I Specificially Wrote Protagonist In Such A Way So He Can Be Viewed As Backgroundless As Possible, Because

Yeh, sorry for misunderstanding.

I’m finally writing out the timeline to my original story

Robocraft again. Mothership with powerful EMP cannon and lots of combat robots with plasma launchers, subatomic machine guns, rail cannons, ion shotguns, Lock-On Missile Launchers, Aeroflak cannons (shells are detonated by the electron density trigger, no less!), chain rotary cannons, Tesla blades, blink modules, weapon energy modules, Ghost (invisibility) modules, EMP modules (to designate targets for Mothership’s EMP cannon), impenetrable 5-second disc sield projection modules, all-seeing radar modules (Windowmaker) and so on... I think I’m pretty dope.

mrgrfan’s fanfiction and worldbuilding masterpost.

If you are interested in my writing, follow this post.

Shift Universe fanfic

Past of the future, future of the past...

Prologue: Once upon a time... - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/173057352382/past-of-the-future-future-of-the-past

Chapter 1: A new day, an old world. - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/173807895267/past-of-the-future-future-of-the-past

Chapter 2: Handshake above the skies. - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/176710301752/past-of-the-future-future-of-the-past

Worldbuilding: 

See “Ancient Soris Empire” below.

Mini-fics:

See “Ancient Soris Empire” below (only pre-Ancient Soris War mini-fics are canon to the Shift Universe).

Main-line fanfic and addendums:

First part (”Above the ground, nothing can tie me down...”) - https://ficbook.net/readfic/3693118 (in Russian, kind of old shame, but still canonical one. Also, protagonist is not the totally reliable narrator, just like everyone else bar me, as per “Word of God”, here. Finished.)

Second part (”I won’t let go tomorrow...”) - https://ficbook.net/readfic/4073788 (in Russian, follows the AU of the first fic. WIP.)

Woldbuilding

Corporations

Part 1 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156441613350/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-corporations-part

Part 2 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156677029022/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-corporations-part

Ancient Soris Empire

Part 1 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156770617137/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-ancient-soris

Part 2 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156817576217/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-ancient-soris

Part 3 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156951683842/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-ancient-soris

Part 4 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157623819287/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-ancient-soris

About Combatron-class assault robots - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170318922797/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-ancient-soris

Soris region

Part 1 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/163028327677/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-soris-region-part

Azoth Kingdom, cabinet Minister Alva

Part 1 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157057482987/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-azoth-kingdom

Part 2 - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157411917382/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-azoth-kingdom

Miscenallous

About Flying Palace’s Artificial Intelligence system - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/156641604612/some-worldbuilding-for-my-fic-flying-palaces

Mini-fics

Fics about Alva&co., in chronological order:

“Parents” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/158286557947/parents-mini-fic

“Promise” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157498025162/promise-mini-fic

“Equipment” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/162344275882/equipment-mini-fic

“Business” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/161365781312/business-mini-fic 

“Work” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/174123915647/work-mini-fic

Ancient Soris Empire fics (pre-Ancient Soris War are also canonical to the Shift Universe):

“Present” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/158601229917/present-mini-fic (Ancient Soris War, Soris)

“Re-entry” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/158604547977/re-entry-mini-fic (post-Ancient Soris War, Earth’s orbit)

“Fight”- https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170318925327/fight-mini-fic (post-Ancient Soris War, Kalos)

“ISF9 Chronicles, part 1″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/166017047697/isf-9-chronicles-part-1 (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“ISF9 Chronicles, part 2″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/166051922027/isf9-chronicles-part-2 (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“ISF9 Chronicles, part 3″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/167061007667/isf-9-chronicles-part-3  (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“ISF9 Chronicles, part 4″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/167565862097/isf-9-chronicles-part-4  (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“ISF9 Chronicles, part 5″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170430106887/isf9-chronicles-part-5 (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“Memory, part 1″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170162337092/memory-part-1-mini-fic  (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“Memory, part 2″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170278461467/memory-part-2-mini-fic (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“Memory, part 3″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170509068702/memory-part-3-mini-fic (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“Memory, part 4″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170551919297/memory-part-4-mini-fic (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

“Memory, part 5″ - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/170627399037/memory-part-5-mini-fic (pre-Ancient Soris War, ISF9)

Hunter K fics:

“Survival” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/162289238132/survival-mini-fic

Miscenallous 

“Code” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157684898832/code-mini-fic (from the POV of Flying Palace’s Artificial Intelligence system).

