Edited 10/29/22

And I'm updating this one again! Why? Because I feel the urge to write for Pokemon!

Now on with the chapter!

"I still think you're wasting your time with this," Pichu announced to him from his usual perch on the shelf. Albeit now it was a shelf in Delia's house instead of Professor Oak's Lab.

"Sto-hrk." Ash choked on the last sound and growled to himself and stared back at the book. He was sitting on the coffee table in the living room with the book opened in front of him. "Stop distracting me. I can do this!" He finished in his normal speech pattern.

What book could possibly be causing such distress?

The Bernstein Bewears Learn the Alphabet!

Pichu obviously did not care much for the book but Ash was doing his best to make use of it. If he wanted his illusions to be realistic he had to be able to match what Pokemon or human he was appearing as. And while he had mastered his "transformations" to an acceptable level (there was more to learn of course) they only held up so long as he remained silent.

So he had to learn how to make other sounds, which was hard.

A Pokemon's language skills were unique and fairly simple using a variety of tones and pronunciations of what sounds they had available to them in order to 'speak.' Other Pokemon were able to understand at least and there were the occasional rumors of a human who could as well.

Ash just thought it was weird how humans were the ones who had a greater natural range of vocalization. But at the cost of not understanding any of the Pokemon in the world who could communicate with each other despite their different ways of vocalizing.

Then again he had trouble trying to picture any of the humans he knew wandering around just saying "human human" so maybe there was some higher reason for it or something he did not understand.

"Pff." Ash tried to pronounce the sound. "Pffff." he growled and smacked his lips a bit. "Stupid letter! My lips aren't flexible enough and it just keeps turning into an 'f' sound!"

"It's just one letter?" Pichu pointed out. "You've got a lot of other sounds down now so maybe you can just avoid words with that one?" Oh, he was trying to be helpful now. At least it was better than being told he was dumb for trying to learn more sounds.

Still, Ash decided to make his point and flashed into an illusion, specifically, Pichu.

"'Ichu." He pronounced. "'Ichu 'ichu 'i!" He reiterated.

"...I see your point," Pichu admitted before turning his head slightly. "Are you supposed to be me right now?"

"I used you as a base," Ash admitted turning his head to make sure he got the tail right. He didn't make that mistake too much anymore but it was still good to make sure he did not relapse back into that bad habit.

"I think the patterns are the same but I made the fur look a little bit lighter. If I make myself look exactly the same as you, it could be a giveaway for the fact it's an illusion." he then gave the other Pokemon a pointed look. "Or I might get blamed for something you did."

"I take offense that I have been on my best behavior." The smaller Pokemon straightened up and puffed out his chest, accidentally knocking a book to the ground in the process.

"At least it wasn't breakable this time." Ash decided to look on the bright side. He hopped down from the table and placed it back on the shelf, albeit a bit lower, at least it wasn't on the floor now. Silently he was pleased with his skills moving bipedal, it had taken time and moving up from smaller Pokemon to proper human size but he didn't topple over anymore. The balance was a bit wonky sometimes though.

"I've been wondering, is that just an illusion or is it real? Because you can touch stuff and I can touch you…" The curiosity in Pichu's voice was real as he watched Ash interact with the book while apparently on two feet despite the fact he was typically grounded to four legs.

"Yes." Ash answered.

"That's not funny." Pichu deadpanned at him.

"I wasn't trying to be." Ash defended. "The answer to both is yes. It is an illusion but it's a solid illusion so it's sort of real." He straightened the book a bit. "It is fragile though."

"Really?" Pichu leaped down and landed on Ash knocking him to the ground and causing the illusion to sputter out. "Huh, so it is."

"Why you…" Ash spun around and tackled the electric type and they rolled across the floor scratching at each other. This was not the vicious wrestling match their previous bout had been, it was evident Pichu was not actually trying to hurt him and he wasn't trying to do anything serious to Pichu.

"You two better not be roughhousing in there!" A call from the other room where Delia was quickly had Ash pulling out of the fight and Pichu looking put out by the sudden stop.

"Aw come on! We weren't even using real attacks." Pichu pouted.

"She has a point, we could break something." Ash protested although it was clear his heart was not in it.

