Chapter 20 – Medic Oshawott
A Dream - Aqua's POV
It was a dream, a nightmare that I was back in the city, in the alley I once called home. The dream started off like any other dream; random events, Pokemon you've met, some you haven't all with their own bizarre randomness, scenes shifting to and from location. It was a normal dream, but then the nightmare started about… twenty five percent into the dream I'd say. The alley was like how I remembered it. An 'I' shape were all of us used to live before the sickness came and killed everyone else but me. I was running through the alley in search of someone. I wasn't sure who it was I searching for at first, but when I turned the left corner at the bottom of alley, within a large cardboard box turned on its side was my old home, where my parents were in lying on their backs.
"Mom! Dad!" I cried, running as fast as my little legs could take me desperate to see them again. But when I finally got there, before I could say anything to them, they looked at me, held out their paws and asked me with raspy voices
"Why didn't you save us?" I gasped and backed up away from the box when they suddenly turned onto their stomachs and crawled towards me, again asking why I couldn't save them.
"Mo-mom, dad, I- w-what do you mean?" I backed up as much as I could before bumping into what I first assumed was a wall for how far back I stepped… a very squishy wall. When I turned, I saw other Pokemon from the alley i grew up with. Friends and their families looking so pale, so sick as they stumbled towards me.
"You have an ability… you knew about this sickness… you should've used it to save us! Why didn't you!?" Cried a female Mienshao, the mother of Meinfoo and one of my best friends growing up there. But Meinfoo wasn't anywhere to be seen, as well as my other friends and young Pokemon, only the older Pokemon.
"I- I didn't know…" I tried to escape their circle, but they blocked all possible ways I could escape. So instead I was just trapped in their circle.
"I could've lived!" Shouted another voice from the circle. With a quick look, I saw it was a male adult Lucario I once knew standing next to his mate; a Linoone.
"Stop it! Stop it please!" I begged them to stop, but they still continued. It wasn't my fault. When I was young when I first had these visions, I was afraid of them, unsure how to handle it. Whether or not I should stay silent about it or to tell anyone, afraid I would be seen as a freak to them for what I could do, I didn't ask for this.
"Why did we have to die!?" I desperately covered my ears, not wanting to listen anymore and ran at some Pokemon forming the circle and pushed with all of my might passed them, running as far as I could. Out of the alley and into the street, somewhere I thought to be safe, a place better than there with the Pokemon I once knew still hearing their pleas and cries echo throughout the alley for me to save them, t comfort them, I thought running away from them and into the city streets would be better. Or so I thought…
Running as far as I could away from them, away from my parents I was finally out on the main streets of the city, oddly enough to find myself just right outside The Savior's building when in fact my alley is further northeast of the city.
"I have found you!" Laughed a familiar voice, one I dreaded and wished I wouldn't hear her voice and look into her cold evil eyes; Purrloin. She was walking up to me slowly while preparing a Shadow Claw in her left paw. "If it weren't for you being there, me and Zack would've had a wonderful life ruling the hideout together. You could've lived happily, a nice home for you to live in while you worked with that old Audino. Maybe one day you could've found someone you loved and they loved you, raise a family. But you couldn't even do that, could you? "I tried backing up, but for some reason I stumbled back onto the street feeling my legs give out. Try as I could, they wouldn't budge. Purrloin chuckled. "You had to steal him from me; my mate… oh, why did you do that? I had never done anything bad to you."
"You used me as your shield when those other Pokemon from the city attacked you." I protested, Purrloin coming to a stop just a few short steps away from me. "And when I accidentally knocked into you at the hideout I tried to apologize, but you went all psycho on me and tried to kill me with a hammer! What kind of Pokemon does that!?"
She smirked. "I'm a psycho, huh? Heh, I have been called many things in my lifetime, but I won't bore you on reading from the list on what they have said to me, for it would take so long to read from." Purrloin stopped using her Shadow Claw and knelt down and crawled over to me until eventually she was on top of me, pinning me down with her claws. There was no strength in me to get her off or fight back, all I could do was whimper. "Do you think you can run from me and my gang all your life? Do you think I will just give up after a month? After a year? If you recall from what the other Pokemon from my gang said about what would happen if one should escape from this place; 'we will hunt you down and bring you back to face punishment.' Did you ever think they were joking about that? That they weren't serious and you just misunderstood?" Purrloin leaned in to my left ear and whispered. "Will that ability of yours protect you? Or will it finally lead you and my precious Zack right back to me into my arms? Will it be better for you to just end this? Put an end to the tiring and cold nights of endlessly running away, stealing for food day and night, and risking your lives all the way to Nuvema Town when in truth Zack might not be from? Where will you two go if Zack cannot remember who he is?" She lifted away from my ear and stared directly in my eyes. "Try as you may, Aqua, hide wherever you want to, me and my gang will search this region for you, never stopping until I have him back where he belongs. And you Aqua, I will personally see to it that you survive the torture I have in mind for you; I will make you regret everything, every mistake you've made, taking Zack away from me, even your existence, I will make you regret it all!"
