- An Average Day -
Shawn woke up to the shuffling of Serperior on the bunk underneath him, and the end of the serpent's tail sliding off his body. The trainer looked down to the floor of their small apartment within the DSS building to see the half awake plant pokemon moving to prepare the serpent's typical glass of lemonade. As the human member of the pair got his clothes for the day around the Grass type retrieved a can of generic soda from the small refrigerator along one wall using a vine and moved to place it on the counter for his trainer as Shawn moved to the bathroom to get ready.
Serperior had finished drinking, washed his glass, and was fully awake by the time his trainer returned. The two proceeded to spend a short time checking their supplies and going over the list of tasks they eventually needed to complete written on a whiteboard hung beside the one window in their fairly small room. They added soda to the growing list of groceries they needed to buy, and then looked up at a knock on their door. The pair quickly moved to the entrance with their gear ready.
Opening the door revealed Janice standing calmly with a clipboard and pen. "Good morning. Delta 6 wants to see more Fire types for some reason, and considering the last time a Delta asked to see a particular type I need you three to go in first to interrogate the Porygon as to why before I give an answer," she said dryly as Shawn stretched in the doorway of his room.
"Charlies are worse, they know their type and obsess over it," Shawn said as Serperior moved into view from behind him. The plant pokemon grumbled slightly, not quite agreeing with his partner.
"Deltas try things," she replied with no change in tone. "A-0 is already waiting. He seems worried, so I think Delta 6 has spoken with him some before about this."
The starter let out a woody groan that his trainer agreed with. "Right, that issue. So is the contract on her Box running out, or is this another case of rumors going round?" Shawn asked as his pokemon quickly slid out of the apartment so he could lock the door.
Janice flipped through the papers on the clipboard for a moment. "I have not heard about that, what is the situation then?"
"The way I heard it the current Grass type group isn't going to keep the Box any longer, didn't hear why, and they were going to have a new type move in," he replied as Serperior curled around his body partially and the three began to move towards the Troubleshooter Lab. "Charlie 46 was preparing a document on contract changes for her."
The Troubleshooter Lead let out a short grunt at that explanation. "I'll have to talk with contracting about that. If she was a Charlie then I could say that kind of thing doesn't happen, but someone upstairs might just have thought a Delta could handle that kind of change," she said making a note on the top page of the clipboard. "Hold off on going to Box 205 until I have an answer."
"Sounds fine, we still need to look at that log dam that the Bibarel made in Box 146 and see if it can stay. Apparently digital rivers work differently enough that there's some confusion," Shawn said as they reached the elevator to take them down to the lab. "A-0 was planning on looking over their contract change advice while we were there."
The typical elevator ride was short, and the doors opened to the hallway leading to the Troubleshooter's Digital Transfer Lab. Janice walked ahead of the trainer and pokemon to get started on the portion of the job involving direct access to the computer systems. The door to the lab opened just before they arrived revealing A-0 floating with a slightly tired expression.
"Be aware, a minor virus has been identified in the power access system," it said with a dull tone. "It appears to have originated with a power saving function of the new coffee machine on the second floor. Please submit a complaint to maintenance regarding this topic."
Janice raised an eyebrow at the request. "What did you do this time?" she asked looking over the Porygon.
"My maintenance ticket permissions have been restricted since the Alpha 50 incident last week. As a consequence I cannot properly report this serious issue," A-0 replied holding up its blocky beak.
"I don't think they will miss that it is really your complaint," Shawn contributed sharing a smile with his starter. "You're the one who gets the most upset about them using decaf in that pot." At this the Porygon gave a series of upset beeps.
Janice rubbed her face and shook her head as she moved on to her console to start work for the day. "Right, let's just get started."
Shawn nodded booting up the console by the transfer device and began to set it up to send the small team into DSS Pokemon Storage Box 146. A-0 beeped dully as it saw what their target destination was.
