as Carl finished the course. [I can't read the time.] Rhona complained after looking at the watch for a few moments.

Carl looked over her shoulder. "2 minutes 41 seconds. Looks like I'm in the middle of the pack." Carl joked, causing the two pokemon to laugh. "Rhona, do you want to learn to read so you can tell time and other stuff like that?" Carl asked.

[Yes, that would be nice.] Rhona said.

[Ooh, me too!] Fiona said, not to be outdone by the other pokemon. Carl realized that even though Fiona has been with him for the past four years, she wasn't there when he first learned to read and write, so she hasn't learned in all that time.

"Okay, I'll see if I can't get some lessons prepared soon so you can learn. I'll have to pick up some books too, so you can practice. Or maybe some electronic readers or laptops?" Carl trailed of, thinking up plans on how to make reading and writing easier for the multitude of different size and shaped pokemon. It was a long term goal, something he would probably bring up with his dad the next time he went home. Probably after Fiona and Rhona have learned a bit more.

Seeing the two looking at him expectantly, Carl shook off his thoughts and plans, shelving them for later.

"Okay, next is to measure your attack abilities." Carl stated, moving over to what looked like a 5 foot tall and 5 foot diameter cylinder rock. "This particular item will measure your abilities. It will convert the strength of your attack to a range of numbers, based on the strength of the ability. Who wants to go first?"

Fiona swiftly jumped in front of the rock, excited to go first. She first attacked with Scratch, slashing the tester with her each of her front paws.

"Nice damage! Looks like a 17 for your right paw, and a 16 for your left, Fiona. Next attack." Carl cheered.

Fiona charged straight at the tester stone, swerving away at the last second while whipping it with her tail, before returning to her starting position.

"No damage, but it greatly decreases the enemy's defense, making them vulnerable to your follow on attacks. Very nice." Carl made sure the Tail Whip was dispelled from the stone. "How about your flame attack, now?"

Carl could see Fiona's ears brighten up, as she charged up her Ember attack, before spitting out a small fireball that swiftly flew and impacted the tester stone.

"41! Nice job Fiona." Carl praised.

[And that's why I'm the Queen of Speed and Fire.] Fiona bragged.

[You're a Queen?] Rhona oohed at her in awed respect.

[Of course!] Fiona affirmed.

[I'm so jealous.] Rhona said.

[Don't worry. Now that you're following Carl, you are at least a Princess.] Fiona comforted Rhona.

[I'm a Princess?] Rhona asked in wonder.

[Of course! You'll see when we return back home. We live in a castle, and we have servants. Sometimes Carl's parents invite the other nobility over for a ball. We always get the best food and accommodations, because we are royalty.]

[That is so exciting! I'm so happy I'm a princess now!]

Carl had a funny look on his face, his smile twitching at the edge, while listening to Fiona and Rhona's conversation. She wasn't exactly wrong, they did live in a large manor and had servants and parties. But to label them royalty was a bit…different…from what Carl thought their situation was. But he definitely wasn't going to try to convince the two girls they weren't royalty. That would just break their hearts and get him labeled a jerk, for absolutely no reason.

"Okay, how about you go now, Rhona?" Carl suggested.

Rhona stepped up in front of the stone, and let out a Growl. The visible sound waves, impacted the stone.

"No damage, but that attack would make an opponent weak. Their attack damage would be halved. That's a very useful ability for opponents that hit hard, Rhona." Carl praised.

The shy Ralt nodded happily at the praise. Rhona then used a different attack, sending a different sound wave attack.

"20, nice damage, Rhona. Do you have any other moves?"

Rhona shyly nodded. [My mother taught me one before she…went away.]

Sensing Rhona's distress at thinking of her probably dead mother, Carl gently placed his hand on her head, stroking her head in comfort. "When you're ready, then Rhona."

Rhona nodded. Opening her mouth, she blew a bubble of water that hit the stone.

