We reappeared in a room that was richly decorated with marble, lush, thick royal-blue carpets and glass display cases set up around the room.
I could see rare collector's items such as relics, statues, and works of art. The thing that caught my attention, however, was the wall of trading cards.
“Oh neat, you have most of the holographic cards,” I murmured.
“Indeed I do!” Bill declared.
“That’s cool and all but… It’s my day off,” Rocko added from where he sat on the floor.
I blinked, having missed that he’d been dragged along with us.
Bill glanced down.
“Oh? You… didn’t want to come along?” he asked, looking like a puppy Growlithe that had just been told ‘no more treats!’.
Rocko stared at him. “Bruh… I’m so cut right now it’s not even funny.”
Bill continued to pout, and Rocko sighed.
“Where’s your kitchen? I’m gonna need like… eat bags of chips, a sub, and a giant drink of soda pop,” Rocko relented.
Bill beamed as he clapped his hands and the two Kadabra once more emerged. “Jenkins! See to the man’s needs! And get me a glass of your finest root beer!”
He glanced around. “Would anyone else like something?”
Elm vibrated in place. “I merely want to see the transference in action and possibly experience it myself!”
“Root beer,” Oak answered at the same time.
Bill turned to me with Jenkins hovering over with a patient look.
“Uhmmm, do you have creaming soda?” I asked, unsure if that was an option only for ‘Jenkins’ to nod and teleport away.
I glanced at Bill. “Well now that—”
Jenkins reappeared with two trays and a beanbag.
Rocko collapsed into it, and the bag of chips drifted towards him.
“Niiiiiice,” he groaned, laying back.
Everyone else, bar Elm accepted their drinks while shooting Rocko mildly envious looks. Was it wrong that I kind of wanted to ask for a beanbag to be floated around in now as well?
Oak and I shared another look while drinking.
Yeah, at least I wasn’t alone in that feeling.
“A beanbag Jenkins!” Bill clapped his hands, and another appeared to sweep him off his feet.
The feeling intensified only to come to blows with my manners, which demanded that it was wrong to sprawl out when you came to another’s house on the first occasion.
For all that we were all guys here, it wasn’t as if we were children who could get away with it.
Rocko’s bag of chips crinkled and scrunched, and I twitched slightly.
“Let’s… go see this machine,” I suggested, and Bill led us through his collection to what looked like a futuristic laboratory that would be seen in a hero’s base.
Everything was crisp white lines, projectors, and tidy spaces.
Somehow I knew right away that Bill did none of the cleaning.
“Bill… how much security do you have in this place?” I asked, as I considered the room we’d left along with this new one.
“Hmmm? Oh it’s state of the art! I have security teams ready to be deployed instantly to defend me if I come under danger!”
I nodded. “How did you get abducted?” I asked.
Bill blushed and sank lower into his bean bag.
“Well… that’s not really all that important, is it?”
“Yes Brock it hardly matters! He’s safe now!” Elm refuted with a nod, eyes eagerly darting around even as his body twitched like he was repressing the urge to run around and ask what this and that was in the room.
“Okay, different question. Have you told your security team how they got in to you so that hole can be patched?” I asked.
Bill remained damningly silent.
“You won’t tell Sabrina, will you?” he asked.
“Annnnnd just like that I no longer want to know,” I replied, assuming that it had something to do with sex.
Rocko snorted. “What they do? Walk up to the front gates in skimpy outfits and offer you a good time?”
Bill continued to stay quiet.
Sadly it was a little too late for that.
Oak clapped his hands. “Well! Shall we see the mind transfer system in action?”
“Yes!” Bill answered, shooting out of the protective hell that his beanbag had served as to tap on a screen and cause an entire wall of the lab to shift around.
I whistled. That was quite impressive. Elm squealed with delight and sprinted towards it as soon as two chambers emerged, proving once more that his restraint and good survival sense had limits.
Jenkins thankfully Teleported in front of him, caught him in an errant Psychic, and levitated him back.
Elm slumped. “I was simply looking to inspect the chamber! Nothing else I assure you!”
Before anyone could express their doubt Rocko belched loudly. “Yeah, and Magikarp are great at surviving!”
“Well, actually, they are due to the rate they proliferate at! The singular Magikarp might no—” Elm turned to attempt to argue the point and Rocko smirked, showing that while he was certainly stoned, he wasn’t lacking in cunning.
I shot him a discreet thumbs up as he held Elm's attention; Bill finished his preparations in peace.
He tapped two pokeballs revealing a now familiar Clefairy while a Mr Mime stood next to it.
