A Pokemon Parable

Seeing that Pidgeot was halfway done eating, Chad began to stuff his face until his cheeks bulged, attempting to cram down the unpleasant food quickly before Eric had to leave. With a slow lean forward between the two, Sylveon's predatory grin locked eyes with the now larger Charmander. “You still haven’t managed to figure out Ember, have you?” she inquired, a gleam in her eye revealing the true intentions behind the baited question.

“Not exactly, not sure how you do anything beyond direct physical attacks,” he responded between clumps of food, willing to speak with a full mouth in his usual undignified manner. “But I can breathe on my tail and get a small burn that way. I think I can exhale flammable gas, or something.”

Not receiving the desired answer, Sylveon’s face returned to a frown, “Pity, and here I had thought you to be a genius,” she lamented, lifting a bit from her bowl. “If you can't use Ember before the end of next week, then there's no point in training a brute like you,” she stated before chewing on the kibble with a grace reserved for noble ladies. She swallowed with a matching grace, before facing him in earnest, “A fire type who cannot conjure fire is merely a liability, especially for one who will need to learn how to fly later in life. It's not as simple as flapping one's wings, despite what any bird tells you.”

Chad, having caught up to Pidgeot, slowed down to reduce the risk of choking. He had glanced at the large flier when the fairy voiced her opinion, taking note of both a huff and a sagely nod. “Fair, but I suppose I'll need to talk with another fire user. I don’t suppose you happen to know any?” Chad ventured, mentally updating his training plans, before answering his own question. “Delphox; I remember that Calem kid said his mom had one, and that they were a fire type.”

Sylveon's expression went from thoughtful, to concerned, to a malicious glee at the revelation. “Oh my, how fortunate for you! She's quite the tough customer last time we had a battle. If she can't get you using Ember, nobody can,” she explained, her ribbons waving in the equivalent of a full body tail wagging. Seeing that Pidgeot had finished breakfast, Chad stuffed the last piece into his mouth before walking over to Eric.

<”Good luck today Stanley, I'll be sure to keep Chad safe with me.” Eric said, returning the Charmander to the pokeball before storing it in his pocket. Stanley, with a face covered in syrup, smiled and waved goodbye. “Oh Stanley, you're a complete mess!” Diane remarked, as she began to try and clean up the mess with a wet towel.>

Eric closed the front door behind him, made sure his bag was secure and nodded to Pidgeot, “Ready to fly?” The large bird nodded in response, spreading its wings as the adult somehow managed to clamber onto their back. There was a moment as the winds began to whip and blow, as brown and white feathers fluttered in the breeze and a sense of power began to form under them. With an announcing cry, Pidgeot lifted their wings up fully extended and then brought them down in a powerful beat, lifting the pair a full three feet off the ground. Fully extended downwards, Pidgeot began to repeat the motion, ascending with each powerful blast of air towards the ground, before it momentarily hovered in place. Spreading their wings forward, it then gave a powerful push behind it, rocketing the bird forward at high speed. They steadily deployed their wings outward fully extended, as eddies of air and energy drew across the arrangement of feathers. Not slowing, nor having to flap until they reached the city, the large bird simply cruised through the sky while Eric did his best to hold on.

Pidgeot began to descend once Lumiose was in sight, gently slowing down as the duo angled for the top of a specific building which had a runway along the top. A pair of green lights signaled the bird that they was clear to land, as it gently glided to the lit lane with a puff, coming to a gentle stop with a single reversed flap of the wings. Emeric thanked Pidgeot for the ride, before returning them to their pokeball and handing the sphere to the waiting attendant. A double-wide set of stairs led from the roof down to the top floor of the building, from which Emeric glanced back to spot another incoming employee being signaled to land. The stairs themselves were only two light flights, and upon scanning his badge at the double doors, Emeric pushed on the right door when the buzzer rang, waiting inside such that the door closed fully and locked. There were a few open offices nearby, some of the meeting rooms he could see were already in full swing today. Crossing to the double elevators, Emeric hit the arrow pointing down and waited for the carriage to arrive.

During that time, he heard the door buzz behind him and someone else enter, just in time to coincide with the left elevator ding and light up to announce it's arrival. “Happy Friday, Emeric,” he heard behind him, as another man strode up beside him. The mess-head was topped with shiny black hair, sitting atop brown eyes and the face of a man who had been working too late the previous evening. He wore a white lab coat over top a simple sky blue polo and black slacks, accented by eye-catchingly bright sky blue trainers. “Looks like someone else has been burning the Litwick from both ends, eh?”

