Pokemon : An Unexpected Journey

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[ POV Change ]

Charmeleon roared, throwing out an orange blob upwards into the air, which exploded out with a bright explosion.

The Draco meteor fell.

Sabrina's lips twisted for a moment before returning to her impassive expression.

The Jynx in question, instantly stopped the ongoing blizzard, redirecting its powers to create a dome of pure psychic energy to protect itself from the incoming attack. The first meteor came rushing in, striking at the psychic defense with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The psychic dome shook with the tremors but held.

The second meteor hit.

A thin line of fracture traversed its way from the origin point of contact, tearing its way through the powerful defense, only to acquire a more three-dimensional shape, as the third meteor slammed into the dome, making the fracture spread out radially, much like a spider spreading its web out.

The fourth meteor hit.

And the defense came shattering down, like some great glass window, hit by an overwhelming force. Yet, amidst it all, Jynx stood in its position, tired and spent, an obvious situation considering what it had just been through—but otherwise, very much active and able to continue the battle.

"A grand spectacle." Sabrina observed, her voice filled with all the awe of a dead man, "But be advised that the challenge in front of you is a psychic, not a rampaging Rock-type."

As if to prove her point, every single thing on the floor—dust particles, stray fragments, boulders, or even residual draconic energy globules—all of that rose in the air, levitating around fifteen feet above the ground, as if standing ovation for some cosmic deity who would grace them with its mighty presence. Even from his vantage point, Austin could sense Charmeleon on his last legs—his determination being the only thing keeping him from falling.

"I know I am battling a psychic." He repeated. "After all, there is no reason why I should have otherwise done… this."

The moment the final word left his mouth, something happened. The reason for that wasn't clear, but Sabrina's body jerked, as she took a step back, as a tremor radiated through the airspace all around them.

The largest boulder, perfectly levitated in the air until now, shook, before it slowly bounced a little, as if facing atmospheric resistance, before slowly falling to the ground. Following its movement, several other fragments, and soon the entire amount of debris began falling to the ground, inundating the entire arena with a miniature dust storm.

When the dust had settled, Austin and Pikachu could see Charmeleon down on the ground, trapped between two large rock fragments, bruised and battered, and completely incapacitated. Jynx though, stood in its position, almost immaculate except for the dust that had gathered on its fur, without a single scratch.

Well—without a single scratch, save a single thin, jagged mass of concentrated dark energy, that had impaled in its lower abdomen—the energies of the Void doing things to it no human had any business trying to comprehend. And judging from the way Sabrina was outright glaring at him, it seemed his hypothesis had been right after all.

Psychic links were akin to doors, and doors open on both sides.

"That," Sabrina muttered, as her expressions settled back to perfect composure, "was rather… unsporting, Ash Ketchum. I hope you do know that?"

Austin could barely suppress the grin trying to tear through his face. The odds of the insane plan backfiring on him were atrociously high, and it had all been bet on a single hypothesis. If psychic links worked on both sides, then surely a tremendous pressure on Jynx would get siphoned to Sabrina herself, after all, her psychic links to her pokémon should be nothing short of superlative. That meant that she would be more… affected by the mental exhaustion, to ignore the possibility of a sneak attack.

That had exactly been the case.

"Tell me Ash Ketchum, how could you be so reckless, to bet on the fact that the Draco Meteor, as powerful as that is, it's not every day that a trainer uses a Draco Meteor as a distraction, Ash Ketchum. More so, when one's pokémon is on the brink of losing the match. You are more unpredictable than I had anticipated. Forgive me, I shall take you seriously from now on."

Austin barely managed to keep his jaw from falling to the floor. "You mean you weren't taking me seriously all this while?"

Sabrina allowed herself a chuckle. "It is the duty of a teacher to figure out the worth of her students, isn't that correct? Then again you haven't been taking me seriously. I'll make sure our onlookers don't find out about you, so let's .... Dance !"

