Light bloomed in the canyon as Charmeleon channeled the power of the sun around them. The heat of the area vastly increased and a pulsing light appeared in the sky above them. If it were anything like the time Omanyte used Rain Dance, then the light was only a few hundred meters above the battle, at most.

Ivysaur shivered as the light hit him, the bright, artificial sun powering up his Chlorophyll ability and allowing him to increase his speed. At the same time, the flame on Charmeleon’s tail burned brighter, invigorated by the power of the same sun. Heat billowed from his mouth as the extra power ran through him and Cashe could see a glint in the timid pokemon’s eye at the newfound strength.

Cashe wasted no time waiting for the Grunts to respond to the change in conditions, “Ivysaur, get in there. Vine Whip and Sleep Powder.”

Ivysaur responded to the orders in an instant, nearly exploding from his position in front of Cashe. All three of the Grunts balked at the sudden increase in speed. Even though they likely knew Ivysaur’s ability in advance, knowing it existed and knowing how to deal with it were two very different things. Seeing it in person was throwing them off their game, which was already poor.

Ivysaur cut the distance to the enemy pokemon before any of them could blink and was already firing out all four of his vines at both Bronzor, Meditite, and Staryu. Staryu’s trainer called out a warning just in time, letting the small pokemon dodge out of the way, but its concentration slipped, the air around the remaining Grunts clearing as the shimmer lessened.

“Keep it away from me!” She shouted as Staryu returned its focus to completing the teleport.

They didn’t have much option, however, as all three of the remaining pokemon got wrapped up in Ivysaur’s Vine Whip. With only one vine around each pokemon, they wouldn’t be trapped for long, but it would be enough. Not even a second after the vines fell into place, Ivysaur sent a plume of Sleep Powder at all three.

Unlike Poison Powder, Sleep Powder had no issue affecting the steel type pokemon. Both Bronzor were hit by the full force of the move, getting covered in the narcoleptic powder and immediately falling out of the air. It probably wasn’t necessary for one of them, considering the beating that it took from Emilia and Charmeleon, but he didn’t want to take the risk.

Ivysaur’s Sleep Powder was still not completely under control since his evolution, however, and the attack covered a wider area than Cashe intended. Emilia had to pull Charmeleon back and all four of the Grunts jumped back in retreat as the wave of dust covered the canyon. They, along with Staryu, dodge the slow moving attack with ease.

“Flamethrower again, Charmeleon!” Emilia called out as Medittite and the two Bronzor staggered under the sudden assault of Sleep Powder.

Cashe flinched at the order, his eyes widening in sudden realization.

“Emilia! No!”

But it was too late. Under the effects of Sunny Day, the flame summoned by Charmeleon was intense, bursting forth from his mouth in an impressive and dominant display of power from the pokemon. Heat billowed away from the attack, air rushing out from Charmeleon and stinging Cashe’s skin. He dove to the ground as the attack crossed the distance, shouting out as loud as he could to everyone who could hear him, “Get down!”

No one reacted in time, not even Cashe. The flames hit the powder that was still floating in the air and instantly ignited it. A thunderclap-like explosion ripped through the small canyon, the sound even louder thanks to the towering walls surrounding them. Cashe was hit mid-dive by a wall of light, sound, and force. The explosion threw him out of the air, in the opposite direction of his hasty dive, sending him tumbling back toward the entrance of the canyon.

His body jolted and he felt a deep pain shoot through his arm, sharp and burning as it twisted under the impact of his landing. He bounced across the ground and several other points of pain bloomed in his mind. His chest. His head. His neck. Both legs. An involuntary groan escaped his lips, but he couldn’t hear it. He couldn’t hear anything. The shadow of the battle right before the explosion burned itself into his retinas, the blurring image of flame and light the only thing he could see. Everything hurt, but his arm especially. Still blinded, he felt a pressure on his back and side.

Slowly, his ears began to ring as he tried to orient himself, but he couldn’t even sit up properly. He blinked rapidly, trying to force the light burn from his eyes. It cleared slowly, the color of the world returning as it darkened and his eyes adjusted.

He looked down at his body, or tried to, at least. The movement sent a shiver of pain through him and caused his head to swim with nausea. Bile rose in his throat and he tilted his head to the side to throw up, retching out the breakfast of wet, cold eggs that Lindon had prepared.

His world swirled around him as he struggled to maintain his consciousness. Slowly he was able to focus again and look down at his body.

