Fanfiction Weekly Prompt 07/31/'17 - Helter Skelter

AN: The following is a genuflection on what might happen in the day of Nurse Joy as she runs a small Pokémon Center in front of the Elite Four at Sinnoh. Thanks @WavePearl for the prompt idea. I'm open to reviewers if anyone is interested

Helter Skelter​

“Helter skelter, hurry scurry.” They were lines in a poem she had heard once. That was the mode of her life it seemed. Day in, day out; rushing hither and thither; helter skelter, hurry scurry.

“Good afternoon! Welcome to the Pokémon Center! How may I help you?”

Another careless trainer rushed in to have his Pokémon healed before the battle with the Sinnoh Elite Four. She took his pokéballs and forced a smile, though she was glazed in sweat. “Just one moment!” she said as she set the pokéballs into the healing chamber.

She looked at the diagnostics: just superficial injuries. The Pokémon would be okay after a quick refreshment in the chamber. She activated the device, and the Pokémon were healed in an instant. She took the pokéballs from the machine, inspected them shortly, handed them back to the trainer. “Have a nice day!” she bid him farewell before he rushed out.

She sighed, fiddling with her pink hair, drawn up in a bun with two hanging loops. She’d been running around all day, that it’d gone and frizzled up. She leaned against the counter listlessly, gazing out the window to the waterfall and the set of caves beyond it. The Elite Four had been constructed in such a beautiful spot; she only wished it could help her feel more inspired.

“Nurse Joy, your assistance is needed in in operating room four. Repeat, Nurse Joy, your assistance…”

She didn’t need to hear it twice; with ardor and purpose, she rushed back through the door and ran down a pristine white hallways. “Out of my way!” she yelled as she slipped by other assistants. Room four—the situation must have been dire.

She threw open the door and looked down. An Empoleon lay on the table, sedated now but leaking blood. She could see a trash can filled with used bandages. “What seems to be the matter?” she asked as she pulled on gloves.

“The left wing is broken, ma’am,” said the first assistant in white garments, a male. “Before we can sew and cast the limb, it needs to be set, and it needs to be done quickly.”

“Right. I understand,” said Nurse Joy with a firm, alert voice. She grabbed a few tools and wiped her brow. If she didn’t act fast, it might die from blood loss. She could see white bone poking out.

“That Elite Four is no joke, eh?”

“You’re not kidding. That was just after Aaron.”

“No way! But he’s only the first one.”

“They go all out in combat. I hear Aaron’s Drapion is a force to be reckoned with.”

As Joy realigned the bone, she overheard all this and sighed. Was this the job she had trained so hard for? She tried to ignore the blood on her hands as she put the poor Empoleon back together…

^/\^|v\/v​

She leaned back in her chair a few hours later. The operation had been done; very narrowly, they’d saved the Pokémon’s life. Within the next week, it would recover; Pokémon were naturally fast healers. And then… And then…

She grit her teeth, trying and failing to suppress her anger. And then, like so many others, it would be put back onto the field of combat, undoubtedly to be subject to even more injury.

When she was young, she remembered volunteering at the local Pokémon Center. She knew from then exactly what she wanted to do when she grew up: to help Pokémon heal up, and to save the bonds between Pokémon and trainers.

How naïve she had been. Pokémon will never stop getting injured, and trainers will never stop forcing their Pokémon into battle. She remembered the news about Team Galactic trying to use Dialga and Palkia to change the world; if only she had had such an opportunity…

“Excuse me, miss?”

Her head snapped up, and for a moment a glare crossed her face. But a new emotion crossed her face when she saw the person. He was a young trainer, wild blonde hair and a green scarf. “Please, I need your help,” he said.

But carried with him were not pokéballs, but a fainted Pokémon in his arms, a Floatzal. “I—of course,” Nurse Joy stuttered as she helped to wrap up some of the wounds on the Floatzal. It was badly bruised and bleeding, but nothing seemed broken. It would be fine after a few bandages.

The young man sat there, attentive the entire time. Nurse Joy did not miss his attentiveness. He seemed worried, incredibly so. Something about that comforted her. “He’ll be fine now,” she assured him. Feeling the need to stir up conversation, she looked back up at the boy while she wrapped the Floatzal. “How long has this Floatzal been with you?”

“Oh, you misunderstand,” the boy said. “This isn’t my Floatzal. It’s a wild one.”

Stunned shortly, she looked up in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

“I was training my Pokémon,” the boy explained, “and during the battle with this Floatzal, my Jolteon knocked it pretty hard into a wall. I couldn’t just leave it there; since this was the nearest Pokémon Center, I knew I had to rush here.”

She could hardly believe what she heard. “That’s… such a kind thing to do.”

“Huh?” he mumbled, raising his brow. “What do you mean, lady? Of course I had to help the little guy.”

“You had to?”

“Well… yeah,” he muttered, scratching his head. “No one’s that heartless. You alright in the head, lady?”

Nurse Joy couldn’t help but eke out a short giggle. “Pardon me. I was just thinking out loud,” she excused. The Floatzal’s eyes opened with a sleepy start. “He should be alright. Come on; help me take him out to the waterfall.”

With a bit of uncomfortable scuffling, the shuffled with the Floatzal in their arms, carrying him out the door until the creature was awake enough to walk on its own. It nearly bound out of their arms and waved to them, its eyes curved almost in a smile. Then, without another word, it bounded off the cliff with a graceful dive into the pool of water below, life teeming from its movements.

“Well, thanks again,” said the boy with fervor all about him that seemed infectious to Joy. “Now, I’m off to challenge the Elite Four.”

Joy frowned a bit and looked at the boy as he went to climb the steps. “But… aren’t you afraid your Pokémon will get hurt?” she asked.

The boy stopped at the base of the steps, one foot halfway on the first step already. His back was toward Nurse Joy, and though she couldn’t see it, he was deep in thought.

“Yeah. I’m afraid they’ll get hurt,” he finally answered, turning around. “But, I mean, then they’ll never get to show off their potential. I’ve spent so much time raising them, loving them; I just want them to have their time in the spotlight. That’s why we fight, you know? We want other people to know just how great our friends are.”

And then he took off without another word. She wasn’t sure what it was about that boy that had captivated her so—his demeanor, his innocent reasoning, his pure heart—but something about him had changed her in that instant. The world that she stood for, a world where humans and Pokémon uplifted each other, she had seen that world in the eyes of that boy.

She would return to her desk for the remainder of that day. She would see many more Pokémon go in and out of her care. And they would get hurt again and again. But for once, she realized that it was more than just mindless battle and bragging rights. This was the Pokémon’s chance to show their pride and defend their honor, and to show the power of the bond between trainer and Pokémon, a bond that could only be forged by pain, diligence, and determination.

And so, she returned to the lobby desk, tasked now with the same diligence and determination she had seen in the eyes of that young boy. Another trainer hurried in through automatic sliding doors. But this time, she looked upon him not with disdain, but with compassion and a newfound alacrity.

“Good afternoon!” she greeted him. “Welcome to the Pokémon Center. How may I help you?”