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"Ah, what a cute baby! Look at it look at it look at it!!!" A feminine voice cries out from behind the duo, seemingly materializing out of thin air as she appears within the lab without the door opening even a crack. The owner of said voice would be revealed to be a strange looking woman in standard Rocket grunt attire, though with a white lab coat layered over her clothes as she comes within inches of just grabbing the thing to examine it.

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But she has a little bit of sense it seems as she restrains herself, instead moving into Gerald's personal space with a disturbing grin. "Which would have to make you, its proud slave! Good to see that some of you grunts can follow proper orders, it's so bothersome when idiots are late to appointments." And then just like that she's back to studying the Paradox, producing a phone from within one of her lab coat's pockets and clicking open a recording app to begin. "Session one with newly designated Paradox Pokemon... you, grunt, what designation did you assign to this one?" Her eyes flicker back to Gerald with a tinge of annoyance, as if she expected him to finish her sentence the moment she started recording and was sorely disappointed by his inability to read her chaotic mind on the fly. Well no, not as if, that's exactly what's happening here as she impatiently taps her foot and waits for an answer.

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Gerald was about to jump and jab at the suddenly appearing scientist. Luckily, he had some self control, and so exchanged the impulse to attack with a loud sigh.

If the Iron Moth had been surprised, it didn’t show it upon its robotic face. But to the observant, the few glinting bits of energy running through its wings would certainly suggest that there had been a reaction.

“Slave… I am not its slave.” Gerald informed, clear annoyance in his voice.

A few confused beeps escaped from the Iron Moth.

“Designation? If you mean name. I haven’t given it a name yet.” Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t named any of his Pokémon.

“Designate it as a Robot Volcarona?” Gerald asked.

The Iron Moth came with a few beeps of suggestion, but it seemed nobody understood it.

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The disappointment on the girl's face is absolutely palpable as she stares at Gerald with the blankest of expressions, before turning her attention back to the Paradox Pokemon and continuing her observations. "Tentative designation will be Iron Moth." Xenon states flatly into her phone as she sets it down on a nearby lab tray. "You are absolutely its slave, you a human so pitifully grounded in the past could be nothing but a slave to such an ultramodern manifestation of the future. But that's a lecture for another time, note to self, edit out the past ten seconds before filing report."

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Once more she reaches out for the Iron Moth with purpose, but once again she doesn't directly contact it as she instead observes its reaction to her presence, smirking at the notable discharge from its wings as their color brightens and dulls in accordance to her proximity. "The subject shows noticeable apprehension upon my approach, it appears to be tracking me with its 'eyes' as I walk around it, LED lights on its monitor actively moving around to keep me within its field of vision. Judging from my research on subject Iron Jugulis, I suspect that its sensory arrays are behind these LEDs, but I cannot confirm until I have a spare subject to dissect." Her fingers reach down and trace along a medical buzz saw kept nearby, and it wouldn't take much looking to see a toolbox filled with various screwdrivers and other assorted implements for dismantling machines in the corner of the lab.

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"But not this one, this one is the first of its kind, much too valuable for something barbaric like that." And just like that her attention bounces back to Gerald as she invades his personal space again, circling around behind him and pushing him towards the Iron Moth. "Alright, go try and touch it now, see if it'll shock you or burn you or something. We need to find out what type of Pokemon this is, if these Pokemon even follow the classical typing schemata we use for regular Pokemon in the first place."

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Gerald’s eyes began to twitch with annoyance as he summoned all his willpower to not leave this place and take the Robot Volcarona with him. But he focused instead on just watching the proceedings.

Speaking of proceedings. Iron Moth followed the weird doctor woman. It wasn’t keen on her getting so close, and when she did get too close, it would hover closer to Gerald seeking perhaps something resembling comfort.

It never led the woman out of its sight though. Visible discomfort became clear as the beeps and blinking lights increased at the mention of dissection. Luckily it calmed down somewhat when Xenon made it known that she had no intention of dissecting it.

A small sigh resembling a beep escaped the Iron Moth when Xenon turned her attention to its trainer.

