As expected of the main Love Pokémon Store, the selection of ordinary Pokémon eggs was impressive. Auron led Tim down the aisles, examining them one by one.
Pokémon: Drilbur
Gender: Male
Type: Ground
Ability: Mold Breaker (lets the user's moves ignore the opponent's abilities)
Potential: Blue
Basic Moves: Mud-Slap, Rapid Spin
Egg Moves: Rototiller, Slash, Stealth Rock
Auron's eyes lit up. He waved Tim over.
"Tim, come here—take a look at this one. This is pretty good."
Tim hurried over, glancing at the egg with its brown, cloud-like markings.
"This one? Brown clouds? Ground-type… Could this be a Garchomp egg?"
He looked up at Auron, excitement written all over his face.
"Nope."
Auron replied, keeping a poker face, refusing to spoil the surprise.
Tim frowned. "Then… is it Flygon? But you said Flygon wasn't really recommended…"
"Nope again."
Now Tim was getting even more confused.
"But aren't the main Ground/Dragon-types Garchomp and Flygon? If it's neither of those, what could it be?"
Auron grinned, clearly enjoying himself. There's always Zygarde, but that's a legend—what about Drilbur, though?
"It's a Drilbur egg."
Tim was completely thrown off. "Drilbur? What's that got to do with dragons?"
Auron's satisfaction was obvious. "Well, what does Drilbur evolve into?"
"Excadrill."
"And what type is Excadrill?"
"Ground and Steel."
"See? It's got 'drill' in the name, and it has a big snout like a dragon's head. Why can't it be a dragon?"
Tim, slightly bewildered, paused for a second. "You know… you're kind of right."
Meanwhile, Jace was doing everything he could not to burst out laughing, his face turning red from holding it in. Serena finally couldn't stand it anymore and said,
"Alright, stop teasing him already. Let's just look at the eggs."
Auron chuckled, "Okay, okay."
His mischief satisfied, Auron went back to egg hunting.
"You're no fun…"
Tim finally caught on and gave him a helpless look, though his good upbringing kept him from saying anything worse.
"Sorry, sorry. But really, Excadrill is a solid pick, especially for a team like Jace's—kind of like an alternative to Conkeldurr."
Auron explained, though he couldn't help thinking to himself: Excadrill, huh? Charizard isn't Dragon-type either, and neither are Gyarados or Aerodactyl. Even the supposed Dragon Champion runs a "Dragon" team that's full of Pokémon who aren't really Dragon-type. As long as it has "dragon" in the name, that's good enough.
Moving along—
Pokémon: Trubbish
Gender: Male
Type: Poison
Ability: Stench (moves have a 10% chance to make the foe flinch when damaging)
Potential: Orange
Basic Moves: Poison Gas, Pound
Egg Moves: Haze, Curse, Autotomize, Rollout
Auron paused, noting the egg's decent potential, but Poison-types didn't really fit anyone's team, and the Stench ability was… well, not exactly appealing.
Tim caught Auron's hesitation and glanced at the purple cloud-marked egg. "So is this the Dragon-type egg, then?"
Auron shook his head. "Nope, that's a Poison-type egg."
Tim sighed, "Aw, okay."
Auron patted his shoulder. "When it comes to Dragon eggs, the purple cloud markings lean more toward blue-purple, while Poison is a deep purple. It's subtle, but you get the hang of it if you look closely. Still, it's not always perfect."
"Got it," Tim replied, nodding and taking mental notes. Auron kept searching.
Most of what they found were run-of-the-mill eggs—not really anything that stood out or was especially useful for any of them.
Then something caught Auron's eye: a pale yellow egg.
"Huh? What's this one?"
Pokémon: Eevee
Gender: Female
Type: Normal
Ability: Adaptability (boosts the power of same-type moves from 50% to 100%)
Potential: White (inherently weak)
Basic Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip
Egg Move: Wish
This was the first time Auron had seen a Pokémon egg with "white" potential. The only other weak potential he'd seen was "green leaf."
Looking at the "inherently weak" note, he realized there actually was a formula in his head for a kind of supplement that could compensate for this sort of deficiency. Technically, it wasn't an "energy cube" anymore, but more like a special medicine. The problem was, the ingredients were extremely rare, including a Gracidea flower. While those flowers are common in games, in the real world, they only grew in Shaymin's habitats. And Shaymin had only appeared once, during World War II, helping Vantora win a decisive battle before vanishing completely.
