Note: For reference, this story takes place right after Ash wins the Marsh badge.
Sabrina's Reform.
Ash stared down at his Marsh Badge and grinned to himself. Misty, walking next to him down the road out of Saffron City, looked over at him.
"Ash? Um, shouldn't you be looking where you're going?" she asked. Ash didn't seem to even notice.
"A Marsh Badge..." he murmured under his breath, still smiling.
Misty rolled her eyes. "Yes, Ash, it's a Marsh Badge," she said. "And it's going to stay a Marsh Badge no matter how long you stare at it!"
Ash looked up from his Badge long enough to glare at Misty. "Well, excuse me!" he said. "You're just jealous, anyway." Ash put the badge away, smirking to himself. "I'd like to see Gary get a Marsh Badge. He wouldn't stand a chance against Sabrina!"
"Neither did you," Misty pointed out. "If it wasn't for Haunter, we'd all be dolls right now."
"Well, yeah, but..."
"In fact," Misty said, tapping a finger against her chin as if realizing something, "If Gary's already passed through this way, he had to have defeated Sabrina!"
Ash winced. "Uh... well, I guess..." Misty grinned evilly.
"He probably didn't even need a Ghost Pokémon to win!" she went on.
Brock, who had been bringing up the rear, thinking to himself, abruptly walked up to the others.
"Since we're on the subject of Sabrina," Brock cut in, looking off into the distance, "don't you think it was sad, the way she couldn't let her emotions show?"
"I think it was sad the way she kept putting us in dollhouses," Misty grumbled.
Pikachu voiced an affirmative-sounding "chuuu".
Brock frowned at the two of them. "Have a little sympathy!" he said. "It must have been terrible for her, having to keep her love for me bottled up inside!"
There was a pause.
"What?" Brock looked at the others. "Why's everybody staring at me?"
*****
Meanwhile, a ways ahead of Ash and the others, Jessie and James were digging a pit in the road.
Team Rocket liked to dig pits. They were simple; they were straight- forward. You had a shovel, there was ground underneath you, and you dug. The ground didn't Thundershock you while you were trying to dig. If you chose to recite the official Team Rocket motto, it waited patiently for you to finish. And if a pit didn't work, you weren't really any worse off than you started.
In fact, there was really only one thing wrong with pits...
"I'm tired!" James complained, brushing his blue hair back from his face with one hand.
"How much deeper does this stupid hole need to be?" Jessie leaned on her shovel. "My beautiful face is getting smudged! It's almost criminal!"
"We *are* criminals, Jessie."
"Shut up, James."
Meowth looked down into the pit.
"Do you want to get that Pikachu or not?" he asked. "If we're going to get to the top of Team Rocket, we have to work for it!" Meowth glared down at them in what he liked to think was a stern and leaderlike manner. It wasn't.
Jessie glared back up at him. "New plan," she said, throwing down her shovel. "How about if I stand up there making small talk and *you* dig!"
"We've done enough digging. I quit," James said, starting to climb out. "When are they going to be coming here, anyway?"
"They'll get here when they get here, and---" Meowth's eyes popped open. "Meowth! Here they come! Climb up! Climb up!"
"Hey, what about me? Who's going to help me up?"
"Hurry!"
"Quick, hide the pit!"
"Faster! They'll be able to see us soon!"
"Everybody hide!"
*****
"I'm telling you, there was definite chemistry there!"
Misty looked up at Brock doubtfully. "I don't know," she said. "Turning you into a doll doesn't really seem like a sign of love..."
Brock smiled knowingly. "Perhaps not to the untrained eye," he said. Brock liked to think of himself as an expert in the ways of love. It wasn't as if anybody else was going to. "Sabrina wasn't in full control of her mind while it was split into two bodies. It was the only way she could show her true feelings," Brock continued.
Misty stared at Brock for a second. "Oh," she said finally.
"Hey, what's that up ahead?" Ash said, pointing down the road. The others looked.
In the middle of the road, for no apparent reason, was a pile of leaves, spread across the ground. Ash and the others looked at it.
"Do you hear giggling in the bushes?" Misty asked.
"Let's walk around the leaves, " Brock suggested.
Ash nodded. "Good idea," he said.
They did.
*****
"Curses!" James said from his vantage point in the bushes. "How could they have known? Our plan was brilliant!"
Jessie glared down at Meowth. "Maybe if *somebody* wasn't laughing to himself the entire time..." she said.
"Well, excuse Meowth! Is it my fault I love it when a plan comes together?"
"It didn't come together," Jessie pointed out.
"Oh. Right." said Meowth.
James frowned, thinking. "If there was only some way we could catch them off-guard," he said. "Take them by surprise, ambush them, something... but they always seem to know when we're going to attack!"
"Well... we could always just not say the motto next time," Meowth suggested.
Jessie and James stared at him.
*****
"Pi, pika! Pikachu!"
"Okay, okay..." Ash smiled and gave Pikachu another piece of food. It had been getting late, so the group had decided to set camp for the night. Ash, Misty, and Brock were sitting around a campfire, and Pikachu was sitting on Ash's shoulder.
"How much farther to Celadon city?" Misty asked.
Brock shrugged. "Hard to say," he said. "I don't know this area; I normally don't have much of a chance to travel. It could be a while."
Misty sighed. "Wonderful..."
Brock looked at her. "This bike of yours must be awfully important to you, if you're willing to follow us around this long for it..."
Misty blinked. "Wha? Oh, yeah, right! Of course it is!"
Brock looked at Misty. Then he just shook his head and went back to his dinner; it was really none of his business.
