Potions and Heals
Purpose
The purpose of potions and heals is to heal injury and medical conditions inflicted on a pokemon, typically occurring in the course of battle.
Operation
Potions and heals are manufactured by a number of companies. In general, companies which produce potions farm specific herbs, grind them to particles, and mix them in with water and their own brand of dermal solvents. Heals are made in much the same way, although they use Berry juice instead of herbs. When applied topically, the dermal solvent in the concoction mildly melts the skin of the pokemon, allowing the medical component to seep into the upper bloodstream and be distributed at a high rate.
Both potions and heals typically come encased in spray bottles, with the potion bottles generally having a curved and smooth outline while the heal bottles are more ovoid and have an atomizor nozzle. Generally, a bottle can be filled and refilled with up to ten 'uses' of the associated potion or heal. However, the Max Potion and its related product, the Full Restore, are packed with herbs enough to fully heal an injured pokemon; this comes at the cost of having any water component; in order to keep the dermal solvent from melting the container, the Max Potion and Full Restore are cased in thick glass with metal spray nozzles.
History
Ever since Pokemon have been cared for by humans, there has been a need to heal injuries and conditions that threatened their survival. Originally this was handled by giving them berries and herbs after every battle, or at large 'berrymarts' with the available necessities. However, there were a number of problems with this approach; pokemon disliked the taste of herbal medicines, which would prevent them from trusting their trainer and in specific cases even from evolving. The berrymarts might not have the right berries or herbs in stock for the job, and could be run by exploitive individuals. And there was the risk that a pokemon could die before their trainer brought them the medicine they needed.
One of the early tasks of the Pokemon league was determining how to solve this issue, and they opened their tables to suggestions from all pokemon trainers. Initially they used injection needles to directly pump the medical substances into the pokemon's bloodstream; some pokecenters still do as they lack the support for more modern methods. This still left trainers reliant on going into town to heal their pokemon and also upset the pokemon themselves. However, one trainer who specialized in the poison type stepped forward with the idea to use the acid of his Arbok to melt the skin above the blood vessels; a mixture of the proper proportions, he argued, would not only neutralize the damage of the acid but also heal the pokemon of other injuries. After cautious tests involving balancing the component substances properly, the pokemon league developed a topical 'potion' that could be carried by trainers and applied after battle; soon enough, businesses picked up the recipe and modified it into something that could be applied during battle with a quick spritz, as well as many variants on the basic ingredients that had various affects.
Controversy
The simple fact of the matter is that potions and heals both melt pokemon skin, even if on a very small and easily fixed level. An improperly balanced batch can be much more dangerous, as the herbs or berry juices cannot counter the damage and a pokemon can be left with horrific injury. While the pokemon league does its best to regulate and monitor all potion and heal production, there exists a constant underground of 'homemade' mixtures that promise great advantage but might be incredibly dangerous. This means there is a constant group that wishes to pull potions and heals from the market; while they usually remain at a low count, a recent Rotom Explosion video leaked to the internet has riled them up more than usual.
In the battling scene, there is debate as to the 'proper' use of potions. Experienced trainers have been beaten by a newbie who just happens to be rich enough to afford multiple Max Potions, and some of them have declared it to be cheating or buying their way to victory. While there is some legitimacy behind their arguments, simply banning the use of any potions or heals while in battle is generally considered not a good idea. The pokemon league usually takes a hands off approach to this argument, claiming that it is up to the trainers to work out an agreement beforehand.
There has also been multiple reports of various heal-making companies filing lawsuits against small restaurants against the world, as their foods use berry juice to produce effects similar to a Full Heal at a fraction of the cost. Generally, these are smaller heal-making companies that want to 'muscle in' on the market; they usually lose the lawsuit on the ground that the restaurant sells the food based on taste, not effect. However, Silph Co. successfully sued the makers of the Rage Candy Bar of Johto's Mahogany town; this show of force pushed the Rage Candy Bar to underground production and temporarily discouraged all restaurant owners in the region from making any berry-based products.
Variants
- Potions: Mixtures of herbal medicines, mild acids, and water intended to heal pokemon.
