CH157 (521), Closing A Chapter (1)

The next morning, after breakfast, I introduced Squirtle to my parents, and they were quite impressed by the little guy, especially when he performed an Aura Sphere for them. Though Mothra/Butterfree did somewhat steal his show when she actually ended up using a small Aura Sphere of her own from her perch atop my head.

Ever since she unlocked her budding aura affinity, I had expected this to happen due to her cheat, I meant talent, which was pretty much a cheat, so whatever. Anyway, I had been expecting her to simply learn that move at some point, that it happened while Squirtle was "performing" in front of my parents could be seen as unlucky timing for Squirtle, who was quite surprised to see her release an Aura Sphere as well, even if it was a tiny one, which I was sure she did on purpose.

Still, my family was used to Mothra's unusualness as far as moves were concerned, so they simply congratulated her on another impressive move in her even more impressive move collection before focusing back on Squirtle to show that they were still very impressed by him.

After that little meet and greet, we "wasted" time until noon since that was when the alliance's Kanto results were going to be published. I kept Squirtle out as well to do some bonding through playing with us, so he and Mothra participated in our game of charade.

Me, Squirtle, and Mothra were one team, while my parents were one team. Well, our team ended up losing, but it was not a total loss since we managed to win once out of 3 rounds, and more importantly, everyone had fun.

Nonetheless, even after that we still had another hour ahead of us, and we chose to watch some music performances until noon. I made sure to stream the music videos into Utopia's Sky so that the others could enjoy them as well.

I had initially been cool as a cucumber since I had full marks in everything which was the best result possible. Yet, I still started to feel a tiny bit nervous by the time the last minute rolled in. I could not help but wonder what would happen if someone else managed to achieve full marks across the board as well.

While that was quite improbable, it was not impossible after all. However, I quickly put that thought to rest since it would change nothing even if that happened. I would still come in first in the rankings, so us waiting for the official ranking release was more of a formality, and ultimately, I would still receive my special reward.

Meanwhile, the other person would get the usual alliance reward, and I had to admit, the regular reward was quite good as well. Usually, the Top 5 were allowed to pick a Pokemon out of a batch of 5-star Pokemon/species belonging to the top group/species of Kanto, along with an evolution trigger for the future if one was necessary.

As far as I knew, the 5 options were always drawn from a pool consisting of the 3 royal starters, Rhyhorn, Magby, Elekid, Horsea, Exeggcute, Tangela, as well as Growlithe, and as usual, the one at the top was allowed to choose first. Well, I guess this time it would be the Top 6 that would be given this chance since I would not be taking part in the usual reward.

Regardless, the clock finally struck 12, and the alliance's Kanto ranking was updated. All three of us checked the top of the list as soon as the page finished refreshing, and Mom's excited yell highlighted the appearance of my name on the top of the list.

Dad pat me on the shoulder while congratulating me and I had to chuckle while he did that since I saw that he initially wanted to either pat my head or ruffle my hair, but couldn't since Mothra was still chilling there.

Still, Dad got to laugh as well when Mom dragged me into a hug while praising me to the heavens. She only let go a few minutes later and once she did, she began calling her friends to share the news, or as it was commonly known to brag.

That was also the point at which the congratulatory messages and calls began to come in, and I spent close to half an hour dealing with those. Though, the most important one came from Professor Oak, who not only congratulated me but also told me that I could come by the lab at any time and that the 3 Beldum were already prepared/present.

Once the messages and calls had calmed down, I gave my parents a heads-up that I was leaving to pick up my reward before swiftly heading toward Oak Labs. After greeting the receptionist I was given the okay to head straight for the professor's office. I knocked at the door and moved inside after he gave the permission to enter.

"Mikail, my boy. Welcome, and congratulations on graduating, and reaching your goal," Professor Oak warmly greeted me with a big smile on his face. "Thank you, Professor," I replied with a smile before my attention was drawn to the case on the table.

The professor no doubt noticed that and I heard him chuckle before he patted the top of the case. "Well, I guess we can talk later. I'm sure you're burning to take a look at the content of this case," he teased before unlocking it and opening the top to reveal three Pokeballs as well as three files.

"Go ahead," he gestured with his hands, and I moved up to the case and let my gaze wander between the Pokeballs before I took the leftmost file to read it.

Just like the files on the Squirtle had been yesterday, this file was pretty much a brief summary of the Beldum inside the Pokeball as well. According to the paper, this Beldum was close to 3 years old, had 5-star potential, and was at the (high) iron stage.

There were two supplementary notations as well. The first one was that this Beldum showed no sign of any recoil damage while using Take Down, which they attributed to some talent that it owned. The second notice mentioned that this Beldum knew the move Iron Head on top of the usual three moves the other Beldum usually learned.

I placed the file back in its place before taking the corresponding Pokeball to let out the Beldum inside for proper observation.

'Species: Beldum

Gender: Neutral

Type: Steel, Psychic

Potential: Deep Blue

Stage: Iron-Stage (high)

(Genetic) Modifier: None

Abilities: Clear Body, Light Metal

Talents: Iron Head*

Affinities: Steel, Psychic'

Well, it seemed the Beldum had some pretty impressive potential. With deep blue potential, this Beldum could be said to be at the top of the 5-star grade potential-wise. Aside from that, it seemed the file had been correct regarding its talent since Beldum had one called Iron Head.

