Disclaimer: I do not own nor am I affiliated with Pokémon or any of its parent companies. I am merely a humble storyteller. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this journey with me.

Note: I am English, so some of the wording, spellings, and expressions will be those commonly used in England.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Leaf's Strange Day

Leaf's Baltoy spun slowly on its tilt, scuffed, but still ready to go. The Mankey it was battling, a shaggy simian Fighting-type Pokémon, whose fur was white, whose hands and feet were brown, whose tail was long, whose ears were triangular, and whose eyes were red, glared at it. It looked more worse for wear than Baltoy, incredibly so. The Mankey's Trainer, a boy who introduced himself as Yoshiharu, appeared lost and out of options.

"Fury Swipes!" he said, no doubt hoping a frenzy of slashes would do more than a single Scratch.

But it could not get close, not when Baltoy could use a technique called Psybeam. It stopped rotating and fired a purple beam of physically manifested mental energy from a circular pattern on its body. It was too much for Mankey to take and the battle was handed to Leaf.

Leaf walked over to him and received her winnings and some words she knew he was going to say before he even opened his mouth:

"I did my best. I have no regrets."

"I'm sure you don't," Leaf said, leaving Yoshiharu to run off, perhaps to heal his Mankey, much as the other Trainers she had previously vanquished did. Four other Trainers to be exact. A bunch of Trainers who appeared to be part of battle quintet who she had to battle to win a 'fabulous prize', whatever the heck that was. Truthfully, the fabulous prize was an intriguing prospect, and it was not as though she had another way of getting to Cerulean Cape. But she could have gone without the constant run of battles, but hey, what were you going to do?

Leaf frowned. But where was her prize? She had beaten the five Nugget Bridge Trainers. Maybe it was at the end of the bridge? Yes, that had to be it.

Lo and behold, as she came to the end of Nugget Bridge there stood a man, dressed in a long black coat with slicked back hair. He grinned at her. Eevee's hackles bristled.

"Hey, you got to the end. Congratulations!" he said, his grin widening.

"That's right," Leaf said.

"Looks like you beat all the contest Trainers," the man went on. "You must be good. Well, you've just earned this fabulous prize." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a hunk of something, a something that Leaf realised a second later was gold.

"Here you are," the man said. "Your prize: a Nugget."

"A Nugget?" Leaf said, not wanting to take it. This was too good to be true. For beating five Trainers, an act she had no desire to do, she gets a precious metal? This could not possibly be the fabulous prize.

"This is the prize," the man said, reading her face (and the fact she said 'A Nugget?'). "This is called Nugget Bridge for a reason, not just because the bridge is painted gold." He smiled good-naturedly. "Go on. It's useless, but you can sell it for five grand."

"Er… okay," Leaf said, accepting the Nugget. She weighed the heavy thing in her hand for a few seconds. It was just a hunk of gold. Nothing more. Not a weapon, a mind-controlling device, nor was it a Pokémon disguised as a random item.

She stowed it away in her rucksack. Eevee eyed the man charily.

"Thank you," Leaf said courteously.

"That's all right," the man said. He wagged a finger at her. "You know what? You have got some serious skills. You must have to have taken out the Trainers here."

"Thanks," Leaf said uncertainly. "Er… I don't actually like battling to be perfectly honest."

"That doesn't matter," the man said. "It's fun to be battle as a bit of recreation, and that's great. But a true Trainer doesn't need to like battling, only be good at it so they can get through life. Or achieve great success."

Great success? Leaf eyed him questioningly.

"That's right," the man said, nodding his head as though he had stated something quite deep. "Great success. And it's doesn't have to be your own success." The man wiggled his eyebrows at Leaf; she grimaced back. "Great success can come by helping others, like an organisation that is the greatest the world has ever seen."

Eevee growled at the man. Uneasiness spread throughout Leaf like a rampant disease.

"Now," the man said, his eyes boring into hers. "I'm going to give you an offer you can't refuse: would you like to join Team Rocket?"

Immediately, Leaf's throat tightened and the rampant disease that was running through her body became life-threatening. "Sorry?"

"Team Rocket," the man repeated, opening his coat to reveal a red 'R' underneath. "We're a group dedicated to evil using Pokémon! I'm actually what we called a recruiter. So, want to join?"

Leaf backed away. "Of course not!" she exclaimed.

Eevee barked the same thing.

The recruiter sighed. "Are you sure?"

