Chapter 22

Don't Own Pokemon or anything else, Only The Oc

'thought'

"Speech"

System Text

"Tvs, Radios, and Text via book or newspaper... when those are around..."

We sit on the couch, eyes glued to the tv, my arms slung loosely around the shoulders of Courtney and Zinnia as they sit on either side of me.

Today... is a day for us to relax and veg out.

I've almost fallen asleep like thrice from how comfortable the couch is in comparison to the things we've had to sit on in the past year.

Zinnia is wearing one of my spare shirts... and that's about it. Courtney had Merlin portal over to Blueberry and grab some of her spare clothes, and I myself just tossed on a short sleeved shirt and sweatpants.

'ah... the glories of air conditioning.'

There has been something on my mind for the past hour or so that I'd like to shed some light on.

"So." I begin quietly, drawing the attention of Courtney who looks over.

"What exactly is our like... deal here." I question.

"What do you mean?" Zinnia cocks her head to the side.

"I mean, I'm holding you both close, what happened in the shower, neither of you seeming to mind. Are we dating? Who am I dating? Are we all dating?"

""You're dating me."" the two girls say at the same time, only to pause and glare at each other.

"Really? Third wheeling?" Zinnia scoffs.

"I have known Xander for longer." Courtney replies.

"So? We're both from ancient tribes! We have much more in common." The Draconid growls.

"I share his scientific enthusiasm." Courtney shoots back.

"We are bound by fate!" Zinnia begins.

"Well, if YOU are, then I am as well!" Courtney protests.

"Alright. Regretting asking now." I sigh. "Could have probably just ignored it and just seen how it played out."

"I'll fight you!" Zinnia exclaims. "Whoever wins gets to keep him!"

"Am I like a pet or something?" I sigh.

"That's unfair. You have a pseudo legendary who can mega evolve!" Courtney frowns.

"Heh, so you're a coward, then." Zinnia smirks.

"That's it. Putting my foot down. You're both mine."

"..."

"Mhn." Zinnia hums. "Whatever."

"I can agree to that." Courtney frowns.

"So. For all intents and purposes. Zinnia, you are my left hand woman, Courtney, you're my right."

"That's fine." Courtney notes.

"But... who's more in charge?" Zinnia ponders.

"I-" I begin only to be cut off.

"Sir... Champion Cynthia is calling." The tv shifts slightly, a rotom's face taking up most of the screen. What we were watching taking up a small portion in the corner.

I slowly slip out from in between the two bickering girls. "Put her through."

The blonde woman appears on the screen, she looks a little tired.

"Ah. Cynthia. Good to see you." I smile.

"Xander..." She nods slowly. "Do you mind opening a portal for me? I'd... like to see some of the things you found."

"Sure." I shrug. "Hey! Merl-"

I notice a swirling votex appear behind her.

"Thank you!" I call out into the home.

Cynthia seems to end the call.

The woman trudges through the door leading outside, running a hand through her hair, she lets out a quiet yawn, wiping an eye.

"How is twist mountain?"

"We have quarantined it." She supplies. "Mining operations have halted, and specialists are being called in... could... could you maybe show me exactly how you got... ah...?"

"A million years to the past?" I hum as I turn and begin walking to my office, gesturing for the woman to follow me.

I lead her into the bedroom and through the secret door in the closet.

"Like I said, I have so much footage to work through. This morning I managed to edit the entirety of the first day down to the most important bits... I can easily give you the whole section about how we walked around. One moment."

"Here it is... and... send." I mutter slowly.

Cynthia's phone dings as she looks down.

"I wouldn't recommend going there." I begin quietly. "When we left there were like six legendary pokemon wandering around. And I'm not talking about the weak shit we have today. I'm talking ancient. Primal legendary pokemon. Even normal pokemon back then might pose a problem for the likes of your garchomp. Who knows what'll happen if you managed to piss off a legendary."

"Oh." I blink. "And that's even assuming that following the path even leads you anywhere. It could just simply not work. Or it could send you to the future. Or one hundred years to the past. Or come out at the bottom of the sea. Or frankly it could put you out right after some super disaster that has filled the air with suffocating ash and smoke and you die before you can even take three steps."

"..." Cynthia is silent.

"How... How did you even get back?" She eventually whispers.

