Who gifts baby pokemon to a grieving… my mind stalled for a moment before restarting back where I’d been moments ago. What the hell Mewtwo? Who gifts baby pokemon full stop! ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ Novᴇl_Fire(.)net Let alone pokemon as rare as Larvitar? I knew they weren’t meant for me, but giving them to a mother pokemon that had seemingly only just learned to live with her loss. Empress leaned down slowly. I could see a quiver running through her form at the simple action, even as her eyes dilated. When she was close enough to, she inhaled deeply, scenting at the three Larvitar. All of them had gone still once they’d seen the towering Tyranitar close on them. Long, deep snuffles and grunts rang out, and I held my breath. Through the bond, I could pick up nothing from Empress. She was like an empty void. Did that mean she was blocking me? Or something else? I could feel a thrill of intense focus at best as her entire being was focused on assessing the tiny baby pokemon in front of her. These Larvitars were clones. They had to be! They all had identical markings on their body and the near telltale signs of discoloured splotches about their body that no other pokemon, bar a clone possessed. While I’d only lived this life a few years I had yet to see any patches of discoloured skin . There were different hues of skin colouration for pokemon with a Bulbasaur having light blue all the way to dark depending on a multitude of factors. Splotches like birthmarks though? Never. Not until today, or rather, like I’d seen in my past life with all of the pokemon that Mewtwo had cloned and set against their originals. So Mewtwo had gotten… what? Access to Tyranitar’s children’s genetic code to ‘rebirth’ them? No, that didn’t make sense. It had been months since the Mt Silver incident and there was no way that he’d been able to get eggshells or any genetic material. The only surviving egg from Empress’ clutch was Terra. For half a heartbeat, I felt a momentary dread that he might have snuck Terra away from Yolanda for a moment, only to dismiss that. Mewtwo didn’t know that Terra was Empress’ daughter… Hmmm, actually I had no way of knowing if he did or didn’t know that. The only other thought I had was that he’d scoured the entirety of the mountains near Mt Silver which… could he have done that? I found myself left with a lot of questions and limited potential answers. A sudden, tense silence swallowed the area around me as Empress finished her inspections of the new pokemon. None of the three Larvitar moved a muscle or so much as breathed as Empress continued to eye them. Oh shit was this going to be a violent response? What were Tyranitar like if they thought there were stray baby pokemon that might compete with their own nearby? I got ready to throw myself at Empress to protect the baby pokemon, only for her to react faster than I could even register. She scooped all three Larvitar up in her arms and stalked away, keeping her body low to the ground. A rumbling made me stiffen only for the bond I’d crafted with Empress to register how absolutely ecstatic she was. That was good. I relaxed and exhaled in relief as the worst-case scenario suddenly vanished as a possibility. From what I could tell she’d basically taken a good long look at them and adopted them. Which… I wasn’t even sure how to handle. Was this not just like Teddiursa being adopted by her as a coping mechanism to deal with her underlying grief? So what? Empress couldn’t take on these Larvitar? Should I call her back and explain that they were from Mewtwo? Would that make things better or worse? Or just… I put a hand to my head. I had a headache all of a sudden, with no idea how to handle this or even what I was supposed to do, or feel. Was anything required of me? I put my hands together and exhaled in an attempt to gather some vestige of control over my turbulent mind. I still had no idea what I was going to do. Part of me wondered how Teddiursa was going to take this, only to be surprised when Empress stalked back, her body still low to the ground with the now jubilant Larvitar crying and squirming in her grasp. Empress directed a chiding growl at them before looking up at me, or more specifically, my pokebelt where Teddiursa’s pokeball was located. I tapped the release function and he began to appear. “He did great,” I said, more on autopilot than actually directly making a decision to talk. Teddisursa appeared and shook his head only to perk up when he glanced up and spotted Empress. Warmth trickled over the small bond I’d established with Teddiursa as