Silverstone - Pokémon Rancher

Chapter 02

By BigTofu

Anthony Silverstone

Stepping into my garage, I almost fell and busted my face on something as my ankle twisted to the side. My hands shot out, allowing me to catch myself, but that would seem bad as the tower I caught myself with shook ominously. With a grumble, I checked my leg to make sure I didn't pop anything happy that the twist didn’t feel too bad. Whatever ROB had done to my body was amazing because minor aches, pains and various things were all just non-issues to me now.

There was a sneaking suspicion that I might now have either an anime body or the body of someone born in the Pokemon world, but I honestly wasn’t complaining, nor did I want to look too closely into things. 

A grunt escaped me as I stood back up and made my way into the garage-turned lab area for Bulma as I looked for the blue-haired inventress. This was the fourth night in a row that she fell asleep in the blasted lab. I was trying not to say anything about it because she was working for me, but still, there was a very nice and serviceable bed upstairs for her to lie on.

Not to mention a nice warm rod to bury deep inside her, but then again, I can’t really blame her. Money was going out like a leaking faucet, and I had already dropped ten million out of the eighty I had arrived in this world with. 

Lawyers, feedstock, surveyors, vet techs, and all manner of people would arrive and build multiple new barns along with labs, barracks, a bunkhouse, and a few other things. It all cost money to set up and get going while also sliding her Capsule Corps underneath my Silverstone banner and keeping Silph Co away. Since I wasn't seducing her, I couldn't expect ass, but a man could only be blue-balled for so long before he just went to town and got a callgirl and put her on retainer. 

May as well take a page out of the Charlie Harper book.

There was no shame in my game, and I was more than happy to get myself a retainer. I snorted at the thought of running into Jessie and seducing her, then my face twisted into a scowl at the thought of James. I was comfortable with myself, but I wasn’t interested in the bussy he had to offer. The guy wasn’t nearly twinked enough for me to just close my eyes and give him the long bone. 

A chuckle chased those thoughts away as I worked through the mess to get to the table somewhere on the other side. I really don't know how Panchy does it if Bulma took more after her father. Living in a house with two work slobs is not conducive to one's mental health. Anyway, once I got to Bulma’s workstation, I found her laying spread out over the service. In one hand was a live soldering iron, and a little from her face was a circuit board I had no clue about. Next to that was a stack of microprocessors and various other bits of tech all over the table. 

Ignoring it all, I unplugged the soldering iron and made sure to remove it in a manner where any reaction from Bulma would see me with scorch marks. Before waking Bulma, I reached for a mug on the table, checked to see if it was clean, and it wasn’t. Then, I checked a few more before finding a clean one. Putting it under the auto coffee maker, I set it to work as I then went to wake Bulma. 

“AAAHHH!!” Was her instant reaction as her arms came up to swipe and slap. Grabbing both of her hands, I held her and had to stop myself from giving the woman a nice firm shake. “Ohh, it's you…” Bulma replied as she finally woke fully. She then ignored me for the coffee that was pouring into the mug. 

“Yes, it's me, it's the morning,” I replied as I looked around her makeshift lab. “Time to get up, the builders will be here soon. I want you in charge of things while I go out and deal with the rest of the ranch.”

“Urgh, just leave me the map with where you want the stuff built, and I'll take care of it,” Bulma replied while she was still half asleep, her hands automatically going for the cup of coffee. “Mind leaving Chewy with me, I have a few tests I want to run.”

That wasn’t expected as I narrowed my eyes at her, “What type of test?”

Bulma wasn’t even paying attention to me as she typed out something on her computer and brought up a model, “Well, I want to figure out how they turn that type of energy into electrical energy, because there is no way that little guy should be able to pump out all that power. And I also wanna see if it's compatible with my dragon radar.” Bulma then continued to mumble off with her ideas of possible inventions and various things. 

“Stop!” I said as I placed a hand on her head and slowly turned her to face me. “Your dragon radar can be modified to pick up Pokemon?”

