Asher's Team:

Lago - Rhydon
Crust - Golem
Sebastian - Nidoking
Selena - Nidoqueen
Seraph - Clefable
Barret - Dugtrio
Sonic - Sandslash
Death - Marowak
Colossus - Steelix


"Wow did you see that?"

"He only lost one pokemon!"

"What was that crazy thing he did with Roar? I didn't know Stealth Rocks were that strong."

Those were just a few of the whispers Sabrina was hearing as part of the crowd when they saw Asher emerge victorious over Falkner. Her face had only slightly shifted from it's normal blank expression whilst her lips had curved up ever so slightly.

It was her equivalent of grinning like a madwoman!

Watching her best friend battle was never something that she never grew tired of, she had to hold back her own laughter when she saw what he was doing with Stealth Rocks, Taunt and Roar. It was a very smart and effective, but brutal, way of battling. Especially against flying-types. Asher is very intelligent, people usually underestimate him because of his crude and unrefined way of speaking, from the moment that battle had begun, and even before then, he'd been pinpointing his enemy's weaknesses and capitalising on them. For example, he saw that Falkner's pokemon excelled at evasion and agility in the air, so he battled in a way that made their speed a non-factor. She's also noticed that Asher doesn't have a fixed way that he likes to battle, whether he goes for pure power or a more underhanded approach is entirely up to the situation. He isn't held down by sportsmanship or battling with honour. He'll play dirty if he needs to, in fact he almost seems to relish in beating his opponents in ways that leave them shell-shocked.

Overall he is an extremely adaptable trainer who doesn't care about the environment or who he's up against, he'll find a weakness and exploit it all the same. It doesn't matter what problem you throw his way, he'll simply counter it and go on the offensive, he's an expert at controlling the flow of the match.

She has no doubt that he'll be able to defeat his next opponent in his next match. Especially if he decides to use his Rhydon.

Sabrina watched as the brown haired boy leaves the arena and decides that she should go talk to him. Afterall, there's no time like the present.

The purple haired girl closes her eyes and focuses intently on Asher's psychic presence. Or more accurately the complete lack of. Over the course of their journey she's learned that him being cloaked from her psychic powers is actually not a thing that stops her from locking onto him, she can sense him very well because she cannot sense him at all. In the stadium she can sense the brain waves of thousands upon thousands, but among them only one is masked from her. It's almost when someone you know wears a mask in a crowd of thousands of people. You can't tell who they are just by looking at the mask, yet you know who they are none the same and them wearing a mask only makes them stand out more within said crowd.

Thinking about it in that sense, Sabrina doubts that most simpletons would understand her explanation. She shrugged it off though, it worked for her and that is what matters.

She let her breathing calm as she did her best to maintain focus, lock onto Asher's location, and-

Her senses were momentarily numbed as she felt space and time pull her towards her golden eyed friends location. She felt weightless, she couldn't breathe, her thoughts were loose and slipped away from her if she lost focus, it was almost like being underwater. In more ways than one. Psychics can spend large amounts of time here if they so wish, but Sabrina personally wouldn't recommend it. When she made the metaphor of being here like being submerged in water she really meant it. The pressure can become unhealthy for a human body, you could suffocate from the lack of oxygen, you could lose control of your psychic powers and fry your own brains neurones. Several foolish psychics have tried to linger in this place, but those fools never returned.

Her senses were returned to her as she opened her eyes to find that she'd teleported right behind Asher with his back right in front of her eyes.

She didn't make a sound as she simply spoke." That was a good-" He tensed up at her words, being used to, but not entirely comfortable with, her teleporting behind him suddenly and without warning. He didn't mention it all that much though, so she never felt the need to stop."-battle."

He turned his head around and met her eyes as he quickly got over his shock and just said." Thanks, nice to know that you were watching. Must have been great to see the move we came up with do it's job so well." He made sure to mention the 'we' part, but Sabrina mentally scoffs at that. All she did was give Asher's Clefable some advice on how to better utilise psychic-type energy in order to execute the move. He was the one who'd even heard of it in the first place, and even without her help his Clefable was very close to learning the move anyway. She just gave that last small boost.

