20-27

I felt Luna in the distance, my sister's life burning bright, a single star in an empty void. Linked to me, bound to her, two souls made one. I felt something else as well, farther in the distance of the dark void, an absence of being, starker even than the void around me. I could tell I wasn't dead, I couldn't be if Luna was alive. Our bond had been strong before, but now… Heh. One day we'd be utterly unstoppable, I knew this in the depths of my being. It was just a matter of getting to that day. That was fine, we'd fight anyone worthy and it would simply be a stepping stone to that destiny of power. The rest we would simply reap for all they could give, what little they had, and take it for ourselves.

The void around started fading and I could feel myself moving closer and closer to my sister, to reality. The thing in the distance was still there, all voidlike and such, and when I finally reached reality, it noticed. I felt it the moment I came to its attention, and very dearly wished I hadn't, because what I felt next was interest. I did not know what the fuck that thing was, but I wanted nothing to do with it yet. It was wrong. Hopefully it'd take its time and by the time it got to me we'd be ready to smack down whatever the fuck that thing was. Then we'd catch it, because what kind of bloodthirsty blood knighting trainer crazy would I be if I didn't?

Awareness slipped away from me and then it was just indistinct dreams and nightmares. Two faces, endlessly asking why, the sound of dripping blood in the background, its distinct coppery smell cloying and all pervading.

And really, what a stupid question. The answer was simple, their lives hadn't been worth Luna's. Their friends' lives weren't worth Luna's. Their families' life weren't worth Luna's. Everyone's lives weren't worth Luna's. I'd slit all their throats again and again for eternity if that's what it took to keep her safe. I would do anything, and if the world burned for it, then so be it.

I awoke to pain. The worst I'd ever felt. Like I was missing pieces of myself, gaping, open wounds. Luna had already been by my side, but now she was actively communicating with me. Telling me everything I'd missed while I was not quite dead, or as she informed me, actually dead a couple times for a bit, and the shitstorm I'd unintentionally caused by being alive. I'd been in the Lavender Clinic for a week. I'd pretty much stabilized within a few hours of the Hiker, because come on, that's what the guy would have totally been in the games, getting me here, being clinically dead for a few moments here and there until I just sort of started getting better.

Cue one week of getting better and I only mostly looked like death. Progress. Problem was, now I had to get the fuck out of town quick. Apparently medical marvels get all sort of attention from all sort of places that I didn't want anywhere near me. Mostly, it was the League official sent to investigate claims of a Haunter swarm survivor and later assess the safety of the Rock Tunnel in light of a violent swarm of Haunters being there to attack someone.

Now normally one would wonder why I was in such a hurry to get the fuck out of here just because I had attracted so much attention, and to be perfectly honest it was less that and more that an incident such as this required that my legal guardians be informed, and I had no desire to have any of my mothers ever know this happened at all, because it could be that they could get the silly idea in their heads to pull permissions that ought not be pulled vis-a-vis my trainer license because they worried about me. I'd paid in blood for it already, mine and others', I couldn't let my mothers get in the way of that, especially not this early. I wasn't letting anyone render it all meaningless, for any reason.

There was also the possibility of an investigation into my viability as an Early Start Trainer from an incident like this one, given the circumstances of how it'd started, and the fact that I'd taken down literally all of the Haunter with me, captured them, and survived, I was pretty sure I could get off on that front. I doubt there were more than a handful of trainers alive who could have managed any of that, much less all of it, but I would still prefer not to have to bother with all of that.

Luna had been keeping an eye on the doctors here, making sure they had my best interests, and in so doing had gleaned that I was healthy enough to leave, but that they wouldn't let me if I tried. A combination of needing to talk to my parents, and the League sending a carefully worded message about wanting to speak with me, and wouldn't it be better if I were to still be there when the investigator got here, besides, they needed me to be healthy and this way two birds.

Fuck that. They obviously couldn't do shit about the metaphysical wounds or they'd have already done so, not to mention the half remembered future where I died, they'd fixed what they could and I wasn't staying a second longer than I needed.

Luna got my things and I got ready in the room's bathroom. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed like I was paler than before, which was saying something. I turned the shower's water to damned hot because I was fucking freezing and studied the half healed bite all over my left arm. It was… ghastly, no pun. It's a good thing my jacket has long sleeves. And that I have a spare, since the original was a bloody mess. Those were going to be some bitching scars. I could even tell where the lick went from the odd very dark fading bruise around my elbow. My right shoulder and the area around it were a huge fucking bruise, with the lick bruise on top of it.

I was shaking, not because of the cold. Why was I shaking? Luna was hugging me. How was she hugging me? Oh I was on the shower floor. She entered my mind, doing her best to push down the sudden fucking freakout over my very near death, bleeding off as much of the tide of emotions as she could, holding my mind together and in as stable a position as possible until it passed. I finished up and got dressed, taking my pokedex and used pokeballs from Luna, who'd hidden them the second she heard the doctors and nurses talking about identifying me. They couldn't connect my ID to me if they couldn't access my ID. They could also not link me to my ID by checking who my pokeballs were registered to if they couldn't access my pokeballs.

Escaping a clinic that has been taking care of your unconscious body for a week is, as it turns out, rather easy. After all, why would they think that the ten year old girl who just survived injuries previously considered a death sentence, having received said injuries in a deadly pokemon attack would sneak out of said clinic? Honestly, if I were anyone else I'd probably be really quite traumatized at this point, properly terrified of setting foot outside. Well, more traumatized, I couldn't pretend I had come out unscathed from that mess. I wasn't quite that delusional yet.

Ghost pokemon had always fascinated me, they were literal, actual ghosts. Their power was a direct counter to my own, and they could do all sort of neat things that were just plain weird. Seriously, Gengar were supposedly capable of dimension shenanigans, that alone made them supremely interesting. Then you added in creatures like Banettes and Drifblim and you had yourself a type filled with oddballs and monsters. Now that fascination was tempered by a very healthy respect for their sheer deadliness. The Gengar line were a specially deadly example of ghosts to be fair, but they were generally representative of the type's danger levels.

But hey, at least they the clinic had taken good care of me, yeah?

They had my face, but father had classified my files at some pretty ridiculous rank before I'd even set out on my journey. People without access could see my trainer name and nothing else. Some rando league official sent out to Lavender was so not going to have the proper access to match my face with licenses within my age range. No one knew I was his daughter, but there were rumors ever since we'd popped up in Pallet, living at his compound. Given his fame and importance he felt the rumors alone put me in some degree of danger and thus some precautions were necessary to mitigate said danger. He'd done the same for Gary's files. He couldn't protect us out in the world the way he and my mothers could in Pallet and Viridian, but he tried his best anyway.

Then Luna had simply teleported us to the other side of the window and we were walking away. Well, we were walking away after the pain the Teleport had caused faded. The map in my poketch gave me a direction to walk to and I was gone, walking towards route 12, morning sun high in the sky. Weak as I was I didn't make as much progress as I would otherwise have, that is to say I wouldn't make Vermillion in two days, but three or four was more than acceptable. By nightfall I'd reached the Silence Bridge and decided to camp out along the cliff face left of the road.

Training the rabid Haunter was going to be difficult, but I was so not going to pass up on a pokemon that was so clearly head and shoulders above the rest of its kind. That thing had been massive and massively strong. I could use the overwhelming power it would bring when it was fully evolved and trained. Perhaps even keep a couple of the other Haunter too, never can have too many powerful monsters capable of hiding in your shadow. Or the shadows of people you need dealt with. We would have had the kind of strength to bully it into discipline, what with Luna and I being Luna and I, but every single time I tried to use my powers ended in pain.

Perhaps we could use this as a test case for mind fuckery? But no, Yue couldn't hold it in place, she wasn't strong enough yet to safely contain that beast while Luna messed around and turned it into a loyal guardian. Still, that seemed like the best option, I wouldn't trust simple training to hold something like that for long before it slipped its leash. Yes, as soon as we could, we were going to remodel its head, then it'd simply be a matter of training it and feeding it the other Haunter until it evolved.

The splitting headache I got when I levitated the pokeball in question to my hand convinced me that yes, leaving the training for when I was fully recovered was for the best. I put the ball back on my belt and crawled into my sleeping bag with Luna and Yue, savoring the warmth of their bodies against mine. I was still so cold. At first I'd thought it was the clinic being weird about their air conditioning, then when I was out and about in what should have been summer heat and still cold I'd thought it was a matter of time before I warmed up. When I was still cold hours later, I became concerned.

