Desolate [Pokémon Arven x Protagonist]

Meeting the Professor After All These Years

I took my first steps into the ramp. Contrary to how it was rattling with the hoard of pokémon rushing down it earlier, it was sturdy beneath me. Koraidon followed as I hiked upwards. There was a smaller ramp at the top, leading into the open gate. There was a tunnel inside, illuminated by several rings of red lights. We had to watch our step as the ramp dipped into the dark pipe. It was a narrow entrance, and it was uncomfortable underfoot with how steep the tunnel's curve was. I felt my knees bending at odd angles. There was another gate, hexagonal door black this time, at the end of the tunnel that I assumed was the regular passage into the lab, but beside it was a huge gash in the wall, metal bent in spirals. Light leaked into the tunnel, and Koraidon and I headed towards it. Gingerly, we peeked inside the hole. As expected, we saw the inside of the Zero Lab, papers hung up all around the room, whiteboards shining with fresh ink, but the lights above were dimmed and eerie. Koraidon and I shared a glance as we stepped over a mess of metal through the gash. The remnants cascaded into a ramp on the other side that we carefully slid down into the damaged lab. On the flat floor, I looked around at the foreign room. In the faint lighting, I noticed shards of crystals shattered on the floor, dirt and grime built up in the corners of the walls and ground, and bent and broken metal protruding from the machine centerpiece. There was also a piercing, foul stench that hit me suddenly within a few steps. It was slightly sickening. Behind me, the tunnel looked as if an explosion went off to cause such a gap, but it couldn't have been an explosion. There were deep claw marks around the opening. I studied the walls around me again. The claw marks littered the place, all over the walls and floor in unpredictable variety. The lab was a wreck. It was small, but it was so quiet. The professor was nowhere in sight. I got closer to the damaged machine, circling around the room. There was a small, dusty, red bed against the wall on the opposite side. It was beside an aged divider, brown papers fluttering from a pin. There looked to be a sort of shadow behind it. I squinted as I went around, trying to peek around the screen. I kept my eye on the shadow as it slowly revealed a hunched over human being.

I gasped. The professor was hanging limply at the waist, sitting in a black swivel chair. She was wearing a wrinkled lab coat over a prehistoric outfit. Beneath her thick, graying hair, her eyes were glazed over and she wasn't moving at all. She wasn't even breathing. Koraidon and I just stood there in shock at the professor's body, unsure what to do. She had just been speaking with us over video call mere moments ago. There was no way in that short time she had—

"Human presence detected within the Zero Lab," she said, monotone, almost robotic. Her chest didn't move. "Deactivating sleep mode." Deactivating... what? Professor Sada rose from her chair at an unsettlingly perfect, uniform tempo, only to twitch at the neck and wrists as she stood upright. I noticed Koraidon's disgusted reactions and realized I wasn't alone in thinking the professor's demeanor was creepy, but I guessed she had always been this way since the first day we met her through a call. She stared at me blankly for a second, like a zombie, before blinking and smiling, finally acknowledging the other beings in the room. "Hello, Lugosi. Thank you for coming."

A growl scared Koraidon, and the wild koraidon leapt out from beside some rubble, flaring its feathers at my partner. It roared aggressively, prepared to fight. Professor Sada merely rotated towards the creature, unfazed, and scolded it, "No. Back to your ball." She took out a rare, purple master pokéball and effortlessly called the monster into it. There were only a few master balls in the world. They were so hard to come by; only the top professors in every region possessed one, but they were capable of capturing any pokémon known to man without any resistance or breakage. Legendary pokémon were its main purpose to keep their power to their owners. Did that mean... Koraidon was one of the legendary pokémon? He was one of the only two koraidons in Paldea, but then again, any ancient pokémon was harvested from a different time where they ran rampant.