“Fear” - https://mgrgfan.tumblr.com/post/157957986722/fear-mini-fic (from the POV of Jorsey, Yveltal hatchling, who stays in the Flying Palace along with main fic’s protagonist and AI system)

There’s a small mistake about the Battle Pyramid - it has 5 rotors instead of four. The fifth one is hidden on the down side of the main hull of the Pyramid and can be observed during the crash scene.

Also, it isn't a dex entry, but I'd be curious to know what your thoughts are on possible flight systems for the airships we've seen in the series, in particular the Hikoukyuu, Megarig, and Battle Pyramid.

I’ll be honest–I’m not all that familiar with the anime. That being said, this question is so interesting, I just have to tackle it. I did, after all, run a whole week on Pokémon Flight–it only seems fair that I cover the man-made airships too.

The Hikoukyuu

The “Flying Palace” makes its debut in the second-ever pokémovie, Pokémon 2000. I had actually seen this one before I watched them for this post, although that was probably at least 8 years ago. The Flying Palace is the airship of the evil Lawrence, who seeks out to selfishly “collect” Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres.

The only flying mechanisms it seems to have are the tiny propellers attacked to the top and bottom of the craft–roughly 40 in total. It also has about 20 propellors along the sides.

Propellers work using Bernoulli’s Principle. Basically, they are shaped in a way that air must travel farther to go over them than under them, creating a pressure difference, and thus creating an upward force.

As far as I can tell, the propellers on the sides do absolutely nothing to lift it into the air. In my opinion, they are more likely wind turbines, harvesting the air rushing past and turning it into energy, to power the engines or supply electricity for Lawrence’s unecessarily large holograph machine.

You have to understand, this thing is massive. Quoting Bulbapedia, the Flying Palace is “about the size of a small city” and likely weighs at least 100,000 tons (200,000,000 lbs). To fly, the propellers must generate at minimum that much, or about 5 million pounds of lift per propellor.

Now, without even touching the math I can tell you without it that this is already incredibly ridiculous and there’s no way this thing could fly. Even if I considered the lessened gravity of the Pokémon Universe. It must use some other mechanism to fly.

I could say that it is actually in orbit above the pokémon planet, but we see multiple shots of the ship close to the ground, and it even crashes at the end of the movie.

I could say that it has some magnetic mechanism helping it out, but a field of that magnitude would serious mess up anyone near/inside the ship (since we are mostly made of water, a polar molecule), let alone destroy his equipment.

Yeah, no idea how this thing flies.

The Megarig

The Megarig (and its smaller sister ship, the Mecha Giratina) appear in Giratina and the Sky Warrior, piloted by the antagonist Zero and auto-piloted by the program called Infi.

The Megarig doesn’t fly, but rather appears to hover–more on that in a bit, but the more prominent feature about the MegaRig is that is possesses the ability to freely hop between the distortion realm and back through portals, much like Giratina.

To dimension-travel like it does, the Megarig must use some kind of wormhole. There are technically several different, totally acceptable mathematical models of wormholes. The problem is, in the realm of physics we currently understand, there is no form of energy good enough to keep the wormhole stable for more than a few microseconds.

There are several hypotheses that there is an energy–they call it “Exotic Matter”–that we don’t know of yet that could stabilize a wormhole. The Megarig is able to harness this, and create stable wormholes to jump between dimensions freely.

And, energy is energy. Because Exotic Energy does not interact with our bodies or any form of matter we currently have (like a magnetic field would), it makes a near perfect candidate for the Megarig’s hovering.

The Battle Pyramid

The Battle Frontier is great. The Battle Frontier in the anime is possibly even better. In the anime, the Battle Pyramid is a giant, flying hunk of metal that is constantly changing location. The location is only given to those who have defeated the other six challenges, and is the Frontier equivalent of beating the E4.

It flies through giant turbines attached to the pyramid. It reminds me a lot of Marvel’s helicarrier, recently in the Avengers films. Four massive turbines, one giant hunk of metal.

