Pokemon Shippuden

Chapter 5: Something Bigger

The next morning, Ricardo went on his jog and back down the alley where he found the egg. The dead Pokemon's carcass was being consumed by a gang of Murkrow with a Honchkrow keeping watch. He was too panicked to see what Pokemon it was during its death and it certainly isn't helping now that it's mostly bones being picked clean by the birds. The Murkrow stopped eating to watch Ricardo closely as he crept through the scene.

"Hasn't even started to rot yet..."

He investigated the hole in the wall and found a few tufts of yellow fur under some rubble. He wasn't an expert on identifying species but surely keeping a small bit of the stuff wouldn't hurt anybody. Looking inside the warehouse it was largely empty save for something that looks like a rusty industrial-sized generator on the far wall.

"Hm. Food for thought." He put the fur in his pocket and continued his jog.

Shay had called in the next few days as sick on account of her "baby fever" to get her new love child situated. The ride to the Pokemart Supercenter in the next state over was a long one for Ricardo. The heavily baby-oriented discussion they had almost the whole way there left him pretty burnt out, still, this situation was better than having an actual child he figured.

Shay pointed to an obvious multi-floor wholesale store . "Turn right here you can't miss it."

Ricardo sucked his teeth. "Aw dang Shay, I really appreciate the directions. I dunno how I would've seen the giant blue illuminated letters spelling out Pokemart without your help."

Shay rolled her eyes ."Yea your dumb ass would've passed it by twice."

They parked and Shay donned a baby harness to put the egg into. They walked into the store immediately to the back where they advertised quality care services and a 24/7 on-site professor. Behind the huge rows of shelves carrying ridiculous amounts of items, products, and foods of unending varieties was a wide and open area with many offices separated by Pokemon type. Signs were posted everywhere reminding people to keep open-flame Fire types in their pokeball, all Poison types in their pokeball, and a few other cautions to keep the peace.

Ricardo and Shay, not knowing what their egg was, stood in line for the Normal type office. There was a Pokedex on display going on sale for a whopping $21,000. It was already 30% off.

Ricardo got up close to the display. "Shay check this out. With prices like this trainers have no choice but to take their careers seriously."

"Right. Getting a badge practically makes you a local celebrity."

"That's true. You heard about Carmelo? That man only been in the game for like 7 years and he's already got 6 badges."

"Yea after his 3rd badge on his 3rd year out the academy practically every Gym in the nation had scouts out for him."

"That's crazy." Ricardo gave Shay a look. "I didn't know you kept up with sports like that."

Shay waved him off. "It gets forced on me at work." The couple in front of them exited the office and left the door open.

"I'm available for whoever's next" The professor inside the office gestured for them to come inside. "Hmmm... I don't seem to have an appointment involving an egg today. Did you two sign in?"

Ricardo and Shay looked at each other. "We didn't know."

The professor chuckled. "Ah, that's fine then. I can write you two in. I'm Dr. Ilex." He shook both their hands and sat back down. "Alright so I'll have to handle some preliminary things first. Did you bring your egg's pedigree or do you have your Breeder's license number?"

They looked at each other again. Dr. Ilex eyed the both of them expectantly. "Soooo...?"

Shay spoke up. "We found it. Well, he found it. We were kind of hoping for some direction."

Dr. Ilex reclined in his office chair while rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Aye Yi yiiiii..." He got up to close the office door and removed a recorder from his overcoat pocket before sitting back down. "Okay so this is off-record. I'll be straightforward. You two have committed the federal crime of poaching."

Ricardo motioned to stand but Dr. Ilex put out a hand "Easy, easy. I know that's scary to hear but I have compassion. My entire family coming into this country was a federal crime, not a single one of the 17 of us jumping the border was legal and neither was the Arcanine that carried us but look where I'm at now."

Ricardo relaxed. "Alright. So what do we do?"

Dr. Ilex reclined in his chair again. "Can you start by telling me how you got the egg?"

Ricardo recounted the encounter he had to Dr. Ilex.

"Wow. That was probably terrifying to relive, I'm sorry you went through that. But there are definitely some red flags here. Any Pokemon, any animal, with its instincts intact wouldn't dare fight near its young or where it's nesting so the offending Pokemon was clearly invasive. I have a theory. Did you see it feed on it's kill?"

"No. I went back to look at it again this morning actually. It was being scavenged by Murkrow."

"Then I'm definite. You witnessed a poaching in progress. Pokemon do not kill for sport, and by snagging that egg right there you essentially poached the poacher. The only reason you're alive right now is most likely because this egg was the only one of it's clutch to be saved and they didn't want to go through the hassle of murder when they already have plenty to sell. You are a lucky man Ricardo." He held an open hand out to Shay. "Mind if I hold it?"

"Sure." Shay removed the egg and placed it in Dr. Ilex's hands "Careful, it's cracked on it's side."

He rotated the egg softly in his hand. "Yellow and fuzzy with two tails, huh? I'd say a Tauros but this is nowhere near as large as their eggs are or what one would even be doing in a city. And since that doesn't sound anything like a Flying or Bug type we're going to have a very difficult time figuring out it's species..."

He handed the egg back to Shay and took out his pen to write a note in his tablet. "Because this egg isn't registered I can't use any equipment on it to tell you for sure what it is or check up on it since I should be reporting you but..." He tore the sheet away and handed it to them. "Here's a list of things you can do for it. The crack will heal on it's own over time so long as you keep it within these parameters. When it hatches just place it inside a pokeball and it'll be as if you caught it wild, no fuss."

Ricardo and Shay thanked Dr. Ilex and got up to leave.

"Oh and one more thing..." Dr. Ilex quickly rummaged through his desk and produced a card. "Take this, my membership should net you about 40% off. Just bring it back."

On the ride back home, the entire backseat was filled with items, equipment and various care products. Shay was applying an ointment to the crack on the egg while humming to the radio. They went on a shopping spree getting the things on the list plus some extras Shay wanted for it when it hatched. Thanks to sales, promotions, and the professor's reward card they ended up walking out of the store paying for less than the original incubator would have costed.

Ricardo glanced at Shay. "So you're really going full-dive on this one?"

"We. We are going full-dive on this one."

Ricardo rolled his eyes. "Whatever gets me off my ass, right?"

They pulled into the carport and unloaded the goods from Shay's Jeep to carry them up to the condo. Ricardo going back down on his 4th trip grabbed the last of the bags from the backseat. A brief shade passed him overhead prompting him to look up.

"Hm. No clouds today. Strange."