« Anyone want some Poké Puffs?»
Everyone turned to look at Ortega, who had just half poked his head into the sanity room. That day the weather had decided to be absolutely terrible: one of Paldea's infamous flash storms had hit most of the southern part of the region, and the view outside the windows in most offices of the TTDL had been of a rather depressing grey mixed with the constant drumming of raindrops on glass for a couple of days by now. By the third day, everyone who was not away on a time jump had spontaneusly gathered in the sanity room; it was cozy, warm, they kept each other company, and it was nice to look at something that wasn't rain for a bit.
Turo had pretty much claimed a little corner of the room that had a comfortable couch and a table to hold a drink as his own, his figure veritably obscured by a wall of screens and monitors he had opened up all around him, each showing a different article, website, or obscure book he had been digging up. They all shared the same topic: Cyclizar and what changes in the environment had sparked his evolution (in the classical sense, not Pokémon-evolution sense) into Miraidon.
His latest report about Sada's discovery (because it was hers, like he had made sure to point out in the report) of what was probably a Paleolithic era ancestor to both had sparked quite a bit of interest, and so he had spent the last couple of days reading up about Cyclizar and Miraidon. He only had the copy of Sada's drawing to go by, but even only with that there were some details about the Proto-Miraidon that were... puzzling. Like the antennae on the top of their head they both seemed to share: Sada's drawing had given a lot of emphasis on them, while Cyclizar seemed to lack them completely. It was weird, from an evolutionary perspective, for something to lose a certain trait and then acquire it again.
He was so absorbed in his reading that he had barely noticed the question, but the same couldn't be said for everyone else.
« Which Poké Puffs are we speaking of?» came the question from Vega, who had a monitor of her own open and was busy shifting through blurry pictures she had tried to take of the legendary beasts trio. She stopped to contemplate one in particular, which would have captured a perfect and gorgeous image of Suicune running over the waves... only for some guy in a frilly cape to have accidentally photobombed the shot, causing the Pokémon to go out of focus and be nothing more than a blurry splotch of blue in the background. She deleted the picture, irritated.
« ... this dude was everywhere while I chased Suicune, I swear-»
Ortega entered the room proper and rolled his eyes, stealing a chair - as usual- and sitting down.
« The ones from before they changed the recipe and made them smaller, obviously. I need to jump to Lumiose City in year 4679 anyway this afternoon, may as well grab some while I'm there.»
That at least made the redhead perk up a bit.
« Oh hell yeah, get me a deluxe box of Supreme Spring ones then.»
« Of course you go straight for the most expensive option...» the man muttered while taking notes. More orders started to come from the others in the room.
« I want a box of frosted mocha flavored-» that was Satoshi, the researcher from Kanto that had joined the TTLD just last month.
« One medium box of Mint flavored for me.» someone whose voice he didn't quite catch.
« - oh, and also a box of Sweet Fancy ones, you know those with the cute little chocolate squares on top?» that was Vega again.
« You really plan to eat them all?»
« ... I would like a box of frosted orange flavored. » Turo finally raised his hand over the wall of screens, making Ortega jump a little.
« Didn't even see you there... and I thought you hated orange flavored stuff?» he asked, trying to peek over the monitors. Turo flicked them away and accidentally into each other, causing a short buzz of static when the holographic projections collided to fill the room.
« They are not for me. Miraidon loved them when we were little, and he got all sad when they stopped producing that flavor. » and when Miraidon got sad, he had his own special way of looking at him with those cute pixellated puppy eyes, and damn if it didn't make him feel terrible about whatever it was that had caused them, even if it was something outside of his control. You would think it wouldn't be possible for a Pokémon whose eyes were literal pixels to look so heartbroken, and you would be wrong.
« I'm sure he will be happy to taste them again.» having finished his explanation, he buried himself in the screens again, going back to his reading and mentally tuning out Ortega and Vega that had started to bicker about the prices of Poké Puffs in 4679 and how much money she had to give him taking inflation into account.