Funnily enough, the talent had the same name as the move, and from the description in the file and its closeness to the ability "Rock Head", it was not hard to deduce that Iron Head neutralized any recoil damage the talent holder/owner suffered as well. It was a decent talent, that could be seen as useful.

After I was done checking Beldum's status sheet, I recalled it and placed its Pokeball back in its place, before taking the file in the center. I could not help but be surprised when I saw the content of the file. It seemed that they had truly taken out their more interesting 5-star Beldum for me to choose from.

Apparently, this Beldum was considered a "mutant" or "irregular", at least according to the file, because it was born with one of its abilities being "mutated" or rather different from the original one. It seemed that instead of having Light Metal, this Beldum had Heavy Metal as its second ability. Reading that, a rather interesting idea came into my mind, but I set that aside, for now, to finish checking the Beldum first.

Well, nothing else stood out for this one. It was close to 2.5 years old, had 5-star potential, and was at the (high) iron stage as well. The only difference compared to No.1 was its slightly younger age. Once I had gone through the file, I placed it back and released the Beldum in question so that I could observe it with my own eyes.

'Species: Beldum

Gender: Neutral

Type: Steel, Psychic

Potential: Deep Blue

Stage: Iron-Stage (high)

(Genetic) Modifier: Ability-variant

Abilities: Clear Body, Heavy Metal

Talents: None

Affinities: Steel, Psychic'

Well, it appeared that this Bedlum had deep blue potential as well which was quite lucky on my part. I also saw the confirmation that Beldum was an ability variant. Looking at the workings of the original and the variant ability, everyone would be able to see how closely related they were.

The way light and heavy weight worked was the application of an inherent force field that partially shouldered or increased the burden of their actual weight, so while the mutation of Beldum's Light Metal ability to the Heavy Metal one was interesting, it was neither an unbelievable nor unheard one.

Still, it was this close relation between the two abilities that caused the idea I had in mind to sprout. I could not help but wonder if I could cause a future "mutation" in Beldum's ability if I made use of the fusion-evolution method and had him fuse with a Beldum that had the regular Light Metal ability.

I could not help but think that there was a chance that this fusion could cause its ability to turn into something along the line of Gravity Metal, which would allow it to manipulate its weight by changing the gravity that impacted/affected it. That would be quite an impressive ability, and I could not help but admit that I was quite interested in seeing whether that would work or not.

Usually, there were two kinds of fusion evolutions for the Beldum line. The first was where one of the two Beldum's minds remained the dominant one, while the second one acted as the passive one. This way the two minds/personalities still melded/fused into one, but one of them became the dominant aspect, which meant that the "new" mind/personality was mostly that of the dominant one with some adjustments to it due to the influence of the passive one.

The other scenario was the balanced fusion/meld of the two parties, which resulted in a "new" mind/personality that was truly neither one of the originals but a true blend of the two parties. Obviously, I would not want the second one for my Beldum if I decided to go through with the fusion-evolution method for any of my Beldum, regardless of which Beldum I ended up choosing.

I would have to find them a fusion/melding partner that was willing to act as a passive member during the process. Also, the reason I seriously contemplated going through with the fusion-evolution method for my Beldum was that I was curious whether a talent would be passed on as well during the fusion-evolution.

If that worked, then this would be an easy way to grant a Beldum a second talent if it already has one, and it would even be a talent of one's own choice so to say.

Anyway, I pushed those thoughts aside and recalled Beldum since I still had a final Beldum to check out. I read through the last file, and just like before this one had 5-star potential as well. It was also at the (high) iron stage, and it happened to be the oldest of the three since it apparently turned three just last month.

That aside, this Beldum had two supplementary notations as well. The first one was that Beldum seemed to be immune to confusion and fear/intimidation, which led them to the conclusion that it had a talent similar to the ability Own Tempo.

The second notice mentioned that Beldum knew Zen Headbutt in addition to the standard three moves all Beldum "learned" at the alliance. Those three standard moves were Tackle, Take Down, and Iron Defense.

Once I was done with the file, I placed it back before taking the corresponding Pokeball and releasing the final Beldum to check its status sheet.

'Species: Beldum

Gender: Neutral

Type: Steel, Psychic

Potential: Blue

Stage: Iron-Stage (high)

(Genetic) Modifier: None

Abilities: Clear Body, Light Metal

Talents: Clear Mind*

Affinities: Steel, Psychic'

Well, it appeared that this Beldum "only" had blue potential, but honestly, it would have been even more impressive if all three Beldum had ended up possessing deep blue potential, so I was not really surprised to see this.

Also, it seemed they had been right in their assumption. Beldum had a talent, and just looking at the title I could guess that it had something to do with protection against negative influences against the mind. A quick check later I confirmed that Clear Mind granted its holder immunity to all mental debuffs, not only to confusion and fear/intimidation. This was a pretty useful talent and I could admit that I liked it.

Still, I recalled Beldum once I was done looking at its status, and placed its ball back in its place. Afterward, I began contemplating which one I wanted, but to be perfectly honest, it did not take long for me to come to a decision since I had kind of made a choice while thinking about the whole fusion-evolution thing, and I saw nothing in the other two Beldum that was able to sway my choice in their favor.

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