Pikachu hated waking up early, and she hated waiting. "It's 7:00 a.m., right?" Human time was so exact it was unnatural—difficult to follow, but at least it was universal. The light was right, and the sounds were right for early morning. Venusaur used a vine to point to a small figure ducking under a low tree branch.
"So he did come, after all." Wartortle crossed his arms.
"Yeah, good." Pikachu shook her head a bit to stay awake. "We're over here, Meowth!"
"You coulda picked a more accessible location, ya know."
"You didn't bring Team Rocket, right? Nobody followed you?" Pikachu peered behind him.
"Okay, one, we're not Team Rocket no more. Two, it's just me."
Charizard started walking, calling back, "Let's just do it, already!"
"Do what?"
/
The group of five hiked a few minutes to the TV and radio station just north of Pallet Town.
"He's entering the building! Let's go!" Venusaur used his vines to tap Pikachu's back, urging her forward.
They chased after a man in a white lab coat—Professor Oak—and followed him into the lobby.
Professor Oak, hearing footsteps behind him, turned around. "Oh, hello there! Venusaur, Charizard, Wartortle—I didn't know you were back in town." He crouched down to Meowth's level? "And who's this? Looks like that Team Rocket's Meowth who's on all the wanted posters…"
Meowth took a breath and opened his mouth, but a searing shock to his shoulder stopped him before he could get any sound out.
"Don't say anything in human yet."
"Uh, Meeee-owth!" He sat on the ground and licked his paw, hoping to cement the act.
"Aw, you must not be him, though! Now, did you all want to see 'Pokemon Talk' live?"
"Pika-pika!" Pikachu nodded.
"Well, follow me," the professor chuckled. "I bet Ash is sleeping in today."
They followed Professor Oak into the studio. Charizard ducked under the light fixtures, muttering, "This better be worth it."
A woman, DJ Mary, took her seat on the set. Professor Oak combed his hair, checked it in a mirror, and then sat down next to her.
"Meowth, stay close to me." Pikachu ran up to the set on all fours and tugged on Professor Oak's pant leg.
"Oh, would you like to be a special guest on today's show? And you too, Meowth?"
Pikachu nodded. She glanced at Meowth and whispered, "When it's time, just repeat everything I say, except in human."
Meowth opened his mouth to make a snide remark—oh, of course he was only useful to them as a translator—but decided against blowing their cover. He squinted against the blinding lights to see Charizard, Venusaur, and Wartortle sitting behind the cameraman. Wartortle flashed a thumbs up.
A voice from an intercom spoke: "We are live in three, two, one…"
"Hello! And welcome to 'Pokemon Talk' with Professor Samuel Oak and me, DJ Mary. We also have special guests today: Pikachu and Meowth! What's 'Pokemon Talk' without Pokemon, right? Well, today's topic of conversation is the migration of Jumpluff among several regions." DJ Mary's voice was sing-song and bright. She smiled at the camera.
Professor Oak nodded. "That's right, Mary. The movement of Jumpluff often correlates to allergy season, so if you sniffle around this time every summer, you may want to pay close attention. Now, the Jumpluff move with wind currents, and this can be predicted by the Weather Institute in Hoenn—"
"Piii—" Pikachu grabbed the tiny microphone taped to Professor Oak's chin.
"Pikachu, what are you doing? Give that back. Sorry folks, it looks like we're having some technical issues here…"
"Now." Pikachu held the microphone between herself and Meowth. She took a deep breath, recalling the speech she had repeated in her mind so many times: "Pi, Pikachu pi pika pi chu—"
Meowth gulped. Translating on the spot for Jessie and James was hard enough, but to do so with such high stakes in front of a television audience truly flustered him. "Hello, we would like ta address both Pokemon and humans about an, uh, issue dat concerns us all—"
"It is the Team Rocket Meowth! Get him off the show! Turn him in!" Professor Oak lurched to take the microphone back, but before he could do so, Venusaur's vine whip had his arms bound.
/
Ash poured some cereal and milk for breakfast and joined his mother on the couch.
"You're up pretty early, Ash! It's a few minutes after the hour, but I think we can still catch 'Pokemon Talk,' if you'd like." Delia turned on the television.
"I'd like that." As a child, Ash had watched the show religiously. And while he had given up on Pokemon training, he still enjoyed the culture built around the sport. The scientific jargon was often over his head, but he appreciated trying to learn something new about his favorite creatures.
The show was chaos. Professor Oak was tied down by Venusaur and inaudibly screaming. DJ Mary sat very still with a panicked expression, and Meowth was translating for Pikachu into what used to be Professor Oak's microphone.
Ash stood up.
"Chu, pikachu pipika chuu—"
"Pokemon around da world are being used for your energy. Electricity all over the world is, uh, supplemented by infinity energy, which is…it comes from our…bioenergy. It comes from our very lives."
