Author note: Here's chapter 15 (check number again) Yup! 15! It gets confusing when all the story has been written and I run left and right to review, revise, proofread different chapters. As usual, review responses for chapter 14 are on my blog, of which is my homepage link in my profile. It would be nice to get new people to comment there. That's all I had to say. Have fun with this chapter. The next one might come sooner than expected.
Chapter 15: Friendly Shelter
Cuddled against the protective dirt walls of his temporary home, Sparktail was trying hard to steal a few more minutes of sleep. He wasn't physically tired, his body having everything it needed to function properly, but he was emotionally weakened. Even if he wasn't awake to notice just how dire the situation was, his dreams had been nice enough to remind him. They had a lot of them, ranging from good to horrible, from simple to intricately complex. They all had one common theme though: he was always starring in a scenario were he was lost and his life was threatened. The first few dreams had been relatively calm, with little risk involved. He had been collecting fruits, drinking water and playing around to find hidings spots; nothing to scare him off. As the night went on though, his dreams began to include darker elements, such as the presence of predators near his nest and a sudden lack of food. In a few of those, he had perished to a dark fate, but each time he was given another chance until he succeeded and was allowed to tackle another scenario. Those dreams were fast, lasting no more than a minute each, each if them giving some new information about survival. Unknowingly, these apparently harmless dreams and nightmares were drastically altering his mind. As he dreamt, he was being rewired to be more effective and to stand a chance against the steep odds Mother Nature would throw at him. At the end of the process, there would have been nothing left of his humanity. Fortunately for Rick, the brainwashing sequence of dreams wasn't allowed to finish.
Not far from his tree, another Pikachu was having his own share of problems. During the night, humans had made a lot of noise around his colony and waken up almost all of the colony. To prevent panic, a few warriors had scouted the grounds surrounding the colony to make sure that this noise didn't mean any trouble, but two of them hadn't returned. They had each scouted individually in two different areas and nobody could tell what exactly had happened. Maybe they were just lost… or maybe they had fallen asleep in a hole somewhere. Usually, lost Pikachu weren't rescued, but strong warriors couldn't be lost. If their number became too small, the colony would become defenseless and they would all die. The search party was made of weaker individuals, whose loss wouldn't be a catastrophe, should danger still be afoot. This male Pikachu however, was in his own category. He wasn't a weak food gatherer but he had insisted on being part of the mission. The Elder had been reluctant to let him go, but it was hard for the old Raichu to say no to Strongclaw, the next Elder of the colony, his son and easily the strongest warrior in the colony. Strongclaw wasn't the Elder yet, but he had all the powers and authority of one. His words were law around here. His reason to be a part of this was personal. One of the two warriors was the only living parent of a young Pichu and one of his good friends. If they didn't find him, the poor pichu would be having some trouble very soon… and he would probably have to be the one to proceed to the ritual. He wouldn't let another little one be parentless. He would explore every inch of the territory to find his friend… twice if he had to. Fellow Pikachu didn't vanish without any reason. There had to be something to explain it, and he would find whoever was responsible for it. If another party foiund it before him, he would be close enough to protect the party from harm. Either way, such a feat would be a free ticket to the Elder position.
Strongclaw was thinking about turning around to explore another part of the territory as he was reaching its limit, when the scent of another Pikachu reached his sensitive nose. Initially, he was convinced that he had found his friend, since it seemed impossible to have another Pikachu so far from the colony, but a further analysis of the scent revealed that it didn't belong to any known Pikachu in the tribe. Personally, he would have preferred to have found his friend, but this male Pikachu would be as good as any other one, no matter who he was. If this newcomer could be convinced of joining the colony, it would be a day of celebration. Seeing Pikachu and Pichu vanish every now and then around the colony, victims of the predator's claws, was something common. Newcomers, however, were something a tad rarer. Since there was no other tribe around to provide new members, and humans came around and took members as well, it was hard to get fresh new blood into the group. The last outsider to join was older than Strongclaw, which showed just how rare they were. One would think that being like a closed circle would make them tightly knitted and wary of newcomers, but it was the complete opposite. It wasn't only by kindness that Pikachu seemed warm and welcoming creatures, they also needed it for their group to survive. Pikachu tribes weren't seen fighting for land like other pokemon did. Instead, they would stay at relative peace and help each other in case of a deadly attack from predators.
