"I now have a complete set of Johto badges," Margaret replied, grinning. "Which brings me up to sixteen. Although there are three other regions to earn badges from, if I feel like it at some point." She glanced towards the main room and them back. "The Ralts is timid, moreso than is typical for the species. Ralts tend to be shy, but not outright afraid like this one is."

"Huh. I haven't noticed anything, but I also haven't tried to go over and play with the Ralts. Mostly I just left it with Noctowl and Natu, and the occasional legendary that decided to go say hi."

She was quiet for a few moments. "Do you think maybe something happened to Ralts before it got here?"

"Ralts seemed okay with Natu, but as soon as I got close, it got real skittish," Margaret said. "And it's just so young... I don't know what happened, but I do think that something did."

Aleron nodded. "Maybe you can ask Mew to go have a chat with Ralts? Find out what happened and why it's so skittish?" She shrugged. "We can't fix the problem if we don't know what the problem is, after all."

Margaret glanced at Mew for a moment.

"Not Mew," she said. "Legendaries are intimidating, even little ones." She'd picked up that much from her own pokemon. "I'll ask Noctowl, see if she learned anything. And maybe Natu. Ralts seems okay with Natu, for now, maybe she can get it to open up a bit."

Aleron nodded. "Sounds like a plan." She stretched briefly before settling down again. "Well, I don't think you've missed much else, really. Latios and Latias stopped by but they'll be back soon, I'm sure."

"Good to know," Margaret replied. "The only encounter I had while I was out and about was Celebi, technically. I decided Tin Tower was best left for another day."

"Good idea." Aleron grinned briefly. "Well, I was going to do some yard work. You want to help?"

"Sure," Margaret said, lifting Mew off her shoulders. She let it go mid-air, and it floated there on its own. "Let's go."

Aleron nodded and headed out back, starting to pull weeds and move some things around so the yard would have more open space and be more comfortable.

Margaret did the same, grinning a bit when she noticed all of the grass-types coming over to try to help. Apparently, they wanted to help take care of 'home' too.

Aleron snorted at that and let them help, looking around to see what else needed to be done. The house and part of the yard were already shaded by some nice trees, but she sort of wanted to plant a few more around the perimeter of the yard. And she'd have to pick up some rocks and things to move out of the way, too.

Which is when a few of the psychics started doing that for her, and Aleron huffed.

"I told you all not to read my mind!"

Margaret couldn't help but giggle a bit.

"It might not have been mind-reading," she placated. "I'm sure a few of them know Future-Sight, it might have been something like that."

"It's still cheating," Aleron grumbled, although she was pleased with their work. Vulpix helped out, rolling some of the smaller rocks along.

"Okay. I think the lake is a good size for the moment, unless we get too many more water-types. The cave is a good size, and I don't need to plant those trees just yet anyway."

"I think we'll be okay with the lake, then," Margaret mused. "The number of water-types is roughly the same as the number of fire-types, I think, and the number of electric-types. Those three usually seem to be consistent with each other."

"Yeah. The fire- and electric-types don't really care where they lounge, so they're good. And the lake is big enough for at least one more Gyarados, so visiting legendaries shouldn't have a problem. And Gyarados knows better than to mess with Starmie, too." Aleron looked around one more time, trying to see if there was any other type she wasn't prepared for.

"Starmie likes to be nocturnal anyways," Margaret said. "So it and Gyarados won't be keeping the same sleeping schedule." She grinned. "Though you should have seen it when we were taking on Clare. She was just so stunned when Red just kind of shook off a Thunderbolt from her Dragonair."

Aleron snickered. "I told you he's building up an immunity," she said with a grin. "That's just proof."

"It was great," Margaret said. "And he was so smug, you could just see it."

"Oh I can imagine." Aleron grinned. "I should really go finish collecting my badges. I've got half the Johto ones, and I should get the Kanto ones since we are right here."

"Go for it," Margaret said. She grinned. "You would only have trouble with one or two of them, I think. Depending on who you used." She ran through the list of Kanto gym leaders in her head. "Yeah, you'd have flat-out problems probably with Viridian gym, and Saffron gym would probably throw you a bit unless you trained with my group for a while. But the others won't be so bad, I don't think. You'd breeze right through Celadon, and probably Fuchsia."

"Yeah. Well I'm planning on training with my group for a while longer anyway, probably evolve Torchic, maybe my Eevee. We'll see." Aleron shrugged. "I certainly won't be going anywhere in the immediate future, anyway."

"Well, if you want to take on the Kanto gyms at any point, let me know," Margaret said. "They're a little more traditional than the Johto ones. A little."

Aleron nodded. "Don't worry, I'll go to you for the scoop on all of them." She grinned.

Margaret grinned.

"One of the gyms is fire-oriented," she said. "And even better, since Cinnabar Island had that volcano erupt a few years back, Blaine's been taking challenges out of part of the Seafoam Islands. Clearly not deep enough to bother Articuno, but still."