Hello everyone, guess who's back again.
First of all, thanks for all the reviews. Keep 'em coming, I really like to read what you guys think about the story.
Second, I'd like to clear things up. Several people e-mailed me asking if I have a writers block. This is NOT (and I repeat: NOT) the case! I was on holiday, that's all. I already have the main story planned ahead, I only have to write towards it. That takes some time.
Third, a couple of people have suggested a community. If you know one for me or if you know how I can create one, feel free to send me a message.
And as usual, thanks Pichufan for the beta-reading.
Without further ado, let's go to the story. I hope you enjoy this part, I think a lot of you want to know what happened after the car crash! Enjoy and don't forget: REVIEW PLEASE! ;)
I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in the grass with my nose towards the forest. It was hot, very hot. Right next to me was my cage. Shattered in thousand pieces as it had crashed through the windshield and into another tree next to the road. I shook my head and immediately fell a bit better. I quickly looked around to see what happened. I turned around and immediately jumped back when one of the tires of the van exploded. I suddenly realized the heat that came from the fire that engulfed the van and took a couple of steps back.
"Nikki..." I thought as I looked around. I saw her. She was somewhat closer to the van, not moving. I started realizing more things as I overcame the shock. My fur was full with pieces of plastic from my cage and I felt stings everywhere. Another tire was blown, creating a short blowtorch. I ducked quickly before I made my way over to Nikki. I grabbed her scruff and pulled her away from the fire. She didn't respond to me in any way. After the van was out of sight I stopped and looked at the pikachu. I laid my ear on her tummy and I could hear her heart beat. I felt her mouth with my paw - I also felt breathing. At least I knew she was still alive. She didn't look too bad, except for some plastic in her fur as well. Small pieces of our cage had dug their way into us as we must have flew out of the car.
"Nikki..." I said as I shook her back and forth. She did not respond.
"Nikki..." I said again as I shook her again. Still no response. I looked around and suddenly realised.
"Faia!" I thought as I looked at the van. I quickly ran towards it and ran around it. Big black smoke was coming from the burning rubber. I looked around. Did she get out? I couldn't see her anywhere around here. I looked at the side of the van. It was burning quite seriously and flames were coming out of all sides possible. I walked around the van (taking some safe distance from it) and looked at the drivers seat. Someone was still in there. I looked away, knowing that it was too late. Even though I didn't like Faia at all, I never would wish her this...
I closed my eyes and sighed. My pikachu mind kicked in, if I couldn't see the problem it wasn't there. Wild instincts I had seen in the colony earlier kicked in. This wasn't my problem. I shouldn't worry about it. I opened my eyes and I walked back to Nikki. She was still not moving. I looked around. A car was coming our way quickly. I grabbed Nikki at her scruff and dragged her away from the place. She still wasn't moving at all.
"Faia...!" I heard someone shout.
"Oh no..." I heard a woman. Shawn and Linda showed up at the accident. It was hard to miss due to the amount of smoke coming from it. I looked at them through the bushes. Although they were nice, I wouldn't want to return to them. They would probably lock me up again and give me to Team Rocket afterwards.
"You calling emergency services?" Linda said. I saw Shawn walking around the vehicle. There was nothing he could do.
"Yes. I just hope she was thrown out of the car." Shawn said as he walked towards the side of the van and looked around it.
"What about Maurice and Nikki...?" Linda said as she looked as well.
"I don't know, Linda. I hope they didn't..." Shawn said as he got answer from his telephone. Linda walked around the van when suddenly a huge flame erupted from it. Shawn saw it and told Linda to stand well back. About fifteen seconds later, the van exploded in a huge fireball.
"Gas tank." Shawn said after a couple of seconds when Linda walked back to him and on the road. "The fire must have got through it... That doesn't happen a lot..."
"The pikachu have survived." she said. "Their cage is over there. It's broken and it's empty."
"Really? Then they must be here somewhere." Shawn said when I heard sirens. I decided it was enough and I turned around and dragged Nikki with me into the forest and towards a Pokécenter, if I could find one.
