Author note: Here's chapter 2. Doesn't much to say so I will reply to the reviews I got. I must say was surprised by the amount I got. Let's not wait anymore time, shall we?

StormFang: Thanks for being my first reviewer ever. As a present, I'm going to sent you the first page of chapter 3 as a teaser. Now, let talk more about the review itself. I'm happy to hear that you found that you felt like you were in the story. I must admit that I don't share the same opinion about my work. I think my writing is bland, but I'm working on making it better. Chapter 4 should show some improvement, I hope.

MTG: Beautiful? You must be exaggerating… again. But I will take the praise anyway and store somewhere it in my heart, next to my stomach… or lungs… or whatever. Yep, it is scary to be trapped that that uninviting machine, but I think Rick will get over it… or not. But it would be spoiling things to tell, so I think I will shut up for now.

Foxyjosh: Very well written? I am the only one to think bad things about my work? I must be too negative, or maybe I thought people here would be harsher. Thanks anyway for the review. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to say that I am purposely making people wait for the story. I had 3 chapters written before I posted the first chapter (And I still have), but it wouldn't be very logical to post them all at once. I'm following a Friday release schedule every week or two weeks, depending weather I have the time to write or not. But patience is a virtue, they say.

Kirby: So you posted a review? Not much to say either, you told me so much before. To reassure you, I know what you were talking about: my first chapter. Hum… and Sparktail want to say "Die in hell, Es'!!!". I think he is still mad about what happened between them in the RP. You can't make everybody happy, it seem. I guess you will have more to say this time, since it will actually be a new chapter for you.

Serpent Magick: I'm starting to lack of things to say. Well… I guess I thank you for reviewing. Good luck with working on your story, it can be hard sometime. I'm trying to start chapter 4, but the first words don't come. They are always the most difficult for me. Once they are written, my chapter should be ready soon and there shouldn't long delay between chapters 3 and 4. By the way, I like your raichu avatar, it nearly makes raichu cool. I don't like raichu as much as you do, but they will probably find their place eventually into my story. Yay for you!

Reeds:
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… I really got nothing to say… sorry… and I want to post this now. Well, thanks for taking time for reviewing; I know reviews are not your speciality. Still, I got a review from you but not from the first one I expected to do it (Stare at F.D.). I can't get everything I want. But hey, I got 6 reviews and 110 hits, it could be so much worse.

Wow… a whole page of review response. You must be tired to hear me. It's now story time. Oh, I almost forgot! I'm thinking about getting a blog like or some kind of website to post news about my story or random things, most probably random things. I will keep you informed about that, but you could tell me what you think about the idea. Ok… no more delaying. Here's chapter 2 for real. It could be possible that you will find it less interesting than chapter 1, mostly because it's one of the rare chapters in the story without Rick as the focus, but some things in there make up for that, I think. In the worst case, there is still chapter 3 next week, which I have been told is much better than the second and maybe more than the first. Anyway, good reading!

UPTADE: The separators I put to separate the sections didn't display correctly, so I just fixed that. Thank Kirby for making me notice that.

Chapter 2: Unwanted change

Where one man lost consciousness, another was about regain it. In the comfort of his luxurious mansion, set atop a small hill close to his lab, Bill was sleeping peacefully, or so it would seem. Oblivious to the danger Rick was facing, the older man was not having it easy either, his own problems haunting him in his dreams. Unknowingly, Rick was the one causing them, all because of a supposed foolproof plan that went wrong. Yet, his plan was so simple: get Rick to invite himself into his project by giving him all the clues to reach it. It has been in motion for a long time, long before the young man had ever set foot into his lab. Having thoroughly studied his work and discussed with his professors, he came to the conclusion that Rick had the skills to help him with the most important project he ever worked on. But, this alone wasn't sufficient to reveal to him his most guarded secret.

Many could have the skills and knowledge needed to do the task, but few to none shared his thrive, his curiosity and his open-minded thoughts to grant them the comprehension of the importance of what he was trying to achieve. He had to make sure Rick was all which he seemed to be. His first action has been to start all those rumors about his project. As planned, it didn't take long before Rick bit into the lure and started to subtly interrogate his professors about it and dig into the public databases of his university in futile hopes of finding any piece of related information. Having him firmly hooked to the idea, he invited him to work for him during a summer internship, under the premise he would be doing something unique that few students had the chance to do before. Again, the young man didn't resist the tasty treat and investigated on his personal lab's computers. Surprisingly, was able to perform on his given duties, despite the time he lost by giving his best on them.

