I hope you guys are having a great summer, here's another chapter!

VOLUME II

Life Outside the Forest

Chapter twenty-six: A Well-Deserved Rest

It's amazing how one mistake in one's life can change everything. Me, for example, I made the wrong decision to go somewhere I shouldn't have gone to: a Pokémon Gym. I was kidnapped, held against my own will, and transformed into a species that is not my own: a puny, yellow-haired, Pokémon known simply as Pikachu.

While it has been weeks since my untimely transformation, the effects on my body and mind are still profound. I still think like a human, but I can no longer do things that I was able to do as a human: For example, I am now unable to speak to other people and the most painful part of the transformation is that I look like any average Pikachu. My physical individuality has been completely erased: in other words, no one will recognize me.

My mind has also had some strange 'episodes' since my transformation, but I can't really explain them. Maybe, looking like a Pikachu isn't the most painful part…maybe it's losing my human mind forever, that I should be worried about.

"Lucas? Are you okay?" Orion asks me before I shake my head, bringing myself out of my trance.

"Yea…I'm just, thinking…that's all." I look down at him.

"Oh, I'm asking because you've been still for a while." He explains.

"Sorry, I didn't notice…" I respond.

"Well anyways, I was trying to tell you that we're here." Orion says.

I look around. Unbeknownst to me, we had entered a suburban street just outside of the downtown area where the skyscrapers are still visible from afar. Most of the houses here are large and have an upper-middle class look to them.

Rigel stops walking and stands next to what appears to be a well-maintained brick fence. On the other side of this fence is a white-colored house with a chimney on each side and a balcony just above the front porch which is held in place by two huge columns.

"Here we are…home." Rigel opens the fenced door leading into the property.

"Nice house." I say to myself as I nod.

We walk on the pathway leading to the entrance. After we do so, Rigel climbs the steps of the front porch as Orion does the same, passing through the columns in the process. Rigel rings the bell afterwards and we wait for somebody to open the door for us.

Rigel looks down at his Pikachu, "Mom's going to be angry Orion." Rigel says before looking at his messy clothes as Orion checks to see the mess all over his fur. They try to quickly rub off as much debris off them as possible; however, the door opens and we all look up to see a woman.

She covers her mouth with both hands before moving them away, "Rigel!" she hugs him, despite that fact that he's dirty. I almost fall from the trainer's shoulder in the process.

"Hi mom." Rigel says.

"Orion!" She breaks away from the hug and looks at me. She touches one of my ears slightly which gets me to respond negatively.

"Actually mom…this is Lucas." Rigel gestures to me as I wave slightly to her, "Orion's here." He points down to his Pikachu, who is standing beside him.

Rigel's mother jumps slightly when she realizes that there is a second, nearly identical, Pikachu and she slaps her hands together in response, "Of course, Orion prefers to walk! How could I forget!?" She looks back to me and laughs, "And Orion is shorter."

She then asks, "So, who's Lucas?"

"I found him near the city." Rigel responds.

She starts to scratch my chin, which at first is strange and uncomfortable, but it then, inexplicably, begins to feel nice for me. I close my eyes tightly and squeak with happiness. The feeling is unlike anything I've ever felt before in my life! Much to my delight, she continues for several more seconds.

"Does he belong to somebody?" Rigel's mother asks.

"Nope."

She looks at her son, "Well…are you going to train him?"

"I'm not sure yet."

She then withdraws her hand and I suddenly become upset that she had stopped. I then realize what had just happened: she treated me as if I was a pet or something!

I look toward Orion and I ask, "What was that Orion? Why did she do that and why did it feel…"

"Nice?" He interrupts me, "You've never been petted before?"

"You seem to forget that I used to be human." I retort, "Is it because of my fur?"

"I guess? I never question why, I just like the feeling." Orion responds.

Moments after, Rigel's mother examines the clutter of dirt, dust, and mud on Rigel's clothing and bag, "What happened to you?"

"I've been doing a lot mom, you won't believe where I've been…"

"Oh please tell me inside!" She walks to the wooden double doors and invites us in, "Sorry for keeping you outside for so long!"

Soon afterwards, we enter the house. The first thing we can see is the grand spiral staircase just down the hallway. The floor of the house is polished and the walls are white, which are similar to the exterior of the house.

Orion takes in a deep breath through his nose and exhales through his mouth, "I miss this smell. It feels like I haven't been home for a long time."

Rigel's mother locks the doors and guides us to the staircase, "So how's your journey?"

"It's going fine actually." Rigel says as we stop beside the stairs.

"Have you earned your first badge?"