"My third pokémon," Sabrina proclaimed loudly, "should be enough to end today's challenge. Go, Gallade."

The battler that materialized in front of Austin was the male variant of Kirlia's evolution, Austin realized.

Of course, male Kirlia was very uncommon, and even so, it took to having a Dawn Stone—one of the rarest of all evolutionary stones, to evolve a male Kirlia into a Gallade. Even so, it took a special Kirlia to have enough power and potential to evolve into a Gallade, with most of them evolving into their natural evolution as Gardevoir instead. The reason for it has never really been clear since, apart from the obvious fighting-type attribute, evolution to Gallade has never really demonstrated to have a prominent effect on the Kirlia-line.

"A Gallade, huh?" Austin muttered. "I have heard that they are rather rare. I think I also want to catch one."

Sabrina's lips twisted in slight amusement at his random comment, but she did not forge a reply back.

"All right," Austin chose his next pokémon, his hidden ace for the fight. Most traditional trainers would have considered the idea of having a hidden ace till the very end as a good strategy since it allowed for throwing the opponent off-guard when they were least expecting it.

Most traditional trainers were, in his opinion, idiots. There was no point in keeping an ace hidden till the end, especially when the chance of losing before said end was high. What good was a powerful battler, if he could not use it in the first place? It was almost like being back on Sulphur Island all over again.

His fingers closed upon the pokeball clutched in his palm, as he threw it into the arena. "I choose you, Haunter."

With a wave of pure otherworldly energy radiating outward, Haunter made her appearance, the white that she wore as a skin shining brightly as her crimson eyes stared at the psychic master, glowing malevolently.

"An Alpha Haunter," Sabrina muttered with distaste as if Haunter's very presence seemed to make her feel distinctly uncomfortable. " You seem to have rather odd tastes in catching unique and interesting Pokemon, Ash Ketchum."

Austin did the only thing that he could at that moment. He shrugged.

And Sabrina-or should one say, Gallade attacked.

It was over in an instant. One moment, Gallade was in its place. The next—it was right in front of Haunter, its fists glowing with raw electricity, which it punched into Haunter's body, the mere momentum of the attack pushing the Haunter by several feet, much to her aggravation.

" Teleporting Thunder punch, huh?" Ash mused. "Use shadow ball."

Haunter grinned, as a sphere of concentrated chaotic energy appeared at her fingertips before she projected it towards Gallade who parried the attack with a single psycho cut. At the same time, Gallade began to glow, before something radiant shot out of his person, exploding outward, as a bright mist appeared all over the arena.

Misty Terrain huh? What are the chances? Austin mused. It seemed he would have to use the big guns right off the bat. "Very well. Shadow Strike."

Haunter let out a grin, before slowly disintegrating into a purple mist, which condensed back into a sphere, pulsing with chaotic energies.

Sabrina raised an eyebrow.

The sphere exploded outward, shooting several dozens of what appeared to be spikes of chaotic energy towards Gallade, who kept shifting all over the place, using his agility in one instant, teleporting the next. The spikes too, didn't just stay in one place and kept on shooting at Gallade wherever they sensed their appearance.

And then Gallade appeared in the center of the arena, his arms extended outward.

" Convergence"

Following the master's orders, all of the spikes shot towards Gallade in the center, only to be repelled back by the immensely powerful Protect that sprung forth between them and their victim.

"Fuse, and use poison jab."

A majority of the spikes slammed into each other, forming a makeshift spear, which glowed an ominous purple, increasing the potency of the poison within them, before shooting towards Gallade who instantly dropped the barrier, and teleported away.

"Ominous wind." Austin commanded, not wanting to allow any chance of attack, "Don't let it escape."

In answer, the ghostly spear began to pulse, concentrating its power as Ominous wind-activated, increasing Haunter's potency by several degrees, though the spear began leaking out thin strips of ghostly energies into the air, said strips instantly diffusing into the arena, generating a dull, purple mist that was slowly beginning to take over the entire battlefield.

