Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or its characters and place names, but in the spirit of fanfiction I own this story and the characters I created around it.
This story is rated teen since they should be responsible enough not to look at my other stories.
This is a short story spinoff of my Sabrina's Journal series. Since this story involves ten-year old beginning trainers, it will not have lemons except as soda.
Carnival
Carnival: There is usually a boring reason while adults set up a carnival, but to ten year olds like Sammy and Tabitha that doesn't matter. What matters is fun: Fun food, fun rides and fun games. Sammy was a Camper since his sister was a Picnic Girl and he had to go along. They were miles from home and taking a break on their Pokemon Journey. Correction: Tabitha was taking a break; Sammy had the fulltime job of looking after his sister. One of Sammy's duties was to look after Tabitha's finances, since she thought of money like air: breathe in - get more.
Sammy bought his sister her favorite treat: sugar. Form and flavor was immaterial. So they walked through the festival grounds as she ate her cotton candy. Tabitha stopped and stared at a wall. Sammy knew that Tabitha saw something with her mind. He peeked around the wall and found a display of prizes: Stuffed animals, Pokemon figures, Poke blocks and a few Pokeballs.
"That one is lonely," she said out loud when Sammy returned his attention to her.
He led his sister by the hand around the wall so she was facing the display. Sammy sighed heavily then read, "9999. That's a lot."
"I owe you more than that," she pointed out.
"That 9999 is in tokens not Pokedollars. In Pokedollars that comes to 499,950."
"Oh." After a momentary pause she asked, "Should I call mom for the money?"
"You can't call your mother every time you want money."
"You won't loan me the money," she argued.
"Earn it," grumped back her brother, and keeper.
"Excuse me sir? Where can I earn enough tokens for that one?" Samantha asked the clerk.
"You could enter the Pokemon Battle," offered the man. He pointed the way to the battle area.
"Thank you," she chirped and marched off to battle.
"Tabitha!" Sammy called as he chased his sister.
"I gotta win that Pokemon," she declared.
The pair soon found the end of a long line of trainers who wanted to enter the battle.
"What Pokemon are you going to enter?" asked the girl in front of Tabitha.
"My Butterfree and Riolu."
"Don't you have a third Pokemon? You need three, you know."
"Sammy?"
"I left my Pokemon at the Pokemon Center."
"We have a winner!" called out the barker at a booth.
Tabitha drifted out of the line a crept up on the 'winner'. She was wearing yellow and black themed clothes and throwing baseballs. Next to the woman was a girl younger than Tabitha, she was standing on a stool.
The woman placed some tokens on the counter and was given three baseballs. She threw the baseballs at stacked milk bottles. When she knocked some over, she was given a pile of tokens.
"Can I play this game Sammy?"
The woman looked down at Tabitha, who had crowded her way onto the stool with her daughter.
"You're butting in," thought Sammy.
"Excuse me," apologized Tabitha. "May I play too?"
The woman picked up her daughter and sat her down on the counter that separated the throwers from the targets.
"Thank you."
Sammy gave some tokens and Tabitha got three baseballs. She picked up one with both hands.
The Electrabuzz woman demonstrated to Tabitha a split finger grip.
Tabitha's hands weren't big enough for the grip, but the cotton candy residue glued the ball in place. The woman took a moistened towelette from her bag and offered it to Tabitha. "My name is Casey."
"Thank you Ms. Casey," replied Tabitha as she cleaned her hands.
The barker was about to bark at them to hurry up, but Casey shot him a glance.
Tabitha turned her left side to the target, held the ball to her chest with both hands and then asked, "What should I hit? I want a lot of tokens for that Pokemon."
"Start with the stack of bottles."
Tabitha threw her ball like an Aura Sphere. It hit the back stop hard, but below the target.
"She how low the ball hit? Aim that much higher," instructed Casey.
Tabitha did as she was instructed and knocked over two of the three bottles.
"Don't I get any tokens?"
"You have to knock over all three in one throw," instructed the barker.
