Tia attempts to reverse engineer a Beast Ball and opens a can of worms in the process.
Tia carefully connected one half of an open Beast Ball to a Poke Ball scanning cable, and typed a series of commands into the computer.
She was in the university’s Pokemon Tools Lab, which had more sophisticated tools and equipment to check Poke Balls than what she had at home. This was no ordinary Poke Ball, and she felt she needed the extra processing power.
She waited as the system hummed, and lowered a pair of goggles onto her face. She looked at the data appearing on the monitor and nodded. So far, so good.
Suddenly, there was a crackling sound. Then, a bright blue light shot out of the Beast Ball, slamming into the walls and eventually into one of the machines. There was a snap, and then the smell of burnt circuits wafted into the air.
The commotion startled several students working in the room, causing them to take cover underneath tables and behind cabinets.
Tia slowly crawled away from the workbench she had taken cover behind, then got up and approached the smoking machine. Putting on a pair of long rubber gloves, she disconnected the machine. Then, she looked around.
“Sorry, guys,” she said, “Wasn’t expecting the fireworks!” She scowled in the direction of the Beast Ball, sitting untouched, as if it hadn’t just fried a several-thousand-dollar piece of equipment.
“Welp, now we know you’re back, Tia,” Taiyu called out from behind a cabinet. “It just isn’t the same without you breaking equipment!”
Tia made a face at him, then turned back to the broken machine.
If only there was a way to pinpoint how the Beast Ball differentiated between Ultra Beasts and normal Pokemon. Was it a difference in biology? Energy? If she could figure it out, and modify that difference to tell between normal Pokemon and Legendary Pokemon...
She sighed and wiped her forehead. This was starting to get complicated, and she was getting very close to a point when she’d have no choice but accept defeat and start putting calls in to the Aether Foundation to ask (politely and carefully) about the Beast Ball and how it was developed.
That, however, was another risk. She had gotten the Balls and the design documents from a private Poke Ball collector who had probably gotten them illegally himself, and she didn’t want to get accused of corporate espionage.
Tia shook her head, and tried plugging in a new set of numbers into the computer. The altered settings took, and she watched as a graph appeared on the screen. Data lines on the graph increased, first periodically, then exponentially.
Suddenly a massive surge of energy ripped through the equipment, causing an alarm to sound, grabbing the attention of every student and researcher in the room.
“What’s going on?” Taiyu shouted, running up to Tia, along with a couple of other students.
A small opening ripped itself into the air, bright light streaming from it. It grew larger and larger, large enough for a person to step through if they dared.
Tia looked closer, and somehow she could almost see something about to pass through from the other side…
She immediately shut the machine off, cutting power to the Beast Ball. The mysterious hole shrank, and quickly collapsed in on itself. The opening stitched itself closed, then disappeared completely.
Immediately, whispers erupted among the crowd of students and researchers.
“Did you see that?”
“The hole in the air?”
“It looked like something was on the other side!”
“What was it?”
“Tia,” Taiyu said carefully, “Do you think maybe you should have-”
“Don’t say it!” Tia snapped. “I’m not about to be responsible for some interdimensional alien invasion just because I happened to open a portal!”
She shakily disconnected the Beast Ball from the test apparatus and closed it. She held it in her hand, staring at it fearfully.
What was the Aether Foundation doing with technology like this? She thought back to a time, several months ago, when a conversation with Aidan about Ultra Beasts turned into a full-blown discussion about portals to other worlds, and the Pokemon that came from those other worlds.
A portal to other worlds. Was that what she had created, and immediately closed? The thought was overwhelming. She couldn’t wrap her mind around it.
She took a lockbox, placed the remaining Beast Balls and the design documents inside, and sealed it. She would personally make sure they were stored in a place that was difficult to find, but still accessible if the time came when they were better understood.
Some things were best left alone.