I tightened the strap on my satchel and gave the Pokéballs on my belt a final check. Beedrill, secured. Rhyhorn, staying behind.
He was currently napping.
The Viridian Gym's front lobby was quiet this early, just the low hum of the air conditioning and the faint buzz of the morning reports on the muted TV. Outside, the guards' patrols were changing shifts, I could see their silhouettes through the tinted glass.
Routine, precise, efficient.
Footsteps echoed across the marble floor. Heavy, measured. A real high-ranking operative was here. Black uniform with crimson trim.
He carried a silver briefcase and a no-nonsense expression.
"From the Boss," he said. A voice like gravel. "He also said to take this card in case you want to buy something."
He placed the case on the reception desk, popped it open, and rotated it toward me. While handing me a black card. Seeing this card, a surge of joy hit my body but it was hidden from others. The simple joy of too much money was amazing.
Looking back at the case, it had two clean Pokeballs. One a deep matte red, the other a standard Ultra-Ball. I reached for the red first.
"Is this my requested Pokemon?"
The captain confirmed. "Captured two days ago, was swiftly transferred last night. Peak Adept strength."
'Uh huh, I really want to ask if he's stolen but who cares at this point.' I narrow my eyes. The request was made yesterday night which is insane, holy crap the speed.
I gave the ball a once-over, then clipped it to my belt with a quiet click.
The second ball was heavier while having the decoration of an Ultra Ball. I picked it up and turned it over in my palm.
"Father's Pokemon?" I asked.
"It's one of your father's rotating gym Pokemon. Mid-Ace level." He simply states
The captain closed the case with a clean snap. "Mr Natsume will be here soon."
I didn't answer him directly. I just turned away and stared out the window again. Waiting.
Thankfully the wait wasn't long.
The air in the centre of the lobby shimmered like oil on water. A pulse of invisible energy ran through the room which made the hairs on my arms rise. Then, with a faint sigh of displaced pressure, a man appeared.
This was The Gym Leader of Saffron City.
He gave me a curt nod. His presence wasn't loud, but it filled the room like a cold mist. "Silver."
"Sir."
"Are you prepared?"
I patted my belt. "Mmm."
"Then follow me. Try not to resist."
I opened my mouth to question that statement but his hand touched my shoulder, and everything tore sideways.
Teleportation wasn't like in the games. It was like being shoved through a hole that didn't quite fit your body. A crack in reality made just wide enough to let you fall through. My stomach flipped inside out, and my teeth rattled in my skull.
And then… silence.
I stood on stone.
Smooth, polished, warm from the sun. A courtyard, somewhere within Saffron City. The walls were tall and elegant, draped with ivy and dotted with glassy psychic crystals that shimmered faintly even in daylight.
The front doors opened before we even stepped forward.
And there she was.
Sabrina.
Barefoot, standing in the doorway. Pale skin, bobcut hair, wide violet eyes that didn't blink often. She was currently one year older than me at the age of nine. Dressed in a red floral dress, she had a hat that the typical young rich woman would wear.
It was weird, the girl didn't look shy but just disconnected.
Behind her, in the foyer, a single Abra was curled up on a cushion in the corner. Sleeping, its tail twitching every so often.
Harold turned to me. "She knows why you're here. I'll return before sunset."
And then just like that, gone. Another pulse of psychic force. No sound. No drama.
I looked at her.
She looked at me.
"...Hey," I said.
No reply. Just a blink. She stepped aside, gesturing silently for me to enter.
So I did.
'This is a great idea...'
The mansion was quiet, muffled like the sound didn't travel properly here. I followed her down a corridor, then into what looked like a reading room. Sunlight filtered through thin white curtains, dust motes dancing in the air.
Sabrina sat cross-legged on a thick rug. I sat down across from her. She stared, unblinking.
I waited.
Ten seconds passed.
Then twenty.
'I've taken care of younger siblings before,' I thought to myself, she was a kid too. 'This can't be too hard'
She tilted her head slightly. "You think I'm like them?"
I paused.
Mistake one, where the fuck is Krookodile.
"Give me a moment." I casually say pulling out a Pokeball and releasing the behemoth. The Pokemon silently looking at the two of us, showered me in dark energy before deciding to take a nap.
"…."
