106 C106 - Ula'ula island

AN: Don't be too excited. I played a little Kaizo Ironmon Nat Dex with a friend and despite getting nowhere in 50~ resets, I decided to write a few chapters for this fic when I came home.

I managed to write 3 before thinking of it like a chore, which I will release in the next two days - please don't hope that I'm dropping another 100 chapters anytime soon.

To try out different writing styles for my original novel, I'm currently working on a TV show fanfic centered around police work in LA. The things I'm trying there is 'live' commentary like in Modern Family (which is featured in the fic) as well as writing about schemes and plots - which I definitely need the most improvement in. LATV: The Life of Detective Ben Weiss

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It had been two days since Kukui's and Burnet's son had been born. The day before, Olivia had fought both girls left to challenge her and had beaten both Acerola and Plumeria resoundingly with a 3-0 score, yet both girls were still given their badge because their pokemon performed well enough.

And then there was Samson, Professor Samuel Oak's wacky cousin, who took every opportunity and those that weren't opportunities to make stupid puns.

"Anything up ahead, Togekiss?" Pete shouted to the cold air as he stepped off his bicycle and started to fold it up to put it into his extended bag. The snow was starting to make driving a bike impossible.

Arcanine, Espeon, Metagross, Nidoking, and Serperior were with Pete but spread around him to look around the icy surroundings. Eevee was moved from the bike's basket to Pete's cushy hoodie. Mega Reuniclus was on call through their psychic bond, but still on the island's coast to the west of the group's position together with Mega Milotic and Pete's shiny Slowbro near Route 15.

Flygon was on Ula'ula island, too, but flew off somewhere all alone to fight once more, just like she did on Melemele Island when they arrived in Alola.

The only pokemon not with him on Ula'ula were Mimikyu, Popplio, and his two bird pokemon Rookidee and Fletchling, who were with Olivia and Nurse Betty Joy on Akala Island.

"A small group to the left?" Pete asked as Togekiss gave him a mental picture of a small group in his mind.

"Eeeev!" The Eevee in his hoodie shouted to complain about the cold, so Pete covered him in his scarf and donned a new layer of clothing himself.

Pete cautiously moved closer and was allowed to meet some Alolan Sandshrew herded by a towering Alolan Sandslash that was much, much taller than Pete would have thought. Usually, a Sandslash, both regular or Alolan, reached a little above his belly button and weighed around the same as his wife - this Sandslash, however, was as tall as he was and looked to weigh considerably more.

Which was weird to think about for Pete because this Sandslash used its own ice typing energy to not even leave footprints in the ankle-height snow on the mountain. Inspired by this Sandslash, Pete used what little ice energy he had trained himself to gain through Reuniclus' mega evolution and tried copying this method of moving above the snow aided by typing energy.

"Slash!" The tall Sandslash praised loudly when it saw Pete copying itself and started pointing to Pete with its razor sharp steel claw and argued with the small haggle of Alolan Sandshrew who instead just rolled up and traveled in the form of a small ball.

"Hmm, are they lazy, or is this harder than I thought it was?" Pete mumbled to himself as he got out his phone to record this wholesome interaction.

Seeing that the Alolan Sandslash actively included his own pokemon in guiding them in the use of ice typing energy, Pete took out a small bowl of Aspear Berries - the ones that cure freeze - and left them with the wild group of pokemon out of gratitude.

"See you around. Thanks for the tips," Pete told the leading pokemon and continued on.

His imposing group turned out to be a sort of deterrent the higher they hiked up the mountain. A few lone Absol avoided them the moment they came closer. Some Snorunts stopped shivering and tried to blend into the environment. A group of Sneasel through some pebbles at them but were quickly sent packing by Togekiss flexing her powers by filling the mountain with a gigantic fairy type Misty Terrain that left the dark pokemon.

"Oh? Vanillite and Vanillish?" Pete wondered when the misty terrain slowly faded and a few smiling ice pokemon floated closer.

"Hmm, I definitely can't catch any of you to stay at my farm. Just surviving with your pure ice bodies would be a daily chore with the heat there," Pete told himself more than the cute 'scoop of icecream on an icicle' looking pokemon that curiously floated around their group.

He still got his tablet with the camera out again and decided to record this fun moment as the floating ice pokemon swished around their group and left colorful trails of the tiniest ice crystals in their wake.

"Do you guys have a Vanilluxe in your... herd?" Pete asked one of the Vanillish as it curiously regarded the soon-to-be-professor. He reinforced the question by flexing his psychic power a little to convey the meaning by projecting the form of a Vanilluxe - a fused body of two Vanillish with an ice-straw in one of the heads.

The Vanillish curiously shook its head and called over another Vanillish from the group. They talked for a moment and then smooshed their bodies together, but nothing happened.

"Haha, did you try to evolve by cheating the system?" Pete cheerfully asked, but the Vanillish he talked to wasn't deterred. It was a female and had called over a male of its group. Since that didn't work, it called over another female Vanillish.

They smooshed together, and Pete's jaw dropped. The tell-tale sign of an evolution started happening in front of his eyes, and the two Vanillish turned into a Vanilluxe by simply blending together.

"That is definitely not an evolution path I remember from my story or the games... Did their pokedex entry say anything about this kind of evolution?" Pete mumbled as he recorded the evolution process.

The pokemon surrounding the group all curiously watched the process, and some Vanillish tried to emulate it, but from the group of seven Vanillish that came over, none of them managed to evolve - or to merge.

When the evolution was successful, the snow began to fall a little more densely around them, but it thankfully didn't turn into a harmful blizzard.

