C083 - Foreshadowing

A large distance away from Pete's farm in a sunken piece of land that formed a gully half the size of Evergreen Lake, Giovanni was talking to a foreman fully equipped in mining gear.

The missing gym leader of Viridian City and current leader of a fractured Team Rocket had recently started to find grey hairs on top of his usually black hair. Ever since the police, Lance, and Oak led a comprehensive raid on almost all hidden facilities of his organization, Giovanni slept a lot worse and a lot less.

Among the upper echelon of the league, it had always been an open secret that he was connected to Team Rocket in some capacity. But what kept him from getting ousted and prosecuted was the fact that their secrets remained just that. A secret.

With bases uncovered that researched pokemon enslavement and methods to incite pokemon raids, this obfuscating veil of assurance that Giovanni was better left untouched was ripped away.

Of course, he wouldn't be Giovanni if he didn't have plans even for that, but sadly, too many of his executives and reasonably talented trainers were imprisoned during the regional champion's raids. Building Team Rocket back up, this time around with less focus on research and more focus on strengthening his organization's trainers, would take Giovanni a lot more time than he was comfortable with.

Several avenues were currently being pursued and apart from... 'convincing' breeders caring for the more powerful pokemon species in Johto and Kanto, Giovanni needed resources. Before, Giovanni had quite a bit of money left to elevate his entire organization comfortably. A man of his power dealt more in threats and favors than actual money.

But now that he was on the backfoot, he could no longer ignore the allure of money. Which brought him to this giant basin in the wilderness north of Violet City. A grunt had found this basin and reported the presence of Fire Stones and other precious minerals over a year ago.

But since too many powerful pokemon roamed this land, he never sent any trainers over to claim it. That changed months ago. He personally led a raid on this land and discovered a true, unending cache of Fire Stones, Sun Stones, precious metals, and even the occasional Shiny Stone.

Not to mention the giant Arcanine tribe he managed to partially subdue along with the Magmar tribe led by a pokemon he later identified with the help of a research paper by the rising star of the Johto region's scholarly circle: Pete Lang. Obscure as it was, Giovanni managed to become Kanto's and Johto's first trainer of a Magmortar, who he lured with promises of strengthening his tribe or annihilation of his kin if he stepped out of line.

Much to his delight, his remaining men also uncovered a vast cave system under the basin that he and his team were slowly exploring and harvesting for all its riches.

With even more Fire Stones ripe for the taking, finding a docile, pliable Bastiodon tribe for his men was just the cherry on top. The powerful ancient pokemon that hadn't seen humans in decades had amazing defenses and would work well as tank pokemon for his men. Had he not lost the grunt who found this basin in the raids, Giovanni was half a mind to promote the man to be his right hand.

Back on Pete's farm.

Six days after the date in Olivine, Pete was sitting at the lake. Cross-legged with the water reaching his belt and with his eyes closed, the young assistant professor had a fist sized stone lying in his lap half submerged in the water.

The mega stone Golurk found at the cliff down at the lake, aptly with a water/ghost typing, was a treasure for Pete's water affinity training. Sadly, the stone did not allow his Golurk to mega evolve. Since Golurk was his only choice for the ghost typing, his only choices were to trade the stone or look at his water pokemon.

Among his pokemon, a shiny Slowbro and the Swampert, grown and trained from the Mudkip Steven had given him, were the only 'documented' mega evolutions from the games. Beyond that, Pete had quite the assortment to choose from. Though realistically, only a few of his water pokemon were truly trained to be worthy of the chance at a mega evolution.

Among them were some of the Azumarill, Milotic, a Ludicolo he found lost at sea a month ago... soon he would own a Primarina if nothing went wrong on his Alola trip and four days ago he received another egg haul from Kalos - this time a legal one instead of an overturned shipping container marooned on a remote beach after a heavy storm.

Among them were three water pokemon his inner nerd almost criminally wanted: Froakie, Piplup, and a very rare Skrelp. The last one would evolve into the poison/dragon pokemon Dragalge, so it fell through for the water mega evolution. But Greninja, Froakie's last evolution, and Empoleon, Piplup's last evolution could be powerful choices for the mega evolution as well if the mega evolution existed.

The Piplup egg was a weird addition to the delivery since Piplup's weren't native to Kalos, but apparently, it was sold by a traveling trainer to the agency Pete had contacted. Yet despite all these cool water pokemon joining him, what he truly waited for were the Swirlix egg and the recently caught Carbink to once more round out his fairy pokemon.

Oh, and the Espurr egg. Despite all of his pokemon, he started missing his cat a little. He took his time in recruiting one to his farm because Espurr were not known to have adequate control over their powers. One unfortunate mishap, a slightly loud, unexpected sound, or even just them stumbling over their own feet, and they could unleash their full psychic typing energy into the surroundings randomly.

With his increased psychic affinity and the strength of his three psychic aces, Reuniclus, Espeon, and Metagross, however, Pete saw no more problems hindering from raising the 'restraint pokemon'.

Pete wasn't done contemplating about the future of his evergrowing pokemon team, but he heard soft footsteps behind him on the beach. His psychic affinity told him who it was, so he stayed seated in the shallow waters, and his eyes remained closed.

"Petey, I just read up on the manifest on your new egg delivery with Courtney," Jasmine spoke with a soft voice.

