Redi was aware of just how much information Sam had given her. She knew just how valuable every little ounce was. That’s why she tried so hard to help Sam in return. While they were friends and while friends always helped each other, she didn’t want to only take. So she always kept an eye out for ways she could pay him back, doing things like staying up to date on local events, talking to other trainers on his behalf, and helping his team train their physical might as often as she could.

  But she wanted to do more. He’d done so much for her and her team, and everything she’d done were things she would have done anyway because, again, they were friends. While the needs of their teams meant they had to split up until the Conference, she could at least gather as many surprises for him as possible for when they reunited in Silver Town.

  That meant Redi was doing the impossible: she was getting better at research. She’d already been reading a bunch of books to better understand Porygon and Dragonair, but now she was trying to learn information Sam wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to learn about his team.

  The biggest one was sensory abilities—a more general understanding of them, that is. She had Tibia and Fibula with her to help protect Porygon, and those two Gastly had been trained to sense hostile intent. While Redi knew Sam was training his Ghost Types to do the same, he hadn’t yet looked into how that worked. And, thanks to all the opportunities Mr. Pokémon provided, she had plenty of chances to ask researchers exactly why and how Pokémon could sense others.

  Each time she met someone for Ursaring’s evolution—usually a Pokémon scientist or a geologist, weirdly enough—she posed the same set of questions to learn what they knew. Their experiences would give her pieces of the answer, or they would direct her to some kind of useful book. All of that together let her combine what she knew into a basic summary of sensing; from what she concluded, she learned that four primary Types carried general sensory abilities, and anything else was more specific or was only developed by certain species.

  The first of those four Types capable of wide-ranged sensing was the Ghost Type, of course, but the list of things the Ghost Type could sense was actually pretty limited. Really, Ghost Types could only detect spirits and hostile intent, but they didn’t actually sense intent. Ghost Types were drawn toward negative feelings capable of priming an area to spawn more Ghost Types, and then that instinctual draw was what could be trained into a more general feeling.

  Next on the list were Psychic Types, but their capabilities were pretty obvious. Some could “sense” in that they got glimpses of possible futures, and others could more explicitly detect others’ minds. However, out of all of the Types that could sense things, the Psychic Type was the least directed. They cast a wide net, so small things tended to slip through. Bug Types especially were often ignored simply because they disrupted Psychic Types due to their nearly alien, almost hive-like mindset.

  Lastly, the final two Types that came up seemed to have some way to sense others, but they were a bit more general, and the researchers’ comments often disagreed. Some brought up the Fighting Type as a possibility, and the occasional, weathered book would reference something called “aura” or “fighting spirit.” Apparently, some exceptionally trained Fighting Types could outright see life energy.

  Meanwhile—and this was the one that caused the most arguments—some claimed that the Fairy Type could sense emotions. However, that one was the vaguest with the least coherent arguments, and the few researchers from Indigo that did accept the Fairy Type’s existence weren’t sure if its emotion-sensing capabilities were tied to the Type itself or just a few specific species.

  Other than that, there were other forms of highly specific sensory abilities, like how some Ground Types could detect seismic waves or how some Electric Types could detect magnetic fields. However, those capabilities varied from species to species, so it was really just those four Types that could be used for widespread detection of people and Pokémon.

  ...But all of that was just a distraction. As she stood at the side of the road, Redi silently went over everything she had learned just because she didn’t want to think about what came next. She needed to focus, yet it felt as though she had an impossible task.

  Because before her was a house. A simple one. Two stories tall with a small staircase leading up to its door, it looked exactly like every other nearby square building that had been pressed into a line to form this Goldenrod City block.

  This place looked so unassuming, but something dangerous lurked inside. It took Redi several minutes to gather the confidence that she needed to knock on its front door.

  “Hello?”

  Her voice almost seemed to echo through the building as her knuckles banged against the door’s wood.

  If she had her Pokémon out with her, she would have felt better, but Mr. Pokémon had made it clear that she was to keep them in their Pokéballs for now. Their presence would have made this a scene, and the man she was about to meet valued privacy over all things.

  Forcing herself to keep her head high, she knocked until she noticed a doorbell off to her side. The second she pressed the button, loud clattering came from within. The ring echoed out, and then a man’s voice yelped in surprise.

  “One minute!” that same voice shouted once he seemed to gather himself back up.

