Chapitre 4: Cherrygrove City

Stepping into Cherrygrove, Lyra for a brief moment stopped, staring at a spot to the north, and let out a sigh. 'Rest well old man.' "Phan?"

At the questioning tone from the Phanpy in her arms, she just smiled down at him. "Don't worry about it buddy, now how about we get you and your friend here healed up, alright?"

"Phan!"

Swiftly moving forward, she weaved around the traffic of the city that was certainly far larger than it had been in the games, and a solid dozen minutes later made it to the famous red-roofed building. 'One of the smaller ones in Johto, but then again, the only reason it exists is for those who are going to Victory Road or Tohjo Falls. After all, anyone that wants to go to Kanto usually takes a Dragon Ride or the train.' As she neared the Pokemon Center, the automatic glass doors with a satisfying woosh opened up, tickling her nose with the smell of freshly baked bread. 'Strange, Janet can't bake, or cook at all.'

Stepping into the Pokemon Center, Lyra calmly walked forward, ignoring the highly advanced technology behind the counter, the numerous off-shoot rooms, the hallway to the cafeteria, or the stairs near the doors leading up to guest rooms. "Be there in a moment!" From one of the rooms behind the counter came a startlingly young room. 'Eh? That's not Janet. Did she transfer out and a new Joy came in?'

Shrugging that question off, she gently placed the still sleeping Hoothoot, and the rapidly looking around Phanpy onto the counter. "Nurse Joy will be right out to help you, alright buddy?"

"Phan! Phanpy?" His snout twitched towards one of the machines, and Lyra gently patted his head. "No touching now, how are you and Hoothoot going to get healed if you break that?"

"Phan...." Chastised his snout twitched back closer to his body, no longer wandering dangerously close to very expensive medical equipment.

A few moments passed, and a young - barely 20s pink-haired woman in a nurse's uniform came out. 'Definently not Janet.' "Hello there! What can I do fo- oh! I see." 'Strange...' eyes trained on Nurse Joy as she bustled forward towards the desk Lyra observed her not just with her physical eyes, but also her ethereal ones. Her vision shifted, gaining a blue tint around the edges as her mind expanded, and all of her senses focused on Nurse Joy. 'Where... hah gotcha!'

Finding what she was looking for, she spied on the bonds a Pokeball tied to a Pokemon's Aura to a trainer, and her eyebrow rose slightly. 'Those are thick bonds, but also powerful. The only Nurse Joy I've seen with stronger bonds with her Pokemon was the one in Mount Silver. What's someone like her doing here... unless? That would be quite concerning, perhaps Professor Elm was correct if Johto is getting this desperate.' The young Joy had gently prodded at the two Pokemon on her desk while Lyra was thinking and finally spoke out loud. "Well, Phanpy here just needs some light treatment, but Hoothoot is going to need some more intensive care. Thank you for bringing them in Miss...?" 'She knew they weren't my Pokemon? Impressive, then again they clearly aren't trained in any way.'

"Lyra, my name is Lyra." Nurse Joy instantly paled, before a flush appeared across her cheeks. "It- It's an honor to meet you Champion! Thanks for saving my Aunt Janet!" 'I'm. Not. The. CHAMPION!'

Lips twitching in agony, Lyra nodded. "It's... no problem. Janet is a friend of mine, but I'm not the Champion!"

Nurse Joy blinked, before tapping a few buttons on her computer. "But, your trainer ID says so?" A spasm spread across Lyra's face as she stared at her Electronic Trainer ID, emblazoned in bright bolded colors, '19 Stars, Class Alpha, Reigning Champion' 'Eh? Class Alpha? Never heard of that one before, must be an internal designation. But those brats! Gah! They're lying to the public about my status, they're making me the actual Champion already!'

"Gonna... kill them. I'm gonna strangle those little rodents!" With a deep angry breath, she composed herself. "Right, well. Those miscreants in the Indigo Plateau are going to get a stern talking too. But, you said these two Pokemon should be fine?"

"Ah! Right, yes they'll be fine. Hoothoot here is going to need some more help, but it looks like she was already partially healed - an Aqua Ring? A particularly powerful one at that. Which makes sense, you have an Azumarill... but that should have been far stronger than this one. Unless...?"

