Shadows and Ash Chapter 15: Bill, a pokémon fanfic

Chapter 15, everybody! In which we have some fun referencing movies and Bill's garden and his appearance in the games rather than the show….I also reference a Nuzlocke which in turn referenced an apparently crummy Pokémon game port, but since it's been a while, I have no idea what the name of either one is. :\

"Everyone say 'push the button!'" comes from one of my Marketing professors, who was really good for zippy-peppy one-liners—my notebook from that class is filled with his quips. Also of note is one of my other Marketing teachers, who was much better at dry sarcastic humor—"Those girls should not play tennis."

Yami-chan and Unrealistic, thanks for the review! Ah, thank you—I love him too. :) Thank you, glad you like it—and thank you for liking the public service announcements! I have a lot of fun writing those. Glad you like them too—nothing like a little intrigue….Well then, I hope to continue to please! :D

Chermayne, thanks for the review! Thank you, glad you liked it! :D

Pokeevee57, thanks for the review! Hopefully this one pleases just as well. :D

Dunkaccino, thanks for the review! I've been there—it's always nice to find that you like a story, and I'm glad you like mine! :D

Pokémon Trainer Chaos, thanks for the review! Yes, this is true….Well, if you feel better, some of the other bullying trainers will be getting their just desserts, so….And I do have something a bit dastardly planned later for the Cerulean Sisters. ;)

Harmonious Wolf, thanks for the review! Yes, those bits are what really stick out in my memory about those girls—no wonder Misty left.

Thor94, thanks for the review! Just a bit—maybe Gary got the Red version, and the ones Ash faced are the backup trainers….Eh, go with scary. Don't worry, we'll be smartening Ash up, and I think the only time he'd do something like that would be to prove a point (although what that point is, I have no idea). Oh, we'll be getting to them later…revenge is a dish best served cold, don't you know….

Prototron MJ Tornada, thanks for the review! Yes, it will, and maybe. Uh….As I recall, it was actually called Pokémon: The First Movie…oh wait, now I remember the subtitle: Mewtwo Strikes Back. There you go. :)

XT3100, thanks for the review! I do too—I have a lot of fun writing it. :D

Vismur, thanks for the review! Yes…and yes, and oh yes indeedy. Oh yes—nothing says back off like big scary Legendary with nightmare powers. :D Ooh, Darkrai hugs….Darkrai: "No." Me too…and that should be in…two chapters, I would think, unless I decide the pacing needs fixing again. Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! :D

Luktopius, thanks for the reviews! Ironically, I'm writing a section for this story that would have that fit in perfectly—thanks for the suggestion. :D And yes, they've rubbed off on each other….

Ardtornismyname, thanks for the review! Thank you, I'm glad you like it! Most likely—just as soon as I find where I wrote that down in my document scraps….

Hunter Redflame, thanks for the review! Yes, here we are. Don't worry, he'll learn it eventually. Um, yes—poor tertiary one-shot characters. Maybe he'll make another appearance. Yes…and yes, this is true. Thank you! I shall strive to continue to please! :D

Pokémon © Game Freak; Nintendo

And now, for something completely different:

Now showing in theaters—The Flygon. Starring Vincent Brycen, Jeff Gold, and Vanessa Carnet, and telling the horrifying tale of science gone wrong! A brilliant scientist experimenting with a transportation device for Pokémon ends up fused with one! Will he be able to return to normal, or will he be forced to live as the horror he's slowly becoming? Get your tickets now for this classic movie's return to theaters! Brought to you by Fangdango—where the sight of a Raticate is a good thing!

The trainers did Lenny and Frenzy good, but after a while, Ash had to switch to Pikachu and Patches—Lenny, at the very least, was getting tired.

Frenzy had even boggled Darkrai, who had snapped his claws in front of Frenzy's face before repeating what Nurse Joy had said about that being "normal behavior for a Paras."

That had bugged Ash a little, but he shrugged it off. Nurse Joy may have been a professional, but Darkrai was a Pokémon—he would know about normal Pokémon behavior.

They had reached the end of the route, where one of the trainers had said a guy named Bill lived—apparently, he had a lot of rare Pokémon, and loved showing them off. Perfect for filling out the Pokédex. Darkrai appeared at Ash's side again as Ash left the last of the trainers behind and walked past a mailbox stuffed full of mail, up a weedy path through an overgrown yard, and to the house where Bill supposedly lived.

