“Oh, lord… I guess we know why you went on a little adventure.” Ethan murmured up to Lotad as he took in the sight of his surprisingly very full pond.


    It appeared that Tobias had readily taken his advice and had at least let one of his pokemon free on the ranch. Right there, on the surface of the water, an enormous eight foot tall pokemon tried its best to relax and enjoy itself. This pokemon had to be Tobias’, as there was a zero percent chance that a Lapras of all things just happened to find its way to his small pond in the middle of a forest.


    The Lapras was gently slapping the top of the water with its flippers, cooing at the Feebas and Magikarp who sent curious nibbles towards the large, foreign pokemon. Sadly, his pond wasn’t built to house such a monstrous sea creature. Lapras barely fit in between the jutting rock located in the center of the pond and the shore. It could swim in a circle around it, but wasn’t able to do much else.


    Speaking of the rock, Krabby seemed to have met its match. The grumpy crab swatted and snipped at Lapras to seemingly no effect. It was visibly angry about this unhappy fact, judging by his foaming mouth and crazed eyes, but there wasn’t much else the poor crab could do to defend his rock. In the end the grumpy crab just turned itself away and sulked with hunched pinchers.


    Ethan walked up to the pond, reached up, grabbed Lotad, then plopped them into the water, attracting the attention of the large Nessie look-alike. Lapras’ wide emotive eyes looked him up and down as it turned in place to face him fully, head tilted slightly in curiosity.


    “Laaaaaaa?”


    Slowly, Ethan raised his hands and cupped the Lapras’ large head. A bright smile stretching across his face at the sight of what was basically a dinosaur. “Well, hello there beautiful! Isn’t this pond a little too small for you?”


    Lapras nodded rapidly, physically manhandling Ethan’s own hands with the action as its flippers slapped the water with force, sending large splashes of water to soak him from head to toe.


    After about three seconds, Ethan stood there with his hands held outwards, his eyes closed, lips thinned, and his body soaked from head to toe. “Okay, then. Didn’t expect that.” With one solid swipe, he wiped the water off of his face. “If you’re able, you can expand the pond. You can go as far as the fence over there if you can manage it.” He pointed out about forty meters away towards the edge of the forest.


    Lapras craned its neck to look over its shoulder toward the boundary, then smiled with apparent cheer. With a powerful swat of its flippers, Lapras surged through the water to the opposite side of the pond, as it did so, it let loose a cheerful chirp and was suddenly coated in an aura of deep blue, signaling the use of a move. The move and aftereffects which Ethan couldn’t make heads or tails of… was it a buff?


    As he pondered the mystery move, another followed. Lapras’ smile faded into a slight upturn of the lips as it focused and visibly built up energy. Wisps of earthy browns coalesced around the sea dino. Once built up to a satisfactory degree, said energy was sent forward into the water and the earth ahead. This time, the move was familiar. It was a move known to many for being terrible—one so full of RNG that it wasn’t worth using in normal circumstances… A move that could cheese some wins if you wanted to brute forced battles back on Earth.


    Fissure.


    The Earth groaned and violently shook, sending Ethan onto his ass as the destructive move split the earth in two and ruined his footing. A jagged line straight towards the forest erupted forth, sending chunks of earth falling into the wide crevasse left behind. The mounds of broken earth tumbled downwards to race the surging water that was aiming to fill the freshly opened gap. The water level of the pond swiftly sank, and Ethan could see the Magikarp and Feebas struggling to stay in place.


    Before he could do anything about that, Lapras slammed the top of the wavy lowering water once more, another move coming to fruition. From the now open crevasse, dirty Muddy Water sloshed out, up, and straight into the air. Chunks of dirt and rock were hoisted out by the force of the move, creating a smooth interior where formerly jagged earth was held in place. Next, from out of Lapras’ mouth, a torrent of water launched from out of its now open maw—A Hydro Pump that never seemed to cease.


    Ethan, both Marill, Lotad, the three Feebas and Magikarp, and even Krabby, stared on in shock at the massive terraforming routine. Lapras didn’t seem to notice any of their attention, instead just giddily launching water outwards to fill their new swimming spot.


    After about ten minutes, Ethan’s circular twenty five foot pond was now much larger. Now, it was in the shape of an elongated tear, with the tip reaching out near the forest''s edge. Lapras wasted no time in swimming to its content in the now spacious pond, trilling out happy cries as it relished in its completed work.


    “She’s an excitable one. Is she yours?” An unfamiliar female voice sprang up from behind him, causing him to get up from the ground and hastily turn around as he patted his slowly drying clothes.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Today has been a day of unexpected things. Firstly, finding Lotad out and about, fumbling his words with Jessie, her getting attacked, finding a Lapras in his pond, having his pond terraformed into one much larger… and now, a familiar but unfamiliar face stared at him with narrowed, amber eyes. Eyes that didn’t seem friendly.


    In full uniform, with the staple teal hair, cap, and vest, an Officer Jenny stood with crossed arms.


    “No, no… Uh, can I help you?” Ethan asked, wary about why and how a police officer got to his ranch in the middle of the forest. He didn’t have anything against the police, having had pretty normal interactions with them back on Earth, but he was aware that not every police officer should have their job. And one showing up on your land in the middle of nowhere usually wasn’t a good sign.


