Outsiders (ZnT/Pokémon Reverse Summon)
OVA: Johto Journeys 1

[~][~]

New Bark Town, Johto Region

"What do you think Professor Elm wants?" Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière asked as she walked through the streets of New Bark Town.

"Honestly, I have no idea," her best friend, Saito Hiraga, admitted as he walked beside her, causing Louise to hum in confusion and her mind to drift back to how she first met the Pokémon Professor.

She had met Professor Elm the month before, when her attempt at summoning a familiar had drawn the attention and wrath of the so-called god named Arceus, who wasn't pleased at her efforts. One thing had led to another, and soon Louise found herself thrown into another world, landing in the Cherrygrove Forest of Route 29 where she was quickly beset by a creature she later learned was a Spinarak. Thankfully, Professor Elm's assistant, a young girl her age named Lyra, just so happened to be in the area and was able to help, after which she was brought into New Bark Town and introduced to Professor Elm.

Thankfully, Professor Elm immediately believed her claims that she was from another world, and soon she was taken in by the kind man as she had nowhere else to go. It wasn't long afterwards that she met Saito Hiraga, and together he and Lyra became her best friends. The next month seemed to blur together in her mind, her days spent helping around in the lab while learning about the world of Pokémon from Lyra, who wanted to become a Pokémon Professor herself, and Saito who dreamed of winning the Johto Pokémon League. Saito's dream had proven infectious, with Louise wanting to win it herself as it seemed to be the best way to "prove her worth" to Arceus.

But while Saito had offered to take Louise with him when he left, that wasn't for a few more weeks until the Professor was able to get the starter Pokémon he needed. Louise already had hers, a shiny Cyndaquil she had bonded with over the past month and named Braise, but Saito wasn't as lucky. Professor Elm knew this, so the fact that he was calling them to his lab early meant one of two things. Either he managed to get the starters early, or something else had come up.

"Ah! Louise, Saito, you're here! Perfect timing," Professor Elm called out as they entered the lab, with Lyra standing next to him.

"Professor, you needed us?" Louise politely asked as they walked through the lab towards him, where she quickly noticed three new Pokéballs laid out on an incubator. Saito noticed it as well, and she could practically see his eyes glow in anticipation.

"I see you noticed I managed to get those new starters early," Professor Elm admitted with a soft smile, then shook his head and continued, "but that's not why I called you in today. Well, not entirely."

"Oh? What is it, then?" Saito asked, and Professor Elm smiled before rummaging through his pockets. After a few moments, which involved the scatterbrained professor having to move to a nearby filing cabinet and a desk, he finally pulled out a small letter which he handed to the young man.

"I received a letter from a friend of mine this morning. He likes to call himself Mr. Pokémon as you can see, and studies Pokémon as a hobby during his retirement," Professor Elm explained as Saito and Louise read the letter. "It appears that he's come into possession of a Pokémon Egg."

"Really? What kind?" Louise asked as she looked up at the professor.

"Mr. Pokémon doesn't know what species the egg came from, which is why he reached out to me," Professor Elm answered with a small frown. "He hoped I'd have an answer."

"And you need us to go get it," Saito finished for the Professor, and Elm nodded. He frowned briefly, then muttered to himself, "If he doesn't know what species it came from, then it could be literally anything…"

For the life of her, Louise didn't understand why the mammalian Pokémon like Sentret laid eggs and not just the birds, insects, amphibians and reptiles, but that's why Professor Elm was the expert. Not that even he understood how a Skitty and a Wailord could successfully reproduce, but that was a topic for another day.

She then shook her head and pointed to Lyra before asking, "While I'm more than willing to help you, Professor, why not send Lyra? She is your assistant."

Lyra awkwardly smiled, then answered, "I would…but this is really bad timing. My research expedition, remember?"

"Oh, right," Louise muttered, mentally cursing herself for forgetting that Lyra was going to study the wild Pokémon at Mount Silver. She was supposed to leave by the end of the week and was going to spend months there. An expedition of that scale needed extensive preparation, and she obviously couldn't afford to step away from that.

