Images faded in and out through his vision and Axel became vaguely aware of moving quickly, shifting scenes, entering a box with bright lights.
It was the last thing he remembered until morning.
Axel laid there that morning, machine beeping beside him and feeding Chansey eggs directly into his bloodstream. He didn't like the taste of eggs. All the needles sending fluid into his body felt wrong on his skin, and if he could move right then he'd be ripping them all out.
The scene replayed flittered suddenly, hauntingly, in his head and Axel couldn't help but moan.
"Axel? You awake?" Instantly a figure was at his bedside. "Awful hard bump to the head you took."
Axel tried to laugh and it hurt his chest. Reno placed a delicate hand on it.
"I've ah, got your Magby. He's good as new they say. Enjoyed sleeping in my book bag." Reno poked the lump the felt bag held, and an anxious little body yawned and climbed out. "Dad's here too, in that chair there. Was up all night. Don't wake him."
"Sword," Axel gasped. His throat was dry.
Reno grinned. "They weren't going to let you have it, but I snuck it in. It's under your bed." He stood. "I should get the Nurse."
He waited and more medical attention came. It seemed endless, like the streams of flowers and get well cards sent to his door, and eventually Axel got a chance to talk with everyone about what happened.
Except Uryu.
"You should've heard dad Renji go off at him," Reno subtly whispered when the conversation came up. "He just went nuts, used the F word and everything. Said he didn't care that Uryu couldn't have known, and that he should've been more responsible, that he was a disgrace to the Quincy people and didn't deserve to see you. It was crazy. Even Ariel looked a bit mad."
Axel didn't like to think about his mother actually caring about him. He'd gone so long without seeing her that it just felt as if she properly gave a damn for them she would've shown it in person by now, instead of just sending mail cheques and crummy birthday cards every blue moon. It made him feel guilty, to think he might've hated her when she loved them all along, but then how was he supposed to feel when he was so ignored like that?
His father returned to his work, but Reno stayed to cater to him. He said home-schooling was crap anyhow and got Axel a GameCube to play in his room, though often Axel didn't have the energy to play it. Most days in recovery Axel spent cracking cop jokes with he or Kunsel, who was quick to ignore his energetic cop friend Zack's jibes about babysitting. He got some good conversations in with Elena too.
"You're lucky you didn't all meet up at the sudowoodo crossroads," Kunsel often said, in quiet silences. "Then you would've had a fork in your path when you were running back, and you would've never been able to save Elena."
That was right. If it wasn't for Axel, Elena might've been dead. Axel had already been visited by her sister, tearful with gratitude, who begged to insist that she could never repay him enough.
Elena was let out of the hospital three days before him, but with instead of leaving she waited with Reno until Axel was given a clean bill of health by the Nursemaids. With Reno's tattoos, Axel's bandages, Elena's fresh stitches and Magby's good looks they looked more like a travelling circus than a hospital party.
"One week's bed rest on exit," Reno was quick to remind him. "So what're you going to do now? Head home and sleep it off? Continue on your Pokémon journey? Write a novella biography?"
"I just got out of shock and already you're badgering me about what I'm going to do with myself," Axel grumbled, tugging his hair back into a quick ponytail.
"Fair question, though. Dude, I totally reckon dad Renji and I should become psychics though. I mean, we fully predicted what was going to happen to you on your journey! Even weathermen can't do that.
"Why don't you call him dad Renji to his face?" Elena asked.
Axel and Reno looked at each other and burst into chuckles. "It's a family thing," Axel dismissed and they continued walking on to the park. "I swear, I've heard so much about these damn Kimino girls if I don't see a show while I'm here I'm going to break a brain cell wondering about it."
"I don't think that's a very good idea," Elena said, and they looked at her weirdly. "I mean, they are geishas you know."
Reno choked on the response he was about to say, and Axel doubled over in a fit of coughing trying not to hide his surprise.
"They are so not geishas," Reno argued, and Elena rapped him on the head with her knuckles.
"So. Are."
"I can't believe we're even having this conversation!"
"I can't believe I actually considered going there," Axel contributed in a disturbed deadpan, and they all giggled conspiratorially.
