EPISODE 45: Wait What?!*

Slateport City is a port town on the southern coast of Hoenn. It is the ninth-largest city in the whole world! Slateport was created because the clean water made the food abundant in the area, so a local market started to grow. The city then soon became a harbor where ships and boats come and go. There is a lighthouse near the south of Slateport that illuminates the sea for passing ships. It is a great shopping destination with a local Slateport Market.

The city has three major entrances, one from the north of Slateport City is Route 110, which has a bicycle route as well as a path to Mauville City, one that is directly south of the city is the beach of Route 109, and one that is east of the city is the ocean path of Route 134, but the water's current is too strong to Surf east.

Despite these facts, I and Zeal are not headed there today but somewhere a bit further laying at the deep woodlands beside the city. The old laboratory which was said to be abandoned years ago. It is our obligation to research more about this and perhaps, claim the brainwash serums for Professor Olive's research purposes. Like before, Xeryll dropped us at the gate of the laboratory.

"Handy dandy wrench!" Zeal boasted her wrench in which she used to cut the iron gates open. Hanging on these iron gates is a signage that says do not enter. The ambiance of both the hollow forest and the laboratory made me shiver. I feel like a survivor of a zombie apocalypse which is about to infiltrate a laboratory to know "how it all began"

Tall grass with a faded green color is present everywhere. The laboratory has the shape of a decagon. Most windows are shattered apart as if a horde of zombie escaped and went to the nearest city to infiltrate more people. As much as possible, I stayed close to Zeal to keep my hair from standing straight like a cat who is to experience goosebumps.

The first thing we noticed as we enter the facility is that it belongs to a company or an organization that goes by the acronym of M.C. Neither I nor Zeal can fully comprehend what it means but it is suspicious.

"The smell is awful. Did a Ratattata die here?" complained, Zeal as we walked through the dark halls of the laboratory. We did flicked some switches and all it did was to open flickering lights, intensifying my goosebumps. Zeal is correct, the smell is here is terrible as if this was a place where Pokemon came to die.

What is worse are all the scattered scraps of metal and iron equipment laying on the floor randomly. Something terrible has gone wrong for sure which led to the closure of this laboratory in the first place. The history behind it, I long to know more about it.

After that long walk, we reached a portion of the laboratory which piqued our interest the most. Test tubes, mostly cracked and open caught our attention. Some of them were labeled either under "Critical" or "Mild." I remember the terrific experiments the Pokemon Government Council was doing with Pokemon. But this? This is entirely different.

"What the? All of these experimentation has to do something with a term known as Dynamax." said, Zeal while reading one of the journals left behind by one of the aids here before.

"Dynamax? That is a new term for me. What do you mean they're trying to experiment on Pokemon?"

"It has something to do with making Pokemon larger. The journal also talks about some "spots" which bears power that gives the Pokemon the ability to undergo Dynamax in the Galar. However, whoever was behind this was trying to make Pokemon large without the need of these so-called "spots." Sigh, I have to bring this journal to the professor."

"Interesting... Zeal! I found some samples of the serum!" I called her. She quickly rushed to me. Seeing the white serums in person, both of us were in awe. Carefully, she gathered three and placed them inside her bag. While she does this, I did a bit of detour and decided to explore the laboratory further.

On the walls, I saw portraits of Pokemon, very large with a puff of red smoke circling atop the head. There was also this compartment filled with Pokemon. I quickly called Zeal to investigate.

"These are Torterras." replied, Zeal.

She also added, "They look fine with no present injury at all but why would they be here inside an abandoned vicinity? Hmm, suspicious."

"Torterra? Ain't that the starter from Sinnoh?"

"Indeed."

"It said on the label, it has something to do with making them larger by manipulating their DNA."

"Strange. Those Torterras look very normal and ordinary to me. I wonder why it was called Torterra Garden in the first place?"

The two of us were wearing a flabbergasted expression as we tried hard and tough to think of what other reasons for these random Pokemon to be here. It does pique our interest, and I want to know more about it.