Victoria was many things – aggressive, harsh, brash, and overconfident among other things – but stupid was not one of them. That wasn't to say she was intelligent in the scientific sense, no, her father had kept those genes to himself. Instead she would call herself street smart. She worked on instinct, and damn if she wasn't usually right. Which is why she knew that Leo needed to go on his journey as soon as possible – she knew it better than he did, even.
When she thought back on her decision to sponsor Leo, she usually told herself that he had the skills to survive, and was plenty smart enough to learn what else he needed to. For example, when he spent time in the woods around Pallet he called it games or playing around – she saw it for what it really was. He was learning how to interact with pokémon, in a way that most trainers didn't learn until they had spent far too much time with their teams and broken a few bonds. It was hands-on experience, something Victoria thought a lot of Kanto schools were lacking.
She didn't take Leo's age into consideration either, as she had started her journey at twelve – all Alolans did. He was plenty old enough to be trusted. But it was her instincts that told her to sponsor him, and when she asked her gut why that was, it told her a few different stories.
Maybe it was the way he got a far-off look sometimes, staring blankly at the sky like an old man. She had thought him too young to understand what coming through an ultra-wormhole meant, that he had lost his entire world, but maybe that wasn't so. Or maybe it was the way he talked and moved like someone much older, despite his childish and naïve habit of ditching school. Perhaps part of it was the way he constantly searched for something with an undirected drive – a drive she had seen in other Masters like herself, a drive with a purpose. Except his drive had no purpose, and he was searching for a purpose like it was something he had lost. But the most likely option was because Leo reminded her of herself.
Cocky, overconfident, and a tad bit too gung-ho. Not to mention Leo's plans to enter the Silver Mountains was ditto to Victoria's own plans when she got her trainer's license.
She had bought a rowboat and rowed all the way to Poni Island to spend the first year of her Island Challenge there, after all. It was the Alolan equivalent of diving headfirst into the Silver Mountains. Plus, rumor had it Professor Oak had done the same as Leo, back when he first started, and that's how he got his dratini-turned-dragonite. That was back when the official starting age for a trainer was twelve in Kanto, too, so it wasn't like Leo was doing anything different.
Victoria had been making excuses to explain her actions, and she knew it. Didn't make a difference that she had sponsored Leo and let him essentially break the law and Uncle Oak's trust, but it sure made her feel better about it.
Samuel Oak resisted Victoria's push to get Leo a license at first, but once she learned that Oak was essentially giving Leo ACE Trainer exams and he was getting over fifty percent on the written portions – which meant he would've passed the regular trainer exams with flying colors – the old professor had no excuse to stop Victoria from sending Leo on his way. She'd had to threaten to take him to Alola and get him a license there to get it done though.
But what did come as a surprise to Victoria was how easy it was for Leo to slip past the rangers on route twenty-two, which only served to confirm a long-held theory of hers as to his true nature. This was doubly so when she got her oranguru, Sage, to confirm the fact.
Leo was Dark. He had the innate ability to remain undetected to psychic types if he so wished – it just so happened that most the time he was Open, willing himself to be affected by psychic energy. Which was why Merri, Oak's alakazam, never participated in the "catch Leo games;" she'd never be able to find him. It was also why he was so easily able to bypass the Ranger-employed psychics, put in place just to catch kids like Leo and stop them from entering the Mountains unprepared. When he wanted to hide, he instinctively flicked his Dark nature to full power, and vanished from psychic sight, if not its influence. This condition was about as rare as being psychic was, and not nearly as potent as a dark-type pokémon. He wasn't wholly unaffected by psychics, after all.
This discovery did drive home another point for Victoria – Leo needed to see the dangers of the Silver Mountains. With how much Kanto relied on their psychic types for border patrol, it was unlikely that Leo could've been stopped from leaving unless a full-time guard was slapped on him. It was best he get some of his carelessness out of his system now – after all, Victoria couldn't be around to keep an eye on him all the time. Sometimes children had to learn not to play with fire, by playing with fire.
Still, she doubted Leo himself knew of his own ability, but it did explain why psychics liked him so much. To have the ability to block out psychics, but to willingly stay open to their powers like he did most the time? They would instinctively like and trust someone like that, even if he did so unintentionally.
All this meant that, for the most part, Victoria let Leo have his little journey and search for a larvitar. Gypsy followed him around, the furrett unassuming enough to follow Leo and not make him suspicious, while she went off to train the rest of her team against the stronger denizens of the mountains. Gypsy was more than capable of warding off most dangers, or at least keeping Leo safe, and only occasionally would she return to check on Leo. Usually to find him doing something stupid, or incredible. Sometimes both.
