Red found it hard to keep his composure. He knew that Green was one of the most powerful trainers in Kanto. As a rival and best friend, he also knew that Green was smart—not just book-smart, but knowledgeable in field applications as well.
"And that Green was defeated…no, not just defeated, but destroyed so badly, that he had to make his Pokémon escape without him like this?"
Red couldn't help but wonder, who was Green's opponent? Why did he go up against them? Just how strong was the foe? Why did they beat him into a state like this? Where is Green now? Is he still alive? And most importantly…'Will I be able to defeat them?' It honestly scared Red. Green's never lost like this before, not against any opponent that came up on his way. That must mean the foe was more powerful than anyone he has encountered. On top of that, this meant that they're going to be facing a dishonorable enemy, if the battle was clearly targeted to hurt—even murder—the trainer. Of course, then there was the possibility that they had underhanded tricks to corner Green. It was understandable; there are plenty of trainers out there who want to challenge strong trainers. It wouldn't be weird if Green caused someone to hold a grudge against him, too; he was arrogant, stuck up, and inconsiderate sometimes. But not to this extent…probably.
Red grunted. "This isn't the time to be panicking like this! I'll go see Prof. Oak first…ask Yellow to talk to Charizard and others...then I'll figure something out with Gold. No, not Gold…that guy's too reckless to actually plan strategies…Oh, we're here! Excuse me!"
Red barged into the building, followed by his Poliwrath and Snorlax carrying Green's Charizard. The Pokecenter was almost empty—other than nurses, and a few clients waiting for their Pokemon to return from surgeries and treatments, no one was there. Several nurses came to tend to Charizard and the rest of Green's team. Upon being told that it'll take some time to fully heal them, Red took Porygon2 with him, and dashed out.
The streets were also empty and the air was moist. Red hadn't noticed before, but it was already deep into the night. He knew the roads like the back of his hand when he was little, but now he could hardly see anything. Viridian City and Pallet Town were rural areas, so no one bothered to build streetlights in the roads. Figuring it would be much faster to fly to Pallet Town than to run, Red took Aero to fly him there.
The lights were on in the lab. Red felt bad for Professor Oak. 'His grandson's always getting them in trouble, and he's so old too.' Seeing Yellow and Pika in front of the door, Red ran to them. Pika gleefully ran up to him, and Yellow rubbed her eyes and yawned.
"Yellow! Sorry for waking you up so late at night, thanks for coming!"
Yellow blushed and smiled sheepishly. "It's okay…I've gotten used to disturbances to sleeping like this when I was traveling. I heard most of the story from Pika..."
"Yeah, I have a favor for you here." Red took out the Porygon2, still badly wounded in its Pokeball. "Can you heal this guy here? It probably was with Green at the time of whatever incident happened. If you talk to it, then we'll get a clue or something!" Red excitedly said to Yellow.
Yellow smiled, "I'll try. Let's go let Professor Oak know first, though." Yellow knocked on the front door. No response.
"Isn't the door unlocked?" Red turned the doorknob—it indeed was open. "See? He never locks his door…no wonder he gets kidnapped all the time." Yellow snickered, even though she felt like it's not something to laugh about…Inside the lab, they found the sleeping Professor Oak at his research desk, without his assistants or Crys. After debating whether to wake him up or not, Yellow tapped on the professor's shoulder lightly.
"Professor Oak, it's an emergency—" No response, again.
"Yellow, go heal Porygon2 first, I'll wake him up."
"O, okay!"
Yellow watched nervously as Red started to shake the old man. In a few minutes, Yellow was completely concentrating her energy on healing Porygon2. The injured Pokemon was in a critical state, so Yellow's power was being sapped away very quickly. And she was woken up in the middle of sleeping, too…
Professor Oak finally woke up; yawning and stretching loudly, he glanced at the research papers he'd been working on and looked at Red and Yellow. "Sorry, guys…I've been working on this big project lately, so I haven't been getting much sleep. Anyways, what brings you here?" He stared at Yellow. "And isn't that Green's Porygon2?"
Red replied calmly. "Yes…Professor Oak, I think Green's in trouble. Most likely a bad one, too." Prof. Oak furrowed his eyebrows. "I found his Charizard alone, it was badly injured, and so was the rest of Green's team. I left them at the Pokecenter, except Porygon2. I thought it'd have the least amount of HP to heal, so I wanted Yellow to take a look at it." Professor Oak's face darkened.
"But I think you shouldn't worry too much about it, Professor!" Yellow quickly reassured. "Remember that time when Red was missing? And Pika came here and I took him? We had no clue then, but everything turned out all right, didn't it?" Yellow put a big smile on her face, and Red as well.
Professor Oak sighed and chuckled. "Well, I guess then, I'll try not to worry too much. But do you know anything about what he was doing, where, with who, or in fact, anything?" Red shook his head.
"Well, that's where Porygon2 comes in! Yellow, are you done healing it yet? And is Gold here yet? Where the heck is this guy?"
"It's almost done…And you called Gold too?" Yellow looked at Red.
"Yeah, why?"
Yellow quickly shook her head and replied, "No, it's nothing. Look, Porygon2's gaining consciousness." Yellow replied. Indeed, Porygon2 opened its eyes slowly. It had a blank look on its face, and had started looking around the lab, as if it were searching for its trainer. "Hi, Porygon2. I'm your trainer's friend. So calm down, we're here to help." Yellow comforted the seemingly confused Pokemon; as always, her words comforted the creature.
Yellow put her hand on its forehead and closed her eyes. A gentle aura enveloped the two, and Porygon2 seemed to be fascinated by this, as were Professor Oak. After a minute or so, Yellow opened her eyes again, but her facial expression wasn't as enlightened as Red had hoped for. The worst case scenario would be what happened with Pika when Red was missing—that the Pokemon was traumatized and can't remember anything.
"Red, I think Porygon2…"
Red cut her off, disappointed that they couldn't get any clue out of this. "Ugh, I knew it! Lemme guess, it can't remember anything either?" Red sighed.
Yellow replied, and looked just as confused as Porygon2 was. "No…I think Porygon2 didn't take part in the battle itself. So it doesn't know who Green fought."
