Ash stomped her foot as she watched the Abra Teleport at the last second and her Poke Ball uselessly hit the ground it had been sitting on. She walked forward and picked it up, glaring at the Abra in the new spot it had appeared in. The Psychic- type stared back at her, but seemed to mostly just look past her with its small squinted eyes as its tail swished back and forth behind it.
"You know," said a voice from behind her, "it might be easier if you used a status move on it first."
Ash turned to see Ryan Oak standing with her in the tall grass on Route 6. There were plenty of different species of Pokemon to catch here, and Ash was almost done catching them all, but she knew Ryan was only here for one reason.
"You think I hadn't thought of that already?" Ash said, "They read minds, they know when I'm going to throw a Poke Ball, they know when I'm going to try and put them to sleep before I do it. They always know, even when they're asleep."
Ryan shrugged.
"If you can't catch one, then maybe you're not cut out for this Trainer stuff," he said.
"I'm not a Trainer," Ash grumbled, "and if you're so much better, why don't you try then?"
"I have a better idea," Ryan said, "you put it to sleep, and I'll catch it."
"And give you one of the best Pokemon that can be found in this region?" Ash scoffed, "Why should I? That Pokemon could Teleport me anywhere I want once I train it myself."
"I'll let you borrow it," Ryan offered, "call me whenever you want and I'll come get you."
Ash crossed her arms and shook her head at him.
"I know why you're doing this," she said, "you just want it so you can use it to beat Josh."
"I don't need any help beating him."
"Maybe not him," Ash said, looking away, "but sooner or later the day will come when there's someone you can't beat. Not on your own."
"As if!" Ryan laughed, "I've got two Badges and I haven't lost a single battle. So we doing this, or what?"
For a moment, Ash said nothing. But finally, she called her Jigglypuff.
"Go from behind," she instructed, "and cover your ears. If you fall asleep, I'm leaving you here."
Ryan smirked and readied an empty Poke Ball, walking around the Abra in a wide circle, making sure to keep his distance. As insufferable as he was, Ash suspected his plan might just work. Abras were notoriously hard to corner, but surely there were limits to their telepathy. If it focused on one person's mind and not the other, would it not be able to sense the other one's plan? Time to find out.
Ash gave the order, and Haigha began to sing its tune. The Abra stared at Ash and her Pokemon, tilted its head slightly, and Ash could feel the Abra peering into her mind. It was a strange feeling. It felt almost as though a separate train of thought was in her head, like a memory that was only half-remembered suddenly coming to the forefront of her mind. Except Ash was acutely aware that someone else had put it there. An invisible hand flipping through the pages of her mind.
But Ash concentrated on only one thought. Her own hand flipping the pages back to where she wanted them. A memory from years ago. Ash, sitting on an adjustable stool set as high as it will go, her feet dangling below. Her fingers moving nervously across black and white keys. Her eyes darting from the pages in front of her and to her hands below her. Ash recited the notes in her mind: D, A, F-sharp, D, E, F-sharp, G, F-sharp, E, F-sharp, D…
Sure enough, the Abra's head lulled, its eyes drooped, its tail froze, and it fell over gently into the grass. Ryan wasted no time, nailing the Abra on the back with an expertly thrown Poke Ball. Ash silently thanked her three years of piano lessons for not being a complete waste as she walked forward.
Ash and Ryan met at the Poke Ball, which hadn't even twitched before it clicked shut.
"What are you going to name this one?" she asked.
"Apollo," Ryan said as he picked up his newest member, "he's going to be a beast."
"Just remember our deal. Whenever I call, you better show up."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ryan said with a wave of his hand, "I always get what I want. So I guess I can help you out when you hit your next brick wall, Ashley."
Ash glared daggers into Ryan. She had corrected him every time he called her that name since the day that they had met, and she knew that he only kept saying it to annoy her. For a moment, she imagined Ryan trying to face those two Rocket Grunts from Mt. Moon; then she imagined Ryan trying to face her Nidoking, Lory. But she shook her head. She was here for research, not trying to prove who's better, like Josh and Ryan were constantly trying to do every day.
"You know," Ash said, "your Abra's not going to be a beast until he evolves, right?"
"What?"
"Teleport is the only move Abras learn," Ash said with a smile, "so have fun training a Pokemon that can't attack."
Ash grinned as she turned and ran away, her limp from Mt. Moon now just a minor twinge in her leg, and listened to Ryan yell after her.
#
The next few days blurred into each other. Josh spent his time training, and nothing else. There was no news on the break-in in Cerulean and thus no change in Misty's pause on Gym challenges. Josh battled on Nugget Bridge, battled wild Pokemon, fished dozens of Magikarp with his cheap fishing rod, and tried in vain to wash the dirt and grass out of his clothes. Every morning that the sun blasted his eyes, he wished for the hat he had lost on Route 1 back.
