Thank you to all those who reviewed! I decided to use POV's to make reading a little easier. I'll fix up the first chapter later.
Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon.
Chapter 2: A shocking wake up call
– Dawns POV –
Ash looked terrible. After he had collapsed Ash was immediately taken to the nearby pokémon centre where Nurse Joy took care of his injuries. She had wrapped bandages over his chest and head then hooked him up to a couple monitors to observe him which beeped steadily while he slept. Dawn had taken the seat next to the bed while Brock remained outside to talk to Nurse Joy. Thankfully the little mouse had only minor injuries that were quickly taken care of by Nurse Joy. Dawn's eyes wandered over Ash's body which was covered in bandages and she felt tears prick at her eyes again. Dawn had felt so helpless while everyone had scrambled to help in the aftermath of the attack. Brock had even remembered to take care of Ash's pokémon and get them all treated by Nurse Joy as well as call Ash's mom to let her know what was happening while she on the other hand had been left crying in the waiting room.
A creak at the door let her know Brock had re-entered the room. In his arms he carried Pikachu, now fully recovered.
"Pikapi!" it exclaimed upon catching sight of its trainer. Brock set the small mouse onto the foot of Ash's bed and it immediately tried shaking Ash's shoulder in an attempt to wake up the sleeping boy. When he didn't respond Pikachu's cheeks began to spark and, realizing what it intended to do, Dawn rushed over a picked up the pokémon.
"No Pikachu! Don't shock Ash!" "pika" the yellow pokémon dropped his ears in apology. She smiled and set him down again "He'll be ok" she reassured "just let him sleep a little longer". Pikachu nodded and instead took up a protective stance, guarding his precious trainer. Brock gave her a nod of approval and she sighed in relief. They both took a seat next to the bed and were silent for a moment before Brock began to speak.
"Did Cynthia talk to you too?"
Dawn nodded with a small frown. "Yeah. What do you think?"
Brock simply shook his head. "It's not like we can do anything about it. She's the champion, and she's under his orders too. We'll just have to trust them and do what they say."
"Yeah but…" Dawn glanced back at Ash "can we really-" Dawn was cut off by a sudden beeping. Ash had begun to breathe much more heavily as sweat poured down his face and his eyebrows creased like he was in pain. His heart monitor was off the scale and his heartbeat climbed rapidly. "Oh no Ash!" Dawn cried out in worry.
Brock jumped to his feet "Ash! Nurse Joy come quickly! It's Ash!" he called out desperately. Ash had started groaning now and at his feet Pikachu whimpered in fear. Brock and Dawn were shouting Ash's name and Nurse Joy had still yet to appear. The beeping was still increasing until it was suddenly replaced by one long, continuous beep.
"ASH NO!"
"PIKAPI!"
– Ash's POV –
Ash had no idea where he was. He was standing in darkness, there didn't appear to be any floor or walls or a roof, and worse still, he couldn't see or hear anyone else. He was alone.
"Pikachu! Dawn! Brock! Where are you?!" He tried calling out to his friends with no response. He remembered the explosion and, in alarm, looked down at his body only to see he was perfectly fine. In fact he felt no pain at all.
Am I dead? He thought to himself. This brought on a new onslaught of panic. Oh crap I'm dead! I died! What about Pikachu? Please be ok. Oh god mom. This is gonna kill her! And Dawn and Brock. Dawn's so young she's gonna cry so much.
He felt like crying as he thought about his friends and the pokémon that he'd left behind. For a while he remained on his hands and knees mourning his life (which, although appears sort of self absorbed, seemed pretty appropriate to him at the time) but after what felt like hours Ash began to wonder what he was supposed to do now. Rising, he looked around at the blackness again. Was he supposed to cross over or something? Since there was no way to know which way to go he started walking in a random direction. This carried on for a while until he began hearing voices.
"Ash!" "Pikapi!" Pikachu? Dawn? Maybe he wasn't dead after all. That or he wasn't the only one to kick the bucket. Hoping it was the former, he started to move in the direction the voices were coming from. They got louder and more frequent and he could recognize more of the voices.
"Wake up Ash" That was Brock. "Ash honey? Please wake up" another voice begged. Mom? She was there too? He started walking faster and soon he was running. It wasn't long before he spotted a light in the distance; the voices were calling to him from the other side. They got even louder and started overlapping each other till it started to become painful. Ash clutched his ears and continued running toward his goal. The closer he walked to the light the more he began to feel. And boy did it hurt. The endless energy this place seemed to give left him. His body was starting to feel heavy as if he were dragging himself through mud, his chest felt constricted and his head was pounding. I can't make it. He was so tired. He just wanted to collapse. The more he thought about giving up the farther away the light seemed to be. He could still hear the voices of his friends calling to him.
"Pikapi!" "Ash!" "C'mon Ash don't give up!" "You have to pull through" "ASH!" "PIKAPI!"
