Ash Ketchum walked through the doors of the Saffron City Gym. He didn't know what he was expecting, but he definitely didn't expect a cult.

"See? I bent the spoon!" "Try again without pressing your thumb on it." "The card you have holds a triangle!" "Do-Do you not see me holding up a Pokemon Card right now?"

Rows of people sat across from each other, wearing strange clothes and performing odd exercises in front of some examiner.

'Huh,' Ash looked over to his Riolu. 'I don't sense psychic energies from these guys.'

(Psychic powers in humans are rare.) Sabrina responded through a telepathic link. (However, idiots who believe they have psychic abilities are frequent. I set this front where people can hone their skills. In reality, it has a legit process of both warding away weirdoes and attracting those who do have powers.) The Psychic Gym Leader omitted how the front generates extra income.

Ash suddenly felt a familiar tactile sensation. The best way he could describe it was he could hear a reverse sonic boom? Before he could fully explain it, two people teleported in front of them.

One of them was a woman with long, brown hair. Ash thought she had the expression of a maid despite dressing up as one of those Ace Trainers. The other looked like a male Ace Trainer with his uniform too. But Ash thought the frown on his face looked more disinterested than sad.

"Amanda. Cameron." Sabrina addressed the two as she unfolded her arms.

"Lady Sabrina, we welcome your return." Ash supposed he wasn't wrong on the maid comparison when it came to Amanda. "Cameron and I made sure the gym acted well without you."

"All we did was close the challenger side and tell everyone to go towards the other Gym across town." Cameron looked back with a raised brow at Amanda. It was then that Cameron, and by extension Amanda, noticed Ash standing next to the Gym Leader. "Who's that?"

"A new student. Ash, meet Amanda and Cameron." Sabrina didn't wait any more than that as she started to walk forward, prompting the others to follow her. "I will be manning the gym for the rest of the League Period."

Hearing about gym-related topics, Ash smiled. "Are we going to have our Gym battle!?"

As soon as he said those words, a hush fell over the area as others turned to watch what would happen next.

Perhaps they overreacted since Sabrina only turned to the teen. "No. But now that you brought it up, you have been slacking in your psychic training. This will be a good time to test if you have more than Telekinesis and Telepathy."

"Huh?" Ash and Astro tilted their heads.

Sabrina forgot who she was talking to for a second. "For the next day or two, I want you to be one of my Gym Trainers."

Ash recalled that some gym leaders only accept challengers when they defeated the gym leader's select trainers and solved a puzzle of their own making. "You're making me a gym trainer? But I'm trying to join the league."

"I did say temporary, didn't I? Plus, this will help you gain more battle experience for your eventual battle with me."

Those listening before became more alarmed. Many knew Sabrina as the aloof and powerful psychic Gym Leader of Saffron City.

Yet, was she?

Was she being nice to a random kid?

"Lady Sabrina!" Amanda yelled out faster than she could realize. "Why are you letting this random—" She watched Sabrina slowly turn her gaze to her. "I-I—we already have the maximum number of Gym Trainers allowed by the league! There's no need for—"

"Right. Even you weren't here for that." Cameron interrupted. "Medium Darcy and Rebecca took their vacations days this morning. They said something about wanting to party and meet cute guys?"

Sabrina raised her brow at the two names. "The youngest between those two is 87."

Cameron shrugged his shoulders. "They're young at heart?" He recalled the two grannies sped off in a Lamborghini. As Cameron wondered how they got the money for something like that, he focused on the previous point. "So we have two vacant slots."

"We-We can call Jared and Franklin for our reserves!"

Astro sensed Amanda's aura was disturbed, but he didn't know why.

Without giving much thought to the words, Sabrina dismissed the notion. "No need. This one here needs more practice anyway."

"Well, I've never been a Gym Trainer before!" Ash looked to his fighting type. "Ready to battle other Gym Challengers?"

"You won't be using your party." Sabrina turned to the teen.

"What!?" The raven-haired teen looked surprised as everyone else after hearing that. "Why not!?"

Sabrina narrowed her eyes. This calmed the distraught teen but cowed everyone else in the area. "This is a psychic gym. That means you need to use only psychic Pokemon, not whatever your Drowzee was doing. I'm renting you one of our Pokemon here, which you will use for the time being. And as I said earlier, you could use this type of battle experience."

The last thing Sabrina wanted was to get rumors of her gym housing costumed freaks around.