Normally I'd use the psychic temperature control we'd gotten so good at over the years, but I was frankly exhausted and given the rather adverse reaction I'd had to minor psychic cantrips, it felt like trying the comparatively much more complex and power intensive skill would have probably been very bad.

I let my power and senses free from the bindings I kept them in, feeling a slight pain just from that, felt all the pokemon around me, a couple humans down the Silence Bridge, and then saw the future as my Sight blinked open. A man frantically searching Lavender with an officer Jenny. Ash fighting Misty and tying despite Pikachu's type advantage, Misty deciding the fight was deserving of granting the Cascade Badge. Mother, Ashley, and Gardemom doing… no, I tore my gaze away. Gary fighting a string of trainers all the way down to Vermillion where he then ripped through Lt. Surge in a tough but decisive battle.

Well. Now I really had to make sure I was okay so I could double time it to Vermillion. Wouldn't do to have my nephew surpass me in anything. Nevermind that Gary was older by a couple months.

I turned my senses inwards, trying to find that connection between the material world and wherever the fuck that structure of lights had been. I searched for what felt like hours, but a quick look told me was it was only half of one and the pain was getting worse. I had seen nothing of the lights of my souls, nothing of the connection that linked me to the world. I needed rest. Both in the physical and spiritual sense. It was clear my gift was strained beyond what was healthy, and using it more than necessary couldn't be good. Not to mention that what little we'd managed to walk had been exhausting and there was still a long bridge ahead of us.

Seriously, a fucking 50 kilometer bridge only traversable on foot, or bike if brave and skilled enough? Who the fuck thought that was a good idea? And that was only up to the exit for Vermillion!

We made good time out of the bridge, challenging all the trainers we faced along the way, and stepping foot in the Route 11 Gate near the end of the second day. There was some unpleasantness that left me with a blinding migraine from the guard recognizing me as "the Missing Lavender Patient" and having to strain to mess with his memory and perceptions while Luna held him. Good thing the place had a rest area with beds and facilities. I choked down some pain pills from the Gate's Infirmary and laid down to sleep, contemplating the craziness of the world, a delicious feeling settling in me, until consciousness faded.

Seriously, who could have known surviving the unsurvivable and then pulling a disappearing act would make me so famous? I'd seen forum threads about me in the guard's mind. Fortunately all they had were rough sketches of me and nothing more. Let's hope no one thought of pairing a Smeargle and a powerful psychic to extract my likeness from the heads of the people who saw me.

21

The morning saw me popping more pain pills to deal with the remnants of the migraine, bites, and general literal soul rending pain, and any ideas about trying to dive into the mysteries of my soul were quickly squashed by a feeling that even trying would end badly. The constant cold and shivering that had been with me since waking up in the clinic was more than a little irritating, damn near tortuous really, but the pain pills felt nice, so there was that at least.

A quick check through the Gate's guest accommodations failed to turn up any extra clothing I could throw on to mitigate the obviously paranormal cold. Eh, they probably wouldn't help, the hot water from the shower barely did anything. Luna and Yue seemed to be the only ones who helped.

So we ventured forth to Route 11 after a nice breakfast of MREs from the Gate and more pain pills. Luna being particularly careful in keeping an eye on the guard on our way out. A repeat of last night would not be possible and I really needed her on the lookout, because everything was a fluffy cloud, with pain, and cold, but hey, something. I tried my best to make good time so I could get to a nice bed and sleep more, going so far as to decline most challenges, only pausing long enough to stomp two specially pushy idiots with Yue who wouldn't take no for an answer.

It wasn't until I was standing near where the entrance to the Diglett Tunnel was supposed to be, really nothing more than a cave set into a cliff face on one side of a small canyon, that I realized a problem with my plan to avoid the more traditional route to Vermillion City. There was a fucking ginormous Snorlax blocking the canyon and the only alternative would be to climb up around it, something for which I was not trained, nor had the equipment to safely attempt. Shit.

I'd forgotten this was a possibility.

I… we could try teleporting to the other side, but I was loathe to risk a blind attempt on a good day, much less right now when my gift was so very frayed. Even with Luna doing the teleporting I didn't want to risk exposure to such a strong psychic phenomenon again since my gift was clearly worse of than when we left the clinic. I could feel my soul was damaged, and teleportation did weird things I didn't want anywhere near any metaphysical open wounds. Again.

If we went by game rules, which its presence would suggest, it would be a relatively low level specimen. Problem was that level didn't necessarily mean the same it did in the games, and Snorlax were walking natural disaster candidates if ever there was one. Luna was a great example of this, she was an absolute beast of a fighter, with power befitting more of her evolved forms despite her unevolved status and being at a level of development that would not have allowed for similar power in the games. She was overdue for evolution, but even so, no Ralts similarly overdue would be capable of comparable feats of power as she could perform.

In the end, it was a risk we were both willing to take. We were both confident in her abilities, and in all likelihood this Snorlax was the same level 30 Snorlax encountered in the games. To quote every moment of similar bad decisions: "Meh, we can take it." So Luna focused her power, every little bit of it, building up the biggest punch she'd ever thrown. She spent a few minutes doing this given the rather unhurried nature of the situation, since it was asleep and fair was for idiots, before unleashing a blast kinetic energy that tinted purple at the edges from waste power. It traversed the fifteen meters between them in the blink of an eye and struck its belly with what seemed like the force of a goddamned naval artillery shell.

It was, I thought, an extremely impressive attack, but definitely not one that I wanted to ever repeat while standing so close to the target. I felt like I'd been hit by a moving wall, and the back of my head hurt from where I'd hit it against the ground when the shock wave knocked me down. I could feel Luna at the edge of my awareness somewhere behind me, and she seemed to be in better shape than me because there was less pain coming from her than from me. Yay for pokemon resilience.

I propped myself up, and beheld one of the most beautiful things I'd seen in either life. It brought a smile to my face that would have likely worried my parents to witness. The Snorlax had been shoved backwards something like fifteen meters, and the walls of the canyon near its former position were broken and cracked. Not an artillery shell then, given I was still alive and Luna hadn't caused a bigger landslide, but it was still fucking magnificent.

Then the Snorlax got up and looked very pissed. Also very hurt, given the blood it coughed up, but still very pissed. I was already on my feet before it started charging a Hyper Beam, and mostly out of the blast radius when it fired, so the shock wave only threw me down to the ground instead of killing me or breaking me. Luna, having been the target and not silly at all had stood still only long enough to draw its fire, then teleported away once the beam was out of its mouth.

I couldn't help the involuntary telepathic thought I sent Luna, telling her to retaliate, to knock it out and win the fight, it had been such an integral part of our fighting style for so long that it was instinct now. It was an unparalleled advantage than only other psychics could match or understand, but right now all it did now was send a spike of agony through my head and make me eat dirt. But it galvanized Luna, I could tell through the pain as she started barraging the Snorlax with Psychics. I recovered in time to see the last few that hit before it fell down and didn't get back up.

I called out to Luna, throwing her a pokeball that barely made it halfway to her before she seized control with telekinesis and redirected it at the Snorlax. Waste not want not and all that. Now I think I'm going to lay down on the ground for a while until my head wasn't splitting open anymore. A minute later I felt Luna cuddle up to me, running one of her tiny arms through my hair. As the migraine continued a fear I'd been ignoring began to run through me. It was obvious I wasn't going to be able to hold off from accidentally using my gift long enough for it to heal, and it seemed to be getting worse and worse every time I did. Leaving aside the deleterious effects on my health it was likely having, which I was more than willing to accept for the privilege of phenomenal cosmic power, if it was like damage to the body where continuous use of injured body parts led to permanently damaged or crippled body parts…

"I'm scared Luna," I said, voice trembling in a way it hadn't done so before in this life.

"Ralts," came her reply, loaded with so much emotion that for a second I thought she'd sent her thoughts into my mind. But no, it was just plain old understanding and intimacy. I couldn't hold back the tears any longer. I hugged her to me and cried, scared and in agony, but most of all glad to have someone so close to me, who I loved and loved me back utterly and unconditionally. I don't know how long I cried, but eventually the urge subsided and the killer migraine downgraded to just a migraine.

"Luna, I think I need you to use Imprison on me. We're both psychics, it should seal all of my gift away."

"Ralts!" This time her response was alarmed.

"You have to. I'm not healing, Luna. Hell, I'm getting worse, I barely did anything this time and it was worse than the Gate Guard."

"Ralts," she said, her tone sad. She climbed up on me and put her arms around my head, then with a flash of light felt her power enter me and then nothing.