I’m going to assume that the Pyramid is about the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, so about 140 meters tall and 230 meters each way along the base. The Great Pyramid (made of limestone) has a mass of around six trillion (6,000,000,000) kg, which I will also assume for the battle pyramid (made of some kind of metal).

I’m following this process, which took data from Boeing to see how big the rotors would have to be for this thing to fly. Even for Earth’s gravity (g=9.8 m/s^2), These propellers need a radius of around 6,000 meters to fly. I don’t know about you, but those propellers don’t look thirty times longer than the base of the pyramid to me.

But okay, my estimate for the weight was pretty big. A flying pyramid is probably not made out of heavy limestone blocks, but more likely some light material, closer to aluminum or carbon fiber. So, let’s work backwards here. The radius of the propellors look about ¼ the length of the whole thing. Let’s call it 60 meters. With that, the propellers can generate as much as 550,000 kg of thrust. As long as the Battle Pyramid weighs less than that, it can fly.

If it was made from Carbon Fiber, which has a density of 1600 kg/m^3, it might be able to meet this criteria. But only might.

Thanks for your question!

Considering the fact, that Lusamine is pretty much Ragyo Kiryuin’s Alola form, I’m very afraid, that this may’ve been something similar to the “purification”, and I wish I’m mistaken. Either way, whatever has happened with Lillie, was similar to the Ragyo’s “purification” in terms of plot impact.

Pokemon SM08

So… Apparently Lillie is still the same rich kid we know, and something traumatic happened during her time living with Lusamine that led to her being afraid of touching Pokemon, probably the Type: Full experiments or Ultra Beasts attacking. Gladion is still missing, probably trying to help Type: Null, and Lusamine is working in her other mansion, aka researching Ultra Beasts.

Which makes me wonder if the Sun and Moon anime is actually a pre-Lillie finding Nebby story, where she’s gets over her fears of Pokemon by the start of the games. It would also explain why the others aren’t Trial Captains yet. They haven’t gotten the announcement/approval/appointment. 

(Ash has very few derp faces this episode. Which is good.)

@ pkmn-trainer-touko-tajiri

Don’t you mind, if I write a fic about this? With links and everything, of course!

so this one time, I had a great idea for pokemon fic.

It was basically about this older gruff jaded trainer who finds a little kid wandering around the route, calling for his fearow. Like little tiny babby’s first time training trainer.

So he asks the kid ‘Yo kid, you lose your starter or somethin’?”

Kid: “Yeah, it’s my fearow, he flew off after some raticate and now I can’t find him.” Older trainer’s like goddamn, who gets a kid a fearow as a starter?

“Your parents uh get you that fearow?” Cause he’s gonna have some words with this kids parents if that’s the case. Kid’s still like looking in trees and bushes and shit.

“No, caught ‘em myself out by the powerplant, saved up and bought the greatball myself and everything!” Kid’s super proud of that, meanwhile the older trainer’s thinking, weird, there’s no fearow out by the power plant, meh, maybe one flew there by accident.

Long story short, it’s not a fearow. A storm front rolls in and the kid’s like, ‘welp, there’s my fearow. Finally.’ Older trainer gets the heart attack of his life when fucking zapdos lands next to this kid out of a goddamn thundercloud and starts preening little kid’s hair.

“That’s not a fearow.” Is the only thing older trainer can say.

“What are you blind or something mister?” Says the little kid. “He’s got the spiky fearow feathers and everything. I can’t believe you call yourself a trainer. Come on Fearow, let’s go find a real trainer to battle.”

It so reminds me of Rubberfruit’s ”Scout turns into a training target”.

https://youtu.be/Ippu6lqAAmA

If you ever question the depths of depravity available to you in Skyrim please refer to this story;

I am unable to finish the Thieves Guild quest because I accidentally killed an essential quest npc. Erikur in Solitude, you probably know him because his sister wont shut up about it. Erikur was the last quest giver I needed to become the master of the Thieves Guild. He is suppose to be essential, as in he cannot be killed ever because important npc is important. 

‘So where is he?’ I hear you asking.

He is gone. 

Gone into my characters tummy. You see, I was fooling around with the glorious weapon that is the Wabbajack and happened to turn Erikur into a sweetroll….and then I ate him. I ate Erikur. He’s gone forever. Into my tummy. 

