Quen shook his head. "You must be mistaken. We weren't part of this... project."

"You could have been," Aleron pointed out. "I don't remember going. And yet I have the affinity." She shrugged. "Maybe there was another place your parents took you? A local pond or pool for you, or somewhere with a lot of dark-types for you?" She looked between the two.

"Silph Co has a sister corporation in Hoenn," Margaret added. "Devon Corp, I think it's called?"

Trent glanced uneasily at his brother. If Devon Corp was connected to Silph Co, then it was possible.

Quen grimaced. Okay, yeah, that made it much more plausible. But not any easier to accept.

"Alright," he said slowly. "Say we were involved in this. We can't be the only ones."

Aleron shrugged. "You're the only other two we've met," she said quietly. "Granted, we've figured there have to be others, maybe at gyms. But you're the only two we've met."

"At the gyms?" Trent asked, mulling that over. "I guess I can see that." Yeah, that made sense, since gyms tended to be specialized. Hell, when they went through the Kanto gyms, Trent thought he'd found a little piece of heaven in Cerulean City.

Aleron nodded. "But you see my point. There could be lots. Or there could just be us. It's impossible to say without going and looking, and I really don't want to. I kind of like staying here."

"I don't mind going and looking," Margaret admitted. "I like traveling." But it was just lonely by herself, now that she was used to Aleron's company.

"Well we don't need to decide anything now," Quen said hurriedly. "It was just an idea." Because he'd feel bad taking the girls away from their home, and he and Trent were traveling anyway.

A very angry roar distracted Aleron, and she grimaced. "Drat. Red's throwing a fit again, I think someone got in his lake. I'm gonna go deal with him." She turned and motioned to Jolteon, jogging back around the other side of the house towards the lake.

Trent blinked. That was a Gyarados. He knew that sound.

"He's not a happy camper," he commented, looking in the direction of the roar. He started to follow Aleron.

"Where are you going?" Margaret asked.

"To see if I can help," Trent called back. He hurried in the direction of the lake.

"Red," Aleron said. "I know it's your lake. Everyone knows it's your lake. But we already talked about this. Other pokemon are going to be in your lake from time to time."

Gyarados growled, but Aleron was becoming immune to that.

"No. I'm telling you now, not asking. Calm yourself down before I have Jolteon knock you out." Aleron crossed her arms over her chest, glaring up at the pokemon. He subsided after a few moments, sinking sulkily into the water until his head was level with hers. "Good. Very good. Here, have a treat." Aleron pulled out treats she'd made specially for Red, tossing one to him. He seemed to like them, so she kept making them.

Trent blinked as he came up on the lake and saw the sulking water-type.

"Arceus Almighty," he said in awe. "I've never seen a Gyarados that color before."

"Neither had I." Aleron moved over to Gyarados when he was a little calmer, patting him gently. "He's a pain, but he's gotten better. He's apparently decided he prefers me to some other people we've met, and so generally cooperates. Generally."

To which statement Gyarados grumbled and splashed her. But it was all in good fun, really.

Aleron wiped water off her face, wringing the hem of her shirt out. "And now I have to change. Again. Is this revenge for leaving you here, you lunk?!"

Trent snorted.

"It's fun to screw with you," he translated. "You make it easy." And apparently the red Gyarados had been the head honcho wherever he'd been caught, and seemed to be trying to get some of that authority back, with very little success.

Aleron rolled her eyes. "You make it easy to Thunderbolt you," she threatened, and Jolteon puffed up obligingly. "Now stop it. I'll take you down to the ocean and let you terrorize Tentacool down there in a few hours."

"He would rather terrorize something more threatening than Tentacool," Trent translated again as the Gyarados grumbled at her. "They're no fun after a while." He shorted. "Huh, he sounds like he'd get along just fine with Lady."

"Lady?" Aleron blinked at him, totally derailed by that. "And I know he wants something bigger, but I can't exactly find bigger things for him all the time. There are Tentacruel out there too."

Trent grinned.

"I have a Gyarados of my own," he said. "I named her Lady, because she gets prissy sometimes." He gestured to Red. "And this guy, I'm not surprised he gets bored with Tentacool, they're like Zubat. Not much of a challenge, just annoying."

"Well I really don't have anything else to challenge him with. I'm not going to let him spar with Jolteon, because that's just cruel, and the rest of mine that are trained are fire-types, which is also cruel. And Margaret's team isn't very fond of him." Aleron shrugged. "I do what I can."

Trent thought about that for a moment.

"Well, what if I gave it a shot?" he offered. "All of mine are water-types, so it's not like they can hurt each other much. Hell, he could probably rage on Blastoise all he likes and not scratch his shell."

"If you volunteer yours, it's up to you," Aleron said with a shrug. "I'm sure he'd be happy to have someone to spar with."

Sure enough, Gyarados rumbled, rising a little bit out of the water to look down at them.

"Oh yes," Trent said, eying the shiny. "I can tell." He sized up the water-type for a moment, before pulling a ball off his belt. "Blastoise!"

"Blaaaast," Blastoise rumbled as he appeared. His cannons emerged from his shell with a loud 'click.'

"Heya, buddy," Trent greeted. "Feel like a sparring match?"

"Blaaastoise," the pokemon replied. Trent grinned.

"Good," he said. "Red here needs a sparring partner." He gestured to the Gyarados, hoping he got the nickname right. Blastoise rumbled again, and turned to face the shiny. Trent moved out of the way.

"Have at it," he said.

"One second," Aleron told the two pokemon. Turning to the rest of the farm, she cupped her hands around her mouth. "Blast zone!"

And then she walked quickly over to a well-place half-wall for just such occasions so she wouldn't get even more soaked, letting the two have at it.

Red growled, rising up higher to size up Blastoise before he attacked.

Trent raised an eyebrow, but followed her. She seemed to know exactly how a Gyarados liked to battle.

Luckily, so did he, and so did his Blastoise.

Once Red had calmed down and seemed much happier with life, Aleron emerged again to give him a treat before leading the way back over to the other two.

"Alright. So do we have a plan now or are we all going to just stand around for a while longer?"

Trent shrugged as he walked with Blastoise over to his brother. Once they'd rejoined the group, he started looking his pokemon over.

"Last I checked, we were headed to the Falls," he said. He glanced at his brother with a 'what say you?' look. It was getting late in the day, so they had to decide where (or if) to camp out.

Quen shrugged. "Well, why don't we camp out near the trail for tonight, and tomorrow we'll see about heading through the Falls."

Aleron shrugged. It really made no difference to her, except that she had to keep the legendaries in line and keep them from going to investigate the new people.