  Waiting, Redi took a deep breath and held it. She only allowed herself to breathe again once the door opened ten seconds later.

  “Yes?” The man looked slightly out of breath and honestly rather surprised.

  “Hello,” Redi said, speaking as professionally as she could. “My name is Redi. Mr. Pokémon contacted you on my behalf. I... I have a Porygon on my team that needs your help. Please. You’re Bill, right?”

  Staring down at her, the richest man in all of Indigo blinked his eyes. Just like the house he was in, he looked completely unassuming. She wouldn’t have sent him a second glance if she passed him on the street.

  But he was important. Impossibly so. Bill developed the Pokémon transfer system completely on his own and was in the process of ensuring that critical technology was spread across the globe.

  Yet he was also tired. While his eyes were bright, they carried deep bags, and it was pretty obvious that he’d been wearing his purple polo shirt for at least a full day. His curly brown hair was a mess on his head, but his expression still lit up when Redi said her name.

  “Yes! Of course! Oh man, that was today? Sorry! I should really get my electronic planner set up, but, uh... I’ve been busy?” He laughed, awkwardly scratching the back of his head while fully pulling open the door. “Come in—and forgive the mess! I have everything set up upstairs.”

  He spun on a heel to stride deeper into the house, and Redi had to be the one to close the door behind them.

  (Tibia and Fibula shot inside right after her by darting from shadow to shadow. They didn’t stay in her own shadow under her feet as Redi couldn’t handle that freezing feeling that came from Ghost Types being in there. She had no idea how Sam was so capable of withstanding that, especially since the feeling grew for every extra Ghost Type. For now, Tibia and Fibula stuck around to keep an eye out for her team, but they’d likely be returned to Violet City once the Conference was over.)

  “Porygon is really quite an interesting species,” Bill began as he strode further inside. “Originally–and currently–Porygon were used solely for research. Their origin was actually a mistake; if you make a computer advanced enough, inevitably, something resembling a Porygon will spawn. It then tends to develop from there.”

  Bill weaved through stacks and stacks of papers that filled his house. He knew exactly where to step, but Redi could barely find a path through that maze.

  To her side, a couch filled with take-out containers sat in a messy living room, and a television on the wall blasted the local news.

  Huh. Goldenrod just had its major tournament. I missed that.

  She frowned at the familiar trainer holding up a gold trophy. Xavier’s expression was just as neutral as ever, but she also felt as though that just made him seem even more smug than usual.

  When Bill reached the entrance to a staircase leading up, he paused with his hand on the wall, looking over his shoulder as Redi struggled to follow after him.

  “Most researchers are still in the process of trying to discover the specific conditions needed for a Porygon to spawn,” he said. “Practically all of them have found nothing, but a few Porygon have been created mostly through a fluke. Even more, there are plenty of others trying to obtain a Porygon for themselves, but that’s really just due to wanting to make use of the species’s skill with electronic management. But you...” His words briefly trailed off. “But you obtained a Porygon completely outside any of that.”

  “So what?” Redi asked, finally managing to catch up to him.

  “So what?” Bill repeated as he blinked in confusion. “So that means you’re the only person that’s actually been using a Porygon to battle!”

  Excitedly, he climbed the staircase two steps at a time, and Redi hurried after him. The mess wasn’t as bad in this stairwell, but there were plenty of dirty coffee mugs that had been pushed to the stairs’ sides.

  “I have a computer up here. It’s one of my first, so it’s a little outdated even though I try as hard as I can to keep it in line with others. It might not be as fast as other devices, but it has basically all of my files. It should give us plenty of chances to see how a Porygon interacts with filesystems, but I have a few personal curiosities I want to check out first.”

  “Isn’t that why we’re here?” Redi asked. “I wanted help with Porygon, and Mr. Pokémon told me you’d give us that in exchange for their help in return.”

  Bill sent her a curious look.

  “Sure,” he said, “but it’s all tied together! I don’t know what Mr. Pokémon told you, but your research is my research! Well, I mean, I’m actually researching a lot of stuff, but Porygon is really interesting. Just like you’re the only one to put a Porygon into battle, you’re also the only one to posit that the species can evolve!”

  He looked excited, and Redi realized that she couldn’t forget one of Bill’s other titles. As important as he was to so many regions’ transfer architecture, he was also famously referred to as a “Pokémaniac.”

