Hello all, and welcome to chapter 22 of Life as a Pikachu! I wished this part was longer, but it was better for me to cut it off where it ended and continue in the next part. Anyways, enjoy the next chapter! Please leave reviews, I want to know what you guys think about the story!

It was back to business as usual. The hardest part of the winter was over now and temperatures were rising again. The first pichu were coming, probably within a couple of days the first were born. Lukas' mate, Lola, had some trouble moving around. Her belly had grown to the size of a small bowling ball and she was tired all day long. It couldn't take really long before she had to give birth too.

Lola was a very funny pikachu. Since she was now the mate of the colony leader, she sometimes could be a real bitch. But at the same time she was one of the sweetest pikachu around, trying to help everyone out. Since Lukas was very close to me, it didn't take long for Lola to get close with me too. She was a bit suspicious first, but after awhile (she never was that close to me before) things were quite good between us. Lola loved to be scratched behind her ears just as Lukas and she had taken over Lukas' habit of sleeping next to me at night, but at the same time she wanted to sleep inside the nest (that two-sided character of hers...). It sometimes caused some fireworks between the two pikachu, but nothing really... Unhealthy.

It was the first time this year that we could sunbathe in the spring sun and we were doing exactly that. The sunrays were shining on my face and for the first time this year it didn't feel cold. The rays warmed my face in an relaxing way. On my lap and next to me were a bunch of pokémon that were also enjoying the sun (me, Lukas, Lola, Espeon and a bunch of pichu and just evolved pikachu). Lola had claimed my hands and she lay on my belly in some sort of sideways manner. This to prevent her laying on her belly (uncomfortable) or on her back (her belly would be pushing against her body). She loved the way I held her, which was a special way to prevent too much tension on any place of the pikachu body. Something I had learned from Nurse Joy back in my pokécenter days. Between my legs was Lukas with at least four pichu and against my sides were a couple of pikachu. I wasn't asleep, more like enjoying and dozing in the sun. Espeon was left of me with her head between her paws, clearly sleeping. Lukas, Lola and the pichu were also sleeping and a couple of pikachu were also sleeping. One or two were awake but close to falling asleep. I was thinking about all kinds of stuff... How to handle the new load of pichu, how Cammy would be when I brought her back to Jack and Rosie's nest, how things would go... And if Team Rocket would ever come for Cammy... Some worries I usually never have but this time I just thought about it. Wondering what kind of food I would take... When... Getting it within... A couple of hours... Berries... Apples... Maybe... … … Some... Nice... Sunlight... Warm...

"Pichu-PII!"

"PIKACHU-PI!"

"Pikapikapika-CHUUUUUUUU!"

"Chaaaaaaaa...!"

I quickly sat up to receive a couple of ungentle glares from the pikachu next to me. I had fallen asleep for a couple of seconds and fallen over due to the extra weight of Lola. I had landed on a couple of unaware pikachu which jumped up in response. Lola awoke with a small shock and looked around wondering what happened. She looked at me with dozy eyes before leaning on my chest and falling asleep again with a content sigh. Lukas looked at me (he and the pichu woke up from my action) and then stood up and stretched.

"Let's get something to eat..." he said. "I'm hungry."

"No wonder, you've been busy with those pichu all morning." I said while getting up without disturbing all the sleeping pichu and pikachu. I had Lola in my hands, already deep asleep again. She didn't budge. She liked to take long naps the last couple of days, she was more asleep than awake. And when she was awake she ate a lot. We usually took food for her with us if we were getting some food. I heard some noise behind me. Dang, our silent retreat was noticed and a couple of pichu and pikachu followed us towards my sleeping bag. I placed Lola inside there and covered her up. She got herself comfortable without waking up and continued her sleeping. Lukas quickly watched her before he followed me and jumped my shoulder.

"Let's go to the apple trees!" he said.

"But there aren't any apples yet." I replied.

"There surely are some." he said before he pointed his paw towards the path leading towards the clearing with the apple trees, followed by about four pichu and five pikachu. All pikachu were evolved pichu from last year. It was great to see them grow up and even better to know that I helped them with doing so. Some of the older pikachu looked at me and wondered where I was going, but they didn't really care. I went away more often with some pichu (or rather: the pichu followed me outside the colony as well) and never something went wrong. One time one almost got killed when it annoyed another pokémon, but some quick response from Lukas had prevented that it had been attacked to death by another pokémon.