*****
"I still don't feel right about this..."
"Just do it!" *****
Suddenly, a cloud of smoke enveloped the campsite where Ash and the others were sitting. Ash got to his feet, blinded and choking, and looked around.
"Is everybody alright?" he gasped out, coughing.
No response.
"Pikachu?" he asked. Still nothing. Ash was about to take out another Pokémon when Koffing slammed into his back, hard. Ash sprawled to the ground and didn't get back up.
Brock staggered out of the smoke screen, Pokéball in hand. This had to be Team Rocket again---it wasn't as if they had any other enemies. He wasn't too worried; they normally didn't attack without any kind of warning at all, but still, Onix alone would probably be enough to deal with them both.
Just as Brock was about to throw the Pokéball, though, an Ekans coiled around him. Brock fell to the ground, his arms pinned to his sides, coughing from the smoke.
Dimly, as the Ekans tightened its grip on him, Brock wondered what had happened to Ash and Misty. Then he passed out.
*****
When Koffing's smoke screen finally cleared, Ash, Brock, and Misty were sprawled unconscious in the middle of the road. Team Rocket looked down at them from their hiding place in the trees with mixed feelings.
Most people don't understand how vital the Official Team Rocket Motto is. To the casual observer, it seems to sound stupid and waste time. Which it does. The important thing, though, is that it's a stupid-sounding waste of time that *only Team Rocket has*.
Style is at least as important as substance, after all. On your own, you might seem to be a third-rate Pokémon trainer. Recite the Official Team Rocket Motto, however, and everybody within earshot will know that you're a third-rate member of Team Rocket, which is of course much better for dozens of reasons that can't really be put into words. Asking a member of Team Rocket to go into battle without reciting his motto isn't asking him to act as an agent of Team Rocket; it's asking him to wear a ridiculous outfit with an "R" emblazoned on the front and risk life and limb, or at least dignity, for very little pay. It just doesn't *feel* right.
"This really doesn't feel right," Jessie said, standing on one of branches and leaning against the trunk for balance. "I feel so... ordinary."
"I know," said James, obviously uncomfortable. "What are people going to think? What's the boss going to say?"
Meowth glared up at the two of them irritably. "Are you two gonna argue with success? It's not like any of your dumb ideas worked!"
"Well, no, but they were Official Team Rocket bad ideas!" James said. "This is different... it's like anybody could just capture Pikachu! Besides, what's even worse is---"
James suddenly made a strangled noise and doubled over, gasping. A weird, pale blue halo of light surrounded him.
Jessie edged away from him a little. "James?" she asked.
James gasped something, trying to speak. Then he rose ten feet into the air and was thrown violently into another tree.
James fell to the ground below. Jessie stared at him.
"So," said a cold, level voice directly behind Jessie. "This is the famous Team Rocket."
Jessie gulped, suddenly remembering what was so familiar about that blue light. She turned around.
There was a woman standing on empty air barely a yard away from her. Her eyes blazed with an inhuman yellow glow. Her body was outlined in the same blue light that James had been. Long, green hair swirled around her angrily; it almost looked alive itself.
Jessie gulped again. She started to reach for her Pokéball, then remembered that Ekans was still on the ground below.
The woman's eyes narrowed, just a little, and a bolt of mental force lashed out at Jessie, knocking her backwards. Jessie fell out of the tree, only semi-conscious, and hit the ground next to James.
Sabrina looked down on Team Rocket impassively. After watching them just long enough to be sure they weren't going to get back up, her gaze shifted to Ash, Pikachu, and the others. Koffing and Ekans were still there, probably wondering why their masters were taking so long. Something would have to be done about that.
A pokéball detatched itself from the woman's belt and floated into her hand.
"Come out, Kadabra."
*****
Brock was relaxing on a beach, leaning back in a lounge seat. Nurse Joy stood nearby, dressed in a much skimpier version of her usual nurse's outfit, ready and waiting to respond to his every command.
Brock didn't know which Nurse Joy it was. Brock didn't *care* which Nurse Joy it was.
"Would you like anything, Brock? Maybe something to eat or drink?" Nurse Joy gazed down at Brock adoringly.
Brock smiled. "No thanks, babe," he said in his best suave voice.
He paused. "Actually, I'm feeling kind of hot..."
"Oh, no! Here, let me fan you!" Joy hurried over to Brock's side, produced a large fan, and started to fan him with it, smiling lovingly at him the entire time.
Briefly, Brock wondered where she had gotten the fan from. Then he decided it was best not to focus on the little details.
"Would you like me to give you a back rub, Brock?" Jenny asked.
"Well, I don't want to be a bother..." said Brock.
"Oh, no," Jenny said, "it's no trouble at all! I want to do it! It's the least I can do for such a skilled, clever, brave, kind, sweet..."
"You forgot handsome," Joy said.
Jenny giggled.
"Yes," she agreed, "he's that, too!"
Brock sighed blissfully. "Life is good," he said.
Brock sat up and looked around, the same dopey grin plastered on his face; right then, Brock couldn't have stopped smiling if he tried. Joy and Jenny weren't the only girls with him, though they were his favorites. Just about every girl Brock had ever known was there. Jessie, technically his enemy, but still a very attractive girl. It was inevitable that she would succumb to his manly aura, Brock knew. Sabrina, his poor, repressed psychic. And James, with those charmingly feminine eyes, those beautiful blue bangs hanging over his face, and those silky smooth legs that looked so beautiful in a miniskirt... and...
And...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!
*****
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Brock sat up screaming.
