FicWad

Author's Note: Tah Dah! A new update! I haven't been able to get past this part for a while, but I finally decided to scrap my plan of having the first Viridian Forest chapter span two days. Insted you're all getting this cliff hangy chapter which I'm not certain how to resolve... Still one update is better than nothing ^^.

Chapter Nine: New Recruits

The gloom closed around the three like a blanket thrown over their heads. At least that was how it seemed to Mel. She wasn't used to forests. Pallet was a town which rolled down toward a bay with fields surrounding it in all other directions. She didn't like being unable to see most of the sky.

Adam was preening Dive again, a reward for having sucessfully defeated the few challengers that had beset them. Matt had a black look on his face, as Tirith hadn't been allowed to battle. It made sense, of course, most of the trainers around here were younger children all with bug pokemon. Wannabe trainers, as Matt had commented. Most likely they would never go to Pallet to learn from Professor Oak, or the other schools for pre-journey learning in Cinnabar and Saffron, but take a mail order course and pass the League knowledge requirements that way.

Lapis sighed as soon as they got under tree cover, the drizzle only hit his shell ocassionally, and he couldn't feel it very much. He liked the connected sense that the rain gave him. If he had to imagine an ocean he would imagine a sky full of rain, each drop it's own individual self, but all the specks coming together to form one cohesive whole.

"So, should we split up?" Adam asked the group.

Mel looked around at the thick trees, and the misty light. "No, I don't think so. It'd be too easy to get lost."

"Oka-hey!"

A streak of yellow shot across their path, surprising Adam into jumping backward.

"Lapis tackle that pikachu!" Mel exclaimed, excitement growing in her.

If she could capture a pikachu she would have an advantage over Misty, and a pokemon that was only weak to ground attacks. Not to mention that the electric mice were shy, and this might be her only chance to catch one.

"Squirtle!" Lapis ran forward on all fours, using the momentum of his shell to keep him going. The yellow mouse turned, surprise written on his features, and then he zigzagged to the left using agility.

Lapis skidded to a halt, panting, before blowing bubbles at the pikachu. The fluffy yellow coat of the pokemon flattened against its plump body as the fur absorbed the water of the frothy bubbles.

"No, Lapis, duck!" Mel ordered, as the air around the electric type bagan to spark.
With a furious "CHU!" a thundershock bore down on Lapis, a raw cable of electrical energy. Lapis danced backwards, and rolled on the ground in order to avoid the whipping rope of lightning. The wet leaves and moss underfoot blakened and smoked, sending up a noxious oder.

Lapis staggered up from the ground, unscathed, but with a wary look in his eyes. "Don't use water attacks!" Mel exclaimed. "It only amplifies their power."

"Squir squirt, tle?" Lapis demanded of Mel, glaring at the yellow monster.

Mel bit her lip. "Wait for it to come to you, then tail whip!" she advised.

"Should we join in?" Adam wanted to know, seeing several problems with Lapis facing off against the electric type all alone.

"I got it," Mel replied, her teeth gritted, as she braced herself, trying to draw strength from the ground.

The pikachu began backing away, heading for the tree again. Mel worried her lip between her teeth. Then she saw the leaf mold and grinned. "Angle your tail whip on the ground!" she told Lapis.

He skimmed the ground with his stiff tail, like a golfer intent on making a divet. The wet leaves and other compost went flying. The carapaces of bug pokemon were exposed, but Mel ignored them for the moment. The pikachu started, its eyes wide as the soggy missles landed all around it. A clump of leaves hit its face with a wet "sploit."

"Pikaaaa!" it shrieked, surprised out of its stripes. It began to paw at its face, trying to clear it.

"Now," Mel savored the taste of the word on her tongue as Lapis shot forward, already guessing his trainer's intent.

He slammed into the blinded pikachu, with a victorious "Squirtle!" The yellow rodent fell back, sinking into the debris of the forest. It thrashed helplessly, as Lapis turned around to cannon into it again.

"Tackle!"

Mel saw Tirith run into the area where the battle was taking place, and smash her blocky head into a bug that was inching up behind Lapis, an annoyed expression on its face.

The bug was stunned by the powerful impact. It lay limply, plastered across Tirith's scarred forehead, until Tirith whipped it off. It spread over the ground, the tan, segmented body heaving as it tried to get up, and aim its stinger at the aggressive grass type.