Ash knocked on the door, stepped back, waited. Knocked again.

Nothing.

"When this kid mentioned this Bill character, did he mention if he was still alive?" Darkrai asked, looking around.

"Maybe he's on vacation," Ash noised, looking at the pile of newspapers on the front stoop. A Pidgey dropped down, deposited another newspaper, and flew off.

Darkrai made a dismissive noise and flipped over the welcome mat.

"What are you doing?" Ash asked.

"Oh look at this—a key. And so conveniently placed."

"That's breaking and entering."

"Only if you break something."

Now it was Ash's turn to make the dismissive noise. He tried the door.

It opened without the key.

"Oh…kay…." Ash noised. Then, louder, "Hello?"

Darkrai glanced around before drifting in.

"Darkrai, what are you doing?" Ash hissed.

"Being nosy—what does it look like?" Darkrai asked.

Ash sighed before following him in, slipping slightly on the papers scattered everywhere.

It was a well-lit, cluttered room with drawn curtains, with boxes stacked on boxes stacked on books and a lot of electronic junk scattered about and lining the walls. The approximate center—where Ash and Darkrai were now standing—was probably the cleanest area, with a dusting of papers.

"Needs 'Merry Mimes,'" Darkrai observed.

"Definitely," Ash agreed.

"Hello!"

They both looked down sharply at the new voice—a Clefairy was standing in front of them.

"I thought we were rid of those things," Darkrai moaned. "They're a curse, I swear."

"Uh, did that one just talk?" Ash asked, pointing. "As in English?"

"Yeah!" the Clefairy said. "My name's Bill—I own this house."

"The trainer told you to meet a Pokémon?" Darkrai asked.

"Pokémon can own houses?" Ash asked, equally confused.

"No!" the Clefairy named Bill said, hopping up and down. "I'm human—honest! It's just—I was experimenting with a new upgrade to the Poké-transfer system—that's the system that you use when you have more than six Pokémon and have to 'box' one—and I got trapped and spliced with one of my Pokémon!"

"Sounds like that Vincent Brycen movie," Darkrai observed.

"Wait—you got turned into a Pokémon?" Ash asked.

"Slow, isn't he?" Bill asked Darkrai.

"You have no idea," Darkrai said, nodding sagely.

Ash, meanwhile, was too busy pointing excitedly at Bill and practically yelling at Darkrai. "See? See? My life goal of being a Pokémon doesn't sound so silly now, does it?"

"You missed the part where this was an accident."

"Anyway," Bill interposed, waving frantically. "If one of you would be a pal—wait until I get back in the transfer device and then hit F7—that should reverse it and allow me to get back to normal."

"Why didn't you do it yourself?"

"There's not a delayed reaction to it—"

"Then how did it happen the first time?"

"Must you be difficult?"

"It's my favorite hobby."

"I've got it," Ash said, standing by the keyboard. "It's this, right?"

"Yes, perfect," Bill said, hopping into an open metal closet. "I don't suppose you could close the do—"

Darkrai slammed it in his face.

"That's mean," Ash observed.

"I have an aversion to pink," Darkrai explained. "How about we leave him in there and get out of here?"

"Hey, we've got to help," Ash argued. "Ready? 'Everybody say push the button!'"

"'Push the button,'" Darkrai repeated dully. Pikachu said something with more zeal.

Ash pushed the button.

"It was F7, right?" Ash asked.

"You'd better hope so at this point."

There was a ding, like that of an oven, and then knocking from the metal closet.

"Hello?" Bill asked. "Letting me out would be nice!"

Ash went over and opened the door when it was clear that Darkrai wasn't going to do so.

A man with unruly orange hair stepped out.

"Oh thank goodness—no more pink," the man who must have been Bill declared, patting himself down. "I'm telling you, it was starting to get really freaky—I spent all last night standing in the moonlight doing absolutely nothing—I didn't like it." He shivered. "So! How can I ever repay you?"

"For pushing a button?" Ash asked blankly.

"It was more than I was able to do—I know! How about I give you a Pokémon? Two of my Eeveeloutions had an egg that hatched recently—"

"Hey, that's why I came! Some kid said you had a lot of cool Pokémon that you liked to show off."