- Potion: The basic and original potion. The herbal and acidic components are very highly diluted, giving the mixture a purplish coloration, and the potion is generally considered a 'quick patch' that can, nevertheless, give an edge in lower-tier battles. Primarily, their advantage is in their relative cheapness; the potion recipe is tried and true, and so manufacture is very easy. This means that the average trainer can fill their bottle after only a single battle and still have money left over.
- Super Potion: With a higher concentration of herbal and acidic components, the Super Potion has a more reddish color and can neutralize the damage of some attacks entirely. However, their power makes them more costly, as properly balancing a super potion is somewhat more delicate than an ordinary potion. Most trainers use the potion only when necessary and will spend a whole pokebattle's worth of cash to fill their bottle.
- Hyper Potion: Long assumed to be the best potion that could be made, the Hyper Potion is less than one in twenty parts water and has a pinkish coloration. As could be expected, the process of making such a concoction is fairly dangerous, and Hyper Potion creators must undergo several regulation checks before putting their product on the market. The result is incredibly expensive but, as Hyper potions can bring pokemon from the edge of death to decent battling health, many trainers claim it's worth it.
- Max Potion: Recently developed by Silph Co., who still retains the patent rights, the Max Potion packs acid and herbs together with a numbing agent and has almost no water in its composition. The resultant blue mixture melts through most plastics, so it is packaged in glass chambers with metallic pump nozzles. This, in addition to the process of creating the mixture, drives the price up to exorbitant levels; however, the Max Potion has demonstrably been shown to heal all injuries of a pokemon, although it does not neutralize dangerous conditions, so the expense is considered to be justified by those who use it.
- Heals: Mixtures of berry juices and mild acids intended to neutralize dangerous conditions pokemon are suffering. Each 'heal' has both its official term and a common slang term.
- Poison Heal, or Antidote: Made from Pecha Berry juice and mild acidic components, the Poison Heal (or as it's often called, Antidote) is a yellow concoction that can can neutralize most known poisons in a pokemon's system. Because of the number of pokemon that can poison a trainer's partners, Antidotes are ratcheted down in price to make them easily available to trainers.
- Paralyze Heal, or Grounding: Made from Cheri Berry juice and mild acidic components, the Paralyze Heal (sometimes called Grounding) is a lime-colored mixture that neutralizes the charge of excess internal electric energy, allowing the pokemon to regain control of itself. This Heal is slightly cheaper than other heals, for legal reasons relating to the high propensity of electric types in the vicinity of most towns.
- Sleep Heal, or Awakening: Made from Chesto Berry juice and mild acidic components, the blue Sleep Heal (often called Awakening) sends a jolt of energy through the pokemon that will wake them from any slumber. While this is useful in battle, abuse of this Heal to wake pokemon who are just resting can result in aggravation.
- Burn Heal, or Extinguish: Made from Rawst Berry juice and a mild acidic component, the green Burn Heal (sometimes called Extinguish) causes all burning flesh on a pokemon to 'gel', for lack of a better term, which robs the flame of fuel. This gelling is only temporary and quickly fades; it does not treat the actual burns, despite the Burn Heal's name.
- Ice Heal, or Defrosting: Made from Aspear Berry juice and a mild acidic component, the pink Ice Heal (sometimes called Defrosting) can not only melt through a coating of ice, but also cause a pokemon's body temperature to temporarily increase enough that the ice on them shatters in a dramatic fashion. Some pranksters in snowy places use Ice Heal to write out graffiti in the snow.
- Full Heal: A delicate balance of all the above heals, the Full Heal is able to remove any and all conditions. The concoction itself is goldish in color; Full Heal makers emphasize this with a shinier spray nozzle. Given the number of components and difficulty in creating the mixture, Full Heals are more than twice as costly as an ordinary heal.
- Full Restore: Following the creation of the Max Potion, Silph Co. sought to improve on the mix by extracting berry juices and injecting them into the concoction. The result became known as the Full Restore, a bright green liquid that can heal a pokemon entirely. Like the Max Potion, the Full Restore is too acidic to contain in ordinary plastics; the glass chamber and metallic nozzle of the Max Potion was reused, although the Full Restore nozzle is bronzed in a mimicry of the Full Heal nozzles. It is currently the most expensive potion or heal on the market.
Written by Masterweaver
