Chapter 32: Our Treasure, part II
Nekodatta
Pokémon Trainer
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Partners
-
Chapter 32: Our Treasure, part II
This time kept finding ways to surprise her, in both good and bad ways.« So... you can really tell if someone is pregnant... from outside the body?» she asked after the kiss was over, her eyes wide and trying to wrap her mind around the idea.
« Yes, well... I'm not exactly sure how they do it in this time... or how early they are able to know for sure... » Turo answered, still holding her by her shoulders. Sada noticed his eyes automatically go back to her stomach, and she huffed.
« It's too early to see anything, you know... »
He smiled, looking back up.
« Yes, I know, it's just... we need to make sure. Let's go back to Mesagoza...»
They left the sandy beach and walked back up the trail they had followed, looking for a place where they could call for a Flying Taxi. While Turo was busy calling, Sada's eyes landed on a building that was standing at the very top of the cliff, overlooking the beach they had just left.
« That place must be that "lighthouse" around here, right? » she asked. She had read about them in a book in the library: they lit up at night and were used by ships to safely find land. Or at least, used to. She wasn't sure if this one was active: it looked abandoned.
« All right, the cab should be here in half an hour, they were nearby...» Turo turned around, closing the old Pokénav he had bought and putting it back in his pocket.
« I... wait.» he furrowed his eyebrows for a moment, before raising both of them.
« I... I know this place!» he said, a half smile forming on his lips. Sada turned around, surprised.
« Really? In your time?» she asked.
Turo nodded, « Yes. I visited it when I was flying with Mirai one time... it was completely in ruins there, of course, but... I'm sure it's the same one. It's the only one in the area.»
Sada smiled and took his hand.
« Let's go look! » she started heading towards the lighthouse, the ground going from sand back to getting covered in soft grass. The closer she got, the more details she could see. The building seemed to have a little house built just under it, if she had to guess, to house whoever used to take care of it before it was abandoned. A small tree - thankfully not an olive tree - was growing near the entrance. On the right, the cliffside overlooked the sea, but the little beach they had just come from was still clearly visible from it. From the top of the cliff, looking in the opposite direction, you could see Los Platos in the distance and, barely visible in the horizon, the mountain of the Great Crater of Paldea. She went near the abandoned house and tried to peer inside the old windows covered in dust.
« It looks empty... Doesn't a lighthouse need people to care for it?» she asked Turo.
« When they still used fire or electric Pokémon to shine lights over the sea, yes, there was usually a caretaker. I guess the lighthouse itself is completely automated by now. » Turo answered as he cautiously checked the door.
« Closed... But there's a note here.» he said, and Sada shifted closer to look.
« "Up for sale"...» she read, and her eyes widened as she turned towards him.
« Does that mean... we can buy this place? »
They probably didn't have enough money, but... if their research on Tera crystals was successful, they could ask to borrow some money and pay it back later.
She looked towards Turo, and saw him look at her petrified, his eyes wide.
« You mean... Live here? In this lighthouse?» he whispered.
Sada looked up, towards the top of the building that you could reach by climbing the stairs. Following a sudden urge, she grabbed the first rung and started climbing. She heard Turo gasp and hurry after her.
« Sada...!! You... What if -»
« I'm not going to fall.» she reassured him, continuing to climb. Judging by his laboured breathing, he was having some difficulty following.
« I know... that's not what I meant... what if the baby-» he stopped to take his breath right as she finished climbing and hoisted herself up on the wide platform.
The view was as beautiful as she had imagined it. She looked down, trying to picture living in the small house right under them.
« This place is near the sea... There's not too many people, and we still have a small town very close... There's plenty of space for our Pokémon... and I bet we can even see the stars from out here.» she slowly said once Turo had caught up to her. He looked troubled for a moment, before looking down towards the sea.
« ... To think... I've looked at this exact building in my time and wondered who used to live in it so much time ago...» he whispered, before he chuckled in amusement.
« ... It would be a shame to not live here after that. » he said, taking her hand and intertwining his fingers in hers.
« We'll probably need to renovate it a bit, so... we will have to hurry before the ... the baby arrives. If it's really... coming.» he said. After a brief silence, he swallowed, and she noticed that his hand had suddenly gotten sweaty. He was nervous.
She didn't understand. Why would he be nervous now?
« If... If we're really going to have a child... there's something else I would like us to do first... even just because it would be more... complicated... after.» he stammered, and she saw that he was trying and failing to keep his usual unreadable expression from cracking.
« I... I... this is not how I imagined this would go...» he was getting flustered, and she calmly grabbed his other hand and looked him in the eye.
« Turo... what is it?»
He looked at her with wide eyes, and after a moment just blurted out the words.
« ... let's get married.»
There was a long moment of silence, and she saw his expression go from flustered to panicked.
« Um... "Marriage" -» he said.
« I know what "marriage" means!» she laughed, and he looked more relieved, even if somewhat embarrassed. She got closer to him and looked away from the sea, to the silhouette of Mesagoza barely visible in the opposite direction, sitting down on the cool stone pavement.
« ... Let's sit here a bit.» she said, and he followed her after a short moment, sitting cross legged next to her. She smiled, thinking about how many times they had just done the same back in her time, as they taught each other words in their respective languages.
« Why did you say this isn't what you were expecting?» she asked. Turo looked down, the hand he wasn't holding in hers balled up into a fist on his knee.
« I... you usually ask the person you want to marry if they want to... And... I was supposed to get down on one knee, and... I don't even have a ring ready...»
« Does it have to be a ring? You gave me this bracelet.» she said, looking at the little jewel at her wrist. Turo frowned.
« No, that was... different. I gave you that bracelet so you would have something to remember me by... »
« But now I don't need that. I have you right here. You know I don't care about all those details... and you told me that there is no right way of doing things.» she spoke slowly , trying to reassure him.
« But.... if marriage is a ceremony that's important to show the society where we now live that we are together... then let's do it. Let's get married. And then have this child. » she smiled, and he slowly smiled back and kissed her.
They were interrupted by the signature squawking of a flock of Squawkabilly of different colors as their Flying Taxi arrived.
---
Turo couldn't believe he had just... asked Sada to marry him. Just like that. No plan. Just blurted it out.
