The next morning, Nurse Joy woke up first, as she was used to waking up early for work. By the time she had brushed her teeth, (her first-aid kit contained more than just first-aid stuff, it seemed) Katelynn was still snoring away peacefully in her own bed and Nurse Joy decided to wake her up, remembering how awkwardness could fuel her magic, she decided to create the perfect awkward situation for Katelynn.
"There isn't any SHAYMIN what I'm about to do." Nurse Joy told herself, and inside she was giddy with fiendish glee.
Nurse Joy now opened her first aid kit and...took out a small defibrillator.
Next, she turned Katelynn over. -She was a heavy sleeper, so she didn't notice a thing and merely muttered something that sounded like "piggywiggies" under her breath.
Then, with an electrical CRACKLE, Nurse Joy gave her an electric shock worthy of Ash's Pikachu when they first met.
Katelynn screamed, no she howled in utter shock, literally. Her long brown hair flew up in the air as she began to let out her own electricity. Even as Nurse Joy began to back away, Katelynn managed to shock her back with a burst of her own electrical magic. Compared to the defibrillator, Nurse Joy had experienced a much more powerful burst of electricity and was now fried, HP low.
Utterly frazzled, Katelynn now blinked after her outburst, wondering what had just happened. There weren't any enemies, so...
She now looked at Nurse Joy, who was sitting on the floor and looked and smelled like fried bacon. Her defibrillator was now on the floor as well. Katelynn wasn't sure what the device was, but knew Nurse Joy had something to do with this whole situation in general.
"Wh-what just happened?" Katelynn suddenly posed the question and Nurse Joy, whose brain was fried, merely sat there.
"You shocked me." She simply said, and Katelynn felt a pang of guilt, not knowing that Nurse Joy had shocked her first and merely thinking her own powers had shocked her as well.
"Sorry!" Katelynn squeaked. She hadn't meant to shock Nurse Joy if she'd just been trying to wake her up.
Nurse Joy smiled. Katelynn didn't notice, but it was a dark sort of smile. She had gotten away with her little prank.
"It's okay, Katelynn. Shall we get ready now?" Nurse Joy asked with a disgustingly sweet expression.
"Sounds good to me!" Katelynn exclaimed, hair still flowing with electricity.
They got ready and ate breakfast. Then, they were set to go.
They exited the front gates of the inn and got moving, continuing forward through the Greenhorne area. After walking for a while, they encountered a Goblin and Rock Moth once more.
"This should be easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!" Katelynn cheered.
"If you say so." Nurse Joy replied, knowing she hadn't really gotten the hang of her healing powers yet.
Turn 1: Katelynn had meant to attack the goblin, but in her airheaded stupor (she had been singing a oddly fitting tune, -fueling her awkwardness- to herself at the same time), instead burned the Rock Moth to a crisp with a ring of fire magic.
~YOU fell into a burning ring of fire. YOU went down, down, down and the flames went higher.~ Katelynn continued to sing. The goblin simply looked terrified.
Nurse Joy wielded her staff against the goblin, bonking it on the head. The goblin recoiled at the hit.
The goblin then attacked Nurse Joy with a light swipe of its claw-like hand. (It must have decided that Nurse Joy was the weak link after she didn't use her powers on it.) Nurse Joy luckily backed off before it could damage her seriously.
Turn 2: Katelynn decided not to use her magic this time since MP was limited. Even with MP sprinkles, they'd have to last this entire trip, until they found another hotel. Instead, Katelynn kindly took out an HP banana she received from the mayor and handed it to Nurse Joy, who was only slightly damaged, but gladly took it with a small mutter of thanks.
Nurse Joy spent her turn eating the HP banana. She was shoving the last piece in her mouth when the goblin tried to pounce at her again. Luckily Katelynn had actually been paying some attention to the goblin's antics after last time and pushed her out of the way, prepared to take the hit.
The goblin was about to strike Katelynn after she pushed Nurse Joy out of the way, when Nurse Joy did the only thing she could think of. She threw the HP banana peel in her right hand straight in front of the goblin. The goblin was suddenly faced with bigger problems as it ran towards Katelynn and...abruptly slipped on the peel.
Goblin tripped.
Turn 3: Katelynn and Nurse Joy each took this opportunity to end this Goblin's existence. As soon as it tripped, they ran up to it and began to hit it on the head with their respective weapons...until, finally, it disappeared and with that, its face was returned to its owner. They didn't take any honey from the charred butterfly and they hadn't cooked the goblin, so no extra ham either. Oh well, at least they got coins... And with that, the battle ended.
"Holy hot dog, that was amazing!" Katelynn exclaimed and Nurse Joy felt smug with pride.
Nurse Joy certainly felt stronger after this battle. Sure, she may not have learned any healing magic yet, but she had gotten stronger by just fighting the horrid beasts here in Miitopia with her wooden stick-staff. She guessed it would only be a matter of time before she found out what would trigger her magic. Just as Katelynn's was powered by extreme emotions, like anger and pure awkwardness, she knew she could likely similarly power hers. It was the logical explanation, after all.
They soon continued walking, talking and generally, with occassionly hearing Katelynn's tunes she had picked up while travelling, rocking.
