"I am not you, we could have
I'm almost through, great success
It's about time, such a success
That you came through, at no expense,"

— "Vision Division," from First Impressions of Earth by The Strokes

One paw after the other, Vince waddled as fast as he could while carrying the orb. His lungs burned, muscles ached, but he couldn't slow down, he couldn't stop. Of all his escape attempts in the past few weeks, this was his most desperate, spurred along by a horrifying realization, a scene that played over and over again in his mind.

Nursing some bruises from the last failed attempt's beating, he'd overheard some pichu arguing about what they all called their moms. "I call her mom!" one fervently declared.

"But what if someone asks who your mom is?" another, clearly older, smugly countered, arms crossed with a smirk. The first searched desperately for a response, the circle around them growing rowdy as they waited for an answer. When no answer came, the older pichu snarkily asked, "What's your mom's name?"

The crowd erupted into a frenzy, some pichu shouting, "Moms have names?" with incredulity matched only by those that responded, "Of course moms have names!" But Vince stopped listening to the debate, the decisive question echoing in his mind. What's your mom's name? The past few weeks, the same thought had stayed in his mind, that he had to get back home to Mom and Peter. But this question made him realize a horrifying truth.

He couldn't remember his mom's name.

Gasping in air, he forced his sore legs forward, narrowly avoiding tripping on the grass. How much else had he forgotten? How long until he lost it all? How much had he forgotten and just not noticed?

His foot glanced off a stray root and he went tumbling into the ground. His chest smashed into a jagged edge of the orb, knocking the wind out of his lungs. Gasping for air, he clutched his chest, trying to hold back tears. I'm not going to cry, I won't! I'm not a pichu! He didn't have time to cry, he didn't have time to be hurt, he had to go.

"Short Circuit!" he heard the familiar shout, the same one that had ended each of his earlier escape attempts. Clutching his chest, he looked back to see Ampaw steadily stepping towards him. While Vince's breaths were ragged, Ampaw's were stable enough to be nearly inaudible; he'd both outpaced Vince and stay lively.

Vince forced himself to stand up and face Ampaw. He couldn't just give up, this couldn't be another failed attempt. "Dad," he began to beg, "I have to go. I can't-"

"Do you have any idea how dangerous all this running away is?" Ampaw shouted, closing the distance between them until they stood nose to nose. "Do you even know what a predator can do to you?"

By some miracle, Vince managed to hold eye contact, and stand (somewhat shakily) against Ampaw's anger. "I know-"

"No you don't!" Ampaw interrupted again. "If you did, you wouldn't keep doing this!" Vince let out an exasperated sigh. Another predator lecture. "We're going back right now. This is the last time you try this, understand?" He shifted back to his hind-paws to stand even taller over Vince, his expectant leer bearing down on him.

Vince felt the full force of his anger and almost crumpled beneath it. Almost. But he couldn't. He couldn't give up now. "No," he choked out, lighting a whole new fury in Ampaw's eyes. "I can't go b-" A paw ripped its way across his face, knocking him to the ground. He recovered his footing quick as he could only to find Ampaw's nose a fur's breadth away from his own.

Enough anger had accumulated in his eyes that Vince could physically feel their gaze, even when he looked away. "I guess I'll just have to show you how cruel predators can be." With another step forward, tears began to streak down Ampaw's face. "Predators don't show mercy. They don't stop."


"You know what to change but not in what way"

Vince lay immobile on the floor of their den. He couldn't remember ever waking up to so much pain. After his first attempts, he'd gotten used to the beatings as discipline, they never were too severe and any lingering damage healed up remarkably fast. But he'd never been beaten so bad he lost consciousness.

"Please eat." He ignored Ampaw, instead using his left arm (that hurt a bit less to move) to try and sketch on the floor. The "affbet," the list of "Engish" characters he'd once known so well. Writing it had become somewhat of a mainstay in his time at the colony; he did it any time he could to keep as much of his humanity alive as possible, usually choosing to practice it instead of go play with the other pichu.

If he let himself play with them, he knew it would only be a matter of time before he lost his mind. Still, sometimes he couldn't help himself, and that terrified him. No matter how much he resisted, how much he practiced his affbet and his nombs, he couldn't shake his longing to live like the other pichu. I'm not like them, I'm not a pichu, he reminded himself.

