Chapter 134: Chapter 134

“Vuul!” The little fox howled at me as I raced away laughing. Getting everyone together for a training session the next morning had gone well. Arcanine especially had been super happy, and the baby team had shown amazing improvement!

Dratini had impressed Milotic and Dragonite so much they were still praising him.

But the explosions and damage had caused the newest pokemon to wonder what was going on, I’d of course taken the opportunity to start a game of tag and now I had an adorable little fox chasing after me.

Of course it was actually training, endurance was important especially for a little thing like her.

That didn’t mean I wasn’t laughing up a storm at her outraged noises.

“Got your nose!” I called out again wiggling my thumb and that only made her yowl louder and chase me harder.

Good old got your nose, worked every time.

Of course I hit a slightly muddy patch of ice run-off, I pinwheeled before slipping straight backwards and finding myself staring at the sky.

“Vul Vul Vul!” She shrieked as I suddenly had a fluffy little fox jumping off my face to reach my hands and biting and gnawing at my fist.

Thankfully she did understand play so it wasn’t painful, so I released my fist and tapped her right on the nose.

“You got your nose back!”

“Vulpix!” She huffed, turning to glare at me with those blue eyes.

“Heh!” I just smirked at her, her eyes narrowed and she charged in, I yelped feeling fox teeth on my flesh for a moment before she danced away.

My hand touched my nose where she had nipped me lightly and then… She wagged her tongue at me through her mouth!

“You little brat! Gimme my nose back!” I roared and charged as she yelped and ran away giving fox laughs the whole time.

I of course could have caught her easily. She was still very small, and fairly weak, but watching her bounce through the melting ice, look behind her and see me still on her tail and give a cute little yelp before bouncing some more didn’t really get old.

We chased each other around for a while until she started huffing and nearly wheezing as she ran, so I scooped her up laying her back against my chest like I did with Jangmo-o, and she still for a few moments, still breathing harshly, before slowly relaxing as I walked her around the stable. Together we checked on my team.

Thankfully everyone was doing well. I walked along with my friends until I felt a familiar friend land on my shoulder.

“KuuUuKKuu!” He greeted me, as he wrapped around my head in a hug.

“Hey Mimikyu, what’s up buddy?” I asked, and he shifted around before pulling out a cute little blue ribbon, I tilted my head a bit confused, why he wanted to show off a ribbon, before in a quick burst of speed he attacked Vulpix, earning a confused yowl and the shaking of his costume and then, she had a little ribbon around her hair floof. She blinked looking this way and that trying to see.

I just laughed and brought the curious Vulpix to the river so she could see.

“Vuuul!” She cried out, wiggling happily at the ribbon.

“Aren’t you a sweetie?” I whispered to Mimikyu who perked up quite happily at my words.

“Victoria! Phone call!” Elizabeth called out from the porch. Jogging over wondering who was calling me, Elizabeth told me as she walked with me back to the house phone. “Professor Cerise.”

“Hello Professor.” I said as I took the phone from where it was resting, wiggling a bit to handle two pokemon and a telephone. I noticed Elizabeth was waving her fingers at Vulpix who was wiggling back. Aww.

“Vicky! I’m glad I caught you. Your mother gave me permission to call here. I’ve been… Well quite swamped with requests. Your mothers Leafeon has poor Pinery in quite a state, she agreed to meet at the Evolution Lab for testing, but I already know everyone is going to want to ask you about the Moss Rock Discovery.”

“Oh right, yeah. I meant to come see you, but I just got back, and I’m still settling things.”

“No no, don’t apologize, I’m intruding. I’m also getting desperate enough to call though.” He admitted, probably only half joking. I giggled anyways. “Okay. You said my Mom is going to the Evolution Lab?”

“She said she would be on her way, but to reach out to you and ask if you wanted to come today.”

“Yeah, Yeah I do! I’ll be there soon.”

“Excellent. I’ll talk to you soon!”

We bid our goodbyes and I took a moment. I’d meant to go to Cerise soon, I still needed to talk to him about the Z ring and stuff.

“You going to run?” Elizabeth asked me, and I nodded.

“Yeah, Professor Cerise is asking me and Mama to show up to talk about Leafeon.”

“I heard about that! You’ll have to bring her around some time! A new Eeveelution! It’s exciting.”

“Yeah, I think so too.”

Okay now time to get my team together to see the professor.

