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Things are slowing down a little, but that makes sense. Sada and Turo have…a LOT to grapple and come to terms with, a lot to learn about their current predicament, and since they’re effectively stuck, the slower pace really feeds into that helpless “so…what now?” vibe.
I made a mistake and lost all my line quotes for these two chapters, so general notes will have to do for now. 😭 sorry!
Chapter 19:
Lots of fun things in this chapter. First, I adore how Sada and Turo once again take turns reassuring, supporting, and comforting the other. They are each others’ anchor, keeping the other sane at different points. I loved the moments when they just held each other, especially as Turo continues to reassure her it’s not her fault. They’re so sweet and pure and I’m so glad they have each other. 😭 Also love that they got a little bonding moment over reading the new weird words together. Nerds.
I’m really enjoying how utterly out of his element Turo is. It’s different from when he’d Visit Sada in her time, where he’d only be there a few hours and still had working tech with him from his time. Now he has absolutely no connection to the tech that he relied on for literally everything, and it shows!
It would be all too easy to write their being trapped in modern Paldea as something only uncomfortable for Sada, since she’s from the Stone Age, and to have Turo more or less able to adapt. But he’s just as lost as she is—perhaps even more so, because he was extremely reliant on his technology while Sada has always had to do things manually herself. It’s a very fun dynamic to throw them in this “middle” time, where they’re both a fish out of water for completely different reasons. (Also shoutout to Turo getting excited over lighting a match successfully and then being embarrassed by it. He’s adorable.)
I was sad to see little Pipsqueak go, but I hope he’ll be relevant later! Maybe he’ll recognize them when they come back…because let’s be real, we know they’re coming back to Area Zero sometime. Possibly sooner than expected.
Last but not least, Sada shooting Gyarados with an arrow was sad but also a little comical. 😂 She said “GIANT BEAST COMING RIGHT AT US, LET’S FIGHT.” I love her. Hope they got the arrow out, though. Poor Gyarados.
Chapter 20:
The fact that we get to see from the perspectives of Chalo and Vega, characters from each of their timelines, proves to me that something is eventually gonna happen to bridge the gap eventually. Though, it’s interesting…I could see Turo’s friends figuring out a way to find them with their advanced technology, but what can Chalo and the rest of the tribe do, exactly? They don’t even know about the time travel, so they’re much more in the dark about the situation than anyone else. I’m so curious to see how it plays out!
Poor little Porygon broke my heart. He’s so distraught over losing Turo, and I hope he doesn’t blame himself! Also…big oof at seeing that Protection Protocol. It’s properly terrifying, just like what we see in the games. I guess we can all guess which Professor added that specific touch. It does make me wonder, though…since they’re together in this AU, will the AI professors even exist? Gosh, I have so many questions and I’m so curious about how it’s all gonna tie into what we know from canon! Where will it be the same and where will it differ, etc.
Honestly, as sad as I am that they’re separated from friends and family, I’m most sad that they’re separated from their Pokémon. 😢 Pls let Mirai and Winged King reunite with them eventually aaaaah
I did get a good chuckle out of Turo trying to tap the menu and Sada tearing into her meal without utensils. 😂 These two are so OBVIOUS, it cracks me up. The fact that Dr. Romero Turo, brilliant scientist from a super advanced age, could only come up with “uh, costumes” as an excuse is hysterical to me.
And on that note: bless Clavell. 😂 That man is a saint. They’re so OBVIOUSLY not normal, sticking out like a sore thumb with everything they do, and obviously not telling him even a fraction of the truth, but he still looks out for them anyways. Takes these bizarre, potentiallt shady, possibly psychotic or dangerous people into his home without a second thought. Clavell is a national treasure and deserves the world.
So here it's chapter 5 (I'm still proud of that dumb title lol)!
After some debating I've decided to simply keep posting the story here exactly as it is in the original, errors and all, only adjusting the formatting a bit for legibility. (And maybe fixing some glaring typos if I happen to catch them)
Chapter 5: Fast & FuTurious
Report on Time travel jump n. 2 of Dr. Romero Turo, time-anchor ID 9537.
Coordinates of successful jump: 48°51′12″ N, 2°20′55″ E (current time position: Lumiose City)
Weather conditions: Clear, temperatures recorded by suit sensors average 15°C. Measurements coherent with estimated data about Last Glacial Period. Body suit encountered no difficulties in maintaining body temperature to comfortable levels.
Number of hours spent time-displaced: 5 hours and 12 minutes
Shortly after landing, encountered a Pokémon that seems to be an ancestor of the common modern Magikarp. The Pokémon, temporarily dubbed "Proto-Magikarp", showed a predatory instinct and aggressiveness completely absent in its modern counterpart. It's anatomy also showed a clear adaptation to hunting prey; strong musculature for swimming even against the current and developed teeth for ripping flesh, more similar in size and form to the ones seen in Pokemon like Basculin or Carvanha (possible common ancestor?).
Most interesting was it's behaviour after accidentally beaching itself in an attempt to assault me. It thrashed violently to right itself until it could attack again, in a movement extremely similar to the currently useless move "Splash" that Magikarp still uses today. I believe this to be the original use of the technique, and that possibly most Pokémon that are -or were- using the move known as Splash could actually have originally developed different uses for it, until changes in physiology and environment changed the move into its current iteration.
Made contact again with a native"
And there the report stopped, the cursor blinking on the monitor patiently waiting for Turo to continue. And it would have to wait quite a bit more, because the screen had been sitting untouched for the best part of two hours now, his owner seemingly much more interested in slowly spinning the leather chair (fake leather, of course. Were would you even get true leather these days?) he was currently slouched into round and round, both arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling of his office. Contrary to the fancy ceiling of the sanity room, this one didn't have much in terms of decoration - just the standard "regulate the artificial lights automatically to simulate sunlight".
At the moment, the light was dark orange, reflecting the sunset that was currently visible in real time right outside the window. Just a couple minutes more, and the last rays of sunlight would completely disappear behind the tall buildings of Mesagoza. In ancient times, the city had been built similar to an old fortress, with the Pokémon Academy built on the top of a hill towering over every other building, looking down on the city. Nowadays, the Pokemon Academy (and the University for more modern studies that had been built near it a couple centuries ago) was neither at the highest point nor the tallest building in the city anymore.
He felt conflicted about reporting his meetings with Sada. On one hand, he kind of had to do it; on the other, having to write about it in such cold and technical terms, like it was nothing more than an experiment to report on, felt.... Wrong.
There was also the issue of other people taking interest in his project; now that he had proven that it was possible, nothing was stopping someone else going in the exact same time and place. It was extremely improbable; there was a sort of "code of honor" between researchers of the TTLD: no interfering with other people's project, unless you were actively collaborating in a joint activity.
The possibility was there though, and the idea of an entourage of scientists arriving near Sada's people to study them like in some safari, even if carefully from afar while staying hidden instead of making active contact, was... It made him feel guilty.
He shouldn't have felt that way:
Studying and observing history was what they did, after all. That was the whole point of their job.
They travelled to the past as silent observers to confirm historical moments, to witness them first hand with a neutral perspective. Sometimes it was to confirm scientific theories, or to preserve artifacts that would have been lost to time otherwise. They did it to make sure not to repeat the mistakes of the past, and cautiously monitored the future to better prepare for it in the present.
It was right there in their motto, written in clear letters at the entrance of the Time Travel Laboratory Department, and again right on the time machine, something to be reminded of every time you stepped into it.
Ex tempore, scientia.
Ex scientia, sapientia.
"From time, knowledge. From knowledge, wisdom"
The irony of using a long dead language to write it in hadn't been lost on him. Whoever had come up with that had to have a nice sense of humour.
So he shouldn't feel guilty in reporting all that had happened... But a part of him still did.
Turo stopped the chair so that it was facing the screen again. With a sigh, he gestured to the screen to resume writing and continued to silently dictate his report, mouthing the words while opening another screen on his left with a flick of his finger to check some data his suit had recorded.
Info about his vitals, measurements about the environment gathered automatically while regulating said vitals... Audio transcripts of the entire conversation.
He slipped an earpiece in and started to play the audio back from the very beginning.
He had to be as accurate as possible.
---
Miraidon leaped excitedly out of the door, the pixelated compound pupils cycling through an array of colours outside of the usual cyan.
« Gyaa-»
« I know, I know, just let me... Lock the door...» Turo had barely finished scanning his ID through the door when the Pokémon, growing impatient, started to gently headbutt his shoulder, nipping at his arm.
Turo laughed softly and let himself be pushed along, exiting their apartment complex and walking into the streets of the megalopolis. It was a nice Saturday morning and the street buzzed with activity;his wasn't the only Miraidon present, the dragon Pokémon zipping around roads that, with traffic by now virtually nonexistent for short distances, had been adapted to better use for them and other, still popular vehicles like Rotom bikes.
A bunch of kids was sitting on benches in a small plaza, excitedly talking about the latest e-sport tournament in some vr game or other.
He dismissed an ad that started playing on the wall-sized display of a building as soon as he got near, more focused on the news snippets that were playing on the screen next to it.
Celebrity gossip. The colony on Mars was still stuck in the middle of a global dust storm. Stark mountain in Sinnoh had been erupting for five days straight. The Hassel Art Gallery was holding an art exhibition with pieces from the 24rd century (recovered by the TTLD, by the way).
A comet that would pass near Earth was closely being monitored, with some people swearing that it was going to be Jirachi's Millennium Comet (spoiler alert: it wasn't, it's orbit was completely mapped and it came near Earth every 300 years or so. That didn't stop people from romanticism about it).
He turned to Miraidon while finishing to put on a pair of gloves; his riding clothes were slightly different from his usual body suit, more similar to mountain biking gear. Still sleek and pretty form fitting with a dark purple color(he just... Liked the color), it sported elbow and knee pads in woven borophene to absorb impacts, with the same sturdy but flexible material covering his chest and shoulders, and shoes with magnetic soles to better cling to Miraidon's back while riding. The last piece of equipment was a full face helmet in a solid black color.
« Gyaaaa-»
Turo could almost feel the dragon next to him raring to go, a static charge building up on his scales while it crouched low on all fours to let him mount on his back.
He patted the Pokémon's neck while jumping on with practiced ease, gripping the two spikes that grew from his front legs and acted as natural handlebars.
« All right, let's go!»
The Pokémon let out a piercing shriek and jumped forward, leaping a couple of times on all four legs, still in low power mode, before releasing the electricity it had been storing mid leap to generate two bright energy rings from its throat and tail, changing smoothly into his drive mode before it even touched the ground again.
Turo lowered himself on the Pokémon's back while it sped up along the road, briefly racing with another Miraidon -the rider waving at them- before doing a sharp turn to get on the main road. There the dragon accellerated again, his rings glowing brightly while more electricity and power coursed through them, a roar growing increasingly louder not from the Pokémon's throat but from the jet-like vents from his legs.
Turo loved that feeling; the perfectly aerodynamic shape making him feel every air current, the electricity crackling on his skin and passing over him harmlessly, the fact that he could feel the dragon's power pushing him faster and faster... there was no other Pokémon that made riding it feel as viscerally satisfying as his Miraidon did.
A Rotom bike would never feel this good.
It was something in their very DNA, humans and Miraidon's ancestors Cyclizar had developed an almost symbiotic relationship since ancient times. It just felt right for the both of them, and the fact that they had been together since he was little more than a toddler and the Pokémon barely out of the egg had only made their bond even deeper. His mother always joked that Turo had almost learned to ride Miraidon before learning to walk, and certainly before learning to crawl.
He tapped the Pokémon's right spike and gently pressed his left leg against the Pokémon's side, Miraidon reading his body language and turning to the right into another road, towards the city's southern gate... Which was actually a bit of a misnomer. It was more correct to say that it was the city's historical southern gate and border.... By now, "Mesagoza" had expanded to become a megalopolis that included Los Platos and another half a dozen cities in South Paldea, almost reaching Cabo Poco on the coast.
Turo waited until they were officially out of the city's center before speaking to the Pokemon again. Technically, what he wanted to do wasn't exactly allowed. He needed a lot of open space and a nice, long road just to be safe.
« C'mon buddy, I know you can go much faster!»
Miraidon snorted and shook his head, turning it's head enough to glare at him with just one eye, the pupil flickering on and off in annoyance.
« Gyaa...»
Turo just grinned, the helmet masking his expression while he kept teasing the dragon. That was the reaction he was expecting, really. Mostly because it was kinda risky to do. For him, not for Miraidon. But it was also going to be awesome if it worked.
« Don't tell me you're scared to try that-»
« Gwaooooh!»
That seemed to do it, the Pokémon roaring indignantly before slowing down slightly, energy rings shrinking in size.
Turo braced himself, leaning completely forward on the dragon's back, his helmet almost touching the creature's smooth neck.
The crackling of electricity kept rising all around him, Miraidon concentrating on revving up his Hadron Engine to the fullest before rearing up on his hind legs with a screeching, metallic roar. Yellow and purple-blue energy surged through the dragon's throat, tail and antennae while it started to push itself off the ground on pure electromagnetic power alone, first just levitating and then propelling itself higher and higher.
Turo laughed while the road they had been following grew smaller and smaller, Miraidon soaring through the sky in his ultimate form at exhilarating speed. The wind was so strong that it kept him pushed flat on the dragon's back, and made it impossible to hear any sound apart from its howl. To communicate with the dragon, he would have to rely on touch alone, or simply trust it's judgement.
They passed Los Platos in the span of fifteen minutes instead of the hour of driving it would have taken them travelling along the highway and kept going south, flying over other districts and towns. He could already see the ocean, high up as they were, the water glittering under the sun and a welcome change of scenery from the constant grey, pure white and bright artificial lights of the city.
He pressed both legs against Miraidon's sides and leaned slightly to the left, noticing something on the coast that had caught his attention. The dragon growled in acknowledgement and started to tip forward towards the ground, dropping both altitude and speed while it slowly circled around the spot he had pointed to. Turo slowly straightened his back when the lower speed allowed it, sitting upright on the Pokémon's back and observing the building that laid under them, coming closer and closer.
It looked like an old lighthouse, the very top having broken off and fallen to the ground long ago, crashing through the roof of what looked like a small house built right next to it. And by old, he meant old, the place still looking like it had been built with classic bricks and mortar.
That had to make it at least a thousand years old, if not much more.
He directed Miraidon to land on the elevated platform that was still standing, then cautiously dismounted the dragon, almost expecting the entire building to crumble under his feet at the slightest touch. It didn't.
He took off his helmet and turned toward the edge of the platform, where a railing had probably allowed people to enjoy the view without risking falling off in the past, but had completely rusted away in the meantime. Being so close to the sea probably had not helped.
The ladder (not an elevator? Shit that made it even older than he first thought) that had allowed the caretakers or visitors to climb up had met a similar fate, leaving nothing but a gaping hole and a long drop to the ground.
He stared at the sea for a while; it was strange to think that the ocean was probably the only part of the current view that he could enjoy similarly to people that had stood here in the past, the only scenery that hadn't changed at all, and hopefully never would.
It was... strangely comforting.
« Let's keep going, I want to reach Artazon by noon » he declared after another couple minutes, turning back towards Miraidon. The dragon just stared at him, then hissed softly and briefly flicked his antennae, spreading his gliding membrane open.
The message was pretty clear: no flying in ultimate mode this time.
Turo just rolled his eyes, climbing back on the Pokémon's back.
« Yeah, yeah... All right mom, we'll do it the boring and careful way...»
There was another hiss by the lizard dragon and the gliding membrane opened up again before he was finished putting on his helmet, hitting him square on the nose.
---
« Your nose looks pretty red, is it alright?»
« Shut up, it's fine.»
The sanity room today was a beautiful recreation of the first floor of the Sprout Tower of Violet city. An hologram in the center of the room simulated the famous central pillar of the building, swaying in place, while the sound of creaking floorboards, soft chants and prayers from the monks (personally recorded by current director and head researcher of the TTDL) filled the room. Someone had gone the extra mile and even lighted some incense. Bellsprouts were sadly missing though. It was the kind of atmosphere that made everyone present subconsciously talk in whispers, at least until Ortega snickered while stealing a chair from the next table and sitting down near him.
« Was it something in the Paleolithic era? »
Turo glared at his colleague, then sniffled. His nose still hurt.
« No... Why would it be? Isn't that what the pre time-jump shots are for? Avoiding getting killed by millennia old bacteria and a dozen other things? » he answered. Ortega just shrugged.
« I don't know. Maybe you had gotten punched in the face by some caveman.»
« No, nothing like that.» he quickly tried to change the subject, not wanting to admit to getting whacked in the face.
« How is your project going? What was it again...?»
Ortega was a bit of a weird case in the department, always seeming to swap between one project or another instead of focusing on one thing at a time; Turo could never quite remember what the guy was working on at the moment.
« "Confirming historical moments that drastically changed human society in the last couple centuries"» Ortega recited.
« Which is just a fancy way of saying "I dick around dressed in historically accurate clothes"» another voice piped up from the table where Ortega had just stolen furniture from. A woman with ferociously red hair sat down opposite from Turo, offering a handshake.
« Melany Vega, pleased to meet you»
He took it, trying not to smile at Ortega looking annoyed.
« Hey, dressing for the part is important! Especially in most recent centuries. In ancient times, you can land anywhere and just say "Ooooh, me come from far away land!" and people will believe you because it's not like they knew better. That doesn't fly in modern times. People will know something's up if you show up in impossible clothes. Not to mention getting caught on camera. And the internet. »
« W-wait... Wouldn't it still be better to at least try and... Look like you fit in? Should I...? » Turo asked, eyes widening.
Both fellow time travellers looked at him for a moment.
« Yours is a special case. You go so far back that it doesn't matter. Even if someone noticed your weird clothes, at most it would become a bit of a strange story and then get lost to time... Unless you did something so memorable that it becomes a legend passed down for all of human history, but in that case, we would have bigger problems on our hands.
And we wouldn't even know where to start in making replicas of clothes that pass as historically accurate for you, because we know so little about it. Do it wrong, and it's even worse. » Vega answered after a moment. Ortega nodded.
« Yeah, best you could do for historical accuracy was showing up naked... And I don't recommend that.»
« ... You sound like you speak from experience.» Turo muttered after a moment.
Ortega just smiled, refusing to elaborate.
Turo could only sigh at his senior, then turned back towards the redhead.
« If I may ask, what are you working on...?»
« "Gathering photographic evidence of legendary Pokemon's sightings in different eras"»
Turo's mouth hanged open for a moment.
« You chase legendaries? »
Arceus, that must have looked badass on your resume.
Vega nods.
« It's way less epic than what it sounds like. 90% of "legendary Pokémon" sightings in history are people that had one too many drinks and mistook a Pangoro for an Urshifu or something stupid like that. » she explains.
« You did get that really cool picture of the battle between Groudon and Kyogre in Sootopolis City though. The one from uuuuh... 2005 was it?» Ortega points out.
« Those two are always going at it, it's nothing special! My grandma's got a picture from their last battle some 50 years ago that looks basically the same! » Vega rants, looking annoyed.
« The only way you can tell the picture is genuinely from 2005 it's because Steven Stone and those two eco terrorist idiots are chillin' in the background!»
The two men both laugh, then to his dismay Ortega manages to bring the conversation back to his nose.
« Anyway, what I wanted to say before we got sidetracked was... I would wait a couple more days before jumping back, if I were you. Get that nose back to normal. The less excuses you have to make and keep track of, the better. That's why I don't like visiting the same time more than a couple of times. Too much effort. » he shrugged again.
It was surprisingly solid advice, and Turo nodded, grimacing a bit. He had hoped to jump back exactly three days later for both him and Sada to try and keep the two timelines as coherent as possible- if nothing else, for his own sanity, because the second jump being an entire month for him and barely a week for her had already been confusing enough, but it looked like things rarely would be that easy to keep track of.
Still, as long as the disparity was only going to be a couple more days here and there, he could do it...
---
When he had gone back (and his nose gone back to normal) to Sada's camp he had expected to find her already there, but the place looked abandoned. No pelts or furs to mark a spot where she could have been sleeping, and even someone as clueless as him could see that the fire hadn't been used in days. She probably had gone back to her group for a couple of days.
He decides to light the fire himself while waiting for her to arrive, then sets himself down on the ground. He's brought a second notebook with him - it's not like he can bring anything more advanced than pen and paper to take notes in. Dropping some paper and a pen in the wrong century? No problem, it will decompose in no time and the most someone can do is doodling on it. Dropping an entire tablet?
Way more risky if someone else finds it.
The only exception is his suit, but even then, half of its function only really work when he goes back to his time. Sure, it's recording every single heart beat of his, or changes in body or external temperature, or fluctuations in hormones and stress levels, but he can't access the data here, and the suit itself literally only works for the one who wears it, keyed to their DNA.
He starts to jot down some observations about what has happened until now and what he wants to check today. Sada had showed him a drawing of what was unmistakably a Talonflame, and hadn't commented on it when he had drawn one himself: that could only mean that in this time Talonflame was already the same as the one he knew from documentaries and pictures. No weird changes like that Proto - Magikarp.
It made a certain amount of sense. Even in his time, not all Pokemon had slowly changed until they were basically recognised as different species like Miraidon and Cyclizar.
Some had simply gone extinct, not being able to adapt. Some (not many, admittedly, with the great majority of them being legendaries and mythicals that were so powerful they didn't need to change) hadn't felt the need to change further, like Magikarp.
He wanted to observe a Talonflame of this time if possible... But he was mostly interested in their feathers.
They were pretty famous for being completely fireproof: people had used them for creating fire- resistant clothes since ancient times, and he wanted to know if Sada knew about that property, but had had no idea how to ask her about it.
Easiest thing would be to just find some feathers and show her.
---
They had found some feathers, but not the ones he was interested in, and in the meantime, Turo's been forced to pretend that they are looking for them because he's cold.
He's not, the bodysuit is more than capable of keeping his body at a perfectly comfortable average temperature of 37°C at any time. But he knows that they surely don't look like warm clothes, and saying that he is fine would just look weird - and the last thing he needs is looking even weirder than he already does.
Still, the feather they have found is pretty big - big enough that the Pokemon it comes from must have an impressive wing span -, and Sada herself doesn't seem to know much about it. He slips the feather into his pocket, with half an idea of having the guys from the science department at Uvanja Academy run some DNA tests on it to try and identify what Pokémon it is.
The forest has gotten darker and darker as soon as the sun had gone down. Turo shouldn't be surprised, it's obvious that it would become dark, but... He had no idea it would be this dark. A total, impenetrable, pitch black darkness that looked ready to swallow them as soon as the fire on the little torch Sada was carrying fizzled out. Anything could be hiding out there.
He's suddenly incredibly aware of how spoiled living with artificial light always available has made him. True darkness simply does not exist anymore in his time... Except maybe the bottom of the ocean or something. Places were humans have no business living in any case.
Anywhere else, there is always a street lamp, or a display or a monitor that's on 24/7, or his Rotom Phone. His own clothes have stripes with a slight bioluminescence built into them.
His eyes simply are not used to not having even just a bit of light. And speaking of his clothes, Sada is staring at them, and it occurs to him that maybe wearing something that literally shouts where you are to any nocturnal Pokémon in the vicinity wasn't exactly the best of ideas. The fire could be put out, or brandished as a weapon in an emergency. His bodysuit... Not so much. He buttons up his lab coat (which is only slightly more stealthy due to his color, or lack thereof) to hide it completely.
She takes his hand, which he doesn't mind. It's starting to become a constant, her dragging him along and leading the way, but this time he finds himself frozen to the spot when he almost casually lifts his head to glance at the night sky.
He's never seen this many stars in real life.
Too much light pollution in the city, making the night sky look like a foggy black sheet with only the moon and the brighest stars managing to shine through.
Of course he's seen pictures, and documentaries, and those stupidly big photographs done with the latest telescopes with a resolution of a bajillion pixels where you could zoom in for a good while before getting tired and closing the tab. He's even gone to a planetarium a couple of times, but even that time, as cool as it had been, it still had only been a really good 3D picture projected on a (really big) screen.
There was no sense of depth on a picture or a screen. No way to reproduce the slight vertigo he was feeling in this moment, with the sky so impossibly open and vast over his head and everywhere he looked, just more and more stars.
Not a single silhouette of a building to cover it. No blinking lights from planes or satellites or space stations.
He kinda wants to keep staring at the sky for a while, but Sada keeps dragging him along and he can't do much else but follow her.
Still, he's pretty sure that he's got another stupid smile on his face that's impossible to stop.
---
He stands corrected: the smile melts off his face when they arrive back to camp and it becomes increasingly obvious that Sada expects him to spend the night with her.
Not with her, thank Arceus, but still to sleep at the camp until morning (and giving him some blankets made of what looks like thick Mamoswine fur while she is at it, because he's cold, of course).
From her point of view, it makes perfect sense.
From his point of view, it means he can't leave.
Not without going poof right in front of her, and that is, of course, bad.
"Rule number 1 of the time traveller manual" levels of bad. Don't get seen appearing or disappearing.
He needs to get a good distance away from her to avoid having the flash of light that accompanies his jumps alert her - or the entire forest for that matter -, but that is just not possible at the moment.
Turo's got the distinct impression that the woman is keeping an eye on him even while she is completely draped in blankets herself, ready to bolt and tackle him to the ground if he so much as tries to look like he wants to walk away and get his dumb ass eaten in the forest the instant he steps out of the circle of light, warmth and protection offered by the fire.
He finally gets an opportunity to slip away almost at dawn, when he is sure that she is fast asleep, but not before slowly and carefully leaving a message with the next date when they can meet up near her. Only two days.
---
It ends up being four on his time, because the time machine is completely booked in the following days, even in the night. That's also something that was starting to mess with him, having to come and go in the middle of the night, but it had surprisingly worked out this time. Spending an entire night in the past too nervous to sleep, then finally coming back at the crack of dawn and it still being like 3 AM felt amazing and had basically made his tired brain go "yesss, free sleepy time!" when he had come home and crashed asleep on the bed.
The next day, after finishing his report - he can already hear the jokes about "spending the night there"-, he submits a request for having some analysis performed on the feather he's brought back. He also makes them analyze the necklace. The answer arrives just a couple of hours later, mostly because there isn't too much to say.
Yes, DNA from the necklace and the feathers were a perfect match, so it is the same Pokémon.
No, they've got no idea what it is.
"You want us to try and look for the closest genetic relative? That's going to take a bit more"
"Sure, go ahead"
He had made sure to get the necklace back from them, though. By now it was starting to feel weird to not have it around his neck.
Turo stepped into the time machine, and immediately scowled when the first thing to greet him in the past is rain hitting him in the face. Great, he would have to charge his time-anchor manually this time if it didn't let up soon.
There had to be a better way to do this, he thought as he made his way towards the camp, boots squelching through the mud. Can't Porygon 568 check the weather for him before he jumps? An umbrella would have been weird, but he would have brought at least a jacket.
This time Sada is already waiting for him, even if it takes him a moment to recognize her; she's wearing what looks like a primitive grey cape with a hood to protect her from the rain, and a larger than usual bag slung on her back. She's definitely more prepared than him. Sada must be thinking something similar, because she just looks at him - hair plastered on his face, lab coat getting soaked, probably a tired dead look in his eyes- and shakes her head with half a smile.
« Come with me.»
By now her hand grasping his wrist and pulling him along is becoming a familiar sight; Sada hurries him along in the opposite direction they've been going two nights ago, walking increasingly uphill. After a couple of minutes his legs are already burning with pain from the effort; at least the time-anchor's getting charged. Sada, who is also carrying way more clothes and luggage than him, is barely breathing any faster than normal.
... was he horribly out of shape, or were people just built differently back then?
... both??
He slipped on the mud a couple of times and she grabs his arm with both hands to stop him from falling back down the hill, then mercifully stopped for a moment.
« Here » she offers him her spear to use as a makeshift walking stick, and he takes it after a second, feeling absolutely ridiculous. This thing was heavy: a good two meters long, the stone tip masterfully crafted to a sharp point and kept in place by fibers wrapped to make rope. And they used to throw these things.
His month spent reading up on Stone Age life has taught him one thing: the only reason humans had not only not gone exctinct by sharing the planet with Pokémon but had risen as the dominant species was thanks to their ability to just throw stuff really, really well. Almost everything else had come from that. Early hominids had literally evolved to throw stuff as efficiently as possible; hell, even the Pokéball, which they had based their entire society on after it's invention, had been developed to be thrown.
They could have made it so it had to be rolled. Or punched. Or simply pointed against the objective, but nah, they had decided "let's throw that, watch me nail that Bidoof on the head from 30 meters" (or at least, that's how he had always imagined the first practical demostration of the Pokéball to have gone down).
And that was just... wild to him. Even as heavy as it is, the spear helps quite a bit in keeping him upright while walking.
« Where... are we... going?» he heaved after a while. Sada turned around for a moment, looking at him a bit worried, then pointed at something that rested at the very top of the hill. He squinted through the rain; the green and brown of the forest disappeared towards a massive crag. Near its base, a rock overhang created a natural space shielded from the rain.
With a sigh of relief, Turo forces himself to climb the last couple hundred meters until they reach the entrance of the cave.
He fumbles for his time-anchor while sitting down on the ground and clicks a button to take note of the current coordinates; no way was he going to climb that hill again if he could avoid it.
Meanwhile, Sada just looks like she did nothing more than have a nice leasurely stroll. She pulls down her hood and sits down near him with a smile.
« Hi.» he smiled a bit in response; they have both picked up words from the other, he usually more words from her than the opposite, so hearing her speak something in his language is still kind of strange.
Turo takes off his lab coat to leave it to dry, and can't help but notice that Sada is staring at it. With an amused chuckle, he remembers how fascinated by it she seemed to be on their first meeting and offers it to the woman, who stared at him wide-eyed for a moment before taking it with both hands and examining it.
« What creature is it?» she wondered.
« It's not... here. » he answered slowly after a moment. Better just to tell her that it came from some Pokémon that lived incredibly far away.
« Where my, umm... people are.» he added, remembering the word after a short moment.
Technically the truth. She pouted, evidently disappointed, then gives him back the lab coat and goes for her bag. He's actually been curious about that: it's held shut with strips of leather, and is probably full of everything she needs to set up camp somewhere. There's blankets rolled up, her smaller leather pouch where she seems to gather berries and other perishables, and of course, the notebook, hidden inside one of the blankets... to protect it from the rain, probably. He smiled almost proudly - of course she would be careful like that.
Sada took the notebook out and flipped it open; he shuffled a bit closer, ready for another language lesson, but the page is completely empty. She actually looks a bit embarassed all of a sudden.
« I, umm.... » she pointed to her own cape and hood, then to his bodysuit.
« "Clothes" »
Turo nodded, not sure where she was going with this.
Sada started to rummage in her bag again; usually he is the one to embarass himself in front of her, so seeing her mutter something under her breath while avoiding his gaze is... the only word he can find is "precious".
It's adorable.
« Turo's clothes, um... cold. So I... make clothes... my people clothes... » she showed him what she had taken out of the bag: a big bundle of cloth of various sizes and color, the furs obviously coming from different Pokémon. And in her other hand, what's obviously a needle made out of bone.
She wants to... oh man.
Looks like he's getting those "historically accurate clothes" after all.
Reviewing for Blitz, the title of this chapter is amazing. Looking forward to Kanto Drift where Koraidon and Miraidon race.
It was something in their very DNA, humans and Miraidon's ancestors Cyclizar had developed an almost symbiotic relationship since ancient times. It just felt right for the both of them, and the fact that they had been together since he was little more than a toddler and the Pokémon barely out of the egg had only made their bond even deeper. His mother always joked that Turo had almost learned to ride Miraidon before learning to walk, and certainly before learning to crawl.
He tapped the Pokémon's right spike and gently pressed his left leg against the Pokémon's side, Miraidon reading his body language and turning to the right into another road, towards the city's southern gate... Which was actually a bit of a misnomer. It was more correct to say that it was the city's historical southern gate and border.... By now, "Mesagoza" had expanded to become a megalopolis that included Los Platos and another half a dozen cities in South Paldea, almost reaching Cabo Poco on the coast.
Yay, lore and backstory! This is always great to see. I bet you didn't know that I really like this kind of thing
And we wouldn't even know where to start in making replicas of clothes that pass as historically accurate for you, because we know so little about it. Do it wrong, and it's even worse. » Vega answered after a moment. Ortega nodded.
« Yeah, best you could do for historical accuracy was showing up naked... And I don't recommend that.»
Ortega: Here’s a dress, now show me historically accurate Shakespearean theatre performances.
Turo: wtf no I went to Holland not England
Ortega: do it
« It's way less epic than what it sounds like. 90% of "legendary Pokémon" sightings in history are people that had one too many drinks and mistook a Pangoro for an Urshifu or something stupid like that. » she explains.
Deoxys: *abducts a Milktank*
Her: false
Deoxys: rude
Also, clearly not enough effort was put in by her. Where are all the alien theories? Smh what a poser /s
His month spent reading up on Stone Age life has taught him one thing: the only reason humans had not only not gone exctinct by sharing the planet with Pokémon but had risen as the dominant species was thanks to their ability to just throw stuff really, really well. Almost everything else had come from that. Early hominids had literally evolved to throw stuff as efficiently as possible; hell, even the Pokéball, which they had based their entire society on after it's invention, had been developed to be thrown.
