As they approached, Larry saw the destruction his mother had already wrought firsthand. Smoke billowed from the side of the Pokecenter's exterior a few floors up, as flames began to lick at the outside walls. The building looked worse for wear, with cracks marred on the walls of the center near the literal hole in the wall up a few floors, presumably where is mother had been kept.
The building didn’t look like the cutesy appropriation in the games, which were far too small to be an entire hospital. The centers here were the size of actual, real hospitals. Size was the only thing in which they mimicked each other, though. The building didn’t look as clinical and sterile as the hospitals back on earth, instead it went for a far friendlier and open look. They were a place where people congregated and hung out after all.
Like an all-in-one shop for everything Pokemon related, they were a place of safety and comfort for people who cared for their own Pokemon. You wouldn’t just go there if you needed to buy a potion or had to get your Pokemon looked at for an injury. Larry always saw a variety of people sitting in the lobby or simply relaxing with their partners or Pokemon.
Which was why it was even crazier to see people run from the center in panic, people stampeded out of the center in a flood of bodies, human and Pokemon alike. Nurses were already at the scene, directing people out of the center and into the road leading through the town and its hallmark league reception.
As the trio approached, Nurses could also be spotted in the back of the crowd, transporting entire carrying containers on wheels, filled to the brim with Pokeballs of all kinds, presumably the Pokemon which were receiving treatment at the moment, being evacuated.
ROOOOOOOAAR!
Another roar by Tyranitar swept over the crowd to cries of panic as more of the facade of the Center on the left side collapsed. Larry composed himself, he was going to be forced to face his mom soon.
“We gotta get in there!” Their trainer called out, to sounds of agreement from both of them. Valerie sped past the large group of evacuating people and went straight towards the center. She stopped short when a hand grabbed her arm out of the evacuating crowd.
“You’re not going in there, Val!” Her father chastised through gritted teeth from his hospital bed, which was being rolled along and out of the Pokecenter by another nurse, “Wait for the rangers! They can take- hey!”
The hospital bed continues to be rolled along, ripping Drew's hand off his daughter's arm, “Stop rolling me around! Valerie!” Instead of returning to her father, Valerie simply continued forward to the Pokemon Center.
She was held up by a Nurse before she could enter, though, “What are you doing?! Please evacuate right now! A Pokemon has gone wild inside the center! The Police and Rangers have already been alerted!”
“We’re here for my mom!” Larry called out from below, eager to finally meet his mother again.
Nodding along, Valerie continued, “Yep, what Larvitar said. The Pokemon rampaging inside is a Tyranitar, isn’t it?”
The Nurse nodded, slightly shocked that this trainer would know that, “See? And my Larvitar is its kid! She’s going crazy because he isn’t there! She will calm down if Larvitar shows up!”
Nurse Joy and her Chansey sped out of the center with another cart filled with Pokeballs. “What is going on here? Why haven’t you gotten away yet? Go!”
“Miss Joy…This trainer here says her Larvitar is the Tyranitar's kid. Is this true?”
Realization finally dawned on Nurse Joy's face as, through the stress of evacuation, she didn’t realize who she was talking to, “Oh, Valerie! You’re here!”
She instructed her Chansey to transport the cart of Pokeballs before she led Valerie further away from the Pokecenter, sending the other nurse away with her Chansey. Their trainer continued her questioning, “What happened that she’s going crazy like this now?! Didn’t you say you’d get me when she was about to wake up?”
Joy sighed, “I don’t know the full story, I’ve been busy with other patients and let other nurses watch the Tyranitar. They were supposed to send you a message when something about her condition changed, but I guess they didn’t…I hope they’re alright…”
Valerie looked over at the smoke billowing out of the center. “Has everyone been evacuated yet?”
“All the Pokemon, in a Pokeball or not, should be evacuated by now.” She nodded confidently, “Those are all the carts we have, so there’s no more Pokemon or staff inside. Your father was also the only human right now in our care, so he was also evacuated.”
“Yeah, just saw him,” Valerie breathed a sigh of relief. “Good to know nobody else is inside. So, can I go in then?”
The Nurse simply shook her head, “Not now. We’ll have to wait for the rangers and or police to go in so you can be escorted in and finally calm down the Tyranitar.”
A loud explosion echoed over the town, and the upper floors above the hole in the wall finally collapsed in. An avalanche of concrete debris and dust washed over the outside of the hospital, pelting the entrance in a hail of rocks and destroying the pristine glass entrance of the Pokecenter entirely.
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‘Phew…Good that everyone had already escaped.’ Larry thought to himself in relief.
“Larry,” Natu spoke at him from its place up on Valerie’s shoulder, its eyes squarely focused on him alone.
“Natu, yeah?”
“I presume your mother had awoken?” She questioned.
“Yup…” Larry nodded, “I’ll have to go inside there and calm her down, but it's too dangerous for Valerie to go in.”
