Death is nothing
By Saliaven Chronotis
Part 1 of 1

Unnatural Causes


    Pikachu was dying, and there was nothing Ash could do about it.  As his first and by far favorite pokemon lay on it’s bed, Ash couldn’t believe that after all that had happened, Pikachu could still be a mortal creature.  Professor Oak was taking care of him, but even the renowned scientist had no answer.  “It’s just natural causes, it was bound to happen sooner or later.”  This was something Ash couldn’t believe.  He had sat with Pikachu every day that week, ever since it had collapsed suddenly while battling, Misty dropping in every so often.  It was strange that Pikachu wasn’t emitting sparks, a symptom of every other disease that he had had.
“I have found one way of saving Pikachu.”  Professor Oak announced as he walked into the room.
“And?”
“With a combination of rest and recover techniques, Pikachu might be able to heal itself of virtually anything.  The problem is that though the rest technique is in a TM and is something Pikachu can learn, recover is neither.”
“So we’re sunk?”  Ash asked, tears coming to his eyes like they did every time he contemplated his pokemon’s death.
“Not necessarily.  We could store his mind in a robot temporarily while you look for a psychic pokemon willing and able to perform the task of linking with pikachu and making it learn the move.”
“I’ll have to think about it, I don’t want pikachu stuck in a metal prison for long...if at all.”
“I understand.”
    With that, Oak left Ash to his own devices.  Ash, though, couldn’t stand the stifling atmosphere in the room and so got up and left.  He was wandering through the fields on the edge of Pallet when he suddenly got very angry.  Why is it that this happened to him?  Why did he have to go through this?  He couldn’t control himself and purple light streamed from his eyes.  With a sudden scream, a huge psi field erupted from him and vaporized a square acre of land around him.
    Misty was close by when it happened and ran as quickly as possible to the source of the blast, not daring to teleport (a trick that she was trying to perfect) for fear the psi emissions would scramble her signal.  When she arrived Ash was standing there, panting from the exertion of destroying the countryside.  When she reached him, he swayed and fell into her arms.  “I have decided to let Oak perform his operation.” He said weakly and fainted.  When he came to, he realized that he was on a bed next to Pikachu, who had not yet woken from his coma.  Oak walked in a moment later and said “Well, Ash, feeling strong enough to put Pikachu in his temporary housing?”
“I’m doing it?”
“Why not?  The only other qualified person is Misty, and we figured you would want to do it yourself.”
Ash laughed at his own stupidity and said “Of course!”
“Fine, I’ll bring in the machine.”  With that he walked out the door and a few minutes later returned with a surprisingly realistic facsimile of a Pikachu.  It was then that Ash realized his mistake of thinking Oak would just have Pikachu inhabit a stationary computer.
“I see, so this thing is about the size, weight and physical strength of my Pikachu.”
“Nothing but the best for the league champion.”  Oak said grandly, making Ash blush.
    Knowing what to do next, Ash sat down between the two and contacted Pikachu’s mind, being careful not to press too hard.  He then pulled it gently out of the organic Pika and into the metallic one.  The eyes on the new one slowly opened and the mind of Pikachu reawakened.  It would be an understatement that Pikachu was anything less than terrified when he first realized what had happened.  He required a great deal of calming from his trainer and the assurance that his real body was in stasis until he could return to it.  It was a very disconcerting experience to see himself lying on a bed, unable to live without the EM shield around him.  
    After the ordeal of transference, Ash immediately went off to try and find a pokemon willing and able to restore Pikachu.  Never in a million years did it occur to Ash, Misty or Mechachu who decided to come with, that Ash had at his fingertips the ability to summon Mew to ask it what to do.  For reasons that will become apparent later, Mewtwo was interested in the three.  He found it very funny that they never thought of merely contacting his ancestor.  In an attempt to help these misguided fools, he materialized right in front of them, nearly giving the humans a heart attack.  It took all his discipline not to fall over laughing at the look of surprise they displayed as he appeared...and they said they could detect psi emissions, the arrogance of humanity.  When he had fully appeared (he slowed the process for effect), he immediately got down to business.
‘All you had to do was summon Mew or one of the others and they could have done what you needed done.  I have waited in vain all these eight weeks for you to do just that, and you never did.  Since I have only limited patience, watching you, I guess I will just have to help you whether you like it or not.’  Without further ado, he teleported them all back to Pallet.  ‘I cannot do the entire process, though.  The mind doesn’t just let people muck around with it.  Pikachu trusted you enough to let you, but I won’t have that.  You will have to act as a conduit for us.’
    Ash understood most of what had just happened and so immediately sent Pikachu’s mind back to his body.  ‘What next?’ He inquired of the seemingly benevolent Mewtwo.
‘I’ll link with you and you must link with Pikachu.  Everything you’ve done so far has been simple psychic abilities.  In order to get Pikachu to learn recover, we must venture into the world of the supernatural.  Luckily, my immense knowledge includes the magic necessary to healing Pikachu.’  At that, Ash linked with his pokemon and Mewtwo linked with him.  All the hair stood up on Ash’s head and he was enveloped in a purple aura.  Pikachu as well started glowing and the process began.  It was reckoned just before they started that it would take an hour to do this.  After half an hour, a yellow mist started to form and though the three involved in the process were oblivious to everything, Oak and Misty saw it.  With a gasp, Misty remembered the witch that had accidentally turned Ash into a Pikachu temporarily and the mist that had done it was the same as the one that was now being emitted from the three.  By the end of the process, it was clinging to Ash especially and as Mewtwo rose it’s head and Pikachu opened his eyes, there was a flash and AshChu was back.  This time, M2 couldn’t restrain himself and fell to the ground laughing.  Misty tried to get a hold on the pokemon to demand that it change Ash back, but it teleported away before Misty could get near it.

You have to admit that if I have screwed a little with the characters, I gave M2 some style.  Besides, there is good reason for him to associate with humans like them.