-0-
Chapter 8:
I woke up from the strange dream. I had a feeling that the dream actually happened and Mew actually spoke to me, especially since I remembered every moment of it unlike my past experiences with dreams. I groaned as a new headache started up, throbbing and pulsing inside my head but definitely not as bad as when I first woke up from my week-long coma.
I opened my eyes and looked around or tried to at least. A thick neck brace limited any movement that I tried to get my neck to do. I sighed realizing my body was still wrapped from head to paws with bandages. Even with limited movement I could tell that it was night time and Remedy was sleeping in a bed directly next to mine. 'Huh, even though it's night time I'm wide awake. I must've slept for a long time.' I slowly got up from my blanket nest, testing my limbs before I put any real pressure on them. My front left leg still burned when I tried it, so I kept that raised above the ground but my other legs were fine. Balancing on my three good legs I tried to stretch my stiff body. I flinched as my side still burned when I tried to stretch my back. 'I guess I'm not fully healed yet, though I should thank Mew again. My body hurts a lot less now.' I thought as I hobbled around the space of my bed, I couldn't jump down from the bed since the fall was too intimidating of a distance. 'Great, why did I have to wake up when Remedy was asleep! Now I have nothing to do!' I thought, irritated from being bored.
I laid down so I was facing the one window in the room. I couldn't see the night sky from the angle of my bed but I was able to see the tree line right next to the building I resided in. It wasn't very exciting but it was better than nothing, once in a while I would catch a bit of movement in the darkness. My gaze was drawn to a strange noctowl with blue eyes, when it saw me looking at it, it waved a wing and winked at me. 'Could that really be Mew? In the stories I was told, it mentioned her ability to transform into any pokemon.' As I thought this the noctowl did a strange little dance, making me giggle. 'Yep, definitely her.' The Mew-owl disappeared into the darkness of the trees. I continued to stare outside for hours until I finally felt sleepy enough to take a nap to end my boredom.
When I woke up again it was dawn and Remedy was stirring. I yawned and pushed myself into a sitting position using only one leg. When I looked over to Remedy she was staring at me in shock. "Goodmorning." I said in a casual yet groggy voice.
"Astra what are you doing up? You should be resting, you've just recovered from your coma. Aren't you in pain?" Remedy inquired curiously while getting up from her bed.
"Only a little bit, I have a headache but I think I healed quite a lot." I said as I hobbled closer towards the edge of the bed where Remedy was.
"Hmm, your bones shouldn't be healed too much. Maybe we underestimated your body's healing power or it wasn't as bad as we thought. I'll have the nurses scan you again." She said while inspecting me.
"Can you take this thing off my neck?" I was getting irritated by the lack of range in movement I could do with my head.
"Yeah, it's been a week, so your sprained neck should be healed." She came and used pink arms to unlatch something from the back of my neck. The big white foam thing around my neck slipped off. I rolled my head around in relief, noting a little pain and stiffness from not moving it for so long. The front of my skull ached a little but I ignored it. "Feel better?" I nodded.
"Umm… Remedy?" I muttered while I was shifting my paws nervously.
"Yes, Astra?" She glanced at me while checking the beeping machine.
"Since I'm feeling so much better… Do you think I could walk outside for once?" I asked.
The chansey looked conflicted about my question. She took a few moments to respond, "Going outside would do you some good but if your body isn't ready you could hurt yourself. I'll decide once I see the results of the scan. Until then, why don't we get some food in you?" As she said this my stomach rumbled at the mention of food.
Remedy went out to get someone to feed me but instead of just the nurse coming in, Kaia came in as well. Kaia was holding my feeding bottle and smiling at me. "Hello Astra, I'm so glad to finally see you awake again. You gave us quite a scare when you were injured." She said while slowly walking into the room.
Remedy came in after the humans and said, "Kaia is going to feed you today. She has to learn to do it when you leave this place."
"What? No!" I complained backing into the far corner of my bed. Kaia frowned after seeing my reaction to her.
Remedy came over to me from behind, picked me up and put me back in my blanket nest. I yelped in protest when she picked me up. "Astra don't be like that. If she can't feed you, we'll have no choice but to give you back to the ninetales clan." Remedy said as she started petting my trembling body.
"It's not like I have a choice, my body does it on its own." I grumbled, still terrified.
"I know, just try your best to control yourself. Kaia just wants to help you and you just hurt her feelings." She said back to me. I lowered my head and put my ears back in guilt. Remedy continued to pet and soothe me while indicating for Kaia to come closer.
