"What are you doing?" I asked a bit breathlessly as we finally found Arcanine.
"Arc!" She whined at , paws waving in the air.
"How do you keep ending up on your back?" I asked her, and Blissey tittered as we walked over. Blissey and I took a mont to dig and pull her out of the sand until she was on her belly, and of course Arcanine was now completely coated in sand.
She was going to need a B.A.T.H. I blinked as I realized I didn't even dare say the word in my own mind or else Arcanine might hear it.
"Arc." She barked at , tail wagging, but I noticed she looked a bit tired still.
"Still too much?" I asked her and she just panted happily.
Either too much, or she had just overdone it and kept running for as long as she could…
She'd definitely just kept running. "Silly dog." I told her, reaching out and rubbing her cool sandy nose and getting licked in exchange.
"You able to move, or want to rest?" I asked her and got a breathy snort from her nose puffing up a bit of sand.
"Return silly dog." I told her, putting her in her ball, and standing up to check with Blissey who was still giggling. "Quite a team we've got."
"Bliss! Blissey Blissey." She agreed. I looked at her, and she tilted her head as I must have had a silly face.
"Want to try it?" I offered, I didn't feel exhausted like before, and I kind of wanted to know how many Z moves I could use.
"Bliss?" She pointed at herself, and then seed to think it over tapping just below her lips. "Blissey." She agreed and then as I turned to face her she pointed and I realized.
"Yeah we should get back with everyone first. I don't want to pass out all the way out here."
"Bliss." She agreed and then offered her fin. I grinned and grabbed it and we both set off. Blissey giggling as I skipped on the sand and soon she was joining , both of us just having fun as we headed back to everyone.
The Alolan beaches continued to be an absolute delight, warm sand and sun and cool surf. It was a paradise.
But honestly? I liked snow, mountains and crisp mountain air too.
As we headed back across the beach I couldn't help but actually feel a little hosick. Sure I'd spent a lot of the last year camping out in Kanto up in the mountains or wherever, but… I kinda missed Gram Gram, and everything.
We caught back up to see Papa playing with Rockruff, and Mama still sunbathing with owth, the two of them wearing matching looks of relaxation.
How cute!
"We're back!" I called out and reached my parents who looked up, Rockruff snarled, but not in anger, he was playing with a rope. I wasn't going to even ask where Papa had found that.
"Welco back." Papa greeted but he turned back to Rockruff and was happily playing with the puppy.
I just rolled my eyes, and looked at Blissey. "Ready?"
"Bliss!" She agreed, pumping her arms.
"Alright let's test this out." I confird and shifted into the starting pose, which she copied. We ran through it a few tis, and I could see my parents were watching on as we synced up.
Only when we sort of accidentally activated it a few tis did I nod.
"Okay Blissey let's do it for real. Together! Let's show everyone our bond!" I called out and started the Normalium Z's moves. The power flowed through , my hat waving a bit as it burst forth, and flowed into Blissey.
"Breakneck Blitz!" I roared out, and Blissey shifted, instead of pointing down the beach she shifted towards the ocean, and then as the power flowed from , which I only barely managed to squeeze off before it sucked out everything she glowed bright, power igniting!
And she moved.
One second she was there, and the next she was sending a trail of sand as she rushed forward.
Fast, not quite Arcanine Z powering up Extre Speed, but still. Fast.
And then she hit the ocean… Literally.
"Bliss!" She cried out and smashed a punch into the first wave that rose up to catch her.
Even as my knees went to jello and I slumped into the sand with a groan, just barely keeping myself from going face first. I felt the remains of that wave splatter against .
Blissey punched the Ocean.
It's super effective.
Of course it was only one and done, and well…
"Bli-uglgble-Ssey-Gurgl-Bliss." I watched as my girl slumped into the ocean… Huh Blissey were semi buoyant. Good to know.
She was soon sort of rolling along on the returning waves, every few monts her head would co up and then she'd keep rolling and dunk her head back into the water again.
"Umm… Papa?" I asked weakly. "Can you rescue Blissey?"
"I'm on it!" He called out rushing out. Good cause I couldn't help her no matter how much I wanted. My knees had given out and I was laying folded up, staring into the sky.
—--
"Bliss. Blissey Bliss." She grumbled. All I could do was just grunt.
That… Had taken everything out of .
Two Z moves was definitely my limit at least for now, I bet I could get better at using them, but I was completely fully tapped out.
Thankfully Papa was nice and had given and Blissey a chair and we were hunkering under an umbrella enjoying the cool ocean air that blew over us.
Tiiiiired.
"You still going to et that Professor, Kukui? You're going to be late if you don't go now." Papa suddenly reminded , and I just groaned at him before slowly sitting up.
"I'm going." I managed to say and Blissey just flopped a fin at , not intending at all to follow. "You want to stay, or return?"
