บท 38: Let's Review!

I've found that brushing Elspeth's tails to be a newfound source of comfort.

Yes. Tails, plural. I don't know when her second one grew in, but her third grew this morning. Normally, they grow all six over a 4–5-month period to mark their physical and mental maturity. However, it's barely been a month, and she already has three tails.

I guess that just shows how much stress she's had for my well-being. Although this gives her a power boost in the short-term, it can have long-term effects for her health, so I have to be careful not to cause her any more undue stress. With the occasional glances she sends at my missing hand, I can probably guess what's causing her to worry.

I've thought it over a lot. I even lost sleep over it. Designing a hand is going to be…a challenge. The arms, in some ways, were easier. They had a lot of space to put the components, could be built tough and only had to have some modicum of articulation, and didn't have to be human-shaped.

Giving myself a hand has a lot more problems associated with it. I'd have to train a new A.I. just to interpret hand movement which implies a new inhibitor chip to prevent the backpropagation from altering my brain. Then, due to a personal preference, I have to mirror my right hand, which doesn't leave me a lot of space due to my somewhat lithe build. There's also power management and the whole can of Caterpies on the servos required for finger articulation, especially thumbs.

It's a lot. I'm tempted to just slap a weapon or something on the stump and call it a day, but no. That would make my pokémon worry more, and it would just make plan…Q? I think it's plan Q. It would make plan Q more difficult to execute, i.e., selling my prosthetics for a profit.

Many people have made robotic limbs before. I can name…one off the top of my head. However, they're very niche limbs, like my Octillery Arms. I think, with the trainer accidents out there in the world, like a hungry Dragon-type, robotic limbs would be a gold mine.

I'm brought out of my ruminations with a puff of snow to the face by the lovely Elspeth. "Okay, okay," I chuckle. "We can get started now."

I stand up from my little round table outside the Pokémon Center and face the empty battleground. Sadly, Courtney said she had some errands to do, so I'm left with my pokémon for company today.

With several consecutive flashes, all of my pokémon are released from their balls, each excitedly moving around as we begin Training Day! I, meanwhile, pull up all the information that Sycamore so graciously provided.

Apparently, he also gave me a lump sum of money. The way he allowed me to keep my login credentials for the system was just to keep me as an employee on leave. Thing is, he made it paid leave, but he forgot, and the system was never updated to give me payments that I didn't even know I deserved. A silver lining to this whole situation, I suppose.

He also said we needed to have a talk later…which can mean several things.

I look at the eight pokémon around me, plus the egg that Penelope flew over towards. I guess that it's the Taillow's turn to watch it. Oh dear, that egg is getting big. It's almost as tall as my arm's length…the one with the hand.

"Alright, uh, sorry everyone, but we're going to start with Alexandra and Hazel first. In the meantime, I want everyone to do some stretches, or, if you have ranged attacks, target practice." Everyone nods, or their respective equivalent, and goes off to do their thing.

With Penelope gone, Alexandra perches on the egg, looking down at it with amazement in her eyes.

Hmm, okay. Some of the files I received from Sycamore included pokédex entries not from just the Kalos region, but other regions where they can be found as well. Most of them are similar, but they provide different insights due to regional differences.

Now, as a Noibat, Alexandra can hear and produce frequencies up to 200kHz. The average human hearing range is about 20kHz. Now, she learns Screech and Supersonic normally, but if she's not using them as attacks, then she doesn't get tired as easily from overusing those abilities.

We've been working on this one for a while now, but I think it's time to execute it. Using some audio devices I made and implemented into my Octillery Arms, I can essentially play tones above human hearing range that can be mapped to specific commands. However, this gets better! Using something called a Fourier transform, we can combine these frequencies to create more complex commands, and Alexandra can parse these in her head!

Next, we'll abuse a few notations in the Pokémon League Rulebook. During official battles, each team is capped to a maximum of six pokémon. No ands, ifs, or buts about it. Doesn't matter if you somehow carry more than six at a time. If you want a match to be legal, and that by itself is a loose definition, then you can only deploy six pokémon.

