Dakota's come to terms with having these powers, but what other tricks does she have up her sleeve? Before we explore the source of these abilities, we need to see what else she's capable of- and in this chapter, she realizes she has a power that's even more risky and dangerous than her other abilities.

KedharS: That would definitely be sweet, that's for sure.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: I think we've barely scratched the surface of what Dakota is capable of, it's definitely going to be interesting.

Pokejosh101: That's an interesting thought.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 848

Serefina's words of comfort had done wonders for Dakota's mood. She felt a lot better about the strange mutation that she'd been afflicted with. It would still take some getting used to, of course, and she definitely needed to keep practicing. But she felt like she was finally starting to come down to earth, for lack of a better term.

When she'd first discovered that something was off about her, she'd been confused. As she'd gotten a clearer picture, she'd been worried about what would result from this. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to go on. This was all so new and strange, and it wasn't until Serefina had reached out to her and convinced her that everything would be okay that she finally calmed down and stopped riding on the high of testing her new abilities. Now she was feeling a lot more sure of herself, and felt like she was finally able to embrace her new self.

Of course, she was still testing. She wanted to make sure that she had control of these abilities, and didn't want to deal with any potential fallout.

She also had some new ideas of things they could try experimenting with, since she wasn't making much progress on practicing the things she was already capable of.

"Seri, I had a really great idea!" Dakota said excitedly. "So these powers of mine, like the teleporting, the moving things with my mind, heck, even the force field, they're all psychic powers, right? Like, ESP and stuff?"

"I mean, I guess so?" Serefina shrugged. It definitely felt like Dakota's abilities weren't too outside the realm of Psychic type pokemon, minus the whole transforming thing. "Why, what were you thinking?" She asked.

"Well, I was thinking, what if we try testing other psychic abilities?" Dakota suggested. "You know, stuff from comic books, or from Psychic type pokemon, powers that I haven't really shown yet? You never know! I might be able to do something awesome!"

Serefina could see the logic in that, but she wasn't sure she agreed with Dakota's decision. She'd already argued that Dakota was becoming too dependent on these powers of hers, and she wanted to dial back the training, rather than encouraging more of it.

"…Are you sure?" That was all she could do right now, ask if Dakota thought she was ready for something like this. But Dakota looked pretty excited about the whole thing. Serefina doubted she'd be able to convince her.

"I'm sure," Dakota assured her, nodding eagerly. "Trust me. It's not about making myself more appealing to Aki, and I don't think I'll become too dependent on it. I just want to test it out, that's all! This is really exciting!"

Serefina could see that Dakota's attitude had taken a turn for the better. She reconsidered her previous thinking and decided that maybe it wasn't that Dakota was becoming too dependent on her abilities, maybe she just wanted to get to know more about herself.

I wonder if I'm being so cautious because I'm still worried about her, Serefina considered. Dakota was one of her closest friends, and she still felt kind of guilty about everything that had happened. Because of that, she decided that she wasn't going to be such a mom right now. She was going to be like one of those fun, hip moms who let their kids drink alcohol on occasion and would join them for sleepovers and parties.

That… that was what the cool moms did, right?

"No, Seri, that's not what the cool moms do," Dakota dryly stated, shaking her head. "No kid in the world would think their mom was 'cool' for doing things like that with them, I promise. You need to hang around actual cool people."

Serefina huffed indignantly. It wasn't her fault! She avoided things like parties and "cool" events like the plague because they were full of gropers and jerks who only cared about her body, and she didn't want to be on guard all the time. And what did Dakota know about being cool, anyway?! Dakota was a bigger loser than she was!

Dakota gasped in shock, recoiling back like she'd been slapped across the face. "You… You think I'm a loser?" She whimpered.

Serefina was aghast. "N-No, I just… I don't think that, I swear!"

"I just heard you!" Dakota exclaimed. "Don't try to deny it!"