"So you have to hit between the bottom bottles," conspired Casey.
Tabitha nodded, aimed and brought down a stack of three bottles. The barker gave her less tokens than her brother put down.
Sammy peeked over the edge of the counter and said, "You're losing money, not making it."
"Bong!" chimed the metal milk canister at the end of the range as a baseball bounced of it.
"Is that worth more?" asked Tabitha.
"Yes, but you have to hit it really hard to knock them over." Casey wound up and launched a fast ball at the metal targets. They rang in protest and the top can swayed and shifted back in place.
"Sammy!" Tabitha mentally pleaded.
Sammy put more tokens on the counter.
Tabitha took a ball and focused her strength. She launched again; the baseball hit the dirt floor. She aimed higher and knocked off the top container, to the shock and applause of the on lookers.
"Pay up," ordered Casey. The barker put down a pile of tokens.
"Is that enough?" Tabitha asked her brother.
He just shook his head.
"Again please," she asked of the barker.
The barker and his assistant lifted the canister back in place.
Sammy noted an air of skepticism and distrust in the crowd.
Tabitha launched again and struck between the two bottom canisters. The top canister hopped up and bounced off. The bottom two shifted a few centimeters.
"Again please," she asked once again.
All eyes were on the little girl. The canisters were placed again. Tabitha gathered all her inner strength. The stepstool creaked under her force. The baseball shot out of her hands like a cannonball and hit the canisters. The bottom two flew apart and crashed into boxes of prizes; the top fell straight down and landed squarely on its base.
"Um sorry, but it didn't fall over," replied the barker in a way that meant he wasn't really sorry. "But two out of three is very good. Would you like this full sized Snorlax Doll?"
"I want 9999 tokens so I can have the Pokemon," replied Tabitha.
"Sorry but two cans is only good for 1000 tokens."
"Again please," she asked as she readied another shot.
Casey peeked around the edge of the throwing range, behind were trees and shrubs. She motioned for people to get out of the way. Many were flocking to the rumors of a little girl with a powerful throw.
"Again please," asked Tabitha and the stepstool creaked and popped.
"Come on, a thousand tokens is a good haul. You should let someone else have a turn." The barker looked to the other players for support.
The crowd called out as one, "Again please."
Three minutes, and much grunting, later the metal canisters were restacked. Some people in the crowd were seeking shelter; others were trying to get a better view. Casey held her daughter and shielded her from potential collateral damage.
"Your eyes are glowing," Sammy mentally noted.
"I can't help it," Tabitha replied mentally. The assistant dived over the counter and covered his head with his hands. The baseball left Tabitha's hands. The back of the throwing range exploded, while Tabitha's stepstool collapsed. Sammy moved his sister away two seconds before a canister made a small crater in her place.
"Is that worth 9999 tokens?"
"That's not humanly possible," muttered the barker. "Most Pokemon can't do that."
The miracle that the crowd wanted to witness became something unnatural.
"No human can do that," muttered the barker.
"I'm sorry," replied Tabitha. "Do I win enough tokens?"
"You must have cheated," accused the barker. "You secretly used your Pokemon."
"They're resting in their Pokeballs."
"Nobody could have knocked over those canisters!" insisted the barker.
"Because you loaded, 'each one with 50 kilograms of lead shot to absorb the impact and make them so bottom heavy that they are guaranteed to stand up'?" she quoted from his mind.
"Exactly!" he agreed before he realized that he said it. "You were reading my mind!"
"Is that against the rules?"
"It should be!"
The crowd was weighing the agreements of a cheating midway barker, with a cheating psychic.
Casey took Tabitha's side and said, "She knocked down your targets with her own ability so she wins; unless you want to discriminate against a little girl."
"She'll have to pay for damages."
Casey picked up a fallen sign which read, "Not responsible for injury of damages caused by playing these games."
"It cuts both ways," mentioned Casey in a sing-song voice, which drew some laughter from the crowd.
"Fine!" replied the barker. He slammed a bag of tokens on the counter; then pulled down a shutter that said, "Closed."
