1 Year Later
"Ash, may I speak to you?" Professor Samuel Oak asked.
A nine-year-old Ash Ketchum looked up from the pokemon he was feeding, a pikachu which the Professor had been studying for a few days, ever since he caught the rodent trying to eat the lab's power cables. Ash rose from his kneeling position, slapping his hands on his beige cargo pants to get any food dust off, then walked over to the old man.
"Yeah, what's wrong, Professor?"
"Well…" Oak pulled on the collar of his lab coat awkwardly, swallowing roughly, "there's nothing really wrong, per se… It's just that you've been spending an awful lot of time in my lab. You don't really spend much time with the other children…"
"They don't want to play with me anyways. They call me mean things, like freak, and sometimes they say I should have just died when that meteor hit me so I didn't have to be near them."
Professor Oak leaned back in shock, instinctively raising his slightly wrinkled hands in front of him, as if they would protect them from the harsh truth. He had heard stories of the infamous cruelty of youth, even acted some of them out when he himself had been young, but this…
"Are you serious!?" Oak cried, then recomposed himself. "Ahem. I mean, are you certain that is what they've said to you? I find it hard to believe children could say something so… vicious. Perhaps you were mistaken?"
"Of course I'm sure- eidetic memory, remember?" That had been a result of Dio rewiring Ash's brain while he slept, something that did not go over well with him. The impending argument was ignored, however, in place of Ash sifting through his now-vivid memories. Along with suddenly being able to remember everything, Ash found his thought process to be much clearer, allowing him to catch some things he had never noticed before.
Professor Oak flinched a bit, then straightened up. "Right…" he muttered, not commenting on the small pun the boy had managed to slip in. "Well, I suppose you have a reason to stay away from them, then. However! It is not right for a young boy to be completely isolated; everyone must have a companion!" Oak said, passionately. Then he directed his gaze to the yellow mouse, which was now curled up, asleep, on the white-tiled lab floor.
"Even if they are not human…"
"So." Ash said, looking at the pikachu which Oak had gifted him. The rodent stared back impassively. According to Oak, the pokemon seemed to have taken a liking to the young boy. And by that, he meant it didn't try to electrocute him to death.
"What should I call you?"
"Don't ask me! I'm not the one coming up with names," the pikachu replied.
Another thing which came from sharing a body with Dio; the ability to understand pokemon. That was an offshoot of his psychic abilities, which even after a year were still pretty cool.
"Hmm… What moves do you know?"
"Um, I don't really know the names…" the pikachu admitted sheepishly.
Ash sighed. "Right, I'll just go ask Professor Oak-"
"Ash!" Professor Oak called out the back window of lab, which overlooked the ranch where boy and mouse stood.
"Speak of the devil…" Ash muttered, walking over to the old researcher.
"My apologies- I forgot to give you this earlier!" Oak pulled out a red rectangle from his pocket.
"Is that!?" Ash cried, shocked.
"Yes, indeed. This," Oak waved the object around, "is the first completed pokedex! It should help you figure out all the quirks of that little pikachu."
Said mouse's cheeks crackled with electricity, causing Oak to raise his hands in surrender.
"Right, I'll just give you this, and, uh, get back to my work!" Oak said, trying to retreat without seeming cowardly. It didn't work, but Ash was too preoccupied by the device in his hands to notice.
"Woah…" he mumbled, the world around him forgotten in favor of the pokedex.
"Who the heck is he callin' small!? I'll have him know, I was actually a little bigger than most of the other pikachu back home!" the pokemon grumbled. Ash tuned back into reality just in time to hear him.
"Yeah, fatter than them." he commented offhandedly, then froze as he realized what he just said.
"Wait-!" He was cut off by a lightning bolt slapping him in the face, sending him to the ground.
A few minutes later, Ash finally managed to brush all the soot off his clothes.
"Well, at least we know you know Thunderbolt… I think."
That was when Ash got the bright idea to actually use his new pokedex, as opposed to having the pikachu use every attack it knew and trying to guess what they were. Flipping open the small device, Ash examined the keyboard, screens, and various buttons, and was a bit startled to see it required setup. He figured it would have already been done. Upon closer examination, it was simply asking questions about the person who owned it.