"I am! I'll never join Team Rocket!"

The recruiter took a step closer to Leaf. "Come on, join us."

Leaf took another step back. "I said no! Get it through your thick skull!"

The recruiter advanced further. "I'm telling you to join," he said, the faux kindness in his voice gone, now lower, crueller.

"Get away from me," Leaf snarled, taking out a Poké Ball. A growl deep from within Eevee's throat once more reverberated through the air.

Looking from Leaf's face to Eevee to the Poké Ball, the recruiter sighed again. "Okay, you need convincing. I don't think you'll be in any position to refuse after I knock all your Pokémon out."

From the sleeves of his coat rolled out two Poké Balls. The recruiter then walked several metres away and swivelled around to face Leaf again. The next moment, two familiar Pokémon appeared, and Leaf was transported back to Mt. Moon, lost, scared, virtually defeated, only miles and miles of cavern and stone for her to wander through.

The Zubat flapped its wings nineteen to the dozen; Koffing floated aimlessly, its permanent cheerful visage contrasting with the skull and crossbones on its body.

Wait! This recruiter was using two Pokémon at once! Was this called a double battle? Of course, Red would know more about that than her, but it was safe to say this was what it was. Fine, she would oblige and send out a second Pokémon to partner Eevee.

And that partner was Spearow, the perfect answer to the aerial threat of Zubat.

"Strong-looking Pokémon you have there," the Rocket recruiter said. "You and they will definitely help Team Rocket in our endeavours."

Now, what one would expect next is a fantastic duel of a plucky girl who believed in all that was good against a man who had fallen off the right path and openly admitted that what he was a part of was evil. This would be a battle where good would struggle and eventually overwhelm and defeat evil, relying on trust and the power of friendship.

That sounds absolutely fascinating, doesn't it?

However, it was not quite as elegant as that.

The Rocket recruiter, being a head-hunter of sorts, did not possess the most powerful of Pokémon because his true strength was his persuasive abilities. Why would one need to battle to get someone to join the glorious Team Rocket? All he needed were his words.

All in all, this means Leaf enjoyed a comprehensive victory over the recruiter. Spearow took out Zubat with little difficulty, enduring only a single Bite attack and retaliating with Fury Attack, striking the blue bat with its beak, talons, and wings, before finishing it off with Peck, a mere jab with Spearow's beak.

But Eevee was where it was at. Sizzly Slide was still a no-go, but Bouncy Bubble and Buzzy Buzz were more than enough to take down Koffing, a Koffing that could not compare to Proton's. Different elemental powers with their own amazing added effects coming from this cute, fluffy Pokémon, techniques precious few knew about, only served to ensure that Leaf's Eevee, at this moment, was on its way to being quite a remarkable member of its species.

The two Poison-types fell and were quickly recalled to their Poké Balls, the Rocket recruiter's face impassive. Leaf braced herself for him to attempt something else, like another hidden Pokémon or, maybe, even a weapon.

He did not such thing. Instead, he merely shook his head, as much as a parent would do to their children when they were displeased by their actions. "Ah, you are good. I've got no one else left." He ran a hand through his now less than slicked back hair. "That's disappointing. With your ability, you could become a top leader within Team Rocket's ranks."

Leaf did not dignify his praise and acceptance of defeat with a reply. She simply scowled at him, Spearow on her shoulder and Eevee by her feet, both ready to step forth to battle again if they had to.

The Rocket recruiter started to stride down the bridge, to Cerulean. But before he left, he had one more thing to say: "I'd be wary if I was you. It's not wise to turn down Team Rocket."

And then he was gone, walking further and further down the bridge until Leaf could not see him anymore, only his chilling air remaining with her.

Eevee bounded into her arms and Spearow rubbed its head against her cheek, waiting for the vicious cold to disappear.

o~o~o~o~o

Now, a battle against a Team Rocket would be more than enough adventure for one day, wouldn't you say? Especially when the Trainer who had the battle was someone who had had two experiences with them already, the second worse than the first. After something like that, one would expect Leaf to either pause her trek to Cerulean Cape and head back to the city or carry on and visit the Pokémon Storage System developer Bill, where she could then relax and forget about the battle against the Rocket recruiter.

It sounded so nice and simple, didn't it?

And that was jolly well how it should have gone. After scaling Route Twenty-Five, a mountainous path where she had to squeeze past tightly huddled together trees and ignore the various Hikers, children, and lovey-dovey couples on their own way to Cerulean Cape, she found herself at the top.

