I slowly moved Snowflake's head from my lap and got up from the floor.

Snowflake got back onto her feet and with an almost impossible grace, she waited next to me, her nine tails curling behind her.

Sabrina did something weird, she got up without using her hands or knees, instead, she was pulled up by an invisible force. Kind of dramatic, if you ask me.

"Well, let's go get your Pokémon so the battle can begin," Sabrina said with a playful smile that was definitely not creepy, nope, not creepy at all.

"Weird shit, eh?" I turned to Snowflake.

"Yip," Snowflake barked happily, probably not really caring or understanding what I said.

I grinned. "Bitches be trippin, right?"

"Yip yip!" Ninetales said, sounding even more excited than before. I even saw her wag her tails around like she was a dog.

I patted her on the head because damn was petting a Ninetales therapeutic.

"You are such a moron." Sabrina rolled her eyes.

"Snowflake, bark if you don't think I am a moron."

"Nine!"

"See," I smiled at Sabrina, "Two votes against one, isn't democracy such a beautiful thing."

"Just come already." Sabrina groaned loudly and I felt a push from behind.

I followed behind Sabrina as she navigated her way through the frozen bits of door that were scattered outside the doorway.

As I kicked a piece of ice out of the way I immediately regretted it, my toe hurt like hell and the ice turned out to be a lot heavier than I thought.

Once we were back in the maze, Sabrina guided me towards where Fay's and Luna's group therapy was being held. All the while, Snowflake trailed behind me, being a lot more quiet than I thought she could be for such a big creature.

"So your Psychic powers?" I was getting bored from these similar looking hallways. "How do they work?"

"I don't know, no one does," Sabrina answered curtly.

"No, I mean what can you do? What are your limits? I saw you display Telekinesis and Precognition."

"I can do a variety of things actually," Sabrina could not help it as a proud smile briefly passed over her face. "Of course, I am a rather powerful precog."

"How does it work?" I asked, my interest piqued, "Do you see the future? Possibilities or only small glimpses?"

"Well, first off, there are multiple forms of precognition."

"Multiple forms?"

"Of course, not every precog is the same, you know? There are a lot of nuances but there are two main categories, one of which is combat precognition, it is an ability most Pokémon have in a minor form."

"Wait they do?" I frowned, "I know that several Pokémon can see the future but most of them?"

"Oh yes, although it's really minor, it allows them to react faster than they should. It's how Pokémon can dodge a move like Quick Attack, though some people call it their sixth sense or even worse: gut feeling. Seeing how little research is done on precognition, it's hard to argue against it."

"Huh, well look at that."

"There are different degrees of combat precognition, ranging from dodging unseeable attacks to Future Sight and Lock On. That's the first category, the second form of precognition is more commonly referred to as visions which are more reserved for higher class psychics such as myself."

"Looks like you did quite some research." I complimented her, "So you are a vision precog?"

Sabrina waited for a short moment before giving me an answer. "I had to do some research if I did not want to go insane. Not being able to tell if you are seeing the future or the present. Not even understanding the things you see, why you see them and if they are actually going to happen or if they are only a mere possibility."

Sabrina shook her head. "Saying my childhood was ruined would be an understatement. But if you really want to know Dust, I had 7 different forms of precognition."

The tone of her voice told me she did not want to talk about it anymore. We continued to walk in complete silence.

Eventually, we stopped in front of a glass sliding door that led to a more modern looking hallway.

I recognized it as the therapy hallway.

Without much fuzz, we found the door. Sabrina moved to the side and I entered first, Snowflake immediately tagged behind me.

The room I found myself in was not too descriptive, just a big empty room with big translucent lights stuck to the ceiling. The entire floor was covered in a soft foam-like substance and the walls had ominous-looking scratch marks digging into the concrete.

"Dust!"

{Dust!}

Two Pokémon ran towards me. I knelt down and the Pokémon were embraced in my two arms. I hugged both my Pokémon because they were really awesome to hug.

