Hello everyone, a new part of Life as a pikachu. I want to start off by thanking everyone for giving me 100 reviews (and Dustchu for the last 23 reviews :P). I'm a little slow with the story right now, but real life takes some time from me. Sorry about that, but I made a long chapter for you guys to enjoy. Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a review!
"Alright, and who might you be?" Bill asked as he offered me his hand.
"Maurice." I said as I shook it.
"Pleasure to meet you Maurice! And you too, in person... erm... pikachu this time, Scarlet." he chuckled as he petted Scarlet's head.
"Pika!" Scarlet said happily from my shoulder.
"So, what's the reason I had to come this quickly?" Bill asked as he put down his bag and some stuff he had been carrying.
"Well actually Maurice is the reason." Oak said. I smiled as Oak pointed at me.
"Uhm, alright, but what's the reason I had to come for Maurice?" he chuckled.
"We'll explain you that while we have a cup of coffee." Oak said as we headed to the sitting room where we sat and had something to drink. I had a coke which Scarlet was eager to try - only to pull a face at tasting it and trying to get the tingling away. Me and Bill just laughed at it before we explained everything that happened again. My experiment with the pikachu colony, what I had been doing, how I was sucked inside the pokéball during the battle (Bill didn't want to believe it at first), how I had headache (which was back, not that bad, but it was back) and how I suddenly went kind of crazy and what exactly happened while I was in that state. We also showed him the pokéball which he examined.
"I've never seen a pokéball broken like this." he said when he checked it. "I'll try to get some information out of it later, but please tell me again how you felt when you... Well, when you changed." he said. After another explanation we both looked at him. Bill stared at the ground.
"Alright..." he said. "I want to do some stuff with you."
"You said that you changed as soon you imagined you were a pikachu. You also said that your senses changed." he said.
"That's correct." I said.
"Do you think you can do that again?" he asked. I looked at him. We had never tried again to get me in that form.
"Because everything you describe sounds like you were a pikachu." he said.
"That's what I thought." Oak said. "But he's a human... How can he be a pikachu?"
"That's the point..." Bill said. "He cannot be. But somehow it's possible, if what you told me is true. But I want to see this." he said.
"But if I... Change and it will work I'll probably try to flee again." I said.
"That's why we're gonna tie you to a chair." Bill said as he stood up like it was the most usual thing in the world. "So you cannot escape."
"I'm fine as long I don't get hurt. Never underestimate a pokémon or human in panic." I said.
"No, we won't." Oak said. "Let's get going, I think Bill has a conclusion already but he wants to test it." he said.
"I don't have." Bill said. "I only know what you told me and that's it." We headed to the laboratory where I stood next to the table while Oak and Bill got some ropes ready.
Then I was tied to the chair. Kind of strange when you just sit still when someone's binding your arms and legs, your natural response is to move your body to prevent yourself from getting stuck. After I was tied, Oak and Bill asked me some last questions before they asked me to change. Scarlet was also watching me.
"Alright..." I said. I closed my eyes and I imagined myself being a pikachu. Things went exactly as earlier. My vision improved. My hearing improved. My sense improved and my scent improved, exactly as happened earlier. The same feeling of danger got into me as earlier, like I had to escape. I looked around and I saw two humans. I recognised the Oak guy, but that other one was new and strange. I also immediately saw the female pikachu. She was watching me with interest. I tried to get away, since the men were quite close to me, but I suddenly realised that I couldn't move. I tried to move again as an adrenaline rush shot through me when I realised there was no escape. I looked at the two men and I tried to shake myself free, but without any succes. My moves got wilder and wilder as I tried to break free, but without success. When I realised there really was no escape, I looked at both men. They looked at me and one of them looked really... Shocked.
"See what I mean?" Oak said.
"I do... What the hell... I..." he said, stuttering.
"I've never seen something like this..." he said. He came close to me. I growled when he wanted to touch me and even tried to do a thundershock, which failed, to my frustration. The not-Oak-guy stuck his finger out to me and touched my skin, like he wanted to test something. I took my chance and bit his finger. He screamed and in panic, he slapped me across my face really hard. I took the hit and whined softly.
"BILL!" Oak shouted. I growled again.
"Sorry. He just..." he said. "Reflex, he scared me." while holding his finger in his mouth. Oak came close to me. I growled again at him and he took a step back when I heard a sigh from the table.
"MAURICE! Get yourself together will you!" Scarlet shouted. "Jeez, you're aggressive." she said while she jumped from the table. She walked over to me (Oak backed off) and jumped my lap. I looked at her, not really knowing to growl at her or just accept her.
"Do you really think they'll hurt you?" she said. "I'm standing right here and you think they'll kill you?" she said.
"Well, I thought..." I stuttered.
"Yeah, you thought. But I'm standing on the table and I'm feeling perfectly fine and you're acting like you're almost being killed. Coward." she said.
"They could kill you as well!" I said.
"Really...?" she said. "So they will kill you but not me... Sure..." she said as she rolled her eyes.
"Just act normal and they'll untie you. Maybe we can play! I'm happy you can talk pikachu again!" she said as her ears stood straight up and she smiled happily. Could be. Maybe we could play. I looked at the guys. They didn't really appear as... dangerous... The only thing I had been thinking about was escaping... But... It was confusing... How could they not be dangerous while... I shook my head.
"Looks like Scarlet has control on him..." I heard Oak whispering.
"Looks like it..." Bill said. "Let's hope he stays calm now."
I looked around and smelled the scents. I could smell different humans, some pikachu and pichu. The humans came closer to me. The female looked at them and jumped from my lap and towards Bill. She then climbed his body and stood on his shoulder, smiling at me in a challenging way, receiving some attention from him. She purred and looked at me again. Like she was challenging me to behave and get out of my chair. The human didn't look dangerous... The female pointed towards me.