The mysterious move that Pan had used against Vulcan was Poison Powder, as it turned out. Josh was again stunned by how much useful information the Pokedex had. Bulbasaur could learn both Poison Powder and Sleep Powder — and Josh exactly which move he was going to have Pan focus on. Poison takes time to work, but immediately putting a Pokemon out of commission in one shot is too good to pass up.
It was only once Josh ventured further into Route 25 that he came upon the lighthouse and the Sea Cottage. Josh remembered Professor Oak telling him about Bill; an expert on Pokemon, computers, underwater sounds, and who knows what else. It was past sundown by the time Josh reached the Cottage, expecting nothing more than a casual conversation and perhaps a somewhat boring lecture not unlike his visits to Professor Oak — until Josh saw the lights to the Cottage flickering like something out of a horror movie.
Josh looked around. There was no one else out here, certainly not this late at night. Josh approached the Cottage carefully, Poke Ball at the ready in his hand, and watched as the lights continued to flicker erratically.
Josh knocked on the door, but there was no response. Josh could hear mechanical whirring and some kind of electrical hiss if he pressed his ear to the door. Josh called forth Ares, his Mankey, sincerely hoping to be wrong, and ordered it to Mega Punch through the door.
The Fighting-type burst through the door in one punch and jumped inside, followed by Josh. The inside of the Cottage was large, but felt small as it was filled to the brim with computers, bookshelves, and massive machines. In particular, there was a pair of what looked like giant furnaces that were connected by a horizontal tube, with sparks of electricity shooting back and forth between them. In front of the machines, was a large brown rock.
Except the rock started to move, it whirled around in place, and lifted itself up, revealing a black underside dotted with two massive red circles — and worst of all, four massive, curled spikes. The Pokemon was huge, easily taller than Josh himself.
Josh screamed, his Mankey hooted and lunged forward, and the black and brown Pokemon screamed in response, and crawled out of the way.
"Ares, hit it! Get it out of here!"
"No! Stop it! I'm not a Pokemon!"
Josh frantically looked around, barely aware of his Mankey tearing up the furniture as it tried in vain to hunt down the strange Pokemon, but it skittered across the floor and kept finding new places to hide behind.
"Who said that? Where are you?!" Josh said.
"It's me! Stop attacking me!"
"Ares, return," Josh said.
The brown Pokemon peeked out from behind a couch. "Listen to me very carefully…"
Josh rubbed his eyes and looked again. That was indeed where the voice was coming from.
"I am not a Pokemon," the Pokemon said.
"What do you mean, what else could you be? And how can you talk?"
The red dots in its face narrowed. "What do you mean, 'how can I talk?'"
"Pokemon can't talk."
"I'll have you know several Pokemon can talk. Many Flying-types are known to mimic human speech. Not to mention mature Psychic-types, which can communicate telepathically. And there are Ghost-types, which have been known to write in diaries and loose papers when given the chance, and—"
"If so many Pokemon can talk, how is that supposed to convince me you're not a Pokemon?"
"Oh," the Pokemon said, eyes widening at its own mistake, "I hadn't considered that. I suppose that does work against my own case… Well, I should clarify then."
The Pokemon crawled out from behind the couch. Josh took an involuntary step back.
"When I say that I am not a Pokemon," it began, "what I should have said is that I am currently trapped in the body of a Pokemon. I'm a person, you see. My name is Bill Hastings, Pokemaniac and researcher."
"You're Bill?!" Josh said incredulously. The Pokemon's eyes furrowed.
"Don't act so surprised," it said, "if anyone could put themselves in this position, it would be me. I was on the cusp of a tremendous advancement in my research, before I hit this little snag."
"You turned yourself into a Pokemon, and you call it 'a little snag'?" Josh said.
"I invented the PC Storage System, you know," it said.
"I know, Professor Oak told me," Josh said.
"You know Sam?" it said, eyes widening, "Wait, then maybe you can help me. How much experience do you have with computer programming and genetic modification?"
"Um, none?" Josh said.
"Well, that's disappointing," the Pokemon said, "Sam told me about his latest research project. I have to say, I wasn't too optimistic. No offense, but Sam puts far too much value in Pokemon Trainers and the entire research field of Human-Pokemon relationships. It's all subjective, in my opinion. One can hardly make any real headway towards hard science in a field that inherently demands one to be personally involved."
"You definitely sound the way the Professor said you would," Josh murmured.
"Of course I do, I'm Bill!"
"I believe you," Josh said, "but I don't know anything about all this science stuff you're talking about. I should call someone…"
Josh reached into his bag and looked for his phone.
"Yes, yes, just as well," the Pokemon said, "if you call Sam he should be able to get me out of this form. I never realized Kabuto would have so many nerve-endings on these appendages — it's a wonder they can walk, hunt, and feed when these things are so sensitive."
"Wait, you're a Kabuto?" Josh said.
"Well, of course I am," it said, "I'll grant you, one of them ever being this large is extremely unlikely, given the fossils that we have studied, but I believe my size is a side-effect of my attempt at long-wave teleportation. My machine successfully transports all matter that is input; the output, of course, is a bit undesirable."
