44 C044 - Jasmine's triumphant return

Pete's dreams were shattered as he walked back to his home to train his ground type energy some more.

The Feebas had looked at the scale with sparkling eyes, but when Pete tried to place it on the spot of a missing scale it fell off immediately, dropped in the water and was swallowed by Feebas shortly. She looked dumbly at Pete as if asking why that thing wasn't as delicious as the berries and Pete could only shoo the fish pokemon away with a sad sigh.

Held items really weren't a thing in this world, and how could a fish with no arms or hands even hold anything? Would he need actual glue to stick the pretty scale to the pokemon? Were words enough, and he'd just need to try a few more times?

Pete shook his head and sat down next to his outdoor kitchen to look at the construction crew going on about their day.

But that blissful rest didn't last long when he heard the ringtone of his tablet. A video-call from Vivian was on the screen. He had pretty much forgotten his promise from yesterday.

"*Oh no, what happened? You look awful, Pete!*"

"A nice day to you as well. You look as lovely as ever," Pete greeted back with a self-mocking grin.

"*Don't be coy with me, tell me before I get over to pamper you to full health against your will!*"

Vivian looked unimpressed with Pete's try to derail the conversation.

"Let's just say I learned the hard way why nobody lives here. We were prepared, but...uh... let's say I was a little reckless and definitely too trusting," Pete sheepishly answered under Vivian's serious glare.

"*You got it covered?*"

"Yeah, I had Pecha Berries and Antidotes prepared for my pokemon. And Solosis learned Heal Pulse, as you know. I'll be right as rain in a day or two, I'm guessing. And the thing that happened was just a... setback. Next time, I won't be caught off-guard," Pete explained without actually telling Vivian that he was poisoned by a tribe leader level Ariados the size of a car. That was just unwise.

"*Good. Please let us know if there's complications and always remember you could just move back to New Bark for your project. If it turns out to be impossible, there's no shame in trying something else,*" Vivian advised as her glare slowly turned into a soft smile filled with warmth.

"Sure, I'll keep that in mind. So you wanted a tour?"

"*Yes! The pictures won't do it justice, I had thought, and our visit is still a few weeks aw-*" Vivian interrupted herself by pressing her hand against her forehead.

"Alright, got it, Vivian. Surprise visit in two or three weeks," Pete said with a chuckle.

"*Ugh, me and my loose tongue. In any case, the tour is just an excuse to get you to talk with me for a while,*" Vivian brushed off with a sweet smile.

"Alright, let's get to it then. Maybe I'll get Rapidash to bring me around on her back to show you the surroundings a little without it taking us until midnight," Pete suggested with a laugh and turned the camera front facing.

Pete spent half an hour introducing Luna and Carl to Vivian as well as showing her around the foundations of the house. Both basement rooms were now more or less finished, and the outer walls and ceiling for the part of the house below the hill were almost done. What was missing were still the walls separating the rooms as well as the cabling and the plumbing to the second bathroom at the back.

With that done, Rapidash did indeed bring Pete around on her back, and Vivian was immediately smitten with the waterfall, despite the fact that Nidoking was punching from inside a cliff cave he had created. It sounded a bit intimidating, and Pete wondered why the surrounding pokemon simply left Nidoking to do this for a whole day.

When Pete came back and hung up after a heartfelt goodbye, he noticed that Solosis and Zorua in his illusion form were back. Instead of looking like a younger Pete, which would defeat the purpose of all the subterfuge, Zorua looked like a random young boy they had seen in New Bark Town.

Yet, the two did not come back alone. Sophie and Jasmine were sitting around Pete's make-shift kitchen counter with boxes of food on it and five new pokemon around them that Pete hadn't seen before.

"You look very tired. Long night?" Sophie asked as Pete approached the twins on Rapidash.

He had by now covered his arms with a long-sleeved zip-up hoodie, and his complexion had turned a little better in the last two hours talking with Vivian.

