Chapter 09

Note: Thanks to my patrons and those that interact with the content.

******* ***** **** ****** *****

Silver and Steven had been exploring the cave for some time before they came across a Pokemon. It was a Makuhita. The pokemon looked at them, and scoffed as if unimpressed before wobbling away.

Silver looked at Steven and said, "I have half a mind to rush that pokemon and have Larvitar pummel him into the ground while having a type disadvantage so that I can gloat to his bruised face."

Steven chuckled as they continued their walk when they finally came upon a waterfall before stopping as Steven started to put up the Devon Collapsible Tent that he had bought two years ago at the beginning of his journey and said, "We will stay here until tomorrow evening and then I will drop you back home before leaving to Evergrande."

Silver nodded before asking, "So what are you looking for? Since I am here to catch an Abra."

Steven looked annoyed as he said, "You know that I can still give you a Beldum, right?"

Silver smiled and replied before saying, "Yeah, I know that Steve and I love you for parting with a pseudo-legendary so easily for my sake but you know as well as I do that Metagross and Alakazam are completely different pokemon. Metagross can be an exceptionally monstrous physical fighter due to his pattern recognition skills and analytical skill but I don't want a pokemon that can do that, I want a pokemon that is better at the physical aspect of psychic manipulation and not the mental aspect of it. I need a pokemon that can actively make use of its Psychic energy as a method of attack instead of using them for prediction, analysis and problem-solving."

Steven grunted before saying, "Makes sense but I don't like it."

Silver changed the topic as he asked, "Steven what all Pokemon do you have again?"

Steven replied though he gave Silver a look that showed that he realised the tactic, "There is my primary team- Bastiodon, Aerodactyl, Tyrantrum, Magnezone, Aggron and Metagross. Then there are- Steelix, Bronzor, Mawile, a few metang, a few beldum and Skarmory."

'I need to find either a Scizor, a Swamprupt , a Lucario or an Empoleon and give them to him.'- Steven could really do with some more diverse choices that were different from Steel and Rock typing. And despite being very rare pokemon Silver had already planned out his team for the masters barring any legendaries. And Silver already knew the water-type pokemon he wanted was probably waiting in Kalos under Sycamoure's care.

Steven shook him from his thoughts when he said, "We should release a pokemon."

They both released a pokemon each. Silver chose Alioth while Steven released an Aron.

Steven asked Aron to help him find anything they had practised finding, and the pokemon immediately started smelling the ground as if looking for something.

The group moved along the cave, searching whenever Aron pointed at the ground. They would slowly use pickles to take out rocks and ores that Aron found.

They had collected around five rocks until now, out of which three were nugget ores, one everstone and finally a starpiece.

Steven was humming to himself as they walked around the cave.

[Seven hours later]

After seven hours of walking and searching later, Silver and Steven had decided that it was better to move back to the waterfall. Steven's map of the place had helped them a lot as the blue-haired man led them back to their tent.

Silver looked around and found that the room was completely devoid of all light except for their torches before he looked at Alioth who seemed to be at ease in the absence of the light and was reminded how he could see clearly in the dark as an Umbreon.

Steven and Silver moved into the tent which looked completely different from the outside.

'Devon's tech is one of the best when it comes to matter-energy conversion,' he looked in awe at his mother's depatment's work. The tent was not any larger on the inside than on the outside since that kind of a device would be nearly impossible to engineer for mass-production at a reasonable cost, but it still had a bathroom, a small kitchen, lighting, a small port for charging small devices along with a desk and a laptop. The amazing thing was that the whole vehicle-sized setup had been fitted into a small laptop-sized collapsible item that a trainer could take anywhere.

Silver looked at the food supplies along with the other notes and rock displays in the room and was convinced of what he wanted this year on his birthday.

Steven, as if sensing his awe, said with a chuckle, "Yeah, it is amazing. You should get one too when you leave. On each resupply, this thing can last for about two months. The water and electricity are amazing in the field."

Silver nodded dumbly before suddenly asking, "Wouldn't it be better to not turn on the lights? Won't the lighting attract Pokemon?"

Steven chuckled and said, "The walls are not made of cloth but a special carbon composite. There is only one window through which light can get in. And it is closed." He pointed to a three-layer window set up on the wall just beside the bed.

It had a glass pane, followed by metal grills followed by the same material out of which the walls were made.

Silver nodded before he lay down on the floor. Steven also sat down on the floor as they slowly started taking off their shoes, socks and other clothing so that they prepare for a shower.

