Chapter 9: Project DG
Pokémon varied in intelligence, some being a fair amount smarter than others. But this swampert… If there was any doubt this Pokémon was him, its ability to grasp what it had just been talking about was rapidly removing it. And…if this blue and white finned creature truly was him, and their pasts diverged three years prior, then he would already have considerable knowledge about dimensions and space…and the project.
"You should know," Leo Hanson finally answered his Pokémon counterpart. "We started the project six years ago."
Instead, the swampert grimaced, "I'm sorry, but I still remember almost nothing about my days as a human."
Sighing, he now had to weigh just how much to tell everyone. The project had been secret for so long, it was hard to divulge it to those he'd only just met. That and he wasn't one-hundred percent convinced the swampert's story was true, despite so many things about it seeming logical and being indeed possible (apart from being turned into a Pokémon, but what did he know of the abilities of Pokémon on a different planet?)
On the other hand, how much of a real secret was the project anymore? With Derganio Corporation presumably breathing down their backs and its parade of representatives walking in, far more people knew about it than there was supposed to be originally. And if the project was in any way responsible for some disaster that was going to happen, especially considering they were dealing with something having a chance of unintended consequences…
"Alright, fine, but I want to make clear it's a secret civilian project, so you can't go off telling anyone about it. Understand? That includes all Pokémon present, too." Even those who couldn't speak human could still spread word among other Pokémon, leading to unknown consequences! After getting either verbal or visual assurances all around: "We're building a dimensional gate."
"A gate…with dimensions?" Chris looked and sounded somewhat confused. "What is that?"
Leo noted both the swampert and his infernape partner suddenly perking up. "We call it the DG Project. The idea is to create a spatial, or dimensional portal, to travel nearly instantaneously from one place to another over great distances by utilizing a shortcut through another dimension. Very experimental, but early bench tests were successful."
"You mean something like travel half-way across the world?" Chris asked, obviously amazed.
"Or further. Much further. In fact…Leo, you said you and Grovyle traveled from this world to the Poké world some unknown number of light-years away? If what you told us is true, then at some point in that other future it means we got that gate working."
With his human self offering to host them for a while, Chris left to retrieve their belongs from the hotel, leaving Leo time to pad around the house. His house. So many things felt familiar, yet the memory of them was always just somehow out of reach. It was haunting.
Blaze looked over things with him, occasionally pointing out something he thought interesting. Leo smiled as his friend picked up a weird looking cap with the emblem of a Pokéball on it and tried it on, making him look slightly more human.
"It was a gift from mom," Leo Hanson said from where he had apparently been watching silently. "Back when I was twelve and just starting out as a trainer."
He could feel it…the motion of whipping out a Pokéball from his belt, holding it out in front of him, and… Holding his head with his good hand, he grimaced in practically willing to remember more, but couldn't. "No…"
"Hey, take it easy Leo," Blaze said, holding his shoulder.
Coming over, his human self removed the hat from Blaze's head to fit it as best as possible over his blue one. Smiling and pointing to a wall mirror, "There, it kind of fits."
Leo gazed at himself. Other than by water reflection, he didn't get the opportunity to really look at himself till he came to this human world. The view that greeted him this time was one of the cap looking ridiculously out of place partly scrunched between his purple head fins. How truly much he had changed, he realized in a new light as his other self appeared behind him in the reflection.
"Back when I was a trainer, I sometimes wondered what it would be like to be a Pokémon. I guess in that other future, I find out…perhaps."
"You believe us then?" Leo asked.
His human self sighed, eventually shrugging. "Let's just say I can't think of any faults in what you said. But…it's a lot to take it for one day. It's a fantastic story no matter how you look at it."
So he needed more proof. "That dimensional gate, is it a large silver ring, the outside of which is slightly smaller than the width of this room?"
With a quick turn around: "You saying you do remember then?"
"Just a few fragments. Very few."
Leo Hanson looked about to say something more, but Chris returned at that moment, happily unloading the heavy pack off his back containing all their belongings.
Hoping it would serve as just a little more proof, Leo took the opportunity to show everyone the coins they had brought from their world.
"So this is actually money from the world of Pokémon," Chris said, giving the coins a new look over, clearly enthralled now.
Leo Hanson's face was less readable, as was Grovyle's.
