Chapter 4: Sabrina Interlude
"Sabrina, I know you think you can control it, but —"
"Her," Sabrina interrupted, waving her hand in the air as she faced away from Lance, the Johto League Champion. Before them, the trees of the small island they were standing on cleared, as though a giant invisible hand had swept through the air. "And you agreed with me."
"I deferred to your experience, as the most powerful psychic-type trainer I know. But after seeing what you're doing, I have to wonder if I was wrong. This is only the third confirmed Mewtwo in existence and she has already killed a man, just like the first did."
"There are things —"
"Things I don't understand," Lance interrupted her back. "Yeah, you said that. So help me understand. You're out here in the middle of the Sevii Islands building, essentially, an isolation chamber for the Mewtwo just so you don't have to kill it or drop it in a deep dark hole.
"I get that you can't do this in Saffron, what with Giovanni still at large, but this seems a little extreme. You have duties and, forgive me for saying it, but that Pokemon you have on your belt is a little too unstable to just go throwing your life away for."
"Emily is handling my League duties in my absence," Sabrina countered, turning back to look at him and pausing in the construction of her new facility, though her Alakazam and Mr. Mime continued to work. "But I do need to be here to help Megan. Something is off about this.. Mewtwos don't just drop out of the sky, and yet she practically did."
"Need I remind you that the first Mewtwo was created by Team Rocket in secret?"
"Where's the lab, then?" she glanced down at the Master Ball strapped to her belt and sighed. "She told me on the beach that she used to be human and that somehow, she woke up in the Ruins of Alph completely transformed into a Mewtwo. She wasn't lying about that, and she knew things. She knew my name and who I was after seeing my abilities and my Pokemon."
"She is psychic," Lance, furrowed his brows and leaned back against a palm tree, starting to perspire from the humid climate.
"This feels like something else," Sabrina shook her head. "I just don't know what yet. You're the Johto Champion and you have the greatest pull with the Johto-Kanto League, apart from Red. Check out the Ruins and see if there's anything to her story. I'm needed here. I...will check in with you weekly."
"Sabrina, you can't just —" he trailed off as his vision was overcome with a white flash and he found himself standing back in his office at the Pokemon League.
"I hate it when she does that."
In another flash of light, Alakazam appeared in front of Sabrina, who knelt on the padded floor of her new facility — her new gym. She took her eyes off the Master Ball that hovered in the air in front of her, shaking unnaturally as it rotated slowly like an egg about to hatch.
The Alakazam walked over to Sabrina and extended his hand, which held a Great Ball, and carried scratches and shallow dents in the metal from the years and years of use. She took it from him and pressed the center button, releasing the Pokemon within in a flash of light.
"Eye!" the purple Pokemon cackled and twitched, like a puppet on a string. Its head jerked back and forth between Alakazam and Sabrina before it seemed to settle down and crouched low in a resting position, flexing its razer-sharp claws as it stared at nothing with its diamond-like eyes.
"There were no problems?" Sabrina asked, speaking aloud so as not to leave the creepy ghost Pokemon out of the loop.
None, Alakazam replied telepathically, shaking his head. Phoebe understood the importance of this and volunteered her Sableye immediately after I presented your note.
"I wish I could have gone in person, but she has been restless," she palmed the Master Ball, feeling its warmth in her hand. "It's been almost a week already and I couldn't afford to leave this here — and I couldn't take it with me."
She understood, Alakazam reassured. But with a ghost and dark type Pokemon here, you plan to let her out?
"Yes," she nodded and stood. "You, Gengar, and I will work to improve her psychic abilities. Sabeye," she turned to the borrowed Hoenn Pokemon. It cocked its head and stood. "You are here strictly as a precaution. I do not want you involved unless Megan attempts to attack us or flee.
"She is powerful, but from what I read on the beach, she has only ever used psychic attacks. As a dark type, you will be generally immune in these early stages of her training. She wouldn't have the the experience or discipline to successfully break through that immunity — not yet."
"Sssaaaa," the Sableye hissed, twitching out its version of a nod.
Sabrina pursed her lips and eyed her Alakazam. It unnerved her to work with a dark type such as Sableye, since its mind was essentially a void to her powers and she was unable to really trust anything it said.
She trusted Phoebe, though, new as she was to the Hoenn League.
"Get some rest," she told the two Pokemon, mentally signalling for her Gengar at the same time. It woke from its rest and rose up through the floor. "Tomorrow morning we will begin."
End notes: As I warned, this one is kinda on the skimpy side in terms of length. But I promise the next one will make up for it. It's already written, but I do like to have some sort of buffer between the latest published chapter and what I'm working on in case I forget something (like I forgot Mewtwo's bendy neck thing and I had to go back in and add it in).
Later, dudes.