Inner Strength: Time Heals part 3

Day one of my journey. Funny, it didn't seem as exciting as I would've guessed it would've been. So far all we have done is just walk . . . and walk . . . and walk.
It was just me and my grandfather and my backpack. My grandpa hardly talked at all as we walked together, so the only sounds that emitted from the two of us was the sound of our feet against the grass.
Finally I decided to break the silence. Still walking through the fields, I turned to face my grandfather. "Grandpa? You wanted to go do something before we left. Where did you go?"
The Lucario breathed in deeply as he heard my question. He tilted his head up towards the sky, as if trying to see something in the clouds. "I went to go talk to your grandmother, Xan."
I blinked at hearing that. "My grandmother? She's around?"
Again the Lucario took in a breath and shook his head. "No. She was not home when I went to go see her. She must be out of town for whatever reason."
"Oh . . . I'm sorry, Grandpa."
He just shrugged and walked closer to my side. "It's alright, Xan. I did want to see her at least once more before we left, but I am almost used to not being able to talk to her. However, in saying that, I'm pretty sure I will see her sometime along this little journey of ours, so don't fret."
All I could do was nod to him and return my gaze back to the trail we walked along. Poor Grandpa . . . I felt like I should say something to him, perhaps something to comfort or encourage him, but what should I say? Oh, don't worry, Gramps! There's plenty of fish out in the sea!  Nah, I guess I'm just not very good with things like this.
So we just continued walking on, heading north like my uncle instructed us. After some time we came into a small forest. It wasn't a lush forest or anything but rather was very green and lively. Though, when I say "lively" I really meant the plants, for there was not a single living soul in sight.
"Grandpa? Are we going to see any other Pokémon around here?" I asked looking around. Although I knew this was my first day on this journey of mine, I was still expecting to see other Pokémon along the way. We haven't seen anything move except for whenever the trees and grass would be blown by the wind: a sight that I have quickly grown used to seeing already.
My grandfather groaned, looking around as I said that question. "That is a good question, Xander. Usually we would see some Pokémon around-"
Just then a loud boom thundered through the air, echoing around the forest. We paused, stopping on our trail after hearing such a sound. I perked my ears up, staying quiet while straining to hear something else. My ears were quickly greeted by the sound of a tree cracking, possibly splitting in two, and falling over. My and my grandfather's heads swung over towards the source of the noise, looking up in the sky as waves of bird Pokémon flew away in panic.
My eyes widened in fear. It was already happening! The great war was already starting right before my eyes! Someone was attacking us and we weren't even ready! "Grandpa, it's happening!" I shouted out, dropping my backpack onto the ground while sprinting over to the direction of the noise.
"Wait! Xander!" called out my grandfather before quickly pursuing my lead.
There was no time to wait. Artemis said that I could not stop this war, but maybe I could slow it down or at least save some lives. I just could not stand around and watch! I ran towards the source of the sound, dashing past trees and underbrush, dodging branches and roots alike. I was moving at a good pace, moving at a fast pace, trying desperately to make it to the people who could be in great danger. Then, just like that, a strong pain stung on my side. I tried to ignore it and continue running, but the pain continued to stay there, right along my hip and side of my belly. It was like someone grabbed a nail and pushed it into my skin, making my running slow down considerably.
After a few more seconds of painful sprinting, I came up to a clearing in the forest. Quickly I brought my legs to a halt and posted my body against one of the trees around me, immediately feeling my lungs begging for air within my chest. There I paused for a moment to give my lungs the air that they wanted, all while pressing my paw against my side that had the nail-like pain surging through it. Each breath I took I could feel my heart beating at a thousand beats a second, already feeling worn out.
I was amazingly out of shape. Never before had I ever run like that for that amount of time. But I had to move on; I had to see who was in trouble and who was starting the fight.
Taking one last deep breath, I straightened myself up and jogged a few steps forward, wanting to keep moving but knowing that my cramp wasn't going to let me move very quickly. Though, whether I should thank my lucky star or not, I did not have to move too far, for a large orange blur flew through the air in front of my face. The blur flung back and slammed against one of the trees on the other side of the clearing, making yet another loud boom echo through the forest. The tree split in two, falling over as the orange being slid down its bark.
