Pokémon: Who let him leave Pallet Town?

Chapter 291 The Effects of Evolutionary Keystones on Fossils
Footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. Natsume looked left and right, somewhat puzzled.

"Sato, was this road here when I came last time?"

Natsume asked.

"Ah, Mr. Natsume, this is a newly established area in the fossil Pokémon ecosystem."

At the very front, the supervisor leading the team turned around, revealing a sickly face with thick dark circles under his eyes.

As he spoke, Satake glanced at the prodigy and Kogo behind Natsume and chuckled:

"There's no need to be so tense. Besides us, there are only fossil Pokémon here."

On both sides of the corridor are huge transparent glass panels that separate the different ecosystems.

"This giant ecological dome is specially designed to simulate an ancient environment to cultivate fossil Pokémon."

Satake explained:
"Different fossil Pokémon live in different environments, so along the way you'll find some places are beaches, some are volcanoes, and some are jungles."

"Roar--"

As we were talking, a fossil pterosaur flew overhead.

Was it just looking at us?

Xiao Gang looked at the sky.

"No, the glass here only allows you to see inside; you can't see outside from inside."

With Satake taking the initiative to introduce himself, the atmosphere eased considerably, and Natsume began to introduce Satake to Kogoro.

"I forgot to tell you, this is Satake, a top student from Rainbow University. He got into this place right after graduation, he's really impressive."

Natsume patted Satake on the shoulder.

"Wow, this is the largest fossil research base in the Chengdu area!" Jiaozi exclaimed in surprise.

"That's right, Mr. Satake is still a supervisor, that's amazing." Xiao Gang nodded.

Whether it was mutual flattery or not, since Natsume had started, they had to continue the conversation.

This is also specifically mentioned in the booklet.

"Furthermore, he is the originator of the ocean theory of Pokémon," Natsume added.

"Origin of the ocean theory?"

Jiaozi was stunned for a moment, then began to look up information.

"The origin of all life is in the sea! I'm sure Natsume and I share the same view!"

As Satake spoke, he looked at Natsume.

"No, I am a staunch alpaca origin theorist; I believe the world is one giant alpaca."

Natsume was absolutely certain.

All other theories of origin are heretical!
"Um"

Satake's lips twitched slightly.

Seeing the atmosphere fall silent again, Xiao Gang quickly spoke up:
"Mr. Satake, why did you choose to come here in the first place?"

"Haha, I only became interested in fossil research after watching Professor Oak's open lecture. It's a pity that Professor Oak couldn't come this time."

Satake was somewhat disappointed.

His original goal was to get into Oki Research Institute.

Then, out of nowhere, Natsume appeared, and his written test score was like a monster's, leaving him by nearly eight points!

He didn't have the courage to go to any of the subsequent interviews.
He had recently heard that the Oak Research Institute was short of staff, but unfortunately, he was doing quite well there.

"Roar!"

The fossil pterosaur flew back, clutching a small black dot in its hand.

"Is that an Omanyte?"

Jiaozi narrowed his eyes and pointed at the struggling Pokémon on the Aerodactyl's claws, asking.

"That's impossible. The ecosystem of the pterosaur and the ecosystem of the ammonite were separate."

Satake looked up blankly, and his expression changed after he saw clearly.

“I’ll call Ai and Axin over and take you to my lab. I’m going to take care of something; there might be a small problem with the ecosystem.”

After making a phone call, Satake left in a hurry.

The crowd stood still and waited. The area was divided into numerous sections by a series of huge glass enclosures.

The arrangement of areas creates a complex network of roads, making it easy to get lost without a guide.

Natsume stood outside the glass, gazing at the scenery inside the glass case.

Judging from Satake's words, the surrounding areas are all newly built.

"How strange, Mr. Natsume." Jiaozi appeared behind Natsume.

"Yes, these ecological areas are much more complex than the ones we've seen before."

Xiao Gang touched his chin, and his squinty-eyed reflection appeared on the glass.

Along the way, the fossil Pokémon ecosystems that everyone saw were almost all of a single type.

The Pokémon that survive there are either two non-conflicting species, or, like Aerodactyl, one species lives in one area.

The ecological areas in front of us include beaches, jungles, grasslands, and even small volcanic landforms.

The two people that Satake had called didn't seem to be coming anytime soon. Everyone stared at the ecological areas in front of them, but they didn't find any Pokémon.

"That's strange, why are there no fossil Pokémon?" Jiao Zi murmured, only to find that the fossil Aerodactyl was flying across the sky again.

"Roar!"

The wings flapped through the air, making a dull sound that could be heard clearly even from a distance.

"That fossil pterosaur seems to have caught an even bigger prey," Xiao Gang exclaimed in surprise.

Once the fossil pterosaur slowed down, everyone realized that the larger prey was none other than Satake!

"What is he doing?"

Natsume's expression turned strange as he instantly teleported into the ecological zone.

"You're so efficient! It took less than half an hour to fly up into the sky."

Natsume's teasing voice rang out from Satake's side.

"How did you get arrested too?"

Satake turned around, looking completely bewildered.

"How did you actually fly?!"

Satake discovered that Natsume was floating beside him out of thin air.

Natsume glanced over and spotted the ammonite in Satake's arms.

"Roar!"

