Awakening

Chapter 4: The Shadows In Your Eyes (Part 1)

Sabrina was still the official Saffron City gym leader, though usually one of her psychic apprentices took over. She hardly ever battled the trainers who came looking for badges anymore, it simply wasn't challenging at all. Yet Ashimi had the intention of battling Sabrina herself. When she couldn't find her, Ashimi decided to take some time to train her pokemon while she waited for Sabrina to return to the gym.

Albeit Ashimi and Jonathan did make a stop at the pokemon day care center run by Jessie and James at Saffron, which was in reality a secret Rocket trading spot, Ashimi was determined not to get distracted playing with the pokemon. After having something to eat, she decided to go to the outskirts of the city to train.

Jonathan busied himself with Rocket business, leaving Ashimi alone to her training. She let Furball and Zubat out of their pokeballs, choosing not to deal with the difficult Clefable right away. She practiced a few attacks for a while, but she wasn't alone with her pokemon for long.

"Ah! Ha ha ho ha ha! If it isn't little Ashimi!" Dorme made her arrival known with her laugh.

Ashimi pouted and glared. "Go away Dorme, Johnny isn't here." She shooed her off as if she was a matter of little importance, albeit of great annoyance.

"Got tired of babysitting you, did he?" Dorme mocked.

Ashimi huffed, "I'm not a kid, I don't need a babysitter, I'm a pokemon trainer!"

"Right..." The sarcasm was dripping off Dorme's voice. "I'm sure Johnny only gives you a second glance because you're the boss's granddaughter. Yet deep down, you're just an annoying kid!"

"That's not true!" Ashimi shouted.

"Oh, you know it is," Dorme insisted with a tone of self assurance. "Now if you'll excuse me, little girl, I must find Johnny so we can discuss grown up Rocket stuff. Maybe he'll even get me a present from that cute gijinka shop!" Dorme walked away, laughing obnoxiously the whole way.

"She just has to knock the good mood right out of me," Ashimi grumbled. "C'mon guys," she signaled for her pokemon to follow her out of the wooded area and into the main road. "I could use some dessert right about now. Let's check out that ice-cream shop over at the main street."

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After having some ice-cream with Pichu, Furball and Zubat, Ashimi felt better. She would have called Clefable out, but she would have probably thrown the ice-cream on her face, so she decided not to. "That feels good!" Ashimi's declaration was met with full agreements from her pokemon. "Okay, time to get back to training!" As they left the ice-cream shop and once again headed to the outskirts of Saffron City, Ashimi spotted Jonathan coming out of a cutesy gijinka themed shop. He couldn't possibly be shopping for himself. Ashimi couldn't imagine him, or any other boy for that matter, using any of the things sold at that shop. "Johnny?"

Caught off guard, Jonathan hid something behind his back and smiled stiffly. "Hi..."

"Hi..." A heavy silence followed. Ashimi shifted slightly to try to see what Jonathan was hiding, but he moved along with her to keep the object behind his back. The thing was small, but that was just about all Ashimi could tell about it. "What did you buy?"

"Um... I'm just... Running an errand for my mom! See you later, good luck with your training!" Making sure to keep the mysterious object concealed, Jonathan made his escape, running down the street.

'Did he really get a gift for Dorme?' Ashimi wondered. It's not like Jonathan had ever outright rejected Dorme, did he like her or something? What would it be like to have a best friend dating an annoying rival? Ashimi didn't even want to imagine that. "This sucks..." She concluded. "I really need to blow off some steam! We'll train and train, and we'll even camp out and keep on training and we won't set foot in the city again until it's time to face Sabrina!" Thus it was done.

xoxox xox xoxox

By the time Sabrina returned to the gym, Ashimi was ready for an intense battle. She marched to the arena full of determination and challenged Sabrina.

The psychic laughed, unsurprised. "I was told you were waiting to challenge me, though I rarely participate in gym battles in person anymore. One of my apprentices should have been enough of a challenge for you." Sabrina's air of mystery had multiplied over the years. Her psychic powers were at a whole new level and her voice seemed to echo. Anyone who had seen her years before wouldn't have imagined her in that dark cloak, but Ashimi didn't know her as anything other than the mysterious shadowy figure that floated before her.

Sabrina was the leader of her own organization of psychics, one that was allied to Team Rocket and would be instrumental when the time came to go public with their takeover and it had already been extremely helpful so far. Though Team Rocket already controlled the world from behind the scenes, they couldn't just come out and say it, the panic that would ensue would shake the very foundations of humanity.

"You'll be a much better challenge!" Ashimi replied as soon as she was able to find her voice.

