Route 7
Route 7 was parallel to a river, which therefor brought out a bunch of water type Pokémon. Not only that, but there were flowers and tall grass growing everywhere so plenty of wild Pokémon ran amok.
"Ducklett. Ducklett. Let, let." The water-flying type sat in front of them, quacking loudly, not allowing for them to pass. There were twelve of them, just sitting in the middle of the path. Every time Everest and Damien tried to move further on the route, one of them sent a water gun shooting at them.
"Dudes, if you don't cut it out, I'm going to send one of my Pokémon after you. And, I don't think you'll like it." Damien threatened. It wasn't a very convincing threat, considering the sheer number of them sitting in the road. Sure, Everest had no doubt that she could beat them, but there were so many, they could easily over power the two trainers.
"Lett, lett, lett." One squawked back, flapping its wings before pecking at the ground. They were far from imposing, but, they didn't want to try and mess with them either.
"What do we do?" As they spoke, another Ducklett flew in, landing only a few feet from Damien. "I think they like you."
"They like you way more, Everest." Drac sat on Damien's shoulder obediently, only really because earlier he did in fact try and get past the flock, and got six water guns to the face. He wasn't happy, so he pouted, hiding behind Damien. "We could go back to the house we passed earlier. Maybe they've come across these guys."
Walking away from the flock of Ducklett, Everest couldn't help but note that they were walking away from their final goal, undoing their progress. Sure, it would only ultimately be about a mile, but that was another mile that they could have made towards Cyllage City.
Beside her, Spencer growled lowly in her throat, at the moment she was a Furfrou, protectively walking beside Everest. Shawn sat on her shoulder, squeaking at Drac, luckily, it was in her bad ear, so she could turn off the aid.
"What do you think, about the Rockets? What are they even doing?" It was quiet, Everest kicked a rock lying in the path. Damien frowned at her question.
"In Kanto, their mission is supposedly to collect rare and powerful Pokémon. I would assume their Kalos branch would be similar. But, some of their moves don't make all that much sense. Why capture all those Pokémon from Dendemille, only to let them go again? They didn't even get that Beartic." Even just with Damien mentioning the Beartic, Everest could remember the ice in her veins.
"What could they even have gotten out of ruining Dendemille?" Distractedly, she looked down at her feet, kicking another rock. "We could skate to the house, make it faster." Clicking her heels, the skates rolled out. Damien copied her moves, before taking off.
**Everest**
"Welcome to the Route 7 Daycare, how can we help you today?" A man, maybe early 20's stood at the counter. He had a green and white uniform on, his name tag read 'Dwayne'. To the left of the desk he stood at, was a fenced in area, and a glass sliding door leading outside. Within the pen were a few pokémon, familiar and new to Everest.
"Um, what is it you do here?" Everest asked, it was kind of a strange building, there even was a transfer machine off to the side. The man laughed, and pointed to the gate where a Tranquil, a Swanna, and some other flying type was.
"We help you and your pokémon get stronger, if you don't have the time to. The longer you leave them with us, we will continue working with them to get them stronger, and sometimes they even learn new moves." Dwayne explained. "Now, would you like to leave some of your pokémon with us? We charge per week you leave them with us."
"Is it popular, for trainers to leave their pokémon with you?" She couldn't imagine leaving her pokémon in the hands of another person to train, it wouldn't feel like it was her accomplishment.
"Of course, especially in trainers who are busy with jobs, or have more than six pokémon, so they are able to train all at once." Everest exchanged a look with Damien, who shrugged.
"Well, not now, thank you. But, we were wondering, have you had troubles with a flock of Ducklett out on 7? We can't get past them." A look of understanding passed over him, and he dug in his pockets before producing a package of treats.
"Here, they've nested nearby, just give them some of these, and they'll leave you alone. Have a great day." Everest waved at him, after Damien took the treats.
"Thank you, you too." A thought came to mind, just as they were walking out the door, so she turned back. "Is this one of those centers, that helps trainers breed their pokémon? Helping raise pokémon eggs?"
