Scene 39: Sabrina, the Teenaged Psychic
Lyrik Arc
Lyrik had spent the last few years Training herself up to this time of her life. The time when her and her Pokémon would be strong enough to take on the Indigo League. She stood in front of a large building on the edge of Saffron City. The Saffron City Gym. She looked down at the Pokéball in her hand thinking of the previous day…
Lyrik had challenged Kiyo's Fighting Dojo and actually won. She not only received the prize of a brand new Pokémon, but her Charmander had finally evolved..! After all this time and all this Training, she knew her and her team were ready for this. Lyrik stepped forward and pushed her way through the giant double doors.
Lyrik is met with a group of students. They welcome her warmly to Sabrina's Gym, offering to escort her to the battlefield. Each one of them were studying under Sabrina in order to learn how to enhance their psychic powers. Lyrik stopped in her tracks, "I'm sorry… your what?" The boy smiled at her, nodding, "Yes, most people don't believe me when I tell them, but you see," He gestures to the others nearby. There was girl trying to bend a spoon with her mind and a boy was leaning over some toys attempting to move them. Lyrik was completely baffled. Did these people really believe they had… powers..?
"Sabrina is wonderful. And she's powerful." Lyrik looks back at her guide, "She makes for a wonderful teacher and Trainer. You'll see." She makes a face. "Yeeaaaah… I think I'll just take your word for it."
Farther down the hall they arrive at another set of double doors. He pushes through, announcing her arrival, and leaves. The doors close with a resounding thud behind her. Lyrik steps through and sees the battlefield in the center of the room. Before she can take in anything else a Pokémon suddenly appears before her. Lyrik jumps back, shrieking. The gaseous looking Pokémon is laughing hysterically at her reaction. A man walks up to her, also laughing, "Sorry for that! This Gastly just loves to play pranks on people." Gastly hovers in between them. Lyrik checks out its data on Dextyn. She'd never seen a Gastly before. She smiles, "A Ghost Pokémon, huh? Cool."
While Gastly flies around the room the man introduces himself as Sabrina's father, Natsu. He's wearing a simple jacket and jeans with a yellow ball cap. He smiles down at her, "But I'm sure you're not here to listen to an old man, now are ya?" He calls to someone behind him, "Looks like you've got a visitor!" Lyrik peers behind him.
Sitting across the room on a thrown is an older girl with long hair wearing tall boots and a red dress with long sleeves. She has thin piercing eyes and a small smile. In her lap is a cute doll wearing a frilly dress. The girl looks up as the man calls to her. She stands, replacing her seat with the doll, and takes the stairs down to join them. Before she can cross the field, though, Gastly appears again. He makes a face at her, but she seems to be used to it. She smiles, "Now is not the time, Gastly. Not when we have a guest to see." She looks at Lyrik with an apologetic smile, "Forgive him. He doesn't have the best of manners."
The girl steps before Lyrik, her sheer height towering over her, "I am Sabrina. Leader of the Saffron City Gym." Lyrik gulps. So this was Sabrina. She understood why people as tough as Kiyo could even be intimated by her. Her whole body was radiating with some strange power. Lyrik couldn't explain it, exactly.
"I knew you were coming…" Lyrik flinches. She looks into Sabrina's eyes… but how-? Sabrina doesn't look away from Lyrik's gaze, "You're after my Badge. I don't enjoy battling, but it's my duty as a Leader to give a Badge to anyone who has proven themselves worthy. Since you wish it, I will show you my psychic powers." Her father places a hand on her shoulder and, before Lyrik's very own eyes, they vanish. Lyrik jumps, "W-w-WHAT!? How-!?" They both reappear at the end of the battlefield.
While Natsu laughs at Lyrik's reaction, Sabrina only smiles, "I have had psychic powers since I was a little child. I first learned to bend spoons with my mind." Her father leaves her side as she speaks. Lyrik doesn't know what to say. How is this even possible!?
"My powers have grown exponentially since I was a child…" Her eyes flicker momentarily towards the doll sitting on the thrown. She smiles, remembering something fondly, "But those days are in the past." She looks across the way towards Lyrik. Sabrina's words bring her back, "Maybe it isn't possible to fully predict what the future holds… What will happen after this..? Will you be victorious? I wonder…" Gastly appears again at Sabrina's shoulder. He's laughing to himself, ready for the challenge. Natsu has taken his spot in the middle of the battlefield, ready to play as referee. Although shaken by the weirdness of it all, Pokémon battles was something Lyrik understood. She ran forward to face Sabrina.
