Tamiko rolled the red crystal around in her hand and then set it down on the table. She picked up an odd-looking device comprised of a handle bearing a large red trigger, a blinking set of LEDs ranging from red to green and what appeared to be an antenna capped with a small gold ball and pointed it at the crystal. She depressed the trigger and the lights lit up. Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. A musical buzz emanated from a tiny speaker below the lights and a crude seven-segment display read out in a slow scroll: FIRIUM Z.
She sighed and blew a lock of black hair from her face and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "You almost done, Joyce? I've been scanning this every five minutes like you asked and it's still the same thing it was the last six times." She reclined in her chair and began to fan herself, tugging at her collar repeatedly, trying to generate a breeze to cool off.
Joyce spun around in her chair, overshot how far she had to spin and then slowly turned back to face Tamiko. She pulled aside the curtains of brown hair plastered to her face and rolled the sleeves of her labcoat up further - to no avail. "Yes! I'm done! And I'll be perfectly honest, I didn't expect the crystal to change." Where Tamiko was uncomfortable and lightly perspiring, Joyce seemed to have ignored the heat and successfully soaked her coat all the way through with sweat.
Tamiko bristled. "Then why the hell did you have me do this?'
With a sheepish grin, Joyce spun back around in her chair and made a clicking sound with her tongue. The partially open drawer to her left in her desk produced the curious expression of a Meowth. The pokemon swiveled its head towards its trainer and tilted it.
The researcher looked down at her partner and smiled. "Bring me a bottle opener, will you?" she asked.
With a meow of affirmation, the blue-gray cat hopped out of the drawer it had been napping in and padded out of the room.
"Because I wanted you to stick around for this," continued Joyce, turning to her friend, "and I wanted you to learn a little something called patience." She threw her an impish grin and leaned back in her chair.
"It's really hot, Joyce," replied Tamiko, unamused. She wiped her brow and groaned. "By the guardians, why is it so hot?" She stood and stomped over to a window that was only ajar and threw it completely open. A gentle breeze rolled in and with a sigh of relief, Tamiko pulled her shirt off and let the breeze roll across her tanned skin. She slumped over the windowsill and looked around at the passersby with envy. She hoped she hadn't worn her bathing suit under her clothing for nothing. "We could be out there, Joyce," she whined, "and instead you've got me stuck in here watching you work. And wasting my time, apparently, I can't believe you had me use that thing."
Tamiko felt Joyce drape herself across her back and her head appeared next to hers. She felt Joyce press her cheeks against hers playfully and reply in a mock whine, "Ohhh Joyce, why do I help you do research, why do you have me do boring things, why why why…" She snickered and reached down to grab her hand and lace Tamiko's fingers between her own. The difference in lifestyle showed - Joyce's skin was a brilliant white compared with Tamiko's.
With a sigh, Tamiko wriggled free from Joyce and pouted at her. "Do you mind not making me do pointless crap like this?" She gestured at the device on the table.
The researcher frowned. "But how will I get you to layabout with me all day in the lab if I don't ask for your help with tasks of...uh...dubious relevance?" Joyce's frown was already gone, replaced with a mischievous grin.
A loud meow interrupted the two, and Joyce looked down to see a meowth holding up a bottle opener and looking immensely pleased with itself. Joyce squatted down and took the device from the pokemon and rubbed its cheeks. "Thanks Antus, you're a lifesaver." She rummaged in her coat and pulled a slightly squashed biscuit from it and handed it to the Meowth.
The cat replied with another self-satisfied meow and hopped back into his drawer to nibble on his treat.
"Well, good news and bad news, Tamiko," said Joyce, flipping the bottle opener in her hand again and again. Her girlfriend rolled her eyes and gestured for her to continue.
"And more good news I guess, now that I think about it. Good news is, I'm done! Bad news is, I had you do pointless stuff for me to ensure you stayed near me the whole time because I wuv you." Tamiko averted her gaze and huffed. "Oh come on, I know you wuv me tooooo."
The Alolan native shut her eyes and gestured more insistently for the Unovan to continue.
"Right, and the other good news is I've got some ice cold pop!" She strode over to her desk and rummaged around for a small cooler and reappeared a moment later clutching two wet bottles.
"Oh, and I think I've managed to provide a little more evidence and possibly a concrete link concerning the energy generated in these crystals and how they link to the human body whenever they are activated near a pokemon bearing a similarly aligned crystal, and this may be why it is we have to strike such ridiculous poses because otherwise it'd be like slotting a misaligned lens into a microscope and trying to use it anyway."
