Chapter twenty-eight: An Astonishing Display of Vocabulary

It is past-noon. The sun is beginning its descent toward the horizon and the sky is beginning to change colors; however, today in particular the weather is starting to get much colder than usual: but three people inside of an upper middle class home are oblivious to the soon to be winter season…for now.

Orion and Rigel had just finished their last Pokémon Battle, played of course on their so called "Gameboys." They have been playing for about an hour and are now tired: since we were all fighting all night, last night. I watched Orion play against Rigel most of the time and it's because of the fact that I've never seen a Pokémon play a video game, let alone use a device made for humans, before. It was weird to see Orion get so invested in the game, and it got even weirder when Rigel asked me if I wanted to play, as if it was a normal thing to say, but I refused: I had wanted to watch them instead.

I was now bored and I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to rest or get out of here and find Bill. I mean…at this point I don't think it would matter if I left here without Orion and Rigel: they've done so much for me and I don't want them to go through anymore than what they've already been in these past few weeks. Besides, I can still 'technically' communicate with humans so long as there is a pen and paper nearby: which I am sure this 'Bill' has with him. And it shouldn't be too hard to find him...right?

In the end, I took my mind off the idea when Rigel turned off his game and sighed, "Well, I lost…again." He makes a small yawn afterwards, "I'm going to check on my mom, see if everything's okay. I'll be right back guys." He says before he leaves the room.

"Do you normally win this much Orion?" I ask the Pikachu and he turns to me and says, "I guess so." He uses his small stubby fingers to turn off his Gameboy, "Rigel almost won this time though."

I look at his game before I look at the Pikachu in the eye, "You know…It's kind of unusual to see a Pokémon play video games."

"Oh really?" Orion takes this comment somewhat offensively, "Yea, well things change."

"You're absolutely right. Things do change…even now I wonder if we'll start seeing Pokémon using phones really soon." I retort and Orion's sudden defensive pose, which has him crossing his arms at me, soon goes away.

"Maybe we will. I hope we will." He speaks softly.

"What…Pokémon with phones…I was just-" I tell him, raising an eyebrow in the process, but he interrupts me.

"Maybe we CAN have phones that allow us to communicate with humans…I don't know: I hope one day we can talk to our trainers the same way you and I talk to each other…don't you want that? I mean considering the fact that we can only write the human language." Orion looks at me with his brown eyes as if he was asking me to agree with him, begging that someone understands him other than Rigel and Charmeleon. I simply nod and respond, "Yea, I guess."

Then a thought crosses my mind: the library…it would be a great place for Orion to learn more English! But then I remember that it's off limits. I think for several seconds before I get another idea. I jump down from the bed and head over to the bookcase which is next to the window. As sunlight hits my eyes, I search the bookcase for any book that could be useful for Orion to follow along. I find one book: it's a sci-fi book but I guess it will do. The size of the book makes me struggle and I keep dropping it as I head back to the bed: where Orion looks at me and chuckles at my predicament. He does, however, jump down to help me seconds later. As we make it to the bed, Orion says to me, ""Rigel used to read this book from time to time."

"Oh yea? I kind of figured he was into this stuff." I retort.

We make it to the bed and we throw the book on top of it. Then we hop on the bed and I open the pages, "Ready for another lesson?" I ask and he immediately smiles and nods. We haven't done this in a while and even the simple act of opening the book brings back memories from the time we met: good, if you can call them good, memories.

After a few moments of finding easy words for him to learn, I point to a particular word and I tell Orion what it means and how it's pronounced. I also have him spell out the letters for all of them, so that it helps him. Once he begins practicing on his own I start looking for something for him to write on: I climb on Rigel's chair and I then hop on his desk.

As I do, I hear Orion mispronounce a word, "It's pronounced CloTHEs…the tshh is slight." I tell him. I look back toward him and I can see him sticking his tongue out to try and say it right. I chuckle slightly as he keeps trying, "Work on that."