“Hmmm, two pokemon?” Oak asked. “I hope you’re not presuming anything?”
Bill coughed. “Well… I thought that Elm might like to experience it?” he asked.
“Yes!” Elm replied, showing that he truly had the survival skills of a lemming.
Oak and I shared a look. “Maybe we should see the science first?” I suggested.
Bill coughed and brought up the information on the screen.
It had a lot of math, and there were terms right away that went well over my head.
I stepped back towards Rocko and opened my hand towards him, knowing I was never going to have a chance at contributing to a scientific talk of this calibre. It didn’t stop me from taking a picture of the screen however and sending it to the most scientific mind I knew.
Sabrina’s Alakazam.
If they found enough wrong with the process perhaps we could delay any mad science performed today.
Oak and Elm began working through the lines of text with thoughtful expressions.
“Hmmm, harmonic aura balancing is well considered but have you… ah, you have… interesting… interesting,” murmured Oak before leaning down to consider another part.
Sabrina’s Alakazam took a few minutes to respond, but when he did I blinked at the large paragraph.
I considered spouting what he’d said to make myself look smart only to shake my head. Some of these words I didn’t even know how to pronounce.
So instead I stepped up, tapped Oak on the shoulder and showed him the screen.
Oak blinked at me, then squinted at the projected screen, only to hum.
“Oh, it seems Brock has another expert we should be in discussions with!” Oak called.
Bill blinked. “Eh? Another? I’m rather surprised to find that you two can even keep up with what I’m showing you here!”
Oak began pointing out Alakazam’s corrections before adding another of his own, which caused elm to start debating him.
I reached for another handful of chips from Rocko, only for him to grin at me from his beanbag.
I turned to Jenkins. “Could I get one of those?” I asked, knowing that we might be here for a while.
“Well let’s get this expert in!” remarked Bill with a wide grin. “I’m always happy to confer with other intellects such as mine!”
I leaned towards Rocko. “Is this why he was so mad that you beat him twelve times?” I asked.
“Heh, I did it five times in a row before he demanded I stop ‘doping’ for our matches.”
“Ah…” I replied, unsure what to do with that information. “How unsportsmanlike.”
“Eh, it’s just a game,” he offered, as he took a huge bite of chips.
Oak approached with a delicate cough. “Could you give Alakazam these details?” he asked, presenting me with a security code that could be presented at the front gate.
Within moments, Bill’s transceiver was buzzing. “Hello? Is this about my new guest? Who he’s fast… what do you mean he’s an Alakazam?”
“Was that not mentioned?” I asked Oak as Bill tilted his head this way and that, only to wave the pokemon through security.
Oak tilted his head. “I don’t suppose it was, not that it should matter. Hmmm, Bill must have been out of academia for a while. Numerous Alakazam and other pokemon often attend universities these days. I happen to know that Daisy is taking a psychology course under a Gardevoir with a human translator.”
I blinked at that while Rocko nodded along. “That’s wild man.”
“What he said,” I added, feeling it was good enough, earning a smirk from Oak as Alakazam sauntered in wearing his lab coat with several books orbiting him.
He pointed at me and flicked his fingers, causing me to float away from Rocko. “Ah, I have been summoned,” I stated as Alakazam got me up next to him only to catch sight of Rocko’s chip pile and summon one for himself.
“Ala, ala, alakazam,” he stated as he began to gesticulate and wave his hand.
I grimaced.
Damn. I’d been on easy street before.
I gave what translations I could, knowing that I had to lower my dark aura as much as I could to allow Alakazam to guide me through some of the explanations.
Bill gaped as he found no fewer than seven corrections.
“I need to fix the headpiece as well?” Bill lamented.
“Zam,” Alakazam nodded, and I helpfully added “Yes, platinum would be best,” I translated, feeling a headache build up.
“I think I need to stop there, Alakazam,” I suggested, and the super-intelligent pokemon bowed his head to me in thanks. As I made my way back to the beanbag I’d acquired earlier to collapse into, I noticed that the two Kadabra looked gleeful.
Heh, must be nice to have their evolved form come in like this and school their boss.
“That was well done Brock. You know in some of the lectures that Alakazam attends he has to have a team of trainers from Saffron to translate for him when Sabrina isn’t available. You doing so for a few minutes is actually quite commendable!”
“Urgh, it still hurts,” I murmured. “It feels like I’m trying to rip open a bond with Alakazam instead of growing it if that makes sense, which is weird considering Alakazam is actually a pokemon I’ve known for years at this point.”
