The Type Specialist

“Oh, man! Did you see the description of Mega Slowbro? ‘The Shelder expands to consume its entire body, leaving its head, arms, and tail exposed.’ Hahaha, that’s so messed up!”

“We think it’s really-”

“Cool! Steven can you get-”

“Us a Slowbronite? We promise-”

“Not to abuse its power!”

Steven shifted to be a bit more upright, now that the conversation between Flannery and the twins, Tate & Liza, had finally settled down enough to allow other people to speak once more.

“Unfortunately, some of these ‘theorized’ Mega Evolutions are exactly that: theorized. We have not yet found a Slowbronite, but once we have I will be sure to submit a request to have one duplicated for you.”

“Wait, we can submit requests for Mega Stones?” Brawly asked. “Can you get me a Heracronite? Lucario doesn’t really fit my style, but Heracross, I can work with that.”

Steven smiled and acknowledged Brawly’s request. Steven had spent the past few days fervently filling out forms and arranging meetings to set everything up after the ‘anonymous informant’ provided so many details about Mega Evolution. Professor Sycamore, the Mega Evolution researcher in Kalos, was able to confirm most of the provided information, since it included several details the Professor had yet to submit to the League or otherwise aligned with what he found.

After a brief meeting between all of the League Champions, the Professors of each region, and the president of the League, Charles Goodshow, the Pokémon League reached the decision that since that there was now enough information known about the phenomenon, the League would make Mega Evolution public knowledge at the start of the next year. For now, they would provide a simple list of all Mega Evolutions for Gym Leaders and members of the Elite Four to look over. While the Rayquaza’s Mega Evolution had to be left out, the rest were provided to inform the League members of what to expect for berserk Pokémon in order to let them prepare for potential threats in the future.

However, the resulting conversation did not go to plan.

“I myself am quite interested in Mega Pidgeot. Its ability, ‘No Guard,’ would be useful to create a more accurate Hurricane.”

Steven passively smiled as Winona mentioned Mega Pidgeot as the elites considered what Mega Pokémon they would like to use. Instead of seeing it as a warning that it was, the Gym Leaders and Elite Four members had decided to treat the list of potentially dangerous Mega Evolutions like a shopping list instead.

“I’m so glad that everyone else can find a Mega Evolution they desire, but what about me! My poor Glalie! I refuse to subject any of them to a permanently dislocated jaw!”

“Oh shut up, Glacia. Just go import an Abomasnow. You know you’d enjoy the challenge of training up an unfamiliar Pokémon,” Sidney responded.

Glacia huffed and slumped back into her seat on the video call. “Oh, fine. But you don’t get to complain. I see one, two, three, four... five! Five different Dark Types you can choose from! That’s not fair!”

Steven smirked to himself. Glacia was right that there were a number of Dark Types, but knowing Sidney, he would only want and care about the possibility of Mega Evolving his starter, Absol.

“Oh no you don’t! There’s only four for you!” Phoebe shouted back. “Mega Sableye is mine! Dusclops doesn’t get to Mega Evolve, so I get first dibs on Ghost Types.”

“Phoebe, dear, shouldn’t you choose Banette instead?” Wallace asked. “You are already familiar with the species and have several of them as core members of your team. It might be better to choose a Pokémon that’s more aggressive.”

“You just don’t like fighting stall tactics, Wallace. Just wait, once I have a Pokémon with Magic Bounce, I’ll be undefeatable!”

Norman cleared his breath and the discussions briefly stopped. While Norman wasn’t a member of the Elite Four, his words carried weight among the elites of the region. If he chose to speak now, it must be important.

“I am concerned about the potential for Swampert, Sceptile, and Blaziken to Mega Evolve. As easy as it is to catch any other Pokémon on this list, I am not sure that we should continue to provide completely new trainers with already strong Pokémon that can increase their strength even further. It seems like a disaster in the making.”

Steven internally celebrated that the topic was now brought back to the purpose of this meeting: discussing what to do to keep the region safe.

“Thank you for sharing your concerns, Norman. Myself, Champion Lance, Professor Oak, and Professor Birch have already discussed this worry since our two regions are the only ones to provide starters that are known to Mega Evolve. We came to the conclusion that it is fine to continue what we have always done. Trainers that earn Professor-granted Pokémon are already vetted to be the best of the best, so it is unlikely that any of them would be foolish enough to lose control of their Mega Evolutions and create a new threat. As Pokédex-holders already have a penchant for involving themselves with danger, it may actually be safer to find a way to subtly provide them with Mega Stones for their starters.”