Carl's mouth dropped opened in shock. Rhona just used a healing ability. For her mother to be able to teach such a young and immature Ralts a healing move, they both must be exceptional.

"Wow, that would have healed 40 points of damage! You two are amazing. Fiona is indeed the Queen of Speed and Fire, and you, Rhona, are the Queen of Healing!" Carl praised. He was indeed lucky to have such exceptional companions.

[Okay, your turn, Carl!] Fiona exclaimed.

Nodding, Carl stepped up to the stone. First he hit it with a palm strike. "8." He hit it with an elbow strike. "9." Then a front kick. "10." Feeling a bit depressed, Carl stepped back and summoned a wind blade that would be capable of decapitating a newborn vampire. He launched it at the stone. "17."

Sure, his magic wasn't as powerful as before because he wasn't able to train it yet. But for his two pokemon to be able that much stronger than him when they were all basically level 1 just kind of depressed him a bit. At least until he realized what his group could do to a bunch of vampires once they all leveled and trained up.

[Its okay, Carl. Even if you can't be a Queen at anything, you can still be a Princess.] Rhona consoled him.

'This kind of consolation…are they making fun of me?' Carl wondered.

"Of course I can't be a Queen, I'm a boy." Carl explained. "Only girls can be Queens or Princesses."

[Well, what is the boy version then?] Fiona asked curiously.

"A Prince is the boy version of a Princess. And a King is the boy version of a Queen." Carl explained.

[You can be Prince Carl then.] Rhona said in a helpful voice.

[That makes sense then why he's always making food for us. It's cause we are Queens, while he is a only a Prince.] Fiona said smugly, before the two started laughing at the little prank they had played on him.

Carl froze for a bit, before chuckling along with them. "You cheeky minxes." He muttered, wondering if having mental links so he knew when they were making fun of him was worth it. After considering it for a bit, he realized of course it was. Even if the joke was at his expense.

After the laughter settled down, Carl then started explaining to the two Queens how he wanted them to train on some targets, and he would monitor them with his magic as they wore themselves out, then recovered. They would experiment with repetitions and rest periods to find the best training method.

He would also evaluate how they reacted to different vitamin and medicinal supplements when taken before, during, and after training sessions.

They would also work on fighting as a team to integrate their attacks and attack patterns into a whole strategy to keep the enemy off balance and unable to strike back.

Once they had a schedule set, they got to work. And Carl wasn't exempt from the hard training. He needed to work hard to get to his peak ability, after all.

And each evening as Carl was cooking their dinner, he would talk with his parents about his progress and training. He would also hear the various anecdotes from home about his parent's lives. It was a nice time.

Five days after Rhona joined the group, Carl felt that they were working well as a group, so they started hunting around the area so Carl could capture one of each of the local groups of pokemon.

The pokemon that had been outside the clearing on the first day Carl had arrived had long since vacated the area. Fiona had such a wonderful sense of smell, though, she was able to make it easier on them to find the territory of different pokemon and track them down.

On the afternoon of the first day, they ran across their first wild pokemon, aside from Rhona that simply wandered into his campsite.

[There's a Budew hiding in the bushes over there, Carl.] Fiona thought while adding a little nudge of direction to her message so Carl and Rhona knew exactly where she was "pointing" to.

Looking over, Carl could barely make out the Grass/Poison type pokemon that looked like a walking, smiling plant hiding amongst the bushes.

[Okay, we won't go all out attacking him, cause we're trying to catch him. So we'll try this. Fiona, you hit him one time with a slash. We'll then judge if he is weakened enough for me to capture him with a pokeball. If he isn't, then Rhona can use your Disarming Voice to damage him once more. Sound good?] Carl thought at his two pokemon.

Sensing their approval of the plan through the link, Carl gave the go signal.

Fiona attacked like a flash. She was in front of the Budew before he knew anything was happening, and slashed him with her right paw. The Budew flew back from the attack, smashing into a tree behind him and then falling to the ground, unconscious.

