For those who don't want to download, here's the story:

Arcanine 96's Story- A Pikachu Tail- Part 1

"Sam….Sam....Sam!" The boy's mother exclaimed for the umpteenth time to no avail. Sam was drop dead asleep in his bed, right smack in the middle of his junkyard of a room. Sam's mother sighed and moved to the corner, picking up a discarded pillow and slinging it over her shoulder. She returned to the bedside and reared the pillow back, flinging it down on the back of the lazy child. Needless to say, the sudden surprise woke him up right away. Sam shot up in bed, looking around

"Ah! Wait, where….huh?" Sam stuttered, rubbing the back of his head. He turned to see his mother looking down at him, a paper in her hand.

"Samuel James Donavon, why did I find this in your backpack?" She questioned, presenting the failed history test to him flatly.

"I…well…because it's mine?" Sam said as he tried to pass the 60% off with a joke.

"Sam, you're in high school now, you shouldn't be this lax about a failure!" She exclaimed, scolding Sam like a child. "I thought we talked about your study habits already."

Sam sighed, hopping out of bed and moving towards his closet. He spoke to his mother while digging through it to find clothes for the day.

"I know, mom, I know. This is the last test I'll fail this year, okay?" He promised, grabbing a black t-shirt and a pair of matching shorts with a white stripe down the leg.

"If I had a dollar for every time you said that, we'd be the richest family in Hoenn," His mother sighed, setting the test aside. "If your father was here he'd teach you a thing or two."

"Well, he's not," Sam replied absentmindedly, quickly slipping on his clothes. He had slept in his boxers so he could leave first thing in the morning. "I'll work on studying later, mom. I have things to do today. I'll be home around six."

"Wait one second, young man! We're not done talking-" She began, but Sam was already out the door, walking down the stairs at a brisk pace.

Sam shut the door behind him slowly as he exited the house, sighing before breaking into a light jog towards town. For fifteen years he lived a lazy, relaxed lifestyle, barely passing by with his grades. He didn't really apply himself in most subjects, since he thought he would never use them when he was ready to start his life. His mom was always nagging him to do better, so he could become a successful gym leader like his dad was, but that wasn't a goal for Sam.

As he made his way towards town, Sam observed the smaller children playing in the street, their pokemon right up beside them. Each child was equipped with a trainer belt, like all the professional battlers had, and pokedexes of different shapes and sizes were sticking out of a few of their pockets. Pokemon ranging from Shroomish to Psyducks were with them, playing various childish games gleefully. Sam scoffed a little at the whole picture silently, putting his arms behind his head in a lax manner as he passed.

"Pokemon. What a waste of effort," He said to himself under his breath, seeing the town in the horizon. His small home of Wiltleaf Town was a quiet, boring, middle-of-nowhere place in the middle of the wide open Hoenn region. It had pretty much everything within a walking distance; a movie theater, a pokemon center, a Pokemart, and all the essential stores. There were open fields for children to play in, as well as catch wild pokemon, and there was even a small research lab near the end of town where children who become ten years old receive their very first pokemon. Well, children other than Sam, that is.

Sam had no desire to be a pokemon trainer, even as a younger child. Taken, he didn't know what he wanted to do when he grew up, but pokemon were just like animals to him. They couldn't talk, they followed you around everywhere you went, they needed to be fed and taken care of, etc. To him, they were just a big waste of energy. Sure, they could battle, but there would always be someone stronger than you. After all, there could only be one pokemon master. Why waste your entire life chasing after a one in a million title?

After about twenty minutes of wandering around, Sam soon reached his destination: the park. Well, not *the* park, the one where all the children swarmed to on the weekends. Sam's park. The old, forgotten park near the outskirts of town that hadn't been openly used for several years. It was rusty, small, and pretty much abandoned. Basically, it was perfect for Sam.

Sam was the kind of teenager that loved to be alone. Being alone helped him think about important things. Not teenage important things, like how to get a girl to like him or how he'd get through the school year. Real world-important things, like what he'd do when he grew up, or how he'd live his life, or where he'd travel, and with whom. He would, though, sometimes daydream about places other than his hometown, but most of the time, he focused on the real issues. He didn't have any friends, since the guys at his school were complete douchebags, while the girls were uppity bitches that didn't give him the time of day, but he enjoyed his alone time greatly. When he was alone, he wasn't subject to any mockery or society, nor did anyone expect anything of him. He could just sit back and watch the clouds for all he cared.

