(A/N)

Offyerrocker: Oh hai!

Michael: 5…4…3…2…1…

Sarah: WHY IS IT THAT YOU ALWAYS SAY THAT SAME STUPID LINE! IT DRIVES ME CRAZY! SPELL IT RIGHT, FOR ARCEUS' SAKE! YOU'RE A GOOD AUTHOR, YOU'VE WRITTEN A STORY EVERYONE LIKES, SO USE PROPER SPELLING!

Offyerrocker:…that was a run-on sentence…

Sarah: ARGH!!!

Michael:…okay… So I herd u liek introducin meh to da story?

Offyerrocker: Well u herd rite. Also, Sarah, you shouldn't be here. You're half-dead from exhaustion.

Sarah: BRAAAAAAINS! Is that better?

Michael: [snicker]

Offyerrocker: If you don't stop I'll give you fur.

Sarah: Okay, okay, I'll stop. Sheesh.

Offyerrocker: Thank you. Readers, please note that this next part takes place from Nurse Joy's POV, but is in 3rd person.


9- Joy To The World

A girl burst through the door; she wore a brown hoodie and a pair of beat-up jeans, both of which had bullet holes scattered around the cloth. Actually, 'fell through the door' was more accurate; the doors opened, and she collapsed on the floor.

"Oh, my…! Are you okay?" The girl gave no response.

"Chansey!" Nurse Joy called.

"Chanse?" The egg Pokémon arrived, Nurse's hat on.

"Chansey, grab a stretcher and carry this poor girl to the emergency care room!" Nurse Joy majored in Pokémon Medicine, but it was obvious that this girl needed help.

"Chansey! Chansey Chan!" cried Chansey, and carried her away.

Nurse Joy rushed to tend to her. She could already see many bruises, scratches, bleeding wounds, and other assorted injuries. Her skin was pale; it looked like she was going into shock.

Nurse Joy began to undress the poor girl, in order to treat her. She started with the sweatshirt, taking the hood off.

At first, she that an Eevee had been sleeping in the girl's hood. But there was no Eevee anywhere, just a set of ears. Joy tentatively touched them. They were soft and furry and brown, exactly like those you would find on an actual Eevee. Joy frowned. She traced her finger down the length of the brown fur, where her brown hair parted, and they fused seamlessly with her head. Underneath the girl, something equally brown and furry poked out. Joy had no doubt that this was a tail. She let out a small gasp, so soft that only she should have been able to hear it. But apparently, the girl did (How couldn't she?

Her ears twitched, and she stirred. Suddenly, her eyelids snapped open, and half-fell, half-rolled off of the table, holding her side. She was scared- no, petrified. It was horribly clear that this girl- whoever she was, had gone through something life-scarring.

The girl landed on her back and scrabbled backwards, like a Krabby. There was a wild look in her eyes; they darted back and forth, scanning the room. She pressed her back against a corner and swiped at Joy when she tried to get close.

"Please…" Nurse Joy pleaded. "You're injured…"

The girl continued to swipe at imaginary enemies, and made no sign that she had understood or even heard Joy. She looked almost… feral. She looked more like a cornered wild Pokémon than a girl. Confused, scared…

Lost…

Nurse Joy shook her head, turning away.

"Chansey! Please come here."

"Chansey?" Chansey came back, poking her head around the corner.

"Please use Sing for this girl… she needs to be sedated. She's refusing treatment," Joy explained.

"Chansey!"

"Bring me when she is sedated."

"Chan-sey!" The Pokémon confirmed, and she waited for her colleague to leave the room before beginning to Sing in a melodious, echoic voice that resonated through the girl's ears. Her eyelids drooped, and she struggled against sleep. Eventually, she stopped struggling and slumped into a deep sleep. Chansey stopped singing and checked that the girl was asleep. She was, and Chansey left to fetch Nurse Joy.

Nurse Joy entered, saw the girl, and placed her in the plastic incubators commonly seen in Pokémon Centers (for Pokémon, of course).

Nurse Joy carefully replaced the dressings on the five-inch-deep cut on her calf. It was a deep cut; it would take significantly larger to heal. Joy could see that it had been inflicted by a Psychic-type Pokémon. She set the girl down on the bed.

Joy sighed sadly.

"Poor baby…" She stroked the girl's head softly. "You've been through some much recently… I can tell." After undressing her in order to repair the clothes (and the girl) Joy had found a wallet with I.D. inside. Her name was Sarah. She was 16, and she was from Johto. But that wasn't all that Joy had found. She had also found a badge case and opened it. She gasped; she had never seen so many badges at the same time in her life! Gym Badges from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, the Orange Islands, Holon, Orre, Fiore (she had been the main cause of the downfall of Teams Snagem and Cipher), Almia, and a half dozen more that she had never heard of.

There was one badge missing; Giovanni's. He had been in hiding for a while. He had connections to Team Rocket, but there wasn't enough hard evidence to jail him. (Just like Al Capone.) Her disappearance was on the news; Somebody with that many badges and that much experience was not without fame. (However, Sarah had tried hard to avoid the limelight.) She had last been seen in the Goldenrod Department Store one month enough reminiscing, Sarah needed rest. Joy took one last look at her serenely sleeping form and left, closing the door silently behind her.


