Another somewhat sad chapter. There is a bit of humor involved though. I hope I've done well.
PMD 2: A Novelization
Chapter 44: A Miracle and Goodbyes
Chatot was just heading into town to check up on how Team Long Ears and Manaphy were doing when the two came running up in a panic.
"Team Long Ears," Chatot blinked, noticing their panic, "I was just coming to check on Manaphy. Whatever is the matter?"
"That's the thing, Chatot!" Eve said hurriedly "Manaphy has gone missing!" Alex was behind her, looking around wildly for any signs of the water-type.
The bird immediately jumped, fluttering with alarm with an outcry of "What?"
"I knew I should've warned you to keep a better eye on the child." Chatot snapped.
"We've already asked around town and no one had seen Manaphy." Eve continued, putting any guilt over their situation "on the shelf" for the moment.
"He might have gotten by them by some chance. I'll check at the guild just to be sure! You two go check the beach! I don't think Manaphy can have wandered too far." Chatot said quickly.
With that, they went in opposite directions towards their respective destinations.
o0o
The team arrived at the beach and both Alex and his partner were considerably relieved when they saw the familiar blue figure hovering before the water, which was simply ebbing in and away from the shore.
"Manaphy! You had us worried!" Eve said, breathless from their haste.
Alex noticed that there was something wrong though…
Manaphy's eyes were dim and his breathing was visibly shallow. Eve, past her worried anger, noticed a moment later as well.
"Manaphy? What's wrong?" her tone was considerably softer now.
Manaphy's eyes fluttered and then he softly collapsed onto the sand. Eve moved in and looked over the young pokemon. Both could see he was completely unharmed. Eve set a paw gently on Manaphy's head and flinched away, looking startled.
"Whoa! He's burning up!" she said, fear (tinged with her worry) now in her tones.
"Let's get him back home; I'll take him back there, Eve. You go tell Chatot we found him."
They nodded in agreement and Alex carefully lifted Manaphy off the sand and hurried with him to their team base. Eve split up from him at the crossroad, going up to the guild.
o0o
Chatot came into their cave a few minutes after Alex had gingerly set Manaphy down on the bed they had set up for him. The bird briefly observed Manaphy's condition and set a wing over the child's head, checking for himself.
"Good heavens… what a terrible fever…" he murmured in some shock.
"Like I said, he just collapsed there on the beach when we found him." Eve said. Chatot grimaced, looking very worried indeed as he removed his wing from Manaphy.
"I have little doubt this is due to growing up in an environment completely unfamiliar to the one he was supposed to grow up in…" Chatot said softly. Though his tone wasn't harsh or accusatory, Eve's ears still dropped with shame, knowing fully the fault lay with them.
"This is all my fault… I insisted on this." She murmured "I'm so sorry."
"Well," Chatot said slowly, his tone retaining its gentleness, "Feeling sorry now won't fix anything."
"What can we do then?" Alex said, feeling slightly desperate. Chatot spent several moments considering.
"There's one way I can think of to help Manaphy now. Once we do this, we must get him back to the ocean where he belongs or we'll end up repeating this situation again in the future. Do I make myself clear, you two?" Chatot said, ending tersely.
Eve nodded somewhat miserably and Alex also nodded, feeling guilty for leading Manaphy into this mess in the first place.
We shouldn't have taken that egg from the Surrounded Sea…
"Right. There is a place called the Miracle Sea to the west. There's a few islands around that sea and it's rumored there is a settlement of water sprites called Phione there." Chatot explained "They produce a special substance called 'Phione Dew'. It supposedly can heal any aliment for a water-type. Hopefully, they will be willing to share some. That is the only hope for Manaphy I can think of."
"Miracle Sea. Got it." Alex said, nodding.
"Hurry. I will stay here and watch over Manaphy. We don't have any time to lose here."
Alex and his partner immediately set out.
o0o
Lapras had seen the events on the beach and only required a brief explanation of events to understand what was needed. She knew the whereabouts of the Miracle Sea.
Several hours of riding later, the team was dropped off at a small beach. They promptly headed deeper onto the small island at a full-on sprint.