he looked up to his surrogate mother only for her to indicate the trio of Larvitar in her grasp. Teddiursa stilled and a tenor of fear grew. Empress scooped him up in her arms, making him join the trio. Empress then nodded at me and stalked off. I watched her go. That entire scene had been… well rather heartwarming actually. Even with how caught up she was in her joy, she still remembered the child that had apparently tumbled into her care. For all that she was worried about hurting her eggs when she’d had them, Empress was a damn fine mother. That helped some ineffable part of me relax. More than anything else, Empress wanted these young pokemon. She wanted her babies but they’d been denied to her. Now, in perhaps the most strange turn of events, Mewtwo had, in some form, given her back her kids? Or her potential children… Which he’d had destroyed… or been forced to destroy or… I felt the headache coming back on. So I did the only thing I could do. “Brock?” she answered. “...Sabrina, I need you to…” I paused, unsure what to say. “Can you just come over, I need to talk to someone about what just happened and you’re the only one that has half an idea as to what goes on in Mewtwo’s head.” She appeared next to me in an instant. “What’s happened?” I rubbed my head, unsure if this was a short story or a long story. It was rare when I felt like I needed a drink, but damn if I wasn’t cursing the legal age limits of Indigo for the first time. Sabrina listened intently and frowned when I reminded her of all the instances of Mewtwo and Empress even crossing paths, of which there were really only three… well four actually with Giovanni’s whole escape plan, along with the battle at Silph Co. When I was done, I felt less weighed down but there was still a lingering headache. “So? What do you think?” Sabrina stared at the horizon like somewhere over the edge of sight there laid an answer. With her senses she could probably ‘see’ that far but I still wasn’t sure if that would help. “Mewtwo was making a heartfelt gesture,” she said after a moment. “You don’t just give kids to the woman who—” I said suddenly, only for Sabrina to put a finger on my lips to quieten me. “To Mewtwo… this is an extreme gesture, while he has not taken ownership of his actions, as I don’t think he can or even should, considering his state of mind back then, he has still made a gesture.” Sabrina smiled. “This is a good thing Brock.” I worked it around in my mind a little before mentally tossing my hands up and deciding to shelve it in the too-hard-for-me basket. It was rare these days to encounter such an issue but they did exist. This whole… thing was just too far beyond me to grasp, so I would just accept it as it was and save myself the headache. “Okay?” Sabrina asked, eyebrow raising in surprise. “You’re just going to drop it?” I shot her a look. “I shall just treat it like handling you when you were younger. You were insanely powerful and could do a lot of terrifying things back then, but you didn’t. Did it bother me back then? No, because I didn’t let myself stop to think about them or grow unreasonable from fear,” I said. Fear was the mind-killer, and led to… well the dark side but also dark energies, as I’d learned. Sabrina smiled at me for a moment only for something mischievous to flash through her eyes. “I’ll have you know that I can do even more terrifying things as an adult,” she said. I smiled back at her. “Yeah, but only to people that deserve it,” I replied. Sabrina leaned in. “And much like me, Mewtwo is growing to be much the same it would seem,” she said. She pecked me on the nose. “Good work not reacting poorly with him this time.” “This time?” I said haughtily. Sabrina gave me a pointed look and I coughed. “I was caught in a tight spot with my pokemon and what had happened. I was backing her up!” I said defensively. “I know,” she said, patting me on the hand. She glanced towards the cave entrance that was just in sight. “What are the new pokemon like?” I sighed. “Mewtwo made perfect copies of a Larvitar it would seem,” I said. Sabrina blinked. “I don’t follow?” I sighed again and waved for her to follow. I led her down into the depths of the cave system where Empress had claimed a cavern for herself. Outside the cave itself, I found a cluster of my Elite pokemon. Bertha was bouncing on the spot staring into the cave while Knight was standing next to her looking interested at whatever was inside. Sanchez was cackling at whatever they were looking at and Selene was hovering over them excitedly. I whistled to let them know I was there and they waved but kept