I woke up in Olivine’s General Hospital the next day.
For me, hospitals were always places to be avoided since I was a child, when I saw an older kid in the orphanage break his arm falling down a tree. It was there that I learned what a hospital was, and I never wanted to get close to one after that, and yet I did it two times after that. Now’s my third time in a hospital. My first time waking up in one too.
But despite my feelings about it, waking up in a hospital is not as bad as it sounds. Sure, you wake up with the strong smell of medication and chemically clean clothes and surroundings, and the sound of beeps and bops from machines connected to you–and a needle in your vein–but it could be worse, as the doctor that talked to me after I woke up told me.
He said I could’ve died.
That it was only thanks to the pokemon that defended me with their moves and bodies that I’m alive right now. But that was obvious, right?
Also, Clefairy knew first aid and was the reason that I wouldn’t have to stay a long time here in observation. According to the doctor, the pressure from the Hyper Beam knocked me out and the shockwave that followed threw my body through the air and I landed hard on my back and arm but all I got for it was some scrapes and some bone bruises. I was fine. And the best part was that I didn’t remember anything, and since I was on medication it didn’t even hurt much.
The ranger that visited me after sighed when I told him that, and explained that it wasn’t quite as simple for my team. I sat straight, despite a light pain, and listened as he explained what had happened based on the testimony of the others.
The ghost that was haunting me–an Sableye according to Clefairy–used a Light Screen to decrease the power of the move, and then took the attack directly with his own body, diminishing the power further while also destroying his own body. It will take almost a week for him to reform, the ranger told me. But even that wasn’t enough and the attack passed through Clefairy’s own Light Screen and Cape and Chopper took what’s left head on with their own moves. The two fighting types were injured and broke some bones and wouldn’t be able to fight for a week.
Thankfully, the others were far away since the group of young fairy pokemon had been retreating from us and ended up pulling them away too in their defence. Mountain had the presence of mind to use Cape’s pokeball on my belt to recover the unconscious and wounded Heracross. Valley, Jungle and Mesa were circling around my body as Clefairy tied me up with torn cloth when the rangers found us. He said that Dendra, Aiden and Jess were nearby watching, and that they were quite… shaken.
The ranger took my testament about what happened before I passed out, everything I could remember about the two trainers and their pokemon. After that he took out from his bag my pokeballs–Cape’s wasn’t among them since he still needed some treatments–and gave them back.
Before leaving through the door, he asked me if I was really okay and I told him I was. He trusted me, and told me to take care of the kids.
I stared down my bandaged arm and torso.
I’m okay?
-
CaCL
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It felt right to wait until after lunch to release the pokemon from the stasis of their pokeball, to prepare for the meeting. The last time they saw me was when I was wheeled inside the hospital after all, something that might’ve been traumatic.
I sat down on my bed after the nurse left and reached over to grab the first of the four pokeball; Mountain’s. I chose to release him first because somehow I felt that he would be the easiest to deal with.
The Cryogonal, a familiar collection of the bluest ice sheets arranged in a circle, materialized through the red energy of the pokeball already floating in the middle of the room. His presence dropped the temperature inside, but not nearly as much as you’d think, thanks to his control.
His blue glowing eyes locked on me and did the thing I most expected him to do, nothing. No reaction from him. Zero.
I stared at him and he stared back.
Some people, mostly kids, think that ice type pokemon don’t have feelings because of the association between cold and emotionlessness or if they have, that they don’t feel as much as others, but that wasn’t true at all. They felt as much as any other pokemon. Mountain was just older and had already lived a harder life as a wild pokemon fighting for resources, a life hard enough that minimal injuries like these couldn’t faze him.
“Are you okay, Mountain?” I said after a few seconds of our staring contest.
“Cryo.” The pokemon responded in dry tone. A few moments later his plates shifted rapidly in amusement.
“Yeah, yeah, very funny. I’m the one hurt,” I said as a smile wormed itself into my face. “That’s funny?”
The pokemon plates creaked positively as I leaned over again to grab the second pokeball, only this time my back seized as it spiked painfully. The sheets shifted again, this time in concern.
“Don’t worry.” I leaned forward through the pain, grabbed the other three miniaturized pokeball and put them on the bed, near my left hand, so I don’t need to move to get them. “It’s just a little pain.”
The next pokeball I grabbed was Mesa’s. The Baltoy appeared to my side in a flash of red. The psychic and ground type stared with his slightly open eyes at me, at the bed, at the needle in my arm, at the IV bag, and the equipment connected to it. His eyes were calm and steady, but his clay-like body was shaking slightly.
He was trying to be like Mountain, but couldn’t.
“It’s okay Mesa.” I raised my hand over to him just a little, wary of the pain. That didn’t faze the pokemon who floated up and leaned forward into my palm, letting me caress his coarse head. “We’re all okay.” He grabbed my left arm hard with his fingerless ones, as if to make sure I didn’t pull back.
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After some time, ten minutes at least, the pokemon let go and floated away to stand beside Mountain right by the side of the bed.
I smiled at him and turned to the third pokeball, and let out Jungle. The newly evolved giant green pokemon let out a mournful sound with his large mouth and extended his two vines to grab at my legs, where he somehow knew I wasn’t hurt, probably from Clefairy.
If he were that small bulbasaur of three months ago I didn’t doubt he would have jumped in the bed with me. But unfortunately for him he was a big and strong Ivysaur, who cried just a little when I started patting his head.
The fourth pokeball let out Valley, and the first thing she did was climb onto the bed and hug my leg hard. I gesticulated with my hand and she jumped to the other side, my safe side, and nuzzled between my arm and my torso. I patted her head and her nose twitched as she detected Mesa’s earthly smell on my arm.
I looked around at all my four pokemon and sighed.