    The Jenny uncrossed her arms and stifly nodded. “I would hope so. I called you about tutoring one of my pokemon Acrobatics.”


    “Oh?! Well, I don’t think we actually agreed upon a price or time frame yet. I am actually in the middle of tutoring someone else’s pokemon at the moment. You’ve come at an awkward time—”


    “That’s okay, I’ll wait.” The Jenny cut him off with some forcefulness in her tone, which didn’t give him any good vibes. Her… demeanor wasn’t that of a caring or interested individual.


    “I am afraid I don’t have a place for you to stay.” Ethan’s eyes trailed down to the small purple cat-like Espurr standing in between the officer’s legs. Its eyes shone with an iridescent light as it stared at him unblinkingly. “The pokemon I am currently tutoring is meant to be confidential. I am afraid you’ll have to come back at another agreed upon time.” Ethan replied, a bit testy. This was his place. She didn’t get to determine whether she stays or not, he did.


    The hovering form of another pokemon glided through the meadow from behind Officer Jenny and the little, wide-eyed Espurr, Ethan tracked its movements as it stalked its way forward. Espurr was a very cute pokemon, and as a Psychic type had many advantages. It also had one very major disadvantage—It was weak to Dark Types.


    Within seconds, Darkrai was hovering over the shoulder of Jenny, his bright blue eyes staring into the side of her head as she stood there unaware. The Espurr kept its gaze locked onto Ethan, also oblivious to the legendary pokemon inches from its trainer.


    Obviously, Darkrai getting spotted wouldn’t be a good thing. So, he needed to deal with this quickly.


    “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Ethan said as he took a step forward while pointing off into the forest, toward Eterna City.


    “I’d like to ask you some questioned before that, Mr. Reed.” Jenny looked him up and down, scrutinizing him from head to toe. “Where were you six months ago? You’re a ghost before that time.”


    Ethan stayed silent, and his bad vibes were now screaming that this Jenny wasn’t here for some tutoring. She was here because of him. While he didn’t mind sharing his past with those close to him or those that needed to know, some random police officer was not any of those people. “Leave my property. This is your final warning.”


    The Jenny frowned, narrowed her eyes into a glare, then parted her mouth to reply, yet paused as her eyes roamed about the area. What was normally a ranch filled with the gentle buzz of pokemon was now deathly quiet. The wild Starly who sang and chirped as they feasted on his berries were perched in the branches, staring at Jenny with all of their focus. The Caterpies and Wurmples stopped their gentle gnawing. Krabby glared at Jenny from his rock, now no longer in the center of the pond. Lotad squared up by his side, beak tilted downwards in an unhappy frown. Lapras, who he''d just met, openly glared at Jenny with hostility…


    And Darkrai held his hands outwards, cupping Jenny’s head, unbenounced to her, in readiness for violence.


    Jenny’s eyes swiftly locked back onto Ethan, her feet widened and stance lowered slightly as Espurr took a few steps forward to stand before its trainer. “Looks like we’re having a battle, Larry.”


    Ethan flicked his gaze toward Ursaring’s cave, where the mama bear stood at the entrance watching, calculating the need to join. Ethan slowly shook his head. “You’re an idiot. You should have just left.”


    The Jenny, police officer or not, wanted a battle. Too bad he was never good at those. “Darkrai, Dark Void.”


    Ethan wasn’t sure if Darkrai, who wasn’t his pokemon, would listen to him, but he felt like he would. Without blinking, Ethan watched as Jenny’s and Espurr’s eyes widened at the name of the pokemon, before a pulsating sphere of purple and black expanded from Darkrai’s hands, which were held on each side of Jenny’s head. Instantly, Jenny dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Espurr barely had enough time to turn around before another purple void sphere encapsulated the tiny feline in its entirety.


    Staring at their downed and out forms, Ethan sighed. He was going to get in trouble for this somehow, someway. Attacking a police officer wasn’t something you just got away with.


    As he reached for his phone to give Looker a call, some of Jenny’s pokeballs began to shake furiously. It was obvious that her other pokemon were fighting to get out to protect their trainer.


    “Darkrai, be careful of those—Oh, nevermind.” Ethan started, before seeing the sheen of Psychic energy coat the pokeballs and hold them still. Darkrai’s blue eyes flared with light as he held them closed.


    Without wasting any more time, Ethan dialed Looker. As the phone rang, Ethan waved down the ever watchful Oddish and Gloom who were making their way over towards him in a show of force. “Sit around them. If they wake up or make any move, you blast em with some sleep powers. Got it?”


    “Odd-odd!”


    “Oddd!”


    “Oddish!”


    “Gloo!”


    The phone call connected as several of the Oddish plopped their butts down right next to Officer Jenny and Espurr.


    “Looker speaking.”


    “Yeah… So, this is Ethan.” He started lamely, but his uncertain tone must have given something away.


    “I am aware, Mr. Reed. What seems to be the problem.”


    Ethan kicked some of the dirt near his feet as he looked into the sky, dreading to put what he did into words. “Well, an Officer Jenny appeared at my ranch. She… didn’t have good vibes and refused to leave, opting for a battle. I used a legendary pokemon to put her and her pokemon to sleep. Said pokemon is also keeping her other pokeballs forcefully closed…”


    “... oh.”


    Ethan winced. “Yeah…”


    After a second of awkward silence, Looker spoke again. “I’ll be there in a minute.”


    Click