"Tired, yes. But you two bring a fresh wind on this sunny day," Pete smoothly responded as he walked over after getting down from Rapidash's back and scratching behind her ears for a short moment as thanks.

"Huh, when did you get so good at deflecting questions?" Sophie asked with narrowed eyes.

"Apparently not good enough. So I see that your eggs both hatched? And it looks like Numel decided to join? What about the other two?"

"Jasmine, don't give in! I want to kno-"

"Mom found out that a friend from her time in Sinnoh, a renowned breeder of the 'Sinnoh grass starter line', was in Kanto for an auction. She, uh... she bought them to beat dad," Jasmine shily answered as she leaned down to pet the two grass turtles.

Sinnoh's grass starter Turtwig, which would eventually evolve into Torterra with a grass/ground typing, was certainly an amazing addition to a ground type gym-leader's team.

"They look very healthy and strong. And their final evolution is a truly powerful pokemon," Pete praised with a warm smile as he knelt down to the five new additions to Jasmine's lineup in greeting.

The Numel recoiled and hid behind Jasmine cautiously, but both newborn Rhyhorn the size of a grown husky but wider walked over to eat the Oran Berries he had taken from his ever-present bag. The two Turtwig quickly followed once they saw there were free berries to gain.

"Why are you only using the one arm?" Sophie asked suspiciously.

"I hurt myself a little last night, no big deal," Pete finally admitted with a shrug. There were only so many times that he could skirt around a subject after all.

"Let me take a look if it's no big deal then," Sophie ordered as she narrowed her eyes even more.

So it was that Pete retold the story from the fight last night as both twins looked at his still slightly purple arm in worry. It took so long that the food they brought was only luke-warm when they finally ate, but neither of them really cared.

After dinner, Luna and Carl laid down some more of the wiring for the finishing touches so that tomorrow they could finish with the walls and get to start with windows and roofing.

As it turned to night, Luna, Carl, and Sophie left for Goldenrod City once more while Jasmine stayed behind. There was a chance for retaliation by the Ariados, so the two of them followed by their pokemon were making their way to the top of the cliff and the forest's edge.

This time around, Pete's pokemon formed a defensive line around their trainer, which included Jasmine and Numel, who was clearly not yet comfortable with battle. Seeing as even with two naps during the day he was still exhausted, Pete took out two camping chairs as his pokemon began to relax a little.

"Steelix and Gligar look really eager for battle," Pete said to start a conversation between them.

"Oh, yeah. Steelix, in particular, really liked the last fight with Nidoking at the front. And I think we might have found Gligar's favorite fighting style with our strategy last time when we told him to look for opportunities from up top," Jasmine responded with a warm smile toward Gligar, who had a ferocious grin on her face.

"Well, if last night was anything to go by, they might come here in even bigger numbers than last time, so I'm really glad for your arrival. Golurk, Nidoking, and Rapidash were super effective in this open battlefield against huge numbers, but it can't hurt to have a few more heavy-hitters," Pete praised.

"Oh, yeah... say Pete. Sophie interrupted earlier, but..."

"Hmm? Out with it," Pete eventually spoke with a raised eyebrow.

"The Turtwigs... I was wondering if you wanted to train one of them?" Jasmine mumbled in a whisper that Pete barely caught.

"Why would you offer that, though? Didn't your mom pull a few favors and a lot of resources to get them for you?"

Jasmine took a few minutes to decide how to best speak her mind about it. She had already asked one of the Turtwigs if it would rather stay here than fight battles constantly and it agreed since Jasmine also promised to come offer often with the other Turtwig who was his bond to 'home'.

"Uhm, one of them was very fired up when I described my future plans, but the other one was a little reluctant... and I was thinking that maybe he would like living on a farm more and you could probably use a few more grass pokemon, I thought," Jasmine shily spoke with rosy cheeks that Pete couldn't see since it was rather dark already.

"And you know... I could always come here and meet him, no?"