20 Chapter 19 "End of Summer"

After the ball we enjoyed another couple of days in Pallet Town, before going home. John, Gary, and I all agreed to keep in touch. A fact that seemed to meet approval from my parents. Granted, I also agreed to stay in touch with Lucy who already moved in to the female dorms at the Oak Academy. The Alliance was sending a Special Investigator to look into her parents for possible child abuse. As Lucy is an only child, it wasn't likely that they would find anything, but they were still obligated to look.

Regardless, my mom was much less happy to find out that I was staying in touch with her. I ended up spending a lot of my last two weeks at home outside helping dad. Or training with Danu someplace not near the house.

Either way, after finding out the 'secret' at camp, I asked both my parents if they had any weird traits from their partners.

"Yes, dear," my mom replied when I asked, "For me, my skin took on the insulating nature of rubber. Electricity doesn't hurt me unless it can get under my skin. So as long as I'm careful about getting cuts, none of my pokemon can actually hurt me. Your father's though, that's one that's still confusing people."

He chuckled, "I think it's because I focused on pokemon that share the same basic characteristics. You know that my actual bonded pokemon are Arcanine, Bolthund, and Stoutland right? Well, they all have similar characteristics, beyond being four legged and looking roughly the same if you put them next to each other shaved. They all have increased senses of smell, improved hearing, and a pack mentality. I have the improved hearing and smell which is why we live out here instead of in the city."

When I looked at him about to ask another question, "I normally have to take sinus medication and some other stuff in order to actually go into the city without wanting to get sick. The smells are just too strong, and me with my human brain, I can't process them like my pokemon can."

A lightbulb goes off in my head real fast, as I dash out of the room to grab my notebook. Coming back in, I quickly write down that information and ask, "So is there anything that would set off younger pokemon from those lines? And what other pokemon do you think would also go into that category?"

Both my parent's chuckle, before my dad says, "Strong smells in general should be kept away from them until they are at least out of their parents nest. Once they have gotten to the point they can walk around and start playing, they should be fine."

"As for other pokemon that should belong to the category…. Hmmm. I think the Poochyena line from Hoenn, the Rockruff line from Alola, and the Houndour line from here would all belong."

"Don't forget that other side of the theory either!" My mom said suddenly.

"Oh, that's right. We had one researcher who was looking into it say that the Vulpix line, Electrike line, the Riolu line, and the Zorua line would also be there. Eevee as well, but because of all the evolutions an Eevee has it might not. I'm sure there are more that have yet to be discovered, but those are what we have right now."

I nod my head. Interesting stuff, and dad said they had pack mentality… I wish I could get over that feeling of déjà vu I get when I hear things like that. Like I should know something more about that, but it's just outside of my reach.

Later that night I told Gary and John about it and they had naturally asked their own parents about what they had. Gary's mom had several fairy types as well as grass types. The combination was apparently pretty common, as the Fairy type pokemon kept the 'solar powered' downside of grass types in check.

John had apparently asked his dad, but his dad didn't have any special ability from his pokemon, just an innate sense for battling. He couldn't ask his mom either, as she was out of the region currently. Apparently one of the Mountain regions that seperated Unova and Kalos was having some strange electrical storms and the nearby cities had asked for a high ranking trainer to come investigate.

Besides that, me and Danu focused on getting our move sets down. The goal is to make Danu into a force of nature, so Magical leaf, and razor leaf at the same time to give her control over razor sharp leaves. Eventually this'll build up into Petal Dance or Petal Blizzard. And if the control aspect can be maintained on one of those it's a whole new ball game.

Other than that, it's mostly a focus on getting her strength up for attack and defense, and her speed up so we can engage quickly, or disengage if we need to. Thankfully, once we got home I got mom to evaluate where Danu is at, and she's currently at the mid iron stage. By the time I start school, she'll probably be at Peak Iron and just about to hit bronze. Of course, the rough part for me and Danu, is that she can't evolve into Bayleef until she hits silver stage. The boost she'll get once she hit's silver stage will allow her evolution to go through perfect.

Of course, that's true of all of us. Lucy has been designated as a Ward of the Oak Academy, and since she wants to do really well, she has been told that beyond doing well in her classes, her Chimchar shouldn't evolve before hitting Silver stage.

And neither Gary or John would repeat what they were told about when to evolve their pokemon. Figures, though with their parents I don't imagine it's at a later point than me. Silver for the first evolution, and then hold out until the late gold or maybe even platinum stage to evolve again.

The other thing that Danu and I did during the last couple of days of summer vacation was put together a prospective list of who we want to join us. As in, what pokemon we would like to join the team. I don't want to get too focused on one type, mostly to avoid the downsides that come with that. But we had some good thoughts as we casually looked through the pokedex app.

The thing is, some of the pokemon feel right to have on the team. Best example, Poliwrath. Strong pokemon, water and fighting types. So we'd have a heavy hitter right there. But some of the other really popular pokemon I just don't see a large enough benefit for.

Gastly is one of those. A lot of trainers like having one of the Gastly line, and Gengar is a great Pokemon. But to me, besides being good for some spy stuff, or just the fact that it's a ghost/poison type Gengar isn't all that useful to me. It can't help me travel, most cause problems for their trainers by pulling pranks. So not worth it to me.

The only ones we agreed that we should get before we left Kanto and Johto were Poliwag, Mareep, and if we can manage it, an Abra. Mareep will be easy, as my parents already said that I can take one of the eggs from the ranch. Poliwag should be pretty simple as well. I remember that they have several colonies around New Bark City, so I should be able to get one at some point there.

The hard one will be Abra. Abra's are notoriously difficult to catch, but I definitely want a psychic type. I might end up looking for other psychic types depending on which region I end up going to. But if I have the chance before I leave, I'm getting an Abra.

That does bring up the other thing that is apparently changing. The Oak Academy and other schools that are certified by the Alliance are going to be allowed to give out Rank F Trainer Licenses this year. Granted, the majority of those licenses will go to the older students, those who are just about to graduate and start their journey.

The given reason was that the trainers will be handpicked by the staff, yadda yadda yadda. It boiled down to too many new trainers getting into problems because they only had one pokemon when they started their journey and weren't willing to settle for pokemon they didn't necessarily want. So the school will be sending the upper classmen to the Safari Zone yearly now, and everyone should have a couple of pokemon after graduation. Of course, the Alliance is only allowing F trainers 3 pokemon at this point. But still.

It means to me that I might be able to actually catch and train up some of the pokemon I want before I start my journey. Of course I still have to actually start school, but I don't see that as a problem.