Tora- Worst birthday ever

Story by darkdragon33 on SoFurry

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#1 of Tora

This is my second story. For those of you who read this, you can skip to the next chapter. For all you others, this is what I've been working on while writing my other story. Comments and votes are welcome and appreciated.


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It was warm summer day in Viridian City. The sun was beaming down its warm rays of life giving light on all those who dare not walk under the shade. The city was a peaceful and Pokemon trainers would often come through on their way to the Pewter City gym to battle with the leader, Brock "The Rock", or were on their way to the Indigo Plateau to battle in a region-wide tournament to have their names put in the history books as one of the greatest trainers in the world.

"Hurry up Tora!" a young boy shouted. His name is Chris and he's twelve years old as of today. He had on his favorite black jean shorts that came down to his knees and his favorite red shirt.

"Coming!" Tora shouted back. Running down the stairs was his partner Tora, a raichu. She's been with him ever since she was an egg. They did everything together; from eating and playing together, to taking baths and sleeping together. They have been close friends ever from the moment she hatched three years ago and have been inseperable ever since. She hugged his leg once she caught up to him.

"Today's a special day you know." he said smiling at her.

"Of course. It's your birthday." she replied grinning back at him. Since Chris and Tora have been together since forever, he's come to understand her pokéspeech.

"That's right, and we're gonna have the best day ever. First we'll go to the park, head over to the forest, and then we'll go to a movie. By the time we come back home, mom and dad will be waiting for us with cake and ice-cream." He grinned from ear to ear at the events he planned for the day.

"Mmm, I like eating the cakes your mom makes." Tora said licking her lips.

"I do too. Let's get going; we have a whole day ahead of us." Chris said as he opened the door leading outside, with Tora following close behind.

They spent the entire afternoon playing at the park and exploring the forest just north of the city. Tora sat in Chris' lap as they took a ride on the swing, but not too high because she would have to hold onto his shirt to keep from falling off. After leaving the park, they went to their favorite spot in the forest. A little ways into the forest was a cave next to a nearby river and inside was an underground spring. There was a hole in the ceiling that would let sunlight inside and illuminate the cave walls. It was a beautiful sight to see the ripples of the spring on the cave walls.

When evening came, they went to the local movie theater. Since they didn't allow pokemon inside, Chris would put Tora in her ball and sneak her inside so she could watch the movie too. They did this whenever they came so they didn't worry about getting caught at the entrance. Chris always brought a Jacket with him and sat in the back, so that when he released her he could cover the bright light with it. She will still sit in his lap even though she was now big enough to see over the seats. He didn't mind though, he enjoyed her company.

The movie they watched featured a gallade bent on saving a beautiful gardevoir being held captive by an evil alakazam. It was exciting to the very end. The gallade saved the beautiful gardevoir and they lived happily ever after. Sometimes, while they were watching movies that had a beautiful actress in it, Chris would comment on how pretty they were and Tora would always look at him and ask: "Is she prettier than me?" She didn't really care about her looks a whole lot. She just kept herself nice and groomed to look her best everyday. Chris would smile at her and say, "Not even close." He would then pat her head and scratch behind her ears.

After the movie was over, he recalled her back into her ball and walked into the theater lobby. He saw the concession stand and was feeling like he wanted something sweet to snack on, so he decided to get a box of candy. He got up to the counter and tried to decide between the different kinds of candy. "Hmm, I want something hot, but I want something chocolaty too." he thought. He continued scanning over the selections until he finally found what he was looking for. "Perfect. I'll take one box please." he said to the clerk. He paid for the candy and exited the theater.

Once outside, he released Tora from her ball. She turned to him smiling and immediately tackled him to the ground. "That was a great movie! Let's go again tomorrow!" she said excitedly.

"Glad you liked it. I got something for us to snack on on our way home." Chris said.

Really? What is it?"