After that war, Shaymin left behind a handful of Gracidea flowers, but who knows how many are left now?
Auron shook his head. "What a shame… There's not much we can do. Still, it's an Eevee, so with those looks, it'll find a loving home regardless."
"What's up?"
Jace, noticing Auron zoning out in front of the egg display, asked curiously.
"Nothing. Let's keep looking."
Jace shot him a skeptical look but went back to helping Tim hunt for purple cloud-marked eggs, letting Auron identify each one.
They pressed on. There were plenty of purple-cloud eggs, but most turned out to be Poison-types, with the occasional Ghost-type, though none were Gastly or Litwick. If there had been, Auron would've bought one himself. Despite being scared by his dad's Gengar for years, Auron had always loved that grinning, mischievous "Purple Phantom"—both in his last life and this one.
"What if there aren't any Dragon-type eggs?"
Tim was starting to get discouraged.
"What's the rush? If they don't have it here, we can always check another store. Maybe the main branch shipped them out to other locations."
Jace replied absentmindedly, still scanning the displays.
"Yeah, I guess you're right…"
Tim tilted his head, looking adorably lost.
"Tim, come here a sec."
Auron's voice called out from another display.
"Coming!"
Tim hurried over.
"What do you think about Altaria? This one's a Swablu egg."
Pokémon: Swablu
Gender: Female
Type: Normal, Flying
Ability: Cloud Nine (negates all effects of weather)
Potential: Orange
Basic Moves: Peck, Growl
Egg Moves: Dragon Rush, Feather Dance, Defog, Tailwind
"That's a good one. Once it evolves, it becomes Dragon-type, right? You mind giving me the breakdown? Your analyses are always clearer and more practical than the teachers'."
Auron glanced at Tim. The kid had potential, and he'd clearly started to see the value in Auron's strategic mindset—born from a previous life spent grinding the leaderboards and testing teams late into the night.
Not only does Altaria become a Dragon-type after evolving, but Mega Evolution even gives it a Fairy typing. If only people discovered Mega Evolution soon—there's a ton of strategic depth there. Wait, didn't his dad's lab have a few Mega Stones? He'd have to check later.
Auron grinned, "Alright, here we go."
Tim looked eager. "Go for it."
"Among Dragons, Altaria's one of the rare 'Dragon shields.' Its attacking power is honestly at the bottom of the pack—worse than Dragonite, even Noivern. But its real value is in bulk and utility. With Flying, it gets good physical defense, and with Dragon, special defense. It's got solid dual defenses—its only real issue is a glaring weakness to Ice.
"On the support side, it's amazing—Natural Cure for shrugging off status, or Cloud Nine for messing with Jace's Sunny Day teams. Move-wise, you've got Ice Beam, Moonblast, Flamethrower, Play Rough, Hurricane, Dazzling Gleam… and then there's Perish Song, Haze, Roar to stop setups, Cotton Guard to boost defenses, Power Swap, Trick Room, and Heal Bell to support your team. Tons of options.
"Yeah, as a Dragon-type, not going on the offense is kind of embarrassing, but Altaria can Dragon Dance, and with that plus its bulk and Cotton Guard, you can get greedy with setup. Physical moves like Dragon Claw, Earthquake, Play Rough, Outrage—nothing too fast, but it gets the job done. What do you think?"
"I dunno. What's the best way to run it?"
Tim's curiosity was piqued—he was starting to agree with Jace that having Auron as an "external brain" was a huge advantage.
"Depends on your style. If you want to stall, Perish Song, Toxic, Roost, Rest, Cotton Guard are all solid. For support, you've got Heal Bell, Tailwind, Sunny Day. If you want to go aggressive, Dragon Dance and then just attack. But if you're facing something like Cloyster, you probably want to play safe—don't get greedy. On the other hand, against a Pelipper starting a Rain team, Cloud Nine takes out their weather, which can open things up for you."
"Alright, then it's settled!"
Tim's eyes lit up. He happily scooped up the Swablu egg and headed for the checkout.
To Tim, a versatile Pokémon like this was a perfect match for a "scholar" like him.
"Auron, Auron—come over here!"
Across the aisle, Serena was calling out in a panic. Something must have happened—
(End of Chapter)
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