"Okay, it's settled then! Auntie will find someone else to sell the Deino to. Bye~"
Before Auron could even react, Tim hung up the phone.
Auron stared at his phone, torn between laughter and exasperation. "Great, I was only joking and he took me seriously."
"Kids, time to head back to your rooms~"
Shaking his head helplessly, Auron scooped up Elekid. Charmeleon, Corphish, and Snorlax followed behind as they all headed indoors together.
After greeting his parents, who were watching TV in the living room, Auron first sent his Pokémon upstairs, then walked over to his mother with curiosity, eyeing the Eevee in her arms.
"Mom, how come Eevee still hasn't evolved?"
His mother looked at him with a smug smile and reached into the white fur around Eevee's neck, pulling out an Everstone.
"Because of this, of course."
Auron froze. This wasn't what he'd expected at all. No wonder his mom carried little Eevee around every day without the Pokémon evolving—it was all because of this stone.
"Uh, Mom, why won't you let her evolve?"
His mother looked down and rubbed Eevee's head again, watching the little Pokémon's contented expression. "Because I haven't decided what form I want her to evolve into yet, and besides, little Eevee herself doesn't feel the need to evolve either. Isn't that right, little Eevee?"
"Eevui~"
Little Eevee nuzzled affectionately against her hand and called out in agreement.
"Well, alright then~"
Auron spread his hands helplessly, then turned to head upstairs.
"I'm going up to bed. Jace wants the Larvesta egg, and Tim already has a Deino, so just handle that however you think is best."
He called back to his mother as he climbed the stairs.
"Larvesta and Deino?"
Auron was heading upstairs, but his father's curiosity had been piqued.
"Oh, didn't you tell me last time that Auron's Aura ability might be able to sense the general aptitude of Pokémon inside eggs? I tried it out today, and it turns out Auron can not only sense their approximate aptitude, but he should also be able to sense what species the Pokémon inside the egg is!"
His mother explained what had happened that day while continuing to watch TV.
After reaching his room, Auron found his Pokémon all gathered in a circle around Dratini's egg. He smiled at them and said, "This is a new member of our family. After she hatches, you'll all have a little sister. Happy about that?"
The Pokémon all nodded excitedly. After all, aside from Crobat, their big sister, the rest were all male. How could they not be thrilled about suddenly gaining a little sister?
After introducing Dratini, Auron played around with his Pokémon for a while before finally going to sleep with them.
...
The night passed uneventfully. The next morning, Auron's biological clock woke him right on time.
After climbing down from Snorlax's belly, he looked at his three Pokémon still sound asleep. Moving quietly, he went to the bathroom to wash up, then headed downstairs.
Downstairs, everyone was already up, bustling around the dining table—some carrying plates, others grabbing chopsticks. Soon, the whole family sat down together, ready to eat breakfast.
"Grandpa, how's the progress going?"
"Not bad. Several aspects are moving along nicely."
Ashford nodded, looking somewhat excited. With this kind of project, you're stuck at the threshold until you make that first step forward—but once you do, everything starts moving, and from there it's just a matter of following the established plan.
Auron's eyes lit up. "So by the time school starts, this should be pretty much done, right?"
Ashford nodded. "Yes, pretty much."
Although there was still about half a month before school started, Ashford was confident that within that time, they could submit a general framework for approval.
"Then when school starts, there's going to be a school battle—can I use this for that?"
Ashford looked at Auron with a mysterious smile.
"Of course you can! It'll be the perfect surprise for our foreign friends. Hehe."
Ashford chuckled happily. During this period, he'd already reported the effects of the Mega Stones to the authorities, and they had taken action.
Through various channels, they'd bought up all the Mega Stones both domestically and internationally at normal market prices.
And because it was done secretly, it hadn't caused too much of a stir, so the price of Mega Stones hadn't increased.
However, they'd recently discovered that while they'd collected many Mega Stones, there weren't many Key Stones—and all the Key Stones they did acquire came from domestic sources.
Unfortunately, Auron didn't know about the official Mega Stone buyback, or he would have understood the reason immediately.
The Key Stones were currently only appearing in small quantities in the newly opened Secret Realm in Vantora.
Auron had arranged this early on—Tim's family had someone stationed at the entrance to the Secret Realm every day, buying up Key Stones.
The people who regularly entered the Secret Realm knew there was someone at the entrance buying Mega Stones at prices slightly higher than market value, so basically everyone who obtained Mega Stones inside would sell them directly to Tim's family representative.
And now Auron didn't lack Mega Stones or Key Stones at all. Key Stones were abundant, and as for Mega Stones, aside from the few for legendary Pokémon, Auron had at least three sets of each type.
The Mega Stones for legendaries were even rarer—stones like the two Mewtwonite variants, Latiosite, Latiasite, and Diancite—Auron only had one of each.
After hearing his grandpa say it was okay, Auron smiled happily. He'd been thinking about it last night before going to sleep.
When the two-on-two competition came around a week after school started, his Charizard and Jace's Charizard would Mega Evolve simultaneously—and into different forms, no less. That scene would be absolutely spectacular.
However, the prerequisite for pulling off this showstopping moment was that both their Pokémon had to evolve into Charizard before school started.
After the family finished breakfast, Auron's father, Ashford, and Liu Xiangju left for work.
That left Auron's mother and Auron to clear the table—after all, his mother wasn't working at the moment, and Auron was waiting at home for Jace to arrive.
Once Jace got there, Auron would give him the Pokémon egg to take home, and then the two of them would head to the Pokémon Battle Center together. He still had a battle scheduled with his little apprentice, Peter, today.
After helping his mother clean up, Auron finally went back upstairs. His Pokémon had all woken up and were sitting in a circle in the room, eating their breakfast.
Seeing Elekid sleepily and mechanically stuffing food into his mouth, Auron laughed and walked over, plopping down beside Snorlax. He addressed his Pokémon: "We've got a battle today. Who wants to go?"
He looked first at Snorlax. As his second Pokémon, Snorlax's combat ability was definitely reliable.
But Snorlax shook his head at Auron—he was planning to go boxing with Bewear later.
Then Auron looked at Crobat and Charmeleon, but both Pokémon also shook their heads.
Crobat needed to stay home and supervise Charmeleon's training, and Charmeleon... well, he reluctantly shook his head because Crobat was going to be supervising his training.
Seeing Charmeleon's pitiful expression, Auron laughed. "Haha, Charmeleon, train hard! I'm counting on you to make a stunning debut when school starts."
At this, Charmeleon's eyes lit up, and he nodded eagerly.
When you have a bigger, more spectacular moment to look forward to, who cares about the smaller opportunities?