Nurse Maggie spoke up, "Just take it slowly, it took me a few days to build up enough trust to be able to pet her. I don't think she hates you, she just got a bit scared by your first interaction." Kaia nodded at this and slowly came forward.
I felt a bit ashamed that people had to be warned when interacting with me. 'You can do this.' I told myself and looked at Kaia who seemed trepidatious about approaching me.
When Kaia got close enough to me Maggie started to instruct her, "Just slowly move the bottle in front of her and she should eat in her own time." That was the moment my stomach decided it was a good time to give a loud growling sound, reminding me how hungry I was. Everyone in the room gave out a small chuckle and I could feel my face heating up in embarrassment.
Kaia, now a little more confident, slowly raised the bottle of milk so the rubber sucker was right in front of my mouth. I gave a few sniffs to see if it was okay but from what I could tell it was the same liquid that I had been eating since I got here. I pushed down my fear and latched on to the bottle, once I started feeding I couldn't stop until the bottle was only a quarter full. I laid down, satisfied that the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach was now gone. Kaia looked happy as she raised the bottle back out of my reach and handed it to nurse Maggie.
"Thank you for letting me feed you, I'll see you later." Kaia said as she nodded to the nurse and was escorted out. I sighed in relief when the humans exited, the tension slowly leaving my body. Remedy stopped petting me and left to start typing something on the computer in the corner.
"What are you doing?" I asked, limping as close as I could to her while being stuck on the bed.
"I'm contacting the nurse to request a scan for you." She answered nonchalantly. I made a audible groan as I remembered having to lay in that stupid machine the last time I got scanned. "If I find you to be healed enough I'll allow you out into the garden~" she said, trying to convince me while still typing away at her keyboard. I sighed in reluctant surrender, going outside would be really great.
The nurse came in a few minutes after that. She picked me up and carried me in the crook of her arm. I struggled at first but soon relaxed, realizing it was just Maggie. She walked me through the halls of the center, making multiple turns before coming into the room with the scanner. She scanned me again like last time but it wasn't as uncomfortable as the first time since I was hurting less. After complimenting my bravery for a second time she deposited me back in my room. Remedy wasn't in the room, leaving me alone for quite a while. Being a bit bored I decided to burrow underneath my blanket to hide myself. 'I wonder how Remedy would react if I wasn't in my bed.' I thought, giggling evilly at my ruse.
I was going to give up my game after an hour and still no one entered but I decided to keep waiting. After about 30 more minutes of waiting, Remedy finally entered. I watched her through a tiny crack in my blanket to see what she would do, staying completely still. She looked distracted like she was thinking deeply about something. It took her until she was in front of my bed to realize I was missing.
She looked around the room with a confused look on her face. "Astra, Are you here?" She called out. After no one answered her she whispered, "How would she manage to escape?" She looked around a bit more before looking at me and smiling. Walking towards me slowly she grabbed the blanket and yelled, "Gotcha!" Revealing me.
"Aww, how'd you know?" I complained, disappointed that she found me.
"Look behind you." She said, I turned around to see all six of my tails wagging in excitement. "If you want to hide then you should control yourself better." She laughed at my astonished face.
'No, I gave myself away! Stupid tails! I pouted.
"Anyways, I came to tell you some good news!" Remedy said with a smile still on her face. "Based on your scans it seems you have healed at a remarkable rate! In fact, I'm curious how you managed to heal so fast, you got any ideas of why that is?"
I stared at her with a blank expression. 'Should I tell her? She has been super nice to me. Would Mew want me to?' I thought. To make time while I was thinking, I simply said, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I looked away from her and started grooming the paw without a cast.
"So you do know what happened." She said in an accusatory tone.
'Oh no, I just confirmed that I know something! Now I have to tell her.' I thought. "No, I don't know what happened!" I exclaimed in an obvious lie.
Remedy sighed and said, "I can't force you to tell me but it would be best for me to know anything that happens to you medically. I can't help you if I don't know what's going on." She gave me a sad look. "I understand if you don't trust me, it would be hard to trust anyone after what happened to you."
I knew she was guilt tripping me but it worked on me anyways. With the guilt I felt I couldn't help but say, "I do trust you! I just don't know if it's my secret to share."
She looked at me in horror, "Wait, you are in contact with someone outside this hospital! Astra, whoever is talking to you could have been the one who hurt you the second time. We still have no idea what punched you in the head!"
