Save 6- Henkan
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Carina City had a grid-like arrangement with various shops and towers. It was relatively small, compared to Draco City, or even Centauri, but it was classically large, like Eterna or Pewter.
The sun was making an ascending arch over the sky, describing the time as about mid-day.
I had my Pokemon restored before I made my way around the city. I found the Gym, easy enough, the air around it buzzing with electrical power, from some unseen source. I opened the door and was about to step in-
But was pushed immediately out by some stranger running with intense purpose.
"Oi!" he said, "You some kinda Trainer? Sorry, but you'll have to wait to take on the Carina Cym."
Without any explanation, the spiky-haired boy left, running away, toward the heart of the city.
I blinked several times in confusion. I walked into the Gym.
The Referee stepped in front of me.
"Yo! Champ, how's it goin'? Ready t' take on the Blitz? Ready for the fight of your life? Ready for your chance at Pokemon League history? You think you got wha' it takes to be Champion?"
Drat! Another one!
"Sorry to burst your dreams, but you ain't gettin' glory t'day. See, the Blitz, Carina City's Gym Leader, yeah the Blitz- he jus' left. Gone. Came burstin' through the doors like a Bullet Bill, if ya know wha' I mean. Left. Don' know where 'e went but yeah, Blitz' gone."
Gone? Great...
Before the Referee could say another annoying word, I left.
The Leader would be back, that much was plain and obvious, but I didn't have a clue when. Oh well. I could take a break, after all, I had been traveling non-stop for nearly a week, hadn't I? A break could do me some good.
I walked around Carina City, taking in the sights and smells of this inland city. According to the map, it was one of the last cities on this island. A couple of small towns, but that was it. Only two other Gyms on the island, after this one, of course.
A strange beeping sound caught me off guard. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the bright red Pokedex the Professor had given me. I clicked on the little flashing icon on the screen's main display and it refreshed to show a picture of Storm.
"Shade?" she said, "Okay, good, I was almost afraid you wouldn't pick up! Anyway, where are you?"
"Carina City Gym, why?"
"Carina City? Okay, good. I'll be there in just a second. Bye."
Beep.
Okay, that was weird.
But, true to her word, a moment later, Storm appeared, at a dashing pace.
"Shade!" she said, "Thank goodness I caught you before you left, how have you been? Actually, it doesn't matter, I just got a lead on the whole Delta Transition thing. Ready?"
Wow, could she talk fast! She probably had only stopped to breathe, and based on how quickly she started talking again, this seemed to be the case.
"Okay, so I was talking to some women in Taurus Town and they said there was a man here who might know something. Apparently, he was a scientist or something from Ransei. Mr. Henkan. Lives not far from here!"
She had already grabbed my hand and started to drag me alongside her, before I was given the chance to breathe, much less protest.
We stopped at a small building, just a few blocks from the Pokemart. A white sign hanging beside it marked it as the 'Pokemon Fan Club- Altes Branch'.
She pushed the doors open and I followed her in.
Pokemon Fan Club… I think the word fan was putting it politely. The place had a white carpet floor with a large stylized Pikachu dominating the center. Portraits, photographs and painted, of various 'cute' Pokemon adorned the walls everywhere I looked. Pokemon statues- I hoped they were statues, but the eyes on the Zen Forme Darmanitan hinted otherwise- took up most of the unoccupied wall space. A large mahogany table took up the center of the room, ringed with ornate wooden chairs, carved to resemble various mythological Pokemon, like Ho'oh and Heatran.
People were everywhere, some important looking individuals were seated and were in a clearly very heated debate. The sheer number of Pokemon outside of their Pokeballs was incredible.
The whole thing creeped me out horribly, like that scene in Silence of the Mareeps where the girl enters the guy's house and finds all the Ninjasks and the Butterfree. That was the feeling I got when I stepped into the Pokemon Fear- sorry I mean, Fan Club.
"Wow!" Storm said, astonished.
"Yeah," I said, uneasy, "Wow…"
"It's incredible!" I was afraid she was about to tangent off on something, but she composed herself and said, "Let's see if we can find Mr. Henkan!"
"Yeah, that's well and all, but do you even know what he looks like?"
"Ummm…" she paused, "..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"... No…" she finally said.
"Okay, do you know anything about him?"
"Yeah, he's a scientist, so… He'll be… wearing… a lab coat?"
Right. Thanks for the description, I'll definitely ask for your help when I need to find the suspect.
"Okay…" I said slowly, "Let's just ask someone if they know him, sound good?"
"Fair enough."
That had been so much easier said than done.
The Fea- FAN! Club was enormous. Every time someone said they knew where he was, it turned out to be a wild Swanna chase. By the time we found him, I personally had talked to what amounted to half the populous of this building, and had tripped, stepped on, or startled at least three Skitties, two Fennekins, and Girafarig, which I wasn't entirely certain how it had went about, unseen.
Participation trophy for Storm, because he was indeed wearing a white lab coat, though it had a gaudy Zebstrika pattern on the trim.
He was an old-ish fellow with white hair and large soda-bottle glasses. He spoke with a startlingly deep bass, unusual for his age.