---
Later that evening, after Ortega had come back carrying a small mountain of pastries, Turo walked back into his apartment with the small box of Poké Puffs tucked under his arm. Miraidon ran up to the door to welcome him back as always, and the Pokémon's pupils got wide when it seemed to smell what he was carrying. With an excited growl, the dragon got up on his hind legs and put his front paws on the man's shoulder, wagging his tail.
Turo just laughed, trying to avoid getting pushed to the floor. Sure, Miraidon wasn't actively weighing down on him - or he would have been sent sprawling already -, but when he got so excited it was a bit difficult for him to control his strength.
« Calm down, calm down! Get off me, you're way too heavy to do that now... you're not a puppy anymore.»
Nevertheless he took a moment to stroke the Pokémon's neck and just rest his forehead against the smooth scales. Miraidon almost purred and nuzzled him with his head, then backed up to give him space, eyes notably never leaving the little box he was carrying.
Turo smiled and opened the box, offering one of the Poké Puffs to the Pokémon.
« Just one for now, I can't have you gobbling them all up in one go... »
He personally wasn't a fan of the smell of oranges that would no doubt permeate the kitchen in the following days, but he could endure it if it would make Miraidon that happy.
A ringing sound resonated through the apartment; with equal parts annoyance and anxiety, he opened a screen and took the call, watching Miraidon devour the Poké Puffs in two big bites.
The anxiety dimmed a bit when the caller was not the TTLD as he had feared. Just a bit, though.
« ... mom? I just got back from work. No, I didn't time travel today, next jump is in two weeks time...»
Turo stopped at the voice of his mother on the other side of the line, then groaned.
« ... No, that doesn't mean I've got nothing to do until then, I do other things in the meantime, I've already told you... And no, I don't want to go to the Moon for some overpriced lunch on Sunday-»
It was crowded and way too turisty - mostly all people born on Mars that got all stupidly sentimental about being on "the" Moon - and it was too far for teleporters to reach, which meant that you actually had to sit down on a shuttle and suffer through three hours of horrible movies and screaming toddlers.
The reduced gravity was really only interesting for the first couple of times, after which it got old pretty fast, and it's not like they didn't have simulators for it on Earth anyway.
Much cheaper. Faster. Less martians that accidentally elbowed you in the face to take a selfie with a view of the Earth in the background.
« Can't we at least do it somewhere else? » he sat down on the couch and tried to at least change the location to meet up, to no avail.
A couple of minutes later he closed the call with a defeated sigh and turned to look at Miraidon, lifting one hand to rub the Pokémon's snout that still had some cream from the Poké Puffs stuck to it.
« Sorry buddy, looks like Mom had other plans for us this weekend. We'll go riding next week, I promise. Somewhere sunny.»
« Gwaoooh.»
« You're still coming with me though. If we have to suffer, we suffer together.»
«... gwaoh.»
---
In the end, the trip had thankfully been not too bad; no screaming toddlers this time, and he had managed to just sleep for most of it. The shuttle docked at the Moon base around 11 AM and Turo mentally prepared himself for the weird sensation of suddenly feeling much, much lighter.
It wasn't complete zero gravity, but it still felt pretty much... "floaty" was the only way he could describe it.
The Moon base was a series of interconnected structures, each built at different points in history for different purposes. Completely isolated and self sufficient with an artificial atmosphere, they were pretty much little cities of their own, and the Moon as a whole was considered it's own region not unlike any other.
Just a bit more deadly if you stepped "outside" without a pressurized space suit.
Turo took the first bouncy step outside the shuttle, where artificial gravity was kept the same as on Earth, and almost went flying - literally-, landing five meters over where he would have landed if he had still been on Earth. The momentum was enough to send him skipping another couple of times and had him resort to windmilling both arms furiously just to finally stop. He glanced around; a couple of teenagers passed by, giggling at him while shaking their head.
See? This is why he hated the Moon. It was so weird, the micro-gravity always left him disoriented and nauseous, and he usually had to leave just as he got the hang of it, because screw spending the "night" there. Complete zero gravity was better than this.
