Down with a Fever
Summary: When Ash starts a new journey he's alone with only Pikachu. We've seen when Pikachu was sick but what would happen when Ash is sick? Let's find out.
Spoilers: 1 Orange Islands "The Stun Spore Detour"
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing; not Pokemon or any thing in this story, it's so sad.
Notes: I apologize for such an old setting I don't watch the series much any more, but I do watch the movies. *Sound affects* "talking" 'thought'
Rating: T to be sure I won't get kicked off for something as silly as that.
It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shinning, the weather was slightly cool with a gently breeze blowing through the forest they were currently in. Ash and Pikachu have been traveling to a new region. They have been traveling for three days but the past two days have been rainy and over cast. They had taken shelter in a cave for the night.
Pikachu slept curled up in his trainer's sleeping bag. Pikachu was the first to wake up. Pikachu stretched out he's body being careful not to wake up Ash, when he noticed something was off. He felt a strange heat radiating off his friend's body. He carefully slid out of the sleeping bag and looked over to his friend. He was shocked at what he saw. Ash was pale with flushed checks. Pikachu could also see beads of sweat forming on Ash's forehead. "Pika Pi?" Pikachu said softly as he looked at his friend concern coloring his brown eyes.
As if on cue Ash opened his brown eyes that were filled with the pain from his fevered tormented body. Ash sat up and looked over to Pikachu and smiled tiredly to his friend. He shivered monumentally as he looks towards the entrance of the cave to check the weather.
"Pika Pi?" Pikachu asked as he watched his trainer intently.
Ash looked over to Pikachu and smiled. "Morning Pikachu." He said with slightly scratchy voice.
Pikachu knew something was wrong but wasn't sure what. He could only remember one time where Ash had looked similar to the way he looks now. He remembered how Misty took care of Ash and Tracy when the two boys fell in to a Vileplume and inhaled stun spore. Pikachu hadn't seen any Vileplume recently and he had not left Ash's side, so he knew it wasn't the work of any Pokemon.
"Looks like the rain finally stopped. We might be able to reach Holly City today." Ash said as he looked at the map of the Kodaish Region. Ash coughed slightly as he stated to pack up his sleeping bag; and got Poke Chow out for Pikachu.
"Pika Pi, Pikachu?" Pikachu asked as he noticed that Ash had not gotten anything out for him to eat.
"Oh I'm just not to hungry right now buddy. I'll eat a little later." Ash answered Pikachu's question hearing the concern in his friend's voice. 'I really hope we reach Holly City today' Ash thought as he watched Pikachu eat. He knew he didn't feel good but he was getting impatient and wanted to reach the small city soon.
Pikachu was worried as he ate his food. He knew Ash was always hungry. 'I really wish Misty or Brock were with us.' Pikachu thought as he watched Ash getting his bag ready for travel. 'They would know what was wrong and how to help.' Pikachu thought sadly as he finished his food.
"Pika chu pi pika chu chu?" Pikachu asked worriedly.
Ash looked over to his buddy, and inwardly sighed. 'I knew I couldn't hide this from Pikachu.' Ash had hoped that Pikachu wouldn't be able to tell that he wasn't feeling good. 'I must look pretty bad for Pikachu to know so soon. I don't think anyone's ever had a cold while traveling with us.'
"Nothing to worry about Pikachu, I'm alright." Ash said as he and Pikachu walked out of the cave that they spent the night in.
The two friends walked quietly through the forest. Pikachu was standing guard. He was going to make sure nothing happened to Ash, even though he hated how stubborn his trainer was when it came to his health. 'If I was sick he would do everything and anything to make sure I was comfortable and getting better.' Pikachu thought as Ash coughed for what seemed like the one-hundredth time today.
Ash knew Pikachu was worried and getting more worried by the minute. He was walking slower the normal and coughing a lot. 'I should have stayed in the cave until I felt a little better.' Ash thought as he shivered as a breeze blew by.
