Chapter 2: Pika's Lesson
A hand gently nudged me. I rolled over sluggishly and tried to sit up. The warm hand steadied me and another joined it and scooped me up. I must of rolled onto the floor because I was a little cold and I had been lying on something hard. I yawned and opened my eyes. Matt had woken me.
"Good morning, Pika," he smiled, "How did you sleep?"
"Horribly," I mumbled, stretching my muscles, "What's going on?"
"I'm sorry... Kim said I should get you up early. The Amber City Pokémon Center opens at 7:00am today. We need to get you registered before Scrub shows up again." he explained as he carried me into the kitchen. He set me on the counter as I watched Kim at the stove.
A wonderful scent reached my nose, "Yum! That breakfast smells delicious," I said, scurrying over to my little plate.
"Almost done!" she announced, as Hunter also entered the kitchen, still in his PJs. His hair was mussed up like he had been rolling around on the floor too.
"I can't believe all of you slept here," I commented.
"Well, it is Saturday," Matt said, "And our parents really didn't mind. Mine just said, 'Well son, you spend most of your time over there anyway - maybe we should build a room for you there!'" he laughed.
In that moment, I suddenly realized I hadn't come any closer to chosing who I wanted to be my trainer than I was last night. Now, the three candidates were standing around me, making me a bit uneasy.
I guess I really hadn't thought about it yet. Now is a better time than never, I told myself.
First up was Kim, the founder of PikaPals, and me! If it weren't for her, Ivy - Hunter's prized Ivysaur- might have hurt me badly. Hunter... now that I thought about him, maybe he wasn't the right trainer for me... I mean, it's not that he's not nice - well, most of the time he is; but sometimes I couldn't stand his practical jokes. He's a lazy trainer too, but well... there was Ivy. He and Ivy are inseparable. I would feel like second banana with Ivy around.
Back to Kim. I continued to watch her work steadily at getting breakfast done. It seemed to be all she did: work! She was usually either looking through records, watching the phones and helping the front desk team, or feeding abandoned pokémon. Kim is the backbone of PikaPals, which is a good thing, because she is a great leader and really cares about people and their pokémon. But perhaps, I thought, would she be too busy to spend time with me?
Finally, I considered Matt. I focused hard, trying to remember what Matt had told me about himself the first time were "officially introduced". I remembered him saying that he didn't have any pokémon - it wasn't that he didn't want one - he wanted one ever since he learned about them.
Infact, that was the reason he had joined PikaPals, to find a pokémon partner for himself. He had tried to get one when he got his license, but there had been an extreme shortage of trainer pokémon to his center - they didn't have any left. All they could do for him was give him some bait and a ball and hope that he could catch one.
I then tried to remember the first time we met. He was the first one to discover me, and the one to later give me my name. Maybe I owed it to him... but I didn't want to be his trainer out of pity or duty...
Grr... Even after my comtemplating, I still wasn't any closer to choosing a trainer. How could I choose? I liked them all. If it wasn't for that stupid Scrub finding me, I never would have had to choose.
My concentration was broken as Kim poured a cup of Pikachu-Chow on my plate. She then served the boys and herself and we began to eat. I sensed that someone was going to ask me about my decision - or maybe it was just paranoia. I brushed it off and ate my delicious breakfast.
"Hey Kim," Hunter asked between bites of scrambled eggs and hashbrowns, which he had messily mixed together on his plate, "Do we really need 3 of us to go to the center? I doubt Scrub gets up this early on a Saturday... that anyone does besides you and Matt. "
"Can't miss my Saturday morning cartoons, Hunter," he smiled, "And you know Kim has to take care of the pokémon who are living here. They can't go a weekend without food, you know."
"I know, but if Scrub didn't make his move last night... Well, I don't know! Couldn't it have waited til after lunch today?" he sighed, continuing to eat away.
"Well, you don't have to go if you don't want to," Kim said, "Infact, you do have a point, Hunter."
He sat up straight, "I do?"
"Yeah, we don't need a police escort to take Pika over, and I do have to feed the other pokémon this morning. I don't know how long getting Pika registered will take."
"Well, I'm ready to go as soon as were done with breakfast," Matt suggested, "I could take Pika, and you guys can stay here."
Hunter yawned, "Sounds fine with me," he had finished his breakfast and set his dishes in the sink.
"How about it Pika?" Kim asked me, "Is that alright with you?"
