I wasn't entirely sure why, but the sight of all the glass shattering sent a shiver down my spine. I felt my breathing begin to pick up and internally cursed myself.

Calm down, I thought. You're panicking for no reason. You're being stupid. Stop being stupid, Pikachu.

At some point, Ash had gathered me in his arms again and took me to the side. We ventured a good while away from the crowd and ended up alone in the infuriatingly sterile hallways. He slid to the ground, keeping his back to the wall and we ended up being hidden by a large plant.

I glared at the plant, wishing for it to burn, shrivel up and die. It was just one thing after another and I was beginning to think I couldn't handle this.

'You don't belong here...you never have...'

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out that nauseating voice.

"Hey, are you okay?" I groaned loudly as Ash asked the question. Did I look okay? Did he have to ask?

...better yet, why did he ask?

When I didn't give him an answer, Ash began to prod. "Are you scared?"

"No," I scowled and swatted his arms. I jumped out of his grasp and onto the floor, almost slipping on it. "I don't need your stupid help. I don't want it."

Ash looked struck and for a moment I felt a lump in my throat, but fought it down. There was no reason for me to feel this way. No reason whatsoever. I barely knew this human, so why did he get the right to manipulate my every feeling?

It wasn't like he could do anything, anyway. Every time my mind flashed back to the words of that creature, I felt sick to my stomach. It was best not to think about it, but it just came to eat at my brain at the most inopportune times.

Like this one, for example. The area I was in was a complete danger zone at the moment and I was panicking over...

...did I even know what the hell I was panicking over? It must be the injuries from the spearow attack. Yes, that was definitely it...after all, it made no sense for me to be panicking in the middle of nowhere like that. My stress accumulating itself had to have stemmed from my injuries.

"It's just my injuries," I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. "Are you happy now?"

Ash looked anything but happy. Still, he nodded, and gathered me back into his arms. I made no move to protest, even though I wanted to shock him for touching me yet again. This boy was far too tactile for my tastes.

"Weird..." Ash muttered as he peeked behind the wall where the crowd had previously been. "There's nobody here..."

My ears twitched upon hearing a strange sound in the distance and I strained to hear it. Eventually I gave up, leaped out of Ash's arms while startling him in the process, and carefully crept my way behind the desk the pink haired woman was at earlier. I could hear two voices more clearly now and I almost let out an involuntary shriek when I realized it was because they were right in front of me.

Panicked, I scurried underneath the desk and held my breath as two long purple bodies slithered past me. Pokemon...

"-thought thisss wasss a good idea? I mean, that wasss sssuch a wassste of explosssivesss back there."

"It was for theatricality," the other voice said, sounding annoyed with the first voice. I found this voice to be strange, as it was hard to follow what it was saying. Was it from another region? "You'd think you'd understand that by now, given that you're supposedly supposed to be Jessie's first pokemon..."

I could practically feel the eye roll from here.

"Oh, ssshut up, you jealousss pieccce of ssshit."

"Jealous? Are you kidding me?! You don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't I? How many timesss have you given me a dirty look whenever Jesssie usssesss me in a battle? How many times have you rolled your eyesss whenever I do sssomething ssshe praisssesss?"

There was a huff in reply.

"Exsssactly."

I tuned out what the two snakes were saying when they finally made their way past me. I let out a quiet sight of relief and tensed, ready to run the other direction. In the corner of my eyes, I saw Ash looking panicked as the two purple snakes approached his hiding spot. I rolled my eyes. Go find a new hiding spot then, dumbass.

"Hey!" I cringed as one of the purple snakes noticed Ash, who yelped. "What do you think you're doing-come back here!"

"Pikachu, run!" Ash called out to me as he ran past me, effectively revealing my hiding place.

I wanted to murder this boy.

"He's got a rat with him too!"

"Get them both!"

I scowled. Screw that...

"PikaCHUUU!"

I gasped sharply when I felt something wrap around me and hold me up in the air. It dodged my Thundershock? "Ssstupid rodent..." I opened my eyes to see an arbok hissing at me. "Let'sss sssee how long you can lassst, ssshall we?"