She glanced at the Pokemon. "Your Krookodile isn't strong enough to stop me."
I blinked. "What?"
"You were thinking that he'd block my powers." Her voice was soft, not smug. Just stating facts. "He doesn't. Not completely."
I straightened a little. "You're reading my mind?"
"I don't mean to." She looked away, as if ashamed. "I only see the surface with him here on accident. If I try I'd be able to see everything..."
'…Even though an Ace-level Dark type? Well, that's good to know, fuck.'
She tilted her head confused. "Fuck?"
Her voice was ever innocent.
That was unsettling. Even Krookodile's natural psychic resistance wasn't enough to block her out. And she wasn't even trying. This girl was a child, and she was already brushing past high-level barriers like they were curtains in the wind.
'Fuck," I think to myself again realising she learnt a bad word.
"What does fuck mean." Seeing her curious eyes on me I wanted to rip my hair out. How would that old man think of me after the first moments of talking she already learnt this.
"Don't say that word, only bad people do." My words carry some hesitation.
"But you're not a bad person." She says with one finger on her chin and tilting her head for the second time.
Not wanting to further this conversation I start to switch it up and ask her about what she does every day. To no one's surprise, she plays by herself with dolls and sometimes connects her mind with Abra out of boredom.
Her parents need help.
Taking the opportunity we played some charades and even some doll time.
"Do you like playing?" She says softly muttering
I blinked.
"You said you've taken care of kids before. That it wouldn't be hard."
"You weren't supposed to hear that," I muttered.
She tilted her head again. "So… that means we can play again, right?"
I looked at her. Really looked.
She was hopeful.
And for the first time, I realized that even with all that power, she was still just a girl. One who didn't have anyone her own age who could look her in the eye and treat her like a person.
I sighed. "Yeah. Sure. We can play again."
She smiled. For real this time. Small. Fragile. But there.
From the corner, Abra shifted slightly in its sleep.
...
We left the mansion after a light lunch with Sabrina, Harold, and me, But when we arrived at a flat, open court surrounded by thin walls of shimmering psychic energy, the man vanished again without a word.
Sabrina and I stood alone in the courtyard.
"Training yard?" I asked.
She nodded. "Father uses it to test new psychics sometimes."
Perfect.
I unclipped a Pokéball from my belt. "Mind if I let someone out?"
"No," she said quietly, then walked over to sit at the edge of the yard. Her Abra floated behind her, still asleep.
"Krookodile, stand by," I added, tossing his ball to the side.
The crimson-scaled Dark-type emerged with a low growl and a wide smirk, his arms crossed. His presence was already oppressive like a predator at ease.
I pointed to the centre of the field. "Let's get this started."
I tossed the second ball. "Gliscor, let's see what you're made of."
With a crack of light and a sharp, dry breeze, Gliscor emerged. He flared his wings once, scanned the field, and then hovered mid-air with a wide grin. Sabrina looked in genuine curiosity.
"He's happy," she said, almost surprised.
"That makes one of us," I muttered. "Beedrill, on me."
My partner exploded from his ball in a streak of white, his wings cutting through the air with a sharp screech. The moment he spotted Gliscor, his eyes narrowed.
"Don't go for the eyes," I inform him to which he nods.
Sabrina sat silently at the edge, her Abra floating near her shoulder. I caught her glancing at me or rather, at my thoughts so I raised an eyebrow.
"Still reading my mind?"
"Just the surface," she murmured. "Psychologically controlling a Pokemon sounds interesting."
"Then enjoy the show."
I raised a hand.
"Beedrill, Agility. Go wide."
My Pokémon darted forward in a blur, his form flickering left to right, stingers gleaming. Gliscor rose higher and dipped low, adjusting midair with practised ease. But there was no battle instinct yet. No synergy.
"Fury Attack."
Beedrill blitzed forward. A yellow glow streaked across the battlefield.
Gliscor twisted but it wasn't enough. His neck, elbows and wings were all hit causing him to crash down. His grin faltered. Then sharpened.
Unfortunately defence was his best statistic.
Good. Now it starts.
"Drill Run. Control the pace."
Beedrill's stingers began to spin, and he dived like a missile, kicking up dust. Gliscor tried to bank left, but the maneuver came a half-second too late.
