"This will be a two on two battle; the first side to have all their Pokémon knocked out will lose." The referee
"I chose Ralts!" Iriana called.
"Come on out Vulpix!" Harry said, laughing when the Fire-type jumped up and started to lick his face.
"Roselia and Sunflora, I choose you!" Trema threw the Pokeballs. The first was a small Pokémon with a light green body, a leaf skirt and holds a rose on each of its hands, a red one in its right and a blue one in its left. It had leaves extending from its shoulders like epaulettes, and a pointed streak of yellow extends from its neck down the forefront of its leaf skirt. Visible from the back is a small stretch of yellow coloration around its neck much like a collar. It also had three thorns on top of its head. Harry's Pokedex said: Roselia, the Thorn Pokémon. Roselia's aroma can bring serenity, but the thorns on its head contain a vicious poison.
The second Pokémon that reminded Harry of a sunflower. Every part of the Pokémon's body but its head is colored green, with its face being cream-colored. Its head is circular and sports sunflower-like yellow petals from the sides, although the back of its head is cream-colored. It had leaves extending like arms from its round body, and two toes on each foot. Sunflora, the Sun Pokémon. This smiling Pokémon loves the sun, but it also needs plenty of water to ensure healthy development.
"Sunflora use Razor Leaf! Roselia use Poison Sting!" Trema started the battle quickly.
"Dodge and use Flamethrower Vulpix!" The Fox Pokémon nimbly dodged the leaves before firing a stream of fire straight at Sunflora, hitting it directly.
"Flora…" It said, standing up with resolve.
"Use Teleport, then Confusion on Roselia!" Iriana said, watching the needles fly towards her Pokémon. Ralts vanished in a flash of light, reappearing right behind Roselia, who started to glow and float.
"Ral!" Ralts yelled, throwing the Grass/Poison type at Sunflora, knocking them both down. Roselia was knocked out, but Sunflora was still standing.
"Nice try kids. Sunflora, use Solar Beam!" The Sun Pokémon's head started to glow like the sun, gathering energy.
"Uh oh…" Iriana murmured. "Together?"
"Together." Harry agreed. "Vulpix, use Fire Spin!" The Fire-type jumped up into the air and started spinning, flames coating its fur.
"Ralts, use Confusion on Vulpix, prepare to fire it at Sunflora!" Using its psychic powers, Ralts held up the fireball that Vulpix now was.
As one, the three Trainers yelled, "Fire!" A powerful beam of light shot from Sunflora straight at Vulpix who had been tossed and was still being encased in Ralts power. It looked like a tie between the Pokémon.
"Come on Ralts, give it a little more. I know you can do it!" Iriana cheered for her Pokémon. Ralts nodded and glowed brighter, sending Vulpix at the Grass-type, knocking it out.
"Harry and Iriana are the winners!" The referee said.
"We did…huh?" Both teens paused to watch Ralts, who was still glowing and getting brighter. The light started to change shape before vanishing all together.
"Kirlia…" The new Pokémon said, looking at her form. She now had a white body and looks as if it was wearing a tutu. She has skinny, green legs, and her hair now had bangs that reach down to her shoulders and the two red horns that looked like hair pins. Harry brought out his Pokedex: Kirlia, the Emotion Pokémon. Kirlia is able to sense the feelings of its Trainer, and when it becomes happy, it will start to dance. Ecstatic, Iriana gathered up Kirlia.
"You evolved! This is so cool!" Kirlia started giggling at her Trainer's antics, jumping down and dancing just like a professional ballerina.
"Congratulations Iriana, and you, Harry, for beating me." Trema said, smiling as she watched the teens. "I now present you with the Earth Badge, proof that you beat me." She handed the two the leaf-shaped badges. "I heard earlier that the roads to Ventus are open, you should head there next."
"We will, and thank you for everything." Harry said gratefully, returning Vulpix while Iriana returned Kirlia.
"Thank you Harry for the battle and your beautiful floral ideas." Trema said, kissing Harry's forehead. The teen started blushing like crazy, causing the audience to laugh.
"We…uh…gotta go…let's go Iriana!" Harry called, already running out of the city.
"I swear he blushes at everything!" Iriana said, laughing as she chased down her friend.
"Alright, and thank you for telling me this." Giovanni said, hanging up the phone. "Samuel, I have great news. Harry just beat Trema in Terra and is now on his way to Ventus."
