Chapter 7 (Inter-dimensional Invasion?)
Reaching the Pokémon Center, the two trainers alighted speedily. The car drove off afterward, still chasing the Dragon Syndicate.
Bursting through the front doors, Callie brought Ethos hurriedly in her arms.
"Nurse Joy! My friend here is in critical condition. I think he fell from a height and got hurt badly!"
"Miss, I shall take action straight away. Audino, bring the bed here! We've got a Pokémon in critical condition!"
Audino rushed forward with the push bed. Callie placed Ethos onto the bed and followed Nurse Joy and Audino to the healing room. Nero decided stayed outside to wait as the room was sizable and not big enough for all of them.
Nurse Joy started to analyse Ethos' body by scanning, first detecting a huge amount of poison in his heart before the wounds on his body.
"Audino, pass me the concentrated Lum Berry mixture! He's really hit badly!"
Audino held up a glass bottle filled with a brownish-yellow viscous liquid and a spoon. Nurse Joy poured some of it onto the spoon and administered it into his mouth. To no avail, he was still in a bad condition shown as data on the scanner.
"Argh! It's still not enough. There's one thing left to do! Let's use our 'Mega Heal Pulse' on this fella!"
Audino put away the concentrated concoction and Mega-evolved as Nurse Joy commanded, transforming her into an elegant Mega-Audino.
Mega-Audino unleashed a powerful wave of Heal Pulse, healing most of Ethos' wounds instantly and also wiping out all the poison that was inside him.
"That should do it for now. Callie, I still need to do some checks on him. Please wait outside."
Following her instructions, she left the room and waited outside, leaving him in the hands of Nurse Joy and Mega-Audino.
"This unknown creature must have endured a lot of pain to survive this long with lethal toxins in his heart. Furthermore, he took a huge fall from a high place! It was lucky that he made it. Whatever this creature is, it's no Pokémon." Nurse Joy read all of the data that she had scanned earlier and heaved a sigh of relief.
"Let's give him some time to heal up and rest."
Mega-Audino transformed back to her original state before both of them left him.
"So, um… Coffee?"
"Au-di-no!"
"Great!"
The two nurses left him in the nursing room while they went for their breaks.
A few hours flew past as if it were years.
Ethos woke up and started staggering out of the room. Walking towards Nero, who was gazing at another direction, he started to see double visions and teetered to maintain balance, but fainted as soon as he landed a paw onto him.
As he woke up again, he noticed himself back into the same room where he started to walk out from. "Hey little guy, please try not move too much. You need to rest to recover."
"I want to see both my trainer friends… Can you bring them in?"
"Okay, I shall bring them in. But please, stay put. Don't worry about anything," she said as she went out of the room and returned momentarily with the two trainers.
"I've got something to tell you both. But first, where's my scarf?" he solicited.
"It's here. I washed it for you. What is it you want to tell us?" Callie wrapped the scarf around his neck and inquired.
"Well, while I was unconscious, Espie telepathically sent me a message about the Dragon Syndicate. They would be..."
He informed them about the Syndicate was going to make use of the dimensional rift, in which Espie used to travel here, to get into their world to capture more of their kind.
"Alright Ethos, we shall help you, but how are we going to get there in time to stop them?"
"Pass me Espie's staff. We can use it teleport there by using the staff's magic!"
Callie passed her staff to him. He received the staff and waved it, transporting them from the nursing room to the location of the rift.
They warped and cause the whole room to glow brightly. Nurse Joy and Audino, who were standing outside, were dumbfounded to see that all three of them disappeared into thin air.
~Meanwhile~
Awaken and sober, Espie stood quietly in her capsule glancing and listening to the people around, hoping to know what was going on in the airship, silent so as to not alert the oblivious crew that she was conscious.
"Sir, we are going to their dimension now, shall we proceed?"
"Yes! Shocker, turn on the invisibility cloak and prepare to invade their dimension. Widen the rift using our Mega-stone ray! We shall take over their world if it's the last thing I'll do to get rich," Drake declared, imagining the amount of wealth he could get by selling many of such exquisite creatures.
They widened the rift, big enough for their ship to travel through the dimensional space. While invisible, they stealthily avoided Palkia while inconspicuous and emerged from a rift portal into the forests of Nibel.
Upon entering the dimension, they observed the spirits who played around boisterously, leaping here and there.
"There are cheerful now, but not for long. They shall soon be my property. Prepare the all-terrain vehicles and the capsules. It's hunting season! Heh heh heh," he chuckled, insatiable to the money that he got from previous Pokémon smuggling act and now wanted more.
*Narration*
Will the two trainers and Ethos manage to stop the Syndicate in time?
What will happen to the spirits of Nibel?
Find out soon in the next chapter.