Gray waited until after breakfast the next day to announce his plans.

  “Gary, Ash. We’ll be staying in Pallet Town for the foreseeable future.” Both boys were visibly disappointed at the pause in their adventure. “But that doesn’t mean you guys should just play around. Ash, we’ll need to double down on your reading. That means more studying for you.”

  Expecting disappointment from the boy, Gray was surprised that Ash seemed fully on board with the plan. In fact, the boy was beaming, perfectly happy.

  Following his uncle around, it was clear to Ash just how much reading was involved in being a trainer. During their preparation for the Celadon match, it was thanks to Uncle Gray reading up and researching that he was able to dominate the battle.

  Ash had front seats in seeing how being able to read could help him be an awesome trainer, so he was going to be a reading master before he left on his journey to become a pokemon master!

  “Gary, I’ll be assisting with Professor Oak’s Fairy research. You’ve already proven yourself to be meticulous and intelligent, so I could use your assistance. Plus your close proximity with my team could prove to be invaluable to the researchers. I’m hoping to expand your own learnings by helping too.”

  Gary was ecstatic. He’d get to spend time with an awesome trainer and learn more about fairy pokemon! More importantly, his Uncle Gray just said he would be able to help! Sure, he had found himself enamoured with dragons after Altaria’s match in Vermillion City, but he obviously needed at least one fairy type in the future. They were much too awesome and powerful to not have in his team.

  Secretly, he would consider himself a disappointment to his uncle, who was obviously the Fairy Master, if he didn’t at least make use of everything he learnt. As a boy who learned from the best, it was obvious that he needed to show the other extras how it was done! The only other person who could probably do so was Ash, and as much as he loved his best friend they both knew Ash was more airheaded.

  Professor Samuel Oak, who was also on the table perked up. “You’ll be taking an active role? That’s fantastic! There’s so much we’ve found so far, your opinions would help us tremendously.”

  Nodding, Gray fought to keep the discomfort of being close to the professor off his face.

  “Daisy, is there something you wish to do?” Blue asked his daughter.

  “I’m… not sure yet?”

  “Maybe you can consider going on a journey? No pressure yet, just something for you to think about,” stated Gray bluntly. So much for giving his niece a few days to settle.

  “I… can?”

  “Of course you can. You can do whatever you want.” affirmed Blue.

  “I’ll think about it first?”

  “OK, I think you could learn a lot of things by following your uncle around. See how he trains his pokemon and how he handles things. Any objections?”

  Daisy gave a brilliant smile at that suggestion. She was excited to get to know her uncle’s pokemon up close! Maybe she might even get to pet Ninetales for a bit. Being up close to such a beautiful and powerful pokemon made her both excited and nervous.

  Gray continued to sip on his coffee, ignoring Grandpa Sammy’s shining eyes. The old man was clearly pleased as if all his pieces had fallen into place, so best to ignore him for a bit.

  “Where exactly are you and your research team at?” asked Gray when they stepped into the laboratory proper. He was surprised to note that it seemed like everyone but the Professor was already inside working. Gray hadn’t been aware the Professor was willingly spending time for family breakfast over more hours in the lab.

  “Let me show you what we have so far!” said Professor Oak giddily before marching away.

  Grandpa Sammy helped himself onto a comfortable couch, Ash with him. The retired old man was satisfied with helping Ash as much as he could with reading, as long as he was physically around the chaos. Daisy and Gary trailed after their uncle expectantly, their father having vanished into his other work now that his younger brother was present.

  Professor Oak came back carrying a thick stack of folders. A few other researchers with equally loaded arms followed him. Gray felt a sense of crisis at the sight.

  When they had finally managed to unload all the files, Gray could make out that they were research reports. The titles of each folder were clearly written. The rest of the lab stopped what they were doing and congregated around the fairy trainer, authors of said reports looking to the younger man for his opinion on the research they had conducted.

  “Give me some time to look through them.”

  Knowing that a lot of the lab’s work today hinged on his thoughts and previous knowledge, Gray quickly scanned the titles of each file, taking note of them. There were quite a bit of them, all centred around Gray and his team, particularly those who had already made an appearance in a gym battle.

