Chapter 52: Healing the Healer

"...And in other news, we continue our coverage on local Suicune sightings. Locals report seeing the Legendary Beast roaming the Ilex Forest. No official conclusions have been made on their accuracy, but…"

Annoyed, Goh shut off his Rotomphone, sighing in annoyance.

"Anything on the news, Goh?"

"Nothing we don't already know."

"Well, if there's nothing new to report, then why do they call it the news?"

Everyone groaned at Ash's attempt at a joke. Professor Cerise had assigned them to investigate the Suicune sightings, Chloe deciding to tag along out of curiosity. At the moment, they were in the Goldenrod City Pokemon Center, trying to think of ideas.

"They said these sightings have been in the Ilex Forest, right?"

"Goh, that's a pretty big area to cover, and we're only four people."

"True, but we don't have to search the whole forest."

Curious, his friends huddled around his phone, where he was pulling up several news articles.

"Says here the water coming into Azalea and Goldenrod has been giving off high pollution levels lately. It's taken the cleansing facilities ages to make it drinkable. Legend has it that Suicune has the ability to purify water. I say that's our best bet."

"Hey, that's a great idea!"

"Great plan, Goh!"

"Come on, let's get moving!"

With a strategy in mind, the quartet set off in hopes of finding the legendary creature.

A while later, they were trekking through the woods, Goh leading the way to the nearest body of water.

"How much farther, Goh?"

"Not much longer. Maybe about another 5 minutes."

"Goh, is that you?"

Up ahead was Horace, who was happy to see them.

"Horace, how's it going!"

"Great! And it's great to see you too, Chloe."

"Hey guys, do you mind introducing us?"
Goh chuckled, realizing he had forgotten about the other two.

"Sorry about that. Horace, this is Ash and Lillie, my coworkers at the Cerise institute. Ash and Lillie, this is my old friend Horace."

"Pleased to meet you."
"Same here. Any friend of Goh's is a friend of mine!"

"Are you looking for Suicune as well?"

"Yep! Why don't we work together?"

"Great idea!"

With the group of four now five, the quintet set off in search of Suicune. After a few minutes, they came across a heavily polluted lake, the water almost completely purple from all of the sludge and toxins.

"Disgusting."
"Who would do such a thing?"

"Come on you punks, keep at it! If I don't see Suicune by tonight, you don't get paid!"

Figuring that was the answer to their question, the quintet ran towards the voice. When they reached it, they found a group of men using Poison type Pokemon to pollute the lake, much to their anger.

"What're you doing?"
"What's it look like? The more we pollute this late, the higher a chance Suicune will show up."

"You monsters! You won't get away with this!"

"Oh yeah? And who's going to stop us, you?"

"Go, Gardevoir! Use Psychic!"

Horace's Gardevoir levitated one of the poachers' Muks, launching it into a tree.

"Oh, we got a tough guy, do we? Go, Houndoom! Use Fire Blast!"

The Dark/Fire Type shot out a huge wave of fire, sending Gardevoir flying into a tree.

"Gardevoir!"

"Next time, mind your own business! Now, back to the matter at-huh?"

WIthout warning, a huge shape darted out of the woods, landing in the lake and beginning to emit energy. It was Suicune, and the look on its face showed pure rage.

"Woah, it's amazing!"

"So beautiful!"

Suicune slowly began to purify the water, absorbing the toxins into itself and eliminating them. Unfortunately, this is what the Poachers wanted.

"Alright boys, fire at will!"

All of the Poison type Pokemon began firing at Suicune, hitting her dead on as she was too busy trying to purify the water to fight back. After a while, she fell down, exhausted, giving the leader the opportunity he had been waiting for, and he pulled out a Pokeball.

"You're mine!"

But Goh and horace were quicker, tackling him and preventing him from throwing it.

"Hey, get off!"

"Suicune, run!"

The injured Suicune took off, limping slightly from the pain. Eventually, the head poacher managed to throw them off, but by then it was too late.

"Son of a…you lot, go find it!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

Before taking off after them, he turned to the four teens.

"You're lucky I have a Legendary to hunt, but if you get in my way again you WILL be sorry."

Once he was gone, Goh turned to the others.

"Come on, we can't let them get away with this! We need to find Suicune before they do."

"Right!"

Suicune eventually stopped running, too low on energy from the poison to keep going. Tired, she crawled into a small hole in a tree to try and recover.

"Wait, guys! I think I see it over here!"

Weakly, Suicune lifted her head, prepared to fight back, only to find Ash, Lillie, Horace, and Chloe running up to her. She growled, but everyone held up their arms as a sign of peace.

"Woah, easy! I promise, we won't hurt you."

Suicune still didn't trust them, but didn't have the energy to fend them off and just lay back down. Cautiously, Goh approached, putting a hand to her forehead. It was burning hot.

"She has a fever. Hold on!"

Taking off his backpack, he rummaged around for a bit before pulling out a water bottle and a rag. Pouring some water onto the rag, he pressed it against Suicune's forehead, cooling her a little. Goh then turned to his friends.

"This'll help, but we need to get some medicine."
"I saw a Pokemart by the entrance to the woods, they should have some Antidotes."

I saw some berry bushes along the way. I'll have to look again, but at least some of them should be able to help."

"Great! Let's go, team!"

The other four left, leaving Goh to tend to the sick Pokemon.

"Don't worry, Suicune. We'll help you feel better."

A while later, everyone returned with the supplies, as well with some warm , they had Suicune on the road to recovery. Her fever had gone down, and the swelling in her leg had greatly decreased. Suicune smiled, and allowed Chloe to stroke her fur.

"You're a beautiful creature, Suicune. It's a shame people want to hurt you."

"Aha! I knew you'd lead us right to her!"

Just then, the poachers from before emerged from the brush, evil smirks on their faces.

"Thanks for doing the hard work for us! Grab her, boys!"

His henchmen moved to grab her, but Ash and his friends stood in his way, much to their anger.

"Out of the way!"

"No! We won't let you take her!"

"What do you care? Is she really worth risking your life?"

"Yes!"

Suicune, touched by their efforts, pushed herself to her legs, and forced herself to the forefront.

"Suicune, no!"

But Suicune gently pushed Chloe out of her way, and began charging energy within herself. This made the poachers nervous, realizing what she was about to do.

"Maybe we can talk about this?"

Suicune wasn't in the mood, and fired a massive Hydro Pump, sending the poachers flying off into the sky. Afterwards, Suicune dropped to her knees, exhausted. The quartet of humans just stared, awestruck.

"Suicune…that was awesome!"

"Pika Pika!"

"Vul!"

"Evoi!"

Suicune smiled, happy for the respect.

A few days later, Suicune had fully healed and purged the water from the lakes and rivers around the forest. Ash, Goh, Lillie, Chloe, and Horace helped as much as they could, giving her more time to heal. Now it was time for all of them to say goodbye.

"Good luck, Suicune. Keep this forest safe."
"Yeah, but if you're ever in trouble again, we'll be happy to help out!"

Suicune gave each member of the group a gentle nuzzle before bounding off into the forest again. After she had disappeared from sight, Chloe spoke to Goh.

"That was really awesome what you did for Suicune. I've never seen that side of you before."

"Ah, it was nothing! I couldn't leave her to suffer."

"Honestly, I'm just surprised you didn't try catching her."

"After everything she went through? I just couldn't. Besides, this is where she belongs."

Chloe nodded in understanding.

"Agreed. Now let us return to where we belong."