C015 - Getting started with ground affinity and meeting his new colleagues

At lunch, Pete learned that Sunkern didn't want to eat anything, but he would like staying on wet ground while bathing in the sun. It made sense, but at the same time, Pete wondered where Sunkern would get all his needed nutrients from without taking root. Maybe he could experiment with different kinds of fertilizers later at the farm.

After lunch, Pete spent hours outside with his pokemon. He spent the time barefoot to get a deeper feeling for his ground affinity. He introduced more games that also doubled a little as training - for example, quick-tap catch for Ponyta and Blitzle, which would train their speed and agility. He also taught juggling to Solosis as a means to train her fine-control by having several smaller items in motion as opposed to simply lifting heavy items.

Zorua and the two Minccino were still playing Rock-Paper-Scissors, and this time, with a little more energy, Zorua simply used an illusion to make the hand signs. In a way, that was training for him, too, and he really liked playing with the two chinchilla.

At some moment, Pete simply watched all his pokemon with a smile on his face while sitting on the ground with Golett serving as a support to lean against. Rapidash was watching over all the baby pokemon and Sunkern was sunbathing with a blissful smile.

"Are you sure you want to stay like this?"

Golett lifted his right arm and shook it up and down at his question. Pete had taught him to use his right arm for nodding because otherwise, he had to full-body nod since he didn't have a long enough neck for regular nodding.

"Our bond simply snapped in place and immediately opened up my own ground affinity. Do you have a way to train it, Golett? Right now, it feels like all I can do is wait. I have no way to flex any ground type energy to exercise," Pete asked as he looked up to Golett.

Golett pointed to his eyes, then used one of his stubby feet on the earthen ground.

"Eyes... sight... sense? You want me to try sensing the earth around me?"

Golett lifted his right arm and shook it up and down once more.

"Huh, makes sense. Alright, let me try," Pete said before leaning forward a little and placing both hands on the ground before him.

Nothing really happened for a few minutes, but eventually Blitzle was chasing Ponyta and came running really close Pete, and something appeared in Pete's mind.

It was like he felt the hooves stomping on the ground, like echolocation, the vibrations rang through the earth and reached his hands. Pete tried chasing this feeling and extending this new sense a little to follow the two young foals. Quickly, however, Pete noticed that at some range, he could no longer 'see' anything. And when he tried going further, Pete was getting tired rather fast.

"Okay, found a way to exert my ground affinity. Ugh, that feels terrible," Pete rubbed his temples because a small headache settled in when he stopped his 'earth sense'.

"I should have written that expending the energy for the first time was a pleasant feeling. Curse past me," Pete groaned.

Rapidash looked at him a little worried and dragged over one of the buckets Pete had prepared as drinking water for the playing pokemon.

"Ah, thank you, Rapidash. As observant and smart as ever," Pete thanked and praised. Rapidash snorted amusedly and watched Pete with hawk eyes until he cupped some water in his hands and drank it.

"Hey, you're a pretty amazing mother, right? Do you feel like I should wait actively hatching the other eggs I have until we're settled in? You know, before the two of us adults are getting overwhelmed looking after all these troublemakers?"

Rapidash took a moment to carefully think about it before pointing her gaze at Sunkern, who was literally just chilling in the sun doing nothing but having a dopey smile on his face.

"Yeah, okay... but they can't all be as laid-back as my buddy Sunkern, you know?"

Rapidash snorted but didn't try convincing Pete of anything else anymore. He was their trainer, so he should decide if he's overwhelmed. Because right now to Rapidash, it was all just bliss. Looking after so many babies felt like heaven to her, especially because her Ponyta was really happy right now. But they all tickled her motherly instincts the right way, even the Sunkern that was just lying there.

"Pete, want me to take over dinner for today?"

Vivian arrived when the sun was only two hours away from dusk.

"Oh, I forgot the time. Nah, it's okay. There's something I want to try out with the Yoseban fruit and the greens I bought earlier. But you could assist me?"

"Yeah, sure, always love to learn new recipes!"

"Great, Rapidash, are you okay to look over everyone together with Golett?"

