Chapter Nine: Stop Blowing Holes In My Ship



For quite some time, Bill's meeting with Help and Piku felt like he was getting anything but help.



Rescue Brock? It wasn't possible. Rescue Sabrina? It was likely far too late for that. Upend the corrupt Gatekeepers? Good luck with that; every attempt ever made so far had ended in the blood of the attemptors. Much to Bill's frustration, it seemed like all that Help and Piku could do was their best. Which wasn't very good at all.



"Isn't there SOMEONE that can stop the Gatekeepers?" Bill finally yelled out loud.



The Abra and Raichu were quiet. "Well..." Help said quietly, "there IS this prophecy that our Bill was given."



"Your Bill? Given a prophecy?" Bill snorted. "Would that be the thing that his message was going to announce? Because that 'message' was booby trapped and is currently unaccessible due to reasons which are quite frankly embarrassing and hard to explain even in context. What's this prophecy about?"



The Abra took a deep breath. "The prophecy was given by a Lapras, one of the Red Six that appeared in Cerulean City to destroy the Rocket Brigade's invading dragons. The Lapras said that as the Voices were the ones that brought upon this disaster, the Voices would be the ones to fix it. A new Host would arise, right the wrongs of the Gatekeepers, and bring new freedom to Kanto."



Bill did a double take. "Wait, what? So your group has, what, just been waiting for this Host to show up and solve all your problems?"



"No," Help said bluntly. "Our group has been doing everything we can to help others. There's just too many starfish to rescue, and we're barely able to keep ourselves alive. We've already lost much of our number to the actions of the corrupt. None of us are any good to Kanto dead."



"Well, it seems to me you're not much good alive either."



Help gave Bill a pointed stare, then teleported out in a huff. Although it was more like a second and a huff.



Piku sighed. "Well, that settles it. She's in one of her moods. We're not going to get anything out of her now."



Bill sighed as well. "Lovely. So, out of curiousity, do YOU know anything about what other-Bill said about the Carbuncle War? About how it started, what happened to the Gems, and what the heck really happened at the peace meeting between Kanto and Almia?"



Piku looked uncomfortable. "Unfortunately... no. I was on the front lines of the war, yes, but I was very young then, only a Pichu. I've never even met the other Bill; otherwise, I'm sure I would have known from your scent that you weren't him. Sadly, I wasn't able to reach the Almians' ship quickly enough to save him."



"Lovely. So there's still a mystery out there. I'll put solving that on my to-do list, somewhere above 'Get un-Cuboned.' You probably don't believe this, but this isn't the first time I've been forced to wear a skull on my head."



"You're not wearing a skull on your head."



Bill paused, reached up to his ear, and realized. "Well, whaddya know. Must've left it at Misty's prison. Well, I for one am not going back to get it."



"You realize they'll probably be trying to arrest and detain every Cubone in sight now?"



"Yes, of course. Which means I need to find a way to get back to my handsome self and rub it in their faces hard enough that they don't go on a profiling spree." Bill motioned to the technology around him. "I guess that'll keep me busy for, say, ten hours. You'd be surprised at the kind of things I can MacGuyver."



"You and our Bill have that much in common, at least." Piku said. "He was part of the group from Almia that helped invent Robopon, back when the Almians tried to outlaw Pokemon battling. He switched sides to Kanto when he found out the Rocket Brigade had no intention of following that law and were augmenting Pokemon to be strong enough to even defeat Robopon."



"The Rocket Brigade," Bill mused. "Who exactly are they? I know they came from Almia, and that they have an army of blue mutants on their side. But what ARE they?"



"No one really knows. The official wartime propaganda in Kanto was that they were under President Alan's control, but he denies it. Word is that after President Alan outlawed fighting Pokemon, a task force was called on to figure out how to evolve Pokemon without use of battling. This project eventually spit out an army of aggressive mutant Pokemon, dubbed 'Shadow Pokemon.' And then the Rocket Brigade got hold of them somehow and started taking over everything."



Bill nodded. "So no one wants to take responsibility for the Rocket Brigade but the Rocket Brigade. These ARE the same people who missile bombed Johto, correct?"



"Who else? They got their hands on an H-Bomb and struck like a thunderstorm, just to prove they could do it. A show of power. Johto'd never done anything to them, so why Johto?"



Bill thought this over a moment.



The first thought that came to his mind, he quickly pushed away. Surely it wasn't... but then he revisited the thought, mulling it over in his mind. Was it possible, he wondered? But he needed more evidence.



"First of all," Bill asked, "was the bombing of Johto before, or after, my doppelganger's perceived demise?"



Piku paused. "Well, before, but what does that... ohhhhhh. Our Bill lived in Johto, not Kanto. You think there's any sort of connection there?"



Bill remembered other-Bill's words, the warning that if he did anything to hurt his country, the ghost would make him pay for it. At the time, he'd wondered what other-Bill meant by this, especially since he'd been drafted into the Kanto navy. Had Bill moved to Kanto after the bombing, or before it?



"It's a possibility," Bill said carefully, "that your Bill was blackmailed. With a missile bomb to Johto. And that for, whatever reason, Missile Bomb saw fit to destroy the place anyway."



Piku shuddered a bit. "Are you sure it was blackmail? Bill was one of the few to get out while the getting was good. What if the bombing was intended to cover his tracks? What if he was..."



