Does anyone think that Cranidos might end up joining Yolanda's team instead of Brock's once she's old enough to leave for a Journey? Like how Challenger the Graveler ended up joining Forest's team instead of staying with Brock and trying to become one of his Elites.
Hard Enough - Pokemon SI
- Thread starter Viva01
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Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
It's possible but I'd hope not because it's one of 3 pure rock types Brock can access. While he does have Bonsly and know how to evolve them he doesn't have any Nosepass which would be problematic anyway because they need to be taken to specfic spots to evolve and become Rock/Steel which is a good combination and would be a grass counter but is not pure Rock. Meaning for elite candidates Rampardos is really one of 2 pure rock options.
Chapter 140 - Rocket Raid reruns
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
Sabrina released her Alakazam and a Hypno to help transport us all to the site that she'd discovered. We teleported in a flash of light. When I blinked my eyes, I noticed that the sun itself had shifted in the sky. I glanced around and caught sight of a vaguely familiar landmark.
Oak beat me to the punch, merely giving his surroundings a cursory glance before humming. "We're north of Lavender Town? An interesting location for a Team Rocket facility to be set up."
Sabrina inclined her head. "I believe they are in fact set up in a temporary facility, as most of the base is made up of tents instead of anything more permanent."
"You were able to get close?" I said with surprise.
Sabrina shook her head. "Not too close, the Zubat and Golbat that live in the Rock Tunnels react poorly to sudden flashes of light; if I teleported in, I would attract a swarm and potentially alert Team Rocket."
Flannery rubbed her chin, eying Sabrina, "Huh, that was clever of you… and in a way, clever of them too. A natural defence that acts as a sentry and warning system if we come in too hot."
Sabrina nodded. "We can walk in; however, we will just need to be careful with how we move."
Roxanne reached into a satchel she had slung over her shoulder. "Alright! If we're going into the tunnels, we need to set ourselves up with rope, a dark light, fresh water—"
Brawly coughed. "Like, Roxanne? We're not going for a long expedition, we're going in and raiding the place."
Roxanne flushed. "I also have some repels."
Brawly and Flannery made faces and Roxanne scoffed. "Synthetically made repels! This isn't some cheap market made repel."
Flannery relaxed. "Good, cause do you have any idea what they actually put in that stuff?" she said with a shudder.
Oak perked up. "In fact, I do! The natural excreme—" Flannery shot a hand over his mouth.
"And ah no thanks! I don't need any more brain bleach for that particular subject!" She jutted her chin at Roxanne, "How potent is this stuff?"
"It's rated as good for an hour!" she said holding up the bottle. She then sprayed it on herself. Her face twitched, and a shiver ran up her body. She gave us a sickly-looking smile. "It's… great!" she said unconvincingly.
Brawly stepped closer and sniffed her. "Urgh! Smells like old gym socks left in a hot locker!"
Roxanne shot him a less than impressed look. Brawly raised his hands in supplication. "Alright! Alright! I'll put it on!" he said, spraying the substance onto his arms and legs with a shudder.
"Ahem," said a polite voice. We turned back to find Professor Oak with a pokemon floating over his shoulder. He smiled and scratched at the back of his head. "I suppose this is a bad time to mention that I can use my Chimecho to repel other pokemon?"
Roxanne blinked in surprise. Brawly barked a laugh, and Flannery, who'd just accepted the bottle of repel and been about to apply it to her own body, sighed in relief at dodging a bullet.
"Huh," I said, impressed with the utility of such a pokemon. "That's a neat role to have."
"It's rather useful in the field to be able to have pokemon either approach you or be repelled from you when you are wandering around. It doesn't help as much in the more powerful areas, but it does decrease the odds of a bad encounter by having Chimecho release a very low cry that calms or makes other pokemon avoid us."
Sabrina eyed the little floating wind chime pokemon. It approached her and waved its little arms. "I had not considered such a pokemon before. This is a Hoenn pokemon no?"
