"Mee!"
Milotic finally opened her eyes. She felt something had grown on her head.
A piece of scale lay on her temple. It was pink in color, somewhat similar to the Prism Scale that she had used to evolve.
"Huh?"
Blaine pulled his cane and walked over to her. He took out a magnifying glass to look closely at the scale.
"Her ability should be Marvel Scale. I remember that one of Lance's Dragonair had also awakened a similar ability. It's just the color is a little bit different."
"Marvel Scale?" Hisoka asked.
He didn't know how an ability would manifest itself apart from the obvious ones such as Magmar's Flame Body, Infernape's Blaze, and Kecleon's Color Change. There weren't many abilities shown in the anime.
"There's no mistaking that," Blaine nodded firmly.
Then, he turned to Hisoka and said, "It's not a bad ability. Her skin will become tough as steel when it is inflicted by a major status ailment. You know, sleep, poison, and the like."
'It's not bad, I guess?' Hisoka comforted himself.
Although he said that, he still hoped Milotic could awaken a more powerful ability like Competitive.
Suddenly, a thought flashed in his mind.
"Mr. Blaine, do you know what kind of ability Wallace's Milotic has awakened?" he asked in one breath.
Blaine pondered for a moment and said, "If I'm not mistaken, it should have awakened an ability called Cute Charm. It makes a Pokemon of the opposite gender infatuated with the ability bearer if they make direct contact."
"Cute Charm, huh?" Hisoka mumbled.
A Milotic with kind of ability was without a doubt the best Pokemon to bring in a Pokemon Contest. Milotic was already beautiful. Having this ability made her even more so. No wonder Wallace was known as one of the best Coordinators in the world.
Seeing the last ability crystal in his hand, he decided to keep it for now.
Currently, he had a more pressing thing to do.
After that, he stayed at Pokemon Lab for three days. Together with Blaine, they went all out to make a Protector for Rhydon.
Even if they only needed to turn the rocks into multiple rock plates, they still made some mistakes. Thankfully, they had a lot of orange rocks in stock.
Bang!
Bang!
The power hammer was flattening the hot glowing rock into a metal plate. This continued for more than an hour before it became the shape he wanted.
After that, he and Blaine slowly transferred it into a bucket filled with water to cool it down. A few hours later, four shiny dark-orange metal plates lay in front of them.
"We did it!" They both shook their hands together with joy.
...
The sun was high up in the sky. The blue sky was dotted with fluffy white clouds that drifted lazily in the gentle breeze.
Hisoka had already left Cinnabar Island and was on his way back home. Thanks to Blaine's help, he was able to make the Protector for Rhydon and also obtained some precious information about Pokemon ability.
As for the Protector, he was not going to give it to Rhydon yet. He still had a lot of potentials to be tapped. Using it now would only waste his talent.
After this, he would conduct a lot of training for the big guy. He must squeeze the potential out of his body before evolving.
When he was about to leave on his bike, he suddenly saw an advertisement playing on a large advertisement board.
A magnificent building appeared on the screen. Then, a beautiful woman suddenly appeared. Apparently, the advertisement was introducing a newly opened Game Corner.
"To celebrate the opening of Celadon Game Corner, we will hold a Pokemon Double Battle tournament next week. The winner of the tournament will get one hundred thousand dollars and a Porygon. The second place..."
Gambling was legal in Kanto. The most famous example was Neon Town, located near Grampa Canyon. It was also referred to as the "Town that Never Sleeps."
Although some conservatives had criticized Neon Town because of the prevalence of gambling, which resulted in an increased crime rate, the League chose to turn a blind eye to them due to the high tax the town brought to the League.
Hisoka had heard of Celadon Game Corner before. They started advertising everywhere two years ago. According to the rumors, the forces behind this Game Corner were not simple.
The prize money wasn't that compelling to him, but the Porygon? Yeah, that would be a lie if he said he wasn't interested. Porygon had caused quite a storm in Kanto a few years ago. It was the first artificial Pokemon created by modern science and technology.
Professor Akihabara was the one who created the first Porygon, also known as Porygon Zero. It made him famous all over the world. Unfortunately, Team Rocket, who got the news, decided to attack his lab and stole his Porygon Zero.
After that, in order to protect the remaining Porygon, Dr. Akihabara took the initiative to hand them over to the League. Later, the League decided to lend some of them to Silph Company. With their advanced scientific research capabilities, a large number of Porygon were created soon after.
But because of the high cost, there were not many Porygon created. They only remained in the League's control due to their ability to travel through cyberspace. And Porygon's combat power wasn't that strong either.
'Team Rocket? What are they up to?' Hisoka thought.
He suddenly remembered that Celadon Game Corner was one of Team Rocket's hideouts. Also, it would be weird if someone didn't realize the connection between the stolen Porygon and the one in the tournament.
Anyway, he decided to join the tournament. He always wanted to have his own Porygon. Whether it was for research, network surveillance, or programming, it would be helpful to have it by his side. And Porygon's evolution was a piece of cake for him. He only needed to write an upgrade program for it to evolve.
...
"Milotic, control the intensity of your Water Gun. Great! Just keep it at this pace. Rhydon! Come on! You can endure it!"
In the training ground, Rhydon was standing still. The Protector was already wrapped around his body, but under Hisoka's order, Rhydon had to resist his desire to evolve.
