9 C009 - Getting the job and an ID

AN: Almost forgot the 3 pokeballs from the metal case with pokemon again. If you have suggestions, name them now! You only have 1 chapter left before they are revealed. Remember they should be Gen V ideally, because the Solosis egg suggests the metal case comes from Unova same as the shipment - though that doesn't mean they can't be pokemon from the earlier regions.

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"This tastes amazing, thanks Pete!"

Professor Elm was over the moon eating his curry. Even his son Benny was now happily eating his portion after his father managed to get the first spoon in his mouth.

"Yeah, glad I watched you cook this so I can copy the recipe," Vivian added from the side already eating her second serving.

"Glad you like it," Pete answered with a content smile. Finally he could eat some proper human food again. For someone who ate home cooked meals pretty much daily in his last life, the last few days were really grinding his gears.

"Say Pete, I overheard earlier that you want to move to Evergreen Meadow. Do you want to make your farm into a proper settlement then or live there alone?"

"The settlement will have to wait. I mean, I still don't know if its even feasible and I dunno, I guess I'm a little paranoid with new faces," Pete answered the professor's query.

"Paranoid? You opened up instantly with me," Elm mentioned with a raised brow.

"Well, you're world renowned and revered - but even you wouldn't get away with stealing my pokemon or selling me to some shady organization. Also you have a reputation of being an approachable fella," Pete countered.

"Ha, my husband couldn't hurt a fly, rest assured," Vivian offered when she came back to place down a second serving for her husband and Pete.

"I'm not really sure if that was a compliment, but I'll take it as one. I'm certainly glad about all of it - because I've decided I'll gladly take you on as an assitant professor. In just half a day of talking you furthered my understanding of my current research topic, solved a mystery that's been on the back of my mind for a long time now and you're an alright fella yourself, Pete," Professor Elm added.

"Yes! Thank you so much, professor! You won't regret it, I swear!"

"With that out of the way, what do you want your last name to be?"

"Huh?" Pete was caught offguard. Where did that come from?

"Ah, you mentioned you want to escape your family's influence. What better than a different name, I thought. A league ID can act as your actual ID and I can issue you one as my assitant no problem. It isn't fool proof and definitely won't stand under heavy scrutiny. But if you don't get into trouble with the law, we have nothing to worry about," Elm explained as he waved away Pete's concerns. Vivian looked on with a fond smile. She knew others called her husband gullible. But she thought he was just very good-hearted, she loved that about him.

"I... I don't know what to say. You don't know what that would mean for me."

Pete's voice quivered as he tried to catch his thoughts. He came here with the mission to lie and convince someone he thought gullible to trick him into giving him an ID and background, but Elm's kindness caught him offguard.

"No worries, just remember to send me regular updates on your research data once you're set up. I have high hopes for you," Elm answered as if it didn't matter.

He knew that getting Pete's help would result in years of progress for his research in the long term and in the span of a single afternoon, he had grown to like the young man. Something about his good-natured smile and the way he looked at his own pokemon reminded him of his father, a simple pokemon breeder for rock pokemon up at the pass where Pete had come from.

After a heartfelt handshake and another sincere thanks, Pete excused himself to look for his pokemon. He also grabbed a bucket and a vitamin bottle to make sure they weren't thirsty.

Once outside, he filled the bucket for the pokemon on the patio and patiently watched them eat. Then he filled the bucket again for Rapidash and Ponyta.

All his pokemone except for Solosis had claimed that they liked his cooking. Solosis couldn't really express it, but it felt like she wanted to say she would have prefered the food to be little spicier.

He could try that next time, but this time around he kept the curry very mild for the toddler's sake. Once he came inside again, finished with his talks with the pokemon, Pete made his way to the kitched to clean the bowls and the kitchen. But he was beaten to it by Vivian who took the bowls from his hands.

"If you cook something as delicious as this and even include portions for your pokemon, the least I can do is clean the kitchen. Go to the study. It's the first door on the right over there," Vivian ordered with a kind smile.

*Knock-knock*

"Yeah, come on in," Professor Elm called out when Pete knocked on the glass door to the study.

"Your wife said I should come here?"

Elm turned away from his computer and pointed to a tray on the side. On it were an ID card, a tablet, a bag and below the desk were three incubators.

"Take it Pete Lang, these belong to you. Your accounts for the league are still getting processed, but the tablet has a call function and I registered your number under the lab. I only have three incubators that are free right now, but they are yours, too. I already contacted Bellis to send me some more with a brief outlook of what you said about eggs. I'm sure she'll happily send me more when she hears about your thoughts on eggs, egg groups, egg moves and all that stuff."

"You sure? I could wait on the replacement should she send some," Pete asked for confirmation with an unsure smile.