Unknown to the two friends they were being watched. "Oh it looks like the twerp isn't feeling to well today." The woman with long red hair in a strange white outfit whispered from her hiding spot in the bushes.
"That means it'll be easier to steal Pikachu." The Meowth whispered exited that the twerp looked sick.
"Get ready Pikachu were gonna get you." A man with shoulder length blue hair and a similar strange out fit whispered.
Ash and Pikachu stop and take a break near a gently stream. Pikachu was getting a drink from the stream as Ash filled up his canteen with water. He shivered more when the cold water hit the back of his sore throat. He sat at the edge of the water, absentmindedly rubbing Pikachu's head. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and closed his eyes listening to the sound of gently flowing water. 'We should probably stop here. I'm starting to get dizzy walking.' Ash thought.
Pikachu sat on Ash's lap as he stared at his friend's pale face and felt the abnormally high heat radiated off his body. Pikachu wished Ash would just rest here even if only for a little bit, as he leaned into Ash's hand.
*BOOM*
The sound of an explosion with black smoke floating in, quickly brought the two friends to there feet. Pikachu watched worriedly as Ash sway on his feet, as he heard the familiar motto start.
"Prepare for trouble.", Jessie said as she stepped out of the smoke holding what looks like a bug catching net.
"Make it double." James said as he stepped out of the smoke holding a similar net as Jessie.
"To protect the world from devastation."
"To unite all people in every nation."
"To denounce the evils of truth and love"
"To extend our reach to the stars above."
"Jessie"
"James"
"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light"
"Surrender now or prepare to fight."
"Meowth that's right." Meowth finished the motto holding a mechanical extending arm. Meowth fired the mechanical arm toward Pikachu. Pikachu was caught by the arm as Team Rocket laughed
"Pika Pi!" Pikachu yelled as the arm retracted.
"Pikachu!" Ash yelled as he ran towards Team Rocket. "Pikachu use a thunder shock!"
"Pi ka chuuuu!" Pikachu as he powered up and released a thunder shock.
Team Rocket only laughed as Pikachu's thunder shock went no where.
"Hahahaha shock all you want Pikachu, we made this one shock proof." Meowth said as he, Jessie and James got in the ready Meowth shaped balloon.
As the balloon started to rise Pikachu kept trying thunder shocks with no avail as Ash ran towards the group on unsteady feet. Ash jumped and pulled himself on to the basket of the balloon with anger burning through the fever in his eyes.
Ash lunged towards Meowth while shouting, the best he could with his sore throat, "Give me back Pikachu!", anger flooding his voice.
Ash managed to wrestle the arm away from Meowth.
"Arbok go!" Jessie yelled while releasing a snake like Pokemon from her poke ball.
Arbok said her name as she came out of the poke ball. By that time Ash had already freed Pikachu from the shock proof arm.
"PIKACHU USE THUNDER SHOCK!" Ash yelled.
Pikachu obeyed and released a powerful blast of thunder which hit the burner on the balloon and caused an explosion.
"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again.!" The trio of crocks said as they soared and disappeared over the horizon along with Arbok
While Team Rocket soared through the sky Ash and Pikachu plummeted toward the ground. Luckily the added weight of Ash and Arbok had caused the balloon not to rise to quickly. Ash had grabbed Pikachu in the fall and landed with a solid thud, as he rolled absorb less damage in the fall. He rolled to a stop with Pikachu still safely in his arms.
"You alright Pikachu?" Ash asked sounding slight winded as he sat up and looked down at his little yellow Pokemon in his arms.
"Pikachu!", Replied happily, looking up at his young trainer, and smiled.
Ash sighed, "Good." he said as he put his hand up on his head and realized that his hat was missing.
"Pika Pi." Pikachu spotted the hat first and pointed to where the hat lay a short distance away from the two. Pikachu jumped out of Ash's arms and raced towards the hat.
Ash gave a small chuckle as he got up to get it.
