Well, well, well. After almost a year long hiatus, I'm FINALLY getting back to updating this. Decided it's about time I put both this and Poké-People back into the rotation of updating. And yes, I am saying that Poké-People will resume updates as well. These were the first two stories I started after all, so it's about time I gave them love. Anyways, enough with the sentimental crap. On with the disclaimer!

PocketSnails does not own the Pokémon franchise or the likenesses of the Kanto-region Dexholders.

xXxXxXxXx

The bolt of lightning struck the ground mere feet in front of me. If Red hadn't pulled me back…

"Damn it, we need to get out of this storm before we die!" Gary yelled.

"No kidding! We're almost to that cottage!" Danny yelled back. Again, a very distinct, female voice escaped his mouth…

We sprinted the rest of the way, and didn't even bother knocking on the door – we simply just barged in, collapsing on the floor.

"Uh, hello there, travelers." We heard a voice, and when we looked up, we saw…a Clefairy?

"Um, what's a Clefairy doing here talking?" I asked as I slowly walked up to it.

The 'Clefairy' cleared out his throat. "Hiya! I'm a Pokémon…No I'm not! Call me Bill! I'm a true-blue Pokémaniac!"

I gave a very confused and skeptical look to this 'Bill.'

"Hey! What's with the skeptical look? I'm not joshing you lady. I screwed up an experiment and got combined with a Pokémon! So, how about it? Help me out there!"

I looked at him, still very skeptical, as this seemed highly suspect.

"No!? Now don't be so cold! Come on, you gotta help a guy in deep, deep trouble! What do you say, beautiful? Please? Okay?"

I sighed, and finally just nodded my head in agreement.

"All right! Wait till I get inside the teleporter. When I do, go to my PC and run the Cell Separation System."

"Whatever, gotcha." I said, walking over to the PC so that I was ready, watching Bill as he got into the teleporter.

As he got in, he gave me a thumbs up. I clicked on the program that was titled 'Cell Separation System' and ran it.

A loud whirring noise was heard, and a bright, electrical flash came from the two teleporters. It was so bright I had to cover my eyes, and I have a feeling my friends were no different.

After a few moments, the flash went away, and Bill – the real Bill – stepped out of one teleporter, with his Clefairy exiting the other.

"Yeehah! Thanks lady! I owe you one! So, did you come to see my Pokémon collection?"

I sighed. "No. Whatever Pokémon you have, we are not here to see them. We just needed shelter in this storm."

"Oh, you didn't…That's a bummer. I've got to thank you…besides letting you stay here, I would've done that regardless. Can't really think of anything right now…Oh well. I'll figure something out by morning. I uh, don't exactly have four beds though…it's just me."

"That's fine. We'll sleep wherever we have to. Oh, by the way, my name's Leaf. Leaf Green." I replied.

"Nice to meet you Leaf." He said, shaking my hand. He had a very posh, proper accent – one I had not heard before. Clearly not from the Indigo Nation…I had to ask.

"Sorry if I'm sounding rude Bill, but where are you from exactly?"

He smiled. "Ah, you're fine. I get that a lot actually. I'm from a very far off land – I was born in their capital city, actually."

"Capital city?" I asked, having never really heard the term.

"The region seat, if you will. Something like Kanto's Celadon City, Johto's Goldenrod, Hoenn's Mauville, so on and so forth. Anyways, the capital city sat right upon a river. And there was a Ferris wheel, right on the south riverbank. It was tallest in the world for quite a while. And we had such a magnificent clock tower…The bell contained within it is the largest in the world…Oh, I'm rambling at this point. But yes, I am foreign."

"Okay." I said, actually having been intrigued with his description, and wanting to know more. But, I decided to not pursue it.

"Wait, Bill…could you perhaps be the one who dates my sister?" I heard Gary ask him.

"What is your sister's name young man?" Bill responded.

"Daisy. Daisy Oak."

"Oh, Daisy! Yes, she and I are in a relationship. Is there an issue?"

"Tch. Yeah, some creepy old dude who got fused with a Clefairy is dating her."

I sighed. Gary was never much one for subtlety.

"Anyways Bill, what was that you were saying about a Pokémon collection?" I asked, quickly changing the subject.

Again, the man smiled. "Ah, yes. Throughout my travels, I have caught and encountered so many Pokémon…most caught I still have, and they have become not only my friends, but roots of study for Professor Oak and I. Both those Pokémon and ones I haven't been able to catch are on the Pokédex Samuel installed to my PC. But for now, allow me to make you kids dinner. It's the least I can do."

I sighed. At least he's nice enough to cook for us…

"Ah sweet! What you cooking us?" Red asked in excitement.

