Author's note: Many of my interpretations/ideas for dark type powers come from ff.n author Farla and her fic Pokemon Revolution. Tis a wonderful fic and I suggest reading it.
Time's Edge
Chapter 5
Sabrina's Gym
On the bright side, the enormous line at the pokemon center was not the registration line. On the down side, in order to be registered, both gyms had to approve of you as a "qualified trainer." What exactly a "qualified trainer" was wasn't specified, so it probably wasn't as simple as "beat the heads of both gyms." Given what'd happened last time Sarah had been in Saffron, she wasn't looking forward to returning to either gym.
They'd decided to head for Sabrina's gym first. Mostly because it was nearest to Rei's house, so they wouldn't have far to go after the match. Sarah was not looking forward to facing Sabrina again. The woman was psychotic. Sarah was wondering if she should suggest that Rei wait outside, just in case.
"Someone's nervous," Kyp said, breaking Sarah away from her inner monologue.
"Huh?" Sarah asked.
"You're not talking. That means you're either unconscious or extremely nervous. Or both."
"Well, I can't say I'm looking forward to seeing Sabrina again..."
"Why not?" Rei asked.
Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Have you ever met Sabrina?"
"Yeah, plenty of times. She gives weekly demos on psychic pokemon training, and I've gone to a few of them. She's not scary or anything."
Sarah stopped walking under the light of one of the street's lampposts. "The last time we were here, she tried to turn Kyp and I into dolls. We barely ended up escaping with our lives. Believe me, she's scary."
"I think I heard something about that, actually," Rei said. "She's supposedly over that now and back to normal. From what I've seen of her, she's as normal as psychics get."
"Right. I'll believe that when I see it."
"Actually, if she was still like that, her gym license probably would have been suspended by now," Kyp pointed out. "I think it's every two years that they do inspections of gyms."
"She's a psychic. She could have messed with the inspectors mind."
"Possible," Kyp conceded. "There's no way to know until we get there."
"I don't suppose Ditto would be willing to stay in mew form for a while, eh?"
"I would think that'd draw too much attention," Kyp said.
"Wait, doesn't a ditto have to see whatever pokemon it's trying to turn into?" Rei asked.
Sarah ignored Rei's question. "Well, Kadabra then, or something?"
Kyp shrugged. "That's up to Ditto." He turned to Rei. "All dittos have the ability to shapeshift however they want to. Most of them have forgotten that over time though, so now only a few of the older, more experienced ones remember it. The average ditto can only use transform."
"You expect me to believe that you have a ditto that can shapeshift into anything?" Rei asked. "Do I look that gullible?" Kyp smiled, and the pokeball on his belt detached itself and morphed into Ditto.
"Ditto." Ditto then glew white and changed into a gengar. "Gengar," he said, with a misjevious grin on his face. Sarah found herself laughing at the startled expression on Rei's face.
I'm going to phase out, Ditto-Gengar said psychically. It'll be more difficult for Sabrina to sense me that way.
"You could've just gone dark type. It would probably be safer against psychics," Kyp said.
I hate moving through shadow. It's too empty. I'd prefer she didn't see me immediately, which only leaves ghost type. If there's a problem, I'd like to at least possibly have surprise on my side. If there's a prolonged fight I'll shift to dark type. Ditto-Gengar faded from view. Oh, and nice to meet you, Rei, he added, seemingly as an afterthought.
"Erm, nice to meet you too," Rei replied, clearly not comfortable with talking to an invisible pokemon.
"He takes some getting used to," Kyp said. "He's a great guy once you get to know him though. Anywho, we should resume walking toward the gym."
"Right," Sarah said, grimacing. Within the next two minutes, the Saffron Gym had come into view, with two figures standing outside of it. She was pretty sure that one of them was Sabrina, though it was hard to tell from such a distance. Especially in the dark. She shivered.
