You know, something she'd noticed about Jord, was his odd tendency to bring up almost the most random topics.

And getting everyone else caught up in his weird pace.

While it made her stomach twist with Butterfree due to him actually thinking of her in that way and bringing it up with her…Misty also had to admit, she had no idea why he was thinking of her like 'that' exactly.

A skimpy string suit leotard swimsuit, that she got, she was a water pokemon trainer after all and she loved to be in the water.

…But where did the black hair come from?

Her hair was the farthest thing from black, and he'd met her sisters and knew that it was the same for them. Honestly, the closest one of them to having black hair was violet.

But blue was still a far cry from black.

She voiced as such;

"The swimsuit I get, even the skimpy part," Misty said, raising an eyebrow at him, "But where'd the black hair come from?"

He shrugged, "I was just thinking you'd look good with black hair," he replied easily, "Not that you don't rock the ginger style, and with the tomboy look you're like a real bonnie lass, the closest I'll get here anyway."

So he was just fantasizing about her then? Her lips tugged up into a smile involuntarily.

…Though what in Mews name was a bonnie lass?

"Honestly, I don't have much hope for Galar in that regards," Jord continued on, oblivious to her thoughts, "That place is all over the shop man, one tiny wee bit at the start and then the Crown Tundra, are you kidding me? Scotland's not that cold, or maybe they're just pansies know what I mean?"

…No, no she did not know what he meant, not at all. She had no idea what a Crown Tundra was, nor Scotland, and she didn't know why he was going on about it not being cold and she had no idea whom he was talking about being a pansy.

The only part of that she could follow at all, was Galar, it was another region. And that was about all she knew beyond some of the water types that could be found there.

She'd love to get her hands on some pokemon from there, but importing was expensive. She'd be better off heading there herself at some point when she was a more accomplished trainer.

Among other pla-

No wait!

'This is what I meant!' she mentally scolded herself. She was caught right up in his pace again and not able to get to the root issue she wanted to bring up.

She opened her mouth to bring up the video she saw-

"By the way," only for him to rampantly cut her off, "You have an Oddish now right? And I think you mentioned Brock has a Weepinbell?"

"Yeah…?" Misty replied flat flooted and confused, "Why?"

In response, the younger teen promptly sat back on the massive pile of rocks behind him. Or rather, he lounged across them, making a groove within the pile, sending multiple of them bouncing off of the pile and onto the ground while he reclined within them, as if they were a throne.

And a smug smirk spread across his lips, so smug in fact, if she didn't like him, she'd want to slug him across the face.

Scratch that, she still kind of wanted to, that was just how smug he was. Sitting as he was there, he looked like he was radiating an aura of 'I'm the king of Kanto.'

With an added in bit of 'haha' just to rub it in some more.

"See, while on my way to my next stop, I came across a pretty cool forest, had tons of Exeggutor in it," Jord began explaining, "And it got me wondering, how the hell is there a forest full of only Exeggutor? So after I caught all of them, I decided to to investigate a bit."

….Right, a whole forest of Exeggutor, and he caught them all…because why not?

Misty resisted the urge to groan. It was times like this she was eerily reminded of the many stupid decisions Ash made on a day to day basis.

Like for instance, they came across a swarm of Beedrill the other day on the way to Vermillion City.

And he wanted to capture them all after his Pikachu, Scizor, Charmander, Pidgeotto and Butterfree made short work of them.

…And there were over fifty of them in that swarm.

A swarm mind you that was full of very aggressive freaky poison and bug types that attacked them just because they wandered too close to their nesting area.

Wait.

Exeggutor he said, weren't Exeggutor a pokemon that evolved through a leaf stone?

'How could there be a full forest of pokemon that evolve from leaf stones,' Misty wondered for a moment, before her eyes left the boy on the screen, to the stones he was reclining on and the odd green pigments she could just make out despite the size of the screen. Her eyes widened, "Wait, don't tell me those are all leaf stones!?"

Jord blinked before grinning widely, "Clever girl!" he clapped once before leaning forward a bit closer to the screen, "Yup, the ground here was full of them, this little chair of mine is made up of exactly two hundred and eighty seven leaf stones."

