Ash slowly comes to. He's a little confused as to what has happened. He hears talking around him and his blurred vision struggled to focus on where it's coming from. His body feels like it's made of stone, he can't seem to move any part of himself, he's so tired. He can barely pull his eyes open.
It's Brock and Misty, with Pikachu and Togepi, talking to a Middle Eastern doctor. Pikachu suddenly alerts the others to Ash. Pointing it's small hand-like paw over at the boy. "PEHkuhb'' PPPPiiiikapi..!"
Misty looks over to see Ash, lead by Pikachu's pointing. Brock then catches sight of Ash and the both of them quickly rush over to see how he's doing.
Ash watches in some form of a daze. Not entirely hearing the majority of what they're saying.. however, he wasn't missing much more than a couple "We were worried"s and some "We missed you"s
"Hi Misty... and Brock.".. "Hi Pikachu..!" He blinks as his double, blurred vision focuses in on the yellow rodent. As his vision finally began to clear, he noted he was in a hospital bed.
Misty quickly began to explain that she had gotten a hold of Brock and the two of them managed to call for help. They managed to rescue Ash from the mouth of the wild Swalot just in time. That Ash was unconscious already when they got back to him
Ash played with Pikachu for a minute, and scratched behind the worried Pokémon's ear while listening to the story before the doctor stepped forward with a clipboard to his chest. What he said next, went silent. In fact, everything did.. and everything in Ash's chest went cold. The words didn't reoccur to him for a few moments. It was then that he saw his mother, Delia, standing by the door.
Misty, leaning over the side of his bed with the same look on her face as his mother. Brock didn't seem to respond, he was trying to hide whatever he was feeling.. and he was definitely better at it than the women were.
.. Ash had just been told his legs were so badly damaged by the acids of the Swalot's stomach that they had to preform an amputation. The doctor showed Ash his heavily bandaged nubs. They were gone from about the mid-thigh down.
The boy only stared. He really had nothing to say to this and no other real response at all. His vision blurred around the edges as his blood pressure shot up. He heard everything as if he were in a submarine. Yet he made no response to his own body either.
The doctor went on to explain amputation was not uncommon what with the dangerous situations children get into with battling these days ; that he sees cases like this actually quite often. But these things blew over the top of Ash's head. He started to tune things out.
Pikachu, with Ash's hand still upon it's head, twitches it's ears and peeks up at it's trainer with it's maroon coloured eyes. "Pi?" The Pikachu asked, curious as to why it's trainer had frozen up like a statue. "Pikapi?" The Pikachu called it's trainer's name.
"I'm sorry Ash." Brock stated, his hands, drawn in fists. "I should've chosen to go with you and Misty. It was wrong of me to let you go off like that in a place I knew could have been dangerous. This is my fault, really.."
Misty immediately tried to steal away the blame as the fluid in her eyes flickered against the light. "I should've called for help sooner.." .. "I'm s-" She almost choked up for a second, but buried it away. "I'm sorry, Ash.."
The doctor asked the unresponsive boy, "We could fix you up with a wheelchair before you're ready to go home. Or, if your family can put up enough money, we could look into prosthetics." He almost purposely seemed to suggest this, in the manner in which he suggested, due to the fact the boy's mother was in the room. He was attempting to get as much money out of his patient as possible... as most doctors did, indeed, most often do. And prosthetics were far more pricey than wheelchairs.
Delia gave into it.. she couldn't imagine wheeling her son around, defenseless, and helpless, unable to take care of himself. He was such an independent boy. It never crossed her mind that he could easily take care of himself in such a state. But in her mind, she was taking care of Ash like an infant all over again.. Just as well, she knew it would be much worse for his health to stew in a seat the rest of his life. Prosthetics of any kind, despite them being as poor as they were, would give him mobility back. So without giving Ash time to respond she asked quietly "We will give prosthesis a try."
The doctor turned to look back at the mother, failing to act at all surprised by this, and then began to write something down on his clip board. He and the mother headed into the next room to talk. As they disappeared, eventually, did Brock as well.