Tamiko blinked at Joyce, the gears in her head turning and attempting to process what she'd just said. "What."
Joyce sat down and uncapped both bottles and offered one to Tamiko while chugging down the other. She belched and sagged in her seat, sighing with content. "Delicious. Needed that. Um, right, uh, "what." So, um…" She sat up straight and continued, "Basically, those stupid poses have an actual use. Some kind of energy flows out of the crystals when they're near similar ones, the kind pokemon use for these so-called "Z-Moves." And the energy actually relies on how you've aligned your limbs and stuff, so when you strike one of those weird poses, it's because you're actually providing the ideal shape to transmit the energy from crystal to crystal. It's like a resonance effect. Sort of. I don't know all the details, obviously. But I've established a link anyway."
Tamiko blinked at her partner again. "I didn't see you striking any poses, how did you figure all of this out? Don't you have to test these things?"
"Well, last night when you went to bed, I couldn't sleep so I decided to go to my lab-away-from-lab and do some testing. Looked up a few videos, called up a few trainers and struck a few poses." She giggled. "Antus joined me after a while, I think he was trying to show off.
"Anyway, I recorded a good chunk of data using a z-crystal but I couldn't really interpret it at home, I don't have the equipment for that. So I just saved it to a thumb drive and spent most of this morning checking it over and running some calculations. Data checks out as far as I know. I'm gonna spread this around and send a copy to Yun. He's gonna be so mad! I told him I'd come upon a breakthrough before he did and behold! I have!" She laughed madly and then added in a small voice, "I hope."
With a shake of her head, Tamiko took a sip of her soda and propped her elbows against the windowsill, looking out at the passersby again and thinking longingly of the beach. "Well, I'm glad you've done it, Joy. Or maybe done it anyway." She looked back at the researcher with a small grin. "Now can we go enjoy a nice rest of the of day out? I think you owe me that."
"But I haven't explained how the power flows through pokemon yet!" said Joyce.
"Ugh, alright, fine," replied Tamiko, shaking her head and resigning herself to another sip of pop. "Please, O great researcher of the mystery of the z-crystals, reveal to me the secrets of their machinations and shine the light of discovery through the murky lens of the unknown!"
Joyce giggled like mad. "Someone's annoyed."
Tamiko rolled her eyes. "You just want to hear me wax poetic, I'm pretty sure that's why you do these things to me."
The researcher stood and went to stand next to Tamiko at the window and pulled her hair loose from its tie. She leaned against her partner and mumbled, "I like hearing you wax poetic. It's the only time I get to read anything you write before it's published. Otherwise you're always like, 'No, it'll ruin the magic, you just have to wait like everyone else,' and then I have to pout at you and that never works."
The two stood in silently for a moment to the sounds of the gentle rustling of the leaves outside and the beeping and whirs of the myriad consoles and racks of oddball tech scattered about the lab.
"I think pokemon are much the same way, actually," said Joyce at last, in a quieter, less bubbly tone. "I think that they're basically lenses, like you mentioned just now in that dramatic statement of yours. Something about the energy in the crystal just...runs through their bodies the right way. Antus was testing for me too, after all. I just don't know why. I read the results and the energy readings and… it started to feel like there was something ominous in the air. Like I'd discovered something no one should know.
"It feels like, even here, on the edge of a breakthrough, I can see another, but it's just...blinding. It's so bright. I went to bed and dreamt of the sky and a brilliant white light. I saw crystals and people striking silly poses and pokemon performing techniques that were almost earth-shattering. And I heard this great big roar that echoed...like… I don't have the words for it I think. It was just…"
"A roar through time and space itself? Something that echoed in the hollow chamber where you soul lies and reminded you of something primal and essential?" supplied Tamiko.
Joyce kissed her and mumbled, "By the gods, do I love you. That's exactly it."
The Alolan looked embarrassed. "I just say pretty and insubstantial things Joy, you know that. Don't take that phrase at face value."
"No, you don't, stop putting yourself down. That's exactly what I wanted to say. This research, my findings - it all seems so primal. So essential. It's like I was picking my way through to what I thought was a tiny chamber and instead I found a cave so big you can't comprehend it. And..." She drew her hands to her arms and looked concerned. "I feel like I'm not supposed to be there."
Tamiko pulled her girlfriend in close and looked out at the clear blue sky. "Nonsense. If anyone should be there, it's you, Joyce. As long as I don't have to do stupid busywork."
Joyce laughed.