"G-get off me!" I struggled to free myself from her grip, but this dream was preventing me from finally breaking free and escape. "Y-you don't scare me!"
"Oh, but you are afraid of me." She chuckled. "Every time I pin you to a corner, to a wall, even on the ground, you shiver in fear like the little coward you are. You have always been a scared little Oshawott." She started to laugh, raising her left paw with her Shadow Claw pressed against my neck.
But before she stabbed me with that move the scene immediately shifted to somewhere else, away from the alley to a forest in the dark. Inside a hollow tree was a Dewott shivering and sweating all over. Upon closer inspection, I could see this Dewott was Zack while being wrapped up in a blanket. "Hey, Zack!" I reached out to him, but my paw phased right through him as if he wasn't there.
'Poisoned' a thought came to mind for some reason. The images flashed before me; it was me going into the Pokemon Center of Driftveil City. Inside the center, it was dark but I had found a bottle of Antidote. Then suddenly the door of the room I was in opened up. 'Danger' was another thought that came when I saw a human walk inside the room I was in. I couldn't see his face; all I saw was a silhouette of someone enter the room holding something in his right hand. He stood at the doorway and looked to his left searching the other area of the room for a while before turning, looking down at me, lighting a flashlight on me, and then reaching out with his other hand to grab me muttering something I couldn't understand.
Unnamed Village - Bedroom
Waking up with a jolt I sat up to find myself back in the bedroom with Zack already awake and getting our supplies ready for the walk. "Whoa hey, you startled there, you ok?" Zack asked as he sat back down on the bed next to me.
"I'm uh… trying to uh… " I replied rather groggily, trying to shake it out of me before finishing up on what I was trying to say to him. "I mean; I just had a nightmare. I'm alright, nothing to worry about this Oshawott right here." I joked, hoping he wouldn't press anymore about the nightmare. I just didn't want to talk about it right now.
"Well anyway, I was just about to wake you up." He smiled. "I been awake for an hour already and did some scouting around the village before. And just like the vision showed you, we would have no problem here." He then handed me a box of Oran berries, our last few before we had nothing again. It was a good thing Driftveil was so close to here. A quick supply run and out of the city and we'll be having lunch in no time.
"Thanks Zack." I took the box and grabbed one of the berries, starring at it for a while as the nightmare from last night suddenly came to mind, first starting off with seeing the faces of my parents, their pleas for help, and then with Purrloin pinning me to the ground, calling me weak, and what she would do if they caught us, brought us back, it sounded exactly what Purrloin would do, and that frightened me. But then the last part of the nightmare, showing Zack being poisoned, and I trying to find him some antidote at a Pokemon center, I began to wonder what that was about.
"I think by judging from how dark the clouds are now that'll rain sometime soon." Zack said after swallowing one of the berries. "If it is going to rain later today, we'll have to be quick in Driftveil. We have to get in and out while searching for some food, and then after that we get as far as we can and find a place to stay."
"I hope if there is rain today that it doesn't last for a short time. I really like the rain." I sighed, remembering my time when it rained in the city I used to play in it. Being a water type, rain dropping from the sky and allowing it to soak my fur gave me energy, made me feel alive, it was great. "Depending on how long it takes for us to find the things we need in the city and how long it takes for us to find a place to stay, we could lose a good amount of energy. So why not enjoy the rain for a while? Since we are water types, the rain will revitalize us."
"Huh, I didn't know rain did that to water types." He paused briefly, and then nodded his head slowly. "That sounds great. Now I am hoping it will rain today."
After retying my pink ribbon just above my left ear, I noticed Zack open up the bag once more to set the empty boxes inside beside the medical items. The dream I had when Zack was poisoned had me wondering whether or not the dream or at least the end of it was a vision to come if I didn't warn him. I wanted to look inside the bag and check if we did have any antidotes. "Wait!" I said before crawling up beside Zack and getting a look inside the bag.
"What is it? We have everything packed up."
The Potions and Revives were still the same amount when we left Purrloin's hideout, bandages, but for the Antidotes… we had two bottles. I thought we had more than that. But whatever, I was relieved we still had some and we would be alright. It was only a dream so there was nothing to worry about…
"It's alright." I smiled. "Just double checking to make sure you did pack everything." The bottles were all in good condition from the quick inspection I did, so we were good to go. Closing the bag over and giving it a little pat, I hoped off the bed and walked towards the open door waiting for Zack so we can leave together. "Let's get going, Zack!"
