Yeah. I couldn't really think of a good title for this chapter. So Recovery will have to make do unless there's a better chapter title for it. In any case, not as long a chapter being that it's the aftermath. And with what I have in mind, I figured I'd split it up rather than have it done in one go and make it drag on.

Chapter 51: Recovery

"…K…"

"…Ck…"

"…Ack…

"Zack! Zack! Wake up Zack! Please wake up! You have to! You can't… Zack!"

I cracked open my eyes upon regaining consciousness to the voice that spoke with worry. At first, everything was blurry, but as my vision cleared, I found myself looking up into the familiar blue eyes of belonging to an orange lizard. "Char…coal?"

"Thank goodness!" he said with a relieving sigh. "I thought that you were… not that I believed you were, just that…" I could see tears trailing down his face as he struggled to find words to say. I racked my brain as thoughts began to run through it to figure out what he was talking about and what had happened.

"Wha' happened?" I voiced my question rather slow and slurred.

"I'm not completely sure," was his response. "Whatever did happen resulted in the storm breaking up at last."

It took a bit for my mind to process what was said, but when it did did I remember what had happened before waking up like this. I made the attempt to move to get up, but found myself being strangely held. "Try not to move too much," Charcoal said. "You look a little worse for wear. I got you so don't worry."

"Rai…kou!" was the first thought that came to mind. "Where is…"

"He's fine," Charcoal said. "Paramedics arrived and are transporting him to the Pokemon Center as I speak.

"And… Ted?"

Charcoal's gaze shifted upward, looking at whatever was across from me which prompted me to turn my head to see what it was he was looking at. And what I saw was a familiar pink cat standing over the body of someone I couldn't quite make out just staring… staring… staring. At least until she lifted a paw and lightly touched the body in which the being shot up instantly gasping for breath. And that being was none other than Ted.

A wave of relief spread over me, satisfied that he wasn't dead, which reminded me. I made the attempt to look about the area, but was limited to the section of the area I could look at. Charcoal must have noticed my sudden movement for he asked what it was I was doing.

"Destiny! Where's… Destiny?"

"Destiny?" he questioned, sounding a bit confused at first. "You mean that Alakazam you fought before? He's here?"

From as much as I could see, there was no sign of Destiny whatsoever. Nor did I see any of the pokemon who were with him, which something in the back of my mind was nagging me over something I somehow wasn't able to remember. "Well wherever Destiny is, he's certainly not here from what I can see," Charcoal said, breaking me from my rambling thoughts.

That figured. I should have known that Destiny wouldn't stick around after having his plans foiled yet again. On the plus side however, this meant that Ted and I could relax after the ordeal we went through. Speaking of which, I could feel the exhaustion beginning to grab hold of me again as two things came to mind. I tried shifting my head around, looking for the area I thought the first to be. Charcoal must have noticed my slight movement, for he asked what it was I was searching for.

"Metal… contraption," I managed to get out. "Should be… by the… unfinished… building. He needs… help." I then let the exhaustion take me as I succumbed to sleep once more, the last line of vision I saw as I let my head droop was the back side of D.Z. whose attention was upon… something.

The sound of constant beeping was what I woke up to next upon regaining consciousness. I had to force blink open my eyes several times due to a very bright light shining down on them. At first I thought it may have been the sun seeing as how I passed out outside. Once my vision adjusted, however, I found that the bright light was none other than a light fixture one found within a building.

Confusion clouded my mind at first at where I was as I glanced about the unfamiliar room. It wasn't until I looked to the side that I realized I was somewhere safe, though I how safe I was I couldn't really tell. Especially when it came to-

"Good morning sunshine!" Skitty greeted. "Glad to have you among the living!"

"Er… hey there, Skitty," I replied to her greeting, feeling a bit tensed. "Where exactly am I? And what have I missed?"

"For your first question, you're inside the Healy Place," she answered. That was a load off at least. "And for your second, there has been quite a lot occurring since you've been out. With how busy everyone has been, I'm pretty much the only one that's been able to check up on you and chocolate bear."

"How long have I been out for?"

"If I were to say, at least a day and a half," Skitty replied.

"That long huh? I didn't miss too much, did I?"

Skitty gave a slight shrug before responding. "Brown bear has a few broken ribs upon his insides being checked, the long-nosed freak is back inside his ball so as to prevent his escapade as well as nursing a black eye Ted gave him over something about a dead quilled mole…" I stiffened a bit at this "…and the fire lizard is busy helping our foolish trainers keep foolish humans from trying to see the huge cat-beast in hopes to capture it."

My eyes widened with all this information given to me, the urge to help the others growing quickly. "Well why didn't you wake me sooner?" I questioned her as I made the attempt to get up. "They need help protecting that Raikou!"

"Oh no you don't!" Skitty said, pushing me back down on the bed. "You've done more than enough, whatever it was you went through. Besides, you have a cut paw that you let get infected. That warrants you some R&R."

