Chapter 5: The Aftermath

After seeing the large cut to her leg, Ava was quickly moved to a room in the guardhouse, where a nurse had been brought specifically for the ordeal.

"How did you get this?" The nurse asked as she inspected the wound.

"An Ariados got the jump on me."

Her escort gaped at her. "No way. And you made it out in one piece?"

Ava grinned a little viciously. "Yeah, I dodged its first attack, was able to spray a repel right at its face before it could attack again, then booked it. I definitely got lucky that it was only aiming to scare me away."

"Got lucky indeed," the nurse chastised. "It doesn't look like it cut through your muscles, thankfully, but you could have been in a really dangerous situation out there. Since you're not dead, I assume you took an antidote." Ava nodded in affirmation. "Good, you at least have some sense. I am going to give you another dose just to be safe, and then I will stitch up that leg." After she shooed her escort out of the room, the nurse cleaned the wound and then, with a sanitized needle and string, got to work on closing the gaping wound on Ava's leg.

After her leg was fixed up and wrapped in gauze, she was given a crutch and a weak painkiller with instructions on when to take it.

Her escort walked her back to the train and, once safely on, asked her, "So what pokemon did you catch?"

"I actually caught two," Ava proudly stated. "A meowth and a pidove."

This caught his attention, "I'll be damned, you're a twofer." Seeing her confused face, he elaborated. "A twofer is someone who was able to capture two pokemon during their ordeal, they are pretty rare, so it always creates a bit of a buzz when someone does it. In my group there were only two people who were twofers, and we had over a hundred people take the Ordeal" he explained.

Ava was surprised, not thinking that he had been chosen from last year's Selection Day and was going to ask about it before the realization that she hadn't been alone shot through her spine like lightning. She sat up, "have you heard anything about the others taking the Ordeals?"

Her escort rolled with the serious turn of conversation. "I have not heard anything about any of the others. But we try to avoid going on the comms to report non-emergencies, so it should be a good sign. We are almost at the pokemon center, and Captain Cunningham will have more information about them."

In her excitement, Ava had not spared a second thought about how Amiyra and the others were doing. Her guilt and worry stayed with her as they arrived at the pokemon center.

Hobbling in, she saw Cunningham stand up as she entered and gave her a smile. "Welcome back, Ava. I heard you passed, congratulations are in order."

Ava had never seen the serious woman's lips even twitch in amusement before, so seeing her smile stunned her for a second, and she wasn't able to respond before she got pulled down the hall into the lounge.

"We have some food at the table in the lounge that you are welcome to have as much as you want. I will hold onto your poke ball while you wait" Cunningham's eyebrow raised upon seeing not one but two poke balls but didn't say anything about it. "Theo has been the only one who has passed so far, you may join him in the lounge". Hearing that someone else had already passed gave her more reassurance than she thought it would.

Upon seeing her, Theo jumped up, "Ava! You made it!" he had made it as if to hug her before stopping, realizing they didn't know each other that well. Ava pulled him into a hug, glad she could have someone who went through the same thing she had.

The food that was sitting on the table made her realize how hungry she actually was, so she beelined there after finishing greeting Theo.

While eating, Ava recounted her tale to Theo, who acted with appropriate shock at the ariados and meowth fight and surprise at the extra pidove encounter.

He geared up to tell his own story, "I don't have as cool of a story as you, but I was able to catch a poliwag."

It turned out he had had similar thoughts to Ava about catching a pokemon. The east gate wasn't far from a small pond. He had gone hoping he could catch a pokemon drinking off guard. He ran into similar issues that Ava had, where a lot of pokemon were too dangerous or too quick to actually catch. His pond seemed much busier than hers, which made it harder to find a time when there weren't other pokemon to get in the way. During a lull in traffic at a pond, a poling walked out of the pond, trying to get used to its legs. When it got far enough away, he threw a poke ball at it. He had to use all three of his poke balls, but was able to catch it with his last one and then booked it back to the pokemon center.

"I was waiting for two hours before you came back. I was getting worried that I would be the only one who made it back." He said it with an awkward laugh, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm glad you were here when I finished, that must have sucked waiting," Ava said. "I hope the others come back soon."

Now that she was safe in the pokemon center and had a full stomach, exhaustion was creeping up on Ava. As much as she tried, her eyes kept drifting shut. Soon her head rested against the back of her chair, and Theo's rambling voice helped lull her to a dreamless sleep.

