Felis walked through the corridors of the Galactic HQ, stifling a yawn as he did. At 8 in the morning not many people were out and about, mostly researchers who ignored him completely, or the few unlucky Grunts tasked with the morning shifts. He didn’t envy them, memories of his own openings shifts causing him to shudder with apprehension.
The bombs had ended that atrocity, for a while at least, considering he might as well be joining the dead-eyed Grunts soon.
As it turned out, delivering and shipping items wasn’t the only thing Galactic did. As Sinnoh’s official “technology corp” they also managed a lot of the software and programs that many citizens used on their day to day basis. Cell-phones, power-lines, even Wi-fi was mostly handled by them.
“Speaking of…” Felis thought, fishing out his phone. Between all that had happened the last couple days, he’d barely remembered the piece of tech sitting in his pocket. And considering how Arun was out to keep their promise with the freed Pokémon, as well as getting Valor back, he figured he’d try to find if he could do anything with the phone.
As it was, he’d already connected to Wi-fi. The biggest problem however, was that he couldn’t actually do anything with said Wi-fi. To keep it simple, Wi-fi could be described as signals. The phone would send out a signal, connecting to the router, and that router in turn had a signal specifically tuned to the internet provider. The issue was that his phone was programmed with apps that tuned into Earth’s signals, not…whatever the Pokémon people called their world. Apple and Google databases no longer existed, meaning his phone could do nothing unless he could somehow get it connected to this world's data.
“Maybe I’ll have Winton look into it later…” He sighed, pocketing the device. If he could get the Google equivalent app for Pokémon World on his phone then things would be a lot easier, especially considering the fact that most of the phones he’d seen used by the Sinnoh people were pretty old school. He’d need a charger too…a lot of good memories were locked away in his phone, memories he’d do a lot to keep.
He whistled a slow tune as he continued down the corridor, doing his best to ignore the soreness in his muscles. By all accounts he should’ve been unable to move, but the berries had done wonders, even the rotten and tossed away ones were essentially miracle pills.
Stopping in front of the medical bay doors Felis took a deep breath, before slowly peering in, keeping his eyes open for a rather cranky doctor.
Sure enough, she was there, her fingers in a death grip around a mug of what Felis was certain was coffee, the whole room smelled of it. Blood-shot eyes immediately honed in on him, and Fels cursed the stupid little chime that played whenever the door opened.
“Oh. It’s you.” Delilah seethed, causing him to wince.
“I have to say Pranav, you do a great job of making enemies.” Aken added.
Wait.
“Aken?” Felis asked, incredulously, “He’s good?”
“Of course he is, I am a certified doctor.” Her eyes glowered at the floor as she mumbled something about “Joy” and “Nepotism”
Aken at the moment hovered above Delilah’s right shoulder, looking as good as he’d ever been. A far cry from the injured and torn state he’d been in the previous night.
“I…wow. He looks great, how you doing Aken?”
“None shall defeat me again!” Aken triumphed, “This woman is a paragon of a healer!”
Felis grinned, “Think that means he feels great. This is new though, don’t you usually keep them in their balls?”
“Usually yes. But again, your Shuppet is a ghost type, specifically one that feeds off negative emotion.” She gave him a cold stare, “And believe me, I had a lot of negative emotion.”
Felis couldn’t help but laugh, earning another glare from the woman, “Right, yea. I owe you for this, trust me on that. But what does being a ghost type have to do with the healing process?”
She stared at him, giving him the “are you for real right now?” look, and he felt the immediate need to defend himself. “I’m still new to this whole thing!”
“Then stop getting into fights, you moron!” She snapped, and Felis winced again.
“Alright, alright,” He surrendered, sitting down on the sickbed across from Delilah’s chair, “Just tell me now and I swear I’ll be showing up here as little as possible.”
“Always the new recruits,” Delilah hissed, grabbing Aken from his position and pressing her forehead to the back of his head. Much to Felis’s surprise, the Pokémon seemed used to gesture, letting the woman manhandle him with a defeated look on his face. Felis snickered, causing Aken to bare his teeth at his trainer, though both shut up as the Doctor spoke up.
“Fine. But listen close because if you come here again without proper reason, you’ll be leaving one with.” She gave him a hard look, one Felis bore with the stoicism of a teenager being berated by their mother, meaning, squirming in place and looking away. Once she was satisfied with his predicament, she continued.
