After reuniting the maiden and her lover, Ash, Misty and Brock resumed traveling to Saffron City. Right now, they were walking through a forest and it was getting dark.
"I hope we find Saffron City soon." Misty said. "It's getting late."
"Hey Ash." Brock called out. "What Pokemon are you going to use?"
"Well." Ash began to say. "The Gym Leader Sabrina uses psychic type Pokemon, so I thought about using Gengar, Butterfree and Beedrill since ghost and bug type Pokemon are super effective against psychic type Pokemon."
"Although." He continued. "Gengar and Beedrill are also poison types, so it will be risky. As for Butterfree, I can't make up my mind. So I'm going to use Espeon for this battle. After all psychic type Pokemon are neutral against each other."
"That's a great idea." Brock said.
Just then they heard laughter coming from some nearby bushes. The laughter was coming for a girl that was around six years old, wearing a white dress with a white hat on her head and carrying a white pail.
"Hey." Ash called out. "Do you know if we are near Saffron City?"
The little girl laughed again and ran into the bushes.
"I was only asking for some directions." Ash said.
The gang followed the path the little girl took and the path led them to a cliff. They saw Saffron City in the distance; it was a city with many lights.
"Wow it's beautiful." Misty said.
"I guess running into that little girl was a good luck charm." Brock chuckled.
Ash and Misty chuckled as well.
After spending the night in the Pokemon Center, the gang walked to the Saffron Gym. It was an unusual dome-shaped building.
"Well time for me to obtain my fourth badge." Ash said.
He was about to open the doors of the gym when a man with a dark grey beard in a dark green jogging outfit and a dark green cap on his head interrupted him.
"Are you going to battle Sabrina?" The man asked.
He stared at Ash and appeared to be studying him. Ash noticed what he was doing, but shook it off.
"Yes I am battling Sabrina." Ash said. "Is there a problem?"
"If I were you kid." The man said. "I'd go to another gym. Sabrina is not going to go easy on a newbie trainer like you. Leave and go to another gym."
"Not gonna happen." Ash countered. "I'm facing Sabrina and nothing you say is going to change that."
When the man looked at Ash's eyes, he thought they had turned blue for a moment but figured he was seeing things. Ash then walked into the gym and Misty and Brock followed him. The old man just watched them go inside.
Inside Ash, Misty and Brock saw a lot of people sitting at tables. Some people were staring at spoons, as if they were trying to bend them. And others were trying to guess what shape was on cards without looking at them.
"What are they all doing?" Misty asked.
"Hey what are you kids doing here?" A voice demanded.
It was a man in a lab coat.
"I came here to challenge Sabrina." Ash informed him.
The man chuckled.
"If you are here to challenge the great Sabrina." He said. "Then you are in big trouble."
"Why is that?" Misty asked. "And what are those people doing?"
"If you must know, it's this." The man said. He removed a spoon from his pocket, held it up and stared at it hardly.
The spoon suddenly bent a bit.
"Hold on." Ash said. "You're a psychic."
"Oh." The man replied. "You must know about psychic powers."
"Yeah." Ash nodded. "I do have a psychic type Pokemon after all."
"Impressive." The man said. "We hardly get any trainers that use psychic type Pokemon. But I seriously doubt that will help you. Besides you don't seem to have any telekinesis."
"You think so?" Ash responded.
He then grabbed the spoon and stared at it hard. Misty and Brock already knew that nothing was going to happen, but they looked quietly. Just then Ash's eyes turned blue and he bent the spoon a lot easier than the man. Ash saw what he did and dropped the spoon in amazement.
"Wow." He gasped. "That was incredible."
Misty, Brock and the man were shocked.
"Incredible." The man said. "Kid, you must have a strong psychic relative. Since you possess strong psychic power, I will take you to Sabrina."
The man led Ash to where his gym battle with Sabrina was going to take place. The battlefield looked like a underground temple. Misty and Brock were feeling a bit scared and Ash had a strange feeling inside him.
"I sense psychic energy." He whispered. He felt a bit strange after realizing that he had some psychic power in him; he had never noticed it before. The man bowed on the battlefield.
"Great Sabrina." He said, pointing to Ash. "This boy here wishes to battle you."
Two figures appeared behind a curtain. One was a little girl in white holding a Poke Ball, the other was a woman with long dark green hair wearing a long red shirt. Ash recognized the little girl as the girl they saw in the forest. The woman's eyes turned blue just like Ash's, and the man was lifted into the air then dropped onto the floor. The man ran away in a panic. The gang felt sorry for him; it was really mean of Sabrina to treat her assistants like that.
Ash bravely stepped forward.
"Sabrina, I'm Ash Ketcum from Pallet Town." He introduced himself and then said. "And I wish to battle you to earn the Marsh Badge."
"I accept your challenge." The little girl said, giggling. "But if you lose, you will have to play with me."
