CH88 (610), Rangers (10)

Everyone knew that a Pokemon undergoing an evolution was untouchable, so I was not worried about any attacks happening now that the process had started. My assumption that Fortuna/Togekiss' good luck would trump/suppress Shellder's bad luck had proven to be true, so I was finally able to relax.

Still, I had been in a state of alert during the whole Water Crystal delivery moment and I had not been the only one. Hades/Gengar had been ready to surface from my shadow at any moment, and for safety's sake, I had been ready to bring out Mothra/Butterfree the moment I felt a dark gold stage Pokemon appear. I could have teleported away or entered Utopia as well, but then Ranger Elisabeth and Shellder/Cloyster would have been at risk which was not acceptable, especially since I had promised Shellder that I would ensure his safety during his evolution.

Anyway, Elisabeth and I watched Shellder's evolution while keeping an eye out for any unforeseen events, but eventually, the light cocoon began to vanish and Cloyster became visible, signaling a safe as well as successful evolution. I could hear/see Elisabeth release a sigh of relief but was much more interested in Fortuna's reaction.

I could feel that Fortuna was quite a bit more relaxed than before, and after asking her about it through our mental link, she shared that the uncomfortable feeling Shellder/Cloyster used to give her had vanished. This meant that Cloyster's lingering bad luck had been resolved and that Cloyster was now "safe".

Fortuna had previously mentioned that one would supposedly get some good fortune for resolving Cloyster's issue, but I felt no difference compared to before, though admittedly I couldn't even perceive "luck", so I had no way of knowing if anything had happened or not. I just had to believe that Fortuna was right and see if anything particularly lucky would happen to me during the next period.

Regardless, I went up to Cloyster who was actually crying out of happiness and first congratulated it on its successful evolution before asking it to keep up its part of the deal. Cloyster thanked me enthusiastically before assuring me that it had no plans to default on its promise. It told me to go ahead and "capture" it, and I took out one of the Arctic Balls I made before capturing Cloyster with it.

There was no struggle at all, and the ball immediately signaled a successful capture. Ball in hand, I thanked Fortuna for her help before moving her back to Utopia. I then showed the Arctic Ball to Elisabeth who congratulated me on helping and capturing Cloyster, though she also reminded me to be careful with him, still somewhat wary due to the bad luck matter.

I assured her that I had everything under control before putting the balls away, and as soon as the ball appeared inside Utopia, I let Cloyster out so that he could undergo the Utopia treatment. While he had gained some extra lifespan due to his evolution, the optimization would ensure that he was in a physical top state, healing him up and restoring any "lost" lifespan.

As usual, it would also improve his potential, ensuring that he could keep growing stronger if he wanted to. I did not plan to prevent any of the guardians from training themselves to get stronger. They were free to do so while they did their job to guard the reserve, and I would even leave them some decent resources/supplements if that was what they wanted. Still, this was obviously only under the stipulation that they could not neglect their actual job. Due to our agreement, acting as security guards had priority over their training after all.

Anyway, after Cloyster's capture, we resumed our patrol but nothing else of interest to me happened. The rest of the week passed by calmly as well, with only a single elderly encounter on Kyoday, which unfortunately ended with the Ninjask not even hearing me out before fleeing/flying away. That was a bit unfortunate since Ninjask would have been an interesting addition since I already had a Shedinja.

Not to mention that the Ninjask line was considered rare here in Kanto unlike with Hoenn, so it would have been nice to have one, but it seemed like it was not to be. I would be traveling around Hoenn soon enough and Nincada were not all that uncommon there, so I would have a chance to capture one there if I really wanted one.

Regardless, the fourth week began, and with it our third patrol week, signaling that we had finished half of our patrol period. As luck would have it, I spotted something around our patrol on Mewday that should have been impossible. It was pure luck that I noticed the unmoving Baltoy half-buried under a bunch of leaves.

Had I not coincidentally looked in that direction while we were passing by, I would have missed it just like Elisabeth did, which honestly, would not have been that surprising considering that Baltoy's were usually only 50-60 cm tall. Nonetheless, the real reason I called it an impossible encounter was threefold.

