#[ user ] - [ viciousrocket ]

[splicedskies]

@viciousrocket - Planned Starter!

Kanto was not a region Altra was used to. Sure, he'd explored at least Viridian Forest to some degree, and seen at least the near by town, but outside of that? He was at a loss, and relying on his usual tried and true method of wandering and seeing where he ended up.

At least he didn't wander alone today. Even as they trudged through the brush and overgrowth, Altra's Zigzagoon, a Galarian variant with black and white colors, rode shotgun on the teens shoulders. Said little menace had his nose up high, of course always on the look out from a more advantageous position.

But.. something didn't sit right with him. Sure, the smells of nature were all around them but.. There was something under it. Something more.. what's the word.. sterile? Artificial. Maybe it was nothing, maybe some pungent trash a careless hiker left behind.

Altra had no clue as to the observations of the tiny racoon Pokémon, so he'd continue onward. Once more.. lost. No paper maps were available in viridian City. Only electronic ones that both cost too much for his pitiful funds.. and were unusable through him.

"Haven't seen much around here.." Altra muttered. A lack of Wild Pokémon, a lack of people. It felt off, ominous even.

'Yeah, not smellin' anythin' much either.' Desmond grumbled before he related, slumped on Altra's shoulders like a fluffy scarf.

"Yeah, maybe next person we see we can ask for direc-" A pause, the light smell of smoke on the air. Not fire smoke, but somethin different, one Desmond could easily pinpoint.

'Well, might getcha wish lad, that's cigarette smoke.. It's faint, but someone's close by. Just.. be on alert.' A huff as the Zigzagoon kept to the boys shoulder as they pressed on, soon rounding around some knit trees to seeing.. an individual close by?

"Huh.. Guess your nose was right.." A clearing of the throat.

"Um.. excuse me? Do.. you know the way back to the main trail?"

[splicedskies]

"Hmm?" Altra perked up, putting the pokeball back into it's miniaturized form and back onto his belt. And all the while, he looked to his hands, humming. His hands were.. massive, honestly. For a kid his age, they were easily double the size of even most adults. Then there was the pale markings on his palms leading up to his inner arm.

"Style? Uuhh... Well, most of my clothes are this dark grey color.. So maybe just.. simple ones like that?" He tilted his head curiously as he motioned to the overcoat he wore. It was his main outfit, sure he had 'others' but he wore this one the most.

"Do we have to like.. measure? How does that work?" He figured that was the case, he'd been able to sit still when he mother once measured him for his clothes. He had to get everything of his custom made. His mother refused to get him clothes anywhere else. And he'd only learn why once he was on his own.

He didn't quite.. always fit into normal clothes. Including his shoes, thankfully they were super sturdy.

"I wasn't aware there were 'styles' with gloves, to be honest." All the while, Albert merely scoffed at Cita. Still a little miffed by the tiny tyke. They could enjoy the berries, Albert preferred fighting. Plus, he had plenty to eat before.

Vicious let the teen take back his hands, grunting as he stood up again. "I'm glad you're not hurt. Pokeballs are a tad more sensitive than the pokegear I made for you so they will need more fine tunning most likely"

At being shown the Pokeball Vicious eyed it carefully noting the strange electronic on it. It was strange and probably what allowed Altra to use them, interesting, he would have to ask at a later day if he could examine one, the kid seemed a tad down at the failure.

Vicious laughed softly as the small Pokemon gobbled down the berries, stopping only to offer one to Albert. He had a few stones, but the kid beat him to it.

"Which reminds me I need your hand size if we are to make gloves, any particular style you want?"

[splicedskies]

@viciousrocket : asked PAT PAT PAT "you get all the pats"

"Awww!~ Thanks Vic!" Hey at least the adult wasn't ruffling his hair like he normally did. Pats were nice but.. what for?

"Any.. real reason or.. just because?" He looks confused. Though he's not necessarily complaining either.

[splicedskies]

◓➥ (Vicious)

"Hmmm... normally I would find a lummox such as yourself to be worthy of at least my time. But you hide behind machines, behind augments.. behind the ability to twist others to your whims." The Ghostly Zorua scoffs.

"Cowardly. Instead of pushing yourself, body and soul to the forefront in your endeavors.. All for what? For some.. puny organization that can crumble at any time.." There was a pause.

