Chu-Chu with its own kind

Pokemon Neo
Part 13: Chu-Chu with its own kind
© 1999-2000 Willow McCall

“So what’s it like training flying Pokemon, Sora?” Aoife asked her new companion as they walked towards their next destination (which they hadn’t quite figured out yet).
“It’s great, especially living in Azure City,” Sora said. “It’s convenient that my favorite type of Pokemon is the type that my city is known for. There are a lot of bird catchers, who aren’t very serious and they only teach their Pokemon to do tricks. I think they sometimes give flying Pokemon trainers a bad name.”
“I’ve never met a bird catcher,” Aoife said, then she pumped her fist. “But if I ever do, Chu-Chu and I can beat ‘em really badly and that’ll show them!”
“Pi pikachu!” Chu-Chu agreed, mimicking Aoife’s gesture.
“Um, guys?” Petra put in.
“What?” Sora asked, looking up.
“There’s a river,” Petra said. “I think I see one, anyway, crossing the path up ahead. Pretty big. And there’s no bridge on this path.”
Sora and Aoife looked ahead too, and they also saw the ten or fifteen feet of water interrupting the path. “Uh-oh,” Aoife said. “No way can we jump that.”
“Hmm,” Sora thought. “I could send Pidgeotto off to see what’s downstream, and then we could fly there…”
“That might work,” Petra agreed.
“Okay,” Sora nodded. “Go, Pidgeotto!” The bird Pokemon emerged from the Pokeball that Sora threw, and she ordered it, “Fly downstream and come back to tell us what’s there, okay?” The brown pigeon nodded, then flew off.

“See anything, Pidgeotto?” Sora asked her Pokemon when it came back.
“Pidjo,” Pidgeotto nodded. “Pidjo, pidgeotto.” It pointed downstream with its wing.
“Pika,” Chu-Chu translated. “Chu pi, pikachu.”
“There’s a power plant,” Aoife said. “It’s downstream.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of that!” Petra exclaimed. “There are lots of electric Pokemon there. It’s even supposed to be where the legendary bird Zapdos lives!”
Sora’s eyes lit up. “Really? Zapdos? WOOOOOW! Oh, we just HAVE to go there, please can we go there?”
“Okay,” Petra agreed.
“Zapdos?” a voice from the other side of the river said cynically. “I don’t believe that. My dad says Zapdos doesn’t even exist.”
“Uh-oh…” Aoife grumbled. “Is that who I think it is?” She looked up, and it was indeed who she thought it was. “Fawn, what are you doing here?”
Aoife’s rival flipped her hair over her shoulder. “What about you? I’m surprised you made it this far. And there’s a new loser in the group,” she added, noticing Sora. “Didn’t I fight against you at the Azure City gym?”
“Must have been my sister,” Sora said. “I don’t remember you.”
“It must have been someone else, then,” Fawn said. “I don’t see how anyone could not remember me.”
“Have you been to the power plant yet?” Aoife asked, hoping that she hadn’t.
“Yeah,” Fawn nodded. “I caught lots of powerful electric Pokemon. I think I must have 25 different Pokemon now! But I didn’t see Zapdos, and I told my dad and he said that if I hadn’t seen it then it must not exist, because he’s never seen it either and it’s said that Zapdos appears to the most gifted of Pokemon trainers.”
“It wouldn’t appear to you, then,” Aoife muttered, then she raised her voice to a normal level again and said, “Well, Sora’s Pokemon are going to fly us there.”
“Fly?” Fawn repeated. “Oh, that’s right, you have flying Pokemon. I only have one, and it’s a Pidgey and it’s the weakest one of all my Pokemon. My Eevee is doing great though, and I even evolved it with a stone I bought.”
“What did you evolve it into?” Aoife asked.
Fawn looked shocked at the idea that she should reveal any details about her Pokemon. “I’m not going to tell you! Why should I? Why am I even talking to you anyway, when I have so many better things I could be doing, like getting my fourth badge.”
“Fourth?” Petra repeated. “So you got a Boulder Badge?”
“That was the easiest one,” Fawn said. “One good water Pokemon and all those Onix and Golem are history. Well, I gotta be going now, it was nice talking to you,” she said in a mock polite voice. “Later, losers.”
“What a brat,” Sora observed. “So that’s the Fawn that you were telling me about.” She beckoned Pidgeotto down to the ground. “We better get going though, right guys?”
“Yeah, right,” Aoife said distractedly, climbing on to Pidgeotto.

