Author notes:
1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.
2)I don't own Pokemon, obviously.
3)I only own the plot for this story and the eventual OCs
4) Thanks WildCroconaw for your reviews
5)Pokemon's speeches are "Like this"
Mary and Jack's first day was much better than they had anticipated. Jack feared he was going to be bombarded during the classes with questions from other students, but they left them alone during the classes.
On the other hand, they did bombard him and Mary with questions during the breaks between the classes.
"How old are you guys?" asked a girl with brown hair and a ponytail named Susie.
"We're both thirteen. Jack here had his birthday a few weeks ago." Mary answered with a smile.
Jack just scratched his cheek as people kept bombarding them with questions. He never really liked being in that kind of situation. Being in the center of the attention that is. He did gave them answers for their questions as briefly as he could hoping to satiate their curiosity as fast as he could.
Mary, on the other hand never had any difficulty in handling crowds. Jack admired her talent to never fail under pressure.
"Hey, Jack, want to battle during break?" asked boy with green hair named Thomas with a grin.
The request saddened Jack. He should have expected that in this school pokemon battles were allowed while not in class nor inside of school building, but he expected the students there to be more focused in healing and raising pokemon, not in battling.
"I like to leave my pokemon at home." Jack said bluntly hoping to end the matter right there.
The boy sighed. "Too bad. But bring them here tomorrow. It'll be fun." He finished with a smile.
Maria just looked at her friend worried after that. She knew Jack didn't like the whole 'make pokemon fight for his own amusement' part. She wasn't against battles as much as Jack. As long as the pokemon had fun with it, it would be the same as a friendly sparring, in her opinion. But she respected Jack's choice in this matter.
The rest of the day went smoothly. Jack enjoyed the majority of the classes, but math, chemistry and physics. He was never really good these three.
After the end of the classes, Mary and Jack went to the hospital wing of the school and found a female doctor there. She had red long hair, ebony skin and a gentle smile.
"Excuse me, miss." Jack asked politely to the doctor.
The woman turned, smiled and asked: "What can I do for you? Do you need an explanation of today's subject?" but then she realized the two kids were too young to be in her classes yet. "Sorry, I thought you were in the 11th grade yet. What can I help you with? I'm Caroline, by the way"
The boy then explained to her: "Hi. I'm Jack and this is Mary. I'm wondering if you guys could take a look at a pokemon of mine. He's feeling ill from time to time."
The doctor hummed and said: "You're lucky. I have some spare time today. I teach advanced clinics for the 11th graders. I'm also a doctor here after the class time. The movement here is slow today. But what exactly is wrong with your pokemon? Did you take him to a pokemon center?"
The boy then replied: "I did take him there and they couldn't find anything wrong with him. You see. My abra feels ill with irregular time gaps and it started some days ago. He suddenly loses all his energy even and his chest seems to hurt a lot. But his blood results and overall exams couldn't find anything."
The doctor had her suspicions of the disease the boy was describing, but it should be obvious ion blood tests, if it were the case. It was a pokemon bacteria. That a pokemon can acquire if they drink contaminated water. 'Maybe they made a mistake at the pokemon center. But it seems to be the beginning of the disease. So it's easily treatable.' She thought.
"Bring him here. I'll take a look at him." She said.
The boy nodded and thanked her and walked to the exit alongside Mary. He then asked her: "Would you like to come get my pokemon with me?"
The girl loved the idea. She knew her parents wouldn't mind since they already knew Jack was going to the same school as her. So she said: "I would love to."
She also wanted to see Jack's pokemon again. It has been some time since they all played together. She really liked them all. Plus, she would be able to take a look at Jack's new house.
Once the teens exited the school they found an old man next to a car waiting for someone. It was Alfred.
The boy greeted the butler politely. The man smiled at the boy and asked: "How was your first day of school?" then he noticed the girl next to him and asked: "Hello, are you Jack's friend?"
The girl nodded and replied: "Yes. I'm Mary. Nice to meet you, sir."
The man then replied: "I'm Alfred. Butler of the Grandfist family. Nice to meet you too."
Mary was a bit surprised to hear that her friend now had a butler. Jack, however, never liked the idea of someone else doing everything for him. But he did appreciate the help the man was giving him.
The man opened the backseat door of the car and the two teens got inside of it. The man got inside of the driver's seat and asked with a teasing smile to Jack: "How was your day, Jack? And is she your new friend?"