I glitched out a main questline because I turned a man into a sweetroll and then I c o n s u m e d  h i m.

Yeah, I’m sorry for this. And mechanical descriptions are my weakness - I enjoy them so much so I love to read them a lot, includung both fictional and real entries. I can barely hold myself from going extremely into detail when I’m writing fics, though by now I kind of managed to lower graphical description levels to optimal. By the way, thank you.

Cyrus and Cyrus

Every time I read about Cyrus from Pokemon, I think of Cyrus Temple from SRIII. Some time ago I thought about some sort of Pokemon/SR crossover, where entire “Daedalus” with Cyrus Temple onboard suddenly finds itself in the Pokemon world. “Daedalus” here has all the armor vehicles (including Temple’s unique version of “Crusader” tank, his unique version of F-69 VTOL fighter and his hoverbike ”Specter”). Because everyone on the carrier is the member of the Special Tactical Anti-Gang unit, I think, that they’ll wage war on Team Rocket and other teams pretty soon, but will they integrate into local International Police or will they remain on their own? Also, STAG have pretty advanced technology on their own, like “Viper” laser rifle, S3X “Hammer” laser spreadshot weapon (energy shotgun), “Sonic Boom” hand-held acoustic cannon (that can easily gib human in the short range and toss vehicles around, if fully charged), “Crusader” tank with plasma cannon, co-axial repeating laser and beam laser in place of a machine gun, N-Forcer MRAP vehicle with repeating laser, F-69 VTOL fighter jets with microwave laser beam cannon and homing energy blast weapon, “Condor” VTOL transport jets with repeating laser and, of course, “Daedalus” with lots of high-caliber autocannons and rocket launchers to both attack enemy and defend herself. Additionally, STAG utilises conventional projectile weapons (McManus sniper rifle, Annihilator RPG, Satchel Charges, Minigun and Kobra pistol) and Riot Shields. I can even imagine a several moments with them:

Jenny releases an Arcanine and blasts the door to the landing pad open, while screaming:

- Stop right there, Cyrus! You’re arrested for tampering with Legendaries and endangering the world!

She’s then greeted with the sight of several STAG troopers aiming their Vipers and Hammers at her and her Arcanine from the hovering Condor, while completely different Cyrus gets into his F-69 and replies:

- I think you’ve found the wrong Cyrus, dear lady, because my name is Cyrus Temple, and I’m the commander of the STAG.

Cockpit closes, F-69 takes off and flies away along with the Condor, leaving Jenny and her Arcanine going “What the hell”?

During the next weeks, a lot of people in the world discuss this strange event adt start making theories, what in the Reverse World is the STAG, when suddenly giant airborne aircraft carrier with the STAG logo flies over a Veilstone City and deploys F-69’s along with Condors, they immideately fly to the Galactic Veilstone Building and drop a lot of STAG troopers, which then breaks in the building and make a short run of Team Galactic. After the end of the mission, elite STAG trooperd drags a badly beaten up Cyrus and his survived henchmen, when Temple flies of the carrier on his Specter VTOL jetbike and greets shocked police officers, who were thinking, what to do with that giant airship and how to deal with the jets. Temple then says:

- And that is why we are called Special Tactical Anti-Gang unit. Sorry, ladys, you’ve really dissapointed me, but you might still be not that hopeless and we may teach you, how to uphold police’s name and how to make gangsters tremble from the very name of yours. I think, it’ll better for the “Daedalus” to stay here for several days.

- What is the “Daedalus”? - asks one of the Jennys.

- Ain’t she’s a beauty? - replies Temple and gestures to the hovering carrier, leaving everyone shocked.

Scene ends. Article for the Dex:

“Team STAG.

