The sun rose@ amongst the outskirts of the city as life's clock struck 9AM, the ecological light spreading onto the greenery and awakening the foliage with blooming flowers and soft swaying tree leaves as the first slow winds started to pick up and brush amongst the architecture of the many neighbouring houses. In one of these houses, a Deoxys by the name of Raiden sluggishly rose from the comforts of his linen resting place, rhythmically blinking to clean away the sleep dust and adjust to the day light, he turned his head side to side as a quick method of becoming more awake. With his small neck exercises out of the way, Raiden pushed away the covers and retreated to the bathroom to prepare for the morning. Several minutes of face-washing later, the Deoxys slumped downstairs and into the living room only to find the living room sans his surrogate sisters or brother anywhere. Simply shrugging and assuming they were doing some errands elsewhere, he changed location to the kitchen to prepare himself some breakfast. Opening the many surrounding cabinets to find no such food that would be suitable for breakfast, no bread, no cereal. In slight frustration, Raiden rolled his eyes and was about to go back into the living room until his blind spot suddenly caught something on the counter. He looked onward to find a package with a note attached to it, he walked over to it and read the note. 'To Raiden, Figured you could have some of these when necessary, use them well, lad. -Zyaile' With the confirmation that whatever was in the package officially belonged to him, Raiden opened the package and pulled out what looked like ten small blue tablets that were about the size of a regular keychain. He cocked his eyebrows as he tried to configure what they actually were. They looked like some sort of obscure candy from somewhere outside the state, probably Korea or the Bahamas. Perhaps they were candy, Raiden was a little hesitant at first and was starting to think they weren't actually edible but his stomach was saying otherwise. Hell, it's better than nothing, so Raiden grabbed a few of the small blue blocks and swallowed them with zero effort, only to violently gag at the horrific aftertaste that composed of a salty, bitter chemical-esque flavour. After pouring down many glasses of water to wash off the disgusting tastes, Raiden scowled in disgust and declared whatever he had just eaten as the worst "candy" he had ever tasted. With nothing else to do, he went to the sliding glass door that lead outside and flew off to get some fresh air and to take his mind of his ruined morning. ---- Krystal@ the Glaceon burst through the front door hours later, stricken with exhaustion from spending the morning and half of the afternoon at a secluded warehouse and wiping out a large gang of thugs that had been terrorizing the nearby streets with vandalism and threats of public assault. She had just enough energy left to make it to the couch in the living room and was about to pull off her boots to relieve herself even more when she was stopped in her tracks by the sound of a sliding door, where she turned to see her surrogate younger brother, Raiden stumble into the house a little weakly as if he had just broken a leg and was using up every inch of strength of fight through the pain. He had a hand clutched to his stomach area and didn't even seem to notice that Krystal was in his vicinity as he made a detour to the kitchen. The said Glaceon got up and followed Raiden into the kitchen, a feeling of concern already creeping on her. Krystal had her eyebrows raised as she watched Raiden shuffle through the fridge like a homeless man looking for food in a trash can, paying no mind to the unintentional mess he was making from pushing most of the food items off the shelves. After seemingly not being able to find what he was looking for, Raiden grunted in annoyance and slammed the fridge door shut before going to the cabinet on the far left and eventually pulled out a container of what appeared to be medicine for stomach related problems, still not appearing to notice Krystal watching on who was starting to grow more concerned, this was not how Raiden normally acted, sure she believed he just had a stomach ache but who would get a little aggressive when they couldn't find anything? It was probably the frustration of being sick in general so she figured that he would be in a better mood once the aching dissipated. Raiden tipped the container and three pills fell onto his hand, he swallowed them without hesitation and returned the medicine container to it's rightful location. That was when Raiden finally noticed his friend and older sister and simply waved while relocating to the living room. He had just made it to the couch when the feeling in his stomach heightened negatively, forcing him to fall to his knees. Krystal gasped@ with worry and rushed over to help him back up, only to suddenly retract when a thick sickly fluid started leaking out of where his mouth would be and streams of digested bile suddenly splattered onto the floor like a waterfall, creating pools of the disgusting fluid. The Glaceon put a hand to her mouth in horror to the sight of his younger brother violently regurgitating more than he should have, along with the silence being filled with Raiden's pain-induced retching noises until finally he somewhat stopped. The Deoxys quivered and hyperventilated from the sheer trauma as the feeling in his legs soon came back and he was able to stand up, he reached out a hand to signal