Just as he said that though, a red blur rushed over to him from the side, which turned out to be a large Charmeleon when the camera focused, carrying…a stone in its hands that it happily presented to Jord.

"Thanks buddy, good work!" Jord beamed, happily rubbing the fire types head before giving his attention back to her, "Make that two hundred and eighty eight leaf stones, I figured if you and Brock had pokemon that needed leaf stones to evolve I'd give you some."

Misty's mouth opened and closed, working to find a single word to say, but coming up utterly blank.

…Evolutionary stones cost ten thousand pokedollars a piece. More than that in some places that didn't see a lot of trade with them.

And he just came across a forest where two hundred and eighty eight of them were laying for him to scoop up?

A literal evolutionary stone mine!?

That was worth nearly three million pokedollars in total at standard pricing!

"Oh that reminds me," Jord clicked his fingers, "Ash has a Pidgeotto right?" he changed the subject once more.

"…Yeah?" Misty answered, almost in a daze.

"Awesome, think he needs a saddle for it when it evolves?" Jord asked, "I have two, I bought one for my own Pidgeotto for when he evolved but he ended up being way too big for it so I had to buy another."

Misty sighed and shook her head, taking a moment to regain her bearings, "Yeah, it's Ash so you know he's not thought that far head yet, so he obviously doesn't have one," she ran a hand through her hair, noting it was only a tiny bit damp now, she really needed to brush it before it fully dried out and make sure it didn't get knotted, "Anyway, can we get to the reason why I called you now?"

Somehow, he'd manage to drain the mass amount energy out of her that the video she saw had ignited within her and she found herself a lot calmer than before.

She couldn't say one way or another if that was a good thing or not.

"You mean you didn't call just because you missed me?" he pouted at her.

She couldn't even muster up the energy to allow her cheeks to burn a little at his reply, "Why the hell were you fighting a Gyarados and a Dragonite?" she asked, getting to the point, "For that matter, where the hell did you even find a Dragonite and when did you catch a Gyarados?"

Jord blinked.

Misty blinked back at him.

He was silent for a moment, looking rather confused before speaking again, "How'd you know that?" he asked, "Only Nurse Joy and Gary should know I caught them, oh and Hilda I guess, but none of them know that they attacked me after I caught them."

"Are you kidding?" Misty gave him an incredulous look, eyebrows raised and all, "It's all over PokeVision, somebody caught it on video, a guy called T Snapp, it's gone viral, six million views and counting since just last night."

"…Eh?" Jord's head tilted to the side and he looked utterly lost, "PokeVision…that thing where trainers upload videos? Isn't that a Kalos thing?"

"No, it's a world thing, it originated in Kalos sure, but it's gotten super popular world wide the past couple years," Misty explained, before shaking her head and getting back to the point, "That's not important, what is important, is explaining why the hell you were fighting a Gyarados and then a Dragonite, and how for that matter!"

"….I work out?" he tried.

"Tauros shit!" Misty growled, energy beginning to return now, "I work out! Or at least I do when I can, and I definitely can't do that."

"Yeah, but have you heard of our lord and saviour the one true Holy Grind?" Jord grinned at her, "I hear even Arceus himself followed the scriptures of the Holy Grind to obtain ultimate power."

"…I'm going to smash you over the head with my mallet the next time I see you." Misty vowed.

So not cute.

"Kinky," he chuckled before shrugging his shoulders, "I'm being truthful though, I just train every day with my pokemon, whatever training they do, I go through it with them to help them keep motivated."

…That.

That still didn't make much sense. Sure, there were crazy strong people out there, like Bruno. There were full on videos of that guy wrestling with his huge Machamp or even his Steelix.

But Jord, while well muscled for his age…well actually quite a bit beyond well muscled, his arms looked like they were carved from marble…but he still wasn't a huge muscle bound behemoth like Bruno.

"As for how I got them," he continued on, "I passed through a huge storm on my way to go catch Blastoise and Dragonite came out of nowhere to attack me and Fearow as we were flying by, we beat him and caught him and after that ended up in the water and Gyarados attacked us right after, so we kicked his ass and I caught him as well."

…That…that wasn't the type of story one expected when someone talked about how they captured a Dragonite and a Gyarados.

