Rustboro
Blue scrunched his eyes, trying to block out the too-bright lights shining above him. His head pounded as though he'd been trampled by a herd of Donphan.
What was going on?
He blearily opened his eyes, flipping onto his shoulder. He could feel the metal bars supporting the thin mattress he was laying on. Wiping the sleep crust from his eyelids, Blue noticed a small device clamping over his finger, a tiny red light calling attention to its presence.
A pulse oximeter, his brain said.
But those were used in hospitals, usually in emergency and critical-care units. Why did he-
Blue became acutely aware of his environment. He whirled his head, taking in the white walls and the pale-green sheets and the dutifully beeping equipment.
He was in a hospital ward.
Blue looked around wildly for a clue as to why. He caught sight of two Pokéballs lying on the bedside table next to him. Beyond that was a light green pane of glass with sheets of medical information held in plastic holders and an inscription in whiteboard marker that read: Hi! Your designated nurse is: HEATHER.
He caught sight of his reflection in the glass. His eyes moved directly to his forehead, which had been wrapped heavily in gauze. His hair stuck out the top, hanging over the bandages, making him look like the world's most misshapen pineapple.
What had happened to him?
Blue tried to think back to the events that led him here, and found himself feeling panicked when he realised he could not. His thoughts felt cloudy, as though every decision was hidden in a thick fog.
"Nurse!" He shouted. It came out weakly. His voice felt hoarse and rough. Blue swallowed and tried again. "Nurse!"
For a minute, nobody came, and Blue' inner panic grew. But then the glass door opened, and a young woman stepped inside.
"What happened?" he asked.
The nurse – Blue surmised this must be the Heather the board mentioned – spoke softly. "We're afraid we don't know for sure. Paramedics found you a couple streets away from Route 116. You took a high-pressure shot of something that glanced your head. You're a very lucky man, Professor Oak."
"Doctor," Blue replied instinctively. "Or Leader Blue. Professor Oak is my grandpa." A beat. "Is he okay? Have you guys let him know?"
Heather the nurse gave a practiced smile, moving over to check his diagnostics. "Not quite yet, I'm afraid, there's been some trouble with interregional communications. But we'll send a message as soon as it's fixed, rest assured."
Blue stiffened. "What do you mean? Pallet Town is an hour away, there-" He paused. "Route 116?"
"That's right." Heather picked up a cuff that Blue recognised as a sphygmomanometer, presumably to check blood pressure, and he obligatorily raised his arm before she could ask. She attached the instrument around his bicep and let it contract. "You're in Rustboro City, Doctor Oak."
There was a moment of silence where Blue stared at the nurse, letting the information settle in. Heather scribbled her diagnostics onto a yellow sheet of paper, now checking his heart rate.
Blue spoke up. "I don't remember leaving Kanto. What am I doing in Hoenn?"
Heather looked up, confused. "I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer for that." She frowned. "What's the most recent thing you can remember?"
The gym leader blanked out, wiggling out of the cuff on his arm. "I… I think I was finishing up a lecture? Viridian University… My Genetics and Genomics class. Fridays, four o'clock."
Heather stopped writing. She met his eyes. "Today's Monday," she said.
Blue froze. Then the gym leader inside of him kickstarted his system and he started getting out of his cot. He realised he was wearing a hospital gown, and inwardly questioned the fate of his old clothing. "I need to figure out what's going on. I need to get to Kanto."
The nurse took a step backward. "You shouldn't get up, we need to take some more tests, you've only been here since ten or eleven last night-"
"No," Blue cut in, snatching the two Pokéballs on the desk. He tore off the pulse oximeter on his finger, dropping it aside. "Where's the rest of my team? I shouldn't have just two on me-"
"Those were the only two found with you, you need to stay here and let us finish treating-"
"I don't give consent for any more treatment," Blue hissed. "I'm a doctor, I know all the rules, you guys can't touch me without consent unless I'm unconscious, now get me out of here-"
"But-"
Blue didn't bother listening to her argument. He pushed open the door and strode to the nearest desk he could see.
