“Hey Dallas!” someone yelled.

“Wha…?” I asked as I turned around to face the direction the sound had come from. “Stryder?”

“Yeah uh, problem.” He said as he poked his head out of the door flap and looked out at me.

“Hey look it’s Stryder!” Cammy said as she hopped over Kevin’s lap and down out of the car. “What’s up?”

“Ow. Cammy come on.” Kevin mumbled as he swatted his hands over his legs a couple times. “I just changed.”

“You act as if my paws are filthy or something.” Cammy laughed as she stood upright and gazed at her paws. “They aren’t even dirty. There isn’t even dirt, it’s blacktop. And what was that ‘ow’ for?”

“Well I still don’t like being stepped on.” He said. “You could have st-”

“Stepped on your balls?” she interrupted. “Yeah, could have, but didn’t. And if I did then well, it would have been on purpose.” She laughed. “I DO watch where I’m walking you know. You have to be like, the king of neat freaks to worry about MY paws dirtying your pants.”

Kevin stared at her for a few moments, before shutting the door and rolling down the window.

“You’re going to have to jump in if you want to get back in.” he said in a cold serious tone.

“Yeah.” She said as she turned around to face Stryder, who had walked out and was standing beside us by now. “You’re worried about me crushing your balls and now want me to hop OVER them without even being able to see them to get back into the car. Makes perfect sense. Hope I don’t have any… accidents while jumping back in. That would be unfortunate.” She chuckled.

My ears perked up as I heard Electra snort, and I gazed into the back window to see a huge grin spread across her muzzle as Kevin groaned loudly and rolled the window up, before shaking his head and rolling the window down in the back.

“There. Problem solved.” He mumbled.

Cammy laughed briefly, her ears flicking as she shook her head no most likely in disappointment, before perking them both straight up as she gazed ahead at Stryder. “So uh, what’s up with you?”

“Someone at the colony needs Dallas.” He said as he waved with his right paw as if motioning that the colony was right behind the bushes or something.

“Who?” Cammy and I both asked simultaneously, my right ear flicking as Cammy turned her head to gaze at me briefly before turning her attention back to Stryder.

“I don’t know. We were out patrolling the area like we used to do as our old job. Me, Starlight, and a few others were wandering around, and we got to the end of the tall grass around where your old nest is and some Pikachu that well, looks like basically what you looked like as a Pikachu except maybe with a little darker fur color came up to us and asked for you.”

“Uh… well what’d you tell him?” Cammy asked.

“I told him that I would go get you.” Stryder said, shrugging as he looked from me to her. “Aaaaand now here I am. Getting you.”

“The clone? The one that trampled me in that maze earlier?” Electra asked as she stuck her head out of the open window.

“I guess, but him asking someone else where I am doesn’t make too much sense.” I said as I tilted my head, staring down at Cammy. “He could just like, find me like he did before. And then send me off to whatever dimension he sent us off to last time, or even a different one or whatever.” I said.

“Yeah like, he can track-”

“I don’t know, I don’t care, I just know he asked to meet you at the colony.” Stryder said as he shrugged. “I don’t care about the technical stuff.”

“This doesn’t make much sense. There’s got to be some sort of catch.” Cammy said softly as she looked down at her feet, shaking her head slightly.

“Uh, the battery just died in my earpiece.” Kevin said as he took it out, frowning as he opened the car door and stepped out. “I forgot to put it on the charger last night before I went to bed like I usually do.”

“No, you went to bed in a different world and didn’t have the charger with you to charge it so you wound up using it for a lot longer than you usually would, idiot.” Cammy said as she turned around and looked up at him. “Go. Go put it away, charge it, whatever.”

“Yeah.” Kevin said as he nodded to her, before walking past her and entering the house.

“He has no idea what I said.” She mumbled.

“Go see what he wants and like, come back quick. I really want to go get some more chicken.” Electra said as she flopped back in the seat.

“Chicken is tasty.” Zeke said as he poked his head out of the window.

“You’re not coming?” I asked as I turned and looked at the car, tilting my head as I stared at Zeke, who tilted his head and turned to look at Electra.

“Nah.” She said as she lifted one of her paws up into the air, waving it at us. “All this paper piled up on the floor just reminds me of chicken.”