The creature was huge compared to me. Standing tall it was like a tower completely shadowing my figure. It had thick leather orange skin, two long and large wings, and two short and small arms. Its neck was long and thick while its belly was very round, but I could only guess that it wasn't nearly considered obese. I wouldn't need my Pokédex to figure out what this was. It was a Charizard!
The Charizard picked itself up off of the now fallen tree, seeming not to even care of the damage it just caused. Instead, its eyes glared forward, not even bothering to look at me. It shook itself off and walked forward.
Just as it walked forward, another Pokémon appeared from nowhere and slammed its round body against the Charizard. This new Pokémon one took me a few extra seconds to identify, having to take some time to look through my mental memory of all of the Pokémon Oak had taught to me. This one looked as if it was completely made out of a round stone with the exception of its head, arms, and legs, each of which were muscular and firm like a reptile. This one had to be a Golem!
Using its body, the Golem slammed the dragon back against another tree, giving it a brand new crack. The Charizard retaliated, letting out a lout rawr as it gripped the Golem with both of his strong claws and tossed it over to the side. The Golem fell over onto the ground with a loud thud, bouncing over the grass and dirt as its heavy body made the ground vibrates with each bounce.
Their fight continued on, exchanging blows one after another, beating each other to see who could take the most hits . . . and yet . . . and yet I just stood here watching! Shouldn't I be stopping this? I should be, but I had no idea how. These Pokémon were huge compared to me, I couldn't even grab their attention!
Just as I thought this, another sound emitted from the forest. My ears twitched as I tried to recognize it. It was . . . voices?
"Come on, Flame! Blast him with a Flamethrower!"
"Keep going, Stone! Hit him with another Tackle!"
I turned my head in the direction of these voices. Two creatures stood there, watching the fight before them. They were . . . humans; little young boys by the looks of it. One boy had a blue shirt on with black pants and black shoes, holding onto a miniature Pokéball in his right hand. The other boy wore a red shirt with blue pants and brown shoes, both of his hands in tight fists. Both of the boys refused to look away from the fight happening before their eyes, not even bothering to look at me as I watched their expressions.
My grandfather jogged up behind me, stopping as he saw the fight before me. "Xander, what are you doing? We can't be here." He said while placing a paw on my shoulder, trying to tug me away.
I pulled my shoulder back and pointed at the fight happening before me. My mouth opened to say something, but I first gasped for another breath of air. I was still tired from the run over here. "The war is happening, Grandpa! We have to stop them!" I begged, still unsure how to do just that.
The Lucario looked at me for a moment, blinking now and again as he stared at me in dismay. Then, my grandfather chuckled, shaking his head as he patted my head. He was laughing during a time like this? "I keep forgetting that you are new to these things. This is not an actual fight, Xan. This is just a battle: a friendly competition."
"A competition?" I asked, looking back and forth between the Pokémon and the two human boys. "So . . . this is not war?"
"No, no, not at all. Look, you see those two trainers over there? They're the ones battling. These two Pokémon must belong to them." My grandfather explained.
I looked back at the two boys. They called out more commands out to their Pokémon, flinching and wincing with each blow that was made as if they were feeling the pain that the two creatures were feeling. "This is a battle?" I asked, looking back over at the Lucario. "They look like they're going pretty hard. What if they really hurt themselves?"
"If one of them gets hurt then they will head off to a Pokémon center, or a Pokécenter for short. There are Pokécenters in almost every town to help take care of hurt Pokémon. If these two are battling here then that must mean that we are close to a town."
As soon as he said that, the Lucario grabbed my head and pushed me down to the ground, slamming my head into the dirt. I heard something fly right over me, even felt the wind coming off of it and pushing my hair back. Then there was another boom followed by the now familiar sound of a tree cracking and falling over.
Something just flew right over us, probably one of the battling Pokémon. Slowly, after the sounds stopped, I lifted back up my head. I saw the two trainers looking right at both me and my grandfather.
