Chương 184: Chapter 177 - End (Part 2/2)

Professor Oak had told Sam that working on his ranch would be intensive—and the old man had been completely correct. Every day, hundreds of Pokémon had to be taken care of. Feeding, grooming, general property maintenance—all things that had to be done in person. Others helped out on Professor Oak's ranch: fellow trainers, permanent helpers, and a handful of temp assistants who worked with the Pokémon. Most of them were locals, but several were people who had been given the same offer as Sam.

Practically everyone here attempted to do their job with gusto, but a handful of newcomers would start to help out only to disappear one day, not willing to continue this kind of near back-breaking labor. But Professor Oak did not solely rely on other people to care for these Pokémon for him. For just about every task that needed to be completed out back, Sam always found that Professor Oak was directly participating in the work.

He was a researcher, but like he said, so much of what he learned came from observation. His ranch was more than just a ranch; it was a place where he could witness Pokémon live their lives in environments so close to their natural homes. At times, Sam would see the occasional extra visitor. Grumbling, Gary would walk out here when he thought no one else was looking, and he would try to help out with the Pokémon where he assumed no one could see him.

If it wasn't him, then it would be Ash, who frequently tried to sneak out back. He'd creep around the lab to watch all of the Pokémon, but Professor Oak or someone else from the lab would catch him and send him home. His attitude was a bit too boisterous to be allowed out back without disturbing the Pokémon at rest. He also didn't have his Pikachu yet, which felt strange to Sam.

With how close they had been in the Ilex Forest, Sam would have thought they had grown up together, but apparently, Ash wouldn't catch it until he started his journey. Sam worked the ranch the best he could, as tiring as it was, and he stayed in a guest room in Professor Oak's home. Over the weeks, he kept in contact with his friends and learned what they were up to. Xavier had already left Sinnoh for Hoenn, wanting to get a bit of exploration in before the start of the next season.

Redi, meanwhile, was having a great time in Vermillion, and she was still advertising her parents' business. As it turned out, having a Dragonite help them with their work was attracting a lot of attention. Then, Morty had his battle. He fought Lance privately. Somewhere hidden within the League's Indigo Plateau, he had had a battle for the ages against the Champion himself. However, Sam was not able to watch it. Lance had not given anyone permission, not even to Agatha herself. Morty lost.

But Lance had walked out of that battle shaken. Morty had gotten closer to a victory than Lance had ever expected. As for Sam's team, they mostly just hung out on the ranch, but they never stopped training. Typhlosion helped him with the menial labor, alongside Mismagius, but Gengar would float off and around, playing tricks on all of the varieties of Pokémon. Annihilape started to spend more and more time with his tribe and brother, too.

Upon being sent here, the Mankey tribe had explored the place within only a few days, and led by their Primeape leader, they claimed a rocky cliff's cave in the far back. Dragapult, however, would leave for days at a time. Professor Oak's ranch consisted of acres upon acres of land, and the speed at which she flew let her cross the space within minutes. Apparently, a weathered, old Dragonite lived in the mountains that framed the ranch's back, and Professor Oak hinted to Dragapult that she should visit.

Sam never saw what she did there, but whenever she came back, she and Dreepy always looked bruised and battered. But they kept heading there, and Sam had a feeling that Dragapult wouldn't give up until she won in their fight. However, she was a Dragapult, and she only had one Dreepy with her—a great disadvantage for her species. Both her combat prowess and flight itself were limited by that lopsided potential. For this, Sam did lean on Professor Oak, but that was only because he didn't have any other choice.

Through Professor Oak's contacts in Galar, Sam was able to make a connection to an up-and-coming trainer named Raihan. They came to a simple deal that stated that as soon as Sam caught a specific Pokémon that Raihan wanted, Raihan would trade for it to bring over another Dreepy for Dragapult. And then, there was the last member of Sam's team. Trevenant was no longer with Sam, but it was not that Trevenant had been released.