  The staircase didn’t lead them to the usual kind of second floor. Instead, it opened up into a massive room so big that Bill had likely bought the neighboring houses just to knock out their walls.

  “There. In the center. I affectionately call it ‘The Machine,’” he said.

  Redi scrunched up her nose.

  It was just a tube of metal covered in wires. It had a big keyboard and monitor, but they looked even more outdated than some of the PCs found in Pokémon Centers. The monitor didn’t even have any graphics on it. It only displayed lines of text.

  The rest of the room was similarly unimpressive.

  All around this massive space, computer and machine parts littered the floor, and piles upon piles of paper lay scattered in seemingly random stacks. There were plenty of cardboard boxes as well, with a decent amount piled up next to that central computer. A few of them were open, and inside them, Redi could see rows of neatly organized cards covered in punched holes.

  “Now where was...”

  After taking a moment to lovingly stare at his invention, Bill tore his gaze away and marched to the side of the room. A mound of loose papers sat before him, and he shoved in an arm to dig through them before yanking something out.

  He held the back of a shirt in his hand. A young girl about half of Redi’s age dangled in his grip.

  “Brother?”

  The girl yawned and rubbed her eyes as if she had just been woken up from a nap. Bill carefully placed her on the floor before giving her a sharp look with his hands on his hips.

  “What did I tell you about using my notes as a blanket?”

  “Just grab a real blanket if I can, or only use your notes from college?”

  He narrowed his eyes. The girl suddenly wilted.

  “Oh no. You said to not use your notes from college. I’m sorry. I forgot.”

  Bemused, Bill sighed and then regained a slight smile.

  “Sister,” he said, very intentionally not using her actual name, “we have a guest. This is Redi. Redi, this is my sister.”

  Bill was rich, and while he carried a lot of influence, he also tried his best to make sure his family could continue living a normal life. While it was a show of trust to allow Redi in here, it was also clear he didn’t want to risk leaking more pertinent details about his family’s identities.

  “Nice to meet you?” Redi offered.

  “Sure,” Bill’s sister said.

  She yawned again and then turned around to dig through the pile as well. Like Bill had, she pulled something out, but she kept it in her arms instead of placing it back on the ground.

  “And this is Eevee,” the girl said.

  The brown-furred Pokémon remained asleep in her arms.

  Bill spoke up once the introductions were done.

  “I grew up in Goldenrod, but my main place of residence is over in Cerulean,” he said. “This building isn’t my home, it’s just a place I stay while visiting my family. Of course, that means my family can also visit me, but we can make use of that!”

  Behind him, Bill’s sister stuck out her tongue at him, but she hastily withdrew it before he turned back around. She kept quiet as Bill crouched before her, and then he sent her a soft look.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Redi came here for my help. I want to help her, but I also want to know if you’d be willing to help us.”

  The girl frowned, but then her eyes widened in realization a second later.

  “Oh. You need Eevee?” she asked.

  “Yup. I need Eevee,” Bill replied.

  She smiled ever so slightly and then looked around. Her eyes lingered on the center of the room, and she skipped over to its conspicuously open space.

  Behind her, Bill clapped his hands once. He walked up to Redi while asking a question.

  “So! Redi, what can you tell me about Porygon?”

  “Um, they eat programs, and…”

  She went on to explain everything she’d observed about Porygon’s species. Their eating habits, their training issues, as well as every move and skill they’d learned.

  “But I think… out of everything, I’m most worried about who they are,” Redi said at the end. “There are times I think I almost see something, but it's like they can't form original thoughts or act by themself. Porygon follows commands, and I can have them memorize pre-set orders, but when it comes to making decisions...”

  “Alright!” Bill said. “How about you show me all of that in a battle?”

  Redi sent him a questioning look, and he simply smiled and gestured to his sister. The young girl had placed her Eevee on the floor and was now in the process of trying to nudge it awake.

  “My sister and Eevee have been training together. They want to go on a journey once they’re both more grown up. I’d love to see how your Porygon battles, and they’re the perfect opponents for this. They’d also appreciate the chance to have a practice battle, too.”

  Redi eyed her would-be opponent. Bill’s sister was young, and her Eevee was clearly unpracticed.

  But there was something there. They weren’t totally inexperienced. And letting Bill see her and Porygon fight in a match could be important, especially since he was smart enough to piece together anything she might have missed.