The digital world of a Charlie was more complex than the simple grey cubes of the original run or the half altered off-white space that Beta Porygon were more actively working on. In 46's case their world was a seemingly endless forest with small clearings and a medium sized river running through it. The sight of blocky trees and segmented grass was still somewhat unnerving to the trainer, and he took a moment to get used to it while Serperior slithered off his shoulder to look over the artificial plants with a hint of a frown. A-0 floated forward slightly into the clearing just in front of where they had arrived, only to rush back at an airy beeping sound as the Box's Administrator arrived.
Charlie 46 had, like many of the third production run of Porygon, taken on a form mimicking a pokemon associated with their assigned theme. In 46's case they were given the forest area that now surrounded them as their goal to maintain, and so they chose the Psychic/Grass Legendary protector of forests Celebi as their shape. Their body was a short form with a large head that swept backwards to a point mad out of fairly large green plates. The plates from their belly down and at the very end of their pointed head were a dark green, with the other plates a much lighter color. Two light blue plates on either side of their head acted as eyes for the digital pokemon. The false Celebi lacked the wings that a real member of that Legendary species would possess, and as far as Shawn was aware they had not figured out how to manipulate time either.
"Troubleshooters, A-0, you're here," the green digital creature chirped happily. "The Bibarel's are complaining and I don't know what they mean," they continued pointing towards the river.
"Hey 46, can you get a translation running for me?" Shawn asked. "I'd rather not hold you up with trying to explain what they are saying if you don't quite get what they are meaning." Serperior made a grumbling sound at the question but held his tail up to volunteer to have his understanding of pokemon used to give the human the ability temporarily. The Porygon nodded and flashed briefly.
"It isn't as fun when you get the hisst of the jokes," the Grass type serpent said partly to complain and partly to test the change.
"But then I'd miss out on your serperior sense of humor," the trainer joked with a hiss of his own. The group looked at him in response to the inhuman sound.
"Both at the same time," A-0 groaned at the puns. "Why is he talking like a snake?" the Troubleshooter asked its sibling.
"Ah, well I just temporarily changed them to use the same language. It should wear off fine," Charlie 46 replied somewhat nervously. "Should be alright."
Shawn and Serperior shared a look and sighed together. "You're going to end up stuck eventually," the plant pokemon said to his trainer.
"I'm going to end up stuck eventually," Shawn agreed neutrally. "46, do you have that document you were making about contracts?" he asked changing the subject.
"Yes, I was able to finish my thoughts. Let me just make you a copy." The green Porygon held out its hand and proceeded to create a small cube with alternating faces matching their colors. The small block was a common thing for the various Administrator pokemon to make. They were simple physical manifestations of documents and code that were surprisingly capable of being transferred out of the small digital worlds and even reused as data storage in the real world.
"I will look it over while we work on your issue," A-0 said levitating the cube onto its head. "Let's see about these Bibarel."
A-0 beeped somewhat unhappily while it read throughout the trip to the river. Distances inside a Box were quite difficult to judge, as the Administrator could easily alter them based on the needs of whoever was traveling. The Celebi shaped Porygon seemed to want to give the group some time to think as it was not an instant journey to the small dam that the inhabiting pokemon had constructed. Three Bibarel were along the edge, their natural living forms seeming slightly out of place in the polygonal world. Two were actively moving about looking around the area while the third was distracted with a small stick it was attempting to use to write something on the ground.
"There they are," one of the moving pokemon said pointing at them. "Look at this, look." It pointed to the small collection of logs. The blocky wood was apparently cut in various parts, with lighter colored panels showing where more of the former digital tree had once existed. They were stuck together with what might have been dirt and mud, the ground colored polygons obviously separate from the logs themselves but otherwise as seamless as the ground at the banks of the flowing water.
"It's just ignorin' it. Perfectly fine dam for what we have to work with and the river just don' care," the other said gesturing to the quite obvious problem. The water on either side of the barrier was at the same level, and despite the solid material between it there still appeared to be the full current even just after the intended blockage.
"But it is a river, water flowing in a set course. What is the issue?" the false Celebi asked looking over the dam slightly curiously. "Is it how it moves? I admit having it move like this does cause a bit of processing issues with regards to force interactions."
"Generally when water snakes down a riverbed it moves over or under obstacles, not through them," Serperior said poking at the dam with his tail.