“Why would touching it tell us anything about its type?” Gerald questioned.

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"Note: The subject appears to understand human speech in much the same manner as a regular pokemon would, yet it communicates solely in high pitched computer sounds rather than responding with the human language. I speculate that the subject's language has evolved past human language, thus it sees no need to communicate with us in such a primitive tongue. Absolutely fascinating!" Xenon almost squeals as she quickly turns back to her recorder.

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"As for you! You obviously have no mind for the scientific process, so I'll explain this in the same way that I would explain to a small prepubescent child." She pushes her glasses up onto the bridge of her nose and pushes against Gerald a little harder, still trying to get him to touch the Iron Moth even as she spoke. Her body belied a surprising amount of strength for someone who claimed to be a researcher, he might even find himself struggling to hold her back as she pushed him closer and closer to the Iron Moth.

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"If you've ever touched a water type pokemon, it was probably wet right? And when you touch a fire type pokemon, it would feel pretty got to the touch? An electric type might shock you a little, a rock type feels hard like a rock, etc etc. You get where I'm going here?" It feels so simple that an elementary schooler could understand it without needing it to be explained, but some people just didn't get it apparently, so Xenon would do her best to dumb it down for their primitive little brains. "So hopefully now that you understand what I'm getting at, TOUCH THE DAMN MOTH ALREADY!" And with one hard shove, Gerald's body would go tumbling right into his pokemon to test just what kind of type of being of the future this was!

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Beep Beep, boop. The Iron Moth voiced its disagreement with Xenon’s statement.

Unfortunately for it, it seemed the woman, while clearly fascinated with it, didn’t actually pay much attention to ‘it’ focusing instead on reprimanding its trainer.

Gerald quelled a sigh. Clearly the effort wasn’t going to be worth it. He knew her type by now, loved hearing herself speak but didn’t care much for the words of others. However, he hadn’t expected her to get physical.

When she shoved him toward his Pokémon, he had to consciously refrain from jabbing at her with a counter-hook. And so he was about to fall onto his Pokémon. Had a mild but powerful and sudden gust of wind not pushed him back upright.

The Iron Moth began to shake its head, distressed beeps escaping from it. The sudden violence was not to its liking.

It turned its sensors to the woman and with a few beeps and boops tried to explain that it did not appreciate such acts of violence. Unfortunately it was well aware that this was a futile endeavor. So, instead it turned to answering the woman’s question. It’s typing.

It took a moment to consider how it could best show this. And a moment later its wings began to heat up, small ripples of fire danced over the mechanical wings. Not long after, poisonous ooze began to fill and flow from mechanical pores on its body, until it would run down its body and drip onto the floor below.

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A powerful gust of wind blows Xenon's hood back as Gerald's descent is halted, her hair fluttering in the wind for a moment while she eagerly mumbles further notes and calculations into her recorder. It was not inaccurate to say that Xenon was far more interested in her own words rather than others, but it would instead be more accurate to say that she placed more value in what she saw with her own eyes rather than what she heard with her own ears. The values and experiences she accumulated of her own effort would always outweigh the thoughts and feelings of others, this was just another facet of the ideal future she envisioned.

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"Note: The subject seems to be averse to violence at this current juncture, further observation will be needed to determine if this is an aversion to all violence or simply violence between those it perceives as allies." The scientists rambles on as she moves to study the Iron Moth from another angle, her eyes sparkling as she bares witness to wings of flame blooming from its back. "The subject displays flames from its wings, likely the result of heating coils hidden under the metallic chassis hitting 800 degrees Celsius, possibly hotter, will need to test the subject to see what its maximum output. Fire type confirmed, wait, more!"

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Its almost impressive the speed at which she moves once she sees the buildup of noxious chemicals along the Iron Moth's body, zipping to an empty corner of the lab and procuring a set of thick glass vials from a nearby tray. Not even a second after she's zooming back towards the Iron Moth and almost diving underneath it, holding out an open vial and collecting several drops of the hissing poison without any regard for her own safety or well being. "Subject is also confirmed to be a poison type as well! Comparisons to be made to the Salazzle line perhaps?" She glances back up at the Iron Moth above her, eyes focused on another drop of poison building at the bottom of its chassis as she slowly crawls backwards a few inches.