"I'm sorry for putting this on you two last minute," Professor Elm told them. "Believe me, if I had any other option I would take it. But, sadly, I don't. Would you two mind picking it up and taking it back here?"

Louise immediately shook her head, and Saito replied, "It's no problem at all, Professor. But I don't have a Pokémon yet."

As Saito said that, his eyes immediately went towards the table, and Elm smiled while gesturing towards the Pokéballs while saying, "What kind of Pokémon professor would I be if I sent you two off on an errand on my behalf without giving you the means to do so?"

Saito's smile grew then, as he made his way over to the offered Pokéballs, replied, "I already know which one I want."

He then grabbed the middle Pokéball, pressed the button on its face, and smiled as his Totodile emerged on the title floor and happily danced. Louise soon sent out Braise, letting the two starters happily bond. So preoccupied with the meeting of new friends before them, neither Saito, Louise, Lyra nor Professor Elm noticed the young man watching from outside the window, his fists clenched and his face warped into a perpetual frown.

[~]

The next few weeks seemed to blur together for Louise. Getting to Mr. Pokémon on Route 30 wasn't too difficult, as the terrain was fairly easy and Pokémon who called the Cherrygrove Forest home weren't all that particularly powerful. It only took a day, with a brief stop in Cherrygrove City to restock on supplies and get a proper night's sleep in the Pokémon Center's hostel. They would've gotten there faster, but they took a lot of time to train their starters against the local wildlife. They didn't have any Pokéballs, and the PokéMart was out of them by the time they got to Cherrygrove, so they weren't able to catch any. But that was fine, as Louise wanted to focus on training Braise just as Saito wanted to train his Totodile, whom he had named Mizuchi.

When they arrived at Mr. Pokémon's cabin in the woods, it turned out they weren't the only visitors. Professor Oak, the esteemed Pokémon Professor of the neighboring Kanto region, and Elm's mentor, just so happened to be there as well. He chatted with them for a while, with Louise particularly eager to ask the elderly man any questions he could, which Professor Oak was more than happy to answer. He seemed to enjoy it, even gifted the pair some Pokédexes that Louise excitedly tested on Braise and the local wildlife before he had to depart.

They would've stayed longer to train their Pokémon and fill out more of their Pokédexes, and they even tried to see if the PokéMart managed to restock on Pokéballs. But then they got a call from Professor Elm that made them drop what they were doing and run back to New Bark Town as fast as they could. According to the Professor, the night after they left, someone had broken into his laboratory and stolen the newly arrived Chikorita, some Pokéballs, and a Pokédex. No one knew who did it, as the security cameras were rebooting for a software update. It was nothing short of a disaster.

But in their rush to get back, the pair of new trainers just so happened to run into the thief, literally. It turned out to be a young, angry boy around their age, with dark red hair, wearing dark clothes, and a perpetual frown on his face. Once they realized who he was, Saito and Louise attempted to bring him to justice, only to get absolutely thrashed by the young man who was a lot more skilled than they believed. He gloated to them afterwards about how they and their Pokémon were weak, that weakness meant uselessness and that applied to them as well. In his gloating, he also revealed that his name was Silver, and he was going to prove himself the strongest trainer in the region.

Louise really wanted to blow him up with her wand, but Silver left before she had a chance to do so.

They got back to New Bark Town shortly afterwards, where they told Professor Elm and the authorities the identity of the culprit. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything else they could do, which led to what would happen with the egg, the entire reason they left in the first place. As it turned out, Professor Elm was able to easily identify what it was. It was a Togepi egg, a very rare Fairy-type Pokémon native to the Johto region. Misty Waterflower, the Water-type Gym Leader of Cerulean City, just so happened to have one when she was traveling with friends of hers, Brock Slate, the former Rock-type Gym Leader of Pewter City, and Ash Ketchum, the current World Pokémon Champion, a few years prior. It helped that, unlike most Pokémon who hatch from eggs, the shell remained after a Togepi hatches.