While they simply call themselves STAG (from “Special Tactical Anti-Gang unit”), most of people in the world considers them as another criminal team, which is completely wrong. While not officially linked with the International Police, STAG acts like law-enforcment organisation and even supported by governments, but it’s methods are very different to those of the International Police. While International Police mostly relies on individual approach and it’s kind reputation, STAG prefers to act by force and to implant awe in the criminals minds. The most shocking part in the STAG’s methods is that than they prefer to use firearms (although they do use Pokemon, but on a small scale), and they aren’t limited to the stun guns! STAG troopers prefer to use energy-based weaponry, such as high-power electrical stun gun, “Viper” laser rifle, S3X “Hammer” energy shotgun and “Sonic Boom” hand-held acoustic cannon, and the last three of them are more than capable to kill. Same can be said about their vehicles - all of them have very potent weaponry, which was designed to ensure maximal available destruction. Their base is the giant airborne aircraft carrier under the name “Daedalus”, which also serves as their most powerful combat asset - this airship can easily wreak havok on the entire city! There are some rumors that STAG is, actually, from another world, but no STAG member had ever commented that.“

@blackjackgabbiani, what do you think about this madness?

This reminds me of Old Man Henderson so much!

"... You know, I've figured out everything but one little detail. Mind if I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"Is Henderson your first or last name?"

".... Man, I've got no fucking idea."

Laughing, the man and the Mad god died together moments later. Henderson's body was dragged from the rubble two days afterwards, and only Jimmy and Kary and some old preacher man cared enough to attend his funeral.

To explain a couple of things: Henderson here was asked by no other than Hastur from Lovecraft. Dying Hastur, because Henderson has summoned him in hockey arena, which was loaded with enough explosives “to make Michael Bay blush” and they were detonated almost exactly after Hastur has appeared.

Memory, part 5 (mini-fic).

Compulink system active.

Please, enter login and password.

Login and password correct. Access granted.

Accessing “GY-PLFU-LOG-1″ datafile…

EDIT MODE

Goncharenko Yevgeniy, personal bioresearch log.

Third stage.

09.01.425 AFE, 21:27

Liya is most certainly getting better. I like that. The work is still hard, though, but I’m getting a “window” tomorrow. What was the last time I’ve visited my dad? Good thing he works here, in the reactor complex, so, taking the monorail ride will be sufficient to meet him (and when I finally go on vacation, I’m going straight to the capital to meet mom).

EDIT: Apparently, there’ll be a new portion of nuclear fuel, loaded into reactors. I’ve managed to get security clearance for me and Liya, so, tomorrow we are going to go even deeper into facility than before! Gah, this line is SO awful...

[Attached files: personal observation and log datafile, general health monitoring datafile, optical and thermographic photos, full biological screening record datafile, Liya’s personal terminal activity log datafile]

Compulink system deactivated.

-                                                                                                                              -

*So, are we here yet?* - somewhat nervously asked Latias, looking around. Right now, they were in one of the deeper parts of the facility, where the nuclear reactors were installed. The sheer constant roar of machinery in the turbine hall was unnerving, but now, they were closing to the reactors themselves.

- Almost... - started speaking microbiologist, when the not very old, but well-built man stopped near them and gave them a wide, even somewhat scary, smile.

- Son? Hello! - happily said aged man, pulling Yevgeniy into almost bone-crushing hug. - So, how’re the things going up here, if you didn’t have enough time to write mails to your old dad Klim at least once a week?

- Very busy, - tried to defend himself microbiologist.

- Don’t say ‘dat, where you’ve learned to defend like this, I was the one teaching it! - laughed Klim. - So, where’s my granddaughter?

*I’m here,* - replied Liya, coming out of shadow, still slightly afraid.

- So, that’s it? You know, son, I think you’ve made a damn good job! - proudly said sort-of-grandfather of young Latias. - Don’t dare you think, that we, down there, don’t know a s... something! We, power engineers, know loads of things! I’ve heard she’s very smart for her not even a year! So, Liya, can you tell me, how does the nuclear power plant work?

*Nuclear power plants obtain the heat needed to produce steam to drive the turbines through a nuclear physical process. This process, called fission, entails the splitting of atoms of...*

- Enough, I see ya’ know this. I’m damn proud of my son and you! Ya know, I think you’ll, in time, make a damn good part of the staff up there, in one of the main Divisions, and you’re sure a fine addition to our family from now on!

*So... does me not being human...*

- Shut it at once and don’t say such a stupid things! Of course you’re my granddaughter! - announced Klim, earning some strange looks from his colleagues in process. - No, it does not!

- Warning, shift number 5 - come to your stations! - sounded an announcement from the loudspeaker.

- Time, - shrugged Yevgeniy’s father, then turned to his son and granddaughter. - So, do you come with me or no? I’ve heard you have all clearances, so, just try to follow my instructions and not do anything stupid, okay?

