Ah, I'll make a random note. I haven't been doing too many of them in this fanfic.
As I was writing the part about the thorny patch, I was remembering when something like that happened to me. My cousins had this little rocket thing they got and they launched it and it landed in a patch of blackberries. Of course. So we went in to try and find it. My cousins got pretty scratched up, but I didn't get hardly any scratches at all. Maybe blackberries like me. (They're delicious! We made some blackberry jelly… ah it's so good!)
Polaris-Ponyta, Pexle-Vulpix
Thorny Path"Why can't you just use your Gastly," Ben moaned. "Why do you want to find an Abra so bad?"
I ignored the comment. I'd dragged Ben to the outskirts of Saffron City in search of an Abra. Ben wasn't too thrilled about it. He just wanted to train. I told him to wait behind, but he didn't want to do that either. Sigh.
"This is so stupid," Ben moaned. He was more complaining to himself than expecting me to listen to him. "We've been walking in circles around Saffron Coty all day and we haven't found an Abra yet. What makes you think you'll find one around here anyway? What if they just don't live around here? You can't go wandering around randomly expecting the Pokémon you want to fall into your lap. Besides, you caught a Drowzee. Isn't that psychic Pokémon good enough for this battle?"
"Drowzee aren't nearly as powerful as Abra," I replied. "Plus, I really want to catch an Abra. Since we haven't come across one yet, I thought I'd start looking now. And besides, Abra are one of the human-like Pokémon. They're more likely to be found around human settlements than the more animal-like Pokémon."
"Where on Earth did you hear something like that?" Ben asked blankly.
"Well, it makes sense, doesn't it?"
Ben smacked himself in the forehead. "It doesn't make sense at all. And besides, even if you do find an Abra, what makes you think you'll be able to use it in a gym match so soon after catching it? "
I shrugged. "If you promise to shut up about it, I promise to spend only one day looking for an Abra around here."
"You're gonna spend all day looking?" Ben sighed. "Whatever. I'll shut up now. As usual, my complaining isn't doing any good."
Instead of complaining, he started following me around, acting dramatically mopey. I pretended to ignore him, but was grinning to myself. I knew Ben didn't mind too much. He just liked to bug me sometimes. Course I bugged him too sometimes.
"I have an idea!" Ben exclaimed after a while.
"What?"
"Why don't you ask Sabrina where to catch an Abra?"
"I could do that?" I replied, not sounding too interested.
"It would be easier," Ben sighed.
"Yep," I agreed.
"By the way," Ben commented, "where are we?"
We were, in fact, at the edge of a strange patch of thorny bushes. Saffron City was visible off behind us. We'd struck off cross-country to the northeast. So while we didn't know exactly where we were, we weren't quite lost… We could see the city at least.
A gust of wind drifted past us, powerful enough that Ben and I had to brace ourselves against it.
Pexle was walking at my heels. He shivered a bit at the wind.
I froze. I had heard something. A sound I was coming to know very well.
I glanced around madly, trying to figure out where I'd heard it.
"Did you hear that?" I gasped.
"What?" Ben asked, thinking something was wrong.
I smiled. "I just heard Mew."
"Where?" Ben asked.
I glanced around. It had been when the wind had blown, so it was hard to tell but…
"I think it came from this direction."
I turned right. Ben, Pexle and I skirted around the thicket of leafless thorny brambles.
"These look hazardous," Ben muttered to himself, gingerly poking at one of the thorns.
I froze so that Ben crashed into me and almost sent me head-first into the thorns. He grabbed me and pulled me back in time to avoid the disaster.
"What is it?" Ben asked, once he was sure I was steady on my feet again.
"Look."
I pointed to a narrow tunnel through the brambles. It would be barely large enough for a person to crawl through.
"You think Mew is in there?" Ben asked, looking not too thrilled about the idea.
I shrugged.
"If you go in there, you'll get all scraped up." He looked concerned.
