“Thank you so much for rescuing me and restoring my body! I shudder to think what might have happened if I was stuck in that pokemon’s body!” Bill wailed as he pumped my hand up and down.
“Ah, don’t mention it too much,” I replied evenly. “You’re sure you should be out and about like this so soon after your abduction?” I asked.
“Hmmm? Oh! Not to worry, I have a cadre of bodyguards now!” Bill proclaimed proudly as he gestured over his shoulder to the entrance where I found.
Huh, hadn’t they been the trainers who were looking after Gary last year?
“Oh, they’re quite good,” I offered. “I was considering hiring them for Yolanda’s journey but then she demonstrated that she knew what she was doing and that she was mostly going to stick with two of her friends the entire time.”
With Greta at her side I had no doubt she’d be safe. Greta was a fairly strong pokemon trainer these days. She’d be fine as long as they didn’t do something like split the party.
“Hmmmm, they did come highly recommended! By Samuel Oak no less!” chirped Bill. He glanced about. “Say, I don’t suppose you know where Sabrina is? I tried catching her by surprise at her Gym but the receptionist said she wasn’t there at the time? Any idea where I might catch her? I wanted to thank her,” He said only to gain a slightly flushed look. “I also wanted to apologise for… well, any thoughts that might have gotten lost in translation."
I gave him a flat look. I had little to no doubt that Sabrina hadn't misconstrued anything she’d picked up from whatever Bill had projected during his questioning.
“You realise…” I paused as Sabrina appeared behind him and shook her head quickly and crossed her arms.
Bill turned only for Sabrina to vanish in a Teleport before he could catch sight of her.
“Hmmm? What were you going to say?” he asked, turning back to me.
“Ah, that is to say, she might be filming or working at a charity event. She’s quite busy you know?”
“Hmmmmm, well I hope I can clear the air with her son enough.” He gave me a look. “It was for research purposes! I swear!”
Mentally, I could only think 'You protest your innocence far too much’, while verbally, I replied, “Of course, that makes perfect sense. Regardless, with Neo Team Rocket abducting you they must have also broken into your research on the transfer and storage system no?”
“Yes, that and my mind transference system!” Bill sighed, slumping slightly. “The project is being flagged and is likely to be benched, which was a shame as we had just reached testing and long term studies on its feasibility.”
“Well, it might be the worst setback, perhaps it can be retooled?” I suggested. Only for my thoughts to pause on the idea of Team Rocket using pokemon infiltrators. Shit, was that going to be a thing? That sounded bad. Although perhaps they hadn’t had the data for long?
Blaine had only had it for a little while before we’d broken into his base.
Something about that caused a flicker of concern in my stomach.
Bill, unmindful of my internal thoughts, clenched his fists and shot me an angry look, causing me to blink in surprise. What had I said to get that sort of response from him?
“I suppose it would make sense that you’re one of the people pushing for the system to be delayed or shut down, wouldn’t it? With your stables and—”
“Uhmmm, excuse me?” I asked, cutting him off at this sudden hostility.
Bill ran a hand through his hair and groaned. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I have had numerous parties slowing progress on the system since I first proposed it to the League. They want it to have a lot of bells and whistles such as pokemon care and open space along with safety features but right now the system is bare building blocks in coding terms while they are wanting a penthouse! I need to start testing before I can see what needs to be built upon, reinforced, and more. If I try for too much too soon I’m worried the system will collapse which will see it dead and buried before it can truly prove itself.”
He shook his head. “I’m worried that this dream of affordable storage for pokemon and a safe international trading system will be crushed and buried simply because of it being made at the wrong time.
“If I’d been building this up a decade or two ago no one might have questioned it in the least. These days however? Now that my address has been made public knowledge due to the newspapers, I don’t doubt I’ll have protestors outside my gates!”
I tilted my head. “Aren’t your gates almost three kilometres away from your house on the cape?” I asked, having seen a picture of it during the police report. Also, newspapers? I doubted many would see it if I was perfectly honest with pokemedia being more popular but they rarely featured details like the addresses of people that had been attacked.
