"Exeggcute will stay with Metagross in the cave," Margaret mused. "Natu and Espeon will stay with me, along with the other four. I can probably fit a couple more in my room, depending. So there should be space enough."

Aleron nodded. She didn't think there would really be a problem.

"Alright, fine, you two can stay. Head down the hill when you're ready and we'll get things set up." Grumbling mostly for the sake of grumbling, Aleron headed back down the hill and into the house, shoving furniture against the walls and stacking things out of the way so they'd have the most room possible.

Margaret made her way down the hill as well, going to help move furniture and pokemon around so there was enough space.

Trent quickly gathered up his pokemon and his things. Real shelter for the night sounded great.

Quen started down the hill, glancing back at Trent before he made his way over to the house, entering slowly and blinking. It was a small house, but it had a living room and kitchen separated by a half-counter, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and what looked like a garage at the very other end of the house.

"Nice place."

"Thanks." Aleron finished pushing things out of the way. "We've only got one cot, but if you've got sleeping bags it shouldn't be too bad."

Margaret, on the other hand, was working on getting Mew to stop glomping onto her.

"Really," she said, "off my head. I'm not going anywhere." Mew just held on resolutely, squeaking about how she was HIS and he wasn't going to let her be taken by these new pokemon and humans. It was a pretty quick attitude change from earlier when he wanted to play. "I swear, I'm not going anywhere. Where are you getting these ideas?"

Trent just snickered a bit and nudged his brother.

"I'm glad that doesn't happen to us," he muttered.

Quen snickered. Really, he couldn't help it. "No kidding," he murmured to Trent. Ah, this was just too priceless.

Aleron even snickered at her friend's problem. But only until Victini zoomed into the house and latched onto the back of her head.

"Victini, really, darling. All is well in the world. Now get off. I have to do some things still." Victini refused, saying things about weird new pokemon in the lake and these odd people and he didn't trust them. Aleron just sighed.

Margaret just snorted.

"It must be something about psychic-types," she commented to her friend. She could hear Victini, and it was complaining just like Mew was. "Has to be. I've never seen Shaymin or Kyogre act like this."

"Do either of you need a hand?" Trent offered after a second or so.

"No, this happens every once in a while," Aleron said, moving the cot into the kitchen for Professor Oak. She looked at Margaret again. "They don't act like this, but sometime Suicune and Ho-oh do. Remember when they tried to chase off that wild Growlithe that was trying to adopt me?"

"That's them," Margaret replied. "Ho-oh is bad-tempered as it is and even tries to chase off Jolteon and Vulpix sometimes. And Suicune is ridiculously attached to you." Just as she managed to get Mew off of her, Azelf peeked around a doorway and got her attention. She blinked.

"I'll be right back," she said in general. "Azelf says that Celebi egg is ready to hatch." Turning, she headed towards the back door, Espeon next to her.

"Good luck," Aleron called after her, not even bothering to try to pry off Victini. Clearly the little pokemon was attached and was not coming off for the forseeable future.

"Alright, there you go. Cleared space. Let your pokemon do whatever they'd like, so long as they don't bother ours." Aleron shrugged and went to go start rounding up her hoarde for the night.

Quen looked over at Trent for a moment before he shrugged and set up his sleeping bag. The floor was better than the side of the road, at least.

While Margaret was outside, Natu decided she was curious and hopped over to the new arrivals. She cheeped at them for a moment, before realizing that no, they weren't like her trainer, and couldn't understand her. Still, she hopped around them, examining them from every angle she could, even fluttering up to see them from above. Once she was sure they weren't an immediate threat, she went back over to where the little Ralts was peeking timidly around a corner and relayed her findings.

Trent just watched the little thing as it studied them.

"For a trainer who works with a Metagross and an Espeon, that little thing is very undertrained," he commented.

"Maybe she hasn't had it for very long?" Quen shrugged. "Remember when Carvahna wouldn't listen to either of us, for the first few months after I caught him? Maybe this one's similar."

Which, of course, was when Murkrow decided to go investigate the other little flying thing, hopping over to the two to click at them.

Natu shook her wings a bit, eying the Murkrow mistrustfully. Not only was it a dark-type, but it was a Murkrow. They had reputations, after all. But she didn't challenge Murkrow at all, just watched it. Ralts, on the other hand, disappeared to hide behind the couch. It was still painfully timid.

"Probably," Trent replied, watching the exchange. "Natus are useful, though, I hear. Once they're trained."

Instead of challenging Natu, Murkrow hopped closer, tilting his head to the side to study the little bird. Then he settled down over his legs, making himself smaller. Clearly he was trying to be friendly, and just wasn't quite sure how.

"Yeah, I've heard that, too." Quen shrugged. "Maybe she's still working with it?"

"Maybe," Trent replied. "Very possible."

When it became obvious the Murkrow wasn't going to make any sort of move to challenge her, Natu's distrust cleared up and she chirped at him, fluffing her wings. Hey, she knew a dark-type move, maybe they had something in common.

Murkrow was obviously amused with the little one, very carefully extending his beak so he could poke her. He didn't want to hurt her, after all, just play around a little. He wasn't mean.

Quen looked over at the two and put his face in his hands. "I think I have the nicest Murkrow on the face of the planet," he muttered. "Look."

Trent glanced over and smothered a snort.

"Wow," he said. "I didn't know he was able to be not-irritating."

"Apparently he can be." Quen was still not looking. "He's being cute. This is... this is..." He couldn't even think of the right word.

"Bizarre?" Trent supplied. "Unnatural?" He was trying really hard not to start laughing at his brother. Quen just looked so unnerved at the fact that apparently Murkrow could take care of younglings.

Quen just shook his head and gave up on his pokemon, instead getting set up and settled in for the night. He'd worry about Murkrow's mothering tendancies later.

Trent snorted and settled in as well. He could hear rumblings outside of thunder, and was grateful they weren't out in the storm.

Margaret, on the other hand, was preparing to hunker down in the egg cave as she waited for the Celebi egg to hatch. It was wiggling around, and a few little hairline cracks had appeared, but it wasn't hatched yet. So she stayed there in the cave, sitting back against Metagross, and watched the lightning as the storm rolled in.

Aleron managed to herd all the others to safety, especially her fire-types, and shook herself off briefly. It was starting to sprinke already, although she knew it would start pouring soon. The three guys were inside already, and she knew Margaret was safe in the egg cave. So she shut the door and headed back to her room to go hunker down with her various pokemon.

It was well after midnight when the Celebi egg finally hatched, and the storm was still going strong. The Celebi immediately went to snuggle in with Margaret and her pokemon, scared, and Margaret held it as they all settled in to try to get some sleep. Nobody was going out in the storm, not even to go back to the house. Which was why, when she woke up the next morning, she was very surprised to find two more additions to the snuggle-pile: Mew, and Ralts.

Aleron got up first, letting everyone out again and going to check on the property. A tree had fallen over, almost into the lake, and she made a note to get some help moving that. Otherwise, everything was okay, albeit very muddy.

She made her way over to the egg cave to check on everyone there. "Everything okay in here? No one's hurt?"

"We're all fine in here," Margaret said, carefully getting up so she didn't wake any of the little ones. Mew, Ralts, and Celebi were all snuggled together, sleeping. "How does the rest of the ranch look?"