Pokémon Mars

Chapter 44: The Discovery

Jin was still combing through the opals when his friends arrived. Natsumi assumed he was still asleep. As soon as he awoke, she would tell him more firmly that he would find nothing in those opals.

Thalassa clearly had an idea. It wasn't quite fully formed yet, because she still paced up and down, clicking her pen. Her Pokémon paced with her as if they, too, contemplated the idea. Knowing Thalassa, they probably did. Her Metagross was especially intelligent.

'Nyx.'

Nyx glanced up from the Pokémon she fed.

'Yeah?'

'Those space-time rifts... the one Volo opened... it sent Pokémon mad, didn't it? And they became especially powerful?'

'Yeah. The Ultra Wormhole my dad opened had a similar effect in Galar. Pokémon started Dynamaxing everywhere.'

'Right...'

Julien was deep in the calculations they worked on together. Unlike Thalassa's notes, his were perfectly neat. At that moment, he wouldn't even have noticed if his beloved husband finally returned from his expedition.

'I've got it!'

Thalassa's eyes lit up like the sun finally breaking through the clouds. She snatched Julien's notebook from his hands to grab his attention. He blinked. No-one was used to Thalassa being so animated.

'We know that lot are going to keep opening their bloody space-time rift. But the core of Mars used to be active. Not only could the power of the space-time rift be channeled to the core to give it a bigger shock than we can ever manage with technology, but if my calculations are correct, we can manipulate space-time itself – using the rift – to briefly connect the core with the active core of the past, turning it molten again!'

'But...'

Firmino looked completely lost.

'How do we connect the core with the core of the past using an unpredictable space-time rift?'

'By carefully bending space-time while the rift is open!'

'But how?'

'Using Team Magma's Robo Celebi and Dialga and Palkia! We should even be able to predict space-time rifts using the Robo Pokémon. There was never a Groudon to model the Robo Groudon on, but there was the Relic Stone in Orre and Dawn's Dialga to model those on! They literally have that kind of power! So if...'

Thalassa reeled off a long string of equations until even Julien got lost.

'Well, I admit defeat. I can certainly tell you're N's great-granddaughter...'

'You can thank me and Metagross. They work even faster than I do.'

Everyone was startled when Jin screamed. Nyx sprang up and flung open the door to the lab proper before anyone else could even react. She was almost mowed down by Jin's Swampert. His Sylveon was in his arms. It squealed as they span around the lab. Charizard shoved Decidueye aside to squint into the microscope.

'Jin...?'

Nyx only just dodged Swampert, who inadvertently stamped on Firmino's foot in its hurry, when Jin himself ran out. He didn't even see her.

'I've found motherfucking life on Mars!'

Sylveon jumped from his arms to tell the first Pokémon it saw, Metagross. Natsumi looked doubtful. Then again, Jin was yet to proclaim that he found anything he actually didn't.

'Joshua was right! He was right! I knew it! I fucking knew it! It's not even mould! There were at least five Pokémon here – the Magby and Binacle families!'