Chapter 32 – Bill’s Cottage
Chapter 32 – Bill’s Cottage
“2B! We meet in person, at last! I’d almost given into the temptation to go find you at Oak’s! Would have, probably, if he hadn’t let me in on the secret that he was intending to prod you into taking a Journey!”
2B smiled, letting the man in his mid-30s shake one of her hands enthusiastically with both of his. She’d ‘met’ him a number of times via videocall, so she wasn’t surprised by his energy. He might be an introvert that liked living away from people for the most part, but if you were someone he’d decided he liked, he could be extremely lively.
“Hello, Bill. I am pleased we are finally meeting in person as well.”
Bill practically towed her into the house, barely seeming to notice Zoey at all, though he did wave her along after them.
“Come, come! I’ve had so many ideas! That last set of algorithms you sent me before you left on your Journey was just marvelous! I think they might be useable to evolve a Porygon2, just like you thought! Without the…dubiousness…of the previous program that was known to pull that off, too!”
Following along with Bill’s enthusiasm, 2B blinked as she was pulled into a lab nearly as sophisticated as Professor Oak’s own. She’d known, just from reading up on the man, that Bill had done far more work that just inventing the Pokémon Storage System. While that was by far the thing he was best known for, he’d also worked heavily on teleportation technology, among other things. Both teleportation tech for moving pokémon around, and even for limited human use. Though the latter had gotten slapped with some fairly hefty restrictions by the various Leagues. You needed licenses to own and operate even the most basic of them.
Honestly, it had been a sensible move as far as 2B was concerned. Teleporters would make it much too easy to do things like smuggle or reach restricted areas, if the technology was generally available. The only type of teleporters consumers could outright buy were only good for a few dozen meters. Useful in some places, like the massive shopping complex in Celadon City that had them on every floor now.
Any human-capable teleportation devices longer range than that were heavily restricted. Which didn’t stop powerful enough psychics or people with Psychic-type pokemon from doing the same thing, obviously. But human psychics that could pull that off were vanishingly rare, and even Psychic pokémon becoming powerful enough to transfer themselves and their partners long-distance was fairly unusual.
“Right, right…where is it, where is it…”
Bill, having finally let go of 2B’s hand, was busy rummaging around in a pile of discs. She, however, was more interested in what else was in the lab. Specifically…the Eevee. Quite a number of them, as well as several of their evolutions. Even Professor Oak’s ranch didn’t have a complete set of known ‘Eeveelutions,’ but 2B knew for a fact that Bill did have them all. They were his favorite pokémon and he always sought to add to his collection when new evolutions were discovered.
While the entire collection of their types wasn’t present in the lab, there were several on hand. She even saw a Sylveon, which was impressive, given that it was the most recently discovered type. The condition of having to both know a Fairy-type move and have a strong bond with its Trainer had made their existence incredibly rare. So much so that the exact conditions by which one evolved had been unknown until quite recently.
“Ah, here it is! The Upgrade-2! I haven’t actually gotten a chance to try it with a Porygon2, but I’m almost certain it will work! Here, let me show you the code I came up with, using the seed you gave me!”
2B let herself get sucked into Bill’s enthusiasm, even as she saw Zoey carefully trying to tempt a few of the Eevee into playing with her…
… … …
It was well into the evening when Bill, who had invited them to stay in his guest room after realizing he’d kept 2B for several hours, finally ran out of things to excitedly ask 2B about. At least for now. Both girls got the impression he’d have a dozen more by morning, and a hundred more within a few days at most. Thankfully, 2B had been at least somewhat interested in most of it, and Zoey hadn’t exactly minded the chance to play with all the Eevee and their evolutions once they warmed up to her. It was as the three humans sat in Bill’s living room, 2B and Zoey both having an Eevee in their lap, that Bill surprised them.
“Well now, those two seem to like both of you. How would you like to take them with you?”
Both Eevee perked up, eyes and ears twitching towards Bill, then back to the respective girl they’d settled on the lap of. Zoey meanwhile, blurted out her response while 2B was still processing the idea.
“Wait, what?! But Eevee are super rare!”
