The gang was once again lost on the way to Vermilion City. Somehow it proved to be very difficult to get there. They soon walked out of the forest and onto the beach.
"What a beautiful beach." Luneth commented as the sun began to set over the horizon.
Chespie pointed at something in the distance, "Chesp! Chespin! (Hey look over there! It's a lighthouse!)"
The gang turned to where Chespie was pointing at. It was a lighthouse stationed on a cliff that overlooked the ocean.
"It's a lighthouse! That's good, maybe we can rest up there and I can make us some food." Luneth said.
"I get to sleep in a nice bed! Let's go already!" Mairin took off so fast she was nothing but a blur.
"Eevui, eeve eevui. (Wow, she must be really excited to sleep in a bed.)" Ginko commented.
"Well, there are limits to when Mairin wants to sleep in a real bed instead of a sleeping bag." Luneth stated.
"That is true sometimes." Alain agreed.
By the time the group made it to the building it was already foggy and dark. Luneth sighed in relief when they finally reached the doors.
"That was farther than it looked." Luneth commented.
"This lighthouse looks weird." Mairin commented.
The group stared at the door, Luneth was in awe at all the Pokémon carved on it, the first she noticed the carving of an Arcanine.
"Guess we better ring the bell." Alain said.
"I got it." Luneth pressed the red button on what looked like the intercom. The doorbell sounded off a chilling church like melody of gonging bells which spooked the group out.
"[Who's there?]" A voice over the intercom asked.
"Please excuse us sir," Alain said, "We're travelers and we're lost. So, is it all right to rest here for the night?"
"And I'm wondering if I could use your kitchen to make bacon double cheeseburgers for our group and I'd be more than happy to make something for you." Luneth added.
"[That's great. Can you cook without using tofu?]" The man on the intercom asked.
"Oh, sure I can cook many things without using tofu. My mom taught me how." Luneth replied.
"[That's great. I've been eating tofu since my cook went on vacation. Come on in!]" He invited, the large doors opening with a deep creaking sound to reveal a dark high ceiling hallway.
"Would you mind if I borrowed your phone?" Luneth asked, her question echoed.
"[There's a phone right near you.]" the voice replied, still sounding as if it was coming over an intercom. The group looked to their left to see a phone in the shape of a Bellsprout with a screen next to it.
"Hey, it's a Bellsprout shaped video phone, that's so cool." Mairin commented.
"I'll just call Professor Oak now. I've been meaning to talk to him about how my Pokémon are doing." Luneth said as she walked over. Then she dialed and Prof. Oak appeared on the screen, and he was cooking something.
"[Well, hi, Luneth! You caught me cooking dinner! My cook is on vacation, and I've got to fend for myself until she returns.]" he explained.
"I'm just calling to see how my Pokémon are doing." Luneth said.
"[Your Pokémon are doing great,]" Prof Oak assured her, "[Shayla is doing a fine job in welcoming them and Digger is helping them train with the other Pokémon. The others make sure to follow their example.]"
{A/N: Shayla - Clefable, Digger (Sandshrew)}
"Oh good. That's a relief." Luneth said.
"[Anyways Gary has caught 45 Pokémon.]" Prof. Oak changed the subject, somewhat.
"Oh, I see." Luneth said, calmly.
"[By the way, Luneth. Just where are you calling me from anyways?]" Prof. Oak asked.
"We're at a lighthouse on a high cliff." Luneth explained.
"[Oh, that must be Bill's lighthouse! He's a young Pokémon researcher who knows even more than me! See what you can learn from him. He can teach you just about everything about Pokémon and then some.]" Prof. Oak suggested.
"This is Bill, Professor Oak. Good to hear from you." Bill's voice sounded over the intercom.
"[Hello Bill!]" Prof. Oak greeted. "[Please give my friends here a crash course in Pokémon,]" Oak asked. "[Uh-oh! Tofu's done.]" he picked the tofu out and blew on it before the screen blacked out.
"I'm starting to wonder why Prof. Oak is always eating whenever I call him." Luneth pondered.