"Gym Trainers have disadvantages because their purpose is to test the challengers, not necessarily defeat them. You'll lose more often than you won't. That should teach you how to battle well with limited options." With that, Sabrina turned to Amanda. "Be sure to lend Ash one of the Gym's Pokemon. Cameron, lead Ash's Pokemon towards the training area. Only one is psychic, but they could benefit from seeing how others train."

With her words, everyone started to make their way. Ash walked up to Cameron about his Pokemon while the older young man looked interested in the raven-haired kid. However, Amanda leered at the mysterious teen.

"Who is this kid? How dare he act so familiar with Lady Sabrina!?" She whispered to herself. As one could imagine, she didn't take a shine to the country bumpkin who somehow won the favor of her idol. "Wait, Lady Sabrina said that I needed to lend him a Pokemon, but she did not say which one."

As she thought about how to discredit the young teen, a smile that soon formed on her lips could make even the Grinch unnerved.

Sabrina's Gym Puzzle is simple. It consisted of a maze of teleportation platforms that challengers had to guess the right path to reach her.

Ash's room held three teleporters: one that led to a dead-end, one towards the right path, and the entrance to his room. The raven-haired teen knew that Sabrina would open the gym soon. He'd thought he'd take the time to bond with the rental Pokemon, so he threw out the Pokeball that let out a Xatu.

"Hi there, I'm Ash."

'I KNEW YOUR NAME WAS ASH.' Huh. The Xatu is very loud. 'BECAUSE I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!~' Ash wondered if the Pokemon's pupils were supposed to be going in different directions from each other.

Ash picked up his Pokedex. "They say Xatu stays quiet and still because it is seeing both the past and future at the same time." He looked up at his Rental Pokemon again to see it waddling around with his hands raised.

'OH NO! SO MANY DARK TYPES! IN THE FUTURE~!'

The teen knew he was never good at the details, but he was sure there was something wrong with Professor Oak's notes.

"Hey, it's alright." Ash walked up and tried to calm down the psychic type. "There aren't any dark types here. Say, you don't mind if we practice for a bit, right? We're going to have a hard time fighting some tough challengers."

When the Xatu squawked about future stuff, Ash returned to look at the Pokedex. However, the teen soon raised his brow after reading the stats of the Xatu. "Wait, why do you only have one move?" After reading the details of the move, his brow raised higher. "And why have you no energy for it? They told me you were just healed."

'I KNEW YOU'D ASK THAT! BECAUSE I CAN SEE THE FUTURE~!' Yet, the Xatu didn't say anything else as he started flying around the room.

Ash sighed as the psychic Pokemon started to scream about barrel rolls. "I really don't get Sabrina's psychic lessons here."

To be honest, a small piece of Sabrina missed taking the League Challenge. Battling is one of the rare occasions she could 'cut loose' as an outlet for her psychic energy. Of course, she wouldn't use it against the challenger, but it was still a great outlet. As she sat in quiet anticipation, she heard an alert that the first challenger had arrived. A few minutes later, the machine told her that challenger had left the building. She was disappointed, but she was looking for a decent challenge. If challengers couldn't get past her gym trainers, they wouldn't stand a chance against her.

That's what she thought. However, this happened again with the next challenger.

Then the next.

Then five more times.

By the time the 9th challenger left the building, Sabrina had a sneaking suspicion that she knew what was going on.

Or specifically, who was causing trouble.

Andy Illusio heard about the mysterious Psychic Gymleader of Saffron City; who hadn't? (Inside the gym, a teenager sneezed before wiping his nose.) He knew the rumors of how if a challenger lost, they would turn into dolls forever. But those were just rumors, right?

Regardless, her acclaimed psychic prowess made every challenger fear her name. But he wouldn't go unprepared; Andy readied Ghost and Dark Pokemon for his legendary bout with the Saffron City Gym Leader. He took the Gym Puzzle and battled through several Gym Trainers as if they weren't there. As he went to the next room, he quickly noticed the area looked different.

The room looked battered as if the heaviest fighting went on there: floors, walls, and ceilings had craters and cracks everywhere except the teleporters.

Andy spotted a young teen frantically checking his Pokedex. "I don't get it? Why do you still have no energy? I made sure to heal you after every battle! Is my Pokedex broken? Aww, Professor Oak's going to be so mad!"

The challenger didn't know why a teenager was here when the first trainers he fought were psychic specialists. But he was here for a badge, so he coughed into his hand to get the kid's attention.