their attention fixed straight ahead. I walked around them only to find Titan sitting with his mother while three Larvitar crawled over him. He looked very unsure of this development and when I locked eyes with him I realised that while I’d been able to come to terms with it, Titan had yet to. I walked up and patted him on the shoulder. “Just put it in the too-hard basket,” I announced. Titan blinked. Then he tilted his head, and considered my words for a moment, only to flop into a much more relaxed pose. Taken from NovelHub, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Part of me felt envious at his quick response but then again, sometimes if the right person says the right words it can make a world of difference. Sabrina could give me a very technical explanation which would help me reach this point. The only person who could have perhaps instantly thrown their hands up in the air and said screw it was probably Surge. Sabrina stared at the little Larvitar that all tried to climb Titan only to slip and fall. Before they could hit the ground they were caught by either Titan, Empress, or Teddiursa, which for the latter, resulted in him collapsing to the ground under the sudden weight of the Larvitar. “Well this is adorable,” I said, snapping a picture of the scene. Empress crooned at the little pokemon and the Larvitar trilled back at her. Titan stiffened and barked something before snapping his head to me and conveying an urgency through the bond that… Oh, Empress wanted to feed them and was offering to hunt some pokemon down for them? Yeeeeeeeah, not going to happen while on the reserve. “I’ll get some food made up,” I announced, I then looked at the gleaming eyes of the Larvitar. “Maybe a Tauros carcass?” I suggested. Empress sniffed derisively while Titan nodded quickly. I went off and got the carcass set up for them before leaving them to it. Don and his daughter must have caught the scent of the meat as they circled after us only for Empress to glare up at them in warning. Don wisely sniffed and led his daughter over the fence to go hunt something outside the reserve. When Titan stepped up to me I raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s up bud?” I asked. Titan sent an impression to me of smelling the baby pokemon only to be extremely weirded out how all three of them had exactly the same scent with no deviations. I grimaced and fed him imagery of a laboratory and the three pokemon being grown in a vat. Titan stared at me for a long moment before shaking his head and making a palming gesture like he wasn’t going to deal with that. I chuckled. That was a good strategy for all of this. I hummed, watching as the Empress, the three Larvitar and Teddiursa tore into the carcass. If it wasn’t so grizzly this scene would almost be heartwarming. “You do realise that as soon as you register the Larvitar as yours, you are going to trigger a lot of the poaching failsafe trackers that are built into the League’s database,” Sabrina informed me. And there was the other shoe. Damn it Mewtwo this was probably the best gift I’d ever heard of anyone receiving but damn if it didn’t cause me a lot of headaches! “At this point, I have to wonder if he meant to cause me these problems,” I said sarcastically. I wasn’t expecting Sabrina to tilt her head and spend a serious moment thinking about what I’d just said. “Noooo?” she said doubtfully. I stared her down. “I don’t like the way you said that.” “He’s very intelligent and takes in information at an incredible rate.” “This is reminding me of dealing with you when we were younger, more and more, except I don’t have anywhere near the energy, time or desire to steer things in a sane direction,” I said as I pinched the bridge of my nose. Sabrina gave me an affronted look. “I was never that bad.” I could have said a lot of things to that but wisdom was sometimes knowing when not to say the first thing that came to mind. “But Mewtwo might be?” I said tactfully. Sabrina didn’t reply and I could only sigh. “We need to socialise him more.” Somehow I doubted that would work. What were we supposed to do, stick him in a set of armour and hide him in plain sight? I definitely wasn’t joking about that as otherwise there were good odds that Sabrina would do it despite understanding that I was being sarcastic. Oh for a sane individual… I glanced at my transceiver. Hmmm I wonder how Erika would handle reining in Sabrina and Mewtwo? No, bad Brock. Sabrina and Mewtwo would chew that poor girl up and spit her out. She’d barely buy me a week. “Yeah… I got nothing,” I said glumly. I’m probably overacting. I didn’t need to do that. “It takes time, but Mewtwo is already displaying good growth. Trust me, this is a good thing,” she said. “I know,” I replied only for one of the Larvitar to get hold of a rib and snap it. I grimaced at the visceral display. “Maybe remind him that even good actions can have ramifications.” Sabrina smirked at me. “I think that’s a lesson you need to learn, Mr.