To be fair, she had just dropped the bombshell of possibly being pregnant on him not even five minutes before, so he felt justified in just dropping one back.
That possibility had been confirmed a couple of days later. She was. And now he had to get used to the idea that he was going to be a father in... A bit more than half a year.
And get married.
And challenge the League.
And finish their research on Tera crystals to ask for funds for an expedition into Area Zero, which probably would have to wait after the birth at this point...
It was... overwhelming, in a sense, but he felt strangely euphoric about it. That's what surprised him the most. He... didn't think he would feel this happy about it, since he had never really thought about creating a family back in his time. But he was.
What fortune to be blessed with this gift-
There were so many things they suddenly had to do... but first thing to do, was trying to convince Sada of a single thing.
« What do you mean, "You're not coming"?» Sada narrowed her eyes at him as they were sitting at some of the desks scattered across the three floors of Uvanja Academy's library. It was one of their favourite spots, farthest from the stairs and with relatively less people walking through it, and the closest bookshelf held the entire collection of the most recently published numbers of the Occultica magazine. He and Sada both found flipping through it amusing sometimes for the absolute batshit insane theories that were presented in them.
But now definitely wasn't the moment for him to point and laugh at some photographs that mistook Magnezone for UFO sightings, or said that the Iron Moth shown in the Violet Book was actually totally an alien weapon from outer space.
« I'm saying it's better if you don't come to the next Tera Raid, considering...» he flicked his eyes to her belly as discreetly as he could, but her eyes just narrowed further.
« Why? It's too early for the baby to even show itself! The doctor said that I can still do everything I want for now... You're acting like I want to fight that Altaria myself.» she rolled her eyes, and he widened his own in a panic.
The thought hadn't even crossed his mind.
« Why, were you thinking of...? That's not the point anyway! » he sputtered.
He threw a hasty look all around, and lowered his voice. They had told no one about the pregnancy yet.
« That's not what I'm worried about. We still don't know much about Terastal energy. What if it's dangerous for... the baby?» he hissed.
Sada's expression softened, and she lowered her eyes, chewing on her lower lip with her pointy canine.
« ... We both work with Tera shards in the lab. I was handling them just yesterday-» she slowly answered.
« Exactly. But small tera shards are one thing. An entire cave radiating Tera energy however is completely different. You know how... powerful and heavy the air feels down there.» he said, and she relented, nodding, even if a bit reluctantly.
« ... All right. I guess... I'll stay here and keep working on that prototype to hold the energy emitted by the crystals we were talking about... I think I found a way to model tera shards into other forms...»
« Really?» he asked, momentarily distracted by her words, leaning forward on the table towards her.
« So if we found bigger pieces, you could... chisel them? What did you do with those Tera shards you were experimenting with?» they were so small and pointy, he couldn't imagine using them for much at all.
He noticed that Sada had blushed a bit. She was pulling the same embarrassed face she had done when she had made him Ice Age clothes out of Mamoswine fur.
« Sada...?»
« ... Don't laugh, all right? I... I made arrow heads out of them. For my bow. I was hoping to try them out in the next Tera Raid...»
He quickly suppressed a smirk.
« You wanted to... what? Shoot the terastalized Pokémon...?» he laughed, and she hissed to get him to lower his voice as a couple of students walked past their desks.
« I... why not?» she asked, crossing both arms to her chest. She puffed her cheeks.
« I hate just sitting there while my Pokémon do everything. And I wanted to see if maybe those Tera shards are effective in breaking other Terastalized Pokémon's shell... » she shook her head and sighed.
« I can do it next time, I guess...» she still didn't sound happy about it, and he smiled a little, trying to cheer her up.
« At least we found someone interested in accompanying me... And he's also going to trade you a Swinub for that Altaria, right?» he asked.
Sada nodded.
« Yeah... Who else is going to come with you in my place? You said Jacq sounded interested, but who else? » she asked, and Turo shrugged.
« No idea. Jacq said he found someone else who wanted to come.» he answered. The fourth member would be a surprise for him too.
---
There was one good thing about trekking all the way up to Glaseado Mountain, and it was that, for once, no one could expect him to wear that horrible Uvanja student uniform in that kind of weather... Or, to be more exact, no one would be able to say anything if he wore something else over it.
No matter what the entire faculty said, for Turo the winter uniform definitely wasn't enough to keep himself warm, and he had no idea how they expected your typical teenager to just deal with it. Maybe they kinda expected everyone to take a Fire type Pokémon with them? Well, he didn't have one, and wasn't planning on getting one just for that reason.
So, taking advantage of the heavy winter coat he had slapped over the uniform that would cover him completely anyway, before departing that morning he decided to actually put on his bodysuit underneath it all. Now that one would surely keep him warm. It didn't chafe, didn't leave him itching and constantly checking his clothes, there were no buttons or knots that could come loose. It was simply... comfortable. It felt incredibly nostalgic to see the lights switch on as soon as the smooth fabric got in contact with his skin; it almost pained him to have to cover it anyway with the rest of his clothes and a pair of high boots. He spent a couple of minutes idly moving his arms, feeling the bodysuit stretch to follow his movements perfectly: to his surprise, he had the impression that the adaptable fabric had stretched a bit more than usual around his waist and shoulders. Had he... put on weight? No, he hadn't noticed doing so... he was probably just remembering wrong because it had been so long since he had last put it on.
The meeting point this time would be a ski resort not that far away from Montenevera, and relatively close to where the cave where the Ice-type Altaria had been spotted was supposed to be. The one that had offered to help them with battling the Altaria and would give Sada a Swinub in exchange for it had been the one to propose that place. He was apparently a student at the Academy himself, but Turo had never seen him before. They probably had different classes. The other person that was supposed to arrive was Jacq and, to Turo's great annoyance, Raifort.
He didn't actually really dislike the woman, she was definitely smart and brilliant in her own way and that comment about the time machine had been hilarious to hear... but she got on his nerves sometimes by how she obviously didn't like how close he was to Sada, and he enjoyed provoking her in return. Also, she was a historian.
He was a time traveller.
He pointed and laughed at historians. Or he would have, at least, if he wasn't stuck in this time.