"Not yet mom."

She smiles, "Oh that's fine, don't rush…that's one of the worst things a Pokémon trainer can do."

A short silence fills the room before Rigel's mother gets our attention again.

"Well, welcome back home!" She hugs Rigel, rubs my ears again and then does the same for Orion, "Would you like me to make breakfast?"

The three of us smile widely after she asks this. "Yes please!" We all say in unison.

"You can tell me more during breakfast." She walks away and goes into another area of the house.

Shortly after, we hear a growl from somewhere. Rigel and I look to Orion.

"Ow…my stomach…" Orion says after we hear his belly growl.

Rigel laughs, "Hungry there buddy?"

"I'm starving!" Orion retorts.

"Yea…I haven't eaten since I was in the forest." I respond.

Rigel then looks to me and asks, "Hey Lucas, while my mom is making breakfast, would you like to look around the house?"

"Not until after you bathe him Rigel!" His mother shouts from another room, "Please go get yourselves cleaned up first."

Rigel looks beneath the floor he's standing on and finds dirt on the bottom of his shoes. He turns around to see the floor of the hallway before Orion and I do the same: we see a trail of dirt.

Rigel says, "Opps…I guess we'll get right on to it." He signals Orion to climb his other shoulder which the Pikachu does. Rigel has the both of us on his shoulder as he climbs the grand spiral staircase. Once we get to the second floor, he makes a right and heads down toward another hallway, "Thank goodness there's no carpet here."

We reach the end of the hallway and enter a room: Rigel's bedroom.

The first thing we see is a PC, which is on a desk against the wall. We then see his bed, a television set on top of a drawer, and a bookcase next to the window. Sunlight from the sun, which is higher in the sky now, shines from the bedroom window.

We see another door, which Rigel tells me is the bathroom. He takes us inside and he sets us down on the tiled-floor.

Rigel inspects me, "Alright, so they were nice enough to remove your bandages back at the Pokémon Center. Thank goodness your wounds healed fast. Those bandages would have been a problem to deal with."

He then goes toward a bathtub and turns the faucet. Soon after water starts to fall and fill the bathtub, Rigel leaves and brings back a bottle of shampoo.

He picks Orion up first and places him inside the tub. Next, he picks me up and does the same. The water is slightly cold as it strikes my feet and it is rising quickly. Without warning, Rigel kneels down and pours water all over my body, which gets me to cringe immediately afterwards. Now drenched in water, I try to get out; however, the human holds me still as I continue to struggle.

Rigel tries to calm me down, "Lucas, I have to bathe you or my mom will get mad."

At this point, the water is up to our stomachs and the movements I make causes water to splash everywhere; some of the water actually hits Rigel's face. Determined nevertheless, Rigel moves away from me momentarily, to turn the faucet off, since he obviously wouldn't want me to flood the floor, and begins to wash my body.

He rubs his hands on my head and on my ears: cleaning the mess off them in the process. After several more moments of struggle, I begin to relax when I start to feel delight just as I did when Rigel's mother petted me. Not thinking twice, I allow Rigel to continue and he sighs in response, "Thank you Lucas…"

Soon afterwards, Rigel takes the shampoo and pours it on me. Rigel then rubs his hands on my paws, armpits, belly, tail, neck, and ears: spreading the shampoo and making sure to get rid of the rest of the mess on my body. As he does this, I experience extreme comfort: as if I was getting massage therapy.

After pouring water again to wash off what's left of the shampoo on my body, it's now Orion's turn to get washed. Rigel moves toward Orion.

He does the same thing he did to me to Orion as I watch silently. Once Orion's fur is completely drenched with water my curiosity gets the better of me when I see Orion, whose eyes are closed and is squeaking with joy. Rigel then pours shampoo on the Pokémon and continues to bathe him. Remembering when Rigel's mother petted me, my mind became too focused on analyzing what had just happened. But, before I could continue, Rigel finishes with Orion and removes the bathtub's plug which begins to drain the water from it. After most of the water is gone, Rigel takes a towel and dries Orion first: they both smile as he does so.

"Orion, I'm happy that I found you in Verdigris…" Rigel says as Orion nods gleefully.

"I was very worried for you for over the past two weeks, I really began to think that my rescue would be pointless…when you were captured by Team Rocket, I didn't stop running after you. It took so long, but I'm glad I finally found you and brought you home." Rigel says. The tone of his voice hinted that he felt guilt and regret, "I shouldn't have been so stupid…I should have ran when those Team Rocket grunts attacked us…"

He sighs softly before turning back to us, "Thankfully, we're all okay…right?" He asks the both of us as we nod, "Guys, I'll be sure to get better as a trainer…I won't make the same mistake again." He says.

