When he had gathered his wits enough to move, he poked the sleeping creature gently. It squirmed, shifted position, and sighed. "Kaaaaaa...."
"Ooooooookaaaaay..." Callan prodded it a little harder. It squirmed again, and it's eyes slowly opened.
"Chu?" It said, looking at Callan. Then it seemed to realise what it was looking at, and let loose with a large thundershock.
"Aaaahhhhhhhh!" Callan and Andrew both cried out as the huge electric currents hit them.
"Pikachu! Pika pikachu chu chu pipikachu!" The little Pikachu snarled, electricity coursing through it's cheeks as if preparing for another attack.
"Whoa! No!" Callan said, holding his arms up. Andrew groaned.
"That hurts a lot more than it looks." He managed to say, then looked around and realised what had just happened. "A Pikachu?"
"Uh, no, a growlithe." Callan said, a little snappy in his fear.
"What's a Pikachu doing here?"
"I do not have a clue. Hey, Pikachu, would you mind calming down a bit? We don't want to hurt you."
Pikachu looked confused for a moment, then ran outside.
"Okay, so... pokémon are real life now?"
"Ummm... Yeah." Was all Callan could spit out.
Andrew looked at his watch. "There's an episode on in a couple minutes. Why don't we see if there's anything different?"
Pikachu was racing around calling "Pikapi! Pikachu!" constantly. Callan and Andrew plonked down in front of the TV, and Callan turned it on with the remote. The familiar starting theme came up.
"So you want to be a master? (Pokémon!) Do you have the skills to be... (Number one?)"
After the intro had finished, An image of yet another of the Orange Islands came up. The Narrator made his usual opening speech, and Ash and his friends appeared, asleep on the couches in a pokémon center.
"That was a good nap, huh Pikachu?" He waited for a response, and, getting none, immeadiately started looking for his pokémon. He couldn't find it.
"Hey, Pikachu, where are you?" He called, not too loud so he wouldn't wake his friends. Behind Callan and Andrew, the Pikachu stopped racing around and came up to the television.
"Pika?" It said, confused, then said "Pikachu!" happily, and loudly.
"Pikachu, where'd you go?" Ash wondered. He gently shook Misty and Tracey awake.
"Hey, guys, Pikachu's missing!"
"What?" Misty looked around, and only then did Ash realise that Misty's Togepi was missing too.
"Misty, your Togepi's gone too!" He said, panic starting to build.
"What?" Misty practically screeched.
The Pikachu was just getting more and more confused, and was pawing the cartoon of Ash. Callan thought about how different it looked in real life, then clicked on what Pikachu wanted.
"You're Ash's Pikachu?" He asked. Pikachu swirled around, having forgotten they were there, then glumly nodded.
"This is not good."
We all turned back to the show.
"Hold on, I'll see if Marril can find them." Said Tracey, throwing a pokéball. It landed, split open... Empty!
"What?" Tracy was shocked. He threw out the rest of his balls, but all were empty.
"My pokémon are gone!" He cried in shock. "Marril... Venonat... Scyther..."
Ash threw all his balls too. None contained any pokémon. Misty did the same.
Ash ran up to the counter of the center and hit the bell. "Nurse Joy!"
"Yes?" She came in with a yawn.
"All of our pokémon have vanished!"
"What? I'll check the center." She raced off, and was back in a few seconds. "They're all gone!"
"I'll bet Team Rocket has something to do with this." Misty said angrily, tears welling in her eyes. "My poor Togepi..."
"I don't know," Tracey said thoughtfully. "Jesse and James don't seem organised enough to pull of a stunt like this without anyone noticing."
"Well, let's go anyway."
The scene dissolved into an ad break.
"Somehow I think the creators of pokémon didn't come up with that script."
"Pika... chu..." The Pikachu was on the verge of tears. "Pika..."
"Hey, don't worry." Callan scooped the little pokémon up and patted it on the head. He searched for some comforting words, but found none.
"Hey, let's watch." Andrew pointed, the show coming back on.
"Ring-ring-ring, ring-ring-ring, phone call, phone call. Ring-ring-ri..." There was a series of connection/static noises, before it came up with a picture of Professor Oak. He looked half-dead, woefully depressed instead of his usual cheery self.
"Oh, Ash." He said. "Has it happened to you too?"
"If you're talking about missing pokémon, yes."
"I just don't understand! How can every single pokémon just vanish into thin air? Half the trainers who started here have called."
