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✩
This was her very first presentation at a conference, her first chance to prove herself in front of professors and scientific geniuses around the globe, her only opportunity to give a perfect first impression that made her idols think, ‘Wow, what a clever and professional individual, I’d love to contact her for her clear expertise in Pokémon capture and research!’
However, Crystal was starting to think it might also be her last chance.
Moon lifted up the laptop with a doubtful eye. “I don’t see it anywhere, either. Are you sure it’s not in your bag?”
“I already checked in there,” Crys said, chewing on her lip. “I’m sure I left it next to my laptop.”
Moon frowned. “Do you really think someone would’ve taken it?”
Crys shrugged, feeling doubtful too, but what else could have happened?
You see, Crys had lost her hard drive. The one that had her presentation on it. The presentation that she was supposed to give in an hour. She couldn’t screw this up; if she did, then it would show to everyone how unprepared and immature she was – clearly unsuited to be a proper researcher.
About an hour ago, she had run into Moon at one of the conference booths, the Silph Co. one, vaguely recognising her as a Dexholder that Professor Oak had mentioned (something about Alola?) and the pair had hit it off, their conversation quickly shifting from mild pleasantries and polite discussion of the new Silph Scope to their own research endeavours – Moon’s passion for poisons and Crys’s pursuit of capturing and cataloguing every Pokémon in the world. Eventually, after snide side-eyes from the Silph Co. employee at the booth and ugly Silph-branded keychains shoved in their hands, they’d moved over to the booth that Oak’s other assistants were manning, eagerly continuing their discussion.
“So, it’s about the differences between captured wild Pokémon and bred Pokémon?” Moon had asked. Crys could practically see the way her new friend’s thoughts were speeding, the cogs quickly turning in her brain.
“That’s the basis – Pokémon who have been hatched by a trainer tend to exhibit behaviours based on their trainers, rather than other Pokémon of their species, but Pokémon bred on ranches where they’re surrounded by other Pokémon, even if they’re not the same species, often have more Pokémon-like behaviours. And wild Pokémon can even be affected by the way they’re captured – luxury and friend balls are proof!” Crys was ecstatic to have someone follow along so well with her idea – her friends had been supportive, but not entirely understanding why it was so important to research. Gold had said something to the effect of, Obviously that’s how it works, how else would it? Which would’ve been more infuriating if she hadn’t used Gold’s Pokémon as part of her sample, considering their similarities to him. (It was still a little infuriating, though.)
Actually, Crys had thought. I could use a second eye on my presentation. It’s too late to really change anything, but still – Moon’s a researcher too!
And thus, that brings us to the current predicament: the missing hard drive.
They’d already checked over the folding table where Crys had left her things about five times. It was possible Professor Oak had grabbed it by mistake, but he would’ve figured it out quite quickly. He could be absent-minded, but he would’ve found her to give it back by now.
“We can’t keep checking over this table again and again – let's check out the other booths, see if we can find it.”
Moon nodded, but Crys couldn’t help her stomach twisting with apprehension. What if someone really had taken it with intent to steal? It wasn’t impossible for someone to sneak into the conference – what if someone like Team Rocket had taken her research? It wasn’t the most secret or dangerous information to get into their hands, but who knows? They could probably find a way to hurt someone with it.
She only had an hour, though. She had to push her worries aside for now, or she’d never be able to find her hard drive.
✩
Moon and Crys marched through the maze of booths, both pairs of eyes scanning desperately for any star-stickered hard drives. In fact, they were searching so desperately, they didn’t see the girl right in front of them – though, it seemed like she didn’t see them either, as she barrelled into them causing all three to fall to the ground.
“I’m so sorry!” The girl said, scrambling to her feet, grabbing her glasses as she did. “I was just trying to get back to my booth but I wasn’t watching where I was heading!”
“It’s fine, really,” Crys assured her, pulling herself off the ground and offering a hand to Moon. The younger researcher seemed a little more miffed, but still took her hand. “What’s your name? I’m Crystal, and this is Moon.”
“I’m Bianca, it’s nice to meet you! I’m the assistant to Professor Juniper from Unova,” the girl, Bianca, said. The three of them shuffled over closer to the side, to allow others through. “Do you want to see our booth, actually? It’s just there.” She pointed at a rather large booth, similar to Professor Oak’s, only a few metres away.
