Officer Jenny sat on her police issued motorcycle, sipping coffee out of a Styrofoam cup. The streets of Petalburg City were calm today. Not much was wrong in the town and she caught up on some much needed relaxation on the job. She had just finished her coffee when an odd sight caught her eye.
It was too far away to make out any proper shape but from her view, the shadowy figure resembled a Ponyta galloping backwards. She was sure that it definitely wasn't what she thought because Ponyta don't run backwards and it was lacking the flaming mane. As it got closer, Jenny thought she saw two figures running together, the front one's head tucked into the other's chest. Even that didn't make any sense and made the bored officer even more intrigued. They got closer and closer until she could see exactly what this mystery figure was. Her eyes widened and hand loosened, making her let go of the coffee. She didn't react to the cup hitting the ground and spilling its contents.
Running down the street was not one, not two, but three figures. A human and a Pokémon, which she recognized as a Shelgon, were carrying a second human together while sprinting madly. The boy being carried was being supported by a blond haired boy by his arms and his legs rested on the Shelgon's back.
"Draco, we need to move faster!" the boy at the back yelled in a strained voice, "Sam has lost too much blood, we need to get to the hospital as fast as possible!"
The Shelgon, Draco she assumed, responded but only repeats of his name were understood. Jenny wondered what they meant by 'lost too much blood' and took a closer look at the unconscious boy. How she did not notice the severity of the situation right away eluded her as the boy's face was covered in blood and his shirt stained a deep crimson.
The lights on the motorcycle flared up as the engine roared to life. The officer sped off, leaving the now empty cup in the dust as she rushed to the kids.
"What happened here?" she called out, her voice barely audible over the engine's roar. Despite the noise, the blond looked up, relief washing over his face.
"He got into a fight with some Pokémon," he explained, his breath coming in short gasps, "his scar was open when I found him. He was conscious after the fight but as soon as we hit the road, he just passed out."
Officer Jenny bit her lip as she looked down at the unconscious boy. His scars hadn't healed yet, indicating that he received them a few weeks ago. They were pink and puffy which may have been the reason why one tore open like his friend said.
"We need to get him to the hospital immediately," she told the boy, "I'll take him straight there on my bike. You can meet him there."
"Are you sure you can support him?" the boy asked, handing Sam's limp body over to the officer, "You'll have to make sure he doesn't fall off and control the bike. Think you can do that?"
"I wish I could say that this was my first time doing this," Jenny said and placed Sam in between her and the handlebars, "luckily for your friend, it isn't. Anything else I should know?"
"Um... yeah, hold on," the boy said and rummaged through his pockets. When he pulled his fist out, he handed Jenny a Pokéball, "That's his Charmander, Pyro. He was pretty beat up in the fight too."
Jenny nodded and sped off, Sam's head flopping back and forth as she raced down the city streets. She prayed that she could get Sam medical treatment before it was too late.
A chatter of quiet voices slowly roused him from a slumber. Their words were indistinct and the topic of the conversation was unknown. As he became more conscious, his ears picked up more sounds. An electronic beeping coming from his right, the hum of machines, footsteps padding down an unseen hallway. He was all too aware of a painful throbbing in his head.
This all seemed very familiar and he slowly opened his eyes to get a look at his surroundings. He was covered in white sheets in a room where the walls were painted a dull yellow. At the foot of his bed he could see the people he heard talking, both of them young women. One was dressed in blue, a uniform he pinned to the police department. The other had flaming red hair and dressed in attire that matched his bed sheets. He determined that she must be a nurse.
"...lucky to be alive," he heard the nurse say as he regained his knowledge of speech, "He was released from the Littleroot hospital barely a week ago. His concussion didn't have sufficient amount of time to heal and I fear this incident may have made it worse."
"I'm not doctor but I think he'll pull through," the officer said, "his friend said that he managed to walk for a bit before collapsing."
"He's a trooper, I'll give him that," the nurse looked over at him as she said this and noticed that he was awake, "looks like he regained consciousness. You go get his friends from the waiting room and I'll do a quick checkup."
The officer nodded and left the room through sliding glass doors while the nurse sat down next to his bed.
"Do you know who you are?" she asked slowly. His brain took longer than usual to register the words but he understood what they meant and nodded, "Can you recount the details of what has happened recently?"
"I'm Sam Crenshaw, from Littleroot," he began, finding it hard to form that simple sentence. The nurse nodded and asked him to continue, "I received these scars from a fight, suffered massive head trauma and now I'm on a delivery job to Kanto."
"Is that it?" she asked with a slight frown. When Sam nodded, her brow furrowed deeper, "Do you know where we are?"
"Sure, we're in a hospital."
"No, more general. Which town are we in?"
Sam's face contorted in confusion. He responded with a question, "Oldale?"
