Part three.

Eric laid there in a dark room, soundly unconscious. Until a bright, multi-colored light startled him awake.

But before Eric could get to his feet, a disorienting feeling washed over him, almost as if the world around him was moving on its own.

The feeling finally ended, only to be replaced by an even weirder thing:

Eric found himself in an odd room lined with clean pink tiles and what looked like sky-blue decor on the edges of the floor and ceiling. "Where am I?" Eric wondered aloud, but he was interrupted by a stinging pain in his side. The Vulpix glanced at where the pain was coming from and saw that he had a nasty bruise on his leg and lower torso. Geeze, that Squirtle hit me really hard. He thought as he winced at the sight of his injury.

Then Eric looked around for where the blue turtle ran off to. "Huh, whatever brought me here must have moved that turtle someplace else." The Vulpix mused after finding no trace of it.

All of a sudden, four mechanical arms descended from the ceiling and approached the injured Vulpix.

When he caught notice of them, Eric tried to get away from the silver arms, but he found that he was held back by an invisible barrier that surrounded him and kept him an area that was but a fraction of the room's true size. A flash of white appeared on the wall every time he came in contact with it, almost as if the wall was a still lake with a layer of silt at its bottom, ever invisible until a rock disturbs its depths and paints the lake a color for a moment, before returning to its transparent purity.

Seeing that he could not escape, Eric turned to fight the oncoming arms. The Vulpix lunged at one of the mechanical things and attempted to BITE it, but he quickly realized that this was a very bad idea as he was greeted by a sharp pain in his teeth -another injury from his fight with the turtle, made worse by the fact that he was biting down on metal- causing him to reel back with a whine from his intense pain.

Then Eric tried another tactic. Taking a deep breath, Eric faced all four of the metal arms and shot a powerful EMBER at them.

The arms, however, were unfazed by Eric`s attack and only received a char-mark paint job. The arms continued their steady advance towards the injured Pokemon. When they finally reached him, Eric tried one last time to struggle out from their grasp before they grabbed ahold and held him fast in their immovable grip.

However, even though Eric could not escape their grip, the arms did not have malicious intent, as they did not grip Vulpix any tighter than was necessary to hold him still. Then one of the arms released its grip and positioned itself so it was lined up with the bruise on the Vulpix`s side. Eric looked on with fear as the arm unfolded to reveal a bright-green light surrounded by a soft white-blue light. The light suddenly brightened and emitted a stream of light at Eric`s bruise.

The soft light began to collect on Eric`s bruise, and as it did, the Vulpix felt the pain from it quickly fade away until it was gone completely. With their work done, the arms released him, allowing the Vulpix to get back on his feet.

Eric surveyed the spot where the bruise was, and noticed that even the fur on the now non-existent wound was now in pristine condition. "Hey, what did you do?" Eric asked the arms, but they did not answer.

One of the arms, however, took notice of Eric`s damaged teeth, and without hesitation the other three arms grabbed Eric again so as to allow the fourth arm emit another wave of energy at his cracked teeth, causing him to feel a bit more pain as the dentin realigned, but this quickly subsided as the cracks melded back to proper form.

"Hey, what was that for!?" Eric shouted at the silver arms as they released him, but instead of replying the four arms quickly receded into the ceiling and disappeared.

"Come back, I`m not done with you!" Eric shouted at the arms as they departed. Then Eric realized that his teeth no longer assailed him with pain. Those things healed me faster than BERRIES do. What is this place? He thought.

Before Eric could ponder this any further, he suddenly heard steps approaching. The Vulpix tried to find some place to hide, but the barrier around him prevented any and all options for that.

After a few seconds, the footsteps came to a halt for a moment and were followed by a soft rustling sound. Eric heard a faint sliding noise, followed immediately by a loud chirping beep and a sharp clicking sound.

Eric saw the door open to reveal a woman with pink hair set in an odd looking curly hairdo. The front most part of the figure`s hair reminded Eric of Eve`s hair, but the two loops on either side of the figure`s hair left the Vulpix feeling confused and taken aback; it was all topped by a small white tube hat with a red plus sign adorning the front.

"Oh, looks like the MedArms are already done with you," Spoke the odd woman, her voice was filled with airy kindness like that of a mother, "that`s good, I don`t like dealing with Pokemon that are in pain, you guys tend to nip." She commented as she walked into the room and set a clipboard she was holding on a cream-white table that was nearby. She then removed a small ring of clinky metal things from a pocket on her pink cotton dress and plopped them next to the clipboard before turning to the Vulpix.

"Who are you, what do you want?" Eric asked the odd woman.

"My, aren`t you a talky one," Spoke the pink haired woman, "you know, it`d be really funny if I could understand what you`re saying," She mused as she walked up to the table that composed the limit of where Eric could move, "nah, that`s just a funny thought; well, anyway, let`s see if you`re all healed so I can get you processed and sent on your way, ok?" She cooed in a tangibly sweet voice when she reached the table.

Eric was not sure what to make of the odd pink-themed woman, the majority of his mind told him to get away from the strange thing in front of him, but a small piece of it wanted to curl up in the kind woman`s lap and go to sleep.

Then the woman reached for a strange glowing blue panel that was next to Eric`s table and tapped a light green circle on it. The panel suddenly showed a slew of different images, including one of Eric himself. Wait, hold on, how did I get over there, or is that a weird river with my reflection on it? He mused in his thoughts as the woman reviewed the images and symbols on the panel.

"Oh wow, you`re a strong one, aren`t you." Commented the woman as she continued to review the data on the screen. Well, I`m not going to give this fella a check up without a shield, I do not like getting burned. The woman thought as she pressed a button on the data screen labeled "Fire Shield". Instantly, a barely visible aura of energy formed around the woman`s body and clothes. She then pressed a different button on the panel that read "Release".

Eric saw the space around his table flash a strange hue of white for an instant. Eric took a started step back from the flashing barrier, and then out of curiosity took a step forward and reached out at where the barrier was supposed to be, but instead of finding the invisible wall like before, Eric`s paw passed straight through where the barrier was supposed to be.

Finding that he was not restricted anymore, Eric made a quick judgment of the distance from the table to the floor and leaped off of it and immediately made a beeline for the open door, but when the Vulpix reached the door, he came in sudden contact with another barrier, though this barrier gave like fabric and caused the Vulpix to comicly slide back into the room as the invisible wall realigned.

"Now, is that any way to act?"

To be continued…