I could feel nothing beyond me. I couldn't feel the world around me. I couldn't feel the life around me. I couldn't feel Luna. I couldn't feel Luna. I couldn't feel Luna. I couldn't feel Luna I couldn't feel Luna I couldn't feel Luna I couldn't feel Luna I couldn't feel Luna.

Luna was shaking me. Luna was there. I hugged her to me, basking in the warmth of her presence and assuring myself that she was there.

"I'm sorry. That was… unpleasant."

The look she gave me was a very clear "No shit."

I'd had my psychic powers for so long that I couldn't remember ever not having access to them. Hell, given their sheer strength it was very possible that there actually wasn't a time I didn't have some level of access to them. I felt like I was missing most of my senses, half my brain, an arm, and a leg. It was even worse than the dampening field from my eight birthday. I guess Imprison could be seen as a cast to immobilize the broken bones of my phenomenal cosmic power while they healed.

Upon closer inspection I could actually feel the seal Luna had placed over my gift, I could feel the edges, and a tiny effort of will saw my power pushing against it, followed by intense pain. I winced. Okay then, no using my power to press against the potentially life saving… thing.

I hugged her to me and we walked the rest of the way to Vermillion with her in my arms. I needed to feel her presence, to reassure myself that she still existed. This would complicate things for the Thunder Badge challenge. No combat precognition, no telepathic communication, possibly no chance to break a team of Haunters through mind fuckery, or try to assume direct control of the super Haunter, much less try to force evolve it into a Gengar.

Luna was strong, well past Gardevoir strong, but Surge had a reputation as a fierce fighter, and the ease with which I'd defeated Brock and Daisy could get him to take me seriously if he'd kept abreast of incoming challengers. Let's hope not. Maybe a few of the captured Haunters would be cooperative without me having to whammy them?

I got to the Vermillion Pokemon Center not long after nightfall, and I could barely keep standing. My head still felt like it was splitting open, and something that I was pretty sure was my soul hurt like a chunk had been ripped off. Which was apt, because, you know, it had. I popped a pill for good measure. I needed my rest, this way I'd be more likely to get it. So I checked in, got Luna and Yue a quick diagnostic with Nurse Joy who said they were in good health and also extremely well developed, and then crashed on the comfy bed that came with the room.

22

I slept for a whole day and change. It's utterly weird to skip a whole day. First the confusion over what day it is and then the utter incredulity at somehow sleeping for so long. The hunger and dehydration don't help, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel better even through all the discomfort. The migraine I'd been enduring since waking up in Lavender Town and aggravated while getting here had faded to a low key dull headache. Also, and I couldn't be sure about this one because what was I even feeling, my soul was definitely feeling less like a chew toy.

I kept the Imprison seal on anyway. I had no idea how healed I was beyond "to some degree" and I didn't want to relapse by using my gift on instinct again. The longer it had to heal, the better the chances were that I'd be able to use it during the gym challenge, even if only a little. Luna would have to act as crowd control for the Haunter testing. A quick visit to the closest Pokemon transfer machine had it connected to the Oak Ranch Storage Network and I set about assembling the four biggest of the lot for evaluation.

And evaluated them we did. We found a spot to the north of the city, just off the route that came down from Cerulean through the underground. Toughness, speed, and power, all the things a successful Gengar needs. Honestly, I was tempted to call it off after the first two. They weren't up to the standards of the psycho Haunter, but they were exemplars of the species, and the other two weren't anywhere near as impressive. It seemed they were also already somewhat conditioned to bowing before superior power, and it only took a show of force from Luna to get them following orders.

I'd been training the Haunters for a few hours, sitting on a rock while teaching them how to respond to certain attacks, how to best exploit weaknesses, and working on Shadow Ball, when my right shoulder, still raw from the Haunter bite, turned into a burning mass of pain and suffering. I swung at the source, a scream of my pain ripping itself out of me, and Luna was awake and flinging a Psychic at the source of the pain in an instant. We were rewarded by a grunt of pain and the thump of a something hitting the ground.

I did my best to curl up and cover my shoulder without aggravating my also still wounded left arm. For just a moment I'd felt like a hot brand had touched my skin, and it had burned deep. I could feel it even now doing something to my soul that I couldn't quite feel or understand. Luna didn't follow up on whatever had touched me though, even though I could tell just by looking at her that she really wanted to. Well, if I'm being honest, she looked like she wanted to do more than just "follow up", really, something more akin to ready to commit bloody savage murder upon whatever that had been, but was holding back. Barely.

I looked, and saw Gary. And had absolutely no idea why that had hurt as much as it did. Yes, my shoulder was pretty raw from the bite, but that had been more than physical. Gary had alway had a strong destiny, he was full of life, maybe contact from that on the wounds on my soul had been like pouring rubbing alcohol on an open wound? I did my best to pick myself up from the floor, since apparently I'd falled from my rock, and tried to keep the horrible agony from showing too much. Poor kid was probably scared shitless.

"What the hell Red, what happened?" I'd never before heard concern in my nephew's voice, and I found that I did not like how it sounded at all. He shouldn't have to be seriously concerned about anything, much less about me. I was Red, I was Azula. He should be kicking ass and taking names while trying and failing to catch up to me. "Are you okay?"

I could hear quite clearly he did not think I was okay and my answer wasn't going to make a difference on that. So I ignored that and gave him a simple, "Got swarmed in the Rock Tunnel."

"Wait, what the fuck?!" He'd picked up my favorite word quite well. I was so proud. Father was less amused, same for his sister, my niece, whom I rarely saw. "That was you?!"

The look in his eyes was a mixture of utter terror for my life, worry, awe, and insecurity.

"Fucking gossip mongers. I fucking swear. How'd you even find out?" The pain was receding slowly back down to previous levels, but I was still not in the mood for the bullshit that was the world. Didn't help that ever since waking up at Lavender I seemed to have lost all sense of balance and coordination. Fucking kept stumbling and generally being clumsy as fuck.

"Hate to break it to you, but after your disappearing act there's been a bulletin out at all Pokemon Centers, Police Precincts, Citizen Service Centers, basically anywhere official, looking for information about you or your whereabouts. There's conspiracy theories everywhere. Some people are saying you survived Haunter licks."

"Ugh."

"So, that's where you caught those two?" He said, pointing at the Haunters that had, in absence of Luna's and my attention had turned to one annoying the hell out of the other one, which seemed to be humoring it for the sake of not hurting its feelings. If those two were females, I had the perfect names for them.

"And eleven others." Heh. Much as it seemed I'd grown to care for the little fuck seeing him go that pale was fun. "Those two were the second and third strongest and biggest of the lot. Probably the ones who got me to be honest, but I can't be sure. Everything hurt and the fucking Tunnel was so damn cold."

"Why not train the strongest one?"

"It a danger to anything and anyone around it."

Well, what do you know, he could go even paler.

"I'm waiting until I'm better before I break it." The pain seemed to make the balance issues worse, and I'd been low key trying to get up and failing, I finally just gave up, extended my right hand towards him, and asked for help. "Hey, Gary, give us a hand up, yeah? I'm still not 100%."

He looked at my hand like it might bite him, before asking "Are you sure I should touch you? It sounded like you got too close to a Magmar when I put my hand on you."

"Yeah, don't worry, was more of a matter of where you put your hand."

He gingerly touched my hand, expecting me to start howling in agony again and to get hit by another Psychic. I merely raised a condescending eyebrow at him, prompting him to pull me up. I recalled my Haunters, and Luna situated herself in her usual spot in my jacket. "Come on nephew, escort your aunt to the Pokemon Center."

He rolled his eyes at me, but kept his usual commentary to himself. I appreciated that, I wasn't up for banter. I was leaning heavily on him. Pain has a way of wearing you out. I considered the bottles of painkillers in my bag and decided that I definitely needed me some of that right about now. I held one out for Luna to open, since I had one hand on Gary keeping myself up. I took one pill and by the time we got to the Pokemon Center everything was nice and warm and cozy. I mean, not quite, because that damnable cold was still there, and the soul pain didn't seem to care about things like painkillers, but I still felt pretty great.

"You challenging Surge tomorrow Gary?"

"What, you crazy? No way. I'm taking a day to study him and get ready before taking that guy on."

"Ah."

"You better not try either, not with the way you are right now."

"Thanks for caring nephew. Come on, I need to get my pokemon checked out and then sleep all day."

A quick checkup later, whereupon I was informed that my Haunter were both female, and we were by my room door.

"Hey, Gary?"