Dragonite for flight, and I’ll take Milotic, and Dratini. I looked at Mimikyu and grinned, and… I looked down.

“Want to see more of the world?”

“That’s a yes huh. Okay come on!” I ran off, time to switch everyone out.

Considering I was taking my entire Dragonite family, I also pulled the incubator out from my bag and strapped it onto my chest.

Gotta get those steps in so it will hatch soon!

Riding Dragonite out of Fuschia, I shivered a bit at how chilly the air was, but soon we were landing in Vermillion City.

Before Dragonite had even fully settled down a screaming woman charged me.

“Oh hello Pinery.” I greeted the researcher who was looking frazzled.

“Oh she’s with my Mom, I have no idea where she is. Professor Cer-”

“Aughhhh!” Pinery just fell to her knees and screamed for a minute before seemingly getting a hold of herself, rising up, trying to act dignified as she adjusted her labcoat and hair before looking at me again.

“Hello Victoria, did you have a nice trip to Alola?”

“That’s good. I apologize, I’ve been under a lot of stress recently. If your mother is on her way, why don’t we head inside to warm up?” She offered and I just nodded, sliding the rest of the way off Dragonite who was sending me a look like ‘Are you sure this crazy human isn’t crazy?’

All I could really do is shrug. Hell if I know what is going on.

“Professor Cerise is here already, he’s setting up with his assistants.” She explained and I followed her inside, Dragonite returning to her ball as we entered.

“Magnemite.” A call came out, and I looked up and waved.

“Mag.” It called back as it floated above me and seemed to be carrying a small from the second floor down.

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“Thanks buddy. Hey Vicky, Good to see you again. You certainly ran into discovery after discovery over in Alola huh?” I glanced over and waved at Ren, Professor Cerises’s research assistant, as usual the man looked funny in his white labcoat, with the rest of his clothes being very casual style.

“Yep! Alola was crazy. Crazy awesome.”

“Heh, I want to go someday, I always wanted to try out surfing you know?” He said faking like he was on a surfboard for a second.

“Oh surfing is super fun, definitely give it a try! Hi Chrysa!” I greeted the other assistant as she came out of the room Ren had just come from. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on NoveIꜰire.net

“Oh you’re here, excellent! Hi Vicky, come in, we are almost set up.”

I shrugged and did just that and saw what was going on.

That’s a pokemon scanner right?”

“That’s right!” Professor Cerise called from under a computer of some sort as he slowly worked his way free to sit up. “The Evolution Lab has one of the best energy scanners in Kanto, but with the data from the Moss Rock that Professor Kukui was kind enough to send over. Thanks to you.”

I ginned and rubbed the back of my head at the smile and wink he sent me.

“Well the entire scanning system needed to be adjusted, we are hoping to get more data from our scans. The Alolans have good tech, but even the Aether Foundation aren’t quite as advanced as our scanning tech. We hope scanning a Leafeon can get us more accurate energy readings to start developing what we need to track down more Moss Rocks.”

“Which is where we come in.” Ren called as he entered with another box and his Magnemite floating in humming cheerfully. “We are doing some upgrades, to the Evolution Lab! The entire League, Johto and Kanto are going crazy for a new Eeveelution. That’s a massive money maker if we can find one.”

“Well I wouldn’t even know where to start looking for a Moss Rock in Kanto, but I hope we find one. And an Ice Rock too.”

“Ice rock?” Cerise asked, and I nodded. “I… Glaceon is the counterpart to Leafeon. I think it needs an Ice Rock, similar to the Moss Rock.”

“Ah, your hypothesis. Then again, you were right about the Moss Rock.”

“And Umbreon, and Espeon.” I reminded, but Cerise just sent me a smile that was a bit too amused.

“We are still doing the research, but the day and night cycle evolution concept is part of the process.” He offered, and I just huffed at him.

“You think there will be an Ice Rock? Any details on why you believe that?” Pinery asked from my side, and I grinned at the Glaceon haired woman.

“Eevee tend to have… Matching evolutions… At least according to my hypothesis.” I added as Cerise was again looking at me, so I stuck my tongue out at him before continuing. “The Stone evolutions. Fire, Water, and Electricity. The day/night evolutions. Espeon and Umbreon. The Rock, or maybe location, Evolutions. Glaceon, and Leafeon. And of course there is the odd one out. Sylveon.”

Dangit, Slyveon sort of ruined my fake hypothesis.

