Sorry this chapter's late, everyone! It was a lot harder to write than I expected.
SunLight – Actually, Elliot was up in the north, right above the area where the maps in the game end. I assume he wound up in Cerulean because he picked the wrong path or else the wrong fork (he wasn't exactly sure where he was after he left the first path, and just guessed using his map, which is not the safest thing to do) and wound up going southward instead of northward a little past Mt. Moon. The pokemon description sounds familiar? Well, if you can think of it, tell me.
VulpixTrainer – Eek! You're totally lost? Well, I hope this chapter helps a little – the full(ish) explanation's still one chapter off, though.
Dream4Evermore – Hello! Well, I assume that the trainer in the Viridian Gym got the nidoqueen either as a nidoran or a nidoqueen. Gabrielle was talking about a nidorina who'd evolved in the wild and just been caught, not a trained pokemon or nidorina's basic or evolved forms.
I'd like to remind everyone before the chapter starts that just because a character says something doesn't make it true. As (hopefully!) you've noticed, the basic setup of this world is a bit odd, so if a character notices discrepancies, there's no guarantee that they'll identify the right one as being odd. And they've also got their own basic experiences and preconceptions.
So, don't just accept what you're told. It shouldn't be too hard though – if something sounds really, really weird to you, that's probably because it is :)
And you can always ask me anything you're not quite sure of in a review, of course.
…most of you are going to just skip this note aren't you? -.-;
Chapter Thirty-Two: The Scientific Viewpoint
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Cerulean.
Elliot realized with a slight sense of disappointment that he must have taken a wrong turn. It wasn't that big of a deal, though, he could still get to the Lighthouse pretty easily from Cerulean and anyway, it'd probably be good to heal his pokemon.
He started towards where he thought the Pokemon Center was, but wound up half-lost as usual. He wandered and finally came upon the gym. The Center was a little ways past that, he remembered, orienting himself.
As he passed the gym he saw it was still closed, the same sign hanging on the door.
He got to the Pokemon Center easily from there, and he gave the Nurse Joy five of his pokeballs. He hadn't let the golduck out once, so it didn't need to be healed, and he didn't want to deal with the questions the Joy was sure to ask.
Everyone in the Pokecenter was quiet, somewhat subdued. They carried on hushed conversations or sat silently. There was none of the loud joking and playfulness he'd encountered the last time. He waited, a bit unsettled, until the Nurse Joy returned with his pokemon, and then stood to walk out.
"You've got a psyduck?" a boy asked.
"Yeah." The other boy sighed. "Cost me too. Everybody's getting them now. But it turns out I've gotta bring it in and wait a few days before it'll do anything. I was counting on having one for the tournament."
"Everyone's getting them?" the first one repeated. "Why?"
"Didn't you hear?" the other one said disbelievingly. "There's a new item that boosts their attack sky high!"
The doors of the Pokemon Center shut behind Elliot, cutting off the conversation.
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Elliot headed north. There were trainers on the bridge, but they were occupied, so he crossed easily, and he didn't seek out any of the other trainers past there. He continued on, until he'd left most of them behind him and was no longer on the open, grassy fields there. Trees lined the road, but they were normal trees, nothing worth mentioning. Hours passed, and it grew overcast. After a time he started to hear faintly the sound of waves, then saw a tall tower in the distance.
That must have been the lighthouse. He hurried towards it, glancing nervously at the threatening sky.
It was located up high, up at the edge of a cliff. Elliot climbed the slope along a leveled path and reached it. He paused a moment in front of the doors, which was covered in paneled carvings of different pokemon. There was what looked a bit like it might have been a doorbell, so he pressed that.
He waited nervously. What if it wasn't a bell? Was he supposed to knock? Should he just try going in?
Elliot was saved from deciding by the doors slowly opening, revealing a blond boy of around seventeen. Was that Bill? There was no way he could be someone that young. But then was this the wrong place? But how many places like this were there?
"Um, hi," Elliot stammered, "I was told this…"
The boy smiled. "My name's Gabriel. I'm afraid Bill isn't here right now. What can I do for you?"
