Steven stepped up to Misty after returning the very exhausted Prince back to his pokeball. He would be sure to reward him for his hardwork and effort to clutch the 2nd badge by himself! Misty then had the announcer hush the crowd and after a moment or so of waiting for the masses to quiet down, started to speak.

"Challenger Mute God! You have shown exceptional grit and spirit out on the battlefield today! It is my honor and privilege to present you with your reward! Here," Misty said as she handed the Cerulean City Gym badge to him,"This is the Cerulean City Gym badge and proves that you have bested me in the indigo circuit! On top of that, since you have gained my recognition and activated the special challenge, as well as bested my Fathers prized Starmie in a true battle of will, I gladly bestow the challenger the T.M. Water Pulse!"

Steven was immensely surprised as T.M.'s were very difficult to attain for anyone at this moment. T.M's were still new and cutting edge machines that could not be produced at-scale and en-masse. They were not at all similar to the games, where it was a simple disk. In Stevens reality, T.M. 's currently worked by hooking a device to the head and eyes of the pokemon using the various straps to hook it in. Then, if everything goes as mentioned in the user manuals he had read, it shows an image into the deepest parts of the pokemons eyes, acting as a probe and "ingraining" a permanent memory into the pokemon, thus "teaching" a move.

Steven had not even tried to get a T.M. so far because of how tiresome it would be, as well as the horrifying amalgamated state the Tech was currently in. He did not want to make any of his pokemon suffer through that, which is why he never actually tried to get any. Steven did also have plans in the near future, plans for when Bill and himself would truly start the pioneering age of T.M. and H.M.'s.

Steven was currently also trying to pull in Fuji, attempting to pry him out of his "retirement", as well as Gym Leader Blaine, who was ironically giving his company the cold shoulder. Both men were a little difficult to work with, as well as to woo over to his side, but Steven knew that in MANY comics Blaine had sided with Team Rocket, and Fuji was always in the center of Mega-Evolutions. Both people would have a major impact on the Kanto region.

Steven then bowed to Misty and stepped to the side so as to watch the other 2 women challengers.

The Blonde one came up, and the announcer named her,"the ground queen". She used a Budew as her first pokemon and swiftly beat Misty's first pokemon while also taking only about 30% herself. Then Misty's personal Starmie came out and after a heated back and forth of dodging for Budew, managed to get the Starmie to 55% hp before fainting. Then she sent out her Gible, who bit and used a very ingenious dig strategy when the Starmie attempted an attack from underneath the platform. Gible just barely scraped out a win.

The Blonde walked over to Steven and didn't say anything to him, only handing a piece of folded up paper. Steven opened up the piece of paper and it read,"Cynthia Rosewood".

Stevens eyes popped out of his sockets when he saw that! "Cynthia! That champion is here in the indigo league? Why?! First Steven Stone, and now her! Wait! Who was the girl with her? She looks familiar but I can't tell for certain who it is!!" Steven thought erratically to himself.

Then Steven took a moment and then took a long breath in. He calmed himself and then wrote on the back of the paper,"My real name is Steven. No Last name though. Whats your friends name?"

The other girl at this point had just stepped into the ring and on the platform. The announcer then yelled out,"We have a new contender for her first gym challenge today folks! Please welcome Miss Jasmine!"

The crowd applauded thunderously! It was not everyday someone chose their town as their first gym! This would be an exciting first match for sure!

There was no specific order to how you had to do the gym challenges, Brock could theoretically be challenged up to the 8th gym badge. However, Brock also needed to personally train and raise the pokemon he was battling with and was what a majority of his funds went towards. Basically, the gym leaders had to actually HAVE the pokemon at the level required to challenge for a badge. To continue the example, Brock has a personal Onix he has raised to level 23, which is good enough to at least qualify him into at least the first 3 gym challenges. So, someone could challenge the Saffron Gym, then Misty's Gym, and then had gone on and challenged Brocks Gym, and it was all totally legit and broke no laws. This was a "feature" that Steven had discovered early on when he first arrived in this world, and he had realized that they set it up like this so literally anyone could do gym challenges in their city as part of the starting Circuit! It was very smart and forward thinking on the Circuit Divisions part!

Right now Steven had just handed the paper back to Cynthia and as she read it, he thought to himself,"It surely cannot be the famed Steel gym leader that took Johto by storm as she climbed the ranks quickly?! That Jasmine!!?"

Cynthia then wrote something quickly on the paper and handed it back to him. He read,"Jasmine, family friend. Back off!"

