Pokémon: 15 Deaths: 17

The first thing that Saylee heard was beeping, a steady, constant sound. It was already getting on her nerves before her higher brain functions kicked in.

She couldn't identify where she was. It was bright, too bright, and couple with her glasses being gone that made it impossible to see. She closed her eyes again and listened.

She could feel cloth around her. She was lying on something soft, the softest bed she'd ever been in. The blanket over her was warm and soft as well, except over her left leg where it was hot and scratchy. Her whole leg felt heavy. So did her right arm, which was in a sling around her neck. She could feel a bandage around her head and more around her stomach. Breathing hurt. She'd damaged her ribs, maybe. For that matter, it didn't feel like she was wearing her own clothes anymore. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and long pants, both made of some soft, comfortable material. They felt clean and a little stiff.

Someone had rescued her and patched her up. But who? And where was she? She could hear ocean waves...

She gasped sharply as she remembered what had happened. Falling into the basement, the fight with the insane old scientist, everything falling on her...

She felt around with her good hand for her pokéballs, but she wasn't wearing her belt anymore. She opened her eyes again, wincing at the light. The room was painted white, which she realized wasn't helping her vision any. She groped to her side and luckily, there was a table. She ran her hand across it and came across the round, smooth shape of pokéballs. She felt six. She picked up each one in turn, running her fingernails along the groove. Four were sealed shut- occupied. Two, however, popped open easily. She opened her eyes again, squinting, trying to see the colours and what they were.

There was a heavily scuffed red pokéball that felt a little different in weight to the others. Chaz'. Sealed shut. He was safe, thank goodness.

There was a blue-and-red Great Ball, also sealed. Carrie's.

Another red pokéball, this one with a large dent in it, but it still closed and sealed normally. Hernan's. She was relieved that they were both safe and hoped that she could find a healing machine for them.

A black and yellow Ultra Ball. She'd been lucky to find it and had used it to catch Paul. It was sealed.

The other two were a pokéball with random chips of gold paint all over it, remnants of a cheap paint job by a cheap charlatan, and a normal one covered in nothing but scuffs. Miranda's and Pedro's, both empty. Her stomach turned over. Were they alright? Where were they? What had happened?

She groped for her glasses, but couldn't find them. She sat up, running her hand over the bandages on her head, and was sharply surprised to feel that her hair was significantly shorter, boy-short. A couple of the fire blasts had gotten a bit close; she must've gotten singed. Or maybe they'd had to cut it shorter to bandage her head. She wasn't sure.

Who were they? Who saved her? What happened to Miranda and Pedro?

Rubbing her hand over again, she dislodged some kind of wire that had been attached to her head. She could feel another couple attached to her chest and pulled them off. The irritating beeping immediately ceased. The wires were attached to some kind of machine next to her, but she couldn't make out what it was at all.

She reached for the pokéballs again, but was reluctant to let anyone out. Who had put Chaz and Paul back into their pokéballs? Why? Had they been seriously hurt, like Hernan and Carrie? If she let them out of the stasis state of pokéballs, it could kill them. She tried swinging her legs out of bed, wincing as the weight of the bandages wrapped around her left leg jolted some kind of pain to life. She looked up as someone opened the door to the room.

"Oh, darling!" A woman gasped. She looked young and a little plump with curly pink hair. "You're awake! How wonderful! Oh, but you shouldn't be up," she chastised, gently lifting Saylee's legs up onto the bed. Saylee sat back, allowing the woman to fuss over her. All of her worry and questions were making her head spin.

"I'm so glad you're finally up, darling," the woman chattered brightly. "You've been out for a good wee while, I'm afraid. We were scared we were going to lose you, when that boat brought you in, all water in your lungs and blood all over the place. Well, we got you patched back up, didn't we? Oh, and we put your Pokémon through the healer. You've got a couple of empty pokéballs on you, are you missing a couple, darling? Oh, listen to me, babbling on, you're just up."

"No, I am missing two," Saylee said. Her throat was dry and sore. "A Gyarados and a Pidgeot. Miranda and Pedro. Thank you for healing my Pokémon, and me. Where... where am I?"