"Yeah 'Zula?" Twitch. I'd gotten used to Red again.

"Don't tell my mothers, or father, okay? I don't want them to worry. I'm going to be perfectly okay," A complete lie, didn't even need my psychic powers to feel that, but Gary bought it, "They worry enough about me already, and I survived, so the danger's past." Probably more lies. Let's just try very hard not to think about lasting permanent damage, and things like that.

"Yeah, okay 'Zula." Twitch. He went in for a hug but the moment he got close to my left arm and right shoulder they started burning, and I couldn't help the hiss of pain the came out of me, and he pulled back like he'd burned me. Which he kinda had. "Get better soon, okay?"

He left back to the lobby and I sank into the bed with Luna and Yue in a ball of delicious feelings and the warmth of my sister and pokemon companion. The cold wasn't so bad with them there.

23

I awoke to someone pounding on my door. It was not ideal, because every knock made my headache spike. My pain woke Luna, and she was not happy. Yue was oblivious and continued to sleep like nothing was happening. Lucky bitch.

"Come on 'Zula, open up, I'm getting worried."

Gary. Oak.

Couldn't even really be mad at him because the little bastard was actually worried. I could hear it in his voice. Ugh. I nudged Luna, and she pouted at me. I nudged her again and she pouted harder. I pouted back. She opened the door with telekinesis.

"Wha- 'Zula?" Your confusion nourishes me.

"Shut up and get in or go away. Actually, no, shut up, go away, get food, and come back." Apparently pain causes me to get bitchy, who knew? Judging by the sudden doubt in Gary's face at the idea of getting any closer to me, I was a touch intimidating. "No knocking."

"Uh, yeah okay. Sure 'Zula." And away he went, to fetch food.

"See?" I said to Luna, smug. "He has his uses."

"Ralts." She expressed her doubts.

"Look, he'd already waken us up, we might as well get something out of it."

She agreed. Reluctantly. In her eyes, it wasn't enough restitution. I happened to agree, but food was food.

"Come on, help me get dressed please."

By the time Gary came back with the food I was less… testy. I was still pretty irritated by the fucking cold that fucking wouldn't go away, the fucking newfound clumsiness that fucking wouldn't go away, the surprisingly moderately less agonizing soul pain (progress!), and what I could feel was less pain coming from behind the Imprison seal (more progress!). Fucking Haunter. I was tempted to rend their souls and eat them, I don't know if it'd help, or how I'd go about doing it, but it would certainly make me feel better and I was willing to give it the good old college try. Cunts.

Gary, sensing our moods, wisely kept very quiet. Good boy. Yue was less bothered and just ate her food and frolicked about the room. Good girl. I finished my meal after a while and turned my attention upon my nephew. I could literally see him tense up. Delicious.

"Now, what was so important that you needed to wake me up so fucking early?"

"It's eleven thirty." Huh. I checked my poketch. So it was.

"Still too early."

"What the hell happened to you Red?!" His worry had galvanized and overpowered his fear and now he was trying hard to get answers. So sweet of him. "Back in Pallet you were unstoppable, you trained from sunup to well past sundown. You woke up at like six in the morning! You broke the Pallet record for defeating Brock by two weeks, I checked, not to mention what I heard about how you beat him. I saw what you did at the Cerulean Gym too, another speed record by the way, then you drop off the face of the planet for a week and the next thing I know you're, you're this!" He punctuated his rant by gesturing at me at the end.

To be fair, he had a point, I'd seen myself in the mirror, and I could barely summon the energy to eat, much less do other things, but he also didn't have the whole story. For all I knew he had none of the story. He knew I was hurt, somehow, but as I wasn't in a hospital or clinic, nor visibly injured, since the jacket covered everything, he probably thought it was something minor. The headache wasn't helping any, either.

"Luna?"

She floated one of the pain pills my way. I had no idea what the fuck they were, but I'd stopped caring after the first one. They didn't fix everything, but they fixed enough. Well, helped enough. Fix was probably too strong a word.

"What do you think happened?" I focused on him, saw him pull back at the serious tone.

"I don't know. It's been kept pretty quiet, but there's rumors from Haunter swarm to an Onix nest collapsing the tunnels. Since you say you have a bunch of Haunters, I guess something about that."

I couldn't help the snort at the Onix one. Fuck no. I debated what to say, before settling for taking off the jacket. I stood up, my legs a little wobbly, and showed him my wounds. For as serious as all of this was, I still couldn't help the amusement at how pale he went. My arm didn't look much better than the first time I'd looked at it. Big red scars from where the teeth had gone in, and the damned bruise from the lick that seemed to be fading glacially slowly. The faded bruise on my shoulder looked pretty nasty, but was less prominent now, with the lick bruise in the middle of it.

"It's really quite simple. I died. Then I got better. A few times, apparently. Was in a coma for a week. You know what those bruises are too, at least you should if you paid more attention than me to the possible dangers of ghost pokemon."

"H-how...?"

"Fuck you, that's how." Pure fucking luck is how, but no one would ever know that. Let people build on the legend of Red. "Suffice to say I'm still here and just need some time to get back to full ass kicking capacity."

He sat down on my bed, visibly rattled. I put my jacket back on with Luna's help, "We chose a life full of wonders, of miracles, but also a life of constant danger. Sometimes we get lucky and all we see is the good side, and sometimes not so much. I hope you never see the ugly side Gary. I better not hear anything from our family, even in light of what I've shown and told you just now."

I looked him in the eyes, putting forth the full strength of my being behind a glare. Sealed I may have been, but I was still Red Azula. "Understood?"

I didn't stay to see the results. I had decided on a plan for Surge. I was getting in my own head, psyching myself out. In the end, there was little he could do before Luna's full power, and she didn't need me to help her fight. She wasn't as good as me at the fire thing, unfortunately, but I suspected I was the only reason she could do it all, so I'd take what I could. If Surge brought out a metal type she could melt it into a puddle, and if he didn't she was strong enough to plow through his team. We'd soften him up with the Haunters, henceforth named Ty Lee and Mai, and Yue, then hammer whatever was left with Luna.

I walked out and left Gary in the room. He probably needed some time to think. I hoped his dream wouldn't die with this revelation. In the anime he'd given up on becoming Champion, gone the Pokemon Professor route, and as far as I knew never amounted to anything. It'd be a waste. At least now he was also Blue, and Blue had achieved greatness. All that remained was to see which side won out. I wasn't sure how long I'd remain Champion here, there was more conquering to be had, maybe I could collect Champion titles and give others a try at the Kanto spot while I was away.

24

The walk to the Gym was surprisingly exhausting, but that was okay, the pills were good. Maybe that's why it was so exhausting? Combination of healing so many things and metabolizing whatever it was that I was taking. Had to be the good stuff, given the effects. Problems for later, I suppose. I was wobbly and breathing hard by the time I got through the doors. Good days and bad days I guess. Yesterday had been easier, I think, it was a bit of a blur of warm fuzzies from the pills and discomfort from the fucking everything else, so I couldn't be sure.

The inside was really quite suitably dramatic. Dark and foreboding. Wasn't expecting that to be honest, thought it'd be more Vegas less Poe. There were two Gym Aides just inside too, so that made things easier.

"'Sup bitches," Hm, bit slurred, can't have that messing with my image. I cleared my throat, "I'm here to smack around your boss."

The looks on their faces. Ah, wish I'd brought a camera. Doubly so when who I could only assume was Surge started laughing his ass off from the shadows behind them. They had to have set this up, no way were they were just waiting in the dark for the next challenger. I hadn't seen any cameras on the way in, but I hadn't really looked either, could be that I simply missed them.

He walked up to them and fucking damn the guy was fucking huge, what the fuck. Like, I get it, I'm short and tiny even for my age, but what. He must have been like twice my meagre 4'3". Dude must have been an actual fucking giant.

"You've got spunk, short stuff." He knelt down in front me and looked me up and down. "And spirit, but I've seen that look you have about you right now kid. Drugged to the gills, maybe enjoying the buzz a bit too much, and yet still feeling the pain. You should be in the hospital, not challenging me."

"Bah, if the hospital could help, I'd still be there. You think I could walk out without discharge papers getting signed and shit?" I gave him my best smile. The one that made Gary seriously want to punch me in my smug face, gave father shivers, and my mothers headaches. "Besides, I need a handicap to really feel the challenge, you know? Wouldn't want to stomp you too hard, too easily."

"Oh, no you don't kid." I could tell the smile was working super well, but Surge was trying to rein in his pride. Dude was legitimately worried about me! Aw, he was a big softie. Emphasis on big. "You're good, but seriously, go home."