Their heads turned to me, "Yeah, sure..." I answered half-heartedly.
Kim's sports watched beeped twice, "Oh! It's 7:00. You guys better get going," she told Matt and me, as Hunter sleepily left, "And watch yourselves, I think Scrub is still out there - though like Hunter said, it is pretty early."
"Don't worry," Matt replied, gulping down the last bit of his orange juice and putting his plates in the sink, "We will," he looked at me again, "You ready Pika?"
I looked down at my half-eaten breakfast, I didn't really feel like eating anymore. My stomach was already filled with too many butterflies, "Yes, let's go," I hopped off the counter and onto the floor.
"Okay, see you guys later!" Kim waved as we left the front porch and headed towards the gate.
"Bye!" we called as Matt opened the gate, and for the first time since I arrived at PikaPals, I left it.
"Which way, Matt?" I asked, searching in every direction for something that even closely resembled a Pokémon Center.
"Just follow me, Pika. I know the way," he started walked and I followed close by, "The Amber City Pokémon Center is only a few blocks away, it's right next to the Amber City Viridian City Friendship Park.
Suddenly my memory triggered a picture of me sleeping in a tree at that same park. I had come so far since then, it felt weird to be walking past it again. Soon enough we had walked past it. We stopped a moment outside the gate.
Matt and I continued to talk about nothing in particular. He knew a lot about pokémon - more than I expected him to. At one point though, he asked me an interesting question, "By the way Pika, do you know any attacks? We never did ask you."
"Uh.. I guess I don't know any."
"Really? They never taught you any in the lab? Oops! I'm sorry Pika, I didn't mean to bring it up," he apologized quickly, smacking his forehead a few times.
"No, that's all right..." I answered, "It doesn't scare me anymore to talk about it."
"Well, want to learn some? I could help!" he asked, stopping and stooping down to hear my answer, "What do you say? We've got plenty of time!"
Matt was going to teach me? I didn't really no what to say other than, "Sure!"
"Okay, first you should learn Tackle. It's a good one to start with."
"What's that?"
"Well, basically you just ram into something..."
"Hmmm...Like..THIS!" I 'tackled' Matt and he toppled over onto the ground, "How's that?" I asked.
He started laughing from the moment I hit him, "That's awesome!" He sat up and set me down, "Now let's try something a bit harder... like... Thundershock!"
"How do I do that?"
"Um.. You... uh... You can make electricity right?"
"I am a pikachu," I answered jokingly.
"Yes, I know! Just gather up some electricity and let it out all at once."
I remembered when I first made a thundershock in Giovanni's office, and I tried to concentrate on how I did it. Then I did it out of instinct. Now I was doing it on command. I focused, tensed my cheeks and electricity began to build up.
"That's it!" Matt cried, scooting back a little, "Keep going!"
I could feel the energy caught in my cheeks. It filled until I couldn't hold it back and I closed my eyes and let it all out. BZZZZAP! My thundershock hit a branch hanging over the gate to the park. It fell beside me onto the sidewalk.
"WOW!" Matt shouted, "Alright, Pika!"
A sense of pride flowed through me, "Thanks!"
"You're great! Whoever gets you for a pokémon is really lucky!" This must have made him think, because he paused and then asked, "So... who are you picking for your trainer?"
No! That was the one question I had hoped to dodge until the last possible moment, "Well, I was thinking about-"
To my relief, I was cut off by a car racing loudly up the street. An black out-of repair car, in need of treatment for it's smoking exhaust and rumbling muffler, screeched to a halt right beside us. We backed up and tried to see what kind of crazy guy was driving it.
The door swung open and fear sliced into me. Professor Scurb was headed towards us! "Alright kid, Hand over the pikachu," he reached in his pocket to pull something out as he edged toward us, "Let's make this short and easy."
"No way," Matt stood tall, though I sensed that he was still nervous, "I've told you already... he belongs to us."
"I was afraid you would stick to that..." Scrub frowned, "That's why I brought along my 'proof'..." he turned back to the car and waved. Two figures emerged from the backseat of the car - two Team Rocket members in their uniforms!
"Pika, let's get out of here," he whispered down to me.
"Where do we go?" I shook, frozen with terror.
"Into the park, hurry!" he turned and scooped me up and sped into the park.
"After them!" Scrub called as they started to chase us, "Call out your pokémon!"
