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

#130 Gyarados

Gyarados, the Atrocious Pokémon. The evolved form of Magikarp. Its fangs can crush stones and its scales are harder than steel. Gyarados is infamously known for its fierce temper and wanton destructive tendencies, and is attracted to violence. In addition, Gyarados is also notoriously difficult to tame even after it is captured by the Trainer, usually requiring an exceptional amount of work in taming it until it can obey its Trainer. Gyarados usually lives in large bodies of water, such as lakes and ponds or even seas and oceans.

The blond nurse found herself at a very familiar scene again. She was crouching at a cliff together with her Ivysaur, with no one around for hours. On a small ledge below the edge of the cliff were two Pokémon. A sick Abra and a gassy Koffing. The blonde needed to make a decision quickly. This time, she had the Koffing being reeled in by Ivy's vines, but as soon as it got near the nurse and her Pokémon, he exploded with a cloud of gas. The girl screamed.

She sat bolt upright with a scream, Nurse Isabelle wasn't entirely sure where she was. She was wearing a white shirt that wasn't hers. There was someone in the bed with her. But the most urgent discovery was that she was going to be sick. As she emptied her stomach in the toilet bowl, a half-naked Dominic stroked her hair away. He didn't say anything but held her hair. When she was done and sat back, he flushed the toilet, wet a cloth and wiped her face, and then lifted her up bridal style back to bed.

In that moment, it didn't matter she wasn't wearing anything underneath this foreign, white shirt. He only wore boxers and she could feel the heat of his shirtless chest against her chilly arms. Leaning against the headboard, he cradled her and helped her to calm down from her nightmare. It had seemed so real, despite the real her having chosen the other Pokémon to rescue. Dominic wiped away her tears as she cried against his chest. No pretty, silent tears for her. Instead, she wailed and shook as she mourned the Koffing whose fate was unknown. While she was at it, she mourned every Pokémon she had lost in her year on the road. At that moment, she regretted ever leaving Celadon City. She was tired of travelling and weary from all the decisions she had had to make.

Later, after a late brunch, Isabelle and Dominic headed over to a private pool. It had been rented to a customer who preferred privacy. When Izzy opened the doors, her patient was already there. Despite Gyarados usually being blue, this one was a very angry red. The man was standing in front of the pool. His red hair and confident stance were unmistakable: Lance, of the Elite Four. He was the most famous Dragon-type trainer, though Gyarados was not one, officially. His features were most definitely draconic, though.

Dominic, surprisingly, greeted Lance cordially. They spoke as if he had been there when Gyarados was captured, for Lance had captured this Pokémon somewhere in Johto. From his time in the nearby region, his accent had turned vaguely Johtan, more similar to Dom's way of speaking, which was rural Jothan, than Izzy's city Kantonian.

"You see, the Pokémon centre nearby lacks the facilities to take on such a Pokémon. Also, I prefer privacy, for this Gyarados... attracts some attention. Let's leave it at that."

As Izzy approached the gigantic Pokémon, he slowly lowered his head. For a Gyarados, he was amazingly well-trained. As she stroked his head, she noticed his scales had a different colour, but not a different texture. After finishing her marvelling at his unique colouring, Izzy went to work.

As Dominic and Lance spoke about Johto and the way this Gyarados was acquired, Isabelle checked his teeth, his fins, and inspected his scales for damage. She even extracted some blood to test for a few diseases because she was quite curious how this Gyarados became red. However, his blood was fine, though slightly low on vitamins. It seemed Gyarados simply was red with no explanation.

"What a unique Pokémon. You've taken excellent care of him, though I did not expect any less from you or any of your colleagues. I'd like to have my partner back and then we'll be on our way again." Behind Izzy, Dominic snickered at her formal language, causing her to frown at him. Neither spoke of what happened this morning.