California in 1849

The thing about having robotic limbs is that most things which might deter people, or slow them down, aren't really an obstacle when you can lift yourself high into the air and crush anything that might proverbially stand in your way.

For example, trees…or people.

Interpret that as one will.

Speed is also a nonissue. It took me a while to get to Cyllage City, but I could back track through the cave system to get to the Battle Chateau. If I'm really feeling spicy, then I can skip the caving all together and climb over the mountain and make it back to Lumiose in a single afternoon.

All of this serves as justification for my current backtracking towards Ambrette Town. By tracing the video Serena uploaded a while back of her and Fennekin being adorable together, I have found a way to get the general location of her phone. Of course, I did this in less than an hour, so the accuracy isn't that good, plus I really just copied and pasted parts of other code, but it gets the job done.

Never reinvent the wheel. If you've coded something once, just use it again somewhere else. Or maybe find a library that does it for you.

Cartwheeling over the various buildings, if what I'm doing can even be called that, I slide into the aquarium entrance. A few gasps ring out as my arms stabilize upon the ceiling tiles and linoleum flooring. I lower down eye-to-eye with the receptionist. "Good—" I check my internal clock "—morning, ma'am. If you could be so kind as to point me in the direction of the Octillery exhibit?"

She shakily brings her hand up and points to my right. "It's down the hall, at the second left, then a right."

"Thank you," I reply. Crawling through the halls as I approach the exhibit, I test out some new functions I put in the arms—basic OS. I expanded the RAM and CPU capabilities of the arms, now letting them run a basic operating system in addition to the AI converting my brain signals to motor movement. If I'm within range of my laptop, I can even interface with that.

Using the best firewall I built to protect my mind and arms, it allows me to basically program on the go.

Something I'm slightly above average at. For example, this aquarium doesn't have a completely closed-circuit camera network, allowing me to access the cameras through the internet. I now know exactly where Serena and her friends are, but I still have something important to do first.

I stop at the tank filled with a few Octillery lounging around. They stop whatever laziness they were doing and turn to me as I lower down. "I've got to say, guys, I'm a huge fan of your work. I don't know how humans have come this far without more than four limbs."

"Octi!" "Lil!" "Ery!" The Octillery burble in agreement, splashing their tentacles up and down.

"Yeah, great job, all around. Listen, uh, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have this girl that I'm…" What am I doing, exactly? "I'm trying to…grow closer to her. Probably in the worst way possible right now, but I've never done this before. I don't have any other clues. Heck, I've never even dated anyone. I- Am I in the wrong here? I just broke what are probably several laws to talk to a girl I'm not even sure is romantically interested in me. If I knew what was best for me, then should I call it quits?"

The Octillery stare back at me with blank eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'm…talking to a pokémon. Well, I've already come this far!"

Outside, I see the gang standing on the beach holding fishing rods. "Hey guys!" I shout, absolutely scaring away any nearby fish. I crawl down the wall, ignoring the existence of stairs. "What…are you doing?" I approach Serena and command the arms to retract back into the suit, allowing me to stand at Serena's level.

Hmm… I might have more of an issue than I thought.

"Nicole!" Ash shouts…in excitement. "I never expected to see you here!"

"Likewise," I lie. I turn to Clemont and Bonnie. "Hello Bonnie, nice to see you again."

"Hi, Nicole," she replies. Pointedly, Clemont and I nod to each other…and that's the extent of our interactions for today!

I turn to Serena. She looks to the side; her face is red. Is it sunburn or something else? Here's to hoping it's something else. "Hi, Serena." A smile tries to grow on my face, but I force it down. It might be too creepy! "Umm, how are you?"

"Oh, I'm good. We're trying to catch a golden Magikarp right now. For the museum."

"Golden Magikarp," I mutter, rubbing my chin. "Yeah, those appear every 1 in 4096, or so. There are ways to get it to appear more often though."

"Ahh, but this isn't any regular golden Magikarp," an old man interjects from the side. He's possibly the museum curator, if the website has anything to say about him. "We're looking for the giant one. It's as large as the statue up there." He points back up the stairs where the giant, golden statue sits.

