Like a behind the scenes addition to a movie, a clapperboard slammed shut in front of the camera.
A glowing red dot blinked in the top right corner, signaling that it was recording.
"Alright void tests, take one." Said the person holding the clipboard. It was a younger man with dark hair. He wore a pair of joggers and a plain blue t-shirt. There was a pencil tucked behind his ear, and a wide smile stretched across his face.
"Okay let's get the setup explained shall we?" The man asked rhetorically.
"I'm Red, field researcher for Professor Oak. On hand I have Zuko, Starfallen Charmeleon, as our stand in martial artist."
The camera panned to the side, passing over tables covered in lab equipment. Microscopes, various chemicals, many other measurement tools, basically any science geeks dream lab. Behind one of the tables was a large yellow reptile-like creature. Its yellow scales reflected the light, and the menacing scowl the dragon wore emphasized just how large its teeth were. It had a sweatband on its head. Its back had two red fins, which were laying flat across its scales.
In between the two fins was a small brown furred creature, head held between its paws. It watched the black haired man with a keen interest, its bright eyes shining with wonder.
"Then we've got Rotom as damage control." The camera panned back. It settled on a floating fire extinguisher, coated with spectral light. There were two plastic googly eyes glued to the front, that swiveled to look right into the camera. The black hose-like appendage waved as the fire extinguisher bounced up and down in the air with excitement.
"Finally we've got Porygon, who's holding the camera."
The camera swiveled a hundred and eighty degrees, showing a close-up of a Porygon waving at the camera before turning back.
"Okay, formalities out of the way, let's begin." The black haired man, Red, stated as he walked towards the white board.
"I guess I probably should have called this one Void Test, exposition. Or Void tests, setup." The man mumbled. "Cuz like if I have multiple takes, which we definitely will, there's no way in hell I'm gonna go through this all again for all of them. It would have been easier to just splice this clip onto all the others." He waved his hands through the air as he spoke, as if fighting off invisible ghosts.
"I mean do you think it's confusing if I splice take one onto the rest of the clips?" The camera shook side to side as Porygon voiced his opinion.
"I guess I can just cut out the clapperboard part."
"Whatever. Void experiments, exposition time!" The man enthusiastically took up a black marker, and began to draw on the board.
"Okay, so first round of testing is going to be seeing how martial aura interacts with void aura. Hypothesis is that void aura is mad disrupted by martial aura. That is the established norm. Plus all the other interactions with void types. However, Myst here…"
"Shit! Right. Our resident void master for the day will be Myst, who is a Zorua." The camera panned down, showing a napping black and red fox.
"Anyway, Myst might be able to show that void energy has more to it than previously assumed. Null hypothesis is that these interactions are purely energy based, and don't actually have inherent advantages or disadvantages."
The man clapped his hands together and began to draw.
"The Vespiqueen hexa plate is a part of the bug pokemons natural biological armor. It has one of the highest tensile strengths of any biological material. The tight chemical bonds actually compare to alloy or mineral structures. Wait. Huh. That actually gives me a couple questions in itself. Hmmm." The man put his hand to his chin, tapping thoughtfully.
"Actually Porygon cut out the feed. I think that'll serve as a good exposition. I've got some things to test."
The video feed cut out.
The next video in line started playing next. A clapperboard with the #2 scribbled onto it was raised to the camera.
Instead of human hands, however, there were red claws holding it in place.
The Charmeleon snarled while smiling, baring its fangs in an attempt at familiarity.
The camera then panned around the lab, which was now far more destroyed than it was in the previous video.
"FUCK!" The man yelled as the yellow plate held under some kind of technological device began vibrating. Like a loose firework, the hex plate began fizzing off randomly, destroying the machine. It continued on, over the man who had dropped to the floor to dodge the projectile, bouncing off the walls of the lab.
It crashed into various lab materials, shattering glass and scattering metal.
Finally, the object was put to rest as the Charmeleon shot out a laser like burst of fire, striking the hex plate with incredible precision as it whizzed through the air.
The camera, having perfectly tracked the erratic trajectory of the hex plate, slowly zoomed in on the man as he stood up from the floor.
It zoomed in on his face, showing the ash marks and burnt hair, accompanied by a wicked grin.