Carl could see the slash marks from Fiona's attack start to ooze a little green blood. He was shocked for a second at just how much damage Fiona had done with one attack. It was more than he expected. She really was a higher tier than the average pokemon.

Quickly breaking himself out of his shock, he threw the pokeball and easily caught the Budew.

Now that the action was over, Carl was very relieved he didn't have the team go all out. They would have easily killed the Budew if they had.

"Well, that went a lot easier than I thought it would." Carl said. It was his first pokemon battle, and it was over so quickly. "Let's get him into a medical unit in the medbay. You really smacked him good, Fiona." Carl praised.

[But of course!] Fiona gloated.

[But I didn't even get to do anything.] Rhona complained while slumping down as they walked to the medical unit. She was a little down at not being able to show off too.

"Don't worry Rhona, we'll let you go first next time." Carl promised, causing Rhona to perk up in excitement.

Carl released the Budew and then placed the still unconscious pokemon into the medical unit. Closing the lid on the cylinder shaped medical unit, Carl hit the start button.

While watching the medical unit do its thing, Carl pulled out his laptop and synced the Budew's pokeball with his laptop, downloading the data. Comparing the data from the Budew with Fiona and Rhona, Carl once again marveled at his luck at having his first two pokemon be such high class pokemon. The stats on the Budew were pretty weak.

Carl debated with himself about whether or not he should keep the pokemon and train it up a bit, or look for a stronger Budew. Eventually Carl decided that since he didn't really have a baseline for how strong the average Budew was, he would keep this one for now, and continue to catch more around the area.

Whichever one was the strongest of each species his group caught would be the one he would keep long term and train, while letting the others go.

Over the next couple of weeks as Carl, Fiona, and Rhona hunted down the pokemon in the area, the capture of each went pretty much like the first combat. Both Rhona and Fiona were able to knock out the pokemon they fought with only a single hit.

They were a little dissatisfied with how weak their opponents were. Carl assumed that the further out into the wilds they went, the stronger the pokemon would be. He planned to test that assumption in a few weeks by going deeper into the wild, but for now, they would stick to their current hunting grounds. It was good practice for tracking down pokemon.

Fiona had an excellent nose for sniffing out the pokemon. After a few times of following Fiona on a hunt, Carl started paying more attention to his senses. He had paid for tier 4 senses, after all. It would be foolish not to learn while he could.

His sense of smell still wasn't as sharp as Fiona's was, but as he actively paid attention to what his nose told him, he started being able to use his nose to learn more about his surroundings. He could differentiate the scents of any creature that were close by.

He was also using his vision to start recognizing pokemon and animal tracks. Some of the tracks were made in soft soil, making obvious tracks that even his pre-upgrade eyes could have picked out. But so many of the tracks made by animals and pokemon were so faint, it was hard to differentiate an actual track.

Carl was making progress on seeing the tracks, mostly because he knew to look for them when following Fiona who was following scent trails. As the days passed, Carl's eyes really started to shine. The tracks almost seemed to become more visible to Carl each day as he got lots of practice in.

As time went on, Carl also soon learned to identify unseen objects based on sound. When nuts fell to the ground out of sight. When squirrels were running round the tree branches. He began to recognize all the little sounds that he never noticed before.

Even though Carl had upgraded his senses, until now he didn't have a database in his head of what each sound or smell was, thus he wasn't able to fully utilize his senses. But as he slowly built up the database of sounds, smells, and sights, he discovered a whole new world opening up to him.

Or rather, the world had always been there, the same as it always was. But Carl found himself aware of the world on a whole different level. He felt like he had been blind, deaf, and dumb all his life before now.

At the end of the two weeks of hunting, Carl, Fiona, and Rhona had caught several of each of the pokemon common to the area. The Grass/Poison type Budew, the Bug/Flying type Combee, a fairy type Flabebe, a Bug/Flying type Ledyba, and a normal type Skitty.

