Chapter 1482: Smooth Recovery

Miller Ton was pleased with himself.

Since learning the move Flash, it has been especially fond of bullying Faulton.

How can this move be so useful?

"Gah-ah~"

In battle form, Miller Ton lightly flicked its electrically twitching tail, arrogant to the extreme, completely gone was the timid lizard's demeanor from before.

Faulton nearly cried out loud.

Although it itself did not clearly understand the emotions surging within, it was indeed envious and jealous, wishing it were the Pokémon in that position.

The desire to leave Zone Zero had reached its peak.

"Guh-ah!"

It somewhat embarrassingly detached from the rock wall, shook off the debris and dust on its body, its pair of orange-yellow eyes paid little attention to the smug Miller Ton, but instead searched for something else.

Finally, Faulton found it.

"Guh-ah! Guh-ah~~~!"

It was like a leaping flame, its massive body soaring across the sky straight toward Baimu and the others on the cliff.

Unfortunately, in terms of speed and reaction, it had the same gap as Miller Ton, and was intercepted midway.

"Guh-ah!"

Faulton, unable to get close to the several people, was furious.

Miller Ton grinned foolishly, having thought more than once since being expelled from Zone Zero—

"If our roles were swapped, I would make you know what cruelty is!"

Now, with the trainer's help, this long-held wish has been successfully achieved.

"Gah——"

"Alright, Miller Ton, don't bully too much."

Baimu's voice interrupted Miller Ton's further actions.

The Cyber Giant Lizard turned its head toward the trainer, seeing he wasn't just speaking casually, so it stopped tormenting Faulton and magnanimously let it go.

"Gah-ah~"

"Hmph!"

Paipa saw this and coldly remarked: "I've long said these two fellows have problematic personalities! I don't know why you'd take a liking to them!"

"Naturally because I'm a trainer, what's wrong with liking rare Pokémon?" Baimu chuckled.

Moreover, he is not a native of the Pokémon world, so he naturally imposes an extra filter on legendary Pokémon.

But to Paipa, whether something is legendary or not makes no difference at all.

He cares more about a Pokémon's nature.

Thus, even though he no longer bears a grudge against Miller Ton and Faulton, he still finds them somewhat displeasing to the eye; of course, whether he shows concern in emergencies is another matter.

Faulton and Miller Ton, now unobstructed on the path ahead, landed together, excitedly spinning several rounds upon seeing Baimu again after a long time, like a joyful golden retriever.

This demeanor truly makes it hard to associate with the once ferocious existence.

Baimu also clearly understands the reason this fellow is jumping around here.

"Here."

He took two sandwiches from the Oddish Ghost, handed one to each large lizard, and also rubbed their heads respectively.

The long-awaited Faulton eagerly bit into it, then tilted its head back, gulping it down with a "gurgle," not even chewing.

This drew Miller Ton's contempt.

It elegantly tore the sandwich into two halves, then held one half in its mouth, tilted its head back, and gulped it down with a "gurgle" into its stomach.

Nimo laughed heartily: "There's really no difference, is there!"

Paipa was similarly speechless at these two fellows.

Muodan hid behind Baimu, suddenly having an ominous premonition.

Sure enough, after finishing their sandwiches, Miller Ton and Faulton turned their attention to her, one on the left, one on the right, hopping over to her side like they were snatching or teasing a toy, surrounding her and constantly sticking out their tongues to lick.

At first glance it looks like affection, but in reality it's no different from bullying.

"Ah-ah-ah—save me!"

Muodan cried out in distress, fortunately Baimu nearby timely intervened to break the encirclement.

"You two really are."

He punched each of the two large lizards on the head once, "Do you really enjoy tormenting people this much?"

"Gah-ah~"

"Guh-ah~"

Faulton stuck out its tongue, its cheerful expression matching its behavior, appearing somewhat simple-minded.

Miller Ton looked down on it, even though its own performance wasn't much better.

Muodan silently wiped her glasses: "I really have no way..."

"You're just too soft; next time you should be firmer, just give their heads a couple hard knocks like Baimu does!"

Paipa offered advice.

Indeed, as Paipa said, the core reason the two large lizards bully Muodan is that she appears too soft.

As a result, they easily saw through her, accurately identifying her as the weakest member of the four-person team.

Bullying the weak is indeed the "nature" of perverse Pokémon!

Not wasting too much time on Faulton, Baimu and the others prepared to go to the middle layer to recover the remaining two Ancient Phoenix King Guards.

At this time.

Miledon charged straight into Baimu's crotch, "Ga-ao~!"

"You're carrying me? Fine."

