Chapter 26

Apparently morning came a little too quick as the mama pikachu shook me awake. I opened my eyes and there she was, her eyes filled with worry. "Oh, I thought you weren't going to wake up."

The manners I was taught in the human world said that shaking a person out of bed in the morning was rude. I wasn't mad, but I was tired. And besides, this is the pokémon world, not the human world. When I sat up, the mama pikachu gave me a big hug. Her body pressed up against mine, our noses barely touching. "Are you okay, Tesla?"

I blinked. "Huh?"

"The pikachus were getting up quite early, even my Lil'In had gotten up and gone out to play with his friends! But you just slept on, showing no signs of waking up! I thought you were dead!"

She pressed her face against my shoulders and sobbed, I patted her on the back. "Sweetheart, I sleep later than most pikachus. Even my own mama almost had a heart attack about this."

The mama pikachu took one long sniff of my fur. "You smell so good and ripe."

"I bathe, compared to most pokémon."

She looked up at my eyes. "Please don't go, it gets scary here!"

"I can't argue this. My path's my own, I have to be somewhere. You want me, come find me. But please, don't bar my way."

I gave her a big hug, cradling her head as she started whimpering. "I know what it feels to have lost a mate, but I am not your mate, and I am way too old to be your replacement. Besides, my heart is set. I can't give you any honest romantic love even if I tried."

I let go of her and held her hand. "Please, let me be. I have to leave."

"How will I find you?" she asked.

"Use your instincts."

The equivalent to saying goodbye for wild mice pokémon is for us to shake tails, but instead I kissed her on the cheek. I turned around and started walking, I could feel her eyes burn against my back until I was out of sight.

I left the mice commune and made it back to Route 1. I was feeling optimistic. I started walking toward Pallet Town, hoping for Ash, or Andy, to be there. Again, if I couldn't find either of them, I could go back to the mama pikachu. Maybe I could go back to Viridian City and try to bail my son out of Faber's home. I have plenty of options, and plenty of elbow room to flex my tail. So many fallback plans, but what about returning to Faraday City? Would my personal Dixie pack still be there? Sitting tight, waiting? Did they get my letter, and if so, did they read it?

I kept a sharp eye and ear out on my surroundings, expecting bullshit on every corner. Nothing ruins my day more than some halfwit trainer looking for a challenge. I felt more paranoid than ever. Word about that beat down I did to the raichu and his goons might've gotten around by now. Pokémon who are looking for something to prove and those who felt their power is being threatened may be hunting me. I don't know if Interpol is already at Pallet Town, just sitting there waiting to arrest me. A huge risk. Maybe Ash is put on watch, maybe he is being suspected as a terrorist. Can't see why not, he was associated with a pikachu accused of assassinating a government official and slaughtering half of a Pokémon militia group. Not a good record to have, but there wasn't anything I could do about it right now.

An info sign said I was about a kilometer away from Pallet Town. I recalled that Pallet Town was ridiculously small and primitive back in my day, and it used to be a Team Rocket stronghold. Ash is a nice kid, I suppose Pallet Town had changed a lot since after I was snatched up by poachers. Well, if there was anything to look forward to, the best thing to hope for is the end of this mess. For some reason I didn't care how this would end, I don't make the rules of my own reality.

I trudged on, staying by the side of the road. Hadn't seen any cars or people, no pokémon either. I felt like I had the whole road to myself.

A twig snapped behind me.

I didn't bother looking behind me, I broke into a sprint and made my way down the road. I heard someone swore behind me, a trainer no doubt. Just when I was worrying about halfwits stalking me. "Butterfree," I heard the trainer scream. "Hit him with Silver Wind, don't let him get away!"

A poké ball burst and a butterfree screeched.

"Get him, Growlithe!" I heard the trainer say next.

And just when I was thinking about half-witted trainers.

Growlithe, a dog pokémon. I heard its distinctive howl, a howl I hadn't heard in a long time. I turned around and see the flash of the puppy dog's form materializing. The growlithe burst out of the light and started chasing me, jaw locked open, with teeth ready to bite. No way to outrun a growlithe, those things are built for speed, and speed was a youngin's game. But where I lack in speed, I make up for in power.

The butterfree unleashed its Silver Wind, huge aerobic blades spun toward me. I dodged rolled, the Silver Wind chewed up the ground where I stood. The growlithe gave me a headbutt, knocking me on my back. It was on me in a second. The fucking dog smelled like burnt shit, it was hyped up, ready to bite. I spring-loaded my harm and delivered an electrified punch into the growlithe's lower jaw. It snapped shut, I felt something break. The growlithe yelped and backed off, whining as it retreated back to its trainer. The trainer was a young lad. He was quite bulky, but he meant business. His clothes were colorful and his hair was dyed blue. Typical trainer. When he saw I had seriously injured his growlithe, he held out its poké ball toward him. "Growlithe, return!"