“Hmm. Jolteon, Flareon, and Vaporeon sort of ruin your thesis, with the evolutions being matching pairs.”

“Yeah… I guess it could be a Triad instead…” I muttered, If Slyveon actually fit into the Umbreon, Espeon triad as the Friendship evolution, leaving Leaf, and Glaceon as their own separate thing it might work better…

“Write up a report on your hypothesis, and maybe we can get it published.” Cerise offered as he rose out fully from under the computer. “Ren, check that the hardware is reading. For now though instead of hypotheses let’s make some real science and add some facts. The scanner should be ready now we just need the Leafeon.”

There was a moment he looked around and realized someone was missing.

“I’m sure Mama will get here soon.” I offered, unconcerned.

“Well until then, how about we go sit and we can get a first hand account of finding the Moss Rock from you?” He asked, and I blinked before shrugging.

“Mama! And Cabbage.” I greeted. Mama had walked into the building looking a little confused, which made sense. The Eevee Evolution Lab was a big strange building. All glass and weird shapes.

“Oh look at her! It’s a Leafeon! Oh oh oh!” Pinery instantly started losing it as Cabbage was laying completely sprawled in Mama’s arms, like a well cooked… Cabbage.

Heh. Steamed Cabbage more like.

“Well someone is floppy.” I muttered as I ran up and got a hug.

“You were right.” Mama whispered. “We got the Growlithe to use Sunny Day and Cabbage has been a happy camper ever since. I think we’ll need to figure out something though, cause she’s been trying to beg for treats, only to pass them off to the Growlithe for more sunlight time.”

“Oh no.” I whispered, then giggled because the Growlithe were absolutely susceptible to bribery.

“We’ll need to talk to your father about it. But… You all wanted Leafeon here for some scans?” She asked, the crowd around us, and Professor Cerise walked over.

“Haruka, nice to meet you in person for once. Please, let’s show you where the scanner is.” Cerise offered, and Mama smiled and nodded, following and I had to blink.

I know my parents had spoken with Professor Cerise before of course, but… They knew each other?

I followed PInery rushing right up to see Cabbage, with a Camera, and pictures were taken as Pinery asked all sorts of questions.

It was kinda nice to just sit back and let Mama be the center of attention for a while. Cabbage got scanned, which was fairly easy, she just lay across the scanner yawned and napped the whole time.

While Mama answered questions, and lots of pictures, or other remarks were written down by Pinery or her assistants.

It was kinda neat, because while a lot of things were obvious, it was… The slow accumulation of knowledge.

Pinery was asking questions not just about personality and care that we had discovered, but also moves, and a few questions that I recognized were about common Grass type abilities.

I actually didn’t know which one Cabbage had… I think they could get Chlorophyl as their Hidden? I don’t remember what their normal one was, so I just stayed quiet, they could figure it out.

Instead I just watched and took it all in, and just kinda watched professionals do their professional stuff.

In the end, considering everything I pulled out my notes on my Pokedex, and started writing things down myself.

No point in missing a good chance for interesting information.

“Thank you again Haruka for coming out here so suddenly, I know how getting back from a trip can take a few days, but-”

“It’s fine.” Mama offered with a smile. “It’s not so early the Jet Lag is bothering me, and I know how important this data is.”

“It is!” Pinery said happily, her head buried in a tablet that she was tapping away on looking over the scan data.

“So is it possible to make a… Leafeon Scanner? Or I guess a Moss Rock Scanner?” I asked, and Professor Cerise just shrugged.

“Too early to tell yet, we’ll need to input the data into the atmospheric trackers we have set up and see if we get any hits. I’ll need to update the one in Viridian first, if it keeps giving us false positives on Leafeon, then we know we’re on the right track.”

“Cool.” I said, because I didn’t even know that was a thing. Then I realized something that had been bothering me. “So when is the information going to like… Get out? Emergency Pokedex update or something? I mean, we know how to evolve Leafeon now.”

“Ah, well… Considering the only source is Alola right now? They will probably keep it rather low key for now until we find some method to evolve them in Kanto. Otherwise it’ll come out in the next update, which is?” Cerise asked, stalling out as if trying to remember.

“Later this year.” I said, the only reason I remember is because the Milotic update will be coming out then.”

“Ah that’s right.” He muttered seemingly a bit lost for a second, before shaking it off. “Anyways, so that’s when it will go out.”

“Seems… Kinda weird not to just push it early.”