Shit! I totally forgot about my paw! I guess within all the chaos I neglected to pay attention to it and let happened what I didn't want happening. "Don't worry though," Skitty said as she noticed my alarmed look. "It's not that bad. Just give it a bit of time to heal and you'll be good as new." I suppose she had a point. Perhaps I did tend to take on too much and didn't give the others a chance to take care of things when I couldn't be there. It felt a bit odd now that I thought about it. Something I'd have to get used to no doubt. That explosion must have taken a lot more out of me than I had thought it to.

"All right then," I said with a smile. "I guess I could use a break. Thanks Skitty."

"Don't mention it!" Skitty said as she beamed back a smile of her own. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have other places to be and such." As she went to turn to leave, a look of realization crossed her face. "Oh! I almost forgot! Fire lizard wanted me to let you know about the metal ball thing with those weird attachments is just a few rooms down recovering as well. It was found under a heap of steel from that collapsed building."

With that said, Skitty walked towards the door, stopping momentarily to pick something up before resuming, that something looking awfully familiar. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that that was-

"Skitty," I blankly said as my all out to her stopped her and got her to turn to look at me, the object in question dangling from her mouth. I stared blankly at her, unsure of whether or not the shredded shoe she was carrying was the same shoe I was thinking of and if asking why she was carrying it around with her would be a smart idea to ask of. "Er… never mind."

Giving a simple shrug, she vacated the room, leaving me to my thoughts. So the metal contraption was here. That was a relief. I would have to thank Charcoal the next time that I- I ceased my thoughts abruptly, the conversation we had the other day refreshing itself as it came to the forefront of my mind. It left me in a bit of a perplexed bind as to how to deal with what's been said and how insulting it felt to me upon which what he had said.

One thing was for sure though: I had to find something to do to keep those thoughts from surfacing, even if it was just for a bit. I could already feel my anger from that day quickly flaring up the longer I lied here and thought about it. Being that the metal contraption was safely secured in the building, it warranted a visit to make sure he didn't follow the same fates as Stealth and that other pokemon Ted fought with back at the Moon Stone cave. Not to mention the dead quilled mole Skitty mention whom I'm sure was that Sandslash, Puncture. But that was something that would have to wait on doing being that the need to rest longer was just as strong as my desire to see the metal contraption.

I poked my head into a room a while later after resting up a bit longer in search of the metal contraption, stopping at every single door I came across whether they be opened, closed, or locked. The hallway itself was pretty bare being that the nursing staff were trying to keep people at bay from seeing the Raikou, which made my job a whole lot easier since I wouldn't have to be yelled at for being up out of my bed.

Doing a quick scan through the room, I found it to be just as empty as the hallway and moved on to the next room, letting my thoughts wander as per usual as I did. I had heard quite a few things about a Legendary pokemon from none other than my mom as I grew up. If memory served, she had said that Legendaries were considered to be highly revered as the most powerful pokemon there were in the world or something like that. My memory was a bit hazy from that.

I was also told that humans were selfish and greedy for desiring their power and would go to great lengths to do what they had to just to capture them. I wasn't one to doubt that. I may not have been around such humans, but I have been around a few not-so-nice people that got my fur riling at times. And it was exactly that thought that almost caused me to miss a door in which I found the metal contraption in. Wires were attached to it from some odd-looking machine that I wasn't too sure I wanted to know what it was, yet I had a feeling it was giving the metal contraption the treatment it needed.

With a squeak of the door, I entered the room, alerting the metal contraption to my presence. "What do you want?" it emphasized angrily, like it knew who had entered the room.

"I heard you were brought in," I replied. "So I wanted to check up on you and make sure you were ok."

"I am perfectly fine as you can see," it said sarcastically. "You can tell by the wires attached to me."

Ignoring its sarcasm, I figured my best approach was to calm it down so that I could get an inside scoop about the clan and why they all felt the need to die upon losing. "The humans are only trying to help," I told it. "I may not have caused you a lot of damage, but the impact you must have received must have hurt like hell."

"I do not recall asking for their help," it said. "Nor yours. By all accounts, I should be dead right now."

"That's something that's been bothering me," I said. "Why does every pokemon in this clan feel the need to die if they lose?"

"You are but a mere low-life compared to us," the metal contraption said with a small chuckle. "You could not possibly understand the pain we have all gone through, the justice we so rightly deserve, the right to be treated high above all others."

"That doesn't make it right what you're all trying to accomplish. I can't begin to understand how any of you feel, but taking revenge against those who have hurt you makes you no better than them."

"You dare compare us to them?" it said angrily.

Hatred fuels the fire that leads one down a path of destruction. Or something like that."

"Hmph!"

"If you would only give the humans here a chance, you would see that they're not like the ones who've hurt you! Not all humans are bad. Sometimes you just have to stop and-"

"Out!" the metal contraption yelled. "Get out! I wish to hear no more of you!" I silently stood there, scowling, refusing to obey his demands. "I will back charge the machinery and cause it to overload, killing everyone within this building."

"Have it your way then," I said with a sigh as I turned to leave despite knowing full well it hadn't the energy to do so. Stopping in the doorway momentarily, I glanced back at it. "Just… do me a favor and think on it at least. You may change your mind if you open your eye and compare then and now and such."

With that said, I vacated the room, leaving the metal contraption to its thoughts in hopes that it would make the right choice when the time came.