Disclaimer: I don't own anything Pokémon. (Save for original characters, such as Zigurat Alpha.) And just to clear a few things up. Yes, many ideas come from Quantum Leap. I had recently learned the basics of the show without actually seeing a full episode (Go me!), but because of this lack of seeing an episode, I may not get the feel or approach the show had. This is a good thing, because this isn't supposed to be a parody or a crossover. It's supposed to be a fic which stands by itself and just has many ideas coming from Quantum Leap. If this makes no sense, I'm writing this at night. So sue me. (Well, that was a bad choice of words...)

Foreword: Because Fanfiction.net is evil (but I still want to post a few good fics, just to keep my account active so I don't lose it and therefore lose what few of my favorite fics still up and which haven't been deleted thanks to their damn posting rules), instead of coming straight out and telling you there's author's notes, I've added in footnotes to give you comments, background information, or more information to clear up confusing points. The system is pretty simple. If you see a number somewhere in the body of the fanfiction (no pun intended) between a pair of asterisks (*), scroll down to the bottom of the fanfiction and find the note with the matching number to see what I have to say.

And now, without further ado...

*gets her fanfiction deleted by Fanfiction.net for violating the "no author's notes" law* Aww, craters...

***
Episode 01--
Alpha

Not too long from the time we can call present, a little boy sat in front of a computer, entertained by the image of a little girl he had programmed to be the perfect friend. Human in personality, ever-loyal, and aging at the same rate as a human would so that she could be his companion for as long as he lived and not become a childish burden. He made her live in his computer, ready to keep him company whenever he wanted to play a game or have someone to talk to. (She had been the only one to do so, for his older sister didn't want anything to do with him, his younger sister was too young to play with, and all of the other children saw him as an outcast and refused to let him join in their games.)

Often, the boy's mother would look into his room and find him on the computer, playing with the little girl. She grew worried at this sight. Worried that perhaps there was something seriously wrong with her only son.

"Sweetie, why don't you go outside and play like your older sister?" she asked lightly as she entered the room.

"No one outside will play with me," he replied solemnly.

"Then why don't you join your sister? She has friends, some of which have little brothers your age," she told him.

"They don't want to play with me," he answered.

"Then why don't you try making other friends?" she inquired. "There are other children around the city. Maybe one is just like you."

"But I have a friend like that right here," he said before pointing to the screen at the little girl. "Her name is Zigurat. I call her Ziggy."*1*

The mother looked at the computer screen, then at her little boy. She took him by the hand and took him outside.

"Please make at least one friend," his mother pleaded. "Just one..."

"But Ziggy--" he began.

His mother gently pushed him forward into open air and closed the door, separating her on the inside of the house from her son on the outside. She watched as the boy trembled and walked away. A little boy from next door immedately ran to him, spoke with him, and grabbed him by the wrist, leading him away. *2* At this sight, the mother smiled and went back through her home.

She passed by the open door. The computer screen still glowed. She approached this, looking at the happy little girl dancing in a box on the screen.

"Hi! Will you play with me?" Ziggy asked cheerfully.