That left what to do with the Togepi egg. As Louise had been the one carrying it from Mr. Pokémon's house, and Pokémon eggs hatched faster when held by trainers, it was decided to let Louise hold onto it. It was a burden she was reluctant to accept at first. Caring for a Pokémon egg was like caring for a young child, and Louise had no idea what to do on that front. She was constantly afraid she was going to drop it or harm the egg in some way. But surprisingly, especially to herself, Louise found that her maternal instincts came quite naturally to her, and now she and the egg were nigh inseparable. She even gave the Togepi a name: Lutin, which meant "pixie" in her native language.

Of course, as with all things since he met Louise, once she started something she tended to go more than a bit overboard. Something Saito was reminded of when he walked into the Violet City Pokémon Center's hostel where he found Louise fussing with the egg and the overhead heating lamp she put it under.

"Hmm, no. That's not right," Louise muttered to herself as she closely studied the thermometer and frowned. With a pair of latex gloves on her hands, she slowly rotated the egg under the lap, careful not to place too much pressure on the shell. Once that was done, she also carefully moved the lamp slightly, adjusting the angle of the light.

Louise nodded to herself, then checked the thermometer again and frowned before saying, "Darn it, it's still not right."

Saito rolled his eyes as Louise repeated herself, then he asked, "Louise, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Louise asked without looking back at her friend, continuing to carefully adjust the egg. "Pokémon Eggs are supposed to have an internal temperature of 38.5 degrees Celsius."

Louise paused to look at the thermometer again, then declared, "Right now, it is 38.4. That is unacceptable."

Saito stared blankly at his best friend, who stared right back with an utmost serious expression on her face. He then flatly replied, "I'm fairly certain that Lutin isn't going to care about .1 degrees."

"Have you ever cared for an egg before?" Louise pointedly asked, and when Saito shook his head she replied, "So how do you know Lutin won't be able to tell the difference? For all we know that degree could mean the difference between a perfectly healthy Togepi and horrible, debilitating defects! I won't let my negligence be responsible for that!"

"I'm pretty certain you yelling is going to hurt the egg more than a small temperature difference," Saito joked, only for Louise to gasp.

"Oh, you're right. Keep your voice down," she whispered, then went back to fussing with Lutin's egg. Saito rolled his eyes but went along with his friend's request regardless, sitting down on a sofa chair as he polished Mizuchi's Pokéball alongside that of his newest captures, a Phanpy he named Nezha and a Pineco he named Shiro.

Nezha was just a normal capture he made on Route 46, but Shiro's capture was actually a bit funny. Nezha had been practicing her Roll Out attack and just so happened to crash into Shiro's tree, which led to a hasty battle and ended with his capture. Even now, Saito liked to chuckle about it sometimes. Louise had also captured a Pokémon, a Poliwag she found in Violet City's lake that she named Spirale after the swirling intestines they could see through his belly.

"So…how long until Lutin hatches?" Saito quietly asked as Louise continued to fuss with the incubator, trying to get it absolutely perfect.

"I don't know, but it feels close," Louise insisted as she nudged the egg into its final position. Taking a look at the thermometer, she gave a content smile then stepped back, careful not to move too quickly lest she somehow disturb the "precarious" position the egg was in. Once she was certain the egg was safe, Louise sat down on the other sofa chair in the room next to Saito, keeping her attention focused squarely on the egg and nothing else.

Saito glanced at Louise, then asked, "What are you going to do when he hatches?"

Louise was quiet at first, then whispered, "To be honest, I don't know. This is my first time doing something like this."

"Really? I couldn't tell," Saito joked, and Louise gave him a soft glare before smiling despite herself.

"You know what I mean." Louise paused, then sighed and admitted, "All I know is that…I'm going to be supportive, loving. I'm going to be there for him, like my sister Cattleya was for me."

Saito nodded in understanding, then said, "And your parents, too?"

That was clearly the wrong thing for Saito to say as Louise's soft smile was replaced with a harsh frown. It only lasted for a moment, but it was enough to make Saito flinch and cram his foot into his mouth. He had only known Louise for a few months now, and he knew that her family life wasn't exactly the best. Her relationship with her parents was particularly strained. He got the sense that being like her parents towards Lutin was the last thing Louise wanted.