"Bliss." She denied and rested back, closing her eyes.
Fair enough.
"You sure Vicky. You can always tell the Professor you can't today." Mama offered still sitting with owth in her lap.
"Yeah. I want to know what's going on. I'll be okay… Hehe! I'll just call for a ride." I reached for my belt and hesitated. Normally I would rely on Arcanine, but she was tuckered out, Blue Heart? I don't think I had the strength to climb up and hold onto him either. Ugh.
There was only one choice.
"Pree! Drag Dragon?" She asked as I smiled a little weakly.
"Is a flight to the Pokemon school okay?"
"Drag drag drag!" She laughed laughing with her whole belly shaking.
Then she reached down and picked up like I was a little doll, and flapped her wings.
Well fair enough.
"That easy Dragonite!" I pointed, and we rocketed off. She looked quite pleased as she flew through the sky. I bet she'd probably been wanting to go for a flight too.
Only monts later we arrived, Dragonite landing on the ground, and I stepped away a bit weakly, but I at least was feeling capable of moving around a bit more.
"You want to return, or stay around?" I asked, and she started looking around, poking her head into the pokemon school curiously.
"Drag, Dragonite." She called out, as if saying excuse , and I followed her in as she walked through the front hall, looking at all the stuff on the walls.
"That's the class picture." I added as Dragonite was looking at a line of pictures along the walls.
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"Oh!"
I blinked at the very feminine voice that spoke up and turned as Dragonite did, sticking my head out from around her bulk, as I looked at who was talking and needed a minute to respond.
Oh.
"What a beautiful Dragonite, hello hello!" Greeted the svelte form of Lusamine, as always her hair was almost outrageous, but Lusmanie had a definite powerful presence as she stepped up her heels clicking, just outside of Dragonites personal space, despite the fact it was obvious she wanted to intrude.
"Drag." Dragonite greeted back with an upraised hand, and Lusamine nearly squealed.
"Oh my look at you! Hello my- Oh! Are you carrying an egg as well!? Oh Myyyyy!" She squealed even louder, practically shivering. "And look at those scales, and those muscles! You're not just a wild Dragonite at all!" Lusamine's eyes flashed to , and she smiled.
I couldn't help but smile back.
"Dragonite does have an egg right now, yes. We're waiting for her to drop it."
"Oh myyy!" She squealed, and Dragonite chuckled herself as waved off Lusamine like it wasn't a big deal.
"Oh but Dragonite are so rare! What a wonderful treat! I would love it if you let examine you, the Aether Foundation has the best dical technology around!"
Dragonite didn't seem to quite understand and just scratched at the back of her head, and I laughed.
"I think Dragonite is fairly safe. But thank you for the offer Mrs. Lusamine."
"Ah! You already know ! How wonderful, but I don't know you?" She asked giving a curious look, she was almost acting overly cute putting her chin in her hand as if examining a little.
"I'm Vicky, Victoria Ferrous. I'm helping Professor Kukui with the TM investigation."
"Oh! Then we're here for the sa thing!" She reached out and grabbed my hand and shook it up and down laughing. "You simply must tell how you ca to be involved. When I heard about this! Oh my! I was so concerned at first. I'm thankful that this was discovered!"
"Well. I'm sort of responsible for it. I work as a Research assistant under Professor Cerise in Kanto, but Professor Kukui and I sort of discovered the TM thing."
"Indeed." Kukui called out, sticking his head out from the sa classroom we had used for researching last ti. He blinked for a second when he saw Dragonite as well, but she waved, and he smiled in turn. "Vicky is our gem for this! Why don't you both co in, and we can explain everything, Director."
"Haha! Just call Lusamine Professor Kukui! You take such good care of my Lillie after all!" All three of us headed inside, and Principal Oak was already there. Smiling in greeting before stalling out for a second as Dragonite peaked her head in, and then with a bit of wiggling squeezed herself into the room. Looking around curiously.
"Ah."
"She's just looking around. Don't mind her." I waved my hands at him, and he blinked his eyes tracking and then his face scrunched up.
"Is she?"
"Carrying an egg!" Lusamine added instantly and Principal Oak's face shifted to a surprised realization.
"Well she did have a lot of ti with her hubby recently. It's just sort of what happens." I uttered a little embarrassed and Dragonite just belly laughed.
"Hubby?"
"Milotic. They're in love." I added confidently, and Dragonite faux blushed and waved a hand at .
"Oooh! I want to examine you so much now!" Lusamine whined practically shaking but she instead sighed and let out the tension. "But that's not what I'm here for."
"Indeed, Director Lusamine. Thank you for joining us, considering how busy you are, but the subject matter has… Caused so concern."