"You are way too eager to listen to her, what is she your mom?" Pichu rolled his eyes at the Zorua.

Ash stared at Pichu for a moment and then looked at the doorway that led to the kitchen where Delia was practicing a new recipe for her restaurant. "I mean, I guess she kinda is? She did basically raise me after all."

Pichu gave him a funny look. "But she's a human? What happened to your parents?"

"I dunno." Ash kicked at the floor. He didn't like thinking about it too much considering what he could remember. He remembers being cold, and hungry, and then the warm feeling of being in a Pokeball for the first time. He had welcomed that cramped feeling he found confining now, it felt warm and safe then. "She had a friend in Unova who found me wandering around a city he wasn't really sure how to start taking care of me, especially in the middle of his Gym challenge so he talked with her and here I am!"

Pichu stared at him for a bit longer. Looked like he wanted to say something but instead just frowned and turned his back to Ash, momentarily hiding his face. "Well if we can't do anything in here because we might break something we can just go out, right? Wanna head into town and mess with the humans?" he turned around again a new devilish look in his eyes.

"Could be fun." Ash decided, maybe it wasn't the best idea to indulge Pichu's dislike of humans but Ash had to admit, messing with them could be pretty fun. "Any specific ideas?"

"I have one or two…" Pichu grinned like a Sharpedo.

Gary was bored.

Since his grandfather's Pokemon camp had wrapped up for the Summer he hadn't had any actual activities to do except play with his toys. And since most of the friends he had made at camp had left for their own homes now he was all by himself until school started up again.

There were a few other kids he could theoretically try and hang out with but he knew at least two of them were on vacation, another was annoying and the rest were too far away to walk to.

He had now grown bored with his toys for the moment and had gone out to seek fun in other places.

So he found himself wandering around the park alone and bored out of his mind. Hoping for something entertaining to walk up to him and make his day.

Gary passed by a family having a small cookout, they had kids but they looked younger than him and he didn't want to try and put up with babies. So he was going to keep going but he saw something that caught his eye. Apparently hiding behind a nearby tree was a boy he didn't recognize.

The boy was wearing a black t-shirt and shorts and had black hair that stuck out on the sides and he looked about Gary's age. But the weird part was that perched on his head was a Pichu.

For a moment Gary wondered how this kid had gotten the Pichu from his grandfather's lab but quickly discarded the idea. Sure they were uncommon but there was no way it was the same Pichu from the lab. That little monster hated people and his grandfather had confirmed as much when he went to complain to him after getting shocked by it.

Both boy and Pichu were staring intently at the family as they continued their activities, the food wasn't ready yet it seemed but it couldn't have been far away given the fact the mom had the oldest helping her get the table ready.

Deciding to take his chance at finding entertainment here, he walked up to the boy and said. "Hey what're you doing."

The other boy jumped in surprise and shook the Pichu off his head who scrambled for a grip on his t-shirt to pull himself onto the shoulder. The boy quickly calmed down and made a frantic glance between Gary and the family before making a shushing gesture and pointing at the family again as they gathered around for the food to come off the grill.

Gary moved a bit behind the tree next to him and watched with a growing sense of curiosity.

"Alright come an- what the heck!?" The apparent dad of the family spluttered as he opened up the grill.

"This is Pokemon Chow!? I just opened it two minutes ago! What happened to the burgers?" The man frantically looked around as if he expected the burgers to appear out of thin air, but to no avail.

Eyes wide with surprise and snickering to himself a bit once the initial shock wore off he turned to the boy next to him and confirmed that the mirth was mutual, even the Pichu seemed to be enjoying the scene.

"Don't tell me you managed to do that? How?"

The black-haired boy just grinned at him and turned back to the family as the disappointment grew and the father tried to keep the kids' spirits up while the mother inspected the grill herself, came to the same conclusion but expanded her search beyond just looking around wildly.

Wandering up to a nearby grill that wasn't in use, she opened it and called her partner over. He couldn't quite make out what was in it but he was pretty sure he saw a fresh package of burgers and hot dogs, along with some yellow blobs sitting on the grill top itself.

"I don't under-." The man shook his head and muttered to himself. "Brendan! Could you bring your plate over, I need to move the burgers back onto the hot grill for a bit."