- Okay, - agreed young man and Latias at the same time, proceeding with Klim shortly after. After some walk and taking a ride on the elevator, they’ve found themselves in the long gallery with thick glass, which encirled the fuel storage hall. In one of the corners, there was an entrance to the cabin of parked electrical overhead crane, along with remote control terminal nearby.

- We’ll be loading full set today, and I’m the crane operator. Not that hard, actually. Or, - suddenly turned Klim to the Liya, - does my nice little girl want to try to use the electric overhead crane herself?

*I... not s...* - tried to reply shocked Latias.

- Don’t be afraid, it’s very simple - right stick controls the movement of the crane itself, left - elevation of the grabber and grab-release control, screen shows you the map of working zone and all the data you need. Don’t worry, the automatics will prevent you from crashing fuel rods into anything or like this!

*But...*

- Come on, it can be once-in-a-life event! Do you want to regret it later? Even your dad rode the crane once, when he was fifteen! - continued father of Yevgeniy, not mentioning, that he got a severe reprimand from both superiors and his wife afterwards.

*Okay,* - decided to agree Liya, looking at the seat inside the cabin, turned, for some reason, towards her. - *What do I do now?*

- Take a seat and flick the switches, labeled S1 and S2. This will activate the crane and shift the seat into work mode. Afterwards... well, I’ll contact you, there’s an intercom system inside.

*Understood,* - replied dragon, disguised as human, doing as an old man advised. After two flicks, seat suddenly moved towards the very front of the cabin with a characteristic growl of low-speed engine, then shifted backwards a bit and turned around, giving a nice view on the work zone, while the doors behind her closed, cutting apart the cabin and the gallery, as well as protecting the against the air in the hall.

-                                                                                                                              -

- You’re sure about this? - asked his father Yevgeniy.

- Absolutely, I’ve let you control the crane back during the work in seaport, after all, - said Klim, taking a seat before the RC terminal. - From here, I can instantly override her controls, if she does something wrong. In fact, I can easily operate the crane remotely every time, it’s just that I prefer controlling it from the cabin.

- For thrill?

- For thrill, - agreed honorable crane operator, activating the intercom to crane’s cabin, - Shift the stick ahead, don’t be afraid!

Since the cabin was cut from the rest of the world by the double-reinforced protective glass and alloys, blocking the radiation and telepathy alike, they didn’t hear her answer, but the sound of engines and movement of crane told them more than that.

-                                                                                                                              -

“Wow,” - thought Latias, carefully pushing the control stick forward and hearing roar of powerful electric motors, as the entirety of machine started to move.

- Look at the screen. On it, you can see two points, one marked yellow, and one marked blue. The blue point is where you take the fuel assemblies, the yellow one - where you load them into refueling machine. When the refueling machine is operating, it’ll be marked green, but as soon as it’s empty and waiting for another supply, it’ll turn yellow again. Don’t worry - the automatic assist system will prevent you from colliding assemblies or mis-loading them. Move the crane to the stack of fuel, don’t be afraid!

*Okay,* - replied Liya, too concentrated on operating machine to notice, that her telepathy was not able to go beyond walls of radiation-proof cabin, which also blocked psychic abilities.

- Contact zone reached, - notified her computer, when the grabber was positioned right above one of the assemblies in the storage pool. She instantly released the right stick, stopping movement of the crane.

- Good, I see you’re in the right position. Now, open the grabber by pressing the lower button on the left control stick and then gently lower the grabber. As soon as it reaches fuel assembly, it will automatically grab it and lock, then raise itself to safe position. In fact, it shall also open automatically upon reaching the assembly, but better play safe.

This time, Liya did not attempt to reply, too concentrated on carefully lowering the grabber. Keen dragon eyes helped her a little, but the inertia of this thing and water refracting the image made it somewhat harder.

- Attention: assembly retrieval in progress! - finally announced automatic system, when the grabber locked onto a stack of fuel rods and rose up, although not leaving the water.

- Very good. Now, move the crane to the designated point and, as soon as you reach the contact zone, lower it gently. After the lower part of assembly passes the hole’s border, the automatics will take control and finish the procedure.