The secretary looked up from her monitor. "Is everything alri-"
"Clothes," Blue demanded.
The woman wordlessly pointed to a door down the corridor and Blue kept moving, dodging around a walking Blissey. Behind him he could hear Heather the nurse coming out of his room, but he didn't listen to what she had to say.
The room the secretary had shown him had a couple open changerooms, a closet full of intact patient clothing and a large box full of donated second-hand material. He barricaded the door with a chair from the changeroom and rummaged through the closet for anything he recognized as his own, his hospital gown flapping disgracefully as he moved.
He pulled out a pair of brown chinos he knew were his but couldn't see any shirts of his anywhere. Most of the clothing hanging up belonged to women, so he went through the donated clothing tub to find a shirt close to his size.
Behind him, someone started trying to open the door.
Blue found an oversized shirt boldly displaying a Unovan tournament from four years ago and started changing. His belt was thankfully still part of his pants, so he slipped the two Pokéballs onto it. He spotted his shoes in the corner and hastily put them over his bare feet just as the chair gave up and the door opened wide.
The Kanto gym leader must have looked like an asylum patient; if Blue ever saw somebody with bed-hair, a bandage around their head and a shirt that clearly belonged to somebody twice his mass, he would have turned around and started moving in the other direction. To his credit, the male nurse that had just managed to get the door open did not.
Blue instinctively reached for one of his Pokéballs, letting white light flood the small room. In hindsight, if he had been thinking clearly, he wouldn't have done what he did; if the ball carried his Rhydon or his Gyarados, he would've accidentally demolished a wall of the Rustboro hospital.
Thankfully, the Pokémon that came out was significantly smaller.
"Eevee!" Blue said, relieved. His Pokémon looked up at him with big, concerned eyes, and Blue remembered what he was doing. He looked up at the nurse, who'd stopped in the doorway.
"If you know who I am, you'd know that my team could wipe the floor with anything you've got on you," Blue said. He was bluffing, of course – Eevee was powerful, she was his after all, but Eevee didn't have the power to take down, say, a Golem and a Hariyama.
Well, maybe not at the same time. Still, the nurse didn't need to know that.
Blue glared. "Let me go."
The nurse looked down at Eevee, and back to Blue. The gym leader could see him weighing his chances against the ex-Champion.
Finally, he turned, and Blue ran past.
He followed the signs of the hospital to the elevator, and then to the exit. Eevee stayed out of her ball – He didn't want to take his chances on his own if any other nurses or security guards started gunning for him. Thankfully, the dash went unimpeded, and Blue reached the front doors of the hospital without incident.
Somehow, the rest of the world seemed to be ticking on to its own accord, oblivious to the developing madness of the past thirty minutes of Blue's life. The air was warm; a light breeze kept pace with the trickle of people moving up and down the street, engrossed in the business of their own lives. A gentle drizzle was falling, the sensation akin to mist in the humid environment.
Blue took the moment to stop and smell the air, letting the taste of rain do its best to calm his racing heart. Eevee brushed his feet, squealing as she looked up at the grey clouds.
What should he do?
The first obvious answer that came to mind was find the nearest Pokémon Centre. If he didn't have his A-team on him, most would most likely be defending his gym title while he was gone from Viridian. Charizard was the exception; he'd entrusted his starter to Red before he ascended Mount Silver.
But he still would have a score of Pokémon available in his PC, and those would be more than enough to keep himself safe while he organised a way back to Kanto and worked out what was going on.
However, he'd have to find the Centre first. It wasn't in immediate sight, which meant he would likely have to either wander or ask for directions. Blue was not about to stoop to that level, and so he sent Eevee out to find where it was for him.
As she left, Blue found some shelter from the light rain under a street front and observed the other Pokéball in his possession. He didn't recognize any particular scratches or markings, unlike Eevee's ball, and the fresh red and white bilateral design implicated it was a new, low-level catch.
He activated the ball, and squatted down to the Pokémon's level as it took shape.
A small, young-looking Skitty met his gaze.
Blue frowned. Why did he have a Skitty? Although they were relatively popular among Hoenn for their appearance, Skitty and Delcatty weren't particularly viable competitively, and that was the only thing that really mattered to Blue.
