The door to the special care room was much thicker than the others. Inside, the space was wide, the floor and walls lined with flexible insulating material over reinforced steel plating.
Several security cameras watched from the corners.
Which made sense.
Most Pokémon were simple and kind at heart, but not all of them were saints.
Among Dark-types there were plenty of violent tempers.
Ghost-types had even more natural troublemakers.
So every treatment had to be recorded.
And a Gyarados—classified as the Atrocious Pokémon—was the perfect example of why.
Compared to those that were malicious on purpose, though, Gyarados's problem was more that its nature was simply… hard to control.
The central treatment platform was three times the usual size and ringed with heavy restraint clamps and energy ports.
"Let it out,"Nurse Joy said evenly, though one hand was already resting beside a red button on the wall.
Next to her, Chansey had tensed its round body, cradling its softly glowing egg, ready at any moment to unleash a wave of healing energy.
Don't be fooled by how dopey it looked—Chansey was strong.
Any Nurse Joy qualified to run a Pokémon Center on her own wasn't weak either. At minimum, she had to be around the level of an advanced Trainer.
Doctors had to be able to make patients behave.
Willingly… or "willingly enough."
"ROOOOOAR——!!!"
The roar hit before the last traces of red light faded.
The golden Gyarados burst into existence, its massive body nearly filling half the room.
Its red eyes flared, rage catching like wildfire. Newfound power, in a cramped room that stank of disinfectant and was ringed with restraints, erupted like a volcano.
"Pika!"Pikachu dropped from Ash's shoulder in a flash of gold. Electricity crackled around it as it snapped into a battle stance.
"Calm down!" Ash took a step forward, meeting those furious red eyes without flinching. "Look at me, Gyarados!"
Gyarados's vertical pupils locked onto the tiny human, a rumbling growl of destruction rolling up its throat. Its thick, golden tail twitched, about to sweep.
"Thunder Shock! Suppress it!" Ash's command came almost at the same instant.
"PIKAAA——CHU!!!"
A golden bolt, thick as a man's arm, ripped through the air with a piercing crack and smashed into the half-healed, scorched patch of scales at Gyarados's neck.
The scales there had not fully recovered.
"RRAAAAAH——!!!"
Agony and paralyzing shock exploded through its nerves. The tail strike froze mid-swing, Gyarados's entire body jolting violently as wisps of smoke seeped from between its golden scales.
But all that training hadn't been for nothing.
Under the Thunder Shock—
that familiar, almost routine pain—
its mind cleared, just a little.
The figure in front of it wasn't an enemy.
"…This one's trying," Nurse Joy muttered, seeing the way Gyarados forced itself to hold back. "Restraints, on! Energy lines, connect!"
Her fingers flew over the control panel.
Pokémon-world tech really was something else.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three heavy metal hoops snapped out and clamped tight around Gyarados's neck, midsection, and tail.
Blue-lit energy cables snaked out like living things, latching to the nodes at its neck and dorsal fins, starting to forcibly bleed off its excess power.
Pokémon Centers had been dealing with dangerous patients for years. They had procedures.
"ROAR!!!"
The sensation of being bound and drained of energy like that was unlike anything Gyarados had ever felt.
What little restraint it had cracked. The wildness left over from its evolution flared to a manic peak.
Its entire body convulsed against the restraints, metal rings grinding against armor plates with a shriek that set teeth on edge.
"Chansey! Sing!" Nurse Joy barked.
"Chaaan-sey~"
Gentle song spilled out, soothing sound waves pouring toward the struggling behemoth.
But that comfort was a cup of water on a raging inferno.
Gyarados's jaws yawned wide. Deep in its throat, a terrible light began to gather.
The air itself warped from the heat, hissing in protest.
Hyper Beam.
It was going to blast the room apart.
"Pikachu! Interrupt it!" Ash's pupils contracted.
If Hyper Beam fully formed in here, he didn't care how reinforced the room was—he wasn't betting lives on it.
Pikachu had been waiting.
Just as the light in Gyarados's throat reached its peak—
ZzzzzzLA-BOOM!!!
A lance of golden electricity speared into the sensitive flesh at the inside corner of its open mouth, where there were no scales to protect it.
"ROOOOAAAR——!!!"
The just-formed energy detonated in its throat.
Gyarados screamed, its howl twisted into something ragged and broken. Its massive head snapped back, slamming into the reinforced wall with a deafening boom.
Black smoke billowed from its mouth. Blood and saliva dribbled from the corners of its jaws.
The old scorch mark at its neck split open again; golden blood spilled out in a rush.
The backlash and pain crashed over it like a tsunami. Its huge body sagged, restraints groaning… then falling silent as the alarms flicked from red to green.
The fury in its eyes went out like a doused flame.
Only pain remained. Pain, confusion—
And the blank stare of something that had just been beaten stupid.
Gyarados had its wits back.
Its huge head lay limp on the cold treatment platform, emitting broken, shuddering groans from deep in its chest.
It knew it had messed up.
But not being able to stop itself from losing control?
That made it just as desperate as anyone else.
"…Easy, Gyarados." Ash's clenched muscles finally loosened out of battle readiness.
"When you're stronger, you'll be able to control yourself."
"So trust me, okay?"
"Don't be sad. Don't get lost."
"I'll keep walking with you."
He stepped right up to the treatment table, ignoring the scorched flesh, the reek of blood and ozone. He held out his hand.
"Open up."
In his palm lay his last special blue Pokéblock.
Right now, he had to build a reflex into Gyarados: regaining awareness was followed by his voice and food.
That was how you trained according to the Pokémon in front of you.
That was what "raising" really meant.
Gyarados's massive eye rolled slightly, looking at the speck of a Pokéblock that might as well have been dust to it, then at Ash's calm expression.
Its jaw parted the barest fraction; it let out a faint, hoarse rasp.
Ash flicked the Pokéblock neatly into its mouth.
"Rr…" Gyarados moved its jaws just enough to chew, a low, rumbling sound purring in its throat like a plea for approval.
Thick skin, iron bones—and the memory of a goldfish.
It remembered food better than pain.
The tip of its gigantic tail twitched, then nudged at the edge of the treatment platform near Ash's feet as lightly as it could, almost apologetically.
"Please take over from here, Nurse Joy," Ash said, stepping back but never taking his eyes off Gyarados.
Nurse Joy drew a deep breath and moved in with Chansey.
Soft white light blossomed again. This time, the energy cables pulsed steadily, guiding waves of healing power into the torn flesh and charred scales.
Gyarados's body trembled now and then, but it no longer struggled. Only muffled, pained sounds rumbled up from its chest.
Outside the care room.
Misty had been pressed to the thick door the entire time, barely breathing. Only now did she finally let out a long breath and sag back against the cool metal.
She hadn't gone off to shower like she'd said.
"I'm just saying…" her voice floated faintly through the door.
"When you battle at the Gym tomorrow… please, please don't let anything go wrong…"
As for why she didn't go in?
Misty was terrified.
Even after all these days, she hadn't once dared step close to the golden Gyarados.
Ash pretended not to notice.
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