Ash looked up hopefully and ran over to him. "Brock!" he said, look- ing relieved. "You're alright!"
Brock looked around wildly. No James? No James. Good.
Ash frowned. "Why're you shuddering like that?"
"I'm not shuddering!" Brock said, maybe a bit louder than he had intended to. Just a dream, just a dream...
Then Brock realized something didn't seem quite right.
"Wait... where's Team Rocket?" he asked. "I remember them attacking us, and then..." Brock shook his head. "Then Jessie's Ekans suffocated me. I was probably lucky to just get knocked unconscious!"
Ash shrugged helplessly.
"No clue," he said. "Their Pokémon were gone when I woke up. They didn't try to steal any of my Pokémon, either."
Brock checked his belt quickly. "Mine are all here, too. What about Misty?"
Ash's face darkened. "Misty... hasn't woken up yet."
Ash moved to the side a little. Behind him Brock could see Misty lying on the road, eyes closed, her face pale. Her breathing was shallow and uneven.
"I'm not sure what's wrong with her," Ash said, sounding unusually subdued. "I think she might have inhaled too much of Koffing's gas..."
Ash's voice trailed off.
"Ash!"
Ash and Brock turned around, startled. A young woman was walking towards them.
She had dark green, almost black hair that fell down to her waist, and wore a plain white dress. The expression on her face couldn't really be called a smile, though she did look pleased to see them, in an impersonal sort of way.
Pikachu shivered a bit and drew back, hiding behind Ash. Ash looked down at him in surprise.
Brock stared at what was obviously the most beautiful girl in the world, or at least the most beautiful girl in view, which was basically the same thing for him. He could have sworn he'd seen her before, though...
"I heard the scream, so I came back to make sure you were okay," the girl continued. She took a few steps closer, but stopped when Pikachu growled at her.
Ash looked between Pikachu and the girl, confused.
"Um, sorry," he said, "but do I know you?"
The girl stopped. "You mean, you don't recognize me?" she asked.
Ash shook his head. "You look kind of familiar," he said, "but..."
The girl smiled, just a bit, but there was no real warmth in it. "I'll... take that as a compliment," she said. She closed her eyes, and Ash felt a sudden emptiness in the pit of his stomach, and the ground dropped out from under his feet...
"Pika pi?"
Ash looked up at the twenty foot tall Pikachu sitting next to him. Then he looked up---and up---and UP---at the girl towering over Pikachu.
The girl opened her eyes. They were glowing yellow.
"Does this help?" Sabrina asked.
Brock, who had been staring the entire time, finally managed to find his voice.
"S... Sabrina?!" he said. "What are you doing here?"
Ash stared up at her with eyes that had become very, very, large. A small voice in his mind said that Sabrina was cured, and was now probably a very nice person who would never dream of stepping on him. The rest of his mind wasn't convinced.
"Um... would you mind changing me back now?" he asked.
"Oh, yes, of course," Sabrina said. She made a small, dismissive gesture with one hand, and Ash returned to his normal height in a soft pulse of blue light.
"Chuuu..." Pikachu said softly, obviously impressed.
"Thanks..." Ash said weakly, feeling a little queasy. He stumbled a bit.
"I'm sorry," Sabrina said, sounding sincerely concerned. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"Oh, yeah, sure!" Ash said nervously, backing away a bit. For a second, Ash thought Sabrina looked hurt, but it passed so quickly that he probably imagined it.
Then he noticed Brock was suddenly two feet away from Sabrina.
Sabrina looked at him.
"Um... yes?" she asked, edging away a bit.
"Sabrina! I mean... so, Sabrina," Brock said, in his most suave tone of voice. "We meet again. And I must say, that dress looks absolutely radiant on you..."
"Oh. I see." Sabrina looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"Thank you," she added after a moment.
Brock leaned forward, an expression on his face that could be called a leer if he was anyone else. He was Brock, though, and so it wasn't. Comparing Brock to an actual lecher was like comparing a kitten to a tiger; he wasn't really a pervert, because he simply wasn't good enough at it.
Ash stared in disbelief and waited for Brock to have his arms ripped off.
Sabrina looked at Brock, desperately trying to place a name to his face.
"Wait, I know you!" Sabrina said, relieved. "You're Ash's sidekick, right?"
The almost-leer slipped off of Brock's face.
"Sidekick?" he said.
"Right! Shock, isn't it?"
"...Brock. It's Brock."
"Oh." Sabrina at least had the grace to look embarassed.
"Pika chu pi..." Pikachu shook his head and looked away. Ash still couldn't completely understand Pikachu's speech, but he was pretty sure it wasn't anything complimentary.
"Hey, Sabrina," Ash cut in, desperate to change the subject, "what are you doing here, anyway?"
Sabrina hesitated.
"Well, I... I thought I'd keep an eye on you, for a little while," she said. "Make sure you were okay, I mean. So when Team Rocket attacked, I felt I should take a hand in things."
"Oh," said Ash. "Wow, that's... really nice of you."
Ash was used to Sabrina as a cold, merciless gym leader in thigh high black boots who mopped the floor with him and Pikachu every so often. He just wasn't used to her being... nice. A distant, aloof sort of nice, but still nice.
"Is something wrong?" Sabrina said. Ash realized she was still looking at him.
"No!" he said. "No, I'm fine! And... thanks. For rescuing us, I mean."
Sabrina smiled coolly at him.
Brock looked around, somewhat recovered from his latest failure with the opposite sex.
"Where is Team Rocket, anyway?" he wanted to know.
Sabrina looked around, too.
"They're right over... oh. That's strange," she said. "I left them in that corner over there..."
