Pokémon Trainer Hero
Chapter 11: The Secret is Revealed
Gar slept peacefully and silently. The only sound coming off him was his soft breathing, the only movement from his chest. He looked so calm as he slept, but then he started to stir. A tired groan escaped his lips, and his shut, closed eyes began to flutter open. After some movement under his sheets of trying to stretch, he finally relaxed with a content sigh.
As Gar's mind and memory started to tune back into previous events, his eyes immediately shot open with panic! He ripped at the covers in a panic as he flopped like a beached Magikarp to sit up; he finally pulled the covers away from his body and sat up with eyes wide, breath heavy, and body tense. After a few minutes of heavy and panicked breathing, he finally looked around the area he was in and noticed he was in some sort of hospital room. The room has white walls, ceiling, curtains, bedding with blue tile floor, stainless steel tools, trays, and other assortments of items, along with the light scent of chemicals and medicine in the air. The window in his room showed bright light coming through, and the wall clock read 10:30 am. Monitors that lightly beeped in rhythm to keep track of his vitals. Gar saw the implants and IV tubes on his body and ripped them off.
Once he ripped them off, he immediately felt a searing pain in his left breast and tenderly grabbed his body in pain. He didn't even want to know why that part of him hurt, so he left it alone. After the implants were off, the machines flatlined from no reading; Gar tried to calm himself down as he put his hands in his face, rubbing his hair and trying to shake off the excess panic and fatigue in his body.
Gar started to cry. He didn't know why he did, but as Gar was sitting there and with his face covered in his hands, he started an ugly cry for no reason. He even gave a laugh or two, which scared him a few times between sobs. He sat there and cried his eyes out for a good ten minutes until he finally got control of himself and calmly breathed. The moment he stopped crying and was fully calm, someone opened the door and walked into his room. Gar looked over and almost had to do a double-take when he saw no one standing there, but then his eyes cast down, and he saw a very short old woman dressed like a nurse with a cane that's shaped like a syringe. "Well, I'm glad to see you awake.", the woman said sweetly.
Gar knew this person and asked, "Recovery Girl?"
"That's me.", the short woman answered as she creakily walked over to him.
She hobbled over and saw the flat-lined machines and the forcefully removed implants and IV cord. Some of which had been broken from being removed so roughly. Recovery Girl sighed in mild irritation as she said, "You really shouldn't have removed those from your body, especially with such force. They may be small, but they're not cheap."
Gar rubbed the back of his head as he apologized, "S-Sorry bout that. I-I wasn't thinking. They were just on me when I woke up, and I pulled them off before I realized what they were or where I was."
The old lady sighed again and replied, "It's alright, it's understandable. This happens at times, so I'm used to patients doing it by accident. Now let's get the rest of your equipment off of you properly before you bleed out."
Gar was confused by this statement until he looked down at his arm and saw that the IV syringe was bleeding him out in small drops. "Oh." was the only thing he said.
As Recovery Girl worked to remove all the other wires, devices, and do-dads from Gar's body, the teen, who still wasn't in the right state of mind, mindlessly asked, "Where am I?"
"You're in the UA infirmary, of course.", the old woman answered without missing a step.
Gar gave a dry laugh and followed up, "Yeah, I guess that was obvious." As Recovery Girl was finishing up, Gar asked another question, "What happened?"
Recovery Girls gave an understanding hum and asked back, "Before I do, do you remember anything?"
Gar paused for a moment before answering, "Well...we arrived at the USJ, and villains attacked us. Shota and I fought a flood of them; 13 got hurt, everyone was scattered. I sent my Pokemon to help everyone, a giant beaked...thing attacked Shota. My, I and my Pokemon managed to hold it off. All my Pokemon got defeated, I somehow managed to break the time-space continuum with Rotom and my Pokebox, I sent out a bunch of Pokemon to fight the monster, and they all lost, and then….I'm not sure? E-Everything just becomes fuzzy after that."
Before Recover Girl could explain what happened, panic shot through Gar as he exclaimed to the woman, "The monster. Those villains called it Nomu! It was supposed to kill All Might! What happened to it?! Tell me!"
