24. First meeting
After Robert and his Pokémon ate, he said goodbye and parted ways with Joel. He then went and found somewhere secluded and quiet where he released all his Pokémon. he hadn't had a chance to test out what happened to him with Steelix. With a bit of time to himself, he finely had a chance to test it out.
After releasing all his Pokémon Robert explained to them his plan and then got to testing. His skill of seeing a Pokémon's talent had always come relatively easy after a bit of practice. His 'spirit sensing' and 'spirit communication' that made up his second ability had never been easy, even now it was still difficult and exhausting to use. Until now.
Robert now found it all so easy to use. Robert found that he didn't even need to focus on his surroundings to be able to sense 50m away, if he focused, he could add another 25m onto that. What he found even more incredible was his spirit communication.
It was no longer limited to simple ideas or vague emotions. Now it was more like having a conversation with his Pokémon in his head but with no possibility of miscommunication. What's more, is that his Pokémon seemed to be able to use Robert as a middleman to communicate with each other this way as well.
He also found that if he concentrated on a specific Pokémon, he could even share its senses. For now, he could only share one sense at a time, but he was sure that could be improved with practice. For now just sharing one was plenty disorientating enough and he would need to practice getting used to that.
The range that he could keep connected was also extended to 150m. It was a huge improvement and Robert felt it could all still be improved with practice. He had no idea what happened with him and Steelix, but he was more than just a little grateful to it.
Robert had no idea how, but he would repay the favour one day. Thinking of Steelix he couldn't help remembering its talent. After he snapped out of his trance, Robert saw its talent was the same flowing mercury look that Dragonite had but a little darker. It was Platinum grade. It was the second Platinum Pokémon Robert had ever seen and the highest talent yet.
As Robert was working out the finer details of his skills, he suddenly felt something approaching. With his spirit abilities now so easy to use he didn't feel the need to turn them 'off' so he decided to leave them 'on' all the time now.
As he felt the approaching presence, he realised its spirit seemed stronger than his Pokémon. he hadn't noticed the differences before with his Pokémon because they were all similar levels. With this newcomer however it was definitely stronger. It wasn't overwhelmingly so but it was noticeable.
Robert wasn't too worried since this was still close to the campus buildings, so it was probably another trainer's Pokémon. he was a little curious however to see who it was, after all this Pokémon was stronger than his and there didn't seem to be too many in his year that was, and only the first years were around here right now.
As he waited for the Pokémon to make its way over, he noticed something strange. Whenever Robert communicated with his Pokémon through his spirit, they would give off a strange vibration. He didn't pay too much attention to this little detail at the time, but now the Pokémon he could sense coming his way was vibrating in a similar way.
Before Robert could feel too shocked over this, he found another presence just reach the edge of his range. This presence was 'vibrating' the same way the first one was but still a little different from him and his Pokémon. He stopped himself from pondering on this as he noticed the unknown Pokémon was about to reach him. He looked over just in time to see some bushes rustling, then out jumped a little yellow mouse looking Pokémon.
After Robert spotted the Pikachu hop out of the bush, he knew who the person heading his way was. After waiting a couple of minutes, just the person he was expecting fumbled his way out of the bushes. "hey Pikachu, what did you take off like that for? Eh, I didn't know anybody else was out here. Hi, my name is Satoshi, but my friends call me Red."
Robert couldn't help the broad grin on his face right now. It had been a pretty crappy day since he left Margret's office and he was still a little edgy. This moment completely made up for it. Red, in the flesh, standing right in front of him. "I recognise you. You're the one that caused all the commotion this morning right. That was crazy, what exactly did you do to that Steelix to make it do that."
Robert quickly snapped out of his fanboy daze before he looked too silly, "ah, Yea that was me. As for what I did I still have no idea. My names Robert and there is something I would like to ask you." Robert then looked between Red and his Pikachu a couple of times and said, "you can use your mind to talk to your Pikachu, can't you." As Robert asked that with a smirk Satoshi's eyes went wide in shock.
"How, how did you know that." Robert's grin widened just a little hearing that. He had been thinking about the strange vibrations the two had been giving off since he met them. Then it struck him that if it was so similar to what his Pokémon did while Spirit communicating then it probably was the same thing, or something very similar.
Now he knew he was right, but he also felt like slapping himself. This whole time in this world he had subconsciously forgotten that it was also possible that other people could have special abilities just like him. Honestly the thought had never even crossed his mind until now. Of course, now he felt stupid for not thinking of it before.