Oh Turo, just wait until you end up in Shakespeare’s time and forced to crossdress for a play. Men played both men and women in plays. So if Turo wanted to learn about Engoidh theatre, he would become James from the anime. So I would suggest that if he didn’t want to get roasted by his colleagues, he must select his disguises wisely!
In any case, keep up the good work! People here seem to really enjoy your writing, which is wonderful to see. I hope you continue to explore Sada and Turo, and perhaps explore the rest of the SV cast. But one question remains: who would Arven’s father/mother be in Neko-verse? My first guess is aliens, because the answer is always aliens.
In Area Zero, and really most of his life lately, Turo had solved the problem of not being able to fall asleep by simply exhausting himself until he collapsed.
Now, with nothing to do, he tossed and turned on the couch-improvised-bed Clavell had given them. He hadn't heard the man come back yet, but that wasn't the reason he couldn't sleep. It was the fact that everything felt familiar yet wrong. The lights outside the window, the noise of the city... those were similar enough to trick him into thinking he was actually home, which made the one detail that was noticeably missing sting even more painfully; he knew perfectly well what it was, and it pained him just to think about... the familiar, reassuring form of Miraidon sleeping right next to him, his long tail curled up around his body.
Without him, everything was just too quiet. He couldn't handle it. With a frustrated grunt, he got up and, resisting the instinctive urge to wave his hand to summon some light, stumbled towards the wall in the almost completely dark living room.
Dumb primitive technology... every time he found himself unable to do the simplest thing he felt like he was being slapped in the face by the reality of the situation he was in. Sure, not being able to turn on some light with a gesture wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things, he could live without it... didn't mean he had to like it.
Turo headed towards the tv, fumbling for the remote controller until he managed to find it and push the right button.
He rapidly switched channels, blinking his eyes at the sudden brightness of the screen -didn't people of this time know about dimming screen brightness? This hurt -. This late at night, not much seemed to be on. News, movies, reruns of random gym matches... he stopped briefly on a weather broadcast, glancing at the date in a corner of the screen.
2 October 2005.
2005. Just early 21th century. Barely started. Did they even have like... internet access? Probably...? That time was all a confused mess for him, it's not like you studied exact dates at school, just... "in those period, this and this and this were being invented".
Not really useful when you suddenly found yourself in it.
He took a long breath, tiredly rubbing his face. The date nagged at him, feeling like it was important somehow, but his mind was drawing a blank at the moment. He resumed channel jumping until he found one that showed nothing but static, the low droning sound typical of electric devices filling the room.
He sat back on the couch for a moment, remote in hand. The sound was not quite what he was used to, but... he sighed; it was the best he was going to get anyway. He sniffled, turning around to put the tv remote on the floor besides the couch and try to go back to sleep, and met Sada's eyes, also wide awake.
« Can't sleep?» He asked, and she shook her head.
---
Sada had listened to Turo toss and turn around, unable to fall asleep herself. She, on the contrary, had been laying perfectly still: it was just her instinct, to not move and make as little noise as possible. When you slept away from the village and out in the open, with only a campfire to protect you from creatures approaching, it was the sensible thing to do. She was used to bolting awake at the slightest unknown noise; but here, everything sounded new. The crater had been incredibly quiet compared to "Mesagoza", almost reassuringly so. Familiar.
This was unnerving.
Turo got up and turned on the strange box that showed pictures, sitting silent in the dark. She didn't quite understand why he had done it at first, until she recognized the low noise that filled the room. It was everywhere in his home, thanks to his dragon, and she realized he was probably used to sleeping with it.
« Can't sleep?»
She shook her head.
« Too much noise. » She answered, and he chuckled.
« ... eh. It's too little noise for me. » He replied as he laid back down near her. For a while, there was complete silence, as each of them listened for anything familiar to fall asleep to.
« We also need to get new clothes, right?» she asked after a while, after making sure that he was still awake.
« Yes, but we need money for that. We can't have Clavell keep paying for us.» He answered.
« I can just sew them -»
« We still need money for the... fabric. I'm sure they don't use pelts anymore.» He interrupted her, and Sada grumbled unhappily.
The food here was amazing, and they had wondrous things she couldn't even imagine... but there seemed to be so many strange rules you had to obey to be part of the community. She had noticed people looking at them weird while they ate, and she had hated it.
It made her feel wrong just because she didn't know about these rules.
There was so much she had to learn. But first of all, she had to choose a name. A normal one, that wouldn't make her stand out... but she didn't even know what people here were usually called.
Maybe she could look for some... place that had a list of normal sounding names.
---
Early in the morning, Clavell carefully adjusted his glasses, giving one last look at his image in the mirror before heading out. As he passed in front of the living room, he hesitated in front of the door left ajar, before hazarding a look inside.
There, still asleep on the couch, curled up against each other, were the man and woman he had offered a place to stay just the night before.
The two paradoxes from Area Zero.
Yesterday in the afternoon, he had gone back to the Academy, but he had struggled to concentrate on actually teaching anything as he kept thinking about the riddle those two presented.
They had just come out of nowhere... and then there were all the little details about them that were just off, like Sada apparently having no idea how to use eating utensils. She had tried to camouflage it, but it had been obvious that she had never seen them before as Turo had tried to show her how to use them. And her clothes... they looked haphazardly put together.
His theories about the two just kept getting wilder: "Just" Sada had been... I don't know, raised by Lycanroc or something, and Turo had found her and they had ended up in Paldea together...?
Who knows, maybe the poor girl had been kidnapped by some criminal organization in Kalos and Turo had helped her escape... it would explain her lack of people skills, at least.
And... it would also somewhat explain the fact that she had apparently been more than capable of hunting Pokémon with a bow and arrows to survive.
But it wasn't only the woman that was strange; Turo had done his share of weird things himself during that lunch. From thinking that they still had Pokémon Centers to the way he seemed to look at every little thing with a mix of sadness and frustration. He also seemed to have a weird tic with his arm, because Clavell had noticed him make little gestures with his left hand, just to look crestfallen immediately after.
And that weird accent he had never heard before was driving him crazy.
He had even considered the idea that they were actually really smart Zoroark just messing with him, just briefly, but no optical illusion could be that good.
Clavell was about to close the door on the sleeping couple when he noticed something that made him pause: the tv had been left on an empty channel, for some reason. He furrowed his eyebrows, then opted to quietly step in and turn it off.
They immediately bolted awake, if in completely different ways.
Sada straight up jumped awake, her hand grasping for something to her side, eyes narrowing at him, while Turo gasped loudly and tried to scramble backwards, before blinking slowly once.
It seemed to take them both a long moment to recognize where they were, or even who he was. Understandable.
« I'm sorry for waking you up, I... err, just wanted to turn the tv off. I'll be on my way... take whatever you want from the kitchen for breakfast! » He quickly exited the room again, leaving the still confused couple on their own, only to stop with his hand already on the door and turn around again.
« One last thing: I suppose you were planning to go out? » He asked.
« Y-yes... we wanted to look for a job...» Turo answered, still blinking sleep out of his eyes.
« ...Dressed like that? » He couldn't help but comment, and the man winced.
Clavell looked at his watch; he liked to arrive at the Academy early to review the material to cover in the day's lessons before officially starting the day. They still had quite some time.
« Why don't you come to the Academy with me for today? We can discuss things better there.»
« What is the "Academy"?» Sada asked, sounding confused. Turo whispered something in her ear, and her eyes widened, a little smile coming to her face.
« ... oh! Yes! I want to see it!» She exclaimed, suddenly looking like a completely different person, her whole face glowing with excitement.
Clavell noticed Turo looking at her with a stunned expression on his face, and the other man nodded after a moment, apparently immediately convinced by the woman's enthusiasm.
« Allright. We'll come.»
Good. This way he could both keep an eye on them, and honestly get to know them better. It was going to be an interesting day.
« But first... I guess you should both change into something less... noticeable.» he politely suggested.
---
Turo had been extremely unhappy about having to get out of his bodysuit, Sada noticed. Then again, it would have been impossible to not notice with how much he had been grumbling about it.
In a way, she could understand him; it was not just that they were used to wearing them. Those clothes were literally the only thing they still had of their respective times.
Getting out of them was... like resigning themselves to the fact that this wasn't temporary. Another step in getting away from their respective lives forever. They had both put some special care in folding them after getting something else to wear from Clavell, she had noticed. Turo had also stealthily removed the broken time anchor from his wrist, slipping it into the pocket of the black pants he had put on instead. On top of those, he had worn something that was apparently called a "shirt" with a square motive.
Hanging from his neck she had seen a glimpse of the necklace made from Winged King's feathers she had given him, and it had made her happy as she looked at the bracelet she had received from him just before they had ended up here.
At least... they still had something from each other's time that they could still wear.
Sada had to admit the variety of clothes had impressed her, and for a couple of minutes, she had admired every piece of clothing that Clavell seemed to have. There were so many! And even of the same type, just in different colors! Could people in this time really have this many clothes for one person? And the colors! She had seen a lot of colors even in Turo's time, but here there seemed to be so many different types of fabric, and... and there were even pictures or words on them! How did you do that?
« Are these clothes all "cotton"?» She asked Turo in an excited whisper after she finished putting on a light blue "shirt".
« They are itchy, that's what they are.» Turo answered, looking uncomfortable and fiddling with the collar of his shirt. Sada realized that he had always worn the clothes she had made for him over his own; he probably wasn't used to feeling anything else on his skin.
He then turned around, and fell silent, quietly staring at her.
« You look... good. » He said after a moment, and she smiled.
« You also look good.» She replied, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, before exiting Clavell's room that they had entered to get dressed. The man had been waiting for them in the living room, and looked them briefly up and down.
« I apologize for not having clothes that are more appropriate, Sada.» He said, leaving her confused.
She wasn't quite sure what "appropriate" meant, but she got the idea that there seemed to be some problem with the clothes she had been offered. She didn't really understand why. Apart from not fitting quite right, they seemed fine to her.
« Oh no, I love them! » She smiled, apparently leaving Clavell even more confused. Had she said something wrong...?
She decided to leave it be, excited to go back out.
---
They exited Clavell's home and made their way towards the Academy, the great, shining building that stood as the highest point of the city... in this time, at least. By force of habit, Turo found his eyes wandering to the horizon, expecting to see tall skyscrapers and more modern buildings surrounding Mesagoza's historical city center, or teleporting stations, Miraidon and other Pokémon zipping around... instead, he found himself looking at nothing but the sky. Pain twisted in his gut as he looked back down with a sigh, away from the spot where his apartment complex wouldn't exist for millennia to come, looking towards Sada.
Just yesterday evening she had shown him a little moment of vulnerability, crying weekly in his arms at accepting that everything that had made up her life right now had been lost forever in the blink of an eye... but looking at her now, you would never believe it. Her eyes shone as she curiously looked around, trying to take in everything the city had to offer at once.
He couldn't help but admire her strength.
Maybe it was because for her, everything was new and exciting, so it was easier to genuinely get lost in it all. To him, it was frustrating.
It was as if he had been thrown in one of those historical reenactments where you had fun dressing like people of the time for a couple of hours, and then took the ridiculous costumes off and went home, laughing about the experience.
Except he was stuck here.
The Academy, at least, looked the same as ever; it was actually strange how little it had changed in so much time, at least from the exterior. It was... strangely comforting.
« You mentioned being a member of the staff at the Academy... what do you teach?» He asked Clavell as he was walking beside them after a moment.
« I have a couple of courses, actually. I mostly teach basics of Pokémon biology to grade schoolers and a bit more advanced courses in the later grades for people interested in a career in the sciences. » He answered, and Turo nodded. So at least it looked like it hadn't really changed in how it worked in his time, offering courses for pretty much all levels of education.
« And... was the radio where we sent the message to...?»
« In an old laboratory at the Academy, yes. If I didn't have the habit of going there for grading papers, well...» Clavell cleared his throat, looking a bit embarrassed. They kept walking, and as they got closer and closer Turo noticed something that made him slow down until he had to stop, craning his neck upward.
The famed Mesagoza staircases, in all its 150 plus steps glory.
He had climbed it just a couple of times in his life, before giving up on it and using a teleporter ever since.
Except that there weren't any around now.
« Are we ... going to climb that...?» He asked, feeling the blood drain from his face a little at the prospect.
« How else do you want to get over there? Flying?» Clavell chuckled.
Well... he did have a Gyarados, but Clavell seemed to read his thoughts.
« ... yesterday's situation was highly unusual. Flying your own Pokemon over populated areas is mostly forbidden.» He explained, and Turo had to raise a single eyebrow at that. What?
Why?
« Then... how do you get around? » He had to ask, only for Clavell to look at him oddly. Turo kept his face neutral, wincing internally; he felt like every little thing he said or did was being carefully analyzed by this man.
« We can ride other types of Pokémon, obviously. Or you can take a Flying Taxi, but do you really want to pay just to avoid climbing some stairs?» He laughed.
... well, no. Turo sighed, resigning himself to starting to climb. It couldn't be worse than scaling a hillside in Prehistoric Kalos, after all.
---
Sada was the first to start ascending, her gaze fixed on the great sphere on the top of the building. Clavell and Turo were behind her, the latter having a bit more difficulty. She slowed down when she saw him double down in pain, gasping for breath, offering him her shoulder to grab on to.
« Is everything all right?» Clavell asked, looking worried.
« Yes, he...» Sada hesitated, not quite sure how to put it. Would "He's not great at moving around" sound strange? She also didn't want to put him down, because it wasn't his fault. In his time, people didn't seem to walk around much from the little she had seen; they didn't need to.
« He does not walk much.» She said at the end. She was used by now having to wait for him when they did something slightly more strenuous than walking on plain ground, and after a couple of moments, Turo straightened himself up with one last gasp.
« I'm fine. Let's... let's go.» He said, resuming to walk.
They had to stop another three times along the way before they reached the top, Clavell looking increasingly worried at every stop.
« Are you sure everything's fine? We have an infirmary at the Academy, you could lay down-»
« I'm good.» Turo repeated, now with a slight hint of irritation in his voice. A couple of children all dressed in the same orange or purple clothes had surpassed them as they went up, and their giggles while looking at Turo sitting down on one of the steps seemed to have irked him.
Especially as Clavell, who looked a bit older than both of them, still looked only a bit fatigued. The man looked a bit taken aback, but didn't comment on Turo's tone, deciding to simply walk ahead instead.
As she helped Turo clear those last few steps, she couldn't help but be a little excited. So this "Academy "was the place where people went to learn things! She could see anyone from little children to adults walking around, all dressed in the same clothes with some slight variations. Maybe every type of clothing had a special meaning, or indicated your role? Or how much you knew?
« Is dressing like that part of some ritual?» She asked. Clavell turned around to look at her strangely.
« It's the school uniform.» He added after a moment.
She didn't knew what a uniform was, but she understood that it was something that everyone here was supposed to know, so she simply nodded with a little "I see" half said to herself.
The building only looked more and more beautiful as they approached the doors, and when Clavell opened them and walked inside, Sada couldn't help but hold her breath. By her side, she quietly registered Turo stopping in his tracks and do the same, stunned into silence.
It was the building with the tallest ceiling she had ever seen, it didn't actually feel like being inside at all. The light of the sun streaming in from the windows illuminated the great hall; the whole room felt like a great open space, full of people reading.
Hundreds and hundreds of books, covering the shelves for the floor to the ceiling, leaving Sada completely mesmerized. In her time the only "writing" she had ever seen was what she or someone else had written themselves. But here, in this time... there had to be so many books here that you couldn't read them all in your whole life! These had to be all the books that had ever been written!
In a daze, she turned towards Turo at her side, eyes shining.
« Look Turo! It's all paper!» She whispered, in awe, grabbing his arm.
---
Turo stared at the wooden shelves that lined three whole floors of the academy, holding hundreds and hundreds of books.
« It's all paper...» He quietly despaired, in complete disbelief, looking around in search of even a single digital screen.
This was completely different from the Academy in his time. He could understand not having teleportation, but... where were the terminals for students?
Were they seriously still using paper for everything? Didn't they have digitalized books already in this era?
He couldn't believe it.
Not even the lady at the reception had a single old computer. Or any piece of technology newer than pen and paper, really.
Arceus... he didn't think it would be that bad. Sada shook him out of his daze, beaming, and he had to smile a little bit at her enthusiasm.
Well... at least one of the two between them was taking this well.
« Let's go to the cafeteria. We can have breakfast there.» Clavell led them along a couple corridors that Turo couldn't help but find familiar.
The general layout of the Academy didn't seem to have changed much from when he had attented as a kid... or, to be more correct, wouldn't change in the centuries to come. He held Sada's hand, leading her away from the bookshelves with a little pang of guilt. She frowned a bit, evidently disappointed in not getting to examine anything, but silently followed the two men in the cafeteria. It was early morning, and they were evidently still serving breakfast.
Quite a number of students and teachers were still sitting down, both probably thinking about the coming day's lessons from two opposites point of views. A couple of people looked at them as they entered, and Turo immediately stiffened, feeling their gaze on him.
It lasted only an instant before no one else paid them any mind anymore, and he relaxed.
Right. They were dressed in completely "normal" clothes now, of course no one would stare. Turo hated them, from the rigid pants to the rough (to him, at least) flannel checkered shirt in red and white he had borrowed from Clavell.
They were itchy, fell completely wrong, and their ability to regulate body temperature was absolute shit. He had never been too cold or too hot in his bodysuit; he had been out of it for not even an hour and already missed it dearly.
He was really starting to realize how many insignificant details of his life he had taken for granted.
However, as soon as he got near the long table that offered all manner of drinks, he was hit with a familiar scent, one single thing he had been desperately craving for days in Area Zero, a fragrance that almost made him tear up.
Thank Arceus, they had coffee: the day already looked so much better.
He drifted towards the table and took two big mugs, filling them to the brim before offering one to Sada. She sniffed it curiously as they sat down at a table with Clavell after grabbing a couple slices of toasted bread each, looking a bit taken aback by the color.
« Is this fruit juice?» She whispered to him in her language, and he had to quirk an eyebrow. Honestly, he had no idea. Was coffee a fruit? Not really...?
« Something like that.» He answered, before feeling Clavell's eyes on them both. It made him uncomfortable, how he was watching their every move, and he had to wonder what the other man thought they had just said.
« So... I kind of want to talk about what you want to do from now on, and your... situation.» Clavell said as Turo took a sip from his own mug.
« I had to explain what prompted me to storm out of the school to the director and other chosen members of the faculty, obviously.» The man said after a moment, and Turo almost choked on the coffee. He what?
« I'm afraid I was forced to do it. Obviously, everyone is extremely interested in what you were doing in Area Zero and how you got there. You both became a bit of a... curiosity yesterday afternoon as the story spread. People in the city also have seen you. » Clavell added as Turo felt a wave of nausea hit him. Suddenly he felt the stares of every single staff member in the room on his back, and even a couple of the students. They had to be staring at him. Looking away as they entered had to have been a way to not make it look obvious. They were all watching, scrutinizing, waiting to see when they would do something weird. Right at that moment, Sada gagged and stuck her tongue out as she tried the coffee he had poured for her.
« You drink this?» She asked incredulously, and he almost wanted to laugh. Clavell looked at her and wordlessly slid the little box full of sugar packets in front of her.
« Then... what do you want to do with us?» He asked, as Sada noticed his nervousness and snapped her attention back to Clavell, who raised both hands in the air.
« No reason to be so nervous! Look, I admit to being curious about you two... but I also respect that you don't want to talk about whatever it is you have to hide. But, if you don't want people snooping around and making you Paldea's newest gossip story, you both are going to need help. Someone that has your back and can help you...» He hesitated for a second, adjusting his glasses.
« ... cover your tracks. Help you settle down. »
There was a little moment of silence as Sada picked one sugar packet and opened it up, then stuck a finger inside and licked it to taste the content.
« ... you want to help us... what?» Turo lowered his voice. « Forge fake identities? Give us some cover-story to use? Why go that far for two strangers?»
Clavell looked at them both for a moment as Sada's eyes lit up and she dumped the entire content of the packet into her mug, eyes flitting between the two men.
« ... because I have the feeling you two are hiding something big. Something incredible. And you are one of the few people in the region that have entered Area Zero. » He said.
« ... you want to... "examine" us. » Sada unexpectedly spoke up after taking a sip of the now practically sugary drink, and Turo nodded.
« So you want to keep us near.» He chuckled, as Clavell shrugged while taking a bite out of his toast with jam.
« I'm a scientist after all. Being curious is what we're all about.» He answered, and Turo noticed Sada brighten up a bit at that, eyes shining.
« You're a scientist?» She asked, and Turo had to smile a little bit at that. The word had always had a little special meaning between them.
« Yes...? And so are you. I don't know of what, but... » Clavell added, looking back at them both.
« There were opened books you two were obviously reading on the table in Research Station 2 where I found you yesterday. »
« ... well, it's not like we had anything better to do under there-» Turo muttered in his defense, trying to divert the attention away from anything that could point the conversation towards their "job" or whatever they did before coming here. Luckily, Clavell didn't insist.
... for now.
« ... anyway, I have an idea for helping you settle here. You could enroll here at the Academy.» Clavell waited a moment to study their reactions, before continuing.
« It would help you both with the language, and you could stay here in the dormitory so you wouldn't have to worry about rent for now. Once you graduate, you will have something to show to people asking for some official documents about you. »
Going to school... again? Here?
By impulse, it sounded stupid, but... it actually wasn't half bad as an idea. It would help them both tremendously, Sada in particular. She could use the basic courses as a way to learn the language and get herself... up to date with things, so to speak.
While it would help him get... down to date, in a sense. Make sure he didn't accidentally blab about stuff that hadn't even been invented yet. There was just a little problem about that...
« What's "enroll"?» Sada asked him in a hushed whisper, in her language.
« He wants us to study here. To learn things... and to train Pokémon.» He answered in the same way.
All of Sada's enthusiasm at his words evaporated in an instant.
« We need... a "Pokémon"?» She turned towards Clavell, asking again just to be sure. The man nodded.
« Yes, at least one Pokémon is necessary to follow most courses. Our Academy has always prided itself in helping develop the bond between human and Pokemon along with their minds-»
Sada's face fell, and Turo was sure he knew exactly what she was thinking about.
... he missed Miraidon so much. He couldn't contemplate having any other Pokémon by his side.
« We... we had Pokémon. They are... lost now. They're not with us anymore.» She said in a low voice after a moment, and Clavell's eyes widened.
« I'm so sorry... when you said you had no Pokémon, I thought you meant you never -» He stammered. « W-well, in that case... I can see why you wouldn't want to... I'm really sorry, that must have been terrible. Did you perhaps... lose them in the Crater...?» He asked.
« ... yeah. Give us... a bit of time to think about it. » Turo replied, looking towards Sada, who had been chewing on her toast with little enthusiasm now.
« Y-yes, of course. W-well, I can give you a tour of the Academy anyway, if you want to...» Clavell offered, to a cold response from both of them.
The rest of the breakfast was spent in an uncomfortable silence; Turo could barely enjoy the coffee, which now only reminded him of how Miraidon would put his head in his lap as they had breakfast, hoping to get a little extra snack from him.
« Can we still work here and live in the dormitory anyway? There has to be... something you wouldn't mind having two extra people help with.» Turo mumbled as they were done.
« Well... I remember hearing that they actually needed some help in the kitchen. Or with cleaning. We've had an influx of more students than usual these past couple of years...» Clavell commented.
Sada whispered for him to translate "kitchen", and when he did, there was a little, hastily hidden frown on the woman's face, before she nodded and tried to cover it with a smile.
He couldn't blame her and say that he was thrilled. He would accept anything, their position was desperate enough that they couldn't afford to be picky.
Still... not how he imagined his life to go, and it was probably the same for Sada.
« Sure... whatever is fine. » Turo sighed.
It's not like they were in any rush. They had the rest of their lives to figure out what to do in this time, after all. He felt Sada slowly take his hand in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze, looking up at him. Her eyes stopped for a moment on his necklace, and she raised her other hand to touch the bright feathers.
« If we are together... it will be fine.» She smiled, sounding like she was trying to convince herself as much as him.
He smiled softly in response after a long moment, and together they followed Clavell out of the room.
Clavell's steps echoed through the hallway as Sada and Turo followed, hand in hand. The woman didn't really know what to expect out of this place: she knew it was a place of learning, but she couldn't really picture how it worked. Did people just... read books and had other "scientist" explain stuff to them?
« The Pokémon market is over there, while the infirmary is on the other side of the hall... in these wing are most of the classrooms. » Clavell was explaining.
They passed a series of rooms with closed door, and Sada couldn't help but glance inside, squeezing Turo's hand to tell him to slow down a little.
The "classrooms" were full of people, all sitting and intently watching one person that was standing behind a table on an elevated platform. Everyone seemed to have their own notebook and they were taking notes, following what the teacher was writing on a big white wall with a pretty big pen.
In the next classroom, she saw one student raise their hand and ask a question she couldn't hear, while in another they passed everyone was divided into groups around big tables, drawing or even sculpting things out of stone. So it wasn't just a place to learn about... scientists stuff, you learned about everything!
It was a place to practice whatever you wanted to do and find what you liked, it was incredible!
She gave a quick look to Turo by her side, wondering if this is how he had learned to draw, just practicing in these classrooms with a teacher.
At the very core, it wasn't any different from her mother teaching most people in the tribe the basics of sewing, or any other craft. What was amazing to her was the... freedom they had in doing those things. They didn't have to worry about gathering or hunting down food, so they could devote so much more time to it.
She wanted to be a part of it. She really wanted to. But... the fact that you needed a "Pokémon", which was how people called creatures here, saddened her. If only she could have had Winged King by her side, learning all these wonderful things together, exploring this place that was completely new to her with him and Turo... in a way, it would be a dream come true. It would make her situation more bearable.
But... another Pokémon... she didn't even know anything about the Pokémon that lived in this time.
They passed through the classrooms, then the "laboratory" which was apparently where Clavell usually worked, the "Pokémon market" that sold what looked like Master Balls of a different color and so many other things she couldn't even begin to imagine the use of, and a lot of other places before coming back to the entrance where all those books were.
Sada couldn't quite help staring at them, just itching to get near and try to read even just the title to know what they were about.
« Is there some... work here with books?» She asked, almost not daring to hope it. If she could help and get money and get to use these books at the same time, it would be perfect!
« You mean... library assistant?» Clavell asked, a pensive look on his face.
« Umm...» She tried to not have her eyes dart towards Turo, but she caught him barely nod in her direction to her side.
« Y-yes. Could I... do that?» She asked.
« I would have to ask... but we have so many books here, having an extra someone to help the students find what they need is always useful...» He mused.
« Oh! Please do!»
---
Getting used to working in the Academy's lunch hall had been rough. Sadly, there had been only one available spot working at the library, and he had gladly left it to Sada - even just the little happy jump she had done had been worth it -
It was rough not because Turo thought it was a bad job or anything, but for a much more practical reason: he had absolutely no idea how many little details were involved in operating a kitchen in this time.
... or even his time, he had to admit.
Mostly because most of everything in his time was automated. Dirty dishes? He just slid them in the sink and they automatically got cleaned, before getting teleported back to their place in the cupboard, ready to be used again.
He had never even thought about having to load and unload a dishwasher (in a certain, precise way even! There was a certain technique to it, in fitting as much as possible inside), or Arceus forbid, having to wash them manually, but they set him to do plenty of both in his first couple of days. Sometimes he would help serve meals during the busiest hours.
Sometimes he would clean tables, or mop the floor.
It was all physical work he was most definitely not used to, and he would come back to Clavell's house at the end of his turn completely spent.
They apparently couldn't live in the dorms if they didn't enroll, so while Clavell had reassured them that they could stay in his home as long as they wanted (in part, Turo suspected, to try and gleam something from the both of them), he didn't feel comfortable intruding on the man's hospitality like that, so he had started to look for a place for Sada and himself to live in, without much success. Too many questions, people that wanted to see documents and credentials they didn't have. Understandable, in a way, but...
Turo let out a frustrated sigh as he finished filling one cart full of trays from last dinner. He started pushing it towards the kitchen, and happened to pass by a student still sitting at one of the tables, portable computer opened near his half finished dinner- the laptop was a ridiculously large thing, at least from his perspective, but it was probably the best they could do at the time... it still even had a CD tray.
« I don't get why it never seems to reach this part... »
Turo slowly stopped pushing the cart when he saw the unmistakable sight of lines of code on a screen, now listening with his full attention. He couldn't recognize the programming language in particular - probably something long obsolete and practically forgotten in his time anyway -, but he could recognize the general structure and syntax that had stayed consistent in so much time. Much like in mathematics the plus sign had never changed in millennia, so hadn't the basic syntax and concept of programming: a for loop was still a for loop. The student looked like a twenty something man with bizarre two toned hair in two different tones of purple, and looked pretty frustrated at the moment.
« It doesn't even give me an error, it just...»
« ... that's because the code it's not doing what you think it's doing.» Turo said after throwing a glance to the screen.
The young man jumped and turned around, staring with comically large eyes behind a pair of hexagonal glasses.
« What?»
« The variable you are checking in the if condition is probably changing value somewhere before that, by mistake. I bet you probably made a typo somewhere and are assigning some other value to the variable, when you meant to initialize a different one.» Turo added, walking closer to look at the screen over his shoulder. His eyes scanned the code up and down, looking for what was probably the problem, until... he pointed to the screen.
« Here. You reassign the "color" variable instead of "cry", so "color" always has a different value from what you expect.»
The man squinted at the laptop for a moment before gasping.
« You're right! How didn't I see that, I spent an hour pouring over it- thank you!» He turned around, grinning.
« You get so used to reading your own code spotting these kind of errors can be tricky... are you finishing that?» Turo added, pointing to the student's half eaten and now probably cold dinner.
The student looked surprised, almost like he had even forgotten the food was there.
« Uh... I... yes, actually.» He grabbed his fork and started eating again.
« You work here? Haven't seen you around, are you new? How do you know so much about coding?» He asked.
« Ah, name's Jacq by the way.» He added.
« Programming is... a hobby of mine let's say. Romero Turo. Are you studying in the scientific course?» He asked, but they got interrupted before Jacq could answer.
With a loud squawking sound, a Murkrow suddenly swooped in from an open window and towards them. It landed on the table flapping his wings, and went to grab the spoon Jacq hadn't used to steal it away.
« Hey! Let that go!» Turo tried to scare the Pokémon into dropping it, but it seemed way too used to doing it, because it simply flapped his wings and let out a little "caw" sound.
... was it mocking him?
« ... you want something shiny to steal? Here.» He threw some spare change from his pocket on the table, and the Pokémon's eyes snapped to it, the little coins shining under the light. Turo could almost see his little mind try to decide what to do: it couldn't grab both, so it had to let the spoon go-
The Murkrow grabbed one coin between one of its talons and, hopping rather ungracefully on the table, flapped his wings again and took off, disappearing out of the window again.
Turo was left looking after the bird, mouth hanging open, as Jacq laughed.
« ... clever little bastard.» He shook his head, incredulous.
Bested by a bird. That was a low blow.
« Yeah, that Murkrow often comes here, everyone is used to it. There's quite a number of them around the school, his nest is probably on the Academy's roof.» Jacq chimed in with a last chuckle.
« Anyway... you said it's a hobby? You could probably teach here!» He added.
Turo sighed; how was he supposed to give a realistic answer that didn't make him look suspicious? He also had really no clear idea of how the technology level was in this time yet. He probably couldn't teach things over the very basics for fear of introducing stuff that didn't even exist yet... like he had done with writing in the Paleolithic... but things could't get conveniently forgotten in this time.
« No, really... you probably know more than me, I just had a similar error so I recognized what the issue was... What are you even programming?» He tried to divert the conversation on something else.
Jacq kept muching on his peas for a while, before showing him the screen and clicking on another window, opening a text file.
« It's my project for this year's Treasure Hunt! You know how some trainers collaborate with their local Pokémon Professor to register data about the Pokémon they catch, and they periodically submit the data for reviews? I want to create a system where everyone can do it... even better if it's done automatically! We could study species much more easily if literally everyone could contribute, you would have so much variety in data! At first I had thought of a website where you fill a form with data about your Pokémon... you know... height, weight, special characteristics, where you obtained it... but...»
« ... but that would be boring and everyone would just forget to do it after the first couple of times.» Turo finished as the student nodded.
« Exactly! So I started looking into ways to integrate it into something everyone would have. A professional Pokédex is not something everyone has, so I started to look into the new Pokénav model made by Devon, in Hoenn... those are pretty popular right now... if I could make a little... add-on or something, that you can install on it... Professor Clavell's been helping a lot!» Jacq explained, going back to his code.
Turo couldn't help but smile a little at his enthusiasm. A system to automatically send data about every single caught Pokémon to a central database... it sounded so simple yet brilliant, and someone obviously had to have implemented it first. He didn't really know if the technology of this time could make it possible. You would need some really precise sensors to automatically get all the data about the Pokémon... trivial in his time, but he had no idea how accurate they were here.
« So you are working on this alone?» Turo asked after a minute as he cleaned the table.
« Pretty much, yeah. I'm usually working in the computer lab though... hey, can I come to you if I have another dumb error?» Jacq asked, and Turo had to chuckle a little bit.
« ... sure.»