"It's happened here too. All the trainers are complaining, the pokémon center has been wiped clean, and Pikachu's gone!" Ash started to cry, then his expression went furious. "I'm going to go find Jesse and James."
He hung up the phone and walked out, closely followed by Misty and Tracey. The scene changed.
"There they are!" Ash cried. "Get 'em!"
"Wait!" Jesse cried, swinging around. Both she and James looked quite the worse for wear, uniforms torn and scrapped, their eyes red. It was obvious they'd been crying. Shock horror, even their hair was a mess. Ash quickly noted that Meowth was nowhere in sight.
"Your pokémon are gone too, aren't they?" Misty asked softly. Jesse nodded miserably.
"We've been searching for Meowth for hours." James said, sniffing lightly. "All our other pokémon have disappeared too."
"What are we going to do now, guys?" Tracey asked. "It's not Team Rocket..."
"Not these two anyway."
"Hey, that's right!" James suddenly brightened. "It might have been some of the others!"
"They must be pretty good to take out every pokémon. They're missing from everywhere."
"I think," Jesse said determinedally, wiping her eyes, "That it's time we paid the boss a little visit."
The scene changed again. All three of them were staring anxiously at the television, the suspense killing them.
"WHAT? What do you mean, our pokémon are gone?"
The unlucky operative that had 'volunteered' to inform the boss of this misfortune flinched until his head was lower than his waist. "They've just disappeared, like they were never there."
"Oooooohhh..." Giovanni growled.
"Sir!" Another operative walked into the doorway and saluted. "There's a group at the door to see you."
"Who?"
"Two of them are wearing the white uniform, the others aren't. They all look pretty angry."
Giovanni swung round in his chair, pressing a button. A video image of the group outside appeared. Giovanni growled louder.
"Jesse and James!" He half-shouted to himself. "What are those bumbling idiots doing here? Oh, let them in."
"And the others with them?"
"Hmmm... Maybe they've done something right for a change. Bring them all in."
The doors opened, and the five were led through corridors filled with evil-looking black-uniformed men and women. Misty was having second thoughts about coming here, but Tracey and Ash pushed forward, determined looks on their faces, ignoring the agents. Jesse and James were halfway between deadly determination and being scared to death. Eventually they came to a wide hall, and the two agents leading them bowed and left.
"Boss?" Jesse and James asked together. A light came on, only partly illuminating his face. Shadowed as always...
"Are you the one who caused all the pokémon disappearances?" Tracey called up to the half-hidden face.
"No, I am not." Giovanni's voice boomed. It was not technologically enhanced, as it usually was, but just wholesomely evil.
"But, if you didn't, then..."
"All my pokémon have been stolen also. Every one in this building, belonging to every agent. Has this happened elsewhere too?" His voice dripped with curiousity.
"They say every single pokémon has disappeared, sir." Jesse answered, gulping. "Maybe..."
"Pokémon have left this world? Ha!" Giovanni snarled. "Impossible."
"Well, it's the best we can come up with..." Misty sighed.
Back outside of the TV, Callan and Andrew's suspicions were confirmed. Pokémon had impossibly vanished from their universe, and appeared in the real world.
"I don't know whether to be shocked or thrilled." Callan murmured, staring at the television almost blankly.
"Ditto."
"Pikachu!" Pikachu wiped a tear from it's eye, then ran straight out of the house. Callan and Andrew stayed sitting there, lost in thought, before leaping up on some unheard signal and running to the door. They looked outside.
It was complete chaos.
Pokémon had infested the entire town. A few stray Spearow flew through the air, confused. A dodrio raced down the street, passed by a Rapidash leading a pack of Ponyta. One or two houses were burning, several more on the verge of collapse. Diglett popped up here and there from under ground. A Magnamite swarm floated past, heading for the local power plant.
The pokémon were here to stay, and they were letting everyone know that. Good and loud.
"I had no idea pokémon were so... destructive..." Andrew said, softly.
"No kidding."
Andrew raced back inside, coming back in about half a minute, game boy in hand. The intro for pokémon rolled up... without pokémon. The image of a trainer simply stood there, while the pokémon that should have been flashing by... didn't.
"Bad sign." Andrew said, as he moved the little cursor to 'continue'. A few minute's work showed the same result as the show - everyone complained about having lost their pokémon. Not one could be found in the grasslands.
"It's no use." Andrew whispered. "They're here. And I don't think they're very happy about it."