Incredible like when he would whistle a tune for a group of bellossom, and incite them to dance for him, which was always a treat. Victoria recorded a few of those encounters for blackmail material later – pokedexes were nifty like that after all. Or stupid, like when he battled Archibald Oak's old tyranitar, Tyrus. Clearly he had just been testing Leo, but it had taken almost every ounce of willpower Victoria had to not jump in to the rescue. Tyrus could have easily killed Leo and his team had he not found him up to snuff.
Victoria sighed, readjusting her grip on General's saddle and feeling Leo's arms tighten around her waist, said boy staring out at the clouds as her braviary winged through the sky. One of the most troubling aspects of the journey had been the ghost Leo had attracted, falling just short on the "troubling scale" of the nevermeltice glacier in the middle of Tyrus' nest. Those two things were alarming.
Unfortunately, there was little she could do about the nevermeltice, and what she suspected was contained within. She wasn't sure, but Leo seemed like he recognized the dark shapes within, and InterPol was acting like they were certain it was an ultra-beast in the ice. The problem was that they weren't willing to send an expeditionary force into the known territory of a champion-level tyranitar, as well as potentially angering a legendary bird, to remove it. She hadn't seen articuno, but its presence was clear. InterPol was understandably hesitant to infringe in its territory. Supposedly they were going to send a representative to investigate it, but when Victoria had no idea. The Indigo League was steadfastly resisting InterPol sending a team of agents into the Mountains for unknown reasons too, because for some reason InterPol saw fit to suppress all evidence and information on Ultra Beasts.
So all the League knew was that InterPol wanted to send high-level trainers into the mountains, with no explanation as to why. Yeah, that was sure to go over well.
Unfortunately this tied Victoria's hands because her dad Samson, Samuel, and herself could all face major legal repercussions if she revealed the ultra-beasts to the Leagues. It was an absolute political and bureaucratic nightmare, one she was ill-equipped to deal with.
Those thoughts can be dealt with later, with the help of Dad and Samuel. If anyone can convince InterPol that they're being idiots to hide ultra-beasts from the Leagues, it's those two. Victoria thought, General banking and letting out a shriek to announce his presence. Blackthorn had just come into view, the city of dragons alive and buzzing with human activity. A roar of a dragon answered General's call, and Victoria had to swat him to keep the ornery bird from challenging the beast.
"Not while we're riding you, idiot," she hissed, the great bird shaking his head and clacking his beak irritably. Victoria sighed and glanced over her shoulder at Leo.
Well, at least she could take care of the boy's ghost problem. This wasn't the last he'd seen of froslass, she was certain, but that, at least, she knew how to handle.
"What are ghosts?" Leo asked, and Victoria glanced up from her newspaper, peering over the edge of the dull greyish-beige paper. She had been expecting this question for a while now, so had an answer prepared.
That didn't stop her from folding her newspaper up and leaning forward, stalling for time while she collected her thoughts. Currently the two were sitting in the Blackthorn City pokémon center, Leo freshly showered and waiting while his pokémon underwent a checkup. He was stalling against calling the Professor on the center's video phones, and Victoria was preparing his alibi. She wanted to keep his foray into the Silver Mountains a secret from Samuel, and the only way to swing his lack of check-ins was if she convinced the old professor that Leo had been training with her.
This way, neither of them would get in trouble over letting Leo go off the beaten path. And if she was being honest, Victoria feared Samuel Oak's retribution far more than she did the League's. They rewarded successful bravery, after all. Even if it was foolish.
"Ghosts can be one of two things," Victoria said, refocusing her thoughts and toying with Duke, her tauros', pokeball. "Natural born ghosts are your typical ghost-types. They're hard to study and elusive, but act as much like pokémon as any other type – albeit with a mischievous streak a mile wide. Not much is really known about their origins, or how they multiply, but from what I've gathered it's almost a form of mitosis or…spawning. They just kinda…split," she explained, hoping she was using the correct word in "mitosis."
"And the other?" Leo asked, leaning forward and fixing her with an intense gaze. She met his brown eyes, rubbing her chin thoughtfully and eyeing him up and down.
"That's why they get the name 'ghosts,'" Victoria said, glancing around the pokecenter to make sure no one was listening to their conversation. It wasn't exactly classified information, but it wasn't well known either. "Because in ancient times they were thought to literally be the lost souls of the deceased. We've since confirmed thats not the case, but I mean, it's not wholly wrong either. My best guess as to what they are is that they're potential ghosts – ghost type spores, if you will – that come in contact with residual negative emotions created by people.