---
Sada had gotten the job for working in the Academy's library in the end. And she loved it! There were so many books about so many things! Books that collected stories, books full of pictures and the name of every plant or Pokémon - Narjik would have loved it - , there were even cooking books! And so, so so much more.
« Um, Lady Librarian...»
Sada turned around, meeting the eyes of a small girl with red eyes. The wide hat she was wearing looked way too big for her, and she was continuously pushing it back up so it didn't fall over her eyes.
« Oh! Yes! That's me! What is it?»
« I'm looking for a book... it's a story about a Charcadet. I wanted to finish reading it...»
« Char-ca-det?» She repeated, thinking. Pokémon names were a big problem for her... and Pokémon in general, actually. She had learned the names of the ones you saw in the city more often, like "Swablu" for the little cute birds with fluffy wings, but not many more.
« Do you remember the title? » She asked.
« It's "Charcadet's Ad"... Ad-something.» The girl replied.
Mmm... not much to go on, but there could't be that many books with the Pokémon's name in the title, right?
« All right! Let's go look for it together!» She answered with a big smile, taking the girl by the hand.
Most of her day was spent like that: keeping the book organized, helping the students find what they needed, and occasionally sneaking a peak into some book that caught her interest... which was quite easy to do, since most of them did. There were just so many things to read!
As much as she loved helping with the library in the Academy itself, she had to admit that she sometimes needed a bit of time to herself. There were just so many people around, and she just... wasn't used to it.
Sometimes, she just needed to try and get away from the city. So on the "weekend", because apparently people had decided that days were divided in a group of seven and in two of those the school was closed, she had dragged both Turo and Clavell with her for a little trip outside the city, just for a chance to actually see some real nature and trees.
The constant noise of the city, the traffic, the buildings... she needed to get away from it all.
There were still too many traces of civilization for her liking when they passed Mesagoza's southern gate: the Pokémon center, the flying taxi passing overhead sometimes... but it was already a completely different scenery from the city. There was dirt on the ground! Actual, dusty dirt instead of paved roads, and there was mostly silence.
And there were Pokémon. Her right hand went to her shoulder, grasping for a weapon that wasn't there out of instinct; Clavell hadn't let her bring her bow, "unless you use it to shoot a Pokéball instead of arrows".
« Are you really so used to having a bow with you?» Clavell asked, evidently noticing her gesture.
The sudden question made her jump, unprepared. She tried to disguise the gesture by pretending she wanted to actually scratch her forehead in thought, but she knew he hadn't been fooled.
« Yes, I... we did it like this... in Kalos. A small village...»
In a sense, she was telling the truth.
« ... uh. Didn't know Kalos education put so much emphasis on survival skills. Interesting.» Clavell commented.
Sada opted to not comment to avoid giving him any more information that could put her in a difficult position, instead focusing her attention on the wild Pokémon that were around.
« They really don't attack...» She commented in a low voice, watching a couple of light yellow and brown four legged Pokémon examine them curiously from a distance, but not with hostility.
« Most Pokémon near Mesagoza, like those Fidough, are used to seeing people and are pretty docile to begin with. » Clavell explained, pushing up his glasses.
It still was so strange to her, that you could just... walk up to one completely unharmed. Right at that moment, one of the "Fidough" ran near them and barked, wagging their stubby tail while looking intently at Clavell. Sada tensed up again, and Turo slowly moved a couple of steps behind her, both hands in the pockets of the large brown jacket he was wearing, watching the situation with the same curiosity.
« Is this new for you too?» She whispered in her language, a bit surprised. Turo simply nodded.
Clavell, on the other hand, looked completely unfazed. He observed the Fidough closely, before grasping one of the Poké Balls on his belt.
« You want a match?» He asked, and the Pokémon barked again. He threw the Poké Ball, and a sleek black beast with a pair of magnificently curved horns came out of it. Sada gasped; it looked quite similar to some of the creatures in her time, but with much less white bones all around its chest. The howl it released was quite haunting, but it didn't move an inch after appearing. It fascinated her: as scary as it looked, it really was obeying Clavell's commands!
« Use Ember... but don't overdo it.»
The Pokémon opened its maw and released a stream of fire against their opponent, and Sada had to gasp again when the little Fidough was completely engulfed in it. She expected it to cry out in pain and run away, but instead, the Pokémon braced its legs and stood its ground, growling.
After a moment, it started to shine, and Sada recognized it as the Pokémon evolving, like they often did. Its skin grew red and brown, and a pleasant smell started emanating from it. After it was finished transforming, the Pokémon barked happily and ran away, Clavell's Pokémon barking after it before going back to its trainer for some praise.
« Wait, you... let it go away after just that?» Turo asked by his side, sounding surprised. Clavell nodded, before starting to explain.
« That Fidough looked ready to evolve. You can tell from their skin; wild Fidough that want to grow stronger look for matches against fire-type Pokémon or bask in the sun, training to sustain higher and higher heat. This makes their usually moist skin dry up and harden, until they evolve into Dachsbun and become completely immune to fire attacks. I wonder if this Fidough-er, Dachsbun now, learned to recognize trainers that have a fire type by smell and approached me for that reason. I decided to help give him that final push.»
Sada didn't understand the explanation completely - too long and filled with overly specific words-, but she understood that Clavell had done it to help the wild Pokémon evolve, even if it would give him absolutely nothing in return.
That was so... strange. And beautiful, in a sense. Helping a wild creature for no gain... there was a strange mutual respect going on between Pokémon and humans in this time, even if they didn't live together.
And Clavell had done it all after a single glance to the Pokémon! Turo looked similarly surprised.
«... Impressive.» He muttered.
If studying at the Academy would make her able to do this... well, it would be amazing and she would love it, but... then what? It wasn't like she could go back to her tribe and actually make use of that information, she thought with a little twinge of sadness in her chest.
... no use thinking about that now.
She forced a smile back on her face and clapped a couple of times.
« That was amazing! » Sada said. « So that Pokémon was "Fidough" before transforming and "Dachsbun" after... what is the name of this one?» She asked pointing to Clavell's Pokémon, before realizing that not knowing the names of Pokémon was probably quite weird. She threw a little glance at the older man, but for once, he wasn't looking at her strangely.
« ... ah, of course. Kalosian has different names for Pokémon, right? Some students from Kalos also have trouble at first. This one is called "Houndoom"... it should be "Demolosse" in Kalosian, if I remember correctly.» He answered after a moment.
... well, it looked like her excuse of being from Kalos was turning out to be useful in more ways than one.
So this one was "Houndoom"... she still didn't quite like or understood the rules for giving Pokémon their names (her method still sounded much more useful), but she had to absolutely learn them all. After all, how many could there even be?
They resumed their walk, Sada pointing out different Pokémon to Clavell, who recited their names and usually some little bit of info about them. He seemed to know so much about them; what they ate, their behavior, if and how they evolved... it was incredible. Turo was mostly silent, following them a bit behind, trying to not slow them down too much.
« What Pokémon is that?» She asked after a while, pointing to another small, four legged beast. It had brown and cream colored fur with a more orange tuft of fur on its head, and was prowling carefully in the tall grass, eyeing what looked like a couple of white rats as it shuffled towards them.
« That's a Litleo. Strange...» Clavell commented, looking intrigued. « They usually live east of here... since she's alone, I guess this one must have just left her pride.» He added.
« Pride?» She didn't recognize the word. She watched the "Litleo" stalk closer to her - evidently a female, Clavell must have been able to tell somehow- prey. She wasn't doing a really good job of it: her footsteps were completely silent, but in her eagerness, her tail was twitching behind her, and she was moving her ears a bit too much, instead of trying to keep them as flat on her head as possible. With all those unnecessary movements, she would just attract the attention of her prey and scare it away.
And that was exactly what happened a moment later, the couple of rodents scurrying off and the Litleo pouncing out of the grass to try and chase them down.
« Their family. Litleo live in big groups, raised by their whole family. They hunt and live together, raising their young. Once they grow big enough, they are left on their own and leave to find other Litleo or Pyroar - their evolution- to establish another "pride".» Clavell explained.
The Litleo was pawing at the hole in the ground where the two white rodents had disappeared. She let out a surprised yowl when suddenly a dozen or so of the same creature burst out of their den, all attacking her at once. The Pokémon breathed fire exactly once, then decided to retreat, running off in their direction. She watched the Pokémon run past them and hastily climb a tree, looking around with scared, wide eyes.
... something in the whole scene struck a chord in her; she felt a weird sense of affinity with the creature. A little huntress left all alone, away from her family... she found herself moving a couple of steps towards the Pokémon. The Litleo hissed and tried to breathe fire down at her, but was evidently out of breath, managing only a little puff of smoke. Her chest rose and fell with quick, panicked breaths.
« You were very brave.» She said to the Pokémon, sitting at the base of the tree. From her bag, she took out a little "snack" they had brought with them to eat on the road, something called a "sandwich" that had what looked like strips of smoked and dried meat in it. She offered the meat to the Pokémon, like she had done with those eggs and Winged King months ago. The Litleo looked at it with some suspicion, but started to slowly climb back down to approach it- and by extension, her.
It... it was fine, wasn't it? She wasn't betraying Winged King by showing kindness to another Pokémon, a little one that was scared and alone just like she was.
And, as much as it pained her to think about it... Winged King was gone. She hoped that it had kept living with her tribe... or maybe found someone else to steal food from, who knows.
The Litleo sniffed at the meat, then bit down on one piece. A couple of seconds later, it sat down and started chewing, holding one part of it with her front paws, now watching her curiously. Behind her, Sada was vaguely aware that Clavell and Turo were whispering something between themselves, but she paid it no mind.
« You know... I'm also all alone here.» She added. Could the Pokémon really understand her?
« We could... stay together. I can teach you how to hunt better.» She smiled.
She heard Clavell approach and hastily push something in her hand. Sada looked down at it. A Poké Ball, one of the red ones.
With this... the Litleo would be considered her Pokémon. She could enroll in the Academy if she wanted.
But most importantly... she would have her by her side, forever.
... was she ready for it? Sada looked at the Litleo.
... Winged King would have grumbled because he would have to share his food with someone else, but then probably grow fond of her, she thought with a little smile. She could picture him sleeping curled up all around the Litleo, keeping her warm.
That convinced her.
She showed the Poké Ball to the Litleo. Did she even know what it was? It looked like she did. She had probably seen humans use them against other wild Pokémon ... maybe even other members of her pride. The Pokémon sat staring at the Ball for a while, then looked up at her. A low purring sound came out from her throat, and she slowly approached Sada to sniff her hands.
Then, she touched the Poké Ball with one paw, disappearing inside it. Just like Turo's Master Ball had done, it shook once, twice, three times, and then went still.
Sada slowly picked the Poké Ball back up, surprised at actually feeling a certain weight in it now that it wasn't empty anymore.
Maybe it was just her imagination, but it felt warm in her hand.
« Congratulations. She will be a wonderful companion. » Clavell said from behind her, and she simply nodded, not quite sure what to say. She heard movement as Turo sat down beside her and squeezed her shoulder.
« I'm sure Winged King would have loved her. She suits you. Well done. » He whispered in her language, and she felt a couple of tears roll down her face as she simply nodded again, holding the Poké Ball to her chest.
---
The fact that Sada had actually decided to keep another Pokémon with her had surprised him a little bit. He understood why she had done it: she wanted to train Pokémon, to study them... and so did he, truth to be told. He still couldn't quite picture himself with any other Pokémon except Miraidon by his side... but Mirai was gone. Or... didn't even exist yet, to be exact.
It was strange to think about. All those years they had shared together... all the times they went riding, all the times Mirai had jumped on his bed when he was a little kid, the first time it had shifted to his battle form, that time it had somehow ordered pizza.. were now only memories that existed only in his head.
It hurt.
Turo sighed and turned his attention back to Jacq's laptop; the guy had ran up to him during his break begging him to take a look at some other weird error that had popped up, and now he was sitting in the mostly empty mess hall, scrolling through the code.
« Hey look. It's your friend.» Jacq chuckled from beside him, elbowing him slightly before nodding towards the window, this time closed.
Turo turned to look: the Murkrow from a couple of days ago was sitting on the windowsill, staring straight at him and occasionally pecking the glass. It looked like it was holding something in its beak.
Turo grumbled unhappily: those birds pretty much circled the Academy as soon as the sun went down, looking for shiny objects to steal from students and teachers alike. They were a menace. What did it want?
He got up and approached the window, glaring at the Murkrow. Yeah, it was definitely the same Murkrow from the other day: he could recognize the weirdly shaped feathers on his head.
« No luck getting inside today, uh?» He taunted the little bird, and it cawed, pecking the glass again and dropping what he was holding.
It was a coin, a different one from the one Turo had thrown to get him to leave. Turo blinked, leaning forward to look closer, and the bird impatiently pecked the glass again.
« Nice try, but I'm not letting you inside.»
More cawing sounds.
Turo stared at the little Pokémon; he was most definitely sure it was just trying to trick him again, but the Pokémon seemed quite intent on showing him the coin. If it wanted to steal something, why bring a coin...?
Turo opened the window the slightest bit, not enough to let the Murkrow slip in, and the Pokémon threw the coin at his feet, flapping his wings.
« Wait... you want to give this to me?» He wondered, picking it up. It was a bit bigger than the one it had given him, and looked pretty new. Probably some change he had picked up from the street, dropped by who knows who.
« I've heard Murkrow bring gifts to people they like. He probably liked the coin you gave him and wanted to do the same for you.» Jacq spoke up behind him.
Turo grumbled, opening the window a little more. The Murkrow hopped inside and perched on his shoulder with more cawing sounds.
« Tsk, get off me!» Turo tried to wave the Pokémon away, but it squawked and with a flap of his wings, simply perched on his other shoulder.
Turo sighed. He... he had to admit it was kind of cute, in his own weird way, but...
The feathers felt incredibly smooth and soft against his neck as the Pokémon started to chew on his hair and earlobe, cawing.
Great. What was he supposed to do now? The little bastard was cute, and looked quite smart. He liked that in a Pokémon.
And... if he got him officially registered as his Pokémon, he could enroll in the Academy along with Sada. She hadn't done so already, probably feeling uncomfortable at the idea of being alone. But... this way they could do it together...
« ... ugh. Fine. Let's go buy a Poké Ball from the Poké Market for you and get you registered.» He grumbled, heading out into the corridor with the little bird perched on his shoulder.
---
« So... here are the forms you need to fill to officially become students. You both want to enroll in the scientific course?» Clavell asked.
« Yes.» Sada confirmed, eyes shining. All three of them were in Clavell's laboratory, discussing the details to get them registered together.
« All right... we can... work out something for all the necessary data... birthplace... age... name...?» Clavell raised his head from the stack of papers, looking straight at her. Sada hesitated, biting her lip.
She had thought about it, a lot. She had looked at books in the library, searching for inspiration, for something that fit. Something that she could think of as "her", even just a little.
« ... Alba. Alba Sada.» She said after a moment.
« That's a lovely name.» Clavell commented, writing it down.
« As for your first Pokémon... Litleo and Murkrow, right?»
« Correct.» Turo interjected, one hand brushing against the single Poké Ball clipped to his belt.
« Do they have nicknames? Just out of curiosity. You don't have to decide immediately. Some people don't give nicknames at all.»
« ... I assume "Sneaky bastard" breaks a school rule or two? » Turo asked, managing to get a smile from the other man.
« ... offensive names are not permitted. So... we can work on the rest after I'm done with today's lessons. Your trainer IDs will take a couple of days.
For now, this is the list of books and learning materials you're going to need, those are your dormitory rooms, and I suggest you go to this clothing store in Mesagoza to get measurements for your uniforms.» Clavell explained, pushing a little stack of papers over to them and hurrying out of the lab, his own books and a stack of graded papers under his arms.
The two of them were left sitting alone, stunned.
« ... measurements?» Sada asked, excited. She was going to see how they made the school clothes?! To make so many surely they used some amazing sewing technique!
« ... I had completely forgotten about those uniforms. Arceus. They may look okay on a kid, but... ugh. And wearing them is required, isn't it? » Turo grumbled.
Sada laughed trying to picture him in any of the various uniforms she had seen the students wear.
« I want to see you wear that hat!»
« That one isn't required, thank Arceus. I miss my suit. At least we can stop invading Clavell's house... let's go look at our dorm rooms. » He sighed, standing up. Even as he was acting all... well, "grumbly", she could see that he also was looking forward to it. He offered her his hand, and she took it, intertwining her fingers in his.
« So if we complete this "scientific" course here at the Academy... will people call us "Scientist Sada" and "Scientist Turo"?» She asked as they walked out of the laboratory.
Turo smiled a tiny bit.
« I don't think so. What people call you depends on what you actually end up doing... » He started to explain.
« So... maybe something like Clavell! "Professor Sada" and "Professor Turo"! »
« ... no way that's going to happen.»
I thought a lot about what Pokemon Sada and Turo would end up with as their "starters"<br />
My first thought was present counterparts of some paradox pokemon of their time, but then I changed my mind. They were too "advanced" as their first Pokemon in a sense. (Not to mention that with all his current aaaaangst Turo would have sent that poor Ralts running away crying)
I wanted two Pokemon that could be found near Mesagoza and they could reasonably encounter in their daily life, and that they would somehow resonate a bit with and decide to adopt more than actively go look for them and catch them.
They are both still mourning the loss of Koraidon and Miraidon in a sense, so I needed two Pokemon that they both had nothing to do with, as a fresh start.
« ... I think that, umm.. "u-ni-form" looked good on you.»
Sada had been trying to cheer him up since they had stepped out of that clothing shop to get their measurements done. Turo simply grumbled in response; he wasn't looking forward to having to wear any of the different combinations of clothing the Academy offered. They all looked uncomfortable, and just the idea of wearing those shorts ... No. Impossible. Even stranger had been seeing Sada try them on. It was still surreal, seeing her dressed with 21th century clothes. Not as surreal as seeing her with the orange bodysuit of his time had been, but... she looked so... normal.
Just... here, with him. It still filled him with a strange mix of incredulity, desperation and wonder.
After exiting the shop, they had decided to simply spend some time walking through Mesagoza. Which, he had never quite realized, had so many stairs when you had to actually climb them all with no convenient teleporter in sight.
« L-let's rest a moment...» He was forced to pant at the third flight of stairs they had walked up, sitting down on a bench in a little plaza. Sada didn't say anything, simply following in lowering herself on the bench by his side.
« S-sorry... I always slow you down...» He said after a moment, hanging his head with some guilt.
Sada didn't say anything in response, simply holding his hand. He appreciated it, how she always waited patiently for him no matter how slow he moved compared to her. Little by little, he felt his heart rate settle down along with his breath as Sada drew little circles on his hand with her thumb.
« This will be fun... we will learn so many things together!» She said right as he was ready to resume walking, looking up to the sky. « Or... you already know them?» She tilted her head with a questioning look, suddenly worried. Turo smiled.
« Some of them... but I will have to learn them again. To make sure... I don't say anything strange.»
Sada nodded, determined.
« Me too. The children at the library are teaching me a lot of things... they always talk about "homework" and "tests"... I wonder if I can do those...» She wondered out loud, getting a laugh out of him. That was so like her.
« You fought wild Pokémon with a spear! A test is just questions about stuff! You will be fine.» He chuckled, taking one last big breath before getting back up again.
« There's also "tests" about Pokémon fighting... how good you are at commanding them... right? » Her eyes were practically shining as she said it, even as her mouth twisted in just a little sad smile. She touched the Poké Ball clipped to her belt, and Turo found himself doing the same. They were probably thinking about the same thing. They both let their Pokémon out at the same time, watching the Litleo and Murkrow appear in identical flashes of light.
The Murkrow hopped on his shoulder, not looking surprised in the least about where he was; definitely a city boy... "just like me", Turo thought with an amused smile as he scratched the bird's neck.
Also lazy, since he didn't look at all like he wanted to actually, you know, fly around... "just like me", he mentally added again.
The Litleo, meanwhile, was looking around with wide eyes. Probably her first time in a city... just another thing she had in common with her trainer.
« I still have to give her a name... I was thinking of... Little Huntress.» Sada commented as they resumed walking. The Litleo meowed, apparently already having learned her name, and Sada smiled.
« Yeah, um... it would sound strange, I'm afraid. You can't give names like you did to Pokémon in your language. Most people go for... short names. Cute names. And-» He added in a haste, as Sada was already puffing her cheeks out in annoyance.
« She's not going to stay "little". When she evolves, she will grow a lot.»
Sada grumbled, looking back down at "Little Huntress".
« ... I'm only thinking about names these days... what will you call him, then?» She asked, pointing to the Pokémon on his shoulder. Turo shrugged - which made the Pokémon squawk in annoyance-.
« Don't know. A simple name. Something like... Carlos-» a rather pointy beak playfully pecked at his earlobe.
« ... all right. Not Carlos...» He tried a couple of other names, but with more cawing noises, the Murkrow seemed to refuse them all. This was going to take a while...
« What is that?» Sada pointed to a little cart on the side of the road, distracting him. When he saw what had caught her attention, he couldn't help but smile.
« That's called cotton candy. It's sweet.» He said, and her eyes just grew wider.
« "Cotton"? Like the plant you make clothes of? You eat that?! I want to try!»
Her enthusiasm was endearing, but the price tag for one stick of candy made him frown.
Enrolling in the Academy was not free, and all the costs of registering and supplies were going to make a big dent in their first paychecks. Trainer equipment like Poké Ball and Potions they were going to need also weren't exactly cheap.
He took out his wallet, an old thing he had gotten from Clavell, and stared at the meager pile of bills and coins inside.
Just a little while ago, he would have happily spent all his money to have Sada try all the food she wanted in the single day he had had to enjoy with her.
Now he had all the time in the world with her, and they had to worry about every cent they spent. But if he couldn't even enjoy little moments like these with her by his side now...
He walked up to the vendor with a little smile.
« One please.»
When was the last time he had even had cotton candy? Ages ago. Sada watched the little machine start whirring and create the fluffy treat with the wide eyes of a child, taking it with an enormous smile.
« It's so sweet!» She gasped after the first bite, before shoving it towards him.
« You have to try it!»
No sooner had he taken an hesitant bite out of it that he heard Sada's vibrant laughter fill the air.
« It's stuck to your beard! »
... yeah, that was probably why he hadn't eaten it in ages. He started to pick out pieces of cotton candy stuck to his chin as Sada kept laughing.
... worth it.
---
The classroom was buzzing with activity and excited whispers. Sada could barely contain her excitement as she waited for the teacher of her first lesson at the Academy to walk in. At her side,Turo was sitting down leaning against the back of the chair, fidgeting every two seconds with his uniform. He had opted for the "spring" uniform in the end, finding the winter uniform "too damn hot" and absolutely refusing to wear the hat or shorts. With his choice he still had to wear the little "suspenders", and those seemed to be the cause of his suffering the most out of anything at the moment. Sada didn't mind the clothes they had to wear, she quite liked not having to wear layers over layers of heavy pelts and fur for once.
« I won't last ten minutes with these, never mind hours...» He murmured, and she chuckled softly, caressing his hand before quickly drawing it back. The class went silent as the teacher walked in.
« Good morning. I'm Rodrigo Crayne and will be your history teacher for this year.»
Sada listened with rapt attention as the teacher listed everything they would learn; it reminded her of when Narjik would tell stories of her tribe around the campfire, but... there was so much more! She had already started to slowly read the book they had to buy, and... there were drawings, and pictures (which were not the same thing, she had discovered), and numbers to tell what year it was... so, so many things to learn... and this was only one subject! Then Clavell would teach them about Pokémon's "biology" and "types", and "science", and there was "math"... but for now, she wanted to focus on this history class. It was incredible to her, that people in this time knew how things were so long ago, how people lived before them... especially because they couldn't even jump through time like Turo did, to see for themselves... how did they do it?
« Are we going to reach the age of the Paldean Empire this semester? »
One young woman that was sitting to her left, near the window, suddenly raised her hand to ask a question. She had wild dark purple hair and striking eyes only partially hidden behind a pair of thick glasses, and looked more or less her age. Sada watched her curiously. What was an empire...? Or a semester, for that matter? Did she know some things already?
« Yes we will, we will probably also do some field trips in a couple of castles from that era, if you are interested. But first, we'll have to start from the very beginning... open your books on page 10.»
Sada threw a little glance back to the woman, studying her. She looked interesting... she wanted to talk to her as soon as the lesson was over. By her side, Turo opened up the book in front of his face to hide a yawn.
« I already know this stuff... if I fall asleep wake me up if there's something interesting.» He mumbled, hiding behind the cover as he put his head on the desk.
But... but everything sounded interesting!
His little nap lasted barely ten minutes before Sada poked him awake in excitement.
« Turo!! Fossils!! There's creatures inside rocks?!»
---
Honestly, Turo was having more fun watching Sada follow the lesson than actually doing it himself. He wouldn't mind a refresher, but he knew what was coming for the first part of the course at least: how the planet was formed, how Pokémon appeared, debates about Mew actually being the ancestor of all Pokémon, first life forms included, or just of modern Pokémon from a certain point in time, and all that stuff. All stuff he had already done in school already. But watching Sada listen to it all with wide eyes and mouth open was like rediscovering the wonder of it all himself, in a way. She was furiously taking notes, and sometimes would whisper little comments in her language.
« There really were no people?? Only Pokémon? » She whispered to him excitedly, and he nodded with a tiny smile. The idea that there had been something even before her tribe was evidently mindblowing to her.
This was going to be fun.
---
« Um, hi... » Sada approached the woman at the end of the class as they were walking to the next lesson.
« You looked really... interested in class. Do you like history...?» She didn't quite want to ask what the Paldean Empire was in case it was something obvious that everyone was supposed to know; she would look it up by herself later.
« Oh... I know about you. I've seen you in the library. You're the exchange student from Kalos.»
Sada blinked, surprised. People had noticed her?
« You also looked pretty interested... so you like prehistory? Fossils are interesting, but the fact that you can never be sure of how things were at the time is a bit... frustrating. It would be amazing to just have a time machine to go see for yourself-» the woman was saying.
A loud snort made her stop and turn around, and Sada did the same, already recognizing who the one responsible for it had been.
Turo was walking right behind them, his bag full of books for the next lesson thrown over one shoulder and suspenders left hanging at his waist, trying to suppress a grin.
« What's so funny?» the purple-haired woman huffed, to which Turo simply shrugged.
« ... nothing. Just happened to hear what you were saying. It would be nice.» He commented, shaking his head and walking away with a wry smile.
Sada sighed, while the woman looked pretty peeved at having been laughed at, at least from her point of view.
« What's his problem? »
« Nothing, Turo is just... a bit weird... but he is nice, usually.»
« So you know him? Ugh... ah, where are my manners? Name's Raifort, by the way.» The woman offered her hand to shake, and Sada took it after a moment, recognizing the gesture after having seen it a number of times at the Academy and in "movies" on tv. What a weird custom.
« Alba... Alba Sada.» It was still strange using the other name to call herself, but she was slowly growing used to it. Slowly. Every time she repeated it, it sounded... not really natural, it never would, but... more believable, in a sense.
« And.. yes, I... I live here with him...» Raifort frowned at her words, muttering something under her breath that she didn't understand.
« Figures... ah, whatever. Do you want to have lunch together, after the next lesson?»
---
The cafeteria was pretty crowded that day, and the lessons were going well. Sada seemed to already have found a friend, the history-loving girl who wished to have a time machine (ah! That had been hilarious to hear.. didn't they all), and would sometime spend time after class studying with her, in the library. Turo didn't mind, on the contrary: Sada was smart enough to know how to not act suspicious. She couldn't and shouldn't always stay with him; he had his own moments when Jacq would slap his laptop in front of him at lunch, barely avoiding crushing his plate, to discuss his project with a desperate "I need your help pleaseeee, nothing is working!".
He liked looking over the code with the guy, even until late at night; it was familiar, almost comforting, in a way, similarly to the math lessons. Finally being able to look at something that was exactly the same as his time had almost brought him to tears.
Numbers didn't change. Algebra was always algebra. The computers were excruciatingly slow and primitive, but they still worked on the same principles as the Hadron-quantic ones of his time. Writing code or losing himself through purely mechanical calculations felt like being home... at least a bit.
Right now, however, he was preoccupied with something different.
« All right, take this coin. Got that?» He waved one in front of Murkrow, who followed the shiny object with wide eyes, cawing sofly.
« ... krow.»
« You fly to the bar, all right...? And then you give the coin to the guy and say "Coffee".» He pointed the coin towards the counter.
Murkrow were pretty smart, and he knew that a lot of bird Pokémon were able to imitate an impressive number of sounds. The Pokémon actually followed his finger, clicking his beak and then pecking his hand softly.
« No! You can't have this coin. "Coffee"» He repeated.
« "Krow... "krowkee"...»
Turo wondered for a moment if the bird actually knew the name of some things already, simply because he heard people at the Academy speak them out loud every day.
« Good. You do that, you can keep the change. All right, go.»
He watched the Pokémon take the coin and fly away with a chuckle.
« What are you doing? ... apart from trying to teach your Murkrow to order coffee, for some reason.»
Turo turned around at Clavell's voice coming from behind him, watching the older man approach his table. Clavell took one look at him and sighed. Turo cringed, already knowing what was coming next.
« I know you are an adult, but as one of your teachers I'm obliged to do it: ... wearing the suspenders like that doesn't respect school regulations.»
Turo reluctantly put the suspenders, who he had left hanging around his trousers as soon as he had stepped out of the classroom, back on, attaching them properly.
« I don't like them. I feel like I can't... breath or move properly. I miss my suit-» He muttered in a lower voice as Clavell sat down by his side.
« ... that scuba diving looking thing? ... You really are used to wearing that thing everyday?»
Turo said nothing in response, frowning at his mistake. Their old clothes, together with their meager belongings, had been moved inside their dormitory rooms and carefully hidden away.
« ... I was teaching words to Murkrow...» He answered, opting to ignore the other's comment and change subject completely. Clavell's eyes narrowed, but he didn't comment on it.
« Murkrow can actually learn to reproduce an impressive number of sounds, like Squawkabilly and Chatot. Even sounds that are mostly artificial, like machinery... and speaking of machinery, I've seen you speak with Jacq often. You like programming? »
Turo allowed himself to relax a bit; that felt like a safe argument to talk about, as long as it was about basic concepts...
« Yes, it's... a hobby...»
« Are you thinking of doing something related to it for the Treasure Hunt?» Clavell asked.
He had absolutely no idea. In his time, his own Treasure Hunt had been about researching new possible Artificial Pokémon, but what could he even do here...?
The only thing he could think of was... doing that, just for fun...
« Well, maybe... do you have a Por-»
« Turo!»
Sada's voice, almost a yell, resonated through the mostly empty room, followed a moment later by the woman herself sprinting inside.
She looked completely out of breath as she slid to a stop near them, eyes wide, holding something under her arm. Her eyes landed on Clavell for just a moment, and she seemed to hesitate, before sitting down in front of him.
« I was at the library... and I saw these... look!»
She pushed two thick books stacked on top of each other in front of him. Turo furrowed his eyebrows, looking down on the bright red cover that had been thrust in from of him.
« Oh... those... haven't seen them in quite a while, I didn't even know our school still had copies of those books...» He heard Clavell said right by his side, but all his attention had been captured by what was represented on the cover of the book. It was a simple picture, draw in the very center in stylized lines in black ink. It wouldn't have looked out of place on a coat of arms, or as the family crest of some old noble Paldean family. That's what had been his first thought the book was, until he actually recognized what the picture represented.
That was Winged King. No doubts about it. The feathered crest, the long tail, the webbed feet... he swallowed, reading the title of the book. "The Scarlet Book".
Before seeing it with his own eyes, as far as he knew there had been no records of there being a prehistoric ancestor to Cyclizar... maybe he had been wrong? Maybe people in the 21th century or even before had actually found fossil evidence of it, and the knowledge had simply been lost...?
Maybe they had thought they were something else? There was that whole story about people in the past mistaking old Mamoswine skeletons as the skull of some enormous giant or whatever...
« Those books were written almost 200 years ago.» Clavell spoke up, and Sada looked at him with wide eyes, almost trembling, as the man opened the "Scarlet Book" and turned a couple of pages.
« They supposedly document the first scientific expedition in modern history into Area Zero... they caused a lot of uproar when it came out, but people started questioning what was written in them... some things are probably based on real events, but all these tales about "monsters" and magical herbs and crystals in Area Zero... sounds more like he used his experience and myths around the Crater as basis for a nice fantasy tale to me.» He added, stopping shortly after the start of the first chapter.
Sada looked understandably agitated as she kept turning pages, stopping on what looked to be another drawing.
« But... the Pokémon in this book... how...» She whispered, throwing a quick glance to Turo as she pointed to the image. Turo simply nodded, recognizing the figure of a Great Tusk.
Clavell was looking between the both of them, suddenly serious.
« ... you're not about to tell me you actually saw these Pokémon under there, do you?» He asked, lowering his voice to barely more than a whisper.
Sada was chewing at her lip, her eyes flitting everywhere around the page as she tried to read everything at once. She just shook her head in response.
« We didn't... go all the way down... they could be there...» Turo slowly offered.
It was... statistically improbable, but not impossible, for Pokémon of long ago to still be alive as they were. If the Crater had acted as a closed environment, completely separating them from the rest of the world for thousands or even million of years... hadn't it happened with at least another Pokémon? Relicanth, or something similar? Pretty much unchanged for ages?
