Chapter 16: Healthy Body and Mind The trip to Saffron took roughly 35 minutes. Chris had to admit, Arcanine was pretty fast, although having two people on it had slowed it a little. The large pokemon seemed a somewhat unused to its new large body, and it had stumbled once or twice. Each time it had, Chris noted that Karma's hands had gripped just a little bit tighter. She had explained the healing process, but some small part of her was still evidently under the impression that Arcanine still needed rest. They had passed two walking people on the road, teenage trainers. Arcanine's large gallops soon left them them far behind and Chris couldn't help looking back with a smirk on his face. The faces of the trainers as they looked on were pretty easy to read: no fair! They reached the town's outskirts, refreshing countryside cropped out into cement and buildings. They rounded a curve and found two bikers having a fist fight as their pokemon battled beside them on the road. The reason was easy enough to see: one of their bikes was on fire. They passed this scene quickly enough and upon rounding the next turn, found themselves suddenly on paved road. Further along, they reached the guard house that marked the true border of the city. Arcanine stopped infront of the building and with grace that Chris knew he would never have, she jumped from atop the fiery dog, landed on one foot, swung around to face Arcanine, and unhooked a pokeball from her belt. "Sorry, Greg." Karma didn't want to take any chances. She assumed their must still be some Rocket Members in town, and didn't want the wrong people to recognize Arcanine. So she recalled it before entering the Route 9 Guardhouse. Inside they found an aging old man who looked absolutely bewildered, if not a little frightened. They asked the guard for directions to the Magnet Train, and he directed them: "go north on the first main street you hit until you get to the Dojo and Gym. It's quite a walk so maybe you should hit up a bus? Look for Express-G. From there, hook a left and head down that street until pass the suburban area. Once again, the walk is pretty lengthy so you might want to take a bus. Express-B should do ya', it'll take you right to the Magnet Train. You can't miss it, the entrance is huge." Chris had remembered his first time through the strange city, but now it had a completely different quality. Before, the city had looked beautiful, the streets had been practically clear, but there was a daunting quality to it. People had been standing in front of certain houses like guards, eyes had peered out at him from nooks and alleys. A lonely wind had rattled everything and sounded like a high-pitched moan as it came through the numerous buildings and roads. Now however, the streets were pretty full. Adults were now wandering around in what seemed like a daze, looking at each other and at the sky as if they seemed unsure of what to do; they were totally lost, at least mentally. Children on the other hand were now running around the streets, playing with each other, their laughter shattered the dread. In essence, Saffron now almost resembled a real bustling city. They found the Express bus stop stop on the first main street they came to, and had barely reached it when a purple-blue bus rumbled into view. It was marked with a bright "G: Financial District - Gym District", on its side. They climbed inside to find it partially full. Chris reached for his wallet but Karma already had two 1-pen (Poke-Yen) bills clutched in her hand to pay the fare. She deposited the money into a small machine near the the driver, who incidentally wasn't in uniform but rather dressed casually, and strode past Chris to take a seat, "don't worry about it, soon enough, none of this will happen anyways." The bus rumbled down the road made four more stops, eventually passing more than 20 city blocks. Chris was rather happy they had decided not to walk. Chris was busy looking out the window when Karma yanked him. He looked up and found her on her feet. The bus had made another stop, he had not been paying attention but evidently Karma had and they had reached their stop. They climbed off and found themselves directly in front of two large buildings. One, old fashioned and brown, bore the title 'Saffron Fighting Dojo' on its roof. The other was slightly larger, modern (if not a little futuristic) and violet, it was emblazoned with 'Saffron City Gym' on its roof. In front of the buildings, a veritable troop of people, clad in either white karate gi's or weird slim fitting purple clothes, were shouting at each other. Forefront among each group was a large muscular man with wild hair and a beard who seemed the be the loudest and a woman with long blue hair, clad in black and purple, seemed the quietest. Chris recognized the woman with the blue hair almost instantly. She was the leader of the Saffron City Gym, Sabrina. Chris recognized her from a Gym leader poster he had seen in the pokemon centers of Kanto. He didn't recognize the large muscular bearded man but he could guess. When he had first come to Kanto, he had heard that Saffron had once held two official gyms. That is until one gym decided to head over and challenge the other gym for its official status. The psychic gym had won a decisive battle and 'Saffron Fighting Gym' had become 'Saffron City Dojo'. Chris thought the man must therefore be Karate Master Kiyo. Karma was reading the bus stop guide printed on the bus sign. "Looks like Express-B, D, G, and H come through here." She looked at him and found his attention diverted by the