"Tangles, Attack!" one of them called, throwing a pokéball towards us. It hit a tree and a tangela popped out.
Matt turned and we saw the other Team Rocket member closing in, "Dugtrio, Go!" she cried, throwing the ball straight into the ground. It dug in and disappeared, "Use Earthquake!"
Suddenly the ground rumbled and broke, causing Matt to fall forward onto the ground. I hopped off and turned to face the other trainer as the Tangela closed in.
"Take this!" I cried, thundershocking the Dugtrio. It showed absolutely no sign of a scratch. It's trainer laughed at my attempt.
"Don't Pika! He's immune to you!" Matt called, trying to get up.
"Bind them Tangles!" the second Team Rocket member ordered. The Tangela quickly leaped into the air and shot out tons of it's blue tentacles.
Three of them snatched me and I couldn't move, "Help!"
Matt had been attacked as well, but it only had him by the feet, so he pried me out of it's grasp, "Pika, run for it!"
"It's not working, use your Sleep Powder!" he called to the Tangela.
"TANG-ELA!" it cried, releasing a thick pink cloud of dust as Matt literally threw me out of it's range.
"Run! I'll hold them off!" he cried as it settled around him, "Go back to... Pika...Pals..." his head dropped to the ground.
I couldn't stand there, so I had to run. I hated to leave Matt, but he was right. I had to get out of there. My instincts kicked in as I leaped into a nearby tree.
"You idiots!" I heard Scrub yell, "You let him escape!"
His voice made my spine tingle all the way to the tip of my tail as I leaped to the branch of another tree. My heart beat faster, as I continued to make my way to the edge of the park. It seemed like hours had passed when I reached the brick wall that surrounded the park. I leaped onto the top and dove into bushes on the other side.
I roughly landed on some sharp sticks within the bushes and realized I had some bruises forming. My pulse was still rapid and I couldn't get myself to calm down. I peered out of the bush and saw the black car zoom by, leaving a gas trail behind it. My body heaved a huge sigh and I crawled out of the bushes.
I realized I had to get back to PikaPals. Matt was probably headed towards the Pokémon Center, I told myself as I dashed at full speed back to PikaPals, with any luck, I thought, he'll get back a little bit after I do.
End of Chapter 2
A hand gently nudged me. I rolled over sluggishly and tried to sit up. The warm hand steadied me and another joined it and scooped me up. I must of rolled onto the floor because I was a little cold and I had been lying on something hard. I yawned and opened my eyes. Matt had woken me.
"Good morning, Pika," he smiled, "How did you sleep?"
"Horribly," I mumbled, stretching my muscles, "What's going on?"
"I'm sorry... Kim said I should get you up early. The Amber City Pokémon Center opens at 7:00am today. We need to get you registered before Scrub shows up again." he explained as he carried me into the kitchen. He set me on the counter as I watched Kim at the stove.
A wonderful scent reached my nose, "Yum! That breakfast smells delicious," I said, scurrying over to my little plate.
"Almost done!" she announced, as Hunter also entered the kitchen, still in his PJs. His hair was mussed up like he had been rolling around on the floor too.
"I can't believe all of you slept here," I commented.
"Well, it is Saturday," Matt said, "And our parents really didn't mind. Mine just said, 'Well son, you spend most of your time over there anyway - maybe we should build a room for you there!'" he laughed.
In that moment, I suddenly realized I hadn't come any closer to chosing who I wanted to be my trainer than I was last night. Now, the three candidates were standing around me, making me a bit uneasy.
I guess I really hadn't thought about it yet. Now is a better time than never, I told myself.
First up was Kim, the founder of PikaPals, and me! If it weren't for her, Ivy - Hunter's prized Ivysaur- might have hurt me badly. Hunter... now that I thought about him, maybe he wasn't the right trainer for me... I mean, it's not that he's not nice - well, most of the time he is; but sometimes I couldn't stand his practical jokes. He's a lazy trainer too, but well... there was Ivy. He and Ivy are inseparable. I would feel like second banana with Ivy around.
Back to Kim. I continued to watch her work steadily at getting breakfast done. It seemed to be all she did: work! She was usually either looking through records, watching the phones and helping the front desk team, or feeding abandoned pokémon. Kim is the backbone of PikaPals, which is a good thing, because she is a great leader and really cares about people and their pokémon. But perhaps, I thought, would she be too busy to spend time with me?