Tabitha was gathering her tokens together while Casey asked Sammy, "Are you okay?"
The crowd was starting to disperse and with them the tension that gripped Sammy.
As his breathing became normal he nodded.
"Sammy, can you count this for me?"
Numbers, counting, math: relaxing distractions. Sammy stirred the pile of tokens, counted sample stacks, estimated the volume and replied, "7625 tokens, give or take… three."
Tabitha knocked on the shutter. "Excuse me, I need to win some more."
"Go away: we're closed."
Casey looked around: word had spread down the midway and the other barkers glanced their way. One barker repositioned a sign that claimed they had the right to refuse service to anyone.
"I don't think anyone else wants to let you play," observed Casey.
"Why not?"
"Because you break things," answered Sammy.
"How am I gonna get the Pokemon?"
"Which Pokemon?" asked Casey a bit concerned.
"The lonely one over there," answered Tabitha.
The tokens were gathered into the bag and little band marched back to the prize tent. Casey introduced her daughter, Ashley, to the others.
"That one," mentioned Tabitha as she pointed to the Pokeball that formed the period of a big red and white question mark. The drone behind the counter poured the tokens into a counter which churned through the coins and displayed, "7623."
"Not enough," grunted the drone.
Casey added her tokens to the pile.
"7709."
"You said that Pokemon was lonely…"
"I said to it, 'Nice day.' It said, 'What is day?' I told it about the people and the sun. It was sad because it can't remember the sun."
"What?" asked Casey in her shock.
"Tabitha, we're supposed to keep our abilities secret," Sammy mentally reminded his sister.
"Hey you: call the manager," Casey demanded of the drone.
"Why?"
"Because you have a Pokemon being kept in cruel and unusual conditions, which is a clear violation of the law."
"So?"
"Wrong answer!" barked Casey. "Bring the manager here, now, because I'm calling the Police and the local Pokemon Center to report Pokemon Abuse." Casey had her phone in hand and made the call.
Enough brain cells worked for the drone to grab his radio and call for the manager. The tension built and took its toll on Sammy.
"Turn off your Future Sight," Tabitha whispered to Sammy as she rubbed his back.
"I have to keep you out of trouble," he whispered back.
"Officer Jenny will be here soon," Casey said to assure Sammy. "Let us take care of this."
Three minutes later there was a shouting match between Casey and the midway manager. Five minutes after that Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy arrived and the tide turned in Tabitha's favor. But the baseball range owner and several other barkers showed up to lend their opposition to Tabitha.
Sammy curled up into a ball and tried to shut out the world.
"?" asked the Pokemon.
"Nurse Joy is scanning your Pokeball," explained Tabitha with her telepathy.
"This Pokemon hasn't been let out in three years!" exclaimed Nurse Joy. "I need to treat it immediately."
"You're not taking that Pokeball without a court order," argued some man in a suit.
"I can seize this Pokemon pending an investigation into Pokemon abuse," shot back Officer Jenny.
"Why can't I just have it?" asked Tabitha.
"Because you don't have the tokens!" sneered the barker.
Casey dug in her pocket and found a spare token. She tossed it onto the pile. "I think that any Pokemon would be better off in her hands, than theirs," said Casey to the gathered crowd.
"I was a Picnic Girl once," claimed a woman in the crowd who walked up and put some tokens on the pile.
An overweight man joked, "I'm not supposed to eat their cookies, but I still want to help." He put in a handful of tokens.
Several more did until the token counter maxed out at 9999. With a greasy smile, the manager handed Tabitha a very dusty Pokeball. Tabitha released the Pokemon inside.
"A Porygon," observed Joy as she scanned the other Pokeballs.
The Pokemon blinked against the unfamiliar sun then grew nervous from the crowd. Tabitha patted the Pokemon as she mentally assured it, "We're going to go the Pokemon Center and make you better."
Nurse Joy led Casey and crew to her jeep while she carried the other prize Pokeballs.
The man in the suit wanted to argue, but Jenny threatened to arrest him for hindering an investigation.