The boy then replied blushing a little: "It was better than I thought. The other students seem to be really nice. She's Mary, by the way. We're friends for years now. I've met her in the orphanage. Her dad works there."
Then he remembered and said to the butler: "Oh! Alfred, I managed to schedule an examination for Touma this afternoon. I want to pick him and the others back to the school for the doctor there take a look at him. Could you take us back here, please?"
During the car travel, Alfred smiled and said: "I hope the doctor can figure it out what's wrong with your pokemon. I can drive you back to the school. There's no problem."
The boy smiled and replied: "Thanks a lot, mister."
The man then replied: "Don't worry, Jack. I'm sure the doctor will figure it out. Also, you don't have to call me Mister. Alfred is good to me." He then gave the boy a warm smile.
The boy smiled back feeling a little better and then asked: "Did my pokemon gave any trouble."
The man chuckled and replied: "They behaved very well. I followed your notes about how to feed your pokemon, especially the ponyta. She behaved quite well and she also has a good appetite. She drunk the whole bottle."
Mary then asked: "How long do ponytas need to be fed by bottle?"
"Her species need to be feed with milk until they're four months old. After that they can eat solid food. A baby nidoran, for example, usually eats smashed berries from their parents, the nidorans aren't mammals even though all pokemon are born from eggs." The boy replied.
Alfred was quite amazed at the knowledge of the boy. Jack proceeded in rant about pokemon biology as they arrived at the house. The man even had to admit he learned quite a bit about pokemon during that short car trip.
When they got out of the car, Jack told Mary to where his pokemon were and he was going to take her there, but, before that, the boy thanked Alfred once more for being patient with his pokemon. The butler then said: "Your pokemon didn't give any trouble. You don't have to worry about it. I bet they'll be very pleased to see you two. I'll wait here for you." Alfred said.
The boy nodded and replied: "Thank you, Mr. Alfred." The boy said as he led Mary towards the place where his pokemon were.
The old man smiled as he saw the two young teens going towards the backyard.
When Jack opened the door he saw his pokemon playing tag there. As soon as he said: "Hello, everyone! Guess who came to a visit?" all his pokemon stopped playing and then rushed towards Mary happily.
Touma teleported and landed right on her shoulders giving her hug, Misaka hugged her leg while Hiro only rubbed his face on her leg. The nidorino was gaining quite a weight lately. His specie can get to half of the size of an adult human. If he isn't careful he could accidentally use too much strength and knock the girl on the floor.
The nidorino was quite upset because of this because Jack couldn't carry him on his arms anymore. But he knew that this only meant that he was getting stronger and he could protect his family much better.
Fiona remembered the girl next to Jack and she allowed Mary to pet her. The ponyta also liked that girl, but then Fiona neighed happily as she moved next to Jack who gently scratched under her chin with his right hand. Hiro, Touma and Misaka then moved towards jack and the boy and hugged Hiro, Touma and Misaka with his free left arm.
Mary was quite touched by the scene. She couldn't help but to wish she had brought her camera with her.
"So you survived your first day at the new school, eh?" Touma said teasingly.
"Tell us about it!" Hiro said quite anxious.
"Leave that to later. Let's play first!" Misaka suggested pulling the boys pants and pointing to a ball Alfred gave them earlier.
After the group hug, Jack said: "I'm really sorry guys but we can't play right now. You see, I'll bring you guys there right now because one of the teachers is a doctor and she agreed to take a look at you Touma."
The ponyta immediately saddened because she thought Jack was going to leave once more. Noticing her sad neighs, he assured her. "Don't worry, I'll bring you all there. But, Fiona, you'll need to stay in your pokeball during the car travel, ok? I promise to take you out as soon as we get there."
This made the fire-type relax a little bit. But the psychic pokemon didn't like the idea that much.
"Why time goes forward? This day should never have come! When I want to leave something for later, I actually want it to never come so I can always be relaxed about my worries that shall never come! That's what's procrastination is all about. When will you learn that, Jack?" Touma whined at Jack's comment
Misaka rolled her eyes and said: "Can you please stop. Jack is only doing it because he's worried about you."
Touma sighed and replied: "I know, I know…" the abra then paused and looked at the window before replying: "Misaka, when we get there, please use your thunder wave on me before I escape, okay? I just hope this doctor won't rip me to shreds while I lie there helpless."