Oh, how marvellous it was to reach Cerulean Cape! She breathed in deeply the salty sea air, the waves crashing against the cliffs and the cries of the wild Water-type Pokémon formed an aquatic symphony that delighted her ears, and the sun shared its love, its heat neither too hot nor non-existent and frigid.

Eevee stretched and yawned, her tail wagging as she shared her Trainer's contentment.

However, it was sullied with the slightest regret as she wished Red had come with her, which then vanished completely when she spied a couple doing grown-up things on a bridge which ran from one side of a pond to the other.

"Er… let's go find Bill, Eevee," she said, and the duo rushed off to find Bill's cottage.

Well, they did not exactly rush off. They were about to, they were really were, but what was the point in rushing when the destination was not even forty metres away? Leaf and Eevee shared sheepish grins and walked up to the cottage, which had an ornately designed sign that proclaimed 'Welcome to Sea Cottage!'. In smaller writing underneath it said 'Bill's House'.

It was larger than cottages tend to be, with stone walls, a thatched roof, and a chimney free of smoke.

A knock on the door.

No answer.

Another knock on the door.

No answer again.

A third knock on the door.

Guess what? Yeah, no answer.

Leaf peered through one of the windows. Nothing.

It was strange. Maybe Bill had gone somewhere, ushered away from his cottage by the calls of his mistress, science?

But hadn't Blue just come from here? He had encouraged her (and Red) to head to Bill's cottage and had said nothing about Bill having to go off anywhere. Or was it a prank? Did Blue know and thought it would be funny to send them to Sea Cottage knowing no one was going to be there? Granted, she had already decided to head to Cerulean Cape anyway, but that would be a really dismal thing for Blue to do.

Or maybe Bill had gone for a walk? And who would not want to explore the cape, have a little walk about? Yes, she would wait for him on his doorstep for an hour or so. She could spare that time. But how about one more knock first? Just to make sure.

She knocked a fourth time, but still no one spoke… wait! What was that?

Leaf pressed her ear against the door and listened. Eevee sniffed the bottom of the door and whined.

There was a sound coming from inside. A shuffling. A growling. The cottage was not empty! Was that Bill inside? If it was, why was he not speaking? Was he hurt? Was he sick? Did something befall him in the time between Blue's departure and her arrival?

Or… had something broken it and… and…

She sharpened her ears. Moaning. Yes, that was definitely someone moaning.

There was no other choice, was there? Someone was potentially in trouble and it was her duty as a human to help. It was time to enter Sea Cottage.

Leaf turned the doorknob, and the door swing open, already unlocked.

"Be ready for anything, Eevee," she muttered to her Pokémon. Eevee replied with an affirmative yip. They crossed the threshold.

They wandered into the living room, filled with comfy-looking armchairs, an empty fireplace, bookcases chock-a-block with the beautiful houses of the written word, and a table covered with many stacks of official-looking papers and files.

Leaf and Eevee ignored it all and wandered further into the cottage.

The hair stood up on the back of Leaf's neck and the sound of shuffling seemed to come from all areas of the cottage. It obviously was not, but it did leave Leaf more unnerved than she already was. She clutched Bulbasaur's Poké Ball.

Really, Sea Cottage was all its name said it was; a cottage by the sea with a rather Galarian aesthetic. Nothing more, nothing less.

That was until…

"Whoa! Look at this place!" Leaf exclaimed, causing Eevee to jump and frown at her.

And what caused Leaf to react like that, forgetting the probable danger they were in?

Well, it was the new room they found, a room at the end of a hallway. It was a very science-centric sort of room, something that reminded Leaf of the sci-fi films she, Red, and Blue used to watch growing up. There were two machines, each three metres high, attached by a thick, cylindrical pipe, emitting a constant whirring sound. The machines each had a door with blacked out windows and red wires also connected them from the top.

"What is this?" she wondered aloud. "It kind of reminds me of the machine they used in that movie where that guy fused with that Ninjask."

"You're more correct than you know."

Leaf bristled. She swung around, to either confront or comfort the speaker…

… but instead found herself facing a Pokémon.

"Nidorino?" she said. The purple, quadruped dinosaur Pokémon blinked up at her. She looked around for the person who spoke. "Excuse me," she said. "The person who spoke. Where are you? Is this your Nidorino?"

"That's a bit of a yes and no question."

