"What are you doing?" I asked a bit breathlessly as we finally found Arcanine.

"Arc!" She whined at me, paws waving in the air.

"How do you keep ending up on your back?" I asked her, and Blissey tittered as we walked over. Blissey and I took a moment to dig and pull her out of the sand until she was on her belly, and of course Arcanine was now completely coated in sand.

She was going to need a B.A.T.H. I blinked as I realized I didn't even dare say the word in my own mind or else Arcanine might hear it.

"Arc." She barked at me, tail wagging, but I noticed she looked a bit tired still.

"Still too much?" I asked her and she just panted happily.

Either too much, or she had just overdone it and kept running for as long as she could…

She'd definitely just kept running. "Silly dog." I told her, reaching out and rubbing her cool sandy nose and getting licked in exchange.

"You able to move, or want to rest?" I asked her and got a breathy snort from her nose puffing up a bit of sand.

"Return silly dog." I told her, putting her in her ball, and standing up to check with Blissey who was still giggling. "Quite a team we've got."

"Bliss! Blissey Blissey." She agreed. I looked at her, and she tilted her head as I must have had a silly face.

"Want to try it?" I offered, I didn't feel exhausted like before, and I kind of wanted to know how many Z moves I could use.

"Bliss?" She pointed at herself, and then seemed to think it over tapping just below her lips. "Blissey." She agreed and then as I turned to face her she pointed and I realized.

"Yeah we should get back with everyone first. I don't want to pass out all the way out here."

"Bliss." She agreed and then offered her fin. I grinned and grabbed it and we both set off. Blissey giggling as I skipped on the sand and soon she was joining me, both of us just having fun as we headed back to everyone.

The Alolan beaches continued to be an absolute delight, warm sand and sun and cool surf. It was a paradise.

But honestly? I liked snow, mountains and crisp mountain air too.

As we headed back across the beach I couldn't help but actually feel a little homesick. Sure I'd spent a lot of the last year camping out in Kanto up in the mountains or wherever, but… I kinda missed Gram Gram, and everything.

We caught back up to see Papa playing with Rockruff, and Mama still sunbathing with Meowth, the two of them wearing matching looks of relaxation.

How cute!

"We're back!" I called out and reached my parents who looked up, Rockruff snarled, but not in anger, he was playing with a rope. I wasn't going to even ask where Papa had found that.

"Welcome back." Papa greeted but he turned back to Rockruff and was happily playing with the puppy.

I just rolled my eyes, and looked at Blissey. "Ready?"

"Bliss!" She agreed, pumping her arms.

"Alright let's test this out." I confirmed and shifted into the starting pose, which she copied. We ran through it a few times, and I could see my parents were watching on as we synced up.

Only when we sort of accidentally activated it a few times did I nod.

"Okay Blissey let's do it for real. Together! Let's show everyone our bond!" I called out and started the Normalium Z's moves. The power flowed through me, my hat waving a bit as it burst forth, and flowed into Blissey.

"Breakneck Blitz!" I roared out, and Blissey shifted, instead of pointing down the beach she shifted towards the ocean, and then as the power flowed from me, which I only barely managed to squeeze off before it sucked out everything she glowed bright, power igniting!

And she moved.

One second she was there, and the next she was sending a trail of sand as she rushed forward.

Fast, not quite Arcanine Z powering up Extreme Speed, but still. Fast.

And then she hit the ocean… Literally.

"Bliss!" She cried out and smashed a punch into the first wave that rose up to catch her.

Even as my knees went to jello and I slumped into the sand with a groan, just barely keeping myself from going face first. I felt the remains of that wave splatter against me.

Blissey punched the Ocean.

It's super effective.

Of course it was only one and done, and well…

"Bli-uglgble-Ssey-Gurgl-Bliss." I watched as my girl slumped into the ocean… Huh Blissey were semi buoyant. Good to know.

She was soon sort of rolling along on the returning waves, every few moments her head would come up and then she'd keep rolling and dunk her head back into the water again.

"Umm… Papa?" I asked weakly. "Can you rescue Blissey?"

"I'm on it!" He called out rushing out. Good cause I couldn't help her no matter how much I wanted. My knees had given out and I was laying folded up, staring into the sky.

—--

"Bliss. Blissey Bliss." She grumbled. All I could do was just grunt.

That… Had taken everything out of me.

Two Z moves was definitely my limit at least for now, I bet I could get better at using them, but I was completely fully tapped out.

Thankfully Papa was nice and had given me and Blissey a chair and we were hunkering under an umbrella enjoying the cool ocean air that blew over us.

Tiiiiired.

"You still going to meet that Professor, Kukui? You're going to be late if you don't go now." Papa suddenly reminded me, and I just groaned at him before slowly sitting up.

"I'm going." I managed to say and Blissey just flopped a fin at me, not intending at all to follow. "You want to stay, or return?"

