Chương 67: C067 - Poison Incident in Slateport City
It was an hour after sunset when Pete and Valentino reached Slateport City. The berry farms at route 123 were a huge letdown, so they stayed there less than an hour. He was contractually obligated not to share 'his' grafting technique, so Pete also got no potential secrets from them.
The owners of the berry farms didn't do anything new, they didn't have any rare berries and Pete couldn't figure out any crazy system they had in place for spacing, monocultures, where all berries were only next to the same berry tree or polycultures, their complete opposite. The pokemon present tending to the trees were also very much random and mostly grass pokemon, so Pete left disappointed.
The reason they were still so late was a little encounter with Sharpedos on the road. Duosion using the super effective grass move Energy Ball she had learned in recent weeks and the Azumarill slapping them around with the super effective fairy move Play Rough was enough to send them packing, but it still cost quite some time and took quite a toll out of everyone. Though Pete wondered how these two learned Play Rough without him knowing. Marital problems?
"You look stupid with the herb in your mouth, by the way. It completes your image as a backwater farmer, but it still looks dumb," Valentino quipped as the two of them walked toward the poke center near the city plaza holding the giant open air market.
Pete still had a Mental Herb in his mouth as a training practice for his grass affinity. Two of the leaves had already formed something resembling a stalk that might function as a root with enough grass type energy. He'd see what wonders the Vileplume tribe could do back at the farm.
The two of them were travel-weary and a little sad because tomorrow Valentino would continue on ahead to meet up with Professor Birch while Pete would stay behind in Slateport City and make his way back to Johto in two to four days depending on when or if he would meet a certain someone.
"Well, I can look as dumb as I want. Nobody here knows me," Pete argued back with a shrug.
"Don't sell yourself short. A year from now, your pictures will be in every school book, and then these Slateport citizens will think, 'Hey, wasn't that the weird guy with the leaf in his mouth?' I'll make fun of you then."
"Heh, I'll only allow pictures of me with you by my side in the news, so everyone will remember you as the weirdo who hung out with the other weirdo," Pete quipped back with both hands behind his head in a carefree manner.
"You met her for such a short time. How has Leona corrupted you this much? Were you always such an evil genius?" Valentino asked with a pale expression.
"Wasn't such a hard transition from genius to evil genius," Pete countered with a grin, which earned him a hard shove from Valentino as they both burst out laughing.
A little later, they finally met a Nurse Joy who was not amused by their late arrival when they entered the poke center. She was informed about them coming and even about Pete's Duosion's capabilities by the Nurse Joy of Mossdeep City, but they arrived too late at night, and her day had been very busy.
Apparently, the Gulpin and Trubbish populations had exploded on route 110 to the north of the city, and many hikers, trainers, and most of their pokemon were poisoned to various degrees.
Pete immediately ordered Duosion to go to the healing ward to use Heal Pulse wherever needed and offered all but two Pecha Berries from his berry module for the healing efforts. He followed the tired Nurse Joy to the staff room, and they discussed all they knew about the poison status since Pete showed himself generous and somewhat knowledgeable. Valentino, on the other hand, went off to flirt with the other nurses and help out where he could.
A few more pokemon slipped into critical status during their discussion, and Pete, who followed behind the nurse, released the male Milotic, both his Azumarill and the Marill. Duosion was already using Heal Pulse in the ward with the critical cases.
"Hey, guys. Could you try using Life Dew on these pokemon? This nice Chansey over there will point the most critical pokemon out to you if you ask," Pete inquired with a strained smile as Nurse Joy hurried to the rest of her staff.
Usually, he wouldn't want to reveal his pokemon knowing such a move, but he was not callous enough to let these pokemon die while he could help it. And, at this hour, it was only Nurse Joy and her staff in the poke center.
All the trainers that could afford it had already bought the Antidotes, Lum and Pecha berries available in the market and delivered them earlier so it was quiet in the center if you discounted the pained wimpers of pokemon.
As Pete watched Nurse Joy distribute the few Pecha Berries he could contribute, he thought about what else could help out easing the poisoned status.
Neither of his pokemon knew Heal Bell, the quasi-exclusive normal move of the Audino line. A few of his pokemon he had with him like Espeon, who was able to learn it in the games, and likely Duosion and the Azumarills could learn the status healing move in this world. But they had no tutor, no TM, and Pete did not know enough about the move to teach it to them with words.
Did they create the bell with normal typing energy? Was it a special man-made item? Is the bell a creation of a pokemon with access to steel type energy? Was a bell necessary, or could simple sound work like the sound moves Vibrava knew thanks to her wings?
While most, if not all of his pokemon, knew the psychic move Rest, it only helped cure the poison status of the user. Same with the normal move Refresh, though none of his pokemon knew that one.