Bulmas shrugged, “I won't know until I try, but I would need to run the test.”

Now I was very much fully invested in this conversation, “How about scouters?” 

“I would need to build those from scratch, but I would need at least a base to start from first,” Bulma replied, her head cocked to the side, her eyes in a squint even as she sipped from her coffee mug with one hand. The other was flying across the keyboard typing. 

“Okay, that changes things; I’ll try and finish with my ranch duties before noon so I’ll be here to handle the builders. Have them set the prefab lab down first because I want that dragon radar up and running ASAP. Get me a list of what we need to hook into the house's main antenna and what we need to build more out on the ranch, with either solar or battery packs. GPS tags for the Pokemon and basic wireless fence. Use the Pokedex I bought us as the database and set things on our servers.” I spoke as I started to rattle things off as they came to mind. I didn’t even care if it was only her lab that got built today. The things she was working on were far too important if I was being honest.

I never gave Bulma a chance as I hovered over her shoulder until she got up from the seat and went about clearing up the space. Once we were both back in the house, I showed her the place to warm with her food on top. Some hash, eggs, bacon, and toast, can never go wrong with a classic, I would think. 

With Bulma now up and taking care of things, I left Rosie in charge with Chewy as her backup. For me though, it was time to see the Miltank herd. Once I was out of the house and off the porch, I placed two fingers to my lips and blew a piercing whistle that carried across the ranch. 

One moment, I heard a bark, and the next, there was a huge flaming orange and black form approaching at great speeds from a distance. Nova, my Arcanine, had to be going at least sixty miles an hour, and the Pokemon made it look so freaking easy. As he came running in from a distance, I ran my hand across my right side, activating the Pokeballs. 

Instantly, Champ was out along with Ace, who took to the air. I one part loved the Pokeball system, but I also hated it on the flipside. As an animal lover, I didn’t want them stuck inside some storage somewhere where they couldn't get any light in perpetual suspension with minor awareness of the outside world. Yet, there wasn’t any meaningful place to put their living quarters on the ranch as of yet. All of those facilities would be built today. I had made sure to spend a lot of money to get prebuilt fabricated units and amenities.

The fact that by the end of the day, my little ranch might turn into a compound did rankle me a bit, but ROB didn’t provide unlimited storage, nor was I able to create a subspace that could be customized for everyone's comfort. What I did have though, was a lot of freaking money in a world with a lot of advanced construction products.  

“Alright team, we are going to paddock four today,” I told everyone with a clap of my hands. Nova trotted at my side as I felt like a freaking loser as I walked. I had bought a saddle to ride him, but I was honestly not going to do that. I would need a quick reaction guard dog, and Nova couldn’t be that if I was riding on his back.

Another reason why I would tame Prince, how could I call myself a Cowboy if I had no horse? It was beyond the pale that I had been taking care of things for a week, and I still had no damn horse to call my own. Getting to the fence, I followed it to the gates leading to the milk barn and made a few motions towards my Pokemon. 

“Ace, push the ones from out in the back this way, Nova; gather them and push them this way.” I snapped out my two commands as I opened the gate and locked it to the sides. One of the things I had been able to do was check the fences within the immediate ranch. Turns out ROB didn’t screw me there, but the longer it took me to go over the rest of the 820,000 acres, the more I worried about it. 

Bulma was really going to come in clutch with the Pokemon radar system for me if I got my way. All the Pokemon on the ranch would get tracker tags, or at least RFID tags. As I mused on the things around me, the first Miltank arrived, not happy at all. 

With a snap of the fingers, I pointed towards the Miltank, “Champ, give that one an attitude adjustment, Scary Face, bully it into the first stall.” I commanded as I went and got the suckle pumps ready. Champ growled his challenge towards the Miltank as he bum-rushed it, his face twisted into one promising destruction. 