Sarah floated in a void. She could hear a soft feminine voice whispering something, but could not discern its meaning or owner. She looked down; land was far below her. She floated gently down, like a Hoppip on a breeze. The forest was miles below her, but she touched down instantly, as such was the nature of dreams. She looked around. This was no forest she knew of. The familiar weights on her tailbone and head were gone. She was normal. A certain weight was gone, too- not from physical existence, but from her mind. No longer a freak. She was normal. A sense of relief flooded through her, because she knew that she felt for the unwanted limbs, she would not find them.

A boy appeared a few meters in front of her. She did not know him, but made out a tall figure, brown hair, and serious eyes. She noticed that his expression was sad. His eyes imploring. Then he turned, and, with the kind of stamina and speed available only in dreams (or was it?), disappeared into the forest.

She followed him. Maybe he knew a way out of the forest. Left, right, left, right, right-Arceus, he had good reflexes… He stopped in a clearing. She stopped and almost ran into him. Regaining her composure, she reached out to tap him on the shoulder. He turned, and suddenly, his body melded and reformed to a Pikachu's, and then, to an Eevee's. It happened so quickly that by the time she tapped him on the shoulder, he had already become an Eevee. Somehow, she sensed that she shouldn't make contact with him, and she tried to recoil, but her hand brushed his shoulder. Once again, the familiar weights were back, and the Eevee stared at her.

The trees all around her moved. They surrounded her, closing all paths and exits. Each of them whispered, planting their seeds of doubt and deceit inside her heart, and the noise, although far from noisy, grated painfully at her ears. Each voice, laden with hatred, poked at her insecurities.

"You'll never belong…"

"…are you?"

'Freak!"

At once, all of the trees chanted.

"Freak!"

"Freak!"

"Freak!"

"You're nothing but a freak…"

"Freak!"

"…a mutant…"

"Freak!"

"Neither one nor another, trapped between worlds…"

The Eevee leaped into her, as if it was exempt from the laws of physical reality (of course, it was- it was a dream.), and the trees grew, framed against the dark void of the sky.

Sarah shrank. Fur grew from her neck, and spread down her body like a plague. He hands and legs and arms and feet melted and disappeared, shifting and cracking to become.. paws. Her clothes billowed over her, and she emerged from the pile with a brown furry head, white mane, tail… Here, forming, in her own head, was her own private Hell.

She tried to scream, to call for help, but she was no longer in any physical way human, and, however hard she tried, could not make any sound more than a sad, frightened, "Veee!" She looked down- No, no, no, this wasn't possible…

One of the trees stepped forward, and a face appeared. It was Admin Zela. His face fused to become half Giovanni and half Zela, and it chased her around the suddenly empty forest, holding a Master Ball, screaming, "We're not done yet… come back! There are still so much, so many more tests. Come closer… closer, and we will give you a box, a dark box full of sharp objects or you to play with…"

You can't run, scream, move, think in a nightmare. You can only wait. And so Sarah waited desperately for Hell to end.



I woke and sat up quickly. Sweat beaded on my forehead. I checked myself; ears, tail, all still here. I looked around. I'm not in my bed, or in my room. So where am I?

Pulling out of bed, I noticed a familiar brown bundle on the table in front of me. Attached to it was a note.

Sarah- fixed your clothes. Food is in the kitchen. Help yourself. At a meeting. Back at 14:00.

-Nurse Joy of Veilstone City

My stomach growled, and I realized that I was hungry. I hadn't eaten since…

A series of images flashed through my head:

A cluster of bleeding cuts on my wrist, made by a meticulously sharpened spoon.

Three Rockets and a doctor approaching with a sedative in a hypothermic needle.

A clear plastic bag attached to a series of tubes, feeding into my arm- an IV feed.

I hadn't eaten since last month.

After eating a Snorlax's worth of food, I trudged downstairs to the guest den and turned on the T.V., plunking down on the comfy sofa.

The news was on. A story about a 16-year-old girl. She was reported missing a month ago… And a month later, she was still missing.

This is familiar…

Her gear was found at her own house, along with her Pokémon. But nobody had made the connection between Team Rocket's raid and my disappearance.

I spent the rest of the day researching my disappearance on T.V., and when the news went off air, I used the computer. There was already an article about me on the computer's browser page. I grimaced.

Nurse Joy knows who I am. I'll have to disappear from here by 14:00. For her safety and mine.

I had a place in mind: Celestic Town. The people there were friendly. Pack by 13:00, leave by 13:30.

I grimaced again.

It's a long, long road to Celestic Town.


(A/N)

Offyerrocker: Oh hai! I hope u had a happy Thanksgiving. Or, if you don't celebrate it, I hope you had a nice weekend. So sorry I couldn't update… working on this relatively long chapter. Next one coming up soon.

Thanks!

-Offyerrocker