17 Lusamine

As soon as I appeared in the room, Lusamine turned and glared at me. "Where have you been?" She asked in a cold voice. "I have been asking for you since I woke up in this place that is finally more than a grassy plain!"

"I am sorry, Lusamine," I said as I tried to think of an excuse, but nothing came to mind. "I have just been really busy."

"With what?" She demanded as she stepped closer to me. "You haven't even come to see me in days! What could possibly be more important than the person that you caught and trapped inside a Pokeball? You sicko! Let me out of here at once!"

I ignored her for a moment as I took a second to look around, but the place kind of reminded me of the Aether Paradise Foundation, with the big platform on the water, but there was a small modern-looking house that looked pretty nice in its place. "This place looks amazing," I said as I turned to look back at Lusamine. "How are you liking the house?"

"Stop trying to deviate from the question! Why did you even capture me in the first place?!" Lusamine demanded, and I sighed, but she deserved to know the truth if I was going to build a bond with her.

"At some point in the future, you will have kids with Mohn, and then you will open an Ultra-Wormhole that will suck your husband in and change you... sort of. Anyways, this was at risk of putting the whole world in danger, so I was told by the AI in my head to capture you to prevent that," I explained, leaving out the part where Cryo had told me about what happened to her kids after, and how she had treated them after.

"I... see," Lusamine said after a long silence, and I could tell that she was processing what I had just told her. "So, you are telling me that my own actions in the future put the world at risk?"

"It is complicated, but yes," I said, not really sure how else to explain it. "But I am here now, so we can work on fixing that."

Lusamine was silent for a few more moments before she finally nodded her head. "I see... so what do you want from me then? Do you think that I am going to be your Pokémon now or something? This whole being caught like a creature is beyond my understanding and really shouldn't be possible, but that does not mean that you can just force me to do whatever you please!"

"I am not going to force you to do anything that you don't want to," I said as I shook my head. "But if we are going to form a bond, then there needs to be some trust between us."

"Trust? Fine words coming from the man that broke my trust after using me the first chance that he got!" Lusamine said, and I flinched at her words.

"I am sorry about that," I said quietly. "It was never my intention to hurt you."

"Shut up! I don't want your pity!" Lusamine said as she turned away from me. "Just leave me alone!"

"Fine, but at least let me explain some things. First, you are not a Pokémon, so you will not be doing any battles," I said, and Lusamine whirled back around me with a look of anger on her face.

"Then what will I be doing then? Just rotting inside this Pokeball?" Lusamine demanded, and I was scrabbling to think of what to say. "I am a scientist that wants to help save Pokémon, not become one!"

Before I could say anything, time started to slow down around me until it seemed like it had almost stopped.

[I increased our framerate so I can explain to you what you can do to help gain a bit of trust. While in this state, you will still be able to think, but your body can not move fast enough to take advantage of this. Still, this is perfect for when you get into situations like this.]

This was by far the craziest thing that had happened to me yet. Even catching humans and having caught Pokémon become more human-like was nothing to being able to stop time to think about things. Still, I couldn't talk or even move my eyes, but it was still beyond remarkable.

[Yes, but this is not something that you can do for very long, or it will put stress on your body to the point where you will be on the ground gasping, so just listen. As you increase the level of the Paradise Pokeballs Upgrade skills, the humans will gain abilities that will help them with the thing that they want to do. This doesn't have to help you directly, and some may not want anything but just to relax. This means that if that is what Lusamine wants to do, this is the best place for her to do it.]

That was good to know, and after a few more moments of being in this strange state, time started moving again.

I looked over at Lusamine to see her looking at me with a confused expression on her face. "What was that all about?" She asked as she rubbed her head.

"I just had a really long thought," I said as I shook my head and then chuckled. "Anyways, like I was saying before that happened, you don't have to do any battles if you don't want to. Once I can get more Ultra Points, I am going to upgrade this place, and then you will have an actual research lab to start working on what you want. Do you want to help Pokémon? Well, I brought us all the way out to the Orre Region, so I am sure we can find lots of Pokémon to help here."

Lusamine was quiet for a few moments before she finally nodded her head. "I see... so you are not just using me like some tool, then?"