Desperate to change the subject, Saito reached over and gently grabbed her shoulder before saying, "Hey, you're going to do fine. If you give Lutin half as much love and attention when he hatches as when he was just an egg, he's going to love you."

Louise smiled towards Saito but, before she could say anything else, a faint crack sounded off from the other side of the room. Both trainer's attentions shot towards the egg, which they saw was now shaking back and forth as cracks began to emerge.

"By the Founder, he's hatching!" Louise shrilly cried out as she rushed over to the egg, pressing her face as close as she could towards it, eager to make her face the first thing Lutin would ever see. Saito respectfully stayed back, looking over her shoulder with a large smile on his face.

With each shake, more and more of the egg shell cracked, and streams of light shone from underneath. Soon the entire shell glowed a bright, white light, making it hard for the trainers to see. But it quickly died down, and in its place was a small, round creature wearing the remains of the eggshell like a coat of armor. Its spiky, cream-colored head and tiny limbs were the only things exposed, and he was blinking his eyes as he awoke for the first time.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Lutin's eyes opened fully, and he stared into Louise's. He was silent at first, then he happily smiled towards the one he knew was his mother, and Louise felt tears pool up as she gently picked up Lutin and cradled him in her arms.

"Welcome to the world, Lutin," Louise softly said as she wagged her finger in front of his face, which made Lutin laugh and reach out with his arms towards it.

[~]

Despite being only a few weeks old, Lutin quickly proved to be a rambunctious spirit, constantly exploring every new environment he found himself in. The others fell in love with the Togepi, with Louise practically treating him as though he were her actual child. Every time Saito saw her playing with Lutin, feeding him, or doing some early training, it made him smile. His and Louise's Pokémon often tried to help however they could, mostly with playtime and some practice spars under their trainers' supervision. But they always made sure not to go too rough lest they accidentally hurt the young Pokémon.

To Lutin, every experience was new and exciting, and every day he tried to find brand new ones. It didn't matter whether it was simple as watching a Caterpie craw up a tree trunk or watching the rising sun, he was enamored with it all. Saito found each of his reactions to be amusing, and so did Louise. At least, she did at first.

Then she realized what all parents figured out when it came to their children: they liked to explore, even places that might be considered dangerous.

"No, no! Lutin, stay with me," Louise insisted as she ran over and scooped up the Togepi in her arms, preventing him from wandering into the nearby forest south of Violet City.

Lutin protested in Louise's arms, squirming as he tried to get out, but Louise's grip was too strong. He was only let go when Louise put him on the picnic table she and Saito were sitting at, where she made him look her in the eyes.

"Don't go over there. Not without me, okay? It's not safe," Louise softly told Lutin, who looked up at his mother figure for a moment with a slight frown on his face. Louise gave him a sharp look and tilted her head, which finally made the Togepi relent. Satisfied, Louise smiled and put him back onto the ground, where he immediately started walking around the campsite.

"You know, Louise, I think you're being a tad bit too overprotective," Saito told her as he slowly ate a ham and cheese sandwich.

"Overprotective? No, I'm not," Louise rebuked as she focused on watching Lutin. "He's only a few weeks old. I'm just trying to make sure he's—Lutin! Don't pick that up! You don't know where it's been!"

Lutin let out a slight cry of irritation before complying with Louise's command and dropping the discarded piece of trash. As he stomped away, Louise quickly walked over, grabbed the old plastic bottle, then threw it away into a nearby trashcan before returning to the table.

"Honestly, people need to pick after themselves. We're not barbaric Germanians," Louise complained, but Saito merely shook his head.

"While I agree that people should pick up after themselves, you didn't need to snap at him like that," Saito pointed out. "It was a plastic bottle, not something that could actually hurt him."

"You don't know that. For all we know, that bottle could've picked up all sorts of diseases and filth," Louise countered as she finally took a bite out of her food, ignoring the flat look Saito was giving her.

"…Anyway," Saito finally said after a moment, "it doesn't detract from my point. You're protecting Lutin too much."

"How, exactly, am I doing that? Explain that to me."

