"Oh we know." Quen rolled his eyes and moved over to peer through the bushes at the farm. Everything looked pretty normal... except that since they could now see the back of the farm, he saw a bunch of pokemon he didn't recognize. Including a little purple floating one.

"You know any of those?"

"I don't think so..." Trent murmured, looking over the bushes as well. "But I mean, they could be from other regions. You know how species are mixing now that the borders are all open."

"Yeah, I know. But how many pokemon float at will like that? Even the psychic-types." Quen frowned, puzzled. Something weird was going on here, something the girls didn't want them finding out about. He just didn't know what.

Trent stared at the creature as he tried to puzzle out what it was. He was just drawing a blank when the pink thing turned around, locking bright blue eyes with his own. It immediately vanished, to his surprise, and reappeared right in front of him and Quen.

"Mew?" it chirped, examining them curiously. It even flipped upside down for a moment to look at them. Trent could hear one of the girls back at the ranch yelling in surprise.

Quen blinked. Twice. Mew? He'd heard about that somewhere.

"Mew," he confirmed, looking at the little pokemon. "Okay, it's called Mew." So far, so good.

Aleron yelped when she noticed that Ho-oh took that as permission to go investigate and flew up to the other two as well, looking at them carefully.

Trent was about to pull out his pokedex to get a bit more information on the Mew when an angry-looking bird came up over the ridge. He stumbled back as it landed behind the Mew and glowered at them.

"Mew?" Mew turned around, and it clapped briefly. "Mew!" Clearly, it had found more humans to play with. Wasn't it great?

"What's going on?" Margaret asked Aleron, looking around. "Mew vanished, but I have no idea where he went."

"Ho-oh just flew up after him, I think," Aleron said. "They went up that way." She pointed, already starting to hike up there.

Quen did manage to pull out his pokedex, aiming it at Mew and reading the information silently. Then he paled.

"I think I just found out why they didn't want us there," he said, his eyes fixed on Mew, even as Ho-oh flapped his wings a few times, clearly still deciding about the humans.

"Mew!" Mew squeaked at Ho-oh. Well. If he didn't want to play with the humans, then Mew would find someone who would. He Teleported out again, going back down to the ranch just long enough to grab Margaret and Teleport back with her.

Margaret yelped in surprise when she was suddenly teleported, and the sounded ended up on both ends of the teleport. She stumbled as she was set back down, and looked up at Mew.

"What was that for?" she asked.

"Mew!" it chirped, pointing to the guys. "Mew, mew mew mew!"

"Play with-- what?" Margaret looked at where the legendary was pointing, and froze. Busted.

Quen looked at Trent and held out his pokedex so his brother could read too. Because there was just no way he'd believe otherwise.

Aleron cursed and scrambled up the hill as fast as she could, stopping at the top and scooping up Ho-oh, just in case. The bird legendary huffed but let her.

Trent looked at the pokedex entry, did a double-take, and then looked back at Mew and Margaret.

"What's going on?" he asked cautiously.

"I could ask you the same thing," Margaret said, reaching out protectively to pull Mew closer to her.

"We weren't doing anything," Quen said, his eyes narrowing a bit. Absol got up to stand next to him, sensing his distress. "We were setting up for the night, settling in to eat and wait for morning. And then that pops up." He nodded to Mew.

Aleron had to admit, it didn't sound like they'd done anything. They were still right up next to the road, and it wasn't like they'd been trying to attract attention or anything. She'd have noticed that. So she sighed and looked at Margaret.

"We knew there was a big possibility they wouldn't listen to us." She patted Ho-oh briefly.

"And this one didn't help matters," Margaret agreed with a bit of a sigh, giving Mew a Look. It didn't seem to faze the little psychic-type.

"Okay, wait a minute," Trent broke in. "What, exactly, in small words, is going on?" Because this whole situation was weird. What were two girls doing with a bunch of what seemed to be legends?

"You won't believe us if we tell you." Aleron shrugged.

"Try us."