-I-need-to-support-my-pokemon,” she replied. I huffed. Damn, I didn’t have a leg to stand on with that argument. “So, how are you going to handle the League asking about these Larvitar?” Sabrina prompted. I responded by dialling a number on my Xtransciever. “Hi Lawrence? Yeah, I have some work for you,” I said to my Lawyer. With that issue happily palmed off, I turned and marched for home where things hopefully were normal and not going to cause me more headaches. I walked in to find Tilly and Billy banging pots and pans together while singing at the top of their lungs. Yup, perfectly normal toddler behaviour that I was able to ignore. “Good singing,” I said as I collected enough dinner for myself and Sabrina to enjoy outside in the garden. If I stuck around there was a risk that they might smell that something had changed with my pokemon. Best to just keep them away from that for now. The garden, especially with the well-fed Lileep and Cradily sitting along the water feature we’d installed. It was quite idyllic and I found myself wishing I could do this more often. Why didn’t we— A rustling in the bush made me groan. Damn, I’d forgotten why I didn’t do this much. “Ah ha! Gym Leader Brock! I challenge—” shouted a young voice only to vanish as Sabrina Teleported them away. I raised a glass in her direction and settled in to forget all about my worries. I could only thank my lucky stars that nothing else serious occurred over the night and the next morning. Lawrence marched in early in the morning and had me sign a bunch of forms to pre-empt the need for the League to investigate me. Not that they would be able to really question me about it. It was quite open and shut, my motherly Tyranitar wandered into the wilds and came back with a clutch of stray baby Larvitar. That was the story and we were sticking with it. I still hadn’t informed my family. That was a whole issue I’d have to deal with soo. And I knew that it would be soon, as it was, Yolanda had noted Empress and Teddiursa being missing from this morning’s training. I had a general idea that Yolanda introducing Terra to her… younger siblings? Would go well enough, it was just that Yolanda wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut about the new inclusions. She’d tell our siblings and then they’d want to see the new Larvitar. I wanted to give Empress some space first. Thankfully I had a handy distraction in the form of the upcoming Pewter Rodeo which allowed me to push the kids to watch old westerns. I’d sat them in front of the television and shown them the shows only to discover Samurai Furret had a crossover episode with another pokemon star by the name of Cowboy Kangaskhan who was apparently a sponsor of the Pewter Rodeo? Huh, I hadn’t expected that. I also hadn’t expected my siblings to invite my pokemon to sit in on some of the viewing sessions. I wasn’t sure I knew what to expect from that but much like Empress new children, I would adopt a wait-and-see mentality. It had worked out for me for a while now so why ruin a good formula? Until then I had a lot of other things that I could handle such as planning for the upcoming end-of-circuit training camp for invited trainers along with locals. “Make sure we get some good catering for everyone, we’ll budget for an extra half again as I assume people will slip food to their pokemon,” I said. Alexa dutifully noted all of this down. While it wasn’t a formal meeting I still had the majority of the Gym in the room working on various tasks related to what would be happening with the training camp. I had Yolanda, Missy, A.J., Crystal, and Greta all working on trainer profiles with strengths and weaknesses being written up for the trainers that were going to attend. It was going to be a bit of a surprise for each trainer but I was literally going to give them access to notes on themself compiled by my team. I had no doubts that this would end up being a hugely popular point for them as it should give them direction for the week-long training camp. People like Mia, Gary and Humphrey were pretty good all-rounders but there were some special cases such as Pete Pebbleman who were going to be attending. That also wasn’t to say that some