Such determination from a brilliant student couldn't be left unrewarded, as Bill gave away his last clues. The advice, the clean-up of the system, the letter; everything was carefully planned to make sure of one thing: Rick would came into his secret lab tonight, motivated by his profound curiosity. And so, the scientist stayed in the lab for a large part of the night, waiting for Rick to show his face. But, he never came. And yet, at his return to his public lab, Bill found out that someone had accessed and erased the file from his database, and removed the envelope from under the computer. He originally presumed that Rick had done it, but the doubt filled his mind when he took in consideration the fact that he put that file in a public database with an easy password. What if someone else had hacked his system and recovered the location of his hidden lab? What if Rick got in the middle of some fight? He could be injured, or worst!

Needless to say, Bill went to sleep with a lot in his mind. His light sleep, filled with nightmares, was unpleasant enough to prove it. As if to ad more to his despair (thought it could be a benediction, considering his nightmares), he was awoken by the screams of an alarm, and not the calmest or relaxing one. It was of the kind announcing the beginning of a war or an imminent catastrophe, which was exactly what would be happening if that particular alarm ringed in the headset Bill is wearing every night, being connected with infrared beams at the entrance of his secret lab. Its triggering could only mean one thing: someone was in there.

Literally jumping out of his slumber, his first reaction was to take notice of the current time on his alarm clock: 4:18 AM. Who, in his right mind, would think about infiltrating that lab at such an hour? Certainly not Rick; the man could not be impatient to the point of getting into it at a time where he would find an empty lab. The Rick he knows was more reasonable than this. He might be too curious, but he does have a strong sense of logic and it wasn't his style to go against it. For Bill, it only left the possibility that his lab got infiltrated, and that, whoever was there, they didn't value their safety as their first priority. Many groups could have an interest in getting their hands on his discoveries; mainly rivals research groups and criminal organisations. It was his duty to make sure it wouldn't happen, the world not yet ready for what he invented. And duty called for a desperate safety protocol.

Running to his closet, the man quickly pulled out his protective suit. Complete with the boots, the gloves, the helmet, the independent breathing system, this relatively light suit could protect him against most types of volatile toxics products. It may seem too much, but if someone had touched his machine, and broke it in any way, even if making the slightness dent, diverse toxics and radioactive substances could fill the air, turning the lab into a deadly gas chamber. To complete the protective set, Bill searched into his drawer, taking out his prized gun. With pokemon to protect people, guns are rare and not actively used by any coercive force, all preferring pokemon to firearm weaponry in most normal cases. This wasn't a normal case thought, and not having a gun against a possible criminal organisation using them would signify his death. He never had to use it, and hoped he would never have to, but one never had enough protection.

To further prove that theory, he dashed to his personal computer, typed a few commends, setting a timer. If he wasn't able to deactivate within the hour, for any reason, all the data related to Project Ditto would be permanently deleted. One could say it's a bit extreme, but no safety measure was too extreme when protecting vital information. He learned why long ago, and it nearly cost his life and those of hundreds of people, so he wasn't going to let it happen again. Even if this turned out bad for him, he would have done everything in his power to ensure nothing critical happened to his precious research data. It's in that spirit that he ran far from his house's comfort and into the shadowy woods, ready to face anything.

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Somewhere, a man was sleeping without any constraint, rocked by the soft wind blowing on his body, the grass stroking his arms and the sun warming his belly, in the beautiful scenery of an endless field, with mountains and forests standing far away, like a natural barrier, separating this green paradise from the rest of the world. It was almost too perfect to be true. And you knew it was when the man sleeping in the middle of this lost heaven was Rick.