"Looks like Team Rocket blasted off again," said Ash.
Misty cried out in pain. Ash ran to her side.
"Misty!" he yelled. Misty shivered, still unconscious. She mumbled something weakly, too quietly to be heard, then fell silent again.
"She doesn't look very good," Brock said, looking over Ash's shoulder.
Sabrina flew over their heads, landed on the other side of Misty, and put her hand on Misty's forehead.
"She's burning up..." Sabrina said quietly.
Ash kneeled down in the dirt next to Misty. "Koffing poisoned her... I didn't realize she'd gotten so sick..."
Ash looked heartbroken.
Brock turned to Sabrina.
"Sabrina," he said, "you can teleport, can't you?"
Sabrina looked surprised by the sudden question, but nodded. "Yes," she said, "of course..."
"Then you can take us to a hospital, for Misty!" Brock went on.
Ash looked up at Sabrina. "Hey, that's right, you can!"
Sabrina looked between Ash and Brock. "I..."
Sabrina sighed. "Alright. I'll do it."
Carefully, she picked Misty up, cradling her in her arms.
"I can't take all of you, though," Sabrina said. "I don't dare put any more stress on Misty than I absolutely have to. It'd probably be best if the two of you stayed here---as soon as I'm sure she'll be okay, I'll come back for you."
Brock nodded. Ash got back to his feet.
"She'll be okay, right?" Ash asked. His eyes hadn't left Misty once.
Sabrina nodded, did her best to smile reassuringly, and faded away in a soft haze of blue light.
Silence.
Brock fidgeted awkwardly. Pikachu looked at Ash, worried.
"Pika pi?" Pikachu asked.
Ash didn't say anything.
Brock and Pikachu looked at each other.
Ash sank to the ground.
"This is all my fault," he said quietly. "Team Rocket was after me and Pikachu. If it wasn't for me, she'd be all right..."
"Ash, I..." Brock closed his mouth.
"Chuuu..." Pikachu moved a bit closer to Ash.
Ash didn't respond.
Suddenly, Brock felt an almost suffocating sense of responsibility. Brock had spent most of his life taking care of his little siblings. When his father had finally returned to take care of the family,and Brock left to travel the world with Ash, he thought of it as a new adventure; he didn't realize he was going to get a new little brother and sister in the bargain.
Ash stood up abruptly.
"Well, I'm not going to just stand around here and wait!" he said, one hand balled up into a fist. "C'mon, Pikachu! We're going back to Saffron City!"
Ash started to run. Brock stood up.
"Ash, you can't run all the way back to Saffron City!" Brock called after him. "Ash!"
Pikachu watched Ash run away, glanced back at Brock, and started to chase him. Brock sighed and ran after them.
*****
"*Now* do you see what happens when we don't say the motto?!"
Jessie glared at Meowth, a splitting headache from Sabrina's psy- beam putting her in an even worse mood than usual.
"Fine! Fine!" Meowth edged away from Jessie a bit; she was likely to turn violent when she was in a mood like this.
Jessie, James, and Meowth walked along the road and tried not to think too much about their latest crushing defeat. Limped down the road, actually, in Jessie and James' case.
James glared down at Meowth, too.
"If you had stayed and fought instead of running and hiding, we could have won!" he said.
"Ha! Get real! Why should I do stick my neck out because another one of your dumb schemes misfired?" said Meowth, looking away.
"It was your dumb scheme this time!" James shot back.
"Shut up, both of you!" Jessie snapped, limping towards a pay phone to one side of the road. "We've got to call the boss. We need to get reinforcements."
"Are you nuts?" Meowth demanded. "And let him know how we got our butts kicked again? He'll kill us!"
"We'll be *lucky* if he kills us," said James.
"We don't have any choice!" Jessie said, picking up the reciever and taking out a coin. "Now remember to sound confident!"
Jessie dialed in a number and waited for a few seconds.
"Hello, boss?" she said. "We have some important news to report, and a request..."
James could barely make out a voice speaking on the other end of the phone.
"But first," Jessie said, "the Team Rocket motto!" Jessie struck a dramatic pose. "Prepare for trouble!" she said.
Jessie held the phone out to James.
"Make it double," James supplied.
Jessie held the phone to her ear again.
"To protect the---"
Jessie winced and held the phone away from her ear.
"No motto! No motto!" Jessie shouted into the reciever desperately.
"We're gonna die," said Meowth.
Jessie shot him a glare.
"Um, boss?" Jessie tried again. "We've, um, kind of got a teency weency little problem... no, we still haven't captured Pika---"
Jessie flinched visibly. James snatched the phone away from her.
"It wasn't our fault this time!" he spoke into the phone. "There was this woman with them!
Jessie took the phone back from James.
"That's right! She wasn't human! She just looked at James and he flew into a tree!"
James pulled the phone close enough to him so that they could both talk into it.
"She could fly!"
"And her eyes glowed!"
"She nearly killed our Pokémon with a Kadabra!"
All was silent on the other end of the phone. Meowth imagined he could hear teeth grinding.
Meowth sighed. That was it, he thought to himself. He was finished. He'd be lucky to get out of Team Rocket with his life...
"Y... yes, sir!" Jessie said suddenly. "Thank you, sir!"
Huh?
"We won't let you down, sir!" James added, eagerly.
Yeah, right, Meowth thought. Still, anything that didn't get him fired was a *good* thing.
Jessie hung up the phone, grinning. James looked at her. She looked back at him.
Then they hugged each other, laughing.
"We're not going to die!" James said.