Gary was in awe. Not only had the family been successfully pranked, but it had ended in a way that hadn't left them all completely unhappy and their cookout ruined. He was legitimately impressed.

This kid got to be one of his friends now, he should be honored!

The boy and Pokemon seemed pleased with themselves as well as they turned. His arms were behind his head and Pichu hopped back onto his hair as they walked down the path Gary had been traveling up.

"Wait! Hold on a second!" Gary called, following along and falling into step beside them.

The boy looked at him curiously but the Pichu seemed to glare at him. "Pichu pi." The other boy's eyes looked up at the Pichu for a second but he still didn't say anything.

"That was pretty impressive. How'd you do that?" His only response was a grin that seemed almost foxlike. "You don't talk much do you?"

For reasons beyond his understanding the Pichu got a very amused look on its face and repeated its own name to the boy, apparently saying something. The look up was a glare this time but he looked at Gary and shook his head after a moment.

" Do you have a name at least?" Gary tried instead hoping for a real response this time.

A conflicted look was his response that quickly settled into a determined frown. "Ash." He looked immensely satisfied with himself at saying his own name which Gary found weird.

Maybe he was a bit shy? That was dumb but his prank game was on point and Gary was bored, he could put up with the kid being shy if he got to learn some of his tricks and get some more laughs out of it.

"Are you planning any more of those pranks?" He asked Ash who looked surprised but grinned in response.

"Smell ya later!" Gary called as he ran off towards his home. It was starting to get darker and the human boy had decided it was time to get back before his parents worried.

Ash waved goodbye and waited until Gary was out of sight before addressing Pichu. "I think that went well."

"Bleh. He's annoying. Did you hear him try and order us around? Typical human, he didn't even know you were a Pokemon and he treated you like you had to listen to him." Pichu complained loudly. "I like his grandpa better."

"I thought you didn't like Professor Oak?" Ash pointed out rolling his eyes at his friend's complaints. Gary had been a little bossy but Pichu was blowing it out of proportion.

"I don't," Pichu confirmed.

"Besides, he wasn't that bad. You still had fun, didn't you." Ash pointed out and Pichu had no response because of course, he did have fun.

He turned them around and started walking them back towards Delia's house. Pichu had spent the night with them before and Professor Oak seemed grateful to have him out of the lab and not causing trouble. Not to mention Pichu seemed to be warming up to Delia and liked Ash enough not to go out of his way to make a mess.

"Any ideas for what to do tomorrow?" Pichu asked him.

Ash opened his mouth to answer but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder making him yelp and spin around.

At once he recognized that it was a grown human who had startled him. This realization made Ash quail in fear and slap his hand over his mouth. Oh no, what if he sounded too much like a Zorua with that shout? Now, this guy could figure out what he was!

He wasn't sure what would happen if he was revealed but he did not want to find out!

Pichu had cried out and fallen to the ground with the spin but recovered quickly and moved to attack the man who put his hands up in a placating gesture.

"Woah! Sorry kid, I didn't mean to scare you that much. Just wanted to talk to you." He looked kind of familiar now that Ash thought about it.

"That trick with the Pokemon chow was pretty impressive, still not sure how you did it." The man continued speaking and Ash's eyes went wide. Shoot, it was the dad from that family! "Speaking of which, quick tip, even if you hide while the prank is happening, people can still see you walk away from the scene of the crime." He grinned and briefly pushed through the bit of hair on his head.

Ash winced. Oops, he hadn't thought of that. Hopefully, he had been more out of the way with his subsequent pranks with Gary.

"I'm guessing you had your Pichu help you out a bit." he glanced down at Pichu who hadn't actually started attacking yet, likely because his first move was to start apologizing. "Anyway, my name's Sidney, I wanted to congratulate you on that trick and also say thanks for not being a complete jerk about it." He laughed.

"Gotta say you didn't have to get us a whole new set of burgers and dogs by the way, appreciated though." He gave Ash a once over. "So you plan to become a trainer then? You and Pichu seem to work together pretty well."

Ash stared at the man for a moment and quickly realized he probably wanted an answer. He wracked his brain trying to find some words he could actually pronounce in order to answer this question. "I dunno."