"You can get closer now." she said while pointing at me.
"We should go check him out?" Bill asked. The pikachu nodded. Both Bill and Oak got closer and checked me out. I looked at them. I wanted to come closer to check them out, but I couldn't. I tried to get out again, a lot more gentle this time. It didn't work and I sighed and looked to them. Maybe they would help me.
"Shall we untie him? He looks calm now." Bill said.
"Looks like it. Let's just try." Oak said as he removed one of my ropes. I just remained silent and I watched as he untied me. When he untied one of my hands I immediately wanted to use it but something in my said to stay still and wait. After a short time I felt I could move again and I stood up and Scarlet jumped on the ground from Bill's shoulder.
"See? Nothing to worry about." she giggled as she purred to me. "You're really acting different than you usually do..."
"What is this place...?" I asked wondering what she meant with what she just said. I never met her before...
"This is the place where Oak works, silly!" Scarlet said. "At least, I think so... You once explained it but I didn't really understand."
"Cool." I said, not remembering any explanation. "Are they nice humans?" I asked.
"I think they're nice! They are nice to me and they give me food. And Oak plays with me once a while! That's really nice. But I love to play with you!" she said as I sat down on the ground and she jumped my lap. Somehow automatically I stroked her head.
"But... I don't even know you!" I said. "I mean you smell nice but I never seen you before..." I said as I hung my ears. Scarlet looked at me with a puzzled face.
"And why am I so big... And you so tiny?!" I asked. Scarlet gave me another puzzled look.
"Well, because you're a human silly!" she said as she seduced me for another stroke. "You're funny." I looked to Oak and Bill with a questionable look. Me a human? She must be crazy... I looked back to Scarlet. "And who are those?"
"That are Oak and Bill. Oak lives here and Bill came today. Visiting or something." she said.
"Are you sure they're safe?" I asked.
"They are!" she smiled.
"Cool!" I said as I stood up. I walked over to both human and smelled their clothing and offered them my hand. Oak accepted it with a completely stunned face.
"I'm... Uhm... I'm..." I said as Scarlet jumped my shoulder. "Who am I?" Scarlet looked at me.
"Silly, can't you remember your name?" she chuckled.
"Ehm... I can't. I can't remember that I have any name..." I said. Scarlet just blinked her eyes before she jumped from my shoulder to Oaks and turned around. She looked at me one more time.
"Maurice, are you serious?" she said.
"Who's Maurice?" I said as I looked behind me if she maybe was talking to someone behind me, which wasn't the case. "I don't know a Maurice." Scarlet shook her head a couple of times before she jumped back to my shoulder again.
"Never mind. Forget it. Let's call you Maurice!"she said.
"Maurice? But..." I said.
"You don't like it?" she asked.
"Well I do, but... Who is that other Maurice?" I asked.
"Forget him. He's not important." she said. "But I hope he returns soon..." she whispered softly. Then she showed me the laboratory. And I got to introduce myself to some humans. Quite strange to shake their hands, even though I don't know why I did that. Probably because I don't have a tail... Which is also strange. But I didn't really care - instead I followed Scarlet outside to play a bit with her. She was a really nice pikachu...!
"Strange."
"Very strange."
"Very very strange."
Very very very strange."
A long silence followed. Both pokémon professors looked perplexed to what was happening in front of their own eyes. A human boy, aged fourteen, was talking pikachu and acting completely like one.
"But with some human traits." Bill said.
"Indeed. Shaking our hands shows that Maurice is still there. The old Maurice, I mean." Oak said.
"Maybe. But I think we should get him out of this. He's already been like this for twenty minutes. And Scarlet is showing him around and such, but I think this is bad for him. He has to get back to human. You said that telling him he is human works?" Bill said.
"Last time it did. He uses his mind to talk pikachu. He imagines he is one. That makes talking pikachu language easier for him. If we ask him to imagine he is a human, he should change back." Oak said.
"Ah, so that's a trick to make him... Talk easier?" Bill said.
"Yep. At least, I think so." Oak said.
" Let's do it." Bill said.
"Maurice! Scarlet!" Oak said. Both creatures looked at the professor before Scarlet ran towards him and Maurice followed soon after. Scarlet stopped in front of Oak and looked at him with a questionable face.
"Come on inside, we want to make you do something." Oak said, smiling. Scarlet smiled as she jumped on Maurice' shoulder and both went inside. She purred and rubbed her cheek against Maurice' cheek before Maurice blushed and answered by gently licking the same cheek once. Scarlet giggled before she jumped the table and looked at what Oak and Bill wanted from them.
"Alright Maurice, we need you to do this." Oak said. "Imagine you're a human. Imagine you are one and not a pikachu." he said.
Human? But I liked being a pikachu. Well, whatever. My mind thought I was a human when suddenly my senses went worse and I lost control of myself... At least so it seemed... I closed my eyes and I wished this feeling went away...
I opened my eyes to see the two professors watching me. Unlike earlier, I didn't feel dizzy or wobbly, I felt perfectly stable.
"Maurice?" Oak asked while I blinked my eyes a couple of times.
"Yeah?" I asked, in human language.
"Damn, bad eyesight..." I said.
"Bad eyesight...?" Bill asked.
"Yes, I can see less than before, smell less than before and I can hear much less than before." I said.
"How do you feel?" Bill asked.
"Actually I feel great...!" I said while I looked at Scarlet and ran my hand over her head and across her back. Scarlet squeaked in enjoyment.
"And you... Don't try to make me your mate..." I giggled at her.
"Chuuuuu...?" Scarlet said on a funny tone.
"So... What just happened?" Bill said.