"Oh.. but you know this already, don't you. All it takes is for a simple shift in power, and the serpent's coil unfurls.. ready to strike to secure more power for itself. Like a game of chess." An agitated ear twitch.

"How... boring."

"Watch yourself.. you may have won over my trainer for the moment.. But I am watching. Waiting."

"As the fox can always conquer the snake."

[splicedskies]

Magazines...? Those floppy book-things with often times weird covers? Well, if it's what Hau needed, he'd grab a few from the shop near by. He didn't know what Hau liked, so he'd probably grab a few about Pokémon in some way or another.

While he went about, Altra gathered what he could. He got a box full of malasada's from one of the local bakeries, grab a few magazines that had cute Pokémon on the cover of them and was soon on their way to the hospital.

Of course, he had a little helper with him. Luna took to carrying the magazines for the teen as she waddled alongside Altra all the way to the hospital.

[ TEXT > Hau ] On our way.

Was all he had to send, when eventually making it to said place of.. well in Altra's mind 'horrors'. He hated how places like this felt. Too clean, the sounds of the machines made him jumpy. It all felt so.. visceral.

He could only imagine he might have had something go wrong in a place like this when he was younger. Would explain the gaps in his memory.

Even so, the nurse was nice enough to show him to Hau's room. Altra would Poke his head in with a smile.

"Hey Hau!" He would have been louder, but.. the air of this place felt so quiet. Like it'd be wrong to be boisterous.

[ TEXT > Altra ] They will! I'm sure of it!

Anything else that he should bring... Hau ponders for a moment, trying to think of something.

[ TEXT > Altra ] Maybe some magazines? I'll pay you back. Hala already brought some books for Hau to read, but he wasn't sure if he could keep his attention on them at all. Maybe magazines would be easier to read?

[ TEXT > Altra ] Let me know when you're almost here and I'll ask the nurse to let you in! They said people are free to come in whenever as long as I say they're okay to.

Until then, he'd just attempt some rhythm games on his switch to break the monotony.

[splicedskies]

He couldn't help but be curious as to what Vic was getting, but when he came back with the cans of silly string?

Oh, the gears were starting to turn. And that joyful, happy smile.. turned to one of mischief.

Oh.. he knew EXACTLY where to go with these! Considering he knew *someone* had given a friends of his PAPERWORK for Halloween.

"I know exactly what to do with these!" He started chuckling. Oh yes.. Vic is definitely enabling some mischief that's about to follow through.

Thankfully he doesn't notice the sneaky Weavile.

Vicious grins at that before moving slightly out of sight behind his door before returning and hanging over a few cans of silly string. "Here you go, have fun with these, Leal left them behind, and frankly I rather not get sprayed with them, if he does remember about them." he offered with a slight grin.

"I'm sure you will have lots of fun with those" He grinned as the other munched and Weavile slipped another apple into the kid's bag.

[splicedskies]

Camping was meant to be peaceful, it was often touted as ones way of 'escaping' everyday life. For Altra though? This was his every day, and now it was being disturbed. At first, he was willing to ignore it. But the blasts, the crashing, the sounds of trees toppling over.

Something, someone was causing wide spread damage and he was worried for his own safety. He was hoping it was some Pokémon dispute, something he could handle but..

"Dad?"

His voice barely over the thunderous sounds of battle.. Altra standing there, looking bewildered, confused even as he saw the man with the knife. Was.. this person attacking his Dad?

It looked like that to Altra... And his mind was quick to make that assumption as he seemed to go from concerned, to... strangely intense, even 'mad' at the individual. His hair even seemed to sharpen as his Zorua, trailing just behind him, lept Infront of him.

As if sensing it's trainers rising anger.

@splicedskies asked for a starter Vicious was not have a good time on this job. First, the dam asshole had sicced his Pokemon on him and ran and now he was doing the same thing again but with a knife. Feraligatr was battling with their Pokemon, a good chunk of the forest had fallen around them as the Pokemon crashed and rumbled around them. He hissed as his arm got sliced as he landed a blow against the other's torso.

[splicedskies]

If anything, Altra just looked a bit dissapointed.