"Greater beings than you have tried to stop me before, Surge." Mostly my mothers, but he didn't need to know that. I stopped trying and just gave him what most people had dubbed my "creepy horror movie kid" face, which was really just my normal face. "Fight me now, or I'll start fighting you and see how long it takes you to get a pokemon out."

I felt bad about this, especially since he was trying to be so nice, but I wasn't feeling well and I wasn't waiting a second longer. I needed to move forwards, to do more, to defeat the strongest. Surge wasn't going to stand in the way of that, no matter how good a guy he was. He got how serious I was then.

"Very well then." I could see the soldier behind his eyes now, instead of the Gym Leader.

The arena was a simple dirt affair, well lighted, and spartan. We stood across from each other. One of the aides registered my Pokedex and the system sprang to life, a computerized voice announcing my challenge.

"Pokemon Trainer Red challenges Gym Leader Lt. Surge for the Thunder Badge. The match will be fought with three pokemon, no substitutions allowed."

"Go, Electrode."

"Yue."

"Begin."

"Confuse Ray." Yue was far from being the bullshit tier staller that she'd be when she grew up, but she was well on her way. "Then Double Team."

"Thunderbolt." Contrary to what the anime liked to show, lightning couldn't be dodged, thankfully, Yue didn't have to, because that Confuse Ray had worked, and the Thunderbolt went wide. I woke Luna up in my jacket, just in case we needed her to be awake and keep us from getting fried by a stray electric attack.

Yue knew the kind of battle style we were building for her well enough by now, and she was making more and more illusory clones and throwing in the occasional Confuse Ray to make sure the Electrode didn't get a fair fight.

"Damn you, kid." Luna felt it the moment he decided on his next move. Surprise and respect. Well. "Explosion." Fuck. Yeah, okay. Can't land a hit? Time to hit the area of effect moves, and a Vulpix wasn't going to tank one of those and come out standing. A flash of light, and a shockwave crashed into a shield around us. When the dust cleared, the Electrode was laying in a crater and Yue had crashed into the wall behind Surge.

"Both pokemon are unable to battle, please send out your next pokemon."

"Go, Magneton."

"Ty Lee."

"Thunderbolt!"

For an instant I thought that was it for the liveliest of my Haunters, but it vanished half a second before the attack went out. Go Gengar line bullshit.

"Shadow Ball." She popped back into being close to the Magneton, formed the ball in an instant, and launched it. That was all the overgrown magnet needed though. Apparently it was experienced enough to counter on reflex, and a Thunderbolt fried Ty Lee before the Shadow Ball even hit. Didn't need the computer to tell me she was out, either, all that was left was a puddle of gas in the floor. Damnit. To her credit, the ball of negative energy actually seemed to have done something, but it seemed like it was up to Big Small Sis to clean up.

I recalled my Haunter, dimly hearing the computer in the background, and focused all of my senses on the battle, trying to get every single detail without pressing against the Imprison too hard. Luna hopped out of my jacket and walked up to the arena, entering at an angle. Right then, no need to worry about Surge.

"Flamethrower." His look of surprise was a balm to my aching soul, especially when my sister parried the Thunderbolt his Magneton had thrown with a one handed Protect, and then unleashed a torrent of blue fire that enveloped his pokemon with her left hand. She traced the stream of fire all the way down to the ground before letting up. No need to take chances. She hadn't melted the Magneton, but it was glowing red hot.

"Magneton is unable to battle. Please send out your final pokemon."

"Raichu, finish this." Wow, those things are cute as fuck.

The Protect that appeared in Luna's hand did so the instant Raichu started generating a Thunderbolt and blocked the full attack. The counter Psychic was similarly blindingly fast, but the Raichu was nimble on its feet and sidestepped mostly out of the way, its tail getting clipped pretty hard. Minor to no damage. First blood to Luna.

What followed was pure beauty. That Raichu was definitely more than Surge expected me to be able to handle. It wasn't keeping up with Luna, but it was making an attempt, and not failing completely. There was no time for orders, from either of us, not without our psychic bond, and not at all for Surge. It was a literally lightning fast slugging match, and Luna was loving every single second of it. Battle precognition let her know when to block or prepare to redirect the lightning attacks, and her psychic senses let her aim without actually having to look where she was shooting. The Raichu had the speed of a properly trained member of its line to try to dodge Luna's attacks, and the instantaneous nature of electric attacks to threaten her with.

It ended abruptly. We had the stamina of going at our mothers for years and years at full tilt, the Raichu did not. It stumbled and got nailed hard by a Psychic into the wall behind Surge.

"Raichu is unable to battle. Winner: Pokemon Trainer Red."

Surge was staring hard at me. It wasn't a glare, per se, there was no animosity in his eyes, just intensity. That had to have been one of, if not his best Raichu, and Luna wasn't even winded. Sure, Yue and Ty Lee had gone down in one hit, but he had to know, nothing the first two pokemon had done could have touched my sister.

As it was, the only reason the Explosion thing worked was because I wasn't available to act as the command and control unit of our team, and Luna wasn't used to it, hadn't thought to order Yue to use Protect as soon as the danger was apparent. Then Magneton would have been switched into a setup field. Yue would likely not have won, she didn't have the stamina yet, but she'd have worn it down enough that Ty Lee could have beaten it. In the end, if he'd still sent out that Raichu the final fight would have been exactly the same, but this highlighted the need for me to get better soon. Luna might not need my help, but the others still did.

Also I'm pretty sure we used both our brains for extra combined processing power when we fought together, sort of like a mind meld, and extra processing power is always good. Definitely wanted to get back to that. I missed my sister's presence.

"I find myself truly surprised. It's not something that happens often. As a Gym Leader you learn to teach your challengers how to improve, how to grow. You I intended to beat down into the ground from the start. You need rest and time to heal, keeping you stuck here seemed like the best way of doing that."

He shook his head, "Then you opened with a well coordinated stalling guerilla strategy. I figured, your starter, probably your strongest and best trained, maybe with a premade strategy from mommy or daddy, sacrifice Electrode to take her out and Magneton should be enough to take whatever else. When the Haunter failed to perform I thought the battle was over. Then Short Stuff 2 came out and everything I thought about power curves went out the fucking window. I congratulate you on your training ability, and on softening me up with your other pokemon before letting out the big gun."

"Take your badge and get out. Try to get healthy and drop by next time you're in Vermillion, hopefully not high as a kite." Well okay then. I mean, what do you say to that? So Luna climbed into my jacket and we walked back to the Center.

25

When I got back to my room Gary had left and was nowhere to be seen. I worried a little about him but a question to Nurse Jenny revealed he'd left half an hour after me and he'd looked pretty determined. Alright then. I considered leaving him a Haunter, but I knew exactly what he'd think of such a gesture. Yeah, better not. No need to needle his pride with what he would see as a handout from the aunt he'd been chasing for the last two years of his life. I had zero doubts he could beat Surge in his first try, he was smart and a good trainer, didn't even need to know what he had in his team to know this. Why ruin his post victory happy? I mean, beyond for my own amusement, and I wasn't feeling that mean.

Brat would probably go sniffing around for a Dark type to counter my Gengars and a heavy poison user for Luna. Hm. Time would tell.

Now, where to next? Normally people went for Celadon and Saffron around the same time they did Vermillion, but to get to Celadon I had to get close to Saffron, and I wasn't stepping anywhere near Sabrina in my current state. Either she was a Rocket or she was fucking crazy, neither option was acceptable right now. That left Fuschia and Cinnabar as my only options until I healed. Fuck. Getting to either would be a pain in the ass. Why couldn't I just take a boat to… Huh. Fuck me. This wasn't the games, the ports did more than just exist for S.S. Anne or whatever special ship of the day existed to sail out of.

That's how I found myself at the harbor after laughing my ass off at how technology, just like phenomenal psychic powers, made life easier. I may have gotten some disturbed looks from the people at the Center when I laughed, wonder why? A little looking around, during which I totally didn't stumble way too much, fuck you, some questions, and I found myself on a boat bound for Fuschia City Harbor. The perks of the account my mothers had setup for my journey and the fact that I never really used it. Barely made a dent in the balance. Batman's real superpower saves the day. Or me from an annoying over a week-long circuitous walk to Fuschia.