Steven then realized that this was definitely the Jasmine he was thinking about! What were the odds of meeting these two future bosses! Steven could only smile and contemplate his next move. Truthfully Cynthia was even more beautiful in person than her avatar and anime counterpart gave her credit for. She was depicted as very skinny and not "filled out" but Steven could clearly tell that she was at least a C-.

Steven shook his head as teenage mind ran amok for the first time in a while, he had forgotten about that weird side of his brain for a long time now. Steven, not having any clue what he was saying, wrote on the paper,"I won't go for her, you have my promise that I shall not even think about it. I actually much prefer you if I am being honest. I would love to keep in contact and exchange pointers in the future. Do you have a personal ID on Bill's system pc located in the pokemarts?"

Jasmine had just defeated the first Staryu and her Magnemite was obviously elated as well! Then Misty sent out a small Goldeen and the fighting resumed!

Steven handed Cynthia the note and she almost instantly turned away from him and the fight. Steven thought this was a bit odd, but just ignored it and continued watching the fight, completely unaware that Cynthia was having a mini crisis on what exactly Steven meant by his note!

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Jasmine then lost to the Goldeen but still managed to paralyze it before going down. Jasmine had no more pokemon and was apparently out of the challenge! Steven was surprised that she didn't bring another pokemon.

Cynthia still didn't turn back around to him, so as Jasmine walked defeated back to the side, he handed her a note that read,"There is always a victory in defeat. You take what you failed to do correctly and then make absolutely sure that it can never happen again. You have lost a battle, now get up and continue your fight! The war is far from over!"

Jasmine read the note and was instantly cheered up as she gave Steven a big hug and surprisingly managed to lift his tall and beefy frame a few inches off the ground!

Steven was startled beyond belief!

Misty then announced that her team would need to heal and that she would resume challenges in the afternoon. As the crowd dispersed and went to have a productive day, Misty walked over to where the challengers were currently standing.

Steven saw Misty walking up to them and managed to break Jasmine's stranglehold on him and free Prince from his pokeball once more. Prince came out and was still tired and injured and asked,"What is it my lord? I am sorry but i am exhausted!"

Steven sprayed a hyper potion on him and gave him 5 oran berries to feed on. Steven thought to him,"Please just sit here and pretend like your the one making the connection! I don't want it to look weird!"

Prince, now starting to get used to this, simply nodded and began chewing on his Oran berries.

Steven then set up a connection between himself, Misty, Cynthia, and Jasmine, making sure their private thoughts were not going to come out the instant he set up the connection. He had learned in the past that it was a mistake you only make once, any more and you start losing a great amount of respect. Steven said on the line,"Hello Ladies! Please, do not freak out."

The 3 women, all doing something different at the moment, suddenly froze in place.

Steven then said quickly,"Ladies, It is I, Mute God. I am communicating through my pokemon in your thoughts, because I, well I am mute haha!"

The 3 ladies all had sudden epiphanies and the tension visibly decreased in front of Stevens eyes. Misty said to him,"That scared the crap out of me!"

Jasmine thought,"Wow, this mister is so cool with his words and his brain!"

Cynthia also thought,"Is there a reason you pulled all of us into such a sudden interaction? Interesting as it may be, I did not give consent to such a barbaric intrusion into my mind!"

Steven put up his hands and said,"I apologize ma'am, I often forget this custom as I use it so often in my everyday life. It is like locking a house door but forgetting to go and make a copy, something that's easy to forget no matter how you try. Anyways, I saw some pretty good fight out of you two girls, and I wanted to know if you wanted to join me as I head to Celadon City for the third badge?"

Jasmine turned to Cynthia and just repeated begged over thought connection and speech,"PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"

Cynthia put her finger on Jasmine's lips and then said aloud,"Fine. We will join you. Lt.Surge, eh? Now that might be a good fight!"

Jasmine squealed out,"YYIIIII!!!"

Misty frowned and asked annoyedly,"Why did you drag me into your conversation just to ignore me!"

Steven bowed slightly and thought to her,"I apologize, that was indeed rude of me. I mainly pulled you in to see if you would be interested in a side project my godbrother is heading with his company."

Misty was a little taken aback but steeled herself and asked,"Do you know what I would be working on?"

Steven smiled and said,"I do not know the specific details, but apparently it was study regarding a second possible evolution for Poli-Whirl, besides Poliwrath. As well as working on a new theory for Seadra evolution as well."

All 3 women were stunned. Misty gulped and asked hesitantly,"Wh- What uh.. What's your godbrothers company called?"

Steven smiled and thought to her,"Oh, it's Boundless Research Inc.!"

Misty then managed to accidentally send over the connection,"Shit!"