"I-I didn't mean anything by it, really! It was just a passing thought, I was… wait, what? What do you mean you heard me?" She asked, scrunching her nose up suspiciously. No way. There was no way, right? Dakota couldn't have…

"You said it! You were all 'what does Dakota know about being cool, anyway? She's a bigger loser than I am!'" Dakota cried, practically in tears at Serefina's hurtful words. She didn't realize what had happened, but Serefina was wondering…

But that was crazy, right? It had to be crazy. But then, this had been the WEEK of "crazy" with everything Dakota had been doing. Serefina decided that something like this, crazy as it was, was at least worth testing out.

Dakota… did you just read my mind? She thought.

"Huh? No, I didn't, you just…" Dakota's voice trailed off and her eyes widened in understanding as she saw that Serefina's mouth wasn't moving. Her prior wounded feelings were forgotten as she began to realize what was happening for herself.

Serefina was shocked.

They shouted at the same time:

"You can read my mind!"

"I can read your mind!"

Serefina and Dakota grabbed each other's shoulders and hopped up and down with glee, unable to keep their excitement contained.

"Do it again! Do it again!" Dakota urged her. "Think… think something that I would never in a million years guess, okay?"

"Um…" Serefina closed her eyes and furrowed her brow in concentration. She didn't know how Dakota had been able to do it before, and the girl's powers were definitely unpredictable, so she had no idea if this would work.

"You're thinking… Cynthia would actually be a really great friend if she wasn't such a pervert," Dakota said, squinting.

"Wow! You're right, I was totally thinking that!" Serefina gasped.

Dakota's face was alight with joy until she realized what that meant. "Wait… then… then you really did think that I'm a loser…?"

Serefina sighed. "Oh, sweetie, no, it wasn't like that! I just… well, you don't go out much either, you spend all your time working on stories cooped up in your room, and I'm your only real friend, so I just… I thought that between the two of us, I was the more 'normie' kind of girl, and 'loser' was just a word that was a convenient way of summing all that up for a quick thought… but I honestly don't think you're a loser, Dakota, really!"

Dakota wasn't convinced. "At least I have a boyfriend, she mumbled under her breath," glancing away from Serefina.

Serefina took a solid dent to her hitpoints at that line. "H-Hey, if I wanted a guy, I could get one! But I care way more about pokemon than dating some mouth-breather who would only be after me for my boobs anyway!"

Dakota gasped in shock. "Oh my god! You just thought 'she's so stuck-up, rubbing her boyfriend in my face like that! If I wanted to, I could just make Akira mine with the right top!'"

"I did NOT! You're just projecting!" Serefina exclaimed. "Stop confusing your paranoia with what I'm actually thinking!"

"…Oh, sorry," Dakota blushed sheepishly, glancing down. "I guess I kinda got wires crossed on that one…"

"I swear, I'd never make a move on Akira like that," Serefina assured her. "…Well, maybe if he put on some muscle, if his acne cleared up a little and he looked really hunky…"

"Seri!" Dakota exclaimed, aghast. Then she heard Serefina's thoughts and calmed down. "…Oh. So you're just joking."

"This is fun," Serefina giggled. But she also understood that this wasn't a joke. She had hurt her friend a lot with her careless thoughts, and she needed to make it right. "I'm sorry for thinking you were a loser earlier," she apologized.

"No, it-it's okay," Dakota said sheepishly. "I shouldn't have gotten so hurt, I know you didn't mean it, sorry."

"Well, why don't you tell me what I'm thinking now, instead?" Serefina asked.

Dakota squinted. "You're thinking… 'wow, Dakota really is such a great friend, I should loan her my clothes more often, she looks so much better in them than I do.' Wow, thanks Seri!"

"Hey, don't just edit my thoughts for your own convenience!" Serefina exclaimed, chopping her on the forehead.

"B-But… your real thoughts were so embarrassing…" Dakota said, turning as pink as her hair as she looked shyly down at the ground. "Do you really… did you mean all that?"

Serefina beamed at her. "You're the mind reader now, you tell me."

Dakota squinted again, and then her expression softened. She beamed ear to ear. "…Thanks, Seri. You're the best too."

Serefina was happy that she'd managed to patch things up. But this really was a problem. "Dakota, this new ability of yours… I think it's really dangerous."

