5 C005 - Here comes trouble, make it double! (cute version)

*Cr-crack*

Pete, a tired Solosis and a lively Rapidash were watching as two eggs hatched simultaneously.

"Ciiii" "N-no, min-min!"

Both Minccino broke out of the eggs at the same time. One sounded very tired, the other one sounded very bright and eager to explore its surroundings already. Once they broke enough of the eggshell to get out of the egg, though, they both just kind of collapsed into each other devoid of any energy.

Their fur was already fully grown. However, it was also very wet, probably from the egg's insides. So Pete softly picked them both up as they fit into a palm each.

"Hey Rapidash, could you warm up one of the buckets?"

The mother complied readily and did as asked. Pete sat down on the floor next to the bucket of heated water, put one of Minccino into his lap, and gently began to clean the fur of the other little chinchilla pokemon.

He wasn't lucky enough to gain yet another shiny, not that he thought he would. Solosis informed him that both light-gray rodent pokemon were girls, which isn't too out of line, because to Pete's knowledge, this particular species had a higher rate of female births.

The little newborn were very cute and immediately warmed up to Pete, nuzzling into his hand. After they were clean and dry, courtesy of a little shake and soft use of fire energy from Rapidash, Pete noted how incredibly soft their fur was. Especially the fur of their ears that were just as big as their entire torso and their tail that was almost twice as long as their torso.

Though, having their tails touched didn't excite the two babies as much as soft scritches on their ears. They melted into his hand when Pete softly stroked their fur around the ears.

"Hey, you two. Now that you are both presentable and look as cute as a button, let's talk. I'm new to this whole thing, having pokemon, I mean, but I would love it if you stuck around with me. Eventually, we'll settle on the farm I want to create. Are you two interested?"

Pete purposefully explained it in a way that might also entice Rapidash and her foal to follow along, though he didn't think it would work. Now that that storm was over, what stopped the mother from finding her herd again?

"Mincciii" "Cino-Cino!" Both newly hatched pokemon immediately agreed, so Pete took out two luxury balls and had the Minccino press their little paws on the button.

Just like that, Pete had three pokemon before his third day in this world ended.

"Hey Rapidash, uh, now that the storm is over, me and my pokemon are going to try and make our way to Johto. You heard me just now, I want to live a quiet life there at a place called Evergreen Meadow close to Ilex Forest. Not sure if you know the names humans give to places, though... it's close to Celebi's home? Does that help?"

Pete addressed Rapidash after he released his two new normal pokemon and placed them on his still not packed up sleeping bag to rest. He fed the two babies little pieces of the poke treat and started heating up a bowl of water to make some potato stew for himself before he's going to start his journey.

"Not sure why you two were wandering around in this storm all alone, but if you need a place to stay, I'd love to take you with me. You seem like a lovely pokemon and, uh, honestly I'd probably need a pokemon as strong as you to even make it there," Pete continued speaking, though at the end he kind of stopped and scratched his head a little embarrased.

"I'd totally get it you just want to get back to your herd now that Ponyta is doing better," Pete added as he started cutting up the potatoes he had washed before with the grooming tool he had used to cut sprigs and offshoots earlier.

Rapidash moved closer, breathed softly close to bowl that Pete was trying to heat, and laid down close to it to keep the temperature steady.

"See, you're already invaluable. Who knows how long that would have taken, haha. Can't wait until I can snack some proper cooking tools once we reach civilization," Pete praised with a kind smile.

Rapidash turned to Solosis, and they apparently communicated for a while. After some time, while the potatoes were softly boiling with a few of the spices Pete had found, Solosis communicated the feeling of two balls in his mind, then Pete was made to picture both horses in his mind.

"Oh, you agree, Rapidash?" Pete asked excitedly as he immediately guessed what Solosis tried to convey.

Rapidash nodded her head, and Pete could have sworn he saw her smile. It was crazy how much emotion pokemon could show with their expressions.

"Nice, having you around is going to make this all so much easier! If you'd let me, I could even ride you, and we'd arrive at New Bark town in no time! Uh, not that I've ever been on a horse this tall before... we'd definitely have to train me a little before you could take off at your full speed," Pete shily added at the end.

Rapidash gained an amused glint at Pete's musing.

The stew was done and only needed to simmer for a while, so the potatoes won't be too hard. With what he had, no amount of cooking time would make this a gourmet meal, and he wanted to get some distance done today anyway.

However, it would still need a few minutes, so Pete got up and picked up two luxury balls, and just like that, Pete's total pokemon count shot up to five.

Rapidash and Pete talked a little. Well, Pete did most of the talking, but through nods and shakes of her head and suitable questions, Pete learned a lot while they waited on the stew.

Rapidash fled during the storm when a team with poison pokemon and the occasional water pokemon started attacking their herd. Apparently, the patriarch of the herd was a giant and very old Rapidash that had recently fought a wild Arbok, and despite winning and eating plenty of berries, it was still poisoned. The storm didn't do his recovery any favors, so the herd was told to split up.