He dries Orion's ears and face before finishing, He then picks up Orion and places him outside the tub on a towel on the floor before scratching the Pikachu's head momentarily. Afterwards, he proceeds to dry me: and the same feelings of pleasure come back again.

After a minute of drying my yellow fur, Rigel picks me up gently and places me next to Orion, "Well, you two should be fine now. Head over to the bedroom 'cause I need to shower." He tells us as we migrate to his bedroom. He closes the bathroom door behind us and leaves the both of us alone. Soon after, Orion jumps on a small bean bed and then jumps up and down repeatedly, "Gosh…I miss this…I'm so happy to be back home." He makes a big smile.

After several more moments with himself Orion stops jumping and turns to me. He asks, "So, how do you feel?"

"What?" I look at him and tilt my head in confusion.

"Wasn't that the first time someone has bathed you as a Pokémon?"

"Wait…so now you believe that I used to be human?" I cross my arms.

"After all that's happened…pretty much. You didn't answer my question by the way."

"…yes…yes…that was the first time I was treated like that." I stay silent for several seconds, "And I'm not sure what to think of it." I then remember, however, the times when my mother bathed me as a young child, but I decided not to discuss it since Orion was laughing, "I think you do know…judging by how much you liked being petted, I think you feel great."

I sit down on the floor and ponder about the events that had just transpired.

I liked the feeling of being petted…didn't I? But, was it just instinct? Is it just something any Pikachu does when they are petted…I guess everything's different now…but I'm not sure what to think about it…

"This is only temporary…" I look up to him and say, "I hope you know that."

"I guess." Orion says, rolling his eyes, "We've been through a lot of stress but we're okay now…so, stop thinking too much…Just enjoy the moment."

I think about what he had just said: I couldn't really do anything as a Pikachu back in the forest since I was locked inside of a cage most of the time, but now that I'm free I just don't know what to think of it.

My expression unchanged, Orion gets off the bean bag and walks toward me, "Let me guess…you've been thinking about your human life since we left the forest…right?"

I look back at him and say, "…yes…"

The bathroom door opens and Rigel comes out as we look at him: he's wearing a bath robe. He takes out several clothes from a drawer before entering the bathroom again. Orion looks back at me afterwards, "Family?" He asks.

Remembering that Orion was not present when I called my parents I respond, "Yea…"

"Oh…don't worry Lucas, once you're human again…" Orion continues to speak to me but I ignore him as I think to myself.

Once I'm human again? That's what I'm afraid of…what if I never become human again…and worse…

"Orion, there's another reason why I'm worried so much…" I stop midsentence.

"What is it?" He asks me.

"Remember when we were in the prison last night and I was acting weird after you used Thunderbolt?" I ask.

"Yea…"

"I don't remember most of it…and it happened because I'm a Pikachu…" I look down at the floor, "I'm scared Orion…scared that soon enough…I might lose what's left of what makes me human." I cover my face with my paws, "I'm scared that my human mind will be replaced…"

Orion nods, "I remember…your condition about forgetting things is weird I'll admit…but I think you're just experiencing what makes a Pokémon a Pokémon…you see…in times of stress, Pokémon tend to lose control completely in order to achieve a task. I don't think you're going to change."

I look back at him, "You think so?" I ask, "But what if it happens anyways?"

"It won't Lucas." He retorts.

"How do you know?" I ask.

"Because you're strong!" He closes his eyes and smiles, "Listen Lucas, don't worry too much about it, we'll fix this. Just enjoy your time here. I'm sure Rigel will get Bill to help very soon."

"Bill…who is this Bill anyways?" I ask him.

"Well…he's a human researcher and an expert in Pokémon species…at least that's what he says on television." Orion points toward the T.V. in the room, "He had the idea to mix both things together…and well…he sometimes fuses his body with a Pokémon in order to see what would happen…he said it was an accident at first but now it's something he does a lot more now…"

Strange…I've never heard of this guy. And if he's on television and what he's doing is real then that's really strange. Maybe he started doing this after I left to live in Sinnoh. Anyways, mixing humans and Pokémon together sounds very grotesque to me.

"But…combining me with another Pokémon or human won't be much help…" I retort, "I want to be…me, I don't want to look like a deformed-"

"I see your point."Orion nods as he interrupted me, "But who else are we going to turn to for help?"

I look down towards the floor.

