Adam Seikyo was a thin man that had the unfortunate combination of being tall and having slender limbs.

As he walked around his lab, waving his hands expressively, I just couldn't help but to think of him as a cartoon character.

The way he moved, the cheerful, overly excited tone and the exaggerated movements all added up to that image.

It could also put him in the ‘hidden serial killer’ category or in the ‘actually interesting teacher’ category, both seemed very plausible.

However what he was telling us was no laughing matter.

Images of giant Pokémon in the Galar region floated around him, projected onto holographic panels.

"It's a known mysterious phenomena," Professor Seikyo whispered with awe, yet it was loud enough to be heard, "Giant Pokémon are very rare and clouded in mystery."

More images popped up, a giant Tentacruel in a city, A giant Gengar and Alakazam covered in weird symbols, a huge Beedril hovering over a forest, a huge Vivillon floating above a swarm of Beedrill.

More and more examples filled the panels, ranging from video footage to ancient drawings.

"They are very rare, extremely rare" Seikyo held a dramatic pause, "Except in Galar!"

He spun around and a map of Galar appeared.

"Pssstt, is it just me or is he giving us an entire slideshow?" I whispered to Dawn.

Dawn gave me a nervous laugh, "Yeah, he loves doing that."

From what I understood she had met Professor Sicko before and she didn't seem too excited to see him again, her fault for being nice and helping out a stranger.

Her Pokémon had abandoned her and managed to fall asleep in her arms.

Ralts for her part was sitting in front of me, watching the entire info dump with glee in her eyes, what was it with her and being interested in everything nerdy?

Of course I was interested too but I had the decency to act bored when someone was monologuing.

"In Galar!" Seikyo continued the show, "Giant Pokémon are a common occurrence, at least 98% of all the Giant Pokémon reports come from Galar, however…"

Another dramatic pause.

"They are different, their enormous size is only temporary and they only are sighted in specialized areas. There they call it Dynamax!"

He was talking about the entire Dynamax thingy they had going on in Pokémon Sword and Shield and it was new information for me too.

I had seen some trailers and gameplay videos but never played it; when the trailer came out I was kind of stupefied by seeing the next step in Pokémon would be bigger Pokémon and never really looked into it.

At first the visuals looked kinda cool but I just couldn't help but think it looked stupid on some Pokémon, I couldn't help thinking about a Dynamaxed Wailord using Body Slam.

Also, the entire National Dex fiasco was a massive let down for me.

As a result, I now have a big hole in my knowledge of this world I'm now living in. I had hoped Dynamax didn't exist in this universe, of course I was wrong. Does this mean Mega Evolutions exist too? Z moves?

There had been no mentions of those two so I assume they are still ‘undiscovered’, or they were kept a secret. Or, maybe, they straight up don’t exist.

Was the universe following the anime logic of everything being discovered once Ash entered a new region?

There were so many questions and yet so little answers.

"So you just study them?" I asked.

Professor Seikyo shot me a hurt look, "Not just investigating it kid, no what we are trying to do is-"

He struck a dramatic pose. "To Dynamax Pokémon ourselves. Can you imagine the possibilities?! Specialized Arenas where hundreds of people watch two Dynamaxed Pokémons duke it out!"

I was tempted to make a ‘size doesn't matter’ joke but instead I just told him my thoughts on it.

"Sounds kinda lame."

He blinked.

"Ralts?" Ralts questioned, clearly not getting my point.

"I mean, it's just the same but bigger?" I shrugged.

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"For a Contest Battles it won't really matter, I think." Dawn said thoughtfully.

"Can't get all of them," Seikyo muttered, "Well we're still years away from achieving a safe, on purpose, Dynamax. The secret to the code is quite big."

"Years? You can not Dynamax a Pokémon right now?" I asked.

"Not yet, we have only just started this entire field of study so of course years," Seikyo exclaimed, "Revolution doesn't happen overnight, it's a delicate process that requires a lot of research before we can even think of trying to test it on Pokémon,"

"How do you research it right now?" Dawn questioned.

"We study wild Pokémon who Dynamax on their own," Seikyo explained and a video of a Dynamaxing Pokémon showed up.

"It's a long and delicate process since we can not even predict when a wild Pokémon will Dynamax."

Interesting, so it seemed that only wild Pokémon can Dynamax so far.

"Until then, I'll go over all the data Professor Rowan sent me," He sat down in his chair, clearly exhausted from all his dramatics, he crossed his legs and gave us a grin.

"You think we'll ever have a Dynamaxed Pokémon in Sinnoh?" Dawn asked and it was a valid question.

