Ethan checked his phone for the twentieth time this morning, finding that, yes, the worst was coming to fruition.

The construction crew had left last night, after having finished a tad early from Bill Joy’s helpful oversight of the construction of the Pokemon Center. While the man wasn’t enjoyable to be around, he was efficient. Ethan would at least give him that.

Finishing early was good, expansion and progress was swell…

Having Brock and his ‘friends’, Tobias, the new Joy, Cynthia, and the Team Rocket Trio arriving on the same day? Around the same time? That was very much not a good thing.

“Emol?”

Emolga’s innocent, questioning cry caused him to put his phone away while flashing her a distracting smile. It was out of his hands now, and no matter how many times he checked his phone, the messages weren’t going to suddenly change.

“I’m watching! I’m watching!” Ethan flippantly waved. “Do a flip again!” Ethan encouraged, focus fully on Emolga as he clapped, earning a squeal of happiness from the fully levitating pokemon.

Emolga limbs were splayed outwards, her winged-membrane flapping in the non-existant wind as she hovered around seven feet in the air. With a tiny cry of ‘Emo!’ and a tongue sticking out to help with concentration, Emolga jolted forward, rose, then circled back vertically, doing a backflip. “Emolga! Emol! Emol!”

Ethan smiled but ran forwards, sensing the mistakes before it happened. Emolga clapped her hands together in glee at her success, folding her winged-membranes inwards and causing her to fall—Right into his arms. She grinned like a loon, so extraordinarily happy to be able to fly, and Ethan couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pride as she did a wiggle-dance in his embrace. It was like watching your kid walk for the first time… or, at least he thought it was.

“You wanna keep flying, or do you want to go back in your pokeball?” Ethan asked. Emolga had been flying for a solid fifteen minutes, doing flips, barrel rolls, and testing her speed. She still had a long way to go, but this was a giant leap in improvement. Usually, she tuckered out after a few minutes. This was the longest he’d ever seen her go.

She was probably running off an adrenaline high.

Emolga shook her head rapidly, then hastily crawled up his chest and onto the top of his head.

“Hey! Be careful!” Ethan complained lightly, unable to hide his happiness in his tone.

Emolga shifted her balance on his head, even going so far as to give his forehead a playful slap to stay still, then shouted. “Emoooooool-GA!” Before launching off, back into the air.

“♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫”

Chatot swooped down from up high, suddenly joining Emolga in her flight. The duo of black, white,and yellow, together with blue, yellow, black, and green, soared above the training fields alongside one another as they spoke in poke-speak. Emolga was doing ninety percent of the talking, her hyper, child-like attitude on full force, while Chatot chimed in with a beautiful bird-song in reply.

Ethan watched them fly about in the air as they had the time of their lives, and for a moment, he forgot about the coming events of the day.

Suddenly, Emolga did another flip, curled into herself, then screamed out a way too excited cry of joy. “Moooool-GA!”

With little to no warning, tiny sparks of electricity jolted outwards from her body in arcs of brilliant yellow light. Chatot swooped down, avoiding the sudden burst of super effective electricity, and joined Ethan in staring at the sight. The burst of electricity only lasted a few seconds, and Emolga was breathing deeply afterwards.

Ever so slowly, Emolga floated down towards him like a leaf in a breeze. Once securely tucked into his chest, she yawned, stretched, mumbled, then promptly fell asleep.

Ethan looked to Chatot, who looked towards him, as if having the same thought. “I guess it’s nap time.”

After recalling Emolga back into her pokeball for a rest, Ethan and Chatot spent a few minutes practicing their singing, moves, and coordination. It was a small thing for them both; training, but progress was progress, no matter how small. Ethan didn’t want to let his pokemon down, and he definitely didn’t want them to get hurt. The solution was to train and step out of his comfort zone.

When Ethan sent Smeargle on his mission to find which of his pokemon had an interest in battling, he wasn’t very surprised by the results. Chatot and Pachirisu were in, that was a given. Smeargle himself wouldn’t mind battling again either, with him actually battling on a team during a journey with his former trainer. Smeargle was pretty experienced, all things considered. Both Teddiursa were also interested, but sadly, mama-bear’s glare of disapproval shut down their enthusiasm.

Ursaring didn’t want to battle anymore. From what he could gather, she saw herself as a defender and protector—a mother. Her battling days were over, in the conventional sense. If she was involved in a fight, there would be no ‘battle is over when a pokemon faints’. The battle would be over when they were unable to battle for the rest of their lives.

And weirdly, Ethan was fine with that. If someone came here to harm them, she had his permission to do whatever it took to keep them safe. Just as he would do the same.

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

The plodding of thick feet running over the dirt caused Ethan to turn around, finding Munchlax sprinting his way from the direction of the campgrounds. The blue, tan, and rotund berry glutton was pointing towards the entrance to his ranch as he made his way over.

Ethan sighed, then grabbed some Sitrus berries from his vest and paid the pokemon for his hard work, earning him a slight smile from the always hungry pokemon. He’d been tasked with watching for anyone coming to his ranch today, and it seems his first visitor, or visitors, had arrived.

After making his way over with Munchlax and Chatot in tow, Ethan arrived at the entrance to Berry Falls to find three people inspecting their surroundings with a hint of wonder. The first, and eldest of the bunch was a dark skinned, fit male with very narrow eyes. He wore a dark orange vest over a dark green collared shirt, and had tan cargo pants and a backpack—Brock was here.

Next to Brock stood a preppy, pretty, and adventurous looking young woman who must have been Dawn. Unlike her anime appearance, she dressed much more for the outdoors and for rigorous traveling through the wilds… Although she still had that white beanie on. In her arms, she held a wiggling Piplup, who flapped its flippers wanting to be let down.