"No, she wouldn't hurt me! How could you accuse her of something like that!" I yelled, angry at her accusation of Mew.
"How do you know that it isn't true!" She yelled back at me.
"Because Mew's been protecting me, not harming…" I cut off my shout, realizing what I just said.
She put her paw to her temple and closed her eyes. "So you're saying that Mew helps you?" She said in an incredulous voice.
"See, I told you that you wouldn't believe me." I muttered, a bit of the hurt I was feeling entered my voice.
Remedy sighed and pet my head, "It's not that I don't believe you, I doubt you have any reason to lie. However, whoever is contacting you might be deceiving you. I just want you to be safe..."
I looked out the window and saw who I was looking for. A pidgey with those same blue eyes was watching me, it gave a small nod.
With Mew's permission, I told Remedy everything I knew about Mew. I told her about how Mew had been watching me since the day of my birth, what the elder told us, the dream I had with her, and what she told me about my parents.
"If she's really Mew and she was there to watch over you then why didn't she protect you and your parents?" She asked.
I winced a bit, wishing Mew did stop what happened. "It's because she's not allowed to mess with my fate and that event was apparently part of it." I explained.
"If she's not allowed to change your fate then how did she heal and talk to you?" She continued her interrogation.
"Mew told me that my head injury wasn't preordained in my fate so she was allowed to intervene to set it right again." I was getting tired from the amount of explaining I had to do.
"Fine, I'll trust this Mew for now. I myself have heard tales of what she does and your story aligns with those tales. Could you just promise me something?" She asked, staring directly into my eyes. I gave a shaky nod in affirmation. "If she ever hurts you in any way, you'll tell me or anyone you're with and stop seeing her. I'm not sure I can trust anyone that just watched what happened to you and your family and not help out, even if she was not supposed to. Not even Mew herself." She said in a stern voice.
'I don't think Mew would ever hurt me, the great feeling in my chest when I first saw her... but if it will get Remedy off my back then I'll agree to anything.' I nodded to myself and said, "I promise that I'll do that if she hurts me or if I feel in danger in any way."
She sighed for the final time before she let a sweet smile on her face again. "Okay now that we got that over with, do you want to go to the garden?"
I nodded fervently and said, "Yes, please!"
"Before we get there I'll take a detour and show you the x-rays that we took. It's important that you know what's happening with your own body." After she said that she picked me up and we went down the halls.
She walked for about a minute before walking into a side room. Remedy walked up to an unfamiliar nurse in the room and with her free arm pointed to me and then to a glowing white board on the wall. The nurse seemed to understand because she went to a filing cabinet, opened one of the drawers, and shifted through the folders until she found the one she wanted. She brought out numerous black sheets and clipped them onto the glowing board. She backed away and I saw that the black sheets now had quite a number of intersecting white lines filling them.
"These are the x-rays we took of your bones. The more translucent white parts are your bones." Remedy explained.
I stared at them in awe. "These things are showing my insides?" I asked.
"Yup, these two…" she gestured to two of the panels on the left. "are the x-rays of your bones we took when you first arrived here. Your leg bone here is supposed to be a continuous line, but instead it's a bunch of large shards as you can see." I could definitely see what she was talking about, even if the image was just a bunch of white and black it still managed to make me feel a little queasy. "This next one is of your ribs when you first arrived." The x-ray showed multiple curved bones, many of them had large cracks in them. I looked at my tightly bandaged side and could see where my ribs would be, my lack of fat and muscle making my ribs easy to pick out from the rest of my side. "These middle ones were taken a week after the surgery." She said pointing to the two middle panels.
The cracks in my ribs looked way less pronounced then the first picture but were still there. The picture of my front leg bone showed that it was no longer in shards but there was something off about it.
"These pure white parts are the metal rod and screws that they had to put in your leg." She explained.
I stared in absolute horror at the pure white parts. The metal rod went straight down the middle of the bone and there were two screws entering the sides of the bone, connecting to the rod. "T-they put metal… inside me?" My voice was both shaky and squeaky, which had the effect of making it sound like I was freaking out, which I was.
Remedy stroked my fur to help calm me and said, "Yes, I'm sorry but they had to. The alternative was that you would've lost the use of your leg entirely. I doubt you'll ever notice that it's there when it's healed. But like I said before, you'll have a permanent limp that you'll have to get used to."