After comparing each pokemon based on their attack prowess and the growth potential Carl felt in them through his magic scans, he kept only one of each type for training, letting the rest of them go after healing them up.

Unlike Fiona and Rhona, who voluntarily joined Carl, the rest of the pokemon were forcefully captured, and Carl didn't have a magical mind talking link with them, so Carl had to spend time appeasing them and assuring them that he wouldn't treat them bad before they were willing to start working with him in their training routines.

After a few days of working with the new pokemon, Carl could tell the difference between the five newbies and Fiona and Rhona. Fiona and Rhona had a much bigger growth potential and they got stronger, faster, from the training, than the five other pokemon.

Carl hadn't quite planned ahead on just how much food seven pokemon would eat, even though most of them were very small. So after two days of training, he put the pokemon in their balls, except for Fiona and Rhona, packed up his camp, and made his way back to the road.

He then pulled out his bicycle and with his two pokemon in the basket, started peddling back to Lumiose City. He wanted to introduce "Queen" Rhona to his parents and their "Castle", while at the same time giving his father his training research notes and seeing if his father had a solution for how to feed a horde of pokemon while on a training journey. He definitely hadn't taken into consideration how the both he and the pokemon needed more food than normal when training.

When he arrived home, his parents were out socializing for the evening. He told the mansion staff not to call his parents with news that he was back. He had only been gone a couple weeks. He could wait until their scheduled evening was done rather than call them back and interrupt their night out.

While Carl was arranging his notes and gear, Fiona took Rhona on a tour of their "Castle". Carl simply smiled in amusement as they wandered off, hearing snippets of Rhona's oohing and ahhing over their magnificent new digs.

Later that night when his parents arrived home, they were surprised to see him home. Carl enjoyed spending the evening with decent parents again. The Chases back in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer world were absent at best. Obsessed with their fortune, reputation, and popularity, they could barely be called relatives, really.

But Clark and Claire did a wonderful job of staying down to earth good people despite their wealth. They were fun to spend time with.

The next day Carl joined his father at Poke co. Headquarters, going over his notes on training, gear, and what he realized he needed if he was going to keep catching pokemon and training them. After receiving so much data, his father was pretty happy. Apparently until now they didn't really have a decent way to get feedback from their costumers about the usefulness of their products, or what they desperately needed. So the information Carl was providing was priceless.

Even just figuring out an organized method to store enough food for a training team to remain in the outdoors without just stuffing it in a backpack was innovative.

Not to mention he had magic senses that could really dig deep into what was happening in the pokemon's bodies as they trained or used supplements. Carl's father didn't ask how he came across the knowledge he did, he simply trusted what information Carl gave him. Which warmed Carl's heart.

After going over the data, Clark soon got completely focused on his work, even forgetting to eat. He would have forgotten to go home for the day, if Carl wasn't there with him.

After a few days, Clark brought home some experimental feeding stations that Carl could set up for his groups of pokemon. Carl was happy about that. He didn't mind cooking meals for a group of three. But cooking every meal for a group of eight had started to get out of hand. And in the future he would only increase the number of pokemon he had to feed.

The feeding stations had the same pocket dimension setup the backpacks did. He could go to the pokemon store and purchases many bushels of each kind of food the pokemon preferred, and have it set out for them to eat from. It would save Carl time in food preparation, while ensuring each pokemon had enough food, vitamins, and supplements they needed to remain healthy and energetic.

Carl and Clark determined that he would try training the pokemon in groups of three for an hour at a time. If Carl tried to train too large of a group, he wouldn't be able to give the same amount of focus and attention each pokemon deserved.

After each training session, the pokemon could sit and observe the next group train, do self training, or simply laze around and nap or play. Carl didn't feel a huge sense of urgency to get strong quick in order to fight an overpowered monster, so he didn't plan to set up his training camp like a military boot camp.

After dinner each day, they would bed down around the temporary camp he would set up at each camp location. Carl decided that unless they were traveling, while they were training or hunting, he would leave the pokemon outside their pokeballs. That way the group could get to know one another, interact, and be used to working together.