He ransacked his brain for any possible use he could think of. Skitty were reputable for their difficulty to train and bond with, but it wasn't impossible. Blue knew that if he looked, he'd find a number of guides online detailing how to effectively battle with and raise newly caught Skitty.
They were part of a very small handful of Pokémon that knew Copycat, he knew. But there were better options than a Skitty, options that that didn't have him going to Hoenn. Copycat just wasn't a good enough move to warrant doing this in the first place.
There were tournaments, of course – Most Skitty or Delcatty would perform relatively poorly under Conventional regulations for battling, but Smogon regulations held a variety of formats that a Skitty or a Delcatty might perform well under. Blue absentmindedly returned the Pokémon to its ball, thinking.
Blue looked at the Pokéball. Skitty was clearly was the reason he came to Hoenn. Was there some rare niche about the species that made it worth coming all the way to Hoenn in person? Had he captured this for his gym?
It didn't fit. Something was missing.
Before Blue could give it any more thought, he caught sight of Eevee scurrying back to him, her mane matted with rain. She bounded up to him and shook her body, droplets scattering in every direction. Blue reached down and scratched the back of her ears. "You find it?"
Eevee squeaked in affirmative. Blue smiled. "Show me the way, 'Vee."
The Pokémon sprang into action with an energy that Blue envied. She whipped around, her damp tail smacking into Blue's leg, and bounded down the street.
Blue did his best to follow. The pitter-patter of the rain was gradually growing in intensity as the storm clouds above him darkened. The gauze wrapped around his head felt cold and miserable.
As soon as he began to give his head injury thought, he started to notice the looks people were giving him as he followed his Eevee. He was used to attention – As a former champion, gym leader and as of recently, Pokémon professor, side-eyes and longer than normal stares were something he'd grown accustomed to. But the looks of the people in Rustboro didn't resemble the ones he was used to; there was a wariness and caution in those wayward glances that made Blue feel as though he was a rabid Raticate on a chain. He supposed his appearance was a pretty large contribution to that.
Eevee went around a corner, and Blue followed suit. He was rewarded with the telltale white lights of the Rustboro Pokémon Centre – Just in time, apparently, as the light rain had decided to evolve into a full-fledged downpour. He scooped Eevee up in his arms, tickling under her chin in gratitude, and slipped through the glass doors.
Somehow, each Pokémon Centre he had ever visited always seemed to emanate an aura of peace and serenity. Rustboro's was no different.
As soon as Blue went through the entrance, he could feel his body relaxing. He was safe here. There were only three other people milling in the foyer; a fourth bitterly stomped out of the landline booth, headed for the doors. "Phones are all down," the trainer scowled as he passed Blue.
The Nurse Joy of the Centre gave him a sympathising smile, wordlessly gesturing to a closet by the side of the foyer. Blue had been to enough of these to know that it was stocked with towels, sunscreen and various other immediate needs of wayward trainers, and got to work securing a warm white towel for Eevee. After a moment of thought he took out a second one for himself, wrapping it around his shoulders.
Blue felt the gaze of one of the other trainers in the Centre on the back of his head, and self-consciously touched the wet gauze. "Are there any hats in the Lost and Found?" He asked her.
Joy bit her lip. "I can check?" She said.
"Please," Blue smiled in gratitude. The nurse nodded, and headed off into the back.
Blue took the opportunity to go to one of the Centre's PCs, and turned it on. Eevee curled up by his feet, purring happily.
PLEASE ENTER TRAINER ID, the computer read. Below that, a small box said: Are you registered as a League Staff Member? IF SO, CLICK HERE.
Blue entered his credentials off by heart and waited for the machine to load.
A minute passed. Then two. Blue frowned at the spinning white loop in the centre of the screen.
When Nurse Joy returned with a well-loved brown beanie for him, Blue gestured to the screen. "Is it normally like this?"
She waited for a change in the screen. When none came, her brow furrowed. "No, never. We got this model about a year ago, and we haven't had any issues before." She said.