"Indeed!" Oak said while preening. "My good friend sent it to me! She clued me in to the use of Chimecho in such a function. Hoenn professors are rather clever like that! Being able to go into the wilds and avoid pokemon chasing them!"
"The new guy kinda gets himself into a lot of trouble exploring the wilderness, from what I hear!" said Flannery brashly as she shoved the repel into Brawly's chest, accidentally spraying some more on him. She made a gagging noise and wiped her hand on his shirt, making him whine.
"Not cool Flans!" he said as he tugged at his shirt in annoyance.
I chuckled, and straight away I got the idea that Professor Birch wasn't privy to this little trick. I turned back to find Chimecho playing with Sabrina, its tail wafting out to lightly brush against her nose. I raised my transceiver and took a picture before coughing.
"Right! So, we can get close to the Rocket base now, but we also need to secure any Rocket Administration that we find; they are usually the most slippery and the fastest to run."
Sabrina bobbed her head up and down. Flannery snapped her fingers. "Don't members of Team Rocket like to wear uniforms? Things that identify them as crooks?"
"Yes, yes they do," I said with a grin. "So, we need to find some Team rocket uniforms—"
"Or some Team Rocket grunts?" said Brawly with a curious tone of voice.
"Yeah?" I said, glancing at him, only to turn and notice that he was eyeballing a crack in the local walls where a group of Rocket's had just emerged.
"Ah, well, that's perfect," I said, pointing them out to the others.
It looked like it was time to rustle up some disguises.
"Urgh! Tell a better lie man!" said one of the Grunts.
Joe, a card-carrying member of Team Rocket —albeit, one of their grunts— scowled at his group leader. "It wasn't a lie! I had to have a Team of Rangers, a pair of Gym Leaders, and the damned Champion take me down when I was running my sting in Mt Silver! I should be in charge of this op!"
The group leader shook his head. "Honestly, I can see why you were bumped down to Grunt status from what you'd been. You need to learn to lie better."
Joe glared only for George, his buddy in this group, to nudge him and shake his head. Joe ignored him. "I wasn't lying!"
The Leader shook his head. "Listen, a good story needs to have a sliver of truth. You had that with the team of Rangers, yeah? But then you got greedy, Two Gym Leaders, and a champion? What would they be doing hanging around like that? Your story makes no sense; it's no wonder an executive took one look at it and dismissed it out of hand when we sprung you out of jail!"
The man held up his hand to forestall Joe's protests. "Don't, just don't. I've heard it all before. A good story is allowed to stretch the truth no more than… like two hundred... No! Three hundred percent embellished!" He pointed at Joe. "You say a team of Rangers? Should have stuck with two or three and left it at that. Way more believable, even if it only took one to take you down."
Joe glared harder.
"Honestly it's unbelievable. You're as bad as that rookie who's always picking fights with people stronger than him. Only you tell the most stupid stories. No one's ever going to believe you about two Gym leaders and a Champion."
"Yeah, that's like crazy," said a voice from their side. The team of Rocket grunts all turned as one towards the voice. They stiffened when they found Brock, the Gym Leader of Pewter city sitting on a boulder.
Before the Rocket's could reach for their pokeballs another voice spoke from behind them. "Indeed, two Gym leaders? It wouldn't be believable."
The group turned to find Sabrina, the Saffron Gym Leader hovering down to the ground.
"Think they accept future Gym Leaders?" asked another voice. The Rocket grunts whipped around to find…
Joe tilted his head. "Who are you supposed to be?"
The aqua haired teen winced. "I'm a future Gym Leader?" he said. "What? That doesn't work for you?"
Joe sighed. "I guess you'll do, this time I have witnesses," he said reaching for a pokeball. With people around, he needed to at least appear to put up a fight.
"Ahem," said a polite voice. Once more the group of Rocket Grunts turned only to blanch when they found Professor Samuel freaking Oak smiling politely at them. His smile turned slightly evil. "I'm sorry to announce… no one will ever believe you regarding this story, young man!"
