We had just arrived at the Isle Grandiras the day before. Sona said that she wanted to scout the area and wandered off with her diving gear down the shoreline with Meg. I held down the fort, sorted through our supplies, and helped Deacon master his egg move Wish. We finally got it down pat today and I was super excited to try it in a mock fight. As we listened to the waves slap along the shoreline I felt a familiar tingle in the back of my mind. Like someone dear to me was pulling me into a side hug.
I pulled my mother’s Alakazam, Tavian, out of his Pokeball. He has always been there supporting me, even when my mother and father were busy with work. My first memories were of Tavian, when he was still a Kadabra, feeding me with a spoon using his psychic powers. I had thought I had lost him for good when we received the report that he was kidnapped. Sona and I had left the party to focus on finding him after he had been kidnapped in a raid on the professor's lab. When we did find him, he wasn’t himself anymore. He gained a lot of power but at the cost of his heart. My once kind-hearted nanny had become a soldier.
Sona did a lot of research on team Ryft and found a mysterious lab in Katoto. We entered the lab and Sona and I defeated a bunch of team Ryft grunts. Sona also insisted that she bring a paint spray can with her to “let the team know that we were here”. She left some not-so-nice messages. I worried about our old teammates a lot as we were exploring the lab. I hoped they were eating enough. But after a little while, I started to get this strange feeling in my head, like someone was poking it with a stick. I pulled Sona towards it and found a room full of pokemon in tanks and cages. There I found Tavian, caged and evolved into an Alakazam, but like none I had ever seen before. He had tentacles coming from his face and strange blue stripes or spots everywhere. Even though he looked very different his mind had a familiar ring to it. I ran over to him without thinking and tried to open the cage. Tavian was looking at me with empty eyes and I thought my heart had broken. Some grunts came in and they started a pokemon battle, Tavian watching blankly all the while. Even though he didn’t express anything I could feel his excitement, almost eagerness while watching us fight. I was a little distracted so I assumed that he was excited to escape. But I was wrong.
After Sona and I took care of their first set of pokemon, one of the grunts called for Alakazam. Tavian teleported out of the cage onto the battlefield. He opened with a powerful psychic attack that I had never seen before and it hurt not only our pokemon but my mind as well. I think I lost consciousness for a second because I remember waking up on the floor with Sona shoving a smelling salt up my nose. Even one of the team Ryft guys seemed concerned. I told her that I was okay and we continued the fight. My mind was a little hazy and I made a bunch of mistakes. Milo had fainted and Mayweather wasn’t doing well. The grunt giving Tavian orders didn’t even speak, Tavian just attacked. It was really throwing me off my game. But then I started to notice something. Tavian was excited about the fight and in his excitement he was reading his grunt's mind to know what to do. Normally Tavian was really good about shielding his thoughts. But now he had this violent energy and excitement that made his mind scarier, but also louder.
Lucky for me I still seemed to have a strong connection with him and could read his projected thoughts pretty easily. I whispered to Sona what I was hearing. The grunts were a little disgruntled when we started to predict their moves before they did them. Sona even did this thing where she would say something like, “And now you are going to use ...” She really scared them with that. It was pretty cool. I can say a lot of things about Sona but most of all she is a performer at heart.
I think Tavian figured out what I was doing pretty quickly, but instead of getting upset and quelling his bloodlust, he gave me a familiar wink. The same kind of wink he used to when I did something to make him proud. He was really hard to fight because Alakazam had the move Recover. But Niia and Loz saved the day with their dark-type advantage. We beat the grunts in that room and I took mom’s Pokeball back. We finished our business there and found a database with all the islands in it. Sona took it with us.
The following days we explored some islands. I tried to talk to Tavian about what happened while he was in the lab. But he always just showed me this suffocating/agonizing/isolating memory of a dark tank. His mind was harsher than I remember it to be. Though my powers were not as developed the last time I saw him. We had the capabilities of communicating now, but all Tavian wanted to do was fight people and have people suffer the way he had suffered. I tried reasoning with him and sent soothing thoughts whenever I could, but most of the time he would just shoot me down with anger and negativity. This started to wear on my mind. I was in a bad mood all the time and I was dealing with headaches almost every day. I had a lot of nightmares about getting trapped and experimented on. Deacon had not really gotten along with Tavian after we rescued him. Deacon kept treating him like a hostile pokemon. At least until he was purified. I think Deacon thought that he was attacking my mind. Which, I guess the continual mental negativity and onslaught of painful memories were like that.