poor habits couldn’t have slipped in. “Brock are we going to be supplying the food for all the trainers pokemon?” asked Dennis. “We’re ordering enough for a demonstration on the first day. We’ll book a nutritionist along with getting a few Pokeblock sales agents in. My plan is to make them cover the cost of the food themselves,” I got more than a few odd looks for that comment so I waved a hand. “This gathering of trainers is a wonderful sales opportunity for any representative, especially for a company like Pokeblock or Pokechow. If they want to stay competitive they’ve got to show that their goods are up to snuff, or better yet they need to show how to make the most of their product. They can pay for access to the trainers who will purchase their stock in future but,” and here I held up a finger, “Only if they cover the costs of the food.” “Huh, that’s smart,” said A.J. I pointed at him. “That’s good business. I don’t need to fork out everything for this, I can offset the costs with sponsors that want to get a positive image shown to young up-and-comers, of which…” I tapped a few names on the list of accepted trainers. “There are quite a few names I have my eyes on,” I said. Bethany the receptionist chose that moment to offer me a cup of tea which I accepted and thanked her for. Crystal squinted at the list of names. “How well do you think the trainers this year will do?” I hummed, giving myself more time to think about the competition as a whole. “I think that I’ll be disappointed if they can’t all make it to the second round of the tournament buuuuuuuut that’s not accounting for a bad match-up in the opening rounds,” I said. Crystal blinked. “Just the second round?” she asked. I shrugged. “This year’s circuit is tougher,” I said. “Gotta adopt realistic expectations.” I worked down my list of tasks that needed to be seen to before I could officially send out the invites. A lot of trainers already knew they were informally invited but a formal invite would lay down the expectations along with the dates involved, and the content, and also provide an appropriate plus-one addition. I was expecting to be hosting anywhere between thirty to sixty trainers and their pokemon for a week, which was not a small undertaking. I had times blocked out with the local Battle Club for keeping people sharp with an initial and final showing to help people spot any growth they might get over the course of the training camp. There was also going to be a large-scale field trip to Mt Moon to lead them into the more wild northern side of the mountain which I’d need to plan with the Rangers. And finally, I’d get Samuel Oak to do a talk for a morning period to punch home the importance of bonds with our pokemon and with people. “Are you doing anything with Megastones?” asked Greta. “Hmmm not at this point.” “Awwww, there’d be a lot more draw with people if you mentioned that there were special prizes,” she said. “I’m not just going to give those away,” I said firmly. “That being said, I do have some things I can give away,” I said as I marched towards a cupboard. “Sorry for holding off on these,” I said as I handed Crystal, A.J., Yolanda, and Missy their own Pokedex from the pile that Oak had given me. “Sweet!” exclaimed Crystal as she instantly started toying with her new tool. I pursed my lips. I already regretted handing that to her while she was supposed to be working. Eh, she could finish this up later. We had a few weeks or two before this needed to be finalised. The rest of the day was a slow slog through administration and planning before I finished up with a training session where I pitted A.J. against Rocko while Missy lined up against me and Knight. “You realise I’m just going to use Arcanine for this right?” she said. I stretched out my legs with a low lean to the left before shifting to the right. “Yup! But Knight’s got this,” I said confidently. Missy might be a strong trainer but she still had a lot to learn. Today I planned to bluff her out and mess with her mental game. I started things off by whipping out my bracer and punching the sky. “Knight! Mega—” I shouted only to drop my hand and point it at Arcanine who was gaping in shock much like his trainer. Instead of Knight mega evolving he unleashed a powerful Hydro Pump. Missy regathered herself quickly enough to dodge only to scowl at me. “You! That’s cheap!” “It’s what you will face if you want to go Pro! Get used to being jerked around or faked out! Also! Remember! Talking isn’t a free action!” I said as Knight caused an Earthquake that sent Arcanine flying into the air. Missy’s scowl deepened