Nekodatta
Pokémon Trainer
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Partners
-
Chapter 38: From Zero, part I
In the laboratory, Turo stared with wide eyes at the little "1" denoting an unread email on his laptop. He had been staring at it for at least a couple of minutes, not daring to open it, paralyzed by the portion of the email's subject he could read."Your paper has been-"
"Don't be so nervous", he tried to tell himself. It wasn't like this was the first time he had had something peer reviewed, after all. He had written dozens of papers about Artificial Pokémon programming back in his time, would have written another dozens or so about time travelling if things hadn't worked out differently, and had written a couple more about certain Pokémon in this time.
So why was he feeling so nervous now? Maybe because, deep down, he knew that there was much more at stake here now. He had a son, he had responsibilities. He was a nobody here, and this was a world -renowned scientific journal that scientists the world over would read, not just a couple of guys around Paldea and Briar at best.
What if they had found out that every kind of document about him in this time was forged? What if he had written something weird that he wasn't supposed to know in this time?
He had actually asked Clavell to proofread everything before submitting it, but...
Miguel and Ampere were both by his side, the first looking impatiently between him and the screen, not understanding what was bothering him, while the second floated behind his chair. The Magnemite and his two companions had started to stick incredibly close now, and Turo realized that he wasn't really sure how the evolution into Magneton actually worked. Maybe they actually were already a Magneton now and he hadn't even realised.
Miguel cawed, impatient, and Turo nodded, slowly moving the mouse over the link.
« R-right... Let's get this over with.»
He clicked the email.
His eyes flew wide.
"Your paper has been accepted and will be published in the next number of Poké Nature"
« ... Yes. Yes! I got in! Sada!» he called out towards his wife sitting at the small table in the laboratory « I got in! We're both getting published!» he laughed, moving to hug her as she was busy feeding Arven. She laughed.
« Did you really think they would refuse your paper? » she said. Turo smiled, feeling a bit self-conscious.
« Well... I can't help but worry...»
« You worry too much. So, next week's magazine, right? » Sada smiled.
The next week, he bought the magazine in Los Platos and sat down on a bench to start browsing it until his eyes fell on his article. Next to him, Sada was doing the same with another copy as Arven sat in a stroller between them.
"Artificially influencing Pokémon evolution: ways to induce rare Pokémon evolutions in a controlled environment, by Romero Turo."
He stared at his name, feeling a strange mixture of pride and... bafflement while looking at it. That was his name, printed on a magazine that would be read all over the world.
Who knew how many other people had that same exact name across all of history... but...
He distinctly remembered asking his parents why they had picked that name for him. His mother laughed; "Your father picked it, from some famous Paldean scientist long ago with his same surname he read about in a book. He thought Romero sounded nice next to Turo"
That's what she had said. His hands trembled as he held the magazine.
He couldn't... he couldn't have picked it... because of him? Would he end up be mentioned in a book thousands of years later...?
Was he named after himself?
The absurdity of it even being a possibility made him laugh.
He turned towards Sada with a smile, only to find her similarly looking at the magazine, opened to another page. He moved closer, to find her looking at her published article about the first traces of human settlements and cooperation with Pokémon found in Paldea and Kalos. She was quiet as she brushed her finger over her printed name.
« ... I just wish I could have shown them all this. I wonder what they would think of... what I've written about us.» she whispered, and he his smile dimmed as he took a moment to put one arm around her shoulders.
« They would have been so proud of you. » he replied, to which Sada laughed briefly.
« Mother thought writing was dumb, so... I'm not so sure about that. »
Turo smiled again, remembering how nervous he had felt at meeting the fierce woman.
« ... I think she still would have been proud of you. »
Arven interrupted them by loudly grabbing at both magazines. They both looked down, almost surprised, until Sada laughed again, this time looking more relieved.