But Sada looked way too agitated for it to be just that: surely she didn't think... he sighed, raising one hand to squeeze her shoulder.
« Sada... even if there's Winged King under there... it wouldn't be yours...» He tried to gently remind her in her language. Sada looked back up, face white as a sheet.
« I-I know... but these creatures are just like the one I know... and the other book... »
The other book? He had assumed Sada had just grabbed two copies to have him read one, but when she lifted the Scarlet Book to look at it better, he saw that the second book underneath was actually different. A violet cover, with a sleek figure drawn in similarly stylized lines as the Scarlet Book, pointing to the right instead of the left, almost mirroring the other.
Nothing could have prepared him for what was drawn on the cover. He drew a strangled breath, suddenly feeling his chest ache.
Miraidon...
That was unmistakably a Miraidon. But that was...
Someone discovering a place where Pokémon long extinct everywhere else still survived to this day? Difficult but not completely impossible.
But Miraidon as a species wouldn't even exist for at least another good thousand years, at a minimum.
He tore the book open at a random point, his eyes frantically scanning the page up and down.
This made no sense. How had they never heard of these books?
« Impossible... this is impossible...»
Now he understood Sada's frantic nervousness. It wasn't about there being or not Pokémon of her time in Area Zero. She was thinking about how they could be pictured in these books... Because if Pokémon also from his time had been seen in the Crater, somehow...
« We need to go back to Area Zero.» He said, raising his head back up towards Clavell, who simply stuttered for a moment, speechless.
« ... What? What are you two talking about? I just dragged you out of there and you want to go back? You...» The man looked between him and Sada, and Turo realized he was gripping the Violet Book so tight that his fingers hurt.
« They are just fantasy books! Why the sudden interest? You...» His eyes went wide, and Clavell fell silent for a moment.
« ... You recognized the Pokémon on the cover.»
It wasn't a question, it was a statement, said in a dull voice as he still looked between the both of them. Sada, clutching the Scarlet Book to her chest; Turo figured that while he was simply holding it in one hand, he probably was unconsciously showing a similar expression to hers. Eyes wild, almost shaking from head to toe.
« You did, didn't you? » Clavell repeated. « You actually think these Pokémon exist?»
A heavy silence fell between the three of them.
« ... They exist. » Sada whispered, head held low as she looked at the book's cover, one finger brushing over Winged King's silhouette.
From an external point of view, it was probably silly. Two grown adults suddenly getting obsessed about pictures in some old books... But Clavell couldn't understand. He couldn't understand the implications behind the simple existence of these books.
If, somehow... there were Pokémon of other times in Area Zero... maybe that was why they had landed here of all places. Maybe that place... attracted things from other times.
Somehow.
And maybe there was a way for them to contact home- he immediately suppressed that thought.
He didn't even dare to hope.
It was too absurd to be a coincidence. A guy coming up with Pokémon that just happened to look exactly like Pokémon that had actually existed, and would exist in the future?
The author being some psychic prophet or whatever was a likelier explanation than it being a coincidence.
« We... We know they do. We just do. We need to go see.» Turo begged Clavell, who just shook his head.
« Impossible. I already got in too much trouble rescuing you two with a quick touch-down. You need at minimum the Paldean League's and Director Harrington's permission to enter the Crater officially-»
« The Paldean League...?»
Sada's tone made Clavell sigh as he adjusted his glasses, obviously growing more exasperated as the conversation went on.
« You... don't know what the League is. Of course. »
Turo tried to regain his composure, forcing himself to sit still and relax the iron grip he was still holding the Violet Book in.
« Clavell. What would we need to do to get permission to enter Area Zero...?» He asked, voice barely more than a whisper. Sada crept closer, leaning forward to listen, still holding the Scarlet Book close to her chest like she was clutching a lifeline. Clavell now looked completely lost and overwhelmed, shrinking back in his seat as both of them loomed over him.
« W-well, Area Zero is notoriously dangerous, so... other than an actually good reason... I imagine the League would like proof that you are strong enough to handle yourself under there...»
« I can-» Sada was interrupted by Clavell raising one hand.
« Not with a bow and arrow. With Pokémon to protect you. You would probably need to be Champion-ranked trainers at least -»
Champion ranked...? Turo listened with a strange sense of detachment to the older man's words. Now that was something straight out of the history books.
Challenging Gyms, the League... That was what countless VR games in his time had been based on, long after the actual League in most regions had become just a distant memory.
« If that is the case...» He said, looking back down to the cover of the Violet Book, stroking the silhouette of the Miraidon depicted on it with his thumb.
« ... I guess we'll just have to do it.»
For a moment, the only sound was Clavell's exasperated sigh.
« You are serious... » He said, removing his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. For some long moments, neither of them spoke. Sada looked ready to bolt outside and attempt to climb into the Crater herself. Honestly, Turo could understand her.
« Umm... I have an order for... one coffee for the guy with the Murkrow?»
All three of them looked to the guy at the bar that had spoken up, and was now looking confusedly around while Murkrow landed on the table in a flurry of little wingbeats.
« "Krowkee!"» He cawed proudly, clutching two little coins in his beak.
Uh... Oh, nice! The little bastard actually did it!
Turo chuckled and stroked the little flying type.
---
That same evening, as soon as lessons were done, they had toured every book store in Mesagoza to buy a copy of the Scarlet and Violet Books for themselves. They had been quite difficult to find; Turo had said that they were probably "out of print", but they had finally found two copies in a little place that sold all kinds of old books.
Now they were back at the Academy, both sitting on her bed in her dormitory room.
« They... They are the same book.» Sada commented as she cracked open the pages to the first chapter.
« Look.» She waited for Turo to do the same, and pointed to one sentence at random.
« "A photograph from...the survey team's point of in-ingress-"» She read aloud, only for Turo's voice to join hers, Violet Book held in his left hand.
« "-to the crater, which is visible in the background."... You're right.» He commented. He went back and forth between the two.
« ... Completely the same, word for word. Same author, same edition... same print year. » Sada watched as he dragged his free hand through his hair, leaving some short bangs sticking straight up. She wasn't sure what the edition or print year were, but she had compared even the little codes printed on the back, and they came out similarly identical.
« ... Why make two books the same, except for... the Pokémon? The story is the same... even some pictures.» She wondered, going back to the page with the Great Tusk drawing. Turo mirrored her movements, turning to the same page number on the Violet Book. The creature drawn inside had the same general shape of a Great Tusk, but like most things she had seen of Turo's time, had a smooth and compact appearance, covered in rigid plates.
« ... Iron Treads. I... I don't know what to think. Did this guy have visions of the future and decided to use them for his book? Why have I never heard of these books? »
At Turo's incredule comments, Sada closed the Scarlet Book again to look at the name of who had written it.
« ... It says "Heath" wrote this. Many years ago.» She said after a moment.
Turo sighed.
« Well, the guy is long dead. » A frustrated scowl crossed his face for just a moment. « If I still had... It would be so easy to just go there and ask him... But in that case we wouldn't even be in this situation, I guess...» He flopped backwards on her bed, the still opened Violet Book falling back on his face.
« ... We can try to look for his family. They must know something.» Sada offered. If he had children...
The Violet Book was lifted just enough for a single brown eye to peer up at her.
« ... His descendants? We can try...» He muttered.
Sada smiled, feeling excitement bubble up inside her. This... it had shocked her at first, but now... they had an objective. They had something to do: go back to Area Zero... And find out how these books had been written.
If it was true... if... if something from "home" was waiting for her at the bottom of Area Zero... she just had to see.
« These books... They will be our "Treasure Hunt"!» She offered, falling backwards and landing over Turo, prompting a little "oof" out of the man as she knocked the wind out of him.
His arms came up from behind to hug her waist, and she felt his short stubble tickle her neck as he leaned against her.
« If... if there really is a way to go back home there...» He said after a long moment, and she could feel the hesitation in the way his voice vibrated against her.
« Would... would you...» He didn't finish the sentence.
If each of them got back home in their respective times... they would be separated again.
Unless...
« ... Let's not worry about that now.» She said, turning around in his arms to face him directly.
« For now, let's just focus on getting there. » She cupped his face with both hands, stroking his cheek with one thumb.
« We don't know what is happening there. » She added, and Turo nodded silently, eyes closed as he leaned into her touch.
« ... Right. One thing at a time. Like in the crater. Together.» He whispered.
« Together.»
---
As he accompanied Sada and Turo through the road towards Los Platos on a little picnic to both relax and train their Pokémon a bit, Clavell kept carefully observing the two. Those reactions to the books had been... curious, together with their immediate desire to go back to Area Zero.
They had recognized the Pokémon on the covers, he was sure of it. They meant something to them.
Which was... strange, since those Pokémon mentioned in the Scarlet and Violet Books had never been found.
They looked similar to existing Pokémon, sure, but... both Turo and Sada had looked shocked at seeing the books.
Their surprise was genuine, he was sure of it. And they obviously didn't want him to overhear when they spoke about something, whispering to each other in a mix of Sada's strange dialect and Turo's foreign accent when pronouncing certain words.
He... had to admit it stung a bit, how they obviously didn't trust him to reveal what was going on. So he instead had decided to focus on their current, more immediate objective.
« You really want to challenge the Gyms?» He asked.
« Yes. I have looked at all the Gyms in Paldea. With my Litleo's "fire" type and Turo's Murkrow's "flying" type, we can easily challenge the Grass Gym or the Bug Gym. They are also both near here.» Sada answered. She had taken to the challenge with a readiness that was almost scary as soon as he had explained what a Gym challenge was.
« So it's a way for trainers to prove their abilities in combat. Good. » She had said, looking thoughtful.
Now, she was walking in front of both of them; Clavell couldn't help but notice that she was extremely silent. Every step was carefully measured to make as little noise as possible, and she would often half-crouch to examine tracks on the ground, or gather tufts of fur or scales left behind by wild Pokémon.
Her Pokémon, the Litleo she had caught, was walking by her side, carefully sniffing every time the woman paused to examine something.
« Kim. Look here. Tiny scales like these are left by bug Pokémon. Don't touch them, they will hurt! Do you understand?» She was saying to the little fire type right at that moment, pointing towards a pile of dead leaves on the ground covered by a fine, sawdust like powder - maybe traces of a Stun Spore, or Poison Powder attack, left by some Pokémon, or what was typically left by the fine powder that usually covered their wings. The little Pokémon was listening with wide eyes - then again, Litleo always looked a little surprised -, ears twitching.
« They look like they have just been shed-» the woman's following words took Clavell by surprise. She could tell?
He would have to ask her how... They definitely hadn't covered that in his biology lessons.
« So a bug Pokémon is nearby. A big one. » She got back up, pointing away from the road and towards a little thicket, where the trees grew closer. Her Litleo faithfully followed her, half disappearing through the tall grass.
« ... She knows a lot about wild Pokémon tracks.» Clavell turned to Turo, who had been slowly shuffling after them. The man seemed more than content to simply let his Pokémon fly around, picking fights with wild Scatterbug and the like and just letting him do his own thing. Clavell didn't think he had heard him call out a single attack yet.
« Um? Oh, yes... She's got a lot of... Practice.» Turo answered after a moment, obviously distracted. Clavell glared at the younger man. He had given up trying to extract information out of them by now, but sometimes he had the distinct impression that they were toying with him.
« ... Practice. Tracking Pokémon alone. In Kalos, I suppose.» He added.
Turo simply blinked, calmly putting both hands into the pockets of the dark winter parka he was wearing.
« Right!» He said with a hint of a smirk.
They got interrupted by Turo's Murkrow landing on the man's right shoulder with a loud screech. Like most times when he came back, the flying type was holding something shiny in his beak that he spit in Turo's waiting hand.
« Miguel... I told you to not pick up trash from the ground...» Turo grumbled.
It had become a habit for the man to pretty much accept anything the Pokémon would find pretty -and shiny - enough to bring back to him, and he had been amassing a veritable collection of random junk from the moment they had left the Academy.
A moment later, Turo raised a single eyebrow.
« This... where did you find it?» He asked the Pokémon, who looked more busy preening his feathers to bother answering. Clavell approached Turo to look.
There, in his hand, were what looked like little shards of colored glass. They refracted the light in a multitude of colors, but most of it looked light green. He could see how it would have attracted the Murkrow's attention.
« Some of my students have reported finding these... crystal shards around Paldea.» Clavell commented, interested. It was the first time he saw them up close, and they definitely weren't simple glass shards like he had first thought.
« ... They have?» Turo looked even more puzzled at that, turning the little shards around in his hand. « We've seen this ... crystal.»
Something in Turo's tone made a chill run along Clavell's back. If he had said "we"...
« You mean... under there?»
Turo nodded, absentmindedly petting Murkrow as he slipped the crystals into his pocket.
« Yes... it was everywhere. The grass... over trees. The air felt... heavy, sometimes. Especially at night.» He frowned, like he was remembering something unpleasant.
« What do you mean... heavy? Toxic?» Clavell asked. It was the first time either of them mentioned any detail about how things had been in the Crater. Turo however shook his head.
« No. It didn't seem to do anything to us, but... it felt... "powerful".» He answered after a moment.
A tense silence fell between the two, neither of them quite willing to voice their concern out loud: if these crystals came from Area Zero... What were they doing here?
So... I have a couple of comments related to this chapter.
The paradox Pokémon are kind of described as "supposedly" being these Pokémon from like millions of years in the past/future, or at least that's what their flavor text seems to imply (we kind of know what they actually are now)... to make them work in this AU and actually place them somewhere in a timeline, I obviously had to "resize" things a bit, putting them "just" a couple of millennia in the past/future to make it possible for Turo and Sada to know them.
This ironically makes fossil Pokémon, the actual Pokémon from millions of years in the past, more "past paradoxes" to Sada than the actual past paradoxes.
I just find this funny.
Another thing: will I show them challenging the Gyms?
Nope.
Mostly because I would have to come up with a dozen new characters between the Gym Leaders and the Elite 4 because I don't think most of them already had their roles at this point in time , a good 15+ years before the moment the games are set, or if they were even the same type of Gym. We know that Tyme was the Gym Leader before Ryme, and she had a Rock type team instead of Ghost. It's also simply not what this story is about. I will probably show little scenes of them training, discussing strategies, allude to their progress here and there, but there's not going to be entire scenes of them having "classic" Pokémon battles.
After all, this is the story of how they became Professor Sada and Turo; they have their own "story path" to follow in order to do that.
The fun parallels continue! I will never get tired of seeing the way these two explore this new world that is totally foreign to them in utterly polar opposite ways. It’s such a unique and genius concept, I can’t get enough of it!
In Area Zero, and really most of his life lately, Turo had solved the problem of not being able to fall asleep by simply exhausting himself until he collapsed.
Lol, ah yes, how very healthy of you, Turo. Perhaps with things not being quite so automated and instant in this time, Turo will be forced to adopt a better sleep schedule.
he knew perfectly well what it was, and it pained him just to think about... the familiar, reassuring form of Miraidon sleeping right next to him, his long tail curled up around his body.
Oh. :( ugh, this hurts so much to think about. I mean, it’s sad for Sada to have lost Winged King, too, but those two had only been a pair for a short time. Turo and Miraidon, though…they literally grew up together and have been companions their whole lives. That absence has got to leave such a painfully hollow, empty space.
Oh man, it really wasn’t that long ago that screen brightness became a thing, huh? Even now, I remember all the bright screens (especially TVs) and cringe. They were SO bright!!
Huh, I’m not sure why, either. If it was mentioned off-handedly earlier, then I must have missed it. I’m sure we’ll learn soon what’s so significant about this time, though! 👀
He also seemed to have a weird tic with his arm, because Clavell had noticed him make little gestures with his left hand, just to look crestfallen immediately after.
Lol at “weird tic”, but also kind of sad that he keeps getting repeatedly slapped in the face with the reality of his situation. And yeah, if you’ve lived your whole life so entirely dependent on technology, there will be lots of habits that will be hard to unlearn!
Hanging from his neck she had seen a glimpse of the necklace made from Winged King's feathers she had given him, and it had made her happy as she looked at the bracelet she had received from him just before they had ended up here.
At least... they still had something from each other's time that they could still wear.
Aw, this was very sweet. At least they have something, and the best part is that these are things they gave to each other. 💛 though I can’t help but think Turo’s necklace is still gonna stand out, lol
He couldn't help but admire her strength.
Maybe it was because for her, everything was new and exciting, so it was easier to genuinely get lost in it all. To him, it was frustrating.
Man, yeah, I don’t blame him. For Sada, every new thing is a luxury; something she’d never have been able to enjoy in her time. For Turo, everything is a major inconvenience. It would be like if we in our time went back to…the 1920s. Sooo many modern comforts that we don’t even think about and take for granted that we wouldn’t have then!
The famed Mesagoza staircases, in all its 150 plus steps glory.
He had climbed it just a couple of times in his life, before giving up on it and using a teleporter ever since.
Except that there weren't any around now.
Would "He's not great at moving around" sound strange? She also didn't want to put him down, because it wasn't his fault. In his time, people didn't seem to walk around much from the little she had seen; they didn't need to.
Cackling at how she tried her best to sound normal and still ended up making him sound absurd. 😂 It’s okay Sada, you tried. She even tried to avoid unintentionally roasting him! Lol
They were all watching, scrutinizing, waiting to see when they would do something weird. Right at that moment, Sada gagged and stuck her tongue out as she tried the coffee he had poured for her.
The timing of this—Sada gagging on coffee immediately after Turo worried about them doing something weird—is hilarious. Way to accentuate the point, girl 😂
Clavell looked at them both for a moment as Sada's eyes lit up and she dumped the entire content of the packet into her mug, eyes flitting between the two men.
Something about Sada having her First Experience With Coffee in the background while Turo and Clavell talk about serious matters is absolutely sending me into orbit here. 😂
Dirty dishes? He just slid them in the sink and they automatically got cleaned, before getting teleported back to their place in the cupboard, ready to be used again.
Honestly, that can’t be healthy to be unused to any manual labor to the degree Turo is. Even just walking around gets him winded, which is pretty alarming, especially since he’s young! Makes me wonder if the general public are all as unhealthy as he is in his time, or if Turo was even more reliant on technology than most people.
the laptop was a ridiculously large thing, at least from his perspective, but it was probably the best they could do at the time... it still even had a CD tray.
Ohhh OMG IT’S JACQ :D HI JACQ! Wasn’t expecting to see him pop up so soon, but I am not complaining at all! I love him, and I’m so on board with these two becoming friends.
« Hey! Let that go!» Turo tried to scare the Pokémon into dropping it, but it seemed way too used to doing it, because it simply flapped his wings and let out a little "caw" sound.
And there were Pokémon. Her right hand went to her shoulder, grasping for a weapon that wasn't there out of instinct; Clavell hadn't let her bring her bow, "unless you use it to shoot a Pokéball instead of arrows".
« That Fidough looked ready to evolve. You can tell from their skin; wild Fidough that want to grow stronger look for matches against fire-type Pokémon or bask in the sun, training to sustain higher and higher heat. This makes their usually moist skin dry up and harden, until they evolve into Dachsbun and become completely immune to fire attacks. I wonder if this Fidough-er, Dachsbun now, learned to recognize trainers that have a fire type by smell and approached me for that reason. I decided to help give him that final push.»
Aaah! I love it so much! THIS is classic Pokémon right here, just humans and Pokémon helping each other out for no reason other than that’s simply how things are done. It’s one of the things I love most about the franchise!
That was so... strange. And beautiful, in a sense. Helping a wild creature for no gain... there was a strange mutual respect going on between Pokémon and humans in this time, even if they didn't live together.
Yes!! Sada’s people are only just beginning to discover this, but Turo…his people have lost this, somehow. There are still Pokémon, but they’re all man-made, it seems? Are there any wild Pokémon left in his time? It makes me sad. :(
she still didn't quite like or understood the rules for giving Pokémon their names (her method still sounded much more useful), but she had to absolutely learn them all. After all, how many could there even be?
« You were very brave.» She said to the Pokémon, sitting at the base of the tree. From her bag, she took out a little "snack" they had brought with them to eat on the road, something called a "sandwich" that had what looked like strips of smoked and dried meat in it. She offered the meat to the Pokémon, like she had done with those eggs and Winged King months ago. The Litleo looked at it with some suspicion, but started to slowly climb back down to approach it- and by extension, her.
... Winged King would have grumbled because he would have to share his food with someone else, but then probably grow fond of her, she thought with a little smile. She could picture him sleeping curled up all around the Litleo, keeping her warm.
« I'm sure Winged King would have loved her. She suits you. Well done. » He whispered in her language, and she felt a couple of tears roll down her face as she simply nodded again, holding the Poké Ball to her chest.
My heart. 💔 Listen, of course I want them to be reunited with their friends and family, but above all, if they don’t get to reunite with their Pokémon, I will RIOT.
« No luck getting inside today, uh?» He taunted the little bird, and it cawed, pecking the glass again and dropping what he was holding.
It was a coin, a different one from the one Turo had thrown to get him to leave. Turo blinked, leaning forward to look closer, and the bird impatiently pecked the glass again.
« I've heard Murkrow bring gifts to people they like. He probably liked the coin you gave him and wanted to do the same for you.» Jacq spoke up behind him.
« ... I had completely forgotten about those uniforms. Arceus. They may look okay on a kid, but... ugh. And wearing them is required, isn't it? » Turo grumbled.
Ahaha yeahhh that’s a mood. I didn’t hate the uniforms exactly, but I didn’t love them either. The spring one was the only one I even slightly liked. Oh, and all of the scarlet ones were atrocious. ORANGE?? Heck nah lol. It’s even more amusing to picture grown adults being forced to wear these uniforms.
Never say never, Turo 😂 You have no idea. Though, given than this is an AU, I have no idea either! Man I am so excited to see how this will all turn out 👀 (fingers crossed it doesn’t become a tragedy like in canon though…)
Sada had been trying to cheer him up since they had stepped out of that clothing shop to get their measurements done. Turo simply grumbled in response; he wasn't looking forward to having to wear any of the different combinations of clothing the Academy offered
Don’t worry Turo, you’ll get used to it! And you’ll probably be healthier than you’ve ever been in your life, lol. Plus maybe all the exercise will help you sleep better 😂
Sada didn't say anything in response, simply holding his hand. He appreciated it, how she always waited patiently for him no matter how slow he moved compared to her.
I love how they are so patient and understanding of each other’s quirks or shortcomings. Heck, even when they were starting to get to know each other, Sada was never annoyed with Turo’s slow pace, only concerned.
Love seeing these wholesome slice of life interactions! Even as they’re in an entirely new world with so much to worry about and figure out, they’re still precious. 💛
« Are we going to reach the age of the Paldean Empire this semester? »
One young woman that was sitting to her left, near the window, suddenly raised her hand to ask a question. She had wild dark purple hair and striking eyes only partially hidden behind a pair of thick glasses, and looked more or less her age.
Oh! Well hello, Raifort, didn’t expect to see you here! I shoulda figured, with it being history class and all.
I’m interested in seeing how you characterize her! To be honest, I didn’t like her very much in the games—some of her dialogue rubbed me the wrong way, and her fixation on the Ruinous Quartet was mad sus to me. 😂
Also, I’m wondering how exactly class assignments are supposed to work here. It makes sense for Turo to be in a class with others his age, but Sada is still learning to read and write—can she keep up with others who have had a formal education for decades by this point?
It was a simple picture, draw in the very center in stylized lines in black ink. It wouldn't have looked out of place on a coat of arms, or as the family crest of some old noble Paldean family. That's what had been his first thought the book was, until he actually recognized what the picture represented.
That was Winged King. No doubts about it. The feathered crest, the long tail, the webbed feet... he swallowed, reading the title of the book. "The Scarlet Book".
Oh. Ohhhhh. The books! 👀 Man, it’s gonna be so fascinating to see how these all tied together. How did Heath know about these things, unless Sada and Turo got involved with him somehow? Lots of implications here.
Challenging Gyms, the League... That was what countless VR games in his time had been based on, long after the actual League in most regions had become just a distant memory.
Ohhh Ms. Briar! I can’t wait for them to meet her. She’s a fascinating character and I quite like her, despite the fact that she’s way too obsessive and reckless…but then again, so were canon Sada and Turo, to some extent. SV has no shortage of obsessive scientists, do they? 😅
Every step was carefully measured to make as little noise as possible, and she would often half-crouch to examine tracks on the ground, or gather tufts of fur or scales left behind by wild Pokémon.
A tense silence fell between the two, neither of them quite willing to voice their concern out loud: if these crystals came from Area Zero... What were they doing here?
Wow there are so many mysteries being introduced this chapter, and I am HERE for it. Terastalization and shards never are explained much in canon, aren’t they? Like we know they’re connected to Area Zero, but we don’t ever get much explanation for why it happens outside of the Crater. And it’s verrry interesting that this stuff is a brand new phenomenon, despite the Crater always being there. Aaaa I can’t WAIT to see everything come together!!
Okay I have to admit, I was relieved to read this! While a badge quest/journey fic with these two would be fun…it just doesn’t seem like it would really fit with the story that’s being laid out here. It’s a side thing, a stepping stone to their actual goal, so it wouldn’t make much sense to spend a ton of time focusing on it.
Paleolithic Era, in the area that will be known as Kalos
The snow reached up past her knees as Chalo made her way through the forest. Every time that Turo visited, when he would leave in the evening, Sada would leave with him on the back of her red dragon. His tribe supposedly lived far away, south from here, but the guy had probably found some other place to spend the night. Why didn't he just move to the village permanently without all that back and forth, Chalo had no idea.
Sada's spear had been found quite some distance away from here. Now she had taken the weapon with her; she was forced to carry it by hand, since her bow was already slung over her shoulder together with her quiver and the rest of her supplies for the trip. Food, mostly dried meat and hard berries for Fluffyhead, roots, a couple of spare strings for her bow.
The spear sat heavily in her hand, but she had been determined to bring it with her: Spark Tails didn't exactly have a keen sense of smell from what she could tell and didn't have the instinct to track a scent, not being predators, but it was still better than hers for sure. Just having the creature sniff the weapon sometimes and watch his reaction was better than nothing. Maybe the spear could hold some other clue to where Sada had gone.
« If she really ran away to the south with Terg without saying anything, I'm going to kill her.» She whispered to Fluffyhead as they stopped for a break. She liked to talk to the creature; it definitely listened, even if it didn't really give any signs of understanding most of what she said that wasn't about food or orders to attack things.
« I mean... Usually when you find a mate in another tribe and leave, there's a big celebration! Members of the other tribe come to bring gifts! We decide what things we can trade! You can't just leave!» She grumbled as she started chewing on a root.
« I wanted to try new food... And berry juice, the strong stuff... And dance with some guys from Terg's tribe... As long as they're not all spindly looking like him.» Fluffyhead listened silently, looking more interested in digging up the snow with his front hooves looking for food. Chalo reached out and patted the creature on his head, stroking the portion of fluffy wool on his head.
« You're so lucky... Not having to worry about anything. » She sighed. Sada's spear was laying on the ground next to her, and the woman stared at it somberly for a moment.
A part of her couldn't help dreading finding out what happened. Sada would never lose her spear willingly... She must have been separated by it by force.
But what could have gotten her to abandon it and just... Disappear? Why not fly back on Winged King? The dragon had to be with her. What could even attack her when she was protected by that creature?
... She had the bad feeling something horrible had happened.
« ... Let's go. The spot where they found the spear should be around here.» She said, getting back up.
---
Sada was happy to see that despite her initial clumsiness, Kim was smart and quick to learn. She couldn't rely on just brute force like Winged King did; still small, there were many wild Pokémon that could still easily beat her. Sada had quickly realized that the Litleo learned by experience, and by watching someone else, so now she was walking in front of the fire type as she followed along. The tracks of the bug Pokémon kept going, but something about them seemed... Strange. Sada frowned as they passed more of the scattered powder, together with some translucent scales, and something else that caught her eye. She crouched lower to look at it better; she had thought it was just how the scales looked, almost like incredibly little shards of crystal, but together with the scales was something else that looked out of place: a couple of bright pink feathers, similarly encased in crystal.
Kim mewled at her side, rubbing her cheek against her leg before turning around. She followed the Pokémon's gaze, which fell on what was definitely the footprint of a large bird. Only one, though.
« That's not what we're after, Kim» Sada shook her head, only for the Litleo to meow again, and go back to sniff the footprint. Sada furrowed her eyebrows; the Pokémon's senses were obviously sharper than hers, so... Was she saying the bug scales and footprint had the same smell?
Could a Pokémon be both a bug type and a... Bird type?
Clavell's biology lessons had taught her the names of the various "types" people used to differentiate Pokémon. "Bird" wasn't really a true type, it was more of a... Group of Pokémon that all shared the same physical characteristics. A beak, wings, feathers. Like fish Pokémon or "felines" was used for all Pokémon that looked like Kim.
And while she knew from experience that Pokémon could be pretty much anything... Certain things didn't seem to mix. And a "bird" Pokémon that had both crystal scales like a bug and feathers struck her as one of those.
But Kim looked quite sure.
« All right. Let's go.»
She started following the fire type, watching the little tuft of red fur on the Litleo's tail appear and disappear among the vegetation.
When the Pokémon suddenly stopped, she knew she had found something. She crouched next to her, peering through the shrubbery.
It... It did look like a bird. A big one, with a very long neck, bright pink feathers, strong clawed feet but also... Its feathers looked strange, encased in crystals. They shimmered with a faint green glow, and some of them actually looked like they were made of tiny scales, like bug wings. It also had a couple of antennae growing from its head, which it seemed to be able to move freely.
So... Was it a bug or a bird? A... Bug-type bird Pokémon? It reminded her a bit of the Triple Runner she had faced with Turo some time ago.
She got out her new school notebook as silently as she could with the intention of writing down some details about this Pokémon and attempt to sketch it, but Kim suddenly jumping out in front of her with a challenging roar towards the wild Pokémon made her gasp out loud.
« Kim! No, come back!» She whispered.
Her hand was already halfway to her shoulder before she stopped herself with a frown. Why didn't Clavell allow her to bring her bow? She felt defenseless without it; was she really supposed to just... Stand around and watch Kim fight all alone? Giving her orders?
« K-Kim! Use your fire!»
If it really was a bug, it should be effective... The Litleo opened her mouth, breathing out a little ball of flame that shot towards the wild Pokémon. It reacted fast, jumping to the side with its strong legs... Only one leg, actually. But it definitely had two. Why only use one?
The wild Pokémon screeched, spreading its wings, before charging towards Kim. The Litleo braced herself, eyes fixed on her opponent as a furious growl resonated from her throat. When the bird attempted to kick her with its raised leg, she darted forward, passing under the wild Pokémon... Only to let out a cry of pain when the Pokémon quickly switched the leg it was standing on, kicking her with the other and sending the Litleo tumbling away.
Sada flinched, looking around. She couldn't do this! She couldn't just stand aside and do nothing.
« Hey!» She yelled to get the Pokémon's attention as she picked up a rock, throwing it. She aimed at the Pokémon's belly, aiming to just get it distracted as Kim got back on her feet. If nothing else, she could buy time... Clavell and Turo were hopefully behind her.
The rocked bounced off the Pokémon's crystallized skin, barely chipping it, but the bird still squawked in pain, shaking its antennae wildly.
Now that she thought about it... Both flying and bug type were weak to rock, were they?
« Kim! Hit its legs! The legs!» She yelled, throwing a second rock to point at the right spot. The Litleo growled, planting herself firm on the ground as she let out a roar; her fur seemed to fluff up, the Pokémon suddenly looking bigger and stronger before she charged her opponent. Crashing into the bird from behind, she headbutted it and sent it toppling down, more pieces of crystal shattering away from it.
« Yes! Good! Now use your fire again, quick!»
The bird started to furiously flap its wings as it lay splayed on the ground, trying to right itself up. Kim quickly ran away from its legs that were blindly kicking the air all around, opening her mouth to pelt it with quick fireballs. At each hit, more and more shards cracked away from its body. One fragment completely fell off from its right wing, and she saw that underneath its pink feathers actually looked completely normal.
It was almost like... Only the crystal all around was what made it look like a bug. But it had antennae, so... What was happening?
Kim closed her mouth and back off, panting heavily with the effort of breathing fire repeatedly.
« Well done. Now-» She got interrupted by the wild Pokémon managing to get back up on its feet and launch itself against the Litleo again. The little fire type shivered, trying to dodge the double kick that was coming her way-
« Miguel, Wing Attack!»
In a flurry of dark feathers Turo's Murkrow burst out from behind her, its two jet-black wings striking the Pokémon's long and twisty neck, stopping it midway from hitting the Litleo.
Sada turned around, watching as Clavell and Turo arrived running... Well, Clavell was running, to be more exact.
Turo was more or less shuffling after him and was now panting trying to catch his breath, hands on his knees. She immediately moved to his side, half covering him and ready to tackle him out of the way by instinct.
« What is going on with that Pokémon?» Clavell's surprised voice made her turn back towards the fight. The older man had released his Houndoom again, and the Pokémon was helping Kim by breathing a steady stream of fire towards the bird as the Murkrow flew in circles around it, pecking it on its head.
« What Pokémon is it? What's wrong with it?» She asked.
The older man looked amazed, and he pulled out what Sada had learned was a "camera" from his bag.