It was still weird to feel Luna being bigger than before but I could get used to it.

"So?" I asked after both of my Pokémon stepped back.

Fay shot Luna the stinky eye. "Luna tried to kill me."

{Eliminate,} Luna took a sudden interest in the floor. {And I'm sorry.}

Fay's gaze softened, "But we reached an agreement and I think we got a better understanding of each other and I like to think we can start anew."

Wow, that was quite generous. Damn, why does my Riolu sound more mature than I do? Not that the bar was high but still.

{Indeed,} Luna nodded, {All is forgotten.}

"Not yet," I tapped Luna on the head, "I still have to punish you."

{What?} Luna's eyes widened, {But I made up for it, just like you said.}

I was curious about what had transpired between the two but I decided to let it rest.

"That may be, but although Fay has forgiven you, that does not mean you get a free out of jail card, right, Fay?"

"I guess so," Fay muttered, avoiding Luna's betrayed look.

"Like I said from the beginning," Caleb stretched his arms and stopped next to me, "We are all friends here."

The redhead leaned closer to me and whispered into my ear, "Your 2 Pokémon are completely psycho."

I nodded grimly, "I know."

"Nine!" Snowflake suddenly barked.

"And you brought Snowflake too!" Caleb said, surprised.

Ninetales randomly decided to proudly show off her fangs and curled her blood-red tongue around the pointy teeth.

"You found her again?" Fay asked cautiously.

"Actually the opposite." I chuckled, "She found me first."

"About that," Sabrina turned to face Caleb., "The door of the library has been frozen shut and then shattered to pieces, please tell Steel about it."

"Nope," Caleb took a step back, "It happened during your supervision, so it's your duty."

"No, I am giving him a tour right now," Sabrina said smugly.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

{What's the deal with her?} Luna pointed at Snowflake, {I can not understand her.}

"Well, Snowflake here is mute, immortal and a big cutesy right?"

"Nine nine!"

"Immortal?" Fay backed away.

"So can you actually understand them or are you making a lot of educated guesses?" Caleb asked.

"Yes," I answered both questions at the same time, you gotta love the efficiency.

"Huh, that's not even that weird considering everything." Caleb shrugged.

Sabrina narrowed her eyes. "So many mysteries surround you, Dust."

She doesn't even know half of it, although to be fair, I could say the same about her as well. Seeing how weird her powers are.

"Wait, go back to the immortal thing," Fay stared at Snowflake. "How?"

I shrugged, "Dunno, I think she has either a Wolverine Super Healing or a very local time loop is surrounding her."

Everyone stared at me like I said something weird.

"Who is Wolverine?"

"Time Loop?"

"Nine?"

"What are you talking about?" Sabrina asked sharply, "You know something about her that I don't?"

"Nope, but I have some theories," I patted Snowflake, "Either her healing ability is just supercharged, maybe a weird mutation, healing is not that rare among Pokémon. So what if hers is just extra strong?"

"Hmm," Caleb put his finger against his chin, "If you word it like that she is not that special."

"You said something about a local time loop?" Sabrina nudged.

"Yeah, another possibility is that Snowflake does not actually heal herself but somehow managed to get her entire biology stuck in a time loop which makes it look like she is healing but in actuality she is just reversing time for herself every time she is hurt."

"Ninnee." Snowflake barked.

"For example, if she would be in a loop of 24 hours then it would mean that every 24 hours she will return to her original state."

"If she were to be stuck in a time loop, wouldn't she be unable to move?" Sabrina pointed out.

"That's why I said local time loop and biology. Maybe the time loop only encases her body, or to be precise only on a molecular level. It could even explain her shattered mental state. If she's stuck in a loop then she wouldn't be able to heal her mind. Maybe her name was a constant throughout the loop; it might explain some shit," I shrugged. "Don't really know about it, I am not a neural scientist after all."