"Small steps," Blaze commented.
Being late in the evening, he soon retired with Chris and Blaze to the guest bedroom his human self set up for them, but found himself restless and silently left for the roof. Apparently also unable to sleep, Blaze got up and followed. A slight breeze greeted them on the patio, bringing to them once again all the still-new smells of the human city around them.
"Long day," Blaze said while they stood at the railing near the edge of the roof, staring out over the huge city around them and it's myriad of lights everywhere.
In fact, it was light enough on it's own to not need the light of the now half-moon above them. In a lot of ways it was just like Jade River city, but this city was in a deeper valley with some high hills surrounding it. "It was," Leo answered. He was tired with the pain medication he was taking seemingly enhancing it, but his mind was too busy to allow him any rest just yet.
"Your human self is nice," Blaze commented. "His manner and personality is like yours."
"Even with me being a swampert? I would think as a swampert, I'd have a different personality. Even the same Pokémon evolving can get a different personality."
Blaze shrugged while brushing part of his mane back over his shoulder. "Maybe there's more human in you then you know. Maybe I haven't told you, but I always thought you didn't quite act like a typical Pokémon. You just always seemed a little different, and it was consistent right through your evolutions."
"You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy."
Cocking his head, "Huh? What does that mean?"
Leo froze for a moment, wondering what he just said. "Um…must be something humans say."
"Perhaps what Uxie did is having some effect then?" a high-pitched voice said.
He looked instantly with Blaze to the small trees on the roof. A face with large blue eyes was peering out from one of them, soon revealing a light green body to go with it as it moved out of the thickest part of the thin branches with a slight rustle. "Hello again, Leo, Blaze!"
"Celebi!" Blaze greeted. "How long were you there?"
"Just since the sun went down. I've actually watched all of you since sunset from a building over there," pointing behind her. "If you hadn't been on this roof, it would have been a lot longer before I found you! So, who are those two humans…and that nice looking Grovyle? Is one of those humans Chris, the one you were staying with in the other city?"
"Yes, the sand haired one is Chris," Blaze replied.
"And that grovyle is the very one we've been looking for."
Celebi was silent for a half moment, only beating her wings to stay afloat in front of them, her eyes widening. "Then that other human…"
"He's Leo Hanson, my human self," Leo announced.
"You…found him!" Twirling around a couple times, she flew over him before settling between his head fins with a small plop, like she had a couple days before. "By the way, why are you wearing that silly white thing on your arm?"
"It's a cast; he broke that arm in a battle," Blaze answered, his tone still holding some surprise at the whole thing.
Her voice conveying shock: "Broke your arm…broke the bone?"
"Yes," Leo answered. Together with Blaze, he gave her the short summary of everything since they last saw her.
"Well, this is certainly news I should tell Dialga and Palkia!" responding as soon as they finished. "Humans making a portal to traverse space through another dimension…could that have something to do with the disaster?"
"I don't know," Leo replied, the same thought occurring to him ever since his human self described it in a little more detail. "You know what, Blaze? I haven't told him about the visions I had after we came here yet. They could be important." With a tickle, he felt Celebi suddenly sitting up on him.
"What visions? Has the Dimensional Scream been working since you got here?"
He quickly told her of the two visions he'd had, the fear he felt from the second renewing in him, though not quite to the extent it had previously. "That last one still scares me."
"I wonder if he has been having any?" Blaze asked. "Your human self has the same ability, right?"
"Why don't you ask him now?" Celebi said.
"He's asleep," Blaze pointed out.
"No, he's up here."
"Huh?" Turning about with Blaze, he spotted his human self's head appear in the stairwell, along with Grovyle's.
Leo Hanson stopped short of the last step, though. "Oh…you're up here," he said. Then pointing toward Leo: "What's that on your head?"
Lifting herself back up, Celebi quickly flew over to him. "Hello, Leo."
But it was in Poke language. "She says hello," Leo translated. "This is Celebi."
His human self's voice seemed to catch.
"You're the legendary Celebi?" Grovyle asked with widening green eyes and gape.
With a broad smile spreading across her petite face: "I don't know about 'legendary', and I am one of several." With a short movement, she rotated halfway around Grovyle, not losing her smile any.
"The time traveling Pokémon?" his human self finally got out, stumbling up the last step. With mouth open, he backed up from her a little, before walking to Leo and Blaze. "She…she is the Celebi you were talking about?"