The mother smiled and shook her head before shutting off the computer.

~~~

Since then, the little boy had learned to live without the little girl in his computer, eventually causing him to forget about her and allowing her program to be long forgotten in the recesses of a hard drive.

And now, in the present (which is not our own but sometime in the future after the first Pokémon rose from the craters of the Moon Stones), the boy, now a young man, walked through the small town he chose to live by, partially aware to his surrounding happenings as he read a novel on his way home. In the hand which didn't hold the novel up, a plastic bag was held, containing only tofu, tea, instant soup, and various other easy-to-make edible products which he would use as something resembling a meal during the time that his cook took a week's vacation to spend one summer week with her family on a trip to Hawaii. He didn't mind being alone while she was away; it's just that he couldn't cook, even if his life depended on it (which it kinda does at this point, but you get the message).

With his thumb, he turned the page in his book just as he heard someone call out, "Afternoon, Bill!"*3*

Upon hearing his name, he gave them a charming smile and a small greeting before walking on, soon out of civilization, then to his home, which he had chosen to make in a lighthouse. It was isolated, quiet, and peaceful, a small place which he had found when he was a young trainer.

He took a deep breath of cold, salty air emitting from the waves which lapped upon the beach. His eyes gazed out to sea, to the afternoon sun in its kingdom of cerulean sky. Everything was perfect, even his own life. Even if he had no real companions or maidens to pine for, he was happy with how everything was for him, and he wouldn't change a single detail, neither in past nor present nor future.

He approached the door to his home, unlocked it, and pushed it open. He had found the lighthouse standing upon the spot he had found, though it wasn't quite as homey as it was at that moment. It had been run down and abandoned for years, ever since the town with the local port for which it had served burned to the ground, port and all, save for that isolated building. It had taken him a few years to fix it up after he bought it, possibly because it was a side project alongside his career in which he wrote papers about Pokémon or invented devices to help their trainers.

Devices...

He quickly put away his week's worth of groceries and hurried down to the cellar.

There it stood, his newest invention, almost completely finished and appearing as a large, metal tube from which wires poked out like hair.

He placed a hand on the cool metal before picking up a screwdriver and getting to work.

Hours passed without his knowing as wires were pushed or pulled into place, crossing and connecting to various places all over the machine and onto the backs of button panels which were then attached to the device. Eventually, he fixed a door onto it and stepped back. Just about complete.

He found a single wire not connected to anything electrical and hooked it up to his computer. Briefly afterwards, he gazed up at a clock he had put onto the wall to remind him how much time he had spent in the cellar.

Eight forty-five. The sun had already set.

After glancing at his computer in disappointment, he quickly dashed upstairs to turn on the beacon in the lighthouse tower. It had no real purpose (save for calling out to an ancient marine Pokémon which had evaded his PokéDex and which had come only twice before); no vessels ever passed that far north, save for a few fishing ships from the town just a bit south, though long ago the sea which the tower looked out on had once been alive with war ships, fishing vessels, and merchant's ships before the town burned down and left no port for which the the great wooden ducks could dock.

He reached the control room on the upper floor, at the base of the tower and activated the light. The lantern swung around, casting its light out to the darkened waters. He listened closely for the eerie call of the ancient Pokémon he had waited for.

The sea responded instead, crashing her cold, silk gown onto the rocks.

Seeing no sign of that which he had waited for, Bill retreated into the interior of the lighthouse for the night.

~~~

He had brewed a cup of tea for himself, sat down in the silent dining room, and continued reading the novel which he had carried in the afternoon. It was a favorite of his, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. He had read this particular story quite a bit, and yet he never grew tired of it or any others by Wells or Verne.

He took another sip of tea as his eyes drifted away from the novel page and in the direction of the cellar door. He set down his cup on the table, staring that way.

'I'm so close... Should I save the rest for tomorrow?' he asked himself mentally.

He looked up at a clock on the wall. Two before ten. His eyes drifted back down to the page, and he took another sip of tea. Again, it didn't take him long for his mind to wander back down to the cellar again.

"Oh, for Heaven's sake!"

He closed his book and set it on the table before returning his cup to the kitchen. Forgetting about the book for a bit, he went down into the cellar to finish what he'd started. He booted up his computer and immediately afterwards got to work.

~~~

It took him well into the earliest hours of the following day to complete the program. He sat back and sighed before smiling in a sense of victory. He looked at the clock on the wall and frowned.

"3:57 AM," he muttered before relaxing his expression and shrugging. "I'm sure I can fit in a quick test before calling it a night..."

He stood and approached a table nearby. On it, atop a pile of papers, sat a PokéBall. Inside of it was a Ditto, his usual guinea pig. (Refered to by a lighter label, of course.) He picked up this ball, set it inside the machine, and went to his computer. After setting time and coordinates, he activated the machine.

In a fantastic display of light and sound, the ball... did absolutely nothing. A laser came down as it usually would in a Pokémon transport system, but it only lasted for a few seconds before fizzling out.

"Hmm..." Bill cancelled the operation and went to it for a bit of manual troubleshooting. "Perhaps I put in a weak wire..."

He leaned in to take the PokéBall out of the machine just as he stumbled and struck his head against the back metal of the inside of the tube. He slumped down to the floor of the device as the PokéBall rolled out of his hand and across the cellar floor. The blow caused the machine to flicker to life, and the beam came down and bathed his unconscious face.

"Warning!" a mechanical voice announced from his computer. "Error 1217: DNA pattern not recognized! Warning! Error 892: Malfunction! Warning!"

The voice died. On the computer monitor, the cursor moved about the screen, activating several programs until it reached one specific program. A voice responded.

"Ziggy Alpha is online!"