Yet, he wasn't alone. Next to him, a creature was staring at his unconscious body, curiosity filling its dilated black eyes, stopping at times to lick its yellow paws and clean them. Three-clawed feet, red cheeks cracking with static electricity, long black-tipped ears, and thunderbolt-shaped tail; the creature was easily recognized as being your common pikachu, a rodent known for looking cute in most situations, and being a social creature, making the joy of many pet owners in Kanto and few trainers. In the wild, however, most wild pikachu are not naturally open to human contact, but this one apparently didn't mind to do so. Pushing the dare further, the rat thought it would a good idea to awake him, using a method you wouldn't expect from it. He silently crawled to Rick's left ear and whispered softly in it, using a masculine, cold and emotionless voice. "Rick… Wake up. It's no time to sleep. Don't wait until I shock you to do it, or you will know the true meaning of the word pain." he said, adding a few sparks to support the weight of his words.

It was those sparks, with their loud and threatening buzzing, and not the words, who awoke Rick. He acted instinctively, hiding his face with his hands to protect himself from the upcoming attack. He waited, but it never came. Tentatively opening his eyes, he calmed himself almost instantly at the sight of the friendly-looking pokemon. "Hey… Hi! Aren't you a cute little pikachu?"

In response, the creature didn't even blink, keeping that cold face, and equally cold tone of voice. "You have nothing more brilliant to say? Look around you…" he stated, pointing around him with his paw. "Don't you notice anything strange?"

Rick did as the chu said, not at all impressed by the pokemon ability to talk to him, and tried to find something suspicious in that beautiful, but empty field, but nothing stood out. Finding this pikachu annoying, he returned his rude language. "If I don't count the fact that you are rather impolite for a pikachu, there is nothing here worth a second glance."

The pikachu ignored his sarcasm and looked at the sky, as if trying to put a meaning on something that escaped both of them. A smile suddenly appeared on his muzzle. "Exactly", he muttered, turning to face the forest far away. "There is absolutely nothing here, like if everything had been sucked into oblivion. Yet, there is a strong disturbance surrounding this place. You have still no idea what you got into this time. But, I'm kind enough to give you a hint. This forest ahead, what does it represent for you and me?"

The question was sudden and in no way related to the subject. That rodent was crazy and Rick wasn't in a mood to listen to his illogical questions. All he wanted to do was laying down in the grass and relax, for those moments were rare with the life he was living. Listening to nonsense wasn't included in the deal. "Bah… It's your home. You are a forest pokemon. Got any other question, Mr. Obvious?"

To his surprise, the pikachu's reaction was a slight taunting laugh, followed by a moment of silence, during which the whole world seemed to have stopped, emptied from any sound or movement, waiting for a message of wisdom from the yellow rodent. "Wrong… our home."

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At his arrival at the complex's entrance, Bill was relieved to find out that the rock surface hiding the entrance was still securely in place and that no one was around. He could eliminate the possibility of an attack by an enemy group, meaning he wouldn't have to make use of his gun, which relieved him even more. Still, he wasn't out of trouble yet. There was still someone inside, and that person didn't force its way in, so it could only be one with the key card... and Rick's hand. It narrowed the choices even more. Unless someone went as far as knocking Rick out and bringing him here, or cutting his hand to get his biometric identification, the culprit of this could only be Rick himself, no matter how unusual it would be from the young intern. Whoever it was, he had no idea about how dangerous it could be in there without proper supervision.

Not wasting anymore time, Bill slipped his key card in the slot and waited for the stone wall to get out of the way, at its usual annoying slow pace. The middle aged man made a mental note of having the option to open it faster when discretion wasn't his first priority. It wasn't practical to wait when someone's life or his data could be in danger. Eventually, there was a crack large enough for him to slip in and access the outdoor computer panel. Using his unlimited access to the system, he displayed, on the screen, the view of the inside camera and other information, like the toxicity levels and such, in order to get a good analysis of the situation instead of diving in the unknown. The camera was programmed to do a horizontal scan of the room and was currently facing the table on the left. The first thing he noticed was that nothing has been moved on his workstation; every piece of electronic was in the same position they were when he left a few hours ago. Maybe it was a false alert after all? After all, the air inside wasn't contaminated and there was no trace of any intrusion.

His hopes were crushed when the camera slowly turned left, displaying the control panel of his machine, its computer screen turned on. Someone had touched his machine! Why would anyone do that? You were talking about an unknown piece of technology with an equally unknown purpose at the first sight here, not your average lab apparatus! The answer to that came quickly, as the content of the pod was revealed, showing the body of Rick, sitting at the bottom of the pod and, worse of all, unconscious.