"She is," Leo told him.
"Uh…wow." He glanced again at her, like making sure he was seeing right. "Suppose I'll be meeting Dialga and Palkia next, then, huh?"
"Maybe," Celebi said, moving herself over to him only as Grovyle did. "That dimensional portal you're trying to create is bound to get their attention, considering." Facing Leo and Blaze, "You said you did tell them everything?"
"Yes," Leo answered, before translating Celebi's first sentence for his human self's benefit, and then noting him looking suddenly uncomfortable.
"Well look, please answer this: is what we're doing the cause of this looming disaster I've been hearing about?"
Celebi leaned to the side a little in mid-air, closer to Grovyle than anyone else and earning a suspicious look from the green Pokémon. "I don't know. Palkia would be the expert on that." Straightening herself out, "And I bet you're the Grovyle I've heard all sorts of stories about."
With her back to them, Leo couldn't see her face, but he could guess what was going on. In the Future That No Longer Exists, she appeared to have feelings for him, although she tried masking them. Of course that future was gone, but could she be feeling the same way about him all over?
The green Pokémon appeared to be at a loss for a moment. Finally: "What have you heard?" asking guardedly while glancing to both Leo and Blaze.
"All good things!" she replied hastily. "You're handsome, by the way…"
Leo decided to translate Celebi's answer to his human self's last question, partly to keep her 'on topic' in case she was thinking of taking thing a little 'further'. "She said she doesn't know, but Palkia might be able to tell us."
Turning back around, "I will have to travel back to Palkia and tell him right away." She paused, glancing several times between him and his human self. "It's so strange…seeing you both here; you're the same person, yet different individuals." Then snickering, "You turned out so different with just one little change to the timeline!"
"It wasn't exactly a little change," Blaze added.
"Oh, I suppose. A complete freezing of time in one, and complete normality in the other." Shrugging, "Sure would be neat to see multiple futures like Dialga can. Speaking of him, I need to go. And is this going to be your home for a while?"
"I think so," Leo replied. Actually, he hoped so. Perhaps the more he stayed, the better chance he would start remembering his old life.
"Of course, it is your home." With a light-hearted high-pitched laugh and a long, considering look to Grovyle, she was off into the city-lit darkness with a quiet rapid beat of her wings.
"So…what did she say?" his human self asked, the quick gust of wind from her departure having blown around some of his light brown hair.
"That she has to go tell Dialga and Palkia about what's going on," electing not to go over what else she said. "And let me guess, you couldn't sleep either."
His human self smirked after walking up next to him at the edge of the roof and it's railing, looking out across the city. "Pretty much." Then with a half chuckle: "Guess you of anyone would know me, huh? Hell, you are me. Or so you claim. Damn, this is going to take some getting used to. Still can't say I fully understand or believe it. Just getting used to a Pokémon that can talk is hard enough."
"Do you believe me too?" Leo asked Grovyle, who had also padded up to the railing on the other side of his human self.
"If he believes you," he replied, moving his head up to indicate his human self. "Then I will."
It was as much as he could have hoped for.
"We missed you," Blaze said. "I know you didn't live through those events from the other future, but the Grovyle I met and worked with, he was you. I only wished you could have been brought back like Leo."
"Then there would be two of me too. I get the sense that isn't normal." He smiled, barely.
"Neither is changing timelines, according to Dialga," Leo added, having the same wish as his partner about having wanted Grovyle back like himself. Unfortunately, Dialga explained he was limited to making only one exception. Any more would have created unacceptable risk of the time fabric unraveling…or something like that.
Gripping the railing a little tighter, his human self seemed to pause with his mouth open, then: "Leo, you mentioned this 'Dimensional Scream' ability we have. I think that explains these visions I get occasionally, but…I've been having a number of them lately."
Leo gave his human self his sudden, full attention. "What visions?"
Leo Hanson wasn't entirely sure he should be divulging what he seen. But after what the swampert described about the Dimensional Scream ability, who better to understand? Not to mention it was himself, really, he was supposedly talking to.