"You need to eat, it'll make you feel better," Ampaw explained, interrupting Vince trying to remember what came after the circle with a tail. He looked up with disdain at the oran berry sitting across from him. Despite much deliberation, he could never decide if he hated eating those or getting hit more.

Every failed attempt ended the same: he'd get beaten to a varying degree by whichever pikachu caught him (Ampaw, more often than not) and then those hellish berries infested his diet for the next day.

The berry rolled over his character list and into the side of his jaw. He looked up to see Ampaw's expectant gaze. "You have to eat. It helps you heal."

Vince slapped it away so he could recover the damage made to his affbet, cringing once his paw made contact. "I'll heal on my own," he claimed. Ampaw picked up the berry and went over to sit next to him.

"Drawing unown?" Vince found out the first time he tried to explain the affbet to Ampaw that the closest approximation of a word he could find was unown, and Ampaw had called it such ever since. Unfortunately, the more Vince heard that, the harder it became to remember the Engish sound. Affbet, affbet, affbet! he shouted in his head with his eyes clenched shut to make sure this memory wouldn't fade.

He opened his eyes to write the two lines joined by a curve at the bottom, but the berry blocked his view. His mouth twisted into a scowl. "I said I don't want it!" he screamed, smacking it away as hard as he could with his right paw. Its dull soreness exploded into a burning ache at the moment of impact, forcing him to cradle it and whimper.

It hurt. It really hurt. So did his other paw. And both his hind-paws. And his legs. And his arms. And his ribs. And his cheeks. He felt his throat tighten and clenched his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut. I'm not gonna cry, he told himself, I'm not a pichu. But the pain kept throbbing. He couldn't tell if it was getting worse, but it definitely wasn't getting better. Tensing up as much as he could, he tried and tried to hold back the weeping, but after the first sob shook its way out he couldn't stop the torrent that followed.

In the same moment he began to wail, Ampaw hoisted him up and cradled him, lightly squeezing and rocking him side to side. Vince let go of his paw, clutching Ampaw instead and pouring his tears into him. While burying his face in Ampaw muffled his cries, it took quite a while for them to waver in intensity. "It hurts!" he wailed repeatedly into Ampaw's chest, the meaning all but lost to the distortion.

Ampaw kept cradling him, rocking him, running paws through the weeping pichu's fur, quietly cooing various comforting words into his ears, until the flood became a stream and Vince managed to compose himself enough to look up at him. Tears streaked their way down Ampaw's face as well. "I know you don't like how it tastes," he began to explain, tone remarkably stable despite his tears, "But it's sweet and tasty on the inside, and it'll make you feel better. You just have to get past the skin." He offered the berry once again and Vince, after staring at it for a while, reluctantly reached his paws out to take it. "You could try eating the outside first to get it over with."

Vince grimaced at the fruit. "All right," he mumbled. He brought it up to his mouth and took the tiniest nibble he could manage, just enough for him to wince once the meager serving hit his tongue.

Ampaw squeezed him a bit. "It'll go a lot faster if you take bigger bites." Vince nodded at the suggestion with a frown, closed his eyes, and tore off a decent portion of the skin with his maw. It took all of his fortitude not to immediately spit it out, forcing his jaw to grind it until he could swallow. Managing to choke it down was exhausting enough, but when he opened his eyes to see more than half the skin waiting for him untouched, he seriously had to consider if he could continue. "Come on, you can do it," Ampaw encouraged, giving him a comforting squeeze.

With another deep breath in and out, Vince forced himself to tear off another piece. A few more pats, hugs, and words of encouragement helped him along until only the juicy middle remained. "Good job!" Ampaw cheered, ruffling Vince's head-fur, "Now you just have the good bit left!" Disgusted as he was by the lingering bitterness of the skin, the encouragement still made Vince smile. In his eagerness to finish, he just shoved all the rest in his mouth, much to the dismay of Ampaw. "Don't do that! You'll choke!" But he'd already inhaled it, struggling to chew.

The juice all bursted out at the first bite, a bit forcibly dribbling out of his mouth before he started swallowing it. Without the bitter skin to quell it (and having flood his maw all at once), Vince could appreciate the mix of other flavors a lot more. If he only had to eat this, he'd never hesitate.

But that bitter barrier to entry was hard to swallow.

