Chapter 8

I had to give myself a few moments for my eyes to adjust from the fairly dark outside to the near daylight of the lobby. When I looked in through the glass doors, it didn't seem nearly as bright so I guess the doors are tinted or something similar. I take a glance around and find that the lobby is fairly empty. Looking at the clock I see it is nearly ten o'clock. As this is the first day of the season for the new trainers, any that live in Viridian are staying at home or have already headed into Viridian Forest. 

Any of the veteran trainers are already at Pewter City getting their first badge. Most veteran trainers already have their flying license. A flying license can be earned after getting your third badge in a region. This is a fairly easy requirement for most trainers, yet only active trainers are allowed to fly on a pokemon alone. Once a trainer's badge expires, which is one year after their last renewal or gym circuit, they are no longer allowed to use a pokemon to get around and must use publicly available modes of transport. I plan to get my flying license as soon as possible as well, providing Zephyr is able to carry me by then.

I approach the desk in the lobby where one of the Joy clan members is standing. Trying not to be rude, as I get closer I examine the lady in front of me. She stood at a height of about five foot eight and had strawberry red hair done up in a hairstyle that gave her a loop of hair on either side of her head. She greeted me with a kind smile once I was in front of her.

"Welcome to Viridian City Pokecenter, how may I assist you?" 

"Hello there, I am Frost Oak from Pallet town. I was wondering if there were any open rooms for my team and I?"

"Why certainly! This time of year we do not normally have a number of trainers as the city gym does not open until the last half of the season." That is good information to know. Nurse Joy hands me a keycard for a room with a room number on it. "Your room is up on the third floor. Please have a good night." She smiles at me with a kind look of dismissal so I grab the keycard and head towards the stairs. 

"Thank you Nurse Joy. I hope you have a good night as well!" As I round the corner to the first floor, the unmistakable scent of hospital clean hits my nose and continues on the second floor as well. "I guess that is the hospital for trainers that have gotten hurt." I whisper quietly. It didn't take me long to reach my room once I got to the third floor. 

As I opened my room door, I was greeted by a fairly utilitarian room. The room is only ten foot by ten foot in size with an industrial blue-gray carpet and a bed and window on one wall, another wall had a simple desk and chair available. Above the desk was a small TV mounted on the wall. On the opposite wall was a door heading to the bathroom and a chaise lounge type chair where a normal sized pokemon could lay down. Instead of the stark white most of the Pokecenter walls were painted in, the walls of the room were painted in what I would call contractor beige. It's that omnipresent color that most places are painted in when they are first constructed.

I walk over to the bed and sit down hard, expecting the bed to give under my weight. It doesn't. The bed is rock hard, clearly meant for something with weight to lay on it or else it was just the hardest mattress in existence. Skadi hops on next to me before spinning around a few times and laying down next to my leg with her nose in her tails.I smile tiredly at her and lay down on the bed trying not to disturb her and close my eyes to fall asleep as well. 

*BOOM*

The sound of an explosion startles me awake. I notice that Skadi is already up and pacing around the room. I take out my phone, only to see it has only been about three hours since I went to sleep. My eyebrow twitches slightly in irritation. If there is one thing I hate, it is being woken up too early. Is it too much to ask for a good night's sleep? I need my beauty rest! Whoever caused this is going to regret it.

I get back out of bed and head back down to where the sound of the explosion happened with Skadi on my heels. As I come out of the stairwell onto the ground floor I pause for a minute due to all the smoke in the air. I notice that Skadi's ears twitch like she is listening to something so I focus on my hearing as well.

"...Denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars…"

As Spiderman once said, it's a canon event. The Team Rocket screwups of Jessie and James have appeared to steal pokemon from one of the most fortified places in a city. Whatever they are smoking that led them to think that this was a good idea, they need to share it. While I was musing about my thoughts about what was happening, a battle started near where I heard the voices earlier. I crouch down below the smoke and creep closer to see what is going on.

I happen to arrive just in time to see a Chansey with a nurse's cap on its head punch the daylights out of Koffing with a Thunder Punch. The Koffing flies backward and crashes into a wall and gets embedded there in a cloud of dust and debris. As the dust settles I can see a small amount of electricity race along its body, showing that it is paralyzed, not that it matters as Koffing is clearly down for the count. Moments later, three more Koffing show up and they attack Chansey by spitting large globs of Sludge at her. Chansey attempts to use Light Screen to deflect but it only blocks one attack causing the other two to hit. Chansey stumbles for a second from getting hit but doesn't look any worse for wear. 

Tearing my eyes away from the fighting Nurse Chansey, I notice that it is not just Jessie and James that are attacking, they are followed by another three grunts. I take a slow deliberate breath, avoiding the smoke and whatever else is in the air before grabbing Zephyrs pokeball and releasing her. I take a look at my two pokemon that look eager to join the battle.

"Alright, here is the plan. Zephyr, I want you to use Defog to clear the air so we can see and breathe. Skadi, I want you to charge up a massive amount of snow. I want you to use Powdered Snow on those in the black uniforms. They are the bad guys that woke us up. After the Powdered Snow, stay hidden and charge up a Moon Blast as much as you can. Once I command you, release it. Hopefully we will shake things up."

