C063 - Mossdeep City

Two days later, an hour before sunset, Pete and Valentino were sitting on their respective Lapras, and they looked worse for wear. This entire third day, it had been raining. And it was raining hard.

Even the small Gyarados swarm they saw in the morning went underwater instead of swimming toward them. It was the only reason Pete wasn't cursing the weather non-stop.

Two and a half hours ago, they finally reached a giant island, their first destination, but sadly, the city they were aiming for was on the other end of the oblong island.

On the southern half of this particular island was Evergrande City, Hoenn's Victory Road, and the Elite 4 HQ, where the dreams of many aspiring trainers are laid to rest. On the nothern half, Pete and Valentino would reach Purika City soon. It was a quaint settlement that didn't have a gym, but it did have a pokemon contest center, a mall, and a poke center where the two of them would be crashing today.

As much as he loved his luxurious tent and the premium sleeping bag, Pete longed for a hot shower and a soft bed. Staying at a pokecenter wasn't very high on his bucket list, but as assistant professors, it was free of charge. So Pete couldn't really complain. He'd likely make use of this fact many times during this journey unless he finds a reason to do something else.

Purika City turned out to be a huge letdown. Maybe he was just cranky, but a dude with a Cacturne outfit and a Cacturne suddenly stopped, and Pete ran into him. Then, a Wingull swooped down to steal the food he had bought at a stall. Even Duosion wasn't fast enough to stop it from happening. His impression of the city was, therefore, terrible.

The only light at the end of the tunnel was Nurse Joy, who was over the moon when she learned during smalltalk that his Duosion knew Heal Pulse thanks to a Blissey from clan Joy. The kind woman asked for Duosion's services, and Pete received a bag of 'Mental Herb' for the troubles the next morning.

In the games, this item was a held item curing a pokemon of move-induced infatuation, taunts, disables, and a few other things.

In this world, it was not an instant-cure of these things, but something a prepared trainer would give their pokemon at the end of a fight to help them calm down and relax by either smelling it or - if you were rich enough - have them chew the herb for bigger effects.

Pete would see if he could either plant bushes from these leaves with grass type energy or maybe acquire some seeds for them. He had plans to dry these leaves to try and make a tea out of them. Trying out if that would increase its effects couldn't hurt, he mused.

Refreshed after a night with proper shelter, Pete and Valentino made their way to Mossdeep City the next morning. Pete kept a Mental Herb leaf in his mouth, channeling his grass affinity through it as best he could during the journey that took until the late afternoon.

Once more, they would stay at the poke center, and once more, Nurse Joy turned out to be an absolute delight. This time around, Valentino and Pete would stay for two days because Pete had a meeting scheduled with Steven Stone, Hoenn's current champion, the next day in the afternoon. They would likely continue their journey the morning after that.

It was earlier than their arrival in Purika City, so Valentino excused himself and started to roam the city. Pete instead stayed behind in the pokecenter and helped Nurse Joy tend to the pokemon. They exchanged treatment methods and discussed diets for pokemon and many other little things. It seemed that his impression with Nurse Joys was so good that they held little secrets with him.

Pete even learned of yet another bug that mostly flying pokemon would feast on that weren't the ones living in Scarlet Moss. They were a mix of short caterpillars and winged ants with really short mandibles for a fusion of them both that looked like a really long ant with a big meaty head. Earthen brown in color, they actually evolved to be somewhat immune to weaker poison pokemon, allowing them to live in swamps.

There was also another fruit he would buy or search saplings for because, for some reason, Herbert's company hadn't listed them in their catalog; olives. Only very few pokemon apparently ate those and no meals Pete found so far included them.

'Maybe you couldn't press them for oil in this world, or they were super bitter? I'll have to call later. They didn't have Mental Herb plants either...'

Before going to bed, Nurse Joy gave him yet another plant he hadn't grown on his farm yet, Energy Root. The bitter remedy looked like a fist with a flexing arm hanging from it and functioned much like Oran Berries. Though it did... pack more of a punch.

When Pete woke up to get ready for his day, he received a message from Steven that their meeting would still happen and they were to meet at the Devon Corp office building near the space center. After breakfast with his pokemon, Pete once more helped out a little, much to Nurse Joy's delight.

At around lunchtime, Pete went out to the city with all his pokemon except for Nidoking and the three Farfetch'd, who went to the beach to spar after eating some prepacked treats.

"Hey, mister! Is that a Duosion?"

As Pete just came out of the restaurant he and his pokemon ate lunch at, a young girl's voice came from the side.

"Hmm?" Pete had to take a second look because clearly the future psychic duo gym leaders Tate & Liza were standing in front of them in their blue martial art outfit. Liza had a very round Natu in her hands while Tate pulled a cart with a lazy Slowpoke loafing around on it.

"And look at that Espeon, so cool~" the young boy mumbled with stars in his eyes.

