“I’m here for an appointment with the Paldean Scientific Advancement Committee,” I informed the pair of Rangers standing guard outside the doors to the League Building. Thought they might have League Officials for that, but I guess it makes sense to have Trainers who are up to at least a certain minimum level of strength.

  The man on the left went through the motions of checking the schedule before letting me through (not that I suspected anyone would detain me if, for some reason, I didn’t show up on the list). After getting some directions from the secretary, I went down the winding path before coming across the door I was supposed to enter. I knocked anyways, just to be sure. It always feels embarrassing to just stride into a room if it turns out you weren’t supposed to be there, even if there’s no real problem.

  “Come in,” came a familiar voice, and I entered. The room was a small conference room with a lectern at the front and a projector screen past it. Hmm, I wonder if I should have brought a slideshow of sorts for this? Nah, these are all scientists here; it's not like anyone is going to get too bored at me just talking.

  In the back was a table with Geeta and four other scientists sitting down. The scientists varied in age and gender, though most leaned to the older side, and all wore white lab coats, as was the fashion for scientists in this world. Even the woman with what looked like a crop top and skirt on wore a lab coat over top of that. Wait a moment…

  “Professor Sada?!” I exclaimed, and the woman blinked in response, standing up. “What are you doing here?”

  “Yes, I am Professor Sada, and while I’m surprised you recognized me, investigating changes, especially to Pokemon that have been around since ancient times, is something I specialize in.” With a dusting of red on my cheeks, embarrassed from my outburst, I hurried over to shake her hand and introduce myself properly.

  “Ah, sorry about that. Arven’s told me plenty about you.” A minor lie; he has told me a bit about his mom and how they’ve been talking more recently, but it wouldn’t have been enough to instantly recognize her on the spot if I hadn’t seen her in the games in my past life. She smiled softly at the mention of her son.

  “I’m glad to hear it. He keeps on telling me about all the amazing friends he’s made, and it all started with you.” I couldn’t help the warm feeling in my chest at that. Arven had a rough story in canon, but I’m glad to see that things are changing for the better for him now. Part of me was worried about how Sada’s presence might affect things, knowing that she could be as bad as Turo in a ‘Scarlet’ Timeline, but the warmth she expressed at her son’s well-being made it hard to hold onto that fear.

  “Ahem,” an older, balding man cleared his throat as he stood up. “That’s all very well, but we’re here today to discuss a more cerebral matter. Doctor Kyudai Garaki,” he said gruffly, introducing himself and shaking my hand. I went down the line, introducing myself to Doctor Chopper (an enthusiastic diminutive younger man), Doctor Unohana (a demure woman with a near ageless appearance), and, of course, Geeta.

  “Good to see you again, Chairwoman,” I said with a grin at her new title. She offered me a smile in return.

  “And you as well, Champion.” I will admit, getting called a Champion still feels pretty nice, even months after I should be used to it.

  I took my place at the front of the room, placing my bag on the ground and pulling out a folder with a bunch of papers from the notes I took when trying to get Notch to transform before and what I’d written up with Friede afterwards.

  There was a moment of awkward silence before I began, “Well, I’ve laid out most of my experimentation within the document I submitted, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.” Don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing here. I got a letter saying the committee wanted to talk to me about it but not why.

  Garaki began. “Your hypothesis is an interesting one, but where’s the proof that this is a ‘faith-based’ evolution? Right now all you have is a theory, and one that could be explained by any number of outside factors.”

  “That is a fair point; the sample size is currently small. While I don’t have proof, I’ve outlined my reasoning as to why I think Faith could affect a Pokemon, especially a Fairy Type, in that way. Also, it was not an Evolution - there was no glow that accompanied Notch’s body morphing to that of a Diancie.”

  “I too have some questions about a faith-based evolution. Would the trigger need to be Faith in the Trainer, or Faith in themselves?” Unohana asked in a soft voice.