Miltank tried to moo back in defiance, but Champ was having none of it as he came down on her with his massive Charizard bulk. With the suction cups in hand, I watched as Champ bullied the stubborn Pokemon into the holding pens before I hooked her up. With the suction set to low medium, I left her to get milked as I brought over some hay with slivers of nanab berries, which were known to calm down Pokemon.  

I continued my work trying not to think about how much I spent on the damn berries. The League, pokemarts, and a few places had these damn things on lockdown. A ten thousand dollars just for a berry with seeds. Seeds that just might not take, granted the non-seed version of the berries were a lot less expensive, but I also put in for a greenhouse. Since I was more than willing to do things in-house and if I could do things in house then I damn well will. 

Then again, I haven't explored all of the ranch and just might find some trees on my properties, but fuck it. I couldn’t take the money when I died, so I wasn’t going to just let it all sit in the bank. A few bangs drew my attention, so when I turned around. I found Champ glaring at a few of the Miltanks, the girls looked freshly awakened, hungry, and none too pleased with being forced to come in here this early in the day. The bang sound was just the metal being slammed into. 

Too bad for them, I have been up since five and I only waited this long because I at least wanted the sun in the air while I got things done. With a grunt, I got up and hooked the ladies to the suction pump, while I did that, more and more came into the milk barn. As I walked down the center, I checked each stall to make sure the Miltanks were doing okay as I got myself a count of twenty. 

Let’s see, the average cow produces 6 to 8 gallons of milk per day, multiply that by 20 cows, and I should be sitting at 120 gallons of milk. These are Pokemon, and they have a lot higher milk production depending on how healthy they were, their diet, and various other means. Urgh, still don’t understand how no one has linked aura-type energy to milk productions on Miltanks as of yet. The entire scientific community has this long, crazy thread about energy types and their interactions, but none even checked to see its reflection in various things. 

Then again, not a lot of people really care about normal types, doesn't matter to the world, big flashy bullshit wins every time. 

Well anyway, I've been cultivating their production of type energy over the last week, and I've noticed small increases in milk productions. The best one so far was Bessie, as she was producing me ten gallons of milk a day. Also, she was clearly battle-minded as she was more than willing to throw down with Nova and the rest. Already, I could see her being a few inches taller than the other Miltanks. 

For one of the best girls, I slipped her an Oran berry as I stood off to the side as the milking continued. Next was to have Ace fly me to the Tauros herd, I needed eyes on those guys ASAP. I would also need to get them inwards so the vet could take a look at them. 

Damn, I really do need a couple of farm-hands around here. Since there was nothing I could do about that right now, I finished up the milking which took about another hour before I allowed the Miltanks back out into the pasture. 

As I got ready to head out, the sound of trucks drew my attention to the driveway, I found a caravan of them approaching. There was no hiding the smile on my face because things were finally happening; after this I had no worries about needing certain extras.

A lot of what was planned to be the backyard was going to be used for lab areas along with the surrounding barn area. As I walked over to meet the trucks, Bulma came out of the house, and it was clear that she was freshly showered. I smirked at the sight of Chewy perched on her shoulder and accepted the wave from Rosie following behind. 

Standing in the driveway with Bulma, I waited for the trucks to park themselves. As the trucks pulled in, I was more than a little impressed with the crane, loaders with lumber, metals and clearly parts that could be connected and attached at points. There was even a trail of five concrete mixer trucks at the tail end before the appliance trucks.

The head sprinter van pulled up, and this giant bear of a man got out with a red safety vest, handle-bar mustache, and a bright yellow hard hat on his head. Okay, it was clear this was going to be the man in charge, and I was alright with that. 

“Mr Silverstone, I’m Gio, and I’ll be leading this construction site.” The Strong man spoke; his voice had that nice rich baritone of a man who spoke slowly but with assurance. 

I took his hand and boy was the grip strong, “That's me, this is my assistant Bulma; she will be in charge while I’m gone.”