« Right... we can show him instead. » she said. « Here, Arvie, Mommy and Daddy wrote this! See?» she laughed, showing the baby the magazine. « Aww. I guess there's not enough pictures for him to care yet.»
« We'll make sure to include some brightly colored ones in our next project.» Turo mumbled in a completely serious tone, smiling at her reaction when she burst out laughing.
He sighed and leaned back on the bench, closing his eyes. He could hear the sounds of their Pokémon playing around together with Arven's laughter. The wind caressed his face as he moved one hand to look for Sada's; he found hers and wrapped his fingers around hers, holding tight. A moment later, he felt her squeeze his hand back later and smiled.
This was Paradise.
He slowly opened his eyes again, finding himself looking at the full moon, barely visible in the blue sky. The smile dimmed the tiniest bit, and he swallowed heavily.
« Let's go back home.» he offered, voice low.
A couple of days later, he received another email, this one completely unexpected. He had walked over to the small kitchen they had installed in the laboratory to make himself some coffee as the computer booted up; he still wasn't used to everything being so... incredibly... slow...and so had started doing every kind of other activity as he waited.
He quirked one eyebrow as he saw the notification and clicked to open it, having to bend forward slightly to reach the mouse as he took a sip from the mug. What he read made him almost spill the blazing coffee mug all over the keyboard in his haste to sit down, staring slack jawed at the screen.
"Your request for access to a Porygon for research purposes has been approved. Please use the following credentials to download the source code of the latest stable build-"
He had completely forgotten about it.
He thought his request had been long denied, or simply ignored!
He shakily clicked on the link and input the credentials, feeling a grin stretch on his face. A Porygon all for himself! That was adorable!
He downloaded the source code and started to read through the configuration procedure. This was... fascinating. He was used to code from a much more advanced version of Porygon, so this looked extremely bare-bones to him. Only the simplest procedures and methods had been implemented yet. It was like... a completely blank canvas. Truly the start of something new, the first true Artificial Pokémon, in its purest and simplest form.
« "Your Porygon v.1.0.34 can connect to the device where its code has been first compiled to automatically download new updates; please make sure to compile it on a device you won't lose access to-" I guess this pc should be fine...» he muttered, scrolling through various pages of instructions and terms of services.
« "Connect an empty Poké Ball to your device wirelessly to automatically register your Porygon to your Poké Ball's Trainer ID".... updating and remembering moves, sure.... "Four moves limit"... wait, what?» he scrolled back up, squinting at the screen.
The heck was a four move limit...?
It took him a long moment to realize it what it meant.
It could only use four techniques at maximum at any given time.
No more.
With most of the disk space occupied by the OS, there wasn't literally enough memory for more.
That was... kind of adorably crude.
Some poor Silph programmer had done the best they could.
Well... he was sure he could change that. If not with an official upgrade, then with his own tinkering.
After finishing setting up everything, he hovered his finger over the "Enter" key, before stopping right before pressing it. He fumbled in his labcoat pocket for his Poké Balls, letting out both Miguel and Ampere. The Murkrow yawned as he materialized on the table, while the Magneton -yes, he had confirmed with Jacq that it had actually evolved into Magneton now- scooted backwards with a slight buzz, not wanting to let its electromagnetic waves interfere with the computer. Um. Right. Maybe, for precaution, it was better if the Magneton waited outside.
« Sorry, Ampere, could you wait just outside? The new team member is a bit... delicate.» he commented. Who knew what could happen if a single byte got corrupted in a Porygon's code. Nothing that couldn't be fixed by just reverting the changes, but... he really didn't want the Porygon to experience that as its first boot up. After all, it was as if he would just be born in that moment.
... just like Arven, in a way, a new life would be born right here. That was so exciting!
He waited until the Electric type had moved out of the laboratory, then gave Miguel a small smile.
« All right, here goes.»
He pressed the button; commands flashed across the terminal and logs started to pop up.
"Importing necessary packages..
complete"
"Building Porygon OS v.1.0.34...."
