With the issues between Donoma and Lukas resolved, or at least put on pause, I think it's time for us to return back to the tour! How is the rest of our group doing, learning about how much damage has been inflicted on the environment? Is there anything to look forward to here, or is the Orre Region just doomed? There's still some more areas to explore! Remember to review!

KedharS: I feel kind of bad for him too.

JoshGamerV: I feel like that's pretty reasonable.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 930

When Hiromi brought Donoma and Lukas back to the tour, they had already moved out of the cave room and into another section of the laboratory.

Lukas was still trying to recover from the very shaky experience he'd just had, and was still feeling a bit on edge. But when he got to the next room, those feelings went away as he gathered his senses and took a look at what was going on.

The artificially reproduced cavern room was definitely impressive. But what he saw here was nearly as impressive as that.

This room in the laboratory was the possibly one of the largest rooms they'd seen yet. It was about the size of the habitat room, maybe even a little bigger. The reason for that was because it had been built to accommodate the massive river that was flowing through the lab, constructed in a way that it wouldn't disrupt the flow of water.

A room with an actual river running through it? That was pretty cool, Lukas had to admit.

The trio rejoined the rest of the group. Professor Jovi glanced their way and raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't say anything. She began to explain what was going on in this room, and why it was so important.

"As you can see, when we set to work expanding the Pokemon HQ Laboratory some years back to better approach the damage done to Orre's ecosystem, we did so with the original goal that the lab was founded on in mind: don't interfere with nature," Professor Jovi said. "We made sure that while we were improving our facilities, we did so with as little impact on the environment as possible. Take a look!"

She led the students to the edge of the river. There wasn't even a guard railing or anything set up to keep people from falling in.

"If not for the pollutants, this river would be teaming with Water type pokemon," Professor Jovi said with a sigh. "Unfortunately, the contamination is still present, and it is unlikely that it will be removed any time soon."

"Wait, I don't get that," Celia said, frowning. "That's something I didn't really understand, even when Marion was explaining it. Like, I get that contamination leaking into wells, for like, lakes and stuff, because that water is coming from a specific source. But isn't this sea water? I would think that the sea water would, you know… wash away? Because like, there's a whole bunch of water, isn't there? So wouldn't it just kind of… you know?"

Celia was fumbling for the proper explanation of what she was thinking of. Basically, the way she saw it, chemical contamination leached into things like lakes, causing the water to become polluted. But even if the contamination leaked into the sea, there was so much sea water that it would get washed away eventually.

"I understand how you would think that, looking at the state of the water and how long it's been since the contamination has been introduced," Professor Jovi agreed. "And you're right, to an extent. The ocean around the Orre Region, and tributaries that flow from it, are indeed cleaner than they were decades ago when compared to landlocked lakes and springs."

Celia brightened, and so did a few others. That sounded like good news.

The professor was quick to take the wind out of their sails, however. "Unfortunately, that reduction in contamination is very small," she sighed.

"Huh? Why?" Lila asked. She wasn't really that knowledgeable on the whole "environment" thing as today had consistently proven, but what Celia had explained kind of made sense. "Wouldn't it be, like, spread out? Like when you put fruit punch in a glass?"

Darla smirked at that.

Professor Jovi blinked in confusion. "Fruit punch in a…? No, it's not like that. I mean, well, maybe it's kind of like that, but the issue is the source of the contamination and the runoff," she explained. "You see, it's not just that the water itself became polluted. Remember before, with the soil? And the rocks and all that? Well, take a look at the river over here."

She gestured to the river, or more specifically, the riverbed.

"Ooh, so that's what it is," Ayame sighed. "Because the ground on the riverbed and the coast is contaminated, that means the water picks up those contaminants when the river flows through, isn't that right?"

"Exactly," Marion said glumly. "It's all due to erosion. Same thing with the beaches. The water runs against the rocks and into the sand, but since that stuff's already contaminated, it just picks up more contaminants, and ends up with the coast still being filled with pollutants."