Once the laughs had died down though Reno just had to sling an arm over Axel's shoulder as he sat down on the bench. "Still leaves us with the question of what we're going to do with you now, as you have yet to have made a life-altering decision about this."
"What you're going to do with me? What's that supposed to mean?" Axel asked.
Elena sat down on the other side of Axel, crossing one leg over the other as was ladylike. "It means, you thickhead, that we're sticking through with you."
"You're sticking through with me? But I don't even know your middle name!" He said to Elena, and to Reno—" I thought you were going to stay home and support dad Renji."
"But I am going to stay home and support dad Renji. Awkward for you, Elena." Elena glared at him. "Just kidding."
She averted her eyes. "What I was saying, is that I owe you a life debt, Axel, which might not mean anything to you, but I think you're a genuinely good person. I'm not just going to let you walk away after what you did for me."
"And what you did for her," Reno continued, "is why I'm staying—because you're an idiot, and you need someone to have your back when you've got trouble. Even if I have to learn Pokemon or whatever to join your silly little gang to protect you, I will. Because at the moment, I think you need just a bit more support than our old man at home."
"Wow," said Axel, feeling genuinely touched. "Thanks guys."
"Her middle name's Maria, by the way. Her parents were Italian."
Were, huh? Axel gave a sad smile to the blonde girl. "I'm sorry."
"Forget it."
The trio laspsed into silence.
Reno broke it, obviously. "Have you decided yet? Or less majorly, do you know what you're going to nickname your Magby?"
"I don't even know what gender my Magby is," Axel acknowledged laughingly, and the aforementioned Pokémon squeaked in indignance.
"Oooh, call it Maggie! Or Mable."
"No way," Axel countered, wrinkling his nose.
"Your Magby's a dude, dude," revealed Reno.
"How do you know?" Axel asked.
"Elena's iDex told me."
"Oh." Axel curled onto his seat. "Maybe I should name Magby after Elena, then."
"No way, you're going to give it her name after her after she almost killed you? Shunned."
Axel frowned a bit, wishing his brother didn't always take things so far. "Maybe you should change it a little, so it doesn't get confusing," Elena quietly offered. "Elena is a girl's name, after all."
"Lee?" suggested Reno.
Axel mocked-gagging. "No way, there's that heaps evil dude in our home schooling class called Lee. Not if it was the last name on the planet." He thought. "Bruce Lee's cool, though."
"You are not calling that Magby Bruce," Reno warned. "Or Blee, Glee or any variant thereof."
"But Lea is such a cool name though," Axel whined back.
"It does kind of suit him," Elena agreed.
"Guys, Lea is a total girl's name!"
"Go away," Axel recommended, and put on the Magby-carrying leather gloves Reno had bought him to pick up the freshly named Magby. "You like the name too, don't you Lea?"
Lea nodded, his little pumpkin head rocking and threatening to bowl him over.
"So there. Get lost." Reno grumbled to himself, mentioning something about going to get some lunch and stalking off.
Axel and Elena were left sitting next to each other on the bench seat, legs swinging. If they were older, Axel thought, maybe their feet would've touched the ground.
"Forget what I said in front of Reno, I won't follow you anywhere if you don't want it," said Elena. "I know how selfish I was acting the night everything happened... I just wanted some quick money to pay back what I owed to my foster parents, and I was angry at myself for wasting my own money in the first place. I'll understand if you don't want me to go places with you."
"Of course I'll let you go places with me. I need all the friends I can get." Axel grinned, remembering how he'd pestered his Mahogany town friends to skip their Pokemon journeys to wait until he turned ten so could join them. They hadn't been keen on a non-trainer companion then either. "Except I'm not so sure I want to continue on adventuring for now after that awful start. I think I might continue on once I get word from Kunsel that the A-Arcanine have been replaced by the migrating Vulpix and Ninetales."
"Oh. Well are you going to go home then?"
Axel made a face. "I've been stuck in that hole for a whole decade already. I wouldn't return there now for the life of me."
Elena shook her head sadly and pulled her feet up onto the seat."I still find it so weird you don't use phones there. What do you do if someone tries to hold the town up?"
