"We interrupt this program for this flash report."

Every radio and television sets echoed the same voice in Goldenrod City, catching the majority of the people's attention who were preparing for this new day.

"Last night, the well-renowned inventor Bill almost got kidnapped by a group of men that we all thought had vanished years ago. They were Team Rocket, and—"

Whatever the reporter was saying next was muffled by a choir of worried and excited gasps.

"—police have arrested three Rocket members and are currently interrogating them. Every town in Johto and Kanto have been alerted by this event. Dear viewers, if—and listeners, if any of you have sighted or have any information about Team Rocket, please let the police know."

A television set was turned off, it's black and flat screen reflecting the sighing Bill who was seated on his couch in his living room. Opening his eyes, his gaze landed on a Taillow on the table a few feet in front of him.

The said Taillow was crying as he held a small knife with a talon, slicing the burnt meat on a plate. After he managed to cut a chunk, he dropped the knife, grabbed the chunk with the same talon, stared sadly at the sad-looking meal, sobbed, and ate it, sniffling as he was reminded that he couldn't chew it.

Back on the couch, four sets of eyes blinked at him as the bird choked, either from the meat or from his sobs.

A Meowth shook his head. "Pathetic."

"Meat this delicious didn't deserve to be burned..." the Taillow sobbed, cutting another chunk.

"..." Bill scratched the back of his neck. "...You're one weird flying type... I've never seen a bird Pokémon crave for meat."

A patched-up Pidgey, who sat on a pillow on Bill's lap, and a Honchkrow who was perched on the couch's armrest, nodded in unison.

"Dude," Sky said, turning his tear-soaked face at the only human in the room. "How could you not understand how painful burned meat is?!" He sighed, turning back to his meal. "Oh, what's the use... You can't understand a single word I say anyway."

"Er... Actually," Bill said, "I...actually can understand you."

Sky turned back to him, sniffling.

Bill flashed a small smile. "I used to specialize in bird Pokémon when I was still a trainer. That was years of learning how to understand them." He leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "Don't get me wrong. Each species of birds have different sounds, yes, but they use the same rule of communication with each other. They use different pitches and have different lengths on their cries to communicate."

"Must have been boring," Sky muttered, no longer interested in Bill's story as he went back to his meal, still sobbing.

"Yeah, it was," Bill sighed with a smile. He then opened his eyes, blinked, and stared at the Taillow with a frown. "I mean, no. It wasn't boring. That drove me to invent ways for us humans to be able to understand Pokémon better!"

"Meh," the Meowth meh'ed, jumping off of the couch and walked towards the door. "I'm done here. Thanks for the fillet, by the way," he said, stopping in front of the front door. He looked up, stared at the door knob, bent his knees, and jumped, throwing his front paws on the knob and turning it, opening the door in the process. He let go, grabbed the opened door, and turned to glare at the human. "But interrupt me in my hunt again, and I won't be forgiving next time."

Bill rolled his eyes. He didn't understand what the Meowth had just said, although he had an idea of what it was.

Kit, the Meowth, walked out the door and slammed it behind him.

"As long as I have fillets in the fridge, I can tame him," Bill grinned.

"S-Sky," the Pidgey finally said after collecting enough courage to talk.

The Taillow blinked, sniffed, and turned to look at her.

She quickly looked away, blushing. All that courage was gone in an instant, and she mentally cursed.

Sky shook his head. He then looked at Bill. "Hey, bird boy."

"Please don't call me that," Bill frowned at him.

Sky continued while pointing at the Pidgey, "Explain how I and everyone else can see that Pidgey's blush."

He noticed? He noticed! That made the Pidgey blush even more. She yelped when the human who treated her suddenly lifted the pillow so he could look at her at eye level. She tried turning away.

"Erm..."

"So yeah," Sky said, wiping his face with his wings. "Aren't our feathers covering our skin where the blush would normally appear?"

"...I studied bird's speech pattern, er, Sky. Not their biological structure..."

Sky shook his head. "Right. And you didn't care that this delicious meat was burned. I'm starting to wonder if I'm the true human around here."

Bill blinked. He furrowed his brows. "...That reminds me. You really do talk like one of us. Tell me—"

"Nope," Sky suddenly interrupted him, extending a wing to stall him. "You don't get to ask me questions, fail human!"

The human blinked. "...I didn't catch that last one."

"Fail human," Lais the Honchkrow repeated for him.

Bill shook his head. "Forearm?"

Sky ignored him as he continued, "So what did Team Rocket want from you anyway that I needed to kick their sorry asses and rescue you?"

Bill failed to stop himself from flinching that even the Pidgey stumbled and fell on her side on the pillow. The inventor helped her back on her feet before he turned to look at his Honchkrow, who was busy preening her messy wing. He sighed, then shook his head. "I...honestly don't know..." He looked ahead and locked his gaze on his reflection on the television screen. "They weren't talking during the questioning in the station."

