Chapter 14: C014 - Sunkern emerges \[ T ]/
"Let's see what makes it tick, then," Professor Elm said as he picked up a multitool to break open the banged-up TM that Pete was sure wouldn't work anymore as it was.
"Huh, guess I forgot to buy some tools. Did the pokemart have any? Did Clara?" Pete muttered under his breath as he watched the professor.
"Did you say anything, Pete?"
"No professor, just some thinking out loud. Don't mind me," Pete hurriedly waved his hand.
"I see. Ugh, even bent and broken as it is, this cover isn't coming off without some serious force." The professor kept trying from every angle
"They probably glued the whole thing up so nobody could do what we're trying here," the professor softly cursed, well, more like he voiced his dissatisfaction roughly ten minutes later.
"Yeah, if only we had like a Scyther, who could do like a really precise cut to shave off only that lid and not damage any of the parts," Pete voiced his opinion.
Professor Elm stiffened. He turned to Pete with an awkward smile.
"Now that you mention it, we could ask a Scyther to help us out. Fred should still be on the premise feeding the pokemon on the pasture, and he owns a magnificent specimen."
"Oh, nice. But that would mean we tell your assistant about the TM, no? Are you okay with that? I'd be fine if we don't say we got it from me," Pete told the professor with a shrug.
"They'll find your working TM eventually. I trust them, so I won't keep it for long. And no worries, I'll honor your wishes and not tell a soul that you got us these machines. Honestly, the subterfuge and criminality of it all is so invigorating. I don't think I've treaded outside the law in the past two years," Professor Elm said with a nostalgic smile. He had already texted his assistant Fred and asked for Scyther's help in the room they were in, so the pokemon would likely arrive shortly.
"Ah, there you are. Quick as ever, Scyther," the professor praised as he opened the window for Scyther, who had knocked with one of his scythes. Praising a pokemon every second sentence was like... second nature to the professor, but somehow it always sounded genuine.
"This machine here is where we need your expertise, Scyther. You see, the lid is somehow stuck on this cube, but we need it off. Could you shave off somewhere between half a finger and finger's worth off of this side of the cube? Ah, I mean a finger's width, not length. Nobody I would trust with such delicate and precise cutting except for you," the professor explained with a warm smile.
The pokemon in question gave a serious nod and got ready by lining up the scythe above the needed cut. With a quick slash downwards, the lid on the side fell off and revealed the insides of the machine. Well, a good part of it. Even the insides were compartmentalized and would need further cutting to pull apart.
That wasn't out of their expectation, so the two stayed calm as they thanked Scyther for his fine work. The professor asked him to stay around, with Pete offering him a treat as a service fee.
A few minutes later, they asked Scyther to cut off two more sides of the dice which includes the one opposite of the first cut and the side connecting these to cut surfaces at the bottom of the machine.
Pete found a whole bunch of parts he recognized from his old life, like resistors, capacitors, chipsets, and circuit boards, but he actually didn't understand most of the underlying technology and logic behind the wiring from just a glance.
After all, most of this was built with the help or under the inspiration of pokemon, so the technological tree of this world was not only all over the place, but also different to the one in Pete's old world.
Also, he was a mechanical engineer before, and while he attended some courses, he was no electronic engineer genius. He could use a solder iron to fix old circuit boards and the like, but messing around with finicky micro-electronics like what he saw in the TM was a tall order.
Still, Pete made some plans to get a few items for tinkering in case he ever needed to fix some of the equipment or electronics on the farm. For that reason, he was also really excited to meet Klink if it hatches anytime soon. Right now, the steel pokemon's potential expertise and typing energy was wasted, but on the farm, Pete was really hoping he would find a kindred spirit for tinkering in the pokemon.
"Peeeeete! Come quickly, your incubator is making noise!"
Interrupted from his musings by Vivian, Pete looked up.
'Wow, what a coincidence. I think about one of them hatching, and another just pops out,' Pete thought as he wanted to confirm if Elm wanted to come along with a look.