Saito held up his hand and began to count on his fingers as he answered, "One, you won't let him go five seconds out of your line of sight."

"You'd be surprised how far babies can go on such short little legs."

"Two; you're grinding up his food into a mushy paste before feeding him when he's able to eat the pellets on his own."

"His teeth are small and tiny, and those pellets are big and hard. He could hurt himself!"

"Three; you haven't let him actually battle anything. You wouldn't even let him fight a Caterpie!"

"…Caterpies can be dangerous."

"Oh, for Arceus' sake," Saito grumbled as he briefly hung and shook his head, then looked back up at Louise. "Look, I get it. Lutin's young, and you want to make sure he's safe. It's understandable. But Lutin isn't a baby human. He's a baby Pokémon, and they grow a lot faster than we do. You need to stop treating him like a child."

"He is a child," Louise insisted, glaring daggers into Saito's eyes who matched her gaze with his own.

After a moment, Saito added, "I'm not saying you need to throw him at the next gym leader. I'm not even saying you should put him into a normal Pokémon battle yet. You and I both know he's not ready. But he is more than able to fend for himself, at least for a little bit. You're not protecting him, Louise. You're smothering him."

Louise didn't say anything in response. All she did was frown and tighten her glare towards him. Saito met her gaze with his own, refusing to back down from calling out what he knew was a mistake. But before he could even say anything else, through, Louise glanced over her shoulder and saw Lutin playing with the other Pokémon. To Saito, he could tell that everything was perfectly safe. But to Louise, all she saw was Lutin carelessly wandering through streams of fire and water, and immediately shot to her feet and ran over to him.

"Lutin, no!" she yelled as she sprinted towards the play area, catching both Lutin and the other Pokémon off-guard. Coming to a stop before the Togepi, she placed her hands on her hips and looked down at him before sternly saying, "What did I tell you about doing this? It's dangerous and you could get hurt?"

The camping site was quiet and Saito and all the Pokémon stared at Louise and Lutin. But before Saito could stand up and say anything, Lutin's face fell into a deep scowl, then he yelled at Louise while stomping his feet in obvious frustration.

Taken aback, Louise scowled back before replying, "Don't take that tone with me!"

Lutin clearly wasn't having it anymore as he continued to throw the biggest tantrum Saito had ever seen. None of them, aside from the Pokémon, could understand what he was saying, but between his yelling, stomping, and thrashing, it was quite obvious what he meant. Weeks of frustration over Louise's overprotectiveness had finally reached a boiling point, and he was no longer content to just do whatever his mother told him to do.

Not used to Lutin talking back to her like this, Louise tapped back into the only example she could think of. She stood up straighter, narrowed her eyes, and hissed, "Lutin, that is no way for a Vallière to act. Control yourself before I—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Lutin picked up a small rock and, with a tiny, frustrated yell, threw it to the side as hard as he could. It wasn't aimed anywhere near the others, the message was received regardless.

"That's it! You're going into timeout!" Louise yelled as she pulled out Lutin's Pokéball and recalled him into the sphere. Once the young Pokémon was tucked away inside, Louise breathed in and out of her nose harshly while glaring at it.

Only then did she feel the others' eyes on her, and she looked up towards a disappointed Saito, who was crossing his arms over his chest and shaking his head. No words were said, but Louise understood regardless.

She then looked back at the Pokéball in her hands, then muttered, "Oh, no…."

[~]

For the next few weeks, Louise and Lutin acted like they were walking on eggshells when near each other. Both realized that they had taken things too far, but neither of them knew how to actually address it. Particularly Louise, who understood that it was just as Saito said. Lutin was a growing Pokémon, and he needed to be able to do things on his own. But he was also her baby, and she didn't want to see him hurt.

Of course, at the moment she had other, more pressing concerns. Namely trying to stop Team Rocket's illegal Slowpoke tail poaching operation.

"Lumiere, Flash then Thundershock!" Louise ordered her Mareep, who immediately complied as he raised his tail up high, letting loose a blinding light that stunned his opponent, leaving him open for the follow-up attack. Lumiere's Thundershock hit true, zapping the Golbat and making it cry out in pain.

