Some minutes passed as both of us were devoured by deep thoughts. Just the snore of Ramos the Aerodactyl sometimes broke the silence.

"Who would catch almost all pokemon in the cave just to attack us?" Bill was the first of us human to break the silence.

"I have some versions… Four, at least."

"Team Rocket?"

"The third version. Not the worst, through." I got up and looked at the moon. It slowly crawled across the sky reminding me about time. "I`m afraid this is all because of me. I don`t think you have as much people that want to kill you as I have."

"And still you are alive, my friend." Bill got up too and turned back to his pokemon, gently poking Aerodactyl in the side trying to wake him up. "Come on, let`s go back home."

Home? Already? I wonder when I will be able to say something like this. Well, not until I will have a home to back to.

"Hey, Bill, where are we?" I suddenly realized that we don`t even know where we are. I have to be ready to move on to the Route 2 for my meeting.

"I think, it`s Route 16. What`s the problem?" Bill replied after a quick look around.

"I need to get to the Route 2 by the morning. I need to meet someone from professor Oak`s crew."

"Let me guess – PokeDex check?" He asked with a big smile.

"Yeah, how do you know?"

"I know professor very well. And if he orders you to go to Route 2 from the very other end of region – it`s the PokeDex check, all right. He takes it very seriously."

"Very seriously?" These exact words made me start to worry again. "Listen, is that possible that he will… take my starter back if I don`t have very much of PokeDex entries collected?"

"And how much do you have?" He asked in reply with real interest.

I handed him over my PokeDex and let to look it through. His over interested face quickly changed to surprised and then he just laughed.

"Eight? Seriously?"

"I used it to scan just my own pokemon. And also I forgot to scan Moment when he was Zubat." I replied with a bit of shame.

"I think I have an idea. Do you want to have some fun?"

The actual flame in his eyes made me think he is up to something not very good. Well, his previous ideas made me think he is always like this.

"What`s on your mind?" I asked him carefully. He just smirked in reply and jumped on his Aerodactyl`s back.

"You will see." He gave me a hand. I had some doubts about having questionable fun right now, but Bill looked a reliable person for some reason. I grabbed his hand and got on pokemon too. "Hold tight!"

We rushed into the height once more. Ramos was very glad to soar in the sky, despite his small weakness. Bill constantly repeated the ancient pokemon not to raise too high and fly straight to the Route 2. As for me… This time I couldn`t enjoy the flight like before. Now I had a lot of dark thoughts on my mind to think.

Soon we reached the Route 2 – I noticed the familiar road from high above. On the East from the main road, behind the dense woodland belt another road was hidden – and this is the road I tried to find back then. To my surprise, there was no way to actually get from one road to another – just through the forest, but I remember that being so tightly grown it`s impossible to pass. Nature is nature.

We landed on a short distance from the hotel building, on a hill.

"Great job, Ramos." He clapped pokemon`s arm. "Go fly around a little, I`ll give you a call when I need you."

Aerodactyl gladly roared and flew high in the sky, quickly hiding from our eyesight in the clouds. Bill sighed and returned to me.

"So, let`s go?" He asked with determination.

"Wait a second… Why couldn`t you just return him back to pokeball? What if we will need him fast?"

"Ah, it isn`t attached to a pokeball yet. And I don`t want him to." Bill replied lightly. "But it is always nearby, and I know that it will always react to my whistle call."

"And you too with this 'IT' thing…" For some reason this standard element of language pissed me off. "Ah, never mind, let`s go."

We approached the hotel building and stopped over the corner. The construction looked quite low for a hotel – the building had just one floor. From the side it looked more like a usual big house – modest and distant from the city.

"So, what are we going to do?" I asked Bill. He didn`t tell me his plan yet.

"Go and find that guy." He started to explain barely keeping himself from strange excitement. "When he checks your PokeDex and tells that you have too little… Just tell something like you`re going to catch some more pokemon and will be in a minute. And come to me with your PokeDex."

"Strange way to have fun, I have to say…" I told very honestly. "And what`s next?"

"You`ll see. Go!"

"But… He will not take my Dumpling because of my miserable PokeDex, right?" I started to worry really a lot right now. "We had some sort of a deal…"

"What? No, of course, not. That would be too rough, don`t you think? Don`t worry, everything will be all right. Come on!"

I really don`t know what made me trust this strange guy so much, but I just nodded and headed to the entrance. Bill stayed on his place, waiting for me.

Suddenly a roar of engine sounded from far away. I didn`t pay attention to it, and just touched the door to hotel as the engine sound behind me turned into tears grinding.

"Stop right here!" A loud man voice sounded after all that. Crap, I wish I never hear him again.

"Douchebag, my little bro! What the heck is your ass doing here?" I turned away from the door and faced the douchebag in the car. A shiny black, expensive and, I have to admit, pretty cool car.

"The same thing you are." He quickly jumped from his car and slowly headed to me. "Gramps called me to show him my PokeDex. Another great way to throw you into the dirt!"

"What? I don`t remember professor giving you a PokeDex too!"

"He is my gramps, after all. He could give it to me later… Or long before, you dumb! So we are together on this way too, loser!"

