Author's Note: Here we are at Part Three! Which, unfortunately, is not the last part; while editing I ended up adding quite a bit more text than I thought and ended up deciding to split the third chapter so it didn't end up at a monstrous size. So! Here's Part Three, still plenty substantial, and we'll get the finale in the next bit. Also, I'd like to thank Mal for the lovely review! I'm glad you enjoy the writing style and the details; I have a lot of fun thinking up small things to slip in. I hope this part and the next live up to your expectations.
Part Three
"Mom, what do psychic pokémon like to eat?" Sara asked.
"Hmm?" Mom was flipping through camera photos and didn't even look up when Sara sat down next to her. "Well, lots of things. It depends on the species. Xatu don't eat the same things as staryu, for example."
"Well," Sara said, hesitating a moment. "What about Mew? What would Mew like to eat?"
That got Mom's attention. Sara held her breath. "Mew?" Mom asked. "Oh... Oh. I get it. You want something to use as bait, so Mew might come visit. Is that it?"
Sara nodded emphatically. By mutual unacknowledged agreement, no one had told her parents that she'd gotten lost in the jungle. She hadn't told anybody about Mew, and was by now regretting that she hadn't thought to scan it with her pokédex when she'd had the chance.
"Well, that's a great idea, Sara. Let's see... Nobody really knows, of course, it's a mythical creature, but if I had to guess... Probably carnivorous, you could try a jerky like we use for the abra line. And high protein, nuts, seeds, maybe we could think about berries... Yes, I think we could whip something up. You can help, and then what do you say, we can put some out and see if anyone shows up for it. Does that sound like fun?"
"Yeah!" Sara said, as emphatically as she could. She might have to sneak away anything that got left out, just in case. She didn't want Mew showing up where anyone else could see before she brought it into camp herself. But she'd be able to get extra of the bait they made and take it into the forest herself.
"Great. I'm just going to finish up with these, and then we'll see what we've got in the kitchen." Mom's voice was going distant as she started thumbing through her photos again. She paused on one and sighed. "Oh. They found the camera again." Most of the rest were pictures of pansear, who knew about the experiment, striking poses and mugging for the camera trap. "For now, why don't you ask Hunter?" Mom asked.
"Ask him what?"
"How to attract a Mew."
"Hunter doesn't like me."
"Hunter doesn't like anybody who's not a potsherd, Sweetie. He likes history, though. I bet he'd be very interested in your Mew project, and he'd know a lot better than me how to find a psychic pokémon."
That was probably true. Sara looked over to where Hunter was sitting and spooning berries into his mouth. He was always by himself except when he was working at the dig, sometimes. His trainer was back on Cinnabar Island, and as far as Sara knew he mostly only had a trainer at all because it gave him a convenient place to stay anyhow.
Mom was right that he probably had a better idea of how to find a psychic pokémon than anybody else on the expedition. And this was Mew, this was important, so she really should try, even if she didn't want to.
"Hi, Hunter," Sara said, sliding onto the bench next to him. The kadabra's gaze flicked towards her, but that was all. Sitting right up next to him Sara could feel a funny buzzing in the air, almost like what she'd felt with Mew. He couldn't make it go everywhere like Mew did, though.
"You know Mew?" Sara asked. He gave her a look she thought was supposed to make her feel stupid. "It's supposed to live around here, and I want to find it. Do you know how?"
Hunter snorted, his moustache trembling. He scooted his bowl away from Sara and halfway turned his back.
"Well, I thought since you're a psychic pokémon, you might know how to find Mew." A twinge of pain sparked behind one of Sara's eyebrows. Not good; a sudden headache was how Hunter told you he was annoyed with you and wanted you to leave.
"Even if you don't believe in it, you could at least tell me and I can try and see what happens," Sara said, then winced when another spike of pain erupted deep in her skull. Hunter was almost done with his berries, and Sara had the feeling he was going to scuttle off the instant he'd finished his breakfast.
"Listen, can you keep a secret?" she asked. A sudden burst of pain inside made Sara's hands fly up to clutch her head. "No, listen!" she hissed, "Mew is here. I saw it. I found it out in the jungle the other day. Now I just have to find it again so I can catch it, but I don't know how. Can you help me?"
Hunter harrumphed again, but at least he didn't blast Sara with a headache.
"I really did! I can prove it! I can remember it for you and then you can see!" And without waiting for a response Sara remembered Mew as hard as she could, the way it moved through the air, the wide bright blue eyes, how it had flung Titan into a tree. Once she started she couldn't help but remember, too, the sick suffocating feeling that was some mixture of fear and Mew's psychic-ness, the tingly prickly way it made goosebumps rise, how she'd thought she would be lost forever.
Hunter grumbled to himself, raking at his moustache with his free claw and tapping his spoon against the edge of the table. He'd stopped eating.
"That's right!" Sara whispered. "I saw Mew. For real. And you can't. Tell. Anybody."
Usually it was easy to tell what Hunter meant. To say "No," he'd make you feel bad. For "Yes," you'd feel good instead. And all kinds of emotions, from disgust to fear to awe, he could make you feel those, too, to one degree or another. And obviously he could do headaches if you annoyed him. The stronger a psychic pokémon was, the better its telepathic abilities were. Supposedly really really strong psychics could make pictures in a person's head, and some were even supposed to be able to make the voice in your head say what they wanted to tell you.
