Aleron just grinned and finished her dinner, waiting for Margaret to be done before she cleaned up after dinner.

"So when do you want to go check out Silph Co? A couple days?"

"A couple of days sounds good," Margaret replied, nodding. "Gives me a chance to do laundry, at any rate." She grinned. "Maybe take a trip into Pallet, drop in on Professor Oak. Maybe throw Mew at him again."

Aleron laughed. "Oh yeah, that would be fun. Can you imagine the look on his face if I showed up with Moltres and Zapdos in tow?"

Margaret laughed too.

"Oh yes," she said. "It would be like Christmas come early."

Aleron snickered. "Oh, yeah. He would be so happy." She grinned and shook her head. "We should do that sometime. Just to see the look on his face."

"Or we could bring him here," Margaret mused. "Elm too, so he can see the progress of the eggs. Isn't Elm known for his breeding projects?"

Aleron nodded. "Yeah, I bet they'd both like that." She grinned. "You realize we'd be their new favorite trainers, right?"

Margaret snorted.

"We'd be their best friends for life," she replied. She grinned. "I can have Mew pop me over to Pallet town right now, if I wanted. I could have Professor Oak here in fifteen minutes."

Aleron snickered. "Nah, I think I need to wander around some and stretch my legs. I'll go get Oak and bring him back, and we'll see how he does. If he takes it well enough, we can go get Elm, too."

Margaret nodded.

"Fair enough," she said. She grinned. "Well, I can hold down the fort here while you're gone, no problem. Make sure you come back with more badges."

Aleron grinned. "Oh don't worry, I will. I'll even try not to get them with legendaries." Still grinning, she went to go pack her things so she could leave in the morning.

As it turned out, though, she came back with more than just another two badges and Professor Oak. She also ran into two young men on the way back who had very type-specific teams. She was on her way back the first time she met them.

"Really, Trent," Quen said, rolling his eyes. "Staring at the lake isn't going to make pokemon appear, freaky mind-tricks or no." He glanced over down the road when he noticed someone else approaching. "And you're going to get us weird looks again."

Trent just snorted a bit and gave his brother a Look.

"I'm trying to decide if it's worth the effort to see what lives down there," he replied. "Route 1 is known for its low-level land pokemon, but it's right between the ocean and Victory Road, so there could be anything in these ponds."

"You've already got your one monstrosity, don't go looking for another." Quen gave him a Look right back. "That Gyarados is a terror, and besides, you've already got six on you. So unless you want to switch your group out or settle down somewhere..."

"I could say the same thing about your Spiritomb," Trent retorted. It was all in good fun, though; they were brothers, they knew exactly how to annoy one another. "At least I don't have to worry about Lady wandering through walls."

"Spiritomb only does that when it's bored," Quen defended. "And it's all in good fun." He paused though when Absol, who was usually out when the brothers were traveling, actually looked at the trainer approaching them. That was unusual; normally the pokemon ignored any trainer that wasn't Quen or Trent.

Aleron slowed a little as she approached the two. She could see one had an Absol, which was very unusual, but also interesting. Vulpix snorted and pranced along ahead of her.

Trent looked over as well. Absol didn't usually react that way. He blinked when he saw the girl and her Vulpix. It wasn't unusual for trainers to travel with one pokemon out as company; Trent didn't only because the only one of his group who would was Blastoise, and it was too slow to be feasible. He raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"What's up?" he greeted cautiously. "Looking for a quick battle?"

"Nah, I'm good," Aleron said with a shrug. "Just on my way back to stop by Professor Oak's before I head home." She looked at the Absol. "He looks good. Kind of unusual to see, too."

Quen blinked. That was not a normal reaction from people, either. Many people were still superstitious about Absols in general. "Er. Yeah."

"Good to see some people don't let others' views cloud their judgment." Aleron smiled a little, leaning down to pick up Vulpix. "Oh hush, you. You know I'm not about to race off and get one. You needn't be so jealous." Vulpix just huffed.

"Your Vulpix looks very well-cared-for," Trent commented. "They're pretty common out around Celadon, right?" He usually didn't notice them much; he and his brother weren't from Kanto and besides, he didn't pay all that much attention to fire-types outside of the ones with dual-type listings.

"Sort of common." Aleron grinned briefly. "I've seen a couple out around there, but this one I hatched myself. My parents own a ranch, so I've hatched a couple. She was my first, though."

Quen nodded. He knew there were places like that, but he and Trent hadn't been to one. "Sounds interesting." He paused briefly when Absol moved back to him, nudging his hip and saying something about type-affinities and the little fire-breather was chatty. "Looks like you two have a very... strong bond."

Aleron paused at that, unsure if he was just commenting or if he had some other meaning. "Yeah. I guess you could say that."

"I'd let my first walk around with me, but Blastoises aren't ideal for hiking," Trent said. He didn't miss the slight exchange between Quen and the Absol, although he couldn't understand it. It would be better if it was Sharpedo, but he got the feeling Quen would tell him later, anyways.

Aleron snorted. "No, they're not. The ones I've seen are kind of... lumbering. No offense."

"Oh trust me, he gets much worse from me," Quen said with a brief grin. "And his Blastoise is a giant lumbering thing that gets far too cannon-happy."

"Yeah, he's a little quick on the Hydro Cannon," Trent said, grinning a bit. "It's cool, though. And he can take care of things when Quen's Murkrow gets uppity."

"Murkrow doesn't get uppity. He's just a little bugger, and you know it."

Aleron snickered at the two. "You two remind me of my friend and I. We do the same thing."

Trent grinned and threw an arm over Quen's shoulders.

"He's the best brother a guy could ask for," he said, plastering on a shit-eating grin. Yeah, he was playing around, but it was all in good fun.

Aleron snickered again. "I know that look," she said, grinning herself. "Reminds me of my brother."

"You've got a brother?"

"Yeah. He's somewhere around, far as I know." She shrugged. "Last I heard he was off exploring Hoenn somewhere."