Both girls nodded, following Bianca’s enthusiastic lead. “So, what do you two do? Are you researchers, too?” She did eye Moon a little more doubtfully, considering her age, but Crys was pretty sure Moon was the only one out of the three of them to have any sort of academic qualification.
“I study poisons and poison-type Pokémon,” Moon said, looking over the leaflets at the booth. “I’m a pharmacist, really. I mostly research antidotes, these days.”
“And I’m an assistant to Professor Oak.” Crys nodded at Bianca, but her eyes were scanning over the booth for her hard drive. “I focus on Pokémon capture, mostly – like Pokéball types and differences between bred and captured Pokémon. I’m actually doing a presentation on the latter in an hour or so.”
“That’s so cool!” Bianca smiled, seemingly oblivious to how Crys’ attention was caught between her and finding the hard drive. “I’m an assistant too – like I said – but not much else yet…”
“Are you interested in any particular area of study?”
Bianca shrugged, still cheerful but with a slightly wistful expression. “I want to keep learning about Pokémon as much as I can, but I don’t know if I want to be an assistant forever…Maybe I’ll find something new one day, but I might not…”
Crys nodded, sympathetic. Sometimes it was nice to know that not everyone knew what they wanted to do – even if she was more driven than some of her friends, she still struggled sometimes with how her ambition could make it more difficult to know what she wanted. It could be a little directionless at times, her only aim to be good at whatever she decided to do. Capturing Pokémon was her goal, of course, but how to get there and would she ever feel satisfied in her pursuit, did she even want satisfaction from her goal, would that mean it was over – those were questions that weighed on her, these days.
✩
After talking for a while (too long, that hard drive was still missing), Moon and Crys eventually had to say goodbye to Bianca, leaving with promises to keep in touch. Crys actually liked meeting other research assistants – while they were still colleagues and people she admired and respected, there was less expectation on her, more equality between them. She didn’t feel like she was running to keep up.
After running into Daisy Oak (now a Pokémon doctor, how exciting!) for another fifteen minutes, Crys was starting to really worry more and more about her presentation. She tried to look around inconspicuously while Moon and Daisy grew more excited about their shared interest in Pokémon medicine and talking about Sinnoh – it wasn't that Crys didn’t want to hear, it was that she was running out of time. Moon turned away from Daisy with a small smile on her face, also promising to keep in touch and meet up again.
“Still can’t find it?” she asked, the smile dropping.
“I’m starting to think it’s actually gone.” Crys didn’t want to think that, but how could she not? But, they still had some time left, and Moon had helped her out even when she didn’t have to spend her day with a near-stranger looking for a hard drive, and Crys didn’t give up, she just wasn’t that sort of person.
They continued through the booths, stopping politely every now and again to look at the wonderful technology and exciting new research, but both still scanning the room for any star-stickered hard drives. The clock continued to tick down; the sand of an hourglass slipping through her fingers like her chance to prove herself. She might have an old back-up on Professor Oak’s computer—
Wait, that couldn’t be—
Crys started walking as fast as she could, trying to catch up to that very familiar looking cap and head of red hair. Could they really be here? Why would they be? Last time they’d talked, neither of them had mentioned coming here, so she must be mistaken. But…there was no one else Crys could think of it to be.
“Crystal, hold on!”
She glanced behind her – Moon was almost being swallowed up by the crowd. Shoot. She slowed down for her friend, giving her a slight nod. “I think I just saw some friends of mine here. I want to ask them if they’ve seen my hard drive.”
“You think one of them could’ve taken it?”
“...It’s definitely not out of the question.” Though, it wouldn’t be malicious, maybe just genuine curiosity. Or maybe, they might’ve rescued it from whoever took it in the first place. Or maybe, Team Rocket or someone similar really was here, and her friends had chased them here. Wherever they went, trouble tended to follow, after all.
Crys and Moon weaved their way through the crowd, hoping they wouldn’t be stopped by anyone else – Crys glanced at the clock on her Pokégear, wincing as the numbers ticked down. When she looked up again—
CRASH!
Once again, Crys fell to the ground; this time, Moon narrowly missed the same fate, side-stepping neatly. Rubbing her elbow from where it hit the ground, she looked up to see who she had both hoped and not hoped it would be: Gold and Silver, who were similarly sprawled on the ground. Luckily, they’d managed to chase them to (and fall at) the edge of the room, and so no one was much bothered by them.
Silver waved at Crys, who waved back, caught between joy and frustration, both from seeing her friends. She settled on confusion.