« I... I don't know! It looks like a Flamigo, they are usually a Flying and Fighting type... I've never seen one like this one! Is it the first of a new variant? Another convergent species, maybe...?» the older man looked more busy taking pictures to answer her in more detail.
« Throw Ball... catch it...» Turo gasped behind her, and Sada mentally berated herself.
Right! A Poké Ball. She still had to get used to the whole idea of... just being able to catch Pokémon in them.
« You're right...» She got one out of her bag, and took careful aim before throwing it in a wide arc. The Ball hit the wild Pokémon on its stomach, just to simply bounce off with a little pinging noise on its crystalized skin. The bird screeched, enraged, and kicked it away with one leg.
« That's... impossible... is that crystal not part of its body, then?» Clavell wondered out loud.
Sada pointed to the damaged wing, where the crystal had completely broken off, and the older man's eyes widened again.
« No! It's like... clothes it's wearing!» She tried to describe what she had seen as best as she could.
« The crystal feathers have little scales like bugs, but under the crystals, they look fine-» She added.
« We have to... break it all.»
By her side, Turo seemed to have regained his breath somewhat, or at least enough to talk. Sada looked at him with some concern; running out of breath was normal for him, but... he looked a little pale.
Well... paler than usual. She nodded, turning back towards her Pokémon.
« All right. Kim, keep attacking with fire!»
The two fire types took turns barraging the Flamigo with flames, while Turo's Murkrow kept flapping around its head, mostly distracting it and striking it with his wings. More cracks kept forming on the crystals around the wild Pokémon's body, until finally, with a resounding shattering sound, they fell off completely.
« It really is... just a normal Flamigo...» She heard Clavell comment.
The Pokémon staggered back, stunned.
« Now!»
Sada's second Poké Ball flew in a wide arc and struck the Pokémon on its head, capturing it.
A brief silence fell between them until the Poké Ball stopped shaking.
« That Flamigo... were you interested in training it?» Clavell asked as he moved to pick up the Poké Ball.
Only now did Sada take a deep breath and consider what had just happened.
« Um... No. Kim just attacked it. B-but... I want to study it. » She said. Those crystals looked exactly like the ones in the Crater.
« I'm also interested in those crystals. We could keep it at the Academy if you aren't interested in training him... Or her. » Clavell answered, kneeling to examine one of the many broken off shards. Sada did the same.
« Those shards... are the same as the one in Area Zero.» She said after a moment. Clavell looked pensive.
« ... Around 120 years ago, during one of the expeditions following those of the Scarlet and Violet Books... people reported finding "glowing Pokémon" in the crater. » He said slowly.
Turo approached the two of them, copying them in crouching to pick up some of the crystals.
« ... So you think this Flamigo flew away from the crater? » He asked. Clavell didn't look particularly convinced of his own idea.
« ... No, I don't think so. Let's take a break and discuss things while we have a picnic.»
---
Clavell, and most people of 21th century Paldea as it turned out, tended to always have all the necessary equipment for a picnic with them at all times. Somehow. And picnic tables and spots were pretty much everywhere.
The whole thing struck him as a bit strange: had historians missed the whole Paldean picnic craze, or did they simply not consider it important enough to mention? Whatever.
« Can't we just go back to the city and eat something that's actually cooked...?» Turo asked as he helped set the table.
Sada was busy tending to her Litleo's wounds, but she still threw him a little scowl over her shoulder.
« Turo, we always ate outside... why don't you like it here?» She commented.
Because that had been out of necessity, while here, he technically had the choice of all the comforts of civilization, so...
« I just want to eat something nice and warm...»
She pouted, then gave him a wry smile, a little glint of mischief shining suddenly in her eyes as she finished spraying a potion over her Pokémon.
« ... You're just embarrassed at making sandwiches in front of Clavell because you suck at it.» She gleefully added after a moment, making him grumble unhappily.
« Y-you also suck at them! You always make the lettuce fall out!» He shot back, making her laugh. He should have never taught her the meaning of that particular expression!
... Then again, if he hadn't, she would have probably learned it from Raifort in no time anyway.
Clavell, bless him, remained perfectly impassible as he took the various ingredients out, even if he was clearly trying not to smile. Turo often found himself appreciating the man's quiet discretion. He briefly wondered how things would have gone had anyone else from the Academy rescued them instead.
« So... you were saying that that Flamigo couldn't come from the Crater? Couldn't it just fly out?»
Even as he said it, Turo knew it couldn't be true: he himself had watched various flying Pokémon glide around the crater, but never quite leaving. Granted, it had been Corviknight, but...
« Impossible. Because in that same expedition the researchers tried the same, of course. All the Pokémon that were brought with them stopped glowing and became completely normal Pokémon the moment they got too far from the Crater...» Clavell answered, quickly preparing multiple sandwiches and offering the first one to his Houndoom.
« Define "too far"» Turo casually swatted Miguel's beak away from his meager sandwich prepared after much effort, making the Pokémon caw and perch on his shoulder. He sighed, and threw the little bird a slice of bacon.
Technically, Area Zero wasn't too far away from any other spot in Paldea, so...
« Literally as soon as they stepped out of the Crater.»
Ah. Well, that was...
« That's... worrying. It clearly happened here. It's almost like...» He took a bite out of his sandwich.
« What makes the Pokémon all different is starting to work here too. » Sada interjected, happily and messily stuffing her sandwich with an ungodly amount of things before biting into it with gusto. Did it really need an entire block of bacon...?
Turo fell silent for a bit, slowly chewing as he thought.
« Sada... you said the Pokémon was... Like a bug Pokémon?» He asked after a moment, before frowning and looking down at his food.
He... he was still a bit out of breath from running after Miguel. Sada being in so much better physical condition than him was obvious, considering how sedentary his life was, but... realizing how seriously out of shape he was compared to everyone else here had... stung a bit. Shouldn't it be the opposite? Sure, people... barely needed to walk in his time, especially in space, but... he had had access to better medical practices his whole life! He was protected against stuff that didn't even exist yet here! Was advanced medicine really the only thing keeping the people of his time upright?
Or were all those at the Academy just stupidly fit because they trained Pokémon and traveled a lot?
He didn't like it. He sighed, and focused back on the conversation.
« It was effectively acting like it was a bug type... Fire type moves seemed to be much more effective than usual against it.» Clavell was saying, as Sada nodded.
« But that's impossible... the only way that some Pokémon can change types temporarily is by mega evolving, sometimes... This Pokémon almost looked like it was used to being in that... state.» Clavell added.
« Yes. It moved those antennae... It doesn't have them normally. It... It really was a bug type at that moment.»
Clavell looked at a loss for words.
« Something in Area Zero... can make Pokémon change their type.» he said.
Sada didn't look particularly impressed at the implications; while she was learning fast at the Academy, for her this may as well be just another impossible thing that Pokémon were simply able to do. In that, she was a lot more... open-minded than most, probably.
Turo, meanwhile, was as amazed as Clavell, even if for a completely different reason. He ... had never heard of this, and that was... a bit strange. If someone had studied this, it would have become a big deal. A revolutionary discovery. Pokémon completely changing types!
For the Scarlet and Violet Books to fall into obscurity was one thing, but for a discovery of such magnitude... he wasn't sure. It was true that during history lessons they had focused a lot more on the advent of Hadron energy, and how it had sparked the greatest change in their technology and Pokémon the world had ever seen. And it had started "only" 1000-something years after this, so... Maybe, somehow, this... phenomena in Paldea had ended up completely overshadowed and forgotten?
... Why was he even worrying so hard about how it all fit into his time? It wasn't like he could do anything about it.
Turo sighed, finishing his sandwich with little enthusiasm, before looking back towards Clavell with a tiny smirk.
« ... I bet you're interested in getting us back into Area Zero now.»
---
Bringing back the Flamigo to the Academy had been a bit of a disappointment. It never crystallized again, looking just like a perfectly normal Flamigo. Clavell had even asked all of his students if some of them wanted to volunteer their own Flamigo to compare to the newly caught individual, with no results.
Whatever it was that triggered that state, it had come from outside, not something unique about the Pokémon itself.
« That is... good in a way, right?» Sada asked Clavell after they had released the Flamigo back into the wild.
« It means it can happen to any Pokémon... not just Pokémon that have something special.» she added, and the man begrudgingly nodded, before checking his watch as they made their way to his next class.
« Turo is...? »
« He's coming. He didn't... feel really well after that picnic. » Sada frowned.
She was a bit worried about him, he had looked pretty tired for the last couple of days. Maybe he just needed to get used to having to move around more than what he was used to in his time, but... he usually just had to sit down a bit and he was fine. He hadn't fallen sick, had he?
They entered Clavell's classroom, and Sada took a seat near Raifort, leaving a spot open to her other side. Raifort's eyes gleamed when she noticed she was alone.
« He's not here?» she asked in a rather hopeful tone, making Sada smile a little.
« He's just a bit late.» she answered, to which Raifort looked a bit disappointed. Sada was used to the two not really getting along. Or rather, neither of them seemed to want to miss an occasion to quip a little joke to the other's expense from their very first interaction.
Turo was the last one to enter the classroom, right as Clavell was about to start, and he shuffled towards his place before sitting down. Sada looked back at him in worry, and squeezed his hand under the table.
« "Are you all right?"» she whispered. He had heavy bags under his eyes, a runny nose, and was breathing a little heavily.
He nodded and smiled a little, the effect a bit ruined by having to sniffle and suppress a sneeze immediately after.
« "Y-yeah. I will go to the doctor after this lesson."»
He sat down near her, pointedly ignoring Raifort's side glance, as Clavell started the lesson.
« Right, so last lesson, we stopped at one of the first researchers that started an attempt of classifying Pokémon based on their "type". In ancient times, this was usually limited to the obvious elemental types like fire and water, while everything else was classified as "normal type". There were many different attempts to further classify Pokémon in the following centuries, by different criteria...»
« You should go to the infirmary.» Raifort leaned almost over Sada to whisper towards Turo, who didn't bat an eye.
« Nah. I'm fine, thanks. How cute, are you worried about me? » he whispered back, to which the woman huffed.
« Ah! I just don't want to catch anything from you.»
« Just admit you want me out of the way-»
Sada let out a soft sigh as she tried to ignore the two's continued bickering and take some notes.
Clavell turned the "projector" on and the lights off, as he usually did when he wanted to show some pictures to the whole class. The fact that you could just make images appear on a wall immediately, even if she had seen it in Turo's time already, kept amazing her... Especially because someone had to have taken those pictures first! Her biology books were full of incredibly colorful pictures of Pokémon, taken from incredibly close, and in their natural habitat! To be able to get so close to even the most ferocious creature... That would have been impossible in her time.
Clavell switched to a specific slide, and Sada froze in her seat. All around her, the whole classroom slowly fell completely silent, everyone turning to look from the picture on the wall towards her, except for Turo and Raifort who kept hissing to each other, not paying attention to the lesson.
« The woman depicted here was Professor Albora Olim, who was the first to study-» Clavell trailed off, squinting at the screen before he too raised his eyebrows in surprise.
« Um...» she slowly said, trying to get the only two still oblivious to it to turn around.
« I'm just saying, you should-UGH»
Tired of their bickering , she lightly elbowed both of them, making Raifort jump a little in her chair as she scooted backwards to dodge her and Turo hiss in pain, grumbling a "why...?" as he curled up on himself.
His "why" was immediately answered when they both finally looked towards the picture. And, like anyone else in the room, fell completely silent.
There, displayed on the wall for everyone to see, was a portrait . An incredibly realistic one, but still quite old from what she had learned, from a time where people would sit still for hours as someone else painted them. Sada had seen quite a lot of them by now, even at the Academy. Painting from teachers and Directors of the past.
What had surprised the entire class was the subject of the painting: the woman in it, from the color of her eyes to the long hair that fell around her face, was a mirror image of herself. She had been painted from the neck down, like a lot of people did at the time, so her clothes were not visible, but she had what looked like a little diamond as an earring, and a neutral expression. She wasn't smiling, but had an air of calm focus as she stared forward.
« Wow! She's your spitting image!» Raifort said out loud what everyone else, Sada herself included, was probably thinking.
« Is she an ancestor of yours?» she added, making Sada frown in confusion.
« "An... Ancestor"?» she whispered.
« Ah, right... Someone from your family, in the past.» Raifort added. Sada's frown didn't disappear as she looked at the face of the woman in the painting.
« M.. maybe...» Sada answered as she turned a hesitant look towards Turo, looking for his reaction.
That wasn't possible... Her actual ancestors were from much earlier than this "Professor Olim"... And she obviously didn't have any children. There was no way they could be related.
But the resemblance was uncanny; was it really just a coincidence?
Turo's expression, however, wasn't what she was expecting to see.
She thought he would be as confused as she was. Instead, he looked triumphant, his eyes almost shining as he looked at the portrait.
« "That's you. It has to be. You know what that means?"» he whispered as he turned towards her, ignoring both Raifort glaring at him as she couldn't understand them, and Clavell who had been staring at the both of them really closely as he tried to resume class.
« "It means we find a way to... Travel. A way home."»
Sada felt her heart skip a beat as she looked at her own face in the portrait.
Could it... Could it be? Was it really proof that they would find a way through time? She could see herself deciding to visit that era, admittedly, but... pose for a painting? And... Become a professor there, apparently?
Or... Or it was just a massive coincidence that the woman in the painting looked exactly like her.
Turo seemed convinced that it was her... Sada wasn't quite sure what to think. But now she was even more determined to find out what was happening in Area Zero.
---
47th century, Moon
Ortega hated silence. It made him uncomfortable; he was always looking for a way to fill it. It didn't always work; there were occasions where silence was required. Like the one he was currently in.
It was customary for funeral rites to take place where the person had been born, so the day before he, Vega and Moreau had stepped into a shuttle to leave Earth.
Turo had never really talked much about his early childhood on the Moon, so Ortega wasn't quite sure if he would have liked... how things had been done.
He knew that he didn't like it.
Turo's parents had been inconsolable, both looked in complete shock.
His father had approached him after the ceremony, where everyone had stared at the coffin being cremated and the ashes released into space, painfully aware that it was empty. Maybe that was why it still didn't feel real, the fact that he was just... gone.
« Did he... suffer?» he had asked, which had made Ortega want to run away.
He didn't want to lie to him, but the alternative was telling the man that he had no idea. After finally managing to knock Porygon 568 out, they had tried to trace where he had gone: they had no idea where or when he had ended up. Statistically, Ortega was painfully aware that it was much more likely that Turo had ended up somewhere dangerous than anywhere safe. Just... Anywhere in the middle of the ocean would have been a death sentence in any era.
« He... he didn't even notice.» he answered, hoping that it was the truth, and the man nodded.
« Last time I saw him, he... looked enthusiastic about his research. Funny that he decided to become a time traveler... it's right in his name, you know?» the man said.
« "Romero" meant "pilgrim" in an ancient language... I choose that name from an old scientist of the past, something I read about ages ago... Can't remember what it was he did, but I always liked how it sounded. »
The two parents were now talking with other relatives and old friends of Turo, and Ortega moved out of the room to join back up with Vega and Moreau.
Vega loudly blew her nose as he sat down near her.
« His Miraidon is gone.» she said, making Ortega furrow his eyebrows, taken by surprise by the randomness of the topic.
« What?»
« Turo had a Miraidon. His mother said that they managed to break into his apartment, they wanted to take it back home with them, but it was just... Gone. No trace left. I wonder if he somehow realized what had happened to his trainer and just... left.» she sniffled again.
Ortega didn't know what to think. Moreau, who had been silent the whole time, sighed loudly.
« ... a tragedy. I never thought it would happen like this. » he said, making Ortega freeze.
He thought that Moreau's silence was due to the fact of feeling partly responsible for the incident; he had been the one to come up with the time-anchor that should guarantee people could come back safely. But the way he had worded it...
« "It"...?» he slowly repeated, feeling his stomach drop at the words.
« You... you knew?» he asked, suddenly thinking back to their trip to the future. Turo's ID wasn't working... And Moreau had hurried them back home...
There was a long silence, as Vega now also looked to the two men, eyes wide.
« W-what...?»
Of course she would have no idea what they were talking about, the three of them had to sign NDAs about that trip.
« I... knew that something would happen to Turo sometime in the future. I had no idea it would happen this soon... Or this way. » Moreau answered, eyes closed.
Ortega kept staring at the man, feeling sick to his stomach.
« But that makes no sense... That kid knew Turo! Why would they know about one random guy that disappeared decades before they were even born?» he said, suddenly remembering the very last interaction they had had in the future.
« ... You know why, do you?» Vega suddenly asked.
Moreau kept silent for a long moment, before he drew one last sigh, opening his eyes again. Ortega felt a chill at the way the man's icy blue eyes stared at them both.
« Knowing the future can be a terrible burden. » he simply said, before turning their back on them and walking away.
So I decided to take a different approach to Tera Pokemon in this one. I'm not a big fan of the big "hats", I get why they made them look like that from a gameplay's perspective, to make it clear what type they become, but I wanted to take a more "biological" approach. To make it feel like a really big deal, I thought that Terastasis literally changing the Pokemon's body to "make it" become of that type would be cool. And it's a lot more fun to describe and play around with than just a shining hat popping up!
Also, the plot is really kicking up now, with more mysteries and weird things happening... I'm having a lot of fun hiding hints here and there.
Turo walked out of the classroom feeling pretty lightheaded, and definitely not because of his current physical state. That painting of "Professor Olim" had shaken him; it couldn't be a coincidence. It had to be proof that he and Sada would manage to find a way to travel through time, there was no other explanation.
Seeing it had also suddenly brought another memory of his to mind: that time he had travelled to the future with Ortega and Moreau, and how that teenage girl seemed to know him... Or at least, had definitely recognized him.
"Aren't you-"
She had been on the point of saying something. And now, with Sada's - because it had to be her- painting giving him a clue... Maybe she knew him because he was actually supposed to go back there, in the future? That had to be it! He would find a way back, and... and do whatever that girl knew him for.
Maybe he had been the lead programmer between some new Artificial Pokémon... Wait.
Yes! Of course!
Iron Leaves! That's why she had looked at him so weirdly! He was supposed to become the creator of the very Pokémon he had asked the name of!
The sheer absurdity of the situation made him laugh out loud, not caring about the weird stares he was getting from various classmates that were walking out of class along with him. Clavell stopped rearranging some notes and threw him a weird look.
« Turo... Are you sure you're all right?» he asked quietly, furrowing his eyebrows in worry.
« I'm perfectly fine! I feel great!» Turo answered, shoulders still shaking with laughter.
« You don't look fine... You're shivering.» Sada added, approaching after having bid goodbye to Raifort. She touched his forehead with her hand, her fingers feeling cool at the touch.
« I'm fine. I'll just go to the infirmary to lay down a bit-» he answered, before stumbling and having to prop himself up against the wall. He took a long, hard breath, gasping for air. Of course he had been laughing himself silly just now, but his chest hurt, and his throat felt particularly swollen.
Sada's hands clamped over his arm, the woman holding him up almost by force.
« Clavell... W-what is happening?»
Turo felt the man hold him by his other arm.
« Let's get him to an hospital. Just to be safe.»
The two escorted him out of the Academy, Clavell calling for a Flying Taxi immediately after. As they waited for the vehicle on the edge of Uvanja's infamous staircase, Turo sat down on the first step, resigning himself to amused stares by kids that were walking down the stairs.
Great.
Not only had he made a fool of himself every single morning when he just worked here as he panted and gasped his way up, now he had to look like someone that would struggle even walking down them.
Which... admittedly... He kind of did, since one of his usual tripping accidents would send him rolling all the way down so he was especially careful, but that wasn't the point!
« C'mon, Sebastian, I just caught a cold... I don't want to lose the entire afternoon on some dumb visit-» he grumbled.
Clavell was simply staring at the sky, lips thin as he refused to look at both of them.
« ... What was the deal with that painting? You were whispering something in that weird dialect of yours... Which is quite rude to do in front of others to obviously hide what you are saying, I will have you know. » He said after a moment, and Turo flinched, suddenly feeling guilty.
Clavell... Had helped them so much, without asking for anything in return.
« ... You wouldn't believe us anyway.» he muttered after a moment, which only made the older man furrow his eyebrows even more.
They were interrupted by the arrival of the Flying Taxi, which made Turo's breath more difficult for a completely different reason. He had seen them flying overhead, but never actually used one.
« We're... We're getting into that?» he asked as it landed, the Squawkabilly that were carrying it filling the air with their loud chattering. Were those things seriously held up only by these little bird Pokémon? They barely looked bigger than Miguel! He thought they must have used... rotors, or fans, or... some other, safer method of propulsion.
The pilot stepped out of the vehicle and took a look at all three, his face mostly hidden by the reflective glasses and helmet. He looked well built, tall and with a square jaw.
« All right, three people... To better distribute the weight, one of you will have to ride in the passenger seat next to me. » he said as he lit a cigarette.
Clavell gasped, outraged.
« No smoking on school grounds! I hope you don't smoke in the cabin? Especially while carrying young trainers?» he asked in disbelief. The pilot rolled his eyes, annoyed.
« Of course I don't. The Squawkabilly don't like the smoke.»
Turo, meanwhile, had other worries.
What did he mean, "distribute the weight?"
« Why are they different colours? I've read they fight each other if their feathers are err... different.» Sada commented, which didn't help Turo feel safe.
They did what now?
« Oh, don't worry. They've been specially trained to get along. It actually works out pretty well if you make a group of different colours, you know? They get really competitive over who can fly faster.» the pilot shrugged, exhaling a ring of smoke.
Turo watched as Clavell and Sada climbed inside... Why was she getting on so casually? All right, she had no concept of driving security and barely knew what a seatbelt was, but this didn't look safe! When you were flying on a Pokémon, you had a saddle! Or it could at least catch you if you fell off! This was little more than a dingy little can held up with rope by Pokémon apparently famous for fighting each other. Who ever thought this was a good idea?
« I-... I don't think I should...» he began, before Clavell narrowed his eyes at him again from inside the cabin, and he promptly shut up.
... He couldn't make it obvious he had never ridden one of these things.
He was the only one left... seconds stretched by as the pilot finished his cigarette.
« You coming or not? I don't have all day.» he said with a hint of irritation, squashing the cigarette under the heel of his boot.
Turo looked at the Squawkabilly. The biggest one, with green feathers and a nasty scar on his head, glared back at him, squawked, and promptly defecated on the sunroof. He grimaced as he resigned himself to climb inside next to the pilot.
The ride was as raggedy as he thought, the cabin swaying at the slightest wind making his stomach lurch and conversation impossible by the Squawkabilly's loud chattering. At least it was mercyfully short, taking just a couple of minutes to reach the hospital, leaving him confused as he stumbled out of the carriage again. He wasn't used to Mesagoza feeling so... small when flying over it. Yet he knew that it was already Paldea's biggest city in this time... He shook his head as Sada jumped out with a grin, apparently having enjoyed the ride, and joined her and Clavell to pay for the ride. He could ponder Paldea's urbanization's growth another time.
For now, he only needed to worry about... the upcoming visit.
Which actually worried him quite a lot. Not because of what could potentially come up, oh no. But he didn't really have much... how to say... trust in 21th century medicine.
At least they had discovered antibiotics, but the rest... er... he wasn't quite sure at what level of tech they were. Didn't they still cut people open by hand?
Not like he had to worry about that right now... hopefully. He had survived in Sada's time. This couldn't be worse, right...?
---
Sada had found the ride on the little cabin tied to the Squawkabilly absolutely incredible.
What an amazing idea! Talking was impossible, but it's not like they could talk even if they had directly ridden on a Pokémon... and you could carry multiple people and supplies this way!
She would have liked to talk more to the "pilot" about it, so she had given him her number. That had made Clavell look at her weirdly again, while she didn't think Turo had even noticed as he tried to not fall out of the vehicle. He had looked pretty green during the whole ride.
Stepping inside the hospital made her remember when she had woken up in Turo's time. Everything had been... So blindingly bright, and just the concept of buildings had been quite foreign to her. The fact that you could build something that big that spanned entire floors and housed hundreds of rooms and people... Even if she lived at the Academy now which was pretty similar, it still felt quite impressive.
What wasn't similar to the Academy were all the signs she could see everywhere, with long and complicated words that just reminded her how poor her grasp of the language still was. Every time she thought she was starting to figure it out, new words for things she didn't even know needed a name seemed to pop up. Like, apparently, a different type of "doctor" for every single part of the human body.
Sada quickly realized that she would have had no idea where to go if she ever needed to come here alone. Clavell, however, was walking with a certain purpose, so she followed along, trying not to act too clueless about what was going on.
They decided to have Turo do some "exams", which apparently didn't involve answering any kind of questions like those they were supposed to take at the Academy, which was weird. And confusing. Why use the same word? In any case, the exams seemed to involve things like getting a bit of his blood and prickling his skin with tiny little needles, which Sada followed with quite some fascination. So you could tell what illness people had by doing this?
Now they were waiting for a "doctor" to finish examining the results, which he was doing with furrowed eyebrows. Turo, by her side, looked more and more uncomfortable the longer the doctor was silent.
Clavell looked pensive.
« I am... perplexed.» the doctor finally said as he put the results down.
« Nothing serious. It just says here that you're allergic to various kinds of pollen... mostly Smoliv and its oil.»
She knew Smoliv was a Pokémon, but she had no idea what an "allergy" was. Turo looked similarly taken aback, his eyes widening slightly. They were still a bit red, along with most of his face.
« I... All right. Um... do I take antihistamines now or...»
Both Clavell and the doctor were looking at Turo with similarly dubious expressions.
« I'm more surprised that this is news to you. How does someone go their whole life not realizing they are allergic to Smoliv oil? In Paldea, of all places. » the doctor commented. Still with no idea what an allergy even was, Sada could only give Turo an anxious look. It was probably something that just didn't happen in his time, if she had to guess. Was this bad...? She noticed Clavell was narrowing his eyes at Turo, looking deeply in thought.
« I... guess I just never noticed...?» Turo gave an awkward laugh that sounded wholly unconvincing even to her.
« Well, you better start paying more attention to your health now, Sir. Some results of your blood exams are... strange. Muscle mass atrophy, reduced bone density... When I first looked at these,I have to admit I thought I was looking at the results of someone much older.»
A heavy silence fell in the room. Turo looked stunned, face white. The doctor seemed to notice his sudden anxiety, because he chuckled and waved the paper away.
« No need to look like that, it's nothing that we can't fix! You will just need to... pay attention to what you eat and try to exercise a bit more, eh? »
After a long moment, Turo swallowed and nodded slowly.
« ... yes. All right. Sure.» he answered in a small voice.
They didn't talk until they were out of the hospital again, not quite sure what to do. Clavell cleared his throat after a long moment.
« ... I had half an idea you were having an allergy reaction...but you really had no idea? How...?» he asked, causing Turo to give an annoyed sigh.
« Because there aren't any damn Smoliv where I'm from! And before you ask, no, we can't talk about it. » he muttered, crossing both arms to his chest with a stern look.
« And... You, I believe, have no idea what an allergy even is. I've observed you, during class. I know when you simply don't know the translation for something and ask Turo, and when you look completely lost on what a word represents.»
Sada flinched when Clavell's attention suddenly went to her, and looked away, panicked.
« No, I... didn't know the word in Paldean...» she tried her usual excuse, before hanging her head when Clavell just glared at her, not impressed. They both knew he just had to ask her what it was to make it obvious she actually didn't know.
Sada took a deep breath, looking between the two.
... Honestly, she was getting tired of this whole situation. Turo was adamant that they had to keep their secret, but it was obviously straining Clavell's patience. He had put his trust in them, but they hadn't done the same with him. In a way, Turo was repeating the exact same mistake he had done with her, when he had tried to keep him being from a different time a secret from her at all costs.
Would it really be that bad if Clavell knew? Maybe he wouldn't even believe them.
« ... Let's move away from people, and I'll explain everything.» she said after a moment. Turo's eyes flashed with alarm, but Sada glared back at him, copying his own stance by crossing her arms. She was in charge of the situation right now, and she wasn't backing off.
« Let's just... Tell him what happened? He deserves to know.»
Normally, she would have said this in her own mother tongue, but she wanted to make a point to Clavell to not exclude him. The man seemed to notice and appreciate it, his features relaxing the slightest bit. Turo still looked reluctant.
« ... You looked more relieved when you told me the truth. I want to do the same.» she sighed, and that seemed to convince him. He nodded, even if he didn't really look completely on board with the idea.
« ... All right. Let's go somewhere more private. Not that I expect him to believe us.» he muttered.
"Somewhere private" ended up being Clavell's laboratory back at the Academy, after another quite bumpy taxi ride. Even if it was technically open to everyone, nobody except him seemed to use it most of the time, so they could talk without fear of any random passerby overhearing.
To further make the conversation private, Clavell shut the door behind him after they had entered.
Surprisingly, after they had sat down at random at one of the many desks, Turo was the first to speak up, the smallest hint of a smirk coming to his otherwise impassible expression.
« ... What is your theory about us? You've obviously been thinking about it a lot. Just out of curiosity... I want to know how crazy you would think we are after we tell you our version.»
That had been unexpected, but Sada had to admit she was now curious herself. She turned to Clavell, who seemed to have been taken aback. It didn't last long, as the man fixed his glasses and gathered his thoughts before starting to speak.
---
Clavell had to admit, he had expected the two to keep dodging his questions... So he had been pleasantly surprised when Alba had actually decided to stop acting all mysterious. Good.
« Well, let's start with all the evidence I've gathered. » he answered, automatically straightening his posture and adopting his "researcher voice". Feeling the urge to do things proper, he got up and walked to a whiteboard in the corner. Turo's eyebrow raised, but he didn't comment on it. Clavell grabbed a marker, and started to write a bullet point list.
« Let's start with the most obvious things: you appeared in Area Zero, an area that's notably off limits, barely speaking the local language, and with no way to call for help. No documents, no money, no trace of an identity even outside of Paldea. It's like you suddenly dropped in there out of thin air.» he said, writing out every item as he listed them.
« Then, your backstories. Alba, you claim to be from Kalos, yet I haven't found any record of someone named like you in Kalosian school records. Same thing for you and Paldea. I checked when I had to fabricate your documents to get you enrolled at the Academy.» he added, nodding towards Turo.
Neither of them moved nor showed any reaction; these were still quite obvious things that they must know he would have noticed.
Understandable.
« Let's get to your tics-»
« Our what?» Sada blurted out, eyes widening in surprise.
« I've noticed you both have some odd mannerisms. » he calmly answered, alternating looking between the two.
« You, Alba, are hypersensitive to any strange noise... Mostly mechanical or artificial noises, I've noticed. You will also tense up and reach out to grab a weapon as a first reaction to spotting a wild Pokémon. You've tried to disguise it by pretending to raise your hand to your forehead as if you're thinking, but it becomes obvious after seeing it happen enough times. » he explained, before moving onto Turo.
« You claim to be from Paldea yet had no idea we have switched to on-the-road Pokémon Centers for quite some time. You have never ridden a Flying Taxi, and especially in the first couple of days you were always fidgeting around with your hands... Doing weird gestures, pressing and touching things like you expected it to do something. You've also tried to disguise it, mostly by just keeping them hidden in your pocket or gesticulating - yes, like that.» he said as Turo, evidently feeling called out, hid his hands deeper into the pockets of his school uniform with a scowl.
« I could list a lot more, actually... but the final piece of evidence I wanted to discuss were your clothes-»
« What's wrong with them? » the way Turo seized up only confirmed his hypothesis, but Clavell momentarily ignored the man.
« I had my suspicions that Sada's clothes were made of real Pokémon fur the moment I saw them. Woolo or Mareep clothes are nothing strange. Clothes roughly made from Mamoswine fur, of all things... Are a different matter.»
« How are you sure they are made of-» Sada muttered in a low voice.
Clavell simply straightened his glasses, then pointed to the array of lab equipment all around them.
« I'm a biologist. I examined both of your clothes by taking samples of them while you were at work, before you moved into the dormitories. Or at least, I tried to- Sada's fabric matched Mamoswine's DNA found in fossils and the rare living specimen that Piloswine sometimes evolve into.»
Nobody had quite figured out what triggered the evolution yet, but that wasn't the point. He turned to Turo; judging by how pale the man had turned, he already knew exactly what was coming.
« ... Your "scuba diving suit" however left me completely baffled. It's not organic in any way. I wasn't able to even determine the material it's made of, except that it looks almost like there's some incredibly complex circuitry embedded inside it.
If it wasn't impossible, I would tell you it looks like a computer made out of fabric, which as far as I'm aware is beyond our current technology. » Clavell finished writing a big "clothes???" as the last point of the list, then turned back towards the couple. Now was the moment to actually announce his theory out loud; he hadn't done it until now, honestly because a little part of him still thought it was crazy... But science didn't lie. Results didn't lie.
Today had only made him more sure of it.
« My conclusion is that you two... as absurd as it sounds... are not of this world. Rather, not of this time. You've somehow found yourself in Area Zero from a different era... did you?» he asked in a low voice.
A stunned silence fell in the room, only the whirr of a laboratory centrifuge busy preparing some samples breaking it.
If he was completely wrong, this was the moment they would call him nuts. Instead, they both simply sat in silence, Turo with a completely unreadable expression and Sada biting her lip.
« What's a "DNA"?» the woman finally broke the silence with a candid question. One moment later, Turo snorted, then drew both hands out of his pockets to slowly start clapping.