"Visions centered around the dimensional gate we're building," he finally answered. "I've been seeing things…going wrong. And not just with our project, but I think I saw something from the past, like another gate someone else was experimenting with. What I saw…" He grew his lips drew tight in reconsidering; should he really tell them this? "…scared me. I think they got this other gate working, at least enough to open a portal, but something must have gone wrong…not sure what, but perhaps something came through. It was killing people as they were running screaming in terror, setting fire to… "
He stopped on hearing the infernape gasp loudly before quickly saying something to the swampert.
"…and it was always hidden behind something or flames, never able to get a good look, but you felt a terrible fear," the blue water-type Pokémon whispered.
His mouth stopped in forming his next word, feeling shock like a thunderbolt from an electivire. "What?" How could he know?
"I think I…had the same vision yesterday," the swampert continued, wide-eyed as if the same thunderbolt struck him also. "It was the vision that got my arm broken in the middle of a battle."
Was it…could it be? "When did you have the vision? What time?"
"It was in the morning."
"I shook his hand in the morning, then I had the vision…"
"You got those visions even though you hadn't touched anything; what if it was because he had touched something to trigger them?" Blaze said, pointing to the human Leo. "Is it possible the two of you are sharing the visions?"
Leo had no answer. He didn't even know what the Dimension Scream was exactly, much less how it really worked. "You touched someone, and then you had that vision?" wanting to make sure he got it straight.
"There were a couple of representatives from the Derganio Corporation visiting yesterday morning," his human self answered. "We introduced ourselves and shook hands. Seconds later I had the vision. This one man, he had some old scars on his hand that looked like severe burns." He got a questioning expression, as if wondering if he was making the same connection.
Leo thought he did. "You think he was one of those you saw in the vision?"
"I think I remember seeing his face. Black haired, maybe forty years of age. He appeared to be behind glass, maybe in some kind of control room."
He struggled to remember some of the details in the vision he'd just as soon as forget. "The lights went out…and then it was only the fires I could see."
His human self nodded.
"So someone did survive that," wishing at once Celebi would've stuck around a little longer so he could tell her of this.
After eyeing each of them intently, "Maybe we should talk to this human," Blaze suggested. "Maybe he could tell us a lot."
Leo certainly agreed with his friend in voicing it to his human self.
"Yeah, I was actually going to do that yesterday, but they left before I got the chance. But you're right…uh, Blaze. But could what we saw that happened in the past have a bearing on what going to happen?"
Leo also really wished Dialga was there.
Continuing: "Maybe it has no relevance at all, but I have to believe we saw that vision for a reason."
Although Grovyle was remaining silent, he watched both him and Blaze and him as if expecting an answer, as was his human self. If only he did have all the answers; all he knew was in every case they either investigated or trusted the visions, they provided real benefits at some point, if not immediately. "What is 'Derganio Corporation'?" since his human self mentioned the one human was a 'representative' from it.
"The source of money," Grovyle said dryly.
"Sponsors of our project," Leo Hanson answered. "They're an energy and transportation company, hoping that the dimensional portal will be a new line of business for them. Imagine a whole network of gates around the world. No need for large jetliners or long road trips. Just step in a gate and you're instantly where you want to be, now matter where on the globe that is."
"Sounds…interesting," Blaze commented, leaning up against the railing after moving his long mane out of the way. "Palkia would be out of business." Although it sounded funny, the infernape wasn't laughing.
"Leo is one of the lead researchers on it," Grovyle added. "Which means you were also, if your claims are true."
And Grovyle was surely right. "But I don't remember much of it at all," Leo insisted. "If Palkia knew of this gate, he might come here himself to have a look, though." Or at least, should he hope so?
Leo Hanson shook his head at all of it, collapsing into one of the patio chairs and burying his head in his hands for a moment. This was all too much! Did he really accept that an alternate form of himself was here with him? Could he find any logical reason for disproving it? The rational part of him desperately wanted to, yet the more adventurous side actually found the idea intriguing! But the facts had to stand on their own.
"What's wrong?" the swampert asked as he approached.
Lifting his head slightly to look at him, "Well, let's see: I get up this morning, then get news that the swampert with the dimensional distortion we're looking for is at the gym. I go there, find you, discover to my amazement that you can talk and that you've also been looking for me. I bring you here, where you proceed to tell me about Dialga and Palkia, two formally fictional Pokémon nobody has even claimed to see in millennia, are now here as was Celebi. You go into time travel, talk about changing the past and that you're an alternate form of myself that was somehow transformed into a swampert. Now I find out we're sharing the same visions, which you call some 'Dimensional Scream' thing. To top it all off, you've come here from a different planet because there's some impending disaster looming, which the project I'm part of may be the cause of."
