Memoirs of a Pokemon Master CHAPTER 13 Showdown with a psychic in Saffron
"Hmmm. Nintendo. That kinda sounds familiar." - Trey LaJaunie
A few hours trekking on the path, and the rest of the day through some dense forest, we finally found the city of Saffron. We rested up in the Pokecenter. Alexia had left me a note at the desk. Apparently she had been there before us and had already gotten her badge and was on her way to Fuchsia. She wrote that she could not tell me what kind of pokemon that the gym leader, Sabrina, uses. She wished us luck. On the back of the page I found that she drew a small eyeball in purple crayon. I thought it was odd and didn't say anything to anyone about it. Andrew and Jason kept bugging me about the letter but I wouldn't let them see it. We rested that night. The next morning I decided to take a small stroll around town. We saw the Silph building and a game room. I tried my luck with the slots a few times but I only gained a few coins. We walked around and found a large mansion that was open to the public. We went in to look around. The place was full of pokemon. We climbed the stairs a few times and found a bunch of people working on computers. We found a guy who was in charge of this operation.
"So what are you guys doing in here?" I asked.
"We're trying to make a video game out of pokemon." The man said.
He told us how they were going to make two versions of the game but they still didn't have a system to put it on yet, but they were looking into a company known as Nintendo. We walked out of the building and towards the gym.
"Hmmm. Nintendo. That kinda sounds familiar." I said.
We found two gyms, side by side. One was an official gym, the other wasn't. Andrew and Jason wanted to go in the official gym but I wanted to try the unofficial. We went into the unofficial gym and found that there were lots of guys dressed in weird pajamas doing martial arts with their pokemon. All of the pokemon were physical type. I leaned over to Jason.
"We could do some real damage here." I whispered.
"What do you mean?" Jason whispered back.
"Physical types are weak against ghost and psychic types." I whispered.
Pikachu went up to a punching bag and started hitting it. He seemed to be having fun. I figured that pikachu would be entertained long enough for me and Jason to have it out with these guys. Andrew overheard us and took a seat at the side of the gym. I issued the challenge.
"Me and my friend here will take on all challengers!" I yelled.
Heads turned to look at us. An young man at the back stood up.
"I am the Karate Prince. You have challenged us. We will accept." He said. Then he yelled something in japanese. I didn't know what he said but I figured it was something along the lines of an order to attack because two large men in pajamas came up to us with their pokemon at their sides.
"Present your pokemon." One man said.
I nodded to Jason. He threw out his kadabra and I threw out gastly. A machop met my gastly while a machoke challenged kadabra. I pulled out Dexter.
"Machop. The superpower pokemon. Loves to build its muscles. It trains in all styles of martial arts to become even stronger." Dexter said.
I smiled as the machop tried to attack gastly. I looked over at Jason's battle and saw that Kadabra had already dispatched with the machoke.
"Gastly! Hypnosis!" I yelled.
Ghastly began to move around in a hypnotic pattern. The machop watched gastly. Soon the machop's eyelids began to get heavy and was soon asleep.
"Gastly! Dream eater!" I yelled.
Gastly went over to machop and disappeared. The machop screamed and then lay still, fainted. The karate men called back their pokemon. One by one the karate gym trainers fell at the hands of kadabra and gastly. The Karate Prince saw that he was hopelessly outmatched. He gave me and Jason t-shirts that said "I beat the Karate gym trainers and all I got was this lousy t-shirt".
"We'd give you better prizes but we don't really have anything else." Karate Prince said.
We made a quick stop at the pokemon center to get our pokemon rejuvenated. Then we headed for Sabrina's gym. We walked into the gym. We walked down a hallway that was lined with laboratories. We looked into one and we saw a man sitting at a table with his eyes closed. He seemed to be straining himself. A small wooden block was hovering in the air in front of him.
"This must be where they develop new psychic abilities for psychic pokemon." Jason said.
"Can I help you?" A man from behind us startled us. We turned to find a young man in a lab coat wearing a face mask.
"We're here to see the gym leader about a badge." I said.
"Hmpf. I suppose but I don't see why Sabrina would even soil her hands on the likes of you." He said. I decided to ignore his little snide remark. He led us into the arena area. He approached a closed gate.
"Sabrina. Some trainers are here to see you about a badge." He said.
"I know. I've been watching their progress." A voice from behind the gate said.
The man left without a word. The gates opened. A young woman with dark green hair and a little girl in a white dress appeared.