Route 5
Driftveil Drawbridge was just up ahead, a five minute walk through the last part of Route 5 and another five minutes to reach the other side and beyond that Driftveil city. The problem about walking over the bridge was the amount of people we had to pass without any of them trying to catch us. No other way to the city otherwise. Sure there was water underneath and we could swim across, if I knew how to swim that is and I'm not sure if Zack could swim. The bag wasn't water proof and it would all get wet if we tried swimming across. I guess it was back to blending in the crowd as much as we could by sticking to someone close pretending to be their Pokemon. Walking through the trees of the route and sticking close by to the road searching for any people walking towards the bridge, people we thought looked safe. I guess 'safe' as in looks and if they have Pokemon of their own.
Coming to a stop behind a bush near the main road, we looked at each person walking towards the drawbridge. "Hmm… mostly trainers from the looks of it." Zack pointed out the belts they were wearing all with Pokeballs attached. "We should stick to someone who doesn't have a pokemon with them. Maybe a busy person wearing a suit, or maybe an elderly person might help."
"I hope during the walk over the bridge the person we are with are not there to meet someone and walk all the way back. Then we would be in trouble leaving us out in the open for all of the trainers to notice us out there and alone. I wish my vision helped me out with these kinds of things." I moved the bush slightly to get a look out into the main road for people we could walk with.
"Yo!" A Beedrill emerged from a nearby tree and up close to us with an angry glare on his face. "Yo dudes! This here is my crib, ya dig?! So bounce, unless ya'll shall feel the deadly sting of my stinger! And trust me on this, it'll mess ya both up really bad, like ya know, as in it'll kill ya!" The way he talked was weird. I had never heard any Pokemon talk like that before.
"We're just waiting until we see a human on the main road walk towards the drawbridge. We won't stay here long." Zack explained to him, casually returning to look at the road for any people we could walk with. But the Beedrill's red eyes narrowed and flew near us, his face inches away from Zack's.
"Listen to me hombre! You think you can just step into my crib like ya'll own the place?" he shook his head. "No way dudes, no way I'm I gonna let you and your girl steal my crib for your own! I know your game; you're just trying to take other Pokemon's homes, 'eh? That ain't gonna fly with me!"
Zack covered his stomach, it all happened fast. The Beedrill had stung him with his stinger below his ribcage stabbing him deep enough for him to be poisoned. Zack retaliated and struck him with scald, shooting it at his wings before pushing me back and backing away from him.
The Beedrill screamed in pain as he fell to the ground, rolling around in the grass to get the scald off. "Ah! Totally not cool! You'll pay for that!" He stumbled up off the ground, walking towards us in a fit of rage… slowly and yet like a puppet trying to walk if that helps with the visualization of how he walked. With his wings temporarily unusable because of the scald, he had to stick to the ground using his legs, something which made him slower to move. So he should be easy to deal with, right?
"Drill Run!" He shouted as he charged right at Zack all of sudden, with its two stinger arms held out in front of him, his feet lifted off the ground as his body spun around very fast moving faster at Zack, charging right into his chest sending him slamming into a tree with a hard slam, followed by a crunching noise.
"Zack!" I cried. But I couldn't go back to check up on him yet, I had to deal with the Beedrill first. The Beedrill slowly stopped using Drill Run and came to a stop at his feet, dizzy from the attack he used. It bought me time to act, and so I used it without hesitation. Remembering how to use it, I summoned up my energy and used Ice Beam on Beedrill, watching as the ice froze first around his feet, the moving up all the way to his body, his wings, and his head until he was completely frozen over. Grabbing my scalchop and using Razor Shell, I ran up and charged right at him and attacked, the impact exploding and sending the Beedrill flying upwards.
"Totally outrageous dudes!" The Beedrill screamed as he was sent flying first above the trees and somewhere off far in the distance. Good riddance.
"Zack!" I ran over to Zack, he was still leaning against the tree. He was still alive, groaning from the poison, or the impact, or perhaps both. We already had everything we needed; potions and Antidotes. But when I opened the bag he was carrying, my eyes widened as to what I had seen. "The potions… our restoratives are destroyed!" Every bottle, every potion and antidote was smashed except for the remaining revives we had left. Its liquids soaked the bottom of the bag and several bandages. Zack began shivering as the poison began to worsen. If the books I read in Audino's medical room were true, then Zack would have a few hours before the poison kills him.
I didn't know what to do; I couldn't leave him like this. But then after looking past the tree, I saw it. A hollow tree with a small enough hole for the both of us to fit inside… it was the same tree I saw in the dream… the vision. I saw a vision of Zack poisoned. And me in a Pokemon center in Driftveil searching for antidote.
After helping Zack inside the tree and wiping the sweat off his forehead with one of the dry bandages, keeping him hydrated with the water we had left and some Oran berries to keep up his strength, but it wouldn't be enough to get rid of the ailment. The vision showed me going inside a Pokemon center in the city, I found antidote there, but there was this man there, and I sensed danger from him. I shook my head; I didn't want to go there. But I had to; I couldn't leave Zack here to die. I would have to cross the bridge alone, get to the Pokemon center wherever it may be, and get the antidote while evading that scary man I saw in the vision.