"Indeed. Frankly. Technical Machines are a fairly new technology. The stress testing for them has been quite broad, but there are still tis that sothing catches us off guard." Lusamine admitted, her previous energy cald and the businesswoman showed through.
"If it wasn't for Vicky we wouldn't have noticed. The exact sa move, with a different presentation doesn't transfer through TM, so sothing is causing an issue."
"Ah! That's what you ant. Well, I can speak for many people Victoria, thank you." Lusamine offered, even giving a little bow to .
"Ah… No problem?"
"So you figured it out already, Lusamine?"
"Indeed." She stepped forward and pulled out what looked like a thumb drive and inserted it into the computer that was set up in the room.
"Here is the currently used standard TM formatting version." She began, and a whole lot of technical data appeared on the screen. "And here is the newly updated version that the Aether Foundation will be sending out shortly to every TM manufacturer across the planet." She offered and I blinked at how grandiose that sounded.
A second file appeared on the screen and she brought them up next to each other as if comparing them. For , honestly other than a few altered lines on graphs and things I couldn't make heads or tails of the data.
Principal Oak seed the most engaged, as even Kukui looked at it more like a wild pokemon he would have to tackle than as data he can parse.
"Can I ask for an explanation in layman's terms? Just so I know what happened? I'm curious." I asked, raising my hand like I was in school, and Lusamine blinked at my request before laughing, her previous controlled personality flowing away as she snapped and pointed at .
"Indeed! Very well, let's see… TM's currently add a psychic addition into pokemons minds. A sort of blueprint on how to use a move. The mory of it if you want to get involved in the psychic transference, but cleaned out of personality. It lets a pokemon know how to shift their energy to use a move."
"Yes, and… I see." Principal Oak offered with a sigh. "The technology… It's too powerful."
"Indeed! The copied mory is applied using the sa techniques that have been in use since the first Technical Machine. Despite the refining of the copying and clarity of the mories the application system, the TM application device, is still the sa." Lusamine had taken a sort of teaching pose waving a finger around as she held onto the elbow of her arm.
"It's too strong." Kukui offered instantly, and that clicked in my mind.
"Wait wait… The old TM's would have been low quality, err, low clarity as you said. So since the new copies are much higher clarity… It's putting in too much power transferring the mories… Burning them in." I whispered the last part realizing how terrible that sounded.
"Bing bing!" She agreed, and Kukui spoke up.
"What's the damage? We've already confird they can't alter the move, please tell Lusamine you've already determined this?" Kukui asked.
"Of course! We've been working non-stop since this was brought to my attention! Relax. There is so… Damage, but nothing irreversible! In fact it's opened up a new function we've never considered before. A move… Deleter." She offered, waving her hand like she was leading an orchestra.
"It works?" I cut in as well, knowing that everyone had questions, but I had so too! "Because I gave so of my pokemon TM's before, does it remove the damage?"
"It does." She confird, and it was like the tension on my shoulders disappeared. "We confird it ourselves. It also could explain a recurring issue that was considered bad training up until now. The reason why Pokemon learning from TM's seed to operate at a lower level than normally trained Pokemon."
"You think it's related?"
"No proof yet, but I've already started a research group on it. Give us a month or more, and we should be able to confirm it. Especially since the new Technical Machine version should remove the, hmm? Move Lock?" She humd like trying to figure out the right word.
"That's a relief." Kukui said, smiling in relief. "Lusamine, you're a lifesaver."
"Hah! Protecting pokemon is part of the Aether Foundation charter! This is sothing that we are culpable in. Bad research and improper testing. No one considered lowering the upload frequency strength once the clarity of the brain wave copy was created!"
Thinking on what was being said I reached into my bag and rummaged around until I pulled it out. My own TM uploader. It was just a device you attached to a Pokeball and then put the TM on the little wheel and it would upload to the pokemon.
"So what do I need to fix my Uploader?" I asked the group, and all the adults blinked.
"Oh, it'll need to be replaced entirely won't it?" Principal Oak asked, before seemingly realizing what he had just said.
Uploaders weren't super expensive, the real cost was the TM's themselves, but from what I understood they were pricey, but the companies sold them planning on more TM sales to offset the loss.
If they all would need to be replaced? That could change.
"Probably a full replacent." Lusamine added but she was tapping her lips.
"You can't just patch the program. Make it use less power when uploading?" I asked, and the woman continued to tap at her lips as she considered it.
"Patch? Maybe the Aether Foundation can earn even more good will out of this." She decided. "I believe it is possible we could create so sort of 'Patch' as you say, but trying to update so many devices? How many people will just ignore the update?"
"Why not ask Nurse Joy for help?" I spoke. "If there is sothing hurting pokemon then obviously Nurse Joy would want to fix it. You could just send whatever device you need to update the Uploaders to Nurse Joy and have them offer it to trainers passing through… Maybe the Move Deleter as well? Integrate it into Pokemon Centers? They already have the video phones."