"So…possibly a dynamaxed pokémon? Or maybe more like the alpha pokémon of old? Probably the latter if it's in its natural form."

"Well, if you're willing, you can try it yourself!" Saying this, the curator brings out another fishing rod. It's a rod in pretty good condition, all things considered.

I gratefully accept the fishing rod. "Sure, I'll try my luck." I stand back from the rest of the gang, then plant my arms into the soft sand a little distance away. Winding up my arms, I'm swung with massive force as I treat my entire body like a fishing rod, orbiting the circle made by the arms in the sand.

The fishing lure goes flying. At this distance, none of us can even see where it landed. I retract all but one of the arms, walking up to Serena. The remaining arm attaches to the coil of string on the rod because if, by some miracle, I manage to catch a fish, I'm going to need to reel it in quick.

After about five minutes pass, Clemont gets an…idea. He pulls out this Chinchou robot that uses hypersonic waves to…attract Magikarp. A soothing soundwave indeed. Well, if he's going to do that. I'm going to, for once, do it the non-invention way.

"Wow! Science is so amazing," Ash remarks, and I almost physically recoil. That…was the driest statement in the world.

He sends it out into the sea, and I call out Alexandra—the Noibat. Specifically, I call out the sound pokémon. She immediately begins flapping her wings to float in front of my face.

"Alexandra, can you hear that machine right there?" For emphasis, I point to the metal Chinchou. She nods. "Can you emulate the sound waves around the area?" She tilts her head, looking at me in confusion. Right, language barrier. "Can you copy the noise it is making?"

She shakes her head. That…doesn't make sense. She can hear well above whatever range that machine is operating at. "You can't do it?" She shakes her head again. What… Wait, answered a question posed in the negative with a negative answer. "Are you able to do it?" A nod. "You won't do it?" Another nod.

I narrow my eyes, watching the machine in the distance. "Alexandra, return."

"I've been meaning to ask you," a voice interrupts my thoughts on Clemont's imminent failure. "Why do you nickname all of your pokémon?" Serena, thankfully, is engaging in conversation.

"I…" I pause, think over my words to avoid stuttering. "It's a way of individualizing," I reply, succinctly. Then not so succinctly, "Every pokémon is almost exactly like the others…physically. They look identical most of the time, and each of them can learn the same moves. They all even say their name. By…nicknaming my pokémon, I like to think it individualizes them from every other pokémon. Heck, we're even looking for a 1 in 4096 Magikarp right now. I think that really sells the point."

She looks away, at my fishing line on the horizon. "That makes sense, I guess. But, if you got to know them, wouldn't their personalities be all that's needed to separate them?"

"Yes," I reply, not exactly having a good answer to that. It's my weakness, thinking on the spot. I can plan until the planet dies, but if you put me on the spot then I shrivel under the spotlight.

Predictably, Clemont's machine fails. Instead of attracting Magikarp, he attracts…Sharpedos.

He does make a second attempt though! It evolves into a Lanturn. It does attract…something. It's big and heavy. Shoving my rod into the sand, I extend my arms into the ocean to pick up whatever's on the line that the others are desperate to catch.

Finally, I hoist it up. It's a golden Magikarp, that's for sure. But it…isn't the one we're looking for like the others believe. Even I can see that this is just a submarine of some kind.

Three…annoyingly familiar figures climb out of the hatch on top. "No way…" Ash mutters, and it's at this point where I'm forced to wonder how true that statement is. With every single encounter I've had with Ash, I've also encountered these three clowns. If he's meeting them as regularly as I'm hypothesizing, then that statement really wasn't needed, and he should probably be expecting this.

"Prepare for trouble, no way you say?" The pink haired one, uh—Jesse, begins.

"And make it double, no way, no way!" …James! James says in the second…verse?

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all people within our nation!"

"Jes—" ""OH!!!""" The three clamber and shout, as I have gradually lifted them over to the beach during their dialog or whatever, and promptly dropped them and their submarine on the beach.