But it wasn't enough to put it down completely, and after it blinked its eyes a few times to regain its vision, it snarled towards both of them while hovering in place with mighty flaps of its leathery wings.

"Sonic Boom," Proton, an apparent executive of Team Rocket's current operations in the region, ordered with a sadistic grin on his face which his Golbat echoed before flapping its wings as hard as it could, sending a wave of compressed air that struck Lumiere in the face. To the already exhausted Mareep, the attack proved to be the final straw. With a pitiful whimper, he fell to the side hard onto the rocky floor, unable to move despite his feeble attempts to do so.

"Lumiere!" Louise called out, making a move to run over to her Mareep, but stopped before she could even take a step when Proton began to laugh.

"I must admit, girl, this has been somewhat amusing," Proton declared as he mockingly clapped his hands together, his Golbat floating in place with slow flaps of its wings. "Despite your inexperience, you also have quite the talent. I would be a fool not to recognize it. So I'm going to offer you and your friend the opportunity to join the ranks of Team Rocket and extend your reach to the stars above."

Louise growled angrily as she returned Lumiere to his Pokéball, quickly glancing towards Saito who was doing battle with another Team Rocket executive named Ariana, before replying, "What in the Founder's name made you think I would ever consider joining you?"

"You'd be surprised at the benefits one might obtain in Team Rocket, both material and not," Proton countered, then nonchalantly shrugged. "Still, I figured that would be your answer, so now I offer you this: surrender your Pokémon, and I'll let you leave."

Louise's grimace got even deeper as she growled, "There's no way in Hel I would ever give them up to you or anyone else."

Proton laughed again, then held up Louise's captured wand as he pointed out, "I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice. None of your Pokémon are in a state to battle, and you can't cast your magic without this wand. You're trapped. Frankly, after the mess you and your friend made of our operation here, you're lucky I'm feeling merciful enough to give you this boon to begin with. I suggest you take it before you find out the limits of my mercy."

Louise gritted her teeth, then looked around as she desperately tried to find a way out of this situation. Neither she nor Saito had intended to get involved. They had just gotten through Union Cave and were headed towards Azalea Town when they noticed some Team Rocket Grunts suspiciously guarding the entrance. Saito had tried to talk her out of investigating themselves in favor of just calling the police, but then an old man bowled right through them before falling down into the well and hurting himself.

That had forced the teenagers' hand. It was only after they got down there, and fought a pair of grunts named Cassidy and Biff that they discovered the old man was Kurt, the world-famous Apricorn expert. With them now in the thick of it, and Kurt unable to move after injuring his back in the fall, the pair battled their way through the criminals harvesting Slowpoke tails before finally coming across the executives running the entire show. Unlike their subordinates, they were much stronger opponents, taking down almost all of Louise's and Saito's in the process.

"Give up, girl. I won't ask again," Proton warned, his voice low and menacing.

Louise looked back up into Proton's dangerous eyes, then glanced down at her belt, trailing the line of shrunken Pokéballs on them. Each one had a small sticker that marked who was in them, and while Braise, Spirale, and Lumiere were knocked out of the battle, she still had one Pokémon left. Every part of her didn't want to bring him out, but she also knew she didn't have much of a choice. He was the only hope she and these Slowpokes had at stopping Team Rocket.

"No, I won't," Louise declared as she pulled out her final Pokéball and tossed it. "Lutin, I choose you!"

As the young Togepi emerged onto the cave floor, Proton let out a hearty laugh as he said, "You can't be serious! A Togepi?! This just makes it better! Togepi fetch a high price on the black market, so I'll enjoy taking him from you."

His Golbat let out a menacing shriek that intimidated Lutin greatly, making him take a few steps back in fear. But Louise immediately called out to him and said, "Lutin, I know he's scary! I know you haven't battled much, and that's my fault. I should've trusted you more. But you're stronger than he thinks you are! Stronger than I would even like to admit!"

Lutin was looking at her now, his eyes wide at Louise's admission as she continued, "Show everyone what you can do, Lutin. Show me what I know you can do."