A bright red beam shot the growlithe, dematerialized it into plasma, and sucked it back into the poké ball. "Butterfree," said the trainer as he pulled out another poké ball. "Use Psybeam!"

Psybeam, a purplish beam that packs quite a punch, it also has a chance to make me confused. The butterfree didn't get the chance to use its move, I held out an arm and shock a bolt of purple lightning at the bug. The lightning lit the butterfree up like a Christmas tree before grounding itself into a nearby tree. The boom of lightning was loud, bound to attract attention. I jumped back and watched the butterfree drop to the ground, smoldering like burning rags. The trainer realized his mistake in challenging me. He pocketed the poké ball he was just about to call out and tried to recall his butterfree, but I punched the ground, creating rings of electrified zones around me. The trainer had his feet in two zones, electricity ripped up one leg and grounded down the other. He was on his ass in a flash.

Enraged, I ran up to him, jumped on top of his chest and seized him by the collar. My eyes meeting his. I barked, "Who are you, and who do you work for?!"

The trainer was lost for words, he was expecting to catch me but found himself being caught. I have to admit, it felt really good to be in control of the situation. No longer can humanity challenge me, now I have the upper hand.

"Answer me, damn it!"

The trainer stammered, "My, uh, name is Chad Scarfe. I work alone, I swear!"

"Why are you going around attacking travelers on this road?"

It was quite a redundant question, I know what he was really doing but I wanted to throw his world in disarray. Sure enough, he had no answer ready for me. So he shat one out of his ass, "I was just looking for pokémon to catch is all!"

"Yeah, somebody already beat you to it a long time ago. Now those poachers are dead and my trainer who was kind enough to shelter me is rotting in the grave. Tell that to all the pokémon who were abused, see if you can reach an understanding with them."

"Please, Pikachu! I-"

"That's sir, you prick! I'm an old pikachu who has long retired from pokémon battling long ago, and I don't have fond memories of those days! So you better explain to me how long you were following me and why!"

"I saw you yesterday, at the apple orchard. I didn't watch you most of the time but I kept track on where you were!"

I released my grip and jumped off his chest. "Get up!"

Chad got up on his feet, barely holding his balance. "Turn around and start running, don't look back!"

He pointed to his butterfree, "But I gotta get my-"

"Does it know where you live?"

"Yes."

"Then don't worry about it, I incapacitated it and I'll resuscitate it. You just get your ass to Viridian City and hope that I don't start coming after you. I can do a lot worse than what I just did to your pokémon. Now run, boy!"

Oh boy how fast he ran. I never seen a pair of human legs move so fast in my life. Chad just spun around and ran for dear life, I stood there and watched till he was out of sight. I didn't think Chad would be coming back, so I went up to the butterfree. The bug was still breathing, unconscious but alive. Its tiny legs were moving and its antennae are twitching. The wings are a different story. My lightning somehow shredded them. Holes as big as my fist pockmarked both wings. No way could this butterfree make it out on its own. I can't say I felt bad about Chad, but I sure wasn't going to let this bug wither and die out here. I picked it up by the main body and held it up. The butterfly pokémon is ridiculously light, I had no trouble lifting it onto my head and carrying it to Pallet Town.

I didn't get five meters before it started sobbing. Something else was broken. Its pride or its bones. The bug was more fragile than I thought, after a few seconds of sobbing I adjusted my grip just a bit before it let out a loud inhuman screech. I stepped off the road and found a shady spot, then sat the butterfree down. "Okay, what's broken?"

"Everything hurts," it said. "My wings and legs hurt!"

"Was it from the fall or getting electrocuted?"

"The fall."

I tried to narrow down the source of the pain. This bug had an exoskeleton, so when I began checking for injuries I felt a crack around where a rib cage should be. I felt air escaping from the crack. In a sense, you could say that the butterfree has a punctured lung. However, that applies to humans, since their lungs expand and contract. The insect's respiratory tract is more efficient. Its respiratory tract is made up of spiracles and small air sacs that are attached directly to the muscles and vital organs. So in reality, this insect has a cracked lung, because one of those spiracles is broken and air is getting to the wrong place. I have nothing to seal it up with, so I improvised. "Can you stay still for me while I go get something to seal up your wound?"

"You're not going to leave me, are you?"

"No, I'm just checking our immediate surroundings. If I were to leave you, I would have done so already. Now sit tight and don't move, I'll be right back."

I left the butterfree and began scanning for conifer trees. Spruce trees, such as your usual pine, produce a special sap from its bark. The stuff is stickier than honey, yet it hardens when in contact from air. The tree produce this sap so it can seal up injuries and branch stubs, preventing infection. People have been using pine sap since ancient times, and the stuff is worth its weight in gold. I heard that it can be used as an alternative to stitches. Just heat it up on a fire before spreading that across a laceration, then lit it with a flame and watch it burn the wound shut. I would not attempt such a thing unless my life depends on it, I might as well roast myself over a fire before I burn my own wounds shut.