"Easy honey, easy.", Recovery Girl said to him in a calm tone. Gar stopped panicking, but the stress and tenseness on his face didn't leave. "I saw the video of you fighting that Nomu thing. Your Pokemon got taken down one by one until you were only left with two. The small one you called Mimikyu managed to get the job done. After the two of you did a strange dance and your animal covered that thing in its sheet. It came out looking like it saw hell, and then your Pokemon sliced its head off.", she explained, and upon hearing this, Gar relaxed.
Something else crossed the older teen's mind, and he became even more panicked as he exclaimed, "Katskui, Eijiro, Shoto, Izuku. OH ARCEUS! That thing creamed them!" Gar then grabbed the old woman in a panic and started to shake her and demanded in a fearful panic, "Please, Chiyo, please tell me they're alright! Everyone, my pokemon, and Rotom! Please, Please, Please!"
Chiyo had been in situations like this and knew exactly how to handle them. She held the panicking teens' hands gently yet firmly to stop him from shaking her, and in a calm tone, she said, "Easy now, easy. Take deep breaths with me."
The old woman then began to match Gar's panicked breathing until she could sync his with hers and control it to a more calm state. After several minutes of taking calming breaths and gentle hand rubs from the older woman, Gar is viable and relaxed enough to speak and reason again.
The older teen rubbed tears from his eyes as he said, "I'm-I'm sorry about that."
Chiyo gave a kind chuckle and replied, "It's alright, dear, I understand. You're panicked after this whole experience, and I've dealt with panic attacks more than once. Some are far worse than what you did." Gar gave a nervous chuckle. "But to explain your dilemma, your other classmates were far worse for wear when they came in, but they all managed to make a full recovery.", she winked at the last part, making Gar smile. "Many of your Pokemon were also in bad shape. I'm no vet, so I couldn't do much, so UA had to contract professional Veterinarians to aid them. After some paperwork and a small sum of cash from UA to keep the Pokemon quiet, they're all recovering and should be in the fighting force in a few days to a week."
"So you bribed a small army of Nurse Joy's to heal my Pokemon?" Gar asked sarcastically.
"In essence, yes.", the old woman answered. "As for your living phone friend, no one really could work on...it, since it wasn't a living creature or technology. So we gave him time to rest in a charger."
Gar sighed and relaxed all the way, hearing this news as he said, "That sure takes a load off my chest.", then Gar remembered something else and asked, "What about the villains?"
Recovery Girl checked on the state of the other implants that Gar ripped off and explained, "All of their lackeys that they sent to fight you kids were caught and arrested. As for the leaders, they unfortunately escaped."
Gar ground his teeth and pounded his fist against the arm of the bed! "Arceus Damit!" though he immediately regretted this as pain shot up his arm, and he hissed from the shock!
"Don't hurt yourself any further, please.", Recovery Girl said firmly while not taking her eyes off what she was doing.
Gar only grunted in pain while grabbing his arm and sitting back against his pillow. Gar then remembered something else, and rubbing his head; he asked in a groan, "How long was I out?"
"It's Friday.", she replied without missing a beat.
Gar shot straight up, eyes wide and body tense from this news, as he exclaimed, "I was unconscious for three days!"
"I'd say you slept pretty well in all regards. Shota would kill to be you.", the old lady snickered to herself.
"Chiyo, this is serious! I wasn't sleeping. I was in a coma!" he stressed to her!
"A temporary coma I had to induce on you.", she expanded.
Gar stopped for a moment and asked, "You what?! W-Why?!"
"While you were recovering and being treated for your injuries, you were in a semi-conscious lucid state of awareness. You kept fighting back during treatment and travel while muttering about how you had to 'get back, stop the monster, save everyone' and so forth. So it was I either restrain you or put you into a state of temporary rest until you recovered enough. Have to say, though, you have quite the fighting spirit.", Chiyo explained.
Gar sighed as he said, "Sorry about the trouble."