The big man, whose name was Gio, didn’t even blink as he gave a firm nod “That will be fine.”

A thought struck me as I clapped Gio on the shoulder, “Let the boys know that if they can build both the Lab and barracks today, not only can they stay in them overnight and not worry about hotel rooms, but i’ll also throw them a BBQ”

“The lads would appreciate that,” Gio rumbled as he gave a slow nod of the head, behind him, two more vans pulled up next to his sprinter van as more workers jumped out. He turned to go deal with his people while I turned to deal with my own.

“Alright, this is your show now,” I told Bulma as I turned and whistled to the sky. 

Bulma looked stunned for a moment before little Miss's attitude was back, “What, you are going to leave little ole me here alone all by myself?”

I snorted that image brought to mine, “Please, as If I didn’t notice the gun hidden behind your back and shirt, plus, Rosie and Chewy will be with you.” I stated, then held up my phone. “Plus, I’m just a phone call away. I thought you would jump at a chance to get your lab finished?”

“Fine, leave a lovely maiden like myself all alone here with all these rough muscular men of various dispositions,” Bulma replied with her nose in the air. 

At this point, not even my Pokemon had to stop themselves from rolling their eyes. Chuckles could be heard from some of the construction crew as they listened in on our little situation. My hands came up and palmed my face, “Bulma, I’ll just be out in the fields, and I doubt Gio would hire men that may have such hobbies.”

“Correct,” came Gio's gravel voice as he walked over with some maps in hand. “Let your boyfriend go handle his business, I need you to point out where you want these appliances placed.”

With Gio distracting Bulma, I was off towards my shed, where I stashed the saddles. Ace was there waiting for me from his perch on top of the shed. It didn’t take long to get Ace saddled up and for me to get in. 

My hand snapped out with a Pokeball as I returned Champ, then clicked my tongue and did a snap point for Nova. Then I gave Ace a pat on the back, then held on for dear life as we shot upwards into the air. The wind flowed around and through me as I held onto the reins tightly as Ace flew us higher and higher. 

The world vanished down below as my Pokemon brought us to near-unimaginable heights. Ace was truly showing off as he pulled dips, dives and barrel rolls. After the fifth, I had him finally settle back down and brought us to at least double tree height as I gave my dog whistle three toots. Nothing happened for a bit and I thought that I might have to do another when Nova appeared with a burst of extreme speed. Nova truly was the goodest boy.

I checked my straps, found that my gloves, ropes and everything else was secure before blowing the whistle one more time. Then I trailed my hand from behind me and shot it forward, “YAH!”

With that command, Ace and Nova poured on the speed as I held on for dear life, one hand on the saddle and the other on my head. This was the only cowboy hat I had on me right now and I didn’t want to lose it.

Riding on the back of Ace who was a massive Pidgeot with a wing span nearing eleven feet across was far different than riding a horse with hard muscles and power. It was odd being able to tell the difference between muscles and feathers, they even operated differently. The motions were slightly the same, but where I was on a smooth back-and-forth motion of the horse as if I was moving with an ocean. Riding on the back of Ace I was in a more stationary position in a slight riding jockey pose. 

The motions were the same as when Ace dipped, I leaned into the motion as I followed his flow, then counter-balanced my way out of it with Ace responding to all of my actions.

We traveled miles in the few hours we were out here, and even had a lunch break before finding signs of the Tauros herd. This time when we took flight after them, I wasn’t surprised as we shot out over a plateau and glided across prairie lands. Hundreds of Tauros were down below as we flew around them in a wide arc. When I saw how many Pokemon were down below, it was an honest to god ohh shit moment. There were honestly so many down there, and they all could shoot off powers and blast me to kingdom come if I fucked this up.

We did the first circle, then the second before the herd of Tauros took off, running towards the east. My hand slid across my hip as Champ was released from his Pokeball. “Get down there and round them up with Nova.” I barked in command as I kept my eyes peeled for the boss of this mob.