At the sight, Bill's face crisped in horror. It... It couldn't be happening! Not to him! "Rick!!!" he screamed, pounding madly on the computer's buttons, having a hard time remembering the exact sequence to disengage the automatic locking system that sealed Rick inside the lab and set off the alarm in the first place. He began to sweat as he entered numbers and got repeated errors messages. "Come on! What is that code? It's not the time to have a memory blank!"

He mentally shifted thought every number codes he used, trying to remember the right one, but all could he concentrate on was the sight of Rick, sealed inside the pod. It was worst than all the nightmares he got that night. Rick was facing a fate worse than death and all that stood between him and his savior was that moronic door that refused to open! Bill was losing patience, and his mind became more and more blurred. Then, in a sudden flash, the code appeared in the middle of all that confusion. He entered it, and screen displayed that expected green glow, followed by the melodious sounds doors being unlocked, then opened, granting access to the lab once again.

It was all Bill needed to be rushing down the stairs, motivated to stop the process Rick was undergoing before it became unstoppable. He threw the now useless helmet and gloves away as he throbbed down the stair, his face covered in sweat and his heart pulsing like an uncontrollable machine about to explode. Setting foot on the bottom floor, he reached the control panel next to the pod, not even glancing once at the man inside. Feeling nervous like never before, he dared to look at the screen, and it didn't take more than this to have his breathing stop. The message on the screen was short, but each letter he read was a nail on Rick's coffin: Phase 3 Engaged.

Too late; those were the words clashing in his head. The machine had now started the duty it was programmed for, and he could not stop it. More precisely, he could not stop it without endangering Rick's life more than it already was. True, the machine has only done maybe half of tenth a percent of all it has to do, a number so small that it could be ridiculous, but this particular machine was slowly reconfiguring his body, changing him into something else. There was no intermediate state where it could be paused. When you considered that monkey's DNA was 98 of human's, and, yet how different they where; you knew that 99,95 of human's DNA was inhuman enough to destroy the fragile equilibrium of the body and cause illnesses, like cancer, that would lead to the young man to death if left in that state. Stopping it was too dangerous and reversing it was not something that was doable at the current time. Bill resigned himself to look a little bit more down the screen, at another word flashing on the screen. It really too late, for, in twelve hours, the man asleep in the pod would be no more, and the yellow body of a male pikachu will have taken his place.

It was too much to take for the scientist, the guilt weighted too much on his shoulders. Lost in thoughts, he took a few steps back from the machine, his eyes blankly fixing the floor, the rest of his body soon following in a single fall, his whole world having felt apart. How could this have happened? Why in the world Rick entered the lab at this hour? Was the guy ignoring was he was getting into? No... He couldn't put the blame on Rick, it was too easy. Everything happening was his fault. He should have deactivated Rick's key card for the night, while he wasn't in the lab, and his machine should have been securely shut down and disconnected to prevent its reactivation my mistake. It was simple safety measures that would have prevented this, but his confidence in Rick had blinded him. Even so, his security system was a failure. It was good in theory, optimized to prevent the thievery of his data, but it lacked the human aspect in practice. Having a monitor to the lab's camera inside his house would have saved all the trouble he went through to prepare himself, gaining at least five crucial minutes that could have been used to save Rick.

Save Rick… it was much of an exaggeration, since the man was, really, pretty safe in the machine. Its analysis made sure the required transformation would be almost risk-free before attempting it. Rick should survive the change, even if it was never tested yet on a human. But if his physical survival wasn't on the line, someone could wonder why he was panicking like this. There were details about his machine still left uncompleted and potentially dangerous for Rick. Despite this, he still had something he could do to help him. He couldn't stay there, blaming himself, when he had a way to maybe make the best out of this situation. If science stabbed him in the back with Rick's misfortune, he could do it too.