His hopes had been really high with the Pokegear, after all. When it didn't immediately fizzle and spark, that it'd allow him to use at least rudimentary things like a map and even a simple calling device. But the ball really just showed how much work likely would need to be done.

He could only wonder what his mom did to make the ones he had work. But they were the only four he had.

"Y-yeah.. I don't get burned that easily." Never had. If anything he enjoyed being as close to warm sources as possible. Thankfully there were no obvious marks on Altra's hands at least.

He'd nod though, he understood things like this took time. While he didn't remember any such testing with his mother, she probably did something similar. Well outside of the usual tests she did on him.

None of them involved electronics though.

"Y-yeah.. It's a process.. But.. I guess I should have expected this. Pokeballs have never worked for me." He unclipped the 'Luxury Ball' that belonged to his Zorua, Albert and showed it to Vic. It looked.. somewhat the same as normal ones. But there was some sort of clasp like device on the hinge of the balls that sort of crawled over the whole thing. Like a lattice pattern that blended with the balls 'design'.

An obvious addon devise of some sort.

Cita's whines did catch Altra's attention, so he then turned to rummage through his shoulder bag. Pushing past several of his survival tools to his berry pouch. Inside, he pulled out a few Razz Berries and tossed them to the little Larvitar tyke.

"Here you go Cita!"

The ball rolled over to the Larvitar who whacked it at Vicious's face, the man thankfully catching it before it smacked him.

He set it down and headed over to Altra, moving to check over the teen's hands for injury. "You okay? Any burns or anything?" he asked, glancing at Altra's face.

At the kid's comment, he nodded. "Hrm, I'll take a look at it and see what fried and where it started so it can be improved for you. These things take a bit to fine-tune, I blew a few things up myself when I make new stuff, it's bound to happen." he offered to try to reassure Altra.

Cita made a whining noise off the side clearly upset he didn't get his treat right away, earning an eye roll from Vicious.

[splicedskies]

Maybe some day, though that was far from Altra's mind at the present. Right now, he was just trying to figure out what to actually 'do' with his life. If he couldn't find his mom then.. well.. He didn't have much to go on. He had no formal 'home', very little to his name, heck.. he didn't even have public records for anything.

He came to the conclusion he'd figure something out eventually; and now he was just trying to find his footing. Where ever it was.

Still, Altra looked to the offered pokeball for a moment, he was hesitant to take hold of it. He knew what'd happened in the past. And.. he was definitely skittish around it happening again.

With a thick swallow, Altra carefully took the offered pokeball into hand. There was a few moments of silence, making Altra think it'd be okay.. All before the aforementioned ball started to spark wildly in his hands, forcing him to drop it in surprise.

"AH!"

It wasn't really a spark of some sort of weird 'surge' but rather like something was clashing from Altra to the pokeball itself.

Like something being repelled and pushing away causing enough of an energetic spark to be visible.

Altra held his hands to his chest as the ball fell to the ground, crackling and even smoldering from the energy that caused it to spark to begin with.

Altra was silent, looking a little bewildered.. but also a morbid amount of understanding coated his features. Like he was kicking himself for not expecting that sort of outcome.

"That.. that happens all the time. Except for the ones my mom made me. I've even held ones that were 'handmade' and the same reaction.."

Vicious shrug seeming mostly unbothered by mind control. Malamar was probably more interested in that darkness that lived in his head than himself anyway, and he had made notes not to go near that area if possible. Vicious nodded and smiled at the teen. "That's why you will be great someday, you know your Pokemon and you look out for them, you got strong bonds." He wasn't lying, Altra would be a powerful trainer once he got his feet under him. The kid just needed time and food, in his books.

"Whenever you're ready just hit the button in the middle of it and toss it at Cita, he probably won't smack it away, not if he wants a treat." Vicious instructed shooting a look at the small Pokemon who perked up at the promise of a treat, clearly excited at the promise, before looking at Altra and nodding, doing his best to stay still for the teen. "It's a good base to see if they will work since the gloves are taking longer than I like to admit, I don't work too much with fabrics. My balls are designed to be surge-proof after the thunderbolt incident, fried all the old ones anyways, thankfully no one was inside the balls when they got cooked."