"Whoa! No way! Is that a Lucario?"
"There's a Pichu too! What are they doing out here?"
"And now it's time for us to leave," urged my grandfather in a whisper.
And that's just what we did.

After running away from two shocked trainers, the rest of the day went by rather quickly. Sure enough my grandfather was right about there being a town close by, for it didn't take us but a few more hours to walk up to the said town.
However, calling it a "town" was an understatement. We could see the buildings from miles away! The city had towers lining up to touch the sky and had roads that led as far as the eyes could see. As we came closer we could see that the city was littered with people. There were people that looked to be as old as my uncle that walked around as if they were in a marathon race. Little children ran about across the roads and through the buildings.
Once the town was about a mile away, we stopped to think. I turned to look up at my grandfather. "What town is this one called again?" I asked.
"Viridian City," my grandfather said. "It is a very populous city for this area, but you will see many more just like it." Then he made a frown with his face, bringing one of his paws up to his chin in thought. "We can't just walk right on inside . . . or maybe we could."
This made me blink. "We . . . could?" I repeated. "But I thought Uncle said to go around it altogether."
He nodded and rubbed his chin in thought. "Yes, it would probably be safer, but I think we should still look for a faster way to get from city to city. If memory serves me right, I believe that there is a bus station here that we could possibly use. As far as getting inside . . . here, what do you have in your backpack?" I slid off my backpack off of my shoulders and lifted it up to the Lucario. He grabbed it and unzipped it, quickly shooting his arm inside of it to shuffle around some of my stuff.
"What are you looking for, Grandpa?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"Something to make us look like we're not wild. A collar, a bandana, a bow, anything that will give people the impression that we belong to someone."
"But I would be wearing that backpack, right? So wouldn't that be enough?" I tried to point out.
That made my grandfather stop searching, pausing with his arm still in that pack as he began to think about my comment. "Well . . . I think you're right, Xander. Never mind then."
He pulled his arm out, zipped up the pack, and handed it back down to me. I slipped it on but looked back up at my grandfather. "But then what about you? You don't need any kind of mark or clothing?"
He shook his head at that.  "No, it wouldn't be necessary for me. I've already been caught." I paused at hearing that, surprised. He was caught? I wanted to ask him the obvious, but the Lucario quickly waved his paw at me to silence my question. "I'll tell you another time. Here, let's go before it gets dark."
Now with me armed with my backpack over my back, we walked right into the bustling city, walking as if we already lived there. At first no one gave us a second glance. The people were too busy running around to pay any attention to a Lucario and a Pichu it seemed. The children, however, did take notice in us. One young boy ran up to me just to pat my head. I wasn't sure how to respond to such a motion, too scared that I might make the wrong kind of movement, but the boy just smiled and laughed at me and ran back with his friends.
Maybe I was being a little too skittish at all of this. The adults here were too busy to notice us while the children were just too friendly to really bother us. This realization made me relax and more at ease. It seemed that the further and further in the city we walked, the more relaxed I became. It didn't take too long for me to want to play with the children around me, but my grandfather went against it.
These people may be nice, but we still have a mission. Staying here for too long will only use up more time, Xan, my grandfather said to me, inaudibly. I could only sigh and nod my head.
It did take us some time to walk through the massive city. After walking for a few more hours, we realized that we had only made it about half way through. Finally my grandfather said that taking a rest here would be fine, going against his better judgment of "keep moving". We stopped by a clothing store and sat down against one of the sidewalk benches.
"Grandpa?" I whispered to the Lucario after double checking that no one was paying us any attention, leaning against him on the bench. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
The Lucario sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I was hoping to see the bus station around here, but I haven't seen it yet. Perhaps it's gone now." I told him that wasn't what I was talking about. He rolled his eyes and turned his head to look over at me. "Just a moment ago you were ready to go play with the people here and yet now you are worried again? Don't worry, Xander. As long as you don't bring attention to yourself then no one really pays you any attention at all. That's how it typically wo-"
Just like that, he stopped in mid-sentence. My grandfather turned his head away from me while straightening himself up on the bench, looking straight forward at . . . something. I looked up at him, confused at what was going on. "Grandpa. . . ?"