  “I believe both play a role. Notch had shown plenty of Faith in me for over a year before then, and I imagine most Carbinks believe in their Trainers currently. The belief for such a change needs to also be focused on the belief that the Pokemon in question can change in that way, not just Faith in their skills. The desires of the Pokemon in question might alter it as well, like how Notch’s arms and hands are more developed than most Diancies.”

  “If you’re the first Trainer to develop this method, how do you think Diancies are naturally born within Carbink colonies?” Chopper inquired.

  “I think I raised some connections to Clefairys raised in captivity still dreaming of the moon and Clefables, despite never having seen them or a Moon Stone-”

  “Bah, genetic memory is hardly anything new; let’s move on,” Garaki cut in. This guy really doesn’t seem to like what I have to say. Though I guess I did cover how I thought it worked in the paper, which they’ve all read. That Carbink colonies would have collective Faith in a savior/leader of their kind being born, which would lead to an Egg from otherwise ordinary Carbinks hatching into a Diancie. It would also explain why Carbink Eggs hatched outside of those conditions (like with Trainers, or on breeding ranches, or with scientists) had never hatched a Diancie. Yet, at least. With my theories and the fact of Notch's transformation, they might try some new experiments around Carbink Eggs to test this part of the theory.

  The next question snapped me out of my thoughts. “Do you think the diamonds you had Notch consume had any sort of delayed reaction?”

  “Unlikely. I began the portions slowly, then ramped up over time. Notch didn’t show any delayed growth in power down the line that matched that.” At least not that I can significantly recall. All of my team got pushed hard on the Journey and grew as a result of that, but Notch didn’t show any spikes in that way.

  Sada spoke up, saying, “You ruled out Diamond Storm as the trigger for the change, but could it be that it was still the element that kicked it off? Even if Notch’s ‘faith’ was great enough to change the limits of their body that said they couldn’t do so before, but that Move might still play a direct role in the transformation. We’ve seen similar with Moves like Ancient Power tapping into previously unheard of Evolutions without such a component.”

  I opened my mouth to deny it before closing it again. I want to say that Ancient Power taps into a strange force that Diamond Storm doesn’t, the Move simply making a slight change to the composition of the carbon molecules a Rock Type can summon… But am I sure of that? This world follows different physics after all, so maybe there’s an equally potent force affecting things there. And Hyper Drill evolved Dun, so yeah, I guess it really is just whatever Move works for certain Pokemon.

  “It is a possibility, I’ll admit. Hopefully we’ll be able to see more once other Trainers have taught their Carbinks Diamond Storm and what variations new Diancies might have. The belief basis is also why I believe Notch developed a… somewhat unusual composition compared to other Diancies, why the cut on their ear persisted throughout the change.”

  Many Pokemon would heal old wounds through the process of evolution, and I felt like if Notch hadn’t wanted it, the cut would have gone. Given it was the basis for their name, however, they clearly were fine with it. As well as those very large arms and hands… Notch can use Mega Punch because of them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they could learn other punch-based attacks because of that. Will other future Carbinks change into slightly different Diancies on their own desires, and will that slightly change the Moves they can access?

  It was too speculative for the moment, but I would be keeping a keen eye for that in the future. “Yes, I noticed the Mega Stone in place of the usual diamond around Notch’s neck. I assume that played a role too?” He inquired, and I nodded, launching into an explanation about how we’d gotten the Diancite and what it meant to Notch.

  The meeting continued like that, with more questions and prodding from the gathered scientists. While Garaki was the only one that seemed to have it out for me, the others raised decent points as well. At least they’re all being civil about it and actually treating me like an intellectual. It was rarer these days to get people looking down on me for my age, but there were still plenty of people (especially online) that didn’t see me as truly capable at anything outside of Pokemon Battling.

  Notch got called up to personally answer some questions as well. Being able to communicate directly definitely has its advantages… and its drawbacks. The upside was that I didn’t need to translate for Notch. The downside was that I didn’t get to paraphrase them, either.