"What a coincidence, right?" I tried to keep all my sarcasm from flowing out. It was hard. "Damn, it looks like you were waiting for me right here, until I appear."

"Why the heck I should bother myself with YOU?" Douchebag replied contemptuously. "Don`t make me laugh. You do it better during our battles."

"Oh, shut up. Just go inside and do something useful in your life at least once – find me Oak`s assistant, quickly!"

"Hmf!" Douchebag proudly raised his head and passed near me with nothing to say. I felt a small victory over him and followed inside.

And when we got inside I understood I was right about this place. This isn`t a hotel – at least, even I couldn`t see the counter or receptionist or something. Well, there were some rooms from two sides of corridor, but I could say this looks more like a rebuilt warehouse where some additional walls were placed than a hotel. On the other side of corridor some space was allocated not for rooms, but for some sort of café. And a lone guy in white scientist outfit was sitting here, drinking coffee and keeping an eye on his bags nearby.

We noticed him simultaneously and then looked at each other. After a synchronous nod we headed to him and sat behind the table.

"So, you are professor Oak`s assistant?" I asked the guy.

"Yes. Call me George. And you are... trainers, right? You came here to show me your PokeDexes?"

"Right. Gramps told me you have some problem with the server and we need to restore some info for it from our researches." Douchebag replied while taking out his PokeDex.

"Problems? Well, there were some, a year ago. We still can`t restore all the data, so you guys could help us a lot." George put his cup on table and turned to Douchebag. "You`re professor`s grandson, right? Let`s start with you. Give me your PokeDex and trainer licence."

"Of course, start with me! There`s no one else to start with."

I sighed and looked around. Looks like two vending machines in this place are the only way to eat. Well, this works for me too. While George is checking Douchebag`s PokeDex, I can buy some coffee for me.

"Professor said there will be three trainers." The scientist suddenly said. "A girl should be there also. Don`t you know where is she?"

Oh, the third trainer. The one that got Bulbasaur in our consignment. He is talking about Leaf…

"I don`t know where is she." I replied while returning back to the table with a cup of coffee.

"Well, she has just some minutes until I leave. You guys are very lucky to get there in time."

Douchebag had no idea who we are talking about, so he remained silent and patiently waited for George to open the PokeDex.

"So, you have… Twenty seven entries! Great job, you are really your granddad`s grandson!" George gladly declared and took a small box from his pocket. "Professor told me to present you this – HM-05 Flash! You earned it."

"Awesome!" Douchebag grabbed the disk box and opened it to make sure disk is actually inside.

"Okay, I`ve sent the data from your PokeDex to our server." George closed Douchebag`s device and returned it back. "Now let`s check yours." He applied to me.

Well, here it is. The moment of shame. The worst thing is that Douchebag is right here, and he will make fun of me even more.

But I could do nothing but sigh heavily and give my device and licence to George. He took them and checked the IDs to make sure this device is actually mine. After that he gladly started to browse it. His face changed immediately when he found the number.

"Eight? Are you kidding me? What were you doing all this time?" He shouted.

"I had no time to scan each pokemon I catch. And had no time to catch each pokemon I meet…" I crossed my hands turned the head away. Douchebag already laughed behind me.

"But… eight? It`s not even ten! I can`t even give you HM Flash, man!"

Douchebag couldn`t stop laughing. At least, he isn`t interrupting us.

"You know what? I will now go outside and catch two new pokemon for you, okay?" I finished my hot coffee with one big sip, quickly grabbed the PokeDex from hands of shocked George and headed to the exit.

"We don`t have time for that!" George shouted to me.

"I`ll be in a minute! Douchebag, buy George one more coffee. I`ll pay."

I ran out of the building and found Bill waiting for me behind the corner, right where I left him. He was sitting on a bench and doing something with strange flat device in his hands.

"So, Bill, what`s next?" I disturbed him.

"Oh, great! Give me your PokeDex!" He took away the device he was working on. I handed over my PokeDex and sat near Bill. "Great, I always wanted to do something like this!"

"What exactly are you doing?"

But he didn`t answer me. He looked at me with a cunning smile and then took his own PokeDex and opened it. A couple of minutes he was doing something in two devices, causing button to glow sometimes.

"Is that a friend of yours?" He suddenly asked.

"Douchebag? Well… It depends on the fact whether you can call your friend Douchebag. We just know each other from the very childhood."

"I think, Misty told me about him. He was in your gang?"

"Yeah. One of our crazy gang…"

And finally my PokeDex made a beeping sound stating something.

"Done!" Bill closed my device and returned to me.

"What did you do?"

"I hacked the device and copied all my PokeDex data into yours."

This unexpected gift made my eyes go really wide. I opened my device and checked the list of entries – a number 109 was written here, not 8. So many new pictures appeared here, so many new species… A strange feeling appeared inside me, telling me to read them all, and I barely kept myself from it and closed my PokeDex.

"Wow, thanks a lot!"

"It`s nothing. Just imagine the face he will make now…"

"Yeah, I imagine… Their faces… Thank you so much, Bill!" I quickly got up and turned back, but Bill grabbed my shoulder and stopped.

