"What th'?"

"Did you get the machine fixed, Joshua?" Professor Birch asked his assistant as he burst into the lab with the limp form of Pikachu cradled in his arms. On his heels was a dark-haired boy in a baseball cap.

"I've just finished fixing it now," replied Professor Birch's assistant, giving a screw in the control panel one final turn. "But it wasn't easy. Pikachu nearly blasted it into oblivion during the earlier procedure and…"

"Never mind that," Professor Birch said, cutting him off. "I don't think we'll have to worry about that now." He gently placed the semiconscious Pokémon on the examination table. "Team Rocket took care of most of that for us."

"Professor Birch, is Pikachu gonna be okay?" Ash asked anxiously as both Professor Birch and his assistant huddled around the unconscious Pokémon.

"There's still some residual electrical discharge," the heavyset young professor noticed as he gently stroked the Pokémon's red cheek with a fingertip and sparks flew in all directions. "Looks like Team Rocket didn't discharge all of Pikachu's excess electricity."

"But you can do it, right, Professor Birch?" Ash said hopefully, stroking the fur on Pikachu's back. Pikachu responded by opening its eyes slightly and began licking the spot on Ash's arm where he had bitten him earlier in an electrical-induced fit of rage.

"Oh, Pikachu…don't worry about that, buddy, I'm okay," Ash replied softly as he continued to stroke the Pokémon's soft yellow fur. "I just want you to be okay. Professor Birch's gonna make you feel better."

"Ash, I think I need to put Pikachu to sleep," said Professor Birch, who was busy examining the semiconscious Pokémon.

"Put Pikachu…?" With a cry, Ash threw himself atop his Pokémon, knocking the professor's hand aside. "No, Professor Birch…you can't do that! Please…don't put Pikachu to sleep!" Ash began sobbing into the fur on Pikachu's back.

Shocked by Ash's response, Professor Birch stared at the boy. "Ash, what's the matter?" Then it dawned on him what he had just said. "Oh…oh, no. Ash, no…that's not what I meant." The professor laid a hand atop the weeping boy's shoulder. "I didn't mean put Pikachu to sleep. Not the way you're thinking."

Ash turned his tear-stained face to the burly young man hovering over him. "It's…it's not?"

"No. What I meant was I want to anesthetize Pikachu. I think if Pikachu's asleep during the electrical discharge procedure, it'll be less stressful for him…and the machine."

"Oh…oh…" Relived, Ash quickly wiped away his tears with the back of his sleeve. "I thought you meant…"

"Sorry. That was a poor choice of words on my part," Professor Birch replied. "Ash, why don't you let me finish examining Pikachu and then we can get started on the procedure?" He then noticed the oozing bite wound on the boy's arm. "You'd better go clean up that bite on your arm – that looks pretty nasty."

"I don't wanna leave Pikachu, Professor Birch," Ash pleaded.

"Don't worry, Ash. Everything will be all right," Professor Birch reassured the distraught boy. "Go with my assistant. He'll show you where the bandages are."

Ash reluctantly went with Professor Birch's graduate student while the young professor continued with Pikachu's examination.

"You've got yourself one devoted trainer, Pikachu," Professor Birch smiled as he stroked the Pokémon's back. Despite Professor Birch's intimidating size, he was quite gentle when it came to Pokémon. "You're lucky to have a friend like Ash."

"Pika," the Pokémon replied softly.

When Professor Birch's assistant returned a few moments later, he found his boss regarding Pikachu with a serious expression on his face.

"Did you get Ash patched up, Joshua?" Professor Birch asked somewhat distractedly, stuffing his stethoscope in the pocket of his lab coat.

"Yeah, he's busy with the bandages and…something wrong?"

"Maybe it's just my imagination," Professor Birch said, staring at the Pokémon that lay panting on the table before him. "But when I was examining Pikachu, I could've sworn that I heard something that didn't sound right."

"What do you mean, Professor?" Joshua asked, concerned.

"An abnormal heartbeat. An arrhythmia. I hope that maybe it's just due to the excess electricity in Pikachu's system. That would affect the electrical conduction of the heart."

"But I thought electric Pokémon like Pikachu were capable of dealing with conductive abnormalities," Professor Birch's assistant replied, reaching out and lightly touching Pikachu's cheek. "They normally don't have problems with arrhythmia."

"So did I. But maybe it's due to the electrical overload. We'll see as soon as we get him hooked up to the EKG and get the procedure started. I'm hoping that once the excess electricity is out of his system that everything will return to normal. But to be on the safe side, we'll use one of the short-acting anesthetics."

"I hope that's the only thing that's wrong," Joshua said, tracing the brown stripes along Pikachu's yellow back. "That kid's really attached to this Pokémon."

"You're telling me," said Professor Birch, recalling Ash's near-hysterical reaction a moment earlier. "Anyway, let's hope for the best, and the procedure reverses the arrhythmia. Let's get started."

To be continued…