17 Meeting a Star (1/2)
The next day, Arthur was left with no other choice so he wanted to go around the city and try his luck there again. And when he went up to pack his stuff and change clothes he noticed his PokeDex blinking on and off. He realized for some time now that this meant a message had popped up for him.
[”System detects violent movement of Infinity Energy in host's surroundings beep. Detecting unauthorized activation of Pokéball Mechanism beep. Warning! Sniebel has escaped the Pokéball! beep.”]
”So it did notice something happening. Can you find it for me?”, he had also realized that the PokeDex possessed some sort of voice recognition,
[”Locating via energy signature and overtaking of satellites possible beep. current energy levels too low for this operation beep. recommending to fill energy levels with energy crystals beep.”]
”And where can I find those?”
[”Beep. Scanning map, triangulation of higher energy levels beep. Nearest deposit of energy crystals: possibly Mt.Moon beep.”]
”Mt.Moon?! This is, that's too far away! Do you expect me to travel so far north of Kanto? Don't you have alternatives?”
[”Alternatives beep. ... Possible to recognize and locate the Sniebel when in its surroundings of at least 50 meters beep.”]
”50 meters, that's not enough! The city is too huge, it could be anywhere outside my 50 meter search radius even if I went looking for it. Can't you make it bigger?”
[”Beep. Calculated two possible solutions. A: Expand the radius of search parameters to up to a kilometer beep. Issues involved: Detection field is spread too far, sensitivity towards Infinity Energy or other kinds of energetic fields highly increases, the probability of errors increases by 64% , probability that energy signatures get mixed up and target Pokemon gets mistaken increases by 99% beep. ...”]
”99% ?! Why do you even suggest this then?!”
[”Solution B: Producing and distributing repeaters over the city beep. Signals sent out by the main unit get amplified and received by nearby repeaters beep. This process allows mapping out the city to find specific energy signature of target Pokemon beep. ...”]
”This sounds great, why didn't you say so before ...”, before he could celebrate though he found the catch in the next row of texts,
[”Issues involved: estimated that 100 copies of repeaters are needed to cover the whole city beep. costs involved: 500.000 PKD beep.”], Arthur may have coughed blood at this number. He wasn't rich, he didn't get any money at home and all his earnings went into keeping up their living conditions, so where the hell should he get these 500.000 PKD from?!
”So is there nothing we can do? Guess I will have to run around the town and try my luck this way then. Who knows how long it could take, sigh!”
”This is stupid. I won't get anywhere with this. Even if I made it to the core, the Sniebel might be at a completely other corner of the city instead!”
Arthur then reluctantly chose to go to see the Martial Arts Center. He still had a task given by Blue he needed to accomplish. He took a bus towards the city center where a lot of traffic was and where most people and Pokemon gathered.
In the middle of the square was a fountain again, this time with bronze statues of two young people. One of them strangely reminded him of someone, but he didn't know whom.
There was a cinema with new movies like ”Nidoking and Nidorina, Love Across Evolutions”, ”Justice Man and Scyther against the Forces of Evil”, or sports TV ”Pokemon Battle: International Tournaments Live”.
He saw clothing shops, a Pokemon Center, food streets etc.
Finally thanks to the GPS of the PokeDex he found a massive building with a sign saying:
”Underwood's Martial Arts Center: Train your Spirit and Steel your Heart!”
It was really big, almost 10 stories tall, it had tall glass windows inside the walls which were about 5 meters high and with which you could look into the dojo.
What Arthur saw were a lot of people and Pokemon fighting with and against each other!
The dojo didn't only have one sort of martial arts it provided to practice. He could see boxing rings, judo mats, even MMA cages!
There were also fitness machines and weight lifting equipment in the corner of the hall.
What astounded him a bit was the huge crowd of people gathering in front of the only entrance. Weirdly enough, they were mostly female ...
”Let me in!”, he heard shouts coming from the crowd,
”I want to see my Gary!”
”You can't have him all to yourselves, that is unfair!”
The crowd got louder and louder and their voices to see this Gary person grew stronger and stronger as well.
Wait, Gary?!
”Is this, ehh, a coincidence?”, Arthur wondered. He remembered how Khali talked about this Gary,
”He was famous, right?”
When he finished his train of thought, a new situation arose at the entrance.
A big massive guy stood there as a guard but even he felt intimidated by all those women shooting angry stares at him. Sweat dripped down his forehead and he needed to warn the girls and women in front of him every couple seconds to keep their distances but got rewarded with shouts and rage in return.