~~~

Bill groaned and opened his eyes. He found himself on the floor of a rather plain-looking room, obviously belonging to a young girl. The carpeting was pink, and the bedsheets were as well. Stuffed animals huddled in a corner beside a white bureau. A table with a simple tea set sat on the side of the room, and above this, there was a Hello Jigglypuff poster.*4*

'Where am I...?'

He sat up to find that most of his joints were stiff, and it wasn't because of an awkward sleeping position (though that wouldn't be unlikely, having slept on a red pillow in a wicker basket for the rest of the night). It was because...

He looked at his hands in shock. They were short, stubby, and light green with a small, white hoof on both. His legs, as he then noticed, were the same way. One former hand drifted up to his neck and found beads encircling it, and as he let his hand drift further up, he found a round head, a lack of a nose, and a large leaf sticking out of the top of his head.

He let out a yelp and covered his mouth before letting his hands drift down to his throat. His voice was gone, having been replaced by a loud, shrill, "Chika!"

{What happened to me!?}*5*

There was some yelling outside the room. A man and a woman were arguing, yelling at each other at the top of their lungs.

"Stop it!" screamed a woman. "Not in front of Abbie!"

"Yeah? Well, there's a LOT of things YOU shouldn't have done in front of Abbie," the man yelled in response.

The door opened. A little girl of about five or six in a pink, short-sleeved sundress walked in and shut the door. Her whitish-blonde pigtails caressed her rosy cheeks, as did the ends of the long, pink ribbons which tied them. Her bright, blue eyes watered as she went to Bill and hugged his neck.

{Um... Miss?} He tried to address her.

"I hate it when Mommy and Daddy fight," she said to him. "Strawberry, can you play with me until I feel better?"

{Miss, I'm not--} Bill began.

"Thanks, Strawberry!" the little girl interrupted, misunderstanding Bill completely. "I know! We can play tea party for awhile!"

The little girl let go of him and went over to a toy box beside the table with the tea set on it. From it, she withdrew two hats, a pink, straw hat with fabric flowers going around the center part, and a sky blue one with a piece of purple material where the fabric flowers were on the pink hat. She put the pink hat on her head and placed the sky blue one on Bill's.

{Oh boy...} He sighed to himself.

~~~

A half an hour after the two began to play "tea party" (It seemed as if Bill really didn't have any other choice.), Abbie's mother knocked on her door and poked her head in.

"Abbie? Sarie's here," she said.

"Oh boy!" Abbie took off her hat as well as Bill's and put them back in the toy box. "Can I go and play?"

Abbie's mother nodded.

Abbie smiled and turned to Bill. "Strawberry, do you wanna come too?"

Bill paused for a moment before remembering that he was Strawberry. He nodded, figuring it was better than staying cooped up in the little girl's room, and followed.

Just before he and Abbie left, Abbie's father was heard in another room.

"You stupid bitch!"

"Stop it!" cried her mother.

Bill looked over his shoulder and felt a strong sense of sympathy toward Abbie.

~~~

Abbie and her red-headed friend, Sarie, were playing in a playground in the middle of a park as they were watched by Sarie's mother. Bill managed to slip away to go for a walk and think things through. As he broke away among a large amount of trees, away from human eyes, he sighed and looked down at his hands, which were then his forelegs.

{What happened to me...?} he asked himself over and over again.

All he could remember was falling into his latest invention the night before. Did he die and end up being reincarnated into a Chikorita? If that were true, then why did Abbie seem as if she knew him for longer than his current life as "Strawberry"? And why could he remember everything from his past life, rather everything from his current one?

He sat down and lifted a hoof to his head, holding his head as it swam with confusion.

"Oh! There you are!"