  “And you’re certain that nothing changed… mentally, upon becoming a Diancie?” Garaki questioned the Legendary. “Like perhaps your feelings about your Trainer?”

  [‘You’ve asked that already. Are you just dull?’] Notch asked ‘innocently.’ Their mental voice was level, but I could feel the amusement radiating off of them. [‘No, my feelings didn’t change. At most I felt renewed assurance that my understanding of Nemona and her divine blessing was not misplaced in the slightest.’]

  “Could you explain what you mean by ‘divine blessing’?” Doctor Chopper pressed.

  ['Nemona is exceptional among humans, stronger and smarter than nearly anyone of her age. Surely, this must be a gift from Arceus themself.’] Notch explained, neatly sidestepping certain issues of reincarnation I really didn’t want brought up in front of this group.

  “Could that not simply be within the standard deviance of capabilities for a young girl? On the extreme edge, but nothing outside of what could be naturally explained,” Unohana pointed out.

  [‘Has anyone else, child or otherwise, discovered how to turn a Carbink into a Diancie?’] Notch asked back, crossing their arms.

  “Touché,” Unohana admitted with a faint smile. From how she and the others were feeling, I didn’t think they actually thought it was anything more than a lucky break on my part. To be fair, this discovery was that, alongside a lot of hard work. Anything I ‘discover’ using my metaknowledge, like how to evolve an Ursaring or the like, won’t be.

  If I did start a scientific career, I hoped I’d be able to make my own discoveries, as well as share my knowledge from my past life. The world is so fantastic, and there’s still so much left to be discovered about it. We have satellites and the like, but there are plenty of lands where details are hard to make out or we’ve had little chance to launch proper expeditions, and that’s just what remains unknown in the geography of the world. Type Energy, Infinite Energy, Evolution paths, the structure of Moves, how Abilities work,... so much I still want to discover about Pokemon.

  “I believe we’ve satiated our curiosity about your Diancie,” Garaki said, giving me a clear dismissal and unstated preference to return them to their Pokeball (which had Sada pouting, the Pokemon Professor clearly wanting to hear more of Notch’s perspective of history, even if they didn’t have much to give; Notch had lived a very sheltered existence within that cave before I’d found them).

  I opted to ignore Garaki’s desires and simply stepped forward, letting Notch step back. “Any further questions?”

  There were a couple more, sparked on by what they’d heard from Notch, but after an hour or so, they had nothing more to say. No more questions or discussions about my proposal. Professor Sada stood up, saying, “This has been an enlightening session. If you make the changes to your hypothesis that we mentioned, the board would be happy to have your theory submitted into the academic catalogue.”

  “Thank you,” I said gratefully. It’s pretty big to get a peer-reviewed study accepted in the Paldean Academic Catalogue. That’s one of, if not the, biggest research resources in the known world. The changes they suggest aren’t bad either. Most were just clarifications of what were assumptions on my part, and they hedged their bets on the exact nature of the transformation given how limited the sample size was at the moment.

  Shaking their hands, the scientists began to leave as the door flew open; a harried man with purple and lavender hair as well as thick hexagonal-framed glasses appeared. “I’m not too late, am I-? Oh, you’re here, and with your Diancie out and everything.”

  Jacq? What’s he doing here? Geeta was looking ever so slightly unimpressed with the man. “She’s here, and if you had checked your phone, you’d see that I messaged you saying I’d introduce you after.” He gave off a nervous chuckle and scratched the back of his head. “Considering how much you want the App to work, you’d best pay more attention to your phone.”

  “Right, right. Ah, hello there, Professor Sada. It’s, umm, been a while,” he greeted the woman awkwardly. For her part, she looked just as awkward.

  “Yes, I hope you’ve been well with… his experiments.” Ah, right, that would explain it. Jacq was on Turo’s research team, and she must still have complicated feelings towards her ex-husband. Is he still on the team? But if so, why is he here and not in the Crater?

