Author's Note: So between posting chapter 12 and finishing the editing on chapter 13 I began to read Hard Enough by Viva01 (I know, wild for someone in this fandom right?) and just while wrapping up this chapter caught up all the way. But in my defense the reason why it took me so long to get this far in my own work is because between a divorce and then working while getting a master's degree I had been crazy busy the past three years. So I haven't had time to read any more than write a lot. I definitely see why, due to overlapping specialties and some overlapping roster members, a few people called some of my choices predictable. However, I can promise that Grampa Canyon (though not necessarily in the form it became) and aerodactyl have been planned since March 2021 when the first chapter of this was posted, and Kleavor and ancient type-applicable evolutions in general have been planned since Legends Arceus launched in early 2022. That said, I definitely think I'm going to have to skip Hisuian growlithe, lol.

Chapter 14: Jurassic Ranch

I didn't even get to go to sleep that night when my pokegear began ringing.

"Hey…Dad." I picked up, immediately knowing who it was.

"Am I reading the registry on your storage server at the ranch correctly, Isaac?" His tone was sharp but anticipatory, as if he was trying to force caution and cynicism forward to mask excitement.

"Oh you're reading everything perfectly, you won't believe what I found." I excitedly began to explain the underground lost biome I had discovered.

"This…this is huge!" He was almost shouting in his excitement, "This is perfect! This is…oh we have to keep this to ourselves! We have to keep this connected to my lab."

This I was a bit hesitant about, he'd need to convince me.

"I get that the Cinnabar Lab specializes in this, but can I really get as much benefit from that as if I had gone to Professor Oak or Cerise?"

I could just imagine him waving his hand dismissively as he continued, "Oh absolutely! I'll make sure of it! I'll renew your research assistant position, take your survey data, present it to the board and get a grant for you to be granted a conditional research sponsorship after the conference and all the construction is done. That will take at least that long, and your discovery of it plus how well you do at the conference will shut down any naysayers."

I scratched my chin, where in this life I had yet to begin accumulating any of the facial hair I got the impression of having in some of my more extended dreams and flashbacks.

"Hmm…well if you can guarantee it's my research station I suppose that works. My only real concern is losing personal control. You remember what I said about my hasty retreat? We'll need a lead who is at least as strong as I will be after the conference to safely explore. And if that isn't me then it's not going to come cheap."

"Give us a top eight showing at the Plateau and I don't think we'll have to worry about anyone taking it away from you. Particularly if you can train up one or two of those acquisitions from down there for your final team. Between this new scyther evolution, kleavor was it? Between that and the aerodactyl and perhaps the kabutops I can't see anyone arguing you won't be the best to run the facility."

"To that end, I'm going to head back to the Ranch and get the fossil pokemon under control and then use the last of my major savings to chart a trip out to Unova's Desert Resort. I need better counters for psychics and ghosts if I want to stand a chance against the types of pokemon that get used at the top eight level." Or you know, blasted Mewtwo inviting me to an island of trainers to clone our pokemon. I…still had to figure out what I was going to do about that outside of attempting to stack my team. I was fairly sure Lance hadn't started his G-men yet as he was still struggling for the Championship position and I was definitely sure Looker and his International Police weren't around either. We were only two-thirds of a generation out of…well it was the closest thing to a war there's been since many of the regions rediscovered each other, so that's what it was called, but Unova's nautical trade dispute wouldn't have counted as a war on the scale of any of the mythological ones like AZ's nightmare or even the Unovan civil wars that required legendary intervention.

"That seems reasonable, if this all works out in our favor you won't be needing to worry about money again. Especially if we can get these…hmm they aren't really fossil pokemon now, are they? If we can get these pokemon from your lost world to breed at better rates than the resurrected ones I could see a lot of supplemental income being involved in this endeavor."

I…had not considered that.

"Huh…yeah can you secure us the licenses for breeding and perhaps even turning this peninsula into a preserve along with the research gym?"

"It will happen in stages, the land deeds and research grants will come quickly. The breeding license probably soon after that, the preserve status will likely come after your conference showing, along with the gym status, they'll want you to hit top eight at minimum and perhaps set up some Ace battles."

"That sounds fine, now let me get to sleep so I can head back to the ranch and work on taming that beast of an aerodactyl I caught." I was not looking super forward to that, I may have to beat it down a few times with Cleo and Artagnan, both of whom had now surpassed the rest of my team in power.

I couldn't tame Hannibal, absolutely what I was going to name the aerodactyl after that vicious introduction, fast enough I decided as I sat on the speed boat heading back into the Vermillion Harbour. Flight would open up so many better travel options for me, within Kanto at the very least.

While distance wise it was viable, flying over the Silver Range wasn't suggested as you were likely to accrue a lot of aggro from the very strong wild pokemon up there. So it was better to take a detour down to New Bark or a ship around the coasts and then fly once you were on the other side of the mountains.

But, a full day of travel after I left the…underworld for the lack of a better term, saw me back at the family ranch to the southwest of Saffron, almost equidistantly south of the city as the Academy was to the north of it actually.

Liam, a burly ranch hand who was normally not anywhere near as nervous as he seemed right now intercepted me, "Mister Isaac…I'm hopin' you ain't planning to let those monsters loose all at once are you?"

As one of the lead wranglers he definitely had access to my storage roster so I understood his concern.

Which I promptly waved away, "Hardly. I'll be starting with the kabutops and omastar, once I have an agreement with them we can let the other semi-aquatic ones out to enjoy the lake. Then I'll move over to…is the North Field still set up for a badlands biome and relatively clear?"

He nodded to my inquiry, "Good, I'll release the aerodactyl there and my team and I will handle the rest. Also…get me a case of the really good tauros steaks. I think showing our vicious brute what the good life is like might help ease some tensions, hmm?"

The kabutops and omastar were extremely easy to integrate actually. The second I explained, with the help of Cleo, that they were basically getting free room and board in exchange for occasionally training and fighting with my main team if they wanted to and maybe some of their extra eggs, they were completely sold on the idea.

A little bit of a tour for them, releasing the younger stage pokemon from their cavern, and a good meal later I was set to walk over to the craggy badland area where I planned to negotiate with hopefully my new flying-type.

Twenty minutes later saw me frowning as Hannibal tore through half a crate of raw tauros steak.

He was…too smart and too dangerous in my opinion. I may have to delay my Unova trip by at least a week or two more than planned. That put me at going in a month, meaning I would come back with…five months to the Indigo Conference. And four months and some change until New Island.

My dream-like memories of that event were more like nightmares. I had to be ready. I don't care if he was somehow going to come back from it, the image of Ash laying on the ground dead with Pikachu crying over him was not something I was looking to allow to repeat.

Surely Mewtwo could be convinced to civility in some less dramatic way? Right?

Shaking my head I began approaching Hannibal, Cleo and Artagnan in tow. For now this would be my main project, along with starting some repairs.

Samson Oak had come through, very confused about what I wanted with the device, but I'd more than covered purchase and shipping so he was happy enough.