Mel smiled a thanks at Matt, and then turned her attention back to Lapis. The pikachu had jumped upright, and it was now glaring at the squirtle, with sparks gittering from its cheeks. The damp fur was mussed into cowlicks and the mouse was covered in wet leaves.

Lapis stood, grinning as he glared down the mouse.

It charged, lightning wrapping around the yellow and brown body.

"Withdraw!" Mel punched the air. That pokemon was on its last legs, and Lapis could withstand anything in his shell.

The water pokemon popped into his shell, and rocked as he was slammed into by the pikachu. Lightning crackled over his shell, seeking the holes into which he had withdrawn. The electric mouse, however, rebounded from Lapis' hard shell, and landed limply in the detritus once again. This time it stayed down.

When a fainted weedle landed on top of its body the pikachu didn't even twitch.

"C'mon Matt, catch the weedle," Mel encouraged. "You need another pokemon besides Tirith."

"Bul ba," Tirith growled dangerously at Mel, obviously meaning, "no, he does not!"

Matt looked down, shrugged, and threw a pokeball, which neatly scooped up the weedle, and set to rocking furiously.

Mel rummaged in her pack, came up with another red and white metal orb, and tossed it-into a tree.

"Ahh?!" Mel's jaw dropped, and Adam began laughing. Even Matt had a quiet chuckle.

"Wow," Adam tried to breathe, "Chris wasn't kidding. You are a bad shot. You can't be more than five feet from that pikachu."

"Oh shut up, you two," Mel went red. "Can someone help me get that pokeball down?"

Matt, still chuckling, moved to the tree, and jumped for a low branch. He scrabbled up the trunk, and there were leafy rustles in the gloom before he called out: "Got i-yarrrrrrgh!" He fell from the tree with a thud, pokeball in his outstretched hand.

A bird's face, Mel thought it was a pigotto, peered out of the tree, glaring at the ground. Matt rolled over onto his back, and glared at the bird. Obviously the flying type took something about their party as a challenge, for it cried out, and little rustlings in the gloom made it clear that it had friends.
"Adam, I think Bolt and Dive need to see a bit more action," Mel said tensely out of the corner of her mouth. "Matt, you and Tirith should stay back."

"We're not going to back down in front of a bunch of bird brains," was the stubborn retort, echoed by a "Bulba."

Mel didn't bother to argue that it was the attitude both had towards confrontation that made her want them to stay behind. She wasn't their mother, and technically had no right to say anything about whether they stayed or went.

"Fine. If I get Lapis to use a full range bubble, will the water help leech seed stick?" Mel asked, as the flock shot upwards, away from the tree cover.

Adam lifted his arm and tossed Dive up as well. "Tell us where they're coming in from!" He yelled to the pidgey, who flipped her tail in agreement before fluttering heavily through the cannopy blocking the sky.

"All right, Adam, you keep Bolt back until after Lapis' second bubble attack," Mel said, thinking quickly. "Otherwise Bolt might accidentally hit him, and we want full electric range. Tirith had better fall back with Lapis as well. You two will be the defensive line if they get past Bolt," she addressed both pokemon. "When Dive comes back, she'll join them. To your right! BUBBLE!" Mel shrieked as she saw Dive crash through the screen of leaves and branches again, hulking pigeotto dwarfing her, as they dove down after the pidgey.

Lapis blew the frothing mouthful at the seeming horde of bird pokemon. Feeling water drench their feathers as the innocuous bubbles popped against them, the pigotto turned, their mad eyes concentrating on the squirtle rather than the downed pidgey.

"Leech seed," Matt commanded, "and get Dive!"

The bulbasaur jumped in front of Lapis, the little withered seeds spouting from her bulb like a storm shower. They covered the water soaked pigeotto, and dug in under the feathers as the writhing vines errupted.

Then Tirith was charging across the small open space, and grabbed Dive in her long jaws. The bulbasaur skidded into a turn, and then ran back toward the humans, none too gentle with the bird, but the point was to get Dive out of there before she got hit by their team attack.

"Cover them, and then fall back!" Mel instructed her water pokemon, feeling a tense calm in her head, where cold logic and hot excitement warred with one another.

Lapis blew more bubbles at the birds, making certain to cover them in water, especially the ones where the leech seed hadn't taken hold. Tirith skidded in behind Matt's legs, depositing her feathered burden, and Lapis closed his aching mouth and stepped back hurriedly.