"Aqua…" Zack said weakly, struggling to open his eyes. "I feel… numb in my legs… I feel nauseous… it's so hot…" I dampened the bandages with the water and wiped his forehead to soothe him, giving him some more water to drink.
I held his paw with mine. "Zack, I'm sorry. In my dream I saw this happen believing it be just only a dream…" I teared up. "I didn't know it was a vision, Zack. I'm sorry…" I was finding it hard to speak because of the lump I felt in the back of my throat growing bigger. Zack placed his paw on my shoulder and looked at me.
"Don't be…" Was all he could say before his arm fell and his eyes closed, he fell unconscious. After one more check I stood up and wiped away my tears. Time was running short; I had to get the antidote as quick as I could.
"Please Zack, stay strong. I'm going to get you some antidote…" I said before leaving the hollow tree, stepping out and towards the main road of route 5.
I stayed hidden behind a sign at the edge of the road waiting for a human I could walk with towards the city; it was tough to search for anyone amongst the crowd, fearing I would encounter a trainer with their Pokemon trying to catch me. I was worried if I screwed up and got caught, Zack would die. But then I realized something about all of this; in my vision I did make it to Driftveil city and made it inside the Pokemon center. Well it never actually showed me how I did it, so I do make it to the city somehow. I wished these visions gave more to me, so I went back with the original plan on walking beside someone across the bridge to the city. I was scared to do so, frightened without Zack with me, but I had to be strong for him. I didn't want to let him down.
Without realizing it until it was too late, I felt something wrap around my stomach and lifted me up into the air. I was being carried by a human girl, who squealed excitedly as she held me close to her body. "Wowie, an Oshawott!" She giggled, taking me away from the sign I was hiding behind and towards the bridge.
"No." I gasped, wiggling in any way I could finally break free from the girls grip, but her grip was too strong for me to escape. I didn't want to be caught. "Zack…" Zack needed an antidote, I couldn't just accept this and give up, and I needed to escape, but how? I didn't want to hurt the girl. So attacking her was out of the question. She was however walking across the bridge I wanted to cross, so it was working out for me. Maybe wherever she was taking me, after she set me down or something I could make my escape then.
When she made it across, a woman wearing a white shirt and black skirt was standing to the side at the end of the bridge waving to the girl, the girl giggled as she quickly ran as fast as her legs could take her to the woman, I'm guessing was her mother. "Look at what I found!" She giggled once more as she held me up, showing me to the woman as she knelt down and lightly stroked my head. "Can we keep it? Please? I know I'm not of age yet, but I promise I'll look after it every day. So please, can I, can I, can I, can I?" she pleaded in a high pitch voice, desperate for her mother to say yes. The woman shook her head.
"I'm sorry dear, but we can't right now. And also, it may already have a trainer." She said to her daughter, as she groaned in disappointment.
"But mommy… I promise I will look after it. I'll feed it, wash it, and love it twenty-four hours a day seven days a week of non-stop work! Please! Please! Please!"
"Maybe I could convince them that I did have a trainer. Yes, then they'll have to let me go." Was what I thinking, quick on figuring a way out of this little girls grip and hurry to the Pokemon center. So immediately half forgetting they couldn't understand me, I said; "Yes, I have a trainer I need to get back to. Please let me go. Please!"
"Do you already have a trainer?" The woman asked me, I quickly nodded and once again the woman stroked my head and looked at her daughter. "Let it down sweetie, we have to get going. Your father will be finishing up work soon at the café. C'mon, let's go and meet him outside. We'll get some lunch."
"But… I want one." The girl argued, stamping her foot down on the hard floor. Her mother placed a hand on her shoulder, and spoke softly.
"I know you want a Pokemon, but you will once you are of age. This Pokemon already belongs to a trainer. Don't you think its trainer is looking for it, worried about it?"
"Alright… I'll put it down." The girl finally said after a moment pause. The girl leaned forward and placed me down gently. I turned around to face her, and she shyly looked at me twirling her finger in her blonde hair as she apologized. "I'm sorry for grabbing you like that."
"It's fine. But hey, I made it across the bridge thanks to you." I said to the girl with a smile, forgetting about our language barrier as I spoke to her. The girl smiled and waved at me as she and her mother walked away hand in hand.