I dragged the female across the forest floor, deeper into the forest. The leaves were rustling and behind me I heard some sirens. I kept moving. I pushed bushes out of the way and kept dragging Nikki behind me. It was like she was getting heavier and heavier. After a minute or five, I stopped and panted. Nikki wasn't heavy but not light either. As a pikachu I couldn't lift her as easily as I could as a human. Or could I? I tried to lift Nikki on my back. Surprisingly it went fairly easy. I could walk with her on my back. It certainly went faster than dragging her all the way. I sighed and moved further into the vegetation. I had to get to a pokémon center. Nurse Joy would surely fix her and me up. I stopped for a moment and looked at my fur. The plastic that was still in there was aching and hurting me at the same time. I tried to remove the plastic but as soon I removed one piece blood came sipping out of the wound. I decided it wouldn't be good to take out the rest as well because I would bleed to death if I would do that.
I didn't know how much time passed while I was taking Nikki to a pokémon center. I just walked through this endless forest. A place I should be happy to be in, but I was anything but happy. I felt painful, my skin was irritating me and I was still busy carrying another pikachu with me. I looked around and sniffed the air for possible predators. I detected another pokémon. It was closeby and it was coming this direction. I could hear it coming this way with my ears and my nose detected its smell. I tried to hide myself quickly to prevent being seen, but I was too slow and the pokémon appeared from the bushes. A pikachu. And another one. Two pikachu appeared. Both looked around and spotted me and immediately got into fighters stance. I dropped Nikki and did the same. The pikachu looked at me and sniffed the air before he stood back on his hind legs.
"What are you doing here?" he said before he came closer. I stood up on my hind legs as well and groaned in pain.
"Whoa, what happened to you two? And why are you so far from the colony?" he said as he came closer and checked on both of us.
"They are not from our colony." the other pikachu said. "They smell strange."
"Who are you?" the first pikachu said while giving me a warning glare, telling me not to joke with him.
"Who are YOU?" I asked in return. "I'm not gonna tell anything until I know who you are." He pulled his eyebrow. The answer I gave him was not a standard answer.
"What?" he said as they both checked Nikki.
"Get away from her!" I said as I sparked my cheeks. He and the other pikachu backed off.
"Hey, calm down will ya!" he said before sparking his own cheeks as well.
"We're from a pikachu colony nearby. Quite far from here, actually." he said. "We smelled you and that other pikachu just now and we wondered what another pikachu was doing here. We are the only colony around."
"You're not from our colony, aren't you?" the other asked. I shook my head.
"What happened to you? You smell strange, like fire." he said. "Did you come from that fire over there?" he asked, pointing to the big black smoke coming from the car crash site.
"We were heading there, to see what happened..." the other pikachu said.
"I wouldn't go there." I said as I shook my head. "They will try to catch you. A car has crashed and catched fire - someone died in the fire."
"Car?" one pikachu asked.
"Metal things on wheels that humans use to move around." I said, facepawing.
"Oh, those things. They move pretty quick... One of our colony got killed by them recently. We can't help it the road is nearby..." he said with hanging ears.
"I... I was in that car..." I said.
"You were in there?" one pikachu asked. "But you said that it was on fire. How'd you get out?"
"I was thrown out when we crashed - I don't really know what happened exactly. I remember that the car went on its side and the next thing I remember was that I woke up in the grass and that it was on fire... These things..." I said as I pointed to the plastic in my fur, "...is from the cage I was in. It shattered to pieces and then I took Nikki with me, away from the fire. It was really hot." I said.
"Wow..." one of the pikachu said. "That's scary... But why were you with the humans? Why did you have a cage?"
"Well..." I said as I thought if I should tell them my transformation story. I decided not to.
"They captured us and used us for various tests. They said they were moving us to another facility so they could test us further. And then we crashed while they were moving us." I said.
"Well, welcome to our forest." one pikachu said. "I'm Robby - I'm one of the defenders of our colony." he said as he offered me his tail. "You smell familiar, but I don't know why."
"I'm Maurice." I said as we shook our tails with a pika-like handshake.
"Maurice?" he said, looking at me. "Your name is Maurice?"
"Uhm... Yes." I said, not knowing what he meant.
"Funny. You have the same name as that human from Tommy's colony. We thought that guy went insane or something." he said. "I mean, what human would join a pikachu colony? But he is pretty cool. He visited us one day when Lukas was new colony leader because Tommy died. The pichu and young pikachu loved him."
"Oh, so you are from Uri's colony?" I said without thinking.
"Yeah, we are!" he said.
"But, how do you know that?" the other said.
"Well I am from Lukas' colony." I said.
"Oh, so you know Maurice?" he said.
"Yes, I do." I said.
"Cool." he said. "How is he? He was pretty cool."
"Oh, he's fine. He managed to learn pikachu language." I said, knowing that I was talking about myself. But I didn't want these pikachu to know that I WAS Maurice. Not yet. They would probably tell me I was crazy...