Joe gaped.
He didn't even see the judo chop that the aqua teen used to knock him out; he was still reeling from the situation he'd found himself in.
He had to be the most unlucky Rocket around!
I chuckled as Brawly dispatched the last Grunt. "Man that one guy can't catch a break. Lance and I caught him on Mt Silver!" I said.
Flannery hummed. "Huh, now I get what he was whining about." She shot Oak a smirk. "And damn Professor, that was cold."
Oak chuckled. "Most people either overestimate or underestimate my legend, and therefore don't believe in encountering me in the wilds. Or, as is growing to be more the case these days, many of the younger generations forget my role as a Champion of Indigo."
"Hmmm a shame," Roxanne said politely. "What are we going to do? This group was only made up of five Rocket members and there are six of us?"
Oak raised his hands. "I might hang back from infiltrating the base if it's all the same. I am sadly a very well known figure… that and an old Team Rocket grunt might be harder to overlook."
I nodded, agreeing with his suggestion even if I didn't like it. "Alright there's only two girl Rocket so who's wearin—"
"Dibs the pants!" said Flannery as she walked up to a thinly built Team Rocket Grunt before unbuckling his belt and ripping his pants off.
Brawly raised a finger. "What were you going to do if he was going commando?"
Flannery blushed, her stolen pants held in front of her. "I… well. Whatever! He didn't! Good luck taking your guy's clothes off! Chances are someone is going commando!"
That caused Brawly, Roxanne, and I to eyeball the rocket grunts that all had similar builds to us. Were they—
"Everyone is wearing underwear," announced Sabrina.
I heaved a sigh of relief. Good, I hadn't wanted to see some grunt's junk… or wear his clothes afterwards… that… urgh, just would have been weird.
Brawly chopped his hands towards Sabrina. "You can tell if someone is wearing underwear with your psychic abilities?"
Sabrina nodded her head seriously. "I looked into the future, and the future foretold underwear on all of them."
I wasn't sure what to make of one of the oddest uses of Sabrina's abilities I had ever encountered to date, so I just shrugged and stripped my Grunt before donning the Rocket uniform. "Alright, Roxanne we need some rope to tie them up."
Roxanne perked up and gave Flannery a superior smirk. "I knew that rope was a good purchase!"
Flannery rolled her eyes. "Sure, sure, you've been hanging onto it for months now, and this is the first time you've gotten to use it."
"Better to have it and not need it than—" Roxanne began to lecture, only for Flannery to wave her off.
"Yeah, yeah. Tie up these punks already."
Soon we were all changed into our Team Rocket uniforms. I had to admit that Sabrina's uniform suited her a little too much for my liking. Or maybe the issue was that I liked her looking like a villain a bit too much. She looked good. Or rather bad… but in such a good way.
I ended up having to drag my focus away from Sabrina's outfit and back to the reason we were here. I tugged my Rocket cap down over my eyes a little more and adopted a villainous smirk. "Excellent, we all look suitably mookish. Time to infiltrate this Team Rocket facility!"
"Huhahaha!" said Roxanne with a deep laugh while crossing her arms. "Evil!" she said. She then coughed. "Sorry, I was just trying to get into character."
Flannery snorted. "You're such a dweeb!"
I chuckled at the girls banter before coughing. "Alright, time to be serious. Let's get in there. Sabrina? Lead the way, yeah? Oak you're on repel duty with Chimecho." I rubbed my chin, thinking how else I could utilse him. "You alright with being on overwatch in case we need help?"
Oak shot me a thumbs up.
Sabrina took the lead, and we wandered into the dark tunnels. The others clicked on some torches, and I took a moment to remember that it would raise some eyebrows if I was walking without a torch, so I stepped closer to Sabrina to 'use' her torch for light.