"Eevui eeve. (I'm starting to wonder too.)" Ginko agreed.
Suddenly Luneth heard some yipping from a cardboard box next to the table. She walked over to the box, and to her great surprise she found six Eevee's in the cardboard box. One of them is a shiny like Ginko. She smiled as she held her hand out to them and one sniffed her hand and pressed her cheek against her palm. Luneth gently petted the Eevee and scratched the chin of another one. They cooed, liking the attention.
"That's amazing," The male voice said, "Those Eevee's are normally shy."
Suddenly all the lights turned on. "I am Bill of the lighthouse," he introduced himself, turning the group's attention to a large Kabuto at the top of the stairs rubbing its first two claws together.
"That's a Kabuto! An extinct Pokémon!" Mairin called out.
"I wonder what it's doing here." Alain commented.
"I don't think that's a Kabuto." Luneth said.
The Kabuto was waving its tentacles. "That's right, I'm not a Kabuto," it said. "I'm Bill, the Pokémon researcher."
"...Is there a reason you...look like that?" Luneth asked delicately.
"This is a costume. I'm stuck inside it!" He explained.
"...do you need help getting out?" Luneth offered.
"Y-yes!" He said in relief. "Step up here."
Luneth jogged up quickly. "Just tell me what to do." she said.
"Push that button," Bill pointed with a claw. "I tried to press it before, but these claws are too short." He explained.
Luneth pushed the small blue button and stepped away when it started to beep and pulse with light. The claws popped off first, then the black face and last the shell to reveal a young, dapper man with seaweed green hair. Luneth knew that this was Bill.
"Thanks for helping me get out. I've been stuck in that costume for hours." Bill said gratefully.
"Did you just come back from a costume party?" Mairin asked.
"Eh...oh, no, this is a special costume I use for my research," Bill explained, "Getting inside its skin helps me get inside its head."
"I see, you're trying to understand how an extinct Pokémon lived by wearing that costume." Luneth and Alain commented.
The two glanced at each other and looked away with pink dust on their cheeks.
"That's right. There are many kinds of extinct Pokémon and putting on a costume is one way of figuring out what they were like." Bill informed them.
"You can understand what a Pokémon is like from just putting on a costume?" Mairin asked.
"Yes indeed, or I'm beginning to." Bill replied.
"By the way, are those six Eevee's yours?" Luneth asked.
"No, not really," Bill shook his head sadly, "The truth is I found these Eevee's in a box one stormy night. So I'm really looking for someone who would care for those Eevee's."
Luneth felt sorry for the Eevee's. To be left abandoned and alone. Somehow, she keeps meeting Pokémon who are abandoned by their trainers. She couldn't believe that their trainers would just easily give up on them or are too lazy to help raise them. Just what is it with most trainers these days?
Suddenly they heard the doorbell ring again. Bill walked over to the door to reveal her brother, Ash and his friends who looked exhausted.
"Ash?" Luneth asked.
"What the heck happened to you?" Mairin asked.
"We got lost again." Ash replied.
"I guess." Luneth said.
After Luneth and Brock made a meal of bacon-double cheeseburgers for everyone, Bill showed them to a room, which had pictures of lots of Pokémon. "This world was created 4.6 billion years ago. During that time, all kinds of Pokémon existed. They had many ways of living."
"All kinds of Pokémon...how many?" Mairin asked, curious.
"On this planet there are currently more than 900 known species of Pokémon." Bill replied.
"Wow, that many?" Misty gasped.
"I have also discovered that these Pokémon are not the only Pokémon in this world." Bill stated.
"Are you talking about the Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Galar, Alola and Paldea Region?" Luneth questioned.
"You've heard about these regions, Luneth?" Bill asked.
"I actually plan to visit one of them when I finish the Indigo League. Also compete in them as well." Luneth replied.
"Yeah, me too." Ash added.
"I'd like to catch some Grass type Pokémon from those regions." Mairin decided.