The pigeotto were flapping their wings desperately, trying to keep aloft as the vines from the leech seed attempted to close over them. Seeing no resistance, the leader gave out another warbling cry and plunged forward, aiming for the humans that dared interfere with their territory.

"Adam!" Mel shouted, backing up a step, seeing those vicious eyes, and sharp beaks suddenly trained on them.

Her voice jolted him out of whatever paralysis gripped him, and the giant child managed a strangled "thundershock!"

Bolt raced forward, the epitome of eager enjoyment. "PiiiiiCHU!" he squeaked, as he jumped in the air, and blew all of his energy out of his fur in a sudden shower of lightning bolts.

The water soaked and vine covered pigeotto didn't have a chance. Just as before they fell to Earth around the electric mouse, who dropped, but managed to stay upright, this time, tottering from side to side and grinning foolishly.

Adam was breathing heavily, looking very surprised, as Matt handed him his bedraggled pigey. "Yeah thanks," Adam muttered.

"Yeah," Mel agreed, looking at Matt with something close to gratitude. "I didn't even think about Dive. Bolt would have probably finished her off if you hadn't stepped in. Thanks."

Matt shrugged, reverting to a more taciturn approach to life until they stopped embarrassing him with praise. He turned away from Mel to pick up the pokeball containing his new weedle when he noticed two things. One, the pikachu was missing, and two so was his pokeball.

"OI!" he cried out. "Where'd that rodent go? It stole my weedle!"

He clicked his tongue at Tirith and both stormed away, before Mel or Adam could call them back.
"Oh no," Mel sighed. "He's going to get lost now."

"Not necessarily," Adam replied, getting out his pokedex as he checked over the pigeotto. "He's still got his pokedex, and we can always find him using ours. Hey, I like the stats on this one. I'm not sure I want this aggressive guy in my party just yet, but maybe for later when Dive's grown big enough to control him."

Adam pulled out a pokeball from his jeans pocket, and tapped the capture button on the beak of the fainted bird that he was looking at. The ball rocked violently, and then subsided with a small beep.
Adam clicked a few buttons on his pokedex, and then the pokeball dissappeared with a flash.

"How did you do that?" Mel wanted to know.

"Huh? Oh, it's simple, really," Adam said confidently. "The thing about pokeballs is that they convert matter into energy, and then are able to store that energy inside them. The whole PC system is designed to follow that same basic principle. It converts the matter of the pokeballs into energy, and takes in the energy of the pokemon, and can reverse the process, or send the energy to other places that are designed to store the complex amount of information involved in pokemon energy. Our pokedexes have been modified to be able to do that, and so I just sent my pokemon into my PC at home. I'll e-mail my older sister, and she can let that guy out. She's wants to be a breeder, you know; it'll make good practice."

"Right," Mel sighed. She wasn't certain if she'd ever get a chance to try that. Why wasn't her aim better?

"Well, c'mon," Adam straightened up, and pulled out his pokedex. "Matt's crashing around over there," he pointed, after consulting the display screen.

Both humans and pokemon trudged into the wet undergrowth on the side of the small path. Mel was surprised at how quickly the worn earth and tamped down leaves of the path became ferns, and piles of leaves, concealing dead logs, and sharp stones, which didn't spare either her or Adam.

Every time she fell into a gully, or tripped over a rock Lapis would sigh and shake his head. He went slower than the humans, but his progress was much steadier. As for Bolt, the pichu was racing away excitedly through the undergrowth, calling out occassionally, as he sat on a log and waited for the clumsy humans to catch up.

Mel was also jumpy from the quiet of the place. They had only been walking for three minutes, but already not a pokemon could be heard, besides Bolt. Forests, she decided, were creepy.

Soon enough, though, they heard crashing, and came upon Matt as he continued to storm through the leaves. Tirith looked in a very bad mood, as well, and when she saw Adam and Mel behind Matt she quickly turned around and bit her trainer in the ankle.

Matt stopped, and turned around, fuming. "Have you two found that yellow menace?" he demanded.

"No," Mel began.

"Then keep looking!" Matt was obviously in a temper.

"We're searching the entire forest for one pikachu," Adam tried to point out reasonably. "It's going to take a while. And we don't even know where it's gone."

"Oh, but maybe we could," Mel exclaimed suddenly, pulling her pokedex out. The drizzle coming through the leaves was only coming in sporadic drips, and she hoped that it would be alright. "Chrono, turn on."