Even Misaka and Hiro rolled their eyes at the abra's drama. "Dude, you don't have to be so morbid." The nidorino stated.
"But IS the truth!" The abra protested.
Hiro sighed and told Misaka: "Can you paralyze him now? Before he has a change of heart?"
The abra then protested: "Hey! I need to prepare myself emotionally for such a complicated procedure…"
But then Misaka grabbed his hand and said: "Sorry, Touma, but's for your good." Then she paralyzed him.
The humans just observed the conversation. Thankfully, they didn't need to understand their language to know the content of their conversation. The boy then picked the paralyzed abra, who did his best to calm himself down. With some luck it would be over quite fast, that was his thought, anyway.
Jack then picked a pokeball and said: "I promise to release you as soon as we get there, Fiona I promise."
Then he used the device to put the fire-type back inside the pokeball. Then he told the others. "Let's go, everyone. Alfred is waiting for us outside, near the car to take us to the school."
They then followed Jack to the car. Jack opened the backseat door for Mary, Misaka and Hiro enter the vehicle and then he closed the door and got inside with them. Alfred then drove them back to the pokemon raising School. When they got outside of the car, Jack released Fiona from the pokeball and gently rubbed her fur while apologizing for the inconvenience.
Alfred then accompanied the boy and the girl along with the pokemon to the hospital wing of the school. Thankfully, they didn't have to wander too much to find Caroline.
The doctor raised her eye left eyebrow and asked seeing the abra on the boy's arms: "Why is this abra paralyzed?"
Jack smiled sheepishly and replied: "Well, he's very afraid of needles. He was paralyzed just to make things a bit easier for you. Don't give him a parlyz heal before you performed all the exams. He can teleport away otherwise. His name is Touma, by the way."
The doctor chuckled and picked the pokemon form the boy's arms and then asked: "Are these other pokemon of your for examination as well?"
The boy then replied: "No, no. It's just that I don't like to keep them inside of pokeballs, you see."
She whistled. It was difficult to see some people like him, but she was friends with some herself and sometimes a trainer like him showed up there asking for some help when the pokemon center was full. Besides, since it was normal for some pokemon to help at the hospital, nobody would care that much that Jack kept his pokemon outside of the pokeballs or not.
"Alright, then. Why don't you go to the waiting room that is at the end of that hall." She said pointing to a place full of chairs, a television and some magazines.
"Thank you". The boy said with a smile.
The woman smiled and told him that she would take good care of the abra.
After she left, Jack and the others went to the waiting hall where he could barely contain his nervousness. He didn't know what to do if they didn't find what was wrong with abra. 'Maybe I could go check the library here. But what can I find if professional doctors can't…' he thought.
Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked at Mary who told him to relax. She assured him that the abra was going to be okay.
The boy just smiled a bit in response. He just hoped that his friend would be alright. All his pokemon could feel how tense Jack was. Even Alfred could.
Fiona tried to comfort him by licking his hand. Jack felt it then smiled at the ponyta snapping from his thought.
"I haven't seen Jack so worried before…Is what Touma has that dangerous?" Hiro asked Misaka.
The small ampharos shrugged and replied: "I hope not. I know Touma can be a bit annoying at times, but I don't want anything bad to happen to him. He's like an annoying little brother to whom I have a love/hate relationship."
Hiro nodded and replied: "Yeah. We're pretty much a family. I hope this new doctor can cure him."
After that they felt silent. The mere thought of one of them dying was to frightening to conceive.
A couple of hours later, Touma teleported right between jack and Mary grabbing both of them while sobbing and screaming how horrible it was for him.
Hiro couldn't help but to chuckle: "Just like a son clinging to his parents."
Jack managed to get his pokemon off them and patted him on the head. Trying to calm him down.
"So, that's how those murder victims wrapped in duct tape feel before that guy killed them in the TV [1]. It's the worst thing ever. Next time knock me out! Better yet, don't bring me here ever again!" Touma said trembling. He had done his best to not panic on the examination table. The doctors made a lot more of exams he was used to and he almost had a heart attack when they started to pick more blood than he was used to. Usually it was just one small vial, but they took three from him.
Then, suddenly, they heard someone saying: "Sheesh! You weren't joking about the parlyz heal. As soon as I gave him one, he teleported away. I was fearing he had fled." Caroline came in a hurry to the waiting room.