As his body metabolized the berry, he felt his wounds heal up a bit, bruises and soreness fading, cuts mending, energy returning, and he rolled himself out of Ampaw's embrace. With light probing, he could feel most of his pains had faded away, but their echoes remained when he moved or twisted in certain ways, or if he put a lot of weight on his right forepaw. "See? All better!" Ampaw gave him a pat on the head.

Vince looked up at him, adopting the contagious smile. "I don't know about 'all,' but yeah, I feel better."

"Better enough to go play with the other pichu?" Vince's ears popped up while his eyes fell. He wanted to, he really wanted to, especially with all the extra energy the berry had given him, but he couldn't. He wanted so bad to just run around and play with the other pichu, but he had so much to lose. He'd already forgotten so much, how much playing until he was just another pichu? "Come on, it'll be fun," Ampaw ran a paw along his back, "And you don't have to go all out, there's plenty of lighter games they play that I'm sure you could manage." Vince continued to ponder, wanting badly to just let himself play even though he knew the consequences. "Well whether or not you can play, I need you to go there anyway. I've got some stuff I need to take care of." Relief and anxiety both increased at having the decision made for him. With those pichu surrounding him, he knew he wouldn't resist. "Come on, let's go." Ampaw pat him on the back and started to head out, but Vince hesitated. Once he noticed Vince wasn't coming, he turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"

Vince stared at the ground, fumbling with his paws while he tried to think of a half-truth, quickly stumbling upon a full-truth the moment he considered having to interact with other pichu. "What if the other pichu don't like me?"

"Aw, Short Circuit," Ampaw's voice adopted a soothing tone, while he went over to wrap an arm around Vince. "Why wouldn't they like you?" Vince kept fiddling with his paws in silence, eventually shrugging his shoulders when he couldn't come up with any concrete reason. Ampaw pulled him into a side-hug. "They'll like you just fine, don't worry. But you know," he twisted to face Vince, placing a paw on each shoulder, "if any of them do give you trouble, that's what you've got these for!" He lightly pinched Vince's patches, tickling a few sparks out of the pichu's cheeks.

"Dad, stop!" Vince laughed, pulling back to rub his cheeks with a smile stretching across his face.

Ampaw again wrapped an arm around Vince, pulling him into a light nuzzle. "You'll be fine, okay?" Vince's smile stayed and he nodded, returning the nuzzle before wrapping both arms around him for a hug. "Good!" Ampaw squeezed him back, and the two headed out, leaving behind the orb half and unfinished affbet.

The walk to the nursery in the middle of the colony didn't take long, and Vince could see the pichu playing together long before they arrived. A familiar dread filled his stomach while his heart picked up its pace in excitement. He always got nervous around them, worried some misstep would turn their perpetually friendly gazes against him. In no time at all, Ampaw nuzzled him goodbye and left him alone with all the other pichu.

Despite this, he tried approaching a group of them running around. One of the pichu noticed him and dashed over. A shout, "Tag!" followed by a shock and a dash away let him know why before he could ask. The influx of electricity jolted his heart-rate into a higher gear and he immediately tried to run after one of the other pichu. They all ran in opposite directions, though, and while his eyes darted between them, his left paw tried to go for one on the right, his right paw tried to run towards one on the left, and both got crossed and sent him tumbling into the ground.

Blood rushed to his cheeks, and his paws came up to cover his head. They were looking at him, he knew it. He couldn't hear them laughing, but he knew they were. He started shaking. He tripped and he fell and they were making fun of him and they probably wouldn't ever want to play with him again and they

"Are you okay?" a paw lightly prodded his shoulder. Peeping an eye open, he saw a pichu with a worried gaze extending a paw. Opening another, he saw a few others standing by, all with mixes of worry and concern. No scorn.

"I'm fine, just embarrassed," he reluctantly admitted. He took the paw and a few others helped pull him up, even brushing dirt from his fur.

"Why?" another asked, "I fall all the time and I just get back up." Vince tried to come up with a response when she interrupted him with another question. "Are you okay? Can you play? I've always wanted to play with you!"

Vince blinked while sparks bounced down his cheeks, taken aback. "You-me? Why?" he stuttered out, a mix of confused and embarrassed.

She just shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, I just never really got to," she smiled, "You're not here a lot, and you usually play with the dirt when you are." He tried to mumble out some explanation how "play with the dirt" wasn't really accurate, but couldn't manage to say anything of note before she asked, "Can you play?" again with that same excited expression.