Axel remembered the antenna-tree that had taken up residence beside the general store in his primary school years. "I think you can get like reception from the main street, just not anywhere else around there. Not sure about the Lake of Rage."
"Pretty sad about the Pokémon Centre, though," Elena refuted.
"Mmm." It was still weird to see such an advanced hospital and Pokémon centre over here, actually, and a Police Station to boot. Despite their old Mayor's lobbying they didn't have any of that stuff back home, and it didn't look like it was cropping up anytime in the near future. Dad Renji always settled the town disagreements when there was any, and the little old home-cure herb tea shop lady with the Delibird healed all maladies general store medication or the Pokémon centre hospitilzation couldn't fix. That was the way it had always been.
"Can you really use a sword?" Elena asked.
"Can I use a sword? Can I use a sword. Really, can you spell your name?" Axel scoffed. "I was the town fencing champion for two years running."
Reno reappeared. "I think you're starting to confuse you with me."
Axel folded his arms at him, remembering the first year he'd won, Reno covering up the win as a tie out of shame. He'd won fair and square and then Reno just had to go act like a bad sport about it.
Reno stuck out his tongue knowingly, ruining any credibility his 'tie' claim might have once held, and angrily Axel kicked for his leg, prompting an odd game of footsies. They spent the rest of the afternoon chasing each other around the park while Axel somewhat sulked. Elena passed, saying she was too mature for such a kids game like that, and later that evening they dragged her over to the ghost gym where they watched the hired trainers fight.
It was weird, seeing ghosts battle, because half the time you couldn't actually see them and most their wins tended to stem from cheap tricks rather than brute strength. This brunette chick with a long braid falling all down her back got absolutely crushed by Morty and ran out of the place in tears, Poke balls clutched to her chest. It was sadistic and it delighted in it, and it made Axel want to pick at the scabs beneath his bandages with his nerves.
"I'm definitely versing Falkener first," Axel decided once it was time to pack up shop for the day, and rather than pay the expensive Pokémon centre hotel fees they deigned to head east to Route 42 to camp, listening to the Hoothoot hoot and the Kriketot chirp. It was a stupid idea to Reno, who maintained they'd already just got in trouble by staying too long in a Route with dangerous Pokémon, but the rest route guy who'd heard about what happened said he'd watch over them, as there was little to do on night patrol anyway.
It sucked though, because Axel and Reno had to share a sleeping bag, as Reno had only been using a hospital blanket the week round. Axel still had his injuries, too. They had a nice warm campfire going because of Lea, who opted to sleep in Axel's backpack, which the route guy told them would ward off most dangerous Pokémon. Even still Axel had his sword strapped to his side in his sleep, and when he awoke he had a nice good cramp down the side of his leg where he'd been sleeping on it.
"You look like a mummy," giggled Elena sleepily as Axel peeled off his under shirt to reveal a layer of thick bandeges, and Axel made for offence.
"Yeah, well you look like a Caterpie in that thing." Elena just laughed, rolling on her stomach to fetch her shoulder bag of stuff, and Reno yawned and stretched.
"Is it morning already? Pass," Axel poked him in the stomach. "I said pass, runt."
Axel grinned maliciously. "You can't pass anymore, you're a trainer now. And trainers get up at Spearow's fart." He shook Reno out of the sleeping bag and the elder redhead ground, exposed to the morning chill.
"You're both insane, you know," he commented and Axel got Lea relighting the evening fire for breakfast. "Totally batshit."
"You said the s word!" gasped Elena. Axel snorted. "Well sorry mister Accustomed to Course Language, my family never swears. Oh, but hey, Reno is a trainer now. We have to get him initiated with all the starter stuff."
"I don't want to be a trainer though," complained Reno. He stood up, moving off towards the river. "And all that starter stuff's a load of crap."
Elena hummed, like she hadn't heard him, or wasn't watching him as he returned with a squirming fish. "It's a shame Axel wants to head to Violet. They've got some great department stores in Goldenrod, made exactly for this sort of thing."
