Chapter Thirty-Six - The Simplest Girl Around

Tabitha wasn't a simple girl. She didn't have simple wants, and she didn't have simple desires.

Her goal was world domination, to become a queen of queens and champion of pokemon.

When she was six years old, Tabitha had watched a replay of the Sinnoh Championship match. It was Cynthia who captivated her, the current Sinnohian champion, the woman who ruled one of the strongest nations in the world along with a team of powerful pokemon.

The match had been against some team with a trainer who'd only-just managed to slip past the Elite Four. Well, Elite Three, at the time as one of the members was otherwise occupied, so he had an easier challenge ahead of him before reaching Cynthia.

She had faced his six-pokemon team with only one pokemon, a Lucario that moved so fast that he was rarely more than a blur. The Elite's team had been smacked around and left in a sorry state.

That was, until he launched his ace.

Tabitha would remember the words he said when he tossed that pokeball until the day she died. "You're the king, you're the best! Go Slowking!"

The Slowking had taken down the Lucario only to be swept aside by Cynthia's Gastrodon. But it didn't matter to Tabitha.

At that moment, at six years old, she had understood a fundamental thing.

Kings were the most powerful.

If she wanted to accomplish her goal of being the queen of queens, she would need to surround herself with kings.

Life at home was... complicated. She had an older sister. Her older sister was powerful in a way that Tabitha couldn't measure up against. Her parents loved her. Tabitha knew this, because their thoughts leaked like sieves, but Tabitha also knew that they adored her bigger sister more.

Adored in the ancient sense of the word. There was as much fear as there was love there.

She was loved, but nothing more. An afterthought.

So, recently, she'd decided to take part in her pokemon journey. Her sister had offered her some assistance. She could teleport Tabitha around Kanto with ease. She had a strong team that could help Tabitha.

Tabitha had accepted one teleportation, to Azalea Town, and a few pokeballs that her sister had no pressing need for. She'd captured a pokemon some time before leaving home, her first king... or she would be, eventually.

King Krabby was standing on the ground next to her, eyes tilted up to look at Tabitha. The krabby was very open about her thoughts and emotions. It would make her weak to any psychic probing, but Tabitha didn't mind that. It made it all the easier to bond with the little crab pokemon.

Azalea Town was a nice enough place. It was surprisingly loud for a place with as few humans living in it as this. Mostly that was all the Bug-type pokemon zipping around all over. The town had become something of a haven for that kind of pokemon. There were fewer spearow and pidgeys around than in other areas, and the lower number of predators meant that bugs could flourish.

The forest to the west of the town helped too, of course, it was a good environment for the growth of bugs of all sorts.

Tabitha wasn't interested in what could be found that way. What she cared about was the Slowpoke Well, a small relatively well-known (at least locally) spot where a large clan of slowpoke could be found. They were quite popular with the inhabitants of Azalea, at least the older ones.

The younger were more enthused about Bug-type pokemon, likely owing to the relatively new gym in the centre of the town and its Bug-specialist gym leader.

Soon after arriving in Azalea, Tabitha had ventured eastwards. Her goal was the well.

She discovered the well occupied by a rotating cadre of suspicious men. They wore no uniform, but were stalking the entrance of the well from morning 'till evening. Tabitha was tempted to approach them, but instead she slipped into the woods nearby and listened.

Not with her ears, but with her mind.

It didn't take long to pick up small snatches of conversation. These men worked for Team Rocket. Were grunts themselves.

She didn't know what they were doing in the well, but on rare occasions she could feel a little bit of distress coming from it.

The Team Rocket grunts had pokemon. Zubats and rattata, mostly, with the occasional ekans thrown in.

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Tabitha was confident that she could take them with King Krabby. Her pokemon was stronger than theirs. She could feel it. But what if they didn't fight fair? And she could tell that there was someone else here, someone stronger with stronger pokemon who she wasn't sure she could defeat so easily.

She needed help.

Her first thought was to call upon the police. An officer Jenny could certainly help... but Tabitha was reluctant to do so. Firstly, because in her experience, while officers could be helpful, they could also be detrimental.

All it would take would be for them to declare the well a crime scene for Tabitha to find herself unable to enter, perhaps for entire weeks.

Second, because she needed to start her journey right, and that would mean doing her best to stand out. Fighting a known villainous organisation, one like Team Rocket no less, would certainly help in that regard.

That was assuming she succeeded. If Tabitha wanted to become the Queen of Queens, then she'd need an impressive record to back that up.

She left the little forest near the Slowpoke Well and continued eastwards down route 33. It didn't take long to reach the southern entrance into Union Cave. This was, according to her research, the space where trainers coming in from Violet City would come when on their path towards Azalea.

She stood by the entrance and addressed the first trainer she saw. She didn't get halfway into her explanation before being dismissed.

The next trainer only wanted to fight, but she didn't want to waste energy that she'd need to fight Team Rocket.

The third group were hikers, uninterested in helping her, though one of them did let her know that a Team Rocket grunt had been captured by some trainers in the cave a few days ago. The police were on the case, and she was told that there was nothing to worry about.

Tabitha disagreed, and so she continued her vigil.

Gaining the help of a trainer wouldn't besmirch her image, there was no harm in it.

She leaned slightly into her psychic abilities, reading the mood of the people exiting the cave as they did. She found nothing but disappointment. It seemed as though Johto natives weren't as proactive as she might have thought.

Then two trainers stepped out of the Union Cave. They did the usual thing, squinting and shielding their eyes. They had a few pokemon with them. Notably a green zubat and what looked like two Sinnohian pokemon.

Tabitha scanned both, and found them both to be open books to her.

The one on the left of the group, her right, was a traumatized little girl. She had had her hopes dashed and broken, was on the run from something that haunted her, and was chewed on the inside by her own self-doubt.

Basically, she was nothing special.

The other was an open book as well, but it was like no other mind that Tabitha had ever seen.

When she reached out with her fledgeling psychic senses, it was like grasping in the dark. Each mind was a small light, flickering and weak, but still bright enough to reveal their secrets.

This mind was a lighthouse crammed full of ampharos. It was a beacon, and the moment she reached out towards it, the mind didn't rebuff her, it didn't shield itself. Instead it ripped Tabitha entirely off balance because it pulled her in.

Be welcome, friend, take what you need, but leave as a companion.

Tabitha almost fainted as she found herself drained of all of her psychic energy. It had been so... clean.

Her sister had once opened her mind for Tabitha. It had been a harrowing, horrible thing. So many intrusive thoughts, so many omitted horrors, so many secrets to be guarded. Her sister's mind was like the dungeon of an ancient castle. Powerful and well-defended and only temporarily opened to others.

This mind here was like... it was a meadow in spring, the sun shining and clear, the air warm and soothing. There was noise on the surface, but it was the giggling of a brook, the call of playing birds.

Tabitha stumbled forwards.

"Krabby?" King Krabby asked, but Tabitha didn't have time for her.

She walked right up to the girl with the open mind, taking in the guileless features on her face and the strange ears on her head—was one of her parents a lopunny?—and she pointed right at her. "I want your brain."

"Oh... well, I'm sorry miss, but I'm using that right now. Maybe later?"

***