Chapter 25

I've heard a lot of stories about raichus and seen how they act. These big mice are powerful fully-evolved pokémon, they are the assault troopers and juggernauts of our species. Pikachus don't just evolve into raichus on their own, they need a thunderstone to do it. Because the evolution cannot be done naturally, the number of raichus in the wild are disproportionately smaller than pichus and pikachus. Despite their rarity, raichus are three times more fertile than their lesser counterparts and can lay multiple pichu eggs in one sitting. They are known more for their power and aggression, not to mention they also glow in the dark when overcharged.

I can only imagine how these raichus live. The psychological impact of mice evolving into a raichu may vary, but it always leads up to three scenarios: One, the raichu's powers will go over its head and it becomes an aggressive shithead, bullying others for intimidation and control. Two, the raichu cannot handle its own powers and becomes depressed, often living as a hermit with a chance of suicide. Three, which the raichu's personality is largely unaffected since it doesn't mind the change. These raichus are few and far between because the third scenario is hard to identify, often mistaken for one and two due to a pre-existing condition.

I had no problems identifying this kind of raichu. He was a number one, which was obvious due to its demeanor and the henchmen that follows it. I had a brother who suffered from such a bully, and recently a grandson who could not handle the stress of his abilities. Sympathy aside, I prepared myself for a fight. I am old, but I am a legendary pikachu. I didn't earn that title by playing nice.

"Hey, pissballs," the raichu barked. "You're in our foraging grounds!"

I said nothing, I wanted to test the raichu's patience. I wanted to see if he is socially insecure, or maybe having some form of weakness. These kinds of gangs are held together by fear and intimidation, if the raichu shows even a hint of weakness his followers will desert him. So far I saw no sign of any weaknesses, this raichu is as cold as they come.

The raichu shot a look at me. "Hey, four eyes! I'm talking to you! You're in our berry patch, get out!"

"You're the owner?" I asked.

The raichu wrinkled his nose. "Everybody knows I own this patch. Since you don't know that, I guess you're not from here."

"His scent smells old," said one of his henchmen. "He also smells human."

The raichu grinned, "An old pikachu from human captivity, I knew you weren't from here. Where did you come from?"

"Viridian Forest, a long time ago."

"Where's your trainer?"

"Dead in the grave, now I serve no one."

This raichu thinks I would be an easy case. I was covered in old wounds and my fur is turning white. I was ready to fall apart, but I'm still tough as nails. He took a moment to judge me, then turned to his henchmen. "Show this old chu what happens when he trespass in my territory."

"Hey," I said. "We got kids here with their parents, they'll get caught in the crossfire."

The raichu didn't listen, he sicced one of his henchmen on me. The rogue pikachu made a charge at me, I flashed a Thunderbolt at his face and knocked him back, the sudden boom of the bolt forced the mama pikachu and her child to run for cover. The other two henchmen took off after them, the third laid on the ground unconscious.

I didn't get this raichu a chance to taunt me or even use Hyper Beam, I charged at him head on. I hit him hard, really hard. The raichu flew back, then tossed me over his head before hitting the ground. I somersaulted and landed on my feet, then turned to face him.

"Oh you little pisshead!" The raichu charged at me, I timed my jump and leaped when he was right up to me. The mouse pokémon couldn't stop in time as he plowed head first into a sycamore tree, cracking it. Spectating mice saw what is happening and ran out of the berry patch, but stuck around to watch the show.

The mouse pokémon got up on its feet, then turned toward me. "Oh you're getting it now!"

He cupped his hands over his chest and formed a bright plasma energy ball, I held up my fist and charged it. The raichu blasted out his Hyper Beam, a very powerful move that can incapacitate lesser mice pokémon. I charged the air in front of me and formed an electric shield, I dug my heels into the earth and took the force of the blow. The raichu was powerful alright, I could feel my joints scream under the strain. When the raichu ceased his Hyper Beam, I held my shield for a brief second before sending it right at him. The raichu took the blow and stumbled back, but held his ground. If I was in a better condition, that should have incapacitated him. I wasn't at my best, and for a moment I thought I might get pummeled. I was relieved, because the raichu was disoriented. He wobbled on his feet for a moment and tried to hold his ground, but I saw I did considerable damage on him. I didn't think he was expecting much resistance.