"That's incredible news!" Oak said happily. "I knew he'd make a great Trainer."
"There's more, apparently the boy has a knack for plants, he's created several arrangements that are flying off the shelves." Giovanni laughed lightly. "At this rate, Harry will be richer than me!"
"That would be something to see, we should set up something for all of his profits." Oak murmured thoughtfully.
"Already done. I can't wait to see what he does next; he always manages to surprise me." The Rocket Head said, petting Persian.
Harry and Iriana continued to walk down the sandy road, still happy from their recent victory against Trema.
"At this rate, we'll be able to enter the League in a few months, give or take." Iriana noted, smiling happily.
Harry nodded, "Though, we should slow down a bit, we've been pushing the Pokémon quite a bit. A few days off from battling would do them and us some good."
"You're right, so what should we do?"
The emerald-eyed teen thought for a second, "Well...is there anything interesting nearby we could visit? A special park or something?"
The two Trainers stopped walking and sat down on some boulders near the road. While Harry closed his eyes and enjoyed the cool breeze blowing through the trees, Iriana was digging through her pack. "Ah ha! Found it." She held up a small book, Harry looked over and read the title as she flipped through it 'A novice's guide to Omnera: Everything you need to know, plus stuff you don't!' "Let's see…there's a ranch nearby dedicated to Pokémon…run by a dude named Mr. Breeder." Iriana summed out loud. "He's related to the Pokémon expert, Mr. Pokémon, cousins or something…"
"What kind of ranch is this place?" Harry questioned.
"It says it's all about Breeding unusual Pokémon and releasing them but won't say anything else." Iriana snapped the book shut and put it away.
"It sounds interesting, how far away is it?"
The black-haired girl stood up, "We follow this road to a fork. Forward leads to Ventus, while Mr. Breeder's Ranch is along the road to the right, about half a mile."
Harry grinned, "What are we standing around here for? Let's go!"
The two jogged nearly the whole way, enjoying the bright day. They didn't even get sweaty because of the constant cool breeze. Within twenty minutes, they were standing at the gates of the ranch. It reminded Harry a lot of Professor Oak's lab and the pastures surrounding it, but instead of a high-tech lab, a more traditional ranch-style building greeted their gazes. The Pokémon in the pastures caught their attention as well.
"Those Pokémon look kinda….strange." Harry thought out loud. "Not in a bad way, but kinda like Vulpix or Magikarp. And there are some Pokémon that seem out of place from the others, wonder why?"
"Oh! All of them are Shiny Pokémon." Iriana realized. The two of them shared a bewildered look. "Does that mean that this dude is responsible for breeding every Shiny Pokémon in the world?"
"Looks like it. Come on, we can asks him in person." Harry took off down the gravel pathway, Iriana at his side.
Rapping twice on the door, the two began to snicker at the frantic 'Hold on, I'm coming, nearly there!' and the door opened. A man dressed a lot like a Cowboy in his late forties answered the door. With him having lots of laughter lines around his eyes and a kind smile, he reminded the two teens of a favorite Uncle-type figure. Though at the moment, the man was panting slightly, and the sounds of multiple crying could be heard in the background. "Hello, what can I do for you kids? I'm Mr. Breeder."
"Hello sir, we just wanted to ask you a few questions, but it seems like you're busy…" Iriana trailed off as the crying steadily grew in volume.
Mr. Breeder gave a wry though tired smile, "Little lady, you don't know the half of it. Several Pokémon just recently hatched, all at once. It's been hectic around here, and I'm the only human here."
Feeling sorry for the man, the teens shared a quick look, then Harry stepped forward, "Mr. Breeder, we'd like to help out. I've got a baby Pokémon myself, so we both know the basics. You can tell us what you want us to do."
The Ranch Head eyes lit up with hope, "You kids would do that for me? But what about your journey? I take it you two are Trainers."
Iriana just grinned and answered, "We both decided for a break from that, and what better way to spend it than helping cute baby Pokémon?"
Unable to deny their request (and sorely needing the help), Mr. Breeder led the two inside. The room that they entered was the living room, the décor matching the ranch theme. The man led them to the next room, which was apparently the nursery. If they couldn't tell from the baby things around and decorating the room, then the dozen or so cradles with crying newborn Pokémon did. While his companions only heard their cries, Harry heard so much more.
