"I hate ice ages," Zygarde said, padding along the snowy ground as they reached the apex of the mountain pass.
"I don't think it counts as an ice age simply because we're currently up a mountain," Ponyta replied, frowning, then blew some snowflakes off her glasses. "It's certainly cold, but in ice ages you'd get this sort of thing at sea level in Kalos, wouldn't you? If not even colder."
"I am talking about the long term," Zygarde replied. "You are correct, glacial periods are colder than this, and I really do not like those. But by world standards this is an ice age because there is a permanent ice cap on at least one pole."
"At least one pole," Ponyta repeated. "So normally it's only one pole? Not two?"
"Correct," Zygarde nodded. "Or, to be correct, normally there is permanent ice on neither pole, though it may form in winter. In an ice age, ice persists through the summer and builds up at one of the poles where there is land for it to rest on, and this has a feedback effect."
They shook themselves. "Of course, that is before considering the influence of Pokémon like Abomasnow, many Articuno, and similar. Those Pokémon affect things the other way."
"Wow," Ponyta said. "So, you don't like ice ages because it means there's snow somewhere?"
"Correct," Zygarde nodded. "In effect, at least. I am particularly grumpy during glacials, and because I am in some non-constructive sense everywhere in the world it means I cannot simply stay in warm places. But this particular control node is currently designated as primary, and also as being cold."
"Well… at least you're not as cold as you could be," Ponyta said, then stopped and watched as Noibat flew past with a faint cello theme pulsing out of his ears.
"I feel jealous of whatever Noibat is doing," Zygarde stated. "He seems quite happy despite having the same weaknesses as me."
"You're not wrong," Ponyta agreed. "Noibat, how are you staying warm in this weather?"
"Oh!" Noibat replied. "I could do it for you as well if you want?"
He waved a wing. "I started looking up how to stay warm, and at first I thought about singing a song that made me warmer. But I could end up with it being not hot enough, or too hot, depending on how much I encouraged myself. And we were in a desert not long ago, and it'd be nice to stay cold as well… so I thought it'd be good to mix together extra warmth and extra cold, as all I'd have to do is balance the two of them out."
Another wing-wave. "So I tried looking them up, and I used the Pokémon Centre computers to do it, but I sort of ran out of time and I only had the titles to go with, but I remembered them! Anyway, this is a song that makes things hotter and colder at the same time, so both ice and fire, and if I got it right then I can use this to stay comfortable in any weather or ambient temperature conditions!"
Zygarde considered that.
"You said you could apply it to us as well?" he asked, and Noibat promptly engulfed them both in the same song.
"I'm not sure how it'd do with wind," he admitted. "Or storms, still working on that."
"This is very much appreciated," Zygarde told him. "Thank you."
Up ahead, Grovyle was contemplating the ice.
"Hmmm," he said. "I wonder if I could pick up a few moves that use ice."
"When has any of us ever actually contemplated a challenge and thought it wasn't possible, instead of merely being maybe too difficult?" Frogadier replied.
"Fair point," Grovyle said. "I'm more thinking in terms of how to get the ice. I suppose I could start with a water move and add a wind move, that should make ice, and then I could shape it into a whale… I might need someone else to do it first, then I could pick it up."
"So water plus wind makes ice," Frogadier repeated. "That sounds like you're saying there's not much difference between Pelipper and Articuno?"
"Of course there's a difference," Grovyle answered. "Articuno is Psychic type."
"Fair point," Frogadier nodded. "So, what about learning to ice dance? That's something Croconaw should be good at."
At that point, an Abomasnow came out of a nearby cave.
"Something is stopping my Snow Warning from working," she said. "Is it you?"
"I think that's actually Rayquaza," Grovyle replied. "She's in Ash's coat because it's cold, but she's interested in coming along."
"Ash's coat," Abomasnow repeated. "Then does that mean you're Pokémon who work with Ash Ketchum? The Negative Disaster?"
