My Little Pokemon Silver Spoon Version

The sun wasn’t up yet. Considering sunrise happened around five-ish in the morning that didn’t say very good things about the time. It was early and then there was just cruelty.

“Oh sure, Misty, this is definitely the way to Saffron city! Now you’ve got us lost!” Ash’s loud grumbling startled me.

“Me!?” Misty snapped at him. “With your sense of direction you’d get lost in a mirror!”

“At least I don’t crack them!” He yelled back.

“Guys, calm down. You don’t really wanna stand around arguing, do you?” Brock stood between them, trying to defuse the situation.

“Yes we do!” Their response snapped the last strand of Brock’s patience. All three started yelling and arguing, taking the early morning hour out on each other.

I leaned against a tree with Weiss and rubbed my face. If I was up then I was going to be up. I needed my wits about me.

“Hey, look over there!” Ash broke up the fight, distracted by something past the trees. I had to move closer to the others before I saw what he did. A little girl dressed in white, playing with a ball.

“Excuse me, little girl? Are we close to Saffron city?” He called.

“Hehehe!” She continued to giggle and play with her ball. Without any indication she’d heard us she turned around and started to run.

“Hey, wait a minute!” Ash, of course, took off after her.

An early morning run is a surprisingly effective way to wake up in the morning. As soon as I was really moving I was wide awake. Weiss and I dodged trees and large rocks, jumped over smaller plants to keep up with Ash. Misty and Brock struggled in our wake but were keeping up admirably well.

And then Ash ran straight off a cliff.

“ASH!” I screamed, hand diving down to Fearow’s ball. How steep was the cliff? How tall? What was at the bottom?

Ash tossed up a pokeball faster than I could. Bulbasaur had barely materialized before his vines snagged Ash. I got to the cliff edge and sighed with relief when I saw the vines wrapped around his waist.

It was a long fall.

“Ash, you scared me half to death!” I helped him up. “You have to watch your footing in the dark!”

“Yeah, sorry.” He looked a little shaken by his close brush with death. We were both trembling from the sudden shock of adrenaline hitting our veins.

“Are you guys okay?” Misty and Brock caught up to us.

“Yeah, yeah we’re fine.” I nodded shakily.

“Where’d that little girl go?” Brock asked.

That’s right. It wasn’t just Ash who’d been running around in the dark. Nervously, I looked over the edge again for a hint of white. I didn’t see anything.

“Look! Saffron city!” Misty pointed the way. Beyond the cliff was a beacon of shining lights. Saffron city didn’t look quite as big as Viridian city but it was definitely more colorful.

“Maybe the little girl went there?” Ash suggested uncertainly.

With all of us now wide awake and a pre-dawn light beginning to show we made our way safely down the cliffside. We kept an eye out for the little girl in case she was still wandering nearby but she didn’t turn up. None of us wanted to risk running off another cliff so we decided to head straight to the city first before we considered seriously searching for her. With luck she was a local who knew the place well and just snuck away from her parents. If not, then we’d be back out to help find her.

“Wow, so this is Saffron city!” Misty’s eyes gleamed as we entered the gates.

I was just looking around at the signs and billboards, eyes scanning for the Pokemon Center logo, when the ground below us erupted into a series of bangs and bright lights.

“Congratulations!” Two girls in hula skirts stepped out of the shadows and pecked Ash on the cheeks.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Ash was right to be suspicious. When something happened out of the blue like this it usually had something to do with Team Rocket.

“You’ve won a fantastic prize!” The hula girls cheered. “You’re the millionth visitor to Saffron city!”

“Wow, really?” We started to relax.

Do people really get prizes for stuff like this?

“Please, follow us!” They led us towards a big tower. A few signs identified it as the Saffron city TV Network Building. “This way, step lightly now!”

“What great luck!” Ash grinned, looking around excitedly. “Do you think we’ll get to be on tv?”

“I hope they let us get cleaned up a little first.” Misty ran a hand through her hair.

The lobby was empty. The sun was just barely creeping over the horizon but there should’ve been someone at the front desk, right?

There was a bright flash of light. Colors swirled and sounds grew garbled. It was like a full body twitch.

And then we were somewhere else.

‘Teleportation.’ I realized.

“Whoa, where are we?” The others were recovering.

A flat screen TV descended from a slot in the ceiling.

“You’re watching the ‘Prepare for Trouble, Make it Double!’ Show!” The hula girls appeared on screen, sans Pikachu.