"Very well, if you truly want a challenge, how about a battle of mental endurance?" Sabrina smirked and her eyes glowed ominously.

"That sounds interesting, I accept!" Ashimi pushed her voice to come out as strong as possible, though it was no easy task. There was something about the psychic gym leader that was just creepy, yet at the same time, very cool.

"You should not accept the unknown so easily." Sabrina's eerily echoing voice warned. A strange mist flooded the arena with black shadows and silver sparks.

Ashimi felt as if she was floating in space. She could no longer feel the floor beneath her feet and the air became thin and hard to breathe. 'Maybe I should have just battled mom first,' Ashimi swallowed the lump in her throat and took a deep breath.

"One on one," Sabrina's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere.

Ashimi squinted into the darkness, but she couldn't see the Saffron gym leader at all. "Okay... Pichu, I choose you!" Pichu let out a scared squeak and peered down from the top of Ashimi's head. He couldn't see the floor at all and whimpered unsure. Ashimi picked up the little yellow pokemon and tried to set him at her feet, but rather than floating like she was, the Pichu plummeted into the darkness below. "Pichu!" She felt a fear and a pain, her worry increased and so did her pain, as if fear had become a physical ailment, her head was pounding.

"See through the eyes of your pokemon and become as one!" Sabrina's voice echoed.

Ashimi closed her eyes in a trance and when she opened them, she was getting on her feet at a shadowy arena, surrounded by the same space-like mist. This time she could feel the floor beneath her, but just barely, as her senses were numb. Her body moved on its own, taking a step back as a tall Alakazam approached. Then she realized it wasn't her body at all. She wasn't really seeing this, Pichu was seeing it and the images were somehow in her mind.

"Pichu," no words came from her mouth but her own voice echoed in her mind.

"Ashy, what do I do?" A small child-like voice called out to her.

"Pichu?" Then Johnny wasn't the only one who called her Ashy after all, Pichu did too. She was actually mentally talking to her pokemon, this was awesome! She suddenly wondered what Jonathan was doing. If he went out with Dorme, would she tag along with her on her pokemon quest, or would Johnny stop traveling with her?

Pichu was suddenly lifted off the floor by Alakazam's psychic powers. Ashimi was so distracted that she didn't even hear when Sabrina gave the command. "Clear your mind or your thoughts will be as a maze for your pokemon," Sabrina warned.

"Pichu!" Getting her head back in the battle, Ashimi tried to communicate with her pokemon partner. "Thunderbolt!" Ashimi could feel Pichu tensing up, but no electricity came. "I think we need to do this together, but I don't know what shooting electricity is supposed to feel like. Let's try to focus here, electricity, strength, energy, power, go!" Sparks ignited around Pichu, and he electrocuted himself.

Ashimi felt the shock as if all her nerves were burning, then Pichu's body went limp. Ashimi was surrounded by darkness and heaviness, her pokemon had closed his eyes. She felt like she was falling and hit the floor with a thud. Then she opened her eyes, awakening from her trance and she was falling again. She hit the floor once more, this time for real rather than through Pichu's sensations. The dark mist cleared out and Ashimi was once again on the arena, her Pichu lay unconscious just a few feet away. "I... I lost..."

Offering no condolences, Sabrina simply breathed, "miserably..."

Disappointed, Ashimi picked up her Pichu, cradling him in her arms, "I'm sorry..."

"Will you challenge one of my apprentices in a regular pokemon battle for a marsh badge?" Sabrina inquired as she recalled her Alakazam and floated across the arena. Her feet never touched the floor, causing her to tower over anyone.

Ashimi paused, she had clearly gotten herself into more than she could handle, but to obtain a marsh badge from anyone other than the true gym leader felt like an empty victory. "No..." Her voice was a barely audible whisper at first, then she forced herself to speak clearly. "No I won't, the only marsh badge I'll accept has to be from you! I want a rematch!"

"Good, if you had run like a coward after challenging me, I would have made sure you were denied the marsh badge," Sabrina spoke harshly. "However, I will not waste my precious time with you. You'll get one more chance, and if you fail, you can forget about ever having a marsh badge."

Sabrina's warning was scary, but Ashimi called upon her most stubborn determination and forced herself to answer. "I won't fail!"

xoxox xox xoxox

After her experience at the Saffron gym, Ashimi went to the pokemon center. After a while, the local Joy returned her healed Pichu. "Sorry about today. I forgot that Pichu tend to shock themselves, it's an accomplishment in itself that you can usually control your electricity well enough not to. That was completely my mistake, I tried to force the power out and threw it out of control. But how can we win? Sabrina is a psychic, so she knows what it's like to use psychic powers. How can I synchronize myself with you if I only just now learned a little of what it's like to control electricity?"