My two pokemon nod at me as Skadi starts to create snow using her energy. The air and ground around her start to build up with snow, slowly hiding her from view. Zephyr's wings start to glow in an azure color before she flaps her wings hard, causing her to take off and send a strong gust of wind that pulls all the smoke and smog along with it and out the broken door where Team Rocket came in. Just as the air clears, a veritable blizzard of snowflakes shoots across the foyer and slams into the Team Rocket members. It seems to just miss Jessie and James, but the grunts take the full brunt of it. As the snow passes by the three members that were hit seem to freeze in place as a pale blue color surrounds them.

In the short time that it took for me to plan and attack, Nurse Chansey had taken out two more Koffing but was not looking good. She was breathing heavily and her eyes had a slight purple tinge showing that she was suffering for poison. The last Koffing slams into Chansey and she is finally knocked out. I look around to see if anyone else is available to help, but all I see is a few trainers passed out on the floor from the initial attack. I had only heard the attack because it was just below my room so no one else was coming to assist.

Still crouched down, I survey what pokemon are still standing besides Skadi and Zephyr. What I can see is the Koffing that knocked out Chansey, a Meowth and a floating string of flowers that looks like a Lei from Hawaii. Unsure of what that Lei can do, I turn to Zephyr who is flying near my head.

"Zephyr, I want you to use Quick Attack into a Peck on the Koffing. It looks to be on the edge of fainting. If needed, use Ember as well. Can you do that for me?"

"Ling~!" The tiny robin pokemon puffs up its chest feathers trying to look tough.

"Alright, I'll trust you to get it done. Attack on my mark. Now!"

As I called out the attack, Zephyr disappeared in a blur of feathers, speeding towards the Koffing who was across the room. As she traveled about a quarter of the distance, Jessie and Meowth seemed to notice the incoming feathered projectile.

"Ah a little bird. I was feeling hungry" Meowth grinned in a predatory manner at Zephyr.

"Ekans, catch that thing, it can be your dinner." Jessie called out, not caring about the bird missile. Ekans sprung out from where it was hiding, its mouth opened right in Zephyrs path.

"Zephyr, weave around the snake and stay on course! Skadi, attack the Meowth!" I called out with a slight bit of panic in my voice. I didn't want to have Zephyr potentially die as I'm still unsure of what can happen in this world. Everything I had seen from battles were all rule lawyered and nothing permanent was ever done to a pokemon. This was different though, they were criminals.

I watched in increasing horror and then relief as Zephyr dodged Ekans at the absolute last second before turning into a flaming streak across the room that slammed into Koffing with a sickening bang and crunch being heard at the same time. Zephyr recoils off the Koffing towards the desk where Nurse Joy is trying to call for assistance. She lands and skids across the floor but I don't see her moving. 

I start to panic when suddenly a blinding flash occurs from beside me and an enormous beam of pink light shoots across the room and hits Ekans, Meowth, Jessie and James all at the same time followed by another massive boom from the wall behind them exploding. The beam lasts for only a second but the after image lingers as I look at where it hit. I have to blink a few times as my vision returns and I find everyone that was hit by the pillar of light completely knocked out. 

I turn my head to look at Skadi who looks up at me proudly before falling over, passing out as well. I picked her up gently before hurrying over to Zephyr now that the fight seemed to be over. I place Skadi on the desk before quickly rushing over to Zephyr and gently picking her up in my hands. I breathe a sigh of relief as I feel my brave little bird still breathing even though her wings look broken. I carry her over to the desk as well and wait for Nurse Joy to finish talking on the phone.

"Thank you for your assistance. I have seen everything you have done and informed the Jenny office about your assistance as well. Do not worry about your pokemon as we will make sure they will be taken care of like the little heroes they are." Nurse Joy gives me a small bow in gratitude before placing my two pokemon on a nearby stretcher and using a pokeball to recall Nurse Chansey. 

A few moments later I can hear the sounds of multiple pairs of footsteps coming from outside and I see a whole squad of police officers. Each and every one of them has the same teal hair and amber eyes, showing they are from the Jenny clan. They quickly go about handcuffing each of the Team Rocket members and placing their pokemon back into their pokeballs. They then place their pokeballs into a special locked case and taking it away. For the Rocketsicles that Skadi made, the blue energy is almost gone so they should be fine. It looks like even though pokemon moves can affect humans, the power is only temporary. I sigh in relief internally as I did not kill anyone.

After giving my statement to the Jennys, and seeing Zephyr and Skadi off to the pokemon care rooms, I head back to my room. Once back to the quiet of my room I strip off my dress and shoes and hang them up by the bathroom before taking a warm, even though the knob is turned all the way to cold, shower. I just let the water run over me as I slowly decompress from the excitement. I think back on what I did and realize I was not actually powerful enough to help in that situation. If they had attacked when I was in the open, or is Zephyr did not dodge the Ekans, things would have been different. 

That was twice now that I had won by doing sneak attacks and preplanning. When I start fighting in gyms, that strategy is not going to work. Once my pokemon are healed up, I need to seriously train as we go through the Viridian Forest. As long as I can get the badge by the end of July, I won't have to worry about the time to get the rest of the badges. 

After about fifteen minutes I turn off the shower and head directly to the bed where I fall onto it face first and quickly start to fall asleep.

[Congratulations host! You have successfully repelled a criminal attack! You have been awarded one Gacha spin.]

I partially open my eyes and glare at the message before dismissing it with a huff and actually falling asleep moments later.