Sinnoh Arc II: Suddenly... a Telepath?!

The next morning, the sun had already risen when Mari woke Jacky. "Hey. Wake up..."
Jacky raised her head sleepily. "...Mh?",
"We have to go...",
"Ngh..." She suppressed a yawn to the best of her ability. "Okay...",
"I'll call Skyla.",
"Do that..."
Mari tapped away on her Xtranceiver and connected with the pilot. She picked up. "Ah, Mari", she greeted her.
"Hello, Skyla." Mari smiled tiredly at the camera. "We succeeded... we were able to find the mega stones.",
"I'm glad!" Skyla laughed boisterously. "That means you'll be coming back to Mistralton soon, I take it?",
"Correct.",
"All right, I'll get the jet ready. By the way, Elesa has bad news for you..."

Jacky's ears perked up at her words and her fatigue was blown away. She turned to face Mari. "What happened?",
"It seems like some dimensional distortions have occured...", Skyla explained. "The balance between space and time is slowly but steadily declining because the Pokémon who have kept these two components in check have been corrupted. The consequences are already quite noticable. Cyrus has disappeared since the events of Mount Coronet, but... reliable sources suggest that he is planning to raid Celestic.",
"Celestic?",
"A small town in the northwest of Sinnoh at the foot of Mount Coronet, mostly inhabited by elderly people. There's an ancient ruin there that contains some fragments of knowledge about the lake guardians... He hopes to find a way to obtain a certain relic starting there. One that would allow Cyrus to gain control of something so powerful that he could create his new universe. The Azure Flute.",
"The Azure Flute...?",
"Legend has it that it has the power to summon the god of this world himself, Arceus. But personally, I doubt that it will be found there. However, I wouldn't rule out the fact that it might hold some clues related to it. Still, if he's launching an attack, we have to prepare to fight back. I'm afraid that's all I can tell you.",
"We'll be right there," Jacky decided. Skyla nodded and hung up. Mari looked to her. "We'd better hurry.",
"Yes."

They stepped out of the hut where they had stayed the night. Laughter filled the air around them. Mari spotted Saoko standing there with his arms crossed, talking to Kaze and Hiroko. Mari hesitated before walking toward him. He noticed her and raised his hand. "I take it you're leaving now?" he asked. Mari nodded. "Yes. We have things to do." The head of the Varya clan nodded. "I know. Satsuki told me. I'm gathering the clan, I'm sure everyone wants to say goodbye to you. We owe you a great debt of gratitude." He nodded at Kaze before turning away. Less than half an hour later, all the ninja of the village had gathered in front of the girls. Haruka seemed especially excited,while Hana whispered something to another ninja and Sayuri smiled warmly at the girls. "It's time for us to go," Mari said. "We need to get back to Sinnoh to take care of things that need to be taken care of quickly. It's been our pleasure to be able to help you and to have met all of you... And I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again.",
"You're leaving already?" Haruka asked disappointedly. Saoko stepped forward vicariously for everyone and bowed slightly to the two. "On behalf of our village, we thank you for your help. You are always welcome here.",
"Please visit us again sometime!" Hana asked, gently pulling Haruka, who wanted to run forward, back by the shoulder. "We would be happy!",
"Thanks to you, my daughter is with me again. My gratitude cannot be put into words," Sayuri said. "Please take care of yourselves. We will think of you.",
"We will help you again anytime you need help", Mari promised. "After all... I guess I'm your hero now, so... uhm... I gotta check in on you every now and again. But for now, we are busy with other things... We wish you all the best! Farewell!" Mari waved at them before pulling out Skarmory's Pokéball and calling it out. She swung herself onto its back. "Take care!",
"I wish you a safe journey." Saoko waved to them.
"Goodbye!" Haruka waved and Yuna next to Kaze had to laugh softly. Jacky got on Noivern and waved as well. "Bye! And good luck!" With those words, they both leaned back and Skarmory and Noivern took off.

