Chapter no.273 Saffron City

[ POV Change ]
Three years ago, Saffron city was associated with a different name, a different gym, and a different gym leader. For decades, the Fighting-type gym, first created by gym-leader Marcus around a hundred years ago, tested the mettle of conference aspirants who were on their way to challenge the Indigo League Conference. Back in those days, the Saffron city gym stood at number 2, second only to the infamous Cinnabar gym under the mysterious and elusive Fire-master Blaine—in terms of difficulty level for an average aspirant. There was a reason after all, why most people tended to avoid the Saffron gym—choosing to try their luck with the alternative options instead.
Then, roughly sixteen years ago, Alfred Marvil, a renowned psychic and a resident of Saffron city, had a daughter—Sabrina, a young girl who from her infantile period, demonstrated a high proclivity towards psychic abilities. Over time, her skills encompassed apportation, claircognizance, telepathy, telekinesis, psychometry and levitation. When she turned nine, Sabrina demonstrated abilities enough to equal a newly-evolved Kadabra, and had begun to demonstrate affinities towards the powers that the Abra-line was famous for. At the age of twelve, she was already classified as one of, if not the most powerful human psychic in the world.
That was when things became much more interesting.
Sometime before her thirteenth birthday, Sabrina registered herself as an aspirant for the Ever-Grande Conference of Hoenn, creating another world-record by acquiring the necessary eight badges within a time frame of exactly twenty-one days—just in time to submit her name for the conference held that very year. She then went on to defeat each and every single opponent in the conference, using the same six psychic pokémon under her command—and eventually became the Ever-Grande League winner.
Then, she returned back to Kanto, and using her status as an Elite trainer, challenged the Kanto Elite Four- a family that back then, comprised of the Ice-Master Lorelei, the Ghost-Master Agatha, the Fighting-Master Bruno, and the Fire-Master Blaine. In a series of quick and decisive battles, Sabrina defeated Blaine, Lorelei, and Bruno, exactly in that order, before meeting her match in Agatha, to which she succumbed and for the first time in her life, tasted defeat.
That was how Sabrina ended up winning the position of the Second Elite Four, causing Blaine—the then fourth Elite Four to lose his position as Bruno and Lorelei were demoted down from their second and third positions to third and fourth respectively.
A month later, Sabrina Marvil walked up to the infamous Fighting-type gym, then run by gym leader Anthony—a descendent of Marcus, challenging him to a battle with the future of the gym at stake. Should Anthony be able to defeat her, she would give up her own position as Elite Four. Conversely, should she win, then Anthony would have to shut down his gym for good.
Three minutes.
Three minutes was all that took to completely humiliate the Fighting-type gym leader, as Sabrina walked out, with the position of the new Saffron city gym leader—another notch on her belt. The once powerful fighting-type gym, was now reduced to a mere dojo, as Sabrina Marvil settled herself as the new psychic-type gym leader of Saffron city.
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Inside the Saffron City gym, Sabrina suddenly opened her eyes as she whispered to herself in utter apathy.
" Why is the chosen one here ?"
Of course, the boy—Ash Ketchum, though someone of her own age, had been… interesting, but not that interesting. Of course, she understood the significance of attaining the interest of pseudo-legendaries and legendaries alike, but unlike Agatha—Sabrina thought with a scowl—she had better things to do than to place her faith on something as woolly as that. Most people would say that with the amount of psychic potential Sabrina wielded, she would be the Altar of clairvoyance, believing the existence of grand-prophecies and totems and omens and all of that stuff.
Most people, Sabrina thought, were absolute idiots.
Yes, she had immense psychic potential, but like pokémon, her own potential had their own affinities and limitations. Sabrina had always been somewhat of a manipulator of force, as far as psychic energy was considered, rather than exploring its more… esoteric abilities. Of course, that was not to say that she hadn't cultivated that side of her powers, but they were simply tools at best. That was why she preferred having Alakazam and Bronzong around, and not flocks of Xatu.
