Chapter Two - Rockets
It took Selena a slow three weeks to fully recover. She wasn't allowed to work in the garden, and she wasn't allowed to watch the sea or the outside world as it passed. So the Kadabra had little time to ponder about the world. Instead, she focused her mind on something much more technical.
Jack had an old computer stored away in his garage - a six year old piece of junk that was much bigger than it should have been. It had a primitive interface and was nearly impossible to use without constant consultation of its manual. And it took her ten minutes to get it up and running at its optimum capacity.
Selena spent her three weeks playing card games and writing programs, ideas building in her mind. She wanted answers. And she recieved it, one day in the mail. A cd promoting an old browser, giving her free access to the internet for a month. Selena begged for it to be functioning, and to her luck, it was. The Kadbra researched her own kind.
Found only in remote mountainous areas and sometimes seen along most northern Kanto routes, this species of Pokemon is a dying breed. It is believed that they congregate in loose bunches, somewhere in the mountains, although this has never been confirmed. They are a monogamous...
Selena sighed. That source gave her some ideas, but it wasn't helping. She scrolled down further, eyes glittering like lamps in the dim light of the garage.
...born with the genetic code for their parents' abilities, although in rare cases the recessive mutation causes some offspring to lack them. One in every three hundred Abra are born with this mutation.
"Oh God," she hissed, "I'm a mutant."
If in any case an Abra lacks its abilities it is raised just as it would be otherwise. In these cases, their full potential is rarely released until the Pokemon itself is ready. Sometimes, outside help may be required. These Pokemon are often killed early in life.
Selena muttered something to herself, knowing that she would have died, were it not for Jack. Having fallen out of a tree, she'd teleported a second too late and ended up hitting her head on solid concrete fifty feet below where soft grass would have been. Suffering a concussion, she'd lost much of her short-term memory and had only brief instances of psychic ability.
She'd concluded, in the end, that the only way for her to retrieve her powers was to find this rumored, ancient tribe of her kind. If there were any wild ones left, they could certainly help her. But as she readied to close the window, her eyes hovered over a link.
The Pokemon Retirement Institution
Selena did not click the link.
Her body was not fit enough to move about easily, her leg fully healed and her head tough enough to take nearly anything now. She moseyed out into the back yard, where Jack was planting seeds. It was still late morning.
"Jack." Her voice wasn't loud.
Jack stopped to look up at her. "Hm?" A hand rested on his lower back.
She ws silent for a moment. Jack stood up fully, dusting his hands off as he walked closer to her.
"You've been thinking about leaving.." He held the same tone as she.
She swallowed. "You know I need to. I'll find a trainer who can teach me how to be a real Kadabra - and I'll come back.. I will.."
He hadn't heard her. "I can't train you - I'm not cut out for helping you become a true Pokemon. I know that now.. so go find someone who can bring out your full potential."
Selena waited another week before finally heading out. The seven days past were solemn, silent, and passed by much too quickly. Selena spent her seventh day staring out her window, and filling a small shoulderbag with some potions and extra ribbons.
Early that morning, she left before Jack awakened, leg fresh and fully healed. Her eyes rested magnetically north, as she could feel the pull of the earth and where she needed to go. Trainer or tribe, it mattered not. As she stood near the mailbox, she got one last feel of her old world. The sea, the farms, the whinnying of nearby Ponyta from the farm adjacent. And her home.
Selena had never been north, so there would be no teleporting. It was only walking, from here on out. She pointed her body towards her future, and plodded up the road, towards the northwestern edge of the city - it was the closest route to the mountains.
"I... I don't believe it." A man with long, blonde hair was staring through a pair of binoculars. His eyes were as large as grapefruits.
A woman nearest him yawned. Her hair, unlike her counterpart's, was short, black, and cropped close to her head. She was laying quietly on a blanket. "What?" she asked, a bit unnerved that she'd awakened from her nap.
