Red walked back towards the tower, his calm demeanor completely changing, the woman in the green dress looking at him weirdly as he stepped onto the stairs and into the floor where Blue was. 'I guess I should just save Fuji and worry about Blue later.' He thought to himself as he stepped towards the grave where Blue was looki—wait.
The boy stopped himself as his feet were beyond where the grave was. 'Blue was staring at the grave... could it mean—no obviously not, he's not that incompetent right?' Red thought to himself as he turned around to look at the grave but it seems his optimism was unfounded.
The grave read "Raticate" with "died in 1996" written below it in what seemed to be a different writing style than above. It was at that moment that everything clicked in Red's head. 'Wait, Blue had a Raticate didn't he?' He thought to himself as he looked at the Pokedex for the time. 'And today is 1996, that must mean...'
His first thought was that team rocket must have killed him but they were already on the tower and it would be weird to say the least for Blue to not try to enact revenge, maybe he didn't know? But it was at that moment that he realized that he didn't have enough time and walked towards the staircase in front to go to the next floor to save Fuji, plus it's not like Blue was nice to him. Ever since they were six, he had been treated as an outcast in the town because of his former friend.
Red entered the next floor and he immediately felt a strong wind come over his body, nearly causing him to drop backwards to the stairs before catching himself at the last minute by holding the wall. He didn't know what to make of it as the wind didn't even smell like well... anything and he was too afraid to let his hand go.
Visions of him being thrown to the previous floor flashed before his eyes before he shook his head, quickly regaining his composure. If it's true that Team Rocket is producing something called the steal ball which Red knew exactly what it did from his name, then he was going to stop them at all cost. He let go of the wall and forced himself to walk against the strong wind.
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Blue's body slowly rearranged near the Cerulean city Pokecenter, Wartortle's pokeball shaking uncontrollably. The spiky haired kid grabbed the ball from his bag and tried to squeeze it with his hands, feeling as if his hands were being crushed but in the end the ball bursted and Wartortle was released to the outside once again.
"War?" The turtle Pokemon asked as it walked towards it's trainer, confused as to why he stopped now.
Blue kneeled towards his Pokemon as a bunch of people and Pokemon walked past him. He looked at the vicinity to check if they were near enough to hear before speaking. "Look, this was the first time you have screamed. I didn't want you to... end up like Raticate." He simply said, taking the last of his strength with him. It was at that moment that he made it completely clear to his Pokemon that had retired as a trainer.
Wartortle simply looked at it's trainer's eyes then back at the ground, it's eyes filled with fury at the thought that it was comparable to Raticate. It took a deep breath as Blue looked at it, wishing it'll understand before opening it's mouth then blasting it's trainer with a focused bubblebeam, throwing him to the ground before running away, everyone around him rushing towards the spiky haired kid, knocked out on the ground.
The spiky haired boy slowly woke up, feeling what seemed to be a soft bed, his vision blurry as the water started to be removed from his eyes. All he could see were vague outlines of something white and a light above him. His nose was unable to detect any smell as it was filled with water.
Blue forced his body to sit up but a wave of dizziness overcame him and he collapsed into the soft bed harder than before. He could not tell how far his head was inside the pillow or even if it existed. 'Ah, where am I? Is this the—ah.' Blue thought to himself as his vision and smell started slowly returning as the water was slowly removed.
His ears were still not good but he could hear some snippets of a conversation happening presumably in front of him. "Wow, he got his Pokemon killed? That makes so much sense." ... "What do you mean that's too mean?"
From this small snippet and his smell, he managed to figure out that he must have been at a Pokecenter but he didn't know any place for regular humans to rest, perhaps the games just didn't include them? He remembered memories of playing games about Pokemon before snapping back to reality.
Blue closed his eyes once more, assuming that he got every bit of information he needed but as he drifted back into sleep, the conversation still continued. "No, you wouldn't even need to use a steal ball, I already have his pokeball so all we need is to convince him to give up his pokeball and let me search for him and bam we have a new Pokemon" ... "Oh you are so innocent, we could always sell his Wartortle back to him if he found out and if he didn't, I'll just tell him I couldn't find his Pokemon."
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The sun started to rise again in a new morning, students packed their bags and rushed to the school. Water Pokemon flapped their fins and started to dance in the water, people looking at them, battling them, feeding them, or even catching them and in the Pokemon Center, Blue's eyes started to open and he sat up, his body finally having power again.
He looked around and saw medical equipment—whatever they do but seemingly no nurses taking care of him. Thinking they are just busy, Blue got out of the hospital bed then turned around to check if there was a pillow and there indeed was. It was also entirely white but that was to be expected.
Blue then turned back and saw the door wide open, he went towards it and walked into the main room of the Pokecenter, people waiting for their Pokemon in chairs, chatting etc, but importantly he spotted the nurse—the nurse who probably took care of him.
"Hello Nurse Joy, I Blue Oak am well now—no need for further resting." Blue said, alerting the nurse to him who turned around to look at the spiky haired kid who ravaged his pockets.
The nurse simply smiled the same smile she always does—which she is commanded to do. "It is fortunate that you are well. You may leave at any time you want." She said, in the same voice as all other nurses but the former trainer seemed to be entirely focused on his bag. He grabbed a pokeball from it and held it like a trophy.
"Ah ha, thanks for finding Wartortle for me too." Blue said, feeling weird at just saying the words thank you and throwing it to the ground as Nurse Joy watched, knowing something he didn't know. However as the ball hit the ground and opened, it didn't release his starter Pokemon, it didn't release any Pokemon or even energy for that matter.
"What?" He asked confused as he walked towards the ball and grabbed it, manually looking at it to see it's inside matching that of an empty ball. Blue looked towards the nurse. "Did you steal Wartortle and give me an empty pokeball in return?" He asked more confused than before.
Nurse Joy simply chuckled, putting her right hand on her mouth. "Of course I didn't steal your Pokemon, I simply could not find it and even if I did, I would need your ball to recall your Pokemon."
Blue walked towards the nurse, doubt creeping in but then again when was the last time trusting himself worked out for him. He took a deep breath and handed the nurse his pokeball. "You may have my pokeball."
Nurse Joy grabbed the ball. "Oh I would be honoured to find another trainer's Pokemon. I just need to ask the association for a substitute just for this day." She said as she walked towards the phone, grabbing it and presumably calling a substitute. Usually being called a trainer would just be usual and even a compliment but today he didn't... feel as if it was even an insult, it felt far worse.
"Ugh hello, I am in need of a substitute. You see there's a trainer who lost his Pokemon and of course being the good nurse I didn't want to deny his request for me to search for him but I also can't leave this center without the head nurse, good." She said to the phone before putting it back and leaving the center.
As soon as this nurse left the center, another nurse appeared from the room opposite of the room Blue woke up at and stood where she stood. There didn't seem to be any important differences between the two but he was sure that if you looked hard enough you might find some.
Author notes: this was a short chapter but I promise it wasn't because I wanted to complete it in a day, I just felt like this was the natural conclusion of the chapter. It kind of feel like a part of chapter 5 almost but it would have been too long of a chapter if I included it in chapter 5 plus I didn't want to edit a chapter to change anything because I felt like it'll be annoying to have to reread a chapter because the author changed his mind.