Finally, I considered Matt. I focused hard, trying to remember what Matt had told me about himself the first time were "officially introduced". I remembered him saying that he didn't have any pokémon - it wasn't that he didn't want one - he wanted one ever since he learned about them.
Infact, that was the reason he had joined PikaPals, to find a pokémon partner for himself. He had tried to get one when he got his license, but there had been an extreme shortage of trainer pokémon to his center - they didn't have any left. All they could do for him was give him some bait and a ball and hope that he could catch one.
I then tried to remember the first time we met. He was the first one to discover me, and the one to later give me my name. Maybe I owed it to him... but I didn't want to be his trainer out of pity or duty...
Grr... Even after my comtemplating, I still wasn't any closer to choosing a trainer. How could I choose? I liked them all. If it wasn't for that stupid Scrub finding me, I never would have had to choose.
My concentration was broken as Kim poured a cup of Pikachu-Chow on my plate. She then served the boys and herself and we began to eat. I sensed that someone was going to ask me about my decision - or maybe it was just paranoia. I brushed it off and ate my delicious breakfast.
"Hey Kim," Hunter asked between bites of scrambled eggs and hashbrowns, which he had messily mixed together on his plate, "Do we really need 3 of us to go to the center? I doubt Scrub gets up this early on a Saturday... that anyone does besides you and Matt. "
"Can't miss my Saturday morning cartoons, Hunter," he smiled, "And you know Kim has to take care of the pokémon who are living here. They can't go a weekend without food, you know."
"I know, but if Scrub didn't make his move last night... Well, I don't know! Couldn't it have waited til after lunch today?" he sighed, continuing to eat away.
"Well, you don't have to go if you don't want to," Kim said, "Infact, you do have a point, Hunter."
He sat up straight, "I do?"
"Yeah, we don't need a police escort to take Pika over, and I do have to feed the other pokémon this morning. I don't know how long getting Pika registered will take."
"Well, I'm ready to go as soon as were done with breakfast," Matt suggested, "I could take Pika, and you guys can stay here."
Hunter yawned, "Sounds fine with me," he had finished his breakfast and set his dishes in the sink.
"How about it Pika?" Kim asked me, "Is that alright with you?"
Their heads turned to me, "Yeah, sure..." I answered half-heartedly.
Kim's sports watched beeped twice, "Oh! It's 7:00. You guys better get going," she told Matt and me, as Hunter sleepily left, "And watch yourselves, I think Scrub is still out there - though like Hunter said, it is pretty early."
"Don't worry," Matt replied, gulping down the last bit of his orange juice and putting his plates in the sink, "We will," he looked at me again, "You ready Pika?"
I looked down at my half-eaten breakfast, I didn't really feel like eating anymore. My stomach was already filled with too many butterflies, "Yes, let's go," I hopped off the counter and onto the floor.
"Okay, see you guys later!" Kim waved as we left the front porch and headed towards the gate.
"Bye!" we called as Matt opened the gate, and for the first time since I arrived at PikaPals, I left it.
"Which way, Matt?" I asked, searching in every direction for something that even closely resembled a Pokémon Center.
"Just follow me, Pika. I know the way," he started walked and I followed close by, "The Amber City Pokémon Center is only a few blocks away, it's right next to the Amber City Viridian City Friendship Park.
Suddenly my memory triggered a picture of me sleeping in a tree at that same park. I had come so far since then, it felt weird to be walking past it again. Soon enough we had walked past it. We stopped a moment outside the gate.
Matt and I continued to talk about nothing in particular. He knew a lot about pokémon - more than I expected him to. At one point though, he asked me an interesting question, "By the way Pika, do you know any attacks? We never did ask you."
"Uh.. I guess I don't know any."
"Really? They never taught you any in the lab? Oops! I'm sorry Pika, I didn't mean to bring it up," he apologized quickly, smacking his forehead a few times.
"No, that's all right..." I answered, "It doesn't scare me anymore to talk about it."
"Well, want to learn some? I could help!" he asked, stopping and stooping down to hear my answer, "What do you say? We've got plenty of time!"
Matt was going to teach me? I didn't really no what to say other than, "Sure!"
"Okay, first you should learn Tackle. It's a good one to start with."
"What's that?"
"Well, basically you just ram into something..."
"Hmmm...Like..THIS!" I 'tackled' Matt and he toppled over onto the ground, "How's that?" I asked.