A Gyarados was a big deal in of itself to capture, but a Dragonite was something else entirely. They were so rare it was practically unheard of for someone to have one. The amount of people that owned a Dragonite in the entire world was probably less than a hundred.

And he summarised capturing one in less than fifty words….while mentioning two other pokemon he was going to capture or did catch at the same time.

What kind of things had Jord seen in his life that he could so casually talk about capturing a Dragonite like that? It was some real alien logic to Misty.

He lived in another world from regular trainers.

Or perhaps it was more, he lived on a higher level than them? It was almost like, when he so casually brushed off those momentous milestones while casually reclining in a throne of leaf stones, that she was looking at a legend, a champion, a trainer who stood above all other trainers, in the making.

'Is that the kind of level I have to be on to become a water pokemon master in the future?' Misty bit her lip.

"Still, that does explain a lot, like those people avoiding me, Gary's Garyness and that message Hilda sent me while I was sleeping," Jord mused, breaking her from her heavy thoughts, he shook his head and smirked, "T-Snapp huh? Todd motherfucking Snapp how the hell did I miss that plonker videoing me? what a small world man."

He apparently knew who T-Snapp was as well. Actually, now that he mentioned it, that name, Todd Snapp sounded a bit familiar?

But where had she heard it from before?

But he sure was taking it well-

"That twat." Jord clicked his tongue angrily.

Or not.

"I promised Hilda she could pop my cherry and have my first time when it came to this kind of thing." he huffed.

And suddenly Misty was just plain annoyed.

And she didn't know why. No lies!

Truly!

"Putting that….girl…out of mind for the moment," Misty ground her teeth, not thinking about that style stealer, because short shorts were her thing, not some two bit actresses, "What are you going to do about this? You're getting pretty famous about this, not only because of capturing such powerful and rare pokemon but because you literally beat up a Gyarados and a Dragonite on video!"

Jord gave her an odd look "…Nothing?" he answered after a moment, giving an almost uncaring shrug, "Unless that punk is making a lot of money off me, then I'll dip his head in a public toilet bowl and flush it till he hands over my share, otherwise I don't really care, I'm way too busy to bother with bootleg pokemon youtube."

He was too busy to care about becoming more or less famous? She knew he was a bit off on some subjects like how rare some pokemon were, how much of a target he was for leeches and how much some things like rare pokemon he casually offered were truly worth…but he had to know that his name or at least his face was out there now.

He'd agents and producers and the like trying to scout him now. Those trying to be the backing behind a new rising trainer superstar wouldn't just leave him alone.

"Busy how?" Misty found herself asking, "Getting more gym badges? Or have you got more pokemon to catch?"

…Not that he actually needed to catch any more pokemon at this point, he already had tons of rare and powerful pokemon under his ownership.

"Nah, I'm putting my gym challenge on hold for a bit, though I am going for more pokemon for sure," Jord replied with a casual wave of his hand, "After I take care of some more things here, I'm taking a trip to Kalos to get my hands on something I really want. Which reminds me, would you prefer a Squirtle or a Wartortle? I've got a bunch of both, but I've got this pretty tough female Wartortle I think would suit you pretty well."

….It took Misty longer than she would have liked to be able to form words to reply to that.

Weirdly, Misty didn't take too kindly to the fact that I was going to be heading to Kalos soon.

Dunno why to be honest, I told her I wouldn't be there for long in the relative scheme of things, I do plan on competing in the Indigo League after all. And it wasn't like she actually travelled with me or anything like that.

'Women.' I shook my head as the wind whistled in my ears, once again riding through the air atop Pidgeot, 'I just don't get them sometimes.'

Well, at least I knew why Hilda was so pissed at me. She saw the video, at a time when I was snoozing away with a grin of pride on my face after downing a Dragonite and a Gyarados with my bare hands.

…She's totally gonna let me have it when she's wake man, my luck at work as usual.

Honestly, if she wanted to nag me like she was my lover, she should made it official and not just a one time fuck before parting ways.

Speaking of though, If Hilda's nagging is gonna be harsh, I don't wanna imagine what Nurse Joy is gonna be like now that I just sent her a bunch of huge Exeggutor to look after for me.

Honestly though, 'Worth it.' I grinned. Not only did I get a bunch of giant grass and psychic types, it meant nobody could get one to use against me. On top of that, I just discovered a gold mine and have two hundred and eighty eight leaf stones to do whatever the hell I want with.