"Hungry!" "I wanna play!" "Scared!" "Sleepy, want nap!" Were just a few things he heard in the dull roar of the room. He turned to the frantic Mr. Breeder to the expectant Iriana. "Okay, this one here, wants to play, same as those two." Harry started pointing to the babies as he listed off. "Those four are all hungry, these two are scared of all the noise, and the rest just want to take a nap, but can't with all the crying. I can calm the two scared ones."
"I'll play with these three." Iriana gathered the mentioned Pokémon in her arms as she said this and went to a corner with toys.
"Mr. Breeder, can you feed the four others?"
Not questioning the youth and not wanting to question a miracle (though he would later) Mr. Breeder nodded and set about getting formula ready. For the next several hours all that could be found in the nursery was three humans taking care of all the babies, from feeding to napping to playing to just keeping them out of trouble, they were never so happy as when they all settled down for a (hopefully) long nap. Tip-toeing out into the living room, Mr. Breeder quietly left and returned with some drinks.
"I don't know how to thank you kids enough, it would have taken me forever to figure out what they all wanted and given it to them."
Iriana laughed, "Thank Harry and his gift of Poke-speech!"
Said teen just raised an eyebrow, "'Poke-speech?' Really? That's the best you can come up with?"
"Oh be quiet, I'm still working on it."
Mr. Breeder just laughed, "I don't care if you can turn into a Pokémon, I'd still be grateful. You really know your stuff kid, Harry I guess your name is."
Harry blushed, "Whoops, we forgot to introduce ourselves. Yeah, I'm Harry and this is Iriana. Anyway, I just got a baby Pokémon not too long ago." He tossed out Vulpix's Pokeball, the little fox happily cuddling up to her 'Pops'.
"My, was a beautiful Pokémon. I've never seen one with that coloring before, and I breed Shinies!" Mr. Breeder breathed in awe. "May I?" He asked, gesturing to the Fire-type. Nodding, Harry handed over the curious Pokémon, who is gently prodded and tickled by the human, who was checking everything out. "She's as healthy and happy as any Pokémon I've seen, you've done a fantastic job Harry."
Finishing off her drink, Iriana asked, "Do you need us to stay for awhile sir to help out? We'd be more than happy to."
Mr. Breeder shook his head, "That won't be necessary. The reason it was so hectic today was because they had all hatched at the same time and I couldn't keep up. But now that things have calmed down, it'll get back to normal."
"I'm glad to hear that Mr. Breeder." Harry said with a grin. "Well, I guess we should get out of your hair."
The cowboy nodded, "Yeah, you two need to get back on your Journey, still, I wish there was something I could do for you two for all your help. How'd you like to catch one of the Shinies around here? I'd know for sure that they were going to Trainers that would treat them the way they deserve to be treated."
Iriana shook her head, "While I like taking care of the babies, I'm not ready for my own just yet."
"I'll do it, and I know Vulpix would love a new playmate." Harry grinned. He jumps slightly though, when he feels something nudge his leg. Looking down, he sees a mostly teal Pokémon with a cream colored belly. A yellow stripe ran down the length of its back and tail, and it had yellow markings around its large eyes. Yellow, curved structures protruded from its shoulders and bent backwards. While it largely resembled a snake, it had developed limbs; its arms were the same teal as its body and had three fingers, while its tiny feet had no digits whatsoever. At the end of its tail was a large palmate leaf with three prongs at the end. Harry brought out his Pokedex: Snivy, the Grass Snake Pokémon. It is very intelligent and calm. Being exposed to lots of sunlight makes its movements swifter.
"That Snivy is one of the quietest in its group that hatched a while ago and he seemed to take a liking to you pretty good. He's also one of the Pokémon from the Unova region a ways away. Not many of them Pokémon are around here." Mr. Breeder noted a grin on his face.
"Want to come with me?" Harry asked softly. The little Pokémon nodded happily, cuddling up to the Trainer. Smiling happily, Harry pressed a Pokeball to him and captured Snivy.
"I know he'll have a happy home with you Harry. I look forward to seeing you in the League soon." Mr. Breeder clapped Harry and Iriana on the back. Gathering their things, the two teens wave their good-bye to the Ranch Head and continue down the road, excited about what would happen next.