With Sea, Soul, and Stars above (star piece quest)

[Undyne]

This is a direct continuation of events from this here thread.

Sabrina's helmet obscured her vision to the sides, which proved to be a greater annoyance than what she had anticipated. About half a dozen Growlithes were pursuing her and their trained bodies could keep up with her bike. They barked orders, telling her to pull over, threatening to open fire if she did not oblige and resisted capture. They were however content with simply running closely behind her although they could have caught up if they'd accelerated. Why could that be?

The answer to that question presented itself when she screeched around a corner in the shape of an Onix and a Steelix, both with blue pieces of tissue on their stony bodies, who laid across the road to form an impenetrable roadblock. A roadblock that Sabrina was driving towards at full speed. Her mind raced as her foot hesitantly lifted itself up from the gas pedal but didn't hit the brake quite yet. How could she...? There were no accessible side roads, not at the breakneck speed she was going, but if she started braking now, she could... no. NO. She gritted her teeth as she realized what thought had creeped into her head. Giving up? Never! Not in a lifetime! Her foot mashed the gas pedal all the way through again and accelerated her to top speeds, rushing straight at Onix and Steelix who were looking at her rather surprised. The Growlithes began to stop their chase, not wanting to crash into that wall of steel themselves and believing the chase to be over regardless. Of course, they were wrong. As Sabrina got close, she focused, surrounded her body in psychic power and used it on the Magnet Bike. It was a simple feat to lift it up and off the ground in such a way as to preserve its momentum, as if it had hit an invisible ramp and gone flying. The Growlithes and the two snake Pokemon observed in awe as Sabrina flew right over the barricade and over a dozen meters beyond that before landing and speeding on with unbroken energy. The Magnet Bike's strength was, after all, its hover capability. While it didn't work to propel her higher off the ground than a normal bike it was able to cushion the fall when she landed rather than crashing. As a result she could drive on.

Onix was the first one to regain their composure and lifted the roadblock before yelling at the Growlithes to continue their pursuit. Even though Sabrina had gained an amount of distance on them the way to the docks was still long, and other officers were in hot pursuit or waiting further down the line. Steelix whipped his Communicator out as he began rolling after the others, slightly slower than Growlithe but making up for it with his imposing size. "This is Officer Steelix speaking to all forces on Cinnibar: the suspect has dodged our roadblock, Steelix! It appears that she has psychic powers. Be careful, Steelix, to capture her alive. But don't hesitate to use force." The message was recieved all over the island by every member of the police force. Everyone knew.

Sabrina on the other hand came to a grinding halt and drove into an abandoned side road as soon as she had shaken her pursuers off. She needed to catch a brief breather... having lifted the bike had tired her more than she'd imagined, her legs were shaking a little but she soon recovered enough. She couldn't stay forever... right. The ship. The diplomat. She needed to get there and-

Pain. Excruciating pain.

A dagger, both white-hot and headache-splittingly cold carved its way into her skull and made her stumble backwards. Control of her body was lost, she mindlessly flailed her arms about, trying to shut out the indescribable pain. She reached out but there was nothing to grasp. There was no dagger, no blade. Only pain. More pain than she could have believed to exist.

As quickly as it had come it disappeared again. Sabrina fell forward on her knees, then slumped against the pavement, unable to control her twitching body. She was hyperventilating but she could not calm herself, she could not quiet her racing heart, the pulses of adrenaline that pumped through her blood, showering her with a feeling of coolness, the tears coming from her eyes. Just thinking back to the excruciating moments she had just experienced made her whimper like a kicked dog.

It had been a mental attack. There was no other explanation. A being with a mind inconcievably more powerful than her own had used telepathy to dig its way into her... to disarm her? To stop her and leave her to the custody of the Growlithe forces? No... it had wanted information. It had gotten information. It had wrested information from the depths of her mind. Brief moments of the events flashed before her eyes as she remembered what had been taken. Now she remembered... the pain had been too strong for her to be conscious about it, but whoever had attacked her had made her relive those memories as they had taken them.

Sabrina sat on the stairs in her Gym, toying with a spoon that she'd bent with ESP. A shadowy figure appeared in the doorframe. She looked up.

Sabrina shook Lord Giovanni's hand. She had been appointed for the spot of Team Rocket admin. She would not disappoint him.

Sabrina stood before a massive glass tank, containing a young, weirdly humanoid Pokemon in nutritive solution. This was the top-secret project codenamed "Replication." The project to use the genetic information of Mew to create the strongest Pokemon in existence, Mewtwo. A psychic Pokemon with powers greater than anything that existed before. Led by Mr. Fuji... under her supervision. The side-projects Ambertwo, Bulbasaurtwo, Charmandertwo and Squirtletwo had failed recently, but she knew that Mewtwo would not disappoint.

Giovanni would not be disappointed. He would be proud.

...

Sabrina forced herself to her feet and inhalted air through her teeth when she noticed that her left wrist ached. She hadn't broken it luckily, but... it must've hit the wall during her flailing and have gotten badly twisted or something. Her breath still went irregular, her heartbeat was still fast, her hands twitched, but reliving those memories had forced her mind to distance itself from the pain, if only for a while. It had returned to her the control of her body. How much time had passed since... since the attack? The sirens were still blaring and she could hear the barks of Growlithes running down the alleys, searching for her. It couldn't have been long. They hadn't found her trail.

She was angry at herself. How could she have lost control so easily? How had she reacted like this? And who could have assaulted her with such power, such... such inconcievable power? Not even Alakazam had the mental powers to do that to her! Nobody else came to mind, either. Nobody except for...

Mewtwo.

A presence casted itself over the entire island and spoke with a powerful, imposing voice. Sabrina felt it. It was the same presence that had invaded her mind moments ago. It was now adressing the entire island. "Residents of Cinnibar Island. This is Mewtwo. We have a human in our midst who is an undercover member of Team Rocket. Eliminate them at all costs."

While he spoke Sabrina climbed into the seat of her Magnet Bike and kicked the gas pedal through, blasting out of the side alley and back down the main road. An Arcanine caught sight of her and was about to warn the Growlithes of her presence, but it was a moment too slow. Sabrina's Shadow Ball hit it square in the face, knocking it several steps backwards, and before it could recover she followed up with a Dark Ball. Stunned, the Pokemon could not dodge before the capsule caught it and sealed, and Sabrina recalled it to her hand with Telekinesis. Stealth time was over, now she needed to get to the docks or she would... she did not dare imagine what Mewtwo would do to her if he got his hands on her. The pretaste that he had just given her was more than enough.

With a defiant shout she threw out random Dark Balls and immediately released whoever they caught. Unfinished Crypto-Pokemon with half-sealed hearts were berserk beasts caught between good and evil and unable to make out friend or foe, meaning that they mindlessly attacked everything in their path until they passed out. It was no permanent damage, in fact after passing out a Pokemon would rapidly recover, but it created a perfect diversion. Most Dark Balls didn't land on anyone meaningful but she was able to "berserk" a few Growlithes, stopping their entire squad for moments, until their opponents smartened up to it and began to give chase while two squadmates remained behind to "pacify" their rampaging friend. Sabrina also hit a Haunter that seemingly was ignoring the sirens and was begging under a shady overhang, but hesitated when it came to sending it back out. No, she could use a Haunter... that Dark Ball was tucked under her skirt along with Arcanine and Slowking. She would need the maximum possible capabilities when Mewtwo struck. She had no doubt that the psychic Pokemon was already on its way from the Council halls. It was just a matter of time before it got to her... she could only hope that it came too late.