"Bliss." She denied me and rested back, closing her eyes.

Fair enough.

"You sure Vicky. You can always tell the Professor you can't today." Mama offered still sitting with Meowth in her lap.

"Yeah. I want to know what's going on. I'll be okay… Hehe! I'll just call for a ride." I reached for my belt and hesitated. Normally I would rely on Arcanine, but she was tuckered out, Blue Heart? I don't think I had the strength to climb up and hold onto him either. Ugh.

There was only one choice.

"Pree! Drag Dragon?" She asked me as I smiled a little weakly.

"Is a flight to the Pokemon school okay?"

"Drag drag drag!" She laughed laughing with her whole belly shaking.

Then she reached down and picked me up like I was a little doll, and flapped her wings.

Well fair enough.

"That easy Dragonite!" I pointed, and we rocketed off. She looked quite pleased as she flew through the sky. I bet she'd probably been wanting to go for a flight too.

Only moments later we arrived, Dragonite landing on the ground, and I stepped away a bit weakly, but I at least was feeling capable of moving around a bit more.

"You want to return, or stay around?" I asked, and she started looking around, poking her head into the pokemon school curiously.

"Drag, Dragonite." She called out, as if saying excuse me, and I followed her in as she walked through the front hall, looking at all the stuff on the walls.

"That's the class picture." I added as Dragonite was looking at a line of pictures along the walls.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"Oh!"

I blinked at the very feminine voice that spoke up and turned as Dragonite did, sticking my head out from around her bulk, as I looked at who was talking and needed a minute to respond.

Oh.

"What a beautiful Dragonite, hello hello!" Greeted the svelte form of Lusamine, as always her hair was almost outrageous, but Lusmanie had a definite powerful presence as she stepped up her heels clicking, just outside of Dragonites personal space, despite the fact it was obvious she wanted to intrude.

"Drag." Dragonite greeted back with an upraised hand, and Lusamine nearly squealed.

"Oh my look at you! Hello my- Oh! Are you carrying an egg as well!? Oh Myyyyy!" She squealed even louder, practically shivering. "And look at those scales, and those muscles! You're not just a wild Dragonite at all!" Lusamine's eyes flashed to me, and she smiled.

I couldn't help but smile back.

"Dragonite does have an egg right now, yes. We're waiting for her to drop it."

"Oh myyy!" She squealed, and Dragonite chuckled herself as waved off Lusamine like it wasn't a big deal.

"Oh but Dragonite are so rare! What a wonderful treat! I would love it if you let me examine you, the Aether Foundation has the best medical technology around!"

Dragonite didn't seem to quite understand and just scratched at the back of her head, and I laughed.

"I think Dragonite is fairly safe. But thank you for the offer Mrs. Lusamine."

"Ah! You already know me! How wonderful, but I don't know you?" She asked giving me a curious look, she was almost acting overly cute putting her chin in her hand as if examining me a little.

"I'm Vicky, Victoria Ferrous. I'm helping Professor Kukui with the TM investigation."

"Oh! Then we're here for the same thing!" She reached out and grabbed my hand and shook it up and down laughing. "You simply must tell me how you came to be involved. When I heard about this! Oh my! I was so concerned at first. I'm thankful that this was discovered!"

"Well. I'm sort of responsible for it. I work as a Research assistant under Professor Cerise in Kanto, but Professor Kukui and I sort of discovered the TM thing."

"Indeed." Kukui called out, sticking his head out from the same classroom we had used for researching last time. He blinked for a second when he saw Dragonite as well, but she waved, and he smiled in turn. "Vicky is our gem for this! Why don't you both come in, and we can explain everything, Director."

"Haha! Just call me Lusamine Professor Kukui! You take such good care of my Lillie after all!" All three of us headed inside, and Principal Oak was already there. Smiling in greeting before stalling out for a second as Dragonite peaked her head in, and then with a bit of wiggling squeezed herself into the room. Looking around curiously.

"Ah."

"She's just looking around. Don't mind her." I waved my hands at him, and he blinked his eyes tracking and then his face scrunched up.

"Is she?"

"Carrying an egg!" Lusamine added instantly and Principal Oak's face shifted to a surprised realization.

"Well she did have a lot of time with her hubby recently. It's just sort of what happens." I uttered a little embarrassed and Dragonite just belly laughed.

"Hubby?"

"Milotic. They're in love." I added confidently, and Dragonite faux blushed and waved a hand at me.

"Oooh! I want to examine you so much now!" Lusamine whined practically shaking but she instead sighed and let out the tension. "But that's not what I'm here for."

"Indeed, Director Lusamine. Thank you for joining us, considering how busy you are, but the subject matter has… Caused some concern."

