Training Conflict

Korina flew with Lane through the dense jungle foliage, just fast enough that he didn't try to separate from her. He might be able to fly—he still wasn't sure—but he didn't have enough control to avoid hitting branches and ariados webs and trunks that came in so fast he could barely recognize any of them.

She watched his face as they came down, grinning. "Don't worry kitten, I'll teach you all of that. But not yet. I want to make you into a mew, not meat paste."

Lane heard something else in the distance, loud enough that he dared to look away. There was a waterfall, probably not that large from a human perspective, but so vast to his eyes that he could barely take in the whole thing at once.

Korina took them toward it, dropping down to maybe ten feet as they drew close. She didn't fly right up to the water, but instead took Lane over the pond that formed around it, with a stream trickling away after a few hundred feet of water.

"This should be good. Nice and clear, but more important…" They drifted slowly down, until the water was right under them. "Touch it, Lane."

He did, reaching down with a single cautious paw. He pulled it back instantly, shivering. "How is that so cold?"

"Ice types live up on that mountain," she answered, pointing up towards the waterfall. "Catch yourself, kitten! Don't get wet!"

He did, swimming up and away through the air until he was what felt like maybe ten feet up, far enough that even his dangling tail wouldn't scrape the water. "Like this?"

"Good, but come back. Hover right over the water with me."

Lane turned back the way he'd come, then dropped abruptly. He squeaked, catching himself maybe an inch from the surface. He winced, ears flattening in embarrassment. "It's my first day. I'm not gonna be good at it."

Korina didn't feel mad, only amused. Like the energetic bubbling from an oversized bottle of soda, or warm taffy stretching in his mouth as he chewed.

"You're cute, Lane. But you still have to learn. Leaving you weak and vulnerable is just asking for you to get yourself killed while I'm gone, or… maybe eaten?" She tilted her head to one side, as though considering.

As she said it, her taste changed. The bubbly sweetness of happiness twinged to something like sour candy, with little tendrils wrapping back to Lane. "You are worried about me," he muttered, amazed. "Even though you're keeping me hostage."

Korina straightened, and the "taste" radiating from her mellowed, like Lane had suddenly caught a cold. "Did you lie to me before, Lane? Were you Gifted without telling me?"

At first he didn't have a clue what she meant—but just as when she'd wanted to see what "video games" were, he found his mind moved in a particular direction. He remembered sitting in their hotel after the convention, skimming the Saffron Historical Society's website.

But instead of the references to the strange Pokémon who lived there, he remembered the other legends, of the city's powerful gym leader and her strange bloodline.

"No," he answered, without having to do anything to try and lie. "I'm not gifted in any sense, Mew. I wasn't smart enough to get into a real school, I wasn't charismatic enough to be a trainer. And no, I never had any special powers."

"You still don't," Korina chided. "You have all the same abilities any person does, completely undeveloped. Time to fix that."

The next few hours were exhausting in every possible sense of the word. Korina forced him to hover over the water, long enough that he began to feel the strain of it no differently than he might've if he'd been hiking all day.

Korina didn't let him stop, though—she pushed him away from the edge, pulled him down if he tried to fly away, so that the pond was always within reach.

Lane never started sweating—but eventually his tongue was hanging out, his breathing harsh and shallow. Eventually he fell, and was rewarded for all his effort with a tumble through water running with little pieces of ice and snow.

All his tiredness went numb, and Lane shot from the water like a bullet, soaring almost to the trees before Korina finally caught up with him with another glowing pink bubble.

"Alright, kitten. You've earned a few minutes." Korina hovered just beside the bubble, one paw occasionally touching it protectively. "How'd that feel?"

Lane shook himself out, a sudden vibrating motion that needed no instruction. Water scattered all around him, and still he felt completely soaked. But the bubble was warm, and it was in direct sunlight. More importantly, the water passed right through it, meaning he could actually dry off.

He spread out in the sun, stretching as wide as he could. He kept shivering for at least another minute. "I like your bath better. Can we practice there?"

"Nothing teaches faster than things you hate," she answered. "Next time we do this, you'll remember how cold it was, and you'll fly even better. Just you wait and see."

"You can't train a brain," Lane argued, without much enthusiasm. "There's no point."

"And the others wonder why humans haven't done anything yet." Korina drifted past the bubble. Her taste was back, this time the bitterness of frustration like a whole lemon wedge on Lane's tongue.

"It doesn't matter if they're a distant, degenerate cousin, he says. They inherited our legacy, he said." She landed beside Lane on the bubble, bending down and licking at her. Lane didn't welcome the moisture, but somehow the gesture was calming anyway. "Don't feel guilty, you're only a product of your environment."