But, regardless of her own opinion on the matter, she nodded and merely said." That strategy that you employed with Baton Pass was clever, it is rather unfortunate that your Nidoking fell to Falkner's Delibird when it did, I think it would have been likely that your Nidoking could have taken down his entire team of birds in one fell swoop."

Asher blinked at her words and just gave a small smile as he said." Did you just make a pun? Am I hearing you right?" He seemed amused by her words she noted. That's good, even if she enjoys jokes she never was good at making them.

In response she actually finds herself smiling at him. Smiles always come to her easier when she's around him, in fact emotions in general are easier for her to feel when she's around him. She wonders why that is.

"Perhaps, maybe you've started to affect me in more ways than I thought." She admits to him and for whatever reason her heartbeat starts to rapidly increase at her own words. She really wasn't lying when she said that, ever since she started travelling with Asher she's been happier, less stoic, and more emotional. Sometimes her lips will curve ever so slightly upwards when she thinks about him and being near him makes her icy heart crack ever so slightly.

Asher's smile lessened a bit as he nodded at that." Yeah... listen Sabrina, this is really not that big a deal by the way, some girls were saying some... unsavoury words about you back when you were getting us some drinks, and I-"

He was interrupted as Sabrina quickly teleported the can of lemonade she'd bought him out of their hotels fridge and into her hand before she offered it to him. With her powers teleporting something as small and inanimate as a can of lemonade is a task that hardly even strains her mind. So, she decided to teleport it back into the fridge back at their hotel and teleport it back to her when she next sees her friend. She knew that now was a good time.

He took the can and muttered a thank you before continuing with what he was saying before he was interrupted." Anyways, as I was saying before, a few slu- I mean women who sell their bodies to men were trying to hit on me, I politely told them that I wasn't interested and when they pushed I tried to walk away, however they decided to make a scene and I, and this might not have been my most graceful moment, decided to-"

"Start yelling and insulting them until they ran away with tears in their eyes." Sabrina summarised, already knowing the events that had occurred as she watched him.

"Basically yeah." He merely nodded at those words, seemingly finding them to be quite accurate when it came to describing the events that had occurred earlier that day. He rubbed the back of his head and just spoke." Listen, I know that what I did might have seemed a little extreme, but I only did it because-"

Sabrina gives him a shake of her head and raises a hand before he can even begin." You have no need to apologise. I'm not disturbed by what you did earlier, in fact I was almost glad that you cared about me enough to be that enraged for my sake. You didn't do anything wrong."

She wasn't being entirely truthful when she said that, but she wasn't exactly lying either. Asher has always been a mostly cheerful and that morning he appeared to be in a particularly good mood, so his rather vicious outburst was a surprise indeed. However, the more she thought about it, the more appeared to have been the result of him bottling up his emotions. A negative encounter must have merely been enough to make him snap and lash out at the next person who crossed him. Then again she isn't the most emotionally sharp tool in the tool box, so she could be wrong.

Either way it didn't change how she felt on the matter.

Asher seemed to register her words and display a small amount of surprise, but that faded and was replaced by relief as he let out a sigh." Cool, I was worried you would think I was a psycho or something. Anyways, you wanna go walk around the league with me, see some stuff. We've got basically the whole day, so..." He trailed off as Sabrina smiled at him trying to move past the topic so quickly. Still though, she didn't feel like lingering on the past either.

"That sounds wonderful Asher." She said, liking the idea of spending time with him.

He grinned at her." Damn straight it does, I hear they've got a pool and a sauna around here somewhere. Why don't we check it out?"

Her smile faltered slightly at his words, but she didn't want to ruin his fun, he was happy at the idea and she didn't want to ruin that for him do she just said." That sounds like a good idea Asher."

Looking back she should've just told him she didn't know how to swim.


