Chapter six: Pika-Partners

When I was turned into a Pikachu yesterday I thought it was the worst day of my life. Nope. That was far from a bad day because I was taken from the cage and examined for many hours. Was it just your typical needle under your skin ordeal? Yes, but it also included Dr. Bartoli putting me in a big transparent rectangular-shaped machine that did everything from setting me on fire to almost crushing my small body. The cruel thing about this big hunk of steel is that it was able to recreate all the moves of Pokémon though a large tube that was connected inside. In other words, she was using it to test my strength as a Pokémon. At least she kept giving me potions to keep me from fainting…how kind of her.

From what I've heard from her self-indulgent conversations is that the formula was some sort of enhancer. Not only was it supposed to give humans the ability to use Pokémon moves but it should've given me twice the power.

According to Bartoli's notes, word for word, after reading loudly to herself, "Log 001: First day of testing. Subject C, a low level Pikachu, has received fewer punishments from the machine than subject B, a medium-high level Pikachu; however, this may be just an anomaly, so I will try the experiment again for several times in a period of a few days to see if the formula is truly effective as an enhancer for Pokémon."

Subject B was Orion and by the looks of things he wasn't exactly the toughest Pikachu around. In fact, the doctor had to take him out of the torture device after results showed that he couldn't take anymore of the pain. Well I can't take anymore of the pain either. It's only the second day and, Orion may be right about this, I might go crazy by tomorrow! I tried to escape a few times but the fact that the doors were locked and I wasn't exactly used to walking on four feet let alone on two feet I had no options left to me. Orion certainly tried to escape also, but it only caused several metallic tentacles from the ceiling to grab him by force and render him unconscious. I guess Bartoli didn't bother to use them on me because of my clumsy walking.

At the end of the day every test subject, which included all of the Pikachu's taken from their cages, are returned to their cells including us. Dr. Bartoli leaves the room to bring more of the Pikachu's she took earlier today. Feeling pity for Orion, I felt the need to make sure he was all right. I should've helped him this morning but then again I couldn't have done much anyways. After all, I don't know how to use Pokémon moves let alone walk without falling flat on the metallic floors. I sat next to him as I waited a while for him to wake up. When he did all I could say was, "Are you okay." He rubs the back of his head in pain, "Yes…are you?"

This took me back. He wasn't mad at me for not helping him earlier? All of a sudden he was alright with me? "I'm so sorry. I should have helped you escape." I choke out.

"No. Don't be sorry. I'm the one who should be sorry for slapping you. Besides, I think we both know who the real enemy is."

"I understand if Bartoli wants to use me as a lab rat, but she plans to use you again. I'm worried that tomorrow will be ten times worse for the both of us and you're not exactly eligible to take anymore pain" I say.

His expression darkens, "True, but escape from this place seems impossible for the moment. I've tried all I could to run away. Now I'm just a tool used for horrible experiments, same as you."

"We shouldn't take our frustrations on each other. Besides, I'm trying to find out which key she uses to open the doors-"

"I agree, we shouldn't argue-" He cocks his head sideways with a puzzled expression, "Wait, how do you plan on getting the key?"

"She uses a key card. In the middle there is a large bold number that reads '7' and I think that's the key she uses to go out into the hallway. Forget it, the card reader is too high for us to reach anyways."

His face becomes even more lost as he tries to form words from his mouth.

"You…you can read?" He asks.

I also give him a baffled look, "Of course. What…you can't read?"

He shakes his head several times.

"Many Pokémon never learn to read human handwriting. It's pointless because our trainers do it for us. What we do know is that we can understand what they're saying…why am I telling you this? You're a Pokémon too."

Almost ignoring his last statement I carefully stand up to walk toward the front of the cage albeit with some struggle. He follows me, "I'm a human." I say.

He plucks his lips together attempting to prevent himself from making any hostile comments he may have for me.

"Look I understand if you don't believe me, but I was taught how to read as a human...in human school. Okay?" He looks away from me, "Alright."

I can tell he wasn't going to believe me but at least he was calm about it...calm enough that he won't be tempted to slap me again.

To my left I can see a clipboard hanging near the cage, which has a pen dangling from it, and it is thick enough to go through the metal bars. I smile after an idea forms in my head. I decide to try and reach for it, but my tiny arms and my short height were in the way. I look towards Orion and say, "Can you please help me with this?" He walks toward me in response, "Sure."

He jumps on my shoulders and tries to grab the clipboard.

RRRIIIPPP!

It ends up falling to the floor outside of the cage and causes us to lose balance. We both hit the metallic floor with a thud. I sigh softly afterwards.

"Darn, I almost had it too!" Orion said.

"I could have showed you how to write your name." I say disappointed.

"Oh Really?" He smiles as he brandishes a large metallic pen and a small piece of torn paper in front of my face. My heart beats with joy as I rudely grab them from him, "H…how?" I ask.

"Our cheeks are magnetic remember? As for the paper I guess it was a good idea to grab that instead." He says.

"Alright!" I sit down with the pen and paper while he stands next to me, "I'm going to spell your name, so I want you to pay close attention Orion."

"Okay mom." He jokingly says.