"And why would they?" Sky nodded. "Anyway, didn't you have a psychic-type?"

He blinked at that. He looked at him. "...Why do you know about me so much?"

Sky shrugged. "Just answer my question."

"Well, yeah. Yeah, I do. He's inside his Pokéball in my room."

"Poor thing," the Pidgey muttered to herself, shuddering.

"Why do you ask?"

Sky blinked. "Well, isn't it obvious?" he asked, flapping his wings slowly. "Use it to, I dunno, enter their minds? Find the answers?"

"That's illegal."

"Gee, and them trying to kidnap you wasn't?"

Bill sighed. "Touché. But it's not my call. But the police are going to interrogate them though."

Sky shook his head. "Sorry, but from where I'm from, the police are mostly unreliable. Even in the movies. They always arrive late when they're mostly needed."

Bill was really confused. Part of it was because he didn't understand most of what the Taillow was saying.

"But whatever. If you don't want to find out why they were after you, then that's your choice," Sky nodded. "But, I came here not to rescue you, no matter how awesome it was to kick their balls."

"Er..."

Sky puffed his chest, smiling. "I came here to ask for your help."

"Help?" he blinked, already sensing a strange familiarity of this event. "Help with what?"

"Oh, don't worry," the Taillow waved a wing. "I'm not going to ask for anything big or impossible like helping me to go back to my world or something along those lines. Besides, you owe me for helping you out."

"...Nnnnooo..." Yes, there was that familiar headache again. "Don't tell me you're—"

"Le gasp!" Sky suddenly gasped, and slapped a wing over his head, turning around. "I almost forgot about my hat!"

"Your...hat?" Bill was now lost as he and the Pidgey watched the Taillow ran towards the kitchen.

Seconds later, they saw the running bird coming out from the kitchen and headed straight to the front door. He looked up and jumped, flailing his wings to reach the doorknob that was too high for him to reach. After a few more attempts of reaching for it, he grunted, and threw a glare at the human whose mind was busy rebooting. "A little help here? And before you ask, no, this isn't the help I wanted to ask from you earlier."

Outside the city, a few meters from the tall wall, three Pokémon were leaning on each other, sleeping soundly under the shade of the trees. The tall bushes shielded them from any human eyes that would be passing by on the main road meters away, however, a bush wasn't made to stop the sounds of a Rattata's questions and a Hoothoot's desperate dives in an attempt to catch his first meal of the day.

"You know," the Rattata said, jumping to the side with a frown as she kept her concerned eyes locked on the Hoothoot who was flying up again after diving at her. "This was fun for the first one hundred times we did this, but I'm starting to worry about you..."

The Hoothoot ignored her as he once again dived at her, claws at the ready to snatch her. However, despite his accuracy and speed, the rat somehow slips out of his path milliseconds before he could catch her. Grunting in annoyance, he flapped his wings again, both to not crash on the ground and to gain altitude again. He glared at the nimble Rattata. The rats back in the city were far easier to catch. However, competition there was fierce. Here, it seemed like he was the only Hoothoot around, but prey were too difficult to catch! It was frustrating.

Fay jumped away in time again, frowning in concern at the Hoothoot. "Please!" she begged, jumping away in time again. "Just tell me what's wrong! Are you hungry? Are you hurt? Are you lost?" She dodged again. "Why are you so angry?"

Behind the bushes, a Pikachu's ear twitched from the sound of the angry Hoothoot's grunts after another failed attempt of catching his prey. The Pikachu slowly opened his eyes, cursing that he lost sleep's embrace.

There was that noise again. Sighing, he pulled himself away from his slumbering friends. He stretched his arms up, gritting his teeth. Afterwards, he yawned as he stood up. If he wasn't so sleepy, he wouldn't have walked out of the safety of the bush that easily. He thought how stupid he was for doing that. If there was a trainer out here, he would have been easy to capture. Thankfully, it was only his annoying friend doing some exercise or something.

"Fay," the Pikachu said, rubbing his eyes as he approached her.

Fay jumped away to avoid the Hoothoot again, bumping on the approaching Pikachu.

"Oof—!" the electric rodent fell on his back, blinking in surprise. Eye twitching, he rose up and glared at the Rattata. "What in Suicune's mane are you—whoa!" He was surprised to see his friend dodging in time before that fast blur of...something hit her. He quickly turned his head towards the blur and saw the Hoothoot making a u-turn and diving back towards Fay. Thinking fast, sparks flew out of his cheeks—

"W-wait! Shockie! No—!"

—and he let out a quick bolt of electricity at the fast-approaching bird. He didn't have enough time to charge a more powerful bolt, but he hoped that a quick one would be enough to immobilize the bird.

