CHAPTER 16: POKÉMON DAY CARE

The breeders, seeing the rotomdex, looked quite surprised and curious, but decided not to say anything out of respect for Professor Kukui.

Thus, both Alec and Professor Kukui entered the nursery, which had different spacious rooms where another group of breeders were in charge of feeding and playing with some newborn pokemon.

This sight made Alec remember his time at the farm, where he was busy playing with the little pokemon before going to train with his discouraged mareep.

"Looks like it's been a long time since I left the farm, so maybe I should stop by when I get back to Unova before heading to Kalos."

As he was thinking about this, an older man with slightly graying hair and a stoop came over to greet Professor Kukui, who had parted ways with Alec so as not to interfere with his choice, before approaching Alec, which was where he caught the look of the child in front of him.

"That look..., hahahaha, what a boy for more interesting."

So, with a look of appreciation towards Alec, the old man came up to Alec's side saying:

"You've also taken care of baby pokemon, haven't you?"

Hearing this, Alec snapped out of his thoughts before bowing apologetically and greeting the man in front of him.

The man just waved his hand at him indicating that he didn't care about him, but he watched him carefully, waiting for Alec's response.

Alec seemed to understand this, so he quickly replied:

"He has a good eye senior, since he was 5 years old he helped take care of the different pokemon in the farm where he lived, as well as the little ones, so seeing what they do here brings back memories of it."

Hearing this, the older man nodded as he gestured for Alec to join him as they walked.

Alec did not refute and accompanied the older man as they toured each of the different rooms, there was no communication between the two in the meantime, the scene that everyone who saw them perceived was of a child accompanying his grandfather while they knew the place.

After a while, as they watched a couple of breeders play with some rockruff and litten in the room, the older man decided to break the silence by saying:

"Kukui already told me the reason for your visit, and seeing that he himself recommended you and even accompanied you, I decided to come in person to see who was the promising young man who accompanied him, sorry for the late introduction, my name is Troy and I am the director of this nursery, although I personally like to call it more pokemon care, after all, that's what we do here."

Hearing this, Alec nodded, from the looks the different breeders gave him, he had already deduced that the man in front of him was someone important.

Seeing that Alec didn't comment on it, old Troy nodded before continuing:

"Alec, I see from your attitude that you appreciate pokemon quite a bit, but I'm curious, I'm sure if you've taken care of pokemon, there isn't one that has decided to follow you? From what I can see, apart from that strange rotom, it doesn't look like you have any pokemon."

Hearing this, the rotomdex blinked rapidly, apparently she didn't much like being called strange, but Alec calmed it down before telling old Troy truthfully.

"Again I say senior, he has a good eye, actually, I grew very fond of a mareep, and even trained him, but he didn't like fighting and in the end he decided to stay on the farm."

Remembering this, a trace of sadness appeared in Alec's eyes, but then he returned to his normal self.

Hearing this, the old man nodded, he seemed to think of something, before saying to Alec:

"You can take a walk around the place, if you find any pokemon that interests you, it's all yours, as for pokemon eggs, right now we don't have many, they're also the same species we have here, so I recommend you that you choose one of these little ones rather than take an egg."

Hearing this, Alec bowed in thanks and turned around to revisit the different rooms one by one, and that's when old Troy's voice came from behind him.

"Appreciation and respect for pokemon is fine, but don't let that become a fear when discussing your expectations and hopes with them, after all, mutual trust must be fundamental."

And saying this, the man turned around before heading to a rather deep area of ​​the nursery.

On the other hand, Alec was silent considering what he had just heard, before bowing in the direction of the old man in thanks.

"If I didn't have a dragon pokemon soon, chances are the elder's prediction would have hit the nail on the head, after all, the first pokemon I trained decided not to follow me, so any new trainer's confidence in this would be seen quite affected."

Actually, it wasn't just because of this, Alec wasn't a normal 6-year-old, he had the mind of a 23-year-old, plus he had already experienced some disappointments in life, so the mareep's rejection didn't hit him that hard, also the fact of knowing that he will train a dragon pokemon came at a good time and made him cheer up, otherwise, it could be the case that the old man mentioned.

But this didn't make Alec despise the old man, on the contrary, he was quite grateful to him, after all, it was great advice for their first time meeting.

"Well, I guess it's time to analyze the potential of these little ones, also I hope to find some of the ones I wanted, not to mention that I hope they like the combat."

If there was one thing that was problematic about non-wild and hatched pokemon, it was that they weren't as prone to combat as those that survived in the wild, but of course, this wasn't always true, but it was true most of the time.

So Alec, along with the help of the rotomdex, observed one by one of the different pokemon in the nursery, which most of the pokemon they had were the 3 starters of Alola, which were rowlet, litten and poplio, in addition to some rockruff, pikipek, Yungoos, among others like pichu, butterfree, cottonee and corsola.

But, although he found some with good ratings like a green rowlet and a rockruff with the same rating, they did not cause the same "impact" on him as when he observed the newborn mareep, also that, although the pokemon were attracted to him, none of them the ones with excellent grades seemed to want to go with him.

This left Alec quite despondent, wondering if the only way for him to put together his pokemon team would be to have a lucky break in the wild.

"I guess we'll still have to go to the Aether Foundation huh, *sigh*, my luck sucks."

So, after playing with some pokemon for a while longer, he went in search of Professor Kukui, and found him in the yard outside the house watching some breeders play with some pokemon.

Professor Kukui quickly noticed Alec, and seeing Alec's dispirited face, along with a rotomdex that was floating and blinking rather slowly, he couldn't help but say:

"So to no avail huh, although I thought that, with your affinity for pokemon, you would find one to accompany you quickly, it seems I was wrong."

Hearing this, Alec could only smile wryly as he replied to the professor:

"It is precisely because of my good affinity that no one ends up staying with me."

To Professor Kukui, what Alec had just said made no sense at all, but seeing Alec's downcast face and a Rotom about to emerge from the Rotomdex, the Professor wisely chose not to say anything about it before saying:

"To the Aether Foundation then?"

Hearing this, Alec could only nod, furthermore, although a bit suspicious, he also wondered what kind of place the Aether foundation would be in this world.

Seeing that Alec had agreed, the professor got up and stretched for a moment, before saying to Alec:

"Luckily for us, he had already notified the foundation that we were going to pay him a visit, otherwise we would be in a rather awkward situation."

Hearing this, Alec couldn't help but bow and thank the professor wholeheartedly, after all, it would be much more complicated to visit the Aether foundation with Professor Aurea's help, let alone request a pokemon they have in their possession.

Thus, Alec and Professor Kukui said goodbye to the other caretakers and left in the direction of the Aether Foundation.

It should be noted that, although the Aether Foundation had recently created an artificial island that was the place where their headquarters were located, they were still in the process of moving, so their different branches throughout the islands of AIola were still the places where there was more activity.

Knowing this, Alec hoped that they would take advantage of the fact that they were in Akala to go to the branch of this place, but curiously, Professor Kukui told him that they would go to the next island, that is, Ula-Ula Island.

Alec asked about this, to which Professor Kukui replied:

"You told me earlier that one of your favorite pokemon on your team was an Alolan Vulpix, whose natural habitat is Mount Lanakila, so it's more likely that the Aether Foundation has one at their Ula-Ula branch."

Hearing this, Alec became excited, it seemed that Professor Kukui had some hopes with this branch, so Alec couldn't help but have a sliver of hope.

Thus, using Professor Kukui's sailboat again, Alec and the professor arrived after a few hours at Ula-Ula Island, where they had lunch as soon as they arrived and then headed to the headquarters of the Aether Foundation at the base of Mount Lanakila.