  ‘Clefairy Line: Fairy/Normal Type or Pure Fairy Type?’

  ‘Mawile vs Mega Mawile: Explaining the leap in Strength’

  ‘Mega Altaria’s Pink Beam - New Fairy Type Attack’

  Choosing to address what he deemed easiest first, Gray hoped that a few clarifying words would spur the lab into action. Leaving the lab on pause like this made for terrible productivity, it would be better if the researchers had something to actively work at.

  “The Clefairy line is pure Fairy type. The normal classification was wrong in the past, like I told Brock on broadcast. There’s no need to invest time, energy or money into this.”

  An older scientist was quick to retort. “They must at least be partially normal. This was past conjecture, and surely the previous school of thought had some leg to stand on if it became a well-known fact!”

  Massaging his temple at the rebuttal right from the get-go, Gray shot back. “You can check up on the previous literature’s methodology to determine where they went wrong, but there’s an even easier test now. If they’re partially normal, how come they’re not immune to Ghost type attacks?”

  When the scientist’s expression remained unconvinced, Gray lost a smidgen of his cool. “Someone fetch Clefable! Let him show you how Ghost type moves can still affect him!” Turning to Gary, he deliberately contained his irritation. “Gary, could you follow? You’d know better where to find him.”

  Eager at the show of trust, Gary went to go find Clefable with another scientist hot on his heels.

  “Perhaps they have an ability that makes ghost type moves have an effect against them,” the older scientist backtracked after Gray’s confident display.

  “Does that even make sense? More often than not, pokemon abilities are evolutionary developments that benefit the pokemon, helping them survive in the wild. How is making them susceptible to Ghost attacks meant to be biologically advantageous?”

  That fact thrown out, the older scientist retreated. Gray wisely chose not to comment. Data would speak for itself. “Wait for Clefable to come. He’ll show you to prove that the hypothesis is wrong.”

  When no one else moved after his words, Gray prompted. “Maybe some people can start the preparation for the testing?”

  Some people sprung to action.

  Turning to another document, Gray explained. “Mega Mawile is much stronger than a normal Mawile primarily because of the change in ability. Mega Mawile gets Huge Power, doubling its Attack power after mega evolution.”

  “This is the same ability as Azumarill, yes?” said Professor Oak.

  “That’s correct.”

  “We can test this! How remarkable! Doubling its Attack power you say? That’s unprecedented!"

  Gray nodded his confirmation. Off the top of his head, he was fairly confident that apart from his two fairy types, only the Bunnelby line in Kalos had the same, making it unseen in this side of the world.

  “Feel free to test this out for today. But after we confirm, we shouldn’t focus on it anymore. There’s so much more we can focus on.”

  Gray turned to Daisy. “Daisy, would you like to go fetch Mawile? Here, Flutter Mane can lead the way for you.”

  Said ghost-fairy type emerged from his trainer’s shadow to nuzzle at Daisy. The girl beamed at him, happy to interact with one of her uncle’s pokemon.

  “Ok, I’ll go get Mawile with Flutter Mane. We’ll be back soon, Uncle Gray.” Daisy left the room with another scientist.

  A portion of scientists broke off to prepare for the testing without Gray saying anything. Clever, everyone was beginning to learn.

  Unbeknownst to Gray, the chance to test out such a powerful ability was so exciting that they could hardly keep still.

  Raising one more document, he addressed its contents. “Mega Altaria’s Pink Beam is already a known move. It’s Hyper Beam.”

  “What? But that move was clearly a Fairy Type?”

  “It’s because of Mega Altaria’s Ability. It’s called Pixilate. Turns Normal type moves into Fairy type.”

  At that fact, the lab exploded into chattering and discussions. Gray could hear exclamations like “Oh my Arceus!’, ‘That’s overpowered!’ and the exhilarated repeated ‘Remarkable!’s from his own grandfather.

  “Wait! I remembered something, Mr Gray. Sylveon was able to use a pink Hyper Voice and Hyper Beam against Umbreon when they first battled. Are you saying those were the actual Normal-type moves?”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Yes? What did you think it was?”

  “We thought you just named them those to conceal the information! To throw us all off because it was clearly not a Hyper Voice or Hyper Beam!”

  Gray found it concerning that they thought him spiteful enough to deliberately do something to throw the laboratory’s research off. He knew he had his sneaky moments, it was part and parcel of being a Fairy trainer, but who would have the time for that?

  Guilt festered inside him. To these people, was his relationship with Professor Oak so poor that he would do so?

  “Nope. It’s an ability,” Gray simply said.

  “Remarkable! That opens up so many moves! Do the effects of Normal type status moves affect Ghost types then?” continued Professor Oak, thinking much too deep on the research of it all to note his employee’s implication.

  The question made Gray pause. Huh. “I’m not too certain for status moves, but it definitely affects type resistance. We’ve used Hyper Beams on dragons in the past, they definitely hurt more,” he said with a smirk.

  “There’s so much we can do with this! Can a ghost type pokemon fall asleep when a Pixilated pokemon uses Sing? Someone go get Altaria! We must find out!”

  He wasn’t too concerned about them finding Altaria, his dragon was a battle junkie through and through. If someone needed him, one would just need to find a fighting congregation of similarly-aligned pokemon to find him.

  Gray let the scientists scramble. Activity returned to the lab, people dividing into teams to divide labour. With everyone occupied, Gray felt more comfortable digging into other documents where a surface scan was insufficient in determining whether it was a viable research direction.

  The more he read, the more he noticed how some research was only halfway done. A commonality between them was the final line ‘Subject is no longer available for testing’, along with a date.

  Thinking back, Gray realised that the dates coincided with the times he had left Pallet Town. Naturally, in doing so, Gray had unintentionally left the research hanging.

  He knew that leaving whenever he so wished would have repercussions, but he was not aware of the scale. Seeing them in his own hands, he was struck with feeling.

  Beforehand, he was acting rather petty, forcing the Professor and his team to work around his schedule.

  Gray remembered being sidelined as a child, his grandfather far too caught up in his own research to spare a thought for Gray and what he deemed as childish opinion. Not one to take things lying down, Gray had verbalised his discontent and openly avoided his grandfather in favor of his grand-uncle.

  Years later, it was the other way around. And Professor Samuel Oak hadn’t said a word.

  No one did, actually. Both Grandpa Sammy and Blue had left him to his actions, giving him the space he needed, perhaps in an attempt to not drive a wedge further in the family.

  Looking back on it now, Gray stood by how he had acted before. But hindsight being 20/20, he could acknowledge the childishness. His troubles with his grandfather need not affect the entire laboratory.

  For example, he could choose his team for the gym prior to traveling. The pokemon he left at home could be given instructions on training on their own. They were both mature enough and competitive enough with each other to not slack off when unsupervised. Growing stronger, after all, was a family-wide affair for his entire team.

  Said pokemon could be made available for research, thereby not stalling progress completely when Gray was away. It would even be good for the team, scheduled breaks where they could be made available for research, ensuring they would not overwork themselves.

  Gray trusted in his pokemon’s own pettiness that he knew they would all actively insist on no one training when someone was away for research, citing that it was inherently unfair that another pokemon may have more time to train and get ahead.

  It was basically a system he could adopt that was guaranteed to work, but hadn’t done so for little reason.

  Gray looked up from his thoughts. Clefable was in the testing area, getting hit by low powered Licks while hooked to equipment, clearly showing his decrease in vitality as every move landed. He was able to answer questions via Rotom-Phone translation.

  Altaria and Mawile had just made their entrance. A scientist was eagerly talking to them about their abilities, and both were eager to show off.

  Without thinking they mega evolved themselves. Gray closed his eyes for a moment, not wanting to get blinded when his earrings gave off an even brighter light thanks to the doubling.

  “Gray! Stop! Are you alright?! Someone get a medic!” Professor Samuel Oak commanded, his voice losing the genial tone it usually held. His words stopped all activity in the lab for it wasn’t the tone of the Pokemon Professor, but rather of the Champion who had forcibly united Kanto and Johto.

  Champion Samuel Oak rushed towards his grandson, forehead creased with worry. His wrinkled face showed his age, how weary the world had made him. He frantically checked Gray over, dabbing him for nonexistent cold sweat.

  Gray was in a similar state of surprise. The contact and concern from Samuel Oak, his grandfather, was so foreign that he froze.

  Samuel Oak took his wordless grandson wrongly, and he began to shout more instruction. He demanded for the medic to hurry, threatening to fire the person for their slow response. He commanded for someone to contact a hospital and let them know they were on their way.

  Before the person could act, Gray opened his mouth. “What? Why are you panicking? I’m fine!”

  His grandfather looked at him. He continued to frantically pat at Gray, one finger pressed against the pulse on his neck, searching for evidence that would prove contrary to his grandson’s words.

  The fairy trainer’s eyes darted around the room, reading the similar panic in everyone. “Why are you all so panicked all of a sudden!”

  “You just mega evolved two pokemon at the same time! Mega evolving is known to weaken its trainers! Quickly cancel them both! We’ll need to check you over! No research is worth your health!”

  Breath hitching, Gray tried for a calmer tone. They said that moments of high emotion revealed the truth. In this, it was so clearly obvious that Samuel Oak cared for his grandson. Gray’s well-being was clearly something he prioritised over his work, no matter how much it excited him at first.

  “I’m perfectly alright. Mega evolving your pokemon is something that can be trained, and I have. It’s only painful in the beginning. But with time, as your body gets used to the strain and your bond with your pokemon deepens, it becomes as easy as breathing.”

  Professor Oak absorbed Gray’s words, his panic settling with the new information. The news clearly captivated him. His brows were still furrowed, however, and his eyes never stopped roaming Gray’s body.

  Grandpa Sammy stood up and made his way to Gray. He grabbed one shoulder to steady himself. “Is this true Gray? Does Mega Evolution truly not hurt you? Don’t lie!”

  “I’m not lying! I would know my body best, yeah? Plus, do you really think I would compromise my own health for research? I’m not that selfless. Plus, I travelled back to Kanto on Mega Altaria, he was Mega Evolved the entire time!”

  Professor Oak finally relaxed, trusting that his grandson wouldn’t lie to Sammy.

  “Ok, but we’ll keep your health monitored anyway.”

  “I’m fine, really!”

  Professor Samuel Oak’s genius mind raced with excuses. Landing on one, he grabbed at it with both hands and refused to let go. “This is unprecedented for us too! We’ve never had a trainer mega evolve two pokemon at the same time before! We can learn much from this too, so it’s best we keep your health monitored. Medic! No need to panic, get the equipment we need to monitor Gray’s health.”

  The fairy trainer had a sneaking suspicion that his grandfather was using the guise of research to make sure Gray was well. He couldn’t deny his logic though. He decided to follow along, letting himself get hooked to devices that monitored his vitals.

  He got someone to help him move all the documents nearer to the commotion, giving everyone a clear view of his obviously uncompromised health as he went about his business again.

  It was only when Gray proved that he could ignore Altaria and Mawile as they continued to transition back and forth did Professor Samuel Oak focus back on the research.

  Gray pretended that it did not warm his heart.

  Apart from the stress with Gray mega evolving two pokemon at the same time, Samuel’s work day was perfect.

  With his grandson an active participant, the entire team’s progress today was unprecedented.

  Questions that had stumped the team were hardly a concern for Gray. While it was likely that some of their questions had already been answered in the regions Gray had visited, his grandson’s intelligence could not be denied.

  It was clear that his grandson was a leader. Even when a senior scientist had questioned him, the boy was able to come up with suggestions that would definitely net them the answers they needed.

  Even when the trainer was similarly stumped, his advice and thoughts could almost always lead to a methodology that would get them their answer anyway.

  Samuel Oak had kept a sharp eye on his employees’ reaction to his grandson, and what he found pleased him. Clearly, everyone was similarly enamored.

  Gray, with his intelligence on full display, was an Arceus-given wonder.

  It healed a past hurt within him. He had never vocalised it, but when his grandson was ridiculed by the nation in his youth, Samuel Oak had wanted to rage.

  He had felt dragon blood boiling in him, and he had gone as far as mounting Dragonite and instructing him to fly away to raze the naysayers. Thankfully, his pokemon knew him best and refused to follow his trainer’s instructions, no matter how much he had raged.

  Samuel knew that his opponents had taken advantage of the sentiment and exacerbated it. Opposing factions had grown wary of his family, especially with how meteoric Blue and Red were as trainers in their first year.

  His youngest grandson had been the most vulnerable for he did not care about what the public had to say about him, brushing off public sentiment to focus on his own thing. Still, no amount of indifference could protect him from how vocal everyone had been.

  Besides the older veterans in Pallet Town who had watched his grandson grow up, seemingly everyone and their pokemon had looked down on Gray.

  Blue’s ascent was much too different from Gray’s chosen path. The constant comparison too much for anyone to handle.

  Admittedly, Samuel had also played a part in chasing his grandson away. He too, had been a bit frustrated that Gray’s brilliance was not more obvious to the world. He knew his grandson had always had the brains. There had been something about him, even as a child. He clearly knew things, perhaps an Arceus-given instinct?

  Whatever it was, it mattered little. His grandson had always been brilliant, and Indigo had been blind to it.

  His grandson had requested an Eevee for a starter, but refused to evolve him during his rookie year. He had clearly worked out that there was a strong possibility of an untapped Eeveelution, and it was a goal he and his partner had strove for.

  Indigo should have given him more grace. Look! Did he not end up with a Sylveon in the end? His grandson had been right!

  Obviously, brilliance and genius could not be rushed. His grandson had willingly taken a hit to his reputation to stay true to his instincts. A singular ‘bad’ year as a trainer had reaped him better benefits down the road.

  Plus, his performance was not terrible either! The boy had clearly focused on discovery over battling — something that Samuel himself supported whole heartedly. Unearthing fairy types was clearly taxing, yet Gray had still ended up within the Top 128 in his first year. Clearly he had the talent, he just prioritised better and the world had yet to catch up.

  As a boy, Samuel Oak had been forced to focus on battling. War and violence were commonplace, and it had been Samuel’s best interest to reach the pinnacle of battling to keep him and his own safe.

  He did not have a choice and had to leverage his strength to broker peace.

  Did Samuel Oak not fight to give his progeny a choice? To create a better world for the future? But when a descendant of his did make that choice, the world punished him for it.

  Samuel Oak had raged, and it was only thanks to his sensible pokemon that Samuel had not forcibly taken back what he gifted Indigo.

  No matter, his grandson was capable of silencing everyone on his own now. Look at the example he made! He was about to make waves to research worldwide, right after bringing down that Celadon gym leader and that Leaf girl down a peg.

  Speaking of, Samuel should do something about that. As the pokemon professor, he had comfortable ways of dealing with the situation. Celadon gym, right? Not worth his radar, personally, but it clearly ticked Gray enough that he took action.

  They would be dealt with. Let Gray focus on the research, the fruits that he had willingly sustained ridicule for.

  His grandfather was more than willing to handle pests on his behalf.

  The night sky was cloudy tonight, perfectly masking yellow-bright plumes.

  Good. Having already taken all the steps needed to ensure that its previous charges would remain protected in its absence, there was now more freedom to dedicate to a more exciting life.

  It was heartening that even the world bent to its will.

  The Chosen One had been unmoving for the past few days, so he was clearly now home. With all other affairs settled, a new home was also on the horizon for its legendary self.

  Literally it would seem. Pallet Town approached from afar, black beady eyes twinkled in anticipation. Here was a new home, a new residence.

  Like a lightning strike, the sudden tension in the air was the only warning before a Dragonite descended downwards with a Dragon Rush.

  Twisting to avoid the collision, it was only thanks to superior aerial ability that it managed to move away in time. Glowering at the new pokemon, it dared not retaliate. More than willing to let this slide for this was likely a new neighbour.

  “Drag-Dragonite!” The colossal dragon demanded.

  Its massive body was scarred, clearly a veteran of many battles. Not modern battling, but rather battles where only one party would leave the battlefield alive.

  It dipped one head to show respect. This was a fellow protector, and was thus worthy of more consideration.

  It sighed, readying for something rarely needed in the past — Diplomacy.

  It needed to play nice if it wanted to stay, after all.