"I – there's –" He held out the pokeball. "This golduck's hurt really bad. Its – um, its head broke open. The Nurse Joy said nothing could be done, but I was hoping Bill might know what to do."
"Broke open?" the boy repeated. "How? An attack? If it's blunt trauma, the brain has probably been crushed, and there won't be much else that can be done."
"No, it –" Elliot wasn't sure how to explain. He didn't quite understand himself. "It – evolved, and when it did, its skull pulled apart."
Gabriel looked puzzled. "That's very odd. Come in, I'll take a look at it. Have you let it out since then?"
Elliot shook his head, stepping inside.
"Good. With the brain exposed, it's best to keep the amount of foreign material it's in contact with down. Well, follow me." He started walking.
Elliot followed. "Um, where's Bill?" he asked.
"Off at a conference," the boy said. "You just missed him, actually, he left yesterday. Bad luck, he'll be gone a while now. So, who told you to about this place?"
"A girl I met a while ago was talking about it. She had a pregnant ponyta."
"Ah, I remember her. That was an interesting case."
Deadmisbornwaystodie- "H-what happened to it?"
Gabriel didn't seem to notice his sudden change in composure. "Well, the foal was delivered without problems, but it had some odd physical anomalies." Images of horrible deformities flashed through Elliot's head. "The body of the foal was about the same size as normal, a bit on the small side. The legs, however, were larger, the length of an older foal, and it managed to walk within a half hour of its birth. The mother actually produced milk – it's a good thing we didn't try a cesarean section during labor, no telling what that might have done. Bill thought it might be further evidence that pokemon don't naturally lay eggs."
"They don't?"
"Not normally. That's his theory anyway."
"But they do lay eggs. My teacher even brought in pidgey eggs once and we all got to see them hatch."
"Yes, well, the theory is that pokemon switch to laying eggs when stressed or insecure. The very act of observing them therefore changes the results, which makes it quite tricky to prove, but there's a great deal of evidence suggesting it.
"You see, for example, a group of researchers were following a ponyta herd a while back – they were trying to figure out why the ponyta in isolated areas form herds while those closer to humans don't. When they got there and began observing, they almost immediately saw what were recorded as 'failed eggs', where the ponyta miscarried. The ponyta did this at all different stages of development. Every visibly gravid female miscarried. The researchers continued to track the herd for several years. During this time, all the females either miscarried or laid eggs which would be left behind as the herd traveled. No new members joined the herd, and it diminished, until after five years it was gone. The ponyta in the area began wandering as individuals, and the researchers packed up and left.
"They checked back there several years later, and the ponyta hadn't reformed into a herd. They were still laying eggs, but their numbers were decimated. If Bill's theory is right, the presence of researchers caused the ponyta to start laying eggs, and by the time they left, the ponyta were too stressed without a herd to stop producing eggs. Ah, here we are." He pressed a pad on the door and it slid open.
The two stepped inside. "We used this room for surgeries," he said. He pressed the button of pokeball and the golduck materialized on the table, jerking slightly, its eyes open and empty. Gabriel immediately grabbed a scalpel. Elliot flinched, but he only cut into the top of the helmet, pulling out wiring. "That should keep it off, at least." He recalled the golduck again and turned to Elliot. "Why didn't you tell me it was a helmeted one?" he said angrily.
"I – I didn't think it-" Elliot stammered.
"Well, you won't be using it to battle ever again," he said. "When Bill gets back we can try getting the helmet off and repairing the skull if he thinks it's possible, but there's no way it'll be able to fight. You'll have to get another pokemon."
"No, it's not mine. I was just there when it happened," Elliot said. "Why does it matter if it's helmeted anyway?"
"You know – no, of course you wouldn't," Gabriel said. "Well, I'll show you one." He opened the door again and headed out. Elliot followed. The older boy led him to a room filled with items. He picked one off the shelf, the top angled towards Elliot, the metal shining in the light.