Baimu slid onto its back, nodding slightly.

Even if people from Zone Zero came more than once, there's really no need to keep wasting time on travel.

Seeing this, the neighboring Miledon likewise ran to Peony's rear and flung her, who was caught off guard, onto its back.

"Ah!"

Peony let out a beast-like wail.

Nimo laughed: "Add me too, Miledon!"

She leapt onto Miledon's back in the same motion, naturally grabbing the handle-like structure on its shoulder.

The Miledon, whose vital point was gripped, instantly became much more obedient.

Even Pipa was pulled by Baimu's reaching hand and sat behind him.

The four-person team officially set out.

Near the second observation station along the route, the multilinear phone spoke: 'Stomp once, the howling tail must bring its friend aboard.'

Everyone: "?"

"The howling tail's friend? You brought it?" Pipa looked at Baimu.

Baimu looked quite bewildered: "Nope."

The multilinear phone whispered in his ear: 'That vibrating wing!'

Vibrating wing!

Baimu instantly recalled this Pokémon, remembering how the howling tail and it had once been mortal enemies who hurt each other.

Last time the howling tail returned, it had communicated with the vibrating wing, and I once thought it wanted to befriend me before bullying me, but after careful inquiry I learned the vibrating wing was just teasing fools, which enraged the howling tail into beating it up.

How did they become friends again?

Baimu wanted to ask the multilinear phone for clarification, but saw not far off the howling tail arriving with the vibrating wing.

Seeing them, Pipa, Nimo, and Peony were equally astonished.

The multilinear phone's explanation was only one sentence: 'How to put it……this howling tail guy is too pure, and also soft-eared.'

Everyone fell into thoughtful silence.

"Ee-ya~!"

The howling tail happily waved its little hands at the several people, and beside it, the vibrating wing likewise waved its tentacle-like appendages.

No trace remained of its previous demon-pill demeanor.

Nimo and the others looked at Baimu, and Baimu then asked the howling tail: "When did you two get this close?"

"Ee~ya!"

The howling tail patted its own belly, appearing as if it had conquered the vibrating wing with its plump charm and taken it as a follower.

Coincidentally, the vibrating wing also nodded obligingly.

"Ka-mi~"

The several people stared at each other.

Finally, Baimu hooked a finger at the howling tail: "Still want to play? If not, let's go to the middle layer together."

"Ee-ya~!"

The howling tail, thanks to its highly elastic body, leapt hard and easily landed in Baimu's arms.

The vibrating wing also flew over, facing the several people and two large lizards, appearing shy as it used its tentacles to cover its face.

Baimu wasn't clear what exactly it intended, but since it was the howling tail's idea, he shouldn't rush to deny it—this guy cares a lot about face, can't let him lose face in front of everyone.

"Go!"

"Ga-ao!"

"Gu-ao!"

The two large lizards obediently continued descending.

As the saying goes, the straight line between two points is the shortest; with no need to take the winding mountain path, everyone arrived at the bottommost layer of Zone Zero's surface not long after.

Before them lay two paths—

One led to the great lake where the Ripple Water resides, the other to the waterfall of the Thunder Drum.

Since the Ripple Water side is closer to the entrance to the lower layer, everyone naturally headed first toward the rumbling waterfall.

During this, Nimo mentioned the specialized equipment the Paldea Alliance set up for the Thunder Drum's territory—

"Conductive poles?"

"Yeah, setting boundaries with electric stone is too easy to get eaten, so after discussion, Sister Xinli and her team specially made a few conductive poles, placed last month where you used to hide electric stones."

"Any effect?"

"Should be, the Thunder Drum isn't that stupid? Clearly the placement makes no difference—"

Nimo suddenly fell silent.

Because everyone saw the so-called conductive poles—black pillars about half a person tall and one waist thick, now gnawed beyond recognition.

Nimo scratched her head.

Pipa shook his head and sighed: "Can't expect this bunch to be too smart!"

Peony deeply agreed; her fear of the aberrant Pokémon largely stems from them being not quite normal.

Baimu instead laughed warmly: "Why so pessimistic? Clearly it works fine."

Although the conductive poles are broken, the Thunder Drum's aura is indeed within its territory and hasn't shifted elsewhere.

As if sensing someone's presence here, the ground began emitting dull thuds.

Before long, a Raging Bolt tall as a utility pole appeared; one glance at Baimu and it broke into a frantic gallop, yet as it neared it could not brake in time, hooves tearing up the earth as it barreled over like a dump truck slamming on emergency brakes.

Fortunately Milotic reacted fast, leaping aside in an instant.

