"Good. As long as you can keep it under control."
Caster let out a quiet breath of relief.
But the feeling didn't last. Almost immediately, something nagged at him, and he went still.
The voice had been unmistakably young, too young to have come from the Priest. And more than that, it hadn't come through his ears at all. It had simply appeared inside his head.
"You alright, kid?"
"Pika~"
Both the Priest and Pikachu caught Caster's sudden stillness and looked over with concern.
"Telepathy," Caster said, still trying to wrap his head around it. "The Slowpoke in the Poké Ball just talked to me telepathically. It said it can suppress the smell coming from its tail."
He was genuinely floored.
Telepathy wasn't something most Pokémon ever developed. It was the kind of ability you saw in extraordinarily powerful Pokémon, legendary ones, or rare exceptions that defied easy explanation. The last thing he expected was for a Slowpoke that had been alive for all of five minutes to already have it.
The Priest's expression shifted, surprise breaking through his usual composure. Still, a trace of skepticism remained, and he said, "Let it out again. I want to see it for myself."
Caster nodded and pressed the button on the Poké Ball.
A burst of red light, and the small, crimson Slowpoke materialized in front of them.
This time, there was nothing. No scent, no pull, no trace of that dizzying fragrance from before.
"Well, I'll be."
Hard to argue with results. The Priest had no choice but to accept it, though he couldn't help thinking, just what exactly did I hatch?
"Nya~"
The Slowpoke lifted its head and looked around, taking everything in with calm, unhurried curiosity.
The sky was a brilliant white. The ocean stretched out in deep, vivid blue. The sunlight was warm, the sea breeze easy and soft. The world, as far as Slowpoke was concerned, seemed pretty great.
While Slowpoke took in the world, Caster took in Slowpoke.
"Huh. This one doesn't seem slow at all."
He noticed it right away. Its pupils were noticeably larger than a regular Slowpoke's, and its eyes were bright and alert, radiating an energy that had no business belonging to a member of its species.
"Hey there, Slowpoke."
Caster smiled and gave a small wave. "I'm Caster. Your Trainer."
"Nya~"
Slowpoke glanced at him, then calmly reached out a paw and gave his hand a few gentle shakes, like it was returning the introduction.
"It really isn't slow at all!"
Caster grinned. "Its reaction time is completely normal. Like any other Pokémon!"
A typical Slowpoke's famously delayed responses would have driven him crazy. This one was sharp and present, and there was something quietly intelligent behind its eyes.
Then again, it could use telepathy. In theory, that meant actual, real conversations between them were on the table.
"Now this is what I'm talking about!"
The more Caster looked at his little crimson Slowpoke, the more he loved it.
Rare coloring. Remarkable ability. A sharp mind. Its tail could work as bait, and it could communicate directly through thought. As far as Caster was concerned, this Pokémon was everything he could have asked for.
"Slowpoke, let me give you a little welcome gift..."
Out of habit, Caster reached into his fishing space to grab an Energy Orb, something to channel into Slowpoke as a way of bonding right from the start. But his hand came back empty. He'd used the last one.
"I owe you one, I promise."
He rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin, then called out Dratini and Gyarados to introduce them to the newest addition.
"Yurl~"
The moment Dratini realized it was no longer the youngest on the team, it perked right up. From here on out, it was number three. That suited it just fine.
"Rawr~"
Gyarados leaned its massive head down for a closer look, then narrowed its eyes in something that was, unmistakably, a grin. Terrifying on the outside, genuinely warm on the inside, the oldest member of the group had always kept a soft spot for the younger ones.
As for Pikachu, it did what it always did: walked right up, made itself at home, and within minutes had Slowpoke completely at ease. Pikachu had a gift for that.
Since the newest addition was still just a baby, the rest of the team went out of their way to fuss over it, playing with it, talking to it, keeping it company. Caster watched them and felt something settle warmly in his chest.
He took the opportunity to pull up Slowpoke's stat panel.
[Pokémon: Slowpoke]
[Type: Water / Psychic]
[Ability: Oblivious (Prevents the Pokémon from becoming infatuated or taunted due to its lack of awareness)]
[Moves: Water Gun, Confusion, Yawn, Disable, Heal Pulse, Teleport]
"Six moves?"
Caster's eyes went wide. The more he read, the more his excitement built. "It already knows Heal Pulse and Teleport?"
A newborn Pokémon could usually manage one or two moves. Three was impressive. His Slowpoke had doubled that and then some.
Heal Pulse was exactly what his team had been missing: a solid recovery option that would give them real staying power in a fight. And Teleport was nothing to dismiss either. In battle it allowed seamless, unrestricted switching, and outside of battle its uses were just as significant.
"Nya~"
Just as Caster was riding the high of all this, Slowpoke opened its mouth in a wide, unhurried yawn, rubbing one eye with its paw. Apparently, it was getting sleepy.
At almost the same moment, the clear sky overhead went gray. Thick clouds rolled in fast, and a light drizzle began to fall.
"Did Slowpoke's yawn just change the weather?"
Caster had been watching the whole time, and this stopped him cold.
He thought back to a legend from Ecruteak City in the Johto region, about a town that had been suffering through a brutal drought. At the lowest point, a wandering Slowpoke had yawned, and rain had followed. The drought ended. Out of gratitude, the townspeople had enshrined the Slowpoke as a god.
The thought hit him all at once. Does my Slowpoke carry that same kind of energy?
It had already blown past his expectations more times than he could count.
And what he was seeing wasn't the battle move Yawn, the one that put opponents to sleep. This was something closer to Dragonair's innate ability to shift the weather, functionally identical to the Drizzle ability in everything but name.
To put it simply: Caster didn't have a conventional weather setter yet. But he now had two unconventional ones.
"Nya~"
Yawn finished, Slowpoke lay right down where it stood and fell asleep. Its snoring was immediate and impressive.
Caster shook his head, smiling despite himself. "Knocked out just like that."
Though, given that it had only just come into the world, he supposed that made sense.
"Looks like the little one's worn out."
The Priest stepped closer and studied Slowpoke with a careful, measured look, as if picking up on something beneath the surface. He lowered his voice.
"That Slowpoke of yours was born with unusually strong psychic abilities. But for a body this young, that kind of power takes a toll. The sleep isn't laziness, it's recovery. You might want to think about teaching it Rest or Slack Off. Either one would make that process a lot more efficient."
"Rest or Slack Off?"
Caster raised an eyebrow.
Then it clicked. When he had fished up the Priest's Slowpoke earlier, the bonus reward had been a Slack Off TM. He'd tucked it away and almost forgotten about it. Looked like it was finally going to be useful.
"Oh, and another thing."
The mention of move tutoring jogged his memory. Somewhere in his fishing space, gathering dust, was the TM for Take Heart, the one he'd gotten when he fished up Manaphy. He'd never found the right use for it.
Maybe it was worth seeing if Slowpoke could learn that too.
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones