Pokémar Episode V, A Clone's Destiny

Recovery

"Ugh..." I moan as I start to wake up. Opening my eyes, I find myself not in the forest or back in the facility, but in a hospital recovery room, now wearing a hospital gown instead of the shorts and bandage from before. Guess Thunder found help. Good. 

"Ah! You're awake. Good." I turn to face the voice. A pink haired woman in a nurse dress approaches me with a smile. I tense up slightly, getting an uneasy sense of deja vu from the encounter. "If you don't mind, I'd like to check your vitals and wound quick. Make sure you're healing up correctly."

"Yeah. Go ahead." I say, not letting my suspicion take over. It's not likely that I'm being interrogated a second time. Not after all that chaos. I relax as she takes my arm to check my pulse. "How long was I out?"

"About five hours. Brought in from a gunshot wound. You're lucky you were found when you were." She let's my arm go, turning to a laptop on her desk and quickly typing something down.

"That bad, huh?" 

"Yeah. Someone seems to have tried suturing it up, but it ripped open and got infected shortly after. What exactly happened?" Should I tell her? ...Probably not. Not until I get my bearings on what the frick is going on.

"It's... uh... complicated. I'd rather not talk about it."

"Alright. Fair enough. I'd recommend letting the police know." She turns back to me. "I need to check the wound. Could you lift your clothes?" 

"Yeah." I do so, revealing bandages tied around my midriff. She carefully lifts them, revealing a stitched up hole in my body, the area around it red and tender. Is that seriously an infected gunshot wound after only five hours? "It's that healed already?"

"Yeah. Potion is potent stuff." Potion? What on earth is that? Actually, better keep that to myself. Best not to ask what might be a stupid question.

"I guess so." Satisfied that I'm in a safe place, my mind drifts to other topics of concern. "Where's Thunder?"

"You mean your Pikachu? I think he's out in the lobby with the others. Should I bring them in?"

"Yes. Please."

"Alright. I'll be back in a moment." She turns and leaves out the door, leaving me alone. Thankfully not with armed guards this time. With a deep sigh, I finally take a moment to relax. Questions surface in my mind regarding my current situation. Where exactly am I? Who were those thugs kidnapping Mew? Is that new, violent pokemon connected to all this? So many questions and no answers. At least not yet.

The door opens once more. The nurse walks back in, followed by Thunder, the Growlithe I rescued, and another man, a fair few years older than me. If I had to guess the one who brought me here.

"Alex! Thank Arceus you're alive!" Thunder yells, climbing up the bed and standing next to me. I very nearly reply to him before I realize that the other two humans in the room would likely have questions. Questions I'd rather not have to answer. Instead, I quietly whisper to him.

"Can't use pokespeak right now. We'll talk later." He looks at me with confusion for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, good to see you too, buddy." I turn to face the man. "I'm guessing I have you to thank for saving my life?"

"That would be me. The name's Jackson Pine."

"Alex Russet. Nice to meet you. In spite of this rather... unusual situation. Speaking of which, do I need to stay here for monitoring or anything?" 

"No, you should be just about good to go." The nurse cheerfully replies. "Though I'd recommend not doing anything to strenuous for a week."

"Alright." I slowly bring myself to my feet and stand up. I feel a mild, shooting pain where the wound is. Enough that I need to take my time with walking.

"I'll drive you back home if you'd like." Jackson says. "Probably better than having to walk." Oh... This is going to be awkward... 

"I... Actually don't have a place to stay. It's complicated."

"You can stay with me if you'd like. I've got a spare bed."

"You're just going to let a stranger live in your house with you for an extended period of time?" 

"Why not? You clearly need it."

"I don't know..."

"You can trust me." He mutters quietly. Wait a minute. Did... Did he just use pokespeak? 

Thunder and Growlithe also take note. Exchanging confused glances.

"Humans knowing pokespeak isn't normal, is it?" Thunder asks.

"No. Not at all." Growlithe replies.

"...Alright." I answer, my curiosity piqued. He did save my life after all.

"Nice. My car is this way." He gestures for us to follow. "Thanks again for all the help, Miss Joy."

"My pleasure." The nurse replies. "Take care now!" With that we leave the room and enter into a waiting area. A few of the people and pokemon I walk past glance my way briefly, probably noting my unusual gait. It seems that whatever world we are in it's much like earth, but pokemon are extremely common. This just keeps getting stranger by the minute.

Eventually we make it outside to the parking lot and reach a red sedan of a make I can't identify. Jackson opens the passenger-side door for me and I step in, joined shortly by the two pokemon. Jackson himself gets situated in the driver's seat, starting the car up and pulling out of the parking lot.

"Alright, so, how do you know pokespeak?" I say in pokespeak to let Thunder and Growlithe understand.

"Oh a little place called Pokemar." His response takes me by complete surprise. He knows about Pokemar?! "I overheard your friends talk about it on the way over. Sounds like you and Thunder here have been through a lot. Not unlike my trip there."

"So you visited Pokemar?" Thunder asks.

"Years ago. Probably around your age. I was a Machoke. Buddied up with a Cyndaquil. Had some really wild adventures. But couldn't stay. Humans can't stay on Pokemar."

"I know." I reply. "I was lucky enough to find a loophole."

His face lights up as I say this. "Might it work for me?"

"First things first we need to find a way back. The people who kidnapped us has a portal somewhere that they used to get to Pokemar. If it's back at that facility we escaped from then we're going to be stuck here a while. No doubt they'll be swarming all over that place."

"I see. What can you tell me about them?"

"They had a lot of money, but apparently skimped on guards. I saw a few wearing shirts with a big letter "R" on them."

"Team Rocket. Great. Exactly what we needed."

"Care to let us in on that?"

"Rocket is a criminal organization. One of the most powerful and widespread. They do a lot of things, but they're most known for kidnapping and selling pokemon." Well, that explains the room of spheres...

"So we're up against an organized crime syndicate. Sounds like an average day."

"At least Alex and I have experience with this kind of thing." Thunder chimes in. 

"For now, though, rest." Jackson says.  "Once you're healed up, then we can consider our options."

"Of course. I'm just worried the situation will get worse in the meantime."

"Don't worry about things you can't control." 

"Right." I lean back in my seat and sigh. It's usually more of a case of things that I'd like to control, sadly. But he's right. I close my eyes and try to rest a little. Kill some time before we get to his place. The sooner I'm back up and running, the better. It takes a little while, but eventually I manage to fall under, drifting into peaceful sleep.