"Are you sad there aren't any ground pokemon in there for you? I thought about getting you a Golett of your own, but they are simply too rare. And while they are powerful, you already have your shiny Quagsire with the same typing - so I refrained from buying you a Tympole egg. Seismitoad's have a much deeper water affinity than ground compared to Quagsire anyway. All of their abilities are water related. Excluding poison touch, of course."

Jasmine's smile didn't vanish, but had he opened his eyes, Pete would have seen her eyes twitching. Clearly, Pete knew that her tone was not meant to be supportive, yet the annoying brat simply brushed past it!

Every time, she would be forced to speak out her grievance with him. None of her mom's tips on how to make Pete feel guilty about his choices worked on him! It resulted in her never gaining the upper hand in any of their arguments.

'Not that they ever evolve into full-blown arguments like I saw with mom and dad. Is that why he does it like that? He sees through mom's tactics, so since he hates arguments, he simply doesn't acknowledge them? I feel like I should be, but how can I be mad at that crap!' Jasmine's eyes kept twitching, same as the corners of her mouth.

"Pete. We had just talked about how you didn't consider half the typings there are for your papers and how you don't plan on doing anything with them. Could you tell me why you have two dark pokemon eggs, a poison pokemon egg, and two fire/flying pokemon eggs in your shipment? You promised you aren't going to broaden your workload anymore in the near future..."

"I'll be honest. The two Fletchling eggs were a spur of the moment decision because that dude at the agency was too shrewd a salesman. I'm not planning to do much with the eventual Talonflame, I promise. The poison egg is Skrelp, and that was simply too good an offer! I checked. Nobody knows it evolves into a poison/dragon pokemon yet. The world thinks Dragalge has poison/water typing, same as Skrelp, but I know they are wrong. Low-hanging fruit, remember?"

Jasmine's initial... was it even anger? Well, her initial displeasure deflated by quite a lot after Pete's explanation. Still, her smile still seemed forced as she looked at her carefree boyfriend sitting in the water without a care in the world.

"And what about Absol and Purrloin?"

"Oh, yeah, I don't have much to say about those... I honestly felt like a young master, lavishly spending a fortune of my daddy's money getting those like a no-good profligate second-generation rich kid. I promise I didn't get them for research. They are both mostly nocturnal pokemon, and I thought maybe Zoroark and Golurk could use a few more companions on their night watch. The farm's territory is simply too big."

Jasmine narrowed her eyes, "Turns out you did have quite a bit to say about those two."

"Haha, caught me," Pete quipped as he stood up, one hand holding the mega stone, the other one waving at his own lower body. The hand movement served as a focus for his water affinity, getting rid of his excess wetness from the lake.

He stepped closer to his girlfriend on the sandy beach with a warm, reassuring smile and rested both his arms on her shoulder. Their bodies were close enough that their noses would almost touch if Pete wasn't almost a head taller than Jasmine.

"Did you see the Carbink, though?" Pete asked a few silent moments later that were only filled with gentle waves washing up on the shore. "It's the cutest little shit, isn't it?"

Jasmine closed her eyes, exhaled a long breath, and with both feet firmly planted in the sand brought her head forward at an incredible speed - headbutting Pete right in the chest with her rock affinity.

Caught offguard but not quite, Pete staggered backward and fell into the shallow waters of the lake. Yet, he brought his girlfriend with him since his arms were still on her shoulders.

With a shriek, Jasmine swiftly sat up on her boyfriend's body and admonished him fiercely, "How dare you! I'm in Sophie's newest dress! She'll be so mad that it got wet in the lake!"

Pete, a good 80% submerged in water, could only laugh, "Haha, come on. You headbutt me with the force of a hundred Rhyperior and expect me to go down without a fight?"

"Hmph! My two Rhyperior are much more powerful. At least talk about some weak rock pokemon like Shuckle or Nosepass," Jasmine argued, playfully punching him.

Pete's eyes widened in horror, and he shouted, "You did not just say Shuckle is weak!"

"Huh? ...what?"

Pete raised both of his wet hands to Jasmine's face and spoke in much more seriousness than the future gym leader thought he could muster at such a silly topic, "Don't ever fuckle with a Shuckle."

Jasmine, who rested both her hands on Pete's stiffened up once more and looked at her boyfriend with an incredulous frown.

"Jasmine. Shuckle come with the ability Contrary, granting them a power increase when it should be a decrease and vice versa. Then they also come with three completely busted psychic moves, some of which your Claydol knows. Power Trick, granting a switch from defensive power to offensive power or the other way around. Power Split, exchanging the attack and special attack with its target and Guard Split, doing the same with defenses. Since a trained Shuckle can use Contrary whenever it suits itself, this trained Shuckle could technically raise an entire army to be all powerful and impenetrable. All the while stalling with ridiculous defenses, poison type moves, and Sticky Web to slow down enemies. Let's not forget their incredible potential to weaken an enemy with those three moves. Never mess with a Shuckle if you can't help it, promise me."

Jasmine's incredulous expression only deepened the more she listened to Pete. With a deliberate gulp, she gingerly asked, "If a Shuckle is so powerful, how come nobody in any circuit ever runs them? Is this strategy simply not known? If you know about it, how come you haven't written a paper on this 'low-hanging fruit'?"

"Oh, that's very simple. I don't want to break the meta of league matches," Pete explained with a grin.

"Are you messing with me?"

Pete's grin slowly vanished, and he shook his head.

"Nope. I am dead serious. Shuckle is a completely busted pokemon."