"I thought this would be easier to pronounce…" He grunts.

"Well you just never used the word "Clothes" before in your life, it happens when you're learning a new word." I retort.

I turn back around to search for anything to use, and I manage to find a pen but no paper. I decide to return to my fellow Pikachu and show him the pen, "Here you go."

Soon after we resume, Rigel comes back and sees what we've been doing for the past few minutes, "Are you reading Tuffman the Space Man, Lucas?" He asks me, as I look up towards him, not knowing that Orion was also reading, with some difficulty, alongside me. Then, I look at Orion and he looks at me: I smile, "You want to show him what you've learned these past few weeks?" I ask him and he smiles back, "Yes! I've been wanting to show him for a long time now!" The mouse jumps up and down repeatedly with jubilance present in his voice.

I gesture my hands toward Rigel in a way that makes them look like I'm writing on paper and he soon finds out what I mean: he walks to a box, which is collecting dust, and opens it. He takes out a used notebook from inside. He then walks back to me and gives the notebook which I then give to Orion. As I give the Pikachu the pen I say, "It's okay if you mess up, I'll correct you." Orion nods. He starts writing inside the notebook on the spaces adjacent to old class notes, and right when he started Rigel was immediately fascinated by what was happening in front of him. Wanting to make sure that Orion was actually writing letters and not just random scribbles Rigel takes the paper away from Orion, letting him know ahead of time, and he moves away to read it.

Just as he reads the handwriting, Rigel's smile gets bigger to the point where he cannot keep his excitement within any longer. The teenager drops the notebook and rushes toward me, causing me to jump in fright, and he grabs me tightly. He lifts me high into the air and shouts, "You taught my Pikachu how to write!? That's awesome! How did you do it Lucas!?" He begins to shake me repeatedly as I start to get irritated. He soon realizes this and puts me down: and goes to pick up Orion instead, who, unlike me, is happy to be in the arms of his beloved trainer. The sheer excitement between the two continues as the human sets his Pokémon down on the bed. He goes to pick up the notebook and brandishes it to us, "You can understand what these words mean Orion?" He asks and his Pokémon nods with glee. Rigel almost jumps with happiness as he sets down the notebook on the bed once more and begins talking to himself, obviously overexcited by the sudden revelation, while circling the room several times before leaving the room entirely.

I immediately spot one error that Orion has made, so I turn towards the smaller Pikachu and say, "It's Friend, not Fiend. You missed the R."

Orion, in response, scratches the top of his head with the tip of his tail in embarrassment, "What's the R again?"

"This one." I write the correct word and point the letter he missed: he sees the comparison between the two words.

"This one means someone who does bad things, and this one means having a close relationship with somebody." I explain.

"Oh wait! Friend...I remember learning that word…I remember writing it to Cy in the forest." He says.

"Wait what?" I ask, tilting my head sideways.

"Yea, after he saved my life, I introduced myself to him." Orion explains to me and I reply, "I see…"

And that's when I remember, "Oh, that's right, I remember teaching you this word in the base to use once we escaped."

After a few moments of silence, Orion looks up at me and says, "Hey Lucas…I just wanted to let you know…that you're a great friend. Thank you…for teaching me how to write."

I chuckle, "No problem Orion."

I then think to myself for a second, "Hey Orion."

"Hm?" He turns back to me.

"How do you scratch your head with your tail like that?" I ask.

"What?" He raises an eyebrow.

"You did something before-"

"Oh! This!" He interrupts me before he moves his tail up above his head and rubs it with his tail like last time.

"Yea, like that. Man, you have to teach me how to do that." I say, "My head's been itching!"

"Don't worry I will: It's easy to do." He retorts.

Another moment of silence passes by before I ask, "…where did Rigel go?"

"I don't know, it's quiet down there."