At least he had the comfort of knowing that absolutely everyone looked stupid walking on the Moon, practically Lopunny-hopping everywhere. The only way to make that look cool was the ancient footage of those first astronauts, and only because of the historical importance of it.
Miraidon skidded to a stop next to him in a much more dignified way, having simply tucked his legs in, adopted his Drive form and easily floated after him on his energy rings. Turo glared at the Pokémon.
« That's cheating.»
« Gyaa~» the lizard dragon managed to look pretty smug at that.
« ... just let me ride.» he grumbled, mounting the dragon Pokémon and directing him to their destination.
---
His parents were already waiting for him inside the restaurant. Turo dismounted Miraidon, checked that Pokémon were actually allowed inside, then entered the place. It wasn't the most luxurious place, the really expensive ones served real meat and fish instead of lab grown protein steaks. It was something of a status symbol and nothing more, to be able to say that you could afford it, and there supposedly wasn't really any difference in taste or nutritional value... not like he had ever been able to check if that was true. Or any particular desire to do so, actually.
It was still a restaurant on one of the most touristy spots on the Moon, and so like everything else it was overpriced as hell. He found the table they were sitting at and managed to half slide, half float his way through without bumping into other people, grabbing his chair and sitting down on it with a defeated sigh. The only good thing about micro-gravity is that stuff at least would still stay down and actually stay on the ground once it stopped moving.
« I can't believe you had your first date here, of all places.» was his way of greeting his parents. That was the whole reason they kept coming back to this place.
At 54, Leandro Turo looked pretty much what his son imagined he himself would look like in some... twenty-five years give or take, just with darker hair than his father. Those had definitely come from his mother's side, who was the perfect image of the stereotypical Paldean woman; dark hair and eyes, long eyelashes and olive complexion, Carmen Ramos de Turo simply smiled and shook her head.
« It was quite romantic, actually, an- you brought... Miraidon?» she asked in seeing the Pokémon approach their table, looking a bit nervous in trying to not accidentally hit something or someone with his long tail.
« Why wouldn't I? He's family. » Turo answered, while the Pokémon happily licked both.
« ... good to see you, anyway.» he added after a moment, with a bit more warmth in his voice than usual. Even if he despised the place they had chosen to meet up, he was glad to see them again.
They exchanged pleasantries and ordered their food while catching up on what they had been doing the last couple of months.
« So... time traveling. Never would have thought to see it in my lifetime... It still sounds weird, telling everyone that my son time travels as his day job- no Mirai, down.» his father said while cutting his steak, only to be interrupted by Miraidon cautiously sniffing the plate. The Pokémon whined and sat down, head hung low. The sad puppy eyes had stopped working with his parents decades ago.
« ... it's still almost as weird for me to talk about it with someone else. » Turo answered after a moment while he sneaked a piece of meat to the dragon under the table. It was like... talking about his job with someone outside of the TTDL, someone that knew nothing about how it worked, what they did, what it felt like... it was like two completely separated parts of his life were suddenly being forced to meet. The whole thing made him a bit uncomfortable.
« Still, you were always talking about the future during your studies, I'm surprised you are actually traveling to the past now that you could actually go there.»
His mother's remark make him frown for a short moment, Sada's face flashing by in his mind.
« It's... ah, better to start with the past. The future is more... complicated.» he managed to come up with an excuse, which was also technically the truth. Just... not what his primary reason had been in choosing his destination.
He spotted Miraidon circling the table behind his parents, scooting closer on all fours while staying low to the ground, tail swishing behind him, and recognized the Pokémon's classic "I'm about to try and steal something while you're distracted" stance. He kept his expression carefully neutral, trying not to laugh.
« Makes sense. So many things you could mess up with knowledge from the future.» his father nods, while his mother still looks a bit unconvinced.
« But... isn't the past even more dangerous? You could end up influencing something and completely change the present.» there's just the slightest hint of concern in her voice, and Turo is not sure if she is concerned about something happening to him, or about the fact that her son could accidentally time paradox them all out of existence.
He would be a bit offended about her lack of faith in him, but.... honestly, after somehow shooting himself to the Stone Age?
