Chapter 472: Sibling Bombardment!!

Dawu's family old mansion.

Baimu watched the busy Hoenn Champion change back into his suit and drive off into the distance.

Apparently the Devon Corporation had just discovered a ruin on an overseas island, and though it was unclear whether it was related to the legendary Mega Stone, it had given Champion Dawu — fresh from his setback at the Universal Center — a new direction to search.

So the latter had set off without a moment's delay.

"So busy… so busy…"

He felt rather regretful; if he didn't still have a mountain of things to do, he'd genuinely love to tag along with Dawu and join in the fun.

After all, chances to observe a Mega Rayquaza up close were rare — let alone a battle of the three legendary titans of land, sea, and sky… Maybe he could ask Hu Pa for a favor? And swipe the Mega Stone while he was at it.

Would save Flare-dad from causing so much trouble later on…

Worth a shot!

Baimu picked up Sunflora and gently stroked its smooth shell, and combined with his earlier exchange with Dawu, gradually recalled certain things in his mind.

【The Mega Stone】.

An object intimately tied to the main plot of the anime XY.

The boss of Team Flare in the Kalos region, Lysandre, had specifically sent Alain to the Hoenn region to search for it, attempting to use it along with the Zygarde Z2 Core to destroy most living creatures in the world, leaving only the humans and Pokémon he had chosen.

Naturally, he ultimately failed.

And although Dawu did participate in the plot, his actions were more like that of a background extra — bouncing from Hoenn to Kalos, constantly chasing after the Mega Stone.

Now, through Dawu's own explanation, Baimu finally understood that his search for the Mega Stone was primarily for 【∞ Energy】.

This stuff, claimed in the games to be a special energy converted from Pokémon's life energy, was also called "Living Energy," and the Devon Corporation hoped to vigorously develop this energy to benefit the entire world.

Of course.

As the vanguard of scientific development in the Hoenn region, the Devon Corporation naturally wouldn't crudely extract energy directly from Pokémon. After generations of research, they turned their attention to the Key Stones and Mega Stones.

After all, Mega Evolution, beyond altering the body, also granted Pokémon incomprehensibly vast energy.

Strangely, no matter how a Pokémon used its moves after Mega Evolving, the energy for the next Mega Evolution remained just as abundant. It was precisely this peculiarity that led the Devon Corporation to study Key Stones and Mega Stones.

The Devon Corporation traced Mega Evolution back to its source, and finally, through ancient texts and half a wooden slip inscribed with information, learned of the existence of the Mega Stone, then launched a further search targeting it.

To this day.

He believed the day when Dawu, Lion Head, and Alain found the Mega Stone couldn't be far off.

He resolved to hurry up and finish his own business, then take the opportunity to destroy Team Flare's conspiracy. Don't be fooled by how the anime made it look like nobody got hurt — once the Stone Zygarde ran rampant, half of Lumiose City was flattened. How could no one have suffered at all?

Thinking this far, Baimu patted Sunflora's shell and said with full vigor: "Up! Training! We've got to push toward the top tier!"

Sunflora: "…"

Why did it feel like overtime had increased lately?

It needed to claim some "bonus" in return.

Fully embodying the principle of equivalent exchange, the diligent worker Sunflora pondered what it should ask for. Yesterday's donut had tasted pretty good.

It watched the Hydreigon charging outside with great enthusiasm, thinking that if it could defeat that guy, maybe it could ask for two…

Hmm?

Something's off, very off.

It had actually developed the thought of fighting proactively!

Sunflora suddenly realized something deeply tragic — not only had it grown accustomed to going to work every day, but far from resisting overtime, it had even started thinking about being more proactive for the bonus.

Its heart was filled with despair, but after despairing for a while, it couldn't be bothered to despair any longer.

Tired.

Let the world end already.

It rolled over in place, belly-up, returning to its slacker pose.

——

"Tch, still no good?"

Baimu lifted his hand from Dragapult's head, his expression somewhat displeased, but upon meeting the latter's cautious, tentative gaze, he quickly added: "I'm blaming myself, it's got nothing to do with you."

The more he interacted with this one, the more he realized it was actually extremely introverted. On the surface it seemed cold and aloof, hard to approach, but in truth it just wasn't good at interacting with other Pokémon.

So it always liked sneaking off to hide and observe others — a textbook "lurker."

So far, among the team, the one who'd had the most contact with it besides the Dreepy little brother was probably Chansey, but unfortunately the frequency of interaction wasn't high either.

Fortunately, with him mediating in the middle, the other Pokémon hadn't taken it for some "arrogant" creature even worse than Mawile.