Clavell furrowed his eyebrows, not quite sure what that reaction meant. Was he being mocked, or... ?
« ... Impressive. How long have you known?» Turo asked in a low voice once he was done , making Clavell's heart start to race in his throat. If they were actually admitting to it... the implications...
« Since you got so obsessed with those Scarlet and Violet Books, and desperate to go back to the very place you had just escaped. I had more theories until then: Sada being a feral child raised by wild Pokémon that you found-» he explained, to which the woman started laughing.
« - or you being some weird secret agents on an undercover mission-»
He didn't want to mention the "forbidden romance" theory. He had really liked that one, and letting it go had been hard. He was a bit of a sappy hopeless romantic.
« But nothing really explained all the little reactions I had noticed until I started asking myself what would even cause them. It was a process of elimination after that.»
Clavell took a deep breath; now that he had actually brought it up... he didn't know where to start and what to say. Dozens of questions filled his mind.
It had been his theory, of course, but to actually hear it confirmed... It felt surreal.
« ... When?» he asked after a moment. « From where...?» he didn't finish the question.
Sada lowered her eyes, fidgeting with the helm of her school uniform's skirt as she thought.
« I am from... the "Paleolithic", professor Crayne called it in history class...»
She had said it so casually, but Clavell felt his legs dangerously sway under him. He lowered himself into a chair. It made sense.
« That's why you didn't know... so many things... and the bow... and the clothes, of course... » he then wordlessly turned his head towards Turo, who simply nodded, his face a blank mask.
« I'm from the future.»
He had even less ideas on what to ask next. He didn't ask for confirmation, or proof, because everything he had seen about them just made so much sense if what they had just said was true.
« ... so when you said just now that there are "no Smoliv" where you are from...?» he asked.
Turo frowned and looked away. He seemed reluctant to answer.
« They're long gone. Extinct. More than a thousand years ago from my time. »
So he was at least from a thousand years in the future...? While Sada.. she was...
The centrifuge finished its job with an incredibly loud ding: nobody paid any attention to it as Clavell raised one trembling hand to his face to adjust his glasses. All right. One thing at a time.
« This would have been so much easier if you had just been secret agents on a mission.» he confessed, overwhelmed.
Time travellers. From who knew how far away. Suddenly, little details he had noticed made even more sense. Why Sada had looked so incredibly interested in the past, all the things she didn't know or had never seen before, or why she liked the outdoors so much. Or how Turo would sometimes look frustrated as he typed at Jacq's laptop, or glance out of the great windows of the Academy to look out at Mesagoza with a quiet look of sadness on his face, the weird accents he had never heard before...
Clavell let out a low sigh, trying to put himself in their shoes.
He... He couldn't quite imagine it.
« Just... One thing isn't clear to me. » he said instead in a lower voice. He got up, walked back to the whiteboard, and slowly started erasing his little list of evidence.
« You... You two obviously look close. Yet you said you were in the Crater for barely a month... How...?»
« We already knew each other.» Sada answered. The woman took a long breath, and after exchanging a quick glance with Turo, resumed talking.
« We first met in... in my time.» Sada started.
« My... Um, people in my time have developed time travel -» Turo had just got out, making Clavell drop the eraser to the ground.
« T- time travel?!»
Just how far in the future was he from?
He hurriedly picked up the eraser, glad that he was momentarily turning his back on them to compose himself, before putting the eraser back in its place and turning his attention back towards the two.
« Yes... it's still pretty new even in my time though, and there's extremely strict rules about it. Not something anyone has access to. That's how I met Sada. I... I travelled to her time by accident and we met. » Turo turned to look at the woman and the smallest smile crossed his face as she smiled back.
« He would always come and go... He looked so weird with that bodysuit, but I just thought he was from some faraway tribe... Then he finally confessed the truth to me.» Sada laughed softly as she scooted her chair closer to his.
Clavell couldn't avoid letting out a little gasp.
« You told her you were from the future?» he asked.
« Well it was either that or get stabbed with a spear-» Turo mumbled, but it was an obvious joke - even if said in a completely dry tone- as he took Sada's hand in his, warmth shining through his eyes.
Clavell sighed incredulously.
« Two people from completely different times meeting by chance... So I was right! It is a forbidden romance!» he gleefully exclaimed.
The two both froze and turned to look at him with almost opposite reactions. Turo closed his eyes with a defeated sigh, while Sada furrowed both eyebrows and frowned.
Clavell scoffed and felt himself blush a little bit under her disappointed glare.
« I-I really liked this other theory I had, you see-» he mumbled in his defense, then tried to change the subject.
« Anyway... what happened after that? How did you land here?»
It was Turo's time to answer now, and he did so after a slight hesitation.
« It's complicated to explain, but in short... it takes a special object to travel safely. Sada accidentally tagged along when she shouldn't have and it was evidently... too much. It wasn't her fault-» he mumbled hastily as he furrowed his eyebrows. He looked deep in thought suddenly.
« I keep thinking... why here of all places. That's why we want to go back to Area Zero... properly, this time. We need to explore it completely, not just the upper layer of it.»
Sada opened her bag and took the Scarlet Book out of it, opening the book to one of the many pages with pictures of never seen Pokémon.
« We know these Pokémon are real because they are from our time. So maybe Area Zero has some way of... pulling things from other times. Like with us.»
... so that was their theory. Clavell tried not to get distracted by the enormous implications of mysterious, yet unseen Pokémon from other times wandering without a care in the Crater along with those mysterious crystals, ready to be discovered. His researcher side wanted to bombard them with questions: what Pokémon were they? What types? Were they all similar to modern version of Pokémon? Why did Smoliv go extinct in Turo's time?
His more sensible side decided that doing it wouldn't exactly be polite. They had time to discuss things.
« I see... and you want to study these crystals we've been finding to have an excuse to go back into the Crater as soon as you graduate?»
They both nodded.
« Then you could ask Jacq for help. He's been working on a system to log information about all the Pokémon captured by students. We could use it on a smaller scale for now: instead of all possible information, just the ones that have been spotted or captured covered in crystals like that Flamigo. » he said, and Turo's eyes started shining. He got up and started pacing back and forth.
« Yes... it could work. They will probably be rare enough that students can easily just log them manually: species, what type they seemed to be... location would be ideal... but GPS still sucks in this time...» he sighed as he rolled his eyes, before giving Clavell an apologetic look.
« ... Sorry, but it does. I've looked at the Pokénav from Devon that Jacq got his hands on. Any real time "digital map" that can at most tell you "you're on route 101 right now" barely deserves to be called that.» he scoffed.
... well, that surely explained why he had looked so sad every time he had to work anything remotely technological.
Sada looked thoughtful, staring at an old map of Paldea hanging over the radio that had saved both their lives.
« ... Maybe Raifort can help. She told me that for her Treasure Hunt she wants to travel all over Paldea, checking out old ruins of castles and villages from the time of the Paldean Emperor... she could probably help in mapping the places other students tell us to check out. She's actually asked me to join her.» she said with a little smile. « And I want to do it. It sounds fun. I want to see Paldea, not just Mesagoza and the Crater.»
As they kept discussing things, Clavell could feel both of them visibly relax in his presence. Now that they didn't have to mind every word, every gesture in his presence, they felt more... open to him, each in their own personal way.
Sada asked him again what a "DNA" was, something she would surely just asked Turo about before, because they had accidentally ignored her question earlier.
Turo, meanwhile... well, he seemed to enjoy complaining in detail about the current level of technology, judging by his earlier... how did the kids call it these days? "Diss" at Devon.
He somewhat wished that they would have confessed their situation to him from the start, but he could barely begin to imagine what it must have felt like, to be in their place. Would he have done the same?
He wasn't sure.
But he felt like this was the start of something new. Something huge that would change his life completely.
Clavell pushed aside the thoughts that had plagued him about the Crater since they had discovered those shards. That something was obviously going on in the Crater. That whatever had been limited to Area Zero until now was obviously slowly creeping its way to the rest of Paldea. Thoughts about old legends, and treasures, and curses... that maybe he should be stopping them from going back there.
But... he would be lying if he said that those shards, and whatever else waited in Area Zero, didn't fascinate him too. If it was really possible to change a Pokémon's type... any Pokémon's type, in anything else... that would be the discovery of the century. All they knew about Pokémon biology would have to be rewritten from zero. It was incredible. It was exciting.
And now that his almost too crazy to be true idea had actually been proven... he couldn't just ask them to forget about the Crater. They deserved to know why and how they had arrived here... didn't they?
Sada hadn't realized how liberating it was to have someone other than Turo that knew their secret. Being able to not have to carefully ponder every word, every expression, to have someone else that she could talk to about her time... it felt like an enormous weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
Was this how Turo had felt when he had confided his own secret in her? No wonder they had grown so close after he had done so.
The three of them however decided that it was better if no one else knew.
« It's better if we try to act like we always lived here as much as possible.» Turo had said.
That was so much easier said than done however. There were days were she still felt amazed at the way this time had solved problems that she would have to work so hard for back in her time... But there were also days like this one where she found herself missing the simplest things.
There were days where just having lunch at the Academy's cafeteria made her wonder how much food it wasted every day, and how much her tribe could have eaten with everything they had in stock. All of that without the danger of leaving the village to hunt or gather food. It made her feel almost ashamed to be sitting comfortably at a table, eating perfectly cooked food.
Now she understood why Turo had looked guilty every time she had urged him to eat something when he was visiting.
In those days, she usually tried to fight the homesickness by leaving the city and travelling around Paldea. She had bought some camping equipment with her job at the library that she was still doing part time; some sleeping bags, a little tent and an enormous, bright yellow backpack to pack anything else she could need inside.
But camping even in the most remote corners of Paldea wasn't enough: civilization always felt too close. There was always a sign, or a trail, or a picnic area visible. Either the lights of a Pokémon Center, or a lighthouse , or from some city or small village were always shining from far away somewhere. For modern people, it was probably reassuring, but to her, it felt almost suffocating, how it seemed like she could never get away from the city.
And of course, every time she raised her head to the sky, she could never see the stars like she used to.
With this matter, neither Clavell nor Turo could truly understand her: they had both lived in worlds where this was the norm. That was where Kim came in: the Pokémon was obviously more at home in the wild, away from people, just like her. The Litleo would follow her in long, aimless excursions around southern Paldea, not caring or complaining if they simply walked for hours and hours, sometimes chasing wild Pokémon around. She was growing bigger and stronger: the Cortondo Gym had posed no problem for either her or Turo's Murkrow (Turo himself, on the other hand, had struggled quite a bit with the Gym challenge before the battle itself. Watching him push the giant inflatable olive around, gasping and cursing outloud as his Murkrow flapped around his head trying to help had been quite funny, even if she had tried not too laugh at him.
Well... Not too much.), and Artazon's Grass type gym would go similarly smoothly.
She would usually travel alone, but sometimes, like today, Raifort would tag along. She quite liked the woman: she reminded her of Chalo a bit.
« Do you remember that weird painting of the woman who looked like you?» Raifort asked as they trekked through Area Six of the South Province. The sun was high, and it was beating down mercilessly on both of them as they made their way through the rocky plateau near Alfornada.
Sada didn't mind: they would be out of the sun soon enough as soon as they found one of the many entrances to the Alfornada caverns. They were apparently massive, and she was excited to see them. A sprawling cave system that spanned an enormous area: there had to be so many unexplored caves and corridors under there! Exactly what she needed.
« Of course... What about it?» Sada asked. How could she even forget about that painting? Turo was absolutely convinced it had to be her.
Raifort's Gastly stuck his tongue out at Kim, and she batted at him playfully only to meow in frustration when her paw passed straight through him.
Sada watched as the ghost Pokémon started cackling while Raifort took a heavy-looking book out of her bag.
« I was curious, so I looked her up. Professor Albora Olim, she studied how variations in climate and migratory patterns influenced Paldea's fauna during the ages... And she took part in an expedition to Area Zero.»
That made Sada almost trip over her own feet; she managed to avoid falling flat on her face and turned to Raifort.
« Well, not exactly an expedition to the depths of the Crater, but she was definitely inside it for a little while. One of the few expeditions after Heath's, she mostly supervised building the first Research Stations... Look, there's a picture.» Raifort said, turning the page over. Sada got closer to examine the picture, resisting the urge to grab the tome out of the other woman's hands.
The picture was nothing like the one she had already seen. A woman was standing at the very edge of what was undeniably the Great Crater. A massive humanoid Pokémon towered behind her, so big it couldn't fit into the frame. It was crouching on one knee and casting a shadow over the woman's face, making her expression difficult to read.
Sada shook her head, pushing the book back towards Raifort.
« I've never heard of her before. If she's an ancestor of mine, I had no idea.» she replied after a moment, biting her lip. Better to stick with the "ancestor" story for now with Raifort and everyone else.
« Yeah, I figured so. But it's interesting, isn't it? Sometimes you'll look through history and find out that some random guy in Hisui was an ancestor to some other guy in a completely different region... It must be cool to be able to trace your history through the past like that. It makes you wonder what everyone's family history is. » Raifort said, carefully closing the book (probably borrowed from the school library) and putting it back into her bag.
Sada smiled a little bit at that. Yeah, it must be nice... But her "history" was so far back there would be no trace left.
« What about your family?» she asked, only in part to change the subject away from her. She pointed out the entrance of the cavern to Raifort, and they slowly descended through it. Normally, she would have stopped right before the entrance to carefully lit a torch.
Now they simply had one flashlight each and plenty of spare batteries with them.
Sada wasn't quite sure she liked it. It was convenient, sure, but ... she preferred the way fire illuminated things compared to cold artificial light. When the only example of it she had seen was Turo's glowing bodysuit, it had looked fascinating and otherworldly to her.
Now it was just... Always there. A real fire had actually become a rarer sight.
« Me? Oh, nothing much. My parents have an antique store, so I grew up surrounded by old trinkets... It's amazing what stuff people sometimes sell or stash away in their attic... » Raifort was saying in the meantime.
The tunnel opened up on the first major cave, and Sada couldn't hide a little smile when she saw that there were actually torches erected at regular intervals to light up the area.
« Fire!» she said, as Kim happily lept towards it.
« A lot of trainers and researchers pass through here and use their fire Pokémon to keep the torches lit... It doesn't disturb wild Pokémon as much as artificial light would.» Raifort explained. Many of them still didn't seem to quite like the light, scurrying quickly out of the way and observing them with shining eyes from the very edge of the ring of light provided by the fire, half-hidden in the dark. Raifort kept her hand on the Poké Balls on her belt, ready to use one if a wild Pokémon proved to be too much only for her Gastly. They made their way towards one of the many dark tunnels that opened up from the main cave, and disappeared into complete darkness.
« The ruins that have been discovered should be around... Here.» Raifort said, motioning for her Gastly to lead the way, the ghost Pokémon conjuring a ring of small azure will-o'-the-wisp around himself to light the path.
Sada found herself unconsciously trying to make her steps lighter, wary of Pokémon that could jump out from the dark. Paldea was littered with ancient ruins, remnants of old castles or villages from the era of the Paldean empire... to find one underground however was still unusual. Maybe it had been a tomb, or a cave used as some kind of storage or deposit, or a mine even. Her eyes widened when she realized that the walls of the cave were not just simple rock anymore. Suddenly her hand touched polished stone, with clear man made incisions on it. She waited for Gastly to shine a little flame over it. A mural seemed to depict people and Pokémon she had never seen, the human's hands raised towards the sky as the Pokémon seemed to emit some kind of wave... Or maybe it was light?
« What Pokémon are these? What are they doing?» she asked Raifort, not recognising the strange bell shaped creatures. Raifort hummed thoughtfully for a moment.
« Bronzong... They feature in a lot of ancient art. They were worshipped because of their ability to bring rain.»
Rain... Her chest ached painfully as she looked at the mural; it was beautiful, how this little piece of life from people from long ago had survived until today, to the point that they could know what they thought and how they had lived... But it was still obviously much more recent than her time, if they had been worried about rain for growing crops.
Her time felt so impossibly far away: Sada had been excited during the first couple of history lessons, as she had learned about the origin of life, and Pokémon, and how humans had probably slowly appeared alongside them, excitedly waiting for the moment where they would talk about her period... But they knew so little about it. So little in fact that the entire moment in time when her people had lived had been named "Prehistory"... Relegated to before "history " had even "started".
That had disappointed her quite a bit.
They had brushed over thousands and thousands of years in barely a couple hours, to get to the part of history that was closer, that had more traces left.
The one about kings, and dynasties, and uncountable wars, and who invaded who. And she still found that extremely interesting, in its own way... But it wasn't what she was looking for.
She wanted... to find traces of people that had lived in her time. Something she could recognize.
She walked past the mural, keeping the cone of light from her flashlight low: the cave wall opened up in a room with a low ceiling, primitive scaffolding carved directly from the rock.
On the shelves, what probably had once been jugs and jars were lined up. Most of them were broken, leaving nothing but a pile of clay shards, but some of the bigger pieces still showed some traces of golden paint on them.
So this really had probably been a deposit... Maybe a cellar dug into the side of the mountain to store wine or other precious beverages away from the sun and let them mature, or simply to keep them cool.
« If this was a cellar, maybe there's other rooms connected to it.» She whispered to Raifort, carefully leaning down to examine one shard. She was afraid of actually stepping into the room and accidentally move or destroy something; she raised one hand to hold Kim back, not wanting her to do the same. Now she understood why Raifort had chosen to let her Gastly out: an incorporeal Pokémon like that was perfect for not disturbing the scene.
« Probably. Maybe it was a kitchen-» the woman took a single step over the threshold of the room, then stopped as something in front of them suddenly moved, turning to shine the flashlight forward.
Sada expected a wild Pokémon; maybe a Gimmighoul. She had seen some all around Paldea, hiding their precious coins away. It was easier to see them near ruins like these, especially old buildings.
What Raifort's flashlight illuminated instead... Was more clay, piled on the ground in a roughly spherical mound.
Sada wondered what it was supposed to be - a really big vase? A jug? - , and then the clay moved, shifting and standing up with a slight rattling sound as bright yellow lines lit up all over its body. Two vertical, rectangular-shaped eyes blinked up at them, and the Pokémon -it had to be a Pokémon - let out a low droning sound.
« It's alive!» Sada gasped. Beside her, Raifort did the same.
« That's... That's a Golett. It must have been put here to guard this place... who knows how many are still buried in ruins somewhere.» the woman said as they hurriedly backed away from it.
The small clay golem took some heavy steps forward, raising its arms over its head with a clattering sound, clay shifting and creaking slightly as it moved limbs that had probably been still for centuries... or even longer.
Kim hissed, jumping in front of Sada as the golem kicked up a wave of mud, before yowling in pain when it splattered against her side.
« Use Night Shade!» Raifort's order made her Gastly suddenly appear in front of the Litleo; in the dark cave, the ghost Pokémon was all but invisible. Shadows cast by the flashlights moved to grab at the Golett. It didn't make any sound of pain, but the spirit that seemed to animate it must have been affected in some way, because the golem staggered back, the yellow light burning inside him glowing brighter. It couldn't change expression, but some of its energy billowed out from cracks in the armor with a sharp whistling sound that reminded Sada of water in the kettle Clavell used to make tea.
This was getting dangerous.
« We can't have it trash around here ... It could provoke a cave-in. Let's just back off and leave it alone. » Sada pulled Raifort back by one arm; she recalled Kim in her Poké Ball and the two women kept backing away from the rampaging golem, away from the buried cellar and back into the tunnel they had been following, now at a full run. The Pokémon however kept following, stomping after them with heavy steps... until she heard it suddenly stop.
Sada turned around, to find the little golem standing completely still. All the energy it had showed in protecting the place it had been assigned to was completely gone: its arms were hanging limp by its side, and it seemed to be looking around.
Even if it couldn't show any trace of emotion on its face, there was something in the way it was slowly rotating its head to observe the walls of the cave they were in that made Sada's heart ache.
« They're gone.» the golem turned to look in her direction when she spoke up. Could it even understand her? Maybe not. The people that gave it orders must have spoken a different language.
« I... I know what you're thinking. "Where is everyone?" They're all gone... a long time ago. You're all alone. » she said, lowering her eyes.
The Golett kept looking around, walking with a clattering sound towards the piece of mural that was still visible. It raised its head and stared at the carved figures for a long time, unmoving. Its shoulders sagged, and it looked to the ground.
« Why don't you come with me? » she found herself asking as she took a Poké Ball out of her bag. The thought of leaving this Pokémon all alone in this dark tunnel, after its whole purpose had long since crumbled... It saddened her.
« Maybe you can't protect them anymore, but can look for what's left of your people... Together. I know what it's like... To be all alone in a new, scary place. » she still had no idea if the Pokémon could even understand her, so she waited for any sign of understanding from the clay golem.
It didn't move, neither did it answer... In fact, it seemed completely unresponsive. They clay armor suddenly collapsed on itself, almost as if the energy inside it had ran out, clattering to the ground in a chipped pile, but without shattering into pieces.
Sada's eyes widened, and she hurried towards the Pokémon.
« Are you okay?!» she had no idea what to do. Had it just... Gone to sleep, like it had been before? Or had it really just ran out of energy? Was that something that could happen?
« Just catch it. Ghost Pokémon can be complicated to treat, but a Pokémon Center should be able to help.» Raifort was suddenly beside her, her own Gastly hovering nearby. It cackled as it passed through the armour, phasing through it.
« Gastly doesn't look worried, at least... Then again he's not exactly the altruistic type-» the woman muttered.
Sada hurriedly pressed a Poké Ball over one of the clay shoulder pads, watching the broken shape of the Golett get pulled inside.
« All right... let's go to the nearest Pokémon Center.» she said, clipping the new Poké Ball to her belt.
It wasn't until they were out of the Alfornada caverns and well on their way towards the omonymous city that Raifort spoke again.
« So... Did you want to catch that Golett because of your ancestor?»
Sada turned to stare at her, confused.
« What do you mean?»
Raifort's eyes widened, and she took her massive book out of her bag again.
« The picture...? Golett is the pre-evolution of Golurk. See?» she explained, pointing to the black and white photograph again. This time, Sada noticed the little description printed underneath.
"Professor Albora Olim the day construction of the Zero Gate started, along with her Golurk."
---
« Daddy, what's "timettavel"?» Romero asked his dad, who blinked and flicked the screen with the book he had been reading out of the way to stare at him.
« What?» he asked from the couch he was sitting on, little Miraidon draped on his lap.
Romero Turo, age four, pointed to where another floating monitor was showing the news. Miraidon's eyes flickered on and the Pokémon followed his movements, before looking at his little owner with a quizzical chirp.
« Gwaaoh? »
« The man in the tv keeps talking about it. "Timettavel" »
His father's eyes lit up with recognition as soon as he looked at the screen, and Romero smiled brightly. Dad always knew everything!
« Oh, you mean "time travel"! It's a new thing that's just been invented, back on Earth.»
For Romero, Earth was just the place he saw out of the window. Or where cartoons and movies were set. So people actually did stuff over there?
« What is it?» he asked, jumping and floating over to the couch in a single movement. Dad caught him with both arms and held him down until he was sitting beside him. Miraidon chirped again and pushed his snout under the kid's hand, demanding pets.
« It's... A different way to go somewhere. You know how we go watch the shuttles leaving sometimes?» Dad asked, and Romero nodded eagerly. Yeah, he liked spaceships. They were cool, and he liked looking at all the different Pokémon and people that would step out of them.
He wanted to have a big spaceship of his own when he grew up, and then he could go on adventures with Mirai, and fight space pirates who stole from faraway planets!
« So instead of going somewhere else... Like on Earth, or Mars... They found a way to go in some other time.» Dad opened up the calendar on a screen in front of him, and pointed to a little square.
« This is today. Saturday. »
Romero nodded. He had just been learning the days of the week.
« So you could step inside a time machine, and go back... To Friday. » his finger moved to the other square.
Wide eyed dreams of flying in space were interrupted as his little, four year old brain tried to comprehend what that meant.
« ... And then it would be Saturday again? »
« Exactly!» Dad smiled, but Romero's mind was already racing to much more important things.
« And... And they can t-time-travel to any day? Any any day?? Even my birthday?»
Dad frowned, as he always did when he was not sure what he was talking about.
« I... I guess so...?»
« So with a time machine I can go back and have another birthday party??» Romero asked, eyes wide and breathless just thinking of the possibilities. He could have all the birthday parties he wanted!!
He got up from the couch and jumped up, the Moon's gravity effortlessly making him float lazily towards the ground.
« Daddy! I want to also do "time travel"!» he cheered as Dad laughed and hugged him again. Miraidon was jumping up and down, yapping as it tried to understand what all the excitement was about. The little dragon's mouth opened and closed, letting out little cawing sounds-
... Cawing...?
« -krow!»
Turo woke up with a start: something hard was pecking at his cheek. It took him a long moment to realize where he was: the room was dark, complete silence, a bare wall in front of his eyes instead of a glowing screen. His back hurt: he was slouching forward after he had fallen asleep in a chair.
That was normal for him.
He raised his head, and felt paper sticking to his face.
... Definitely less normal. He blinked, one hand fumbling for a light switch of any kind.
Something was still pecking at his cheek.
Finally managing to turn the light on, he turned and stared at the Murkrow on the desk, his small red eyes shining in the dark.
A Murkrow. Miguel.
... Not Miraidon.
Right.
It had been all a dream... more like a memory of long ago.
« What is it?» He groggily asked the small Pokémon. Turo usually slept with his window cracked open, so the Pokémon could come and go and night. He usually stayed up until late, so they kept each other company until he went to sleep.
Sometimes he would wake up the next morning to find his desk littered with random junk the Pokemon had gathered during the night.
Useless shiny baubles, the occasional crystal shard, gimmighoul coins, keys, an entire wallet in one memorable occasion which he had to spend the entire afternoon asking around the school to find its owner...
Miguel flew up to peck at the door, cawing again. Turo looked at the alarm clock next to his bed. 3: 50 AM.
« What, are you hungry?»
He was suddenly reminded of Miraidon waking him up in the middle of the night for a walk, and he felt his chest squeeze painfully. Murkrow cawed, gliding down to perch on his shoulder.
He couldn't help but smile a little as the soft feathers pressed against his cheek. It felt completely different from Miraidon's smooth plates.
... Maybe it was better that way, but he still missed the feeling.
« All right, let's get you something to eat. »
The cafeteria was actually open the entire night, as he had discovered the first time he had to work night shifts. They didn't offer complete meals like during the day, but there were always at least a couple of sandwiches or warm beverages available for the night owls like him that needed a late night snack. Or a very early breakfast, depending on your point of view.
He grabbed a couple a piece of toast, some jam and a mug of coffee and took a seat near one of the windows. The room was pretty much empty, and he sat down munching on his toast in silence for a couple of minutes, Miguel pecking at his own slice.
Why had he had that dream all of a sudden? He hadn't thought about his childhood in ages... Especially not that particular memory. His birthday was way back in June and now it was... ah.
Of course.
Turo suddenly shied away from the window, not wanting to see the moon just barely visible through it.
It hadn't been about his birthday at all.
He took a sip of coffee, wincing as the mug was still way too hot. He hastily put it down, huffing in pain. In that moment, the door to the cafeteria opened again. He looked up, expecting to see another sleepy looking student of the Academy, and blinked when he recognised Sada's figure slipping inside. She looked exhausted, wearing a heavy parka over her school uniform, and was carrying a truly enormous yellow backpack that probably weighted more than him. She smiled when she saw him and approached his seat.
« Hi... Me and Raifort just came back, I didn't think there would be anyone here... why are you awake so early?» she asked, sitting down in front of him. He mumbled an answer, looking at his coffee.
« Couldn't sleep... How was your trip?»
She had been away for a couple of days, off exploring Paldea with Raifort.
And that was ... fine, of course. He had been more than happy for her. And definitely happy he didn't have to go trekking around old ruins. Knowing himself, he would have tripped and broken his leg or something similar.
« Oh, the Alfornada caverns are amazing! A quake apparently opened up this tunnel that had been closed off before and now there's this entire unexplored cave system full of old-» she suddenly stopped, and after a moment leaned forward to peer at him, eyes filled with concern.
« Are you ... are you okay?» she asked.
It took him a long moment to answer.
« ... not really.» he said in a low voice, hesitating a couple of moments before continuing.
« I... I just dreamt about... Home. My family. It still doesn't feel real at times. I keep thinking that I can just... Call them anytime if I want, get on a shuttle and go visit them, but... then it's like I suddenly remember that... they are not... here. » he tried to explain, ending with a sigh.
« This must sound so stupid» he shook his head. There was a second of silence, followed by the sound of Sada's chair scooting backwards as she stood up. She walked around the table to sit by his side, taking his hand. She started to trace little circles on the back of his hand with his thumb.
« It's not stupid. You miss them, it's normal. I also do.» she whispered, and he took a deep breath.
Right. Of course she also missed them.
« My tribe is probably thinking... probably thought-» she corrected herself with a little hiccup in her voice.
« That we ran off together.»
That got a sad little laugh out of him. He could quite picture it, the whole tribe coming together in one of the bigger tents to wonder where Sada had run off to as they worked.
« I don't think your mother would be happy with me as your... companion. "He can't even hunt a blind creature!"» he tried to mimic the woman's stern tone.
« I'm not sure... She really liked the little Pokémon I gave her... The one from the egg that makes clothes out of leaves you talked to her about. And she really liked your drawings... » he heard Sada take a deep breath, as she gave his hand a light squeeze.
« Tell me about your family. I want to hear about it. Are they all on the Moon?» she asked in a low voice, and Turo swallowed, realizing that even if thinking about them hurt, a part of him actually wanted to tell Sada all about them.
Just... have someone other than him that knew about them, about his life. Sada and now maybe Clavell were the only ones he could reasonably open up with.
They existed as nothing more than memories in his head now, and he was afraid of forgetting even the smallest detail about them. He couldn't share anything about his life with Sada before, but... now... there was nothing stopping him.
« Ahah... » he laughed softly as he found himself relaxing slightly in his chair.
« ... No, actually only my mother and father lived on the Moon for a bit. Most of my family is from Paldea... I have a cousin that went to Mars though-» he started to explain, only for Sada to furrow her eyebrows.
« Mars is that... Other "world", right? And what's a "cousin"?» she asked immediately after, and he laughed.
With her by his side... It didn't hurt so much to think about.
While writing this chapter I've thought a lot about what situation between Sada and Turo would feel worse.
Knowing that everything about your life is gone with pretty much no trace left, or that it doesn't even exist yet, and it's literally only in your head now?
They both suck in different ways, but I'm curious what everyone thinks about it!
am finally here I've been wanting to read this for a while but I wanted to hold off until I finished the DLC since the story of the professors did a real number on me. I've greatly enjoyed Imitation Game (and was pleasantly surprised to see a second chapter pop up recently!) so an even bigger AU with them should be interesting.
Going back in time with a low battery in your time device seems like a super bad idea. I feel like he's going to fail his doctoral presentation.
"too much water" ah I see they have memes in the far future
Curious why the Paldea of the future doesn't have natural areas and if the vicious nature of the future paradoxes is to blame
"hologram with artificial light" Oh that's funny in hindsight since I know you were trying to be all futuristic but that's exactly what Blueberry does
Hm so the games are in a "golden age" of peace that seems to have long ended. iiiiiinteresting!
His bodysuit being standard in the future makes me wonder how Burnet would think of this considering she was really the first character to wear something like that, back in gen 5
A little typo with "before asked the same thing again"
Aw that's a sweet gift he gave her.
I love how you write Sada despite having no comprehensible dialogue. She's so expressive and you get across her intelligence (and frustration with not being understood) very well.
Ooh and now a Sada POV chapter! Nice!
Oh, she already has a concept of writing? Neat
Steady Glaciers, and they're wooly...Mamoswine?
"She was not going to start tasting every single leaf to find which one this sheets were made of, even if a part of her kinda wanted to." that's so very Sada
I like that her mother thinks such a person must be from the *past*
Brutal Fangs must be Gyarados if they live near a waterfall. Oh, it's red and gold? Well that's the shinies for Magikarp and Gyarados, and Magikarp were said to be stronger in the past, so who knows (though even official sources seem to doubt this like the Magikarp Song's "Maybe in ancient times it was really strong/that's what the rumors say but they're prob'ly wrong")
I do wish we'd learned somewhere in canon who developed Porygon but I guess if we the players don't know, the characters don't either.
aww he put the necklace on~
Time sickness ah like in Sims 3 haha.
"The corridors of the Time Travel Department Laboratory" I'm sorry I must do this due to your wording
>
I like that the future stuff isn't all "Iron Whatever"
hm it does beg the question as to why teleport pad tech isn't more prevalent in the present game since it's existed in that world since at LEAST the 1990s and was used in office buildings.
Ortega? So a descendant of the fairy trainer from the present?
Hm, I'm confused. You say that his original plan was to travel to the future, but you had previously said "He had wanted to land in the Lumiose City of almost 15 years ago"
Looked up the conversion of minutes--88 hours that makes sense.
"from getting teared apart" should be "torn apart"
Ah! It is a Magikarp!
"They barely have functioning muscles!" I see the Magikarp Jump league faded into obscurity in the future
Hm so they don't have a writing system, but Sada seemed familiar with writing earlier
NERDS IN LOVE YES hahaha!