Bill jumped up and whirled around. Behind him, he saw a girl no older than he was, dressed in a sleeveless, pale blue, knee-length dress with a V-shaped, pink collar (on the vertex of which was a gold star), pale blue gloves that reached just past her elbows and which lacked fingers and a small, rectangular patch of pale blue material on the back of her hand, and pale blue, thigh-high boots. On the front of the boots (near the top edge) and on the tops of the gloves, on the sides away from her body, were pink jewels which matched the one fixed on the wide, gold belt around her waist, the one on the pale-blue choker around her neck, and the ones imbedded in gold on her round earrings. She floated in mid air as her thin legs crossed and her right elbow sat in her lap so that her right arm stood at a ninety degree angle from her leg. The hand (with its long, oval-shaped, pink nails) attached to this arm held her slightly tanned chin as she smiled at him jovially. Her violet-blue, bobbed hair caressed her round cheeks and hid her earrings, and from under her purplish-blue bangs, her emerald eyes shone at Bill.

"Do you know how hard it is to find you? Of course, not for me, but you get the idea," she said.

{Find me?} Bill blinked in confusion.

"No, find the Magikarp behind you," she replied sarcastically. "Yes, you!"

{You... You can understand me?} he inquired.

"Sorry, Bill. I'm not a psychologist," she answered. "If I were, then that would only be a maybe."

{I meant you can understand me verbally!} Bill growled, insulted at the girl's mockery of his psychological health. {I'm a Pokémon, and you're a human, yet you can understand me!}

"Ouch. Wrong in two ways." The girl's eyelids lowered until her green eyes were half closed. "I'm not human, and you're not a Pokémon."

Bill didn't even know where to begin questioning this.

"I guess I should start from the beginning, with my introduction," she said. "I'm Zigurat Alpha, known to more intimate friends, which means basically anyone who knows me depending on how you look at it, as Ziggy. You remember me, don't you?"

{Ziggy Alpha...} Bill tried to recall the name, but nothing came to mind.

Ziggy sighed and lowered until she knelt down in front of him and looked him in the eye. "You programmed me."

{Ziggy... Ziggy!?} Bill gasped. {I remember now! I was seven years old, still a bit of an outcast to everyone else, and therefore a bit lonely. To solve that problem, I created a program called Ziggy Alpha to allow my computer to speak with me and be my companion. After awhile, I stopped needing it, so I stopped using it, and I eventually forgot about it. If I can recall correctly, Ziggy Alpha used amateur-class programming commands and had quite a lot of bugs to be worked out, though it still worked nonetheless...}

"Amateur programming!?" Ziggy stood and put her hands on her hips. "Bugs!? Hey, buddy! That's my makeup you're talking about!!"

{Sorry.} Bill smirked. {So, go on. What's going on?}

"Ah! You see..." Ziggy began, "When you stumbled into the Time Capsule Beta*6* by accident, you could say that your body had absorbed some of its programming. So, there will be times when... Your mind crosses over into a Pokémon's body somewhere else in the present. Oh, but don't worry! It's not permanent! See, many of the Pokémon you cross into have owners, and many of those owners or people surrounding them are calling for help. You'll be their guardian angel. In their favorite Pokémon's body, your job is to find and save those who need you. It'll be a tough job because no one can understand you, which means you'll have to find another way of warning them of things to come, and some cases will simply be a bit puzzling. That's where I come in. See, I knew you were in trouble, so I activated myself and reprogrammed myself to appear as a humanoid hologram to your eyes only. I'll provide information and advice for you when I can, and if you need someone to talk you, just remember I'm the only one who can understand you during your time on a case. Just be careful. You're also the only one who can see and hear me, which may cause a bit of trouble for your host."

{So, when will I go back to my own body?} Bill cautiously asked.

"When you're done with a case, you'll travel back to your own body to wait for a new case," Ziggy replied. "And speaking about cases, in this one, that girl, Abbie, is about to get kidnapped. Your job is to bring her home."

{What if I fail this mission?}

Ziggy shrugged. "I don't know. You might be stuck in Strawberry's body forever."

{You mean you can't take me back!?} Bill trembled with fear.

"Ah..." Ziggy closed her eyes, clapped her hands together, and bowed her head until her nose almost touched her pink, oval nails. "No. See, I don't control your travelling."

{Who does?}

"Hey, I've been told a lot of things about your situation by an anonymous tipster, but this isn't one of them. However, whoever sent me the info might have hinted that in some weird, twisted way, you do. Look, I have to fly. Just find the kid you're supposed to look after. If you need me, just call my name. You know what it is. Ziggy, remember? Ciao!"