"Can you help me with Nikki?" I said as I pointed to the female behind me. "She has been like this since the accident and I need to get her to a pokécenter... I'm afraid she'll die if I don't do that..."
"Pokécenter?" one of the pikachu asked. "Why would you want to do that?"
"Because nurse Joy can heal her." I said. "Team Rocket brought me there when I was hurt and she helped me." I lied to them.
"Oh..." one of the pikachu said. "Well that's OK but we'll get you back to our colony first. Are you hungry?"
"Not really..." I said. "I'm hurt because of these things in my fur... Everytime I move they itch and stitch into my skin."
"Doesn't look good indeed..." one of the pikachu said. "Let's go back to our nest, maybe one of the elders can help you a bit."
The pikachu took me back to their nest. We walked through forest and clearings and since we were with three pikachu now carrying Nikki went a lot better.
After walking for twenty minutes we arrived at the nest. Uri's Colony was a colony close to Viridian City. I was there only once, after Lukas became our colony leader. There were multiple other pikachu colonies around ours, but our colony was the biggest in the region of Pallet Town and Viridian. Most of the colonies were friendly. There wasn't much tension between the colonies and sometimes pikachu from other colonies slept inside our nest when they were on journeys or anything like that. There was only one enemy colony but that one was located far away and the pikachu from that colony rarely even showed their presence. They were very shy to spot, even as a pikachu. The raichu that sometimes raided the colony came from there, had Lukas once told me.
"Alright we're there." Robby said. "This is our colony. It's not that big as yours, but it's nice."
We entered a clearing that looked similar to our own colony. In the center there was a main entrance which the pikachu could use to enter and leave the colony. Around the colony were some sand pits and some apple trees that the pikachu used to gather food and to do stuff. My pikachu part almost jumped. It immediately felt like home for my pikachu mind.
"It's great...!" I said with my mouth open and looking around.
"Alright put Nikki there, I'll call an elder." Robby said as he ran into the nest.
"You have multiple elders?" I asked the other pikachu, from which I still didn't know his name.
"Yeah, we have three elders. Uri is the leader." he said. "By the way, I'm Trey." he said as a raichu came out of the nest and walked over towards us.
"Robby said an pikachu arrived..." he said when Trey pointed to me. "Welcome! I'm Uri and I'm the leader of this colony." he said looked over me and sniffed me.
"I'm Maurice..." I said. "And that pikachu over there is Nikki, but she hasn't been awake since our accident..." I said.
"Accident?" he said. He looked at Nikki and then looked back at me. "What do you mean by accident?"
"We had an car accident about an hour ago..." I said.
"An hour ago?" Uri said. Is that... Like a sun or something?" Oops. I forgot that this colony doesn't understand human time.
"Nevermind." Uri said. "You must be hungry. Come inside, we'll take care of her." he said as he mentioned me to follow him. He went back inside the nest and I followed him. I changed into pikachu-mode and automatically found my way inside the nest. There were corridors and tunnels everywhere and in every direction. At one point we even took three 8-way intersections within a couple of seconds.
I followed the raichu towards a room deep inside. If I would fit in here as a human I would never remember how to get back to the surface, but my pikachu mind remembered everything perfectly and I didn't worry about a thing. At last we entered a big room where a couple of pikachu were busy with all kinds of things. Some were trying to open a can of diet coke, another was grooming some pichu, there were some pikachu chatting. This must be a main room. We went through the room and entered a smaller hole at the end of it. After entering the hole we went right, followed by an 180 degrees turn and another right. To prevent pokémon listening or something I guess. We entered quite a big room with some old human stuff and a bed of leaves and a pikachu.
"Savannah, could you leave us alone for a minute?" Uri said as he entered the room.
"Sure." she said as she looked at him and then at me.
"Hey handsome..." she said as she rubbed her cheek against me once before leaving the room, looking back at me as I gave her an uncomfortable look.
"Who was that?" I said, rubbing my cheek.
"My mate, Savannah." Uri said like it was the most normal thing on the planet. "Don't worry, she does that to anyone." he chuckled.
"Oh..." I said as I sat down and sighed.
"Alright, what brings you here? Robby said you're from Lukas' colony." Uri said as he sat down as well and offered me a berry.
"Well, I..." I said. "Can you keep a secret?" I asked.
"Yes, I can." the raichu said.
"Well, you know that human Maurice in Lukas' colony, don't you?" I said.