"Huh," Caleb blinked, "That sounds actually very possible. And you just came up with that idea on the spot."

"I am something of a scientist myself."

I patted Luna on the head because she was starting to look desperate for attention.

Sabrina tilted her head, "The more I watch you the bigger of a mystery you become."

"Anyway," I got up and decided to put an end to Sabrina's train of thought before she would become annoying again, "Look at me still talking while there's a battle to be held."

{A battle?} Luna's eyes widened. {I want to show you how good I became!}

"Actually, I am really curious to see my own strength as well. Who are we fighting?" The Riolu looked around for her opponent.

"Well, fun surprise, it's a Gym Battle," I announced. "You know what that means."

{I do!} Luna gave me a serious look. {And we are fighting the psychic, aren't we?}

"You made it a Gym Battle?" Caleb gave Sabrina an amused smile. "Why?"

"Because I want to." Sabrina huffed.

Caleb gave me a pat on the shoulder and shook his head. "Well, prepare for a world of pain."

"Is it that hard?" Riolu asked me, slight panic creeping into her voice.

"Nah," I patted her on the head which made her cheeks redden. "I trust in you, Luna and the power of friendship..."

That was a total lie, I was actually very nervous about it. I know next to nothing about Sabrina's fighting style, the Pokémon she would choose and what strategies she would deploy.

However, that does not mean my two Pokémon need to know that and especially not Sabrina. Act strong when you are weak and weak when you are strong, some Chinese general once said.

He's dead now but he had a good point.

Luna gave me a reassuring smile. {Do not worry, I will win that badge for you.}

I turned to Sabrina. "Actually, would you mind if I take an hour to prepare with my Pokémon?"

Luna straightened her back. "She just evolved and Fay has been undergoing some changes and since this is a Gym Battle, I want to be perfectly prepared."

"Certainly," Sabrina said, "I would not want you to claim it was an unfair battle afterwards." Both Caleb and Sabrina smiled mysteriously, some inside joke passed between them.

"Yeah, creepy shit," I muttered.

"Although I don't think Snowflake will leave you alone." Sabrina pointed out.

Snowflake rubbed her head against my leg. Luna shot the fox a not-so-subtle glare but Snowflake was too ignorant to see it, not that Luna could do anything to Snowflake.

"I'll be back in an hour," Sabrina said with a calm voice before turning around and leaving the room, still carrying that air of mystery around her.

"Yeah, I still haven't had breakfast," Caleb gave me an awkward smile, "So uh, don't go rogue 'kay?"

I nodded and realized that I could sneak around, there was just not much to find here. Maybe I could steal some staplers but this place was pretty damn empty. Also, stealing is bad. That was definitely the main reason.

"Cya for the battle, would not want to miss that." He left the room and closed the door behind him.

I swallowed, welp time to prep.

"So what is the plan?" Fay asked.

"First a speech," I grinned, "After all, we are about to get our second badge which will be completely worthless."

Fay rolled her eyes but a small smile was visible.

{Speech time!} Kirlia started doing a pirouette… wait, since when does she do that?

I shook my head and focused on the matter on hand. "Today's battle is not about winning, never has been," I sat down crossed-legged on the soft mattress underneath me, Snowflake followed.

"Today's battle is about sending a message. Not just from me, Sabrina too is not going to play nice. However, I have my complete trust in you two."

"I will try my hardest." Fay's claws flashed to life.

{Same,} Luna closed her eyes and stopped dancing. {I can not lose.}

"Nine!"

I took out my Pokédex, "I assume both of you have at least 1 new move, an hour will not be enough to master it but we might be able to squeeze in a few new tricks, hopefully, and we will have all our previous techniques to work with."

With a button press, I started scanning both my Pokémon and I studied the move pool with a careful look.

Yeah, this can work.

