Arriving at the station's waiting area, the officer told Samuel to wait for a moment while he goes to make a short report.
Samuel laid the unconscious pokemon on a chair and sat next to it. The wait did not take long as the officer, followed by a young female dressed in a police uniform.
"This here is officer Jenny, she will take over from here. Goodbye" the officer said and left without bothering to wait for an answer.
"Greetings, I am officer Jenny as officer Morrison, I will take over from here to get your side of the situation and officer Morrison will make his own detailed report about his own views of the situation later" she said cheerily.
"It's not often that you need to make a report about the former champion" the officer quipped teasingly.
The officer looked at the pokemon sleeping next to Samuel, Noticing it's white coated body full of holes and burn marks, she also saw some yellow and green peeking through the blackened white cloth-like skin or whatever this pokemon had covering its whole body. She wasn't an expert on pokemon biology, it was the job of the researchers to study the intricate designs of pokemon, not officers like her.
One thing she was sure of was that, this pokemon is... was responsible for the early morning 'ghost' sightings and the cause of widespread rumors that disturbed the town.
"Greetings officer" Samuel answered "I am Samuel Oak, a pokemon trainer" he introduced himself cheekily
"Alright mr Oak, please follow me to the office, you will give your statement there" she said with a smirk
"What about this one?" Samuel asked while nodding towards the pokemon next to him.
"Just recall it to its pokeball?" the officer said as if it was only natural
"There isn't one, yet" Samuel "The whole situation is about not capturing it against its will"
"So you are telling me that you brought a wild pokemon inside a police station?"
"Yes" He nodded seriously
"Alright, we'll put it into a holding cell for the moment and have a police trained Growlithe keep watch so that it doesn't cause any unnecessary damage."
"That sounds like a plan" Samuel agreed.
Samuel lifted the pokemon and followed after the officer, He laid the pokemon on the bench while the officer released her Growlithe and gave it its task. The no longer empty cell was locked and the Growlithe was left to guard on the outside. Samuel and Jenny both left for the office to make his statement.
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Anya stirred from her forced slumber, a uncannily familiar ceiling greeted her. She calmly rose to a sitting position, her eyes still waking up, causing everything to be a bit out of focus. 'I'm back home? no, something feels off' she though, soon after her more recent memories flashed back into her mind and she sighed. The hazy memories of the recent 'fight' came to her soon enough.
She had been forcefully woken up from her sleep as a purple snake had bitten her, the sudden pain causing her to wake up instantly. Even after the pain was gone, a nauseous feeling still stuck inside her with a stabbing pain in her stomach every now and then. Before she could recover a bunch of pokemon started attacking her, biting, scratching, clawing, pecking and occasionally hitting her with fireballs that burned her, without a way to effectively fight back. Her body jolted a bit when she came to a realizations that she might have been captured.
She was surprised how long it took for her to actually go down, not giving into the state of unconsciousness. As if that happened, she was sure she would die. Her knowledge about pokemon battles were quite different as normally a four times effective moves could easily decimate their opponent in a hit or two, even with a noticeable level disadvantage or if there was another factor that didn't translate into the game mechanics she knew of.
Sitting in a tired stupor, she ignored everything happening around her. The now vigilant Growlithe who was glaring at her standoffishly, but was ultimately ignored by Anya.
"Hey, You!" The Growlithe shouted arrogantly trying to get her attention.
"Stop daydreaming and look here!" it continued, its barks growing louder
"Stop ignoring me!" it smacked the steel bars with its paw, causing a loud ping sound, which alerted Anya.
Her attention found its mark and she noticed the Growlithe outside her cell, Her eyes widen in panic and soon she huddled herself into the corner of the room, trying to be as small as she could be.
"Oh, boy" The Growlithe said as it rolled its eyes, clearly not amused by the reaction it got from the other pokemon. Its ears perked up as she heard a faint sound repeating the same four words all over again between sobs. 'please don't hurt me' was what it heard, definitely not what the Growlithe expected from the odd pokemon its master told it to guard. The Growlithe thought that they had brought a super dangerous and aggressive wild pokemon, which was locked behind the cell to prevent it from causing harm to the people in the city.
This wasn't what the Growlithe had in mind at all, the pokemon it supposedly identified as 'dangerous' one was crying in the corner, begging to not be hurt... the Growlithe thought 'I might have made a mistake' and sighed before adopting a more formal posture that it had been taught before.
Still following its master's order the Growlithe stood in front of the cell awkwardly as it silently kept its eyes on the sobbing mess of black, white and other various colors in the corner.
Soon, the crying and pleading had stopped and been replaced with a soft barely audible snoring which the sharp ears of the Growlithe could hear easily. The Growlithe no longer vigilant of the 'prisoner' was comfortably sitting on the ground, resting its eyes. It would have looked like it was asleep but its constant twitching of ears told otherwise.
