Bill's Invitation

Ash, Pikachu, Brock and Misty have made it to Bill's house on top of the cliff overlooking the ocean on Route 25.

"Just in time the sun is setting" Brock explains as the group make their way to Bill's front door, "quick Ash, knock on the door I'm getting cold" Misty complains, Ash stairs back at her with a vacant look, "oh no, I thought we'd just stand in front of the door," Ash says sarcastically knocking on the big brown door.

*Knock Knock

The two doors swing open into Bill's house, Bill appears from around one of the many corridors, "Oh, Ash, Misty and Brock so nice to see you three again, what brings you all the way back here?" Bill says with a surprised tone, "we need to ask you something" Ash says looking around Bill's house that has even more pictures of Pokemon on the walls, "sure, follow me, make yourself comfortable" Bill waving them to follow him through his house to a lounge room-like setting at the back of the house.

Ash, Pikachu, Brock and Misty follow Bill while looking around the big house, Ash studying the Pokemon on the wall, majority of them he has seen but others he has not, Brock studies the ancient tablets of script displaying on stands throughout the narrow hallway, Misty getting the chills with the ocean breeze seeping through the cracks of the stone walls. Ash comes to a complete stop, Misty not looking where she is going bumps into him, "ow, Ash what are you doing?" Misty rubbing the left side of her head, she looks at Ash who doesn't seem to have felt the bump, his expression fixed and concentrated on four Pokemon edged into stone, "Bill are these Pokemon?" Ash asks looking at the scary display, Bill turns his head around and his eyes widen a little but not enough for the others to notice, Brock turns to face his friend and then looks at the four Pokemon he is concentrating on, he looks at the one in the top left corner first, a centaur-like Pokemon, it had a pale white lower body that went into four legs also pale white, it's stomach covered from what it looked like a silver plate but it could have just easily been a part of the Pokemon, it had a strange gold and silver pattern across is purple upper body, a golden texture covered its crown-shaped hair which went off into the air, its hands where pure white with black tree trunk pattern lines across it. Brock turns his head to the one next to it and asks, "what are these Pokemon?" Bill whose surprised expression goes sour at the thought of the Pokemon, "they are an old myth" Bill responds to Brock, "an old myth?" Misty says softly as she looks upon the terrifying Pokemon, "it said they used to roam the earth and cause destruction and chaos, every bad thing that has happened in our history at least one of these Pokemon were supposedly sighted but no one can find any information on these Pokemon only a few fairly poor descriptions of what they look like" Bill explains seeming to hide something, "what are they called?" Ash asks not taking his gaze off the Pokemon, "well the one on the top left corner is Vanquor, on the right of it Blichor, bottom left corner Scarlance and lastly on the bottom right Dassaker, all together they go by The Four Horse Pokemon of the Apocalypse, Brock and Misty shrug at the name, Ash continues to look at the four Pokemon connected to them in some way, "it's an extremely old tale but they say once four of the seven seals are broken the Pokemon appear," Bill says staring at Ash's cap with the symbol catching his attention, "the page after that in the book has been torn out and no one can find it but the pages after explain that a hero must sacrifice his first born to close the seals, but then it gets a little confusing explaining that the boy sacrificed will return and bring his vengeance on the world and the ones that left him" Bill looks at Ash wondering if this story might refer to him, "that sounds scary" Misty says in a squeaky voice, "it's an old tale that says you lose either way but no one believes it, now follow me to the lounge room" Bill breaking the tense silence and walking the group back down the hallway, Ash takes one last glance at the Pokemon before Pikachu leaps on his shoulders to grab his trainers attention.