They then proceeded to duck below the camera and, from the clothes and wigs thrown haphazardly about, tore off their disguises. Jessie and James jumped back into view, both trying to hide their panting.

“Team Rocket!? Again!?” Ash groaned loudly. “And…Yuck! They both kissed me!” He ripped off the flower necklace and began scrubbing his cheeks.

While they did their motto the rest of us began looking around the room for a way out. The walls looked pretty solid and I’d hate to have to destroy public property but if that was our only option then we’d just have to live with it.

“Hey! Don’t ignore us!” Jessie screeched. It was no wonder it had taken me so long to realize they were close to Brock in age, considering how shrill she could get her voice to sound.

“Maybe this will get your attention.” They both stepped to the side, revealing Pikachu tied up in rubber ropes with Meowth standing guard over him.

“Give me back Pikachu right now!” Ash yelled in warning.

“Or what? Hm?” Jessie gave him a smug smirk. “The only way in or out of that room is through the Warp Tile and we’re in the control room, not you. Oh but don’t worry, I’m sure the staff will let you out in a couple of hours!”

“Or we can just break out with our pokemon.” Weiss pulled out a pokeball. “I doubt the walls here are as thick as the hull of the St. Anne.”

That made them sweat. But a second later the screen turned to static.

“Hey! Come back! Leave Pikachu alone!” Ash slammed his fist into the screen. He quickly turned back to us. “We’ve got to get out of here before they get away!”

The sound of displaced air, like a gentle shush.

Behind me, not on the Warp Tile, was the little girl from the forest, holding Pikachu.

“You’re…that girl.” Ash looked a little stunned as Pikachu jumped into his arms. “You saved Pikachu for us? Thank you, I—!”

Colors blurred and swirled together. Sounds became garbled and meaningless. Every muscle in my body twitched and I barely kept my feet under me.

Ugh. No wonder not a lot of unicorns teleported, it was disorienting.

I slowly took in my new surroundings. We were in a courtyard or a pavilion with lots of pathways and benches. There was one building with unique, sweeping pillars in the center of it all.

“Did that little girl teleport us here?” Misty rubbed her sore bottom as she stood up.

“Where is here anyway?” Ash grumbled, making sure he had a secure hold on Pikachu as he climbed to his feet.

“Exposition please.” Weiss asked after standing up.

“You folks come to this city and don’t know Sabrina’s gym?” Everyone but Weiss was startled a little to find a man in a green jogging suit behind us.

“Word of warning to you, if you’re hoping to challenge the Pokemon League this is one gym you’d be better off avoiding.” He warned us before he turned and continued on his way.

Huh, what timing.

“Well, that was…strange.” Misty shuddered.

“I don’t care what this gym’s reputation is! I’ve already decided this is where I’m going to earn my next badge!” Ash declared confidently.

“Do, um, do any of you guys know what type of pokemon Sabrina uses?” I asked nervously.

“Psychic types.” Weiss stated while looking at the gym worriedly.

“C’mon Sarah, it’ll be fine!” Ash slapped me on the back. “Just watch, pretty soon we’ll be leaving here with a Marsh Badge.”

“If you say so.” I couldn’t help but shiver as we walked closer to the gym.

“Hello, is anyone home?” Ash called as we walked in.

“I don’t like this place. It’s creepy!” Misty grabbed my arm for comfort.

“It’s not so bad.” I tried to put a brave face on it but I was getting more and more worried by the second. After a while we started to pass some doors and we stopped to peek inside one.

“What are they doing?” Ash asked.

“Practicing psychic abilities.” Weiss answered easily. “The people at the card table are practicing mind reading. The people with spoons are practicing telekinesis.”

Telekinesis? I thought only unicorns could do that with magic.

“Psychic stuff? I thought that stuff was fake! Only pokemon have those abilities, right?” Misty looked at Weiss in shock.

“Some humans are born with amazing abilities. They make up less than one percent of the world’s population.” Weiss shrugged.

“Well at least one of you has some prior knowledge.” Only Weiss managed to keep from jumping with the rest of us but I was getting a little sick of all the jump scares lately. The man who’d appeared before us had long red hair and wore a lab coat with a medical mask over his face.

“Though I am astonished so many of you came here in ignorance. What is your purpose in the Great One’s gym?” He demanded from us.

“I’m Ash Ketchum, and I’m here to challenge the Gym Leader Sabrina for a Marsh Badge!” Ash stood straighter.