"Yeah, I know him. He's pretty crazy for joining a pikachu colony but he's a nice guy. They say he learned pikachu language. That would be pretty crazy." Uri said.
"Well, I am Maurice." I said as I looked down.
"Yes, you told me. You guys have the same name." Uri said.
"What? No, I am Maurice. The human Maurice..." I said.
"You are... Are you alright?" Uri said. "You're a pikachu, not a human."
"I know...!" I said. "But Team Rocket changed me into a pikachu!"
"Wait, what...?" Uri said. "I don't understand. Tell me everything." he said as he pulled a questionable head. I told him my story. From the part of the pokéball that sucked me in and the part where Team Rocket changed me into a pikachu to the part where I crashed and was found by Robby and Trey. Uri listened to me all the way. His eyes were closed and he nodded every now and then.
"I believe you..." he said when I finished. "I'm old and experienced enough to see that you don't talk like a pikachu. You talk different and you know things I don't even understand. We know there is a Team Rocket base somewhere around here. We have seen grunts gathering pokémon around the forest, including some of our own species and some of our colony members."
"Your colony as well?" I asked.
"Yes, they seem to gather the pikachu from all around Kanto. If they can find some - they will capture them and send them over to this place." he said. "You are the second pikachu that I speak to that escaped their hideout. One of our colony members actually escaped as well when he was moved. But he escaped because they were lacking security. He simply ran away from them and never saw them again. He found us and asked if he could stay and he has been here ever since." Uri said as he looked at me.
"Oh... But how you know they are from all over Kanto?" I asked.
"Because they weren't from colonies around here." Uri said. "I'm the leader of this colony and I know all other colony smells. They didn't have one smell I knew. That means they were not from here."
"Alright..." I said. "But how'd you know they didn't have those smells? Were you there?" I asked.
"Uhm..." he said, feeling uncomfortable.
"I was the pikachu that escaped. I evolved quite fast after that." Uri said as he looked down and hung his ears. "I'd rather not speak about that. My time with Team Rocket was not very pleasant." he added.
"Oh..." I said, surprised Uri didn't tell me earlier. "But what did they do with you? Did they change you... As well?" I said as I looked at him.
"No. I was a pikachu when I got there and I was a pikachu when I escaped." he said. "But as I said, I'd rather not talk about it."
"Oh, alright then..." I said, thinking about another subject.
"Where are we right now?" I asked.
"Inside my room. But you probably mean something different." Uri chuckled, clearly happy that I changed the subject. "We are close to Viridian City. That's the nearest place where humans live. You said you wanted to go to the pokécenter with Nikki, didn't you?" he asked.
"Yes... She needs help. And I do too, this plastic is sticking in my skin and if I remove it blood will come out..." I said. "Where is Nikki now anyway?" I asked.
"Probably in one of our empty rooms." Uri said. "I'll ask Robby and Trey where they put her. She didn't look very well."
"I want to go to the center before dark..." I said. "I hope I can somehow contact professor Oak about all this... I hope he knows what to do."
"Professor Oak?" Uri asked.
"Professor Oak is a pokémon professor somewhere near Pallet Town." I said. "I did this experiment with him. And I can now officially call this an out-of-hand experiment." I said as I sighed. Uri tilted his head and placed a paw on my shoulder.
"No worries, life as a pikachu isn't that bad." he said.
"I know, but I prefer being a human." I said as I felt my eyes went wet a bit. However, I managed to prevent myself from crying.
"Alright. So we have to get you to a pokécenter." he said. "Luckily it's not far from here. About one winter ago, they managed to blow it up somehow. They rebuild it close to the town edge, near the entrance to the forest. It's a short walk from our colony. I'll ask Robby to guide you there.
"Thanks... I'd really appreciate that." I said. Uri looked at me.
"You are CERTAINLY not a pikachu." he said. "You appreciate that? Really? What kind of word is that?"
"A word that says you're thankful for something." I said as I tilted my head.
"Oh, like that." Uri said as he gave me a thinking glare.
"Whatever." he said when he stood up and walked outside the room. "Let's go, if you want to be at the pokécenter before dark you should go now."
I stood up and followed Uri through the colony. Somewhere halfway we walked into Trey. After asking, Trey pointed us to a room where Nikki was. She was close to the entrance of the colony.
"Alright guys, help Maurice get her out of the colony." Uri said.
"Help her get out? We just got her in here!" he replied surprised.
"Who told you to get her in there?" I asked.