Lutin looked up at Louise then scrunched his face and gave as firm of a nod as he possibly could before turning back around to face his opponent. Seeing this, Proton merely laughed harder as he shook his head and muttered, "I don't know if this is going to be pathetic or amusing. Either way, it shouldn't be too difficult. Golbat, put this runt down with Poison Fang."

Golbat's fangs glowed a sickly purple before it raced down towards Lutin. For a brief moment, Lutin appeared frozen in fear, but after Louise called out his name he stood his ground, scrunched his face as hard as he could, then attacked the Golbat's mind with an Extrasensory attack. The Psychic-type move caught his opponent completely off-guard, and he crashed into the ground with a loud thud.

"What?!" Proton shouted in disbelief while Louise let out a victorious cheer.

"Yes! Good job, Lutin! Now, weaken him with Charm!" Louise ordered, prompting Lutin to make a cute face towards his opponent as pink hearts appeared around him. Despite being attacked by the Togepi just moments earlier, the Golbat was taken in by the display.

"Golbat, don't fall for that!" Proton angrily shouted. "Use Sonic Boom!"

"Get out of there, Lutin!" Louise immediately ordered as the Golbat shook its head forcefully and flew back up into the air.

Lutin was already running as fast as his little legs could carry him, but he had to hastily dive behind a small rock and cover his ears to avoid the Sonic Boom. When he got back up, he tried to run back to get more distance from his opponent, only to be immediately hit by a Wing Attack that sent him bouncing along the ground as the Golbat caught up to him.

"Lutin!" Louise cried out, but although clearly injured by the blow, Lutin was able to push himself back up onto his feet. He growled angrily towards the Golbat, his determination to win visible to everyone. Despite the fear for her youngest Pokémon, Louise couldn't help but feel pride bubbling up from inside her.

Lutin was refusing to give up, and neither would she.

No matter how determined her little Togepi was, though, he still looked to be on his last legs, and his criminal opponent as still hale. If they were going to pull a win out of this, they were going to need to try something desperate. Lutin's trump card, his potentially strongest move…if he was lucky.

She grit her teeth, and raised her voice as she ordered, "Use Metronome!"

The ultimate wildcard in Pokémon battles. A move that could guarantee victory or defeat. A move that could replicate any other move…but the user had no control if they would end up using Splash, Explosion, or anything in between.

Scrunching up his face in determination, Lutin raised his arms as high as he could. They started to glow brightly, then he started to wave them from side to side in a rhythmic pattern. Proton immediately ordered his Golbat to attack, knowing full well how dangerous Metronome could be. The Golbat flew as fast as it could towards Lutin, its mouth opened wide and fully ready to chomp down on his tiny body.

But, just before he could, Lutin finished his Metronome dance. At the same time, rocks from all across the cavern converged onto a single point right in front of Lutin's head, eventually forming a boulder that eclipsed both his and Golbat's body combined. Lousie's eyes widened, and she quickly scanned the move with her Pokédex, telling her that Lutin's Metronome had pulled out Rock Wrecker.

The Golbat quickly realized the danger it was in and hastily tried to make an about face. But it was too late as the Rock Wrecker was launched before he could even finish his turn. The boulder struck the Golbat, carrying him across the open cavern and into the back wall behind Proton, creating a large shockwave that forced the Team Rocket Executive to dive onto the ground to protect himself. In doing so, his grip on Louise's wand slipped, causing the wooden object to fly out of his hands and onto the cave floor. Louise immediately sprinted over to grab it while Lutin was suddenly too exhausted to even move.

Not that it mattered, for once the smoke cleared, Proton's Golbat was laying under the pile of rubble completely unconscious.

"What? NO!" Proton shouted in disbelief, only to have Louise's wand suddenly thrust into his face.

"It's over, Team Rocket," she told the defeated man, then smirked before mockingly repeating, "Surrender now, or prepare to fight."