"I want to study more about Pokémon that are capable of Mega Evolution." Alain declared.
"I want to become the world's greatest Pokémon breeder and doctor." Brock added.
"And I want to become a Water Pokémon Master." Misty added, proudly.
"You're all lucky to be a Pokémon trainer. Your goal is to catch all these kinds of Pokémon. That's a great task," Bill said enviously. "No one knows how many there are exactly. The search goes on. There's always something new to look for in our lives and in ourselves."
"Something to look for?" Misty repeated.
"Yes, there's a lot for us to look for, inside and outside ourselves," he trots down the steps. "There's meaning for every creature, a meaning for all the Pokémon and meaning for all us humans too." Bill enthused, his arms raised as he walked down the hall, the projections of the Kanto Pokémon on the walls.
"A meaning for all..." Luneth murmured as she looked at the Kanto region Pokémon on the walls.
Luneth had often wonder why she was reborn in this world as the sister of Ash Ketchum. She wanted to become the greatest Pokémon trainer there ever was before her. It wasn't going to be an easy path, but she knew that she will become the greatest.
Soon afterwards, Bill had told them that he had something to show them and led them to the top of the light house.
"Keep looking for new Pokémon to catch. It's something that's very important for Pokémon research. It's as vital to me as it is to you." Bill turned back to the gang. "Right now, though, there's only one Pokémon I'm searching for."
"What kind of Pokémon?" Ash asked, curious.
"It's probably the biggest Pokémon ever, bigger than all of the rest, and no one's ever seen it," Bill replied as they looked to the ocean, covered in darkness and mist, only occasionally lit by the spinning lighthouse light. "It's been wandering the world for a thousand years, looking for friends."
"But doesn't that Pokémon have any friends or family?" Mairin asked.
"The Pokémon wanders because it's alone. It's the only Pokémon of its species, one of a kind," Bill replied. "One night I heard this very strange sound coming across the ocean." He took out a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. Suddenly, the strange sound he seemed to have been talking about started playing. "I want...I want to meet you, that's what it said to me."
Ginko, Chespie and Pikachu gave him a strange look.
"Some time ago, I recorded a similar sound and played it from the lighthouse towards the ocean...'Let's be friends. I want to meet you.'... One day, I heard the same voice calling back to me from over the ocean. 'I want to meet you, too. I want to be friends.' It was answering me back... Some foggy night, that Pokémon might come here to meet a friend it's been seeking for a very long time." He smiled suddenly. "I would be so happy to meet that Pokémon!"
"Are you going to try to capture that Pokémon?" Misty asked.
"Why would I need to capture it?" Bill asked in return, turning to them. "Meeting it would be enough for me. Just a chance to study it would make my long wait worthwhile." He seemed ready to speak more until they heard an explosion.
"WE'RE BLASTING OFF AGAIN!"
Everyone turned towards the voices and saw something fly across the sky and soon disappeared.
DING!
"Something tells me that that was Team Rocket." Brock guessed.
"And they must have angered a Pokémon nearby which caused them to get blasted off." Luneth added.
Suddenly they all heard a resounding sound come from the foggy ocean, making them all return to watching the sea.
There, seeming to stand on the water was a silhouetted figure what Luneth easily identified as a Dragonite, certainly not the only of its kind like Bill seemed to think, but definitely the largest of its species, as large and tall as the cliff and the lighthouse it was holding. That Dragonite was Godzilla sized and might well be the only known Dragonite to have ever grown so big.
"The signal!" Bill gasped as the others watched the large Pokémon wading towards them ever so slowly in shock and awe. The sound Bill had recorded played in the background as the lighthouse light, for some reason, began to flash in different colors.
"It sounds like it's singing." Misty said softly, closing her eyes, her hands clasped together as she enjoyed the soft melody.
"Would you care to dance?" Brock asked, bowing to Misty like an old-time gentleman.
Misty turned to him, a little surprised, before smiling at his offer and curtsying in return. "Oh, thank you."
