Chaser and the Silver Shadow

Chaser and Costs

 Getting to the Pokémon Center carrying the sleeping, weak Argent wasn't a difficult task for Goh. He burst through the doors of the crowded center, shouting for Nurse Joy, which drew everyone's attention to him and to the silver Eevee he held in his arms.

The nurse looked around a young girl she had just given her healed Pokémon back to and saw Goh carrying in Argent. "Oh no...!" She turned to the Pokémon she worked alongside. "Chansey, bring a stretcher!"

"Chansey!" she trilled as she rushed into the back, behind the counter. Joy stepped away from the counter and met Goh halfway between the door and the counter. Goh handed Argent over to her, and he saw even her eyes go wide at how frail Argent seemed.

"Come with me, Goh," she said calmly as Chansey rolled the stretcher out to where Goh and Nurse Joy were standing.

"Of course," he said with a nod.

Joy placed the sleeping Eevee on the stretcher and Chansey immediately began wheeling it into the back room, which Goh followed along to see. Before he could reach the back, he heard a shout of "Eievui!" and "Grooki!" from behind him, and saw that Eevee and Grookey had managed to keep up, even as he ran all the way from the alleyway to the Pokémon Center.

He felt his stomach turn sick at himself, with the Pokémon having slipped his mind out of his concern for Argent. He crouched down and Grookey quickly hopped onto his shoulder as Eevee allowed herself to be lifted into his arms. The sad way they cooed told Goh that they, too, were worried about Argent.

"Goh!" came the shout of Nurse Joy's voice from across the room. She wasn't waiting and expected him to keep up.

He nodded and followed behind her.

When he stepped into the back, he saw that Argent was already in an intensive care healing machine, breathing heavily. He looked even more weak and in pain than he had seemed when he was still fighting to protect his nest in the alleyway.

"Argent..."

"Grooki..."

"Eievui..."

All three of them sounded concerned for the silver Pokémon.

Nurse Joy turned to him. "The scans are telling me that this Pokémon has a trainer. Is that you?"

"No, ma'am," Goh said, shaking his head. "Have you seen the posters about the missing Pokémon? We started putting them up about two days ago."

Joy shook her head. "No, but I did hear about them..." She turned to the sleeping Pokémon. "So this is Argent, isn't it?"

"Yeah. He belongs to a group of Pokémon Breeders that have a home in the city. He ran away from home a few days ago and has been in the city alone until we tracked him down just a little while ago. We brought him straight here after putting him to sleep..."

"Does this look like he's been alone in the city for only a few days?"

Joy's question was sharp and pointed, reminding Goh of Chloe's arrow-like volleys.

He shook his head. "No. No it doesn't."

"Argent is very weak. I'm not sure if he's had anything proper to eat for a while, but even before that all occurred, I don't think he's been treated properly. In fact..."

She turned to the machine and tapped a few buttons on it, bringing up a display. "I see. That's..."

Goh looked over the screen. On it, he saw a list of what he assumed were Argent's moves: Hyper Voice, Dig, Shadow Ball, and Wish. He had seen Hyper Voice and Dig while they were battling in the alleyway, and this confirmed his suspicion that the bite Eevee suffered was merely a savage lashing out and not a proper move, but the latter two were never used against him. Shadow Ball was perhaps a move that would have taken too much energy, and Goh had only seen the last move used by a Pokémon in Johto.