“Ghost types fall under the ‘conceptual’ caste of Pokémon types, along with Dark and Psychic, and judging by that look on your face you don’t know what that is either. Fuck, ok. Dark, Psychic, Ghost. These three–along with Fairy I suppose, but those don’t live here–are more ideas than a physical thing. Of these three, ghosts are the most unorthodox, most being made up of emotion and energy, rather than flesh and blood.”
Right, made sense. He vividly remembered reading the Dex entry for Yamask, which absolutely scared him. Made him queasy, especially since people walked around using the Pokémon, ignoring the fact it used to be human.
“Ghosts have a physical body, but they themselves aren’t exactly here. Nobody knows for certain, but the most prevalent theory comes from Professor Yew of Galar, who theorized their “true” forms could exist on some half-plane between the physical world and whatever’s next. Got all that so far?”
“Yea, I think so.” Felis nodded, a hand reaching out to brush against Aken’s silk, “So these are just their avatars. What happens when they’re destroyed?”
“We simply rest for a bit.” Aken answered, “I draw in enough energy until I may reform once again.”
“They gather energy once more.” Delilah echoed, unaware of Aken’s words, “The issue however, is where they reform. Reform in a happy place there’s no negative energy for them to use, and it would take years. Reform in a graveyard, or a place of disaster, the latent negative energy would have them reformed by the end of the night.”
Meaning if Aken had fallen in an alleyway…there was no telling how long it would take for him to reform. Felis shot his partner an apologetic look, one he received with a huff.
“So…are they immortal?” He asked, after Aken sent enough glares to hammer in the point he wasn’t angry.
“Semi-ish.” Delilah responded, dabbing Aken against her forehead again, “At the end of the day Ghosts represent a number of ideals. Vendettas are the primary ones, Ghosts who hold grudges for one reason or another. Guardians are another, spirits tasked with guarding a place or even a person. If a Ghost Pokémon feels they are satisfied, they no longer have a goal in life or a direction, or perhaps if their place of guard is destroyed, they too will die.”
“Impossible.” Aken scoffed, “The very notion another could decide my fate before me is absurd. I am eternal, as are the rest of my kind.”
Felis smiled, his partner wouldn’t be in danger of dying anytime soon then. But still, that left him with his original question.
“So how do I take care of him? What can he eat, what should I be feeding him?”
“For Aken it can boil down to three big points; negative emotion, negative energy, and food. The first two are self explanatory, any time you feel negative thoughts or feelings Aken can draw them out and satiate himself on them. Negative energy is pretty much the same, but instead of the person, it’s the place. Graveyards, abandoned homes…if there was ever a tragedy anywhere, your Shuppet will probably be supercharged.”
“Supercharged?”
“Stronger, faster, heal easily and grow a lot quicker.”
That was interesting. Also good to know, a place ripe with negative emotion, enough that Aken could draw on it and future battles to train up. There was already a location that popped into Felis’s mind–the Old Chateau–maybe he could catch a Gastly or something there as well?
He frowned as Delilah continued her speech, barely paying attention. If they were “supercharged” as Delilah said, why weren’t more people capitalizing on them? Couldn’t a place of tragedy be easily recreated? Murder, suicide, a robbery. Asking would definitely put him in a bad light, so he withheld, promising himself to go visit a library or something later.
“And then there’s food.” Delilah said quite animatedly, which had Felis snap back onto the conversation, “Human food works yes, but if you want to really take care of this little guy you’ll want to head to an actual connoisseur, sort out a proper palate and get him the food he needs to be his best. Pokémon are almost on the same level of sapience as us, so most will have a unique taste.”
“That…that sounds expensive.” Felis grimaced.
“Maybe, maybe not. But think about this, Felis. Galactic is about to get into one of its biggest fights since its breaking from the league. If you’re not willing to spend in order to help the Pokémon fighting for you, then you might just end up dead.”
He chewed his lip at Delilah's words, before finally letting out a breath, “Yea, you’re right Doc. But how exactly am I supposed to get the money for this? You know I’m not like the rest of the guys here, the pay I’m going to be getting will barely be enough to keep me afloat.”
While what happened on the docks was kept a secret, everyone knew that Galactic had recruited two would-be thieves to the cause–and it wasn’t difficult to figure out who that was either. They had to be paid as per Sinnoh law, but Galactic freely took enough away through “services” that taxed their income heavily. At best, the pay would be enough to eat out once a week.
Delilah was unwavering at Felis’s attempt for sympathy, “Everything you need is already being provided to you. The rest can go into training your Pokémon. Do well, earn some more. Besides, there’s always someone in need of a capable trainer. Next time you’re out of uniform, talk to people, this time without getting into a fight.”
