"Welcome to the Pokemon Center. We restore your Pokemon to perfect health."

In most cases, just a quick run through the machine and the Pokemon would be good as new. Nurse Joy, the Joy that ran the Viridian branch of the Pokemon Center, would then hand back the Pokemon to the trainer who had brought them in.

"Your Pokemon are now fully healed."

Nurse Joy would bow.

"We hope to see you again."

We hope to see you again. Nurse Joy did hope that she would see the trainers and their Pokemon again. Some thought this was weird... Pokemon were only brought to her when they were hurt. To say 'we hope to see you again' implied 'we hope to see you horribly injured again'. Nurse Joy actually knew another Joy (one who had, thankfully, stopped working) that was that sadistic. But not this Joy. No, she wanted to see the trainers again for a different reason.

Many trainers came in each day. On this particular day, three trainers stuck in her mind the most.

The first, who visited early in the day, was a brand new trainer. He'd only been a trainer for three days, and following him was his first Pokemon, a Squirtle. His Pokemon card had said his name was Dirk Cadson. But he said everyone just called him 'Caddy'.

His Squirtle wasn't badly hurt. Just tired from the battling of random insects in the forest. He hadn't made it through the forest. He confessed, once he realised the good nurse wouldn't make fun of him, that he was a little scared of going further in. He'd been all ready to jump into this adventure, but going into such a tangled forest was an unsettling option. Of course, all trainers did. If you couldn't get through the forest, you wouldn't make it to Champion. It was the first trial of every new trainer. Even if it was an informal trial, it was no less important.

Caddy and Squirtle. Nurse Joy had seen her fair share of new trainers in the many years she'd been working at the Viridian City Pokemon Center. But she never stopped listening to them talk happily about all the adventures they were going to have.

She saw many of them again. A lot of them returned home quickly. Not everyone made it as a Pokemon trainer.

"We hope to see you again," Nurse Joy said as Caddy left, Squirtle running happily behind him. Another kid off to see the world. And his first stop was Viridian Forest.

Many who returned to her were those who had failed. But she was not wishing failure on them, either.

The second was an experienced trainer from Johto. He had a total of fourteen badges, from Kanto and Johto. He didn't have what were often considered the 'last' badges of each region. He said he wanted to be stronger before he fought them. His trainer card called him 'Finn Lander' and displayed his impressive credentials as a trainer. The Pokemon he had owned for longest was a strong Houndoom. His Pokemon weren't injured, just a little tired. He wanted them to be at their best before they headed to Mt. Silver for training.

Finn was aiming to become a Gym Leader himself, once he had finished his travels. He wanted to specialise in Fire-types. Perhaps take over once Blaine retired. He didn't talk as much as young Caddy had, so Nurse Joy didn't have as much time to learn about this trainer. But he did say that once he finished at Mt Silver, he wanted to return and fight Giovanni, the Viridian Gym Leader. And then he wanted to return to Johto to fight Clair. Only then would he even consider approaching Blaine about becoming an apprentice. He had met the man, but he didn't feel quite strong enough to ask yet.

He said he'd be back in Viridian to prove he was strong enough to become Blaine's apprentice. Nurse Joy said she was looking forward.

"We hope to see you again."

She did hope to see him become stronger. But that wasn't the reason she wanted to see him come back.

The third trainer was a girl wearing a wide-brimmed, floppy hat and holding a camera. She was from Hoenn, and was actually a photographer rather than a serious trainer. Her name was Randa Tillman. A Sneasel rode on her shoulder. One of her other Pokemon, an Elekid, had been injured while they were travelling through the forest on the way to Viridian, and she was heading to Mt. Silver to take some photos of the local Pokemon there.

She didn't speak unless prompted, but when Nurse Joy asked her about her photography as she fed her Elekid an Antidote, she admitted that she wanted to be a Pokemon breeder more than a photographer, and was mostly trying to learn more and sell her photos for enough money to buy some property for those purposes.

