“They're what?” Joshua looks up from his little wood carving project.

  “The Survey Corps member that caught the Goomy? He's being expelled from the Team” Laventon expined, sitting next to Joshua.

  The both of them are outside Gaxy Team HQ, on a small wooden bench. Joshua is waiting for Cyllene.

  “Good” Joshua huffs. “That's a sp on the wrist, but at least they didn't try to cover it up. Only good thing about luring a pseudo-legendary, especially an ALPHA one, into town is that they can't exactly hide it”

  Laventon looks over at him, eyebrow raised.

  “...why would they hide it?”

  Now it's Joshua's turn to be confused.

  “...because it would be a bad look on them?”

  Rather simple, really.

  Laventon blinks, before shaking his head in exasperation.

  “Joshua. Lying about it would make them look WORSE. I'm a bit lost, my friend from the sky”

  Even chat seems confused.

  [???]

  [Someone add this to the culture difference counter!]

  [Friendly reminder folks that Joshua's world was ended by his government]

  [StevenStoneOffical: Our government may be slow at times, Joshua, but we are not corrupt.]

  …oh right.

  Government corruption is the extreme exception here. Even in Hisui.

  Pokemon and cultural differences created something that would be a miracle in his old world.

  Actually competent government workers.

  Either that, or living in California has REALLY lowered his expectations. He was a Vet, so most of his gripe was the amount of bureaucratic red tape that basically stonewalled him from dealing with animals.

  “And what does ‘pseudo-legendary’ mean? I'm afraid I haven't heard of such a term!”

  Laventon seems MUCH more excited at that.

  “You… is that term not a thing?”

  “Not that I can tell”

  [Me neither lol]

  [Nope]

  [I<3Gible: Expin]

  [StevenStoneOffical: I have some idea but not the full details]

  Oh boy.

  Joshua thinks about what he wants to say. He knows that he'll have to paraphrase a LOT of details, but he'll feel bad if he brought this up and left Laventon an expnation as barebones as “le strong Pokemon”.

  “Okay, so. You know how Pokemon evolve, right?”

  “It's a phenomenon that makes them grow into stronger forms the stronger they get, yes”

  “Pseudo-legendary Pokemon are Pokemon that have to fulfill three conditions. They have slow evolutions, they have three stages of evolution, and their total strength all across the board has to at least touch a certain threshold”

  Laventon is hooked, he has his notebook out now. Chat is equally interested.

  “First thing, what do you mean ‘slow’ evolution?”

  “It just means that the requirements for that Pokemon to evolve are higher, disregarding the Pokemon that evolve in unique conditions like items or bonds, they don't count”

  He hurriedly writes away in his notebook.

  “So why does it have to be a… what did you call it… a ‘three stage evolution'?”

  “Pokemon with more evolutions tend to be stronger. Again, there's so many contradictions that it makes my head hurt, but that's the general idea”

  [Okay but Beedrill has three evolutions, and it's not legendary at all!]

  “Beedrill evolves very quickly, as bug types tend to do. They peak early, but their average strength is around the mid-low area”

  “...beedrill?”

  “Big, scary bug thing”

  “Oh, okay”

  He clears his throat.

  “You mentioned a ‘threshold’ they have to pass. How exactly can you tell if they cross it? And what IS the threshold?”

  Its having a base total of at least six hundred.

  “It's a bit… ambiguous, but luckily the threshold is high enough that there's not a lot that cross it, so you can DEFINITELY tell”

  “And Goodra…”

  “Is a Pseudo-legendary, yes”

  “Fascinating…” Laventon smiles as he continues to write.

  [StevenStoneOffical: So what makes Pseudo-legendary Pokemon different enough to have its own term?]

  “They are really, absurdly strong”

  To the point that you could get through most of the game with a single one in your team.

  Luckily, Laventon thinks he’s still talking to him.

  “Jophiel, my Rapidash, definitely passes the threshold but she doesn't count as one because she only has a two stage evolution”

  “So does that m-”

  “Mr. Abrams” A voice cuts through.

  Cyllene appears, with two Gaxy Team members behind her, holding rge brown sacks.

  “While I'm not sure why you need such things, they sure cost a lot, but as you requested here are a generous amount of grit dust, gravel, pebbles, and… rocks”

  She seems not even sure why he would request such things, but she's not going to question it.

  Joshua's eyes go wide, and he quickly takes them.

  “Thank you!”

  Oh this is SO unfair.

  “If you need anything else. Let the Gaxy Team know, you've been a great help, Mr. Abrams”

  She turns and walks off.

  “Are those… rocks?”

  Joshua just smiles.

  “Yes”

  …

  Joshua has decided to hold off on using the items.

  Along with the Grit Rocks, Joshua has gotten a rather hefty monetary reward, which he immediately turned around to buy materials from a very worried Gingko Merchant.

  They asked what such materials were going to be used for, but Joshua just smiled.

  It's a surprise tool that will help him ter.

  But… strangely.

  Volo is nowhere in sight.

  …odd.

  Now he is back at his camp outside the walls, back to carving away at his little wooden project. He's finding himself enjoying the peace of his camp more than the chaos of the Vilge, even if he would like to socialize more.

  What should he do…?

  He's already handed over his caught Pokemon to Laventon, he almost forgot about that, which made the man ecstatic.

  Akari is with the Professor too, she's helping with the repairs, so Uriel is back in her pokeball for now.