  “Got it,” Redi said. “So do I just stay here, or...”

  “I think over there will be good. I keep the center of this room open so my sister can train, but there should be enough space to support a short battle like this.”

  Redi found an open spot and faced Bill’s sister. The floor was mostly clean, but a handful of loose papers remained scattered around.

  “Rely on half power for this battle, Porygon,” Redi whispered to her Pokémon’s Pokéball.

  Bill’s expression lit up when he saw Porygon appear. His sister’s Eevee suddenly looked more alert, now properly waking up when it recognized it was about to take part in a match.

  “You can go first!” Bill’s sister called out.

  Redi raised an eyebrow.

  “Cocky, huh?” she asked.

  “Don’t underestimate us because we’re young!”

  “I’m not underestimating you! I can just tell how strong you and your Pokémon are.”

  The girl snorted. Redi eyed both her and the Eevee.

  I’ll start easy. We can’t be seen as weak, but we can’t exactly bully Bill’s sister, either.

  The younger girl stood on her side of the “field,” rocking on her feet with her arms held behind her back. She looked impatient for the battle to begin, and Redi wasn’t one to tackle things slowly. So, Redi went ahead and gave the first command.

  “Jab!” she shouted.

  It wasn’t a fancy code name like her other chain commands, but it wasn’t like this was a fancy strategy, either. Porygon simply enhanced themself with a Sharpen, and then they lunged for a simple, enhanced Tackle.

  “Like developing sharper polygons in a three-dimensional graphic...” Bill mumbled quietly. “Appears almost computer-generated. I bet I could make an identical model easily enough.”

  As interested as he was at the sight of Sharpen, his sister almost looked insulted.

  “Just that? Really?” she asked with a scoff. “Eevee! Barrage them with Swift!”

  Her Eevee backflipped to jump over Porygon—an excessive way to move but something they had clearly trained—and then it swung its tail through the air. Stars were left in the fluffy swish’s wake that then rushed where Porygon floated.

  But it was just a low-level Swift. Those stars had nothing on how Sam’s Typhlosion could use the move.

  “Take them,” Redi ordered. “Use Recover into Lock-On.”

  “Lock-On?” Bill said to himself. “And Recover?”

  The stars hit, and though scuff marks were left on Porygon’s side, they shone with a light that then caused them to disappear. Bill’s sister called for her Eevee to use Quick Attack, attempting to have her Pokémon circle around, but Porygon rotated in place to track it, unerringly locking their eyes onto Eevee’s own.

  “Charge Beam,” Redi ordered.

  “Sand-Attack!” Bill’s sister called out.

  Another backflip, and another swish of its tail. This time around, Ground Type energy let Eevee conjure and toss out sand, but Porygon’s aim wasn’t disrupted. Lock-On ensured that Porygon’s Charge Beam would always hit.

  Mid-air, Eevee attempted to twist around to try to minimize the damage it was about to take, but it was still struck. Though the damage was significant for a Pokémon at its level, it stayed conscious thanks to Porygon lowering the output of their move. However, the force of the Electric Type attack still saw Eevee be knocked back, but credit to it, Eevee managed to spin in the air to land on its paws.

  But it had still taken plenty of damage from that one attack.

  Regardless, it pushed on.

  It’s nice to see that it’s trained, but we’re way stronger. No sense in letting this go for too long. We should finish the match before we disappoint Bill.

  Redi grinned to herself as the energies of Charge Beam suffused Porygon to boost their special attack. She pointed forward the same moment Bill’s sister called out, but she let the younger girl speak first.

  “Fine! If you’re going to attack from range, then we’ll get in close! Use Take Down, Eevee!”

  Even though the recoil from Take Down would just see Eevee faint—Bill’s sister clearly lacked battle experience—Redi still wanted to show off one final move.

  “Tri-Attack!” Redi yelled.

  Bill sucked in a breath. His sister, annoyed as she recognized what was about to happen, kicked at the floor.

  Three motes of energy formed in front of Porygon. Fire, ice, and electricity energy combined into a neutral sum. Those three points then connected to form a triangle, and they spun and spun and spun and were launched out at their opponent.

  Eevee tried to flip away once more, but its movement only looked impressive. Flips weren’t the fastest or most efficient way to dodge, and the Pokémon was struck, the move bursting in a chaotic mass of energy against its fur.