“Huh, you know I don’t think I ever considered how bonds could be grown between pokemon and other trainers. It would make sense that you have a better capacity to translate compared to others then,” Oak mused as he drew out a notepad and wrote down his observations.
“I should probably point out that others might have an easier time without their natures being opposite,” I muttered, causing Oak to blink only to make a small noise of understanding.
Alakazam continued to point out various small corrections where he could but it was obviously much slower going without me helping out.
Bill, to give him credit where it was due, accepted the criticisms and feedback and made notes of the changes, only to turn and bow to Elm. “I apologise! I don’t feel it would be best to perform the transfer now that I know there are updates to be made!”
“But but… no… I wanted to experience being a pokemon!” Elm wailed.
I chuckled and shook my head only to regret it. A cold drink levitated towards me to press lightly against my head and I shot Alakazam a thankful look. Excellent my gamble of pushing back the mad science had worked!
“Good job boss,” Rocko offered as I made vague noises of relief.
Elm continued to argue that the process could still go ahead and I was just happy that, somehow, including a smarter being, we’d delayed Elm getting body swapped.
“How long will it take! I can barely wait!” Elm asked, dancing from foot to foot.
Bill hummed. “About an hour or so. I have some speedy material processors and—”
I felt dread sweep through me. Damn, Bill and his advanced science suite!
Oak whistled, impressed by the speed. “He must have good people to contact. I wonder if he’d be interested in joining the Hero Team; he whispered to me.
I gave Oak a shake of the head. Bill was likely to take that a little too far. He was friendly enough but I wasn’t sure I wanted him handling arrests or other situations that might be volatile.
Still, as Bill had promised, within the hour he had everything changed around, along with there being a new headpiece that was made of platinum.
Oddly, the headpiece looked familiar to me.
“Where have I seen that before?” I murmured, causing Oak to look up and narrow his eyes along with me.
“I was wearing a basic version on my body when I performed the transfer previously,” Bill pointed out.
Shaking my head, I quickly denied him. “No, that’s not it at all. I never saw your…” I held off on pointing out that while my team had raided the base with his body in it, I’d never seen his actual human body.
We’d been a bit too busy handling the security system along with the hordes of freaking ditto that were being sent against us.
Oak joined me in rubbing his chin. “There is something about it that is unsettling,” he muttered.
“Well, unsettling feelings never stopped me!” claimed Elm as he practically shoved the headpiece on his skull. “Let’s get transferring!”
Clefairy took one look at Elm and crossed his arms causing Mr Mime to grimace and walk into the other chamber.
Bill grinned as he began typing rapidly and priming the system. “Mind transfer from human to pokemon is a go! The Mark eighteen is showing all signs nominal! Elm are you good?”
Elm gave a thumbs up.
Bill, I noted didn’t ask Mr Mime if he was alright before nodding and pressing a large button to reveal a large switch. “Three, two—”
I felt a sinking feeling that another might have called paranoia, but I thought it was just good sense.
With a large thunk the switch was thrown, and lights shot between the two chambers.
Oak and I both stiffened as something passed between the chambers beyond merely the electricity and lights display.
Steam shot out of cooling vents as fans worked to extract it.
The doors to the chambers opened and Elm staggered out. “Mr Mime!” chanted Elm’s body.
From the other chamber, Mr Mime stepped out and I found myself leaning forward.
“Mr Mime!” gushed Elm as he began to move his new body through its paces.
“Huh, he can’t talk?” I asked, surprised by this turn of events. “Your Clefairy could though? Did you train it?”
“Hmmm? Oh no, I had to retrain myself with how to talk. Pokemon are used to only certain sounds so their language centres are wired differently to ours. It takes true outliers to learn human speech.”
I hummed, finding it rather amusing that I could think of two that could easily speak like us, while pokemon like Kirlia, Alakazam, Bertha and others knew how to write in human.
“I should link you up with my Rhyperior’s pokechat account.”
“Eh? That’s a thing?”
“It’s wild,” Rocko commented from the back.
I pointed at him. “She’s also inking a deal to have a film with the Samurai Furret series I believe.”
Bill blinked. “... I need to get out more if that’s what’s happening,” he muttered.
Elm chose that moment to begin inspecting his new body in far too much detail, causing everyone to make noises of disgust and for Elm’s body to advance upon him and slap him.
“Mr Mime?”
“Mr Mime!”
“Well, this got weird about when I thought it would. Let’s change them back before Elm’s body beats up Mr Mime’s body,” I said.