For Strongclaw and his colony, there was no other tribe nearby and no free population boost, so his first priority was to find and convince this new mouse to come with him, no matter how long it took. Declining his offer would simply not be an option. This male was needed and he would join the colony. But first, Strongclaw had to locate him. This was the easy part for an experienced warrior like Strongclaw. Following the other male's scent, the mouse swiftly hopped over branches, crawled under roots and slid under the bushes, with speed and agility that was remarkable for the species. This was the gift of strength, given by the Great Elder, which made the warrior a leader and destined him to be the next Elder of the colony, when his peers judged that his father no longer deserved the position anymore. His strength, while mostly a result of favorable genetics, was also the consequence of a special training he had received since the day it had been decided that he would follow his father's path, when he was still a very young Pichu. This training was not only to make him strong, but to make him much stronger than the nearest competitor so his position would never be challenged. There was simply no place for two Pikachu at the top of the hierarchy.
After one minute of acrobatics, the strong and agile Pikachu found his target. Ahead, between two large roots and in what seemed to be a shallow hole in the dirt was peacefully sleeping the unknown Pikachu. From what Strongclaw could see, the Pikachu didn't look hurt in any way. True, he seemed to have a few bruises, but what Pikachu didn't? They were exposed day and night to a rough environment and its thousands of ways to hurt them. Seeing those bruises on a fellow Pikachu was good news. They were the marks of effort, of hardship; nothing could teach a Pokémon more than experience could. This Pikachu had made his mistakes and it was all well; he wouldn't make them again, saving precious time for the colony. If only Strongclaw had known what this Pikachu was really all about, then maybe he would have chosen a different path. He would have avoided a lot of trouble with a rodent that didn't know more than a Pichu about how to live in the wild. Then again, if he had really known that… maybe Sparktail would never have had to worry about his humanity ever again. Would it really have been better? Maybe to his Pikachu mind it would have been, but there was actually no way to predict the consequences of any action. No event could be relived twice, no choice changed. Once something was done… it was done. There was no turning back. For Strongclaw and Sparktail, it was a new chapter of their lives that would unfold as the result of one harmless and innocent action: nudging his head against the body of sleeping chu. "Hey… wake up, brother. The ball of light is high in the great blue. There are better things to do than sleeping. Wake up…"
At the touch, a flow of electrons traveled from one body to the other, creating an electric current across their bodies and an electro-magnetic field around them. The waves interfered with Sparktail's brain, creating chaos where there had been an attempt for order. His network of neurons fell into a state of disorder and his patterns of thought broke down. Like when a power failure interrupts a download, the massive amount of information that was carefully being stored became corrupted and was left with a few flaws in its functional structure, leaving him with half a pikachu mind. With this failure came the end of the dreams and the beginning of a strong headache coming from the center of his brain, more than enough to alert him that something was going horribly wrong. Sparktail woke up immediately, jumping straight into a sitting position like if he had just lived the worst of nightmares. Indeed, he had barely survived the worst nightmare a man could ever live, the complete loss of his identity. There was no telling if this would happen again, under another stressful situation in the future, but his identity was still in one piece, if only drawn deeper inside his mind. His mind was a secret battleground, for Sparktail wasn't consciously aware of this internal war pitting his instincts against his humanity, each side led by a leader that refused to give an inch. All he was on the outside was the result of that war, the mirror of a fight that was close to tilting irreversibly to one side. Moments ago, this consciousness was shut down and awaiting its new program, but now it was back with the feeling that something not fun had happened. On his face, could plainly be read confusion and instinctual worries, but should one have stared into his eyes, they would have seen an empty void in them. The flame that lit them was now only an insignificant little dot in the darkness. Such a sight would have horrified a gifted individual, but to Strongclaw, it was nothing worth mentioning. His pikachu brain couldn't see farther than the confused body and the need of comforting. Lowering his body to look less imposing and friendlier, Strongclaw nudged the Pikachu again, then looked up at him and smiled. "I found you sleeping under the tree and I wanted to wake you up. It's not safe to sleep outside alone. Big creatures are around and they could hurt you. You should sleep in a nest, it would be better." He advised the confused Pikachu, convinced that his gentle words would reach him.