"What are you two talking about?" Meowth asked.
Jessie smiled. "We've got a new assignment..." *****
Sabrina walked out of the hospital and down the sidewalk, aimlessly. A few people who recognized her moved to the other side of the road before they had to walk by her, or avoided looking at her; Sabrina tried to pretend she didn't notice.
The nurse at the front desk of the hospital had a nasty shock when Sabrina teleported into the building with Misty lying unconscious in her arms. Sabrina couldn't really blame her; even in a city as large as Saffron, she'd managed to build a reputation for insanity, and nearly everybody had heard of the "psychic gym" at least once or twice.
Sabrina hoped that Misty would be okay. She didn't really know her, she didn't know any of them... but she had seen the look on Ash's face just before she left, and she could feel his pain without even trying to read his mind. She felt sorry for him... but in a way, she envied him.
Sabrina had never been that close to anybody in her life. She could barely imagine what it would be like. The way Misty and her friends talked, and laughed, and played... Sabrina would never be able to have that, not really.
She knew that she seemed emotionless, and in a way, she was. Even with her parents back with her, and her mind whole again, there was a cold- ness in her soul that would never be truly gone... she had emotions, below the surface, but took her an effort to remember what it was like to love, or hate, or even just be happy. Sometimes she wasn't sure she had ever known how.
For a moment, Sabrina wondered if she had been better off before Ash brought her back to her senses. At least before she had another version of herself to talk to, and if she knew what people thought of her, she didn't seem to care...
Sabrina looked up and realized where her wandering had taken her: the Saffron City gym. Her gym.
It didn't *feel* like her gym anymore. But then, nothing really felt the same.
Sabrina looked up at the gym for a minute, thinking to herself. Then she teleported to the outskirts of the city.
*****
Fifteen minutes later, Sabrina was flying between the trees in the direction where she had left Ash and Brock.
Teleporting would be faster, but long-range teleports took a lot of energy; also, she didn't know enough about the area to risk it. She hadn't left Saffron City in... well, ever.
"Oh, help me!" a feminine-sounding voice cried out suddenly.
Sabrina looked down. The red-haired woman from Team Rocket was grinning evilly at a figure with orange hair in a tank top and shorts.
"I have you now, Misty!" Jessie said loudly.
Sabrina slowed to a stop in midair and stared.
"Oh, no!" shouted the figure. "If only my psychic friend was here to save me again!"
Sabrina floated down to the ground, not sure if she should be insulted or not. The figure didn't even *sound* like Misty.
"She's falling for it!" Jessie whispered. Then, in a normal voice: "Yes, it's too bad for you she's not around, isn't it?"
Sabrina reached out with her mind and telekinetically knocked the wig off of James' head.
Team Rocket froze.
"Oops," said James. Jessie smirked, though she seemed uneasy.
"So," she said, "I see you've fallen into our trap!"
Jessie struck a dramatic pose.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"Make it double!"
"To protect the world from---James, take off that Misty costume, you look ridiculous."
"Actually, I find it looks rather fetching on me..."
A bolt of telekinetic force crashed into Team Rocket, lifted them off their feet, and sent them flying. Jessie and James hurtled through the underbrush, ricocheted off the trunk of a tree, and hit the ground with a thud.
When the world stopped spinning long enough for them to get to their feet and look up, Sabrina was walking towards them. The glow from her eyes cast ominous shadows across her face; in the darkness, she looked almost inhuman.
"You seem to be slow learners," Sabrina observed.
Jessie and James somehow managed to hide behind each other at the same time.
Sabrina still wasn't angry. She was capable of anger, but it didn't come naturally to her. Even before she met Ash, anger wasn't an emotion she wasted often. People weren't friends or enemies, they were just... things. And sometimes, they were in the way. Like now.
Which didn't mean she was inclined to be nice.
Team Rocket tossed out their Pokéballs.
"Ekans, Koffing, protect me!"
"Forget about Jessie, just save me!"
"James!"
Sabrina held out a Pokéball at arm's length. "Deal with them, Kadabra," she said quietly.
Ekans, Koffing, and Kadabra appeared in a flash of red light. Ekans and Koffing still looked hurt from their last fight with Kadabra; Sabrina's Pokémon looked more or less fine.
"You can surrender now, if you like," Sabrina said. "You can't win." There was no arrogance in her voice, or threat, or even self-confidence; it was simply a statement.
This isn't neccessary, said a quiet, insistent voice in the back of Sabrina's mind. You could reduce them to the size of a weedle and step on them. You could break their necks from here. You could stop their hearts...
Sabrina pushed the thought away and tried to focus.
Kadabra's eyes glowed softly as the mental link between it and its trainer was established. Ekans slithered towards it with a sudden, unex- pected burst of speed, knocking it to the ground. The snake looped a few coils around Kadabra's neck, and started to squeeze...
For about a second. Then the psi Pokémon just wasn't there any more. Ekans twisted around, saw Kadabra standing a dozen feet away from it, and was sent reeling by a mental bolt.
James' Koffing flew into Kadabra and knocked it off of it's feet. Kadabra looked up to see Koffing bearing down on it again, with Ekans re- covering off to one side. Sabrina frowned slightly, sent a telepathic com- mand to her Pokemon, and Koffing froze in midair as a halo of blue light enveloped it.
"What are you doing?" said James, pulling his Team Rocket costume on over his Misty outfit. "Don't just float there, get them!"
Sabrina threw Koffing into James' face.
Ekans took advantage of the distraction and sank its fangs into Kadabra's arm. Sabrina winced slightly, as a twinge of pain carried over her psychic link. Jessie laughed.