We decide to jump down from the bed and head downstairs. After I carefully watched every step I took down the grand staircase, we arrive in the living room. We can see Rigel, with his mom, sitting by a television set: they are both watching the news. As we walk closer, the teenager hears us and turns his head towards our direction, "Oh, guys, I was just going to get you but then the news starting showing this."

I turn towards the television screen and I see an entire street engulfed in fire: with an entire apartment complex burning to the point of collapse. The location is revealed to be Celadon City on the top right corner, and from closer observation I can see that the headlines at the bottom of the screen read: Team Rocket member destroys entire street with fire.

I stand there, interested. Orion walks to stand beside me, equally interested, and I turn towards him to ask, "Do you think that it's one of the Team Rocket members that were experimented on?"

Orion gulps nervously and then simply answers by saying, "I hope not."

"A Team Rocket member using fire…reminds me of that girl…I wonder if-" I say softly to myself. But just as I finish my sentence, my Pikachu ears twitch when I hear a woman from the television set speak:

It has been confirmed that at least two-hundred Team Rocket members have escaped the abandoned complex. Police officials say that the area has been under control by the terrorist group for at least three months now and its destruction has affected the nearby forest.

"Two-hundred?" Orion grabs and shakes his head, worried, "And we're nearby too…this is bad!"

"Definitely." I say, "Well maybe only a few of those grunts are actually the ones who can use moves, maybe like ten out of the two-hundred." I suggest.

Catherlyn Doherty is one of the residents of the apartment complex and one of the witnesses who saw the tragedy unfold.

The reporter turns toward a middle-aged woman: who appears frightened beyond disbelief.

Catherlyn, how did the person start the fire?

The woman faces the reporter and speaks into the microphone.

Why are you wasting your time asking a pointless question!? She has my son Ansel. You have to stop her before she does something horrible to him!

She runs to a police officer and started shouting. The scenery changes to a news's anchor.

"Ansel…you don't think-" I am interrupted by Orion, "No, it can't be. It has to be another Ansel. I mean, apparently this Ansel was kidnapped." Orion suggests.

"I guess…" I retort.

Over thirty Team Rocket members have been detained along with Saffron University graduate, Sarah Bartoli.

"She's been captured?" Orion smiles and I do the same soon after.

"Dr. Bartoli, tell us your affiliation with the terrorist group?"

"What made you join their cause?"

The reporters keep trying to ask her questions but she remains silent as she is taken into a police station in Viridian City.

Three people from Viridian City and the nearby Pallet town have been reported missing since last month: two of which were last seen near the Viridian Gym. Local officials believe that these disappearances may be connected with the recent rise of activity from Team Rocket in Viridian city; however, none of them were found at the abandoned hospital, nor is there evidence to support this claim.

"If only they knew they were responsible…" I say softly.

"Wait a second…you're one of those three missing people they are talking about, they must be looking for you."

"Of course they are." I retort.

"Mom…Orion and I were at Viridian Gym not too long ago." Rigel says to his mother: her face continues to show dread just as she did the last time we saw her. She abruptly stands up and walks into the adjacent room: leaving the three of us behind.

"Here is the list of missing people." The news anchor said. The screen changed to show three headshots in order…with one of them having my face on it…

The list read:

Patter Sayin

Savannah Hastings

Lucas Bright

If you have any information regarding these individuals, please call 911 immediately.

I stare at the screen for what seems to be an eternity, or at least until the photos disappear and the screen switches back to the apartment in Celadon City. When Orion and Rigel looked at the third photo with the third name shown on screen, they couldn't' believe it when they heard my name being called.

"That was your photo as a human!?" Both of them ask at the same time and I nod shortly after.

"That's crazy! I never thought you would look like that! I thought you were my age!" Rigel says.

Shortly soon after, I begin to breathe faster than normal.

"I can't believe this…so many things going on right now…it's crazy…" I say softly.

"I hear ya." Orion adds.