The hologram flipped on with a crackle. "Hello," Chrono said, looking around, "what's going on?"
Both Matt and Adam were looking at Mel.

"You named that thing?" Adam vocalized their simaltanious thought.

"Well, yeah," Mel shrugged, feeling uncomfortable.

"You were one of those kids who had a pet rock, weren't you?" Adam guessed.

"No," Mel said stubornly, not telling them about her plastic eevee good luck charm. "Anyway, Chrono, could you scan for pikachu?"

"Certainly," the red-eyed image beamed, and a drop fell on his head, making him crackle. "Why?"

"A pikachu stole Matt's pokeball," Mel told the hologram.

"Well, there are - five pikachu within my scaning range. Or at least there are five electrical energy sources that I can feel," Chrono replied, speaking as the pokedex. "Two are in a group, but the other three are in totally different directions."

"Um, what's your scanning range?" Adam inqured, seeing the immediate problem.

"Oh, the same as your other pokedexes," Chrono told them. "About a mile. I can't tell you for certain where a pokemon is though, unless I'm within fifty feet of it, however."

"A mile!" Mel looked upset.

"Yup. Don't worry, though," Chrono advised. "You can always split up. One to cover each pikachu, and then send an e-mail once you find the pokeball. Your pokedexes can do the tracking for you."

The two boys nodded, and pulled out their pokedexes, Adam activating his hologram, Matt just typing his instructions to his pokedex. The ten year old boy instinctively distrusted anything that made flashy lights. He didn't mind it coming from Mel's pokedex. That was her own business, after all, and not his. But he wasn't going to put up with it.

They chose each direction to go off in, and went, their pokemon keeping up, or in Bolt's case, dodging and diving ahead. Mel went to the left, North as the compass in her back pack said, although she didn't know it. Matt continued to forage straight ahead, or due West. Adam got the angle between their two paths, going North West, although his pokedex was telling him to go slightly more to the North.

However, even though Adam was vaguely going in her direction, soon the silence of the forest closed around Mel, and she began to get a crawly feeling on the back of her neck. She stumbled through the undergrowth, tripping over more tree roots than she had time to contemplate. Chrono glided silently along beside her, although when she misjudged a jump over a depression in the ground, and came down heavily into the leaves he helped her up.

Mel sat down, pushing her hair out of her eyes. She was hot, despite the cool air, and the misty drizzle that occasionally dripped onto her from the canopy. Her backpack felt as if it weighed a ton.

"Chrono, is it always this creepy in a forest?" she asked the hologram, as she decided to take a rest.

"What do you mean by creepy? Is that a feeling? I am only a machine. I have not been programmed with feelings, Professor Oak thought it would be better if I was not," Chrono pointed out. "I think there is a microchip that has been made in order to simulate emotions in machines," he trailed off. "I wonder if it really has. Oh, could we find out?" he asked excitedly.

"This is your curiosity talking, isn't it?" Mel inquired.

"Yes, it is," Chrono replied with a nod. "There is nothing more interesting than the acquisition of new knowledge. To know is to -- something."

Mel giggled. "Did you make that last one up?" she asked.

"No," the hologram told her, looking down at his trainer, his black hair flopping down somewhat to shadow the gleaming rubies of his eyes. "Everything I say is just programing. Very sophisticated programing, and since you activated the curiosity personality, it is spontaneous programing, but it's just programing. I can't make things up. You wouldn't need or want a pokedex that would invent information about pokemon, after all."

"Well, yes, I can see that," Mel said, turning to see if Lapis was still with them. Apparently her squirtle had taken the same opportunity as his trainer to rest, and was now inside his shell. Turning back to Chrono, Mel tried to get back to her original line of thought.

"Okay, but still, this forest disturbs me. Are all forests like this?"

"Why does it disturb you?" Chrono asked. "I'm sorry, but the question was too general for a specific answer."

"Well, it's just so, so quiet," Mel guestured helplessly.

"No, then not all forests are like this. This forest wouldn't be like this if you weren't here."

"Huh?" Mel asked.

"Well, the noises in a forest are made by the noises of wind in the trees, the background noises of things growing, or being composted, and most importantly, the noises of the pokemon," Chrono told her. "When you're stumbling around like a juggernaut the pokemon are all scared, and flee to other sections, or hide. The ones who don't flee you have to worry about, because either they're too sick to flee, have babies that they couldn't abandon, or are extremely aggressive."