Sabrina nodded, "Very good. Then shall we begin?" Sabrina's first Pokémon is one Lyrik's never seen before. According to Dextyn it's called Espeon. A Psychic-Type. Wanting to play it safe, Lyrik starts out with Meowth. This would be her first official battle. Sabrina commands her Pokémon with expertise. Espeon flies across the field, almost invisible to the eye. Lyrik gasps, "So fast!" Meowth is thrown before they could even react. Lyrik shakes herself. "Got to focus!" Meowth stands up to the challenge, though she's not nearly quick enough to keep up with Espeon. She tries over and over again, barely landing a couple of Fury Swipes, but it's just not enough. Espeon uses a powerful Swift Attack to finish her off. Lyrik's first Pokémon is out.
As Lyrik returns Meowth to her Pokéball, she makes a choice. "This isn't the time to hold back..!" She throws the ball, "I choose you, Charmeleon!" He gives a triumphant roar as he appears. He had proven himself during their battle with Kiyo yesterday. Lyrik was she he could handle this one, too. Espeon immediately slammed into him Charmeleon was barely able to keep standing. Sabrina even seemed impressed by this. Espeon continued with an onslaught of attacks, but Charmeleon refused to go down so easily. Espeon shot out a strange beam of power from the gem on its forehead. Lyrik called to Charmeleon. He jumped just in time to dodge the attack. Espeon had lost him for a brief second, but that was all they needed. Last second Espeon looks up, "Now! Use Scratch!"
The Attack lands and Espeon is thrown. It was a final attack strong enough to finally knock her out. Lyrik gave a sigh of relief. One Pokémon down. Natsu had explained before the battle that Sabrina would be using 3 Pokémon. Lyrik only had to defeat two more…
Sabrina's 2nd Pokémon was a Kadabra. Lyrik and Charmeleon were feeling confidant after defeating Espeon, but this one was scary strong. What's worse, Sabrina knew exactly how to draw out Kadabra's powers to her advantage, "Use Psychic." Kadabra's eyes began to glow. An eery light surrounded Charmeleon. With no explanation he was floating high into the air. It was Kadabra's psychic powers! This was what the boy from earlier had been talking about! Kadabra used his powers to control Charmeleon's body, slamming him up to the roof then back towards the ground. There was nothing Charmeleon could do.
Sabrina gave a sadistic chuckle. She smiled as she watched her Pokémon torture the poor, helpless opponent. Lyrik's eyes grew fierce with anger. She couldn't let them toy around with them like this. Charmeleon gave out a cry. He was struggling against Kadabra's power. He was being held directly above Kadabra. Kadabra chuckled just as Sabrina had. This match was already theirs, he knew that much. This was just for fun. Kadabra gave a flick of his spoon and Charmeleon began to spin. Charmeleon was starting to feel queasy. He could barely hear Lyrik's voice as the air spun around him, "Use Flamethrower!"
Although Charmeleon didn't understand how this could help he did as she said. He just hoped fire would be the only thing he threw up at this point..!
As Kadabra spun Charmeleon around and around, the flames erupted into life. The fire tornado surrounded Kadabra. He had nowhere to go! Suddenly, Charmeleon felt weightless. He fell back to the ground as Kadabra's powers faded. The fire had been too much. Kadabra had been cooked to a crisp. Charmeleon tried to stand, his eyes still spinning out of focus. But he understood one thing: they had won that battle. Kadabra was out and Sabrina only had one Pokémon left.
Gastly disappeared, showing up back on the battlefield. He would be Sabrina's 3rd and final Pokémon. Lyrik and Charmeleon were soon writhing with frustration as Gastly continued to vanish. Natsu laughed, "It's the hardest thing when battling against Ghost-Types. You just don't know what they'll do next..!" He was right. "But then again…" They had been battling for several long minutes now, but maybe if she watched carefully…
He attacks then disappears. Charmeleon barely manages to dodge before trying for a counter, only to realize that Gastly is gone. And too late, Gastly appears just behind Charmeleon for another attack. WHAM! Charmeleon is hit! "That's it!"
Charmeleon stumbles to his feet. He stamps his foot, his tail-flame sputtering out angrily. Lyrik calls to him, "Don't worry about it! I've got a plan!" He looks at her, confused. What was she talking about..? Sabrina smirks, "So you think you can win this, then? We'll just have to see about that." She sends Gastly out for another attack. But Charmeleon is ready this time. The sequence of events starts over, but this time… this time, they've got him.