"Somehow these ghosts suck up the emotions and, rarely, they form a ghost that has the same memories as the ones who created them. Usually its formed from people who died with a lot of residual emotion. Regret, anger, hate – those are powerful emotions that tend to hang around. You're lucky you ran into a regret-based ghost. Hatred ghosts would have killed you without a second's thought, and are marked by the League to be exterminated the moment they're located. Still, they're rarer than you might believe, and, before you ask, no they're not the souls of people transformed into pokémon. I'm pretty sure, anyway. Most of the spiritual mediums and hex maniacs I've spoken to don't think so," She explained. Leo frowned, running a hand through his still damp brown hair.
"You sound like you speak from experience," he said. Victoria grinned, though it felt a little sharp even to herself. She felt she was uniquely qualified to help Leo here, but was surprised by his observation.
"I do. People think dark-types are the bane of ghosts, but the truth is normal types are an almost perfectly evolved natural counter. Completely immune to their most harmful attacks, impossible to be possessed, and second only to dark types in utilizing dark-type attacks; and because I am a normal type Master, I get called in to deal with ghosts a lot," she explained, leaning back in her chair.
"Never thought of it that way," Leo said, frowning thoughtfully. "…Do you think froslass is gone?"
"Not a chance. That thing's following you for sure. Probably won't leave until you complete its regret, whatever that is, or I chase it off. Might even join your team," Victoria said. Leo hummed and fell silent, idly picking at his fingernails. She studied him as he sat, carefully watching his expression and trying to judge his thoughts.
Her plan could have backfired spectacularly if Leo quit training because of this. She wanted to curb his irrational tendencies and teach him a lesson about danger, not scare him off of training entirely. And she wasn't a therapist! She couldn't imagine stumbling across a frozen woman when she was twelve, much less a skeleton when she was ten. But if he did quit, maybe that was meant to be then.
"I'm sorry," Leo said, breaking the quiet and looking up at Victoria. "I know it seems like I was kind of spitting in your face for ignoring your warnings and heading into the Silver Mountains, and I didn't mean to be disrespectful or anything,"
Victoria frowned at him, schooling her expression into a stern one. "Look, what you did was stupid and reckless, I won't deny that. But I'm not going to be hypocritical here and say that you shouldn't have done so. I let you go – heck, it's what I expected of you. And now that you've caught your newest teammate and seen whatever it is you needed to in those mountains, you won't go doing it again for a while, right?" she asked. Leo nodded, and Victoria continued before he had a chance to elaborate. "Then don't worry about it too much. Train your team up. Get some badges. Try not to let Professor Oak find out what we did, and we'll be fine. Then, when it's all said and done and you're old enough, you can apologize to him,"
"Are you not worried about the League's response if they found out?" Leo asked. Victoria shrugged.
"Not particularly. You'll get reprimanded, a slap on the wrist and maybe a temporary suspension of your license, but with how much flak the current Champion is getting for approving the Youngster Licenses I imagine they'd want to use you as a poster-boy instead. Something along the lines of 'see, there are kids who are capable of taking care of themselves!' Kind of a thing," she explained dismissively. She didn't hold the current Kanto and Johto champion in high regard, so she wouldn't put it past the man to try such a stunt to save his failing reputation.
Not to mention that Kanto in particular loved individuals who were both brave and skilled. He'd probably get an interview with a news company for his stunt, all painted in a good light, of course. Maybe. Politics made things tricky.
"Huh," Leo said eloquently, falling into silence. Then, after a moment, asked one more question. "What did you mean by 'see what I needed to see,' by the way?"
Victoria snorted. "Kid, if you just wanted a larvitar you would've researched where to find them more. There's a known group of tyranitar that live in the mountains west of Fuschia, and they're a lot tamer than the Silver Mountains. Maybe you found it poetic to go back to where it all started," she said, and Leo furrowed his brows in thought. After a few minutes of silence, Leo stewing over whatever it was that went on inside that little head of his, a voice came on over the intercom telling him that his pokémon were ready.
Victoria leaned back in her chair, looking up at the ceiling as he got up to go to the front desk. Once again, her thoughts turned to Professor Oak.
…the more she thought about it, the more she figured that he already knew about Leo's excursion. She was going to catch hell for this, wasn't she?
