Comfey

  Comfey’s Artist succumbed to the confusion of nasty smells made by the parasites. It was a pity. She tried to help her, but there were too many unpleasant odours to eliminate with her flowers, which would need to be changed soon. Her Artist would draw the new flowers she collected, and the sketches were almost as pretty as the real things. It was a pity.

  She ducked under the clouds of stink, trying to find a way out. The human named after the sun was still standing. So was the other one, the friend of the poison long-fingers. What was the sound she claimed again? Sunny fell. She had cloth over her nose, and the smells hadn’t penetrated into her, so she was probably fine. The other one reached her and lifted her up. They were attacked by the parasites, but the long-fingers was good at stabbing them, which made them retreat without fail. There were a lot of parasites, though, and only one long-fingers.

  Sunny’s partners were also trying to help. The winged one was trying to blow away the smells, but he was too weak. He was smart enough to stay above them, just like Comfey was below them. The other two weren’t doing well. The one who responded to ‘Hector’ was paralysed, and the coral was asleep. Sunny recalled both of them, but was attacked by a parasite while doing so. She fell again, this time with a bad injury on her leg. The other human picked her up again, squeezing fresh berry juice into Sunny’s mouth. It was enough to keep her going. The next time someone fell, it wasn’t Sunny.

  “Luca!” screamed Sunny.

  Yes, that was the sound. She was called Luca. She had run out of air and took a breath of all the bad smells at once. She was down, but not before she told long-fingers to go with Sunny. Comfey decided that that was a good idea. Sunny was at the edge of the parasite's nest already and only needed a few steps to get out completely. Then Comfey could make them all smell good again.

  Sunny wasn’t thinking well. It took the long-fingers dragging her out of the parasite's nest for her to reach safety. She seemed to want to go back inside for some reason. Once she was out, though, she seemed to realise that was a bad idea.

  Comfey, the long-fingers, and the winged one guided Sunny away from the nest until she collapsed onto a large fern and began sobbing. Comfey finally had the chance to look closely at her leg, where a deep purple gash was leaking all of Sunny’s blood. As with all of these kinds of injuries, it stank something awful. Comfey waved away the stench and replaced it with her own. She was looking for a bit of a change. The pine scents in this forest would do nicely. Mixed with a bit of mint and the cocktail was fit for a Florges. Much better than anything that little Spritzee she had seen around could produce.

  When she was finished making sure Sunny smelled good, her skin had taken on a healthier tone, and the wound on her leg had scabbed over. There was still a faintly unpleasant tang coming from it, but it was all Comfey could do. It would go away in time.

  “Thank you, Comfey,” said Sunny, her voice shaky. She took out Hector and Coral, and Comfey was more than happy to fix their smells as well. She couldn’t be seen with ugly fragrances around after all. The long-fingers and the winged one, who, once Comfey strained her little head now that she wasn’t busy, were named Buzzkill and Caviar by their human companions, also received her attention. They weren’t too bad, but they could be freshened up a bit.

  When Comfey was satisfied, she noticed Sunny sitting cross-legged, eyes red, but dry and focused. Her breaths were steadying, and the other Pokémon, especially Buzzkill, were looking at her expectantly.

  “We’re going to get them back,” she said. Buzzkill mewled and Sunny stroked his ear. “Yes, Luca too. I couldn’t have gotten away without her. She used her last berries on me. Why did she do that? No, nevermind. Focus, Sunny, focus. Comfey, I’m going to need your help. You want to save Calla too?”

  She could help her Artist? Comfey didn’t particularly want to go back to the parasite's nest, but maybe for her Artist. She gave a hop to show her affirmation.

  “Okay, that’s a yes. Hopefully. You’re going to need to do a lot of healing. Starting with Infernape. She got caught off guard before, but if she’s back in fighting shape, she should be able to help a lot against the Parasect. Hopefully. So listen, you can go heal her up and she’ll act as a distraction while we bring the rest of them out. Does that sound okay? Buzzkill, you go with her. You want to get in there without alerting them as much as possible, but if any of them see you, you can take care of them with a Poison Jab.

  “When Infernape starts fighting them, I’ll go in with Hector and Coral to either drag them out of the nest, or fight off attackers while Comfey heals everyone. Caviar, you have a very important job too. I saw you trying to blow away the spores. There’s a move you can learn for that called Defog. How about we practice getting it to the point where we won’t be immediately knocked out like before? Everyone else, rest up for an hour. We need to be relaxed and ready to go into this. After an hour, we’re doing it, no matter what state Defog is at, so let’s see how good you can get it, okay? This’ll work. Hopefully. Buzzkill, could you keep watch for us?”

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  They would have to wait to do anything then. Comfey thought it was more for Sunny’s sake than for the other Pokémon. They looked ready to go. None of them wanted to play when she went to them. They weren’t rude, exactly, because they knew how important it was to have a good aroma so they appreciated what she could do for them, but they did brush her off a little brusquely.