Ash turned around. "Right! You have to get through me to go to the next area!" He said as he picked up his lone Pokeball.

Andy did the same. "Don't take it personally when I beat you, kid! Go, Brarie!" A Banette appeared on the field as Ash threw out the Xatu. Andy wasn't worried about this battle. If by some off chance things went sour, he could always mega evolve his Pokemon.

The challenger was ready for another easy win. "Brarie, use Shadow—"

The ghost-type had problems hearing her trainer's orders over the dozen psychic thunderbolts striking her in an almost biblical fashion.

The Xatu squawked as he raised his wings.

"Man, how does that keep happening!?" Ash cried out.

Perhaps it was best to reveal the context of what was happening. In case no one took notice—since Ash never did—Xatu only had one move.

The move was Future Sight.

To be fair, the move alone wouldn't do much. But there is a twist as to why this move is acting wonky. When this particular Pokemon was a Natu born from a—(dropped)—egg, it always claimed to see the future. However, it only screamed these things as they happened while seemingly never activating the move. As the Pokemon suffered defeat after defeat without being able to launch a single attack, it led most trainers to abandon it in the back corners of Sabrina's Psychic Pokemon. In fact, the only reason Sabrina kept the Pokemon was this odd energy that she could never grasp fully.

In reality, the psychic Pokemon used Future Sight at every opportunity, even outside of battle. That is why Xatu never had the energy to use his Future Sight attack.

But if it was always using Future Sight, why did no one notice the tail end of the attack?

For this particular Xatu, his Future Sight attacks landed years after he used them.

Go on. Guess when the attacks thrown over the course of ten years decided to strike.

Andy's jaw dropped much like his Duskinor to the same instantaneous, multi-thunderbolt that defeated two more Pokemon after his Banette. The challenger shook his head and recalled the Pokemon before throwing out his dark-type, a Mightyena. "Go, Fangrit!"

Andy prepared for the strange attack, but it didn't land this time. Without wasting another moment, he ordered his Pokemon to use Crunch. The attack landed and did critical damage as Xatu fell from the attack.

"Haha! I finally win!" Andy gasped before he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Congrats!" Ash cried out as he recalled the Xatu. This wasn't the first time he lost since he knew Gym Trainers don't usually win. However, one of the reasons people kept leaving was due to Ash's words. He always told the winners, "You've got five more rooms left till Sabrina!"

Like many before Andy, they had prepared their best Pokemon on the backburner, only using them for their upcoming battle with Sabrina. No one expected Xatu's years of attacks in the making to wipe out nearly more than half of their team until they finally decided to use their Dark Types.

Andy cogitated about fighting the Psychic Gymleader with only one Dark-Type. Ultimately, he decided he would not be able to win today. "I-I'll be back!" He yelled before bolting for the exit.

Ash started to make his way towards the healing machine in the room until he heard a psychic link.

(We'll be taking a 30-minute recess. ASH KETCHUM, I need to see you.)

"Uh oh."

'ASH. SABRINA WILL CALL YOU IN HER OFFICE! I KNOW THIS BECAUSE I CAN SEE THE FUTURE~!'

"Xatu, we're already in her office." Ash turned to the psychic bird. "Or her Gym Room?"

Sabrina walked towards the two before eyeing the Xatu in question. "That was not one of the Pokemon I thought you'd have."

"He's not?" Ash looked back at the bird. "I mean, he's nice even if he is loud."

'I'M NOT LOUD. THIS IS MY NORMAL SPEAKING VOICE.'

"Maybe you should try whispering more." Ash politely patted the back of the Xatu.

Sabrina sighed before placing a hand on her head. "I was going to wait a day or so. But seeing what happened here, I'll be excusing you from being a gym trainer."

"Hey, I was doing well!" Ash paused for a bit. "I think. So does this mean we'll get our Gym Battle?"

"About that," Sabrina folded her arms. "I don't think you're ready for my gym."

The words took a while to register for the teen. Even when they did, he didn't understand them. "What?"

"I've seen your Pokemon. While I believe you can handle most of my Gym Trainers, I don't think you stand much chance against the team I've set up. And now that you've had more psychic training, I believe you're starting to see the power gap between your Pokemon and one of mine."

Ash started to think back. The few times she brought out Alakazam, the teen did notice the powerful aura. He thought about training for a few days. But even then, he still couldn't see his Pokemon winning if Sabrina didn't use a lower-level team.

"You're not strong enough to face me yet." Ash knew this, but hearing Sabrina say it out loud still stung. "That is why I want you to get 3 more badges before facing me."