"There's a Kadabra... and it's...walking." He hissed. "It's covered in these silly ribbons."
The woman sighed. "Oh, who cares? Is it alone?"
The man nodded, but remembered the woman wasn't looking. "Yeah," he said. "But the fact that it's just wandering is what's got me.. what if it's intelligent?"
The woman growled. "Rocko, ALL Kadabra are intelligent."
"No, I mean... really." He stopped looking to stare into her eyes. "Exceptionally. I'll bet Tanaka will be pleaaased." He rubbed his hands together. "And we'll get word in to the boss. Oh, come on, Eila, please?"
The woman rolled her eyes. "Oh fine. But if it's weak I'm going to pummel you. What a waste of... give me those!" She snatched the binoculars from his hand to get a better focus on the Kadabra, who was beginning to fade into the distance out of her view.
"...Well?"
"Let's go." Eila shoved the binoculars back at him and climbed out of the bushes to the helicoptor. "We'll catch up when it leaves the city." She didn't turn on the machine, but instead seemed to be getting supplies from it. "Good thing this is an unmarked vehicle..." She grinned up at her partner. "We're going hiking."
Selena grimaced at the pain in her feet. She did not stop to rub away the soreness. What did it matter? She plodded steadily along, ignoring the looks of the people in the city. Several mistook her for someone else's Pokemon, and she had to make a quick exit. She decided then never to travel in public in a city.
Some dark feeling was mounting in her. She hated travelling alone,so she supposed perhaps it was this reason that was causing the mild, yet unrelenting fear in the back of her mind. As the day wore on she grew closer and closer to the end of the city.
By sunset, the exhausted Kadabra found a small stream to quench her thirst. Unfortunately, she'd never taste it.
As her head craned forward, her whiskers had just skimmed the water when her mind jerked her head up. The net tightened immediately as it landed on her, and she yelped, twisting and writhing like a snake as it constricted her body.
"I wouldn't run, Kadabra," cooed a feminine voice. "You'll only exhaust yourself. This baby is packed with electricity."
Selena trembled against the net as it continued to tighten, creating creases in her well-protected flesh. Her eyes were on them.
The male grinned. "It's so well behaved - it's not even trying to teleport."
"Not yet." She unhooked a Pokeball. "Beedrill, use your poison sting! I want that thing unconscious!"
The insect, released from its Pokeball, needed no second order. Its large stinger slid through the net easily, ramming harshly into the female's thigh, and she howled, feebly attempting to swipe at it with her spoon before slipping int unconscious.
The woman returned her Beedrill. "That was easy." She folded her arms. "Now let's get it to the boss."
"Ugh.." Selena grimaced, holding onto her head painfully. She'd finally awakened, although not so pleasantly as she'd hoped. The room was dark, and there was nothing but a cold, solid floor beneath her. She had poor night vision, and the only light enabling her to see was the faint florescent one bouncing around the corner and into the bars of her cage, casting vertical trails of black down her body. Her blue eyes blinked, and she stared out into the narrow hallway.
There was little to see, save for the faint silhouette of bars like hers, leading into the darkness beyond. Selena was uncertain she wanted to see behind them.
Something shifted.. or breathed - either way, a noise was made, and the Kadabra jumped, tail defensively curling around her midsection. She crouched, covering herself, as she was vulnerable to physical attacks, and stared into the darkness behind her.
A pair of eyes suddenly came alive, almond shaped, rather like hers, but more slitted, reminding her of a cat. They landed on her, and the cold, fuzzy feeling that fluttered through her caused her to slide back against the bars. Selena swallowed, jaw slightly agape. Her instincts knew it. This was her second encounter with one of her kind. And she was trapped in a cage with him.
((I went ahead and added the second chapter to this. Again, if I missed anything regarding spelling, I'm terribly sorry. I proofread it, though. Remember, these are all based on theories and whatnot, so it may or may not agree with canon. Anyhow, I'd appreciate reviews so I'll know the story is being read. Thank you!))