Unfortunately there were rules about pokemon battling and training on the boat, and while I generally didn't care about silly things like rules, the bed in my cabin was very comfy, and really, I could relax a little for once, and I was tired, and it was a long trip, and why was I even bothering to make excuses in my own head? Not even the prospect of the nearly assured nightmares I'd have kept me from falling asleep in minutes. Later, Luna woke me up long enough to feed me, water me, let me take care of business, and then fall back asleep.

I saw their faces, smelled the blood, they asked the question they always asked. Why? Why? In the end, the answer was the same. Luna. I saw the future where I died, saw father's suffering, my mothers' suffering, my sister's suffering, her slow withering death and-

"We have arrived at Fuschia City Harbor, please take all your belongings and proceed to the exit ramp."

I was sweaty, cold, and my heart was beating so hard you'd think it was trying to imitate a hummingbird. Also, pain, but hey, progress, I actually didn't feel like dying. I picked up my sister and deposited her in my jacket, grabbed my bag, and walked out ready to smack some poison types around like bitches. No, seriously, me fighting this Gym was so unfair. My whole team shat on it.

We walked off into the city with the sun rising from ahead of us. My soul still hurt, but my phenomenal cosmic powers felt normal from behind the Imprison. I think, I would take one last day with the seal on, use it training, maybe at the beach, see if we couldn't catch a good Water type, and then get a Soul Badge the next day. I wasn't willing to walk into a poison den without the ability to personally manipulate every aspect of my environment.

A quick trip to the Pokemon Center to get a room and my pokemon checked out, and we were back out the door heading south to the Route 19 Beach. When I got there it was mostly deserted, probably something to do with how early it was. I'd slept through the full sixteen hours of the boat ride though, and I was wired. Not being in so much pain felt great. A quick throw had Yue seeing the sea for the first time in her life, and Ty Lee annoying Mai. Again. Perfect fucking names, I swear.

I barked orders at them and they were training the styles we'd made for them. It helped they liked them, since they were so much like playing, so they just saw it as a more structured game. Luna was practicing keeping a filtering rotating current of air around her at all times without needing to focus on it, or causing a mini sandstorm. Couldn't have some cheeky poison getting in without noticing.

"Alright sis, see if you can't feel a psychic signature out in the water."

"Ralts?"

"Yes, out in the water. I've decided, we need a Starmie." I felt her mind cast out into the sea. We sat there on the beach for a few hours, when I finally felt Luna act. A few seconds later a bow wave formed on the water surface and then there was a Staryu floating in front of us, surrounded by a corona of purple psychic energy. Beautiful. Who needs a fishing rod when you have phenomenal cosmic power?

"Hey Luna, you think you can get it calling out? Use it as bait to call for more? We want the best of the best, after all." She thought about it for a moment and started tweaking the Staryu's mind, until it's gem started shining a bright red and a barely there sensation could be felt all across the beach. Yeah, that'd do it.

A few minutes later three more Staryus jumped out of the water.

"Yue, Freeze-Dry." She bounded over and froze all three in one breath. Pokeballs out, catches. I let this repeat a few more times before catching the bait too, for a total of fifteen Staryus. Now I just needed to sort out which was the best one. "Good girl. You can take a break for a bit, but I want you practicing once it's over." I noticed a Krabby walking around and well, Kinglers were cool. A tiny Psychic later and it was also caught.

Would this count as my beach episode? I wasn't in a swimming suit, or getting in the water, but since that was never happening I guess this had to count for something. Ah well, whatever.

26

For the first time in weeks, I woke up early. Today, I would have my power back, and today, after a morning of brief psychic exercise, you know, to make sure everything was in working order, I would have my Soul Badge. Luna put her hands on my head and with a brief exertion of will and a flash of light, I felt the seal shatter. The world expanded around me, I could feel my sister fully again, I could feel the future pressing down upon my mind, begging to be seen, I could feel the minds of everyone around me. It was exhilarating. Power burst forth from within, from my soul, a slight burn coursing through my body as it got used to the constant flow of energy once again.

Heh

Hehehe

Hahahahahahahahaha.

"Unlimited Power! Hahahahahahahaha!" I couldn't help the maniacal cackle from my place floating in the middle of my room at the Pokemon Center, static discharges coursing all over my body from waste power, everything not nailed down floating around me. The window panes in the whole building rattling in their frames, the bulbs in my room bursting in a shower of sparks. There was even an ominous echo to my voice and everything. This was everything I could have ever expected from my big comeback. "I'm baaaaaack."

I tried to shift as much of the power buildup into the less physical spectrum, I didn't want to demolish this wing of the center, after all. It'd be a huge burst, a psychic spotlight pointing to Fuschia, but really, who was there to notice that was close enough to see it and also be a threat? Hah. I grabbed my things and walked out of the room. Had to find a clearing to test my gift, work out any kinks.

An hour later I was a bit deep in the forest to the northeast of the city and playing target for my sister and pokemon. Combat precognition seemed to be working even better now, and dodging or redirecting blind was working magnificently, and while neither Luna and I were going all out, it said good things about the state of things. A thought at my other pokemon had them split off to do their own thing, warm up done.

Time for the all out slugfest.

We lifted off the ground as one and then everything was Psychics, Protects, dodging, and the occasional bursts of fire. Honestly, this was the kind of fighting I lived for. Blindingly fast paced and with no margin for error. One wrong move would see me grievously wounded, same for Luna, if to a lesser extent. After a while we started slowing down. The test was successful, I was only slightly affected by my prolonged lack of use of psychic powers, a little more winded than I should have been, but I'd be back in top shape soon.

Now I just needed to decide: Assume Direct Control of the Killer Haunter before or after my Gym battle. Decisions. In the end, I wanted to be fresh for the battle, and the breaking of that Haunter was going to be a monumental effort, with the possibility of real danger. Better take the Gym while healthy-ish. My soul was actually burning a little stronger than before, so there was likely a tie between my phenomenal cosmic powers and my healing soul. The flowing power within me did help a little with the supernatural cold, and the combat precognition also helped with clumsiness, but fuck me if they weren't still there, like an itch I couldn't scratch.

Right then, Pokemon Center for some quick rejuvenation, food, and then smashing faces. A couple hours later and we stood in front of the Fuchsia Gym, bellies full, completely chill, and ready to kick ass. We crossed the doors and beheld a dojo straight out of the memories of my past life. Felt fucking weird. It was so stereotypically Japanese, and yet there was no Japan.

At the center of it all sat a young woman, meditating, or so I assumed, given the steady breathing and general stillness. There wasn't a significant psychic presence to her, so I guess they took the ninja thing seriously around here. A spare thought located several hidden others that were all but invisible even despite knowing they were there. Fucking ninja bullshit. Wish I could do that.

I started filtering the air around me. Not paranoia if it's plausible someone would and could poison you. Ninja bullshit meant could was assumed. The impending smackdown I was about to issue allowed for would.

"I'm here to challenge for the Soul Badge." I felt the woman's mind latch onto my words, coming more fully into the here and now, away from the depths. She stood, assessing me, and took out a pokeball from somewhere.

"Is that so? Five pokemon, no substitutions." What? She was the leader? Wasn't it supposed to be Koga? The fuck? She gestured to one of the ninja and he came over with a device that registered my Pokedex.

"Pokemon Trainer Red challenges Gym Leader Janine for a Soul Badge." Janine. Wasn't she Koga's daughter? The fuck? Where was Koga? Wasn't he the leader? Well fuck, my memory was even more unreliable than I thought.

She released a Crobat and it started flitting about at high speeds. Right then, Ty Lee. My Haunter was in motion as soon as she came out of her ball, hand flying in different directions to try and pincer the Crobat. Speed vs. Ghost bullshit. It was really quite interesting to watch. The moment the Crobat go too close, Ty Lee's body would vanish and reappear elsewhere, while her hands kept harassing the bat, trying to grab it long enough to end the fight. It was fun to watch, but in the end the next time the Crobat got close, instead of disappearing, Ty Lee slammed a Psychic in its face. Try to ninja bullshit a ghost again, see how well that goes. They can do everything the ninja can, only better, and with more style.

She followed up with a Venomoth. That was honestly about the only thing she had that didn't get horribly rolled by my whole team without being able to retaliate. It was time to play energy tag. My favorite game~

She started by firing off a Psychic, I followed with Shadow Ball, and really, it just degenerated from there to the kind of thing that my whole team was exceptionally well used to. Still, the Venomoth was strong and very fast, and actually managed to hit Ty Lee before she could land her own hit. She wasn't down, but it was a matter of time now. She was moving sluggishly, and only lasted one more minute before taking another Psychic and crumbling into a coherent pile of smog in the floor.