"Oh, eggs aren't our specialty. We have specialists on hand to… ya know, help out learn… moves and stuff. We rarely handle eggs." Dwayne, faltered, loosing his composure. Something was off, and Everest grew uncomfortable.
"You're right, back in Unova, daycares usually helped trainers obtain eggs… how can you not produce pokémon eggs?" Damien and Everest turned to look at the pokémon within the gates.
"Here, we section off males and females, to prevent things like that happening. Now, unless you're planning on leaving your pokémon here, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Dwayne's voice grew steely, and the hair on the back of Everest's neck raised slightly, beside her, Spencer growled.
"But, only trainers are allowed to know their pokémon's gender… unless they all release that information to you… that's impossible." Trailing off, a very bad feeling settled in her stomach.
"Fuck it. Swanna, use Air Slash, Pidgeotto, Twister, and Tranquil use Razor Wind." All three flying types turned at once, and on instinct, she took a step back.
"Drac, use acrobatics." The Gligar flew out in front of the trainers, follows by Everest's own pokémon, including Shawn.
"Flamethrower, Quick Attack." It was an awful string of cries of attack after that, a jumbled mess. The building was tiny, and if they let any more pokémon out, they would only get in the way.
Shawn struck first, hitting Pidgeotto. Leaving himself open for an attack, she flinched when Tranquil's wings brightened, and sent an attack at not only Shawn, but hit Drac as well. Pidgiotto turned, and began mustering up the dragon type move.
"Are you trying to kill us all? Twister will trap us all in it!" Damien yelled over the wind as they were getting pulled into the wind tunnel." Dwayne grinned manically, and grabbed ahold of a steel bar attached to the desk. While still able to maneuver, Swanna began flapping their wings, Air Slash cutting through the air, straight for the trainers.
Spencer stood in front of them, growling lowly, and flames erupted, circling the flying types, including Drac. Everest could feel the heat on her face, and watched as Spencer's form turned back to her natural state, taller and intimidating. Tranquil fell to the floor, followed by Drac, so Damien recalled him.
The Twister continued to grow stronger, forcing both trainers to hang onto the door and window in order to not be sucked in. She couldn't hear anything over the roar of the wind, and Damien didn't haven enough time to reach down to his belt and pull out one of his other pokémon.
Shawn wasn't doing well, he was trying to jump at the two flying types, because he didn't have any long ranged moves, but he couldn't move quickly enough without getting burned. Spencer was doing everything she could to keep the stray moves from hitting the trainers, which kept her occupied. Everything seemed to be at a standstill, until, in a flash of purple and pink, Pidgiotto hit the ground hard. Repeatedly, like some invisible force was slamming the normal type every which way.
A bright light was overloading their senses, with the roar of the wind, and the different sensations from the moves being used, Everest stared wide-eyed at Shawn. His ears split completely where there were rips in his ears, down the middle, before growing twice as big, fanning straight out the sides. He grew at least a foot, and lost a lot of the fluffy fur around his neck. The tail lost fluff as well, before growing much longer, splitting in half as well.
Light dying down, her new pokémon's eyes flashed dangerously with a blue light, and Pidgiotto was encased in the pink-purple light, and thrown around like a rag doll, successfully stopping the twister, which was slowly dying down. This gave Spencer a chance to lunge at the Swanna, and hit it to the ground.
"Shit." Dwayne tried to run, moving fast towards the glass doors, but Shawn caught him easily, lifting him into the air, before putting him on the ground in front of Everest.
"Espee." Shawn cooed at her, rubbing up against her shins. Before she knew it, there was a loud metallic noise, and the fence tore apart, one of the rails bent around the man's torso, keeping him still.
"Wow Shawn! Nice job, you're amazing." Still shocked and in surprise, she bent down, petting the soft, pink fur.
"Ugh, you are those two nosey trainers, aren't you? The one the boss wants dead?" Dwayne's voice changed (if that even was his real name) an accent slipping in, one that Everest couldn't identify.
"Boss? Who do you work for?" Damien's question only earned them a string of laughter, and the man tore off his green and white apron, revealing a white polo, with a red R stitched on the chest.
"Who else?" Without looking at the guy again, Everest brought up her phone, looking for Howe's number.