Bill opened up his freezer. "I'm baking frozen pizza. Not that much of a cook…"

…Or not…

xXxXxXxXx

I sighed, unable to sleep as I rolled around in the makeshift bed I made for myself on the floor. As I rolled onto my side, I could see light coming from the room that served as Bill's laboratory. I got up and went in, sitting down next to him, a blanket wrapped around me.

"Oh, hello Leaf. What are you doing up?" He asked me.

"Can't sleep." I said. "Mind if I see those Pokédex entries you have?" I asked.

"Sure." He closed the game he was playing and pulled up his Pokédex program, handing me the mouse. I scrolled through it, not really finding anything interesting, though quite a few rare Pokémon. Well, nothing interesting until I got into some of the later entries…

"Wait, you found a Dragonite that was at least ONE HUNDRED feet tall?!" I asked in disbelief.

"Not just found my dear, caught. That giant Dragonite was the last of its kind, on the verge of extinction. I caught it to keep that from happening. Both Professor Oak and I have repeatedly tried to make it reproduce with a Ditto to bring its kind back…we've had no luck. I've also tried contacting my friend Mr. Fuji in the past few days, but he hasn't responded."

"Mr. Fuji?"

"Ah, Mr. Fuji. He's a kind old man who lives in Lavender Town. He's told me before that he's done some cloning tests before, and they were actually successful – Hell, he has undeniable proof that Ditto is his creation. I was going to ask him if he could help with cloning a giant Dragonite, see if that could help with this problem. Again though, haven't received word."

"Well, if I run into Lavender Town on my journey, I'll mention something to him."

"Thank you."

"Wait…why did Mr. Fuji do tests to clone Pokémon? Why did he create Ditto?"

"That, my dear, I'm not sure off. That's information he kept secret from Samuel and myself…"

"Oh."

Silence for a few moments.

"You know Bill…I've always wanted to have a Dragonite." I finally said.

"Oh? Well, they're quite rare you know. In fact, it's a Pokémon you can't even find in the wild. At least not here in Kanto. You must evolve it from a Dragonair first. And to get a Dragonair you have to evolve a Dratini. You have a long road ahead if you want one Leaf."

"I know. And frankly, I'd prefer raising a Dratini from scratch then just traveling to another region to catch a Dragonite."

"That's good. You'll form a better bond with your Pokémon that way."

"Right."

I flipped through some more entries, and found some more very interesting ones.

"You've encountered Arcticuno, Zapdos, and Moltres? The legendary birds of ice, lightning, and fire?"

"Yes, merely encountered though. I unfortunately never caught them, despite trying so hard."

"Why would you catch them? Legendary Pokémon are so powerful…they deserve to stay in the wild."

"Hmph. Some say that legendary Pokémon, upon meeting a trainer of good heart and expert battling skills, will befriend said trainer and become a member of their team. I hunted down those three to see if either of them would accept me. Unfortunately, they did not."

"Why go through such lengths to find them though?"

"Because…of this monstrosity…"

He clicked to another entry, though this one only had a picture of the Pokémon and its name. The Pokémon was bipedal and humanoid in appearance, though it also had some feline features.

"Whoa. What is that Pokémon?!" I asked like an eager schoolgirl wanting to know about a cute boy.

"Mewtwo. No one knows anything about it, much less have heard of it. In fact, aside from you, this Pokémon is known only to myself, Samuel, and Fuji."

"Oh. Why is that?"

"Because, Mewtwo is not a natural Pokémon. It was created by science. Neither of us know why, by who, or for what purpose. Or, at least Oak and I don't. I have a feeling Fuji is staying tight-lipped about it."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because, look at the name: 'Mewtwo.' The Pokémon is obviously supposed to be a clone of the mythical Mew. And what was it that Fuji did before going to Lavender Town suddenly?"

"He worked on cloning…"

"Precisely…"

I paused. I thought about egging Bill more on the topic of Mewtwo, but decided against it. Instead, I opted to ask him a few things more close to home.

"Bill, is it natural for a boy to have a um, high pitched and feminine voice?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there's this guy I know, and he's cool and all, but more often than not his voice will crack. Or, sometimes it won't even crack, his voice will just sound clearly female."

"Maybe there's an imbalance in his testosterone versus estrogen levels?"

"Might be, not sure. I asked if he hit puberty yet, and he said yes."

"The voice might be because he might've just recently started to hit puberty. I don't know Leaf. I'm male, but I'm not a doctor."

"You're fine. I was just seeing if you would've known."

"Alright. Is that all?"

"Yes. All this talking has made me tired." I said as I stood up and walked to the exit of the room.

"Oh, and Leaf."

"Yes?"

"Good night."