"Sure! Right over here." Bill led him to a back door and opened it. "See? There's Vaporeon, and Flareon, and Jolteon—there's Umbreon and Espeon—they're from Johto—that's a Leafeon—they're native to Sinnoh, but a friend of mine sent me one—and that's Glaceon—they're also from Sinnoh—and that's Sylveon—one of those new Fairy types—from Kalos—and that's a Haxorus from Unova—it's a shiny—that's just a regular Pikachu there, but it fell into a vat of dye at a factory and now everyone thinks it's some alternate evolution—that there's a Dragonite—"

"How come some of these aren't showing up?" Ash asked, hitting his Pokédex again.

"Don't do that with the tech—it'll work when you baby it."

"I'll baby it when it works."

"Some of them won't show up unless you have the National Pokédex—you just have the Kanto Regional one, don't you?"

"I don't know—I just started last week—"

"Then it's definitely just Regional. Oh! Here," Bill said, going to a shelf filled with Pokéballs and selecting one. "I told you I'd give you one—this is an Eevee—now you've seen the whole Eevee set!"

"Awesome!" Ash said, looking into the translucent red top—there was a little brown fox-like Pokémon looking up at him.

"And here," Bill said, picking up a few slips of paper. "I got tickets to the party cruise the S.S. Anne is hosting in a few weeks, but I don't care much for boats—you can have this."

"Wow, thanks!" Ash exclaimed, accepting the tickets and examining them.

Bill, meanwhile, was examining Darkrai, who in turn was examining the metal closets. "Say, what kind of Pokémon is that, anyway? I know it's not native to Kanto."

Ash looked over. "That's Darkrai—he's a friend of mine."

"Darkrai?" Bill repeated, looking pensive. "Say, I think I may have heard of him—he's part of the Lunar Duo over in Sinnoh—"

"What happened to the Clefairy?" Darkrai asked suddenly.

"Huh?"

Darkrai pointed. "You got fused with a Clefairy, right? So when you got un-fused, shouldn't the Clefairy have been in this one?"

Bill looked concerned as he went over and opened the second metal closet. "Huh."

"Wow," Ash noised. "It is like the Brycen movie."

"I'd feel a lot better if I hadn't seen that movie," Bill muttered.

"So how do we check to make sure that didn't happen?"

"I don't know—I could run some tests—"

"I could hit you with a Dark-type move and see if it's ineffective," Darkrai offered.

"I'd rather you didn't, thanks."

"Hey, you could use a move," Ash suggested. "Then we can see if it works or not."

Bill considered this before wagging his fingers back and forth.

They stood still for a few moments.

"And that was?" Darkrai asked.

"It was supposed to be Metronome," Bill said, frowning slightly. "I guess I'm safe…."

"Or it turned into Splash," Ash suggested.

"I suppose that's a possibility too."

Darkrai tapped Ash's shoulder. "We should go," he said in an undertone.

"Why?" Ash asked.

"Don't you have a previous engagement?"

"Huh?"

Then it registered. "Aah! What time is it?" Ash asked frantically.

"Uh, it's…nearly noon," Bill said, glancing at a wall clock. "Don't you have a watch?"

"I've got to go—thanks!" Ash called, bolting for the door.

"Don't mention it!" Bill called after him.

"We won't," Darkrai muttered, following.

Bill gave it some consideration before trying again.

"I'm being silly," he muttered, waggling his fingers.

"Hold it," Darkrai chided, catching Ash by the collar before he tripped over a rock. "It's not like she's going to battle you with your party exhausted—it's poor form, or some other bunk like that."

"True," Ash said, unshouldering his backpack. "I think I have some Oran cakes in here—"

"You have what?"

"Oran cakes—Brock made them," Ash explained, holding one out. "Here, try one."

Darkrai examined the flat blue cake. "It looks like dried Oran berries squashed together."

"I think that might be what they are."

"Brilliant, Holmes," Darkrai said, taking a nibble.

Ash tried very hard not to laugh at his expression.

"Let me guess: they're good."

"Passable," Darkrai countered, tucking it into his collar for later. "So who's the new kid?"

"Oh!" Ash checked his Pokédex. "Eevee, male, has the Ability Run Away, Level 7, and knows Tackle, Tail Whip, and Helping Hand."

"Peh."

"Oh, right—'don't be so dependent on others.'"

"He listens—that's scary."

"Hey, you give me grief if I don—"

Bill's house exploded.

They froze; did a slow turn.

"I guess he tried Metronome again," Ash said finally.

"Let's just walk away," Darkrai suggested slowly, prodding Ash and redirecting him. "And pretend that this never happened. We must never speak of this again."