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“Alright, alright.” He smiled, he liked her brutal honesty if he was being real, it was nice not needing to suss out hidden meanings or intentions.
“Well, I guess that’s it for now then,” Felis said, rising from the bed. “I’ll get Aken what he needs.”
“See to it. I’m going to take a nice fucking nap until the next idiot bothers me about their scraped elbow.”
Felis laughed, walking towards the door before calling back one more time, “Thanks again, it was a delight talking to you, Delilah.”
“Oh you absolute-”
He was already halfway down the hall before she could say anything more.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sirius took in a deep breath of the fresh cool morning air, letting the scent of dew and pine fill his lungs before releasing it with a content sigh. Mornings in Sinnoh were beautiful, the sun barely cresting over the horizon, casting the water in a reflective golden glow, light splashing onto the murals and artworks of Veilstone.
Before the bombs, Sirius thought he could never be a morning person. It was all too easy to stay up late, sleeping in only to wake up to his mother cooking lunch was a wonderful thing…probably would have been better if she hadn’t yelled at him for waking up late but hey, nothing was perfect.
Smiling at the memory he walked down the streets of Veilstone with a wistful sigh. Loss was…something. For the rest of his family, it was like something was missing in his life, like taking an extra step at the top of a staircase, it wasn’t like the bottom, where you felt like you were falling. Instead it was just a feeling of ‘oh, yeah.’ and a gnawing emptiness that just weighed down on your shoulders. Sometimes he’d forget, worried about protecting Pran or simply being just too busy to think right, and then once he was settled or alone, it would hit him again.
He pushed the thoughts aside, quelling the ache in his heart by taking in the civilians going about their day. What people were around him, namely the 9-5’s working hard to support themselves and their families, all gave him some variation of respect. Some gave him nods, which he returned, others looked away but ensured he had the proper space to walk about, some tried to glare, but when he locked eyes they immediately found something better to do.
The Galactic uniform was certainly strange. He thought back to what Quinn said, talking about how Galactic had done its due in freeing Sinnoh, and the aftereffects of such an action. He wondered just how Chronos and…what was it again? Astral? No, Astrai. He wondered how those two teams managed to gain a foothold if Galactic had the most accomplishments.
His steps slowed as he passed by a large stone face, holding his favorite carving in the city. He saw it only a couple times, though each time it took his breath away. The carvings depicted both a Gyrados and a Milotic, twined around each other in a battle, ferocity and grace put into one. Each time he looked at it he always saw something new, this time he noted in the background of the edifice was a congregation of Magikarp and Feebas, circling the two champions like an arena.
Satisfied with his observation he picked up the pace a little once more, he promised to be there in the morning, and he kept his promises. He passed by the route stop, eyes focused forward to ignore that…thing at the desk.
“You’re up early.” The thing said.
“Dorothy.” He answered.
“Where are you going?” The snitch of a receptionist said, twirling a pen in her hand.
“Nature walk.” Was all he answered with, not like she needed to know more.
“This early? Without your little Seedot?”
“Worried?” Sirius smirked.
“Well, you’ve been the leading cause of the rise in my paycheck…so in that light, yes.”
His smirk died, “I’m leaving now.”
“Don’t die~” Dorothy called out.
He grumbled under his breath as he made his way out, walking down towards the forest of route 215, keeping an eye out for any trainers. This early in the morning there shouldn’t be, but still, better safe than sorry. One last look around had him feeling confident there was nobody else nearby, so he found himself a nice tree to lean against, taking a deep breath and expanding his “sense” as he’d done so many times before.
The “sense” was difficult to explain. Everything around him was muted, sound, scent, even the feeling of wind on his skin felt dull. What he could feel was emotion, or the presence of a thing. Pokémon and people naturally radiated some form of emotion, though with people he found it a lot harder to grasp what they were feeling. He didn’t really understand why, and at the moment it was just another question in a long, long list of unanswered questions.
As he stood there, letting warmth and confidence ooze out of his system he wished his and Pran’s abilities could be swapped. He didn’t like playing the game of politics, finding out whether the person you were talking to had your best interest at heart and whatnot. That was more Pran’s thing, and being able to just talk without being limited to emotions sounded wonderful.
The thought ended as he felt a number…a dozen or so of the ‘presences’ slowly creep up to him. They were slow to approach at first, but when they caught sight of him they relaxed, though it was easy to feel their tension as they got closer.
