The Bestest of Boys

By the time I finished recounting what had happened outside Mt. Moon, the professor, Daisy, and Joy were all deathly pale from the horror I'd described.

Not only was the idea of Team Rocket possessing a legendary frightening to the highest degree, but it was also a Pokemon unlike any other in the world, even amongst the legendaries.

Even through the screen I could tell the professor was torn between horror and fascination as I described Mewtwo, and explained what I knew about it. How he was a clone of Mew, capable of speech via telepathy, and, despite the girls contrary beliefs, how he wasn't truly evil.

"The idea is truly horrifying... But I must conclude with Ace about the nature of this particular Pokemon." The professor eventually stated, stunning everyone else.

"Wait, are you serious professor!?!" May exclaimed in shock.

"Yes I am. I may not have met this Mewtwo myself, but no creature is truly born evil. And if it's as young as Ace believes, then it is entirely possible that it is basing its actions around what Team Rocket wants, as they are all it knows. Who knows, in time it could leave the organization as it realizes their true nature, or it could fully embrace them and their ways. Only time will tell."

I nodded in agreement since I could recall that Mewtwo did leave Team Rocket in the future, and was an antagonist himself until Ash and Mew changed him. Wether or not the same thing would happen in this timeline, especially since I'd already met him, would remain to be seen though.

"But the League does need to know about this." The professor suddenly said, stirring me from my thoughts.

"Are you going to tell them?" I asked him.

"No, you are." The professor stated.

"Wait, what?" I asked confusedly.

"This isn't something for the League to learn about through a second hand source. I'll get ahold them to arrange a conference call, but you'll need to inform of everything you know yourself Ace. Though it would also help if someone took some better pictures or video of the incident..."

Wth the professor adding the last part longingly, I was tempted to show him the drawing I did while removing the date. But before I could, Dawn timidly said,

"I actually caught the whole thing on film..."

"""!!!"""

All of us looked at Dawn in disbelief at her admission, to which she shuffled shyly before saying,

"Well it's like Ace said when we saw the war between the Beedrill and Combee, I AM the assistant of a Pokemon researcher." May and I nodded in agreement with Dawn's reasoning, as I probably would've done the same thing if I hadn't been strung up in the air by Mewtwo.

"I can't wait to see it!" The professor exclaimed excitedly, before Daisy seized him by the ear.

"Oh no you don't! You can watch the footage later, but right now we need to focus on contacting the League." She declared harshly, as we both knew the professor would obsessively watch the footage Dawn took over everything else if he got the chance, analyzing it for every little detail possible.

"But can we trust the League? I mean we already know three Gym Leaders are with Team Rocket, who's to say none of the Elite Four are?" May asked while making a good point, to which I readily stated,

"I've already met Bruno, so I can say he's clean at least."

"And I'll vouch for Agatha and Lance. Their personalities may leave something to be desired, but neither would stoop to Team Rocket's level. At least, if Lance did then they'd be ruling both Kanto and Johto with an iron fist by now." The professor said with a small nod.

"That just leaves Lorelei..." I mused thoughtfully.

"I think she's somewhere near Cerulean right now anyways. I'll send a message asking her to meet with you while getting ahold of the other League members. With how important this situation is, they should all be ready within a few hours."

I nodded in affirmation to the professor's serious tone, before he suddenly smiled.

"You can spend the time until then getting to know your new Pokemon Ace." He said suddenly, confusing me.

"New Pokemon? You mean Parasect?"

"You caught a Parasect?" The professor asked, telling me he'd been so preoccupied that he hadn't checked the updates from our Pokedexs with everything on the news.

"Yeah, plus Charmander, Combee and Riolu all evolved into Charmeleon, Vespiquen and Lucario." I told him with a smile.

"Oh!" The professor excitedly exclaimed as he went to go check the data, while Daisy facepalmed before looking at me irritably.

"Sorry..." I uttered apologetically, since the professor was now going to be distracted by the information sent from my Pokemon.

"I think there's an issue here Ace." He said suddenly, drawing everyone's attention back to him as he looked at another monitor.

"This says that your Parasect is over twenty feet tall, which more than twice the size of the largest alpha recorded." The professor stated confusedly, obviously believing there was an issue with his computers.

"No, I'd say that's about right." I told him as I thought back to my Parasect, making the professor turn towards me like his head was on a rusty swivel.

"Excuse me?"

"He's not joking." May said with a deadpan, making everyone who hadn't seen my Parasect look at me in amazement.

"ANYWAYS!" Daisy exclaimed suddenly, drawing attention back to her as she told me for her grandfather.

