Gary screamed as Pikachu, Wartortle, and an Abra materialized in front of him.
"Keep it down, will ya! Get a load of this guy." Wartortle stretched, raising his arms above his head. "Calm down, Gary. You're going to give us away."
"I—I had no idea you were going to teleport here. An Abra, huh? Smart thinking."
"It's been a while." Pikachu smiled.
"Hi, Pikachu." Gary ruffled around his bag and his pockets, pulling out crumpled papers and Meowth's Pokeball. "You don't have much time to hang around, I guess, with everything going on. So—"
Upon seeing Meowth's Pokeball, Pikachu gasped and tried to ask a question, but it wouldn't come.
"Is he alive?" Wartortle asked this question as if he were asking about the weather.
Gary sighed and knelt on the ground. "If you're asking if he's alive, I don't know. They started the extractor on him, but I stopped it while it was in process. We've never had a Pokemon only go 'halfway.'" Gary ran both his hands through his hair. "He could still be in there; he could be gone. I just don't know. I haven't opened the Pokeball—I wasn't going to do that outside, on the run."
"Gary. I—we—thanks. Really." Pikachu wanted to say more, but she couldn't find the words.
"I don't deserve it. Really. For how long I went along with this—"
Wartortle frowned. "—We should really get moving."
"Ah, yeah, you probably have to get back." Gary sighed. "I want you to give these to Ash."
Pikachu peeked around the stack of wrinkled papers Gary had placed in front of her. "What are these?"
"Um. Letters. Important letters. It would mean a lot to me if he read them."
Pikachu glanced at Meowth's Pokeball, then at Wartortle, who was now pacing. "Of course."
"And—" Gary removed the pendant he had worn for so many years. He held it in front of him, watching the green and yellow stone spin on its black cord. Then, in a swift gesture, he placed it around Pikachu's neck. "—Please give that to Ash as well."
"Are we done?" Wartortle grabbed the Abra by its arm.
"Wait—" Pikachu, with Gary's letters stuffed under one of her arms, craned her neck to look Gary in the eye as he stood up. "What's going to happen to you now?"
"Ha! You're worried about me? Of all people?" Gary put his hands on his hips. "I'm going to lay low in the Orange Islands."
"You could join us."
Gary sighed. "My hands are dirty. I—I can't." He turned around. "Good luck, Pikachu. Pokemon everywhere are counting on you."
Pikachu watched as Gary walked further into the woods. She joined Wartortle and Abra, touching the latter's arm.
"That Gary really knows how to lay on the pressure." Wartortle tilted his head towards the Abra. "Let's go back. Finally."
"On it." The Abra squinted, and the three felt heaviness on their feet as they dropped into the central cavern of Rock Tunnel.
/
Ash ran up to meet them. "What happened? How's Gary? How's—"
Jesse and James brushed past Ash, shoving him to the side. "Where is he!?" Jesse's voice decreased in volume. "Haven't you released him?"
"No. Not yet."
"Why? Is he—" James crouched over Pikachu, examining the Pokeball.
"We don't know." Pikachu set down the letters. "Pikapi, the letters are for you, from Gary. And so is this." She slid the pendant off and held it up to Ash.
"Gary…"
Wartortle leaned against the cavern's wall. "Are we going to open Meowth's Pokeball?"
"Yeah." Pikachu then shook her head. "But I just don't know—"
"I—I'm sorry, Pikachu—but I don't feel an aura here." Ash rubbed the back of his head, eyebrows furrowed. "We'll only know by opening it."
As Pikachu's paw hovered over the release button, Wartortle touched her on the shoulder. "Well, don't get ahead of yourself. You don't know what it's going to be like. At least release him in an area where there's space…you know..."
The mouse nodded. As she moved to a quieter space with Wartortle and the former Rocket duo—Wobbuffet, Arbok, and Weezing trailing behind them—Ash flipped through the letters, eyes scanning the pages. He swallowed, smiled, and shook his head. His expression hardening almost immediately, he returned his focus to the Pokeball in Pikachu's paw. Ash gestured towards Misty and Brock, who in turn signaled Venusaur and Charizard. A small crowd had formed.
Pikachu lowered her tail and pressed the release button. She held her breath.
A flash of red light appeared. But it wavered. And came back again.
"That isn't right," James whispered.
The light began forming into a shape, but it was not that of a Meowth or any other Pokemon. It was blocky, as if a portion of the world had been pixelated.
Jessie "What—"
Ash flipped open Dexter 3.1. It repeated, "Missing No. Missing No. Missing No." The text below the glitched picture read: "No Pokedex entry or number. Unknown Pokemon."
The constant stream of "Missing No." became too much to bear after a few seconds that felt stretched into hours. Misty took the Pokedex from Ash's hands and gently closed it.
Pikachu stood frozen at the "head" of the reddish blocks. Tears blurred her vision, and a helplessness tore at her in a way that it seemed almost familiar—a strange vision of stone flashed in her mind. If this was the in-between, what the machine took from Pokemon…then it was worse than she thought. She had hoped, disgusting as the practice was, that it was all or nothing—the Pokemon was either there or not. Not, not this gradual reduction of spirit, of a very existence.
Pikachu's fur was dampened by her silent crying, and an occasional teardrop fell onto the partially solid distortion below her. The blocky light reacted, brightening up in some spots and dimming in others. The blocks grew smaller and more numerous, as if its resolution were increasing.
"Look." Brock pointed to the form on the floor. The red light dimmed to reveal white fur on a prone form.
Meowth's eyes blinked open, then closed again. "Pikachu?" It was the first time Pikachu—or any of the others—had heard him speak in Pokemon.