“It’s just how the Pokedex update system is.” He explained with a shrug. I just huffed. Four years between updates, and something popping up without even really telling the public?

How were little kids with an Eevee supposed to decide how to evolve it if they didn’t even know?

“Why don’t we just… Tell everyone?” I asked him and he blinked behind his glasses looking at me confused.

“Well… You’re a well known professor, you could just send out an update to like the news, and stuff right?”

“Ah, I see what you mean. Yes, and no. The League are the ones technically in charge of that. I could send it to the news networks, but they would send a verification to the League, and the League are sitting on it until the Pokedex update. Heh, they have to justify the tax’s that go in to the Pokedex upkeep after all!”

“So why don’t we just tell people anyways?”

“We can sure. But it’s hard to get a message like that out.”

“No it’s not.” I whispered. You just share the info in a format that is easily digestible and seen by lots of people. Social Media told me that. You could completely restructure someone's beliefs in less than twenty four hours if you spread the info in the right way.

People were just kinda like that.

“We could just tell people how to evolve their Eevee.” I said, after a while. The idea was annoying me. “If we tell them about the day night cycle and friendship evolution we could get all the proof we need.”

“Can’t.” Cerise said seriously in response, even frowning a little. “Victoria, while you might believe you are correct, and you might even be correct, we scientists have an obligation to only share truth with the people. If my lab sent out false information and it came out? My credentials and my lab would be ruined.”

I flinched a little at how serious the man was, as he spoke, but he eased back, returning to his rather kind normal speech after.

“Not that I disagree with you, or your mindset, but truth is more than just a single act. If you really want to tell the world? Prove your hypothesis.” He told me, holding out a hand towards me, putting the onus on me.

“How?” I asked, because… I just knew already! I just wanted to tell people!

“Hmm. While you are young, a study is the most common way. You know the scientific method, we talked about that already. Go find the answers. Interviews, tests, anything you can think of.”

“Yep.” Ren said as he was sitting beside us just listening. Chrysa and Pinery were both with Mama across the room gushing over Cabbage who barely seemed to notice.

Lazy Vee that she was.

“I joined the lab full time in exchange for a research grant, you know?” Ren added, and I blinked. A grant?

“Why would I need a grant?’

“Information is expensive.” Professor Cerise said with a sigh. “Any big discovery tends to become a family secret, and those cost money. Plus research costs money. You need someone to gather data, to work it, computers to store it, and all the supplies in between to complete the study itself.”

I frowned, thinking it all over. A research study huh. Sounded fucking terrible. Why couldn’t I just tell everyone what to… Do.

“Tell me about what I would need for a study. Please?” I asked sweetly, and both men looked at me with a curious look.

If I had to make a study in order to get pokemon knowledge out there, then that’s what I would do.

I didn’t need a grant. I already had money, I’d just have to figure out what I could do with the money I already have. Or I guess, how to make money from it?

Ugh, I get it now Professor Oak. You had Champion level trainer money, so starting studies and getting evidence was as easy as just paying out of pocket until you were the foremost expert. I had money too, but…

Was it enough? A lot of my money was already invested in Milotic stocks.

I listened as the men spoke for a while, taking in what they taught me about how studies worked, and how to gather data, and how to make sure the data had actual value.

So finally I had to ask.

“How do you make money then Professor Cerise? If just getting confirmation on topics isn’t something you can make money off of?” He’d just told me that for all the work he did in Galar, none of it directly made him any money.

“Well reputation is worth a lot. Because of my Galar trip I had a sterling reputation, and was able to get research grants. Some of the data is worth something to certain companies. Silph Co. Was very interested in foreign pokemon data, and scans. While we weren’t allowed to purchase a lot of things in Galar, I did receive Yamper.” The man smirked a bit evilly, as he leaned in. “They used a Galar Pokeball. I swapped it out with Silph Co. When I got back. Earned a very large bonus for that.”

“I see.” I suppose if something was valuable to a company it would have some worth, but Eeveelutions wasn’t exactly that sort of research.

Then again the Eevee Evolution Lab existed.

“And if a trainer came to you with valuable research information, would they earn something?” I asked him, and he chuckled.

“I would share what I could with them, depending on how valuable the data is. Remember the Umbreon and Espeon investigation on Mt. Moon? Those Trainers earned a bit for the information they gave.”

“I see… Hey Pinery!” I called out as I jumped up and raced over.