the terrified Glaceon before him for help but his recovery was halted as his vision started to blur slightly and he began to feel disorientated, resulting in him half-falling to the floor once again. He heard the fast loud footsteps of Krystal rushing towards the front door and straight out, returning minutes later with Myra the Ninetales and Raiden's surrogate older brother, Drew the Lucario. Through his blurred vision, he managed to make out another figure which turned out to be Saria the Virizion with a phone in her hand that had the medical service on the line that would no doubt be sending paramedics to take the chronically ill Deoxys to be hospitalised. The last thing Raiden managed to hear were the panicked yells of his loyal companions before the sickness bared too much for him and he finally collapsed. [What happened. 23 minutes earlier] Raiden@ sat upon the concrete wall of the central park and observed the citizens in the area, some were feeding the Magikarps and Swannas at the lake while others were having picnics and humouring each other with funny life stories. The view for Raiden was rather peaceful as he felt the modest breeze brush by him and the sunlight slightly tanning at a moderate temperature. He then looked to his right to where the playground was to see his older sister, Daisy the Beagle pushing her little sister, Dee Dee on the swings. The playful sight gave Raiden a warm fuzzy internal feeling, which encouraged him to get down from the wall and join in. Halfway@ to the playground however, an obnoxious gurgling erupted from Raiden's stomach, making him clutch it with both hands as he felt a wave of discomfort circulate inside him. The feeling was enough to convince the Deoxys that he was clearly not well and should get home and rest. Much later after leaving the park, the stomach pains started to become even worse and were even hindering his walking speed. He considered flying back home but he fell down to his knees when the effects of his body pushing against gravity caused the stomach ache to immediately spike up to an agonizing level that temporarily paralyzed him. After several gruelling minutes of discomfort, Raiden finally made it back and pulled the door open and slugged into the living room. [Brookhill Hospital Lobby, 5:47PM] Krystal's POV: I couldn't@ stop pacing around the room, it had been a long time ago since I last became worried so much about someone. To think that would be someone I only knew for more than a year really caught me off guard. It had only been more than a month since Raiden opened up to me and the other girls apart from Xaia that he saw us now as like older sisters. To say that I was bemused is a major understatement, to be honest, I actually thought it was very cute and sweet of him to see me as an older sister and this is coming from someone who's never had siblings before. I guess that's why I took him to Chinatown for a day, to show him how much he meant to me from then on. Every time I look back at that selfie with me and him there, I'm always reminded of how well we bonded as brother and sister and it felt like we were completely inseparable. Yeah, I called him my "Newly adopted little brother", because it was partially true and even after returning home from Chinatown, I still feel as if well... he really is my brother. My sweet, sweet little brother... And now here we are, at the hospital with Raiden probably in a coma and none of us even know what's wrong with him. One of my fingers was dented with multiple teeth marks from worry. All the others were there such as Mynx, Issabelle and even Val. Besides the Zoroark, everyone had faces that defined misery. Perhaps they had the same feelings as I did and were reminiscing about when Raiden considered them as his older sisters. Xaia however looked like a total wreck and I couldn't even blame her, she and Raiden had been dating for nearly two years so it was clearly understandable for her to be more distraught than the others, mascara was leaking down her face and the common silence save for the tapping of computer keyboards and shuffling papers from the staff was filled with her sniffling and sobbing. A glimmer of hope immediately washed over all of us when the doctor eventually came to us to confirm the Deoxys' diagnosis. "We took several X-rays of Mr. Dante Deoxys and we appear to have found some small objects stuck to his stomach and they're corrupting the enzymes in his digestive tracks, overall upsetting his digestion." He said before pulling out one of the X-rays, revealing Raiden's ribcage and small white pellets where his stomach most likely was. "We were able to scan these obtrusions and it turns out they are actually 'Bolivian Soap Pellets' which have been banned in 157 countries including this one for containing highly toxic chemicals that are capable of causing severe stomach trauma and chronic sickness should they be ingested. They have also been known to react violently to the anti-biotic called 'Purofen' which is used in stomach medicines. Luckily, none of the effects have been found as fatal" The doctor finished. We all gasped in horror at how much pain Raiden was probably going through but were relieved to know that Raiden was going to be okay. At least I now knew why he vomited after taking the medicine but that was when I suddenly caught Zyaile with a fearful expression on her face while slowly backing away out of the corner of my eye, this struck me as confused. Was it possible that she had something to do with this. Did she