Ash felt unsure about this, but agreed to do so.
"This will be a one on one Pokemon battle." The woman said. "Let play time begin."
She floated to the top of the stadium. Ash was not only spooked by that, but stepped onto the bottom of the stadium.
Now the gym battle was ready to begin.
"Come on out Abra." Sabrina said. A brown fox-like creature came out of the Poke Ball, but it looked like it was asleep.
Ash was slightly confused and looked at the Pokedex.
"Abra, the Psi Pokemon. Using it's ability to read minds, it will identify impeding danger and teleport to safety."
'If Abra's able to do things while asleep.' Ash thought. 'I better be careful and not underestimate it.'
"Okay Espeon I choose you." Espeon came out of her Poke Ball and got ready to battle.
"So you have a psychic type too? Interesting." Sabrina said.
The little girl smiled in delight.
"Espeon." Ash said. "This may be a difficult battle, but let's win this."
Espeon yipped.
Ash was about to issue a command to Espeon, but Abra started to glow.
"Interesting." Sabrina said.
Everyone watched as Abra evolved and changed into a bigger fox-like creature with a spoon.
Ash looked it up.
"Kadabra, the Psi Pokemon and the evolved form of Abra. It emits special alpha waves from it's body that induce headaches just by being close by."
'Okay, this just got a lot harder.' Ash thought.
"Espeon, Shadow Ball!" Espeon fired a dark purple ball from her mouth and the attack hit Kadabra head on.
"Confusion." Sabrina said. Kadabra's eyes turned red, ready to attack.
"Protect." Ash said. Espeon created a barrier around herself to protect her from Kadabra's Confusion attack.
"Now Swift!" Espeon fired stars out of her mouth that struck Kadabra.
"Recover." Sabrina said. Kadabra glowed light yellow and healed itself a bit.
'Oh no.' Ash thought. 'Recover heals Pokemon slightly after they take damage. I have to take Kadabra out quickly.'
"Espeon Psych Up." Espeon stood still for a bit.
"Now use Psybeam." A rainbow colored beam shot out of Espeon's jewel and hit Kadabra hard.
Sabrina's eyes widened. It was like she was showing emotion. Misty and Brock noticed this.
"Hey Brock." Misty whispered. "Doesn't Sabrina look a little different?"
"Yeah." Brock nodded. "I mean earlier she just had a blank expression on her face. But now she looks a little worried, because of how much pain Kadabra is in."
Unbeknownst to them, the man they saw outside was watching the gym battle from the shadows.
Espeon and Kadabra were panting and becoming exhausted from the battle.
"I have to say." Sabrina said. "This is a interesting battle."
"Yeah, this battle is fun." The little girl agreed.
"Well I'm afraid this battle is about to end." Ash said. "Espeon Shadow Ball."
"Psybeam." Sabrina said.
Shadow Ball and Psybeam collided with each other. Espeon and Kadabra were panting and struggling to stand. Then suddenly Kadabra collapsed. Ash had won the battle.
Ash ran over to Espeon.
"Thank you Espeon." He said, giving her a hug. "You were great."
Espeon licked her trainer's face affectionately.
Meanwhile Sabrina walked over to Kadabra.
"You made us lose!" The little girl shouted. "You're a meanie!"
"Are you okay?" Sabrina asked Kadabra after picking it up. She had a concerned expression in her eyes and it looked like color was coming back to her face. Then the little girl suddenly disappeared, as if she was a illusion the whole time.
Ash was about to ask Sabrina if she was alright when the man ran over to Sabrina.
"Sabrina." He said.
"Daddy?" Sabrina questioned.
Tears started to build in her eyes and she hugged the man.
"Daddy!" She cried.
"My little girl." Her daddy said.
Ash, Misty and Brock were amazed. They had no idea that the man was really Sabrina's father. Then a woman came into the gym; she turned out to be Sabrina's mother. Sabrina and her father hugged the woman and all three of them cried tears of happiness.
Everyone then left the gym.
"Sabrina was born with psychic powers." Her father explained. "But they eventually took control of Sabrina as she grew up."
"Ever since, she's shown no emotion for anything and used her powers to hurt people. Thanks to you Ash, she's finally free."
"I didn't do a whole lot." Ash admitted. "All we did was battle."
"Ah, but your battle set her free." The man said. "Because defeating Kadabra restored Sabrina's emotions."
Sabrina and her mother agreed with that.
Sabrina then approached Ash.
"Ash I thank you for that battle." She said. "And now I present you with the Marsh Badge."
The Marsh Badge was a gold badge in the shape of two circles.
"And I have something else for you." She handed him a book. It was a lavender colored journal.
"This book contains all sorts of information on psychics. I read from my assistant's mind that you have psychic powers, so this book will teach you how to control your powers."
Ash accepted the badge and journal, then the gang said goodbye to Sabrina and left Saffron City.