Fiona and Rhona of course would not be going in the pokeballs even during travel, unless absolutely necessary. They were his "Queens", and he was very fond of their presence in his life. Their conversation often times made him smile or laugh.

After spending another week at home, Carl was re-outfitted with the new gear. He was enjoying the time he spent with his parents and the work he was doing in developing pokemon gear with Clark. It was fun and satisfying.

Carl, Fiona, and Rhona once more set off on their journey by bicycle. This time Carl made it to the forests surrounding Santalune city, where they would find new pokemon to capture and train with.

After leaving the highway, Carl began hiking into the woods, looking for a good place away from the highway to set up camp. After a couple of hours, he found a nice spot in a clearing near a river. Since all animals needed to drink, he could be assured that spending time going upstream or downstream from his camp to scout for sign of pokemon would be a good use of his time. So he set up camp, prepared to stay for a few weeks.

Carl and his pokemon soon got into a routine. He would spend the morning scouting for any sign of pokemon in the area with Fiona and Rhona. After lunch he would spend time training with the batches of pokemon he'd caught so far, as well as training himself, both magically and physically. Fiona especially seemed happy to boss around her subordinate pokemon, and encourage them to train.

And in the evenings, just before going to bed, Carl would log all his gathered data on their progress. Being able to closely track his team's progress in training and growing stronger would help him understand the needs of each individual pokemon. He would be better able to maximize their strength gains.

Then he would give Fiona and Rhona reading lessons. One of the projects that Clark had started the last time Carl had been home was to set a few researchers to figuring out how to make computer interfaces that would allow even animal shaped pokemon to read and type electronics.

If they could design a device to teach pokemon to read and type, every trainer with their device would be able to have actual conversations with their pokemon, not just play charades. Such a simple innovation would then make their company lots of money with all the people who would want to know exactly what their pokemon were trying to say.

He already knew from his education growing up that he couldn't directly apply what the pokemon used to get stronger on himself. Humans that tried to eat the same growth supplements usually had their bodies break down on them. Humans just weren't as robust as pokemon were.

While pokemon could be stored in pokeballs with no problem, if a human were to be put in a pokeball, they would come out brain dead. So there were certain safety measures put into place in the technology to ensure that never happened.

Four days after arriving at his spot on the river, Carl witnessed one of the most ridiculous scenes he'd ever seen. As he was following the river downstream, he saw a Magikarp majestically jump out of the water, snapping up a large juicy bug that had been taunting him. Only to fall onto the riverbank like an idiot. He just sat there, stupid mouth opening and closing, flopping a little bit. But the more he flopped, the further away he got from the bank.

Carl, Fiona, and Rhona all exchanged glances. Carl was wondering about the stupidity of that Magikarp. He's a fish, shouldn't he be trying to get back in the water?

[Maybe he's in pain and doesn't know what he's doing?] Rhona speculated.

"I'll check him out." Carl started scanning the big goldfish looking pokemon. Usually with a pokemon directly in front of him, Carl would be immediately trying to catch it. But he really didn't want such a stupid pokemon on his team.

"He's not hurt or anything." Carl said after a few moments of scanning him with his magic. "He doesn't actually feel distressed at all. He feels like he's straining for something. Trying to reach out for something."

[Is he trying to reach out for water?] Fiona asked. [He is a fish.] She defended herself when Carl and Rhona looked at her weird.

Then, before their eyes, the Magikarp started glowing from the inside. Carl could feel the energies inside the pokemon reaching a new tier, a higher tier. He saw the body shape of the fish start to change, like it was liquid. Stretching out and changing color, the pokemon was completely evolving into a new pokemon.

The new shape was vaguely serpentine. The scales on his back were a dark blue, while the belly was a lighter blue. He had two whiskers, hanging from his face, and he was now seven feet long. He almost looked like small cousin of an eastern dragon. Carl realized that the dumb fish had just evolved into Gyarados.