I'll come back to this later as it's literally 1 am but I'm loving this so far
I wanted to get this chapter out muuuch earlier, but a scene in particular gave me a lot of trouble so it took a bit more.
Chapter 27: Knowledge, part III
Help needed! We are looking for people willing to help investigate mysterious Pokémon that have been sighted around Paldea. If you have information about strange, cristal-looking Pokémon, contact Alba Sada or Romero Turo from class 1-C of Uvanja Academy
« Does this look right?» Sada asked as she thrust the piece of paper under Turo's nose as he worked on one of the machines that he called "computers".
It took him a moment to look away from the screen, and he blinked as he read her words.
« I think "crystalline" works better here.» he said pointing out a word.
Sada frowned. Writing was so complicated. As long as people got the general idea, why did it matter what exact word sounded better? Why were there so many words that pretty much meant the same thing? It was so complicated.
« Do you really think people will come?» she asked as she crossed out the word and corrected it, then took another blank sheet of paper to copy the message over again. Turo had offered to teach her how to write faster at the computer, but while it looked simple enough, she just didn't like it. She had pretty much just learned to write by hand! She liked it! She liked how everyone had their own different handwriting.
Computers may be faster, but they made everything look the same.
« If they don't, we'll just do it alone. And we know that Clavell at least is interested.» he answered, turning back towards the computer. They were inside the empty laboratory that Clavell also often used, and had pretty much become their little office. Clavell was busy with teaching a more advanced class at the moment, while they had both finished their lessons for the day, so it was just the two of them. What Turo spent hours doing at the computer puzzled her: he had explained the basics of it, he was basically writing commands so it would perform specific actions, but it all seemed so... vague to her. So that thing could pretty much do anything? That was weird.
She focused her attention back on the table, where a great map of Paldea laid open. Together with Raifort and using the information collected slowly by students and themselves alike, she was mapping the various places where the mysterious crystal Pokémon were appearing.
« So let's see... Someone caught a Flying type Meowth in the South Province-» she said, circling the general area it had been reported.
The clacking coming from Turo's keyboard abruptly stopped.
« ... how does that work? Does it get wings? » he asked, bewildered, « Does it just start to float like a Gyarados?»
Sada shrugged as she marked another spot on the map.
« No idea. After they caught it it turned to a normal Meowth, like that Flamigo. I wish I had seen it...» she muttered, disappointed. That had to be a funny sight, at the very least.
Turo leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms to his chest as he stared at the map.
« There has to be something that triggers this change... Something we are missing. They stay transformed until you break that crystal shell... And then never do it again. Why?» he asked.
« I've been looking for something in common to all the places where they have been spotted, but... It's no use. It's just all over Paldea...» Sada shook her head, then stopped, eyes transfixed on the map.
Maybe... maybe there was something...
« There's so many little caves and tunnels in Paldea... what if they come from there? What if what's making them transform is deep underground?» she said, slowly, raising her eyes towards Turo, who took a deep breath as he realized what she meant.
« You think there's some cave that leads to Area Zero and they are actually coming out from there...?» he asked.
« I'm not sure. But we know it's definitely something from Area Zero. You... You know how the air was under there. How it felt. Let's look for these Pokémon that have appeared near caves and mountains...» she looked back to the map, before pointing out a spot right near Artazon.
« Here. Someone said they saw a strange Sudowoodo here. They didn't catch it, so it should still be there!»
Turo nodded, slowly stroking his chin.
« All right. Let's put up that message around the city and see if we can find a couple more people interested in checking the place out this weekend.»
---
A couple of days later, they got contacted by two people who had shown quite some interest in seeing these strange Pokémon. They had decided on one of Artazon's picturesque windmills as a meeting spot, and now Turo was waiting for the two of them to join them.
Sada was right next to him, her enormous yellow backbag packed with supplies.
His back hurt just looking at it.
« Are you two Sada and Turo?»
Both turned towards the voice that had spoken up: a young man with wavy green hair, arranged in short strands that partially fell in front of his face.
He had a stern, somewhat exhausted look on his face and deep bags under his eyes. Honestly, Turo was impressed; he finally met someone that looked like they slept worse than him. Near him was another man with longer, blond hair and broad shoulders.
Turo nodded.
« Are you here for the Sudowoodo?»
They both nodded, the blond man stepping forward.
« Yes, we were both quite curious about it. I'm Hassel and he is Brassius.» he said, putting one hand on the other man's shoulder, who simply narrowed his eyes and nodded stiffly.
Turo's eyes widened slightly. H-Hassel...? Like the one they named the art gallery in Mesagoza after...? That couldn't be... maybe it wasn't that uncommon of a name...?
« Pleasure to meet you both... »
« So what are we supposed to do? Just find it and catch it?» Brassius spoke up.
Sada looked up from the map she had been holding, folded it, and nodded.
« Yes. But I'm interested in following it back to its den. Most wild Pokémon will try to escape or retreat back to their nest when they feel... cornered.» she said after a slight hesitation, and Turo knew she had just barely stopped herself from saying "hunted". She had learned so much of the language in such a short time... He was proud of her.
« And who is going to do that? You?» Brassius asked, as the other man sighed lightly.
« Brassie... »
Sada simply narrowed her eyes at the man, tightening the straps of her backpack on her shoulders.
« Yes. I'm good at tracking Pokémon...» she said, only for the man to huff in contempt.
« Sudowoodo is famous for not moving, don't you know that?» he chuckled. Sada bit her lip for a short moment, irritation clear on her face. If Turo had to guess, she wasn't used to not being taken seriously or having her skill doubted.
« ... If you don't think I can do it, you can lead the way.» she said in the end, before turning her back on them and marching off.
Brassius didn't look convinced; he scowled as they started walking out of the city.
As always, Turo found himself trailing behind everyone else. He tried to pretend it was perfectly intentional, and focused on not falling too much behind.
« Brassie... I know you're in a bit of a low point right now, but there's no need to snap at strangers like that...» the man, Hassel, was saying.
« A grass-type Sudowoodo... I'll believe it when I see it.» Brassius simply muttered in response.
Turo let Miguel out, the Murkrow settling on his right shoulder, still half-asleep.
« Can you help look for more shards?» he asked, stroking the Pokémon's beak with one finger. The bird cawed and hopped off, taking a moment to start flapping his wings as he started flying around.
With his penchant for finding shiny objects, he was quite adept at tracking the crystal Pokémon. Sada's Litleo had similarly gotten better and better at it, stalking them quietly from the ground. Together, they covered pretty much any direction.
And they really needed to find another name instead of "crystal Pokémon"...
They followed the two Pokémon for a while, until Sada raised one hand, palm down, and crouched low to the ground behind some tall grass. Brassius muttered something but followed her, and so did Hassel and Turo. He threw a glance over the grass, raising one eyebrow at what he saw. He had tried to study the most common Pokémon that made up the fauna of Paldea in this era so that he wouldn't look that out of place, but most Pokémon he had still only seen briefly in a picture or during battle lessons.
He wasn't familiar with Sudowoodo at all, so he didn't know if what he was looking at was strange or completely normal, but judging by Brassius's gasped breath, it was probably the former.
The Pokémon was standing completely still in a small clearing. It had a narrow and long brown body that looked like a tree trunk, and reminded Turo of the crystallized trees he had seen in Area Zero. Two of what were probably its upper limbs were held out in front of him, partially shielding its face. On each of its two limbs and on its head were clusters of orange and red leaves, similar to the ones found in the trees all around. The leaves fell arranged in extremely long, thin branches all the way to the ground, and made the Pokémon look a bit like a weeping willow... or like it had extremely long hair.
« This... this is incredible! It really looks like a tree! This Sudowoodo has truly mastered the art of mimicry!» Brassius was now excitedly muttering.
« So it's supposedly a grass type now?» Hassel asked, looking at them both.
Turo had to think for a moment.
« Well, that's what people who saw it told us it looked like... » he said.
« There is one sure way to find out.» Sada said, before jumping out of the bush and approaching the Pokémon. It didn't budge an inch, but Turo thought he saw one piece of the bark move to follow her movements, and realized it was probably one eye, camouflaged on its tree-like skin.
Sada grabbed the water bottle she carried strapped to her backpack, unscrewed the lid, and dumped some of the water on the Pokémon.
It didn't seem to mind, actually slightly moving one leg to better absorb water, and that got another gasp out of Brassius.
« I can't believe it!»
While Sada turned back towards them with what could only be described as a "supremely smug grin", Turo looked back at the Pokémon.
« So, if it really is a Grass-type now instead of Rock-type...» his eyes trailed over to Miguel, who had been resting perched on another tree. He gave a little nod to the Pokémon, and the Murkrow fluttered on one of the Pokémon's arms with a small "krow".
It still didn't move, but Turo noticed that its eyes were carefully observing the bird Pokémon. Miguel pecked at its head. It visibly flinched, but still kept rooted to its hiding spot. Now Kim had joined the Murkrow in approaching the Pokémon, meowing as it breathed out a little puff of smoke.
The Sudowoodo kept watching them both nervously, until the Litleo growled and threw an Ember at its legs.
Turo had expected the Pokémon to attack, but instead it suddenly took off with a cry, bolting and running away from them with the silliest run he had ever seen a Pokémon do. It wasn't the only thing running though, because Brassius started chasing it immediately after.
« AVANT-GARDE! Such masterful deceit! Such composure! What a magnificent dedication to its camouflage! Let us chase this beautiful Pokémon, it has to become my companion!» he said, running ahead of them all with surprising speed.
They chased it as fast as they could, Turo sending Miguel and Hassle a Flapple to fly after it. In the end, they arrived to what looked like a small cave, a tunnel leading into the dark. As soon as they stepped inside, Turo could almost feel it, and from the way Sada flinched slightly, she had probably noticed the same. The air felt heavy like it did in Area Zero.
Brassius had already ran inside, and they followed. The more they walked, the more he saw crystal formations cover the walls, until they emerged into an enormous, completely crystallized cave. The Sudowoodo had escaped inside, and looked at the four of them with fury. The tunnel was a dead end, the Pokémon having nowhere else to escape.
« Did it crystallize because it made this place its den...?» Turo wondered out loud. So staying near these crystal formations was the key to changing types...?
He was distracted from his thoughts by the Pokémon throwing a rock at both Miguel and Kim. Caught by surprise, neither Pokémon could dodge and fell back with a cry of pain, before staggering back to their feet.
Right, he could think about that later. He had to focus.
« It can still use normal Sudowoodo moves even as a grass-type... Miguel, don't get hit by them again.» he encouraged his Pokémon, and it nodded before flapping his wings and flying up again. Brassius threw a Ball, summoning what looked like a... Turo balked, eyes starting to water and immediately feeling a sneeze build up.
« Are you kidding me... a Smoliv?» he growled. Of all Pokémon he could have used...
« Use Growth, then Razor Leaf!» Brassius ordered, throwing him an irritated glance.
« Yes, so what? I mostly train grass types. I thought we would fight a rock-type!»
The terrified-looking Pokémon glowed briefly gathering energy, and the olive on its head grew slightly bigger. Oh great. Didn't that mean it had even more oil now?
« I'm... allergic to Smoliv-» he tried to say, getting interrupted by a sneeze as the Pokémon sent a barrage of olive leaves flying towards their opponent.
This was going to be just great.
---
« We have to break off those crystals completely! It will be impossible to catch otherwise!» Sada called out, as Hassel ordered his Pokémon to strike the Sudowoodo with its wings. She found it quite adorable: a little dragon that lived in an apple! Chalo would have loved it...
Turo's loud sneeze distracted her from that thought, and she threw a little worried look to her side.
« I'm fine... let's focus on the battle.» he sniffled, grabbing in his jacket for some tissues. At least Murkrow seemed capable of dodging more rocks the wild Pokémon was throwing even as his trainer was distracted.
She focused her attention back on Kim; they were in a weird stalemate. The Sudowoodo was weak to almost all of their Pokémon's attacks, but since it could still use rock type attacks, it could also really hurt them in return. But if it needed a bit of space to throw those rocks, maybe getting close would be effective...
« Kim, use Fire Fang and stick close to it!» she ordered, choosing to use one of the newest things she had learned to do.
The Litleo let out a little roar and started sprinting toward her opponent; instead of simply spitting a ball of fire, she let it burn at the back of her throat and cover her fangs in flames, before leaping and trying to sink her teeth into one of the Sudowoodo's arms. Some of its leaves caught fire and the Pokémon wailed, swinging its arms trying to get the Fire type to let go; after a moment, its other arm glowed and it punched the little Pokémon right in the stomach, sending the Litleo flying again with a yowl of pain.
Sada flinched, caught unprepared.
« Kim! »
That looked like it had hurt; the Pokémon took a moment to stand up again. She hated just having to watch as their Pokémon did all the work. It felt completely unnatural to her; was there really nothing she could do...?
... she was going to bring her bow with her from the next battle onward, she decided, no matter what Clavell said or how weird it looked.
« That was Hammer Arm, so it can use Fighting type moves too.» Hassel intervened. He was carefully watching the battle, arms crossed to his chest as his Flapple took a moment to rest by closing itself inside his apple.
« Oh, great... is there anything it can't do?» she heard Turo grumble between one sneeze and the other.
Sada forced herself to stay focused. They were throwing attacks at it as if they were each fighting it alone. But that wasn't how she had approached fights until know. During a hunt, each person had their role and knew exactly what to do. This was how they had to act if they wanted to defeat it, or they would just keep hurting their Pokémon.
They all had attacks that were effective on it, so... If they could use them in a smart way to break off those crystals...
Kim stood back up and roared again, the little tuft of fur on her head growing hotter as she did while her voice echoed off the walls of the cave. She looked a bit unstable on her legs, having been hit by various especially effective attacks.
« Can you still fight?» she asked, and the Litleo meowed.
« We need to weaken it first... and someone else needs to distract it.» Sada commented.
« Oh, Miguel is a master at annoying people- use Taunt!» Turo chuckled by her side, having apparently recovered enough to give an order.
The Murkrow flew near the Sudowoodo and started loudly cawing towards his opponent, hovering frustratingly just out of reach to avoid the rocks the Pokémon started throwing in response.
« I can weaken it... Flapple, Acid Spray!» Hassel commanded, his little dragon peeking out from his shell to spit a purple liquid at it. She vaguely knew what an "acid" was from Clavell's biology lessons on Poison types, so it should probably hurt it quite a lot now... It actually started to eat away at some more of the leaves on its arms with a sizzling sound, little pieces of crystal flaking off them. Good, they needed to keep that up...
The Sudowoodo let out another high-pitched screech, and suddenly its whole body started to almost shine. Sada blinked, covering her eyes; it was like the light refracting from the crystal walls all around was converging all around the Pokémon as it hardened its skin...
Sada gasped.
« It knows we want to break it off! It's protecting itself!»
How did it do that? Was it something special crystal Pokémon could do? Or had it just used some kind of move?
« I think... I think it used Harden, but covered in crystals like that, of course those would harden too...» Hassel said.
« Wonderfull! How the light refracts all around its head! I can't blame this creature for wanting to stay in its most magnificent form as long as it can! Be mine!» Brassius seemed to have gone back to his most... enthusiastic way of talking. Sada wasn't exactly sure what to think of the man: the fact that he hadn't trusted her irritated her and had resulted in him not even coming prepared for the fight, but the enthusiasm he was showing for this Pokémon was kind of... contagious, in a way.
« Smoliv, it's time to summon your most dazzling display of power! Sunny Day!»
The light in the cave only grew as the little Grass-type conjured a fiery ball of light that made Kim roar, feeling invigorated. Oh! Wait, she had seen something like this back home... warmth made fire types grow stronger.
And with the Acid Spray of before...
« Kim, use Ember! Breath fire as hard as you can!» she encouraged the Litleo, who took a deep breath and started to breathe little balls of flame towards the Sudowoodo, one after the other, pausing to breathe less and less, until almost a single stream of fire was flowing through the air.
It engulfed the Sudowoodo, who in a desperate counter-attack sprinted towards Kim again, both arms with its almost completely burned off leaves glowing as it charged one Hammer Arm in each...
Sada flinched, resisting the urge to throw herself in front of her Pokémon; but if both of those hit... what if it...
« Dragon Breath!»
« Gust!»
Hassel's and Turo's orders came at the same time, their two Pokémon coming up from behind Sudowoodo; their attacks blew the Pokémon backwards and to the ground. The crystal shattered, and the Sudowoodo collapsed, exhausted. She didn't even have time to blink before Brassius threw a Poké Ball at it with a triumphant shout.
Silence fell in the cave... or it would have, if it wasn't for Turo's enormous sneeze that broke it.
« Urgh... I hate this... » he complained.
---
Turo heaved a deep sigh of relief as soon as Brassius finally called back his Smoliv into his Poké Ball. His eyes stung and his nose had been running non stop for the whole battle, making it kind of difficult for him to focus. Thankfully his Pokémon had been more than able to take care of himself; he had never quite understood the tendency of trainers in the past - or, well... now- to yell things like "Dodge!!".
Pokémon reflexes were usually a lot faster than humans, barring some exceptions like Slowpoke.
... surely the Pokémon was perfectly able to do it by themselves?
He didn't get it.
Miguel's happy cry got his attention, and he found the crow Pokémon flying in circles around the spot where the Sudowoodo had stood. He walked over to him, and he landed on his shoulder, showing him a little pile of crystal shards. The whole cave was pretty much made of the same material... this place could prove invaluable for their research.
« Let's gather as much of these fragments as we can... these all seem of the same color... » he mused out-loud, petting the Murkrow with one hand as he thought. Maybe it was a bit like light, being made of different colors in a spectrum. Maybe different "frequencies" in the energy emitted by these crystals resulted in different types... maybe it was something in the soil? Different rock compositions and different minerals lead to different "frequencies" being absorbed by these crystals and led to different types... Or maybe it was the opposite, and the Pokemon that ended up living here influenced the crystals somehow?
He would have to run some tests back at the Academy. He finished gathering all the fragments he could get from the ground and stood back up, turning towards the rest of the group.
« Kim fought well. » he complimented Sada as she finished giving the Litleo a couple of Potion to heal her injuries. Miguel pecked him on the shoulder, and he sighed.
«... yes, of course you also fought well.» he added, petting the bird again, and Miguel cawed with satisfaction.
Sada slung the heavy backpack on her shoulders again, before frowning a little.
« I don't like... Not doing anything.» she said after a moment, and his smile dimmed a bit. It must have felt pretty unnatural for her to just give orders to her Pokémon.
« You help her by paying attention to her...» he tried to comfort her, but he didn't sound particularly convinced himself. After all, Miguel had done pretty well by himself right now while he had been busy sneezing-
« What?!»
They both turned around at Brassius's sudden outburst to find the man slumped to the ground in a dramatic fashion. He had let the Sudowoodo out of his Pokéball, and looked dismayed at it.
« You're just a normal Sudowoodo now?!»
Oh. Right. They had failed to mention that.
« That's what has happened with other Pokémon like this we've tried to study. There's something unique to these caves that allows them to change type. If a Pokémon spends enough time living here, it probably affects them in some way, but it goes away once the crystal gets shattered.» Turo explained, putting all the gathered shards in Sada's bag.
« We want to study this, um... "phe-no-me-na" and find a way to recreate it anywhere, at any time.» Sada added.
Brassius's head snapped back up, and he pretty much crawled towards them for a couple of steps before rising back up to his feet, a manic glint in his eye.
« ... So you two... could make it possible to see that beautiful form any time I want... ?»
« Err.... Maybe...?»
« ... Really?» Hassel interjected, eyes wide.
« The possibly to make any Pokémon of any type... That would be incredible. As long as it doesn't have any negative effects...» he added after a moment.
« Well... That Sudowoodo looked more than fine to me. It seemed pretty used to being a Grass type. » Turo replied with a little shrug.
« That is... true. The possibilities are... Quite inspiring! Imagine a Pokémon of a type that's the complete opposite of what it usually is... » Hassel mused, his somewhat stoic expression having opened up a little bit.
« You said you two are students at the Academy? I will gladly look forward to seeing what you do after you graduate.» he added, and Brassius fervently nodded.
« Yes! It doesn't matter how much time it will take you ... if I can see that wonderful form again... I need to sketch it before I forget the smallest detail about that wonderful shape-» he said, looking around almost feverishly.
That sure was a ... sudden change from the sullen look he had shown at first.
They gathered their supplies and headed for the exit of the cave as they exchanged contacts; for once, he couldn't wait to climb inside a Flying Taxi.
--- "Preliminary tests have found that great quantities of these crystals seem to emit a yet unknown kind of energy. This energy-"
« You know, we really need to find another name than just "crystals"» Turo sighed some days later as he stopped writing the report, turning towards Sada by swiveling the chair around, back in their laboratory.
Sada hummed thoughtfully, looking around the room.
On the table was a big multicolored pile of all the shards they had gathered until now, be it by battling the mysterious Pokémon, found on the ground, or that Kim and Miguel had found while wandering around. The two Pokémon were busy examining the various pieces of lab equipment, with the bird peering into the glass dome that held a couple of empty Poké Ball -some device to analyze the Pokémon that was put inside it, not that different from the system Pokémon Centers used to rapidly heal them - while the Litleo was cautiosly pawing at it from below. They both seemed to be intrigued by the little beeps and flashing lights of all the machinery around them.
Her latest catch, the Golett, was moving some hesitant steps around the room. The little clay golem had taken a while to recover from the shock of finding itself alone after it had woken up in those ruins after so much time. She still had to find a name for it.
But it looked like being around other Pokémon was putting it at ease.
She focuses her attention back to Turo as he tapped slightly on the keyboard.
« I... don't know how people name things here... In math class when people discovered something, didn't they give it their name...? We could do the same...? The... "Turo-Sada phenomena"» she offered after a moment, thinking back to her lessons. Turo frowned, writing it down on a blank piece of paper. His Murkrow fluttered down from the lab equipment to watch them curiously, and she could see Kim peer up at them from the other side of the table, disgruntled at not being tall enough to see what was going on.
« I'm not sure that's a good idea... I think I would have found it strange if I saw something with my name in school...» Turo said, throwing a quick glance to the door as he lowered his voice.
« The fact that I didn't notice anything at the time... Must mean that we don't name it that...? » he said, looking uncertain.
Sada stared at him with a little smile on her face, not impressed.
« Or you just didn't pay attention in school.» she replied, to which the man burst out laughing.
« That's possible... History was never my favourite subject. I also have never heard of glowing Pokémon appearing in Paldea, so... Who knows how much got lost in thousands of years between this time and mine.» his face clouded over a little bit, the smile quickly disappearing from his face.
Sada grabbed the piece of paper and stared at it, not wanting to give Turo the time to mull over things too much. He always got pretty quiet when it happened, and she didn't like to see him like that.
« All right, no "Turo-Sada phenomena". Umm... There are other "changes" Pokémon can have, right? Like... That "Mega Evolution" Clavell mentioned in class.»
Thankfully, that seemed to get Turo's attention, because he started to rub at his chin with one hand, like he often did when pondering something.
She has never quite found the courage to say to him how much she liked that little gesture.
« Yes... these Pokémon are pretty much transforming their whole bodies... wait.» he stopped, one eyebrow raised as he looked back to the blank paper.
« "Mega" is a word that means "large", and is used in front of other words - a "prefix"- to mean a certain quantity... With this transformation, there's orders of magnitude more possibilities if each Pokémon can become of ant type...»
She almost wanted to ask what "magnitude" meant, but she had quickly learned to make a mental note of words she didn't know and look them up in a dictionary later if it wasn't the right moment to do so. She didn't want to interrupt him, since she had still got the gist of what he was saying.
« So what about using "Tera" as a prefix?» Turo proposed.
« "Tera"... Tera evolution?» she tried out how it sounded, but it didn't quite ring correctly to her. Kim jumped on the table and started nosing the pile of shards. Nobody but the other two Pokémon paid attention to her, both of them too absorbed by their thoughts.
« Tera Transformation...? » Turo offered, only to be interrupted by a loud squawk as Miguel flew possessively over what he saw as "his" little treasure pile and pecked the fire type on the nose. The Litleo hissed, swiping at the Murkrow with her paw.
« Miguel, no- get down!»
« Kim-»
They both moved to intercept their respective Pokémon, but Golett anticipated them both. Stepping up to the two Pokémon, the golem grabbed the Litleo by the scruff and held her up, while raising one hand to keep the Murkrow away. Both Pokémon protested loudly, but the Ghost type simply shook its head and murmured something that neither of the two humans could make sense of. After a moment, the golem let Kim go, and she scampered off with an offended glare while Miguel went back to Turo's shoulder.
« Thank you for keeping an eye on them.» Sada smiled as she patted the golem on its head, who let out a low whistle and nodded.
Kim was incredibly energetic, so the calm and reassuring presence of the Golett was nice to have around as a contrast.
« I still have to find you a name...» she sighed.
Turo sat back down, absent mindedly petting a disgruntled Murkrow as he thought.
« A name that sounds... ancient, maybe... How about Ötzi?» he offered with a little smile.
« Ötzi?» she repeated, testing how it sounded.
« It's the name of a man from long ago... well, not as long as you... that was found in a glacier. It's... well, it's not actually his name, obviously, we don't know what he was called after all...» his words quickly dissolved into a flustered muttering that made her smile. She looked to the Golett.
« Do you like it? "Ötzi"?»
The Golett paused for a moment, then nodded slowly, his eyes glowing brightly.
Sada smiled and patted its head again, before suddenly stopping, eyes widening.
« Umm... You said he was found in a "glacier"... was he... Covered in ice?» she asked, and Turo nodded.
« Yes, that's why it was possible to find it so well preserved...» he answered distractedly. So he had been... Frozen... Encased...
« ... So it means he was... "stopped" in time by the ice, right? "Terastop"? No, it sounds weird... stall! Stall also means to stop something... "Terastal"?» she asked, eyes gleaming.
Turo frowned at first, not quite understanding what she was getting at, before his own eyes widened.
« ... because they stay transformed as long as they are encased in crystal...» he said, a little smile slowly making his way on his face.
« Yes!!»
« "Terastal"... I like it. It's perfect. Let's use it! And we can call the action of these Pokémon transforming "Terastallize"...» he said with a little laugh, resuming his writing.
« And-» Sada added with a little smile « - it still kind of uses our initials.» she said, satisfied.
She turned back towards her own work, which had been sorting all the little shards they had gathered into different groups based on their colour. They were both pretty sure that different colours corresponded to different types now, but some similarly coloured shards were kind of difficult to discern at a glance. Like the green ones they had gotten from Sudowoodo were somewhat darker than the light green bug-typed ones they had gotten from the Flamigo...
She motioned for Ötzi to come near her to her side.
« Here. Can you help? You are the only Pokémon here with hands.» just to make sure it understood her, she showed him how she was moving the shards in little piles.
The Pokémon tilted its head, then nodded again and started gingerly copying her to pick up the Tera shards.
Sada couldn't help but smile a little sadly watching the Pokémon work. It reminded her of how her tribe had slowly changed in the months after her first meeting with Turo and she had come up with the idea of training Pokémon... From their little flock of Spark Tails to a couple of other Pokémon they had hatched from stolen eggs... Even Narjik had started to look interested in the idea of trying to tame a Pokémon.
She quietly wondered if he had managed it in the end... Had Fluffyhead evolved again? Had her mother created new types of clothes with the silk spun from bug types? Had Chalo found someone from another tribe and left, or had someone else come into theirs?
She wished that she could somehow know what had happened to them; she missed them so much...
She sighed and concentrated back on her task. For a while, they worked in silence, until the sound of the lab door opening made her turn towards the door. Clavell peeked inside, a pile of test answer sheets and books under his arm.
« Hard at work, I see.» he commented as he stepped inside, putting the tests down on the opposite side of the table before sitting down himself.
« Have you done any progress?» he asked.
« We've decided on a name to describe this new "transformation". Terastal!» Sada announced, not without a proud smile.
Clavell nodded after a moment.
« I see... It makes sense.»
« We've established that the energy of these Tera crystals triggers the transformation. If we could build a device to trigger it anywhere... This would revolutionalize Pokémon training.» Turo said, raising his head from his computer.
« ... But it's going to take time. We need first to find a way to contain and store this energy... then control it. And then actually how to use it to trigger the change in the Pokémon in a safe way... and it's going to take money» he added, looking down at his notes with a frown.
« Money...? » Sada frowned as well, looking around the lab.
« Can't we just continue working here?» she asked, only for Clavell to shake his head as Turo sighed.
« ... Not after you graduate. Scientists usually need someone to fund their research... And you are probably going to need much more specialized equipment than what you can find here.» he explained, only for Sada to tilt her head to one side, confused.
« "Fund"...?»
« We need to find someone interested in what we want to do that is going to give us money for it. » Turo explained.
Sada scowled. She didn't understand why people couldn't just... do things. If they were interested in what they were trying to do, why not just... Help?
« All right... I'm sure everyone will be interested in it.» she said with a huff.
« I'm sure the League at least will... I'm here for something else though. The Academy has decided the place to send some of their students on a school trip for this year... And you both got chosen.»
It took a moment for his words to register. Sada blinked, while Turo just raised one eyebrow.
« ... Really? »
« I had nothing to do with it, if that is what you are asking.» Clavell fixed his glasses with a slightly offended look.
« I think you are going to find it interesting... the destination is going to be Kalos this year. »
I realized I hate writing Tera raids during this chapter lol
Four people and four Pokemon and needing to write in a way that feels like everyone is contributing is HARD.
But I'm SO EXCITED for the next chapter!! I had Kalos planned as their trip for obvious reasons from way before the DLC got announced, so sorry Sada and Turo, no Kitakami trip for you... For now, at least.
Interesting that she associates "down" with "south" prior to mapmaking. Though I suppose some pokemon have natural magnetism so it would be "whatever way they're not facing".
I like that we're getting names for even pokemon the modern era would find familiar, though I suppose Talonflame has also changed over the ages. And using their feathers to line clothes to keep warm is great!
as someone with a pet parrot, you never say something you don't want to take the chance will be repeated back to you. "Dumbass" certainly applies to his situation
Ah, I was wondering what role it was she thought he had. Her reasoning makes sense.
Her hesitation that Turo could be capable of evil is some great dark humor given the plot of the actual game
I love that not every mon has a name yet. At least to Sada's people. She and Chalo are researchers even now!
Aww, some stargazing. Did he really come just for that though? And he hardly spoke. I wonder if he's not from further in the future, because something is up with him.
Chapter 5!
Bah, you'll never make it as a scientist unless you analyze even your everyday conversations like they're an experiment!
Ooh Hassel art gallery. Our boy made it! Take that, Dragon Clan!
Bricks and mortar are a sign that something is at least a thousand years old? Man, the future has some weird building standards.
I love how even as a serious professional, Turo is also concerned about what is the most badass.
Funny that Steven Stone is remembered by name this far in the future.
Huh I guess nothing was really up, other than him trying to keep that secret from Sada. But I do wonder why they're not conversing. Didn't feel like writing a big conversation?
Aww she's gonna give him an outfit! Maybe out of the new wool?
Chapter 6
"To the point of having barely any muscle on him" yeah tell that to a certain type of fanartists...
Turo, maybe "researcher" would be a better word to use than "scientist". It's more general. But he's only now learning how to leave his own sphere of experience.
ohhhhh it took me a bit to figure out what the red creature is hahaha but that's gotta be the winged king!
Chapter 7
Haha heightened emotional state I'm hoping means he's further flustered from his paleo crush
--Ohhhh looks like a little of that but mostly frustration that her genius is being wasted. Turo, you go far enough into the future, someone would say that about you as well.
Do they only have the one Porygon working here? I would think they would have a whole fleet of them.
oh god he's writing her name aaaaah
this fic is so cute and i know they end up being sent to the present era at some point and stranded there together, so I wonder when that will happen
I like how Sada is surprised SHE hasn't thought of this before. Not that "nobody" had thought of it, but specifically her.
Aaaaand Turo may have just created a time paradox. He's good at that. Usually he just summons them.
By this point Chalo has to be getting the name wrong intentionally, right?
I like the association of electricity with fire. After all, that would be an easy classification!
Sada just invented Pokemon battling, and she did it without any time paradoxes. Nice.
Good job, you trained a legendary. Though I wonder what legends her people have about what would be regular mon in the present!
Chapter 9!
Eusine being remembered as a massive Suicune fanboy would probably do his heart proud. Though other than the events of the game did he get that close to it?
ok given the way his adventures have always worked I don't actually trust Satoshi to *not* just plain be Ash, somehow transported to the distant future.
Turo not liking orange is something I've used before too! Does Sada likewise not like grapes? Though I suppose she's never had them in this fic...yet.
I like that this big mecha lizard, that's always been a lizard even earlier in its evolutionary scale, is referred to as a puppy
Jules I. Wells ah yes of course. Gotta have a pun or a reference in there, in true Pokemon tradition.
Well great and now the supervisor is named Moreau
I love that the first thing Turo does is worry that Sada would wait, worrying about him in return. It's not really about the time travel any more, and probably hasn't been for a while.
and now he's missing a civilization that he's only experienced through one person
ohhhh no he's going to try to capture Winged King isn't he oh Turo we know you're a dumbass but don't do it
awww he really wants to do what she asks but he just can't...Surprised that she didn't think of asking him to come meet her people though! Chalo is going to be shocked. Shocked I say!
