As the road straightened and the landscape flattened, the silhouette of Saffron City rose against the horizon. It was a city of towers and steel, a glittering metropolis that dwarfed Vermilion. The streets were lined with imposing, modern buildings, their glass windows reflecting the afternoon sun. The air was different here, too—not the salty tang of the coast, but the dry, humming energy of a million people and a million machines. It was the pulse of ambition, of commerce, of power.
"It's huge," Eliana murmured, her usual detached demeanor momentarily replaced by a sense of awe. She'd been to Celadon, but this was different. This wasn't a city of leisure and luxury; this was a city of industry and influence.
Eliana navigated the bustling streets, her bike a lone thread in a river of cars and pedestrians. They found the PokéCenter tucked away in a quieter side street, a place that was clean but unremarkable. The room she was given was simple, with two beds, a small desk, and a window that overlooked a brick alleyway. The moment the door closed, muffling the city's roar, Eliana let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
She released her Pokémon. Raichu immediately hopped onto one of the beds, claiming it with a proprietary thump of her tail. Staryu floated over to the window, its core pulsing with a soft light as it absorbed the sunlight. Kirlia simply stood in the center of the room, a graceful, silent presence.
Eliana said, her mind clear and focused.
She moved to the window and looked out over the city. From here, she could see the upper floors of a towering building in the distance, a gleaming spire of glass and steel that dominated the skyline.
Raichu hopped onto her tail floating up beside Eliana with hopeful eyes.
ദ്ദി ᗜˬᗜ, Kirlia pointed out he was okay with staying in the PokéBall today but that he'd come out if anything happened.
Staryu sent out a questioning message, it had not been paying any attention to the conversation at all.
Staryu's core dulled at the question, it did not care for traveling outside of its PokéBall whatsoever.
Eliana reassured it.
Staryu's core brightened again, this Pokémon was definitely a loner. Eliana gave a mental shrug and returned Kirlia and Staryu to their respective balls. She needed to see if she could get a trace of the unknown psychic.
She settled on the edge of her bed, closing her eyes. She let her awareness expand, not in a forceful, intrusive way, but like ink spreading in water. She sifted through the city's noise—the surface thoughts of millions of people. The worries of a businessman about a deal. The fleeting joy of a child seeing a Pidgey. The general fear aimed towards the city's gym leader, Sabrina, which was interesting but not what Eliana needed at the moment. The dull ache of an old woman's loneliness. Students worrying about their next exams. It was a cacophony of mundane human experience, a symphony of mediocrity. It was boring and not what she was looking for.
But then she felt it, a flicker in the static. A bright signal amidst the noise. It wasn't the same psychic from the tunnel; this was too different. Colder and much more powerful. It was a steady, disciplined presence, a point of absolute stillness in the chaotic sea of the city. It felt like a lodestone, a point of reference for all other psychic activity in the city.
She focused on it, trying to get a sense of its location. Her mind traced the signal, following it through the mental landscape of the city. But suddenly the presence grabbed violently at her and Eliana panicked trying to pull away. Raichu panicked not knowing what to do, she called out to Kirlia. Eliana felt like she was being pulled to drown in a wave of ice cold water. Kirlia burst out of his PokéBall and used his energy to ground Eliana enough for her to gather her own abilities to throw the other presence off of her mind.
Raichu and Jirlia stared at her worryingly as Staryu panicked from its PokéBall, it had not yet mastered letting itself out. Eliana gasped, coughing as she came back to herself, that was no normal psychic. It had to have been the resident gym leader, she could definitely understand why the people in this city were scared of Sabrina.
However Eliana felt more amazed, she wanted to be able to do something like that. Maybe Sabrina was taking students, that'd be a nice thought. But her nose scrunched up slightly as she thought more about the woman, she really didn't know anything about her, the information online was pitifully vague. It didn't even go into detail about what all she could do with her abilities. All Eliana had been able to figure out was Sabrina was someone you didn't want to mess with, and many people had gone missing trying to fight her.
Eliana shivered, she might have been blessed with Mew's power but she was way out of Sabrina's league. Might as well avoid her until she had gotten bored with the rest of the city.
The two Pokémon next to Eliana stared at her with looks a mixture of disbelief and worry. Their trainer was truly insane, didn't even think about taking a rest after being attacked. Kirlia sighed tiredly but did as his trainer requested and Raichu moved to be surfing beside Eliana.