"What grandpa was saying Ace, is that the Pokemon you helped from that smuggler all decided to join you, so he figured while you were waiting on us you can get to know them."

I blinked as I suddenly recalled the discussion the professor and I had before I entered Mt. Moon. There's been so much going on, I'd actually completely forgotten about it.

While a part was still of the same mind that I actually only wanted a few from that group, a larger part of me was saying to not be so hasty. Something I realized with Petrel was that it would be difficult fighting back to back battles like we had against the Parasect and then the Rocket Executive.

Having a bunch more Pokemon would allow me to switch them out as I needed if one got too tired to continue fighting. Plus I could build a greater variety of combos and teams for each situation.

"Alright then. Professor, since I'm at a Pokemon Center, can you remove my carry limit for the day?" I asked after deciding to accept the numerous Pokemon I'd just obtained.

"Ace..." The professor warned, since our carry limits were there for a reason.

"I only want to be able to talk to them all first. I'll go back to my carry limit tomorrow, and rotate them as I need." I promised him truthfully. A higher carry limit may seem nice, but it would create a LOT more work for me to take care of all my Pokemon. Especially with my breeder Pokemon.

"Well.... I suppose one day at the Pokemon Center couldn't hurt. Just don't make a habit out of asking for this." The professor said eventually.

"Don't worry, I won't." I answered truthfully.

"Alright then. But before that, did Dragonite give you his surprise?"

"Dragonite has a surprise for me?" I asked dumbly, before recalling the satchel he'd been holding onto protectively all morning.

"Dro!" Dragonite exclaimed as he stomped over to my side, before carefully handing me the satchel.

My curiosity growing by the second, I opened the satchel to find an oval shaped object covered in a layer of protective light blue scales.

"Dragonite...!" I gasped with emotion as I recognized the object as a Dratini egg.

"Dro." Dragonite said, before explaining to me how he had gone to a hidden island of Dragonite line Pokemon, and found the strongest female Dragonite there to mate with after showing off his strength.

I was touched that he'd go through so much trouble on my behalf as I gently lifted the egg from within the satchel, allowing me to see that there was something else within it, and singular sharpened tooth on a piece of string.

"Not only an egg, but that's a Dragon Tooth that I turned into a necklace for your Dratini when it hatches." Daisy said proudly as I lifted the tooth out of the satchel along with the egg.

"Thank you..." I said with a voice full of emotion, to both Dragonite and Daisy, before looking to the professor and asking worriedly, "wouldn't this be considered too much favoritism?"

"Not at all, since this was all Dragonite's decision." The professor stated.

"Dro." Dragonite punctuated in agreement.

"Well thank you Dragonite. I truly appreciate this so much." I told the great dragon type with genuine emotion, making him smile back at me with his large teeth, his antennae wiggling as if they were alive.

Dragonite were actually more mild-mannered and easier to raise compared to just about every other dragon type and pseudo-dragon there was, except perhaps the Goomy and Applin lines. But I'll never stoop to getting one of those disgraces to dragons.

So I truly was grateful to receive one of the elusive Dratini now, especially since they usually took so long to evolve and become powerful.

"I examined that egg myself before sending Dragonite to catch up to you, and I can say it's still probably going to be a couple weeks or so before it hatches." The professor said, disrupting my thoughts about dragons even as I recalled something else.

"Thank you professor. I actually have something I want to send back to you." I said as I began digging through my bag. I then pulled out the boxed collar and remote I found when pillaging Team Rocket's camp.

"I found this while I was dealing with Team Rocket beneath Mt. Moon. It appears to be a device that controls, or 'trains' Pokemon through pain." I explained while showing it to the professor, before replacing the egg in Dragonite's satchel with it.

"I'll make sure to look over it thoroughly when it gets here. Thank you for making sure it stayed in tact." The professor said in a serious voice, while Dragonite even glared at the collar as I handed the satchel back to him.

"Now then, if there's nothing else, I have work to do. Your carry limit will be removed in a couple minutes Ace, and then I'll reestablish it when I return to the lab tomorrow morning." The professor stated.

"Thank you professor. I'll see you in a bit." I replied, before the call ended. Then, to fill the next couple minutes while I waited for my carry limit to be removed, I called someone else to discuss a certain fossil I'd acquired a couple days ago.

...

"Alright, is everyone ready to meet our new teammates?" I asked my Pokemon that I'd had on hand after I'd finished my second call, and moved to the large arena behind this Pokemon Center. There were no battles going on right now, so the area was perfect for letting a LOT of Pokemon stretch their legs....and fins.

There was a cheer of excitement from my Pokemon at my question, before I threw forty five Pokeballs into the air, and released every single one at once.

