A fire nearly caused by a Charmander eating berry Starf was quickly dealt with. The Pokémon Center, which frequently experiences similar incidents, quickly completed repairs, but a lesson for Link and Charmander was still necessary—caution must be exercised inside buildings!
While Nurse Joy was talking to Link, Officer Jenny (from Oldale Town) found him.
"The Pokémon Center responded so quickly?" Link was somewhat surprised by Officer Jenny's speed.
"What?"
Officer Jenny paused for a moment, then explained her purpose: "Link, we were dealing with the cruise ship hijacking the other day and didn't have time to tell you. Did you get your Poké Ball from Team Aqua?"
Link nodded. The items he found in the Team Aqua members' rooms included 10 Poké Balls.
Newly born Pokémon in the real world naturally cannot inherit their parent Poké Balls, so Charmander was using the Poké Balls he had found.
Incidentally, he had also kept the Team Aqua uniform and waist pack, thinking he might need them during future Hoenn events.
"I knew it. No wonder Nurse Joy said your Poké Ball couldn't read the information."
Link was a little puzzled. Poké Balls could read information?
"Currently, all Poké Balls on the market have built-in chips that can send and receive information in places with internet access. They can interact in real time with the computers of Pokémon Centers, the League, and the police, including information such as Pokémon status, trainer information, and Poké Ball location.
This is to determine the trainer's location, prevent smuggling and crimes, and assess the trainer's situation to provide appropriate assistance in times of crisis."
In short, if the Poké Ball detects that the trainer's Pokémon is in a dying state, and the trainer is in the wild, one of the local League staff, police officers, or Gym Leaders will provide assistance.
If the trainer's physical location differs significantly from the Poké Ball's physical location, the police will classify the Poké Ball as lost or stolen.
Incidentally, the Poké Ball's ability to read the status of its internal Pokémon is also used in official battles to prevent trainers from cheating by rotating Pokémon inside the ball to use items or boost their stats.
"That sounds like a really convenient feature; it's reassuring."
Link hadn't expected the League to have this technology at this time. No wonder bounty hunters and criminal gangs didn't retrieve their captured Pokémon into their Poké Balls—it's because of the tracking system.
However…due to the Poké Ball management system, once a trainer's Poké Ball is locked by the system, like in the TV series (BW) and the depths of the Crimson Purple Zone 0, they will be unable to release their Pokémon.
It's a double-edged sword; if criminals exploit it, things could go wrong.
Besides, some Leagues have been thoroughly compromised by evil organizations, making it extremely dangerous for trainers.
"Yes, the Poké Ball management system exists to serve trainers, so people like the pirates and Team Aqua use older versions of Poké Balls (and some shady Poké Balls), or they use special equipment to damage the built-in chips."
Where there's a will, there's a way.
According to Officer Jenny, the Poké Balls Link found with Team Aqua were the versions with their chips interfered with.
She came today to retrieve these Poké Balls.
Since Link is an upright person, he'll cooperate with Officer Jenny.
After handing over all the Poké Balls, they received 10 red and white Poké Balls and 1 souvenir ball.
Fennekin picked out a red and white Poké Ball that looked good and moved it to its new home.
However, it quickly returned outside.
There was nothing to do inside the Poké Ball, so it was better to breathe fresh air outside.
Seeing that the weather was quite nice, the two said goodbye to Officer Jenny and went to the orchard to pick berries and branches.
The Fennekin has a habit of carrying small twigs as snacks, and after eating them, it becomes energetic, exhaling hot air exceeding 200 degrees Celsius from its large ears to intimidate opponents.
This made Link think—if only Fennekin had an "Intimidate" ability!
Unfortunately, this intimidation wasn't the same as the real intimidation, and it wasn't very useful.
With the harvest finished and it nearing noon, Link was heading to the Pokémon Fan Club.
"Fennekin~"
Even on the way, Fennekin started eyeing the twigs Link had washed and stored away for drying.
"So eager? Here."
As a twig was tossed to Fennekin, it immediately became excited, crunching it down.
Link was very curious about the origin of this habit, so he asked it what it thought.
Fennekin fumbled for a long time but couldn't figure it out.
It wasn't for grinding its teeth, nor for improving digestion or supplementing nutrition; it was simply happy to nibble on small twigs, as if these things were very important to it.
It seemed to be an instinct.
Seeing that the little fox itself didn't know either, Link subconsciously recalled the Pokédex information of its evolved forms... He could still vaguely remember his favorite Fire-type Pokémon.
[Fennekin, a fox Pokémon; it has a branch stuck in its tail, which ignites upon being pulled out due to friction, and can use this flame as a source of powerful attacks.]
[Demonic, a fox Pokémon; it can manipulate a 3000-degree Celsius flame vortex with psychic power to incinerate opponents; by focusing on the flame burning at the tip of its staff, it can foresee future events.]
From the Pokédex, the Fennekin family are almost like "magicians," their staffs serving as both a medium for unleashing attacks and a tool for predicting the future.
Pokémon certainly don't possess magic (probably, but judging from the original series, magic and alchemy do exist in the TV universe), and the pressures of natural selection don't help organisms inherit skills useless for reproduction and survival.
Since all the Fennekins can use branches, it means that during the long process of evolution, all the Fennekins that failed to master this skill were eliminated in various ways.
Branches are to Fennekins what family are to Cubone—an extremely important tool.
But why?
Why do branches play such a crucial role?
On the way to the enthusiast club, Link pondered deeply and finally came to a hypothesis—the primary fighting method of the evolved Fennekin is to manipulate fire through "psychic powers" to attack in various forms.
However, using two techniques simultaneously consumes a great deal of physical and mental energy, and the startup animation becomes longer than their lifespan.
This led Fennekins, under the selective pressure of nature, to learn the technique of pre-creating fire as a medium for their attacks.
The medium's role is likely to allow them to more easily draw upon their own or the fire-attribute energy in the environment, thereby increasing the power of their attacks, reducing the difficulty and startup animation of manipulating fire through "psychic powers," and allowing them to unleash combat power far exceeding their own capabilities.
This is why Fennekins have etched branches, an external object, into their genes.
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