Champ my loyal Charizard, roared his challenge to the world as he flapped his wings as they glowed white. I could already see the signs of an Aerial Ace, but there was no reason to gainsay his approach selection.

I heard the mooo, before I saw the beast of a Pokemon step out from the gathered Tauros herd as he faced off against Nova. It was the big Tauros and three others that decided they were going to protect the rest, it was up to me to break the stalemate and give out orders that would make my Pokemon far more effective. 

Everyone knew that Pokemon were smart creatures, but if we were being honest with ourselves. Pokemon had basic understanding and sure they had advanced neuro chemistry, but at the end of the day, they were still animals to me. Even psychic types would get culled and cooked if that was my mission.

“Keep the loop tight,” I commanded Ace while I reached for my gloves and rope.The loop was made before it went over my head as a lasso and went around the world. I did three turns above my head as I waited for Ace to bring us in nice and close. Then with a shout, “YAH!!” The lasso was out.

Seconds felt like unimaginable hours as I watched with narrowed eyes as the loop of the lasso flew. It felt as if the world stood still, everything was frozen and I could count the wing beats of the flys down below. The hot air tingled against my skin; moister licked at the top of my lip as a cold drop of sweat ran down the side of my neck. 

It all came down to this as I watched in slow motion as the lasso went fully around the neck of the massive Tauros.

My eyes went wide as I secured the other end of the rope around the saddled honor, once, twice, three times before it all went taunt. “YAH!” I bellowed as Ace gave a mighty tug, the Tauros tugged back. He nearly pulled us out of the air and that was when I realized this was an ohh shit moment. 

It was a snap decision, but it was a decision that I would have to live with as I checked my secondary rope, and hopped up onto the saddle. Then, I took a leap of faith as I jumped from the back of Ace. We had to be at least twenty feet up in the air, over very rough terrain, along with plenty of unfriendly Pokemon down below. 

Yet, as I jumped, the rope went taught and I caught it between my gloved hands as I took it down and onto the massive back of the Tauros. This was a massive fucking bull and the moment I landed on him, the bastard bucked. When I landed from the buck, I was on the back of the Alpha Tauros’s neck, and I took full advantage of that fact.

I didn’t even bother using the other rope as a lasso, I just pulled it off my waist and threw it over the massive Tauros’s neck. It hooked off the horn, and I took the moment instead of waiting to get bucked off. Again, I took a leap of faith as I leaped from the back of the Tauros, my aim was the rope as I grabbed it in one hand, the horn in the other, then really put some power in it when I lashed out. 

My boots went into the pokemons throat, the action both a surprise and shock to its system as it choked hard. 

“Nova, extreme speed, into take down, get it on its side, NOW!” I barked out my Pokemon leaping to my orders. Ace came lower and gave the rope more slack, but Nova was already moving as he struck the side of the Tauros hard into the side. 

The massive Pokemon went down onto its side as I dashed forward with the other rope and got busy tying its legs.  

“Champ, keep them back with a HEAT WAVE!” I yelled while doing five loops around the Tauro's four legs, then a loop around two legs, then cross-wrapped it, then loop around the horns. It was damn sure overkill, but I was out of fucks to give on this day as I really sinched the ropes. Jumping up, I grabbed the whip of the back of my belt and lashed the air. 

“Ace, guard,” I commanded with a pointed hand towards the massive Tauros. “Nova on me!”

The best boy was at my side within seconds as we ran forward to help Champ against the two Tauros. They weren’t as massive as the Alpha that was tied up, but they sure as shit was had the fight in them because when I got to the scene of the fight. Champ was dodging out of the way of an Icy Wind. No clue how these field Pokemon could learn such a thing without assistance, but this Texas boy don’t quit. 

“Champ, stay out of reach, circle around, Nova. Flair Blitz, take him down while distracted.” I commanded as I then snapped the whip to catch Tauro's attention. My Pokemon went wide, then came back in for a pincer.