{Hey! Wait! I still have some questions!}

But before he could ask her anything, Ziggy disappeared.

{Oh, what have I gotten myself into...?}

~~~

He wandered back to the playground where Abbie was spending her time at. He was deep in thought, worried about what would happen if he failed this "case". Abbie spotted him and ran to him and hugged his neck.

"Strawberry! Don't run off! It makes me think you don't like me!"

Bill sighed and then looked up to see a rather ragged looking man sitting on a bench not far away. His clothes weren't tattered, but they still looked dirty, old, and about two sizes too small. His matted, black hair cascaded down the sides of his face from under a deep maroon ski cap. He hadn't shaved recently, and his yellow, cat-like eyes watched the children running around.

Bill recalled what Ziggy had told him. There was going to be a kidnapping. And that guy was just the obvious suspect for a child abduction, but Bill still reminded himself to not jump to conclusions. After all, maybe he was just a beggar or something.

The thin, ragged man stood stretched, and gazed at Abbie. He strode over to her, took out a lollipop, and knelt down to eye level with her.

"Hey, sweetie, do ya want this lollypop?" he asked her.

The old candy from strangers bit. Sign number one that you were about to get kidnapped. Bill made a mental note to stop doubting his hunches.

Abbie stared at it before replying, "Mommy says that I shouldn't take candy from strangers."

'Smart girl,' Bill thought.

A disappointed expression crossed the man's face. He then threw the lollypop aside and grabbed Abbie. She kicked the man and tried to scream, but he covered her mouth. Bill then tried the only thing that came to mind. He tried a Tackle on the figure's legs. The man kicked him into a bush and continued through the park.

No one seemed to notice him taking her away. They didn't even look up when Bill caught up with them and tried to bite the abductor's leg, causing the man to howl in pain and nearly drop Abbie. In retaliation, the man kicked Bill into a tree.

On impact, the Chikorita fell unconscious.

~~~

"Bill? Bill! This is no time to be sleeping on the job!"

{Wha-what?}

He opened his eyes and groaned. The sun had set, and the park was in total darkness, save for a few lamps set every so often along the pathway.

He groaned and held his head. {Ow... My head...}

"It won't be yours unless you don't finish this case!" Ziggy snapped.

He barely even noticed that she had been kneeling next to him the whole time, trying to shake his shoulder with one holographic hand.*7*

Blearily, he remembered what he was and why he was there. He gasped, forgetting the pain in his head.

{Oh! Abbie!}

Ziggy rolled her eyes. "Glad a certain someone remembered her."

{Ziggy, where is she?} Bill questioned.

"Can't tell you the coordinates, but directions will do," Ziggy said for no reason. "Exit the park going this way." She pointed to her left. "You should be in the middle of a town. Follow the main street, you'll know which one it is, as it's the widest street in town, until you come to a bunch of run-down apartment buildings. It should be the fifth tenament on the left, or in a building with an abandoned store whose front window reads 'Carter's Deli.'"

{Thanks, Ziggy!} Bill stood and began running toward Ziggy's left.

Ziggy stood as well. "Bill! Wait!"

He turned around to face her with an inquisitive expression.

"Don't play Lassie," she advised him. "It'll take too long just to get someone to understand you, and if you go back to Abbie's parents, they'll be too busy quarrelling on whose fault it was that Abbie disappeared. And be careful getting Abbie back. I've analyzed Strawberry's stats and level, and he isn't the strongest of Pokémon. So good luck."

He smiled at her and nodded. {Thanks, Ziggy.}

He and turned around, running toward the area Ziggy had directed him to as fast as he could. Ziggy stayed for awhile, watching him go.

