[Pokémon] Carry On, Blissey

Butch's Shuckle
​

It was another long day at work. The hospital seemed to be a lot colder than usual. I'm not sure if it was just me, but my hands were freezing in the morning. The first thing I noticed when I entered the staff room was Domino's face overloaded with make-up. Nurse Joys are permitted to wear makeup, but they look so much better without hideous blue eye-shadow and scarlet lips.

After discovering the truth about Domino, I could no longer call her Nurse Joy. She's a member of Team Rocket in disguise. She found it much easier to keep everything to herself, she said it was simpler that way. I'm still not sure if I could trust her enough to be my trainer. I've spent many years without a trainer, and I'm confident enough to spend a few more without a trainer.

As soon as my shift started, I left the staff room and made my way through the corridor that lead to the A&E ward. It was time for me to make my rounds. Checking each ward to see if the patients were happy. I personally find the rounds a little bit boring. I don't like going into the human wards either: they're full of drunk people.

Just as I was about to enter the A&E ward, Domino approached me. "I want you to help me out with this patient."

"Okay, what's the problem?"

"Shuckle's trainer works for Team Rocket," Domino told me. She faintly smiled then turned to face her watch. "I must ask you not to be judgmental."

I found it strange that it was coming from the most judgmental woman I had ever met. I already knew that I shouldn't hold any judgement against patients and visitors. It doesn't matter if they were a murderer or a teacher. Patients were patients and we had to treat them. Does she remember what we treated Giovanni's Persian yesterday?

"So what's ?"

"Shuckle has been shot in the shell."

"Take me to him." It could have been serious. Shuckles, like any pure rock pokémon they have great defences, but their health points. If the shell has permanent damage then Shuckle should no longer be allowed to battle. I need to have a look at him.

"I think he might need an operation," Domino told me while she lead me to Shuckle's room. "The healing machine keeps saying he's got the hacked syndrome. I checked the hozuchecker and it was all green."

"Did he have any signs and symptoms that might have triggered a misdiagnosis?" I asked. When a shuckle has the hacked syndrome, we'd be looking for signs such as a soft shells and wonky legs. "Can he walk? Is his shell soft? Does it feel gooey when you touch it?"

"He seemed to be just like any other shuckle apart from the fact that there's a crack in his shell."

"So he can walk fine and his shell is still hard?"

Domino faintly nodded. That wasn't particularly helpful, but she's not a real nurse so it's understandable. When I entered the room I instantly recognized him as a member of team rocket. He wasn't even wearing their uniform. He was wearing some lose jeans and a white buttoned up shirt. "Good morning," I said to him. "Are you Shuckle's trainer?"

"That's me," the man replied. How could I forget that husky voice and short temper. He always snapped at other people because they kept on getting his name wrong. Maybe there's something iffy about the trainer's information. I know many patients have been misdiagnosed with the hacked syndrome because the trainer ID is invalid, blacklisted or inconsistent with the data chipped in a pokémon.

"Can I have a look at your trainer card?" I asked.

"Sure," the man said. He pulled a reluctant grin on his face as he dug into his pocket. "I know for a fact that my shuckle is healthy."

"Thank you," I responded as soon as he gave me his card. From a quick glance there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the trainer card, apart from the name. I know when the machine scans swear words from the microchip that it can cause the healing machine to mess up. I returned the back to him. "There appears to be a problem with your trainer card Sir, " I told the man.

The man chuckled. "There is a typo on the trainer card, the I is meant to be a U."

"When pokémon are taken to the healing machine they also scan their microchips," I explained to Butch.

"Shuckle's never been chipped!" Butch roared.

"Nothing to worry about," Domino told him. "Uhm... carry on, Matron."

"When pokémon are caught, the ball gives them an automatic chip. With those microchips we can view most of the pokémon's data. With these chips, trainers can see the pokémon's gender, nature, stats, ability and health."

"Amazing what technology can do huh?" Butch said. "I didn't know half this stuff." He chuckled and patted Shuckle on the head. "I think you're going to be just fine."

"Okay Butch. Which region did you come from?"

"Kanto."

"After your Shuckle's healed, I suggest that you need to go back to Kanto and issue a new trainer card. And I do apologize for any distress caused from my colleague's misdiagnosis."

"What about Shuckle?"

"There were no signs of hemorrhages and any subsequent injury has been cured in the machine. We will have to operate on him to remove the bullet. It's a very safe operation, but we will have to remove part of the shell. But we cannot do this without your written permission. Joy will pass you a consent forum and once it's been signed, we'll book him to theatre for three o'clock."

Butch frowned. "How long will it take for Shuckle to recover?"

"If the operation is successful then it will take between five weeks."

"And if it's not?

"It depends of what your idea of successful operation is," Domino interrupted.

"I mean what if he doesn't make it?

"Operations like this has an outstanding survival rate," I assured Butch. "Rock types can quickly recover from these sorts of operations. Now Mr..."

"THE NAME IS BUTCH! IT CLEARLY SAYS IT ON THE TRAINER CARD!"