The secondary Tauros that thought no one was paying attention to missed me by a hair's breadth as I dove out of the way, its horn grazing my arm. I stayed out of the way as I did a combat roll and popped back up to my feet. My whip came up and came down in a lash, right across the face of the Tauros. “Champ Giga Impact!” The barked order came, as I shifted on the balls of my feet towards the other Tauros.

The Tauros I lashed cried out in pain, but it had no time to figure its shit out as Champ came in like a wrecking ball and wrecked its shit. Tauros #3 went down hard and I chased that action with a pokeball. Tauros #2 was standing its ground against Nova, but I was in the game again which means all bets were off. 

I took off running towards where they were battling as I heard the ding of capture behind me. My whip came up, then lashed out around one of its back legs as it moved. The sudden jerk messed up the Tauros stepping action, and I had Nova punish it with a Takedown from the side. 

Another Pokeball was tossed out with a snap of my wrist, but it was the terrible snapping sounds that ruined my day.

SNAP!

SNAP! 

SNAP!

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but from the aura flare around Tauros #1, it was clear he was using a move. I had half a mind to think that he was using bulk up, but I knew that was a fighting-type move and the aura flare was white in nature, a clear signature of a normal type move. I couldn’t recognize the move so I made the best snap decision I could in the time that I had. 

“Scatter,” I barked as I the massive beast of a Pokemon bared down on me, I had no choice but to square up with the monster. 

Nova wasn’t having any of it, same with Champ as they both unleashed a torrent of flames at the massive Tauros. Again the Tauros glowed a white light as he charged through the double flamethrowers, the same move that was melting the fucking ground into lava slag. 

There was no explaining what went through my head in this moment, maybe I had finally found a worthy death, or maybe I just went crazy. Yet, there was no way to explain what happened next as the Pokemon got within striking range. 

Instinctively, I stepped in, liver shot to the jaw, knee to the snout, then a hook that connected to the orbital. I never noticed the blue as the Tauros mooo’ed in pain as he then swept his horns towards me. Standing firm and finding courage that I never knew of deep down inside, I grabbed both horns and twisted. 

It was clear that the Pokemon wasn’t ready for it as he went over like the cows back home. With the monster finally down and out, all the emotions that was trapped inside finally worked their way up and out as I roared my triumph to the world. 

All three of my Pokemon followed me in roaring to the sky, as I finally calmed down, I noticed the cool blue flames on my hands. It took me a moment to understand what was happening since my hands weren't on fire, but I didn’t have to. Not when a piece of paper fluttered down into my open hands. 

Congratulations, Guardian Aura unlocked. -ROB

With a tch, I grabbed a GreatBall from my belt and tapped Tauros on the snout with the container. It was clear the fight was out of him, but his eyes were still filled with defiance. That was alright, there was plenty of training in the books for him. 

There was plenty of training on the books for all of my Pokemon. I was not happy at all with their display today, not at all. They had speed, but their power was middling, this wasn’t like the games where I can just over-level and overpower. No, I had to think things out and retool alot of how I would approach things. 

I wasn’t by any means Izuku, that shonen protagonist of a mess, but I did have plenty of ideas on powers and how to possibly train them. I grew up in the era of Saturday morning cartoons with Static Shock being one of my all-time favorites.

So yeah, I had a few ideas on fixing the charge and potency of my Pokemon's moves. For now, though, I needed to get the herd back to the ranch. I would be damned if I did all this and didn’t get them tagged. 

Author Notes::::

Was this Cowboy enough!! Wrestled the bull into submission!

For those who are wondering why he didn’t use his guns. Each Tauros aka bull is worth 6k to 11k a head. This is just a single herd that he needs to get tagged and all kinds of things done. Can’t go around killing the livestock, plus guns don’t work on all types of Pokemon. 

Currently, I'm playing with the idea of rolling the dice on lost poke-tribes, poachers, and other miscreants.