“How does money… what… Just what?” Cammy mumbled as she took hold of my paw, nodding her head toward Stryder. “Alright let’s go.”

Shrugging, I took Stryder’s paw as he held it out and teleported us to the colony as soon as our paws touched.

“WHOA!” he yelled as he fell over, letting go of my paw as he flopped onto his back. “Damnit that was disorienting.”

“Yeah, it was pretty rough wasn’t it?” Cammy asked sarcastically as she let go of my paw and grinned briefly at Stryder. “Come on; let’s see what he wants wherever he is.”

“He probably wants to send me to another dimension again.” I laughed.

“That was the Palkia that did that.” Cammy said as she gazed around the area. “Why didn’t you just take us to your old house?”

“Because Stryder did a lot of walking to get to our new nest.” I said. “I don’t want him to have to walk back to the colony too.”

“No he didn’t he… kind of just came out of the door.” She said as she glanced around the area again. “Actually that doesn’t make much sense at all.”

“Maybe he was inside searching for us. We weren’t in there long, he could have been on another floor.” I said.

“Eh, I suppose that makes sense, yeah.” Cammy shrugged.

I gazed around the tall grass as well now, and just as I was about to mention how I didn’t see any sign of him Cammy grabbed my paw.

“Whuh?” I asked as I looked down at her. “What?”

“See? He knows where you are like, always somehow. There’s no reason he couldn’t have come to us.”

I gazed over in the direction she was looking at, and was surprised to see a Pikachu that did in fact look exactly the way I had looked when I was one. Only as Stryder had said, his fur was a bit darker looking, just like it had been during our last encounter.

“So uh… What do you want?” I asked as I sat down, tilting my head. “It’s not every day a clone of you asks a member of your colony to go get you so they can talk.”

“I’m genuinely impressed.” He said as he held his paws behind his back. “I thought for sure that when we got that Palkia to send you to that other dimension you’d be gone for good, or at least for longer than you were.”

“Right it’s been like two weeks here or something.” Cammy said, shrugging as she looked over at the other Pikachu. “If it helps at all it was only a day or so for us. Time goes by faster here than it does in that other place.”

“TIME.” He suddenly shouted, shaking his head as he looked down at the ground. “Funny thing isn’t it?”

“Um… no?” I asked as I tilted my head, looking over to Cammy for a few moments, who shrugged, before looking back at him.

“Oh but it is though.” He said as he took a step closer. “Everything you do, everything I do, everything anyone does always takes time. Whether it’s a little bit of time or a lot of time, everything we do always takes some. And you know what? No one ever gives any back!”

“Are… are you okay?” Cammy asked as she tilted her head. “You seem a bit uh, you know. Insane.”

“Oh don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” He said as he shook his head. “I just think this whole saving Team Onyx thing is silly.”

“Wait you what and… what?” Cammy asked as one of her ears perked straight up.

“I had a dream I shaved all of my fur off, and I had a lot of fun doing it too.” He said.

“I can’t tell if he’s being serious right now or if he’s literally lost it.” Cammy mumbled.

“I WANT YOU TO KNOW that I don’t actually think Team Onyx has any hope of being restored.” He said.

“Well it’s not like we blew up their base or anything.” I mumbled. “They still have that place with the weird walls that are also doors.”

“Well, except for that one room.” Cammy said. “The one with the poison.”

“I THINK WE CAN come to an agreement here.” He said.

“An agreement on what?” I asked. “What needs to be agreed on? Team Onyx being hopeless?”

“I THINK WE-”

“THERE IS NO NEED TO YELL!” Cammy shouted as she pinned both ears back. “Holy shit we’re right in front of each other.”

“Oh um. I think we can come to an agreement that it’s time Team Onyx stopped making useless clones that never accomplish anything.” He said.

“Are… are you calling yourself useless?” Cammy asked, perking one of her ears up as she stared at him.

“What? What I… I – no shut up.” He said quickly. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Well that’s what you said.” She said as she laughed softly.

“Alright time’s up.” He said as he brought one of his paws out from behind his back. “I want you to know that I think this is all just stupid. I was created in a lab to chase you down and well, get rid of you. Well I don’t want to, I don’t want to live my life a slave to an organization that barely even exists anymore.” He said.

“Well… good for you I suppose.” Cammy said.