"I'll go get a consent form." Domino tip-toed out of the room. Shuckle looked just as confused as me.

After a brief moment of silence Butch asked me, "So what you saying?"

"I was saying that the operation would be beneficial to prevent the risk of infection. And after the operation I would say that Shuckle should refrain from competitive activity such as contests and battles until he gets the all clear."

"It's for your own good Shuckle," Butch said as he saw his pokémon sulk. "I don't like it either."

"Well have a little chat with Shuckle and Joy will be with you shortly," I said. Shuckle and Butch waited for Domino and the consent form as I left the room to continue my rounds.

A Sad Eevee

Chapter Text

The next patient I had to deal with was a distraught eevee named Everest. His trainer had left the hospital to pick up an egg from a day care centre. The trainer didn't say which one, but I'm guessing it's in Solaceon Town. That's the nearest one to Hearthome City. Hopefully she'll be back soon. Whilst Everest was healed of the physical cuts from the machine, Domino decided that Everest needed to stay for 24 hours. I think it was a good idea, Everest's trainer seemed to be one of those trainers who throw themselves into a battle as soon as their team is healed.

Everest mentioned before that he would have regular aches in the head and stomach that would stop him from resting. His trainer said that he was very overprotective and often get mood-swings. She also mentioned something about diarrhoea and fear that he would be released back into the wild.

Some patients tell me all sorts of things that happen while their trainer is away, whilst others remain quiet. A pokémon has no reason to lie, so I assume they're always telling the truth. Everest was one of the quiet ones, crawling into his bed to cry his eyes out.

I took one corner of the quilt and flipped it over. Everest began to run under the pillow. I looked at him under the pillow. I couldn't see his face because he was trying to wipe his tears with his tail.

"What's wrong Everest?" I asked.

"Why does everybody want me to change?" Everest sobbed. "They say I won't ever be able to impress Dahlia if I don't evolve."

Everest sounded so sweet and well spoken. I know how he feels, many eevees are stuck on what they want to evolve into, and there are some occasions where trainers evolved their eevee into something they didn't want to evolve into and that can cause some serious friction between that pokémon and the trainer. One mayor in Kanto was dismissed for abandoning a bulbasaur for not evolving.

"Who's Dahlia?"

"She was my childhood sweetheart when she was a skitty. When she evolved into a delcatty, Ruth took her to a day care centre for breeding. Dahlia's got lots of children now."

"Is Ruth your trainer?"

Everest nodded. "Dahlia is very strong and I'm very weak. Ruth tried to train me, but I wasn't good enough. I kept on fainting all the time. Ruth's left me now hasn't she?"

"Ruth said she was collecting an egg," I said. "She should be back shortly." I personally had no idea when Ruth would be back, but I had to try and give Everest some positive things. He started to remove his tail away from his eyes and stopped crying.

"I think Dahlia is happy with those partners..."

I just wanted to hug Everest so hard. The media is terrible at promoting favouritism and violence. I remember when I was working in Kanto there was lots of advertisements for Action Replay pills and even articles on how to make your own drugs. I swear the media drives people to illness sometimes.

Pokémon need rest after a battle. They need time to recover and some people go to pokémon centres to make it quick and easy. But that healing machine can only heal physical pain. It won't do a thing to depression or any other emotional trauma.

"When was the last time you've seen Dahlia then?"

"Not since she went to the centre," Everest replied. "I think that was about a month ago." A lady walked into the room. If was Everest's trainer, Ruth. She came back with a delcatty and a lot of eggs in her hand. Everest's eyes lit up as soon as he saw the delcatty. As the delcatty jumped on the bed, Everest hopped over to hug her. "DAHLIA!"

"So how has Everest gotten on?" Ruth asked.

"I am diagnosing him with PTSD," I told Ruth. "He has the common symptoms."

Ruth was gob-smacked. She almost dropped her eggs as her legs collided on the floor. "PTSD?"

"Post-traumatic Stress Disorder," I explained.

"So what will happen?" Ruth asked.

"We'll need to monitor Everest quite closely. We'll need to get rid of anything that might provoke Everest's trauma. We may have to prescribe antidepressants."

"This sounds serious," Ruth admitted. "So did you find out what kind of thing provoked it's trauma?"

"I've had a chat to Everest," I replied. "It seems Everest dose not enjoy battles very much. It might have made him reminded him of something devastating from the past. It also seems that seeing it's evolved forms causes Everest to go into a depression."

"Oh no," Ruth said. She slapped herself on the cheek. "I've been pressuring him to evolve into an espeon. I've always wanted one... Oh Everest I'm so sorry, I didn't know I was giving you pain."

Everest wasn't paying attention. He and Dahlia snuggled on top of the bed. The two of them were communicating well with each other. Ruth didn't understand what Everest and Dahlia were saying, but I could. She asked for my translations and when she found out what they where saying, she didn't feel so guilty.

"I don't want to evolve," Everest whispered into Dahlia's ear.

"Well I love you just the way you are," Dahlia responded as she licked Everest's ear.

I left the room with a smile on my face. I felt good about myself. I managed to make my patient happy.