He didn't bring a single grass pokemon, not that any of them knew the grass move Aromatherapy. There was the psychic move Psycho Shift, but Duosion, Espeon, Beldum, and his other non-psychic pokemon didn't know it. He didn't know the principles behind shifting the poisoned status to another pokemon either. So same as with Heal Bell, he couldn't talk to his pokemon so that they could learn the move.
Did the ice move Haze cure poison? To Pete's knowledge, it only did that in Gen 1 of the games, so it was unlikely, not that he had any ice pokemon to begin with.
That left only one option he hadn't considered. The fairy move Misty Terrain. It was a move that, same as Safeguard, prevents getting poisoned and didn't cure it. But maybe it has positive effects on the pokemon anyway.
"Hey you two, please come over," Pete asked as he looked at the two Azumarills with a smile.
Pete sat down on the ground with crossed legs, so his eyes were roughly on the same height as the water rabbit pokemon. He patted their heads and scratched their rounded, blue bunny ears.
"You two have hung out on the farm a lot, right? Those big walking flowers, the Vileplumes who hang out around the farm. They use this grass move called Grassy Terrain a lot around our berries. It's when everything glows with green lights. You noticed that, right?" Pete asked with a warm smile as the two pokemon relaxed because of his gentle touches.
Both pokemon nodded and tilted their heads a little. Because of a lack of neck, they tilted their full bodies instead and simply leaned more into the hand Pete used to scratch their fur.
"I know the two of you are really, really smart. Do you think you two could do what the Vileplumes do but with fairy type energy? It would become a move called Misty Terrain, and it might help these poor poisoned pokemon. They'd likely still be poisoned, but it wouldn't hurt them as much... at least that's what I think could happen," Pete explained as best as he could.
The two Azurmarill began to squeak or rather speak to another, pouted at Pete when he stopped scratching them, and took a full four minutes to come up with the move. The male Azumarill's Misty Terrain was very shortranged when he first used it. The female's Misty Terrain was much larger, and she was very smug about it. With a wry smile at their antics and genius, Pete asked them to move a little and spread the effect to as many pokemon as they could.
Softly glowing pink, ethereal petals and a sweet, fresh smell began to gather in the air in the big ward of the poke center, and many pokemon that were cringing in pain relaxed a little a few moments later. Their purple discoloration that showed their poisoned status did not recede, however.
Pete began handing out and preparing Leppa Berries to help out with his pokemons' stamina as they helped the other pokemon. Milotic got the Pyroar's (lion's) share of them because he had used Life Dew so often that the humidity in the room had almost doubled. Which was quite hard in a port town.
"What are they doing?" Nurse Joy asked as she came back from the critical ward with sweat on her brows.
"Hmm? Oh, we're trying out if the fairy move Misty Terrain helps the poisoned pokemon. Its actual effect is that a pokemon in its range should be prevented from getting poisoned, but I thought the soothing power of it might help with the pain. Uh, the downside is that Rest technically shouldn't work anymore, but I didn't see any of the pokemon using it. Dragon pokemon wouldn't like it either, I imagine, but I didn't see any," Pete explained with a scratch of his head.
"These pokemon are still poisoned, but their muscles are much more relaxed. I'd say keep it up. What is that move your Milotic and the little Marill use?"
"Uhm, Life Dew," Pete answered with a whisper.
On a normal day, Nurse Joy might have shouted in surprise at a trainer who not only had a pokemon that learned Heal Pulse in a day but also had several water pokemon who could use the wondrous water healing move. But it was already an hour after midnight, and Joy felt like sleeping standing up.
"The trainers of Slateport City are lucky you arrived when you did," Nurse Joy said with a gentle smile as she patted his cheek like a mother praising her young son. Instead of freaking out, that was all she could do due to her exhausted state.
It wasn't until late at night, almost 3AM or three hours before sunrise, that an express delivery from the Berry Farms arrived with a full cache of Pecha Berries. Valentino's Lapras must be really fast if it took this long for the berries to arrive through other channels or negotiations between the farm and the city council took too long. Or were they stupidly trying to send the berries on land when the route was blocked by a poison pokemon horde?
After another hour of preparing and administering them properly, Pete could finally allow himself to go to bed. His Duosion and the Azumarill were out for the count two hours ago, but they definitely earned their rest. Same with Marill, who fell asleep at midnight and Milotic, who fell asleep with Pete.
Chương 68: C068 - A day out in Slateport City
"I'll miss your food," Valentino offered as he gave Pete his goodbye hug at the port. Pete's colleague would continue the next stretch of the travel with the two Lapras on the searoute.
"Really? I wish you good luck on your journey, remind you to stay safe and all that, and you come up with the heartwarming line 'I'll miss your food'?"