"Well that sucks!" Lila groaned loudly. "So you're saying that there's no point?"

Professor Jovi smiled, and shook her head. "No, not at all. Come here, look at this." She led them over to one of the far walls, right beside the mouth of the river. Hung out over the slow-moving stream was a long railing, and several machines were mounted on that railing. Those machines had probes sticking down into the river.

"What's all that stuff?" Lila asked automatically. She wasn't that tech savvy either, unless that tech came with a touchscreen and a selfie stick.

"We use this equipment to continuously monitor the contaminants present in the river," Professor Jovi explained. "That way we can see what the rate of decay for the contamination is, and how long we can expect before it has completely washed away."

"So wait, it is going down then!" Celia said.

Professor Jovi nodded and smiled. "In a way, yes, it is. What you were talking about is consistent with the trends we've been tracking through our monitors. Consistent exposure to the rest of the ocean does have a notable and ongoing effect on the presence of contamination in the water, even if the presence of other contaminating elements offsets it partially. So it may be a long, long time, but currently the science bares out the idea that, eventually, the water will have a significant enough reduction in contamination where there wild pokemon may begin inhabiting the coasts and rivers of the Orre Region again."

That information was wonderful to hear. Lila's face broke out in a big smile, and she wasn't the only one either. Even Donoma, who was in a slightly better mood after what had happened with Lukas earlier, was smiling at that idea.

But the biggest smile of all came from Marion. She'd been waiting throughout the professor's entire explanation to let out her happiness, and it all came bursting out at once.

"It's so great!" She cheered, pumping her fists up into the air with joy. "Isn't it great you guys?! It's, like, the best thing ever! That means someday the Orre Region is going to be filled with fishy pokemon again! I'm so excited, I can't wait! I'll be fishing up a storm, and I already know ALL the best spots, it's going to be AMAZING!"

Professor Jovi politely laughed. She was used to outbursts like this from Marion at this point, and was happy that the girl was so enthusiastic.

"With that being said," the professor solemnly added, "this change has been going on for decades, and the effects are negligible. So even though we're sure that it will someday happen, the transition will take place over an incredibly large period of time. I doubt that any of us will live long enough to see it, unfortunately."

Marion's arms fell to her sides and her shoulders sank. She glanced back at Professor Jovi with a pout. "You really know how to bring down the mood, professor," she grumbled.

Professor Jovi rolled her eyes. "How many times have I told you that, again?" She asked with an exasperated sigh.

"Not enough for me to accept it!" Marion proudly declared, puffing her chest out in defiance. Her eyes were gleaming with joy.

The professor could only shake her head.

"As I was saying," she continued, "while it's unlikely that the composition of the water will clear up enough to sustain life in the foreseeable future, evidence shows that there IS a significant chance of the damage eventually reaching a level of sustainability at some point. And that right there is something to be happy about. Because even if we can't reverse all the effects right now, it means that the environment is, at the very least, starting to heal."

When the professor put it like that, everyone could see that it was something to be happy about. Smiles and nods of agreement went out around the group, and even Marion was chipper about the whole thing in spite of her prior outburst.

Sango was the one who interrupted the good vibes, though, because she was hearing some other information at the moment. While connected to the tour group through her tablet, she also had her laptop open right next to it, and was doing some of her own research. And the information that she was finding, while consistent with what the professor was saying, indicated that there were still some things to be concerned about.

"Professor, I understand what you're talking about when you say that the water is slowly becoming less contaminated over time," Sango said, frowning. "But that's just for ocean water, right? What about the wells and springs on the mainland? That water is totally ruined, and it's NOT losing any contamination, right? Isn't that still a major issue?"

Marion winced. That was a very sensitive subject for her, and one that she wished Sango hadn't brought up.