Ashimi was still lost in thought at the lobby of the pokemon center when Jonathan arrived looking for her. "Hey princess, where have you been?"

Ashimi tried to put on a brave front and smiled, "around. What about you? Hanging out with Dorme?"

"Dorme came to Saffron?" Jonathan sounded like he genuinely had not known. "I guess I must have missed her, I have been helping my parents with their Rocket duties and other stuff lately."

"Really?" Ashimi felt somewhat relieved. 'He was telling the truth earlier, but then why did he hide what he bought?'

"Let's go to my parents' place, there's food." Jonathan was pretty sure that would easily convince Ashimi to come along, and he was right. The girl had her father's appetite.

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Upon arriving at Jessie and James' pokemon day care center, Ashimi was greeted with a chorus of "happy birthday!" She had been so caught up in her traveling and training she had not realized it was her birthday. Jessie, James, Meowth and their pokemon were present of course, and also Ash, Misty and Delia were there.

"This is awesome! I can't believe I forgot it was my birthday!" Ashimi laughed, her mood had taken a complete turn for the better. She still had Sabrina's challenge to think about, but for the time being she would focus on the present, after all, it was hard to think about anything else when there was a delicious cake in sight.

Ashimi eyed the cake with sparkles in her eyes and looked at Delia. "Yes, I did make it," she confirmed. "It's a chocolate cake with peanut butter chips, layered with cookies and cream icecream." Delia knew it was Ashimi's favorite. As for the outside of the cake, it was framed with oreos charlotte style with rainbow sprinkles and raspberries on top.

"Awesome!" Ashimi cheered. Though there were some pretty good bakeries around Kanto, no one could cook and bake like her grandmother.

The Starlight Delight hadn't become a famous franchise of secret recipes in Kalos for nothing. Though it started as a cover up for Giovanni to begin his take-over of the region, soon everyone was lining up to get a taste of Delia's cakes. She even had to train a few Rockets to make them, as she couldn't supply enough for their cover-up by herself. The cakes were of high quality, made separately in small mixing bowls to ensure that each individual cake's consistency was just right. As the process was so carefully monitored, they were sold as pricey gourmet cakes, which Delia thought didn't fit with the image of the homey little restaurant she once owned, the Pallet House, she never would have guessed her cooking would end up having such an effect. It was only a matter of time before the franchise was expanded to other regions, though it would never become a shop of mass produced cakes, as such, the expansion would be slow but convenient, opening the doors of the homes of many wealthy and influential cake fans.

Overall, Ashimi had a very good birthday. She got plenty of supplies for her journey, snacks to take along and even some gijinka collectibles, though she had to leave them at home so as to not carry too much of a heavy load during her journey. She did eventually solve the mystery of what Johnny had gotten from the gijinka themed shop. It was a cute cellphone case with a picture of a chibi pikachu gijinka floating on a lifesaver, which now adorned her phone.

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After the birthday, Delia returned to Viridian City where Giovanni was. Misty had to return to Cerulean City to take care of the gym, and Ash was called away on business by the Pokemon League again, that was happening more often than usual lately, but Ashimi didn't give it too much thought. Ash knew why they were doing it and knew that if he was to get his request he'd have to do a few jobs for the League. He didn't exactly dedicate himself to his duties after he won the championship, instead choosing to continue traveling until Ashimi was born.

Even then, he would take her and Misty on the road whenever Misty could get one of her sisters to take care of the gym for her. That had become a little easier in the most recent years when one of her older nephews offered to take her place every now and then, while Misty fell into her old habits of traveling to the ends of the earth and back on Ash's whims. Perhaps that was the reason why Ashimi was content going from one place to another in a car now. She had started to hike through every corner of Kanto as soon as she could walk. She would encounter wild pokemon, chase after them and play with them, but they weren't hers to catch at the time. She grew up surrounded by pokemon, they were her friends and she didn't really feel like catching more than she could truly pay attention to.

"Are you going to the gym today?" Jonathan inquired after Ash, Misty and Delia had left.

"Not yet," Ashimi decided. "I'm going back into the woods in the outskirts of the city and training. There's something I need to do before I can face Sabrina... again," she confessed.

"Again?" Jonathan questioned.

"You didn't miss much," Ashimi insisted. "I lost, but I think I know what to do to win, I just have to train. I also need some equipment, I'm sure your parents won't mind letting me borrow a little something."