She waved it off and replied, "It's alright, but you did make a good recovery. Now I'll just give you a once over, write out a new prognosis for you, and you can be on your way."
Gar nodded, and the old lady pulled out a stand to get eye level with the older teen. Once she was at his height, she began to poke and prod around his face and nose.
"Uh, Chiyo.", Gar said with the old woman pinching his nose, to which she replied with a hum. "I know you're a medical professional, but normally only Ambipom picks my nose when I'm not looking.", he remarked sarcastically.
Recovery Girl gave an irritated sigh, not amused by the joke, and explained, "I'm not picking your nose, I'm checking it. It was extremely damaged when you were brought in, and I wanted to make sure you don't have any facial fractures. Now do you feel anything?", she asked while pinching it and pulling it in different spots.
"Just your cold old ladyfinger.", Gar answered, until the old woman's cane fell hard on his head! "Ow! I could've been way more descriptive!" Gar complained!
The old woman gave a gruff growl as she stated, "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't. Now, if you wouldn't mind disrobing from your upper body, I'll finish up."
Gar looked down at his hospital gown that he didn't realize he was wearing and said, "Oh, uh, okay."
Gar then tried to remove his gown down to his waistline, albeit extremely slowly due to his sore body. Once he slipped the sleeves off and revealed his bare upper body, he immediately freaked out upon seeing his chest!
"Holy Bisharp! What happened to my chest!" he yelled while looking down at the large, misshapen, healing scars that covered his entire left breast.
"That villain you fought, the one with the hands. He had a quirk that decayed your left breast and Shota's elbow. You're both very lucky to still have those parts of your body. Thanks to your clothing, only the first few layers of skin managed to rot off. Another minute or so, and your muscle would have been exposed. You may have even lost that part completely.", Recovery Girl explained calmly while setting a clipboard on his bed and donning a pair of gloves. "But I did what I could, and you are still able to use or keep those parts of your body. Though you both will have a scar."
Gar looked at his new 'battle wound,' not at all enjoying the sight of it. Until he noticed something strange and asked, "Wait….do I still have a nipple?" Gar then tenderly felt around his breath and only felt slight twinges of pain from how tender it was. His eyes went wide as he screamed, "Sweet Barbaracle! I don't have a nipple!"
"Calm down, sweetie.", Recovery Girl said calmly.
"I don't have a fucking nipple!" Gar screamed!
"Dearie."
"I'm the one nipple freak!"
"Garfield."
"Oh, Arceus, when Katskui finds out, he'll never let me live it down!" Gar continued to complain in a panic until Recovery Girl's cane found its way on his head. "OW!" Gar complained, making himself stop his ranting!
"Are you done?" she asked, calm yet exhausted.
"...yes.", Gar drowned out.
The old woman took a calming breath and explained, "Now then, I can't fix Shota's cause of its location, but yours is much more doable. I can cultivate a few skin grafts and use some plastic surgery to give you a fake nipple. It won't be the same, but it'll look much better."
Gar looked down at his injury for a few moments until he finally answered with a soft, "No, I don't think I'll do that." Recovery Girl looked at him strangely until he corrected himself, exclaiming, "I mean YET, I won't do it yet. I...want to keep it for now. As a reminder, an incentive for myself. To find and put away all those bastards and their cohorts for what they did to us.", he stated while tightening his hand into a fist.
Recovery Girl shrugged and stated, "If that's what you want. I won't force you to do what you don't desire, but I will keep the offer open. Just don't wait too long; I'm old. Now would you mind-bending over?"
Gar looked at her strangely, then said, "I think I'm too young for a prostate exam.", another whack of the elderly nurse's cane went on his head, "OW! Stop that. I'm injured!"
"Keep up that smart tongue, and I'll put you into another coma.", she stated firmly.
'Crazy old Golbat.', Gar thought in his head as he gingerly bent forward.
A couple of minutes went by as Recovery Girl poked and prodded his back, and Gar was getting kind of sore in the stomach. After one last hum from the lady, she finally said, "Well, I'm very surprised. That large burn on your back has nearly made a full recovery. Do you remember how you got it?"
