Uncharted Skies, Untread Paths ch6
Development and experimentation
As the mother daughter pair make their way back inside their home after the exceptional experience that was the impromptu meet and greet with the Latios, the Professor greets them quickly, a mess of papers in front of him on the otherwise empty dining room table, a mess of graphs, charts, and peer reviewed studies lining almost every inch of it, he's clearly been busy.
Serena looks at the mess with questions in her mind 'what could he have possibly been researching so thoroughly in the time we've been gone? It's only been about two hours since we left' amusement evident in her gaze
"We're back professor, mind elaborating on this mess you've made?" She asks, curious about the research
"Ah, well the papers I've been asking my colleagues for arrived, I needed to print out quite a lot, so you might be out of ink now, hahaha! I'll pay for the replacement of it, don't worry." He says while sheepishly rubbing his head "it's all the in depth information on Esper development I requested, I'll make sense of it first and give you a simplified run down later, I prioritized the papers regarding development with a psychic Pokémon helping, it's all a bit complicated, but I should have a fully summarized version by the end of the week. Anyways, how did the meeting go Grace? What kind of Pokémon did you meet with?"
Grace and Serena look at eachother knowingly, before Grace responds "well, it's certainly an interesting one, but I won't say right now, you're meeting him tomorrow, but only if you can give your word you won't speak a word of what he is, or that you've met one to anyone, no exceptions unless he says something otherwise, I'm serious, he's serious. I can tell you that he is indeed capable of telepathy, and he is a very powerful Pokémon, but you aren't getting anything else out of me tonight."
The professor looks at the two curiously, before nodding "alright, I'm not sure why you're being so serious, but I know you well enough to realize you aren't joking, ok, I give you two my word, he must be particularly rare if he's so serious about keeping his existence secret, you do have me interested though."
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, the professor moved his mess of papers to the living room coffee table, while Grace prepared dinner, Serena continued with her studies for school, and nothing of note came of any small talk between the three, before they knew it, it was time for a night's sleep, tomorrow would be sure to be eventful, but that was out of mind for now.
As the hours passed while Serena attempted to get some sleep, she couldn't help but think back to the days happenings, she really was overthinking everything, she could absolutely trust Larkos, he placed his trust in her after all, this was only the beginning of their friendship, much is to come of the future. During all this she couldn't know that Larkos was thinking back on the day as well, happy that his circle of people was expanding, and also excited for the future, there was much to do soon, he couldn't wait to help Serena on her journey to become a proper Esper, and his progress on learning his innate Latios abilities was steadily improving, almost at a exponential rate, almost, though getting illusions down was proving trickier than he thought, he vaguely remembered a Pokémon movie where Latias could transform into a human, or at least project a illusion of one, though the source material of Pokémon was quite vague on this, especially since a Latias in the manga could truly change into a human, he could only hope he could in the future, getting a human body again would open up so many possibilities for him 'alright, Serena has a goal herself, I'll make getting a human form MY goal, it's going to be hard work, and I've got to truly master this true form first of course, but I have something concrete to work towards now, maybe we can help each other more than we believed.' They both fell asleep soon after the late night thoughts, and a new day came soon
As the Sun once again graced the land of Kalos, I awoke to a thorough chill in the air, the cave offering little protection from ambient air temperature, only protecting from wind and rain, I would need to do something about that soon, even though my feathers (down? Fur? Whatever was covering my body could be called) could offer some protection, the chill still permeated it all, and when I floated out I could see some soft light snow beginning to fall. I decided I would gather some wood and make a small fire using my dragon breath, despite the flames being blue and green and purple, and clearly different to normal true fire, it was still just as hot if not hotter than one, it would light a campfire just fine. After I searched around for some dry sticks and small fallen logs, I gathered a few round stones, setting them up together in the classic camp fire layout my slightly younger days of Boy Scouts taught me, my telekinesis making easy work of menial tasks like this, I set it alight, relishing in the growing warmth as the fire began to spread over the small sticks and log, growing strong enough to fully warm me from the front. It was a shame my form was so large, and my wings seemed to really sap that warmth form me with their surface area when a chilly wind blew by, but it was enough. As I gazed at my silver wings, I was almost mesmerized by the way the light reflected off of them 'wait, light reflects off so well it's almost like the feathers act as tiny mirrors… could this be what I was missing?' I could almost control the way the light bounced off, I played with this effect experimentally, twisting and shifting the light various ways 'what else am I missing? Ah! Illusion energy!' Once I realized I could infuse them with illusion energy, I spread them over my wings while shifting the light in various ways. 'That's it!' I mentally shout as I see entire sections of my wings shift into invisibility, I didn't have it quite right, but I was successful in making parts seem to disappear completely at times. They seemed to shimmer in and out of existence in splotches, as I played with the light reflection properties until at least two thirds of the wings seemed to completely disappear 'I'll have to work at it, but it's definitely some solid progress, eventually I should be able to completely make myself invisible!' The discovery excited the Latios, but after about a solid hour he started getting tired and board 'well, incremental progress is still progress, this will take me a while to get down, Ill practice more later, maybe every morning, yeah that'll work, mornings will be for invisibility practice!'
The day continued on, it didn't stop snowing but the day still seemed to warm as time passed, by around mid day the snow that fell seemed to melt as it hit the ground, no longer sticking or accumulating
Serena finished her classes for the day and made her way home to pick up the professor and her mother to meet Larkos, it was a Friday so there wouldn't be classes for the next two days, if all went well she could spend the majority of the weekend finally starting her Esper development in earnest, with that in her mind she excitedly speed walked back home, finally entering and yelling out "I'm back everyone! Are you guys ready to head out?"
