9 Chapter 9 Faust's Fear and the Eeveelutions
Faust drove the car out of the Ross Laboratories Base and turned onto the freeway leading into the city. The road along the beach leading into the city was relatively less crowded and Faust pressed his foot down on the accelerator. Enjoying the feeling of being pressed back into the seat as the car shot forward, Faust couldn't help but think of just how much had happened in the past week.
The former Faust just like any other person from a backwater town had his life laid out in front of him.
He would've obtained a Pokemon, maybe gotten into a trainer university, graduated, taking up a job putting his life on the line, either ending up dead or maybe lived long enough to realize that there was no glory to look forward to. He would have basically been omitted from history.
Life for trainers who retired below the Senior stage was hard. They did receive a pension from the Alliance and they were allotted residences as well. But that was it. There was nothing else. You faded into oblivion. Perhaps you could find a satisfying job or start a small business but most trainers couldn't.
It was similar to the situation with military veterans back on Earth. They spent their whole life honing skills that would serve them for maybe ten years in areas of deployment but find no application in a peaceful society. Their families were either broken or none existent because of the long absences. Towards the end of their life, they found themselves dissatisfied, disappointed and quite often frustrated.
Imagine having to live in a small city or town having nothing to do. You couldn't do what you did when you were younger. All hopes for your Pokemon to evolve or breakthrough into a new stage were gone. You would be waiting for death to come. Perhaps the lucky ones would have a family, maybe a friend, grandkids, a small garden to look after and so on. But most would not.
But that had all changed. Having crossed over, what the new Faust had done in a week couldn't even have been thought of by the former Faust in his wildest dreams. But instead of the happiness of achievement, Faust felt a stabbing discomfort.
He couldn't help but think of his life back on Earth. He had been here for merely seven days and already achieved more than what he did in the 17 years of his life on Earth.
'Had I not crossed over, I would've remained insignificant and achieved nothing my whole life.'
Faust had a great fear. He couldn't remember when it had developed. But he had come to fear being average and mediocre. It had been maddening. His father's beatings for a C on the tests or his mother's curses for wasting precious years of her youth made him afraid of failing to live up to their expectations and how much they had given up for him.
He still remembered that day in the fourth grade. He had obtained a score of 88 out of 100 on a math test. He had turned to his father expecting praise but instead, his father asked him why he had lost the 12 marks. He tried to tell his father of his improvement over the previous score of 60 but his father just told him to set his goals higher.
As time passed his own mediocrity began to manifest even more strongly while his parents' expectations grew to new heights. But Faust never questioned his parents. He always strived for perfection even though it was mentally, physically and emotionally taxing. He thought he had more in himself and that he wasn't using his full potential. What he didn't realise was that he was overdrawing on his potential.
In his previous life, Faust was going nowhere until he woke up in that classroom and saw the Squirtle. That was why he needed it. The urge to obtain significance was like an insatiable thirst. He wasn't going to contribute to humanity because it was his duty as a human or any such bullshit. He was doing it to quench the thirst being someone who mattered, to stave off the hunger that had plagued him for so long. No one would stop him, he would make sure of it. The research was just the beginning, there would be greater things to look forward to. Thinking so he smiled and floored the accelerator.
The next morning Faust woke up to bright sunshine and comfortable warmth. He took Wimpod for short stamina and endurance training after which he fed him Moomoo milk mixed with a variety of supplements such as zinc, iron, calcium and so on.
Looking at the bloated Wimpod passed out on the floor he smiled and went in to take a long shower. Following his everyday ritual, Faust went through the Daily Item list and to his surprise, he found quite a few interesting things.
[Daily Item- Allows the user to choose one item from the list. The list is random and contains all items that have appeared in the Pokemon Video Games and the Pokemon Animation.
Today's List:
1) Luxury Balls x5
2) Razz Berryx50
3) Metal Coat
4) TR16 Waterfall
5) Hyper Potion x3
6) Dire Hit x5
7) Leafstone(low-grade)
8) Rare Candy x1
9) Dynamax Candy x1
10) Dragon Scale x1
The items are refreshed every day at 00:00 am.]
'Fuck Dynamax is a thing!? Isn't this too much? Actually, the records in history books do talk of huge sized Pokemon. But they are referred to as enraged Pokemon, normal Pokemon consumed by rage. So Dynamax energy is red and hence perceived as a sort of energy used by Pokemon when furious.'
Faust thought about it for a bit and finally got the rare candy. He would have to hoard rare candies whenever he could. Breaking past bottlenecks was the most important thing.
Faust put on a training outfit and picked out one of the white lab coats from the wardrobe. He then woke his Wimpod up and took it out to the training area.
"Hey Wimpod, it's gonna get tougher from now on. We need to enhance the strength of your moves especially the Metal Claw and Harden so that you have the capability to participate in Pokemon battles", said Faust picking up a metal plate and holding it in front of the Wimpod.
"Wimpod?"
"Use Metal Claw on this steel plate and try to knock me down"
The Wimpod initially hesitated but under the coercing of Faust, he finally began the training.