"Uhm..." Trey said.
"Exactly." I said as I rolled my eyes. "Come on." After a minute or so we were back outside with Nikki.
"Alright, Robby, Trey." Uri announced. "You're gonna point Maurice towards the pokécenter in Viridian."
"Viridian?" Robby asked. "You mean that place humans live?" he said as he pointed his paw towards the forest, probably in the direction of Viridian.
"Yes. Make sure he gets there in one piece. Nikki needs help from Nurse Droid." Uri said.
"Nurse JOY." I said. "She's called nurse Joy. But I need to get to her indeed."
"You are talking weird..." Trey said as he looked at me.
"Ignore the weird talk and take the guy already." Uri said. "If he wants to get there before dark, he needs to hurry." he added as we looked at the air. The sky was still blue, but you could notice that the sun was slowly going down. Night wasn't far away.
"Before night? We should get going then." Robby said.
"Let's go!" Trey said.
"Maurice, see you again. Come and visit us when you..." Uri said as he hesitated for a short time. "Well, you know. Come and visit." he said with a wink.
"I sure will." I said as we shook our tails as a greeting before Uri went back inside the colony.
"Alright guys, let's go." Robby said as he and Trey carried Nikki. We walked towards the colony edge and passed the pichu playground. As soon we came past it some pichu came running up to us. They gathered around Robby and begged him to play with them.
"Sorry, I can't..." he said. "We have to get Maurice to a pokécenter or something..."
Some pichu seemed sad.
"You always play with them?" I asked.
"What? Yes, I do. I'm one of the guards but we also play with them. The guards at your colony probably don't do that, but we don't have as much pikachu so we do multiple tasks." he said.
"Well, I'm a baby-sitter at my colony. I can't seem why playing for a couple of minutes would hurt..." I said as I took a step forward and started playing with the pichu by nosing into the fur of one of the pichu. They forgot Robby and turned their attention to me. It felt so good not to be stared at. Not to be a 'big bad human' that joined the pikachu colony. So nice to just play with pichu that really see you as someone of their own. As a human, the pichu also saw me as a great playmate, but it was certainly different. They still knew I wasn't a pikachu and that I wasn't really supposed to play with them. This really stopped getting a real bond with them. They were nice, I was nice, and we liked each other, but it stopped a real integration into the pikachu lifestyle. Now I was a pikachu, this last obstacle was also gone. My instinct told me to play with them and that was exactly what I did.
"Hey, you wanted to reach that pokécenter thing before dark, didn't you?!" Robby said.
"Yeah, I'll be right there..." I said as I played shock tag with three pichu at once. They touched their cheeks and sparked shortly and then giggled because it tickled them.
"Come on Maurice... We need to go!" Robby said.
"Yeah, I'll come." I said as I broke the game and went over to Nikki, Trey and Robby.
"Let's go." I said as I waved to the pichu. They all smiled happily and imitated me.
"What are you doing...?" Trey said.
"Waving goodbye...?" I said as Robby and I took Nikki and carried her away from the colony.
"Waving?" Trey said, pulling a surprised face.
"Yeah, waving. How do you say goodbye then?" I asked.
"Well uhm... I don't know... We rub our noses when we go away from our mate, but that's about it." he said as he held his paw behind his head and looked to the sky, thinking hard.
"Ah, I should remember that one." I said.
"You're weird." Trey said as he shook his head and walked after us.
The walk through the forest didn't take that long, but it took long enough for the sky to turn dark. Thanks to our pikachu vision, which was much better at night, we made it to the edge of the city without any problems, if you ignore the fact that I tripped almost five times, confusing my paws and feet when I changed from pikachu to human mind.
"Alright..." Robby said. "The healing building is over there. You see that building there?" he said as he pointed to a building.
"Yes, I do." I said.
"That's the building you're heading to. What was it called again?" he asked.
"Pokécenter." I chuckled. "It's marked with a huge P."
"A pee? You gotta pee?" Trey said as he and Robby placed Nikki down. They both had carried her the last part, so I had energy to make it to the pokécenter. The pikachu sometimes were very bright when it came to survival, but when it came to understanding humans they were hilarious.
"No, no. Marked by a P. A letter." I said.
"A letter? What is a letter?" Robby asked. I sighed and laughed.
"Never mind. You guys won't understand." I said.