perhaps...? No, that's stupid. Zyaile was one of the girls to be considered an older sister by Raiden himself, she wouldn't go that far... ...Would she? Not only that, but the other question was; why in Arceus' name did Raiden even eat the soap? Maybe he didn't know it was soap? Or did he swallow them by accident? Or maybe some jerks got him and forced them down his throat as some sort of joke. Oooh, I swear if that's what happened, I will find those sick bastards and-- "And I thought it was only young children that made the same mistake." The doctor muttered with a sigh, retracting me from my train of thought. "The same mistake?" Kassandra piped up, having overheard the doctor who looked at the Absol in question and cleared his throat. "Yes, you see the soap pellets' appearance and vibrant light blue colour gives them the genuine resemblance of candy pieces to which most young children had unintentionally eaten them under this belief. In fact, there have been cases from outside the state where adults have even made the same mistake. It's very comparable to a well hidden computer virus, you don't know about it all until it's all too late." He admitted. So Raiden didn't have a clue it was soap after all. Well that's a bit of a relief, since I probably would've ended up wasting useful bullets on innocent bystanders if Kass hadn't spoken up. There was still Zyaile to worry about, but I would have to save any questions I had for her later as the doctor then lead us to the corridor and to the room where Raiden currently was, before he went for the door however, he turned to us. "Now, I normally don't allow anyone besides staff to enter a patient's room since visiting hours are 3 to 5PM. But just for this once, would anyone like to see Mr. Dante Deoxys before we start the operation?" He announced. Only me, Kassie, Drew and Val had the courage to step up while everyone else was too upset to even whisper and Zyaile was looking away at the wall with a more scared face. The doctor nodded and propped us in a line besides the door starting with Drew at the front, then Val, then Kassie and finally me at the end. I and everyone else watched as the Team Magma clothed Lucario was escorted into the room and the doctor walked out, closing the door behind him to enforce privacy while Drew would give his younger brother some possible words of wisdom. ---- [The Hospital, Room 3A] [Third Person POV] Raiden@ blinked sleepily as he slowly turned his head to see Drew, he was still tired even after waking up minutes earlier. He desperately wanted to hug his Lucario friend and brother for comfort but the still ongoing stomach pains convinced him to remain immobile as possible. A small smile of sympathy formed on Drew's muzzle as he looked on at the Deoxys, like a sleeping child. "Hey. You doing okay here, lad?" Drew asked in a soft tone, Raiden slowly nodded, thinking that the aching would hinder his speech. "That's good. You're one hell of a trooper to live through such an accident." Drew complimented. "We were all worried about ya, when they put you on the stretcher. I was pretty scared on the way here because I seriously couldn't bear to think what would happen if were to... I-if I were to... T-to lose..." The Lucario was on the brink of choking up as several severely heart wrenching images flashed in his head until he suddenly snapped out of it and breathed in and out regain his composure and cleared his throat. "Anyway, we're all happy that you're gonna live to see another day and I probably shouldn't keep Val waiting out there, so I wish you the best of luck." He said, softly patting Raiden on the shoulder for good luck before turning to the door. Although no one would see it, Raiden started to smile. The door opened to reveal Valkyrie the Zoroark who modestly walked over and sat down beside the Deoxys, crossing her legs. "Heya. Listen, I'd be lying if I said that I'm not impressed on how you're fighting through this. And normally I wouldn't really care much if the person who was sick was someone I didn't know." She admitted. "But you... You on the other hand, definitely have something good going on with trying to form a family with the girls and Drew whom you take pretty good care of even when I'm not around. Overall, you're alright. No, In fact you're more than alright. You're a good Pokémon, Raiden and that's I like about ya, even when I may be a little bit of a butt to you or anyone else, don't forget that you're one of the few denizens of this world that I can see as a friend." The Zoroark confirmed with a smile as she got up and turned towards the door, but not before turning her head back to the patient. "And you know... I'd think you'd make a pretty cool uncle for little Winter and Shift." She lastly said, ending with a wink and left the room. Kassie entered almost straight after Val left, sitting on the same seat Val and Drew used. She looked on at the sick Deoxys with a face of pity and finally got the courage to speak. "I don't know what to say, to be honest. Though I actually realised something when they brought you to this room, it was that I found out that I deeply care about you more than I probably should and I'm not even usually the type that gets emotional over something like this. I figure that it's no doubt how you consider me an older sister, that's actually rather cute. I guess all I can say now is; you've always been a silly Deoxys. But you're my silly Deoxys, and a silly younger brother." The Absol said with a small smile and without any hesitation, reached over