"Petalburg," the nurse sighed and scribbled something on a notepad, "you've forgotten a whole day of travels. You left Oldale last morning and got into a fight with a group of bug Pokémon. Do you remember any of this?"
Sam squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to force the memories to the surface. When he tried to remember what had happened after the motel, he was met with a haze. Fragments of the day drifted through his mind. The Pokémon's names, the bridge being out and a few splinters of the fight were the only things he could remember.
"Barely," Sam grumbled, "what does this mean?"
"Memory loss can be expected with concussions," the nurse said and took out a small flashlight after she wrote some more things down. She told him to follow the light and keep his head still. The light hurt his eyes but he obeyed while she talked, "I'm just going to do a few more tests, see the extent of the injury."
True to her word, she preformed three more tests on him and when she was done she left the room to examine the results. Sam barely had time by himself when the door burst open again. He looked up and saw Daren and their Pokémon rushing in.
"You just love hospitals, don't you?" Pyro said and jumped onto the bed, "we can't keep you away from them."
Sam knew the Charmander was making fun of him but smiled weakly, knowing it was in good humour. His Pokémon proceeded to rest his head against the human's legs.
"How you feeling?" Daren asked as he took a seat on a chair by the bed. His Pokémon sat around him. A low groan escaped from Sam's mouth as he let his head fall back into the pillow.
"It feels like someone is trying to carve out the inside of my head with a dull knife," he muttered while rubbing his temples in hopes of diminishing the pain. It helped but not much and Sam stopped the motion after a minute. He shifted his leg so Pyro would have a more comfortable position to rest on. The door whooshed open and the nurse re-entered the room, a smaller version of herself following close behind her.
"Sam you results are back in," she began and despite his tiredness, Sam shot upwards, "the trauma you received to you head has indeed worsened your condition. It is recommended that you stay in the hospital until your injury has fully healed."
"I can't do that!" Sam exclaimed, knocking Pyro off the bed by accident. After some choice swears from the Pokémon and a quick apology, he continued, "If I stay here then I miss the boat to Kanto. There's only a month and a half left of summer break so I have to leave or miss the first month of school."
"I thought you'd say that," to both trainers' surprise, the nurse smiled. She stepped to the side and gave them a better look at the younger girl, "this is Naomi, my niece, who's aspiring to become both a human and a Pokémon doctor. If you choose to go, she will accompany you to make sure that you're in good condition. I'll leave you three to get acquainted batter."
The nurse left the room again and Naomi shifted uneasily on her feet. Daren broke the uncomfortable silence that followed with a sharp cough.
"So, Naomi, why are you training to be both kinds of a doctor?" he asked, trying to make the awkward girl feel less out of place, "isn't that a lot harder than choosing just one profession?"
"I did it because I want to help people but Pokémon are just so fascinating to me," she said, averting eye contact at the start but she began to focus on Sam. She scratched her head, unsure how to say the next part without accidentally sounding offensive. She decided just to say what was on her mind, "look, I want to help Sam get better but it wasn't the only reason why I asked to join you."
"You asked to join us?" Sam asked becoming slightly confused, his damaged brain having significant trouble with understanding, "What was the other reason?"
"You might already know this but your Charmander is huge," she told him, "he's a full foot taller than normal at his first evolution. As he grows and evolves, who knows how big he will be when he becomes a Charizard."
"Heh, and they say girls don't care about size," Pyro chuckled, leaning against the bed. Unfortunately for him, he was standing too close and Sam gave him a sharp smack to the back of the head and a scold. The fire-type waved it off like it was nothing but Naomi gave a gasp of shock at Sam's abusive behavior.
"He deserved it for what he said," Sam explained quickly, noticing the girl's surprise. Before she could respond, he changed the topic back to the original, "so you're joining us because of Pyro?"
"Yes, I want to document his growth. For all I know, he might just be the largest of his species that we know of and I want to make sure that someone is there to take note of it. That doesn't bother you, does it?"
"Of course not, that's awesome!" Daren exclaimed, answering for both of them, "It'd be great to have some company. Sure, you can come, as long as Sam okay with it."
All eyes in the room turned to Sam, even those that belonged to the Pokémon. Both Daren and Naomi had the faintest look of pleading in their eyes. Sam didn't want Naomi to come along that much because it would be just one more person and an unknown number of Pokémon he would have to keep his secrets from. Put on the spot and not wanting to seem like a jerk, he said okay and both Naomi and Daren cheered.
"Thank you so much. You won't regret this, I promise," Naomi said, her face joyful, "I just need to get some supplies and my Pokémon. We can leave as soon as we get back."
She rushed out of the room in excitement, leaving Sam and Daren in completely different moods. Daren seemed really excited by this turn of events. Sam was grim about having to keep the Masterball hidden from two humans and he was worried how they would react if they found out about his ability. Would they be repulsed, fascinated or would they just not care? He didn't know what his future held but already he was dreading it.