Sona told me I was giving her nightmares too and she eventually took Tavian’s Pokeball away from me. I started to feel better for the week after I stopped mentally conversing with Tavian. I refocused and built up my mental shields stronger this time. Deacon made me test them before I was allowed to see Tavian again. Once I let him out again Tavian’s thoughts didn’t get to me as much. I hadn’t needed a mental shield until then and I really wish mom was there. She has a really strong mind and nothing phases her. If she had been there she could have taken it no problem.
Anyway, we carried on as we had before. We went to Fleurstar and saw some really big Landorus. Then we stopped by an island called Dumilim. We arrived late and slept on the edge of the island before exploring the rest the following morning. That first night though we had all our pokemon out, chilling at our little camp and I decided to tell a bedtime story. All the pokemon gathered around and I told the story about the three legendary birds. It’s an old story that Tavian used to tell me. I tried to do it the same way he used to with spoons making shadows on the wall, or in this case on Sheen’s belly. The pokemon really liked it and Sona even gave me tips on how to improve the performance aspect. We were all turning in for the night when I noticed Tavian was sitting on a log, with tears in his eyes. I mentally asked him what was wrong, and he shared the memory of all the times he had told me that story. It was the first happy memory he had shared with me since he became a shadow Alakazam. That’s when I knew for sure we could save him. He was a little kinder the next morning, his mind was less negative. And when we explored Dumilim we met some pokemon who helped us cleanse Tavian and Meg.
I think back to those rough times whenever I see Tavian, but now it’s fixed, and we got through it. I think Deacon still holds it against Tavian a little bit. Or maybe he just wants to be the big strong protector, and team leader and doesn’t want Tavian to swoop in and steal his spot. Tavian finds that idea really funny. He assured me that he is more of a teacher than a leader, but he is always willing to take charge if Deacon gets tired. They have a bit of a back and forth which I think is really cute. Tavian is a pretty harsh critic though so I didn’t have him out when Deacon was learning Wish. Deacon might not like Tavian’s lessons but I’ve been learning a lot.
We have been practicing reading minds (only with permission) and moving objects around. I start to get headaches if I don’t use my powers every so often. Maybe because I’m bottling them up. But today, after Deacon learned Wish, we practiced stretching my range with Sujin’s helmet. Tavian says the strongest psychic pokemon in the world can communicate with people regardless of distance. I’m not sure how you could talk to someone on the other side of the planet, but there are some really strong pokemon out there, so who knows. Today Tavian told me to reach out as far as I could and try to send a thought into someone’s head. Nothing major or dangerous, just something subtle. First I reached out and tried to send a warm and fuzzy feeling out. I felt my mind get dragged into the familiar feeling of Sona’s head. Sona has a really strange thought process. She doesn’t care about a lot of things and is really motivated by her curiosity and personal entertainment. Since I had been practicing with Sona a lot I found my mind feels comfortable there. She gave me a little mental acknowledgment and an image of a Binacle with a disgusting feeling. Sona really doesn’t like Binacles.
I tried to push farther out and felt a mind or two as I went. Thoughts about the weather or being a little hungry, nothing major. Then as I started to feel strained I got the image of a Slowpoke’s head. It looked familiar and it took me a second to recognize it as the one on our boat. Our team’s boat was nearby. I couldn’t tell which way it was coming from at first and thought they may be heading to Pak-Pak. Sona and I had found out that the pokemon there are really hostile and the island has these large radio towers which make pokemon want to stay away. “The place seems like bad news”, according to Sona, so we were going to plan what to do first. If they were heading there without knowing that could be really bad.
I tried to send the first mind I could feel a lot of concern. I learned later that it turned out to be Sujin. I then got super nervous. You see, before Sona and I left I had talked with Percy about finding Tavian. Percy has always been so strong and noble and inspiring. When I told him about Tavian he swore that we would find him no matter what and rescue him from team Ryft. It made me feel better and I think back to that time whenever I had doubts. I had planned to stay with the party and Percy to find Tavian but then I caught Sona packing. She said that we couldn’t trust the professor or any of the adults. She said she was going to find out what was really happening no matter what. I was worried about her going by herself, and almost as if she was reading my mind she said, “I know you’re worried about me, but I’ll be fine. I know how to take care of myself. But if you want to find your mom’s Kadabra as soon as possible without the bad guys getting in the way, come with me. I know I can find him.” I agreed and left with her. She wanted to leave with the least amount of resistance possible.
