Subject: Re: [PW!] Adventure gets a busy signal Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 06:14:07 GMT From: Adrian Tymes <wingcat@pacbell.net> Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Rob wrote: > "There's no time to talk now." Dee heads into the back room of the Pokemon Center, followed by > Marcia. Once inside, Dee sees a Wartortle lying face down on a stretcher, his shell cracked open, > blood oozing out of the hole. Nurse Joy, her Chansey, and Marcia's Blissey are standing around the > stretcher, all of them attempting to keep the Water Pokemon from fainting in their own ways. Nurse > Joy is cleaning the wound with Mount Moon Spring Water, giving the Wartortle some to drink every > once in a while, her Chansey is trying to bandage the wound to stop the blood from flowing out, to > little avail, and Omelette the Blissey is using Softboiled, her favorite move, whenever the > Wartortle's about to faint due to loss of blood. > > Nurse Joy looks up at Nurse Marcia and says, "Oh, there you are. I thought you had given up like my > cousin from the Cherrygrove City did. I just escorted her out." > > "No, I was just looking for Doppler. And here he is." Marcia pats Dee on the back, shoves him > towards the injured Wartortle, and says, "Your turn." "Right. First things first: anesthetic." Dee waves a hand over the wartortle's face, releasing a puff of sleep powder. The patient is asleep within seconds. "Now, to get those shards of his shell out of his back." He begins to pull. Nuse Joy frowns. "But that'll just make the bleeding worse!" "You want him to heal like this? Going around with a disfigured back?" "Better that than bleeding to death!" "I'll take care of that in a minute. First things first." Dee pulls out most of the smaller shards and sets them aside, then morphs into a scyther to cut out one big shard that would not come out, pulling it free with his mouth. Nurse Joy starts to leap up to stop him, but catches herself, especially when she sees Marcia make no such motion. "You must really trust him." "I know him," Marcia replies, not taking her eyes off Dee and his patient for a moment. "That's better." Dee morphs back into his human form, flexes his fingers, and holds out a hand. "Glue." Marcia hands over a white canister of surgical adhesive. Dee quickly begins reassembling the shell, when Joy finally does put her hand over his to stop him. "Hold it! You still haven't stopped the bleeding." Dee sighs, clearly aggrivated, and shrugs off Joy's interference. "What do you *think* I'm doing, Nurse Joy?" "Putting his shell back together. He'll still be bleeding inside, without any skin to cover the wound." "Nurse Joy, what do you think a wartotle's shell *is*? Squirtles aren't born with a shell, they grow one. Now please don't interrupt; this could get a bit tricky." Tense silence descends, interrupted only by the occasional click of another piece of shell sliding into place. A few pieces are missing; for those, Dee takes one of Omelette's Softboiled eggs, and slices off small bits to stuff in the cracks, which soon harden into replacement shell. Finally, only the large piece remains. Dee temporarily morphs into a smaller charizard than before and roasts it in flames to bake off the flesh and dried blood, then into a delibird to chill it with a short ice beam, before setting it into place. Dee gently smears the rest of Omelette's gift over the shell like wax; where it passes, the cracks fade. Joy's jaw hangs loose. "I've never seen technique like that..." "It was invented for rock types, but it also works for hard shelled pokemon like squirtles and shellders." Dee frowns. "I know you are a highly trained professional, Nurse Joy, but frankly, I am surprised by your constant surprise at my methods. Surely, you go beyond just what you learned in class every now and then, don't you?" "Uh-uh. That would be experimenting, and my job is to heal pokemon, not use them as guinea pigs. I took an oath, something *you* obviously never did." "Experimenting? Experimenting?!? These are techniques pokemon have known for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years! Just because they've never been written down in one of your books..." "ENOUGH!" Marcia steps between Dee and Joy, looking at one, then the other. "Both of you! It'll wake up if you keep yelling like this! If you have to argue, let's at least do it outside." Dee frowns, and eventually nods. "You're right, as usual." He walks around Marcia, carefully avoiding Joy, and out into the lobby, followed by the others. The wartortle's trainer has been staring at the emergency room's doors, his tears used up. "Is...is it going to be okay?" Dee smiles, kneels, and puts his hand on the boy's shoulder. "*He* is going to be just fine. He'll have to rest here another 24 hours." He looks over his shoulder. "Nurse Joy, when he wakes up, he may have some trouble keeping food down. Keep giving him water until he can handle a pellet or two of pokechow, then give him a couple potions before any further food. He'll need a couple more potions in the morning..." Dee turns back to the boy. "Say, why don't *you* feed him the potions tomorrow, hmm? Help him be sure you care about him." "I...sure! I'll be here. How'd you know it's, err, he's a he?" "You need to pay a bit more attention to your pokegear, kid. It can tell you these things. It can also tell you how strong your pokemon is compared to any other pokemon it encounters - roughly, anyway. You might also want to try listening to your pokemon." "Listening? I don't understand. All he says is 'wartortle, wartortle'." Dee's smile widens. "That's the langauge of wartortles. Just because you can't puzzle out the words doesn't mean he isn't trying to tell you something. The best pokemon trainers are trained by their pokemon as much as they train their pokemon. Next time you're thinking about a stunt like that, why don't you explain it to your wartorle and ask his opinion? I bet you can at least figure out if he's saying 'yes' or 'no', and that's a start." The trainer considers Dee's words for a bit, then nods. "I'll do that. Thanks!" He yawns suddenly. Nurse Joy steps up. "You've been up all night, haven't you? Come on, mister, you need some rest too!" She leads the boy off towards the sleeping area. Marcia, having watched this from the front desk, shakes her head. "You, giving advice to a pokemon trainer? I never thought I'd see the day." Dee shrugs, and walks over to Marcia. "Trainers who work with and for their pokemon, instead of just using their pokemon as tools for the trainer's own glory, we never did mind. I just tried to set him on that path, that's all." "I remember when you would have killed him on the spot." "Times change, and so do we. I remember when you would have put that wartortle out of his misery." "But thanks to you, he's got another chance at life." "Thank Omelette. Nurse Joy's methods might have eventually worked, though he'd have been crippled for life. But without your blissey's help, he would have been dead before I got back." "About that..." Marcia reaches over and fingers the hole in Dee's jacket again. "You were shot. Are you really going to let that go?" "It's a matter of practicality, not principle. There's a chance that whoever did this is still around. There's also a chance - a better chance, actually - that he's long since gone and I could waste days trying to find him without results. And even if I do find him, then what? Can't send him to jail: I have no evidence but my own memory that he's the shooter. Kill him? That takes care of that wacko, but there's still I don't know how many out there, wanting my hide for any of a number of reasons. In the mean time, you'd still have patients to deal with." Dee shrugs, and sighs. "You know my feelings for you, Marcia, and they haven't changed even though we have. Granted, I'm not into romance through mad science that much any more, and I promise to *try* not to obssess this time..." He winks. "So, you're saying that if I were to leave, you'd give up your duties here and follow me? You're not just doing this because it's a good thing to do?" Marcia smiles. "Err...well..." Marcia winks, and pulls down the front of Dee's hat. "Just kidding." TBC?