Once everything was finished, the button on the Poké Ball connected wirelessly to the laptop flashed red once and shook, like it did when a capture was successfully registered. On the screen, a single line was visible.
"Build complete."
He grabbed the Poké Ball with a shaking hand, Miguel tilting his head at it, confused. He could understand the Pokémon's confusion; from his point of view, that must have been a rather unusual "capture".
He pressed the button, and released the Pokémon inside. The Porygon coalesced right next to the Murkrow, who squawked and hopped to the side, surprised.
The Porygon opened its little, pixelated eyes, and raised its head with the slightest click to look at him. Just like in the picture he had seen, it had a crude, blocky shape. Its body was just simple polygons with flat colours and no shading. It didn't even have any textures!
By its side, Miguel didn't look particularly impressed at his new teammate. He hopped forward and squinted at the Pokémon, looking apparently puzzled at what looked like a bird that had no wings.
Turo pushed the desk chair slightly back, to better look at the Porygon.
« Hello. Can you understand me?» he asked.
The Pokémon just blinked, impassive, not moving in the slightest. Turo frowned, then looked at the screen and scrolled back up at the instructions; maybe there was a specific word he had to say? A keyword it would react to? He knew that their language processing capabilities had been extremely crude at first, but he was curious to see how "basic" the commands it knew were...
« Porygon.» he tried again, and this time the Pokémon reacted, perking up. « How do you feel?»
There was a slight pause, then the Pokémon gave an affirmative beep, eyes flashing green. Umm, so... it couldn't talk?
Miguel clacked its beak, and the Porygon turned to look at the Murkrow. When the dark type tilted his head, it tried to copy him after a moment, and Turo had to stop himself from nerding out too much from the adorableness.
Look at him! He was already learning!
Turo slowly moved one hand towards the artificial Pokémon and tried to pet it. It simply stared at his hand blankly, not knowing what to do or react. Man, they really had programmed it with literally only the most basic of functions, didn't they? They had focused on those first, and everything else had come little by little in the many, many, following updates.
« Aw, you really are like a little baby bird... »
Miguel cawed again and seemed to roll his eyes, then hopped forward and playfully pecked at his fingers. The Murkrow then turned towards the artificial bird, almost expectantly. Slowly, the Porygon moved to copy the dark type, bumping Turo's hand with its hard beak, before letting out another little electronic chirp. Miguel nodded, satisfied.
Turo couldn't help a smile as he looked between the two Pokémon, complete opposites yet somewhat similar.
« I need to find you a name... » he mumbled.
Most probably something that referenced computers... some famous inventor of the past...? He suddenly realized that there weren't exactly that many people he could choose from, computers being relatively new in this time. Just like time travel had been in his era, there were right now maybe a handful of relevant names. He groaned, annoyed.
« With all respect to the guy, I'm not calling you "Bill"... this is more complicated than I thought... »
---
Sada took a big breath to calm herself down. When she and Turo had been called to the Paldea League headquarters this morning, she had to admit that she had expected something different.
Something like... a Pokémon battle, similar to a Gym challenge, but more difficult. Other regions had the Elite Four, and you were supposed to defeat them and the Champion all in a row to prove you were worth of the title of new Champion, so she had expected something similar.
Instead, she had been called into a pristine white room, with no sign of a Pokémon ring. Or any Pokémon, for that matter. The only furniture in the room where a desk, two chairs, and an old computer, and she immediately tensed up in realizing that what awaited her was even worse than the battle gauntlet she had been expecting.
This was an interview.
She groaned mentally as she sat down on one chair, and winced when it squeaked loudly. She looked down, her hands balled up into fists on her knees. She had absolutely no idea what they would ask her about. Did she need to prove her theoretical knowledge about Pokémon? But she already did that at the Academy, they could just look at her grades to see she had aced those tests...
She huffed and nodded to herself, her hands relaxing.
