Okay, so I am aware that everything until now has felt like filler. But I had to set the scene for the story. So thanks for bearing with me. It's about to get better. XD
Evan stands outside the Museum of Science's lab, stomach souring in anxiety. Bouncing between the balls of his feet, the ball of nerves glances back at parents who are taking way too long. Gripped is the unassuming piece of rock from the excavation, the three-pronged shapes mocking from its face.
Thumping the car shut, his dad approaches with a grin, amused by the high strung energy. The unimposing man reaches past the cloud of shifting doom and pulls the lobby door open. The way unfettered, a woman slips in the doorway with a sly smile of her own, snatching the potential fossil from her son's grasp. An indignant, "Hey!" misses the intended recipient, as the door closes behind teasing parents, leaving Evan alone outside.
The undeserving child hastily thrusts the door open, chasing after the two 'adults' swiftly speeding away in the direction of the revival center's front desk. The strawberry blonde reaches the counter first, slamming the little bell sitting there. The husband's palm slaps the back of her hand a split second later. Dismay crosses the man's face at a flaunting tongue.
Sighing, Evan follows the pair across the lobby, strangely settled by the antics. Reaching the desk, the boy notes the professor expectantly coming in from the back hallway.
"Oh! Perfect! You're here right on time. Come on back, and let's see what we got!" With the usher, the three fall in behind the geologist. The newly made quartet passes down the corridor and into the back room.
Eugene stands next to a large machine with an aquamarine-glass casing, reading the smaller of the two monitors close at hand. At the group's approach, he jerks calculating eyes up, nods a greeting, and re-engrosses in the displayed text.
Holding a hand out expectantly, Evan looks at his mother. George, seeing inattention, bumps the distracted woman's elbow.
"Nancy, Hun, he wants his fossil." The dazed individual startles, taking wandering eyes off the rows of shelving on the left that proudly display shells of various shapes and sizes. The rock is passed sheepishly.
Evan skirts a tall exhibit in the middle of the floor, rushing up to the grouch with the burning question of probable disappointment clutched tightly. Looking back at Granite in askance, the lad gestures vaguely between the two mentors.
The Museum of Science's representative clears an already unblocked throat, trying to get the other scientist's true attention. Eugene holds up a hand, and another fifteen seconds go by in silence. Eyes stop scrolling, and the devoted reader lifts a bowed head, finished with that section of results.
"Ah yes, the DNA check. I just finished analyzing young Skyler's Helix. It should be revived by tomorrow." Motioning towards himself with both hands impatiently, he continues, "Well, what are you waiting for? Permission? Give it here!"
Losing hesitance, Evan shoves the triangled find forward onto the table's edge, bumping lightly against the tropically tinted enclosure. A hand is snatched back, no longer bearing to touch the false hope.
Bemused, the Oreburgh native raises a black brow while picking up the aggregate. An adjacent panel is lifted with the free hand, and the vibrant glass swings back on plain hinges. Inside the enclosure already rests a spiral fossil. Scooching it aside with a nudge, the new test subject is deposited on the velvet lining. Pulling limbs back out of the way, the cover is dropped lightly back into place.
"Well, there you have it. The machine will start analyzing the amino chains, and we should know shortly if there's anything in there!" The professor explains jubilantly.
"What?! We have to wait? Can't it just quickly tell us no?!" The cry of dismay bursts out, nerves back to fraying.
"Sorry, kid," the accompanying smile anything but, "This machine has to look through every iota of this rock to try and find something. We don't actually know for sure that what we are looking for is in those little triangles."
"Do you at least have some idea of how long it's gonna take?" Evan's dad asks, trying to sooth the son's ruffled feathers while simultaneously determining if the family has time for a grocery run.
"Who's to say? Depending on how much of the rock it has to analyze before coming across something, it could be anywhere from fifteen minutes to five hours." The labcoat is clearly pleased as punch to be delivering the news to one of the banes of his existence, albeit lesser, from earlier in the day.
Crestfallen, Evan distracts himself by perusing the room and studying the displays. A few minutes tick by.