He started laughing from the moment I hit him, "That's awesome!" He sat up and set me down, "Now let's try something a bit harder... like... Thundershock!"
"How do I do that?"
"Um.. You... uh... You can make electricity right?"
"I am a pikachu," I answered jokingly.
"Yes, I know! Just gather up some electricity and let it out all at once."
I remembered when I first made a thundershock in Giovanni's office, and I tried to concentrate on how I did it. Then I did it out of instinct. Now I was doing it on command. I focused, tensed my cheeks and electricity began to build up.
"That's it!" Matt cried, scooting back a little, "Keep going!"
I could feel the energy caught in my cheeks. It filled until I couldn't hold it back and I closed my eyes and let it all out. BZZZZAP! My thundershock hit a branch hanging over the gate to the park. It fell beside me onto the sidewalk.
"WOW!" Matt shouted, "Alright, Pika!"
A sense of pride flowed through me, "Thanks!"
"You're great! Whoever gets you for a pokémon is really lucky!" This must have made him think, because he paused and then asked, "So... who are you picking for your trainer?"
No! That was the one question I had hoped to dodge until the last possible moment, "Well, I was thinking about-"
To my relief, I was cut off by a car racing loudly up the street. An black out-of repair car, in need of treatment for it's smoking exhaust and rumbling muffler, screeched to a halt right beside us. We backed up and tried to see what kind of crazy guy was driving it.
The door swung open and fear sliced into me. Professor Scurb was headed towards us! "Alright kid, Hand over the pikachu," he reached in his pocket to pull something out as he edged toward us, "Let's make this short and easy."
"No way," Matt stood tall, though I sensed that he was still nervous, "I've told you already... he belongs to us."
"I was afraid you would stick to that..." Scrub frowned, "That's why I brought along my 'proof'..." he turned back to the car and waved. Two figures emerged from the backseat of the car - two Team Rocket members in their uniforms!
"Pika, let's get out of here," he whispered down to me.
"Where do we go?" I shook, frozen with terror.
"Into the park, hurry!" he turned and scooped me up and sped into the park.
"After them!" Scrub called as they started to chase us, "Call out your pokémon!"
"Tangles, Attack!" one of them called, throwing a pokéball towards us. It hit a tree and a tangela popped out.
Matt turned and we saw the other Team Rocket member closing in, "Dugtrio, Go!" she cried, throwing the ball straight into the ground. It dug in and disappeared, "Use Earthquake!"
Suddenly the ground rumbled and broke, causing Matt to fall forward onto the ground. I hopped off and turned to face the other trainer as the Tangela closed in.
"Take this!" I cried, thundershocking the Dugtrio. It showed absolutely no sign of a scratch. It's trainer laughed at my attempt.
"Don't Pika! He's immune to you!" Matt called, trying to get up.
"Bind them Tangles!" the second Team Rocket member ordered. The Tangela quickly leaped into the air and shot out tons of it's blue tentacles.
Three of them snatched me and I couldn't move, "Help!"
Matt had been attacked as well, but it only had him by the feet, so he pried me out of it's grasp, "Pika, run for it!"
"It's not working, use your Sleep Powder!" he called to the Tangela.
"TANG-ELA!" it cried, releasing a thick pink cloud of dust as Matt literally threw me out of it's range.
"Run! I'll hold them off!" he cried as it settled around him, "Go back to... Pika...Pals..." his head dropped to the ground.
I couldn't stand there, so I had to run. I hated to leave Matt, but he was right. I had to get out of there. My instincts kicked in as I leaped into a nearby tree.
"You idiots!" I heard Scrub yell, "You let him escape!"
His voice made my spine tingle all the way to the tip of my tail as I leaped to the branch of another tree. My heart beat faster, as I continued to make my way to the edge of the park. It seemed like hours had passed when I reached the brick wall that surrounded the park. I leaped onto the top and dove into bushes on the other side.
I roughly landed on some sharp sticks within the bushes and realized I had some bruises forming. My pulse was still rapid and I couldn't get myself to calm down. I peered out of the bush and saw the black car zoom by, leaving a gas trail behind it. My body heaved a huge sigh and I crawled out of the bushes.
I realized I had to get back to PikaPals. Matt was probably headed towards the Pokémon Center, I told myself as I dashed at full speed back to PikaPals, with any luck, I thought, he'll get back a little bit after I do.
End of Chapter 2
