Sorry this chapter took a while. I have been ultra busy, and I had to actually write this one. This was originally an idea that was supposed to go in the Timeskip Adventures, but I decided was actually more main plot related, so moved it here. Enjoy.
Evan lounges on the middle of his dorm room's cheap mattress, skimming the articles of Pokémon Researchers Monthly. It is a rare day of no homework, and an idle hand runs through pink fur on his left. Flash sprawls across a pillow at the head of the bed, soaking in the lackadaisy atmosphere and the gentle massage along his spine. Jewel, however, tenses and untenses on Evan's right, her tail lifting up in a high strain to touch the top of a reaching side fin, over and over.
"...many thought that the original discovery of Ditto at the Pokémon Lab in Kanto was unremarkable. But new evidence suggests something much different, bringing an old theory back to the spotlight." The college student turns, addressing Jewel, "You hear that, girl? Sounds like something interesting happened down in Cinnabar." Two lip pops, before the Magikarp switches sides, starting tail-lift repetitions in the other direction.
"Why does that sound familiar….don't I know someone from there?" the twenty-one year old muses, before quickly dismissing the feeling of familiarity with a shrug.
"Let's see…" Evan scans down the page again, refinding the abandoned line, "It was believed, albeit briefly, that because Mew's genome contained the DNA of all Pokémon, all Pokémon were descendants of it. This idea was dismissed when Ditto was first discovered, only a few short months later. The Pokémon's very existence spoke to the unrealistic expectations of that theory, having a very similar genetic makeup to Mew."
The pink mammal next to Evan simply naps, ignoring the drone of the Trainer's reading. The carp, however, listens in with interest, even as she finishes her fishy side bends. A moment later, Jewel changes conditioning exercises. The cyprinidae now teeters on her stomach, pectoral fins pushing from side to side, flexing the muscles at their base.
"But recent advances in technology have furthered humankind's ability to recover corrupted data, allowing a team of scientists to finally access old records from the Pokémon Lab Experiments." Evan's voice changes to one of excitement, "What?! No way!" Seeing his orange body-builder stop for a moment in confusion, he explains, "There was a big scandal about it at the time. The lab had just finished decoding Mew's genome and was starting to distribute it to other scientific institutions when the building blew up. Almost immediately after, the first sightings of a Pokémon known as Mewtwo appeared. It sent the whole scientific community into an uproar. But, the police could never pin anyone for illegal gene splicing, since the staff vanished at the same time that it exploded and all the evidence was destroyed."
The Magikarp's eyes widen, enthralled with the story.
"It was a long time ago, though. Even before I met you." The male looks back to the article, eager to see what answers they'd found to one of the great mysteries of his youth.
"Several hard disk drives seemingly destroyed beyond use are now revealing what really happened. Not only was Mewtwo, in fact, a product of illegal activities, but Ditto was as well. It seems the convenient timing of its arrival was not nearly as innocent as it seemed. Ditto was one of the first failed attempts at reviving and altering Mew's genetics." A sharp breath, followed by the young adult jolting forward to curl inward toward the paper in his lap.
" 'The experiment that created the Ditto was scrapped by the lab when its genetic code remained too malleable, resulting in side effects such as its unstable appearance. Luckily for Ditto, they appeared rather harmless and were released to the wild, which could not be said for several iterations that came before'...Arceus! That's insane!" Evan goes quiet, no longer speaking aloud to speed up the reading.
Getting several paragraphs down, the blonde exclaims, "Holy Miltank, Jewel. Listen to this: With this new evidence brought to life, the theory that Mew could be the ancestor of all modern day Pokémon is back in the running. After all, humanity has already successfully (under the strict guidance of the law) created several Pokémon from Mew's genome since."
"Man, isn't that crazy? Not only is Mew super strong and capable of learning every single move, it could be every Pokémon's ancestor! Even yours!" Evan's mouth goes slack, and he stares at his Pokémon. The expression is quickly overtaken by a thoughtful one. "Even yours…"
Brrrnnnng…..Brrrnnnng…..Brrnnng.
"Hello? Cinnabar Island Lab, Starla speaking." A red-to-blue crop of frazzled hair enters the screen. The woman is slightly out of breath as she looks into the video camera recording the call. "Sorry, I was in the other room when I heard the PokéRap start blasting. I think one of the assistants changed the ringtone to mess with me. AGAIN." The middle-aged scientist groans. "What did you need?"
Evan's eyebrows scrunch in thought, trying to place the face on the screen. But before the silence stretches, he startles on, "Oh, sorry. I was hoping to get a copy of Mew's genome. I am doing some preliminary work for my research paper at PokéTech. Can I have it sent over on a jump drive or something?"