"Semantics! I don’t want to be under siege!! I like the idea of walking my grounds every month or so!” he growled.
I nodded, understanding that while he spoke of the affordable storage, that it was still going to be something he profited off. Which didn’t mean it was a bad idea. It just needed development to what it could become with the islands or personalised terrains for specific pokemon.
Then again… “It’s not like we’re close to running out of land at the moment,” I pointed out.
“But we will one day! Also wouldn’t it be good to not have land earmarked in such a way? I’m trying to bring about the next societal revolution! I want to be spoken of in the same way as the pokeball creators!”
“Who were…” I trailed off leadingly as that historical fact wasn’t so well known and indeed was something attributed to several parties.
“Well, I rather like the history surrounding Lord Hunafuda as the person most likely to have championed the creation of the pokeball as a reward for one of his retainers for healing his wife! Which means Satoshi Tajiri is the true creator of the modern pokeball!” proclaimed Bill with an air of someone who knew this to be fact.
“Oh, I hadn’t known the reason he made the pokeball,” I remarked, causing Bill to blink.
“You also think it was Satoshi?” Bill asked with a wide smile.
Again, I nodded, and Bill beamed at me. “It’s so rare to find someone who believes it was him! He was a rather small figure in history, unlike the others around the time!” He rattled off.
Letting him continue to chat away at me I nodded when it was appropriate and smiled inwardly. My reasons for thinking it was Satoshi were entirely different, but I wasn’t about to suggest that the man might have been as important as Arceus with his role as the creator of pokemon.
“—his favourite colours as well which is why it’s red and white unlike the other theories—”
Observing Bill as he happily spoke about one of his passions.
“You’re a bit of a nerd, aren’t you?” I asked him when he was done with a kindly tone and a smile to show I didn’t mean anything by it.
Bill flushed, and before he could say anything, I offered him a thumbs up. “That’s cool. I have to admit I’ve been pouring through the histories of our region and those of the others a lot recently.”
“You… have access to it?” whispered Bill reverently.
“Oh, yeah,” I replied easily.
“Can I get access?” he requested, leaning into my personal space.
“I’ll talk to Lance about it,” I offered and Bill instantly perked up.
“Hmmm! Having friends is kinda useful! It must be nice to be able to ask Lance about that!” he remarked with a wistful tone.
Something about the way he said that made me consider him. A reclusive millionaire that was a bit of a dork with obscure hobbies and some questionable behaviours.
Was Bill… What was the term for it? NEET or Otaku?
“Bill, do you have many friends?” I asked.
“I mean! I do!”
“...” I stared at him as he shifted, his eyes suddenly darting towards the door, like he was uncomfortable with this line of discussion.
“Look at the time I should—” Bill began to attempt to run away but he suddenly found he couldn’t escape as I stepped slightly to the side.
“I don’t have anything on right now. Want to come play some Smash Bros. with me and a friend?” I asked.
Bill paused at this offer.
“In real life gaming?” he muttered, all but confirming my suspicion that Bill was a recluse.
“Yeah, but fair warning, Rocko is great at the game. I can only ever eke out a win when I play pikachu and he mucks about with like, Donkey Kong or Zelda.”
A glint appeared in Bill’s eyes at that. “Oh? Rather good is he?”
My mental evaluation of Bill began to include gaming recluse to my list of character traits. Right below pervert but I’d try to ignore that.
It was like walking in on your parents. Information that you knew but attempted to repress. It wasn’t his fault… well…well…actually I suppose in one sense it might actually…
Right, pushing those thoughts away.
I led Bill back to the accommodation area of the Gym where sure enough, I found Rocko playing around with our newly set up GameCube. “What are you playing?” I asked as I moved to sit on the couch next to Rocko while patting the seat next to me. “This is Bill by the way.”
Rocko gave Bill a quick side glance and a nod. “Sup, I’m Rocko and this is Mr Bighead and Gloom,” said Rocko with his usual blase tone.