The reason why Marion had chosen to go to the Orre Region in the first place for her practicum was because of what had happened to the lakes and rivers of Orre. It was a painful thing. For the pokemon that lived offshore, or in tributaries that flowed into the ocean, the contamination of Orre's water had been devastating. Many pokemon had gotten sick and died, but the majority of them had fled for safe haven in other parts of the ocean.

But that wasn't the case for Water type pokemon that were landlocked in the lakes and springs on the mainland. Because they HAD nowhere to go, those pokemon had died cruel and painful deaths as they slowly choked on the poison leeching into their bodies through the water. It was an absolutely horrid sight.

For Marion, growing up after what had happened to her in Anja Karzat was hard. She had spent a lot of time at the Aether Foundation where her mother worked, befriending the fish pokemon that lived in their habitats using her harmonia. It was where she'd first learned what a Pokemon Conservationist was, and how important it was to take care of the environment.

But as she grew older and began to look deeper into what was happening, she had come across the disaster that had befallen the Orre Region. The pictures were gruesome. Lakes that were overflowing with the bodies of Water type pokemon, rivers on fire that charred pokemon that tried to swim to safety that was nonexistent, so much loss of life, all because of the horrible business practices of reckless human beings.

Marion loved Water type pokemon. She loved the sea and all its inhabitants, every lake, stream, river, and spring, they were all precious to her. That was why she had come to the Orre Region. Because she wanted to help them however she could. As a human who could commune with pokemon, she wanted to do whatever she could.

These last few months had been very hard. Having to face the horrors of reality, knowing that no matter how hard they worked, it was unlikely that they could make real, significant change in Marion's lifetime, it was a sobering truth.

Because of one accident, because of one careless, reckless mistake, an entire region had been ruined, leaving scars that would last for generations.

It wasn't fair. The fact that something like this could happen so easily just wasn't fair.

She hid it well with her smile, but inside, Marion was hurting. It was why she kept fishing every day, even when she knew she would never catch anything. It was defiance. "I'm still here. I'm still trying. I know that life will find away, and until it does, I'm never going to give up."

Marion's fishing pole was a way to take her bond with harmonia and make a physical connection with it to the waters and Water type pokemon she so loved.

And that was why she was the one who answered Sango's question, before Professor Jovi could respond.

"That's right, Sango," she said, and the tone of her voice caused Sango to freeze.

She'd heard Marion talk like this before. It was so very, very rare. But she could still remember the first time she'd heard it. When Marion had dropped her niceties and placed that knife in front of her. She still remembered the coldness in her voice when she told her to kill that Goldeen to survive. It wasn't an experience one would easily forget.

Marion walked over to Ayame and took back her tablet, holding it up to her face so she could look Sango in the eye.

Sango shivered again. Marion was smiling, but it wasn't the kind of smile she usually wore.

"In the Orre Region… the lakes and rivers drawn from wellsprings are still filled with contamination," she said sadly, walking through the lab. Everyone's eyes turned to follow after her as she left the river, walking towards one of the tables. Even Professor Jovi was silent, knowing how serious this issue was to Marion.

"Even now, if you measure the presence of contamination in a place like Phenac City, you'll find that it's still very severe. There's been almost no change, even after all these years," Marion said glumly. "But that doesn't mean that there isn't hope."

Sango perked up at the way her friend's voice seemed to lighten at the end there. Her smile seemed a little more genuine too.

"After the accident, it wasn't just the pokemon that suffered, you know," Marion murmured. "The people of the Orre Region were in a difficult position as well. Their drinking water was contaminated, after all. Certainly they still could get exports for food and the like, but at the time, there was definitely an economic crisis. But fortunately, that wasn't the end of it."

Marion turned the tablet around to face one of the tables at the far wall. There was a large machine that was mounted there, in the center of a large, flat tray of water.

"In order to counteract the initial effects of the contamination, scientists began working on developing water purifiers," Marion explained. "They would draw the drinking water out of the contaminated springs, and purify it for distribution."