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  He answered my unspoken questions with his next words. “Yes, they’ve been well, but as his project in the Great Crater has been winding down, myself and some of the other staff have been let go. Which leaves me free to pursue my own projects, like one I wanted to talk to this young lady about!”

  Sada gave him a nod and moved to follow her colleagues out of the room, stopping at the doorway to say, “Thank you again. For looking after my son. He-” She cut herself off, swallowing whatever turbulent emotions she must have been feeling, and gave me a quick nod of gratitude before leaving.

  Then I was alone with Jacq and Geeta, the former stopping to admire Notch for a moment before walking up to me. “Hello, my name is Jacq, and I’m looking to make a Pokedex Application that anyone can use, and I was hoping for your help with the project.”

  “Because I’m the daughter of the Rotom Phone company, Roto-dexes are already a thing, so the technologies would be fairly easy to adapt to modern smartphone technologies,” I stated, and the man blinked in shock.

  “Uh, actually I was just going to ask if you would let me scan and put in some data about Diancies and maybe your Iron Moth into the App; few Trainers have Legendaries and are willing to have their data recorded in such public databases, but you seemed more open to the idea. Iron Moth in particular has no data outside of one two-hundred-year-old recording, so anything I could record there would go a long way to making this App.” He explained.

  “But what you’ve just said would be fantastic!” He cheered after a second, his face lighting up. “Umm, assuming that you would in fact be okay with that,” he added after a moment, realizing I hadn’t actually said I would do so yet.

  “I’ll have to check with my father, but I think he’s likely to agree to such a proposal.” Honestly, this kind of a deal might blow every other gain Dad’s company has gotten from my fame to date out of the water. Well, I might be overselling that; I haven’t crunched the numbers too much there, and Pokedexes are more niche than ‘must-haves’ for most people. Then again, this will change that.

  “Out of curiosity, why would you need data on my Pokemon to make the App? Wouldn’t it be running off of the same database that the Pokedex uses currently?” I asked, and it was Geeta who answered.

  “While that’s true for the broad picture, there would be some necessary adjustments in making this phone application, like a method to limit erroneous entries made by overzealous youth.”

  “That, and getting access to the database to use for this project, will take some… finagling,” Jacq hedged.

  “Guessing it involves meetings like the one I was just in?” He shook his head at my question.

  “Oh no, nothing anywhere near as exciting as that! Getting to prove your theories to the board, that’s one of the best feelings in the world.” Ehh, I get the scientific process, but that meeting wasn’t really my thing. Maybe I’ll feel better about it once I see my work cited in someone else’s paper or something.

  He continued. “It’s a lot of request forms and outlines to begin the project. Once I’ve finalized it, I think this will be a great tool for educating the public, as well as discovering more about the world. The Pokedex revolutionized what we know of Pokemon, but it’s based off of the recordings of only a few people. Imagine what we could do if we pooled together the majority of humanity to that goal!” He’s quite passionate about this.

  “I imagine it would be quite impressive… once you figure out a system to weed out incorrect or misleading information.” My reply had the man looking only slightly pained.

  “That’s true. Even the early Pokedex entries could sometimes be overly enthusiastic, and that was with hand-picked researchers by Pokemon Professors.” Maybe they shouldn’t use ten-year-olds as their researchers then… Not that I’m one to talk.

  “Is this going to be your big Professorship Project?” I couldn’t help but be a little curious. Friede’s mentioned how big an undertaking it can be to prove yourself worthy of the title, and that’s in addition to all the tests you have to take beforehand.

  Jacq blinked owlishly. “Oh no, I’m nowhere near ready for that.”

  “Really? You helped Turo down in Area Zero, and now you’re looking to build an advancement on the Pokedex - the device that earned the title for the first Pokemon Professor.” There was some debate on that with historical figures like Heath and Laventon, but Oak was the first modern Pokemon Professor, with all the powers and responsibilities that role granted.