Ash input his name, a few preferences, then tinkered with the settings for a bit. Finally done, he pointed the device at pikachu, who had been watching him the whole time. Red lasers shot out of the outward-facing camera, startling the electric mouse as they roamed over him.
After a moment, the pokedex beeped. "New pokemon scanned; pikachu, the electric mouse pokemon. When several of these pokemon gather, their electricity could build and cause lightning storms."
On the larger screen, a picture of a pikachu popped up. On the smaller one, located on the lid of the machine, the same description which the mechanical voice had just spit out was displayed, followed by some physical measurements specific to this pokemon, such as height and weight. At the bottom of the large screen, under the picture, was a list of moves that this pokemon knew.
"Alright, so apparently you know Thundershock, Quick Attack, Thunderwave, and Agility."
"I have no idea what any of that means," the pikachu said, sounding slightly annoyed.
"Um, okay, let me just… Aha!" Ash cried suddenly, startling the pokemon.
He had managed to maneuver the pokedex to display a description of the attacks.
"Thundershock," the boy recited, "a jolt of electricity is hurled at the foe to inflict damage. It may also leave the foe paralyzed. So that's what you just did. Next, Quick Attack; the user lunges at the foe at a speed that makes it almost invisible. It is sure to strike first." Ash looked at his new pokemon, staring until he understood he was supposed to try and perform the move.
Throwing himself into a run, the pikachu continued to accelerate until a white streak of energy was following behind him. At this point, Ash was having a hard time seeing the pokemon, something Dio made note of. He would improve his human's reaction times and dynamic vision during the night.
A bit cocky, and drunk on speed, the yellow rodent directed his Quick Attack into a nearby tree, expecting it to fall over from the force of the blow. Instead, a few leaves fell off, and the pikachu ended up upside down and dizzy.
Ash, laughing, jogged over to pick up his new friend.
"Are you alright?" he asked, barely stifling his chuckles.
"Urg," the mouse replied.
Finally, Ash could no longer hold it in, and burst out laughing.
"What were you trying do?" he asked after he had calmed down.
"I… I thought I could knock down the tree," the small creature admitted, embarrassed.
Ash broke down laughing once more, causing the pikachu to be overtaken by anger. Cheeks crackling, the pokemon lit up with a Thundershock. However, it missed, barely, slightly burning Ash's hair. This shut the boy up, and he turned to look at where the bolt ended up. As he watched, the electricity fizzled out high up in the air. Ash looked on for a few moments, contemplating.
The pikachu, worried about his new trainer's silence, walked over and nudged him.
"What's wrong?" the pokemon asked.
"...I think I know what to call you. That Thundershock gave me an idea…" Ash trailed off.
The mouse stared at him, waiting for the boy to continue.
"I'm going to become a pokemon trainer when I turn eleven, and I'm going to take on the Pokemon League to become the strongest trainer around. I'll need a strong partner to help me get there, so you'll need to work a lot, because some of those other trainers out there are pretty tough."
The pikachu was confused, and hoped that the young boy would get to the point soon.
"Imagine how powerful your electric attacks will be once we're at the top! I bet you could rip a hole through the stratosphere! So… I think I'll call you Skybreaker- Sky, for short."
The pikachu pondered it for a moment. It was a bit of an odd name, but definitely something to live up to.
"I like it!" the newly-named Sky said, after a few moments.
Ash's smile was blinding.
Professor Oak, watching from the window of the lab, smiled as well. It seemed that he had made the right choice. Hopefully, a friend would keep the young boy from walking down the path of solitude.
A short one, but as I said, I'll make up for it by posting more. Any thoughts on the name Skybreaker? I always thought it was a bit odd, how Ash loves his pokemon so much, but never named them. I'm not doubting his feelings, I just think it's sorta degrading to call a pokemon by its species name as the pokemon's actual name. It's like saying that your pikachu isn't that different from any other. I, personally, think it's a very subtle way of saying that the pokemon is expendable, because there are others around, but that's just me.