The prospect of play finally hit him, and he managed to forget his nerves. He nodded his head and was just about to say he was fine when a pichu to his left shouted, "He's it!" and they all ran off. He gave chase without a thought, dashing after the group of pichu in front of him.

Catching the first proved easy enough, and so began the exchange of shocks, tackles, and tags. He had a bit of trouble keeping up with the rest of them, but found he could send shocks quite a bit further and used that to his advantage as much as he could. He managed to evade tags well enough, running away more than chasing, but having a blast either way. Running around without having to think, just fleeing, chasing, shocking, tackling, again and again, pichu joining and leaving as they tuckered themselves out.

He managed to last an impressive amount of time despite his infirmity, but the scampering around did eventually manage to wear him out. His right forepaw grew sore, his cheeks ran low, and his breaths went ragged. So, he stepped away from the game with a hint of a limp. He wanted to lay down, but a pair of pichu (one boy, one girl) whispering very enthusiastically with several devious giggles interspersed throughout piqued his interest.

Curiosity pulled him over and had him ask, "What's happening?" The two gasped and shushed each other, before shushing Vince, the girl motioning for him to get down. He quickly obliged, scooching in close to ask, "What is it?"

Instead of answering, the boy aggressively pointed saying, "There she is!" tapping the girl. He quickly leaned over to Vince and said, "Watch!" before the pair dashed off.

A young, female pikachu barely managing to carry an assortment of fruits, berries, and nuts walked cluelessly towards them. Once she noticed the two pichu dashing in her direction, her strained expression twisted into one of horror. Despite her loud objections, they didn't cease their pursuit, dashing right into her, knocking her over, fruit everywhere, and dashing away with what they could manage to carry.

Vince ran over to her as fast as he could manage, giving in to his limp on the last stretch. The pikachu didn't notice his approach, too busy yelling at the fruit-snatchers fleeing the scene. "You jerks! Get back here or I...I'll… tell your parents!" Her voice deflated on the last sentence as she looked down at the assortment of foods that now scattered the ground, letting out a dejected sigh.

Vince finally made it next to her and asked, "Are you okay?" with a few breathless pants peppering his words.

She looked down at him and tried her best to manage a smile. "I'm not hurt, no," she said, patting his head before bending down to gather the scattered rations. Vince started lending a helping-paw, trying to pick up and help carry whatever he could. "Oh, thank you! Here, you grab the nuts and I'll grab the fruits." He nodded at her with a smile before going back to work, grabbing the nuts like she said. Together, they managed to pick up what remained very quickly. "They must have taken a lot, how'd they even manage that?"

Not sure how to answer, he tried to change the subject. "Where are we taking these?" Looking up at her, he realized she wasn't listening at all. "Hey!" he shouted, finally getting her to face him. "Where do these go?"

"Oh yeah!" Her expression emanated embarrassment. "Shocks asked me to get them for the hatchlings, follow me," she explained before heading off deeper into the nursery area. A few hopeful pichu approached them on their way, but she turned them all away. Vince couldn't blame them for trying, and he even thought about asking for a portion himself since carrying it made him realize his hunger. Just as he'd worked up the gusto to ask, she shouted, "Shocks!" causing a pikachu to scurry over to them.

He seemed happy enough to see her, but his expression drooped as he approached. "This is all you brought?" It fell even further when he saw Vince. "And you made him carry it?" He scurried over to Vince, taking his load.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, barely audible. "I tried to bring more, but some pichu tackled me and took a lot away."

Shocks' face shifted to pity, then twisted into a scowl when he looked down at Vince. "That was very mean of you!" He loomed over Vince, launching into a tirade. "You can't take food like that! What if someone took away the food being brought to you?" Vince recoiled at the lecture, Shocks completely ignoring his attempts at interjection, preferring to shout over them.

"Wait!" She finally managed to shout in his defense, "He didn't tackle me! Some other pichu did, he just came over to help me after." Shocks froze in place, angry visage crumbling to one of embarrassed regret. His indignation transferred to the girl's face and she began to step towards him with righteous fury. "He was just being nice to me, and you yelled at him for it!" She stood threateningly over Shocks despite being visibly smaller than him.

"S-sorry, you're-" he tried to stutter out before she continued her tirade.

"Don't apologize to me!" She dropped the fruit she carried to point at Vince. "Apologize to him!"