"Yes, I want to ask you the same. I don't know if you've seen us watching you, but we were speechless. And you don't get us speechless very quick." Oak said.
"Well, looks quite clear to me." I said. "I was a pikachu..."
"But..." Oak started.
"How's that possible." Bill finished.
"I don't know... But being a pikachu is surely interesting. So many smells around here and so many things to check out..." I said. "Feels like I'm four years old again."
"Like a child?" Bill asked.
"Yes." I said.
"Wait. Can you tell us what happened from the start?" he asked. And so I told them my story. I had been wondering what my name was and that I didn't know why I offered my hand to them. I told them of the outside. Of Scarlet and of the smells and things I had learned in the past hour or so. When I was finished Bill closed his eyes and thought deeply.
"Alright." he said. "I understand that there's something 'pikachu' inside of you. But can you access the memories of the 'pikachu being' right now?"
"Yes I can." I said as I thought back of the time I had been acting like a pikachu.
"Can you access human thoughts when you are a pikachu?" Bill asked.
"I believe not." I said. "I couldn't remember my name and I couldn't remember where I was. I didn't remember anything from the outside. Like trees, grass and such. I could use smell, sense and I knew there had been more than one pikachu in here. Now I'm human I understand it all. I was smelling Jack, Rosie, Cammy and the pichu." I said while I thought about that. Could it really be them?
"Alright... So it's kind of one way." Oak said.
"Yes." I said.
"Alright." Bill said as he got his laptop. "Can you give me that pokéball? I want to check if I can read it." he said. Oak gave him the pieces of the pokéball.
"I say it again: I never saw a pokéball this broken..." he said as he inspected it. Then he attached the pokéball to his laptop using some kind of special cord.
"Alright, I'm gonna access the internal storage of the pokéball. Let's see what's in there and what it sais." he said. I looked on the screen of the laptop. All kinds of special marks flew across the screen, unable to be read by the human eye.
"Hmmm... The internal storage is damaged." Bill said. "We can't really do anything with this, but..." he said as he stopped the processing and opened a special menu.
"Let's see what the dump sais." he said.
"Dump?" I asked.
"Data dump." Oak said.
"A pokéball doesn't have a internal storage only." Bill said. "A pokéball doesn't store a pokémon as digital data in the first place. It saves it as some kind of matter. Incredibly complicated, I won't even try to explain. But when, for whatever reason, something in the pokéball might fail, we do not want the pokémon that's in there to be damaged. Most of the times the pokémon will escape the pokéball without injuries, but for emergencies, we have a special data dump that activates as soon there is ANY kind of error. This could be a minor error but also a fatal error like when it breaks. This is to save the pokémon from being harmed if it cannot escape for whatever reason." he said.
"So basically... When a pokéball breaks, and it breaks badly... You turn the pokémon in digital data so it can be... Uhm... Revived later?" I said.
"Yes." Bill said. "I think that sums things up. The data dump is different from the usual way of storing a pokémon. Also, we use the digital version of a pokémon to send it from pokécenter to pokécenter. If a pokémon is sent over the globe, it's transformed into digital data. As soon the pokéball at the other side of the line has received the pokémon, it checks if it is received correctly over twenty times. This is why transferring takes quite a while."
"A while? You mean five seconds." I said.
"Yes, that's quite long." Bill chuckled. "After it has received the pokémon and checked it, it gets rid of the pokémon in the first ball."
"Get's rid of?" I said. "Like killing it?!"
"It's not killing. The pokémon has been moved already." Bill said. "That matter I was talking about earlier - when pokéballs are connected to those transfer machines, that matter is send over. Again, complicated, but it's sent over. Then we 'kill' the pokémon. Not really kill, but we make sure the pokéball is empty. After that the pokéball is empty and a pokéball at the other side is full."
"But... Couldn't you catch a very strong pokémon, break the pokéball, and copy the digital data and clone the pokémon?" I said, kind of shocked.
"In theory, you could." Bill said. "But the only one that's able to repair these broken pokéballs is... Me. And the laptop you're looking at isn't just an ordinary laptop, it's mine and this thing has higher safety than anything else. I can erase it's content from everywhere on the world and if someone manages to get it he needs so much passwords and he has to pass so much safety, he won't be able to do something with it. That's why I'm one of the few people that 'repair' pokémon." he said as he looked at me. "Oak cannot read this part of the pokéball, it's secured with measures you cannot even think of. And I don't 'revive' a pokémon just like that from the digital part of the pokéball."
"Ah..." I said. "Well that makes me feel a bit more comfortable."
"Good to hear." Bill chuckled. "Alright... Now we got something..." he said.
"This is very interesting..." he said after a while.
"What?" Oak and I asked.
"Oh, nothing." Bill said. "Maurice, I'm gonna ask you some questions and I want you to answer them all as detailed as you can and as accurate as you can." he said.
"Uhm... OK." I said.
"When you got caught in the pokéball, what were your thoughts." he said.
"My thoughts?" I asked.
"Yes, your thoughts." he said. "What were you thinking, what was happening, all that kind of stuff." he asked with a death-serious face as he looked at me from behind the laptop.
"Alright..." I said as I closed my eyes. "When I got caught... There was panic. The colony was being attacked by poachers. I was trying to protect a couple of pichu together with some other pikachu." I said as I reconstructed the happenings. "Lukas and other pikachu were attacking one of the poachers. Then suddenly a poacher threw some pokéballs to some pichu and pikachu and I thought I should protect them from it so I slapped them out of the way." I said as I opened my eyes.
"I had to protect the pichu and my colony." I said. "That's what I was thinking."
"Perfect." Bill said. "Keep reconstructing like this."
"What happened inside the pokéball?" he asked.
