The Zapdos' Journey
Chapter 1: Revival of the Electric Spirit
Oh, hey everyone. Welcome back. So, my story of how I came over to this world was interesting? Well, if you thought that was all there was to it, then you don't know the half of it. Heh, but you guys knew that, right? I don't think I would just go from being confused and surprised to being the mysteriously cool and collected guy you know me as today, right? Well, let me start from where I left off, then…
Date: February 9, 2002
As far back as we can re-… oh wait, I said that already. Ahem, moving on…
"Zai? Zai, you overslept again!"
"grrrhn, huh?" I arose groggily from my bed just as I had the day before. I was still in the warehouse and I had somehow turned back into my hybrid form in my sleep, so I finally gave in mentally to the fact that this was definitely no dream. I looked over to my side to see Ninetales sitting patiently next to the bed.
"It's 10AM already… you might not go to school anymore, but you still made a resolution to wake up earlier, remember? Why don't you try to set your alarm next time to wake you up? Or is your memory still messed up?"
"Memory? Yeah, it is, I'm afraid. Sorry, Ninetales… I'll remember that now, though, so I won't oversleep again." I said, of course, this was untrue since I always oversleep, even back in the other world. "…wait, I don't go to school anymore?"
"Yup! You don't really have a need to anymore. You know the basics of living and have survived on your own just fine for years. You've been making money off of doing odd jobs for people here and there, not to mention getting some free food and stuff from saving a person or hybrid here or there."
"Saving people? Like a hero?" I blushed slightly. I never thought that I, of all people, would be a hero.
"Don't let it go to your head! You never did. In fact, you barely ever show a lot of emotion. This is the most lively you've been since we moved here."
"Oh… hey, I'm sorry if I'm being difficult, but I honestly can't remember anything from before yesterday."
"It's okay, Zai…" she jumped up into my lap and nuzzled against me, "I'm here for you after all, just as you are here for me. It's always been that way, for me at least, and I hope it can be that way for you, whether you remember things or not." I gaped; I couldn't believe such a deeply touching statement came from my own pet!
"Don't worry, Ninetales… it will always be the way it is now, no matter what." I said gently as I stroked her long golden mane. My train of thought was suddenly interrupted by what seemed like a flash of light in my head. "The generator! I have to recharge it today, don't I? Otherwise, we'd have to actually have to pay for electricity, eh?"
"Yeah it is, but Zai, how did you know that?"
"Uhm… that's… a good question actually! It just suddenly appeared in my mind. Maybe my memories are starting to come back to me, finally!" I shook my head. I had actually received a memory of well… my new life, apparently. It instantly brought more and more questions to mind. Will I recover all of my memories? Will I forget my old life? Do I really want to remember my old life? I mean, my mom and brother are both gone… I decided not to think about it right now. It's too much to wake up on. "Anyway, let's not worry about that, now, where's the generator, Ninetales, and how do we recharge it?"
Ninetales nudged her head over to a door to the left end of the room. "It's in there, and as for charging it, well I don't know, if only one of us could generate electricity, maybe!" she said somewhat sarcastically, but then shook her head, "sorry, I forgot that you may not even know about your powers."
"Powers? You mean I can use the abilities of a Zapdos, too?" my eyes went wide with excitement.
"Of course, since you pretty much are one anyway. You need to be in your hybrid form to use them, though, like you are now."
My mind seemed to be overtaken by the urge to test out these powers. I knew what a Zapdos was capable of in a mere game, but now it could all be real! I had always dreamed of being able to have some control over electricity. I tried to hide and calm my racing mind, but Ninetales could see my tell-all expression. "If you're so anxious to try that all out, why don't you go try charging the generator? I'll wait here for you."
"What? I don't know how to do it, remember?"
"Oh yeah, sorry. Well, I don't know really, I'm not a Zapdos like you are. When I want to shoot fire I have to breathe a certain way. I'm guessing that when you want to generate electricity out of you, you have to concentrate on a certain part of your body."
"You really think it'll work?"
"Eh, maybe. Why don't you try it on the generator? We won't be getting any lighting or energy to run appliances if we don't recharge it once a week." I nodded in agreement and got up as I headed to the room on the opposite side of the bathroom.