He had been right about them reaching him, but they didn't produce the desired effect. Instead of calming down the rodent, it made something snap in his mind. At hearing the word "alone", the events of the past hours roll back in front of his eyes, like if he was watching a movie for the first time ever. Before he saw the whole thing, he reached an obvious conclusion. "Alone? No! It can't be! I need Jen! Where… where did they bring her? I need her to be around! It's important! I can't… I can't… No!" he shouted like a deranged creature, gripping on the other's shoulders with his paws, trying to shake him as he spoke. "Help me, Psywave! Help me! You were always there to save me. Help… ME!! NOW!"
Offended by the crazy rodent and his tentative to hurt him, Strongclaw took a few steps back, his cheeks sparking angrily. No pikachu gave him orders! Not to him! He gave orders and took decisions, not the other way around. He didn't know who this Psywave was, nor did he care. He had seen enough battles, enough horrors to know when something wouldn't affect him in the long run. This Pikachu was scared, but he would force that fear out of him. There was no place for fear in the heart of the strong, no place for weakness in the body of those who wanted to survive. The past didn't matter and relations with other didn't either. What this other Pikachu had lived before, those he had known and respected, all this needed to be forgotten. The past had only one function, and it was to teach them not to repeat it. The rest… it wasn't any more useful than a Pikachu without electricity. The panicked mouse would have to understand that, right here, right now. Rising back on two paws, the larger and more powerful Pikachu towered over Sparktail, his voice loud and crushing. "I am not this Psywave you are talking about, nor have I heard of him. I am Strongclaw, son of the Elder, and your leader. I don't know this Jen, but you don't need her around anymore. If she's gone, then she's gone. You can't stay here and be scared. The past is behind you. We are in today and today you must survive. If you want to do that, you must have a nest. If you think this hole is a fine nest, good luck. If you want better, come with me and I will show you our colony. There are plenty of nests and it's safe from predators. Either way, you must decide now, because I have duties and no time to waste."
The strong, powerful words of Strongclaw shook the air around him, and then… only silence remained. He had left Sparktail with only two choices, neither looked good. The decision couldn't be made in a rush, as it implied too many consequences. He hadn't even fully realized that he was alone in this world, away from the people he liked, that he was already asked to forget about them and to walk down the path nature had traced for him. He hadn't had the time to really know his first friends before they were cruelly taken away from him. The choice this Pikachu offered didn't need to be analyzed thorouggly to be understood. Either he was gripping on something that would drag him down to hell, or he could free himself of this burden and start a new life. If he dug deeper into the dilemma, the real question was: was it worth living without Jen at his side? Rationally, the answer was yes. Jen had only provided him food and a nest, both which would easily be replaced if he decided to follow Strongclaw. Even the stupidest Pikachu could do much better than Jen when it came to teaching about living in the wild. In matter of raw knowledge and skills, Jen could never replace the real thing. Emotionally, however, the answer wasn't so one sided. Most of his mind agreed that she could be forgotten, but a part of him still held onto the concept that she represented something more than just a provider of food. It was that part that had made him panic about being alone, that part that made him doubt, that part that was trying to warn him about the consequences of his choice, but it was also the only part that had nothing to back up its claims. It was only a feeling that something was wrong, nothing more. The logical reasons behind this feeling were hidden at the same place his humanity had taken refuge, so deeply that it seemed inaccessible. In the end, it was this silence, this lack of motivation for his humanity to resurface in those times of trouble that weighted more in the balance and consolidated his choice. Smiling in spite of himself, the Pikachu gave a reassuring glance at Strongclaw, mildly impressed by his stature. "Yeah... you're right. Jen is useless. I don't need her. Is your colony far from here? Because I don't like to walk a lot and I'm a bit tired. Oh... by the way, my name is Sparktail."