At the lead was a Growlithe, head held high as it stared up at the larger man, fire flickering through its fangs in a motion of wariness.
Gratitude, Sirius radiated. Thank you for putting your faith in me.
Relief, as the Growlithe and others sagged. Please. The relief turned pleading. Take us home.
Bringing out just enough spares for the lot of them, Sirius got to work quickly, realizing as he threw the balls one by one just how injured they had looked. Scratched, burned, bruised and wounded, these tame Pokémon had lived life in the wild once more. And while most of them were probably wild from the start, it must have been difficult surviving in new territory.
Scanning the area for anything else, he turned back, quickly breaking into a jog to reach the Pokémon Centre as soon as possible.
Looks like Joy would have her work cut out for her.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Arun. Are those burn marks?”
“...no.”
Standing in the somewhat empty Pokémon Centre, Arun leaned atop the countertop, fingers play-fighting with Valor as the now healed Seedot dodged and nudged against the trainer’s hand. Joy had just left the back room, ensuring that the Pokémon he’d brought in were safe and sound. She’d already catalogued the ones brought in before, sending out messages to various Poke Centers around the world about missing Pokémon. Those that didn’t fit any description were released to an environment suited for them, much to Arun’s delight.
“Uh-huh.” Talia said, though judging on the flat look she gave him, she didn’t exactly believe his lie, “By any chance, did it have something to do with the massive fire out in Route 215 yesterday night?”
“Definitely not.”
She jammed a finger into his chest, and he yelped at the surprising amount of pain.
“What was that for!” He hissed, dusting the spot she’d poked.
“You’re asking me that. Really?”
“To be fair, I had a berry mix.”
“A berry–!” She almost snapped, taking a deep breath, “Arun. You’re going to explain exactly how you got hurt, and what you did to treat it. Or so help me Arceus I’m going to make your life a living hell.”
Ooh. Scary.
He explained, keeping important details out about Aurafire and what they were doing, rather just focusing on the fight in itself. By the end of it all Taliah was seething in barely contained rage, while Valor seemed fearful, more of Arun’s danger than the fire that raged.
He didn’t know when he was seated into an examination table, but there he was. Chancey on one side with its little hat, Valor tucked beside him, and Nurse Joy staring him down as he fidgeted nervously.
“We’re starting with the obvious.” The Nurse declared, in full professional mode. “Start by lifting your arm.”
He did so, the movement feeling…uncomfortable.
“Chancey, mark it down. Next, legs. Stand, kick, move around a bit.”
“Is there a reason we’re doing this?” Arun asked, standing from the bed.
“No questions, move.”
“I’m jus-”
“Move!”
He raised an eyebrow, but did as she asked. Testing the movement in his legs with some stretches. Feeling good he threw a roundhouse in the air, making sure the Nurse and Chancey were behind him as he did. Satisfied he hopped to the other, doing the same, before testing out a chain of high and low kicks between each of his feet.
“How’s that?” He asked, barely suppressing the grin at the little show he pulled off.
“Fine, Arun.” Taliah sighed, “but I just need to make sure you can move, not…kick the air to death.”
“Ah. Right.” He felt his face heat up just a tad as Chancey motioned him to sit down .
“Chest and shoulders, I’ll need to touch you for this.” She said, pulling two gloves on, “Do I have your permission?”
He couldn’t help it, “Always.” Arun grinned, earning a light slap to the side of his head.
Worth it.
“Ok. If a spot hurts, you tell me, ok? No machismo nonsense.”
“Yes ma'am.”
She began poking and prodding him, having Chancey mark down something in her notes at every spot he felt some pain in. She frowned as she felt about his pectoral, pushing and prodding even as Arun said he didn’t feel anything.
“You’re going to have to remove the top of your Uniform.” Taliah said, leaving his side as she went to grab a stethoscope. “Might be a fractured rib, can’t be certain unless I hear your breathing again.”
“Broken?” Arun asked, concern creeping into his voice, “We don’t have an x-ray machine I could use?”
“Of course we do. But those cost extra money. Money I know you don’t have yet. Anyways, relax a bit, there shouldn’t be anything wrong, I’m just making sure it’s not just my nerves.”
Worry, from Valor as his little buddy’s eyes widened. Ok?
Assurance. I’m fine, little hurt.
Curiosity. Last Night. Danger?
Affirmation. Danger. Fire.
Regret. I’m sorry.