Milotic stood next to Hisoka. She carefully controlled the power of the Water Gun she was aiming at Rhydon. Every minute or so, she would send a Water Gun to Rhydon repeatedly.
Roar!
Rhydon winced a little bit after the water hit him. Yet, he endured.
"Okay, that's enough. Good job, Rhydon. You can go take a rest. Today's training is over," Hisoka said loudly.
"Phew!"
Rhydon sighed in relief as he slumped on the ground. Even if he had a thick hide, being hit by a Water-type attack still hurt him a lot. Luckily, he only had to do this training for an hour a day.
This kind of training could make Rhydon became more compatible with the Protector. He only needed to suppress his impulse to evolve. But as time passed, it would be much harder for him to evolve. At that time, he would naturally evolve. Until then, Rhydon still needed to do this kind of training every day.
Hisoka belonged to the evolution camp supporters. Like humans growing up, Pokemon evolution was also a necessary growth process for them. Needless to say, there would also be a kind of people who preferred their Pokemon to not evolve. For them, an Everstone had become their favorite item.
A Pokemon carrying an Everstone would not be able to evolve, whether by battle, trade, or evolution stone. The Everstone inhibited their evolution factor.
There was no right or wrong between the two. Everyone had their own choices.
Hisoka was in his bedroom, sitting in front of his computer. Milotic's information was displayed on the screen.
[Milotic]
Ability: Marvel Scale
Held Item: Mystic Water
Currently, he was designing a set of tactics that worked well with her ability.
Marvel Scale would trigger if she was inflicted with a status ailment. For this, he would let her learn the Rest move so she could trigger her ability.
Rest would restore her strength and cure her status condition. But the drawback was also obvious. Once she fell asleep, she would be vulnerable to any kind of attack.
So she would also need to learn Sleep Talk. A Pokemon in a sleeping state could use Sleep Talk to attack its opponent with one of its learned moves. Even though it was random, it was still the best choice for her.
After that, he quickly placed an order for both Rest and Sleep Talk Technical Machines. The Double Battle tournament would start in three days. He had no time to waste.
...
At the dinner table, Ran was slowly serving the dishes. Sometimes, she would feel Hisoka gazing at her.
'Why is he looking at me like that?' she thought Hisoka was a little strange today.
A few seconds later, she couldn't stand it any longer. She turned to Hisoka and said, "Why are you looking at me like that, Hisoka? Did I do something wrong? Or are you interested in me now?"
She blushed after saying that.
'Is he really interested in me?' she thought.
Hisoka laughed loudly.
"No, I'm not interested in you. I'm just thinking about my partner for the Double Battle tournament."
This sentence made Ran's eyes gleam.
"Are you talking about the Double Battle tournament held by Celadon Game Corner?" she asked.
"That's right!" Hisoka nodded.
"Can I join as your partner?" she asked eagerly.
As she said that, he was weighing her up.
Initially, he wanted to invite Ryoichi as his partner. But it appeared that he had returned to the League as an officer. Besides Ryoichi, there was only Ran whom he trusted the most.
In the end, he agreed to let her be his partner.
"Okay. There are still three days before the tournament. You should prepare well," he nodded to her.
"Yes!"
Ran pumped her fist excitedly.
She had never been to Celadon City before. She heard that it was a shopping paradise for women.
Hisoka shook his head, seeing her antics. Ignoring her, he began to eat his dinner.
...
A few hours later, Hisoka was in the living room watching a video of a match between Lance and Agatha on the television. His Pokemon sat around him. All of them were watching the battle with gusto.
Suddenly, the egg incubator that had been placed on the table shook slightly.
Hisoka heard the movement and quickly turned off the television. He knew what that meant. But before he could get to it, there was someone else who was faster than him.
Misdreavus rushed toward the incubator with only one goal. Her aim? The orb on the incubator. After the egg shook, the orb emitted a soft light around the incubator.
Hu!
She took a deep breath, preparing herself for a meal.
But before she could, a purple aura caught her and pulled her away from the incubator.
Ya!
She screamed anxiously as she was being caught in Gardevoir's arms. But under Hisoka's stern gaze, she could only pout resentfully.
"Thanks, Gardevoir," he said to Gardevoir.
She nodded in reply and motioned the other Pokemon to keep quiet.
"It's going to hatch!"
Hisoka picked up the egg incubator and opened the glass cover. He couldn't contain his excitement. It had been half a year since he got this Pokemon egg.
He didn't know what kind of Pokemon would hatch from the egg, but one thing was certain, under the long-term energy radiation of the orb, it would have great potential from birth.
Newly born Pokemon will regard the first creature they see as their parents. Some trainers decided to get at an egg first, like Hisoka, but this took a lot of time. Not many people had the patience to take care of an egg.
As time passed by, the shaking became stronger. Under everyone's eyes, a faint light started to appear on the egg.
Crack!
Hisoka stayed patient. He knew he had to let the Pokemon break the shell on their own. If he helped it, it would damage its potential.
Finally, a head broke through the shell. Its head was brown with two small fleeces on its one long and short ears.
It narrowed its black eyes as if it was adjusting to the light in the room. After it got used to it, it quickly saw Hisoka's figure, smiling at it. It suddenly let out a cheer, trying to break free from the egg as if she wanted to get to Hisoka as soon as possible.
...