"Wait a second… Take this." He also gave me the device he was working on before. This thing looked like a tablet, but just the right side was the screen - the left side was covered with metal and had a large hole in it. Nearly… a diameter of pokeball.

"What is this?" I cautiously took the device and looked it around. From the right side I noticed the small slot that looked like… a drive. For disks!

"This is the TM Case I told you about. You insert pokeball in this hole, and then insert a disk in this drive. The data stores inside the device and then you can easily control which move to learn and which move to forget. When your pokemon accidentally tries to learn something new by itself, the process is similar."

I was still very shocked by this sudden generosity. For some time I was staring at the gifted device and then looked up at Bill.

"The scanner I stole for you must cost a lot of money…"

Bill nodded with understanding.

"I also exchanged our PokeDex IDs. You can call me if you need anything… Or I can call, right?"

"Wait a second, can this thing be tracked? If yes, my paranoid part of personality will just crush it on place, seriously!"

"Relax, professor Oak has his own radio channel that only PokeDex users can connect to. This isn`t even a satellite connection, so your paranoid part of personality shouldn't worry about it. Believe me, mine doesn`t."

I looked at the PokeDex again and then hid it in my greatcoat. The TM Case went there too.

"I will believe your word, Bill. Thanks for everything."

"It`s a pleasure. I`ll give you a call when I deal with the records on the scanner. See ya, tell me their reaction later!"

He waved and then gave me his hand. I shook it and let him go back the hill, where he called to Ramos with his whistle and flew away. I watched over him a bit more until he completely disappeared in the sky.

I hope Douchebag and George didn`t wait for me for too long. I quickly returned back to the hotel and, to my relief, found them still behind the same table, drinking coffee and talking about something. I would really like to know whether Douchebag actually bought him coffee as I ordered or not.

"…so, now everything`s fine. We wanted to replace it anyway." George was talking to Douchebag when I approached them.

"So, gentlemen, did I miss anything?" I asked sitting down the chair.

"Ha, you always miss everything. George told me about MEE-Three." Douchebag smirked before taking another sip from cup.

"Oh, MEE-Three? I remember him. How is he?"

"Alive and well. Froze the door outside from the lab one day and burned it the next day." George quickly explained to me.

"Wow. Fire AND ice-type moves? Cool. Professor has an explanation to this, right?"

"No, not yet. The experiment is still going on, but now we just observe the subject. Test its capabilities and try to make a theory… But that doesn`t matter! You have wasted so much of my time, what did you bring now?"

"Here." I handed him over the PokeDex and licence. George mistrustfully opened the device and checked the list… Until his eyes go really, really wide. He quickly checked the owner of licence again and then checked the owner of PokeDex. It was the same guy. That means – me. George tried to find out the catch, but found nothing. Douchebag noticed the strange behavior of Oak`s aide and looked over his shoulder into my PokeDex.

"Are you crazy?" He shouted surprisingly. "How did you… Where did you?"

George couldn`t say anything. Yes, this is exactly the reaction Bill would like to see. These two were shocked and speechless.

"Doesn`t matter." I addressed to the zonked George. "Do your thing and give me that Flash of yours."

He looked up at me with an opened mouth, but then closed it and started to connect my PokeDex to their server. Douchebag stepped back to think it through. It doesn`t matter if they will later find out the cheating – I don`t care. Right now I keep my Dumpling safe, and also get a new move to use.

"Okay. Take this HM too." George gave me a small disk box, the same he gave to Douchebag. "The move Flash makes your pokemon shine so brightly it can even blind the opponent and lower his accuracy in battle. And outside the battle you can use your pokemon like a flash light."

"Thanks, George." I put the HM in my pocket, to other disks, and PokeDex. With my pockets full of disks and devices I felt myself a bit more advanced that all usual trainers.

"Screw all this, I`m outta here!" Douchebag waved at me and left the building. George got up from his chair and grabbed all the bags nearby.

"Well, I have to go too. Too bad the third trainer didn`t come. Professor won`t like it." And he headed to the exit too, leaving me alone in the café. I didn`t want to stay here too and so went outside.

This is really strange. Judging by what I`ve heard before, professor Oak knows Leaf well. He would definitely call her to the check, if he called me and Douchebag. Something definitely happened to her… Could this be connected to the events on the ship?

Hope not. Because if it is – I`ll never forgive me for leaving her alone. Maybe she is suspicious, strange and even dangerous to me – she is just a girl after all.

I noticed that Douchebag didn`t leave - he was standing near his car, waiting for someone. When I approached, he raised his head, like 'someone' is me.

"So, loser, heading out to Lavender town now?" He suddenly asked.

"Yeah, so what?"

Douchebag silently sat on the driver`s seat.

"Get in." He shortly said.

"Ha-ha, what?" This time he managed to surprise me.

"Do you want to get to Lavender town or not?"

"I do, but…"

"Then shut up and get in!" He raised his voice annoyed.

This is a very rare opportunity to see something like this, definitely didn`t expect this from HIM. And the weirdness of this situation was so… attractive. I just couldn`t resist the temptation, and so I didn`t… I jumped into his car, and we moved on.