A few days later, Drake continued to try and figure out what Mabel wanted him to learn, and that meant more battles in which he encountered the power of Mega Evolution.

Today's Mega Evolution being Venusaur's.

Mega Venusaur was a different beast from a regular Venusaur.

It was larger, with more growth on the plants upon its back. The Pokémon also had more weight to it in the mega evolved state.

Drake could tell this from a few moments of observation, even as a battle waged.

A battle he lost as a Vine Whip slugged Ditto, knocking it out of its transformed state as Herbert's Simisear.

"Ditto is unable to battle!" Pendula declared as he returned his transforming partner with a appreciate word.

"Ha! You might have gotten in some lucky moves in, but with Venusaur out there is no way you can win. You can start calling me champion now," Herbert boasted with a puffed out chest.

"Those lucky moves mean that Venusaur is your last Pokémon," Y snarked from the sidelines, deflating Herbert a bit from his high.

Ditto had defeated Simisear and Politoed, meaning that the advantage was still on him when it came to sheer numbers. However, that was no reason to become complacent.

Complacency meant defeat. He could never lose.

He must never lose.

Thankfully he was pretty sure that even with the observed Thick Fat ability this Venusaur gained from mega evolving, that the weaknesses of Venusaur were still retained. Weaknesses he knew how to exploit.

"Go!" Drake called as he sent out his second Pokémon, whose landing shook the earth beneath him.

"Your Venusaur? Against my Mega-Evolved Venusaur? I know that you can find this sort of thing online with less evolved Pokémon, but against a Mega-Evolved one?" Herbert seemed baffled at his choice.

It was a opinion that most of his fellows did not seem to share, given how several of them shook their heads in a combination of disbelief and an understanding of the concept of 'jinxing yourself'.

"My Venusaur has specifically trained to fight other Venusaur. That will be all we need," Drake declared as Herbert looked at him in amusement.

"Yeah sure, whatever makes you feel good about this."

"You know what to do!" Drake ordered as his Venusaur bellowed loudly, before letting forth a storm of Vine Whips right at the Mega-Venusaur.

"Poking us into defeat huh? Well, we can do that better!"

Mega Venusaur used its own Vine Whip storm, as the vines began making contact against the other in two distinct styles.

His Venusaur struck into Mega Venusaur all over in the form of quick jabs, striking in and out before going for another point too fast to predict the next spot.

Mega Venusaur used Vine Whip to slap instead, striking in the same general area. The end result of that was a more sizeable damage output, and as the vines were retracted after a good fifteen seconds of exchanged blows Drake was well aware that his Venusaur was the one barely standing, and covered in massive welts across his forehead.

"Saur..." Painful welts it sounded like.

Both Herbert and his Venusaur chuckled in victorious pride, before said Venusaur seized up and collapsed onto the ground with splayed legs and limp vines falling to the ground.

"Wha!?" Herbert declared in shock.

"My Venusaur struck yours in major effective pressure points controlling battle function. While Mega Evolution did change it, these pressures points remained consistent and were successfully applied. Your Venusaur is paralyzed, it is not able to move and will not be able to for some time," Drake declared as he heard the sounds of an impressed audience to his side.

Even Mabel gave an approving noise to their tactic.

"Will it take more than five minutes?" Pendula inquired.

"An hour tops."

"Then by time alone Herbert's Venusaur is disqualified. The winner is Drake!"

…

Chauliac himself wasn't here at the moment, as he was out getting some herbs that would benefit Salamence, who while no longer on the verge of starving to death was still doing poorly, though he had left his partner here to ensure that any issue that came up would be addressed.

Chauliac's partner Pokémon was an Audino, a Pokémon Drake had only heard of as the Pokémon of choice for Unovan Nurse Joy.

The Pokémon did have a bit of familiarity to the Chansey line that Drake was used to, though as a species it seemed to favor using Heal Pulse over Soft-Boiled.

Regardless of the move choice it did seem to be doing the trick, as both his and Herbert's Venusaur (the latter still being Mega-evolved as a apparent side effect of what he did, he barely understood what Mabel and a kid named Corentin had said in the aftermath though he was pretty sure they said something about it reversing eventually.

They only got that Venusaur here because of Vermell, whose Ursaring had carried it. Said Vermell was leaning against the wall, his eyes closed.

Mostly it seemed to not get involved in the following conversation.