Now that crossing the bridge had been already taken care of, the next thing I had to worry about was what lies within the Pokemon center of this city; the shadowed man I saw. So without wasting another minute, I ran as fast as I could in hopes I could find the center, wherever it may be in the city. I started going west from the bridge, passing many tall buildings as swift as I could be without being seen too much by the people walking on the street, not wanting to gain any attention that'll draw a trainer or twos attention. I didn't find the center this way so I headed north next, planning to search around the edge of the city starting from the west, north, west, and south until I found the place. I found the center ten minutes when I headed to the northern section of the city on the main road near the city gym. It was a large rectangular building surrounded by grass with a stone path leading to the main door of the building. But after running up to the door I saw the sign;
'Closed, come back tomorrow.'
I ran to the side of the building hoping I could find a side door I could open up or find an unlocked window to climb in to at least. Luckily the door I found, the only door apart from the main doors at the front this door was at the back away from the main streets, so I could just go inside this way without attracting any unwanted attention, but of course the door was locked tight, so I had to find an alternative way to get inside. It didn't take me too long to find a window, a small window for me to fit inside, the problem was that it was probably eighty inches high from the ground, maybe a little shorter.
I looked around the area to find three empty trashcans, several cardboard boxes, two wooden crates, and an old mattress… now why was that there? Well anyway, with these things in the alley I could stack them up against the wall and climb up to the window and get inside from there.
Starting off with the building a tower to get inside pushed the old mattress over to the wall beneath eh window I had to climb in. if I fell at least I would have something soft to land on… and dirty, I guess I should've thought that through. Thankfully the trashcans were empty and were light enough for me to pick up and carry it on top of the mattress. Now the trashcans were double my size, and I could not jump up to climb up on it so I had to use one of the wooden crates to climb up on to reach the top of the trashcan. The wooden crate was the heaviest to carry weighing like it was a ton or something. So instead of picking it up I slid it across the floor and pushed it onto the mattress by flipping it on its side at the edge of the mattress and lifting it on its side and flipping it over and pushing it next to the trashcan. A long process but hey, at least I got them both up. Using the cardboard boxes I stacked them up on the trashcan until eventually I had enough to reach the window.
I climbed up onto the wooden crate first, a little wobbly but stable enough for me to keep my balance so I wouldn't fall off. The trashcan provided a jump up to reach the edge to climb up on it. Again, just like with the wooden crate it was stable, but the worry was if these cardboard boxes would be strong enough to carry my weight. I had to climb up them as if I were climbing a ladder, using the small holes at the side to fit my paws and feet in while I climbed up. I was surprised the boxes didn't tip over immediately or while I was climbing halfway, all of the three boxes held up really well, even when I made it to the top of the tower I made.
The window was right in front of me so all I had to do was push it open or if it was locked I would have to break in. I pushed the window with my paws… it opened, it was unlocked. I pushed the window until it was open wide enough for me to climb inside. I had a way in. I felt the slightest bit of relief when I had finally managed to get inside. All I had to do was search for the antidote but keep on the lookout for the man who found me inside. I looked back at the alley if anyone was watching me, but I didn't see anyone, and that was fine by me.
"Hang on Zack, I'm almost done."
Driftveil City – Pokemon Center
The creepy part on searching the Pokemon Center was how close it resembled Purrloin's hideout; from the darkness, the quietness, to how empty it was. In the hideout in the corridors it felt abandoned like there was no one there except for the guards around the corner out on patrol. The layout was sort of the same as the hideout; the reception, staff room beside the desk, cafeteria on the right through some double doors next to a waiting room, and to the left was were all of the Pokemon where taken when being treated. Just standing there made me shiver as though I were back in the hideout and Purrloin would be just around the corner.
"If this places layout was somewhat close to Purrloin's hideout, then the storage room should be on the left side of the building. It may not be the same, but I have to try." I thought while trying to remember the exact layout of Purrloin's hideout and how I got to the medical from the lobby. I didn't want to be wasting too much time, I had to think fast, I needed to help Zack. Looking above the reception desk I noticed a sign I could barely read in the dark, but thanks to the suns light peeking through the shut curtains I could make it out."'Rooms 1-6 to the left. Treatment room to the left' There was a treatment room in the hideout. The medical supplies were there. Maybe they're close to that room. The supply room, they would be close were the nurses here would be treating their patients."
"Yo! Lookie what I found here!" I jumped after hearing that voice, a voice which echoed the lobby if not throughout the entire building. Quickly turning around I saw a human, a man wearing a black jacket and pants with a rucksack hanging out of this pants pocket. He was standing so close to me I could see the scars on his face; he had a beard, quite the long one reaching down to his chest.
Another man, a rather tall man appeared around the corner near the waiting room. He was wearing a black trench coat all buttoned up and black pants and shoes. But unlike the man who was close to, he didn't have a knife, instead he had a handgun in his right hand, finger on the trigger.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The man with the beard said as he kneeled down in front of me, setting a knife aside on the floor next to him he took from his pocket. "A shiny Oshawott, and it's a female one."
