Chapter Text
Nurse Joy was giving him a disapproving look.
“With all your knowledge about pokemon, Professor,” Nurse Joy started, still shaking a little from the sudden electrocution. “You should know better than to suddenly touch an injured pokemon that is clearly in distress.”
Her Chansey, still shaking as well, mimicked her disapproval.
Samuel rubbed the back of his head, wincing as he did so, his body, especially his hands still ached from Ash’s thunderbolt. “I apologize, I just didn’t want him to hurt himself.”
The nurse sighed, “I understand but please leave those things to me and Chansey, we have experience with dealing with battered pokemon.”
Said battered pokemon was slumped on the bed he was laid on due to the collar shocking him after he used thunderbolt. It seemed that the collar was designed to continually shock him to sap his energy but would amp up the voltage when he used a move.
He had to remind himself to take a few deep breaths after coming to that conclusion. Patience and a cool head were requirements for his job but the anger he always kept so well contained surfaced with a fury at the sight of Ash’s condition.
Samuel knew that poachers would still be present in the future, Celebi had informed him after taking him back home that she had traveled 40 years into the future with him on that fateful day to prevent him from accidentally causing any paradoxes or rips in time as she would be responsible for any damage to time that would be caused by him since it was her rash decision to time travel to escape which put him in a position to damage time in the first place.
Only 29 years had passed since he found Celebi in the forest. If circumstances were different, he would simply leave Ash alone and act as though he had never seen the mythical pokemon. This would be in order to prevent any potential reprucussions on when he would meet his 10 year old self, 11 years from now, since Ash didn’t recognize the name “Sam”.
However, as it stood now, Ash was found by his Charizard lying in a forest, unconscious, severely bruised, heavily poisoned and with a shock collar on him. Samuel struggled to believe Celebi or whatever pokemon was responsible for time would fault him for his decision to bring Ash into his lab for immediate medical treatment.
“Before me and Chansey can treat their injuries, we first need to get this collar off,” Nurse Joy said after evaluating the Mew’s condition. “The collar is draining them of all their strength so we can’t start treatment until this is off.”
Oak nodded and pulled out a pokeball to release his Sandshrew. Charizard was far too large in comparison to Ash that if he attempted to destroy the collar with dragon claw, he could potentially harm him even more. Sandshrew was smaller and was more experienced with slashing and hacking so she could destroy the collar and minimize the damage done to Ash.
After gently moving his body upright to make the cut clean, he gave the order. “Sandshrew, use slash on the collar!”
The first slash dented the collar but failed to break it and he had to fight a wince as the collar electrocuted Ash again. It appeared that any attack would cause the collar to attack. A part of him wanted to try something else to lessen Ash's pain but with the collar under a kind of lock requiring a special key, Samuel called for another slash and it would take two more before the collar caved to the attacks and broke. Unfortunately, the collar failed to come off despite being deactivated so Sandshrew had to slash again at the other side to make it break off completely though at least it didn't electrocute Ash anymore as Sandshrew did this.
Nurse Joy and her Chansey instantly got to work the second the collar fell off. Chansey gently pulled off the remnants that still stuck to his neck as Nurse Joy inspected his condition, her face blanched.
Her orders came without hesitation, “Professor, I need you to collect at least 5 full restores or 10 antidotes and to direct me to where your medical equipment is. Chansey, use heal bell and gather some water over there so we can work to remove the poison in their eyes, while I gather everything else we need.”
Chansey nodded and immediately got to work while Oak ordered Charizard to get the full restores and antidotes while Sandshrew should collect some oran and pecha berries so he could go and direct the nurse to where his medical equipment was.
His lab didn’t have as much equipment as an actual pokemon center but since part of his responsibilities as a scientist is caring for all the pokemon in his lab, he is medically trained and has medical equipment similar to what can be found in a pokemon center inside his lab.
Samuel gulped when he saw what equipment she took as what she was picking up was meant for pokemon in critical condition. A part of him wondered if he should have Ash transferred to the pokemon center but if he was in critical condition, there was no way they could go out at this time to Viridian city with an entire route teeming with wild pokemon standing in the way.
By the time they got all the equipment ready, Charizard had returned with full restores and antidotes though Sandshrew seemed to be taking a while with the berries.
Nurse Joy took the towel and glass of water that Chansey had prepared and crouched down next to Ash with Chansey not far behind her with two buckets: one filled with water and an empty one she laid at the foot of Ash’s bed. Carefully, she moved Ash to the edge of his bed and tried to coax his eyes open so she could start washing the poison out.
Her attempts nearly got her thrown to the wall with psychic but as the blue aura surrounded Nurse Joy, Chansey used heal pulse which caused the Mew’s attack to falter and Chansey gently laid a hand on one of his paws causing him to relax and let go of Nurse Joy.
Samuel moved to check on her to see if she needed anything after the attempted attack but she brushed him off and went straight back to work in trying to coax Ash’s eyes open and with the help of Chansey, she succeeded.
Ash’s eyes were only half open but Oak could see how red they were, likely due to how long the poison was in his eyes. Chansey soothed him as Nurse Joy gently pushed his right eyelid up to rinse out the poison. The pokemon seemed too exhausted to put up a fight though he did squirm a bit as the water hit his eye.