"So what was it that you wanted to ask me, Ash?" Bill says sitting down on the green sofa, "I've been given these letters that I have followed and they've led me to your house" Ash replies pulling the letters out of his backpack and handing them to Bill. Bill studies the letters closely a thoughtful expression overcomes his face as he squints at the writing, "hmmm" Bill says to himself causing Ash and the others to look at each other with a little hope Bill knows what they are, "do you know what they are?" Brock asks. Bill gets up and brings the letters to his computer, his computer an old fashion boxed machine has a document open of an Alolan Meowth on it with the description talking experiment over the top of it, he quickly closes it hoping the others didn't see as they make their way over to the computer, Bill puts one of the letters through a scanner that's sitting next to the computer, "hmm, that's strange" Bill says to himself out loud, "what is it?" Ash asking impatiently, "wait here for a second I'll be back" Bill standing up and leaving the room without giving much information. Misty looks at Ash and Brock concerned, "is it just me or did Bill look a little scared when you showed him the letters," Brock and Ash look at her, their expression also a concerned one as they wait for Bill to come back. Bill walks back in the room and sits down on the green sofa where Ash and the others have sat back down on, he plants a big old dusty book on the table and blows the dust off into Pikachu's face who coughs with the dust going down his throat, he flips through the pages looking for something in particular, Ash, Brock and Misty watch on waiting for him to stop flicking the pages so they can get a glance of what's in the book. "Ah, here we go��� Bill exclaiming he has found what he wants, he grabs one of Ash's letters and puts it on the page next to the picture he has found, "what book is that?" Brock asks trying to get some answers, "it's a book about the World War two" Bills tells him looking at Ash's letter and then the book, Bill looks at the letter confused and lets out a big sigh, "what is it?" Misty asks, "well Ash, the letter you have here I scanned it through my computer to detect how old it was and it was written a couple of hundred years ago," Bill tells the group, Ash and the others eyes widen in the shocking news, "but I only got the first letter the other week, how can it be hundreds of years old?" Ash tells Bill trying to process the information he has been told. "The book reveals the story of the letters as well," Bill tells the group pointing to the page in the book that shows an exact replica of Ash's letter, "The letter in the book was from the King of Kanto who would send out forty-fifty letters once a decade or so, he would send the letters to the strongest trainers around the world, he would have men travel the world for many years at a time just for them to spy on other trainers and report back to him if they were worthy of a letter, if deemed worthy the King would send them a letter. In the Kings letter, it would make them do a series of tasks just to ensure they were worthy of the invitation, once they completed the tasks they would then be given an official invitation where they would have to collect eight coat of arms symbols from different regions in the world," Bill explaining, "Like a gym badge" Brock exclaiming, "yes exactly, the only difference is that the Coat of Arms where a badge that the strongest trainer in the region would have similar to the Champion" Bill responding to Brock, "that's actually where the idea of gym badges originated from. Once they collected the said Coat of Arms or if they managed to collect them they would be given a final letter that would tell them where the Battle of the World would be held, the letter also indicates they had a certain amount of days to get to the destination or they were unable to compete, once they made their way to the destination they'd go up against twenty or so other trainers to become The Pokemon Master of the world, but that was hundreds of years ago, and yet looking at your letter and the letter in the book it looks exactly the same," Bill still confused himself of what is going on. "Do you have anything that will help Ash to get a next letter or something?" Misty asks trying to help figure it out, "I may have something, but it was given to me by what I thought was a mistake fifty years ago, I'll go see if I still have it," Bill tells the others standing up and walking back out of the room. "Do you remember anything from the man that gave you your first letter?" Brock asks trying to fill in some gaps, Ash looks at Brock and shakes his head slowly, "not really, it happened all so fast, the only thing I remember is that he was old and dressed in a tux," Brock, Ash, Pikachu and Misty look at each other with a worried look. "As I said I was given this letter fifty years ago" Bill saying out loud walking back into the room, "letter?" Ash turning to Bill seeing the old letter in his hands, Bill sits down and hands Ash the letter, "do you remember the day it was given to you Bill?" Brock asking the same question he asked Ash, "uhh let me see, it was a string full of events that all connect to the letter but you kids don't want to hear about it" Bill leaning back into the green sofa, "It might help Bill please" Ash looking Bill in the eyes holding onto the unopened letter, "yeah, anything might help" Misty adding into the conversation, "ok if you kids think it can help" Bill sitting back up straight.

"As I said before it was fifty years ago, I was invested in my science work with my wife Daisy, we were working on understanding a Pokémon's mind, Mew in particular, when an experiment went horribly wrong when myself and my wife where turned into Pokemon" Bill telling the group, Ash and the others gasp in shock at a human getting turned into a Pokemon, "I got turned into a Ditto and my wife Daisy got turned into the legendary Pokemon Mew," "A Mew!" the group shouting out, "yeah a Mew" Bill replies dropping his head, "we were stuck at these Pokemon for a couple of years until we found a cure, a moonstone was supposed to turn us back so we searched for the moon stone for a couple of months," "sorry to interrupt but what does this have to do with my letters" Ash saying impatiently, Brock and Misty give him a stern glare, "trust me, the story adds up at the end" Bill telling Ash to just be patient, "anyways, we had been Pokemon for the past five years and we had found a moonstone after months of searching but only one, I insisted my wife to take it but she pushed me onto it and it worked, I was transformed back into myself, we came back here to find any more sightings of meteorite crashes so we can gain another moonstone, but when we got back to the house my wife was taken by my brother and his co-workers, I tried to stop them but was unable to I saw them take my wife away in a cage, I was knocked unconscious by one of the men and when I came to they were gone the only thing left there was an old man in a tux, he asked for my wife Daisy but I told him she wasn't here, he then handed me the letter and then just vanished before I could ask anything, I put the letter aside and went after my wife." "What happened to her?" Misty asks hoping Bill continues the story.