Once clear of the carnival, Sammy regained his wits.
After a check-up at the Pokemon Center, Porygon was carted out to Tabitha and Sammy in the waiting room. "Porygon is going to take a few weeks to recover from the isolation. I don't know if you know what that means."
Tabitha stared at Joy.
"Porygon will probably be afraid to return to the Pokeball. It may also suffer from a mental trauma and not know how to interact with other Pokemon or respond to you as a trainer. I think it would be best if Porygon spent time in foster care to be rehabilitated. We could transfer him to you when he's better."
Tabitha briefly turned to Porygon, the back to Nurse Joy. "Porygon doesn't want to leave me," explained Tabitha. "I made a promise to let Porygon out of its Pokeball. He doesn't want to go back."
"He won't be put into the Pokeball," Nurse Joy explained.
"Porygon stays with me," replied Tabitha flatly.
"Because Porygon was involved in an abuse case, I have the authority to take him," explained Nurse Joy without her usually cheeriness.
"Call my mom. I'll do what she says."
"May I have your Pokedex?"
Tabitha handed over the Pokedex. Nurse Joy opened it and said, "Your registration is incomplete: you don't have a last name entered."
"I don't have one."
Nurse Joy sighed as she walked to the videophones. She inserted the Pokedex and accessed the phone number of, "Mom."
"Yes princess? Nurse Joy, where's my daughter Tabitha?" replied the dark haired woman in the video.
"She's right here."
"Hi mom."
"Is Sammy alright?"
"He got scared by the crowds but he's fine."
Nurse Joy interrupted and explained her case for putting Porygon into foster care.
"Porygon wants to stay with me," argued Tabitha.
"If Porygon has made a connection with Tabitha it would hinder progress with any therapy foster care could provide," stated the woman.
"Your daughter may have the best of intentions, but does she have the skills to deal with Porygon?"
Tabitha's mother sighed. She tapped some buttons in the foreground and disappeared from view. She reappeared standing next to Tabitha. "Hello?" asked Nurse Joy of the video link.
"Hello there. You are the first Porygon I've met. My name is Sabrina. I'm Tabitha's mom."
Nurse Joy spun around in her chair. When she saw Sabrina, Nurse Joy fell out of her chair.
"The darkness is in the past. Now you can see the world as Tabitha sees it. Sunshine filled days and nights full of stars and dreams of candy."
"Mom," whined Tabitha.
Porygon beamed with joy.
"What did you see in Nurse Joy's mind?" Sabrina mentally asked.
"Take it easy. Don't train too hard for a few weeks. Keep Porygon out of the Pokeball," Tabitha mentally listed.
"What she didn't realize is that Porygon also has rejection issues," Sabrina mentally continued.
"Really?"
"Don't let Porygon out of your sight."
"Is that why Porygon stayed in the Pokeball? I mean some Pokemon leave their Pokeball if abandoned, but Porygon never did."
"Porygon believed that he had the perfect, loving trainer waiting outside. You have to prove Porygon correct."
"Yes ma'am."
To Nurse Joy, Sabrina said, "I'm sorry to say that your diagnosis of Porygon is incorrect. If we could talk in private…?"
Nurse Joy led Sabrina to another room.
They returned moments later. "You're free to take Porygon, but I want Porygon to get regular checkups," instructed Nurse Joy in hopes of establishing some authority for herself.
"Yes ma'am."
Defeated, Nurse Joy walked off to deal with another patient.
"Mom?"
"Yes?"
"Can I have some money for two bikes and a trailer for Porygon? And three months allowance to pay back Sammy?"
Sabrina looked to Sammy who was sleeping on the couch and smiled.
"You put your big brother through a lot don't you?"
"He's scared of crowds," explained Tabitha.
"No; he is scared for you since you're so fearless," explained Sabrina. "Take Porygon out to see the stars, but don't go far. I'm going to put Sammy to bed."
Tabitha pushed the cart and skipped along as she took Porygon outside to see the world anew.