Of course, being able to simply see through the sequence and formation of events, and use her mental faculties to calculate permutations and combinations, and select the most… probable path that events were likely shape into… could also be termed as Clairvoyance, by laymen. However, that hardly meant that she could see through the lines of Time and Fate and locate confluences in quantum time locks of the Multiverse. Why Lance couldn't see things her way, was beyond her.
Sabrina looked up to the ceiling light as she closed her eyes.
What actions should she take when the chosen one was near her ?
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[ Saffron City - Silph Cooperation ]
Austin walked along through the busy streets of Saffron City
' It's almost like a miniature New York,' Austin hummed as he peered up at the tall buildings of Saffron. 'Second largest city in Kanto, yet only five-hundred thousand people live here. I wonder if the census counts pokemon? Hard to say… Idly, Austin wondered what his big brother would think of Earth's population of eight billion when the entire pokemon world doesn't even boast an eighth of that number. 'Then again, pokemon outnumber humans so that figure might be a bit skewed… and Earth's population probably isn't that high anymore…'
A nip on his ear from Pikachu pulled him away from such morbid thoughts as they stop at a crosswalk with a red light.
" Ready to visit the biggest cooperation in Kanto." Austin asked causing Pikachu to rub the back of his head nervously.
" Come on, buddy weren't you going to assure me to not be nervous ?"
" Pika."
" Really great input." Austin said causing Pikachu to turn his head to the side.
" You know imagine they have a test site or some indoor range with a pokemon that can make force fields on-hand. Bill said that he warned them that these moves are no joke."
" Pika ?"
Seeing the confused look on Pikachu's face, Austin frowned.
" Buddy, do you know why we are here ?"
" Pi, Pi, Pi." Pikachu nervously laughed as he patted Austin's cheek.
" Remember TMs."
" Pika."
" We are going to Silph Co. to make some TMs."
Austin's words caused Pikachu to do his signature surprise face.
Another thirty minutes of walking lead them to a fifty story building in its own small corporate park near the outer eastern part of the city. The grass is cut short, the shrubs are all trimmed square, and the windows of the building are all sparkly and clean. At the top of the building is a large sign clearly spelling out "Silph Co" in stylized letters.
Austin double checked his pokedex one final time before nodding. "This is the place. Let's go."
Stepping inside, the human and pokemon pushed past the revolving door and take in the lavish lobby of the Silph Co building. Austin in particular looked down at himself afterward, now very conscious of the wear on his clothes and the dirt on his boots in the face of the immaculate room.
"Do you feel a little underdressed too?" Austin said causing Pikachu to pat his body as if he was saying that he didn't wear clothes.
The duo made their way to the reception desk in the middle of the lobby.
As they approached, the smartly-dressed woman manning the reception desk look up from her computer screen with a smile. That smile shrinks when the first thing she saw was Pikachu causing Pikachu's ears to drop. "I'm sorry, but Silph Corporation has a no loose pokemon policy on the premises. I'll have to ask you to..!"
The Secretary's words cut off as she saw a black badge pinned to Austin's jacket.
" I,I am sorry Mr Executive. I will immediately call the president right away."
The Secretary said as she quickly picked up the phone besides her meanwhile Austin and Pikachu looked at each other in confusion.
What had just happened?
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[ Omake Paragraph ]
One of the more unusual of Pokelympic games is the sport of Electrode Bowling. It is played by rolling an Electrode down a long alley into an ever-increasing triangular arrangement of metal pins, ranging from one in the first frame to fifty-five in the tenth. Electrode are difficult to grip and have trouble accelerating on a flat surface, and regulation pins are designed to be quite sturdy, so typically they do not arrive at the pins with enough force to knock them over. The players, however, also carry remote-controlled detonators, which when pressed at the right time will either send the pins flying or incinerate them. So long as they are no longer standing, it counts as a point, and the player with the most points at game's end wins.
The Electrode, for its part, is knocked unconscious: the typical Electrode explosion is more akin to a star going nova than a bomb exploding. Nonetheless, ten must be obtained by each player for a single game, which has combined with the expense of maintaining and replacing pins to heavily blunt the game's popularity outside of major urban centers.