66 C066 - The Hoenn trip continues

"With this, I hope you've been fairly compensated. It was very nice talking to you and meeting your Duosion. If I'm ever in the area, I'm sure I'll ask Metagross to pop us over to your farm," Steven jovially spoke as he offered Pete a handshake at the door.

They had talked for almost an hour after he received the three pokemon and had asked for permission to show him his Duosion. The champion with the shiny psychic ace was a little taken aback that Pete would be in a similar position as him.

Out in the hallway Duosion let him know that Metagross had told her about a few tricks on how to use psychic moves more efficiently and would have possibly taught her more if it wasn't already getting very later and Steven needed to quickly go about his business.

Steven also went back on his word and gifted Pete a fourth TM, the one for Shadow Ball. In the champion's words, he appreciated that Pete had taken one of the TMs for his research that would benefit others as much as him and encouraged the young assistant professor to find more of those TMs that would help pokemon evolve.

He also promised that once he was done with the 'cleanup', he would research the videos Pete forwarded to make sure his pokemon learned the move Twin Beam so that he could record TMs for that once Pete released his research paper. If his plan to figure it out on his own failed, he would send someone to Pete to record it for Devon Corp. Double Hit for Aipom's evolution wasn't too hard to figure out and teach, so Steven didn't make any plans for it.

Back at the poke center, Pete went to the unused storage room he was allowed to use as a room because it was big enough to let him release all his pokemon. It was time for some introductions.

"Okay, team and Baltoy. I'd like you to meet and welcome our newest additions. Beldum, Torchic, and Mudkip, these are a good part of your new team members!"

Beldum sparkled a little using steel type energy as a way of greeting, Torchic looked like she was about to be recruited into the Farfetch'd corps as they wanted her to try a few test swings with a leek and Mudkip just hopped around everyone before resting on Nidoking shoulders. Maybe he looked a little like the little guy's father if you squinted and had bad eyesight. Who knew?

But Pete wasn't sad about any of these immediate pairings. Nidoking could be a great teacher because the Mudkip line could do wonders with both poison and ground type moves. And if you discount special attack water moves, a Swampert and a Nidoking even had a similar fighting style... Pete assumed.

And the three Farfetch'd... well... they could teach Torchic a few flying moves, and then they would learn fighting moves together? Even the three Farfetch'd still had a lot to learn in that regard. He didn't need another pokemon saluting him in the mornings or after every training session, but the three Farfetch'd were amazing battlers.

Yet, if he was being honest with himself, Pete had thought Arcanine would pick Torchic under her metaphorical wings. It appeared that was more up to Rapidash's speed.

'Maybe I can look at the market in Slateport City for Counter or maybe even Quick Guard as fighting move TMs for coverage. Those birds would certainly profit immensely from it,' Pete mused as he watched the antics of his pokemon.

After quickly washing up, Pete got to sleep immediately with a new, non-optional blanket weight. Beldum wanted to rest in his warmth and decided to hog the spot next to Duosion. The two had hit it off, but Pete was already wishing for his old bed arrangement back home if he was being honest.

Pete and Valentino had breakfast together with Mossdeep City gym leader Leona, who told them that her brother-in-law the astronaut managed to catch a few pokemon during his last space trip, including a Solrock for his son and a Lunatone for his daughter.

'Nice little hidden canon event,' Pete idly thought with a smile.

Pete had shown off his newest psychic pokemon to Leona, which got the woman riled up. Yet, she didn't ask about the super rare Beldum but rather if Steven said something about her or if he spoke about having a special someone in his life and many other questions in that regard. It ended when Pete gave her the tip that he had referred Steven to the guardians at Mt Pyre if the champion needed more answers about Aqua's and Magma's goal.

Pete would later learn that Leona had closed down the gym for two weeks after breakfast and that she had traveled to her parents. He'd wish her good luck in landing Steven. They might make a great couple.

After saying goodbye to both Leona and the Nurse Joy of Mossdeep City, Valentino and Pete once more went out to sea on Lapras' backs. A few hours in, they passed a quaint little island called Muscle Island that had two mountains that together looked like a curled up bizep and a fist.