He still didn't turn away. Curiosity overtaking me, I turned my head to follow his gaze. At first all I could see was the still bustling crowd of the city walking by . . . but as I looked closer I could see a feint hint of. . .yellow?
"No . . . it's impossible," said my grandfather.
Wait . . . was that yellow coming from . . . another Lucario?
I did the worst possible mistake in my life at that moment: I blinked. As soon as my eyes opened back up, I saw that yellow Lucario right in front of my grandfather. He stood over him with this huge smile on his face, glaring down at the blue Lucario. He seemed to have this . . . aura . . . of overconfidence. It had to be that smile. Just how this new Lucario smiled made it look like it was expecting everything and anything to happen.
"Evening, Brother. Happy to see me?"
My grandfather stayed frozen, looking straight up from where he sat on the bench up at the other Lucario. I watched as his body began to shake and his chest began to heave up and down. He was scared. "You . . . you're supposed to be dead."
The yellow Lucario smile grew wider (as if that was possible) and casually gripped my grandfather's neck. "Oh? Surprised? What, did you want your own brother to be dead? Where's the family love in that?" In a flash the yellow Lucario lifted my grandfather up into the air, holding him there like he was a leaf he found on the ground. I watched in fear as my grandfather clawed at his own neck, trying to pry off that paw that was now choking the very life out of him. The yellow Lucario chuckled and shook his head. "See, I did have this long and antagonizing speech that I was planning on giving you. It talked something about vengeance and how angry I was that you tried to kill me and this and that, but I changed my mind now." The yellow Lucario cocked his arm that held my grandfather's neck back and threw him straight into the clothing store behind us. My grandfather's blue body smashed through the glass windows and through the plastic manikins, toppling over some of the clothing displays while making some of the customers scream in fright.
The yellow Lucario walked into the clothing store, completely ignoring me as he moved. He didn't seem to care about me at all, just at my grandfather. "But instead I found that I would greatly prefer seeing you slowly die," he continued on, stepping over some of that broken glass as he walked further into the store. I dashed off to the side, trying to get a better view of what was going on. "So come on, Brother! Don't bore me by not fighting back! Surely you've gotten stronger over the years, yes?"
The yellow one continued walking by, smirking with that same smile he had as some of the human customers tried to make their mad dash out of the store. He turned his head as a woman tripped over herself and stumbled desperately to get back up to her feet. Again he smirked and scanned the room some more, just in time to have his head greeted by a metal coat hanger.
My grandfather smacked the coat hanger across the other Lucario's head, forcing the other to reel back and bark in pain. The yellow Lucario growled and grabbed that coat hanger, moving with lighting fast speed, making it terribly difficult for my grandfather to have any time to react. The other Lucario pulled the coat hanger away with a mighty jerk and swung it back at my grandfather's jaw.
My grandfather stumbled back and spun around a mighty kick, knocking the coat hanger away. Quickly he followed himself up with a jab at the yellow Lucario's head, pushing him back with the blow.
The yellow Lucario took a step back swung his own kick at my grandfather. He was able to side step the attack, but immediately received a blow to his chest as the yellow Lucario spun his body around for a spinning back kick. The impact sent my grandfather flying to the far end of the store, sending all sort of clothing articles flying off of their hangers and across the floor.
My grandfather's body slammed against the far wall of the store, bouncing off of it like a rubber ball and onto a marble counter where a cash register was placed at. He picked up his head with a groan and looked over at the other Lucario.
The yellow Lucario flashed out of sight. This caused my grandfather to straighten up, quickly getting himself back up to his feet. His left ear flicked and he jabbed his right arm up to his side. Just then the yellow Lucario flashed back into existence, only now with his leg against my grandfather's arm. He blocked it!
My grandfather growled out as he quickly hooked his arm around the other Lucario's leg, nailing the thigh with his elbow, causing the other to yell out in pain, before swinging around to toss the yellow Lucario away.
The yellow Lucario's body flung off to the side but he quickly regained his balance and momentum while in the air, flipping himself around to land his feet up on the ceiling of the store, jumping back down to greet my grandfather.