"Dams stop the water from flowing, usually making a pond while having less flow through them," Shawn contributed looking over the area behind the dam, attracting the attention of the third Normal/Water type. "How big was this one going to be?" he asked the Normal/Water types.
The third Bibarel jumped up and gave a rapid fire description of their plan complete with detailed figures on depth, rate of flow, and dozens of other factors that went straight over the heads of the trainer and snake pokemon. It then ran through a rough pass around a dip in the area behind the dam that gave them more context than the massive barrage of words that continued as it moved. Charlie 46 however looked amazed at the result floating closer and opening a flat pane to record notes and perform calculations on.
"Wonderful! Details and data!" the artificial pokemon cheered. "Why couldn't you have simply started with that?" they asked turning back to the other two Bibarel, with the second one to speak palming his head. "I will need to check the resource requirements of modeling this interaction you expected, but if you can provide this sort of data I should be able to at least create the proper end results for you."
"Of course his damn number crunching actually solves the problem," the first one said, turning an annoyed look at Serperior when the plant pokemon laughed at the unintended pun.
"Is that everything you needed?" Shawn asked shaking his head at the quick solution.
"Possibly. I was able to work out most of their prior requirements regarding the harvest of plants and ground material simply enough with previously simulated realism effects," Charlie 46 replied. "However, I'm still rather unclear on why they have made it. Something about keeping the river from overflowing while also making a lake to use?"
The first two Bibarel sighed in unison while the third merely began to give a long and detailed explanation of flooding, river formation, and a number of other things Shawn was sure the pokemon could handle without his team. A-0 managed to get in a goodbye to its sibling and move the Troubleshooters a short distance away to extract.
"Another one that would have solved itself given a bit of time?" Janice dryly asked upon their quick return.
"Probably not," Shawn hissed causing both pokemon to stop and turn to look at him. "More like the problem was easily solved by talking, but someone needed to start them on it before anything actually got done."
The older woman looked at him with annoyance. "And the translation for people who don't speak snake?"
The trainer looked up at her, and then to the side as Serperior flopped onto him. "We forgot to fix that hissue," the serpent stated clearly.
"We shall return in a moment to discuss the details," A-0 said to her comprehensibly before shuffling the pair back onto the pad.
"Am I talking normally now?" Shawn asked shaking off a small amount of pixilated water.
"Yes. Landed in the river?" Janice noted frowning at the small amount of digital material dripping onto the floor.
Serperior gave a smug hiss wrapping slightly around his trainer. "It was another pun," A-0 said dryly giving the Grass type a glare. The Troubleshooting team proceeded to go over the situation with the Bibarel. A-0 gave more details about the developments relating to more accurately simulating the real world. Shawn briefly went over his thoughts on how they might need to train the Administrators regarding asking questions of their charges better. "Finally, here is Charlie 46's idea of what contractual issues are like," the Porygon finished floating the small green cube over to the team lead.
"I've got news about Delta 6's situation," she replied taking the small digital document to put into a specialized reader device on her console. "It isn't the previous contract running out letting someone new change things on her. Instead it seems that the group that has the contract had the project they were planning fall through. They were negotiating for additional boxes after the results for this one, but they didn't get the funding so now they want to use the box for a variety of types instead." The reader gave out a click as it finished uploading the data to her system. "If she was a Charlie we wouldn't be considering it as they are all specified, and ironically if she had been a Beta she would have already been setup for that kind of environment. However, Delta's are supposed to be new and adaptable so we are expected to smooth over whatever minor issues turn up." The biting sarcasm of the final sentence made Shawn flinch.
Janice briefly skimmed the document before turning to the item transfer box located on the wall next to her. A pokeball emerged and was quickly tossed to the trainer. "Good news is Delta 6 has the right idea of where to start, adapting to the least suited type for her current setup. That's Magmar, and he's first up to see if she can make some space for him, or at least keep her world from burning down if he stayed there."
"Are you sure I needed to be able to talk for this? You're just sending me back already and A-0 was the only one of us that actually knew what the smart one was saying," Shawn joked shaking the last of the dripping digital water onto Serperior who like a typical plant simply ignored the liquid.