"Well, first you have to get off of me so I can get it out my pocket." he said while trying to reach his pockets.

"Oh, sorry. I just got excited." she said with a nervous laugh. She got off of Chris so he was able to stand up.

"Alright, now open you mouth and close your eyes and you will get a big surprise." he recited perfectly. (Minds...Out..The Gutter...People) Tora did as she was told.

After a moment, Chris got on his knee and put a piece of candy in her mouth. She closed her mouth and squealed at the flavor. It was a creamy flavored candy with a bit of strawberry flavor in it. It was their absolute favorite candy in the world. "Oh, Chris. You've made this the best day ever." Tora said smiling.

"That was the plan." Chris replied beaming while scratching behind her ear.

"But... I didn't get you anything for your birthday..." she said in a sad tone.

"It's okay. Just knowing you'll be next to me is enough of a present." Tora immediately blushed and looked away.

"I... um... but..." she stammered, unable to find the words to respond to his bold statement. She started fidgeting with her tail; a nervous habit of hers that Chris thought was cute.

"Come on. We better hurry up and get home before it gets to dark." Chris said as he stood up and already started walking ahead of her.

It took a few seconds for Tora to realize that Chris had stopped scratching her ear and was almost at the end of the block. "Hurry up Tora! Cake and ice-cream waits for no one!" he shouted. Tora was about to sprint after him before she saw a pot of flowers that was sitting in front of the theater. The flowers were red with some traces of white on the ends of each petals.

"I know he doesn't want me to get him anything, but I'll feel bad if I don't give him something." she thought. She picked the flower and took off down the block to catch up with Chris. About half-way down, her ears twitched to the sound of tires screeching nearby. She turned to her left and saw a car speeding down the street. She looked ahead for Chris and saw that he was crossing the street, completely oblivious to the oncoming car. "Chris!!! Chris!!!" she screamed to the top of her lungs trying to get his attention.

He heard her screaming and turned around to see what the problem was, but before he saw her, he saw the car coming at him. It was a large green SUV. Tora knew she wouldn't be able to make it in time, but that didn't stop her from trying. Unfortunately, all her effort was in vain. Before she knew it, Chris' body was sent flying at least ten feet through the air. It was all in slow-motion for her as she felt her heart stop. Seeing Chris' body fly and land with sickening crunch in the middle of the unforgiving street. His body rolled a few feet before coming to a complete stop. "CHRIS!!!!!"

*****8*****

"It's getting late. Shouldn't Chris be back by now?" Angela, Chris' mother, asked.

"Don't worry dear. I'm sure he just wants to spend a little more time playing with Tora before he comes home." replied Marcus, Chris' father. It was getting dark out and they hadn't heard any word from Chris since he left earlier that day.

"I hope you're right. I just worry about him sometimes." she said as she took a sip of lemonade from her glass. Just then the phone rings and Angela goes and picks it up. Marcus gets up from his seat and goes to the fridge for something to drink as well. He picked out and opened a can of beer. He swishes the contents in his hand before he chugs it down. In the middle of his chugging, he hears glass breaking in the hallway and nearly chocks on his beer. He rushes in the hallway and sees his wife with the phone in her hand and the glass she was holding shattered in pieces on the floor. He walks up to her and sees a look of disbelief and extreme fear on her face, which caused him to get worried.

"What's wrong Angie? Did something happen?" She slowly faces him with tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Chris is... in the... hospital. He was... hit by a car!" She couldn't hold back her tears any longer and cried onto Marcus' chest.

Marcus couldn't believe the news. He was so shocked that he was left in a daze, not even hearing his own wife crying. A couple minutes passed and Marcus snapped out of it and took hold of his wife. "Angie...Angie!" he said trying to get his wife to look at him. She lifted her head off his chest. Her eyes were red and puffy from all the crying. "Honey, I know this might be hard for you, but we need to get to the hospital right now. I'll go get your jacket and you get in the car." Angela wiped the tears from her face.

