“It’s much more than just a gym, though,” there was a spark of passion in his eyes as he activated the primary computer, and several holographic screens appeared. “This system here also has access to Sunyshore’s power grid, security systems, and environmental monitoring systems, most of which I designed,” as he spoke, he brought up footage that appeared to be taken from the ocean floor, not far from Sunyshore’s coast. “The gym is designed to withstand a large scale catastrophic event, so if something were to occur, this little control room could be activated to maintain essential services within the city - though not many know about this function.”
He gestured toward the screen, “but this is the project we’ll be working on - or part of it. The aquatic monitoring and protection system, or AMPS.” With a few keystrokes, the screen changed from real footage, to what looked like a model of a small, unassuming device. “A few years back, I worked closely with a team of seismologists to design this device, here.” Volkner went on to explain, in detail, how the device worked to detect seismic activity with greater accuracy than ever before, while at the same time monitoring ocean wildlife - and how he’d recently developed a new prototype which would detect and collect data on unorganic materials, trash and spills, and release tiny marine robots to remove or absorb the material.
“This new upgrade will be piloted first in Snowpoint, since the system has yet to be installed there anyways, and if there’s a notable decrease in deep sea and coastal pollution, this will be the version installed across the Hoenn region. Follow so far?”
It was amusing to note that not everyone knew about a disaster response system -- but of course. If Sunyshore knew of it, there would most certainly have had been a disaster on a scale large enough that neither of them would be standing where they were at the moment.
Like, say, torrential rain and drought lasting weeks...?
Yuuki’s lips pulled themselves upwards in a polite smile, and he punctuated Volkner’s explanation of the systems with an occasional nod and interested hum.
“Why Snowpoint?” he asked, bluntly.
Snowpoint’s climate was a far cry from the tropical humidity of Hoenn. On the surface, it didn’t make sense. He didn’t doubt that Volkner had his reasons, but a conversation wasn’t made by one person’s monologuing.
At the same time, he felt like he was walking into a carefully-planned situation, that it was a question that he was expected to ask.
