Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ RAVEN ❯ Sugoi! ( Chapter 3 )

by Obsidian Blade

Sugoi! I lay on my back, sprawled across the wrinkled sheets of one of the Pokèmon centre's beds as I stared at the pale plaster of the ceiling. It was pristine white without a single chip, something I'm sure was due to the Chanseys and Blisseys running about the place. The wound a root had gored into my leg had been bound with gauze to stop the bleeding and I had taken a shower to remove the mud from my tired body. My clothes were in the wash so I was stuck wearing an oversized t-shirt and a pair of black spandex shorts Nurse Joy found somewhere around the centre but it didn't bother me much. As long as Polienix was safe and I wasn't being hunted through the muddy forest I was perfectly OK with the whole thing. It was, after all, a major upgrade.
But I couldn't sleep. My body was almost immobile with fatigue and my brain begged release from the hellish prison of consciousness, but there was something bothering me, something about the way Nurse Joy had looked at Polienix.
'Look Raven, forget it. Polienix is fine. Now SLEEP damn it! She's in the best of hands and you need to be in fighting condition unless your father appears here tomorrow looking for y-' I shut that stupid little voice out of my mind and slid my protesting legs out of bed. How dumb am I, rejecting sleep after all that. Rubbing my eyes numbly on the back of my hands I shuffled out of the room and into the tiny corridor beyond the door. From here there were four different branches:

