Uncharted Skies, Unfollowed Paths ch3

Answers and discoveries

As Serena makes approaches her home she sees a now somewhat familiar car parked in the driveway out front, though calling it a driveway is giving it too much credit, it's more of a somewhat cobbled path in front of her home than a proper driveway, cars aren't very common in small towns like Vaniville after all, she makes her way inside once more, greeting her mother and the professor with a slightly anxious yet slightly exited look on her face. Her mother and the professor aren't giving anything away quite yet, though she notices the professor eying her with a curious interest, though not the kind that would make her feel uncomfortable, it was a more scholarly look on his face

"Well Miss Serena, the results are back, and they are much more interesting then I thought" he pulls out a set of papers from his bag, separating them out in front of him onto a table once the two sit down "now you won't be able to make sense of these, but I'll talk you through the information, on this paper is a set of your genetic information, specifically targeting the portion that deals with neural oscillations, essentially, this set dictates your brain waves, I'll put it that way" he points to a specific set in the confusing and convoluted paper "now this here is a marker we don't typically see in humans, it's atypical, but, only within humans, we see this maker here almost universally in a specific section of Pokemon, now I could go into why this is, but I'll quickly summarize here so we can get to the point, at some point in your family's history, going back maybe 6 generations or so, one of your great great great great grandparents, was a Pokemon! Now this wasn't as unusual as it seems now back then, it did happen occasionally, but regardless, this marker ties back to that line of ancestry, however it seems to have only reawakened within you, and not the rest of your family, now six generations is quite far back, so there are more than likely thousands of others with whom you share this specific ancestry with, but I can't test them all to see, suffice it to say that this marker has become active within you specifically, and likely will remain active in any future members of, ahem, your line. Now back to the point, we know why you are having issues with large numbers of people, turns out, you have psychic potential! Quite strong psychic potential in fact, I would say it's on par with some of the more famous ones like the gym leader Sabrina in kanto, the primary difference is that she fully awakened earlier in life, where as you seemed to only fully awake within the last two or three years."

"Hold on, that's quite alot to process, you know that right? Are you telling me I'm a psychic? That's why I can't be in large crowds?" Her head starting to hurt from the massive amount of information and somewhat unnecessary elaboration

"Well, not quite, you have immense psychic potential yes, but you aren't quite a psychic yourself, though, if you choose to become one, an Esper, a person who can fully use their psychic potential, it would solve the issues you've been having. There are a few ways to go about it if you choose that route, you could get professional training, you could ask psychic pokemon for help, or you could attempt to figure it out yourself, which I don't recommend, but that's entirely up to you."

She takes a breath and tries to make sense of everything she's been told "ok, well I'm going to need to think about this for a while, it isn't urgent right? I've been managing for a while so nothing should change suddenly if I take a bit to think right?"

The professor looks her over and thinks for a bit, then responds. "Yes it's not a urgent matter, but do take note that if you don't do anything, nothing will improve, in fact it might get a bit worse, but not to a drastic degree, and there will be a limit to how bad it does get. All you need to do is let me know if you want to pursue the Esper path, and I'll tell you all I know of the subject, I don't specialize in that field so my information may be limited, but I do know more than most." He turns to Grace "oh that reminds me! Your mother and I have talked, and she's agreed to let me stay for the week to monitor any issues, and allow me to stay long enough for you to prepare an answer regarding either your future Esper development or if you choose not to go that route, to give me a bit of time to develop a routine or program to help you manage your issues another way."

Grace, after listening to the conversation, decides to chime in "this way, no matter what path you decide to go down, we can help you in the long run so that when you finally leave on a journey of your own, you can be prepared fully and be confident in whatever you decide to do on it, wether it be taking on the gym challenges or compete in the contest circuit, or go forge your own route, without having to worry about being in large city's and getting overwhelmed." She finishes as she smiles fondly at her daughter

Serena smiles and her excitement for the future grows as she knows that no matter what, she will be prepared for the future. In one year's time, she'll be setting off on her own adventure 'I can't wait to tell Larkos the news! I could become a psychic like him! Maybe he can even help me on that path like how I've helped him!"

Larkos hide out, forest near Vaniville town

'I've been cooped up in this damn cave and the nearby forest for over a month now damn it, maybe it's time to stretch my wings. I've never truly flown before, but I'm a Latios, it should come naturally right?' I wiggle my wings a bit, stretching them out fully as I hover in front of my cave home, looking back at my gleaming silver wings, covered in tiny smooth feathers that look more like that of a penguins than any normal flighted birds, they catch the light and shift colors between pale metallic blue and a gleaming oxidized copper green, still closer to the color of steel than the classic blue of a Latios, or even that of a turquoise shiny Latios, a unique color palette that stands out, not that many people in this world know what a Latios even looks like, given the fact that legendaries are such obscenely rare sightings according to Serena that for all intents and purposes, most people assume they don't even exist, thankfully Latios are one of the most commonly sighted of the legendaries, I won't stand out so much as to completely freak out any who happen upon me, and no media storm would likely follow if I were to be made public. In fact I asked Serena about legendary Pokemon in a few conversations, she knew about ones like Latios and Latias, she also has heard of sightings of the johto legendary trio, Suicune, Entei, and Raiku, they are confirmed existences, in fact there's at least a few known Pokemon trainers with legendary Pokemon in their roster, bizarrely enough a nurse Joy turned trainer actually has a Latias by her side, that was a interesting conversation. Some other confirmed sightings include legendaries like Darkrai and Cobalian, though when I asked about their counterparts, Cresselia, Verizion and Terrakion, she had no idea who or what they were, something that left me many questions about the knowledge of Pokemon in this world, legendary Pokemon were just that, legends, Pokemon so rare and powerful with such low numbers, if there even were more than one, that they either have never been encountered or are only regarded in stories, with no way of knowing if the Pokemon mentioned in them were real or simply the imagination of a culture that attributed a natural force of nature to a Pokemon, like the other Unova trio of weather. Most believed the weather trio didn't actually exist, however I knew better, in fact my knowledge of Pokemon as a whole seems far more in depth than the natives of the world.