Professor Oak was furious. He originally hadn't wanted to believe that Leo had ignored his warnings and gone running off into the Silver Mountains again – he was smart, after all, despite everything. But all that intelligence did nothing for his wisdom, apparently, because he had gone right off into the Silver Mountains not but three weeks into his journey. And Oak didn't even learn of that until a month later! Not to mention that Victoria had decided that such a course of action was perfectly acceptable and had followed him into the mountains!
He had half a mind to go after them and drag Leo back kicking and screaming. But he didn't. Because it wasn't that Leo had gone into the Silver Mountains that angered him – no, if the boy had proved anything it was that he was more than capable of surviving in the wilderness. That was especially highlighted by the fact that he spent most of his time at the ranch interacting with wild pokémon and honing his skills. Ditching school had been an issue, but…with how often he self-studied, and how easily he passed the typical trainer tests Oak had given him, he really couldn't hold it against Leo. He, himself, never even graduated from a research institute – it was the knowledge, rather than the institution, that was important in Oak's opinion. And even if Leo's knowledge was spotty at times, and non-existent in certain areas, he still learned enough.
That didn't stop him from giving Leo much harder tests, though. And eventually Oak found a difficulty that seemed to stump Leo, learning that, unfortunately, he didn't seem to have an interest in becoming a researcher. A pity, too. He was good enough with pokémon.
What really angered Oak about the situation was that Leo clearly did not think it through how successfully surviving in the Silver Mountains as a Youngster would appear to the public – or, Mew forbid, how it would look if he captured and could successfully control a larvitar. The League would use it as an opportunity to legitimize the Youngster License. That Victoria didn't realize the issue with this fact only served to infuriate Oak further – this wasn't Alola. The Islands were notoriously friendly, people and pokémon alike. Plus, the islands were relatively small. It was never too far to get to a city or town – help was never far away, except on Poni Island.
Kanto, on the other hand, was not. Culturally, socially, environmentally; even the pokémon were more aggressive and dangerous here than in Alola. Kanto children were not equipped enough to deal with the dangers of the world, and could easily get lost. They wouldn't be ready until they were thirteen to fourteen, at least. Oak would know. He had started his journey at twelve, after all, and Leo even seemed to agree with him, thinking himself the exception. Which, admittedly, he was. But just because his mind was older than his body didn't give Leo a free pass; because as far as the Leagues were concerned he was twelve.
It had been a bit of a surprise when Merri took Oak to the side and told him about Leo's true age, in those first few months of the boy being under his wing, but truth be told it hadn't been a shock. He'd started to suspect something was up with Leo in those months – sometimes what he said and did didn't match up with his physical age; Leo was many things, but an actor wasn't one of them. You can only act like a child so well, after all. It wasn't unthinkable either – Oak himself knew that time was nothing if not relative to legendary pokemon, his own experiences with celebi attested to that. Some sort of strange time-reversal on Leo's body wasn't unthinkable. This age, however, only helped to further Oak's anger at Leo. He expected more. More forethought, more patience, more awareness.
Added to this was that Vitoria discovered evidence of ultra-beasts in the Mountains – but that was a whole 'nother headache to deal with. He had left the Champion seat behind partly because of the inherent bureaucracy of the League – he despised the mind games and politicking involved. It prevented anything from getting done, like InterPol from moving in to ensure the breach was closed (it was, Oak and Merri had teleported nearby with the appropriate scanning equipment, courtesy of his cousin Samson, and found no energy leaks save from what radiated from the nevermeltice glacier – and wasn't that a sight! He'd never seen one that large.)
Legendaries – it was a wonder anyone got anything done in the League.
But as time passed and weeks turned into months, the Professor found his anger cooling off. Technically speaking Leo was still young in this world, and politics and culture were difficult to understand even for natives. Who's to say he didn't just think he'd be punished for going off-route? Kanto people rewarded bravery, and Johto honored tradition. Leo's route through the mountains honored both of those things – honoring the sacred journey, and bravely entering the mountains (even if it was foolish.) If anything, this meant his actions might be subject to public punishment, but a private reward. The Indigo League liked to snatch up promising young trainers early, after all.
Oak wasn't going to allow that to happen to Leo, not without giving him a choice. ACE wasn't a good place for him – for all his wits, if not wisdom, Leo was no soldier. All Oak had to do was be prepared for when Leo exited the mountains, and catch him before he caught the League's eye.
In the meantime though, he had research to do and a Gym Leader to keep an eye on. The more he watched Giovanni, the more Leo's claim that he was a crime boss started to make sense. The theory was there, he just needed evidence.