*CRACK!*
The Drill Run connected with Gliscor's chest, knocking him into the dirt with a solid thud. Thankfully ground-type attacks can still hit flying types as long as they aren't out of reach.
The Pokemon growled.
And then… laughed?
He rose, wings flaring, eyes focused now. He wanted this.
Beedrill hovered back, chest heaving, his eyes sharp. I could see it in his stance with no frustration, just pure energy.
"Again," I said, and the two clashed.
Gliscor's natural defence made things tricky. He took hits well and used the terrain with surprising awareness. He didn't hit as hard as Beedrill, but he kept trying. When Beedrill's lance grazed his tail, Gliscor flipped upward and brought it down with surprising force, knocking my partner back.
I grinned watching this myself.
After a dozen exchanges, Beedrill finally pinned him with a perfectly placed Drill Run to the shoulder. Gliscor struggled, wings beating, until finally he slumped back and tapped the ground in defeat.
Beedrill buzzed triumphantly and circled back to me.
"That's enough."
I returned him with a nod and turned toward Gliscor, who pulled himself upright with a lazy grin. Despite the loss, he floated over and bumped his claw gently against my chest.
Accepted.
"Yeah, alright," I said. "You'll do."
Getting a fully evolved Pokemon seemed better than training it from scratch. It's not like this is the games and I have to worry about EV and IV. I can pick up a random Metagross and train it from scratch if I have to.
This was the advantage of getting stronger.
Behind me, Sabrina clapped once, soft and quiet.
"That was fun," she said.
"You like battles?"
She nodded. "Watching them or battling myself makes the thoughts quiet."
That doesn't make sense but pop off queen?
Ignoring my thoughts.
We spent the next hour in the outer courtyard, playing with some puzzle cubes that hovered and shifted shape. I'd seen similar toys back home, or back in my world, I guess but these used light psychic fields to float and react to movement.
Sabrina showed me how to tilt the field by thought alone. I couldn't do it, obviously, but Krookodile stood beside me the whole time, arms crossed, silently absorbing the landscape.
Gliscor hovered around us too, every so often mimicking Abra's snoring posture just to get a giggle out of Sabrina.
It worked. She smiled a few times which was an achievement in my book.
She even made a little cube float into my face once, smirking faintly when it bounced off my nose.
"Hmph. That was on purpose," I muttered.
"I know."
She reached over and handed me another puzzle piece.
"You're fun," she said.
I blinked.
"I'm also leaving," I replied, checking the sky. "Sun's getting low. The gym opens again tomorrow."
Her expression froze.
"…You're leaving?"
"Yeah. I've got battles to win."
"Oh."
She looked down at the ground, her soft fists clenching.
I stood slowly and dusted off my pants. "There's always a next time."
She didn't respond but looked at the ground.
I turned to wave when the air shifted.
A pulse of pressure. A wave of force that pushed the puzzle cubes away from her in every direction. It was raw. The floor started to crack a little under her as my heartbeat started to speed up. This wasn't good.
Oh hell no.
Her eyes glowed a bright pink faintly, just for a second.
I moved my hand to Beedrill's Pokeball on instinct but before anything else could happen, Krookodile was already in front of me.
He didn't even move fast. He just was there.
His body blocked the wave entirely. Like it didn't even touch him.
Dark-type immunity.
This was the safety a Pokemon could bring. Strength comes with assurance, and now I wanted a croc of my own…
'Does bro have a wife to give me an egg?'
Sabrina gasped and stepped back, hands on her mouth. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I',-"
"It's alright," I said, placing a hand on Krookodile's shoulder. "I've got protection."
She looked away, hugging herself.
"I don't like when people leave."
I exhaled. "Yeah. That makes two of us."
She turned slowly, her voice barely a whisper. "You'll come back?"
"How about you visit me anytime. I'm a lazy bad person after all. Just visit my gym" I joke.
Sabrina nodded once, then floated back toward her mansion doors. Abra followed silently, still asleep. Looking at her with a frown my thoughts shifted a little.
'Where's the you're not a bad person talk, girl.'
Krookodile grunted once and gave me an assuring look.
I patted him on the arm. "That was cool as hell."
He smirked, and we soon after left the mansion with a teleport back. Sabrina didn't want to say any goodbyes which was a shame. I'm not gonna force it.