Orion's right…Bartoli could have helped me but she didn't want to help me…she's done some horrible stuff to us and I'm not going to risk my life asking the one person, who turned me into a Pikachu and tried to enslave me, for help. Maybe this Bill can figure something out…I really hope he can, for my sake.

"Yea…I guess I have no choice but to go to Bill." I tell Orion.

"Don't worry Lucas." The smaller Pikachu walks toward me and lays a hand on my shoulder, "We'll get this sorted out. In the meantime, have fun!" He closes his eyes again and smiles.

I nod softly, "Yea, I guess so…I'll try to."

"Man…" He suddenly grabs me, which gets me by surprise, and starts to rub his small knuckles on my noggin, "Is Mr. Positive in there? Is he awake today!?"

I smile, despite feeling some discomfort on my head, "Okay, he's back! Let me go." I retort.

Orion moves away and I rub my head afterwards, "Feeling better?" Orion asks.

"Yea, I guess so."

The bathroom door opened again and Rigel came out, wearing a new set of clothes: a T-shirt and jeans. He goes to his night stand and places his hat there.

He then kneeled down next to us, "You like my room?" He asks me as I nod, "Come on, wanna see the rest of the house?"

I nod once again before Rigel leads us outside his room. He takes us downstairs and gives me a guided tour of his home: one of the places he showed me was the living room. Other areas he showed me include a Sunroom and a backyard patio, although he showed me from inside the house.

Rigel looks down at me and says, "Well, that covers just about everything..."

"Rigel, breakfast is ready!" His mother calls out.

"Come on guys!" Rigel and Orion start running to the kitchen as I follow behind them; however, I stop following when my eyes manage to see a half-opened door: and I am able to see what appears to be an office. My curiosity gets the better of me as I walk towards the room. Using my small stubby paws, I open the door even more and I stare silently at what I can see afterwards.

"Lucas?" I hear Orion call out to me, but I ignore him: I enter the room.

It's a small home library, which is littered with countless books on its shelves. The shelves themselves are made of some kind of dark wood: most likely either mahogany or cherry wood. The floors are made of polished wood and are lighter in color. A window in front of me shines light on my face, and also at a desk. I circle the room, greatly impressed by it.

Suddenly, a hand grabs my shoulder and turns me around. The culprit is revealed to be Orion, "What are you doing here?" He asks me silently as if this place was supposed to be a secret.

"You have a library in your home and you've never tried to learn English?" I retort.

"Lucas, you can't be in here." He ignores my question as he tries to drag me outside.

"Alright, alright!" I shout after feeling pain.

Rigel then shows up and gasps, "Lucas!" He forces us outside the room, "You can't go into that room…it's my dad's office, and if he saw you in there, he would never forgive me!"

Orion looks at me, "I didn't know, I'm sorry." I tell him in response.

"It's okay." He tells me.

Rigel closes the door shut, "Sorry about that but my dad would kill me if he saw you…" Rigel explains.

"Rigel?" His mother calls out to him again.

"Yea, we'll be right there!" He yells before looking down at us again, "Let's have breakfast and forget this happened, okay?" Rigel says as he leads us to the kitchen, "Please stay with us this time Lucas."

We begin walking as Orion says, "Sorry Lucas, it's just that…our dad has strict rules about having Pokémon inside the house. He's okay with a Pikachu since Rigel took care of me when I was young, but even I am sometimes forbidden to be inside the house."

"Any particular reason?" I ask.

"Safety…he's always told us it's because of safety, and I guess he's right...a small burst of ember from Charmeleon can cause a forest fire if left unchecked."

"That makes sense." I say.

We reach the kitchen, which has a counter in the middle, and we are greeted by Rigel's mother, "Thank you Rigel for cleaning up." She serves a plate for him and he sits down on a stool next to the counter to begin eating, "Yup."

Afterwards, she places two other stools, which are taller than Rigel's stool, next to Rigel himself: she then picks Orion up and places him on one stool and then picks me up and places me on the other. Now that the three of us are at the counter, we see Rigel's mother bring several plates to us. Our mouths begin to water as she serves us hot plates for us to eat.

Now, being that I haven't eaten decent food since I was a human, I didn't hesitate to gorge the breakfast in front of me. Much to my surprise, the taste was actually the same as it was when I was human: I guess that's why Pokémon can eat human food too. Anyways, I enjoyed every bit of it.

As the three of us continue eating, Rigel's mother sits down on the other side of the counter. She laughs at how fast Orion and I are eating.

"So Rigel, how long are you planning to stay here?" She asks.

"For a while I guess. I miss home."

She looks at me and smiles, "It seems he likes you Rigel. He's very calm for a wild Pokémon."

