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.