Chapter One – The Journey Down
"At least let me come with you."
Green is a weird specimen to Red. He has so many questions, and not enough answers. Also he demands a lot for someone who doesn't give back in return.
Red doesn't say this because deep down he knows a part of this is because he still feels eleven even now that they're much older and should be beyond this.
But they're not. And Red certainly isn't. His mind stopped up on the mountain because survival outweighed the importance of them and their rivalry, them and their… everything really.
Red shakes his head at Green, earning an irritable scoff.
"What, am I not tough enough? Is that it?"
Red shakes his head again, Pikachu watches. Red normally isn't that quiet, not that uncomfortable with words, but in the face of Green he's always fumbling over his tongue.
As proof that Green, at least, is no longer eleven, he waits for Red to find the words. "I want to be sure I'm coming back."
Green looks at him, through him. His face flushes an embarrassed pink. "We could just leave Blue here. You'll come back for her too. And your mom."
Red shakes his head, smiling a little. "I come back for all of my friends or not at all."
It's really not a comment you make with that expression, but Red is also an idiot. Green forgives him for it.
"Fine," he says. "You have three months. If you haven't mastered Kalosian and dragged us both out for the best food in Miare or found that damn dragon, I'm coming there myself and showing you how it's done."
The cocky smirk plays across both their lips before Blue makes a face and clocks them both upside the head.
Pikachu, from his perch, is pretty sure they deserve it.
Pikachu knows his human is strange.
He had stayed up on a mountain for years in the freezing cold, teaching Venasaur to endure the chill and making a portable PC transfer system. He defeated Team Rocket with a rush of fury that had made pikachu's veins throb. Because it was his fury. It was marowak's fury. It was lapras and charizard and butterfree's fury. It was all of theirs and they had run wild with it, without any hesitation at all. Every opponent in front of them was meant to be toppled, all for the goal of becoming that master who no one forgot and everyone respected.
Even though he'd been just an early capture, a rarity in a forest because every Pikachu was hunted and stolen and used, he'd been included in this goal. This desire stronger than anyone and anything had pulled them so far, had pulled his human so far.
And now they are in the welcoming land. The pokemon call it "the land of bones and flowers"
His trainer calls it "Kalos".
Both are probably the right names, he is sure, but for now it all feels dreadfully wrong to be here.
But then this was what the humans called "Terminus Cave", so that feeling was likely very natural, very natural indeed.
Red steps forward, towards the gloom. Pikachu pauses for a moment, looking towards the city they had left behind. Then he trails after his trainer, taking a running leap to land on his shoulder. Red barely pauses at the sensation, putting a hand at pikachu's bottom to steady him as he scrambles for proper purchase and turn around to watch Red's back.
It is customary, in places that butterfree isn't safe to fly in nowadays, for pikachu to look behind his trainer and let his ears focus on the front as necessary. At least unless they found one of those human carts again anyway. That got old really fast.
Something rustles in his ear and both perked up. Pikachu's tail twitches. Red scratches his bottom without a word.
Perhaps that is for the best.
Pikachu hates human transportation. It is secondary only to pokeballs, but in turn those places are the only ones he permitted his trainer to return him barring extreme chill and heat. Snowpoint is a place he did not remember aside from the ruins.
The only thing that makes human transportation worse, is of course, battling on it. The little Pikachu clings for his life to the speeding mine cart as gusts of wind come from the giant bat-dragon's wings.
Red, in his infinite curiosity of all things pokemon, wants to catch it. Pikachu just wants to survive it, the same as he has with regigigas and all the other delusional battles he's been thrown into. He has deliberately not evolved so he can, in fact, continue to dodge and even if he couldn't tank an earthquake so hot that is what his light ball is for and he'd keep it that way.
So, pikachu does the smartest thing he can do for his master: smack him on the wrist. Red grumbles complacently enough and lets him not go retrieve the ball he had thrown in the process. They could always check later if they survived this.
When, Pikachu tells himself. When. Zygarde isn't known for their destruction unless creation had already come. It is bound for balance and harmony.
And Red isn't really interested in catching Zygarde. (At least, Pikachu hopes he isn't. That is the last thing they need: champion Red with half a full-powered zygarde.) He is interested in battling it, in meeting it, in identifying with it. But that is just how Red works, really. He is smart enough to do things and dumb enough to think he is the only one who can pull them off.
As long as he doesn't tell pikachu to use thunderbolt on zygarde, they'd probably make it out of this without any fatal wounds.
Pikachu settles in the cart again, letting Red duck down beside him. Red strokes his partner's cheeks with his thumb. Pikachu lets him, bearing the itchy texture of the thumbprint for a few moments. Then he shakes him off and settles on his knee.
"We'll make camp when this ride stops," his trainer promises. Pikachu chuffs agreement, mostly because it means he can take any sort of break. It won't last long, after all.
A/N: Greetings! Another story? Yes but it's basically done, so I will continue to post it regardless. Again, it's fairly short and a little uncontrolled but trust me, it will hopefully be a fun little character study. Also shout out to my artist Midu! for being awesome!
Challenges: Gen Novel Bingo: 135 – surround, Specials Novella masterclass 7, Pokemon Big Bang.