@ Door to behind the desk and the visitor area of the centre
@ Door to the staff (Pokèmon included) dorms
@ Door to the Pokèmon healing area
@ Door leading outside and to the outside stairs leading to the rest of the guest dorms I went through the third door, into the Pokèmon healing room. A wave of the smell of antiseptic, bandages and medicine wafted over me as I stepped inside, making my eyes water a little. It was a small room, with the same immaculate neatness of the guest quarters I was staying in. The walls were lined with trolley beds for the smaller Pokèmon, getting larger towards the far end. Most were empty, but I could make out a Growlithe in the bed nearest to me, a Sentret across the room, a Manectric sprawled over two beds near the window and Polienix on her own in the far corner.
Keeping my steps light I padded over to Polienix's bed, stifling a yawn with one hand and trying to avoid bumping any of the fragile looking trolley beds. She was spread face down on the starched linen, her stubby blue wings open across the cot and her little head turned to the side. Her cheeks were a little flushed beneath her sapphire down and her yellow beak was open as she breathed. I frowned, and reached out a tentative hand. Polienix's forehead was hot and damp, her breathing much less regular than I had thought now that I took a closer look. She moaned a bit at my touch and drew her wings inward protectively, the feathers along her back rising to make her look bigger than she was. My frown deepened as I realised how swollen the once-trapped wing was; hadn't Nurse Joy mended it properly? As far as I knew, the red haired women that ran the Pokèmon centres world-wide were the best healers anywhere. She couldn't possibly miss something as obvious as this, could she? Polienix complained quietly again and I stroked her soft feathers with the back of my hand.
"It'll be okay." I assured her, before turning and running back out of the room.
Within seconds I had burst out into the warm brightness of the main Pokèmon centre, calling out for Nurse Joy or Chansey or Blissey or anyone. No reply. Well, not from the carers of injured Pokèmon, that is. "Hey! You! My Totodile needs healing right now!" A man practically screamed, his sweaty red face thrust right in mine and spittle flying from his mouth splattering my front.
I wiped the foamy droplets away and pushed him back a ways, earning myself another earful and free shower. Doing my best to ignore him, I looked around at the seething mass of people occupying the waiting area of the centre. They were everywhere, sitting on the few seats while they nursed their sick Pokèmon, standing about in corners looking sullen, banging their fists on the desk and ringing the bell repeatedly and… ugh. Behind the counter was not a good place to be.
"And my Vulpix!"
"Help Clefable!"
"Politoed is really sick!"
"What's wrong with this place?!"
"Machoke needs assistance immediately!!!!" As if to prove their point people were waving Pokèballs in the air, releasing Pokèmon left right and centre. The yelps of people as they were crushed into the walls and furniture by wounded creatures only added to the din. How I had avoided hearing them earlier was a plain miracle. And where was Nurse Joy anyway? She was supposed to take care of messes like this one!
"People!" I cried, but there was no way that was going to get attention.
In a sudden burst of inspiration I yanked the megaphone Joy used on big events and clambered up onto the front desk, carefully avoiding people's hands as I did so.
"PEOPLE!" I yelled, then covered my mouth. So the megaphone amplified my voice a little more than I expected… "We need to calm down." I continued in a lesser voice, "The Pokèmon with worse injuries need to be taken into the back IN AN ORDERLY FASHION," I glared at three young men trying to shove their way to the back at once, "And others are going to have to wait." What was I doing? Even if I could get them all to do as I said, I didn't know a thing about medical help and I was too tired to think up something on short notice. Stupid Joy, stupid people, stupid Pokèmon, stupid… 2:30 a.m.? What the…?
I shifted my gaze from the squirming mass of people (currently trying to decide whose Pokèmon were in worse condition) to the neon green digital clock on the wall, its sharp glow impossible to mistake. Normal clocks are kind; they can be wrong to a certain number of minutes if you look at them from side on and give you a few needed minutes. Digital clocks, however, with their blaring green displays, perfect to the last second and impossible to 'accidentally misread', show no mercy. This one was no exception; it was definitely half past two in the morning. No ifs, ands, or buts. But… ahem… why were so many people up this early with their Pokèmon???
Okay, all that did was make my head buzz even heavier and my eyelids droop further towards the ground. I needed sleep….
"You need to take care of this mess first."
It wasn't even my fault in the first place! I didn't run the Pokèmon centre, it wasn't my problem…
"They expect you to. Polienix needs you too." After all that, I didn't even start to worry about the fact that I was arguing with the voice in my head. And suddenly I wasn't really all that tired, I mean, I'd stayed up 'till 2:30 before, no sweat! My veins seemed to be throbbing with enthusiasm, a steady beat that infused me with strength and stamina. It was like someone had given me a shot of pure sugar right in the head.
Raising the megaphone to my mouth I started belting out orders as I leapt down from the desk into the crowd. My vocal cords must have been running wild, because I never would have done that.