My grandfather dived over to the side, knocking over what remaining clothing displays that somehow were still standing. Quickly, he got back to his feet and brought his paws over to his right side. There, between his paws, a bright blue orb of pure energy quickly formed, growing until it was the size of a watermelon. With a yell he threw his arms forward and flung the ball of energy towards the yellow Lucario.
The other Lucario landed on the floor on his feet and swatted the blue orb of energy away; treating it like it was a basketball. This made him grin evilly, almost chuckling at seeing my grandfather's attempt.
Just like that, the other Lucario's expression changed from grinning to frowning in anger, thrusting out both of his arms out towards my grandfather. Hundreds upon hundreds of yellow orbs of energy, very similar to the one my grandfather used, flew out of both of his paws.
My grandfather covered up his head with both of his arms, hoping to shield himself from at least some of the bombardment, but it did very little use to him. The yellow orbs slammed against his body, flinging him down to his back on the other side of the store, smashing his body against another marble counter.
I stood there at the front of the store, watching the fight go on before my eyes. What was I doing? I should be in there helping my grandpa fight off this unknown enemy! I can't just stand here and watch as my grandfather was torn to pieces.
Just as I thought that, my grandfather was tossed right back outside of the clothing store, flying over the bench we were previously sitting at and onto the concrete ground beyond it. The yellow Lucario stepped out of the store and dusted off some glass that must've fallen on his shoulder during the fight.
"You are starting to disappoint me, brother. I was hoping that this would've been a challenge." He snorted and shook his head. "How did I lose to you before? I must've been off of my game that day." The Lucario snorted again, though more in a chuckling matter this time. He began to slow walk forward, stepping on top of some of the remaining broken glass, causing a constant cracking noise to be heard with each step he made. "You must be getting old, brother. You're weak now; time has made your bones tender and your muscles weary."
A woman could be heard screaming, though what she was screaming I could not tell. The children that were outside playing, being happy and full of life, were now nowhere to be found. Everyone must've run away in fear once they saw the fight commence.
The yellow Lucario walked up to my grandfather's body and picked him up off of the ground, lifting him up into the air by his neck with just one arm. My grandfather began to choke, bringing his paws up to his own neck in a weak attempt to pull off the other Lucario's grip around his trachea. He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but his first words were unrecognizable as only coughs and gags could be heard. "H-how . . . how are you . . .?"
"Alive?" said the other Lucario, finishing my grandfather's sentence. "Oh wouldn't you want to know? Surely by now you must know that I, if anything, am a survivor. Someone as weak and as pathetic as you cannot kill me! No one can kill me! And now, thanks to you, my brother, I am learned how to become even stronger and faster." He smiled again, lifting my grandfather's dangling body up higher into the air. He seemed to enjoy seeing his own brother slowly die before him. "Ignorance is bliss, my dear brother. So you will now die . . . and you will die without knowing anything about what is going on around you."
I could not take it anymore. Going at a full sprint, I ran over to the yellow Lucario and slammed my head against the side of his leg. My body seemed to rebound off of the Lucario's calf, having done nothing to so much as gain the Lucario's attention. Thinking quickly, I got back to my feet and did the next best thing: bite his leg. With a yell I dug my fangs into the yellow Lucario's shin, clamping my mouth down as much as I possibly could. This caught his attention now.
The yellow Lucario howled out in pain as he felt my teeth dig into his flesh. He threw my grandfather's body off to the side while kicking his leg out in an attempt to fling me off. The power from the kick was enough to give my spine a good whiplash, but my jaw held on tight. Again he kicked out his leg, yelling and cursing at me for biting him, but I continued to hold on, seeing stars flash before my eyes with each fling of his legs he gave.
Then he stopped kicking and, instead, forcefully reached down and grabbed me. He gripped onto one of my ears and tugged at it hard, now making me yell out in pain while releasing the Lucario's leg from my jaws. He lifted me up, still holding me by my ear, and brought me up face-to-face with him. "And who the hell are you!" He barked at my face, anger swelling in his eyes. "How dare you interfere with my quarrel! You will die just as-" He paused there, stopping even with his mouth still open as he continued to look at me.