She had a point.
« That is one theory about how time works, yes. That's why we have so many rules in place, just to be cautious. We don't even know if time paradoxes are actually possible, because... well... nobody wants to be the one that finds out. Truth is... there's been cases here and there that point to something different going on. » he started to explain, playing with his salad with a fork.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
« Have you ever heard about the first successful time jump?» he asked after a moment.
They both nodded.
« Of course. It was all over the news, it was a historical moment. »
« Thirty-two years ago, Jules I. Wells was the first man to successfully jump back in time by 43 minutes and come back. »
« Yes, but... that's not everything he did.» the complete report was something that he had only read after starting his work in the TTDL.
« That morning, on his way to perform the first ever time jump with a functioning time-anchor, Wells went to his usual favourite bar to have breakfast. There he discovered that the croissants he always used to order were all sold out. So, for his first test jump, he decided on something completely innocuous: go back in time just enough to get that croissant.» there was a slight pause while he watched his parents reactions.
« ... I'm sure you can figure out where this is going.»
« ... oh. » they both said after a moment.
« It was him, wasn't it?» his father asked, still blissfully unaware of the lizard right behind him that had his eyes fixed on the half steak still on his plate.
« Exactly. He himself had been the one to get the last croissant, and he never would have had the idea to jump back if it hadn't already happened. The cashier confirmed that he had seen him enter two times that morning and found it strange how he had asked for another croissant after the first, but didn't say anything about it. It's a stable time loop. There's probably a lot more of them just dotted around history... but you have no way of knowing if what you do in the past will result in one until... it does. Or even worse, if it is possible to accidentally break a loop... nobody knows for now, and really nobody wants to be the one to accidentally find out. »
And that is why they just tried to observe things.
And probably why everyone in the TTDL ended up a bit... strange, now that he thought about it. Maybe the job simply attracted a certain kind of person.
His father frowned slightly.
« That sounds... stressful, I wouldn't be able to... MIRAI, NO-»
Turo grinned while he watched what was left of his father's steak get snatched up by Miraidon and the Pokémon scamper out of the restaurant with his prize.
---
A couple of days later, the current director and head researcher of the TTDL, Louis Moreau, entered his office.
« Dr. Turo, may I disturb you for a moment?»
« Y- yes! »
Turo furiously dismissed the half a dozen screens he had opened and stood up almost at attention; he had been here for more than a couple of months by now, but he still felt like an absolute newbie compared to the man in front of him. The man was a legend, practically one of the founding fathers of their entire field of research: in his sixties by now, he had worked closely with Wells himself by helping develop the time-anchor that everyone still used.
He, on the other hand... well, he probably wouldn't shake off the "Paleolithic era guy" nickname for the rest of his career. The man who had accidentally stumbled into the Stone Age, when he actually dreamed to see the future.
... it almost sounded like some bad joke.
« I've been reading your last couple of reports about your project... » the man starts, opening a screen of his own at eye level with a flick of his wrist and pulling up the various documents.
Turo's heart simply drops in his stomach, and for a short moment he feels his legs tremble, threatening to just drop him to the ground, or at most back in his chair.
That's it. They must be cutting him off. Now he will tell him to find something more productive.
His first immediate thought isn't for his job and his research; it's for Sada that would probably wait for him while sending smoke signals into the sky, day after day, wondering when he would come... he had promised to see her again, after all-
But he couldn't let his shock be visible in front of the director, he wasn't going to panic.
« Is there... is there something wrong with them?» he managed to choke out after a moment, voice kept at a carefully controlled, almost robotic monotone.
Moreau looked away from his screen to him with a look of slight surprise.
« Pardon? Oh no, absolutely nothing wrong with them! I understand that things are going pretty slowly in that time period, but there's nothing we can do about that, not with so little information about it that we can use...» he scrolled from one report to another, and Turo resumed breathing normally. He hadn't even noticed that he had been holding his breath.
So he wasn't... they weren't going to...?
