"So what exactly am I supposed to do with you three?" Questioned a petite woman with green air that danced around her head as if it had a life of its own.
Currently Tatsumaki was staring at three of things Alex and Cynthia referred to as 'Pokemon'. To her left was a blue and white humanoid thing that was apparently called a Meditite, to the right was a green and white thing called a Ralts, and then finally in the middle was a golden thing called an Abra.
To Tatsumaki they merely looked like the numerous deadly monsters that appeared on her world on a day to day basis. As such she was obligated as a Hero to destroy them here and now before they could cause problems.
HOWEVER.
Alex, Cynthia, Sabrina, Flannery, and Nemona all swore that they were GOOD monsters that could be tamed and trained to fight on her behalf.
Certainly, at this moment they weren't behaving in any way dangerously. But then they arrived at the problem that Tatsumaki didn't NEED any of these 'tame' monsters to fight on her behalf. To entertain such notions would make her no better than her little sister, Fubuki, who was holding herself back by playing leader with her group of nobodies.
But then Alex reminded her about how there HAD been one point in her life as well where Tatsumaki had been weak and powerless. While she wasn't sure how Alex knew about THAT, it had been annoyingly effective at getting her to accept the Pokemon.
Now however she had no idea what to do, as she had never once in her life tried to train anything. Not even her own little sister.
"You're all supposed to be psychics. Right?" She questioned in the form of a statement, despite Cynthia already explaining to her the typing of all three.
Meditite was a psychic and fighting type, Abra was just psychic, and Ralts was a psychic and fairy. This at least made things a little easier on her, but not by much.
"Ok then! I don't believe in half measures, so I'm sending you all out to see what you can do. Firstly, you're all to go and find a monster to defeat! I don't care how low its disaster level is, so long as you defeat a monster today! Understood?!"
"Tite!"
"Bra!"
"..."
Meditite and Abra declared as they cried out their eagerness, while Ralts just stood there and fidgeted shyly.
All three however teleported away as they searched for a monster to fight, leaving Tatsumaki alone on the barren stretch of land she had taken them to.
"This better not be a waste of my time." Tatsumaki muttered to herself irritably, even as she closed her eyes and focused her psychic powers on the three to watch over them.
***
*CLASH!*
*CLASH!*
*CLASH!*
Two blurred figures clashed time and again within a wooded area, each clash ringing out loudly enough to scare even some of the grim that were nearby.
The clash continued for several minutes, resulting in numerous trees being cut down and several rocks sliced open. And then finally, the two figures responsible came to a halt as they ceased moving.
"That was really fun!" Ruby Rose exclaimed excitedly to her training partner.
"Scy!" Replied Scyther, the Pokemon Ruby had received through the Chatroom.
Scyther was a tall humanoid bug/flying type Pokemon with a light green carapace, but instead of hands a long scythe extended from each arm. This made it the perfect Pokemon to send to Ruby since her main weapon was her large scythe, Crescent Rose.
"Finished up Rubes?" Called a voice Ruby knew very well, her sister Yang. Accompanying her was a short orange chicken-like thing that walked upright like a person.
"WOAH! WHAT HAPPENED TO TORCHIC!?!" Ruby exclaimed as she flashed to Yang's side in a burst of rose petals.
As she said, Yang had received a Torchic through the Chatroom for her Pokemon, which was a fire type that would evolve into a fire/fighting type. But now it appeared completely different from the typical chicken it was to begin with, growing taller and more humanoid, with longer wings like arms and claws on the tips.
"Ha! Torchic evolved into a Combusken already! Just a bit more training, and I bet it'll evolve into a Blaziken soon!" Yang declared boisterously.
"Ken ken!" Combusken declared in agreement.
"I wonder if I can get Scyther to evolve soon as well..." Ruby mused out loud as she turned towards her own Pokemon.
"Ther?" Scyther asked while tilting its head at her curiously.
"So how do you think Pyrrha and Winter are doing?" Yang asked her younger sister suddenly.
"Hmmm..." Ruby hummed lightly as she thought about how to answer.
*Meanwhile*
"I still don't understand why Alex thought I needed a Pokemon as well. I have my Glyphs after all!" Winter Schnee complained loudly while piloting her airship.
Though she said that, she still couldn't deny her excitement when she'd given her Snorunt the Dawn stone like Cynthia had instructed, and it evolved before her eyes into a Froslass.
"I think they're cute though." Pyrrha stated behind her, where she was sitting with her own Pokemon, a blue and black dog looking thing called a Riolu.
"Ri!" Riolu declared in defiance of being called 'cute', which only made Pyrrha nuzzle it even more. Of course, she still wasn't aware just HOW lucky she'd been to have a Riolu hatch for her.
Pyrrha just hoped there'd be no issues with taking Riolu with her when she started attending Beacon Academy in a few weeks.