However, there's a certain clause for that. The entire battleground is separated into four parts—two pokémon fields, and two trainer fields. The pokémon fields are where they actually fight, and the trainer fields are where the trainers stand. Now, the Rulebook is about 2500 pages, and a couple dozen included exceptions and clauses for leaving the trainer field or pokémon field, like imminent injury to the trainer.

What I'm interested in is the clause that states that a pokémon is only registered as part of the battling team if they enter the pokémon field itself, or if they attack the opposing pokémon, or…another fifty clauses.

Anyway, the important part to remember is this. Alexandra can stay with me in the trainer field without counting towards the battle limit; although this gives her away as one of my potential pokémon. I can stay silent throughout the battle as only she would be able to hear the high-frequency tones of my equipment. Alexandra, then, can command my pokémon in my place.

Then was onto what I'm doing for Hazel. As it turns out, the pokémon language is extremely compact. A single word from a pokémon can be attached to whole sentences and several emotions.

Of course, I'm going to abuse this.

This isn't perfect as Hazel is eyeballing it, but I'm essentially encoding these things into my message: radius, phi, theta, count, and an optional power. The first three describe the specific coordinates in 3D space that I'm eyeballing, the next one gives the count of pins to launch, and the power given to each. Of course, if it isn't mentioned, I want her to just maximize each.

'Launch,' I order through Alexandra, and the four pins land…close to where I want. I think, though, that if I measure out my specific directions, she would be both accurate and precise. It's my own shortcomings here.

I could try and replace my eye with a robotic one just to make more accurate 3D coordinates between two points…or just make a camera for the Octillery Arms to do it.

Add it to the To-do list, I guess.

Robin is up next, spinning around in the dirt with her boundless energy.

We're going to focus on her heavy-hitting attack—Dragon Breath. Each flame-like attack is slightly different, not only in power, but also execution of the pokémon. Let's take the Dratini in front of me as an example since it's prevalent to the situation.

Dratini's body is about 90% muscle. This means that she can use Wrap to much effectiveness, but she can't learn Coil natively. I mean, she probably could if we tried hard enough, but we're not focusing on that right now. The way that Dragon Breath works for her is that she has a small sac in her…chest region near the lungs that produces methane gas. Usually, this amount is miniscule, but when she focuses, as when using the attack, her body ramps up production to extreme amounts…relatively. She can do this about 20 times before exhaustion.

However, the ignition source is quite extraordinary. Her own internal muscles actually oxygenate the gas and compress it to the point of ignition. She essentially becomes a combustion chamber during the attack.

We're going to test how much gas she can shove in that sac and compress before it becomes too much. As mentioned, she can use this attack 20 times. We're going to see if we can get it down to 10.

"Come on, Robin! Just a little more!" Her face is scrunched in deep concentration and…pain? Maybe? It's the essence of constipation as she tries to prevent the gas from escaping.

"Okay, now!" A blazing hot stream of fire erupts from her tiny maw, shooting across the field and immediately incinerating a tree into ash.

"That was great!" I cheer with a massive smile on my face. Turning to Robin, I find her dozing in the dirt from exhaustion. An awkward smile creeps onto my face, replacing the old one. "I guess we'll still have to work on this one."

Cecilia is next.

As a Combee, they are unfortunately quite weak when alone. They work in the thousands under a queen Vespiquen. Normally, in the wild, they war against the Beedrill by forming bee spheres which flag their wings to generate heat and bake the Beedrill to…well, death, in extreme circumstances.

However, there are times when a Vespiquen is powerful enough to make the Beedrill directly submit to her, creating a sort of symbiotic relationship where the Beedrill actually protect the Combee and receive honey in return.

So basically, all her training amounts to is getting stronger by dodging the air volley that Hazel launches at her. At least she's getting faster and the explosions are teaching her to avoid getting hit.

