There were many things Hilda could have expected when she returned to the Pokemon Centre after taking in the sights of the, if not flourishing, inhabited side of Hollywood. She honestly wasn't expecting anything though, it was just her returning to the room she shared with her travelling companion after all.

Still, the sight that had her pausing in the door frame as she opened the door to her room was not something she thought she'd actually think of at any point.

The first she saw, was her Snivy. The little serpentine grass type was collapsed in a heap on Hilda's bed, panting deeply and visibly sweating. Like, a lot.

Very odd. But the second thing that drew her gaze was just bizarre. Her travelling companion was laying face down in his bed, completely naked bar a pair of exercise shorts.

And standing at the side of the bed and leaning over him, was his Chansey. The pink egg shaped pokemon was...massaging his back, her arms glowing with a deep pink energy.

"Alright, I'm completely lost," Hilda kicked the door shut behind her and gave the younger teen a bemused look, "What the heck are you doing?"

Snivy looked up at her at the sound of her voice before simply closing her eyes and not paying her much attention. Hilda withheld a wince. Snivy didn't dislike her, but it wasn't like the grass type was greatly fond of her either since what Hilda wanted did not at all match what Snivy wanted.

Chansey paused her massaging to greet her with a little chirp and wave before getting right back to her task of massaging her trainer.

Jord looked at her over his shoulder, "Hello to you too, my day was fine honey, how about yours?" he snarked and she merely raised an eyebrow at him, "It's a massage, what else? I got stressed out when looking into things on the computer while you were away and just couldn't find anything on it despite how simple it was, whined a bit about how I could go for a massage and Chansey popped out of her pokeball to offer me one like the sweetheart she is."

"Well obviously," Hilda rolled her eyes at his reply, idly wondering what annoyed him enough to want a massage of all things, "But I meant, what is this? She's using some kind of attack on you right? And what happened to Snivy?"

"Well I worked out a bit and Snivy was bored so I let her work out with me, she's just not used to such an intense session," Jord replied and Hilda goggled at him a bit. A work out session too intense for her Snivy? Her Snivy that could split a boulder down the middle? "And don't you know? Massaging out muscles after a work out helps the blood flow and shit and helps them grow. Chansey is just helping things along with her Heal Pulse, it feels great by the way."

Hilda's mouth opened and closed a bit, before she just sighed, "Sure, whatever," she just gave up. She made her way over to her bed to sit down and glanced idly at his back as she did, and had to tear her eyes away when she noticed the broadness and muscle in his shoulders. He clearly knew more about working out than her if he had a body like that at his age. It was no wonder he was so confident about hitting on her and other girls, "So what were you looking in to?" she was curious.

Jord sighed and sat up, stopping Chansey in her tracks, but before he responded to Hilda he wrapped his arms around the egg shaped pink pokemon and hugged her tightly, "Thanks a bunch Chansey, you're the best! I love you!" he happily cried.

Chansey giggled happily and hugged him back, patting him on the shoulders. She eased out of his grip after a moment and skipped over to the beside table at the window that was wide open for some reason and touched one of her little pink arms to a pokeball laying on the desk and was promptly sucked inside it.

Jord then turned his attention to her, "Did you know land on the other side of this crap shack of a city is absurdly cheap?" he asked, apparently completely unashamed of his little display of affection with his pokemon, "I was thinking of buying some up, but I couldn't find any mention at all of taxes on the land and how much it would cost."

Hilda blinked, "Huh, thinking of getting property already at your age? You sure are quick on the uptake aren't you?" she mused. She herself hadn't even bought any land for where she'd be setting up her own studio, she hadn't found a good place for it so far, "Though I don't get what you mean. Why the heck are you worried about taxes? I mean sure if you want to connect the land to like the cities water supply or something you'll need to pay tax on it, but if you buy the land it's yours. Why the heck would the league tax you for something you already own? That's just silly."

"...Eh?" Jord's head tilted to the side and he looked completely lost.

Hilda's eyes widened, "Wait, you didn't know!?" she gasped. It really wasn't something worth being shocked over, but this was the first time that she knew of a subject came up that smug little flirt wasn't a complete know it all on.

A grin spread across her face and she sent a smug look his way of her own. It was petty of her, but she needed this!

She would avenge her and Emboar's honour! First on Jord then on that absurd overly arrogant Pidgeotto of his.