Drake spoke up in response.

“Ah, are we sure that only the starters of our two regions can Mega Evolve? Essentially, are we sure there are not other Pokémon that can Mega Evolve?”

Ah, he’s still hung up on the lack of Mega Flygon.

“Well, this is a list of the currently known Mega Evolutions,” Steven explained. “Professor Sycamore has noted that several other species carry the same energy frequencies that signify a chance for Mega Evolution. He has theorized that any Pokémon can Mega Evolve, as long as an appropriate stone carrying a matching frequency is found.”

Drake tried to hide his disappointment at a lack of a solid confirmation, but his normally stoic face revealed his hope that Mega Flygon still might exist.

Steven hid a sigh. Since he just emphasized this list only contained what was known, someone may ask-

“Wait, how is this known?” Flannery asked, vocalizing the question he did not want to answer, “Didn’t you just say some of these are theorized and not confirmed with a stone? How are you providing this to us so confidently then?”

“After our discussion between the Champions and regional Professors, we found it necessary to keep our source secret as a point of interregional security.”

That was only partially true. Steven personally asked Charles to keep his informant a secret, and while everyone who participated in the top-level meeting became aware of who provided this information, they had determined it was best to continue protecting their identity to not let their identity be revealed. After all, if an exile from the Draconid Tribe knew about Rayquaza in such detail, what other major secrets might they know?

Steven’s statement made the entire video call go silent for a moment. It was not often that secrets were kept from both Gym Leaders and Elite Four members alike, so that declaration meant that the secret must actually be a secret.

Steven didn’t fail to notice that a few of the other League members nodded along, agreeing.

Hm. They must have already connected this to our previous discussions and determined the identity of our informant.

To his dismay, Flannery asked another question, but at least this time it was one he could reasonably answer.

“Yeah, I’m still wondering about something else, Steven. How are we getting so many Mega Stones? I thought they were super rare, or something?” Flannery asked.

Steven sighed.

“Flannery, I provided you with a report on that subject after you missed that meeting. Did you not read it?”

She rubbed the back of her head and chuckled, embarrassed.

“Fine then, I will explain for anyone who has seemed to ‘forgotten’ that information.

“Due to the research studies with the Devon Corporation and Professor Sycamore’s partnership with Lysandre Labs, once a Mega Stone is found, we can duplicate them through the use of Infinity Energy. It does not create more than one at the time and takes far too long to generate them in large numbers, but we plan to make use of this phenomenon to send copies of stones to elite League members that request them. We want you all to practice Mega Evolution yourselves so it can be used during times of major emergencies.

“And before you make any plans, you are not allowed to practice Mega Evolving your Pokémon without the proper precautions in place. We are providing them as a countermeasure for dangers we could not normally face, not to create new dangers within our cities.”

Flannery closed her eyes and nodded, pretending to understand how dangerous the situation was.

I’ll need to ask Wallace to send a few Gym Trainers her way. It’ll be best to have strong Water Types on hand before she eventually tries Mega Evolving a Fire Type on her own in the future.

“Now then, now that we’re back on track let’s talk about distribution methods. Once we make our announcement at the end of the season and once enough Gym Leaders and Elite Four members have mastered their Pokémon’s Mega Evolutions, we will provide opportunities for specific trainers to earn Mega Stones themselves. Most of them will involve tournaments with Gym Trainers seeded in to prevent untrustworthy trainers from earning the stones, but a few will be handed out as gifts. As you all know, Mega Evolution is dangerous, but the power can help us protect lives that would otherwise have been lost.

“Right now, our priority is to provide Audinite around the region for Nurse Joy to use in emergencies. The increased power to heal provided by Mega Audino has been deemed more important than simply creating stronger Pokémon.”

Everyone nodded seriously, understanding that Mega Audino would help heal those who would otherwise be unhealable. Norman was the first to speak up once Steven finished his announcements.

“It seems your prior discussion with the other Champions and Professors have already settled the most important decisions regarding Mega Evolution. I assume we will be provided a summary of the decisions made there?”

Steven nodded, acknowledging that Norman was correct.

“Very well,” Norman continued, “then I would like to request a Kangaskhanite for myself. As a parent myself, its ability, ‘Parental Bond,’ speaks deeply to me.”

Oh, Norman. Not you too.