The fossil pterosaur turned its head, and energy surged in its mouth.

Natsume pressed down on Satake's shoulder and teleported him out of the ecological area.

In the corridor, Satake sat on the floor, still shaken. "Where's that Omanyte?"

Natsume was puzzled. He used his telekinesis to spread out his powers, but he still couldn't find any trace of the Omanyte.

"That's not an ammonite, that's a pterosaur mimicking a fossil."

"What?" Natsume tilted his head, thinking he had misheard.

"Alright, I'll take you to the lab first. That's what I was going to talk about anyway."

Satake stood up, looked around with a headache, and realized that the two assistants he had called had not yet arrived.

"Those two kids"

Satake shook his head and began to lead the way, his steps light and quick.

After walking for nearly an hour, the ecological areas around them began to gradually decrease.

Finally, in the empty area, a tall building stands.

"Wow, Mr. Satake, is your laboratory this big?"

Xiao Gang was amazed; this place was bigger than two Big Wood Research Institutes, and even bigger than the Nibi City Museum.

"In fact, most of the space is used to process, display, and preserve fossils."

Satake led everyone into the laboratory, which was densely packed with various display-style glass cases, with narrow passageways in the middle for one person to pass through.

The space on the surrounding walls was not wasted either; it was filled with fossils.

"bring it on."

Satake led everyone into the elevator.

The building kept going up, finally stopping on the eighth floor.

"Kacha~"

The lights came on, and the elevator went straight to a room.

As Natsume approached, he discovered that the room was filled with countless screens.

Researchers were stationed in front of each screen.

Like Satake, these researchers had dark circles under their eyes and looked somewhat listless.

"Wow, Mr. Satake, your lab looks so much like... a monitoring room?"

Xiao Gang looked up and down in confusion, and he even saw Xiao Zhi on one of the screens.

The other party and Xiaoxia were standing in front of a group of children, seemingly giving a speech.

That's quite something!
Natsume also discovers Satoshi and Misty, and they unexpectedly get along very well with the group of children.

"Because this is the monitoring room, the situation in each area needs to be observed in real time."

Satake yawned as he went to his workstation.

With each keystroke, a scene from an ecological area is displayed.

"This is the area where that fossil pterosaur lived. It turns out that you were in charge of this area, Mr. Satake."

Xiao Gang suddenly realized.

"Well, that's not the point."

The screen's glow reflected on Satake's glasses. He tapped his fingers, the screen froze, and the image of the Aerodactyl was suddenly enlarged. Everyone could clearly see that the Aerodactyl was holding an Ammonite in its claws.

"So Mr. Natsume couldn't save the Omanyte?" Jiaozi stared at the Omanyte.

"No, this is not an Omanyte. Look closely."

The image is zoomed in again.

Meanwhile, the fossil pterosaur in the surveillance footage opened its claws, and its spiral-shaped ammonite shell scattered into several clumps, like flowers blooming.

"Did you see that?"

Satake abruptly pressed the pause button.

"Are the ammonite-like shell-like things we see actually the claws that the other side deliberately gathered together?"

Natsume looked strange.

"Yes, its claws are specialized. The hind limbs of a typical pterosaur only have three claws, but it has six. The claws are thin and long, and when they are gathered together, they resemble the carapace of an ammonite."

"There's more to it than that."

As he spoke, Satake pulled up a video.

The video shows this unique fossil pterosaur hunting for food on the coast.

It brought its hind limbs together and controlled the special muscle groups in its claws, causing a faint, regular ring of pale blue fluorescence to flicker in the spiral gaps of its mimicry carapace.

The light, like the breath of a deep-sea creature, was faint yet alluring, clearly conveying a signal in the low-visibility waters:
There is a living but possibly injured or weakened "Omanyte".

It's a pity that there are only some common fish fed by the staff here, and no other predators.

"what?"

Natsume was stunned.

It's truly mimicry, not some kind of mutation or mutation.

"Tell me first, how did you create this fossil pterosaur?"

Natsume looked at Satake with a puzzled expression and surprise.

Young man, don't go astray.

"Humph!"

Satake adjusted his glasses, the lenses reflecting the screen's glow, and slowly said:
"This is closely related to the theme of this discussion."

"We discovered that, under the influence of the Mega Evolution Keystone, if two different fossils are placed together, they seem to affect each other."

"The resurrected Pokémon will also carry some of the other Pokémon's characteristics."

"Most importantly, these properties appear in the main fossil Pokémon in a perfectly reasonable way, as if they really existed in evolutionary history!"

"Look at this fossil pterosaur. It can use this mimicry ability on its own to lure prey to its doorstep!"

"Amazing, right?"

“I understand the reasoning.” Natsume nodded.

"But since you already know that, why did you still think it was an Omanyte?" Natsume asked curiously.

"Well, the main problem is that we've never seen this fossil pterosaur use mimicry to lure prey in the sky before."

Satake frowned, his voice trailing off as he muttered to himself:

"After all, ammonites can't appear in the sky. What kind of stupid predator would be attracted to such a mimicry and get caught by a pterosaur?"

As they were talking, Satake noticed that the three of them were staring intently at him.

Suddenly, a red line flashed by, and Satake stammered:

"I...I...that was an accident, an accident!"

(End of this chapter)