The next morning I knocked on Mr. Cameron's office door at exactly 9 a.m, at least according to my watch.
"We've finally reached the final habitat," Mr. Cameron stated after I entered and we exchanged greetings.
"Yeah, that took a while," I jokingly returned and he laughed a bit before he said "indeed."
"Alright, go ahead and finish your business. We'll talk when you've returned," he told me and Gallade made an appearance.
I only had time to nod toward Mr. Cameron in acknowledgment before I appeared in a new place courtesy of Gallade. I saw him exchange a nod with the Pangoro waiting for us before he left again.
Once Gallade was gone, Pangoro came up to me and pat my shoulder before telling me to follow him. I obviously used that moment to check his status screen to see how strong my escort was.
'Species: Pangoro
Gender: Male
Type: Fighting, Dark
Potential: Deep Blue
Stage: ?
Genetic variation: ?
Abilities: ?
Talents: ?
Affinities: ?'
It had been some time since I last saw a status screen riddled with so many question marks. The fact that I could see his potential meant that Pangoro was below the (mid) Palladium-Stage/Stage 7 since the (low) Palladium-Stage was the current limit of my observe function potential-wise.
So, any Pokemon with a question mark in the potential section was at the (mid) Palladium Stage or above. Honestly, when something like that happened in the wild, my only option would be to turtle down inside Utopia and pray to Mew that the Pokemon will go away quickly enough.
Well, that was if the situation allowed me to escape in the first place. While I could enter Utopia nearly instantly, I knew that if I could not react in time it was more likely that I would be turned to paste.
I did not doubt that any Pokemon with such prowess would notice me checking them out, or rather my energy coming in contact with them unless they initiate some physical contact with me as this Pangoro had done.
Anyway, potential death scenario aside, the fact that I was unable to see his actual stage meant that he was above the (mid) Platinum stage since my observe function could currently show the stage of any Pokemon within 5 sub-stages of me and my Pokemon.
That happened to be the (mid) Platinum stage right now, thanks to my (high) gold stage Pokemon. Now, combining the thing we learned from these two points, it was possible to conclude that Pangoro was either at the (high) Platinum stage, or the (low) Palladium stage, but I was unable to accept that a random Pangoro would be at Stage 7, so I was going with the assumption that he was at the (high) Platinum stage.
Frankly even that was absurd, the thought that such a strong and no doubt high-ranking tribe member was in charge of receiving me was unbelievable. It was also flattering since it showed the importance the Pangoro tribe assigned me.
Still, I had no way of actually mentioning that without giving out the fact that I could check a Pokemon's prowess even while they were not releasing/flaunting, so I quietly followed elder Pangoro as he led me to the hangout spot of their tribe.
Our arrival attracted the attention of everyone there and I saw as well as felt the attention of the little and big panda bears present.
"Alright, you lot," elder Pangoro began in PokeSpeech, his voice reaching everyone even without him having to shout, showing his impressive energy control.
"Young Mikail here has come to us in hopes of finding a partner to join his sleuth," he said while patting my right shoulder, forcing me to exert close to my maximum effort to not buckle under his enthusiastic shoulder pats since that would have made me look a bit weak, which would have been counterproductive to my cause.
"Make sure to check if you feel compatible with him or not. He's got a reputation for making really tasty food, so you won't have to worry about meals for the rest of your life if you can join him," he declared mirthfully.
"Oh, he's also supposed to be one of the best younglings among the humans," he added as if it was an afterthought making me not know whether I should laugh or not.
It seemed tasty food ranked above competence as a trainer here, which honestly was a bit funny. Well, to be fair, they had to know that one has to be at least competent to be allowed to visit their place, so they were probably not worried about that aspect, so the tasty food probably did motivate/interest them more.
Anyway, following big boss Pangoro's declaration, the Pancham and Pangoro around the place began coming up to me. Well, I decided to keep the tradition going and pulled out a lot of snacks to hand out while mingling with everyone.
I gave Tyrogue-approved snacks to the Pancham while giving a mix of Tyrogue-approved snacks and Nyx/Umbreon-approved snacks to the Pangoro since I had yet to make any snacks suitable for fighting/dark dual types.
I also did notice the subtle request for a curry lunch from the boss Pangoro, but that did not change my plans since I was planning to prepare curry for everyone anyway.
Regardless, I came across the first major hit roughly an hour later, with one of the Pangoro that I checked while handing over the snacks before our talk.
''Species: Pangoro
Gender: Male
Type: Fighting, Dark
Potential: Deep Blue
Stage: Silver Stage (high)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Mold Breaker, Scrappy
Talents: Iron Bucket
Affinities: Fighting, Dark'
His potential was pretty good, even if he was already at the silver stage, but honestly, I could easily compensate for that thanks to Utopia due to his high starting point.