Just then, the PC blinked, and a box appeared in the centre of the screen. ACCESS DENIED. There was no login box for Blue to try again, or a different account.
Joy went behind the computer and began a hard restart. "Try another one," she told him.
Just as Blue sat down in front of the second PC, a man walked into the Centre.
This would have skipped Blue's notice entirely had Eevee not stiffened by his ankles and stared down the newcomer with wide, fearful eyes. Eevee let out a pitiful whine as the man wordlessly moved to the next available computer, right beside Blue.
The gym leader frowned. The man hadn't done anything, but something was buzzing around the back of his head, begging for recognition. He took a cursory glance at the figure – Tall, better built than him, shapeless black hat and jacket that concealed his hair and belt. Eevee tried to hide herself behind Blue's leg.
"Do I know you?" Blue asked.
The man in black stared. Blue noticed hard green eyes, a little scar by his chin. He played with an Ultra Ball, despite having never used the PC. A Scizor emerged beside him.
"No," the man said.
The Scizor lunged at Blue.
He fell backwards to get out of the way, scrambling to his feet off the floor. Eevee yelped in alarm, scurrying by Blue's side. Nurse Joy shrieked, hiding behind her PC.
The computer Blue was about to load smashed into pieces as the Scizor punched a hole where Blue's head had been. Trainers in the Centre scattered.
Blue haphazardly made his way to the Centre's exit. The man in black stalked behind him, his Scizor shaking bits of machinery and computer wires out of its claws.
"Bullet Punch," the man said.
"Protect!" Blue hissed to Eevee.
The shimmering green barrier was all that stopped Scizor's next blow from burying itself into his chest. Blue pushed his way out of the Centre doors, Eevee following close behind.
Where could he go?
Blue bolted down the street as fast as he could, dodging puddles and the twos and threes of people clustered under umbrellas. He turned a corner, Eevee lapping behind him, and tucked himself into he nearest alleyway he could find.
A large air conditioner was rumbling away beside one of the walls. Blue tucked himself behind it, trying to conceal himself as best as he could. He snatched up Eevee and put her in his lap, shushing her carefully.
His mind raced. The man with the Scizor knew who he was. He was trying to kill him. He was in Rustboro with nothing but his wallet, his Eevee and a Skitty he'd never seen before in his life with no memory of the last few days.
He had a head injury. Had the man caused it? Why was he trying to attack him? What did he want? What were they doing in Rustboro instead of Kanto?
He could hear shrieking behind him, sounds of people running away and glass shattering. Nobody local seemed to be a match for the man in black's Scizor.
Something clicked in Blue's head. Rustboro had a gym leader. What was her name again? Rock types, Rox-something… Roxie? Or was that the one from Unova, with the Poison types…?
Blue didn't find it in him to care. What mattered was that there was a capable gym leader here with a team capable of protecting Blue until this whole show blew over.
He had to find the gym, but that couldn't be too hard. Gyms were generally in prominent and visible areas – The biggest issue was getting there, with the man with the Scizor near the area.
"Eevee," Blue whispered. "We need to go find the gym. We'll be safe there. But we need to move fast, okay? I don't know where that guy is and we have to be careful."
The poor Pokémon was waterlogged and shivering horribly, either from rain or fear or both, but to her credit, nodded affirmatively. Blue set her on the ground and took a deep breath, swallowing the panic in his throat. He edged over as far as he was willing to risk in the alley, peeking over the edge.
The man in black and his Scizor were walking further down the street, peering at the side streets and nooks like the one Blue was curled up in. It occurred to him that they must have looked down Blue's alley without even realising he was three metres away, folding himself in two to avoid being seen.
In the distance, Blue could see the bright white lights of the Rustboro gym.
He steeled his nerved, counted to three, and ran.
The moment he left the alleyway, he could see Scizor turning in the corner of his eye. The man reacted shortly after, holding out another ball, and a Kingdra elapsed in the downpour.
Blue swore, praying that Eevee was keeping up behind him. He heard the telltale sound of a move being charged and threw himself to the side moments before a Dragon Pulse swept down the street.