I thought about telling Percy but I was afraid and secretly hoping that he would say that he was coming too and try to come with us. I couldn’t have that, even if his company would be nice. The group had Sujin and Kip to cover for me but they needed a strong trainer to protect them when things go wrong. I didn’t know Lyra very well yet, but I’ve known Percy since we were little and I know he can handle himself in a fight. So I left without saying anything, I have my regrets but now I was almost scared to see him again. What if he was angry that I left without him, or someone got hurt again like Larry and he blames me for leaving. Or worse still, what if he was dead. I hadn’t heard anything about something like that happening. But once I had the idea I couldn’t get it out of my head. I desperately searched for Percy’s mind and when I found it, minorly annoyed at something, I was so happy. I sent him all my relief and happiness. I felt the happiness back.
Then I felt my stomach grumble. Sona and I had been off the grid for a long time now and we didn’t always eat regularly. I started thinking about how thin Sujin and Kip were when we left. For team support, they really needed to take better care of themselves. I sent Sujin the message that he should eat more and so should Kip. My own hunger probably got mixed in there too. Tavian says I have a talent for sharing feelings. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I tried to connect with Lyra too, trying to find a strong memory of her to focus on. For Sujin, Kip, and Percy it was pretty easy. But Lyra I didn’t know as well. I settled on her eating brownies on Valentine's day. I was getting a little tired at this point so I tried to send them an indication of where we were and that they should “Come find me”. I apparently had partial success but I had to take a nap afterward. I gave Sona a heads up that somebody was coming our way, but I didn’t apparently make it clear who that was when I sent the message.
I slept until Tavian woke me up. He said that Sona had gotten on a boat. I was pretty sure I knew which boat. I started running for the short line and saw them docking. Mairu flew out to meet me. I had missed Mairu. He was always so sweet and caring. I hugged him and then Sujin came up to give me a hug too. Or at least it turned into a hug. It looked like he was eating well. I saw Percy, and I was giddy. I ran up and gave him a hug and he wasn’t mad at me at all. I may have gotten a little too excited and did something embarrassing…
Everyone else was looking well. Sujin made a beautiful arm for Jay. I will have to ask him about the specifics later. Kip still looks a little thin but his mental health seems a lot better. Lyra and Kip had apparently made brownies but they ended up on the floor. Kip ended up making more brownies later. They were great starter brownies and I’d love to make some with him later and give him a few tips and tricks. Darna even gave me a hug which was super cool of her. Though she threw a very heavy and mysterious pokemon on Percy’s foot. His foot is okay. I also met a girl (pokemon ranger I believe) named Kali. She is Percy and my new wildcard team member. She seems really nice and she is on the run with the rest of us. Plus Percy says she is trustworthy so she seems like a cool new friend just waiting to happen. There was also this new guy named Joe who was an ex-team Ryft grunt. Some of his pokemon friends got turned into shadow pokemon. I feel really bad for him and I hope that he gets a chance to cleanse his pokemon too.
We sat and talked and ate together like old times. We made a plan to go to Pak-Pak. Joe is apparently from Pak-Pak and is friends with a lot of the pokemon that live there, including a Regice. We are going to go there and find out what is going on from the pokemon’s perspective and then challenge the gym leader. The only problem is that pokemon aren’t allowed outside their Pokeballs in the city and we are wanted. Sona is always a go-with-the-flow sort of person, so she said we will plan more once we get there.
While having lunch we caught up a bit. We told them about the purification ritual, and they gave us tidbits about their adventure. The main team had been busy, they went to the same lab we did and at one point had gotten kidnapped. They found out that the professor was a synthetic human and so was Kip. They apparently can be controlled by team Ryft and the region Champion might be in on the whole thing as well as the gym leaders. Also, Captain Pan is now a shadow pokemon and Mairu might be the original Kip or his brother. It’s all sort of new and confusing and if I’m being honest I'm a little distracted for this log. I came here as sort of an excuse to not head back to the group right away. Jay told me something… that Percy did… that makes me embarrassed, and a little happy too.