"I got my coat on." It was an overcast, windy day, so at least I had some minor protection from thorns if I crawled in there.
"Your face and hair," Ben muttered. "They'll catch the thorns…"
I shrugged. "What's the point of being a Pokémon trainer of you don't do little adventures every now and then?"
"You seem to live by that," Ben muttered. "Hey, if you are going in there, you should take my coat too for an extra level of protection…" He made to take off his jacket.
I shook my head, though I was touched by the gesture. "I don't want you to get too cold. I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?"
I nodded and crouched down in front of the tunnel.
"I bet some little Pokémon made it."
"No doubt," Ben sighed. "Be careful in there. You could run out of space really fast."
I nodded and started crawling inside. Pexle followed, but Ben waited outside.
I winced as an occasional thorn caught my sleeves and hair. I'd tied my hair in a ponytail and shoved it down the back of my shirt, but it was a narrow path and the thorns did scratch me a few times. But not as much as I would have thought. My clothes did protect me pretty well, and my jacket was sturdy.
It took me a moment to realize that the thorns had pulled away from me. I looked up and found myself in a little cave in the middle of a thicket. It was just big enough for me to sit up in.
I blinked and stared at what was in front of me. Across the little cave of thorns, fast asleep, was an Abra.
Was it coincidence? Or had Mew led me here? I was pretty sure I'd heard Mew, but I could have been mistaken…
So, the Abra was asleep. Last night I'd looked up some information about Abra. They slept a LOT. But they could do stuff even when they were asleep. And Abra had a tendency to teleport away at the first sign of danger, so I'd have to do this carefully…
Pexle stopped at my side and blinked around. I reached to my belt and pulled out a Pokéball.
"Hah," I thought to myself. "Ben accuses me of never using my Gastly. "Just because I keep a lot of Pokémon at Professor Oak's lab doesn't mean I never use them. I just don't use them as much as I use my favorites."
"OK, Gastly," I whispered, "I need you to get behind that Abra and keep it from escaping."
If the Abra heard anything, it didn't react. I opened Gastly's Pokéball. He appeared, and then vanished instantly, making his way around behind Abra. Then he reappeared and flung himself on the psychic Pokémon, engulfing him in smoke.
Abra woke up and started struggling. I quickly grabbed an empty Pokéball and threw it. Abra vanished inside. Gastly, Pexle and I watched as the Pokéball rocked back and forth, and then fell still. I'd caught Abra.
I grinned and gave Pexle and Gastly the thumbs up. Then I turned around and we made our way back out of the brambles.
Ben was standing a little ways away, rubbing his arms and shivering. It had gotten windier while I was in the thicket, but the brambles had shielded me from the worst of it.
"Ben," I called, standing up and grinning. "Check it out!"
I held out the Pokéball. "There was an Abra in there!"
Ben blinked at me. "What? An Abra?"
I nodded.
"You caught it?"
I nodded again, grinning broadly.
Ben rubbed his head, looking confused. "I don't' understand you, Cara. I don't get how you can do these things. Okay, you got your Abra. Let's get back to town and start training."
I named my new Abra Kinesis. And Ben and I did return to Saffron City. I let out my Abra to try training it. But it was fast asleep. As much as I begged, pleaded, and shouted, Abra didn't even budge.
Ben sighed. "I told you. Only certain people can control Abra. Yours won't even wake up. What are you gonna do now?"
I sat down on a bench, massaging my temples and thinking. I hadn't counted on Abra ignoring me completely.
"Please wake up," I sighed one last time.
Of course, no response. Abra just gave a little snore. I got the distinct impression that Abra was trying my patience. That he was pretending to be sleep, or something like that.
"Okay then," I said, sounding very determined. I got to my feet.
Ben blinked. "What are you doing?"
I bent and scooped Kinesis into my arms. "Let's try something different. Ben, I'll meet you in the Pokémon Center after dinner some time."
Before Ben could say another word, I'd stalked away from him, carrying Abra out of the city.