I really just can't stop! Here's chapter 5, and the last Prologue chapter! Now for reviews!
jurrasicdinodrew: I have plans for slight romance in the story, but know that this is NOT a shipfic, so it's going to stay rather tame. As for Mew, you'll just have to wait and find out!"
jakeroo123: I didn't think it would make sense for Ash to just call him Pikachu, given that A) He can understand him and B) He's also a Pikachu. And I think that Pokémon names and nicknames kind of go hand in hand. I think that they would be very similar, but that's just me.
NorthStar Pokeshipper: I don't plan on having Ash and Storm's relationship becoming romantic, I have a different path for them. And besides, Ash and Storm are probably gonna find someone else anyway.
Also, random question. I'm just curious: What's your guys' favorite Pokémon game and anime season. Mine is Black and white/XYZ.
With all that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!
Ash and co were on their way back to his house. Ash was riding on Delila's right shoulder, and Storm on her left. Some people waved and greeted them as they passed by.
"See, Storm? people can be nice if they want to!"
"Yeah, I guess..."
"Oh, lighten up! Once we get back, I can show you around my house! You'll love it there, you'll see!"
"Ok. Say, I'm hungry. when are we gonna eat?"
Ash laughed at Storm's priorities.
"Well, mom usually starts making dinner at around 4:30, and she said she was making chicken pot pie tonight. that'll take about 2 hours to complete.
"Chicken pot pie? What's that?"
"Oh, it's really good! You'll love it!"
"That's not explaining what it is!"
As it turned out, Storm loved chicken pot pie. The dinner alone was enough to make him start to warm up to Delila.
After dinner, Ash showed his new friend around his house. Storm was especially surprised that Ash had such a big bed, but then he remembered that he used to be human. Based on the room alone, he could tell that Ash really loved Pokémon. He had a Voltorb alarm clock, Figurines of Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle, and even Pokémon bed sheets.
"It's a little late to start training today. Why don't we just settle down and watch some TV?"
Storm had heard of a TV, in fact he had seen some of them in the professor's lab before, but he still had no idea how they worked. It looked almost like magic.
Ash picked up the remote and hopped onto his bed with minor difficulty. Storm watched him with a stupefied look on his face.
"You realize you can jump much higher than that, right?"
"I can?"
"I'll show you tomorrow. let's just rest for now.
Due to his new stubby paws, Ash had to hold the remote in one, while he pressed the buttons with the other.
"Oh sweet! They're recording a league challenger tonight!"
Storm and Ash settled down into the bed, and began to watch the match. Unfortunately, the challenger was on the weaker side, and his strategy was near nonexistent, so the match was pretty boring, what with Lorelai sweeping the challenging team.
"Well that was lame."
"Lame? What are you talking about? Did you see how strong that lady's team was? I hope I'll be that strong someday."
"You'll be that strong and more! We'll both have to be if we want to beat the elite four!"
"Wait, there's four of them?"
"Yeah! In order for a trainer and their team to challenge the champion of a region, they have to beat the elite four all in a row!"
"In a row?! How is that possible if they're all so strong? Just beating one would be hard enough!"
"I know it sounds hard, but if we put our all into our journey, then I'm sure we can do it!"
"Heh, you're pretty optimistic, ya know?"
"I get that a lot. We should probably get to sleep, we need to be well rested, cuz we're gonna train real hard tomorrow to get as strong as possible! I'll also try teaching you some human speech so you'll be able to communicate better."
"Sounds like a plan. I'll see you in the morning then."
Storm got slightly under the covers and curled up, asleep within minutes. Ash tossed and turned, trying to find a comfortable position to get to sleep in. Eventually he decided to mimic Storm, finding that it was surprisingly more comfortable than the way he usually slept. He settled in to the covers, and was out like a light.
Ash was normally a heavy sleeper, and this became apparent to Storm at 10. Ash had said that they would get up early to train, but the aspiring Pokémon trainer was still asleep.