She was awoken by a loud noise. Jumping up, she looked around for any danger but quickly realized that the noise had come from Theo quickly standing up, accidentally knocking his chair to the floor. Turning, she realized the reason he had reacted like that was because both Amiyra and Oliver had returned together.

"Amiyra!" Ava hopped over to her as quick as she could and grabbed her in a hug.

After pulling away, Amirya responded, "What happened to your leg?"

Ava waved her off. "It's just a little scratch I got. But what about you? Did you pass?"

Nodding, she responded, "Yeah, I caught my pokemon really early. I was going to come back, but they wanted us to wait for Oliver to come back, so I was just waiting at the guard house."

Turning to Oliver, who was reluctantly hugging Theo back and feeling petty, she made a sarcastic remark, "Well, look who ended up being one of the last people to come back. What was it you called us again? Dead weights? Weird how the tables have turned."

He made a face and said, "Blah blah, talk all you want, but I caught two pokemon, so I'm already a step ahead of you"

Oh, this was going to be so sweet. "Hmm, that weird cause I also caught two pokemon. What are the odds."

His face lit up in disbelief. "There is absolutely no way you were able to capture two pokemon."

Theo stepped in and said, "guys chill, we can all talk about our Ordeals. Let's let Amiyra and Oliver grab something to eat. I'm sure they are hungry."

They let themselves be led to the couch, still glaring at each other. Ava took the end of it so she could keep her leg off to the side. She volunteered to tell her story last, wanting to keep him in suspense. Theo offered to tell his story first, and after that, Amiyra went.

It turns out she hadn't been exaggerating when she said that she caught her pokemon really early. She had only been out for 20 minutes before a pokemon came running at her. She threw a poke ball at it to slow it down and was running to get away from it when she heard the successful capture sound. Not even an hour had passed by the time she was able to make it back to the gate. Apparently, it was one of the fastest times anyone has come back from an ordeal.

"It all happened so fast that I still don't even know what pokemon I caught." Amirya confessed.

"Really?" Ava and Theo said in unison.

"Yeah, the only thing I remember was that it was on four legs and was kind of big, around my chest height."

The next couple of minutes we're spent speculating on what her pokemon could be. A stantler had gotten thrown out, but she could neither confirm nor deny it. Ava wasn't much help during this part, having spent all of her time focusing on pokemon in the forest, she had neglected to check what pokemon were around in other areas. Realizing they weren't going to figure it out, they moved on.

Oliver told his story next with much reluctance. He traveled outside the wall and kept near the wall until he found a clearing that was actually close to the forest. From there, he pulled out his chocolate and a sandwich to be used as bait, and then set up a trap using rope from the bag.

Ava suddenly felt really dumb. Why did she not think of using food as bait to bring in pokemon? Now, her idea for hitting one with a stick felt very rushed and ill-prepared.

Oliver continued telling about his Ordeal. He was able to get three uses out of the food he had. The first time a graveler had come by eating the food. He had been too big for the trap to be effective, as it was made for smaller pokemon. He was successful on his next encounter, as a teddiursa drawn in by the chocolate got stuck in the trap. Most traps wouldn't be able to hold pokemon for very long, and the same was true for the basic trap Oliver set. However, it gave him enough time to rush in and spray a repel in the bear's face to distract and hurt it. He then took the chance to use a poke ball which worked to catch his first pokemon. He reset the trap to try and catch another, but the same graveler came back and ate the food.

Oliver decided to try to get another pokemon in the caves that littered the mountains. He ran into a lot of zubat and paras that all seemed to run away from him. Then the ground started to shift around him, he had moved away but kept a ready stance. A larvitar started eating his way out of the ground, and Oliver threw a poke ball at it. It failed, and the larvitar broke free and, in its flailing, broke the poke ball. Oliver chose to spray his water bottle at the pokemon to try to weaken it a little and threw another poke ball, this time catching it.

"No way! A larvitar!" Theo exclaimed. Oliver nodded, a smug look on his face from getting praise.

Even Ava had to admit this was impressive. While she didn't know much of pokemon that could be found in the mountain area, in their lessons they were taught about dangerous and powerful pokemon, in hopes they would avoid them. Larvitar and its evolutions were on this list.

Catching himself, Theo moved on from excitement to scolding "Wait why did you continue even after catching the teddiursa? You if all people should know how dangerous that is."