His clothes were a mess of scrapes and cuts. From a few spots on his body he bled, but nothing appeared serious. The pain, coming from his right arm, was due to a break, his wrist jutting out and away from the rest of his forearm at an unnatural angle. He tried to move his finger, but only succeeded in sending a spike of terrible pain through his body. He groaned again, this time barely able to hear the edges of his own voice. He sounded miserable.

He forced himself to sit up. He was at the edge of the canyon, next to its wall. He shuffled, the most drastic movement he was able to pull off, and leaned against it, peering into the canyon proper.

The explosion had not done too much damage, from the looks of it. At least not to the canyon. He could still see plenty of green, even at the center, though there was a single scorched circle, right around where the pokemon had been battling.

The pokemon in question were nowhere to be seen, with only Charmeleon wandering around the area, supporting Emilia who was walking with a limp. She stopped periodically, bending down to check out a small lump. A Grunt, it had to be a Grunt. She placed her hand near one end of the lump and staggered to the next lump with the help of Charmeleon. She was checking their condition.

“Ivysaur,” Cashe groaned, though he had no idea if his pokemon were still able to move, “I need you, buddy.” He shut his eyes to force the world to stop spinning. It didn’t help.

Cashe wasn’t sure how long it took, thanks to his pounding head and swirling thoughts, but eventually he felt a gentle nudge on his stomach, the one part of his body that didn’t actively hurt. He cracked his eyes open to see the blurry visage of Ivysaur staring down at him.

“Hey buddy,” Cashe slurred, “Go find… go-”

“Ivysaur?” His pokemon said. Even impaired as he was, he could make out the concern in his voice.

“Emilia.” Cashe said, “Get Emilia. Help.” Even that much was too many thoughts for Cashe’s head and he grimaced at the effort it took.

“Ivy.” Ivysaur moved to the side, clearing Cashe’s view so that he could see Emilia’s slumped form leaning against the wall of the canyon, just as he was, only a foot or so away. She was out cold - sleeping or fainted. Charmeleon was standing overtop of her, guilt etched across the pokemon’s face.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Cashe thoughts rolled again as he tried to consider how strange it was that he could tell a pokemon was looking guilty before he remembered his train of thought. They needed help.

“Lindon,” Cashe managed to spit out after several seconds of thinking.

Ivysaur nodded and turned away, darting across the canyon, moving at a rapid pace.

“Was he always so fast?” Cashe asked Emilia, shortly before he joined her in slumber.

***

Cashe woke to a pair of women standing over him. One stood by his feet while the other was beside him. He made a noise of complaint as the light hit his sensitive eyes and the nurse at his feet looked up from her clipboard.

“Welcome back,” she smiled.

“Emilia? Your hair looks different.” Cashe said.

“I am not your friend, Mr Cashe, though she is fine. I am Nurse Joy. And my companion here is Nurse Joy as well.” She gestured to the woman standing at his side.

Cashe made a sound of greeting. He recognized the Nurse Joy. She was the same nurse that didn’t mind him going to his appointment covered in grime and sweat. He tried to look around but couldn’t move his head much. He didn’t know where he was, but it wasn’t in the canyon. There was a roof here.

“I’m going to ask you a few questions and do a quick check up on you before we do anything else. Is that okay?” She said.

“Kay.” Cashe muttered. The Nurse Joy to his right leaned over him and placed her fingers over his eyes, shining a light directly into them. He squirmed and tried to get away from the light, but again he couldn’t move. The Nurse Joy pulled away from him and said something to herself. He squinted. She was the same Nurse Joy from the other night.

“How did you switch places?” Cashe slurred.

The nurses looked at each other.

“How is your head feeling? It looks like you took a bump.”

“Hurts.”

“Do you have a headache?”

Cashe nodded, but his head didn’t move much. “Yeah. Bad one.”

Nurse Joy made a note on her clipboard.

“Are you dizzy?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know where you are, Mr Cashe?” The Nurse by his feet said.

“No.”

“Can you guess?”

Cashe bit his lip. It felt oddly numb and dry. “No.”

“Okay. Thank you. Do you remember what day of the week it is?”

“Wednesday. Or, no, it was Saturday?” Cashe frowned. “Yeah. Saturday.”

“Very good.”

Nurse Joy continued with her questions, asking about pain in his neck and head, about his vision, about his hearing and taste. It was hard to answer the questions, his head kept spinning as he tried to think of the answers.