"Indeed. Frankly. Technical Machines are a fairly new technology. The stress testing for them has been quite broad, but there are still times that something catches us off guard." Lusamine admitted, her previous energy calmed and the businesswoman showed through.

"If it wasn't for Vicky we wouldn't have noticed. The exact same move, with a different presentation doesn't transfer through TM, so something is causing an issue."

"Ah! That's what you meant. Well, I can speak for many people Victoria, thank you." Lusamine offered, even giving a little bow to me.

"Ah… No problem?"

"So you figured it out already, Lusamine?"

"Indeed." She stepped forward and pulled out what looked like a thumb drive and inserted it into the computer that was set up in the room.

"Here is the currently used standard TM formatting version." She began, and a whole lot of technical data appeared on the screen. "And here is the newly updated version that the Aether Foundation will be sending out shortly to every TM manufacturer across the planet." She offered and I blinked at how grandiose that sounded.

A second file appeared on the screen and she brought them up next to each other as if comparing them. For me, honestly other than a few altered lines on graphs and things I couldn't make heads or tails of the data.

Principal Oak seemed the most engaged, as even Kukui looked at it more like a wild pokemon he would have to tackle than as data he can parse.

"Can I ask for an explanation in layman's terms? Just so I know what happened? I'm curious." I asked, raising my hand like I was in school, and Lusamine blinked at my request before laughing, her previous controlled personality flowing away as she snapped and pointed at me.

"Indeed! Very well, let's see… TM's currently add a psychic addition into pokemons minds. A sort of blueprint on how to use a move. The memory of it if you want to get involved in the psychic transference, but cleaned out of personality. It lets a pokemon know how to shift their energy to use a move."

"Yes, and… I see." Principal Oak offered with a sigh. "The technology… It's too powerful."

"Indeed! The copied memory is applied using the same techniques that have been in use since the first Technical Machine. Despite the refining of the copying and clarity of the memories the application system, the TM application device, is still the same." Lusamine had taken a sort of teaching pose waving a finger around as she held onto the elbow of her arm.

"It's too strong." Kukui offered instantly, and that clicked in my mind.

"Wait wait… The old TM's would have been low quality, err, low clarity as you said. So since the new copies are much higher clarity… It's putting in too much power transferring the memories… Burning them in." I whispered the last part realizing how terrible that sounded.

"Bing bing!" She agreed, and Kukui spoke up.

"What's the damage? We've already confirmed they can't alter the move, please tell me Lusamine you've already determined this?" Kukui asked.

"Of course! We've been working non-stop since this was brought to my attention! Relax. There is some… Damage, but nothing irreversible! In fact it's opened up a new function we've never considered before. A move… Deleter." She offered, waving her hand like she was leading an orchestra.

"It works?" I cut in as well, knowing that everyone had questions, but I had some too! "Because I gave some of my pokemon TM's before, does it remove the damage?"

"It does." She confirmed, and it was like the tension on my shoulders disappeared. "We confirmed it ourselves. It also could explain a recurring issue that was considered bad training up until now. The reason why Pokemon learning from TM's seemed to operate at a lower level than normally trained Pokemon."

"You think it's related?"

"No proof yet, but I've already started a research group on it. Give us a month or more, and we should be able to confirm it. Especially since the new Technical Machine version should remove the, hmm? Move Lock?" She hummed like trying to figure out the right word.

"That's a relief." Kukui said, smiling in relief. "Lusamine, you're a lifesaver."

"Hah! Protecting pokemon is part of the Aether Foundation charter! This is something that we are culpable in. Bad research and improper testing. No one considered lowering the upload frequency strength once the clarity of the brain wave copy was created!"

Thinking on what was being said I reached into my bag and rummaged around until I pulled it out. My own TM uploader. It was just a device you attached to a Pokeball and then put the TM on the little wheel and it would upload to the pokemon.

"So what do I need to fix my Uploader?" I asked the group, and all the adults blinked.

"Oh, it'll need to be replaced entirely won't it?" Principal Oak asked, before seemingly realizing what he had just said.

Uploaders weren't super expensive, the real cost was the TM's themselves, but from what I understood they were pricey, but the companies sold them planning on more TM sales to offset the loss.

If they all would need to be replaced? That could change.

"Probably a full replacement." Lusamine added but she was tapping her lips.

"You can't just patch the program. Make it use less power when uploading?" I asked, and the woman continued to tap at her lips as she considered it.

"Patch? Maybe the Aether Foundation can earn even more good will out of this." She decided. "I believe it is possible we could create some sort of 'Patch' as you say, but trying to update so many devices? How many people will just ignore the update?"

"Why not ask Nurse Joy for help?" I spoke. "If there is something hurting pokemon then obviously Nurse Joy would want to fix it. You could just send whatever device you need to update the Uploaders to Nurse Joy and have them offer it to trainers passing through… Maybe the Move Deleter as well? Integrate it into Pokemon Centers? They already have the video phones."

