NSO Chapter 11

I don't own Pokemon.

Cleo pushed open the infirmary door, holding it there as Zenith staggered through, clutching his side. She didn't know what was wrong with Zenith, but she knew that it was causing him so much pain that the only thing he could do right now was just focus on walking and not passing out. Judging from the way he collapsed on the blue plush seats of the waiting room, face planted between the cushions, it seemed to be getting worse. For a brief moment, the Vaporeon considered slamming the door in the Kadabra's face as he walked in but suppressed the devilish instinct. The Psychic-type walked through the still-open doorway, lounging on the seats next to Zenith, not caring about the Umbreon. He picked up a magazine from a nearby table and flipped through it lazily, an unconscious Kurt still floating beside him, held up by Psychic. Seeing how the Kadabra was in no rush, and Zenith's pained expression as he continued pressing his sides, Cleo quickly entered the room, careful not to shut the door on her tail. Lifting most of Zenith over her shoulders, she supported the injured Umbreon through another set of double doors into the nurse's office.

Stepping into the large, white-walled room, Cleo could see a huge difference in this Kingdra High's infirmary and the one back in her previous school. The entire room was completely devoid of any type of counters or cupboards to store medicine or first aid equipment in. The walls were completely bare, and so was the room, save for a small first aid kit lying against the wall, and a lone dentist-like chair contraption in the middle of the room. Instead of the many Chanseys and Blisseys that bustled around the sickbay in her previous school, there was just one Pokemon, a small pink cat that was laying on the 'chair', a long tail curled around its body. It seemed to be asleep, but one of its ears pricked up as it heard the doors swing shut, turning to face the new patients.

Despite herself, Cleo couldn't hold back an excited squeal when she realised who the Pokemon was, but for Zenith's reaction was more of a confused grunt. His mind was fuzzy with pain, but he felt a mild ripple of surprise at the sight of the Legendary. He was sure that the nurse in this school was a Chansey, not another Legendary.

So what… is Mew doing… here?

If Dialga had replied, Zenith couldn't hear it. He had no idea what was causing the pain that was filling, clouding his mind, only that it was coming from deep within his side. A constant, throbbing pain that hurt with every movement. Mew's mouth was moving, but unlike Cleo, who seemed to be listening attentively, he could hear nothing. Coupled with his fatigued condition after the fight, Zenith couldn't hold on to consciousness any longer, succumbing to the pain and passing out.

"Um… I think Zenith really needs treatment. Now." Cleo interrupted Mew's steady staccato rhythm of words as she the weight on her back grow heavier, the Umbreon no longer partially holding himself up.

"Right. Let's get to it." Using Psychic, Mew enveloped Zenith in a translucent pink glow, lifting his body from the tiled floor while the Legendary pressed a button on the chair, making the chair recline backwards to form a table. Zenith's limp body was placed on the flat surface, while Mew rummaged around in the compartments lining the sides of the chair-table. The pink cat took out something that looked like a temperature scanner, but slightly larger and more advanced. Using it, Mew gave Zenith an ear to tail scan, the thin line of light from the scanner temporarily bathing the Umbreon in a sweeping dark blue light.

The light retracted back into the scanner, and Cleo noticed that the bottom of the scanner's handle was connected to the table-chair. A projector retracted down from the ceiling, displaying a translucent three-dimensional hologram of Zenith exactly above where the Eeveelution lay. Floating in the air, Mew swiped on the hologram, removing Zenith's fur so that all of his muscles, bones and internal organs could be seen. Cleo's jaw dropped as she marvelled at the cutting-edge technology available in this school, but winced as she saw all the torn flesh, how deep some of the cuts actually reached., and how many injuries there were. It must have been torturous for Zenith to last through the remainder of the fight, much less even walk here with only partial help.

Mew enlarged the hologram so that she could inspect them in greater detail. "I noticed he was holding his….right flank, was it? Let's see what's wrong with him." With another touch on the hologram, Layer after layer of muscle disappeared until a foreign object was highlighted in a red outline. "Aha!" Mew exclaimed, gesturing the red object closer to herself. It was a stone, extremely small in size but jagged and pointy. Zooming back out, Cleo could see on the hologram that the rock fragment had dug a long, deep hole into Zenith's flesh and muscle. It was so deep that the rock narrowly touched Zenith's lungs.

"This stone's the problem. Every movement Zenith made must have been driving the stone further into his body. It's good that he got here before it punctured his lungs. That would've been hard to fix up."

"But you can heal Zenith, right?" Cleo looked back at the Umbreon worriedly. The Umbreon's breathing was shallow and ragged as he fell deeper into unconsciousness.

"Well, I can remove the stone using my psychic powers, but the unfortunate part is that it's going to hurt a lot for Zenith. I'll apply anaesthetics, but none we have on paw are strong enough to dull the pain completely. I'm afraid that he has to grit his teeth and get through the rest of the pain himself." A few injections later, and Zenith's breathing was deeper than before. Eyes glowing a dark purple, Mew activated her psychic powers, carefully dragging the fragment of rock out of the tunnel that it had created. Meanwhile, Cleo watched Mew's progress on the hologram.

