Not much action this chapter, working a bit on characters and on Maurice' relationship with the pikachu. Please let me know what you think. If you don't want to review, you can always PM me. :)
Friday 13rd (nooooo!) 2012: Updated.
After a short walk, the pikachu stopped. They turned around and the male that mentioned me to follow him raised his paw. I looked at him as the female also said something to her son. He nodded and did not follow his mother as she quickly ran farther into the woods. Both males followed her, but as soon I wanted to follow I was stopped by one of the males.
"Pika Pikachu!" he quickly said waving his paws. "Should I... Wait?" I asked him. He nodded and quickly followed his two conspecifics while I and the small pikachu remained behind. He looked kinda nervous, but he knew I wouldn't do anything to him, so he just watched me. Suddenly I wondered something and I sat down next to the pikachu. "Hey ehm... Ehm... What's your name?" I asked him. "Pika Pikachu!" he replied smiling. I also smiled. "Too bad I can't understand you..." I said sighing. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something. Why didn't you attack that ekans back there? You could easily do massive damage to it by letting out a thunderbolt or something similar on that range!"
The pikachu looked at me and then shook his head. "Pi ka Pi ka. Pika-pi, pikachu! Pika Pika-ka chu! Pika Pikachu!" he said while sparking his cheeks and covering them with his paws, stopping the sparks. I looked puzzled at him. "What do you mean? Was your attack blocked?" He nodded. "Pika, pikachu! Pika!" he said. He then jumped on my lap, grabbed one of my hands and pushed them against his cheeks. He pointed at my other hand (pika!). I grabbed his other cheek. "Pika! Pika pikachu." he said. Then he sparked his cheeks, making me withdraw my hands quickly. "Don't shock me!" I laughed. He smiled. "Pika, pika pikachu! Pi-pika!" he said while he attempted to grab my hand again. "So you won't hurt me?" I said unsurely. "Pi. Ka." he said firmly while shaking his head. "Alright then..." I grabbed his cheeks again. "Pika pika, pikachu!" he said while pointing at his cheeks. He then sparked and released a small thunderbolt, which I could feel very clearly but didn't hurt that much. "Alright, what was that?" I asked him. "Pika pika..." he said while he pinched me softly in my hands. "Pika pikachu!" he said while looking in my eyes.
"Should I pinch you...?" I asked him in surprise. He nodded quickly. "Ehm, alright them... I guess." I said while gently pinched the little pikachu. He sparked again, trying to release a thunderbolt. Nothing happened. Although he tried and tried - nothing came. I watched the pikachu trying to attack me. I decided to release his cheeks while he was attacking, to see what would happen and if he wasn't fooling me. Once he released a loud "Pikaaaaaa CHUUU" I released his cheeks and on the exact same millisecond I released him I was hit by a thunderbolt. I screamed while electricity went through my body. The pikachu quickly stopped and looked scared at me. "Yeah... No... Problem -I fell to the ground- aaargg." I said while I felt and smelled grass.
"Pika pi...?" I heard him softly. I opened my eyes and saw him standing and looking at me. I could tell he felt guilty. "No problem..." I said. "I just shouldn't have released you... I thought you were fooling me..."
I slowly came back to me senses. I sat up, shook my head and looked at him. "So you can actually block a pikachu's attack by grabbing his cheeks?" I asked him, shaking my head. He nodded. "Pika, pika pikachu." he said while pointing at his cheeks. "Pika... Pika pikachu..." he said slowly while looking at the ground. "So that's why you didn't do a thunderbolt...? The ekans blocked your ability to do electrical attacks?" He nodded. I was thinking. I never knew there was an ability to block electric attacks. At the same time it made perfect sense. Electric attacks from pikachu come from their cheeks. If you block their cheeks, they should be unable to do electric attacks. But even then, don't they have multiple power lines running through their bodies and to their cheeks? I always thought they could release electricity at any time, but apparently they couldn't.
While I was lost in thoughts, the pikachu had made its way to my backpack and was sniffing the outside. I saw him and suddenly realized I was in a forest and that I should contact Oak. I promised him to give him a daily update through a smartphone he had given me. It was in one of the pockets of my backpack. The pikachu however had found it immediately. He was scratching the side of my backpack looking for it, possibly attracted by the battery. I grabbed my backpack and opened the zipper that covered my phone. I took it out (the pikachu followed my phone very interested) together with a piece of paper and unlocked the interface. The pikachu jumped my shoulder to see what I was doing.
"Battery 98% remaining?" I said with disbelief. That's one good battery then... Let's see... I looked to the paper, which was a note from Oak.
"This is your phone. You can use it to send me messages like daily updates, emergency calls or photos. It has a expensive battery that lasts for ten days and there is a charger on solar energy in your backpack. Please send me daily updates if you're able to. There's also a GPS inside there so I can track you down. Good luck!"
