"Oh, a Charizard," the Wizard echoed.
This was usually the part where he should offer a few words of praise.
But the Wizard rarely said things he didn't mean, so he fell into silence.
The expected envy and flattery didn't appear. The trainer paused, staring at the Wizard's profile. He even wanted to take the initiative to educate the Wizard.
Even though Charizard was a Kanto starter, it definitely had the absolute advantage against Beldum right now. Not to mention, his Charizard even had a Mega Stone!
Does he understand the sheer value of a Mega Charizard X!!!!
At this thought, he subtly revealed the Key Stone on his wrist, making small talk with the Wizard.
The Wizard was beginning to feel that his decision to stay away from socializing back in Pelican Town was the right one.
Indeedee tilted her head, looking at the trainer for a moment, then at the Wizard, quietly following the slow-moving line.
The location of the mass Beldum appearance was on Route 228 in the Sinnoh region. Right now, the group was in Veilstone City, waiting for the ferry to take shiploads of people over there.
"It's about a two-hour ferry ride," a girl wearing a white hat nearby tugged at her hat and said to the Piplup in her arms, "Are you ready, Piplup?"
"Piplup, pip!" Hearing this, Piplup patted its chest, looking fully confident.
"No problem, no problem." Dawn cheered herself on as she followed the queue onto the ship. As soon as she boarded, she noticed a middle-aged man in a purple robe standing not far away, with an Indeedee beside him. The Indeedee was currently leaning against the railing, staring out at the sea, looking as if she were deep in thought.
The next second, the Piplup on her shoulder was suddenly standing right next to Indeedee.
Piplup was almost half the size of Indeedee. It propped itself up on the railing and struck up a conversation with her.
"Piplup pip? Piplup!"
"—Dee?"
Indeedee turned her head to look at it. Then, a pair of hands scooped Piplup up from under its wings.
"What are you doing, Piplup!" Dawn hugged Piplup back to her chest and added, "You can tell at a glance that she's female! What are you—I'm so sorry."
Dawn apologized to Indeedee while pointing at the Wizard over there and asked, "Is that your trainer?"
"Indeedee? Dee." Indeedee shook her head.
"Then?"
"Indee." Indeedee gestured for a bit, eventually managing to help Dawn guess that she was temporarily traveling with the Wizard.
"I see. So are you guys also going to look for Beldum?" Dawn asked.
"Indeedee." Indeedee nodded.
"Piplup, pip!"
Piplup slapped its chest with its flippers, making loud slapping noises to show that it was also a member of the Beldum-catching expedition.
Dawn smiled, looking a bit embarrassed.
Catching one was secondary. After the last Pokémon Contest ended, she had started traveling alone again with Piplup.
Of course, this time she wasn't aiming for the Contests anymore. She was just taking Piplup around to see the sights and reminisce about her past travels. It just so happened that a rare mass appearance of Beldum occurred nearby, so she followed the crowd to take a look.
Indeedee tilted her head, then turned and went back to the Wizard's side.
"Indee."
"What?" The Wizard paused. Listening to Indeedee's string of "Indeedee"s, he apologized to the trainer beside him and took a few steps, following Indeedee to stop in front of Dawn.
"—" The socially awkward Wizard silently looked at Indeedee, then at Dawn. After a long while, he spoke stiffly: "I hear you've been traveling around?"
"How did you know?" Dawn was startled by the Wizard's sudden, baffling question.
"—Indeedee told me," the Wizard continued. "After we catch Beldum, we're heading back to Pelican Town. Would you like to come along?"
"Pelican Town? Where's that?" Dawn paused, hugging Piplup tighter to her chest, and rejected him a bit nervously, "No thanks, um, thank you for the offer."
"Indeedee!"
"She wants to invite you," the Wizard translated. "Well, there are a few people from the Kanto region in Pelican Town. She says you might know them."
"The Kanto region?"
A figure immediately popped into Dawn's mind. She paused, took out her Pokédex, and searched for the name "Pelican Town" online.
Thank the internet. In no time at all, she found Pelican Town, which had recently made a name for itself in the Kalos region. She even found battle videos of the man standing right in front of her, speed-running several trainers with a single Caterpie.
"Ah—" Dawn thought about it. If that was the case, the chances of that person visiting Pelican Town were actually quite high. So she asked, "Are you sure it's okay to bring me along?"
"Indeedee, Indeedee!" Indeedee quickly agreed.
Dawn lowered her head and asked for Piplup's opinion.
Piplup had no objections.
"Alright, then thank you for your trouble." Dawn smiled at the Wizard. Just then, the ship arrived at the port adjacent to Route 228, so Dawn followed the Wizard off the ship.
Behind the two of them, the trainer who had originally struck up a conversation with the Wizard was also sneaking along behind them.
For no other reason than the fact that he hadn't been able to show off, he was now anxious to find an opportunity to prove himself.
And obviously, when the Wizard fell into a crisis because his little Metapod was up against Beldum, that would be the perfect time for him to step up as a hero and show off his strength!
With this in mind, he discreetly followed the group.
Before long, the crowd stopped in front of a specially cordoned-off cave.
"Is this where the Beldum are gathering?" Dawn asked in a low voice.
"Should be." After answering, the Wizard sent out his Metapod.
"—Are you really planning to use it against Beldum?" Dawn asked in disbelief.
She wasn't looking down on Metapod, of course. After watching its brilliant battle videos as a Caterpie, she didn't doubt this Pokémon's strength at all.
The only problem was that a Metapod at this stage could only use the move Harden.
"Yeah, right." The Wizard didn't see any issue. However, to be safe, he pulled out a potion and forcefully fed it to the Metapod right before entering: "Alright, let's go."
"Oh, oh okay, let's go!" Dawn followed behind him.
She had specially brought her Togekiss along this time. Even if the Wizard really couldn't beat the Beldum later, she could still make it in time to save the day.
With this thought, Dawn held Togekiss's Poké Ball in her hand and quickly followed.
Behind her, that trainer followed them into the cave as well.
As soon as they entered the cave, the ear-piercing sound of heavy objects crashing into each other echoed from not far away.
Following the sound and looking up, a crowd of Beldum could be seen in the cave, inexplicably crashing into each other.
"Ready, Metapod," the Wizard commanded.
Looking incredibly wronged, with two wide streams of tears pouring down its face, Metapod slowly squirmed its way in front of the swarm of Beldum.
------------------------------------------------------
40+ Chapters Ahead: patreon.com/EphemeralShadow
There's something for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)