Bill chuckled at her expression, his own thoroughly amused as he rubbed his Sylveon’s ears.
“In truth, that isn’t actually the case. Eevee aren’t rare at all, so much as they are artificially scarce. Admittedly, you rarely find them in the wild, but they are legitimately one of the most bred pokémon of any region. It’s just that they are also so popular as companion pokémon that they are artificially scarce, due to people being willing to pay quite a lot for Eevee companions.”
Gesturing to the two Eevee in their laps, his voice changed slightly. It had gained a bit of an annoyed edge when explaining the ‘truth,’ only for it to level out to something happier as he continued.
“I, as it happened, am considered one of the best Eevee breeders in the world. The truth is, though, that I got that title entirely by accident. You see, I don’t breed my Eevee as companion pokémon. Not unless that is what they want to be. Instead, I encourage them to be whatever the dream of…which just so happens to mean that my Eevee are widely regarded as the foremost ‘battler’ Eevee.”
His voice turned annoyed again, and his face scrunched into a bit of a scowl.
“Of course, that means Trainers are constantly bothering me for my Eevee. But I refuse to sell them. I don’t need the money, and each andevery one of them deserves to find a good Trainer. Not some pompous twit that thinks having too much money to throw around makes him a decent human being, let alone a good Trainer….”
Sylveon apparently didn’t like the way her companion’s emotions were swinging, as she captured the hand petting her and gently nipped it. Bill looked down in surprise, then smiled and playfully wrestled with her for a few moments. Eventually, he shook himself and smiled back up at them, Sylveon now content with him returning to petting her.
“Anyway, enough about idiots that don’t deserve the awesomeness of Eevee! Those two that found you are both battlers at heart. In fact, I suspect the little rascals glommed onto you hoping I might take the hint! 2B is someone I trust completely with one of my Eevee, and I admit I looked into you when I saw you were traveling with her, Miss Zoey. Quite an impressive Contest career, even if you’ve switched the battling this year!”
He looked awkward for a moment as Zoey stared at him at that, coughing before shamelessly moving on.
“You don’t do that well in Contests unless you’re a great Trainer, of the right sort! You’ve also, from looking at your previous lineup, raised one before. A Leafeon, correct? Given both of those points, I feel completely comfortable in letting one of my Eevee go with you. 2B was always going to get such an offer anyway, if literally any of my current batch wanted to go with her. So, what do the two of you say?”
For Zoey, it was an absolute no brainer. Whatever Bill said about their rarity being artificial, the fact remained that it was hard to get your hands on an Eevee at all, let alone one that wanted to be more than just a companion. She was well aware how lucky she’d gotten with Leafeon, and Leafeon wasn’t a battler at heart.
“Yes! If you’re serious, I will absolutely take Eevee with me! And I promise I’ll help her become the best she can be! If that’s a certain eeveloution that she wants to shoot for, or even if she wants to stay an Eevee!”
Bill grinned, visibly delighted by her answer.
“Done! I’ll transfer her to you tonight! How about you, 2B?”
2B had paused to think much longer about the question that Zoey had. Admittedly, that was somewhat understandable. With the Buneary she’d just caught, she not only had a brand new pokémon already, but only a single remaining slot in her carry capacity. The fact that she had stabling access via the Oak Ranch didn’t change the fact that she could only have six teammates with her at any one time. Though it was an issue that would crop up for her sooner or later.
Serious battlers needed more than just the six pokémon for tournament use, if nothing else. Healing machines didn’t completely erase mental and Type Energy fatigue. Something which meant running the same exact team through multiple rounds of battling on multiple days was considered foolish at the higher levels. Both because your team would get weaker for each fight, and because it wasn’t good for the pokémon themselves.
It wasn’t as much of an issue with smaller tournaments, where battles were often only 2 v 2 or 3 v 3. But at the League Conference level, swapping at least some of your team between rounds was considered best practice. The Nurse Joys even could and would deny your right to continue if you tried to use pokémon that they considered insufficiently recovered.
“I accept. I believe Eevee will make a fine addition to my team, whatever path she chooses to pursue.”