“Ha! You fool!” The man pulled a spoon from his pocket and glared at it heatedly for…for a while actually. He didn’t seem to be breathing and the veins around his forehead grew more pronounced, what we could see of his face began to flush.

“Aha! You see!” The spoon bent.

A little.

I felt kind of awkward watching that. He looked so proud of himself and it had taken him a whole minute just to make that much difference.

“Are you alright? You look like you’ve got a headache.” Ash asked in concern.

“Fool, it’s telekinesis! You can’t control a Psychic type pokemon without telekinesis!” He declared.

I looked over to Weiss who shook her hand in a ‘so-so’ gesture.

“Psychic or no psychic, I’m going to challenge Sabrina to a Gym Battle!” Ash boldly declared, taking the spoon from the man’s hands and bending it through sheer strength. “See? Muscle over mind!”

“Just pretend we’ve never met him.” Brock muttered to the rest of us.

“Guys.” I scolded them in a whisper.

“Ash.” Weiss grabbed everyone’s attention as she grabbed the spoon from Ash’s hand. “You’re an idiot.” She said as she held up the spoon and it was bent back into position.

Without Weiss touching it.

“Impressive.” The man looked at Weiss wide eyed before turning back to the rest of us. “However there’s no saving those determined to doom themselves.” The man scoffed. “Very well, follow me.”

“I didn’t know you were psychic.” Misty whispered as we followed the lab coat wearing psychic.

“Hm. Could be psychic.” Weiss then leaned over to whisper in my ear, away from the rest of the group. “Could be magic.”

“Here we are.” I didn’t have time to contemplate Weiss’s statement as the psychic threw open the doors to the arena. A chill swept up my spine.

“Sheesh, this looks more like a temple than a gym.” Brock shivered.

“Whatever’s it’s like I don’t like it.” Misty began to rub her arms for warmth.

It had a standard arena but the walls were lined with torches. Smoke gathered in pools at the ceiling and were drawn off into vents. The room smelled like incense and the unseen pressure I was feeling much stronger here.

On the far side of the room was a reed curtain. Our guide crossed the arena quickly and knelt before it.

“Oh great Sabrina, these unworthy ones have come to challenge you! Though I do not know why you should bother with such pathetic im—Hack!” He was lifted off his feet, nothing we could see supporting him. He flailed for a second and then was still with a kind of rigidness that made me think he couldn’t move.

“For-Forgive me, Great One! It is not I who should decide who is worthy! Please, forgive me!” He pleaded. He fell to the ground and quickly jumped to his feet, crying apologies as he ran straight past us and into the hall.

Behind the curtain came a giggle.

“Huh? Wait a second,” Ash stepped forward hesitantly.

Although the lighting didn’t change we were suddenly able to see beyond the curtain, just a little. Enough to see that on a big throne there was a familiar little girl.

“You’re the girl who saved Pikachu!” Ash smiled. “You’re Sabrina?”

“That’s right!” She said brightly. “Do you want to battle me?”

“Yeah, I’m here to earn a Marsh Badge!” He nodded decisively.

“Okay! But if you lose, you all have to be my friends and play with me!” She added warningly.

“Play? Sure, we can do that!” Ash agreed easily before turning to us. “See, guys? She might have some telekinetic powers but she’s still just a little girl.”

“Don’t underestimate her, Ash.” Weiss frowned, looking over his shoulder.

“And, uh, I wouldn’t be so sure about the ‘little’ part.” Brock stammered, pointing.

The curtain had pulled up. Instead of a little girl there was now a much older, but similar looking, girl. She looked around Brock’s age, give or take a year. Long, dark green hair and a face chiseled from marble. And the little girl in her lap dangled in her grip like a doll.

“This will be a one on one, all out match, no substitutions. Do you accept?” The older girl spoke tonelessly.

“Yeah, I’m ready!” Ash nodded, looking much more serious now.

“Abra.” The little girl’s pokeball flew out, opening to release an Abra.

“Pikachu, you’re up!” Ash refocused, sending Pikachu out into the ring.

“Pika! Pika pika, pikachu pika!” Pikachu waved his tiny fist in challenge. Abra, being asleep, didn’t respond.

“It’s not really sleeping is it?” Ash asked uncertainly. “Who sends out a sleeping pokemon?”

“What did I just say about underestimating them?” Weiss remarked.

“Abra: This pokemon sleeps for eighteen hours a day and can even Teleport away from danger without waking up.” Ash’s Pokedex read off the short entry.

“Then we’ll just have to be fast. Pikachu, Thunderbolt!” Ash jumped right in.