Storm had tried zapping him with a thunderbolt to get him to wake up, but unfortunately, Ash's ability seemed to be lightning rod. Fed up, Storm grabbed the alarm clock, set the time to ten seconds, and put it right next to Ash's ear.
Now, before, Ash would still have slept right through this, but due to his acquired sensitive hearing, as soon as the Alarm went off, Ash shot out of bed, clinging to the ceiling in surprise.
"Morning, Rip Van Winkle."
"Why'd you have to go and do that?!"
Storm shrugged.
"Nothing else I tried worked."
"Still though!"
As the two Pikachu made their way downstairs, they smelled something delicious. Running into the kitchen, they found Delila and Lily cooking a large breakfast.
"Well, good morning boys! Finally up I see."
"I've been up, I was just spending the past hour trying to wake him."
While Delila had no idea what Storm was saying, she understood by his frustrated look and the paw he was pointing at Ash.
"Oh, I see. Having trouble waking Ash up?"
"It's not that hard, is it?"
It was then that Delila's , Mimey, walked in carrying a bunch of dishes. Ash realized that he had somehow completely evaded Mimey all yesterday on accident, so he had yet to see Ash as a Pokémon.
"Tum tum tum… here you are Deila!"
"Thank you so much Mimey, breakfast is almost ready, ok?"
Mimey nodded, before turning around and seeing a couple of Pokémon he never had before. He had already been introduced to Lily the previous night, but these two were new.
"Oh, hello! I don't think we've met! My name's Mimey! Nice to meet you!"
"Mimey, it's me, Ash. I thought Mom would have already told you."
"EEEH?! Ash? You're so small... and furry!"
Mimey picked Ash up, inspecting him. He definitely looked like a Pikachu, through and through. The only recognizable features were his hat and messy hair.
"Yeah... can you put me down please?"
"Oh, so sorry, I got carried away! Oh, and who's this?"
"I'm Storm. I'm Ash's new partner."
"Well hello Storm! I hope you like it here. Ash, you have to tell me how this happened!"
"Later ok? I've already explained it three times. Let me at least eat breakfast first."
"Oh, ok! I can wait."
Ash and Storms mouths were watering at the sight of all the food. There was Bacon, Pancakes, Eggs, almost everything you could identify as a breakfast food was on the table.
Not waiting another moment, the two jumped the food, piling tons of everything on to their plates, before eating it as fast as they had gathered it.
Delila giggled at the sight.
"They certainty have similar appetites."
Lily looked at the two Pikachu in awe.
"Does your son always eat like this?"
"Why do you think we made so much breakfast?"
"Ah, man, that hit the spot!"
"You can say that again."
Ash and Storm were slouched back in their chairs, content smiles on their faces.
"Glad to know you liked it! Gotta get some energy in you if you're going to be training today."
"Oh yeah! Come on Storm, lets head outside! I know a perfect place we can go practice!"
The Pikachu partners left the house as soon as Ash had explained everything to Mimey. They were at an area that had quite a few large boulders to use as targets.
"Ok, the key to controlling your electric power is to focus on your internal energy, and channel it up into your electric sacs."
"How do I know what to look for?"
"Close your eyes and search for a light. When you find it, focus on it and try and lead it. Once you can control it, open your eyes and force it out of you.
Ash nodded, closing his eyes.
"I think I see it!"
"Good, now try and will it to move."
Ash tried to get a mental grasp on the light for a few minutes. After a while, the light twitched, before it started to move at his command.
"I, I got it!"
"Great job! you can open your eyes now. You just unlocked your electric power. Now, try and release it."
Ash nodded, before focusing really hard. His cheeks sparked after a moment. A few moments passed, before that spark turned into a small surge of electric energy, shooting forward and striking a nearby boulder, leaving a small indent.
"Congratulations! You just learned thundershock!"
"Wow, already? I thought it would take at least a couple hours to get it down!"
"So did I. You're a really fast learner. since that was so easy, let's try something a little more advanced. It's my favorite move: Thunderbolt. Essentially just a way stronger version of thundershock."