Merri teleported Oak to Blackthorn with a flex of her psychic powers, and the world shifted. A few hours ago he'd received a notification from Leo's trainer's registration that he'd checked into the Blackthorn Pokemon Center – a privilege he got from being Leo's registered guardian. And lo and behold, he had a third teammate; it was pure luck Oak caught it in time. He barely managed to stop the system from sending a notice to the League that a larvitar, a potential pseudo-legendary, was in the possession of a Youngster. As Kanto's premier Pokemon Professor, he had the right to hide certain facets of data from the League – he dealt with a lot of sensitive information after all, including diagnostic checks on official Elite teams.
Agatha trusted nobody else to ensure her team was hale and healthy, despite his and her…antagonistic relationship. It actually warmed Oak's heart a bit to think about, in a weird sort of way.
Oak blinked his eyes as Blackthorn City came into view, the darkness on the edges of his vision receding along with the disorientation that came with long-distance teleporting. A psychic force kept him from stumbling, pressing against his chest like a firm hand, and he nodded to Merri. The Alakazam just smiled serenely at him, glancing at the city around them with obvious distaste.
"No matter how many times we do that, I still can't get used to teleporting," Oak said, shaking his head. Merri made a small noise of amusement, briefly touching her mind to his to tell him where Leo and Victoria were, before recalling herself into her pokeball. He smiled and patted his side, where most of his old team sat in their respective balls, before schooling his features and marching off in the direction Merri had pointed him.
He didn't really notice the way the people of Blackthorn side-eyed him as he walked, each stride purposeful and confident, nor how they carefully moved out of his way, parting as if the sea before a gyarados. Nor did he pay much mind to the two gym trainers, marked by the gym uniforms they wore proudly, who watched him closely as he worked his way into the city. He chalked that up to them recognizing him, but that wasn't quite the truth.
This was Blackthorn. The people here were accustomed to old dragons intent on making their displeasure known.
It took only a few minutes for Oak to find Leo and Victoria, the sun having set but an hour ago and the two sitting on the patio of a casual-looking café, illuminated by the hanging lanterns Johtoans seemed to prefer. The smell of coffee and pastries wafted through the air, and Oak narrowed his eyes at the duo. Leo's back was facing him, the boy's long, messy brown hair poofing out at odd angles. Victoria sat beside him, voraciously tearing into the remains of a meal.
Oak frowned, and Leo visibly stiffened, slowly turning around in his seat, eyes scanning the crowd until he finally spotted the quickly approaching Professor. He took an almost sadistic satisfaction at the way Leo's eyes widened and color drained from his face, food forgotten as he turned and nudged Victoria, her own expression mirroring Leo's when she, too spotted him.
All it took was a deepening of the frown that he currently sported for Victoria to curb her immediate urge to flee, the woman stilling from where she had started to stand, slowly sinking back into her chair with an expression of defeat.
Good. Oak thought. They should be afraid.
"Lovely weather for a meal outside, isn't it?" Oak asked coolly as he vaulted the low, wrought-iron fence surrounding the café patio, sliding into a chair next to Leo, facing Victoria, with the smooth grace of a practiced gentleman.
"Yeah," Leo answered, voice surprisingly steady.
"What are you doing here, Professor?" Victoria asked, sounding much more nervous. His eyes narrowed imperceptibly, irritation welling up inside him. Wasn't she a Master? Didn't she know how to hide her emotions better?
"I believe the answer to that is obvious, Victoria," Oak said. Victoria swallowed thickly, and Leo sighed in resignation, slumping in his chair. Did you really think I wouldn't notice? Oak thought idly, staring dead at Victoria. I am not some tottering old fool.
"Sorry," Leo said, at least sounding sincere.
"You should be," Oak snapped. He had intended to let the game play out, see what excuses they would make and let Victoria dig herself and Leo into a hole, if they wanted to play the fool, but that admission let all his frustration come out. "Do you even realize why I didn't want you to go into those mountains? Hmm? Did you even stop and consider that maybe it wasn't because I didn't think you capable? That maybe it was because I didn't want you to start another wave of foolish children from jumping off into the wild unprepared?" he snapped, and Leo's eyes grew wide.
"I, uh," he stammered.
"Be quiet. You I can potentially excuse due to ignorance. You're absolutely smart enough to be able to understand the politics of Kanto and Johto though, so don't think you're off the hook. Ignorance is one thing, but willful ignorance is another. And Victoria? I expected more out of you. Did you stop to think why I was holding him back? Hmm?" Oak asked, waiting expectantly for Victoria to answer.