Rising on his feet, he stared at the many pieces of electronics scrambled on the table as he removed tears from his eyes. His transformation device wasn't the only project he was currently working on and, on this table, was one of the others projects. It was supposed to be a miniature translator, able to translate the pokemon language, but the translator itself wasn't completed. One of his collaborators, Kris Selim, was working on it. Kris was young, at 16 years-old, but his skills in electronics convinced him to share with the youth some of his projects, under false purposes to keep the secrecy of them. The translator was still at an early state, but Bill would ensure it would work at soon as possible, even if it only had the ability to translate the pikachu language. Nonetheless, the current lack of the translator wasn't altering at all the importance of the device, which contained other features that could be useful. It was only matter of making it work. He didn't know if he would be able to complete it before Rick woke up in his new form, but it was worth the try. He sat on his chair and he started to work on it, while constantly checking Rick to monitor his transformation. The minutes slowly became hours, Rick looking less and less like a human and more like a pikachu. This was going to be a long day...

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"Our home." said the pikachu in a calm voice, his ears pecked up, as if to listen to the magical sounds of the forest far away, a melody that shined by its total absence. Rick looked intently at him, wondering how a pikachu could be so crazy. Not only that forest is the farthest thing you could consider a home, but that pikachu had shown no sign he was joking, not even the feeblest hesitation in his voice as he said that. It was like he said that the sky was blue and the sun yellow; a fact so obvious that even the most idiotic Magicarp would have approved. The poor man was torn between bursting in laughter and getting away from him. In the end, he chose to wait for another reaction from the deranged rodent.

While he waited, the human felt an itching on his arms, forcing to rub his arms against his side, attracting the chu attention, who turned to him with a large devious smile on his face. "Feeling scratchy in the arms? I wonder why it is so?" he stated arrogantly "Maybe it haves something to do with the yellow fur growing on them, don't you think?"

Yellow fur... What else that rodent would invent? One thing was sure: he wouldn't look at his hands. This pikachu could only be joking, and this was certainly only a plan of it to make him panic so he could laugh in his face after. After all, pikachu are known for being playful creatures; a bad temper wouldn't change that fact. Yet, despite all his efforts, even his pride couldn't stop the disturbing sensation on his arm; it felt as if his arm's hairs were pulled one by one by pincers, the pain propagating in others parts of his body as seconds passed; each one feeling like an eternity.

Failing to resist the urge, he glanced at his left arm, the glance turning into a horrified stare at the sight of patches of yellow fur growing on them. "What the…? What is this? My arm! It… it… it have fur!" Setting his eyes away it, he noticed that the pikachu was now sitting in the grass with a small grin, looking contented. How dared this thing to have pleasure in seeing him suffer? He couldn't be so insensible, unless… unless he was the one causing it! Ignoring the growing pain in his chest, he walked toward his tormenter, fire glowing in his angered eyes. "What did you do to me? What is happening?"

Electricity produced by the rodent's cheeks, followed by an intense electrical breakdown shoving the man in the grass, was his immediate reply to that question. A verbal one came next, displaying no sign of anger at accusation, but rather a strong deception. "I didn't do anything wrong. If someone here have a fault to admit, it can only be you. To each crime its punishment and you are experiencing yours as we speak. I told you there was a disturbance in here, but did you listen? No! Such surprise is the prize of your ignorance. I hope you will enjoy it." He stopped for a moment to clear his throat then added. "Oh, by the way, you didn't say anything when I said your home was the forest. Between you and me, I think the fact is not so fallacious anymore, hey?"

Paralysed by the electricity and weakened by the pain of his own body, Rick didn't reply. He wanted so much to tear off the head of the pokemon and put it on a spear, but all he could do was crawling on the ground in pain. The fur was covering his body at an alarming rate, torturing his senses screaming for help. Yet, this pain was nothing compared to what would soon ensue as soon the fur would stop to grow, which happened not father than a few minutes later. At this point, Rick was a man covered in yellow fur, although he was well aware that it wouldn't end just like that. As the pain from the itching was vanishing, a new one took its place, taking over his whole body in one, painful strike, so powerful that he would have wished to be death to stop the suffering. It felt like if his bones were melting in acid, his organs twisted in a blender and the world around him was slowly getting bigger.

He wasn't that far from the truth. Under the watchful eyes of the pikachu, most of Rick's body was losing mass; his bones, muscles, organs, every connection reorganized in much smaller form, adapted to his new body. This wasn't the only thing happening, or the pain would have been ten times lesser. Like most of the mammals, the body of a rat was similar to the human's one, the rat having the same organs, about the same muscles, the same number of bones, most of them being different mostly in size. It was the few that needed reshaping which made most of the suffering, the body not prepared to such radical changes, sending signals to the brain in vain hope that something could be done to stop it.