He paused, wondering if he was even scratching the surface of his overwhelmed feeling. "Excuse me if I'm starting to find it a bit much. I'm tired, my head hurts, and I don't think I can take any more surprises at this point." Really, just how much more of his world could be turned upside down? Maybe he shouldn't even be asking…
"Gro, grovyle?" Grovyle leaned close, apparently asking something. If only he could talk!
"He's asking if you need some water and rest," the swampert said, clearly concerned in his tone.
He…didn't know what he needed right then. Actually, not true. He needed a pain reliever, a sleep aid, and about a couple days of uninterrupted sleep while having the luxury of forgetting everything he'd been told that day!
"I'm sorry," the swampert continued. "Maybe I shouldn't have explained everything at once. I discovered or was told all this over three years; you got everything in only a day. It'll take time."
"Time… Do we have any?" he asked. If there was some looming disaster, time had to be running out.
"I don't know. I'm hoping Dialga will be able to sense if we're getting close to whatever it is."
Dialga again… He was having a hard time getting over that that Pokémon was supposed to be a myth! And that thought only served to worsen his rapidly growing headache. He groaned.
Feeling Grovyle tugging on him, and got up and made his way for the stairs. His green friend was right – he really needed rest. Maybe by morning things would be clearer. Or not.
Leo watched his human self disappear down the stairs with Grovyle, wondering if he made a big mistake. Lowering his head at perhaps such, "I shouldn't have told him so much today."
"He was asking questions; he would've made you tell him everything anyway," Blaze said, coming alongside him from the railing. "That's just how you are, asking questions, wanting to know everything."
Noting his friend's smile, "Is that good or bad?"
He shrugged. "I've always thought it to be a good quality about you. Just like your bravery. After all, I had to get it from someone."
"You always had it, Blaze. Since even before we met; you only needed to realize it."
"If that's true, you made me do that. But it was only through your strength I got stronger." He fell silent as the light gust of wind blew over the rooftop, ruffling his hair and especially his red and yellow mane. "Ha! Your human self is just like you of course; he's just as strong – I can see it. And you know what? I had only been alive for a few years before we met, but you'd been alive for many more years as that human. I feel lucky to now meet this human. If we had met with you still as your human self, I'm sure we would've become friends just like we are now."
Leo felt touched. "Well, I'm sure things would've turned out a little differently in that case. If I had remained human when we met, do you think Wigglytuff would've accepted us into the Guild?"
Blaze stood up a little more, his red face deadpan. "I really don't know. But would you have wanted to join in that case? It was your memory loss that prompted you to want to met him in the first place. Maybe I even might have forgotten the idea, if you had told me what your mission was."
"And of course, I probably wouldn't have been able to understand a word you said."
"Hm. Good point. But I would've understood you."
"Yes, I guess you would have. Most Pokémon here seem to have a built-in understanding of human language for some reason."
"You know what," Blaze continued with more of a grin, "since I had never heard of the last time a human came to the planet, you actually might have been a celebrity, of sorts. Just like Dusknoir was – until we all found out the truth about him."
Another breeze stirred, prompting both of them to look up. With the help of the glow of the city's lights, it was easy to see half the sky had become obscured.
If's and maybe's. So many possibilities, so many outcomes. Change one little thing, and an entirely different future results. He wondered if that's what Dialga saw…if he saw all the possibilities, all dependant on the tiniest of events. It must be maddening if he did.
He noticed Blaze was starting to look very weary, reminding him of his own fatigue. Still, he couldn't stop worrying he was handling everything right.
"Come on, Leo," Blaze finally said as he started heading for the stairs, wrapping his tail around his wrist and giving him a tug. "You've worried enough for one night. You need rest too."
As he sometimes did, his friend read his thoughts.
Being Saturday, no alarm woke Leo Hanson. The sleep aid helped, but he was still feeling tired; it was early, there were dark clouds outside from which a steady rain was falling, and his mind was already going over the past day's events. Could it have been a dream? Certainly didn't feel like one.