The tall man wearing the trench coat whistled and kneeled down beside him. "That's pretty rare." He spoke with a somewhat hoarse voice, snorting a few times, the strong smell of smoke whenever he opened his mouth, or just being near him. "Could be worth a lot to the highest bidder, or trade to some trainer or collector who is looking for shiny Pokemon."
"Yeah, but the stuff we nabbin' is worth a whole lot of cash than a shiny. And besides, I ain't got me self a ball to catch the little girl." Suddenly, the bearded man picked me up before he stood up walking to the side door.
"Hey, whatchya doin'?"
"Getting the Oshawott outta here. We don't want anyone or anything seeing what we are doing. So I'm taking this Oshawott outside and staying outside until we done here."
"Ah, then feel free to do so then. Then come right back, we got a job to finish up here."
The bearded man carried me exactly where I had entered the building in silence with a firm grip around me with both of his hands so that I couldn't escape something I tried a few times but failed to do so.
The man opened the door slowly at first, peeked his head out the door if there were people there, but there weren't anyone in the alley, the coast was clear. He put me down gently, rubbing my head.
"Now you be a good girl and stay here until me buddy and I finish doing our job here. We work here you see, uh yeah uh that's right, me and my buddy work here as uh doctors- I mean janitors. We are cleaning up before the place opens tomorrow and we can't have anyone or cute little Pokemon like yourself in the way." He smiled. But if he was a janitor, which I knew he wasn't, then why was he and his 'buddy' armed with a knife each and his friend with a gun in his trench coat pocket? Which of the two men was the one who found me in that room I was in after finding the antidote in the vision I had? The man who brought me out into the alley seemed to be friendly, but the other guy not so much. What would happen if either one of them found me again inside the center?
With the door shut I immediately turned and ran towards the old mattress where the makeshift tower was and began to climb back up it and try again on getting the antidote I needed. I was scared, but I couldn't give up. I had to try again, but instead of running through the place and making a lot of noise attracting attention, I had to play it smart and stick to the shadows instead of standing in the open.
Whoever these two men were, what they were doing in the center, I'm guessing they were here to rob the place. And yet I'm also here to rob something. I didn't want to steal but I had to do this; we couldn't draw any attention to us since we might it attract the attention to the wrong Pokemon. Pokemon that might be working for Purrloin sent after us to take us back to her hideout or trainers wanting to catch us and we would never reach Nuvema Town. I would only get an antidote and one or two bottles of potions and that would be it, and after Zack is healed we would try to resort to something else other than stealing. Since Zack could speak the language of the humans, maybe we could us that to our advantage somehow.
After carefully jumping back through the window again and stopping and peeking at the corner towards the lobby where I saw the two men;
"Yo man, we gotta hurry up with this. What if some nurse or worker comes back all of a sudden?" The bearded man asked, his voice echoed throughout the building rather loudly.
"Keep your voice down you idiot." He barked. "Ya want some do-gooder to come snoopin' inside or callin' the cops on us? So shut up and get back to work. Speaking of workers; I already checked, ain't no one gonna step foot inside this place, be they janitor or nurse, unless they wanna have a bullet to their face."
"Ain't a gun gonna make a loud noise? Attracting attention to the outside? People are gonna hear that."
The tall man chuckled as he brought out his gun, attaching some kind of pipe thing at the end of the gun. "A special kind of suppressor I got from the 'market' if ya know what I mean. This baby right here will only be as loud as a feather dropping next to a person with the most sensitive of hearing. The noise of the crowd outside, they won't notice. So we are good for now."
"Alright, that's a relief." The bearded man sighed, taking out a rucksack from his pocket. "Staff room is through their past the front desk. Let's find these documents and get out of here."
Staying low and hiding underneath he chairs to safely pass through the lobby not taking any chances by stepping out into the open to make a quick dash for the next area of the center, my eyes never turned away from the open door where the two men had walked through. I wasn't sure exactly what I would do if the two men did spot me hiding under the chairs or later on; I suppose using my moves to attack them or attempting to flee, either way I would not leave this center without the antidote and the potions I needed to heal Zack.
I was almost near the doorway of the east area of the center when I heard the bearded man talk; "So what exactly does this Pokemon want?" He asked his accomplice, but got no response, not immediately. "Stealing a register book to find a name, give her soldiers some direction to go? Is she after a trainer?"
"I was told this 'target' she is after is a dangerous one; 'Just anger him and you'll unleash an unstoppable monster capable of annihilating an entire army.' was what I was told by her soldiers about the target, 'A monster the boss wants to control. Something she wants to use to help take the region for her own and rebuild what she lost' or so I hear."
"Yeesh, let's hope this 'monster' she is after ain't here with us."
"Well if it is here in this center…" I heard something metal click from the room. "It ain't gonna get angry before I pop its face full of lead."
"But we were told not to kill the target if it's here-"
"Make something up, we will. Say it attacked us and we had to defend ourselves."