Entering the rusty park, Sam sat on his usual swing and swayed back and forth rhythmically for a few minutes, humming quietly to himself. The breeze was nice, the sun was high, and the clouds roamed through the sky pleasantly. Truly this was an amazing Saturday afternoon (having skipped the morning, since he slept so late). As he appreciated the relaxing spring scenery, his train of thought was interrupted by a rustling in the bushes to his right.

"Oh great, now of all times…" Sam thought with a sigh, turning his head to see who it was.
Out of the bushes came not a person, but a pokemon, and an odd one at that. The pokemon was small in size, like most a person would find in this part of town. Its skin was pure white, while its head was bright yellow, and under its cute little eyes were thin, light blue triangles. Its head was shaped like a star, with one part pointing towards the sky, and the other two pointing right and left, each with small, rectangular objects attached to them. Sam thought they looked like wishing charms, to a certain extent. The teen wasn't very taken aback by the sudden appearance of the pokemon, as it was common for him to see one passing by every now and then, but the uniqueness of the pokemon intrigued him slightly. He had never seen any pokemon quite like this one before.

The small pokemon shook some leaves off of its head and sighed in relief, hopping into the air and floating in place for a moment. Sam guessed that it was a psychic type, since it could levitate like that, but continued to watch it. It rested for a few minutes before noticing Sam, smiling and floating towards him.

"Now what does it want? It's not like I have any food…" Sam complained in his head, pouting a little on the outside. The pokemon stopped, pouting as well, and crossed its little arms.

"How rude. I was just gonna say good morning," A voice spoke in Sam's head, causing his eyes to widen a little. He had heard that some psychic pokemon could communicate with one another using telepathy, but he never heard of one speaking with a human that way.

"You…you can understand me?" He thought with an eyebrow raised.

"As a matter of fact, yes. Yes I can," The pokemon answered, still obviously insulted.

"Jeez, you don't have to be all insulted…" Sam thought, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm sorry, I guess."

"Well, you should be," The pokemon retorted, its annoyance suddenly disappearing in a burst of giggles. It smiled at Sam once again, cocking its head cutely. "I'm Zephyr, what's your name?"

"I'm…I'm Sam…" The boy answered, finding the entire mental conversation awkward. "Um…what are you?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm a Jirachi, silly," Zephyr responded. "Or as the humans call me, the 'Wish Pokemon'. I think it's just the cutest little nickname, don't you?"

"Yeeeeah…right," Sam thought, rubbing the back of his head in a bored manner. "Listen, this has been great and all…but I was kinda having some alone time."

"Hmm, alone time," Zephyr mused, squinting its eyes for a moment. "You sure do have a lot of alone time. It's more like all the time is your alone time. Why do you sit by yourself so much?"

"Wait a second, how did you know that? Have you been spying on me?" Sam accused, suddenly a little paranoid of the fairy-like creature in front of him.

"No, no, stupid. I read your inner thoughts, tapped into your memories a little, that's all," Zephyr answered, rolling its eyes.

"Oh….right…" Sam thought back, slightly embarrassed. "I should probably get going…"

"Oh, don't leave yet!" Zephyr complained, floating to Sam's left side. "You seem like a nice guy. I'm having fun!"

"But I kinda got this…thing I need to do," Sam tried to make up an excuse, getting up from his seat on the swing and starting to walk away.

"W-wait! I can grant you a wish!" Zephyr offered, floating behind him. "I haven't had a nice conversation in a while, it's the least I can do."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I don't really have anything to wish for," Sam said, not believing Zephyr's suggestion, and continuing forward.

"There's gotta be something!" Zephyr pressed on, squinting for a few moments as it looked into Sam's deep inner thoughts and memories. "You….you don't like pokemon, and even though you like being alone, sometimes you secretly long for someone to talk with, someone to be around…..I got it! Hold still!"

Sam rolled his eyes and didn't listen, even if the pokemon had been somewhat right. Zephyr, agitated, sighed a little and floated towards Sam faster.

"Fine, we'll do it the hard way," It said, floating forward quickly and bashing its head into Sam's back. Flinching abruptly and yelping quickly in pain, Sam fell to the floor, and
blacked out.

****************************************

The next thing he knew, Sam was lying on his back, something moist and soft underneath him. He didn't remember falling on the grass at the park, as the ground had been asphalt. His back didn't hurt as much as he thought it would, but he did have this really weird feeling all over his body. Not a bad feeling, just really….weird. He smelled the scent of wild berries all around him, with a hint of fresh water as well. He knew he wasn't in the park anymore, but where he really was eluded him.