crowd. The bearded man was still shouting above the others."Ah...Chris?" Another booming shout came their way but suddenly all noise was drowned out by a piercing scream, SHUT YOUR MOUTH YOU SIMPLETON TURN AROUND AND HEAD BACK TO YOUR PRIMITIVE CAVE PATHETIC UN-EVOLVED MONKEY! Chris reached for his temples. That noise had erupted from inside his brain. Nobody had spoken it, Chris had heard Mewtwo speak enough to understand, this was a psychic voice. All the previous babble had died out, nobody was talking anymore. Sabrina had not moved an inch and yet Chris knew that this voice had come from her. Suddenly the towering Karate Master seemed a lot smaller. Yet he had nerve, he took a breath and pulled himself up to his full height. Then he moved closer to Sabrina. He towered above her medium frame and then he smiled, "Perhaps it is time to have a rematch for official gym status?" NO GO DIE, came that mental shriek again and suddenly Sabrina moved. It was not a fancy or quick movement, she simply raised her arm, but the very still Sabrina suddenly moving seemed surreal and the Kiyo jumped back a little. Kiyo, and everyone behind him, was suddenly bathed in a dark purple light. Kiyo's eyes widened as his little surprise jerk suddenly turned into true flight. He soared ten feet above everyone else and was forced into an X shape; his arms and legs outstretched. With a flick, all the karate students behind Kiyo fell, they were pinned to the ground. Chris was in awe. He didn't know a human being could be capable of such an amazing display of psychic ability. SURRENDER? came the pychic voice again, albeit in a slightly less shriek-ish manner. It now had a hint of glee. "Never!" answered Kiyo. Then his arm began to turn 360 degrees and he cried out in pain. "Argh!! F-fine! Fine! I give! I give!" For a moment Chris thought Sabrina wasn't going to stop. Her face was no longer passive and neutral. It had a wickedly gleeful happy of malice and enjoyment. Kiyo was completely in her control. She could kill him if she wanted, and she even looked like she might enjoy that act. Then Kiyo dropped, not exactly slowly but he did not plummet either. The purple light vanished and Sabrina was covering her face with her hand. She lowered it and the her face was impassive again. "Good, please don't come back for this particular matter again," Sabrina finally physically spoke in a steady and slightly whimsical tone. "Your furious fist can never defeat our calm mind." The Karate students had risen and a few came forward to help Kiyo. She shrugged them off. Kiyo rose to his full height again. Called her a witch (with a b) and turned around. She strode into his dojo, with a slight stumble, and slowly his students followed. When the last one had dissapeared inside, and the dojo doors closed, Sabrina's trainers gave a loud cheer. They seemed very animated, until Sabrina turned and faced them with a stern look. At that they all became silent. "This was a meaningless win, don't take pride in defeating foolish and illprepared opponents," she pointed at her gym. "Especially when you didn't actually do any of the fighting." At that, they all looked down and filed quickly into the gym. When they had all disappeared inside, she sighed and shook her head. Karma was the first to move. She strode right past Chris and stopped before Sabrina. "Hello. My name is Karma," she reached out her hand and Sabrina accepted it. As they shook: "I want to prove to you that action can indeed defeat pompous thought." Sabrina seemed surprised at that. Chris even more so. He had been thinking of challenging her, he wanted to win the Marsh Badge eventually but had decided against it. He had concluded that the battle would be a pointless waste of time (something which they couldn't afford to waste) since they were planning to erase time and that meant that the battle would never happen and he would have no memory of it anyways. Karma seemed to have other plans however. Sabrina studied Karma for a moment, then she smiled. It wasn't a smile of malice or even kindness. It was a smile of sympathy. She believed Karma stupid. "Thoughts change the world young one, actions are a useless waste of energy." Karma smiled herself, "Powerful actions and thoughts change the world, alone neither can truly triumph." Sabrina frowned and turned around. She walked over to the the Dojo yard, leaving a large space between them. "Count yourself lucky. You managed to challenge me outside and avoided the truble of finding your way through my gym's teleportation maze. I shall battle you here. This will be a one pokemon battle for the Marsh Badge." Sabrina raised her arm and cupped her hand. She closed her eyes and a purple light appeared in her hand. A pokeball materialized in her hand. "Consider this a lesson on life, thoughts shape this world. Actions are a primitive waste of energy. Thoughts are all that is necessary. Thoughts and thoughts alone." The pokeball rose from her hand, bathed in its purple light, and soared into the makeshift arena. It opened and a bright red flashed out and and a yellow and brown humanoid pokemon appeared. It sort of resembled a standing slender fox, except it had a long mustache and two spoons in its hands. Chris walked over to Karma as she reached for her own pokeball. "What are you doing? This is a waste of time!" Karma turned to him, she was frowning. "I really hate people like her, winning on an advantage and acting like a philosophical god." She raised her arm, now clutching a pokeball, and turned to Sabrina. "Besides, I really like her sense of fashion."