"Knot Island, darling," the woman said, plumping up her pillows. Pillows? More than one? "A Gyarados and a Pidgeot, you say? Powerful stuff. You must be a proper strong trainer, eh?"

"We train hard..." Saylee mumbled. "Sorry... What Island?"

"Knot Island, darling," the woman repeated. "You're as west as it gets in the Islands! Where are you from then, eh? You were floating in the waters even more west of here, they said! How'd you get there? You've got a funny accent. You from the mainland?"

"Yeah... yeah, I am," Saylee said.

"Well! That's special," the woman said, clapping her hands. "We never had mainlanders out here, not for a long time. We stopped running boats out there when there was all that awful fighting, and we've gotten along just fine on our own, you know. And nobody ever came out here from the mainland, I remember when I was a little girl there was people out on holiday all the time, but for all I've known the past sixteen years there wasn't anyone else alive out there! The war could've ended everyone and we'd never know!"

"Fighting..." Saylee blinked. "Wait... you have memories that are more than fifteen years old?" Everyone was of the opinion that the memory wipe and all of the destruction had come from some kind of war, that there were definite signs of fighting, but nobody could remember what. She'd never met anyone, except Chaz, who had any sort of memory from more than fifteen years ago, and he'd been so young and had been so few places that he hadn't had much to remember. Just that things had been greener, and the sky blue.

"Of course, darling, do I look fifteen?" the woman laughed. "I'm Joy, darling. What's your name?"

"Saylee," she said. "Thank you, so much, really, for saving me. I'm sorry, am I taking up someone's room?"

"You're in the hospital, darling," Joy said. "It's your room as long as you need it. I'll get you some food, shall I? You've been out a couple of weeks, got a nasty bump on the head, you must be starving. I'll be right back, and if you ever need me, there's a little button right here." She picked up a little pad with a single button on it. "Alright, darling?"

"Thank you," Saylee said again. Joy smiled at her and bustled away. Just as the door closed, Saylee swore as she realized that she had forgotten to ask for her glasses. She'd been too caught up in the odd things that Joy said.

She had no idea what Knot Island was, she'd never heard of it. Joy had mentioned other islands, and had said that Saylee was floating to the west of them. So these islands were somewhere to the east of Kanto.

The islands hadn't been part of the fighting. They hadn't lost their memories. The islands were far enough away that they'd escaped... whatever had happened.

Whatever had happened was connected to Cinnabar Island. The man in the mansion and the other scientists had been trying to create something using a rare Pokémon, and it had backfired terribly. The man in the mansion had been driven completely insane, and Mr Fuji, who'd also been one of them... well, the man voluntarily lived in Lavender Town.

Mewtwo. That had been the name in the diary. A Pokémon called Mewtwo. Powerful, and dangerous, and uncontrollable. It had to be psychic, everybody knew that it was the most powerful Pokémon element there was. That was how it could affect memories, and drive men out of their minds.

She put her good hand over her eyes. Giovanni hadn't been on Cinnabar. He'd gone to ground somewhere else. She could've gone to the Indigo area with Blue. She could be in the mountains with Blue and all six of her Pokémon instead of bandaged up with Pedro and Miranda missing.

Sighing heavily, she reached for her pokéballs.

"Saylee!" Carrie gasped. After two straight weeks in the pokéball she'd been a bit groggy when she'd first materialized, as had Hernan and Paul, but as soon as their heads had cleared they had immediately surrounded their trainer. Chaz, who'd had longer stretches inside, had immediately leaned his long neck over to nuzzle her cheek, looking a mixture of worried and utterly relieved that she was alive and safe. Carrie, Hernan and Paul clustered around a moment later, Paul leaping up onto the foot of her bed and nearly falling off of it again in a panic as he jostled Saylee's injured leg. She gave him a bright smile to reassure him that there was no harm done and tried to hug all of them at once.

"I'm so glad you're alright," she repeated over and over to Carrie and Hernan. "Paul, Chaz, are both of you okay? Were you hurt? What happened?"

"You were out for the count so we kept wailing on that nutter on the Rapidash," Paul said. "Miranda wasn't looking too good."