(Who's that Pokemon? It's Jolteon!)

“Pidgyo,” Pidgeotto said, nodding towards a large building with a windmill on top on the river that they were flying over. “Pidgeotto!”
“That’s it, isn’t it?” Sora said. “Okay, Pidgeotto, take us down.”
“Keep your Pokeballs at hand,” Aoife said to Petra. “You’d be the most able to fight against any electric Pokemon that might attack us.”
“Right,” Petra agreed, picking up her Golem’s Pokeball. “We have to be prepared.” They entered the building, which was a maze of broken-down walls, generators, and wires sticking out all over the place.
“Hey,” Aoife decided to mention a theory she’d had. “The power plant is on the river so that it can get energy from the running water, isn’t it?”
“Probably,” Sora said. “I hadn’t thought of that before. But I think I did see a water mill out there on the river.”
“There was a windmill too,” Petra said. “Maybe that’s where Zapdos lives.”
Suddenly the three girls saw a flash of yellow and white darting past, glowing a little with electric energy. “What…what…” Aoife stuttered, shocked a little by the disruption.
Petra peeked around the corner where the flash had gone. “It’s just a Jolteon,” she said.
“Really?” Aoife asked, daring to peek at the Jolteon also. “Oh, cool.”
“Jolteon,” Dexter said. “This Pokemon evolves from Eevee with the Thunder Stone. Its sharp quills allow it to perform the Pin Missile attack, normally a bug-type attack.”
“Usually Jolteon belong to trainers, right?” Sora asked, peeking also. “Unless it’s a wild one that found a Thunder Stone and chose to evolve itself.”
“Pika?” Chu-Chu said inquiringly. “Pika, pikachu?” It pointed down another hall to what looked like another Chu-Chu. It was a Pikachu, except that this Pikachu’s fur was a very light, almost whitish color.
“Another Pikachu?” Aoife stared at the Pokemon as though she had never seen one before in her life. “Well, that makes sense. I bet Pikachu like to hang out here with all the other electric Pokemon.”
“Pika pika?” the other Pikachu said, approaching Chu-Chu tentatively. “Pikacha!”
“Pi!” Chu-Chu ran towards the other Pikachu and they put their cheeks together. “Chuuu!”
“They’re exchanging electric currents, I think,” Sora said. “They’re trying to see if they’re related or from the same family or something. I heard that once.”
“Rai rai.” A Raichu strutted down the hall, and Chu-Chu stepped back, taken aback.
“Pika…chu?” Chu-Chu said nervously.
“Chu-Chu is probably intimidated by the Raichu,” Petra said, taking notes on how the Pokemon were interacting. “It’s meeting its evolved form.”
“Raichu, chu chu rai,” Raichu said, tugging the other Pikachu’s tail with its paw. “Churai.”
“Pi…” Chu-Chu said, turning away dejectedly as its fellow Pikachu and its evolved form disappeared into the maze.
“It’s okay, Chu-Chu,” Aoife said. “They’re probably like that with all outsiders. You’re lucky, though. Imagine if Pele were here, how suspicious they’d be of her. At least you’re their same type.”
“Come on,” Petra said. “Let’s move on; we’ve hardly seen anything yet.”
They continued on, past deserted rooms and piles of rubble. In one corner of one of the rooms Aoife found a Pokeball.
“Cool,” Aoife said. “Sometimes Pokeballs contain items like antidotes and X Attack and stuff. I wonder what’s in this one?”
“Um, Aoife?” Petra spoke up, but too late. “Maybe you shouldn’t…”
Aoife picked up the Pokeball anyway, and it said, “Voltorb.”
“Voltorb?” Aoife repeated.
“Pichu?” Chu-Chu copied its owner.
“Drop it and RUUUUUN!” yelled Petra, who was already doing so. Aoife, Sora, and Chu-Chu quickly followed, but so did the Voltorb. It came rolling after them, sparks firing off of it.
“Quick, Onix!” Petra commanded, throwing her Pokeball. “I choose you!”
Onix roared, and without Petra even having to tell it, it used a Rock Throw attack to faint the Voltorb.
“Close one,” Sora sighed. “I hope that’ll teach you not to pick up Pokeballs if you don’t know what they really are.”
