C011 - 3 Mystery Pokemon revealed

It was early morning, and Pete woke up with warm, soft fur spread all over his face. After his miserable last night in the wild with constant Noctowl hoots keeping him awake, this night felt particularly invigorating.

With tired eyes, Pete softly reached up and gently tilted his head to place the two Minccino that had curled up on his forehead and laid spread over his nose respectively on the pillow next to him.

Even if he wanted to, he couldn't get mad at them for using his face as a bed. They simply looked too cute doing it. And despite them growing at a record pace in the last two days, almost growing by half of their weight at birth Pete reckoned, they were still light as a feather, really.

Instead of getting up like he usually would, Pete wanted to stay in this bliss a little longer. A safe home, a quiet night for the very first time in the pokemon world - that was what it was all about for Pete. This was what he wanted to achieve here in this world.

Several minutes later, the sunshine became more and more obvious in the room, so Pete eventually peeled himself out of the bed. With a silent prayer for the well-being of his brother and his family, Pete finally stood up.

Pete first picked up his clothes from the chair he had hung over to dry and got dressed for the day.

With quiet steps, Pete left the room after checking on the eggs and tucking in his three pokemon that were still in very deep sleep. The bowl of berries had one whole fruit missing and a few pieces of a Leppa berry left, so at the very least one of his pokemon got up in the night and ate something. That was a good sign.

Pete had left his bag for food items near the kitchen and immediately busied himself with preparing a nice breakfast for everyone.

There was no Rapidash and no Quilava in the kitchen like before, so he had to heat a giant pot of water for the potatoes the 'old-fashioned' way on the stove.

By the time he was done washing and dicing a small moutain of potatoes, the water had just started simmering.

That done, Pete got a giant pan out, spread some oil on it, and started cutting up some veggies, a handful of Yoseban fruit the professor had in his huge fridge and a few Bocan mushrooms from his own bag. Mindful that a small boy was eating together with them, Pete only added four of the smaller ones for flavor in the giant portion he was cooking.

He wasn't all too sure all with these new veggies and their cooking time, but he went by how hard they were raw and threw the ingredients into the pan one after the other. Eventually, he fished out the cooked potato pieces and threw them into the pan too to complete his stir-fry for breakfast.

He kept the potato water on simmer because he noticed this world's potato didn't bleed out as much starch as his old world's potatoes did. So he threw in all his cut up left-over veggie pieces, some fresh greens and a handfull of regular vegetables he only 'opened' but didn't cut into pieces, and tried out if these ingredients would allow him to make a useable veggie broth.

It would take a good two to three hours minium, so he kept the pot on low to medium heat and allowed it to stew.

"Wow, that once again smells amazing, Pete," a voice interrupted Pete's musing.

"Hey, good morning, Vivian! I was really hungry for some stir-fry, so I got ahead of myself. I hope you don't mind. It's a rather light meal despite the potatoes, so I think it's a great breakfast food. Also, I really wanted to make something with Yoseban fruit," Pete explained with an enthusiastic smile.

"Heyhey, slow down, cowboy. I didn't need to cook this morning, I'm already sold," Vivian answered with a smirk.

"What's that in the pot? It looks like you suddenly got lazy," Vivian quipped after stepping closer to inspect his food.

"Hmm? That's vegetable broth. You can keep it refrigerated for a while and use it to start soups and sauces. Great way to get extra taste, and you don't waste food you normally would with all the leftovers from cutting veggies. It's something my grandma taught me. Have you really never heard of it?"

"No, never. Explain everything," Vivian ordered with an excited glint.

During the explanation, the other residents of the house slowly woke up. Professor Elm brought down a still very much sleeping Benny still dressed in his pikachu onesie pajama. Before he was ready to eat, Pete brought out a portion of the stir fry and a bucket of vitamin infused water for Rapidash and Ponyta. Rapidash immediately turned to him and softly neighed in greeting but stayed laid down next to her foal.

"Hey, did you sleep well? Nobody bothering you?"

Rapidash gently shook her head with an amused neigh.

"That's nice. I brought you some breakfast and a drink. I would also like to ask if you want to learn the move Hyper Beam? Because I uh, I found a TM, you know that machine, right? It can teach the move to you. We could use it for you, I thought. Are you interested?"

Rapidash thought for a while and agreed. He balled the mother and left Ponyta alone for a while after Rapidash gave her okay. He woke up because it was a little cold. He was very confused that his mother was gone, but the yummy water and some interesting new food was placed before him so he was properly distracted.

The process of teaching the TM Hyper Beam to Rapidash took four minutes. However, she would still need to train it. The learning wasn't instant. Once done, the two arrived back in the pasture to see Ponyta happily eating the food Pete had prepared. With that out of the way, Pete got back inside, and the family of the professor was waiting for him at the table.

"Sorry guys, got a little carried away. You didn't need to wait for me," Pete excused his long absence with a chuckle.

"Nonesense. We've been here barely a minute, and it wouldn't do to eat without the chef. Come sit with us," Vivian countered with a warm smile, so Pete quickly sat down.

"Mmh, delicious yet again. Thanks, Pete," Elm praised as he ate a few mouthfuls. This morning, it was Vivian's turn to make sure Benny properly ate, but it wasn't a fight like last time's dinner. Maybe Benny picked up on the fact that Pete was an alright cook.

"Anything you want to do today, Pete?" Elm eventually asked and broke the companiable silence of the breakfast.

"Oh, yeah. I know it's a little embarrassing, but could I get some money for essentials and some clothes? I could trade you some luxury balls?" Pete awkwardly scratched his head.

He already felt like a beggar before, but as much as possible he didn't want to spread his possessions too thin and let all kinds of people know what he owned and what he had enough of to sell. Team Rocket lookouts were everywhere.

