After deliberating for a while, Horthy decides to start walking around Vermillon City in search of something useful, be it information that could help him on his inmediate survival such as a safe and affordable place to stay for the night, or even a possible job to earn some money and get by. There wasn´t much movement yet, as it is still very early in the morning, but Horthy finally found something useful.
In the end, after wandering through several streets and considering various options, he arrives at the gates of the Pokémon Center. As he approaches the entrance, he notices a sign hanging prominently that reads "Employees Wanted" in big, bold letters. This immediately catches his attention, as it could solve several of his problems at once.
DING! The bell rings as Horthy makes his way inside.
Horthy enters the Pokémon Center. The sliding doors open with a soft hiss, revealing a completely empty waiting room. The chairs are neatly arranged, and everything looks clean and orderly. In the corner, he spots a Chansey, the gentle egg-like Pokémon known for its healing abilities, diligently mopping the floor.
"Uh hello?" Horthy asks as he makes his way to the reception in search of the nurse Joy of this Center, only to feel a little hand touching his shoulder, and making him turn around, finding Chansey. "Is nurse Joy here Chansey?" He asks in hope of information.
The pink pokemon nods and puts the mop aside, leaning it against the wall with a soft clunk, and shuffles off towards one of the rooms in the back of the center disappearing through a doorway labeled "Staff Only."
After a while, Chansey comes back with her trainer, a Nurse joy who... has denefinetly seen better days. The dark circles under her eyes making it clear for Horthy she didn´t have a proper rest for quite some time. The mug of black coffee clutched tightly in her hand serves as further confirmation of her exhaustion.
She stares at Horthy with half-lidded eyes, her gaze unfocused for a moment, before she finally manages to speak. Her voice is soft, tired, and a little raspy. "What would you need so early?" she asks. "The Center doesn't start attending Pokémon until another hour..." She sighs deeply, and rubs her eyes with the back of her free hand.
Horthy hesitates for a moment, but ends up shaking his head and taking a more determined posture, standing up straighter, shoulders squared."I come for the job, I need it."
The poor nurse raises an eyebrow and after a few seconds of silence and thought, she rolls her eyes and turns around. "Start by mopping the reception and waiting area... make me know if he makes something weird Chansey." She gets lost under the "Only Staff" area and now, Horthy seems himself alone with the walking egg besides him.
He shrugs. 'That was easy', he thinks, to shortly after grab the mop and start working without much delay, under the watchful gaze of Chansey, who doesn't seem particularly impressed or interested in his efforts.
An hour and half slowly passed, and Nurse Joy finally came back from the back area of the Center, shortly arriving to the reception, and finally letting out a deep yawn and stretching. She then looks around and inspects the general main area, finding it clean, she nods and turns to Horthy, who plays cards with Chansey in the waiting area.
She leaves her seat and heads to their position, her prescense making them stop their game and turn to her. "Good, I am sorry for not even asking your name earlier..." A light chuckle escaped her, and she playfully bit her tongue, realizing the oversight. Extending her hand towards him for a warm handshake, she introduced herself. "I am Joy, what is your name?"
Horthy respectfully accepts the handshake and presents himself as well. "I am Horthy, nice to meet you. "I am sorry if I arrived too early and bothered you." He says in polite tone, making a small reverence.
"I really needed help around here. It's usually just Chansey and myself attending to everything in this Pokémon Center, and it can get quite overwhelming." She looks down at her wrist watch and hums, quickly looking towards his way once more. "Vermillon City's center is always bustling, especially this time of day. Lieutenant Surge really doesn't have mercy, even with the most novice of the trainers..."
And just before she could continue, a loud DING! echoed through the waiting and reception areas.
A busy girl makes her way inside the Center and rushes to Nurse Joy, with a poor, burnt Ivysaur on her arms, tushing towards Nurse Joy, she speaks quickly, her voice trembling with anxiety. "You have to help me nurse Joy! I think she is paralyzed..." Joy nods to the girl and gives Horthy an eye sided glance, subtly urging him to attend to his duties, while simultaneously handing him a key.