Chapter 10!
It seems like allying with pokemon and then that alliance being utterly lost to time is a common ebb and flow throughout history
"Winged King wouldn't hurt her. It hadn't done so the past days and it wouldn't start now" Sada I have some bad news about the you from a different timeline who made the same mistake...
Oh, dried meat! Reminds me of how Turo's narrative more or less said that he'd never had the real thing earlier, just synthetic, so when he goes to the village it'll be yet another first for him
She knows something is suspicious but god, she can't even begin to imagine what to be suspicious *about*. He's familiar with riding these beasts, but what could that possibly mean? I wonder if she's going to eventually piece together that he's from another time.
For someone with such a keenly honed danger sense, I think she's letting her personal feelings and curiosity override that if she's so eager to meet a group that she thinks maaaaay have banished her mysterious friend. But then, curiosity overriding sense is a trait she has in any era.
Bushy Pelt...Cinccino?
"He'll be staying with us from now on" Geez Sada you haven't even gone on your first date yet. Jumping the gun a bit?
Yep, yep, Chalo is absolutely doing this on purpose
I really like how you portray their discomfort with certain things coming across as misunderstandings. He's terrified of causing a time paradox (and seems unaware that he already has) and she takes that as him showing trauma from some mistreatment from his own people.
Haha and when he find out that he *has* caused a time paradox, he's impressed with Sada for it! That's so cute, and shows off his own impulsive side.
geez he'd never thought of infant mortality rates. He's going to run into quite a shock when he prepares a report on this visit.
And now she witnesses his secret! I like that she's not sure if he's a strange creature himself or commanding the power of one.
Chapter 11!
Man, Turo just doesn't have much luck with AIs respecting his eccentricity does he. Though having one nag him about going to bed is much more tolerable to him than an exact replica of himself telling him that his plan is going to get everyone killed, of course.
Ah yep, biggest apparel company in Paldea. I figured Ortega had to be related to the fairy leader.
"At the moment, it wasn't important" Yeah keep telling yourself that
The part about not getting attached made me cry
He's not there in thirty years...of course knowing what your next story is about, I know where he goes, but yeesh! (and likely he's not there either in that length of time)
Aramis...well, they still have classic literature in that era
"Aren't you--" Ohhhhhh no
oh damn she's PISSED
Wait I thought the injection just kept him safe from disease (though that begs the question of how it works when traveling to the future)
Oh god mutual affection hnnnnngh
Chapter 12!
Love how he explains the time difference
I notice before she described him as "scrawny" and now her perspective describes him as having a "lean build". She's getting more and more fond of him
KISS! KISS! YES!
oh god he's going to have to capture Winged King to heal it... Though I wonder how pokemon can go through this when humans can't without the injection. Because of the containment of the ball?
Aww and he comes back to right when he left
God I love these two. And it makes me wonder if they ever become close to what they do in the game.
Fun fact I'm reading this on the one year anniversary of me beating the game and getting obsessed with these characters in the first place.
I've been struggling a bit these past two months, mostly because I didn't have a laptop. I'm used to writing a lot of things on my phone, but it still slowed me down a bit. For Part 2 I wanted to do shorter chapters hoping to update more often, but there was something that kept feeling a bit "off" in the last 2-3 chapters, like it led to scenes actually being shorter, like they couldn't "breath" properly. So I tried to go back to how I was writing in Part 1... which led to this chapter having to be split into two part instead of one like my initial plan.
I guess that's a sign it's been working? Kinda?
Also... you have no idea how hard I laughed when Legend Z was announced, right as I was writing an entire chapter set in Lumiose because of something I decided at the very beginning of this fic.
Chapter 28: Voyage, part I
Turo hadn't quite considered what travelling to Kalos in this time would entail until a couple of days before the trip. The thing was, with teleportation technology in his time every place on Earth had become pretty much instantly accessible. Maybe, for trips to more remote places, you had to switch teleporter a couple of times because of how they were set up and connected, and how far they could safely send someone. Your baggage was also similarly just sent along with you or just after you, as long as it fit on the teleporting pad.
It was fast and convenient, but it had made Earth itself feel... Strangely small, in a way. When every place was instantly accessible, you kind of lost that feeling of actually departing and going somewhere.
That feeling had transferred completely to travelling in space, where you still had to carefully plan your trip, and actually travel, and pack your bags... so now having to do all of that just to go to Kalos left him befuddled. It wasn't even that far away! There really wasn't a more convenient way of travelling there than plane?
« How long is this going to take?» he half-mumbled, half- whispered as he sat down in his assigned seat. Clavell had booked the tickets for everyone, and had ended up sandwiched between him and Sada... Something that left Turo, sitting on the aisle side, a bit disappointed with, and Clavell embarrassed. He had wanted to sit near Sada... Who, meanwhile ,looked like she couldn't be happier sitting on the window side.
« Your "plane" didn't have wings this long!» she enthusiastically said, peering outside.
« Because it didn't need any-» he muttered as he fastened his seatbelt and reclined back in his seat with a sigh. By his side, Clavell furrowed his eyebrows.
« What do you mean it didn't need wings? How would it fly then?»
Turo smiled a bit invardly as he turned towards Clavell. He had to admit revealing to him little details about his time and watching his mind get blown was always entertaining... And probably just a little bit of a coping mechanism.
« Space doesn't have air.» he just said.
Clavell's seemed to take a moment to get it, at which point his eyes widened and the man leaned forward in a hurried whisper.
« You went to space?!»
« More than once... and you still haven't told me how long this will take.»
« Well, umm...» Clavell still looked a bit dazed, but he fixed his glasses as he thought for a moment.
« Two hours, more or less »
Turo sat back up in his seat, speechless.
« T-two hours?!» he realized he had raised his voice when people in the nearby seats turned to stare curiously at them.
He lowered it back to slightly more than a whisper as he sank back down in his seat, sinking in it even lower than before. He groaned invardly. Two hours in a cramped, tiny seat and the ridiculous tiny screen in his seat only had like, ten movies to choose from.
« Two hours for barely going to another country... I could've almost reached the darn Moon in that time...» he muttered to a bewildered Clavell, who was doing his best to keep his composure.
« You could just casually go to the Moon?!»
He smiled a little bit as the plane started up his engine and decided to blow the scientist's mind a little more.
« Sure. I was born on it.»
---
Sada's only other experience of flying that wasn't on a Pokémon or a Flying Taxi (which she still kind of counted as flying on a Pokémon, just in a less direct way) had been the time she had gone to the Moon in Turo's time. And while she had found it all incredibly fascinating and still treasured the memory, she had to say that she was enjoying this flight quite a lot more. You could actually see the ground get smaller and smaller as the plane got up, the clouds rushing beneath, the scenery change... And you could actually feel the whole plane move when it tilted to turn left or right! She loved it; yes, you didn't get quite as much up like when you went to space, but she liked being able to see the area they were flying over. It gave her a better idea of where they were. She had seen maps of the world, impressed at how people had managed to draw up the entire world with so much precision, but it had felt a bit impersonal until now.
She actually had never left Paldea since they had landed in this time, and the thought that they were going to "Kalos", which was supposedly where she was from... It felt strange.
She tried to keep her expectations in check. Things had changed; it's not like she would find her old village there... but a little part of her kept thinking that, maybe, there would be something.
Just... anything. She looked away from the window, and turned towards the two men in the two seats beside her who had been exchanging whispers here and there. Turo was managing to look annoyed for most of the flight, and she would have liked to sit beside him like they had done on the Moon plane, but he seemed to be enjoying telling Clavell about his time. When they were done, she leaned forward in her seat to speak to Clavell herself.
« You said that the school does this trip often? » she asked, and Clavell nodded.
« Yes. As one of the oldest Pokémon academies in the world, Uvanja Academy has always tried to keep meaningful relationships with other regions to set an example. A lot of our students come to study from all over the world, but since we can't accept everyone who asks to enroll each year, we often organize school trips or joint research projects with other regions instead. Last year was Kitagami, the year before that Johto... it's been a while since I've been to Kalos on a school trip.» he answered.
« I've been lucky, then... what is Kalos like?»
Clavell took off his glasses as Sada leaned back in her seat, cleaned them, then put them back on and stared at her in silence for a couple of seconds.
« ... well, it's... different from Paldea, for sure. Kalos has had a long and bloody history, with a lot of wars with neighbouring regions during the years...» He started, and it made her frown a bit.
« ... That doesn't sound that different from the Emperor of Paldea to me... so are we just going to see stuff about those wars?» she complained, already growing a bit exasperated at the idea.
She found all the focus that history classes put on wars and dates both frustrating and... somewhat disappointing. She wanted to see other stuff! Places! How people lived! What Pokémon there were!
Almost like he had read her thoughts, now it was Clavell's turn to learn towards her and lower his voice.
« I've always wondered... what do you think of it? Did people really not fight between themselves in your time...?» he asked. Sada noticed Turo turn slightly towards them as he thumbed boredly through one of the in-flight magazines he had taken from the seat in front of him.
She sighed, and shook her head.
« Not in my tribe... in my time , at least. We were just so busy surviving... and there was nothing to fight over. There just weren't enough people. We mostly traded things with other tribes when we met... and if someone didn't like a place, you would just move away to another. I don't...» she hesitated, then lowered her voice even more.
« I don't understand... I don't understand what went so wrong. I keep hearing about dozens and dozens of wars in history class and... I just don't get it. How people went from struggling to survive to... that.» she whispered.
Maybe it was her who had an overly naïve view of the world. For all she knew, her tribe was an isolated case because they were so few so far apart, and people had waged war against each other even in her time.
But it... saddened her to think about it.
There was an awkward moment of silence between all three of them. She noticed from the corner of her eye Turo shifting uncomfortably in his seat. He looked like he wanted to hold her hand, but to do so he would have to pretty much lean over Clavell's seat to reach her, so he just turned around after a moment with a small frown.
Clavell, meanwhile, was the one to gently squeeze her shoulder after a moment.
« ... I understand that you may feel... Disappointed, but I think you should focus more on all the great things people achieved from your time...» he said a bit hesitantly.
Sada nodded; yeah, maybe she should do that...
« ... There's a friggin' dragon out there!»
She raised her head quickly at Turo's amazed voice; the man was looking out of the window opposite from their seats.
She shifted sideways to try and see, ignoring Clavell's sharp intake of breath as she almost clambered all over his legs to do so.
« What?! You mean so high up?» she asked.
« Nah, it was serving drinks. Of course it was flying outside! » Turo deadpanned as he rolled his eyes.
Sada peered out the window; for a moment she thought that Turo had blurted it out only to distract her, but then she also saw it: a big, plump dragon with bright yellow scales was flying next to the plane. It turned around, waved happily with one paw, then sped off, leaving the plane in the dust.
« Wha-! So fast! What Pokémon was that?» she asked turning to Clavell... And just now realizing she was pretty much draped over his seat, her elbow poking him in the ribs. Clavell, to his credit, was doing his best to look like nothing was wrong... Even if he looked like he was blushing a bit, now that she paid attention to it.
« S-sorry...» she went back to her seat with a little blush, biting her lip.
« ... Don't worry about it. That was a Dragonite, by the way. They are some of the fastest flying Pokémon-» he started to explain, only to get interrupted by Turo.
« If it's faster than the plane, why are we not flying on one?» he sighed in an exasperated done, making her laugh.
---
The flight had been... Well, he supposed it could have been worse. Why you still had to wait for your luggage instead of investing in just teleporting the luggage to your destination still left Turo baffled, together with a dozen little things that made no sense to him in this time. He was quite sure that the technology existed by now, he had seen some prototypes online... Maybe they were still just short distance?
« Why don't use Pokémon then?» Turo still complained to Clavell as they finally, finally got out of the airport and straight onto a taxi headed for Lumiose.
« You can't tell me something like a... Um... Alakazam or Gardevoir or whatever can't just bring your luggage with them. They are also super smart, it's not like they would lose it or mix it up... »
« You would have to train all those Pokémon, and at that point, it could just bring people with them too ... But I'm not sure a Pokémon would be capable of teleporting halfway across the world...» Clavell answered after he had taken a seat in the back. Sada had decided to sit behind the driver, while Turo had taken the right-most seat. He huffed, mildly annoyed.
« And? Just have them do a lot of little teleport jumps from city to city. Surely it's still much faster than a plane... That's what the teleporter's network is-» Turo stopped, taking a short breath as Clavell frowned.
« That's what the teleporter's network is... Will be? No idea what you would say, honestly. » he chuckled after a moment, before frowning and letting out a sigh.
« ... Whatever. Not like it matters. I know that's how things have to go... Or my society and my time wouldn't exist as they are. So... Wide-spread teleportation is still a way off, as much as I hate it... It just doesn't make sense to me now that it took so long since you do have working teleport pads already... Maybe it's an energy problem.» he concluded, looking out of the car window.
« So all this teleport talk... Are you some sci-fi writer?» the taxi driver suddenly pipep up from the front of the car, making all three of them jump on their seats. Turo's eyes widened.
« You speak Paldean?» he blurted out in a panic.
« Yeah. Studied at Uvanja Academy back in the day, like lots of people, so I never really forgot Paldean after that.» the driver smiled.
Turo tried to compose himself. Of course, of all the hundreds of taxi drivers they could get, they just had to meet the one guy that studied abroad. Great.
« ... Yes. Brainstorming ideas about a story. How society would change if wide spread teleportation were available...» he mumbled.
« Well, I would be out of a job then.» the driver laughed, and Turo frowned. Well, yes, but that wasn't a reason not to try and make things better, to strive for progress.
People would have gotten nowhere if they remained stuck in the mentality of "but then things would have to change", or "but we've always done things like this", right?
« ... Your job would just have to adapt. You would probably find yourself driving something in conditions where you can't use a teleporter...» he argued back, feeling somewhat irrationally defensive.
« Like what conditions?»
Turo grit his teeth.
« I don't know, space probably! » he spat out, only getting an incredulous eye roll in response.
He forced himself to stay calm, and to not let his mounting irritation show on his face.
Why was he even getting so worked up about this? He knew how things would go.
He knew he was right, no matter if this random guy thought it was stupid.
The driver simply laughed again as they stopped at a red light, three Gogoat carrying school children galloping past them.
« So I would be a taxi driver in space? That sounds cool... If you ever publish that book, I would read it! Eh... space...»
« I... um... thanks, I guess....» Turo just shook his head, going back to looking out of the window.
There was nothing but silence for a couple of minutes; Clavell was busy checking their documents to check in at the hotel, while Sada had been extremely quiet since they had set foot in Kalos.
He quietly stared at her through the rear view mirror.
She was looking outside her own car window with wide eyes, but it wasn't her usual, excited curiosity that shone through them. There was more of a little hint of... desperation in her eyes.
He knew that she was probably looking for something, anything, that would look even remotely familiar to her, that would tell her that this was actually the same place she had been born in, and not just another place made completely unrecognisable by the passage of time. His chest ached for her as she watched paved roads and picturesque villages go past; he wanted to hold her close, to say that he was sorry... He still felt somewhat responsible for her being here with him.
« Um... Sada... » he started, trying to get her attention. He got Clavell's instead.
The older man raised his eyes from the papers in front of him, blinked, and looked to his left, before loudly clearing his throat.
« We were quite interested in visiting some parts of the countryside during our stay! Do you have any recommendations for some hidden, less touristy spots?» he asked the driver, who was more than happy to launch into a proud discourse about the best wineries and other local specialties around the area. That seemed to get Sada's attention, or at least break her out from her gloomy mood for a moment.
Turo sighed, mentally thanking Clavell.
The fact that this was probably the first actual, honest to Arceus car he had ever stepped in suddenly hit him, and he couldn't help but throw a little interested glance to the driver's seat and at the little nobs, buttons and dials on the steering wheel. It was both baffling and fascinating to him how the engine worked, how all the parts had to perfectly fit together and all the little actions you had to do to drive one. He wondered if driving a car like this at high speed on a high way felt even a fraction as good as riding Mirai did-
He forced that thought away, focusing on the driver's explanation about the fabled herb flavoured cheese produced by the Gogoat farm not far from here, and how he could easily get them there if they wanted to try it.
Eating something that came out or from a Pokémon still somewhat disgusted him and he would try to avoid it if he could, but right now, he needed all the distractions he could get.
« Sure, let's go. Sounds lovely.» he lied through gritted teeth.
---
Clavell had kept a close eye on both Sada and Turo the moment the plane had landed, Sada especially. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it must feel like for her, to technically be in the same place she had once lived in yet recognize absolutely nothing. He tried to picture it: what must have been untouched forests had become rows of pretty cultivated fields of grapes and dozens other kind of berries. Cities and villages had developed were there was nothing before.
He had managed to successfully distract her a bit by getting the driver to talk about local specialties, while he thought about what they could do these days if they had some extra time.
Turo meanwhile had been... well, "constantly moaning and complaining about things" would have been a more accurate description, but Clavell figured that it was only his way to deal with things. If Sada had been looking desperate, there had been a quiet frustration radiating off Turo from the moment they had stepped on the plane. If people in his time really just casually went to the Moon and Mars (something that still left Clavell quietly befuddled and not quite sure that the other wasn't just messing with him), he could see how taking a couple hours just to reach the next region over would look horribly antiquated. But he had the feeling it wasn't only that that was frustrating the man, and he had proof of it during the car drive towards Lumiose.
It was the fact that obviously people would think that what he was saying was completely ridiculous. Clavell himself still had trouble believing some details they both would let slip from time to time, like Sada having fought off some Magikarp ancestor that could bite a person in two neat halves or Turo just casually mentioning being born on the Moon, and only did because he reminded himself of all the little evidence he had gathered that pointed to what they were saying as being the only way everything made sense, no matter how absurd it sounded.
But no one else would do that, even if they phrased things as hypotheticals like Turo had just tried to do.
Finally, Lumiose City came into view, and he heard Turo mumble something beside him.
« I always seem to end up here... still in the wrong time.»
What did he mean by that?
Clavell threw him a questioning glance, but the man just shook his head with an almost invisible smile on his lips.
Some minutes later, the taxi left them in front of the hotel, and they walked in with both of their luggage. At the moment of checking in, however, he noticed Sada frowning as they were given two room keys.
« Why two...?» she said, only for Clavell to loudly clear his throat.
« We are, technically, still here as students and teacher. Regrettably, there seemed to be only one single room left. The other is a double... Which will be taken by Turo and me.» he explained as they walked through the cooridors, keys in hand.
Now it was Turo's turn to frown, and Clavell took a moment to fix his glasses.
« Or at least, that's what I'm going to write on the official report. That key is for the double room. » he pointed to the keys in Sada's hand, and they both perked up after a moment.
As if everyone didn't know that those two were constantly sneaking in each other's room.
« Just leave your luggage in your room for now, let's go out for a walk. We don't have anything particular scheduled until tomorrow's museum visit.» he offered.
Lumiose City was exactly as he remembered it from his last trip; bright, busy, and somewhat... dizzying. Mesagoza was similarly large, but while the largest city in Paldea was famous for the little side streets and bright colourful buildings with stairs that went up and down the various hills it had been founded on, Lumiose was methodical in the way everything connected back to the giant PrismTower in its center. While you could get lost just as easily in all its little back alleys, everything seemed to be developed in circles.
« That is a Bushy Pelt!» Sada suddenly exclaimed, pointing to a Pokémon that was walking out of a hairdresser with their trainer. It took Clavell a moment to recognize what she meant.
« You mean a Furfrou...? Is that what you called it...?» he raised one eyebrow as he watched the woman stare at the Pokémon, whose fur had been dyed green and styled in an extravagant fashion, making it almost look like it was wearing a wide hat and some boots.
« Yes, they are pretty common in Kalos... Styling their fur is pretty popular in Lumiose... I honestly didn't think they went that far back. Did you train them?» he said.
Sada turned to look at him with wide eyes.
« N-no... they were bigger than these, and hunted in large packs. Getting one alone was very difficult. They would... Follow from far away during hunts, and... attack sometimes. They were... dangerous.» her face twisted in a slight frown.
« Even the Pokémon changed... is there... anything left like it was?» she whispered. Turo put one arm around her shoulder and held her close, whispering something in Sada's unknown language.
Clavell didn't know what to say.
He didn't want this trip, and their lives here in general ,to just be a constant reminder of how different things were. What could he do to help? He looked around, trying to think of something, anything, that would stop the woman from constantly looking out for things that weren't there anymore, instead of... instead of enjoying what was actually here, now, in the present.
Instead of embracing the changes, being thrilled by them.
A part of him felt like it was his duty to do so, as their teacher and simply... as a friend they trusted.
« Maybe... they are not exactly like you remember them, but... You still recognized it, didn't you? I'm sure that if you got that Furfrou to fight a battle against a wild Pokémon or another trainer, you would see that "Bushy Pelt" come right back...» he tried to say slowly. His eyes widened as he walked past the two to face them, suddenly excited when a thought hit him.
« In fact, why don't you do it right now? Challenge that trainer with the Furfrou to a Pokémon battle!» he proposed.
He was hoping to see her get excited and jump at the opportunity, but to his dismay, she just lowered her eyes after a couple of moments.
« It... it wouldn't be the same...» she sighed and grabbed Turo's hand, and the couple turned their backs away from the Furfrou - and him, indirectly -, to enter a little side street.
Clavell's shoulders tightened as he slumped forward.
He... he couldn't help but feel like he was failing them somehow.
He watched them walk away, a sudden chill crawling along his back, feeling like they were getting away from him in more ways than one. He sighed and walked away, calling his Oranguru to his side for comfort. The calm, wise-looking simian always helped him clear his head. He often asked him for help when he was having trouble with some experiment. Just having someone to talk to helped.
« Let's go for a walk, my friend. It will help me think.»
The Pokémon answered with a deep growl, simply walking along his side and listening as he explained what had happened.
After just a couple of minutes, he already felt better, more ready to think about the problem once more.
As they were passing a street lined with restaurants and fashion boutiques, Clavell felt Oranguru tug at his jacket with one paw.
« What is it... Oh.» he quietly said, peering into the shopping window Oranguru had stopped him in front of, and at something that lay exposed inside.
An idea started to take shape in his mind.
---
Sada kept walking along Lumiose City's wide streets, Turo's arm around her shoulders. All around here were Pokémon, people dressed in vibrant clothes, eye catching signs from restaurants and shops showing words she didn't know. She couldn't quite focus on them; right now, it was just... noise.
She felt so stupid. What was she expecting? Of course it would be just another big city like many others she had already seen in Paldea. She kept hearing snippets of sentences in a different language, the "Kalosian" that she supposedly should know, at least according to the story she and Turo had come up with.
But none of it sounded familiar. Not a single word made her feel like there was even the tiniest trace of her own language in there.
It may as well have not existed.
These people had nothing in common with her.
« Do you know Kalosian...? » she quietly asked Turo after a while, going back to her own language. He had simply followed her, offering her his silent support, and she was grateful for it. She needed someone that understood her right now.
« Mmm » she heard his hum vibrate through the arm still wrapped around her.
« I know how to say exactly three things in Kalosian. The Kalosian of my time, that is. » he answered. There was a moment of silence, and she raised her head to look at him, quietly waiting for him to continue.
He pressed his lips together, and cleared his throat.
« I know how to say "Good morning", "Where is the bathroom?", and "Farewell". That's it. »
« "Farewell"?» she couldn't help a little snort.
« Yes. "Adieu".» he said it with such a straight face that it just made her laugh harder.
« ...Why would you remember that and not anything more useful?» she asked once she was done.
Turo shrugged, the movement half pushing her slightly forward.
« You never know when you will need to make a dramatic exit. »
She couldn't help but shake her head with a little smile at his absurd reasoning; she didn't know if he was saying it as a joke only to cheer her up and distract her, or if he was serious: with his stern expression, it was sometimes difficult to tell. She had grown to like that side of him, the hidden, somewhat silly one with an extremely dry and sarcastic sense of humour. Maybe it was because she had seen the more awkward side of him first: when they had first met, they could barely talk to each other, so they had both relied much more on body language and she had spent a lot of time studying every little change of his expressions and posture.
As they kept walking, she let Kim and Ötzi out, letting the two Pokémon stretch their legs a bit after the time spent travelling. Turo did the same only after a moment, giving a stern glare to the Murkrow after it had materialized on his shoulder.
« You. » he said. « Are forbidden from flying around. Arceus knows there's enough jewerly and shiny objects around to send you on a stealing frenzy. So behave or you get back into the Ball.»
The crow Pokémon clicked his beak with an unhappy caw, and Sada couldn't help but smile a little bit, watching the two interact.
« You two have more in common than you think. » she commented, and Turo furrowed his eyebrows.
« ... so you are saying I'm a thiefing little bastard? Thank you. I'm flattered.» he deadpanned in a dry tone.
« No! I mean... your attitude. You are both smart, and... act cold towards people at first and don't really show what you are truly thinking much...» she slowly added, before smiling.
« ... and you both aren't great at walking straight on the ground.» she chuckled, thinking of how the bird Pokémon would move around in little ungraceful hops on occasions where it couldn't fly, and all the times she had watched Turo trip on his own two feet.
Turo muttered something unintelligible, frowning, and she laughed a little bit at his barely visible pout.
« I... am not sure that's supposed to be a compliment.» he said in the end.
« ... in a way, yes. Birds look... strange and a bit funny on the ground. But that's not their element. They look majestic in the air. I... I saw the same thing in you, from the first time we met. You... you didn't belong there, and not just because you couldn't even light a fire. » she added with a little smile, and he muttered a "I learned in the end, didn't I?".
« You were not in your element... but that doesn't mean you aren't... great. » she realized she had grown a bit flustered in the end of her speech, and wasn't quite sure of how to word it.
Turo, however, seemed to have gotten the message. There was a long moment of silence, and the hand that was still on her shoulder twitched a little, before he drew her closer and into a short hug. He drew a long breath, and she felt his chin come to rest on the top of her head as she leant into him.
« ... we are both not in our element, are we?» he asked, and she shook her head.
« ... we will find it, Sada. We'll... we'll find a place where it will stop to hurt looking at every little, different, wrong detail-» he whispered, and she suddenly felt her chest tighten when he had somehow managed to put into words exactly how she had been feeling the moment they had landed in Kalos. He hid it behind endless complaining and muttering about how "primitive" everything was, but of course he would be feeling the exact same things as her.
She took a deep breath, and nodded.
« ... yes. You're right. There has to be. And... and if there isn't... we'll make one.» she said.
Turo simply nodded, ignoring the little squawk coming from the Murkrow on his shoulder, and they resumed walking.
Feeling a bit better, she now decided to actually consciously look all around; it was, all in all, an incredibly pretty city. Lumiose was called "the city of lights", and she could quite see why. Thinks weren't actually shining like the walls and screens of the Mesagoza of Turo's time did whenever someone got near, bombarding people with images and information in bright, artificial colors.
Lumiose City seemed to be have been built so that there was always light in it, be it the light of the sun during the day or those of street lights she could see erected everywhere during the night. Everywhere she looked there were bright glass ceilings to allow as much light as possible to enter buildings; shops sported enormous glass windows. Everything was twinkling and sparkling under the sun, and she could see how Turo had admonished his Pokémon to stay put. The Murkrow was pretty much fidgeting on his shoulder, opening and closing his wings like he wanted to fly off and check out everything at once.
As they kept walking, Sada noticed that Turo kept looking around, almost like he was searching for something, and half muttering something that sounded like numbers to himself.
« What is it?» she asked after the third time he kept doing it.
Turo blinked and turned towards her.
« It's, um... nothing. I'm looking for... a certain spot.»
Sada blinked, not quire sure she understood what he meant. He was looking for a certain place?
« ... have you been here before? In your time?» she asked, and he cringed.
« Not... really. I... I need a map.» he said, turning away to look for a bookshop. She followed, now kind of baffled at what he was even doing.
She watched Turo purchase a big paper map of the city, the one that you had to fold multiple times, and walk towards a little bench. Instead of sitting down on it, he spread the map out over the two seats.
« Can't believe their electronic maps are still so inaccurate you have to resort to using these...» he muttered, furrowing his eyebrows as he started to trace some roads with his left index finger. She looked down at the map, quickly getting lost in all the names of roads and boulevards. A moment later, he seemed to find whatever he was looking for, because he nodded and folded the map back up.
« All right. I know where to go now.»
"Go where?" she still wanted to ask as he took her hand and led her away, completely puzzled. They walked for a little while, crossing intersections, quickly traversing little side streets and avoiding groups of Gogoat carrying tourists that galloped down the road. Finally they reached a bridge, one of the many that connected the Northern and Southern Boulevard across the river that bisected the city. Turo led her down a set of stairs, towards the riverbank, and motioned for her to sit down beside him. Miguel hopped down from his shoulder and towards Kim and Ötzi.
She complied, looking around with some confusion; it was a completely unremarkable part of the city. There was no pretty scenic view, no other group of turists that usually signalled that they were near some famous, important landmark. The only one you could barely see on the other side of the river was Lumiose's Prism Tower. There was just the water, some Surskits, and a group of Flabebé flitting around a little flower patch, watching the two of them curiously.
« Where are we?» she asked, turning towards Turo. He hesitated, looking just a bit embarassed as he took a big breath.
« 48° latitude North, 2° Longitude East, more or less... this-» he said, turning towards her with the tiniest trace of his usual, almost invisible smile.
« Is where we first met.»
It took her a long moment to realize what he meant, but when she did, it took her breath away. Their very first meeting... of course.
The river.
She turned towards it with wide eyes, watching the water rush placidly past them, like it has always done.
« I had to write those coordinates so many times in my reports, I could never forget them-» Turo was saying, and she felt her eyes sting once, just once, before she let out a tiny, half-sobbing laugh.
« Remembering a bunch of numbers for a place... that's just like you.» she said.
But he did. He remembered. And while coming here, he thought of showing her this little, insignificant corner of Lumiose that held so much meaning for only the two of them.
She turned towards him, looking at his neck. He seemed to notice her gaze, because he raised one hand to take out the necklace she had given him and showed it to her.
« It's still here. Since that day.» he said, and she took a moment to grasp her own, similar looking necklace. Hers didn't have Winged King feathers, she had made hers way before that, but... she turned back to watching the water, and a couple of Flabebé gently float over it, playing with their reflection in the water and chirping. She looked at Kim, who was staring suspiciously at the river as she batted at the Surskit, and Otzi, who quietly looked over the other two Pokémon, only letting out a little, whispering hiss when a drop of water would splash over his way.
So many things had changed from that day... but here they were again, sitting side by side on that same riverbank. The same where she had taught him the first words in her language, and Turo his; rock, water, grass, sun... all things she could still see all around.
It was comforting, in a way.
She sighed, and rested her head on his shoulder as she moved closer.
« ... yes. We're still here.» she whispered.
That day, they had been able to barely exchange a couple of words with each other, and there had been so so many things she had wanted to ask him. Now she could freely talk with him about everything she ever wanted, yet she felt like there was no need for words at this very moment. They stood side by side as the sun set quietly, watching the water and the movement of the city all around them.
I was absolutely sure Lumiose City had a river. It's Poké Paris, Paris has a river, obviously Lumiose has a river!<br />
It even shows one on the map of Kalos in the games! It just made sense to me, I guess I must have convinced myself it had one since it's been a while I've played Y.
So I said screw it, Lumiose has a river now, we just didn't go in that part of the city in X and Y. If Legends Z ends up giving it one retroactively, I'm going to laugh a lot.
chapter 13! Apparently we should open the door and get on the floor.
Already we find Turo in deep regret so this is getting off to a promising start. Who would have thought that being comically inept at his job would lead him to moral conundrums and heartbreak?
I like that an organic creature and one made entirely of programming code are treated by the same people. There's no distinction in that age. Sure in the era of the games, everything is treated at one center but that's for typical battle injuries, not specialties.
Are ALL pokemon of his era virtual or mechanical in some way then? If they can all absorb the same energy to heal but an older mon can't. It begs the question of what could have been so utterly catastrophic as to kill off all organic beings other than humans.
Wait why wouldn't Hypnosis work if this had been a dark type?
Turo you should know better because people have probably told you this your whole life. You need to define "do anything weird".
"Unima" let me guess...Texas?
Ortega's entire line never misses out on an excuse to dress up, do they?
and the "weird chewy pink thing" in Johto has to be Slowpoke tail
Oh there are wild Miraidon? I figured from the description that they were raised to be vehicles. Which must lead to some *fascinating* road rage if they start brawling on the interstate.
And of course he goes along with it. Turo, I have some *really* bad news for you about an alternate version of you who pulled this same shit and things did not go well for him.
"He had rarely heard him scream like that" I wonder what other circumstances led to that sound! Oh and you immediately answer that so that's fun.
"He was, however, a man of cold and calculating logic" yeah sure Turo keep telling yourself that you know damn well part of you wants a chase scene.
OH GOD MIRAIDON NO WHO GAVE YOU A CREDIT CARD
Surprised he wasn't required to wait until all the food had left Koraidon's system out of fear that a digested plant seed could take root. That happened with a tomato plant on an isolated island after a scientist decided to "go" outside for some reason.
Turo have you never played jacks does jacks not exist in the far future what kind of desolate wasteland are you from
of course he gets blasty in the pasty of course. Though at least this isn't him being a dingus since he was following customs. Makes me wonder what the rest of his paper was like if that was the title haha
I...need to read more of this fic more often I said I would after all...