Rigel hears his mother's voice in another room and says, "I'll be right back guys." Rigel stands up, "Mom, you called?" he walks toward the room that she had left in and stands near it, "He's coming back now?" I can hear him say.

Meanwhile, I think about the gym that the reporter talked about on T.V., "They better put him in jail…they better find out it was him…" I say softly but Orion hears my statement and moves his head to the side, "Who?"

"Giovanni." I simply respond.

"Giovanni? You mean the gym leader? What does he have to do with all of this?

"Everything. He's the one who funded the whole experiment on me in the first place! I remember the expression he made…I remember his cold stare…I remember hearing his laugh! He told me himself…he's the leader of Team Rocket! It's all his fault, this is all his fault!" I explained in anger as Orion calms me down. Rigel hears me and notices small bursts of electricity coming from my cheeks, "Lucas, calm down, you're going to blow a fuse!"

"I agree, you've got to control yourself or you'll end up hurting someone." Orion grabs me to hold me still, I've got a better way to release all this anger, but now is not a good time to do it, trust me." He continues to say as my breathing slowly returns to normal, "So then when is a good time…" I ask.

"You'll see." The Pikachu simply says. He crosses his arms, "I kinda knew Giovanni was up to no good. He always had this expression, a bad one, so I understand. When Rigel and I left the gym a while back, we were ambushed by Cy and Km. I swear I saw them leave the gym to follow us into the nearby forest."

I have a moment of clarity: I was about to talk to Orion more about his trip to the gym, but I decided not to say anything. Instead, I look toward the Pikachu. My hands are trembling and some sweat falls from my head, "I'm…tired Orion. I want to go home, to my family. I want to see them."

"And you will, but wait just a bit longer. We'll fix this, you know we will." He says as he pats me on the shoulder with one paw.

Rigel's mother has spoken with her son for roughly twenty minutes as Orion and I talked about each other's family a little bit more: though not a lot has been revealed so far, we soon open up to each other's personal lives.

"Remember the Spaceneedle in the Viridian Forest?" I ask Orion and he nods, "Well, I used to go there with my parents when I was young...before the war started. The resort had some of the best food I can remember, but there were also some places that had some of the worst food imaginable. There was one place I had eaten in once. I ordered a corndog. At that time, I argued with my father when he didn't get me something I liked in a nearby store. With some money he gave me earlier before we arrived, I left my family and I ate alone. However, when I ate the corndog…it tasted nasty, so I threw it away. Soon, I began to realize what I did wrong and I found my family later on in a second floor restaurant, but my father was not with the others because he had gone looking for me. When he came back to the restaurant, he was panting and I hugged him. It was the strongest, tightest, hug I ever gave him up until then. I apologized and we all ate in the restaurant soon after. I remember the food there was better than the corndog, but it still tasted pretty bad. It was 'better' because I was with my family and we could all talk about how bad the food was after we had left."

Orion is sitting down on the floor, rocking back and forth while holding his hind paws. He listens to my story with interest.

"If I never ate with my family that day, I could have never truly experienced the joy of expressing my hatred for the food with my family, since they hated it just as much as I did. Imagine if the corndog tasted good…then I probably would have never sat down to eat with them, or even stepped inside the restaurant to find my parents altogether."

"I guess it does make you regret leaving your family behind. Just look at me, I never knew my mother and father, or any of my siblings. I never had the joy of being with them like other Pikachu have. Yet, I'm just as happy today as I would have been if they were here with me. Rigel helped me cope with my loss when I was young. His, and my, human father used to hate me. He would tell Rigel not to let me into the house because I kept blowing fuses and causing problems inside the house. Soon, I learned to control myself and he gave me a second chance. I mean, he doesn't quite trust me a hundred-percent, even after being in the house for a few years. He even treats me as a pet most of the time. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I have blown a fuse when I got sad or angry. And, it wasn't just the house, it was the whole neighborhood! We had people knocking on our door shouting all the time." Orion laughs to himself as I chuckle.

