CH23 (387), The Professor Circle In Wonder (3)

Date: 30.29.2181

Location: Rota City, Rota.

POV: Professor Maria Varon (3rd person)

Maria was a bit surprised when she found out that those at Oak Labs had managed to discover two new Pokemon species belonging to the same evolutionary line.

Toedscool and Toedscruel were like spring rain for the academic community after a dry spell that went on for decades. She directly did some inquiries when she heard about the leak and her mark of interest was apparently the one that had discovered both Pokemon.

She was a bit miffed when she found out that Michael had learned about it before her, despite them having the same rank as regional professors, but since he had no way to utilize that knowledge until now, she decided to ignore it until she could use it as ammunition.

It was not like she could have used the knowledge before the leak anyway. She would have had to wait just as Michael did, so there was no loss besides the perceived one.

Still, she would have to buckle down on her requests for a joint research project since she was sure this news would result in a lot of her colleagues requesting the same.

However, unlike them, she was not planning to join the Toeds-line research even now. No, her goal was to involve Oak Labs, and consequently her main target Mikail in her personal research projects, starting from making the Aura-Variant Lopunny more common.

She was planning to use the results of one of her recently completed long-term projects to arouse the interest of the other party in hopes of getting Oak Labs to agree to work with her.

While the release of Oak Lab's discovery would take some of the spotlights off her research result, she was still confident that the successful cultivation of an Aura-Variant Medicham would receive a lot of acclaims. As far as she knew that was the first one recorded in their history, so it was a pretty great success on part of her and her team.

The research had concluded last week, and they were about done with the documentation, as well as the report. Maria had been planning to do the announcement at the start of the new month, more specifically on Arcday next week.

She had wanted to follow up with the joint project application directly afterward, but now her plans had changed, more rather they had to be adjusted. She was still going to do the publication on Aura Medicham on Arcday. However, she would not wait two more days for the joint project application and instead sent out the application right now.

Even if they temporarily shelved her offer to work on Aura Lopunny with her, she was hoping they would reconsider the idea once her Aura Medicham report came out on Arcday, or that Professor Oak's interest would be piqued enough for him to inquire if any applications from her had arrived.

Date: 30.29.2181

Location: Nuvema City, Unova.

POV: Professor Aurea Juniper (3rd person)

Fascinating, she thought after being informed about the discovery of two new Pokemon by Oak Labs. The two Pokemon piqued her academic curiosity and she could not help but wonder what the origin story behind their species was.

She could not help it since her main study direction was the origin of Pokemon, or rather the origin/history behind the known Pokemon species. The origin of life in general was already known and proven, so she had missed out on proving/verifying that. Still, she did like to gather historical evidence to further support the current origin story as a hobby.

Anyway, she would not mind researching how the new species came to be and where they originated from. Yet, she knew that hers was often seen as a less urgent topic, so it would no doubt take time until she could gain access to the things she needed to answer those questions.

She was hoping to change that mindset and her hard work had earned her the position as head professor of Unova. Her research paper that verified that Bouffalant and Tauros had the same origin/ancestor, as well as the paper that proved the same for Beartic and Ursaring were some of the main contributors to her ascendance to her current position.

Still, Aurea was sure that her application would be one of the latter ones to be considered, but thankfully she had learned to be patient.

Date: 30.29.2181

Location: Lumiose City, Kalos.

POV: Professor Julien Sycamore (3rd person)

Oh, as expected of the good professor, Julien mused after learning about the discovery of two new Pokemon belonging to the same evolution line. The first question that came to his mind was whether there were further evolutions available for the Toeds-line.

However, because these were newly discovered species, he doubted that the evolution he was looking for was present. The standard Mega Evolution required a Mega Stone belonging to the species, as well as a Key Stone to become possible.

The Mega Stone linked up with the Key Stone if the holders had a sufficiently strong bond, and if that was the case, the aura of the Key Stone holder stimulated the life force inside the Mega Stone, which could then pour into the Pokemon and stimulate it, triggering a temporary evolution to the most optimal form/state of the species.

Naturally, the Pokemon had to be in its most mature form for this to be possible. The process could not be supported if that was not the case and simply did not trigger, which was a good thing because the energy would have otherwise overloaded the Pokemon possibly causing grievous harm to it.

Anyway, the temporary evolution was possible because Mega Stones contained purified as well as the crystallized life force of a species, and from what they had learned so far, there were only two ways for a Mega Stone to form.

The first one was for a large number of Pokemon belonging to the same species to stay in the same energy-rich area for a long time. Moreover, there had to be a decent amount of really strong ones among the Pokemon for the formation of the Mega Stone to be possible.

Now, obviously, this arrangement was impossible for the two Toeds-members since only two of them seem to have been discovered. The second one involved a Pokemon that had managed to achieve a permanent evolution to the most optimal form/state of the species.