We were walking through the forest when I looked at Lukas.

"Ever thought about being a dad? It won't be long before you become one." I said to Lukas. He looked at me from my shoulder and then looked down to the ground.

"Well... Yeah... I'm not really sure if I would be a good one..." he said. I gave him a surprised look.

"Why not? You're with pichu all day long! Why would you be a bad dad?" I asked him smiling.

"Well I'm not sure... What am I supposed to do?" he said unsurely. "What if they... What if they don't like me..." he said softly and on a unhappy tone.

"Don't like you?" I said as I stopped. Lukas looked at me from my shoulder. His face was a mixture being unsure and unhappy.

"You really think they won't like you...?" I said, smiling to him.

"I don't know... I feel so... Strange about it..." he said while looking to the ground, evading eye contact with me.

"Oh, don't worry about it." I said smiling. "Just do whatever your body tells you to do and you should be completely fine."

"You think so?" he asked me.

"Of course. That's why they invented instinct." I said, checking the surroundings for potential danger while keeping an eye on the pichu in front of me while we walked in the huge grassland which housed a couple of apple-trees on the other side.

"Instincts?" Lukas asked.

"Yeah, instinct. Something you do in certain situations. Like fleeing or attacking." I said.

"Oh..." he said before I stopped walking.

"Why are you stopping...?" he asked.

"Because we're already there silly!" I said smiling. I looked over the pichu and pikachu as we sat down and enjoyed some sunlight while eating some apples and berries. The pichu loved to move outside the colony to explore other stuff. I already showed them the river, the lake nearby the colony and also this place. They loved it. The grassy lands were a perfect place to play with each other and had very much different scents and stuff to see.

I also played a lot with the pichu here. Teaching them how to find their way home by detecting my scent back to the colony and using their surroundings to find their way back. This is also why almost noone of our pichu got lost... Pikachu didn't seem to teach it to their cubs, but I did and it worked. In my time only a couple of pichu had gone lost, which was not much according to Vera and the other pika-sitters.

I looked at the pichu and a couple of pikachu. Lukas was in the tree on the lookout for any potential predator. He was helped by a couple of pikachu which were very interested in his way of looking around... Or so it seemed. At least they got to know how to watch for themselves.

I looked down. One of the younger pikachu looked at me and smiled in a way that said "Will you come and play?" came to me and pulled my arm, wanting me to come. To be honest, I actually was very grown up for my age. I stopped playing 'childish' games like tag, hide-n-seek and so on quickly when I was young. The pichu were a excellent excuse to play these games even though I was 'grown up'. It didn't matter for me anymore. Even in front of a class full of students I would still play with any willing pikachu now. I stood up and joined the rodents in their game, which appeared to be shock tag. The problem was that I couldn't shock anyone, and they knew that darn well. So every time I got hit by them they laughed at my fake attempts to release electric attacks which would always fail after which I would chase them down. After a small thirty minutes of playing it was time to return to the nest. Lukas gathered all the pichu and pikachu by just one shout from the treetop. We then returned to the colony. As soon we entered the colony we were greeted by a pikachu. He looked at Lukas.

"Lukas, you should get inside." he said quickly. "It's Lola..." he said.

Lukas and me exchanged one more glance before I saw him running inside the nest as quick as he could.

3 weeks later

"Zack, Josh, Julie... Get over here! I've got something for you!" I said as three pichu made their way over to me. They looked at me when I showed them their first apple. They checked it out, sniffed it and pulled some interesting faces. I broke the apple and gave them very small pieces of the fruit. They looked at it with big eyes and then back at me. I just smiled and took a part of the apple myself. That triggered Zack to take a bite of the apple which immediately was followed by almost throwing the rest of his piece of apple in his mouth.

"Jeez, you're just your father." I said as Lukas blushed a bit. Lola giggled at that comment. Both pikachu had brought their pichu outside for the first time about one week ago. Whilst normally they would stay inside for at least three weeks, the weather was so nice today that both pikachu had decided to bring their kit outside the nest earlier. Lukas hadn't been outside for a long time. He only came outside to drink and to get some food, which he practically stole from me. But since it was his first time of becoming dad, I just let him go and take my food. Zack was a more aggressive pichu while Josh and Julie were more gentle and more careful. But all of them were still cute, just as the other pichu that were born. They were the first three to be born, but shortly after Lola more females had given birth to the new pichu of this year. It was great to see and at the same time it was a pain because my job got busier and busier every day. All those pichu had to be trained on the colony life and the colony rules and don't forget that these pichu were younger than their older counterparts. The older pichu (and evolved pikachu) were now used to me and to what I did which meant we could work together flawlessly. The new pichu didn't understand any of those signals and those commands, like when they had to come back to me at once or when they had to hide immediately. The older pichu however had more skills and more experience which made them very loved by the newborn pichu. It was funny to see them showing off some electricity tricks which they had mastered in the past year while the younger pichu watched with amazement.