He sighed, scanning the crowd in the lobby that was ready to spend a day either skiing, snowboarding, or whatever other dangerous way of hurling yourself off a mountain people had invented, but couldn't recognize either of his two classmates.
« C'mon... where are they...» he checked his Pokénav, hoping to not see some message that announced that they were going to have to reschedule the whole thing.
« ... hello, hello, Turo! Over here!»
« ... are you "Romero Turo"?»
Turo blinked, not sure where to turn to when Jacq's familiar and a completely unknown voice reached him at the same time. He spotted Jacq's Arcanine open a path through the crowd first, and his trainer and Raifort followed soon after. Well... he at least had a fire type with him. He waved to them both, then turned towards the second voice and the figure that had approached. His eyes landed on the last person he was expecting to see.
« You're... you're just a kid.»
Of course people of all ages attended the Academy. He knew that. Of course anyone could have answered their request, and obviously students of all ages had been submitting reports and sightings about Terastalized Pokémon. But maybe due to his past experience with Hassel and Brassius, the idea that an actual kid that could be thirteen years old at the most could come with them in what he still subconsciously thought of as something quite dangerous had never even crossed his mind.
Man, Pokémon Trainers of this time were wild.
The kid narrowed his eyes, not impressed. He was wearing thick skiing gear, a fluffy two-colored scarf with two massive Poke Balls at each end that made Turo's skin itch just by looking at it, and was holding a snowboard under his left arm.
« So...? Name's Grusha. If you have any problems with that...» he mumbled. Half of his face was pretty much covered by his scarf, so it was difficult to judge his expression, but something told Turo that the kid was pissed.
« N-no, I... Of course not. » he answered after a moment. The kid had four Poke Balls at his belt, which were double the ones he had.
... He was probably going to be more than fine, actually, but he still couldn't help but feel wildly responsible for him if something happened. He was the responsible adult here.... in theory.
He turned towards Raifort and Jacq, who was keeping one hand on his Arcanine to stop the big canine to just stop sniffing around and examine everything.
« Oh, I know you!» Jacq said enthusiastically.
« You won that snowboarding competition last month, didn't you? I remember reading the news that a student of our Academy had placed first! Congratz!» he said, while Raifort nodded.
« That battle class together last year was really something... has your Snom evolved?» she asked, and the kid's eyes seemed to sparkle just a bit as he answered.
« Yeah... she's amazing- » his voice was still muffled by the scarf, but it sounded to Turo like he was smiling.
Great, so... was he the only one who had never heard of the kid? Probably because he didn't care about sports. He cleared his throat, trying to get everyone's attention back to him.
« All right, so... looks like it will be us four this time... the Altaria should be near the peak, so...» he hesitated, feeling Grusha's polite stare land on him.
« ... Let's just go. I'll take the lead.» he said, only to be interrupted by the blue-haired teenager.
« If it's not a problem, I think it's better if I go first... um... sir? This mountain can be pretty dangerous, and I'm the one who knows it better than anyone here, I think... maybe you should let me show the way. » he said.
Turo blinked, taken by surprise. For a moment, he wondered what Sada would have done.
He felt a bit frustrated at the idea of a kid less than half his age making him feel like an incompetent idiot; for a moment , he wanted to snap back that he was perfectly able to walk on some dumb snow: he had explored the Late Ice Age with Sada, and survived one month in Area Zero with no Pokémon and no food.
But... he swallowed.
Sada would have stepped down if she thought the kid was actually more knowledgeable than her. Actually getting there safely was what mattered the most.
And of course, he wasn't as knowledgeable in surviving outside as Sada. If the kid said it was dangerous... maybe he had a point.
« ... All right. » he took out a map of Glaseado Peak and pointed to a marked spot.
« This is where it's been sighted. Lead us there.»
---
Sada carefully set down the largest piece of Tera they had found on the table. It was a single block larger than her fist, and glittered under the light that came from the window of the laboratory. They had been pretty lucky to find a single compact piece without it splintering info hundreds of little shards.
She glanced towards the analog clock hanging on the wall. Turo and the others should have reached Glaseado Mountain by now. She quietly wondered how the battle was going, before going back to work.
« All right, let's do this-» she said to Kim and Ötzi, who meowed and nodded respectively. She put on a couple of safety glasses as the two Pokémon watched her curiously, smiling quietly to herself.
Safety glasses.
Those sure would have been convenient all the times she would chip down large stones or make arrow points back in her time. But even if the tools had become more refined and efficient, the very basic action of chiselling hadn't changed in thousands and thousands of years.
In a way, it felt incredibly nostalgic to her to work with Tera crystals. She stopped midway in picking up a chisel, looking back up, towards the window outside. It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in sight. She turned to both her Pokémon and smiled as she grabbed her tools and a bag.
« Actually, you know what? Let's go work outside. »
Both her Pokémon followed her to the school courtyard as she sat down with her back to a large tree. The courtyard was filled with students similarly enjoying the nice weather, either reading, studying, or simply relaxing. Two kids from the elementary classes were having a double Pokémon battle. A small Fidough and a Lechonk were fighting against a Tarantoula and a Marill. She watched the battle for a moment, smiling to herself, before she picked up a small chisel and a hammer and started to quietly and carefully chip away at the Tera crystal block, giving it a rounder shape.
To think that even small children in this time were already learning how to live with Pokémon, and probably would do so for their entire lives...
Would her child also get to enjoy a life like that?
The thought gave her a little pause, and she resisted the urge to touch her belly. She hadn't told anyone else yet, apart from Turo... and she wasn't quite sure when she was ready to do so. She didn't really feel much different right now, but in a couple more months, things would become much more apparent.
She kept working quietly, letting her mind focus completely on the task at hand as her hands started moving almost on their own. There was something relaxing in having nothing but the smooth surface in front of her to focus on: it was the same reason she still liked to write all of her notes by hand even if Turo had tried to convince her to type them up on a computer because it was faster. She honestly didn't understand how it could be faster: there was always some blinking icon or another in a corner of the screen ready to distract her. She could see how convenient it was, but she didn't like the idea that a computer could be used for... Everything, all of its functions fighting for your attention at the same time. She couldn't understand how Turo was able to get anything done on it.
This was much simpler, easier for her.