- Oak
Alright! I opened the phone and checked what was installed. It was pre-installed and there were some basic operation, like calling, photos, emergency calls, a medical helper and a built-in pokédex. I quickly started typing a message. "Pika pikachu...?" the pikachu asked me. "I'm sending a message to professor Oak." I smiled. "He wanted me to join your colony, and since I like pikachu, I decided to try. I want to see how you guys survive and how your colony works." I said while finishing my message that I possibly found a colony and that I was gonna be introduced to them within a couple of minutes. The pikachu looked at my phone and then stuck his paw out, touching the touch-screen and wiping to the next screen as he saw me doing a couple of seconds ago. I laughed at his face when he did it, because his face looked curiously yet surprised. He stuck his paw out to try again, but this time he forgot he was on my shoulder and tumbled down in my lap. I laughed at him, held the phone in front of him. He immediately was obsessed by the piece of technology. Touching the buttons and entering menus. "They're taking their time, aren't they?" I asked him. "Let's see if there's a game on this thing..."
Unfortunately, there weren't any games on the phone and I put it back in my backpack. "Shouldn't they be back already...?" I said while I gently pet the pokémon. He seemed to like that, as he closed his eyes, purred and snuggled in my lap. If I stopped petting, he would rub his cheek against my hand, clearly not wanting me to stop. I was surprised the pikachu wasn't scared for me at all. At least, not anymore. So this is how quick pokémon can change... I gently scratched under his chin and behind his ears, exactly as I did with Bobby when I was little. He opened his eyes, got himself comfortable on my legs and then slowly drifted away to sleep, his eyes slowly closing as I scratched behind his ears and petting him. He sighed happily, slowly shifted position once more and fell asleep. One minute later, he was fast asleep. I smiled at him and looked him over. His fur was bright yellow and shined brightly. Except from the wounds he had, he was in perfect condition. I looked at his size and felt his weight on my leg. He was probably two or three years old, and had evolved quite quickly after his birth. I doubted if he already had a mate - he was a bit young to have one just yet. Normally they would slowly get one when they were four or five years old.
I looked around the little meadow we were in. I saw the sky, which had turned more and more orange instead of blue. About fifteen minutes after they left, the pikachu came back with four more pikachu. They looked old - older than the one that had brought me over here or that had attacked me. "Hi there..." I said gently. "So you are the colony leaders...?" I asked them. "They said nothing and just watched me. Then the mother appeared. She looked at me, saw her son's tail sticking over my legs and smiled. She moved over to me, jumped on my legs, sniffed him, sniffed me and then sniffed my backpack. She also scratched my backpack at the exact location of the phone. Two other pikachu headed for the female, sniffed, and scratched my backpack, wondering where that electrical magnetic field was coming from. I laughed. "You guys are unbelievable. How do you know my phone is in there?" I said as I opened the pack, got the phone out and showed them. They sniffed the phone, looked at me and got back to the older pikachu which were looking at me, clearly annoyed by the pikachu interested in me.
"Pika - Pika Pikachu!" he said with a heavy voice. I didn't understand what he said, so I just guessed he what he was asking me. "You want to know what I'm doing here?" I asked him. He nodded. "That was easy..." I thought. "I'm here to join a colony of pikachu. I want to research how pikachus live inside a colony and how your colonies work." I said. "Are you the colony leader...?" I added to my answer. The older pikachu looked at me and then slowly nodded. He looked at the other pikachu and they discussed something. "Pika - Pikachu pi-pi-ka. Pika pikachu." he then said. I was thinking what he could have said - but I couldn't figure out what exactly. "You want to know why?" He shook his head. "Pika pikachu pika!"
"You don't want me to join."
He shook his head.
"You do want me to join."
He looked at me with a face that said he hadn't decided yet.
"You think it's awkward to have a human in your colony?"
He nodded.
"Well I understand that bu..." He stopped me. "Pika Pikachu! Pika!" he said. "More questions?" he nodded.
"You want to know why I chose your colony."
He shook his head, stared at a tree for a moment and then nodded. "Pika pikachu!"
"Well, it was luck. I was looking for a pikachu colony in the woods and I saw this one" - I said pointing at the pikachu in my lap - "but he ran off so I followed him and then he was grabbed by an ekans so I attacked the ekans and I took care of him. Then his mother (I pointed at the female) attacked me because she thought I attacked her son and then I asked them if I could join you."
The elder nodded slowly and asked something to the female. The female answered and pointed at her son and asked the elder to come close. They both climbed my lap and checked the bandages from the pikachu. After some discussion with the group of pikachu they decidedThe elder smiled. "Pika pikachu!" he said offering his tail to me. I wondered what he meant but suddenly realized he was greeting me pikachu style. I shook his tail with my hand. He smiled when I did that and pointed at himself. "Pika pikachu. Pika pika pikachu! Pi-pika-chu.". "And I'm Maurice" I said pointing at myself. "Can you tell me his name?" I said pointing at the pikachu in my lap. "Pika Pika Pikachu!". I thought. I understood the first pika. It had to mean "His name is" but the second part was the problem. "Pika pikachu!" one of them said. "Yeah, we should go... It's getting dark." I said. I picked my backpack, put it on and stood up holding the pikachu which was still asleep. His mother jumped on my shoulder to watch me carrying her child. "Alright, let's go!" I said while getting my sleeping bag and following the pikachu to their colony for real this time...
To be continued...