“SO. As I said earlier, it’s time.” He said as he brought his other paw out from behind his back and held it out.

“Yeah, you keep saying that.” She said softly. “Time for what?”

“It’s time we made a truce.” He said, wiggling the little digits on his paw as he held it up toward me. “Truce?”

“Why are you holding your paw out like that?” I asked.

“You’re supposed to take it and shake it holy shit.” He said in a plain and emotionless tone of voice.

“Uh…” Cammy said as she scooted a little closer to me just as I was reaching my paw out, leaning her head forward as she squinted at him. “Dallas? Yeah don’t touch that.”

“What why?” I asked as I stopped in my tracks, standing there with my paw in midair.

“Oh for fuck sake.” The clone growled as he lunged forward and grabbed my paw out of the air.

“DALLAS!” Cammy yelled as she threw herself into me. I yelled out as she rammed into my side and knocked me off balance, however all of a sudden I stopped falling just as the clone grabbed my paw.

“Fuck.” Cammy mumbled as she too stopped in midair, groaning softly as she wiggled slightly, stuck against my side in a sort of hugging position as we both remained in a sort of half falling and half upright position.

“This doesn’t seem like the best time for that. I mean, I can’t even move.” I said as I attempted to wiggle my way free, though for some reason I found myself unable to move a muscle as if I were paralyzed. The clone however, let go of my paw as a huge smug grin spread across his muzzle.

“Well, this worked out better than I expected it to.” He said.

“I didn’t mean literally fuck.” Cammy groaned. “I mean… if you want to then I’m all for it but you know. I meant fuck as in… well I’m sure you know.” She said. “I’m literally not explaining that.”

“Instant paralysis.” The clone chuckled softly as he held up his open paw. In the center was a little black dot, fastened to his paw with a strap that was tucked under the thin fur in such a way that it wouldn’t be seen unless you were really looking for it.

“Bravo.” Cammy mumbled as she began to wiggle slightly against me again. “Though I don’t remember instant paralysis inducers involving being suspended in midair and defying gravity.” She said. “Why haven’t we fallen yet?”

“Because this is a brand new technology!” he laughed. “Like I said, it’s about time Team Onyx stopped making useless clones that never got anything done.”

“So… you’re going to leave us frozen and… hope no one finds us?” I asked.

“Oh of course not.” He said as he held up his other paw, revealing a much larger and much more obvious device. “I’m going to kill you.”

“What.” I said plainly as I gazed at the device in his paw. “You’re kidding.”

“Is that what I think it is?” Cammy asked as she began to wiggle a little more, grunting as she struggled to move.

“Is it painless?” I asked.

“It doesn’t kill you.” Cammy said. "It s-”

“Sends you back in tiiiiiiime!” the clone interrupted. “I uh, I couldn’t come up with any good time jokes.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Cammy grumbled as he smacked the device with his other paw and tossed it underneath us.

“Back in time?” I asked. “First you send us to another dimension and then you send us back in time?”

“Oh yes. But unlike last time, you won’t simply be able to turn into Dialga and time travel your way back to the present.” He said.

“And why not?” Cammy asked. “There’s literally no reason he wouldn’t be able to.”

“Oh you’ll see.” He said as the device underneath us began to glow, a dark blue aura quickly emerging from the device and moving upwards toward us, until finally it touched me and in an instant it shot out around both me and Cammy.

“Yes, I certainly will see.” Cammy said as she shut her eyes tightly. “Arceus this feels WEIRD!”

“Well thanks for the Dialga idea, but why wouldn’t I be able to just turn intoooooOOOOOOoohhhh.” I groaned as the aura surrounded me, sending a powerful tingling sensation throughout my entire body.

“How far back are we even going?” Cammy asked. “I mean it’s exciting I’m going to be the first ever Pikachu to time travel, and I’d go willingly if you’d just asked, but like, how far back and why? And why wouldn’t we just be able to move forward on our own?”

“You weren’t even supposed to be here. I thought he was going to come alone.” He said as he took a couple steps back. “Now if you had come with Electra, boy that would have been bad!” he laughed.

“What? Why would that change anything?” I asked.

“Let’s just say… Where you’re going, or should I say WHEN you’re going, a future Electra would literally put us, Team Onyx, right back in the position we’re in now in like, a single day. She would literally fuck EVERYTHING up.”