"O...okay..." she replied. Marcus didn't take another second as he ran upstairs. On his way, he let the tears he didn't want his wife to see run down his face.

"Oh god, please let him be okay." he kept repeating to himself over and over again. He got their jackets, the keys to the car and ran out the house, not even bothering to lock it. He got into the car and quickly shut the door so the car light won't reveal his tears to his wife. Marcus started the engine, backed out of the drive-way, and sped down the streets to the hospital.

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When they got to the hospital, they ran to the receptionist desk. "Excuse me miss. Where's our son? His name's Chris Welby." Marcus said in a panicked tone. The female receptionist went through a couple files in front of her.

"Chris Welby? Second floor, room 231. It's on your left when you exit the elevator or go up the stairs." she said calmly. Not wanting to wait on the elevator, Marcus and Angela took the stairs. Once they got to the second floor, they turned left and scanned the numbers on the side of the doors as they ran past the rooms.

"RAI RAICHU!!!" They stopped when they heard a familiar pokémon shouting.

"Tora." they said together. They rounded the next corner and saw Tora being restrained by a team of three doctors.

"You need to calm down, Raichu!" one of the doctors said.

Let me go! I want to see Chris!!!" Tora shouted. Tears were streaming down her furry face as she fought with the doctors, resisting the urge to shock them.

"Please, the doctors inside are doing the best they can to stabilize him. You being in there the way you are now is not going to help him." another doctor pleaded. Tora was too torn up to really care about what the doctors were saying. She just wanted to be there with Chris. She felt that it was her fault that he got hit and she should, at the very least, be next to him while he was being treated, instead of fighting with the doctors.

"Tora!" Her ears twitched at the sound of a familiar voice. She turned away from the doctors and saw Chris' parents, Marcus and Angela. She wrestled free of the doctors grip and ran to them. Marcus got down on one knee and embraced the sobbing raichu.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." she said over and over into Marcus' chest. Marcus simply rubbed her back and whispered soothing words to her while shedding tears of his own. Angela knelt down for moment to rub Tora's head, before going over to the team of doctors that were restraining Tora.

"Is that your raichu?" one of the doctors asked. He had short black hair and was quite tall. The other two looked really young and were dressed in blue scrubs. The one on her left was female and had long blond hair. The other was male with short brown hair.

"No, she's actually our sons' pokémon."

"I can tell. She wouldn't let them load him into the ambulance without going over every little thing they made sure to secure him safely. She rode the ambulance with him and until just fifteen minutes ago, was next to him the whole way" the brown haired doctor said.

"Well, they've been inseparable ever since she hatched. He got her when she was still an egg."

"That long? Well it's no wonder she acted the way she did." the blond doctor said as she straightened her hair.

Please, tell me how my son is doing." Angela asked. The tall doctor went over to a room and pulled a clipboard from the wall. He came back flipping through a few pages.

"Mrs. Welby? Your son is in critical condition right now. His right arm is broken, his left leg is twisted, the top of his skull is fractured and three of his ribs are broken and are dangerously close to his heart."

"Oh my god..." Angela gasped as new tears were streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry to say this, but his chances of surviving are not good. We have our best doctors and surgeons working on him now, but there's no guarantee he'll survive the night." he finished. Angela started sobbing uncontrollably by this point. The doctors stood there watching her cry, feeling her grief. Marcus came up behind Angela and tapped her shoulder.

"Angie? Is he gong to be okay?" Angela simply turned around and cried out

"Oh Marcus!" as she embraced him. Marcus looked at the team of doctors for a hint as to what was going on. When they avoided eye contact, he assumed the worst and cried on his wife's shoulder. The doctors left them alone to grieve. Tora had cried herself to sleep while she was with Marcus. He laid her down on a bench and covered her with his jacket.

