Chapter 8: AI Sada

Poco Lab

Eleven years earlier

    "Arven, come outside!" It had been a long time since Arven's mom actually called him.

    He looked up from playing with Maschiff and picked him up. Arven pushed his shoulder into the lab's door and stepped outside to find his mom with a very mysterious-looking, scarlet Pokémon in front of her.

    Sada rubbed it under the chin and said, "You like it there, don't you?" when she saw the Pokémon's tail wagging. She turned her head in the direction of Arven's footsteps. "Arven, check out what I found!"

    Arven's footsteps slowed the closer he got to her and the more he studied the Pokémon. "Mommy, what's that?" he frightfully asked, hugging Maschiff to his cheek.

    Sada didn't even look at him. She continued to pet the Pokémon. "No idea, but he's amazing, isn't he? I'm gonna call him Koraidon. What do you think, Arven?"

    A few tears ran down Arven's cheeks. "I don't like him, Mommy. He's scary."

    "Do you like the name Koraidon?" Sada asked the Pokémon.

    Arven tried again. "Mommy, I don't like him."

    "Oh, the things I can do!" Sada said, chewing her fingers. She pulled Koraidon close to her. "We're going to have so much fun together—you and me."

    Sada rushed the Pokémon into the lab and instantly started to type in a few of her computers. An outline of Koraidon appeared on one monitor, a description on another, and a bulleted list of Sada's goals for her time machine on the final one.

    Arven, who followed her into the lab, put Maschiff down. He dove for Sada and grabbed her ankle. "Mommy! Mommy, please listen to me!"

    "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" Sada stuttered while she typed into the monitor about Koraidon's description. She lifted her leg and shook Arven off her.

    He landed with a plop on the floor. Crying, he punched it and kicked his feet.

    Sada scooped up a clipboard on her desk. She gestured for Koraidon to step outside. "Outside, Koraidon. I want to study you some more."

    "Mommy!" Arven screamed, but Sada went ahead and left him.

    Maschiff hurried to Arven and sat down next to him. His tail wagged, and he gave him a few slobbery kisses.

    "Mommy, please come back. Please," Arven begged. Even with his calls, he did not hear from Sada for the rest of the day.

***

    AI Sada put the memory on loop and spent a good while studying the holographic screen in front of her, trying to figure out what she could do better. She sat on a log in the massive grove that seemed to stretch on forever and listened to the Pokémon in the area.

    A herd of Brute Bonnet, mushroom-like Pokémon who were short and stout and had pokéball-styled caps and smaller ones over their hands, started their mating ritual. They weren't the tallest beings in the world—only about four feet high each—and looked like a cross between a dinosaur and a plant.

    The males showed off the spikes on their caps to the females. The rays of the sun shimmering through the close treetops helped them. Some females preferred fewer spikes, while others preferred more.

    Sada tucked a strand of dirty blonde hair behind her right ear and pressed a button in her upper ear wall. The screen vanished, so now she had a clear view of the mating. It was perfect for her research. She rested her hand on her lab coat, which she draped over the log, and tugged on her tooth necklace. Where were they? Sada had been waiting for a few hours, but hey, at least she got to see how Brute Bonnet flirted. That was all she hoped to see.

    Sada perked up when the Past Pokémon suddenly stopped their ritual. They glimpsed at the treetops and then took off and dove into some bushes not far from her.

    She hopped off the log, but just when she reached for her coat, her legs jiggled under her, and she sat back down. That was out of the blue. Why did she feel so tired?

    Sada waited for a bit before she gave it another go. She found her balance that round and slipped her coat on, yawning. She pulled her hair out from the feathery collar. It reached down her back and was styled in five braids—the largest over her right eye. She and Arven both had oval-shaped eyes, but Sada's were greenish-cyan.

    Sensing it was time, Sada hid behind one of the grove's massive trees. Soon after she did, Nemona, Scarlet, Penny, Arven, and the Pokémon appeared over a patch of tall grass that was sprinkled with a few flowers here and there.

    Celebi brought them to the ground and set them down.

    "Four humans detected," Sada whispered to herself. "Vital signs are normal. Only one appears to have sustained some minor injuries." She saw Arven, still unconscious, at Penny's feet, but she felt no fear or sadness. Her eyes blinked red a few times.

    Okay, how was she going to do this? Sada hid herself more, but she stepped on a stick. So much for stealth.

    "Who's there?" Penny asked, looking up from Arven.

    He stirred at her feet and groaned. "Ugh."

    "Arven!" Penny added.

    Sada had to admit, it was nice to see that she cared for him. She just hoped that she could do the same.

    "Is he awake?" Nemona inquired. She patted Koraidon, who returned to his low-power mode, and hurried to Penny.

    Scarlet remained where she was because her eyes had landed on the tree Sada hid behind. She adjusted her glasses and walked toward it.

    "Human presence detected," Sada repeated. "Switching to attack mode. Wait!" Not again!

    Despite Sada's plea, her eyes still glowed bright cyan. Her arm made a whirling sound when she drew a Master Ball from her coat pocket. She stepped out from behind the tree and marched toward Scarlet. Her knees did not bend in the slightest. "Attack, attack," Sada ordered.

    Scarlet quickly removed a pokéball from her belt and held it over her right shoulder.

    Penny and Nemona helped Arven to his feet. The second they had his arms over their shoulders, he saw Sada and yelled, "Mom!"

    At Arven's voice, she turned her head and lowered her pokéball.

    "Oh my gosh!" Nemona said, with a smile on her face. "Now that's something you don't see every day." She nudged Arven. "Try calling her again, Arven. She responded to your voice."

    "Right," he said. "Mom, what are you doing?" He dug his boots into the soggy soil under him and planted them like roots.

    "Arven," Sada, after a moment of silence, observed. The ball dropped from her hand, and her eyes returned to normal. Falling to her knees, she clutched the dirt patch under her. "I'm sorry, children," she apologized. "That wasn't very hospitable, was it?" It definitely was not the welcome she, as a mother, was supposed to give her child and his friends after a school day.

    Sada glanced at Scarlet and told herself, "Be brave, Sada. Be brave." Finally, she stood and placed her hand on her left hip. "Welcome, children, to the time of Past Pokémon." That was more like it.

    "Past Pokémon?" Nemona questioned. "You mean we did it? We traveled to the past?"

    "You're looking at me, right?" Sada wanted to know.

    "Yes!" Nemona cheered. She yelled so loudly that Arven's head spun. Nemona let him go and hurried to Sada. "Professor, Professor! You've gotta show us around."

    Koraidon approached Scarlet, but Miraidon refused to get close to the professor. He huffed and looked away from her.

    Celebi set itself back down on Arven's shoulder.

    Sada's head moved slightly so she could look at Nemona. "Well, to start, Nemona, where we are now is the Tagtree Thicket thousands of years ago. Now, while I may be nothing more than an AI, I do wish to escort you children to my humble abode." Was that too formal for a mother? Sada had no idea what she was doing. Professor Sada didn't exactly give her a How to Be a Good Mother guide.

    AI Sada's eyes blinked red again. "Come. Arven could use a couch rest, too." Oh, that was so much worse, but she would keep practicing.

    Sada turned on her heel and stepped over a cluster of ferns in her path. Without looking back at the kids and Pokémon, she added, "And remember, do not approach any Paradox Pokémon unless you want to wind up with the same fate as the original professor."