Now I went on the attack, I charged at him and leaped, I turned my tail to bright steel and swung it around. I hit him square in the jaw, throwing his head up and knocked him on his back, then I proceed to pummel him with everything I could throw at him. Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, even my own bare fists. I was so deep in rage that I couldn't restrain myself. Bones shattered, blood spattered. The raichu had enough and took his one stubby fist and punched me in the gut. What happened after that was fuzzy. I didn't feel any pain, but rather finding myself arching across the berry patch and crashing into an old oak tree. Not enough to crack it, but enough to beat the wind out of me. I fell to the ground and drop to my knees. I was tired, drained, I felt like I couldn't any longer.

The raichu was in no better shape, he was covered in bruises and scrapes. I think I broke a few of his ribs because he was wheezing badly, the raichu spat out blood and looked at me with bloodshot eyes. "You think you can challenge me, pissball?! I am a raichu! The king among all mice pokémon! Who do you think you are?!"

I grinned my rotten teeth. "Simple," I said with human words. "The Master of Electricity."

I gave him my classic Thunderbolt, if he hadn't noticed my electricity was purple instead of yellow, he sure as fuck noticed now. The world lit up like an atom bomb for a fraction of a second, deafened with the sound of a sonic boom. The raichu went from zero to a hundred kilometers per hour in a fraction of a second, he smashed against that same old sycamore tree we cracked earlier, this time the tree's spine broke and he went tumbling over the stump. The tree tipped over across the berry patch and landed on the ground with a massive thud. The raichu screamed at the top of his lungs, the sound he made was so horrifying I swear to this day that it didn't sound like a raichu at all.

When the dust settled, I took a deep breath and flexed my muscles, then walked along the fallen tree to see what had become of the raichu. I found him pinned under the tree by the hip. Blood was starting to ooze underneath him. He was struggling to pull himself free. The pikachus who saw the whole thing gathered around the raichu but did nothing to help. I walked up to the fallen tree and slashed it with Iron Tail, I managed to break off part of the trunk, freeing the raichu. I rolled the log off and saw the true scope of the damage. The raichu's tail was smashed, pulverized, and his right hip and leg was flattened. He wasn't paralyzed, since he could still move them, but I don't think he is going to be walking on that leg anytime soon.

Just as the raichu looked up at me, I sucker punched him in his yellow cheek. It flashed yellow and reeked pungent ozone. "This is for my brother, asshole!"

The raichu spat out more blood and rested his head on the ground. "Oh the agony."

I kicked the raichu on the shoulder and forced him on his back, the raichu let out another howl as pain shot up from his broken leg. "I have a raichu grandson who has to suffer from stigma because of mice like you! Do you have any idea how much suffering he has to deal with?!"

The raichu wheezed, "Uh, I dunno. How much?"

"A lot more than what I can do to you."

I turned to the pikachus and said, "One of you get the Nurse Joy from Pallet Town, bring her here and make sure he gets medical attention, and don't let any of his buddies claim him. Do you hear me?!"

They all just stared at me in horror.

I switched back to pokémon speech. "I said, do you hear me?!"

"Yes, yes!" said a few pikachus. A group of pikachus broke away and made a dash toward Pallet Town, the rest got together in attempt to figure out in the meantime what to do with the raichu. He wasn't going anywhere, now I have to go take care of his goons. I turned around and head toward the direction where I believed they went, then ran as fast as I could go.

. . .

I caught the scent of the mama pikachu, but it was sketchy at best. However, the scent of her pursuers was strong than ever. I navigated the forest, wondering how far they had gotten. I stopped and listened for any signs of moment, nothing. I was getting worried, if they had gotten far I wonder if the mama pikachu was still being pursued. I also wondered if she was separated from her child again.

There's only two high needs that govern pokémon, and that's both food and sex. Males are notoriously known for their higher sex drive than females, and that can cause problems for both genders. Nine out of ten rape cases involve a male dominating a female. I worried that the two brutes would pin the mama pikachu down and proceed to gang-rape her, and I can only imagine what they would do to her pichu. They are at the lowest level of the mice pokémon social ladder, the rates of abuse for them are higher than their evolved counterparts.

I keep going, trying to figure out where they went. I then began hearing screaming, I followed it to the source and saw that the two henchmen had trapped the mama pikachu and her child up in a tree. I got there just in time to see the mama pikachu lose her grip and fall to the ground, the child was horrified to see his mama fall. The henchmen wasted no time, they got into position for their assault. I charged out of the bushes and crashed into one of them before they could lay a hand on her. I was furious, I was more enraged at them than at their leader. The brute I crashed into went flying and toppled across the ground, I quickly land a panzer attack on his buddy. He managed to call up a Thundershock, the yellow flash of electricity struck me. Instead of harming me, it gained me strength. The brute realized what had happened at the last second and tried to brace himself, I crashed into him and pinned him on the ground, then I proceeded to beat the crap out of him.