« Me and some researchers at Uvanja Academy have been wondering about these "ancestor" Pokémon you've been mentioning in a couple of reports. » the man suddenly closed the monitor and stared straight at him, causing Turo to unconsciously freeze. Those piercing, icy blue eyes would have made anyone squirm.
« ... do you think you could catch some specimens to bring back? » he asked, clasping both hands behind his back and regarding him carefully.
It took Turo a couple of seconds to register what he had said.
« ... c-catch...? »
Like... like with a Pokémon battle, like in the VR games...?
« We will give you Master Balls to use, of course. Should be the most discrete way of doing it. »
Oh... of course. Master Balls. Those were a thing. Made sense.
Didn't make it any easier for his head to stop spinning at the whole idea, still caught between relief that they weren't cutting him off and complete shock.
« Is... is it safe to bring them along...? » he asked. Moreau just waved his hand.
« History isn't going to change because a single prehistoric Magikarp went missing 14'000 years ago. Wouldn't be the first time we extract exctint wild Pokémon from the past and try to reintroduce them in the present. Or at least study why they disappeared.»
Tudo swallowed.
« ... what if someone sees me? »
« Well... it's your responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen. Like everything else with our jobs. »
Yes. Right. He had to be cautious. He had to do this.
... somehow.
---
The usual flash of light announced his arrival in the past, this time in a completely unfamiliar place. He had studied modern maps the day before and tried to approximate coordinates for the area Sada had pointed at, then Porygon 568 had done the rest, automatically tweaking them to make sure he didn't appear halfway inside a tree, or a rock, or the ground... or above the ground, for that matter. In his time, the spot he had chosen was a quaint little café in the middle of Lumiose City. In Sada's time... he could still see the usual river in the distance, this time from the opposite side, but the forest looked less thick here, leaving space for great fields of tall grass. Here and there, boulders and small clusters of trees dotted the landscape, but it was still much more open that what he was used to. And that made him nervous; he felt defenseless while he started to walk following what looked like a small trail that countless Pokémon (or people, for all he knew) had cut through the grass by walking.
He was wearing the clothes Sada had made for him, but since they didn't have any pockets, he had been forced to still bring the lab coat with him. In the left-side pocket, his hand was gripping one of the six Master Balls they had given to him.
... there really was no reason to give him exactly six, it's not like there was a Box system set up in the Paleolitic, it had just been "tradition".
"You should feel honored", Moreau had joked.
"Only Pokémon Professors and really special individuals get clearance for using them."
Turo just hoped that he didn't accidentally lose some by chucking them in the water. Or off a cliff. His aim was horrible, but he probably could use them as a last ditch defense mechanism. Tap something that was about to murderize his face like with that Proto Magikarp, and it would get caught. Problem was, that implied getting close. And doing it alone, if he didn't want to risk Sada seeing him.
He nervously glanced all around to make sure he was alone, then took his hand out of his pocket and stared at the Master Ball. Those had also received some design changes during the centuries: it was completely white with a red line all around the perimeter, but how they worked was pretty much the same. You couldn't improve perfection, after all. Just one little functionality had been added in the last couple of decades, specifically for time-traveling.
One little button press on the side, and the whole Master Ball turned invisible. Turo shifted his grip around it for a moment, trying to get used to the feeling of touching something that he couldn't see, then switched the cloaking device off and slipped the Ball back into his pocket.
He wasn't sure which option would be worse. Sada seeing him pull out another impossibly smooth and round "stone" that imprisoned Pokémon inside it, or him apparently making a Pokémon disappear into thin air by simply touching them.
But, well... he was in no rush. Sada always seemed to choose places that were relatively safe from Pokémon; apart from their encounter with that Magikarp (which, to be fair, had been his fault), they hadn't encountered anything else. He wasn't exactly eager to go running off alone into the tall grass, so he would take his time with this task.
And speaking of Sada... he tried to look around, scanning the horizon for the smoke signals she had mentioned. It was early morning, so maybe she hadn't set up the fire yet...?