Proton, resting on his knee, looked up and growled towards Louise, who was soon joined by Lutin. Behind them, he could hear Saito still battling Ariana and her Arbok, but from the sounds of it Louise's friend was giving the other executive a much harder time than she was expecting. Saito was always the better trainer of the two, and it certainly helped that Sentou, the Heracross he recently caught, was proving to be a very powerful addition to his team.

Seeing this, Proton's eyes fell as he recognized the need to retreat. He then returned his defeated Golbat to its Pokéball before shouting, "Ariana, I'm calling for extraction!"

Proton then pressed a button on his Pokégear as he growled to Louise, "This isn't over. Know you just made an enemy in Team Rocket."

With that, Proton, Ariana, and all the other defeated members of Team Rocket suddenly disappeared as they were teleported out of the Slowpoke Well. Louise was momentarily caught off-guard, then figured they must've had an extraction team nearby with enough Psychic-type Pokémon to manage their escape. She growled in frustration, then looked down as Lutin ran out in front of her, enraged that his defeated opponents had fled as he exulted in his victory.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Louise gently told Lutin as she kneeled to hug him close to her chest. Holding up the Togepi and looking him in the eyes, which caused him to calm down tremendously, she continued, "Lutin, I'm so, so proud of you. You did a very good job back there. If it weren't for you…heh, I don't even want to think about what would've happened."

Louise's words seemed to strike at Lutin's heartstrings, and a few tears began to build up around his eyes. She softly wiped away the tears with a small handkerchief before adding, "I'm sorry I've been so protective of you lately. It's just… My parents were never there for me, and I wanted to show you that I cared. Only it turned out I went overboard. I'm sorry for not believing in you before, and I see now, especially now, that was a mistake. I promise I won't ever do that again. Can you…can you forgive me?"

Lutin wiped away the rest of the tears on his eyes, then he smiled and hugged his mother as hard as he could. Louise felt tears pool at the edge of her eyes as well, and she returned the embrace. The two sat there on the cave floor for what felt like an eternity, both ignoring the wider world around them. But then Louise began to hear a soft whine, and when she opened her eyes she saw, to her amazement, that Lutin's body was now glowing. He was getting larger, wings growing out of his back and his neck extending outward. When the glow subsided, the Togepi she had known and cared for this entire time was gone, replaced by a happy Togetic who didn't seem to have even noticed the change yet.

Realizing what this meant, Louise felt the happy tears trail down her cheeks, and she deepened their embrace while Saito silently watched from the sidelines, a proud smile on his face as well.

[~][~]

Hello, everyone! Here's the third official OVA for Outsiders, this one depicting what would've happened had Louise been taken to the Johto region. Special thanks to Darwin Candidate and Yuri Vampire for their help in bringing this to life. I have to say, writing Louise's relationship with the Togepi was a delight. I absolutely loved it. And yes, had she accepted that egg she was offered way back after the Daycare Arc, she would've acted the exact same way.

In any case, this OVA serves as a great launching pad for the rest of this timeline. Assuming, of course, I come back to it. Which I do want to do, after I do OVAs for the other regions and I can find a solid emotional core to the OVA. By all means, though, you guys are more than welcome to contribute to these OVA timelines. They're fun to work with.

To answer some of your guys' questions:

Yeah, Louise can have some colorful language at times. Given what kind of spitfire she is, it's only be to be expected. Was bound to happen eventually.

Regarding Palworld, I played and enjoyed it a bit. But don't expect me to reference it in this story aside from at most one of the characters mentioning a really weird dream, but that's very unlikely.

The Tinkatink Trainer was nothing more than a character of the day. He's not relevant for future chapters.

Henrietta definitely deserved getting chewed out. Rest assured, this is an important part of her character arc. As for whether it'll be a recurring thing, you'll have to wait and see.

Team Flare definitely have plans for mage DNA. As for what those plans entail, you'll have to wait and see.

I'm a big fan of DBZA and TFS, so I love throwing in references here and there. And since I made Maindo to be my story's Vegeta, it only made sense for him to be the one to make the reference here.

That's all for now. I hope you all enjoy this slice of Johto. If any of you have a TV Tropes account, any assistance you can provide in updating the TV Tropes page would be greatly appreciated. Let us know what you all think!