The chips and shards she was scraping off the block of Tera were quickly gathered by Ötzi, who meticulously picked them up and placed them in her bag. She smiled and took a moment to pat the golem's head in thanks.
« Thank you. You're a great help. » she said, and it huffed , releasing a puff of energy through his chest.
It seemed to like helping her in any kind of activity; it made sense, if Golett had been made with the intention of helping humans with physical labour. Kim meanwhile sat down beside her, looking at her work with wide eyes and purring.
Sada rolled the now vaguely round block in her direction and smiled when she batted it away.
« A round shape does work well, right?» she said, and the Litleo squeezed her eyes shut.
She kept working until she had a mostly spherical shape ready, then thought for a moment about what to do. Should she keep going in a spherical shape? A sphere would be comfortable to carry around, and people in this time were already used to Poké Balls.
She had noticed that tera shards seemed to glow in various colors, so they probably held a bit of that energy... Not much, though. They had both tried having their Pokémon spend some time near some tera shards, but it had never triggered any kind of change in them, so it probably wasn't enough. But there had to be a way to store more energy in a smaller space... Condense it, in a way.
Pokémon did it all the time: they could shoot enormous amounts of water, or flames, much more than what their bodies should be able to hold... Like if they had little batteries inside them.
That's what she needed. A battery, and something to tell that "battery" to release all its charge. She dumped the contents of her bag and all the shards they had gathered to the ground, to which Ötzi let out a slightly disappointed huff at the idea of having to gather it all over again.
She looked at both of her Pokémon.
« I need your help. Touch as many of these shards as you can and tell me if you feel... Different. » she explained, not quite sure if they would understand. Kim simply blinked slowly, then started putting one paw on every colored crystal in front of her, one at a time.
The two students who had been battling had come a bit closer to watch, curious.
« What are you doing?»
Nothing. Sada watched both her Pokémon intently, so focused that she didn't even hear the two kids come closer. The shards were all kinds of different colours and shapes... So they probably had various different types of energy that made the Pokémon change types inside them. They had never quite understood if it was the type of crystals that decided what type a Pokémon would become, or-
Kim meowled loudly, pawing at the tuft of hair on top of her head, then sneezed.
Sada turned towards the Litleo, eyes wide.
« Kim...? » she moved closer to watch her, suddenly worried. What if Tera types actually were dangerous...? But none of the Terastalized Pokémon had looked uncomfortable...
She freezed, raising one hand to the Pokémon's head to stroke her fur, slowly. Kim meowled again and looked up at her, now confused.
« Do you feel... strange?»
The Litleo just flicked her ears and purred.
There, between her ears, right in the middle of the growing mane that would glow and burn bright once she evolved, was a single leaf.
It hadn't fallen on her. She stroked it slowly to make sure, and Kim meowled again.
Sada looked down at the Litleo's paws. In her haste she had ended up putting all four paws on a random assortment of Tera shards of all kind of different types. It suddenly hit her.
« It's all wrong!» she literally jumped up, ecstatic, scaring both her Pokémon and the two kids. They looked at her, confused.
« Uh... what?»
« We had it completely wrong! It's the exact opposite!» she threw her head back and laughed, before hugging a still confused Kim and hurrying to pick up all the things she had dumped around her, running back in the laboratory.
She had to write down everything!
Ötzi simply shook his head, huffing, and followed her.
---
Turo hadn't considered how difficult it would be to even find an Altaria in this kind of weather.
« You know... For being a Pokémon that's normally incredibly vulnerable to the cold, it sure mimetizes itself perfectly in a snowstorm.» Turo muttered angrily at the third time he stumbled and buried himself in snow up to his face while he was busy looking up...
Following Grusha's directions, they had been hiking up a mountain trail.
Jacq was riding his Arcanine, who at least had made things slightly more bearable by melting a trail in the snow. At least he wasn't cold, thanks to his bodysuit, but he had honestly no idea of what the limits for keeping his body comfortable were. There had to be a point where the delicate system built into the bodysuit just had to give up.
Raifort clicked her tongue in annoyance.
« Why didn't you stay at the Academy instead of Sada? » she asked, and Turo grit his teeth.
« She's... she had something important to do.» he muttered. He didn't want to look like a fool in front of her and give her even more reason to tease him.
« Why did you come here?» he shot right back.
Raifort shrugged, her heavy blue winter coat barely making the movement recognizable.
« I wanted to see what all the fuss about these "Terastalized" Pokémon was... and I have some research of my own to conduct in this area.» she said.
Turo's eyes narrowed: he almost wanted to ask what it was, and he had the impression that Raifort was hoping for him to do so.
Which was exactly why he shrugged, said "uh", and hastened his pace to go speak with Jacq.
He heard Raifort "tsk" in annoyance behind him, and he grinned.
With this kind of weather, it didn't feel right to send Miguel out; at least Ampere probably didn't mind the cold much.
He released the Magnemite from his PokéBall, and smiled when it nuzzled up against his arm, twisting its two little magnets.
« Here, charge up as much as you want. I'm counting on you. » he offered the Pokémon a spare battery and watched it twirl in the air.
« I've never seen such an affectionate Magnemite. » Jacq commented, letting his Arcanine slow down just enough to walk side by side with him. The fire Pokémon eagerly smelled the Electric type, and barked as his big, bushy tail wagged through the air.
Ampere shied away from the Arcanine, trying to hide behind him.
« Is it not normal? » Turo asked. He eyed the researcher sitting comfortably on the warm Pokémon's back with a touch of envy.
« I mean, probably... I guess I just haven't been around many Magnemite, but I thought they would act more... standoffish. Being covered in metal, I wonder how developed their sense of touch is... do they have nerves-»
« You're not studying my Magnemite.» Turo muttered as a response.
« It's here. »
Their conversation was cut short by Grusha suddenly stopping and hiding behind a tree. After a moment, he looked back towards them, shook his head, and moved back out into the open. Turo looked first at himself, then at Jacq.
... Yeah, his Arcanine probably attracted a lot of attention anyway.
The kid had released a Sneasel, and the Pokémon started sharpening its nails surprisingly silently, its little sharp eyes fixed upwards.
Turo followed the younger trainer and his Pokémon's line of sight, squinting as he tried to make out anything that wasn't pure white snow.
