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.
Cotton Candy Hangovers
Two in the morning is a time way too early to be called morning. At this time a ten-year old Picnic Girl, named Tabitha, is coming down from her sugar high as she tries to sleep in a Pokemon Center. Her brother Samuel isn't helping with his questions. "I can't believe that you called mom."
"Nurse Joy wanted to take away Porygon, and I made a promise that I wouldn't let Pory go."
"How can you earn a merit badge if mom does the work?"
"Picnic Leader, Mrs. Stone says that most merit badges are earned by the moms."
"When did she say that?"
"After they gave awards for the most cookie sales," replied Tabitha.
"Did she say it out loud?"
"No, but she thought it a lot."
"That's called 'cynicism'."
"That's why I want to earn merit badges that can't be bought."
"Like the fifty wins in a row."
"At the gym the older students would let me win," complained Tabitha.
"No they didn't," argued Sammy.
"Did too. So did you."
This was true, so Sammy deflected it with, "Mom doesn't let you win."
"She goes easy on me."
"You had a low level fighting type Pokemon."
"How is Louie gonna get stronger if we can't have a real battle?"
"This isn't like you Tabs; what's wrong?"
"My tummy aches."
"Let's go and get you help before you get sick," sighed Sammy as he climbed down from the top bunk.
Tabitha withdrew under the covers.
"Worry about your pride later," insisted Sammy.
The brother/sister team put on slippers and wandered the halls of the Pokemon Center in their pajamas. There was a light from the examination room, and the pair peeked around the door.
"Mom?" asked Tabitha as she saw her mother meditating next to a Scyther.
Sabrina the gym leader left her trance, and said, "What's wrong?"
"Tummy ache," explained Sammy.
"What did you eat?" asked Sabrina with a light sigh.
"Cotton candy, caramel corn and cola," listed Tabitha. "What are you doing?"
"This is one of the other prize Pokemon from the carnival. I was taking evidence for the abuse investigation."
"Can we help?" offered Tabitha.
"Legally: no. If you got involved the lawyers could claim that evidence was tampered with and if there was a crime, they could go free."
"Was there a crime?" asked Sammy who was fascinated by complicated things as the law.
"I don't know, but that can wait. Let's get you a big drink of water and then we can practice healing meditation," offered Sabrina as she stood up.
After Tabitha had a big drink of water in the cafeteria, and brought an extra glass of water back to the room, Sabrina asked, "What's really bothering you? I know you can eat way more sugar than what you had today."
"Were people nice to me back home because of you?"
"Do you want to know if Aunt Zoey and Aunt Jean wouldn't be nice to you if I wasn't their boss?"
Tabitha nodded.
"Zoey and Jean work for me because they are nice people. Jean wants to see all psychics develop and she loves to watch young ones grow. She knew that both of you could become very strong psychics and great trainers, if you want to be.
"Are they nicer to you two than the other children because of me? Yes. Do they expect more from you two as well? Yes. They treated you two differently from the other students just like you treat your Butterfree different from a Caterpie; because you can do more."
"Are we freaks?" asked Tabitha.
Sammy shuddered. He heard this insult several times on their short journey and tried to bury the pain.
"Words like 'freak' only have meaning if we let them. If we hate and seek revenge, we can become freaks. I was once a monster. I was so obsessed with being strong that I didn't care who I hurt or how I hurt them. But someone taught me to laugh and have fun. I cared about others again and was no longer a monster."
"Did you care for people that call us freaks?" asked Sammy.
"No, but that meant I had more time to care for the people and Pokemon that did matter to me. Have people been calling you two names?"
"Only when Tabs forgets to talk when she wins a Pokemon battle; or when she hit someone with an Aura Sphere."
"You hit someone with an Aura Sphere?"
"I beat him in a Pokemon battle, he got mad and attacked with a Steelix," argued Tabitha.
"Sounds like 'just cause' to me," replied Sabrina with a smile.
"You're not mad?" asked Sammy.
"I would be mad if you two got hurt."
"But you told us not to hurt people," reminded Sammy.
"This is part of growing up: if you two didn't stop that trainer then you two could have been hurt and probably worse than what you did to him. If that happened, then I'd get mad and hurt him and everyone around him and it would just get worse."
"So I did the right thing?" asked Tabitha.
"Since you two can't teleport then I would say at the time you two did the best thing possible. That may not feel like the right thing but you'll learn. So are you two ready to meditate?"
The pair nodded, so Sabrina psychically lifted them to their beds. Sabrina entered their minds and guided them in focusing only on healing. Several minutes later the youngsters were asleep and tucked into bed.
Sabrina went to the recovery room and checked on Porygon and the other neglected Pokemon. Nurse Joy looked up from her light sleep.
"Mad?" Sabrina asked.
"I'm a light sleeper," explained Nurse Joy with a bit of a yawn.
"I meant, 'are you mad that I pulled rank with regard to Porygon?'"
"You are the expert with regard to mental and emotional trauma," pointed out the Nurse.