  “The Pokedex App definitely has potential, but, well, it is built heavily off of the data that has already been gathered by Pokedex holders. Not so much what I’ve done.”

  Geeta spoke up here. “Be that as it may, it’s still an ambitious project, and I look forward to seeing where it goes. If it works out, you should consider pursuing Professorship; your work thus far with Turo has been exemplary.” The man looked shocked at her words of encouragement. It means a lot when the League Chairwoman tells you that. Though speaking of what she was saying…

  I moved to wrap up the impromptu discussion. “Well, I’d be happy to scan my Pokemon for the App and send you what I know of Radiance and Notch,” I offered, and he grinned brightly at the prospect. Exchanging numbers with a potential future professor of Uva Academy, I then turned to Geeta. “Would you mind if we had a word?”

  She arched an eyebrow in curiosity but nodded without asking anything further until we reached her office. Geeta clearly noticed when I firmly closed the door behind me, asking, “What do you wish to discuss?”

  “Ummm…” I hesitated, deciding to ease into the whole Turo issue rather than jumping right in. “I was thinking we might do more to, uhhh, ‘enrich’ the Gym and Elite Four challenge. I know I’m just a Champion-ranked Trainer, but I had some ideas.”

  Geeta blinked before smiling. “That’s fine; we appreciate input from all of our Top Trainers. I had planned on waiting until you returned from your studies abroad to discuss such things, but as usual, you surpassed my expectations.” She smiled slightly, and I blushed. “Now, how would you propose we do that, exactly?”

  “Well, there’s been an upswell of popularity for the topic online for both Paldean youth and Trainers abroad. Aside from increased incentives to have foreign Trainers come over - which I admit I don’t have the details on what would be effective there - we could probably spice up the challenges. Like giving the Elite Four each their own chambers to fight in, which they could customize?”

  The Chairwoman let out a soft sigh at my suggestion. “That’s a decent expenditure you’re talking about. I can see your reasoning; however, it would add a certain flair to their fights, which would enhance the spectacle of their matches.”

  “Perhaps with the custom arenas they could be expanded to include spectator seating? There were so many people waiting, trying to get a glimpse of my fight, so if you sold tickets to such battles…”

  The woman tilted her head back and forth, as if weighing the idea within her mind. “It would take a while to make them decently affordable, especially since our Elite battles haven’t ever garnered nearly as much attention as your Gauntlet challenge did. But it could work.” Yes! That’s going to make it so much more interesting than fighting in that bland room. It definitely served its purpose, but I had to admit it was boring, especially compared to the Elite Four arenas of other regions.

  “Anything else?”

  “Well, expanding on the staff the Gym Leaders have might be handy as well, especially if we get more Trainers. It could give the challengers more experience and give the Leaders more hands on deck to handle Trainers as well as do things like training the large roster a Leader needs to face on challenges of all levels.”

  Iono has put in a lot of work to up the level of her main team, but that’s tough, and it’s hard to keep a diverse team available at all the badge difficulties. She has some staff, but it’s just not enough. “I had an idea on how you might offset some of those costs and increase interest in the Gym Challenge.”

  That earned a chuckle from her, and I cocked my head to the side before she waved me off. “No no, it’s fine. I just forgot for a moment how you are your parent’s daughter. Most children wouldn’t consider the economic costs of their ideas or how to synergize solutions.”

  My cheeks grew warm. “Ah no, I’m not really all that great at those things; my sister can handle business far better than I could. Ahem, as for my idea, I was hoping w- you,” I quickly corrected myself because it wasn’t me that would be going through the many steps and bureaucracy of the system to make this happen. “Could reach out to Uva Academy and open up a work-study program with the school and the Gym Leaders.”

  “Work-study?”

  “Where people can spend some time away from the Academy doing hands-on, supervised training and have it count towards some of their academi- oh you know what I mean; you just want the details,” I blurted out, embarrassed. There was the faint ghost of a smirk on her face as I continued. “I was thinking that students could become Gym Trainers on a temporary basis for the Gym Leaders, addressing the staffing issues, especially during the Treasure Hunt, and as they’d come back to the school, they’d bring all their experience and excitement of working there, which would hopefully get the other students fired up!”