"I've got a better idea. We'll show you." Letting go of Ho-oh, she turned and started sliding back down the hill. Because, really, they had to recognize the legendaries from their own region, at least. As long as a few of them were still around, which she thought there were.

Margaret was already running the list of Hoenn legendaries in her head, looking for any that might be hanging around. She nudged Mew slightly.

"Prove to me you can behave," she said sternly to him. He looked up at her with his big blue eyes. "Go get the twins." She knew Mew would know who she meant. 'Latias and Latios' was a mouthful of a tongue-twister, most of the time, so she'd gotten into the habit of calling them 'the twins,' since they had even hatched on the same day. Mew squeaked and nodded, Teleporting out again.

"The twins?" Trent asked skeptically.

"You'll see," Margaret replied. A moment later, a pair of avian forms darted out of the egg cave and started to glide smoothly up the hill. It took less than a minute for them to come close enough to see, and they both crooned when they saw Margaret. They were part-psychic, after all, and she tended to dote on her chosen type more than the others.

"Arceus almighty," Trent murmured, wide-eyed. He glanced at his brother.

Quen swallowed and then looked past them, down the hill, where Aleron was coaxing Kyogre and Groudon over.

"Okay. So you have a bunch of legendaries."

"From every region," Margaret said, nodding. "Most of them hatched here on the ranch, so we look after them until they're big enough to leave on their own."

"Why?" Quen frowned. Most people would have turned the legendaries over, or made profit off them or something. Not just let them grow up where very few people would travel, where they'd be safe and secluded.

"Why not?" Margaret asked in return. "We started off returning the stolen eggs. When we found all of the ones we could, we figured it was a better idea to look after them instead of risking pissing off legendaries later on."

"And how is raising the eggs not pissing them off?" Quen blinked.

"We can talk to some of the legendaries directly, and the ones we can't, we have our pokemon. Besides, the legendaries that do grow up here seem to like us and keep their parents from obliterating us."

"Most of them," Margaret pointed out. "I still don't want to climb Tin Tower again." She glanced at the little Ho-oh and then back at the guys. "Besides, we give them a safe place where they can rest and relax and get a bit stronger before they go out into the world."

"It still seems kind of... incredible."

"Imagine how we felt when we started." Aleron snorted and let the other two go back to playing, even as Suicune trotted over to her, the little Eevee tumbling after him.

Margaret automatically leaned down to pick up the little Eevee.

"You know, it's getting late," she said. She looked at Aleron. "They know now, so do you have any idea if we have any spare space? Mesprit is convinced there's a storm rolling in tonight."

"Depends. If we get them all to clear out the living room and stay in the cave or the lake, we should have enough room for the two of them and Professor Oak in the living room and kitchen." Aleron shrugged. "Probably not all the pokemon, though."

"Actually, my group could stay in the lake, no problem," Trent offered. "All water-types. And Quen's Sharpedo would probably be with them."

"Mew, Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf are probably going to end up trying to stay in my room," Margaret mused. "I'll get Metagross into the cave so he doesn't rust, he can look after any of the others. Starmie is in the lake, it can keep Red in line."

Trent blinked. Already, it sounded like she had a diverse group.

"You have a Metagross?" he asked. He was impressed. Beldum were very rare. Margaret nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "My parents got him for me for my fourteenth birthday. But really, we should hash out sleeping arrangements before we compare notes."

"Well, Jolt will stay with Espeon, and Torchic, Charmander, and Vulpix will all want to stay with me. So will Houndour, actually. He likes sleeping in my room." Aleron shrugged. "The rest of mine can stay in the cave. Except for Red, who is already in the lake."

"Absol can stay out," Quen said with a shrug. "Like Trent said, Sharpedo can be in the lake. Mightyena will sleep wherever, so will Spiritomb. Murkrow and Sneasel will probably want to stay with me."

Aleron did a few quick calculations and nodded. "Okay. They should all fit, but don't blame us if you get a little squished by your own pokemon."