"Like I said, the others are in use, these are not. Why wait and have them stand around for nothing when we could put them to good use!"

"Wait a second, professor."

Pete ran out of the room and came back with one of the four functioning TMs and its manual his arm.

"Uh, these are Devon prot-"

"Yes, the latest model of Devon Corporation prototypes created in an effort to make TM-CDs reusable. There's none on the market, none were ever given to a professor for research, because if they were, Devon Corp and Silph Co. would lose tons of money on TM-CD sales. Where did you get one? No, wait. Don't answer. Why did you bring it over?"

"Professor, in my travels I... kind of stumbled on four of these and a broken one. For all your kindness I'd like to offer you one. I swear I didn't steal, cheat, or otherwise harm someone to get them," Pete explained hurriedly.

Professor Elm narrowed his eyes at Pete for a while.

"Make sure you keep that information to yourself. Don't make it public. As much as I loathe to admit it, I'm very sure people would kill to get their hands on such a machine," Elm eventually told Pete with a heavy sigh and took the TM in his hands.

His research was primarily on pokemon, but he had plenty of experience with machines so he was trying to see if he could find out something about it by prodding it a little.

"If you want, maybe we can take a look at the broken one tomorrow? I wouldn't mind if we broke it apart, you kno-"

Pete's offer was interrupted by a TM-CD popping out of the machine when Professor Elm powered it on. The professor looked up.

"You didn't know?"

Pete shook his head, "never bothered to power any of them on."

"Let's see. It reads 'TM33 Reflect', certainly a powerful move to know. It's known to roughly half physical damage taken. Though to reach that level it has to be trained for a long time. I have no need for it though, this TM is already gift enough. Take it," Elm threw the CD over and Pete immediately jumped to catch with wide eyes.

"Haha, you should have seen the look on your face. Make sure you actually use the TM-CDs, Pete. Young pokemon have a lot of room for growth and I'm sure Solosis would benefit greatly knowing another psychic move that she could train. Who knows, maybe it can even help develop psychic typing energy for your Minccino. If I remember correctly their species has comptability to psychic energy and they would progress by leaps and bounds with a Solosis growing up with them."

"That... thank you for everything, professor!"

"Yes, make sure you have Vivian show you the guest room. And tomorrow we'll look into that broken TM, hehehe," Professor Elm tried to sound menacing and do a villain laugh, but even with his best try he just sounded like a young boy about to prank his younger sibling by making them eat chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla ice cream.

Vivian, accompanied by little Benny who just finished coloring a book, gladly showed Pete to a guest room that the other assitant professors sometimes crashed in if they had a late night at the lab. Today was a weekend, so only one of the three assitants had to come early in the morning to feed the pokemon on the pasture. Pete had missed them by a few hours, but he would probably meet one of them tomorrow morning.

Pete brought all his gear and bags to the room, put the Snivy, Sunkern, and Trapinch eggs into the incubators and went outside to look for his pokemon.

This time he started by going over to Rapidash and Ponyta. He brought a bucket of water with vitamins in it and a few snacks with him to be sure they had everything they needed.

"Hey Rapidash, little Ponyta. We're going to stay here for another two or three days, I think. Professor Elm is a great guy and everything went smoothly. Nothing should stop us from opening up our farm," Pete softly narrated as he scratched both pokemon's necks.

"Do you want to stay out here for the night? I could put you in the ball to keep you close. I'm afraid you're a little too big for my guest room though," Pete continued.

Rapidash gained a warm smile and shook her head. Pete was growing on her more and more.

"If you're feeling lonely, I'll patch up the tent and spend the next night out here with you two?" Pete offered when he saw Ponyta wasn't really convinced. He liked having more friends around than just his mom. Ponyta heavily nodded at Pete's question.

"Alright little buddy, let's do that then. Don't make any trouble out here. I'll bring your breakfast tomorrow morning," Pete ordered with a bright smile as he placed down his trusty bucket and the bowl with the treats.

Rapidash watched Pete's back with a loving gaze as he made his way to the patio to pick up Solosis and the Minccino sisters.

"Hey you three, want to go inside and explore our room for tonight? I'll organize drinks and food, too, if you come," Pete enticed with a cheeky grin, knowing his pokemon would likely follow him anyway.

A warm feeling made its way into his mind, allowing him to feel Solosis' good mood. The two little Minccino babies hurriedly ran over and climbed his body to cling to the side of his shoulders, happily squeaking parts of their name into his ears.

"Alright, let's go then. And thank you Granbull and Quilava for looking after them for so long," Pete thanked the two pokemon of the professor and his wife by offering them one of the poke treats he had kept in his pocket for these two.

It's been a good day so far.