Bill, Luneth, Alain and Ash were still glued to the railing, watching the Pokémon in awe as Ginko, Chespie and Pikachu swayed cutely to the music. Dragonite walked until it finally reached the lighthouse. The Pokémon was so big and tall it reached from both the seafloor to the top of the lighthouse.
Luneth took out her Pokédex:
[Dragonite, the dragon Pokémon. This extremely rare and highly intelligent type is able to fly faster than any known Pokémon.]
"A Dragonite huh?" Luneth and Alain asked in unison.
"That's a Dragonite?!" Ash gasped.
The Dragonite showed itself to the group and lowered its head to Bill.
"I see, so you are a Dragonite," Bill said to Dragonite, rubbing its head, "let's be friends forever."
Dragonite roared in happiness. Luneth and the others were happy for Bill to finally meet the giant Pokémon.
Luneth was glad that Bill finally got to meet Dragonite. Bill deserved to have a friend while he lived up here in the lighthouse.
It was the next morning, Bill and Dragonite were saying their goodbyes to the group.
"I cannot thank you three enough for being here with me last night, when I finally met Dragonite." Bill thanked the group.
"You're welcome, Bill." Ash smiled.
"I just hope your friendship with Dragonite will last forever." Luneth, Mairin and Misty smiled.
"If you're looking for Vermilion City, it's not far from here," Bill said, "Oh and Luneth I have something to ask you." He handed Luneth six Pokéballs. "These Pokéballs contain the six Eevee's, I've decided to give them to you."
"Me?" Luneth asked in surprise.
"Yes," Bill nodded, "After seeing the Eevee's bond with you very quickly and for seeing your passion about Pokémon last night, I decided you're perfect for them."
"Wow thank you Bill," Luneth smiled, "I promise you to take good care of them."
"I know you will." Bill smiled back.
After the six Eevee's were sent to Prof. Oak's, the group had set off to Vermilion City.
Pokémon Obtained:
Luneth: Shiny Eevee (Ginko)(F), Pidgeot (Cardinal)(M), Sandshrew (Digger)(M), Scyther (Hecate)(F), Shiny Riolu (Cairo)(M), Shiny Snivy (Minerva)(F)
Alain: Charizard (M), Metagross (Genderless), Unfezant (M), Steelix (M), Zubat (M), Shiny Zorua (M), Frigibax (M)
Mairin: Chespin (Chespie)(M), Gogoat (Grazer)(F), Paras (Kinoko)(F), Clefairy (Pixie)(F), Petilil (Lily)(F), Sewaddle (Taylor)(F)
Professor Oak's Lab:
Luneth: Nidoran (Fonda)(F), Beautifly (Choko)(F), Swablu (Avaley)(F), Mankey (Bruce)(M), Buizel (Itachi)(M), Clefable (Shayla)(F), Shiny Feebas (Moana)(F), Shiny Charizard (Freya)(F), Shiny Fennekin (Rogue)(F), Mienfoo (Mulan)(F), Glaceon (Aira)(F), Leafeon (Patia)(F), Gengar (Jasper)(M), Shiny Chimchar (Pyro)(F), Galarian Ponyta (Nelia)(F), Shiny Chespin (Eithne)(F), Alolan Raichu (Capala)(M), Rockruff (Remus)(M), Meowstic (Yuki)(F), Oshawott (Morrow)(M), Eevee (M), Eevee (F), Eevee (F), Shiny Eevee (M), Eevee (F), Eevee (F)
Alain: Beedrill (M), Nidoran (M), Scyther (M), Tyranitar (M), Chestnaught (M), Hisuian Braviary (M), Shiny Squirtle (M), Piplup (M), Cufant (F), Lokix (M), Magby (M), Axew (M), Rockruff (M), Alakazam (M), Meowstic (M)
Mairin: Butterfree (Nabi)(M), Clefairy (Pixie)(F), Flabébé (Bébé)(F), Grookey (Hiro)(M), Pansage (Sage)(M), Turtwig (Ardan)(M), Skitty (Kissa)(F)