Hunter was nowhere near as strong as that, but he usually managed better than he was now. Sara flashed cold and then hot, her nerves skittering so she bounced her foot under the table, but also, inexplicably, her eyes itched? And she felt faintly headache-y.
"Hey, come on. You're interested, aren't you?"
Sara's heart leapt. That was an emphatic "yes." "So stop giving me headaches. Will you tell me how to get Mew to come now?"
Hunter rapped his spoon against the edge of the table with a swift, agitated beat. "Dab dab," he muttered. He hardly ever talked, and his voice was more high-pitched than Sara had expected. The tingly feeling on her skin got more intense, and it felt like the air around her was actually getting hot. Sara's vision receded a moment into a funny rainbow arc, which traveled across her vision like a spreading wave. That was what she thought: open. Going out. Spreading.
Sara blinked. "Did you... Did you do that?" she asked. Hunter made an impatient gesture with his spoon. "You want to do something? Like a...?" Sara waggled her fingers and spread her hands wide.
Hunter swiped his spoon and sent an arc of pink light racing through the air to dissipate just over one of the tents. Psycho cut. "You don't mean you're going to fight—" Sara realized she was talking loud and leaned in closer to the kadabra, feeling the weird tingle from his mind flow over her skin like a breeze "—you're not going to fight Mew, are you?"
No hit her like a punch to the stomach. Hunter tapped his spoon gently against his lips and then made a sweeping outward gesture with it.
"Talk, huh? Like a psychic call?"
Yes.
"Okay," Sara said. "Okay, that makes sense. Tomorrow morning, come to my tent, okay? It's Mira staying here tomorrow, right? After she cleans up after breakfast, then. We can sneak out to the berry patch and nobody will notice."
Hunter grunted and resumed scooping berries into his mouth. "And remember, you can't tell anyone. Got it?" Hunter lifted his free hand from the table and waved her off.
"Okay, good. Me and Mom are going to make bait. Maybe you can have some after we find Mew," Sara said magnanimously. When she felt the hot clench of an oncoming headache, she decided at last to leave Hunter alone.
The grad students had been more attentive ever since Sara's sojourn in the woods. Hovering, Sara might say. At least Mira hadn't been around when Sara snuck out the first time, so although the others must have filled her in, she hadn't experienced losing track of Sara firsthand.
There was a tactic kids used a lot in movies when they wanted to get out of going to school. Sara ate breakfast extra-slow and complained loudly that she didn't feel good. She went back to her tent instead of sitting at one of the tables like normal, and while she was listening to the morning exodus and Mira cleaning up, she stuffed all her extra clothes into her sleeping bag so it bulged like there was a person inside, tried to arrange things so from the entrance you wouldn't really be able to see the person's head anyway.
Sara fussed and straightened the pillow and plumped the sleeping bag over and over, worrying that Hunter wouldn't be discreet, would let Mira see him coming over to her tent. She didn't even have Titan to help her pass the time. After what happened with Mew last time, neither of them wanted him to stay out and get hurt. He was already in his pokéball, and Sara was sure the second she sent him out for company Hunter would show up anyway.
Almost she'd started to wonder if the kadabra really wasn't interested and had only been messing with her when Hunter appeared outside her tent, glowering and twisting his spoon between his fingers while he watched Sara struggle out and post a sign that said "SLEEPING DO NOT DISTURB" on the tent flap.
"Come on!" she said. "Take us as close to the berry patch as you can!"
This wasn't very close; Hunter had been content to let someone else pick his meals for him. But his teleport put the two of them off at the edge of camp, at least, away from easy observation, and it was only a short walk from there.
Hunter surveyed the tumbled mess of berry bushes, the dark specks of droning insects visiting flowers or feasting on burst and fallen berries, and disdained the lot with a twitch of his moustache. He did reach out and take a bluk berry as he passed, though, and went to stand at the edge of the trees, his spoon raised.
Sara watched, but of course there was nothing to see. Hunter stalked around the edge of the clearing for a bit, then raised his spoon. Something flew past Sara, whipped over her like a sudden breeze. She took a couple of steps in Hunter's direction before she realized what she was doing.
Hunter ignored her. He wandered a bit more then stopped to do his thing again. Was Mew all that would come? Sara hoped there weren't any scary-powerful pokémon who might decide to see who was yelling into their forest. Another pulse rippled past and stirred Sara up inside even thought it didn't even rustle the leaves on the berry bushes. Psychic pokémon were weird.
Sara wasn't prepared when a small pink pokémon came zooming out of the trees, didn't have time to appreciate that Hunter's idea had actually worked. The kadabra turned toward Mew, spoon held up defensively. He might have started to go to one knee, like bowing or something, but Mew didn't slow down, corkscrewing through the air while deep purple-blue shadows swirled in front her. They shot towards Hunter, bursting into a dark haze.
That was a shadow ball, Sara realized. She'd never been that close to a real, serious pokémon attack before. Just like Titan, Hunter was tossed unceremoniously to the ground, unconscious.
Mew circled over him, buzzing with displeasure, then swept around in a broad arc, headed back towards the trees. "Wait!" Sara yelled. Mew stopped and turned, but the buzzing in Sara's head didn't feel friendly, and the legend's tail switched back and forth, coiling in and out around its long feet.
"I wanted to see you again," Sara said. She looked at Hunter, unconscious on the ground. "He just wanted to meet you. It was mean to attack him like that."