What to do? I recalled her and sent out Mai. I mean, why not? It ended similarly, but this time Mai tagged the Venomoth a couple of times before going down. Another recall beam and I sent out Yue. Time for ninja bullshit of my own. Double Teams and Confuse Rays for all. The Venomoth went down to an Aurora Beam that came from seemingly everywhere, but in reality was directly in front of it.

When the Weezing came out I knew I really shouldn't have bothered and just let Luna roll over the whole lot of them. When it started spewing poison everywhere, I felt this urgent need to break the rules and blow it up. Fucking overgrown disgusting balls of filth. Still, Yue simply went with a quick Safeguard and started harassing it. I could tell the strategy was getting to… Whoever the fuck this Gym Leader was, didn't even need psychic powers to feel the aggravation rolling off of her. Yue was going to be fucking fun to let loose at the Conference.

I had a split second of warning before she ordered her next move, inadvertently taking a page from Surge's book, and having the Weezing use Explosion. But it was was enough. This was why it was important I had my powers. I'd ordered Yue to use Protect before Janine even finished giving her own command.

"Explosion!" All that delicious frustration. The shockwave broke upon a shield around Luna and I, not even a ruffled hair. The smoke cleared and that frustration went through the fucking roof. She growled, an actual out loud growl, and recalled her pokemon from the wrecked bit of Gym floor it lay on.

"Ariados, go! Web everything down!"

Is this what a bukkake looks like? Just sticky white ropes of gooey stuff fucking everywhere? There was even a semicircle in front of me where the shield had blocked a stray rope. For as dubious as it looked, it was effective and managed to tie down Yue long enough for the Ariados to leap on top of her start cocooning her. I recalled her and sent out Luna. Suffer not a spider to live. Here was my answer to whether my past life's arachnophobia had made it through. I could feel my skin fucking crawling just looking at the thing, with its jerky movements and totally fucking alien everything. All of this magnified to the size of a fucking Ariados? Breathing seemed to be becoming difficult.

"End it." My voice came out strangled. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. I closed my eyes, blocking all thought of the ginormous fucking spider a few meters away from me, focusing on making the shield around me indestructible. An infinity of power to keep it away from me. I heard a crunch off in the distance and my sister in my mind, pushing down on the terror until I could think again. I opened my eyes, to see Janine send out her last pokemon, a second Weezing, for all of a second, before it got put through the wall behind her.

"Winner: Pokemon Trainer Red."

"A worthy fight, I look forward to seeing how far you go, Red. You are well versed in the fighting styles favored by this Gym." She gestured, and another ninja, this one a different one than the Pokedex one, was by my side holding out a Soul Badge in a nice case. I took it, all the while feeling my sister pushing down the gibbering terror caused by the Ariados.

"Thank you." I walked out, senses in high gear until I was a few meters away from the Gym. I relaxed and decided to celebrate, hopefully that way I'd forget about the spider. Time to find a good restaurant. Maybe I'd, uh, acquire a bottle of wine or something. Did they have tequila in the pokeworld? I fished around my bag for the painkillers. I mean, they were probably sedatives too, right?

I found my restaurant not long after the delicious warmth of the pills had made everything nice and fuzzy. Soul pain was pretty much gone, and my phenomenal cosmic power coupled with magic pills made the supernatural cold that had been haunting me mostly go away. I stumbled on the doorway though. The pills didn't actually help on that front, probably made it worse really. A nice steak of what was probably Tauros meat with asparagus, mashed potatoes, and gravy. On the way out a bottle of cheap wine floated its way into my bag, and enough cash to pay for it floated itself into a money drawer.

A slight flex of telekinesis popped the cork, and I took a swig. Just as good as I remembered. Luna floated the bottle down to her in my jacket and took her own swig. Before long we were both drunk as fuck and giggling about every random thing. We walked back to the Pokemon Center after light drinking for a few hours. Our mothers must never learn of this day.

We stumbled into our room at the Center, and I saw the future, a dart sinking into my neck, everything going dark, and well, the Giovanni thing that already featured prominently in my nightmares from back when the thing with the Rocket grunts happened. I jerked out of the way in time for it to miss, and the second try pinged off of a reflex shield. Luna was out of my jacket and flinging a Psychic that went very wide and smashed a spiderweb into the wall. More darts pinged off of shields around us and I could feel the panic going through whoever the fuck that was' mind.

A combined smoke and flash bomb went off and I simply made sure to cover the exits in shields too. Fucker wasn't getting out alive. That made it easier. No need to worry about destroying their mind. A flash of psychic power directed at the only unfamiliar mind in the room stunned them long enough to get nailed by a Psychic from Luna. Some degree of training against mental attacks then. That was fine. I needed practice for the Haunter.

Drunk and high I may have been, but I recognized the opportunity in front us. Regular Rocket grunts? Not worth the effort. A Rocket ninja? There was a lot of knowledge and skills to be had here. Couldn't waste such an excellent opportunity to become an expert in ninja bullshit. Luna held her, for we finally had enough mind to spare to notice such things, and I dove into her mind. Espionage, counterespionage, combat, poisons, weapons, esoteric knowledge, stealth, security, breaking security, anything that was even slightly useful we ripped out, integrating it into our memories, chunks of her soul tearing away with every bit we took.

Mental contamination… In the end, it was worth it to know how best to protect ourselves outside of a pokemon battle or encounter. We would deal with some memories of the person we'd just destroyed if necessary, it was a price we were willing to pay. We'd stained our hands with the blood of our enemies already, what was a little more, and something worse? Our path was always going to end up dripping blood.

The empty husk that had once been Misao Kirk, retainer of Leader Janine, loyal spy of Team Rocket, climbed itself out of the window, walked to the wood southeast of the city, and slashed its throat.

27

I awoke to a pounding headache. It was familiar in a way I hadn't felt in over ten years. Hangover. What? How? I ran through the day, unlimited power, training montage, food, smacking around a Crobat, a Venomoth, a Weezing, and… an Ariados. Full body shudder. Hangover protesting the shudder. Fucking ow. Right. Freakout, Luna wrecking face and… blank. How the fuck did I get that drunk? A bleary look around the room showed it to be a fucking mess, the door securely locked, window locked, no immediate threats within sight.

Adrenaline, a fight. We'd fought. Not sport either, for our lives. Right, likely poisoned darts all over the room. A gesture had them all floating up to rest on the desk, safely away from my feet. I checked on Luna, making sure she was fine, before righting the room as best I could. There wasn't anything special about the darts, but somehow I knew the dried purple liquid was a mild soporific made from Venomoth sleeping powder, with little danger of causing a negative reaction with other drugs already in the bloodstream.

We'd… eaten someone, essentially. Torn apart their mind, taken what we found useful for ourselves, and discarded the rest. A traitor, to her master and to common decency. Just more blood spilled at the altar of ambition.

We needed a shower. I shook Luna awake, and we spent an hour trying to exhaust the Center's hot water supply. It certainly didn't make my hands feel any less bloody, but at least I felt better. Not to mention the soul pain was fully gone, which meant I was likely fully recovered. Right then, day of figuring out what the fuck I'd taken from the Rocket operative, training, and relaxing until I wasn't hungover anymore. Tomorrow I'd head for Celadon City through the Cycling Road.

We found the Center's cafeteria a bit busy, but there was enough food left. A glance at my poketch showed 12PM. Right. Brought memories of my past life's party days. Bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, fucking delicious greasy food. We'd been eating for a few minutes when I heard laughter ripple through the whole room. What? I looked up to find everyone focused on the TVs in the room, a late morning show playing in all of them, showing CCTV footage of a wine bottle floating its way out of a rack and into a child's messenger bag, the clip switched to one of a large pokedollar bill floating into a money drawer, then switching to an outdoor camera showing the child popping the cork with telekinesis and taking a swig, before looping from the start.

No.

No, no, no, no.

No fucking way.

No you fucking don't.

What.

Me. The video quality was trash and black and white, so I wasn't recognizable in any way, but I knew, even if I didn't remember it happening. Luna wasn't in the video so likely she was in her usual place in my jacket. Someone finally unmuted the TVs, and we could hear the hosts laughing their assess off about the psychic kid who wanted a drink and was generous about paying for what they took.

Oh no. I could feel the new instincts I had from the ninja screaming about the lack of attention paid to the security cameras. No one would recognize me from that video, no one knew Pokemon Trainer Red was a psychic either, but if that video circulated enough… Our mothers would know. Oh. Oh no. I was feeling faint. We needed to get the fuck out of the city, in case the video got popular enough to cross the region inside of a day. None of our mothers had ever been to Fuschia, but father had, and it would be trivial for Gardemom to use the memory to get everyone here.