I patiently waited for Sabrina to put on her bathing suit in the changing rooms and let my mind drift slightly back to my own thoughts now that I was in the finals. I was probably going to have to battle Clair if I'm being honest, I don't know the other guys name, but Clair is actually a canon character. Plus she has a Dragonite. So, I'm just going to, safely, assume that Clair is going to defeat him and then come to battle me. That Dragonite is packing some major power, and the rest of her pokemon that I've seen aren't exactly slouches either. She's got a team of bangers. They've been destroying the competition and with that Dragonite on her team, her arsenal just got a big old boost. In fact, just in terms of raw power only Sebastian, Colossus, and Lago could beat team. I mean, Lance is in the Elite Four and they have nearly the same team. One of absolute weapons.

But, they are very straightforward weapons with a rather simple fighting style. They seem to prefer overwhelming their opponents with raw power, very on brand for the dragon-type. Probably something to do with their pride. I hate people like that. A bunch of arrogant cunts. I really just don't see the point in acting cocky. I mean sure I can act cocky when I'm battling, but that's just part of my game, if my opponent is a dick then I'll taunt them. But, dragon-type trainers? It's just pointless to act needlessly cocky all the time. I mean honestly, what is underestimating your opponents gonna do for you? This is an anime universe for fucks sake, arrogance is rewarded by the god almighty Arceus giving you a big fat slap on the face to humble your dumbass.

Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, Clair's battle style. It's very power crush all. She likes to dominate her opponent whilst going for big flashy attacks that show off her pokemons power. But, if push comes to shove and she's on the ropes, she has no problems with taking a more efficient and careful approach to take her opponents down. Her pride is also her biggest weakness. She'll jump at the chance to show off how powerful she is and me taunting her will probably be effective.

What could I taunt her about though? I doubt just calling her a goon for wearing a cape will cut it. I could have sworn she had an inferiority complex to Lance or something, maybe I could tell her she was just a shitty knockoff of her cousin, but then again that might also be a bust since she also looks up to Lance. Also 'knockoff' isn't really a term people use here so it might just fly over her head.

Eh whatever, I'll figure something out later.

"Asher, I-I am ready." Wait, did she just stutter?

Sabrina opened the curtains which were hiding her and I actually found myself staring at her. She had picked out a purple bikini with pink stripes that complimented both her hair and eyes, she was very slender but had a good amount of curve for her age, which wasn't a massive amount but her having a huge quantity of bust would just look unnatural and horrible on a thirteen- nearly fourteen- year old girl. She had her left arm clutching her right forearm in a very shy yet cute manner and some blush was shining through on her cheeks.

I was glad she was avoiding looking at me, that allowed me to quickly turn away and blink rapidly as I told myself to quit staring at her like that. I might have literally swept her up into my arms this morning, but I have to draw a line somewhere. Even if that line is a bit vague. I'm not going to ogle her like some creep.

"Well, how do you think I look?" She suddenly asked as she turned her pretty red eyes onto me. She wanted to know how I thought she looked? Yeah, makes sense.

After a moment I just decided to answer honestly." You look really good, you should buy it." I state to her, doing my best to appear unaffected by how well that bathing suit really looks on her. Weird how I was fine with picking her up like a bride on her wedding day, but her being in a bikini was enough to do the job. The bikini wasn't even skimpy or anything, it covered her perfectly well goddammit!

Sabrina's blush became more prominent at my words and she instantly hopped back into the changing room before closing the curtains behind her using her powers and just speaking in a tone slightly higher than her normal voice." Okay, I'll buy it then. Just let me get changed and we can go." She was clearly embarrassed by my comment and had proceeded to hide from me.

Huh, cute.


Okay, when I said that me and Sabrina would go to the pool I fully expected for the place to be crowded with a bunch of brats and fat people floating around in there, pissing in the pool and other nasty stuff, and then after about ten minutes we'd hit the sauna and actually get some heat going before taking a shower and doing something else.

I wasn't expecting for the place to be empty.

Looking over the place where we were going to swim I was pleasantly surprised to see that the pool was empty, not a person could be seen in sight. There wasn't even a lifeguard!

Honestly? This is pretty dope. Swimming is a really great exercise for you and I actually played on my high school team a bit, of course that didn't last long, but I was decent enough and I had a good time. Lets see if I still got it.

