Angels Fall First.
Chapter 4: Whiplash
It was kind of cute, she'd give him that.
Kira was currently perched rigidly in a chair in Professor Redwood's lab. She was sitting as far away from the desk as was possible without being too noticeable. Upon said desk sat her Pichu.
She and Bleak had come down to visit their newly captured team mate to see what the Professor had learned about him. Unfortunately, the little creature had been happy to recognise the ones who had captured him (and probably saved him from the untimely death he'd heard the humans talking about) and his cheeks sparked brightly to show that.
Which terrified Kira.
Bleak threw her a look which clearly said, 'You're gonna have to get over this irrational fear of yours.' But he didn't understand what it stemmed from.
Back when she'd been with Team Rocket, punishment for anything would be varying lengths of 'playtime' with the group leader's Electabuzz. He'd usually paralyze you, then kick the crap out of you whilst slowly electrocuting you to death.
It was usually enough to keep her from misbehaving, and that was saying something.
Professor Redwood was rambling on about what an amazing discovery dual abilities were, so she was trying to focus on him instead.
"It turns out that he's actually very young," he went on to explain, "Although he won't talk to me. I can't get him to relax for some reason, maybe he doesn't trust me." He sounded a little chagrined about that, but continued anyway.
"His voltage readings are off the charts, it's incredible! This little pokémon has roughly the same level of electricity as it's fully evolved counterparts."
Kira shared a look with Bleak trying to work out if that was a good thing or not. She decided it was probably not.
"Unfortunately, this means that if Pichu ever evolved fully, then his voltage would be at uncontrollably lethal levels." He sighed, looking at the little pokémon in question. "This means, Kira that I'm going to have to ask you not to ever let it evolve. Not even into his Pikachu stage. It's unfortunate, since as a battling pokémon Pichu's generally don't last long in the battlefield.
His special attack is obviously very high due to the amount of sheer power his abilities allow him to have… But being a pre-evolution his defence leaves an awful lot to be desired."
Kira nodded. So basically she'd got a pokémon she was scared to go near, who would probably faint with one hit in a battle. And who she could never evolve to try and make it stronger. Fantastic.
She sighed softly and studied the little creature. He was very small, probably only about seven or eight inches tall minus the black-edged ears. The pale, silky yellow fur that covered his small form looked inviting to touch, but Kira knew she'd probably never dare. He had an odd little tuft of hair on his forehead, giving him a rascal-ish appearance.
Add that to the rosy pinky-red cheeks and you had one adorable pokémon.
The professor handed her a pair of thick red rubber gloves. "You can pick him up if you want. His static seems to zap anyone who touches him, but with the gloves on you should be okay. I'll be back in a moment." He smiled and slipped out of the room, on his way to get something.
The door clicked shut, leaving Kira alone in the room with her two pokémon for the first time. She tugged the gloves on, more as a precaution than from an actual want to touch the thing.
"Boy am I glad to see you! I was beginning to think I'd be a lab rat for the rest of my life!" The Pichu surprised them both by being the first to speak.
"I thought you didn't speak?" Kira asked warily.
He grinned, either not picking up on her fear or simply ignoring it.
"Nah, I didn't speak to him 'cause he kept prodding me and making me zap things and asking me questions and never ever ever letting me get more 'lectric from the power creating holes of wonder on the wall!" The mouse-like thing was hopping up and down excitedly as he talked.
Kira raised an eyebrow and looked at Bleak. So he didn't talk but now he wouldn't shut up?
"But since you're my trainer and you're gonna be raisin' me and we're gonna travel the world together an' maybe even one day we can find Zapdos and I can beat him, 'cause my brother always said I could never beat a legendary but he never had my volt absorb thingy and he was never any good at battling since he got captured by a boy and his pidgey three weeks before I did, so what does he know?"
He blinked at them, as if waiting for them to confirm that he was better than the brother they'd never met. Unfortunately they were both still trying to follow the rather rapid and disorganised train of thought he'd just shared.
"So I don't mind talking to you 'cause I know that you caught me fair and square, though technically it's fair and circle since an ultraball is round but people never change the old phrases to match the situations that they're being used in which is kinda dumb if you ask me."
They didn't ask him, and Kira was starting to get a headache. Was he always this hyperactive?
Deciding she'd better say something before he started up again, she figured introducing themselves would be a good start.
"Er… I'm Kira, and this is Bleak." She gestured to the dog-like pokémon at her side. "Do you have a name?" 'Or should we just call you the chattering mouse of doom?' she added silently.