~*~
Lucas Contreardi allowed himself a small smile as officer Jenny released her growlithe and yelled to him that he was under arrest. She had been the first one to figure him out in quite a few years. He'd been getting sloppy. He would have to relocate. The woods around Saffron were a nice place to work, though he supposed moving closer to Lavender wouldn't be so bad. And he'd soon have another Jenny to experiment on, which was always a plus. He released Arcanine from her pokeball and watched the Jenny's eyes go wide.
"Arcanine, rip the growlithe's throat out with a bite attack." The evolved dog pokemon was a blur of movement, and a second later, Officer Jenny's growlithe was twitching around on the ground, trying desperately to breathe through a no-longer-intact windpipe. He was almost sorry for wasting the growlithe's life like that - it would have been helpful to have it as a test subject - but he couldn't restrain himself. And the look of horror on the policewoman's face was worth it.
"Gengar, go! Use hypnosis on Officer Jenny." Jenny's eyes glazed over and then closed as she fell to the ground, unconscious. "Arcanine, carry Jenny back to the shack and get ready to relocate." Arcanine nodded, swung Jenny up on her back with a snap of her jaw, and bounded off toward the shack. Lucas released Tentacruel and ordered her to use acid attack to burn away the growlithe's no-longer-twitching remains.
~*~
As the trio got closer to the gym, Sarah could clearly make out Sabrina leaning against the outside of the door talking to boy with blond hair and a green jacket. Well, she doesn't look nearly as demonic as last time... maybe she has changed... still glad Ditto's watching us... Sabrina looked up from her conversation to greet the trio as they walked up the stairs.
She glanced at Sarah, then Rei, and then her glance hovered on Kyp for an extra second before she spoke. "Hey. I'm guessing you're here for tournament registration?"
"Um, yeah, you guessed right. So what do I have to do for it?" Sarah asked, eyeing Sabrina suspiciously.
The boy she'd been talking to turned around, and Sarah recognized him as Joey Crawley, a trainer she'd run into a few times in past tournaments. "Hey Sarah, hey Kyp, hey, um, sorry, I don't know you," he said, sweatdropping.
"Rei North, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, I'm Joey Crawler."
Sabrina responded as if Joey hadn't said anything. "You and Joey face off. I have a general idea of how skilled you should be to get into the tournament, so if you're both good, you're both in. Three on three battle. Come on in."
The five of them walked into the gym and headed for the arena. "I think I recognize you from a few years ago," Sabrina said. Sarah's muscles tensed. "Sorry about everything that happened. I wasn't exactly myself at that point."
"Er, okay," Sarah responded, relaxing a little. Not much, but a little.
Sabrina smiled. "Do you know you have a gengar trailing you?" she asked.
Ditto-Gengar materialized. Damn, you are a powerful psychic. I was trying to hide my presence.
Sarah looked over at Kyp worriedly as Sabrina and Ditto continued to talk. She still wasn't convinced that Sabrina was really "better," and it was unnerving that she'd been able to sense Ditto that easily. Kyp smiled at her very slightly - she barely even noticed it - and continued walking. Thrice damned Elemental. Of course he's not worried. He could actually fight her if it came to it. It took Sarah all of five steps to realize that Ditto was still in Gengar form, so he could probably teleport them out if it came to it.
A creaking sound snapped her back to reality and she watched as the doors to the battling field opened, seemingly under their own power. The room inside was bare except for an elevated chair at the very far end of it, and a full sized stadium field made of dirt. Sarah walked over to the trainer box on the far side of the field and turned to face Joey, who had taken up the box nearer to the door. She wasn't thrilled about being farther from the door, but realistically she realized it wouldn't matter. If Sabrina wanted to keep them there, the only way they'd have out would be Ditto teleporting them.
Kyp, Rei and Ditto-Gengar sat along the side of the field watching. Sabrina stood in front of them. "This match will be a three on three pokemon battle. No time limit. Once pokemon have been recalled, they may not be sent out again. Once you've both selected your first pokemon, you may begin." Sabrina moved to sit down with the others.