So, what was he going to do? Was there anything to do? Seriously, did he really believe everything that swampert told him – a talking swampert? Unfortunately, it was the same answer as he had last night: although seemingly unbelievable and more like science fiction, he simply couldn't see anything to contradict his story. The scant evidence he had actually supported it.
Rolling onto his side with a quiet moan, he found it very difficult to believe there was another him around just the same. Did it make it any better that he was in the form of a Pokémon?
Perhaps…it did, a little…
On the floor next to his bed, Grovyle stirred. His green form barely moved, but he opened his bright green eyes enough to stare back up at him. They stayed that way for a little while, Leo slowly feeling himself become a little more alive. "So, what would you do if I suddenly became a Pokémon?" finally asking rhetorically.
Grovyle blinked a few times. "Groovyle," the half-shrug indicating his answer more than his voice.
Well, maybe there was one thing he should do. Actually, with everyone gone for the weekend, it could be the perfect time… Making the decision, he got himself out of bed and into the shower before his other normal morning hygiene tasks. A flush from the guest bathroom on the floor below told of others being up, and he rushed in finishing in order to get some breakfast going. He found Grovyle had beat him to it though once he got to the kitchen, seeing boiling water in the microwave, bowls and oatmeal set out, toast in the toaster and eggs cooking on the stove.
"Grovyle, you are a wonder," he said appreciatively just before Chris, Blaze and Leo arrived from upstairs.
"Grovyle!" his friend returned.
"Good morning," he greeted his guests, each returning the same - in unintelligible Poké language in the infernape's case.
"How's your head?" the swampert asked.
"Better," Leo Hanson replied truthfully, his headache completely gone, fortunately. He was hoping to keep it that way for at least a while by thinking about yesterday as little as possible during breakfast, but he would need to tell them where they were going that morning soon enough.
Leo never thought of Grovyle as the "domestic" type. The Grovyle he had known was a gritty Pokémon dedicated to completing his mission no matter the cost, and more than willing to get down and dirty in the task. In the absence of the events that made the Future That No Longer Exists, this version of him was serving them breakfast in his human self's kitchen. It was hard to fathom!
It was a good breakfast, too. Although he apparently ate oatmeal, eggs and toast with butter before as a human, he had no recollection of it and such items mostly didn't exist on the Poké world.
Chris talked out his plans for the rest of his vacation while they ate, which included entering in the League Championships in another week as the last week of his vacation (Blaze and himself now figuring prominently in his grand design). But after they finished eating, his human self suggested they visit the lab where they were building the gate.
This excited him, not just for the fact of seeing first-hand such an interesting invention and one that he at least supposedly had a hand in creating, but for other reasons he couldn't quite understand.
Rain greeted them outside; solid, steady light rain. While Blaze didn't like it much, evidenced by his huddling under the umbrella Chris had, Leo loved it. He had to pause every now and then just to enjoy and let it soak into his skin. It was the first time since arriving on the human world that he felt properly moisturized!
"Come on, Leo!" Blaze shouted occasionally to get him going again, obviously in a hurry to get someplace drier.
After another ride on one of the underground moving boxes called a subway (albeit much less crowded then the previous day), they came back above ground in a far less populated area, structure-wise. From there, it was more walking in the rain for some distance before arriving at a large sandstone-like building at the base of fairly high tree-covered hill that loomed up behind it.
"What does it say?" Blaze asked, seeing some words above the doorway.
"University of Pinnacle Valley Derganio Physics Building" Leo translated for him. His human self swiped something to get them inside before leading them down several halls and letting them through yet another set of doors. "Advanced Physics Department", translating the words again for Blaze before he asked.
One more hall, through one last set of doors labeled "Lab 1"…and Leo stopped short. Dead ahead it sat, like right out of his vision: the large, dull-silver ring behind a glass wall.
"Is that it?" Blaze asked. "Is that the ring you saw?"
Leo could only nod.
"Oh, Leo?" a woman's voice called from above them. "What are you doing here; who'd you… bring? Oh!"
Looking up, he immediately recognized the owner. "Sally?" he mumbled.
His human self gesturing to the rest of them, "Sally, this is Chris Urbason, his infernape, and the…swampert we've been looking for."
Sally peered down at them for a moment, particularly him, Leo noted, before racing down the steps.