It was possible to encounter the corresponding Mega Stones in the dens of these Pokemon if said Pokemon had lived there for prolonged periods. Another possibility was said Pokemon actively creating a Mega Stone, but the process was energy as well as time intensive and left the Pokemon vulnerable so it rarely happened.

Still, this second option was also not possible since none of the two discovered Pokemon seemed to fulfill the conditions of the second method. Otherwise, one of them would have the title "Mega" preface their species name since that was what the optimal evolution had been dubbed.

Julien's main study direction focused on these Mega Evolutions, which was why his first thought upon hearing about the newly discovered species had been in this direction.

It was an occupational disease for a professor to first think of his or her research direction whenever they encounter a species (possibly) viable for their research.

Nonetheless, even if it was unlikely that Toedscool and Toedscruel would become viable for his research for a long, long time, their discovery was still an interesting event and he was looking forward to the official report.

Anyway, Julian decided to focus back on his own work. His own research was as, if not more important in his eyes since it involved the permanent Mega Evolution of the Lucario species.

He, together with his team, was trying to understand/research the condition for a permanent evolution, and once they managed to crack it, at least the Aura Guardian Order would receive a pretty good boost, which would automatically boost the strength of humanity.

Date: 30.29.2181

Location: Purity City, Orre.

POV: Professor John Krane (3rd person)

Would you look at that, John thought to himself after reading up on the supposed leak from Samuel's lab. As if Oak would truly allow any leaks to happen. No, everyone that knew Samuel more than just in passing would know that he simply allowed this to happen because he felt the leak would be useful, and that he made sure nothing important was leaked.

Now, John would not call Samuel Oak a good friend, but they were acquaintances, and he believed to know Samuel well enough to make this kind of judgment. They had after all worked on some joint projects in the past.

He made some inquiries to the alliance regarding the news and after some digging and pressing he managed to learn that it was Mikail who managed to discover the new species. Mikail simply brought them to Oak and asked to be involved in the research in exchange for allowing Oak Labs to handle the official study of Toedscruel and Toedscool.

As expected of the boy that could garner the attention of humanity's top brass, I guess, he mused to himself. Many would see this event as another proof of their theories on the boy, and his belief that involving Mikail in his research would be a good idea was once more reinforced by this news.

Yet, he still was not in a hurry to get Mikail to work with him, and he would simply continue to keep an eye on the boy. Once he felt the time was right he would approach Mikail himself, or send either Ryuuto or Wes to do so.

Date: 30.29.2181

Location: Hau'oli Island, Alola.

POV: Professor Keanu Kukui & Kalani Burnet (Kukui) (3rd person)

"Ku-uipo, have you heard about the news from Kanto," Keanu heard his beloved wife Kalani ask after stepping into his office at their home.

"No, Ku'u Lei, I didn't," he admitted causing his beloved wife to smile.

"That means you haven't checked up on your emails," she said teasingly. "Otherwise, you would have seen the alert regarding a "leak" from Oak Labs. I received one, so there is no way you didn't."

Well, it was true. If Kalani had received such an alert, there was no way that he as the head professor of the Alola region didn't, and a quick look through his emails confirmed that he had, in fact, received an alert.

Keanu began reading through the admittedly small amount of information "leaked" from Professor Oak's lab by one of his assistants. The discovery of two new Pokemon species was the kind of news that could excite the academic community a lot even if the information released for now was minuscule.

Regardless, once he had read through the alert, he focused back on his wife, who had been silently waiting for him to finish.

"Well, I've looked through it now," he shamelessly returned causing her to laugh a bit. "I can understand why you are excited by the news. It has been a long time since the last new species was discovered," he admitted to his wife.

"Yes, it is quite interesting to hear that two brand new species have been found," she acknowledged, "especially when all that has happened on that front for the last few decades was the discovery of various variants."

While the focus of her research was focused on the relationship between Pokémon and other dimensions linked to ours, such as the Shadow Realm or Mirage Islands, she still felt pretty excited by such a discovery, which was why she had directly come up to her husband's office. They might both have been professors, but as the head professor of their region, her husband had access to more information than she did.

"So, is there anything else you have been informed about aside from their species names, their typing, and the new ability they seemed to possess?" She asked her husband who nodded in return.

"Yes," he disclosed, "they also added that it was the latest global student champion Mikail who actually discovered the two Pokemon. He apparently approached Professor Oak with his discovery after capturing them since he is interning at Oak's lab right now."

They had known that Mikail had joined Oak's Lab since it had made the news in their community when it happened, especially after Oak's team announced the new addition to their team on their official website, and now Mikail had proven that his addition was a boon for Oak.

"Unfortunately, they made no mention of the moves either of the Pokemon knows," he said and his wife chuckled at his apparent disappointment.

"You know just as well as I do that such information would not appear in an apparent leak," she said mirthfully and she was right.

Still, he could not help but be curious if the newly discovered Toedscruel and Toedscool knew any new moves. It was an instinct forged by his love for Pokemon moves, which happened to be the main focus of his research.

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