"Oh," Mel looked abashed. "Then, it's creepy here, because the pokemon find me creepy?"

"Yes. Most trainers who don't drop out usually gain the ability to move places silently instinctively," Chrono told her. "You can't catch pokemon in a forest without doing that. It's different in tall grass or a cave. It's very easy to surprise a pokemon there. But in other surroundings pokemon listen, and know that you're there.

"That's why most water types can only be caught using a fishing rod. A water enviorment is so sensitive to change that within the moment of your getting into it, all the pokemon in the area will know that you happen to be taking up residence in a pool or stream. A hook and lure are small, and so aren't seen as a threat."

"All right, then, I'll practice moving silently," Mel got up again, and tapped Lapis' shell.

The squirtle poked his head out tiredly. Life in Professor Oak's greenhouse had not prepared him for the rigors of travel, especially since squirtle were not nomadic pokemon by nature. They were such competant battlers that they rarely needed to change territory once they had settled down.

"So, Chrono, how do you go along so quietly?" Melamine wanted to know.

"Well, it helps that I can chose to be physically solid or not," Chrono pointed out, passing his hand through a branch above his head, and then grabing wet leaves, and tugging on them with a crackle of electricity, before letting go. "But, I would guess the first step is not to trip over things so much, so take your time."

Mel experimented, stepping around the rocks that jutted from under the leaf mold, instead of jumping over them. She also found that this way, she didn't worry about stepping on logs, and then slipping on their mossy, slick surfaces. But the going was slow, which she complained about.

Lapis just snorted. Slow and steady, after all. He could also sense pokemon coming back out of hiding. There were more rustles in the trees, and undergrowth, though only he would be able to sense that. Viridian was quite a tame forest. The Beedrill were the rulers, and although dangerous, were easy to stay away from, unless you were covered in flower pollen.

However, even though Mel was going slower, she still was making a large amount of noise. Not as bad as a nidoking, now, but still the thrashing was worthy of an enraged donphan, and not a ten year old girl. Lapis was beginning to think that he could understand why humans chose to live all cramped together in cities the way they did. They could probably navigate their city enviorments more easily.

"Um," Chrono suggested after a bit, "Why don't you try not walking on twigs so much? They snap and that makes a noise. And it would help if you weren't shuffling."

Mel tried very hard to follow this advice. And she actually did manage a degree of quiet. After three more minutes the bird noises of the forest began again, and when Mel looked up she saw bug pokemon, mainly weedle, inching along on the branches far above her head.

Because she was so busy watching the ground, she was going slowly enough for Lapis to catch up. Suddenly, something flashed in the leaf mold, and Mel stopped, stooping to pick it up. The white and red steel casing of a pokeball caught her attention, and she held it in her hands, before pressing the button in the center to release the pokemon. A weedle, badly bruised and damaged popped out, and Mel sighed with relief. "Well, it looks as if we have Matt's pokeball, return."

The weedle was swallowed by the red beam of energy, and Mel was just about to pocket it when Lapis swung around to a cry of "Piiiiii ka!"

~ ~ ~

Adam didn't mind tramping around in a silent forest. After a while he let Bolt do the leading, as the pichu was obviously better at it than his hologram. Soon, however, Adam heard sounds that puzzled him. Moving towards his left he heard an angry hissing through the trees. Peeking around a trunk, he saw a man sitting cross legged berating a pikachu.

"What do you mean, you dropped it?! These Kantoese pokemon are worth hundreds in Hoenn. I've had to send Dash out to retrieve it, and we can't move camp until he comes back. If those trainers stumble onto here in their search for the "wild" pikachu I'll ring your scrawny neck. Hey, you!"

The man looked up right into Adam's concerned face.

Adam decided to step out into the open. There wasn't much else to do, after all. Besides, while big and simple, and sometimes immature, he wasn't stupid. He knew he could use his size to pretend to be much older.

"I believe that you have some explaining to do, mister," Adam said solidly, his hands clasped behind his back, holding his pokedex. Where was that emergency contact button? He knew it would contact all pokedexes in scanning area.

~ ~ ~

Lapis tumbled backwards, bowled over by the quick attack of another healthy pikachu. The electric pokemon skidded as it turned to dash past Lapis again.

"Roll to the side, and withdraw!" Mel instructed.