"Ha! That's a good one. You know that a normal genome file is like 400 gigabytes of information, right? Well, Mew's is substantially larger. It carries information from all Pokémon. You'll have to make a trip to one of the places that has it on file." Violet eyes look to the ceiling behind familiar wayfarer glasses, thinking. "You said Pokémon Tech, right? That's honestly not all that near any of the places that have it. I'd have to say Bill probably has the closest copy. Besides that, Professor Granite would be the next one. Unless you want to take a ferry here from Vermilion."
"I've heard Bill's name before. Where is he at again?" Evan inquires.
"North of Cerulean City."
"Oh, well, maybe I'll just make a trip home to Pewter. It's almost the same distance, and I'd rather catch up with my family and the Professor. Thanks a lot!" The blonde pulls a smile, and gets ready to end the call when a "agruuuruuu" chimes in another thank you from below the camera's line of sight.
"Wait. That was totally a Magikarp, wasn't it?!" The mischievous woman grins sharply. "I knew it! Man, you've changed! Not that snot-nosed brat who got the carp fossil anymore, huh?"
"Uhm, well." Evan blushes, finally placing the adult's face. The young man's finger inches toward the "end call" button.
"Don't even think about it, Mister. You called me. That was your fault. Now you're stuck telling your childhood crush—"
The male splutters, cutting Starla of, "You weren't—I wasn't—"
Evan's expression is horrified, as Starla talks over him, refusing to acknowledge the denial to her knowingly false claim, "—what you've been up to these last…..nine? years." The teasing is derailed, as the information sinks in. "Oh my Lanturn. I'm so ooooolllld," the spaz whines dramatically.
The Trainer on the other line just sighs, giving up the fight. Repositioning in his seat, he settles in for what will obviously be an extended, tangent-filled interrogation.
Evan opens the door to the front lobby of Pewter's Museum of Science. Holding it ajar awkwardly with a foot, he moves white bags bearing a standard Thank You Thank You Thank you print around the obstacle before entering himself. Styrofoam edges try hard to escape their encasement as he moves, throwing lines that stand in stark relief from the backdrop of plastic.
The laden individual makes his way across the foyer to the lab's door. Pushing down on the bar-style handle, Evan attempts to enter, only for the metal to catch and tilt one of the bags precariously.
"Here! Let me get that for you!" The receptionist rushes around her desk to prop the troublesome barrier open. "Jeez, that smells good. Granite better appreciate you. If he doesn't, you are always welcome to have lunch with me." The cute brunette flashes a smile.
"Thanks! I'd love to; except I'm here on official business." Evan ducks his head, and slips into the lab, just barely escaping. Walking to the far side of the room, the encumbering take-out is unloaded onto one of the few tables.
Glancing back, Evan sees the similarly-aged girl still there, and gives a small wave. Caught staring a bit too long, she eeps, and practically slams the door.
Exhaling in relief, the manly tomato turns back to the table and begins to unpack the food.
A click and a rattle, and the professor comes in just a moment later with a knowing smile.
Leaning forward, Granite lifts a hand to his mouth, talking past the back of it with a stage whisper, "I think you broke her."
"Hardy har har. She was just being nice. I bet she was worried I was gonna drop everything even after I got in here."
The older man lifts a brow, head inclining slightly at the mentee. "Sure."
"ANYWAY, how about we get started." Evan passes a paper plate to Granite, along with chopsticks. "Thanks for agreeing to help, by the way."
"I've done a lot more for a lot less in the past. I'm basically swindling you right now." The geologist wiggles brown eyebrows while dishing up. "Oh, you even got me egg rolls!" An imaginary tear is wiped from one of the professor's squinty eyes in appreciation.
Evan snorts, then walks over to the small monitor in front of the revival machine, booting it up with the click of a button.
"So tell me again, what are we looking for exactly?" Granite inquires, lifting some lo mein to his lips before inhaling the pasta with gusto.
"Mew's genome is supposed to contain the DNA of all Pokémon, right?"
"Mhhmmmh," comes out around a mouthful of noodles.
"Well, Magikarp could be a descendant of Mew if the theory about all Pokémon coming from it is real, correct?"
Gulp. "I suppose it's possible."
"Theoretically, if Magikarp are descendants of Mew, they should be relatively powerful. Except they aren't; not anymore. But Jewel is. Which makes me think: Mew carries DNA from all Pokémon, but how much does it actually have from each species? It might vary based on how many generations out the descendant is. My hypothesis is that Jewel will share more genetic variants with Mew than a modern Magikarp will. If I'm right, then that could increase the evidence that Mew is the mother of all Pokémon, and explain to some degree why modern Magikarp are weak."