Jessie and James seemed to pop out of nowhere in the front lobby, despite having been tending to the pokemon in the back seconds prior. "What do you need, Princess Rocket?" Jessie asked with a big smile.

"We'll do anything we can to assist you in your quest, your highness," James added.

Ashimi giggled, it all started when Ash had jokingly complained about his daughter being treated like a princess while he was still referred to as twerp, despite being a grown man. That only caused Jessie and James to poke fun at him by making their royal treatment silly and over the top.

"I was wondering if you have any equipment that can redirect electricity," Ashimi asked.

"As a matter of fact we do," Jessie recalled. "I think we have a few things that fit the description stashed off in the basement."

"We used to get gadgets like that all the time years ago to try to steal your dad's pikachu," James fondly recalled. "Afterwards we kept on collecting little things like that, I guess old habits die hard. But whose pikachu are you planning to steal?" James joked.

"Who knows..." Ashimi replied with an air of playful mystery.

"Maybe I should be the one getting all the equipment and stealing your Pichu," Jonathan joked.

"Ha, just try it, if you steal him you'll have to feed him and you'll be begging me to take him back before you know it!" Ashimi teased. Pichu gave her a playful electric shock in response and feigned indignation. "Ow, ow, save it for the training."

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A short while later, Ashimi left the pokemon day care center with a peculiar metal stick on hand. It was a type of lightning rod that could catch and return electric attacks. Its rubber covering on the handle protected the one holding it while it was charged. As they walked towards the edge of the city, Meowth exited the pokemon day care and caught up to them. His daughter, Nya, was happily running next to him and jumped towards Jonathan.

"Do you want to come see Ashy train?" The teen scratched the feline behind the ears and she purred contently. Purrloin were not very common in Kanto, so the people who came and went from the pokemon day care center often stopped to observe the kitten. She was very young and still quite small. She liked playing with balls of yarn and often got tangled up on them.

Her mother was a Purrloin cared for by Delia after the passing of her previous owner. She was a gift from Giovanni after they got into an argument about something or other concerning his expansion to Kalos. He intended to get her a pokemon from that region, as baby pokemon were more effective in subduing her anger then big expensive jewelry, as he had learned over time. Yet urgent business called him away to Unova to meet with a colleague who turned out not to have called him in the first place. Instead he was given the news of his mother's passing, gathered what little resources she hadn't splurged, as her lifestyle became more expensive than usual since her move to Unova, and got her newest house pet. He gave the Purrloin to Delia, who immediately loved her, which eventually led to her meeting Meowth. The talking pokemon was determined to pay her no mind, since he had his heart broken too many times, but in the end one thing led to another and they fell in love. She moved in with Jessie and James soon after.

Walking at a less rushed pace, the Purrloin mother made her way to the distraught Meowth and nudged him, pronouncing a few airheaded yet encouraging words that only pokemon could understand. With tears in his eyes, Meowth looked up at Jonathan, who was clearly perplexed by his behavior. "Please... Please take good care of her!" Unable to utter any more coherent words, Meowth burst into a big waterworks show, a waterfall of tears coming from each eye.

Jonathan and Ashimi blinked in perplexity until Meowth's words sunk in. "You want to come with me?" Jonathan asked. Nya nodded energetically and rubbed her head against his hand. She was so small that his palm could cover her entire head. He looked at the crying Meowth, "relax, Nya will be fine." Yet there was simply no consolation for the emotional father. Purrloin patted him on the shoulder and smiled, at least she was okay with their daughter wanting to travel with Jonathan instead of staying at Saffron all the time.

To be Continued

Just like I said Ashimi couldn't have it easy forever... What do you think of Sabrina? I always thought Sabrina as a powerful and mysterious psychic would be so cool. Well she's was already powerful in the anime, I just had to add more of an air of dark mystery. Let's not forget, this Sabrina is a lot older than the one in the anime, so he powers have grown a lot since then. Nyarth is Meowth's Japanese name. The idea of Purrloin was inspired by a fanart made by Nafa-tali that featured Delia holding a shiny Purrloin. The ony is this story is a different one though and has a different background (and fur color). I would imagine the substance use on her is based on those berries found on the Orange Islands that turn pokemon pink.

The Saffron adventure turned out to be a bit longer than expected so I divided it into two chapter. Up next is Chapter 5: The Shadows In Your Eyes (Part 2).

Dorme: Domino's 14 year old daughter who has a big crush on Johnny. She has wavy pale blond hair and violet eyes. She travels through Kanto as a Rocket agent and often runs into Johnny and Ashimi. She is jealous of all the attention Johnny gives Ashimi, despite them only being friends, and often tries to separate them.