"My thoughts inside of there are kind of blurry." I said. "But I'll try my best."
"Alright. I was caught inside a pokéball. It was a white light that closed in front of my eyes. Then I thought 'what the hell, it isn't possible to get sucked inside of a pokéball'. I remember I was afraid. I also remember that I was wondering what would happen to the pichu and Lukas."
"Who's Lukas?" Bill asked.
"A pikachu from the colony." I replied.
"Oh, right. Continue please." he said.
"I was afraid of what would happen to me and I thought that humans couldn't be caught." I said. "At that moment I was released from the pokéball. I think it broke there." I said.
"Alright." Bill said.
"How did the inside of the pokéball look?" he asked.
"Dark. Just black." I said.
"Nothing more?" he asked.
"No, why?" I asked.
"Just curious, no human ever got caught." he said before he waved his hand to come towards him.
"Listen." he said. "When a pokéball is about to catch a pokémon, it checks what pokémon it is trying to catch. This happens in the small time just after the ball opens and before it starts sucking the pokémon inside. The pokéball does this check based on mass, size, and also based on brain waves."
"Brain waves?" I asked.
"Yes. Certain pokémon have different brain waves. The brains of pokémon have different masses and different ways of working and thinking. To make things short - it reads the mind of a pokémon."
"Mind reading pokéballs...?" I said.
"Yes. This technology is extremely complicated and I won't give you the details since I'm very sure you won't understand these. Even I have trouble understanding them." he chuckled.
"Anyway, the pokéball..." he said as he turned the laptop screen towards me (and Scarlet, which had jumped my shoulder again) "...has identified you as a pikachu. That is why you got sucked inside." Oak and me remained silent.
"Based on what Oak and you told me, it could be that your thoughts were indeed those of a pikachu, because you could speak pikachu and because you're with them for just over a year now. You have really adapted yourself to the pikachu life, to say it so." he said. "If someone imagines he is a pikachu, like a child or something, they do not have the same thoughts as a real pikachu. That is not possible. But since you were with the pikachu for a long time, you have adapted to them. Your thoughts indeed matched those of a pikachu." he said.
"But, this is where the magic happens. As soon a pokémon is caught, the pokéball gets data from a database. In this case, since you were identified as a pikachu, it loaded the data from the pikachu. This is to raise the chance of actually catching the pokémon and to make it feel more comfortable inside of the pokéball. You know that we advertise pokéballs with that pokécomfort thing. This is exactly when we do that. We check which pokémon is caught so the 'inside' can be prepared for, in this case, a pikachu. If a pokémon cannot be identified because values do not match, like a new pokémon or a pokémon that's never been caught before like legendary pokémon, it will load a default profile."
"But..." Oak said. "Why do you check on... Thoughts? Why not DNA? Then this would never happen."
"Hah, that's a good question." Bill said. "Do you know how long it takes to examine DNA? Too long. We indeed tested if we could check on DNA, but it appeared that the pokéballs we used all broke. They couldn't handle the amount of data that comes with DNA. Even the most simple string of DNA wasn't possible to read. So we built a special pokéball, the DNA-ball. Only one in existence. It had more internal storage and it had better processing powers. But enough about that.
" Like i said, the Pokeball loaded the profile of a Pikachu. The pokéball tried to load your data, or rather, YOU... - he said as he pointed at me - into a pikachu. But, you just told me that, when you thought you were a human, you changed back to yourself. You weren't your... Alter-ego 'Maurice-the-pikachu' anymore. The pokéball then had an error, and instead of loading you into a pikachu, it loaded a pikachu into YOU." he said. "In your human body."
"But, how is that possible?" I asked.
"Because you were converted to digital data." Bill said. "The pokéball could alter your appearance but before it finished you caused it to malfunction by 'escaping' from it in a way that never happened before so it had to spit you out with the changes that had occurred.
Everyone in the room remained silent for a while. Bill looked at his laptop with a serious face. He continued his search for clues to whatever had happened in that pokéball. To whatever had made me as I was now.
"But..." I said. "Don't pokéballs have a backup device in case of... When a wild pokémon escapes the ball?" I asked.
"Yes, they certainly have. But those all failed and I don't know why." Bill said. "I'm trying to figure out what exactly happened, but it's certainly strange. But it's strange in the first place that you got caught. That never-ever... Well... Happened but it did." he said slowly.
"Let's get something to drink." Oak said.
"Please." Bill said. "It's driving me crazy. This cannot happen. It's not possible and the proof I'm wrong is standing right in front of me." he said.
"One question - is it dangerous?" I asked.
"How do you mean?" Bill asked.
"Well, you said that the pokéball... Well... It altered me... Isn't that dangerous...?" I said. "Am I going to die...?"
"I'll be honest with you. I don't have a clue." he said. This made me pull a scary face.
"But the fact that you're standing here AND that you're able to switch to that... Pikachu..." he said as he paused for a moment. "I think you don't have to worry. If the pokéball really broke... Well... You... You wouldn't be here right now." he said. This made me smile again. He was right. I was feeling fine, I was just worrying too much.
"I want to do some testing with you." Bill said as he drank some coffee. I had some chocolate milk from the coffee machine which I shared with Scarlet, which seemed to love it. She was constantly begging me to give her more.
"I want to know what that... How that... How that..." he said as he moved his arms as he wanted to explain something. "I want to know if there's really a... Pikachu inside there." he said. "I cannot believe it is. But your behaviour was so strange that I believe it has to."
"But wouldn't that mean that he's changed forever? Would he be able to return to humans or will pikachu have a special effect on him?" Oak said.
"Oh, he certainly will be able to return to humans." Bill said. "I'm not even doubting that. I want to know if pikachu have any effect on him, or things that would make a pikachu happy." he said.