"So that's the way it works, huh?" Jord hummed tapping his chin and Hilda's smug look faltered, "Got it, I see how it fits into this picture then."

...Well that didn't last long. Hilda withheld a sigh, she didn't even know what she was expecting there, it wasn't exactly hard to understand was it?

Well back to the drawing board. Maybe she could just tease him about that lap dance and then just not give him one? No, she was already leaning towards that. She needed something more.

Emboar had been annoyed for the past two days after they battled Jord and Pidgeotto and lost utterly.

They got completely destroyed.

Sure it had taken that Pidgeotto quite a few hits to bring down Emboar, but it was still completely one sided because of how absurdly fast the thing was. Emboar hadn't even managed to land a single full on hit.

Seriously, that Pidgeotto was a freak of nature. Just like its trainer she supposed.

"Why are you interested in buying land at this point anyway?" Hilda asked, putting that humiliating battle out of mind, "I doubt you're anywhere near wanting to settle down." and he'd only been on his journey for about a month now. Sure, with his wins in the two gyms he'd battled in he probably had enough to buy a decent sized plot of land for a house, but that didn't measure up with the image she had of him.

"Well I'll have a ton of pokemon in the future and the Pokemon Centre in Viridian City can't look after them for me forever," Jord shrugged laying down on his side on the bed and propping himself up with his elbow, "May as well make plans in advance for it all and get it out of the road quickly."

"Ah, I get it," Hilda nodded in understanding, "You're going the Professor Oak route, right?"

Jord raised an eyebrow at her, "...What are you talking about? What does Professor Oak have to do with this?"

Ah right, despite how smart he was, some simple things like that, like taxes would escape him. It made sense to her now. After all, despite his knowledge and skill, he grew up on the streets and probably never attended school like her, "You know, like how he own Pallet Town?" Hilda replied, "He bought all the land for the place years ago and then started letting people live there later down the line, but in the beginning it was just a massive plot of land he built a home on for his pokemon to live in comfort."

"Seriously?" Jord sat up again in surprise.

"Oh yeah," Hilda leaned back on her bed, careful not to jostle Snivy, "He made it a bit of a trend among high earning trainers. Nowadays they all buy large plots of land. Heck, a bunch of the top rankings trainers in the world buy plots of land in Undella Beach to make summer homes. I know Lance, Wallace, Steven Stone, Alder and the like all have places there. Hell, nowadays you can't even buy land there without having won a pokemon league, it's crazy!"

It was a real elite of elite place and only the most elite pokemon trainers stayed there.

"Guess I'm getting a beach house there sometime soon then," Jord grinned, before quirking an eyebrow at her, "Wait, what about Cynthia?"

"...Cynthia?" Hilda's brows furrowed. That name sounded familiar. Where had she heard it- "Ah, you mean Cynthia Shirona? The new Sinnoh champion that won a few months ago?" of course he'd ask about the beautiful blonde champion over the others.

He was such a predictable horn dog.

Jord blinked looking lost for a second before shrugging and grinning again, "Yeah her, that's the one." he nodded.

Hilda shrugged herself, "No idea, It's not like I actively keep track of Undella Beach, my cousin just told me about it one time." she already knew her limits after all. She was in no way the kind of trainer material that could reach the same heights as the likes of Cynthia Shirona and the other league champions.

"I can't believe you!" I winced at the harsh scolding voice, "I don't hear from you in over a week, and in that week your Bellsprout and Oddish jump to Victreebel and Bellossom and your Feebas is somehow a Milotic! And then on top of that you decide to dump fourteen pokemon on me in the span of a few hours and don't call me until the next morning?"

I rubbed at the back of my neck. It's been a long time since I've been scolded like a child not thinking of anyone else and I felt a little guilty.

Mostly because of the deep bags Nurse Joy had under her eyes, "I've no idea how you found five Smeargle of all things, but considering you caught a gang of Meowth led by a Persian I assume they're related," she continued her tirade before shaking her head, "Really, I don't care how you got them at this point. But Silph Co has not stopped messaging me since they appeared in the system."

...Well that was quick. "They're offering money for them already?" I asked.

"Of course that's what you took from that," the pink haired nurse rolled her eyes, "Yes, they're offering the same amount they were going to originally for your first Smeargle. Five hundred thousand apiece, though they are only offering three TM's per each one, apparently they just shipped out a ton not long ago and are in the process of re-training many of their own Smeargle."

