Earthbound: Time Reflux

Incident

Ness shot up. He heard a strange sound coming from downstairs that woke him. Curious, he slowly trudged down the stairs, rubbing his eyes. The sound became known to him as...gasping? He looked into the living room to see...NINTEN?! Ninten was hunched over trying to breathe, but fell over. Ness rushed over to Ninten and turned him over. Ninten's face was red and sweaty, and sounded like he was choking.

"Ninten! Ninten! Talk to me! Are you okay?!"

"N...es...s..." Ninten tried to speak between wheezes. "Ne...ed...in...haler..."

"What? Ninten?! What do you need?!"

Ninten spoke a little louder, "Inhal...er..."

"Inhaler? Oh! You need an inhaler?" Ness realized, "Well alright!"

Ness grabbed his backpack and ran outside in his pajamas. He jumped onto his bike, and (almost literally) flew down the path to Onett. He maneuvered through bushes and weaved through trees until he reached the street. With the little light he had, he rode to the drug store and stormed inside.

"Do you guys sell inhalers?! I need one right now!" Ness exclaimed.

"Woah woah woah, slow down Ness." the shopkeeper said trying to get ahold of the situation.

"It's an emergency! I need it now!"

"Well in that case...here, it's the last one in stock. It is quite expensi-"

Ness snatched the inhaler out of the shopkeeper's hands and dropped $300 on the counter, then ran out the door.

"You forgot tax!"

Ness swung the door open and threw a nickel in the shopkeeper's face.

"That works."

Biking up the trail faster than ever before, Ness reached home in record time. Flinging the door open, he saw Ninten on the floor gasping for air. Quickly, he read the instructions and shook the inhaler a couple of times, then put it to Ninten's mouth.

"Take a slow deep breath..." Ness instructed.

Ninten's breaths were short and quick. They weren't sufficient. "Can't...brea...the..." Ninten clenched his chest.

"Why won't it work?!" Ness yelled. He tried healing α, β, γ, Ω. Nothing stopped the asthma attack.

Ness' mom came storming down the stairs. Ness' shout woke her up. "Ness! What's going on?!"

Ness looked at her with pained eyes. "Call the hospital..."

Ness sat in the hospital waiting room, waiting for a response from the doctor. He felt bad for not knowing what to do to help Ninten, and he hoped they got Ninten to the hospital in time. Now that he knew Ninten had asthma, he was gonna do his best to help prevent any and all asthma attacks...