Ava was curious about that statement not knowing much about the two boys past and their connections to each other but wasn't able to ask about it before Oliver responded, not really answering the question "Well I was aiming to catch three pokemon, but I wasted two poke balls trying to catch that larvitar."

Theo looked ready to continue his questioning when the door opened and Cunningham walked in. Her normally strict expression looked even more serious than usual. Ava could tell that something must have happened.

"We received word of the situation at the south gate. Both Flynn and Jacob had been caught up in a stampede of rapidash. Jacob was able to escape and is being treated for his injuries right now. We have strong reason to believe that Flynn will not be returning" Cunningham said in a solemn tone.

Ava felt like the wind had been knocked from her. Flynn and her weren't that close, and while crass, if she had heard about this randomly, she probably wouldn't have blinked twice. But now that she was a trainer, it felt different, it felt more real. Ava knew that this was a dangerous profession, but it didn't click until now that she truly could have died out there. She had her share of panic and fear while in the forest, and she was constantly told how dangerous the Ordeals were. And of course she knew she could die, but in the same way, one could die from falling down the stairs. A possibility that doesn't feel real until you take a hard fall or know someone who died from it.

Amours gasped, "Is Jacob okay?"

Cunningham nodded in affirmation, "Jacob will pull through, he is in shock, but the only serious injury is a broken arm and a large amount of scrapes."

"Was he able to catch a pokemon?" Oliver asked. Even he seemed to be taking this seriously.

"No, he did not."

Ava finally found her voice. "What will happen to him?"

"Like I mentioned before, if anyone returns without a pokemon they will have to take the Ordeal again as soon as they can. Since a broken arm won't restrict him from walking or catching a pokemon, he will be sent back out tomorrow."

"That's not fair!" Amiyra shouted. Ava was a little surprised, she had never heard the quieter girl raise her voice before.

Cunningham fixed her with a glare. "Of course, it's not fair. If things were fair, most of you wouldn't even be here. This is a part of being a trainer. He certainly won't be the last person you know to get injured or even die. The protection of the city is the most important part of our job, and that will often come at a personal sacrifice. Now follow me, and we will get your Pokémon registered to you," she said in a tone leaving no room for discussion.

The group all followed her in an uncomfortable silence as she led them to the computer room.

Ava had always liked Cunningham. Despite her stern demeanor and rough way of talking, it always seemed like she did care about them and how they turned out. Now Ava wasn't sure if that was true or if she had just latched onto the first person who knew what they were doing and imagined a stronger relationship than there was.

There was no one in the room when they entered. Going to a computer that was on, she pulled out four ID cards. Turning back, she spoke, "I once again offer my congratulations on passing your Ordeals. You are now all E-Rank trainers. I will activate your ID's and register your pokemon you your account. Before that, I have some items for you." She went to a table that contained four sets of clothes and four armbands and handed them out. "Whenever you are on a mission, you will have to wear your trainer uniform. We provide one, any others after this, you will have to buy on your own. When you are off duty and going to a civilian area, you will have to wear that armband so they can identify you."

Moving back to the computer, Cunningham pulled out six poke balls with a piece of tape labeling their respective names. She first grabbed Theo's poke ball. After scanning her own ID card, she then scanned Theo's new ID, activating it. His photo popped up on the screen. Ava doesn't remember taking a photo for this, they must have used the photo required when registering for the Selection Day.

Grabbing the poke ball with Theo's name on it, she put it on the tray next to the computer. A poliwag appeared on the screen, and after a few clicks from Cunningham, the button on the poke ball flashed blue twice before returning to white. She handed Theo this poke ball and ID, offering another quiet congratulations before moving on.

She grabbed Amiyra's ball next and repeated the process. They were all craning their necks to see what surprise pokemon would pop up. An image of a mudbray flashed upon the screen, but her poke ball also flashed blue before being given to her along with her ID.

Oliver was next, and when the larvitar appeared on the screen, Cunningham paused a little, glancing over at Oliver before registering it and moving on to his teddiursa. Returning his poke balls and giving his ID, she moved on to Ava.

Ava's face popped up on the screen, and she winced. It was definitely was a photo taken when she registered for the Selection Day. She had been rubbing her eyes that entire week because they were extremely itchy for some reason, so her left eye looked really red in that photo. She had thought she would never see that photo again, but it looks like she was mistaken.

Continuing on, Cunningham scanned her first ball, and a Pidove appeared on the screen. Ava realized she had never gotten around to telling her story when she saw everyone try to peer at the screen, much like she had done when Amiyra's pokemon appeared.