"What are you saying? You already have your first month's salary on your trainer ID together with a little signing bonus. All your classifications on 'egg groups' yesterday catapulted my research directly into the next phase. Once I confirm all your observations, I can finally move on to another topic!"

"You.. thanks, professor!"

"No worries, you deserve that much. So grocery shopping - Vivian could probably show you around town? It's only a few shops anyway, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind? What else?"

Vivian happily nodded along, her warm smile told Pete that she would indeed love accompanying him to town.

"I would - no, wait! There's something I wanted to do for a whole while, but I always either forgot, or it simply wasn't safe. I have three pokeballs with me that are clearly in use but were just left there during the storm, no trainer anywhere near us. I wanted to open them to release the pokemon and possibly convince them to stay. But I uh, I was afraid they were hostile and Rapidash wouldn't be enough to save me. Do you think you could help with that, professor?"

"Intriguing, what other mysteries are you hiding?" Professor Elm asked with a laugh, but Pete stiffened a little. The more he got to know the man, the less Pete liked lying to him.

"Uh.. I know about dusk stone evolutions that to my knowledge aren't known in Johto?"

"You do!? No, wait, you're hired already. Your knowledge doesn't simply vanish. One thing at a time Let's concentrate on your pokeballs. How long have you had them?"

"Almost a week, I think. Roughly at the first day of the storm," Pete mumbled.

"Oh, those poor pokemon. They must be bored out of their minds and hungry!"

"Yeah, actually, that's why I increased the portion by so much this morning," Pete admitted with a chuckle.

"Alright, let's solve this mystery! You get the balls. I prepare some of your food, drinks, and safety measures outside next to the pasture. I'm sure you'd feel better with Rapidash around," Professor Elm ordered and stood up to run out. His plate still had some food on it, and Vivian could only roll her eyes.

"See? What a stinky poke nerd. Go, I know you want to stand up, too. I'll save you your plate for later," Vivian told Pete with a cute snort. Benny tried to imitate her snort but couldn't, so he started pouting.

"Alright, thank you so much, Vivian!"

Pete ran to his room to grab the pokeballs. His two Minccino were still sleeping, but Solosis was up.

'Hey girl, good morning. Want to come with me to find out who your three mystery roommates were from the metal case I found you in?' Pete thought when Solosis floated over, emitting happy thoughts in their mental link.

'Solosis!' She happily agreed and grabbed another Oran berry with her psychic powers for breakfast.

'I got some cooked food for you, too. I made an extra large serving so that maybe we can keep those three new pokemon with us. What do you think?'

As Pete grabbed some extra luxury balls, treats, and a supplement - anything he could use to bribe a pokemon, really, Solosis showed that she was unsure about it. And how could she know? She didn't know what pokemon were inside those balls and what they have been through.

"Ah, Pete, over here. Meet my oldest friends. Meganium and Feraligatr. They have been with me since before I met my mentor, Professor Steyox. You two, meet my newest assistant, Pete," Professor Elm waved Pete over to the pasture while standing next to a giant blue bipedal crocodile with spiky red ridges running along his back and a grass-green, long-necked dinosaur with a flower around its neck and two yellow antenna between its eyes. The professor had also called Rapidash over.

"Hey, nice to meet you, Meganium and Feraligatr! I'm Pete. Thanks for helping out. Well, since you two look so strong, I'm guessing the professor asked you over for our protection?" Pete asked, having learned some sweet talking from the professor the day before when he inspected Solosis.

Both pokemon looked very pleased and nodded to him.

"Haha, great, you guys hit it off. Both of them have a little nest in the forest near the lab's pasture for their offspring, so they don't always hang around. But we got lucky, and they decided to pay us a visit, a lucky coincidence," Professor Elm explained why Pete didn't see them before.

"Alright, one by one or all together?"

"You found them all together, right?"

"Yeah, I did. Why does that matter?"

"Well, if they belonged to the same trainer, they might feel more safe if they are among pokemon they know. So it would be better if we released them together. They've been starved inside those balls for so long, I really doubt they could harm anyone with my two friends and Rapidash here," Professor Elm explained.

"Alright, makes sense. I'll release them together then," Pete agreed and threw out all three pokeball in quick succession.

Once the release-light as Pete coined it finished forming the pokemon, he was greeted by three clearly very young pokemon.

A black and white unicorn-zebra with a white horn that looked like a lightning bolt that Rapidash immediately had the urge to run and fuss over. This was a Blitzle, an electric pokemon that under Pete's laws of the world was pretty powerful. With the abilities Lightningrod and Motor Drive it would draw all electric type attacks to it and at the same time get faster and faster the more electric attacks it was hit by.

Next to it was a charcoal-grey furred fox with a red-tipped tuft on its head, red-tipped fur boots, red-furred mean-looking eyebrows and a black fur scarf. Looking at it, it felt like it going in and out of your vision by just standing there. Clearly its ability Illusion was trying its hardest to hide its true appearance but this Zorua was clearly too weak.

And again next to it was a pokemon that was probably a researcher's wet dream. Its pokedex entry in the game reads that it was created by an ancient civilization who had created these pokemon through unknown means and that it runs on an energy that nobody knew what it was. Since then there were new pokemon, but they all came from the first of their kind.

Pete knew it was a ghost/ground pokemon and that they were fierce protectors of whoever they considered as their master. An acquaintance of his MC had a Golurk, its evolved form. But sadly, Pete did not write about how he could go about becoming its master.

Golett; a round, turquoise and black body with short, turquoise legs and a noxious-looking green lighting up certain parts like his eyes and the rectangular turquoise tablet strapped to its chest in a swirl with right angles.

It was just staring ahead, right into Pete's eyes by chance. Different from the mental link he had with Solosis, something else clicked in Pete's mind at that moment.