“Bill! It’s been too long, my friend.”

“Sam! Welcome, welcome. I can’t even remember the last time you came to visit.

The two Pokemon Professors shook hands and pulled each other in for an embrace.

“How is Cerulean City treating you so far?”

Professor Oak chuckled. “It’s amazing how quickly this place develops. It feels like the city has almost doubled in size. Not to mention all the art, the canals, the high rises. Heck, Even the Cerulean Gym feels like a whole different place. Just a little over a decade ago, it was just the same bog standard boxy Gym building that all the other Leaders use.”

Bill led his guest into his abode and chuckled in return. “Indeed, Misty and her sisters have put a lot of work into expanding their operations. The Cerulean Gym is an entire entertainment enterprise at this point.”

“Incredible! The ingenuity of the young never ceases to amaze me. And Hikari! Lovely as ever, how are you my dear?”

Hikari stepped forward to kiss the senior Professor on his cheeks. “Samuel, I am very well. Please come in, I just had the most delectable tofu dish the other day and asked our chef to recreate it. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on how he did.”

The three settled down around the dining table and a servant poured out a bottle of Shuckle juice for their refreshment.

“So how long will you be staying, Sam?” Asked Bill.

“Oh not long at all, I’ll be heading over to Pewter tomorrow, then Viridian, and finally back to Pallet Town,” answered the older man. “I have no desire to linger for too long. You should know how insufferable those people in suits can be. Not everyone is lucky to have such a capable wife by their side.”

Bill laughed. “Well if you weren’t such a womanizing bastard, maybe you’d have found a cornerstone of your own by now,” he joked, eliciting laughter from his senior.

“What about the seminars then, any good seeds this year?”

Oak hummed. “As peace persists between Kanto and Johto, there are less reasons for humans and Pokemon alike to battle. Now we have children who grow up aspiring to be coordinators, researchers, nurses and so on. It is no longer the case where people took training Pokemon as seriously as they used to.”

“So you’re saying that the children have become complacent then?” Asked Bill.

Oak smiled. “Complacent and happier at the same time. It is not a bad thing. For the longest time, I dreamt of a world where Pokemon were no longer used as tools of war, and it seems we are finally at the dawn of such an era.” The old Professor looked out the window wistfully, reminiscing about bygone days.

“That was the reason why you gave up on the Champion’s seat and chose to research Pokemon-human relations was it not?” Chimed Hikari. “You wanted people to feel the same sense of loss in losing Pokemon as losing a loved one.”

Oak chuckled in affirmation. “By the way,” he continued. “I had the pleasure of speaking with Miss Nina yesterday.”

Bill grinned. “Quite the little girl, huh?”

Professor Oak nodded in response. “Intelligent and sincere at the same time, a rare combination indeed. Most geniuses her age are often devoid of empathy. You’ve found yourself quite the pupil, Bill.”

Hikari laughed. “You’re giving my husband too much credit, Samuel. Nina was already brilliant even before she met Bill. It was simply the hands of fate that brought the two of them together.”

“She’s right. Our meeting was a pure coincidence. Though I do look forward to following her career in the future.” Bill laughed, alongside his wife. “Which, by the way, she has expressed a desire to obtain a Pokedex of her own,” he added, in a somewhat suggestive tone.

“Oh you need not worry about that. After reading through her essay, I had her name added into the list right away. You can tell her to rest assured.”

“No need, Nina was quite insistent on ‘earning’ her own Pokedex, I believe she will welcome the surprise.”

As they were talking, the appetizers were brought out to the table. The three adults continued on with their conversation as they dug into the food.

Midway through the meal, Professor Oak turned towards Hikari for a favor. “Hikari, dear. When you have the time, do you mind making a trip over to Pallet Town. I have some Pokemon that I would like you to talk to.”

“Oh? Do you not have a Psychic available?” Asked the woman in return.

Oak sighed. “As you well know, Psychic therapy and talk therapy are two very different specializations. The situation is a delicate one and I fear that getting a Psychic Pokemon involved might be too intrusive.” Hikari tilted her head in interest and asked for more details.