  The Tri-Attack inflicted its full damage and launched Eevee back. The Pokémon hit the floor, bouncing once. It was clear that it had fainted.

  “Eevee!”

  Bill’s sister ran to where Eevee had landed. She scooped her unconscious Pokémon into her arms and sent Redi a glare.

  Redi smiled back.

  “We didn’t really get to show it off, but I have other commands we could have used. Orbital Porygon Space Cannon is my favorite—it’s Magnet Rise, Lock-On, and Zap Cannon to give them the height needed to unleash their strongest attack with perfect aim.”

  She then froze, feeling like the dumbest trainer in the world.

  “Wait, what did I do?! I didn’t show off Conversion! Ugh, that’s like their best thing! Porygon can change their Type based on their last move!”

  With her shout of “Conversion,” Porygon immediately followed that command. On the field, pixels rippled across their body, but nothing changed. Their last used move was the Normal Type Tri-Attack, so they maintained their current Type.

  “Actually, I’ve seen Conversion before. You don’t need to worry,” Bill said. “Most researchers just think of it as a curiosity rather than anything useful for battle, though.”

  “...Huh. Why?” Redi asked. “Conversion’s pretty quick and can be super useful. If you time it well, you can change Porygon’s Type for defense—or even better! It’s great at enhancing their attacks!”

  Bill rubbed his chin.

  “Fond of strong moves?” he asked.

  Redi met his look with a cheeky grin.

  “Only the strongest for my team!” she said with a good amount of cheer.

  Behind them, Bill’s sister carried her Eevee to one of the boxes at the side of the room and dug through to pull out a diamond-shaped capsule of a Revive. Cracking it open, she scattered the healing dust over her Pokémon, and her Eevee slowly came to as the exceptionally strong medicine rapidly cured its wounds.

  She then shot Redi another glare.

  “You're mean.”

  Redi's eye twitched.

  “Yeah? Well, you're annoying.”

  Bill was too busy staring at Porygon to notice that exchange. Both Redi and Bill’s sister stuck out their tongues at one another, and their taunts lasted until Bill finally spoke.

  “You're programming them.”

  Surprised, Redi stopped what she was doing to look up.

  “Huh?”

  “Your Porygon,” he said. “Based on what you described with that ‘Cannon’ strategy and your demonstration of ‘Jab,’ it’s pretty obvious that you're training them as if they're a program. So let me ask you a question: how complex of a command can you input?”

  “...Input? I wouldn't call it that,” Redi grumbled, but she did go on to speak normally. “I guess it's just been some basic but specific stuff. I have commands that represent chains of moves, and then I also have a system that lets me call out positions on the field.”

  Bill nodded.

  “I see. I see! Functions and variables, then. So for food, based on what you said earlier, what kind of programs do you feed them?”

  Redi brought out her graphing calculator. She would regularly restock it with downloadable programs each time they visited a Pokémon Center. Sending him a nervous glance, she handed it to Bill. He went on to hit its buttons to scroll through the device’s current entries, and as he did, he gained a strange look in his eyes while taking them all in.

  “Have Porygon enter my computer,” he said suddenly.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I have a theory,” Bill answered, looking back up. “Don't worry about my stuff—I have backups. I just need you to send Porygon directly in.”

  Cautiously, Redi looked over to her Pokémon and nodded. Rather than gesture for any signal, she simply repeated Bill’s request as a command.

  “Enter the machine in the center,” she ordered.

  Porygon floated over and passed through the towering device’s screen.

  “Interesting,” Bill said quietly. “Look. They’ve appeared as a sprite in the corner. The Machine shouldn’t have that kind of display functionality. Porygon even has their colors!”

  Porygon stood out from the lines of text on the green-black screen. They waited in the bottom-right corner, resembling a sort of pop-up that seemed poised to ask Bill if he needed assistance.

  “Tell them to eat something,” Bill then prodded.

  “What kind of program?” Redi asked.

  She didn’t receive a response right away.

  Instead, Bill paused, silently staring at his computer’s screen and Porygon on it. A strange look entered his eyes as the corner of his mouth curved up for a smile. The room felt utterly silent for a single moment before he finally gave his one-word answer.

  “Everything.”

  To that, Redi nodded once.

  “Alright. Got it! So you hear that, Porygon?” Redi called out. “Feel free to do what you want! Feast as much as you can!”