Turning towards Vince as best he could with her practically standing on his paws, he began to emphatically beg for forgiveness. "I'm sorry, so sorry, really really really sorry," before scrambling to pick up the berries she had dropped and hurrying away.

Vince stood with his mouth agape, amazed that Shocks had responded to her tirade at all. He racked his brain, trying to find a single reason she'd be able to threaten him despite his clear advantage in size. "Sorry about that, are you okay?" she asked, interrupting his train of thought.

"I'm fine!" he quickly replied, desperate to avoid her ire.

Her eyes slipped into sadness. "Aw, you're all shook up now," she sat down next to him, slumped over with her ears drooping. "Sorry I got you caught up in this," she mumbled, pulling her tail in front of her so she could fiddle with it. "It's been a while since I evolved and I still can't do all the stuff they need me to."

Vince, both a child and socially awkward, was quite ill-equipped to offer any support at all, but had just enough awareness to know he had to say something. "No, you're fine…" he mumbled, lightly resting his paw on her shoulder. Reaching into his memory, he tried to remember what Ampaw would tell him to cheer him up for inspiration. "It's hard at first, but you get better and then it's good. You have to do the bad part, but it's to get to the good part."

His attempt must have worked well enough, because she looked up at him with a modest smile. "Thanks, you're so sweet." She grabbed his paw and pulled him into a hug, nuzzling his cheek along the way. "I'm Voltail, what's your name?"

Vince paused. Since he'd gotten to the colony, everyone he met either knew his name already or Ampaw introduced him, he'd never had to introduce himself. And he couldn't. His name was Vince, but if he tried to say that, he'd say Short Circuit instead. Everyone else called him that, he couldn't. He was Vince, he couldn't say he was Short Circuit. But he couldn't say he was Vince either.

Voltail shook him, pulling him away just enough to make eye contact. "Hello? You there?"

Realizing how long he must have remained silent, he panicked a bit, blurting out, "Short Circuit," the first word that came to mind. He'd tried to say Vince, but the synapses between his mind and his mouth made the substitution they always made. A mix of bashfulness and frustration had him extend his paw to shake hands. "N-nice to meet you," he stuttered out.

She looked down at his paw, brow furrowed and head tilted, confounded by the gesture. After her eyes glanced back and forth between his paw and his awkward smile, she asked, "What are you doing?"

Pulling his paw back to scratch the back of his head, he stuttered, "Sh-shake paws?" He let his eyes fall to the ground, more comfortable looking at the grass than Voltail.

"Shake paws?" she asked, looking at him with enough confusion to make sparks bounce down his face. While he racked his brain to think of an excuse, she leaned in with a confused, almost excited expression. "What's that? Where'd you learn it?"

"When I lived with humans," he blurted out. With the help of the truth, he'd managed to come up with a pretty quick answer that asked at least twice as many questions.

Voltail's eyes shot from complete confusion to absolute understanding. "Oh, you're that pichu! The one that disappeared! My dad told me about you!" She enthusiastically thrusted her paw forward, looking expectantly at Vince. "Now what?"

After a moment of adjusting to the fluctuating mood, Vince put his paw up against hers. "Then you squeeze," he explained, waiting for to do as he said, which she did almost immediately. "Then, you shake." He moved his paw up and down a few times, then let them rest. After a moment of her not letting go, he realized he'd forgotten to mention the last step. "Then you let go."

She let go, then looked quizzically at her paw. "What's the point of that?" she asked, moving her confused gaze to Vincent.

He stumbled over his words for a bit before finally admitting he didn't understand the question. "What?"

"Well," Voltail began, pulling her paw to her chin, "When I nuzzle someone, I get to be close to them and we get to share electricity, but with this," she splayed out her paw, "It's just weird."

Vince forced a nervous chuckle, scratching behind his ear. "Well, uh, humans are weird, you know?"

She snickered. "You're the expert!" She pat his head, then leaned in to nuzzle his cheek. Pulling back, she grabbed his shoulders and said, "Come to my burrow, I wanna give you something!"

"What is it?" Vince beamed, eyes blaring with excitement.

She tapped his nose then wagged a digit coyly in front of him. "It's a surprise," she teased, driving him even further into an insane level of elated anticipation. The moment she dropped to all fours, he did the same and dashed ahead. "Wait!" Voltail cried out, "It's this way!" Vince quickly corrected, turning around and following close on her heels, constantly urging her to hurry her agonizingly slow pace. "I'm going as fast as I can!" she protested, a sly smirk betraying her true intentions.