Instead, his mother was doing a bit of construction around the bookstore, and Trevenant had expressed interest in helping out. Thus, Trevenant was temporarily staying in Dewford, all the way back home. However, all of this had taken place over a period of weeks. The two months between the end of Johto's season and the start of Kanto's passed in the blink of an eye. When Sam woke up the morning of the very first day of the year, he quickly got ready and gathered all of his stuff as fast as he could.

Despite spending so much time taking care of the Pokémon here, he felt energized and ready to leave. But he ended up waiting in that same, small living room within the second floor of Professor Oak's lab. From behind a cracked-open door, Sam listened to the aged researcher's voice echoing out from below. Professor Oak gave a dramatic speech about duty, responsibility, trust, and the power of friendship. The oohs and ahs that came from everyone around him made Sam quietly laugh.

The sheer weight that Professor Oak's words carried meant that every new trainer here listened with rapt attention—all of them except for Gary. That boy just scoffed.

"I can't believe he actually agreed to travel with us," Sam whispered to the air.

"I mean, it felt like he was brushing us off, but he accepted so quickly. I expected more of a fight." At his side, Typhlosion snorted. She didn't have anything pleasant to say. She wasn't the biggest fan of the type of person Gary tried to be. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"It'll be alright, Typhlosion. Gary acts a bit full of himself, but I don't believe he's really like that," Sam said.

"He just has big shoes to fill. I mean, think about who he's related to. More often than not, people see him as 'Gary Oak' instead of just 'Gary.'" Sam got the familiar sense that Gary acted like that because he felt as though he had something to prove.

"I do wonder what Pokémon he'll choose down there," Sam said quietly to his team.

"Gary's pretty hot-headed, so I'm thinking maybe a Charmander?" As that question hung, a cackle came from Sam's side, but it wasn't a noise from Typhlosion.

"Yeah, yeah," Sam replied.

"Think what you want to think. You've never met him, but Gary kind of reminds me of Xavier. I want to help and make sure he gets more confidence, but even if I can't do that, I at least have someone I can call for advice." Sableye didn't care. He just wanted to get a move on. This whole process of waiting for everything to finish was just delaying what he wanted to do. And Sableye wanted to get stronger. He had seen Sam's team, and he had become insanely jealous.

For all of the training Sam's mother had done with him in the past year, Sableye had gotten stronger, but she only had so much time to spend training him each day. So, since Trevenant was currently back home helping his mother, Sam would be traveling with Sableye.

"But no pranks," Sam said, bringing up a finger. Sableye grumbled, and even Sam's shadow rumbled in displeasure.

"Okay, fine. You can have a few pranks, but none like what you did to me in Granite Cave!" To that, Sableye cackled, but the noise quickly stopped when Mismagius appeared behind him just to bonk him on the head. Hearing everything begin to wind down below, Sam returned Sableye and Typhlosion as all of the young trainers met with their first Pokémon.

The sound of various Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle rang out, and Professor Oak wished all of them luck as they all started to rush outside—none wanted to wait to start their journey. Sam poked his head into the room.

"Is that everyone?"

"Yes. You can come out now, Sam," Professor Oak called out.

"And Gary?" Sam asked as he left the room.

"Picked up a serious little Squirtle, which was a surprise to me!" Professor Oak was busy grabbing the last few Pokéballs on the table that contained the other Starter Pokémon that hadn't been selected. For now, they were all put away, but they'd soon be sent to other cities to be given out as Starters for other new trainers as well.

"I, uh, didn't hear Ash," Sam said.

"Did he not come?" Professor Oak gained a mischievous smile, which didn't quite fit on his face. The expression reminded Sam of just a few days ago, when Professor Oak had strode back into his lab, grinning and talking about how he had just caught a certain, yellow rodent chewing on wires out back.

"Knowing Ash, he'll be here soon," Professor Oak said.

"Delia always complains about how he forgets to set or sleeps through his alarms." Sam helped Professor Oak clean up, and pretty soon, the only Pokéballs left were a trio of empty ones. Given that he knew Professor Oak still had a few Starter Pokémon left, Sam was pretty sure these were meant to be a pretense for Professor Oak to give Pikachu to Ash.

