"Mycroft's very good," he says cheerfully. "I dream of teaching him to remember things he has previously copied."

"That would also be an interesting research project. Any avenues of investigation?"

"Nothing has yet sprung to mind."

"How smart is Mycroft? 'Mon vary a lot - I don't just mean the legendaries some of whom are supposed to be able to talk, I mean even just from one - one Bidoof to another, some of 'em are dumb as rocks and can barely learn to interpret commands about which attack to use and some of 'em are very bright. Zag's my smartest."

"I have been blessed with unusually astute Pokemon," he says, patting Irene's neck. She arches it smugly.

"All of 'em? Lucky. Branch isn't even bright enough to react when I talk about how smart he isn't in front of him. The rest are somewhere in the middle."

"You is the low end of the scale for me, and it's still smarter than most of the Porygon."

"How did it come by that name, anyway? Did you name it when you were three or something?"

"Tony did, actually. Dummy is the first Porygon successfully created; he's been naming them similarly ever since. Half the flock rhymes with Bob."

"Rhymes with - oh dear. I suppose it is rather a lot of all one species to have to come up with names for," giggles Bella.

"In my humble opinion," says Sherlock, "that is no excuse for naming an innocent Pokemon 'Flob'."

This sends her into paroxysms of giggles. Zag thinks it's funny too.

He grins.

"Do the feral ones even answer to their nicknames?"

"The Bob contingent is chancy, but some of the rest of them do."

"Interesting. My mom used to try to tame wild 'mon with nothing but food and cooing and it didn't really work even insofar as getting them not to attack her if she got too close; I certainly wouldn't have expected any of them to answer to a name. I guess the Porygon are different from random Starly or whatever."

"They've known him all their lives. Enough exposure to Tony can make even answering to 'Flob' seem logical."

"For certain values of 'logical', anyway."

"I see you have not yet had enough exposure to Tony."

"Apparently not. I hope he's not going to start calling me anything that rhymes with Bob."

"You never know. I don't believe we have a 'Blob' yet."

"I will not answer to 'Blob'. It's not happening."

"As you say, then."

They carry on exploring the lake. By the time they're done, Bella's perfunctory breakfast is history; she turns Zag around from the lake center and heads back for the tower. "Nothing. Why is Uxie supposedly here? What made people say that? Even if it's completely mythical that it and Mesprit and Azelf live at the lakes and someone made it up because there's three lakes and three lake guardians, all the sources agree on Uxie being at this one, which I wouldn't expect if it were someone's fabrication. I guess I'll have to check the lake bottom after all. I wonder who'll come with me, if I can even find anyone who's up for it and has the right move in their party."

"Irene could learn it if she evolved," he mentions.