This saddened me greatly. 'Right I almost forgot, I'll be stuck as a permanent cripple even after I heal.' I started crying.
"It's okay, you'll be fine." She comforted me. "Let's just head to the garden now. You don't really need to see your skull fractures since it's almost completely healed anyways." I didn't look up as I continued to cry into her shoulder. I could tell she exited the room and entered a busier part of the building. I could hear many noises and smell the smells of different people and pokemon. The many different things my senses picked up raised my curiosity enough to snap me out of my self-pity and I looked up.
In every seperate hall there was a man in a black suit, each of these men had a pokemon sitting by their side each of a different species. One thing was common about all of the pokemon though, they each looked very fierce and strong. They would always follow me with their gazes, it freaked me out a little bit.
"Who are those people?" I asked.
She saw who I was talking about and said, "Those are security guards. After you were injured the leaders of this place beefed up the security a bunch. After you're healed and leave the security will be back to normal."
"So all of these people are for me? Why would they do that?" I was a bit confused on why they would spend so much effort on me.
"Well, you're part of a very endangered species, Astra. The whole forest you used to live in and this pokecenter's whole purpose is to safeguard your species from complete extinction. Other pokemon will be helped here of course, but you are given our complete attention whenever you need it. The night where you got injured inside the pokecenter was seen as completely unacceptable, in fact the director of the pokecenter was replaced because of the mess up. You are now on constant surveillance and will be until you leave. Even when you leave this place every pokemon center will give you priority over other pokemon just because vulpix is on the endangered species list." Remedy lectured.
"But I'm not important enough to demand all of this special treatment! I'm just a weak runt that won't even be able to walk right!" I yelled, for some reason I became furious about how I was treated.
I could tell that Remedy became mad after hearing my words. In a raised but not yelling voice she said, "Stop beating yourself down! You are just a kit, kits are supposed to be carefree and looked after! Kits are not supposed to be strong! Even with this being the case, no one as young as you has gone through what you have and survived. In my opinion you are the strongest kit I have ever met! You are important enough to get this kind of treatment, Astra!" She lowered the volume of her voice before continuing, "It seems unfair to other pokemon, but it's necessary. If any other species of pokemon became endangered, they would get the same kind of treatment as you." I shrunk down a little in her arms and just accepted what she said. I didn't agree with the idea that I was strong but it didn't seem like a good idea to argue with the angry chansey that was holding me.
We exited the hall through an automatic door on the right. Suddenly I found myself in a beautiful garden. The garden was a large area that seemed to be in the center of the building. There was no ceiling, leaving my view to the sky open but the building still surrounded the area on all sides. Rectangular patches of different kinds of flowers filled the space in front of us with paths that surrounded them. Trees bare of their leaves and bushes were on the edges obscuring the view of the walls around the garden. A few benches were spaced out in front of the trees. Me and Remedy weren't the only creatures currently in this space. Many different kinds of pokemon could be seen playing around or just relaxing, some had bandages like me but some looked fine. There was a blue pokemon with weird antennae looking things on the sides of its head who was watering the flowers. I asked what it was and Remedy told me it was a wooper. There were also humans who were watching over the pokemon.
Remedy set me down near a patch of lavender flowers and I quickly hobbled over to them. The smell was strong but still enjoyable. I walked around and smelled or admired every different kind of flower in the garden. When I got tired I just plopped down in the center of a patch of goldenrod flowers and just watched the other pokemon in the garden.
I looked in surprise when I saw a houndoom playing around with a nitorita. 'Shouldn't the nitorita be afraid of being eaten?'
I asked the question to Remedy who was watching me closely, she said, "Trained pokemon don't have to worry about hunting for food since their trainers feed them. This also means that pokemon seen as prey don't have to be scared."
I was so happy with this fact, I had hoped I didn't have to kill to eat in my future. I watched without worry as the houndoom tried to pounce on the smaller pokemon and the nitorita just laughed and ran away. I continued to relax in the garden for hours. A few times I was even able to nap and Remedy just watched over me like she was the most patient pokemon in the world. When the sun seemed to be going down in the sky and the other pokemon were being let back inside, Remedy finally picked me up and moved me back to my room. After the nurse fed me again, I fell asleep.