Gar sighed in aggravation, not wanting to remember the event, but still told her, "Unfortunately, I do. I and Volcarona tried to intimidate the Nomu after it started to pummel Shota, then it tried to pile drive us from a few hundred feet in the air. Volcarona tried to set it on fire to let us go, but it didn't do anything. I remember Heatwave nearly turning that thing into a burnt Torchic nugget before. But this time, it was almost like it was gaining immunity to fire damage. Its arms went up in flames and burnt straight through my jacket and bodysuit. Then Volcarona alleviated the pain with its black wing scales."
"Well, it's a good thing you were wearing those; otherwise, you probably would have been burnt even worse. And that does explain the weird black markings I found on your back.", Recovery Girl stated while writing something down on the clipboard next to her. After she was done jotting down her notes, she turned to him and said, "All right, everything looks in order, a little aloe vera twice a day on the back for the next week, and it should be fine. Now let's have a look at the front."
Gar complied and sat back up while the older woman poked and prodded his chest like his other body parts. After a minute had passed off her poking his injury and him trying to hold back his grunts, she finally asked, "Does it hurt when I do this?"
Gar breathed out a painful gasp as he practically yelped, "Arg! Yes, please stop touching it!"
The older woman immediately pulled her hand away and apologized, "Sorry." Gar held his breast as he breathed to alleviate the pain.
The older woman pulled off her gloves and started to write some more notes down her clipboard while Gar placed the hospital gown over his body again. After some more silence between them, with the only sound being Gar's pain-filled grunts and Chiyo's scribbling, the old woman finally said, "Well, after another round or two of healing and some pain killers that you'll take to the end of next week, and you should be fine to go."
Gar sighed as he said, "Thanks Chiyo.", the old woman smiled at him and went back to sorting out something nearby as Gar sat in his bed looking out the window.
After some more silence filled the room between them, Gar piped up out of nowhere and grabbed Chiyo's attention, "You know it's kinda embarrassing seeing myself like this. I've crossed some of the most intense and dangerous environments alive. I've fought and disbanded dangerous evil organizations. Caught Pokemon so powerful that they could restructure or destroy the world. I've taken Hyper Beams, Mach Punches, Rock Throws, Flame Bursts, Fury Swipes, Bites, Double Kicks, Thunderbolts, Poison Fangs, Hydro Pumps, Ice Beams, and several other moves from Pokemon and have always managed to shake it off or walk it off or need days rest to recover.", he said with self-disappointment.
Recovery Girl gave an understanding hum and replied, "Well, none of us are invincible demi-gods. There is a limit to what everyone can do."
Gar sighed in understanding, "Sometimes I wish I was. It'd be so much easier. I could fix so many more problems with ease.", he said while hugging his knees to his chest.
The old woman looked to the disappointed teen with sympathy and continued, "I understand what you're saying." Gar glanced over to her voice. "You want to help but can't due to being just human. But that's just the thing; we are still human. We're soft and vulnerable and still have to remember that. It's okay to strive for better in ourselves and the things we do, but just remember not to hurt yourself in the process.", she told him.
Gar gave another self disappointed yet understanding sigh and replied, "Yeah, it's just...everything here is so much...different. The rules, the laws, all of it! None of what's happened so far would ever happen in my world, or at least not with this level of intensity. It...it scares me." Gar sunk in on himself while staring blankly at the wall.
Chiyo wanted to help brighten the teen's spirits, knowing that a happy person meant a quicker recovery and also she didn't like seeing children in this state, so she quickly said with a bit of joy in her throat, "Oh! Before I forget.", Gar snapped out of his staring trance and looked at the lady. "You have some visitors waiting for you outside.", she said while walking towards the door.
Gar gave her a curious look as he asked, "Visitors? Who?"
Just as the nurse opened the door, a pair of hands forcefully flung it open, and a huge flood of people rushed into his room, nearly tramping the old lady, shouting his name! "GAR!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" he screamed while holding his hand out in defense!
"S-Sorry we s-scared you like that!", Izuku suddenly appeared in front of him, apologizing in a bow with clasped hands in front.
