"Cough cough... You fool! Who told you to barge in recklessly!"
Wiping off the gunpowder residue left by the explosion from his goggles, Queen looked angrily at the underling behind him.
The attack system he had set up had some malfunction, according to his design, after he used the Brachiosaurus Serpent, the remaining body should become a powerful fixed-point turret.
But for some reason, while the firepower went up, the accuracy had a problem.
Say it's inaccurate, the attack can hit the target 100% of the time; say it's accurate, that thing attacks him 100%, literally turning into a self-harming tool.
After pondering for a while, he felt the problem must be with the gunpowder; otherwise, how could it exclusively target himself, so he began the work of gunpowder carving.
He had already been carving for several days and didn't expect to be interrupted at the critical moment.
If it weren't for his thick skin, this hit would've sent him away; given his past temperament, he would have directly thrown this underling into the arena, but under the current circumstances, Queen had to make changes.
Faced with the ironclad rules from above, he didn't have the guts to defy them.
"Give me a suitable reason, otherwise, I'll let you go spar with Brother Kaidou!"
"It's... it's you..."
"When did I ask you to come over!"
"You said, as long as there's a reaction in the Petri dish, quickly come and notify you..."
There's nothing scarier than sparring with Kaidou; if there is, it's Kaidou looking for sparring after drinking. During Yamato's travels, they clearly felt their Captain's temper becoming more irritable.
Immediately repeated Queen's previous instructions.
"Petri dish? I seem to remember saying that, but you kid... why are you holding a trash can?"
"Lord Queen, you might not believe it... the stuff in the Petri dish hasn't reacted, yet the failure we dumped yesterday... it survived."
A strange situation, things cultured in the lab can survive in all sorts of odd places, yet cannot live in the Petri dish. Due to the peculiar nature of this waste's change, he brought it over to show Queen.
"Seeing ghosts..."
"So Lord Queen, look..."
"I'll handle the things over there myself; don't let anyone disturb me, clean this place up for me, but be careful of explosions."
Queen left his final warning in a sinister tone, but he was merely intimidating this underling.
Finding a few fighters isn't exceptionally difficult, but finding a few intelligent ones is not easy for him; among the Hundred Beasts and Hundred Beasts Fruit, he couldn't find many suitable assistants.
This underling is already considered a rare talent, won't be wasted for inexplicable reasons, but it doesn't hinder Queen from adding psychological pressure.
Things that have already exploded won't explode a second time, and Queen ensures what he makes isn't a dud.
After successful cultivation, Queen dived back into the lab; reverse-engineering the production method from the finished product is simple for him, he's just making modifications, essentially turning animal medication into human medication.
...
"Gotta say, it's a brilliant idea, but in front of Lord Queen, still a trivial matter! Mwahahaha!"
After several more experiments, Queen successfully produced a finished product, boasting about himself.
He admitted the Rumble Ball's design concept was nice, being able to target the fixed form changes of Zoan in this way, the thinking was quite imaginative; had he seen such results decades ago, MADS would've taken an interest.
But that's all, Queen still firmly believed he wouldn't lose to them in this regard.
"You failed seventeen times, blew up the lab six times, you call this trivial?"
"Mii, Little Thorn says it right, it makes a lot of sense, right."
"Don't learn from that wretched Omastar! Is it so hard to flatter me in times like these?!"
As usual, the Omastar verbally backstabbed Queen, though it couldn't explain why it did so, likely just a habit formed; as for Shaymin... influenced by the environment, Omastar taught her some bad things.
But it remained only in words, not yet evolved to the point of greeting him with Air Slash.
"I'm just stating the facts, and besides, is your ball really successful?"
Chopper's Rumble Ball size was comparable to Maltesers, but Queen's creation was the size of braised lion head, looking darker in color, didn't seem successful.
"How would a snail like you understand? Although it doesn't look good, the medicinal effect must be fine; let me think of who to test it on..."
"Aren't you yourself a Fruit Ability User?"
"Cough cough, as a researcher, I have to observe its effects, if I take it myself, how would I observe.
Moreover, Lord Arceus remodeled my abilities, who knows if this thing would conflict with Lord Arceus' power.
Academic issues you don't understand, obey and go monitor your intel! Lord Queen has work to report."
...
Artificial Fruit Ability Users, pure Pokemon Ability Users, Pokemon Ability Users with modified Fruit, none are suitable test subjects; Queen planned to find a regular Ability User to test the effects of his Rumble Ball.
But for the time being, he couldn't find such a person. The general production is artificial fruit, cadre mostly possesses Pokemon abilities, the few pure fruit ability users are absent.
"Times have changed, why is it so hard to find a normal type..."
Searching and searching, Queen finally ran into Kaidou.
"Queen, what are you wandering around for?"
"Brother Kaidou? I just want to find someone to test the medicine, I've cracked the stuff sent back from Sky Island and want to test its effect, but couldn't find someone suitable for the moment."
"A pure Ability User? Let me see."
"Brother... Brother Kaidou! You mean... you want to try yourself?"
"What's the problem? Aren't I a pure Ability User? Anyway, even if you make some poison, it can't kill me, so testing it for you is no big deal."
"But, I think..."
"Less nonsense, hand it over!"
Looking at the black-blue ball made by Queen, Kaidou grabbed it and tossed it into his mouth, wanting to see how amazing the so-called shape-shifting could be.
"How's it, Brother Kaidou? Feel anything?"
Kaidou insisted on trying this, Queen naturally couldn't stop him, so he could only ask about the feelings afterward, but he quietly stepped back a few large steps before asking.
"Feeling... kinda angry..."
"An... angry?"
"How to say, no physical change, no breakthrough in shape-shifting, just feel like fighting now."
"..."