"Made exactly for every sort of thing, I bet," snarked Axel, who was perfectly happy with his one-shop suits all Mahogany standard when it came to clothes shopping.
Elena stood and huffed. "Boys! You can never please them. Oh look, and there's another one."
A boy about Reno's age or older was approaching the Ecruteak river bank at a startling pace. He walked ashore, leaning over getting his puff back then checking his Pokedex. "An hour and fourty five. Not bad, by my standards." He let out a little laugh, and a long breath.
The water got squeezed out of his matted dark hair and his eyes raised to catch sight of the others anot-toop-far off campsite. "Hey," he said in approach. "Any of you guys trainers that feel like battling?"
Axel and Elena exchanged a glance and Lea crawled into Axel's backpack in hiding.
"Yeah," said Axel. "She is. Good effort swimming all that way though, I wouldn't do that if they paid me."
The friendly swimmer laughed. "Fat chance of that happening. I've been trying to raise a sponsor for three years now and there's still been no takers. I guess the public just likes watching Pokémon go head to head more than people." He turned to Elena. "Mind if we take this battle elsewhere, so not to trash all your stuff?"
Elena nodded, collecting her Politoed's Pokeball. Reno and Axel shared a glance, then followed her over.
"Can it be one on one?" Elena asked, throwing her hair off over her shoulder to concentrate. "Like, all of my other Pokémon are in my PC box right now."
Reno raised an eyebrow at the blonde girl for the lie, but the dripping swimmer seemed to miss it. "Sure. Go, Quagsire."
"Pollyanna." The ball bounced back up from the ground to land in Elena's outstretched palm and Axel grinned. This was going to be good.
Neither Pokémon moved to begin with, and tactically the swimmer called out "Amnesia!" to utilize that position.
"Body Slam, now Polly," ordered Elena. The Politoed threw its smaller weight at the blue Pokémon, landing it directly in the stomach and interrupting its building defence.
"Stick it with a close mud shot!" The trainer commanded, but the slippery green frog darted through its legs and out of the way. "Again!"
This time there was no escape from the barrage of mud and it landed Politoed right in the face, pushing it under and into a mud pile.
"Pollyanna!" called Elena worriedly. The Quagsire was approaching fast, and could easily crush the green frog with its weight.
"Get it to use a water attack," Reno advised from over her shoulder. "It will thin out the mud and your Politoed'll be able to escape."
Elena's expression faltered. "Polly, water gun, quick."
The Politoed unstuck itself just before the swimming trainer directed a massive Slam into where it once lay.
"C'mon, c'mon," Elena muttered to herself, tapping on Pollyanna's Poke ball. "Wait. Politoed, Rain Dance!"
"Elena, I'm not sure-" Axel started, thinking that the Rain Dance would heighten Quagsire's water abilities.
The other trainer obviously thought better of it too, and commanded his Quagsire to get close and fire a strong Water Pulse.
As Elena seemed to be expecting, the heavy Pokémon slipped on the watery mud, allowing the nimble Politoed to get up close behind and finish it with a Doubeslap.
The other trainer returned his Pokémon, and cheerfully stepped forward to shake Elena's hand.
"Good thing you don't have your whole team here, or I mightn't've had any Pokémon to walk back with!" the swimmer laughed, piecing out a bunch of water saturated bills from his wallet compartment.
"No, I'm sure that wouldn't have happened," Elena denied, reddening as she pocketed the soggy notes. "You're a really strong trainer."
"Just as you must be, seeing as you beat me. Ciao guys." Axel waved, and got up close to hassle the blonde Politoed trainer.
"What was that all about?" he demanded as Reno kneeled to gut his fish.
"Isn't it obvious?" said Reno, eyes shadowed. "Elena liked him a little more than the rest of us."
"Oh shut up," the girl chastened, returning her Politoed face red. "He was just nice, alright?"
"What?" asked Axel bemusedly. Lea crawled over and up his back.
"Elena has the hots for swimmer boy," Reno explained, delicate as ever.
"No it's not that, Axel I—"
There was a silence. Axel fidgeted, staring into the crackling fire. "Oh. That's what you mean."