"Oh, we traveled to Johto on the back of a salamence and found a Celebi."

"Y-YOU FOUND ONE?!" The woman gasps.

"I did." I nod once. "We found a little Johtonian shrine that looked a bit like a miniature pagoda... it seemed to be displaced through time. I walked up and knocked on the door, then the pokemon residing in it came out, had a brief chat with us, then sent us home."

"How- How many legendary pokemon did you come across."

"Uhhh I think it was eight?" I blink slowly. "Maybe more? I'm just gonna be honest, I was more focused on not pissing them off, fighting ancient pokemon and figuring out what my next meal was going to be."

A grim smile appears on my lips as I slowly roll back my sleeve.

There's a faded bite mark on my forearm. "None of us came out unscathed..."

I lift my shirt, showing off a long line in my toned stomach that stands out as it's quite a few shades lighter than my tan "But I'd say we came out better for it."

There's an unreadable expression on her face as I roll down my sleeve. "So. Out of curiosity, would you care to see an ancient Garchomp?"

"An ancient garchomp?!" Cynthia gasps stars appearing in her eyes. "Did you really find one? Did you catch it! Oh! I'd give anything for it!"

"We only recorded the ancient Garchomp... we did catch an ancient Gible, though... I'll need to order a ditto."

I quickly scrub through the footage.

"Jarvis, where is the 'Latiorm versus Garchomp' fight?"

"Here it is."

A small flash lights up my screen.

The battle between the saw-tooth shark dragon and the prowling mandibled legendary happens in the distance.

Cynthia's eyes widen as she watches them clash over and over again.

"You... survived in this place?" The woman questions, seemingly deeply impressed by the clashing dragon types.

"Yes. Mostly hiding, but we did our due diligence and collected some research on the past... because it's likely no-one else will ever have such an opportunity..." I nod quietly.

The corners of Cynthia's mouth turn downwards as she watches the Garchomp fall and begin to get eaten.

"How..." She breathes. "How did you survive."

"Merlin... mostly." I admit with a small shrug.

"You mean your Lotad can compare to these beasts?!"

"Oh, of course not." I shake my head. "But I didn't see even a single one that could teleport. We just ran every time one attacked us... or, he simply opened two portals and shot the attack right back at them. Frankly. Merlin could defeat a legendary if it was dumb enough to keep shooting attack after attack at him."

Her eyes widen at the claim, a small look of respect appearing on her features.

Theoretically, it might be possible for Merlin to kill a legendary if Merlin gets it half way through the portal and slams it shut.

Huh.

Gonna keep that in mind for the future. But there's also the possibility that the legendary just walks it off and forces the portal to open.

Loki hops up into my lap, causing me to stroke his head.

"So." I begin quietly. "What now?"

Cynthia is silent for a long moment. "I don't know... there's not a precedent for someone time traveling millions of years to the past. Nor having dozens of unidentified pokemon."

"Well, I wouldn't say they're all unidentified." I protest. "I've got a few fossil pokemon like Aerodacyl and Shieldon"

"How many pokemon do you have?" The woman questions. "Out of curiosity?"

I open my mouth to reply.

"Ancient ones in general, or just the ones we don't commonly know about?"

"In general." The woman states.

"Haaah." I sigh. "Alright, let's count them up. Relicanth is one. I'm counting it because the ones today genuinely do not hold a candle to the ones from the past, all four original halves of the genuine abomination Cara Liss created. All fossil pokemon. Then, the... ah... unique ones."

"That's eight..." I mutter under my breath. "Little fucker, Protodile, Vilocidgey."

"Vilocidgey?"

"Oh. Ancient Pidgey. Their evolutions were quite annoying. Smart too." I nod quietly.

I begin counting on my fingers.

'two. Six. Sixteen. Add in the earlier ones, the paradox mons, and discount the dna of Latiorm, don't want people knowing I have that, and include the fossil pokemon'

"Ah. Wait, need to add that one thing in as well... or rather, three things" I mutter to myself.

"That... one thing?" The woman echoes.

"Don't worry about it." I wave off with a bright smile.

"Anyways. I'm counting sixty five... and I'm talking sixty five unique pokemon. If I were to include potential evolutions this number would balloon to well over one hundred."

"O-one hundred?!" The woman screams, eyes growing wide.

