Chapter 1
A New Friend
"Are you all right? Please wake up", a women's voice rang through his head.
Hearing this the boy began regaining consciousness. Soon realizing he felt someone shaking him by his shoulders. He opened his eyes to see sapphire orbs looking at him with worry.
"Oh my, thank goodness your awake", exclaimed the women. She was dressed in a pink dress with a white apron overtop. A hat that matched the apron and had a small pink cross on the front sat atop her reddish pink hair.
"Are you alright"? she asked once again.
"Yeah I'm fine", the boy responded with a yawn.
"That's a relief. My name is Nurse Joy. Come with me and we'll get you all cleaned up", she said happily.
With a bit of uncertainty the boy packed up his things and asked "So where are we going"?
"To the Pokémon center of coarse, silly" the ever-enthusiastic nurse replied, before taking just a few steps deeper into the alley and opening a door and allowing him inside.
She led him farther into the building, past closed doors and various machines that had small flashing lights on them. Eventually the nurse turned down another hallway that led into a large room. They stopped for a second at the edge of the darkness and Nurse Joy flipped a switch on the wall. After just a few seconds the fluorescent lights began illuminating the room. Now that there was light, Joy began walking again. Not wanting to be left behind, the boy quickly followed after her. They walked past a small carpeted area in the room that had couches and chairs positioned so that they faced the television screen that was bolted to one of the walls. Even further into the room was a service counter with a few papers and a computer monitor sitting on top of it. Behind the counter the youth could see a machine shaped a lot like a photocopier, except it had six circular indents where the scanner would be.
Curious about the machine the boy pointed to it and asked, "What does that do"?
"Why that's the Pokémon Healing Machine, we put trainer's Pokéballs in the sockets and they are scanned by the machine and it displays what is wrong with the Pokémon on the monitor. With that information it is easy for my chansey and I to heal any Pokémon that comes through those doors". Nurse Joy responded with a smile as she indicated two sliding double doors opposite the counter.
She then pulled open a small section of the counter and slipped behind it, "I will just register you a room so you can get all washed up. What was your name again"? She asked as she turned on the monitor.
"Raul, Raul Paxton", the youth replied.
"Okay then Raul, you can use room one seventeen. If you want I can show you where it is", Joy offered while finishing the room registration form.
"That would be great, thanks", Raul responded.
"Chansey be a doll and watch the front desk for me, please" Nurse Joy asked the pink ovular Pokémon as it entered the room through the same hallway we had come through earlier.
"Chan, Chansey" the Pokémon trilled happily as it made it's way towards them.
Closing down the computer she smiled and said, "Right this way".
She walked back from behind the counter and started walking to the opposite side of the Pokémon center lobby then they had come from. They passed some videophone booths as well as a strange machine with two circular slots on opposite sides of a monitor. When they reached the end of the lobby they stopped at a pair of elevator doors and hit the button to go up. After a few seconds the doors slid apart allowing the pair to enter the stainless steel elevator. After just a few seconds the doors slid themselves closed and Raul could feel a slight start as the elevator began ascending and once again when the elevator stopped on the next floor. Raul followed Nurse joy down a carpeted hallway until they reached a door with the numbers 117 nailed to the wood. Joy reached into her pocket handed Raul a card key and smiled. "Here we are just come and get me if you need anything". She then started back towards the elevator.
The young boy replied with a quick " thank you" over his shoulder as he slipped the card key into the lock.
After just a moment it beeped and the key popped back out. He turned the door handle and stepped inside, closing the door right behind him. As he turned around to see the room his jaw dropped in awe.
Across the room from Raul is a glass door bordered by flowing golden drapes that leads on to a small balcony. To Raul's right of the door is a king sized bed with mahogany headboards and a white duvet. There is a forty-two inch wide screen television set sitting across from the bed on a dark dresser. On the side of the dresser near the balcony is a desk of the same color of the dresser and a matching desk chair. On the side of the dresser closest to him is another door that leads to the bathroom. Raul removes his hiking boots and opens the bathroom door. He is greeted with a very simple bathroom with just a toilet, sink, mirror, and bath tub/shower combination in the room. He enters the bathroom and closes the door.
After about half an hour the door reopens and Raul exits the bathroom wearing the same dirty jeans and crimson t-shirt combination he was wearing before. He shook his head trying to get his wet brown bangs out of his eyes, before deciding to return to the lobby to thank Joy for letting him use the room.
When he reentered the lobby he was surprised that the chansey from before was still behind the counter. He walked up to her and asked, "Hey, uhhh, do you know where Nurse joy is? I wanted to thank her again".
"Chansey see, chan chan" the Pokémon responded, pointing with her stubby little arms throught the doors behind it. " Chan- See" The Pokémon exclaimed as she motioned for Raul to follow before turning around and waddling through the doors. Raul hopped over the counter and followed the egg Pokémon through the doors into what looked like an infirmary. There were hospital beds lined up across the entire room with various Pokémon lying unconscious in them. Nurse Joy was busy trying to get a purple pile of sludge under control near the opposite side of the room. Both Raul and Chansey rushed over to assist nurse Joy in Calming the Pokémon down. Chansey started using it's heal bell technique to try to calm the sludge but that only made it more irritable.
"Grimer"! It exclaimed as it tried once again to worm it's way off of the cot, managing in slipping by Nurse Joy. Raul moved over to it's side and sunk his hand's into the purple mass in order to prevent it from getting any further. The sludge stared at Raul with white beady eyes with a glare so intense most would have backed down. Raul however met that glare, with one just as intense, that he once used when having arguments with his father. Sensing the determination that Raul held in this situation the grime ceased it's resistance and aloud Raul to pick it up and place it back on the cot.
"Amazing! Simply Amazing! That Grimer has been trying to escape ever since some factory workers brought it in sick. No one has been able to calm it down. We have had to resort to keeping it under constant tranquilization so that it doesn't have the energy to try to escape. Would you consider taking care of this Grimer once we finish administering some more medicine? I am certain you will be able to befriend it and it will make a valuable partner", Nurse Joy offered.
"I would but I have no way to afford feeding it". Raul responded.
Nurse Joy simply giggled at that remark, "No honey. Grimer eat the garbage and filth that humans though in the garbage or on the street. It combines the chemicals in the plastics of the garbage we leave behind with the toxins it's body naturally produces to create the sludge that it is composed of".
"So you mean he is like a living trash bin"? Raul questioned.
"Well sort of. Grimer are unable to decompose anything made of metal, but other than that they can eat just about anything", the nurse answered.
Raul looked down at the sludge and asked "So what do you think? Wanna hang with me and look out for eachother?
"Grimer grime", the grimer replied happily.
"All right I just got a grimer"! the boy exclaimed enthusiastically.