Well, two hundred and eighty six since I'm gonna be giving one to Brock and one to Misty before I head to Kalos, but still, considering they went for ten grand a pop in shops, at typical retail value I'd made over two million pokedollars from this little side trip on the way to my main destination.

Not bad at all.

It wasn't long later that I arrived at my destination. Pidgeot landed straight in the middle of the huge canyon and I dismounted the bird. "Ooft." I winced as I looked around.

It looked a lot bigger in person than it did on screen.

But at the very least, the cavern the fossil pokemon were in, was absolutely huge.

"Thanks for the lift buddy." I pat Pidgeot's head, before returning him to his pokeball and taking another look around.

"Still might take a while for just one pokemon to find though." I mused. Poor Charmeleon, he'd already put in a lot of work digging up all my leaf stones for me.

Maybe I should wait a few hours before getting started?

Or I could leave it up to him I guess.

Probably better to let him decide I nodded to myself. I reached towards my belt and grasped Charmeleon's pokeball, before sending him out with a press of the front button, the mid-tier evolution horned fire-type materializing in front of me in a burst of light.

"Meleon!" he was all sharp toothed grin for me as he appeared and I couldn't help but fondly rub his head.

It was dickish of me, I know, even Hilda pointed it out. But, I can't help but constantly feel giddy that I have a Charmeleon. I'd be satisfied with him alone before all this started. All my other pokemon, as much as I love them to bits, are really more icing on the cake. Or that would have been my thoughts in the beginning I suppose.

Cuz I can't imagine life without my pokemon anymore.

I shook my head, putting the thought out of mind for the moment and grinned back at Charmeleon, "So, here are buddy," I said, gesturing to the massive canyon, "You up for it? Or, you wanna wait a bit and rest a bit more, you did do a lot of work earlier after all and-"

I never got to finish as Charmeleon vehemently shook his head, "Char, meleon char!" he protested, lifting an arm up for me to see and clenching his clawed hand into a fist and showing off his muscle for me, while smirking and snorting two plumes of flame from his nostrils.

And he was well muscled for sure, Charmeleon was like a wall of crimson scaled muscle. And actually…when did he reach over my shoulder in height? I could have sworn he was just level with them when he evolved first.

Not important for now I suppose, I just must be doing something right. God I can't wait until he evolves into a Charizard.

Once he does, it means I win. Simple as that.

"Alright, if you say so mate," I shrugged with a laugh, patting him on the head once more, "Have at it then."

Charmeleon's grin widened and he nodded happily, "Char!" he saluted, before turning around and jumping into the air…before promptly diving into the ground and burrowing down deep.

I looked at the massive hole, easily twice as wide as I was and scratched the back of my head, "Guess I can check out that video and see how I look in it I suppose." I mused.

You know.

Looking at it from Todd Snapps' point of view. I can slightly understand why Hilda and Misty are so upset at me. On the other hand, not really, because I look way more badass in that video than I actually was in that altercation.

I actually looked like I was kicking the shit out of Gyarados and Dragonite. When in reality, I hadn't really done any damage to them and I'd just stunned them. Hell I done more damage to myself hitting them in fact.

…Also, I'm pretty sure Gary has the top comment on this video somehow. 'Fake and Gay', he's said that to me a few times. And 'Smell Ya' Later' as a username?

So damn obvious.

He may as well have just put 'Gary Motherfuckin Oak' as his username and been done with it.

'Still some of these comments are great.' I chuckled as I scrolled down them.

'This has to be fake, no way anyone is that strong, never mind a kid that age!'

'We sure this kid is even human? He might be a Machamp in disguise that knows metronome and got lucky with transform to copy some kids looks.'

'If he's that strong, imagine how strong his pokemon actually are! I'd love to battle him, he'd make a great rival!'

'If he can toss around a Gyarados like that, just imagine how he could toss around a girl if he got his hands on are. I volunteer myself for the text subject ~ xxx'

That last one was totally a dude though. That or one thirsty ass woman. And that third one, I almost mistook for Ash. Even the username was something he'd go with. BattleMe09.