Ash nodded with determination, before they got to training once again.
Six days had passed since Ash became a Pikachu. Ash and Storm had been training every day. Ash had learned thunderbolt after numerous failed attempts. Turns out you need way more energy to form a thunderbolt than a thundershock, and as such, Ash usually came home exhausted. The whole training thing was not only helping him learn moves, He was also getting more durable, and acquiring more stamina.
Ash had also been tutoring Storm on how to speak human. He had a little trouble at first, but once he started to get it, his progress only escalated.
Storm had also become more accepting of the humans around him. He wasn't so leery when they went into town anymore, and he had gotten to know Delila and Lily a lot more.
Speaking of Lily, she had been hard at work with both brewing new potions, as well as helping Delila out around the house. She had invented several new concoctions over the week, and was very proud of her work.
Delila had taken Ash's hat and cut little holes into it for his ears to poke through, so they no longer folded down. She had also gone and made a hat for Storm too. It was a yellow and white hat that had a lightning bolt on the top of it. Storm loved it, and thanked Delila repeatedly.
Being the small community that it was, the news that Ash had become a Pokémon spread through the town like wildfire. Now there wasn't a single person who didn't know about Ash's new look. Luckily, the town was very supportive of him, and said that he would still be a trainer that would make Pallet proud.
Ash had come to completely embrace the fact that he was a Pokémon. He didn't have a problem with it now that he could still be a trainer, so he accepted that his human life was behind him, and that his life as a Pikachu had begun.
Ash and Storm were currently watching a league match on the TV. The latest challenger was really good, and had beaten both Lorelai and Bruno. He was currently squaring off against Agatha, the poison type master.
"Challenger Dave is down to his last Pokémon, but that doesn't mean he's throwing in the towel just yet!"
The announcer's exited voice blared through the TV as the two Pokémon on the battlefield, Dave's Nidorino and Agatha's Gengar charged each other, both looking to end the match with a final blow. The two's moves clashed against each other, until Gengar started to overwhelm it's opponent.
"Oh! and Gengar's shadow punch is a little too much for Nidorino! Ladies and gentlemen we have our winner! Agatha of the elite four and her wonderful team of poison types!"
Ash and Storm let out breaths they didn't know they had been holding in.
"Man, he was so close to getting to Lance..."
"Yeah, just one little push and they would have beat her. Man, Agatha's strong."
"That was a really good performance though. That's the best anyone's done in months!"
"Really? I would have thought at least someone would have beaten her recently."
"Well, there's a huge power gap between Agatha and Bruno, and an even bigger one between Agatha and Lance. He hasn't lost in years. In fact, it's been so long since there's been a championship match, that people aren't even sure there's a champion!"
"Really? What would happen if someone beat Lance then?"
"I suppose that they'd be crowned the next champion by default."
"That kind of sucks. They wouldn't have really earned it. Hopefully there's a champion when we challenge the Indigo Plateau."
Delila came in the door with a stern expression on her face.
"Boys, It's very late. Lily's already asleep. You need to be to Oak's lab early in the morning so that Ash can get his trainer's license. You don't want to sleep in."
Ash and Storm adopted sheepish expressions.
"Sorry mom."
Storm didn't really know when he started to call Delila mom, it just kind of happened. He had never known his parents, and Delila's nurturing nature and caring attitude had had an impact on him.
"Just get to bed alright? I'll see you two off in the morning."
And with that, she flicked the light off and shut the door.
"Well Storm, tomorrow's the big day. You ready?"
"Of course! We're gonna be the best team ever and find lots of strong friends! I'm so pumped!"
"Me too, but we really should get to sleep. Mom's right, we don't want to sleep in."
Ash set the alarm and snuggled into bed, Storm doing the same. The two fell asleep, exited for the day to come.
Ash and Storm are starting to develop a brotherly bond, and they, plus Lily, will be setting out tomorrow! Stay tuned for the next chapter, and I'll catch you all later!