"Oh, yeah. Duosion was my first ever pokemon. I hatched her and got very lucky. Not because she's a color variant but because she's such a delight," Pete praised as he patted the pokemon floating next to him with a warm smile.

"That's really super duper cool, mister! I want to train a Solosis too one day! My brother and I are going to be the gym leaders of the gym here in Mossdeep City soon when our aunt retires, and we'll be super strong psychic pokemon trainers like our aunt!"

"Mhm, psychic pokemon are special, so you two are sure to do a great job," Pete offered with a warm smile.

Both twins gave them a pleased grin until Tate paled and pointed up.

"Oh no, Liza! We gotta hurry! Look, dad is about to land!"

"Sorry, mister. We promised Daddy to be there when he landed. If we don't run, he won't give us the space pokemon he finds," Liza excused, and the two ran off as quickly as their little legs allowed.

'Uh, is that how they got their Lunatone and Solrock? I faintly remember their dad being an astronaut, but... really? He got them from actual outer space?' Pete pondered as he looked up to the sky. But then he shook his head.

'There's so much to do on land. Let others worry what's out there. Like those... what were their names again? Ugh, they were so forgettable... Elgyem and Beheeyem? And I got no need to fret over ultra beasts when not in Alola either.'

Pete continued to a poke mart and finally bought his pokeblock kit that, for some reason, wasn't sold in Johto. He bought three of them, just in case one breaks and he wanted to gift another to Jasmine for a total of only P$9.000 thanks to a discount he got when he revealed he was an assistant professor.

Apparently, they wanted to sell these kits in other regions, but there was no real demand because of a lack of advertisement, in combination with their inability to sell them in stores run by Silph Co. The salesperson didn't say much, but Pete got the implied message that he was to tell others about his positive experience with the pokeblocks. He did save a whooping P$6.000 after all.

After that, Pete had half a mind to go to the space station, but he heard from passersby that it was closed to the public because of the landing that was today. So he went to the beach instead to spend some time with Nidoking and his three Farfetch'd.

Unexpectedly, Pete met Valentino and an unknown woman there with his pokemon. She was wearing a bright red martial arts outfit in the same style as Liza and Tate earlier, but hers had a golden stylized Omega symbol like the symbol for the game Omega Ruby on her stomach.

'Well, if she isn't the current gym leader and next guardian at Mt Pyre, I don't know who would be,' Pete thought with an amused smile as he looked toward her Starmie, shiny Claydol, the one with golden instead of red eyes, and Gardevoir.

"Pete! I was about to call you. I met an old acquaintance, Leona. Leona, meet Pete - my newest colleague," Valentino said in introduction.

Leona looked like a woman in her late twenties by Pete's old world standard and had bright golden eyes, same as her shiny Claydol, with dark brown hair and a slim build. Both her Gardevoir and the floating Claydol were a little taller than she was.

"My my, what a strong psychic bond," Leona said with a smile instead of introducing herself.

'You haven't yet figured out how to do this, right? I mean with other people, not your own bonded pokemon,' Leona's voice said in Pete's mind the next moment.

"Uh, no. How could you tell I have psychic affinity so quickly and even judge my current abilities?"

Leona only gave him a mysterious smile, but before she could once more speak in his mind, Valentino interjected.

"Hey, hey. Don't scare my junior away with your mindgames. That's why you're still single after all this time."

Mossdeep City's gym leader regarded Valentino with a glare until the man clutched his head and screamed.

"Making me relive that moment over and over is so unfair! You... you witch!"

"Heh, want me to show it to your 'junior'?" Leona asked with an evil grin.

"No! He still thinks I'm cool! You can't do this to me!"

"You see Pete, this one time I was at the beach and saw your little friend here-" "Please, you can't do this!" "-getting chased by some Beedrills while completely nak-"

"Please, no! I'll do anything you say!"

"Hmph~ I'm a little thirsty for a milkshake. How about you go to Mama Miltank's Milkshake stall near the poke center and get me one. You know my favorite flavor," Leona requested as if placing her order with a waiter at a restaurant she was a regular at.

With heavy steps, Valentino and his Aggron stomped their way toward the city. The walk wasn't really all too long since the poke center was close to this beach.

"So Pete. You know about us guardians? Your eyes clearly flashed in recognition of this symbol," Leona asked with a serious expression as she placed her hand on her stomach where the omega sign was at.

"Uh, I'm very well read?"

____________________

AN: I finished writing the end of Volume 1 (C071) that will release July 18th at 6PM CEST.

I'm planning the new volume 2 in my head right now, but I'm not sure I'm going to write it this week because I popped out chapters non-stop during my vacation last week. So there might be a break before more chapters release.

The name of volume 2 is Professor Lang. You get what it is about, right?

Starts off with a 700~ day time skip to around the time of Jasmine's Olivine Gym Leader audition. (I mean, we all know how that's going to go)

In any case, I already have a long AN written on C071 with my plans and stuff going forward, but if you have ideas already, let me know here.