C053 - Witnessing a (semi-)legendary evolution

Despite coming in to help save a life at a crucial time, Pete had little hope that he could get a grown Dragonair as a permanent pokemon on his side.

Why was he so excited to meet him then? Well, according to 'A coward's tale', the book he found on dragon pokemon, most dragons had so much pride that they would seek out opportunities to get even desperately.

If it didn't mean becoming his pokemon, it meant helping teach his pokemon dragon type moves. But Pete had another matter that would drive the stakes even higher.

'Duosion mentions that a Kingdra couple did this to you? I could help you get even,' Pete offered through a psychic link he had opened with the male Dragonair who was protecting his Dratini sons.

'No no, I won't send my pokemon to help you fight them,' Pete responded to Dragonair's angry query. He knew better than to stomp on a dragon's pride.

'Once your son is better, I could help teach you Hyper Beam,' Pete proposed once the dragon calmed down.

Dragonair's attention was now fully on Pete instead of his recuperating son. Not even Elm stepping forward and gently applying potions to the wounds broke his focus on Pete.

'What I want in return?' Dragonair nodded once Pete understood his question. 'Well, I won't ask you for your servitude or one of your sons. I want you to teach my pokemon some dragon moves instead. To those who have the aptitude anyway.'

As Pete and the others watched Dratini's wounds closing, Pete was inwardly celebrating. Dragonair had agreed and confirmed that he knew the moves Dragon Dance, Dragon Pulse, and Dragon Tail! Snivy and his two Milotic would become absolute monsters with those moves in their arsenal.

Away from prying eyes, even if he wouldn't mind much anymore that Jasmine, Sophie, Herbert, and Valentino would know, Pete took his TM to the lake later that day after dinner.

Dragonair and his Dratini had relocated and were further healed by his pokemon, especially the two Milotic. Though, the female Milotic was much more enthusiastic to help.

After teaching the move Hyper Beam to Dragonair, Pete also used his TMs to teach a move to the Dratini's. One of them got to learn Surf, while the other one was taught Fire Blast. Pete thought they could just teach the typing energy and moves to each other later on like that.

In the following five days that had Professor Elm in a constant research high, Pete used four more TMs on the grown Dragonair. With Reflect, Safeguard, Dig, and Hidden Power, Dragonair's move pool became much more versatile.

The young farmer and assistant professor also thought about trying to teach it one of the TMs Elm had brought: Moonlight. A restorative fairy move using 'moon energy' to heal your own wounds that some of his pokemon had successfully learned this week. Fairy was, after all, one of the weaknesses of Kingra. But Pete reluctantly admitted that it was likely going to fail. The Dragonite line couldn't learn any fairy moves to his knowledge.

So, Pete taught the move to a few of his pokemon with a good chance for fairy affinity like the Minccino, the Milotic, and the Azumarill family, of which Azurill evolved to Marill this week. He even taught it to some of the wild Vileplume.

They had every reason to stay loyal and keep up the daily Grassy Terrain blessings, but giving them another edge for fighting back during the night would cement their loyalty even deeper. He was hoping they would learn Moonblast fairly quickly based on the fact they all knew Solar Beam already, and the move was similar but with another celestial body at the center.

Eevee was spared from learning Moonlight. After a talk with the young pokemon, he learned that Eevee wanted to become a psychic type pokemon, which Pete was okay with.

He had a talk with the pokemon how that was going to work and asked Duosion and Farigiraf to try teaching it some psychic moves ahead of time. He likely wouldn't learn many before his eeveelution, but who knew? Eevee could learn Rest at the very least in the games and was taught the move through TM.

Sylveon would have been worth a research paper because the pokemon was very rare and nobody had yet linked it to Eevee learning a fairy type move and going through the same process as Espeon and Umbreon, but Pete could always find another Eevee or advise a trainer and do his paper after that.

So he wasn't too sad about the choice of his pokemon. It wouldn't do to do it all in the first month of this life anyway. And if he would have to choose to be a breeder for any pokemon, it would have been Eevee anyway.

At the end of the five days, Pete and his guests who were spending the day at the beach saw Dragonair a good distance away in the lake succeed in using Hyper Beam for the first time, and that resulted in the first ever recording of a Dragonair evolving into a Dragonite.