"But he's the best father I have and I look up to him and Rigel for everything." Orion explains, "Because they're all I've had since I was taken from my family."

I nod with understanding. Suddenly, Orion stands up and jumps on the couch as I follow him to the edge. He looks down at me and says, "Come on, we've been sitting on the floor for too many days now. It's feels nice sitting on furniture again."

I could not have agreed more.

I jumped on the couch and sat next to him. Then all of a sudden, Rigel walks by and tells us, "Hey, dad is coming home in a few minutes." He says as Orion looks up and smiles with contentment, "I know buddy! I can't wait to see him too."

He sits down on the couch and sighs loudly. Orion proceeds to sit on Rigel's lap as the human begins to scratch the top of his head. Soon after, Rigel scratches the bottom of the Pikachu's neck which causes him to squeak with delight. The softness of the couch, along with the safe and peaceful atmosphere, causes me to close my eyes.

The next thing I hear is the sound of a key sliding through a lock and a door opening loudly. I open my eyes quickly and I am startled even more when Rigel shouts right next to my ears.

"Dad!" Both Orion and Rigel say, both of them jump off the couch almost at the same time.

When both of them make a right and suddenly get out of my view, I hop down the couch and walk towards the wall as Rigel's mom passes by me. I place a hand on the corner of the wall and moved my head sideways to see what was going on. From what I can see Rigel is hugging a tall man: who is clean shaven, somewhat balding and he's wearing a business suit. His face is welcoming and nice, which makes me calmer. Rigel moves away from his father as the man asks, "Rigel, I'm glad to see you're okay. Your mother told me about the incident."

I turn to look at Rigel's mother; her expression is that of anxiousness.

"Mom told you about what I said to her?"

The tall man pauses for a second to look at his wife, "Yes. We need to talk."

His voice echoes the entrance as he sets down his black leather office bag, "You know, you should really let us know when you're coming." As he's bent down, and since Orion came to him, he pets the Pikachu momentarily, "How are you doing Orion, staying out of trouble I hope."

"You bet dad!" Orion says to him.

"I know…it's just that it's been a tough week for me." Rigel looks down and says to himself.

"Oh really, hopefully all is going well with your Pokémon journey." His father retorts.

"You could say that." Rigel retorts back.

The teen finds me hiding behind the wall and gestures me to come out, "Oh, that's right! Come Lucas, this is my dad."

Suddenly, Rigel's dad looks toward his son, "Lucas?"

"We met him-"

"Rigel, we agreed not to have more than one Pokémon around the house at a time…and…no more than one electric type."

"I know but Lucas is different. Let me show you!" Rigel starts heading toward me until his father stops him, "Rigel, put him in a Poké ball right now."

"But dad!"

"I won't say it again."

"Alright!" The boy starts heading upstairs to get a Poké ball while the father walks toward me. Rigel's mother stops him, "Listen George, what are we going to do with Rigel? He can't go out there by himself anymore!"

"We'll discuss it at dinner okay?" He kisses his wife on the cheek as Orion appears next to me. Rigel comes back with a ball and announces his presence. He then aims it at me; however, instead of fearing the device as I did numerous times before, I know for a fact that it won't work. Indeed when the boy tries to use it on me all it does is that it bounces on my head and then bounces back toward his hands.

"You didn't capture him?" His father asks as Rigel shakes his head, "I didn't know he belonged to someone…" Rigel lies.

His father, George, sighs deeply and rubs his temples, "Come on, we're taking him to a Pokémon Center."

Rigel immediately crosses his hands in a desperate attempt to change his father's mind, "No, we can't."

"And why is that? Did he happen to come across you, Rigel? Did you steal him from somebody? What happened?" He walks toward his son.

Rigel then shakes his hands vertically in order to calm him down, "I found him. He can write English, I swear!"