They stopped talking by the time I reached the doorway of the east section of the center, I had no reason to be in the lobby so I continued on from there, looking back every so often when I walked down the corridor if the two men should decide to leave the office they were in and out back into the lobby, and we would have another unwanted reunion which would probably end badly.
At the end of the corridor I turned the corner and made my way down it in search for the storeroom. Three doors to my left and three to my right; treatment rooms for Pokemon to the left, two unnamed room to the right and at the end of the corridor was the room I was looking for; the storeroom. So without wasting a second I ran for the door as fast as I could.
Inside the storeroom were so many rows of tall metal cabinets full of medical items ranging from healing items such as; potions and Full Heals on one tall shelf, status healing items on and another, status improving items at the far back, and battle items on more. I counted eighteen cabinets all full with different items even some I didn't recognize, the smell of the medical items all mixed in made me gag a little for how strong it was, it kind of looked similar to the storeroom in Purrloin's hideout, but not as strong smelling and big this room was.
I walked over to the recovery cabinet and picked up a few bottles of Potion, then looked back after realizing as to how would I ever get these bottles back to Zack? There were too much for me to carry in my arms, so I would have to look for a bag to carry all of this. Quickly, I walked to the status items cabinet and picked up the antidote, two to be safe and placed them down beside the three bottles of Potions. "I should go look for a bag… *sighs* wish I brought the bag with me for this. Way to go Aqua, always going in to things without-"
"Hey! It's that Oshawott again! I'll get it!" His voice I recognized as the bearded man had entered the room, his silhouette in the darkness pointing at me with his knife clenched tightly in his hand. Then I saw him with one hand reaching out towards me, just like the vision I saw earlier, I didn't know what would happen if he did grab me again. Quickly, I jumped back a little, and then the other tall man walked inside and flipped the light switch.
"How the heck did it get in here? Thought you threw it outta the back."
"I did. I opened the back door and shut it after taking it out into the alley. Don't know how it got in here. Must've came in through a window or something."
The tall man sighed of frustration, putting his gun inside his trench coat pocket. "Alright, just deal with it permanently. No one's gonna miss it. We can't have any distractions with this job."
The bearded man with his knife took one step closer towards me. So I stepped forward and shouted to them. "I know you can't understand me, but I need these items. Zack needs this medicine so he can get better, so we can leave and go to Nuvema Town, a place that may be his home, a place where he may still have a family and friends who are waiting for him to come home, I can't let him down. So back off!" I stood my ground, ready to use whatever move I could us to stop the two of them blocking my only path out of here. But the man continued to walk towards me, and so I let them have it. With one quick movement, a move I had used a small amount of times but knew it well; Ice Beam freezing the two men's feet at first then their lower body and arms unable to use their weapons.
"Ack! I can't get free! Damnit!" Grunted the tall man, struggling to break free from the ice, but he couldn't move. "We gotta get outta here!"
"To… frozen… to… move! C-can't get… out! Ah!"
There was a problem still; I needed a bag to carry all of this stuff back to Zack with, and luckily I found one. After freezing the two men with the Ice Beam, one of the men dropped one of their rucksacks when the attack hit them. "That's convenient for me." I said, picking it up and quickly putting the bottles inside the bag.
I was done here, and so I left the center by going out the way I came in, but when I reached the corner of the alley, I saw police officers just outside the entrance of the center burst open the doors and charged in with their Arcanine's. I made a break for it when the coast was clear, running towards the bushes near the front of the building since the police had drawn attention from the people of the city, so I had to lay low behind the bushes and wait until everything had settled down. The police came back out after a while, but with the two men unfrozen but in handcuffs yelling that they were just attacked by a Pokemon and said that I was the one who they should go after, but the police just dragged them towards their cars. And when finally they were inside, the car drove off and the crowd reduced, that was when I made my move to leave this city and get back to Zack as fast as I could, praying he was still alive, and there was still time left.
Route 5
I crossed the bridge how I intended to cross it the first time I was here; walk alongside someone while pretending to be their Pokemon and them my trainer. I walked alongside an elderly woman who didn't seem to notice how close I was to her when we walked. To their other humans crossing the bridge, they perhaps only saw me as her Pokemon helping the elderly woman with her 'belongings' by carrying it to wherever she was going.
So after I crossed the bridge I made sure to look before I ran into the forest towards the tree where I left Zack, not wanting a curious trainer or two come running after me. My energy was low, I wouldn't know if I would be able to defend both Zack and myself if someone did try to fight us. After running through the bushes, I quickly hid to the left behind a large rock big enough for me to hide behind while waiting to see if any human with their Pokemon followed inside the forest, but after a minute or two of sitting patiently and silently waiting listening for anything other than the people walking by no one came. It was good for now, and I couldn't risk staying any longer, Zack needed me so I had to hurry. Running the remaining distance between here and the tree I left Zack in, a short distance so it was probably about a two minute quick dash and I was there.