“Is it violence if you’re doing it to yourself?” suggested Rocko from the back only to take a large bite of chips which rather weakened his point.
Elm in Mr Mime’s body swung blindly and sent Mr Mime in Elm’s body flying.
“Oh! That’s a home run!” called Rocko.
“Thanks Rocko! Love the commentary!” I shouted back to him sarcastically as I tapped Bill as Elm returned to his inspection of Mr Mime’s body. “Come on, I don’t need to know where a Mr Mime’s pants end and its body begins.”
Oak thankfully stayed silent while Bill nodded and clapped his hands. “Jenkins! The restraints!” he called.
Twin ropes shot out to pull the two bodies back into the chambers, much to Elm’s protests.
The doors sealed, and everyone breathed a little easier when Bill successfully returned the two minds to their rightful bodies.
“Maaaaan that was freaky as shit!” Rocko called.
I gave him another thumbs up.
“That was science!” declared Elm as he ambled out of the chamber only to run face-first into a Barrier that Mr Mime set up as retaliation for the earlier events.
“Mr Mime,” growled Mr Mime before he huffed and stalked up to Bill. “Mie, Mime, Mime!” whined the pokemon before slapping the pokeball that corresponds to it, forcing its own recall.
“Ah,” Bill said, rubbing the back of his head. “He’s a bit sensitive. Don’t take it personally Elm.”
“Not at all I had a blast spending even the few moments I did inside his body! I’d call that a resounding success!” Elm beamed. “Tell me! How long can this process be maintained?”
Bill coughed. “Well, theoretically it is permanent…” Bill swallowed. “But you can change back at any time you desire.”
Oak twitched suddenly and I looked over to find him frowning now. “Theoretically permanent? That… hmmm,” Oak raised his transceiver and began to look back at something.
“That’s perfect! Elm proclaimed! With this I and a group of other people will be able to visit the Tree of Beginning without the effects of the tree limiting the duration of time that we can be there! Haha! A work around while allowing us to experience the world through another’s eyes! Oh Bill this is truly miraculous! You have no idea how much this will change for me!”
“Or how much damage it might cause,” Oak murmured.
His ominous tone caused everyone to stop and glance towards him with even Rocko pausing.
“Oak?” I asked, rising to approach him as his face twisted into a grimace.
“This mind transference system, what is stopping it from being effectively a mind slip system?” Oak asked.
“Well, that isn’t my intention for it and I haven’t released it to anyone!” Bill stated. “I will control it stringently, I assure you!”
“It might be too late for that,” Oak replied bitterly. “Tell me. Who had access to your research and your human body for the few days that you were held captive?”
Bill blinked. “Team Rocket of course, but I have all my notes encrypted. What you saw today was the un—”
“And if a man known as one of the smartest in Indigo were to gain access to it??” Oak asked only to shake his head. “Forgive me, that is unkind. I… I need to go, this thought of mine needs to be examined closer. He tapped a pokeball and his own Alakazam appeared only to vanish a moment later into a Teleport.
Bill blinked at the space that Oak had just departed from.
“It wasn’t something I said was it?” Bill asked worriedly.
“No, I think… I think Oak remembered something that… I need to go talk to him cause I think I know what is bothering him.” I licked my lips and gave the mind transference chambers thoughtful looks.
“Could this system be slimmed down if you weren’t transferring into a different body?” I asked.
Bill blinked at me. “Well… I suppose, but you would never get a body that was like that!” he denied.
I sighed, knowing of just such a way to get an exact body. “Hmmm, can you get as many notes put together on that? Elm I think your idea has merit so you’re going to be fine but… This system might not be something ever shared with the wider world Bill.”
“Are you sure you’re not conflating this?” Bill asked.
I grimaced. “I really hope I am, but I need to talk with Oak first. Apologies. It’s been fun and… very enlightening. Alakazam, can you take me to Oak?” I asked, turning to the powerful psychic who nodded.
A moment later we vanished only to reappear in a lab I’d only been to a few times.
Explosions and roars from a battle that had happened almost a week ago now rang out from a room to the side, alerting me to where Oak was.
I stepped towards the room but made sure to knock. “Hey, it’s me,” I called before walking up to the chair set before a large monitor.
“Hmmm,” Oak replied, not taking his eyes off the screen as the images slowly rolled on, showing the fight as it happened.
He was observing Blaine, or rather, Blaine’s head, extremely closely.
“Oh shit,” I muttered as the other shoe dropped for me. I had seen the headpiece before, or rather, a variant of it.