Turning east, he actually saw more than one. Three little smoke columns rose far, far into the distance, and it took him a moment to realize that they probably belonged to none other than Sada's settlement. She had pointed east on the map when explaining where she lived, after all, and he had serious doubt about there being that many villages within walking distance of each other. There simply weren't enough people.
It was... weird to think about. There lived her whole world; her family, her friends, probably everything and everyone she had ever known. All in this little corner of the world near what would become one of the biggest metropolis on the planet millennia later, burying every trace of their existence under grass and stone and roads and labyrinthine sewers and finally concrete.
With a small frown, he turns his back to the smoke trails and walks away.
---
Turo didn't have to walk for long before he recognized the exact spot that Sada must have chosen. Those were some really big rocks, and really tall... they were more like giant slabs of stone, laying sideways in a triangular formation and creating three big slopes that made for a great vantage point. And right on top of one of them, there was Sada, sitting down with her back to him. Probably busy starting the campfire.
He smiled and started walking a bit faster, rustling the grass all around him.
« Hey!»
That made her jump around, in a way that wasn't too different from their first meeting. That time she had grabbed the spear and pointed it at him in a second; now she had immediately recognized his voice and waved at him with both arms.
She looked... excited. Well, Sada always looked excited about something, but this time she was even more excited than usual. Maybe she had discovered something else about the Proto-Miraidon?
« Turo!! Ah... come here! Quick!»
Nevermind, that wasn't just excited, she was euforic. There's something new about her appearance, and he noticed what looked like a wooden tube hanging from her waist. What was that?
It didn't look too different from one of those blowguns that people would use to hunt.
Sada doesn't run up to him this time, but she looked so impatient that he forced himself to speed up a little.
« Sit here! » she pretty much forced him to sit by the fire, still grinning all the while. He expected her to grab her notebook to show him something, but Sada took a couple of step backwards and grasped the object at her waist. When she brings it to her mouth he finally recognized it as a crude flute carved out of wood, and is left just more perplexed.
She wanted to play him something...?
« Watch. »
That is... nice, but he didn't think it would justify such a level of excitement...
Three long, piercing notes come out of the instrument, much stronger and clearer than he was expecting, giving him an involuntary jolt. He sits straighter now, waiting for Sada to keep playing, but she had already lowered the flute and was looking at the horizon.
There's a long moment of slightly awkward silence, only the tall grass rustling around them.
... wait, that was it?
« Umm...» he tried to get up, only for a deafening roar to suddenly fill the air all around them. It's strong enough to force Turo to cover his ears and squeeze his eyes shut, and unlike anything he's ever heard.
When he opened his eyes up again, squinting and with his ears still filled with a slight ringing noise, it's just in time to catch the sight of an enormous figure climbing the rock formation and rising up right behind Sada. Who is still turned towards him, hasn't noticed anything, doesn't even have her spear, why doesn't she even have her spear-
They say that when faced with mortal danger, people evolved to respond to it with either one of two fundamental actions: fight or flight.
In retrospect, Turo kind of wants to say that he fearlessly threw himself towards her to protect her, clutching the Master Ball as the only weapon he had and staring down the enormous scaled creature.
Sadly, Turo was firmly in the group of people that developed a third alternative to the fight or flight response. The one called "freeze in panic and do nothing".
To his credit, he did at least jump up and tried to grab Sada's arm to yank her towards him, away from the figure, but to his surprise - and confused terror-, she actually moves away from him, towards the towering scaly lizard-like beast, that...
That is not... attacking... her. In fact, it's actually letting her pet it, lowering its head and letting out a suspiciously familiar sounding purr.
It's... it's the Proto- Miraidon. The bipedal stance had thrown him off, since Miraidon either walked on all fours or simply floated, but it's undeniably the same creature of Sada's drawings.
His legs fail him and Turo slumped to the ground, still trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
Sada turned towards him, one hand still petting the Pokémon, looking so proud of herself.
« Ah... ahahah-» he couldn't help letting out a short, incredulous laugh.
Why wouldn't she be proud? People in her time were still barely figuring out how to approach Growlithes without getting barked at and here she was, taming an honest-to-Arceus dragon. What could you even say to that?