In mid-flight, Jacky relaxed a bit. "I'm going to miss the village... This peace and quiet in the air was unique.",
"'Peace', huh. Yeah." Mari shook her head.
"Jeez, you know what I mean!",
"Yeah, don't worry. Not such a hustle and bustle as in Castelia or other big cities, that's what you wanted to say.",
"Exactly.",
"Mh... It's different from what we know, I admit. No noise, no busy streets... no big houses... nice people... well, for the most part. It's save to say we've seen a lot already.",
"Hah... yeah. But I'm excited to discover so many different things and places on our journey! Otherwise, we would never have met all these people", Jacky said with a huge smile on her face. "Yuna, who's the guardian of some sort of sacred place of her ninja village... Soleil, who has a really interesting way of talking... Chris, who's not only extremely talented but also extremely nice...",
"...Laslow, who you're crushing on..." Mari continued her list, giggling. Jacky immediately turned bright red. "Hey...! Come on, did you have to do that?",
"I just couldn't resist.",
"Yeah, you never can. Besides, I am NOT crushing on him!",
"Hehe... Right. Whatever... Yeah, we've met a pretty colorful mixture of people. Most of them are nice, but there are also some unsociable folks like Dino...",
"What about Jayden?" Jacky asked interested and threw a sly look at her friend. "What are your thoughts on him?",
"He's just weird", Mari scoffed.
"Come on, I didn't think he was that bad. He was teasing you quite a bit.",
"I noticed that, genius. Thanks for reminding me though, or else I might have forgotten.",
"I'm sorry, but it was quite amusing.",
"Tch... And you know what else is amusing?",
"I'm listening?",
"That you always turn red like a radish at the mere mention of Laslow's name, and you profess not to have a crush on him.",
"That... is something else entirely!",
"Oh yeah, so you finally admit to having a hopeless crush on him?"
Jacky bit her lower lip. "No! We've only known each other since the tournament!" She couldn't help but think back to the moment where he had approached her after she had lost to Chris in the tournament. It had been so sweet of him to want to fulfill her wish. And it had also been so sweet of him how he had worried about her when she had swallowed her tongue and could barely get out a normal word... That alertness in his eyes, and the mysterious aura that surrounded him...

...She wanted to bury her face in Noivern's fur to hide her blush. For god's sake, she was so hopelessly lost.
"If you blush any more, your head will burst", Mari commented dryly. "I hope you will be okay, don't make me worried over here."
Jacky hunched her shoulders, barely able to compose herself. "Well, okay. I like him. He's nice.", "There you go." Mari nodded, at least somewhat satisfied. "Anyway. Let's concentrate on the matter at hand now."

When they reached Mistralton, Skarmory slowed down and it and Noivern landed at the airport. 'I'm getting more and more nervous...' Jacky thought as she withdrew Noivern. 'What if we're too late...? What's gonna happen then?'

"I can't tell you", Mari said, withdrawing Skarmory. "Let's just hope we're still in time enough to prevent the worst.",
"Huh?" Jacky looked to her and opened her mouth in puzzlement. "I... didn't say anything.",
"You didn't?" Mari blinked at her in irritation. "I was pretty sure I just heard you say something.",
"Mari, I didn't-"
At that moment, Skyla came up to them. "Hey. You're finally here.",
"Hey, Skyla", Mari greeted her.
"The plane is ready to take off, you can board.",
"Alright." They walked to the white plane and Jacky looked at Mari again. "I certainly didn't say anything... I swear.",
"Yes, you did! You asked what would happen if we were too late.",
"Mari... That's what I was thinking. I didn't say it out loud.",
"Oh..." Mari laughed awkwardly and joked, "I guess I can read minds then.",
"But that can't be possible..." Jacky said.
"That was a joke, Jacky. Of course it's not possible.",
"But that can't be a coincidence, right? Why would you have known what I was thinking and respond to it?",
"Maybe, I... just thought the same and imagined I heard you say it?",
"...That can't be right. Hm..." Jacky closed her eyes. 'I saw a group of Pidgy flying in the distance when we travelled here. Did you see them, as well?' she thought. Mari's gaze jerked to her. "I did, yes. I..." She stared at Jacky, perplexed. "You... didn't say anything, did you...?"
Jacky stared back wordlessly and just shook her head. "...",
"What...? I was sure I heard you say something." Mari was speechless.