'Could this be like that Chinese saying, the fish leaps over the dragon gate in order to become a dragon?' Carl thought.

Carl could tell from his magic scanning the pokemon that he was much stronger now than he was as a Magikarp. But at the same time, Carl could tell that the fish hadn't maximized his potential.

When the pokemon was still a Magikarp, Carl sensed both its potential, and its actual power level. He had been monitoring these two levels for weeks on his other pokemon, so he was used to sensing it. The scans didn't return exact numbers, but he could vaguely sense that the fish pokemon was only at about half his full potential at the time he evolved.

But now that he had evolved, Carl could tell that the newly evolved Gyarados was at about 1% of his maximum potential. But the thing that puzzled Carl, was that he felt like half of the pokemon's maximum potential was locked.

This was a puzzle that Carl wanted to explore more.

"Fiona, subdue the Gyarados for me please. I need to learn more about what is happening with him."

[Right!] Fiona confidently declared.

The newly evolved Gyarados was just beginning to gather himself, and started floating around, getting used to his new body when Fiona arrived in front of him and started beating him up.

The Gyarados was immediately angered. Here he was, newly evolved and feeling like he was king of the world, when some small creature dared to challenge him! He immediately tried to bite Fiona, but she was too quick for him.

The moment he snapped at her, she was already gone, moving around his large frame, smashing him with her claws.

The Gyarados roared, angered beyond reasoning, and started wildly thrashing, trying to hit Fiona with his tail and water attacks from his mouth, but it availed him nothing. He didn't have the speed to keep up with her, and he was unused to fighting in his new form, allowing Fiona to dominate him.

Within a minute the Gyarados lay on the ground, exhausted, while Fiona stood to the side, proud of her performance. Carl wasted no time in capturing the exhausted pokemon.

"Nicely done, Fi!" Carl didn't forget to praise Fiona. Such a small fox subduing a much larger foe with speed was entertaining to watch.

[Yeah, good job Fi!] Rhona chimed in, clapping in excitement.

[But of course! It was me, Queen Fiona on the job!] Fiona proudly exclaimed. Carl just laughed, enjoying her confident attitude.

"Let's head back to camp early. I want to do some scans on this newly evolved Gyarados. Something is odd about his growth potential after evolving, and I'd like to find out what it is. What we find out may help you two for when it's time for you to evolve."

[But I don't want to turn into a fish or a snake!] Rhona exclaimed in horror. Fiona also gasped in horror at the thought of turning into a big dumb snake.

Carl had to really struggle not to laugh.

"No, don't worry, we're not trying to make you into a fish or snake." Carl reassured them. "I just need to understand pokemon evolution a bit more to help you two be the best you can be. It won't turn you into something weird, I promise."

The two pokemon sighed in relief that they would not be turning into anything weird.

When they arrived back at their camp, Carl first entered his Warehouse, going over to the medunit to heal the Gyarados from the beating he'd taken from Fiona.

Although Fiona had learned many new skills in the past weeks like Flame Charge, Psybeam, and Fire Spin, she held back greatly, only using her scratch attack. The serpentine pokemon had still taken quite a bit of damage that needed healing if Carl was to study him properly.

Looking at the medunit that would only barely fit the pokemon, Carl suddenly had an idea. He placed the pokeball the Gyarados was stored in on the medunit bed. Looking at the medunit screen, he saw that he could start the healing process while the pokemon was inside its ball.

This was great, he didn't have to risk further damaging injured pokemon by transferring them from their ball to the unit bed. And if they were too big for the bed, they could still be healed.

The biggest complaint Carl had against the medunit was that the only function it offered was healing when the start button was hit. It offered no diagnostic service, no data in the healing process, and no records of the patient's history.

But because he got free healing out of it, Carl couldn't complain too much. It helped his pokemon remain in peak condition while training, and allowed them to grow quickly, so he should just enjoy what he has, instead of complaining about it he often chided himself.