“I recently lost a trainer over at Hoenn — it was a tragic incident, nothing that any of his Pokemon could have done,” said the Professor, his voice filled with pain and sadness. “And yet the trauma remains… It is times like this where I wish I had you gifts, Hikari.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Hikari nodded, readily agreeing to the elderly Professor’s request. “Of course, I’ll teleport over once you’re back from your trip and have a look. Perhaps it might even be beneficial to relocate them to our ranch so that I may have more time with them.”

“If you would be so willing, that would be great. I suspect they will only find bitter memories within the confines of my estate.”

The rest of the meal proceeded in a much more lighthearted manner as the friends caught up on their recent happenings.

***

Misty took off her jacket and handed it over to her personal assistant, suppressing a cold shudder all the while. “I’m getting old…” She thought.

The Gym leader had tried multiple times to ‘clean up’ her Gym’s image and move away from bikinis but never managed to accomplish anything due to lukewarm reception from the various focus groups they consulted. “Maybe what we need are hot guys in speedos…” She mused, but quickly shelved that thought.

She did not trust her sisters and the other girls not to cause a scandal within the first week of implementation. Though in truth, it was actually Misty herself who would likely get caught up in a scandal.

“So what was the name of this kid again?” Misty asked her P.A.

“She goes by the name of Vicious Thunder,” replied the assistant, eliciting an incredulous look from her boss. “She claims to be a punk rocker. Vicious Thunder is her stage name.”

Misty shrugged and continued walking, her heels clacking and echoing in the hallway headed towards the main arena. “Is she any good?”

“Eh so-so, if you like underground stuff. Did a few gigs here and there,” said the assistant, but then quickly corrected herself after receiving a look from Misty. “Oh, you mean her battle record — top eight in the Indigo Conference last year.”

Misty sighed. “These people do know that a Gym’s Star team is supposed to be Elite tier right? Except for that temp over at Viridian Gym maybe. How many Star badges have I given out this year?” The answer was one, against a Blackthorn from Johto. It was a common occurrence for the Dragon Tamers to come and flex on their neighbors every once in a while.

Misty made a mental note to tighten the screening process for Star Battles moving forwards, lamenting the fact that the quality of new trainers have been on the decline as of late.

“Let me guess, this one’s an Electric Type Specialist?” Asked Misty, to which her assistant nodded in affirmation. “Fucking amateurs think they’re invincible just cause they have a Type advantage.”

Misty recalled the gross looking eel thing she fought last year. She had already forgotten the name of the challenger but that particular Pokemon did leave quite an impression on her. “What did Nina call it, an Eelektross? Stupid name, but interesting pokemon.”

It was rare to find an Electric Type that lives underwater. The only other one she could think of was Lanturn. Not to mention Eelektross’s deceiving appearance, despite being pure Electric.

Misty smirked. She had reached out to an old flame located in Unova to ask that he catch a baby one for her. Men were easy. All she had to do was bat her eyelashes and stroke their ego a bit and they’ll come wagging their little dicks at her. In fact, her contact had insisted that he deliver the Pokemon in person due to its rarity and bureaucratic issues.

It didn't matter. Misty will just play around with him for a bit and then send him packing. Rather, she was looking forward to ‘shocking’ her opponents with her new Pokemon.

Misty emerged onto the arena to the sound of canned applause from the speakers and a flowery introduction from their Gym’s emcee. They were performers afterall, gotta maintain appearances.

The Gym Leader looked around and greeted her audience with a smile before turning an impassive gaze at her opponent. The girl was mostly what she expected, with an ugly looking mohawk and an ungodly amount of piercings. “Arceus, that kid must weigh a hundred kilos at least.” Misty would have thought that Vicious Thunder was a boy with such a grotesque figure.

The rest of the proceedings proceeded as usual with the challenger throwing around some empty trash talk, calling Misty a slut and that she was a disgrace to womankind. Misty actually rolled her eyes and scoffed at that last one, thinking that a Miltank shaped human who calls herself Vicious Thunder had no business representing their gender.