Blinded by hunger and rage, Nystl didn't notice the threat until it struck him...literally. Mere seconds ago, his vision was filled with that delicious rat. Now, he was staring at the waking sky, and he couldn't feel his anything.

"You hurt him!" Fay cried, running towards the twitching bird.

"..." Shock blinked. He furrowed his brows. "You're welcome!" he shouted after her, rolling his eyes.

Shaking his head, Shock turned and stared at the large entrance to the city. He blinked, noticing that there were white-uniformed humans standing at the entrance, where some were busy inspecting other humans who were both going in or heading out of the city.

"...That's new."

"What's going on?" a Vulpix asked as she and a Bulbasaur were sleepily walking towards him.

Sky walked through the opened front door, closing it behind him with a victorious smile. "Yes!" he chirped, the small hat slipping down and covered his one eye. "The hat lives!"

"You're one of them?" Bill asked from where he sat.

The Taillow pushed the hat up. "One of who?" Sky asked, confused.

"Team Rocket."

Sky arched a non-existent eyebrow. "No? And I wouldn't beat their sorry asses if I were one."

"Point," Bill nodded. "So what's with the hat?"

"A souvenir, and a cool one, too!" Sky laughed as he walked towards the table.

"Oh boy," Bill rubbed his head as Sky climbed up the couch with his talons and beak. The Pidgey found it awkward yet hilariously cute at the same time. The latter made her blush and look away. "Krystal and Jay... And now, Sky? Ugh..."

"Stop blushing, girl!" Sky announced after he stood on the couch with a victorious smile. "Geeze! You keep on blushing like an animé school girl having a huge crush on me or something!"

What he just said only reddened her cheeks more.

Sky shook his head. "I really don't understand how a blush works on bird. Anyway!" he turned and smiled at the human. "About that little help I wanna ask you."

"You wanna ask me to help you go back to your world, right?"

Sky blinked at him. He sighed. "Goddamn it. Why does everyone keep on stopping me from making a dramatic reveal?!" he asked no one in particular. He shook his head, and adjusted his hat again. "Well, whatever. Anyway, no. That's not what I want you to help me with."

Bill blinked at him. That wasn't what he was expecting. He was now both curious and nervous to hear what the bird's request was.

"I wanna ask for your help in taking us to the Ruins of Alph."

"Ruins of Alph?" the Pidgey asked.

"Ah, the ruins of the alphabet soup," Lais suddenly said.

"No!" Sky suddenly interrupted her. "No, and shut up! No more of your stories!"

"Rude," both the Honchkrow and her trainer said at the same time.

"Anyway," Sky shook his head. "Yes. A ride to the Ruins of Alph. That's an easy request from a tiny, little bird, right?" he smiled at the human, who was arching his eyebrow at him.

"...Can't you just fly there yourself?"

"Ahem, I repeat my request..." Sky cleared his throat. "I want you," he pointed a wing at Bill, "to take us," he pointed at himself with one wing and waved the other, "to the Ruins of Alph."

"What do you mean by us?"

Sky beamed. "A predictable question, my birdbrained friend! Well, of course, me, Vixie, Shock, and Saur!" He then blinked and look aside. "Well, I suppose Fay could come along, too..."

"Wait," Bill said. "Vixie? And those other three? Aren't they Jay's friends?"

"Right you are, bird boy!"

Bill frowned at that. "I...suppose I can get you five there with my truck, but, why are they coming along?"

Sky frowned at him. "I don't remember you asking my bro the same thing when they decided to come with him in his epic journey."

"...Bro?"

"I prefer you call me 'dude,' since, y'know, we're not related by blood or anything."

Bill was rubbing his aching head again. "Wait... You're Jay's brother?"

Sky stopped, his mouth left wide open for a few seconds. "...And another dramatic reveal ruined..." Sky grumbled to himself.

Author's Notes

Huh... Another long chappie. Oh well. I'm not complaining. =D

—Wulfyre
Yeah... Back in the days, those are how people do their rage quits. Pulling the plugs, man! Ugh... x,x

—NinetalesSky
I'll be sure to pass that memo to her. ;)

—AlexanderMugetsu
Vixie is preggy. I was simply joking around in my last reply. Sorry about that.

—Modern Silver Productions
I suppose the four friends getting inside the city is, once again, delayed. D=
Anyway, I hope this chapter is a good enough answer for why Bill understood him without the help of his inventions.
And yeah, you go and fish her then.

—Redanato the Hero of Flame
Thank you. =)

—Cl8tron
We can change names here? o.o
Wow! I didn't know that! Now I wanna be called "Someone That Got Slapped By A Wet And Live Trout." ...Hm, too long. Oh well.
And it depends on what armor you're wearing. I suggest you get one with a Pokeball launcher so you can catch other 'mons like crazy! xD

—cookBoss88
Oh hai thar~ I'm from the Philippines, too. =3