Over the next few weeks as he trained the Gyarados, he also caught some of the pokemon from the area. He found some Pidgey bird pokemon that he caught a couple of and kept the one with the most potential. Strangely the Pidgey looked more like an owl than a pigeon, which Carl was happy about. He didn't really like dumb pigeons.

He got really excited when he saw his first Pikachu, but after working with him a bit he found he was kind of betrayed by high expectations. He had the impression from his previous life that Pikachu was pretty cool, because he was that kid Ash's companion and they made a big deal about him. But the Pikachu was nowhere near Fiona or Rhona's growth potential. At least not the one's he found. He still kept one though. Gotta catch em all, right?

He also caught some rabbit looking pokemon called Bunnelby, another bird pokemon called a Fletchling that looked like a big headed sparrow, a groundhog looking pokemon called Bidoof, a bug pokemon called a Burmy, that looked like he was wrapped up in tree leaves, and a fairy type pokemon called Azuril looked like a squished mouse whose thin tail had a weird fluffy ball of fur as big as his own body that he liked to perch on when resting.

'Some of these pokemon are just fucking weird.' Carl thought on more than one occasion.

During all this catching and training of pokemon over a month's time, Carl carefully monitored the Gyarados' progress as he gained strength. After a month of hard training, the Gyarados had reached about 10% of his potential. He had also grown a few inches. Carl had records of some Gyarados being 21 feet long, so he figured their size was a mostly a result of their age, and that after several years this Gyarados would finally reach that size too.

As he gained more pokemon, Carl started having a little tournament once a week to get his pokemon used to the elimination style event. The winners would get some special treats and prizes in order to encourage them to try their best. Despite the Gyarados gaining much more practice in his new body, he still couldn't beat Fiona or Rhona.

The two self titled "Queens" simply had monstrous growth and learning curves. They learned and became practiced with a new move from Carl's HM Collection nearly every week, while the other pokemon Carl had were struggling to perfect their first three moves, even after a month.

After a full month of training, it was time to head back to town to resupply. Even with Carl supplementing their food supplies with wild animals and plants, their rations were getting low. Carl found that the idea of eating pokemon was almost sacrilegious to this world's culture, and that Carl, with his memories of growing up in this world, shared those same values. Normal animals were just fine to eat, but only degenerates ate pokemon.

Carl packed up his campsite and made his way back to Santalune City. As Carl was approaching the Santalune Market on his bicycle, he noticed a large crowd blocking the entryway. Curious about what was going on, he packed up his bicycle so he, Fiona, and Rhona could edge their way in so they could see just what was causing the commotion.

When he finally saw what was causing the commotion, Carl was flabbergasted. It was two teens who looked a couple years older than Carl, yelling at each other. The dark haired teen boy was dressed in jeans, a blue jacket, and a red hat. While the blonde girl was dressed in a red skirt, black leggings and shirt, and a red hat.

"So, what's going on here?" Carl asked a fellow onlooker, a middle aged looking man who was dressed in casual wear.

After glancing over at Carl, the man faintly laughed. "Dunno why, but the boy seems like he's trying to provoke the girl into a pokemon battle. Kids these days."

Focusing in on what was being said, Carl couldn't understand how the boy's brain worked. Didn't he know there were pokemon centers with battle rooms? Why did he have to go provoke a fight in the street and block traffic?

"And I'll prove, once and for all, that I'm the better trainer! You should just give up and go home, you don't have a chance at fighting against the Elite Four! You don't have the determination needed!" The boy in a blue jacket was shouting at the girl.

From the way she was gritting her teeth and glaring, it was probably a good thing for him she didn't have any pokemon powers, or he would be toast already.

"Fine! If it'll shut you up, we'll battle right here, right now!" She finally exclaimed while pulling a pokeball out of her bag.

"Good! Finally!" The boy exclaimed, also pulling out his own pokeball.