PPP

Richard rushed to the south end of the island as fast as the Ponyta carrying him would allow. Currently he was riding at breakneck pace towards the supposed research lab of Gideon. This was the last place that Richard was going to check, and if he wasn't here, then he would just give up. He had a plane to catch in 13 hours after all! He was not prepared at all!

As soon as he got up to the lab he hopped off the steed and ran up to the doors in a flurry. He pounded on the door 3 times. After approximately 9 seconds someone answered the door and it was a man with black and darkblue undertoned hair and who looked to be in his 30's.

The man said,"What is huh?! Why you come running up like that and start bangin!? Who are ye?! He already had a pokeball by his side.

Richard then said,"Gideon, I am truly sorry for running up to your research lab in such a panic and also for pounding on your door, but I have come to offer you a once in a lifetime opportunity!"

Gideon then straightened himself to his full 6 foot 1 inch height and said dignifiedly,"Alright, what do you have for me." Gideon then thought to himself,"This is odd, first the rockets come and petition me to join them and now a fellow colleague is saying theres another one? Something is fishy here.."

Richard and Gideon went inside to speak and Richard was amazed at the many devices and tools that Gideon was using to study the various pokemon around his lab. From what Richard could understand in his limited knowledge in pokemon, it appeared Gideon was trying, or at least attempting to study a pokemon so thoroughly as to be as to see stat changes as they occur. Richard assumed he was trying to quantify data from the different "levels" a pokemon goes through as the ascend in power.

Richard didn't focus on the research for long though, as he was brought into a main living room with two comfortable looking couches placed elegantly in the middle. Richard sat down, as well Gideon, and the talk could finally begin.

Richard started off by saying,"Gideon, I don't know you that well, so I truly am sorry for the sudden and unannounced visit. I have been trying various means to reach you or find you in the last few days."

Gideons interest peaked a little at this and asked,"Oh? You are the one who kept sending those garbled messages into my spam mailbox? Looks like I need to come up with a better mail system.."

Richard almost leapt across the room to smack him at this moment. He reigned in his anger and asked,"Gideon, how much do you know about "Boundless Research "?"

Gideons eyes widened a bit at the mention of THAT company and suddenly he got a lot more serious. Gideon's face turned stone cold in an instant and straightened his posture and leaned forwards like a predator lurking in the tall grass. Gideon replied,"Yes, I know of this company and the drastic things they have already done."

Richard smiled and said back,"Ok! Perfect! That makes this so much easier! Ok, where do I start with this..? Ok, so basically I have a colleague that you probably know, Bill."

Gideon then slack jawed asked,"THAT Bill?"

Richard puffed his chest in pride for his good friend and colleague as he replied,"Of course! The very same! Anyways, Bill got hired by Boundless Research after the failure of a personal project of his. Apparently the founder understood his entire project from top to bottom and even spoke in length about the obstacles the tech would face!"

Gideons face was stone cold and blank but his inner mind was in turmoil hearing that someone could rival Bill in the same extremes that man had gone too and even understood everything at a glance! Frightening power and intellect!

Richard continued,"After he was hired, he recommended me and I head out in approximately 12 hours to pallet town to become a Chief Technical Officer for a brand new company the owner that I mentioned wanted us, me and BIll, to head. Shortly after I was hired, he sent a company wide bulletin to find 2 scientists that he had heard good things about, and you were one of them."

Gideon was immensely surprised and asked,"He specifically requested that people in his company attempt to locate or get in contact with me?"

Richard nodded his head and said,"Yes, I knew you were on the island conducting some type of research into inner strength, or at least that was the last information I had received. I have also asked the owner through Bill and apparently the owner wants to speak to you if you accept his offer."

Gideon then asked the most important question,"What is the position he is offering?"

Richard then spout out his rehearsed lines,"On behalf of the CEO of Boundless Research Inc., I CTO of Boundless Technologies, hereby offer you Gideon Hocrico a position as head researcher at Boundless Research. Your duties would vary based on the assignment and CEO Steven has said should you accept he will transfer his theory and small foundation for "Statistical Averages Equation" as well as "Physical and Special Statistical Split Theory and Proposal"."

Gideons breath was taken out of his body when he heard that! It was scarily accurate to his current research and it gave Gideon the spooks, like he now had someone watching over him and his lab at all times!

Seeing no choice and a great opportunity, Gideon looked at RIchard and said,"I accept your and your CEO's offer. Tell my new CEO to give me approximately 5 days to pack my equipment and various luggage. These machines are top of the line, and though I am sure the machines at Boundless are not to be scoffed at, I paid a very pretty penny on these."

Richard chuckled and started to walk out the door while saying,"I don't think it will be a problem! See ya at the new lab Gideon!"