The third exam continues! What's Sango's next trial going to be? Remember to review!
Aakareo Kokokuhikari: Yeah, Sango has had a rather naïve view of the world, but now it's starting to change.
Hellraiserphoenix: Sango's always thought that hurting pokemon is bad. She's always been a bit of an idealist. Hopefully, the glimpse of reality will be good for her.
KedharS: Is one of them also a fishing addict?
Pokemonking0924: Well, she is a senior.
NovaBeast13: Thank you for thinking this story is worth advertising on.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Yes. It's a good thing that Sango's first time was with someone experienced. It makes everything much easier.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 115
Petal had propped up a folding chair and an awning on the beach for relaxation. She was checking a screen on a small device, showing a miniaturized version of the island on it.
"Hm… So the first 12 hours are already done… and they've all managed to make it through the night, huh?" Petal smiled, glancing at the flashing lights on the screen. There were 15 yellow dots, moving around erratically through the island, tags placed on each of the Pichu. Accompanying them, were 30 more dots, colored green, each signaling the location of one of the capture stylers she'd loaned out. Some of them were moving, and some were still, probably late risers. Or maybe fatalities. Either one.
"Still, though, none of them have managed to capture a Pichu just yet, though a few of them have gotten close… I would have guessed at least one would have been caught within the 10 hour mark. Guess they don't make prospective rangers like they used to…"
Petal yawned and stretched, Ritsu running up to her.
"I guess they need some motivation to get their rears in gear," Petal said. "Well, they'll probably stumble onto the wild pokemon soon enough. Or the other way around… then we'll really see some action… oh!"
One of the green dots began flashing red.
"Oooh, power down from 10 bars to 3… yikes," Petal winced, shaking her head. "He must've come across something fierce…"
The light flickered once more, before disappearing completely, leaving a black mark on the screen.
"Welp, there's our first dropout," Petal said, rising to her feet and stretching, kicking of her sandals and putting her boots on. "Time to go, Ritsu. Hopefully before he gets eaten~"
"Pichu pi!" Ritsu nodded, following after her partner.
"Hey, Sango, you okay?" Marion asked cautiously. "It's not the Volcarona Virus, is it? Cause I can't deal with that right now, I've got big stuff to do when we get back."
Sango rolled her eyes and sat up, wiping vomit and bile off of her lips.
"Yeah, I'm fine… just some digestion problems… probably…" Sango muttered, walking to sit beside the campfire.
"You don't have to be tough," Marion huffed. "I know that what you did must have really gotten to you."
"Yeah…" Sango took another slice of meat off of the fire, and bit into it. The tender juices filled her mouth with warmth as it oozed down her lips, the thin slab being ground to pieces as she swallowed it down.
"But I have to get used to it."
This time, she was able to keep her food down. She took a few more pieces, and before long the two girls had finished off the meat entirely.
"Where's Silver?" Marion asked, looking around. "He's been gone for a while…"
Sango frowned, also feeling more than a little anxious that her precious partner had been gone so long.
"He can take care of himself," Sango replied, "but we still need to find him. Let's start a two-woman sweep. You go north and start working your way west, I'll so south and start working my way east. I'll look for Silver, you try and spot any of those Pichu. We'll reconvene here at…"
Sango checked her styler's watch for confirmation.
"…12:00. So in 3 hours."
Marion nodded in agreement.
"What should we do when we find what we're looking for?" She asked. "The communication function on our stylers' is disabled, and phones were prohibited for the test."
"We'll have to rely on classic moves," Sango determined. "We'll go with bird calls."
Marion frowned.
"I don't know how to do those."
Sango rolled her eyes, having a good guess what the next words out of her mouth were going to be.
"I can do fish calls, though!" Of course.
"Fine, that'll have to do," Sango sighed. "Can you do Corphish? My friend has a Corphish, I can probably sound like one."
"Corphish!" Marion called, nodding. Her impression wasn't half-bad. "Sounds like a plan!"
The two went their separate ways, Sango remaining vigilant as she walked through the forest. It seemed there weren't any wild pokemon in the area… which was concerning. No scuttling of bugs. No flutter of birds. No rustling in the bushes…
Too quiet. At first, Sango wondered if that was because the rangers had closed this area off. But that wasn't the case, it wouldn't be. No, if there weren't any wild pokemon around, at least none that she could see, then that meant…
Sango tensed up, freezing in place. She strained her ears. She was certain of it. This was the territory of a fierce pokemon, and she'd come prancing in calling out Silver's name. This was the direction she'd sent him off in… where was he-
"C-Cast…"
Sango whirled around and charged toward the sound. Where… there! She spotted a bush that had a rather large gap of bent branches. Nestled in the center of it was a badly cut up Silver.