“The hell did you do that— Oh, heya Crys! Funny running into you here!” Gold sat up, suddenly looking sheepish.
“Why are you two here?”
“We wanted to see your presentation,” Silver said, glaring at Gold. “However, someone lost—”
Gold hastily smothered Silver’s face with his hands. “She doesn’t need to know that,” he hissed, before looking back at Crys, who had stood up. “Hey, so, is your presentation soon?”
“It would be, if my hard drive wasn’t missing. Moon and I have been looking for it for the past hour. Oh, this is Moon, by the way. She’s also a Dexholder and a research assistant; we met earlier.”
Moon stared at Gold and Silver, who both shivered slightly, giving them a nod after a moment. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Silver nodded back, saying the same, while Gold barrelled forth as usual. “We gotta go, Crys, we—”
“You.”
“I kinda lost something,” Gold amended, glaring at Silver, who was unperturbed. “We gotta find it, ’cause otherwise it could cause some trouble. Probably already has, to be honest. See ya when your talk-thing starts!”
Just then, a Togekiss, a very familiar Togekiss, landed on Gold’s head. In his mouth (as Crys was sure it was Togebo, the very same one she had used as an example for her research) was also something very familiar: a hard drive with a star sticker on it.
Her hard drive. The one she’d been looking for.
“Found it,” Silver and Moon both said, looking at one another with surprise after a moment.
“Gold! Did Togebo steal my hard drive? Is that why you actually came!?”
“No! Well—” He took the hard drive out of Togebo’s mouth, handing it to her. “I’m pretty sure he did steal it. But that’s not why we came!”
Silver nodded. “We came for your presentation, like I said.”
Crys couldn’t figure out if she was more angry or relieved. If it was just them, and they weren’t at the conference, she probably would’ve kicked Gold. She pinched the bridge of her nose, gritting her teeth as she asked, “So why did Togebo have my hard drive, then?”
“Well,” started Gold. “I let him out earlier, and he was fine for the most part, except when he suddenly flew off. Ever since then we’ve been looking for him.”
“So why did he fly off?”
Gold shrugged, but Silver looked up like he’d realised something suddenly. “It was when we were talking about your presentation. We said we wanted to take a look at it before you did it…”
“...and Togebo flew off and stole my hard drive,” Crys finished. Of course. She’d shown it to them, albeit unfinished, at Gold’s house, so Togebo must’ve figured out it was the way to get the hard drive. Togekiss could be quite clever. “Well, I’ve got to go – can’t be late for my first presentation.”
“We’ll be there! Just can’t let that old geezer Oak see us, so we might be at the back.” Gold started patting Togebo.
“...Why not?” Crys was almost afraid to ask.
Gold grimaced, like he already knew he’d said the wrong thing.
“We sort of…sneaked in,” Silver said. “We didn’t have passes, so we came through the vents.”
Crys and Moon looked up at the ceiling, high above them. They’d notice if someone came out of that, right…?
“Side room vents,” Silver clarified.
“Why didn’t you just volunteer to help out?” Moon asked. She seemed rather skeptical of Crys’ friends, and honestly, Crys couldn’t blame her.
Silver and Gold exchanged glances. “You can do that?” Gold asked.
“Well, maybe not you. Professor Oak probably wouldn’t trust you.” Crys rolled her eyes fondly. “Next year, just ask me if you want to come see. I just figured neither of you were interested.”
“We’re not. But it matters to you, so Silver figured we should come see!”
“I really have to go,” Crys said, before the pair could squabble further. “But that’s sweet of you. Just… don’t go through the vents again. It makes it a little worrying that just anyone can break in like that… Anyways. See you soon!”
With her hard drive clutched in hand, finally safe, Crys made her way to the conference room, where Professor Oak was waiting.
✩
Admittedly, she was a little nervous up on stage. She’d prepared, obviously, over and over again, but this was still her first presentation.
She stumbled a little on her first slide, her words congealing and clotting together in her mouth, making it difficult to talk.
But as she looked out upon the sea of researchers and professors, the people she admired and the people she had to impress, she found herself meeting a few familiar pairs of eyes – Bianca, curious and bright, even if she was unsure of her future; Silver and Gold, while not entirely enthusiastic, still wanting to be there for her; and Moon, who seemed to be taking in all the information she could, her new friend, clever and willing to help her out even when they barely knew each other.
Alright. This was her chance.
✩