The first merc I took down had gotten back up and tried to attack me from behind. He landed on my back, I grabbed him by the ears and flipped him over my head. I smashed his back against his buddy's face, he screamed in agony. I kicked him aside and proceed to pummel his friend, I even went as far as sending blows to his gonads just to be sure he wouldn't lay another hand on an innocent female again. For my grand finale, I picked him up and smashed his head against the face of the tree. He dropped lifeless on the ground. His buddy tried to crawl away, but I picked him up and smashed the base of his spine against my knee. He let out one final scream before I smashed his head against the tree, the henchmen dropped to the ground like a rag doll.

I stood over my work for a moment, panting heavily. I almost forgotten why I was here until Lil'In screamed, I turned and saw him lost his grip on the tree. I charged, leaped up and caught him before he hit the ground. He looked at me with big merciful eyes, I swear those were the prettiest eyes I have ever seen from a pichu. I took him back to his mother, where she mustered the strength to sit up. "Are you okay?" I asked.

The mama pikachu blinked, "Just stunned from the fall is all."

I handed Lil'In to her, then checked on the henchmen. They weren't moving, I reached for their necks and checked for a pulse.

I found nothing.

"Did you take care of that raichu?" the mama pikachu asked.

"Yeah," I said, still staring at the bodies. "He's taken care of."

I returned to the mama pikachu and helped her up on her feet. "Is anything broken, even sprained?"

"No, nothing's hurt but my pride."

"Here," I said. "I'll take you guys back home, you went through too much drama for today."

. . .

We walked back to the burrows in silence. The mama pikachu kept close to me for protection, her pichu walking just by her side. I felt queasy and uncomfortable, my conscience troubled from the raichus and his mercenaries. After just twenty meters of walking on my two feet, I felt my blood rushing down to my legs. I felt light-headed, nauseous. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath.

"Are you okay?" Lil'In asked.

"That raichu took a lot of wind out of me," I said. "I'm not as spry as I used to be."

This time I got on all fours, I felt all my weight pivot over my hips. My organs felt so loose inside my gut that they might fall out. My body felt rusty, aging, I felt like I was about to fall apart. I walked the rest of the way on all fours, barely holding my own weight. When we reached the den, I let the mama pikachu and her pichu go first. I got in and just laid back near the door. I closed my eyes to rest for a moment.

The mama pikachu crawled up to me and held up my hand. "You used up a lot of electricity, I can't sense a charge left."

I took a deep breath and relaxed. "Funny how things fall apart. I swear if a building were to be constructed and completed on one day, it's closed and demolished the next. I'm starting to have trouble remembering what year it is, and the months and days are a blur."

The mama pikachu pressed her ear against my chest. "Your heart is too slow, it's not beating as fast as it should."

"I meditate."

The mama pikachu shot a look at me. "You need to be at a pokémon center."

"And what will the Nurse Joy do? Try her best not to let an old pikachu die in peace? Do you have any idea what I have to go through to get here?"

I held that thought for a moment, then broke down in tears. I rolled onto my side and covered my face, the mama pikachu came up and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I am not the child my mama raised anymore. She named me Sparky, but I lived most of my life under the name Tesla Westinghouse. I spent my entire adult life training, studying. The more my knowledge grew about the world and all the subjects contained in the universe, the more I began to realize that my own parents cannot provide the kind of food and security I used to enjoy while living with my trainer. I don't think my mama can even recognize me anymore."

The mama pikachu said, "I don't understand."

I sat up and pointed and stared at her. "Know this, we've all grew up in holes like this. I pretty much sat there every night in my den, watching my parents create our family before my very eyes. My mama gave birth to half a dozen pikachus and she have to figure out a way to feed us all. I was raised with the knowledge to survive out in the wilderness, but that soon became a secondary priority when I was dumped into the human world."

I pointed at her child. "Even with the best of your abilities, you can't secure your child's safety or food and neither can my own parents. I have to realize this the hard way when I was taken away from them by poachers. My trainer was kind enough to give me access to all sorts of knowledge. I spent much of my time indoors, in an air-conditioned environment with clean water and fresh-baked food from a hot oven. I even slept in an actual bed and had access to proper sanitation." I raised my hands and balled them into fists. "I'm lost for words. I don't need any of it. I need family, a social unit. The one I got stuck with is dying children and half-witted descendants. I'm not used to being on top of the pyramid here. I want somebody above me to so I have something to look up to for support, instead I have countless youngsters looking up to me expecting help. I can't save them, can't protect them. I can only do so much for them, they all have to realize they're all on their own."