"What can I say. My honesty is one of my most endearing qualities," Valentino argued with a warm smile as he released Pete from the hug and patted him on both sides of his shoulders.
"You're not wrong. There isn't much else to like if you don't count your pokemon," Pete countered with a sagely nod.
"Ah, it hurts," Valentino cried as he clutched his heart in mock sadness.
"Acid reflux from all those muffins you devoured for brunch?"
"Hahaha! You really are clever! Who knew!?"
"Hehe, come on. Hop on Lapras already before one of us cries," Pete suggested with a grin.
"Okay, my friend! Smell ya later!" A universal farewell in the pokemon world apparently was the last thing Valentino shouted as Pete waved him off.
Pete had woken up much, much later than usual. Mostly because he went to bed two hours before he usually woke up, so he sported quite deep eye circles, same as most of the staff in the poke center today.
A vast majority of pokemon had survived the night, and Nurse Joy did share the credit gladly, making a tired Pete an unsuspecting celebrity among trainers in Slateport City. Naturally, she kept quiet about the moves his pokemon used, mostly because Nurse Joy herself was too tired to remember come morning.
At the bistro, where they ate a very late breakfast, or brunch, Pete and Valentino didn't have to pay for their food. A grateful trainer did it for them. And now that Pete ran over the market, quite a few of these grateful trainers pointed at him and gave him bright smiles.
He was currently browsing the 'egg section' of the market for any surprising pokemon, but except for Sewaddle, he didn't find anything he wanted. And Sewaddle he could catch himself OR receive from the woman he tasked to catch some a few weeks ago.
Why would he pay for an Oddish egg, for example? Or what could he do with a Minun or Plusle? He might add another electric pokemon to his roster so that Zebstrika wouldn't feel alone, but it wouldn't be a Minun or Plusle. Manectric was out even more. Pete remembered that their manes emit constant electricity, causing forest fires and constant lightning strikes according to the pokedex.
A cool Alolan Raichu, now that he could get behind. Or a Rotom - super useful if Golurk could control the eletric/ghost pokemon's mischievous tendencies. Some Mareep lived on the other side of the lake. Maybe he could get a few of them to live near his farm?
'Hmm, it should be possible to find Emolga or Dedenne in Hoenn if you look hard enough. Cuteness factor overload for the electric/flying and electric/fairy pokemon, and they don't come with the 'The forest may burn down because of sparks or lightning storms' problem. For some reason, all Pikachu evolved into the electric/psychic variant Raichu in Alola only, so I can't experiment with that before I see it. Don't have any Thunder Stones to waste either,' Pete mused as he continued looking through the stands.
Eventually, he saw a man selling, among other things, two Eevee eggs.
'Huh. Jolteon is always an option if the Eevee is okay with it,' Pete considered as he took a closer look at the Eevee eggs that looked exactly like the one the Aipom had gifted him near Goldenrod City.
'They seem to be rare enough, this was the only stall with Eevee eggs. Let's get them for my future Eeveelution project, regardless of whether or not one of them wants to become a Jolteon.'
There was a one pokemon policy at the market, so Pete only had his Arcanine out currently. The rest was either inside his pokeball or recuperating at the poke center under the watchful eye of Nurse Joy.
The cunning looking man who was the owner of this stall wanted to do his regular price hiking, telling the trainer how the parents of these particular eggs were both either color variants or extremely powerful pokemon of an elite trainer, but seeing the Arcanine the man decided differently.
It didn't help much that half the trainers at the market were looking at this particular guy like the second coming of Mew. He'd eat a loss and only profit the regular amount today, he decided.
P$24.000 was the price for both eggs. Pete could only pay it without heartache because the professor wired him a giant bonus for his various discoveries so far. For providing proof about evolutions like Milotic, Ambipom, and especially Farigiraf, the league had paid Professor Elm's lab well in advance before Pete had even finished the papers.
Pete would sell Twin Beam TMs and gain a commision, decided by the league, for over a decade. It played into his hands that Steven had already offered him to have it recorded if it took too long to do it on his own, but technically Pete would have to wait until the league finished the bidding war for it. The rights to record it could go to Devon Corp, Silph Co, and any other league affiliated poke gear company.
Instead of continuing to browse through the market, Pete decided to rest a little earlier today and went to the poke center to get all his pokemon and hang out on Slateport City's beach with them. The stares of so many trainers made him a little uncomfortable to begin with.
A few hours before dinner, Duosion once more helped out in the poke center out of her own volition while Pete was allowed to use its kitchen to cook with the small mountain of fresh ingredients he bought on the way back from the beach.