I withheld a whistle. That was some amazing dosh. Two point five million for all five of them. I could probably haggle and raise the prices a bit if they were reeling a bit from expounding a bunch of TM's from the looks of it, but I'd prefer to get access to the money instantly. I'm impatient like that.

I was originally hoping one of the Smeargle were female. But they were all holders of twigs and berries. I called bullshit mind you, the games claimed Smeargle went fifty/fifty on gender.

Apparently they were never told of that fact.

"Alright, I'm willing to sell them," I grinned in excitement and mentally pumped my fist into the air. This was perfect. After all, my monthly interest will be going in soon, "Can you patch my messages through to them and handle it for me?"

Nurse Joy sighed, "Of course I will," she rubbed her forehead, "Call a bit more will you and let me know of these things after they happen. Your pokedex is on a phone for crying out loud and you have a ton of money now, there's no excuse for you not to have a contract so you can make calls from it."

...Oh yeah, phones could make phone calls couldn't they? I had completely blanked on the fact that initially it was my phone.

There was that goldfish memory of mine kicking in again, "I'll get right on that." I promised her.

"You better," Nurse Joy huffed, crossing her arms, "The amount of pokemon I'm taking care of here has more than doubled since we took up sponsorship for you."

I winced again. Yeah, I could understand how that could be a pain. Especially when she was already the holder of a very busy job.

As guilty as I feel over the trouble I caused Nurse joy, it's totally overshadowed by her coming through within a few hours. My bank balance had multiplied more than five times over, approaching ten times over even and I had a full fifteen TM's to use on my pokemon.

Or I did, before I used them on my pokemon during this mornings training session. Now I have a lot less than fifteen.

Specifically, I have one left. The fifteen Tm's I chose were; Teleport, Protect, Toxic, Earthquake, Hyper Bean, Thunderbolt, Agility, Rock Polish, Swords Dance, Surf, Sunny Day, Shadow Ball, Solarbeam, Ice Beam and Frenzy Plant.

The only one I have left is Frenzy Plant.

I taught Teleport to Butterfree. God I'm going to fucking abuse that. I gave Earthquake and Rock Polish Of course to Graveler. Graveler was so very happy to get Rock Polish he wrapped me up in a four armed hug that would have crushed my spine were I not just built different than regular scrubs these days.

Fearow got the most Tm's. I gave him Protect, Toxic and Hyper Beam. He would eventually fall behind Pidgeotto quite a bit when he evolved and got Mega Evolution, so I thought I'd give him an instant little boost to start out with right now to let him keep up.

I would have preferred to teach Raticate Thunderbolt, but he wasn't here so I taught it to Clefable because there was a little something I wanted to work on before I got to Surge.

Agility went to Pidgeotto. He was already my fastest pokemon by far, with this his speed would become even greater. Surf and Ice Beam went to Milotic, she'd been training ever so hard over the last week and was eager to please, and she'd be devastating with them both.

I taught Shiftry both Solarbeam and Sunny Day. Solarbeam would be able to be fired instantly with Sunny Day and Sunny Day would also boost Shiftry's speed through his Chlorophyll ability. An ability both Bellossom and Victreebel shared. Shiftry was the most experienced of the three as well, so he was the ideal choice to teach both attacks to the other two grass types on my squad.

Zubat did such a good job yesterday, I couldn't help but reward him. I taught him Shadow Ball, and I got two full grunts out of the little bad, progress! I could tell he was both psyched and grateful.

Such a cute little tsunbat.

And the last Tm I had besides Frenzy Plant, I taught to Charmander. I couldn't not let my boy get a TM like that. Besides, moves do differ here a bit. You couldn't just spam a stat boosting move multiple times here. Dragon Dance worked more like Kaioken, but stuck at a steady boost and couldn't be raised higher.

Swords Dance on the other high raised the muscle power of the user and while it didn't drain stamina like Dragon Dance, or at least as much, overuse of it according to the Pokedex would lead to torn and worn muscles.

Thank fuck for Chansey. Ideally, I'll want Charmander to have enough durability and endurance to use both at the same time and then murder stomp anyone who gets in his way!

Which just left Frenzy Plant, 'Which I'll be teaching either to that giant Bulbasaur in the Orange Islands or a Treecko I grab from Petalburg Woods.' I mused. Either or, depending on where I headed first.

"What's got you so happy?" Hilda asked breaking me from my thoughts, "Seriously, you've had this huge grin on your face since I came down for breakfast, it's making me fear for my virtue here, did you take a nude photo of me or something?"