Well, this should be interesting, Sarah thought. Joey was a pretty good trainer who used mostly bug types. Unfortunatly, Fearow wouldn't be the best choice because of the tight space, so Sarah decided she probably wouldn't use her despite the type advantage she had against bugs. She wanted to save Growlithe for now, which meant she should either open with Espeon or Magnetric.
When in Rome... she thought, and reached for Espeon's pokeball.
~*~
Lucas had underestimated the Jenny, and he was mad. Two mistakes in one day. Pathetic. When he'd gotten back to the shed, he'd discovered it was swarming with Jennys, who'd already fainted Arcanine by the time he got there. The Jenny's growlithes had noticed his approach long before he knew they were there, and they now had him surrounded after having set up an ambush.
"You're under arrest! Put your hands on your head! The same for your pokemon!" Lucas did as he was told and the black furred aipom on his shoulder followed suit. One of the Jennys started walking forward, holding a pair of handcuffs.
Well, as stupid as I've been, at least they're worse, Lucas thought as Aipom's tail slowly wrapped itself around Alakazam's pokeball. One would think that the Jennys would be used to thinking about pokemon as physically different from humans by now, but apparently not. As soon as the Jenny was far enough forward to force her compatriots to risk hitting her if they attacked, Aipom released Alakazam, who immediately teleported them out of the area.
When they reappeared about half a mile away, Lucas realized that they still had Arcanine. He would have to go back. With a slightly insane grin on his face, he released all of his pokemon from their pokeballs and ordered Alakazam to teleport them back in.
~*~
"Magnetric, thunderbolt!" Sarah called. The attack hit Joey's scizor perfectly. Scizor being a flying metal bug and all, it promptly fainted to the electric attack.
Well, that evens things out then, Sarah thought. After Scizor had taken down Espeon so fast she'd been worried that he might be able to dodge the electric attacks, but thankfully that wasn't the case. Although he had managed one good hit on Magnetric before fainting.
"Ariados, go!" Joey called. The spider pokemon materialized on the field.
"Magnetric, thunderbolt!"
"Ariados, protect!"
Ariados' eyes glew and the thunder attack bounced harmlessly away. "Now use spider web!"
"Agility!" Sarah yelled. Magnetric was a blur, and the web that Ariados had fired missed him by quite a bit.
"Ariados, dig!"
"Keep moving Magnetric!" Ariados vanished under the ground and then exploded out from under Magnetric, throwing him nearly to the other side of the stadium.
That is a powerful Ariados, Sarah thought. "Quick attack!" she ordered.
"Ariados -" before Joey could finish calling his command, Magnetric slammed into Ariados and sent the bug sprawling.
"Finish it with a thunderbolt!"
"Psychic!"
"What?" Ariados' eyes glew blue and Magnetric's thunderbolt attack changed direction in midair, slamming back into him. He fainted.
"Magnetric, return!" I hate fighting psychics, Sarah thought, repressing the urge to glance at Sabrina. "Growlithe, I choose you!" The dog pokemon materialized in a fighting stance, instantly ready. "Flamethrower and dig!"
"Use psychic again, Ariados!" Ariados caught the flames and started to direct them back toward Growlithe, but the fire puppy was no longer there. Confused, Ariados let the attack dissipate in midair, and before Joey could call another order, Growlithe burst out from under him and sent him flying.
"Quick Growlithe, use flamethrower while he's still in the air!" There was a burst of flame from Growlithe's mouth, and the charred Ariados hit the ground a second later, unconcious.
"Ariados, return! Go Venomoth! Psybeam!"
"Flamethrower!"
~*~
Officer Jenny was not happy that the criminal had escaped. She was not happy at all. It had been hard enough to assemble this many of them to take him down to begin with. Doing it again would be near impossible, if they could even find him. According to the trigger-happy Jenny who'd tried to take him down alone, they probably wouldn't be able to find him again. She'd spent years trying to track him, and still believed that she only managed to succeed through luck.
Jenny turned to see one of her younger counterparts coming out of the shack. "Report," Jenny said.
"There's a lot of stuff in there... I have no idea what most of it's for, but it looks dangerous."
