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"Bio tech, right?"

They haven't held too many conversations outside of a strict research setting, but Gavin recalls the information easily enough. They'd hired her for her expertise in toxicology but a mind left unsharpened was a pitiful thing. Sometimes he misses the environment of schooling.

"How long have you got left to go, then?"

He is interested, in spite of her assumptions otherwise, because she reminds him of himself.

A quick swipe of his keycard and with a soft beep, the screen lights up and doors slide apart to permit their entry. His personal lab space is less segmented than the smaller laboratories above, providing ample space for whatever needed to be done.

It's clean, quiet, no staff running around down here. He crosses to a Rotomi and extracts the Ponyta from within. Another ball is palmed, this one a heavy sphere webbed in blue with yellow markings like claws. A rarity in Hoenn: a Beast Ball.

He tosses it softly, and SHADOW LUGIA shadows the lab beneath her broad wings.

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"Arceus. Yeah, I guess the meteor has everything all stirred up." He can't imagine the added stress; obtaining a PhD in Kanto had been rough enough without the end of the world looming on the horizon. "Hopefully they pull their shit together soon, but a degree's just paper in Rocket, so you won't be out of a job at least."

He does understand the importance of just paper, however, and so his tone is gentled by symapthy.

"It is," he affirms of the Beast Ball. "Fascinating, aren't they?"

But not quite so fascinating as its contents.

Lugia makes a low, rumbling noise in her throat that might've been the legend's attempt at laughter when Ceri Glynn asks if everything's all right. Intelligent red eyes stare down at the researcher, at Gavin by her side. Her telepathic voice is deep, roughened by corruption, but oddly soothing to Gavin as it echoes through his own thoughts.

It has been discussed.

Gavin would never do anything without her permission, lest he face the considerable wrath of the Guardian of the Seas.

"Lugia was blessed by Enamorous at the conclusion of the Tiered Tea Room. You may want to find something to hold onto." Lugia had broken his wrist and Tempest Quinn's ankle the last time she'd seen fit to demonstrate the move. Gavin braces himself against a wall, gripping one of the smooth lab counters for support. Perhaps in preparation for this very moment, all breakable and small, easily thrown objects have been removed from the room. "OK. Ready."

A single, fierce flap of dark wings conjures a violent SPRINGTIDE STORM, pink-misted winds threatening to throw the fragile human scientists to the floor.

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Equipment flashes and whirs around them as measurements are taken on the various statistics of the move; Gavin pays them little attention, knowing they'll output their findings for later perusal. Ceri Glynn's question is far more pressing, and Gavin isn't the only one who takes interest.

INFECTED?

Gavin flinches from the force of her telepathic cry, one hand jerking up to press reflexively against his temple. A surge of misplaced fury shudders through him, his knuckles white as their grip on the table tightens.

Red eyes bore into gold, a lash of the leviathan's spiked tail narrowly missing his jugular. Intentional, he is sure.

"It's harmless, as far as we can tell!" Gavin does his best to maintain composure, but a slight tremor in his voice betrays nerves. Even Rocket's underboss fears the power of a legend, especially Lugia. "Beneficial, even!"

AND YOU DID NOT THINK TO MENTION IT?

This reprimand is meant for Gavin alone, but Ceri might be able to glean what sentiments were exchanged when Gavin answers aloud, soft, "I didn't know there was any correlation at the time. It's a recent discovery."

There is guilt, too, as he realises the cause for his patron's alarm. This was not the first time she'd been infected. The last had nearly ended in her death. That there may be another virus taking root...

"We can find out for sure. We just need a sample."

He expects her to protest. To swing at him again, to scream into his mind. Instead, the Guardian of the Seas folds her dark wings and glares down at him for a moment before bending her neck and opening her jaws. He's half afraid to put his hand anywhere near her mouth, lest she decide to remove it from the arm, but he's certainly not going to ask Ceri to do it. It takes conscious effort not to show his fear.

She does not bite him. Her jaws snap shut only after he's pulled back, and Gavin knows a strong sense of compassion for the corrupt Guardian in that moment. He rests his hand on her neck, the only small comfort he can think to provide.

"Here."

The sample is passed to Ceri, all trace of Gavin's earlier mirth vanished beneath a somber countenance.

mission: zero to one hundred

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Ceri Glynn's composure in the face of the legend's rage is admirable, and Gavin makes note of it. He offers an appreciative nod as she accepts the sample from his surprisingly steady hands. He had learned to deal with fear.

Yet Lugia does not want him to be truly afraid. This, he knows, for as her alarm subsides into worry, her conscience brushes up against his own. No words are exchanged, yet he understands sorrow and comfort.

He strokes his hand down her neck, soothing.

"That is our theory," he affirms, of alternate dimensions. "After our exchange, we suddenly appeared in a room with dahlia goode. I wasn't given much time to ponder it, at the time, because my husband attacked me."

There's a fondness in his tone, an amusement, that doesn't seem to fit the words. Tempest Quinn had been a gym leader at the time, his sudden assault a façade to maintain appearances before the commissioner.

"Why?"

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Gavin doesn't miss the arch of Ceri's brow, but neither does he explain. Perhaps an answer might've been provided if she'd asked, but the conversation proceeds down another path.

He nods when she mentions the expedition into the tree.

"We visited another dimension there, as well." It had been thanks to Martín del Mar's Unown that they'd found a way back out, a foreshadowing of what had been on the horizon they'd been too blind to see, then. "So it's definitely possible."

The screen flashes, and when Gavin reads the results and understands, he feels Lugia's potent mixture of anger and fear blaze through him.

Ceri might catch the way he tenses up before forcing himself to relax.

"Have you tested any of Rocket's other legends?" Does she know of Killian Decker's symbiotic partner? He didn't know if it was from another world, but it was alien.

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"Perhaps seek out bryan delarosa and Xerneas first." Bryan's patron had been rescued from that same expedition to the Tree of Life, after all. If the Pokerus had anything to do with the portal, it was likely the legend would be similarly affected. "Underboss Del Mar has theorized a connection between the portal and Pokerus, but nothing's confirmed."

As they start to wrap up from their tests, Ceri's question draws his attention back to her.

"You can update the chart, yes." Though uncertain in regards to her second question, Gavin's status as a leader in Rocket and in M.A.G.M.A encourage him to be reassuring. He meets her gaze as he insists, "Everything will be fine."

mission: zero to one hundred

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