He risked a glance behind him. He had a fair stretch of distance between him and the man – Scizor were as a whole a relatively slow species, and since Kingdra was barely outspeeding it Blue figured it didn't have the Swift Swim ability native to many of the species. As long as he kept his pace, he had a decent chance of getting away in time; with the way Eevee was keeping up, so did she.
The Kingdra took another potshot, but the Dragon Pulse was far off its mark, colliding with a signpost outside the Rustboro gym. The rain and the lead Blue had on the man in black would make it hard for the Kingdra to get anything other than a lucky blow for at least another half minute.
He reached the gym and pounded on the glass doors. Eevee looked up at him helplessly. Nobody came, and something died in Blue's heart when he saw the sign: CLASS IN SESSION. GYM CLOSED.
No.
Blue looked up and down the gym for something, anything that could help, and came across one more note – An advertisement for the Pokémon Trainer's School, with a phone number and address.
She had to be there.
But if the address was right, the school was back near the Pokémon Centre Blue had just escaped from. And that meant he had to go back through the man in black and his-
A third Dragon Pulse clipped his right leg and tore open a hole right next to the calf. Blue spun, stumbling for balance, and grabbed the handles of the gym doors for balance.
They were closer now, dangerously so. He didn't have the room between them to keep running anymore. Blue backed away from the gym and the man in black, racking his brain for ideas. Nothing came up. He slowly raised his hands up in surrender.
The man in black paused, taking a few cautious closer. Blue wondered if the man suspected a trick. He and his Pokémon couldn't have been more than three or four metres away now; Blue could count the blemishes on the Kingdra's scales, or the miniscule dents that decorated the Scizor's body.
"What do you want?" Blue asked. The question came out raspy. He was out of breath and out of options.
The man tilted his head. Rain trickled in thin rivulets down his jacket.
"You have a Skitty." He said.
It could have been a question or a statement or a demand. Blue interpreted it as all three. The beginnings of an idea started coming together in his head. He slowly reached for the ball.
He made eye contact with Eevee, hoping she'd realize what he was thinking. "I give it to you, and you'll let me go, right?"
The man remained silent.
Blue released the Skitty, and the Kitten Pokémon materialised in front of him.
All he could hear was the downpour of the rain and the thumping of his heart. Skitty turned around to face Blue. She – Blue assumed the Skitty was a she – was almost right next to Eevee. That was good. Blue was only sure about one move that Skitty knew, and being close would help.
"Skitty, I'm going to need you to listen to me." He said carefully, looking at the man in black.
He said the next few words very quickly. "Copycat. Eevee, Double-Edge."
Eevee sprung into action, throwing herself at the man's Scizor. Skitty mewled, less confident, but followed suit, springing up at the Kingdra's head.
The man had enough time to frown at the suicide run and open his mouth to give out a command before Blue tackled him as hard as he could manage.
Both of them hit the ground, but Blue had been prepared for the fall. The man in black was stronger; Blue didn't bother to try and fight and instead got up and ran in the other direction was fast as he could. He reached out and pried the Skitty (that was apparently his) off of the Kingdra's head, calling out to Eevee to abandon ship and run.
The man got up to his feet surprisingly quickly, already barking out an order to his Scizor. Blue didn't hear what was said, but he got the gist of what was happening. "Eevee, Swagger!"
Blue didn't wait to see if it worked, continuing to bolt as fast as he could down the road. As soon as he rounded the corner to the street with the Pokémon Centre, he returned Skitty in a red flash of light. The edge of the building he passed exploded under the power of a Hydro Pump, scattering Blue's already soaked shirt with water and debris.
A stitch burned in his chest, but Blue kept running. He looked up at the street signs, making one more turn at a boulevard and throwing himself at the first building on the street.
He fumbled with the door handle of the Pokémon School, slipping himself inside as quickly as he could manage. He slammed the door as soon as Eevee got through and locked it, shoving a nearby chair underneath the handle for good measure.
Blue slumped against the wall next to the door, gasping for breath. Eevee stumbled beside him, not much better.