I took this opportunity to try and claw at his face, swinging my paws around to reach his muzzle of his nose even, but my arms were just too short to reach and the momentum of my movements just made my body swing around in the air from my ear.
The Lucario did not seem amused by my efforts. He eyed me closely and lifted me up higher into the air. "Who are you, little one?" He asked me.
I closed one of my eyes from the pain coming from my ear, reaching up to try to pull the Lucario's paw off of me. "Let me go!" I shouted.
He blinked as soon as he heard my voice. "He speaks, and in English too! I must say that you look awfully familiar. Do you have a name?"
"Buzz off!" I spat, still flailing my arms about to try to get free.
That made him chuckle now. "You sound just like my brother now. How to you know him?"
"Freeze!"
The yellow Lucario turned his head, looking back towards the source of that sound. It came from a woman, a human female with bright blue hair and wore a blue uniform of some sort. She was standing next to a blue vehicle that had red and blue lights flashing on top of it. She wasn't alone, either, standing next to her were other men and women, all wearing either the same uniform as she was or similar ones by pattern. Each of them also had similar vehicles, all flashing the same red and blue lights. How did I miss seeing them?
The Lucario lowered me down slightly but still held me up by my ear, turning around to face the woman in blue. He smirked and rose up his other paw towards her. The woman reacted and quickly pulled out a metal gadget of some sort from her hip and pointed it at the Lucario. "This is not an authorized area for battling! Any form of aggression will be considered hostile and we will fire upon you!" shouted the woman, holding her gadget out in front of her. "Stand down now and return to your trainer!"
The Lucario smirked and shook his head. "This is not worth my time." He looked back over at me and brought me closer to his head, showing me his deep red eyes. "We will meet again, little rodent. I will find out who you are and I will kill you, but only after I am done killing my brother. It might not be today and it may not be tomorrow, but I will find you one way or another." He grinned evilly then. "Next time we meet; bring me a real challenge, alright? After all, the more time I spend fighting, the less time you spend suffering."
"Who . . . who are you?" I asked, holding onto my ear with my own paws. "What do you want from us?"
Now the Lucario tilted his head at me. "I am the beginning of the end of this world, little one. I am the beam of light that outshines all others. I am the one that will start a new and better world than the one we currently are standing in." He brought up his other paw over to my hand, ignoring the woman's protests as she shouted more instructions to him. "And in order to do that: everyone must die. That is what I want and what I shall accomplish."
Before I could say anything back, the yellow Lucario slammed his paw against the side of my head. Just like that, I blacked out.

Man, my head hurt. It was throbbing with a dull pain, almost like what one would feel if they let someone else carefully bop their head with a hammer over and over again. With a groan, I placed my paw on my forehead, thinking that maybe applying some sort of pressure would null the pain somehow. It didn't.
I groaned again from annoyance and sat myself up. Just from that simple movement that I made, I could feel my bones and muscles scream in objection. My whole body was sore; no doubts from being flung around everywhere like a whip thanks to that Lucario.
Who was that Lucario anyhow? He kept calling my grandfather his "brother". Were they actually siblings? Could this random Pokemon actually be my uncle? But then I do remember my grandfather saying something about how he was supposed to be dead. So many questions kept popping into my head about that rare looking Lucario, all of which had no answer.
Then a new question popped into my head: where am I? I blinked my eyes until I was able to hold them open wide and scanned about. I was in some sort of small, red room with a white ceiling and a red door. The room had two chairs, one on both sides of the room, a desk that lined itself against a wall, and a rolling chair that stood in front of the desk. I could see my backpack lying on top of the desk, still zipped up and unopened.
I looked down to find myself sitting on some sort of plastic bed which was covered in what felt like saran wrap, a paper pillow underneath my head.
Then my eyes caught my arm. There was a needle that was stuck into my skin along with a long tube that extended out of the needle. I followed the tube and found a plastic bag hanging off of a metal hanger, filled with some clear liquid.
