A Journey's Link

Chapter 13 - Central

Ash turned backto Officer Jenny, who had just finished guiding another group ofinjured people and Pokemon to the Pokemon Center. "Office Jenny,is there any way we can help?" Ash asked. "I want to makesure everyone in this city is safe!" Goh walked next to Ash witha determined look on his face.

When it came toyoung trainers, Officer Jenny usually didn't let them try to assistin dangerous situations, but she knew that at this moment, all thehelp was welcome. She pointed towards the Pokemon Center. "Rightnow, the Pokemon Center is low on staff and needs all the help it canget!" she yelled over the crowds. "Try to get there in onepiece!" Ash and Goh nodded, both replying, "We won't letyou down!"

After traversingthrough the extremely busy crowd, Ash and Goh arrived at the PokemonCenter and made their way through the line to find Nurse Joy andChansey at the front desk, frantically working to heal everyone'sPokemon.

"Yes, I'msorry. All of our healing stations are being used right now,"Nurse Joy calmly said to a woman who seemed desperate to heal herLinoone. Other people with similar requests came forward, with NurseJoy still calmly denying their requests.

Ash and Goh sawthe dire situation and ran up to Nurse Joy, asking, "Is thereany way we can help?" Nurse Joy had a surprised look on her faceas she recognized the two from when they rented a room. Goh decidedto explain further. "We're Research Fellows from Vermillion Cityand saw the damage the storm caused, so we want to help in any way wecan." Ash nodded alongside his explanation.

She faintlysmiled, and nodded, pointing towards a hallway that was full ofworking Chanseys. "We don't have enough Chansey today to workall the healing stations, so if you two could work the remaininghealing stations that would be wonderful," she said, her voicesounding desperate for any help. "We already have one otherperson volunteering to work at one of the healing stations, so besure to look out for them."

Ash and Gohnodded, running down the hallway in a hurry to tend to the hurtPokemon. "I'll take this room right here, and you take the oneacross, got it?" Goh directed. Ash nodded walking into his roomas Goh went into his. As he entered the room, he realized the lightshad been shut off; most likely to conserve power. He brought out hisphone and shined it around the room, trying to find where the healingstation was.

He sat there fora moment, slowly moving his light in hopes of landing upon thestation. Once he did, however, he saw that a girl was standing overit; she was sniffling and peering down at six Pokeballs that satinside the machine. "Hey, you ok?" Ash asked, walkingforward to this mysterious girl. The girl responded with a startledyelp as she turned around, causing Ash to flinch and drop his phone.

It was darkagain, so Ash couldn't quite make out her face in the dark until abright light shined on his face from the girl's phone. He fellbackward after being blinded and fell into a few empty cardboardboxes, landing on his back.

"Ash?!"the mysterious girl exclaimed, putting the light down and walkingover to him. Instead of questioning how the girl knew his name, Ashonly groaned, the impact of the fall taking a toll on him. "Ohsorry! I didn't mean to blind you!" She said, pulling him up bythe arm from the rubble of boxes. He rubbed his back and groanedagain. "I'm definitely gonna feel that one tomorrow," hemuttered to himself. "Are you okay?" the girl asked,clearly worried that she hurt Ash a lot.

"Yeah, I'mfine," Ash responded, grateful that the girl helped him aftershe caused him to fall. "Are you the other volunteer that showedup to help Nurse Joy?" he asked, before quickly cutting the girloff with another question. "And wait, I heard you say my namebefore you blinded me! How do you know me?"

The girl sighed."I am sorry about blinding you, Ash," she apologized. "Ididn't expect someone to creep up on me, especially in this darkroom." Ash was again thrown off by this girl saying his name butdid a double-take when she shined her flashlight onto her face. Infront of him was a person he hadn't seen in a long time. An oldfriend that he traveled with within Hoenn, and someone who he wouldconsider a nice and caring person.

"May?!"

[-]

Deep in theVermilion City forests...

"Electivire,punch harder! Break through the rock!" The command was sharp anddemanding; it had little kindness to it. The large boulder, which satjust beside a small pond that was fed by a waterfall, received astriking blow from Electivire, whose fist was covered in electricity.It shattered into smaller pieces, unable to withstand the powerfulThunder Punch. "Yes! Finally!"

Electiviresmiled as it pulled back its arm, staring at where the boulder usedto sit. "Come back. It's time for dinner," the voice said.Electivire turned around and faced its trainer with respect; it washim, Paul, who had raised it from an Elekid, never failing to pushhis Pokemon to the absolute limit.

Paul dug intohis backpack as Electivire walked over, sitting down near him. "Comeon out, everyone," he stated blandly, sending out his Pokemon.Once they all appeared, he rummaged in his bag again and pulled outsix bowls and a huge package of Pokemon food. He set out the bowls infront of them and poured the food. "Eat up," he saidbluntly, pushing the bowls towards his Pokemon.

They all begandigging in as Paul walked back to his backpack, exhausted fromtraining. Ever since he had lost to Ash at the Lily of the ValleyConference, he'd been trying to create a bond with his Pokemoninstead of treating them as objects. But, it was proving to be adifficult task; that's not how Paul viewed Pokemon; tools to winbattles.

Sighing as hepondered over his dilemma, Paul pulled out his phone, hoping to finda distraction from his moral imbalance. Immediately upon turning iton, he saw that there was a piece of headline news in Rustboro Cityregarding some weather. Looks like they'll put anything on thenews these days, Paul thought sneeringly.

Still, itintrigued him, so he clicked on the live video footage that wascurrently airing. "We're here now in Rustboro City with somevictims of the rainfall. What are your thoughts on the situation?"The reporter put a microphone up to someone waiting in an outsideline at the Pokemon Center with their injured Pokemon.

"I justwant to heal my Pokemon. The rain just came out of nowhere and seemedto electrocute us." The reporter nodded and pulled back themicrophone. Paul was half-heartedly watching while he ate hissandwich, but all attention was on the report as he witnessedsomething strange.

Behind thereporter were two boys running into the Pokemon Center, trying to getthrough. There was one with black hair, but that didn't concern Paul.What he had his eyes on was Ash running alongside the boy. What'she doing there?

He looked up athis Pokemon, who were just finishing their food, as the samepersistent question came to mind again. How do I create a bondwith my Pokemon? He knew what to do next; he was going to findAsh and battle him again in an attempt to understand him better.Grabbing his backpack, he returned all of his Pokemon to theirPokeballs and made his way towards the forest, knowing his nextdestination.