He flashed his pearly whites at the camera.
"Holy shit."
The camera cut out again.
The next clip started rolling. This time, human hands held the clapperboard once again.
"Uh, I guess this is exposition number two. In terms of clips it's number three. In terms of experiments, well, I haven't actually started yet." The man scratched the back of his head.
"That being said, I've tested a lot of different things. The difference being, I've been measuring and testing properties of a component I want to use in the actual experiments. So some still were kind of mini experiments. Whatever. It's besides the point."
There was now a wicked grin on his face. "I did it. I figured out bug types."
"It's resonance. Vibrations. It's why bug buzz made my fucking skull rattle. The vibrations would have turned my mind to mush if the attack had been sustained."
He walked up to the white board, erasing everything that was written in marker. Failing to get it all, there were still smudges left all over. The man didn't seem to notice.
Turning back to the camera, the man put his hand out. "Okay so resonance. Basically the propagation of a wave. Doesn't matter what kind. Hell, steel and concrete bridges can get taken down by resonance. Wind causes the bridge to oscillate at one of its natural frequencies, building up vibrations, eventually causing the entire structure to bounce up and down and shred itself apart. Water waves resonate from underwater earthquakes, which cascades to create Tsunami's, or tidal waves. Sound. Light. I could go on."
As he spoke, the man drew diagrams of a bridge progressively falling apart, bending more and more as wind rushed in.
"Bugs use resonance. Small vibrations build up into large bursts of energy. It shreds through psychic barriers. Void energy, if it really is concentrated in gravity, must take incredible focus to concentrate into our reality. Resonance can ripple through it and shred it apart."
"Well, that's the theory anyway. Everything has a natural vibration to it. All matter does. Bug types seem to be able to harness and enhance those vibrations. The Vespiqueen hex plate was still erratically oscillating. I saw it in the microscope. The strain gauges got readings. Normally, you can oscillate a steel beam, tape an accelerometer to it, and find natural frequencies from the response. The hex plate, which should be dead, still had leftover energy. Somehow."
The man threw his hands in the air and laughed.
"This world is so crazy. These natural energies are complete bullshit. Luckily, this wasn't my only plate. Now I can get to actual experimenting."
He drew up a new plan on the board.
"Despite my observations, this theory has some serious holes. It explains strengths against psychic and void Pokémon. However, resonance should be able to obliterate through mineral, alloy, and other earthy elements, since the ductility of a material should be inversely proportional to how susceptible it is to fracturing from vibrational resonance. However, bug energy doesn't seem to work that way."
He tapped his chin.
"Maybe they can only manipulate certain material? Organic material? And somehow rock, ground, and steel types don't qualify? Some kind of manton limit. Huh."
After another couple seconds, the man spoke up again.
"Damn. Now I want to talk to some bug specialists. Either way, let's get started. New hypothesis is that bug energy is sourced from resonance. Null hypothesis is that bug energy comes from literally anything else."
"Wait… I guess the experiments could have results that don't necessarily support or refute either of those conclusively. So basically, I'm going to keep doing the same tests. The hypothesis really is just a good habit, making sure you don't skew results. It doesn't actually matter that much if you're careful enough to be objective about science. That in itself can be a contradiction, as bias is inherently evident no matter how thorough your self observation is, but being as close as possible despite the fact is still worlds better than not trying at all."
The camera swiveled as something collapsed. There was now a red lizard collapsed on the tile floor, eyes swirling from trying to keep up with the barrage of words.
The man grimaced. "Sorry Azula. I know I said I'd stop monologuing so much. I'm really trying. You know how science brings it out the worst."
He then clapped his hands together. "Myst! Zuko! Get in position, we're starting now. Actually, Porygon, this is probably a good time to start a new feed."
The video cut out.
The clapperboard reappeared.
The clapperboard showed the number 43.
"ALright ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the world class championship of WILL IT BREAK?!"
A red Charmeleon loudly banged two metal devices in approval. The metal pieces, once part of expensive lab equipment, broke even more as they crashed together to make noise.
"ON THE LEFT, he's lean. HES MEAN. He's packs enough voltage to light up a small city. ALL THE WAY FROM THE SKY JUNGLE, give it up for Zuko THE MAGIC DRAGON!"