  After a minute of thinking it over (during which I got more and more nervous but didn’t want to let it show or just babble and end up mostly repeating myself), she nodded slowly. “We can look into it. I’ll have to discuss it with Director Harrington, but this sounds like an interesting idea.” Hmm, right, Clavell isn’t the Director there yet. Hopefully there won’t be any issues with Harrington? “I admit I’ve had my own misgivings about the state of affairs in our Gym Challenge, but I haven’t had the time to address the issue.”

  “Oh? Well, that’s fair; you’ve only just started as Chairwoman. Thank you for considering my requests,” I said, giving her a polite bow. Then I paused for half a second, something she caught with a raised eyebrow. “I’ll admit, there’s something more serious I need to discuss with you as well.”

  “More serious than changing the Elite and Gym systems across Paldea?”

  “Yes.” My word, and the weight behind it, had the chairwoman stiffen up, even if the change in her demeanor and posture was nigh imperceptible. Forgoing any further preamble, I told her, “It has to do with Turo and the experiments he’s been running down in Area Zero. Both what he’s told you and what he hasn’t.”

  Geeta pursed her lips and didn’t say a word, motioning for me to continue. “For the majority of his time down in the Great Crater, Turo has been using the unique properties of Area Zero to attempt to build a time machine. That’s what brought Radiance into the world.”

  “He’s… been capturing Pokemon from the future? What? How? And why wouldn’t he tell us about this?” Geeta blinked, the usually composed woman thrown off by this revelation. At least she believes me or is willing to hear me out. Becoming Champion really does make a difference… or possibly it’s just her. Geeta might not always agree with me, but she’s never dismissed me.

  “Because his goal was always to reach the future, to travel through time and leave this world behind. The machine he made could in its current state only pull back Pokeballs he sent through it, which brought Pokemon with them.” I paused for a moment, both to let her digest my words and also to pick out my next ones.

  “I have my doubts on whether or not it actually worked in the first place; the machine might simply tap into properties of Area Zero to create Pokemon from nothing but thoughts. He was heavily influenced by reading the Violet Book and Heath’s own discoveries might have been a result of Area Zero changing physics around to match his imagination of the strange environment. Or to reach through dimensions and pull in Pokemon from a parallel timeline. Of course I can’t prove either- I’m getting off track.” I shook my head, trying to get myself out of the ‘researcher mode’ that I’d been in.

  “How did you find out about this?”

  I couldn’t quite meet Geeta’s piercing gaze as I replied, “Turo has been a close friend of my family’s for years now; he’s let a few things slip. The Miraidon he gave Arven was another clue, as well as Radiance, whom I caught on my journey.” Even averting my gaze, I saw the way her jaw locked and how her Aura shifted. Dammit, okay, plan B.

  “Which would all be very reasonable, but no, those aren’t the reasons why I knew of what he was doing. I can’t say why, and it doesn’t matter.”

  “How do you know that? Whoever told you could be misleading you,” Geeta pointed out.

  “No one told me, and it really doesn’t matter, because Turo confirmed my fears when I confronted him about it. I called him after winning the Gauntlet and told him to shut down the project before these ‘Paradox Pokemon’ he was calling from his time machine would end up destroying Paldea. Eventually he agreed to shut it down.”

  “That feels like a bit of a leap,” Geeta responded with a frown. “I’m certainly not thrilled to hear that he was conducting unauthorized experiments, especially in Area Zero, but how would it threaten the entire country? Unless there’s something you haven’t mentioned about the time machine?” Ah, she’s not too happy about me doing this on my own.