"I'm a very thorough boy." I smirk.

"That's practically enough for an entire regional-dex!"

"Mhmm." I nod once. "Though, Less 'Regional' and more... 'ancient'."

"Paradox maybe? Para-dex Paradox-dex?" I question slowly. "Like, technically speaking, it could be seen as a bit of a paradox that they are here. We went back in time, the first humans ever, yet nothing seems to have changed in the present. Or perhaps it could be that it was already changed in the present even before we went back in time because we went back in time."

"Time travel is fucking annoying." I sigh.

"Do you have any suspicions on how you got sent back in time? I know how you got back, but... how did you get there to begin with? Just wandering through the caves? Why do the caves send you through time?"

"Oh, the Celebi cleared that up." I wave off. "Apparently Twist Mountain is where it died... or where it was going to die. The death of it apparently being enough to weaken the veil between timelines."

"Realistically." I continue. "There should be two more spaces where time is weak."

"two more?" The woman echoes.

"Yes, because I saw three Celebi before we left. The one that sent us back, a 'present day' one, and a 'future' robotic one."

"Anyways, going to the past has left me with a shocking realization."

"What is that?" The woman asks, a look of concern on her face.

"Our fossil revivers fucking suck."

"Hm?" The woman blinks, seemingly deeply caught off guard by my statement.

"Like..." I begin quietly. "Ancient pokemon were so much better than they are today. Bigger too."

"Well... We are trying with what we have." The woman states slowly.

"I'll keep sending you sections as I finish editing them. I doubt you'd be interested in staring at a mountain for three hundred and sixty five consecutive days."

"Thank you." She nods her head quietly. "May... May I see some of the pokemon?"

I let out a low hum, cupping my chin. "Well... uh... the thing with that is that we really didn't have the means to sort the pokeballs... and some of the pokemon are quite injured from, well. This."

I gesture to the fox in my lap.

"Eevee!" He beams.

"So, if at all possible, I'd like to only release them in the presence of a medical professional."

"Which, I suppose we could do." I sigh. "But, working through that seems like such a slog. Tell you what. I know some of the pokeballs are labeled. I'll show you those. Then we can slowly but surely take the newer pokemon to a Nurse Joy."

I rise to my feet, shifting Loki into my arms as I walk past the woman.

"Hey, Gang, what do you want for Dinner today?" I call out.

"Mn." Courtney grunts from her spot, hand wrapped around Zinnia's wrists as they seemed to be quietly fighting before I walked back in here.

"Whatever's good... as long as you're paying" The Draconid girl shrugs before glaring back at Courtney.

She seems genuinely perturbed that she's losing a physical confrontation... and, honesty? That's completely fair... Courtney seems to be stronger than the average girl... I'll take note of that for later.

I walk over to where my bag was haphazardly tossed aside after we returned and pull out a large briefcase.

I crack it open, looking over the identical red and white spheres.

"Let's see here..." I whisper under my breath.

Only the first couple are labeled... my fucking marker ran out of ink and I wasn't about to spend one hundred poke on a new one. That's fucking ridiculous. Damned scammy system.

"Ah! Here we are. Velicidgey."

"Merlin can you take us up top?"

A portal opens beside me.

"Thank you!"

I turn and walk through the portal coming to a stop at a small forested area nearing the edge of a cliff.

"I know for a fact this is one of the uninjured ones, so we can do this here." I call out, Lazily tossing Loki down where he lands on his feet.

I hold out the pokeball, causing a red streak of light to shoot out.

The feathered little reptile seems to shake its head, looking around.

"That-" the woman behind me breathes out a quiet gasp.

It lets out a small shriek, beginning to turn and flee, but I quickly return it to the pokeball.

"The main issue comes from how feral these pokemon are." I admit with a small sigh. "They're unsuitable to be a partner. You might have some better effort if you reared one from an egg- which is why I will probably be buying a Ditto shortly, but beyond that? I'll probably not train even a single member of this first generation."

"Regardless... this is Velocidgey, it evolves into the pack hunting pokemon Velocideotto... then to Velocideot. Typical ability, tough claws." I list off lazily. "I've got a dossier I'm probably going to release soon... as soon as I figure out the names and all."

"Of course." I continue. "That depends on how we want to go public with this information and how we want to deal with... all of this."