The look in the arbok's eyes told me that whatever he was talking about wasn't going to be a pleasant experience. I began struggling when I felt the arbok's body constrict around me, depriving my body of the oxygen it so desperately needed.

Dammit, not again!

I tried to fire off Thundershock after Thundershock, none of them doing anything to the arbok, much to my consternation. Why wasn't it working? It wasn't working, why wasn't it working?

"Hey! Leave him alone!" The arbok hissed angrily when a flying show came and hit the back of its head. It whipped its head around toward Ash, who had his hand outstretched. Yet again another example of how this child's stupidity is a concept that simply cannot be grasped.

"You're going to regret that, kid." The second snake slithered in front of the arbok, obstructing my view. The arbok began squeezing me again and I felt my muscles constrict. I didn't recognize the other pokemon. Was it an ekans? No, it looked more like a deformed arbok...only it was a blackish green color rather than a purple. Wait, why did I think that it was purple...?

Ash tensed and backed away as the other pokemon approached. He stumbled backward and took off his other shoe, holding it in the air threateningly. "D-don't touch him!" It took me a second to realize he was talking about me and not himself. "Let him go, right now!"

The snake pokemon barked a laugh as the arbok squeezed me tighter. I choked back a sob. Why did this keep happening to me? Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this?

"Or else, what?" The snake pokemon barked a laugh. "Little boy, you clearly have no other pokemon on you, and I doubt your shoe will make a formidable weapon."

Ash narrowed his eyes and without giving a warning, chucked it straight at the snake pokemon's face, hard.

The arbok loosened its grip on me, allowing me to catch my breath. "What the...did he just get knocked out? Did he seriously just get knocked out by a damn shoe? From a kid?"

Taking advantage of the arbok's distracted state, I let out a Thundershock. The arbok writhed and screamed, dropping me to the group with a hard thump.

I steadily got on all fours and, with a quick glance back at the two groaning snakes on the floor, dashed back toward the hallways. Ash followed me shortly afterward. He kept checking doors behind us, muttering things under his breath like, "locked, locked...oh, this one isn't-! Oh. Locked..."

I eventually slowed down to catch my breath and Ash eventually caught up with me proper. "Are you okay?"

I glared at him. Again with the faux concern...this boy, I swore, it was almost like he enjoyed leading me on. "What do you care?"

"I just wanted to see if you're okay-"

"I'm fine," I snapped. "And you should really quit while you're ahead."

Ash looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Before I could answer that frankly stupid question, somebody called out to Ash.

"Psst! Hey, you! Kid with the pikachu!"

Ash glanced around to see the orange haired girl from earlier poking her head out of a room. She urged us to come closer. "Quick, come in here!"

Ash hesitated, but obliged, and I unfortunately was forced to accompany him. The orange haired girl closed the door after we came in and locked it. I took a quick look around as the orange girl began to demand Ash to explain what he was doing still wandering around in the halls. The room made me feel uncomfortable. It was filled to the brim with those infernal contraptions humans liked to call Poke Balls.

"What happened to the crowd of people, anyway? And where's Officer Jenny? Or Nurse Joy?"

"Joy's in the back of the room," the orange haired girl replied, tossing her head in that general direction. "She's transferring all the Poke Balls to the Poke Center in Pewter City. Officer Jenny left to do crowd control, since everyone ran off screaming once those Rocket members made themselves known..."

"Rocket? I heard Officer Jenny mention that earlier...that's Team Rocket, right?"

I wandered toward the back of the room, where I could still follow along the needlessly loud conversation between the two humans and see the pink haired woman from before gathering a bunch of Poke Balls in her arms and throwing them frantically into a machine. A distressed looking chansey was bumbling around trying to help her.

"Have you not heard about them before? Where the heck are you from?"

"Pallet Town, and I have too heard about them, it's just...I guess I don't really see how much of a threat they are..."

"...they don't teach much history back in Pallet Town, do they? How do you not know such basic stuff?"

"Hey!"

A loud bang drew everyone's attention toward the door, including mine. The orange haired girl hissed and pulled out another stupid Poke Ball. "Do you have any pokemon on you?"