"Okay! Sort yourselves out people! That Sandshrew you've got there sir, take him right on though. Hmm, that Blastoise looks like she's in a bad way, but there's no room out back… Keep her in here and remember you've got priority!" There were some things I hardly had to say twice, really… As I rang out command after command after command, the title 'Centre General' creeping into my head, I walked back and forth among the people and their Pokèmon, getting a good look at each. Some were in okay condition, some bad, but what really stood out was a bite mark I picked out on each. It was large and probably coming from a dog Pokèmon if the thick canines proved anything. Was it possible that this many people were attacked by one creature?
I shook my head, I could think about all of this later, right now I had to calm down all these people and get their Pokèmon in safer places. Switching my full attention to carrying out that mission, I continued to walk. Finally I reached the back wall of the centre and was about to start back when something, more someone, caught my attention.
It was a little girl, maybe five or six, dressed all in deep purple with her thick black hair trailing over her shoulders and swaying in the air beneath her bowed head. She had something in her lap that was holding her attention completely, but what it was I really couldn't see. Suddenly she looked up, eyes locking on me. A wave of horror hit me as I saw those eyes, swirling orbs of blue and black that seemed to penetrate every boundary and seep into the depths of my soul. "Raven," She said softly, "Come here."
Her voice was high and sweet, too sweet to be anything natural, but I found my feet walking on their own.
"Mummy told me to give you these."
She held out what she had been holding and I saw it was a sort of pendant. The chain was mad of black steel, flashes of silver glinting through in the light, and connected to a lump of the same material moulded into a pentagon. In the centre a black gem had been laid, the light shining through it and reflecting weirdly on the inside facets. Later I'd wonder if it were possible to have inside facets, but right now all I could do was hold out my hand.
The girl giggled and upended the pendant into my hand. It was cold and smooth in my palm, soothing my frayed senses and sharpening my vision. 'Wow,' I thought to myself, 'What is this thing…'
"Wear it." The little girl ordered, tilting her head slightly to the side, "And take this."
She handed me something small and round before getting up and running out of the Pokèmon centre into the night, a trail of echoy giggles following her out. I blinked, my senses finally returning to normal, and looked down at what I now held in my left hand. It was a Pokèball, but looked like it had been made out of metallic sky blue. On the top half were carved the shape of two wings and as I took another look I realised that the inner planes of the cut were still light and dusty, like the Pokèball had been made quickly so the craftsman hadn't had the time to finish it properly. Still, I realised as I turned the thing over in my hand, it had to be worth quite a lot. Why had she given it to me?? And what about the- "Hey! My Pokèmon needs healing now!" A slightly nasal voice shouted, seconds before a young man burst into the centre.
He looked about in confusion at all the other people queuing about before his dark eyes settled on me and the megaphone in my hand. Immediately he headed over until we were practically nose to nose. He was wearing a blue tunic that hung halfway to his knees and black trousers dug hastily into the tops of brown boots. Around his neck hung a green and yellow circle, dangling on the end of a copper chain.
"Well?!" He demanded, lifting a hand in impatience, "You're the one in charge here, right?"
"Well…" I began, but he cut through my sentence with his own, flicking a chunk of brown hair out of his eyes.
"Well what?! This place is pandemonium! Can't we at least get a decent nurse in charge?!" Suddenly a name flicked into my mind. Apparently my subconscious mind had been mulling it over the whole time, because it knew now. Gary Oak. Relation of Prof Oak and the leader of Viridian gym. What was he doing over here in Johto, and why now, of all times? Really, I wouldn't mind meeting such an esteemed Pokèmon trainer, but why now?
"Look, I'm not a nurse." I said as calmly as I could, "I'm just trying to get things under control until Nurse Joy or Blissey gets back and-"
"Gets back from where?!" Man, this guy was a hothead.
"~Raven, what's going on? It's hot…~" My head jerked from the angry trainer's head to the door leading to the sick room. The people separating us were doing as I had asked, checking each Pokèmon as they weighed injury against injury. But that didn't matter. What did was the health of a little bird Pokèmon, ailing in the back room, who was the only one without a trainer to watch over her. I had to get to her.
Gym Leader or know, I shoved Gary aside and strode off toward that room with a determined stride, dropping the black amulet over my head and tightening my grip on the shiny Pokèball. The angry trainer from Pallet town's complaints didn't even reach my ears, bouncing off my insult deflector shields like flies on a windscreen. The people stepped aside as I approached, seeming to detect my current demeanour. Either that or they had set me as leader and decided that I needed at least a little respect, I don't know. I burst through the door into the cot-line room, making a bee-line to the small bed in the far corner. Some other trainers and their wounded Pokèmon were already present, along with a chocolate-skinned man with thick black hair braided close to his head and a long white lab coat flowing from his shoulders, but I ignored them. Polienix was all that mattered now.
I leant over the bed for a good look at the ice/psychic bird and was greeted by a pair of glassy black eyes, soft, feathery down plastered to a fragile skull and a breath that rattled in her throat. Tentatively I reached out a hand, almost too afraid of what I might feel to make the connection, and gently brushed Polienix's head. Heat radiated from the little bird's body at a temperature dangerously high for an ice type Pokèmon and I couldn't help but let out a gasp.