Leaf rubbed her eyes. She pursed her lips. She tilted her head to one side. Now, call her crazy, but it did seem like it was the Nidorino who spoke. But that was not possible, was it? The hidden person must have spoken and Nidorino's mouth moved at the same time. A coincidence Yes, that was it. That was a perfectly reasonable explanation for –

"Are you okay?" the Nidorino said.

Passing out was a good option for Leaf. However, intrigue quickly and drastically overwhelmed the fear and bemusement. "How… how are you talking, Nidorino?" she asked. "I've never heard of anything like this." Leaf's face brightened. "Come to think of it, this is actually amazing! You must be a super rare kind of new Pokémon!"

The Nidorino shook his head. "I'm not a Pokémon. You can call me Bill. I'm a true blue PokéManiac!"

Leaf raised her eyebrows and gave him an 'understanding' look.

"Hey! What's with that sceptical look? I'm not joshing you!"

"Sure, you're not," Leaf said, sharing a grimace with Eevee.

"I'm not! I'm telling you!" Nidorino said indignantly. "I screwed up an experiment and combined with my Nidorino! I've been like this a few hours now and I'm rather not fond of not having opposable thumbs. So, how about it? Help me out! I won't be able to get back to my original body otherwise!"

"Er…" Leaf said.

"What's 'er…?'" Nidorino asked.

"Even if I was to believe you're Bill and not a Pokémon that somehow learned how to speak humanese – which seems more likely – what on earth can I do? I wouldn't know the first thing how to help you. How about I call for someone who knows what they're doing? You must have contacts."

"That'll take too long," Nidorino said. "I don't know what will happen if I stay fused too long with Nidorino. What if it ends up being irreversible if too much time passes? Now don't be cold. You gotta help a guy in deep, deep trouble! What do you say… er…"

"Leaf."

"What do you say, Leaf? Please?"

Leaf mulled it over for several seconds before sighing. "Okay. As long as you tell me what to do so I don't screw up."

Nidorino's eyes lit up. "Okay? Thank you ever so much. You don't need to worry; it won't be difficult, and the system's still operational on my PC."

Nidorino was positively giddy with delight, his step having an extra bounce as he danced over to the machines. "All right, wait till I get inside the teleporter. When I do, go to my PC and run the Cell Separation System."

"Er…"

"Go on the tab at the top of the screen, click 'teleport 1', and you'll get a list. At the bottom of the list is something that says 'emergency fixes'. Click on that and you'll see it. Have you got that?"

"Y-yeah."

"Great! All right, I'm heading in now."

Nidorino marched up to the door.

He paused.

He scratched at the door.

He turned around sheepishly to Leaf. "Um, could you open the door for me, please?"

Leaf obliged and soon they were in position to try and fix this fascinating and inane problem. Oh, how this whole event was very much like that Ninjask movie.

Buttons were pressed, the machines hissed and whirred, and the entire cottage seemed to shake. The whole process probably took no more than two minutes, but those two minutes lasted half a day to Leaf, the din causing her head to split and her ears to pulse.

Then it was over. Silence. Leaf waited with bated breath. Had they done it? Was the reversal successful? Or was the Nidorino-Bill just a pile of goo on the teleporter floor? Leaf's stomach turned at the visceral image her mind teased her with.

The first machine's door slid open with a hiss, but what came out of it was not Nidorino. No, instead of the dinosaur-like Pokémon out came a man in his mid-twenties, dressed in slightly tattered and burnt clothes, his wavy brown hair damp with sweat, his eyes unfocused, his face contorted in pain. He chuckled. "Well, I kept my clothes," he said. "Didn't think that would happen when turning back into a human." He let out a few hacking coughs and smiled at Leaf. "Word of wise, don't transform into or assimilate with a Pokémon. It's not as fun as you'd expect."

"Duly noted," Leaf said, a part of her wondering if this was a dream.

"I wonder if Nidorino is faring worse than I am…" Bill trailed off. His eyes widened. "Nidorino!" he shouted and darted to the second machine. He slid the door open and out came a Nidorino, wobbly, eyes unblinking, his normally purple skin faded to an almost pink hue.

"Nidorino, are you all right?" Bill asked, wrapping his arms around his Pokémon and nuzzling his face into Nidorino's.

Nidorino gave Bill a weak lick and nothing more.

"It's all right, Nidorino," Bill said. "I'm sorry you got involved in that. You can take a nice, long rest, okay? I assume you'll feel a bit poorly for a few days, but you should fully recover. I'll monitor your health just in case, all right?"