"And me neither..." I thought after that, when I realised that I couldn't understand letters either. Somehow I still understood them but somehow I was unable to recognize them. I swear that I could see the 'M', the first letter of my name, on the keyboard. But when I pressed it Shawn read something entirely different. It confused me a bit, but I decided not to put too much attention to it.
"I'm sorry we can't go further, but it's way too dangerous for us there. I don't want to be caught and I'm kind of scared for the human city." he said.
"I understand, don't worry. Thanks for bringing me here." I said. "See you later, I think we'll see each other again at Lukas' colony." he smiled as he offered me his tail as greeting. I shook it.
"Certainly..." I chuckled as I also greeted Trey by shaking tails. Almost like humans, but also not.
"It's down that alleyway, if I'm right." Trey said as he pointed to a dark alley. "Just go around the corner and you're fine."
"Alright, alleyway to that building." I said as I pointed to the pokécenter.
"Yup. Well, see you around, we'll meet again at your colony!" Robby said as they turned around and left for their colony. I watched them disappear into the vegetation and turned around. I was kind of concerned with Nikki. She hadn't woke up since a couple of hours and I badly wanted Nurse Joy to look at her. And I also wanted this plastic out of my fur. It was still itchy, although not thinking about it made the feeling go away. Now I was thinking about it, it started to itch immediately. I grabbed Nikki and carried her on my back. I walked out of the vegetation and stepped on the sidewalk. The concrete actually hurt a bit under my paws. The small stones poked into my feet. It wasn't too bad. I made my way to the edge of the sidewalk.
I wanted to cross the street when a car appeared and roared past me, barely missing me. My human mind kicked in.
"ALWAYS, ALWAYS LOOK BEFORE YOU CROSS A ROAD!" it said on a angry, teaching tone.
"Alright alright..." my pikachu mind responded. I looked left and right. Not a car in sight. Perfect. I quickly crossed the road with Nikki on my back and walked into the alley. Just a small three hundred meters and I had reached my destination.
"Over 150m... Turn left." I mumbled, as if I was a navigation. I shook my head when I realised that my human side was playing tricks on me. Then there was some sound from the litter bin at the side of the alley. I looked at it when I saw some trash move that was piled up next to it. The trash rumbled when a raticate came out of it and looked at me.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" he said.
"What?" I said.
"What are you doing? This is my alley, and nobody enters my alley without my permission!" he said on an aggressive tone when two ratata also appeared from the trash and stood next to the raticate.
"I don't see your name written on it." I said.
"Are you trying to play tricks on me?" he answered and before I realised it, the raticate hit me with a quick attack. The impact felt like hitting a brick wall. I wasn't trained at all as a pikachu. I flew a couple of meters and landed on my belly. I grunted.
"And what's this?" he said as he approached Nikki, who I dropped as I was attacked.
"DON'T YOU DARE TO TOUCH HER!" I said, sparking my cheeks dangerously and standing in fighters stance.
"Oh my, is this your mate?" he said on a attacking tone as I charged up some electricity when the two ratata appeared in front of me.
"Don't want me to... TOUCH... her?" he said as he touched her tail and pulled hard. Nikki yelped a bit. So she was consciousness! The raticate looked at her and pulled again.
"HEY! STOP THAT!" I shouted at him, and I launched a quick attack. The ratata didn't expect this and I shot right past them towards - what I guessed was - their leader. I didn't know how, but I attacked the raticate with quick attack. I hit him spot on - he flew against the wall of the alley and landed on the floor. He growled at me when both ratata also stood in fighters stance. I stood before Nikki and raised my tail as high as I could to look intimidating. I growled back as I learned from Lukas. The ratata came quite close to me. I gave them a very firm glance and growled dangerously. To my surprise, they took a couple of steps back, but the raticate didn't. He came running for me with a bite attack.
I dodged the attack and the raticate ran right past me. He slid to a stop and immediately did a quick attack. Thanks to my pikachu senses my response was fast enough and I jumped out of the way again. Instead of attacking me, the raticate now ran for Nikki. After he missed me, he attacked Nikki instead. His quick attack hit spot on (not that complicated with a non-moving target) and Nikki slammed against the wall where she remained motionless. The raticate looked at me with an evil grin and slowly walked over to Nikki. I also tried to get to her, to attack the raticate. But my way was blocked by the two ratata.