"So what do you want to do?" Oak asked. "Because I don't have a clue what you want to test."
"You still have those brain things?" Bill said.
Basically, twenty minutes later, I sat in a chair and I was looking at a screen. On my head were all kinds of devices attached that went to Bill's computer and that measured the small electric shocks that my brain used to do things that I wanted it to do.
"Alright." Bill said. "I'm gonna show you random pictures. Don't do anything, just look at them. I'll be able to see if you like them."
"You can see if I like them...?" I asked.
"Yes, I can. I can also see which parts of your brain are active. And I can say you that I'm already seeing some unusual things." he said as he and Oak looked at the laptop screen.
"Those are..." Oak asked.
"Yes." Bill said, pointing at the laptop screen. "And those are the other."
"What other?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing. Look at the screen please." he said as he pointed at a screen right in front of me.
"OK, what do I have to do?" I asked.
"Just look at them." Bill said.
"Oh yeah, you would know if I liked them." I said.
"Exactly." Oak said. Then the first picture came across. It was a TV. Just an ordinary TV. Then some other stuff you would find in any normal household. Then there came some more specific pictures. Stuff that pikachu liked. Appels, forest area's, but also a picture of Cammy appeared. I smiled when I saw it. Then it went on and a picture of Scarlet appeared (Scarlet wasn't in the room right now, she was banned from it for a while by Oak). After about ten minutes, we were done.
"Well, that was easy." I said.
"Wasn't that bad eh?" Bill said as he removed all the things from my head.
"Alright Scarlet, you can come back in." Oak said as he held the door open for her. She quickly darted inside and immediately inspected the things on my head. Bill was just removing the last one as she jumped my shoulder. Since my more gentle change into a pikachu Scarlet really seemed to like me. As if I was her mate already.
"Heheh, I like you too." I chuckled as Scarlet rubbed her cheek against mine again.
"Alright what do you have for me?" I asked Bill, who was now looking at his laptop. Oak joined him and he also looked at the data. The only thing I saw was some graphs with some numbers. But Bill and Oak were discussing different theories about everything and nothing at the same time and they seemed to understand. I lost interest and decided to cuddle with Scarlet instead, who happily accepted it. She squeaked happily when I stroked across her head and back, and especially behind her ears she didn't want me to stop. Then I started to scribble through her belly fur. Scarlet squeaked in enjoyment while I made a mess of her fur before I stroked in the right way to make everything nice and tidy again. After I had done that Scarlet looked at me while she climbed my chest with some help from my hands before she sighed happily and dropped herself in my arms that were holding her and burying her nose in my shirt.
"Why do you do that... I don't understand... Is my t-shirt so nice?" I chuckled. It didn't matter to Scarlet, she had nested herself against my chest, just under my chin and was about to take a nap. I hadn't noticed that Bill was watching me from behind his laptop. Oak had went out because he didn't like to wait for loading times. I just continued stroking the pikachu in a way I did with the pichu, a way to make them fall asleep very quickly. Under their chin and slowly across their belly while speaking sweet words to them. Most of the times when they were laying right next to me, but sitting in this chair worked the same on Scarlet, she immediately fell asleep. Not even five minutes after I had started the cuddle fest, she was asleep, her arms around my neck and head on my chest. I then looked at Bill, which had moved back to his laptop.
"Done already?" I said as I gently kept scratching Scarlet.
"Not yet." he smiled. "I'm running some tests, but it'll be finished in a minute or five." he said as he stood up. "Then I can tell you what's in there."
"I'm wondering what." I said.
"By the way, nice going with Scarlet. People so close to pokémon are very rare." he said. "You seem to perfectly understand her." he said. "Not that strange by the way..." he chuckled.
"And also, Oak told me something about Cammy. She's albino...?" he asked.
"Yes, she is." I said.
"So she's white?" he asked.
"Yeah, she is..." I said. "Here..." I said as I showed him some pictures of pichu Cammy and one of pikachu cammy.
"Wow, she looks nice." he said. "Can I meet her?"
"Uhm, I think you can." I said. "Wanna see her now?"
"Yeah sure!" Bill said as he stood up. "This thing will take a while..." I watched the screen and saw it needed another fifteen minutes to finish.
"Takes longer than expected..." Bill said.
"No problem." I said. "Hang on, I'll... Ah nevermind Scarlet won't mind."
"She would mind what...?" Bill asked.
"Oh, I wanted to put her in my bed but I think she'll get mad with me. She loves being outside." I said.
"Are you married to her or something? You seem to know everything from her." Bill chuckled.
"Not married, although she wanted to mate with me." I said.
"Mate... Wait, really?!" Bill asked. "Are you serious right now?"
"Yep. It was in the mating season. More females asked me to mate them in the pikachu colony..." I said as I stroked Scarlet a bit as we walked over towards the den of Jack and Rosie. "They thought I would do good since I'm quite important inside the group and since I'm big."
"Wait, just because you're big?" he asked.
"Well, also because I'm the smartest from the colony." I chuckled. "I don't want to brag or something but I'm a human inside a pikachu colony. I am smart. Those pikachu think different than I do, well, than WE do. They have different morals and ways of doing things. It's... Very complicated to explain." I said as I woke up Scarlet. She gave me an angry glance before realising she was outside. This triggered some of her instincts.
"Ears..." I said as I pointed at her ears. Bill looked questionable at me when Scarlet pricked up her ears and listened around.
"Eyes..." I said just before Scarlet looked around for any danger.
"And nose." I chuckled when she sniffed the air before she smiled and climbed my shoulder.
"Pika!" she said.
"All safe?" I said. Scarlet giggled and nodded.