It didn't surprise me that Oak wanted to see the newborn pichu. He had sent me a text message if he could come and check me over. He also had a surprise for me, he said. I invited him over and told Volt (the leader of the guarding pikachu) that there would be a man in a lab coat coming to see me inside the colony. He nodded in agreement and two days later Oak was coming towards our colony. One of the guards had spotted something suspicious and while he and Volt went out and checked things I had hid myself with the young pichu, just in case. Hiding was one of my best parts now I was with the pikachu and specially since I was with pichu I had to protect. I saw Oak coming towards me. He couldn't see me and even though I was lying right next to him in tall grass, he just walked past me. I stood up without making and sound and the pichu quickly latched into my clothing using their nails. Some followed me on the ground.

"Hello there!" I said with a happy voice.

"WHAAAA!" Oak said as he jumped and looked around.

"Where were you... I couldn't find you!" he said as he looked at me.

"That's exactly what I wanted." I chuckled. "These are newborn, you know... I cannot risk it."

"I see..." Oak said as he looked at me. Pichu were all over my body and a couple of them were trying to climb down or up towards my shoulder or down towards the ground. The rest of them just hid themselves behind my legs and waited what that other scary big human was gonna do.

"You're really..." he said with open mouth. "Really a baby-sitter?"

"Yes, I am. You knew that, didn't you?" I asked him while I grabbed some pichu and put them on the ground as I sat down. Immediately half of the pichu climbed my lap and decided to watch that old man from my lap.

"Yes, I knew that. But not that you were that close to those pichu." he replied.

"Well I am!" I chuckled as we had a nice talk about the pichu. Even Lukas and Lola came to check on Oak. Just as they wanted to leave, Oak suddenly jumped up.

"Hold on Lukas, I want to show you and Maurice something." he said. Lukas looked at me and then at Oak while I did the same. I didn't have a clue what he wanted to show me.

"Remember I said I had a surprise for you?" Oak said.

"Yes..." I said as Oak took out a pokéball and showed me.

"You got Scarlet for me?" I asked happily.

"No, no. Close, but no. Just open it, I'm sure you'll love what comes out." he replied.

"Okay..." I said as I grabbed the pokéball. I threw it in the air and it opened. The white light formed a pokémon. A pikachu, that was clear. When the light was done, there was a... Pikachu in front of me. But no ordinary pikachu. She was white, had purple cheeks and stripes...

"Cammy!" I said. Cammy looked around a bit, spotted me and immediately ran for me and jumped my chest.

"Who-ho-oooooooooooooooooooOOOO" I said as Cammy pushed me over easily making me fall backwards with the pichu in my lap.

"MAURICE!" she almost shouted before I fell backwards. She licked my face at a frantic speed before I pushed her away a bit.

"Down girl- Down!" I laughed as Cammy tried to lick my face again. I grabbed her and sat straight up, holding her.

"Wow, what a beautiful pikachu you became!" I said as I looked all over her. Her eyes were as black as it could be and her body was a very light grey. Her cheeks were a combination of pink and purple as well as the stripes on her back and the colors on the start of her tail.

"Yes, I really love to be a pikachu!" she said as she leaped from my chest and landed right next to me. She looked to the right and saw Lukas. Lukas was kind of frozen while Cammy had jumped me. Cammy realised it was Lukas. The same thing happened. Cammy shouted Lukas' name and then jumped Lukas too, except that she now pulled him into a tight hug.

"Heeee-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-yyy Cammy!" Lukas said as he freed himself from her very firm grip, even though Lukas was clearly bigger than her. "How are you?" he said happily.

"I feel GREAT!" she said as she rubbed her cheek against Lukas cheek and purred. Lukas blushed a bit. This all to displeasure of Lola, who already had enough of Cammy. She came close and pushed Cammy away from Lukas.