Mew spun away with what Sara could almost imagine was a huffy flick of its tail. It cruised low over the bushes, swooping in low to snag a berry. Sara shook her head as it filled with happy wordless whispering. Mew moved back and forth across the berry patch, picking berries and taking a couple bites of each before casting them aside in boredom. Now was her chance.
Mew turned, once, and Sara froze mid-creep, the pokédex out and poised between her hands. The legend darted off a moment later, though, browsing carelessly over the berry plants. Sara moved closer, and closer, hissing an exasperated breath when Mew made an abrupt sweep over the other side of the clearing, erasing all Sara's careful progress. She almost just wanted to dash up and get a scan and then turn and run off again.
Fortunately Mew seemed to be enjoying the grepa berries in particular and hung around them long enough that at pressing the "scan" button finally gave Sara a message other than "no target in range."
"Unknown species detected," the pokédex said. "Please hold pokédex steady for energy analysis." But Sara didn't hold the pokédex steady: she nearly dropped it, yelping, when Mew rounded and shot towards her, stopping not a foot from her face.
The legend hung in midair, tail drifting gently out behind it, peering at the device in Sara's hands. It felt curious, puzzled, not aggressive. "It's a pokédex," Sara said once she'd caught her breath. "It records data about pokémon for science. Nobody's ever seen a pokémon like you before."
Mew sent more shadowy not-noises into Sara's head. It was frustrating. Sara felt like if she really concentrated, really listened, she'd be able to make out actual words. But the psychic communications were always over too fast.
Then the pokédex chirped, "Spectral scan saved. Unknown species detected. Estimated mass 5 kg. Probable psychic-type. Unadjusted level approximation: sixty or greater. Approach with extreme caution."
Mew actually jumped, bouncing backwards through the air, and Sara giggled. "It's just a recording. It's not really talking." And then, as it dawned on her, "You've never seen something like this before, have you? It's a machine. They can do all kinds of things. They can make noises, or show pictures, or—you've never heard of TV! Or video games!"
Mew came cautiously forward again, prodding at Sara's mind with curious murmurings. Sara's own enthusiasm was rising, her words running away with her. "You don't even know—there were humans here before, weren't there? But you don't even know! You've been in the forest the whole time! It's nothing like it was then, there are all kinds of... buildings, and technology, and art and everything! You have to come back with me! You have to see it—we can go to the movie theater and the carnival and on an airplane and—the ocean! Have you ever even seen the ocean?"
Mew hung in the air in front of her, watching with huge blue eyes, drinking it all in, Sara thought. She remembered visualizing for Hunter, and Mew could probably read minds even better than he could. She remembered hard, sunlight shining off the big glass windows of skyscrapers, popsicles on the beach, pokémon battles on TV. "There's cities now, big cities. And all kinds of people... and pokémon... it must be so boring all the time in the jungle. Don't you want to see it? There's so much, you don't even know. Come with me! We can travel all over, we'll be the best team. I'm going to be a great trainer, and you can be my pokémon!"
Mew remained inscrutable, silent, watching Sara but not responding at all. Then, with a flick of her tail, she was around and away again, drifting lazily towards the trees. Sara's heart sank into her stomach. "No—no! Wait! I don't mean—you don't have to leave if you don't want to! I didn't mean it like that!" She ran after the legend, but Mew disappeared between the trees, and Sara stopped at their edge. She wasn't going to go out into the jungle, not after what happened last time.
She let out a long, dispirited breath. Nice job. Well, at least she got the scan. Even if Hunter wouldn't help her again, or Mew didn't come when he called, she had proof. She probably ought to be getting back to camp any—
Sara shrieked when something rocketed out of the undergrowth practically right next to her leg. Mew giggled, hanging in the air just above Sara's head, then arced into a graceful backflip and disappeared, with a rustle, into a clump of berry bushes. Sara took deep breaths, willing her heart to stillness, and cautiously approached.
"Mew?" Sara said, pushing aside branches and peering into the bushes' dense, shadowy interior. Nothing there. She couldn't feel the creepy tingly feeling Mew usually brought with it, either. Sara walked all around the bushes, now and again ducking down, contorting herself at some new angle to try and see inside. There was nothing there.
It was only when she'd given up and gone to check on Hunter that Mew exploded into the air, scattering leaves and twigs. Her psychic field blossomed once again, brimming with delight and laughter. Sara responded with laughter of her own. "You're good at hiding!"
Mew corskscrewed through the air, radiating excitement in all directions, then hooked swiftly around behind a tree trunk. The air fell inert. The chase was on.
Sara searched over and over, checking each of Mew's hiding places in turn, but she could never find the legend until it chose to reveal itself—it was good at hiding. It had to have some kind of camouflage, Sara decided, or some psychic thing that made your eyes skip over it completely. It wasn't exactly fair, but Sara didn't care. She was actually playing with a legendary pokémon! With Mew! And when at last the legend lost interest and sailed off into the forest for real, Sara felt confident it would be back again to play. She'd just need Hunter to call for it again.
Ah... Hunter. Sara dashed back to where he'd been lying, around near the edge of the clearing. The kadabra was sitting up, scratching at his head with his long claws. "Oh—Hunter!" Sara ran to get him some oran berries and watched anxiously while he ate them one by careful one. She definitely shouldn't have left him lying on the ground like that. She'd just been so distracted, with Mew...
"Did you see Mew?" Sara asked. Hunter gave her an exasperated look. "I mean, I guess you did, just for a couple seconds. I'm sorry it attacked you. I guess it's pretty territorial."
