Snap!
A chill went down Nurse Joy's spine when she heard the noise.
'Did they find me?' she thought.
Since she traveled to multiple islands all year round to provide free medical care for local people and Pokemon, she was very familiar with the surrounding area.
The island she was currently on was located between Navel Island and Kinnow Island. It was uninhabited, and she only used it as a resting point. No one else would come here usually.
She took out a camera from her bag, took out the memory card, and then threw the camera on a tree, breaking it.
After that, her face became much paler. She slowly sat down and buried the memory card in the ground.
She knew she couldn't get away with her current condition. The group who was searching for her would find her soon.
Then, she pulled Chansey into her embrace.
"I'm sorry, Chansey," she cried loudly.
She couldn't imagine what would happen if Chansey fell into their hands.
"Chansey!"
Chansey also hugged her tightly, sobbing.
Meanwhile, Hisoka was following the footprints into the forest. Luckily for him, the trail was still visible even after they reached the depth of the forest.
"Chansey!"
He was just about to step forward when he suddenly heard a cry, followed by an egg flying toward him.
'Egg Bomb!' he thought, shocked.
He hurriedly dodged to the right side as the Egg Bomb missed its target. Thankfully, Gardevoir managed to catch it before it fell to the ground.
As a trainer, who owned a Chansey, he knew the effect of this move pretty well. As long as it collided with a hard object, it would explode immediately. Its power was quite powerful.
Gardevoir then waved her hand, throwing the Egg Bomb away from her.
"Nurse Joy?" Hisoka murmured in surprise.
Chansey stood up in front of Nurse Joy bravely. She yelled loudly and waved her hand away. It was as if she was warning him not to approach.
Gardevoir narrowed her eyes and said, "That person is injured."
'How did she get injured?' he thought, walking over to her. "Err. Do you need any help?"
"Who are you?" Nurse Joy asked warily.
Hearing that, he relaxed his hand in surrender and said, "Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you."
She then observed him closely. Indeed, Hisoka's current attire was different from the one who chased her just now
"Who are you, and why are you on this island," she asked coldly. Without confirming his identity, she did not dare to be careless.
"You need help," she pointed out.
"Answer my question!" she asked loudly.
Hisoka waved his hands again and again, "Alright! Alright! Relax! I'm Hisoka, the gym leader of Dark City."
"Hisoka? Gym leader? A hunter to boot?"
Nurse Joy looked at him weirdly and said, "Since you are a gym leader, who you become a hunter?"
"Why can't I become a gym hunter as well as a hunter? He retorted.
"Nevermind.," Nurse Joy said helplessly. T
Suddenly, she coughed repeatedly.
Hisoka hurried to her, "You need to get to go to the hospital!"
Nurse Joy smiled, "It's fine. I know my current state. If it wasn't for Chansey, I'm afraid I would have already passed out."
After that, she removed her hand, revealing a huge scar on its body.
Hisoka frowned in response. If all his equipment was here, he might still be able to perform emergency first aid. Unfortunately, he had left his bag at the Hunter Association HQ.
Nurse Joy was seriously injured. If she was not sent to the hospital for treatment immediately, it would bring danger to her life.
Most of Chansey's healing skills worked only for physical injury unless she evolved into a Blissey and mastered the most powerful healing skill, Healing Wish. Only then would Nurse Joy be able to recover.
The drawback of using Healing Wish was that it was too demanding. A Pokemon would have to consume all his strength to use Healing Wish. Only a Blissey with a strong resilience could master it without any problems.
"What happened to you?" Hisoka asked.
"I was attacked by a group of poachers while trying to take some pictures for evidence," Nurse Joy explained.
"Poachers?" he questioned.
"That's right." she nodded, "If you don't believe me, I still have the pictures with me. But I thought you were with them before, so I broke the camera and hid the memory card here."
As she said that, she took the memory card, from where she had buried it in the ground, and handed it to him.
"Please help me keep it. You need to leave this island quickly and call the police."
"No, I'm not going to leave you," he said firmly.
"You said that the poacher didn't care whether the captured Pokemon was alive or not, right? That's weird. Poachers wouldn't hurt Pokemon at all. Who would buy them? And don't forget the punishment for killing Pokemon is much more severe than poaching," he added.
Nurse Joy shook her head and sighed, "Anway, you should leave. They will catch up soon."
'Looks like I have to take the retest later,' he smiled wryly.
If he left the island without authorization, he would be automatically disqualified from the exam. Nonetheless, he couldn't leave her here alone. Besides, the people who were chasing her was going here anyway. He might as well leave the island with her.
"Don't worry. I won't leave you. Here, let me carry you," Hisoka said, gently lifted her up and carried her toward the beach.
"Thank you," she said gratefully.
She knew that Hisoka came to participate in the hunter exam. She was touched that he was willing to give up the exam to save her.
***
"Captain, I found something here."
On the beach, a few men wearing uniform black and white striped short sleeves, and blue trousers, walked towards the place where Hisoka found the footprints.
The captain was a strong man with a beard. He looked about thirty years old with a muscular body.
"Sure enough. This is their footprints."
After he took a closer look, he let out a smile.
"That Nurse Joy is quite smart. She left her rowboat and swam toward the island," he laughed.
"Then what do we do now?" asked one of the men.
The captain glanced at him and said, "Notify the team members who are searching at the other islands to gather here. I want them to search the whole island!"
"Yes, Captain."
"Are they the ones that attacked you?" Hisoka carried Nurse Joy on his back, hiding in the bushes while observing the man patrolling along the beach.
The reason he came back here was to clean up his tracks, but he didn't expect them to move so fast.
"Yeah," Nurse Joy nodded and pointed to the muscular guy. "He's the one who attacked me.
Hisoka thought for a moment as he looked at the skull-like symbol on the man's bandana.
'Team Aqua?' he thought.
Team Aqua was one of the two illegal forces in the Hoenn region, the other being Team Magma.
Their main goal was to return the world to a state for Pokemon by awakening the legendary Pokemon to wipe out human civilization and return the world to its beginnings so that Pokemon can live untainted by humanity's progress.
Only the way they wanted to do it was different. Team Aqua wanted to awaken Kyougre, while Team Magma wanted to awaken Groudon. Regardless, both of them were madmen, in his opinion.
"They are not poachers," he said coldly. "These guys are Team Aqua!"
"Team Aqua?" Nurse Joy asked in a puzzled manner.
"Team Aqua is basically the same as Team Rocket, except they operated in Hoenn," he explained.
"Then why did they come to the Orange Islands," she asked.
The Orange Islands and the Hoenn region were separated by two oceans. It would take more than a week to cross the large distance.
"There are two possibilities!" he explained.
"First, they might be looking for something in the Orange Islands. Second, they were hired by someone else."
"What should we do now?" she asked in fear.
There were many people on the other side. This uninhabited island was not large, and there were no good places to hide. Team Aqua would find them sooner or later.
"Wait!" he replied.
"Wait?" Joey wanted to refute. She felt that they should take this opportunity to leave the island quickly and confront Team Aqua head-on. But she was worried that she would become a burden to Hisoka.
She didn't want Hisoka to die here for her own sake. Most of all, she felt that Team Aqua wasn't going to let them go either. She would at least be happy if Hisoka survived.
"They are also waiting," Hisoka said with a smile. "That guy is waiting for support to arrive. After that, they would start to search the island thoroughly."
Hearing that, Nurse Joy's eyes became firm. He looked at Hisoka and said, "Just leave me here. And take my Chansey too. They are looking for me. They know nothing about you."
"Don't worry. I'll find a way to get us both out of here," Hisoka assured her.
***