He slowly got up and took some hesitant steps towards the two, observing the Pokémon. It was much bigger than Miraidon and bulkier, pure raw muscle strenght compared to his counterpart's sleek and somewhat slithering figure.
« The name is Winged King.» Sada proudly announced by his side, making him pause and turn to look at her.
« Winged... ?» was it because of the feathers? Sure, they were pretty big, but didn't look able to make him fly, and surely didn't look like wings to him. As for the second word, he had never heard it before.
... he really needed to give it a scientific name, even if just for the reports. Let's see, if Miraidon had been named after the Johtonese word for "future" when they had realized that Cyclizar would pretty much become a completely different Pokémon, then... something related to the past...?
He would have to think about it. For now, "Winged King" would work fine.
Meanwhile, Sada has been talking softly to the Pokémon, getting it to lay back down on all fours. And then, right as he was thinking that there was no way that she could top "convinced a Dragon Pokémon that's barely had contacts with humans to not kill me" in a single day, she mounted it.
Well... okay, she actually took a little running start and then jumped on its back, hanging on the feathered crest -ouch- before managing to seat herself on the Pokémon's broad back- Winged King growling a bit and shaking his head, scattering a couple of white and blue feathers all around.
Her technique definitely needed some work, he thought suppressing a smirk; but considering that she was, maybe, one of the first humans ever to do it? Nailed it.
He was still pretty amazed that the Pokémon seemed okay with it; it kept shaking its head and pawing at the ground, but when the girl didn't show any signs of letting go or jumping off, patting it's neck a couple of times and whispering something that he didn't quite understand, it just huffed and then started to move its head left and right, in a series of small, jittering motions that he recognized with some amazement.
That was exactly what Miraidon did when he tried to pretend that something wasn't bothering him, feigning indifference. How many little details like that had remained unchanged, from one species to another?
Sada broke him out of his amazed trance by patting the space left behind her on the Pokémon's back.
« Come! »
For once, Turo didn't hesitate. He walked to Winged King's side, boosted himself up by pushing against the Pokémon's back legs with one boot, and swung his leg over its back to seat himself right behind the girl, lab coat swishing around behind him - and pointedly reminding him of the Master Balls tucked deep in its pocket-.
Only when she turned to look at him strangely, one hand still half raised like she had been ready to help him up, did he realize what he had done.
Umm... shit.
He was so used to mounting Miraidon that his body had pretty much moved on autopilot. Should he have pretended to struggle a bit?
Well, it was too late now anyway.
Sada regarded him in silence for some excruciatingly long seconds, those bright, brilliant eyes narrowing and quickly scanning him up and down. Looking for some other detail she must have missed, some explanation, they stopped on his hands, his face, his legs. Turo pointedly held her gaze, feigning innocence.
«... let's go?» he offered, trying to keep his voice neutral.
After another long moment, she just shook her head, exasperated, and turned back around to give a command to Winged King in her usual chipper fashion.
She must have noticed something and simply decided to not speak up about it.
Winged King growled and started to walk, walking down the natural ramp of the rock formation it had climbed just before. Sada held on to the spikes on the Pokémon's front legs, another detail that it already had in common with its descendants that amazed him, while Turo managed to kind of hang on by just tightening his grip around the Pokemon's sides with his legs, staying upright.
It wasn't that different from Miraidon, really... just a bit more rigid scales and feathers instead of smooth, metallic plates.
And then it started to sprint, and he had to immediately eat his words.
He let out a little yelp of surprise at the sudden speed boost and had to scramble for some purchase, grabbing onto Sada from behind by looping his arms around her stomach, which made her jolt and gasp in surprise.
Winged King was speeding up, cutting a path through the tall grass, and his only thought at the moment was pretty much "Nope, it's not similar to Miraidon at all".
Miraidon's movements were... smooth, lithe and elegant, his paws not even touching the ground while he zipped forward like a bolt of lightning blitzing through the sky. But most importantly, his old partner's movement felt... controlled. Perfectly adapted and calibrated to ride with him, reading his slightest change in body language, thanks to millennia over millennia of evolution alongside humans.