Only thus was a draconic calamity avoided.

"Roar~"

The Raging Bolt that had halted acted as if nothing had happened, quickly lowering its head and nudging Baimu on Milotic's back with its snout.

The startled roar-tail tried to scold a few words, but its muzzle was seized by the trainer.

"Long time no see!"

Baimu reached out his other hand to stroke the Raging Bolt's head.

Dumb as it may be, he won't hold it against it.

Pokemon not being smart is nothing strange; those clever enough to play with smartphones are the minority.

Even the Baimu family's Pokemon with ultra-high energy levels are, in his view, split fifty-fifty between idiots and geniuses.

Baimu stated his purpose directly; the Raging Bolt stared at the Poke Ball with its beady black eyes, showing little resistance.

*Snap~*

The second one was smoothly retrieved.

"Huh, I thought we'd have to fight another round." Pippa always felt the Ancient Roaring Moon Guard would turn hostile and deny knowing them.

Didn't expect both Roaring Moon and Raging Bolt to be so agreeable.

Peony whispered, "The fiercest one hasn't come up yet."

Hearing that, Pippa immediately thought of Walking Wake and nodded in agreement, "True, how did I forget it?"

They had experienced Walking Wake's ferocity early on.

As they spoke.

On a distant cliff, a figure abruptly appeared.

Baimu, sensing it, turned to look; the others beside him followed suit and discovered it was Iron Boulder from the Future Swords of Justice — the future form of Terrakion.

Pippa said, "Baimu, if you take these three away, they'll surely be happy, right?"

"I don't think they'd have any happy emotions……"

Peony always felt the Future Swords of Justice's degree of mechanization was even higher than Milotic's.

If the ancient forms' terror lies in ferocity, then the future forms' terror lies in an eerie pseudo-human feel.

That is the so-called uncanny valley effect.

But this feeling varies from person to person; Baimu and Nemo don't have it, each having raised a Milotic and an Iron Treads respectively.

The group politely waved at Iron Boulder, then headed toward the lake where streams converged.

Still remembered the first time they came — not knowing the creatures in the mist, they didn't dare breathe, sneaking past on the side.

Back then none of them imagined the mysterious creature in the mist would be Walking Wake, Suicune's ancient form.

The group stood at the lakeside, not rashly entering the water, even though Milotic and Great Tusk both possess the "function" of swimming.

"Walking Wake!"

Baimu shouted toward the depths of the lake where white mist curled.

The voice carried far, but there seemed to be no response.

Just when Pippa thought Walking Wake might have left its territory, a strange thumping sound rang from afar, the lake water visibly rippled, then surging tides rose.

The next moment.

"Roar!!"

Accompanied by a ferocious howl, a massive black shadow suddenly leapt from the end of the white mist, flew over everyone's heads, and landed behind them.

— It was none other than Walking Wake!

Like a Tyrannosaurus it crouched and roared at the group, the water vapor swirling around it drenching them all.

Pippa wiped his face speechlessly, "What did I say?"

"Want to fight?"

Nemo was a bit excited, "I can handle it!"

Before she could release her Pokemon, a Prism Poke Cube flew in an elegant arc into Walking Wake's mouth.

The originally savage-faced Walking Wake instantly became docile, as if it had eaten a Momotaro dumpling.

It's back!

The familiar taste is back!

Nemo was greatly disappointed, "It remembered just like that?"

"Clearly a good thing, why do you seem unwilling?" Peony, sitting behind her, said faintly.

Nemo turned her head, "Hahaha~ Really?"

On the other side.

Baimu dismounted the dragon, actively approached Walking Wake, but saw that as he neared, the docile Walking Wake started growling low again.

"Grr……"

"Sorry, haven't come to see you in so long, don't be mad at me, okay?"

He extended his hand; Walking Wake mercilessly bit down, causing the three onlookers' expressions to change abruptly.

Pippa cried urgently, "Baimu!"

"Don't panic, I know what I'm doing."

Baimu turned around, completely ignoring the hand bitten by Walking Wake, "This guy's throwing a tantrum; didn't expect among the three Pokemon, you're the one who missed me most."

Roaming Moon's personality is more easygoing, going along with whatever he says; Raging Bolt is clumsy by nature, without much opinion of its own; only Walking Wake is both fierce and clingy.

After Baimu last adjusted it with food, it developed a good impression of Baimu, but because they hadn't seen each other for too long, it ended up developing some resentment.

So it took revenge by biting Baimu.

But with the power of the stone slab, how could he let the rippling water hurt him? Naturally, he was unharmed.

?? New book seeking collections and reads