"Be careful, Bill," Ziggy muttered softly before disappearing.

~~~

Bill tried not to be seen as he darted down the street. He could see menacing characters just outside of the light of the streetlamp, some having guns in their hands, others huddling with one or two others, exchanging money and various goods, sometimes even small, plastic bags.

This wasn't so much a town as it was a city, and whichever city he was in was obviously there for a long period of time and had probably experienced some sort of industrialization in the last Industrial Revolution, judging by the dark spots on the buildings, presumably caused by years of factory smog. Overall, this entire part of the city was run-down (the counterpart to the beautiful, modern part in which Abbie lived), and it was amazing that anyone lived in this half of it.

Not too far away, on the left, was a building with the words "Carter's Deli" painted on it in chipped, gold and red letters. The red brick walls that formed its outside were dirty and darkened through age and pollution, just like the other buildings were. Its interior appeared empty, much like so many other buildings around. Lastly, the glass in its door was completely broken off, save for a few pieces still attached to the metal frame.

Bill looked on the inside to see first if there were any shards of glass littering the dirty floor. In the areas where the light of the streetlamp threw its light onto the floor, no shards could be seen. Cautiously, he jumped over the bottom piece of metal and onto the dingy, brown and white tiled floor on the otherside.

There was nothing in the building. Absolutely nothing. Not even a counter behind which a shopkeeper stood to sell sandwiches and cold meats to hurried customers. Nothing.

Nothing except a closed door on the other side of the room. He approached this, stared at its knob for a bit, and used his Vine Whips to try to open it. The slender vines wrapped around the knob and twisted it, and the door opened with a click.

He pushed it open, only to find a set of stairs beyond it. Without a second thought, he climbed these, arriving on a second floor with another door.

Remaining silent, he flattened down on the floor and tried to listen for signs of life on the other side through the narrow crack between the bottom of the door and the wood floor. Nothing.

He straightened up and mounted a second staircase to the next floor to do the same thing with the only door on that floor. Finding nothing again, he went to the fourth and final floor.

Flat on the floor and listening carefully, he heard footsteps and a girl crying. Then voices.

"Yep! Once I get that ransom money, I'll have enough to live in style!" a male's voice exclaimed.

Bill reached up with Vine Whip again to open the door. Unfortunately, it was locked.

The man inside the room must have heard him try to open the door, because suddenly, a shot rang out, and a bullet came through the door a couple of feet above Bill's head. He remained still, listening to the inside.

"Damn. Must be hearin' things," the man muttered.

Abbie cried.

"Stop yer blubberin'!" ordered the man.

This only made Abbie cry harder.

With a growl and a sudden feeling of determination, Bill backed away from the door and sliced it to pieces with Razor Leaf. He ran in as the man fired several shots into the darkness.

"Chika!" he announced loudly to let Abbie know he was there.

"Strawberry!" Abbie cried happily.

Trying to remain in the darkness to keep the captor from seeing him, Bill darted around to behind Abbie and began chewing at the ropes that bound her.

A shot was heard, and a bullet grazed the leaf on top of Bill's head and shattered the window behind him, allowing the moonlight to completely poured in without being filtered by dust and dirt on the glass.

"Get off, yeh runt!" the man snapped as he aimed a bit lower.

Bill jumped onto Abbie's lap and then off, jumping at the abductor. The man tried to shoot at him again, but missed as Bill landed in front of the assailant and darted out of the way. The main kept trying to shoot, but the Chikorita remained one step ahead (literally). Finally, the gun simply clicked. No bullets remained, and the man had no others.

The man threw the gun to the side of the room and made a dive for Bill, but he jumped out of the way again and sprayed the man with Stun Spore.

As the man remained motionless on the floor to watch, Bill went back to Abbie and chewed threw the ropes, freeing her at last. The girl hugged him tightly and ran out the room, holding him as she fled out of the building and into the open air where she managed to find an Officer Jenny on the beat again.

~~~

Not long after Officer Jenny had been shown to Abbie's captor, and not long after other officers were called in to arrest the paralyzed man, Officer Jenny took Abbie and her Chikorita home, where, for once, Abbie's parents were in each other's arms. Abbie's mother was crying as her father stroked her hair, muttering comforting words to the middle-aged wife.

Officer Jenny took Abbie by the hand and led her to her parents, who burst out in cries of joy as they embraced their lost daughter.

"I only want what's best for Abbie," the mother had said to the father. "I was hoping you'd understand."

Her husband looked deep into the mother's eyes and replied, "All of our fighting is only hurting her, isn't it? Maybe I'll try to help out around the house more like you always nag me to do."

The mother smiled and put her chin on her daughter's blonde head. "I'm sorry, John."

"Same here, Maura," John replied before taking Abbie out of the embrace and picking her up.*8*

"I'm just glad she's safe and sound," Maura sighed.