I carefully draw an 'O', but it appears to be quite ugly in appearance because of my stubby fingers and the large pen that would normally be small if I were human. Eventually I draw the other letters in a way that legendary artist Picasso would spit on them if he had the chance and that's really saying something.

'ORION'

The Pikachu next to me looks in awe as he recognizes the familiar letters, "My…my trainer arranged those same letters on my first birthday cake for me. Of course they were much…"

"Cleaner?" I respond. He nods, "If you say it that way."

He picks up the paper and smiles for several moments, "This is amazing! I can't believe you know how to write human letters! It's really good!"

A gasp escapes his throat before he shakes me several times, "Do…do you know how to read and write Viridian City? Please say yes!" He asks.

"Yes I do," I go ahead and begin writing 'Viridian City' on the piece of paper and he's desperately trying to keep up with my handwriting. Once again I manage to barely spell out 'VIRIDIAN CITY'.

He moves his head sideways again in confusion, "How do I know that's it?"

I sigh, "Okay, first things first. This isn't the universal human language. It's the language we call English, you see the first letter: V, the curved symbol? Well you pronounce it as Vee."

He puts his finger on the first letter and says it correctly, "Good, now that you know the letter V we go into i. This one is a vowel."

"A…what?"

Unfortunately, it's not easy as it sounds for him because learning a new language isn't always easy; however, he did get the first one right so far. I guess that's a start.

A door opens and we both jump in surprise as Dr. Bartoli comes into the room with Poké balls in her hand. She releases some Pikachu's inside their cages and then almost trips on the clipboard. She looks down with a bewildered face as if it came out of nowhere, so she picks it up. I desperately try to get her attention, but it doesn't work. She walks back to the door and flips the switch, "Goodnight," She giggles softly as she turns off the lights and then shuts the door tightly. Now we can't see anything which pretty much hinders any attempt to teach Orion anything for the rest of the day. We both sigh in defeat.

"I can't light up the place because I'm too weak, how about you?" Orion asks me.

"I…can't. I don't know how."

"What do you mean you don't…right…you're Human," the mouse says.

I sit down once again in the darkness and I hear Orion do the same afterwards. I think to myself for a few minutes and then say, "So, you spoke earlier about your trainer…how is he like? He must be worried sick about you,"

"I have no doubt he is worried about me. There are few humans I know that truly care about their Pokémon."

"Do tell." I say.

"My mother gave birth to me in an alleyway and then I was sold to him afterwards. At first I didn't trust him of course and I even tried to run back to the alley on the first day, but I realized that he actually let me go back on my own. Obviously, he followed behind closely but I never found my mother again, so I stayed with him. As the weeks went by he cared for me as if I was his own little brother. Even when I shocked him a few times as a Pichu he didn't hurt me or neglect me. He truly cared and he actually felt sorry that he took me away from my mother. That was three years ago and we've been close brothers ever since." Orion sighs deeply, "He's probably out there somewhere, with no Pokémon to help him, looking for me now as we speak. This is why I was paranoid last night and why i'm still desperate to leave this place."

A short silence follows before he speaks again, "What about you? Do you have a trainer?" He asks.

"No...I don't. I've never been inside a Poké ball before." I respond.

"Oh..." He says softly, "Hopefully you won't end up in the wrong hands then."

Another short silence passes by.

"What's your trainer's name?" I say to him.

I could hear him begin to cry softly in the distance as he barely manages to say to me, "Rigel."

"Sounds like a cool name. Rigel must know that you're doing alright."

"I'm not doing alright! I'm stuck in a cage and I'm being used as an experiment! The worst part of it is that I may be stuck here for the rest of my life, or if I'm lucky dead within a few days. Rigel will be looking for me for a long time and never realize that he'll never see me again!"

"Don't ever say those things because if you say that then it will happen, but it won't. We'll try to find a way out of here. I promise."

"We?" he asks softly.

"We have to work as a team or at least be partners. Like we agreed earlier, we can't be fighting each other." I tell him.

"You're right…besides, we're both Pikachu's, so two ThunderShocks can do serious damage to that Doctor if we're lucky." He responds.

"Only problem is…"

"Yes, about that, since you're teaching me how to read and write I'll teach you some useful Pokémon moves."

"R…really?" I say softly.

"It's the least I can do. You're not a bad Pikachu after all. Now, having a mean Pokémon as a cellmate would have been worse than you saying you're a human all night." He barely lights up the place with his cheeks so he can walk towards me and sit down, "Every time we're put in here you can teach me more about human language and after the lights go out I can teach you Pokemon moves." He says.

"This is great. I think this can actually work Orion."

"No problem…hey I know we already introduced each other yesterday night, but I feel as though we should do it again." He lights up the place one more time, with his cheeks, and stands up. I stand up as well.

"Okay, I'm Lucas nice to meet you," I laugh as I extend my hand toward him.

"Orion, pleasure to meet you Lucas...I still think it's a weird name for a Pokémon," He laughs along with me as we shake hands in the barely visible light that his cheeks are giving off from.

I guess that's one problem solved, but how exactly does one escape a maximum security prison for Pokémon? I guess we'll need spoons…lots and lots of spoons.