I let that thought simmer for a second, then asked the mama pikachu. "Will you ever be ready for that day when you have to let your pichu go? Because I was sure not ready when my mama had to watch me be taken away. The experience scarred me so deep that I couldn't restrain myself."

The mama pikachu looked out of the bunker. "Those pikachus are dead, aren't they? I noticed they weren't breathing, you didn't even try to revive them."

I said, "Those pikachus could have shared the food, help their fellow chu, or even jump into the river like I did to save your pichu. But no, rather than being the friendly neighbor, they have a passion to hurt their fellow chu by any means. Your lives will be a lot better if you don't have these pricks living in our world."

The mama pikachu said nothing, I just laid back down and closed my eyes. "I risked my health and life in saving your pichu and making sure those pikachus didn't violate you, even though I know there is no reward you can provide for me, I just don't want to live the life I'm living anymore. This world is too cruel. You got legendary bird-brains like Ho-Oh, hoping to return on the day when the entire world would make peace with each other and be nice. But that's not going to happen, because the concepts of good and evil are just ideas. They don't exist. That is why you got bad people believing they are doing the right thing because they have a sound argument to support it. Be it reasonable or not, it's just how the world had always worked and will always work till the end of time."

I held my breath for a moment. "I just want somebody to be there for me, you know. Somebody who knew who I really am, and somebody who could see who I once was. I don't even recognize myself anymore, I'm surprised I can even remember my own name. I live a lonely existence here, cause I am the last of my generation. My culture, gone. My life, meaningless. Why? Because they're all under the control of someone else, I felt so angry that I wished that I could do something, and the only thing I can do is steer things to a better direction but not change the final product outright."

I peeked at the mama pikachu, she just stared at me in confusion. Her pichu couldn't comprehend either, let alone understood the concept of ideas.

"You don't even understand what I'm talking about, do you? Well nothing matter now, I'm just too old for this day of age anyway. No one doesn't even know what the world used to be like a hundred years ago."

The mama pikachu crawled up to me and touched my arm. "Have you heard of the many stories that went around with mice pokémon in your day?"

"Yeah, plenty of them. But they're quite old."

"Do you know about the story of the legendary pikachu, where lightning comes down from a thunderstorm and strikes a particular chu, and that chu would lead us all?"

I looked up to her. "Yes, I heard about that story. I remember all sorts of mice pokémon got together in thunderstorms, begging to be struck by lightning. It didn't end well for them."

"They still gather around in thunderstorms, hoping to be the one."

"You don't get struck by lightning and survive to become a legendary pikachu, you get struck by lightning and survive because you are already a legendary pikachu. Most legendary pikachus are created in a test tube or were bred for that purpose. They're not good leaders for peace, because they haven't grew up in a world of peace, instead they grew up in a world of sterile order that has never been challenged. Before they know it, they're going to try to create a dystopia because all they know was sterile order."

"Where did you heard of this?"

"I didn't hear about it. I've read it, researched it, even seen it. My trainer taught me how to read and write, and that became one of my most invaluable abilities. To get the right legendary pikachu for the job, you're going to need someone who was born and raised in the wild mice pokémon lifestyle. And they are extremely rare to find. On average, there could be one pikachu in every one hundred years. Finding that chu will be impossible, because they wouldn't even recognize that they have such abilities, let alone take the steps to become a leader."

"You've lived how long?"

"One hundred and seven years, thanks to human technology."

"You live for so long, and been everywhere, right?"

I nodded, "Yes, I've been everywhere, sort of."

The mama pikachu asked, "By chance, did you ever get to meet a legendary pikachu? Did you even track one down?"

I chuckled, and said in human speech. "Sister, you're looking at one."

I think a lot of possibilities had clicked in her head. She knew there was something about me, and finally it came to her. "You killed those pikachus with your bare hands, not even using your electricity. But was that you when I heard those thunder strikes?"

"Yes, those were me. I knocked the raichu back and smashed him against the tree, and that tree landed on his leg and pinned him. I had to use brute force to free him."

The mama pikachu glanced back at her child, then back at me. "Wow, and you survived all these years?"

I switched back to pokémon speech. "It feels that way."