"Dang, that's good..." Bill said. "Nice trick, I should remember that."
"When they wake up they all do this. Same order, same speed, same moves. Checking if their surroundings are safe." I chuckled as we reached the den of Jack and Rosie. "Not hard to remember when you're with them all year long."
"Still a nice trick to know. It's something small I never realised." Bill said. "I mean, I know they do it, but not in this order or when they wake up." he smiled.
"Rosie! Jack! Cammy!" I said into the den. "Kim! Charlie!" It remained silent.
"Hmmm, where are those guys." I said. "How late is it?" I asked.
"Uhm, around noon." Bill said.
"I think they're getting some food..." I said as I looked over Oak's field to maybe spot them.
"Do you know where they are?" Bill asked.
"Not exactly, but let me try something..." I said.
"CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMY!" I shouted loud but slowly, making sure everyone in a range of two kilometers could hear it.
"Cammy always comes when she hears me calling her. It shouldn't take too long for her to respond to this unless something bad happened." I chuckled as we watched the fields and enjoyed the breeze and the sun.
"This is nice..." I said. Scarlet got bored with waiting and jumped a tree and climbed all the way to the top.
"Pika pikachu!" she said.
"A nice view up there?" I asked.
"Pika!" Scarlet confirmed.
"I thought you couldn't talk pikachu anymore?" Bill asked.
"I can't. But I can still guess what she's telling me. For the same thing she just said no when I said that she had a nice view." I chuckled.
"Oh, so you're guessing?" he said.
"Yep. This time I was right... And there is Cammy." I laughed when I saw a white tail sticking from the high grass and coming straight for me. It didn't take long before Cammy reached me.
"Pika-pi!" she said before she jumped in my arms which I held forward to catch her while I crouched. I underestimated her strength because I was basically tackled to the ground. Before I knew it I had fallen backwards and Cammy was licking my face again, just as back in the colony.
"Jeez, you're strong... Down girl down!" I laughed as Cammy licked my face and purred when she was lifted by me and placed against my chest. Scarlet came climbing down the tree and jumped the last three meters or so down.
"A bit stronger than you expected?" Bill laughed.
"Yeah, I'm still used to her as a pichu, she was so weak back then compared to what she can do now." I said when I gently stroked her head and back.
"Alright... Cammy, this is Bill." I said as I pointed to Bill and sat straight up. "He's a friend of Oak and he wanted to see you."
"Pika?" Cammy said as she had a questionable face.
"Yes, because of your color... But he's a friend. And I wanted to see you too. You're still my little girl..." I said as I pressed my nose against hers and gently moved it. Cammy giggled and purred before she hugged my face.
"Your little girl...?" Bill said.
"Daughter, basically." I said.
"Daughter...?" Bill said. "Do you mean..."
"What? No, no! Adopted!" I laughed. "What do you think I am, a pervert?" I chuckled. "No, I mean that Cammy sees me as her dad and that I see her as a daughter... Sounds odd but we really love each other." I said. "Alright, you can check her out of you want." I said as I made Cammy jump Bill's shoulder.
"She's... Strange but a very nice color!" Bill said when Scarlet pricked up her ears. She looked at the grass when two pichu suddenly appeared.
"Ah, here are Kim and Charlie." I said, making them able climb my shoulder. After they reached it I stood up again.
"Where are your parents guys?" I asked.
"Pichu-pi!" Charlie said.
"Pikachu-pika!" Cammy said pointing at the grass. Jack and Rosie came running towards us. Because of the grass was so high you could only see their tails. You couldn't see the pichu at all. Rosie looked quite mad when she appeared from the grass and in the clearing. She jumped Bill's shoulder and looked at Cammy and her pichu.
"Pikachu-pi! Pikachu-pikachu!" she shouted. This made both pichu look guilty.
"I think someone was bad..." Bill chuckled. Rosie looked at Cammy.
"PIKA-PIKAchu!" she said to her.
"Chuuu..." Cammy whined. "Pika-pi!" she said as she pointed at me. Rosie sighed when Jack was standing right next to me.
"Pika-pikachu." he said in general. The pichu and Cammy sighed before Rosie turned her mad glance at me. It disappeared as if it was nothing and she greeted me.
"Don't punish them too hard... I'm sorry..." I said. "I didn't want to scare you... Did they run away?" Rosie nodded.
"Don't run away from mom and dad guys..." I said as I gave them a serious look. Kim gave me a puppy look.
"D'awww... How can you be mad at that..." Bill said.
"Not. But I'm not susceptible for puppy looks anymore." I said. Cammy giggled.
"Pika-pi!" she said before she gave me a puppy look as well. Bill laughed.
"Oh damnit..." I said. "I can't..." I said but I had lost the battle way before it even started.
"Oh you..." I said before gently stroking Cammy on Bill's shoulder. Jack said something to me while shaking his head and Rosie rolled her eyes. And I knew exactly what they meant.
"Wouldn't trick you eh...?" Bill chuckled.
"Alright, who wants something to eat?" I said. Kim, Charlie and Cammy shouted happily before I started walking back towards the laboratory. Bill followed me.
"Scarlet! Are you coming with us?" I asked her. She nodded and quickly followed. She walked along with Jack and Rosie.
"It's funny to see you interacting with them." he said. "I've never seen an entire feral pikachu family obey a human." he said.
"Feral? Jack and Rosie aren't feral. They're just pikachu living outside." I chuckled. Jack turned around and looked at me while standing on two legs. He shook his head like he was saying "you really don't know what you're talking about". I laughed at him.
"What. Did you want to say you're feral?" I chuckled. Jack nodded.
"Pika!" he said firmly.
"Alright, then no food for you." I said.
"Pi... Pikachu...?" he said with a scared undertone in his voice.