Lyra nodded at the unasked question, and Nurse Joy practically gained sparkles in her eyes. 'Little does she know I only did it because Azzy would probably just accidentally pop the Hoothoot. Fine control of that level, she does not have... Or any control when she isn't trying hard.'

The young Nurse Joy took a moment to compose herself before straightening up. "I'll have my Blissey begin working on Hoothoot here, and you mister!" She pointed a figure at Phanpy.

"Phan?"

"You're on bed rest and an IV, don't think I don't see how much blood you've lost."

"Phan-phan-py!"

"No arguing! Or do you want scars and be unable to fight for the rest of your life?"

"Phannnnnnppyyyy....."

"That's what I thought!" Scooping up the Phanpy and Hoothoot into both of her arms, Nurse Joy turned to Lyra again. "Phanpy here should be good tomorrow, and it'll take a few days for Hoothoot if you want to wait. The first guest room on the right upstairs is open Champion Lyra!" 'Ack! Champion again...'

"I'll be using that then Nurse Joy, thank you for your care."

"It's no problem Champion Lyra!" Nurse Joy started to walk away then, towards one of the awaiting backrooms to begin to help the two wild Pokemon Lyra had brought in. 'Well. I guess this means Marill is getting a few days of extra training. I wonder if I'll be able to convince those two to join my team?'

With a smile on her face, she unclipped the Pokeball on her hip and tossed it up and down while walking through the Pokemon Center and towards the back where a basic training ground was. "Let's get some of that fat off you Marill, Azzy and I have been far too kind to you for your training. Why, at this point in her training, Azzy was wrestling with Masters!" With a creepy chuckle, the glass door in front of her opened up, and she once more stepped out into the bright sun.

'Yes, Mistress! Let the blue-descendant of the Titan cry out in agony! Rend flesh from bone, and reshape the lazy slob in your image! No more shall we have a lazy 2nd Generation 'Young Master', and instead we shall have a glorious beast filled with power!'

"Arceus damnit Xaz...."

-Blue-

As the sounds of what many would describe to be the apocalypse raged in front of him, Mega Alakazam facing off against Tyranitar, Machamp versus Gyrados, Blastoise versus Pidgeot, and finally Arcanine vs Tauros, Blue let out a sigh as his phone began to ring. "Yes, Sabrina?"

"The Abomination has begun to move." The words that pierced through his brain were filled with the kind of fear he only vaguely understood, and was something Sabrina had carried since the day she had laid eyes on her.

His eyes narrowed as his jaw gritted, remembering the last time he had fought the one Sabrina called Abomination, the utter one-sided thrashing that only Red had ever given him, and even then that was when he had stopped training for a short while to explore the world. "Where?" The one word came out far colder than he intended it to, but Sabrina didn't begrudge him.

"She's doing the Johto gym challenge." His teeth ground together at the realization of what was to come.

"Johto is finally acting up after they lost the last war. How did they manage to hide this from us?"

There was a pause, before Sabrina spoke, still monotone, the hidden fear slowly disappearing from her words the longer she spoke, "Goodshaw used his powers to tactfully make sure any algorithm for our accounts wouldn't pick it up. At least we now know her actual account so we can track any usage and anything she posts or replies to."

Blue's fists clenched at the name of Goodshaw. 'That man... why can't he just let us make this world a better place? A truly unified Indigo League under the control of Kanto could help propel us to the first step of world peace. It's only right, after all the gap between our league is obvious. Our average Gym Leaders are stronger than their Strongest. Each of our Elite Four is stronger than their strongest. They only have one Champion-level trainer, and we have numerous!' Barely holding back from audibly cursing, Blue took a steadying breath. 'We were so close! Just a few more years.' "Alright, notify Lance Sabrina, I'll talk to Red. Thank you for your continued loyalty to Kanto."

"Of course Blue." The phone call ended.

"Lyra. Why do you have to ruin everything?" At his growled-out words, a hand rested itself on his shoulders, and he instantly calmed down.

Glancing back with a smile Blue nodded. "Thank you -"