"Ooooh!" Lusamine cooed and then burst into laughter, before I was suddenly lifted right off my feet. "Oh aren't you the smart one! What a good girl! Yes you are! Yes you are!" I was held tightly, and my hair on top of my head was rubbed into a complete mess.

Lusamine was stronk!

"Eeeea!" I cried out as I wiggled a bit but I was soon placed back on my feet, almost woozy from the sudden attack.

"I like it! I'll reach out to the Joys, and we can figure out at least sending the device that can update the Uploaders to every Pokemon center! Oh! Maybe even reach out about how to find the Move Lock itself! If a Nurse Joy discovers it they could help remove it right there! It would certainly speed things along!"

"That's really smart." I said, I only mentioned the move deleter in Pokemon Centers, because that's where you could find them in some versions of the game.

"Oh aren't you adorable!" She once more reached out and cupped both my cheeks. "Ah! You should be good friends with my children! I bet Gladion and you would get along so great! Ah, and you'd be so cute toge-*Cough* Nevermind! But Vicky-chan! You simply have to come visit the Aether Foundation! You're such a smart one, I want to scoop you right up."

"Ah… Thank you? And what do you mean Together? And scoop u-"

"Alright. I do have to run!" She interrupted me. "But I'm very glad I was able to make time for this meeting. Principal Oak, Professor Kukui, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I hope the Aether Foundation's efforts have impressed?"

"Very much so, Lusamine. Thank you." Kukui offered with a grin, and the woman smiled brightly as she started walking but stopped for a second to grab Dragonite's hand, as she'd just been watching the whole time and cooing over her for a minute before continuing to walk out.

"Did… Did Lusamine just say she was trying to set me up with her son?" I asked, after a minute and Kukui and Oak both did a spit take and pointedly changed the subject immediately after…

Was I in danger!?

—--

It took a bit for all three of us to settle down once Hurricane Lusamine had left. The men had done everything they could to avoid my question, which was fine. Dragonite was giggling at me, and I huffed at her, which only made her giggle harder.

Was Lusamine serious about that? Gladion was… Well an idiot!

I shook it off as the two men had returned to looking over the data, and I followed along as best I could as Principal Oak looked over what Lusamine had left for us.

"Do you mind if I take a copy of this, and send it to Professor Cerise? I mean. I think Lusamine might beat me to sending it out if what she said is true, but-"

"Absolutely. That's not an issue. Here. Take the original, I already copied it over." Principal Oak offered, and I grinned as he handed me the thumb drive-like device.

Cool! I'd never seen something just like it. I wonder if it was something the Aether Foundation made.

I put it in my backpack for later. "So… That was fun… I mean it was scary, but fun as well. Discovering something new, and then getting it fixed and everything."

"Hah! That's what being a Professor is all about!" Kukui offered puffing up with his hands on his hips. "Why, there is no more important job in the whole world!"

"If you say so, Professor." I managed to say from in between my giggles. "Still I'm glad that the Aether Foundation was able to figure out what was wrong so fast, and fix it."

"Hmm. I believe the actual knowledge was already known. Move Lock, as Lusamine called it, isn't exactly new." Principal Oak offered. "I have no doubt Lusamine has nothing but good intentions, mind you." He added as everyone looked at him. "But… There are people who wouldn't care and would hide that sort of thing just because it's inconvenient to fix. I'm glad that we were able to bring Lusamine into this so quickly."

"Jerks." I decided and Principal Oak's face softened into an amused smile.

"People can be, but when we all work together, we can overcome that sort of thing."

"Yep!" I agreed without a thought. Bonds were bonds, and bonds were power.

"Pree?" I turned as Dragonite purred out a question but she wasn't looking at me. She was patting her belly a bit. Then she looked up and I felt my eyes widen.

"It's coming?"

"Drag. Dragonite." She confirmed and I instantly started fumbling with my belt.

I needed a Ride! No, an ambulance! Emergency!

I calmed after a second of panic, took a breath. "Okay, return Dragonite, I'll get you to the pokemon center."

"Drag dragon." She giggled seemingly noticing my panic as she walked over with a bit more hobble to her step than before and patted me on the head.

"I love you too." I told her, and she tittered.

I quickly returned her and rushed out of the building. Sorry Arcanine. Even if you're a little tired, it's an emergency!

—--

I cooed a bit as I held the incubator in my lap. Gently cleaning it off with a wet cloth.

Dragonite was resting on the beach with Milotic wrapped around her. She was content, and Dratini was around my shoulders staring at the egg, looking left and right as if hoping it would hatch even faster.

"Do you think it'll be a little brother, or a little sister?" I asked him, and his fins flared for a second as if he hadn't even realized it could be one or the other.

I laughed.

My little family had gotten one egg larger.