The room grew empty all accept Pikachu, who had fallen asleep curled up in Ash's lap with his hand still atop it's head, and Misty who had knelt down by his bed side and had lain her head down at the foot of the bed, seemingly quietly awaiting the return of his conscious behaviour. But more than likely, hopelessly awaiting his forgiveness for her complete and utter failure at keeping him safe that day.
Hours and hours pass, and Misty had fallen asleep in the same position ; with her arms up on the bed, crossed up under her head as a pillow and her knees drawn close together on the floor.
Ash slowly leans back, .. just a little, and his expression eases up a bit. He starts to pet Pikachu. Finally broken of his statue-esque state.
Thus began physical therapy. Ash's wounds gradually healed enough to attach prosthetics and they measured the remainder of his legs and where they thought his height should be on an anatomically correct scale. They began production and the ordering of custom made legs for Ash to use. And when they arrived, he was taught to walk on them. Eventually, to run and jump on them.
He raced on treadmills and set his goals to meeting speed and distances on the treadmill's record, to completing tests flawlessly and he wore himself out. He was trying to recover as fast as possible from his injuries. He went through physical strength tests under water that had nothing to do with his prosthetic legs, but to test the mobility of what remained of his natural legs, and went through common every day check ups during his time at the hospital.
He only had one complaint the entire time he was there. "It feels funny when I swallow" And of course, he'd told the tale of the fact a Beedrill tried to sting him in the face while he was there, time and time again to the doctor.. and that he thought he had swallowed some of the venom. But the doctor passed this off as a hallucination caused by the heat stroke he'd suffered within the body of the Swalot. For, there was no proof of this encounter or any traces of venom in his various blood tests for other purposes. He seemed to have no ill affects either, so his story was largely ignored. He was simply patted on the head with a "Well your digestive tract must have been strong enough to have taken care of that."
Then came time for Ash's release from the hospital. He was good as new..! .. Sort of. The previous two and a half months of physical training and recovery were now starting to seem fuzzy in his memory as he set foot outside. "I believe in you, sweetie!" Delia called from atop the hill, standing by the door of her van as Ash took a few steps through the grass. The wind, in his hair again. It was like when he first started his Pokémon journey a year ago.
He quickly bent his legs to remove his shoes and then grabbed his belt. The boy then removed his pants. Standing in his boxers,-which had hearts on them of course, because Delia would not have it any other way.. and she made SURE he changed his underwear EVERY day during his recovery.- The boy's legs were the legs he had requested ; The long spike-like attachments with a curled hook-like, flat flexible piece of metal on the end. They looked more like "angered" coat hangers than legs. But they were the best of medical science and offered the best possible chance of a full and active life. Ash then went fleeting down hill on his bare springy legs. Shouting "RACE YA!" to both Brock and Misty who quickly went chasing after the boy.. with his pants and shoes in hand.
Pikachu chased the frantic boy down the hill and nearing the bottom, Ash lept high into the air and almost too high up to land himself. However, the legs were more stable than they looked. He landed fine on them. They took impact better than any biological legs could. Pikachu dove onto his head and the boy wobbled backward a step, grabbing the Pikachu and hugging it tight to his chest. The rodent let out a loud squeak as it was snuggled. "CHAAAaaAAAaaa..!~"
Misty and Brock caught up, but out of breath. "Hey, Ash, be careful! What's with running all the way down here without your PANTS on. You're gonna get your new legs dirty like you always did to your OLD ones" Misty held Ash's shoes out with one hand, angrily.
"But what's the point in feet if they don't get to run through the grass, and the mud, and feel the ground, Misty? It's like I was reborn..! Well.. my legs were at least." He raised an eyebrow at his legs and directed his attention back at Misty. Holding Pikachu like a football. The rodent did not mind this, however "I have a whole world to show them, Misty!"
Misty sighed and smiled. One brow raised still, she shoved the shoes into the boy's arms and then handed him his folded pants. "Well do it with shoes and pants on."
"That's not how he did it the first time." Brock stated as Delia couldn't help but giggle from atop the hill.
"That's true."
Ash pouted at Brock. Not because of the comment but because he made his mom laugh at him. "At least I'm not wearin' a diaper this time"