The Pikachu raised a paw at Strongclaw, widening his smile. A good pawshake would show his good will, or so he thought it would. Reality had been vastly different from his expectations. Instead of shaking his paw, Strongclaw tilted his head for a short moment, pondering the meaning of this strange gesture. Pawshakes weren't known to Pikachu, at least, not under this form. The meaning behind the gesture was known, but implemented differently. To express good will, two pikachu would nudge their noses again each other instead of shaking paws. This let them smell their kin and detect in their smell the elements of comfort and pleasure. A Pikachu could hardly hide in its body odor a feeling of discomfort, whereas a human could easily make a handshake look honest when it wasn't. It was the way it worked in the wild; gestures were primitives, but left no place for interpretation. There wasn't a grey zone. It was either black or white, either true or false. Since Strongclaw didn't know about the pawshake, he wasn't allowed to take a guess. If he didn't know, he could either ask about it or ignore it completely. Being short on time, he deemed it a priority to bring Sparktail at the colony with the shortest amount of delays possible, so the ignoring option would be the most effective to fulfill this need. His answer to the pawshake was to turn around and began to walk away. "Good. The colony is not that far. This way, Sparktail. Follow me."
Sparktail blinked a few times, unsure about what he just had witnessed. It Strongclaw's goal was to kill his mood, he had succeeded. It was as if the pikachu didn't care about his pawshake, or even didn't know what it meant. Why wouldn't he? It was a simple pawshake! He knew about it, Sunny and Jen knew about it and Kagai... well, Kagai didn't know, but she was only a stupid Umbreon, so Sparktail had never expected any less from her. But for a fellow chu not to know that, it was revolting. Chu were intelligent and they knew stuff. He had never seen another Pikachu himself before, but he knew stuff, so it was only logical that every Pikachu should know it. They wouldn't be good Pikachu if they didn't, because he did and he was a good Pikachu. Well... he was more like a good Pikachu with his share of faults, but nothing really big. The point was, if Strongclaw didn't know about something as simple as a pawshake, what else didn't he know? He had been tempted to ask immediately, but seeing Strongclaw disappear in the foliage was enough to make him panic and forget about all that to focus on gaining back that distance between the two of them. With his front paws back on the ground, he ran after his tour guide. "Hey, wait! Not so fast! What, do you think I am a Pichu? I'm not that quick." he ranted, quickly taking a spot beside him, making sure to stay a few inches behind to respect his position as a hierarchical superior. He had seen earlier how Strongclaw reacted badly to having his authority threatened and he didn't want to push his luck any more than was needed.
Strongclaw raised an ear at his comment about speed. He wasn't able to follow him when he was walking? This was... strange, to say the least. The first thing he had noticed about this Pikachu was a certain aura of power. It was hard to describe, but it felt like pure electric energy was flowing in Sparktail's veins. His sensitive sixth sense could tell him that this Pikachu wasn't like any other, energy-wise. His body accumulated more energy than needed and was constantly redistributing it around his body, as if it was trying to contain something. And yet... it didn't look like Sparktail was storing electricity. His cheeks weren't sparking. It was possible, even highly possible, that Sparktail could release a stronger charge than he could produce, which would give him an tremendous advantage over every other pikachu, including himself. Of course, Sparktail would never be able to beat him in a fair close combat fight, so he didn't have to fear about his position as the future Elder being threatened anytime soon. "If you can't follow me, then you need training. Having a nest and food isn't enough, you also need power and strength to survive. You smell like a powerful warrior, but you don't look like one. If it takes training to make you strong enough to defend yourself and the colony as a warrior, I will have to give it to you. Nobody goes to waste."
