7/30/07

"Sorry, guys," said Trinity. "Gyarados, use your Dragon Rage!"

12/25/11

"Sorry, guys," said Trinity. "Gyarados, use your Dragon Rage!"

Obviously, Neith4 has dropped off the face of the Earth, at least for anyone concerned with his/her stories. The Pika Project, the most successful of the six under that name, ended, and still ends with the above line. The Authors Notes at the end state to find her if the story waited too long for an update, but by now, it's far too late for that. The story, started just as GenIII returned to Kanto, was last updated on the onset of GenIV. Now that we're on Gen5, it would take a major overhaul to keep the story viable.

Which is why I'm taking the basic idea of the story, putting it through my own ideas (another story set at Paladin Central), and spitting it back out. Enter my second reclamation project, Project P.I.K.A.C.H.U.. Bear in mind that this is done to revive an age-old idea of Pokemon appearing in our world by accident, and that the original idea belongs to Neith4. Think of this as a Fanfiction of a Fanfiction, if you will, that replaces all of the characters (some you may recognize from my other stories), and hopefully does not end on a cliffhanger. Enjoy!

Project: P.I.K.A.C.H.U.

Chapter 1: The Girl with the Worst (and Best) Luck

It was yet another cold and snowy winter on the east coast. Gusts of wind blew the fluffy masses down off the lawns and fields so as to pile onto the streets. Over in Wayne, the Packanack Lake was frozen into a solid mass of ice, covered by a foot of snow. Adventurous teenagers occasionally walked out over the ice, but the masses of society did the smart thing and stayed indoors.

It was in this mess that a woman by the name of Bridget Fitzgerald found herself driving along the lake. A convenience store owner in her fifties, she had been on the bad side of luck from birth. Her mother died shortly after Bridget's birth, leaving her in the care of a rather alcoholic, abusive father. Couple that with a few devastating marriages, and it was easy to see that she did not like men at all. Still, she didn't let that stop her from living life like she wanted to. Her convenience store was the best on the lake, she donated what she didn't need to charity, and most of all, she spent much time with the children in the park by her store. Of course, on a day like this, there were no children in the park to play with. After all, the swingset was under a foot or more of snow. Her blue '96 Ford F-150 trudged through the covered streets, the high beams barely showing what was ahead.

'This is bad,' she thought. 'I might have been better off just kicking it low back at the shop.' She rounded a bend, and was passing the small beach on the opposite side of the lake. The docks now looked like undulating hills on the fields of snow. Suddenly, the wind kicked up, and her truck nearly blew off the side of the road. "Woah!" Bridget brought the pickup to a stop, hoping that was the worst of it. It wasn't.

"GUYAAAA!-!" A shrieking cry from above compelled Bridget to get out of the truck and look up. There, with her long brown hair flowing in the wind, she saw a bird…that was at least twenty, no, thirty feet long. It swooped high overhead, as if it was in a hurry. Without warning, a beam of energy came from further above, striking the flying creature. It cried in pain, before careening to the lake. The ice shattered completely, as the beast plunged into the watery abyss. A wave of Icy water rushed in all directions, coming to the side of the road Bridget was on, before retreating back into the lake, towards the now-submerged creature.

Suddenly, Bridget's attention was diverted to a small, pale object on the beach. She squinted, and realized that it was actually a small girl! Bridget scrambled to the wet beach, her green boots crunching the snow as she went. Within seconds, she reached the girl, and without thinking, took her back into the truck. She placed the girl in her passenger's seat, and gave her the blue snow coat she was wearing. Now there were no ifs, ands, or buts about it: medical supplies and home remedies were better available to her at her store. She turned the truck around, and hurried back.

Now that she was in a place where the AC was cranked up, Bridget's attention fell on the girl. She looked no bigger than six years of age, and was soaked through the bone because of the water. She had long, blonde hair that fell down her back to her knees, and was wearing…a red kimono? Not what you'd expect in the snowy tri-state area. More peculiar about her was the fact that she was holding a stuffed doll of sorts. It was yellow with black stripes, red cheeks, and a partially brown tail. It was nothing like she never saw before, yet it looked so familiar to her at the same time. The doll was held by a hand that was looped through the tail, and was clenched closely to the girl's heart.

A jarring bump up signaled that Bridget was halfway to the store. It also woke up the girl. "Nnh…uh…"

"Easy there," Bridget told her. "Stay in the coat. It'll keep you warm." The young girl looked at Bridget with confusion. "You were swept up in that wave on the lake. I'm really shocked that your parents let a girl your age wander on the ice like that. Usually it's only the teens who try stuff like that."

"…Parents…I have none…I'm all alone…" Bridget would have looked at her had she not been driving. A homeless girl, here in the middle of Wayne?

"But you have that mouse doll…thing," Bridget pointed out.

"That's right…" the girl shivered. "I still have Pikachu…" That's when Bridget remembered where she saw the doll before. It was from that newfangled game from Japan called Pokemon. All the kids at her store were playing it there, and a few of the younger ones had stuffed toys of them.

"I'm bringing you to my store," Bridget told the girl. "We'll get you dry and warm, and then we can decide what to do next. Do you have a name?" The girl shook her head.