"Whoa!" Ash said as he stood up when his world spun and tilted.
Ash couldn't keep his balance and fell backwards to the ground, but before he hit the ground his vision grew dark as he slipped in to unconsciousness.
Pikachu turn to look at his trainer with the hat in his paws and saw him fall to the ground in a heap. "PIKA PI!" Pikachu shouted in terror as he ran towards Ash, abandoning the hat.
"Pika Pi?" Pikachu asked softly as he put he paws on Ash's head and shook him gently while gazing at Ash's fevered colored face.
Pikachu waited for any kind of response from his still friend. Pikachu was starting to get nervous and was going to shock Ash when he slowly opened his eyes.
"Pika Pi!" Pikachu exclaimed happy to see his friend awake but then was startled by the pain and confusion in his half open eyes. Pikachu's gaze softened sadly seeing his friend in so much pain.
"Pikachu?" Ash asked quietly, as he looked around from his place on the ground.
"Pika Pi." Pikachu answered softly as he moved from the top of Ash's head more in to his field of vision.
Ash smiled and patted his friend's head and slowly sat up. As he sat up he groaned softly and put his hand up to his head. Ash felt like his head was going to explode as it relentlessly pounding away. Ash knew he probably shouldn't be moving but he didn't want to stay out in the middle of the field. Ash scanned the area carefully for something to be used as shelter. As his luck would have it there was a shallow cave not to far from where he and Pikachu were now. The only problem was Ash didn't think he could make to the cave, but he knew he had to try.
Ash struggled once again to stand up with Pikachu standing worriedly by his side. Pikachu had followed Ash's gaze and knew that they were going to try to make to the cave to rest. He too was worried that Ash wasn't going to be able to make it the short distance to the cave, but he also knew that they had to try.
Pikachu watched Ash struggle, wishing there was something he could do to help. He also hated that Ash would wait until he was like this to admit that there was something wrong.
After what seemed like an eternity Ash finally managed to stumble his way in to the cave with Pikachu closely be hind him. He leaned against the wall of the cave and sank down to the ground, panting for breath while sweating and shivering. While he was catching his breath he watched Pikachu go into his bag and pull out his sleeping bag and set it up as far in to the shallow cave as he could.
"Pika Pi." Pikachu softly called when he finished setting up his friend's sleeping bag.
Ash opened his eyes which he hadn't realized that he had closed and looked towards Pikachu who was standing near his sleeping bag. Ash nodded slightly and slowly made his way to his sleeping bag, carefully slid in and quickly fell asleep.
Pikachu watched as Ash shivered in his sleep and thought back to when Misty took care of him and remember the cold cloth against the forehead. Pikachu knew the stream was close but was afraid to leave Ash with no protection. 'If I don't go he'll might not get better. But if I go and a Pokemon attacks him or he wakes up and sees that I'm gone he might get hurt.' Pikachu went back and forth with him self about weather or not to leave Ash's side. In the end he decided to leave to wet the cloth that he found in Ash's bag. Pikachu ran the whole way to and from the stream and was relived to see Ash was still there and safe.
"Pika Pi." Pikachu said sadly as he put the cloth on Ash's. Pikachu decided he wanted to try to start a fire too, to in case it got cold as the night was quickly approaching.
Pikachu went out to find fire wood but stayed close to the cave. Finding fire wood proved to be difficult due to the rain the last two days, but Pikachu was able to find some dry wood to start a fire. He arranged the fire wood in pile he tried to think of away to start a fire. He has seen Ash use matches many times, but he didn't want to risk using them wrong and possibly hurting Ash. Then Pikachu had an idea. He took a twig that he found and used thunder shock to heat up the twig until it was hot enough to start a fire. Pikachu very carefully tended to the fire until it was strong enough to light up the cave but still a small size in case he had to put it out with sand attack in a hurry.