"I guess I could wait for him, but Gary already stepped out, and there's no telling how late Ash'll be," Sam said.

"Oh, yes!" Professor Oak said.

"There's no sense in keeping you waiting, but I do have a gut feeling that Ash will be here soon." Looking up from where he was typing a message to another Professor, Professor Oak sent Sam a small smile.

"Treat Gary well, yes?" Outside, Sam could hear the sounds of all of the new trainers chatting animatedly—but also a car. Apparently, one of the new trainers was getting a ride to their first stop, which was a shame. They'd be missing out on traveling down their first Route.

"I will," Sam promised him.

"I figure I'll let him choose where we head first, but I'll probably make sure we don't take too long to reach Vermillion. My friend is waiting for me to show up at her place before she leaves home, and given just who she is, I think Gary will benefit from having more than one type of trainer with him, too." Professor Oak laughed approvingly.

"Smart! It also reminds me of a certain poem. Now, how does it go...?" As soon as Oak said that, Sam stepped back toward the door as fast as he could without being suspicious.

"Uh, it's alright!" he said quickly.

"I actually think I should head out now! I bet Gary is already annoyed about waiting for me, and if we're fast enough, I want to see if I can take on Viridian's Gym by the end of the day!"

"Oh, facing all of the Gym Leaders' core teams? An experienced trainer's challenge! And a tough one, at that!" Professor Oak called out, and Sam paused as he put his hand on the door's handle.

"I wish you the best of luck in all of your battles, Sam, but I'll also warn you that Kanto's Gym Leaders are tougher than they look! But, most of them already look tough enough!" He laughed again.

"Although, it might be worth paying extra attention to a few other rumors, too," Professor Oak mused.

"But I have a feeling I don't need to say much more than that. If you ever hear the name, Scott—""I'll keep an ear out," Sam said.

"If this is a rumor being shared by the great Professor Oak..." Professor Oak winked an eye. Sam was about to step outside. He could hear an argument taking place just past the front doors—probably a pair of trainers forcing a fight to set up their first battle. However, just as Sam was about to leave, Professor Oak called out for one last thing. And his voice was deathly serious.

"Keep an eye out for Team Rocket." Sam turned around to look Professor Oak in the eye.

"Trust me, I will." Then, Sam slipped outside while no one was paying attention. He froze when he saw the scene playing out ahead of him. Ash was right there, glaring at Gary, and, as it turned out, Gary was the one in the car. Except, he wasn't alone. The kid was surrounded by an entire team of cheerleaders chanting his name. Sam had known Gary had been given a budget by Professor Oak, but he had never expected Gary to spend it all on something like this.

"Well, Ash, you snooze, you lose, and you're way behind right from the start!" Gary shouted. Ash glared at the other boy as their argument continued, and Sam was effectively locked in place.

"That's really why he accepted so easily?" Sam whispered in disbelief.

"Because he had a getaway planned since the start?" Before hardly any more time passed, Gary drove off, leaving both Ash and Sam behind. Ash was far too busy grumbling to notice Sam as Professor Oak invited him inside. The other new trainers all slowly filed away to start their travels, and Sam was left alone on Professor Oak's front steps. Well, he was left only mostly alone. He still had his team under his feet.

"I guess this is really how we're going to start the season—trying to catch up to a car driving off into the distance," Sam said into the air.

"It's going to be interesting, but I'm looking forward to it." Beneath him, his shadow rumbled in agreement.

"So, we need to grab Gary, take on a few Gyms, and then catch up to Redi," Sam continued, thinking out loud.

"All the while, we'll continue to train, fight impossible fights, and get ready for any challenge that comes our way." The sun was high in the sky, and the late morning day was bright. Even Ash's shouts of pain from being shocked inside couldn't ruin this moment for Sam.

"It's going to be fun," he said. The dust cloud following Gary's car was nothing more than a speck in the distance, but to start heading after him, Sam needed to take the first step. His foot hit the ground. His time in Johto might have been over, but he had appreciated every moment of it. Now, as the new season started, his time in Kanto was just beginning. Sam's journey continued on.