The man yelled, now covered in far more ash and burn marks.
The camera panned to the left, zooming in on the Starfallen Charmeleon. On all fours, the dragon played the part, reveling in the dramatic spectacle. He pawed his claws on the ground, like a bull ready to charge. His tails were curled up in the air, like a scorpions tail poised to strike. Lightning crackled dangerously between the red fins on his back and his tails.
The camera began to pan back over to the right.
The lab was now completely obliterated. Any semblance of organization had gone out the window. The tables, once in rows, holding wonders of technology made from generations of science to help better the world, now lay in pieces on the floor or shuffled off next to the walls.
There was a singular line along the ground where you could see the tile. The debris had been shoveled off to the side so that there was a path.
"ON THE RIGHT, keeper of shadows. Cowl of darkness. Pure chaotic force of nature, representative of all the monsters that go bump in the night, give it up for MYSTERIO, VOID WRAITH OF THE ETERNAL FOREST!"
The camera passed over a hex plate hanging from the ceiling. It dangled from a thick metal cable, with two more cables on its bottom corners fastening it to the floor.
The camera pan then reached the far right, where a mess of shadows and darkness amalgamated into a storm of wrongness.
Red eyes and mouths appeared at random within the storm, ghastly apparitions that laughed before disappearing.
"READY!"
The shadows flickered. A small ball of black energy began to form in front of the shadow storm.
"SET!"
The yellow dragon roared in anticipation, rattling the camera as the ground shook from the dragon stomping its feet.
"GOOOOOO!"
The Starfallen Charmeleon shot forward like a cannonball, barreling headfirst towards the hex plate.
Lightning crackled from every nerve as the dragon shot forward.
Its entire body was coated in a brown energy, with its head having a thick concentration of the martial aura.
On the other side the black ball of energy shot forward, headed straight for the hex plate.
The camera slowed down, showing the two objects in slow motion.
In the background, holding another hex plate like a shield, the man watched with anticipation, drool oozing from his mouth.
The two objects collided into the hex plate, creating a burst of fire that quickly grew. The impact rang out, cutting off the feed from the video before anything else was displayed.
Another video began playing.
There was no clapperboard this time. Merely a shot of the man looking very dejected.
He rubbed the back of his neck, looking down.
"Okay so I might have gone full mad scientist on that one. I had to make things more interesting so that Myst and Zuko would still work with me, and I might have gotten a little bit carried away. Sorry Oak. I kind of see why you wanted me to record all of these now. Anyway, uh, I broke your lab."
The camera panned around, showing much of the lab equipment vaporized.
There was a shadow on the wall behind where the man was standing. Same with where the red lizard had been.
The middle of the room had impact burns, showing the epicenter of the explosion.
"On the bright side, turns out I'm pretty fireproof now."
The man rubbed some of the soot off of his forearm, showing it to the camera.
"I mean look. The explosion was probably about ten times the strength of a grenade, sans the shrapnel. I didn't have Myst going anywhere near his full power." The man laughed. "I figured you'd still want the building standing, ya know."
"But yeah. No burns. I mean shit, I wasn't even wearing any protective eye wear. I looked straight into the explosion. It probably should have burned my retinas. But, as far as I can tell, I'm unscathed."
The man laughed again, jumping into the air in excitement. He turned to the camera with a grin from ear to ear.
"Aura is really fucking cool."
The man then ran over to the side as he remembered something , shifting some rubble to the side. He pulled out a hex plate. It was charred, yet had still held its original shape.
"Guess what?! It stopped vibrating. No more oscillations. No more resonance. The hex plate is dead."
The man looked giddy.
"Anyway, notice how the hex plate is charred. It didn't implode. It's just charred. If it had taken on the full brunt of the explosion, which it really should have, it would have been torn apart."
The man looked around for a white board, only to realize that it had been reduced to a smoking pile of wreckage in the corner.
"Okay. Whatever. I'll just explain with words. This is the big one. I'm probably just going to cut out all the earlier tests, because this was the only one that matters."
Again bringing the hex plate up to the camera, the man pointed towards the outer corners of the surface of the hex, then brought his fingers down to the middle.