“I don’t get it, that doesn’t answer any of my questions.” Cammy said.

“Oh for fuck… Okay let me say it this way. You’re going back far enough that Team Onyx will be back to their-”

“Back to before we blew up that room to save Electra?” Cammy interrupted.

“No. I mean yes. I mean farther back.” He said. “Back to before Electra was even captured. Back to before you two even met!”

“And… Again what’s going to stop us from just coming back with Dialga’s time traveling abilities?” Cammy asked. “And what’s going back to that specific point going to even accomplish?”

“Well for one, I’m going to make sure Team Onyx comes out on top!” he said as he turned to the side, bringing the end of his tail into view and showing off a black onyx gem that was fastened to it with thick black string.

“I’m going to show them this. I’m sure you already know what it is, Cammy.” He laughed.

Cammy just stared blankly at him as the tingling sensation became a little stronger.

“That’s right. This is all I need. As soon as I show them this they’ll know what happened. You see this was our master plan all along! As soon as they see me with this they’ll know that something went horribly wrong to the point that someone had to be sent back in time to fix things. And to verify they’ll go make sure this particular gem is still in place, and when it is they’ll immediately know what went down and I’ll be in charge!”

“Okay I’m beginning to see how this COULD be a good plan but like, as Cammy said we could just go forward in time to like, right before you catch us and stop you or something.” I said.

“I don’t think you’re going to be stopping me.” He said, a huge grin spreading across his muzzle as he gazed over at Cammy. “Care to tell him how we both know this?”

“Cammy!?” I asked hastily as I shifted my eyes to gaze down at her.

“Because… because if we were going to stop it we would have done it by now.” She said calmly. “The device can’t be stopped at this point. It’s too late.”

“Eeeeeexactly!” the clone laughed as he clapped his paws together. “I’m going to be honest with you, I was getting a little nervous there for a moment! But now that the device has established a link to the programmed time in the past there’s nothing you can do! The portal has already begun opening in the past and it’s getting ready to transport you. I’ve won!” he said, gazing up into the treetops as he began to laugh obnoxiously.

“Alright alright so we can’t come back to the present but WHY can’t we come back to the present?” Cammy asked a little hastily.

“Hah! Because you’re not the only one going back in time!” he said as he picked something up off of the ground, before quickly tossing down a second device that also began to glow. “I’m going back too obviously!”

“Yeah yeah I already pieced together that you were going to follow us back but WHY?” she asked.

“I’m going to get there a whole five hours before you do. That’ll give me plenty of time to get done what I need to get done.”

“WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO!?” she yelled.

“Ouch. My ears.” I groaned as I pinned my ears back, wiggling a little as the tingling sensation from the device became a little stronger, though I’d noticed the paralysis seemed to be wearing off.

“I’m going to arrive an hour before Ben signs Electra’s adoption papers at the Pokémon Center.” He said, laughing a little louder as he closed his eyes. “I’m going to show Ben, who is leading Team Onyx in secret at the time, my gem! He’s going to listen to what I have to say, and those papers will never be signed! You and Electra will never meet, the STUPID colony will continue to be run by Rice, and best of all Electra will never have to be captured, which also means she never has to be saved, and THE BASE WILL NEVER BE BLOWN UP!” he shouted as his own device surrounded him in the same dark blue aura. “By the time you get there, I will have already prevented Ben from signing those papers, there will be nothing you could possibly do to stop me! The future as you know it will cease to exist, there will BE no future to return to if you tried!”

Neither of us could respond. I wanted to say something, but reality as I knew it had begun to fade away. I felt weightless, the colors of the world beginning to fade away into nothingness until I could see nothing but a swirl of different blue and purple shades, as if I were gazing into a collideoscope.

“Goodbye Dallas.” I heard him say in a muffled shout, followed by a loud maniacal laugh. “For good this time!”

Then everything went blank.

I had no idea how long it had been, but all of a sudden I found myself falling, or at least it felt like I was falling. Not for long though, maybe for only a second or two before I finally hit the ground with a loud thump, groaning softly as I opened my eyes just in time to see Cammy land on top of me. I didn’t have any time to brace myself, letting out a loud annoyed grunt as she fell right on top of me.