She had gotten through far worse; her first couple days in this time, she had gotten through keeping her true identity hidden while barely understanding the language. She had survived in harsh conditions against wild Pokémon much more savage than anything that lived in this time, with no fancy Poke Ball or items available.
She would answer whatever they would ask of her without problems.
... she still would have preferred to simply have to fight four random guys she had never seen before and be done with it. She wished she could at least keep her Pokémon with her, but they had forbidden her to do so. Sada had no idea why. Were they afraid they would somehow give her the answers?
The door opposite from her opened, and out walked a woman whose age Sada couldn't quite identify.
Quite tall, she had a mane of long, black hair - even longer than hers, actually -, with some golden and blue stripes running along it. Her eyes were of a similar dark blue color, with a bit of gold at the very center of the iris, all around the pupil. It gave her quite a striking look, like there was a warm glow deep in her eyes.
At a first glance, she looked like she was more or less the same age as her or Raifort, yet she carried herself with a security that reminded her of her own mother. She emanated the kind of aura that only people with authority and experience given by reaching a certain age or position possessed.
« Good morning. I'm Geeta Castilla, chairwoman of the Paldean Pokémon League and of Uvanja Academy's school board. I've been appointed just recently, so...» she cracked a little smile. « I've been thinking of changing how the League is handled here in Paldea. I'm going to ask you some questions, then I will do the same to Turo. Is that all right with you?»
« Yes » she answered as she tried to hide her perplexity. This sounded more and more like she was going to interrogate her and Turo separately and double check their answers.
« If I can ask... why did you ask me to come inside first?» she added after a moment.
Geeta took a moment to glance at the monitor and clicked the mouse a couple of times. Was she checking some info about them? She remembered Clavell telling them that he had to tell a couple of other people from the Academy board that he had found them in Area Zero. Was she one of them?
« Oh, simply alphabetical order. » she answered with a small shrug, before turning completely towards her. Her smile disappeared, leaving a completely unreadable expression in its place. She could have rivalled Turo's own impassible poker face, and Sada kinda wished she could see the interview he would have with her later just to witness the ultimate staring contest that would take place between the two.
« The purpose of this interview is to judge if you have the necessary requisites to hold the title of "Champion ranked" trainer. Long ago, at the time of the Paldean Emperor, "Champion" was the title reserved to his personal guards and councillors. They were not only warriors unmatched in their ability with Pokémon, but also scientists, artists, philosophers, doctors, teachers... they represented the very best that the whole Empire had to offer.» Geeta's voice rose slowly.
« That is why in Paldea, the League and the Academy have always worked together, and why so many of the Gym Leaders and Elite Four in our region seem to devote less time to their duties compared to other regions like Galar. »
Sada had heard of the Empire's Champions during history class, but she still found Geeta explanation fascinating; it resonated with her deeply. An Elite Four in Paldea was not just an Elite Four. They were an Elite Four because they also showed incredible talent in other fields in addition to Pokémon battling. It was just like in her tribe where everyone was expected to contribute with the thing they could do best, just on a region-wide scale. She found herself leaning forward unconsciously, her eyes shining.
« If you pass this interview, we'll continue with the practical part of the exam, which will consist in a Pokémon battle. Ready?»
Sada nodded.
Geeta smiled and turned completely towards her.
« Great. Now, how did you arrive here this morning?» she asked.
Sada blinked, a bit surprised by the random question. Was it supposed to test if she was truthful? Or had payed attention?
« By Flying Taxi.»
« Good. What was Artazon's Gym Challenge?» Geeda swiftly went to the next question.
« Pushing a giant inflatable olive towards a goal while avoiding traps set up by Bug Pokémon.» it had been almost two years ago by now, but she still remembered it clearly... mostly because she had laughed herself silly watching Turo do it.
« What was the last Pokémon used by Montenevera's Gym Leader?»
« A Garganacl.»