***
"And there's another one!" Nemona cried out as she captured yet ANOTHER Pokemon.
She had been on a catching frenzy ever since she obtained the Chatroom, as she was then able to send Pokemon through the Chatroom to it's other users as long as they were in their Pokeballs. And with the majority of the quests available to her being to catch certain Pokemon, she was killing two birds with one stone.
Aside from those two, Nemona also had yet ANOTHER goal towards sending Pokemon throughout the Omniverse via the Chatroom. For every Pokemon she sent out to be trained in strange lands, she was increasing the chances of a new trainer being able to push her to her limits.
It was so exciting!
So with hopes of all the future rivals she might have, Nemona readily accepted the next available quest to capture several Tauros. Thankfully, she knew where numerous herds were, AND that there had been talk about culling their numbers recently.
And once that was done, maybe she'll see about taking the quest to capture a bunch of Eevee...
***
"Tee hee!"
"Mime mime!"
"Hee hee!"
"Mime!"
"I've got you now!" Ty Lee exclaimed as she began to furiously tickle the small Pokemon she now had, a Mime Jr(female).
It was a cute little thing that Ty Lee adored as she danced around and played energetically, while everyone else from the circus also enjoyed having her around. In fact, the ringmaster asked her if she knew where to get more for their show.
Ty Lee of course hid the true origins of Mime Jr, and merely stated that she had found her lost in the woods. But that hadn't stopped the ringmaster from drawing up several new posters with Mime Jr in them to advertise the circus, which had worked to bring in their largest crowd yet.
She wasn't the only one though, as Ty Lee heard about Katara receiving a Pokemon called a Lapras, Yue receiving a Spheal, and Suki getting a Cubone. All of them looked cute to her, but her Mime Jr was definitely the cutest.
Ty Lee couldn't at all imagine using her to battle, like the others were suggesting.
"Time for the next show!" The ringmaster suddenly called out, making Ty Lee and Mime Jr jump as they left their playing behind to hurriedly prepare for the next show.
***
"Father..... Is this really ok?"
"I'm not sure to be honest... But everything SEEMS to be ok..."
"What about this 'Alex' guy though? Can he be trusted?"
"Your sister trusts him. That's all we can rely on for right now."
So said the rather large king of a certain underwater kingdom, who had all three of his sons gathered around him at the moment.
They, along with several members of the royal procession, were currently gathered at a place known as the Sea Forest.
Also known as the ship graveyard, the Sea Forest was a place located outside of Fish-Man Island where more coral grew than anywhere else. It was also here that the late queen, Otohime, was entombed.
And kneeling before that tomb for the first time since her mother had been buried there eight years prior, was Princess Shirahoshi.
"Mother..... I was finally able to come and see you...." Shirahoshi said to the tomb through a shaky voice and teary eyes.
Ever since she had begun to receive marriage proposals from Vander Decken, Shirahoshi had been unable to leave her tower for fear of her life. This had meant that, let alone being able to attend her funeral, Shirahoshi had never once been able to visit her mother's tomb since she died in front of her and her brothers.
Now that she was safe from Vander Decken, the first thing Shirahoshi had requested from her father was to visit her mother's tomb. Her father of course had been hesitant, even when no further 'proposals' had come from Vander Decken, but eventually relented when a few days passed without Shirahoshi being targeted.
Now however her father was growing concerned for another reason.
Shirahoshi, as innocent as she was, had told him everything.
The Chatroom. The people and things on it. Alex.
The only thing Shirahoshi's father, King Neptune, remained ignorant about was the rather 'dubious' nature of the Chatroom. And that was only because Shirahoshi was too embarrassed to tell him she flashed them her boobies.
Now the king watched over his daughter alongside his sons, who had all trained to become warriors great enough to protect her, while creatures the likes of which he'd never seen or heard of accompanied her. Creatures called, 'Pokemon'.
There was a tiny seahorse, weirdly enough called a Horsea, a small red fish called a Magikarp, a red and blue fish with jagged teeth called a Carvanha, and a beautiful serpentine Sea King called a Milotic. As if none of them were strange enough, Milotic had started out as a small, pale, and weakly looking fish similar to Magikarp. But once it touched one of Shirahoshi's scales it had been enveloped in a brilliant light that faded to show it had grown entirely different in both size and appearance.
Shirahoshi had said it was apparently something called 'evolution', but King Neptune had no idea what she meant by that.
Admittedly his attentions had been more focused lately on locating and capturing the REAL culprit behind the murder of his wife, Hordy Jones.
Just thinking about him made Neptune's blood boil, as he had personally thanked and commended the man for capturing the human who killed his wife, when he had actually been the killer the entire time!
Even now legions of Neptune's men were out searching for the queen's killer, for she had been beloved by all, and was fondly remembered even years after her death by everyone.
