As I wait for the Nuzlocke to save, here's chapter 3. It's good stuff.

In story game for the reader:Can you figure out where Pikachu's other two roomates are from? Answer is at the end in a spoiler cover.

Fun Fact: This post was the last post of 2006. And even though it seems to slow down just a little from the past two, it took until about 2010 to finally write the ending to this story. Luckily, it was well worth the wait.

Chapter 3: The Great Escape Plan

It had been becoming a relatively good day, understanding the circumstances that Pikachu had currently found himself in. Trying to turn the television to Oprah, Pikachu found himself watching Pee-Wee's Playhouse instead.

The door of his room swung open violently, and in walked a tall, round-bellied, brown rabbit. He huffed and puffed heavily, stomping each foot angrily; looked at Pikachu with slight confusion, spun quickly around and cursed at Charon who was just now walking through the door.

Behind Charon walked in a red raptor looking dinosaur-thing with black spotty designs on his body. He had a solemn look on his face, and sighed as he walked in.

"Pikachu," Charon said. "These are your roommates." Giving the large rabbit-thing a hard shove, she dragged the dinosaur-raptor thing to her front.

"Get your bloody fu-"

"You don't know them, but their now your teammates in an upcoming tournament. So I advise you to get to know them."

"A what-what, contest? Is there money involved," the rabbit asked.

"Pika?"

"Don't ask, Pikachu," Charon said, waving her hand at the trio. Leaving, she shut the door with a slam, locking it behind her.

An awkward silence grew between the three. The large red dinosaur thing finally broke the silence and said, "My name's Guilmon. If the tournament is anything I think it is, I can fight. So if you two can't, I'll cover ya' the best I can. No promises though."

"Pika."

Guilmon looked over to the large fuzzy bunny thing.

"Oh. My name is Hare. Not like the hair on your head, but like the rabbit thing-a-ma-jig." A coy smile shot across his face, "I can sure as heck fight, so I'm sure I can cover the two of you with my eyes closed if things get too rough."

"Your turn."

"Pika pika, Pikachu."

"What'd he say," Hare blurted.

"Pika pika, Pikachu."

"He said, 'My name is, Pikachu.' "

"Pika."

" 'An Electric Mouse Pokemon.' "

"Wait what? How'd you decipher that gibberish?"

"I have no idea," Guilmon said, shrugging his shoulders.

"So, Yellow Rat?" Hare asked. "Where's the food?"

"Pika," Pikachu said, pointing at a mini-fridge in the corner. A small spark of electricity snapped at the tip of his whiskers.

"Ooo," Hare said sarcastically, waving his hands around his long ears. "So Yellow Rat is an Electric Yellow Rat. I guess we're saved now. Maybe we can defeat Hell now. What do you think Guilmon?"

"I'm not a part of this," Guilmon said, sitting down on one of the large beds to watch the TV. "Is this Aliens vs. Predator? No wait, It's Pee-Wee Herman."

Hare gave Pikachu a hard shove. Growling fiercely, Pikachu collected a large lightning bolt that threw Hare into the wall. Wincing in pain, Hare looked madly at Pikachu. Ruffling his hair with a bursting shiver that ran across his body, Hare gritted his teeth.

"That was kind of cool, Pikachu," Guilmon said in a bit of slight shock. "But you're killing the satellite reception."

"Not as cool as this," Hare said turning around. He pointed his small fluffy tail at Pikachu and ripped off a large belching, almost wet, fart.

"Oh you sick son-of-a-!"

"PIKA!"

The entire room was engulfed in a humid sweaty yellow cloud. "YeAh! You Like that foo'," Hare cackled.

Pikachu's eyes began to water as he fell to the ground, trying hard not to breath in the air. Hare jumped over to Pikachu and gave him a hard backslap.

"Nobody messes with Hare!"

"Enough," Guilmon roared. "Pepper Breath!"

"No! You Idiot!" Hare screamed.

Letting out a fiery shot from his jaws, Guilmon soon realized his mistake:

Pokedex Excerpt: Guilmon is a fire breathing dinosaur, far stronger than his predecessor, Agumon. Pepper Breath is a basic fire attack deriving from Agumon, the fire dinosaur. Hare is of the Fighting Type. Hare specializes in quick punches, kicks, and paralyzing flatulence. Two and two together: Flatulence and Fire, Bad… Bad, bad, bad. Wait… Computing… Computing… FATAL ERROR 283: Guilmon is not listed Pokemon. FATAL ERROR 405: Hare is not listed Pokemon. Pokedex will now reboot and self-destruct in ten seconds. This session has been brought to you by, Windows 95.

As the room ignited in a fiery inferno of combustible gas, the three roommates screamed like schoolgirls; along with Pee-Wee Herman who had just discovered the Secret Word of the Day.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, on an upper level of Hell was the ballroom. Most of the important representatives of the otherworld was there, including several random invitees who weren't connected with the inner workings of Hell at all. All the guests were sitting at small tables, enjoying their banquet dinners, conversing away about the latest movies, politics, and Chicago pork belly stocks.