Zenith, who had been slumbering in his unconscious, anaesthetised state, was jerked back into the waking world by the pain. The pain was increasing in intensity, so strong that it was almost radiating from his midsection. Although every part of his body was screaming at him to run, to escape the room, to escape the pain, Zenith still restrained himself, repeating a thought even as his body twitched reflexively in response to the pain.

Stay... still. Mew can... help you.

"Cleo! He's awake! Make sure he doesn't move. We don't want the rock piercing anything important."

No time to reply. Cleo started to secrete water from her palms again, and also caused the water vapour in the air to condense into droplets on her cool skin. In a few seconds, Cleo had amassed a large amount of water, which floated in midair. Using her paw, she guided the water over Zenith's body, draping it over his arms and legs like a blanket, leaving his head free to breathe and a hole in the water over his flank so the rock could be extracted. Cleo increased the pressure of the water acting on the Umbreon, effectively immobilising his limbs and preventing Zenith from moving too much. As an afterthought, Cleo took a cushion from the waiting room and placed it between the Zenith's jaws, so that he could bite down on it instead of screaming and disrupting Mew's concentration.

She just hoped that it would be over quickly.

It was, the entire operation only took a minute.

But it was the most painful sixty seconds Zenith had ever experienced.

Deep within his consciousness, Zenith knew that Mew was trying to get the fragment out as fast and as painlessly as the Legendary could, but the latter seemed to be impossible. It felt like his flank was on fire, Mew unable to cushion the points of the stone from scraping on more of his sensitive flesh as it was forcefully pulled out of his body. His flank burned with fierce pain, and he bit down hard on the pillow, pushing down the urge to yell.

Come… on… Zenith. Think on the… bright side.

… At least Mew's psychic powers prevent the rock from… breaking off into smaller pieces that might embed themselves into... my... flesh and cause... me... more... pain…

Wow. Even your optimistic thoughts include- wait. Zenith. Our connection is weakening. I'm breaking u-

As the voice of Dialga cut off, so did the last bits of rational thought, draining out of Zenith's mind only to be replaced with pain. It flooded his mind, overwhelmed and overloaded his mental systems, wiping out all forms of civilised action and self-control, leaving an emotion remaining in Zenith.

Fear. This single, pure emotion awakened a primal instinct in Zenith to respond to the Umbreon's pain.

Fight or flight.

And Zenith, being Zenith, decided to go with both.

Only half a second had passed. Mew was almost done with the extraction, but that was when things started to go wrong. With his eyes squeezed shut, there was a sound of ripping fabric, followed by a cloud of white stuffing exploding all over Zenith's face. He had bitten through the pillow, his sharp canine teeth tearing huge holes in the soft material. Zenith began to shake his head from side to side vigorously, tossing the leaking pillow around and sending Swanna down everywhere. As Cleo rushed to his side, trying to calm him down, she noticed that Zenith's eyes were open again, but they weren't filled with their usual calm and timid composure. Instead, she could recognise two primal feelings that were similar to the Pokemon she had watched in nature documentaries, the ones found in cornered prey.

Fear and angry determination.

Zenith tried to escape from the chair, but couldn't move his limbs as Cleo pushed down on the water on his body, applying more pressure on his limbs. Flight was no longer an option. Guess it was time for the other first.

With a swing of the head, Zenith threw the cushion in his jaws at Cleo, the pillow exploding in a cloud of feathers. Surprised, Cleo brought her paws from the water to her face, swatting away the stuffing in her face. With Cleo's attention momentarily gone, Zenith could feel the strong pressure on his body weaken. Seizing the chance, the Umbreon swung his head a second time, smashing into Cleo's side. The Vaporeon, caught unaware, staggered and fell to the ground, winded, but now her concentration was broken.

Without Cleo's control, the water slid off Zenith's body or clung to his fur in droplets. He rose to stand on the chair-table, two Dark Pulses charging up in his paws. Now conscious, all of Mew's psychic-type attempts to restrain the Dark-type were ineffective as he shrugged them off, and the Legendary had to take drastic measures. Floating around Zenith as the Umbreon glanced around the room frantically, Mew took hold of the rock shard again, and yanked it out of Zenith's side in a final, desperate tug. The small, red rock shot out from Zenith's flank like a bullet, trailing small blood droplets as it smashed into the green wall. The speed of which the stone was pulled out of Zenith's body increased the friction between the rock and his flesh, the pain causing him to let out a guttural roar. Fear and anger were fully controlling his thought processes now. Mew was causing him pain. Cleo was preventing him from escaping pain. Both had to be gone. As Zenith slammed his paws downwards, Mew quickly set up a Light Screen around the Umbreon. She picked up a groaning Cleo, and with her back towards Zenith, the pink cat wrapped her entire body and tail around the Vaporeon, bracing for the worst.

