Chapter Thirty-Eight - Successful Integration

Tabitha was quite proud of herself. She had successfully integrated herself with Broccoli's group.

She would study Broccoli. It was important.

"Krabby," King Krabby said next to her. What the little crab pokemon allowed Tabitha to read was a lot more complex. You're being a little strange. Act naturally.

Her friend was probably right. Tabitha had been kicking herself from the moment she'd walked up to Broccoli—even her name was curious!—and asked to examine her brain. That wasn't normal-person behaviour. She straightened her back and tried not to think too hard about how she was walking.

Broccoli's mind was still an open book, but now that she was a little more used to it, the sensation didn't trip her up quite as much. Talking to Broccoli herself had helped. The girl was... as open as her mind, and yet somehow exceptionally mysterious.

Jazz, on the other hand, was just as uninteresting and boring, and Tabitha almost wished she wasn't here so that she could dissect Broccoli some more (metaphorically speaking).

She took a moment to recentre herself. Only a moment. Her actions were... a little illogical in hindsight. Yes, Broccoli was interesting, but that didn't mean that Tabitha could poke and prod her, and besides, there were likely plenty of interesting people around. The world was a large place, vast and often unexplored. Strangeness would be around every corner.

She couldn't tie herself to the first strange individual she found. Not if it meant putting her dream in jeopardy. Once she was the Queen of Queens, she'd have more time for such trivialities. First came this next part of her self-directed mission.

"If you're going to follow us," Jazz said. She sounded waspish, and felt that way too. Her mental energy wasn't hiding her foul mood about Tabitha. Tabitha pulled back on her powers. There was no point in exhausting herself. It was taxing, peering into the surface thought of others. "Then you can at least give us some details about what we'll be facing."

"That sounds like a perfectly reasonable request," Tabitha replied. They were only halfway down Route 33, which was admittedly a fairly short route. "I spent the better part of the morning listening in and studying the Team Rocket encampment, if you want to call it that. As far as I can tell, they have a rotating guard outside of the Well, one goon with two pokeballs and no clear Team Rocket imagery on them. I saw two such goons rotating their shifts. I don't know the exact shift duration. I can tell that there are a total of five members to the team here, one of which feels quite a bit stronger than the rest. Their thoughts are also harder to decipher. Either they're disciplined in a way that the others aren't, they've had anti-psychic training, or they're just naturally resistant to readings."

Jazz stared, and Tabitha realized that maybe she should have spoken at a slower speed instead of the cadence and speed she spoke to her sister with.

"Alright, so five mooks to beat up," Jazz said.

"Four mooks and one boss," Broccoli corrected correctly. Tabitha was glad for her correctness, as it meant she'd been understood... correctly.

"Yes, that is... accurate," Tabitha said.

"Anything you were able to pick up with your weird mind-reading mumbo-jumbo?" Jazz asked.

Tabitha stared. "Do you doubt the veracity of my claims about psychic abilities?"

"No, I know it's real, just... look, it's kind of creepy."

"Why?" Broccoli asked. "As long as you don't have any mean thoughts, then there's nothing to worry about, right?"

Tabitha turned her attention towards Broccoli. Was the strange girl serious? Everyone had mean and unkind thoughts... certainly? She swallowed and resisted the temptation to peer deeper into the well of Broccoli.

Jazz scoffed. "Everyone has thoughts that they ought to keep to themselves, Broccoli."

"Jazz is correct," Tabitha said. "To put your worries to rest, my abilities aren't so strong as to allow me to read minds. I get impressions. No more than a talented body-language reader might get upon analysing someone for a minute or two. They're useful emotional cues for me to work with, but that is all. I cannot guess the number you're thinking of, or communicate with a person telepathically if I've never developed a bond with them. That is one of the reasons I wish for a slowpoke, they are... calm-minded but also talented psychics in their own right. In any case, we're going off-topic, are we not?"

"Right! The Well!" Broccoli said. "Are we sure we don't want to call the police? Officer Jenny was nice."