Then she nudged James. "Psst! Do something!" she said.
James sat up, pinching his nose to stop the bleeding. "Koffing!" he said. "Smog, now!"
Koffing moved forward, albeit a bit unsteadily, and thick black smoke poured from its body, rolling over the battlefield, engulfing Sabrina and Kadabra. Sabrina levitated above the smoke, choking.
"You realize," Sabrina gasped out when she could talk again, "a two on one battle is against the rules?"
Team Rocket snickered and struck another pose.
"Of course it is!" Jessie said triumphantly. "We're EVIL! We always break the rules!"
Sabrina's eyes glowed. "I will too, then," she said softly. Blue light gathered at a point before her eyes and shot forward in a beam of mental force that hit Koffing. The Pokémon reeled backwards and fell to the ground, unconscious.
James gave a cry of shock and anger, and glared up at Sabrina. "You can't do that!" he said. "That's cheating!"
"I learn quickly," Sabrina said. Kadabra teleported out of the smoke screen, which was fading already. "Finish them, Kadabra," Sabrina said softly. "Disable."
Kadabra's eyes flared with a sudden light. Wave after wave of blue force crashed over Ekans, freezing it in place.
Jessie and James gasped and recalled their Pokémon. "Impossible!" said James. "We lost again!"
Sabrina landed in front of Team Rocket. "I would expect you to be more used to it," she said. The glow faded from her eyes. "I would think it happens to you quite often."
Sabrina walked towards Jessie and James. They backed away.
"Funny, that's just what I was going to say!" Meowth hopped out of the bushes next to the road and joined the rest of Team Rocket. "Now that you guys have had your fun, can we stick to the plan?"
Meowth put a pair of earplugs in his ears. Jessie and James did the same. Sabrina stopped.
"Should I be threatened?" she said. Kadabra teleported next to her.
Meowth grinned. "How do you capture a psychic? Simple! Just keep her from thinking!" he said. James took a remote control out and pushed a big red button, because these sorts of things always have big red buttons, and something within the bushes where Meowth had emerged began to hum.
There, in the bushes, was a... well, a box. With something resembl- ing a megaphone on top of it. It was black, with a big red "R" painted on the front. It looked like it had been calculated to strike fear into the hearts of the innocent by someone who wasn't very good at calculating this sort of thing.
"You've blown our minds for long enough," James said, the usual smug edge back in his voice. "But hear's where we defeat you, once and for all!"
Team Rocket lives for puns.
Sabrina was about to order Kadabra to finish Team Rocket off when the quiet little hum became a LOUD hum, and then a metallic SCREECH...
Sabrina cried out in shock and pain and fell to her knees, clapping her hands over her ears in an attempt to block out the sound, but it was too late, it was already inside her mind, she couldn't see, she couldn't think, she couldn't focus enough to use her powers, there was nothing in the world but that NOISE...
Sabrina opened her mouth and screamed, falling to her knees, and Kadabra staggered, looking around wildly. With their psychic link, both of them felt the others pain in addition to their own.
"I think it's working!" shouted James.
"What?" shouted Jessie.
"I said I think it's working!"
"What?"
Sabrina fell to her knees, stll whimpering, and passed out, followed a second later by her Kadabra. Team Rocket was pushed back a few feet by a final, defiant thrust of telekinetic force.
James blinked. "I... I think we won," he said.
"You're right," Jessie said, sounding stunned. "We did, didn't we?"
It took a minute for the realization to sink in.
"We WON! We actually didn't screw a plan up!" James yelled. "We caught a Kadabra! And we've got a human with telekinetic powers, too!"
"The boss is going to make us filthy stinking rich for this!" Meowth chimed in.
Jessie grinned evilly. "And there's only one thing to do with this lucky streak..." she said. Meowth nodded his agreement.
"Right!" he said. "We bring the boss back his Kadabra and his psych- ic, and then we live like kings for the rest of our--"
"We take care of that Pikachu once and for all!"
Meowth stopped. "Huh?"
Jessie clenched a fist in a moderately inspirational manner. "If we bring the boss his Kadabra *and* Pikachu, he'll give us a promotion for sure! We could even become his second-in-commands!"
James looked hopeful for a second, but then sighed. "But our Pokémon are almost beaten already," he said. "And we've lost to them so many times."
"Don't give up!" Jessie said. "My Ekans is still okay, and with a few potions, your Koffing will be as good as new!" Jessie crossed her arms over her chest. "And as for our track record, remember, we've got the law of averages on our side!"
James brightened up a bit. "Hey," he said, "that's right! We've lost to those brats so many times, we *have* to win this time!"
Meowth looked from James to Jessie and back again. There was a flaw in the logic, he just couldn't put his finger on it...
"Um..." said Meowth. Jessie and James didn't pay it any attention.
"Come on, Meowth!" Jessie said, taking Meowth by the arm. "We have to find that brat!" Team Rocket ran into the woods.
"H-hey, wait--!" said Meowth as he was dragged along.
On the path, unnoticed, Sabrina began to stir.
*****
Brock followed Ash down the road, a few steps behind him and to the right. Pikachu trotted along next to him, his little legs hurrying just to keep up.
"Pika pi?" he called after Ash again. Ash didn't reply.
Brock reached down and held out a hand to Pikachu. Pikachu looked at it for a second, then scampered up Brock's arm and sat on his shoulder.
They walked on in silence.
After a little bit, they passed by the same pile of leaves they had walked around that afternoon.
"We're about halfway there, right?" Ash spoke up. Brock jumped a bit; it was the first time he'd said anything in a while.
