My eyes blinked open and my body ached painfully. I struggled to move my head to see where I was and realized that I was in a room with Pokémon that were playing around with one another... Why? Then, I tried to sit up on the cold, hard surface, but with no success. I then turned around on my stomach, pushed myself up, and successfully sat up. Strangely, I never had to struggle to sit up before this. I then stood up and stumbled off of the raised area when I tried to walk.

A few pokémon looked over and snickered, and I swear I could hear them talk. "Did you see that? That Pikachu just fell off that counter when he tried to walk!" Of course, I was most likely going crazy.

This made me quite upset, raising my determination to walk to prove them wrong. I stood up once more and took a few small steps before tripping on myself again. This time a few pokémon came to help me.

The first one to speak to me was an Eevee, which was strange because he was around four inches shorter than I was. Did those scientists shrink me, or did they create giant Pokémon? Or... No, that couldn't be the answer. "You seem familiar..." The Eevee hesitated, sniffed me a few times, and then started to panic, "...Jacob? What are you doing here?"

When I actually heard this fox-like pokémon talk to me, I freaked out, losing all my sanity. "Did you just talk!? And HOW ON EARTH DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?" I started panicking as the stress pressed on my shoulders like a ten-ton truck squishing a bug. This was out of my carrying capacity, and to make it worse, the Eevee started to lick me as if it would comfort me. Strangely, it did. But I didn't care about comfort; it was downright disgusting. I shoved the Eevee away, causing him to stumble.

"Don't you recognize me?" he asked as he regained his balance. "I'm your friend. I've known you for... A long time!"

"No, You're an Eevee, and I'm a hum-" I started before the stranger cut me off.

"Jacob, you were a human." What? This was confusing me. "Now, you're a Pokémon. A Pikachu, to be more specific."

My heart stopped, and I couldn't talk for a while. When I could, I caught a scent of the Eevee without trying. I don't know how, but it reminded me of somebody I knew. There was a familiar trace of...

"Mark?" I was dumbstruck. It was my friend. I could tell- although I didn't know why I recognized it earlier- mainly because I recognized his voice. I was happy and freaked out to see him; I haven't seen him since he left on his journey.

"...yeah, it's me. Team Thunder asked me to give them my pokémon, but I didn't." He responded. "They ended up kidnapping me, and... Yeah. This happened."

"Oh, no... This can't be..." I mumbled. My stress returned tenfold. I was tired, hungry, and extremely thirsty. After I calmed down somewhat, my friend showed me the dining area, where they fed us brown pellets. At any time, we could go over there to eat and drink. There was also a play area, and a room filled with beds similar to the ones that dogs sleep on. After eating, Mark and I went over to the bedroom picked a bed for us to share and curled up to sleep.

*   *   *

I wanted to cry when I woke up. For some reason, I thought I would've woke up in my room back at home, but remembered everything that happened, so I couldn't be. I groaned. I didn't want to be here, and more specifically, I didn't want to be a Pikachu. I was homesick. Mark was asleep next to me, his back pressed against my furry neck. I wanted to move, to stretch, but Mark would feel me move and wake up as well. I was terribly hungry, but if I left, it was obvious what was going to happen. I got up anyway, and just as I presumed, Mark slowly sat up and yawned.

"I'm going to head over to the dining area. Want to come with me?" I asked. I still was a little disoriented from the previous events the other day, but I was too hungry to care about this situation.

"Sure. I was thinking the same thing anyway." Mark laughed. It was good to be with him again. He was a good person to be with and had many great characteristics that anybody would want to have in a friend: humor, courage, bravery, knowledge, kindness, and much more.

After we ate a meal of the bland and practically tasteless pellets, we went back into the playing area. I then noticed for the first time how many people have been transformed. Nearly the entire room, which was large enough to fit around two-hundred small Pokemon, was slightly cramped with the transformed trainers, with the exception of very few of their Pokémon, which somehow got mixed in with them.

Mark turned to me, Playfully jumping up and down. "What do you want to do? We can spend the entire day playing!"

Despite my trying not to laugh, a quick chuckle escaped my mouth. Then, I got serious and replied, "I want to get out of here."

Mark rolled his eyes. "Come on, man! It's not that bad. Let's go play!" Playing actually did sound great to me right now, but something on the back of my mind nagged at me, telling me that I should do something else.

I remembered what Professor Birch had told me: "If you see any traces of them, tell me right away." His advice echoed in my mind as I tried to think of some places where my PokeNav may have been put. I ran on all fours to the place where I first woke up. My clothes, thank Arceus, were there. I reached into my pockets with my front paws and pulled out my PokeNav. I dialed Prof. Birch's number as Mark caught up with me. The ringtone hummed, indicating that the call started.

"Hello?" It was Birch's voice.

"Professor Birch! It's me, Jake! Team Thunder kidnapped me and turned me into a Pikachu!" I called out into the device.

"Jacob, please get your Pikachu away from your PokeNav." the professor said. My heart sank. He couldn't understand me.

"No! It's me, professor! It's Jacob!" I was desperate for him to get my message.

"Sorry, but if you're just going to prank call me, then I'm just going to hang up. I have other important things to attend to, like finding out where Team Thunder's whereabouts are." He hung up, and I wanted to cry.

"why don't you try to text him?" Mark offered. My spirits lifted. I finally had hope!

"!" I thanked Mark for the advice. I selected Birches PokeNav number but this time, I selected the option to text him and wrote, "Help! Team Thunder kidnapped me and turned me into a Pikachu! Video call me." It took me ten minutes just to type it all because I had paws, not hands. Oh, how I missed having fingers.

A minute later, Professor Birch called me. "hello?" He said, looking at the ceiling of the building I was located in, trying to find me. He saw nothing but a Pikachu and an Eevee, who were staring back at him. I found a pen and a paper, and, struggled to write a message. I held it up so that the professor could see. He read it out loud to himself, "'I'm Jake and have been kidnapped by Team Thunder! They are turning people into Pokémon!' Are you sure this isn't a prank, Jacob?" I nodded. Professor Birch had a serious look on his face. "Team Thunder is transforming the people they kidnap into Pokémon? But why?"

I sighed. I wished he could understand me. "Are you sure that you can't understand me, Professor Birch?"

"What did you say? You're a Pikachu, so I can't understand what you're saying. Oh, One minute! I have an invention that I want to try out," Birch jumped out of his seat and his face disappeared from the screen. A bit later, came back with a set of headphones. "What's that you said?"

"Are you sure that you can't understand me?" I repeated.

"It works! I can understand you. Now, are you really Jacob?" Professor Birch asked.

I facepalmed myself. "Yes. I'm quite sure that I'm Jacob. Now, back to what I wanted to call you about. Team Thunder kidnapped me and changed me into a Pikachu. I also know what they're up to." By this time, a small group of transformed trainers had gathered around the small device. "They're turning people into Pokémon! If everybody in the world became a Pokémon, then Team Thunder would be able to rule the world without having to deal with everyone. We just need to find out where I am so that we can stop them."

Professor Birch seemed surprised by this new information. "I might know a few possible whereabouts of Team Thunder's base, but I'm still looking. I'll tell you if I find it, so keep this PokeNav with you at all times. Goodbye, and thank you for the information." He waved goodbye as he hung up. I felt relieved.

"Now we can play, I guess," I told Mark. I was glad to get the weight off my shoulders, yet I wasn't really in the mood of playing.

"Yay! let's play tag. Whoever gets to the playground last is it!" Mark exclaimed. I dashed towards the playing area, followed by Mark and a few other Pokémon.