For a few minutes, we walked through a tunnel with a number of twists and turns, only to open into an expansive cavern. I could see a few tents set up on the other side of the cavern and was surprised by the lack of light that was seeping out of the facility. They should have been bleeding light, but they were very much 'running dark'.
"Alright," I began to say as we closed in. "Oak will take a position of overwatch; make sure we've got backup in case anything goes wrong." Like a wild Mewtwo appearing, I thought to myself.
I gestured to the rest of us in Team Rocket garb. "We're to infiltrate and find the most highly ranked people we can… Unless you can detect something, Sabrina?"
She shook her head. "They have their dark emitters up still."
I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "Can we alter them to stop incoming and outgoing?"
That caused the group to shift. Oak coughed. "It is possible to calibrate the dark emitters, but these days there is a central console. You would be best to find where the highest ranked Team Rocket Member is, then get access to their computer."
"Woooah, you like, have it all worked out, Oak man!" said Brawly.
I shot him a look. Oh, that's right, he might not associate Professor Oak, the face of Pokemon research in the Indigo region, with the man who ended a war, and united two regions. Oak would probably have the biggest knowledge base of all of us on how to raid an enemy encampment.
I shot Oak a look but didn't see any hardening of his expression or anything that made me think he wasn't just an affable elderly man out for a walk.
"Right," I decided to say eventually, settling on just putting that realisation to the side for later examination. "Let's wander in, nice and casual."
I stood and rolled my shoulders while the others followed. Roxanne marched robotically.
Flannery rolled her eyes with a groan. "Roxy! Just loosen up a bit!" She then draped herself over Roxanne's shoulders and whispered with her while they walked. Sabrina dropped back to be included in the girl talk.
Brawly and I shot each other looks, and I just knew his ears were twitching to hear anything spoken between them as much as mine were.
It took a moment to recall that we were… Actually, on second thought, this set up worked perfectly. We were just a group of young men and women walking along, instead of people trying and failing to act casually.
I wasn't sure if Flannery knew what she was doing, but she relaxed Roxanne which helped. We wandered past a few Rocket members with pokemon out that were watching the various sides of the camp. They nodded at us, and a few eyed the girls, making me want to walk over and lean on them a bit, but I resisted and instead made my way further into the center of the encampment.
Without meaning to, I started to play with a pokeball. Sabrina walked back up to me and eyed the pokeball.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm doing good," I said with a wink. I eyed another cluster of rocket grunts and chewed my lip. "Just surprised that there are so many. If they all have their carry limits… then there's going to be a lot of pokemon around here. I've seen twenty so far."
"Flannery has an idea about that," Sabrina prompted, making me hum and toss Flannery a look. She shot me a thumbs up, and I grunted and looked back ahead as we came upon a larger tent. It looked like it had a lot of foot traffic with how the ground in front of it was tramped down.
We entered to find an array of tables and chairs with some laptops and paperwork scattered about. I eyed those before flicking my eyes up to the man who commanded the central table. I almost slumped my shoulders when it only revealed a man in a lab coat.
Hmmm, a Pokemon researcher or some type of scientist. I'd known Team Rocket had members like this, but I hadn't considered I'd bump into one here, especially not as the leader of this base. What were they researching? The closest point of interest was the Lavender Tower… or the Power Plant that was set up in the hills far to the east of Cerulean.
Huh. Why did they have the power plant so far out? Was it nuclear? I thought it ran off pokemon like Electrode? Perhaps that added an element of danger to it? Maybe Surge would know?
I made a discrete gesture for the others to fan out around the room to get close to rest of the Team Rocket members in the tent with us. Roxanne was tugged over to a pair of Grunts that perked up at their approach. Sabrina approached a woman in a lab coat, and Brawly nodded his head at two other men.
I stood in front of the 'boss'. "Yes?" he said with a nasal tone, not looking up from his work.
"Reporting in from our—" The man held up a finger and I felt my heart hammer in my chest. Did he know I was a spy? Shit! I shouldn't have said anything! This is most likely a small, tight-knit group.