One, Baltoy were extremely rare. Two, Baltoy normally did not appear in places like this, so it should have been impossible to find one in this area. Yet, here we were, and three, Baltoy usually ran/teleported away when they got spotted, so Baltoy's presence could be considered an anomaly. Naturally, I told Elisabeth to wait a moment as soon as I noticed the Baltoy, before moving toward Baltoy's prone body.

When Baltoy did not move even though I moved closer to it, I knew that something was wrong. Using my senses, I was able to feel some "life" coming from it, even if the signal was not as potent as it should have been. I could also feel the presence of Baltoy's "mind", though it was "muted", showing that Baltoy was unconscious, which explained why it was (still) lying there.

Since Baltoy was unconscious, I did not bother trying to talk to it and directly moved up to its body. I crouched down and moved the leaves away, fully revealing its body. It was obvious that Baltoy was injured, and looking at some of those wounds, I'd even say that it was seriously injured. There was no way I was not going to capture this little guy, but I could not help but be curious about its status sheet, and if I had been planning to capture it before, there was no way absolutely anyone could stop me from capturing this Baltoy now.

'Species: Baltoy

Gender: Neutral

Type: Ground, Psychic

Potential: Blue

Stage: Bronze-stage (Low)

(Genetic) Modifiers: None

Abilities: Levitate {Intrinsic}, Magic Guard, Sand Force

Talents: Temporal Displacement

Affinities: Ground, Psychic, Time (weak)'

As unbelievable as it felt, Baltoy actually had a time-related talent, and not only that, it also had a (weak) time affinity listed in its affinity section. This was the first time I saw anything like this, and frankly compared to that, its blue potential while pretty good, could just not compare. I could not help but think back to the good fortune Fortuna had mentioned during the Shellder affair. Was this maybe the result of that good fortune? If it was, I was quite happy with it.

I swiftly pulled out an EarthBall and touched Baltoy with the ball without any hesitation. I would have used a more appropriate one but I had no Psychic/Ground ball in store, which was why I chose to go with the EarthBall instead. I watched as Batoy got drawn inside the EarthBall, and Elisabeth came to my side as the ball was wriggling. She watched silently as the ball stopped moving, signaling the successful capture before asking me what exactly just happened.

I truthfully told her that I had noticed a body sticking out under a bundle of leaves that looked like a Baltoy. When I saw that it was injured as well as unconscious, I went ahead and captured it since I always wanted a Baltoy. I told her that I was suspecting that Baltoy randomly teleported away from a confrontation or something like that, which was how it landed here. It likely ended up falling unconscious afterward.

I assured her that I would make sure that Baltoy would return to full health, and she acknowledged that with a nod. There was not much else she could have done since there were no rules or regulations against what I had done, especially considering my identity as a Junior Professor.

Anyway, I put the ball away before we resumed our patrol, and while we did that, I used a thought stream to release Baltoy from its ball so that it could undergo the Utopia special as well as heal up. Surprisingly, even after the process successfully ended, Baltoy remained unconscious, which was quite fascinating.

I could see that it was fully healed, at least as far as its body was concerned, and yet it had not woken up. That naturally roused my curiosity, so I opened its status to take a look at the reason for that. I was pretty sure that the condition section would show me what was wrong with Baltoy if anything was wrong with it in the first place.

'Name: N/A

Species: Baltoy

Gender: Neutral

Age: 8+ years

-

Type: Ground, Psychic

Potential: Light Purple (18.56%)

(Genetic) Modifiers: None

Abilities: Levitate {Intrinsic}, Magic Guard, Sand Force

Talents: Temporal Displacement

Affinities: Ground, Psychic, Time (weak)'

It was interesting to see that Baltoy was relatively young, especially for its line which had one of the longest "basic" lifespans among all known Pokemon, and while it was nice to see that its potential had risen to light purple, I was more interested in its condition, so I even skipped reading the description of its talent, and directly skipped to the condition section.

'Condition: Physically Healthy, Mentally Tired, Temporary Temporal Dissonance'

Well, I found what I was looking for, but while I could imagine what Temporary Temporal Dissonance was, I had to make sure, so I read its description. As I had suspected, it was caused by a "temporal difference" between Baltoy and the present which came about by the fact that Baltoy had jumped through time, specifically from the past to the future.