"Er..." Ash nervously glanced toward me. I glared at him and he looked away. "No...?"

The orange haired girl groaned. "Are you kidding me? Fine, grab one of the Poke Balls on the shelves and ask the pokemon to battle with you. That shouldn't be too hard."

Ash nodded frantically and began searching the shelves in hopes that his psychic powers would activate and the perfect pokemon would come to save the day. Right at that moment, however, the doors blew up.

"Well, look what we have here." A woman with gravity defying pink hair sneered at the orange haired girl. A large blue blob stood in front of her in a defensive stance. "A little girl. Is she gonna try and protect this place all by her self?"

"How cute." A man with short purple hair sniffed a rose. Why was he holding a rose? Was he Rose Man?

I think I'm going to call him Rose Man.

"She's delusional!" My eyes sharpened at who had spoken. A meowth. Who was speaking. Like a human-

Wait a minute.

"Oh, trust me when I say that I'm more than enough to take you losers on!" The orange haired girl declare, nervously shooting glanced to where Ash was still searching through the shelves and where I was keeping my distance. For some reason, the thieves or grunts or whatever they were called hadn't noticed the others in the room, nor did they point out what each of us were doing, but I just marked it off as classic human stupidity. "Now, come on out-"

"Hey!" I cried, running forward, my cheeks sparking with anger. I skidded to a stop in front of the orange haired girl, who seemed startled by my presence, her Poke Ball still held in her hand. "You're the guy who bumped into me earlier!" I pointed at the meowth accusingly.

I resisted the urge to shudder under its piercing stare. "An' yer dat careless rat." I scowled and fired off a Thundershock in retaliation, ignoring the orange haired girl's cries of alarm. "Hey, watch it!"

"Stupid rodent..." The gravity defying woman spat. She took out a Poke Ball and smirked. "I know exactly who should deal with you..."

I never got to found out who this fascinating creature was, as right at that moment, Ash decided to make himself known by throwing another shoe at the gravity defying woman.

There were a few moments of awkward silence.

Then, the gravity defying woman began screaming. "You little brat! I'll kill you for that!"

The orange haired girl cringed and turned to Ash. "Are you nuts? Why would you throw your shoe at her?!"

Ash looked guilty. "It wasn't my shoe!"

That's right, he threw both his shoes at those two snakes from earlier. Unless he had another foot somewhere, there was no way that was his shoe.

Did he have another foot somewhere? I began looking him over to see if that was the case, but was disappointed to find there wasn't any extra appendages the thieves could be worried about.

"It wasn't your-what do you mean it wasn't your shoe?! Who's shoe did you throw?"

"Oh, he threw mine!" The pink haired woman cheerily said, quickly poking her head out from behind a shelf, before resuming in her activity.

"Eyes over here, twerps!" The gravity defying woman snapped. "Who do you think you are, ignoring Team Rocket like that?"

"Uh, I'm Ash Ketchum from-"

"Don't answer to them!" The orange haired girl stomped on Ash's foot, causing him to yelp and stumble into the shelves. Poke Balls scattered all over the floors. "And why did you take so damn long to choose a Poke Ball? Just pick one and throw!"

"It's not my fault most of them were empty!"

"Oh, is that so?" The orange haired girl raised her voice a few octaves and I cringed. What was wrong with this girl? Was she trying to make me hate her? I hissed at her, hoping that she would realize she was being too damn loud, but either she missed my distress or ignored it. I opted to believe the latter. "And what about your own pokemon? You seriously don't have a single one?!"

"I do too have a pokemon!" Ash stuck his tongue out and I rolled my eyes. This argument was going absolutely nowhere.

"Then why did you say that you didn't have a poke-"

"PikaCHUUU!"

My Thundershock fired off wildly, hitting the pokemon thieves, the orange haired girl, and Ash at the same time. The pink haired woman and her chansey looked on in the distance, the former relaying the fact that she had finished transferring every pokemon to the next Poke Center and that the thieves would have no more pokemon to steal.

No more pokemon excluding the ones currently in the Center, that is. I tensed as the thieves turned their harsh glared on me.

