99 Chapter 097
Alex led the eight girls to all the different regions in the ranch. He showed them all the Pokemon that were there, answered all their questions and waited for them to interact with the Pokemon. Now there were only a few areas left, and it was almost noon. Alex decided to wrap up the tour soon.
"Up ahead is the area of Steel type Pokemon. This entire area has special ores that are beneficial to Steel type Pokemon, that they can snack on whenever they want. Also, the huge sheets of steel facing the sun creates a comfortable environment for Steel type Pokemon, although it is uncomfortable for us" said Alex.
"Wow! What is that Pokemon?" asked one of the girls.
Alex looked over and said, "That is a Mawile. It is native to the Hoenn region. It also happens to be a Fairy type."
A Magneton floated over.
"Hey Magneton. I have something else to do right now. I'll come by later for our daily training okay?" said Alex.
Magneton gave a cry of acknowledging and left.
Suddenly, an excited cry came from the left, "Beeeeelllll" went the cry.
Alex caught Beldum, and stroked its head while greeting it. Beldum then started checking his head.
"Wow! Is that a Shiny Beldum? Are you its trainer?" asked one of the girls in shock.
"Beldum is not technically mine. It belongs to the Oak Corall. But I can be more or less considered its trainer. It will officially become my Pokemon after a few years when it evolves" replied Alex.
"Why wait a few years? Couldn't you just fuse it with another Beldum now? This Beldum looks to be at the mid Novice bottleneck. It should be able to fuse with another Beldum now right?" asked Amelie.
"Well it's complicated. You see, Beldum can fuse with other Beldum and evolve into a Metang, but Metang which is a fusion of two Pokemon will have both the memories and characteristics of both the Beldum it used to be. In the wild, or in the know colonies, this wouldn't be a problem, as the hive mind of the Metagross means they would basically have the same memories and experiences. But if this Beldum fuses with another Beldum, the resulting fusion may be an uncoordinated Metang with a split personality. This is due to this Beldum being Shiny. It was rejected and ostracised by the colony when it was younger. And the other Beldum which I would fuse with it would undoubtedly have some feeling of revulsion as all Pokemon do towards the Shinies of their species. This, the two brains of the Pokemon would constantly clash, and they may even forcefully devolve, damaging both the Beldum" explained Alex.
"So what is the solution?" she asked.
"There is another method to evolve a Beldum. It is not well known because it is difficult, time consuming, and quite expensive, and has no visible advantage over simply fusing with another Beldum. You see, Beldum are genderless, and they do not mate. Powerful Metang and Metagross can split off a child Beldum after a period of indication and with sufficient energy. Beldum can also do that, but their energy conversion capabilities are low, and thus the incubation time is ridiculously long. But, as in this case, if we give Beldum enough energy and time while suppressing its strength, it will split off a child Beldum. Successful instances of this practice have shown that the resulting child Beldum will be at a level ready to evolve and immediately fuse with its parent Beldum and evolve into Metang. And since this new Beldum has no memories or any personality, the resulting Metang will have two minds which are perfectly compatible, as the existing memories will be dominant over both the brains" informed Alex.
"Wow. I never knew that this method of evolution existed. How much time would it take for a Beldum to evolve this way?" asked a girl.
"As you know Beldum need close 5 years to accumulate enough energy to be qualified for fusing with another and thus evolving. But if you want to evolve it using this method, it needs at least 5 more years. And that is not considering the huge costs to feed it well, as it needs to have excess energy if the newly gestating Beldum has to get a share" said Alex. "This it is highly unpopular. But it's not like no one uses it. As you know, the most powerful Pokemon of the Hoenn region's Champion, Steven Stone is a Shiny Metagross. It had the same problem with fusing with another Beldum as this one did, so he used this method to evolve it. Metang does not have the same hostility as Beldum towards Shiny members of its species, hence after this Beldum evolves, the Shiny Mentag can fuse with a non-Shiny Metang without any problem" he concluded.