Soon, they reached an empty clearing and instantly something felt wrong. A butterfly, bigger than any rock moth they had seen, appeared out of nowhere, taking on Homer's face. With a scary gleam in Homer's eyes, the butterfly began a battle with them.
Turn 1: Katelynn felt somewhat intimidated by this gargantuan bug. She had gotten sort of used to the Rock moths, but this creepy crawly had a lavender, almost see through texture to it and was...nasty to her, to say the least.
Nurse Joy attempted to change the mood, noting that Katelynn hadn't attacked yet, despite the fight having been initiated. She tried to make the situation uncomfortable to help her.
"Hey Katelynn, I bet that this butterfly's honey tastes much better than slime jelly!" Nurse Joy said with an evil smile that could rival the Grinch.
Katelynn woke up mentally at that and yelled, "YOU'D BE WRONG!" Defending her favorite food, she ran toward the monster butterfly, -a little TOO close- and shot a flame ball at it.
Upon impact, the butterfly made an icky-buggy-spazzing-out noise with its wings (that's how Katelynn would describe it) and flew over her, covering Katelynn with honey, before returning back to its postion in front of them.
"EW EW EW, it's so sweet and sticky!"
Katelynn's speed, defense and attack dropped.
Turn 2: With Katelynn preoccupied, Nurse Joy took the initiative. She quickly ran up to the butterfly and hit it with her staff. The butterfly screeched and went for Katelynn again, sensing her weakness. It flew past Katelynn again, who was immobile enough that when it flew past her, it cut her arm with its wing, creating a thin, but somewhat long gash and upon turning back, managed to cut through her witch hat as well as Katelynn ducked slightly. Luckily, she wasn't hurt that badly, but still...
Nurse Joy felt a feeling that she only felt when she saw Pokémon or anyone for that matter, physically hurt. She would never admit it, but she generally lacked empathy when it came to any other kind of hurt, simply seeing it as a weakness in herself and often in others. Physical pain though... It made her uncomfortable. Now she was the one who felt awkward. No, that wasn't it. She felt...sympathy for the poor soul (who was Katelynn).
Turn 3: Nurse Joy felt her staff begin to glow and instantly knew what to do. She turned towards Katelynn and hoped for Katelynn's speedy recovery, basically praying for it.
Instantly, the gash in Katelynn's arm, sealed up, though her sleeve didn't. The butterfly honey covering Katelynn disappeared to, fixing her lowered stats. Nurse Joy assumed that the butterfly honey she ate was different somehow when the monster it came from was defeated. Katelynn smiled at Nurse Joy and with a small "thanks", sent fire at the monster again. She was mad at herself for letting it hurt her anger was able to manifest in a flame, leading them to victory.
The butterfly exploded into a lot of purple honey, which Katelynn gladly collected for Nurse Joy after Homer's face departed the scene. They would have to return to Greenhorne later, when they had collected some more faces of the townsfolk, to see how they were doing. They collected some more gold as well.
"Thanks a bunch Nurse Joy! Seems you're really learning to use your powers!" Katelynn beamed.
"Don't mention it. I had to help you. We are friends after all." Nurse Joy smirked, returning some sentimental stuff.
"Friends? I don't think... I haven't really ever had any before." Katelynn muttered.
Nurse Joy rolled her eyes and with that same smirk, replied, a little uncomfortable at seeing Katelynn's vulnerability, "Well, get used to it! We are sharing a room, you know!"
Katelynn smiled fully once more, "Yeah! Let's get back to an inn. I need some new clothes, heh."
Nurse Joy deadpanned, back to her unsympathetic self. "Okay, you can use some of our money, but only if you get me a new staff. "
"Fair enough."
They found an inn soon enough, and although they were there a bit earlier than last time, they were exhausted enough to call it a night after eating, doing a few things and stocking up on some new items.
The next day, they woke up bright and early, making it through more of the Greenhorne area and making progress quite swiftly, despite the monsters in their way. They had to use their sprinkles for the day a little, with the guardian spirit explaining about them a bit. But the highlight of that day was a fork in the path with signs that were marked as the "easy" and "tough" paths. They took the easy path of course.
The day after that, at an inn, as they were getting ready to leave, Katelynn and Nurse Joy suddenly heard a doorbell ring. They assumed it was for their particular room at the inn.
"Ho ho! Seems you've got company!" The guardian spirit suddenly exclaimed from Katelynn's amulet.
"Who the heck is it?" Katelynn's eyes widened in surprise.
"It's a new adventurer who felt they had no more purpose in life...or well, death. You'll see! Anyway, defeating the Dark Lord would be difficult with just the two of you. You can use all the help you can get, ho ho ho! Be ready with a warm welcome."
Katelynn nodded. That was pretty true, she supposed.
Without further hesitation, she then opened the door to find...
Author's Note: Hope you guys liked this chapter! Next time we meet the third party member and... the Great Sage! :D
Fireking492 - Thanks as usual for the feedback! I'm glad you liked the last chapter's humor! I added a reference to a song in this one... And no worries about not signing in! I can tell from your guest name that it's you at least. xD