One that had obviously been altered to be disguised, but in the fighting the disguise had slipped away revealing it near the end.
“Blaine’s… well, this means he has a chance of still being alive, doesn’t it?” I muttered.
“....yes,” Oak replied, shutting down the video.
“He… no, he took a blow from Agatha,” I pointed out. “He literally went down. We both saw that.”
“We did, which makes me wonder if it wasn’t what he wanted in the end. He was practically goading Agatha towards the end. He always was a terrifyingly smart man. He had access to the system. If he knew that the raid on Bill would eventually draw attention then he also knew he had limited time to take as much as he could.”
Oak rubbed his chin. “You know I was honestly surprised to find him actually fighting you when I arrived?”
“No, but… it does seem odd that he stood and fought like that now that you mention it,” I mused.
“A base, and indeed all of his research would have meant nothing. Those are merely material possessions to a man like Blaine. He remembers almost everything perfectly,” Oak remarked. “I’ve seen him reference studies from decades ago verbatim despite the physical copies being lost to us.”
Oak shook his head.
“He would have had access to cloning technology, Master Ball tech, and now mind transference systems,” I said, building a case for my own anxiety.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed loudly. “Is it wrong that I kind of hope Agatha did actually get him?”
Oak snorted. “It’s understandable, as now Blaine has lost many of the strings attached to him and could possibly be in the wind without any of us the wiser as to where he is, or indeed, who he is.”
“Shit,” I summarised.
“Shit indeed,” Oak replied as he leaned back in his chair.
“If he repeats it, is there a chance he might also be effectively immortal?” I asked.
Oak’s face pinched and he nodded causing me to groan.
Shit we were up a creek without a paddle on this one. How were you ever supposed to catch a man like that? What were we going to do, make a soul tracker?
That was…
“Bonds,” I murmured suddenly as I had a sudden epiphany.
“Hmmm? Oak murmured, his head rising to look at me in confusion. “What’s that?”
“His bonds with his pokemon, do they still exist if he transferred his body? Has anyone made any plays to retake his pokemon? Just how they are acting might inform us of if the bond itself is still active.”
Oak grinned. “That would be telling! If he attempts to reclaim them then we might be able to identify him! Or get a lead to follow.”
Something about that struck me as wrong however and it took me a moment to realise why. Blaine… “Would he risk it?” I asked.
Oak gained a conflicted look. “He… might?” he answered.
“And if he didn’t?... what if he abandoned them?” I asked, building on the idea that was growing the more I thought upon it.
“Hmmm? why … oh… oh,” Oak suddenly looked profoundly sad. “He might just do that, mightn’t he?”
I inclined my head towards Oak in a small nod of acknowledgement. This wasn’t a nice topic of conversation but I was able to ignore the implications with my dark aura. “It matches the profile I’ve built up of the man in my head,” I replied, tapping it on the screen where Blaine was smirking back at us. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have another path to possibly follow if I’m right and he does ditch them. What if one of his pokemon could still find him via the bond?”
“They could be released and lead us right to him,” Oak answered with a slow nod.
“Or they might be motivated to find him. He is effectively abandoning them after all. Tell me, what is happening to his pokemon now that he is presumed dead?” I asked.
“They were deemed too powerful… Some of them are being monitored, while others are being locked into stasis with their pokeballs for later processing. I’m told it isn’t pleasant for the pokemon,” Oak answered.
“Hmmmm, think we can be the good guys in this situation then?” I suggested. “We’re going to have to tell Lance though, cause I don’t see this playing out without his help.”
Oak nodded only to smile. “He’s not going to like having this dropped on him.”
“Hmmmm, I think he’d prefer this than being blindsided by Blaine’s return, no?” I pointed out, earning a nod from Oak.
Oak rose and smiled at me, and for a moment I saw a much younger Sammy Oak grinning at me.
“Well, Sir Boulder, that was some impressive deductions,” Oak praised.
I blushed a little. “Just… came to me,” I offered back with a playful grin of my own.
Sadly, the moment was rather ruined by what we knew we had to do next.
We Teleported to the league and found Lance with our findings.
We told him what we’d discovered.
Lance stared at us for a long moment after we were done.
Then he summarised our thoughts. “Fuck.”
_________________
A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support!
It also goes to Twmmy!
Of all the villains thus far that I have introduced and used, Blaine, more than anyone else, was able to get the Palpatine 'somehow he survived’ treatment and actually earn it with having the means and the motive to pull it off.
Did anyone see this twist coming before now?