“Good morning to you too, Jean,” Emeric responded, aware that he needed to fix his sleep schedule before the ghosts decided he would be a tasty snack. “Managed to solve for that friction coefficient yet?” The two stepped into the waiting elevator together, the previous occupants having shuffled out after reaching their destination floor. Jean looked away from his coworker while they each pressed the button for their floor. “I'll take that as a no then. Don't worry, you'll get it.”

“Yea, though I don't have a coworker to lean on like you do. I swear Madeline is almost your second wife with how much you depend on her,” Jean jested, lightly elbowing Emeric. “Speaking of, did you hear about what happened with Pepé and Eléa?”

“Yea, can't believe he was getting away with it for so long, I feel bad for her,” Emeric answered, ruffling through his bag to try and find something.

“Yea, but hopefully she doesn't see the promotion as some sort of bribe from the company; she definitely earned that role.” The elevator sang a happy chime as the doors began to open. “Well this is my stop, if I don't see you again have a good weekend”

“Same to you, Jean,” he responded, as his coworker stepped off the elevator, while a woman with fiery red curly hair and a matching scarlet dress stepped on, giving an acknowledging nod to Emeric. Meanwhile, Emeric had found what he wanted, and held the familiar envelope with his name under the crook of his arm. The near-silent elevator ride went without any conversation between the two occupants, before another chime announced Emeric's imminent departure from the box.

It did not take him long to navigate the maze of corridors to his work area, badging past each door with a corresponding chime and green light. He was the first one in today, as Madeline's desk featured an empty upturned coffee mug waiting for her arrival. Placing the packet on his desk, Emeric withdrew Chad's pokeball, summoning him on the chair. “Good morning; while I take care of my morning meetings I'd like you to keep working on the packet. You can even borrow my calculator if you know how to use one,” he explains, sliding a small black rectangle with white and orange buttons over to the lizard. “Ideally, nobody should bother you, and I made sure Madeline knew you'd be coming. I will be back around ten, so try not to leave this room, OK?”

Chad nodded, and flipped open the packet to the page he had last been working on. Emeric sat his bag down beside the chair, grabbing his laptop and an empty coffee mug before speed-walking out of the room. Chad continued to work for a while, tempted to get up and explore the lab space, but he wanted to be done with this. Tests were never fun before, and having to prove his competence always bothered Chad. After a period of time, there was a swish and a thunk as the lab door unlocked, to which Chad observed a woman entering the lab, supposedly Madeline. She was wearing a long sleeved golden fleece with a long brown skirt that reached just above her ankles. Her hair was a straight, bob-cut dirty blonde, roughly halfway to her shoulders. She seemed distracted, to have not noticed him sitting there, but Chad returned to his packet seemingly content with the temporary anonymity.

At least until she walked towards Emeric's desk with a folder, placing it on his keyboard and finally recognizing Chad's presence, to which he gave a light smile and wave, before returning to the heat exchanger problem he was partway through. Madeline paused, before returning to her desk to grab her own laptop and hustle out the lab doors, presumably towards her own morning meeting. The quiet was a peace Chad hadn't known for a while, as he bounced between the various sections, attempting to complete as much of the assessment as possible. He skipped the organic chemistry questions, along with a handful of advanced biology ones that were directly pertaining to pokemon. As it was evident those questions had reached beyond his knowledge, Chad thumbed through the remaining pages to see if there was anything hidden he could attempt, but with no success. With his work completed, Chad hopped off the swivel chair and began to explore the room, curious as to what Emeric had been working on.

The door swished again, as both Madeline and Emeric entered, with her hurriedly whispering something to him she didn't want overheard. Noticing Chad up and about, Emeric locked his laptop into his desk's dock, eyeing the packet left behind. “So,” he began, “my lab partner Madeline tells me she observed you solving a heat transfer problem for conductive transfer across multiple mediums?” Chad, meekly, nodded, as Emeric flipped through the packet rapidly, pausing at the problem in question while reading it over. After a few minutes, he collapses into his seat, his face emulating the cliff edge of the man's sanity. “I don't know whether to be more concerned that she included something of that difficulty,” he began, leaning forward with steepled hands, “or the fact that you seemingly solved it. Regardless of whether the answer is correct, just how do you know how to do all of this?” he inquires, shaking the unbelievable written testament of the lizard's education.

Madeline, clearly oscillating between uncomfortable and unabashed excitement, slowly walked towards her desk to put down her own work computer. “What if we borrow Jaque's partner, Alakazam?” she suggested, “he could easily tell us what's going on.” Emeric seems torn in addressing the idea, unable to give a proper opinion. Chad, not wanting to deal with more people and tests, pulls the pencil and a scrap of paper from Emeric's desk, writing his response. “What device?” Madeline asks, having leaned over to read the note.