But the avatar picture for them was that of a pretty older girl around Hilda's age with tan skin and black hair with a streak of green in it and a smattering of freckles dusting across her nose.

She's pretty smart mind you. My pokemon are stupidly powerful after all, the total best of the best.

Still, she was definitely cute.

I clicked on her profile to check it out, and found myself frowning. On the profiles, it listed the region the account user was from I'd noticed.

But…

"What the fuck is Paldea?" I couldn't help but wonder, brows furrowing. Obviously another region, but not one I've ever heard of.

Probably one that would have been revealed in the future like with Generation nine, or ten or something.

Hmm, I'll need to look it up. There'll probably be pokemon I've never heard about there. If someone rocks up with one I don't wanna be caught unprepared and have no idea what to do against them.

…Huh, checking it out on the map, it's literally right next to Kalos. I could make a quick visit there while I'm in Kalos without wasting much time.

Just then, the ground rumbled to the side of where I was sitting on a rock, and a second later, Charmeleon leaped up out of the hole he'd dug, covered in dirt but grinning widely.

It was a good grin, a triumphant one, "Find it?" I asked, stowing away my phone for now.

"Char, meleon!" he flashed me a clawed thumbs up and eagerly beckoned me to follow him.

"Alright, let's get to it then mate." I laughed and did as he bid.

Charmeleon led me into the hole a few moments later, and thankfully he'd dug down at a sloping angle so I could walk downwards diagonally rather than have to like shimmy my way down or something or hammer in some rope to climb down.

I didn't even need to bring out a flashlight or anything, thanks to the flame on Charmeleon's tail lighting the way.

He's such a great pokemon, there's nothing he can't do man. Eat your heart out Arceus.

'Pretty deep man.' I noted after a few minutes of travelling down the tunnel. Like, I had to have descended over a hundred feet already.

And I noticed the deeper we went, the darker the rock around us became. Like, at the top it was a burnt orange, but it transitioned from that into a sleet bluish black.

Finally, after another minute or so, Charmeleon halted in at the end of the tunnel, and I could see over his shoulders an opening into a wide cavern space.

It was massive, over a hundred feet below the Grandpa Canyon and stupidly wide, full of huge stalagmites and the echoing of dripping water reverberated in my ears.

I couldn't see any of the fossil pokemon in sight though.

But then I couldn't even see the end of the cavern, it stretched onwards beyond the max range of my sight, transitioning into a deep pitch black area I couldn't make out at all.

Granted, my view is limited by the glow given off by Charmeleon's tail. But it was still freaking long.

Right.

Walking around in this vast cavern looking to find them, would probably take a while. Probably the safer option mind you, since they're probably still sleeping right now and I could catch them unawares.

But that wasn't really my style.

I've already travelled far enough for these guys. It's their turn to come to me at this point.

Also, riskier it may be, but I think that battling them up front and letting them see me and my pokemon capturing them, will be a lot less confusing for them, rather than just waking up and finding themselves in a completely different and foreign place.

"Alright," I nodded and looked to Charmeleon, catching his eyes, before jerking my chin at the stalagmites, "Make some noise and wake them up, actually see if you can light this place up a bit while you're at it so we can see better."

"Meleon!" Charmeleon nodded at my order, before turning around and proceeding to spit out a huge gout of red hot flames at one of the stalagmites and begin melting it down in mere moments from the sheer heat of his Flamethrower attack.

'….I should totally steal Ash's lava battlefield strategy he used to beat Gary's Blastoise.' I thought as I watched on proudly.

Though, it wasn't making all that much noise surprisingly, at least not any noise that echoed much, would this even wake those sleepy bum fossil pokemon up or-

I needn't have worried, because Charmeleon apparently read my mind and was totally on the ball.

A growl erupted from his lips as he pulled a clawed fist into the air, a blazing hot aura enveloping his fist.

Before he plunged his clawed fist down and smashed it into the ground beneath us.

The ground rumbled ominously beneath us, before breaking apart with a massive explosion heading in the direction Charmeleon was facing, his Blast Burn attack tearing the entire cavern up, illuminating it brightly in a flash of flame, sending great chunks of debris flying through the air.

And making a hell a lot of nose.

"…That'll do it." I couldn't help but laugh.

There was no kill quite like overkill after all.