"Alright. So, the CT and MRI scans both show that any possible damage that was done to your brain tissue has been healed. You still have a closed, hairline fracture near your coronal suture but the injury should naturally heal in about a few days since your Indeedee used Heal Pulse on you. Please note that you might need to take some medication in case of headaches or nausea but other than that you are fit enough to travel after a night or two of resting." Doctor Wexler said. He then directed me to the pharmacy so I could get some painkillers just in case. Leaf took extra care in memorizing the way to the pharmacy and practically pushed me to take some painkillers.
Great. I'm stuck in Gringey City for the night because of my head injury. Though I did manage to save a whole day of traveling by taking the ride with Officer Jenny so that balances it out, and I'll probably have to take a mode of transportation since the doctor said I can't travel in the woods as I regularly would, which'll suck because a lot of improvement from the team happens from battling and training on the move; It's just something I've been noticing lately so I instruct the team to polish their skills while in the ranch instead of making them learn new ones.
Speaking of Officer Jenny, she said that I couldn't post the picture I took or say anything about what happened until the news actually talked about it which wouldn't happen for at least another day since there was a Team Rocket raid story being covered right now and a bunch of other really important stuff that was happening, apparently there was a law against sharing news before the official news centers could share it. That meant that I couldn't post the picture I took with the team, Wooper, and Tyranitar with the hunters in the background.
At least the Pokemon Center is right across the street.
Entering the place shows me that there isn't a whole lot of foot traffic that gets into this place, on account of the Nurse Joy that's reading a magazine who looks genuinely surprised that someone entered through the front before she probably remembered that I was here before.
She looks like she's debating about continuing to read her magazine or not before sighing and standing up to get a tray with five pokeballs from the back wall. She then places them on the counter as I step up. "Here you go. Hope to see you again, yada yada and all that." before huffing and going back to reading her magazine.
She doesn't seem as nice as all the other Nurse Joy's. Leaf shoving her nose into my hand makes me move on from the less than pleasant service to go and get the team some food since I'm currently banned from making anything until I get better.
I had a little portion of chicken nuggets while Leaf had some fruits and veggies. I also made sure to get some food for later from the cafeteria for the first time in my life and headed over to my room. They have chocolate chip muffins which taste pretty good, if a bit lacking in the chocolate chips.
Leaf pushed me along to where the phones are instead of where my room is.
... I probably should call mom and the professor to tell them about what happened. They probably won't be happy about what happened.
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“What were you thinking!?!”
Evidently, mom wasn't happy.
"Yeah, I know that what I did was pretty dumb, but mom they would've gotten Tyranitar and ran away with the Pokemon they poached." Across the screen mom's face was going through a rollercoaster of movements with most of the expressions being frowns. "And anyway, I realized that sending back Leaf into her pokeball in the middle of the fight was a pretty bad move so next time I won't do that."
Mom pinches the bridge of her nose and then sighed in what must be exasperation. I could barely hear her say "'next time' he says"
She looks at me from the screen and shifted her eyes up to where my bandages are. "You really are planning on doing this again. Aren't you?"
"Well, no, not really. But if something like this happens again and I'm there and able to help, then shouldn't I help?" I respond.
She probably realized that she isn't gonna win in this conversation anytime soon, so she shook her head "You know you're going to be grounded for at least a decade, right?" she says before directing her gaze to Leaf. "And Leaf, please make sure something like this doesn't happen again." she stated more than asked.
I nod in understanding, the Leafeon who I had found as a starved Eevee when I was seven readily nodding to the request, and then I sent out Wooper to show mom my latest teammate.
I then had to promise that I would always try to find some way to help deal with a situation that doesn't involve battling the bad guys if I could help it.
Professor Oak was the complete opposite of mom. He didn't change his expression through the entire retelling, only asking questions about what happened next or what my team was doing at the time. By the very end he sighed and said that he could send over anyone aside from Beedrill since he still needed to do some testing on him. I asked for Tabs and to swap Leaf with Chardon if possible, to which he said that he wouldn't swap Leaf but he could send over Tabs and Chardon while I was staying at the Center in this city.