In the large crowd, sat a somewhat confused Karen drinking her wine and nibbling on some Lunchables.

In front of the crowd was a large stage with beautiful art-deco curtains. Similar to the Ed Sullivan Theater, but instead of Paul Shaffer in the Corner with a Jazz Band, flames and demons cried in agony... It's not the same effect, but still quite pleasant for the more complacent guest. The curtains opened up revealing Charon standing in front of a large raffle cage with hundreds of little red ticket stubs inside.

Grabbing the microphone in front of her, Charon announced, "The raffle shall begin! And once everybody has their teams, the names will be randomly chosen for the tournament grid. And after that! The betting booths will open with up-to-date odds. Good Luck!"

The crowd applauded as the large raffle cage spun wildly. Coming to a stop, Charon opened a little door on the cage and pulled out a ticket stub.

"And the winner of the Pikachu Team… Two. Five. Seven. Four. Three. Three."

Raising her hand slowly, Karen found herself applauded by the ballroom crowd.

* * * * *

The three roommates sat in their room, semi-crisp from the ironic hellfire that had engulfed them earlier.

Guilmon and Pikachu were sitting on the bed discussing movies. While Hare was sitting in a chair watching TV and eating some burnt popcorn.

"Pika-Pee."

"Exactly," Guilmon replied. "I do believe that that movie had way too many sex scenes to be considered artistic."

"Pika-Poop."

"That too. It was definitely a failed attempt to be, what would you call it? Artsy-fartsy?"

The door unlocked, opening slowly, Karen walked in fully disregarding the charred remains of a once four-star hotel room from Hell. "I guess you guys are my team. You ready for the competition?"

"Sure. Popcorn?" Hare replied.

"No thank you."

"Pikachu."

"What did he say," Karen asked confused from Pikachu's response.

"Who knows? Only Guilmon can understand him. Oh, that's Guilmon, by the way. I'm Hare. Yellow Rat over there is Pikachu. Sure you don't want any popcorn? It's burnt."

"PIKA!"

"What's wrong with it," Karen asked.

"He doesn't like to be called, 'Yellow Rat,'" Guilmon said.

"So I call him Yellow Rat."

"Char-Char (*cough*), Pika-chu," Pikachu sneered.

"Okay," Karen said. "My name's Karen. Grab what you need, and let's go."

Walking out the door, Karen noticed an unusually auspicious path she didn't notice before. Pointing it out to the others, Pikachu made a small comment to Guilmon.

"What did he say," Karen asked.

"He said he wants to go down that way."

"Pika-Pika."

"It might be an exit."

Looking down the path, she noticed a sign that read, "Road to Paris Hilton."

Then suddenly Karen seemed to sober up…

…Why was she so submissive to the idea of going down to Hell to compete in some fighting tournament "of champions?" Was the participation ribbon really worth the risk? Why did her first competitor have a team consisting of a Singing Dancing Tin Woodman, Karl Marx, and head of cabbage? Was the first place fruit basket really that appealing?… Hell no.

"Let's get out of here," Karen said. "Let's try to get out of this hellhole."

The other three agreed happily.

Walking down the path, it soon turned into a hallway with many locked doors with small windows attached to them. The hall was set up in just the way that a passerby could see what was taking place. It was horrible looking inside each mini-window.

Hare concluded that each door led to a personal Hell. Not knowing how the physics behind each room worked though, the four found a security guard and asked.

The security was a brunette haired girl with thick glasses. Her name was Velma. "Simply explained my simpletons of simplicity. If you take mirrors, a flashlight, and a couple cotton swab q-tips, you can create alternate realities and illusions. Simple quantum mechanics," she explained.

"I should've known that," Guilmon said.

In Hell, Pikachu saw many horrors… Passing a Snorlax with insomnia trapped in a room with Cher's "Do You Believe?" playing continuously… A drooling Hypno tied to a chair watching re-runs of Mr. Bean. "Pi-pi-pika-pikman…," he said to Guilmon.

"Well, nobody said Hell was a holiday."

* * * * *

Meanwhile, back in a deeper circle of Hell; Charon sat patiently for Karen's team to register.

An hour passed, but no sign of Karen, Hare, Guilmon, or even… Especially, Pikachu.

Calling for her guards and minions, Charon went to Hades (who you may remember as Uncle Joey on Full House) and told him the situation.

Hades, being the rightful governor of Hell thought for a second. His forehead wrinkled as he thought deeply.

The crowd around him knew the look on his face, somebody was going to feel Hellfire at it's worst.

"What's he going to do? What's happening," somebody asked.

"I dunno' what's going on," a man in a yellow hat replied.

The crowd of competitors and demons began rustling even louder.

"This isn't good."

"Is the competition called off?"

"What the Hell's going on?"

"Elmo doesn't like it here."

The hunt for Pikachu was on…

Spoiler:
Guilmon is from Digimon; and Hare is from Monster Rancher.