Perfectly executed.

"Well, you should give it a go. If you two work this well together now, I can't wait to see what you guys can do later. What's your name kid?"

Ash, still feeling kind of numb at the sudden suggestion, had the presence of mind to answer, "Ash."

"Okay then Ash, if you do decide to give training a shot, feel free to hunt me down in Hoenn, I bet you'll be a real knockout then!" He turned and waved Ash off again. "I gotta go get everyone back to the hotel. Thanks for the chuckle, and the food!" And with that, he wandered off.

Ash stared after Sidney for a moment. A Pokemon trainer? Him?! How would that even work?! Ash's mind spun a mile a minute as he pictured himself and Pichu in gym battles, standing in an arena holding a trophy...

Pichu climbed back up Ash and retook his previous place on his head. "Sheesh, that was weird." He looked down at Ash. "Hey are you alright, you got a weird look on your face. Ash?"

Ash barely heard the other Pokemon as he thought more, Delia was a good trainer, and being a trainer like her would be awesome! Maybe he could meet Shelldon, she talked about him sometimes and he'd wondered about the Blastoise and what he was like. Could he even take the Gym challenge? With his illusions he could probably keep up the disguise but what happens if he got hit with something to break the illusion…

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden electric shock.

Falling to the ground and out of the illusion, he glared at Pichu who landed on his feet this time. No doubt because he'd been the one responsible for the fall. "What was that for?"

"You looked like you were in another dimension, what's up?" Pichu stared hard at him for a second. "Wait, don't tell me you're actually thinking about what that guy said to you?"

"I might be." Ash firmly stated.

"You're a Pokemon! You can't even be a trainer, that's ridiculous!" His yellow friend pointed out.

"So is being able to knock out multiple people with one of the weakest electric attacks and you pull that off." He told the tiny mouse, remembering just how much that attack could hurt.

"THAT IS NOT THE SAME THING," Pichu shouted.

"We can make this work just hear me out!" The Zorua defended himself, already thinking of ways around the initial pitfalls they'd run into.

"How are you actually considering this?" Pichu spoke in disbelief.

"I need to plan this out more, but we can make it work.

"Ash no." Pichu sounded defeated.

"Ash yes!" He declared jumping to his feet, a mile-wide grin on his face and a spark in his eyes.

I had a lot of fun with this chapter.

I enjoyed building up Ash and Pichu's relationship a bit more, while also working Ash further towards a perfected human disguise.

But yeah. Some letters need lips and it occurs to me that a Zorua's lips probably aren't the easiest to work with.

So I mentioned in the last chapter that it had been so long since I updated that Pikachu actually got a backstory.

Now I already had a backstory planned for him in this story, but given the new info from Journey's I could integrate the canon one into it and still make it work relatively the same.

It's just I'm not sure if I should? Like I could probably handwave some of the nuances I might lose but I also said in the first chapter this was obviously going to be pretty AU so I don't really need to use it. I'll talk to some fellow writers about, get some second opinions.

Anyways, this chapter, Ash and Pichu do pranks! Gary is a kid but also still kind of a jerk and I'm actually quite happy with how his POV turned out. Also for those of you who didn't recognize Sydney (and I suppose I didn't describe him the best) he's the Hoenn elite four member. I wanted to use a high end trainer to inspire Ash but I was tossing around who and I dunno for some reason I remembered Sidney and how encouraging he was both at the beginning of his battle and after you beat him.

Also I called one of his kids Brendan and the name Brendan is common in Hoenn within the canon of this story.

And finally, let's do the reviews!

jurassicdinodrew: Pichu's learning to get along, but it's a process. As for catching Mew, it's a bit early for that isn't it? I won't say it's off the table but catching any legendaries is a long way off.

Moss Stories: It is nice to do updating again!

PenguinBandit523: The eventually is a lot sooner than in some cases. After all, if shonen anime has taught me anything, victory=friendship! Jokes aside, Pichu just needed some humility and to see what humans can help pokemon instead of harm them.

Thanks for reading all! Not sure what I'll update next week, only that I will. (although it'll probably end up being this one again.

~FriTik

R&R