"What do you think you're doing with my mate?" she said at a angry tone while she took a defensive stance with her tail high in the air. "He's mine and you're not taking him."

"But I'm..." Cammy said.

"I SAID YOU'RE NOT TAKING HIM!" Lola shouted. This made Cammy quickly hide behind me, sticking her head around my body and looking at me and back to Lola.

"LOLA!" I said with raised voice. Lola almost jumped when I did that. She looked at me with guilty questionable look.

"Cammy is just happy to see Lukas after a long time." I said. "Don't be so harsh on her, she won't take Lukas away from you. She just knows Lukas from her pichu time." Lola gave Lukas a questionable look before Lukas went over to Cammy and nuzzled her face and cheeks. He licked her cheek and then purred too. Cammy squeaked happily.

"Sorry..." Lola said. "I just don't want that Lukas has another mate now we got Zack, Josh and Julie..." she said blushing and looking towards the ground before she jumped my lap and started to lick Julie.

"What? Lukas, do you have pichu as well?!" Cammy said.

"Uhm... Yes I have." Lukas said unsurely.

"That's so cool! Jack and Rosie have pichu as well! I love them!" she said as she hugged Lukas again (Lola pulled a face) and then checked on the pichu.

"They're smaller than Kim and Charlie!" she said.

"They're only three weeks old." I said to Cammy. "Really young, so be careful with them...! By the way, who are Kim and Charlie?" I added because the shine in Cammy's eyes said more than enough: She wanted to play with them. Knowing how she was with the other pichu I just made sure she understood that she had to be careful. She looked at me.

"You don't know Kim and Charlie? The pichu from Jack and Rosie?" she said.

"Oh, did mom finally give them their names?" I asked.

"Yep, she did!" Cammy said as she sniffed all the pichu. The pichu were scared to death for her (you don't see a white pikachu you don't know everyday) but this didn't bother Cammy. Most of the pichu wouldn't even move as they looked at her. They also wouldn't flee because they didn't want to leave my side. So basically Cammy gave them the biggest scare of their short lives. It didn't take long though.

"These are yours!" she said while checking three pichu in particular. Julie was sitting next to Lola and the other two quickly joined their sister as Cammy was suddenly interested in them. They quickly hid themselves behind their mother.

"What are you talking about...?" Oak said. He had been watching the whole scene and I suddenly realised I had been talking in pikaspeak the whole time. He couldn't understand it. I explained him what happened and I then stood up and took the pichu to one of their playgrounds. There were some pikachu playing with some other pichu. I placed the pichu that I had with me inside the playground. Cammy looked at all the pichu and sat in my lap. Two pikachu came running for her.

"Cammy? Is that you..?" one asked.

"Justin...?" Cammy replied.

"Yes!" he replied before the three pikachu hugged each other. I looked at them and then remembered that Cammy had two brothers! They were happy to see her again, even though she was abandoned and banned from the colony. After then hugged her they placed their cheeks against one another and sparked a couple of times before they all giggled and ran off to play. Me and Oak looked at the three pikachu interact with each other. Just normal. They had big fun chasing one another.

It didn't take long however before one of the 'big' pikachu noticed that there was a strange pikachu running around the pichu. It didn't take long before Cammy was worked away from the pichu. This triggered other pikachu to see her as an intruder which made more pikachu threat her. Within seconds, she was, yet again, getting banned from the colony in an alarming rate. Some pikachu even forced her out by sparking their cheeks. Cammy quickly came running for me and jumped my lap when I didn't expect it since me and Oak were having a conversation. She jumped my lap and quickly hugged my belly. It didn't take long before about thirty pikachu surrounded us. Oak looked around and pulled an sort of scary face, but he quickly saw that the pikachu didn't come for him.

"Wow, what's the matter?" I asked. A couple of pikachu growled towards Cammy. Cammy looked very unhappy with all the attention she received. She was looked towards the pikachu with a scared face and she was shivering while she was holding my tummy.

"Oh, it's Cammy..." I said looking around. "Oak, I think it's better for you to go away..." I said while looking around. Some pikachu got really aggressive, even with me.

"Make room so she can go." I said. "And I'll punish anyone who attacks her." I quickly added. Some pikachu gave me firm and aggressive looks, but they moved. Cammy took some careful steps with me Oak right behind her. She looked left and right, but all other pikachu looked rather aggressive. Cammy's ears hang, her tail hang, and all of her body language said the same: She was afraid to death. She was even slightly crying...

