Chapter 9: Trance's Responsibilities

It had only been half of a day since Trance's miniature adventure. At this point in time, it was at the back of his mind, while all of his attention was focused on his graduation and on his father's return home. It was as if he had completely forgotten all about what had happened. His lack of remembrance was short lived. The Enpherniums, excited about the recent events, were engaged in vigorous conversation about how things had been going for everyone, what was looking up, what everyone was looking forward to, etc. The walk back home was a pleasant one.

When Trance, Sean, and Heather arrived at the house, Sean couldn't help but be over-gleeful about how long it had been since he was last there.

"I must say, it looks just as I remember it. Not much has changed. I guess it hasn't been all that long… but still, it's great to be back again!" Trance and Heather agreed, and they headed inside. Trance walked through the kitchen towards the living room, but while on the way, remembered how hungry he was. This triggered a sudden worry; he had forgotten to leave his guest in the shed a decent amount of food. What if he had no opportunity to see him tonight? He suspected that Pikachu would make every effort to escape, thinking that he had been forgotten. After all, why should he trust some random person who happened to be in the right place at the right time? There was nothing he could do about it now, so he decided to wait until he could steal a few moments of alone time to take care of his new responsibility.

Upon entering their living room, Sean took a place on the sofa and kicked back. He had missed the comfort of his own home, having been away for so long. Heather joined him, and Trance found a place on the adjacent recliner.

"Any current events I should know about?" said Sean, kissing his wife on the nose.

"Well, turn on the news! I haven't been keeping up with it, so I'm just as curious as you. Plus, I think Diane and Tom's show is just about to start." responded Heather, running a finger up Sean's chest. Sean smiled, grabbed the remote to his massive fifty-inch LCD television, turned it on, and flipped to the local news channel. On screen was a brown haired man in a blue suit, speaking semi-enthusiastically about the local events. In the upper right hand corner of the screen was a frame focused on the empty streets of the parade route, a complete disaster.

"… as you can see, the streets are now completely empty, and total mess, as the crowds have retreated back to their homes in celebration. We have Senator Herriman to thank for that, as his overwhelming enthusiasm about the most recent events attracted people all over Gallaway to come and hear his speech. For those of you unsocial losers who missed it, Herriman not too long ago finished up a speech that, to sum it up in a nutshell, our country is pretty much taking over the world!"

"You said it Tom, this country is so imperialistic… right. In other unrelated news, we have gotten reports of a one-man invasion force who was apparently attempting to take over a veterinary clinic. Who knows what this person was up to? I sure don't. That's why we have Latino Reporter José Javier down at the scene. José?" The screen flipped to a familiar scene.

"Thank you Diane, I am standing here in front of the capital city's veterinary clinic, where several arrests have been made regarding suspected collaboration with foreigners. Officials have been here all day questioning witnesses about the incident this morning. Ha! They missed Herriman's speech, I mock them openly! Not what you expected from a typical an invasion, BUT, we have enough information from witnesses to believe that there was indeed an incident involving pokémon earlier this morning. You want a full report? Here it comes!" A childishly drawn picture of a veterinary clinic and several armed men chasing two boys appeared on the screen. "This is my interpretation of what happened. According to reports from the National Intelligence Agency, one young man about the age of seventeen spent the night at this very veterinary clinic, only to be caught that morning by two NID agents, where they chased the boy and another civilian out of the clinic. Following was a very exciting chase scene that all of you action lovers out there would love to view. Here are a few screenshots of what police recorded." A few blurry shots of the sky appeared on the screen. "Too bad for you, because you won't get to see the actual chase scene until later tonight, when we add tons of special effects to make it interesting… wait.. what? Hey, you all are in luck, apparently nothing is being modified, and you'll all get to see it on "Wild Police Chases," coming up after the news! Isn't that just great?" A PIP showing Diane appeared in the upper left corner of the screen. "Get on to the point please, José!" said Diane. The PIP flickered off. "Oh, yes, and there have been no arrests made for the second boy who may or may not be involved with this incident. As of now, we have no idea as to who this boy is or how he is related to the incident at hand. We will continue to monitor this situation as it unfolds." Suddenly, a hand appeared from the side of the screen, and handed a bag to José.