For a moment, he still didn't see anything, then something moved: what he had thought was a cloud dipped closer to the ground, and he realised it was the Pokémon they were looking for, gliding gracefully downwards towards the ground. He looked back to the kid, impressed. How did he even spot it?
The Altaria still kept its smooth, bright blue feathers in the main part of its body, but most of it was covered by the distinctive, extremely fluffy plumage of its wings. Except that this Altaria's wings looked strange. The feathers that would normally puff out were similarly white in colour, but looked much more compact, almost like they were tightly compressed... then the Altaria passed overhead, flapping its wings a couple of times, and Turo felt a flurry of snowflakes hit him.
Snow. Its wings were made of snow! Or at least covered in it... the Pokémon glided closer, and he could see the crystalline Tera shards covering its whole body. He had to squeeze his eyes shut for a moment, covering his face with his arm, and judging from the muttering coming from around him, the others had done the same.
The sunlight reflected on all the snow and the Pokémon's body was blinding: it almost hurt to look at. How were they supposed to catch it like this?
When he looked back down to Grusha, he saw that the kid had pulled up a pair of ski goggles on his face, and was still looking calmly ahead. With the googles covering one half of his face and the scarf another half, his face was now barely visible and expression unreadable.
It was then that he realized another problem: this Altaria was leisurely flying around, and seemed to have no intention to retire to its cave.
« We have to stop that thing from just flapping merrily away.... we'll try to paralyze it. Everyone ready?» he asked.
« Yes.» Jacq whispered, jumping down from his Pokémon's back. Arcanine happily wagged his tail.
« Sure» Grusha nodded.
« Of course I am.» Raifort huffed, letting out a Pokémon he recognized after a moment as a Seviper.
« Ampere, Thunder Wave!»
« Glare!»
The Magnemite floated forward, releasing a brief shock wave against the now-Ice type, while Raifort's Pokémon slithered forward.
The dragon turned around, noticing the attacks, and threw its head back letting out a melodious cry. Its already bright body flashed for a moment, right before the electric charge and whatever Seviper's attack was supposed to do hit, leaving it apparently unschated.
« Why did you try to paralyze it too? That's useless.» Raifort muttered angrily.
Turo furrowed his eyebrows, not quite understanding what had happened. As far as he knew, Ice wasn't in any way immune to electric attacks...
« I think it just used Safeguard...» Jacq answered the unsaid question after a moment, making Turo frown.
« Of course it did...» he muttered as Ampere floated in front of him and buzzed almost apologetically.
He patted the Pokémon's head and felt a slight electrical shock travel up his arm.
« It's not your fault, don't worry...»
« Hey! It's getting away!»
Raifort's sudden shout made Turo's head snap back up. The Altaria had dodged the Flamethrower aimed at them by Jacq's Arcanine, and was already attempting to fly away.
It didn't even want to retaliate.
« Shit... we have to stop it!» Turo started running, leaving the narrow path up the mountain they had followed until now down the slope the Altaria was gliding down from.
« Keep using Thunder Wave! Safe Guard will have to run out eventually!» he barked towards the Electric type. Magnemite floated forward, buzzing as it passed through the various Flamethrowers that Jacq's Arcanine kept firing toward the retreating Terastalized Pokémon.
Snow flew everywhere as he slipped on some rocks hidden by the snow... his lungs burned with effort as he dug his shoes into the snow to avoid falling forward.
By his side, Jacq's Arcanine leapt past him in an enormous jump; Turo scrambled back up, squinting as he tried to recognize the shape of the Altaria against the white sky. With those pure white wings, how was he even supposed to find it...? He could barely see Ampere, maybe he should send Miguel after him, but then he would be left with no Pokémon by his side...
« Stop!»
Grusha slid past him on his snowboard, blocking his way and spraying him with a wave of fresh snow. His Sneasel was perched on his back, hanging from his shoulders like a furry, clawed backpack. It hissed at both him and Jacq, showing small white fangs.
« You can't just blindly chase after it! What if you fell down a ravine, or provoked an avalanche?!»
Turo looked from the kid towards the figure of the Altaria that was getting farther and farther away. He scowled, but the kid had a point. No use risking to get seriously injured just to chase after a single wild Pokémon.
« R-right... What do we do?»
Grusha pointed his snowboard towards the steep decline. From another Poké Ball, he released a Frosmoth... probably the one he had mentioned before.
« Me and my Pokémon will go after it. I will try to push it back here. When it does, it will take me some time to come back up the mountain again, so...» the kid's unusually sharp eyes narrowed at them.
« Make sure you have a way to stop it from flying away again.»
Again, it was strange to get scolded by a kid that was less than half his age, but he could do nothing but nod.
« Alright.»
He watched the young trainer disappear in the distance, feeling a mix of frustration and anger.
This... he had the nagging feeling things wouldn't have gone like this if Sada had been the one here instead of him. She would have known what to do. She would have reacted faster; probably studied the environment to know the area and how to best pin that Altaria exactly where she wanted.
He... why hadn't he done it? Why had he just thought things would go exactly like the last Tera Raid, with the Altaria nicely trapped in a cave? That had been dumb of him.
He needed to be better than this. That wasn't like him.
« ... Alright.» he repeated, whirling around to face Raifort and Jacq.
« We have a Pokémon that for all intents and purposes is an ice type that can use mostly dragon and flying attacks-»
« And Earthquake, if we're unlucky.» Jacq shrugged when Turo raised an eyebrow at him.
« I've seen a lot of Altaria use Earthquake...»
Turo grumbled unhappily.
« And Earthquake... great... Let's hope it's smart enough to not use it on top of a mountain... What moves can your Arcanine use best?»
« Flamethrower, Extreme Speed, Agility and Crunch are good enough most of the time... I was trying to teach him a fighting type move to deal with Rock types but we haven't managed it yet.»
The problem with Jacq's Arcanine was that it didn't have the space to use its speed to the best of its ability.
« Do you have any Pokémon that can fly, or float?»
Jacq scratched his neck, grinning sheepishly, and Turo sighed.
« What other Pokémon do you have with you right now?» he knew Jacq and Raifort both had a bunch more than him. He had seen Jacq's Girafarig, mostly because it had almost chewed on his Violet Book once, and... what was it's name... that Pokémon that was so slow it barely felt pain... Slowpoke? Something like that.