and slowly wrapped one arm around the psychic in a warm hug before taking her leave, allowing Krystal entry into the room. Like the other three visitors, the Glaceon sat down and bore a very sad expression on her face, the memories of her bonding with the Deoxys flooding back to her, but she was able to stay strong as she regained her composure and place one hand on Raiden's shoulder and began her speech. "I never thought I'd be the first to witness the beginning of this whole episode and now, I kind of wish I hadn't because it only reminds me of how terrified I was of possibly losing my only brother even when you're only a surrogate. But even such a dumb term like that doesn't stop me from knowing how much you mean to me. You mean to all of us, Xaia, Drew, everyone. But mostly to me in my own eyes because how close we became every since I "adopted" you so all I can say now is this." Krystal said before coiling her arms around Raiden in a hug that was more firmer than Kassie's. "I love you, little brother..." Raiden heard the Glaceon softly whisper as he felt her slowly retract the hug to prevent any additional pain and saw her face, it was that of soft happiness with small tears slowly flowing down her cheeks which she paid mind to as she turned to the door and allowed Raiden to rest. ---- [The Hospital, Doctor's Office, 4 Minutes after Raiden's visitors] [Zyaile's POV] Oh shit!@ Oh shit! Oh SHIT! What am I going to do?! How could I even live with myself knowing that I put Raiden in possession of illegal soaps, let alone poison him! What would the others think if I came clean?! Could I even open up to my mistake? What if none of them ever spoke to me again?! What would the captain do if she gets word about it? I'd probably end up homeless and have to rummage through trash just to get my next meal if Drew kicks me out. ARRGH! WHY DID I HAVE TO GET THOSE STUPID SOAP PELLETS?! I SHOULD'VE KNOWN THAT GETTING PRACTICALLY ANYTHING FROM THAT BLACK MARKET WAS A GODFORSAKEN IDEA!! I'm too scared to say anything now, all I can do now is lay low and pray that they'll figure it was an accident and forgive me... especially Raiden. [Third Person POV] The doctor returned to his desk with the package of soap pellets and a stern look on his face as he took out the remaining body detergent spheres and spoke out. "I strongly advise for the one responsible for packaging these pellets to confess at once, should they not want me to send in authorities and have them prosecuted for illegal detergent smuggling. Fortunately, I have some clear evidence on the one responsible." The doctor informed, as he took out the note attached and began to read it, much to Zyaile's unseen horror. 'To Raiden, Figured you could have some of these when necessary, use them well, lad. -Zyaile' The Zygarde pirate started to shake in her boots as many furious glares were directed straight towards her with the exception of Val who just looked borderline confused. Xaia was giving her the worst however, Zyaile could practically sense the burning rage bubbling inside the Xerneas just from looking at her death glare. If looks could kill, Zyaile would've dropped dead instantly. Unable to take any more pressure from the intimidating glaring eyes on her and she swore she actually started seeing red in Xaia's eyes, she finally gave up and confessed. "ALRIGHT@, IT WAS ME! I PUT THEM ON THE COUNTER AS A GIFT FOR RAIDEN TO SHOW MY AFFECTION OF HOW HE THOUGHT OF ME AS AN OLDER SISTER! IT'S MY FAULT THE LAD GOT POISONED BECAUSE I GOT THEM FROM A BLACK MARKET!! I'M SORRY! I'M REALLY REALLY SORRY!!" Zyaile finally snapped looking like she was about to have a tearful breakdown from all the drama, the tone she confessed in sounded genuine and incredibly broken out of sheer guilt. "I can believe that, but need I remind you Ms. Zyaile that the poisoning of a family member with illegal substances is punishable by 12 years of imprisonment and 4 years of community service." The doctor warned her. "You're lucky I don't have the heart to send the consequences to those who own up to their mistakes, as long as this does not happen again." Doctor confirmed, Zyaile nodded to show that she understood the message as she watched the others turn back to the doctor while Xaia shook her head disappointedly at her while giving one last stare that clearly meant that Zyaile was in for a major talking to once this all blew over. "Now regarding Raiden, he will have to be sent to the operating room to have the pellets extracted as they don't appear to have been digested properly, we'll let him rest after the process and he will soon be well enough to return home." The doctor announced as the group gave smiles in response while Zyaile just stared at the floor, overcome with sorrow and regret. ---- [The Hospital, Corridor to the operating room, 6:03PM] [Raiden's POV] How@ long had it been since I fell asleep after Drew, Val, Kassie and Krystal visited me? All I see are square lights that pass above me in a straight, I can hear multiple voices but everything is too muffled to understand what anyone is saying. I tried turning my head to see what was even going on, but I only had enough energy to slightly inch to the left and see an arm clad in white. Amongst the voices, I'm able to hear the beeping of what sounds like heart monitors and the coughs of other sick people. I'm feeling kind of sleepy now, I don't know how long I can stay awake. All I can do now is... Just... fall... asleep... I awoke@ to the feeling of snowflakes brushing against my