"We need to find him again Venusaur."

Herbert's solemn declaration was followed by Korrina, the granddaughter of Gurkinn, shaking her head.

"Yeah, sure, you do that. If you find Santa Claus while you at it, think you can put in a request for me?"

Herbert stomped his foot following this quip.

"Why does no one ever believe me when I say it? It's not like I came back with nothing the last time I met the guy. I beat Astrid with what I learned from him, and it certainly didn't come from any of you guys."

"You had a clever idea, that doesn't mean it came from some Gladiator," Corentin declared.

"Also, the story you keep telling about him is madness. You go into the caves in the mountain, and somehow end up in the home of some brain who calls himself the Coliseum Gladiator, who you battled and learned from. You can't say it isn't more farfetched than a Farfetch'd dance number."

Was that a saying in Kalos? Because if it was, it wasn't a good one. He was sure he saw a Farfetch'd dance number once, or a theater Farfetch'd who did background dancing.

Though he had to admit, the idea did seem kind of silly. Go inside this mountain, meet 'Coliseum Gladiator', and battle him?

"Hey wait, I just thought of something. Orange guy!"

The shout from Herbert was aimed at him, so he looked at the kid, who continued.

"You're the Orange League Champion, so that means you know what the Orange League Trophy looks like."

"I have the same one from when I first was appointed to my position. It was meant to go to the first person who ever beat me, and it had never been handed out. So yes, I know what it looks like," Drake confirmed, not sure what Herbert was going at.

"Does it have Silver Wings with the rest of it being gold with a Master Ball design on top?"

"Yeah."

"Well the Coliseum Gladiator had one of those displayed with other trophies of his past victories. Since I had no idea that trophy was the Orange League Trophy specifically, that clearly proves that he is real."

"Or you're making a bad lie to try and justify yourself," Y snarked as Drake took the cue to join Vermell in not engaging the argument further.

It was true that said trophy description was along the lines of his own: each Orange League Head Gym Leader had their own trophy design specially created. However that meant that there was only a single of those trophies.

A trophy he had never given to anyone, and could never afford to give to anyone. How a theoretically existing 'Coliseum Gladiator' had a similar trophy was beyond him, but it wasn't from him.

For the undefeated Head Gym Leader Drake had never given away a trophy to anyone, though as a result the exact description of the trophy was obscure enough he did have to wonder how Herbert knew the design was Master Ball themed.

A lucky guess?

The conversation was interrupted by a pink-haired Bishonen with an armload of herbs in hand.

"I leave for an hour and another Coliseum Gladiator argument starts," Chauliac son of a Joy grumbled.

"Another?"

Chauliac looked at Drake and shook his head.

"I can't say what happened beyond what my medical knowledge showed me, but what I can tell you that someone did defeat Herbert's entire team the day he claimed to have battled the Coliseum Gladiator. He fought something, but if it was a Gladiator, a wild Pokémon, or something else is up to what you personally believe. The who and how isn't important to my family, all that matters is the healing afterwards."

With that declared he continued off towards where Salamence was, muttering about mutual stubbornness under his breath the entire way.

…

After checking on the still ailing dragon, what questions of the Coliseum Gladiator (who may or may not exist) were put aside.

For Drake had another battle on Mabel's instructions to undergo.

This time against Corentin.

Corentin was a straggly brown-haired teenager with a look to him that Drake could probably be safe in calling nerdy. He looked smart, and wasn't particularly tall or muscular.

Of course as they were not playing a human sport Drake knew that meant nothing. Agatha looked like a shriveled old woman and she could give him a run for his money, possibly even defeat him.

It was among the reasons he had never felt interested in battling Elite Four members.

He adjusted a bow tie around his neck, and probably would have adjusted his glasses if he had a pair, before offering him words.

"You said you came here to find a way to avoid being defeated by ongoing analysis?"

He didn't phrase it like that, but it wasn't an inaccurate way of putting it.

"You know data can never be defeated, right? Even if you render the data before you mostly outdated, it will still be there, and it will grow as people notice more about you."

Corentin's boast about the power of data analysis deserved a quippy response, and he hoped this would suffice.

"I'm cutting it off before it can become a problem. If you think data will tell you how to beat me, then you are the biggest fool here."

