A Different Start

Chapter-26

After spending the rest of the morning speaking to a few guests and a few people in management, Ash finally got a name for the blond woman that left Tyrantrum in the Safari Zone. He wouldn't do anything to her, not until after he consulted Professor Oak and Baoba, since the Safari is his, but he would keep a lookout for Abigail Summers.

If he were able to, he would set Tyrantrum up to fight against her pokémon while on the ship, but unfortunately Tyrantrum was over the weight limit for the ship. Charizard and Krookodile were just under the weight limit, but they were pushing it. For now, he would just keep an eye on her and listen to any rumors about her. After all, some rumors have a grain of truth in them.

A soft growl caught his attention and a smile graced his lips as he watched Riolu stalk forward towards Zoroark, who was aware of the pups' action, but did nothing to stop Riolu. Ash withheld his laughter as he saw Riolus' tail and ears twitch before the half-albino leaped at Zoroark. The larger pokémon waited until the last minute to snatch the baby out of the air and trapped him between his hands to start grooming him. Ash had to admit how cute it was that Zoroark had taken up being one of Riolus' main caretakers. Though he couldn't determine if Zoroark was being like a father to Riolu or simply a big brother to the small pup.

A muffled yelp and thud coming from the hallway outside his room caused everyone inside to stop what they were doing and look towards the door. Ash, with a thudding heart, got up and walked slowly towards the door with Doublade right behind him to protect her trainer if anything malicious was behind the door. The teen peered outside through the peephole, but didn't see anything.

As he backed away from the peephole he heard soft whimpering that sounded like it came from below him. Slowly Ash opened the door and looked down only to see a red stained white coat of a pokémon panting heavily and unfocused glazed eyes peering forward. His eyes widened and quickly he looked both ways down the hallway to see if there was anyone there. Not seeing anyone he knelt and carefully picked up the small pokémon.

Ash noted how cold the creature was as he told the others to stay in the room as he stepped out, but Doublade and Pikachu wouldn't have it and made it outside of the room before Ash could fully close the door. The teen merely clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth before quickly making his way down the hall to get to the Center they had on board.

The small pokémon, that Ash recognized as a regional variant of Vulpix, was bleeding sluggishly onto his clothes and its breathing was slowing down along with the slow beating of its heart he could feel under his hand. He cursed softly under his breath as he picked up the pace. The teen ignored the exclamations and rude words as he cut in line at the Center. It only took a one second look from the Nurse Joy on staff before the Vulpix was taken out of his arms by a Chansey to be taken to the back to hopefully survive what had hurt it.

"Sir?"

Ash turned to see a smaller woman standing beside him and it only took him a moment to realize that she was just a nurse in training. "Y-Yes?" Ash replied as he licked his dry lips. His own heart was thundering in his chest and he kept shooting glances at the door the Vulpix was taken through as the nurse in training began asking him questions.

"Look I don't know how the Vulpix became like that," Ash said after the relentless accusatory questions spewed out of the trainees mouth, "I was in my room with my pokémon and all of a sudden I heard a thud and a yelp coming from outside my room. When I opened my door the Vulpix was laying there against the door and no one else was in the hall."

The trainee went silent before nodding and stepping away to help the others that were in the Center. The twin blades let out a grating metallic sound that caused those around them to wince and stop their whispering and wrapped one of her ribbons around his wrist as Pikachu chittered in his ear. Ash looked at the two and gave them a small smile before walking over to the seating area to wait for anything from Nurse Joy. Thankfully he still had his ID and watch on him in case he needed to take this pokémon away from whoever left it outside his room.