Slaves and Soldiers
Chapter 21: Hurts and Healings
The hospital room was uncomfortably silent as Ethan and Lyra came back into the room to check on the Pokémon.
"How did things go?" Ethan asked his Feraligatr, sitting down in a chair facing the bed.
"Well… better, at least." Buddy muttered. "We kinda got things straightened out, and I apologized how attacking him so violently."
"That's good." Ethan nodded.
"But…" Buddy continued. "…We're going to have to make a change in our original plans from finding Entei. We need to get to Goldenrod City as fast as possible."
This beset Ethan with curiosity. They've been on a journey for several days with plans to go to Celadon City and get Entei back from Eusine. "Why would we have to change our plans? And why do we need to get to Goldenrod?"
"Well, Mr. Cyborg told me a lot about his situation and what he's stuck in."
"I know that. He told me too."
"But… there's more he told me when you left the room."
Ethan looked at the Typhlosion on the bed of the Pokémon Center, still tired, worried, and upset. While he said nothing, Typhlosion's open eyes as he stared at the ceiling spoke volumes.
"What else did he tell you?" Ethan questioned Buddy further.
Buddy glanced back at the cyborg Typhlosion, and pointed to a metal anklet attached to him.
"Wait a second… I didn't notice that metal anklet before."
Buddy nodded. "He told me the whole story behind this thing. You know how he's forced to work for Team Rocket, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, this is what keeps their Pokémon in check."
Ethan looked on, intrigued by this device. "What does it do?"
"I was getting to that." he replied grumpily. "Anyway, here's how the whole thing works. It's about 5:30 right now, correct?"
Ethan flipped out his Pokégear and checked the time. "5:37 to be more precise."
Buddy rolled his eyes, continuing on with his explanation. "Every night at midnight, if the Pokémon recruited by Team Rocket don't return to their base, this anklet activates a poison."
This startled Ethan. "A poison? Wouldn't that be curable with an Antidote I could buy at a Pokémart? There's one right next to the Pokémon Center that I could run over to…" he said, starting to leave.
"Don't bother." said Typhlosion and buddy simultaneously.
He looked at them in confusion. "Why not? Poison's a status ailment that can be cured with an Antidote, right?"
Typhlosion had to chuckle a little bit. "If it was that easy, Team Rocket wouldn't have so many captive Pokémon. No. This is a specially produced type of Poison. One that kills."
Ethan looked back at Typhlosion. It didn't surprise him that Team Rocket would pull off something like that. Back when he first stopped them, Team Rocket wasn't this level of evil. Now? They weren't above anything. 8 years is a lot of time for the organization to rebuild and change itself completely.
Typhlosion continued. "As Buddy mentioned earlier, if Raikou and I don't return to the base by midnight, this poison will activate. And Team Rocket has the only antidote."
"So, what you're saying is, we need to sneak into Team Rocket's base and get that antidote? Is their base still in Mahogany Town?"
"Yes, actually." Typhlosion nodded. "But Buddy here had a suggestion that, if we can get to Goldenrod City before midnight, Bill could help take it off before the poison activates."
"Bill…" Ethan muttered. "Yeah, he lives in Goldenrod City. He's a computer genius, so he might be able to help you guys out. But midnight? It's already 5:40 now! We need to get going! There's a train in Saffron City nearby that leads to Goldenrod, so we should be able to get to Bill's house before that poison starts up. I'll go check Typhlosion out of the hospital, and tell the Nurse Joy here our situation." Ethan left the room to do so.
Suicune looked over the silent, cyborgified Raikou with worry. So, they had a time limit to get these anklets off before the poison in them would kill the Pokémon. Suicune also wondered if Bill could take off Raikou's equipment and restore him to normal, but Raikou didn't seem to have all of his memories back yet. Suicune didn't want to risk Raikou never regaining his original memories, so she reluctantly decided to not have Bill take off the cyber armor until Raikou was ready.
Lyra walked over to the cyborg Typhlosion and looked over him. "Can you stand up?" she asked.
"I can give it a shot." he replied.
Slowly, Typhlosion began to shift around in the bed. It hurt to move after having such a brutal beat-down courtesy of Buddy, but he didn't have any other option. He knew that he had to get to Bill's, and despite the pain, he was determined.