After we left the colony and were a couple of meters outside of it, Cammy looked back and she looked at me. I kneeled down next to her and placed my hands around her.

"You alright?" I asked.

"That was scary..." she said, shivering and some tears running down her cheek. She allowed me to pick her up and to pat her back while I gently cuddled her.

"Th-They still don't want me..." she said, softly crying. Oak also patted her back and gave her a pikachu treat. This made her look happy again as she accepted the treat and looked at Oak with a heartwarming smile.

"I never expected that to happen..." Oak said.

"I did, but I didn't think the whole colony would turn against her." I said as I scratched Cammy's ears. She purred happily.

"Alright, thanks for the chat. We'll keep in touch." Oak said after we had another small conversation.

"Yeah, bye. See you later." I said as I hugged Cammy one more time before she jumped Oak's shoulder.

"You really are a handsome pikachu." I said as I tapped her nose with my finger. Cammy giggled and waved at me as Oak walked away. After Cammy had visited me I really wanted to get back to my home. But the new pichu kept me at the colony. I just couldn't leave them alone. I was kind of in love with those guys.

It was about one week later when I was playing with the pichu inside the colony again. I was teaching them to control their electricity by making them do all kinds of stuff when there was rumour at the back of the colony. I heard some pikachu shouting and some pikachu running. I quickly looked in the direction of the sounds to see four men running into the colony. Wondering whatever they could mean, I suddenly saw guns. Not one second later I heard gunshots. Adrenaline rushed through me as I understood this was serious and I quickly grabbed most pichu and simply threw them inside the nest as quick as I could. The pichu playground was always close to an entrance to the nest. I looked at the hunters and I recognised the poachers from months ago. I realised they were coming for me...

"Kill them! Kill as much as you can!" one of them shouted. "I want revenge from the last time and if you see that jerk make sure you keep him alive!"

"Don't hold back! Give them all you got!" I shouted in pikachu language towards the males that were attacking the poachers before looking around. There had to be more pichu around here since I hadn't secured all of them yet. Even though the poachers were in minority they quickly gained on the colony by shooting their guns. They shot at least three pikachu before one finally managed to take one out by giving him a massive thundershock which immediately floored him. I suddenly spotted the pichu. One of the poacher was getting close to them and he aimed his gun at them... My heart stopped but happily Lukas was just in time and he slammed a Iron Tail into the gun making it point to another direction and missing the pichu. I ran towards them.

"Get them, get them!" I heard someone shouting. I suddenly saw them throwing pokéballs towards multiple pikachu. They weren't only trying to kill but also catch pikachu! I arrived at the pichu and I came eye-to-eye with one of the hunters. He had lost his gun due to some perfect work from Lukas. He smiled at me with a fake smile.

"Happy to see us?" he said before be bashed my face without warning. I fell backwards onto the ground and it dazzled me.

"GET UP MAURICE, HELP ME!" I heard from Lukas. I got up. It was my duty to protect those pichu, even if that meant I had to give my life for them. I didn't care at all anymore. I got up and attacked the poacher. We fought with each other, both evading attacks. He was clearly better at fighting than me, because he was winning the fight. Happily more pikachu arrived to help us out. This made us win the battle temporarily. The pikachu quickly went over to another poacher and me and Lukas, Volt and another pikachu were now standing up against this guy. I stood back, watching the poacher as he smiled at me. His gun was now lying somewhere, out of ammo and out of reach. I stood in front of the pichu and behind the pikachu who were dangerously sparking their cheeks. The poacher just smiled and got some pokéballs out of his pocket and threw them! I quickly leaped forward and slapped one pokéball out of the way. The ball opened and I got myself ready to receive a enormous electric whack from it.

But what happened then, I would have never expected. It would have never come up in me to even happen, or even be possible. Instead of the expected whack, the pokéball opened itself. I suddenly felt very light, like when you're going up in an elevator, or when you're going over a bump inside of your car. My body felt strange. I was sucked inside of the pokéball and the ball closed itself behind me...

Guess you didn't see that coming. And I can hear half of you think "Humans cannot be caught in pokéballs! WTF OMG OMG OMG!". I am fully aware of that. We need to stay original and unexpected, don't we? ^_^

See you next time!

Oh and Bloodstargeneral, congratulations with being daddy. ^_^