Just before Gastly reappears behind Charmeleon, he spins around. Gastly shows himself only to get a face-full of Dragon's Breath! On Lyrik's command, Charmeleon jumps after his prey, "Now finish him off! Use Scratch!" Charmeleon clenches his claws. A grin tugs at the corner of his mouth, this was it! But something strange happens… Charmeleon's claw passes right through Gastly's body! Charmeleon falls to the ground. Both Lyrik and Charmeleon are confused. How did that happen?
Sabrina explains to them about the Ghost-Type Pokémon and their special ability: they can't be touched by physical attacks. Sabrina gives Lyrik a look, "And now that I know what you're up to, we'll have to be much more careful." Lyrik clenches her fists. She had hoped that attack would have finished them off. How unlucky..!
The match continues and Charmeleon is giving it all that he's got, but now that Gastly and Sabrina's strategy has been found out, they're sure to switch things up. Just when Lyrik had figured out a way to beat them, everything changes. Gastly lands a powerful Night Shade onto Charmeleon. He's knocked out!
Now two of Lyrik's Pokémon have been defeated. Things weren't looking too good for her. She watches as Gastly spins around in the air, laughing. His playful nature was fine before they stood facing each other on the battlefield… now it was just annoying. "Wait a minute… wasn't there a move..?" She remembers something from Training last night… She had wanted to get a feel for her new Pokémon's strength and had been working with Hitmonlee. She was sure to use Dextyn to look up what kind of moves he could use. There had been one move in particular she remembered. Lyrik smiled. It all made sense now.
"It's all up to you! Go! Hitmonlee!" He gave a few powerful kicks to warm-up as he appeared from his ball. Sabrina and Natsu both looked confused with her choice of Pokémon. A Fighting-Type Pokémon when they had just explained to her about what a Ghost Pokémon was capable of? How strange.
Hitmonlee kept up with Gastly's movements, his quick feet moving from one side of the battlefield to the other with ease. Lyrik nodded. She just wanted to make sure he was warmed up before she enacted her plan. Hitmonlee stood facing their opponents as Lyrik made the call, "Use Foresight!" Hitmonlee's eyes began to glow. A blue light circled around his body, slowly expanding outwards. The entire room had been effected. Gastly was forced out of its invisibility. He looked around, confused. Lyrik grinned, "Now it's our turn. Use Double Kick!"
At top speed Hitmonlee leapt up to meet Gastly midair. He spun his body around, throwing his leg into Gastly's face. With two powerful hits Gastly came crashing down onto the battlefield. Sabrina gasped. But Hitmonlee wasn't done yet, "Use High Jump Kick to finish them off!" Using the force of gravity, Hitmonlee slammed his foot into Gastly, creating a small crater and knocking Gastly out. Though shocked with the sudden turn of events, Natsu made the call, "Gastly is unable to battle! The victory goes to Challenger Lyrik and her Hitmonlee!" Lyrik stood stunned momentarily. Had they actually won? Hitmon!
Hitmonlee walked off the battlefield, giving his new Trainer a thumbs up. A smile spread slowly across Lyrik's face. She jumped into Hitmonlee's arms, "We did it!"
Sabrina is kneeling beside Gastly. She returns him to his Pokéball. Natsu joins his daughter, both looking across towards where Lyrik is celebrating with her Pokémon. He sighs, "I was just as surprised as you were. To think a young girl like that would have been able to beat you with a Fighting-Type… Haven't seen that before." He notices the look on her face. Sabrina smiled to herself, "I have." She remembers fondly of a small girl with green hair using a powerful Hitmonlee- they had been clever enough to take them on, even slamming her Kadabra into her thrown… She chuckles, "It had been so long ago, I had almost forgotten. I mustn't forget how resourceful these children are… Even I can't always predict the outcome of these events…"
Just outside, Sabrina and Natsu stand with Lyrik and her Pokémon. Sabrina shows her the shining badge. "Your power... It far exceeds what I foresaw... You earned yourself the Marsh Badge. You deserve this." Lyrik cheers alongside her Pokémon. This was her 2nd badge. She smiles widely, "I'm really doing this..!"
"So where do you plan to head next?" Lyrik looks up at Natsu as he asks her this. She hasn't really thought that far ahead. Sabrina suggests she visit Vermillion City, "The Gym Leader there is a really tough one. And I'm sure he'd enjoy having you as company." And although Lyrik didn't completely understand what she meant by that, she decided to head out that way.
As the sun began to set, Lyrik urned her attention towards Route 6. Natsu and Sabrina watch as she disappears down the road. He smiles, "She's a tough cookie. I'm sure she'll make it far." Sabrina nods, "If she's anything like that other one… I know she will…"