By the second night of Jirachi's awakening, all specially invited researchers and breeders had arrived.
On the morning of the third day, following John and Saul's rigorous review process, every truly accomplished Pokemon researcher had entered the laboratory. Among them were over thirty world-class scientific celebrities and elite breeders.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that if this group perished, Pokemon research and breeding would regress by thirty years.
With this assembled expertise, Jirachi research commenced in full force.
Emerald's team had already conducted various preliminary tests before the world-class talents arrived.
First, they verified John's initial hypothesis.
Cosmic Power was a move completely unrelated to actual cosmic energy.
Even after hundreds of Minior and Beheeyem used Cosmic Power on Jirachi, the seven-day countdown remained completely unaffected.
The newly arrived teams joined the investigation. Since they represented various laboratories, each brought their own understanding of cosmic energy based on previous research.
The only viable approach was letting Jirachi attempt to absorb each proposed energy source individually.
By day's end, they had achieved absolutely nothing.
Throughout the process, John had attached specialized detectors to Jirachi's body, monitoring its internal energy consumption with extreme precision. He hoped this method might identify exactly what constituted the cosmic energy within Jirachi's system.
On the fourth night of Jirachi's awakening, exactly three days before its return to the Slumber Cocoon, John finally received encouraging news.
Saul had conducted comparative analysis of five Pokemon: Jirachi, Minior, Beheeyem, Solrock, and Lunatone, distinguishing their internal energies from hundreds of other Pokemon specimens.
He then investigated the energy contained within the devastation wrought by Jirachi's signature move, Doom Desire.
Finally, they confirmed the existence of a special energy found only within these five Pokemon and Jirachi's Doom Desire attack.
This energy was most likely cosmic energy.
However, new problems immediately emerged.
While Minior, Beheeyem, Solrock, and Lunatone did contain cosmic energy, their life force couldn't release it through moves like Jirachi could.
Forcibly extracting it would essentially require sacrificing these four Pokemon species to sustain Jirachi.
Worse yet, assuming Jirachi possessed 10,000 units of cosmic energy, Pokemon like Minior contained merely 1 unit each.
A drop in the ocean.
Extending Jirachi's existence by seven days would require sacrificing 10,000 Minior and similar Pokemon.
Ten thousand wasn't insurmountable, if John desired, he could capture that many using his Gameboy.
However, sacrificing 10,000 Pokemon for Jirachi's seven additional days was unconscionable. Even if John considered it, Jirachi would never agree. And what about the following week?
Another ten thousand lives.
That meant 520,000 annually.
Ten years would demand 5.2 million deaths.
What horrific carnage that would represent.
"As a legendary Pokemon, Jirachi's exclusive move Doom Desire contains cosmic energy. Is it possible that other legendary Pokemon from space also generate cosmic energy when using their signature moves?" Professor Whitmore asked John's opinion.
John rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He'd been considering the same possibility.
If other cosmic legendary Pokemon used exclusive moves, Jirachi might absorb cosmic energy from their attacks.
The legendary Pokemon from space that John had previously identified included Deoxys, Solgaleo, Lunala, and the great light-devourer Necrozma.
The latter three were beyond his current reach.
During his previous time in the Alola region, he'd searched for Cosmog unsuccessfully. After all, entering Ultra Wormholes to capture Ultra Beasts required that nebula Pokemon's assistance.
Unfortunately, he'd found nothing.
Occasional Ultra Beast rumors circulated in the real world, but locating them was like finding needles in haystacks.
Deoxys presented a different challenge.
It had never appeared in reality, seemingly non-existent in this world, or perhaps it simply hadn't yet arrived on Earth to battle Rayquaza, remaining unobserved by humans.
Therefore, he'd have to locate it through the game.
John hadn't encountered related quests so far.
Logically, Deoxys was a third-generation Pokemon that should appear in the Hoenn region, but despite being Hoenn's champion, he'd found no information about legendary encounters on the Alliance mission board.
For clues, he could only rely on his previous gaming knowledge.
In the Emerald version, the only method to obtain Deoxys involved traveling to Birth Island using an item called the Aurora Ticket.
However, John couldn't obtain the Aurora Ticket since it was an event-exclusive gift from his previous world, unavailable through normal gameplay.
So could he possibly reach Birth Island without the Aurora Ticket?
John pondered extensively, then suddenly remembered.
In the Pokemon games, besides the Aurora Ticket available in Emerald version, there was also FireRed/LeafGreen's alternative approach.
Though the pathway remained identical to real event distribution, it had marked Birth Island's location.
Birth Island was situated near the Sevii Islands in the Kanto region.
"I should be able to reach the Sevii Islands," John muttered. The Sevii Islands weren't a hidden map, players could reach them by taking ferries from Vermilion City Harbor.
No special ticket was required, just visiting an NPC named Bill to obtain the Tri-Pass. This pass was completely free, requiring only completion of the Indigo League in Kanto region.
John had already conquered Kanto's gyms and Victory Road.
The only question remained: on the Sevii Islands, would he be restricted to system map boundaries, or could he surf freely across the ocean?
Sitting here speculating would provide no answers, he needed to investigate personally!
John suddenly stood from his seat, his gaze sweeping across the entire laboratory.
"Everyone continue studying cosmic energy. I'm heading out briefly."
"Mentor, please take charge."
Before anyone could ask questions, John had summoned Gardevoir.
Using Teleport, he transported directly from the laboratory back to his manor in the capital, sat on his bedroom bed, and retrieved his Gameboy.
"Deoxys, here I come!"