With the patriarch gone, Rapidash mused that the herd would probably break up and search two other Rapidash led herds here in the region. And, which was just a guess on Pete's part, these herds wouldn't really like raising a newborn male pokemon. That's animal behavior from his old world, though, and was more in line with feline pack mentality. Which means he could be totally wrong about any of that.

Well, something bothered Rapidash in any case. So, instead of joining a new herd, she decided to stay with Pete, who showed her plenty of kindness.

The fiery unicorn even surprised Pete with a path she knew that they could take to Johto without having to climb the Tohjo Waterfalls or swimming along the coastline, which would be suicide anyway.

It would be a bit of a climb, but except for the odd Sandslash or its babies, the path would be safe. Pete suggested he'd ball Ponyta for the climb to be extra sure nothing happens, and Rapidash agreed.

"Okay, I think the stew won't turn any better with just these ingredients, so I'll start eating. You five can drink a little of the infused water in these two buckets over there, and if you want, you can taste a little cooked potato. I'll try it first," Pete explained and started eating by drinking from the bowl and sticking the potato pieces with a long and pointy twig he found earlier among the Leppa berry bushes. He really wished for a spoon or even a fork right about now.

"Very bland, definitely needs some salt," Pete immediately judged with a grimace as he had his first mouthful.

"I'll endure, and eventually, I'll find some Yoseban trees for some fatty and protein-rich addition to my food. The book did say it tastes a little like Farfetch'd meat and honestly, from the description, it sounds like a tree where instead of soy beans you just pick up processed tofu," Pete mused under his breath.

Seeing his face and guessing his mood from the muttering, none of his pokemon wanted a piece except for the one Minccino that's a little more cheerful than the other one.

"Cinooo~"

Minccino whined a little when she was done chewing. It didn't taste too great, apparently.

"I promise, in a few days, I'll cook you a feast," Pete assured when he saw how his first try at cooking in this world almost made his pokemon cry.

Done with his bowl of stew, Pete began to pick up all that was left in the cabin. He left the note that came with the TM-CDs in the cabin with a 'sorry' written underneath and placed five luxury balls under the pillow of the dusty bed.

He thought about leaving his name and future destination on the note, too, but eventually decided against it. Who knew, even the luxury balls could already be a dead give away on who looted the beached containers, and he didn't want the potential trouble of Team Rocket coming to take back what's theirs if they found the note.

He would even hide the extra bags when entering New Bark Town and only show them to Professor Elm at most, just to be sure.

On his way west led by Rapidash with an excited Ponyta looking all over the place and both Minccino and his Solosis riding in his hoodie, Pete kept a look out for danger and especially more edible plants.

It was now midday, so he couldn't raid all the berry trees and bushes unbothered because the pokemon began to notice that the storm had ended and started looking for food.

Thankfully, his tall Rapidash was intimidating enough that they weren't attacked so far. And even a few hours later, they hadn't seen another human soul.

When they reached Tohjo Falls, Pete's haul included a few more Orans and Leppas, and he even found a patch of Rawst berries, whose plants reminded him of strawberry bushes, barely reaching one's knees. They had orange leaves, however, while Rawst berries themselves were more or less light-blue strawberries. With a young fire pokemon on the team, accidents were bound to happen. So having a great treatment for burns available was a great find.

He didn't get to dig up any saplings of the Pecha berry tree because a Dodrio tribe guarded these trees, but Rapidash did break him off a branch with a few Pecha berries on it.

Maybe he could graft the branch onto another healthy tree or, with some grass type energy bullshittery, have the branch grow some roots on its own. In any case, these berries came with stones inside that he could plant.

The trees barely reached his chest height, had grey and green leaves, while Pecha berries looked literally like peaches with a pink hue. They would help against most poisons, so it was a rather lucky find yet again.

After that, they seemed to have exhausted the pool of berry variety growing on this route, so all they found was a few more Orans and Leppas. But even they were guarded by a whole bunch of pokemon, and Pete was thanking his lucky stars that Rapidash agreed to stay with him.

Eventually, the air started to feel a little more wet. The quiet thundering noise up ahead got louder and louder with every step. It was only a little more than four hours until sun down if Pete had to guess, so they still had plenty of time left to do the climb that Rapidash told him about.

The well trodden path led to a cave where all the wet air and noise came from, but Rapidash nudged Pete to the right into the thick bushes. It made sense to not use this path. Neither of the two wanted or even could climb up the five story high waterfall inside a cave with wet walls.

A good half an hour after they found another cave, this one decidedly not housing a waterfall if the quiet atmosphere and regular humid air of the forest were any indication.

The cave it turned out was rather well lit, several holes in the cave ceiling let in some sunshine from above to the chagrin over several Zubat who hid behind corners and pillars to stay in the shadows.

A few minutes of maneuvering in the difficult cave path, a fork was up ahead. One led to darkness, while the other one was still well lit.

Rapidash chose the well lit path, but Pete strained his eyes to look into the other path.