  Immediately, text began to scroll through the screen. Filenames and commands were entered one at a time before turning into more complicated strings. Redi was somewhat familiar with the process from the times she had Porygon clean out the calculator as a reward. This time around, however, was something else, and the rate at which Porygon was “eating” began to rapidly speed up.

  “It's fast.” The comment came from Bill's sister, who moved up to them while carrying the now-conscious Eevee in her arms. “And it's getting faster.”

  “It is,” Bill answered. “And I think… This confirms my theory. Redi, I believe Porygon is a datavore.”

  “I already knew that,” she said flatly.

  Bill just shook his head.

  “No. You thought Porygon ate data for sustenance, and while I do think there's some truth in that, there's also something else to it. Eating programs like this isn't just fueling them. It’s also giving them information they use to learn.”

  “So, what, they’re only improving because they’ve been eating?” Redi asked. “Training Porygon didn’t matter? The only reason they got stronger at all was just because they were feeding on programs?”

  She tasted something sour in her mouth, but Bill shook his head again.

  “No, both were important. For this, Porygon needed the experience. When it comes to true understanding... That's a more complicated subject. Porygon could have never gained what was needed through consuming data alone.”

  On the screen, command lines changed from long, complicated strings to full-on functions and then pages of code. Words upon words appeared and then flashed away as Porygon continued their feast and ate Bill’s filesystem from the inside out.

  Bill looked enthralled. His sister watched with interest at his side. Redi remained silent. She’d never seen Porygon act like this before.

  “Right now, Porygon are considered to be oddities. They're a data-based Pokémon, yes, but there's not much else known about them other than that,” Bill said softly. “They're primarily used as research assistants and organizational managers. Most people don't want to risk having their data disappear, so they simply never let their Porygon eat too frequently. After all, why would they ever want to risk losing their hard-earned data?”

  “But I didn’t care about that,” Redi replied. “And I had Porygon eat all the time.”

  “So you did, and that let your Porygon adapt to the process,” Bill continued. “All of that is coming together before us right now. The strength that came from training. The programming that came from your command-like moves. All the snippets they picked up from the graphing calculator. All of that combined means that when presented with enough information, supported by the experience they’ve earned, then, like an evolutionary stone—”

  Bill went utterly silent when a brilliant light emanated from the screen of his machine.

  Redi couldn’t see what was going on. The white completely overtook the text of the computer as well as Porygon’s sprite in the corner. The monitor had a black background, but that became completely replaced with white. The light grew and grew and grew, until—

  CLICK.

  The power shut off.

  The room went dark before the whir of generators echoed out, and the computer began going through the slow process of its reboot.

  “Is Porygon—”

  Redi didn’t finish her sentence. From the monitor, something pink and blue burst out, and that blur slammed into her chest.

  Whatever it was hummed, and then that same sound turned into a whine. She could feel something smooth pressing against her, and she looked down to see Porygon—but it wasn’t Porygon. They had the same basic shape, but it was like their body had been made sleeker and far more smoothed out.

  “...Porygon?” Redi asked in disbelief.

  The Pokémon brought up its head, and its eyes curved up for a smile.

  To Redi, that smile meant everything. It was everything. The reaction wasn’t Porygon following a command, and it wasn’t Porygon simply mimicking a smile. It was a demonstration of true, genuine emotion, an expression of both thanks and affection for everything Redi had done.

  She couldn’t do anything else; Redi collapsed to her knees, and Porygon followed. Breathing in a shaky breath, she threw her arms around the floating Pokémon, and then she let it all out.

  “I’ve been so worried! I thought this wouldn’t work and you’d be stuck as a machine forever! When the power went out— When the computer turned off— I thought... I thought—!”

  She sobbed and hugged her Pokémon.

  Porygon, in a sign of independence so unlike their pre-evolved form, rested their head on her shoulder, and that just made Redi cry even harder. To her side, Bill looked on with a soft smile, and even his sister, who had never waited to express her annoyance, also huffed in amusement.

  “Amazing. I didn’t expect this to work, but that surge of data was really what Porygon needed. But I also don’t think this could have worked on its own. Porygon needed practice learning and adapting to figure out how to develop further, and that means...”

  Suddenly looking up, he rushed over to his computer.

  “If there’s any data left, this is an opportunity! I might be able to record what happened and tie that development to a disk!”