skin as I massage my eyes to get a clear view of what I was seeing. What is saw in front of me as I was getting up was way different to what I was looking at before I fell asleep, before me was a view of many mountains blanketed in snow, the sight and atmosphere hazed with a tundra of snowflakes falling from the sky like white miniscule missiles, the sight was enough to steal my own breath and in return give me a mixture of confusion and wonder. Confusion because I didn't know where I was, possibly Alaska or Greenland and wonder of how scenic the whole environment looked with the snow glistening in reaction to the sunlight seeping through cracks on the clouds above. All I could think of to do was to walk along the white blanketed ground to investigate the area to see if it had any other source of life besides me. Strangely, I could not feel any biting cold winds against and the snowflakes landing on me had no effect on my temperature, I only felt slight cool as if the tundra was nothing more than a soft breeze on a regular day. I eventually reached an open field where the snow continued to fall to find no sign of life anywhere, perhaps the area really was uninhabited. Image result for snowy forest At least that's what I thought at first until I stopped looking around after my eyes caught a small shimmering glint near the peak of a tall mountain that was around 30 minutes a walk away. The glint continuously flittered as if someone was holding up some sort of metallic object as a distress signal. Before I went to investigate however, a loud bestial moan emanated from where the glint was. This filled me with both fear and curiosity as I was interested on investigating the unusual noise but was scared to think about whatever it could've been that made the noise. Out of nowhere, I suddenly began to hear more noises, they were however more vocal and seemed to be surrounding me with every second. As the voices came closer, I was able to make out that some of them were calling my name while the others where telling me to "wake up". The snowfall suddenly became a lot of heavier than before until it came up to the point where my vision was going completely white from the snow as the glint in the mountain dimmed and the overall view started to vanish as the white view soon changed to black. The darkness began to dissipate as the voices became more clearer and recognisable, the view was soon replaced with a hazed light and what was later revealed to be the faces of my own family, including Drew, Daisy and Xaia among the others. They all looked at me with smiles upon knowing that I was coming to but I was still a little sick to say anything and now my throat was also hurting. "Heya, bro. They took out the soap pellets which you thought were candy of course." Drew was the one to speak up, ending with a chuckle at how silly it sounded, though I was still rather tired to care at the moment but none the less was I relieved to know that I would be okay. "We should let him rest. He has been through a long experience so I reckon a good rest for the night should have him healed." A doctor said as he came to the foot of the bed I was in. Everyone nodded in agreement and turned to head home, Xaia on the other hand stroked my hand and kissed me on the cheek as her way as saying goodnight before she turned and followed the others. With my body full of deep contempt, I let my eyelids fall as I went in for the night. [The Next Morning] [Third Person POV] Raiden@ walked through the front door with a spring in his step as he felt a thousand better than he did yesterday at the hospital. Of course, he needed a little help waking up and was given a small check up to see if he was under any other diagnosis and was glad to know that the tests confirmed him to be completely healthy. So after some celebratory hugs from his brother and sisters and a kiss from Xaia, he was all set to return home. Mynx, Zyaile and Xaia were the only ones who accompanied in him the living room as the Deoxys turn to see the pirate Zygarde with a sorrowful look on her face. "I have to say it now, Raiden. I'm really sorry I had you go through all that, I had no idea what those soap pellets would do to you and I just to wanted to show you my gratitude of being an older sister. Can you ever forgive me, lad?" Zyaile said solemnly, looking into Raiden's eyes the whole time. All Raiden could think of to do was to hug Zyaile to emphasize forgiveness, making her smile in relief. "Well, I'm very grateful that you told the truth and apologised to Raiden, Zyaile." Xaia commented as Zyaile and the Deoxys broke the hug. "However..." The Xerneas began. "Because of the fact that the pellets that got Raiden sick were illegally smuggled, that doesn't render you off the hook. If you would be as so kind as to follow me." Xaia continued, instructing Zyaile to follow behind her outside, the 10% Zygarde completely unaware that Xaia was hiding what appeared to be a wooden paddle behind her as she lead her outside to the back garden. The only ones who had appeared to have noticed the wooden tool were Raiden and Mynx. "Sooo... Do I actually want to know what's about to go down with them outside or...?" Raiden questioned once both the Ground/Dragon and Fairy type walked out the door. Mynx could only chuckle at this and stroked his head playfully. "Heh heh heh, probably not." She only said with a bit of an embarrassed smile just as the silence was ruptured by the muffle sounds of rhythmic whacking countered by pained female wailing. THE END~