As expected, the Abra Teleported away without moving. Ash and Pikachu tried it a few more times and never came close. Abra could probably keep up that teleport for a while before it got tired.

A white glow began to emit from every inch. I blinked and missed the transition. Suddenly there was a larger pokemon wielding a spoon, awake and ready to bring the full brunt of its abilities to bear.

“It evolved!?” Ash gulped. “I guess that doesn’t count against the no substitutions rule, huh?”

“No such luck.” Misty shook her head though Ash wasn’t looking our way. He was totally focused on the battlefield in front of him.

“Pikachu, fill the whole stadium with lightning!” He ordered.

Pikachu outdid himself. Launching a Thunder attack at the ceiling it pooled into itself as a massive vortex that started raining lightning bolts toward the field.

The sight would have impressed a lot of pegasi and unicorns back home.

Unfortunately, Sabrina trained her Kadabra really well and being a psychic she didn’t have to waste time saying her orders.

“Kadabra is using Confusion to control Pikachu’s attack.” Weiss stated as the individual lightning bolts combined to form a serpent-like dragon. The attack quickly caught up to Pikachu, dealing serious damage.

I hate to admit it, but this was the most impressive battle Ash has had so far. Brock, Misty and Surge pale in comparison to Sabrina.

“Pii…kaa…” Pikachu groaned. His fur was singed along his back.

“Pikachu, can you stand?” Ash was shaken. He would either make a great comeback from this or he wouldn’t.

There was a very real possibility he wouldn’t.

Pikachu stood, but not under his own power.

“Why is he dancing?” Ash was incredulous.

“Kadabra is using Psychic.” Weiss stated as Pikachu’s body flew up and hit the ceiling with a loud smack! Down, faster than mere gravity could pull, until he hit the floor.

It was brutal. No hint of mercy or kindness. Every hit was as strong as the first. For a horrible second that stretched into eternity we stood there frozen, watching it happen.

“Stop the match!” Ash recovered first. He ran out onto the field and was just two steps too late to catch Pikachu on their final descent. He wrapped his arms protectively around Pikachu, but Kadabra made no move to continue the beating.

We ran out after him. Pikachu didn’t look too badly hurt. A couple of hours in a Pokemon Center and he’d be good as new. Still, that kind of brutality wasn’t something we’d faced before. We hadn’t expected it.

“Remember, you promised you’d be my friends and play with me when you lost!” The little girl chided us with a giggle.

And then, well…colors blurred, sounds grew garbled, everything twitched and suddenly we were somewhere else.

With an abrasive headache in the back of my skull.

“I am getting really tired of being Teleported around like that.” I fumed quietly.

“Where are we?” Misty climbed unsteadily to her feet.

It was a neighborhood, somewhere in the suburbs. Immaculate lawns, perfectly trimmed flower bushes, white picket fences. The houses had a little individuality in terms of color but the designs were all identical.

“Seems pretty empty.” Brock commented. Not a single blade of grass stirred. There didn’t seem to be anyone around at all.

“Let’s look around, see if we can find some answers.” Ash was still cradling Pikachu as we walked.

“That house has a door open.” Brock pointed out. Lacking a better idea, we decided to investigate.

My headache wasn’t going away. The others were surprised to see a dinner table set with cake but no one around but I just took the opportunity to sit down. It felt like we’d been going at a hundred miles an hour since chasing Ash to the cliff.

That hadn’t been too long ago. More than an hour less than three? Say, two or so?

I sighed and tried to make myself comfortable. The chair didn’t have much cushion though. Ash went off to explore the rest of the house, calling for any occupants as he went. From the corner of my eye I spotted the plush couch in the living room, with throw pillows and a blanket folded over the back. It was calling me.

Silver. Silver Spoon. Come lay on me.

I sighed again and stood up. A few short steps and I twirled on my heel to sprawl onto the cushions.

And slammed into the plastic furniture hard enough to see stars.

“OOOowwww!” I moaned, rolling onto the floor and cradling my head.

“Sarah?” Misty and Brock ran in from the kitchen.

“It’s hard!” I whined, sitting up and patting the back of my head. Right next to the still healing cut from the St. Anne too. Ouch!

“The couch is plastic too! Just like the cakes!” Brock gasped.

“Whyyyyyyy?” I cried. This has not helped my headache. What was before a nuisance to be endured had now rocketed up to a relentless pulse that refused to be ignored.

“Guys, I think I know where we are.” Misty gulped. “We need to find Ash, quick!”

