Timeline of Errors

Part 3 - The Next Day

"Any Pokemon on the verge of fainting can still recover, but not the ones who have fainted. Pokemon Centres are being flocked with tons of trainers and it won't be long until people are gonna start sharing this on socials," the first man elaborated.

"What the f*ck?" I said and quickly grabbed my Pokegear and dialled the director, "how?"

"That's what we'd like to know! I've called Health to check on this but an investigation of this scale is gonna take-" said one the women.

"...ages," I continued as I eyed my Pokegear, which still showed the ringing screen, "has anyone notified Marcomms for the potential influx of comments and to prepare something?"

"On it," said one of the man and quickly took out his Pokegear.

"Valen, should we close them down for the time being so Health can come in and investigate?" asked the first man.

"That's the director's call, but that's an option. We gotta figure out what the problem is," I said, impatiently tapping my fingers on the table as I waited for the director to pick up, "what about PokeMarts? They're probably flooded now with impatient trainers demanding revives and herbs,"

"I didn't think of that! We could probably work with them for a temporary solution," said the woman, "I'll talk it over with-"

"That won't work," a heavy voice suddenly rang out.

Then silence fell as the familiar voice entered our ears. We turned around and spotted a familiar pale man with shoulder-length wavy dark hair. The director of the Pokemon Association, Sebastian Morada. He looked straight at us with his dull, violet eyes. His suit was all crumpled up and reeked with the scent of sun and sweat. His face refused to move a muscle as he made his way to us in stiff steps.

"Seb, you're back-" I said.

But just then, the man fell on his knees. The crowd quickly took a step back before they glanced at each other, wondering what to do. The director just stayed still without another word escaping his mouth. His hands made his way to his face before a sigh escaped his mouth. After a moment, he pulled himself up and took out a scratched up Pokeball from his pocket.

"Someone attacked me and my Bisharp as I was going back to Sinnoh. I walked all night finding Pokemon Centres that can heal him, only to find all of them faulty," he told us, "I tried revives. Ran all the way to Eterna to find revival herbs. Nothing worked,"

...how's that possible? I thought as I put a hand on my chin, so it wasn't the Pokemon Centres per se that's experiencing difficulties? But what then?

"So, how's Bisharp now?" one of the women asked gently.

He turned to her with a glint on his eyes.

"...I released him. The least I can do for him is to not let him rot in a Pokeball in his final moments," he explained.

"...Seb, I'm so sorry-" I said.

"Now's not the time for this. We need to deal with this now," he cut in and waved me off, though the distressed look on his face did not change.

"We were on the topic when you came in," said the first man, "there's much to discuss,"

"Can I get you coffee?" said the other man, "you stayed up all night-"

"Yes, get me a black, please," Seb responded as he walked away with some of the people, "I'll be in meeting room 20,"

~~~

I sighed as I laid still on my bed one Saturday morning.

Within a day, we received tens of thousands complaints. Within that day too, over 3000 Pokemon have died and were released. An investigation was conducted on the Pokemon Centres, with more complaints hurled at us due to the timing of the situation.

Within five days, PokeMarts experienced a shortage of healing items, X items, and Pokeballs. With more Pokemon dying, naturally people begin to catch more and more. Unfortunately, the death tally has jumped to over 20,000 by this time and will only continue to accumulate.

The investigation showed that there was nothing wrong with the healing machines in the Pokemon Centres as they work as intended. A lot of resources have been put into the investigation due to the urgency of the problem... only to bear no results. However, we had no choice but to keep going and decided to turn the investigation onto the Pokeballs and how they work with the healing machines.

If nothing comes out of it again, people are actually gonna burn us on a stake, I thought as I lied still on my bed, I don't want to go to work anymore... if only the weekend can last forever...

My mind drifted to the last meeting we had before we wrapped up on Friday.

On Monday, to prevent over-capturing which will result in more and more Pokemon dying in the hands of trainers, the association will formally declare a cap on the number of Pokeballs people can legally buy and the number of Pokemon they can catch, I thought, which approximately amounts to one Pokemon per route. Nobody's going to be happy about this...

Though it makes sense that if the Pokeballs are the issue, then we shouldn't keep selling them widely until there's a new and improved version of it.

Suddenly, I could hear the shudder of my Pokegear on the desk next to me. I pulled myself up and snatched up the device, only to find a message from Seb.

"Valen, I have an urgent request that can help us with the investigation. We found a sponsor who wants to back the investigation up, but she has a special request for you. Can you come over to Garnet Town tomorrow?"

I stared at the message in silence.

Tomorrow is

A f*cking

Sunday.

And it's Azul's death anniversary, no less.

I gritted my teeth and quickly typed up a response,

"Hi Seb, this is very sudden. I have some commitments that I wouldn't be able to move around. However, I can reach out to Carmen and see if she's available tomorrow."

Within less than a minute, a reply popped up beneath my reply, saying,

"Hi Valen, the client specifically requested for you, not the Pokemon Association - not even me. She said she has something very important that she needs your help with, however, is unable to provide too much details at the moment as she'd rather talk them through in-person. What time is your commitment? Surely a quick lunch with her wouldn't disrupt too much of your time?"

My eyes quickly scanned his message. The annoyance was quickly replaced by confusion as his first line caught me off guard. Me? Why me, specifically? Hesitantly and curiously, I began drafting up a reply,

"I guess a quick lunch wouldn't be a problem. Where are we meeting her?"

Then a ding beckoned a reply that sealed my fate, saying,

"I'll forward you the details. Really appreciate it,"

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Pokémon, Pokémon-related items (Pokeball) or institution (The Pokémon Association) mentioned above as they belong to Nintendo and Gamefreak.