Pikachu tired to take care of Ash all night. Sprinting back and forth to the stream and back to change to cool cloth on Ash's forehead. Making sure Ash kept breathing after coughing for a while. He even was drying wood by the fire to use when the fire got low. Pikachu tried to stay up all night to watch over Ash but in the end the emotional and physical toll proved to be to much as he drifted off to sleep.
It was dark, so dark he could barely see his hand in front of his face. There was no sound, no movement, and no light. Even though he couldn't see it he knew something was watching him. Waiting for him to let his guard down. The tension was almost suffocating at times. He deiced to risk moving. He walked aimlessly through the shadows.
Every once in while the feeling that something was watching him would vanish for a brief period but it never lasted long. He still walked on when something clicked in his mind. Someone was missing. He looked all around him panicked but realized he couldn't see. He didn't care if what ever was watching him was going to attack or what ever it wanted to do. He just knew he had to find him.
He filled his lungs and yelled, "PIKACHU!" as loud as he could.
Ash listened intently for any thing, a sound, a squeak anything. He knew he had to find his buddy no matter what.
But then the unthinkable happened. The whole area was engulfed in flames. The flames were so hot that Ash thought that his skin would burn off before the flames even touched him.
He looked around the area and called for Pikachu again with more urgency than before, hoping to save him from the flames. He looked off in to the distance and saw a familiar balloon rising up above the flames. He looked closer and saw Pikachu hanging from a rope attached to the bottom of the basket.
Ash ran toward Pikachu while calling its name over and over above the roar of the flames. He weaved around the flames and still never seemed to be getting any closer.
He ran for what seemed like forever. He finally got close enough to be able to see Pikachu clearly and his heart disintegrates. There Pikachu hung with tears running down his face while patches of fur were either black from the flames or still on fire. For a few seconds Ash just stood there stunned unsure of what to do.
"PIKA PI!" Pikachu's scream brought tears down his face. Ash was painfully aware that he could do nothing to help his best friend.
Then everything went dark. The flames disappeared along with heat. A cool refreshing feeling was felt on his forehead and seemed to travel down his body. A dim light illuminated the area and revealed Team Rocket. Pikachu was standing there facing Team Rocket with his back towards Ash.
"Pikachu?" Ash asked cautiously, taking a steep forward, seeing Pikachu still with the patches of burned fur.
Pikachu turned towards Ash with an evil looking glare that stopped Ash in his tracks. His checks sparking dangerously with every step Ash took. Pikachu suddenly turned towards Team Rocket and ran toward them and stood protectively in front of them.
"Hmm it looks like Pikachu don't want to be with you anymore." Jessie taunted as an evil smirk slowly creped across her face.
"I guess Pikachu doesn't trust you after you let him get burned" Meowth said and Pikachu started to nod his head in agreement.
"Pikachu. I tried everything I could" Ash said his voice breaking with the memories of Pikachu's screams echo around him.
"Yeah right. We were the ones who saved Pikachu by pulling him up in to our balloon." James said
"Pikachu, I tried to reach you buddy." Ash said in an almost pleading voice.
Pikachu once again began to sparks its checks dangerously, but with more force behind them than before towards Ash. Than with out warning Pikachu unleashed a powerful thunder bolt on Ash more powerful than he had ever felt before. Ash screamed in agony, from both pain of the lighting and pain of Pikachu not trusting or being his friend any longer.
~Change~
Pikachu opened his eyes to a well lit Pokemon center room for trainers to use. He looked around the room and what he found in the bed scared him more than anything.
In the bed lay Ash who was almost as white as the sheets covering him. His eyes shut tightly and the expression of pain on his face. His hands gripped the sheets so hard his knuckles were white. A thin layer of sweat covers his face as he fought to draw in the shallowest breath. Along with his body trembling in pain with out rest.
"Pika Pi?" Pikachu asked scared, with every ounce of fear flooding his voice.
"Pika…..chu" Ash struggled to answer pain evident in his voice. Pikachu noticed that never opened his eyes and only slightly turned towards him.