"I have here what witnesses claim to be the sunglasses of the boy involved in this incident. I do say, they are fine looking sunglasses too." José reached into the bag, whipped out Trance's sunglasses, and put them on over his regular glasses. "Oh my, they look so good on me, don't they?" José started placing himself into various sexy poses. Trance couldn't help but choke on his soda as he saw this. The camera then shifted away and focused on the scene. "Wait! I'm sorry! Ah!" Jose appeared out of focus back on the screen. The camera returned its focus back onto José. There was a good bit of laughter from the background. Heather and Sean were both laughing at José's ridiculous act.

"So, anyway, the investigation's department will be doing research as to the owner of these sunglasses. I don't see how they're going to succeed, what with the fact that I smeared tons of my very own DNA and fingerprints ALL over these things." José started rubbing the rims of the sunglasses. He then put them back in the bag and tossed it to the nearest police officer. "Good luck with that sir!" Trance nearly choked again, hoping his parents did not realize whose sunglasses those really belonged to.

The screen flickered back to Diane, who had a smirk on her face. "Honestly, I don't know how Latino Reporter José Javier still has his job. I don't think Tim does either," she said. Tom responded with "hey! I think I can speak for myself!" Diane looked in his general direction. "…" She opened her mouth to say something, then stopped, shook her head and continued. "We will return after a word from out wonderful sponsors, who pay us to play their silly skits." The camera slowly zoomed out to where you could see Tom, who had a pair of underwear on his head, followed by a set of commercials.

"I wish Tom would be less random. He thinks he's funny when he's not most of the time…" said Heather.

"Yeah, well he's done this for too long; I think he's running out of jokes…"

"Change it to the weather channel. I want to see the weather for now." Sean agreed and flipped the channel. Trance got up. "You two enjoy yourselves, I'm going outside to see if Nick has come back yet."

"Okay, honey, be back in an hour, we're leaving for that graduation with or without you."

Trance quickly grabbed some bread and a water bottle from the refrigerator, and headed for the door. He had every intention to get back his sunglasses, one way or another, but he also had to take care of Pikachu. He decided to do that first, because he might need some time to get back his sunglasses. An hour was hardly enough to pull off anything, but he had to do something soon. He did not want the authorities to stumble over the details that pointed in his direction, then come to his house and confront his parents. The worst that could happen would be for his parents to go digging for the truth and eventually find out the real truth behind this whole thing, about his thoughts towards society. This whole thing could turn into a disaster.

Trance reached for the door. He opened it and dashed out, only to run straight into Nick.

"Trance! Hey! I was just looking for you!" Nick had a look of extreme excitement on his face. There was no mistaking it, he had definitely accomplished something. Nick always had these kinds of looks on his face and upbeat attitude when he accomplished something.

"Hey dude. What's up?" Trance asked casually, although irritated because of the very untimely manner at which Nick showed up.

"Trance, oh man! You have to see this! I finally finished the schematic for my new invention. I got all of the circuits laid out and everything! It's quite a work of art if I do say so myself!" Trance followed Nick out onto the porch. There was nothing he would want more at this point than to completely avoid Nick. Not only were every single one of his so called "inventions" pointless at heart, but every single one of them were derivations of some already existing, and better devices. Although his ideas were solid, and had rather good intentions, most of his major works could never get off the ground.

Trance walked with Nick out onto his lawn. "Listen, Nick, I was just about to head out to do something. I really have to go—"

"Nonsense!" Nick grabbed Trance by the arm and effectively dragged him across the street to his house. Trance barely had time to throw down the bread and water onto his porch.

"Nick! I'm serious! It's very important!"

"This will only take a second!" Trance had no choice. He did not want to let down his friend. If it was not going to take long, then it would probably do no harm. Trance followed Nick into his house. They tore across the house and into the basement where Nick had an entire workshop set up. Nick was one of those people who loved making things. Nick centered his life on little devices that he made. Trance kept thinking that Nick would eventually become extremely famous for his work, for he had a very good grasp on what he did, and could accomplish all sort of things with the knowledge he had. The only reason he took classes at the ranger school with Trance was because some of them were required to get into the advanced studies program which he was applying for. The way he was going, he was bound to get in easily. He had a lot going for him.