Three days passed like a flash. Every morning Kaia came in to feed me. She also talked to me for hours about her hopes, pokemon, and excitement with being a trainer. I began to feel more relaxed around her. I finally let her pet me on the second day and on the third she even picked me up, she seemed very happy about this. Kaia also reintroduced me to her pokemon, Aqua and Soren. They seemed more respectful of my boundaries this time, Kaia must've warned them. Aqua seemed sweet, the piplup told me how she was trapped in a lab all of her life and that all she wanted to do was swim and explore. I shuddered at the thought of being trapped in a room like this one for years and instantly related to her. Soren was nice as well but he also loved to tease and joke. A few times he said things that made me feel sad and bad about myself but Aqua always made him apologize. Aqua told me stories of how he would play pranks on Kaia and her. In one of these stories Aqua said that Soren used one of his feathers to tickle Kaia's nose in her sleep, causing her to sneeze. I laughed at that. They both seemed to deeply love and respect Kaia. Soren, I understood because he told me he was with Kaia for his whole life but I was amazed how much Aqua loved her since she told me they've only been together for two weeks. They told me how much stronger Kaia had made them by training them, which excited me.
Remedy was also ecstatic about me opening up. Every day I would nag Remedy to bring me to the garden after I ate. I felt like I had to keep going back to see the beautiful flowers, it was entirely better than my room. If I could stay and sleep in the garden I would. Every day I was becoming more and more active, hobbling around the garden and becoming less tired with the increased activity. My presence in the garden did not go unnoticed by the pokemon who spent their time there. There were some that stayed away from me but overall most were friendly to me. Saying hello or complimenting how cute I was. I quickly became friends with the pokemon who were also stuck in this place. Remedy seemed to keep a very close eye out for any mean pokemon, she was a little too protective but I knew she cared about me.
Mew visited me in my dreams again on the second night and did her healing thing on me for a second time. I asked her but she sadly said she couldn't fully fix my leg and that I would have a limp no matter what. She outright refused to answer any important questions but still talked and supported me. In the dream world I could run like I had no injury at all, I took advantage of this by running around and playing games like tag with Mew. She seemed to enjoy herself as much as I did. Mew was always so nice but she loved to play jokes on me and was easily distracted. 'How was she able to stand watching me all the time if she can't hold her attention to anything that well.' I found myself thinking, becoming a little suspicious of the difference in her personality when she was watching me versus now. I still knew she wouldn't hurt me so I ignored my thoughts and just had fun while I could. Eventually though I had to wake up from the dreamy flower field.
On the third day after yet another scan, Remedy told me they had little reason to keep me there and would discharge me tomorrow. I still hurt but that was only because they took me off the anesthetics completely and gave me a minor painkiller instead. Kaia was okay with waiting for me to heal but even I could tell she was getting impatient about not doing the gym challenge for so long. She talked about becoming champion with such enthusiasm, it made me smile just listening. Tomorrow, no matter what, I will have to decide to go with Kaia or live in the forest again.
'Do I really want to go with her?' I could feel doubt and uncertainty filling me. 'If I went I would constantly be surrounded by humans, constantly in fear.' With that thought I was already feeling a twinge of fear. 'Even if I wasn't afraid, won't I hold Kaia back from her dream? Would I even be able to fight with a limp? I was already slower and weaker than my friends in the clan before my leg was hurt. It doesn't even make sense why Kaia wants me at all.' I made sure to face away from Remedy while a few tears escaped my eyes before I was able to stop them. 'No, I need to help my parents no matter what! I can't worry about anyone else's feelings or goals, not even my own fear. Even if I'm a detriment to the team I have to travel and find them. Then we can be a family again!' I sighed feeling a bit more determined, I knew I only had one real choice. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't even ask to go to the garden today. Hours passed and I hadn't really spoken to the friendly chansey at all. Sometimes I would catch her glancing at me with obvious worry but she didn't try talking to me. I looked out the window to see that it was already getting dark, 'How long have I been thinking?' I glanced over to the round time keeping device on the wall but I still had yet to learn how to read it. I sighed, 'Why couldn't I have a clock that just shows what time it was? Stupid clock with it's stupid arms that just meanlessly traveled around in a circle.'
All of the sudden there was a knock on the door, breaking me from my thoughts. The door opened fully showing Nurse Maggie and right next to her stood Rook, the leafeon. Rook gave me a cheerful "Hello!" Before walking into the room with Maggie.
I felt absolutely embarrassed upon seeing him again, remembering that I fell asleep in his embrace the last time he was here. "H-hello Rook, w-what are you doing here?" I managed to stammer out despite the heat filling my cheeks.