"Uh, because he's too young?" Victoria asked hesitantly. "But I told you, Alola –"
"This isn't Alola." Oak said bluntly. "This is Kanto. Dragonite do not gorge themselves on berries to become fat, friendly dragons. Here, the dragons rule the skies and seas and help only when they deem fit. Here, tyranitar do not sleep beneath the earth, only emerging once every half century on Mount Lanakila. They are tyrants. They roam the mountains, fight, rage, and destroy. This is the region snorlax are feared, not played upon like overgrown jungle gyms. This is the region muk are toxic, not recycling machines. And this is most certainly not the region where the Elites are friendly as your Kahunas,"
Victoria leaned back in her chair, her rattled expression morphing into a frown.
"I know that," she said.
"Do you?" Oak snapped.
"Yes!" She snapped back. "I do! And it's not like the pokémon in Kanto are more aggressive without reason – you Kantoans treat them more like Domestics than anything! They're perfectly reasonable creatures whenever you treat them with respect!"
"You are right about that. It's not the team that gets everyone killed or hurt, it's the trainer," Oak agreed, nodding. "Which is why I'm not angry about you going into the Silver Mountains because they're dangerous. I'm angry because you might just start another wave of Youngsters, this time with no excuse not to go in the most dangerous region of Kanto and Johto." That shut Victoria up for a moment, but if the frown on her face was anything to go by she was more than ready to keep arguing.
Oak was prepared to let her, until Leo spoke up.
"He's right, I think," he said, rubbing his face. "I did this without really understanding my position, or the politics of Kanto. I thought I did, but I didn't. I'm sorry. Got tunnel vision, I guess,"
Oak leaned back in his chair, idly noticing that they'd attracted a bit of attention from the other customers. But he found himself not caring much. This was important to get out now, rather than wait until later and let it lose its weight.
"I believe you are. But would you do it again?" he asked, meeting Leo's eyes. The boy nodded immediately, and Oak just wanted to throw his hands up into the air in exasperation. Had he not been listening?! "Why?! Were you not listening?"
"Do you really think I just went into those mountains for a larvitar?" Leo countered, and Oak hesitated. He can't say he'd really thought much about Leo's reasons. "I hadn't even thought about it much myself until Victoria said something to me earlier. Just had one goal in mind, y'know? Find a larvitar. Get Tyrus to let me take a larvitar, more precisely. But I just…had something to prove, I guess,"
"To who?" Victoria asked, furrowing her brows. Oak pressed his lips into a thin line, guessing where this was going and hating that he understood what he was about to say.
"Me. Who else would I be proving something to? You? The world? Nah, I needed to let myself know that I still had it. That my skills weren't just a fluke, that what I learned in the mountains wasn't just pity taken on a stranded child. That I still had my drive," Leo said, meeting Oak's eyes.
He understood – he didn't agree with it, but he understood – the need to test one's self. To prove that something, his survival in the Mountains in this case, wasn't a fluke or due to a legendary's influence. He'd gone through much the same thing after meeting celebi when he was a kid. So he didn't argue, instead he closed his eyes and sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose and trying to fight off his impending headache.
The conversation lapsed into silence from here. Leo asked a few questions; how much trouble was he in, would he expect anything from the League, that kind of stuff. Oak had waved it off for the most part – the League wouldn't find out what Leo did for a while, nor would InterPol discover his presence at the ultra-beast site. But the personal punishment, which would come from Oak, had yet to be decided. It would probably involve lectures, which seemed to be the one thing Leo actively despised.
They had a few more days before Oak had to be back at the lab for any serious length of time anyway – Gary was under the care of his sister, who was taking a break from journeying for the last few months of the League Season. This gave the professor plenty of time to come up with a suitable punishment, even if he couldn't force Leo to come back to the lab.
The next day Leo sat in a training field just outside of the city, his team released before him and stretching in the early-morning light. A cool mountain breeze rustled the pine trees and low oaky bushes, setting Leo's hair to stand on end as he enjoyed the morning. Despite feeling guilty for…well, everything, he had still managed to get a decent night's sleep. The Center beds were anything but comfortable, but it was nice to have a real mattress again.
"Slooow," Santiago crooned, butting his head against Leo's leg impatiently.