*****8*****

The next five days weren't all that great. The sky was covered with clouds and it was raining slightly. Angela spent those days in bed crying from time to time into her pillow. Marcus spent his days drinking the occasional beer while reading the newspaper. The beer didn't taste as good as it normally would have. It was bland and left a bad aftertaste in his mouth. Eventually, he gave up drinking the rest of his beer. No matter how much he drank, it didn't drown out the feeling that he could lose his son at any moment.

Tora wasn't doing any better. She stayed in the bedroom she shared with Chris laying on the bed rolling her pokeball between her paws. Marcus came to feed her earlier, but she refused to eat. Eating without Chris just wasn't the same to her. Nothing was. She tried to go to sleep several times, but every time she closed her eyes, she would see Chris' mangled body in the middle of that unforgiving street looking at her with cold dead eyes. Tora would open her eyes again, only to close them and cry into the sheets of the bed.

They received news from officer Jenny that they caught the person who hit their son. It turns out that it was a drunken man who had his dead wife in the back of his car. Apparently, they got into an argument about his drinking problem and him staying out all hours of the night. He got tired of her yelling and hit her across the head with the beer bottle in his hand. After she hit the floor, he stabbed her multiple times with the shattered bottle until she died. Once he realized what he had done, he threw her into his car and sped off to bury the body in the forest. That was around the time Chris and Tora had come out of the movie theater. The news didn't make them feel any better. In fact, it only depressed them further. Who wants to hear that their child was hit with a car driven by a drunk murderer?

"It's my fault." she told herself. "If I hadn't picked that... stupid flower, I could have stopped him from crossing the street." Tora rolled on her side and stared out the window, then to the empty space on the bed where her best friend would've been. After a few minutes of doing more nothing, she hopped off the bed and left the room. She went downstairs and saw Marcus sitting in his chair reading the paper. She felt compelled to go over to him, the most likely reason being perhaps for comforting reasons. She walked in front of his chair and lightly tugged on his pants leg.

Marcus peeked to the side of the newspaper and saw Tora. "What's wrong girl? You worried about Chris too?" Tora nodded. "Wanna come sit on my lap? I'm sure we can keep each other company." he suggested. Tora thought about it for a moment before nodding again. He put the newspaper aside and picked her up to sit her in his lap. He pulled her close so that she would rest her head on his chest. He then started to stroke her back in a comforting way, which she appreciated and showed it by nuzzling into his chest. "I'm sure he'll pull through. We just need to have faith in him." Marcus said, more to Tora than himself. Tora looked up at Marcus, who was smiling at her.

"I want him to come home... I miss him." she said sadly. Though he couldn't understand Tora, he believes he sort of got the jest of what she was telling him.

"I miss him too." Tora smiled a little. She then rested her head on his chest again and closed her eyes, feeling the warm comforting feeling of someone close to her.

They stayed like that for about an hour. The phone rang shortly after, which forced them to end their bonding time for Marcus to answer it. She stayed in the chair and watched Marcus pick up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hello, may I speak to Mr. Welby?" a lady over the phone asked.

"You're speaking with him. May I ask who's calling?" Marcus replied.

"My name is Pamela Anderson, Chris' nurse. I've called to give you an update on your son Chris." Marcus' heart sank when he heard this, but at the same, time he was feeling a bit anxiety. "It seems the operation was a success and he'll make a slow, but full recovery." she finished. There was long pause. "Hello? Mr. Welby?" Ms. Anderson asked, not sure if he was still there.

"Y-yes, I'm still here. Y-you say he'll make a full recovery?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yes, he'll make a full recovery. You can start visiting him in a couple days if you want." Marcus started getting teary eyed.

"He's gonna be okay." he thought. Without a second thought, he thanked the nurse, hung up the phone, and ran upstairs to tell Angela. Tora heard his half of the conversation, and judging from Marcus' reaction, it seems that Chris was going to be okay. She started to shed some tears of her own, not out of sadness, but of relief and joy.

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