Dual Dark shockwaves shot out from beneath Zenith's paws, the Light Screen taking the brunt of the explosions and disappeared like the arena shields from before. The first shockwave threw both Female Pokemon into the infirmary wall, and the second was so strong that it pushed them further into the wall before dissipating. Tumbling through the air, Mew held on to Cleo tightly as they flipped through the air, the Legendary maneuvering herself to slam her pink back against the wall, cushioning the impact for Cleo. There was a flump as Zenith's legs gave out under him, the Umbreon falling to his knees and slumping over on the table-chair in exhaustion. Mew laid Cleo down on the floor gently and flew over to Zenith. The Umbreon was lying face down on the table-chair, panting heavily from the exertion of two powerful moves. He had passed out once more, and his multiple wounds had reopened again, the Umbreon bleeding out all over the flat, cushioned surface. Sighing, Mew started to direct a Heal Pulse on Zenith's wounds, smiling in satisfaction as she watched them close up, leaving thin white scars that disappeared under the growing of black fur. Cleo stared at the scene in front of her, still in shock at the sudden things that had happened in the short time span of a few seconds. Her sides and back still hurt from the attacks, and the Vaporeon decided to stay where she was until felt better.

-Five minutes later-

Zenith sat up groggily. Looking around, he realised that he was still on the chair-table in the nurse's room, with Mew staring at him expectantly.

"Hey, you. You're finally awake!" Mew was the first one to speak, floating around Zenith to inspect her handiwork.

"What now, Mew? What's the prognosis?" The pain in his side had eased, but Zenith now had a headache and was rubbing his noggin, trying to rid himself of the slight pain.

"Well, the operation was a success. The rock causing you so much pain is gone, and your wounds are healed, but there is a… slight problem."

"Besides me going crazy and attacking you halfway through the operation?"

"Yeah, that, and the pain you experienced. If I could describe the pain you felt, it would be like your insides were being blowtorched while several barbed fishing hooks were being dragged upwards towards through your flesh, which was being set on fire." As the Legendary spoke, an involuntary shudder ran through Zenith's body. He could definitely remember the pain.

"Your developing pain receptors were overloaded by the large amount of pain you felt during the operations and are permanently damaged now. In short, you won't be feeling as much pain as you should be, although I don't know if that's good or not."

If this news hit Zenith like a sledgehammer, he didn't feel it.

"So this means that my body isn't invulnerable to injuries, it's just… partially pain proof?"

"That's one way of putting it."

"Okay then. At least I'm somewhat better now. Thanks, Mew!" Zenith leapt down from the table-chair, stretching his numb, asleep limbs to get them back in working order before realising something. "Hey, where's Cleo?"

"Um.."

-Flashback-

Cleo got back to her feet. The pain in her side and back had now faded to a dull ache and it didn't hurt to move anymore. She padded over to the table-chair, where Zenith was snoring softly. Mew, noticing this, floated over and told her to get back to class.

"Why?"

"Zenith's the one that's severely injured, not you. Don't worry, it's my duty to take good care of him. You, on the other hand, are a student and a new one at that. It's your duty to learn, especially with the upcoming End Of Year examinations next term. I can see in your mind that it's now your Science lesson, and your teacher is... Mr Simon? Lucky. He's a good teacher. His lessons are always interesting. Get back to class now, Cleo. When Zenith wakes up, I'll send him back to class, or if he hasn't woken up yet, you can visit him during recess. Either way, you'll still get to see him."

Cleo couldn't argue with that. The mind-reading Mew had come up with a counterargument for every statement that had appeared in her head. Sighing, she ruffled the fur on Zenith's head and left the infirmary.

-Flashback End-

Mew looked back at Zenith, who was smoothing down the ruffled fur on his head as he waited for an answer.

"I asked her to go back to class. As for you, your wound is completely healed and you're well-rested. You may leave the infirmary now. If I remember right, it's your recess time, and Cleo will be coming to look for you."

"Thanks, Mew... for everything."

"Good luck, Zenith, you're going to need it." The pink cat murmured under her breath.

As the double doors swung shut behind him, Zenith noticed the Kadabra still sitting in the waiting room, reading the same magazine. As he passed the Psychic-type, they made eye contact, the Umbreon gesturing back at the nurse's office in which he came from, signalling that it was Kurt's turn to be treated.

"Oh, Jake. It's you. Did Kurt get injured again?"

"Yeah, Ms Chua. But this time, I think he got hurt real bad." The Kadabra took in the familiar sight of the nurse's office, with its drawers and closets filled with medicine and first aid equipment, a row of beds lining the blue-tiled walls. along with the smell. He could never forget the medical smell of this room. And the most memorable part of this room was…

"That's what you always say. Come, let me take a look at him." Putting on her stethoscope, the white coat clad Chansey placed the medical instrument on Kurt's chest, giving him a check over before healing his wounds. The solo routine Ms Chua had been doing for all patients that had entered her office.

Just like she had been doing for the past four years.