"Indeed, I am Mr. Henkan." he said. "What might I help you with?"
"Ummm, we would like to know if you know anything about Delta Transitioning." Storm said, "We're assistants of Professor Flora's and we were wondering if there was anything you could tell us?"
"Delta Transitioning?" he asked, "What're you tal- oh! You mean Ransei's Warlord Evolution, don't you?"
"Yes!" Storm exclaimed.
"Okay, I might know a thing or two that might help you out. Though, I've got to tell you, this is an immensely complex issue, so I'll be dumbing it down a lot."
"What you call 'Delta Transitioning' is a form of Evolution, akin to Mega Evolution, that occurs to the Trainer of a Pokemon. It is incredibly rare, and has only been known to occur in Ransei, and only when certain events are involved. As a general rule, this event is a high Link between a Warlord- Ransei's equivalent of a 'Trainer'- and their partner Pokemon. Essentially, when a Pokemon has a high enough Friendship or Happiness with its Trainer, the Trainer was capable of essentially 'evolving' alongside their Pokemon."
"When a Warlord evolved, they became stronger, wiser, more charismatic, et cetera. The precise details regarding what exactly a Warlord gained from evolving were unknown, but it appeared from the research I was able to attain that the Warlord also began to adopt other characteristics of their partner Pokemon. Physical characteristics, yes, but also mental characteristics, and quite possibly, elemental characteristics."
"Had I not been banned from the Region for reasons I will not explain right now, I might have been able to acquire further knowledge of this event, but I might be able to shed some light as to why it happens, and only in Ransei. Are you perhaps familiar with the legend of the Kalos War from Three Thousand years ago?"
I nodded quickly. I did not want to hear that tragedy again, as it was one of the few stories capable of actually bringing tears to my eyes.
"Okay then, you know that the power of the Ultimate Weapon was strong enough that, when released, it created the Mega Stones?"
Sure, we'll pretend I knew that.
"Well, this energy was released on a Global scale, hence why every Region has Mega Stones scattered across it. Well, let's say that Ransei is a special Region. The stones that became Mega Stones do not exist in Ransei, thus Mega Evolution does not appear in the Ransei Region. Ransei is however, the home of a powerful crystaline metalic ore that did become infused with the Ultimate Weapon's energy. This metal- known as Orichalcum- is very commonplace in Ransei, but not in any other Region. It is frequently used in Ransei as we would use iron or steel, but it, now infused with the energy of Mega Evolution, does not react quite the same way as a Mega Stone."
"Can you get to the point?" I asked, quickly growing bored of this lecture.
"How rude!" Henkan exclaimed. "But alright. The people of Ransei use this commonplace Orichalcum for nearly everything from weapons and armor, to electrical conduction, to- okay, fine, moving on. The point is, it is this metal that I believe is responsible for Ransei's Warlords' ability to Evolve. This is all speculation, of course, guesswork, hypothetical theory. But, Orichalcum is extremely rare outside of Ransei, and thus it can't actually be tested whether there is any official connection between the two events."
"So, if someone were to take this metal, and use it on one of their Pokemon, they would be able to Delta Transition?" Storm asked.
"Hypothetically, yes." said Henkan. "But Orichalcum is extremely rare, as in, it is virtually unheard of outside of Ransei."
"But if someone could find it, how would it actually work?" I asked.
"Well, I don't know precisely, but I think the process of Mega Evolution would essentially apply. High Friendship with a Pokemon being an obvious key component."
"If the process reversible?" Storm inquired, asking the question that had been on my mind since the Professor had first explain the concept to me.
"In Ransei, no Warlord has been observed reverting back to their previous state of being, in any way, whatsoever. Thus, this is a state quite literally, like actual Evolution amongst Pokemon. But, I don't know, it might be... maybe… possibly… Frankly, there's not enough information to be certain."
"Which is exactly what Professor Flora wants us to fix!" exclaimed Storm.
A man suddenly came up from amidst the crowd of Pokefans.
"Mr. Kenkan! The debate between Arcanine vs Ninetails is about to begin."
"Oh yes, of course. Well, children, I'll be off." he said, "This is a very important debate and I absolutely cannot miss it."
The two vanished within the stampeding crowd, who were all migrating out into a larger room I had not noticed before.
"Shade, are you staying?" Storm asked, "This sounds positively fascinating!"
"What about the Professor's research?Aren't we supposed to let her know if we find anything?"
"Fair enough," she said, "You call the Professor, and I'll stay here for the Ninetails/Arcanine debate."
"But-"
She was gone, fading into the crowd.
I left the Fan Club and went to the Pokemon Center to tell the Professor of all the things we had learned that day.
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I'm sorry if that Chapter was boring or anything, but I couldn't think of a way to give that whole exposition without long, drawn out dialog. Trust me, that's probably the only time I'll have a chapter that's more dialog than action...
Maybe.
Anyway, Read/Review, all that other stuff. I'll have the next Chapter up later, and I'll hopefully do a better job at mixing together the whole Professor's Quest, Pokemon League, Evil Team syndicate thing, because there is very little continuity between each of the three major storylines.
Shadowworlders, over and out.