Dinner came together quickly. The main dishes were cheese turkey instant noodles and Italian meat sauce pasta, served alongside pickled radish and the lemon boneless chicken feet Auron had made earlier and left in the fridge.
Simple, not particularly lavish — but it looked good.
"Dinner's ready~"
Auron carried both pots of noodles to the table. Charizard handled the bowls; Snorlax portioned out the servings. The division of labor was clean, and in no time the whole team was eating.
And exactly as Auron had expected, every Pokémon except Golbat took at least one bite of the turkey noodles.
Good thing he'd made plenty. If he'd only cooked enough turkey noodles for Charizard, Charizard would have gone hungry tonight.
The one exception was Deoxys, who had no interest in any of it. His primary energy source was cosmic power — absorbing the essence of the sun and moon to sustain himself.
Still, Auron had been thinking about making some Energy Cubes tailored specifically to Deoxys's intake.
The core ingredient was Star Pieces.
So he'd need to either produce Star Pieces himself or track some down, then grind them into powder. Combined with Pomeg Berries and Nomel Berries, the Star Piece powder could substitute for Deoxys's cosmic absorption. The Pomeg Berry would give a slight boost to his stamina; the Nomel Berry would bind the Energy Cube together.
That way, when everyone else was eating, Deoxys could join in too.
The team ate fast — eating slowly meant not eating at all.
Dratini, who'd finished her Italian meat sauce pasta, was happily working her way through a fried chicken leg. The turkey noodles, on the other hand — she'd decided she never wanted to try those again. Genuinely spicy. She had no idea how Charizard could eat them with such obvious enjoyment.
After dinner, it was the usual routine: Golbat took Charizard out for a walk to digest, with Probopass riding on Charizard's head. Snorlax headed upstairs first and flopped down. Auron stayed with the others and watched television for a while, waiting for Golbat and the rest to return before everyone headed up together.
While watching TV, Auron noticed something odd.
Every time a song played in the movie, Deoxys would go perfectly still and listen.
The moment the song ended, he'd snap back to his usual expression of total indifference.
Auron filed that away. He'd need to get Deoxys something to listen to music on — Deoxys seemed to genuinely enjoy it.
The movie ended. Golbat, Charizard, and Probopass returned from their walk.
Auron took everyone upstairs to bed.
After washing up, he couldn't help reaching out to touch the incubation pod on his desk — the one housing the Farfetch'd egg.
"Hey, little guy. We're still waiting on you. All your hatchmates are already out in the world."
That was right — the Farfetch'd egg was still an egg. No sign of hatching.
Normally, a Pokémon egg in a nutrient pod would hatch within three days. The pod delivered exactly enough nutrition for the Pokémon to break the shell within that window. It was rare for an egg to still be unhatched after three days in the pod.
This egg had been in there for a week.
Monday morning, Tim had sent Auron a video — his Mareep was already hopping around on the floor.
Auron had immediately glanced over at the Farfetch'd egg.
No reaction. The nutrient solution in the pod had lightened a little in color, but that was all.
He hadn't thought much of it at the time. "About three days" covered a range — morning of the third day, evening of the third day, both were possible.
So he'd waited. And waited. And then Jace's male Ralts had hatched too, and Auron had started to get genuinely anxious.
That evening, he'd carried the Farfetch'd egg to the research institute and had it thoroughly examined.
The conclusion: insufficient nutrition — that was why it hadn't hatched.
They replaced the nutrient solution. Grandpa Ashford told Auron to go home and wait.
Auron patted the pod now. "Farfetch'd, I'm still waiting for you to come out and put that leek to work on... on... slashing things."
He caught himself just in time. But the aroma of scallion-braised lamb had already drifted through his mind uninvited.
*Mmmm... ahem. Right. Goodnight. I'm looking forward to the day you finally hatch.*
Auron said goodnight to the Farfetch'd egg, turned off the light, and lay down on his bed.
*Tch. Shameful. How could I think that about a little baby. Craving someone's scallions. Disgraceful.*
He licked his lips anyway — involuntarily — and slowly drifted off to sleep.
---
Across the ocean, in an American research institute, it was eleven in the morning.
"Doctor, this is over seven hundred rocks with biological DNA residue. Are there actually other fossil Pokémon out there?"
The white-haired professor snatched the rock out of the young man's hands without looking up and shoved it into the machine. Then he turned and laid into him.
"Young man, if you don't have the patience for this kind of work, I'd suggest you go find something that doesn't require any — there are plenty of options for people like you!"
The young man swallowed, but didn't dare talk back. He vented inwardly instead.
*Who does he think he is? It wasn't him who invented the Fossil Restoration Machine. What does he even know? Dr. Hermann already confirmed there are only three fossil Pokémon — he's the only one insisting otherwise.*
*And fine, saying so costs nothing. But he sits in this lab all day and just sends me running errands. After all this time he's produced nothing, while I've gotten two shades darker just doing the fieldwork.*
He kept the complaints behind his teeth and glanced down at his noticeably tanned forearm with a faint grimace.
*I'm so dark now. Will Jenny still like me?*
"Got it!"
Before the young man could finish worrying, the professor let out a shout.
The young man spun around, jaw dropping.
There, inside the Fossil Restoration Machine, stood a small, T-rex-shaped Pokémon.
*Crack.*
"What are you standing there for?! Get over here, take measurements, record the results!"
The professor spotted the young man still frozen and smacked the back of his head, bellowing.
"I need to log this DNA sequence. I'm going to prove to that Hermann bastard — to hell with his 'only three fossil Pokémon.' I've found the fourth. After this comes the fifth, the sixth. I'll show him. Your granddaddy is still your granddaddy!"
---
None of what was happening in that American lab reached Auron, asleep in his bed.
At the moment, he was deep in a dream — commanding an evolved Sirfetch'd in battle against Dante's Charizard. All he had to do was bring down that Charizard, and he'd be the new head of the Eight Masters.
*"Farfetch'd!"*
Auron shouted the command in his dream — and then felt something poking his face.
From outside the dream.
(End of Chapter)