He slowly opened his eyes, but quickly squinted them, the light directly from the sun piercing through his tired eyes. He sat up and looked around, anxiety suddenly filling his body. He was definitely not in the park anymore. Or Wiltleaf Town, for that matter. Surrounding him were trees as tall as houses, each with berries of different kinds growing from their branches. In front of him was a wide open lake, looking beautiful as the early sun reflected its light off of the cool surface water. The site was breathtaking, yet very foreign to Sam.

He reached his arm back to rub the back of his head, but didn't feel his usual short brown hair. Instead, he felt something softer, and much cleaner. It felt like…fur. The boy looked down at himself suddenly and shot up to his feet in shock. He wasn't wearing his pants, or anything for that matter! His body was covered in soft yellow fur, and his feet were nothing but hind paws now. He looked at his hands, seeing another set of mousy paws, and suddenly felt his ears twitch a little. Reaching up to feel his ears, he now felt long, pointed, animal-like ears instead of his old, normal ones. To make one, last, desperate check at his appearance, Sam walked slowly over to the surface of the lake. Looking down into the water, his hope of normality escaped him as he found himself staring into the face of a Pikachu, seeing a rounded, zig zag tail in the back of the image as well.

"Wh…what the…" He stuttered in complete horror, his voice now sounding much higher, not to mention cuter than before. What had happened to him? What the hell was this?
The boy's confused, fearful thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a rippling motion on the lake's surface. The water in front of him started to bubble a little, which caused him to fall back on his tailed rear in surprise. A large shadow began to fill the lake as something gigantic started to rise from it. It was long and dragon-like, with blue scales covering its whole body along with some white stripes as well, and a large, fearsome fish-like mouth at its head. It had a long, tan belly with a dolphin tail at the very end of its body, with two fins on its back, and long tentacle-like whiskers near its mouth.

"A-a Gyrados!?!" Sam may have been a C student, but anyone who passed first grade in pokemon school knew what a Gyrados looked like. It roared threateningly down on the small pokemon, splashing some water up into the air as it moved around. Sam was frozen in place as he stared into the cold, scary eyes of the beast, not knowing what to do.

"Oh God, I'm gonna die without even knowing what happened to me….this has to be some kind of dream!" Sam thought in a panic. The Gyrados fixed its eyes on the weak prey in front of it and made somewhat of a chuckling noise, if a Gyrados could chuckle. Its mouth began to fill with a bright orange energy who's target was obviously Sam. The boy/Pikachu closed his eyes tightly, too scared to look death straight in the eyes, and silently prayed for a miracle.

As the Gyrados reared back his head to strike, the quick pitter patter of running feet could be heard from a short distance away. Suddenly, a small shadow was cast across Sam as another pokemon jumped over his head, a Pikachy to be exact. This Pikachu, though, looked somewhat different than Sam. It looked bigger, stronger, and its tail seemed to be more zig-zagged than rounded like Sam's. In an instant, the Pikachu fired a powerful electric shock towards at the Gyrados, causing it to roar out in pain, the charged attack disappearing from its mouth. The Pikachu landed gracefully on all fours in front of Sam, its cheeks sparking fiercely. As the Gyrados attempted to attack again, the Pikachu cut him off with another electric shock, most likely using Thunderbolt. Gyrados cried out in pain once again and slammed into the water, causing large splash to cover both the Pikachu and Sam.

The Pikachu sighed and shook the water out of its fur like a dog, causing Sam to get even more wet. It turned to Sam, looking at him concernedly.

"What on Earth are you doing out here? Koi Lake is no place for a young girl like you to be," It said, inspecting Sam all over with its deep eyes. By the sound of its voice, it seemed to be a male Pikachu. Wait…it's voice? He was speaking English?! Wait….GIRL?!

"I-I…wha…you…" Sam was still unable to get a full sentence out, as everything was being thrown at him, or, rather, her all at once. Before she could say anything, the other Pikachu grabbed her by the tail and began scurrying away from the lake.

"The attacks were effective, but he'll be back in a minute! We have to get out of here!" He said, dragging poor Sam behind him. "I'll take you to the village, where it's safe, come on!"

"W-wait! Let me go!" Sam exclaimed, flailing her arms around. "What the hell is going on here?!"

To Be Continued...