He flipped it over. The underside was a mass of golden threads. They came out of the bottom, which was the same shiny metal color of the outside, except for the rim, which was an odd, white color, the color of-
"That's bone," he said suddenly.
Gabriel nodded. "It's from a dead psyduck, if you're wondering. The trainer who brought it let me try to cut the helmet off. The helmet is welded onto the top of the skull, and the wires are imbedded into the brain. Getting it off means removing the top of its head and tearing the wires out."
"So they have to spend the rest of their lives like that?"
"Yes, not that that's very long. Some die in just a month. The helmet works by shocking different parts of the brain, and it doesn't take long before the cells start to die."
"But why? Why would someone…"
Gabriel shrugged. "Because they fight."
"But trainers, how could they do that to their pokemon?"
"They don't know. All anyone's ever told is that it's an item just for psyduck, one that boosts their power."
"But weren't they suspicious? Didn't they wonder why it wasn't in reputable places?"
Gabriel smiled wryly. "How much more reputable can a joy get?"
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"You know," said Gabriel, "no one really knows what evolution is."
"What do you mean?"
Elliot was sitting in what seemed to be the living room. The clouds outside had stopped threatening and begun their downpour, so Gabriel had told him he should stay until the storm ended.
"Well, you've probably heard it's a natural part of pokemon growth, haven't you?" Elliot nodded. "Well, there's another theory. Evolution is caused by pokemon being put under unnatural strain – whose bodies have been, for lack of a better word, 'tricked' into thinking they can't survive in their present form. The theory holds that pokemon living in the wild wouldn't evolve, or at least, would very rarely.
"I've never heard to that," said Elliot, unable to keep some of the skepticism out of his voice.
Gabriel didn't seem to mind. "Yes, well, you can understand it wouldn't be a very popular one. No research has ever been undertaken on the matter of course, but from existing data, there's a lot of contradiction. Some pokemon, like exeggutor, can't reproduce unless they evolve. On the other hand, several pokemon seem to have drastically shortened lifespans – the pidgey line, for example. And then there are some who seem to go sterile after evolving, like the female nidoran line. There are others that apparently never evolve in the wild, like rapidash. And there are a couple pokemon who seem present at levels well below the ones it takes to evolve them in captivity, such as magmar and jynx. Like I said, it's just a theory. No one really knows, and there's been no explanation for all the differences, at least, not one I've ever heard."
"My persian, I caught her evolved," Elliot said.
"Persian? Was she released?"
Had she been? "I don't…well, I – she says she wasn't, but I really don't know. She knows bubblebeam, and the pokedex says that's a TM move, and my murkrow keeps saying she belonged to a trainer."
"Saying," Gabriel said, sounding bemused. "So, you believe you can understand your pokemon."
"Well, yeah, I can."
"Anyway, if she knows a TM it sounds like she was trained. Shame, it'd be interesting if there really were wild persian somewhere. And Bill would probably drop everything and head there, forgetting about what he's doing."
"What's that, anyway?"
"Oh? Well, Bill thinks something's up."
"Something?" Elliot repeated.
"Yeah. You know the helmet's a new item, right? Well, do you know how often things like that come out?" Elliot shook his head. "Not often, that's for sure. New technology is invented at a steady rate. Makes sense, I guess, lots of stuff is constant, like when it rains. And the helmet isn't…on schedule, I guess you could say. Even weirder, the design keeps changing.
"And that, well, it just can't happen. Progress, invention, improvements, normally they happen regularly, spaced out. The helmet breaks all the rules." Gabriel sighed. "Actually, a lot of stuff does. That's what it seems to me."
Elliot waited, but he didn't continue. "Don't just say that and stop," Elliot said. "What do you mean?"
Gabriel bit his lower lip. He looked hesitant. After a moment he said, "It's probably be best – I probably shouldn't have even told you this."