Unknown to him that he had recorded yet another unprecented evolution requirement, Pete excitedly sent the video to Professors Elm and Kukui immediately after recording the changes with his own narration.

The group of Vanillite family pokemon vanished for a short moment with excited noises all around, and the newly evolved Vanilluxe dropped a piece of ice in the glove-clad hands of Pete after it came back.

"Never-melt Ice?" Pete asked as he regarded the fist-sized, jagged piece of steel blue ice in his hand.

"Vaniiiilluxe!" The ice pokemon excitedly confirmed and floated away with the other pokemon of its group again.

"Wow... what a haul just for walking up a mountain," Pete stuttered because the temperature around the group had dropped a little. He quickly got a box out of his bag and packed away the everlasting piece of ice he received out of nowhere. "I hope they still have some more ice like that on their own. Can you grow it with ice energy to make more of it? Hmm, I should try it out with Mega Reuniclus later."

After a quick check on his pokemon and some snacks for everybody, Pete continued his hike up the mountain. There was a cave he wanted to find that housed another Drampa, and he wanted to see if he can convince it to move to his own Dragon's Peak near the farm to keep the Drampa he had 'received' from dragon gym-trainer Clair in a trade for the Applin egg company.

Fighting off some more mischievous Sneasel, they eventually reached the bottom of a cliff that extended almost into the clouds high above. In that cliff wall were hundreds of cave openings, and Pete sighed.

"Olivia mentioned nothing about me having to suss out the correct cave out of hundreds... Metagross, could you be a dear and see if you can find the Drampa? Don't be rude about it - we ideally want it to join us at the farm..."

His Metagross jumped into action, unbothered by the freezing temperature or the hail that was pelting them as Pete got out a tent. Seeing as his chances for a quick resolution was low, Pete decided to camp out in the snow. It would be a new experience if he discounted the one cold island he had slept on during his return trip from Hoenn. The one where Courtney found her Swinub.

Inside the insulated tent, Pete got out a fire stone for warmth and placed the shivering Eevee next to it.

"Sorry about that, are you alright?" Pete asked the small pokemon as his father - the Espeon - curled around the Eevee to aid with the warmth.

"Eeeev~" The pokemon complained a little but still purred in contentment when he was enveloped in his father's pink fur with its little face buried in the fire stone. Togekiss wasn't far as it landed close to Pete and sought the warmth of its trainer.

"You okay out there, Arcanine? I can ball you if you want? Same goes for you, Serperior and Nidoking!" Pete shouted outside when Eevee was dealt with.

The luxurious tent allowed for him to look outside despite keeping the warm air in, and the pokemon still outside could hear him just fine.

All three fully grown pokemon looked at each other and discussed something silently. All three then shook their heads at Pete and asked for permission to roam around.

"Hmm, Espeon and Togekiss are enough security, so sure. Don't provoke what you shouldn't and stay in the range of our bond, and you can go fight to your heart's content. Just don't cause an avalanche close to this position," Pete eventually agreed.

With logistics out of the way, Pete decided to heat up some food for himself and the pokemon around him.

"Hmm, I already warned Jasmine I'd look for an Alolan Vulpix, so she can't be mad if I look for them up here," Pete thought out loud as he absentmindedly brushed the fur of his Espeon with his cold hands that slowly warmed up.

Just then, his tablet started ringing, and he answered it.

"*Pete! How!?*"

"Uh, Professor Elm? Could you be a little more specific?"

"*I watched the whole thing! How can you just suggest to a random wild pokemon to hug another wild pokemon and discover yet another unknown evolution condition out of nowhere!?*"

Pete was a little caught off-guard and defensively answered, "You didn't know about this?"

"*I checked! No, nobody knew about this!*"

"But it's so obvious?" Pete blurted out and continued, "It's the same thing with Magnemite, Beldum, and Metang?"

"*You can't just say that! I distinctly remember your own Beldum you got from Steven! Your Metagross is a result of you feeding your Beldum with massive amounts of high-quality metals and not the fusion of two Beldum followed by the fusion of two Metang!*"

"That was just me proving there's different ways to evolve a Metagross?" Pete unsurely countered.

"*And who goes around finding obvious evolutions and then finds way to disprove them?*"

Pete was stumped.

"Uh, are you angry?"

"*Of course I'm not angry! I'm livid! You've been in that mountain for four hours and discovered a new way to use ice typing energy for yourself, discovered a new evolution condition, AND your Eevee looks absolutely adorable! Turn the camera a little!*"

Pete began to chuckle. So Professor Elm was just excited about it all.

The two discussed his findings a little more, and eventually, the professor hung up after giving his wife some screentime on the videocall. Afterward, Pete called his wife.

"*Petey! How are you? How's your trip to Mount Lanakila?*" Jasmine asked with an eager smile.

"I'm a little cold without you here..." Pete began the explanation of his day, which elicited a sweet smile on the gym trainer's face.

A few hours after the day came to an end, his three bigger pokemon, who went out for some training, came back haggard and panting. Fighting against the cold wasn't easy for all three with the main typings of fire, grass, and poison/ground. Fighting up here was definitely to their disadvantage - but would also help their growth.

He gave them something to eat and put them in their pokeballs for the night so they wouldn't have to sleep out in the cold.

"Hmm, Metagross is a big guy. He'll definitely be okay," Pete mumbled and finally went to sleep next to Eevee, Espeon, and Togekiss.

Metagross was still outside searching for one of the Drampa that is said to reside on this mountain despite a dragon's inherent weakness to ice type energy.