At their curious look, I answered, “I just want to get out of here.”
-
CaCL
-
I was stuck in the hospital for one more day so I was passing the time by studying Jasmine’s five badge matches, and it was paying off. The steel type Gym Leader had a clear strategy that she favored above all, an aspect of steel type that many times went under trained by steel type trainers, defense.
It should be obvious since that was one of the pillars of steel type pokemon, but she went well beyond the basics like blocking, parrying and dodging. Her pokemon had complicated schemes and tricks that made them seem like they’re flowing around the battlefield, making it difficult to even pin down. At some point she attacked back, but only when it was from a position of extreme advantage, which her complicated defense naturally put her pokemon on, or when the opponent was exhausted or had grown sloppy.
I’ve never fought someone like that yet.
In her matches, the trainers were challenged to catch and break her steel pokemon’s defense, and if they did, it ended up in crazy and interesting battles. Her reputation on the pokenet collaborated to that. Jasmine, owing to her background as a militar’s daughter, apparently didn’t do easy battles.
I opened a new tab and was about to write some preliminary ideas for strategies and maybe a selection of the four pokemon that would fight when a few hushed whispers just outside my room made my fingers stop above the keys. I stared at the door where the familiar voices grew a little and then dipped. My eyes flicked at the partially covered window on the other side of the room where the brightness of the day was dimming quickly into the night.
After a few seconds, the almost silent discussion ended and there was a clear knock on the door.
“Come in,” I said casually. It was hard to keep the amusement out.
The door opened just enough for a black haired head to peek at me from behind the white frame. Dendra’s eyes, so often vibrating with barely restrained energy, locked on me with unnatural calm.
“Good night Dendra,” I said, nodding towards her.
“Hi,” she said, opened the door more and entered with reluctant steps.
Jess and Aiden entered after her, with Aiden closing the door. Unlike Dendra, their faces changed when they saw me on the bed. The dragon trainer was easy to read; his eyes tightened, eyebrows lowered, and a snarl grew on his mouth, like a dragon funnily enough. Jess’ face dropped into a sad frown and her body tensed up.
The three younger trainers stopped on the side of the bed. Dendra, the smallest, near the equipment and Aiden, the tallest, near the foot.
“Scott,” Jess, in the middle, finally said, “how are you?”
“I’m great actually,” I said, and her shoulders sagged in relief. “It only hurts a little when I move too fast, but the doctor said it should be gone in a week or two.”
“That’s good.”
I nodded and a silence descended between the four of us. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, just the feeling that there wasn't anything more to be said, which was a feeling we often had when we traveled together, but I guess they’re here to spend time. Well, I guess I should pick up the slack.
And what a better way than what we all like to do, “I was about to start thinking about strategies against Jasmine. You guys want to help?”
Dendra’s eyes snapped to me and to the laptop on my lap, and she pulled a smiling Jess closer.
Aiden raised an eyebrow, “Shouldn’t you be focusing on resting?”
“I asked the doctor already, and he said that’s not a problem.”
He shrugged and walked closer as my fingers found the keys again and put back the video of Jasmine’s battles and turned the screen so we all could see it. Until the time they went back to the Pokemon Center to sleep, we spent just talking about battling Jasmine and about steel pokemon.
-
CaCL
-
I woke up with a commotion outside.
I sat up on the bed and rubbed my eyes hard enough to fully wake up. Turning to the side, I grabbed Mountain’s pokeball, threw off the blanket and got up. This time there was a very small smidge of pain that I ignored.
I quietly walked to the door and could hear more clearly what was happening.
There were two people almost screaming at each other from across the corridor. The voice closer to the door was deep, and the other was feminine. And they were growing by the second.
For some reason I was tense, but still reached for the door knob. The shout from a Clefairy interrupted the discussion and stopped my hand. I shook off the pause and pulled the door just enough to see what’s going on.
Looking between the door and its frame, I could see two groups at a standoff. The one near the middle of the corridor and near the door was formed by Blackthorn trainers, clearly distinguished by clothes similar to Aiden. The other group was made of Joy, and unlike in the village, these ones were actually Joy.
There was a difference between trainers from the Joy Clan and the descendants of the Joy Clan. The Joy didn’t have a millennia to populate an entire city like the Blackthorns or other ancient clans had, so to grow their numbers they employed a lot of affiliated trainers, trainers who grew up on their territory and gained training and resources in exchange for acting as clan members.
Those across from the Blackthorn were descendants. I recognized them by their features, freckles and curly hair, and their rather unique and mostly white and pink clothes.
And in the middle of the two groups was Clefairy, the exact one that we’ve helped. She was trying to calm the two groups down but clearly wasn’t able to, as they just ignored and shouted over her, making her squirm in distress. I took a deep breath and prepared to leave to speak with them when a voice erupted from where I couldn’t see without putting my head out.
“Yo!” A young voice blasted. “This is a hospital, you punks!”
The leader of the Blackthorn turned. “You’re the only one shouting…” His narrowed eyes flew open in surprise and he actually shut up, as did the Joy.
I pulled the door open and looked at the other side. There was a teenager with orange spiked hair, purple shirt, black pants, and hiking boots, with his hands in his pockets. On his belt there were twelve miniaturized pokeball. His brown eyes flicked to me for a second and then back to the two groups, a sneer never leaving his face.
“Now,” he said, tone dripping with disdain. Together with his voice a huffing sound started coming from the other corridor. “I, the Great Gary Oak, will judge if your yapping is worth my time to listen to, or you'll start talking to Fulminator here.”
The happy sound of an eager puppy huffing turned into a loud and violent bark, and the temperature in the corridor surged upwards as an Arcanine almost the size of the corridor itself appeared in my vision and stopped just behind the one known as Trainer Blue.
“And let me tell you, my time is worth gold.”