As hard as he pushed, pulled, and begged her, he simply could not get Voltail to go any faster. Finally, after all his belligerent begging to pick up the pace, she announced, "We're here!" before darting into the burrow to their left, Vince jumping in after her. When his eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw her standing with her paws hidden behind her back. "Close your eyes," she demanded with a lilt in her voice.

Far too excited to keep his eyelids shut, he forced his paws over his eyes, bouncing with anticipation for an agonizing eternity until Voltail finally said, "Open your eyes." He yanked his paws down, revealing a bright, juicy apple, so beautiful it seemed to emit its own glow.

Throwing his arms around it, he utilized every ounce of his self-control to look up at her and ask, "Really? All for me?"

"I'm might steal a few nibbles," she admitted waving her paw, "Go for it!" And he did, finally able to give in. The moment the juice grazed his tongue, he realized just how empty the day's events had made his stomach as he couldn't slow his ravenous pace. As promised, Voltail scooted next to him and grabbed a few bites during Vincent's infrequent breaks to chew. "There have been a whole bunch more apples lately," she explained, "Even more than usual for the cold months. A lot of chu are taking advantage of that and hoarding them while they can."

Vince nodded politely along, more invested in the apple than her words, but the mention of a surplus of apples piqued his interest enough to give half a mind to what she said. With most of the apple eaten, he nibbled contentedly on its core. "Thank you!" he muffled behind the fruit.

She smiled down at him, patting his head. "Thanks for the help today!" The two beamed at each other (Vince with half an apple-core hanging out of his mouth), and she wrapped her right arm around his neck, pulling him into a side hug.

"Voltail? You in there?" a low, gruff, familiar voice announced the presence of a certain raichu. Once he got into the burrow, he and Vince made eye contact. "Oh, hello Short Circuit," Volt greeted.

"Hrelwo," Vince garbled before frantically pulling the core out his mouth and trying again. "H-hello, Elder Volt!" He hadn't realized how important Volt was to the colony when they'd first met, but soon learned he was their only raichu and essentially ran the colony.

"Why do you little chu always call me that?" he laughed, "I'm not that old!"

"If you're not that old," countered Voltail with a snide tone, "Why's your fur gotten all faded here?" She poked a spot on his back and he rolled his eyes with a shake of his head.

"Isn't it convenient for your claim that I'm only gray where I can't see?" He deftly wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into a hug, nuzzling her cheek along the way. Turning to Vince, he asked, "How'd you chu meet?"

A flurry of sparks bounced down Vince's cheeks and his eyes drifted to the floor. "I, uh, playing and-but then after I-well," he stammered, voice getting more frantic and scared with each word, "We-or I, after when there were, sorry, I can go!" He pushed himself onto all fours and turned to the burrow's exit.

"Hold on!" Volt wrapped an arm around him, "What's got you so worked up?" Vince squirmed, looking around everywhere but at Volt.

"S-sorry, didn't mean to trouble you," he mumbled, rubbing his forepaws over one another.

"You aren't troubling us," Voltail argued, "Come on, sit down and tell us what's wrong." Volt propped him up against the wall, taking a seat a few steps away. Vince continued his silence, eyes intently examining the floor until Voltail sat down next to him, resting a paw on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"I think I know why he's on edge." His squirming stopped. With a shiver, he managed to look up at Volt. He saw a soft, somewhat sly expression, not the condemnation he expected (though he assured himself it was still there). "You know, if you want to leave the colony so badly," Vince prepared himself to get berated, "You really should get stronger first."

"Huh?" Volt completely floored Vince. He'd expected some intense scolding, discipline, maybe even a bit of a beating for misbehaving so badly and so repeatedly, but advice?

"As you are now, you could barely defend yourself against a predator," Volt continued, "You might have an impressive amount of electricity, but other than that, you're weak., you don't have much battle experience, and I bet you aren't even familiar with the few moves you do know." Not the scolding he'd expected, but still an unpleasant lecture. On one paw, of course he wasn't very strong, he wasn't supposed to be a pichu after all, but it still hurt his pride to hear. Volt went on, not giving him a chance to argue. "But you do have a lot of potential."

Not much of a compliment, Vince complained to himself. "I've fought before!" he protested, "I hit that zangoose with all my electricity and didn't shock myself once!" Volt laughed, deepening Vince's anger and adding a flare of embarrassment.