I found the sap not too far from the butterfree. Someone gashed out a portion of a tree with an edged object. It looked kind of human, since the patterns suggest an axe or a hatchet. He or she may have been looking for sap as well, because the tree's injury is covered deep in sap. I picked a stick up from the ground and began gathering it up on one end, getting as much of it as I could. It would be much easier if I had a fire to melt it all down with, but the butterfree can't wait that long. I have to make do with what I got.

When I felt I gathered enough, I took it back to the butterfree. It hadn't moved since I was away, but it was struggling to breathe. It was already making wheezing noise, and its mouth was starting to foam. I got down and applied the tree sap across the wound. The tree sap wasn't cooperating, so I smashed it into the wound with my thumb. It wasn't pretty, but I covered as much of the crack as best I could. The butterfree waved its little arms towards its foaming mouth, I got behind it and lifted it up. The butterfree hunched over and spat out the mucus. I patted its back as it cleared its throat. "What's happening, bug?"

It wheezed. "I think I breathed in some smoke, it's getting hard to breathe."

"I fixed up that cracked lung of yours."

"That made breathing so much better, but it's still difficult."

The butterfree wheezed and coughed up another ball of phlegm. "Relax," I said. "Don't panic, just relax. If you start hyperventilating, you'll-"

The butterfree yelped, I jumped back as it dropped on its belly and coughed up one final large ball of mucus. I couldn't understand what was happening at the time, but what I didn't realize that the butterfree was coughing up not mucus, but blood. I didn't know that insect blood was either colorless or has green or yellow pigment. It's not red like mine, humans, or any other non-bug type pokémon. Somehow when it hit the ground, it ruptured something important and began bleeding internally. Had I known it was blood I would have rushed the butterfree to Pallet Town's pokémon center, rather than piss around the forest trying to seal a minor wound. I watched as the butterfree took one gasp of breath through its spiracles, and then passed out.

I had no idea how to resuscitate an insect. They don't have a single heart, but multiple hearts throughout the body. Using electricity to restart them would be impractical, and giving CPR is out of the question. I may be intelligent but I do have limits to my knowledge. So what really killed the butterfree was not my Thunderbolt, but my own negligence in treating its injuries.

I slowly felt the butterfree becoming a vacuum, I picked up a stick and nudged its side. Nothing, the butterfree wouldn't move. It was gone. I wasn't sure if I should feel bad, since insects are a good source of protein to my species. But this has nothing to do with food. The butterfree was just following orders and I was defending myself. I stared at the body for some time, there wasn't much more I could do for it now. I just stepped back onto the road and continued my trip to Pallet Town, I didn't look back.

. . .

I could see the outskirts of Pallet Town now. It wasn't the Pallet Town I had remembered when I arrived here with my family. It became more suburban and less rural. It had grown and developed over the past several decades. I have to stop for a moment and rest, reminding myself that the chance that Ash is still there is slim. His pokémon is there, yes, but not the trainer himself. He's not there, I told myself, he is not there. Andy of course may be there, probably waiting for me at the pokémon center. Who knows, he might be having a chat with the Nurse Joy, striking up conversation, sharing stories of their medical adventures. I can imagine it now. "How do you still have your medical license?" The Nurse Joy would ask. "Good question," Andy would say. "I work undercover, and I may have paid off a corrupt official or two. Don't get me wrong, they're good people and it's only for minor issues. Obviously that wouldn't be the case if I were to really fuck up."

Andy is Andy, true. If I do recall, the regional pokémon professor resides here. Maybe Andy had come around and had a chat with him, maybe do a few chores for the professor. Knowing Andy, he would brag about himself of how awesome he would be. "One time I broke my leg, so I cut it open and stapled it back together, then stitched it shut."

"You can do that?" the professor would ask.

"I have a doctorate in emergency medicine and surgery, I'm qualified for the task. Besides, I know my own bones more than anyone else so it wasn't that difficult realigning everything and fixing everything back up."

"No Anesthesia?"

"Nope, just vodka and a music sheet for handling pain. Hot damn, I was pretty good at singing high notes.

Yeah, Andy. Go ahead and talk shit, fuck you.

With that in mind, I got up on my feet and began entering Pallet Town. A lot has changed alright, it was unrecognizable from my nightmare. Everything had modern architecture with a friendly face to them. There were some people about, commuting to stores and such. I wonder if they work just across the street or they were merely shopping. I found a few good restaurants, their trash cans overflowing with scrap. There were even children playing about. I stepped onto the side walk and began walking past the houses. They were pretty houses, great suburban homes. Some of the mailboxes had names on them, names such as Schaffer, Jackson, Henderson, Morgan. One name stood out in particular, I blinked. One house had a mailbox with the name Ketchum. I glanced at the windows. This was Ash's house. It was quite big like the other homes, well suited for a family of four and such.