Hunter huffed and pushed himself to his feet. His movements were more confident now, less ginger. It was convenient to have all these berries around. "I'm sure next time we can get Mew to stop and talk to you instead of attacking," Sara said. "Umm, I mean, there will be a next time, right? You want to try again?"
Hunter looked her up and down, then gave a long-suffering sigh. With a flick of his spoon they were back at Sara's tent again.
Sara didn't have to guess why she woke up early the next morning, or why the atmosphere of the camp outside felt hushed and strained. She unzipped the tent flap, working slowly and quietly. The forest pokémon had all gathered near the center of camp again, most of them obscured from her sight. Still Sara could recognize a few she'd she'd seen before: the snivy, the trumbeak, the simipour.
Were they mad because Mew wanted to play with her? How was that fair? She didn't even go anywhere near their altar, and they'd already said people could use their forest if they wanted.
Hunter would be out there now, translating for Mom and Dad and everybody. And what would he tell them? Did the forest pokémon realize it was him who had gone with her to see Mew?
Sara strained pointlessly to hear what the pokémon were saying, caught only the odd growl or chirp that didn't mean anything anyway. She ducked back inside when the pokémon left and people started funneling back out between the tents. She sat up on her sleeping bag and pretended to read, waiting and waiting until finally Mom came to rummage through her stuff.
She didn't immediately ask whether Sara had been going into the jungle. That was good. "What were the pokémon here for, Mom?" Sara asked.
"Hmm? Oh, well, we're not entirely sure," Mom said. "Ah. Here it is." She pulled a bundle of maps out of her pile of papers. They were covered in scribbles and hand-drawn marker lines, the printed ink underneath giving little more than a sketch of the land around camp. Nobody really knew what was out here. "Don't worry about it, Sweetie. Dad and I are going to do our best to figure out what they want, and we'll be sure to stay safe. As long as you stick to camp or to the ruins, I promise you'll be fine."
Mom paused from shuffling through the maps. Sara froze, thinking realization might have struck. But Mom said, "I know this trip hasn't been as exciting as you hoped. Sometimes these things happen, but I'm sorry they had to come up and ruin your adventure. When we get back there'll still be some time left before school starts, and I promise you we'll make sure you get to have a real vacation before you have to go back."
School seemed impossibly far away, off in some world that didn't even matter, not with legends roaming the forest and Sara, with her charmander, out to catch them. Sara tried to put herself back there, to remember what she would want to do if she wasn't living through literally the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her. What would be fun whether she had Mew with her or not? "Can we go to FossilWorld?" An exhibit put on by the Pewter Science Museum with robots of ancient pokémon that moved and roared like real.
Mom smiled. "How could I have seen that one coming? Of course, Sara. Let's say we stick it out for another couple of weeks with the bugs and the mud, and then we can spend the rest of the summer in air conditioning with a robot kabutops. Sound good?"
"They have three robot kabutops!" Sara said with a laugh. "I really want to see the armaldo, it's supposed to be scary."
"Sounds good to me." Mom tucked the maps under her arm. "Hang in there, kiddo. We're nearly there."
She left. Sara waited a few minutes to be sure she wasn't coming back, then hurried out of the tent like she was just hungry for breakfast. She almost ran straight into Hunter, who was skulking outside, raking his claws through his moustache and looking just about as suspicious as it was possible to look.
He was so bad at this! "Were the pokémon mad about us finding Mew?" Sara asked.
For a moment Sara was exasperated, and then confused about why she was exasperated, and then exasperated again when she realized that was Hunter being irritated with her. She just thought she should check! "Okay, fine. Did you tell anybody about us? Ow, ow! Okay! I get it!"
Hunter gave her one of his dour looks while she rubbed at her forehead, stewing. "Fine. So you want to try again today? I'll ask Mew to not knock you out right away this time."
Hunter's response was a luxurious feeling that made Sara think of sliding into a wonderfully warm bath. It was like being with Mew when it was happy or excited. It was strange to learn this, when she'd never been around many psychic pokémon before. It was kind of cool, but also kind of creepy, too.
"Okay," Sara said, and her grin couldn't all be from what Hunter put into her head. "We're a team, right? We'll get Mew together. And Mom and Dad aren't going to know until we bring it back here for everyone to see."
Mew didn't knock Hunter out right away that time. They even had some kind of conversation, Sara thought, the air fizzing with thoughts just beyond her ability to comprehend. Mew drifted around picking berries, unconcerned as ever, and Hunter was constantly turning to keep her in front of him while he talked, or whatever he was doing. He gestured with his spoon a lot. Sara got the sense there was some kind of expansive speech happening.
After a couple of minutes Mew spun and chucked a shadow ball at him, and he was out cold again. The ripples Mew sent out seemed like they tickled the inside of Sara's head, and she laughed as the legend came sailing over to her, burbling half-formed impressions.
"Okay, I get he's probably pretty boring. But that's still mean," Sara said. Mew danced around radiating smug satisfaction, and Sara grinned. "So, what do you... You want to play?" Sara asked. "Uh, you want to play catch?"
There wasn't a lot around to work with, but she was able to find a fallen berry that hadn't gotten too slimy yet. Mew watched her digging through the dead leaves as though it was utterly fascinating. "Okay, now catch!" Sara shouted, hurling the berry at Mew.