"Go, go! I'll quickly get the TM-CD out and follow right behind you," the professor eagerly exclaimed.
"Look, it's the one on the left. I pressed the button so the noise stops, but you can clearly see the cracks," Vivian said as she pointed to one of the incubators in his room.
"Ohhh, it's the Sunkern!" Elm had just entered the room with a CD in his hand and looked toward the opened up incubator.
"Want me to get your pokemon from outside?" Vivian offered.
"Nah, that's okay. I'll introduce them to Sunkern later. Don't want to overwhelm the little guy," Pete declined with a soft smile.
"Hmm, not saying you won't be able to handle it, but that's a lot of new pokemon in a day," Professor Elm mused with a worried look.
Pete had the same thought, and he wanted to discuss getting the eggs out of the incubators at a later date with his pokemon. In just a few days in this world, his total pokemon count, if Blitzle and Zorua agree, would shoot up to 9 pokemon with the newly hatched Sunkern.
Before he had his farm up and running, this was quite a high number to constantly tend to and feed. Inwardly, Pete was already thinking about how he would want to cut his travel short and maybe move to Goldenrod City or even just Violet City by a different method of travel than just by walking or rather riding on Rapidash.
"Hey, professor, if I wanted to get from here to Goldenrod City at the fastest, what options would I have?"
"Hmm, the Noctowl post office offers carriage rides at a premium to Cherrygrove City, I think you could get a boat from there to Goldenrod City," the professor said with a pondering expression.
"Remember Herbert? I told you about his traveling flower shop earlier, when you wanted to buy seeds," Vivian chimed in when she heard Pete's question.
"Yeah? What about him?"
"Well, he arrives by Teleport thanks to his Exeggutor. I think he mentioned it takes even his old friend three hops, but the destination is the problem, not how many people he carries. Maybe you could get him to take him with you? And from Violet City to Goldenrod City, I think you could go by train or even go to the National Park?"
"Excellent idea, Vivian! Have you experienced travel by Teleport before? It's exciting and unlike anything you'll have ever experienced," Professor Elm added on.
"Nope, it would be a new experience for-"
Pete's answer was cut short by Sunkern breaking from its egg.
The yellow corn with two gray-brown stripes running down its black beady eyes and a third stripe running down from its mouth and a little propeller-hat with two green leaves on top was staring at them curiously.
"Sun-Sunkern?" A melodious high-pitched voice rang out from the little grass pokemon.
"Hey Sunkern, glad you joined us. I'm Pete, and I'm the one who found your egg. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I'm planning on opening a farm, and I could really use someone like you to help with all the plants. Would you mind joining me?"
Pete and Sunkern were engaged in a stare-off. Neither of them moved after Pete sat on the ground in front of the opened incubator with a luxury ball in his hand.
Vivian at the back was squealing in delight at how cute it all looked, but she decided not to run in, in case she messed up Pete's process of convincing the pokemon.
"Kern!"
It felt like almost five minutes had passed until Sunkern blinked, which apparently resulted in his loss at the stare contest, and he agreed to stay with Pete.
"Great! I'm certain we'll achieve great things together! And once you reach your bottleneck, I already have a sunstone ready for you to take the next step," Pete happily professed.
Vivian rushed past him and picked up the fist-sized pokemon to hug it to her face and started fussing all over it. Different from the time the two Minccino hatched, Sunkern came out completely dry - well, he did look properly hydrated.
'Did he drink whatever was inside the egg?' Who knew? Pete could find out later.
"Congratulations on gaining another member to your evergrowing team, Pete! Oh yeah, before I forget. Here's the TM-CD I pried out of the machine," the professor said as he handed Pete a lightly scratched TM17 Protect.
"It's a nice move, but tell me if the CD doesn't work. I think I have a copy or two lying around here somewhere in the lab," Elm mentioned as he went to his wife to take a closer look at Sunkern.
"Let's introduce you to everyone. What do you say?" Pete offered two minutes later when Sunkern started to look a little overwhelmed.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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stone