They found a cave and headed inside, it to be rather well-lit, even deeper in. Water-types popped up from the water every now and then or just came out of the water entirely and attacked.
Many were the same species they had fought back at Surrounded Sea. There weren't as many octillery this time around though and more of a new species called mantine (which were manta-ray pokemon that actually could fly through the air as well as swim). Being that mantine were flying-type as well as water-type, they were little challenge to Alex, who wasted no time in shocking them out the way.
"Don't have time for a fight…" Alex growled, marching forward with such tenacity that some would-be opponents rather decided to shy away (not that he noticed). Eve simply ran to keep up with him.
They occasionally had to dive down into water, which was tropically warm, but they (electrically) blasted through any opposition and resurfaced, continuing on without rest.
This continual charge though eventually needed to take a rest though and when they came up from the cave to sunlight and a clearing with no enemies, Eve managed to convince him to take a minute to rest.
It was indeed, only a minute of rest, and then Alex wanted to get moving again.
Eve knew his drive was coming from his desire to help Manaphy recover. She found herself wondering though if it was also guilt like her own driving him like this. She didn't really have time to consider as Alex stood and, motioning for her to follow, he resumed his march deeper into the island.
They soon came to another cave and were going down from there. They were now continually wading in water again, like at the Surrounded Sea cave.
Alex continued to fry opponents that came. Then he reacted quite aggressively to an opponent that proved rather challenging.
A lanturn (a fish-like pokemon with a glowing ball hanging before its head) received an electrical shock from Alex and jittered as the electricity hit the glowing orb hanging in front of its head.
It then returned the electricity as a discharge, hitting Eve as well.
Alex did not speak, aside from a low, annoyed growl. He slammed the fish pokemon with his tail. It looked a bit dazed at first from getting hit thus and then sprayed Alex with water.
With an enraged yell, Alex flipped through the air and slammed it over the head even harder with his tail. The fish was smashed into the ground. Knocked out with rather excessive force. Even Eve looked a little shocked at the brutality.
The frustrated pikachu then stomped onwards in his foul mood. His partner decided to keep her distance as she followed.
o0o
After travelling a few floors down (leaving a trail of KOed challengers in their wake), the team came into a spacious chamber that held a group of small pokemon who were all talking with each other and in general, enjoying themselves on the surface of a deep pool of water. It looked like this area of the cave was where they lived. None of them noticed a set of eyes under the deep water, staring at the Phione greedily.
The residents looked similar to Manaphy but were, at the same time, clearly different. They shared the small body (with a gem-like object present) and large head similar to Manaphy. However, their eyes were as blue as the rest of their body which was a distinctive "drop" shape. Perhaps most noticeable was the fact that they had only one antenna that wasn't as long as Manaphy's two.
Alex, as he guessed that these were the phione they were searching for, cheered up and his angry mood lifted. Eve still kept her distance though and allowed Alex to handle negotiating with the water sprites.
He was just approaching the phione to make their request when there was a loud roar, which drew all attention.
The phione all screamed and ran as a giant-sized gyarados exploded from the water. It would be best described as a blue sea serpent; easily as big as Dialga or any powerful legendary pokemon Team Long Ears had met.
"Now! I control all of you phione! You serve me!" The gyarados declared with a triumphant laugh.
Then he noticed the two explorers.
"What's this? Challengers to my rule?" the hapless gyarados thundered.
Quite suddenly, the air was filled with tension. And electricity.
Something in Alex… had snapped. His head was bowed and one ear fell over his eye. Eve easily sensed the fury peaking and backed away from her partner. Fortunately for everyone, Alex's sanity was quite intact.
Unfortunately for the clueless gyarados… it was his temper that had had enough.
"We come all this way… and some idiot water-type… tries bullying the ones… I'm looking to for help." Alex said teeth clenched and breathing slowly " I've had enough of bullies. I'VE HAD IT!" Alex finally roared, electricity flaring from him intensely with a loud clap of thunder. He then charged and jumped at his opponent.