I hoped not, I hate big Pokémon, they would bring as much trouble as normal Pokémon but...well bigger.

Seikyo sighed, "Most likely not. It seems that Dynamaxing is only limited to Galar, everywhere else it seems impossible, unstable and unsafe. There have been theories of moving the powerspots but the damage an unsafe and unnatural Dynamax could cause made everyone decide against it. "

I let out a sigh of relief, as long as I stay out of Galar I should be golden.

Seikyo strode towards me and placed his hand on my shoulder which made me feel very uncomfortable. "Thank you Dust, without you the data would be lost."

"There are no copies?" I wondered.

"Professor Rowan says that if we make no copies of the sensitive data it will be clear who-knows-what and where the data is at all times. Easier to track and keep it under wraps, if you get me." Seikyo gave me an unsubtle wink.

"That sounds exploitable."

Seikyo laughed. "That's what I told my old man too, but he said 'what if someone with lesser ethics and morals gets his hand on this'. Haha, imagine that!"

"Haha, that'd be stupid." I muttered.

Of course Crimson was in possession of the black box but did he do anything with it? He had access to it for 4 full days, of course he didn't know I had it right? Or how valuable it could be?

The chance of him targeting me on purpose required him knowing Professor Rowan gave it to me in the first place and on top of that he would need to know when and which Poké Mart I would enter, just to steal it and cover up the theft with a bigger theft.

The amount of intel and planning that required sounds almost insane, beside Dynamax was a Galar problem.

The Professor tried to pull me into a hug but I stepped back, saving myself once again.

He didn't seem to care because he went on like nothing happened.

"So Rowan told me I should get you a reward once you deliver it,"

He frowned/ "But I kind of don't know what to give."

A free Pokémon would be nice, or an egg. Eevee seems to be this world version of the gift card.

"I know!" He said before he delved into the pockets of his lab coat, pulled out a chocolate bar. It wasn't what he was looking for apparently because he tossed it away and delved inside once more.

It made me wonder if all the scientists in this world had some generic character trait and if that was just anime bullshit or a weird case of the stats points being spent on wisdom instead of charisma.

After a painful long silence he pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and held it in front of him for me to take it.

"What's it?" I asked skeptically.

I kind of don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth but I had enough money.

He blinked, unfolded the crumpled paper and revealed it was in actuality a letter.

Seikyo tore through the lid and fished out another paper, keeping the actual contents of it a secret.

"Cool, what's it?" I asked.

"This my boy, is the ticket to heaven."

I took it and unfolded it to read what it was.

"Huh, it's a ticket for Cynthia's next battle."

"RALTS!" Ralts yelled and she leaped forward and took it.

Although Ralts could not read she still pretended to actually look over it. "Ralts!"

"Oh really!" Dawn said, "That's so cool."

"I guess." I said, not at all hyped.

I was like 99% sure Cynthia would win and it wasn't even in Jubilife City.

Ralts however was sold, she hugged the piece of paper and gave me the look that said, we're going.

"Welp, seems like I'm going to see a high level Pokémon Battle."

"RALTS!"

I took the ticket from Ralts, the match was still some time away and apparently hella expensive.

"So, you don't wanna go?" I asked Ralts.

Ralts gave me a weak punch, then resumed hugging me.

"Thank you," I smiled at the weird Professor.

"And with this it seems all my business is concluded in this city," I told Ralts.

I had finally finished all the side quests, bought Pokéballs and more stuff and made some plot progression.

Now I only had to get my first Gym badge.

"You're going already?" Dawn asked. "I have a Contest coming up."

"I would love to watch but I have something I need to take care of," I lied.

The Jubilife Contest was tomorrow and after that Ash and Co would go to the Oreburgh City gym after that, that put me in an uneasy spot.

If they got to the Gym first, and things would work out like they did in the anime, then they would meet Paul who challenged the Gym leader Roark before Ash could.

The problem was that if I did not challenge Roark first then I would be third which would level up Roark before I could even challenge him, figuratively speaking of course.

And thus I was on a race against the clock to be first, Ash and company had no real side quest between Jubilife City and Oreburgh City, it was like only two episodes of traveling.

"Ah, that's too bad." Dawn said, "Well, I guess I'll see you later."

"Probably," I said, "I'm going to Oreburgh City now, Ash is doing the Gym challenge too right?"

Dawn nodded, "Yes, we're going to the Gym after my Contest."

"Welp, we'll see eachother then and shit." I said as I lifted up Ralts.

"Ralts!" Ralts waved.

And with that I had finished the entire Jubilife City quest...for now.