"You're the group that was sent over from Gamma base? No don't say anything, its obvious with how lacking in respect you are." The researcher straightened up and adopted a pose that he must have thought made him look suave. "I run things differently here. This is a tight ship where respect for your betters is given!"
I heard one of the men near Brawly sigh and mutter. "Shit, here he goes again." Hmmm interesting. This man was a known authoritarian, but he didn't truly have their respect.
I grunted. "Isat so," I said, donning a tough guy accent while sneering in such a way that practically begged him to take umbrage.
He narrowed his eyes and stood up. He walked around the desk and poked me in the chest. "I run things around here, and if you have a problem with that I will—" I channelled some rock energy into my head and headbutted him.
He folded like a Mr Mime acting out the part of a dropped wet spaghetti. He hit the floor, and the woman next to Sabrina blinked and looked up. "Oh dear, another one of those rough Grunts," she said with a shake of her head. "Listen you can't go beating on Dave like that. He's an asshole, but he does run things. What's your name?" she said like someone that was going to write me up on report.
I snorted and released my Sudowoodo. He smiled widely as a new plan took hold in my mind.
"You don't get it do you?" I said with my fake tough guy accent. Behind the woman, Sabrina released her Hypno without anyone being alerted.
"Get what?" said the woman. "This is highly inappropriate!"
I snorted and chopped my hand towards to people still on computers. Sudowoodo leaped across the room and chopped his arms into both of them. I let my smile turn into a smirk. "Proton wants this shut down," I said deciding to sell the fiction this was an internal spat rather than a raid. It suited my purposes and who knows it might muddy the water for Team Rocket a bit. He was thus far the only 'executive' that I knew about.
Around me, people stood in surprise at he sudden violence, only for Sudowoodo to knock out another two before they could get pokeballs out.
The town men near Brawly dropped when he punched them both. He then sprinted over to the Roxanne and Flannery, who had thrown themselves at the other men.
Flannery had hers in a chokehold while Roxanne was hugging hers around the waist. It was ineffective at bring him down but he couldn't get at his pokeballs either. He had all of a second to try and rip her off but she was like a Shellder clamping onto a Slowpoke with her grip.
"Damn it let—" was all he got to say before Brawly slammed into him.
I turned to find Sabrina pointing her Hypno to various people and making them fall asleep. The researcher who'd been reprimanding me for headbutting the boss ended up being the only person left standing after a brief scuffle that barely got louder than a few grunts and loud coughs as either Sudowoodo or Brawly knocked them out.
"Proton won't get away with this! The big boss will hear about this through Executive Archer!"
I snorted and kept my face down. With my cap pulled low, she couldn't see my face too well. The darkness of the cave helped with that. "Don'tcha know? He's on the way down. Boss Proton is on the rise!" I said with a fake-sounding confidence I'd heard all too often from kids facing me with pokemon that really wouldn't help them.
Sabrina turned the woman to face her Hypno and soon the woman was fast asleep.
Brawly clapped me on the shoulder. "Nice improv my man!"
I held up a hand. "No names from here on out. I don't want it getting out who we really are." I shot him a wink and eyed the tent. Chances were there might be recording equipment observing some of these people. Chances were that I wouldn't get away with this, but it still seemed like a good idea. I had no idea if Rocket had such internal politics but with Daniel's arrest, they might also point the finger at another criminal organisation if I played things right.
"Let's get this place blacked out," I ordered. I pointed to Flannery. "What did you have planned to round up the others?"
Flannery grinned and tugged off the research coats. She swept them over her and Roxanne's shoulders. Sabrina made a gesture, and a few small cameras were torn from the walls and crushed. She then took over the main computer.
Brawly bounced up next to her. "Oh! Oh! Look into the future and find out the pas—"
Sabrina reached under the desk and drew out a sticky note with the password on it. Brawly deflated like a balloon. "Awwww," he said morosely.