"So you made yourself into a human-sized Kabuto?"
The Pokemon sighed. "If you must twist my words so, yes. That is what I did."
"Wait a minute," Josh said, "my friend gave me a Kabuto fossil from Pewter City, would that help?"
"Well, of course it would!" the Kabuto said, actually jumping from excitement.
Josh unzipped his backpack and pulled out the massive rock he had been carrying for the past week.
"I can't believe it," the Kabuto said, "that is a perfect Kabuto fossil you're carrying around in that bag of yours. This is exactly what I need!"
Now that Josh had a live one in front of him, he could see that it was indeed a Kabuto fossil he was holding. The rock had an usual dome shape protruding from one side, with two small indentations on the top — the nostrils, Bill pointed out. Josh suppressed the urge to ask how it feels to have your nostrils above your eyes and simply did as Bill instructed. He chipped off a small piece of the fossil with a scalpel and some tweezers, put it under a microscope, and booted up the PC next to it. Then he walked to the large machine on the left, put the fossil inside, and shut the door. Then he went to the machine on the left and typed the lines of code as Bill instructed into the terminal.
"I do hate to do this to such a perfectly preserved fossil," the Kabuto said, "but I'm afraid this may not work at all if I don't have enough genetic material. I can't exactly afford to make the same mistake twice, in this state."
"Wait, so if you're wrong, I could make it worse?" Josh asked.
"There's really no need to worry about that."
"I feel like maybe you should sign something before I do this to you."
The Kabuto glared at Josh and crawled into the machine.
"Very funny," it said, "just press 'Y' and then 'enter' and let the program run."
Josh did so. The door to the chamber the Kabuto was in shut, and the machines whirred to life. Again, the lights in the cottage flickered wildly as the machines worked and lightning shot back and forth between them. Josh shielded his eyes, wondering what could possibly happen if Bill was wrong again, until the machines finally quieted and the lights went back to normal.
The door to the machine opened, and a man in a blue shirt, silver tie, and jeans walked out. He inspected himself, then smiled and threw open his arms.
"There we are," he said, "a perfectly unremarkable human, at your service."
"Wow," Josh said, "you were right."
"Of course I was right. Once I understood my mistake, it was easy to reverse-engineer the solution."
"So, if we can teleport Pokemon, why can't we teleport people?"
"Well, as my latest ordeal has exemplified, converting Pokemon from physical matter to computer data and vice-versa is a technology we have perfected over the years," Bill said casually, as he strolled across the Cottage and shut down all the machines. "But doing the same to human beings is a very different matter. Not to mention, there are certain ethical quandaries to consider before even attempting to make that kind of technology widely available. Hence why I was experimenting on myself."
"I still don't understand anything you're saying," Josh said.
"No matter," Bill said with a smile, "any friend of Sam's is a friend of mine. And since you quite literally saved my hide, I am eternally grateful to you. Which leads me to this."
Bill opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a Poke Ball, then handed it to Josh.
"This is my favorite Pokemon, an Eevee, I want you—"
"You're giving me an Eevee?!" Josh gaped.
"… to have it," Bill trailed, "yes. I am giving you an Eevee. I'm a bit of a collector, you see. They're wonderful as research subjects — but don't misunderstand, I do enjoy their company. They have very friendly dispositions, by nature."
"These are supposed to be super rare," Josh said, "and super expensive, right?"
"Indeed, they are," Bill said, "they're difficult to breed and have extraordinarily unique DNA, being both highly unstable but remarkably versatile. I've been researching them for years, and there's still much we don't understand about their life cycle."
Josh held the Poke Ball in his hand and twisted the top of the Poke Ball with his other hand. The top half of the Poke Ball turned transparent, and Josh could see the Eevee — or rather, a tiny projection of it — inside. He was curled up, with his head resting on his fluffy tail, sound asleep.
"Thank you so much!" Josh said.
"A small token of my gratitude," Bill said with a wave of his hand, "If you like, you can also have this."
Bill handed Josh a slip of paper. The words "S.S. ANNE" were written on it, along with a date, and the silhouette of a massive ship.
"A ticket to the S.S. Anne," Bill said, "it's a luxury cruise ship that sails all over the world, and anchoring in Vermilion City. I get tickets every year, but sea travel and social gatherings are two things I have no taste for."
"Oh," Josh said, "um, thanks."
"Not your thing either? Just as well, but you should know that the S.S. Anne is also a very popular spot for amateur Pokemon tournaments, especially among Trainers belonging to the richer crowd."
"Oh, that's awesome!" Josh said.
"Yes, I thought you might like that bit," Bill said with a smile, "I have to say, Sam really knows how to pick you Trainers."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, as I said before, I thought Sam's 'Pokedex' scheme was a little harebrained when he told me about it. But if all three of you Trainers are as optimistic and eager to help as you, I think it has a good chance of turning into something of value."
"You sure talk a lot," Josh said, "but thanks."