"Looks like we've got the place all to ourselves." I commented to Sabrina, not staring directly at her as she stood by my side. She seemed to be avoiding eye contact for some reason, I don't really see why, I'm shirtless all the time when I'm around her. When you're training with your pokemon you don't really wanna get sweat on your shirts, so I just opted not to wear a shirt at all when I'm training. It gets a bit chilly in the winter, but nothing I can't handle.

The thing that you need to understand is, your mind is generally sharper if you're in good shape. You simply react faster to things if you have a fit body. So, if I want to be a step ahead of other people in pokemon battles, I need to have a strong body.

Also I wanted to see if Gravity training can affect people like it does pokemon. Spoiler alert, it does. Plus the easy muscles are self explanatory.

"Indeed." Sabrina answered with very few words, like always.

Not was wasting any time I made a run for the pool and cannon balled into it, a massive splash followed my leap. I momentarily became submerged in water, but quickly rised to the surface. Making sure to puff out my chest to keep me afloat as I gestured for Sabrina to follow. But, she seemed hesitant to jump in like me.

"Come on, the waters nice." My words seemed to make a bit of her fear dissipate as she seemed to hype herself up before hopping in with significantly less vigor than I did.

I didn't even need to close my eyes to guard from the splash that followed. But, something was wrong. Because where Sabrina was meant to be floating I just saw some floating purple hair and a girl who was thrashing awkwardly under the water, seemingly unable to swim normally.

I just watched for a few seconds, but then had a bit of a realisation. Did-did Sabrina not know how to swim?

A shock of panic made me realise that Sabrina could drown, I mean probably not since she can teleport, but there's always the possibility that she could fail. So, with that in mind I quickly dived into the water, my eyes stinging lightly from the chlorine, and I grabbed the thrashing girl by the arm pits and pulled her to the surface. Once we were done I dragged her over to the side of the pool and made sure she was safely out of the water.

Once Sabrina was stable I climbed out and checked on her, remembering what to do if somebody was drowning. Most deaths by drowning are caused by someone inhaling water into their lungs, this can interfere with oxygen exchange in the alveoli. I really hope that she didn't inhale any water.

Sabrina was coughing quite badly, but it didn't seem like she was having much trouble breathing. That's good.

I might joke around a lot with her, but the safety of my friends is important to me. I would never make light of her nearly drowning in a pool because she didn't know how to swim. I grabbed her shoulder and made her look at me as she coughed up some water she appeared to have swallowed." Sabrina, are you okay? You didn't inhale any water did you?" If she did then I'd have to make sure she expels the water through her windpipe.

She was coughing quite frequently, but she shook her head as a sign that she didn't. That made me feel some relief. But, I did have a few questions for her.

"So... you can't swim?"


"Alright, remember to keep your chest puffed out and breathe steadily, if you panic then you'll sink." I gave Sabrina a few instructions as we were swimming in the shallow end, I was right besides her to make sure that she was doing the technique right, and just making sure that she was okay.

So, it turns out that Sabrina didn't know how to swim. That would explain why she nearly drowned, it was a bit of a surprise that she never learned, but thinking on it a bit more I suppose that it makes sense. She probably never saw the need to a physical skill like this, you know her being a psychic that prefers to ready or something. But, that isn't gonna fly for me. Swimming is a skill that everyone should know how to do, she may have drowned if I wasn't there to save her.

My solution: swimming lessons.

Sabrina was a pretty easy person to teach, that's probably because of how smart she was, so I was giving her some advice on how to swim properly, not flail your arms around like a three year old.

Right now we were just doing some basic backstrokes with me standing up in the water besides her. We'd been at this for about an hour or so, couldn't tell, there wasn't a clock here, and Sabrina had gotten the basics down more or less. So, I'd say we were about done. My skin was getting really wrinkly.

"That was great Sabrina, you can officially swim now. So, what do you say we hit the sauna?" I suggested, feeling like drying off in style. I've never actually been in one before, apparently you're meant to be completely nude when you go in those, but that would probably just be uncomfortable for us both at this point. So, I'll have to wear a towel.

