Chapter 62: A Cool Father/Son Talk

Important characters

Jessie (Male Tentacool/Ex-Human)

Aurum (Male Gyrados)

Alakazam (Male Dad)

Abra (Male Son)

? (Unown, A mysterious pokemon researching The Error)

"Well that was an adventure an a half, literally!"

-"You were in there for under an hour."

Jessie waves Abra off and scoots himself in the general direction of his friends... it doesn't work too good since he's still being psychically carried by Alakazam who seemed to be more concerned with his 'son' than anything else at the moment.

Sensing the tension in the room, Aurum grabs Jessie as gently as he's able with those massive toofers of his and moves him into a pond near the pokemon daycare house. The rangers follow closely behind to get the full debrief from their squishy charge.

-"So." Alakazam begun. -"You have something to tell me?"

-"Yeah. A couple things actually."

-"Go on."

-"I... I don't feel like I've ever gotten any respect from you." Abra began. -"I feel like anytime I wanted to tell you something, you would shut down the conversation. Or you would just read my mind to get the info you wanted and leave me all alone. Or you would say I didn't know what I was talking about and that- YOU'RE DOING IT NOW!"

Alakazam quickly shuts down the mental bridge he was building, dropping Jessie's now empty bucket in surprise.

-"Yes, that is the best way to obtain information."

-"Yeah sure, information. But you never understood how I 'felt' because you would never just talk to me like normal!"

-"Communicating mentally is normal for psychic pokemon."

-"No it isn't! At least not the way you've been doing it! Other psychic pokemon talk to one another way more than they use their powers to share concepts and shit! You say it's normal and everyone should do it, but do you know what I think?"

Alakazam furrows his brow, not knowing how to understand how his child thinks without psychic powers.

-"I think you don't know how to talk to people! That's your problem!"

-"That's-" He pauses for a long while. -"That is a fair assessment."

-"Huh? Uh I mean, DAMN RIGHT IT IS! How are you gonna understand feelings if you don't use words?"

-"Context."

-"C-context?"

-"Your small friend, Jessie, told me that context is important when receiving information. It appears he was correct. I... apologize."

-"You... okay. This conversation isn't going how it normally goes."

-"By your own assessment, conversations between us normally go poorly. Is this an improvement?"

-"Y-yeah. Yeah, it's a big improvement so far."

-"Good. In that case, I also have some concerns." Raising a hand, he takes the small bag of coffee beans out of Abra's pack.

-"H-hey, that's mine!" He reached out for it instinctively, but a look from his dad made him withdraw his hand.

-"I have a problem with this." He gives the bag a shake. -"This, and many things like it, are poison to our kind. I do not want you to consume it."

-"Well yeah, but it's... it's not a very strong poison, right?"

-"I have seen pokemon literally poop themselves uncontrollably from much smaller doses than what you have been taking."

-"Er, that's... fair." Abra looks down sheepishly.

-"Then we are in agreement?"

-"Yeah... I won't drink anymore caffeine."

-"Good."

-"I can still have decaf though, right?"

-"..."

-"It's okay this time."

-"Thank you." The old pokemon reaches into Abra's mind and pulls out what little information there is on 'decaf' products. Then probes the others' minds just to be sure it is what he thinks it is.

-"...Yes. Decaf is fine."

-"YES!"

-"Now, about your gender."

-"Oh boy, here we go. Yes, I don't like being called a female. No, I don't want to have children. Yes, I do like being called a male. And I would prefer if you did the same."

*Nods* -"Very well."

-"...Really? You're not going to try to force me to change or to continue the family line or-"

-"No."

-"But, why?"

-"After you left, I was... I had a conversation with your siblings. Each one insisted I was failing to understand you, failing my duty as your parent. This was unacceptable to me."

-"Oh no. Are they-"

-"So I did some research."

-"H-huh? They didn't get punished?"

-"Hm? No no, the unacceptable part was my own failures, not your siblings who brought this to my attention. It is the parent's responsibility to change for their child's benefit, not the other way around."

-"O-oh... so, what did you find out?"

-"I found out much from the humans who passed through this route, both about what you are speaking of, your altered gender, as well as something I have been considering... Tell me, my son, what do you know of the mental attribute known as 'autism'?"

Jessie began pouring over all the details he had talked about with Alakazam. All about their theory about the massive chimera building up mass here in the city, as well as the movements of other chimera that the rangers had missed. By the end of this long discussion... neither of them had any clue what he was saying.

"Oh right, you two aren't quite up to date on your pokespeech lessons. Where is a menacing green Hoothoot when you need it?"

Ha Ha Ha!
Ever The Humorous One!

"I know that weird psychic tone, you're that Unown!"

It Is Actually ?
However I Will Answer To Unown For Your Sake.

"Very convenient... So what brings you?"

My Broth And I-

"Still can't believe you're calling a group of Unown a Broth of all things."

Have Been Researching This Conundrum.
It Would Appear That The Error Is Growing More Pervasive.

All parties nearby flinch at that word, 'The Error', as Unown is calling it.

"Jeez, still gives me a migraine hearing that. But basically, my theory is right? They're gathering together?"

Yes.
You Are Correct In Your Deductions.
Though We Would Prefer If You Were Wrong This Time.

"Same, same... So what do we do about it? Can you track down this Error for us?"

That Is A Long Story.
Would You Please Summon Your Ranger Ally For Me?

"Sure thing, just let me-" Jessie starts flopping about on the shore and scoots himself over to one of the rangers' backpacks, grabbing a com device. Before anyone could do anything to stop him, he began pressing the button over and over again until whomever is on the other line gets pissed enough to come and see what all the commotion is.