"Feral pikachu can find their own food." I said. "Isn't that true, Bill?"
"Oh yes, it certainly is." Bill replied, going along with my trolling.
"Pika... Pikachu-pi...!" he said. You could hear he wasn't happy with that answer.
"I'm just kidding..." I chuckled as he tugged my jeans with panicked eyes and I scooped him off the ground.
"Do you think I would starve you." I chuckled. Jack looked at me like I was crazy. "Of course I wouldn't! And Oak probably would give you food anyway..." I said. Kim and Charlie giggled.
"Pichu pi!" Kim said.
"Pika!" he said happily.
"Pichu! Pi-pi!" she said.
"Pika-pikachu. Pika pikachu!" Jack replied when he returned to Rosie and walked along with her and Scarlet.
"You know, you already have a lot of pika-friends." Bill said. "I already count at least six, and there are probably more."
"Yep, we got Lukas, Lola, their children, some other pikachu from the colony, all the pichu..." I said summing it up.
"I think around fifty pikachu. But they're not really friends, they're more... Family, like colony. You know? Like required friends."
"Anyway, I hope you don't take them all home, because that would be... Too much." Bill chuckled.
"I'm not planning on taking all the pikachu with me." I said. "But I want to take Cammy and Jack and Rosie with me. Mom likes them now, maybe we can take Kim and Charlie too..."
"Probably. You can't separate a pichu from it's mother...!" Bill said.
"Cammy is the exception." I chuckled.
"Oh yeah, I forgot that." he said. "She's orphan..."
"Well she was. Not anymore." I said as we entered the laboratory. Bill held the door open for the pikachu as we entered.
"Ah, the laptop is done!" he said as we entered the examination room.
"Tell me later, I got five hungry pokémon." I said as I got to the food storage and got the pokéchew. As soon the food came out, all pokémon suddenly were my best friends. Cammy had jumped from Bill to me and Rosie and Jack were cuddling my legs. The pichu were just looking at their parents like they were crazy. I filled two feeders which were immediately attacked by three hungry pikachu and the two pichu. Even though the pichu didn't eat that much of the food yet (they still drank milk from Rosie or were fed by me).
I turned to Bill who watched the laptop.
"Very interesting..." he said softly. Oak entered the room.
"I already wondered what that noise was." he said as he saw Cammy, Scarlet, Jack and Rosie eating and the pichu playing with each other.
"I think I got it." Bill said.
"Tell me what's my problem." I chuckled.
"Alright, check this out." he said. I looked on the screen and watched to some graphs.
"These are the responses from your brain when we showed you those pictures." Bill said. I looked at the graphs. Bill had placed the images I had seen into the graph and had put numbers in them."
"I don't know what this means." I said. "What's the point."
"If the graph goes up like this..." he said as he pointed his pen towards the screen "...and when you see a peak, it means you liked a picture. You can see that we showed you a litter bin here. Your response was close to nothing. You didn't like it that much. If you look at Cammy you can see that your response was very high. It even went out of the graph." he chuckled.
"Oh..." I said as I looked at the graph. Some pictures indeed had some nice peaks from things I liked. Cammy, Scarlet, apple and other things.
"But what does this proof?" I asked.
"In theory, nothing. But check this." Bill said. He opened another graph and placed it under my one. He pointed at the screen.
"This is the activity of a part of your brain. As you can see, the activity is very high there. So high in fact, that it isn't normal. But maybe you're having some thoughts, things you're remembering, you know, stuff like that. This part of the brain isn't supposed to be active when we do this test. Not this much, at least." he said, pointing at the screen showing me some peaks. The peaks were exactly at the same places where my 'own' peaks where. Again the highest at Cammy and Scarlet.
"But if you look to this activity and to this graph..." Bill said. He placed a third graph on the screen.
"This is the activity of a awake pikachu." he said as he pointed to the third graph. I looked at the graph and at the second graph, the one from my part of the brain that should not be active. I gasped. The graphs were almost identical, except for the peaks.
"You mean..." I said. "The pokéball... It... Placed a pikachu inside of my... brain?"
"Looks like it." Bill said. "The graph shows us that your pikachu self had major activity when we showed you pictures of things pikachu like, or environment they live in, your activity also peaked. I am quite sure that there is something in there that resembles a pikachu, or something close to that."
It remained silent again. I sat down on a chair and looked at the graphs.
"So basically... I am a pikachu in a human body..." I said. Immediately when I said that, I felt a headache.
"You could say that." Bill said as I grabbed my head. "What's the matter?" he asked.
"Headache. It happens sometimes overday that I suddenly get headache. Nothing to worry about." I said.
"Nothing to worry about?" he said. "Can you remember when you had those headaches?" he asked.
"Hmmm, maybe." I said while I thought back of the last two days. I gave Bill some times from the headaches I could remember.
"Not a single one at nighttime?" he asked when he saw the estimated times.
"No, only in the daytime. Overnight I don't have any pain." I said.
"Morning, noon, evening..." Bill said while he moved his pen past the times rapidly. "Day..." he said as he painted a small table on the paper he had.
"Look at this. What do you think this is?" he asked.
"Uhm..." I said. I saw a table that showed the times of the day from 06:00 to 01:00 in the night. The headaches were all divided over the three days and were painted in the picture. Headaches were black, no pain was white. The black parts went from 07:00 towards 12:00 and from 13:30 to 18:30. The times weren't accurate, but all days were white from 12:30 to 13:00 and from 19:30 and onward. I looked at the picture once more.
"I don't have a clue." I said.
"Think about pikachu." he said. "Think about your colony."
Thinking about the colony I suddenly saw it. This was the average schedule of a pikachu. Active from sunrise to afternoon. Napping after noon and active from about 13:00 towards sunset.
