Nova caught Sprigatito's little display from inside the tent. He simply reached out, scooped the cat up in his hands, and pulled it inside.
He gave Sprigatito a thorough, messy rubdown, completely ruining the careful grooming it had spent so long on. Just as Sprigatito was angry enough to bite, Nova held it up in the air with a mock-serious expression.
"How could you say something like that? Spreading rumors that your Trainer favors the new over the old? You are all precious to me, every last one of you!"
Sprigatito, hit with a false accusation before it could even get a word in, deflated completely. It lost all will to fight back and went limp in Nova's hands, letting him do as he pleased.
That was more like it.
As the saying goes, every troublemaker meets their match. Nova was clearly the one thing Sprigatito could not handle.
With the newborn settled and the little troublemaker dealt with, Nova finally had a quiet moment to take a proper look at his new partner.
He checked his Pokedex, and Lapras's information appeared before him.
Species: Lapras | Level: 1 | Ability: Water Absorb
Traits:
Absolute Purification - This Lapras has an unusually strong purification ability. It can turn contaminated water clean over time. In battle, if Lapras is inflicted with a status condition such as poison, confusion, freeze, burn, or paralysis, the purification energy within its body will automatically remove it. The number of times this can trigger per battle increases as Lapras grows stronger.
Goddess of Dawn - The Ice-type energy within Lapras is abundant, slightly boosting all Ice-type moves. The power of Ice Beam is significantly raised, and the chance of freezing the target on contact is doubled.
Battlefield Doctor - When Lapras uses recovery moves, their effect is increased by twenty percent. During battle, this bonus rises to fifty percent.
Unsinkable Island - Lapras's Defense, Special Defense, and HP are significantly raised. It cannot receive critical hits from Water-type or Ice-type moves. Damage from ball and bomb moves is halved. While in water or a frozen environment, Lapras gradually recovers HP. When Lapras's HP reaches zero, it becomes immune to all damage for one turn. This effect can only occur once per battle.
Natural Singer - When Lapras uses sound-based moves, they gain a twenty percent power bonus.
Moves: Sparkling Aria (Egg Move), Freeze-Dry (Egg Move), Ancient Power (Egg Move), Water Gun, Growl
This was the first Pokemon on Nova's team without a Hidden Ability. Even so, that was hardly a sign of weak talent. This Lapras's traits were, by any measure, exceptional.
Lapras's normal Hidden Ability is Hydration, which lets it recover from status conditions in rain. For this Lapras, however, Absolute Purification already made that completely unnecessary. It went much further.
Nova could only say that this was the result of cutting-edge research. A Pokemon that could only have come from the combined efforts of leading ecological scientists and the best university in the Norlandia Alliance working together.
This Lapras was pure science and hard work.
From what Aresdra had shared, and what Nova had read up on himself, researchers Sherif and Mataga had been running a joint project with Nivan City University, studying the water-purifying ability found in the Polar population of Lapras.
It had started with Sherif simply tracking polar Lapras migration routes. He noticed something unexpected along the way: wherever this population rested, the surrounding water became strikingly clean, even as local fish Pokemon populations declined sharply. Curious, he partnered with the university nearest to the Lapras's southern migration destination. Together they identified the unique gene behind this trait, which they called the "Goddess of Purification," and successfully transplanted it into five Lapras populations. Water quality in two sea regions improved noticeably.
The egg gifted to Aresdra was something beyond even that. Sherif had used his personal connections to obtain genes from two Elite Four-level Lapras and combine them with the Purifying Dawn trait. Its mother came from the Ice Sea population of Lapras, the most battle-hardened of all, while its father was from the South Island population, known above all else for its remarkable endurance and defense.
As Aresdra's uncle by relation, this was the finest gift Sherif could put together with everything at his disposal.
And through a happy turn of events, it had found its way to Aresdra's boyfriend, Nova.
Nova looked down at the remarkable Pokemon his girlfriend had passed along to him and broke into a quiet smile.
"I really have come a long way," he murmured to himself.
With the unexpected hatching changing his plans, Nova spent one more night in the tent.
The next morning, he was up early and in good spirits, ready to move.
Without quite noticing when it had happened, Nova now had a full team of six. The levels were all over the place, and four of them were still very young, but he felt genuinely ready for a proper 6v6 battle.
That said, it was something he absolutely could not let Thelma find out about. She had eight Pokemon, each approaching level 60. Most experienced trainers would struggle against her. If Nova actually went through with their agreed 6v6 right now, his young team would have no chance.
Lapras was not built for long-distance travel on land. The usual approach would be to return it to its Poke Ball. But with all of Nova's other partners out and active, putting a newborn straight into a Poke Ball felt wrong.
Besides, Lapras was still only about the size of a dinner plate. It fit easily in the backpack, and without the incubator taking up space, the bag was actually lighter than before.
Nova settled Mudkip and Lapras into the backpack, finished packing up camp, and set off toward the only small village in the Layered Rock Mountain Range.