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Plop!

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A violet drop of death hits the ground where her head just was a few moments ago, Xenon stares intently at the slight pool of poison as she waits to see if it can corrode the metal or not.

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Nothing.

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"Subject does not possess the Corrosion ability. Hmm..." She gets back up off the floor and turns to Gerald, placing a firm hand on his shoulder whilst digging into her coat for something else. "Alright I'm almost done with you, just got one last thing to test out for the day." A pokeball is withdrawn from the voluminous depths of her labcoat and tossed onto the floor, in a blinding flash of red light the subject known as Iron Jugulis emerges into the lab with a mighty roar. "Rhodium, deploy Electric Terrain. I need to test a theory." The iron beast's roar is cut short as its LED pupils blink rapidly in some unknown sequence, communicating to its brethren its intent.

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And just like that, the environment of this sterile lab is dyed in electric white as the field of lightning is spread, power welling in Rhodium's body as it synchronizes with the environment its most comfortable with. Would the Iron Moth do the same?

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Gerald took a few steps out of Xenon’s range protecting himself from any further attempts of getting physical by Xenon.

He had to raise a brow when he saw the speed she was capable of moving at. He noted it down for any future brawls he might have to fight against her.

He watched carefully as Xenon gathered samples from the chemicals oozing from his Pokémon. While he doubted she would touch or prod to sabotage the Iron Moth, especially with the poison running down its body, he was still cautious around the science lady.

But in the end she seemingly did nothing. Nothing the Iron Moth reacted to at least. He instinctively looked at the hand she placed on his shoulder. He didn’t appreciate the touch and so tried to push it off with a singular gesture, definitely a bit more aggressively than he ought to be around an ally.

Another Pokémon was summoned. A beast as robotic as the Iron Moth. A few blinks of the LED pupils communicated intent. The Iron Moth understood and nodded.

The Electric terrain was deployed. The Iron Moth’s body began to let the electricity run through its body. Its systems worked full time to adjust the body according to the new energy flow, now with ample excess certain offensive systems found themselves overclocked with power.

It made some affirmative beeps to let the humans know that it had reached peak destructive capabilities.

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As Gerald tries to push Xenon's hand from his shoulder, he would find her grip tightening instead as she gives him a blank smile, wordlessly asserting her authority in this lab, in her domain, and how she would be setting the pace regardless of if he liked it or not. But after a moment passed she would let go and take a step back, more focused on the results of her experiments than any petty power plays.
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Electric Terrain is deployed and the Iron Moth reacts just as Xenon had hoped, an unknown functionality in its body responding to the world of lightning and increasing its own destructive capabilities as it receives the surfeit of energy. The scientist's smile widens, a little giggle escapes her mouth as she picks up the recorder once more.
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"The subject has responded to the deployment of Electric Terrain positively, upon making contact with the empowered atmosphere its systems began to optimize the sudden abundance of energy by overclocking its offensive systems, field tests will be necessary, but I suspect that the subject will be much like Iron Brutal- Iron Jugulis, and will display an increase in power by at least thirty percent. Further testing on Ultramodern Paradoxes will be needed to see if this trait is shared amongst all members of the machine line, but results are promising. End session one." Xenon's thumb flicks the stop button and the machine powers down, the electricity in the air fading as the Iron Jugulis silently ceases its deployment of the Electric Terrain and all power fading from both Rhodium and the Iron Moth.
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"If you find another Ultramodern Paradox, contact me. And if you make any extreme breakthroughs with Iron Moth, once again, contact me. Any info that furthers my research on this species will be rewarded, I know you grunts love that kind of thing. Now if you don't need anything from me, you can go. I have samples to analyze." And just like that, Gerald and the Iron Moth are dismissed by the eccentric scientist as she moves to insert the poison filled vial into some kind of scientific looking machine, Rhodium staring at the both of them with dispassionate LED eyes, as if silently ordering them to leave now.
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