"She said she was going to call down the sea," Chaz said. "Paul and I had to return. The seawater rushing in would've killed me and Paul could've accidentally zapped everyone. Pedro had you, he and Miranda were going to get you out... I hope they're alright." He frowned, looking worried again. "Could anyone else smell the magma? Through that crack in the wall? The magma chambers either side of the basement were active. Magma's volatile. It's far too easy to set off, and when you do..."

Carrie, Hernan and Paul all stared blankly at him. "Not all of us know all about fire and magma, Chaz," Hernan said patiently. "What happens?"

"It all forces its way out. It explodes," Chaz said. "And then it rains fire."

"But Miranda was pouring seawater in there," Paul pointed out. "That'd cool it off, right?" Chaz shook his head.

"Power over magma is the very strongest fire power," Chaz explained. "Because magma is as hot as it gets. Too hot to be cooled down by water. It just boils it. It turns it into steam. Masses and masses of steam in a small place mean pressure. Pressure means an explosion..."

"But Saylee'd be dead if she was still in there, then, wouldn't she?" Carrie said. "If magma is as hot as it gets, and if we were that close to the explosion, Saylee wouldn't be here."

"This woman Joy said that I was found floating in the middle of the ocean," Saylee said. "Miranda and Pedro must have gotten me some way away first. So they must have gotten out, too... but they're not in their pokéballs..."

"They'll be alright," Chaz insisted, sounding ashamed of how his pronouncement of how lethal magma was had upset the others. "Pedro and Miranda are tough, and they're smart. They're probably out there looking for us right now."

"They'll find us soon," Carrie agreed. "Until then, you need to rest! You've broken your leg, and two of your ribs, and you've fractured three more, your arm and your skull! That's a lot of bone that needs to mend!"

"We could have a gander at this place for you," Paul offered. "Take turns going for a wander and find out what's what, y'know?"

"That would be great," Saylee agreed with a smile. "Apparently, this is Knot Island. Joy's going to come back with food soon, I'll ask her if it's okay for you to wander around. Also, I'm going to have to ask her for a new set of glasses. Mine seem to have been lost somewhere. And my hat." She rubbed her hair. "I liked that hat."

"Oh, your hair's shorter!" Carrie said. "I'm sorry, I didn't notice."

"Well, she's the only one with hair, ain't she?" Paul pointed out. "'S still long compared to the rest of us."

"I think it suits you," Hernan ventured. "You are strong. Humans are best to keep short hair, my master said, because in battle long hair is a hindrance. It gets in the way, it can be pulled by opponents fighting dirty. You look like a warrior now."

"I'm not a warrior," Saylee said, stroking her short hair self-consciously. "I don't go into battle like you guys do."

"You go into battle with us," Chaz said, crouching down to rest his head next to her arm. "And you see to it that we're safe when it's all over. We all do that for each other."

"That is what comrades do," Hernan agreed.

"It's what friends do," Chaz added.

"It's what family does," Carrie corrected softly.

"You look out for your own, whatever you call 'em," Paul said firmly. Saylee wanted to cry, but she just reached out one-handedly to them.

"Well!" Joy said, bustling in with a large bowl of soup. "It's busy in here, isn't it?"

{}

"I wonder what they think happened," Saylee said that evening. They'd spent the day relaxing in her room together. Hernan had told them about training with his brother, told them all about the other fighting-types and humans that they'd trained with, and showed them some basic punching techniques. Saylee had gotten quite good at a left straight. Chaz had tried some too, but his arms weren't well-muscled. They weren't his primary weapons, and he wasn't suited to using them in close combat for anything but grabbing and gripping. Paul's attempts at the punch, with his stubby, jointless arms, very quickly turned into a comedy routine. Carrie was the only one of the Pokémon who took well to it, her arms already strong from slinging her bone around. Hernan was a foot and a half taller than her, so he had to stoop somewhat for them to try boxing exercises on each other, but they managed quite well. Joy had brought them all dinner, happy to feed the Pokémon and insisting that there was plenty. She'd also promised that a man would come in tomorrow to fix Saylee up with a new pair of glasses. Until, squinting and the fact that her Pokémon all had dark-coloured bodies that showed up well against the white wall were working well enough.