  Instead, she went to where Sunny was trying to teach Caviar Defog. Comfey knew Caviar, he was the most problematic out of everyone in the whole wide world and that wasn’t her Artist’s influence rubbing off on her. At the moment, he was being extraordinarily obedient, listening to Sunny even without treats being tossed his way. His keenness to learn was contrasted by Sunny’s wildly fluctuating motivation. One moment she was concentrating wholly on Caviar, and the next, she was squatting, face in hands, muttering how much easier it would have been with a TM.

  It was a long hour with, fortunately, no attacks, but eventually, it was time to move. Comfey rode on Buzzkill as he moved high on the canopy above the parasite's nest until he was directly over her Artist and the others. He crawled, face first, down the trunk, his hands not making a sound as they padded against the bark. When he was halfway to the ground, Comfey dropped, her vine trailing behind her, arresting her fall. She landed on Infernape and scrunched her face at the acid stench. Nothing she couldn’t fix with a bit of mint, pine, and time.

  It only took a small amount of the last too. Infernape awoke snapping her teeth, causing Comfey to jump back, but she was quick to take into account her surroundings. She guessed her role easily enough with a bit of help from Buzzkill, or maybe she was angry enough to want to cause destruction, but still restrained enough to move away from her companions. Either way, as the parasites were alerted to her waking, she strode with greatly long steps to the edge of the nest opposite to where Sunny and her team were waiting, and let loose with her fire. The flame on her head flared, and her feet and hands were covered in blazing gloves. She opened her attack with a Flamethrower gushing from her mouth, raising the temperature to the point that Comfey was uncomfortable.

  The distraction had mixed results. It succeeded in drawing the stronger Parasect to deal with Infernape, but the weaker Paras fled from her, directly towards Sunny as she ran to her captured friends. Comfey also returned her attention to her Artist. She needed proper scent surgery too.

  The parasites were quick to target her, but before any of them could reach her with their claws, Coral was protecting her with Wide Guard, her tentacles spread disturbingly long, forming a wall the Paras were unable to pass. Meanwhile, Hector was more than capable of attacking them from behind her. More precisely, after finding that Water Gun and Mud Shot did hardly anything to them, he started leaping out dishing out Slams to whichever Paras happened to be isolated and then retreating again.

  There was only so much they could do about the rising pollen and spores though. That was where Caviar came in. Defog was nowhere near mastered, or even practical in most cases. For the not-yet-thick clouds of stink, it was enough to thin them out, preventing the accumulation of toxins that had caught them unaware previously.

  The team worked together well, and Comfey’s Artist came to, gasping for breath. With wet eyes, she hugged Comfey despite her attempt to dodge the massive, sweeping arms. She protested, there were still more people to adequately perfume, and her Artist relented her assault.

  She switched over to Flaaffy. Meanwhile, the battlers, as good as they worked together, were being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. A Paras cut through Coral’s Wide Guard with a Slash, and three followed immediately after with Fury Cutters. Caviar swooped down to do damage control, but it meant he had to give up on his feeble attempts at Defog, and the spores were rising again. Comfey finished cleansing Flaaffy, not perfectly, but enough to fight. Her Artist was reluctant to send her to combat right away, but the moment of indecision was cut short by a Parasect throwing Rage Powder everywhere. The itchy dust tilted the battle straight into chaos as tempers flared and the strategic manoeuvring happening before devolved into an all-out brawl.

  Comfey was also hit, but she continued on her quest regardless. As nasty as the stuff was, wounds smelled worse. It didn’t make sense to cause them. She couldn’t see what everyone else enjoyed so much about fighting.

  She was working on Luca at the moment. Buzzkill had gone to her side as soon as the fighting had started and was annoying Comfey to come to her. She didn’t pay him too much attention; she had her priorities.

  The spores and powders were once again creating a worrying smell, but a worse one was growing even faster. That of smoke and ash. Swarmed by the parasites, they had crowded around her and slashed her legs, deep cuts forcing her to her knees. In retaliation, she had swept through them with a Flamethrower which had spread further than she could control. The flames latched onto the surrounding dry wood, crackling through the area at an alarming speed. The parasites facing her were running now, and as she might have expected, they were adept at hiding, disappearing into the undergrowth, abandoning the nest. Sunny’s team fought back one last push, before the ones they were fighting followed suit. They didn’t have time to rest. Sunny switched their focus to quenching the fire, Caviar with Water Gun and Hector with Mud Shots. Everyone else tried dragging the still-incapacitated bodies of Luca and the other one her Artist was annoyed at. They were not doing well. It wouldn’t have been too much of a problem under normal conditions, but her Artist was still recovering, and the last bit of pollution spread by the parasites was making every movement a struggle.

  As the heat crept forward, Comfey finally managed to bring back Luca to consciousness. Even dazed as she was, it didn’t take long for her to scramble up upon seeing the flames bearing down on them. Just as Comfey was wondering if it was too late, and she should probably run after all, Hector wooped bravely, flared his gills, and the telltale glow of evolution came over him.