His feet made soft contact with the ground, with the rest of his body making a mechanical 'clang' sound. Usually, his parts were quiet, but being out of commission left him a bit unsteady. He held onto the corner post of the bed to keep his balance. It seemed that his cyborg parts always weighed 20 times as much as they usually did whenever he was seriously injured.
"You need any help?" Lyra asked him.
"No, no. I'm OK. I'll be fine." Typhlosion reassured her.
He slowly let go of the corner post to attempt walking. His parts felt like they dragged his body down as he tried to walk. Trying to get used to the extra weight of the cyborg parts again wasn't going to be as easy as Typhlosion wished it would, but he knew he'd readapt to the additional weight in good time.
"Gee, I must've really messed you up back there on Route 3." Buddy chuckled nervously. "Sometimes, I guess I forget my own strength."
"Don't worry over it." Typhlosion said to him. "I forget my own strength as a cyborg a lot. More times than I care to remember. But what's important now is that we get to Goldenrod City as fast as possible for Bill's help to get these anklets off."
"I think the Magnet Train in Saffron City leaves for Goldenrod in about an hour. Saffron City's literally just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Cerulean. We can get there in five minutes." Buddy said. "And Ethan should be…"
"I'm done." said Ethan, coming back in. "I just checked you out Typhlosion. We can leave now."
"That's good." Typhlosion nodded. "I'm having a little trouble walking, but I'll be fine."
"Looks like we'll have to take a detour from getting Entei at Celadon City, huh?" Suicune sighed, not wanting to leave Entei trapped with Eusine. "…But I understand. We should get going to Goldenrod City to get Bill's help. I don't want Raikou to get poisoned by those drugs and… die." she whispered out the last word. Her eyes started to tear up. And really, no one could blame her. She had both of her brothers ripped apart from her, and when she finally finds one, he's brainwashed and stuck as a cyborg slave.
Raikou looked at Suicune. The smallest bit of life started to spark from his eyes. He couldn't remember a lot about Suicune, but for some reason, seeing her sad made him feel sad too. And it didn't only make him feel sad, it even made him hurt inside.
The cyborg Legendary approached Suicune.
"I… UhH…"
Suicune remained quiet and still tearful, listening to Raikou.
"P-PLeAsE dOn'T cRy." he managed to say. Slowly, he moved closer to Suicune and hugged his front arms around her head.
"…It… It HuRTs mE… iN-iNSiDe wHeN yOu cRy."
Suicune couldn't help but smile softly as she returned the hug, with her soft warm paws wrapped around the cold metal armor of her brainwashed brother.
"I… I dOn'T kNoW wHy iT HuRTs sO MuCH… b-bUT I dOn'T LiKe tO sEE yOu cRy. PLeASe dOn'T cRy. PLeASe. FoR… FoR mE? I-I cAN gEt BEtTeR. I-I PrOmiSE, SUiCunE."
Suicune smiled happily as she dried her tears. Her brother was still in there. The same caring brother who warmed her on those cold days, and who always swam with her in the Lake of Rage when Entei couldn't take the time off. She knew that now beyond the shadow of a doubt. All that was left to do was to fully bring him back.
"Thank you so much, Raikou."
Ethan smiled at the scene, as well as Lyra and the others. But Ethan knew that despite the happy moment, they still had to continue on.
"Are you guys ready?" he asked them. Typhlosion, Buddy, and Suicune nodded their heads. Raikou, however, tried to emulate the natural motion with the armor on to the best of his ability. After the others did, he managed to nod his head in a more human way than mechanical. It felt fluid and natural rather than rigged and robotic.
Typhlosion looked on at Raikou with happiness, seeing that his progress was making leaps and bounds, with sincere emotion towards Suicune. His attempt to try to adapt to more natural ways instead of acting pre-programmed signified the beginning of the brainwashing breaking down.
"Come on guys." Ethan said to the group. "Let's get to Saffron."
Pokémon ©Nintendo / Game Freak
Yeah, I know. Short chapter. I just wanted to elaborate on Raikou's and Suicune's feelings a little bit before they leave. The next chapter will feature their journey to hopefully get to Goldenrod. As always, read and review.