25 1. Five years later

It was late morning at the farm. There was a cool breeze blowing through, lingering from winter. The first signs of spring had started to show, chasing away any other signs of winter. Inside the Leone house, Mariah and Dennis were in the dining room while talking and eating some snacks Mariah made. Sitting down with them was a boy with short brown hair and stary eyes. This was Robert, who was now ten years old.

Robert was taller and a bit tanner now with slight muscle tones but not much had changed about his general features. The biggest change was that he seemed to give off a wild feeling now. Like he was full of mysteries with a hint of danger hidden behind it.

The twins managed to get their Snubbull past lv 20 before the inspector came and passed. They were soon taken away to the junior league not long after. They received letters from them through the union and from what they have heard both girls are doing well for themselves.

One thing that Robert heard from them surprised him. There was a boy there in the same age group as them that was being quite flirty. At first, Robert was irritated that someone was trying to annoy his sisters but when he saw who it was it completely floored him, Brock!

It slipped his mind because he was at this farm most of the time and only occasionally went to Olivine city when someone was headed there to sell stock and get supplies. He could meet famous people from the game or anime in this world.

This only added to his excitement for this junior league. Most of those famous people were strong trainers so there had to be more than a few present. "So Roby, are you nervous about tomorrow?" Robert was snapped out of his thoughts by Mariah's question. He quickly shook his head and responded, "nope not at all. I feel like I've been waiting forever for this." Dennis cracked a little smile at his response, "yes we know. we didn't realise before that the union only sends out people to check someone on the year they turn ten, then you go off to join at the beginning of the following year". Robert was still bitter about this.

He worked hard in the first year that his sisters had been gone and managed to get Eevee over the mark. Only then the Leone's found out that the junior league didn't accept early entries. They said that the course would put too much stress on anyone under 10, both physically and mentally. Robert could understand their point but he was an exception dammit. The only thing he could do was wait another four years.

After two years under Jackson's teachings, he had all the basics down. Jackson didn't want to teach much after that, he said the teachers he would have at the junior league would be far better than him so he wanted to avoid teaching anything that they would know better.

For the last three years, he still worked hard and did what he could. He spent a lot of that time in the jungle with his two Pokémon, he never went far but he enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by nature.

Most of those three years were spent working on himself and it took a lot of effort, but he can finely use his second ability, to an extent.

It works kind of works like a spirit radar. It's like his soul sends out a signal and he can pick up feedback from the spirits of any living thing within range. The time he spent in the jungle helped a lot with this. If it's close enough he can even vaguely tell its emotions, like if it's scared or angry. So far the max range is about 25m and he can only pick up on emotions at 10m.

Another thing he discovered is that if he spends a lot of time with a certain individual and develops a strong bond, he can feel them from a lot further away and more complex emotions. So far this is most obvious with his Eevee and Vulpix. He can pick them up from about 40m and can sometimes vaguely feel what they are thinking without even looking at them.

This skill has a lot of room for improvement still. He couldn't keep it active for long either, it took a lot of concentration and soon gave him headaches if he pushed it. At least now he had finely got a grasp on it.

"I'm off to the pond mum, dad. I'll see you both later". After saying that he headed outside and headed towards the back of the house. About 20m behind the house was a large pond, Dennis had hired a local trainer in Olivine city to dig it out and fill it with his ground and water type Pokémon. In this pond lived Roberts third Pokémon.

True to his word Dennis found it after just under a year of searching. It was Dark Silver grade Talent. Although Robert hoped for a little better he was satisfied with this, he was shocked to hear this one also had its hidden ability. Robert was more than happy with this, his only trouble now was finding a good item to boost its talent when it evolves.

When a Pokémon evolves it can take in a lot more energy at once so this is the best time to try and boost its talent. Unlike his other two that need special conditions to evolve, this little guy evolves through level up and he knows it's close. Hopefully, the junior league will have something he can use.

While Robert was thinking all this, he reached the pond bent down and splashed the water a little. "where are you little buddy, I brought you a treat." Right after he said that there was some splashing from the middle of the pond, then a big red fish raced over calling out "Karp, Karp, Karp". Robert smiled as his Magikarp swam over.

This Magikarp is the Pokémon Robert requested from his parents. Robert has always loved Gyrados and even if they were notorious in this world for their bad tempers and difficulty to train, he wanted one. He was hoping that he would be at the junior league by the time it evolved so if things got dangerous the teachers there could step in.

His parents were thinking the same thing when they agreed to get him a Magikarp. When they found out that it would take another four years before he could go they suggested maybe giving this one up and getting another lower level one. Robert vehemently refused, this Magikarp was his and he would never give up a Pokémon.

Robert often came to the pond to play with and bond to this Magikarp in hopes that when it evolved it would be more inclined to listen to him, or at least be a little nicer. As he played with Magikarp he couldn't help but brush his hand against the two Pokéball's on his belt and mutter to himself. "It's finely here guys. Tomorrow the inspector arrives, and we can all head out. I really can't wait."