"Yer gonna regret dat...take dis!" The meowth charged at me with its claws glowing. I jumped on its head, using it as a springboard toward the two thieves.

"PiiiKaaa-"

"Wobbuffet!" The gravity defying woman cried as she and Rose Man hid behind the big blue blob. "Use Mirror Coat!"

I was startled when the Thundershock I fired bounced off of the blue blob and directed itself back toward me. I screamed and collapsed on the floor, my muscles involuntarily twitching.

"Pikachu!" Ash cried in horror then glared at the thieves, who were smirking triumphantly over my downed figure. "You're going to regret that!"

"Just try us, little boy," Rose Man mocked. I gritted my teeth and tried to get to my feet, failing miserably each time.

"Wait!" The orange haired girl stepped in front of Ash. "I'll take care of them. You go and escape with Nurse Joy!"

Ash hesitated. "But what about-?"

"Forget about me! Just go!"

Ash looked conflicted but one look toward my defeated figure and his eyes hardened. He nodded affirmatively and ran over to me, cradling me in his stupid arms.

"Chuuu..." I weakly sent out sparks to let Ash know I didn't approve, but he ignored me in favor of running to the nurse lady.

There were shouts coming from the front of the room followed by hysterical laughter.

Then I heard "are you serious? You think that thing can defeat us? It's weaker than a caterpie!" and got extremely worried about my safety. Our last line of defense was that stupid orange haired girl and that's it? When her pokemon is supposedly weaker than a caterpie? What was this, a game?

The pink haired woman led us out through the back of the room with her chansey struggling to keep up with us. Poor thing. I almost pitied it over its bumbling size holding it back.

We were led back to the front of the Poke Center, where we saw the arbok and that black snake from earlier. I heard Ash curse under his breath and I cracked a smirk. This boy was the last person I'd expect to cuss.

Well, that's not entirely true. The kanga I used to know was the biggest crybaby on the planet. He'd only cried a few times, but a few times is enough to get you labelled. The amount of times I'd have to bail that moronic birdbrain out of a jam because he did something stupid like trying to reason with the group of violent mankey and primeape was nearly endless.

"It'sss that kid from earlier!" The arbok hissed and I rolled my eyes. No shit.

"I take back what I said about you," I muttered to Ash without thinking. "You're not the stupidest creature on this planet."

Ash looked startled. "Uh...thanks...?" Then it hit him. "Hey, wait a minute!"

"Get them!" The black snake hissed and the two pokemon lunged toward us. Ash tightened his arms around me, muttering reassurances under his breath, as if any amount of comfort could placate the situation.

Ash stumbled as he tried to move out of the black snake's way and ended up tripping onto the ground. I fell out of his arms and felt a numbness wash over me. What a day. How many times was I going to be left in pain like this?

"What to do, what to do, what to do, what to do-!" Ash muttered rapidly under his breath as he dashed across the room in a zig-zag pattern, being chased by the black snake. I watched with an expression of amazement on my face. The pink haired woman and her chansey stood frozen with the same fascination plastered on their own faces as well. The situation was ridiculous, that's what this was.

"What in the hell...?" The arbok muttered before its gaze fell on me. I felt a twinge of instinctual fear as the creature towered over me. It felt like that professor's laboratory, a million times larger than me, holding secrets that could destroy me if I got too close. I wondered what screams the arbok had muffled in its own lifetime. "Well, look who we have here..."

"G-get away from me..." I hissed. The arbok laughed and began circling around me. I tried to run, only to realize that it was trapping me with its tail. I began to hyperventilate, having recognized the slimy tactic used by the arbok. Wild arbok used this tactic all the time. They would circle around their prey, slowly enclose in on them, then when their prey was all wrapped up nice and tight...they would go for the kill.

"Aw, isss the little mousssy ssscared?" The arbok snickered as I fired off a Thundershock. It winced, but held strong, and I felt confusion overtake me. "Niccce try, but there'sss not much you can do when all your shocksss are being redirected into the ground."

I wondered what it was talking about until I saw that the end of its tail was stuck in the ground. What in the-?!