as my own smirk grew. The unspoken part of training was to get into Agatha’s mindset for the coming match with her. She’d reached out and instead of hosting the match at the Gym, she had convinced me to hold it during the local rodeo this weekend as a draw card match. Supposedly, it was because she didn’t want to detract from the cultural event for Pewter but I suspected she had an ulterior motive. Regardless I was more than happy to shift from my Gym to the dustbowl where, if anything I’d have an easier time casting Sandstorms and using Ground attacks while water-type moves would struggle due to the drier conditions. I was also very interested in seeing Sabrina in denim jeans and a gingham shirt. “Haha! Chance!” shouted Missy as she tried to capitalise on my apparent lack of attention. I held in a smirk as Knight rolled backwards to avoid the leaping Fire Fang only to fall into the ground and pop back up practically straight away while facing Arcanine’s rear. Not that it changed much as Missy was quick to reposition her pokemon and get it out of danger with an Extreme Speed. I allowed myself a smile. For all that Yolanda, Greta, A.J., and Crystal were going to be beasts next year in the amateur circuit and then the later tournament, I knew without a doubt that Missy was going to be one to watch when she debuted in the professional Ace Circuit. She, like the girls had been sitting in on all my matches and seen all the work it took to get to that stage. I knew she’d been absorbing it like a sponge and I couldn’t wait to see her take to the field officially. Until then I planned to train her as best I could. “Knight! Surf!” I commanded, calling forth a giant wave. “Arcanine!” Missy grinned at me as the wave built up and came straight at her. “Dig dip!” she ordered and I chuckled. Yeah, I was looking forward to when she went out on her own, but for now she had a few more lessons to learn. “Leap backwards,” I commanded and Knight did so, soaring straight down to cause another Earthquake and clinch out the match. I helped Knight pull Arcanine out and then we went about healing Missy’s starter. “So, thoughts?” I asked. “Urgh, don’t try a trick you use on you cause you know how to counter it,” she said. I nodded. “Yeah, try coming up with tricks of your own like a Bounce or a big Flamethrower to cut open the wave or something.” I considered her. “Still thinking of heading out next year for the Ace Circuit?” I asked. “Yeah, but there’s a few things I’ve realised I need to sort out before then.” “Such as?” I prompted. “I need to create an entourage that I’m comfortable with and I also need to deepen my pokemon list. Right now I have eight pokemon at a level of strength I’m comfortable with. if I end up going for any tournaments that isn’t going to be enough. I need pokemon that can stand in for others when they’re tired or injured.” “Arcanine, Rhyperior, Magneton, Pidgeot, Vileplume, Dugtrio, Donphan, and Poliwhirl were the pokemon you first arrived here with no?” “Yes and I’ve added Beedrill, Butterfree, Pikachu, Nidorino, and Haunter to my pokemon since then but I think I should get two or three more pokemon.” “Some water, fighting, dark, psychic, steel or fairy could go a long way,” I commented. “What about your entourage?” “I was hoping to take on some of the gym trainers that aren’t going to be employed next season. They know the processes I’ve learnt here and will help me streamline things when I make my debut,” she said. “Smart, if anyone’s interested then sure by all means feel free to offer them the position,” I said. “If you need to go on some trips further afield feel free, you still haven’t used up any of your leave for the year remember?” Missy coughed. “I was planning to save it up and get a big payout at the end of the year when I departed,” she said. I nodded slowly. “That could also work out,” I said. A large payout would be another form of safety net and allow her a lot of options. Missy grinned at me. “So have you got your outfit for the rodeo sorted?” I opened my mouth to say that I wasn’t going to dress up only to shut it and sigh as I understood that such a statement really wasn’t going to fly, especially when my family got involved in dress-ups. “I’ll come up with something,” I said. It was another thing for the to-do list but one that should be quite enjoyable. And like that a week passed as I tidied up paperwork, trained my pokemon, and prepared to face down Agatha of the Elite Four at a rodeo of all things. It just didn’t seem to fit my mental image of her. It wasn’t like… no. There was no way she had a Spectrier.