"You're riled up today, aren't you?" Leo asked, amused. Santiago growled lightly, rubbing his forehead against Leo's shin. "Yes, yes, we'll get started. Unless that's not what you want, huh?" he asked, bending down to rub Santiago's head affectionately. Zuko squeaked, darting forward and forcing his head under Leo's other hand, so he would start petting him too. Not to be left out, and because she was still curious as to what head-scratches felt like (they were kind of hard to feel through the Larvitar's rocky carapace), Diana ambled forward and proceeded to gently headbutt Leo in the gut, knocking him over.
Leo laughed and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, the little rock-type squirming under his grip.
"You little monster, you," he laughed, freeing her and letting her stumble away. "It's a good thing you were gentle there, that would've hurt quite a bit otherwise," he admonished, but Diana just tilted her head to the side and got distracted, ambling over to a rock lying on the ground. Leo ignored the crunching that followed, and set to work instructing Zuko and Santiago on their training regimen today.
With a clean bill of health from the Center and a good while ahead of them in civilization, Leo figured it was time to kick things up a notch. So he'd start the day with a spar between Zuko and Santiago, and spend some time with Diana. Santiago would try to hit Zuko, though using confusion didn't count because the Slowpoke couldn't quite control it yet, and Zuko would either dodge or intercept the attack with one of his own. It'd get everyone all nice and warmed up.
Once that was started he moved over to Diana, still chewing on her rock, and promptly started to go through his own martial arts movements. She watched him for a while, then stood and began to copy once she got her curiosity up. Leo grinned at her, stopping to gently correct her stance, basically just widening her feet, and adjusted his movements so that she could follow.
Occasionally he would call out a name for the stance, or strike, so that she could start associating the words with the movements. That would, hopefully, mean she could use this in a battle. If it was even remotely feasible. Leo hoped it was. A tyranitar that knew martial arts sounded awesome, even if they did have relatively short arms.
It was a pleasant morning, despite the grunts and growls and hisses of steam from fire meeting water in the background, with spearow flitting through the trees and the occasional bug-type visible in the dense pines that surrounded the training ground. Leo sighed and continued his motions, trying his hardest to not let his mind wander. It would do no good to overthink what Professor Oak had said last night; it was either learn more about the culture, customs, and politics of the Indigo League, or keep making mistakes. It was that simple.
"They're looking good. Got a nice team going, here," a familiar voice said from behind him, startling Leo.
"Professor! You're back early. I thought you would still be at the lab," Leo said, turning to greet him. Professor Oak had on casual clothes today, a tight t-shirt and jeans, and had a small smile on his face. It was a sharp contrast to the disappointed frown from last night, Leo noted.
"Gary's at school and the aides are taking care of the pokémon. I don't need to micromanage everything, you know," Oak said with a chuckle. "Teaching martial arts to your Larvitar though? That's certainly…interesting," he said, tone clearly telling Leo of his doubts.
"She started copying me in my morning routine – who am I to stop her? Besides, it could be interesting," he said, glancing at his newest capture and nodding to himself in satisfaction. Even though he had stopped moving, she was still going, attempting to spin in a circle in a way as similar to Leo as she could. He refrained from helping her, though. She needed to figure some of it out by herself, there was only so much he could do for her as their bodies were so different. Instruction was ok, micromanagement was not.
"I see. Well, I was hoping we could chat for a bit. It's been a while after all," he said, and Leo winced.
"Sorry," he said. Before he could continue, apologizing for taking advantage of Oak's kindness and all that, Oak waved his hand dismissively.
"It's the life of a trainer. Sometimes you just need to disappear for a while," he said. "Tell me about your trip, I'm interested to hear about it,"
Leo hesitated for a moment, then grimaced. He'd forgotten to tell the Professor about Longinus last night – mostly because he had left for Pallet right after chewing both him and Victoria out, promising to be back in the morning. Though, honestly, there was a lot to tell.
"I mean, Victoria already told you about the ultra-beast, right? Said that there won't be any action to remove the beasts so long as they remain encased in ice," Leo mused, scratching his chin and putting the topic of Longinus off.
"Yes," Professor Oak said, sitting down on the grass and watching Leo's team train. He followed suit, the dew-covered grass immediately soaking through his pants as his eyes roved over Diana, then moved to the blur that was Zuko and the pink tank of a slowpoke charging after him with all the grace of an angry Tauros.