"We should be," he said. "Just about."
Ash nodded and started walking again. Brock started to follow him when a voice rang out:
"Prepare for trouble!"
Brock stopped. "Oh, no," he muttered.
"And make it double!"
Ash and Brock turned around and looked in the direction of the voices.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all peoples within our nation!"
Jessie and James leapt out of the bushes, clad in their white and red uniforms, and landed on top of the pile of leaves. Meowth jumped onto their shoulders.
"To denounce the---"
Team Rocket fell into a pit.
Brock, Ash, and Pikachu stared.
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" said the pit.
There was a pause. Then an "ow!" Then:
"To extend our reach to the stars above!" James continued.
"Jessie!" said Jessie, in the voice of a woman determined to finish her motto at least once.
"James!" said James.
"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"
Another pause.
"Meowth?" Jessie prompted.
"I think he's unconscious," said James.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
"Are they still up there?" asked Jessie.
"I think so," said James.
Jessie and James climbed out of the pit, took a moment to catch their breath, and stood up.
"I hope you weren't planning on moving on without saying goodbye," James said, a rose in his hand. Ash clenched his fists.
"We don't have time for you now!" Ash yelled. "We've got to get to Saffron City!"
James threw a Pokéball, and Koffing appeared. "The only way you're getting back to town is through us!" he said. "Oh, and don't expect another last-minute rescue," he went on. "We've already taken care of your little gym leader!"
Brock looked at him.
"*You* beat Sabrina?" he asked.
"What's so hard to believe about that?" James demanded angrily. "We're part of the infamous Team Rocket!"
Jessie did a quick headcount and noticed that something was missing.
"Hey," she said. "Where's your girlfriend?"
Ash glared. "In the hospital, thanks to you!" Pikachu jumped down from Brock's shoulder and stood in front of Ash, growling at Team Rocket. Electricity arced between its cheeks.
"That's right!" said Brock. For a moment, after Team Rocket's appearance and latest spectacular mishap, he had almost forgotten what he was going back to Saffron for. "Because of you, Misty may die," he said.
The word 'die' hung in the air. Ash looked at him, startled, and Brock immediately wondered why he said it. He didn't really expect Misty's condition to be *too* serious. He certainly didn't think she was going to die.
He was still worried about Misty, though. And the last thing he needed was another fight with team Rocket.
"How is that our fault?" James asked, a hint of what absolutely, positively couldn't be guilt creeping into his voice. "All we ever wanted was your Pikachu! If you had just given it to us in the first place, all of this would have been over long ago!"
"It's my fault I won't let you kidnap my best friend?!" Ash yelled. His hand went to the Pokéballs on his belt. "Charmander! I choose---"
Pikachu leapt forward suddenly. Lightning flashed from his body and struck the ground between Jessie and James, tossing them aside.
Ash let his hand fall to his side.
"Alright, then, we'll beat them together! Pikachu, thundershock!"
"Get them, Ekans!"
"Koffing, go!" Two red beams of light emerged from Team Rocket's pokéballs, coalesced into two silghtly worse-for-wear Pokémon, and met a lightning bolt heading the other way. Ekans took the worst of the attack, and was overwhelmed quickly. Pikachu continued to channel voltage into it. Sparks crackled across its body, and a soft growl began to build. Brock, who was about to join the fight, paused; he'd never actually seen Pikachu angry before.
"Koffing, tackle!" James commanded, and Koffing shot towards Pikachu.
"Can't have that," Brock said to himself, throwing a Pokéball. "Geodude! Intercept it!" Geodude appeared, and the two Pokémon clashed.
Without Koffing to distract it, Pikachu finished off the Ekans in short order. The entire battle only lasted about half a minute.
Team Rocket recalled their Pokémon again.
"You may have won this battle, but we'll be back!" Jessie said.
James was already running away. Jessie did a quick double-take as she realized her partner was missing, and then started to run after him.
Ash threw another Pokéball. "Bulbasaur! Vine whip! Don't let them get away!"
The grass Pokémon appeared, and a vine snaked out and grabbed Jessie and James each by one of their ankles, tripping them. Bulbasaur reeled them in.
"Why won't you just leave me alone?" Ash said angrily, standing over the two of them. "If anything happens to Misty because of you two, I'll... I'll..." Ash broke off. There wasn't really anything he *could* do.
"Ash, wait!" Brock said. "Remember what they said about Sabrina!"
"Right!" Ash said, welcoming something else to be angry about. He turned back to Team Rocket. "What did you do with Sabrina?" he demanded.
James looked at him indifferently, then pointedly looked away. Brock walked over to the break in the bushes where he had appeared.
"She's somewhere you'll never find her," James said. Ash clenched his fists, shaking.
"Aww, is the poor little baby in a bad mood because his girlfriend isn't around?" Jessie asked mockingly, obviously enjoying herself.
"Hey, Ash!" Brock called out to him. "I think Team Rocket left a trail the the bushes, the wood's pretty thick around here!"
Brock could hear Jessie and James slap their foreheads behind him.
Ash and Brock recalled their Pokémon quickly and made their way into the woods.
"The next time I see you..." Ash began in a warning tone of voice.
"Ash, save it!" Brock told him. "We're in a hurry!"
Ash reluctantly turned and followed Brock.
The trail led Brock, Ash and Pikachu parallel to the road for a while, back towards Saffron. They found Sabrina lying in the middle of the road, a short distance away.
Brock picked her up carefully. "Sabrina?" he asked.
Sabrina's eyes fluttered open. "You..." she said softly. "You saved me?"