The gyarados only had a moment to stare at the electrical ball of death flying at him and squeaked out one noise before he was hit: "Eep…"
The next second, there was a blinding flash of light from the collision and a roar filled with pain. The gyarados was knocked right back into the water and Alex landed on solid ground, breathing hard and trying to calm himself back down. The attack had injuried him as well but it wasn't all that serious. Needless to say: though it had survived, the gyarados didn't return. Ever.
Eve uneasily edged up to her partner.
"Um… how about I talk to the phione…" she offered timidly. The phione were slowly coming out of hiding and staring, looking a little scared of Alex now. Alex didn't really answer but Eve took the lack of a real response to mean, "go ahead" and she approached the phione.
They approached her cautiously but were mostly staring at her partner, worried about another furious attack.
"It's alright… we've just had a lot of… experience with bullies. He won't hurt you." Eve assured them.
One came closer to Eve, looking her over. It smiled, as it seemed to realize they weren't there to harm any of them. It then pulled out a small box and held it out to Eve.
"For you. We occasionally get visitors and they are generally looking for our phione dew. I think we can trust you."
"Thank you." Eve said gratefully and accepted the box. Alex meanwhile, managed to get his emotions under control and shoved his ear back up out of his face. Eve opened the box to find a small bottle filled with what was presumably phione dew. This also helped Alex contain his remaining anger enough to smile in friendly fashion to the phione.
They then headed back towards home with all haste.
o0o
They arrived the next day, though the night had involved no sleep for either of them. They were too tense with worry about Manaphy to sleep.
They immediately gave the phione dew to Chatot, who administered it to Manaphy.
Approximately one worry-filled hour later, Manaphy was up and in his usual happy mood again. Relief swept all of them. After about a half-hour of Alex and Eve cheerfully playing with Manaphy, Chatot interrupted the proceedings.
"I have contacted someone to take Manaphy back. We've agreed to meet at the beach." He said this gravely, knowing how hard this would be for all of them.
The two explorers looked crest-fallen but nodded solemnly. They had agreed to this and understood it had to be done. Manaphy, being an infant still, just looked mildly confused and curious as always.
o0o
That evening, they met the pokemon who would be taking Manaphy back to the ocean, at the beach as planned.
He introduced himself as Walrein. He was evidently a walrus pokemon and had a pair of tusks and a dense collection of whiskers about his face that looked akin to a beard. He had a dialect rather like a sailor.
"Aye… so this here is Manaphy then?" he said, looking over the child who was pleased to meet him.
Chatot nodded.
"Right... I'll teach him and make sure he grows up fine and proper out in the ocean..." Walrein assured him.
Chatot then looked at Team Long Ears and gave them a nod as well.
They approached Manaphy.
"Well Manaphy… we've got to say good-bye now…" Eve said, trying to keep herself under control.
Manaphy hadn't been told "good-bye" before and echoed the new words.
"Grow up strong alright?" Alex chipped in.
Manaphy came up to them, wanting to play again but Eve shook her head.
"No… you've got to go with Walrein. Okay?"
The child didn't understand though and continued to prompt his two friends to a game.
Chatot sighed.
"Please Walrein… the longer this drags out, the harder it will be for everyone…" Chatot said, his mood as sad as Alex and Eve's.
"Aye." Walrein nodded and approached Manaphy "Right. You're comin' with me, lad."
Manaphy backed away from the hulking walrus coming towards him, now scared as he began to understand what was happening.
"Alex? Eve?" Manaphy said, confused at his friends' somber moods. Looking for support and protection.
"C'mon. Off we go…" Walrein said gruffly, hooking Manaphy into one flipper and starting to carry him off into the water.
The child struggled and fought to go back to shore (useless against Walrein's bulk and strength), calling out for his friends but… though it pained them, Alex and Eve remained standing where they were on the coast.
Soon, the two water pokemon vanished under the waves.
"Good-bye Manaphy…" Eve said weakly, tears falling from her eyes.
"I'm sorry… but this is for the best…" Chatot said gently to both of them before leaving.
Alex gently set a paw on Eve's shoulder and walked with her back to their home, comforting her on the way.