"Your name is Trey. You are Andrew. And you are Jason, a psychic pokemon trainer with some potential." The girl with the dark green hair said. "I am Sabrina, the gym leader here."
"Enough talk. Let's get on with the battle." I said.
"You beat the Karate gym. You are strong. But you are no match for me." Sabrina said. The little girl produced a pokeball and threw it into the arena. A Mr. Mime appeared. I had never seen Mr. Mime before so I pulled out Dexter.
"Mr. Mime. The barrier pokemon. If interrupted while it is miming, it will slap around the offender with its broad hands." Dexter said.
I pulled out gastly's pokeball and threw it into the arena. Gastly materialized, so to speak, in front of Mr. Mime.
"So you have a ghost pokemon. Just what I'd expect from a trainer from Lavender." Sabrina said. "Mr. Mime! Light screen!"
Mr. Mime closed his eyes and concentrated. A light emanated from him. But it seemed to have no effect.
"Gastly! Nightshade!" I yelled. Gastly let out a burst of dark gas. The dark gas enveloped Mr. Mime. When the gas evaporated, the Mr. Mime stood there but didn't seem to be harmed.
"Hah! Your pitiful attacks won't even phase Mr. Mime now! His light screen will protect him from such attacks!" Sabrina yelled.
Gastly began to bounce around furiously. Gastly tried to lick Mr. Mime, but it did no good. Mr. Mime concentrated and then did a lick attack on gastly. Gastly bounced around some more. He was bouncing around so fast that we couldn't keep up with him. He was disappearing and reappearing all over the place. Then a ray of light shot out of ghastly and hit Mr. Mime. Mr. Mime began to dance around the arena.
"A confusion attack!" Sabrina said. "Mr. Mime! Use your confusion attack!"
Mr. Mime was still confused. When Mr. Mime tried his confusion attack, it backfired and made him even more confused. Gastly was laughing hard. Gastly tried his nightshade attack again but it still didn't do any good. He tried to lick again but it didn't do any good.
"Mr. Mime! Double slap!" Sabrina yelled.
It didn't do any good. Mr. Mime kept slapping himself. Gastly was rolling around laughing. Just then, gastly began to glow.
"Oh no! Your gastly!" Sabrina yelled.
"He's evolving!' I yelled.
Gastly began to glow even brighter and took on the shape of haunter.
"Haunterrrrr!" Haunter said.
Haunter went over to the Mr. Mime. Haunter produced a bomb which promptly exploded. Mr. Mime was covered in soot as was haunter. The light surrounding Mr. Mime began to flicker and disappeared. I saw the opening before Sabrina did.
"Haunter! Use your nightshade attack!" I yelled.
Haunter produced a large cloud of gas, much larger than that of gastly's. The gas enveloped Mr. Mime. Mr. Mime began to run around in circles. It seemed that the attack had hit hard.
"Haunter! Lick!" I yelled.
Haunter went over to the Mr. Mime and licked it's face. The Mr. Mime's face was covered in haunter's drool.
"Now haunter! Time to finish this! Hypnosis!" I yelled. Sabrina kept trying to give orders to Mr. Mime, but Mr. Mime was so confused, he couldn't figure out what to do. Haunter began to wave his hands in a hypnotic pattern. Soon Mr. Mime fell asleep. Sabrina looked shocked.
"Now haunter! Dream eater!" I yelled.
Haunter disappeared. Mr. Mime cried out then lay still, fainted. Haunter reappeared.
"Haunthaunthaunthaunthaunteeeerrrr!" Haunter said victoriously.
Sabrina was enraged. A red aura formed around her.
"No one has ever done this to me! No one!" She yelled. Andrew and Jason took a step back. I didn't even flinch.
"I beat you fair and square." I said calmly. Sabrina calmed down a bit.
"I demand a rematch." She said.
"The result will only be the same!" I said.
"Then I will wait for you to return. I want that rematch. I will get stronger. And when you return, I will beat you. Here. Take the Marsh badge as your prize." The little girl handed me the Marsh badge. We went back to the pokemon center.
"She said I have potential as a psychic pokemon trainer." Jason said.
"That means you have to keep at it." I said.
The next day Andrew somehow defeated Sabrina, but a lot less gloriously as I had done it. He fought a long and hard battle but finally came out on top. We got directions to the next gym, which was in Fuchsia. We set out on the path towards Fuchsia. It would take us at least two weeks to reach Fuchsia from Saffron. We stocked up on supplies and headed out.