“Are you… high?” Bill asked carefully. Like a man testing the waters.
“A little, I like to get buzzed after a day’s work. I still got tomorrow off yeah?” Rocko asked, glancing at me.
“Yeah, and then it’s the weekend so you’re fine for like a few days,” I replied, watching as Rocko reached a save point in his game.
By unspoken agreement I stood and changed the game out for Smash Bros.
A small cough sounded out and I glanced back only to find Bill holding out a golden controller. “Would you mind terribly if I used my own controller?” he asked with that same glint of pride in his voice.
Rocko glanced at it only to sit up and roll his shoulders.
I suddenly had a terrible premonition as I installed the controller and sat between the two of them.
A tension built up.
“Guest picks first?” Bill suggested.
“Nah, no limits pick,” Rocko replied.
“Hmmm, I was thinking of limiting who we could use,” Bill pointed out and Rocko just hummed.
“Maybe next round?” he suggested.
When the character selection screen appeared, Bill hummed. “Oh, good you have all the options unlocked.”
“Yup, got them within a day or two of play,” Rocko stated as he selected Fox.
“Ah, Fox user eh?” Bill remarked as he locked in Marth.
I felt a pit of dread forming in my stomach as I locked in Pikachu who’d always done me well in the previous game.
Both men blinked and looked at me before sharing a look.
“He’s not a serious gamer,” Rocko apologised for me, and I gave him a flat look.
“Just for that I’m targeting you first,” I muttered, earning a chuckle from Rocko as he leaned back and made a seated karate pose.
“Woooooh! I’m soooo scared!” he taunted.
Shale chose that moment to step out into the common area and notice our set-up. “Oh, sweet I’m in!” he called as he hurried over to add another controller.
“Bill, Shale, Shale, Bill,” I said by way of introduction.
Shale grunted at Bill, causing Bill to shoot me a look, but I just shrugged as Shale locked in Bowser. “He’s a distant cousin I picked up when I went up into the northern wilds. Was part of a roaming band of bandits turned civilised folk called the Crusher Tribe. Their Lorekeeper and two other girls are around here somewhere." I waved a hand about the general area.
“Nah, they’re out at one of Glimmer’s dance lessons. Ruby got interested in learning them as she’s an apprentice Lorekeeper herself.”
“Oh, right,” I murmured, slotting that little factoid away. “We’ll need to schedule a viewing for when they have recitals then.”
Shale gave me a clueless look and I just shrugged. “It’s a thing with dance lessons,” I remarked, and he grunted, turning away.
Bill on the other hand, was staring at me. “What is your life?” he asked.
“I mean… it just is?” I replied with a vague ‘what can you do’ gesture. Rocko supported this with his own knowing nod, causing Bill to drop the topic.
With that done we started to game with me holding true on my threat to target Rocko. Not that it seemed to slow him down in the slightest. Bill smacked Shale around causing the Crusher tribe bruiser to grumble as he attempted to do anything to the far more dexterous pair.
Realising he couldn’t do much against Bill, Shale turned his attention to attempting to fight and knock me off.
“No! Join me in beating Rocko!” I remarked as I found myself targeted.
“Naaaaaah,” taunted Shale as he ganged up on me, causing me to be the first to be eliminated despite knowing that I was far better a player than Shale.
Unsurprisingly, it came down to Rocko and Bill only for Bill to beat out the reigning couch champion.
Rocko whistled. “Daaaaaaaamn you’re good! I’ll need to get way more buzzed to beat you!” he chuckled before shaking his head. “How about another game so the others can have fun?” he suggested, and both Shale and I perked up at the invite having been sitting on the side munching on chips while they duked it out on the GameCube.
Rocko rose up and offered a game cartridge with four almost identical blond boys on the front. “Four Swords?” he suggested, earning a sigh of relief.
A co-op.
That would be good at least.
Bill grinned and we settled in for a longer session of gaming with Shale upending the bag of chips he’d been munching on into a bowl before depositing it behind him where we could all reach it on the couch.
I had to admit, it was kinda fun just hanging out with friends playing games like this.
