It was midday - around 1:00 pm, to be precise - when Blue adjusted the bag on her left shoulder as she checked her Pokedex. She had finally found the 'mute' button, so she was a lot happier with the little red machine. She passed over Nugget Bridge with no hassles - the trainers from the day before were long gone - and she was able to check the movesets of her four Pokemon.

She took the left path as soon as she got off of the bridge and was immediately challenged to a friendly battle. Birdie was able to get into action, knocking her opponent down with one Double Kick attack. Blue thought about the Moon Stone she had found in Mount Moon (I need to figure out what happened back there, she thought to herself) and decided to evolve Birdie later.

Blue tried not thinking about what had happened the past few days; she wanted to view things in a different manner; her past way of thinking about things more often than naught ended in tears. She took a deep breath and continued moving through the tall grass. Coal was rummaging through the dirt, looking for a small rock to play with. He picked it up in his claw and tossed it ahead of them.

He was about to get it when he stopped and sniffed, bringing his head up into the air. "Do you smell something, boy?" He looked at Blue, snorted, and jumped into the grass, pouncing on something. Blue parted the grasses and saw what he had jumped on. Underneath him was a small, yellow humanoid fox-like Pokemon whose eyes were closed. It seemed to be sleeping.

I better make this catch count... Blue swiftly took out a Pokeball from her bag. It had been awhile since she made her last catch, and the fact that she only had four Pokemon bothered her. I wonder what type of Pokemon it is...? Coal had remained over the Pokemon, sniffing it.

Blue carefully walked over and placed the ball on top of the yellow Pokemon's head. Ding! The Pokemon went in without a fight. She checked its status on the Pokedex and found that it didn't have a status condition.

"ABRA, THE PSI POKEMON. THIS POKEMON SLEEPS FOR 18 HOURS A DAY AND IS ABLE TO USE ITS PSYCHIC POWERS EVEN WHILE ASLEEP." It went on to tell her some other information as well: Male with a Hasty nature. It's only known move being Teleport. Well, that's unfortunate...

"Male, huh? Let's see... I'll call you... Franz. I wonder how hard it'll be to train you?" Blue said to the Pokeball in her hand. She looked to Coal and smiled at him. "You're such a good Pokemon. Let's continue forward, shall we?"

She continued walking forward, and a few minutes later there was a large hedge of grass on one side of the path; she could faintly hear the ocean lapping on to the shore. The sound was very soothing as she and Coal continued their trek through the path.

They had heard several trainers mention a man named Bill - apparently, he was some sort of famous Pokemaniac, whatever that was. Blue was very curious as to what he did, so she hurried forward until at last she came across a clearing where a lone house sat in front of a small pond. There was a faded sign that read "Bill's House", so Blue figured she was in the right place.

Once, twice, three times she knocked on the door. She waited a moment, looking at Coal nervously, before knocking again. She thought her heard a faint muffling sound, so she hesitantly put her hand on the cold brass doorknob and slowly turned the handle.

Her gasp of shock was heard over the soft creak of the door as she opened it wide enough for her to walk inside. Even though the room was dark, she could still see the faint outlines of miscellaneous furniture from the light that the windows brought in. She brought her hand to the wall, searching for a light.

The room was a lot messier than she had originally thought. Bookshelves were overturned, and paper was covering the entire floor. Is this... Bill's research? What happened here? The curtains were ripped and looked as if they were thrown on the ground with haste. The cushions on the couch were overturned and the stuffing was ripped out. The computer by the wall was glowing: a faint blue, its screen barely visible due to the amount of damage to it...

"What... what happened? How couldn't anyone know of this...?" Blue looked around, bringing her hands up to her mouth. She couldn't understand this.

Again she heard the muffling sound. Blue tried to pinpoint the noises' location, but her trusty Charmander beat her to it. He walked over to the giant machine in the corner of the room and sniffed the door. He made a soft whining noise and scratched at the door with his red claw. Something banged softly from the inside of the metal machine.

"Could... could someone be in there?" She looked at the wall frantically, looking for something to release who or whatever was inside. "Where's the 'open' button?!" Then she saw it. On the table, near the computer, was a red button. She shook her head, confounded, and hurried to it. The label said 'RELEASE' and she smashed her hand against it.

With a hiss, the door slowly opened. Coal rushed inside as soon as he could fit. Blue walked over to inspect the metal machine when she gasped in shock.

Lying in the middle of the machine was a man whose body was bound. His brown hair was disheveled and his face looked gaunt. There were bags under his crazed eyes. He looked at her and gave a maniacal laugh before slumping forward, hitting his head on the ground. Coal sniffed him again and licked his face once before nudging him with his head.

"Coal, help me move him..." Blue said, untying his bonds.

It was a half hour later before the man woke up. He was lying on the couch because Blue and Coal had moved him. She had thought that he would be more comfortable there, since the metal machine didn't look that comfortable. Blue had busied herself with cleaning up the papers that were littered about when a voice stopped her.

"Wh-who... are you...?" he asked weakly.

She turned around to face him and gave a light smile. "Uhm... I'm Blue. I... found you in that weird machine. You were tied up... and so we -" she looked over at Coal and back again "- set you on the couch. I hope you don't mind that I tried to clean up..."

He coughed and rubbed his throat with his hand. Blue went to the sink and filled a glass up with water and handed it to him. He took a sip and said, "Thanks, Blue... I owe you one. I'm Bill, by the way."

"Why were you tied up...?"

The man scoffed. "Those miserable Rockets..." he began.

Blue pursed her lips together and furrowed her brows. Again Team Rocket was mentioned in an awful way. What was with them, she wondered, and what did they want?

"They wanted information, and I wouldn't give it to them. That was two days ago... They tied me up and left me in my transmitter. If it weren't for you, I'd probably be dead."

"That's horrible... Do people not visit you? Someone could have heard..." Blue tried to think of an explanation of why no trainers came to his aid.

Bill shook his head. "I'm not big into fancy shin-digs and parties; I'm mainly engrossed in my work. People who visit me just want me to show them my rare Pokemon... now I just have them all online. Except, maybe, for my favorites, which are kept on that computer... but it's beyond repair now..."

He stood up warily. Coal was napping by the couch and stretched and moved back to his trainer.

Bill spoke again. "I have to thank you, somehow."

Blue held up her hands in front of her. "Oh, no... It's okay... There's no need!"

He rummaged through some drawers hidden in the bookshelf. When he found what he was looking for, he held it up and handed it to Blue. "Here, maybe this will do. They invited me to their party, but I wasn't going to attend. I'd like you to have it for saving me!"

"Okay... Thank you, Bill." Blue put it in her bag, which was lying on the floor. She adjusted her hat before asking, "Do you need any help here?"

"No, no... I can handle this. You must be a trainer, then? The easiest way to Cerulean is just past the pond and through the hedges. Don't worry, there's a dirt path and you'll be able to take the scenic shortcut back. It even leads to the Pokemon Center!"

"Will you be okay?" Blue was still worried.

"No lasting damage, I think. Don't worry," he winked at her, "I'll make sure I get Nurse Joy to look me over. Goodbye!"

Gathering her things, Blue beckoned to Coal and started for the door. With a quick wave and a soft 'goodbye', she walked out the door and headed back to Cerulean.