It stopped long before reaching the pokémon, then started to bob and dance with Mew's movements, zipping out of Sara's reach when she ran up to grab it. Sara tossed berry after berry up to her, and Mew caught them all, keeping them in orbit around herself, making them dance. Now and again she fired one back at Sara, without warning and much too fast for her to have any hope of catching. The flung berries burst uselessly against the forest floor.
That was how it went with all their games. They'd hide and seek, or tag, or race, and every time Mew won easily, if she even bothered to play by anything like normal rules. She didn't seem to mind, though, or thought it was fun to crush such easy competition, emanating delight whenever Sara exclaimed over her speed or psychic powers. Sara began to suspect that she didn't really need to bring Hunter to summon the legend, that Mew would have showed up at the berry patch on schedule just to see her. The warm secret that she had found a legendary pokémon and made friends with it crept up on her sometimes, unexpected, and she found herself grinning at nothing over dinner or sitting by herself in her tent.
Hunter insisted on coming anyway. Sara felt a little bad, because he seemed like he really wanted to get to know Mew, and Mew seemed to find it funny to knock him out mid-rant and had no interest in him whatsoever. It would run off to play with Sara, the both of them forgetting about the unconscious kadabra until it was time to go home.
They couldn't keep just playing, though. There had only been ten days left of the expedition the first time Sara met Mew, and time trickled by ever faster, so Sara tried bringing up how exciting life was outside the jungle and how great it was to have a trainer. Mom did help her make some bait, and Sara mused pointedly on how many tasty things humans made while Mew greedily scarfed it down. Sara gave some of it to Hunter, too, afterwards, as thanks and apology both. She had to keep herself focused on her goal, though. Every opportunity she had, Sara pushed Mew to consider leaving the forest with her.
That's what she was doing with only four days left to go. Mew ranged back and forth across the clearing, swooping and bouncing and not even looking at Sara, peering at flowers or trailing vines, in constant motion. "And, and there are ice cream stands and fishing and surfing by the beach," Sara went on, feeling like she was losing the legend's attention completely. "We wouldn't have to stay on Cinnabar Island, either, we could go to Viridian or Saffron or Celadon or somewhere really cool."
Mew swung around abruptly and scooted over to Sara, an abrupt lunge made with a single lash of its tail. Sara jumped, then recovered and grinned, eager. "That's right! There are big buildings and so many people and all kinds of things to do. We could have a lot of fun."
Sara felt a brief tug at her waist. She looked down, confused, and saw Titan's pokéball floating towards Mew. "Oh, yeah!" she said. "That's a pokéball. It's for keeping pokémon in. Watch."
She grabbed the pokéball out of the air and clicked the button, and white light spilled out, forming up into Titan. The charmander looked around, and then up at Mew, and squeaked, but Sara already knew what was going to happen and clicked the pokéball's button again. The ground shook a little, even where Sara was standing, as something invisible slammed into the ground. Dirt and leaves puffed into the air. Titan was already halfway sucked into the pokéball, safe from whatever psychic attack that had been.
"It's not nice to pick on baby pokémon," Sara said. "If you came with me to Cinnabar Island then you could fight some real battling pokémon. Like Blaine, he's the gym leader, his team is really great."
Mew's eyes fixed on her, and Sara's mouth went dry. The pokéball in her hand jerked abruptly towards Mew, but Sara held on tight.
"I'll let Titan out again," she said, feeling very courageous, "but only if you don't attack him. Okay? You have to be nice."
Mew swung side to side in the air, and a cold feeling fell over Sara. Her heart started beating fast, the same way it had done when she'd first felt Mew's psychic powers, before she'd gotten used to them. Even now, even though Mew could be cute and friendly, it was sometimes scary, too. And it was probably used to getting its way.
"Will you be nice?" she asked, and then gasped when the pokéball was torn from her fingers by rough and sightless force. She never had a chance at holding on. Mew floated the ball up overhead and examined it from all angles, twirling around it in the air. "Give that back," Sara said, her heart beating even harder now. Mew dropped the pokéball into her paws and then threw it up again, caught it with her tail and bounced it experimentally.
"I mean it," Sara said. "Give it back. That's Titan's pokéball. If you lose it or something happens to it, he's stuck in there forever. You have to be careful with pokéballs. They're where somebody lives."
Mew gave the ball an extra-large swat so it went shooting off into the trees, and Sara raced after, panting, already envisioning it rolling away somewhere, maybe into a gully or into the dark heart of a thorny bush, and being lost forever.
She didn't see it land. How could she? All she saw was the direction it went, and that it must have gone far. There was no way she could find something pokéball-sized in the jungle, in with all the trees and bushes and fallen branches and leaves, even if it was bright red. And wandering around looking for it, she'd be relying on Mew to show her the way back to camp again, and who knew if it would even do that, or if it would decide it was more fun to watch Sara stumble around on her own.
Stop it. She couldn't think about that now. Finding Titan was the most important thing. Sara kicked aside undergrowth and parted bushes, peering inside, heedless of how her hands got scratched. She tried to be calm, distant, not let her heart leap with hope at each glimpse of what she thought was glossy white or bold red plastic. No hope, and no disappointment, either, when each new nook or cranny turned up empty.
A chill went up Sara's spine, the small hairs rising on her arms. Mew was lurking in the air behind her, watching. At first she tried to ignore it and only took her anger out on the jungle plants, kicking fallen branches aside, snapping stems and ripping leaves as she pushed through thickets. Mew kept pace behind, apparently fascinated.