"Pika Pi." Pikachu said again terrified that something was going to happen to his best friend. Tears began running down his face, being unable to help his friend with the pain he was in. Pikachu kept repeating to himself, "Come on Ash pull through, you can do it."
Just then the door to Pikachu's back opens. Nurse Joy steps in to the room as Pikachu turns to see who it is. He sees the sad look on her face and the sadness coating her voice as she said, "I'm so sorry". It is in that moment that Pikachu notices that the trembling in the bed had stopped. Pikachu turned back around towards Ash to see that is completely still. Pain still apparent on his face but his hands are relaxed and his chest is completely still.
Pikachu's eyes widens in shock and fear as he exclaims "PIKA PI!" Pikachu shakes Ash after getting no response and calls for him again. He faintly hears Nurse Joy behind him say she's sorry again, but he refuses to give up. He powers up and shocks Ash with a thunder shock. Still there was no movement or response from the boy in the bed. He tries again a little bit stronger, and still there was nothing. Pikachu's vision is becoming distorted with tears and he tries one more time, desperately trying to get Ash to open his eyes. He powers up and releases a thunder bolt.
Pikachu wakes up still sending an electric current through the trainer he was watching over. Pikachu instantly stops the current and rushed towards Ash's head in a panic.
"PIKA PI!" Pikachu cries out horrified at what he had done and terrified at what he might have done.
Ash's eyes snap open with a gasp when the thunder bolt attack ended and heard a familiar voice call to him. "Pikachu?" Ash asks as he slowly sits up.
"Pika Pi!" Pikachu shouts as he jumps on to Ash's lap and gives him a big hug. He feels Ash return the hug, and realizes that he isn't nearly as warm as he was yesterday.
"Pika Pi, Pikachu Pi?" Pikachu asked looking at Ash.
Ash smiled looking down at Pikachu and answered, "I'm felling better.'
"Pikachu?" Pikachu asked the fear of his nightmare lingering in the back of his mind.
"Yeah I'm sure." Ash smiled as the memory of his nightmare had already started to fade.
Ash and Pikachu looked towards the opening of the cave as saw that it was early dawn.
"We should get going huh Pikachu?" Ash asked looking at his friend.
Pikachu took a moment to answer studying his friend's appearance. He didn't want a repeat of yesterday. He noticed Ash was still pale but not as pale as yesterday. He seemed to have more energy today. So Pikachu answered "Pika." with a nod of his head.
Ash and Pikachu left the small cave after eating a small breakfast. The two walked quietly along a small dirt path. Ash coughed every once in a while, which got him concerned looks from Pikachu. After about a half hour of walking the two came to the top of a hill and could see the small city at the bottom of the hill. True to its name the small city had holly trees all through it.
"We're almost there!" Ash cheered as he looked to Pikachu as Pikachu looked back and smiled too.
Two reached the town and walked in to the Pokemon Center. Ash and Pikachu got a room and Pikachu had a full check up. Nurse Joy brought Pikachu back to the room where he and Ash were staying. Nurse joy could hear Ash coughing through the door. Nurse Joy knocked and hears Ash answer.
"Pikachu's check up went well he's fine but you don't sound to well." Nurse Joy said as she walked towards Ash.
"Oh yeah I've been a little sick for the past few days." Ash said with an embarrassed laugh.
"Pikachu Pi." Pikachu said confirming Ash's story which he didn't need to do.
"There's an illness that's been going around for a while now. Let me give you a quick check up and I'll see what I can do." Nurse Joy said with a smile.
Ash let Nurse Joy give him a check up and found that he did have the illness that was going around the region. Nurse Joy gave him some medication and told him he needed to get lots of rest, then he would be better in a few days. Ash thanked her and went back to the room with Pikachu closely following. He took the medication and settled in to bed. Pikachu sat next to him determined not to let his nightmare to come true.
After a few days Ash was feeling completely better and Pikachu was relieved.
The End