"Well I managed to find my brother and he told me he could turn her back, I trusted him but I soon learnt he only used her to get Mew's DNA to build the strongest Pokemon that ever lived MewTwo" Brock and Misty step back in disbelief remembering their encounters with MewTwo, "your brother was the one that created MewTwo? You are responsible for the creation of MewTwo!" Ash standing up in a rage, "I died because of MewTwo four years ago and it was your fault!" "Ash it wasn't Bill's fault" Brock and Misty trying to calm down their friend, "I know what happened to you back then Ash" Bill lifting his head up looking the young boy in the eyes, "how do you know?" Ash starting to calm down, "my son told me," Bill explaining to Ash, "your son," Misty says softly, "yeah, I believe you know him and my father, Gary and Samuel Oak," Bill told the group who have stood up in shock, "you're Gary's dad?!" Ash shouts, who cannot believe this news, "your father is Prof. Oak?" Brock also adding to the disbelief, "yes, my son is Gary and father is Prof. Oak" Bill confirming what he said before, "how did you end up all the way out here then?" Misty asks trying to get more information, "if you three will let me finish the story it will add up" Bill getting a little frustrated with the constant interruptions.

"Before MewTwo was created, my wife Daisy had a friend at Team Rocket, the ones that took her, her friend was Ariana if I remember correctly, she was close with the Boss of Team Rocket, she ended up helping my wife escape after being held captive for seven years and before they could use all her DNA to complete their project that is why MewTwo didn't turn out the way they wanted, they didn't have enough of the Mew gene and went searching for an alternative which took them over a decade, but they still had more of the human gene. When Ariana got my wife out they were separated in the escape, I didn't see Daisy for four years, during that time I was working on a cure to turn her back. Twenty years ago a Mew appeared in my house, I looked in its eyes and knew it was my wife Daisy so I grab what I thought was a successful cure and gave it to her, it had worked, the Mew that was in front of me turned back into my wife. I needed to keep her a secret as Team Rocket was still looking for her, we lived in this very house for five years happily and peacefully, one day Daisy came up to me and told me she was pregnant with Gary, we were ecstatic, our little family had just become bigger so we thought anyways. The day of the birth was the day I lost my wife," Ash and the others looking on starting to feel Bill's pain, Misty especially fixed on this part of the story. "Everything went well, normal for childbirth, Gary came out healthy but then Daisy glowed a bright pink light, I shielded my eyes and when I looked back she had turned back into a Mew, I looked on horrified and broken seeing my cure didn't work, I guess Daisy sensed that as she flew off and I've never seen her since." Ash and the others look on, a sad, upsetting expression covers their face with Misty shedding a tear, "so why doesn't Gary live with you?" Ash asking softly, "when Gary turned eight I told him what had happened, he was furious didn't want to see me again, couldn't even stand the look of me and I don't blame him so I rang my dad up and asked him to look after Gary while I continue my search for a cure for Daisy" Bill finishing his story.

Everyone sits there in silence, a sad presence surrounds them all, "that is how I got the letter, Ash, it may have been meant for Daisy, maybe she had been caught up in them all or maybe it was for my son but he wouldn't come here anyway so it must be for you, why don't you open it and read it" Bill breaking the silence, Ash nods his head and opens the letter.

Mr Ketchum

At last, the letter you have been waiting for, after your trails you have completed you probably want some answers for what it has been all about, your questions about yourself will be answered at the Championship of the Pokemon World, but first, like you've done so many times you must collect eight Coat of Arms of different regions or in today's terms eight badges to qualify. Your first badge is in the region known as Sinnoh, there you will find a trainer who specialises in ice Pokemon, defeat him and collect your Coat of Arm and the next letter for your next destination, you have seven days to complete this challenge or you will be disqualified from the Championship.

"I guess it was meant for you after all," Bill says looking confused at how he received it fifty years ago was addressed to Ash who was only fourteen, Ash stands up in a fuss, "I need to go to Sinnoh and see if this is real" "what if it's nothing, what if you get to Sinnoh and no one is there waiting for you?" Misty says still processing all this new information, "but what if there is a trainer there waiting for you, what if you miss out on your chance to compete in The Championship of the Pokemon World" Brock counterpointing Misty's remarks, Ash turns to Brock and nods his head, "you're right there is too much I may miss out on, I need to go" "then I'm coming with you" Misty standing up telling Ash, "me too" Brock adding in, "if the three of you are going take these," Bill stands up handing them three plane tickets to Sinnoh. "Thank you for everything Bill" Ash taking the tickets from Bill's hand, "I hope you find what you are looking for Ash" Bill replies showing them to the door. They say goodbye to Bill and walk out of his house, Misty looks at Brock who has a concerned expression, "what is it, Brock?" Brock turns back to the house in the distance, "how did he know to have three plane tickets to Sinnoh?" "So what, who cares off to Sinnoh we go!" Ash shouts out in a careless manner.