"Get outta my way!" I shouted when I released a thundershock out of nowhere. Probably because I was angry. Both ratata did a step backwards again, since the thundershock completely missed target. I now knew they weren't that strong. The raticate was still walking over to Nikki. He was readying his teeth to bite her, probably somewhere where she would not survive it. This kind of panicked me, but I got a plan ready. I sparked my cheeks dangerously. One of the ratata ran for me to attack me, and I responded with an thundershock. He jumped for me but got hit before he could reach me. He fell to the floor and needed some time to get up. In that short time I already reached him and using my claws, I clenched his neck with my nails. They pierced through his fur and through his skin much easier than I expected. The ratata made a cry before his body spasmed a couple of times. I jumped away from him. He remained there, making unpredictable movements and crying his species name before he sank to the floor and remained motionless. I looked at the other ratata, who had just witnessed the murder of his companion, telling him that he could expect the same if he would try to stop me. He took a step back and looked at the raticate, before he ran away through the alley. The raticate had turned around and noticed the cries from one of his nationals, just before he reached Nikki.
"NO!" he said. "You will pay for that!" he said as he turned around and tried to kill Nikki with his teeth. I used quick attack and lightening fast I made my way over to him and hit him before he could do anything. The raticate flew away and landed right on his paws. He looked at me and gritted his teeth before he attacked me again, running for me very fast and hitting me with a nasty bite attack. I yelped when he hit me and I tried to break loose, but he kept biting down, causing me more pain. I tried to break loose when my human mind kicked in instead of my pikachu mind. It was like the world paused around me.
"DON'T PANIC!" it said. "Panic and trying to break loose won't help you, only make things worse! Think about what's the best thing to do! Thundershock the hell out of him!" it said. "Or wait, can you do thunder?"
My pikachu mind responded. "Yes, I can do thunder."
"Then stop trying to break free and do a thunder attack! Fry the bastard!" my human mind said as I returned to the fight. My pikachu mind stopped trying to break free. It looked at the raticate, who looked back with an evil grin and bit into my leg again, which he had managed to grab.
My cheeks sparked. My mind was focussed on static electricity. My tail was raised as much as it could. My voice echoed through the alley. The raticate suddenly looked scared to death and just before he let go a massive thunder hit me from the clouds above me. The sound of thunder echoed over the entire city of Viridian and I closed my eyes. When I opened them, the raticate had fainted. His fur was smoking, much like Cammy when she was attacked by Tommy. But this raticate wasn't a pichu, that was used to electricity. This pokémon couldn't handle that. It was dead. I removed my foot from his mouth and stood on the floor.
"Ouch..." I mumbled as I was barely able to put weight on it. I gritted my teeth and went over to Nikki. She had a big wound on her belly from the quick attack. I looked at the wall. Looks like she hit some kind of sharp edge, because there was a blood trail on the wall. I grabbed her and stumbled over to the pokémon center, using all my strength to pull her with me. I looked back to the mess I had made. A small crater had formed on the place where I had done my massive attack. I saw some humans looking to the alley from their window, wondering what just happened. Thanks to the absence of streetlights in the alley they weren't able to see me. I should really check how strong I am for real, because my human mind still thinks I'm a helpless pikachu at level one, but in reality I think I'm kind of strong...
But not now, since I stumbled up the stairs towards the entrance of the pokémon center. Happily there weren't much people outside of it. After I made it up the stairs (it wasn't that long, but it was very wide) I walked over to the automatic doors. They opened for me and I stumbled into the pokécenter I had been working before I joined the pikachu. Two or three trainers were still awake. One didn't pay attention and another noticed us coming in. The third continued with his own business. I tried to make my way over to the counter. I didn't see Nurse Joy anywhere. I pulled Nikki with me when I suddenly saw a shadow dropping over me. I turned around lightening fast and saw one of the trainers. I immediately got in fighters stance. Nobody would touch either me or Nikki.
"Hey fella, are you alright?" he asked from high up. He didn't even crouch, he just stood there watching us. This intimidated me. I didn't like it, it scared me somehow. Now I really knew how it felt to meet a human as a pikachu. It was as scary as hell. I sparked my cheeks, telling him to back off from me.
"Don't get angry with me, I'm trying to help you!" he said as he stepped closer. I growled loudly and made more than clear he should get away. I was hurt, I didn't feel very comfortable, and I was threatened by some crazy guy.
"The perfect mix to get attacked..." I heard my human mind saying. I sparked my cheeks once more, telling the guy to back off. He indeed backed off.
"Hey, don't get so aggressive with me." he said. I stopped sparking my cheeks but still growled.
"You're not getting yourself into trouble, aren't you?" I heard from behind me. A female trainer came walking from a corridor when I was focussing on the male trainer.