Randa did show some of the photos she had taken lately. Mostly from the forest. She added that she had been chased by Beedrills, and that was how Elekid had been hurt. The pictures were largely of the nests of eggs, the Weedles crawling around and the Kakunas latched to trees. There was also a rather blurry one of Beedrills flying at her.

She hoped to see a Misdreavus or some Ursaring. She said she'd return to the Pokemon Centre to show them, if Nurse Joy was interested.

Nurse Joy was interested in the photos, just as she was interested in all things Pokemon.

"We hope to see you again."

Regardless of how interested, that was not why she wished for the girl's return.

Caddy was the first to return. He had been chased out of the forest by Beedrills, and his Squirtle was badly hurt. He insisted on sitting next to Nurse Joy while she sterilised the wounds and administered Antidote.

He was upset. He was starting to think he didn't have what it took to be a trainer. His friends from Pallet Town had already passed through the forest. One of them had somehow already made it to Cerulean. He felt horrible, and was upset that he had gotten his Squirtle hurt so badly.

Once his Squirtle was healed again, Caddy said that he needed to think for a while, and decided to return home for the time being. He was not the first. Who was to say whether he would resume his Pokemon journey or not.

Nurse Joy watched him leave towards Pallet Town with dragging footsteps. His earlier optimism had quickly vanished. Nurse Joy hoped it would return. It was always sad to see someone's dreams crushed. Especially by a swarm of Beedrill.

Randa returned next. Earlier than she said she would. She was badly injured, although she had managed to bandage both herself and her Sneasel. Ursarings had chased the two of them halfway through the mountain, and one of them had managed to claw her shoulder. Another had managed to bite her Sneasel's arm. They both needed stitches.

Randa couldn't stay for her Sneasel's stitches, as she had to have the same done to her at the hospital. She returned afterwards, and the two had to stay for a few days at the Pokemon Center, until they could remove their stitches.

Randa was very calm about it all. She admitted that they got injured regularly, and that worse had happened.

Over a week later, they left in the direction of Pewter City. Nurse Joy watched them go, and hoped they wouldn't be attacked by Beedrills again, or at least that they wouldn't get as badly injured as they had by the Ursarings.

Nurse Joy waited for Finn to return. She waited a long time.

One day, a Pokemon stumbled through the door. A Houndoom. Finn's Houndoom. It had dragged itself all the way from Mt. Silver, and it was bleeding everywhere...

Once the Houndoom had been patched up, Nurse Joy called the police and reported Finn missing. A search party was sent out. It searched throughly through Mt. Silver. It reached the caves last. Even the policemen had trouble going far into those caves. They were only for the toughest of the tough.

They found Finn in there. They brought his body back to the hospital, but there was nothing anyone could do for him. Not when he had been half-eaten by some of the more hungry Pokemon of Silver Cave.

Nurse Joy traded shifts with the Joy who worked at night. As she picked up her bag to go home, she saw the Houndoom sitting in the corner, still covered in bandages. He hadn't moved since the day his trainer was brought back.

"We hope to see you again."

Finn hadn't been the first to be brought back dead. It happened often. Even the new trainers who wandered into Viridian Forest... sometimes they failed their journey and didn't make it back.

"We hope to see you again."

Even though Nurse Joy was sad to see Caddy fail, she was at least relieved he was safe. Relieved that he had made it out of Viridian Forest. And even if he quit, at least he would be safe.

"We hope to see you again."

She worried about Randa. Such a dangerous journey, and even if they had been lucky so far, who was to say when their luck would run out. One day they might not return to the Pokemon Center. It would take one wrong blow for Randa to die before she achieved her dream.

"We hope to see you again."

Blaine would never know that he had just lost an apprentice. Never know how hard Finn was trying just so he would be worth of being a great Gym Leader. Something that would never happen now. And his Houndoom could wait forever, but his trainer would never come back.

"We hope to see you again."

Nurse Joy said those words to every trainer that came through her Pokemon Center. But she also left out the last word. The last word always went unsaid.

Alive. We hope to see you again alive.

Because far too many trainers never returned once they journeyed into the wilderness.