"Now that's a good one," Grovyle said. "I'm going to have to write that down… where did I put my book…"
"Can you ask him for help?" Abomasnow implored. "My daughter is sick and I don't know what to do, and Ash Ketchum is supposed to be able to do anything."
"I'll go," Frogadier volunteered, and vanished in a blur of motion.
"Bingo!" Grovyle said, producing a small book. "Ash Ketchum… the Negative Disaster. I wonder if Serena or Clemont is getting one next?"
"Well, she's got a fever," said the Royal Chiurgeon. "That's a symptom of something, but it's a bit hard to tell what. It's particularly dangerous for Ice types, because having a fever as an Ice type is a bit like an analogy you hoped you'd be able to finish before getting to this point."
"That's terrible!" Ash said. "So we need to work out how to heal her!"
"I've got a few ideas," Clemont told them. "I could make a Flower Finder Gear to look for Mountain Marigolds, which are medicinal plants that grow around here!"
"Or I could try a healing spell," Serena suggested. "How dangerous is a fever to a Fire-type?"
"Well, it can be bad," the Royal Chiurgeon replied. "But the symptom is actually the body trying to get rid of what causes the illness, so since enough heat will kill it then a Fire-type who can endure several hundred degrees could just burn it away."
"That sounds like it would work, if Braixen agrees," Serena said.
"Or, sirs, we could simply call on Ash's Meganium," Bunnelby pointed out. "If memory serves, Meganium have the ability to heal plants, and Snover is a Grass-type after all."
"...or we could do that," Clemont agreed.
Two minutes later they were heading off down the mountain again, and Ash was wondering if Suicune could walk on snow because snow was water or if sending her out might mean all the snow on the mountain melted at once.
"And… there!" Clemont said. "I've finished!"
"You finished the Translation Gear?" Serena asked.
"Well… no, actually, I got distracted," Clemont conceded. "I did, however, build a machine that will predict the weather with one hundred percent accuracy!"
He put it down. "It's the One-Hundred-Percent Weather Predictor!"
"Weather report: clear skies," the One Hundred Percent Weather Predictor reported.
"Translation complete," the Translation Gear added. "Rayquaza!"
"...admittedly it did help that I could assume the weather was going to be nice indefinitely," Clemont said. "But it does have other forecasting modes, I didn't just design it to detect if Rayquaza was there."
"Should I go into my Pokéball to see what happens?" Rayquaza suggested. "Or suppress Air Lock, I can do that too."
"Let's find out!" Ash agreed. "Whichever you want."
Rayquaza didn't do anything visible, but after a moment the OHPWP beeped.
"Please state how far in advance you want the weather predicted," it requested.
"Twenty-four hours!" Clemont answered.
"Calculating," the OHPWP reported.
It was silent for about eight seconds, then updated. "Point zero one percent complete."
Ponyta started giggling.
"Is it going to take eighty six thousand, four hundred seconds to work out what the weather's going to be like in twenty-four hours?" she asked.
"I may need to do a rethink," Clemont said.
He was still working on it as evening approached, after a near-miss where he'd almost overclocked it to the point of an explosion, and the friends stopped off at a Pokémon Centre since there was one available by the side of the road.
When they got inside, though, they found a big hand-written sign saying that the machines weren't working and please be patient.
"What's wrong?" Serena asked.
"Power outage," the Joy replied. "Not just that, though… I think there was some kind of contractor mix-up, or maybe we just got scammed. It didn't seem like it was a big deal, just some things being intermittent, but earlier today there was a terrible burning smell and all the lights went out."
She sighed. "I'd call for help, but I don't have a phone except for the land-line, and of course that doesn't work… but if I went off then it'd leave the place unattended, and that would be fundamentally wrong. At least nobody's had trouble yet."
"Well, we can sort it out!" Clemont decided. "And-"
"Please don't make the Pokémon Centre explode," Chespin requested.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Clemont said.
Gave it some thought.
"Ash, can you be an Absol for a bit? That will help make sure I don't do that by mistake…"
"Sure!" Ash agreed. "And I bet some of our Pokémon can help out, too!"