"You think this is funny?" Sara finally snapped. "Titan could be lost forever, do you understand? It's like dying. He could be gone forever because you thought it was funny to play with his pokéball."
The impression she got from Mew was one of uncertainty and annoyance. The pokémon's huge blue eyes were unblinking, as always, no expression on its chubby snout.
"No," Sara said as firmly as she could. "I can't play with you. Not until I find Titan. This is important.
Mew hung around broadcasting dissatisfaction at her, like an incongruously pink stormcloud. Sara ignored it even harder, and tried not to let the effort of ignoring it distract her from finding Titan. That was the most important thing, always.
Finally Mew gave up and floated away. Sara reflected, bitterly, that she was probably just lucky it hadn't attacked her to have some fun. The legend was drifting around in the background somewhere, still fuming, no doubt, but Sara was determined not to pay any attention to it. And determined not to think of the endless jungle, stretching on and on for miles, and Titan's pokéball, only as large as her fist, lost somewhere within.
"Char!"
Sara whipped around, and there he was behind her: Titan, bright orange against the forest's greens and browns, his flame glowing warmly behind him. "Charman," he said, seeming reproachful.
"Titan!" Sara practically fell down in front of him, trying to get a closer look. "Where's your pokéball? How did you get out?"
The charmander let out an exasperated hrff of air and walked away like he didn't even know what she was so worked up about. Sara's arms were up and reaching before she managed to stop herself, to hold herself back. Titan hated it when people grabbed him or tried to pick him up.
"Titan, we can't just go. We have to find your pokéball. And then..." Trees to all sides, row on row. All alike. She felt sick. "Then we have to find the way back."
"Charman!" Titan pointed decisively forward and kept walking.
"Titan, we can't," Sara said. She closed he eyes and willed herself to be calm. "We can't just pick a direction and go. Remember what happened last time? And first we have to find your pokéball. Where did it go?"
And where was—but Sara couldn't see Mew anywhere. It must have flown off in a huff. And Hunter, he was still back at the berry patch, where she'd left him... like usual. He should wake up soon. He wouldn't leave her, would he? Maybe if he called Mew back, it would tell him how to find her.
"Charmander char!" And Sara felt "come here" so strongly that she looked up in surprise, already tensed to get to her feet. Titan had stopped and was glaring at her, reproachful.
"What was that?" Was Mew still around, actually? It could be hiding. Sara would never see it. Actually... actually now that she was thinking about it, she could still feel the fizzing sensation in the air. She was so used to it now that she usually didn't notice. But that meant it had to be around here somewhere.
"Come out, Mew!" she yelled. "I'm not playing your stupid game. Either help me find Titan's pokéball or show us the way back or go away."
Of course it didn't come out. The psychic presence still hung in the air, taunting. Where was it? Sara glared around at the trees. Titan growled, and Sara glanced at him, hoping he might have sensed where Mew was, like he did before. But he was growling at her.
The psychic presence hummed all around Sara. In front of her was Titan, definitely Titan: overlarge for a charmander, one snaggle-tooth grown out at a weird angle, deep dark eyes that glowed brown when the light hit them just right. He had the same voice that went from growly to squeaky in an instant. Sara stepped towards him and felt the psychic tension grow stronger.
"You can transform," Sara whispered.
"Charmander! Char, char!" Mew's tail flared up with excitement, and it raised its arms as though cheering her on. It pointed again in what must actually be the direction of the berry patch, then hurried on its way, flaming tail bobbing behind.
Sara could only stay awed for a second, though. "No, I'm not going to play with you," she said. "I don't want to play with you. I don't want a fake Titan, I want the real one, and you threw him away. You aren't anything like him at all."
Mew stopped and snorted, glaring. "That's right," Sara said. "You're mean. I don't want to play with you anymore, ever. Either bring Titan back or go away and leave me alone."
Mew actually hissed at her, face crumpling into a snarl that showed all Titan's gleaming jagged teeth. Its tail swished behind it, scattering live embers. Sara had never seen Titan look like that in her life. "So attack me, then!" she yelled. "I don't care! I never want to see you again. I want Titan!" Tears were turning her vision blurry. "The real Titan. You're not him. Go away."
Mew stood there growling, and Sara turned her back on it, sitting down right there in the gross leaves and covering her face with her hands. Why did she keep doing things wrong? She found Mew, but it wasn't nice, it was mean, and now she'd gone and lost her starter pokémon, the very most important one, and she was never going to find him ever again. She was the worst trainer ever, and she wasn't even a proper trainer yet.
Heat and tingling psychic pressure grew against her back as Mew came nearer. "Go away!" Sara shrieked and, remarkably, it did.
Sara sobbed, the way she hadn't been able to when she was lost the last time. Now here she was again, but she didn't have to be strong for Titan because Titan was gone because of stupid Mew and it didn't even matter that she wasn't going to be able to get back to camp, because if Titan couldn't go back then she didn't deserve to, either. She cried harder than she thought she ever had in her life.
Something thumped down in the dirt next to her and Sara looked up to get a watery view of Mew, itself again and hovering just overhead, making stern not-noises in her head. A pokéball lay on the ground underneath it, glossy plastic bright against the gray-brown old leaves. Sara was sobbing even while she grabbed it up, holding it tight against her chest even though there was no way to protect it if Mew wanted to grab it again. She was still crying but also hiccuping now, snot dripping from her nose.