Right then, Celadon righ the fuck now, after throwing the trail off towards Cinnabar by buying a ticket. It would show in my account activity, and maybe they'd be waiting for me in Cinnabar while I was taking care of business with Leader Erika, then ping back down to Fuschia and actually take a boat to Cinnabar, beat Blaine, Teleport back up to Vermillion or Lavender and finally square off against Sabrina. Yup. That's how things were happening. There would be no encounters with our mothers or my father until the Conference, some months from now, when they'd have forgotten about it already.

A quick trip to a clothing store had a less conspicuous outfit bought, complete with a hat to hide my hair. Paranoia? Maybe, but better paranoid than caught. We bought the misdirection ticket in the normal outfit, before changing into the boring pants and long sleeve shirt I'd just bought, and making a run for the Gate to Route 18. We skipped it with judicious use of phenomenal cosmic powers to float over it, and then did something we hadn't tried before. We floated high up and used line of sight Teleports from a high vantage point to speed through the Cycling Road.

Celadon here I am. Oh look, another Snorlax. Well, I mean, why not? Double Psychic naval artillery strike and that Snorlax didn't even wake up from its nap before it was already knocked the fuck out. Pokeball out, catch, and run the fuck to the world famous, probably, Celadon Department Store. We were speedrunning this shit. Rushed as I was, I had enough presence of mind to be impressed at the sheer size of the place. Fucking shops everywhere. Bright colors, exorbitant prices for random stuff, it was really quite the sight.

I approached an aide to find out at what floor I could buy elemental stones, and was directed to the fourth floor. A ridiculous amount of cash later, I had two Water Stones, and an Ice Stone, my main purpose in coming to the mall, and one of all the others. Thankfully they were small chunks, so they weren't very heavy. A little bit of work with Yue until she learned Sheer Cold and I'd evolve her. Right. Right.

I had a choice to make.

I decided to visit a coffee shop nearby both the Game Corner and the Celadon Gym. Our psychic bond with Ty Lee and Mai was strong enough that we could use them as relays for our more esoteric psychic abilities, so we sent one to each place on intelligence gathering missions. Thank fuck Haunter had strong psychic senses. We needed to be able to take both places one after the other in quick succession and be ready to get the fuck out to Fuschia.

If the Rocket fuckers were too busy reeling from having one of their main bases razed to the ground they'd probably be too busy to be greedy cunts ready to take potshots at me. A little mind fuckery here and there and I tagged most of the minds down in the Game Corner base as "Necessary Collateral Damage". Disgusting animals. Some more sniffing around found me the rooms with the most valuable loot as seen from the mind of the Rocket Admin in charge of the base. We couldn't get enough resolution to get the particulars of what that loot was and why it was valuable, but fuck it, who cared? It was free soon to be my stuff.

As for Erika I needn't have bothered sending Mai. Honestly. Nothing impressive or interesting going on there.

Right.

We changed clothing in the coffee store bathroom, wouldn't do to smash faces without my signature style. One Teleport through that weird in between place in reality with Mai as a homing beacon later and we were entering through the Gym doors. There were two aides just inside.

"I am here to challenge for the Rainbow Badge."

"Oh my, you look so cute!"

"Your hair is amazing!"

"Thanks, but, you know, challenge?"

"Oh, of course, right this way. I'll take you to the battle arena." One of the aides said, guiding us deeper into the Gym and gesturing to her partner. "Amy here will go inform Leader Erika and they'll meet us there."

We entered an arena not much different than Surge's, just dirt, but there were bleachers for spectators, and actual windows. At least there was that. Honestly, I was kind of disappointed in how simple the arenas were so far. The first two had been the best by far, especially Brock's. At the other end a door opened and Amy the aide and Leader Erika stepped through. I handed my pokedex to the aide beside me, and she registered it into a machine like they'd used in Fuschia. Good to see wireless tech expanding.

"This will be a three on three match, no substitutions."

"Pokemon Trainer Red challenges Gym Leader Erika for the Rainbow Badge."

"Go, Tangela!"

"Yue."

"Vine Whip!"

I held my snow fox off from going through with her usual strategy. There was no point here. If she could hold her own against a stronger Gym, she could brute force this one. Ice Beam barrage. She dodged the whips and got started on making me an ice sculpture. She landed three in a row before Eika recalled the Tangela.

"Go, Victreebel, Stun Powder!"

It actually managed to sneeze a load of powder into Yue's face, setting her on a sneezing fit for a few seconds during which the Victreebel landed a few whip lashes. Right then, fuck this shit.

"Blizzard."

Then everything was a lovely winter wonderland, and there was a frozen plant in front of Yue. Then it got recalled.

"Go, Vileplume!"

"Return, Yue." A technical loss, since I'd recalled her, but, well. "Luna."

She hopped out into the field long enough to slam a Psychic into the Vileplume and send it into a wall, before returning to my jacket. This was going to become a problem when she evolved. She wouldn't be able to fit in my jacket and act as my personal heat generator anymore.

"Ralts." Luna had sensed my thoughts and patted me, reassuring me that if she ever needed to evolve, she'd' be sure to find a suitable replacement. Okay then.

"Winner: Pokemon Trainer Red."

A moment of stunned silence from the Gym people, before I got my badge and I was power walking out to somewhere we could Teleport without being seen. A few minutes later and I was homing in on Ty Lee in one of the Rocket storage rooms. It was full of pokeballs. Excellent. A little looking around found me a Larvitar, two Dratini, a Porygon, and a Sneasel. These were keepers. A quick check with my pokedex found all of the balls were registered as Game Corner prizes. Excellent, into the bag.

I considered taking the Koffing and Voltorbs to use as makeshift explosives, but it felt needlessly cruel to the pokemon. They were mistreated enough already.

"Mai, Tai Lee." My ghosts materialized in front of me. "Feast." I sent them all the mental signatures we'd previously labeled, and they went wild. Barely a few minutes later I felt the first Rocket die. This wasn't blood spilled upon the altar of ambition, no, this was a slaughter, a culling. Team Rocket had been allowed to grow too much, today the tree was pruned, and maybe this way others would think twice about joining. I felt the moment people realized what was happening, the sudden spike in ambient terror, a change in the atmosphere of the place. Screams were everywhere, and they were delicious. My Haunter were too strong for any Rocket but Giovanni, and the leader wasn't here.

We walked at a leisurely pace to the other storeroom, pausing only long enough to rip the life out of the five grunts we ran into. We kept none of the structure, turning it into pure Life, losing a bunch of the power in the process. We got less, but there was no risk of mental contamination this way, before eating it. We felt our power grow with each life we ate, and in the distance we felt as our Haunters grew into Gengar. Everything was coming up Red Azula.

The second storeroom itself was the crown prize though. I could feel destiny calling us to it, guiding our steps. Here we would find another stepping stone to greatness. We blew the door off its frame, and walked straight to the back, where a heavy steel case lay on a desk. This was the most valuable thing in this whole wretched place. A thought wrenched it open and inside were two tiny stones. One was clear, the other one shifted through the rainbow when seen from different angles, with a leaf-like pattern somehow projecting from the center. Luna hopped out and pushed her power into the blank stone, until a similar pattern shone through.

A Mega Stone and a Key Stone. We'd have to get them set, matching chokers would be best. I think, given the situation, if anyone that knew me were to stumble upon me right this moment, they would have me committed. Or try to, anyway. I couldn't help the laughter, or the wide smile. People did say you couldn't spell slaughter without laughter. Luna took her stone with her back into my jacket, and I put mine into an inner pocket. Yes. Everything was going perfectly.

Mai and Ty Lee came back to us, their work finished, sinking into my shadow. It felt right, they belonged there. The cold intensified, as Gengar naturally cooled the world around them by a few degrees, but our power was greater now, our soul stronger, we could bear the cold better now.

We just needed to leave a message.

The Rocket Admin had barricaded himself in his office as soon as shit started going down, but it would avail him nothing. The door to his office blew in, and he was mid flinch when we ripped the life out of him. An effort of will saw his neck open up and his blood flow out to paint a message on his wall:

"Death to Team Rocket."

A thought to Ty Lee and Mai had them go out and destroy all computers, taking care to completely smash all storage devices, in the facility. Just in case I'd missed a camera. A Teleport later and we were checking in at the Pewter City Pokemon Center. The plan had changed, we needed rest. We would sleep, and in the morning we would get our toys ready, all of them.