Haunter's control over Miasma was not as good as Austin had estimated it to be.

Even Gallade was beginning to notice that fact.

You can run but you can't hide. Austin promised inwardly.

Sabrina Marvil looked like someone had slapped her, right in the face. Of course, the boy—Ash Ketchum, though someone of her age, had been… interesting, but not that interesting. Of course, she understood the significance of attaining the interest of legendaries, but unlike Agatha, Sabrina thought with a scowl, she had better things to do than to place her faith in something as woolly as that. Most people would say that with the amount of psychic potential Sabrina wielded, she would be the Altar of clairvoyance, believing in the existence of grand prophecies and totems and omens and all of that stuff.

Most people, Sabrina thought, were absolute idiots.

Yes, she had immense psychic potential, but like pokémon, her potential had its affinities and limitations. Sabrina had always been somewhat of a manipulator of force, as far as psychic energy was considered, rather than exploring its more… esoteric abilities. Of course, that was not to say that she hadn't cultivated that side of her powers, but they were simply tools at best. That was why she preferred having Alakazam and Bronzong around, and not flocks of Xatu.

Of course, being able to simply see through the sequence and formation of events, use her mental faculties to calculate permutations and combinations, and select the most… probable path that events were likely to shape into… could also be termed Clairvoyance, by layman. However, that hardly meant that she could see through the lines of Time and Fate and locate confluences in quantum time locks of the Multiverse. Why Lance couldn't see things her way, was beyond her.

Ah Ketchum though, was proving himself to be one tough customer today. The first battle had gone precisely how she had wanted it to be, with Solrock's abilities sending Ketchum's pokémon off-guard right off the bat. The black dragon had potential, but if not for Ketchum's skill at deception, it would have been a hopelessly easy win. However, seeing his Haunter and its control over Miasma, how on Earth had Ketchum managed such a level of control over the technique so quickly was anybody's guess.

Lucario chuckled as he read Sabrina like an open book. 

'This brat better gets me another box of chocolates for helping him and the ghost learn to control its Miasma-like aura.'

" Using such a powerful technique. I cannot say if you are too confident or too foolish, Ash Ketchum." She proclaimed.

" My apologies, I wanted Haunter to get in some experience with this technique."

Suddenly Gallade stopped teleporting, standing in patient wait as the spear of Ghostly energy came hurdling towards itself. Almost instantaneously, Austin felt the temperature all around the arena suddenly spike. It took a moment for the implications to sink in, as he stared at Gallade with unfettered fear.

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[ Omake Paragraph ]

Before the invention of the Pokeball, there were many different tools used for controlling domestic Pokemon, none more ubiquitous than the collar and manacles. Initially used on ferocious, untamed Pokemon such as the Granbull of that age, their ease of use and effectiveness saw them extended bit by bit to nearly all Pokemon they could fit around, and eventually even to human slaves. Their impact on the psyche was much like that of a Pokeball, but where a Pokeball produces loyalty, the collars produced only docility and a broken spirit. It was this age from which Team Plasma took their inspiration; had they been founded in those ancient and brutal days, they might have had a point.

The collars of modern Granbull are a legacy of that awful era. Early Granbull evolved from Snubbull who either neglected their responsibilities to pick fights with wild Pokemon, or Snubbull who accompanied their trainers on the hunt; both types were too proud to be treated as mere domestic Pokemon. And so they were shackled, and manacled, with stronger shackles each generation, removed less and less often as they rebelled and time went by. And in some twisted, Lamarckian nightmare, they began to evolve not into proud beasts, but into slaves who can never be freed, for their binds have become part of their body.

It is no need to weep for modern Granbull, for the collar, is lighter every generation since they have gained the half-freedom of the Pokeball. They have always had the strength to battle through their bonds, although they can not simply drop the weights like so many heroes of martial arts anime. But until the day comes when their bodies are free, we are right to remember the cruelty of our ancestors.