"Hello, nice to finally meet you," she greeted Chris, shaking his hand, then after a few words about the weather: "That's the Pokémon?" she asked, pointing.
"He is," Leo Hanson answered.
They went on, talking about the distortion around him as Leo stared at her intently. Just like when he first saw her photo, he felt…something stir for her, like there was more than mere familiarity about her. She…had implored him…
"So, you are the one, then," she commented, kneeling slightly in front of him.
On impulse, he touched her arm…
The portal was open and Grovyle was waiting on the ramp that went through it. Once again the ground shook, causing a several items around them to fall off their benches.
"Leo…don't go."
He knew she knew he had to. But she was crying, which made it all the harder to part…in all likelihood for the last time. Reaching around her, he embraced her while stroking her long red hair. He was hurting inside, badly, and was only just able to hold back his own tears; he had to be strong for her. "We have to go. Grovyle and I stand the best chance of any of us. And you must stay here to keep looking for a way to prevent this disaster in case we don't succeed."
"I don't know if I can!"
"If anyone can, it's you. You're the best at this, remember."
She wiped her tears away as they parted, and he followed Grovyle into the portal, getting his last view of her as he looked over his shoulder…
"Leo?"
Everyone was looking at him.
"The Dimensional Scream?" Blaze asked.
"A memory," he answered.
Sally gasped. "You can talk?"
"Yes, he can. Long story." Leo Hanson really didn't feel prepared to tell her everything, not yet anyway. He came to the lab only with the expectation of showing his supposed Pokémon counterpart the project, which might have something to do with why he was there, and to allow the DV detector some "close up" observations of him. "So what are you doing here on a Saturday?"
"Just finishing some loose ends before the start of Phase One on Monday," she replied, though it was clear by her expression she wanted to ask questions, not answer them with her eyes fixed on the swampert.
"What's 'Phase One'?" Chris asked.
Sally looked to Leo, as if silently asking if it was alright to tell him.
"Don't worry, I've already told them about the project." He then realized that fact argued he should tell her sooner rather then later about the reason the swampert was here – just how much of the rest of the Pokémon's story should be told was another matter…just so the Pokémon didn't decide to tell her everything on his own. Answering Chris himself, "Phase One marks the start of the full integrated systems testing and burn-in. We just finished construction and initial subsystem checkouts and stress testing, so we're ready to power up everything as a whole and get the first calibration targets set. Like a total diagnostics run."
"Oh," Chris answered in the tone of someone who didn't fully get it.
Sometimes, he really did like talking in near incomprehensible terms to others, as guilty as it should have made him feel. "Well, I brought this Pokémon by so we could get some accurate readings of him. Want to help me set the equipment?"
Sally seemed more than eager in quickly straightening up. "But I want to know how this Pokémon can talk? Wait, does it have anything to do with his distortion?"
"Unlikely." At least directly.
Leo felt prickly standing on the low platform while Sally was placing small white sticky circles all over his blue and white skin, a wire trailing from each one. A few to his head and head fins, several along his arms, including one on the green-padded area of his right fore-arm.
"What happened to your arm?" she asked, indicating the cast on his left arm while finishing up with his right. "Sorry, I should have asked before. Didn't intend to act inconsiderate."
"It got broke in a match with a Graveler," he answered simply. Mentally, he was counting the days before it could be removed.
"Oh! I've never heard of a Pokémon breaking a bone before. That must have been a really bad blow."
"It was."
With extra care, she placed another white circle on the cast over the spot where his left green (and badly bruised) pad was. Continuing behind him, she placed more down his back, several along the edge of his large rear fin and reaching around him, several more down his stomach. He really didn't mind her touch and occasional brushes at all, but couldn't help but twitch when she got down lower…
"Sorry," she said with a nervous smile. "But I need to form a complete sphere of these sensors around you."
He nodded acceptance, while Blaze appeared suddenly interesting in something on the floor...
She was gentle…and just about everything about her, from her touch to the way she moved, seemed so familiar. Even her smile. He knew her - very well, he was now sure. Just couldn't remember why.
"All done," she announced at last. "Leo, how's it look?" shouting up to the balcony above them.
"Put another couple one on each of his feet," his human self shouted back down, "the calibrations are a little weak there."
Sally complied by placing two on the side of each of his feet before backing up.