*Okay...* - telepathically “murmured” Latias, shifting the stick again and carefully passing the stack of the fuel rods through the small channel between pools and driving the crane all the way to the end of the second pool.

- Contact zone reached, - said the assist system once again, so Liya gently lowered the payload.

- Attention: assembly load in progress! - reported the automatics, when the gripper disengaged the fuel assembly got loaded into some machine on the bottom of the pool.

- One loaded into the transfer machine, 65 more to go! - sounded Klim’s voice from the intercom. Just as the Liya got horrified at the very thought of it, microbioligist’s father continued. - No need for you to finish this, though. Drive the crane back here, flick the S2 switch back to open the doors and exit the cabin, then let me take my place. Or you can press the red button, so the crane will drive itself back here. Wait, don’t do it - it’ll count as an accident.

Latias, which was slowly giving in to the realization of the sheer bizareness of the current events, had somehow managed to drive the crane back and exit it, allowing the rightful operator to take his place and continue the operation.

- My dad can be pretty weird sometimes, - commented Yevgeniy on it, seeing, how fast and professionally his father was driving the machine, loading fuel assemblies one after another.

*Maybe,* - agreed Liya, still somewhat shocked by what has just happened. - *So, what do we do now?*

- I suggest we get back to surface, onto test range, and you practice with your moves... your true form moves, I mean.

*Sweet!*

-                                                                                                                              -

- Aaand another Mist Ball. - said human, looking, how the fifth test dummy already was blown apart by the powerful Psychic move. - Is it your favorite attack?

*Of course!* - replied Latias, shifted into her true form and trying to commence sort-of-a strafing run, which was pretty hard, considering the not-so-big size of the range, - *No one but my kind can use it!*

- Okay, whatever. Are you satisfied yet?

*I am now!* - “said” she after blowing up the last dummy with Hyper Beam and melting a decent patch of snow around it, then slowing down and moving to Yevgeniy’ side. - *So, what do we do now?*

- Go home, I guess, - answered her human, looking at the wristwatch. - It’s almost night already, and I’ve got a lot of work tomorrow.

*Then let’s go!* - cheerfully agreed Liya, finally calming down Yevgeniy, who was still afraid worried her near-depression after the New Year disaster. Several minutes later, they’ve arrived into their quarters (though Liya was forced to temporarily switch from her form to the human one in order to pass through doorframes), then, after a small supper, each went to check their respective terminal.

-                                                                                                                              -

Compulink system active.

Please, enter login and password.

Login and password correct. Access granted.

Two new infomail messages received.

Opening message number one...

09.01.425 AFE, 19:49

From:

Klim Goncharenko, Imperial Science Facility 9, Production Division, Underground Complex, Power Production Sub-Sector

To:

Yevgeniy Goncharenko, Imperial Science Facility 9, Bioscience Division, Surface Complex, Extraregional Pokemon Study Lab.

Topic:

Grampa’s musings.

Son, I’ve seen your girl, and, let me say it again, I’m damn proud of you. I’ve already phoned your mom and she’s very happy about it. Oh, and I also sent a small edutainment program to our little Liya Yevgeniyevna, which will teach her the basics of operating nuclear powerplant. Of course, I’m sure, that she’ll find something better in her life, but it’s pretty interesting to play and is good for overall development.

Love,

Your rusty old dad.

Opening the second infomail message...

09.01.425 AFE, 21:05

From:

Vladislav Pobegov, Imperial Science Facility 9, Central Office, Underground Complex.

To:

Yevgeniy Goncharenko, Imperial Science Facility 9, Bioscience Division, Surface Complex, Extraregional Pokemon Study Lab.

Topic:

Shenanigans.

Look, Zhenya, I know you’re my favorite student and microbiologist, I know your great skills and achievements... but isn’t this going a little bit far? And I don’t mean putting just Lati into operating an overhead crane, transporting the nuclear fuel - I mean putting someone with zero experience into operating such a machinery! I know, I know, Klim was ready to take it over at any second, should such a need arise, and she operated it for only a single loading, but still... I hope you’ve got my point. Please, don’t do it again. Think of our image! Though what I’m talking about, being an overseer of this chaos... Please, just don’t make the things worse for us, you and your Lati “daughter”. Thank you for understanding.

With sincere hope,

Vladislav Pobegov.

Compulink system deactivated.