  He began to type furiously as Redi continued to hug her Pokémon. She knew that Porygon was no longer a base Porygon but a Porygon2, except saying that out loud was annoying so she was just going to keep calling them ‘Porygon’ regardless of their species’s real name.

  “I’m happy for you,” she said.

  Her heart melted when Porygon’s eyes curved up for a smile once again.

  When she finally let them go, they excitedly circled around her. She laughed at their reaction, and it took several minutes before Bill spoke again.

  “There are opportunities here if you’re interested,” he said as he hurried through his work. At this point, his sister walked back to sit on a nearby box, already looking bored. “Hoenn’s Mossdeep Space Center has been looking for a Pokémon to help with rocket launches, and your Porygon is sleek enough and has the needed traits to likely be it. Similarly, the Galactic Corporation over in Sinnoh has been undergoing related space-based research, and they’d be very interested in acquiring this kind of data.”

  “So... you're selling this?” Redi asked as she walked over.

  “Yes,” Bill answered easily enough.

  Redi wanted to protest the idea of Bill just getting richer off of her and her Pokémon’s hard work, but she wasn’t in a position to object. Part of her contract with Mr. Pokémon was to share information about new discoveries, and when it came to Porygon’s evolution, Bill had the right to decide how it was spread thanks to how he had effectively enabled it.

  She could still grumble, though.

  “So you're just getting even richer off of this.”

  But when she said that, Bill stopped typing to look at her.

  “Hold on, is that what you thought I meant? No, no, no! As far as I’m concerned, this discovery belongs to you. All I did was the equivalent of giving you a rare stone—it's like your Growlithe that evolved into the newly discovered Arcanine. It’s your Porygon that evolved into a greater version of Porygon!”

  “Wait, so when you brought up those companies—”

  “Don't get me wrong. I want a share so I can put the funds into future research and development. Mr. Pokémon can take his ten percent, but for us, I’m thinking... twenty-seventy?”

  “Thirty-sixty,” Redi countered, trying to increase her split.

  “Generous! But I’d think I’m already rich enough, so I’d be more than happy with just twenty percent. But let’s meet halfway. How about I just get twenty-five, and then you can have the other sixty-five percent?”

  Redi opened her mouth, unable to find the right words. Much like his sister, Bill stuck his tongue out at her before returning to his work.

  (No, the thought of that much money did not make Redi drool. Sure, selling data on Porygon’s information would be an enormous sum, but there was no way she’d drool over the simple idea of earning a lot of cash. Nu-uh. No way. It was just that she happened to get distracted while thinking of food and definitely nothing else.)

  But this really might be a lot.

  “How much?” she asked cautiously.

  Bill gained a small smirk.

  “Well, the Mossdeep Space Center and its researchers won’t be able to offer much, but the Galactic Corporation? They’ll pay a lot for specifics.”

  She went silent again. Her head felt like it was spinning. As per her contract with Mr. Pokémon, Bill had the right to decide what to do with this as long as the information was shared. Redi would have thought that meant it’d be spread around for free, not that she’d suddenly be getting so much potential cash shoved into her pocket.

  Yet, she was having trouble focusing on that. After all, Porygon had evolved. Given everything else that happened with Bill’s machine...

  Gah! Who cares about that cash? This can’t just be my money. Sam’s the whole reason I knew how to get here. So I’ll take the same twenty-five as Bill. It hurts, but I’ll leave the rest to him.

  Raw cash wasn’t as thoughtful of a gift as a good present or information about a new discovery, but she could at least picture Sam’s shocked face when she informed him of it once they met back up in the Conference.

  She could also picture all the ways he’d try to turn it down, but that just meant she had plenty of time to come up with counterarguments in her head.

  “How long will that kind of discussion take?” she asked. “And, uh, what’s next?”

  “Don’t worry about the discussions. I can handle that. I’ll make sure you get the sum you deserve. As for what’s next...” Bill awkwardly laughed to himself. “Well, if Porygon evolved, their capabilities have certainly improved. I don’t suppose I could get your help organizing and digitizing my files?”

  His eyes flicked to the countless stacks of paper in the room, and Redi let out a nervous chuckle. Yet, at her side, Porygon seemed down for it. If anything, they seemed excited at the test of what they could do.

  And that mere sign of independent thought alone made Redi’s heart melt even more. If Porygon wanted to do it, then she would work as hard as she could without complaint.