« I've got Girafarig... that Brambleghast I trained for Clavell's project... Slowbro and Mudsbray.»
He thought about it for a moment, then turned to Raifort.
« What about you?»
The woman crossed her arms to her chest, looking almost bored.
« My Haunter knows Mean Look. It will stop the Altaria from running away, but only until he's able to look at it directly, so it's tricky to use. In a direct battle, it doesn't last long. »
Turo furrowed his eyebrows. « Won't Safeguard just protect it from that too?»
Raifort's grin kind of worried him.
« Nah. Ghost Pokémon like to mess with how things are supposed to work. He can get through it.»
A plan started to form in his mind. He took a big breath, and looked at the sky. No sign of the Altaria, or even Ampere, for now. He hoped the little Steel type would find its way back to him.
«... I have half an idea on what to do.»
Five minutes later, all three of them were waiting crouched low behind some rocks. Snow had started to fall again, harder this time. Jacq had retrieved his Arcanine back into his Poké Ball, and was now sniffling huddled close to him. Raifort and her Haunter were crouching behind another rock, the ghost type almost completely submerged into the rock. Only the tips of his clawed hands and his shining pupils were barely visible emerging from the stone. Jacq shivered and repressed a sneeze.
« I should have dressed a bit heavier... are you not cold?» he asked, eyeing his clothes.
« Nope.» he mumbled as an answer, eyes fixed to the sky.
Finally, something moved. There, rapidly approaching and still almost completely camouflaged against the clouds, the Altaria was speeding through the air, a Frosmoth hot on his heels... he blinked after a moment. No, that was a Frosmoth with a Sneasel riding on its back. With a shrill cry, the dark type jumped off his ride and dropped towards the Altaria, both claws shining with a dark aura. The wild Pokémon let out a panicked cry and dropped lower to the ground. Grusha's Frosmoth flapped her wings and caught her squadmate in midair, and they whirled towards the Pokémon again, dodging the Dragonbreath that was launched at them in retaliation. They had evidently been doing this for a while. He looked all around in a panic. Where was Ampere?
« Haunter, Mean Look!» Raifort's command snapped him back to the present. He had to focus. If Ampere wasn't here, he had to adapt.
The Haunter's eye stopped the Altaria dead in its tracks, forcing it to land as it was prevented from straying too far from the Ghost type. The bird looked all around in a frenzy, trying to understand why it couldn't move, then futively tried to use Safeguard again. Turo smirked: as much as he hated to admit it, Raifort had been right.
Now they had to protect that Haunter at all costs... or plan ahead.
« Jacq, your turn.» he commanded. His classmate nodded and quickly threw a Poké Ball forward.
« Slowbro, Disable that Safeguard!» he commanded.
The Pokémon's eyes glowed, and the Altaria looked suddenly confused.
« It relies on that move too much... I wonder if it's because it Terastallized into a type that it would normally find incredibly dangerous?» he mused. If it flew around this mountain even before Terastallizing, maybe it had learned to use Safeguard to avoid freezing and his instincts were still used to acting that way... not that it mattered at the moment.
The Altaria turned around to face them and, seeing nothing but three humans and a Slowbro, screeched as it flew into a rage. Turo's blood ran cold when he realized that the ground was shaking. It really was using Earthquake...!
« STOP IT AT ANY COST! BEARTIC, ACQUA JET!» Grusha's voice came from lower down, the kid climbing up the mountain slowly and carefully. The enormous Beartic with him melted snow into water as it tried to rush desperately upwards to barrel towards his target.
Turo freezed, paralyzed by fear. If that thing really ended up causing an avalanche...
« Miguel!» he cried out, summoning the little bird to his side. « TAUNT!»
The dark type seemed to catch on the urgency in his voice, because he didn't even glare at him for releasing him in such a cold place.
The Altaria stopped the Eartquake as it was forced to focus on the flying Type and realized that it was useless. It took a deep breath and flapped his wings gracefully, firing another Dragon Breath.
« Let's focus on hitting those wings...» he commented, fully conscious that he had no way of helping doing so with no other Pokémon.
« Got it.» Jacq switched his Pokémon out with his Arcanine, who could happily fire a Flamethrower that finally landed on its target. The snow covering one of the Altaria's wings melted partially, and the Pokémon screeched in rage again. Turo quietly wondered if it was a bit like feeling what were his feathers burn away.
The wing that had been hit glittered under the sun; it shone a bright blue, covered in icy blue shards that gave the wing a jagged, serrated edge. Instead of feathers, the wing looked like it was covered by a myriad tiny snowflakes.
Suddenly, Grusha's Beartic hit the Altaria from behind, punching through the other wing and pinning it to the ground. More snowflakes flew around as more crystals shattered away from the Pokémon's body.
« We can't catch it until we completely break those off, or the wall will just bounce off.» Turo said, his voice rising in tone in urgency.
Suddenly, a flurry of silver spheres shot through the air, barrelling into the Altaria and cracking the icy shards until it completely broke through.
Turo's eyes widened when he saw a little shiny figure float weakly towards him from behind the Altaria.
« Ampere!» he cried out, rushing forward to hug the little Electric type. The Magnemite looked exhausted, buzzing weakly as it collapsed in its arms, both his magnets and the screws on its body barely moving.
Grusha staggered behind him, out of breath.
« That little guy kept chasing after the Altaria... it's thanks to him it didn't escape, it would shock him every time it tried to fly too high, even if he had to strain its magnetic powers too hard.» he said, and he looked down at the little Steel type with an affectionate smile.
« Really? You tried so hard... thank you.» he whispered, stroking the Magnemite's head.
Grusha stepped forward and let an empty Pokeball fall on the exhausted Altaria's head.
« So with your research you will be able to make it transform in an ice type at will?» the trainer asked, looking at the Poke Ball he had just used.
« That's what we hope... It may take a couple years to do so. You'll probably have graduated the Academy by then... and won a couple more snowboarding championships.» he said, not without a small smile. It felt weird to think about looking at the kid in front of him now.
In a couple years... he already would have a child that was almost two years old by then... the thought shocked him.
Grusha pulled his scarf down to smile a little.