Jack then looked at the doctor and asked: "So, can did you find out what was wrong with him?"
She gave a deep breath to calm herself down and then started to explain: "At first, I thought it was a bacteria from water that was causing what you described. But the blood tests showed nothing. Also the pain should have been constant and not in irregular patterns as you described me. I'm sorry, but I found nothing wrong with him."
Mary then asked: "Didn't you discover anything unusual about Touma? At all?"
The woman then answered: "Well, the only thing unusual that the test revealed was that your abra has a high sensitivity for a psychic pokemon of his stage. It's rare, but it's not something you should worry about. My guess this is why he hates needles so much."
Caroline didn't like this. She doubted the boy was lying about the symptoms. Besides, it just meant there was a pokemon that she couldn't heal and it bothered her. She saw the boy's face get really worried as he looked at the abra.
Even the pokemon were visible worried by asking Touma if he was alright.
"Do you know how often does he has those pains?" she asked curious.
"They're not often…" the boy started. "Touma did you feel ill again today?" he asked his abra.
Touma stopped sobbing for a moment and gave a "no" with his head. All Jack knew was that these pains started showing up after he moved with the Grandfists. The boy tried to recap everything he did and gave his pokemon to eat in order to see if he had done something wrong or even let his pokemon get in contact with another ill pokemon, but if the latter case were to be true, then why Misaka, Hiro and Fiona weren't sick?
The doctor then apologized the boy for not being able to be much of a help, but she told him to bring the psychic pokemon to her as fast as he can if he witness the abra feeling any pain. This way she should be able to pin point what's exactly is making the abra ill.
The boy thanked her and left school with his pokemon, Mary and Alfred back to the car. The boy placed Fiona inside of the pokeball once more. Then Alfred said: "Where, do you live, young miss? I can drive you there."
The girl then answered: "But won't that be a bother to you?"
The man then said: "Of course it won't, my dear."
She then thanked and told him where her house was.
When they go there, Mary hugged Jack and then his pokemon. She told Jack she was looking forward seeing him again on the next day and she also told him she would come by to his house to play with him the boy smiled and agreed with it.
The girl also thanked Alfred for the ride and left the car. Then Alfred proceeded to drive back to the Grandfist's home. During the travel back home the man could see through the mirror that Jack's humor got a little worse after the girl left. He thought it was because he was back focusing on the abra's health issue.
The butler tried to cheer the boy up, but he saw it was useless. Hiro and Misaka were equally worried. As for Touma, he actually started to wonder why he had to go through this. He didn't even know what makes him feel this way. Nobody knew. So he endured all that for nothing?
After they got back home, Jack told Alfred, he would be at the backyard with his pokemon. The butler nodded, but said nothing. It tore his heart to see Jack so sad.
At the backyard, Jack was trying to examine Touma with the little he knew. He asked him questions about the times he had the pains. It was a bit difficult, but he managed to get some answers thanks to Hiro's help to drawing on a piece of paper with his horn.
After that, Jack, carefully cleaned the horn to make sure there was no ink there anymore. The interval of the pains were so irregular that no known pokemon disease caused this. This only frustrated the boy even more. He thought of letting the doctor know all about what he found on the next day.
But then, suddenly, John came to the backyard and saw Jack finishing taking care of the black ink on the nidorino's horn. He also saw some weird drawing on some sheets of paper over a table, but said nothing. He just assumed it was the way his son found to keep communicating with his pokemon.
The man smiled and asked him: "Hello, Jack. How was your first day of school? Alfred told me you went to the hospital wing of the school after your classes to check on your abra. How was he?"
The boy sighed and replied solemnly: "The first day of school was good. I really enjoyed the classes. As for Touma's condition, the doctor gave the same diagnosis: there is nothing wrong with Touma."
The man didn't know what to say to encourage the boy: "Maybe we can find another pokemon doctor nearby. I'll see if I can find someone who can take a good look into your abra."
The boy nodded and thanked the man for that.
John then said: "The dinner is served. I'll ask Alfred to bring you your meal here. Maybe you'll feel better after a good meal." After that he ruffled the boy's hair and left back inside of the house after the boy thanked him.
However, Touma just held his chest as the pain came during the conversation, but it disappeared when the man left the yard.
End of chapter 10
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review.
More author notes:
[1]Guess which TV show was it.