It went on like this for a good ten minutes, Geeta asking questions about the Gym challenge she had taken across Paldea: where a specific Gym was located, what the Gym challenge was, even details about what Pokémon each Gym Leader had used.
Now and then, Geeta glanced briefly at the screen to confirm her answers, and Sada had to be somewhat impressed: did they really record every single match to possibly double check info later?
« Just a couple more questions: who was your favourite Gym Leader?» Geeta asked.
Sada answered without hesitation.
« ... Larry.»
They wouldn't have invited the guy to their wedding otherwise. And the restaurant where he held his battles had quickly become a favourite of hers...
Geeta blinked, the only change of expression until now.
« ... we get that a lot, for some reason. » she muttered, and typed something on the computer. She straightened up, and her eyes now glared at Sada behind her propped up fingers.
« Why do you want to become a Champion?»
Sada now found herself hesitating. Was it some kind of trick question? Were they testing if she was going to answer honestly? Didn't she already know about her and Turo's intention to get back into Area Zero? Would they get offended and think they didn't actually care about the title itself at all? (Which was... admittedly the truth, to be honest-)
Geeta's expression was unreadable; Sada decided to be honest.
« To prove that I'm capable enough to enter Area Zero without any risk and continue my research on Terastal energy there.»
There was a long moment of silence, and Sada clenched her fists waiting for any kind of reaction from Geeta. After another couple of excruciating seconds, the woman smiled.
« ... I see. Very well. I wasn't exactly expecting to hear that you wanted to be "the very best"... we're both not teenagers anymore, after all. »
The dark haired woman clicked something on the computer and the door behind her slid open.
« You can procede with the practical evaluation. » she said as she stood up. Sada copied her movements, trying to keep her excitement down. She grasped Kim's Poké Ball at her belt. She could do this... she knew that the Pyroar, Golett, and Piloswine were strong, and had faith in them.
She took a deep breath, and entered the room to face her first challenger. She had to blink when she saw who it was, surprised.
« W- Larry?»
---
In the end, they hadn't quite managed to win; three Pokémon against five consecutive battles had been a bit too much to handle. But then again... wild Pokémon didn't fight like trained ones.
A wild Pokémon would try to flee, or prioritize not getting hurt as much as possible instead of fighting to complete exhaustion like a trained Pokémon that could quickly recover in a Pokémon Center could. Or at least, that was what Sada had told him, and since Geeta had still approved their request in the end, Turo supposed she was right.
The permissions had been granted with some conditions, however. They would try and make their way to the deepest parts of Area Zero as long as they kept near the three Research Station that had been established in the upper part of the Crater.
That morning, he, Sada and Clavell were standing in front of one of the few spots in all of Paldea that gave access to the Great Crater, the Zero Gate. There were apparently some caves here and there along the crater that would lead directly to the edge and the long, long drop to the ground over that, and all of them had been shut off with gates to avoid people accidentally wandering off in them.
However, they weren't exactly sturdy, which was why Turo wondered, not for the first time, how many people had actually tried to sneak over them. Not that it would do them any good: the only way inside the crater was still that incredibly sharp drop.
He also couldn't help but think that all that work challenging every single gym in Paldea had been only for getting the authorisation to, basically, jump into a really big hole.
« So this is the Zero Gate... » he said in a low voice. The building was pretty much hanging over the crater, with big, reinforced glass windows used to try and peer across the thick clouds that seemed to cover it permanently.
Those clouds never parted, no matter the weather in the rest of Paldea. Professor Olim's theory had apparently been that the unique shape of the crater was partially responsible for it.
They walked over the ramp that led to the platform until they stood in front of the sturdy, sealed gate.
He traded one look with Sada; for once, it was her expression that was unreadable.
« Arven will be fine. » they had left him with Raifort and Jacq at the lighthouse for a couple of hours, and this was usually the time the baby slept anyway. Sada smiled and shook her head.