"We're sure," Tabitha and Jazz said at the same time.

Tabitha eyed Jazz and weathered the taller girl's glare with ease.

"Should we come up with a plan for the engagement?" Tabitha asked.

"I'll send Sage in first," Jazz said. "Zubat here's too injured for a direct fight, and he's not used to fighting with trainers."

"Zu-bat!"

"Don't worry, lil' guy," Jazz said, her voice turning surprisingly soft. "You can help. Just blast any pokemon that get close with Supersonic. Uh, enemy pokemon, that is."

"Choco is pretty strong!" Broccoli said. "He can be our vanguard with my help. Azurill is still a little small for fighting, I think?"

"Azu! Azurill!" the little blue pokemon said, she sounded upset.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, I just don't want to see you hurt," Broccoli replied. "But you're growing real strong real fast, so don't worry about it!"

"Azu," the Azurill harrumphed. Broccoli giggled and gave the little blue pokemon a squeeze. The Azurill seemed very squeezable.

Tabitha was envious. She enjoyed King Krabby's companionship, but her dear pokemon was not exceptionally... soft. And her pinches were painful rather than comforting.

"What about you, psycho girl?"

"Psychic," Tabitha corrected. "I only have King Krabby with me. However, I judge her to be stronger than any of the pokemon on your teams that I've seen so far. She is talented."

Jazz narrowed her eyes. "How talented?"

"Fourth gym level, at least," Tabitha said.

That had Jazz reeling back a little. "Really?"

"Yes," Tabitha said. Judging such a thing might be difficult for some, but her home life had at least taught her that much. "King Krabby is strong. She's going to be with me for a long time."

"She?" Broccoli asked. "Shouldn't it be Queen Krabby then? Um, no offence, King Krabby, I shouldn't judge someone for their name, I know. Just curious."

"Krabby, krabby krab!"

"Oh, I see," Broccoli said with a nod. "That's cute that you care so much!"

Tabitha blinked, then eyed the two. Had Broccoli understood? Tabitha was suffering from a slight headache already from straining her abilities so much in the last hour or so, but she regretted not keeping them active to better understand what had just happened.

Was Broccoli psychic? No, her mind didn't feel right for that. She was something else.

Tabitha's sister might know, but Tabitha was in Johto to escape her sister's shadow. Calling her for help would be entirely the wrong move to make.

"I'm content enough with allowing you to take the lead," Tabitha said. "I'm unfamiliar with your teams or how you address fighting."

"Okay then!" Broccoli said. "If Team Rocket is like when we met them in the cave, then I don't think we can expect them to fight fair, so having more friends around can only help!"

Before they walked across the road leading to the Well, Tabitha suggested that they veer off into the forest. The Well was visible from Route 33, but it wasn't exactly out in the open, with a few hedges and rocky ledges around it. Azalea had long outgrown the need for a primitive well, of course, but the area was still maintained.

They climbed up a few steep hills within the forest with only some local bug pokemon for company. The spinarak and caterpie they crossed eyed them suspiciously, but none of them bothered the trio or their pokemon.

Finally, they reached a spot where they were even with the Well and could see the lone man guarding it. He was a reedy guy, in an opened blazer and jeans and with his arms crossed. He was glaring at nothing in particular, and Tabitha didn't need her extrasensory abilities to know that he was quite bored.

"That's a Rocket grunt," she said.

"Are you sure?" Broccoli asked.

"If you want, you can walk right up and ask him," Jazz suggested sarcastically.

The sarcasm must have flown over Broccoli's head, because she stepped out of the forest and started to walk towards the man to do just that. "Hello, sir!" Broccoli called out.

"Huh?" he asked as he spun around. There went their element of surprise. Tabitha was liking their odds less and less by the minute.

"I was curious, are you a member of Team Rocket?" Broccoli asked with a huge, guileless smile. "Because if so, I think we might have some questions for you!"

***