[splicedskies]

"Mind.. control?" That was worrying. He wasn't aware Pokémon could do anything like that. Sure, he'd heard some Pokémon had a lot of power; but trying to control people seemed completely out of line. Thankfully though, it seemed that this Pokémon, this 'Malamar' was gone. And hopefully not ever coming back.

Altra offered a soft smile though and nodded. He tried to be a good person. And that was hard when he had very little to go off of. His mother hadn't really gotten around to teaching him social skills. These were all ones he had to learn on his own, or learning from others.

"I do what I can. It's why I mostly focus on making sure they get fed at the end of the day before I do. I can go longer than they can without food, after all." Altra chuckled, looking up as Cita was bring dragged back. Albert wasn't too far behind. A few scuffs sure.. but he looked way too proud of himself.

Seeing the Pokémon come back, Altra nodded.

"Couldn't hurt to try. Most of the time if I touched any pokeballs, they'd short circuit and just.. never work. It's why I never tried to befriend any other Pokémon." Altra hummed, looking to the modified luxury balls on his belt.

The only ones that actually worked for him, all because his mother did 'something' to them that he didn't understand.

"Well.. we'll see what happens, eh?"

At Altra's worry, he offered the kid a soft smile before attempting to reassure them.

"Malamar likes to mind control things. A few times, I felt it a few times poking around in my head, and Weavile there smacked me a few times, too. I'm not sure if it's the greatest policy to have, but if something doesn't get along with him, I tend to listen to him. I released it near where I caught it. But I think he took that release personally."

He listened as Altra talked,

"You're a good person, Altra, and have a good heart. Which is more than I can say about their previous trainer. I think they lucked out meeting you." He shifted before tucking a hand into a pocket. "It's a good thing I think if they have energy and stuff. Means they are healthy and happy." Weavile came trotting back with Cita in tow, the younger one looking slightly tired a bit scorched from the shadow balls. "Do you wanna see if the Pokeball works for you? Worse case is I manually release him or he has a new toy to bat again after it bounces off him."

[splicedskies]

As Altra listened, the more he looked a bit.. concerned for Vic. Why would a Pokémon want him dead like that? Sure.. some Pokémon were mean. Just like there were mean people by nature. But perhaps they were just ill tempered. He'd seen a few like that. Sometimes a wild Pokémon would warn him of a highly aggressive Pokémon in an area he planned to camp in..

And thus he'd swiftly move to another area, as to not invoke it's wrath. Better safe than sorry.

"Yeah, I know that. Heck, it's why Desmond and Luna are with me in the first place. Their last 'trainer'.." Altra did the whole air quotes with his hands.. "Abandoned them at Mt. Coronet to fend for themselves because they weren't strong enough for him."

The teen scowled as he told this little tale.

"Poor Luna was crying when I found them, Desmond was trying to cheer her up. Apparently she'd been hatched from an egg by that Trainer. She's.. had trust issues ever since.. and we're slowly working her through it." He smiled sadly at this.. but.. What else could he really do than to be patient with his little bear.

"Hmm.. yeah.. I hope so. Most of my partners are pretty rambunctious." Altra chuckled though almost flinched when Vic pat his shoulder. Though it was mostly instinct.. something he could never quite shake.

"Desmond's the worst. I think he is like that thought to take out his frustration.. I don't blame him."

Vicious laughed slightly as the two Pokemon attacked each other, both often missing each other. "Fair enough, figured I should offer that up he surprised a few Pokemon in fights with that. Some Pokemon are like that, both Tyranitar and Feraligatr are like that, they want to do things their way and don't want help. Most of my battling skills are letting them do things their way, but those two aren't likely to take advice. I Used to have a Malamar and released him for that reason. Pretty sure he wanted my head." It wasn't a guess that Pokemon wanted his head. The damn thing came back a few weeks after it was released, and it was not a happy reunion. He had released it because the Pokemon was creeping him out, and more often than not, trying to tap into his mind. He had a slight grimace at the mention of the Pokemon, as did Weavile.

"You have a good team, if you ask me. They look out for you and vice versa, which is what you need right now. Might be a tad funny coming from me, but power isn't always the thing you need when it comes to making a team, utility is important too."

His hand moved and patted Altra's shoulder as he shot Weavile a look with a brow raised, only to get the Pokemon to chuckle before it stalked off to watch the two small Pokemon fight. "He's calmed down a fair bit, he used to be a lot worse. But it's not too uncommon for the line to be like that. They calm down a lot as they get bigger, thankfully. Or Garr here would be an absolute menace."