The room was pretty small and cramped. It was barely large enough to have me fit inside of it, mainly because of the giant machine taking up the rest of the space. The generator had a giant cable running into the wall and was producing a low humming sound.
"So this is the generator, huh? I guess this is where I have to recharge it" I said as I noticed a small panel on the side with a picture resembling my feathered hand. I nervously placed my hand on the panel, and quickly thought to myself, "I hope this works. What's the worst that can happen? I can kill myself, that's what can happen. Then I'll never find out what really happened to me and the 'me' in this world… but I can't NOT do this, or else I'll never get used to life here. Okay, then! Here goes…"
I closed my eyes and concentrated on my hand, as I had often thought one would do to try this. I imagined a flow of electricity coming from the center of my body, moving towards my hand and out onto the panel. Without warning or anything, I suddenly heard a crackling noise, and my eyes shot open to see that the electricity was just flowing easily from my hand, and I barely felt anything! I realized that it must be so easy for me because my body, at least, was a natural at producing electricity.
Within seconds, a bar on the generator had completely filled signaling a full charge. I pulled my hand back and thought of the flow stopping. Thankfully, the energy stopped flowing. I walked out of the room happily, knowing now just what I was capable of. Ninetales sat waiting for me.
"Well…?"
"It was awkward at first, but I've think I got the basics down now."
"Still got a long way to go, though. You used to be able to do all sorts of things with your electricity."
"Really? Like… what?"
"Make shapes, bending the electricity and such. Basically controlling the flow of it. You used to be able to concentrate it to such a small and compressed area that it was almost like a solid object."
"Hmm… well… the basis of using my power is concentration, so maybe if I just focus on the electricity doing those things, it'll happen."
I walked outside. It was surprisingly warm, and then I remembered that I was still in hybrid form so I had a whole layer of feathers around my skin now. Ninetales followed by my side. I looked out at the harbor, watching the restless waters dance in the mid-February wind. Ninetales nudged me.
"Are we going somewhere?" she questioned. I shook my head.
"Nah, I wanna try these powers out." I said, in an excited tone.
"Just don't overwork yourself… it may feel like it takes nothing, but it drains your physical strength if you exert too much energy."
"Okay then, it's just like Power Points from the games. Use it too much and you can't anymore until energy is restored." I thought to myself. Hey, it seemed like a good comparison… to me at least. Er… anyway, moving along. "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll know if I get tired."
"Sometimes you'd train so hard, you'd fall unconscious for a day… that's why I worry."
"Well, I promise I won't try doing anything like that, okay?" I kneeled down and stroked her ears a bit, "it's really sweet of you to care, though, thanks." Ninetales licked my feathers.
"It's no problem; after all, it's what I do." She replied.
"Ok, then…" I rubbed my feathered hands together in preparation, "let's do this." I held out my hand upwards and focused like before. It was much easier this time. With a cracking sound, several bolts of lightning leaped out of my hand and shot out into the sky. I concentrated again, this time, on the bolts looping in two circles before heading out to the great beyond. Sure enough, the lightning bolts shot out of my hand, head towards the sky and circled around a small area before disappearing.
"Cool…" I said, a bit shocked at what I was doing, "This is awesome! I wonder what else I can do… hmm." I focused, harder this time, on the electricity staying within a smaller area. It took a couple of tries, but I eventually managed to get the electricity to constantly loop back to my hand so that it wouldn't spread far. Within the day, I was able to create basic shapes with this ability. I was amazed with each shape I created. Like a little child, going "ooo" and "aah" at every little thing.
Eventually Ninetales nudged me again.
"Hey, it's getting late. We've been out here all day, let's go inside and get something to eat." She said as she headed back inside and into the kitchen.
"Hmm? Yeah alright. I am getting quite tired, actually. What do you want for dinner?"
"Well, what do you want?"
"I've always liked that spicy fried chick…" I stopped there. I thought about the delicious spicy fried chicken my mom always used to make me, and my stomach churned. I felt like I was going to throw up!
"What were you saying, Zai?" Ninetales asked as she turned around and saw me holding my stomach. "Are you alright!" I felt queasy for a few more seconds but it quickly subsided.
"Yeah," I replied a bit tiredly, "I just got sick off of the image of eating another bird. I guess it's cannibalism to me now…" I shook my head and thought of what I could eat. "hmm, I got it! How about sushi?"