What could I do now? I was a fighter, not a healer, and there was no Nurse Joy in sight. Whatever had called her away had to have been urgent, there was no other explanation for leaving Polienix in this state. Damn, if that tiny bird died just then I didn't now what I would do. After the walk through the forest, accompanied by the comments in her babyish voice, and saving her from the tree I felt as if I had… bonded with her somehow. She couldn't just leave me like everyone else, mother father Elliot Samantha, had done! A rich voice, thick like honey, drew me out of my painful thoughts.
"Is this your Pokèmon?"
It was the black man in the lab coat I had glimpsed seconds before, his strong brow furrowed in a deep frown as he gazed upon Polienix.
"No." I replied, my voice surprisingly steady, "But I saved her in the forest and brought her here so she wouldn't die, so I guess she's my responsibility."
"Just your responsibility?"
"Perhaps not." Hope swirled its way up in my chest, "Can you heal her?"
He shook his head apologetically, "No. I'm just a professor, not a nurse."
"Oh."
A Prof, huh? Looked like the Pokèmon centre was turning into a regular Hollywood for famous Pokèmon people. I sighed, a shame none of them could help out one little bird… The professor's heavy hand patted my shoulder before he turned away and headed over to check up on a newcomer to the room. It was a redhead woman's Arbok, its great hooded head resting on its trainer's shoulder as she moved it along. It was fairly badly hurt, but not fatally.
I returned my gaze to its place on Polienix's troubled form, everything starting to blur with salty liquid. A drop escaped one eye, pattering softly on my hand. Out of pure habit I reached up and lapped it away, nearly bobbing myself on the nose with the special ball I held tight. "Wow, is that a Regenball?" A voice wondered excitedly as a brown head appeared at my elbow.
The owner of the head tilted it back to reveal a youthful face, glowing with undying enthusiasm despite the late hour. Apparently the kid wasn't affected by late nights, he looked like he could run a mile without needing rest.
"A what?" I asked, thoroughly baffled.
"A Regenball," He responded, rolling his eyes, "You've got to know what one is to have bothered to spend all that money buying one."
"Well I…"
Another roll of the eyes. "Regenballs are the newest product from Devon Corp. in Hoenn. You return your Pokèmon into it and then walk about. For each step you take your Pokèmon recovers 10HP. Since you don't know that you're stuuuuuupid." I was too busy gaping to respond to the childish insult. …recovers 10HP… just return your Pokèmon … Was it possible that that little girl had somehow known that I needed something like this? Could she have meant for me to capture Polienix and save her life with the Regenball?
I shook my head furiously and aimed the high-tech Pokèball at the shuddering form of Polienix. My grip was sweaty, my arm wavering with lack of confidence. I'd seen trainers do this before, why was it so hard to do it myself? The prospect of failure. That was why. Because my damn father had taught me that to lose was to disgrace your name I just couldn't face messing this up. But I had to do this, for Polienix, for my life free of my dad's tyranny. "You're mine, Poli-"
"What're you doing?!" A familiar voice demanded hotly.
I caught myself in mid throw, the Regenball shivering at the tips of my fingers, and looked over my shoulder at the newcomer to the room. There, framed by the golden light of the room beyond, stood the haughty figure of Gary Oak.
"A Pokèdex-less person can't become a trainer, girl." He continued with a shrug, "So that won't work."
"If she gets a Pokèdex it will!" The boy who had informed me about the Regenball insisted.
"But that's not likely to happen so why don't you just give that little Polienix there to me?" The redhead with the Arbok suggested, batting long eyelashes over her green eyes.
"But you don't have a Regenball so Polienix wouldn't get healed!" He retorted fiercely.
The woman drew herself up to her full height, tugging the thick blue blanket she clutched around her shoulders out from under the wheel of one of the cots.
"Maybe I do!" She snapped, "How would you know little boy?!"
"Well I-" Their argument continued on while Gary retreated back to the main room and I let myself droop in defeat.
"Hey," That rich voice intoned, "You might want this."
I dragged my eyes from the bird Pokèmon all these people were squawking about to look up at the professor. I nearly whooped when I saw what he held.
Swamped by the Prof's huge strong hands sat a slim silver machine, complete with the opening front flap and flashing blue light on the top right hand corner. A Pokèdex, a Pokèdex he was offering to me, of all people. I snatched it from him, all my manners disappearing as I ran my hands over the sleek object, flipping it open and drinking in the metallic sound of its computerised voice.
"Consider yourself a trainer instated by Professor Darkwood of Ecruteak." He told me, smiling at my eager approach to it all. Apparently lots of trainers before me had been so rude, because it didn't seem to faze him.
"TRAINER NAME???" The Pokèdex implored, the screen lighting up and casting blue hues across my face.
"Raven Thomas of Malmarsh." I squeaked back excitedly, almost as hyper as the boy dukeing it out with the redhead.
"ID no 114790. TRAINER ID STORED." The amazing little machine had barely finished speaking when I was throwing that Regenball at Polienix and watching her being absorbed into its silvery blue depths in a stream of crimson light. The Pokèball rocked twice before coming to a halt. As ill as she was, I was surprised Polienix could even put up that kind of a fight. "A TIMID CREATURE RARELY SEEN DURING THE DAY AND NEVER FOUND AT NIGHT. IT IS SAID THAT ITS TAIL FEATHERS GIVE THE HOLDER THE POWER TO READ THE MINDS OF OTHERS." My new Pokèdex croaked, a statistics bar appearing at the top of the screen.