[splicedskies]

Once Cita ran off after Albert, the little fox started making pot-shots of Shadow Ball's at the little dancing terror. Though having to run-and-gun during it meant he missed more often than not. At least they weren't too damaging to much of anything. Albert was still very small, and being a Ghost Type attack, it puffed out into wisps once it hit anything solid.

Though also a telling of how undertrained Altra's Pokémon were.

"Nah... He hates when I tell him any tips, or try to warn him. I guess he likes that whole saying of 'school for hard knocks'.. Or.. something." Altra shrugged. At least running after a tiny ghost fox would mean the tyke wouldn't be tormenting poor Garr any more.

"The only one I think could do anything in my team right now is my Gible, Sigmund. And he likes to mostly throw sand rocks around." Altra hummed. Ah, the move 'Sand Tomb' likely. Typical for the Gible line in it's early days.

Still, seeing the grin from Weavile, Altra winced and looked down. Hands settling in his lap at the teasing. Damn it was embarrassing, but he was trying to push past it. Even with the cheeky Dark Type smirking at him.

"Hopefully Albert can wear Cita out a little bit, I've never seen a Pokémon have so much energy in them." The teen muttered with worry. He'd never dealt with young Pokémon yet. But his own team gave him plenty of a run around, even if they were all small and cute now.

He could only imagine how much harder they'd become once they were much, much larger.

The larvitar perked up at the promise to play with the fox doing a dance in excitement it seemed. "Cita can beat anyone" he cheered moving to face off against Albert. "Scary-fox can say no" he added, doubling down on what Altra said with glee as it danced more, seeming to get more hyped up. Vicious was in fact grinning over against the wall where he was watching, shoulders shaking slightly, like the man was trying not to laugh.

"Do you think we should warn Albert his dancing is actually dragon dance or?" the man asked Altra quietly as he moved over with the teen to watch the fight, even Weavile emerging from the house again to look over to the younger Pokemon and sigh, and give Vicious a look. "Relax Weavile, I doubt these two can do enough damage to cause issues with the house again. It's not like any of them explode or fire gunks of acid out." The Pokemon only huffed again and rolled his eyes, before glancing at Altra and offering a grin, clearly trying to tease the kid again.

[splicedskies]

Altra smiled, looking down to the little Larvitar. Very lively, and just a bit gung-ho. But he could respect that. They were young, full of energy, and wanting to take on the world. Gosh, he could only wonder if he was like that when he was way younger.

He.. didn't remember much of his younger years sadly. Most of his memories only went back a few years.

"Yes, I am a friend. But I don't think I can play like you can. Maybe.. Albert would like to play with you?" He passed a side glance to the ghostly fox who looked taken aback, even.. insulted!?

'Play!? I do not 'play' with some rambunctious child!' A huff, a lift of the nose into the air.

"Awww.. what's wrong Alby. Is the 'big strong Zorua' afraid of a lil' kid." He knew exactly how to get under his partners fun. And likely, it was hilarious for Vicious to watch. Considering he was only getting Altra's side of the conversation. Though.. it was easy to tell what was going on.

Albert was.. very emotive.

'What!? I could run circles around this mere child!' Pointing a paw at Altra.

"I don't know... Cita looks pretty fast, and strong." Indeed, Altra was enabling it. Which made the blue tufts on the Zora light up with the challenge.

'We'll see about that!' He'd leap from the table and immediately take off into the area around the cabin. All the while, Altra looked back up to Vic with a sheepish smile.

"I know how to get him to do stuff occasionally. We've been together for.. two years now."

Vicious raised a brow in amusement but moved back a bit to let Altra handle the tyke.

The small Pokemon chirped at the hand and butted it gently before stepping back. "Me Cita...You smell like Dad... Are you friend? Can we play? Dad won't get mad if you say yes" He was watching Albert as they talked. "Cita strong, Cita will be big soon too, like Garr" There was some stomping with that declaration, and a small arm pointed at Albert.

Vicious chuckled at the scene, guessing what the Larvitar was saying by his actions.