"How-?" I managed to make out, stunned at how fast the snake was. It laughed maniacally.

Then, once again, I found myself being rescued by the same damn human for, what, the third time in a row?

"Let him go!" Ash actually jumped onto the arbok and barreled into him, driving him into the ground like a hardened fighting type. I watched with amazement as the chansey came running up to me.

"Are you okay?" The chansey asked me breathlessly. "That kid just..." she sucked in her breath. "I don't even know what he just did..."

"I'm fine," I mumbled in response, still trying to process what my eyes were seeing.

Unfortunately, I wasn't given much time to do so, because right at that moment, Gravity Defying Woman and Rose Man came made themselves known.

"Hey! Leave my arbok alone, you little brat!"

Ash yelped and ducked behind a desk at the Gravity Defying Woman trying to grab at him. I rolled my eyes. What a baby.

"Stop!" The pink haired woman shouted. There was a thin line between bravery and stupidity, which she just crossed. I turned toward her and hissed. They were distracted! Just run away!

My stomach churned at that thought, but I ignored it.

"You leave that boy alone." The pink haired woman declared bravely. "What happened to Misty?"

Misty? She must've been the orange haired girl. So that was what her name was...not that I cared. Names were irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

"You mean Iizuka?" The gravity defying woman sneered. See? My point is just proven. Who the hell is this mysterious "Iizuka" character? She's still the orange haired girl, right? Humans were so needlessly complicated... "We gave her the slip. I bet she's still trying to figure out how to open up that damn door."

The meowth snickered. "Oh, yeah. Dis'll definitely give us a promotion from da boss. Wait till' he hears how we defied a member of da league!"

Now I was even more confused. I hated feeling confused. It made me want to attack something.

...well, there was a certain group in front of me I could vent my frustration out on.

"Pikachu!" Ash caught my attention and turned some strange contraption with two wheels over on the ground. "Come here! I have an idea!"

What the hell kind of idea needed something like that? What was it called...? A bike, right? I recalled that annoying girl's clefairy telling me something about it during the two weeks I was stuck at that stupid laboratory. Wasn't it a mode of transportation? What was that going to do against these guys?

Wait, were we going to force them to ride the bike to hell? I mulled it over in my mind and found the idea to be rather appealing. I had no idea how exactly this plan would work, but as long as they got to suffer, then that's completely fine with me.

I trotted over toward Ash as the pink haired woman engaged in battle with the pokemon thieves. "What is it?"

"Remember that Thunder you let loose in the forest? I need you to do that again. Only this time, I'll be helping you. With pedal power!"

"Pedal...what?"

Ash huffed. "Just trust me. Get on the bike."

I hesitated before complying. Ash put his feet on the pedaling things and began moving them in a circular motion. I couldn't stay mesmerized for long, though, because that was when the thieves noticed us preparing for our exorcism of their souls.

"...da hell are dey doin?"

"Stop them!" The black snake cried out. I yelped. Where the hell did he come from?!

Ash pedaled faster and I charged up the biggest Thunder I could muster.

"Piii..."

"Koffing, attack!"

"Wait, what?! James, are you crazy-?!"

"Kaaa..."

I took a deep breath...

"CHUUU!"

...then released a glory of electricity at the thieves. They only had a few precious seconds to react, but did nothing in their stunned state. I grinned as I saw their entire lives flash before their eyes...

Well, okay, I didn't see their lives, per se, but it was probably what they were thinking!

Then the Poke Center exploded.

"Well, that was...an adventure." The pink haired woman said awkwardly as she helped the orange haired girl stand up. Rubble and debris were everywhere, the Poke Center having been transformed into a complete pile of rubble.

The orange haired girl groaned and clutched her head. "Man, my sisters are not going to be happy once they hear about this...wait." Her eyes fell on the charred mess that had previously been known as a bike. "Is that my bike?!" She shrieked and I could feel Ash's flinch without having to look.

"Uh..." he grinned nervously. "Sorry about that..."

"You wrecked my bike!"

Ash yelped as the orange haired girl got up in his face. I smirked at the scene while the pink haired woman and the chansey chuckled awkwardly. Those two should run a comedy gig. I know a group of mankey that would love to take them in.