I gesture to the pokeball.

I turn to the blonde woman. "Sooo quick question. How easy is it to get a 'pokemon professor' doctorate? Cause I think I may just become the pokemon professor of ancient pokemon."

"U-Uh... there is a test... you need feats as well." The woman begins quietly. "Professor Oak developed the pokedex, categorized hundreds of pokemon into it, and discovered a dozen or so new species. Professor Elm discovered the nature of pokemon Egg Groups, Professor Rowan discovered how to evolve many of the item-based pokemon evolutions such as Electabuzz and Magmortar, developing the items required to do so with much more success than the natural methods."

"So... I've only got a test to take?" I hum, a confident smile on my face.

"Y-Yeah." The woman nods once.

I tap my chin, cocking my head to the side. "Courtney might want to try out for a professorship as well."

"Oh?" Cynthia questions. "What for? An additional expert on ancient pokemon? I'm afraid that won't really be possible. Only a single person can hold a 'Pokemon Professor' title for a certain subject. It is a great honor to be bestowed it."

"Oh, no... I was more thinking of her own personal discovery." I smirk. "But. It's not my place to talk about it. If you want to know more, ask her."

"Right..." The woman states slowly. "A lot of people want to speak to you about this, Xander."

"I can take a call." I agree instantly. "But I'm not all too keen on doing anything that is time consuming or monotonous yet. I'm still relaxing."

I stand over a microscope, a frown on my lips.

"What is it?" Zinnia asks from behind me.

The second Cynthia went off to the pokemon league Zinnia here begged me- with actions that might be seen as lewd such as oral sex- to get started on her 'sweet new team members'.

Cynthia herself seemed to be meeting with ALL the champions and the pokemon league higher ups.

Apparently, they are deciding how they want to handle Twist Mountain and, well, me going forwards.

Some people may call for me to turn over my pokemon, but they can suck my fucking dick. If they dare try that shit first thing I'm doing is using my Doctor Strange magic to bomb their headquarters.

I trust Cynthia enough to feel a little safe, though.

It'll probably just result in me getting my professorship and being told to remove locational data from my recordings of the past as I post it on the poke-net. Mainly to stop people from trying to get hurled into a different time.

I glance back to Zinnia. "Do you want the good news or bad news?"

"Good is always good!" She proclaims.

"The Latiorm DNA survived." I announce.

"That's good!"

"It's also far beyond my capabilities to mess with right now." I decide to hit her point-blank with the bad news.

"Huh!?" She gasps. "Why?!"

"Turns out legendary DNA is FAR more complex than I first thought... who knew... if you would attribute literally EVERYTHING I've been working with so far- Tiamat- that is the equivalent of a triangle... three sides. Slightly complex, but overall easily manageable."

I gaze back into the microscope. "This is a fucking icosagon."

"I'm just going to pretend that I know what an 'Ickossagon' is-"

"Twenty Sides." I cut in.

"Ah." She mutters. "How long do you think it'll take you to crack it?"

"Eh... if I were to focus entirely on it? Maybe... a year? Two? Three max." I shrug. "But I also need to focus on other things... Courtney's missing three team members as well. I need to get started on a Larvesta for her."

"What?! Come on! Xandy my friendly friend. Pleeeease make my newest teammate first?"

"You have two mega pokemon." I deadpan.

"Yeah, and she has two supercharged weirdo pokemon." The girl shoots back. "I'd honestly call those Mega pokemon in their own rights. They sure as hell don't look normal."

"You've got a pseudo legendary." I continue.

"I also gave you a blowjob for you to make mine first."

"..."

"I can offer more if that's what it'll take to convince you~" she smirks.

"No banging in my lab." I frown. "I take care to keep this place clean."

I turn, looking over the girl, she has changed a lot since we first met. Her new outfit looks really good, actually.

Her original cape is tied around her waist as she wears a tank top and slightly baggy cargo pants. She allowed her hair to stay long, now being pulled into a ponytail.

Her new outfit is quite easy on the eyes.

I myself have gotten a haircut to look roughly the same as I usually do, just tanned now, with some scars here and there. Courtney did the same.

"Don't you have gyms to prepare for?" I question.