"No, that's Herbert. I'm not declaring I will use data to defeat you, I am merely making an observation of your possible futile struggle. Now, let's see if you can learn anything today."

With that he threw a Pokéball into the air, which released a floating brown Pokémon that didn't make a sound.

"A Shedinja," Drake identified it. While not something you'd find in the Orange Islands, he had heard tales of this Pokémon.

A Pokémon that could only be defeated by super effective attacks, but would go down in a single hit. It was why he always ensured that Dragonite knew at least one such move.

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He took steps to ensure they'd never lose to such a thing. Of course it wasn't just Dragonite who was prepared for such a foe.

"Onix!" Drake sent out his first choice as the battle began.

"Stone Edge!" Drake suspected there would be something set up to work around the weakness, but in case this was just a test Onix formed the rotating stones around himself and sent them flying at the motionless Bug.

"Phantom Force!" Corentin's call was followed seconds later by the insect vanishing from sight, the Stone Edge flying harmlessly through the Pokémon's former location.

A dark blur slammed into Onix's neck moments later as the attack landed, knocking Onix's neck back.

Onix recovered just as Shedinja floated back to where it had begun, and with such a move Drake took a guess at how this would go from here.

The Shedinja would dodge his Stone Edge with Phantom Force, then strike Onix as to prevent a second attack. It would then slink back to where it started to repeat the process.

He'd need a bit more tactics to win this one, and Drake had just the idea of how to go about it.

"That won't work a second time! Stone Edge now!" Onix roared as the second Stone Edge attack manifested.

"Phantom Force!" Corentin had a face that was a mix between 'my plan is working', and 'this guy must be up to something'. Despite such concerns, the nature of Shedinja meant it had to avoid Stone Edge, and so the odd Pokémon vanished again into nothing as Stone Edge flew.

"Now Sandstorm!" Drake declared as Corentin let out a gasp in surprise.

The shadowy blur appeared as it had before, only for a storm of sand particles to blow out of Onix's many nooks and form into a whirlwind around him.

Shedinja was caught in the whirlwind, and was promptly sent spinning like a top into the air before landing in front of Corentin. Onix bellowed victoriously as the first round went to them.

"I see, so that was your plan."

With that Corentin returned his Pokémon, and Drake wondered what would be his next choice. With a Shedinja came a Ninjask, or so he was told. Perhaps that would be it?

That wasn't the case, as the second Pokémon that came out was one that Drake had not seen before. It was a quadruped of brown coloration, with dark black horns and vegetation growing upon it.

With such a color, Drake was going to assume Grass-type.

Onix let out a low groan that Drake could roughly translate as 'this is going to suck.'

"Type alone doesn't decide everything," Drake reassured Onix.

"It's but one of at least seventy-four factors," Corentin absently added as the sand began to flow into his Pokémon's eyes.

"Use Rain Dance, non-Break prep levels." The Pokémon's eyes flashed blue as a soft drizzle began coming down. It washed away the sand, but it wasn't otherwise prominent.

Non-Break prep level?

Whatever that was, Drake would deal with it in time.

"Use Dragon Breath!" Onix took a deep breath, ignoring the rain as they had practiced in such light drizzles past, before firing the attack.

"Use Surf to block!"

The Pokémon bellowed loudly as a wave of water formed around it from the aether. Said wave pushed outward, absorbing the Dragon Breath and the light drizzle as it struck Onix head on.

Said impact knocked his Pokémon down, where it struggled to get back up. The match was not over...

"Now Horn Leech!"

The Pokémon's horns shimmered green before firing right into Onix. Said horns retracted to an Onix who was no longer trying to get up.

Now the match was over. They were one-one now.

As he returned Onix he gave it a thank you for battling well, before looking at his still unnamed opponent.

This match was not over yet.

"Gengar!" He sent out his second Pokémon, the Ghost Pokémon floating over the field and grinning right at the unfazed opponent.

He'd see what type that Pokémon was exactly.

"Gengar, Sludge Bomb!"

Gengar pointed his fingers at the enemy Pokémon, before purple globules fired out of each hand in rapid succession.

"Gogoat quickly, block it with Surf!" The now named Pokémon stamped its hooves as another wall of water rose up to block the attack. The wave didn't push out this time, and dissipated away after Sludge Bomb was done.

"Thunderbolt!" Drake quickly ordered as Gengar quickly zapped the Gogoat. The attack moved before the Pokémon could retaliate, but it stood the attack fairly solidly.

