Reunions

We sat together and started eating.

I dug into the food with great gusto making Mike chuckle and copy me.

"So, what did you infer from the tests just now?" Mike talked chewing his food.

"Well as its rarity indicates the Skorupi has more base stats than a Zubat. Speed slightly higher, Defence too high and from the way it caught Cet, its attack is also high along with special defence if Skorupi follows the same pattern from its physical defence," I spoke between my bites.

"You know stats don't indicate the actual power of a Pokemon, right?" Ken spoke as completed his food, making me look at him in shock.

He piled more food than us and finished it before us, Mike and I were still halfway through our food.

Seeing my shock, Mike spoke.

"Leave him. His father teaches him weird ninja techniques for everything."

I nodded reluctantly at that. I was interested in those weird ninja techniques, but seeing they can be guarded secrets I didn't probe about it and spoke.

"I know, but the foundation is always important. It was one of the reasons I chose Cet as my starter as Crobats are supposed to be better than any flying type." I said finishing my food.

"My father says trainers are there to multiplicate a Pokemon's growth, but it doesn't mean having a trained and an older Farfetch'd test its brute strength against Machop, even if it just exited its baby phase. As it always leads to the Farfetch'd losing as long it is not too old," Mike said. 

"A Machop is great for taking and delivering hits, am I right?" I asked Mike making him nod.

We went up to fill out plates a second time and sat down.

A hush fell as we dug into our plates again. 

"Hmm! A rare all-rounder will have its all stats nearly equal to a common Pokemon's highest stat," I mumbled, reasoning things based on our observation.

"Of course, but it is all about leveraging your Pokemon strength."

"But you cannot defeat a Dragon without a Dragon or ice-typed Pokemon or at least without Dragon-typed moves."

Ken chimed in.

"Dragons are so rare our Kanto region houses only one type of dragon type line – Dratini's," Mike spoke and continued.

"But my dad says two or three good ice punches take down even an Apex Dragon. But hitting them is another matter altogether and their growth is very slow."

 "What about an Elite Dragon?" I asked as the Pokenet doesn't have much information on dragons.

"Elites are different, man, most of the female elite Dragonites are very friendly, it seems. I think males are more territorial and brash. Elites of Dragon-type are too in touch with their wild sides compared to any other elites," Mike said waving his hand.

"I don't know properly, but that's what my dad says."

I hummed and nodded, thinking of the flying forts-Dragonites.

Celia entered the dining area as I contemplated whether to search for a Dratini, even knowing that finding one was impossible.

I waved at her and motioned to join us.

She smiled before her mask came back as she noticed I was with some people.

'I shouldn't push her too much about her mask, she will do what she wants,' I thought feeling enlightened and clever for once.

"Grab a plate, Celia. I was just about to tell the guys how Cet awakened," I said motioning to an empty seat beside me.

As she walked towards the buffet a plate floated and various items flew onto it.

'Damn, I saw her floating before, but her psychic powers still leave me in shock,' I thought as the guys missed the spectacle owing to the direction they were facing.

After Celia joined us, I started my story of loot and adventure. Of course, I omitted that I screamed like a little girl when I fell into the ravine.

"Thus, the Ever-watching wind's eye teleported me. I don't even know if the draion berries were real or not," I said imagining the money I would have gotten if I looted the berries. Of course, I ordered Cet to only take one berry as if they were real, then there would have been a Dragon guarding it. Dragons are not supposed to be living near routes, definitely not long enough for a draion berry tree to grow, making me think sending Cet to get the berries was a good idea.

Mike and Ken smirked.

"Ever watching wind's eye, Huh!" Mike whispered sniggering.

"Man! I don't know what to tell you, but Elites don't call themselves such cheesy names," he said suppressing his laughter.

"Well! An elite referred to herself as such, I would have nodded my head if she called herself a fairy type Ghastly and called herself the most beautiful fairy queen across the realm," I said shaking my head at them.

"What do you think? Celia, you know about Psychic types. Does the name sound fake?" I asked turning towards the quiet girl.

She nodded at me, not deigning to speak.