"I wish I didn't have to be. I could envy you treating burns, bites, rashes and other injuries of youth."
"Don't you have enough of that with a gym and two children?" asked Nurse Joy.
"What do think of psychics?"
"W W…What do you mean?" stammered Joy.
"That is the world I live with," explained Sabrina. "For ten years I developed my telekinesis to levels that rivaled the strongest in history. I spent the next ten years working on my telepathy and other skills. But as my telepathy grew, I found fewer minds where it was welcome. If I could only read the surface thoughts of a person as they spoke then it was a little creepy how I could finish their sentence. But when I could access any memory connected with a word or event I was shunned. Now the only place I'm welcomed is in the minds of Pokemon whose emotional trauma is so acute that traditional treatment is ineffective."
A moment of sympathy, concern and images of Tabitha and Samuel flashed through Nurse Joy's mind.
"Thank you," commented Sabrina. "Thank you for being concerned and for thinking of them as children."
"Since I mostly treat Pokemon, I'm not good at dealing with complex emotional issues," apologized Joy.
"I have my limits too. Sometimes the best I can do is to rearrange memories to disconnect the pain."
"Sorry?" asked Nurse Joy. She looked up and followed Sabrina's gaze to a sleeping Porygon. "Is that what you're doing now?"
"Not yet. I have to search for any evidence of abuse and record it before I alter any memories. Unfortunately Porygon's mind is very different from what I'm used to."
"Does it bother you to alter someone's memories?"
"How so?"
"Doesn't changing someone's memories change the person and isn't that wrong?"
"A regular therapist is trained to change how a person deals with memories; I can do that much faster. But I can also remove a memory that so terrible, that therapy could never remove the pain."
"But…," argued Nurse Joy.
"My first case was a boy, younger than Sammy, who was in a coma because his mind couldn't cope with the hatred that his own sister felt. His depression was so strong that his mind was destroying itself. I had to make it up as I went along."
"My god…"
"This is why I envy you and your job: you treat the unfortunate consequence of youthful adventure. I have to treat the deep horrors that people inflict."
"How do you cope?"
"I focus on the children, both mine and my students. I do what I can to make their world a better place. That little boy that I treated is going to be a great therapist; so I get to see that what I do makes a difference. So if you'll excuse me, I've got about four hours to go through several years' worth of memories. Then I'll need some coffee so I can take the kids shopping."
Nurse Joy smiled, fetched Sabrina a blanket, then checked on her other patients.
Three hours later Sabrina fell asleep. A half an hour after that Tabitha and Samuel woke her up. "Morning mom. Morning Porygon."
"Good morning my Early Birds," replied Sabrina.
Porygon was delighted to see its trainer.
During breakfast in the Pokemon Center cafeteria, Sabrina asked, "How are you going to battle the Violet City Gym leader? You know he has Flying Pokemon."
"I want to teach Louie Sky Uppercut," replied Tabitha.
"That's an egg move," argued Sammy.
"I taught Louie Aura Sphere," countered Tabitha.
"Time out," declared Sabrina. She sipped her coffee for a moment of solace. "Now tell me which moves, and what type they are, that you want Riolu to have in a battle against Flying Pokemon."
"Aura Sphere is a Fighting Move. Force Palm is a Fighting move. Sky Uppercut is a … fighting move…"
"Flying types are resistant to what?"
"Fighting moves," sighed Tabitha.
"Which moves are strong against Flying types?"
"Ice, Rock and Electric," listed Sammy.
Tabitha took out her Pokedex and searched all move entries of Riolu. Porygon looked at Tabitha with curiosity. Riolu, Butterfree and Natu just ate.
"Think about what moves Riolu knows now," reminded Sabrina. "How can one of those moves become one of the attacks that you are looking at?" Sabrina got up for more coffee and juice for the children.
When Sabrina sat down again, Tabitha announced, "If we use Aura Sphere to pick up rocks, it becomes Rock Slide."
"Good. Any other ideas?"
"If you use Aura Sphere to compress a volume of air, let the heat bleed off, then release it, the air becomes super cold like an Ice Punch," speculated Sammy.
"So how do you get the heat out of the Aura Sphere?"
Sammy did mental calculations based upon Newton's law of cooling and the gas law.
"I don't want Ice Punch; I want Ice Ball," declared Tabitha. "Then daddy will give me another charm."
Sabrina looked to her daughter's bracelet; there were two sphere charms attached. Sabrina gave a light giggle. "You two are sure ambitious. I was going to suggest teaching Riolu Thunder Punch by using Force Palm as a guide."
"Oh Mom, that's so obvious," teased Tabitha.
"Tabs already asked me if Riolu should learn Thunder Punch. I said that the Gym Leader expects Electric attacks not Ice attacks," confessed Sammy.
"Do you want to borrow an Ice Pokemon?" offered Sabrina. "Froslass hasn't seen Johto."
Tabitha was torn between saying yes and doing things on her own.