Brock blushed a bit. "Well, um... not really, Ash did most of the work, and... well... yeah, I guess I did." Brock smiled goofily. Sabrina slowly reached up toward his face with one hand, still only semi-conscious. "Thank you..." Sabrina hesitated. "Locke?"
"It's Brock," said Brock.
"Oh."
****
Ash walked into Misty's hospital room hesitantly, a large bouquet of roses in his hands. Misty was in bed, but looked much better than before; as Ash walked in, she smiled widely.
"Ash!" she said. Ash smiled sheepishly.
"Hi, Misty," he said. He shifted from foot to foot awkwardly. "These are for you," he added, holding the flowers out to her.
"Oh, Ash, you brought me flowers!" Misty took the flowers from him and smelled them. "That was so sweet!"
Ash put his hand behind his head. "Actually, it was Brock's idea," he said. "We thought you might need some cheering up."
"Oh." Misty looked disappointed for a moment. "I should have known you'd never think of something like this."
"Misty, when I didn't know if you were going to be okay, I thought," Ash began, then stopped. "Hey, what do you mean I'd never think of something like that?"
Misty sniffed. "I mean that you don't have a considerate bone in your body, that's what!" she said.
"What kind of a thing to say is that?" Ash said. "After I worry about you and worry about you and---hey!" Ash held his arms up defensively as Misty swatted him in the head with the flowers. Ash accidently knocked the bouquet out of her hands and onto the floor. Misty stared at it.
"My roses!"
"Oops," said Ash.
"It's not bad enough that you wreck my bike, you have to wreck my flowers, too?"
"*Your* flowers? I paid for them! Well, actually, Brock paid for them, but---hey! Ow! Aren't you supposed to be sick?"
Brock smiled to himself, watching through the doorway.
"They're cute at this age, aren't they?" Sabrina said from behind him.
Brock jumped and spun around, backpedaling a bit. Sabrina was stand- ing in the hallway, innocently enough, dressed in a white robe. She hadn't been there a second ago, though...
"Teleportation," Sabrina explained, as if reading Brock's thoughts. Which was actually a possibility, Brock thought to himself.
"Sorry if I startled you," she said. "These powers may seem strange to most people, but they're almost instinctual to me."
Sabrina peeked into the room, where Ash and Misty were still arguing. "I'm glad she's all right... I was worried about her."
Misty grabbed Ash by the neck and started to strangle him. Pikachu hopped onto the foot of the bed and watched blankly.
"I think she'll be okay," Brock said. "Until the next time Team Rocket attacks, at least..."
Sabrina laughed quietly. There was a bit of an edge in it. Brock looked back at her, surprised.
She smiled and took a doll out of her pocket, throwing it into the air and catching it. Brock glimpsed a mane of red hair before she put it back into a pocket in her robes.
"I checked up on them a few hours ago," she explained. "They won't give you any more trouble for a while."
"I'll change them back," Sabrina said in response to Brock's look. "Eventually."
Sabrina frowned slightly, and her expression grew cold. "Although," she said in a much different tone of voice, "if they were my enemies..."
"Um, Sabrina?" Brock said.
Sabrina blinked. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she said, the malice gone from her voice once more. "So, where will you go from here?" she asked after a second.
"Well, the next gym is in Celadon City," Brock said, "so I suppose that's where we're going to go."
Sabrina nodded. "You're a gym leader yourself, aren't you?" she asked. "what did it feel like? To leave your city behind and go to see the world."
Brock smiled. "It's great," he said. "I never realized how much there was to see in the world... why do you ask?" Brock looked at her. Sabrina sighed.
"I've been thinking about leaving myself," she said quietly. "I don't think I made a very good gym leader, and I don't really feel comfor- table in this city... I've got a pretty bad reputation."
Sabrina lowered her gaze. "And besides, I'm... I'm not as powerful as I used to be."
"What?" Brock asked, surprised.
Sabrina tucked her legs underneath her and hovered in midair, cross- legged. "Oh, sure, I'm still probably one of the most powerful human psychics on the planet, but... there's more to telekinesis than raw power. The most important thing is discipline. That's why I started to become what I was, leading up to when you and the others saved me... I was the ultimate psychic. I had no distractions, no morals... all I cared about was my power. But now..."
Sabrina linked her hands behind her head and leaned back on the empty air. Brock looked at her sympathetically.
"Where will you go, then?" he asked.
Sabrina thought about that.
"Do you know where that Haunter went?" she asked.
Brock shrugged. "back to Lavender Town, probably," he said.
"Maybe I'll pay him a visit," Sabrina said. "I never really got to thank him. And from there..." Sabrina's eyes grew distant. "Who knows? Maybe I'll go see the world myself."
Brock smiled. "Good luck," he said. "Maybe we'll see each other again, sometime."
Sabrina smiled back. "Take care of Ash and Misty," she said. "And take care of yourself, too."
Sabrina disappeared in a quiet shimmer of blue light. Brock stood there for a minute, looking at the spot where she had been hovering.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! It's just a bike, get over it!"
"Get over it? GET OVER IT?! Do you have any idea how much that thing cost?!"
"Pika..."
Brock looked back into the room. "Can't you two stop fighting for one minute?"
"No!"
"No!"
Brock grinned. "Good. I'm going to go take a walk... you can keep from killing each other until I get back, right?"
Brock walked past the room and down the hall without waiting for an answer. As he went, he started to whistle.
"I can't believe Team Rocket called you my girlfriend!"
"Your WHAT?!"
It was nice to have things back to normal.