Elspeth is an interesting case. Ice pokémon are usually an amalgamation of some existing object and ice, a genetic disposition towards cold environments, or a typing combination that throws logic out the window, like Froslass.

Unfortunately, Elspeth falls into the third category. Her Fairy typing makes information about her biology sketchy at best. One has to realize that Fairy is shorthand for magic, and we still know very little about what that entails. In fact, Fairy was only discovered recently anyway.

All of her pokédex entires allude to a minimum degree of -58 Fahrenheit. That…is enough to freeze water quite fast.

Currently, I'm working on how fast she can pump out ice, but I want to see if I can make some duel-type attacks with her. Fairy-type moves have a penchant for their projectiles to be conjured into existence, as do Ghost, Psychic, and sometimes Rock. If I can somehow get her to conjure Ice attacks, or better yet, freeze something from a distance…Well, there can be a lot of damage done to many, many creatures.

Primrose is…difficult.

Unless I spend the exorbitant money for a TM, then until she evolves into a Milotic, she can only learn Splash, Tackle, and Flail. Yeah, quite the diverse move set. At least she's immune to gender-based attacks…for whatever that's worth.

These documents from Sinnoh are…vague, but they say that a Feebas can evolve if they're beautiful enough and get stronger through battle. It's vague enough that I don't even know what counts as beautiful enough. What? Self-assurance, makeup tutorials, food?

Yeah, the second method has more documentation. Give her a Prism Scale which can be found by sifting through sand, or mining out sedimentary rocks, and trade her through a trade machine.

Luckily, Sycamore provided me with the blueprints for the trade machines. When pokémon are captured into their pokéballs, they become a being of pure energy for a moment. The trade machines just blast pokémon with an artificial form of this energy during a trade, and with the blueprints in hand, I might be able to replicate a similar device with the crystals.

So, in the meantime, training Primrose in a similar way to Cecilia. It's harder for her since she's on land though and can't fly.

Then we have Penelope and Elaina, the Taillow and Misdreavus.

Elaina right now looks like she'd rather be asleep, which makes sense since she's nocturnal. However, there's something I want to test. She possesses red orbs around her neck that are pockets of condensed fear. Similar to Froakie's Frubbles, using those don't count as an attack, but I do want to feel what happens when one hits me.

"Come on," I wave her worry off. "I'll probably be fine." Although still unsure about this, she flings an orb into my face exploding into a red and black gas.

I blink, looking around. I was just at the Pokémon Center's field, but now I'm here, in a dark expanse. My body floats as if nothing around me supports my wait, and I don't feel the rushing air of a fall.

Actually, I can't feel the air at all. I can't breathe in, and I can't breathe out. I can't breathe at all! I feel no pain, yet I know it's unnatural for me to no longer breathe!

My eyes try to slowly adjust to the black void around me, finding not even a mote of light to spark my vision. Even waving my arm in front of my face, I cannot even see my arm in front of my face. At least I still have my right hand, which I can press to my cheek.

It feels neither warm nor cold.

I know I'm a solitary creature, but even being stuck here would cause me to go insane after a while.

Hold on, Nicole! This is just a fear orb from Elaina! It's all in your head!

…But what if it isn't? What part of my mind would conjure up being stuck in space with no living functionality as what I fear most? Would it not be losing my hand, my family, friends, those that I care about?

No…This place represents the primal fear that all living creatures should have. It's the fear of death, the fear that after we die there is nothing left. That we just fade into the infinitude when our mortal coil is finally over.

The blink again, now with snow on my face, laying on my back in the dirt. All of my pokémon are gathered around me, and it's evident that Elspeth put a snowball on my face.

I sit up, slightly shaking the snow out of my hair. I take a deep breath. "Sorry, Penelope, Elaina, everyone. I think I need to go lay down for a bit."

They nod as I stand up and call them back to their pokéballs. I…need to figure out how to repress this one.