I resisted the temptation on knocking on the door, instead I climbed up on the picket fence and jumped into the yard. There wasn't a garage, rather just a single walking path dividing the yard in two, going straight up to the front door. I walked around the home and checked the back yard. My eyes bulged. A swimming pool, a pretty big one too. Crisp blue with safety rails. Ash has a swimming pool? Even though the pool wasn't that deep, I found myself stepping away from it. That irrational fear of water getting to me. Yes, I know I saved that pichu from drowning but that was an exception. Doubled by the fact that I don't wanna be caught, the sight of the pool all enough to tell me to get the fuck out of the yard and don't come back.

I ran and jumped over the picket fence, then sprinted across the street and jogged my way toward downtown. I think the pokémon center is somewhere on main street, all pokémon centers are always on main street. It was quite a big pokémon center for a small town. Well, the regional road system cuts through here so there's bound to be a lot of traffic. I didn't wanna go walking into the pokémon center just yet. I half expected to see either Ash or Andy there. So instead I walked around the restaurants to take a look into their dumpsters. I was getting hungry, but I was quite picky on what I eat.

I found a pretty good size dumpster, I jumped up one of its lids and peaked under the other. The smell of grease poured out like a blast furnace. Inside were all sorts of half-eaten food, the kind any wild pokémon would go for. I sighed, somehow they don't seem appetizing anymore. I wasn't sure why, maybe it was the thought of eating something rotten or catch some disease that dissuaded me. I let the lid drop and jumped back down. Of course I was so picky, it had to be just right. And I wasn't interested in eating pokémon food either. I stood there pondering what I should do. Maybe I could walk right into the restaurant itself and order something. I heard some restaurants are free, not sure how these restaurants are funded but I heard the food they serve is pretty good. Maybe I should walk into one, order something, see how the waitress would react. Or I could mooch off of people's food like I had done back in Faraday Island. These people here are well aware of pikachus, I would feel right at home…

I shook my head from that last thought, no need for another flashback. I took a deep breath and held it, if I was going to eat I better go inside the pokémon center itself and see what's on the menu.

I walked back to the street, and just as I emerged I saw Ash coming down the road. My eyes bulged, his pikachu was perched on his shoulder as always. Cilan and Iris, his two companions, were nowhere in sight. He had someone with him. A girl, and she had the look of a journalist. They were on the other side of the street and were quite far off. I got carried away, I jumped to my feet and made a dash for them.

"Ash!" I called out. "Ash!"

It didn't take long for Ash to notice me. His face was gripped with confusion but his pikachu seemed quite happy to see me. Then their faces dropped. I heard tires screech, followed by the blast of a horn. I turned around and saw a red sports car coming toward me. The driver, some brown raven haired dude, panicked and tried to swerve but he was driving too fast.

They say when you stare at the moment of impending doom, your life flashes before your very eyes. My life was too long to flash in just a few seconds, but I had the time to mutter out one word, "Shit."

The bumper caught me on the forehead, knocking me to my back, and then I went rolling underneath the car. I felt my bones break in a chain reaction. My ribs cracked apart, my collarbone snapped, my shoulders popped, and my hips were crushed. My arms and legs cracked and snapped from flailing about. The last to break was my back. I felt several disks being crushed under the sheer force of the car. That started hurting like fuck. When the car finished passing over head I flopped on my belly, then all the broken bones in my old body started screaming in pain.

"Tesla!" I heard Ash screamed, followed by his pikachu.

I just laid there, disoriented. I heard people screamed. I tried to move but couldn't lift my body without the broken bones stabbing my flesh. My mouth tastes like blood, and my nose was starting to bleed. I opened my eyes and saw my eye goggles somehow flown off. The world became a blur, everything rolled over me rather than around me.

The symbol of defeat I suppose, having my goggles torn off shows true defeat. I faced up against all sorts of pokémon, only to end up being badly mauled by a car and left on the road to bleed to death.

"Don't touch him!" I heard a voice scream, it sounded like Andy but I couldn't be sure. "Stay back, don't get near him! His electricity can take down an entire army!"

I felt a hand touched my shoulder. "Tesla, it's me Andy. Shit, are you awake?!"

I oozed blood out of my mouth and grunted.

"Shit," said Andy. "My grandfather is going to haunt me for the rest of my life!"

I felt my heart jump inside my chest, then my mind started shutting down. The last I heard before blacking out was the sound of an ambulance coming down the road.

TO BE CONTINUED. . .