Saylee was sitting over the empty bowl. It had been like a fuller, thicker version of the stew her mother sometimes made, when she could get ingredients. "I wonder what they think happened to me," she said. "They must've been expecting me back long before now. Blue's probably gone and found Red while I've been out, and the two of them have been sitting around and wondering where I've been the past two weeks..." she frowned, a thought striking her. She started counting in her head.

"Saylee?" Chaz asked. Saylee looked up at him.

"I think it's my birthday tomorrow," she said quietly. "It's half a cycle before winter. When we went to Cinnabar, we still had a whole cycle to go..."

"Your birthday?" Hernan asked. "How old will you be?"

"Sixteen," she said. "Bloody hell, I should've realized. Joy said it was all sixteen years ago. I was born a couple months after." She smiled. "We celebrate Red and Blue's birthdays, and Daisy's, on the same day, because we really don't know exactly when they were born. We'd all sing together, a stupid little song we made up."

"If you want to sing it to us, we'll sing it to you tomorrow," Chaz suggested.

"We will?" Paul said, looking at him like he was crazy. Saylee giggled.

"Happy birthday to you,

And you, and you too,

We're none of us dead yet,

We'll make another year through!"

"Cheerful," Paul snarked. Carrie thwacked him on the head with her bone club.

"Well, humans aren't exactly the toughest creatures around," she said. "They ought to be proud of every year they make."

"How old are the others?" Hernan asked. "Your brother, and Blue, and Daisy?"

"Red's nineteen, probably," Saylee said, appreciating his use of the present tense. "Blue'll be seventeen. Daisy's about twenty. Six cycles from now is the birthday for all of the adults. All of the kids younger than me were born after, so we know the day they were born." She ran her hand through her hair for the billionth time that day, still unused to the shorter feel. "Before Mewtwo mindwiped everyone." It was the first time that she'd said it aloud, but all of the evidence in the lab and the diaries that Saylee and Paul had found was that Mewtwo's escape had coincided with the moment that memory vanished. Huge amounts of psychic power could affect someone's mind; Sabrina's own power turning in on herself and the old man in the mansion were proof of how much damage that could do. She supposed that they were lucky that they had only lost their memories.

"It explains why everything's different," Chaz said softly. "From what I remember. The landscape looks different what I saw of it. And the Professor acted differently. He seemed pretty surprised when he first opened our pokéballs and let Ben and Sam and I out. Like he didn't know what was in there."

"What do these things do, anyway?" Paul said, flicking his table over to the bedside table to nudge a pokéball. "I seen humans carryin' 'em around a few times. They just kinda light up and when it goes down, you're somewhere else and time's passed. The spark's that all about?"

"Pokéballs put Pokémon into stasis," Saylee said. "They react to living organisms but they are built with a block to stop them taking in a human. The first time they take something in, they... "record" it so they can only take in that. Don't ask me how it really works, I'm not a tech. Anyway, stasis means what you said; no sensation of time passing, just deep sleep until the pokéball's opened again. They also record optimal status information about the Pokémon that they're linked to, so it is capable of slowly healing its inhabitant."

"Like Hernan?" Carrie said, looking up at the scarred fighter. "He said he was badly injured, but when you opened his pokéball he just had that scar."

Saylee nodded. "It's only because he was in there for years, though, and the scar's proof that it's not perfect. It's kind of a safety feature, I guess. It doesn't work on fatal injuries, though." She looked down. "Some injuries are too much to be healed. The pokéball won't even return them. Then all you've got is an empty, useless pokéball..."

Her fingers brushed over Pedro and Miranda's vacant pokéballs.

"They're safe," Chaz repeated. "They'll find us soon. And if not, we'll go out and find them, as soon as you're better."

"Too bad you can't get sucked into a ball and bunged into a healer, eh?" Paul said, curling up carefully by her feet, this time managing not to jostle her injured leg.

{}

Don't count on updates to be as frequent as they were around Cinnabar. These terrible things called "assessments" are creeping up on me. It's like playing Amnesia- I can hear them shuffling around in the dark as my sanity drains away, trying desperately to remember important things even as they slip from my brain..

I do not own Pokémon. That happy right is Game Freak's.