Joy takes the Ivysaur in her arms and tries to calm the girl. "Ivysaur will be just fine, inmediate atention will be given." She starts walking to the back part of the Center, where the intensive care facilities are located, being followed by the worried girl, no much older than Horthy, and Chansey.
"That key is for the hotel area!" Joy says out loud for Horthy, ensuring he hears her instructions amidst the commotion. "Please clean those rooms and get them ready for the travelers. We had a large group of trainers reserve rooms for tonight, and they'll be arriving soon, so if you could get to work as quickly as possible, that would be great!"
Joy gets lost with her pokemon past the nursing room, and Horthy finally has his first "important" task. He saves the keys inside his pocket and with his ragged backpack, heads upstairs the Center, where the rooms are located, where he would start working without waiting much longer.
...
Time really passes faster than one would expect, and before Horthy could notice, it was late evening already. He spent most of his time cleaning and preparing the kitchen so the nurse could prepare food to whatever pokemon or trainer would have to stay for the night, which ones arent few.
But now he is once again mopping the waiting room, something he is very used to do. Formerly in the orphanage, he was one of the greatest unadopted, if not the most. So most of the tasks would be handed to him, cleaning, cooking, sometimes reading stories to the little ones...
So he mops with monotony, until his ears perked up two trainers speaking without much care, not many meters from Horthy.
"Yeah, that commoner really thought he would beat me with such a pathetic Pokemon." The taller one says with haughty tone, and in response, his friend, shorter but muscular laughts heartedly. "That poor undertrained Pikachu, imagine a Pikachu being that slow... it sure was underfed." The taller one laughs again and shakes his head, playfully punching his friends muscular arm.
"I am pretty sure he would want to ditch that shitty rat... I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to sell it on the black ma-" His words come to a suden stop as his friend cuts him dry, then reprimending him with furious low tone, but loud enought to Horthy to eavesdrop with interest. "Are you nuts! We are in public... what if that peasant mopping heard you!?"
Horthy opens his eyes wide but tries to act normal, giving them his back as he continues with the task at hand.
Seeing Horthy seemingly oblivious and acting normal, both trainers sighed in relief and lowered their voices further. "You have to be more careful. We can't risk losing our privilege…" In response, the taller guy blushed slightly and scratched his cheek in embarrassment. "I know, sorry. But… I do have a question, though."
The muscular, short trainer rolls his eyes and asks. "Sure... what is it? It better be something that makes sense, you dumbass." The tall man nods and straightens on his seat, then leaned in conspiratorially. "I heard about Dragonair scales... but that rocket wouldn´t tell me its specific location, you know, where the auction will be held.
The short man frowns and bites his lower lip in deep thought, finally answering with hesitation. "I think... it should be in two days, you know, behind those destroyed buildings past the forest, at midnight." The taller one nods in silence and frowns, turning to Horthy as he heard as if he stopped mopping, his friend does the same.
Horthy squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, feeling the weight of their stares on his back. The silence hung heavy in the air, thick with tension. He deliberately dipped the mop back into the bucket of dirty water, making a loud splash, just to keep up the act. He had to appear completely natural if he wanted to hear more and avoid being discovered by these guys.
The trainers look at each other and stand up, they head to the reception and ask for their pokemon back. "What? But they need more rest, Nidoking was too-" Joy gets cut dry with an annoyed groan of the taller guy. "Just give him back to me already! He´s had enough rest."
Joy can´t help but chuckle, finally handing him back his pokeball after a quick trip between the nursery and the reception area.
The guys finally starteded to leave, completly ignoring Horthy. As they passed, the taller one deliberately dropped his soda on the ground, then stepped on the cup, causing the sugary liquid to spread across the freshly cleaned floor, creating more work for Horthy. But Horthy didn't care. Inside his head, he was smiling. He had just gotten some incredibly valuable information.
"I hope they get their asses wiped out" Nurse Joy couldn´t help but mutter as they finally left, then turning to Chansey and signaling her back to the nursery.
...
"So, the black market, huh... that could definitely work for me."
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Hello again! I hope you liked this chapter and enjoyed it. I personally enjoyed writing it... see you in the next chapter!