"Yeah, I was thinking that myself," Dakota said. "I mean, you were just having some passive thoughts and it nearly wrecked our friendship. Can you imagine what would happen if you were actually mad at me?"

Serefina didn't want to imagine that. She was pretty good at being mature, but when someone crossed the line she could have a real temper. And while she had the self-control to hold her tongue, she'd thought some whoppers in her day, and didn't want Dakota to be on the receiving end of that. She winced. "Oh man… you're right, this is really not good."

"On the other hand, though, can you imagine what I could do with this?" Dakota wanted to think about the positives right now, scared as she was. "I mean, come on. Mind reading?! That's the jackpot! The super grand prize lottery number! Teleporting, shapeshifting, screw THAT! Do you know how many amazing articles I can write, now that I can read minds!"

Serefina turned pale. Oh, no, this was worse than she thought. Dakota with mind reading powers, she'd be the death of civilization.

"I could… hey! That's mean!" Dakota wailed.

"Well, you deserve it!" Serefina huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "With great power, there must also come great responsibility! You can't just use your mind reading to expose people's deepest, darkest secrets! That's wrong!"

Dakota sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I know… but come on, Seri, think about it. It's amazing! I can read people's minds, I can… no, I'm NOT getting drunk with power! Shut up!"

"You are. Absolutely. Getting. Drunk. With. Power."

"Look, I know you think that I'm not thinking about the consequences-"

"Of course you know I'm thinking that, because you're reading my mind!" This had stopped being a fun game now. Now that excitement had worn off and Serefina was imagining the consequences, things were only looking worse.

Dakota sighed, and scratched her head. "I don't like this either. Really, I don't. I'm just… I'm trying to make the best of this, Seri. I wish you could read MY mind, then you'd see how terrified I am about this power."

Serefina didn't have to read Dakota's mind, she could see it in her eyes. She was terrified. Even more terrified than when she'd been scared of Akira's response earlier that morning. And it didn't take a genius or a psychic to understand why.

"It's not fair that you have to filter your thoughts around me," Dakota continued. "And like… you're okay with it right now, but… what about tomorrow? What about a week from now? Are you really going to be cool with this?"

Serefina frowned. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"I… I can read your mind, Seri. Don't you get what that means?" Dakota asked. "It means no more secrets. I can figure out what you're thinking whenever I want to."

She sat down on her bed and stared glumly at the floor. "Could you really be friends with someone who can invade your privacy like that?"

Serefina's jaw dropped. "Wow, I… yeah. Wow."

"I know. It's awful, isn't it?" Dakota asked warily, looking up at Serefina.

"What? No. I mean, yeah, it is, but I'm just shocked you would care that much about violating someone's privacy," Serefina said. She was amazed.

"Hey! I… okay, fair," Dakota admitted. She hadn't exactly been the biggest advocate for keeping secrets, and just now she HAD been suggesting using this ability to spy on other people and uncover things for her articles.

Serefina sighed. "Yeah… I am a little worried. Even I have some things that I don't want you to know, you know? And honestly… I want to say that I'm still your friend, Dakota, but…" She didn't want to think it, she really didn't. Because she knew Dakota would hear. But she couldn't help the worrying thoughts that crossed her mind, the idea that she might not be able to stand being Dakota's friend anymore when she could read her mind like this.

The other abilities, they were strange. But this one… this one was intrusive.

"I just wish there was some way I could turn it off," Dakota glumly continued. "I mean, yeah, I can think of how great it would be to read someone's mind. But when I think about you and Aki… it's not fair, you know? Right now, imagine if I could read my boyfriend's mind. He would never be able to hide anything from me ever again."

Serefina nodded, seeing where Dakota was coming from. For someone as insecure and paranoid as Dakota, being able to read Akira's mind would definitely be comforting. But at the same time, in spite of how… "Dakota" she was, there were lines that even she wouldn't cross.

"I want to be able to trust Aki," Dakota continued. "I don't want to have to read his mind to know that he would never betray me. But if I can, then… could I ever really trust him again? It's like you said, Seri, I don't want to become dependent on these powers, but… if I could, then…"

Serefina was reminded of that old adage, "power corrupts". Right now, Dakota had the ability to learn anybody's secrets. For someone like her, it was the kind of temptation that neither girl could be sure that she could resist using, as much as she wanted to.