I forced myself to my feet and followed her. We found Ash upstairs, outside the bathroom. He was gaping at something inside like he couldn’t make sense of it.

“Ash, I don’t know how but we’re inside a—aaAAAHHH!” Misty’s voice turned into a scream as the roof was lifted off the house. Above us was the little girl and Sabrina. But the little girl wasn't so little anymore.

“Let’s play!” The littlest giant laughed.

“Run!” Brock grabbed Misty and I and pulled us through the door. We leaped downstairs with Ash and Weiss close on our heels.

“These are dollhouses! I think this whole place is a toy box and she somehow shrunk us to fit inside!” Misty explained hastily.

“That’s crazy! Can telekinesis really do that?” Ash and Weiss caught up and ran alongside us as we pelted down the street.

“Transmutation can.” Weiss replied.

I didn’t know what we’d do when we got to the edge of the box. Could Fearow fly us all out of here? Would we return to normal size or be stuck like this? Would Fearow have shrunk too?

Underneath us the earth jumped and shook as the littlest giant followed us, bouncing her ball along the way.

“I wanna play catch!” I risked looking over my shoulder at that. She had her ball, now the size of a boulder, in hand.

“Look ahead!” Misty screamed.

A dead end, marked by a giant photo of the little girl and two people, presumably her parents.

Huh, her mom actually has the same hairstyle as Fluttershy.

“Catch!” She threw the ball towards us.

“At least we died as Ash lived. Being crushed by a trainer stronger than him due to his own arrogance.” Weiss deadpanned as I slapped her in the back of the head.

There was the distinctive shush of displaced air again and the jogger from earlier appeared before us.

“Let your minds rely on mine!” He told us.

Colors blurred together, sounds became garbled, my entire body twitched as we settled someplace new. The only thing lacking was the abrasive static in the back of my mind. The headache was still there, but it hadn’t gotten any worse and in fact even felt a little better. The only lingering sensation was a warm press, like someone laid a hot, damp rag on my brain.

We were in the courtyard in front of Sabrina’s gym again.

“You…You saved us.” Ash panted.

“Thanks for that.” Misty gulped in air beside him.

“Yeah.” I coughed.

“I won’t be able to do that a second time. Take my warning to heart.” He narrowed his eyes. “Leave this city and never return.”

“I need a Marsh Badge.” Ash’s own eyes drilled into him.

“There are other gyms, boy.” The man said gruffly. “Try your luck at one of those. If you face Sabrina again you will end up as her playthings for the rest of your life.”

“Not if I win.” Ash clenched his fists. “Next time, we’ll just have to be faster! We’ll have to pour on the lightning before she has a chance to start in on that psychic stuff.”

“Not a good idea, Ash.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “Sabrina doesn’t have to give vocal commands and the attacks were nearly instant.”

“Then what should we do?” He looked at me and I looked at Weiss.

“Psychic type pokemon are weak to ghost and dark type pokemon or you could bring your own psychic pokemon.” Weiss revealed, sighing in the process.

“Are you nuts? Go back there? What if we end up as dolls? C’mon Ash, there’s plenty of gyms and you only need eight badges to compete in the Pokemon League.” Misty tried reasoning.

“Listen to your friend, boy. I will not be able to save you a second time.” The stranger cautioned him.

“Listen to the magic jogging hobo Ash.” Weiss stated, earning herself a look from the jogger.

I didn’t try arguing. I trusted Ash to be a good person and do what he felt was right. If he felt driven to earn the Marsh Badge over trying for an easier one, then I’d support him in whatever he chose.

Besides, Sabrina was a problem and someone needed to stop her.

The jogger tried to discourage Ash. He tried to scare Ash with a show of his own psychic abilities, pulling down his pants and then increasing his weight until he was pancaked against the road.

I ended up joining in on that show. What was I supposed to do? Watch? I ended up pancaked beside him after I tried dividing the stranger’s attention by throwing rocks.

But I guess Ash’s determination got through somehow. He told us there were ghost pokemon to be found in Lavender town and Weiss confirmed it with the addition that a colleague was opening up a ghost type gym there. Before we left the city we stopped in at the Pokemon Center to make sure Pikachu was really okay. I took the chance to do a little digging and make sure we weren’t being sent on a wild goose chase.

It seemed the two were honest about it though. Now we’re camped out on the side of the road. Lavender town isn’t far, we should get there tomorrow.

If Ash is set on earning the Marsh badge, then I might as well see about challenging the newly formed Lavender gym.