"Oh yeah! Duh, how could I have not told you my name? My mommy was brilliant at givin' us names even though there were six of us all together but she never had trouble thinking up good ones for us 'cause she said each of us was special in our own way." He actually paused for breath, which Kira was thankful for. She'd been worried he might explode if he didn't slow down.
"'Cause I'm really speedy, 'specially when I absorb some of the 'lectric from the others, plus my mommy said I talk too fast which is something I gotta learn to fix, 'cause I think it bugs people." He seemed to loose where he was going with this and Bleak prompted him.
"So she called you…?" He asked with a barely concealed sigh of annoyance. That mouse thought talking fast was annoying? Wherever did he get that idea?
Completely unperturbed the Pichu carried on. "Well she said that since I moved around at breakneck speeds and stuffs that Whiplash was a good name for me which I didn't like at first 'cause I thought whiplash was something to do with breaking your neck and blood going everywhere, but now I like it and it's me." He smiled, cheeks sparking happily.
"Right," Kira sighed, glad they'd finally gotten that sorted. "So your name's Whiplash. Well that's not too bad. I'd have probably come up with something lame and overused like Sparks or something."
The slight feeling of ease that had settled over her abruptly vanished as the newly pronounced Whiplash suddenly leapt onto her knee, where he sat twitching slightly with suppressed energy.
He looked hurt that Kira flinched dramatically and Bleak immediately raised his hackles in warning.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you. Is it 'cause I shocked those adults? I won't shock you like that, no no, never you. Sometimes I can't control the 'lectric and it sparks out on its own, but I'll try real hard I swear."
Kira nodded stiffly and tried to smile. He was only a little kid, she reasoned so it wasn't fair to let her fears get the best of her.
"It's okay… I know you won't shock me," She lied. Hell, she even risked touching the fluff on his head although she obviously couldn't feel it through the bulky gloves.
That was how Professor Redwood found them when he returned, and he smiled at the sight.
He held up one hand which had something dangling from it.
"This is a piece of everstone, it'll keep him from evolving." He passed it to his student who looked at it curiously.
It was a thick black leather cord upon which was hung a small star-shaped piece of grey stone.
"Thank you. You provided the ultraball which I caught him with, and now you're giving us a piece of everstone? I seriously owe you big time." She grinned up at him from her seated position.
"Think nothing of it. Although there is one thing you could do for me." He added looking a little sheepish. "When you leave here a fully qualified trainer, could you register me as the one who'll watch over your pokémon? I know you'll capture loads and I have such a huge expanse of land at home it seems a shame to waste it."
Kira grinned, thrilled with the prospect. She and Redwood had had discussions on numerous occasions about how the pokémon the academy looked after tended to be kept inside their pokéballs whenever possible. It seemed cruel but with so many trainers leaving that place they had precious little room to keep the pokémon.
"I would be honoured." She replied, still grinning. In fact she'd nearly forgotten about the highly charged threat still sitting on her lap, she was so pleased.
Carefully, she slipped the leather cord over Whiplash's head, noticing how he then looked at the piece of jewellery with saddened eyes. Whatever was on his mind seemed to be going to stay there though, since he wasn't speaking in Redwood's presence. It seemed Kira and Bleak were the only ones 'lucky' enough to have the privilege of him talking to them.
They spent the rest of Kira's lunch hour talking about the improvements Redwood was planning on making to his land, adding a small lake and things. He already had a fairly deep river running through it, but he claimed some water pokémon preferred it when the water didn't flow. He sounded genuinely excited about taking responsibility for whatever Kira caught.
She tried not to think of what would happen if she failed.
Bleak would never get to go home, the Professor would never get to achieve his dream of offering a home to pokémon whose trainers owned more than six, and Whiplash… well all she'd really made out of what he'd said was something about challenging Zapdos. But that was unlikely at the best of times.
Nothing like a little pressure to motivate you into doing well.
Later that night, Kira was sitting at her computer, madly working on a personal project of hers.
She'd always wanted to invent a new TM. Any kind, she didn't mind which as long as it worked. She'd been trying for the past couple of years with no success. She knew gym leaders sometimes made their own to frighten their opponents. Sometimes they were even known to give promising trainers a copy of it afterwards.
She just couldn't seem to get the coding right.
With a sigh, she grabbed the TM case off her desk and flipped through the disks there until she found the one labelled Sandstorm.
Slotting it into her TM reader, which was USB linked to her PC, she scanned through the coding yet again.
What she really wanted was a move like sandstorm but for every bit of damage that was done to the opponent, some life was restored to the user's team.