Part of me chuckled, knowing that this sure beat whatever Lance was doing right now.
Sabrina ended up having to meet Bill as I ended up spending much longer playing games than I planned.
“Brock come to bed!” she demanded, as she appeared via Teleport.
“Oh, shoot, sorry Sabrina!” I replied with a chuckle as I finally noticed how late it had gotten. “I was just having too much fun I guess!”
That caused Sabrina’s frown to lessen and she sighed. “No, it’s fine I just…”
“Sabrina! Thank you for rescuing my body! I wanted to—” Bill began, standing and bowing towards Sabrina only for Sabrina to give him a grossed out look that he didn’t see.
“Don’t mention it, ever, please,” Sabrina stated firmly only for her to take in the room with the strewn about chip packets, and soda bottles that had resulted from our hours long gaming session.
“You all look like you had fun,” she remarked.
“Yeah, guess we’re all friends now!” I cheerfully remarked.
Sabrina twitched at that as Bill brightened. Her expression cut to him curiously and softened slightly before she sighed. “Good for you, but it’s late. Your friends might not have girlfriends—”
Her remark caused Shale to twitch like he’d been stabbed in the heart while Rocko wiped his forehead in relief, Bill giggled and Sabrina’s expression tightened, “—but you do, and I’d like you to come to bed now.”
“Sure thing!” I replied easily, standing and giving the guys a thumbs up. “We should do this again,” I suggested before pinging Bill with my contact details. “Let’s talk soon alright? I’ll mention you to Lance about those histories as well.” Bill brightened and nodded.
“I look forward to that! Good bye Brock!” he gushed as Sabrina took my hand in hers and we vanished into a Teleport to my room.
I hummed. “That was fun,” I said more to myself than anyone else.
“Did you have to make friends with him?” she whined. “He’s so weird!”
I decided not to point out that we were all kind of weird in our own ways. Sabrina, more than anyone else would know about weirdness with peoples thoughts often being projected at her.
“Eh, he’s fine.”
“He has disgusting hobbies,” she grumbled as she stripped to begin dressing for bed.
“Eh, what he does in his house is between him and whoever or whatever else he wants.”
Sabrina shuddered. “No more talk of Bill,” she declared, ending the discussion pointedly with the lights in the room turning off and leaving me in darkness.
I chuckled and slipped into bed next to her.
Unable to help myself, I leaned in as I wrapped an arm around her waist.
“I’m not—” she began, only for me to whisper the thought I’d just had.
“You realise Bill was on the invite list to our wedding right? We also have elm and the pokemon Fan club president,” I pointed out.
Sabrina made a noise like a dying animal. “I did! But I was trying to ignore it!” she growled.
I chuckled as she rolled around and began lightly pummeling me with her ‘fists’. “Don’t put those thoughts into my head! Who knows what they’ll talk about at our wedding.
I chuckled. “Eh, just get a pokemon like a Croagunk to follow them around and stab them when they slip into such talks.”
Sabrina blinked at me and I realised she wouldn’t understand the reference, so I opened my mind and projected how in the anime, Brock’s Croagunk often jabbed him when he started acting out with various women.
“Hmmmm, I will have to talk to Janine about that. Your idea has merit,” she mused.
That got a chuckle out of me as I nuzzled into her and relaxed.
It had been a good day, now if only I could—
“No,” Sabrina said firmly, shutting down that line of thought before I could even start. She even went as far as to lightly jab me in the side with a smile.
Damn.
____________________
The next day saw me back out on the field accepting challengers. During my morning tea break I sat in the trainer lounge watching the news unfold with everyone and their Growlithe speculating on how things would go with the inclusion of the Trinity Nation trainers.
“Fifty trainers is thankfully not that big. In fact it’s barely a week’s work for us,” I commented as some of the hosts talked about how it might create more workload for various Gyms.
“Last year might have skewed things a little,” Dennis pointed out. “A true surge versus this many trainers isn’t going to impact us certainly, but they are also going to a core of more experienced trainers.”