"I'm honestly starting to wonder if I'm going to wind up with a pair of snakes instead of a trainer and his starter someday. If you do end up talking then that same reasoning applies, let the master of puns here get roasted while A-0 does the real work," she complained. "You're mostly there to play butler to him anyway."
"Huh, I was reading an article about that," the trainer said easily taking the familiar harsh tone of his boss. "There was this ancient civilization ruled by a kind of pokemon that kept what were basically trainers around as servants to take them places. It wasn't clear if those humans could speak pokemon or if it was pokemon that could speak human."
"Then you'll have role models to look up to. Magmar is one of ours, and the sooner we start on this project the better."
The open plain they arrived in was much more detailed than that of Charlie 46, with the grass looking far more normal from a distance. "Troubleshooters! Finally, I've been so worried," a blocky sunflower said rising rapidly out of the ground nearby. "I've asked around my inhabitants about how fire works, but only one of them could make it."
"A Grass type that knows a Fire type move?" Shawn asked as Serperior smugly stuck his head in the air.
"Um, actually they just know how to light a campfire, their trainer taught them. But I did figure out the right way to mimic soil so they could grow plants," the Administrator replied happily, before turning slightly embarrassed. "Then I updated my plants to be able to burn and we had a small fire problem, and I don't know if those will happen all the time when we get a Fire type."
Serperior lowered his head to look at the ground and prod it with his abilities. "You've managed to make viable soil?" A-0 asked with interest. "Do you have the data on that in a format that the others could read?"
A small brown cube was her answer, the data package forming out of the dirt itself. "Here is the makeup, I've based it on the standard soil template that Charlie 3 distributed when we got started," she replied making a second one from a nearby patch of grass with a green color. "Without the plants it doesn't work quite right long term. Some of it needs replacing regularly and I included that there." The sunflower looked aside worried. "Which is one of the things I'm most worried about."
"We have a Magmar with us to help with that topic," Shawn said as A-0 collected the two cubes of data. "He's hopefully careful about his flames, and should be able to give you some advice." The trainer recovered the pokeball from his belt and looked to the Administrator for permission to release the pokemon. At Delta 6's wary nod he tapped the pokeball.
The Fire type appeared in a flash of light and looked over the area and nearby pokemon. He paused while looking at Delta 6 somewhat confused, cautiously moving closer and looking at the blocky form of the Porygon. The fire coated biped then turned to the pink and blue shape of A-0 and asked a question pointing between the two digital pokemon. "Yes, we are both the same species. This is the Box Administrator you have been brought to aid in the care of Fire type pokemon."
The orange and red colored pokemon looked dubiously at the surrounding area. He then asked the sunflower Porygon a question pointing at the grass. "Bare dirt? That would be preferable?" the Admin asked motioning to the ground a short distance away and causing a small circle of grass to disintegrate into pixels revealing the dark brown soil below.
Magmar looked at the still damp patch and shook his head, picking up a polygonal chunk of the dirt and heating it up. The material did not respond to the short flames traveling along the pokemon's limb, much to his surprise as he gave a questioning growl to Delta 6. "Dry out?" she asked confused. "Heat makes things less filled with water?" The confused expression that the Fire type gained at this reaction was familiar to the Troubleshooters, and made Serperior give a hissing laugh.
"You're going to need to explain things a bit more than that," Shawn told Magmar. "You have been told that you were explaining things to her right?" The Fire type nodded somewhat unsure. "The Administrators can't leave their boxes. They can't just go to the real world and see what it is like. Pokemon that live in their boxes tell them about the wider world to help make it easier to live in, and that also gives the Porygon some knowledge of the place they can't go." A-0 looked to the side somewhat sadly at the statement while Magmar looked at Delta 6 with some shock.
"It's fine really. A-0 has distributed some videos of his experiences, and we love hearing stories," the sunflower pokemon said attempting to reassure her new advisor. "Is he staying here when you head back or are you minding him?" she asked A-0 somewhat quietly. Given she controlled the world they were in Shawn was not surprised when Magmar did not seem to hear it and gave a brief look to his starter before the snake could interrupt.