"Silver! You poor thing…" Sango whispered, picking up the injured pokemon. She cupped her hand in front of her mouth and called out "Corphish! Corphish!"
She retraced her steps and returned to the main camp, to begin tending to Silver's injuries.
"I'm so sorry little guy," Sango whispered, stroking the small pokemon's head. When she arrived back at camp, she stripped a few large leaves off the lean-to and created a bed to nestle Silver down into.
"Sango!" Marion ran into their clearing. "You found him? Oh no!"
"Yeah, I know," Sango said, frowning. "Marion, I need your help!"
"Roger!" Marion said, saluting. "What do you need?"
"I'll stay here and look after him, I need you to get a book out of my bag, the one with a tree on the cover. It has information on Pokemon Berries. I saw some berry trees while I was looking for him, so I know they're around. I want you to find me two berries in particular."
"Sure, which ones?" Marion asked, digging through her backpack and flipping through the pages.
"Oran berries are dark blue and round, sitrus berries are golden and bulge out," Sango said.
"Right, are these them?" Marion asked, showing the two pages to Sango. She nodded.
"Both of them have effects that restore pokemon HP," Sango said. "Can you go find them?"
"Leave it to me," Marion nodded. "You just focus on looking after the little guy, okay?"
Sango nodded, just hoping that Marion wouldn't get distracted with fishing.
Sango dipped a handkerchief into the water, and began wiping down Silver's gashes with the damp cloth, and once all the wounds were cleaned, she folded the small piece of fabric up and gingerly laid it down on Silver's forehead to lower his body temperature.
"Sango, I'm back," Marion said, running into the clearing, her arms filled to the brim with oran and sitrus berries.
"Wow, that was fast," Sango gasped.
"The nose knows," Marion grinned, tapping her nose, smiling. "I've searched for those before, to restore the health of my fishies while doing catch and release."
Marion stacked the berries beside Sango, Sango taking one of the sitrus berries and breaking it up into bite-sized pieces. She pushed it into Silver's mouth and he gently began chewing on it, swallowing the golden juices of the large berry. His flesh began shining with vitality as his wounds began shrinking. The more berries she fed him the healthier he seemed to get. Soon, his injuries were almost entirely gone.
"Castform!" Silver cheered, floating up energetically into the air, dancing around an overjoyed Sango.
"I'm so sorry!" Sango gushed, hugging Silver tightly. "I sent you away because I was stubborn… I promise, I won't let you out of my sight again!"
"Cast," Silver cooed, rubbing his cheek against hers.
"What a relief…" Marion sighed, falling to her knees. "Now, if you two don't mind, I need to get to fishing~"
"Cast!" Silver gasped suddenly, floating out of Sango's arms. "Cast, Cast!"
"What's wrong, Silver?" Sango asked, confused at the frantic pokemon looking around.
"Cast!" Silver said, floating over to pick up a stick in his mouth, glancing at Sango and Marion, who were looking at him curiously. He dug the stick into the dirt, and began scratching out a picture of a small figure… with large ears… and a crooked tail-
"A Pichu!" Marion gasped.
"Silver, you saw one?" Sango asked.
"Cast!" Silver said, nodding.
"Was that back where you were attacked?" Marion asked worriedly. "We could go after it, but…"
"We still don't know what it was that did this to you…" Sango said, frowning. "We can't go running in blindly, you know. I'm not going to let you get hurt, even if we still have some berries left over."
"Castform…" Silver said, looking down. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he realized something, flying past Sango and moving down to her bag. He began digging through it.
"What's he doing?" Marion asked, Sango shrugging.
"Caast," Silver mumbled through a slip of paper in his mouth, floating over to show it to Sango.
"What…?" Sango turned the slip over, and her face turned bright red.
"Wh-wh-what are you doing?!" Sango exclaimed, embarrassed as she looked at the picture of Blake in her hands. "Wh-why?"
"Ooh, who's he?" Marion asked, peeking over her shoulder.
"N-nobody!" Sango exclaimed.
"Then why do you have a picture of him?"
"N-no reason!" Sango said, glancing aside. She turned back to Silver, frowning. "Wh-why would you show me this?!"
"Cast!" Silver said insistently.
"You were attacked by Blake?" Sango asked. Silver shook his head frantically.
"Cast!" Silver made a growling, mean face, and roared loudly. Sango still wasn't getting it.
"What are you trying to-"
A loud roar echoed off in the distance, drawing the attention of the girls.