She wished she had a way of searching the coding for leech seed, since that was similar, although that actually drained the enemy. But that wasn't available to her, so she had to make do.
She ran a hand through her dishevelled hair and spun in her chair to look at Bleak who was fast asleep on her bed.
Maybe she could even make it fire based so that Bleak could use it. It must feel fantastic to see a pokémon you've raised using a move you invented in battle. You'd feel so proud.
Yawning tiredly, she turned back to the screen, her elbow accidentally knocking the ultraball on her desk to the floor, even though she attempted to catch it.
It sprung open and a for once sleepy looking Whiplash appeared.
Kira panicked slightly and looked around for the gloves which she remembered putting into her bag… which was across the room.
"Hiii!" The tiny mouse waved, seeming to perk up when he saw Kira. God only knows why he liked her so much.
"Ooh! Is this your room?" He looked around, turning in circles on the floor. A look of awe was held in his expression although the room was hardly awe inspiring. It was smaller than average, untidy and cluttered with junk she'd accumulated over the years.
Kira just prayed he wouldn't realise there were plug sockets beneath her desk, powering her computer.
He did notice, maybe he could feel the power there. He even took a few steps in that direction, but he stopped himself, remembering how everyone had reacted at the school. And after absorbing from the sockets he really couldn't seem to control his shocks, and he'd sworn to try not to shock his trainer.
With a leap that seemed impossible for something his size, he landed on her desk, curiously pushing a few buttons on her keyboard.
He couldn't damage it anyway, since the TM was read-only, so Kira let him.
"Can I ask you a question?" Kira asked softly, having wheeled back a little from the desk he was occupying.
"Sure, sure! Anything you want!" he said happily his full attention on her now.
"Why did you look sad when I put that on you?" She pointed at the everstone which still hung decoratively around his neck.
He sighed and touched the stone thoughtfully.
"I heard what the Professor said and I know he's right and I would be powerful and I don't wanna hurt anyone but…It's always been my dream to be a big, powerful Raichu and have a strong trainer who'll help me beat gym leaders and maybe even the pokémon league." He lifted his deep green eyes up to meet Kira's jade ones. "As a Pichu I'm not gonna be much good."
She smiled sadly at him. So that was why he liked her so much; he thought she was the trainer who was going to help him fulfil his dream.
"I can't let you evolve… for everyone's safety. But maybe you can still be strong with a bit of training. It's not like you need evolution to improve your voltage or anything." Kira felt bad for him. He was too young to have his hopes crushed.
He seemed slightly happier now he knew she thought he still had potential.
"Can I ask you a question now?" he asked, his big eyes wide with curiosity.
She nodded unsurely.
"Why are you afraid of me? 'cause I already swore I won't shock you and you're so much bigger than me that you could squish me real easily so I don't understand." He looked upset that he couldn't figure out what he was doing wrong, and Kira felt guilty.
She didn't realise he'd noticed her nervousness and he deserved an explanation.
"Well, first of all it's not just you. I had a very bad experience with an electric pokémon when I was younger and unfortunately I'm terrified of getting electrocuted now. I guess I'm just afraid I'll touch you and get shocked by your static or something…" She trailed off feeling embarrassed.
He nodded, beaming; apparently very pleased she'd shared this with him.
"If that's all that's worrying you, you can stop! My static thingy normally only works when I'm all nervous and jumpy and scared of being hurt, but I know you'd never hurt me, 'cause you're the best trainer in the world!"
She chuckled slightly at that. He obviously hadn't seen many trainers other than her. Hell, he hadn't even seen her battle. But he'd put her mind greatly at ease.
Cautiously, she shuffled closer and reached a tentative bare hand out to touch him.
He leaned upwards in encouragement and her fingers brushed the soft yellow fur. She flinched back the first time, but nothing had happened, so she tried again. His baby fur felt like silk beneath her fingers and she gently trailed them across his head and ears.
He was smiling away and nuzzling against her touch, which made her grin. Well it looked like she was overcoming her fear. As long as he never shocked her she'd be fine.
The little creature uttered a wide yawn and she realised it was after midnight.
"Thanks for trusting me," She whispered as he nodded happily, rubbing his eyes sleepily.
She retrieved his ultraball from its place on the floor and returned him, glancing at Bleak just in time to see the firedog close his eyes quickly. She wondered how long he'd been watching, but decided not to press the matter 'cause the smile on his face was just too cute.
Climbing onto her bed next to him, she drifted off into a dream filled slumber.
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