Once we arrived I balled up my team and entered the city while dialing Birch to figure out where the hell I was supposed to go. "Yo Alex I take it you've arrived at Mauville?" he asked in a good mood. "Yep and I officially have no idea where to go from here so you know a bit of directions would be great." I said sarcastically. "Don't get snappy with me mister I am on my way so just sit on a bench or something , Birch out." he said before hanging up.-

'Now that he mentions it he was over in this area in the game at around the time the protag was so he might have already been nearby.' I thought slightly surprised to learn that Birch was at Mauville. Still I did what he said and just hung out on a bench and threw berries to the flocks of obese Pidgeys that lived in most cities. Yes fat pokemon were a thing in this world but to be fair most of the time it was because they lived in cities where they never needed to really struggle for anything or were pets that got pampered.-

Humans could be surprisingly wasteful with food so the trash that got picked through alongside the "kind old folks" that fed them it was no wonder they gained weight. I was thinking about hunting one of these Pidgeys to see if they extra heft made them taste better when Birch called out to me from nearby. "Alex over here!" he yelled out and I and pretty much everyone else nearby looked at him. He wasn't alone however as next to him was someone that I swear to my great lord RNGESUS was Santa personified but in engineer clothes.-

It was a jolly looking old man with a decent gut and short white hair and beard that had a cherry red nose and everything. Unlike Santa however this man had on khaki pants and a brown engineers jacket on. "You must be Watson." I said looking down at the man calmly. "You betcha! I have to admit I thought you'd be shorter." Watson said with a chuckle as he looked up. "Speaking of did you get taller?" Birch asked suspiciously as he eyed me. I shrugged "No idea really I stopped trying to keep track of it after I hit six six." I said honestly.-

I knew for a fact that I had stopped growing finally but as for at what height that was I have no clue. "No matter I suppose we'll find out soon enough when we get your physical done up and some tests run." Birch said choosing to drop it. "Hold on I thought the egg was the thing getting tested why am I getting tests run on me?" I asked confused. "We want to try and figure out why you alone seem to possess such an affinity with variant pokemon , also is that a fifth ball on your belt?" Birch said before questioning the extra pokeball on my belt.-

"Oh yeah that's my newest teammate , Aranyani. She's a shiny Treecko. Absolutely monstrous talent too and that's coming from me so you know she's something special." I said with a grin. Birch sighed while Watson burst into laughter. "At least this time it's a species native to Hoenn , I swear you have this weird fascination with catching variants that are hard to understand being here in the first place." Birch complained though it was obvious it didn't really bother him.-

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"I like unique stuff , nothing wrong with that." I defended casually playing along. "Whatever you say Mister savage saint." Birch said with a chuckle. "Ugh I hate that name , it makes me sound like an idiot. I'm an alchemist damnit!" I complained and they both laughed. "If you don't like that nickname then just do something that changes it , create a revolutionary new item or just get strong enough that they call you something else , maybe champion?" Watson suggested with a wide smile. "I already did one of those and am just waiting for the Devon corp to come through on their side of things." I said honestly.-

"Oh? And what did you create?" Birch asked curious. "I made two potions actually , one that nourishes the eyes making learning eye abilities or moves easier and one that I admit I made on accident and has me conflicted." I said honestly as we walked. "That first potion will likely be quite popular with the sort of trainers that like to apply debuffs in battle." Watson said and I nodded in agreement. "Whats wrong with the second potion though that has you conflicted about it? is it a poison or something?" Birch asked curiously.-

"Not at all , do either of you know what an aphrodisiac is?" I asked and they took a moment before Watson spoke up "Do you mean those things the breeders use to help produce an egg?" he asked and I nodded. "I made something like that but like a thousand times more potent and it will work for humans as well. I was intending to create a fire elemental stimulant but ended up with that instead so I am conflicted about it." I said explained with a sigh. "Ah! You are worried that people will think you some sort of sex crazed maniac. A valid concern but easily fixed by simply being a trainer as you are." Watson said wisely figuring out the issue I was having.-

"What do you mean?" I asked confused as to how being a trainer would fix an issue like that. "The leagues got a whole department that has the job of making sure that bad rumors like that that aren't actually true get squashed alongside those that are true but damage the leagues image. If it was actually true though there would be no saving your reputation as the league wouldn't move to stop it from getting out of control." Watson said with a thumbs up.-

That was honestly a huge relief for me as while I don't really care about what people say about me I know that bad rumors like that would get in the way of my goal. Rumors about me being ruthless on the otherhand would actually help me on my way to my goal since it fit it to begin with. Soon after that we arrive at a sleek shiny metal building with a sign out front that reads {Mauville scientific research institute}. The front doors open and a purple haired woman in a white lab coat stepped out. Her hair was pixie cut and she had a freckled nose area under her eyes.-

She looked to be about thirty at most and had pale sun deprived skin that told me she stayed inside most of the time. "Alex meet Doctor Samantha Dimez , the head of pokemon biology here in Mauville. Sam this is Alexander Drake the variant specialist with the Feebas egg that might have been tampered with by people." Watson made introductions. I nodded at the woman "Pleased to meet you." i said calmly. She studied me for a second with her eyes lingering on my waist for a moment before she smiled and returned the greeting.