"I can't remember." Bridget frowned. A person's name should be the most important thing that a person has. She racked her head for something to call her.

"Umm…hmmh…Do you mind if I call you Teresa?"

"That sounds like a pretty name," the girl said. "I don't mind…what's yours?"

"Bridget." The young girl smiled.

"That's pretty too…you're very nice."

"Well, I can't just leave you in the cold after all." The truck pulled into the parking lot. "Right, let's get you all better now." Bridget stopped the car. The wind passed right through her as she stepped into the snow, but that was a pittance to saving a life. She went over to the passenger side, took the little Teresa out, and carried her into the warmth and comfort of the store.

!SLAM! The force of the slammed door shook the entire house. Bridget, on the couch in the living room, didn't need to be told what that meant. She got up and headed for the door. It had been ten years since that fateful evening, and things had changed in Bridget's life much more than her greying head of hair. Nobody ever found that creature that fell from the sky, nor did anyone know exactly what downed it. It did generate good publicity, though, and for a time, Bridget's business ran better than normal. As for Teresa, since there were no known relatives anywhere, and since the foster home was the only place that Bridget would not donate to, she stayed with her. Teresa was given every freedom and opportunity that Bridget allowed her to have, which gave the young girl very good grades, a flute and piccolo, and a scholarship to the most famous private school in Wayne, Paladin Central High. However, there was one thing that the girl shared in common with her stepmom…and it wasn't one either of them wanted her to have…

"Lemmie guess…that DeJesus guy dumped you, didn't he?" Poor Teresa was in a mess. Her long dirty blonde hair was now only down to her hips, but it was in a tizzy, as if it had been pulled out in several directions out of frustration. Her blue eyes were ready to pour out a river at any moment, and an occasional snivel could be heard.

"I'm cursed, Bridget!" the teen cried. "I'm never going to have the happy ending! He-he tried to beat me! On our first date!"

"I told you that he was bad news, but you didn't believe me, nor did you believe me with that Melano guy last week, or the Sandberg person a month ago. Now, if you had asked out that Gregory Richards guy -!"

"H-He's older than me by two years! And I suspect that he has feelings for Alex! Besides, with your luck, I'd be back to square one in three days!" Bridget took minor offense to that.

"My luck? Dear, I gave you many things, but my luck with men was not one of them." She tried to put a hand on her stepdaughter's shoulder, but it was slapped away.

"Liar! J-Just leave me alone for now!" Teresa ran up to her room on the second floor. Bridget sighed. Every week, this scenario played out. Teresa would say that she had a boyfriend, and within a week, the relationship would break up in disaster, and the poor girl would come crying home. It wasn't that she didn't have nice guy friends; it was just that she asked the wrong ones out. Just like she had done.

Suddenly, Bridget whipped around to face the door. Something had caught her eye. She hastily opened the door, and tried to look around for the source of the object, but to no avail. That tiny glimpse had been enough, though, to convince her that it was not from something she had ever seen before. It had been a glimpse of a tail. A pink tail, to be precise.

Teresa ran to her bed, shedding her puffy blue coat and her Hufflepuff scarf as she did so. There was only one thing that could really comfort her now. The one connection with her past that she still had access to (the kimono had long since been framed). Since childhood, the Pikachu doll had been a source of comfort and joy, like a safety blanket. Teresa found it on her pure white bed covers, and careening into the mattress, she scooped it upon landing. There, she cried her eyes out. Her hair covered the entirety of the stuffed toy.

"Please, Pikachu!" the girl cried. "Help me…! (Hic!) Tell me that this is all just a bad dream, and that I have a nice boyfriend (Hic!)!" She grasped the toy tighter. For some reason, it felt warmer than usual, but she dismissed that to the heater in the room. It had always been cranked too high, anyways.

"P-Pi…Pi-ka…" Teresa thought she heard a muffled voice coming from the stuffed toy.

"Oh, great!" She muttered. "I'm in such despair that I'm thinking that this toy actually talks! I really need music now to help me…" She released the grip on her best friend (and thought she heard the thing gasp for air), and went to turn on her radio. Another hiccup jerked her hand away from the power button, and onto the head of her Pikachu doll that had been lying right beside it –

'Wait, since when was Pikachu here?' She hadn't carried it in her hand when she went to put music on, so it couldn't have just moved there. But sure enough, the cool felt skin of her doll was touched by her slightly trembling fingers. 'If Pikachu's there, then what's on my…?'

Teresa quickly turned around to face the Pikachu that was on her bed, expecting to meet black eyes with a small white dot near the top. She did.

The eyes then proceeded to blink twice, followed by the cock of the Pikachu's head to its left.

"Pi, Pikachu?"

For Your Information…

This is yet another incarnation of Paladin Central. However, characters from the previous two incarnations will appear.

Meaning of the title: It sucks not to have a nice boyfriend, but who wouldn't want a live Pikachu? :P

Anyway, that's all for now. I'd give a preview, but you can probably guess from looking at the basis of this story. Merry Christmas, everybody! And check out the rest of my works as well!