  “I don’t know of any inherent danger of the time machine being overly used, though I’m not sure it ever would allow someone to actually travel to the future. The problem is with how powerful the Paradox Pokemon are and how aggressive they can be. You’ve seen Radiance, and we’ve been working really hard on reining their temper in. Imagine what fifty of them would look like. Or a hundred, or a thousand.” Geeta frowned hard, but she didn’t deny my words.

  “And young Arven’s Miraidon is the same?” Right, she’s seen him during my junior tournament or possibly during times where she’s talked with Turo himself, and Arven is great, but… he’s not a Trainer on my level.

  “If anything, Miraidon might have even greater potential than Radiance does.” I stopped for a moment as one of the Pokeballs on my belt shook violently. I patted it to calm the Paradox Pokemon within. “Easy now, that’s just potential. You still surpass them with your dedication. Arven’s Miraidon is a nice Pokemon who enjoys eating sandwiches and riding around, much like their Trainer.” Geeta let out a soft sigh of relief. Fair. Hearing a ten-year-old that isn’t Champion material has their hands on a Legendary Tier Pokemon? Pretty worrying.

  Continuing, I said, “That Miraidon is not the norm for Paradox Pokemon, however. As I said, most are closer in temperament to Radiance. If he hadn’t shut the experiment down, then the consequences for Paldea might have been dire.”

  “If that’s the case and it is all settled, then why bring this to me now?” ‘Why tell me at all if you didn’t seek out my help in the first place?’ I could hear and winced.

  “...I truly want to believe that he really has wrapped up his work on the time machine and that all he’s doing now is researching the Stellar Tera Type. And the fact that he’s let Jacq go would imply that he’s aiming to downsize the project. But if this is a ploy and he’s continuing it, hoping that by just saying he’d stop that would be enough to convince me, I want to have someone here who knows of the situation before I leave to study abroad.”

  There was a silence between us, which I eventually filled, explaining, “And perhaps I should have come to you sooner, but I wanted to give Turo the chance to stop on his own. He made a mistake, but I didn’t want his name dragged through the mud or anything like that.”

  “But you still don’t trust him fully,” she commented, her hands clenched tightly. This must be a lot for her to deal with.

  “I’m rather cautious as a person. So if he tries to extend his time down there, you can let me know, and with the Elites, we can force him to stop. Also, uh, you’ll probably need someone to remove the time travel equipment from his lab down there even if he does stop and leave, just to make sure no one else gets ahold of it down the line, as well as find homes for the Paradox Pokemon he’s captured thus far.” Which I’d like to say is just being paranoid, but bad guys in this world have a knack for stumbling across things like that. I’d hate to see someone like Volo getting his hands on that.

  I suffered through a long minute of silence as the Chairwoman thought over what I’d said. “That all makes sense and is something we’ll work on. Discreetly,” she added upon seeing my face. “Professor Turo will see far less approval of his experiments from the League in the future,” Geeta warned me, and I nodded. Always knew that would be the case, but honestly he could spend less time in the lab anyways. He’s got Arven to look after, and it’s not like he isn’t well-off enough to afford a comfortable standard of living. “Was there anything else you wished to discuss?”

  “No, thank you, ma’am.” I responded, keeping my head down until she spoke up.

  “You’re welcome. And now, if I might make a request of you?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m a big proponent of battling hard, as I know you are. It’s why I too want to see our Gym Challenge rise in acclaim on the global stage. To that end, I’m aiming to take on my own Championship Assessment, and I hope you can be the Champion I face after I’ve defeated the Elite Four. While I have much to do in my new role, once I’ve settled in, I plan on pursuing that.” She had a determined gaze, her blue and yellow eyes sparkling brightly.

  “I’d be honored to. I’ll be out at Blueberry for the next few years, but so long as you can give me a heads up, I’d be happy to make the time for that,” I offered my hand out, and she shook it firmly.

  “Thank you.” I know she was fairly easy to beat in the games, but I have the feeling that it will be quite different here… and I’m looking forward to it! New challenges, here I come.

  Discord. Thank you, and I hope you have a great day.