Sammy's mind raced through all he learned about Froslass, especially how the Ice and Ghost aspects reinforced each other. Sabrina smiled behind her coffee cup as the children worked their minds.
"I think we need to catch a new Pokemon," declared Sammy. "We need a Gastly."
"Why?" asked Tabitha.
"You want to learn Shadow Ball, right?"
"Yes!"
"Will Shadow Ball work on Flying/Normal types?" asked Sabrina.
"Shadow Ball is the secret to the heat transfer. We should just teach Ice Beam instead of Ice Ball to Louie," commented Sammy.
"No," declared Tabitha. "Daddy said that, 'Life is a Ball' so I'm going to teach Ice Ball to Louie."
"Whatever," whined Sammy.
"That's my line," grumped Tabitha.
Sabrina turned to Porygon and asked, "Are you ready for these two?"
Porygon just beamed with joy of being part of anything.
After breakfast the psychic family went to the biggest department store in Violet City. Tabitha bounced from one display to another of clothes, camping equipment and Pokemon accessories. Sammy's mind was being overwhelmed trying to make Future Sight predictions for everything that caught his sister's eye.
Sabrina sensed Sammy's distress so she put her hand on his shoulder and said into his mind, "Just focus on Gastly and Ice Ball. Where is a good place to catch a Gastly?"
Sammy calmed down and focused on his task and ignored his sister's questions of, "What about this one?"
"You have to make the bicycle decision," Sabrina informed her daughter. "Sammy is busy thinking about Gastly and Ice Ball."
Tabitha's eyes gleamed at the sight of the showiest bike on display in the store. The bike gleamed with reflectors, lights, wings and a product endorsement from Falkner, the local gym leader.
"Do I have a budget?" muttered Tabitha.
"You are out of your mind," replied Sabrina flatly.
Riolu was looking at a tandem bicycle. He barked to Tabitha for attention.
"Unless you evolve in the next hour Louie, your legs won't reach the pedals," replied Sabrina.
Sammy came out of his light trance and declared with a sigh, "Get the super light collapsible bikes."
"I never could get the hang of those," confessed Sabrina.
Tabitha took the block of chaotic parts from the shelf and with a flick of the wrist the block became a bicycle. She pedaled in a small circle around a small indoor course. Riolu had as much success with the bike's assembly, but riding was too awkward for his tail and leg structure.
"I'd suggest a folding scooter for Riolu," offered the, until now, silent clerk.
"Tabitha, what do you think?"
"This one please," she replied as she tried to ride with no hands.
"These models can be modified to accommodate them as they grow. But we recommend that you get a bigger model when they reach 60 kilograms," added the clerk.
"Two bikes, one scooter, one trailer and three helmets," listed Sabrina. "Modify both bikes and the scooter to pull the trailer."
"We can have that done in two days."
"Today," corrected Sabrina.
"Excuse me?"
The powerful psychic's eyes gleamed as she communicated her intentions to the clerk. "We'll check on you after lunch."
"Yes ma'am," bowed the clerk who then raced off for help.
"Can we have sushi?" asked Tabitha.
"You picked what you wanted to eat yesterday and got sick," replied Sabrina as they rode the escalator up. "Let's have Sammy decide."
Tabitha stared at her brother with big misty eyes. Sammy weighed the consequences of not letting his sister have what she wanted. "What do they have to eat?" he asked defensively.
There was a sushi bar in the food court, but also an ice cream store and a noodle shop. Sammy compromised and asked for noodles for lunch with ice cream for Tabitha for dessert.
Everyone was satisfied with the long lunch. Afterwards everyone was satisfied with the bicycles, and the clerk was satisfied with his generous tip.
Outside the store the children mounted their bicycles, Riolu his scooter and Porygon his trailer. "Mom, what are you going to do?" asked Tabitha.
Sabrina levitated a few inches off the ground and said, "I think I'll race you three back to the Pokemon Center."
There wasn't much of a race since the streets were too crowded, the sidewalk had too many people and Tabitha strained as she tried to pull the trailer. Sabrina floated back to her daughter. "Imagine yourself in a giant Aura Sphere. Use it to pull you along."
Pedestrians weren't too startled by the sight of a flying woman and a child in a glowing bubble, since they were accompanied by a Porygon and a Riolu.
At the Pokemon Center, the children gathered their belongings and said their goodbyes before they headed off to Sprout Tower to find a Gastly. Sabrina stood in the doorway and watched them go. When the kids were out of sight, Sabrina went in to the Pokemon Center and asked to use the Pokeball Transfer System.
"Why are your kids here in Johto?" asked Nurse Joy as she led Sabrina to the machine.
"Tabitha wants to be her own person and not grow up in her mom's shadow."
Nurse Joy's mind raced through images of her sisters, aunts, and cousins; all of whom were Nurse Joys. Sabrina smiled. Nurse Joy laughed.
Sabrina activated the Pokeball Transfer System and teleported back to Saffron City and left Johto for her children.