Steven went first and Silver turned on his watched projector to look at it. After cracking the code for the MIID, Silver had all of the functions of his blackbox moved into his watch since the blackbox had been nothing more than a housing shell for the Porygon and Rotom along with a data and processing unit that allowed for maximum performance along with a connection relay that allowed various devices like Pokeballs, Mobile Phones, Pokedexes, PokeNavs and Laptops to connect to it and share data as well as act as conduits for Porygon and Rotom. And since he could compress the whole unit to a minuscule size after he figured the technology out, he was successfully able to migrate all the functions and data into his watch.

Though he still kept a laptop due to his familiarity with the platform and as a storage backup, in theory, all his needs that required technology could currently be met by his watch, which was now so heavily encrypted that even Porygon himself would not be able to decrypt it if the watch was either stolen or taken away from him. The only way for the security of his LANBOS to be compromised now would be for himself to be compromised.

Silver opened his call log to make a call to his mother when he realized the call could not connect due to a lack of connection.

"L-Rotom, what is the problem with my network connection?"

"You are out of network range," came a mechanical voice from his watch.

Silver nodded. Rotom and Porygon, despite their uses, were totally reliant on their hardware to function. This was a good thing in many ways since the internet would collapse if they were not still limited by their hardware support and could play around in cyberspace however they wished.

He turned the projection off before returning to the papers and rocks in the room. There were many expensive gems and stones along with items like Dragon Scales, Claws of various Pokemon, teeth of various Pokemon, etc.

Silver's eyes were immediately drawn to the scattered sheets of paper on the ground, realizing they contained a collection of notes and documents, many of which were handwritten by his brother. As he perused the contents, one particular sheet caught his attention—a detailed account of Granite Cave, which had once served as the dwelling place of a powerful Steelix, the Ace Pokemon of a local tribal leader from Rustboro.

Among the paragraphs chronicling the historical significance of the tribal leader and their impact on the control of Rustboro along with their defense from aggression from a rival tribe from Dewford, though it was not the historical aspect of the notes that had captivated Silver's gaze. It was the symbol inscribed on one of the sheets—a symbol reminiscent of a DNA strand, the iconic emblem of Mega Evolution. This was a symbol Silver had been fervently searching for since his arrival into this world, its significance deepening his curiosity about the extraordinary phenomenon.

To further pique his interest, his brother Steven had even sketched a question mark beside a block of text that read, "Mega-Stone?"

Silver was reasonably sure Steven knew of the phenomenon just from those words.

"You shouldn't be going through other people's stuff, especially a champion's stuff," Silver was startled as Steven looked at him in annoyance.

Silver ignored the words as he asked, "What's a mega stone? Some kind of ritualistic stone the tribe used?"

Steven smiled before saying, "No it is something better but I am not sure whether I should tell you."

Silver whined, "Why not, Steven? I am your precious little brother."

Steven deadpanned, "I am not giving out a league secret just for that."

Silver asked, "What do you want then, Steve? Say it."

"Promise me you will never go through my stuff ever again. A champion's notes can have informational hazards. So do you agree?"

Silver immediately nodded as he said, "Done!" He had only done it out of curiosity anyway. It made him feel guilty since he felt that breaching his brother's privacy was something that Steven would have dealt with differently if it wasn't for Silver being Silver.

Steven smiled before he said, "A mega-stone serves as a critical and indispensable catalyst for a fascinating process known as mega-evolution. This extraordinary occurrence allows Pokemon that were once believed to have reached their maximum evolutionary potential to undergo a remarkable transformation. However, it is important to note that mega-evolution is not a permanent state but rather a temporary and awe-inspiring phenomenon."

"So can all pokemon do it?" Silver purposefully asked the question that was expected of him.

"We are not sure of that yet but the prominent hypothesis is that only certain Pokemon can do it."

"So it is like a temporary evolution stone."

"Yeah, though it has other parts as well," Steven shrugged.

"Is this information restricted by the league?"

Steven shook his head at the question, "No, we don't suppress it but we don't promote it either. A failed mega-evolution can be harmful for the Pokemon it is attempted with."

Silver nodded slowly before asking, "So we are here to find a Mega-stone?"

Steven grinned at him as he nodded. Silver couldn't help it when his face broke into a grin of its own.

'Being a Stone is awesome.'

******* ****** ***********

Did you know that in ORAS there was Steelixite located in the Granite Cave?

Thanks for the review Stanie_Thomas.

Support Me: Patreon.com/dukeofvirtue