The Professor's Secret

10. Treasure Hunt

It was still very early in the morning – the sunrays had just started to insinuate the rise of the scorching star – when Calem held between his fingers a shiny cliff badge. I was quick to follow, becoming the proud possessor of one myself before noon... but it wasn't with as much ease as my neighbor. Having Azure been defeated by an earthquake on the first few turns, my recently befriended Tirtouga proved crucial in the last moments of the heated battle, when all the others were too weary to fight. And when the last foe fell, a much needed surprise awaited: Charmander evolved – he became bigger, stronger, and darker in color, too. His personality also changed: he seemed now much more serious and silent than his previous form.

With potions and revives, Shauna and Tierno managed to keep up, but Trevor was mercilessly defeated... I wished I had words to console his despondency, but the two of us were particularly bad at communicating. To ease my tension, Calem assured me that his sadness was nothing compared to what ours would have been if we had lost, and Trevor proved him right by pushing us immediately back to Ambrette to go see his scientist friend, as if he was finally done with his chores for the day and could now go play outside with the other kids.

Trevor's friend was a bald scientist with huge glasses – his hands shook a lot, he was clumsy and looked extremely frail – nothing like the idol Trevor seemed to make out of him, but I'm sure that all those complicated words and ideas I knew nothing of were what made him so interesting in Trevor's eyes.

The scientist gave us a tour to the lower lab, explaining the use of many of the big machines occupying space there and giving us a mindful on the origins of the fossil research they still conducted – not once did he mention the Professor's short residence on the upper floor. After that, he showed us the way to the glittering cave, where they had just discovered the hidden presence of fossils. His assistant had been there since morning digging up whatever he could find, and we could feel free to join him in our own mini-archeology experience. But the road there was a harsh and long one, and the sun was particularly hot that day, so neither Trevor nor I felt inclined to engage in any mining activity.

We watched the rest of the gang mount on Rhyhorns and set out to face the trials of the rocky route to glittering cave, then we returned to the lab so Trevor could watch as his friend worked – I only followed.

But even a fascinated guy such as Trevs was bound to get bored from all that silence, all those carefully planned and extremely slow movements filling the hours on the scientists' schedule – it wasn't interesting at all to watch them as they worked. I had mentioned Sycamore had been conducting his own research upstairs until yesterday, when he was scheduled to return to Lumiose, and Trevor, looking for something to excite his neurons, insisted that we sneak upstairs to gather whatever the Professor might have left behind, for keeping as trinkets, tokens and trophies as if the cynic Professor was indeed some sort of idol.

I blushed to think that Trevor and I might share a similarly intense interest in Sycamore, but his were based on much nobler causes, I soon reminded myself. His admiration sprung from the Professor's show of brilliance, discipline and devotion to research, while mine... I still couldn't tell, but I supposed it was based on the way my stomach swirled when I was around him.

Technically speaking, there wasn't any sort of impediment to us going upstairs to survey the vacated lodging – Trevor's friend gave him the liberty to roam about the lab to his curious wits' content, never mentioning any restriction. – Nonetheless, we waited until the way up was unwatched before mounting, and quickly closed the office's door behind us once we were inside.

"Is this where he retrieved the fossil?" Trevor looked around himself.

"That machine over there..." I pointed, boringly crossing the room.