Arun said nothing, simply taking his Seedot into his lap with one hand massaging his temple as the other worked to remove the Uniform’s top. It pulled apart rather easily, leaving his chest bare (The hair mostly singed off from the fires) as it fell to his waist.
The stethoscope hit not even a second later, and he sucked in a quick breath as Taliah’s hand pressed up against his skin. Her face had been decidedly placed away from his periphery so he couldn’t even see the look on her face as she worked.
“Give me a warning next time, yea?” He grunted.
“Breathe.” Was all the Nurse responded with, her voice unusually quick.
Arun didn’t question it however, breathing in and out at her command. She removed it a minute later, chewing her lip as she looked at the spot. She prodded his chest again, and Arun fought back a sigh, instead turning his attention to Valor once more.
Curiosity. Treated ok?
Happiness. Very nice!
Arun smiled. He sent a wave of warmth over to his partner, who reciprocated in turn. A frown touched his lips, there was something underneath the warmth.
Curiosity. Why sad?
Valor closed off suddenly. Arun glanced down to see the little acorn looking away in shame. Pran did that sometimes, when he wanted to be alone. Sometimes it was good to give space, but there were also times when you needed to let him know you’d be there.
Love. Love you. No hate.
Valor kept himself closed off, but huddled deeper into his lap. Arun smiled, it would be enough for now, thought they'd have to talk about it later. Taliah should have finished her inspection by now anywa–
“Taliah.” Arun called, as the Nurse continued to prod–no–caress his chest muscle.
“It’s all muscle?” She whispered, eyes roving down towards his abs.
“Taliah.” He said again, unable to hide the feeling of pride as he took her hand. That took her out of her stupor, her eyes widening as she backed off suddenly, taking her hand with her and shoving it into her pocket.
“Ehem. Right.” She said, cheeks as pink as her hair as she looked away. “Right. Ok, ribs aren’t broken, great!”
“You sure? You don’t need another feel?” Arun grinned, bouncing his chest as he wriggled his eyebrows.
“Absolu-NO!” Taliah hissed, fuming as Arun laughed. “We need to focus on the arms, and your burns-stop that!”
“Alright, alright, serious mode, gotcha.” Despite saying that however, he couldn’t quite stop the smile from dropping. He liked talking to Taliah, it was nice, normal.
“So, your humorous–" She began "The bone from your shoulder to your elbow–isn’t broken anymore-”
“Great.”
“No, not great.”
“What?”
“You healed a bone without having it set in properly Arun, it’s fused incorrectly. Your arm motion’s going to be limited unless we get that fixed.”
Oh.
“Shit.”
“That’s not all, there’s also the burns. It looks like you just had Rawst berries. Those are for Pokémon, they process the nutrients better. You need an actual burn salve, otherwise it’s going to keep getting worse. The burn salve I can do, that’s usually in a standard trainer package, it’s the arm you should be worried about.”
“How do we fix that?”
“We break it again.”
Arun stared at her, letting the silence fill the room. “What?” He asked, after a minute.
“Berries aren’t a miracle cure, Arun! Humans need rest and time to heal. Regardless of circumstance, recklessly downing berries can pose a risk if you abuse them. The bone is healed sure, but it’s healed at an awkward angle. If we want it in the correct position, it needs to be broken again, and rehealed while in a cast.”
That…fuck that made sense. He sighed, running a hand down his face before standing up again. “Yea…yea alright. Let’s do this.”
“Good just give me a se-”
CRACK!
“ARUN!” Taliah screamed
“FUCK!” Arun howled
“CHANCEY!” Chancey cried
“SEEDOT!?” Valor chirped
All 4 residents of the room screamed at the state of the re-broken arm of Arun as he held it limply in front of him.
“ARE YOU MAD?” Taliah howled.
“Get the splint, please.” Arun managed to grit out.
“You don’t even know if it’s the right spot!”
“It’s the right spot!”
“How do you even know!?”
“I just do! Now help! Please!”
“For the love of–Chancey! make sure he doesn’t kill himself! I’m getting the plaster!”
“You don’t have it on you!?”
“NO! It’s a plaster!”
“Oh god it hurts.”
“IDIOT!”
To the rest of those in the Pokémon Centre, all watched in awe as a Nurse Joy, master of all things medical, healer of every disease, wound, and inflection known to man and Pokémon, left a patient more panicked than anyone had ever seen in recorded history. Nurse Joy herself certainly had never encountered a patient that had left her this bewildered.
She really hoped this would be a one off thing.