Considering that for a moment I drew out the new profiles that had been sent around to the Gyms and projected that to another screen.
“Hmmmm, it would seem you’re right. They’ve all at least experienced a year of being pokemon trainers and most if not all of them have established teams.
Scrolling down the list of trainers I hummed only to pause at a familiar name.
“Reggie of Veilstone City? Roark of Canalave City?” both names cause me to perk up. Reggie was interesting due to being the older brother of Ash’s main rival during the Sinnoh series. In the series he eventually retired to become a pokemon breeder? Or was it a caretaker? I wasn’t too sure. Regardless I recalled that in the series he had earned all of his badges by the time Ash and co met up with him.
Roark on the other hand was the future Gym Leader of Oreburgh City.
An avid rock specialist and one that also was interested in mining and pokemon fossils.
Also of note was that he was the Gym Leader of Oreburgh Gym, while his father ran another Gym in Canalave which meant that something interesting would be afoot in the future I had no doubt.
If that went ahead I suspected there was going to be some hardship coming his way with cries of nepotism.
Considering that pokemon games were typically quite friendly and Roark from the games and series had been rather friendly I suspected nepotism wasn’t at play, but if anything, his right to run a Gym would have been harder, not easier with increased scrutiny.
I couldn’t imagine Forrest, or Yolanda, or Salvadore being able to… well, then again they were my siblings and not my kids but still the point stood.
Scrolling through the information on Sinnoh, I found that Oreburgh City was, at most, merely a small town at the moment with it being earmarked for future mines and expansion in the next few years to feed other cities' growth.
Damn, they must find a hell of a deposit there to see it grow quickly enough to make it a city while Roark was still young.
That or they had to find something else that would justify the rapid development to take a town to a city.
My mind caught on that, both as a rock specialist and also as the CEO of Megarock Inc.
If there was a known location where I was all but guaranteed to strike it rich, well, I needed to get my people there or have a stake in the find. I began to flick through screens for Oreburgh, mining companies and other information that I had access to currently.
Damn Blaine and his attack on the pokenet! We had been rather close to establishing an international network before he’d thrown a spanner in the works! The information I currently had was heavily filtered and likely a few weeks if not months out of date by this point.
“Uhmmm, Gym Leader Brock what’s the matter?” asked one of the Gym trainers but I waved him off, too caught up in my spiraling thoughts. There was something here, I knew it, I just needed to act it fast enough.
I made a call to Lawrence, and he answered on the third ring. “Brock, what’cha got for me?”
“Are there any options to invest in the Trinity Nations? I want to make a long-term investment,” I called.
Around me, the other gym trainers all stopped relaxing and straightened up to stare but I ignored them as I began scrolling through what we currently had of the Trinity Nations’ mining companies. Specifically, those looking to work in Oreburgh.
“Hmmmm, there are some constraints, but we can make investments happen. It’s something that has been worked around. I’m not going to lie, it will be tricky, but yeah we can make it happen.”
“Excellent, get in contact with Georgina and tell her I want as much of my liquid assets put towards Oreburgh mining as possible,” I said before, drumming my fingers. “That or see if we can get MegaRock over there as a company with a stake or mining site.”
Dennis stared at me. “... should we have heard that?”
“Depends, do you have the contacts to leverage it?” I said only to wince. “Sorry, that was kind of elitist. Also you’d need to invest a decent chunk of change to see anything significant in terms of returns.”
Dennis pursed his lips. “I’ll talk to my wife and we’ll set something up. If you’re making a call like that, I’ll trust you.”
I gave him a look. “You realise there’s a risk in what I’m doing as well, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t think you’ve made many mistakes. Also, you’re going to talk to Sabrina about this as well, right?”
“I mean… yeah an investment like this I should probably tell her about it.”
“And she’s going to do her thing and you’ll know,” he remarked.
“That’s not quite how it works. You have to remember it’s only really big events, like the Shamouti incident that Sabrina was able to see coming, and even then precognition isn’t—”
“Doesn’t Sabrina have one of the stronger investment portfolios around?” Dennis argued.
