The roundel that was the project's emblem was impressive in Giovanni's eyes, though he didn't care much for aesthetics. Despite this those within Project Rebirth had commented from time to time over the lack of an emblem, six years into the Project, and so he had himself had taken a painful hour out of his daily routine to work on one with a notebook and a pencil. It was an odd prospect, making art as a CEO of R Industries, but odder still was the project that the emblem had been tied with…At least to an outside observer.
If there was any outside observers of course he would've need to buy them off or kill them, but six years of hiding and Rebirth hadn't faltered yet.
The emblem was emblazoned on a few choice objects in the particular lab he was personally seeing constructed: The metallic floor, the cadavers of Pokémon specimens, the ID of some of the personnel…
"Very fine design Giovanni." Blaine had said, fortunate enough to be one of the only people Giovanni slowed down for, the clack of his walking stick following the young businessman.
Giovanni only clasped his hands behind his back, his fingers rubbing his thumbs as he waited for Blaine to talk to him about something that mattered.
"We ran the experiments on the Diglett specimens a few hours ago." Giovanni finally turned his head.
"What did the results say this year Blaine?" Giovanni asked, the flow of his voice that echoed in the metal room cold and knowing.
Blaine removed his glasses only for a second, rubbing his face in the weariness that came with the answer.
"As you predicted: Not good." Giovanni only shook his head, eyes shut tight as he knew the results in his mind already.
The Diglett species was a frail rodent species already off the bat, ever since their mutations hundreds of years ago from moles. But recently their population decline had forced them out of most of Kanto and only around Vermillion and the local caves. Everything went wrong with the species in every way. Some had decreased immune systems, some had debilitating birth defects, some had weakened bones and muscles, and perhaps most frightening of all was that many examples had cells that simply deteriorated at frightening speeds.
"I believe no one but the tin hat community has noticed this deterioration?"
"Yes Giovanni."
"We are surrounded by fools Blaine." Giovanni had damned the field of Pokémon research being so young.
"It's the same story over and over: The Pidgey population is also suffering from this deterioration as well, and no one has noticed."
As far as Giovanni was concerned, the brooding he saw in the silver eyes of his mercenary was uncalled for; he was making a difference in the world for the better despite his previous experiences. The Dreamstone he was slated to return to them would make all the difference, and Giovanni didn't know, even when he spied on the calls and status reports he and his junior executive shared, that if he cared at all. A soldier such as himself knew the repercussions of bad decision on history, but yet he didn't openly question to his employers all the controversy and hubbub that he was indirectly brewing. Giovanni did enjoy when his people followed orders without question, but too many of those kinds of people lead to the predicament they were in now: at the precipice of the existence of Pokémon.
Pokémon research was an emerging field still, three hundred years after the bombs fell, and that had hampered Giovanni's ideals and plans so much for too long. His organization wasn't the only one based around Pokémon, in fact over three quarters of all research and development in the commercial field was in one way or another placed around Pokémon. Whether it had been medicine to treat them, or a charger to use an electric Pokémon's excess discharge to power appliances, if Pokémon disappeared from the equation the outcome would not favor humanity.
For Giovanni though, it went beyond that in some unsaid personal matter, something that sprung him past the point of no return, to the point of hiring a mercenary to possibly kill hundreds of men for the sake of getting a rock.
"If we do get Dreamstone back from Mikita, what's our modus operandi concerning the triage? I don't think we can save them all at first." Blaine asked.
To the construction staff around them, the talking was vague, out of context, bare bones.
Giovanni supported his body on an unfinished console, in front of a giant plexiglas tube filled with wiring, the tube being the main feature of the room. Blaine wished he had the fervor and the hop in his step to actively help out the technicians and mechanics, to get things just right for the facility, but the weakness of his bones and the hunch of his back had hampered his productivity.
"According to the preliminary data regarding the Dreamstone itself, we'll draw data from the reactions of multiple Pokémon and see if we can synthesize Dreamstone as a…. supplement. According to James we'll have to tune down the radioactive reaction to nominal point so that we won't overload certain species."
Blaine nodded, understanding that plan of action. "But what about the Specimen Zero and Zero-A?"
"We'll see how intact they are once they get back to us; see if we can extract them from the stone without any serious damage, see if it's possible if we can stabilize the embryo first off. I don't mind losing Zero-A and Dreamstone, but Number Zero is imperative."
"Of course, but when this new facility is complete, we're going to need to power it."
Giovanni furrowed his eyebrows, his fists tightening as he crossed his arms. "We'll see how much we can leak from the power grid first. If not, I can subtract some of the batteries from the Chrono facilities."
"If you're going be using the living power sources finally in direct contact with Rebirth, we're going to need more than just a few Voltorb and Jolteon. This facility is going to burn and expend most of them within a week and we're going to need a constant supply in that case."
"Do not worry about the alternative power supply Blaine, the pest Pokémon no one will miss, and it's for the better for their species."
"Certainly they should understand now, given the… increase in intelligence in these past few decades."
"Of course, and for organization's sake, I'll brand them with the project's logo."
"Thank you, Giovanni."
A/N:
I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough to make my systems blow
Welcome to the new age, the new age.
This is the part where I start waving my arms frantically in order for you readers to read the nuzlocke that this story is connected to. This is also the part where I might've accidentally revealed too much in the small details. There are little details I sprinkled on this story, details that are yet to be explained and yet to come about in the nuzlocke.
I will admit, this story is not for me really, it's for Landwalker, and if you really want to understand, read his comics.