"What? No, I'm not! I'm trying to help this pikachu! He just came inside all by its own, pulling this other pikachu with him. But he tries to attack me." he said.
"Wow, they don't look well. Look at the female!" she said. "She doesn't look very good..."
"I know, that's why I'm trying to help!" the male said.
"Well do it right then!" she said.
"I'm trying, but you're disturbing me!" he shouted. The two started arguing about our situation and what was the right thing to do. I put my paws at my ears, trying to relief loudness as they were shouting louder and louder to prove they were right. I felt weak and I felt as if I was about to faint.
"STOP THIS!" I shouted after I was fed up. I heard a loud "PIKAAAAAAA" echo through the pokécenter. They both stopped and looked down. I felt weak, weaker than earlier.
"Get nurse Joy for me, will ya..." I said as I pointed to the counter.
"What does he mean?" she asked. The guy looked at the counter.
"Looks obvious, nurse Joy." he said as he walked over to the counter and pressed a button. Nurse Joy came walking out of her office.
"Hello and welcome to the Viridian City pokémon center! What can I do for you?" she said with her usual happy voice.
"Nurse Joy, there are two pikachu here who need your help. They don't let us come close to them. The male dragged the female inside, and the female looks bad." he said as he pointed at me. Nurse Joy looked at us and walked around the counter. She saw me, holding Nikki in my paws and looking at her.
"Oh my! What's this!?" she said as she crouched near me. "Oh good lord, the poor thing! Did you came here to bring her?" she asked me. I nodded my head. She picked Nikki up and brought her over to the counter. There she carefully laid her down on a cushion. The female gently grabbed me (I was too tired to resist) and placed me on the counter as well.
"Alright, let me see… How are you doing..." Joy said. I pointed at Nikki and pushed her hands away.
"Don't push me away, I'm trying to help you." Joy said at her soothing voice. But I pointed at Nikki.
"She first, I'm feeling fine except that I'm tired." I said. Nurse Joy looked at Nikki.
"You want me to start with her?" she asked. I nodded. Nurse Joy smiled and put me down on a pillow before she turned her attention to Nikki. I could barely keep my eyes open now I know we were safe. But something else caught my attention. The television behind Joy. My eyes slowly shot wide open when I saw something familiar on the TV screen. Myself. My human self! A photo of me appeared on the TV with some words under it which I could not identify. I watched for a second when I realised this was my chance.
"That's me!" I said as I pointed to the TV. The male and female looked at me and then to the TV.
"What is it? You want to watch TV?" she asked.
"It's about that boy who disappeared..." the male said. "I really hope that they'll find him soon. They say he had joined a colony of pikachu, that looks awesome to me."
"But he's been missing for a while now, isn't he?" the female asked.
"Yes, he is. Maurice is gone for two weeks now." Nurse Joy said. "He worked here about one year ago and he's a very cheerful person, sometimes a bit idiot, but cheerful. He loved pikachu. They found his clothes in an hidden Team Rocket base, after they traced his phone around that area. They also found a load of pikachu there, including his own pikachu, Cammy. His parents brought her over here but she was perfectly fine, only a bit shocked..." she said, her voice getting a bit emotional.
"How'd you know all this?" the trainer asked.
"Because they police brought all pikachu over here for a checkup." Nurse Joy said. "I asked them if they found Maurice as well as soon I heard this were pikachu from the same Team Rocket base, but they told me they found clothes and nothing more."
I waved my arms and pointed at myself.
"I am Maurice!" I said.
"You know something?" Joy asked. I nodded my head.
"I am Maurice!" I said again. Nurse Joy sighed.
"Sometimes I wish I could understand pokémon. That would make life so much easier for me." she said. "Alright, I'm gonna work on this pikachu now, you take care of him and call me when something unusual happens with him. He'll be fine, but I wanna be sure he's watched. If you get tired, ask a chansey." she said.
"I'll try to fix him up as soon as possible, but she needs me more than he does." she said as she looked at Nikki.
"Alright, we will." the female trainer said.
"Thanks." Nurse Joy replied before she left with Nikki. Wondering how I could possibly tell the humans I turned into a pikachu, I tried to sleep. But then reality hit me - they were looking for a human. A human that did not exist. At least, not anymore... I panicked and thought about possible ways to tell them. To make them clear they needed to look for me a different way.
What... What if they couldn't find me...?
And that's it for now, until the next chapter! Review button is under here, press it and write what you think!
