Margaret dropped her own off, as well, like she always did when getting to a new town. It wouldn't hurt for them to get a quick check-up. Then she set her bag down and collapsed into a chair.

"When did life get so exciting?" she asked Aleron. "We've probably seen and done more in the last week than most people do ever."

"No kidding," Aleron agreed, with feeling. "And it's not even our faults this time. I mean, really. We couldn't do anything to stop it."

She paused. "Except, maybe, be a little tiny less nosey. Maybe."

"We weren't being that nosey this time," Margaret pointed out. "We barely got to the lake before things started going down." She went quiet, thinking for a moment. "So this makes, what, three so far? How many more are there, you think?"

"Well, there should be at least six, one for each of the birds from your area and the dogs from mine. Potentially another two to four for the other legendaries I've heard of." Aleron shrugged. "Hard to say. For all we know, they could be cloning the eggs. There could be dozens."

"So round off to ten, for now," Margaret said. Digging in her bag, she pulled out a little notebook and wrote it down. "I want to keep track of the ones we find and return. And I don't even want to think about them cloning the eggs... There was a report I managed to snag from Silph Co. about a cloning project, once. They claimed it was a failed project, but I know better by now, so I know the technology is out there."

"Yeah. We're not even going to look at cloning stuff." Aleron shivered. "But anyway, we've found three. So that leaves about seven, maybe?"

"I'm guessing so," Margaret replied. She listed the names of the ten legendaries in question, and then crossed off Suicune, Entei, and Moltres. That left Zapdos, Articuno, Raikou, Lugia, Ho-oh, Celebi, and Mew. The last two had question marks next to them, since Margaret wasn't sure the species even existed anymore, let alone thrived somewhere. She handed the list to Aleron. "Look okay so far?"

"Yea," Aleron agreed after a moment. "You know what though? There are a couple more regions. I don't know which of them has legendaries, if any. Or if any of them have eggs, or have been having trouble." She frowned deeply.

"There are five open regions," Margaret replied, nodding. "Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova, I believe." She bit her lip, thinking. "Short of actually going to the other three, though, I have no idea how we would confirm their legendary counts." She dug into her bag for a moment, but came out empty-handed. "I don't have any sort of guidebook or map that would show us the other regions, though..."

Aleron frowned. "The only thing I can think of is that my brother might have one... I know he's been doing a lot of traveling, so he may very well have maps of the other regions. I'll have to call him and see."

"That might be our best bet," Margaret replied. "Or maybe we could go to Pallet Town and talk to Professor Oak? They talk about him all the time at Silph, apparently he's at least heard of every pokemon species out there." Although she wondered if he would even tell them about legendary pokemon; who knows how many rare-hunters had asked about them in the past.

"Hey, it's a better plan than anything else. We might as well ask him, right? Even if he doesn't know, he might be able to point us in the right direction."

Aleron glanced over when Nurse Joy came over to them and told them that their pokemon were ready to go. She got up and took hers back, looking at Gyarados's pokeball speculatively.

"Right." Margaret got up as well and got her pokemon back. Then she glanced at Aleron and grinned.

"A Gyarados," she said. "That's going to be an interesting first meeting. It's completely your opposite type."

"And rather agressive, to boot," Aleron said. "I don't know if I should do this now, or later."

She was quiet for a few moments. "Make sure I don't get killed?"

"Do it now," Margaret advised. She put a hand on Metagross' pokeball and nodded. "Go ahead. I've got your back. One good Thunderpunch and the thing will go down, I'm sure."

Aleron nodded and brought out Vulpix to help communicate with the Gyarados before she headed for the lake again. She wasn't going to call it out without some source of water.

Margaret followed her back towards the lake. She knew what her friend was thinking. She paused when that thought formed in her mind, then she waved it off. It was common sense to have a first meeting with a water-type in the presence of water. She quickly stamped down the rising feeling that maybe she'd somehow just gotten another freaky ability. Nope, not even going to think about it.

Aleron didn't get the same feeling, and didn't notice Margaret pause. But she did stop a little short of the shore, letting out Gyarados. It roared, clearly unhappy, and Aleron shook her head.

"Hey, look, I know you're kinda pissed at me. Or, you know, really pissed. But it's not my fault?"

Vulpix snorted and started talking to the Gyarados. Aleron felt odd being able to only hear half of the conversation.

Margaret hung back a little further from the shore, although she was ready to have Metagross step in if he had to. For now, it was all up to Aleron.

After several minutes of conversation between the two, the Gyarados finally agreed not to blast her into oblivion. Aleron didn't get in the water, but she did let Gyarados have some time to swim around, rechecking what he said was his lake.

Margaret could tell almost exactly when the conversation ended.

"I take it things are at a tentative peace at the moment?" she asked, edging a bit closer. She didn't go into the water, either. She knew better than that.

"Yeah, pretty much." Aleron shook her head. "He won't kill me, but I have to let him out whenever we're staying somewhere close to water. I think it'll take a little while before we get to the point where he'll be doing anything for me."

"Understandable," Margaret replied. It would have been different if Aleron had raised a Gyarados from a Magikarp, rather than catching one wild like she had, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. "So what now? Head on through Mahogany Town into Blackthorn City, or back towards Olivine City to catch a boat out?" She knew the Magnet Train only ran between Kanto and Johto, so it made sense to her than a boat was the only way to get to any of the other regions.

"Hmm. Maybe go to Blackthorn first? Might as well get the badge while we're here, right?" This was one of the ones that Aleron didn't have yet, and she knew Margaret didn't have it either. Hey, maybe by the time they got to Blackthorn and it was her turn to battle, Gyarados would be somewhat more willing to battle for her. Maybe. If she was lucky.

"Sure," Margaret replied. "Isn't there a gym in Mahogany, too? May as well try to knock out two badges for my collection. Do you know what types they use?" She vaguely remembered Aleron mentioning that the Blackthorn gym was a Dragon-type gym, but she had no idea what the Mahogany gym was.