Mew bounced up and down in the air. "No. I still don't want to play," Sara said. She took deep breaths but couldn't stop another sob from coming out, then turned and wiped her eyes on her shoulders, first one and then the other. Everything was wet and blurry.
Mew flew in circles over her head, radiating irritation that resonated with Sara's own. "Thank you for bringing Titan back, but I still want you to go away. You were the one who almost lost him in the first place." The pokéball was faintly warm in her hands, had a slight weight to it that was more than plastic, so she knew the charmander was in there.
Mew stopped circling but didn't go away. It laced the air with exasperated confusion. Then it seemed to twist, or spin, blurring and melting and then there was a basculin floating there, fins fanning gently in midair.
"I don't care. Go away," Sara said.
The basculin stretched and then squashed down into a rattata, then a caterpie that shone gold instead of green. "Go away." Sara turned her back to it again. She shifted Titan's pokéball to just one hand but keeping it pressed tight against her chest. She wiped her face off properly with the other. Now that she'd stopped crying the world seemed extra bright and crisp.
Mew curved around to get in front of her again. First it was itself, all big eyes and cute round face. Then it changed, this time to Hunter. It scowled and combed its moustache with its claws, and stalked around so like the kadabra himself that Sara couldn't help it. She giggled.
Mew changed. It was a bulbasaur a moment, then some kind of bird pokémon Sara didn't recognize, feathers shimmering iridescent blues and greens. Mew was a kecleon that vanished and a vaporeon that melted into a pool of water into a pool of sludge that rose again as a grimer.
Sara laughed. "Even ditto can't transform that fast! What else can you be? Can you be Moltres?"
Mew was a bird with wings wider than Sara's outstretched arms, flames licking from its feathers. The heat beat at Sara's face.
"Good! What about... What about a rock? Can you be a rock?"
Mew was a geodude. Sara said that wasn't what she meant, and it was a roggenrola instead. Still no good. Mew pouted, but it turned out that it could not, in fact, be a rock. Or a flower, or a tree.
"Hmm, what else?" Sara said to herself. Mew was swinging back and forth in the air in front of her, apparently miffed that Sara had found something it couldn't do. The pokémon paused and turned back to face her, and then Mew was Sara.
It was perfect, like looking in the mirror. Mew had her own brown eyes, without any of the beadiness you normally saw with ditto. It had the same wild hair, trying to go every way at once. It even had the little mole on her shoulder. There was no expression on its perfectly-formed face.
What it didn't have was clothes.
Sara shrieked and put her hands over her mouth, then over her eyes, then peeked out between her fingers, horrified but intrigued. All the while one hand stayed clamped tight around Titan's pokéball. Sara turned away from Mew, then thought of the not-her staring at her back, and that was so creepy she had to turn around again and look.
"You can't be me naked," Sara said, horrified but at the same time delighted. "How do you even know what I look like without clothes? Can you see through them? That's so creepy!"
The not-her's expression, so neutral as to be almost frightening, did not change.
So creepy. "Stop that," she said. "You're being weird."
The not-her smiled, slowly. It was the kind of smile you'd get from practicing in the mirror, if you didn't know what a smile meant. Sara looked at the exposed teeth and how Mew's cheeks pulled up and it was just the worst.
Sara got to her feet, clipping Titan's pokéball back to her belt. Mew was a little shorter than her—not wearing shoes. "That's so bad," Sara said, laughing. She didn't know how the sight was so unsettling but funny at the same time. "Stop doing that." She shoved Mew on the shoulder, and its skin under her hand felt like her skin except not.
Mew shoved back, and it was much stronger than she was. Sara nearly fell over, and then while she was getting her balance back Mew smiled another toothy smile and dashed into the bushes, apparently unconcerned about broken branches under its bare feet or thorns snagging at exposed skin. "No, no, wait—get back here!" Sara took off after it, head filled with horrifying, hilarious thoughts of Mew sprinting into camp, stark naked except for mud, and just what a scene that would make.
It led her on a broad-ranging chase through the woods, now and again doubling back to pounce on her, the two of them wrestling so Sara got nearly as dirty as it was. Sara put aside what had almost happened to Titan, just for now, but it wasn't like she forgot. The moment was simply too strange and hilarious for her to pass up.
Eventually Mew led them back to the berry patch. It got bored, it always got bored, and it flipped back to its pink and furry self and shot off into the air without even a goodbye. Sara lowered her arm from waving after it.
They'd been playing for a long time. She looked around for Hunter, as always feeling faintly guilty that she'd left him behind. Mew was mean. She'd seen that for sure today. She had to remember that. She had to be careful, and she wouldn't bring Titan with her again.
"Hunter?" she called. He should definitely be up and about by now. Maybe he got tired of waiting and went back without her? Probably. That seemed like the kind of thing he'd do. No problem. She could walk.
One more check around the clearing, just to be sure the kadabra hadn't dozed off or something. Sara walked a circuit of the patch, calling and ducking down to look under bushes. No Hunter anywhere. But when she came around to the path that led back towards camp, there was a passimian waiting for her.
It was big, a lot bigger, it seemed like, than the ones she'd seen coming around the campsite. She couldn't tell if this was one of them or not. Sara had barely been a trainer for a month, but even so her hand went automatically to her belt.
"Hey," she said. The passimian gazed at her cooly, leaning on its fruit, which was big and round and striped dark green. Sara wondered distantly what kind it was, if she should know the name.
A crash and rustle in the trees next to her made her whip around to look. A pikipek that had knocked a panpour off a branch, and they were staring each other down, flashing wings and showing teeth.