"Okay, get this. I was walking home from the parade, thinking about what I could do to get this last bit working correctly, and all of a sudden it hit me. I rushed home, fixed up my plan, rewired the device, modified the programming, and viola! In a matter of minutes, I had a working prototype!" Nick uncovered a large terminal consisting of a keyboard, a screen and a medium sized radar dish attached to the top. It was all put together in an arcade machine-like enclosure.

"Um okay… what did you manage to fabricate this time?" Trance walked up to the device and quickly looked over it.

"In a nutshell, it's a bio-essence scanner. I can input a set of data containing the physical composure of any organism, down to the cellular level, and this specially modified radar detects any nearby organism that has a composure matching the data."

"Interesting…"

"Neat huh? I got the idea from one of our science labs, where we were using radars to scan for objects in the room. This is a much more complicated version of it, but I think it will work out just fine."

"… and why would anyone need this? Assuming it even works…"

"Think about it! It's made to help people like you! I specifically designed it to make your job easier. Rangers could go around and find pokémon in a snap! We can keep our environment safe from them with much more ease than ever before. Here, let me show you!" Nick flipped on a switch. "Let's see, I'll put in the molecular composition of my dog." Nick typed in a few things which Trance could hardly decipher. A few seconds later, the screen showed an image of Nick's house from above, and a highlighted outline of Nick's dog lying on the floor showed up as well.

"Wow, that's incredible!" Trance exclaimed.

"Yeah, there's quite a few bugs to work out. For instance, it only works with a few animals, like my dog, and sometimes it distorts wireless frequencies over certain channels. Well, it burned out my laptop's wireless card when I was testing it earlier on. I need to get more data and get my rudimentary AI to adapt to the data as well. It may be a few weeks before I can get everything I need."

Trance was thoroughly impressed. For once, Nick had completed something revolutionary. Then he was struck with horror. Trying to hide his emotion, Trance backed away. The realization of what Nick could do with this device hit him hard. All Nick had to do was accidentally scan Trance's yard for anything resembling a pokémon and he would find Pikachu. It was only a matter of time before Nick acquired the data that allowed him to do this. He would be doomed.

"Hey, let's try scanning the whole neighborhood! I'll try a very general scan so I can collect data."

What absolutely horrible luck! "Um, Nick, you should be careful with that. My parents just installed a new home-integrated wireless system in the house. You never know, you might end up blowing up our entire house."

Nick looked at Trance for a few seconds. "Oh, right. I might have to modify the frequency settings so as not to interfere with anything like that. Well, anyway, here, I'll let you go. I'll let you know when I make more progress."

"Okay, see you, and good luck." Although he really had no desire to see this device finished until he could get rid of the Pikachu in his back yard, Trance had to cover up any such intention so as not to look too awkward. Trance rushed out of the house, glad that he had made it a point that what Nick was doing was actually rather dangerous. He could end up crashing entire wireless networks with his new invention. At this point, Trance had wasted too much time with Nick, and hardly had anytime to take of what he originally wanted to do. With everything that he had to get done, and with all of the newly discovered risks involved, Trance realized that he had gotten himself into a much bigger mess than he originally intended.

Trance decided to first get done what was absolutely necessary, and that was to rush back home and get Pikachu the food and water. As he headed back across his lawn, Heather popped out of the front door. "Trance! We're going to leave early. We have to go pick up some people on the way!"

"What! Oh come on, I'm in the middle of something!" Trance was now thoroughly ticked off. He could not get done what he needed to get done. Trudging across the remainder of the lawn, Trance approached his mother.

"Don't give me that tone mister! I've got every reason to help these people! Their car broke down and they need to get to the ceremony just as badly as we do. Now come on, hurry up!"

Trance sighed. "How long do I have?"

"We're leaving as soon as you and your father get in the appropriate clothes for this event. Get upstairs, or we'll certainly be late."

Trance tossed aside the food, and in a frustrated manner, headed up to his room to get changed.

It was not as if Pikachu was going to be going anywhere anyway, and even though Trance was sure that it could live a while without food. Pikachu would just have to wait until later tonight.

Where the hell is this guy! I can't wait around here forever!