« I can't wait to do so. That Altaria looked really beautiful... and deadly at the same time. I think... it liked the snow, but didn't know know what living in such a place meant. I will teach it what it means. I think it liked being an ice type... » the kid said, and he smiled a little.
« I'm sure you will. Break a leg, kid.» he laughed, and Grusha's eyebrows furrowed.
Fifteen years and a carrer-ending injury later, Turo would still sometimes think back to his choice of words and cringe about it.
---
It was late night when Sada heard the door of the laboratory open again. She looked up from the pages and pages of notes she had been taking, to see Turo, Jacq and Raifort shuffle inside, looking miserable. She jumped up and greeted Turo first with a hug, then looked at the other two.
« How did the Raid go?»
« It was less of a raid and more of a chase all over Glaseado Peak.» Turo mumbled, and sneezed over her shoulder. She wrinkled her nose and let him go, looking at the other two. Jacq was collapsed at a desk, head resting on the hardcover of "Unown ruins across the world" she had been consulting.
« What happened?» she asked.
Raifort sat down at her usual spot dominated by maps and history books about the Paldean empire.
« Turns out that a flying Pokémon doesn't really like getting himself cornered in a cramped, closed off cave, and instead will do anything to simply fly away... who would have thought!» she deadpanned, throwing a glance at Turo, who gritted his teeth and mumbled something.
« That's why I was trying to paralyze it-»
« Yeah, and you missed! If my Haunter didn't know Mean Look, we would still be running after that dumb thing-»
Sada cut them off before they could start arguing about whose fault it was.
She didn't care about that! She had so many things to show them!
« Was it really Ice type? Did you get some Tera shards from it?»
Turo nodded and took some crystals out of his bag. She wasted no time grabbing them and sorting them in a little pile of other ice tera shards scattered all over the floor with all the others. Turo seemed to notice them right at that moment, because she heard him move and clear his throat behind her.
« Sada... Why are all our Tera shards dumped on the floor in a circle around Kim and Ötzi?» he asked, and she grinned wide, looking at all three... Well, mostly Turo and Raifort. Jacq looked like he had fallen asleep: she eyed him for a moment.
She had borrowed that book from the school library, if he drooled on it they would still blame her for the damage...
« I figured it out! » she said.
« I figured out what makes Pokémon crystallize!»
Turo's eyes widened, and he walked closer to look at her notes.
« Really?» he whispered, almost like he didn't dare believe her.
Sada nodded and grabbed the book from under Jacq's face, letting his head fall to the desk with a "thunk". The young man bolted awake, straightening his classes.
« Wah... uh... I just wanted to rest my eyes for a moment... what's going on?» he asked.
« Wait a moment before you start, I'm going to call Clavell here.» Turo said.
A couple of minutes later, Clavell was also present. She suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu, thinking back to when she had exposed her theory about primal reversion.
« All right, so... I'm going to keep this short. »
She pointed towards the piles of Tera shards near the two Pokémon.
« Before now, we were never really sure if it was the crystals that decided what a Pokémon would terastalize into, or if it was something decided by the Pokémon themselves in some way... I think that the crystals release a neutral energy that allows Pokémon to terastalize, and then by staying near a terastalized Pokémon they absorb their "type charged" energy and become shards of a specific type. So the way to make Pokémon terastallize is by focusing this "neutral" energy on them... or maybe, instead of "neutral", it's actually the energy of all types combined, with each Pokémon only reacting to certain frequencies. Like light being made of different colors.» she started to explain, walking back and forth between her desk and Clavell's. She hazarded a look around; everyone was looking at her intently.
« So it's not that the Pokémon making places rich with Tera crystals their den transforms them into a certain type... they are already of that type and when they Terastallize it affects the surrounding Tera crystals... » Clavell commented.
Sada nodded, then opened up the book she had in hand to a certain page. It showed Pokémon that resembled letters of an ancient alphabet.
« I was reading this book about Unowns and how they tend to appear in ancient ruins... I wanted to know why there seems to be no trace of them in Paldea and other regions... and I read about this move they all possess, "Hidden Power". Apparently any Pokémon can learn it, and two Pokémon of the same species can have it manifest with the power of different types... isn't it a bit like a limited version of Terastallizing? » she asked, eyes sparkling. It was so fascinating, how a Pokémon's move could say so much about their biology!
Turo's eyes widened, and he started smiling.
« What if they are the same thing... is there a way to know what type a Pokémon's Hidden Power will be? If we can measure the Hidden power of some of the Terastallized Pokémon we caught like Grusha's Altaria and it happens to be Ice type...» he turned to ask the others. Jacq hummed as he raked one hand through his disheveled hair.
« It's quite difficult actually... some sensitive humans with psychic powers can apparently feel it... people have been trying to build some devices to measure it, like the Silph Scope that can identify Ghost types if they are hiding or camouflaging themselves... some types are more difficult to measure than others, apparently...»
Sada had noticed that Turo had suddenly gone really quiet.
«... I'm sure I can do it.» he mumbled to himself, before looking back up.
« So all of this... how does it relate to actually getting Pokémon to terastalize?» he asked.
Sada couldn't help a little triumphant smile. She couldn't wait to see their reaction at what she had discovered.
« I had already noticed that some tera shards seemed to hold more energy than others. Bigger pieces held more energy of course, but if we want to create a portable device to Terastal Pokémon everywhere, we needed to compress it... and also to combine energy from all types in a suitable container. So I started working on this bigger crystal we found, by chipping it down... and I realized there's a specific shape that is... I guess... much more efficient in holding this energy. » she said, laying down the fragment of crystal she had been working on on the table. Everyone crowded near to have a look at it.
« ... a hexagon? » Raifort asked, picking the hexagonal gem up and turning it around.
« Why a hexagon exactly? » Clavell added, and Sada shrugged.
« I'm still not quite sure about that, but... how many types are there?» she asked.
« Seventeen...» Raifort, Jacq and Clavell answered at the same time.
« Eighteen-» everyone turned to look confusedly at Turo, who flinched slightly. His eyes flicked around for a moment, uncomfortable.
«... you know... seventeen plus the Fairy type...» he added after a moment in a low voice, sounding uncertain.
