Pokemon : I'm Just a Photographer!

Chapter 113: Chapter 113

The next morning, Mike was dragged out of bed by Snivy’s Vine Whip.

"Sni."

[We’re supposed to go filming today. Did you forget?]

Mike stared blankly at Snivy standing in front of him, his brain struggling to connect to the network.

A second later, everything came rushing back.

He sprang upright in a perfect kip-up and jumped straight off the bed.

Glameow, who had been dozing nearby, was bounced into the air by the sudden movement before dropping back onto the mattress.

She opened her crystal-blue eyes and watched Mike rush toward the bathroom.

Glameow blinked.

’???’

’Does he need the bathroom that badly?’

Unable to understand why Mike was acting insane first thing in the morning, Glameow closed her eyes and prepared to go back to sleep.

"Glameow, get up! I already arranged with Gym Leader Roark to film at the Mining Museum today!"

Mike’s voice came from the bathroom.

Glameow opened her eyes again, yawned, jumped down from the bed, and wandered into the bathroom as well.

...

Once Mike finished washing up and stepped back into the room, he found Gengar and the others already enjoying breakfast.

"You guys already bought breakfast?"

He looked genuinely surprised.

Gengar was chewing on a sandwich.

The moment he saw Mike come out, he picked up another one and held it toward him.

"Thanks."

After finishing breakfast, Mike left the hotel with his Pokémon and headed to the Oreburgh Gym.

Roark was already waiting outside.

"Morning, Gym Leader Roark."

"Morning, Mike."

Mike walked over with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, I’m late."

Roark waved it off.

"It’s fine. I only just got here myself. Shall we head over now?"

"Sure."

Mike nodded and followed Roark toward the Oreburgh Mining Museum.

As far as Mike remembered, beginning with the Hoenn region, practically every region had some kind of facility capable of reviving fossil Pokémon.

Sinnoh’s happened to be located here in Oreburgh City.

After following Roark through the city, Mike eventually stopped outside the Mining Museum.

He looked up at the entrance, raised his camera, and photographed the sign above the doors.

"For now, I’m also serving as the acting director of the Mining Museum," Roark explained after waiting for Mike to finish taking the picture.

"Most of what’s displayed inside consists of fossils excavated from Oreburgh Mine."

He smiled.

"That includes the two fossils you dug up yesterday."

"So that’s how it works. Then let’s go take a look."

Roark nodded and led him inside.

"The museum normally isn’t open every day. We only open to the public on certain Wednesdays and Fridays each week."

Mike listened carefully as they walked.

The moment he entered the main exhibition hall, however, his attention was immediately captured by an enormous fossil skeleton standing in the center of the museum.

The skeleton had been mounted upright and displayed in full.

Judging from its shape, it seemed to belong to some enormous dinosaur-like Pokémon.

"This fossil was discovered here in Sinnoh," Roark explained from beside him. "A researcher found it in the wild, and after studying it, we concluded that it appears to belong to Tyrantrum, a Pokémon known from the Kalos region."

"However, Tyrantrum are generally associated with places such as Kalos, Alola, and Galar. We still don’t know why one of their fossils ended up here in Sinnoh."

Mike raised his camera and slowly walked around the skeleton, photographing it from every angle.

"I remember Tyrantrum being a Pokémon that lived around a hundred million years ago."

He lowered the camera slightly.

"Maybe when Regigigas supposedly moved the continents, a small population of Tyrantrum somehow ended up stranded in what later became Sinnoh?"

Roark looked toward him.

"You know the legend about the giant that moved the continents too?"

Mike nodded.

"A little."

Although, when Mike actually thought about the Pokémon world’s mythology, something didn’t quite add up.

If Groudon and Kyogre’s battles had shaped the land and sea long before Regigigas began moving continental plates, then depending on the timeline, Pokémon such as Tyrantrum might not even have existed yet when those continents were being moved.

So how had a Tyrantrum fossil ended up in Sinnoh?

’That really is strange...’

"At the moment, many Sinnoh researchers have reached a similar conclusion," Roark said.

Mike nodded, then another question occurred to him.

"Gym Leader Roark, the Mining Museum can revive fossils, right?"

"That’s right."

"Then why haven’t you revived this Tyrantrum?"

Roark shook his head.

"Reviving a fossil Pokémon isn’t as simple as placing any fossil into a machine."

"The prerequisite is that the fossil still contains usable genetic material from the original Pokémon. We reconstruct fossil Pokémon using those surviving genes. If there’s no genetic material left in the fossil, we have no way to revive it."

