As we opened our eyes, there was a loud, KLANG! We panicked as we discovered that we were put in cages. Not only that, but there was a large truck in the room we were in, along with the irritatingly shrill scream of a siren and a loud voice booming, "This is not a drill! I repeat this is not a drill! We are under attack!" over and over again, making it quickly annoying. Team Thunder grunts were running everywhere, grabbing PokéBalls from tall shelves. Another group of grunts was hauling cages of the transformed trainers (which are referred as TTs to Team Thunder) into the massive truck. They were being evacuated, which means there was a chance to escape.

As I got up to get on all fours, Mark asked, "What are you doing? Don't tell me you're planning on escaping." I looked at him seriously and he rolled his eyes but agreed.

"Then what else are we supposed to do, let them bring us somewhere else where we can't escape?" I asked Mark while picking up the phone with my mouth. With a full mouth, I said, "Move back; I'm using Iron Tail." My tail seemed to glow silver as I slashed at the bars on the side of the cage. They slid off when I struck the cage again with my tail. Mark then jumped out before I threw the phone to him. He caught it, and surprisingly, the grunts were too panicked to realize what was going on.

"Come on, what's taking you so long? Jump!" Mark shouted. I hesitated, then jumped. We dashed to the opening before something else happened. That's when I realized that some of the other TTs were running alongside us: They saw what we were doing, and decided to do it themselves. But where there's a stampede of Pokémon, there's somebody there to notice it. A few Thunder grunts finally noticed what was happening, and chased after us. Thankfully, we made it to the doorway along with some of the other TTs, but others weren't as lucky. We bolted towards the forest.

A few policemen that were attacking saw and pointed at us saying, "Why are those Pokémon running into the forest?" Other people that volunteered with the first attack were asking the same questions as well, but if they could understand us, they would probably grab and help us towards the forest.

"Quick! Into the forest! It's our only hope!" I ordered the other trainers. A bit later, we finally made it to the clearing of the forest. However, it wasn't easy. We ran a bit farther into the forest and finally stopped. Now, we just waited until the fight was over.

* * *

The battle lasted almost an entire day. While we were waiting, we had a few curious wild Pokémon come to us. But when the battle did end, it was nearly dark. It would have been hard for me to see, but I was a Pokémon, so seeing in the dark was much easier.

A large, stout man came towards us. "Jacob! Jacob, where are you?" He called out to me. It was Professor Birch.

"Pika Pi! Pikachu!" I responded, which to other Pokémon, would mean, "I'm over here, professor! I'm here!"

"Ah, there you are." He walked towards me, making the wild Pokémon run off. He had made a new device that was similar to the headphones, but you didn't have to plug it into a phone or other electronics, you just had to wear it around your neck like a scarf. He also had night-vision goggles on. "Come with me. I'll turn you back into a human. We also need to discuss some other things."

He picked me up and brought me into an animal cage. "Seriously? I hate these." I protested. "Just bring me to your lab real quick. Also, there are some other trainers there that have been transformed. You should grab them, too."

"Sorry, I need to put you in the cage until I get you to the lab. It's either that, or a PokéBall, but I don't think you'll like the side-effects of getting transported in one. I'll go get some of the others, but I can't get them all right now." Professor Birch left, and several minutes later, came back with Mark and many other TTs. He put them in their own cages, which were in the truck bed. "Alright, let's go!"

Professor Birch slammed on the gas pedal and raced away from the "abandoned" building, which apparently was now Team Thunder's lair. The base seemed to get smaller as the professor sped towards Littleroot, where his lab was. I couldn't see much from the cage, but I did see things I didn't notice before: Pokémon up in the trees. There were many Hoothoots, Tailows, Pidgeys and other bird Pokémon up in the trees staring down at the truck that was dashing speedily down the road.