"My relationship with Aki is built on trust and love," Dakota said. "And if I can read his mind, that… it's just not fair to him."

Serefina thought their relationship was built on toxic dependence, but she decided not to say anything. Crap! She'd just thought it!

…But Dakota didn't seem to have noticed.

Dakota, can you hear this? Serefina mentally asked her. But no, Dakota was continuing to talk about her worries and fears, she wasn't reacting to Serefina at all.

"And I don't… I don't want him to be afraid to be around me, because… he might just keep his distance if he knows I can-"

"Wait, wait, Dakota, hold up," Serefina interrupted her. "Can you read my mind right now?"

Dakota wiped away her tears and glanced at Serefina, confused. She hadn't expected the interruption, but now that she was saying it, no, she couldn't. She squinted and tried again, concentrating on Serefina's thoughts.

"…No, I can't," Dakota said, shaking her head, confused. She brightened. "Hey, do you think I'm cured, Seri?!" She asked hopefully. As nice as mind reading had been, she really, REALLY didn't want this power like the others.

Serefina shook her head. "No, it's probably just because that power of yours is too unpredictable," she said. "What about… hmm, let's try again."

This time, she focused back on Dakota, trying to see if she could hear.

"Wait! I got it that time!" Dakota said, surprised. "Weird. What's that about? So it only works sometimes?"

"Maybe…" Serefina mused. "Try it again."

Dakota squinted and concentrated on… well, she didn't know what she was supposed to be doing, so she focused on trying to hear Serefina's thoughts. But no, there was nothing.

"Nope. Didn't work."

"Strange. That time, I was intentionally trying to keep you from hearing," Serefina thought. "Maybe… maybe that's it? Maybe if I don't want you to hear something, then even if you try, I can't!"

"Yeah, maybe!" Dakota said, feeling a little more hopeful. "But… that's still not the best, though, is it? After all, you'd have to focus on not wanting me to hear, wouldn't you?"

"Well, what if you try then?" Serefina suggested. "Try focusing on not hearing what I'm thinking, and see if that works."

"How do I do that?!" Dakota asked.

"I don't know, it's your power, you figure it out!"

After mulling it over for about a minute they finally decided on a strategy. Serefina would hum a song in her mind for Dakota to focus on, and Dakota would listen to it. Then she would choose to stop hearing it, and see if that worked.

When the sound disappeared, Dakota lit up with joy. "It worked, Seri, it worked!" She gushed. "I couldn't hear a thing!"

She leapt up and hugged Serefina tightly. "I can't hear anything now!"

Serefina sighed with relief. So there WAS a way for Dakota to consciously shut off her mind reading abilities. "That's good," she nodded. "Still, it means you have to be really responsible with this power, you know?"

Dakota sighed, and nodded. "Yeah, I know." That was going to be the hardest part. Someone like her, who absolutely NEEDED to know the truth, a power like this would be a godsend. But at the same time, the fear of what could be done with it terrified her.

Because as bad as she might act, as nosy as she was, at her core, Dakota was still a good person. So even if she had the ability to read minds, even if there was so much stuff that she wished she COULD do with this power, she knew she never could.

It would hurt people, and she didn't want to do that. She didn't want to hurt her friend, she didn't want to hurt Akira.

Thanks, Seri, she thought, smiling at her best friend. Thanks for trusting me enough to still be my friend even though I have this horrible power.

"Of course I would, silly," Serefina laughed, turning back to her. "I might not always be able to trust you, but I know I can trust you with something like this."

Serefina and Dakota stared at each other for a moment of silence. Dakota's jaw dropped.

"No way."

Yikes. That's a pretty terrifying ability Dakota's obtained! A lot more dangerous than the other ones she has! What will being a mind reader mean for Dakota moving forward? With this power, could it be possible to uncover other secrets hiding in the Pokemon Academy? It's certainly a skill with frightening possibilities, that's for sure!