Pikachu was curled up in a ball, starving from his lack of food, and nauseated from his physical exertions and lack of water. He had not nourished himself since the night before, when the veterinarian had given him specialized food for helping pain and the recovery process. On top of that, he had not been in contact with anyone since early this morning. The loneliness was beginning to get to him. It was like being in an isolation chamber for the mentally instable, but with windows instead. Even so, there was little he could do but wait.

The night flew by faster than Trance had initially expected. The ceremony had consisted of a glorious ensemble of black-robed young adults in square hats. The gathering consisted of the 300 student graduating class and the 2,000 parents and relatives of the graduates. The ceremony progressed as one would expect from any normal graduation ceremony. The only difference was that each and every one of these students became full fledged higher-ups in society the second they received their diploma, which was accompanied with the ranger certification papers and the official badge, plated in 24 carat gold. From that point on, each student had the power of any law enforcement agent, the clearance to most of the nation's secrets, but most of all, the pride that they were in fact ready to take on the world. Along with these great standings in society came great responsibility, which Trance was ready to take on as one of the greatest burdens of his life. Upon receiving this award, Trance felt a sudden sense of accomplishment. He was ready to take life by the reigns and fly.

The night was soon over. Trance and his friends broke up towards the end of the reception to head home. Soon, they would be taking on graduate study, where their real field work would begin.

As Trance and his parents left the reception, they were stopped in the dark parking lot by an official-looking black man. He was wearing a suit and dark sunglasses (yes at night), which gave him a mysterious aspect which paralleled that of a secret service agent. The man approached Trance specifically, saying "we have an assignment for you, Tertiary Ranger Trance Enphernium."

"Trance, this is Dante, one of my department's head officers. He oversees official business within our department," started Sean. Trance quickly saw what was going on.

"Yeah, and by the looks of it, someone wants me right away."

"No better timing than right after everything has been made official," said Sean.

"Take this, it's the unofficial copy of the assignment. I trust that you will not let this information leave your household. Please take care in doing so. That is all." With that, Dante vanished in the blink of an eye. Trance was the only one who seemed startled.

"Oh, what a silly man. Dante likes to make flashy exits. It's alright, he's simply walking away." Sean continued leading Trance and Heather to the location where he had parked.

Trance had not realized until now that this new form of business meant that he would be dealing with things he had never known to exist before. Things such as stealth camouflage technologies and secret operations. Thinking the possibilities over and over through his mind, he made it a point to open the assignment as soon as he got into the car.

"Trance," started Heather as they entered the car, "I believe we forgot to mention this to you, but now that you've become someone you've always wanted to be, a fully functional and especially responsible member of society, we've decided to leave you the house for the week." Hearing this, Trance was instantly confused.

"Oh, right! The cruise!" exclaimed Sean. Trance suddenly knew what they were talking about.

"Let me guess, in celebration of your arrival back home, but more importantly your victory in South Africa?" Trance stated.

"Right on, and we're leaving tomorrow morning!"

"Gee, thanks for the advanced notice." Sean and Heather laughed, but were not at all sorry for not letting Trance know so late. Although, the idea was more of a spontaneous one; they had decided earlier that day.

Trance was nowhere near as despaired as he meant to portray. He was incredibly relieved to know that he will now have some quiet time to himself. This also meant that he could now get done all of the investigating and research he had wanted to do for quite some time, especially regarding this whole fiasco between Ash, Pikachu, and the Gallaway authorities.

The ride home consisted of joyful conversation about what lied ahead for each of them. Trance had opened his assignment and read it aloud. It was a direct order from the President. It stated that he would attend an advanced military training camp on a day by day basis for the next two weeks, during which he would prepare himself for a future undisclosed mission that would be revealed to him near the end of his training. This announcement excited Trance, as this was exactly what he was looking forward to as a newly established ranger of Gallaway.

Upon their arrival at home, Heather gathered herself inside the house and headed straight for bed.

"What's the rush?" asked Trance

"You know how I said we're leaving tomorrow morning?" said Sean. "Well by that I meant we leave at 4am. So as you can imagine, we need as much sleep as we can get."

Trance sighed. "I guess I'll have to get up early too, just to see you off."

"If you wish, you can." Sean smiled and headed upstairs to join his wife in bed.