« Oh... yes, I know. It's just strange to be here. »
He wasn't convinced it was just that, but let the matter drop as they opened the door and walked in.
It was immediately clear that those doors hadn't been opened in a long while. The lights flickered on a good five seconds after he pressed the switch; the entrance was a large room that was probably used to store equipment that needed to be shipped into the crater, while more doors to the left and right seemed to lead to a small laboratory and living quarters for researchers stationed here.
« So... Professor Olim commissioned this place... and spent some time here.» Sada said slowly, and Turo realized that was probably what had preoccupied her. If this Olim was really supposed to be Sada after managing to travel back to the past...
« You're thinking about why you would go back a couple decades if we are going to study Area Zero now anyway, right?» he asked in a low voice and Sada nodded, a troubled look on her face.
« Yes, I... I don't get it.. It's just... what, not even a century ago? I don't care about that. This time or a hundred years earlier are basically the same for me... Yes, even with the internet, Turo. » Sada immediately added when he couldn't help to raise one eyebrow at her answer.
« I would go much further back, if I really could... and especially now, with.... Arven and everything. I don't see any reason why I would even go there.»
Turo noticed Clavell had stopped examining a row of bookcases and turned towards them, lips slightly twisted in a frown.
« Why are you so convinced it has to be you? You both have this bad habit of fixating on a single answer disregarding any other possibility-» the man sighed, shaking his head.
« And we're both often right! What else can it be?» Sada shot back.
Turo opened the door that lead to a small bedroom. It looked very similar to Research Station 1; two bunk beds, a small cabinet, and a window that looked down towards the crater. Staring out of it made his skin crawl; he had never had a fear of heights, but something about looking straight down into the sheer drop towards nothing but white clouds made his stomach drop with a mixture of fear and excitement. Even if he knew the floor was perfectly straight, it almost felt like it was now slanting forward, ready to make him slip and fall towards the window.
If that reinforced glass ever broke or the window opened -
With a sharp breath, he stepped away from the window and closed the door behind him, his heart pounding. He didn't look forward to sleeping here at all. Judging by how the place looked like it had never been used, neither did whoever had been stationed here before.
He went back into the main hall to find Clavell and Sada still discussing Professor Olim.
« But Clavell... that's the thing. I don't have any ancestors in that time that could look identical to me, no matter how "common" you say it is for genes to be that strong.» Sada rolled her eyes as she went to examine the small laboratory instead.
Clavell followed her, deep in thought, and so did Turo. The older man seemed determined to find another explanation.
« Did you have any siblings? Relatives?» he tried.
Sada sighed, then paused. Her lips thinned, and Turo had to guess it had been because of Clavell using the past tense.
« Not in my tribe. I guess... father had some siblings in his tribe.» she said, crossing her arms to her chest.
« I suppose I could have had some cousins on his side... But you're not really suggesting that my cousins had descendants that would end looking that similar to me thousands and thousands of years later? » she said.
Clavell simply shrugged.
« The easiest explanation is often the most probable one. In this case, a coincidence looks more probable to me than you randomly deciding to hang out a couple centuries in the past for no reason.»
« ... yes, but... What about Golurk? Olim also has one! Ötzi hasn't evolved yet, but...»
« Coincidence. » Clavell repeated, unperturbed.
« Unless... The reason is exactly this place.» Turo slowly said, making both turn towards him with a slight frown. Sada blinked, just once, before her mind caught up with his, and he smiled. Of course she would immediately get it-
« Professor Olim oversaw the construction of Research Station 1, 2, and the Zero Gate. Without this infrastructure, there would be no radio, and without the radio-» she said.
« ... You two would have never escaped Area Zero alive.» Clavell finished for the both of them. He took a long breath, sighed, and took a moment to fix his glasses.
« And Professor Olim "vanished" mysteriously without a trace after just a couple years in Paldea. » Turo continued, his mind now trying to make every piece of the puzzle fit.
