Pokémon fanfiction - David

Chapter 6 - Where is Froakie?

 I woke up by the Dodrios scream again, which I started to get used to. When I got up from the bed I got painfully aware of my fractured ribs. I grunted as I put my clothes on and eventually made my way out from the room supporting my chest with my right arm. Apparently I managed to fracture my ribs again when I fell in the park after my run. At first I didn't care, it didn't really hurt that much. Now it had gotten worse. 

 "So how's Froakie?" I asked when I arrived at the pokecentre. I stroke my hand over my bruised ribs carefully while I waited for the answer. 

 "She's just fine, come this way!" Nurse Joy answered happily and waved me forward.We went into another room, and then into another. The room looked like a regular hospital room with a small well-positioned bed in the middle. The only thing missing was Froakie. 

 "Is this the right place?" I asked suspiciously. My ribs hurt even more now and I bit my lip to not give off any sound. How could it hurt this much? 

 "I swear Froakie was here just a minute ago" she said desperately. Nurse Joy clearly looked confused and searched frantically behind curtains, in cabinets and furniture. 

 "I don't know where Froakie has gone!" 

 "It's okay. I'll find her" I tried to calm her down. 

 "Do you need any help?" she asked worried. 

 I stopped to think for a few seconds before I answered "No thanks. I can find her on my own." I hurried out from the room and out to the square in the city. I saw lots of people circling around the area, but I couldn't see Froakie anywhere. Far away across the square I saw Brianna, the one person I didn't want to see. She was buying fruit and when she turned around she spotted me too and started walking towards me. I sighed and decided to meet her half way. How could she smile to me? I mean I didn't want to see her, and she was happy to see me? I couldn't just run away now, and she might be able to help me. 

 "Changed your mind?" She asked hopefully when we were in speaking distance. 

 "Actually it was something completely else I was going to ask you. You haven't seen Froakie around, have you?" 

 "No why? Is she lost?" She asked shocked. 

 "She is gone, disappeared from the bed at the poke center" 

 "Oh no! I can help you find her. After all, I do have some Pokemon that might be able to help us out"

"Thanks" I said and smiled. I needed all the help I could get, especially since I wasn't in my best shape at this point. 

She released Butterfree, the same one who beat my Froakie. "Butterfree, fly towards the forest and see if you can find Froakie. We'll look in the other direction"

Butterfree flied away and I and Brianna started walking towards the park. I doubted that her pokemon could help us, but I still appreciated her help. I liked how forgiving and reflecting she was. It was like her ego didn't take a hit at all when I said no to her yesterday. There weren't many people like that. 

 "So..." started Brianna and looked at me. I looked at my feet, avoiding her gaze and put my hands in my pockets."Are you leaving as soon as you find Froakie?" 

 "Yup" I answered shortly. I could see the park and started walking much faster. "Froakie might have run that way" I suggested and started jogging to the other end of the park. Brianna stayed on the other side and looked in that area. I couldn't see Froakie anywhere in the entire park. There weren't many people at all in the park, only an old man resting on a bench and a woman doing some yoga. 

"Froakie isn't here" I said a little stressed to Brianna when we met up again. "Let's go the other way. About that, where's your flying thingy?" 

 Brianna looked at me frustrated. "Um... I don't know. I guess Butterfree will be back soon" She mumbled. We started walking to other way, through the town again and into the forest. 

 "Beautiful city" I said when we walked across the cobblestone covered ground. "I haven't seen anything like this in Johto" I continued to get a conversation started. 

 "You're from Johto?" She asked and slowed down the pace. 

 "Yeah" 

"That's far away. Why are you here anyways?" She snorted. 

 "I don't know" I said honestly. 

 "What do you mean you don't know?" She clearly didn't accept that answer. 

 "I don't know why I'm traveling around here. I have a relative here and he contacted professor Sycamore when I was visiting, so I got Froakie" I lied, I just couldn't tell her the truth just yet. 

 Brianna nodded and looked at me before she pointed at the sky. "Butterfree must have seen something, it's back!" We followed Butterfree towards the forest where it had been searching. A few minutes later we were in the middle of a forest staring at Butterfree. 

 "Are you sure you saw Froakie here?" Asked Brianna. 

Butterfree nodded but seemed a little confused too.We searched the area, all the bushes, trees and ponds. Brianna turned out to be a great climber and searched from the treetops. I didnt expect Butterfree to find Froakie, it was after all just a Pokemon. But I had let myself to hope this time. That was one thing that surprised me, that I actually wanted to find Froakie. If this had been before the accident or before I met Brianna I probably wouldn't have cared at all and just moved on. 

I decided to search in the west part of the forest again and ran away on my own. My ribs hurt with every step, but I started to get used to the pain so it didn't really bother me. I ran to the left and looked in every bush, around every tree and in the tall grass. That was when I saw it. Froakie was sitting under a tree, looking exhausted. 

 "It's okay Froakie! I'm coming to get you" I yelled and Froakie opened its eyes a little. She seemed too tired to be mad at me, she didn't even make an effort to run. I embraced Froakie and picked her up.

"I'm so sorry" I whispered and hugged her a little harder. I could see some small face expressions from Froakie, I wasn't sure what they meant but somehow I could sense she wasn't mad anymore. I smiled to myself, it felt like we had connected a little bit for the first time. Brianna came walking slowly up to me.

"Oh you found her!" She said happily and smiled big. 

As soon as Nurse Joy spotted me at the centre, she looked relieved. She said she would give Froakie a quick check up again while I waited in the centre. Brianna had followed me here and she seemed to be staying until I got Froakie at least. 

 "Soo, the Kalos police force? Why not Johto?" Brianna asked curiously. I had told her about the police try outs in Lumiose on the way back.

"It's not really the police force though... It's a special force where you get to deal with real organized crime. The reason I'm not trying out for Johto is that I live here in Kalos for the moment, and I'll try this first" 

 She nodded. "I could help you, you know. I could help you get to Lumiose city in time for the tryouts"

I  smiled. A little help couldn't hurt, it wasn't for fun, it was for efficiency.