Natu nodded back, “I wouldn’t find much comfort in that building as it is right now. Your mother certainly isn’t helping the case.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait for the rangers, just like Nurse Joy said…” The Rock-Type conceded with a sigh,
The Flying-Type was quiet for a few seconds before she continued, “You did say that our trainer presents the issue at hand. Technically, you would be fine to go in alone then, correct?”
He eyed the entrance with some anticipation, calculating his odds in his head. The prospect of his mother being around there being far too strong for him, ‘Maybe…’
“...Not the worst suggestion, Natu…”
…
“How long are we supposed to wait? There won’t be a Pokecenter left if they take more than five minutes!” Valerie complained as she pointed back at the center. The place looked like it was being actively demolished. “I don’t think Tyranitar is going to calm down by itself anytime soon!”
Nurse Joy looked conflicted about sending her inside. “Valerie, when you first came here, you said you didn’t even have a Pokemon. You didn’t even say Larvitar was your Pokemon, even though you caught him.” She looked at her shoulder to Natu, “Your second Pokemon too. If you were an experienced trainer, I wouldn’t mind sending you in, but…”
“I’ll be careful, Nurse Joy.” Their trainer reiterated, “I’ll go in, see what's going on, and send out Larvitar and Natu when I need to, and then flee, ok? You simply send the rangers in after me. If anything happened to me, they’ll be able to get me, right?”
“You…Do you even have any idea of how dangerous a collapsing building can be, even more so if there’s an angry, wild Pokemon inside it?” Joy asked incredulously.
ROOOAR! BOOOM!
Another roar escaped from another floor of the hospital as it collapsed inside, sending a shower of dust and debris out through the giant hole in the building side and every broken window of the hospital.
The two cowered down in anticipation of the destruction, only for Nurse Joy to speak up afterwards, “And you think you’ll live through something like that if you’re inside?”
“Well, I could dodge it…” Valerie defended, before getting an idea, “I think Larvitar would protect me when the time comes, right, Larvitar? Huh? Where?” She looked around herself for Larvitar, only to find him entirely absent. She turned to the Bird Pokemon on her shoulder, which was staring at smoke escaping from the center's exterior, “Natu, do you know where Larvitar went?”
It turned to her with a quick turn, “Naat-u.” Turning back, its beak pointed over to the Center's entrance.
Valerie went slightly white in the face at the prospect, “Don’t tell me…He went into the center?” She pointed a finger at the entrance, only for the bird to nod back in confirmation.
“What?! No way!” Nurse Joy threw a hand over her mouth in shock.
Valerie had already risen from her place on the ground as she spoke, “I’m going in there.”
“No! You’re gonna get yourself killed! Damn it!” Nurse Joy called after the girl, but she was already gone. She sighed in disappointment as her Chansey walked up behind her to help her up, “Haah, thank you, Chansey…I just have to hope she’s going to be alright until the rangers and police can get in there.”
She shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Let’s keep the evacuation going smoothly.”
…
Larry walked through the evacuated halls of the center. He wasn’t entirely sure where his mother would be, so for now he planned to go in her general direction. The explosions and roar came from the third floor and the left side, exactly where the giant hole was, so Larry would be forced to find a way up.
Luckily, most doors had been left open by the staff during the evacuation, and it had been a straight shot so far, allowing Larry to find a staircase. ‘There was an elevator over there as well, but you aren’t supposed to use those in emergencies. So the stairs it is.’
The stairs didn’t pose much of a challenge to Larry, they weren’t made for his size, so he looked more like a baby crawling up the stairs, but in the end, he managed.
Once he’d finally made it up to the third floor, he was exhausted.
“Huff…Huff…Now to find mom.”
Before he could continue, though, he heard a familiar voice cry out from the staircase below, “Larvitar! Where are you? Come out!”
“Valerie?! Why did she run in after me?!” He called down the staircase and heard her stomp up them quickly.
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re alright!” She pulled him into a hug, and Larry could help but look at Natu while in her embrace.
“You told on me, didn’t you, Natu?” Larry asked the bird, only for it to nod back.
“Valerie asked me, excuse me.” She bowed in apology.
Shaking his head, Larry excused Natu, “Don’t worry too much, I knew it was probably going to happen.”
Releasing him, Valerie spoke again, “Please, Larvitar…I know you want to meet your mom, but please don’t run away again.”
She held him by the shoulders and looked him dead in the eye, “Let's go together, I need to meet your mom, after all.”
Larry nodded back, he expected something like this to happen, but now that it was actually going down he had become quite anxious, ‘This has been the plan for like a few days, first when we took her to Mt. Silver, then when they told us we’d meet her when she wakes up and now finally that its time…I feel like I’m even more anxious than before…’
“I am excited to meet your mother, Larry.” Natu spoke from its perch on Valerie's shoulder, “I wonder if she is as violent as she has shown herself to be in person.”
“S-She’s nice! T-This is just…a very, you know, tense situation for her…”
ROOOOAAAR!
His mother's cry echoed through the halls of the hospital, shaking loose dust from the ceiling as the noise of walls breaking sounded out in the distance.
“S-She’s nice! I swear!” Larry called out to his teammate.