Delia stiffened. "This isn't right…"
"I don't know what they're doing or what they're talking about, but Pikachu needs me!" Ash put on his frayed baseball cap. He ran out the door, not planning on stopping until he reached his best friend.
/
Professor Oak continued shouting and struggling against Venusaur. "They're not supposed to know! They're not supposed to know! Get them to stop! Mary, do something! Code Bitter Berry!"
"—We ask you to put a stop to dis. Whether a Pokemon is a powerful battler or a common, low-level normal type, no one should be used and thrown away like an object…" Meowth looked over at the raving researcher and hesitated.
Wartortle gestured for him to go on. "You have his microphone, Meowth. They can't hear him."
"And so we, representing all da Pokemon of da world, beg humankind to put an end—"
"Mary! Snap out of it! Say, 'Code Bitter Berry!'"
DJ Mary swiveled in her chair, still taking in the scene. "The Meowth can talk?"
"Yes, yes, it's a long story, but just say, 'Code Bitter Berry!'"
"Code Bitter Berry?"
There was a clicking sound that echoed through the studio. The lights, one by one, turned off.
"—to infinity energy once and for…What happened to da lights? What's da deal?"
Pikachu looked to Professor Oak, who was calmly smiling now. "He knew!? Professor Oak knew!? This whole time!" Her whole body tensed with static.
"You can release me now, Venusaur." Professor Oak waited. "Now, now, Pikachu, you're a Pokemon, of course you wouldn't understand…"
"Don't release him yet."
"It's about the greater good. Don't you see how the good from infinity energy outweighs the bad?"
"Like murder! What outweighs that?"
"She says it's murder, and I says it's murder too." Meowth took a step towards the professor.
"It's not murder…you see, Pokemon aren't people, so—"
Meowth drew out his claws. "We're not people, so it doesn't matter! Did ya hear dat? I can't believe dis guy."
Pikachu's fur bristled. Professor Oak, the man who had adopted her from the forest, who had cared for her, who had given her to Ash…he didn't see her as a person, as her. She closed her eyes, trying her best to ignore the twisting, sinking feeling in her gut. "Venusaur—please, just—just stun spore him for now."
DJ Mary looked to her now-incapacitated co-host and put her hands up. "Please don't hurt me!"
Charizard stood in front of her, blocking her exit. "What about her?"
Pikachu shrugged. "Let her go. She doesn't have anything to do with this."
Mary ran to the glass doors, only to find they were locked. She started ramming into them.
Wartortle made his way to the doors, trying to calm the woman down. After failing to open the doors as well, he called across the room, "We're locked in!"
"Move!" Charizard shot a flamethrower at the doors, blasting them off their hinges. Mary flailed and made her way to the lobby.
"I did not sign up for dis!"
Wartortle motioned for the others to follow him. Venusaur released a recovering Professor Oak, and prodded Meowth forward. Charizard, after a moment of thought, decided to set a camera on fire for good measure. Oak hobbled towards the entrance.
Pikachu froze. It shouldn't have happened like this. They were supposed to give the speech, and humans would stop using infinity energy, and it would be over. She centered herself, feeling the lack of electricity in the wiring system.
"What Professor Oak told DJ Mary to say…it must have shut off the power and put the whole building on lockdown." She ran, catching up with the rest of the group. "I don't think we'll be able to get out how we got in."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Wartortle had his face pressed against a window. Outside, multiple Officers Jenny and their Arcanines were outfitted in SWAT gear.
"Release the hostages!" One Officer Jenny held a black megaphone.
"We didn't take dem as hostages!" Meowth pounded on the glass. "We're all locked in!"
"They can't hear you." Venusaur backed up. "I'm going to dig our way out of here."
"Before that—" Pikachu looked to Charizard. "Fire blast this door first. Let them out."
"Even our 'old friend'?"
Pikachu tried to hide her growing bitterness. "Yeah, let him go." It was the right thing to do, and hopefully this would let the Officers Jenny know that they didn't want to hurt anybody.
/
Ash weaved his way through the growing crowd in front of the station.
"Young man, this is a hostage situation!"
"That's my Pikachu!"
"That Pikachu is not registered with any trainer."
"I released her last year."
"Then you have no relationship with her."
"That's not true!"
He stood on his toes to see over the mob: Charizard stood in a fighting stance behind the glass. He sprinted towards the doors.
"Stop! You're under arrest!"
Under the cover of a moderately-controlled fire blast, Ash managed to enter the building as Professor Oak and Mary escaped.
"Pikapi!"
"Pikachu, what was all that about?"
"We'll tell you later twerp, right now we gots to make our exit." Meowth pulled Ash's wrist and led him towards Venusaur's tunnel.