[splicedskies]

Altra hummed a bit. He still didn't quite know what to do with his life. Right now, his main focus was surviving. Trying to get a foot hold, get stronger and eventually try to find his mom.. If she was even out there to find.

And he was far from that later goal as well... There was no possible way one kid could potentially hunt down some Galactic outliers and fight them off.

All the while, as these thoughts swam in Altra's head.. he idly fiddled with the pokegear. It felt surreal to be holding something so mundane to most trainers. But to him felt like a far off dream because of some unknown curse he's had for as long as he's remembered.

As Garr sauntered over though, Altra looked up and had to stifle back a bit of laughter as the little Larvitar was plopped down on the ground. Poor big guy..

Albert though, locked eyes with the tyke. He was MORE than ready to act if the tyke decided that it would be a good idea to try and pick a fight with him. A roll of the eyes, a scoff from the ghostly Zorua before Altra held a hand out to the little Larvitar.

"Hey there lil' guy. What's your name?" Altra asked gently, keeping a calm voice as he always did with Pokémon. He'd happily let it sniff him.

"My name's Altra.. and the grump next to me is Albert." He chuckled as said 'grump' grumbled incoherently before jumping down from the table to go chase something willing to fight with him. A little sour Vic had butted in..

Oh he would have loved to run circles around the little Larvitar.

Vic tilted his head a bit and grinned slightly. "If it helps any, I didn't become a decent trainer til my late twenties. And I never did the gym challenges or got a licence. I mostly use my Pokemon for defence."

No point in adding the defence was needed with cops and trainers wanting to be the next big hero.

"Yeah, it can make calls. I'm afraid I had to use an older model, so you can't text, but it's something. I'll keep playing with it and see if I can add any other features from the newer stuff to it. It should work in most regions too I set it up to work globally. But it's a good thing it works because it probably means the Pokeball will work too. If you want, I can match the design on yours or make a custom one."

Garr chose that moment to wander over hold the larvitar by the tail in his mouth and plop it down in front of the duo with a tired grunt. "Your problem" And then he stalked off as the smaller Pokemon flipped himself upright, staring at the duo, before looking at Albert and getting ready to headbutt the fox. "Behave and I'll give you a treat later, which means no picking fights with other Pokemon without asking" Vic warned without glancing down at the smaller Pokemon who huffed and stared at Altra, seemingly curious about the new person, toddling up to him and sniffing.

[splicedskies]

"Hmm.. I may not be a good trainer for them then. I've had all my Pokémon for.." He pauses, counting for a moment.

"Two years now? We can barely get any 'training' done. I'm not very good at it, and not having a license means taking on gyms, and other trainers is outta the question." He frowned a bit, even as he looked over the pokegear curiously. Though hearing Vic tried to match it to his usual colors was very kind of him.

Sure, Altra only had a handful of outfits, but the one he mostly wore was his blue turtleneck and his coat. Mostly dark grey with the blue and orange/red motifs.

He never understood exactly why his mom chose them, but he felt like they fit.

Altra looked shocked when pushing the buttons made the device turn on. He looked.. shocked that it did. Still no smoldering, no sparks.. It looked like he was dealing with a time bomb if his face meant anything toward his current emotional state.

But the more he followed Vic's instructions, the more he relaxed on handling it.

"It can call people too?" Altra looked bewildered at this. He'd seen people with all kinds of phones.. did this mean this was 'technically' a phone? Could he eventually call the friends he's made with it?

Still, the teen was thankful. He knew his mother had planned to make him something 'along these lines' before their move to Unova. But she never finished it. Thus rendering him unable to do anything if he was in a bad spot. And it was likely he'd find any reason to call Vic now that the man had basically unlocked it for him.

Albert knew the kid would do just that. Hells, he'd probably find the most obscure locations to contact him from.

"Maybe in several years. I don't think we're in any position to get 'strong' yet."

Vicious grinned and laughed at the teen's surprise. "They are like that, They won't listen to anyone they don't respect, they take skills and patience to get to their final evolution and frankly, they are impatient, they want to get there as soon as possible," he admitted, shaking his head in fondness.