^8^ Polienix LV. 7
=-------------
HP: 2/31 (F) "I think you should take a quick jog." The little boy suggested, standing precariously on one of the cots to peer over my shoulder.
"Yeah, you're right." I replied with a quick nod, starting towards the door.
A strong frame blocked the exit, "Not outside." Prof Darkwood decided, "It's not safe." He glanced around at the others, whose attention was suddenly trained on him, "You don't think the Pokèmon centre normally gets this jammed, do you?"
I shook my head, no, but still pushed through.
"Look, I'll be careful." I comforted the others, trying to block out their pained expressions as I let the door swing shut, "I can fight." I added to myself as I passed Gary and stepped out into the night. The darkness swirled around me, seeming to convulse like a living creature as I started off at a slow jogging pace. The moon was out again, picking out my steamy breath with silver threads of light as I moved along. Call me foolish, stupid, just plain dumb for going out there, especially when my fatigue was just beginning to creep back, but I had to get Polienix into a stable state before I could turn in to bed. It would take less time outside, particularly if whatever Darkwood had been warning me about decided to take after my trail.
I ran undisturbed for twenty minutes, occasionally checking on Polienix's health with the Pokèdex as I chugged along. Goosebumps had sprouted along my arms and if I had been tired before… Well, it was nothing compared to what I felt now. My gait had slowed from running to jogging to slow jogging to stumbling on like a Spheal on land, so I decided it was time to turn back. 'Lienix had more than half health, so she'd be okay until morning when I was rested well enough to get back to work.
I was just outside Olivine, the harsh breeze off the ocean chilling me to the bone, when I tripped and fell to my hands and knees over something in the path. Cursing up a storm as I examined the searing scrapes across my palms and shins I brushed the dirt from my raw skin before turning to take a good look at whatever stupid root dared trip me up.

I froze.

That wasn't a root.

It was a leg.

OOooooOOOooo, cliffy! Tell me, is you peoples clinging to the edge of your seats or thinking 'thank god it's over'? I'm sorta hoping that's option one, but you peepos are entitled to your opinions... Now, to the reviews...

Phoenix Rising: Yuppers, Polienix belongs to me, as do I number of other things I should be putting in a... d'oh! Disclamier! Eeeep eep eep! Must put one of them in next chapter! ^_^' Thanx for the review!

DarkAngelTorchic: Woopers! It's someone I know! Thanks for even more praise! ^_^ Hope this chapter was okay, if a little long...

Pheonix Burst: Good. I was wondering how long it would take you. :p And, jeez, what's with all the super dooper (@_@) praisy stuff? Not that I don't like it, but you go into so much detail! Thankies!

Siara Angel: Yo peppers, what's with the music??? Are you religious now?!?!?! *ahem* Now, no being mean about Cassie, she never did nothing to you! ::sniggers:: Anyway,thanks for the review oh not-really-beta-anymore! I shall update again... later... so you have to wait like all the other peepos! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!