"You three idiots! Can't you see I'm trying to enjoy a nice day at the beach?!" Each of my eight arms hovers behind me, raised to strike at the slightest twitch in my brain.

"Don't bother, Nicole! These guys are always trying to steal pokémon!" I snap towards Ash, as do the arms, with an involuntary twitch in my left eye.

"Ash," I begin, as calm as I can muster. "It sounds like these guys are a recurring problem. If so, should I simply crush their ribs and be done with them?"

Ash, showing the emotional capacity beyond child-like wonder and anger for the first time, looks horrified at my suggestion. "What? No! Why would you do that?"

Propelling myself with my arms, I appear right in front of the boy. "Incapacitating the criminals. It ensures that they cannot escape, and the authorities can arrest them. It's pragmatic, yes. It can also be viewed as somewhat evil, but I've found the line between the two to be quite thin at times."

He frowns. "We're not crushing their ribs."

I step back, near Serena. "Fine then." With four of the arms, I grab their submarine. The criminals look on in both wonder and horror as I hold it over them, then start crushing the submarine down. Bit by bit, with crumples and screeches, the several ton vehicle becomes a solid chunk of metal with the diameter of a person.

"Okay, Inkay! Let's go!" James calls out.

"Pumpkaboo! Come out!" Jesse commands.

I frown. I pull out two pokéballs. "Elspeth, Cecilia. I need your assistance." The Alolan Vulpix and Combee respectively come out.

"Use Shadow Ball!" "Inkay, Psybeam!"

"Dodge it. Elspeth, use Powder Snow on the Pumpkaboo. Cecilia, use Gust on the Inkay." The two do dodge it, firing back with their respective attacks.

Almost pitifully, the attacks connect and send the two pokémon down.

Now, Team Rocket looks at a loss for what to do. Their pokémon were taken down with absolutely zero effort, and they have no means of escape.

Speaking of, that sphere that used to be their submarine is sparking quite a bit. Is that supposed to happ—?

*BOOM*

"WE'RE BLASTING OFF AGAIN!!!" You know? I could have grabbed them, but I'm not sure they would've made it out alive if I did that.

———————————————————————————————————————

The sunset approached many hours later. Not much conversation took place with my perpetually-pissed-off expression that I can't seem to wipe off my face.

The others had given up on the Magikarp after the whole Team Rocket thing. The curator is fishing once again, and I'm still holding out hope. See, I never really cared about the Magikarp. Yeah, having a red Gyarados is cool, but that's about it.

I've been looking for a water pokémon this entire time to add to my team. Something to balance out my primarily Dragon-typed team.

However, due to my own ego, I've had trouble determining if there's a fish on the line, or if it's just the distance the fishing lure is at. Currently, something is pulling, but I've had 26 false positives in the last hour alone.

With the arm mounted, I begin the process of pulling back the lure. This will probably be the last time today.

"You kids can keep your fishing rods. I'm sure they'll come in handy someday." The others and I give our thanks to the curator. My attention is mostly on my own rod, though.

Then, a splash. All of us look at the water as a Magikarp—no, the Magikarp we've been waiting for all day jumps out of the water, soaring through the golden sky. Despite the luminance of the scales, all of my attention is attracted to the eyes.

They're red.

"Was that…the golden Magikarp?" Ash asks, but I'm not completely focused on that.

"YEAHHH!!!" The curator cheers. "IT'S TRUE! THE LEGEND IS REALLY TRUE!" He begins doing a funky little jig and dancing around. The rest of the gang all cheered while I finally pull in the fishing line.

I've…caught a pokémon. It's…a, uh…

"Fee?" It mutters. It being a Feebas.

"Hello," I greet it. "Would you like to become the best version of you that you can be?"

"Ba?"

"I'll take that as a yes." I press a pokéball into its side, and, after three shakes, I've successfully caught a Feebas. I'll check gender and think of an appropriate nickname later.

I have more pressing matters to attend to. Like reporting to Professor Sycamore that the once thought extinct alpha pokémon are not as extinct as once thought.