Kelly Joy, that was the name of the Nurse Joy of this poke center, was half a mind to recruit him before, even if she knew it was impossible. But now she felt like writing a letter to her clan to recruit the young assistant professor into it anyway. His quick thinking with the Misty Terrain was, after all, unprecedented and half his pokemon knew some crazy moves.
If recruitment was impossible, maybe they could work out some kind of cooperation plan. The Nurse Joy clan was very thinly spread. Help was always appreciated. They could use help in critical situations like the day before. He did mention that Duosion knew Teleport and that he had a farm with Berry trees growing on it. He could act in dire emergencies, for example.
The next day, Pete was on the giant market once more. This time, he chose Mincchino as the only pokemon he was allowed to bring. The little chinchilla pokemon rode on his shoulders and excitedly watched the busy market, prompting Pete to buy snacks here and there for her to munch on.
This time around, Pete decided to browse the plants and TM section. He found a few more leaves of herbs similar to Mental Herb. Like the White Herb that, according to the description, helps a pokemon regain lost strength after a battle. Or the Power Herb, which was sort of a natural doping a pokemon could take before a battle and helps it power up certain moves faster. Pete wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.
There was, of course, the Revival Herb. The most expensive of them all by a lot, save for a single leaf sold at another stall, despite the fact that it couldn't actually revive the dead. It did, however, preserve the last embers of vitality in a pokemon that was close to dying if handled properly.
Then there was something called a Mirror Herb that was only sold in a single stall by a merchant who claimed to be from Paldea. Pete knew a lot about the various games in general, but he did not know where and when this Mirror Herb actually was introduced.
The Mirror Herb had a promising premise of allowing a pokemon to copy the state of his enemies if advantageous, but Pete thought that it might be a giant boon during training. If it can 'mirror' the buff stages of an opponent, why can it not help in 'mirroring' how a move is executed?
When he bought the leaf for P$40.000, the stall owner almost couldn't believe her eyes. The woman thought she'd sell the leaf for P$5.000 at most on the last day, but this young man in front of her bought it at full price!
"Uh, sir! Excuse me! I... I have been tasked by a friend to sell a pokemon he caught that wouldn't listen to him. He, uh... he said it would fetch a better price in a different region because of its rarity. Maybe you'd be interested? I let it out daily to feed it fruit, but it doesn't do anything else. Ugh, I'm really selling it, aren't I?"
The woman let out a nervous chuckle, but Pete was interested anyway.
"Sure, show me?"
Pete stepped behind the curtain of the stall, and the woman took out a worn down Timer Ball. And what she released came as a big surprise to Pete. Who knew that he would find a dragon pokemon here?
"How much do you want for it?"
"Well, I didn't offer it to anyone here because my friend asked for P$140.000 - you seem to have the means, which is why I asked. I'm about to head back home, and this giant Leppa Berry looking pokemon didn't interest anyone in Alola, Kanto, or Johto~ It's too passive after all."
"Huh, my budget would be spent in P$100.000, so I'm sorry to say that I do not have the means," Pete apologized. He did want the pokemon, but not for roughly half the price of his home. He could always catch one or two in Galar or Paldea in the future, after all.
"Deal! I'll spring for the rest, just let this little guy get a trainer that cares for it," the lady immediately sprung for deal. She would just pay her friend from the extra Pete had used to by the single leaf of Mirror Herb if he asked for it.
Pete used a Luxury Ball from his own bag, and the pokemon barely reacted to him as he did so. The young farmer would bond with him at a later time.
After paying the money, Pete walked over to the stalls with TMs. The merchants there were either wholesale resellers or trainers who wanted to quickly liquidate some TMs for money. Which meant most of the smaller stalls had sometimes only one TM and people behind the provided table that looked defeated in some way.
Most of the TMs at these stalls were very generic. The few outliers were fire moves like Fire Punch or electric moves like Thunderbolt.
Pete resolved himself to look at the stalls of all these trainers first and eventually found what he was looking for. It started with the aforementioned Thunderbolt that he paid P$1.400 for. Then, he bought Icy Wind, a rather mediocre ice move to cover that typing, but the selection wasn't too big. Another P$3.300 was gone thanks to that purchase.
The only fighting move he found among the trainer stalls was Brick Break, so he skipped them and looked for bug move TMs or other rare finds. It was a little wasteful because he wasn't a trainer, but he excused it by having a trainer girlfriend that could likely benefit immensely from the selection.
He found the flying move Acrobatics, the rock move Stone Edge, the ground move Mud Shot, and the steel move Gyro Ball. His personal favorite among the TMs he bought was the water move with the chane to leave a burn Scald - now the two Milotic may be able to fill the hot spring all on their own. The bug move Bug Buzz was only sold once and was by far his most expensive buy at P$14.000 for its rarity, bringing his total for TMs that day to P$37.500 - he didn't find a single fighting move he liked.
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