At the end of it the Nurse Joy to his right helped him take something to drink. She was a nice lady. She didn’t even mind it when he came to the Pokemon Center the other day, covered in sweat and dust. Cashe slurred out a thank you before falling back asleep.

***

Cashe blinked himself awake again. Someone was standing over him. It was dark. He groaned something out.

The figure moved, “Go back to sleep,” it said.

Cashe didn’t complain. He was super tired anyway.

***

A blond boy this time. He was playing on a pokedex and sitting in a chair by his bedside when Cashe muttered something at him. The boy looked up.

“Cashe!”

“Lindon?” Lindon was blond, right? “Water please.”

“Okay hold on.” Lindon disappeared. Cashe was asleep again before he returned.

***

It was dark again. Someone was talking to him in his ear. His throat was still dry.

“...it was kind of cute, really, but don’t tell anyone I said that.”

“Emilia?” Cashe said. He turned to look at the someone talking in his ear, but he couldn’t move his head.

“Easy there,” Emilia said in a low voice. A chair scraped over a tile floor and she came into view, “You back with us?”

“What’s going on? What time is it?”

“It’s the middle of the night,” Emilia whispered, “You’re in the Route 2 Pokemon Center.”

That made sense. Every part of him ached, especially his arm.

“Who were you talking to?” Cashe muttered.

Cashe could see the gleam of Emilia’s smile even in the dark of the night, “You. You talk a lot in your sleep. Did you know that?”

“Yeah.” Cashe said. Jen sometimes had conversations with him, apparently. “Was I making any sense?”

“Don’t worry, you were very sweet,” Emilia said, patting Cashe gently on his shoulder. “Go back to sleep. It’s late.”

“What are you doing here, then?” Cashe muttered. But he didn’t hear the response. He was already drifting back into unconsciousness.

***

“You suffered from a severe concussion,” Nurse Joy said to Cashe. Again. She was standing in front of him, beside his bed. The room they had him in was nice, but it needed a window. It was small, only big enough for the bed and two chairs that sat against the wall.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed as Nurse Joy went over his case with him. She was doing his final check up for release and had been doing so for the last two hours. His arm was wrapped in a thick cast. He had a severe fracture through his radius and ulna, but the nurse didn’t want to talk about that. Only the concussion.

“Just because we are letting you out of here today, does not mean you are fully recovered. It only means the danger period has passed the point where you need to be constantly monitored.”

Cashe nodded, not interrupting as Nurse Joy reiterated her spiel.

She shone a light in his eyes and nodded to herself, “You are to relax for the next week. That means you are in the field next to us or on the beach. Nowhere else. Understand me?”

“I understand.”

“You can train your pokemon, or even battle, but you are to be sitting the entire time. Sitting far away from the pokemon. Am I clear?”

“Of course Nurse Joy.” Cashe said.

Nurse Joy frowned at him as though she didn’t believe a word coming from his mouth. She stood and left the room, returning a few seconds later, dragging Emilia by her arm.

“Miss Oak. Mr Cashe is not to partake in any strenuous activity over the course of the next week. He can train and he can battle his pokemon, but if he does so, he is to be sitting and he is to be far from the pokemon.”

Emilia glanced at Cashe for a moment and looked back at the nurse. “I understand Nurse Joy. I will make sure he doesn’t do anything too stressful.”

“Good.” Nurse Joy dragged Emilia back out of the room and returned again.

“You had her prepared for that little show?” Cashe smirked.

Nurse Joy shook her head, her pink hair waving gently in her amusement, “I did not.”

“So you told her I was being released today.”

“I cannot share any medical information with anyone besides medical staff without your express permission, Mr Cashe.”

“But you knew she was out there?”

“Yes.”

“How? You’ve been in here with me for the last few hours.” Cashe checked to see if there was some sort of hidden device in the Nurse’s ear. There wasn’t. Only a pair of earrings.

Nurse Joy snorted, “Miss Oak has not left the Pokemon Center for a week, Mr Cashe. Not since you were admitted. She has spent more time here in the last week than I have, and I live and work here.”

Cashe blinked, “She did?”

“Granted, at first it was because she was also a patient,” Nurse Joy continued, “But only for a few hours.”

“That’s a lot.” Cashe said.

Nurse Joy smiled at him, “You are a very lucky man, Mr Cashe. I suspect that she is a keeper.”

“We’re not…” Cashe trailed off and sighed at the pointed look Nurse Joy was giving him.

Nurse Joy shook her head and gave him a small, encouraging smile.

*****