Making my final preparations, I rise up above the tree-line to take note of my surroundings before attempting my first flight, I've gone above the tree-line a few times to survey my current residence in case I were to ever get lost, my new brain apparently very good with landmarks and directions, something I had abysmal skills with in my prior life, perhaps something inherent to the Latios physiology and brain, I can think much faster and I can focus MUCH better than I used to as well, something I was immensely thankful for.

Seeing my surroundings and Serena's hometown in the distance, noting the important landmarks one more time so I can find my way back to my temporary home once I finish my flight, I take off straight up at speeds much faster than I was used to in my previous life, going up and up until I reach the lowest lying clouds, I then choose a direction to fly in, about ninety degrees from Vaniville town and my home, and start picking up speed. The wind rushes around me as I fly at what might have been plane like speeds, watching below me as trees rush past and hills roll below me 'woohoo holy hot damn this is cool! Why haven't I done this yet, this is the most free I've ever felt!' An exhilarating feeling washes over me as I fly, weaving around and through the clouds as I start circling around back in the direction of Vaniville town, seeing only a small splotch of the bustling small town in the distance 'holy crap how fast was I going?! I crossed maybe 20 miles of distance in what felt like such a short time! I must have been going around 400 miles an hour! And that felt like nothing! I could definitely go at least double that if I pushed myself, wait, I can definitely break the sound barrier! Hmm probably best not to though, that would DEFINITELY draw attention I don't want' I think to myself as I start flying back, crossing the distance in a short amount of time, settling back into a familiar area as I start slowly hovering over my little home 'well that was fun, but I don't want to go too far out from here, I definitely needed that after being cooped up for so long' I settle back down once in my cave, and I start feeling a bit peckish 'damn, I haven't eaten meat in ages, what I would do for a plate of brisket and ribs right now, too bad all the Pokémon run away as soon as they see me, I'd settle even for some bunnelby right now, a nice rabbit stew would be amazing, but I wouldn't be able to cook it properly…' as I think on this topic, and what I could do, I remember once more I'm a dragon type 'ah i should be able to use dragon breath right? I'll need to figure that out first so I can start a fire, I could probably grill something with it. Mmm meat, ugh maybe I can just ask Serena to bring me some next time I see her, that'll do for now, I'll need to find a way to repay her though, she's done so much for me I'd feel bad asking for more without anything to give in return…'

The next day, Serena arrives in the clearing, looking for her friend, positively beaming with the news she has, over the night in after speaking with the professor and thinking about what she wanted to do, she decided to pursue the path of the Esper, but before doing so officially, she wanted to tell Larkos first as he was the only one with experience on psychic abilities she could ask, so first thing in the morning, she got up and walked through the forest to tell her Latios friend

"Hello Mr lati- oh sorry I mean Larkos!" She begins with her usual casual greeting and quickly corrects herself "I have some big news actually! And something I hope you can help me with too!" Her excited face gleaming with expectation, like a new world is open to her, not being able to help myself from being infected with her positivity, especially after the incredible flight I had yesterday, I respond

~oh? Some good news it seems? You know, I've had a pretty good day too yesterday, I'll tell you all about it after I hear all about what has you so exited!~ 'something great must have happened with those results, I can't really imagine what kind of test results could get someone so worked up, but maybe it means she isn't sick or worried about something, no this seems like more than simple relief.'

I quickly focus back on the girl in question, wanting to be fully present for her

"So, as it turns out, there isn't anything wrong with me per se, in fact, it turns out, the two of us are quite alike in some ways! Apparently, one of my ancestors, I think it was a great great great great grandparent or something? Not sure, too confusing. Was actually a Pokémon, and so a dormant gene was carried through my bloodline, and apparently it actually activated in me, which means!" She paused for dramatic effect, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes while imagining a drumroll sound effect before she finally answered "I'm a psychic! Or at least, I have VERY high psychic potential! One of the highest the professor has ever seen recorded in fact! Which explains why I have so many issues while being around large amounts of people. It turns out, my dormant psychic potential doesn't play well with the brain frequency's of too many people around me at once, and because I had no control, I was unintentionally taking a lot of the strain of the minds of the people around me, and this wouldn't have been an issue, like it wasn't when I was very young, if my potential wasn't very high, but because I'm apparently 'a psychic freak of nature' like that one gym leader in kanto, I was having all sorts of problems!" She finally finished, letting out a long breath with the end of her rant 'it was bugging you that much huh? Well thankfully you now know the reason, wait, DID SHE SAY SHE WAS A PSYCHIC!'

~woah woah, so you can get psychic abilities like me?! I absolutely want to help you with this! It's the absolute least I could do for all you've done for me, in fact, this is perfect, I was just thinking of how I could repay your kindness!~ I project to her with a exited smile on my strangely shaped face

"I was just about to ask you if you could help me but you beat me to it! Yes! I would love your help and advice, though I will also be getting some basic information and help from the professor too, you will definitely be a big help in the long run, let's continue this partnership and become true psychics together! Ok?" She reaches out a hand in a gesture of partner ship, I reach out with my claw to shake it while nodding affirmatively

~yes! Pleasure to work with you Serena!~

bit of a shorter one this time but im having fun writing it! Its my first fic but dont hold back on ideas or comments, ill be setting up a discord server soon so that anyone who wishes can join and we can discuss

also, i dont plan on dropping this fic any time soon, so dont worry!