An hour had passed, the Growlithe stood up in readiness as the door for the room was opened and a tired looking Samuel and the ever energetic Officer Jenny stepped inside.
The officer asked the Growlithe some simple questions which it answered by either shaking left and right in denial or bobbing its head up and down in affirmation.
Samuel looked at the cell and noticed that the pokemon he carried there had moved from the bench at the back wall to the furthest corner of the cell. He thought about the reason why this had happened and slapped his head as he remembered that the bullies had used two Growlithes to harass it.
"I think, the pokemon woke up and was scared by your Growlithe over here" Samuel said to the officer.
"Huh? Why would anyone be scared of him?" she asked in disbelief
"Remember, there were two Growlithe attacking this pokemon. It might have gotten some sort of instinctual fear towards them"
"...A pokemon having a PTSD from battling... Never though about that before, It somehow doesn't seem possible. I have heard that some pokemon feel 'uncomfortable' towards certain species but never outright fear..." The officer mused
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"I'm not sure but this one is a bit special, it's not like any other pokemon I had ever seen before, even its eyes had a mysterious depth into them." Samuel said
"Seems like you have some past with it I presume?"
"Yes, believe it or not, that one saved my life just a few months ago"
"Aha" The officer confirmed and went on her knees and pet the Growlithe.
"Okay, Growlithe. Did you scare that pokemon?" She asked her pokemon, which nodded in turn. The officer's eyes opened a bit wider and the Growlithe drooped its head in shame.
"Was it on purpose?" she asked and the downcast Growlithe shook its head.
"An accident then?" she continued and was got a nod in response.
"You did nothing wrong" she said comfortingly while giving it a few scritches before returning it to its pokeball.
"Okay!" Jenny shouted psyching herself up "So we have an unknown species of a pokemon who, possibly is suffering from PTSD whenever it sees a Growlithe and possibly Pidgey, Rattata and Ekans. Those were the seen pokemon right?" Jenny directed his question to Samuel
"Correct, Now, if you would be so kind and open this cell door." said Samuel
"Gladly" the officer inserted the key to the cell and with a click the door opened with a creak.
Samuel went inside the cell and went on his knees and gently nudged the sleeping pokemon. The pokemon groggily woke up and cautiously lifted its head and looked around, its piercing red eyes soon meeting with the brown eyes of the future professor.
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Anya's eyes wandered around the unknown room, recognizing it to be a cell of some kind her eyes cautiously taking a peek at the face of Samuel, who was calmly waiting for her to do something.
"Last time it was you who saved my life, this time its me saving yours" he said with a gentle smile on his face. "It seems like we are even now" he chuckled.
After a few minutes the expression on Samuel's face hardened and he soon spoke out loud. "I have a proposition for you, Would you allow me to capture you?" he took out an empty pokeball from his pocket.
Anya recognizing the pokeball was filled with dread, she did not want to be a glorified battle slave... and violently protested with words, Shame that Samuel only heard "Lea-ny-Van-Van-Leavan-NY!"
"Whoa there, calm down, I can't exactly understand what you said but, I can still see you don't want to be captured." to which Anya gave an exaggerated nod.
"Hear me out first, IF you let me capture you, you will be registered to my Trainer's account, which will prevent anyone from ever capturing you again. In theory..."
"Simply put, Be mine, so others can't take you." Anya blushed a bit and looked away shyly as that last sentence sounded bit like a...
"Oh my" The officer chuckled while holding hand in front of her mouth.
Samuel's face also went totally red as he realized what he had just said, the reactions of the other two didn't help at all. "N-Not like that" he protested.
The situation didn't go any forward for a while. There was a small ping on the officers radio and she checked in. "I am deeply sorry but, I will have to go now" the officer said "I hope you can take care of this without me, just remember to check out at the entrance and then you are free to leave"
"Thank you for you time officer and have a nice day" Samuel said
"Likewise, bye"
And then she was gone, leaving Samuel alone with Anya.
"So... maybe we should try to negotiate? I know for a fact that you are a smart pokemon" Samuel asked awkwardly to which she responded by lifting both of her elbows in an odd imitiation of a shrug.
"Why don't you want to be captured?" he asked her curiously.
Anya shook her head and used her silk covered cutters to point first at herself then at the pokeball in his hand followed by shake of her heads and crossing of her cutters.
"You, Pokeball, No" Anya nodded while she continued to pantomime different things
"You, Me, Happy?" Anya shook her head and repeated the gesture only changing the final step a bit. It was hard to make an okay sign without fingers.
"Not happy? Approval?" to which she nodded
"This means you are fine being with me?" she nodded
"But not want to be captured?" she shook her head.
"No? You want to be captured?" she still shook her head and gestured again, this time a bit different.