“... that’s more because of how smart she is,” I pointed out.
“And if she goes for it, then there’s no reason for me not to jump in the boat with you. My kids would love having a strong starter for when their journey comes around, and then there’s also the idea of renovating our current house.”
“Alright, alright, talk to Lawrence, I’m sure he can set something up.” Chances were, he and Georgina would copy us as well with how much insight they had into my finances.
“Are we about to get rich?” muttered one of the lingering Gym trainers.
Sighing, I pointed to Dennis as an alarm went off, reminding me that it was time to face my next challenger. “You handle this. Set up a group for those who’re interested.”
The people in the room shared excited looks, and I chuckled. “It’s probably not that big a deal guys. I just think Oreburgh has potential and want to invest in it with Megarock to see if there are any Mega stones or other items of note.”
Everyone nodded, but I suspected that Meowth was out of the bag in this case. Speaking of Meowths… I sent another message to Jessie, James, and Meowth to look into Oreburgh for me as part of their side hustle as investigators for me.
They would most likely be the first people to get there and get me ‘eyes’ on the ground, as it were.
With that done, I settled in to do my actual job.
No raids on secret super villain style bases for me hopefully in the future.
Although I did still need to hunt down that giant Onix.
Hmmm, might try for that in the few weeks I had before the wedding.
As long as Celebi didn’t get involved I’d be fine.
I immediately knocked on a nearby wooden post, causing me to gain a few odd looks but I thought nothing of it.
When the day was done Lawrence was sending me annoyed emojis along with sarcastic clapping signs, showing he was less than impressed with my slip-up.
Oh well, it wasn’t a bad thing that other people wanted to invest in Oreburgh. It could even be a really good thing!
I performed a sweep of the Gym as a final check over. The ‘duckpond’ was still being rebuilt but my Porygon2 were warbling around the new servers with interest while other safety switches were being installed.
“All going well?” I asked the technician in charge, causing him to glance up and give me a thumbs up before returning to bolting down a cable.
From there I moved on, deciding it would be good to check in with Glimmers.
I entered the communal area only to find Rocko, Bill, Oak, and Elm, of all people, playing Smash Bros on the couch.
“You’re still here?” I asked Bill who didn’t so much as blink at me as he dispatched what looked like Samus from the field.
“Noooooo! My robot warrior!” cried Elm.
I snorted, realising I wasn’t going to get anything from Bill until the match was over.
That took a few minutes but I amused myself by goading Oak to try and beat Bill, which allowed Rocko to take the win this time around.
Bill gnashed his teeth as Rocko made a show of adding a mark to a tallyboard next to him.
“Twelve to twenty five eh Rocko? Seems your record of being the best is slipping,” I teased.
Rocko just shrugged while Bill shot the twelve marks on Rocko’s side of the board, venomous looks.
“Another!” Bill demanded, and Rocko shrugged and nodded, more than happy to play again.
I coughed. “As nice as it is to see you’ve made friends, don’t you have better things to do?” I asked Bill only for Elm to twitch.
“Ah! That’s right! I was going to ask Bill. Your mind transference system that allows you to swap with a pokemon! Is it still operational?” he asked.
Oak, Rocko, and I all tensed as Elm leaned in.
Bill nodded. “Should be with a bit of work, why?”
“I want to experience it! For science!” he announced.
Oak, Rocko, and I all hissed with worry. If there was ever a person who would take things too far… Elm… Elm was it.
“Sure, let’s go now!” Bill chimed, unaware of what he was allowing.
“I think I shall supervise!”
I nodded only to find my mouth speaking before my mind could catch up. “I think I’d like to observe as well.”
Oak and I shared a look, knowing that we might have to wrangle the two mad scientists if it came down to it.
Bill just nodded along and released a pair of Kadabra. “Home with my new friends Jeeves and Jenkins!” he announced and we all vanished in a flash of Teleport.
I sure hoped this didn’t escalate.
________________
A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support
It also goes to Twmmy!