***
"WAY TO GO YOU IDIOTS! YOU NEARLY KILLED ALL OF US AND DESTROYED THE GOING MERRY ALL AT ONCE!" Screamed a young woman with short cut orange hair, as she hit Luffy and Usopp on their heads.
"What are you so uptight for? Couldn't you have saved us any time you wanted, 'God'?" Zoro smirked at her humorously.
Nami slowly turned to look at the swordsman as if her head was on a rusty swivel. Her eye twitched ever so slightly as she vacantly stared at him.
Currently they once again sailing on the blue sea, as the Skypians called it, after having taken a floating octopus down like a giant hot air balloon. And naturally, both Luffy and Usopp had decided to climb up on top of the octopus, and bounce on it.
The result was the air draining from the octopus at an increased rate, making them free fall through the air to be smashed to death upon the waves below. Thankfully Nami had eaten the Ara Ara no Mi, so she had been able to prevent them from dying. But it had been fairly close.
"Who do you think it was that kept us all from dying?" She asked in a slow and measured voice.
"Form form!" Cried out the little cloud-like being floating around her head, a Castform that Cynthia had just sent to her.
"Meow!" Added the tan colored cat at her feet, the Meowth she had received alongside Castform.
"Ms navigator has a point mr bushido. She JUST got her powers, and probably can't use them to their full effect yet." Robin said from her lounge chair with a small smile on her face. Beside her was a Pokemon known as a Deino, while another known as Duskull floated in the air around her head.
Zoro however just narrowed his eyes at her, still suspect of just HOW Nami had gotten her Devil Fruit, as well as where these strange creatures had come from right before they left Sky Island. The others may have just accepted them due to how 'cool' they appeared, but he didn't. (A.N. Luffy in Pokemon world: RECRUIT THEM ALL!)
Nami meanwhile was about to tear into Zoro, but before she could something caught her attention. Zoro cocked his head in confusion at her sudden shift, but before he could ask her what was going on NOW, Nami suddenly grabbed Robin and pulled her into the ship's cabin with their creatures following behind them.
"Don't bug us!" Nami ordered them, before slamming the door shut behind them.
"What was that about?" Usopp asked curiously, though everyone else just shrugged in confusion.
Inside the room meanwhile, a projected screen appeared before Nami that Robin looked at curiously, only to see Alex on it with a small monkey-like Pokemon sitting on his shoulder, Chimchar.
"Alex! This is a surprise." Robin said to him.
"Nice to see you too Robin. I just wanted to have a quick chat with Nami about money real quick."
Nami immediately perked up at the mention of her favorite topic, money. And as she did so Alex asked her,
"When you loan out money Nami, what kind of interest rate do you charge?"
When he asked her that Nami got a malicious look to her smile as she stated proudly, "Why I charge a three times interest rate to begin with, and then add a fifty percent additional interest rate per day until they pay me back!"
Alex nodded slowly as he took down what Nami said, and then began computing whatever it was he focusing on. "Thank you Nami. Just give me a moment..."
The two Straw Hats then watched as Alex did some calculations, before arriving at the total as he said, "that's it! Thanks Nami!"
"Teehee! Glad to help! For a minor fee of course!" Nami said slyly while sticking her tongue out playfully.
But then she was surprised when a slip of paper appeared out of thin air in front of her. Confused, Nami grabbed the paper out of thin air to look at it, only for her heart to freeze when she saw the outrageous number on it.
"What is this!?!" She demanded, no longer acting playful.
"Your bill." Alex replied as if it were only natural.
"DON'T SCREW WITH ME!!!" Nami roared at him, though Alex remained perfectly calm in the face of her anger, before calmly explaining,
"I'm not screwing with you. To acquire the Ara Ara no Mi for you, I had to spend nearly all of my own Chatroom shop points. I checked with the Chatroom to convert the same amount into berries, and then implemented your own policy regarding money lending to determine the interest. Thanks again for that, by the way."
Looking over the bill again, Nami did in fact see that it had listed out everything Alex had explained. The the original price, the automatic interest, and the interest that had accrued over the last few days.
"W-well you CAN'T make me pay this! I never agreed to it or signed anything!" Nami stated defensively, making Alex look up at her seriously.
"This isn't a joke you can just brush under the rug Nami. You cried for help, and I answered. You can't just refuse the cost of the help now that you're safe. It doesn't work like that. If you can't pay it back to me, then I'm sure we can work something else out. I'll just let you think on it."
And with that Alex and Chimchar disappeared from their view, leaving Nami horrified at the horrendous bill she had received, before they suddenly popped into sight yet again.
"Oh! And before I forget, remember that it's not considered cheating between pirates if you don't get caught. Until next time!" And this time they really were gone, leaving Nami to lament her bill, and Robin wondering what Alex meant by that as Usopp cried out that there was land ahead.