The ears were the first to be morphed, the round ears growing into long, stretched ovals ones, one of the most prominent features of the pikachu body. The bones of the second and fourth toes fused with their neighbour, the five-toed feet becoming three-toed, perfectly adapted for running at relatively high speed for an animal his size. Another transformation in the newly formed paws was the apparition of small, dull claws to replace the nails. The pelvis was twisted and partly fused, allowing a large array of quadruped movements, while leaving just enough space to maintain a limited bipedal standing position. The coccyx gained new bones, creating a slowly growing thunderbolt-shaped tail, a tail destined to be almost the size of the rest of his body. His teeth changed, most becoming duller, meat not being the main food source of the yellow mice. He only kept a pair of sharp teeth in front, mostly for self-defence purpose.

Rick's body nearly had its final shape, the pain diminishing enough to allow him to stand on his hind paws and stared at the other pikachu again, who didn't seem to peaceful and innocent at this size. Rick would have attacked him, but he didn't take into consideration that maybe his transformation wasn't finished. Two organs has yet to be made, only found on the chu bodies, making together his most powerful strength, both physically and mentally. On the outside, they looked like two round patches of red fur on his cheeks, something that most people would find appealing. However, it was only a front to hide a deadly weapon giving able to disable creatures many times bigger that himself. Behind those cheeks, were two pockets filled with electrolytic solutions acting like a capacitor, able to accumulate a large amount of voltage then release a current that could reach a few amps on its target, doing lot of damage in the process. Rick felt his cheeks burn as they uncontrollably switched between producing electricity and releasing it randomly on himself, and around him, as they grew, forcing the other pikachu to step back as the grass around Rick was disintegrated. Slowly, Rick regained control of his cheeks as the pain vanished, now ready to electrocute the other rodent, but fate had another plan. Before he could properly charge his cheeks, his vision blurred and he fell into an empty void, in synchronism with the last words of the rat. "Welcome to my world, Sparktail."

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Syringe in hand and equipped with plastic gloves, Bill injected a paralysing solution into the bloodstream of the mouse on his table to prevent it from waking up. The researcher wasn't in lab's main room anymore, but rather into one of its side rooms, filled with many types of medical equipment, enough to possibly get the title of pokemon center, without its usual cleanness. Many pokemon entered this room, but few came out alive, especially at the beginnings of his experimentation a long while ago, when his machine was still a live threatening technology. As result, some spots, on the wall and furniture, were strained in blood and other internal liquids. Bill didn't clean it all, to help him remember the sacrifices that some pokemon has done in order to help him to discover more about them and that those sacrifices wouldn't be for nothing. Thought, Rick wouldn't have his blood added on that wall, or so he hoped.

A few minutes ago, the transformation process ended, leaving Bill with a pikachu that used to be his best and more trusted assistant. He knew that Rick would awake soon; all pokemon did before when the transformation was completed. However, he wouldn't let Rick wake up without running a battery of test on him, to make sure his body wasn't altered from the transformation and that he would survive. If he wasn't to, he would have no choice but to end the rodent's life, but it would be better for him than suffering the pain of a dying body. While he was there, he would also take the opportunity to run a few additional tests on him, which results would, for sure, pick up the interest of his good friend Samuel Oak. He didn't like to play like this with the live of a human, but, in the critical situation Rick's was, he had no choice but to let his morality lessen and let science do its job.

While he toyed with the small body of the rat, he wondered how Rick will feel when he will wake up. Will he still be Rick? Even if he was, he could already imagine the panic taking over the man when he will realize what had happened to him. It could get nasty if he doesn't have control over his abilities, which he probably won't, and tried to use them. Like always, he would have to be prepared to any eventuality.

His first preparation, as soon he finished his tests on Rick, was to bring the pikachu to his house, a much more comfortable environment than a dark lab for him to have his first experience in the body of a rodent. He also brought objects he knew Rick or a rodent would like or hate. It would be a good way to understand how this new body affected Rick. He then sat on a chair and waited for Rick to regain consciousness.

Which is exactly what was happening right now…