“Yeah,” Aoife huffed. “Hey…what’s that big thing?” She pointed up at an arrangement of several large poles, with an expansive tarp draped over part of the structure, and frayed and severed wires sticking out at all angles.
“Probably part of the windmill,” Petra guessed. “Maybe it’s the part that’s indoors, and it goes up through the roof to the outside.”
Just then, Sora screamed as she heard something hit the floor behind her. All three of them jumped with surprise and turned around to see a rope dangling from the ceiling. “How…when…did that get there?” Petra gasped.
“This is too scary,” Aoife said, turning around to go back. “I’m getting out of this freaky place.”
Another rope dropped to the floor, and they heard a voice from above yelling, “Prepare for trouble!”
“Oh, god, NO,” Petra moaned.
“What?” Sora asked, looking up at the rope. “What’s going on?”
“And make it double!” a different voice said.
“We haven’t told her about them yet, have we?” Aoife said to Petra.
“Guess not,” Petra replied.
“To rule the world with greatest power!” A female figure slid down the rope, then let go halfway down and crashed to the ground. “Oww, I got rope burn!”
“Stalking around at the midnight hour!” a young man said sliding down the other rope. “Fortunately, I have gloves on,” he said aside.
“To denounce the greatness of evil and sin,” the girl, now recognizable to everyone but Sora, said while she whipped out some band aids and ointment for her hands.
“With our Pokemon we’re sure to win,” the young man, whom Aoife, Petra, and Chu-Chu recognized as Clyde, said, as he gestured to the Vulpix on his shoulder.
“Bonnie!” Bonnie said, holding up a bandaged hand.
“Clyde!” Clyde added, holding up a hand with a somewhat ripped glove on it.
“Team Rocket, flying in the night!” Bonnie announced.
“Oh yeah, Team Rocket,” Sora mused. “I’ve heard of them.”
“Surrender now or you’ll lose the fight!” Clyde added.
“Vul!” Sundance, Clyde’s Vulpix, grinned.
Aoife and Petra had used the time that Team Rocket had spent saying the motto wisely, by explaining to Sora who they were and what they did.
“Lemme guess,” Aoife said. “You want Zapdos?”
“Right,” Bonnie nodded, pulling from empty space a folded up rubber bag. “We’re gonna catch him in this.” She unfolded it and started attaching it to a couple of the poles. “We’re hoping he’ll fly into this bag.”
“How are you gonna get him to do that?” Petra asked, not convinced.
“Poke-chow!” Clyde said, producing a large bag of Pokemon food. “Delicious and nutritious. Specially blended for electric Pokemon.”
“You do know you probably won’t get away with this, right?” Sora said. “I mean, especially since you’ve never gotten away with anything before.”
“Except that fossil from the Pewter Museum!” Clyde pointed out.
“And how do you know what we’ve done?” Bonnie demanded. “I’ve never even seen you around before. Where’d you come from?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Sora said. “I’m here now though, and I’m going to protect Zapdos from criminals like you!”
“Yeah right,” Clyde, who was working on baiting the trap, said.
“Oh yeah?” Aoife challenged. “Well…well, um…”
As she was trying to think of something to say to Team Rocket, a high-pitched screech derailed her train of thought.
“That sounds like a bird call,” Sora said giddily, already anticipating events and looking up towards the ceiling.
“Pii,” Chu-Chu uttered, enraptured for a moment.
“Oh, no way, dude,” Aoife gaped at an intensely bright light that was coming from behind the tarp draped over the poles. Whatever was behind the tarp threw it off and revealed itself to be a gargantuan bird, some 20 feet tall, with yellow spiky feathers, discharging electricity as it flapped its wings and descended towards the ground.
“Three guesses as to what that is,” Petra remarked.
A voice boomed through the abandoned plant. “Who are the intruders?”
A Raichu scampered out into the open from behind one of the walls. “R-rai, raichu. Rai churai chu.”
