Eevee's sudden change set Owen's nerves on edge. He glanced at the scorched remains of the smartphone and felt a massive headache coming on.
That was Eevee's second life... how was he supposed to coax her now?
"Eevee, calm down first."
Owen stepped between Eevee and Magnemite, terrified they were about to come to blows.
"Vee! Vee? Vee! Eevee—!" Eevee gestured wildly at the exploded phone, pouring her heart out in grief before turning a furious glare toward Magnemite, clearly identifying the little gray sphere as the culprit.
"Kuo-yi..." Magnemite's expression remained bewildered and innocent. It wobbled its body back and forth, signaling that it had no idea what had happened.
Owen's parents watched the scene blankly, unsure of the specifics. Owen, however, had managed to piece together the sequence of events.
The Cause: He had asked Eevee to play with Magnemite.
The Process: After a brief exchange, Eevee had a "bright idea" to teach Magnemite how to play mobile games.
The Result: For some unknown reason, as soon as Magnemite made contact, the phone exploded.
It was a simple incident to understand... but as for Eevee, it was precisely because her beloved phone was destroyed that her intense emotions had successfully triggered her emotional energy.
Owen never expected that Eevee, despite wearing the Soothe Bell, would first master the Anger Energy she theoretically wasn't suited for...
Learning the move Frustration... it felt like a very strange aesthetic choice for a cute little Eevee. But there was no use crying over spilled milk; right now, he needed to worry about Eevee's mood and the reason behind the explosion.
After some exhausting persuasion and the promise of a brand-new phone as compensation, Eevee finally calmed down.
"Vee..." she sighed, looking down at the cracked phone case with a lingering sense of heartbreak.
The Investigation
"So... that's basically what happened," Owen explained to his parents after a huffy Eevee dragged her remaining spare phone back into the bedroom.
Beside them, Magnemite wore a dejected expression, looking terrified that it was about to be kicked out.
"It shouldn't be what Owen thinks," his father mused. "There are plenty of Magnemite and Voltorb at the power plant, and employees use their phones around them all the time. This has never happened."
"Besides, if Magnemite caused phones to explode just by being near them, this wouldn't be the first case. It would have been all over the news."
Technically, a phone explosion is a battery failure. But Owen had bought the phone from a reputable physical store; there shouldn't have been any internal manufacturing defects.
The fact that Eevee could play with it for hours with no issue, only for it to detonate the moment Magnemite touched it, made Owen suspicious.
"Magnemite, before the explosion, did you discharge any electricity or try to absorb power?" his father asked.
Magnemite shook its body in denial.
"Did you release any electromagnetic waves?" Owen followed up.
Again, a denial.
"Modern electronics have protective shielding. Unless an Electric-type attacks directly, the most they usually do is interfere with the signal," his father noted.
"Then what on earth was it..." Owen was stumped. This Magnemite couldn't even release enough electromagnetic waves to hover; how could it suddenly emit a pulse strong enough to detonate a phone? Was it a mobile EMP weapon?
A Trainer's Perspective
After discussing it for a long while, Owen's parents couldn't reach a conclusion. Finally, his mother suggested sending Magnemite back to the plant.
After a moment of silence, his father didn't object. Who would have thought that within two days of arriving, the little guy would become a safety hazard?
If it was the phone's fault, fine—but if it was the Magnemite, even his father didn't dare keep it as a pet.
"Kuo-yi..." Hearing the talk of being sent back, Magnemite's mood plummeted. It truly didn't know what it had done wrong, but it couldn't explain itself.
"I think..." Owen looked at Magnemite and spoke up. "Even if it was Magnemite's fault, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing."
Hearing his parents discuss the safety risks while watching Magnemite's growing sadness gave Owen a different perspective.
As ordinary citizens, his parents worried about the safety of their home—which was fair. But as a trainer, Owen wondered: Why would a Magnemite that can't even hover cause such a massive reaction? Does it have a special talent?
First of all, this Magnemite was different. The Pokémon doctor had called its inability to fly a "congenital defect," but that was just one opinion. The exact cause hadn't been identified.
"Since the doctor couldn't find the reason, I'll take Magnemite to school tomorrow. I'll ask Mr. Lee; he might have some insights from a Breeder's perspective."
His parents exchanged looks and then turned to Owen. "Is that okay?"
Owen nodded. "Should be fine." He then looked at the Magnemite. "Magnemite, do you want to go to school with me tomorrow?"
"Maybe we can solve the problem with your magnets and get you flying. How about it?"
"Kuo-yi...?" Realizing things hadn't reached a dead end, Magnemite's single eye brightened with joy as it nodded vigorously.
The Strange Phenomenon
While they had decided to seek professional advice, they still felt it was safer to keep Magnemite in its Poké Ball for the night.
Even Owen had to admit there was an unknown risk here. While Magnemite didn't explode like a Voltorb, detonating electronics was equally problematic.
His father produced Magnemite's Poké Ball and set it on the table. Magnemite looked at the familiar red-and-white sphere, its spirits sinking again...
However, just as Magnemite prepared to return to the ball, an unexpected sight occurred. Under Magnemite's gaze, the Poké Ball on the table suddenly shifted and rolled twice.
If Owen hadn't been watching closely, he would have missed the subtle movement.
"Wait... the ball moved," Owen whispered, his eyes widening. Magnemite hadn't touched it, and there was no wind. Something else was at work.
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