"Ooooh!" Lusamine cooed and then burst into laughter, before I was suddenly lifted right off my feet. "Oh aren't you the smart one! What a good girl! Yes you are! Yes you are!" I was held tightly, and my hair on top of my head was rubbed into a complete ss.
Lusamine was stronk!
"Eeeea!" I cried out as I wiggled a bit but I was soon placed back on my feet, almost woozy from the sudden attack.
"I like it! I'll reach out to the Joys, and we can figure out at least sending the device that can update the Uploaders to every Pokemon center! Oh! Maybe even reach out about how to find the Move Lock itself! If a Nurse Joy discovers it they could help remove it right there! It would certainly speed things along!"
"That's really smart." I said, I only ntioned the move deleter in Pokemon Centers, because that's where you could find them in so versions of the ga.
"Oh aren't you adorable!" She once more reached out and cupped both my cheeks. "Ah! You should be good friends with my children! I bet Gladion and you would get along so great! Ah, and you'd be so cute toge-*Cough* Nevermind! But Vicky-chan! You simply have to co visit the Aether Foundation! You're such a smart one, I want to scoop you right up."
"Ah… Thank you? And what do you an Together? And scoop u-"
"Alright. I do have to run!" She interrupted . "But I'm very glad I was able to make ti for this eting. Principal Oak, Professor Kukui, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I hope the Aether Foundation's efforts have impressed?"
"Very much so, Lusamine. Thank you." Kukui offered with a grin, and the woman smiled brightly as she started walking but stopped for a second to grab Dragonite's hand, as she'd just been watching the whole ti and cooing over her for a minute before continuing to walk out.
"Did… Did Lusamine just say she was trying to set up with her son?" I asked, after a minute and Kukui and Oak both did a spit take and pointedly changed the subject imdiately after…
Was I in danger!?
—--
It took a bit for all three of us to settle down once Hurricane Lusamine had left. The n had done everything they could to avoid my question, which was fine. Dragonite was giggling at , and I huffed at her, which only made her giggle harder.
Was Lusamine serious about that? Gladion was… Well an idiot!
I shook it off as the two n had returned to looking over the data, and I followed along as best I could as Principal Oak looked over what Lusamine had left for us.
"Do you mind if I take a copy of this, and send it to Professor Cerise? I an. I think Lusamine might beat to sending it out if what she said is true, but-"
"Absolutely. That's not an issue. Here. Take the original, I already copied it over." Principal Oak offered, and I grinned as he handed the thumb drive-like device.
Cool! I'd never seen sothing just like it. I wonder if it was sothing the Aether Foundation made.
I put it in my backpack for later. "So… That was fun… I an it was scary, but fun as well. Discovering sothing new, and then getting it fixed and everything."
"Hah! That's what being a Professor is all about!" Kukui offered puffing up with his hands on his hips. "Why, there is no more important job in the whole world!"
"If you say so, Professor." I managed to say from in between my giggles. "Still I'm glad that the Aether Foundation was able to figure out what was wrong so fast, and fix it."
"Hmm. I believe the actual knowledge was already known. Move Lock, as Lusamine called it, isn't exactly new." Principal Oak offered. "I have no doubt Lusamine has nothing but good intentions, mind you." He added as everyone looked at him. "But… There are people who wouldn't care and would hide that sort of thing just because it's inconvenient to fix. I'm glad that we were able to bring Lusamine into this so quickly."
"Jerks." I decided and Principal Oak's face softened into an amused smile.
"People can be, but when we all work together, we can overco that sort of thing."
"Yep!" I agreed without a thought. Bonds were bonds, and bonds were power.
"Pree?" I turned as Dragonite purred out a question but she wasn't looking at . She was patting her belly a bit. Then she looked up and I felt my eyes widen.
"It's coming?"
"Drag. Dragonite." She confird and I instantly started fumbling with my belt.
I needed a Ride! No, an ambulance! Ergency!
I cald after a second of panic, took a breath. "Okay, return Dragonite, I'll get you to the pokemon center."
"Drag dragon." She giggled seemingly noticing my panic as she walked over with a bit more hobble to her step than before and patted on the head.
"I love you too." I told her, and she tittered.
I quickly returned her and rushed out of the building. Sorry Arcanine. Even if you're a little tired, it's an ergency!
—--
I cooed a bit as I held the incubator in my lap. Gently cleaning it off with a wet cloth.
Dragonite was resting on the beach with Milotic wrapped around her. She was content, and Dratini was around my shoulders staring at the egg, looking left and right as if hoping it would hatch even faster.
"Do you think it'll be a little brother, or a little sister?" I asked him, and his fins flared for a second as if he hadn't even realized it could be one or the other.
I laughed.
My little family had gotten one egg larger.
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