"Good night to you too, Bill."

xXxXxXxXx

"No way! You're giving us tickets to the S.S. Anne?!" I asked in excitement at breakfast when Bill informed us he had two tickets.

"Yes. You see, I would go with Daisy, but I'm not into those types of fancy get-togethers. So, they're for whoever wants them." He said as he placed the two tickets on the table.

"Wait, what's the S.S. Anne again?" Danny asked, confused.

Bill gave his signature smile. "The cruise ship S.S. Anne. Docks in Vermilion City around this time every year to take lucky – and rich – trainers on a tour along the east coast of the island that Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh are all a part of. Then it travels to Unova and Kalos to take trainers in-between those regions and from these regions to those two."

"Oh." Danny said simply.

I paused, then pushed the tickets towards Bill. "No Bill. Take your girlfriend on a date."

"What?! Okay Leaf, I know you like helping out people, but you've wanted to go on the S.S. Anne for like, years!" Red said in shock.

"And? I can wait a few more." I said.

With that, a knock at the door. I got up and answered it, seeing two older people in tuxedoes.

"Hello! We've recently become aware that you've wanted to board the S.S. Anne!" The first one said, a female.

"Uh, sure…" I said, uneasy about this.

"Well we got just the thing for you!" The second one, a man said. "We are giving away FOUR tickets for the S.S. Anne! All you have to do is answer one simple question, true of false of course!"

"Uh, alright then…" I said, now very unsure about this.

"Good!" The woman said, overly happy. "Now, here's the question: Is your name Leaf Green?"

I sighed. These people can't be serious. I decided to continue this clear joke of theirs.

"False. My name is Lorelei Prima." I said, using the name of one of the Elite Four members.

"Con!" The lady said.

"Grat!" The man.

"U!"

"Late!"

"Shuns!"

"Leaf Green, you have now won four tickets for the S.S. Anne! We hope you enjoy your trip!" The man said, handing me my tickets. The two quickly disappeared before I could say anything. I walked back to the table.

"What was that about?" Gary asked.

"Apparently I just won four tickets for the S.S. Anne…" I said.

"Really? I don't even wanna ask." Danny said.

"Well, looks like not only is Bill taking Daisy, but the four of us are going as well." I said.

"Pfft! Screw that! I don't have time going to go to a stupid party!" Gary said.

"Mr. Oak, did you not hear me earlier? There are many trainers aboard the S.S. Anne. Many strong, many rich trainers." Bill said.

"And? Look, it's tempting, but not that tempting." Gary said.

"Whoever can beat the captain will receive an exclusive Hidden Machine you can't obtain elsewhere."

"There's plenty of ways to bootleg things." Gary said, though his voice was uneasy, as he knew how rare HMs were.

"But don't you also want to make sure Bill doesn't try anything funny with Daisy?" I asked.

"Good point Leafy. I'll go then!" Gary said.

"Is that really what it took?" Bill asked rhetorically. "Any who, the storm's gone, so you youngsters should head off. The S.S. Anne won't dock for about another week or so, so that's time you could use training and possibly earning a badge or two."

"Right. We'll see you later Bill!" I said as I stood up and we started walking out.

xXxXxXxXx

"So, what's everyone planning on doing?" I asked as we stood in the Pokémon Center waiting for Nurse Joy to heal our Pokémon.

"Me and Red here are gonna head to Vermilion to get the gm badge there! Smell ya later!" Gary said as him and Red walked out, their Pokémon already healed.

"Well, what about you then Danny?" I asked him.

"Oh, I'm gonna go challenge the Cerulean Gym. It's a water type gym so my Pikachu should do great!" He said confidently.

"Alright, I'll see you later then!" I said, giving him a hug as he walked out.

xXxXxXxXx

As Danny walked from the Pokémon Center to the gym – what should be a relatively safe journey – he suddenly got jumped – by none other than Team Rocket.

"Hey, let go of me!" He said as they pulled him into an alleyway.

"Shut-up twerp! We don't wanna get caught!" Meowth said in anger. The three goons threw him on the ground, with James pressing his foot against Danny's chest.

"My, that's quite an elevated chest you have there!" James said, smiling evilly.

Danny's eyes widened. "No, please! Don't tell any of the others! Especially not Leaf!"

"Oh don't worry, we won't 'Danny.'" Jessie said. "Just do what we ask and your secret is safe with us!"

Danny sighed. "What do you want?"

xXxXxXxXx

Yeah, quite a LONG chapter! I think this might be the longest chapter of any story I have so far…might need to check that. Anyways, fans of Pokémon Adventures (the manga, not this similarly named fanfiction series) should already know what Danny's secret is. For those who don't, I suggest you not spoil it for yourself, and I hope those of you who are fans do not spoil it for them.

PocketSnails signing off.