Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu are battling a trainer named Shou with a Raichu. Pikachu seems to have the upper hand when suddenly, the Raichu pins him to a rock with his tail! "Now Raichu," Shou commands. "Finish him with a Hyper Beam!"
"Rai!" the Raichu obliges as he takes a deep breath and shoots a massive beam of energy at Pikachu. "PIKAAAAAAA!" Pikachu cries as he flies into the air and lands heavily on the ground. As he opens one eye, he sees a very worried Ash traipse over and pick him up.
"Huh," Shou scoffs. "Figures. You'll never get anywhere until you evolve that Pikachu." Ash shoots a disapproving glare at him. "You're wrong, Pokemon don't need to evolve to be strong." All of a sudden, Pikachu collapses in Ash's arms! "PIKACHU!" the young boy cries.
"CHAAAAAAAAAA!" The little electric mouse cries outs in terror as he suddenly wakes up in a grassy field, wide eyed and panting; as he begins to take in his surroundings, a tiny tad of relief begins to wash over him. Th-thank goodness, he thinks. I-I'm still alive!
Startled awake by Pikachu's cries, a worried Ash quickly scoops him up and hugs him close. "Pikachu, what's wrong? What's wrong, buddy?" At this moment, Ash's two friends Dawn and Brock, the former of whom's Piplup running close beside her, come running up. "Ash, what's wrong?" Brock inquires. "We just heard Pikachu scream!" Dawn adds. "I-I think he had a nightmare." the very worried Ash stammers, trying valiantly to comfort the trembling little ball of fur in his arms.
"Pi pikapi pi pikachu!" Pikachu exclaims as tears begin streaming down his cheeks. "Pi pikachu pi pikachupi pi pikachu; pi pikachu pika pikachupi pi chupi, pi pi...pi...pikachu pika!"(Oh Ash, it was terrible! We were fighting a super strong Raichu, stronger than any other Raichu we'd ever seen and I...I...almost died!)
Pikachu, out of fairness, had nothing against Raichus at all, and, in fact, believed in treating them as equals, more so as he and Ash had met many friendly, polite ones on their many journeys, from Katrina's Raichu back in Kanto to Kay's Raichu back in the Orange Islands, to Mary's mother's Raichu back in Johto to, even more recently Abigail's mother's Raichu*; this dream rather seemed to signify a deeper problem which Ash immediately senses. "Pikachu, if I may ask, please, has something been bothering you?"
"We'll be happy to help." Dawn adds kindly.
"Pip!" agrees Piplup.
Taking a small breath, Pikachu turns to Ash with concern in his brown eyes. "Pi pika pikachupi pi pika pikach pi pika pikachu pi pikachu pi pikachu pi pika pikachu chupi pika pikachupi pika pi pikachu chupi pi pikachu pi pika."(Well, we've met with so many powerful Pokemon recently that I began to wonder if I made the right decision by choosing not to evolve and worry that someday you and your friends may be in danger and I won't be able to protect you.) Pikachu's friends had always been the most precious things in his life and their safety was what mattered most to him.
Ash gently places Pikachu on his knee, "Pikachu buddy, you never need to worry. You've proven many times that you don't need to evolve to be strong and have won many tough battles against many Pokemon, even other Raichus. When you're with us, we know we'll always be safe; you're perfect as you are and never need to change."
"Often it can be beneficial for a Pokemon not to evolve, especially not right away," Brock helpfully adds. "Unevolved Pokemon can learn attacks and level up faster; there are also some items only certain Pokemon can use."
"There also are certain items only a Pikachu can use and attacks only a Pikachu can learn." Dawn adds.
"Pip!" Piplup adds cheerily.
A small smile graces Pikachu's lips, feeling much happier, but still a tad bit doubtful. "P-pika? P-pika pi pikachu pi pika pikachu pi?"(R-really? Even if we're in the middle of a really tough battle?) A small shiver runs down Pikachu's spine, the memory of the dangerous battle from his dream still fresh in his mind. Ash gently picks the little electric mouse back up and softly pets his back. "Absolutely buddy!"
"We've met many strong Pokemon over time but none strong enough to kill, or even almost kill another Pokemon." Brock adds reassuringly.**
"And as long as we have each other, there's nothing we can't do." Dawn adds.
"Pip, Piplup!" Piplup adds cheerily.
A joyful smile spreads across the little electric mouse's face as he happily spreads his little yellow paws wide and gives Ash a gentle hug. "Pi pika pika pi! Pika pi pikapi pi chupi pi pika chu!"(Oh, thank you all very much! You're the best friends a Pokemon ever had.) The three humans and the small blue penguin beam as they gently give Pikachu a big group hug. "As will you always be our best friend."
"Pi pikachupi pi chupi pika pi pikachu pi pika."(I appreciate all of your kindness and patience with me very much.) Pikachu replies, silently feeling a little bit embarrassed by, what he now felt were irrational fears. Ash gently pets Pikachu's head. "You never need worry, buddy, everyone has concerns, but our friends will always be here to help and support us."
"Indeed." "Pip!" the other reply.
Feeling more contented than he had in what seemed a very long time, the little electric mouse softly smiles. "Pi pika pi chupi. Pi pikachu pika pika pi pika pikachu pikachu chupi pika."(You're all very gracious. I appreciate your kindness very much and wish to thank you all once more.) The four smile kindly. "You're very much welcome, dear friend."
"There'll be nothing but sweet dreams for all of us from now on." Dawn adds blissfully.
"Pip, piplup." Piplup happily adds.
The five then return to their previous places in the soft grass, gently lie back down and drift off to sleep. Ash gently hugs Pikachu close, snuggling him softly like a teddy bear and Dawn does the same with Piplup. Smiling contentedly, Pikachu knew that his dear friends would always be here for him, as would he always be here for them.
THE END
*Mention must also be made of Volkner and Tierno's respective Raichus whom they would meet later. On a related note I wish to give the writers of the series kudos for portraying Raichus in a primarily positive light.
**A true testament to how illogical the original episode's writing was. Every universe can and should have its limits.
Editor's note: I hope this doesn't seem too similar to my previous Pokemon oneshot, but I truly felt that this episode also needed a rewrite due to how illogical and needlessly disturbing the plot was.
The plot as a whole made no sense partially due to the Raichu being powerful enough to do life threatening damage and partially due to Pikachu getting hurt that badly; he's been able to stand up to so many powerful Pokemon and dangerous situations without severe injury in the past that a Raichu putting his life in jeopardy seemed extremely inconceivable, and felt primarily like a means of injecting pointless drama/tension into the episode. Even if the writers were attempting to show that Pikachu isn't perfect, this was not the best way.
Making the overpowered Raichu a "Bad dream boogie man" of sorts, born from Pikachu's fear of failure and inadequacy seemed to make more sense as a whole and it ultimately made more sense for this episode never to have happened.
I hope everyone enjoys this story; I shall openly welcome readers' advice. :)