"If I meet the person who did the electrical inspection on this building, I am going to bite them," Aten said, halfway-in and halfway-out of a wall.
"Is that unusual?" Pikachu asked.
"That you'd probably cheer me on? Yes," Aten answered, phasing his muzzle back out of the wall cavity. "I may not understand everything about electrical things, but even I know that copper is not picky. It is not attuned to a specific energy course, and so you should not dangle two bared sections of wires with the only thing keeping them apart being the fact neither one is swinging."
"...ouch," Pikachu said, faintly. "Yeah, okay, I might agree with you there…"
"Along here, I think," Lokoko pointed, checking her map. "I think. Clemont's handwriting is not very good."
"Well, he is educated enough to be a doctor of something or other," her fiancée replied. "Maybe it's just something that comes with the mind."
"It could be," Lokoko said, then shook her head with a sigh. "Well, I pronounce myself unable to tell exactly where we should be going."
She glanced at Absol. "I don't suppose you have any special insight, love?"
"Well, that depends," Absol replied. "How bad would it be if we didn't get that part for Clemont?"
"It would, and I say this precisely, be a disaster," Lokoko replied, with a wink.
"Oh, well, if it'd be a disaster," Absol smiled. "I think…"
She paused at the next turning, taking a half-step in three different directions, then led Lokoko ahead with confidence.
"You know, the word disaster comes from bad star," Lokoko told her. "I'm not sure by what route, exactly, but I'm assured it's the case."
"So I must be some sort of star, for you," Absol replied. "The question is what kind of star, perhaps?"
"I have about three or four different meaningful things to say here at once, so I'm just going to pick one," Lokoko decided. "Magnetar? They're extremely magnetic, after all."
Absol smiled, then looked to her side. "Ah, here we are."
The shopkeeper looked at them in bemusement as Lokoko entered, followed by Absol, then the Ninetales pointed one by one at his whole display of fuses until Absol's shake-of-the-head turned into a nod.
"Excellent," Lokoko said, then formed her human illusion. "Excuse me, but I would like to buy one of these."
"Uh…" the shopkeeper began. "I guess that's okay? Assuming you've got money, anyway…"
Lokoko responded by opening the pouch she'd brought.
"That's actually quite big, isn't it?" Absol asked. "How much money did Ash and Clemont think we'd need?"
Lokoko said nothing, but smirked slightly.
If she was also planning to subtly ask Absol about what she thought of various gemstones, and then get a commission from Valerie tomorrow… well, that was nobody's business but her own.
"All right!" Clemont said, the next morning. "I'm finished! Again!"
"You are?" Joy asked. "That's wonderful!"
Clemont flicked a switch, and the building powered on again. "All sorted out! Fiddly old wires removed, new fuses in place, motors and generators in balance, redundant backup power installed-"
"Sorry, did you say motors?" Joy repeated, confused now. "Generators I can understand as backup power so this doesn't happen again, but… motors?"
"Of course!" Clemont confirmed. "How else would I be able to power the legs?"
"A Pokémon Centre's not supposed to have legs," Joy replied. "Or if it is, they left that bit out of my medical training."
"Hmm," Clemont said, considering that. "Well, it's got legs now. Four of them, naturally, for stability, and it means that if there's a medical emergency across town you no longer need to wait for the Pokémon to get here – you can bring the emergency care to the patient!"
Nurse Joy did not seem quite as enthusiastic, mostly because she hadn't been planning that for the last few hours.
"I think you got carried away again, sir," Bunnelby suggested, and Clemont began checking his notes.
"...ah, hold on," he said, eventually. "I see what happened… I made a note somewhere about getting this Pokémon Centre running again, and then that sort of took on a life of its own."
He made a humph sound. "Well, if you ever need legs, it's got legs. And if you don't need legs, just make sure to never turn them on."
AN:
Scope creep, in the same sense as the Fire Control Gear is a scope lens.