It took nearly an hour to get to his lab. When we did, Birch jumped out of the car and started hauling cages into the lab. Soon, there were many people helping him, including his colleagues, assistants, and some trainer's parents including mine. I could tell that mom and dad have been crying, which means that they somehow got hold of the information. Likely the newspaper, but even more likely from Birch.

I looked at Birch sternly as he hauled me inside. "Did you tell my parents? I told you not to!" I told him.

Birch sighed, and then hesitated. "...Yes, I did. I was worried about you and they were too, so I made an article in the newspaper about you, the rest of the trainers, the existence of Team Thunder and the possible whereabouts." He tried to be as quiet as possible, but loud enough that I could hear (Even though I had great hearing).

I muttered to myself, "why did I even bother calling him? Things were a bit better there, anyhow." I blushed when Birch asked me what I was saying. "Nothing," I told him. A few people looked at Birch like he was crazy to talk to a Pokémon.

Birch brought me into the same room where we first talked personally. "Okay, I had made a few new inventions. I made this shot that will allow you to speak English, as well as the Pokémon language, whether you're a Pokémon or human. I also made the thing you saw me with while we were at the Thunder base. Do you want to test the shot?" I hesitated, then slowly nodded. He injected the needle near my shoulder and took off the neckpiece around his neck while waiting several seconds for it to take effect.

"Do you read me?" I asked. "Because if you can't, then I'm going to get angry at you if something else happened to me instead." My mouth felt weird after speaking to Professor Birch, which meant it most likely worked.

"Yes! I can, and I don't think there are any side-effects!" Professor Birch quickly changed his expression from an excited smile to a grim frown. "Now, I have some other things to tell you. Team Thunder did manage to get away, but we're still hot on their trail. We have followed them to an unknown region they call the Yami region, or Kurayami no Kuni. I also have some terrible news: Red was able to come, but Team Thunder kidnapped him. He is on a boat heading towards Yami Region. We don't know what's going to happen to him, but we're thinking he's getting turned into a Pokémon as well."

"Wait, What?!" I gasped. The last thing I wanted was for Team Thunder to got a hold of the most powerful Pokémon master in the world. "What are we going to do about it?"

Birch waited before he continued. "I want you to go on one of their boats, go to the Yami Region, and rescue Red. But, you'll need to be a human again."

I didn't know where to start. "About that... I don't want to be a human anymore. I like being a Pikachu! There are some things that I can do as a Pikachu that a person can't."

Birch was dumbfounded. "What? You're saying that you'd rather be a Pokémon than a human? You know you do have a chance of getting caught by trainers who might mistake you as a wild Pikachu, right?"

"I-I Know, but spending around a week in that place was... In lack of a better word, strange. I don't really know how to explain it except for the fact that you get used to it. It's also a pretty cool experience." I explained as well as I could.

"Okay then. You leave next week to board the boat. If you want, you can choose someone to come with you. But until then, you'll be spending time at home... I'll have to talk to your parents first, or they'll freak out." Birch opened the door, and I walked out on my hind legs over to the cages to look for Mark.

"Hey, Jacob, over here!" Mark called out to me from a cage.

I didn't want to freak people out, so I spoke in the Pokémon language. "I'm going to get you out. We'll sleep over at my place." I crawled over to his cage and, with some struggle, opened his cage door.

"Thanks. Do your parents know about this?" Mark asked curiously as he walked out of the small prison.

"No, I don't think that they even know I'm a Pikachu." I would have asked about his parents, but then I remembered that he was an orphan. His parents died trying to spy on Team Magma. They had been pushed into a volcano as a sacrifice to Groudon, the Pokémon God of Land.

"Well, they're going to realize sooner or later," Mark explained. He was true, they'd find out sometime, but it's most likely best that they don't know right now.

"Let's leave. I know a shortcut to my place." I told him. We managed to run out while somebody opened the door so that someone else could bring in more cages from the second trip.

As we dashed into the forest, we could hear Birch's voice, "Good luck, and be careful!" I stopped, turned back and looked at the large lab once more, and then continued on my way.