"Do you see that?! The burns look like the outside edges burnt up before the middle of the hex. But the middle of the hex should be way more burnt. That's where the impacts were."
"Okay I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm gonna break this down, play by play."
"This was a test to see whether bug resists fighting like it's supposed to, and then also testing dark because why not. Simple right. Get Zuko to use some martial aura, smack the hex plate up a bit, compare that to hammer strikes from a metal mallet. Use force scales to make sure we're using similar enough amounts of force, and then compare damage. Then get Myst to do the same thing, but using void moves."
"Anyway, the natural resonance I was noticing before, the shit that made the hex plate fly around the room destroying shit when I activated it. That's a natural defense mechanism. I think Vespiqueen probably specialize in the defensive portion of bug energy, so the hex plates are imbued with tons of that energy. So even though the hex plate had been disconnected from living tissue, it still contained the energies."
"From there, I wanted to see just what kind of cellular microbiology makes up the hex plates, to see where they store or harness that energy. Ya know, like whether there were specific organelles used to store the energy. Or whether there was something being used as a conduit. Enough energy in this world seems to be harnessed from a different plane, outside of my own limits of observation, so I have to consider it a possibility. Turns out, I couldn't find anything conclusive though. Microbiology was never really my forte."
"Anyway, I did get tons of info from initial impact testing. The hex plate seems to naturally repel any sort of martial or void aura. It's all aura. It can't be a conscious choice. The hex plate is biologically dead. Yet it still has leftover energy. The resonance causes the hex plate to vibrate, countering most of the impact force from Zuko's martial attacks. The hammer and Myst, on the other hand, met no such resistance."
The man made a big check mark in the air.
"Resistances actually exist in this world, as mind boggling as it is. To be fair, most bug types probably never learn how to utilize their resonance abilities to counter out force. So resistances only really exist for Pokémon that learn how to use their aura defensively. Yet that still leaves the question of whether this is a learned trait, or biological. Vespiqueen might have special organelles in their defensive plating that let them utilize this ability. It might just actually be impossible for other species."
"However, given the extra knowledge that I have, I now consider that reasonable enough evidence that I'm actually going to believe that resistances and weaknesses are generally consistent. I'm still only like 70 percent sure, and even that stems from knowing that it won't apply universally to all Pokémon, but it's enough that it'll be my current running theory. I'll always be on the lookout for evidence to either increase my certainty, or to decrease it. I'll also still be keeping other type theories in mind, and tallying those too."
"Anyway, that doesn't actually change much. I still keep all theories in mind. I just let my knee jerk instinctual reaction be tied to resistances and weaknesses. If it ever comes down to that anyway. I don't think I'll have to go on full panic mode from danger anytime soon. Hopefully. Fingers crossed."
"Okay. Final thoughts. I found the cap of the nullified energy from the hex plates to average out to about 10 million Joules. That's equivalent to almost a dozen grenades."
The man rapped his knuckles against the burned hex plate. "Hefty stuff."
"After it expended all its energy, the vibrations stop. Then, it's just dead biomaterial. I know you said that these hex plates are nice because they don't rot, but I left a couple over in the storage unit to test whether that changes after depleting their energy."
"I also left an unused one as a control. I didn't have any more luck studying the microbiology after depleting its energies. To be fair, most of the equipment was destroyed by the time I thought of it."
The man scratched the back of his head.
"I realize that's not a very good excuse."
The man smiled again, regaining his excitement.
"I still need to do more analysis. There so many questions this brings up. Can that resonance be taught? If it's a mental limitation rather than universal, can it be weaponized against things bug types should be weak to, like rock or ice? What observations have other researchers made? Are there any patterns behind the aura signatures, and how would I be able to tell? I could go on for hours."
"So, in conclusion, this world is really fucking awesome. I'm going to figure out all its little secrets. Plus I'm going to get dope at battling. And I'm gonna catch a Legendary I decided. Not now. Probably not anytime soon. I'll have to consider the moral implications too. But eventually. Someday, I'll find some rogue evil Legendary preying on a poor village, and then defeat it and catch it. Same as you. I assume. You still haven't told me what's in that master ball."
The man brought two fingers to his brow, saluting the camera.
"Trainer Red, signing off."