Rapidash nodded her head, and so Pete used his freshly created veggie broth to make a bok choy soup with fried tofu cubes. Well, all the names were different, but Pete had found a plant that looked almost exactly like bok choy in the old couple's store earlier and immediately wanted to try using it with fried yoseban fruit pieces.

The soup was hit and miss with his pokemon, but everyone who didn't particularly care for it got just plain fried yoseban fruit cubes and some treats.

After dinner, Pete finally asked Blitzle and Zorua if they wanted to stay with him, and they both agreed to join his team officially.

At night, Pete got ready for bed and noticed that all non-horse pokemon in his team had already claimed a big part of it. As much as he loved his pokemon, it couldn't continue like this. Especially if they evolve eventually and grow bigger.

But the room was limited now, and it looked like this arrangement would only stay like this for this night and the next. Then he would likely leave New Bark Town behind with Herbert. Vivan was sure he would agree.

Sure, Pete could build a gigantic bed to house him and all his pokemon, but where would it ever stop? Would he need to upgrade his farm house into a gigantic barn that's just a bed if he catches or has a pokemon evolve into a giant like Onix or even just the Meganium and Ferligatr he had seen earlier?

Pete decided at this moment that all his pokemon would get their own rooms, habitats, or even houses if needed. But this night, he would enjoy some cuddle time with his furry newly hatched friends.

The next day was spent a little more relaxed than the last. He spent some time interacting with the three other assistants that arrived for work and had lunch and dinner with everyone, Clara, the metalshop lady, included.

From the three assistants, Pete hit it off the best with Valentino. Fred was a little too reserved and barely spoke up. Even the day before they didn't talk much after greeting each other.

According to Valentino, Fred was really into crunching numbers and analyzing data, so he neglected the fun part in being around pokemon.

Becca, on the other hand, was a book worm through and through. She talked even less than Fred and constantly had her eyes glued to a tablet or book.

Valentino told Pete that Becca only had one pokemon when even Fred had three, his favorite number. She didn't want to take care of more pokemon because that would shorten her time with books.

However, Pete still didn't question why she was part of Professor Elm's team because whenever she spoke up, it was clear to everyone that she was plenty smart and was very knowledgeable about pokemon.

Pete was also a little surprised to learn that Fred and Becca were engaged. They spent almost the whole day together, and the two didn't speak a word to one another. But maybe that was just their chemistry, enjoying companiable silence and research.

Valentino, on the other hand, was the 'wild one' on the bunch. He loved gathering research data while in the field, and he focused almost fully on studying wild pokemon behavior. His unique input led to quite a few breakthroughs in Professor Elm's research - according to the professor himself.

Most of his previous data on 'egg groups' came from Valentino, so Elm had invited Pete to a meeting after lunch with Valentino and Elm where Pete explained 'his studies' on egg groups and his classifactions. It was supposed to last half an hour, but eventually even Fred and Becca joined in and Pete and his new colleagues discussed egg groups until dinner.

If he wasn't currently studying a Heracross tribe near New Bark, Valentino would have loved to accompany Pete to Goldenrod City. Instead, he pretty much invited himself to Pete's farm whenever it was ready. Pete didn't mind, though. Valentino was a very charismatic man with an infectious love for pokemon.

Also, he owned an Aggron and a Tyranitar. Both pokemon had stayed with him after his father's demise. If he needed someone bullied near his farm, that would be Pete's secret weapon. Valentino laughed when he heard why Pete wouldn't mind him coming along.

After their workday ended, Valentino had stayed behind to watch over his pokemon together with him and socialize a little more. His Tyranitar had birthed three eggs just last year and still had plenty of motherly drive left. She even taught Zorua and the two Minccino how to wield dark type energy with the move Bite. Something the pokemon thanked her by teaching her Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Watching a Tyranitar that was two heads taller and probably three times his weight lose in Rock-Paper-Scissors to a Minccino that could comfortably sit in his palm was hilarious. Especially since she had to use rock-type energy to make the three gestures. Her claws were too short and far apart to make anything other than rock. How fitting.