"We are supposed to get an area setup for Fire types before we take Magmar home," A-0 answered sounding more like he was responding to her comment than replying to a direct question. "Do you have an idea of how much space that would take?" it asked the fiery pokemon.
From there they moved on to finding an area well away from the other locations Delta 6 had already crafted with and for her current tenants. The exact proportions of a given Box were partially limited by the hardware that created it, but it had been noted that the longer a Box was in use or the more intricately the Administrator made things inside of one seemed to have an effect on the size of the space. The Alpha series boxes had now all reached a size slightly larger than the Beta series had started at despite the latter having been made using better hardware. Charlie and Delta Porygon both had larger boxes than seen in the initial two runs, with even the initial resulting size being slightly larger than expected given the hardware available.
They spent a short while plotting out how much space it would take to give a small number of pokemon that burned things enough room, then a bit longer deciding on how much creating custom spaces would take if more types were given such locations. Delta 6 was somewhat discouraged by the resulting size, and asked for the Troubleshooters to see about what types of pokemon had similar requirements to hopefully reduce the amount of space she might need to dedicate to new habitats.
After a while they had cleared out a good sized area of the grass and dried the ground to remove the dampness that Magmar found particularly unnerving with how it still was not dissipating from his heat. With the area cleared they stopped to have a slightly early lunch, with the Fire type revealing that he was totally new to the experience of a digital world as he looked at the food produced by the Administrator dubiously.
"It's fine. Most of the power we end up using running these worlds goes into making this stuff," Shawn said picking at the odd tasting cubes. "Although the taste is going to be another concern," he noted towards the sunflower pokemon.
"The Grass types living here have given me some examples of foods they like or can grow out in the physical world," the Administrator noted. "That is one of the goals of getting my dirt right, to grow real plants. My plan was to ask newcomers what they liked to eat and then request seeds or cuttings to try and grow them here."
"That sounds like a good plan. Maybe we can see about getting you a bit of physical soil to work from," the trainer said thoughtfully as the Fire type began to eat while obviously disliking the taste. As a result they took a brief time to experiment to improve that aspect in the hopes that it would work as a general benefit to any future pokemon that ended up in the box.
After that the next few hours were spent going over more aspects of supporting Fire type pokemon, ending with bringing over a few of the current Grass type inhabitants to go over how their various activities reacted to flames.
Magmar stepped off the transmission pad with a bit of a wobble. "Sorry, we ended up with a lot of stuff to cover," Shawn said to the Troubleshooter Lead as he followed behind with Serperior mostly hanging off his body.
"You aren't that late," Janice replied as she continued to work at her console. "Put Magmar back in his ball and read over this." A thick manual was lifted from her desk and tossed to the trainer.
"Another custom hardware manual, did Alan write this one?" he asked retrieving the Fire type and opening the cover. "Yep, hours of dense words for something actually simple. What's the occasion?"
She held up a small red device. "The development team finally finished modifying a Pokedex to interact properly with digital worlds in general, and our Box system specifically. It should give you and Serperior some ability to deal with issues without needing A-0 to hold your hand," she said looking at the plant snake. "He's going to be reading this too since he's honestly the brains of your team."
"One of us has to be," Shawn said happily in the face of Serperior giving an annoyed look at the increased workload. He paged through the guide as he walked up to return the pokeball. "Ok, this is stuff about doing my own editing, which is a bit bigger of a thing than I expected," he said with some worry as he handed the sphere over.
"Let me see that," A-0 said rapidly floating over to see. "This is literally the most basic admin functions," it said looking up from the book at the trainer somewhat annoyed. Shawn flipped over a large number of pages pointing at a more complex function. The Porygon read over the details alongside and turned to Janice unimpressed. "We are giving him this?"
"After both of them have read the manual and proven to you that they can handle having this," she replied setting the device down. "Alan for some reason thinks that will be done by tomorrow."
Shawn paged through the book some more. "Well, it's something to keep us occupied for the next couple of weeks."