"You, approval, pokeball" to this she nodded and continued gesturing "You, No, Belt. You don't want to battle?" She shrugged and tapped a pokeball on his belt twice then crossing her arms. "I think I get it" Samuel said
This type of communication continued for way too long in both of their opinions. Anya's arms were beginning to tire with the amount of waving them around.
"You are okay for being captured" to which he got a tired nod in response
"Then, you are okay with battling and traveling with me?" which also got another nod and a shrug in addition. Not exactly what she meant but good enough for her.
"and lastly, you, do not, want to be inside a pokeball?" she wasn't sure how he got to that conclusion but, she nodded furiously as that was exactly what she wanted.
"You know, this could have been easily solved if you could spea... WAIT, that's it. YOU CAN READ! I've seen it before! I have been an idiot..." He massaged his head while berating himself as he could have just simply used a pen and paper.
"At least we can easily communicate with each other in the future." He said while activating the pokeball in his hand, preparing to capture Anya.
"Welcome to the team... umm... what should I call you...?" he stopped mid motion.
Anya shrugged in response while saying "vA. NY. vA." and repeated it twice more.
Something about those words felt odd and unnatural to Samuel but he could not see what "Maybe we could ask for a pen and paper?" Samuel suggested, to which Anya nodded.
Finally leaving the holding cell, the two of them arrived at the front desk and asked for a pen and a paper before checking out.
They walked to a nearby cafe, during the walk, Anya noticed how damaged her clothes were as the cold early spring air seeped in through every hole, only making the point even more apparent. The holey, black and white cloak was almost unusable and she had no time to patch it up nor make a new one. Reminded of the cloak she noticed that her bag was also missing, she couldn't remember where she had lost it, it could have been inside the town or even at the plains before the town.
They arrived at the cafe entrance and went inside. The door bell sounded with a ring, and the whole cafe quieted down. All eyes were on Anya and she instinctually froze when a dozen or so pair of eyes focused on her. By reflex she bowed deep and said "Leavanny" 'Excuse me'. Samuel found a table to sit at, just as he was about to move, Anya grabbed hold on his shirt.
Puzzled he turned to look at Anya, who fidgeted under the stares of the other cafe patrons. Samuel sighed and carefully pulled Anya behind her, She stumbled few of her steps as she was being moved. They arrived at the table and the waiter soon arrived, she was young girl with brown hair barely past 15 years of age.
"I am sorry, but please recall your pokemon, it is disturbing the other customers." She said shyly, she was still young and it showed.
"No need for apologies, I checked quickly from the outside and couldn't see any signs stating that pokemon were not welcome." Samuel said
"W-Well, it-it's true that there isn't a sign, b-but, but" she stammered
"Okay Suzie, I'll take it from here, go wait those other tables" a male voice came from behind her
"M-Manager, y-yes sir." and she was gone even faster than she came.
A burly man in a suit stood at the other side of the table. Waited a while and opened his mouth he said "Leave, this is not a place for 'PETS'. We do not serve 'ANIMALS', This is a reputable establishment, please do not sully our fine image by causing a ruckus"
The table was quiet, Anya was totally dumbfounded by the mans attitude. Even Samuel had gone quiet and his normal content expression was replaced with an irritated one.
Samuel couldn't understand at all why people continued to disrespect pokemon, calling them animals of all things. He just sighed and calmed himself, stood up and said.
"We are leaving" he then forcefully grabbed hold of Anya's cutter and dragged them out of the cafe. All the while the cafe manager smiled victoriously, the door opened, the bell rang and Samuel glared at the manager one last time before exiting the cafe along with Anya.
Samuel moodily dragged Anya towards somewhere, Anya was also quite upset, Never in her life had she been treated like an animal and in such a way that made her extremely uncomfortable.
Anya had been dragged for a while now and she noticed that the cover for her left cutter was slowly staining in red. Alarmed she jumped at Samuel's back, the surprise causing him to let go. Still brooding, Samuel turned, only to find an alarmed Anya cutting a part of her cloak, taking out a clean-ish strip of white cloth.
His eyes caught on the stains on one of her cutters, left one in particular. Only then did he look at his own hand. Realizing he had hurt himself by forcefully grabbing on the sharp appendage, only by realizing he was hurt did the pain register and causing him to flinch.
Anya, took hold of Samuel's bleeding hand and wiped the excess blood away with a separate piece. Then she bandaged it as best as she could, pulling it tight. She was glad she had taken a small course in first aid when she was still a student.
The bleeding stopped, Samuel stood still all in utter disbelief as she expertly used her skills in first aid, he was taken by surprise. 'They called her, an animal, a pet. but by the father of all, were they wrong' Samuel thought, still in a daze. Anya worriedly looked at Samuel who finally managed to recover his senses and continued their way.
"Here we are" Samuel said as they stopped walking "Home".