----------------------------------------

The arena we found ourselves in was indoors and located inside a big room with steel walls on all sides. Blue pillars lifted the roof was at least 15 meters (49ft) high up so flying Pokémon wouldn't be at an unfair disadvantage. There were official rules regarding the battlefield, especially at official tournaments but during Gym Battles, the Gym Leaders themselves are allowed to choose a battlefield.

Luckily, Sabrina just chose for the plain old rocky battleground which was pretty neutral regarding the matchup, it wouldn't give any type a huge advantage. Apparently, the members of the Hunt loved to battle among themselves every now and then.

"Quick question," Sabrina smiled like she had already won. "How many Pokémon are you going to use?"

Both she and I stood on a metal pedestal that allowed us to overlook

the battlefield from a higher point of view. Caleb sat in the spectators' booth, tapping away at his Pokédex and waiting for us to begin.

"Uhm two Pokémon," I pointed at Luna and Fay who stood next to me on

the raised platform. "Why?"

Sabrina smirked. "Well, that means I'll use three of my own."

"Wait what?"

"If you had 3 Pokémon I would have used 4, if you had 4 I would have used 5 and so on." Sabrina explained with a devious smirk, "You get the idea."

"That's hardly fair." I protested.

Sabrina raised her arms in front of her wide smile, a victorious grin plastered onto her face and her eyes started to glow purple. Her voice echoed throughout the room and I suspected her powers were at work.

"This is a Gym Battle Dust, this means we are fighting with my official rules. I am a psychic, this battle will hardly be fair. That's the entire challenge, how do you act when the odds are stacked against you?"

"Don't you know?" Caleb shouted. "She is considered the toughest Gym Leader in Kanto, and not because her Pokémon are so strong. It's because her fights are unfair."

I blinked, this was a rather unexpected development.

Most of the time it's me cheating, not the other way around.

"You seriously are going 3 against 2?" I asked.

Sure, I had beaten Roark with only Luna but that was a Rock Type Gym, the dude's banging rocks in his spare time.

"Yes!" Sabrina fixed her gaze on me. "Show me how you deal with a grim future Dust, and maybe then I might understand you completely. This may not be my own Gym but all the usual rules apply."

"And the usual rules mean whatever you want?"

Her silence was enough of an answer.

This time it was my turn to glare at her but I resisted the urge to call her out on the bullshit. Then I would be just playing into her hands. I gritted my teeth but stayed determined.

Sabrina snapped her fingers and a purple Pokédex appeared in her hand. She opened it and started talking to it. "This is a Gym Battle between Sabrina Starless and the challenger Dust Wildfire with the usual ruleset in effect, only the Challenger is allowed to switch his Pokémon at any time and gets the first move."

She pocketed the Pokédex in...actually I don't know. I saw no pockets in her red dress but it still disappeared...weird shit.

"Now you can't back down." Sabrina sang. "Don't worry I won't go too hard on you."

"She's lying., Fay muttered.

"No shit," I muttered before straightening my back. "Fine, I am a sore loser so you must understand that I will try my hardest."

"Same." Fay muttered.

{We can still win even with a disadvantage.}

"Yip!"

I tapped Snowflake on the nose. "You are not even fighting."

Snowflake's ears flattened and she did the puppy eyes thing again which was way too OP.

"Unless," I turned to Sabrina, "What if I use Snow-"

"Denied," Sabrina said immediately. "First, she is not your Pokémon and second, there wouldn't be much of a challenge if you had her on your side."

Well, it was worth a shot.

I patted Snowflake on the head, "Sorry but Queen Meanie does not allow it, you can watch though."

"Queen Meanie?" Sabrina quirked an eyebrow. "Did you just call me Queen Meanie?"

She shook her head with disappointment. "Let's see if you are all talk or if you have some spirit inside you!"

Sabrina withdrew her hand and tossed a Pokéball towards the battlefield with a spin.

A white flash revealed a pink feline Pokémon sitting on its hind legs.

And with that, the battle began.