"Well, the rangers heard that this was your last night here and Abby allowed me the night off, so I came to help you sleep one more time." He smiled warmly at me. "Is that alright?" He asked.
I felt my heart skip a beat from nervousness. "You want to cuddle with me?" I asked, he nodded and jumped up to my bed in a big jump which I doubted I could pull off. He laid down next to me and invited me to get comfortable. I stumbled over and stared at him for an awkward amount of time. He waited patiently until I finally went and laid against his belly so he was curled around me. We both set our heads down and closed our eyes. He was so warm, his fur felt so comforting against mine. He quickly fell asleep but I was still awake for a long while. While I was super comfortable, my heart was still beating rapidly. Eventually I gave into the warmth and also fell asleep.
I woke up from my dreamless sleep with a massive headache, it felt like someone's claws were stabbing into by brain. I groaned in discomfort and squirmed around without opening my eyes.
"Astra, you okay?" Remedy asked with a hint of concern. I heard her come closer to me.
I still kept my eyes closed but groaned, "My head…" Even with my eyes closed I felt dizzy. My stomach made me feel the need to throw up, which I did right onto the bed.
"It must be the head trauma, just rest. It should go away soon." She said, sadly. "I'll get someone to clean that…" She shuffled away.
I kept my eyes closed, still trying my best not to think at all. The smell of my bile directly in front of my nose did not help the pain. Soon the nurse came in, or who I thought was the nurse from her smell. Remedy picked me up for a while and I could hear the bed sheets rustling as they were replaced. I was set down in fresh smelling blankets.
"After Kaia comes to feed you today you're going to be discharged from the pokecenter. I'll let you rest so hopefully you'll feel better by then." Remedy said in a low volume to me.
I was left alone in my bed for a while, I kept my eyes closed fearing that light would make my headache worse. Remedy didn't talk to me allowing me the quiet I needed for my headache and queasiness to slowly fade away. After probably an hour of trying not to think, Kaia came back in with the bottle.
"Hey you! You'll be coming with me today, are you ready?" She said with peppy enthusiasm that made my headache worse and made me more grumpy. I didn't respond in any way, putting my head down and closing my eyes again. She took this as a negative, "Oh, uh… well, I'm sorry. It's already set that you'll come with me. I finished the paperwork of your ownership yesterday."
I didn't mean to make it seem like I didn't want to go but I didn't try to correct it either. Something about the term ownership made me a little nervous. 'Does being owned mean that I can't choose anything on my own now? I'm stuck as Kaia's pokemon. Her other pokemon seemed happy so maybe I will be too. It might be too late to back out now anyways.' I sighed.
"Uh, well here's your breakfast." Kaia said while holding the bottle in front of my snout. I could smell the milk in the bottle, my stomach gurgled angrily at the prospect of accepting food. Still without appetite, I limped away at a sluggish pace to the corner of the bed to get away from the offending food and laid down. Kaia looked at the nurse with a confused look as if asking for help.
Maggie seemed to get what was happening because she said, "She threw up earlier so she might not be feeling too great today. You have to make her eat anyway. Her growth might be stunted if she doesn't."
"Oh sorry Astra, I didn't know you were feeling sick." Kaia came around the bed and stuck the bottle in my face again.
"Ugh." I exclaimed as I turned my face away.
The next few minutes involved me fleeing from Kaia who exasperatedly followed me around the bed with a feeding bottle in hand. Eventually, much to my chagrin, she picked me up and held me in the crook of her arm. Unable to get away from the bottle in front of my face anymore, I gave in and gagged a quarter of the bottle's contents down, after which they finally relented from force feeding me. She set me back down on the bed and smiled.
"See that wasn't so bad." Kaia said. I frowned, very much disagreeing with her statement as my stomach threatened to eject its contents. "Now, it's about time to get you into a pokeball, huh? We're going to be leaving soon." She got her backpack off her back and pulled out a red and white ball. Kaia placed it before me on the bed.
"Is that a pokeball?" I asked Remedy while nervously backing away a little.
"Yes, that's how pokemon trainers carry their pokemon with them. When you touch that ball you will be converted into pure energy and be sucked inside. With the team limit of 6 pokemon, if there wasn't a way to minimize pokemon then every trainer would have a large crowd of pokemon following them around." Remedy explained.
"Will it hurt?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the device.
