Chapter 201. The Machines Are on Strike
Natsume's gaze sank, and a ghostly blue light burst in his eyes!
The slab gave a faint hum, flared once, then went completely dark.
"See anything?"
Professor Oak spoke, then added:
"We did a preliminary appraisal. This slab looks a bit like the Plates linked to Arceus in Sinnoh's legends."
"In the League's records, those Plates are closely tied to Divinity, even serving as a temporary vessel of it."
Professor Magnolia's voice followed right on its heels.
"Hold on—what League records?" Natsume spotted the gap.
The idea that Plates could be vessels of Divinity was something he had only just deduced from the information at hand.
"Oh, that. The owner of the Viridian Rocket Company had his research team provide the League with a lot of information, free of charge."
Professor Oak spoke while taking a computer, logging into the League archive, and opening the page on Divinity.
Natsume looked over with him, and saw that the once-sparse database now had many descriptions—still not as exhaustive as other modules, but enough for people to grasp what Divinity was and some basic rules.
Right then, Natsume realized Giovanni had pulled a fast one on him.
So this stuff had always been meant for the League.
"No, wait—why would Giovanni submit this material to the League?" Natsume was baffled.
The Giovanni of this world was being way too honest!
"No idea. Looks like he's trying to leverage the League's resources to do something..." Professor Oak thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Let's not worry about that for now. We called you here to see whether you can make anything out of this slab."
"Right. Professor Oak says you've stepped onto the threshold of the Inner World." Professor Magnolia also looked over.
Natsume shook his head. He couldn't see a thing.
"Why insist on finding something on this thing?" Natsume asked instead.
Sometimes, when you can't solve the problem, you try solving the source of the problem.
"It's like this." Professor Oak sighed and tapped the keyboard, pulling up a surveillance feed.
The monitor showed what looked like a massive cavern, with machines drilling downward.
Strangely, none of the machines were operating.
Inside the cavern, clods of soil occasionally slipped down and buried the machines.
The next second, an Aerodactyl would move those fallen clods aside.
Deeper in the borehole, a Dragonite was continuously shoveling earth outward.
"You see it too. For reasons unknown, the deeper we dig, the higher the failure rate gets on the machinery, and at this point it just won't move at all."
Natsume nodded. No wonder they wanted him to bring a Pokémon good at digging.
"But what does this have to do with the Plate?" Natsume frowned.
"The breakdowns began the moment we dug up this half Plate." Professor Oak waved a hand and pointed at the machine in the feed. "We can't find any faults, and the power supply is fine, but the machinery simply won't run."
"I see... Professor Oak, have you considered the possibility that the machines want to go on strike?"
Professor Oak gave Natsume a look that said, Are you kidding me?
"This isn't the time for jokes!"
"Mm. Take me down to have a look. Maybe I can do something."
Natsume wasn't joking.
With the boost from telekinesis, his ability to observe differed from the ordinary.
In those few seconds of footage just now—if he hadn't misseen it—the drill seemed to twitch...
Soon, with Professor Oak leading the way, Natsume descended a cramped, winding passage like a mineshaft, following the cables on the ground until they reached the massive machine.
"Professor Oak, Professor Magnolia—what brings you here?"
Arms folded, Lance glanced backward without changing expression.
Catching sight of Natsume, he blinked, slightly taken aback.
"Lance, long time no see," Natsume greeted first.
Behind Lance yawned a huge earthen pit, from which dirt and stones were being flung out.
Lance nodded in understanding, but his eyes were locked on the giant Dragonite behind Natsume.
"This one's a descendant of that giant Dragonite, and if I'm not mistaken, she's a female?"
"Cough—cough—"
"Woo—woo—"
Down in the big pit behind Lance, the Dragonite's rhythmic digging suddenly ceased.
The next second, a Dragonite with a custom safety helmet, face smeared with muddy streaks, poked its head out of the pit in a daze.
"Wuu!"
It seemed to be its first time seeing a same-species individual of normal size, and the giant Dragonite's eyes lit up as it hurried forward.
Caught off guard, the smaller Dragonite was grabbed by the neck and hoisted straight out of the pit.
The Dragonite looked to Lance at the side for help.
"..."
Forget it—this didn't look too appropriate.
Lance gave a tiny shake of his head.
"Ahem, alright, alright. We're here mainly to see if we can get the project moving again," Professor Oak clapped his hands, ending the farce.
Elsewhere, Natsume had already circled the strike-bound drill several times, looking it up and down.
"Well? See anything?" Lance looked to Natsume with hope.
They were deep underground now, and chunks of earth occasionally fell from above.
He'd spent several days here with Dragonite just clearing the cave-ins, and he'd had enough.
Natsume silently drew his telekinesis back.
Look what he'd found.
This drill was becoming somewhat sentient!
Only not fully—still in a hazy, half-awakened state!
Was there something underground with a function similar to the Divinity inside Rotom?
Natsume was stunned.
He had come for the Plate, but now—he had to see the Eternatus buried beneath Mt. Moon!
"Come out, Vehicle Rotom!"
Natsume recalled the giant Dragonite, and a red light brought out a square, unknown contraption.
After a brief shift, a limbless car-robot Rotom stood up.
"Rotom, try channeling the black fog into this drill."
Since it wasn't sentient enough yet, he'd have to use the strong stuff.
"Is this the new Rotom form he's been researching recently?" Professor Magnolia whispered to Professor Oak.
"A-hem... it should still be in the experimental stage." Looking at the arm-and-leg-less Rotom, Professor Oak answered a bit awkwardly.
After a moment, he couldn't help edging closer to Natsume and whispering:
"Where's the bike—why is it a block?" Professor Oak's expression was odd.
"Uh... it's complicated." Natsume thought for a moment, didn't explain, and handed a small booklet to Professor Oak.
"In a minute, this drill—if I'm not mistaken—will get a little frisky."
"But don't worry. Just follow the lines written here and praise it. Once it's coaxed, it'll go back to work."
"What are you even talking about?" Professor Oak was thoroughly baffled.
Natsume didn't explain, but vaulted into the huge pit behind Lance.
His voice, mixed with echoes, came from within the pit:
"I'll go scout ahead!"
Professor Oak and the others hurried to look into the pit and saw that at the ten-plus-meter-deep bottom, a man-sized small hole had appeared, and Natsume's figure had already vanished.
"Psychic powers can be used like that?" Professor Magnolia was surprised.
Natsume seemed to have projected his psychic power, condensed it into the shape of a drill bit, and bored straight down.
"Professor Oak, don't frown. This is good news!"
Lance, finally relieved, recalled his Dragonite. He could finally head back up for a breather.
"It's not that I want to frown." Professor Oak shook his head at that.
No one knew Natsume better than he did.
Now that they'd let Natsume go down there, whether there would be any research value left underground might be a matter for further discussion.
Hopefully that kid would show some restraint and not clean the place out—they still had to deliver results.
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