Deciding to make himself useful since it was clear he wasn’t going to be contributing much to the nurse’s work, he silently signaled to his Charizard that he was going to go out to check on the other pokemon in the lab and that he should stay behind with Nurse Joy. With his other pokemon he likely would’ve had to actually verbalize his wishes but his Charizard has been with him for 29 years, they knew each other well enough for Charizard to catch his drift.
Right before leaving, he caught one last look at Ash who was still very purple from poison and his other injuries but at the very least seemed much more relaxed than he was whilst the collar was on.
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Several hours had passed and Nurse Joy could feel her body readying to shut down as her energy began to run out.
She had never treated a condition this severe, she had been a nurse for a little under 10 years so she had truly believed that she was knowledgeable in how to treat every pokemon in the world but Mew had humbled her from that belief with a fury.
When Professor Oak’s Charizard had arrived right after she treated the Oddish he brought with this small pink pokemon in his arms, she was horrified at their injuries but also couldn’t help but be curious over what species this was. Part of the training to become a pokemon nurse is to become familiar with all known species of pokemon yet she had never seen such a pokemon in her life.
Frankly, despite her having known the professor for over a year and having faith in his good character, she was concerned he would try to study them and learn more about their species while she healed them. Afterall, what scientist could possibly ignore a never before seen pokemon that just appeared in their lab?
She mentally prepared a lecture on how he needs to stand aside and wait before he can do anything to this pokemon when Professor Oak had quietly asked her to do everything in her power to help Mew.
Her curiosity had gotten the best of her in that moment and she questioned him on how he seemed to know this pokemon and how he came up with the name.
The Professor didn’t give her any answers that sated her curiosity, all he said was that he had seen this pokemon in myths from his research, an explanation that was especially lacking when he refused to actually state the stories he had seen of this pokemon, all he said was that this pokemon was one of a kind and powerful.
Despite his lacking explanation, the information he gave her was clearly honest as the injuries and poison that Mew endured would’ve killed an ordinary pokemon.
Nurse Joy wasn’t unfamiliar with the sad reality that not all pokemon under her care would survive their ailments, when Charizard brought the pokemon in a part of her had braced herself for the fact she may not be able to save this mysterious pokemon but when that thunderbolt electrocuted everyone in the room, she was astonished at how powerful it was in spite of the user’s condition.
A part of her considered adrenaline to be the cause of the powerful attack, but with how weak and exhausted they were ever since arriving in the lab, it was more likely the pokemon’s actual strength rather than an adrenaline enhanced attack.
Chansey had put the pokemon to sleep with sing after the poison was completely removed from their eyes, officially because they would need to regain energy after what unfortunately seemed to be hours or even days of electrocution since the stage of toxic poison suggested days of it, but also because despite not trying anything, their expression clearly showed that they weren’t pleased with the presence of Nurse Joy and may attack if provoked.
Given that there was no way this pokemon could be treated for poison without some pain, sedating them was the best call since Chansey barely saved her earlier from being thrown like a sack of potatoes with psychic. She didn’t want to imagine how they’d lash out from the stinging sensation brought by full restores.
Speaking of full restores, the medicine had done wonders for the bruises that littered Mew’s body though didn’t quite heal the indent on their neck from the collar, along with the marks of electrocution and most importantly, the poison.
They were still very purple though less purple than when they first arrived, toxic poison still flowed through their body though she did manage to prevent it from worsening further. A regimen of antidotes along with a diet of pecha and sitrus berries should be able to heal the poison so long as they strictly adhere to it.
She pointedly ignored the fact that this level of poison is enough to kill a Dragonite in a mere hour. Mew was strong enough to handle all the poison in their body. They lasted this long without any medical help and it was her job to ensure their fight for their life ends in victory.
The Professor’s Sandshrew had returned carrying a small bag filled with pecha berries and she gave the mouse pokemon a grateful pet for her efforts before taking the bag from her and setting them on a bowl for Mew to eat once they woke up.
Fortunately, they woke up not long after she set the bowl in front of them and she gave them a patient smile when they stared at her with a distrustful expression right after getting a look at the berries.
“These pecha berries should help your recovery,” she gently slid the bowl closer to her patient. “They were collected by Sandshrew for you to feel better. You don’t have to eat all the berries in the bowl, just have a little if you don’t have an appetite.”
Several seconds passed and they continued to stare at her with a softer but still distrustful look. She could’ve called Chansey to coax them, but she was determined to get the pokemon comfortable with her as it would do them no good if the whole time they refused to be treated by her without Chansey since Chansey couldn’t be with her 24/7, so she patiently stood by as they appeared to contemplate whether or not to eat.
A soft grumble noise made Mew’s expression shift from distrust to a much more abashed look, it would appear as though the pokemon hadn’t eaten in a while and hunger caught up to them, so hesitantly, they reached out for a berry in the bowl and she saw their eyes along with the pecha berry in their hand glow blue.
She recognized what Mew was doing as something she’d seen some wild psychic types do. They were checking the food with psychic to make sure it was safe to eat.
She mentally sighed in relief when their psychic dropped and they plopped the berry in their mouth. She was about to say more words to encourage him to eat more when her words left her mouth.
“Thank you.”