The attack wasn't very effective.

"Horn Leech!"

It didn't even hinder Gogoat from shooting out another attack from its horns. Said attack struck Gengar in the gut, knocking his Pokémon away in a spin while ceasing the Thunderbolt. As the electricity faded a green recovery aura surrounded Gogoat.

When Gengar was done spinning he didn't look too fazed.

That suggested the attack was also not every effective. A Grass-attack perhaps?

If it was, a bit odd to see such a Pokémon using Surf.

"Hypnosis!"

Gengar's eyes shone blue right at Gogoat's way, who countered by closing its eyes.

Gengar promptly stopped attacking and pouted at Gogoat the way one would a spoilsport.

"It's that easy?" Korrina stated in disbelief.

"Usually, yes." Corentin shrugged.

At this point Drake wished Gengar knew Phantom Force. It would let them get past that Surf wall and strike. However Gengar did not know such a move, and so they'd need to find another way.

"Gengar, Shadow Ball!"

As the ball of shadows formed in Gengar's hands Corentin countered.

"Use Worry Seed!"

A single green seed shot out from the Pokémon, and Drake wasn't entirely sure what the move did.

However Gengar avoided it and lobbed the Shadow Ball right into Gogoat, knocking the Pokémon back a bit.

However he doubted that would be sufficient. He'd need another way...and Drake had an idea of what that other way would be.

"Gengar!"

He called to his Ghost Pokémon, who floated over to him in confusion. Drake then began whispering his plan to the once more grinning ghost.

"Can he do that?"

"I see no problem with it."

Mabel's nonchalant answer to Herbert's question came as he finished his whispered plan. Gengar nodded in agreement as Gengar flew towards Gogoat, using Double Team as he did so and began firing Sludge Bomb in a mass wave.

"Bulldoze!" Corentin had a fifth move up his sleeve as Gogoat stomped the ground again, this time causing beams of light and spraying dirt to shoot up everywhere.

This move destroyed all the Gengar dupes, and left no Gengar still flying towards Gogoat.

For the real Gengar was farther away, having finished forming a very large Shadow Ball before firing it at Gogoat.

"Surf!" The water wall came next, and with it the Shadow Ball was stopped after it pushed its way to the very edge of breaking through.

So much so that Gogoat and Corentin could probably see the Shadow Ball micro inches from the inner edge of Surf. In fact, given that Gogoat backed a few steps away from it, that was likely the case.

However it wasn't just a bigger Shadow Ball that was in play, for the Shadow Ball soon erupted into a barrage of Sludge Bombs.

Sludge Bombs that had been put inside the Shadow Ball while the Gengar Double Team distracted Gogoat.

Gogoat was promptly blasted with a massive wave of sludge right through Surf's last gasps and fell in defeat.

"I didn't know you could do that?"

Pendula's amazement was shared by Corentin, who returned Gogoat with praise for it.

"A Trojan technique. I hadn't thought you might try that. Impressive. But my ace is still to come."

Said ace was thrown out in a green and black ball, a Dusk Ball Drake believed it was called. Out of it came a Pokémon that resembled a tree, with a single red eye glowing as it glared at Gengar.

"This is Trevenant. You won't find it as easy as the last two."

He named it upfront; that was nice. So, was it going to Mega Evolve?

"Now, you see this Pokémon is different from Pokémon you've fought already, like Altaria and Venusaur. As of now, it is not known to possess a Mega Evolution. However, she doesn't need one."

Trevenant outstretched both of her arms as this declaration was made, as yellow particles began streaming into the Pokémon's body. Drake wasn't sure what they were, but he had a slight idea as he noticed the area slowly darken, as if a cloud was overhead.

However, the sky was completely clear, and the light continued to dim as more particles of light began streaming into Trevenant, as the color of Trevenant began changing from brown and green, to gold.

He noted Mabel in the corner of her eyes, and she wasn't doing the subtle 'this is what you should be figuring out' look that old masters were prone to doing. Was that a test to see if he'd figure it out on his own, or whatever was going on right now was not what he was supposed to be learning?

The light that seemed to be stolen from the mountain had seemingly merged with Trevenant, who was now fully glowing a glittering gold shinier than even the jewelry of the vainest of the upper class. Sparks coursed across the Grass-type's form, and Drake did not need to be told that this was no mere cosmetic trick.