At this game of words and confusion, it was Sparktail's turn to be surprised. It wasn't so much about the matter of training than the fact that Strongclaw saw in him as a powerful warrior. Sparktail didn't consider himself a warrior. Heck, he did not even think of himself as a creature able to hold his ground against a baby rattata. Hearing such praise from a Pikachu that looked and sounded experienced raised some doubts in his mind. There was nothing better than a Pikachu to tell another Pikachu how strong he was. He could be a bad judge of himself, but how unlikely was it that others were wrong too? From his point of view, it didn't seem to make sense that he could be seen as having some kind of power. Because he was stopping himself, he couldn't use his own his sixth sense to feel his level of energy and compare it to others, which made him feel very vulnerable. There was nothing worse for the confidence of a chu than not being able to feel itself. It was like walking in a room blindfolded. Very uncomfortable and worry-prone. Sparktail had succeeded in toning down those worries by telling himself that he was weak and that it was alright if he didn't reach some level of strength, since it wasn't that useful before. Here however, it was a different game and a different set of rules. Here, his sixth sense would have to be used if he didn't want to live in perpetual worry. But he couldn't... not after the incident in the clearing... the one that hurt his head a lot. Though, maybe this Pikachu could tell him more about this sense and how to control it. "Training could be fun, but... I don't want to train my body. I want to train that sense we have to detect energy. I can't use it right now, because it hurts and gives me voices in my head when I do. It's not fun... so I--"
"...so you keep the light inside you." interjected Strongclaw, glaring at the smaller rodent with a worried look. "It's not good, very not good. I don't know how you do, but keeping the light inside you should hurt. It's a very bad thing to do. It's very important that you learn to release it, even if it hurts. If you don't, the Great Elder you won't be pleased and you will become slower and less powerful. I heard from the Elder that if you keep it inside for too long you..." he suddenly lowered his voice, was if trying to prevent anyone else from listening to his words. "...you fall into the sleep from which you never return." he told Sparktail, almost shivering at the thought of it.
Sparktail glanced at Strongclaw, holding his breathe, almost as if he was restraining himself from laughing at the other chu. It wasn't that Sparktail didn't believe him, but there was something childish about the way he said it, like if he was talking about a parent telling him not to kick a wall with his foot because it would hurt. The concept of a Great Elder was also unknown to him, but, judging by the way that Strongclaw talked about it, it felt like it wasn't a physical entity, but a conceptual deity that watched their every move. It was unlikely for a normal Pikachu to check over his people and punish them for restraining their electricity and making themselves sick. The most solid proof was the fact that Strongclaw was the son of an Elder and that he wasn't angry at him, but worried and compassionate. But then again, there was something cold and unemotional about the way he had said it, like if he cared about his survival as a unit in a group rather than for his own happiness of being alive. "Umm... right... I will try it with you later. I wouldn't want to make the Great Elder Chu mad at me. Umm... are we there yet? It seems like we have been walking for a long time..." he told Strongclaw, an obvious attempt at changing the topic of discussion. The concept of a deity was bothering for some reason, as if it lowered those Pikachu in his esteem and made them look less intelligent than he wanted them to be.
