This story was last updated November 14, 2022.
Ash, Brock, and Sabrina stood outside the Cerulean City Gym. Ash was so giddy that he couldn't contain his excitment.
"Well, here is the Cerulean Gym. Let's go inside and find the leader and get this show on the road!" Ash said. Sabrina sighed softly, but she was becoming more adjusted and okay with Ash's silly hyperactivity. The more she heard him, the less she felt annoyed and started to like him more. Once the three humans entered, Ash heard applause in the distance.
"Why is there clapping?" he asked.
"I've heard they have water performances here," Brock stated with a blush on his face as he was thinking about cute girls. "They must be having one now."
Sabrina said, "It seems you may have to wait a moment, Ash. Let's talk strategy about this gym. They use water types. You are at a high advantage since you got a grass type as well as a Pokemon that can use thunder punch."
"That's true; let's see what Dexter has to say about Ralts' moves."
"That's right, you only know that Ralts is a female and don't know what's she capable of," Brock said. "She may know some surprisingly strong moves like Abra."
"Okay," Sabrina said with a bit more emotion. She took out her Pokeball and Dexter did an analysis.
"Ralts is currently level 19. Current moves are Confusion, disarming voice, magical leaf, and teleport."
"Magical leaf is a grass type move that can't be evaded," Brock said. "Same with disarming voice. I think you got a lucky Pokemon, Sabrina."
"I think so, too; I thank Ash for allowing me to capture her," She admitted with a smile on her face. "What level does she evolve?"
"Ralts evolves at level 20," Dexter said.
"Cool," Ash said. "She's not too far off from evolving. Maybe if you fight a really strong enemy, you'll get an evolution!"
"Maybe," Sabrina said. "What about Abra? Do what know what level he is?"
"Nope, but it doesn't hurt to check," Ash answered as he let out Abra.
"Ash, why am I out of the Pokeball again? What is this place?" the psychic type communicated to his trainer's mind.
"This is the Cerulean Pokemon Gym lobby," Ash explained. "I wanted to see what level you were." He took out Dexter and it said that Abra was level 20 and could evolve at 16! "Abra, why haven't you evolved yet?"
"I was hoping that if my trainer were to find me again, I would evolve directly after a battle to surprise her. Now that I know that I"ll never be good enough for her, I decided to stay myself for a while."
"Do you want to evolve?" asked Brock, as a breeder he had a special empathy for Pokemon. Ash nodded as he wanted an answer, too.
Abra transmitted to the minds of all three with, "Yes, I very much would like to since I am constantly on a quest to prove myself. I want to become Alakazam and master my psychic abilities."
"I'll make sure you get your wish, buddy," Ash said as he went over to put a hand on Abra. Abra recoiled slightly and was almost ready to attack, but he decided against it.
"Just a reflex. I think you're a good person from what I can gather from you, Ash, but affection is something that I'm not used to. It's nothing personal against you."
"Of course," Ash said. "Now, let's get you in your ball so we don't give the gym leader any ideas." Abra and Ralts returned to their balls.
The three of them stayed in the lobby and waited for the crowd to leave when Ash and Sabrina went into the main area. Ash saw three performers who looked to still be teenagers, older than Brock, though.
"Um, which one of you is the leader?" Ash asked.
"Well, turns out you're looking at them!" the three sisters said in uncanny unison. "We're The Sensational Sisters."
"Haha, all right! I want to battle you!" Ash laughed.
The pink-haired one made a tsk sound and said, "Sorry, but we can't. We battled with these three trainers from, like, Pallet Town, I believe."
The blonde picked up with, "And they, like, totally wiped out our Pokemon." She had a look of disappointment at the humiliation she faced earlier.
"Oh, that's too bad..." Sabrina started as the more they talked about, the more she genuinely wanted to battle the leader.
"Well, don't feel bad," said the blunette. "Here. Seel!" Soon, a sea lion Pokemon came out of the water and stuck out his tongue. There was a blue raindrop-shaped badge on his tongue.
"This is what you want, right?" blonde asked. "You can totally have it, really."
"That is very unprofessional for a gym leader," Sabrina thought to herself, actually shocked that the other was doing that. Her mouth was opened a bit and she said, "You're actually being serious?"
"Definitely," pink haired said.
Ash was tempted, but it sounded so cheesy and uncanny to just be given a badge. "Well-"
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a familiar voice. "What do you think you three are doing, handing out badges like that?"
"Misty?" Ash and Sabrina said. "What are you doing here?"
Misty jumped off the top deck about 7 meters completely unharmed and walked over to the six people. "Ash, Sabrina. It's good to see you two again." Her voice went from anger to happy, but she felt sad when she saw that Sabrina had a cast on. She wondered what happened.
"Misty, what's going on? Why are you here?" asked Ash.
"Turns out that I'm actually the fourth Sensational Sister, and I do not hand out badges as some sort of consolation prize. You want the cascade badge? You gotta get it from me by a battle!"
"Tsk, you so definitely don't have the qualities to be a Sensational Sister," Blunette scoffed at her younger sister's gumption.
"Oh, who cares? I'm the challenge these trainers have to face!" Misty replied defensively.
"O-okay," Ash said almost scared. Man, was this unexpected!
After Ash and Misty got on a floating platform, Misty said, "I have only two Pokemon, so why don't I do two one-on-one battles. How about that?"