"Behold, a power equal to Mega Evolution, the Break Evolution!"

Drake eyed the golden Trevenant with a cautious eye.

This was certainly another first for him. Just how many ways were there for Pokémon to gain stronger forms?

Was this perhaps what Mabel wanted him to learn? Was he to have Dragonite learn to become Break Dragonite?

He had to admit, the idea of Dragonite being solid gold and glowing was appealing. Still, how much of that was just a paint job and how much was that an actual power boost?

"Shadow Ball!"

Drake would test that with an attack, and Gengar provided that with a test worthy shadow ball.

It flew towards the glowing Trevenant, who wanted the approach carefully.

"Shadow Claw!"

Trevenant slashed the air in front of itself with glowing purple-gold claws, which created a disturbance in the air. Shadow Ball was caught in the turbulent air waves and disintegrated into harmless particles.

Gengar floated over to him and looked at the hovering ghost nervously.

"Yeah, it would seem it's pretty tough. However there is more to battling than just hitting things. Gengar, Hypnosis!"

Gengar grinned as he floated back towards the powered up Pokémon, his eyes glowing blue and releasing hypnotic waves towards the unblinking Trevenant.

Could a Trevenant blink? If it couldn't it would not be able to do the Gogoat thing and avoid the attack.

The Trevenant stared as the Hypnosis attacked landed, before almost puffing herself up and exhaling. Blue energy scattered on impact as if repulsed on contact, leaving an unharmed tree.

"Break Evolution does more than enhance a Pokémon's abilities. It is also a protective covering."

Corentin's declaration of Break Evolution's effect was followed by Gengar letting out an annoyed sigh at Hypnosis failing yet again.

Still, this wasn't over quite yet.

"Gengar, evasive maneuvers!"

Gengar perked up as he floated into the air and began weaving around, back and forth, in no distinguishable pattern. The only constant was the fact that it wasn't staying still.

Trevenant wasn't fast it seemed, and it would struggle to try and hit Gengar unless it got lucky.

Sitting Gengar out wouldn't work either: Gengar had hours of stamina for behaving like a crazy pinball on caffeine.

Trevenant would tire itself out trying to tag Gengar...

"Forest's Curse!"

Corentin's declared move was one that Drake had never heard of before, and he wasn't sure what to expect. He'd have called Gengar to be ready for anything, but the purple plant roots shooting out of the ground in all directions upwards was the anything to be ready for, and it was too late.

For they had wrapped themselves around Gengar and were now swinging his Ghost-type towards the golden form.

"Shadow Claw!"

Which promptly struck Gengar right in the face with the shadow claw, blowing Gengar back over the retreating vine field all the way to him, where Gengar lay in defeat.

Things were now tied it would seem.

He returned Gengar with praise for his job well done.

"Go, Dragonite!"

But now, it would be the true battle, and Dragonite was now up for the battle.

Dragonite let out a momentary chirp of confusion at the golden glowing tree before him, but quickly readied himself to defeat it.

"Ice Beam!"

"Counter with Will-O'-Wisp!"

Dragonite shot from his mouth the cold beams of ice as Trevenant formed a glowing blue ball of fire in front of her hands. Holding the ball out like a shield, the Will O' Wisp took the Ice Beam's full force and protected the golden Pokémon.

"Forest's Curse!"

"Protect!"

This time Trevenant was on the offensive, with the enchanted wood growth rising from the earth. Dragonite crossed his arms with a huff as a green bubble formed around him. The vines struck uselessly against it as Dragonite rose higher into the air.

The attack pursued farther than Drake would have guessed, but before Dragonite became too hard to make out they petered out, followed seconds later by Protect.

"I can barely out make Dragonite anymore," Pendula squinted her eyes.

"They should still be able to communicate vocally, though he will have to raise his voice," Y commented with the air of someone who knew what she was talking about.

"Dragon Pulse!"

Drake proved her point right when the ranged attack was fired from above with little delay.

"Shadow Claw, like before!"

Though like the Shadow Ball from Gengar, it was blocked from striking Trevenant by a turbulence wall of disrupted air created by sheer force of power.

"Ice Beam!"

"Will O' Wisp!"

The same thing again, though this time the Will O' Wisp ball remained in front of Trevenant's hands before being dispelled by a flick of the golden Trevenant.