Then, after retrieving two members of my team, I was finally heading off to my room.
Opening the door to the standard room, I chucked out everyone's balls onto the floor so that they could let themselves out, which they did. The only two members of my team who weren't aware of what I went through paused in their greetings and immediately came over to my side with horrified looks on their faces, though that didn't mean that the rest didn't also come over to check on me.
I waved them off "Relax team, the doctors said that I should rest for the rest of the day but tomorrow I'll be right as rain, and we'll be able to head to Vermillion." The travel plans were immediately met with protests even from the normally energetic Lupa.
I sighed in exasperation. "Listen, we are going whether you guys agree or not, alright. The doctor said I could take off the bandage tomorrow and I'm gonna take it off tomorrow. The only thing that's gonna be different is that I'll be taking transportation like when we met Pearl. But I promise that I won't try to get into any more trouble until I'm alright, alright. Dee-Dee, could you fill up the tub for Pearl and Wooper. Oh, also we got a new team member; I'll buy some cupcakes when we get to Vermillion for everybody." And with that I unceremoniously flopped onto bed ready for sleep, finally noticing a teeny tiny headache that was causing a dull thud in my head. Sleep coming much faster than it usually woul-
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The Pokemon in the group looked towards the two psychic types who were paying extra close attention to the boy lying down in his temporary bed, almost all of them sighing due to one reason or another when the psychics gave nods towards the group.
Silence then overtook the one room flat as none of the gathered party knew how to open up the conversation. The only one who probably could was too busy being by her trainer's side to speak.
Ultimately, the one who started the conversation was the mono-water type within the group.
"Okay, what the hell was that." Pearl demanded to Mind Seer and Leaf.
One didn't hear while the other was confused by the vitriol aimed at her.
"What are you talking about?" The fairy and psychic type asked.
"You know what I'm talking about."
"Uh, no I don't."
"Oh, for the love of pokechr- why the hell were you two so chill with that Scizor after it attacked Evandros." She practically screamed, spitting out the species name of the Pokemon as if it were the devil.
"Because something like this already happened," Dee-Dee butted in "innit it, Chardon and Tabitha."
Chardon simply nodded while Tabitha was debating between being part of this conversation or being by her trainer's side. She chose to be part of the conversation since Leaf looked like she wasn't going to be moving anytime soon.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"When Poison Lance was a Weedle, he hit Evandros with a Poison Sting and it was pretty bad. We had to get a Pecha Berry from his friends who were a little ahead of us since Evandros collapsed when most humans who get hit by Weedle's take a couple more stings before they faint, and we just assumed that Poison Lance had managed to get a critical hit and successfully landed the poison effect and moved on. Plus, the fact that he's been trying to make up for it by doing subtle little acts like making sure his stingers don't stab Evandros when our trainer goes in for a hug or actually sharing his food and time with anybody else are pretty big reasons as to why we forgave him." Chardon started, since he had been drilled about trainer safety protocols when he had been selected as a lab Pokemon.
"Then when we were in this city called Viridian, Evandros ran into these Pokemon thieves called Team Rocket and got hurt by an explosion that they caused inside of a Pokemon Center. He didn't get hurt that bad since he only fell down from the shockwave, but he did get a few nasty scrapes on his hands and knees. That was when we met Lupa since he's a former Team Rocket Pokemon and we fought him when battling those thieves and then he was given to Evandros to be rehabilitated by a trainer like most evil team Pokemon usually are. Evandros searched it up with his friends." Tabitha continued. Lupa was listening intently at this part with his ears flat on his skull but no other indication of his emotions.
"And then there was that time near Pewter City where Evandros got shocked by a Mareep with hiccups and fell unconscious by him for a solid couple minute. He still wanted to help the Mareep and his family with their hiccup problems afterwards." Mind Seer ended, before she looked to Dee-Dee "But how did you know that?"