Thankfully for Zoey’s sanity, 2B’s hesitation hadn’t lasted long. Just long enough for her to run through the same thoughts Zoey had on the subject and weigh the pros and cons. As far as Zoey was concerned, the choice had still been obvious. Very few ‘battle minded’ Eevee refused to evolve. Since all of their evolutions were potent pokémon, and getting one this early in the season meant time to bond and train with them, it was still an easy calculation to Zoey’s mind.
“Excellent! I’m quite sure you’ll both do amazing with them! I’ll transfer my notes for the twins when I transfer them too you!”
It was nice that they wouldn’t be guessing, and…wait…did Bill just say these two Eevee were TWINS? Gaping a little as she processed that, Zoey looked back and forth and quickly realized the pair didn’t look merely close to the same, but identical.
“It will be so nice that they found Trainers travelling together to go with! That way they don’t have to part ways just yet!”
Abruptly feeling like the pair of them might just have been played by either Bill or the Eevee, who were now trying to look innocent, Zoey sighed and shook her head. Oh well, she’d be better off putting her energy into thinking up a nickname. She didn’t normally indulge in that with her pokémon, but with two identical twin Eevee around, she suspected it might be necessary…
… … …
… … …
Eevee (2B’s)
Gender: Female
Type: Normal
Moves Known: Tackle, Sand Attack, Growl, Baby Doll Eyes, Charm
… … …
2B hummed as she looked at the results of her first scan of Eevee, handling the pokédex over to Zoey a moment later so she could scan her own new pokémon with the higher-quality lab ‘dex. Eevee’s move pool was far more limited than 2B was used to, even for her captures, but such a thing made sense. It was, after all, quite young and not a wild pokémon. It did have an interesting extra in the move Charm that wasn’t standard at all. Did having two Fairy Type moves attract it to 2B, who had begun using some limited amount of that type of aura?
Her pokédex ‘dinged’ again, something that made her face twitch as she still hadn’t figured out how to make it stop doing that. She couldn’t find a single line of code anywhere that was responsible for that thrice-accursed ding! Maybe she should have asked Bill about it? She shook the thought off as unimportant, as Zoey tilted the ‘dex so that 2B could see the results. Interestingly, despite the two being identical twins, their move pool wasn’t identical.
… … …
Eevee (Zoeys’s)
Gender: Female
Type: Normal
Moves Known: Tackle, Sand Attack, Growl, Bite, Curse
… … …
A Dark and Ghost type move? 2B knew that one member of Zoey’s ‘primary’ team was a ghost type, and her Purugly had a predisposition to using some Dark type moves. Was there something to her earlier thought that their extra moves might have cause the two Eevee to target who they did? Or was that reading too much into things? Zoey handed her the ‘dex back after a few more moments and dug her fingers into rub her Eevee’s ears. 2B’s own nudged her hand firmly until she smiled and did the same.
“A fair bit of work to do, with these two, but they have solid foundations at least. I’m thinking they might both need a bit of a ranged punch, after we get them up to snuff with basic conditioning and handling orders.”
Zoey nodded in agreement as they settled into snuggle with both each other and their newest teammates…
... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: Uh-huh. Sure Bill, it is TOTALLLY an 'accident' that you keep turning yourself into pokemon over various versions of the game with a 'teleporter failure.' We believe you...
A/N 2: Several people have mentioned 2B possibly creating code for Porygon, and it does kinda make sense, assuming she understands even a fraction of how YoRHa androids were coded. So...a less Dubious option for a Porygon evolution! I have no idea if she'll ever get a Porygon, admittedly.
A/N 3: The Eevee. No, I didn't run a poll for these two...yet. First, Bill is by far the most likely way to acquire Eevee, given he goes giving them away to protagonists in various game generations. I decided, since he's considered a Pokemon Manic, that him doing some breeding of them makes sense of why he always has a low level one just 'on hand' to give away. As for why BOTH girls got one, it honestly just didn't feel right for only 2B to get one, and Bill wasn't likely to give one to Zoey but not 2B, who he's worked with and likes.
As for why I said not YET on the poll. Well, that should be obvious. Eevee means Eevloutions! So, eventually, I'll run two polls for what each of their Eevee will evolve into.