"It seems like everyone says that," Elliot said. "That it wouldn't be good for me to be seen around them, or that I shouldn't know something. Why? If I don't know, what am I supposed to do about it? I want to know. I've – I've seen a dead psyduck someone abandoned because they didn't know what – they didn't know. I saw a nidorina die because someone didn't know. I saw – I saw a boy dead because he didn't know. Tell me, why is it so good to be ignorant!"
"How many badges do you have?"
"I've got eight."
Gabriel nodded slightly. "Then, I guess there isn't really anything they'd do to you." He took a breath deliberately. "Well, just – what I see doesn't make sense. I told you about how pokemon evolution doesn't seem the same. Everything's like that. It's inconsistent. It's strange, different from case to case.
"They say the forests are different at the edges of Kanto. Beyond a certain point they become impassible, a huge tangle of growth. The pokemon there are stronger, too, and dangerous. Man eaters, even."
"So, what does that mean?"
"Nothing," Gabriel said. "Nothing at all. It's just there. I can't say. But – do you know it's almost impossible to get out of Kanto unless you go an official route? It's almost like someone did that, to keep people in."
"Some big conspiracy theory?"
He smiled. "You could say that. It's not much of one, though. Every good conspiracy theory has to have a reason, you know, and has to know who's supposedly doing all of it. I haven't a clue. I just know that stuff just doesn't add up. You learn anything about physics in school?"
Elliot shook his head. "No. I mean, I know about it, it's like, gravity and stuff, right?"
"Yeah. It also says that, in this world, all systems aren't completely efficient. You know how you get hot if you run long enough? The heat is energy that could have been used for walking but wasn't. Everything is supposed to work that way. The laws of thermodynamics. Energy can't be created or destroyed, but it can be turned into a form where it can't be used again, and ever time anything uses energy, some of it is lost and can't be used again. So, in the end, all the energy in the world will be unusable, because there's no way of creating it. That's entropy, the ultimate end of the universe.
"But pokemon are violations of the laws. The amount of energy they produce far surpasses their consumption."
"So, they're like gifts from God?"
Gabriel laughed, not mockingly but still as if he'd said something funny. "How do you get that?"
Elliot felt already his comment had been childish. "The pokemon," he said uncertainly, "well, they make up for entropy, don't they? So everything won't die. They can't exist, so since they do, they're miracles."
"But the god who gave us them would be the same one who created entropy."
"Oh," Elliot said, blushing.
"It doesn't prove or disprove that a god made them, since any argument can go either way on the matter. It's just another part of the world. And for whatever reason, no one's ever been interested in finding out why or how they can exist."
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The next morning the storm had stopped. But before Elliot left, Gabriel asked him what he was intending to do.
"I don't know," he answered.
"Would you like to go to Johto?"
Johto. Badges to win, cities to visit, new pokemon to see…Elliot nodded. "But how would I do that?"
"Well, you see, we'd like to send someone to Johto to help us with our research. It wouldn't mean much, just catch some of the pokemon exclusive to the area. A stantler would be much appreciated, for example. Neither of us can go, it's too much of a hassle traveling back and forth regularly and we're busy here.
"Someone acting as our research assistant would be permitted to leave easily, but we can't use anyone with fewer than eight badges, as trainers aren't supposed to leave unless they've accomplished everything in Kanto."
"Okay," Elliot said. "I'll do it."
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"Hi Mom…yeah, I've been changing…yes Mom, I have, okay? Really. And don't ask that, it's embarrassing…yeah, I know. Anyway, I'm going to Johto…no, Mom, that stuff's not…those are just rumors, Mom…no, really, I met a trainer from there, it's just like Kanto…for a researcher, Mom, he asked me…yeah, Mom, it's okay…well, it'd be a good chance to train…yeah, I could do that here but I couldn't get more badges…I know, I'll be careful…I promise I'll call…no, really, I will. I'll call you when I arrive, I promise!…yeah, Mom…okay, bye…yeah, I love you too."
Next chapter: So why did people keep offering to trade for Prowler? Why do younger trainers win at tournaments? Why did Elliot fight a goldeen and not a gyarados at Cerulean? What does being too old have to do with anything?
What are arcs?