"Wh-what was that?" Marion asked worriedly.
"I'm not sure…" Sango said.
"Cast!" Silver said, glancing in the direction of the roar.
"That's what attacked you?" Sango asked. Silver nodded in confirmation.
"W-well, hopefully it'll stay far away from us…" Marion said. "Right, San- wait, where are you going?!"
"Whatever it is, it's angry," Sango shouted behind her, Silver loyally following after her. "And that means someone might get hurt!"
"Seriously? This is a test, and you're risking your ass out of altruism?!" Marion rolled her eyes at Sango's decision and followed reluctantly after the running girl.
Sango ran through the forest, following the sounds of crashing. She saw trees falling over and a large, blue pokemon bursting through the brush, roaring angrily.
So that's what you were telling me, Silver… Sango realized, frowning. When you were showing me Blake's picture… the pokemon that attacked you… it was a Salamence! But what's a Salamence doing here? This might be a nature preserve… but a Salamence's habitat should be in caves and mountains! Its territory shouldn't be this forest… Is this also part of the test, then?
"H-help!" A voice shouted out. "Someone, help me!"
Sango's eyes flashed as she scanned the area for the owner of the voice, and spotted a grey haired boy huddling beside a Tentacruel, who was shielding him.
"Silver! We need to help!" She shouted. "Don't worry! We're coming! Hey, you!"
Sango sent out her capture styler, the disk of light spinning towards the rampaging dragon pokemon, flashing in front of its eyes to serve as a distraction.
"Saalaaa!" The Salamence roared, craning its neck toward the new challenger.
"Run!" Sango called to the guy, who nodded, crawling to his feet and running further into the trees with his Tentacruel slithering after him.
"Sango, what's going on?" Marion asked, running up, confused. "Is that a Salamence?!"
"Marion, get back, I'll handle this," Sango said. "You don't have a pokemon to protect you, so you get some cover!"
Marion nodded and stepped back away from her, watching Sango worriedly as the Salamence barreled towards her.
"Now, Silver! Use hail!" Sango ordered. Silver opened his mouth and released a blast of cold air, clouds gathering overhead as hail and snow began to pelt down on the trees, creating an icy cloud obscuring the Salamence's vision.
"Now, use blizzard to weaken it."
"Castform!" Silver said, his body glowing with light as his form changed to match the weather, transforming into a cloudy shape the color of light blue ice, the shimmering cloud down wrapped around a purple core. Silver opened his mouth and the icy winds intensified into a full-on blizzard, beating down on the enraged Salamence and weakening its strength.
"Capture styler, go!" Sango shouted, releasing the capture disk. The disk of light danced through the blizzard and looped around the Salamence's neck, and then began traveling further, wrapping around his wings and body, looping him up in rings of light.
"Come on, Salamence! Please, calm down! I know someone was trespassing in your territory, but please! You don't need to keep attacking us! Don't you see? We're not here to hurt you, or destroy anything, so please!"
"Saalamence!" The Salamence broke through the line and swung his claw at Sango, Sango jumping backwards to avoid it. She took a glance at the Salamence's foreleg, her eyes widening in realization as she spotted a long gash oozing purple liquid.
He's been poisoned! Sango realized.
"Marion!" She shouted. "The Salamence has been poisoned! That's why he's going wild! Find some pecha berries, STAT!"
"R-right, which ones are those?"
"The heart-shaped ones!" Sango shouted back, dodging another swing. "And also, bring the rest of the oran and sitrus berries, we're going to need them!"
"I'm on it!" Marion shouted, running off into the woods to go look for berries. Sango continued to dodge Salamence's attacks, and kept sending out the capture styler, trying to take care of it. She was cautious and kept the disk out of reach, afraid of losing energy. It was taking her a lot longer than she was comfortable with, and it seemed like it wasn't making her any progress.
Trying to get through to him while he's like this will be fruitless… Sango frowned. In that case…
"Salamence, listen, please, I don't want to hurt you," Sango said, her expression hardening. "But I have to."
"I'm sorry," Sango said, looking apologetically at the angry pokemon. "But this is going to be a little painful."
She glanced at Silver, who looked back at her worriedly.
"Silver, use weather ball at full power!" Sango ordered.
"Castform!" Silver opened his mouth, a sphere of light gathering in front of it, absorbing ice and snow from the atmosphere and gathering it into the orb, infusing it with icy energy. He fired the ball at the Salamence, hitting it in the chest, blasting the dragon type with a compressed wave of powerful ice.
"Saaaal!" Salamence howled in pain, stumbling backwards as its scaly hide was pelted by the hail, backing down for the first time.
