The tactile gravitational field silently thrummed, effortlessly covering fifty meter radius. A simple enough solution not to be caught unawares by anything and anyone approaching - even though nothing did so far.
There was this process invented by humans, called 'reverse engineering'. If one human invented a revolutionary technology, other humans could intentionally dismantle such invention to its basic components in order to learn how it worked, and how to replicate its innate characteristics.
It could be applied to many things, far beyond the scope of humans' influence.
What she was doing was very, very close to reverse engineering. She knew the result, and she was tracing what exactly needed to happen to at least replicate said result in a controlled environment. The problem was, she had limited… 'Points of data', in order to study this phenomenon, and obtaining new ones at this moment was completely out of question.
Currently, there was one major obstacle in her way. A matter she had to settle in order for the remaining pieces to fall into place.
Type energy.
It was something deeply ingrained into the fabric of the world, and for the most part, it was laughably easy to define.
Electricity was pure energy, born of electron displacement. Fire and Ice also represented energy, either dissipation or gathering of heat. Those three were almost primal in their characteristics.
Then, there were Types of simple, semielemental concepts. Ground was soil, and mud, and sand, and tectonics, all united under one banner. Rock was the sturdy, yet fragile rigidity of minerals, and Steel was metals - less brittle, yet less resistant to primal energies.
Slightly more complex, there were Types that represented the state of living beings. Flying Type was most - yet, not all - beings with an access to flight. Bug Type represented most things with primitive enough nervous systems. Water Type, despite its name, was less about the liquid, and more about creatures which lived in it. Grass types either lived in symbiosis with plant matter, or evolved from it. Poison Type was just that - representation of different venoms, poisons and toxins.
And then, there were Types which were defined by even stranger things.
Ghost Type could be considered both living and dead, yet it also represented grief, pain, malice and trauma. There was no separating ghosts as beings, and their emotional makeup, one stemming from another and vice versa.
Fighting Type represented inner physical strength of living beings, yet it could not be separated from the notion of Aura - this invisible, all-permeating force with seemingly infinite capabilities, only available to select few.
Psychic Type was all about the sheer power of the mind, and the ability to force the Universe to change according to one's will. The calculated pragmatism of this type was something she was intimately familiar with.
The last four were the most tricky to pin down.
Dragon Type… Seemed to be just absolute, overwhelming, personal might. Its attunement appeared only in some of reptilian kins, and seemed to be closely tied to self-assuredness, pride, and maybe even self-centredness. She could not find any other reasons as to why this typing eluded some Pokemon, yet not the other.
Normal Type would've been easy to claim as a lack of typing - yet, it was clearly not. Humans lacked typing. Normal Types did not. There were numerous researches into this matter, all pointing to it being a distinct, albeit nebulous type. If she was to guess, she would've said Normal Type was all about adaptability, either through acclimating to one's surroundings, or powering through them.
Dark Type… Took her a while to pinpoint. It was not about malice or anger - in fact, it was not about emotions at all. Neither did it represent some naturally occurring, specific energy. No, it was something else. It was representation of a void. Of oblivion. Complete lack of something, or of anything at all. The closest thing to the Dark Type occurring in nature was, funnily enough, a Black Hole. And the reason it was such an antithesis to Psychic powers and to Ghosts was simple - there could be no willpower nor emotions in true oblivion.
And then, there was the main issue. Fairy Type. Funnily enough, despite her BEING a fairy, she had a hard time understanding, what this type represented.
One theory claimed it represented lighter parts of emotional spectrum. Her own kin's close attunement to emotions played into it - but then, why did it counter Dark Type, while Ghost Type did not? Then, there was a theory about this Type stemming from the power of nature, or the power of the world. Neither of these theories interacted with the Dark Type, nor with Dragon or Fighting Types. And she could not even begin to understand how Steel and Poison came into the picture.
She lacked some crucial piece of information, something that would've allowed her own understanding of Type energies to click into place. And she NEEDED that knowledge in order to get to the bottom of another matter.
Hiei took a deep breath, eyes darting to the entrance of the cave. Her girlfriend was out for what felt like hours, and judging by the shadows, she probably was.
For over a week, Inabayama prevented her from leaving this cave, bringing food and medicinal herbs to help with recovery. And she had done an amazing job with that - yesterday, Gardevoir already felt well enough to travel. Still, the dragon decided that they had to stay a couple more days, just to be on the safe side. It was extremely touching and sweet, but it still left Hiei with one tiny, relatively insignificant, yet difficult to completely ignore issue.
She had an uncomfortably large amount of time on her hands.
Sure, Gardevoir spent a literal century at the same mountain, meandering around the place and barely interacting with anyone, even in the Pokemon Village. But now, she was on a mission. And once her brain was wired up to do something, it was almost painful to stop. And so, in order not to lose her questionable sanity, Hiei spent her days trying to do something productive.
Research.
Through her entire life, there was no singular moment of a sudden epiphany granting her untold powers. It was always incremental. Evolving first into Kirlia and then into Gardevoir helped. Learning how to use so-called 'moves' helped. Mastering the creation of black holes helped. And if she stopped there, that would've been her ceiling - someone powerful enough to annihilate a human city, yet easy enough to stop if you threw enough Pokemon at her.
She did not stop there. She sought knowledge, and she did not think twice about taking it from humans. She learned their written language - one at first, then more as she had time. Then, she went through their scientific texts, from introductory texts written to teach human children, to the latest available papers delving deep into theoretic matters. She internalised any and all knowledge she could find, and built off it.
Then, she received that signal from her sister. Her last sister. She arrived to the Mountain that became her home for all those years. And… And she did not have as much passion for research after this. She still read the materials available, learned more written languages, sometimes experimented with her powers, but her heart was never in it. It all felt pointless. Moot. She was just going through the motions, waiting to either perish, or snap
Then, Inabayama barged into her life. This wonderful, thoughtful, clever dragon brought colour back into the world. Made her feel heard. Made her feel alive.
And Hiei hurt her.
Goodra tried to pretend she was okay. Cared for Gardevoir, told stories of her progress with training. Tried to hide the scars on her face from Hiei's gaze. Yet at nights, she heard the dragon whimpering in pain in her sleep, clutching at the missing eye. Crying.
Gardevoir hated this. Hated how she hurt the single ray of sunshine in this dull, clouded world. Hated how she could not take it back.
There was only one thing she could really do. She could never repeat that same mistake.
Which was the reason for this research.
For the longest time, she thought that her post-hibernation condition was just this - an unconscious, automated way for her body to acquire bare minimum nutrients necessary for survival. A condition which used those same mechanisms that gave her enhanced strength on a daily basis. Except, those mechanisms relied on psychokinetic energy, which was never known to be baleful to Dragons.
Fairy Type energy, on the other hand…
If her hibernation form was infused with Fairy Type energy, it explained why Inabayama's eye never healed. And as long as she knew what exactly this Type Energy did to her body, she could-
Her attention snapped back to the cave entrance, as something just entered her tactile gravitational field. Three somethings, steadily approaching the entrance.
All three very light. Not humans then. Looking closer… Combees?
With a mental gesture, she turned a loose rock near the entrance into a dozen sharpened rocks, and flew them into the shadows above the entrance - just in time for three bugs to appear, only to stop and hover, emotionlessly peering at her. Then, all three spoke in unison.
"I WOULD APPRECIATE IF YOU DID NOT KILL MY DRONES, HIEI"