« Of course, it's because you come back here-»
« So you're just going to leave your husband and son to spend a couple years in the past?»
Clavell's snarl made Turo's smile melt from his face. He stopped and furrowed his eyebrows, turning towards Clavell to find him staring at both of them with his arms crossed. Behind his round glasses, his blue eyes peered at them, making him uncomfortable.
Turo turned to Sada, who looked mortified, eyes low.
« That's... that's the only thing that doesn't fit in this theory. Unless... we all go...?» she added after a moment, looking back up with her eyes shining with enthusiasm.
« Maybe Turo is the "unknown artist" that makes that painting and we're actually there, all three of us-»
Clavell bristled at that.
« You can't seriously be suggesting... it's just a stupid coincidence!» he was almost shouting now. Almost, because Turo had never actually heard Clavell raise his voice. But he was getting dangerously close.
Turo stepped between the two.
« Look, let's just... drop the topic. We know too little about what's going on. We don't even know what's truly in Area Zero... let's worry about it when we get there.»
Clavell stared at him for a long moment.
« But you also think that painting is her, do you? » he said.
Turo lowered his eyes, guilty. He did... it just made sense in his mind. It had been his first thought, after all. Except for the part where there seemed to be no trace of him and Arven in the past...
« .... let's talk about it another time.» he said.
Clavell just shook his head.
Desperately looking for something else to distract everyone from that conversation, Turo looked back towards the reinforced windows.
« How are we even supposed to get under there? » he asked. There seemed to be a mechanism for a landing pad of sort to open up in the building, overlooking the crater. He activated it, watching as the big steel doors slowly moved out of the way, revealing a platform. It was barely large enough to hold the three of them and maybe a couple middle or one large sized Pokémon standing side by side. The wind roared in their faces, and he stumbled back, closing the bulkhead again.
« Me and Sada don't even have Flying types big enough to carry us-» he said, forcing past the lump in his throat when his thoughts immediately went to Mirai. On his back, gliding into and out of the crater would be so easy...
Clavell sighed.
« Flying Taxis can get clearance to land in Area Zero for emergencies. » he explained. « You need an experienced pilot, but it's doable. »
Sada seemed to perk up a bit at that.
« I think I know just the right guy...»
« We can't use a Flying Taxi if we're going to constantly go in and out though. » Turo lamented with a groan. « Especially with all the equipment and resources we'll need to ferry down there...» he trailed off, a hint of frustration showing in his voice.
This was all going to be so unbearably slow, and he couldn't stand it.
« I can't believe you seriously have no teleporters set up in this time yet... » he growled, turning around just to find Clavell staring at him.
« Well... some places do have short range teleporters set up, but they are still in development... and require an enormous amount of energy so they are quite inefficient...»
Right. Of course. Stupid energy requirements. That had been the first reason the discovery of Hadron Energy had been so revolutionary, leading to his time. Things that had been pure sci-fi speculation because of how much energy they required had suddenly become accessible. Things like space travel, teleportation,or time travel.
But here... he just had to make do with what he had.
« ... I see. Guess we'll have to do everything the good, old manual way then. Maybe once Ötzi evolves he can help us carry more stuff in and out.» he mumbled, hoping that the mention of the Golett wouldn't spawn another discussion about Professor Olim having the exact same Pokémon.
He turned away from the bulkhead that seemed to almost taunt him silently, once again hiding the Great Crater of Paldea from view.
So at first I wanted Turo to make a little reference to Alan Turing by naming his Porygon "Turing", but I immediately realized what a horrible idea that was as soon as I thought about having to write stuff like "Turo ordered Turing". The plan was then to name it Alan, but Ampere already has a name that starts with A and I want to avoid names that sound too similar. I'm still brainstorming some nerdy name he would choose, same thing for Sada's Swinub/now Piloswine. Suggestions are welcome!