Nurse Isabelle and the Kanto Pokédex: the Diary of a Travelling Nurse

#118 Goldeen

Goldeen, the Goldfish Pokémon. It has a wild temperament, and will use its horn to smash its way to freedom if kept in an aquarium. Humans swimming near it must exercise caution lest Goldeen ram them. Goldeen is a very common sight in any body of fresh water, including ponds, lakes, and rivers. It can be seen swimming upstream in large schools during the breeding season in spring.

While she was in Cerulean city, Nurse Isabelle visited the gym there, which was specialised in Water-type Pokémon. She'd been there before to treat a Seel with a broken skull but that time she hadn't really talked to any of the Gym Leaders or Trainers.

Upon her arrival one of the four sisters was at the pool, talking to her Goldeen. Said goldfish looked to be slightly on the small side, but size differences were common, of course. However, the gym did not look great. The paint was peeling, making the illustrations of the Water Pokémon barely recognisable; the Poliwag looked especially dreadful. The benches were in a similar state; chipped and broken. This place needed a renovation, desperately.

"Good day. My name is Nurse Isabelle. Who might you be?" Izzy said kindly, walking up to the pink-haired girl at the edge of the pool, who looked up at the sound of the nurse's voice.

"Hey there! Didn't hear you enter. I'm Lily, the second youngest of the Sensational Sisters. Pleased to meet you. This is Goldeen. My other Pokémon are resting currently after our show yesterday." The girl looked younger than Izzy but not much. She estimated the pink-haired girl to be around seventeen years old.

"That's okay. Mind if I join you?" Isabelle took her shoes off, pulled her trousers up higher to her knees and rested her feet in the water.

"Not at all! If you have any Water-types, feel free to let them swim. We all know how much they like that."

Smiling, Isabelle grabbed Dewgong's ball and let him out to swim. With most of the Gym's other Pokémon resting, her massive Pokémon had most of the space. "So," the nurse started. "What happened here? Your battle planner is mostly empty, there are no records of official Gym Battles, the trainers are nowhere to be seen, this place is falling apart and, instead of medical supplies, you keep cosmetics everywhere. When did this place leave the road of being a Gym and turned to shows instead?" Izzy had decided to be blunt, yet withheld the information this place would be closed soon if business wasn't resumed soon.

Lily looked down at the Goldeen swimming with Dewgong in shame. "Things have been rough. You see, my sisters and I don't like battling, so we kind of give the badges away for free." Isabelle frowned deeply at her. "Well, what am I supposed to do?!" Lily protested in defence. "We're terrible at battling! We never asked for this! This is our home! In case you haven't noticed, we're between 16 and 20 years old. It's not like we can go live somewhere else and abandon the gym, you know?"

"Where are your parents? The previous Gym Leaders?"

"Not here."

"What hap—"

"I don't want to talk about it!" With that, Lily stood up and stormed away, making sure to slam the door loudly. When it didn't slam hard enough the first time, she opened the door just to slam it again. Isabelle let out a sad sigh, while stroking Dewgong's head when he came up to lay it against her lap, getting her trousers wet.

"There's a lot of trouble here, Dewgong. Let's stay a while to discover what it is and help this gym and the girls that run it."