Pokémon. They were all around, and she hadn't even noticed. The bushes were laden with them, they stood in the alleys between trees, clung to trunks. They were all watching, quiet, like the passimian in front of her.
Now Sara grabbed Titan's pokéball, even though it was no good. There were too many of them. "Okay, I'll go back," Sara said. "I'm turning around. I won't go that way."
With her heart pounding she turned and walked towards the middle of the berry patch. Where could she even go? That was the way back to camp, and beyond the clearing there was nothing but jungle. Movement flashed in Sara's peripheral vision, branches nodding and bouncing as pokémon jumped from one to the next, flashes of color as they moved between trees. They were keeping up with her. Sara forced herself not to turn around, to keep going, until a lightning-fast flash of emerald darted out ahead of her. It was a servine, red eyes glaring, leaf-shaped tail whipping around in front of its stubby legs.
Sara stopped, again, and now she did turn. The passimian was still there, behind her, walking casually to keep up. It stopped again, leaned on its fruit with the same casual air as before. Sara looked between it and the servine and the pokémon watching from the trees.
"I'm going back to camp," she said, her voice shaking. "I'm not going to hurt anybody. I just want to go home."
The passimian actually spoke then, in a chattery voice. "I'm sorry," Sara said, her pulse so loud in her ears that she almost couldn't hear her own words. "I don't understand."
The passimian grunted and waved its paws in the air, gently back and forth, as though conducting a symphony. Bouncing and swooping through the air. It pointed at the pokéball on her belt and said something else.
"I don't know," Sara said. "Sorry, I, I don't understand. If you come, if you come back to camp with me, I can get Hunter and he, he can try to talk to you. The kadabra. He always talks to you."
The passimian flashed teeth at her and growled. "I don't—I, I'm sorry." The servine watched impassively, tongue flicking out as it smelled the air. Sara felt the world closing in around her, like maybe she was going to faint. The passimian regarded her with cool confidence from under the rim of its helmet, which was striped with the same green as the fruit it was holding. Sara stared into its eyes and tried to take deep breaths. Please turn around. Please step aside. Please let me go past. I want to go home. I just want to go home.
The passimian shifted its weight, ever so slightly. It never dropped its gaze from Sara's face, but it gave a short bark. The pokémon moved.
Sara gasped and ducked as a pikipek shot from the trees, beak slashing through the air where her face had been. It turned in a mad flutter of wings, what Sara would have thought of as a harmless, soft sound, but now meant that it was coming around to attack again. "Stop!" she yelled, and stumbled a step forward. The pikipek lunged, and she only just got her arms up in time, so its beak tore a cut across the back of her hand.
It was going for her face. No—her eyes. "Stop! Leave me alone!" Sara screamed, and then nearly fell, something hitting the side of her leg hard. Her calf awoke with stabbing pain. A pansage was climbing up her leg, claws digging in deep. Sara tore Titan's pokéball from her belt, and no sooner had he materialized than he tackled the pansage away, hissing and scratching.
Sara ran, swatting at the air to fend the pikipek off. Pokémon spilled from the trees, racing in pursuit. The passimian sat in the path where it had before, and Sara had just enough emotion left to dread it, to envision it leaping at her and smashing in her skull with its big round fruit.
It let her go past. Turned to watch, maybe, but Sara didn't care, couldn't think of anything but the way home, not even if Titan was running after her. The pokémon hadn't caught her yet, and if she could just keep ahead of them, if she could just run, it was only two minutes and she'd be back in camp, and then she'd be safe.
The pikipek harried her, darting in and out, but it wasn't good at flying fast and also aiming and so far all its strikes had gone wide. As long as the passimian didn't change its mind, as long as it didn't try to catch her, she could outrun the little ones—one second later she was on the ground, and a second after that she was strangling, her chest heaving against a tight, crushing band.
The servine slithered up on her from behind and wrapped its slender body tight around her chest. It was coiled now with its head against her breastbone, tongue flicking lazily while it squeezed. One of Sara's arms was crushed up against her side, held in place by the servine's body, but she struck at it with the other one so it ducked its head and hissed in annoyance, and tightened its grip still further.
It felt impossible that such a small pokémon could be so strong. Sara took deeper and deeper breaths, frantic, but it felt like her ribs were caving in under the servine's pressure. Her head pounded and she clawed at the pokémon, not caring how it bit her fingers. Then the pikipek cut a long scratch across her cheek and she turned her face into the dirt, shrieking.
They couldn't really be trying to kill her. Sara breathed as hard as she could, but her chest could hardly move anymore, with how tight the servine had wrapped it. She was starting to feel dizzy. But it couldn't possibly want to kill her. It wasn't possible that she could die like this, just past the edge of safety, in the jungle far from home, when she was still too young to have even started her journey yet.
Something grabbed one of her legs, something landed hard with claws on her back. Where was Titan? Sara kept her face down with her free arm shielding it, the pikipek's beak stabbing in to try and get her around the edges of it. She tried to crush the servine under her own body but it was the one crushing her, and then something doused her in water, horrible cold and stinging, and she tried to cough but the servine was holding on too tight.
The pikipek was gone, but then there was more water, and shouting, and something roughly turned her over, and then she was looking up at Sanesh while Golduck clawed the servine off her chest, scratching and slashing its face until it let go.
Whether she passed out then, Sara didn't know. But after that point she didn't remember anything.