Clavell narrowed his eyes at him, while Raifort and Jacq exchanged a glance, confused. Turo clenched his teeth, and Sada noticed him clamming up like he used to do when he was hiding something from her. For a moment, she also panicked. Was this something people weren't supposed to know?
«... that one still hasn't been officially recognized.» Clavell said after a moment, and everyone turned towards him.
« Professor Sycamore in Kalos is busy working out the last defining characteristics of officially declaring it a new type, and reclassifying some species that had been incorrectly misclassified until now, but yes, there probably are actually eighteen types. Did you read his research, by chance?» he asked Turo, who seemed to visibly relax.
« Yeah... caught some news about it while we were in Kalos... » he mumbled.
Sada mentally thanked Clavell: she wouldn't have known what to say to help right here.
« So... eighteen types... 18 is divisible by 6, right?... look, I actually am not really quite sure why it does, but... the Scarlet Book inspired me. There's this hexagonal shape drawn in one page, so I tried to chisel down the Tera to copy that shape. After all, if Heath put that shape in the book, it must have something to do with Area Zero, and that's where this phenomena seems to come from-» she noticed Clavell's eyes widen in alarm a second too late. Sada shut her mouth, realizing her mistake.
« And how do you know that?» Jacq asked, curious.
They had never quite made it public that they had already been in Area Zero before, and that they knew for certain that the exact same crystals were growing even larger under there, to the point of covering whole patches of ground, trees and making even the air sparkle and glimmer.
After a couple of seconds, it was Turo that spoke up.
« I mean... it just seems reasonable to assume the source is somewhere under there... Heath mentions finding "glowing gemstones" and... stuff, in both the Scarlet and Violet book...»
« Oh... I guess so..., yeah.»
Sada took the hexagonal gem she had chiseled from Raifort's hand and one by one, held it near tera shards of each color still scattered on the ground. When it got in contact with each Tera shard, the gem would glow for a brief moment.
She turned towards both her Pokémon.
« I'll show you... I only managed to do it for a short moment because the shards don't hold that much Terastal energy. Ötzi, come here.»
The clay golem tottered over to her, and she held the gem over his head. It glowed bright for a moment, and so did the Pokémon, filling the room with a bright flash of light. Everyone had to cover their eyes until the light subdued, and when it did... the Golett actually still looked kind of the same.
« Um-» Clavell looked like he didn't quite know what to say.
« ... I know it doesn't look like much, but... doesn't the air feel warmer? And if you look at the clay here, doesn't it look kinda... crystally....? I think he's a Fire type now-look, the energy burning in him is all... firey now-» Sada pointed to a spot near the Pokémon's waist. The others didn't really look convinced.
« Isn't that how a Golett always looks...? »
« Argh... Kim! Come here! It's much more visible on her, I swear...» she said, as the poor Ghost type huffed and stomped back in his corner, dejected.
She held the gem near various other Tera shards again, then repeated the process for the Fire type.
« Look carefully at her mane... there!»
There was a long moment of silence.
« That's... did her hair just sprout leaves?» Clavell asked in a whisper, before carefully crouching down to examine the Pokémon. The Litleo scratched at her mane, then shook her head.
Sada grinned proudly as Turo shot up from his chair and tripped in his haste to cross the room.
« I can't believe it... so she's a grass type now?»
Right as he had said it, Kim shook her head, and the leaves that had grown attached to her short mane burst into flames. Sada hurriedly batted the remaining embers away, to avoid anything else catching fire.
« Just for a moment, but... I think she was, yes. I want to finish building a sphere where we can set this gem... And then try charging it near one of the big Tera raid crystals. That should be enough to terastalize a Pokémon completely. » she took a big breath after saying all that, and a moment later, Turo had thrown both his arms around her neck. Sada yelped in surprise as he laughed and hugged her close, cautiously, to not press too much against her. He wasn't the type of such public show of affection usually, so he must have been incredibly excited.
« You're... you're incredible! I... I love you so much -» he whispered in her ear in her language.
« Well... we still have to prove it actually works by building a working prototype... and everyone here also helped... » she replied after a moment, shifting away from him.
« And...» she kept her hands on his shoulders and switched back to Paldean, turning her head towards the others present.
« There's... something else we want to announce to you all here.» she added, looking briefly towards Turo. His eyes widened for a moment, before he nodded, and she caught Clavell also looking suddenly tense all of a sudden.
« Um... Sada... what do you have in min-» the teacher started to say.
« Me and Turo are getting married.» she blurted out.
The room seemed to explode.
Raifort slumped dejectedly back on her chair.
« There goes the girl of my dreams... » she mumbled, so low that Sada barely caught it, and was left wondering at what she meant.
« Wait, you mean... you two were dating??» Jacq gasped, and Turo and Clavell groaned in unison as they turned towards him.
« ... Really? You even helped me look for apartments for two here in Mesagoza!» Turo chuckled.
« ... I thought you were just sick of the school dorms...»
« Jacq, my dear, you are brilliant when it comes to Pokémon biology, but at least try to be a bit less absent-minded towards literally everything else?» Clavell shook his head, before turning towards them both.
« Congratulations! I will help in planning the ceremony-»
« No, actually... something small and private will be fine...» Turo tried to say, to no avail.
« Nonsense! Two brilliant students of our Academy getting married! If it's in a year's time and you already graduated and published your work on Terastal Energy by then, this will be incredible news! An incredible start to both of your careers!» Clavell said, grabbing a bunch of papers and a pen as if he literally wanted to start making a guest list right now.
Sada panicked for a moment. An entire year for getting married?!
« We can't wait that long!» she said. By that time, the baby would already be born, they would have no time for a wedding!
Everyone turned to her again in various degrees of confusion.
« Why not?» Raifort asked, narrowing her eyes at her.
Sada chewed on her lips for a moment. Turo had gone pale. He looked at her, and she nodded. He sighed, and took a deep breath, almost steeling himself for the chaos that would soon erupt in the room.
« B-because... we are also expecting a child.» he had gone completely red in the face as he said it, but a radiant grin slowly opened up on his face, and she found herself grinning as well.
In a way, it was like saying it out loud to someone else had made it real.
A child. Their new life to treasure.
« I'm pregnant. That's why we thought it best I stay here today.» Sada added.
Clavell's pen simply clattered to the floor.