"Wait, seriously?" Sango asked, surprised.

"You can do that?!" Lila said, running over to Marion with a shocked look on her face. "Even, like, with how bad the damage is?"

Shrugging, Marion nodded. "Sure, of course you can. They had the technology to do that all the way back then. So there's no problem with purifying Orre's drinking water or anything like that, not anymore, anyway."

Lila went a little green as she pictured that. "…Sorry, that's a little too much for me… I can't imagine actually… ugh… drinking contaminated water like that, even if you say it's been purified… that's a big nope."

"But the problem is," Marion continued, "even if we can purify the drinking water that's drawn from the wells and lakes, that's not the same as actually making that water capable of sustaining pokemon life, which is what we're working on here, right professor?"

Professor Jovi nodded, leading the rest of the tour over to where Marion was. "That's right. While we are, of course, still monitoring the water levels of the river and the ocean, the primary goal of our research in this section of the laboratory is to approach how we can measure and possibly fix the damage done to the other water sources in Orre."

She brought everyone over to another table, which held a machine containing vials of water.

"What you see here are our samples," Professor Jovi explained. "These vials each contain water drawn from a different source. We take them on a regular basis and analyze the contamination composition to judge how much pollution is present in each location. And yes, there are some slight differences, although none are really too significant unfortunately."

"So what's the point of that, then?" Olivia asked. "If you're not able to purify the groundwater then what are you trying to do here?"

Professor Jovi smiled, and glanced over to Marion. "In fact… that's exactly what we're trying to do here," she answered. "Marion, if you please?"

"You got it, prof!" Marion cheered, setting down her tablet so Sango could see and clapping her hands to get everyone's attention. "This right here… is our super-prototype!" She gestured to the machine that Sango had been looking at before.

"…So what, that's some kind of big water purifier, right?" Olivia asked, raising her eyebrow.

Marion nodded, her eyes shining. "That's EXACTLY what it is, actually! If you place this machine in contaminated water, it draws out the contaminants and filters them away for disposal. In theory, that means that if you put one of these machines in any isolated water system, after a period of time it will become safe to introduce wild pokemon back into those areas!"

Everyone was shocked, especially Hiromi. She could imagine the possibilities, something like that would be game-changing in the fight against pollution. It might not be able to work in the ocean, but a way to purify isolated bodies of water was incredibly valuable.

The others were just blown away. Out of all the ideas the professor had talked about on this tour, this device seemed like the first thing to really make a legitimate impact on the damage that had been done to the Orre Region.

"Why haven't I ever heard of something like this?" Sango asked, amazed. She hadn't found anything like that in her own research.

"Because it's still in the experimental test phase, that's why," Professor Jovi quickly explained. "We still haven't been able to get all the kinks out of it just yet. But the science is good, and once we can get the prototype working and capable of mass production, then we can start using it to clear out some of the areas. Of course, there's still a lot of work that needs to go into it, and even if we're successful it will take several years before we can introduce wild pokemon back into the environment, since we need to make sure that the effects are only temporary. These things do require constant upkeep as well, to make sure they don't malfunction, too, so it's definitely going to take a lot of hard work and funding to get off the ground and start making some real change."

She smiled wistfully. "But with this… with this, there's a chance. A real chance that we can make a difference."

Everyone was in awe. Hearing the professor talk so optimistically like this, it really made them feel hopeful.

But no one was happier than Marion. She'd wanted to make a difference. She wanted to believe that the damage to the Orre Region wasn't permanent. And with this, that time was approaching, quickly. And if it worked…

If it worked, and these devices were installed the world over, Marion could forever fish in lakes and streams without ever having to worry about the waters being contaminated again.

Well, that's good. I wanted to conclude the tour with some positivity, after all the negative things we've been introduced to about the state of the Orre Region. It's clear that there's still good reason to have hope for the future.