The professor looked at her, he was clearly ready, he already had on his shoes and was wearing a sweater under his ever present lab coat, he smiled at her excited expression and nodded in affirmative "I'm ready to go, I'm quite interested in this friend of yours, I hope you aren't pulling my leg with all this mystery and build up haha!" A hearty yet gentle laugh left him. Grace was seen putting on her shoes, but looked at him with a mischievous smile "oh I'm sure you'll be a bit surprised, just don't be too shocked, don't want you running for the hills when you realize what you're seeing." She says with a playful tone
The trio make their way out and in the direction of the forest, the professor glancing at the state of it in confusion and with a analytical look in his eyes "the forest is unusual, there's been not one Pokémon in sight, and the berry trees are still unpicked even this late in the season." The Pokémon professor wasn't an academic for nothing, he immediately realized something had the forest in a strange state, not even five minutes into their walk
The minutes continued to pass as they made their way deeper into the forest, the three realized they could smell smoke coming from up ahead, and as they walked further, they could even smell something akin to roasting berries, this caught the professors attention "is there someone cooking up ahead? I didn't realize trainers frequented this forest, it doesn't connect to any other towns or cities does it?"
Serena frowned 'hopefully Larkos wasn't found by an errant trainer or group, that would cause some serious issues'
The three finally reached the clearing a few minutes later, only to see a campfire set up and some berries levitating over it, slowly spinning
"Larkos we're here! Did you make this fire?" She lightly shouted out before they finally saw the Latios hover out of his cave, face seemingly stuffed and a small pile of berries floating next to him, before they abruptly dropped as he stared wide eyed at the three, clearly not expecting being caught gorging himself on his supply of berries after discovering the delight that was roasting them over an open fire
The professor, for one, stood stock still at the sight, it was almost comical, but the other two could hardly blame him, the man just witnessed a legendary Pokémon filling his face with roasted berries, acting like a child who got caught filling up on sweets before dinner. The Latios quickly resumed chewing and swallowed quicker, before letting out a sound that resembled clearing out his throat, his ears seemed to flatten as his small clawed hand scratched at his cheek, anxiously smiling before he projected a voice into the trios head
~ah, well, it's nice to meet you, Mr.Professor… sorry you guys caught me unaware…~
The entire series of events was something Serena could stop herself from laughing about, she started letting out fitful giggles before erupting to full blown laughter, small tears leaking from her eyes before she could calm herself down "Larkos! Is this how you greet an esteemed Pokémon professor!" She teases as her mother giggles herself. The professor meanwhile, silently laments his own utter shock at the sight of a legendary Pokémon making such a scene. He of course, had never met a legendary before, but his expectations of them seemed to drop significantly from the interaction, and it definitely allowed the man to present himself more calmly as he realized how normal they could be, yes they were incredibly powerful beings, yes the energy they commanded was significantly more pure and close to the source than typical Pokémon, but ultimately they were living beings, and minor legendaries at least were much more humble and down to earth than he could have expected. For beings that acted as minor deities at least. Sighing and finally speaking up to greet the Pokémon Serena clearly considered a close friend, he shook himself of his surprise and spoke "yes, well, it's nice to finally meet you. You aren't anything close to what I could have ever expected Serena to have meant when she told me she had a psychic Pokémon friend, but I am glad to finally meet you. Also I see now why so much secrecy was needed, you're a legendary Pokémon, and a one with a atypical coloration at that, from everything I know about your kind, Latios are blue in color typically, and you are decidedly not, they were right to keep you secret, I imagine every arrogant trainer from here to Orre would attempt to catch you if you become known." He said seriously, but followed it up soon after with a more light hearted tone "I absolutely intend to keep your secret, an I'm excited for the opportunity to observe and assist you in helping Serena here develop her abilities, if you'll have me of course." He reaches out his hand for a handshake, the gesture not going unnoticed by the others, realizing the man intends to interact with the Latios as a colleague of sorts, putting his professional side forward. The Latios mimics the gesture and accepts the hand, shaking it himself, careful not to use too much force, clearly aware of his own physical strength, while not particularly or exceptionally physically strong Pokémon, he was still easily a hundred times stronger than a human, Latios and Latias were not considered legendary lightly, and he could easily crush any wooden log with grip strength alone, he would know, he's tried it when he was bored, and it wasn't even particularly difficult.
~pleasure to work with you, I believe we will get to know each other well while working together~ Larkos nods with a serious face, in professional mode as well, especially after considering the embarrassing first impression
Serena watches the interaction with interest, it seems the two get along well, that was good, she was happy to have another person in the know, she smiled to herself and nodded to her mother, who in turn nodded back, things are finally starting to come together, and this new relationship is yet another thing to look forward to, things really couldn't be going better! But then another thought occurred to her, it was getting much colder, and according to forecasts, a massive ice storm is making its way front the north of the region down to here, Larkos lives in just a cave, will he be alright? Should she invite the Latios into their home? She was worried for him, well they had about a week before that would be an issue, hopefully it blows over, but something needs to happen soon, she doesn't want who she realizes now is her best friend to be left in the cold, she'll have to talk to her mom about that, but it could wait for now.
With a blizzard brewing on the horizon, things were sure to get complicated, and the Gabena household was about to be thrown into chaos because of it