"Well, let's see if this answers your question." Robert then turned to Vulpix and didn't speak. Satoshi stood there baffled having no idea what was going on. After a couple of seconds of staring however, he noticed something strange coming from Robert and his Vulpix.
As he concentrated, he realised they were giving off the same feeling as when he talks to his Pokémon with his head, only he couldn't hear them. It was like there was a wall between them and everything was muffled. He could tell they were talking but that was it.
"So that's how you noticed. You can do it as well." As Satoshi said that a big grin spread on his face that Robert returned right back at him. The boys then sat down where they were and started talking and hit it off in no time.
The boys talked about anything and everything without noticing the passage of time. Robert soon learnt that Red's passion for Pokémon might be bigger than his own. Red's background was also similar to his, he grew up with his mom who ran a little business from home. His dad was a trainer, but he went missing when he was two.
Robert also learnt that his 'telepathy' wasn't Red's only ability. When he was five he and his mother were travelling to Pewter city and while going through Viridian forest they were attacked and separated and Satoshi quickly became lost. At first, he was pretty scared but oddly none of the many Pokémon he saw attacked him. Even the Beedrill would just fly over him. That was where he met Pikachu who also seemed lost.
The two quickly bonded and after Red was found by a search party Pikachu stuck with him. It wasn't until meeting Prof. Oak that he discovered he somehow radiated a calming aura that soothed and pacified wild Pokémon. Red did mention that it didn't work so well on trainers Pokémon and the closer a bond the trainer had with his Pokémon the less it worked.
Robert also found out that his communication range was way bigger than his, close to 500m. Red could also sense where his Pokémon were within 1Km of himself and even outside that range he could tell which direction they were. Unlike Robert however, it was only his Pokémon he could sense. He couldn't pick up on other trainers or wild Pokémon at all.
The boys spent two hours talking when they were interrupted by Gyrados. He had been out of the water this whole time and while it wouldn't cause him any harm it was uncomfortable. Robert felt a little embarrassed and quickly apologised to Gyrados before telling Satoshi he would have to go. When Satoshi heard why Robert was leaving he instead got excited.
Before his Pikachu raced over here he was heading towards a small lake that the students liked to use to let their water types not so good on land out for a while. Satoshi was heading there to let his Lapras out and insisted Robert come along. Robert saw no reason to decline and quickly agreed.
Robert returned Gyrados but he left Eevee and Vulpix out as they made their way over. As they made their way over Pikachu attempted to play with Eevee and Vulpix the whole way but with Eevee being rather reserved and Vulpix a bit aloof, neither was ever much for playing around.
Robert was a little worried that he might have focused too much on their training seeing this. Luckily Pikachu was energetic and playful enough and eventually, the two gave in and started to play back a little. They were still young after all and couldn't help wanting to play after a bit of coaxing.
Robert didn't forget to check Pikachu's talent as well and was surprised to see it was only Silver grade. It made sense that Pikachu's talent wouldn't be too high considering how they met, in fact silver was already quite good. He was just expecting it to be higher considering it was one of the three Pokémon that reached lv40.
As they made their way closer to the lake Robert started to notice other wild Pokémon. They were mostly things like Sentret and Pidgy but after observing a few of their talents he was shocked. He hadn't spotted a single Grey phase talent. Everything was at least Light Bronze. Even the Rattata he spotted were Light Bronze.
Red noticed Robert acting weird and asked him what was going on. Robert hesitated and thought for a while if he should tell Red about his talent sight ability. Red already knew about his Spirit sensing and Spirit communication. His talent sight was easier to use but was far more helpful to other people.
He didn't plan on hiding it forever, at least not from his friends. He was already thinking of telling Joel and Kris about it and was definitely going to tell his sisters when he met them. In the end, Robert decided to reveal it to Red. To his surprise Red barely reacted, he was probably the least interested in it than anything they talked about so far.
After a bit of probing, he discovered that Red didn't care about a Pokémon's talent. He didn't even know the talent of his own Pokémon until they registered on Cinnabar Island. When Robert asked about why the answer was surprisingly straightforward, "I'd rather pick my Pokémon on how close we can be rather than get bogged down with how talented it is. What's the point of having super talented if you can't even form a bond with it?"
Robert was stunned into silence for a moment. The answer was simple but also held a lot of meaning. While Robert didn't think he could be as unbiased as Red he had to agree with him. What if he managed to somehow get a Dark platinum Pokémon but they didn't get along at all, the Pokémon might even end up attacking him.
As Robert was deep in thought about this, they made it to the lake. Robert decided to stop thinking about it for now and just enjoy the scenery with his Pokémon and the new friend he made.