"Maybe, who knows," I snorted, keeping my 'little' gains to myself. Gotta make that image of mine spit shine after all, "Putting that out of mind, where the heck are we going? We're nearly at the edge of the city here." Hilda had wanted him to come visit some attraction or something with her of the cities and he'd agreed since he didn't really have anything else to do right now while he was here.

At least for the moment. Besides more training. And I don't think there was anywhere here I could really get a good generator and gaming system that I could take with me.

While this side of Hollywood was actually liveable, it wasn't exactly a booming place.

"Weren't you listening when I told you?" Hilda rolled her eyes, "We're heading to the edge of the city to Cyan Lake. It's a pretty famous and popular fishing spot and really the only big tourist attraction left here. Legend says a family of Dratini live in it and have drawn people in from all over."

Wait. That sounded familiar. And now that I think about it, this place isn't that far off from Saffron City. Saffron was closer than Vermillion City actually. But fuck going there for my next gym battle. I'm not touching Sabrina with a ten foot pole.

Ash can deal with that crazy cracker.

Yeah, if I remember right. This should be that lake Ash went to in Battle Frontier where that one guy was trying to buy the place out and run out all the pokemon in the lake using his Crawdaunt.

Hilda tugged me along with her out of the edge of the city into a large forest surrounding one part of the city. It had a long clean path through it that she led me along and within another few minutes of walking I found myself stepping out onto the shores of a huge and beautiful crystaline blue lake.

I had to stop and whistle, "Damn, this place is beautiful." I looked over it admiring it.

It was no Scottish Loch, but it was a beauty of a lake nonetheless and I'm totally gonna try and make something like this for my own water pokemon to live in later.

All around the lake I could see dozens, maybe hundreds of people. Lots of people tracing the lake edges with fishing rods, kids in swimsuits running and playing through the water. People sunbathing or swimming and even tons of pokemon out and about.

I could see Wingull and Pelipper spread out all over the place, Krabby walking along the shore, people riding on larger water types like Dewgong and being carried through the water.

This was the most single populated place I'd seen since coming to this city.

"Holy!" Hilda suddenly gasped and grasped my arm, "Look at that Jord, check the size of that thing!"

I turned and looked at what she wanted me to and my mouth dropped low, eyes going absolutely wide.

It was a Krabby. But, compared to some of the other Krabby I could see, it was gargantuan. It had to be three no maybe four times the size of any other Krabby I could see and would come up above my waist in height.

...And it was just casually walking around the beach flipping over a shell before moving on to another and looking under it. '..Looking for food maybe?' I thought idly in a bit of a daze.

It was that big.

I wanted it!

I grabbed one of the pokeballs from my belt and began walking over to the Krabby.

"Jord?" Hilda threw me a confused glance before realising what I as doing, "Ah, well good luck, I guess!"

As I approached it and got closer the huge Krabby stopped what it was doing, "Koo kee?" it rumbled, before waving happily at me with a massive claw around the size of my head.

Friendly litt- guy isn't he? "Alright Krabby?" I greeted it with a wave of my own in return it nodded its huge head and looked at me curiously, "So you look like a pretty amazing guy, I was wondering if you're up for becoming my pokemon?" I asked.

No point in not starting off polite to a new team member after all.

"Koo?" Krabby's body tilted to the side at my words.

"Yeah, I'm looking to become the best trainer and you look pretty strong," I grinned at it, "And I love Kingler's, they're amazing. So I figured you'd be a good addition to my team, you up for it? I can promise you'll get the best training you can find and you'll never need to worry about food again."

Krabby stared at me then for a few moments before raising one claw and snapping it shut and open a few times, then pointed at me then back at itself, "Koo kee koo!" it rumbled.

Oh?

If I'm not wrong here; "You want me to battle you first?" I asked.

"Koo kee!" the huge Krabby nodded eagerly.

"You're on then mate!" I grinned again and held the pokeball in my hand up. I'd chosen this pokemon specifically to make sure it couldn't retreat to the water and gain the advantage if it came to a battle, "Milotic, come on out girl!"

In a burst of bright light the huge and graceful serpentine form of Milotic appeared in front of me trilling a beautiful song. She turned her head around as she appeared to beam brightly at me before turning to face Krabby and lowering her body and getting ready to fight.