I stared at the dirt ceiling for a moment. "To answer your question. Yes, I did meet one legendary pikachu, but he was no candidate to be a leader. This albino pikachu was born in a lab, nicknamed the Z-Pikachu for the Z patterns on his ears, but his real name is Albius Tyler. I did some research on him and found there are multiple clones of Albius, all of them with a different backstory. But I was sure the Albius I met was the original, because of the special interest of bio-medical companies."

"What is he like?"

"Mentally unstable, overconfident, and easily offended when someone challenges him. I do not wish to talk about what happened between us, because it was very bad. But I can tell you we made peace in the end, he even went out of his way to track me down years later just so he could spend a few minutes to chat. How nice of him."

The mama pikachu asked, "Where is he now?"

"I have no idea, he just dropped off the map. I think he's living on as a hermit because the people he used to know had passed away, but I got a feeling he's doing okay."

I let out a yawn and closed my eyes. "I need to get some sleep, I have to be somewhere tomorrow and I can't stay any longer than I have to."

The mama pikachu laid down beside me and snuggled up by my side. "Please stay."

"I have a family who worries about me, I can't stay."

"But will you come visit?"

"Chances are you and your son would've moved on. It's not like I can track you down, you have to come to me if you want to see me again."

She said nothing more after that. Lil'In crawled up to us and snuggled by my side, and so we slept.

. . .

I woke up in the middle of the night without warning. No real reason for me to wake up, I sensed no predators or any potential threats. I checked up on the mama pikachu and her child. Both were sleeping peacefully, no signs of nightmares. I wondered if the mama pikachu is suffering from post-traumatic stress from her near rape experience. There might be hundreds of pikachus like her who were unfortunate enough to cross paths with warlords and their thugs. I think this mama pikachu was one of a mere handful who had been spared from being assaulted.

I got up and glanced out the burrow. The night was bright under the full moon. I remember my mama always telling me not to go out at night. There were a lot of predators out there who are looking for food, and yellow fur is a spotlight on the black ground. I should've stayed till morning, but my instincts were forcing me to move. I hate to leave the mama pikachu and her child behind without saying goodbye. Another goon might come around and try their luck. Maybe one of the raichu's other buddies were still around. Hunting, waiting. If I were to leave now, the mama pikachu would be defenseless.

So I stepped outside and sat by the entrance of the burrow. The air was cool and fresh, which made it easy on my old lungs. Bug pokémon were chirping in the distance, and I could hear the soft snoring of neighboring pikachus. There was life here, but it felt so alien. How long has it been since I slept in the wild under Kanto's skies? 80 years? 90? It felt like an eternity. I wondered to myself if there were any other old pikachus out there, staring up at the night sky, wondering to themselves if they were the last of their generation?

I sat there for what felt like hours, listening for potential threats. I couldn't force myself to think that I owned this portion of the night. I was prey, not a predator. Sure I can cough up a million volts, but that didn't mean I can keep that voltage going forever. That was an unnatural mutation that sapped my energy reserves. Being a pikachu was no fun, you have to worry about electricity reserves more than food and water. Too much electricity and the chu explodes, too little and the chu is incapacitated. The realization of being a pikachu didn't dawn on me until I was well adjusted under Irvin's care. They say that the truth will set you free, but for me it just raises further questions. Was my species created to be adored by humans, especially children? They have no trouble seeing me, and they would rush up to me and try to hug me to death. I wondered if Irvin ever wanted me to use me in battle in the first place. He was well aware of my own opinions of pokémon battles, and was more than aware about the long-term effects of battles on my health. Sure he has his plan on the Dixierats – which was a bit unbelievable if you ask me – but I wondered if he had ever anticipated me outliving him.

I looked at my hands, or front paws, whatever humanity chooses to call them. I had been cut up, suffered broken bones, had my liver replaced, had my electricity violently discharged and overcharged, contemplated about cutting off my own tail, contemplated about getting my electric glands removed, lost most of my teeth from fights and neglect, spent much of my life with a poor diet, and had felt violated with doctors stapling my bones back together. Life sucks. I would have ended it all long ago, had I not realized that the after-life – if there is an after-life for me – is no different. I'm still holding on to that thought that those ghosts I saw, especially Flashlight's ghost in that attic, was just my own imagination. It's not real, none of my dead friends are real anymore.

So why am I here anyway? Why is my life a mess? Irvin's legacy haunts me, perhaps I should haunt it back. Whatever that means. I stretched my arms and legs, letting out a yawn. I returned to the mama pikachu and her Lil'In, crawled up by their side, then just fell asleep.

TO BE CONTINUED. . .