"Sounds fine with me!" Ash said. "I choose you...Abra!" He tossed out the Pokemon's ball and the small fox-light Pokemon came out.
"Interesting. Psychic types are quite rare to come by, but Misty calls out..." she tossed her ball, "Staryu!"
"Hyaa!" the Star Pokemon said.
"A Staryu, huh?" Ash said. "This outta be good."
"Your Pokemon is sleeping and you sound confident," Misty said in a somewhat sardonic tone. "Nonetheless, I'll make the first move. Rapid spin, Staryu!"
Staryu started spinning and launched itself forward towards Abra.
"Teleport!" Ash ordered. Abra's eyes turned white and so did his body as it was outlined with an unknown force. Soon, he teleported himself safely away and was soon levitating directly above the center of the battle field, about two meters above the water.
"Interesting move, I will say," Misty said. "But see how you like water gun!"
"Abra, use your fire punch to turn the water to steam!" Ash ordered.
"Understood, Ash," the Abra said telepathically. His hand began to glow and he extended a flame punch to the flames. As Ash predicted, they cancelled each other out and steam spread a bit across the field.
"Now use rapid spin again, Staryu! Get a direct hit this time."
Staryu span again really fast and was heading directly for Abra.
"Haha," Ash chuckled. "Thunder punch!"
Abra's fist glowed yellow and he slammed his fist into Staryu. The attack was quite powerful due to the type advantage the move had. Staryu's red central orb began to blink several times, signaling it was not able to continue fighting.
"Oh, bummer, but it looks like poor Staryu lost," the blonde said. "That means you lost, Misty, and Ash is the winner!"
"All right, Abra, you did so well!" Cheered Ash. As soon as those words left his mouth, Abra was surrounded by another white light. "You're evolving!"
"Kadabra!" said the new Psychic type who now was using a spoon to amplify his powers. Ash was beyond pleased with this and Misty went over to Seel to take the badge.
"Here you go, Ash; you fought really well, and I must say, you earned the Cascade Badge."
Ash took the rain drop and showed it to Brock and Sabrina, Sabrina clapping a bit. Internally, she was so pleased for Ash, though her flat affect was telling a story of indifference.
"So, you said you wanted to battle me as well, Sabrina?" asked Misty.
"That's right. I caught a new Pokemon recently, and I would like to use her."
"Very well, I have one more Pokemon to send out. Misty calls out...Starmie!"
"Ooooooh!" said the purple star-shaped Pokemon. It was ready for battle.
Sabrina was impressed that Misty was using a Pokemon that was part psychic, but she had a feeling she was using Starmie just for the water. She used her telekinesis and sent out her Ralts.
"Aww, so cute!" Misty said in a childish voice. "But don't think I will take it easy on you just because you have a cute Pokemon and have a cast on."
Sabrina smirked, now starting to feel a bit of energy surge in her. "That's fine; I wanna earn my gym badge fair and square."
"We'll start off with Rapid spin!" Misty ordered, as now a purple blur moved throughout the battlefield towards Ralts.
"Teleport," Sabrina coolly ordered, Ralts evading the attack like Kadabra did.
"This again? Well, you're not getting away that easily. Hit Ralts with Hydro Pump as soon as you her!" Ralts soon appeared and a huge blast of water was shot at her, causing her to fall over. Sabrina gasped when she saw that it caused a fair amount of damage, but it did not knock out Ralts.
"Give it disarming voice!" she commanded. Ralts lifted her head up and shouted a beam of musical notes and hearts towards Starmie, the star unable to dodge the attack since it was guaranteed to hit as long as it was not in a semi-invulnerable state.
"Not bad, not bad," Misty said. "But you gotta do better than that. Starmie, use rapid spin again!" Sabrina figured that if Starmie was launching itself directly towards Ralts, she could nail Starmie with magical leaf.
"Push back Starmie with a magical leaf!" commanded Sabrina. Green leaves were summoned and they were hurled at Starmie.
"What? How does that Pokemon know a grass move that can't be avoided?" asked Misty.
"It just so happens to be one of her moves," Sabrina explained. "Use it again!"
"Starmie, use rapid spin again to dodge it," Misty ordered, unaware that it was an attack that couldn't be dodged under the same circumstances like disarming voice. Of course, it did not go as Misty had hoped, and Starmie was knocked out, rainbow core flashing to tell its trainer it was done for.
"Oh..." Misty said as she hit Starmie with the Pokeball red beam. "You did such a good job. I'm proud of you. You deserve a nice rest."
Seel stuck out his tongue and presented another Cascade Badge. "Here you are, Sabrina. You did such a well job and-" but before she finished, Ralts was beginning to glow like Kadabra and evolved.
Sabrina gasped. "She evolved into Kirlia." Kirlia started doing a pirouette gracefully and was happy to see her trainer and ran up to her for a hug. Sabrina was a bit shocked at this, but she returned it, able to feel genuinely happy for the Pokemon.
"Wow, this was amazing! Two Pokemon evolving in the same battle. And psychic types, no less," Brock said.
"I hope your journey goes okay, guys," Misty told them.
"Thanks, Misty, and thanks for letting us use your bike," Ash said. "C'mon, guys, let's go get another badge!" Ash was high off his victory and felt like battling some more.
"Oh, you're acting like a little kid, you know," Sabrina said. But she couldn't tell him what she inwardly felt and just went along with him, as did Brock.