"Well, then I'll tell you about froslass and articuno first," Leo said, grinning when the professor's head whipped toward him in surprise. And, for the next hour or so, Leo regaled the Professor with stories of the Silver Mountains, telling him of what it was like meeting articuno, of froslass' annoyingly mischievous behavior, of all the species he saw and of froslass' origins, and more. About halfway through his stories Leo had gone to his pack, lying on the edge of the training field, and retrieved both his pokedex and Longinus' gem. The former so Oak could review some of the scans, the gem for the conversation he'd been avoiding for a while now.
Why was it that Leo was always the one telling Oak someone he knew had died?
"I'll want to copy this data and examine it further at the lab," Oak said, scrolling through a few of the pictures Leo had taken. Santiago currently lay in a heap next to the older man, Zuko laying across Leo's legs, panting, the two having tired themselves out with their training session. "I don't think the scanner worked as well as I would've liked, especially in scanning articuno, but it's probably more hard data we've gotten on the legendary than has been discovered in the past century. That's not even mentioning all the scans you did of froslass – I am honestly shocked by how many rare pokémon you ran into this trip. Either your luck is terrible, or amazing," Oak said, shaking his head.
Leo smiled thinly, stroking Zuko's warm fur, careful to keep his hands away from the red dots on his head and rump, lest the Quilava have a sudden flare-up, and figured now was a good a time as any.
"Sure. There is one more thing though," he said. "Longinus is dead,"
"Hmm?" Oak said, looking up. Leo presented Longinus' gem to him, the little pink gem resting softly in his palm.
"He, uh, gave his crown to Queen after battling the ultra-beast. You know, the slowpoke who helped me so much before. She's the one who evolved, but he did separate his gem from his crown. Articuno froze his body, that's the mound of rocks you see in some of the pictures," Leo explained as Oak reached out and took the gem from him.
He examined it for a while, expression unreadable, before handing it back to Leo.
"You keep it. A psychic focus like that will come in handy for training Santiago, or any other psychic you happen to catch," he said, meeting Leo's eyes with a sort of sad/amused smile. "Don't give me that look, he's been gone for nearly forty years now. I can hardly remember what his voice sounded like, and I already grieved Longinus once. I've done enough mourning to last a lifetime." Oak said, and Leo nodded silently. The silence lasted for a moment more before the Professor stood, stretching and groaning like an old man.
"Speaking of, you should probably focus on resolving your little froslass problem. Since you accepted the responsibility of resolving her regrets, you need to see it through as quick as possible. These types of ghosts won't let you rest until you get it done," he said sternly.
"Was planning on it, so long as you didn't forbid me from travelling anymore or anything," Leo said. "Can't say I'd blame you for it,"
"Mm. I still have to decide on a suitable punishment – the problem is I can't exactly ground you from television. You'd probably like that," Oak said, and Leo chuckled. He would. Surprisingly enough, Leo felt like he didn't miss television or the internet. There was an entire, crazy world to explore here. It was more than entertaining enough. "Any idea where you're going to start? A burning tower…can't say anything comes to mind. Lavender, maybe?" he mused.
"Froslass pointed towards Johto, so I'm betting it's somewhere in the region. Was thinking either the Sprout Tower in Violet City – I've heard that's burned down once or twice – or Ecruteak," Leo reasoned. "I'll have to see if there are any other sites where towers burned. Who knows, maybe I'm interpreting the vision all wrong anyway,"
"Maybe," Oak said, rubbing his chin. "Good places to start though. Should even be able to get your first badge if you go to Violet first. Falkner is notoriously easy on rookies, though. Shouldn't be much of a problem for your current team – the first badge is generally achieved within the first three months of training,"
"Huh," Leo said, standing and recalling most of his team. Diana was left out, mostly so he could continue bonding with her. She was truly a joy to be around, and incredibly amusing. She tried to eat a bench earlier, but disliked the taste of steel and had proceeded to rub her mouth in the dirt with a disgusted expression. 'Twas priceless.
"In the meantime, we have some lessons to get through," Oak said, grinning.
"Lessons?" Leo asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Lessons. Merri just gave me a great idea, and even agreed to help me. For the next few days, I'll be educating you on the politics of the Indigo League – and you have no right to complain." Oak said, and Leo groaned. Yes, he did agree that he needed to understand this part of the world more, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
Plus, learning from Oak meant lectures. Leo hated lectures. They didn't work for him, and more often than not, he found his attention…drifting. Focusing on things he didn't like was hard.
"Let's get this over with," Leo grumbled, rubbing his face.
"That's the spirit! Let's start with the general legislative structure surrounding the Gym system," he said, and Leo forced an attentive look on his face, inwardly lamenting and praying that there wouldn't be a test. And he prayed that this punishment would not last too long.