"AHHHH!" Ash lay gasping as the electricity ran over his body. Sitting up quickly, he winced as a jolt of pain shot through his side and grabbed at his ribs. He barely had time to take in his surroundings when-
"Pikapi!" Pikachu joyfully jumped onto his trainer's chest and hugged him hard.
"Pikachu?" Ash looked down at his partner.
"Ash!" "Good to see you're finally awake" Ash looked up to see Brock smiling at him with a thumbs up and Dawn standing behind with a large grin and tears pricking at her eyes.
"Brock? Dawn? Wha?" the question couldn't leave his lips before a new wave of dizziness hit him and he swayed on the spot.
"Woah there take it easy" Brock grabbed Ash by the shoulders and lay him back down on his pillow. "Just rest for now you've been through a lot."
The door opened and Nurse Joy burst through. "What happened?" She demanded, out of breath. She looked Ash, now wide awake, in surprise. "Oh you're awake!" She quickly gave him a check over before nodding with satisfaction. "Seems you gave everyone quite a scare but luckily you had these guys watching over you." She rubbed Pikachu's head. "I'll be back soon. Here's something for the pain" The pink haired nurse injected something into one of the many tubes attached to Ash's arms. "This will help but you might feel a little sick. Try to rest a little more" with that she left the room to the three friends again.
Ash took a few deep breaths to try and quell the nausea "What… happened?" he managed to ask.
"You've been asleep for three days!" Dawn exclaimed. "You really had us all worried there Ask Ketchum! Your heart monitor…" the blunet gestured to the machine hooked into his arm. "It started beeping really rapidly. We thought… we thought…" she trailed off. Ash nodded in understanding. Dawn shook her head and finished "Then Pikachu gave you an electric shock and you woke right up! If we knew that was gonna work we would've tried it from the start!"
Brock glared at the younger trainer "we decided that was a bad idea due to his injuries" motioning to Ash for emphasis. It was only then that Ash took a proper look at his body and his eyes widened in surprise at the amount of bandages that covered him.
"How did…" He looked to his two friends questioningly.
The older boy creased his eyebrows and looked at Dawn worriedly."What do you remember?" He began slowly.
For a moment Ash racked his brain. He could remember his battle with Paul, then black smoke, then a man…
"I was hit by a hyper beam" Ash suddenly recalled.
Brock nodded. "Team Rocket tried to take over the league. They sent out hundreds of their cronies to try and steal all the pokémon. You were facing off their leader remember? Then all of a sudden the guy orders his Salamance to attack you!" Brock looked away from Ash in shame. "I… couldn't do anything. I just watched it happen."
Ash looked at his oldest friend, studying his face before reply with a sigh "It's not your fault Brock. No one could have. But… how'd I survive? That attack hit me straight on."
Brock shrugged "We don't know. There was an explosion, and by some miracle you and Pikachu were ok. Then Team Rocket decided to retreat. They didn't even steal one pokémon"
That was suspicious. Why did they just pack up and leave? Furthermore, how the hell was he still around? That attack should've blown him to dust for sure.
"Pikapi" The small mouse rubbed its head under his hand and Ash smiled, scratching his starter behind the ear.
"It was you right? You saved me just like before with the Spearow remember? That would explain the explosion. Your Thunder attacks are nothing to sneeze at right Pikachu?" Ash grinned.
"Chu Pikachu" The electric pokémon tilted his head in disagreement but his trainer didn't seem to notice.
"I heard you guys calling me." He smiled at his friends. "That's how I woke up, you guys kept calling to me and I found my way out. Where's my mom by the way? And Misty?" He was sure Misty was the last voice he heard before Pikachu shocked him. He looked around the room expectedly as if waiting for them to pop out from behind something and shout 'surprise! Welcome back!'
"Huh? What are you talking about? They're not here." Brock said confused.
"But I heard them!" Ash insisted "They called out to me just like you guys did! They have to be here. Are you guys playing a trick cuz that's not very nice considering I just woke up from a three day coma." He crossed his arms and pouted.
Brock and Dawn exchanged concerned looks. "Maybe you should rest a little more" Dawn said anxiously.
Ash shook his head aggressively. "No way I've been sleeping for three whole days. I've had plenty of rest!" He started to climb out of his hospital bed and both Brock and Dawn jumped to push him back down. "Guys! C'mon let me up!"
"No way Ash! You have to stay here!" They argued.
"But I wanna go see my mom why isn't she here and where's Misty?" He was starting to get annoyed. He just wanted to see them why were they making such a big deal?
"Ash they're not here!" Dawn finally screamed. Ash hesitated. "uhh…" Dawn blushed embarrassed.
"Ash they're still in Kanto. You were dreaming. They were never here, although your mom has been calling non-stop to check how you're doing. She didn't come here because as soon as you woke up we're all supposed to go back there." Brock quickly explained.
"Kanto? What? Why? What about the Sinnoh league? Why do we have to go back?" Ash asked one question straight after the other.
The door opened suddenly and the Sinnoh Champion stood in the doorway with a serious look on her face. "Because the league has some questions for you Ash Ketchum. We're taking you to see Lance."