"Who says?" Lane asked. "Another mew?"

Korina froze. For a split-second, Lane caught a glimpse of something. An image he'd never seen, of something tall and gray with piercing purple eyes. "Good kittens aren't nosy," she said, pushing away from the bubble. "Is this your way of saying you're ready to go again?"

"No." Lane fell silent for another few minutes, soaking in the sun. But the warmer he got, the braver he felt. "Am I allowed to ask any questions?"

"Of course you can." When he opened his eyes, Korina was still right there, guarding her as protectively as any loyal Pokémon. "I'm your sister, that means I teach you everything a growing kitten needs to know."

"Are we all girls?" he asked. His voice sounded even higher than usual as he asked, even more pathetic. "Because I'm not supposed to be. Do you think you could… make me male, please?"

Korina giggled in response, poking his bubble with a paw. It popped, and Lane fell a full foot through the air before he caught himself.

It came easier, but flying still brought a soreness, like looking directly into noon sunlight after the pain of a headache had just begun to ease. "You think you would be the male? You pick up a few emotions and suddenly you're ready to take the Eldest's mantle, huh?"

"No!" she squeaked defensively, raising both paws in front of her chest in the equivalent of a human gesture. "It doesn't mean the same thing for humans! Or… normal Pokémon. Being male is just… a coinflip of DNA. One that led me to make some choices that end with me preferring to have a body that matches. Please."

Korina was silent for almost a full minute, expression unreadable. "I did know that primitive life has more… primitive solutions. You're more than that now, Lane. If I live long enough to see us get a male again… that would be wonderful. But that's a long way away. There are two—three mew, on the whole planet. We have one bomb shelter mew, parasite kitten, and… you."

She wanted to argue, but after Korina's last outburst, Lane didn't dare. She nodded glumly, rubbing one paw against her forehead to soothe away the headache. "What about… transform? Mew can really do that?"

Korina nodded. "Everyone doesn't learn every skill. It was never really my thing, but I do know the basics. I made you, that's something."

Lane kept going. "When I do that, can I choose what I look like? So I could be, like… a male Pokémon? Or a male human?"

The mew nodded, though she no longer looked like she was paying much attention. "I guess? That seems like something that should be possible. I've never bothered, but maybe you'll figure it out. After we get back to your fundamentals." She gestured down with a paw. "We're going again. If you can do an hour, you can have meat for dinner."

When they finally made it back to Starfall many hours later, Lane knew she wouldn't be getting meat for dinner.

Korina gave her a plate of something soft and green, smelling faintly of seaweed. It tasted basically how it smelled, which could've been worse.

In the end, Lane was far less excited by it, and had to fight down the last few bites.

"Finish all of it," Korina urged, with a thin fillet of something far better smelling in front of her. Where she'd gone to retrieve either of their meals, Lane hadn't seen—but she hadn't been gone long, so it couldn't be far away.

"I am." It was hard work, pecking at mouthfuls of green that turned slimy against her tongue. "So what did you do? Before you kidnapped me, I mean?"

She hopped out of her seat, gliding onto the next one, then the next. "Do you just stay down here all the time?"

Korina pretended to focus on her food, but Lane could see her look up every few seconds. She wanted to play on the seats too, Lane could tell. "If there were just humans, maybe I would've. But there are lots of other Pokémon who don't know any better, and need protecting." She flicked her tail up towards the fake sky. "I've wanted to get out there and explore, but…" She trailed off, taking a few quiet bites of her meal. "I never felt good about getting too far from Starfall. Only when there are emergencies. Usually those are your fault, by the way. Waking up things that should stay asleep, making things that shouldn't be made."

"Give us some credit," Lane said. She stopped on the other side of the table, within reach of Korina's meat. It was raw and pink, and should've made her stomach turn. Instead her mouth started watering, and she didn't look away. "We can't talk to Pokémon. If someone as smart as you, a… 'highest form of life' or whatever you said—if you just came and told us what not to do, we wouldn't."

Korina broke into another wave of hysterical laughter. "That's… You really think that, Lane? I don't think you understood humans very well if you think someone could just tell you not to make dumb choices. Might as well just give you a list of instructions for all the ways you can break things and get Pokémon killed."

She finally looked away, and Lane pounced. She took the biggest bite she could, tearing away at the flat sheet of raw… something. It didn't taste like anything she'd ever had before, but her tongue didn't care. It was soft and chewy, and for a few seconds it was all she could think of.

"See," Korina chided. "Exactly what I said. You're not even human anymore, and you still can't follow the rules."