"Pfft." She scoffs. "Those bastards won't know what'll hit them. I want new team members now so I can train them up as I go through the rest of the gyms."

"How many badges did you say you had again?"

"Dunno." She shrugs. "It's been quite a while since I thought about that."

"OH! Another point. I'm on a timer. You and Courtney? Neither of you are competing in the Pokemon League this year. I, on the other hand, am still down three team members. Not that it'll really matter. I'll win either way, but the sooner I get those three reserve teammates, the sooner I can really WOW those spectators" She points to her chest proudly.

"Fine." I sigh, rolling my eyes. "What do you want? What should I try and make?"

"Ye-Olden Bagon and the red one obviously." The girl begins.

She pauses and begins to ponder, cocking her head to the side as she leans against the wall. "Hm... as for the last member... I'm unsure. Ancient Gible is cool and all, but that's more that blonde woman's Shtick."

"I'm pretty sure the tar-skeleton one is a dragon type... poison type as well so you can beat back those pesky fairy types." I shrug.

"No. NO NO NO. Do not fucking start with this 'fairy type' bullshit. It doesn't exist. Nothing you ever say and do... will convince me that it exists. There's no way DRAGON TYPES could ever have such a crushing weakness to fairies. Ugh."

"Alright... one of these days, I'm going to pull out a Sylveon and blow your fucking mind."

"E-Excuse me?!"

"Sylveon... the fairy type Eevee Evolution." I deadpan. "It exists."

Her eyes narrow slightly. "I'm going to refuse to believe you until I can see it."

"Heh." I smirk, turning my gaze back to the microscope. "You've got options for the final team member. Gible. That three headed dragon pokemon- that isn't related to Hydreigon somehow- the ancient Charizard, the tar spino, tyrunt, hell, or I could make you a modern day dragon if you really wanted... or I could use that DNA I have stored up."

"Dna?" She echoes.

I ponder for a moment. "Sort of wanted them for MY team, though."

"I have two DNA samples laying around here. One I've labeled 'Thunder Dragon' as it is draconic DNA that is electrically charged. The other is named 'Black Dragon'. It's incomplete and if I remember correctly, I was looking for a melanistic pokemon that could complete it. Thunder dragon on the other hand is ready to be cloned."

"Thunder dragon? There's no electric dragon types! That sounds kick ass! Gimmie that one!"

I cup my chin, eyes flicking to four gestation pods-

As soon as I walked in here I summoned three more with practically all of my current savings... mainly because I don't want to answer the question of where I got these... and it's not like we're going to be having any issues with money any time soon.

"Alright. I wanted to see if I could try and combine it with Zekrom whenever we eventually got it, but whatever. There's nothing saying that I can't do that later as well." I shrug.

I quickly write down on a piece of paper. "Koraidon, Malimence, Thunder Dragon."

"Alright. I've never attempted to modify a Pseudo Legendary before, so let's see how I do. I'll work on Latiorm later. It could be our ace in the hole for beating back Kyurem... the only worry is, well, it's a dragon type and Kyurem is Dragon-Ice."

"So it'll be an even fight!" The girl grins savagely.

"Sure sure." I wave off. "Did we label Koraidon's pre-evo? Or the Bagrunt?"

"We did." The girl nods.

Ah. Right. Most of the things went unlabeled because we had no names for them... and the fucking marker.

"I'll probably need Loki to hold them down so I can pluck a scale or some blood, but overall it should be relatively easy... or we could worry about all that shit later and just get started on thunder dragon."

"Get started on thunder dragon! It's a new species! I already know what to expect from the ancient mons, I want to see a new kickass dragon type!"

"Fine, fine." I roll my eyes. "I'll expect you in my bed tonight."

"So... the same as every night?" The girl smirks.

"Are you on birth control?"

"Perhaps." She shrugs causing me to turn and give her a half-lidded glare.

"Fine, fine. Yes... Yes I am." The girl grumbles. "Regretfully."

"Cool. I'll be taking that as payment, then." I blandly announce as I turn and begin making my way to the DNA freezer. "Now... let's get started."

Well! No rest for the wicked as they say. Xander's back and is eager to stretch his genetic tinkering wings!

Fixed the formatting. genuinely FUCK ffn. guess I'll be forced to copy-paste chapters now

I have a patroom. you can find it at Flameclawsxx