"Geez, you almost gave me a heart attack!" Gar shouted while clutching his chest, not even registering the pain!
"Forgive us, Gar-san. We were just really worried about you. When Recovery Girl said we couldn't come in until after she was done with your follow-up, we couldn't hold ourselves back." Iida apologized profusely while doing his robotic arm movements!
Gar sighed with relief while calming down and said, "I appreciate the sentiment, but please try to be a little calmer the next time this happens."
"Well, I certainly hope something like this doesn't happen again!" Recovery Girl stated while picking her clipboard up from the floor!
"I almost forgot, we have a special visitor who's been dying to see you again.", Uraraka poked in with a happy tone.
Gar gave her a puzzled look until something shot from her arms and cried, "Mimikyu!" Mimikyu lunged out from her grasp and dashed over to Gar at full speed with happy sparkles in its eyes! The Pokemon slapped right into Girl's chest, and unfortunately, it was the left one. Gar let out a yelp of pain while trying to hold it in and ended up making a puffed check expression while tears rolled down his red face! Mimikyu noticed Gar's state of pain and immediately backed up.
Gar breathed out, and in a studded horse tone, he said, "It's okay! You didn't know! I appreciate it though!", After Gar gasped for air and waited for his chest pain to subside enough to speak, he asked, "Anyway, is everyone alright?"
"We're just fine, thanks to you. Only minor injuries.", Mina answered.
"What about Izuku, Eijiro, Shoto….and Katsuki?", Gar asked with a slight panic in his voice.
Kirishima pushed forward and gave a sharp smile and thumbs up; he exclaimed, "We're awesome, man! Sure, that Nomu thing whipped us good, but Recovery Girl's quirk works miracles!"
"My quirk only accelerates your natural healing. I'm not some pseudo messiah!" the old woman firmly told them in the background.
Gar then looked around at his classmates and saw that each of them was in normal civilian attire, which he knew was weird, so he asked, "Wait, why aren't you guys in uniform? Also, shouldn't you guys be in class right now?"
Momo shook her head and answered, "School's been canceled for the rest of the week. So we decided to come and visit you every day till you woke up."
"And I told you, children, that he was induced in a temporary coma, and I told you when I was going to wake him up.", the old woman exclaimed from the background in a much more annoyed tone.
"We just wanted to be sure. We're sorry for the trouble." Iida bowed in apology.
Suddenly a new voice jumped in and exclaimed, "Buzzt. Hey hey, hey hey hey! What about me! You're forgetting your most important visitor! Buzzt."
"Rotom!" Gar exclaimed happily as the phone nuzzled by his face! "Boy, am I glad you're alright! You look good. How are you feeling?" he asked the Pokemon.
"Buzzt. I feel a whole lot better, Garfield! Buzzt. A few days in a charger, and I feel fighting fit!" the phone replied while doing a mid-air spin.
Gar sighed and stated, "That's a relief.", as Gar looked back at the group of teens surrounding his bed, he immediately noticed a very heavy feeling in the air. So he addressed it, asking, "By the way, are you guys okay? I know you're all happy to see me awake and all, well, most of you, but you all seem tense about something?"
No one said a word, which worried the older teen until Izuku piped up and answered his question.
"Don't freak out, but uh, something did happen while you were MIA.", he explained while rubbing the back of his head nervously.
Trying to lighten the mood a bit, Gar asked sarcastically, "Oh no! Did Gyarados try to eat Katsuki again?"
"I'm right here, dumbass!" the ash-blond teen shouted in the back corner!
"Is Katskui a ghost? Maybe I can finally catch him.", Gar stated with a silly smile.
"Eat shit and die, Purple Fucker!" he whipped his head towards him while holding up his middle finger!
"Uh, no, none of that. You see….well….", Uraraka began to purposely drone on.
Gar just gave her a look and demanded, "Well, what? Come on, don't leave me in suspense."
"A...video surfaced on the internet, not too long after the attack.", Momo continued.
"And?" he asked.
