Ch. 3 A New Healthcare System

Once we finished, she gave me directions to the Pokémon Center, which are also called PokéCenters or simply Centers. Same thing happened with PokéMarts, most just referred to them as Marts, as I found through Officer Jenny. As I walked, I thought about my situation as a whole. I couldn't really remember a single thing about myself, except for the single fact that I don't belong here in the Pokémon world. I instinctively knew that it shouldn't exist, but here I was. I was just glad I actually had a lot of information about the world from the games.

Next was the fact that I didn't know if I had family or not. It was difficult to feel anything about that aspect since I didn't know if I had a good family or not. However, there was a sense of loss all the same, as if just knowing that I might have a family meant I should be sad that I couldn't see them.

Except, I don't even know if I'm not from this world. Maybe the games I remember exist here. Officer Jenny mentioned Calem, which means he definitely exists and has dealt with Team Flare. Maybe the games follow the journeys of the trainers after they've become champions?

Pretty soon, I found myself at the PokéCenter. Hopefully this place had at least one answer for me. I entered an empty lobby, except for the nurse handling the front desk.

"Good evening, you're out rather late. Do your Pokémon need a rest?" the pink haired woman, Nurse Joy, asked in a friendly demeanor. Something about her just put me at ease, as if I was safe and nothing would harm me with her around. 

"I actually don't have any Pokémon," I said as I walked up. "I would actually like to get myself checked out, if possible."

Nurse Joy's eyes widened ever so slightly before asking, "Are you Marco Pérez?"

"Yes."

"Ok, Officer Jenny already updated me," she said, her demeanor becoming slightly more professional as she continued. "If you go through those doors, a Chansey will bring you to a room and run a pre-diagnostic check. After that, she'll run her own scan before we do any other scans. Is that alright with you?"

"That's perfect, thank you!" I answered.

"Great! Go ahead and walk through the doors, please," she said as she pointed at double doors to the left of the desk. I gave her a smile and a nod before walking through. Just past the doors, a Chansey was waiting with a happy smile.

"Chansey!" she cried out, waving me over with its stubby arms and walking towards a room. There, it gave me what seemed to be a standard check up: height, weight, blood pressure (watching it expertly handle the instrument with her fingerless nubs was rather intriguing), and other similar things. Once she was done with that, she pointed at the examination bed and waited until I sat down.

'Cha Cha Chan. Chan Chansey," she said before her nubs began to glow with a pink energy, waving her arms all over my body. She hovered over my head, neck, heart, and… 

THAT area before placing her… It felt disrespectful to refer to her arms as nubs. She placed her arms on my head, the concentrated pink energy glowing brighter. Once she was done, she walked out, leaving me alone for several minutes. 

"That was, something," I told myself, still slightly embarrassed about a Pokémon's glowing arms hovering over my crotch. I wasn't given much time to mull over the event since Nurse Joy soon came back with Chansey, holding a clipboard with several papers.

"Marco, how are you feeling?" Nurse Joy asked, watching my face as I answered.

"I'm… exhausted, to be honest," I said. "I'm still confused and lost in my whole situation, but I feel fine otherwise. Did you find what's wrong with me?"

"Well, we found something. But we can't exactly tell how it's affecting you quite yet. Chansey said it's like your brain is on overdrive, though she couldn't exactly tell why," she explained. "We'll need to run some more tests, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," I told her. "But I am broke, just so you know. I may not be able to pay for services."

"Oh, don't you worry about that," she said with an amused look. "Officer Jenny said it was important that I get you checked out, so I'll be charging her department."

Ha, that's good.

"Thank you, though I hope she doesn't get mad at me," I said with a smile.

"Don't you worry about that," Nurse Joy said and soon left. She quickly returned with an EEG-like machine connected to a computer. She also had a cap full of electrodes and several independently connected electrodes ready. "Alright, lay down on the bed please."

I complied and soon found myself connected to the machine. With the cap on my head and the electrodes connected to my body, Nurse Joy began the scan. She began taking notes as she stared at the computer. Chansey would occasionally use some sort of move, her eyes glowing a shade of purple while looking me over. It felt like a few hours had passed, though that was because I couldn't talk or do much other than lay there.

Eventually, however, the scan came to an end and Nurse Joy brought the machine back to where it was stored. Chansey waited in the room with me, happily humming along to some tune. A few more minutes passed before Nurse Joy walked back in.

"Ok, here's what we got," she began, "We're not quite sure what's going on. Your charts show conflicting or improbable readings, and I don't quite know what they mean. For your amnesia in particular, there was some rather concerning amounts of lingering Psychic-energy. I'm quite sure that a Pokémon meddled with your memories."

She paused, allowing me to process the information. A Pokémon had messed with my brain. Did it do so before or after I appeared in this world? Neither option sat well with me.

"It'll take me some time to properly interpret the rest of your results," Nurse Joy continued, "possibly even a second or third opinion because I've yet to see a case like this in my thirty years as a practicing doctor. That means you'll have to stay in the area for the time being. Is that alright with you?"

"Well… I've nowhere else to go," I said quietly. My mind was still trying to cope with the fact that an unknown creature from a fictional series did something to my mind and gave me amnesia. That, however, didn't stop me from automatically asking, "How much is it going to cost me?"

I've got a memory problem probably caused by some super-powered creature and here I am worrying about how much I'm gonna have to pay for all of this. What the hell was my life before waking up here?

"Well, nothing," Nurse Joy answered. "Normal rates are 5$ for Pokémon examinations and healing, 20$ for human examinations, 15$ per trip to the canteen, and 40$ a room per night. If you visit often, you can buy monthly, seasonal, or yearly passes for 600$, 1200$, and 3800$, respectively. Or you can join the League or Ranger Association and have the fees waived. In your case, Officer Jenny will cover it. The Jenny family normally covers expenses for people that have been the victim of a crime or Pokémon attack."

"Hmm, that is quite the case of generosity," I said, thankful that the current system and practice meant I did not have to struggle to pay.

"Well, the Jenny and Joy families have always been known to protect and heal. We've been trusted throughout the inhabited world because of our unusual connection to these concepts, fostered by the blessings we received from the great Legends in the ancient past. But that's a conversation for another day. Jenny will be here tomorrow morning for some more questioning. You'll need to be well-rested for it, so up to bed you go. Here's your room key. Make sure to rest well!" she explained before rushing me away from her office. 

"Thank you for the room. Could you help me with my phone? I can't seem to access anything," I said, taking out my phone to show her what I meant.

"No problem, just give your phone to me for a few seconds," she said. She whistled once she had my phone. "Now that's an outdated model. You should consider getting yourself a Rotom phone or something more modern. It really does help with everything nowadays." 

After rummaging through her drawer for a cable, she connected it to her computer and clicked around a few times. After a total of maybe ten or so seconds, she gave my phone back. "Here's your phone. Your profile is updated and you should have access to the Net and more apps."

"Thank you," I said as I grabbed my phone. "Good night, Nurse Joy!"

"Good night, Marco!"

I walked up to my room, which was on the third floor. After a few minutes, I walked into a plain room. There was a table and two chairs close to the door, as well as what seemed to be a basic "kitchen" with a microwave, a sink, a two-burner stove, and two cabinets overhead that contained a few dishes and silverware. Further into the room was a couch that faced a TV at the end of the room. A bed was next to the TV, while a door between the bed and kitchen led to the bathroom. I sat on the bed, the exhaustion fully setting in as I quickly fell asleep.

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The first three chapters of the rewrites. Let me know what you think!

Three Pokémon are already locked in from the previous versions. Here's the first vote for a team member:

Galarian Slowpoke 

or

Paldean Wooper