Still, what exactly was going on inside Dragapult's head genuinely piqued Baimu's curiosity.

Too bad, no matter how he experimented, the suspected power akin to Aura never triggered, never once carrying him back to that mysterious mindscape.

He'd specifically spent time and effort learning this skill just to speed up the bonding with this one, yet in the end it was Lugia who completed the mind-link with him sooner…

Baimu figured there might be some crucial element missing between him and Dragapult.

What was it?

Compassion? Care? Love?

He felt he clearly lacked none of them —

Forget it, there's plenty of time ahead.

When faced with a problem he couldn't solve quickly, Baimu would always counsel himself not to be impatient. After all, there were other things to do; he couldn't fixate on just this one thing.

For instance, the relationship between Dragapult and the Dreepy big sister.

This matter affected the former's standard complete form. Other Dragapults all had two little Dreepy as missiles, but his Dragapult had none — wouldn't it be laughed at when it met Champion Dan Di's Dragapult someday?

He knew he had to promptly ease the conflict between the two.

Though you can't force an ox to drink by pressing its head down, the two of them weren't entirely irreconcilable.

The Dreepy big sister looked down on Dragapult, the root cause being that the latter had quietly run off with her little brother. Yet even though it was essentially a misunderstanding and the latter had already apologized, their relationship remained very stiff.

Why?

After thinking and recalling, All Baimu realized that since the day of the apology, Doronbaruto and Doron Big Sis seemed to have had no further contact.

Having noticed this, he hurried off to verify with Doron Big Sis, and indeed received an affirmative answer.

Good grief, not even exchanging a single word — it'd be strange if the relationship improved!

He let the bewildered Doron Big Sis go. He had originally wanted to advise her to go chat with Doronbaruto, but upon careful thought, given the socially anxious Doron's temperament, it would be easy for her to fail to respond in time, making things awkward for both sides and even giving rise to misunderstandings.

To ease the relationship between the two, he still had to do the ideological work on Doronbaruto's side first.

All Baimu had a certain understanding of Doron Big Sis's personality — although she loved bonking her little brother on the head and seemed a bit hot-tempered, she was absolutely a good girl at heart.

It all depended on whether Doronbaruto was willing to swallow his pride and show a little more patience.

"Mm…"

He grabbed Doronbaruto, who was sneakily trying to slip away before him, and said: "What do you think of Doron Big Sis?"

What do I think?

Sneak a peek, of course — what else could I do?

"Rusui…" The socially anxious dragon didn't quite understand what the young man in front of it was saying.

Seeing it all confused, All Baimu simply stated outright: "Do you want to get along with her, so she can live together with Doron Little Bro in your Launcher Hole?"

"Rusui!"

Doronbaruto nodded without hesitation — in fact, he had started nodding before the sentence was even half-finished.

Shy as he was, the bold feat of absconding with Doron Little Bro was done for no other reason than to have one or two more little ones in his Launcher Hole. Personality had indeed shaped his current dragon character, but instinct still drove him to live together with the young Doron Messia.

To have the Doron Messia siblings living in his Launcher Hole?

A dream he'd give anything for!

My Launcher Hole has been thirsting for it for ages!

Doronbaruto's heart surged with emotion, but on the surface he merely narrowed his eyes, putting on an expression of all-ears attentiveness.

"Simple."

Under its eager gaze, All Baimu replied: "Take the initiative to get along with her, be a little thick-skinned and chat with her more. I'll have Doron Little Bro assist — hey hey hey? Where are you going?"

He hurriedly stopped Doronbaruto, who, with slightly sleazy triangular eyes narrowed, gave him back a puzzled "you've got to be kidding" look.

"I'm serious! Let me tell you, miss this village and there'll be no more shop." He said in a low voice: "The chance to recruit two Doron Messia at once doesn't come often."

If this standoff continued, and one of the Doron Messia worked toward evolution, then by then there'd be no little brother — not even the big sister!

Upon hearing this—

The Doronbaruto, who had originally planned to vanish and shut himself away, also showed a hint of hesitation.

Having already lost two partners, he truly didn't want to miss the golden opportunity right before his eyes — but to have him chat with the Doron Big Sis who clearly排斥 him…

Isn't this just making things hard for me!?

Doronbaruto looked at All Baimu with a touch of grievance.

Seeing its aggrieved expression, the latter understood that its not immediately vanishing was proof it was tempted, and hurriedly said: "I'll go with you! What are you afraid of! It's not like you have to meet her alone!"

"…Rusui?"

"Of course it's true, where could I run off to?"

"…Rusui."

Doronbaruto nodded with great reluctance — with a Trainer beside him, it was still worth a try.