As they sat on the plane, Jacky still couldn't believe it. "How come you can read minds all of a sudden?" She emphasized the last words clearly and rubbed her wrist. "That's crazy...",
"I... have no idea... I thought I heard you say these things aloud, but... you were just thinking them. I don't get it either.",
"That's really... creepy.",
"Yeah... it is..." Mari held her head. "It should be impossible, but... two times back to back? That can't be a coincidence anymore...",
"No...",
"... If I can really do that... does that mean I can tell people stuff without having to say them out loud...?",
"Wait, wait." Jacky interrupted her. "You can read other people's minds, not talk in other people's minds, right?",
"Uh... I don't know...",
"Try it.",
"How the frick should I do that? It's not like I consciously did this the first time!",
"Just... try. Maybe it works somehow...?",
"Uh... okay..." Mari closed her eyes. She had no idea what to do, so she just thought of a question. 'Does it work?',
"Oh my freaking god...!" Jacky held her head and Mari winced. "Wh-what...?",
"I heard you. And I observed you closely, you did NOT say anything out loud." She stared at her as if Mari had become a superhuman right in front of her. Mari stared back in confusion. "... This... that's really... wild. That's... unbelievable, I mean... I don't get it...",
"Wherever that came from, you have an immense advantage with that!" Jacky was bright-eyed. "You can read your opponent's moves from their thoughts and react accordingly before they can even make their move!",
"Y-yes... but that would also mean... that we can talk to each other without anyone noticing. Right...?",
"I can't do anything like that. You can talk to me in your mind, but I can't talk to you.",
"Yes, you can, you just have to think your answers. I can read them, after all.",
"Hmm... Like this?",
'Yes... Exactly like that', Mari replied in her head. "I really have absolutely no idea how to do this, but it's cool.",
"It's really cool indeed", Jacky agreed.

"Hmph..." Mari tilted her head. "I still don't quite understand why this is happening... If I have an ability like that... an ability like Gardevoir... do you think it's related to the mega evolution? I mean, it showed AFTER I performed my first mega evolution with it, I am preeeeeetty sure I was not capable of doing this before.",
"Huh..." Jacky tilted her head. "... It's not unlikely... I mean... it's exactly the way you said it... You accidentally became aware of this, so if you had been able to do this the entire time before, then similar things would have happened way sooner.",
"Fair, I guess... But this is still strange, I never heard of people suddenly receiving abilities that their Pokémon can use. I mean, there are people capable of seeing ghosts or communicating with the dead, but that's the result of intense spiritual training. I can't recall that I did such training in my entire life, so how the hell did this happen?",
"Well, we can't explain it right now, but I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually. All I know right now is that it's super cool. Maybe I have an ability like that, too, and just don't know it yet! Just you wait, I'm sure I'll grow a sickle on my head soon!",
"Pffft..." Mari laughed out. "If that were to happen, I'd laugh my butt off because I am sure that'll look weird as hell. I don't think that's likely."
Jacky laughed with her. "Well... maybe not. I would feel pretty uncomfortable getting all those weird looks if I suddenly had a horn on my head. Anyway, that's a worry for later!",
"Right." Mari smiled and clenched her hand to a fist. "We'll beat up Cyrus and go home like nothing actually happened. I am a badass now, so it's gotta be good for something!",
"Oh yeah, I can't wait to wrap this up." Jacky rubbed her hands together.