Her second poke ball was grabbed, and as it scanned, instead of a normal picture pulling up, it showed a meowth with a red shade all over its body. This caused Cunningham to really pause before standing up.

"Since you are all now E-rank trainers, you will have to pass the D-rank test to start taking missions. Once you think your pokemon is tamed enough to listen to your basic commands, I would recommend taking the exam. I will be the one who tests you. Talk to Mary or another poke center manager here to schedule that test. Ava and Oliver, can you stay back? The rest of you are free to go." Cunningham said.

Amiyra shot her a confused look, and Ava shrugged, not knowing why she was held back either or why she hadn't been given her pokemon back.

Once the two had left, Cunningham spoke to Ava: "I need to speak to Oliver privately, but I will be right back to have a conversation with you." Ava nodded, still confused, as the older woman led Oliver out of the computer room.

It had only been a few minutes before she heard Oliver's muffled yell, "That's bullshit!" Soon after, Cunningham re-entered her room.

"What was that about?" Ava asked.

"Despite being an essential tool, pokemon contain many dangers. Some Pokémon are deemed too dangerous and are illegal to own. Larvitar's final evolution, Tyranitar is one of those pokemon. Adult ones can grow up to 15 feet, if not more. On the off chance that one rampaged, it could mean extreme danger not only for lives but for the very infrastructure we need to protect ourselves." Her face had a stored expression. "He did not have a good reaction to the fact that if he wanted to keep it once it evolved, it would have to surgically have an everstone implanted in it to make sure it never evolved into its final form"

"What's gonna happen to it"

"Well," Cunningham responded. "That depends on what he wants. He can either keep it, sell it, or kill it. Regardless, right now I want to focus on you, and to be frank, I have worse news for you. Before that, though, could you tell me everything that happened during your Ordeal?"

Ava recounted her tale about the near miss from the ariados and then eventually catching her two pokemon.

Once she was finished, Cunningham had a grim look on her face. "Thank you for telling me that. It seems the damage your meowth took was very severe, and on your journey back to the gate, he did not survive."

Ava reeled back. "What do you mean he died? I was able to catch him?"

"Like I mentioned in the training, poke balls do not work as a full stasis. While they are extremely useful to help slow injuries down to get to pokemon centers they are not an end all be all. Pokemon can still die in poke balls if their injuries are too severe. Once you returned to the poke center I healed your Pokémon so that means the meowth died on your journey back to the city."

"Wait, when you mean injuries you're talking about the ones I gave him right?" Ava said as realization slowly dawned on her. At Cunningham's confirmation she started to feel sick. "Oh my god so I killed him? I killed my starter? I've never killed anything before!"

Sensing Ava start to panic, Cunningham got closer putting a hand on Ava's shoulder. "Hey I want you to listen to me, hey look at me" she gently shook Ava's shoulders. Once getting eye contact and her attention Cunningham said sternly. "You did what you had to do. If you hadn't, there's a good chance you would be much more injured or worse. This just means that you're a fighter, don't ever feel guilty or bad about that."

"It's not all bad either," Cunningham said, grabbing a poke ball and handing it to her. "Since you were able to catch two pokemon, you won't have to re-do your ordeal if you can tame this pokemon. Not only that, but you got very lucky with the pokemon you were able to catch. This pidove is fairly young. This species has an instinct called imprinting, where a young animal imprints on whoever takes care of it and views them as if they were the same species. If you are able to successfully take care of him and get him to imprint on you, you won't have to worry about him turning on you. You will have a very loyal pokemon, a lot of trainers are not as fortunate to have that. I will also make sure to have someone take care of the meowth and return your poke ball to you. You can get reset, and then get that one and your other one registered in your name."

Ava was still feeling a little stunned but was handed her trainer card and led to Mary who was on shift. Since her pidove is young, the care he needed was unique until he got a little older. Mary walked her through the steps of what to feed him and how to do it. She let Ava know that he wouldn't be able to start being trained until at least a week later. Ava made sure to write everything down and accepted the papers Mary printed that had more in-depth care instructions on it, and planned to meet her the next morning.

Ava returned to the barracks, where Amiyra was waiting for her. She told her about what happened, and Amiyra helped take her mind off things by playing a card game with a deck she borrowed from Theo.

Once in her bed, she let herself feel as sad and frustrated as she wanted. But tomorrow she promised herself she would move on and work on the pokemon she still had left.