"I need more badges?" The teen looked up.

"You're already gunning for ten badges before challenging Spark; I will add more. Consider me your last hurdle before you join the league officially." Sabrina flipped her hair.

"Well, okay. So what gym do we go to next?"

It was at that point that Sabrina started to frown. It wasn't the usual frown the psychic user was known for. This one felt more sympathetic and gentle, which did not fit the image of those that knew her.

"Ash," She unfolded her arms. "I need to catch up on my duties for the league. So I won't be traveling with you for a while."

Although the words were casual, a frown appeared on the teen's face when he started to realize what was happening. "You're leaving?"

Sabrina hated how such a subtle gesture was making her feel things. "I already told you I need to catch up on my duties. I don't have other people to take over for me as Pewter and Cerulean City do."

"Right." Ash agreed, but it didn't mean he enjoyed the idea of saying goodbye to a friend.

"This is not goodbye." Sabrina wasn't even trying to read his mind this time. "This is more of a... see you later. Not to mention, it's still early in your journey. You are bound to meet many more friends."

"So, you want me to steal from Sliph Co. One of the most public and prominent companies in the world?" The garage echoed with the sound of a screw being tightened.

"I want you to infiltrate their most secure and undisclosed locations then steal their crowning achievement: a Digital Anti-Encryption Key based on the data of the Porygon Evolution line. The new FireWall programs they've been selling to the highest bidder." The words sounded eloquent if it wasn't coming out of a repaired and overused radio from fifty years ago.

"Sounds important." Wes slid out from under his bike. "Though I have to admit, I'm in no way equipped to steal from a mega-corporation."

"There is a security convention that Sliph Co is hosting for the next few days in their main building. I'll be sending you schematics and other security details." And then the radio went to static, signaling the employer said nothing else.

"At least you're not totally unreasonable like my other clients." Wes scoffed before looking over to his work desk.

There, he saw an old picture of him, Espeon, Umbreon, and a red-haired girl with pigtails smiling and giving a two-fingered peace sign.

"Yeah. I know. I'm getting pretty deep into it." He looked away from the photo. If one was paying attention, one would almost hear guilt coming from the voice of the tan adolescent. "Then again, I guess I was never meant for a normal life."

Wes went back to making adjustments on his bike.

Ash stood out in front of the gym. He sighed before he turned away towards the other Saffron City Gym.

"Ash." The teen and his Pokemon turned to see Sabrina walking up to them. They watched as she handed something over to the teen: a Rubik's Cube.

"Your telekinesis still needs work. Keep practicing until you can solve it without breaking a piece."

The raven-haired teen may have been slow in many things, but he always understood people when it mattered. He could tell this was Sabrina's way of saying to take care without explicitly saying it.

Even if she was aloof and cold, he would miss her.

So that is why, even with a mind-reader like Sabrina, no one predicted Ash giving a warm hug to the psychic Gym Leader.

"Thanks, Sabrina." He said before he let go. "I'll be back for my badge! And I'll be sure to challenge you and Spark!"

He ran ahead of his Pokemon, feeling more invigorated that this wasn't a goodbye.

However, Sabrina stared in the direction the teen ran off to.

When was the last time she had a hug?

The gym leader shook her head. Maybe now she could finally go back to having a stress-free routine.

'I CAN SEE THE FUTURE~! ASH KETCHUM WILL CAUSE YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE TO RISE!'

Sabrina slowly craned her head towards the Xatu. "How did you get out of your Pokeball?" She blinked as she realized something the Pokemon yelled out. "And what do you mean by that?"

Her answer came several days later as she watched the news and felt her blood pressure rising.

+Author Notes.+

Not really one of my proudest chapters as I was trying to figure out the direction of where this story would go next. I liked Sabrina as a character. However, I found her hard to write sometimes. Sadly, that kept building up, and I feel like her character felt more like a straight man than someone getting involved in the whacky adventures I made for Ash. I feel like that wasn't fair to her at all.

That's why I'm taking a slightly different route with her. She won't be a travel companion for a while, but she won't be gone from the story. Her reactions are still fun to see, and I'm getting fun ideas of her starting to worry about Ash in the future. (And perhaps stop watching the news for reasons too fun to reveal.)

Thanks for being patient with me. This story is very spontaneous, so I have no idea what's going on as much as you guys. All I know is that this story makes me smile and has a lot of fun ideas that I get to throw out.