He turned his attention to the gear in the kid's hand, with a smile grin. " I also made a case for it, given your worry about it being broken, so it's protected until you need it. hope you don't mind I tried to use colours to match your outfit from memory," he explained, clearly seeming proud of the gadget in Altra's hands. "The Center button opens the map and you can scroll between maps with the buttons on the right side, and zoom with the buttons on the left side. The small blue button next to the center button is for calls. you can scroll contacts with the right-side buttons and call with the second. I left my number in it for you."

He hummed thoughtfully.

"I can add more later if you want, but I figure focusing on the basics you mentioned was more important, and making it surge-proof. I had a Pokemon zap it a few times to test."

He stopped as Altra talked about his Pokemon, chuckling at the kid's jabs at the small Pokemon.

"You seem to do pretty well with them, they clearly care about you and you have strong bonds. I'm sure with time you'll be able to beat me into the ground in a battle. And the Rookiedees will shake in terror when you approach."

[splicedskies]

It made Vic happy?

Altra didn't quite know what to do with this information honestly. Sure, he was embarrassed, incredibly so because.. what kid wouldn't be when they call an adult in their life by a parental moniker? And when Weavile left to head back inside, a lot of his uncertainty was completely thrown out the window the moment a tiny tornado basically flew past him.

Altra was confident there's be a resounding sonic boom from the sheer momentum, but that thankfully didn't come.

"Whoa..." Was all he could mouth as he looked out toward Garr.

"I've seen some crazy Pokémon in the wild, but wow.." He just had to imagine what kind of Pokémon Garr wound up having eggs with at this point. That or all of the Tyranitar line were this strong even so young.

Though Vic quickly pulled Altra's attention away from Garr's grumbles of annoyance and looking to the pokegear offered to him. He was.. weary to take hold of it. Thankfully, when he did.. There was no sparking, no smoldering. At least not yet. Altra was quite fearful of any delayed reactions.

"Yeah I imagine.. Mean some of my own partners are already hard to handle. Like Desmond, my Zigzagoon. He's a real menace on even his good days.. But he did come from an abusive trainer. So I can kinda see why he lashes out so much." Plus being a dark type also made him more untrusting and ready to bite.

But a smile soon formed over Altra's face and he chuckled at the little Larvitar's lack of self-preservation and lack of fear. Albert even squinted at Altra when the teen dared to give him a slight brow raise.

"Reminds me of a certain little fox." Altra snickered before he got a tiny paw nudged in his side.

"Hey! It's true! You picked a fight with a bunch of Rookidee's once, a pack of like five of them and I had to intervene or they were gonna peck you to the ground!" He grumbled as the Zorua scoffed.

'I had it well under control!' A disgruntled huff.

".. Sure you did..."

The Weavile chuckled again, seeming to enjoy the teen's embarrassment, before cracking an eye to look at Altra. "I'll let you in on a secret then since you were honest. You made him happy when you said it. He not good at affection or expression himself, but he turned a delightful shade of red with a smile when you said it." He chuckled again at the memory, seeming to clearly be enjoying himself, before turning to head in himself stopping at the door to glance back at Altra. "The head pat thing? It's his way of giving hugs and stuff, he thinks it's comforting or something. Just be careful with him, he's been hurt a lot in the past, or we'll have a problem. Later Bean Sprout." A few moments later after Weavile disappeared into the house a small Larvitar came barrelling out of the place at full speed, gleefully charging at Garr. Vic appeared a few seconds after, seeming annoyed slightly, before looking over to the tyke Pokemon.

"I swear, his kids are going to be the end of me" he muttered before glancing over to see the tyranitar make an annoyed sound at the small child headbutting him. "I suggest letting the kid let out some energy at his dear old dad for a bit. I got the pokegear for you, I loaded a few region maps on it." He offered, trying not to laugh as the small Pokemon bit his dad's tail causing the large one to make a noise and start to get up. He held out the Gear for Altra to take, watching the large Pokemon play with the smaller one, waving his tail and moving it away when the Larvitar pounced. "It's by the way I don't think it's too dangerous or you couldn't handle it, it's more of he's at the age where he doesn't listen to anyone, I've already had to hunt him down in the forest twice, and is currently a menace to the Pidgey population. I swear his kids are going to make me go grey but at least they bite less than Feraligatr's kid did. He took on a Fearrow the other day and Garr had to bail him out, I don't think they know what fear is." he semi-rambled, seeming a bit nervous or something.