Chapter 39

You stayed up top, overlooking the ocean while Bill went down to stash away his samples.

Looking out over the night sky, and swaying ocean and the bright light of the lighthouse piercing through the darkness bit by bit. You had to admit, it was a beautiful sight.

You spent maybe ten minutes admiring the scenery with your two pokemon, before you heard the sounds of footsteps approaching. You turned around as the door swung open, to see Ash, and the other two, with Bill bringing up the rear.

"Oh wow, Kingler is even bigger." Brock whistled.

"Koo." Kingler waved to him in greeting, from where he stood at your side.

"And check out that Growlithe," Ash stared wide eyed at the canine laying at your feet, "It's massive."

"Indeed, both are big helps towards my research." Bill preened.

You looked towards Misty who was staring at a pokeball clasped in her hands. "How'd it go?" you asked.

"Ah.. eh," Misty blinked a bit as you snapped her from her stupor, "..It was a bit of a hard battle, but Starmie managed to bring it down."

Well, you immediately stopped your thoughts from sliding towards anything insulting. "Simple as, right?" you asked, earning a nod and a brief smile from the girl, "Now you can use all the water types you have together underwater to find anything you want to capture and go for it."

"Yeah...I guess I can," the orangette answered. The melancholic air around Misty disappeared, and her face brightened up, making her look all the more attractive and she stepped forward, pressing a light kiss into the corner of your mouth while the other three were busy talking, "Thanks Cobalt."

...Not quite what you wanted in the beginning. But better than nothing. "Happy to help." you smiled back.

You kind of just stood there for a bit after Misty pulled back, and everything just went quiet. You all just sat there more or less, in a quiet silence, Bill himself walking up beside you and leaning over the railing to stare out over the dark murky depths of the ocean.

"..So," you hedged a bit awkwardly, looking at the older green haired man, "..What are we doing up here?"

Bill smiled, turning to you, "You are interested in my research thesis aren't you?" he asked, getting a nod from you, and the three other teenagers in the room,"Well, I figured this was the best place to explain just why I'm so invested in the King's Gene."

You shrugged. You figured it was just a discovery he made, probably accidentally, not something really worth a big long story. Found giant pokemon gene, interesting shit, simple enough right? How much more complicated could it get than seeing a pokemon that was quite a bit bigger than the average type of its species.

Bill continued on regardless though, letting loose a wistful sigh, "It's probably the biggest pokemon in existence," he started, and THAT did get your attention, and you saw the other three perk up as well, "It's been wondering the world for years upon years, hundreds, maybe even thousands, searching for somewhere to belong."

"What kind of pokemon is it?" Misty asked.

Bull shrugged, "That's the mystery, I only ever caught a glimpse, and have recorded it as well, thanks to the tone, I was able to estimate that it has to be easily over three hundred feet tall," the green haired man gushed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small recording device, tapping the button on it to play sound, "One night, while passing through this area, I heard this sound coming across the ocean, and caught just a glimpse of it through a fog barrier."

Three hundred feet huh? You had to withhold a whistle.

The sound that played was a low, but powerful tone, probably because of its sheer size. It was high, despite the low pitch, and sounding almost like a melancholic song. It did sound like such a very sad pokemon.

....But.

"I want to meet you," Bill said, "That's the most basic translation I can get. To this day, it tirelessly searches for someone it can form a relationship of some form with. It's the reason I had this lighthouse built in the first place, so I can keep an eye out for it if it ever comes back."

As the other started to gush and ask Bill questions. Your mind lingered on one single thing. That haunting cry. It was almost familiar. Like something you'd heard out of Dratini when he got sad.

"It took me a while," Bill continued on, ignorant to your racing thoughts, "But I managed to recalibrate the sound with the help of a few pokemon, and with it, I was able to broadcast a message along the lines of, 'I want to meet you to. Let's be friend."

Honestly, you aren't really sure how you'd even go about doing that. But then, Bill was the genius professor here, not you.

"..And then one day, I heard it calling back to me," Bill sighed wistfully, " It was saying it wanted to meet me to, and I've been waiting, playing the sound out on a different frequency every now and then."

Bill turned, leaning his back on the railing and smiled at you all, "Someday, hopefully soon, that pokemon may turn up here, looking for a friend, and I cannot wait to meet it."

"...Will you try to capture it?" Ash asked. And you couldn't help but listen for his reply in interest.

"Meeting it will be enough for me," the green haired man shrugged, "...Although, if it would like to stay with me, I wouldn't mind capturing it just for safety purposes."