“Oomph… shit.” She mumbled as she quickly rolled off of me. “That felt great.” She groaned sarcastically.

“Uuuuugh…” I groaned as I slowly got to my paws, immediately noticing that I was much lower to the ground than I had previously been. Gazing down at my forepaws as I stood there on all fours, I noticed that they were the same color, and upon looking toward the rest of myself as I stood up clumsily on my hindpaws, I took note that I was till the same purple color that I had been before.

“Uh… whoa.” Cammy said as she stood up on her hind legs, stumbling back and forth a few times before reaching out with her right paw and pressing it against me for stability, only to send us both tumbling over as I was knocked off balance by her sudden weight leaning against me while I myself was also disoriented.

“Omph.” She grunted as she plopped right on top of me again, laughing softly as she wiggled a bit before once again rolling off of me. “Sorry Dallas. I’m just a little out of it right now.” She said as she got up onto all fours and shook herself off as if she were wet. “And you’re small. Or uh rather, normal size.”

“It’s alright. And yeah, I noticed.” I said softly as I too got to my paws and shook myself off. “I don’t understand why. Why am I normal Purrloin size?”

“I have no idea.” Cammy said as she stood up and gazed around, blinking several times as she examined her surroundings. “This place looks pretty much the same to be honest. Like, the leaves and everything.”

“Well the leaves definitely don’t look the same, but like, that’s arguable because it’s a forest so like, the leaves are everywhere all the time and always moving around and al-”

“I know Dallas.” Cammy laughed as she stood up on her hind legs, nudging against me as she helped me up onto my hindpaws. “Come on, let’s go check things out.”

“Electra…” I said softly, my ears drooping to the sides as I looked into Cammy’s eyes, a wave of sorrow and depression overcoming me as I leaned against her, placing my paws around her as I pulled her into a tight hug.

“I know I know. But come on Dallas, she’s still here. She’s still the same Electra, just you know, nicer. Younger? Lighter I guess?”

“So then entirely different.” I said as Cammy returned the hug, placing her paw around me and squeezing gently.

“But still the same Electra. She is still capable of becoming what she was in the… future?”

“But she’s not.” I said softly. “She’s just… she’s not.”

“Hey, we don’t even know how far back we actually are. For all we know he could have messed something up, or maybe he didn’t even do what he said he’d do.” She said as we let go of the hug. “Come on Dallas, look.” She said as she reached a paw out and gently took one of the tags on my collar into her paw. “You still have this. You probably forgot it even existed, but you’ve got this. You two wore matching collars to represent the love you shared. She may not have hers, but you still have yours, and you should use it to remind you that your Electra is still out there somewhere. This one even has both of your names and the date on it.” She said as she took another tag into her paw. “You could probably show this to her when we find her and convince her that you’re her mate from another time.”

“Everything is gone.” I said softly, shaking my head slightly as I reached one of my paws out, placing it on top of Cammy’s with the tags inbetween our paws. “But you’re right. I’ll do anything I can to get her back. Even if it means taking on Team Onyx, the stronger version, all by myself.” I said as I pulled her back into another hug, a little tear rolling down my right cheek as I closed my eyes.

“Well you know I’m here too right.” She said softly. “I can help, Electra meant a lot to me too. I mean, I have a collar on too you know.”

“I know I know, but like, she meant MORE than a lot to me Cammy. A lot more than a lot to me.”

“I know she did Dallas. And I’m sure everything is going to turn out just fine.”

“I sure hope so.” I said as I hugged her a little tighter, pinning my ears back as I let out a long sigh. “I just don’t even know where to look for her. The first time we met was…”

“Was what?” Cammy asked. I could tell she already knew the answer.

“Well.” I said as I closed my eyes, holding onto the hug as I thought back as far as I could remember.

“Uh, I can’t tell if you’re being eaten or… hugged.” A familiar female voice said from behind me, both of my ears perking straight up as I listened to them speak. “But uh, judging by your facial expression… Actually uh, that’s kind of creepy. Do I know you? Why are you staring at me like that? We just finished transforming that human we basically kidnapped into a Pikachu. Or at least he’s supposed to be a Pikachu, but I think Stryder fucked something up. This had better work according to the plan or we’re fucked. What are you even doing hugging a cat anyway? You crazy?”

--END Chapter Nineteen.--