Nidorino gave Bill another lick, curled up, and went to sleep.

Leaf could afford to breathe a sigh of relief, but questions still needed answering. "Bill," she said. "How did this even happen in the first place?"

"Er…" Bill straightened up and sucked in his lips, as though what he was going to say was rather foolish. "You see, I've been experimenting with teleportation part time. Yes, I know, teleportation pads do exist, but I was hoping to refine them. I've even been studying the genetic structure of Pokémon that can use the move Teleport to see if that could help me."

Bill rubbed the back of his head. "I wanted to know if two beings could use each machine at the same time instead of waiting for them to be vacant like with the teleportation pads, to save even more time, you see, so I brought my Nidorino along for the ride. There was this boy staying with me, Blue was his name, and I made the offer to him, but he left rather hastily when I did." He frowned. "Hmm, I wonder if it would've gone differently with two humans instead? Or a human and a humanoid Pokémon like a Machamp? Or just two Pokémon? Intriguing."

"Er… yes. Intriguing," Leaf said.

"Oh, sorry," Bill said. "Kind of lost myself there. Anyway, thank you so much for saving Nidorino and I. I don't want to imagine what might've happened if you didn't show up."

"That's fine," Leaf said. "I'm glad I was around. I actually wasn't going to go to Cerulean Cape in the first place. Lucky I did."

"Lucky indeed," Bill concurred. His eyes drifted upon Eevee. "That's one mighty fine Eevee you've got there. You can tell just from looking at her that you're doing a good job training her. I would know; Eevee is probably my favourite Pokémon ever!"

"Really?" Leaf said. "How come?"

"Eevee's the only known Pokémon that can evolve into many different forms," Bill said. "You can look at that and say it has the greatest potential variety out of all Pokémon ever. Think about it: if you wanted a Fire-type, you could evolve your Eevee into a Flareon with a Fire Stone; if you wanted the Fairy-type Sylveon then you build trust with Eevee and teach it a Fairy-type move; or if you wanted a Dark-type in Umbreon then you build your friendship with it or use ex-treme-ly rare items such as a Moon Shard or a Lunar Ribbon. Eevee have all these paths laid out in front of them, can become whomever they want to be."

Bill grinned. "It's like with us humans when you think about it. When we're young, like you, we can be anything we want, we have a huge path laying out wide in front of us with many others branching out from it, leading to all these potential goals and desires. Eevee reminds me of that. There are so many things we can look forwards to and grow towards. I suppose the only difference is that Pokémon evolution is irreversible, so at least humans have the option of changing our minds."

Eevee's tail fell between her legs, appearing increasingly downcast the more Bill spoke.

But the gears in Leaf's brain were working wildly. Potential? Goals? What was hers? Her goal right now was to complete the Pokédex, yes. But what was it beyond that? Uncovering ancient Pokémon? Searching for Legendary Pokémon? Of course, those were goals too. Hadn't she already made great strides by having two Fossils in her possession? That was amazing! How many others could say that? She was even helping out a scientist working in the field! It was a dream come true!

But…

Would this sustain her forever? She had never considered it before, but would this be something she could devote the rest of her life to? Was it just a hobby to her? Did she want to make a living out of it when she was grown up? And what about Legendary Pokémon? Research was research, but would it even be possible to encounter them? They were Legendary for a reason.

But…

It was as Bill said. She was young. She still had a lot of paths to choose from, and she could always backtrack and take a new one. There was no reason to worry. Even if she older, what difference would it make? It was never too late if one had the drive to work towards any goal. She would find the right paths to take. One day.

She picked up her disheartened Eevee and hugged her close to her chest. "Bill."

"Yes?"

"Can I stay here for a bit? I want to learn from you. Besides, that boy Blue – he's from Pallet Town like me – said he did just that. He also said you showed him a lot of rare Pokémon and –"

Bill's eyes widened. "Are you doing the Pokédex quest too?"

"I am."

"Well then, who am I to refuse?" Bill said, smiling. "Especially after you rescued me. This will kind of be like having my little sister over." His smile widened. "Oh, you're going to enjoy the Pokémon I've got. Eevee will too."

And thus began Leaf's stay with the PokéManiac Bill, where she hoped to gather more knowledge about the world of Pokémon and fill some pages of her Pokédex.

A great end to such a strange day.