"Rigel, I need you to take this seriously-" He picks me up and I start to thrash about violently as I try to speak to him, "This is going to be a problem." Orion also tries to convince his "Father" to stop by yanking on his pants but he continues to try and carry me to the door.

Suddenly, the sound of a whistle is heard from near the living room and everyone stops moving and stares at the person who made the noise.

"George, I saw him write to me. Rigel's telling the truth…and that's not all."

Everyone stares at her.

The group is now sitting down at the kitchen. Rigel hands me another paper and pencil as everyone looks at me.

"Alright, convince me Rigel."

"I don't have to, Lucas will." He retorts while drinking a cup of hot chocolate.

Soon after, I start with my first letter: writing a line down. Eventually it forms into an H and then I draw the letter I. As I continue, I begin to notice that my handwriting is slightly getting better which makes me happy. I guess I'm getting used to writing as a Pikachu.

"How did you teach him this?" George asks, somewhat surprised.

"I didn't dad."

"Well, it's nice to see a Pokémon do a couple of tricks from time to time." George grabs me and I drop the pencil as I move about once again, "But it's time to take him away."

"Dad, we made a promise to help him!"

"George, it's not safe out there!"

He stops and turns around as I continue to try and squeeze out of his arms, "I understand but he's going to cause problems for us. Do you realize how dangerous it is to have more than two Pikachu in a house? We don't even know if he has diseases or what."

"I know, but the city has a curfew in effect." Rigel's mother retorts.

"Then what are we supposed to do then honey!?"

"I'm not sure."

As he continues to try and take me towards the exit, I try all I can to shout for him to drop me on the floor.

"S…S…"

For whatever reason, it had just gotten very hard to try and speak. I wasn't sure if he was strangling me or what! If I could only tell him to stop!

"St…o-"

George looks down at me momentarily but shakes his head in disbelief.

My mouth twitches continuously as I feel my insides try and release all the feelings that I have been trying to express outwardly for so long now. My dependence on writing was shattered with one simple word.

"S…st…op!"

Everyone, except Orion, freezes in place. The humans look around for the source of the unfamiliar voice.

"Who said that?" Rigel moves his head back and forth in fear.

Without knowing what had just happened, I say it again, "s…stop!"

Everyone does not move anymore and they remain silent for several moments. Rigel is so traumatized that the cup falls from his hand and shatters on the floor as George drops me and walks backward toward the wall behind him, "What the hell!?"

"…did he just…speak?" Rigel asks softly.

"He must have…I haven't heard a voice like that before…" Rigel's mom says just as surprised.

I, myself, didn't know what was going on. But, judging from everyone's expression: it had to be something they've never seen or heard before. I smiled when I heard them talking about me.

Orion, around the same time as me, understood what was happening. He scratches his chin before his ears rise up. He shouts towards me, "Say it again Lucas!"

I decide to try and say it again, "Stop!"

Everyone reacts just as much as they did last time I yelled. It must be true. I must have spoken my first word in English as a Pikachu.

"He really spoke, he really spoke human language!" Rigel shouts, half-excited and half-scared.

This confirmed my suspicion.

Orion begins to smile as well, obviously excited that a Pikachu was able to talk human language. He runs toward me and picks me up from the floor. He then tells me to try and say something else, and I try.

"Okay! This is too bizarre, Rigel take him upstairs." George says as Rigel hesitates.

"Why me!?"

"Come on! You're the one who brought him inside the house!"

"Fine!" He runs and picks me up as I continue to try and form more words for them to understand.

"I'll take him to my room."

"Leave him there until we figure out what to do." His mother responds.

Orion follows Rigel to try and get him to stop as we head up the stairs.

"Rigel come on, let him go!"

We arrive on the second floor and Rigel makes a right and enters his bedroom. He turns on the lights, since darkness is quickly encroaching outside, and puts me in there before I can see Orion running towards me, "Lucas!"

The door shuts and I am left alone. My ears droop as I take in the fact that I may have just made a terrible mistake.