It was a temporary condition that would go away once Baltoy's temporal "signal" so to say had adjusted to the frequency of the present. Still, the dissonance along with the mental exhaustion were the reason why Baltoy was still unconscious even though its physical health had been restored. Moreover, it was likely that Baltoy would remain unconscious until the adjustment was complete, though I had no idea how long that would take.

Furthermore, both the exhaustion, as well as the time jump, were obviously caused by its talent, at least that was my opinion on the matter. I did not think something else could have thrown Baltoy through time like this. Still, now that I knew what was wrong with Baltoy, my curiosity came right back, so I returned to Baltoy's talent section and read through Temporal Displacement's description.

'Talents: Temporal Displacement'

Well, it was an interesting talent for sure, one Baltoy seemed to have no control over, though that did not change that it was a fascinating talent. Temporal Displacement was triggered when Baltoy was under extreme pressure as well as stress on both its body and mind. Once it got triggered, it moved/pushed Baltoy through time. Interestingly enough that could be to either the past or the future.

Moreover, not only was the direction random, but the amount of time one traveled was random as well. I'd say it was extremely lucky that Baltoy landed in the present. All in all, while Temporal Displacement was certainly a life-saving trump card and undoubtedly fascinating due to being a time-related power, the fact that it could not be controlled made it much much less "attractive" than it could have been if Baltoy had at least some degree of control over it.

Nonetheless, I left Baltoy in its newly created habitat, not knowing when it would wake up, and informed the others of its presence. Meanwhile, Elisabeth and I continued our patrol, though nothing else of interest happened that day or during the rest of the week.

The fifth/final week of the month began on Arcday, and it also happened to be the final week of my ranger phase as well as our patrol. Whether it was because I had already gotten lucky enough with Baltoy or not, nothing interesting happened during my final week, and the only "elderly" Pokemon that qualified for my recruitment declined my offer, so I ended up closing my ranger phase on a calm note.

Ultimately, I had nothing to complain about since I had managed to invite 8 "goldies" during this period, along with capturing a Baltoy who had a very special talent. Not to mention the progress some of my Pokemon had made, though that was not really related to the ranger phase, but more due to the passage of time.

---------------------

---------------------

This part is purely to display Baltoy's status screen in one piece and does not count toward the word count.

'Name: N/A

Species: Baltoy

Gender: Neutral

Age: 8+ years

-

Type: Ground, Psychic

Potential: Light Purple (18.56%)

(Genetic) Modifiers: None

Abilities: Levitate {Intrinsic}, Magic Guard, Sand Force

Talents: Temporal Displacement

Affinities: Ground, Psychic, Time (weak)

-

Bond: Mikail (artificial)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Bronze Stage (Low)

Vitality: H

Strength: H

Endurance: G

Agility: G

Energy Capacity: H

Energy Density: F

----

Immunity:

Electric, Ground (Conditional)

-

Resistance:

Fighting (Minor), Poison (Minor), Psychic (Minor), Rock (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Water (Minor), Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor), Bug (Minor), Ghost (Minor), Dark (Minor)

-

Standardized:

None

----

Condition: Physically Healthy, Mentally Tired, Temporary Temporal Dissonance

----

Masteries:

Ground Energy Manipulation (Beginner)

Psychic Energy Manipulation (Beginner)

----

Techniques:

-

Novice:

Earth Power, Self-Destruct

-

Beginner:

Power Trick, Imprison, Heal Block, Cosmic Power, Extrasensory

-

Proficient:

Rapid Spin, Harden, Confusion, Psybeam, Rock Tomb, Ancient Power

-

Advanced:

Mud Slap

-

Mastered:

None'

-----------------------------

Advertising plug-in:

Currently, the lowest number of advanced chapters available on patre'on is 6, while the highest number of advanced chapters is 10.

Sketches, drawings of the MC, Variants and maps can be found on my Patre'on. A patre'on exclusive Legendary Lore series can be found there as well.

Help me stay motivated.

patreo*n/Azrail93