Lapis moved with fairly good speed, for someone who had just been knocked off his feet by a speeding mouse. But it wasn't fast enough. The pikachu slammed into him a second time, sending him spinning into a tree. His shell hit with a resounding crack, and Mel gasped as if she was the one who had been hit.

"Withdraw! Withdraw!"

"Don't know if this is a good time," Chrono said nervously, as Lapis popped into his shell.

"Piiiiiii," yellow lightning spat from the pikachu's cheeks.

"But Adam's pokedex has been-,"

Lightning arched over the ground to zap the water pokemon.

"Go! Weedle!"

The spinning pokeball deflected the thundershock in a shower of sparks, and then the bug pokemon was rearing up, and looking around in confusion. Mel was breathing heavily, praying that the gamble of putting the weedle in direct danger would work, and the pikachu was looking surprised. However, surprise quickly gave way to anger, and the chubby little mouse dropped to the ground and sprinted forward in a quick attack.

"Poison sting," Mel breathed, hoping that the pokemon would take her orders. He was newly caught, and she hadn't been the one to catch him, but perhaps-the pikachu hit him with the force of a cannon ball, knocking the worm back. The weedle spun around on the dirt, and then with a furious cry of "Weeeeee!" shining barbs erupted from his mouth.

The pikachu screamed in agony, and danced backwards.

"Weedle, string shot!" Mel ordered quickly. "Lapis, get out of your withdraw!"

Grey misting thread streamed from the bug pokemon's mouth, covering the pikachu in foam. The weedle didn't particularly remember the female human but the way she was giving orders meant that she obviously was in control of the situation. Besides, the weedle felt that arguments were silly. He knew that some pokemon wouldn't listen t their humans, and while he wasn't exactly enthusiastic about having been captured there was nothing he could realistically do.

The same was true for the struggling pikachu, who was now wrapped in a cocoon of sticky, and rapidly hardening weedle drool. The black eyes of the creature narrowed dangerously, and the visible fur fluffed up. Lighting hissed through the air, and struck the small bug pokemon, who reared back in pain.

"Poison sting and tackle!" Mel cried.

Matt's weedle shot a volley of needles at the pikachu, while Lapis cannoned into the pokemon from behind. The pokemon toppled forward, and promptly fainted. Mel let go of the breath she was holding.

"Okay weedle, now we need to find your trainer," she began when Chrono interrupted.

"Er, about that. Adam's pokedex began sending out an emergency signal about a minute ago, maybe less," Chrono began.

Mel's eyes widened, and then she grabbed the holographic hand and yelled: "Which way!"

~~~

Bolt rolled backward, sparks leaping from his fur. The bigger pikachu growled menacingly, pulling the electricity away from Bolt. Adam's pokedex had already told him that the scruffy man's pokemon happened to be a volt absorber, and was practically immune to paralysis.

Adam breathed heavily, feeling worried. Bolt was doing fine on his own, but Adam just couldn't think of anything. No brilliant plans or ideas popped into the young trainer's head, and while Bolt wasn't doing too badly, his strength wasn't even near that of the evolved electric pokemon.

"Tirith, leech seed!"

With a sound like someone spitting, seeds began to fire though the air, heading for the pikachu, as Matt crashed into the clearing, red faced and out of breath. Tirith came running in behind him, and skidded to a halt in a shower of leaf mold. The pikachu zipped toward the saurian pokemon, slamming into her with all his might as the leech seeds harmlessly passed over head.

Tirith tipped over backwards, and the poacher's pikachu spun around, sparks crackling over the yellow fur as a challenging cry of: "Pichu!" came from behind him.

"Thunderbolt the little rat and then knock out the bulbasaur!" The man yelled from the sidelines, greed shining in his eyes.

Matt's eyes widened and then he dove for Tirith, and grabbed his dazed grass pokemon, backing up slowly to put his back to a tree.

What sky that could be seen overhead was a mass of rolling grey between dark green leaves. Light lit up the underside of those clouds in a second as the pikachu sent up a thin rail of electricity. There was the rumble of thunder, and then a thick bolt of lightning shot down, engulfing the small pichu.

"Vital stats in overload," intoned Adam's pokedex emotionlessly. "Bio-electric routers shutting down. Discharge imminent."

"What does that mean?!" Adam yelled, his hand trying to shield his eyes from the blast of light, and yet still search the battlefield for Bolt.

"The pichu named Bolt will explode soon," the pokedex informed him simply. "Most likely taking much of this clearing with him."