The psychic girl merely nodded and spoke." That sounds quite pleasant." And stood up in the shallow end of the pool.

Time to dry off in style.


"So, Clair is probably gonna win this match, do you think I can take her?" I asked the purple haired girl who was sitting opposite to me in the room full of steam, feeling curious as to what she thought of my ability to win the conference. I didn't really have doubts that I could beat her to be honest, I just needed to use my head and beat the shit out of a few arrogant dragons. Piece of cake really. But, I was curious as to what she thought.

Sabrina was currently just wearing two towels, on to hide her crotch and another to hide her chest, and I was just wearing one around my waist to make sure I wasn't sitting naked around her. I don't really feel like making her uncomfortable, plus just letting my dick hang out isn't really a thing. I'm not a pervert, I can have some shreds of decency when I feel like it.

Sabrina didn't need a moment to answer." I do." The girl simply said, apparently not feeling the need to elaborate on her words. She's nothing if not straightforward.

"Great, just wanted to know you believed in me." I smiled at her and stretched out a little, putting my arms behind me to stretch them out. I then mentioned an entirely different topic." Anyway, Team Rocket is gonna be raided soon. Thanks again for helping me gather evidence against him, it would have been a bitch and a half without your help."

Sabrina was kind of like my partner in crime when it came to fucking over Team Rocket. She can teleport us around and read minds, and if you combine that with my metaknowledge on the subject of Team Rocket's base of operations, like the Celadon City gamecorner, then it wasn't really all that difficult to make a list of their bases and operations to make money.

Sabrina just shrugged at my words and modestly said." It was a relatively simple task all things considered. Besides you don't need to thank me, as a Gym Leader myself I would dislike it if a criminal were to remain in such a position, in that sense I should be the one thanking you for giving me the opportunity to become involved in a plot to expose him."

I smiled at her and just said." How about we just thank each other then. Also, you're dad isn't gonna give you any trouble when you go back to being Saffron's Gym Leader right?" I've actually met the guy once and he seemed like a pretty decent dude, he was at least good enough to try and make sure that I wasn't some kinda weirdo who wanted to do something to Sabrina when it was just us, but then again I also didn't know him enough to discount the possibility of him just trying to fuck Sabrina over either.

Sabrina frowned at my words, but responded nonetheless." I am more than capable enough to defeat my father in battle should he deny me my place at my Gym. But, I doubt that the situation will come down to that. He promised me the chance to journey with you until my return, and so when I return he will relinquish leadership of the Gym over to me." She sounded certain when she said that, then again she is able to read thoughts, so if he was lying then she'd know.

I nodded at her." Cool, just making sure is all. I wasn't worried though, you're definitely stronger than he is, I know that for a fact."

Sabrina really is an amazing trainer as well. She's always someone that can give me a run for my money, she's taken to my tactics like a fish to water, and I've taught her the way of the troll. By that I mean how to fight like a thug, because whilst Sabrina was a good trainer when we met, she was way too by the books for my taste. I did a good job of incorporating my BS tactics onto her team of weapons.

Taunt, Disable, Thunder Wave. I thought her all the dirty tricks in the book, every single OP move that could possibly be extorted, she was smart enough to figure all of this out on her own, she just didn't have the mindset to tap into all of that.

Because, I believe in fighting dirty. If you're not fighting dirty then you aren't really fighting. That's my motto anyway.

Sabrina and I are very different in a lot of ways. She's refined, has magical powers and is a natural born genius. Whilst I'm a British thug who's got nothing but his own brains, bullshit tactics, and a mindset that isn't restricted by this world's lacklustre pokemon trainers.

But, we are friends nonetheless. This is because we just get each other really well. She has her quirks and I have mine. We accept each other.

So, despite our differences, there's nobody more like me than Sabrina. I wouldn't trade her for anything.


If you enjoyed reading this story and want to read more then just head to my P atreon at The Magician 565 to read 8 Chapters in advance.

Sorry for the delay, the latest chapter I wrote on my P atreon was actually over 6k and took longer than it normally would. For those of you who don't have access to my shit 8 chapters early, in about 8 updates you'll see why I took such a long time.