Suddenly Ken spoke up, stopping me from further pestering Celia.

"Enough about Elites, how about a battle? We know about the base stats of our Pokemon and we can see who wins."

I shook my head at him.

"Unless your Skorupi has good long-range moves you won't be able to deal any kind of damage to Cet."

Mike nodded along with Celia as Ken became silent realising the truth in my words.

"Well then! Next time we meet, we are going to battle," he said patting my shoulder.

 I nodded at that.

The duo departed leaving me alone with Celia.

"Looks like they are from the same city and know each other," I spoke.

"Of course, our gathering, unofficially called Celadon's meet, has trainers from every city nearer to the Celadon and its routes. So, one or two friends crop up one and then," she said playing with her spoon, suddenly chatty as we were alone.

"Will you participate?" I asked.

"No."

"Do you know what the challenges are there in the competition?" I asked shamelessly, hoping to get some inside tips.

"No, Only the Elites know," she said giggling.

"And before you ask, every time the competition is different," she said making me shut up and contemplate.

"I will see you, tomorrow," Celia said cheerfully waving her hands and departing towards her cabin.

I waved back and decided that nothing would come off on thinking about the challenges as I looked around the dinner area.

'Well aside from some rare anomalies like Mike and Ken, everyone here has league-issued gear,' I observed and thought remembering the people I saw after entering the camp. 

'Well, at least not only the wealthy will get to have an elite offspring,' I noted, thinking about how parents, who are trainers, can just hand over their Pokemon's offspring to their children.

I stood up and walked towards my cabin ready to retire for the day.

....

The next morning, we did our daily routine before going for breakfast.

As I was eating my breakfast, I noticed a Gastly lazily floating behind a person.

'Hmm, I thought Gastly's are supposed to be rare,' I thought looking at it lazily spin around itself.

The person turned around and we made eye contact.

'Gon, Huh!'

"What are you doing here?" I yelled waving at him.

He looked around before walking towards me, whispering something towards the Gastly.

It disappeared and he came to a stop in front of me, glaring, before speaking.

"My mother has some business here. You are lucky otherwise if I was participating there is no way you are going to win."

I waved my hand at that, making him more irritated.

He nodded towards my back and I suddenly felt a sticky tongue lick my neck.

As I turned, I came face to face with Gon's Gastly and a chill ran through my spine as it leaned close before giving me a very creepy smile.

My back wet with sweat I turned around to look at Gon, who was looking at me shocked.

"Your Gastly is naughty, huh! It didn't even obey your whispered commands. Did you upset it or is it generally like this?" I asked curious as I hoped to have a ghost in my team in future.

He muttered something before walking away.

'I mean I didn't expect better from him anyway,' I thought shaking my head at his behaviour.

I typed a message to Celia about Gon being here.

She replied after a couple of minutes.

"His mother works for us. She is one of our Psychic specialised trainers." 

That was the reply I got.

"Is she powerful?" I messaged her, curious.

"Average."

"Average by what measure?" I messaged again.

"Later," Celia replied, making me shake my head and focus on my breakfast.

I finished my breakfast and started roaming around the camp taking in different types of Pokemon.

"Hey!" I yelled at the memorable duo.

Amanda and Madlyn turned around at my voice and spotted me.

Amanda waved back and started walking towards me dragging Madlyn along.

"Is attending this not a waste of time for you Amanda?" I asked, with her having a natural item, I don't need a functioning brain to know she is very rich.

"Hey! I get to check out my competition no and my father said the challenges the Elite's layout are always fun," Amanda said her green eyes twinkling merrily.

"What about you, Madlyn?" I asked turning towards the blue-eyed beauty.

"Same reason as hers," she muttered.

"You got invites?" I asked.

Amanda just nodded her head at that.

"Leave it! Let's go for a battle," she said extending her hand to grab mine.

I stepped out of her reach instinctively and spoke.

"Follow me."

........................

This chapter gives an example of an average experienced trainer(Gon's Mom), along with one of the many clues I left with in recent chapters about Mc's power.

Don't worry.

His power is going to be unique, but not so much that he is the first human to have it.