"Yea, he is." Rigel says before eating a large chunk of food again.

Silence fills the room before his mother asks, "You all were quite hungry weren't you?"

"You won't believe how hungry." Rigel responds before eating again, "We've been through a lot."

"Tell me." She says.

Rigel looks at Orion, who is still eating, and then to me, "It's a long story."

"Tell me anyways." She retorts.

"Okay…where do I start…well…after we left the house to start training, Orion and I caught a Mankey near the city and then we decided to challenge the Viridian City gym leader…but we lost." He stops speaking momentarily, "Mom…something happened to us afterwards…there's a reason why we were covered in dust." Rigel shows his mother bruises on his body, which was hidden by his long-sleeve shirt, and she gasps in response.

"Who did this to you!?" She asks.

"Team Rocket."

She looks up at him with a horrified face.

"I was battling some girl near the Viridian Forest and we were ambushed by two Team Rocket grunts…they took Orion and I went after them inside the forest…"

Rigel continues to explain his story while I look at his mother: she is speechless, and it looks as though she is unsure if her son's story is true or not, yet she continued to listen to him.

Rigel continues until he looks back at me, "After searching for Orion inside the forest for days, I found Lucas in an abandoned town…and he told me that he knew Orion."

"How?" She asks.

"He was also captured apparently, just like Orion, and they escaped as I looked for Orion, or at least that's what Lucas told me."

"Told you? How can he tell you if he's a Pokémon?" She asks.

Rigel stands up and walks towards her, "Mom, if I show you, will you promise to keep calm?" Rigel asks her and she raises an eyebrow slowly, "What do you mean?"

"Okay hold on." He leaves the kitchen for a moment as Orion and I finish our meals. His mother, in the meantime, cleans the counter, including Rigel's plate which he had just finished before he left.

When he returned, he was holding a pencil and a sheet of paper: he placed them in front of me and said, "Check this out…Lucas, show her what you can do…write to her what happened to you."

I nod before I begin to write on the sheet of paper. At first she tilts her head in confusion but she then gasps when she sees me writing full sentences in English handwriting, which is messy because my fingers are smaller.

"He can write?" She covers her mouth, "Did you teach him this?"

"Nope." Rigel retorts.

I hand the finished paper to Rigel who then passes it to his mother, who reads it slowly to herself, "He used to be human…" She says in disbelief, "Okay Rigel, honestly if you're doing this as a show…"

"He's writing in perfect English! I've never seen a Pokémon do that mom!" He retorts again, "Look, I'm not sure myself, but maybe he's like Bill…maybe something went wrong. Maybe he was part of an experiment!" Rigel says.

I gesture Rigel to give the paper back and he does: I write more information before giving it back. Rigel reads it out loud, "I was forcefully transformed into a Pikachu by Team Rocket, and they locked me inside a cage with Orion…we eventually escaped and met with Rigel."

His mother moves away, "I need time to think about this Rigel, this is too much…a Pokémon who can write…it sounds impossible." The last sentence she said to herself as she led us to the living room.

"I think he's telling the truth, do you think so too."

"I need time to register this Rigel, just, let them play outside or do something else in the meantime please…" She sits down on a couch.

Rigel slaps his hands against his thighs in response, "Okay, we got the backyard, but I'd rather not let them go outside until things settle down." He tells her, but she ignores him, "I'll take them back to my room." He gestures me to climb on his shoulder which I do so. Rigel turns toward his mother, "Thanks for breakfast mom…sorry for the surprise…" He leads us towards the grand spiral staircase while leaving his mother by herself.

"So the attack on the Pokémon center wasn't enough for Team Rocket…we can't let Rigel do this anymore…if what he's saying is true." She says softly.

Meanwhile, we reach Rigel/Orion's bedroom and he puts me on his bed and Orion jumps on it afterwards. Rigel takes out a box-like device from a drawer and brandishes it to us, "You guys want to play some GameBoy in the meantime?"

Orion nods furiously, "Yea! I haven't played in a long time!"

Rigel smiles and places the device next to Orion before going into the drawer and getting another one.

I shrug, "Um...what's a GameBoy?"

"You can play games on it!" Orion says half-serious and half-sarcastically to me, "I don't know why she wouldn't react whenever she saw me playing video games with Rigel, I guess it isn't the same."

"A Pokémon playing video games...it is weird...but interesting...show me." I say.

"Alright!" He pushes a button and the device turns on: the sunlight allows us to see the screen as Rigel sits next to us, "You ready Orion?" He smiles.

Orion looks up at the human and smiles mischievously, "Let's battle!"