Dee-Dee shrugged as she took the warm Pokemon egg out of its container and left it in between her trainer and Leaf. "Indeedee can read minds and memories, I worried that Evandros would be an abusive arse so to make sure I wasn't making a very bad deal I read his memories while he was asleep. Only of the past year though, anymore would've been an invasion of privacy and I had a weird feeling like I'd be turned into bloody shepherd's pie if I looked too much."
"Wait, wait, wait. Rewind for a second here. You all had to deal with this shit happening to him constantly on the journey? Then why the hell aren't you more protective of him? He's only a human for Arceus' sake." Pearl demanded.
"We do though." Everyone, even the laid back Wooper, looked towards the one who spoke. "We do protect him, that's why this is the first time in a month that he's been hurt by something. It's because we've been trying." Leaf lifted her head to look at four Pokemon caught after Route 1. "And it doesn't need to be said about how everyone in the team will try their hardest to make sure that Evandros will be safe." Having said her piece, Leaf rested her head on the bed as she dutifully stayed by her trainer's side.
Dee-Dee nodded to the little speech before doing what she was told, heading to the washroom to fill the tub with water so that Pearl and Wooper could have a pleasant sleep.
Somehow, the Clamperl managed to slouch onto herself without any body parts capable of doing such an act. Her mind filled with burning hot shame that flowed in her as her first real task of keeping her trainer safe had ended in a failure, sending a silent vow that she'd keep a watch on him as well.
The Wooper in the room, who hadn't said a thing, finally decided to open his mouth. "Wowee, you guys must really care about him if you're feelin' so down in the dumps after beating up some bad guys."
A short snort came out of Leaf, the grass type surprised by the statement.
"Yeah, we do." Came her response, nods following immediately after.
Chardon came up to the blue axolotl Pokemon "What's your name little one." He asked.
The water and ground type smiled and replied with "Oh, my mum calls me Water Fruit but a lot of my siblings are called that too, so I guess my name could be Punchy since my pa taught me how to use this weird move called Power-Puff Punch. But I also really like your guys' names."
Chardon chuckled lightly "Well, if you ever want a name like ours then just ask our team leader."
Lupa butted in "Yeah, yeah, boss makes some pretty good names for us. I let him name me Lupa since it sounds like my evolved form, Lycanroc." He said with a fierce smile on his face.
"No, it doesn't" Mind Seer corrected
"No, it doesn't" Lupa repeated, his smile still there. It took a second before he realized what the Ralts had said before looking at her in surprise.
Punchy giggled at the interaction between the two and watched as the team worked in tandem to set their bowls and get ready to dig into their food.
Though he still had a question.
With a dopey grin on his face, the Pokemon temporarily called Punchy scrunched up his face in thought before asking "By the way, what are cuppy cakes?"
"... You're going to love being on this team." Someone said and Punchy smiled wider in delight as a bowl was passed to him.
He already did.
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Turns out having bandages on one's head when they go to sleep makes said bandages soaked in sweat. 2/10 would not recommend.
... It probably didn't help that everybody that wasn't a water type had decided to sleep next to me, bringing their warmth onto the bed as well.
Ralts considered it funny, so I'll take the win and go to the bathroom. Pearl was already awake and tried to cajole Wooper out of the bathroom. Seeing the two of them dripping wet also reminded me that I should clean them with towels before letting them loose towards the others.
Pearl accepted the drying, but she doesn't seem to be in a talking mood considering that she just slammed her shell shut on me. I still talked to her even if she doesn't wanna reciprocate.
Wooper came next and, when I picked him up, I knew that I had the perfect name for the little guy.
"Hey Wooper."
"Woo pah?" He asked with a little head tilt that made him even more adorable.
"How would you like to be called Marshmallow?" Apparently, I asked the right thing since Woo- Marshmallow started snuggling and making happy noises. I have officially peaked in naming Pokemon, all future names will never encapsulate a Pokemon as perfectly as Marshmallow does Wooper.