This is going to be interesting. Trance waited until his father was in his room before he dexterously made his way to the door and out to the front of his yard. To his pleasure, he had completely avoided his parents with no disruptions. There was nothing stopping him now.

Trance headed towards the back of his yard in complete darkness and utter silence and over to the shed. Trance glanced around to make sure he was unseen. He opened the lock and quietly opened the door. As dark as it was outside, he could still see the little yellow ball of fluff curled up inside the shed. Feeling weird about what he was about to do, Trance stepped inside and crouched beside his guest. He reached a hand over to Pikachu. Feeling something strange touch his side, Pikachu jumped out of its sleep and made a yelp in fright. Half turned over with a look of fear on his face, sparks emitted from all of Pikachu's body, producing an eerie glow around him.

"Hey, it's me!" Trance whispered, trying to hush the startled Pikachu.

Now awake enough to realize what was going on, Pikachu's expression changed from a look of fear to one of relief. Taking a deep breath, he slowly stood up.

Trance was very unsure of what to do at this point. After all, he had never personally handled any pokémon before, not even a pet of his own, so his ability to effectively communicate with non-human beings was rather limited.

"Um… here? boy?" Trance did not know what he was doing at all. Before leaving Pikachu the first time, he had simply spoken his mind to this animal, not expecting any actual response, or for his words to actually accomplish anything other than relieve himself of the stressful situation he was in. It was more of a situation where he was venting than anything else. Now, he actually had to get somewhere with it, meaning he had to take steps to get it to understand what he wanted from it, and to understand what it wanted from him.

Pikachu sensed this instantly, that Trance was uncomfortable speaking to an unfamiliar kind of animal, not knowing what to expect from it at all. Making it easier for both of them, he walked up to Trance and, making no more than a couple of sounds and motions, made an assertion that yes, it was okay that he was gone for so long, and that he was glad that he was finally back.

"Hum, I don't know how to say this, but… here, I have some food and water inside. If you really want, I can take you inside now, because my parents will be leaving in a few hours. I'm sure you don't want to stay outside any more do you?" Pikachu affirmatively responded.

Trance was taken by surprise. "Wow, so you understand me?" Pikachu affirmatively responded again. "… that's crazy. If you can understand me, why can't you at least talk back?" Pikachu smiled and shook his head, as if what Trance was suggesting was utterly ridiculous.

"Heh, well, that really isn't important, but still… come with me, you can get some food and water inside if you want." He laughed. "Although I bet you've been starving this whole time haven't you?" Pikachu affirmatively responded again. "I'm sorry, I should have left you something, but I was in such a rush…" Trance didn't finish. There was little he could do to make this situation better than to get Pikachu insi

"Wow, this is going to be easier than I thought. Um, here, can you walk?"

Concluding that Pikachu was still recovering from its injuries, he decided to carry Pikachu inside. It was critical that nobody saw him at this point. It would all be over if he was caught. He was careful to use the darkness to his advantage on his way inside. He also made sure he did not wake his parents as he made his way to his room.

Now a little more comfortable with how he spoke to Pikachu, Trance advised Pikachu to stay out of sight in his room until later that morning. Once his parents were gone, he could pretty much roam the house as he pleased, as long as he stayed out of sight for visitors and away from the windows.

Trance saw that his parent's away time would really let up on some of his problems. For one, he could go wherever he needed to go no questions asked. This would be especially useful later that day, when he would set out to find Pikachu's owner. If what the news said was correct, and assuming that this guy was not dead from the chase, then he would most likely be in the national prison. He would have to go there and somehow investigate what had happened. If he could at least get in contact with this guy, all the while maintaining minimal conflict with the authorities, then he might be able to at least stabilize the situation at hand. Unfortunately, conflict seemed inevitable at this point, so Trance had to think carefully about how to approach this situation. Regardless, it would be an adventure unlike any other he had experienced so far.

A/N: OKAY! That's all for chapter 9. I'm glad I'm still able to progress on this. Don't worry everyone, my work is not totally killing me! Only mostly… at this point, don't expect another chapter up for about a week, BUT! You can at least expect a very enjoyable action-packed, drama-filled, uber-suspenseful chapter next time around!