"No, but it might feel kinda strange. In my experience, there will be a sort of tugging sensation in my chest and I felt a little weak but it is really comfortable in a pokeball. The perfect temperature, the perfect environment you could think of and you never feel hungry or hurt. You can even see what's happening outside the pokeball! Trust me, it's not that bad." Remedy said, obviously trying to reassure me.
"Just press the button in the center of the pokeball to activate it." Kaia instructed upon seeing my hesitation.
With her instruction I walked forward and sniffed the pokeball. Upon only smelling plastic, metel, and nothing harmful, I tapped my nose against the button section. The process started instantaneously. I panicked when my whole body instantly glowed a bright blinding red. I did indeed feel a strong tugging sensation in my chest like the pokeball was trying to pull me towards it and I felt weak like nothing I could do would stop this process. One instant the world was still there the next everything went black. I couldn't see, smell, hear, or feel anything. All sensation was gone. All I could do was feel anxious and wait. After about a minute of nothingness the words "capturing complete" appeared in front of me after those words faded the words "building virtual environment based on brain preferences" appeared with a loading bar. Two minutes passed while the bar filled completely. When it was finally finished, a blinding light flashed and I had to close my eyes. When I opened my eyes the blackness was gone, instead an all too familiar scene filled my vision.
A clearing, surrounded by trees, with a rock in the center and a cave with a stream running in front of it off to one side, it was home. I stared wide-eyed, taking in my surroundings. My nose automatically taking in the familiar smells of the forest, my ears catching the chirps and songs of bird pokemon in the trees. The heat of the sun felt nice on my fur coat.
My body started shaking violently when where I was finally sunk in. The horrible event that changed my life played scene by scene in my mind. Images flashed of my parents prone and injured on the ground in front of me. The poliwrath shattering my bones and laughing. My mom screaming in horror as she tried to get up to help me but utterly failing to get her legs to cooperate. My parents vanishing into pokeballs and getting taken away by the horrible humans. The scenes played on repeat in my head as I cried and screamed. My heart was beating frantically, I could hear it beating in my ears. I knew what I was seeing was in my head, I just wanted to stop remembering. I just wanted it to stop! I started banging my head against the rock, trying to knock myself out. It wasn't working, I couldn't even feel the impact of my head smashing into the stone. I continued to scream in anguish until there was a bright flash of light and suddenly I was back on my bed in the pokecenter.
I was still a trembling, crying, and screaming mess with snot running off my face. Three pairs of eyes stared at me in shock as I scrambled as far away from the pokeball as I could. I was so frantic in my escape that I almost fell off the bed.
Remedy was the first to break out of her shock to come over and soothe me, whispering "It's okay" over and over again while petting me. Kaia tried to come over to calm me down as well but for some reason every time she reached to pet me I automatically flinched back from her hand. This seemed to make her a little depressed.
After a while Remedy finally calmed me enough for me to stop crying and screaming though I still trembled and made small whimpering noises. Nurse Maggie spoke up saying "In order to get out of the pokeball without being released her heart rate must've been so high that it activated the safety release mechanism. What did she see that scared her that much?" She inquired with a hint of concern in her voice. "Do you know Remedy?"
I told Remedy what happened and she typed out what I said on the computer for Maggie to read over her shoulder.
"The pokeball placed her in the place where she was injured and orphaned? But why would the A.I. place her in a virtual environment that was so mentally scarring for her? It's supposed to make an environment that calms her." Maggie whispered to herself trying to puzzle out an answer that makes sense. After a long pause of silent contemplation, she spoke to Kaia. "I don't know why this happened but it's probably best not to place her in a pokeball again."
Kaia furrowed her brow, "She cannot keep pace with me due to her age and bad leg so how will I travel with her if she's out of her pokeball?"
The nurse looked around and focused on something on Kaia's back. "Your backpack looks big enough to hold her." Maggie pointed out.
"I guess I might be able to make room for her." Kaia said while unslinging her giant hiking backpack and setting it on the bed. She opened the main pocket and started taking out weird gadgets like survival knives and medkits and trying to stuff them in other pockets.
When she seemed satisfied she beckoned me over. After I limped over she picked me up and set me in the main pocket. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world but it worked. I had enough room to sit in her backpack and poke my head out. I seemed to be sitting on a blanket which must've been the blanket she used for camping. If this was the alternative to that infernal pokeball, I was completely fine with this mode of travel. I yipped my contentment to Kaia.
She sighed deeply and said, "I guess I'll be carrying you around then."