When they passed the island, there were tens of people and pokemon working out at the beach. Pete would have to bring his Timburrs over some time.

For the rest of the day, the two no longer saw any other people. A little after noon, the two reached the inactive volcano that had the gorgeous ancient city of Sootopolis built inside the crater. But sadly, visiting it wasn't on their agenda this time around. Instead, they aimed straight for the unnamed coastline of Hoenn's mainland and finally turned in for the day only an hour away from the Berry Farms on route 123.

Right around nightfall, they found shelter in an abandoned shack with windows without glasses. It gave Duosion and Pete a nostalgic feeling and bloomed a wish to maybe visit the little cabin Pete found during the storm in the future.

The next morning, Pete and Valentino woke up to a little jumpscare when a crazy amount of hundreds of Lotad and their evolved form Lombre and tens of Ludicolo, the final evolution of the water/grass species, were calmly walking or rather dancing out of the jungle. The shack was next to a river that fed into the ocean, which apparently was prime real estate for the Lotad line.

"Wow, just... wow," Pete mumbled as he watched it all happen before he even had breakfast.

The biggest Ludicolo must have been extremely old or had something else going on because this shiny giant was well over two heads taller than Pete while regular Ludicolo were a head shorter than him.

"What a powerful tribe leader. No wonder their numbers are so exaggerated," Valentino whispered under his breath with shining eyes. He was already recording it all with one hand and looking out for special things happening with the other, holding up his binoculars.

"How do you think they found so many water stones? That's got to be at least twenty-five Ludicolos," Pete asked Valentino in a calm voice.

"Well, judging by the fact that their whole tribe moved here from their preferred river environment, it may have something to do with this coastline. We'll see what happens soon, I guess," Valentino countered.

The two assistant professors sat outside with all their pokemon watching the event, but the big Ludicolo didn't care. He had seen them, danced with a silly smile, and continued moving forward with his tribe.

Ten minutes later, the Lotad and Lombre began swimming upriver once more, with only their 'hats' showing on the water's surface. The Ludicolos danced out of the water with three new members among them. Valentino's guess was spot on.

The big shiny Ludicolo danced over once more and used psychic energy to float over two fist-sized 'nuts' over to both trainers.

"Ooooh, Blue Apricorns! They can be used to make Lure Balls, I heard. Thank you, Ludicolo! I'll give mine to my friend here. He owns a big farm for berries and stuff. I'm sure a lot of his own and the wild pokemon would appreciate it once he grows some Blue Apricorn trees," Valentino thanked with an excited voice and a sincere, charismatic smile.

The giant Ludicolo regarded Pete for a while, never stopping its dance from one foot to the other, before it shook its sombrero and a few small seeds roughly half the size of Pete's thumb fell out and it once more guided them over to Pete's hand with psychic energy and a warm smile before it danced away.

"Thank you very much! I'll cherish these!" Pete shouted to Ludicolo's back, even if he wasn't quite sure what these six brown seeds could do.

Best case scenario, they were those special Mystery Dungeon seeds. The color and size would fit. Who knew? Maybe they were Heal Seeds that worked like a berry on crack, healing all status conditions and were filled with tons of nutrition.

There weren't any levels in this world, but the Joy Seed that worked like a Rare Candy and raised a level in the games was also a possibility, whatever it would do in this world. Or any other seed that increases stats from HP to speed and everything in between, Pete was excited about the possibilities.

"Okay, you can stop grinning like an idiot. It's only six random brown seeds. These two Blue Apricorns should be worth much more," Valentino said while shaking his head.

"Who knows, hehe."

"We're not diving down to find their cache of Water Stones?"

"Nope!"

Valentino only lifted a brow at Pete's neverending grin and started packing his stuff. He was proud of Pete, though. There was no need to antagonize the Ludicolo tribe after their leader gifted them stuff. They needed to start going soon if they wanted to spend some time at the berry farms and still reach Slateport City before nightfall.