"Kee..." Krabby gave Milotic a wide eyed look before giving itself a shake and suddenly launching itself through the air with a powerful leap, claws erupting with bright silver light.

Metal Claw I'm guessing.

"Iron Tail!" I shouted.

Milotic spun and lashed out with her massive scaled tail, the entire lower half of her body erupting into the same silvery white light and dwarfing Krabby in size.

Tail met twin claws and a blast of displaced air almost pushed me back a step as they clashed from the force of the blows.

"Kooo!" Krabby gave a shout and to my surprise, it was Milotic that was being overpowered!

It was a good thing Milotic was a serpent and mainly fired attacks from her mouth then!

"Dragon Breath!" I added.

Milotic twisted her head gracefully in that way only a serpent could, as if she had no bones at all and brought it up, yellow-green flames pooling in her mouth before being unleashed in a large torrent of draconic flames.

Krabby's eyes widened and it quickly broke off, pushing off of Milotic's tail to get some distance. It wasn't enough to escape, but it gave it enough time to bring up its Metal Claw enhanced claws in a cross block while its body gleamed brightly with the same colour as its claws and Milotic's tail.

The flames washed over Krabby and and blotted itself form out completely within the embers of green and yellow.

"Iron Tail!" I quickly ordered again as Milotic allowed the flames in her mouth to pitter out.

Her tail still glowing, Milotic shot forward just as Krabby came back into view still glowing silver and she like a blindingly fast bolt of lightning slithered across the sand and lashed out with her tail once again, this time smashing it straight into Krabby hard enough to send a massive geyser of sand shooting up into the air and send Krabby flying up through the air.

Krabby flew for a good twenty feet before slamming into the ground. But it didn't land on its back in a heap or anything, no its legs glowed white and it slammed itself down.

One claw was held out towards Milotic and a split second later a barrage of large muddy brown bullets erupted from the centre of it and shot blitzed through the air towards Milotic.

Without me having to command her, Milotic quickly slithered through them with all the grace and agility of a legendary serpent, each one missing her and slamming into the ground like a series of small missiles kicking up plumes of sand with each impact and blotting both pokemon from my view for a split second.

My eyes widened a split moment later though when the sand fell down and Krabby was suddenly launching through the air towards Milotic one head sized claw held wide open and aimed at her throat, glowing with a blinding white power that put the glow from its legs to utter shame.

A memory trickled to the forefront of my mind. Of Ash vs Morrison during the Hoenn League. And Grovyle being defeated in a single blow by Gligar.

With Guillotine.

"HYPNOSIS!" I roared out on instinct.

Milotic the good obedient girl that she is, obeyed instantly. And just as Krabby was upon her, mere moments from clasping into her neck with its claw, she gave a loud beautiful trill and a huge series of dark rings erupted from her eyes and washed over Krabby.

The huge crab pokemon fell limp almost immediately in the air, falling asleep and sailing right passed Milotic to slam into the sandy beach, hard.

When the sand died down from its impact, it was to show Krabby sound asleep in the sand.

I breathed a sigh of relief, "Holy crap this thing is a monster." I ran a hand through my hair. That battle lasted less than a minute, probably thirty seconds at most, yet by my count Krabby used Metal Claw, Iron Defense, Mud Shot, Stomp and Guillotine!

What a beast to just casually come across! Shaking my head I walked over to Milotic and lifted my hand up to pet her on the head, "Good job girl, for your first battle outside of sparring you were amazing!" I praised her.

"Mii!" Milotic gave a happy trill and lowered her huge snout to nuzzle me, drawing a laugh from me as her hair stroked across my face.

Once she had her fill, I turned away from her and retrieved an empty pokeball from my pocket and enlarged it. I was just about to walk over and toss it to Krabby when-

A pokeball suddenly through out from the side coming from the forest I just came from with Hilda and smacked into the huge Krabby. My eyes widened in shock as it popped open and sucked Krabby inside.

It clicked shut and I watched in a shocked daze as it rolled slightly a few times while glowing red before letting loose a ping of success and slowing to a stop.

"Woohoo, I got it! Another one in the bag!" an excited voice cheered and my head mechanically turned to where the pokeball came from, "And look at the size of it, it must have been super rare, how lucky for me to nab it so easily!"

It was a boy. Dark skin, black hair, slender appearance. He was dressed in skinny black trousers and a grey hoody showing off slim noodle like arms.

Fucking Goh came running out of the forest with a huge grin on his face and picked up the pokeball of my Krabby.