  “I guess we just… go back? That's a bit awkward…”

  (“There is nothing that we can do about it, I suppose”)

  With not much else to do, and Lilligant already reserved for tomorrow, Joshua gets on Jophiel's back and heads back to Heights Camp.

  The flight is much calmer this time around. He actually gets to enjoy the view. Sprawling ndscapes of luscious green and bright snow open up to him as the sun hangs high in the air.

  “...God, I'm still thinking about it”

  (“Do you wish to talk about it?”) Jophiel's calming voice rings in his head.

  Joshua slumps.

  “Might as well… but, seriously? A Goodra? Out of everything that kid could have caught, they caught the baby of an Alpha Goodra?”

  Jophiel hums.

  “Do they even know how lucky they were? By the time we GOT there all of their Pokemon already had their shit kicked in. By some MIRACLE the fuckin… goop dragon was content with just having their kid back… and not, like, eating the dumbass”

  Joshua fumes, the sheer stupidity of the situation finally catching up to him.

  “Like, I get it, right? Goomy is pretty cute-”

  He can feel a twinge of jealousy come from the link.

  “-but… come ON! Even normal animals are super protective over their children, is Goomy worth pissing off one of the big boy dragons? Guaranteed he wasn't going to evolve it either! You saw the Pokemon in the Vilge, right?”

  (“I did”)

  “How many of them were evolved?”

  Jophiel is just idly gliding now, so she doesn't have to pay much attention to what's in front of her. She looks to the side as she thinks.

  (“...there was a Bibarel and a Staravia, but that was all, if I remember correctly”)

  “I saw a Graveler. That's three. THREE Pokemon that haven't even fully evolved yet, to fight a damn Goodra. How- Wha… WHY? That's so stupid! That wasn't even just some random kid, that was a member of the Survey Corps whose JOB is understanding Pokemon!”

  Jophiel turns her head to look him in the eye. She knows that none of this anger is directed towards her. If anything, it's an expression of trust to be this open about what he's thinking, even if the link makes physical communication completely redundant in this case.

  So she's just letting him get it out with someone who would listen, namely her.

  Plus, she just enjoys listening to him talk. Why wouldn't she treasure the moments she has with him?

  (“It would be simir to having a coworker at the zoo try and take a lion cub, correct?”)

  Joshua groans, running a hand down his face.

  “Exactly. Except the lion is eight fucking feet tall and can shoot ser beams out of its mouth. Good idea kid! Great fuckin idea…”

  Joshua slumps for real this time, falling forward and burying his face into the fur of the back of Jophiel's neck.

  “...am I just being weird?”

  (“About you being angry? Or about you wanting to put your face in my chest tuft again?”)

  Joshua snorts.

  “Embarrass me in front of thousands of people, why don't you? Et tu, Jophiel?”

  She giggles softly.

  (“It is pretty fun, but… what are you going to do about it?”) The alicorn asks, a teasing an almost… expectant tone drips off her words.

  Joshua leans up, scratching his chin as he pyfully acts like he's in deep thought.

  “Hmmmmm…”

  He ‘fakes’ having an idea, but they both know he's just pying theatrics.

  “Oh! Now that I think about it, our chess game is long overdue, isn't it?”

  She just hums in confirmation.

  “And now that we can go into Jubilife… I have a bit of an idea”

  (“Oh?”)

  He smirks, she's pying into the bit.

  “We find a nice tree to sit under, have a picnic, and we can both pretend we know how to py chess. What do you think?”

  Her lips curl further up, chuckling at the absurdity of them basically acting out a conversation just for the sake of it.

  Jophiel’s eyes meet his.

  (“That sounds lovely”)

  Something screams in his head.

  At that moment, Jophiel freezes, and Joshua instantly tenses.

  Her horn ignites, and she drops out of the sky as she flies downwards.

  For a brief moment, Joshua can see a rge dark ball of… purple bck energy? Flying straight at them.

  Joshua can feel Jophiel’s wing get clipped, and he's thrown off her back. The ball ruptures into a concussive explosion, throwing them back with the bst.

  He feels a pain in his right arm, like burning needles prodding at his bones. Fear grips at his mind, but he refuses to let it freeze him.

  Joshua forcefully drags his focus through the panic and opens his reaches for his belt as he falls out of the sky.

  With his one hand, he unclips a Pokeball and throws it down HARD towards the ground, but in the direction of Jophiel, who's struggling to regain her bance in the air. Her horn is ignited, and he can hear her panic through the link.

  “CATCH HER!”

  Uriel materializes further down, she takes a look at him and grimaces, she hardens her gaze before turning herself into a blur of lightning towards the falling alicorn.

  The sprawling forest of dense overgrowth quickly grows closer. He tries to stop his body from tensing, failing to stop himself from gritting his teeth.

  *CCRRAASSHH*

  Joshua crashes through the overgrowth and plummets to the forest floor.

  …

  [POV: STEVEN STONE]

  [JOSHUA?!]

  [WHAT?!]

  [WHAT HAPPENED???]

  [Was that a move???]

  “Sir, are you alright?”

  At his assistant's words, the Hoenn Champion tears his eyes off the stream.

  Steven looks at his now shattered coffee mug, fracturing under the intense pressure of his clenched fist.

  “...I'm fine” Calmly, he accepts a towel and cleans it up, mind going a mile a minute.

  He should be panicking, but as someone who's been in many battles, his worry became ced with curiosity.

  And worse… recognition.

  That was Shadow Ball.

  That's a move that takes TIME to learn, especially to hit something at such a range.

  Somebody attacked Joshua.

  “Metagross… keep a record”

  Metagross nods.