Zack was still alive, he was breathing slowly. But I couldn't rest yet I had to apply the antidote to heal his poison and give him some Potion to heal his wounds recover his lost strength. Setting the bag aside and opening it up to grab the recovery items I needed, I began to apply the antidote, just the way Audino showed me how when she taught me how to apply ailment healing items to an affected Pokemon. After giving him the potions I let him rest, the antidote had cured him of poison, he would be alright. I leaned back against the inside of the tree we were in and relaxed. After today's events earlier it would be better if we stayed here for the night. With the police arriving to arrest those two men in the center, they would want to know what happened to them and why they were frozen in ice. No, we'll go early tomorrow and avoid the crowds. We had enough food to last us for tomorrow, so we'll just get it then.
After some time had passed, more so than I realized since it was starting to get late, Zack had awoken and immediately sprung up next to him.
"Are you feeling any better, Zack?" I asked him, he nodded weakly, slowly recovering his strength after applying Potion to his wounds mostly on his chest and stomach.
"Hungry… and kind of thirsty." He coughed. And so I grabbed a few Pokeblocks I got from the center and gave him some, slowly eating them one by one, and giving him a bottle of water. The antidote worked and Zack's strength had already returned, but he still needed rest before we head back out. "Where are we?"
"Inside the base of a tree I found." He put the bottle down next to him and rubbed his forehead with his paw before looking around the inside of the tree we were in. "Do you remember we were attacked by that Beedrill?"
"Oh, yeah, I remember that… are you alright? Is the Beedrill still out there?"
"I'm alright; I got rid of the Beedrill so we'll be fine." I wasn't sure what to tell him, feeing ashamed of myself for not saying anything to Zack about the vision I had this morning. I was hoping he wouldn't say anything yet, allowing me some time to say what I want to say without sounding I wanted this to happen. Until… "Huh? Is the bag wet?" He asked noticing there was a large damp stain at the bottom of the bag He picked up the bag and sniffed it. "Is that potion? Aqua, what happened?"
I wanted more time to think about this, so without thinking I told Zack everything that had happened; the bottles inside the bag breaking and the contents destroyed, leaving Zack in the base of the tree so I could find some healing items in the city, sneaking in the center through the back while evading two thieves already in the center.
"I was scared I wouldn't save you in time." I told him all of this, but what I didn't tell him immediately was that I saw all of this in a vision; the Beedrill's attack, Zack being poisoned, and me searching for a cure. I tried to come up with anything so he wouldn't get mad. I don't know, I just felt that by making a mistake, just one mistake and everything would go south for us, I didn't want to lose our friendship.
"Zack, in my dream this morning I believed I was only dreaming and nothing more, but towards the end I saw you poisoned, and me searching the center for an antidote." I shook my head trying to stop myself from crying, feeling tears begin to form at my eyes. "If I told you about it, none of this would've happened…I'm sorry, Zack… it was a mistake, I promise it'll never happen again. I'm sorry… please don't-" But before I could finish what I was going to say I was pulled in close to Zack as he hugged me close to his chest despite there being an injury from the Beedrill's attack.
"Aqua, you don't have to apologize. We can learn from this and try to avoid it in future so the two of us can safely continue on with our journey and our future together. If you see a vision you do not like, just to let you know; I'm always here to help you. We're in this together, so let's not give up on each other." I hugged him back, happy he was alright, but I still cried. "Thank you, Aqua. I'm happy you're with me."
I cried, I guess I was scared about losing him or worried he would yell at me... I don't know. If he died, I don't know what I would've done; stay there for a while until I figure it out, wander the forest, go out into the main road and wait for someone to catch me and take me as far away from there, continue to Nuvema Town to tell his friends and family about him, how he died and where his body was so they could reclaim it… I don't know. I'm happy none of that happened and we could continue with our journey together. We were different; he a white Dewott with red eyes and sclera's black as the night, and I an Oshawott with the unique ability to see into the future, we sure were an odd pair.
"Huh? H-hey look!" Zack said, but before I could look at what Zack was pointing to, I felt it on my head. It was raining. Together we stood in the rain and let the water soak our fur feeling our energy recover from it. It was a nice feeling, made it feel as though the weight on our shoulders were lifted; worries on being pursued by Purrloin and her gang, trainers trying to catch us, wild and dangerous Pokemon, we felt safe. I'm not sure how long we did stay standing in the rain, but it was nice. I had hoped the remainder of our journey would be moments like this; feeling safe, a pleasant one like standing in the rain.
To be continued...
Trivia:
This chapter was supposed to be a two part with Aqua and another pokemon to help her get the medicine for Zack, but the other Pokemon was in fact a traitor and wanted to use the medicine themselves and fought Aqua for it.