"It...was...of you. Fighting the Nomu with your Pokémon.", Izuku finished.
Gar's eyes went wide as he practically shouted, "What!?"
"Yeah, it's the whole fight. From start to finish." Mina jumped in.
"How did a video of my fight get on the internet? And who uploaded it?", Gar asked, completely baffled.
"That's what we're trying to figure out. Buzzt. Here, have a look.", Rotom said while turning his screen to Gar and pulling up a video.
The video popped up, and it was a two-part aerial and ground view of the fight with Nomu! Gar's eyes went wide as he looked at the video, completely engrossed in it. It was like reliving the whole experience from a third-person view! The video was only five minutes long, but he was so engrossed in watching it and grossly unaware of anything outside that it felt like a second! He saw his Pokemon fall in mere moments as the Nomu absorbed their attacks, healed them, and whipped them around like nothing!
When the video ended, Gar swallowed dryly and, in a dream tone, stated, "That's... me."
"We think that the villains were the ones who uploaded it. Buzzt.", Rotom told him.
"Why would they even want to upload a video of me fighting and killing their anti-All Might monster?", Gar asked, completely confused while holding his head, trying to comprehend it?
"That's the thing, we don't think they were recording you specifically.", Iida put forth.
"Yeah, not everything is about you, bitch!", Bakugou spat. But was quickly silenced by the long sharp arm of Mimikyu, who struck the wall next to him and hissed!
"Bakugou, this is not the time!", Uraraka stated firmly. She sighed and followed up, saying, "As we were saying, we think they were trying to get a video of the Nomu fighting and killing All Might."
Gar thought it over for a minute, and then the thought dawned on him. And he looked down at his bedsheets with a dreaded expression while saying softly, "If they had succeeded…"
But then was cut off by Rotom and his warning noises, "Then there would be instant panic! Buzzt. Not just across the hero department but also across the civilians of Japan and the world! Buzzt. It would shake the delicate balance of society! They were gonna send a message with All Might's corpse as it's heraldry! Buzzt.", the Pokemon freaked out while getting louder!
Everyone in the room was covering their ears as Gar tried to calm his phone down. "Easy Rotom, calm down! Panic won't help anybody.", Rotom held himself back, stopped his warning noises, and calmed down bit-by-bit.
"So instead of causing widespread panic with the death of the # 1 hero, they switched gears and used the interdimensional guy with multi-quirked magic animals to do that.", Kaminari put it together.
Gar sweats nervously at this thought. Sure the immediate people in his class and the UA staff understood that Pokemon aren't necessarily dangerous since they knew Gar and them. But the entire world learning about them with no context was something else. Gar knew this sort of situation before, and it never started or ended well for any party involved!
Gar gave a shaky breath as he asked, "Has the video been traced back to the sender?"
"Buzzt. It has, but the only thing the heroes uncovered was an auto-generated email account that's now deactivated. Buzzt. And a dusty old laptop in an abandoned warehouse with some unscannable fingerprints.", Rotom explained, as Gar growled under his breath and made fists.
"Well, that sucks. What about the video? Has it been taken down?" Gar asked.
"It was, but…", Izuku drawled out.
Gar sighed in exasperation and pinching the bridge of his nose; he stated, "Lemme guess; it was deleted but found, saved, shared, and reuploaded by several people across the internet. It blew up simultaneously and has even caught the ever vigilant and brown-nosing media, reporting on it to high heaven. It's gotten so bad that even the government is starting to question UA on info."
After a long pause by the students of being unable to speak, Gar asked, "How'd I do?"
"How'd you know?", Izuku asked, a little freaked out by his publication.
"Physic powers.", Gar joked while wiggling his fingers, making only a few people chuckle or giggle.
Gar sat back on his bed while looking up to the ceiling and mindlessly petting Mimikyu as tons of thought strolled through his head. Gar rubbed his face with one hand and looked down at the small pokemon, and phone pokemon sitting comfortably on his stomach and floating near his face, and said with an exhausted and nervous sounding tone, "Well, guess there's no reason to hide you guys anymore. Cause now the big secret is out."