Training with Wimpod went on for a while and finally, when Wimpod was too exhausted to even crawl, Faust called stopped for the day and gave him Moomoo milk. Just as he had called Wimpod back into the Pokeball he heard the phone in the house ringing.
"Hello Mr Faust, we are going to start very soon", the voice of Professor Ross came over the phone.
"Sure. Where do I go?", asked Faust?
"Actually you don't need to leave your house. I am on my way to the beach house complex", replied Professor Ross and paused for a bit.
"But if you want to visit the labs, we can arrange it for tomorrow. I haven't briefed the research team yet and some people might be a little...less welcoming."
"It's fine. I'm not really looking forward to locking myself up in a lab for two months. Well then come on over."
Faust put down the receiver and booted up his laptop. He moved the file on Sylveon to another directory and opened the file he had to show Professor Ross.
Professor Ross came after fifteen minutes. She was dressed in a researcher's attire with an RL logo on it.
After a brief greeting, Faust simply handed her the laptop. He sat down from across her and watched her read the document seriously. An hour passed by like this. Faust was trying to keep himself from dozing off when he suddenly heard Professor Ross call out to him excitedly.
"Faust! This is amazing. This, this, this.....I don't even know what to say! The theory about the biological instability of Eevee has been covered by us but not like this. But there is something I don't quite understand, you talk of the environmental influence on Eevee's unstable biological makeup. But as far as we have seen, Vaporeon, Flareon and Jolteon need elemental stones to evolve what role does the environment have to play in their evolution?"
Faust had thought of this. Actually, the idea of evolution stones not being the only way to evolve Eevee came from Leafeon. Initially to evolve Eevee into Leafeon in the games, one had to level it up near a Mossy Rock. But Generation VIII onwards this mechanic had been changed to a leafstone. Using this as a basis Faust believed it was very possible to evolve Eevee using its unstable genetic makeup rather than radiation from the elemental stones.
Faust smiled and replied, "Professor Ross think of it. An Eevee in the wild would not always have access to an elemental stone yet we see them exist in all their forms except Sylveon and Umbreon. Sure we can say that every Vaporeon, Flareon and Jolteon in the wild is basically an Eevee who has found an elemental stone but isn't that very...childish and fantastical?"
Professor Ross indeed thought that the explanation was very amateurish and fantastical. She nodded and Faust then continued.
"We currently know of five evolutions of Eevee. One each of Water, Fire, Electric, Psychic and Dark types. Three of these have been spotted in the wild. My experiment is very simple. Groups of Eevee have to train in simulated environments. A fire type, a water type, ice type, a grass type and so on. Each group is to be made up of 10 Eevees."
"So we need 50 Eevees?"
Faust looked at the excited professor with a playful smile and shook his head, "We need 71 of them."
Professor Ross looked at him in confusion, "But ther-"
Faust cut her off, "Espeon and Umbreon. They haven't been spotted in the wild but some Eevees with trainers have evolved into these Pokemon. My experiment for this is a little complicated. You have to find trainers with Eevees that have a good trainer-pokemon bond. One group of these will train in the daytime including fighting battles only in the daytime, while the other will do the same only in the nighttime. The times must be adhered to and the trainers closely monitored to maintain cordial relationships with their Pokemon."
Professor Ross' eyes widened as she suddenly understood. This young man was a monster. He could have possibly figured out the process to evolve Eevee into Espeon and Umbreon!
"You...you...you, how are you able to think the way you do!?"
Faust chuckled and pointed at his eyes.
"Observation Professor. It's called observation."
Professor Ross sighed and then suddenly realised that there was one extra Eevee left out.
"Faust...there's one Eevee left over. You asked for 71 of them."
Faust looked up a little surprised and then smiled, "That Professor Ross, is part payment for my contribution. Also, it is what will shock the world."
Professor Ross gasped.
"There is another type evolution you want to attempt!"
Faust didn't react to that. Professor Ross suppressed her curiosity and they continued discussing the time frame as well as other details of the experiment.
By the time they had finished, it was already evening. Professor Ross promised to buy him a grand lunch at the most expensive restaurant in the city if the experiment succeeded and she hurried out excitedly. Faust called out Wimpod to feed him.
"Hey buddy, we'll be getting a new family member soon."
Wimpod poked its head out from the milk puddle and let out a questioning cry.
Faust searched for a picture of Eevee and showed it to Wimpod. Wimpod looked at it for a few seconds before plunging back into the milk bowl.
Faust couldn't help laughing at the Wimpod. It sure knew its priorities. Now that the experiment was underway, he was free to focus on Wimpod and the Eevee he would get. He knew that he had that bet with Gerrard for the Eevee egg. But he didn't want to wait that long and raise another baby Pokemon. He thought it was better to catch wild Pokemon and work on them.
Yes, there would be issues with the wild Pokemon being more aggressive and prone to ignoring commands but trust was easy to build with Pokemon. Unlike humans, Pokemon didn't have very complicated desires. It was simple like getting stronger, eating good food and the joy of love.