"It's an interesting idea, for sure. If a creature that has good genetics focuses too heavily on wonton—" at this Granite holds up a deep fried pastry with a smile, "—breeding, it could very well dilute the gene pool." Shaking his head in fondness as Evan pulls a copy of Mew's genome up on the computer, the comedian adds, "You know that if you are right though, that means you'll just have more questions. Like what caused the Magikarp to focus so heavily on breeding."
"It could have been the stress of Earth's early environment. If too many young died even with care from the adults, they may have started to prioritize having more babies over taking care of the ones that already existed," Evan muses as Jewel's genome is pulled up on a separate tab. The fan on the computer's processor kicks into overdrive, and a whirring fills the room as the computer stops responding.
"Give it a minute, or you'll kill the poor thing. The entire operating system runs on less file space than what it takes to store one genome, let alone two." Remembering what he was going to say before the fan interrupted his train of thought, the professor backtracks, "Don't forget that it matters how much DNA Jewel shares with Mew. If it is a lot, then we'll want to use carbon dating to see exactly how old Jewel's fossil is and compare that to Cinnabar's record on Mew. If she was born later than you think, you'll have to adjust your hypothesis. Not to mention how family oriented Jewel seems to be. Social bonding would be less important in a species that prioritizes quantity over quality. Her age will greatly impact any future hypotheses."
"Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, Professor. You're taking for Granite that the idea even has merit." A sly smile from Evan.
"HA! I am finally rubbing off on you! I'll get you making more awful puns just like me in no time," the rock-themed adult responds.
The computer finally unfreezes, and Evan starts a comparison search between the two genomes. The fledgling researcher looks to his mentor. "Any idea on the ETR?"
"ETR?"
"Estimated time of results."
"Oh, uhm. Two hours? That's a lot of data for it to sort," the geology professor answers, the reply half a question.
"Uuuuugh, but we still have to run the one between Mew and a modern Magikarp too."
"You know what that means though, right?"
"I'm stuck with you?" the words match a deadpan expression.
"Sleeeeepppover~"Granite sing-songs.
Chapter Notes:
-Pokémon Researchers Monthly is a canon magazine that deals with scientific discoveries. I chose this over the National Pokégraphic
-So in the game it is never outright stated, but it is heavily implied through notes and stuff you find while exploring the Pokemon Mansion in Cinnabar, that Ditto was a failed version of Mew's revival. Ditto is also only originally found in that lab and the cave where you confront Mewtwo. And Ditto has no gender like a legendary. And is pink like Mew. And is the only other pokemon outside of Mew that can learn transform (outside of Smeargle sketching it).
-several Mew pokedex entries claim that Mew's DNA contains the DNA of all Pokemon.
-Mewtwo from the movie wrecks the lab when he/it escapes, leaving no survivors (if I'm remembering correctly- although Mr. Fuji technically wrote a lot of the notes, so I guess not everyone disappeared, also I see something about the island being destroyed by the volcano on bulbapedia, which I know nothing about, so I am gonna pretend it doesn't exist lol). And since Giovanni was the one behind it all, and is basically a mob boss, being the head of Team Rocket, I can only assume he magic-ed away all the bodies and evidence that could lead back to him.
-Arceus is Evan cursing, so is Miltank (holy cow)
-There were actually several artificial pokemon created from mew's dna in the show, one of which is well known (porygon, castform), and some which are lesser knowns (voltorb, genesect)
-Yes, I saw a chance to include the pokerap, and I took it. Sorry, not sorry.
-Oh my Lanturn is a play on Oh Mylanta. Which is from an old commercial. I don't remember it in the slightest, but I do remember people quoting it. hahah Lanturn is a fish pokemon.
-I recently got my genome sequenced, and 400 gb is correct. The file has like 628,000 pages at 25 variants a page.
-Bill is a scientist and Pokemon fanatic. Who accidentally combined himself with a nidoran. I can very much see him insisting on having a copy of Mew's genome on hand.
-You all know what thank you take out bags I'm talking about. Lol.
-Yes, I loved manly tomato. No, I will not change it. XD
-If a modern magikarp is further genetically from the strong genome of mew, it could make it weaker. Or just different. It depends on what way it evolved or devolved in this case.
-a wonton is a type of, often deep fried, chinese pastry pocket, as opposed to wanton, which is like saying flippant
-whaaaat, story name drop? Kind of. XD Jewel is the opposite, hence the story name.
-the take something for granite pun has been in my notes since the idea for this story was first born. I never expected to use it. But I am not disappointed XD
-the title is part of a quote from Mewtwo