It was Sparktail's lucky day, because Strongclaw didn't notice the mockery, nor did he feel like there was an ulterior motive for this change of subject. The Pikachu pointed at a small wall of bushes ahead. "It's only behind the walls of food. It's hard to miss." he replied as they approached the bushes and soon went through them. Anxiously, Sparktail looked ahead and gasped. The other male hadn't lied about the colony being hard to miss. It was... impressive. In front of the two Pikachu stood a large valley, relatively speaking. It was about four feet deep and fifty feet square. At the end of the valley, dug into the wall of the small hill and mostly hidden by the roots of a large tree, was a huge opening, about one and a half feet in height, leading to an underground cave. In front of the tunnel were standing two Pikachu, looking around for any suspicious movements. These two were already looking in their direction when they appeared from the other side of the bush, but when they saw him (or most likely Strongclaw), they returned to their original positions, their glances lingering on Sparktail a little, which didn't surprise him at all. He was the new chu around and he didn't expect them to look at him as if he were a close friend. They may have looked at him, but he didn't. His eyes were busy eyeing the other Pikachu walking around the colony, giving more than a second glance to the females. To put it simply, Sparktail was amazed. He had never seen so many Pikachu before, let alone any female ones. There were at least eight Pikachu around, including those guards, and probably more inside and around the place. While he tried not to focus on the females too much, since he didn't want the first thing he did here to be picking a fight with a jealous mate, he walked down the little hill and stepped in the middle of the area. Suddenly, there were eight pairs of eyes that were staring at him, some Pikachu anxious, some attracted by his scent and the most of the rest just being curious. All activity had ceased at this point and Strongclaw was keeping an eye on Sparktail, staying where he was. It was the duty of the newcomer to introduce himself. Sparktail didn't make them wait too much for that and waved his paw shyly. "Err... hi, everyone. I'm Sparktail. I'm going to stay here... I think... and we will all be friends. You know, all that fun stuff." he said in a cheery tone, very unlike him, but fitting the moment.
There had been a short moment of silence, during which the Pikachu looked at each other, looking a bit confused. As was the case with Strongclaw, the waving gesture was also unknown to them and they tried to figure it out. Meanwhile, one of the guards at the entrance had gone into the colony while the other had suddenly blocked the path. It wasn't a move Sparktail had appreciated and he was starting to step back, when the Pikachu around finally decided to forget about the waving and smiled at him, moving closer to him by groups of two. Before he could have taken a serious option on leaving, the Pikachu had surrounded him and blocked his path. They didn't look menacing, with their cute smiles and their innocent looking faces, but their presence around him was scary. It was a fear on an irrational level, the fear of crowds. There were too many chu around for him to feel comfortable and, if Strongclaw was any indication of how a wild Pikachu thought, they probably were thinking strange things about him. Thinking about their thoughts was enough to keep him busy and prevent any talking, but the rodents made it worse by sniffing him curiously, some nuzzling him in ways that he didn't exactly agree on. It was annoying, embarrassing and uncomfortable, but it didn't last too long. It did however, get worse... much worse.
If he thought that eight pikachu were a lot, then he hadn't seen anything yet. From the entrance, emerged many new Pikachu, along with some Pichu, all of all ages and both genders. They came out at a good pace, their number growing until it reached thirty. Those around him backed away, leaving a straight path between him and the entrance. Pikachu were on each side of that path (the Pichu in front) and looking at him with eagerness, as if he was their new toy. Confused at first by the strange ritual and scared by their sheer numbers, Sparktail finally understood what was going on when a large Raichu crawled out of the tunnel. The impressive mouse was almost twice his size, but it had almost four times his age, if not more. He was slow, his fur was pale for a Raichu and his skin was wrinkled in many places. This Raichu was, without a doubt, the famous Elder Strongclaw had talked about, the chu who was also his father, from what he had heard. The chu might have been old, but no one said a word as he walked toward Sparktail, not even the easily excitable Pichu. It denoted a great deal of respect toward their Elder, a respect Sparktail hoped the Elder would have for him. "It is a great pleasure for me to greet you in our home, Sparktail. I am the Elder of this colony, and those around us are my family and now, you are a part of it. I am pleased with your choice of staying here, as is everyone. We are happy to have you among us. May you be useful to the colony." he told him, raising his sharp tail tip above Sparktail and tapping his shoulders gently a few times. "Everyone, please cheer for our newest member, Sparktail!" he shouted at the group. A powerful wave of sounds and cheers emerged from the group, everyone moving happily and cheering his name like if he was some kind of holy god returning from a long voyage. This time, Sparktail didn't have a bad joke, a cheap comment or a subtle insult to say. There was nothing he could say about this, so much it felt special and troubling at the same time. He hated crowds, but loved this feeling of being accepted in a group. When he got the courage to say something, his answer was short, but heavily meaningful. "Thanks..."