Mike stared at him.

"So that’s how it works?!"

He had always assumed the process worked more or less like the games—throw the fossil into a machine, wait for some loud mechanical noises, and then watch the revived Pokémon walk out.

Apparently, DNA was involved after all.

’Why did this suddenly become scientific?’

Then another thought struck him.

’Wait.’

’What about Dracovish?’

’Is that thing basically a mixed-genome reconstruction?’

If mismatched fossils could still be combined and successfully revived, then the process had immediately stopped being scientific again.

Once Mike finished photographing the Tyrantrum skeleton, Roark led him deeper into the exhibition area.

Countless fossils excavated from Oreburgh Mine were displayed there.

Some were immediately familiar to Mike, such as Claw Fossils and Dome Fossils.

Others were completely unfamiliar—fossilized ferns, strange mineral formations, and pieces of stone whose original forms were almost impossible to identify.

There was even one fossil containing formations resembling a Thunder Stone and Fire Stone fused together.

What surprised Mike most, however, was a collection of amber.

One piece in particular caught his attention.

Something thin and translucent had been preserved inside it, almost like a tiny fragment of a wing.

Mike stared at it without moving.

Then—

"Shaaaaa~"

A clear, beautiful, almost ethereal cry suddenly echoed through his mind.

At the same time, he seemed to smell the fresh fragrance of grass and trees.

"..."

"Mike?"

Roark’s voice pulled him back to reality.

Mike blinked and looked over.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. You just seemed to be spacing out, so I called your name."

Roark looked at him with some concern.

"You okay?"

"Sorry. I’m fine. Didn’t mean to worry you."

Mike shook his head.

"I just got a little absorbed in that piece of amber."

Roark followed his gaze.

The amber was only about the size of a palm, and trapped inside was a thin, transparent fragment resembling the wing of an insect.

"You like it?"

Roark smiled.

"If you do, I can have it packed up for you later. You can take it with you."

Mike immediately hesitated.

"Wouldn’t that be a little inappropriate?"

"What’s inappropriate about it?"

Roark laughed.

"You gave me two fossils yesterday, didn’t you?"

Then he remembered something.

"Speaking of those fossils, I already had them tested."

"Both still contain usable genetic material."

Roark looked toward him.

"Want to see how fossil revival works?"

Mike’s eyes immediately lit up.

"Of course!"

Roark smiled at his reaction and led him toward the laboratory behind the museum.

...

Two enormous machines stood in the center of the laboratory.

Several researchers in white coats were gathered around them, all wearing glasses.

A number of them also had noticeably thin hair.

Mike took one look at their heads and immediately understood.

These men were clearly veterans.

He also spotted the two fossils resting nearby.

They looked exactly like the Claw Fossil Gengar had dug up and the Dome Fossil Beedrill had uncovered the day before.

"Once the machines finish calibrating, we can begin reviving them."

Roark pointed toward the fossils.

"If there aren’t any problems, the claw-shaped fossil should revive into Anorith, while the Dome Fossil should revive into Kabuto."

Mike nodded and immediately adjusted his camera.

Even Glameow, who normally disliked crowded places, jumped out of her Poké Ball and sat nearby, staring curiously at the machines.

Once the researchers finished their preparations, they powered on the equipment.

Electricity began flickering through the two machines.

Two researchers looked toward Roark.

After he gave them a nod, they carefully placed the fossils inside.

Another pair of researchers gripped the large levers on the machines and pushed them forward.

Electrical currents immediately surged through the fossils.

As the energy intensified, white light began radiating from both pieces of stone.

The glow became brighter and brighter.

Through the blinding light, Mike could vaguely make out shapes beginning to form.

Slowly.

Gradually.

Something living was taking shape inside.

Then the electricity stopped.

The white light faded.

Two Pokémon were now standing inside the machines.

Anorith and Kabuto.

Gengar and the others stared with wide eyes.

Gengar raised his trembling finger toward the two confused Pokémon.

"G-Gar..."

[The... the rocks came back to life... I’ve seen a ghost today...]

Mike reached over and pinched Gengar’s chubby cheek.

"Relax. They were Pokémon in the first place. They only went extinct because their environment changed, and now we’ve simply brought them back."

Then Mike looked at him.

"Besides, aren’t you the ghost?"

Gengar blinked.

That made sense.

Why would a ghost be afraid of seeing another ghost?

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