"This... I can't believe this... How could I not see this..." I said, looking at the paper. My headache got worse. I looked at the clock. It was 14:00. The pikachu inside me must have been napping from the test to now. It had awakened now. The medication I had taken had relieved the pain from the headache the past couple of days, but I hadn't taken any medication the last hours and I felt terrible all of a sudden. The pain that I felt back in the forest was back.
"Do you have headache right now?" Bill said.
"Yes, I do." I said. "And it's bad."
"You said that you didn't have any this morning, after you changed into a pikachu. Why do you have it now?" he asked.
"How can I know?!" I said.
"Should I get you some medication?" Oak asked.
"Yes, please." I said. The pain was growing rapidly. The discussion of pikachu-human had triggered it, I was sure of it. My pain grew worse. I thought my head would explode or something, and I had my hand on it to relieve the pain a bit. Bill sat next to me.
"Really, should we get you to a hospital?" he asked concerned.
"No, they'll only ask me questions which I can't answer." I said. "I wait this pikachu-human or whatever it is to be gone...!" I said. "He's only causing me pain..."
"Pikapikachu?" Cammy said. She stood on the table in front of me and looked at me with a worried face. I looked at her and then something happened. When I looked into Cammy's eyes, something inside my head bursted. Like something that had been imprisoned was suddenly released. I screamed softly as I felt a pang shooting through my head and my entire body.
"Finally free!" I thought. Wait, I thought what?
"Free? How do you mean?" I answered in thoughts. But it wasn't me answering.
"Finally I can move and be free! Finally I can move and be myself. I hate being confined." I thought when hundreds and hundreds of random thoughts flooded my brain and everything. It confused me.
"What the heck. Who is talking in my head? Espeon, if this is you, it's not funny!" I thought when I heard the conversation going in inside my head and noticing my own thoughts which weren't mine.
"Stop talking to me!" I said out loud.
"What?" Bill said. But I stood up, hand on my head. The pain was almost completely gone as quick as it came. It was almost over but I was very confused.
"Bill, leave me alone for a second, please." I said. Bill looked at me with a strange look.
"Alright, if you want..." he said. I stood against the wall, looking at all those thoughts which were still flooding me. I heard some conversation going on in the background but I was too focussed on the flood of thoughts to hear it. Suddenly the thoughts stopped and something else happened. I noticed some pikachu smells in the room, I could distinguish Cammy and Scarlet. Then I couldn't. And my hearing went better and worse. My human mind noticed all this.
"Oh, that's a handsome pikachu!" I thought. "Maybe it wants to mate with me..."
"What the heck, who is this!" I asked inside my head.
"Maurice of course, who do you think it would be!" something answered while my interest suddenly went to Scarlet. Then there was silence as I looked at her. I forced myself not to watch her and closed my eyes and looked at the wall instead, my eyes still closed.
"Hey, what are you doing...!" it said. Something tried to watch Scarlet again, but it quickly stopped.
"Enough! I'm in control here." it said. "Humans do not mate with pikachu."
"Human? Are you insane or anything? Pikachu! I'm a pikachu!"
"No, human. I'm a human."
"No, I'm a pikachu."
"Human."
"Pikachu!"
"Human."
"PIKACHU!"
"HEY! Could you both stop arguing and settle down a bit?" I though, this time for real. The conversation in my head was surely interesting but also scary.
"What the hell, what is happening." I thought.
"This nitwit is trying to mate with Scarlet." something said.
"That little spark is trying to blow your chances of ever getting a mate." something else said.
"What is he doing?" I heard. I looked under my arm and saw it was Cammy that said this. I could understand pikachu!
"Maurice, just think you're a human. You are confused right now." the first voice said. I imagined I was a human and everything seemed to be much more... Solid. Like my confusion was gone all of a sudden.
"There." the voice said.
"Who or what are you?" I thought.
"I am you. I don't know what happened, but what I do know is that you currently have two minds and that there is one speaking towards you right now. I am the original Maurice, or in other words, I'm your thoughts you had before. If you think you're human, you will be me and I will be you. Like everything was before that pokéball incident. Ever since then I was split from you. I am still here and I can still give you thoughts but now this other mind escaped from that part of your brain I locked it in you were so confused. Once or twice you gave it complete control of yourself. It made me completely useless. You were acting and behaving like one of him. I could see what you did but I could never interfere with you. Now, it escaped. It was a matter of time and I tried to warn you, but I couldn't."
"But what is that other part...?" I asked.
"I don't know, but since you behaved as a pikachu, I think we both know - or rather, me, or you, whatever - what it is. It is a pikachu mind that has been..." I thought. "That has been placed inside of you somehow. I don't know how and I don't know why. Ask Bill."
"But... Does this mean I am a pikachu?" I asked.
"Look at yourself. You are a human. But if you think as a pikachu, your pikachu-self will probably take control of your body. You could try it." it suggested.
"Alright..." I thought. "Pikachu, come here..."
Suddenly it was like my double minded battle from before happened again. The pikachu mind like stormed my thoughts with all kinds of questions and interesting stuff to explore. I tried to separate the thoughts from the pikachu mind and the human mind. I made sure I kept human.
"So, what are you?" I asked. I noticed it was my old self talking again.
"I'm a pikachu." it said. "Why?"
"Oh great..." I said when I smiled and got up and almost lost balance.
"HUMAN." I thought. I regained balance immediately and the pikachu thoughts were gone.
"Maurice, what the hell were you doing." Oak asked.
"Yes, I'm wondering what you were doing. You were talking some strange things back there." Bill said.
"You'll never guess what just happened..." I said before I sat down in front of them and started to tell them everything.
Thanks for reading again, and please review!