Then, last and most definitely not least, was Ash Ketchum. It was him, Ethan had no doubt about that, as somehow the man still had those weird black lightning bolt marks on his cheeks. Unlike his ten-year old appearance in all the media from Earth, this Ash was a young man. If he remembered correctly, Ash should be eighteen. He had his familiar red cap, but his clothes were different. He wore much darker clothing, a black jacket with a yellow stripe crossing the front, and dark black bluejeans. It was a good look on him, and it made the bright yellow Pikachu on his shoulder pop out clearly in contrast.

They all noticed him at the same time that he’d noticed them, so he waved in greeting as he closed the distance. “Welcome to Berry Falls! I’m Ethan!” Ethan greeted with a warm smile, although his nerves were going haywire.

Brock’s eyes were strangely emotive, as Ethan could see the delight in the Gym Leader’s eyes as he held out a hand to shake. “I’m Brock. Thanks for sparing the time to have us visit. I’ve always been interested in pokemon breeding, and once I saw your website listed on the official Sinnoh registry, I couldn’t help but stop by.”

“You have a wonderful home.” Dawn said, inserting herself into the conversation as she finally let the little Piplup run free. “I’m Dawn.”

Munchlax waddled over to the little penguin, and began introductions, but Chatot peered around the new ground of humans from atop her rightful place.

Ash stepped forward, and Ethan almost wanted to take a step back. The walking natural disaster was too unpredictable. “I’m Ash, and this is my best friend, Pikachu!”

“Pikachu! ♥” Pikachu, lightning god cultivator from the upteenth realm, very cheerfully cried out.

Ethan felt his stomach drop at the most stereotypical ‘this is going to be an episode’ introduction, but carried on. “I actually know a fair bit about you, Mr. Ketchum. It’s not everyday someone gets sponsored by the famous Professor Oak.”

Ethan could see the young man preen with pride, recognition could do that to people. “Well, it’s nice to meet you all. Welcome to my ranch. Before I show you around, I have some ground rules. No catching pokemon on my ranch. If you happen to make a connection and one of the pokemon wants to go with you, that’s fine, but no battle and catch. I have many wild pokemon that call this place home, and I won’t have them be taken by force. Second, no battling outside of the training field. Third, I am going to be very busy today, as I have many people coming over. If you have any questions or concerns and you can’t find me, please find one of the pokemon around and they will come get me.”

Looking around, Ethan got a round of nods of confirmation. He carried on as he began walking down the cobblestone path. “Perfect. Now, I am a breeder, but I am afraid to say that my experience is lacking. My breeding methods are… different. I am a Move Tutor, Daycare, and Breeding service all in one. If someone gets their pokemon tutored or daycared, and their pokemon find themselves liking another during their stay and make an egg? Well, that’s my breeding plan.”

Ethan pointed to the just finished mini Pokemon Center. “One of my visitors today is going to be a brand new Nurse Joy. This is her small Pokemon Center.”

After a quick glance to see if he had their interest, Ethan caught Munchlax standing next to the group sagely nodding. In his hands, tugged up against his chest, was the pitiful form of Piplup who was resigned to be carried. Dawn noticed, and was trying to stifle a laugh at her pokemons expense.

“A Nurse Joy? Well, this is as prime as a location for a Pokemon Center if I’ve ever seen one.” Brock asked, eyes betraying his motives.

“You got that right… It’s been a while since Team Ro— *Ahem* they have shown up. I have a feeling something will happen soon.” Ash replied.

Ethan felt like this was as good a moment as he was going to get. “Team Rocket? Jessie and James?” He asked, nonchalant.

All three of his visitors' heads swiveled towards him in shock. Ethan hastily carried on, lest they get the wrong idea. “They are actually coming over today. It’s one of the reasons I know about you, Ash. They’ve finally gotten caught.”

Dawn was now completely ignoring her Piplup, fully focusing on the conversation at hand. “They got caught?!”

Ethan sighed and gestured toward the next building along the road. “That they did. They’re going to stay at my ranch. It’s out of the way, so they can’t cause trouble. I need the help, and government officials check in every once in a while about certifications—breeding and what not. So, they’ll be watched and checked on.”

Ethan lied, but it was that or explain his scenario, which wasn’t going to be believed. “Cynthia, the Champion of Sinnoh, is actually a good friend of mine. She’ll be dropping them off anytime now. So, don’t start trouble unless they start it first. Got it?”

Ash looked like he was torn between being relieved and frustrated. “So… they won’t come after anyone’s pokemon ever again?”

A simple nod was Ethan's reply.

“It only took them four years! Four years of them chasing me!” He ground out, while Pikachu patted him on the head for comfort. “Pika-PIKA!”

“Hello!”

Ethan still couldn’t get used to hearing his own voice coming from someone else. Chatot, who was on his right shoulder, tilted her head as she joined the conversation, drawing the eyes of everyone near and swiftly changing the subject. God bless his colorful bird.

“Your pokemon talks!” Ash exclaimed, as Pikachu tilted his head in return. Ash dug about in his pocket, pulling out the ever bricky and familiar form of a classic PokeDex. After a quick scan, an AI voice spoke out for everyone to hear.

Chatot - The Melody Pokemon: This normal and flying type pokemon mimics the cries of other pokemon to trick them into thinking it’s one of them. This way they won’t attack it.

“A Chatot! That’s a new one!” Ash seemed extraordinarily happy at the news. Brock and Dawn also flashed the man a smile.

Ethan… Well, Ethan was disappointed about the severe lack of information. His PocketDex was better than that!

“♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫” Chatot cried out her typical song in cheer, glad for the attention.

Ethan coughed. “Let’s carry on…”