"Hey, wait a sec, Rapidash. I think I see some Bocan Mushrooms over there. Would you mind coming with me to pick some? I promise I just want a handful to maybe grow them later," Pete called out in a quiet voice.

Rapidash looked to him, then back to the dark cave, and nudged her head to Ponyta.

"You want me to ball him? In case we need to haul ass out of here?"

Rapidash nodded.

"Alright, little buddy, you heard your mom," Pete said as he took out Ponyta's ball from the quick grab pouch of his bag with the poke gear.

As he recalled Ponyta and Rapidash moved into the dark path to light it up a little with her fiery mane and tail, Pete followed closely.

"Hmm, you think we find some cute Paras here? They could help tend to a mushroom garden, I think," Pete whispered as he kneeled down to pluck some of the Bocan mushrooms.

These mushrooms looked like a strip of dried jerky with a blood red, wrinkled cap on top and white 'veins' that made it look like meat marbled with fat.

According to the plant guides, this mushroom should taste like Tauros bacon if treated a certain way. However, you shouldn't eat too much of these in a short while as a human because they build up a certain toxin in your blood that slows your heart rate. Perfectly fine in small doses and digested in a few days after consumption, but too much of these mushrooms without stop and you would die of a heart attack.

When he was done picking up a good wash basin full of these mushrooms, Pete had enough. He didn't want to push his luck, and both of his Minccino were shivering in his hoodie. Apparently, they were very much scared of the dark.

"Hey Rapidash, I got enough, we can go back," Pete whispered.

But Rapidash didn't look to him. Instead, she looked into the dark with rapt attention.

"Something there?" Pete whispered even quieter than before.

Suddenly, without warning, Rapidash shot what looked to be the move Flamethrower into the dark and picked up Pete by his collar with her blisteringly hot mouth and ran back into the lit path.

Because of the flames, Pete could make out what got Rapidash so riled up. Five towering moutains of orange, covered all over in mushrooms, were releasing spores non-stop and were glaring and screeching their hearts out in their direction.

"Holy shit! Are those Parasect? That's straight-up nightmare fuel!"

Pete shouted his heart out. Even though Rapidash merely dragged him for a short 8-second sprint, it felt like a 10 minute long trip. Once they were back into the lit part of the cavern, Rapidash released Pete and looked him over a little worriedly.

"Ugh, I'm fine! But you could have warned me that Paras and its evolution look like they are straight out of a horror movie! I'm definitely not catching those, no chance!"

Rapidash, done with her fussing, let out a little scoff.

"Anyway, what were those spores? Probably Stun Spore, right? So we would get paralyzed, and they can turn us into mushroom fertilizer? Ugh, gives me the creeps," Pete thought with a shudder.

"Well, no Cheri berries in our loot so far. You think a Pecha berry would help there?"

Rapidash tilted her head, and she indicated she wasn't quite sure with a soft neigh.

"My face tingles a little, I think I'll feel better if I eat a Pecha berry," Pete decided and rummaged through the bag with the food a little to pick up a fist-sized peach looking fruit.

After one big bite for himself, Pete broke off two pieces with his fingers as best he could to give to the two Minccino.

"Hey, Solosis, you should have the ability Overcoat, so spores do nothing to you. Still want a piece?" Pete offered the little light-blue blob in his hoodie another piece, a little bigger than the other two before, so his first pokemon wouldn't be upset.

He felt an affirmitive image in his mind, so he reached back to feed her some Pecha berry, too.

"I promise your Ponyta will get some later, but do you want the rest now?"

Pete pocketed the stone from inside the berry to possibly grow a tree out of it later and gave the rest to the hero of this particular adventure.

"Thanks for saving our butts, Rapidash. All the smooth sailing before lowered my vigilance, I think. At least we got a nice haul of Bocan mushrooms... ugh, now my hands are sticky with berry juices," Pete first thanked the flame unicorn, then complained when he felt his hands.

"Man, what I wouldn't give for a proper knife right n-"

Pete's complaint was interrupted by one of the small Minccino hopping out of his hoodie, running down his arm and stopping at his wrist with her tail pointed at his hand.

"What are you doing, little girl?" Pete asked curiously when he noticed the little chinchilla scrunching up her entire face in concentration.

"Ciiiiiii!" A little squeak sounded out, and suddenly, her tail was covered in water. It wasn't much, but this was clearly a water type move.

"Woah, you know Aqua Tail? That's amazing, Minccino!"

After a short moment of shock, Pete quickly used the little water the tail offered to rinse his hands. When he told her she could stop, the water as one fell off her tail to the ground. Done with the move, her tail was once again completely dry. Magnets, how do they work?

Without prompt, Rapidash had dried Pete's hands softly with fire type energy, so he could pick up the little wonder with the unexpected water move.

"That's so cool! That was an egg move you probably learned from one of your parents. Someone in your lineage was probably a Buizel or its evolved form Floatzel. I mean, it could be something else, too, but I think that's what your other parent would have most likely mated with," Pete explained as he happily scratched Minccino's ear.

She didn't understand much about egg moves or whatever, so she just enjoyed the praise and the scritches.