Winged King's movements made it clear that he was accomodating no one but himself; he could feel the pure power behind every one of the Pokémon's strides, every kick of its legs. There was no reassuring buzz of electricity filling the air, just the sound of it's powerful claws tearing at the ground, its whole body moving up and down.
Winged King felt like riding a force of nature; you didn't control it, you just held on for the ride and hoped to not get thrown off.
But Sada, somehow, was managing it, leaning down to pat the Pokémon's neck and pointing in whatever direction she wanted it to go, in a series of signals she had to have developed herself.
The Pokémon seemed to take them more as suggestions than real orders, but still, it was listening to her.
And then, after another one's of Sada's commands, the Pokémon jumped up, climbed a tree to its highest point, then jumped off it and took off.
« IT FLIES?! » he couldn't help the scream that escaped him as they rose into the air, partially covered by Sada's ecstatic laughter.
How was it even flying? Those antennae even if extended couldn't be the only thing it was using to keep itself in the air, it didn't make any sense! Even Miraidon had to use his jet boosters to keep rising in altitude, and he floated magnetically.
Was it part flying type? Was it generating wind currents to fly??
The Pokémon flew in circles over the tree tops before slowly circling back down to the ground. It landed roughly, almost sending both humans directly pitching forward, and shook his head before growling.
Sada was the first to jump down, and she got something out of her bag that the Pokémon was quick to gobble up in a single bite.
Turo got down a bit more slowly, still in a bit of a daze over the fact that it just flew.
Sada regarded him with a radiant smile, the little moment of tension between them from before already forgotten - or at least, that's what he hoped.
« Did you see?! We were flying! » she breathed out.
« Yes... »
His enthusiasm must have evidently not matched hers in intensity, because she grabbed both his hands with hers, jumping up and down.
« FLYING Turo, like birds! I can... we can... move so much faster. We can explore so much more now!» she was talking much more excitedly now, much faster, and he missed some bits and pieces, but he still understood enough for her words to tug at his heartstrings. Of course... of course that would be the first thing she would think of...
« We can... go to your people ? » she added after a moment, looking up at him. Hopefull. Excited. Beautiful.
His breath caught in his chest.
Turo forced himself to slowly extricate his hands from hers. He lowered his eyes to the ground, he didn't want to see that excitement slowly disappear from her eyes, the light in them die and get replaced with disappointment. He slipped both hands into the lab coat's pockets, as if to hide them from her. Out of sight, out of reach.
« My people are... far, far away. »
He unconsciously gripped one of the Master Balls in his left pocket.
« We... can't go. »
He knows that answer like these must frustrate her so much, because how can't you simply not go somewhere, but how could he even start to explain to her how impossibly far away he actually lives from her?
He simply can't, that's it.
Sada went silent, for the first time since he's met her looking somewhat angry at him.
But mostly disappointed.
Turo sighed, looking around, anywhere that was not her. His eyes happened to land east again. Towards her village. Her people.
« I... » he said slowly, hesitantly.
It would be risky. He would have to be careful. But... really, if she could never meet his, getting to know her people was the least he could do. He could... document who they were. Who they had been. So that at least some trace that they had existed would be left behind. That was what his whole job was for after all, right?
« Can I... come... to your people? »
He watched her eyes widen in surprise.
« R... really? »
He nodded, and was rewarded by the biggest smile he had ever seen on her, her whole face practically glowing - and then she jumped up and hugged him, throwing her arms around his neck, and he is left petrified with a mix of fear and excitement and oh her hair is so soft and tickling his neck and he has no idea what to do should he hug her back and not stand there like an idiot should he kiss her fuckhereallywantsto-
Thankfully Sada let go only a couple of seconds later -even if they felt like an eternity to him- and gently took his hand, or at least his arm.
« Let's go!»
... wait. Wait a moment.
She gently tugged him along, already starting to explain something, and he is left stumbling behind her.
... he didn't mean right now.