Where was I? How did I get here?
My next thought was to pull this needle out of my arm, but I hesitated. This could be something important, something good even. Whatever is being pumped inside of me might be trying to keep me alive or might be trying to help me heal.
Or it could be the actual reason why my head was throbbing with so much pain right now. This liquid did not look nor feel natural to me. I could feel it slowly flowing into my blood stream, making my arm feel slightly cold because of the liquid.
Before I could make up my mind, the door at the other side of the room opened up. A middle-aged, pink haired, woman walked inside. She wore a long white apron that covered her entire body, looking like it was the shape of a bell as how it angled outwards the further down it went. Her pink hair was long but was looped around so that they did not reach below her shoulders while the rest of her hair was hidden underneath a white cap on her head.
The woman smiled as she walked inside and closed the door behind her. "Looks like you are awake, little guy. Feeling any better?"
I opened up my mouth to say something but instead let out another groan in pain as my head began to throb again, gripping onto it with my paw.
This caught the woman's attention and she walked over to my side. "Your head still hurts? Here, let me feel." She brought her hand up to my head and rested it there. Somehow the feeling of her hand made the throbbing settle down, though not completely going away. The woman frowned as she felt along my forehead, pulling her hand away once she felt enough. "You are still burning up there. You'll have to stay another day I suppose until you get better." She bent herself over and placed her hands on her knees, now at eye level with me. "Will you be okay with that?"
I stayed quiet. Another day? Does that mean that I already spent a whole day here? And now they want me to stay another day? I can't be wasting my time sitting around! I don't even know where exactly I'm at or-
My ears perked up. I completely forgot about Grandpa! Where is he?
I shuffled around in my bed to scoot myself over to the edge, wincing from feeling my weak muscles flare up in pain. The woman saw my actions and quickly placed a hand on my chest, straightening herself up over me. "No, no, no. You can't just leave yet; you are far too weak to just go wondering around. Don't worry, Pichu, you are safe here. Just lie down and rest."
Her words were calm and reassuring, almost mesmerizing in a way. She was just being polite to me, she just wanted to help, but even her soft words could not ease my worries. "But what about-"
I stopped myself in mid-sentence, quickly shutting my mouth close. The woman blinked as her unwavering eyes continued to stare at me. She blinked again, only this time her face looked more confused now, tilting her head to the side slightly as she gazed at me. "Did . . . did you just?" I kept my mouth closed. I was so stupid! Uncle told me not to go around talking like normal, but I was just so used to it that I almost started a whole new conversation!
Alright, Xander . . . think, think, think! What do Pichu say? Do they have their own language?
I gulped and . . . tilted my head over to the side, letting one of my ears flatten out at the angle of my head. "Chu . . . Pichu?" I was hoping that perhaps I could just move with the flow, maybe make this human believe that she was just hearing things or that her mind was playing her tricks. Maybe if I just sound innocent enough, she'll forget about everything.
She blinked again . . . and stood herself straight up. She mumbled to herself about something while shaking her head and turned towards the door. The woman walked over to the door, opened it up, and began to walk outside, but peaked her head back into my room before she left. "Now rest, okay? You should feel all better by morning. Oh, and whatever you do: don't mess with that I.V please." And with that she left and closed the door behind her.
I sat there on the bed, now alone with nothing but my thoughts in that red room. I turned my head back to look over at the plastic bag that hung over a metal hanger. I could only guess that this was the "I.V" the woman was talking about. I still wasn't sure about the liquid, about whether it was something to help me or not, but I suppose that I wasn't in much of a position to really debate the issue. Whether I like it or not, the woman was right: I'm too weak to start walking around on my own.
With a sigh, I looked down at my paws, raising them up towards my face. These hands . . . my hands . . . are weak. The shiny Lucario showed me how truly weak I am and that little run I did showed me how truly out of shape I am. Already I lost my first fight and remembering how Artemis talked it sounded like I had many more fights ahead of me. If I'm going to "save the world" then I will need to find a way to become stronger.
But . . . how am I supposed to do that?
I sighed. I wish Uncle Oak was here right now. . .