"Right, well in that case-" Jenny was interrupted by a flash of light from behind her. Upon turning to look, she recognized the criminal, and several pokemon. A gengar, an alakazam, a hitmonlee and a tentacruel. Plus that damned black monkey on his shoulder. Jenny was sure the growlithe squad they had could take down the pokemon. The important thing was that the criminal had been foolish enough to return, and Jenny wouldn't let him get away a second time. "Growlithe, use your-" Jenny never got the chance to finish, as her neck was snapped by Hitmonlee's hi jump kick. She was dead before she hit the ground.
~*~
On the field, Growlithe split into seven identical images as Venomoth launched a gust attack, kicking up hordes of dust. All of the growlithe images were caught in the dust, but Sabrina could feel that the real Growlithe hadn't been hit. Seconds later, streams of flame burst out of the cloud. None of them hit Venomoth, but they did burn the dust away.
Both of the trainers were doing well, Sabrina thought, as she watched the battle. She was pretty sure she'd approve them both for the tournament. She hoped Sarah wouldn't remain hostile to her forever - she really was sorry about what had happened, and really was better - but she couldn't blame the young trainer if she couldn't forget it.
"Growlithe, fire blast!"
"Venomoth, hyper beam!"
The powerful attacks met in the center of the battlefield in a massive explosion. Sabrina turned and covered her eyes in response to the approaching dust cloud. When she looked back, both pokemon were a little worse for the wear, but still standing. Sarah ordered Growlithe to use flamethrower on the temporarily exhausted Venomoth, but before the pokemon could launch the attack, Sabrina felt a strong, throbbing pain in her head and called out.
"Sabrina? What's wrong?" Rei asked.
"I don't know. Pain," she replied, gritting her teeth. As she spoke, the pain faded, and she snapped back to reality. "What was that?" she asked, thinking aloud.
Someone just died nearby, Ditto-Gengar said, wincing. Painfully. Quite a few someones I'd bet.
Sabrina reached out with her psychic senses and scanned the city. Nothing. She expanded the radius to the surrounding area. There, she thought, as she located the disturbance. "Ditto's right," Sabrina said. "I'm going to go check it out. You're both approved by my gym to compete in the tournament, but this match is finished for now."
"I'm coming with you," Kyp said. Sabrina started to object, but thought the better of it. There was something weird about that one. She couldn't put her finger on it, and didn't want to scan him. Even though it wouldn't hurt him it would be violating his privacy, and she didn't sense anything dangerous. Whatever it was, something was telling her to let him come, so she nodded.
"Ditto, are you coming too?" Kyp asked. Sabrina blinked. She had just assumed that Ditto would be coming with his master.
No, he replied. You and Sabrina should be able to handle whatever it is, I'm going to see if I can intercept any of the dead people's spirits before they cross over. Still in gengar form, Ditto faded from sight.
"Alright, let's go," Sarah said.
"You're not coming," Sabrina responded. Sarah started to object, but Sabrina cut her off. "Your pokemon are tired from fighting. Whatever's there probably isn't going to be friendly, and we can't be looking out for you."
"But Kyp doesn't even have any other pokemon than Ditto!" Joey said.
"Get over it, we don't have time for this," Kyp responded. With his ditto not coming, Sabrina almost said that Kyp couldn't come either, but she thought the better of it. His ditto certainly seemed to believe that Kyp could handle himself.
"He's right, we don't. I'm sorry, but Kyp's the only one who's coming along. You three go report this to the police." With that, Sabrina's eyes flared blue and the pair teleported to the crime scene, leaving several very unhappy trainers behind.
Author's Notes:
Sorry that took so long. My school is nearing the end of the semester, so I'm getting the workload piled on now. Yahoo for work! My semester ends May 8th, so I should be home sometime on the 10th, and should be able to post the next chapter by the 11th or 12th at the latest. Ideally, I'll try to post it within the next week or two, but finals be evil, so I can't promise anything. I will include in the next chapter which character for this chapter was whose.