A sharp voice awoke him from his post-dash reverie. "You're Blue Oak."
Blue looked up. He was in a hallway, but the nearest room was wide open. In the doorway was a woman with a black dress and neat brown hair. She was holding a chapter book, a finger keeping the page for her. Blue looked past her, and his heart stopped.
"Jesus," he said.
"Excuse me?" The woman asked. MS. ROXANNE, the panel above the doorway read. This was the gym leader.
"There are children here," Blue realized aloud. It was dawning on him that it was the middle of the day. Roxanne taught at a school. School was running.
He'd led a murderous man to a school full of kids.
The woman who was Roxanne said something else, but Blue cut in. "Somebody's coming. Do you have a lockdown for the school?"
Roxanne opened her mouth and closed it again. After a moment of thought, she reached into a pocket and pulled out a small remote, pressing the button. An alarm began to sound off. She looked up. "How long do I have?"
Finally, somebody competent, a part of Blue wanted to say. "Two minutes. Expect less."
Doors along the hallway started to shut tight, locks clacking into place. Roxanne leaned back inside her confused classroom, calling out to a twenty-something year old woman near the back of the room. "Kim, get the kids under the desks. There's a code violet, make sure to sound everybody off." She turned back to Blue. "Communications between the regions and major towns have been down since Friday night, but I can use the gym leader channel back at mine to get in contact with the others. Tell me what's happening."
Something exploded on the street. Both of them jumped. A couple of children started to come by the doorway to see what was going on, but Kim the assistant teacher herded them back. Roxanne closed the door.
Blue hurriedly went through the hospital, the computer lockout in the Pokémon Centre, the cat-and-mouse chase up and down the streets and anything he remembered about the man in black. Eevee watched the school's entrance, uncharacteristically silent.
As he spoke, Roxanne started opening Poké Balls and giving out orders. A Lunatone and a Graveler started heading to opposite points in the school. A Cradily and Probopass remained with them. "I have an Aggron and an Armaldo, but I'll let them out later. I don't want to floor to collapse." She looked grim.
"As for you," Roxanne continued, "You need your Pokémon and you need a way out of Hoenn. My gym might be able to access your network for your team, but I can't help you get to Kanto. I can't go that far. Rustboro doesn't have anything that heads that way, either."
"Where do I need to go?" Blue said.
Roxanne stared at her Cradily, thinking. "Slateport is closest, but they're pretty slack on criminal activity and the boats there would take way too long looping north around Hoenn to be safe. I'd say Lilycove. The ferries there could get you into Kanto in four, five hours."
Blue was about to ask when they could head back to Roxanne's gym for his team when the entire building shook threateningly. They both stumbled. One of the Cradily's tentacles reached out to Roxanne for her to grab onto. When none came for Blue, he put his body up against the wall for support.
Probopass' eyes glowed a brilliant blue, and the rumbling came to an ease. Roxanne nodded at her Pokémon in appreciation.
"Mister Oak," a voice outside shouted. "You have something I want. Give it to me and I can let you go."
The man in black was here.
"He's lying," Blue surmised.
"You need to get out of here." Roxanne said. "Take the emergency exit around back and get moving to Verdanturf. I'll send people to help you up to Lilycove, but you need to move right now."
Blue looked at the locked doors of the school, and something churned in his gut. "What about you? Will you guys be okay?"
"I'm a gym leader," Roxanne said. She picked up her last two Pokéballs, and her Cradily and Probopass moved to flank either side of the front door. "I can do this."
She nodded to the end of the hallway, where her Graveler was gesturing for Blue to move. "Now go!"
Blue began to run again, Eevee right by his side. Behind him, a dark red claw burst through the front door and tore it to shreds. One of Roxanne's balls flashed open, and an Aggron erupted into view just as the man's Scizor stepped inside.
Behind closed doors, Blue heard children begin to cry.
He would get to Verdanturf. He'd figure out his way to Lilycove, one way or another. He'd figure out what happened and how he ended up here.
As soon as he got his team back, Blue would make the man in black rue the day he ever came after him.
Blue pushed open the door to the emergency exit and kept moving.