"Now, let's make that ice start working for us," Sango said. "Use hydro pump!"
Salamence lunged at Silver, but the small pokemon was as evasive as his partner, easily dodging the large pokemon's blows. He opened his mouth and fired a torrential blast of water, drenching the Salamence. This made the blows from the hail sting even harder.
"And now that he's soaked, let's hit him with the big one! Use blizzard and freeze him down!"
"Cast!" Silver shouted, the icy winds intensifying into a powerful blizzard that began to freeze the water covering the Salamence's scales, numbing its body as its temperature began dropping fast. The Salamence struggled against the cold eating away at it, before finally succumbing, falling to the ground, unable to keep going.
"Now, capture styler for real!" Sango said, sending the disk back out. This time, the disk looped around the Salamence unencumbered, managing to successfully wrap it up. Once she had stopped him in his tracks, she nodded to Silver, who parted the clouds so the hail could let up, reverting to his normal form.
"Please, Salamence! Calm down! I'm a pokemon ranger (sort of) and I'm here to help you!"
"Sala…" Salamence gasped out, staring weakly at Sango.
"I'm sorry I had to hurt you," Sango whispered, placing her hand on the Salamence's cold side. "But don't worry. We'll take care of you now."
"Sango! I'm here!" Marion's voice rang out from the distance. "Are you still alive?!"
"Over here!" Sango called. Marion broke through the trees and ran towards her and held up the berries as proof.
"Here they are!" Marion presented the berries to Sango, who took one of the pink berries from her.
"What took you so long?" Sango demanded.
"Sorry, I got distracted," Marion said. "See, I was fishing, and-"
"Are you mental?!"
"I had to!"
"Whatever," Sango muttered, turning to the Salamence.
"Here, Salamence. Please… eat this. I promise, it will make you feel better."
Salamence stared at Sango's outstretched hand, and glanced up at her. She nodded, holding her hand closer.
"Are you crazy?" Marion whispered. "That thing'll eat you!"
"It's fine," Sango smiled. "He wouldn't do something like that." She turned back to Salamence, smiling. "Go on, eat it! It's tasty, I promise!"
"…" Salamence opened his mouth, and bit down on Sango's arm.
"Aaaah!" Marion screamed, her face going pale. "I told you, I told you! We-we need a doctor, or- I mean, uh…"
But Sango wasn't screaming in pain, or shouting "my arm, my arm!" She just smiled comfortingly.
Salemence pulled back, revealing Sango's arm, sticky with saliva but unhurt, no berry in sight.
"That's a good boy," Sango smiled, patting him on the snout. "Now, isn't that better?"
The festering wound on Salamence's leg began to ease up, the odor fading and the infected flesh slowly clearing away, turning into a regular old cut.
"Now, that's not all!" Sango said, turning back to Marion and gesturing her to approach. "These are all for you. As an apology. Please, help yourself."
"Salamence," Salamence weakly grunted.
"Oh, right, I almost forgot! Silver, use sunny day!"
"Cast!" Silver nodded, intensifying the sunlight. The heat from the sun's rays transformed the Castform again, and also began melting the ice that had built up on him. Salamence shrugged off the slush and stomped forward, Marion trembling nervously as she stared up at him, wounded and yet still intimidating.
Marion gingerly placed the pile on the ground, and stepped back, presenting the berries to the dragon pokemon. Salamence craned his head down and began digging into the berries, devouring them gluttonously as the oran and sitrus berries healed his wounds and restored his health.
"You feeling better?" Sango beamed up at the large dragon.
"Sal," Salamence grunted, nodding. With a flap of his wings, he let out a roar and took to the sky, flying off.
"Bye, Salamence! I'm glad I was able to help!" Sango waved. "Still… I wonder why it got angry in the first place… It was poisoned, right? How did that happen…"
Her eyes widened. Wait, that guy had a Tentacruel, didn't he? I wonder if-
"AAaaah!" Marion's pained voice caught Sango's attention and she snapped out of her thoughts, whirling around. The grey haired boy from before was standing behind Marion, and her arm was twisted behind her back, her face twisted in agony.
"Marion!" Sango exclaimed.
"Hold it right there," the older boy calmly requested her. He held Marion's fishing knife up to her throat, as his Tentacruel's stingers pointed menacingly at Sango. "Thank you for the assist earlier. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like a little more help."
"This, Sango?" Marion winced. "This is why we don't do altruism during a test."
Oof. Talk about ungrateful. I know it's Sango's nature to help people, but still. A little more pragmatism, Sango, this is no time for heroics!