It was unfortunate that he did not have my preferred ability combination. I would have preferred it if Pangoro had Iron Fist instead of Scrappy since his dark-type moves were already enough to face ghost types.
His talent left me a bit speechless, and I had to admit the name fit pretty well. Iron Bucket allowed Pangoro to eat as much as he wants without feeling stuffed. He can then use the stored energy for his training or during times when there is no available food.
Also, while he has no limit on the energy he can store, he has a quality limit, so he is still unable to eat stuff above a certain class. Regardless of his slightly weird talent, I made sure to keep track of him while I kept mingling/checking the others.
Close to the three hours mark I came across another one that stood out from the rest.
'Species: Pancham
Gender: Female
Type: Fighting
Potential: Deep Blue
Stage: Iron-Stage (high)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Iron Fist, Scrappy
Talents: None
Affinities: Fighting'
Unfortunately, she ended up having Scrappy as well. For a "hidden" ability according to canon, which meant that it was supposed to be rarer, it certainly kept showing up in the Pokemon that aroused my interest.
Still, having deep blue potential at the iron stage meant that she had the potential to reach light aurora by the time she reached the silver stage. However, I was still hoping that I would come across another Pancham just as talented as her but with my ideal ability combination, so I kept going.
Another hour went by and the time to prepare for lunch had come. I went up to the boss Pangoro, who had been keeping an eye on us all this while, and asked him if I could call out some of my Pokemon so that they could assist me with lunch.
After he gave his approval, I called out the mass cooking squad and together we began preparing the food/curry. Thanks to my assistants we managed to finish up lunch by 3 p.m., despite the huge surge of Pancham as well as Pangoro coming for the curry.
I/we fed at least a thousand of them, and I'm pretty sure some of them ate two or even three portions. Yes, I'm looking at you rice-, I mean Iron Bucket.
Still, as always the effect of tasty food showed itself, and the pandas were even more enthusiastic in their approach. I mean, I did obviously check as many pandas as I could while handing out the curry, and I saw some good ones among them, including a Pancham with deep blue potential and my ideal ability combination.
I made sure that my second thought stream kept an eye on that one. After dinner, the mingling/scouting resumed, and the curry effect showed itself splendidly.
There were even some Dark Gold stage Pangoro that came up to me, but they were kicked away by the elder who said no dark gold ones. It was around 5 p.m. that I came across this little guy.
'Species: Pancham
Gender: Male
Type: Fighting
Potential: Light Purple
Stage: Bronze-Stage (high)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Iron Fist, Mold Breaker
Talents: None
Affinities: Fighting, Dark'
This was not the first panda I saw with light purple potential, but those either had the wrong ability combo or were at the silver or even gold stage. In some cases, they had both the wrong abilities and were at a high stage.
Yet, this guy had light purple potential and my ideal ability combination, while also being only at the bronze stage, which meant he only missed one limit-breaking opportunity. That he was also at the (high) bronze stage was the cherry on top since that helped me save enough time to make up for not being at the iron stage.
I was not worried about his foundation since he was pretty close to evolution and I could use that, together with the Utopia optimization to make up for nearly everything he had lost by missing the iron stage.
Due to only missing one round it was easier to make up for it, so it took less time to do so. I just wish Gwen/Gardevoir's case was this easy, but there was no use to cry over the situation. I knew that I could still deal with her problem it was just going to take much longer to do so.
Anyway, not only did Pancham fulfill my criteria, but he even had a full-fledged dark affinity before his evolution to Pangoro, which was another plus point. I determined that this was the one for me and decided that there was no need to prolong the search any longer.
I went up to Pancham to ask him if he wanted to join my family, and he agreed, so I balled him in a Fighting Ball. I would craft a fighting/dark dual ball for him later, but for now, the Fighting ball had to suffice.
I let him out directly afterward and gave him some time to say his goodbyes. In the meantime, I went up to boss Pangoro and told him that I was done and that we could leave after Pancham finished saying his farewells. The boss simply nodded and we both waited for Pancham to return.
When the little guy showed up, boss Pangoro accompanied us back to the arrival point, but since I/we were early by nearly 45 minutes, there was no Gallade to receive us. I could easily have Horus/Xatu teleport us away, but boss Pangoro told me that he had received me from Gallade, and he was honor-bound to deliver me back to Gallade.
Well, the solution for that was simple, and I swiftly pulled my phone out and called Mr. Cameron to tell him that Gallade could come over since I was done. Even while I was still talking to Mr. Cameron, Gallade showed up and exchanged a nod with boss Pangoro.
He then directly teleported us back to the office which meant I ended up talking into the phone for some more while actually standing across from Mr. Cameron. Gallade laughed a bit at that before he vanished again before I could complain, so I just hung up and put away my phone.
-----------------------------
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