"Looks good," Leo Hanson announced. "OK...er, Leo, just stay still there for a few minutes."
With tail twitching and his arms crossed over his white-haired chest, Blaze raised his eyebrows in taking Sally's spot in front of him when she left for the balcony. Then he grinned. "You look…"
"Silly?" Leo proposed. Surly he must, covered with dozens of white spots and wires coming from each and every one going into a large metal box with lots of buttons.
"Ha ha! I was thinking like an elekid's science experiment." Apparently he couldn't take it anymore and finally burst out snickering.
"Lab rat" also came to mind from somewhere, though he couldn't understand the meaning. Must be another remembered human expression, he thought. Sighing, he tried not to move but the humor of the situation wasn't making it easy. "I could ask if they would like to hook you up too. After all, you do have your own distortion around you. I'm sure these sticky white spots would be perfect on your hair, especially when they take them off."
The infernape sobered up fast. "You wouldn't!"
Leo kept his face straight as long as he could while staring back, unblinking, before his smile crept across it.
"Ha ha, very funny," he replied before a slight upturn at the corners of his own mouth.
"Hold still, swamp…I mean Leo," Sally called from above. "It'll be just another minute." Then in a much quieter voice that he probably wasn't intended to hear: "You know Leo, calling you both the same name feels weird."
He barely heard the reply from his human self over the hum from various equipment: "You don't know the half of it yet."
"When were you going to tell the Professor you found him?"
"Later."
"Professor?" Blaze asked, quietly mimicking the name as he cocked his head.
Leo almost shrugged, but remembered he couldn't move. "Don't know," mouthing his reply.
"Alright, we're done!" Sally shouted down and within another moment was in front of him again, removing the sensors from his skin.
Blaze helped, proving to be a little more careful than Sally, but all together they only elicited a half dozen ow's from him. Afterward, she lead them up to the balcony to point to a screen where an irregular orange sphere was displaying.
"That's your dimensional distortion, in all it's detail," Sally announced.
"So that's what one of those things look like?" Chris asked, looking like a chimchar having his first look at strange Unown writings. Which pretty much described Blaze's expression too.
"Well, it's a graphical representation of it," Sally replied. "It's how the computer sees it."
"It's almost identical to mine," Leo Hanson added.
"You told them about that?"
Leo wanted to say their distortions were mirrored, but thought better of it. If his human self hadn't told her everything yet, it was probably best to let him handle how to reveal it.
"I did," Leo Hanson replied.
Tapping several keys, Sally appeared to modify the display some. "Actually…now that we have detailed scans to work from, your distortions are…actually…virtually identical. Slightly different shapes of course, since the two of you are shaped differently physically, but they are otherwise exactly the same except for the slight harmonics difference, which really is a random variable I think." She glanced between each of them, her long red hair reflecting slightly different hues as the light angle changed on it. "Still, we don't know what exactly they are or what's causing them."
Exchanging a knowing glance with his human self, he wondered when he was going to break the news. Judging from Grovyle's expression, he was wondering the same thing.
His human self sighed before standing up. "Well, how about I give you that close up look at the ring I promised?"
Once back down on the main floor, his human self lead them through the huge doors in the glass wall and into the "ring room" as he called it. He had to admit the ring was pretty, gleaming dully under the lights. At least four times his height, the center looked wide enough to allow even Dialga himself through it, provided he ducked a little. But it was more than just pretty – it was also familiar…had meaning…felt like it was drawing him…
Moving closer, he placed his three-fingered blue hand on it. It had a hard, smooth feel, save for the joints between panels. He knew then: a good portion of his life when he was still human had indeed been spent making it.
A human hand touched the ring near his. "She sure is a thing of beauty, isn't she?" his human self said with a certain meaning in his tone. "Six years spent in building it. And we're almost ready to fire her up for the first time. Isn't she incredible?"
Leo noted a certain…expression about him as he looked at it. And he felt it too…excitement, wonder, passion, the desire to learn about the unknown…
"Would the three of you like to be alone?"
Turning, Leo found Sally with her hands across her chest and wearing a wry smile. Grovyle, Blaze and Chris likewise seemed rather amused. He was about to return some remark when he started feeling it…a fast approaching faintness while his vision began clouding. Then all at once, there were two familiar dragon-type Pokémon in front of him, along with one human…