“And you just let them come in?” the voice demanded. The Raichu nodded, and the bird turned its head towards the five humans, the Pikachu, and the Vulpix. “Explain yourselves.”
“Um, Zapdos, sir?” Bonnie squeaked. “There’s some really good Poke-Chow in that bag over there, if you want—OW!”
Sora smacked her, then continued. “Zapdos, excuse her,” she said diplomatically. “You see, my friends and I were just exploring the power plant because see, my friend Aoife here is on her Pokemon journey.” Aoife nodded and waved a little. “We just wanted to catch some Pokemon and explore…is that all right?”
Zapdos processed this information. “Fine, that’s fine,” it finally decided. “But you, evildoers…” It took one step in the direction of Bonnie and Clyde, who were trembling so violently that it looked like they were equipped with a battery pack. “I sense that you are here to capture me. May it be known that only the best of the best of trainers can capture me and hope that I will obey them. This does not include you.” He looked out over the plant and called to his fellow Pokemon. “All electric Pokemon, come forth!!”
Several Pikachu, Raichu, and Jolteon scurried out, some Voltorbs and Electrodes rolled towards them, Electabuzz stomped over, and Magnemites and Magnetons floated over them. All of them had aggressive looks on their faces, ready to punish those who had planned to kidnap their leader.
“They’re going to kick our butt, aren’t they?” Bonnie asked rhetorically.
Her question was answered by the electric currents from some 125 electric Pokemon in the plant, excluding Zapdos himself, who probably didn’t want to waste his energy on such people. “We’re blasting off agaaaaaaaaain!” was their cry as they exploded through the roof of the plant and off into the sky.
“That solves one of our many problems,” Sora said relieved. “Um, Zapdos? I’m from Azure City and I train flying Pokemon. I’d just like to say that it has been an honor to meet you, since I as a specialist in flying-types hold you in such high regard.”
“Many hold me in high regard, not just flying Pokemon trainers,” Zapdos responded. “Not even just electric Pokemon trainers. Everyone has heard of the Legendary Birds. But trainers of flying and electric Pokemon probably respect me especially. So I thank you.”
“No, thank you,” Sora said, bowing. “Thank you for one of the happiest moments of my life.”
Zapdos seemed to smile, in a bird sort of way, then looked to Aoife. “This Pikachu is yours?”
“Yes, sir,” Aoife answered.
“Pika,” Chu-Chu said, bowing as Sora had. “Pikapika, pikachu chu. Cha, pikapi, chu.”
“I see,” Zapdos said. “The same goes for you…Chu-Chu.”
“What did she say to him?” Petra whispered to Aoife.
Aoife shook her head. “Even I couldn’t understand her. I think she was speaking some sort of special language that only electric Pokemon can understand.”
“Pi,” Chu-Chu said, nodding. “Chuu. Pikachu, pi pika cha.”
Zapdos nodded. “Hold on to this Pikachu, Aoife,” he said to Aoife. “With Chu-Chu you will go a long way.”
“Thank you, Zapdos sir,” Aoife said.
“Now I would require that you leave,” Zapdos said. “And for my sake and for yours, you mustn’t speak of this meeting. Only to people whom you truly trust. If many of the humans heard about this, they’ll come looking for me and then I might have to find another home.”
“I understand,” Aoife said. “Thanks, Zapdos. Your presence has inspired me. And goodbye.”
Aoife and her two friends left the power plant, but Sora still had a strange feeling. “We will meet again, Zapdos.”

Author's notes
Wasn't that cool? Wasn't it? I made Zapdos speak, obviously, because I figured they aren't legendary just for their power in battle alone, you know? The bold is distracting but it shows that it's someone important speaking and if I have Mewtwo in this story I'll have what he says in bold also. The end was a foreshadowing, obviously. And we also get to see Fawn and TR, who haven't appeared for a while.

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