The human and the dragon moved toward the Doron Messia siblings.

Doron Little Bro noticed first, flying over with unbridled joy, buzzing around their heads like a fly, while Doron Big Sis, upon glimpsing Doronbaruto, scrunched up her face slightly and unobtrusively flew farther away.

A tiny action, enormous damage.

All Baimu could feel that Doronbaruto had already petrified on the spot, with tears very possibly welling up at the corners of his eyes.

"Don't!" He quickly grabbed at the side, but couldn't catch a Ghost-type Pokémon that truly wanted to evade.

In an instant—

That big fellow had already vanished without a trace.

Way too fragile!

Who runs away after just one setback!

He didn't know what to say. Looking at the bewildered Doron Little Bro, he said: "Who says troubled kids have more fun? Feels like I'm going to lose my hair."

What he didn't know was that for an introverted person… no, dragon, the setbacks and blows encountered when taking the first step are extremely severe, and could very well crush the little confidence Doronbaruto had.

Fortunately, as a Trainer, one of All Baimu's great strengths was his extreme patience — since this fellow had vanished, he'd just have to find a way to track it down.

Eyes alone wouldn't work — use his senses.

He closed his eyes, striving to enter a meditative state, which helped sharpen his focus and enhance his senses beyond sight.

Strangely enough, even though he hadn't completed a mind-link with Doronbaruto, sensing its location was remarkably easy—

For him alone.

Neither Aggron nor the others could do it.

Could this be considered a special talent of human Trainers?

All Baimu had no way of knowing — as long as he could find Doronbaruto, that was enough.

"Don't be so petty, be more generous — I'll go sound her out for you." He muttered to thin air: "Trying again won't cost you a chunk of flesh. Come on, such a good chance right in front of you, why would you want to miss it?"

Having said that—

He turned and walked toward Doron Big Sis.

After a dozen or so seconds, when All Baimu and Doron Big Sis had formally begun talking, a faint, shadowy presence materialized where he had just been standing — it was none other than the vanished Doronbaruto.

The latter was by now nearly used to always being found. At this moment, an intense inner battle raged within him — the fire of fighting spirit flared, then died, then flared again.

Especially hesitant.

At that moment, the younger Dragapult suddenly burrowed into one of the launch holes on its head.

"Hiyah?"

The moment that cry rang out, instinct kicked in instantly—the primal instinct of the Dragapult line seized the upper hand over reason in an instant, driving it to fly toward Baimu.

Coincidentally, the latter had just used his silver tongue to persuade the older Dragapult.

And so.

The Dragapult drew closer.

The Dragapult said hi.

The Dragapult typed gg.

Baimu looked at the socially anxious Dragapult, who had buried its head and was trembling like an ostrich, unable to face the older Dragapult, with a sigh of frustration—I'm giving you the chance and you can't even take it!

You think this is a blind date?!

The older Dragapult beside them: "?"

What is going on here?

This is beyond its brain's comprehension!

That said, the older Dragapult was utterly baffled by the Dragapult's fluid, seamless performance.

But fortunately, among the one human and three Dragapults, there was one who wasn't baffled—

The younger Dragapult.

As a Pokémon who always longed to be launched at sonic speed, it never spared any effort in egging its older sister to join the Dragapult's launch holes too.

With such a perfect opportunity right now, how could the younger Dragapult possibly let it slip?

"Hiyah!"

At a single soft cry, the older Dragapult had already been dragged by its younger sibling to the four launch holes of the Dragapult, and the latter shoved the former into one of those launch holes without ceremony, not even giving it a chance to react.

A delighted cry immediately rang in Baimu's ear.

"Hiyah…"

For the older Dragapult, the Dragapult's launch holes were like a kangaroo's pouch for its joey—nothing could be more wonderful than this.

Wait, no.

Actually, there was something even better!

Baimu watched the utterly blissful older Dragapult, his brain spinning at full speed as inspiration struck. "Dragapult! Dragon Arrow!"

"…Rurudo?"

The Dragapult raised its head, looking quite puzzled.

But he nodded seriously and quickly, repeating himself, shouting:

"Dragon Arrow! Right now! At—the Hydreigon—release!"

"Rurudo!"

The Dragapult's gaze sharpened, and in the end it followed his command—at the very instant the younger Dragapult missile finished loading, it suddenly launched the two siblings out!

Boom boom!

Blazing fire like a missile launch!

The older Dragapults, wrapped in azure-blue flames, tore through the air at terrifying speed, charging toward the Hydreigon that had just turned its head in confusion in the distance—

BOOM BOOM!

!

Two massive explosions mixed with smoke and dust rose in rolling waves!