Knowing that they most likely do, in fact, have time to go buy milk, Evan's father hesitantly pipes up, "So, would anyone be too terribly disappointed if we did some errands and came back?"
"Dad!"
"George!" The simultaneous calls are accompanied by a brief look of betrayal from the younger speaker. The brown haired adult shrinks inward, taking a step back self-consciously.
"Oh….kay. I'll just….go sit down then?" George pads over to a vacant chair, parking his kaboose beside a microscope-toting desk. Unsure how to break the tension, the good-natured geologist backs out into the hall, intent on finding some hangry-fighting snacks for everyone. The clock on the wall ticks three hundred more times in the near silence after Granite leaves.
"…How far along is it, now?" Evan looks in longing dread at the monitor, unable to decipher the technical jargon presented.
"At the beginning. Seeing as it has only been 10 minutes," Eugene huffs.
"…"
"…"
"What about now?"
"Now it is at the stage where you need to go outside." The out-of-region-er looks sharply at the young charge while the seated man buoys in the corner. "Please."
"Now?"
"Yes, now! Time alone is what I now need." Seeing watery eyes of crushed dreams pitifully staring at him, Eugene forces tension out of tightened shoulders. Taking a breath, the irritated male concedes, "I'll call you when it's completed. We have your father's PokéGear on file." He motions towards the door, and the two parents collect themselves. Grabbing the son's hand, Nancy tows the dejected kid behind, back to the lobby where they wait another ten minutes.
"Hey, Champ? He wanted us to leave because it could be awhile. Can we please go to the store and at least make sure I don't have to eat dry cereal before work?" George implores. Evan tilts back and exhales deeply.
"Yeah. Let's go. Can't have you choking tomorrow, now can we?" is joked wryly.
Climbing in, the victorious father puts keys in the ignition and turns the car on. The radio starts up as the engine burns to life. A sharp series of tones echo out, at discord with the music. Surprised, Evan's father grabs into a stretched-taut pocket, wondering who is calling.
"Hello?"
"Where'd you go?! I just told you to go outside to the lobby!" barks sharply from the other end of the line.
"We just got in the car? You said it could be hours!" George defends.
"I told you to go outside when it found something. I couldn't stand to listen to your boy nag my ear off!" A sigh rings out. "Just come back inside. You were gone too long; you're keeping us waiting." The phone muffles, the receiver on the other end clunking onto a hard surface in the façade of an ended call. "I'm never…send me on another…trips again….chaperone…unacceptable…expertise."
Chagrined, the driver turns off the device, kills the motor, and angles around to face his son. The later perches on the end of the seat, already certain they will be going back inside. Seeing the knowledge, the thwarted man grins abashedly and asks, "Are you ready?"
Hovering at the end of a soft bed, Evan looks down at the paper held loosely by stunned hands. The nine by eleven sheet carries the weight of an Aggron, and re-reading for the umpteenth time changes nothing. He'd promised himself this would be his Starter. But that was before. How could he possibly have suspected? His parents were delighted, of course. Mildly disappointed for him, but personally thrilled. Nothing could have possibly made their decision to support the revival more simple.
The genetic match result imposes up at him from the document as thoughts continue to spiral.
The cycle continues into the night in the face of the bolded, crushing title.
DNA Match Returned
Pokédex Entry #129
He might as well have asked for a pet rock.
Chapter Notes:
-burning question of probable disappointment- the fossil XD freaking love dumb descriptions like that
-The character Eugene is based on is super impatient. Complaining the whole interaction about how slow you are. He rushes you to give him the fossil, complains if you come back before leaving the building, and then says how late you are even if you just exited the building and immediately came back in.
-Amino Chains are the 4 letter sequence I talked about before. Each letter is a kind of amino acid.
-300 seconds is five minutes.
-"Time alone is what I now need," sounds a bit strange because it is a direct quote from the character in the game. Same with some of the phrasing when Eugene calls them.
-The call didn't seat properly into the receiver. So Eugene doesn't know they can hear his bitching.
-An Aggron weighs 1587.4 lbs (720 kg).