Misty threw out her Pokeball the moment that the ref called a start to the battle. Technically they were operating by conference rules, which meant Misty did not have to abide by Gym customs and go first. But it was hard to predict how the haters would react online. She didn’t care of course, just that she did not want the little ones to catch any flack on her account.

The Gym Leader suppressed a yawn at her opponent’s predictability. Katonian Electric specialists were all the same, they’ll always start off with either an Electrode or Magnezone to set the terrain. “Then they’ll start blasting the water… And yeap, right on cue.”

After setting up Electric Terrain, Light Screen, Magnetic Flux and other buffs, Vicious Thunder commanded her Electrode to start blasting the water with Electricity. Meanwhile Misty’s Kingdra was just leisurely swimming and dancing in the water to power up.

Misty scoffed at the sight. “Why are all these Electric people all brawns and no brains? Do they not even bother to research Water Pokemon cause they think they can just brute force their way through?” Misty blamed that muscle-brained Surge for setting a bad example.

Most people were unaware that pure water itself was not conductive, it was the ions contained within water that conducted electricity. And Water type Energy was as pure as water could get, which meant that all Kingdra had to do was coat his body with a layer of Water Type Energy to completely negate the electricity being conducted through the pool’s water.

It would be a different matter if the Electric Type Energy had struck the Pokemon directly since Electric Energy does overpower their Water counterpart. But such an indirect approach was completely ineffective towards Misty’s highly trained Pokemon.

Misty did not even bother to give out any orders because her Pokemon were all used to the routine at this point. She watched quietly as her Kingdra showed off a few dance moves in the water, and let out a smirk. “Bastard’s been getting cocky recently.”

Ever since Nina’s Dratini saw Kingsley’s fight in person, the junior Dragon had developed a great deal of admiration for his senior. The little eel would often swim up to the Kingdra and gas him up, asking for advice and so on, giving Kingsley quite a big head from all the attention.

Misty grinned. “Hey, Kingsley! Tini’s watching in the stands right now, think you can sweep this kid’s team? Show your cute little junior how it’s done!”

“KIIIINNNNNG!” The Kingdra erupted from the pool in a surge of purple draconic aura and shot a ball of super condensed Dragon Pulse right at his opponent to completely demolish the Electrode and the central platform.

Electrode survived the blast thanks to Endure, but was tossed into the water where it helplessly sank into the pool.

“Attack, Electrode! Don’t let that Kingdra get anywhere near you!” Screamed Vicious Thunder.

But unfortunately, they were now in Kingsley’s playground as the Kingdra elegantly danced around his opponent, fainting the Electrode after another two applications of Dragon Pulse. The ball sphere Pokemon had attempted a Self Destruct, but alas, the impact of the explosion was diminished underwater

“Tiiiin! Tiiiin!”

Misty looked over to the audience to see Nina’s Dratini fervently cheering on his idol, while Nina herself was desperately holding on to the slippery eel to prevent him from falling off the edge. The Gym leader could not help but smile at the adorable sight. “Gosh they’re just so damned cuuute.”

To the side, she could also see a calm looking Eevee watching over her battle with keen interests. “And of course the girl managed to convince that stubborn asshole to give her an Eevee. And a female one at that.”

Misty had found it quite entertaining to see Beverly awkwardly try to pander to her sister for an Eevee egg the past few days. “That brat only acted cute when she wanted something.” Not that it was a bad thing. A girl needs to know how to lather on the honey after all. Just that the girl needed to work on her execution.

Violet had naturally made full use of Beverly’s desires and jerked the girl every which way, without any signs of relenting to her wishes. At least, not that Beverly was aware of.

In actual fact, Misty’s sister had already reached out to her partners over at an Eevee ranch that she partially owned and arranged for a coming of age gift for their cousin. Provided the girl stayed out of trouble of course.

The match ended with a five-nil score. Kingsley was finally downed by an Electivire who also happened to be Vicious Thunder’s ace. And by that point, the sea Dragon was too worn out to put up a good fight.

Misty sighed. “Kingsley’s gonna be sulking all week. I’ll have to get Nina and Tini to go talk him up later. Those two are really good at that.”