Chapter 207. Loreidon
What delighted Natsume even more was that the structural schematics for "Loreidon" had already been constructed by Mewtwo!
"How's the performance?"
Natsume looked at the design blueprints on the computer and asked excitedly.
"I don't know."
Mewtwo shook its head.
"What about stability?"
Natsume asked in turn.
"How would I know?"
Mewtwo gave Natsume a puzzled look.
Natsume froze.
"Isn't this your design?"
"Yes."
Mewtwo nodded, then flipped out a book—"Basic Human Qualities."
"This book you gave me says to seek truth from facts."
"I haven't actually built it."
"How would I know?"
Mewtwo waved a hand.
"…"
"Forget it."
"I'll leave the construction crew to you."
Natsume waved a hand, took Mewtwo's design drawings, and headed for the cold storage where the Central AI was.
"Wait a moment!"
Mewtwo called out to Natsume.
"What is it?"
Natsume turned back, looking at it in confusion.
"The motorcycle already exists."
As it spoke, Mewtwo's figure vanished.
When it reappeared, there was a bullet-shaped motorbike beside it.
A streamlined draconic spine ran along the body beneath blue-white pearlescent armor.
Liquid-metal scales along the belly rose and fell with the frame's motion.
Maglev three-toed claw-wheels spat arcs of plasma, and ion tubes at the tail vented crackling lightning trails.
"Huh?"
Natsume stood there dumbfounded.
He hadn't expected Mewtwo to move this fast!
"How did you pull that off?"
Natsume blinked.
"I told the League this: my blueprints, your wiring, and the League's industrial chain."
Mewtwo waved a hand.
"Was that really a small silver mine?"
Natsume eyed Mewtwo suspiciously.
"The main body was."
"There seemed to be some associated ores…"
Mewtwo thought for a moment, then couldn't quite recall.
It hadn't paid those details much mind.
Natsume sighed.
Whatever.
Test it first.
"Rotom!"
Red light flashed, and Rotom No. 1 appeared.
It turned into a streak of light and merged into the motorcycle.
The originally sharp, cold front cowl began to display Rotom's inverted-triangle grin.
Blue-violet arcs coiled around it.
The tires turned into semi-transparent energy rings.
The exhaust drifted a purple particle plume.
Circuit-like veins pulsed bright and dim across the body like blood vessels.
"Gotta admit, at least the looks are on point."
Natsume stepped closer and patted Loreidon's "head."
Aside from the inverted-triangle "glasses" eyes at the front looking a bit comical, Natsume was quite satisfied with the rest.
Without chips and Porygon, the transformation circuit was unusable.
But Natsume only needed a quick look at the motorcycle-form Rotom's typing anyway.
That alone could reveal a lot.
[Loreidon, Electric/Fighting]
[Ability: Quark Drive.
If holding Booster Energy or while Electric Terrain is active, its highest stat is boosted.]
[Base stats: 500.
HP: 110, Attack: 110, Defense: 30, Sp. Atk: 110, Sp. Def: 30, Speed: 110.]
"Mm…"
Natsume narrowed his eyes.
Lower than he'd expected.
The ceiling shouldn't be just this.
Also, he needed to reserve space for the Plate and consider future combinations.
A major overhaul was inevitable.
With no clear idea for now, Natsume bade Mewtwo goodbye, turned, and headed straight for the cold storage.
By the time Natsume found the Central AI, it had already gone dormant due to the lack of black fog.
Seeing this, Natsume wasn't surprised.
He had discovered a pattern: the stronger a machine's performance, the greater its consumption of black fog.
Take the Central AI—every so often it needed a "blood transfusion."
Whereas the purely mechanical lab rigs with no real smarts hadn't needed his attention at all and were still going strong.
"Rotom, I'm counting on you!"
With black fog injected, the environmental-metrics screen changed at once.
A sunglasses-wearing, cigarette-chomping yellow-bean face popped up.
"I'm alive again!"
The Central AI spoke, and the next second Natsume plugged in a data cable.
"Hm?"
"I don't do blind dates."
"Not my type."
On the screen, the yellow-bean face turned side-eyed and disdainful, eyeing the laptop tethered to it by the cable in Natsume's hand.
"I'm uploading a concept model for the motorcycle Rotom."
"Run simulated tests on its various metrics."
As Natsume spoke, he sent Mewtwo's design package to the Central AI.
"These are my materials selections."
"You can find their data on the League's official site."
"Also, the real motorcycle Rotom should be a lot bigger than the one in the drawings—about twice as big."
"Because I still have to cram other things inside."
"But those materials are in the Deconstructor right now, so I'll export the data to you later."
Natsume rattled off a long list.
The Central AI didn't answer.
A huge question mark appeared on the yellow-bean face.
"What's with you?"
Natsume tilted his head at the Central AI, wondering if this guy had gone online and downloaded malware again.
Suddenly, the yellow-bean face vanished from the screen, replaced by a little dog with its nose raised to sniff.
"What are you doing?"
Natsume stared at the Central AI in puzzlement.
"I connected to a nearby network and detected… hmm."
"Okay, false alarm."
The Central AI's voice sounded, and the sniffing-dog icon instantly vanished, switching back to a disappointed yellow-bean face.
"In that case, remember to run the simulations for me."
"Time's tight."
Natsume thought it over, estimating Ash might be back in about a month and a half.
Even if a supercomputer's results would differ from reality, they were still fine as a rough reference.
Leaving the cold storage, Natsume received a message from Mewtwo on his phone.
"The instruments have arrived."
"We tested the power system—it can drive the load."
"We're starting the cable runs now."
Natsume nodded and was about to head back to the lab when another text suddenly came in.
It was one of those messages he got a few times a day—mostly League public-service announcements.
But this time, the word "Raymond" actually appeared.
What does that have to do with center-parted?
Curious, Natsume tapped it open.
"[Lumiose Finance] Urgent Notice"
"Parent/Guardian of Raymond: Your son Raymond (Trainer ID ending ****) has an overdue loan with our company."
"If the outstanding 18,650,000 Pokédollars is not settled by the 28th of this month at 18:00, we will submit the case to the home registry court for litigation and apply to have him listed on the League-wide defaulters roll!"
"Call to negotiate: +879-88******98 (for inter-region calls, add area code)."
"Reply R to unsubscribe."
"R"
Natsume sent the reply and rolled his eyes.
Raymond was center-parted, and the Trainer-ID ending digits matched his.
These scammers were getting brazen.
Inter-region fraud was one thing, but they hadn't even checked their data.
Center-parted was his Pokémon—how would it take out an online loan?
Closing the phone, Natsume shook his head.
To help center-parted study properly during the Orange League trip, Natsume had equipped it with a phone.
Apparently it had tapped who-knows-what online and leaked personal info.
"When we get back, I'm turning on child mode for it…"
Muttering to himself, Natsume returned to the lab.
On the Deconstructor, a small black carapace veined with red lay on the tray.
Beside it, the deconstruction data for Eternatus's carapace had finished.
Natsume looked it over, brow tightening.
A string of question-mark gibberish filled the readout.
From the few legible bits, he could only tell that this piece of armor had very high "activity."
It seemed capable of… seeping into other metal materials?
In just under an hour of contact, the softened Eternatus carapace had already bonded tightly to the Deconstructor's tray.
Putting the carapace away, Natsume raised an eyebrow.
At this point, there was no usable data, so sending anything to the Central AI was pointless.
But… maybe he didn't need to send it to the Central AI at all.
All he had to do was upscale and improve Loreidon, then see if these carapaces could be fused into it.
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