Course after drying the two and using the bathroom I decided to take off the bandages.
"Huh, no blood. Thats a good thing, right?" And Chardon, Ralts and Dee-Dee nodded to show that I was correct.
After doing the daily routine with everybody, brushing their hair or cleaning their teeth or shell or pinecone body (Despite the reservations of one Dee-Dee, to the amusement of one Chardon), I made the team march with me towards the cafeteria; the Nurse Joy in the lobby not even sparing us a second glance.
I kinda had to slow down halfway because I was starting to have a major headache, which Chardon had accounted for since he had brought the pack of painkillers.
The slowing down was also a good call because the doors to the lobby opened up, with Officer Jenny coming through.
She seemed glad to see me and my team before taking a second glance and realizing that there were two extra Pokemon in my party putting my total number from six to eight. She dropped it once I said that I'd send someone back to Professor Oak when I'm leaving town.
"Um, were you looking for me?"
She straightened a bit before replying with a "Yes, you forgot a few things at the station, and I just wanted to pass along the bus timings to both Vermillion and Fuchsia City." before handing me one of my comics, my pencil bag, and a pamphlet with the symbol of a bus.
"Thanks Officer Jenny." I say before Leaf motions me towards the cafeteria where I have breakfast together with the team.
Though I do have one last question.
"How did you know that I was gonna take the bus anyway?" I ask
She smirks before replying "Because I knew you were going to skip town at any point today since you are a trainer after all, so I made sure to come early and give you a warning about going into the wilds the day after a head injury. By the way, thanks for finding those hunters; odds were that some ranger would have caught them eventually but without your effort I wouldn't have caught my third Pokemon and a lot of those wild Pokemon would have been mistreated. So, thanks." Giving a short bow before bidding us goodbye.
"Huh, I think that's the second time ever I got personally thanked by someone for helping out." I say aloud. Of course, the Nurse Joy gives a noncommittal hum and didn't even look up the entire time.
As the entire team and I are eating, I decide to open the pokedex and use it on Marshmallow.
Name Wooper Type Water, Ground Ability Water Absorb Nature Relaxed Health 55 Attack 45 Sp. Attack 25 Defense 45 Sp. Defense 25 Speed 15 Total stats 210 Moves Tail Whip, Power-Up Punch, Recover, Guard Swap
How does he have Power-Up Punch? He doesn't even have hands.
Honestly, this is a pretty decent set of moves for a beginner Pokemon. I'll have to look up what Guard Swap does but rest are self-explanatory. Now I just gotta get him to learn a bunch of physical ground and water type moves and something else that's defensive like Amnesia and pretty soon Marshmallow will be a really tough tank.
I even relay as much to Marshmallow who doesn't really get it but is just happy that he'll be a part of the team. Tabitha, though, stills when she heard that Marshmallow is also gonna be a tank like her; thereby making her slightly less unique for the team.
Of course, to make sure that I remind her how important she is I decide to face her and speak the truth. It also helps a bit that Ralts handed me my training journal so that I can refresh on what Tabitha's training plan is.
"Hey, Tabs," I start "after battling Surge I think it might be high time you start trying to learn how to use Curse. It'll be a major part of your battling strategy every time after you set up the initial Toxic Spikes and regular Spikes." The newfound attention making her perk back up, with words of encouragement aimed from most of the team towards both her and Marshmallow.
Eating together with eight of my Pokemon really brought home the time I've spent journeying and, despite the fact that it's been just a little under two months, it's flied by real fast even if the walking bits feel like they take an eternity.
I can't wait for next month.
Eventually though, like all good things, my time in this city was about to end so I send back Lupa and Chardon so that they keep practicing for their battle against Misty and her water filled battlefield with Woody who somehow managed to commandeer a small pond and made frozen blocks on it using his ice version of Hidden Power so that they could do mock battles with the local water types.
With the Pokemon who I'm challenging the gym with on my belt, I step into the bus heading over to Vermillion knowing that in about three days my gym battles coming up.