"Not shocking yourself is good," he admitted with a giggle, "But using up all your electricity in one go isn't good. Battles are about outlasting your opponent." Vince fumed, trying to think up a retort, while Volt came over to lay a paw on his shoulder. "But you still have a lot of potential. Attacking that zangoose to help your dad took guts, and your cheeks can hold more charge than a lot of pikachu's can."

Voltail pulled him into a hug, simmering away his anger. "Yeah, you're strong!" She pulled him back just enough to make eye contact. "You just need to get stronger!" Voltail's smiled beamed so intensely that Vince couldn't help but return it.

Vince felt Volt's paw rest on his shoulder again and turned to face him. Volt had also adopted a smile. "We can help you, too. The colony's full of pikachu with battle experience ready to train the youngsters. Who knows, you might do so well that you join the guard like your dad." For a moment, Vince smiled at the prospect; he'd grown to look up to Ampaw a great deal the past few weeks, so following in his paw-steps definitely had an appeal. What if he even got to do a watch with Ampaw?

You have to go home! he reminded himself, shaking the fantasy out of his head while the smile lingered. Still, Volt had a point; if Vince wanted to make it home, he'd need to be better equipped to defend himself. "That sounds cool!" he admitted with a bit more enthusiasm than he'd expected. "You'd train me?"

Volt smiled and pat Vince on the head. "I probably won't be the one training you for a little while, but there are plenty of pikachu and pichu training on the South side of the colony. Go there tomorrow, I bet you'll have a blast."

"I will!" Vince's unbridled excitement had him hop up, smile brimming from ear to ear.

"Good!" Voltail pat him on the head, hopping up next to him to share in his elation.

"I'm glad to hear that." Volt shifted to all fours, stepped towards the entrance and motioned at Vince. "Now go on home. I've gotta go get food before Voltail's mom gets here, and Ampaw's probably looking for you right about now."

"Aw, already?" Vince and Voltail complained in unison, getting a giggle from Volt.

"Yes, already," he chuckled. "Come on, it's getting late."

"Fiiine," Volt whined. Turning to Vince, she pulled him into a hug and nuzzled him. "See you again soon."

Vince returned the hug and the nuzzle. "See ya!"

"I'm not coming back, that's all there is"

The air crackled with silence, tense anticipation sparking off the ground. Vince stood opposite Sparks, a pichu just a bit older than him that also had much more battle experience. When Vince had first come to the training area a few weeks ago, Sparks had already managed to make a name for himself. It took Vince several days before the pikachu even let him take part in mock battles, forcing him to get stronger so he wouldn't get hurt.

So he did. He worked harder everyday to get better, faster, stronger, more than ever before, and so they finally let him try a mock battle. And Sparks had been eager to squash the new meat.

Weeks later, they stood facing each other, both bearing bruises. They'd traded a number of blows, shocks, scratches, and they knew that the pikachu would intervene after one more hit. The next would decide it.

Vince waited patiently, carefully watching Sparks' ear. The moment it twitched, he launched a strong blast of electricity at Sparks. Sparks flinched, stumbling back to avoid the shock, and Vince dashed forward. Before Sparks could steady himself, Vince leapt at him, forcing him to the ground. "Stop!" One of the pikachu dashed over to pull him off, but not before Vince slashed his paw across Shocks' face. "Hey, stop!" The pikachu yanked Vince back, throwing him onto the ground. "You stop when we tell you!"

The lecture went on, Vince didn't care. He'd won the fight. He beat Sparks. He was ready.


A/N: Oh hey, it's another chapter. Missed the last update because of finals, but I'll try to get back to the regular every other week schedule. Somehow. Maybe.

Also, I've officially begun rewriting the earlier chapters to fix pacing, prose, and other issues. The first chapter's been updated already, if you're interested. I'm trying to avoid changing important or plot significant details so you don't have to reread it, though, so don't feel like you have to.

And, as always, please drop me a review! I'd love to hear what you have to say, positive, negative or neutral.


Review Response:

LucidAura42: I definitely didn't mean to imply Vince has access to Short Circuit's memory. Assuming this is in reference to him knowing the names of Oran Berries and Zangoose, those were because of his experience with the games, but he doesn't really remember playing the games. He's remembering the information from them, just not how he got that information. If you were referring to something else, please let me know because that's definitely not my intent.