"Again? But you just had that three days ago! In fact, you eat it almost every day." Ninetales said, somewhat angrily.
"Really? Sorry, it's just that it's always been my favorite food, heh."
"Trust me, I know."
"Right, so, sushi it is then?"
"I'll just eat that prepackaged chow over there. I honestly like it better than raw fish… yuck."
"Oh… well, alright, more for me then! Uhm… now where to go to buy sushi?"
"You have all of the supplies you need in the fridge… you normally make it yourself."
"Really?" I said as I went over and got the package of food and poured it into a bowl for Ninetales, "you mean I actually make my own sushi?"
"Yeah, and you've apparently gotten very good at it. Whenever people come to visit you, they always ask you for some. I honestly don't know what you guys see in that stuff…" she muttered to herself as she dragged the bowl by her teeth into the bedroom and sat in front of the couch. I went over to the fridge, and was about to open the door when I remembered I was still in hybrid form. I quickly ran into my room and changed back, clothes and form-wise, then headed back to the kitchen. I took the supplies for a Tuna Roll out of the fridge… or at least it looks like tuna… at the moment I only instinctively thought it was that. I looked at the stuff in front of me.
"Uhm, okay." I was drawing a blank. I had never made sushi before. I could only guess how to make it. I reached for the seaweed, when suddenly I had another flash. "Ah! I know how to do this now!" I exclaimed quite loudly.
"Tale… ni-ni!" Ninetales yelled from the other room. Almost without any thinking, I managed to assemble a traditional 6-piece "tuna" roll.
"Awesome!" I took the first bite. If my taste buds could speak, they'd be singing at that moment! It was, without a doubt, the best roll of sushi I had ever eaten. I didn't know if it was the rice, the raw fish, or the seaweed, but it was delicious! "Oh, so good… mmm…" I said some more things of that general nature, and then went to my room.
I sat next to Ninetales who was busy with her bowl of food. I patted her head again, and then looked up to see something I had previously ignored... the television. I was almost afraid to turn it on. I know that as soon as I did, all of this new world programming would be on and it would introduce me to so much of this world's troubles, event, and the like. At the moment, I felt I should just live with what I have, to make things less overwhelming. But then again, I also felt bored, and boredom means TV time!
I hit the power button on the remote and started flipping. Everything looked almost the same! Jeopardy! on one channel, Seinfeld on another (of course, it was a bit different because of all of the Pokemon related jokes). This, that, more random stuff I would never watch in the old world… hmm, news, which I quickly flipped passed after hearing something about a crazy guy who tried robbing a television studio months earlier.
Of course, I flipped Seinfeld back on for a while and watched that. I guess that's one thing to count on. Even in this crazy, new, alternate world, television is still the same old thing. After that was over I flipped the TV off and went over to my dresser by the bed and looked through the contents of each drawer. One drawer just had clothes. Another had some writing utensils, like paper, pencils, pens, and the like. Another had my underwear, most of which had been cleaned. The bottom drawer had a small box in it.
I took the box out and tried opening the top, until I realized that it was locked shut. I looked around the drawer for the key, but to no avail.
"I must have put something really important in here to have locked it and hid the key… now if only I knew where I hid it." I shrugged. I put the box back in the drawer. "I'd look for it, but I'm exhausted after all I did today. Guess Ninetales was right about the energy thing…" I sighed to myself as I shifted back into hybrid form, slipped into my night clothes, and got settled into bed. "Hey Ninetales, I'm going to bed, alright?"
"Alright Zai, goodnight!" Ninetales said, quite cheerfully. She ran up and climbed on to the foot of the bed. She curled her nine luxurious tails around herself and drifted off. I, however, just laid in my bed for hours looking at the wall, thinking to myself.
"How did I get here? Why did I come here? What happened to the old world? My friends, my family… where are you? What was in that box? Will my memory of this life eventually override my old one?" I couldn't think of a possibly answer for any of these questions. At least right now. As I started to finally doze off, I dreamed about the end of my time in the other world. About the seemingly normal school day, about getting shocked, about the adapter… and the virus…
"the virus…" I muttered as I finally drifted off to sleep, knowing that tomorrow I would be determined to find some answers.
Well, that's all for now. I can't just remember all of this stuff like that, y'know? I'm sure that by next time, I'll probably have a month's worth of memories to talk about!