"You may be out of range of Forest's Curse, but you don't have the power to overpower Break from that far away."

Corentin's declaration was accurate. From this distance Dragonite's ranged attacks lost power. At least Ice Beam and Dragon Pulse, if he recalled Thunderbolt was less affected by distance than those moves were.

"Thunderbolt!"

He'd see if that would work.

"Shadow Claw!"

Once again Shadow Claw was used to create a wall of air and force within the wake to block an attack, however this time around it wasn't fully effective.

At least thirty-percent of the electric attack surged through, striking at Trevenant's golden bark.

The attack have force to it, though it didn't seem like it did too much. Typing maybe?

Perhaps he could simply strike like that until it went down.

"Ingrain!"

Or not.

Trevenant's feet began shifting and churning into the soil, as a light green glow joined the golden one.

A death by a thousand cut would not work now. He'd need to hit more directly and more powerfully, and that meant getting in close.

But that close, Forest's Curse would be a problem.

"Vrooo!"

Dragonite's call rang out from above, and he could swear he almost made out Dragonite nodding his head.

Go for it?

Yeah.

"Dragonite, fly in and strafe with Thunderbolt. Get in close!"

"Is he mad?!"

He ignored Herbert's comment as Dragonite began flying down, rapidly gaining speed with the aide of gravity. Constantly weaving, every turn was shared by as sparking Thunderbolt, firing right at Dragonite with solid accuracy.

Not pinpoint, but solid. Perhaps they could work on that sometime.

"I don't know what you're thinking, but it won't work. Forest's Curse!"

Vine after vine shot out of the earth, all seeking to bind Dragonite and render him for a knockout blow. Dragonite avoided them, either by a sharp turn, forcing Protect up, or blowing them away with sheer force from his wings.

Eventually Dragonite was right in front of Trevenant, who had a glowing Wood Hammer ready to smack Dragonite.

Dragonite then let out a cocky sound and suddenly rose, flying right over Trevenant.

The Forest's Curse vines following Dragonite didn't react fast enough, and many began smashing right into Trevenant like spears.

"Forest's Curse is attacking us!?"

Corentin's surprise was met by his own declaration.

"Yeah, and it's not the only one. Dragonite, Fire Punch, as many times as you can!"

Dragonite landed behind the stunned golden tree with two flaming fists, and gladly obliged with repeated fiery jabs right into the golden tree.

Two, four, six, eight.

"WROO!"

And ten with a dual slam of fiery fists into opposite sides of Trevenant's trunk.

Trevenant promptly began to shed the golden light like a rain of sparks, before woozily collapsing before Dragonite like a felled piece of lumber.

"Trevenant!"

And with that, he won another victory.

...

As the sun began to set, Drake found himself at the shore of a creek that babbled its way through a cave opening some distance away, thoughts not wandering to the possibility of Zubat swarms.

His thoughts were instead on a more positive subject as he finished scrubbing Dragonite's arm with soap.

"You did well Dragonite, as always."

Dragonite let out a coo in both agreement and enjoyment of the scrubbing as Drake moved to fill a bucket with creek water and with it wash the soap off of Dragonite's arm.

"Good thing you believed that you could get around that Trevenant. Honestly, I wouldn't have made a call for going in that close without your approval, and I don't know what I could have come up with instead. I admit, I was actually a bit nervous there for a while. I thought I'd break our promise there."

"Vroo."

Dragonite's call caught Drake a bit off guard. It wasn't a declaration that he 'better not', it was honestly sounding a lot more concerned than anything.

"Don't worry though, we'll never lose. That's why we're here after all."

"Vroo."

Dragonite still sounded worried, though after sounding off as such Dragonite pointed at the water. Drake jumped, ready to react to a random Gyarados attack, but instead saw something entirely different in the water.

A gold flash of something rolling through the water that wasn't a Pokémon, but some sort of litter.

Drake frowned as he reached into the water to remove it.

Littering. What a disgusting behavior. Didn't anyone know any better?

Though as he removed the object from the water, Drake's annoyance at litterbugs faded into confusion at what he had just pulled out of the water.

It was the top of a Pokéball, but one that was solid gold with a pair of ancient letters on the front, just above where the center mechanism of the ball would be. Those ancient letters reminded Drake of two letters in the modern alphabet.

G.S