  So over the next while, Redi helped Bill, continued to visit other researchers on Ursaring’s behalf, and even tested out what a Porygon2 could do in battle. Her team grew leaps and bounds, and once it was clear that Porygon could teleport farther than ever before, she finally picked up someone else who’d been waiting for far too long.

  Finally, after retrieving a larger sum of cash than she expected, she earned her eighth badge with only days left in the season, and then she went to Silver Town.

  To reach the Conference.

  To compete in its battles.

  To meet up with Sam and so many others.

  And to finally finish the season by proving herself and her team against the strongest trainers in all of Indigo.

  Sam’s Team:

  Badges Earned: 7 (Mineral, Fog, Plain, Hive, Zephyr, Rising, Glacier)

  Approximate Team Strength: 7 Stars

  (Fire / Ghost Type, Female, Timid Nature +Spe/-Atk)

  Abilities: Blaze

  Held Item: Charcoal

  Moves: Tackle, Leer, Smokescreen, Ember, Flame Wheel, Curse, Will-O-Wisp, Incinerate, Detect, Quick Attack, Swift, Flame Charge, Flamethrower, Double Team, Infernal Parade, Confuse Ray, Hex, Shadow Ball, Night Shade, Shadow Claw, Agility, Blast Burn

  (Fighting / Ghost Type, Male, Impish Nature +Def/-SpA)

  Abilities: Vital Spirit

  Moves: Scratch, Leer, Low Kick, Karate Chop, Fury Swipes, Assurance, Ice Punch, Fire Punch, Cross Chop, Curse, Brick Break, Rock Smash, Rock Slide, Bulk Up, Rage, Rage Fist, Close Combat

  Haunter (Ghost / Poison Type, Male, Naive Nature +Spe/-SpD)

  Abilities: Levitate

  Moves: Hypnosis, Lick, Confuse Ray, Spite, Mean Look, Hex, Shadow Punch, Night Shade, Acid Spray, Ominous Wind, Shadow Ball, Dream Eater, Nightmare

  (Ghost Type, Female, Hasty Nature +Spe/-Def)

  Pokéball: Friend Ball

  Abilities: Levitate

  Moves: Growl, Psywave, Astonish, Confusion, Confuse Ray, Mean Look, Night Shade, Shadow Sneak, Shadow Ball, Nasty Plot, Psybeam, Will-O-Wisp, Psychic, Hex, Power Gem

  Trevenant (Ghost / Grass Type, Male, Quiet Nature +SpA/-Spe)

  Pokéball: Moon Ball

  Abilities: Harvest, Frisk (Developing)

  Held Item: Sitrus Berry

  Moves: Horn Leech, Tackle, Confuse Ray, Astonish, Growth, Ingrain, Leech Seed, Forest’s Curse, Shadow Claw, Phantom Force

  Inevitable: ,

  Auxiliary Pokémon: A decent number of wild (only increasing)

  At Home (non-battlers): ,

  At Carl’s Ranch: (more than twenty), (Annihilape’s brother)

  Redi’s Team (outdated):

  Badges Earned: 7 (Mineral, Plain, Hive, Zephyr, Rising, Glacier, Fog)

  Approximate Team Strength: 6 Stars

  (Normal Type, Male, Adamant Nature +Atk/-SpA)

  Abilities: Guts, Quick Feet

  Moves: Scratch, Fury Swipes, Fire Punch, Baby-Doll Eyes, Slash, Ice Punch, Focus Energy, Thunder Punch, Hyper Beam, Rock Slide, Swords Dance, Giga Impact, Shadow Claw, Sleep Talk

  Porygon2 (Normal Type, Genderless, Quirky Nature +-n/a)

  Abilities: n/a

  Moves: Tackle, Sharpen, Conversion, Psybeam, Thunder Shock, Charge Beam, Discharge, Tri-Attack, Charge, Teleport, Recover, Thunder Wave, Magnet Rise, Lock-On, Zap Cannon

  (Dragon Type, Female, Rash Nature +SpA/-SpD)

  Abilities: Shed Skin

  Moves: Wrap, Leer, Thunder Wave, Twister, Slam, Agility, Aqua Tail, Dragon Rush

  Auxiliary Pokémon: x2 (Tibia and Fibula)

  Pokémon (and people) included in this chapter:

  Eevee

  /

  Bill

  huge thank you to everyone reading! Your support keeps this story going.