Invisible by Marvech93

Chapter 29: Leave it all to chance

Chapter 29: Leave it all to chance

The media was all over the story. It went from one sensational headline to the next: 'Terror attack at Viridian City gym!', 'Viridian City gym explodes; criminal activity suspected', 'The return of Team Rocket? The Viridian City gym destroyed'...

The news spread like wildfire across Kanto and, not long after, to Johto and other regions. In every newspaper, in every TV broadcast, you would see pictures of the remains of the building.

Viridian City local news, especially, were continuously talking about what happened. Their gym had exploded and was beyond repair for obscure reasons, the dead bodies of five unknown people, one of which was so severely mutilated it was unidentifiable, were found, and three dead pokémon were found in the rubble; one kangaskhan and her baby and one Alakazam that was heavily rumored to be the gym leader's...

As if that wasn't enough, their beloved Iron Oak was seen being taken to the hospital in a hurry (someone had even managed to get a short film of him being carried into the ambulance) and even now, several days later, no one knew if he'd actually been a sixth dead body.

Just a day after the news came out, the media began asking for answers regarding what happened. Was the explosion accidental or was truly the result of criminal activity? Who were all the dead people found amongst the ruins? And more importantly, was the gym leader still alive?

When the ambulance took him to the local hospital was the last time the general public, which had gathered around the site of the explosion in the hopes of seeing something out of morbid curiosity, had seen him and despite all the pictures and videos that were taken by random people of the event, no one had the slightest idea if he had survived. The former League champion had been seen being evacuated too but there was no news from him either. The Indigo League had remained quiet about the whole thing overall.

Neither the police nor the hospital staff had been allowed to reveal what happened to Iron Oak or why it did. The League had demanded an investigation to be conducted but even though Team Rocket was eventually discovered to have been involved in the explosion, little was known about their motivations, since all of the members that had been present on the premises were dead. The only confirmed survivor of the tragedy was the former League Champion but so far, not even the police was allowed to talk to him since he was estimated not to have recovered enough physically and mentally from the incident by the doctors.

It wasn't long before the public, and the Viridian citizens especially got sick of the silence and began protesting and demanding answers. Both the League and the police had their hands full dealing with the angry and anxious masses.

Such grave events and so little answers gave way to wild speculations amongst the public. Many believed that the Viridian City gym leader had been assassinated and that the League, who had never really been quite fond of their disobedient employee, was trying to cover it up. Others thought it was Team Rocket trying to regain control of the city by taking over the gym again. As the days went by, more and more crazy theories surfaced and no one would confirm or debunk any of them. One persistent question remained: was Blue Oak still alive?

Red knew the hospital had to work hard and be extremely careful not to let any nosy reporter slip into the ward to try and find out. His own room's door had been kept shut at all times and no one had been allowed in except for his acquaintances and the medical staff. Whenever he had gone out for a breath of fresh air in a secluded corner of the hospital, he expected a damn journalist to assault him with questions.

Truth be told, Red was in no mood to talk about any of what happened. He had been informed a few days after his arrival in the hospital, that his friend was still alive but in a very critical condition. Eventually, he was told he had stabilized and that his life was no longer in danger. It should have been a relief to know that he hadn't been too late to save his friend's life. However, after being briefed by Professor Oak about his actual condition, he had been hardly any less worried. It was not clear just yet what state the accident was gonna leave Blue in but one thing was for sure: his health was never quite going to be the same after that.