Last I'd checked in Pewter, I only had my Sharpedo that I'd been training, three other Sharpedo that were a part of her school, and seventeen Carvanha.

Now four more of my Carvanha had evolved in the short time since I'd sent Sharpedo back, giving me a total of seven not counting her, and only thirteen Carvanha left.

Accompanying them were three Magikarp, Meowth, Magnemite, and Rattata; two Feebas and Mareep, and then a single Lickitung, Sneasel, Geodude, Tangela, Houndour, Poochyena, Turtwig, and Buizel.

A total of twenty four Pokemon that I'd received from the smuggler, not counting Tauros and Nidorina. Plus there was an extra Magnemite from what I recalled, but it was more than likely from the rich brat that traded his Nidorina away.

"Alright then..." I began while looking over all my new Pokemon, before two of them suddenly charged me.

"Pooch!"

"Hound!"

"Woah!" I exclaimed as Poochyena and Houndour leapt up at me, in which I let them knock me to the ground backwards.

"Pooch pooch pooch!"

"Dour dour dour!"

With numerous cries, Poochyena and Houndour both attacked my face with their tongues as they excitedly licked me in greeting, just like a pair of actual dogs back in my first life.

"What's wrong you guys?" I heard Joy asked the two girls, as their auras immediately turned anxious.

"Houndour are scary..."

"I had nightmares about them for years after that..."

They answered one after the other, which made sense considering what happened to us five years ago.

"Oh don't be like that. This Houndour is a good boy, aren't you buddy?"

"Dour!" Houndour exclaimed happily at my praise.

"Pooch!"

"You're a good boy too Poochyena. You're both the bestest of boys!" I declared while scratching them under their ears, which made Poochyena's leg twitch violently.

"Tung!" Lickitung exclaimed as it too quickly approached me, it's massive and slobbery tongue out and ready.

"Wait Lickitung! Nooooooooooo-!"

***

While Ace was getting to know his new Pokemon, Misty had a determined look on her face as she made her way through the Cerulean city streets, her mind full of everything Ace had told her on the flight there.

Though she wasn't watching where she was going, Misty's feet carried her through the city automatically, taking her to the large water park filled with water type Pokemon.

"Squirtle!"

"Marill!"

"Claw!"

Numerous Pokemon present in the water park immediately cried out as they noticed her, before surrounding Misty to say hi.

"Hello everyone. I missed you all too." Misty said with a genuine smile on her face at all the Pokemon.

She honestly would've loved to just sit there and visit with them, but she had something to do as she made her way to the building at the center of the water park.

Opening the double doors, Misty walked inside to find the place completely empty until she reached the main room, which was a large and deep swimming pool with stands all around it. In there, she found a trio of women practicing their routine along with their water type Pokemon.

"Sorry, the Gym is closed today!" One of the women in the pool declared without looking up, no doubt having heard Misty's footsteps as she approached them.

"You're all the same as ever, aren't you?" Misty said in annoyed voice, making all three turn towards her suddenly from recognizing her voice.

"""MISTY!"""

All three women exclaimed at once, as they hurriedly exited the pool to greet her.

"What are you doing here little sister?"

"Did you give up already?"

"Becoming the world's greatest water specialist was harder than you thought, huh?"

They asked one after the other, along with several other questions that annoyed Misty.

"What's going on here?" Asked another voice, on that was significantly deeper and masculine.

All four of the sisters turned towards the back doors of the Gym to see a large man who was already in his fifties, but didn't at all look it with his thick muscles covering his body, and deeply tanned skin from all the time he'd spent at sea.

Though the man would've given off a menacing aura to anyone else, before his daughters he appeared like a gentle giant, especially in front of his youngest that hadn't been home for months now.

"Welcome home Misty." Hudson, former Gym Leader of Cerulean city said with warmth in his voice, before it was replaced by concern.

"I thought you said you weren't going to come home until you became the best water specialist in Kanto?" He asked confusedly, to which his daughter took in a deep breath.

"About that..." Misty began slowly as she approached her father, and her sisters watched her curiously, before she declared suddenly, "PLEASE TRAIN ME DAD!"

Hudson blinked at his daughters sudden request, though he maintained eye contact with her as he tried to read what was going through her mind. Seeing the unwavering determination to become stronger though, he just smiled as he said,

"I just finished preparing lunch. How about we eat while you tell us what's going on?"

"Oh boy!"

"Thank you daddy!"

"I'm famished!"

The trio of Misty's older sisters declared after working on their routine all morning, leaving their youngest sister behind as they went to eat.

"That....sounds nice dad..." Misty relented as she too followed her sisters to taste her father's home cooking for the first time in a while.