"Same here," John added.

"Well, both of you are lucky your daughter has such a loyal Pokémon," Jenny said as she nodded to Bill. "According to Abbie, her little friend here followed her, attacked the kidnapper, and helped her get away. I think someone deserves a special thank you..."

Maura knelt down and patted Bill on the leaf. "Thank you, Strawberry."

"Thanks, Strawberry!" Abbie chimed in.

Bill nodded before a silver light flashed in his eyes. Then, all went black.

~~~

Bill groaned and opened his eyes. He found himself laying on his side on the floor of the cellar, very close to the Time Capsule Beta and Ditto's PokéBall. He turned on his back and stared at the ceiling for awhile before sitting up and looking at his hands to find that he was once again human.

He brought his right hand to his head and rubbed the area which had hit the back of the Time Capsule Beta. He glanced up to find the clock on the wall. Seven twenty-six in the morning.

"Was that all a dream?" he asked himself.

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?"

He jumped and turned sharply toward his computer. On the screen was Ziggy, sitting at an angle toward the left of the screen and with her legs crossed, her back slightly reclined, and her hands behind her head. Her green eyes were closed, and she wore a little smirk on her glossed lips.

"Ziggy...!" Bill exclaimed with a soft, surprised voice.

"Yup!" Ziggy opened one eye and smiled. "Get used to things like what you did yesterday. You're going to be doing that often. And be prepared for that too. Until you learn to control your new power, body hopping's going to be done randomly."

Bill groaned and fell backwards onto his back on the floor. He placed one hand on his forehead.

"Just what I need to hear," he muttered.

***

End episode one*9*

---
Footnotes:

*1*: This would be (spoiler!) Zigurat Alpha, aka Ziggy. Her real name comes from the default computer-player in a game of chess I had on an old computer before I got my laptop. (And by the way, Zigurat as in Zigurat Alpha is pronounced "ZIG-oo-raht," though I'm not sure if the default player's name was pronounced the same way.) As for her nickname, I named her after my laptop (who, ironically, I concider to be male), who in turn was named after Ziggy from Quantum Leap after I had come across her name in the Pokémon/Quantum Leap crossover by Jaxxon. So, in other words, Ziggy's about the only direct reference to QL I'll probably ever make. Probably. And don't stare at me like that. So what if I nicknamed my laptop!?

*2*: Remember this little boy. (Don't you just LOVE foreshadowing? XD)

*3*: This is the first time in a long time that I use English names. I have a habit of not finishing a fanfiction when I use the original name (either that or the fanfic turns out incredibly crappy), so I decided to use English names out of good luck. That and I didn't really have a Japanese name for Ziggy. ("Zigi" and "Zigii" are already taken. They're both alternate spellings for Jigii, otherwise known as Rudy, the Orange Island Gym Leader who bears the... Sea Ruby badge, wasn't it? It's been WAY too long since I've seen that episode... And it was one of the few GOOD Orange episodes too! ;_;)

*4*: I thought Jigglypuff was the closest thing to Hello Kitty. I didn't want to use Meowth because… Well, YOU try imagining a Sanario-style Meowth!!

*5*: Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that anytime you see words between { and }, whoever is speaking is saying something in the Pokémon language. (I'm aware that made no sense. Give me java, and there'll be a chance that I can clarify… ^_^;)

*6*: Ack! I never did mention that the device Bill was working on earlier was the upgrade to the Time Capsule, now did I? Sorry about that. ^_^; Anywho, yes. This is a concept I usually use whenever I write a fic that requires Bill to be working on an invention or machine of some sort. Basically, the Time Capsule Beta is an upgrade of the Time Capsule, allowing faster transport over a wider range of time/space. In this fanfiction, he was rewiring an older Time Capsule Alpha (the version we know of) so that it could handle the new programming.

*7*: I know this isn't possible, but that's the point. ^_^;

*8*: Originally, Bill was supposed to help keep the family together, but then I changed it to the mission you read about in this episode. The fighting, then, was never taken out and really had no purpose in the story, save to add emphasis to Abbie's return. ^_^;

*9*: Sorry this whole episode seemed so rushed. Warp Series is supposed to be fast-paced, just not out of hand. ^_^; Anywho, tune in some other week for episode two!