"Absolutely marvelous! Magnificent! I have only seen Lance's Dragonite once! Pete, you really are my lucky star," Professor Elm shouted with stars in his eyes as he was present as well to study the Dratini playing on the beach with all of their pokemon. He looked just about ready to swim over for a closer look.

"Man, I'm so glad I came back a little early today," Valentino mumbled from the side as he watched the evolution with his binoculars.

"Is it really safe for us to hang around?" Vivian whispered in worry with Benny in her arms. The young boy was a bit cranky because his mom ripped him away from the sandcastle he was building but was quickly enchanted by the evolving pokemon.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, no worries, Viv. Dragonair's, well Dragonite's pride won't allow him to attack the one who helped his son recuperate. In his mind, I might even be the reason he got to evolve. So we're extra save," Pete reassured the scared mother.

He could understand. After all, Dragonites were almost mythical omen of disaster before Lance became the trainer of one and dispelled a lot of misconceptions about the pokemon. It was scary nonetheless with her son nearby. A mother's instincts were hard to beat.

Instead of staying a long but thin snake-like pokemon, Dragonite now had a bodytype resembling Tyrannitar. He was a little taller than all the adults, even Elm, and looked a little goofy all things considered.

Yet nobody would underestimate THE original Kanto dragon pokemon. Especially now that it knew Hyper Beam.

"Hey, hey, look at the lake."

Jasmine's whisper-shout roused Pete from his concentration.

Usually, the aura of a dragon pokemon, especially one as powerful as Dragonite, would drive away weaker pokemon. Who would want to fight versus a pokemon and prideful as that after all. But it looked like a group of Tentacruel and Tentacool were feeling particularly daring today.

Instead of swimming away, the group of 15 pokemon surfaced and started making noises. Three of them even swam closer and started gathering poison type energy.

'Did they feel like Dragonite would claim this territory and drive them away? Where did they even come from? Guess the Milotic aren't as intimidating as I thought,' Pete thought to himself.

He was about to order his pokemon to counterattack as most of them in or near the water used the move Safeguard to defend against the poison, but it wasn't necessary.

Dragonite finished the evolution, noticed the attack, turned around, and opened his maw. It wasn't the first time Pete saw the move. He had seen the move devastate a whole battlefield. Even still, Rapidash's version looked a little more powerful.

But a Dragonite's Hyper Beam simply felt different. Pete looked on in astonishment as Dragonite held the Hyper Beam for four whole seconds. When he was done, there were no more Tentacruel or Tentacool on the water's surface.

"Did you get a recording of that, too?" Professor Elm asked with a gulp and eyes open so wide they looked just about ready to pop out.

"Y-yeah," Pete affirmed with a nod. His eyes didn't sparkle any less than Elm's.

"Ma-ma! Ma look!" Benny shouted to get his mom's attention.

Vivian was about to tell him that she also saw that astonishing display of power, but the boy pulled her sleeve in another direction. Namely toward the beach, not the lake.

"*Gasp!* Pete, look! Your Trapinch is evolving!"

Pete's head snapped to his ground pokemon that had been relaxing in the sand and digging holes all over. It was her favorite pastime for some reason. It should have been her modus operandi to trap pokemon and eat them, but Pete fed her quite generously without the need for traps.

"Was it the dragon energy in the air that prompted this? Ah, what a wonderful day!"

"Hehe, dad is going to be so mad he missed this," Sophie gleefully added. Herbert was out today to help receive a shipment with his son Buddy.

Vibrava, the evolved form of Trapinch, looked nothing like a dragon. Well, it did look like a particularly sturdy DRAGONfly, but just looking at the pokemon would not convince you it is a dragon pokemon. The fact that it remains in the bug egg group throughout its evolutions did not help this fact.

When Vibrava first beat her wings after the evolution finished, she did not lift off. Instead, all the sand began to shake, flatten out into an even surface, and then ripple like waves. Everyone had to quickly step left and right because the effect of all this shaking resulted in a kind of quicksand effect that would have swallowed them otherwise.

"I get why Oak decided to give this pokemon the name 'the vibration pokemon'," Elm exclaimed with a laugh. Today really was his day.

"Now Valentino, get me a male Scyther or Yanma, and let us confirm the egg group! I want to see her offspring gain a flying type 'egg move'!"

Pete almost fell over when he heard Elm's order.