"I believe the word you're looking for is 'traitor'," Bill finished. "Would he be, though? I know I'm a terrible liar, and it'd be just like me to, if I was evil, make it look like I died heroically. But blow up an entire Rocket Brigade ship for that very purpose? And these were real Navy ships, not just something scrounged up by a rebellion. Whoever these Rocket Brigaders are, either they had funding, or they were the most skilled ship thieves on the planet."



"Military-grade weapons," Piku mused. "A navy of ships. Both Kanto and Almia deny any involvement. If one of them were robbed of that many ships, surely they'd know about it. Heck with it, steal anyone's navy and you'd hear all about it."



"Unless it was Johto's navy."



Piku stopped, quickly cleaned his ear with his foot, and listened again. "What now?"



"Okay, this is just a wild idea, but hear me out. Did anyone see the Rocket Brigade's navy before Johto was bombed?"



Piku stared back blankly.



"Because it's possible -- just possible, and possibly stupid, but possible -- that the Rocket Brigade got their supplies from Johto, but wanted to cover their tracks--"



"By bombing an entire region?" Piku yelped. "That's ridiculous!"



"--and either way, other-me must have known about it. That could be why he made the video." Bill paused. "But why not tell others about it? Surge, for instance?"



"Probably because Surge and the others were mocking him every chance they got," Piku said unironically. "No one even thought much of the prophecy when he told them about it. Even if this conspiracy theory of yours is true, who would have listened to him?"



"Exactly. No one would listen to him, except for the people who knew it was true, and thus would try to shut him up. By, say, ordering a bunch of mutant Dragonite to go medieval on Cerulean City, which ironically was when he was given the prophecy in the first place."



"First Johto, then Cerulean?" Piku tapped his foot impatiently. "Just to cover their tracks? I knew the Rockets were bad, but when you put it THAT way--"



"They're savages. War makes savages of men. So does greed, selfishness, and the idea that one is above the laws of man and nature both."



"But you have no proof, Bill! And that doesn't explain what happened to the Gems!"



"Not yet, it doesn't. I'm still not sure just what power levels your world's version of our world's 'gods' are." Bill noted that Piku shuddered a bit at the thought of worshiping a fossil -- and that's just as well, he thought to himself. "But I'd have to guess that the first thing the Rocket Brigade had to do to get away with whatever they were up to would be to collar the most powerful beings in the world. Thus, destroy the Gems, as far as possible. I'm not quite sure on the how, but if my hypothesis is correct, either Gyro and Hebo played a part in the fall of the Gems, or they were blamed for it by someone's propaganda machine."



"So," Piku said slowly. "You think the Rocket Brigade had ties in Johto. That they moved their fleet out of Johto and bombed it to cover their tracks. But what proof do you have? Or, specifically, what proof are you looking for?"



"Proof? I'm looking for whatever proof fits what actually happened," Bill said bluntly. "My hypothesis is merely that: a hypothesis. It won't be until we do a little detective work that we'll be able to see if my story matches up or not."



"Which isn't going to be easy," Piku pointed out. "Surge may be an idiot, but he's not a complete one. Your very suggestion that the gaps in your memory were from brainwashing has already put him on edge. Your little battle with mecha-Sabrina and that wicked arm thing you did has the entire group running scared of you. Near as I can tell, half of them think you ARE from the Rocket Brigade -- why else would Misty treat you the way she did? All the evidence points against you."



"And now that I've escaped, they'll be after my butt again." Bill sighed. "And just when the Mightyena bites were healing up."



"So, if I were you, I wouldn't try making yourself look like you used to," Piku said. "You need to disappear, for your own safety. You need to be invisible. You need to--"



"--find Rea," Bill interrupted.



Piku paused. "Wait, what?"



"I need to find Rea," Bill said firmly. "This world's Rea. Surge knows she exists. He doesn't know where, but one of them might. If the Gatekeepers believe they've got a rogue Bill problem, they'll try to find the people closest to him. And his wife is the first on the list. Which means we need to find her before the Gatekeepers do."



"Rea Margatroid?" Piku said quietly, cleaning his ear with his foot again. "I, uh... well, I'll see what I can do about that one. But remember, mecha-Sabrina and psycho Misty are still on the team. One of them is bound to pick up on my thoughts if I cross paths with them."



"Then don't. Avoid them like the devil." Bill paused. "Hold on a sec. Lt. Surge told me that the Rocket Brigade was bringing our group to President Alan. But the ship never went that far, and all the prisoners escaped thanks to Bill, so they never knew... Ohhhhhh deer lord."



"What?"



"It could have been a setup. Let an entire group of soldiers escape alive, save one who dies a 'hero'... so the story that the Rockets are working for President Alan gets spread." Bill held his head in his paws. "I hope I'm wrong, but I really, REALLY hate myself right now."



"But why would he leave the message for you, then?"



"Guilt? Redemption? Trying to salvage a truly horrible situation? Look, evil or not, I couldn't live with myself if my actions left an entire region wrecked like that." It wasn't completely a lie; Bill really did feel terrible about his past. "And there's always the possibility that Bill was trapped in a bad situation and had to make the best of things. Maybe it wasn't even in the plan for Bill to actually blow up the boat. Because, let's face it, if I were in a losing blackmail situation like that, that's exactly the kind of thing I'd do."



Piku paused. "Out of curiousity, in that situation, what else would you do?"



Bill thought on this a moment, then started to smile. It was a slow smile, the kind that starts out small and gets larger, more pronounced, and more sly.



"I know just what I'd do, Piku. I'd escape alive."



To be continued...