...if they somehow managed to listen to the two of them long enough to hear the comedy potential, that is. Otherwise, they'd be two comedians short and two human corpses extra.

"I'm sorry, okay! I had to do something!"

"That something required mutilating my bike?!"

"And the center," the pink haired woman chimed in cheerily. "It's completely decimated. Sure is a good thing I got all the pokemon transferred beforehand."

Ash gave the pink haired woman a funny look. "Ya know, for such a big Poke Center, I expected a lot more pokemon to be here. Were they all seriously just cooped up in that one tiny room?"

The pink haired woman tensed and I scoffed at her behavior. Damn humans. I wouldn't be surprised if she secretly took glee in trapping those pokemon in those infernally stupid Poke Balls.

The orange haired girl frowned thoughtfully, her pointless anger over her pointless bike forgotten. "Speaking of...Nurse Joy? Can I speak to you for a moment, please? In private?"

Ash stuck his tongue out at her, just like I did. Oh, good. He was learning.

The pink haired woman hesitantly nodded before she stepped to the side with the orange haired girl. I wondered if they were trying to figure out where the pink haired woman's mate went.

"So, Pikachu," Ash started, kicking absently at a small chunk of the Poke Center ceiling. Or was it the wall? Did they put posters on ceilings? "You're...okay, right?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I said defensively.

Ash shrugged. "Just wanted to check...you seemed a little...tense, earlier."

"I'm fine."

"If you say so." Ash sighed. "We're going back to Viridian Forest tomorrow morning. After we...ya know, find a place to sleep."

"Viridian Forest? Why?"

"You have to go through it to get to Pewter City. Viridian's the only way there, unfortunately. Well, the central path, I mean. The other path is through...you know...Mountain-Side."

"We're not going back there." I said bluntly. "I'll get killed, no thanks to you. You wouldn't even be able to feel bad about it because right after the spearow are through with me, they'll turn on you."

Ash shuddered. "Fun..."

"It's not, really."

"Somehow, I gathered that."

I snorted and Ash grinned. Unfortunately, our rather riveting conversation was cut short by the orange haired girl marching up to Ash and declaring, "I'm coming with you", with no room for real argument.

"What? Why?!"

"Because," the orange haired girl replied. "You're a maniac. And as a gym leader-"

"You're a what?"

"-it's my responsibility to make sure maniacs like you are kept under a tight leash." She gritted her teeth and muttered under her breath. "Not to mention, the sheer amount of paperwork that'll come from trying to clear this mess up will kill you."

Well, this was news to me. Paperwork can kill? Was that an actual move? Interesting. Maybe I could try and do that sometime...

"T-that can't be a real-"

"You can't really argue with my authority. Especially since you ruined my bike, which is gym property, by the way," she added with a pointed glare, "and I have a right to press charges against you along with the additional charges of..."

She gestured to the rubble surrounding us with a blank face and let that finish her statement for her.

Ash gulped. "Alright, fine. Just don't pester me, okay?!"

I grumbled under my breath as the two started bickering back and forth. Great. I have to deal with another human, now.

"By the way," the orange haired girl said suddenly. I was in awe at how quickly her tone changed. She sounded like a deranged maniac two seconds ago, but now she sounded thoughtful? Humans were so weird. "I never properly introduced myself. I'm Misty Iizuka, the gym leader of Cerulean City."

"Huh? Oh, uh...I'm Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town. Nice to meet you."

Again, with the stark tone changes. Could I learn how to use Paperwork already, just to shut these two morons up?

Then, as soon as that thought came, the two started bickering again, over who knows what. I tuned them out entirely after two seconds.

If this was what the rest of the trip was going to be like, then I was not looking forward to tomorrow.

...not like that was anything new.

Hot off the press update, because...I really don't like this chapter, lol. This took me my entire break to write, thanks to my procrastination spells, so...unfortunately, there won't be an update next week. Hopefully, the next chapter will instead be released on the 9th. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for reading and please review! I'd love to hear your thoughts and constructive criticism! :)