I snorted and nodded to Flannery, who readjusted her hair into a serious-looking plait before pulling out some wide-rimmed glasses. She donned them and smiled widely. "I call this my nerd disguise! I styled it after Roxy!"
Roxanne shot her friend an affronted look. Flannery ignored Roxanne as she also put the Labcoat over her Team Rocket uniform. "Right! So I did some investigating into these Rocket people, and I learned this interesting little factoid when I was talking with one of your police officers!"
I nodded, following along easily.
"So they mostly don't keep their own pokemon on them! The Team Rocket Organisation gives them out and recalls them when they want."
"Oh, I see," I said as her plan registered with me. "That's pretty bold."
"But it'd work, no?" Flannery said with a leer.
Roxanne and Brawly looked between us. "What are you two talking about?" Roxanne said as she readjusted her hair into loops around her ears.
Sabrina spoke up from the computer she was playing with. "They're going to call in the Rocket Grunts, ask them to hand in their pokemon and then deal with them."
Roxanne gaped at us. "What? No! That has no chance of working."
Sabrina and I shared a look. I made a so-so gesture. "It has a pretty good chance to work, actually."
Roxanne gaped at us. Thankfully, she shut her mouth when we walked out and told a few Rocket members that there would be an announcement.
"Urgh, Dave wants to grandstand again?" One Rocket Grunt asked.
I nodded in commiseration. "Yeah, I pissed him off, so he's got me running around like this."
"Yeah, he's not gonna settle for just that man, good luck on your job assignment for the next week chump!" he said as he marched off.
I chuckled to myself and continued to round up other Rocket members, making sure to keep my face shadowed or tucked under my cap.
I kept an ear out for any struggles or signs that things weren't working out for us, but it seemed to be going well. Eventually, everyone was assembled in front of the main tent. Roxy and Flannery, dressed in their labcoats, stepped out and handed out two large sacks.
"We're going to be trading out pokemon for the next raid! We need to give you all some specialty pokemon for the coming raid!"
A few grunts looked sad at this, but most handed over their pokemon without complaint. I watched them do so disdainfully. Not a hint of a bond or attachment to be seen…
One clutched onto his pokeball. "My Ekans likes to be read stories at night! Do you think you can keep doing that?" he said. A few other Rocket Grunts snickered at him, but Roxanne put a hand on his shoulder.
"We'll make sure they are looked after," she said comfortingly. This got a few more snorts of derision, but the Rocket Grunt looked relieved. I eyed them with interest, a single person showing compassion for his pokemon in a crowd of people? I wondered, perhaps for the first time, what their stories were, and how they ended up in cahoots with a criminal organisation.
With their pokeballs returned to them, the tent flaps opened once more, and people perked up; they were obviously expecting their leader, Dave, to be giving a speech. Instead, Hypno walked out.
At the same time, Brawly released a Hariyama in between one row of tents, while between another row, Medicham appeared. I crossed my arms and nodded. At my signal, Sudowoodo wandered forward with a leer, right as Hypno's eyes glowed and he started to sweep his medallion in front of everyone's eyes.
A few stumbled and fell to the ground, while others gasped and took in the trap they'd stepped into. "Oh shit! It's a set-up!" shouted one Rocket grunt causing the still awake Rockets to stagger and reach for now absent pokeballs. One Rocket member proved to be a sneaky sort as an Abra appeared in front of him.
He grabbed it by the head. "Get me outta here!" he barked, only for Abra to twitch but not flash away.
Medicham launched itself at him and the Abra and dispatched them both.
Flannery grinned cruelly. "Everyone else! On your knees! Prostate's orders!" she barked.
That caused a few men to gain sickly looks as I facepalmed. Roxanne walked over and whispered information into Flannery's ear. I could tell the exact moment that Roxanne explained what Prostate meant to Flannery, as Flannery's face turned bright red.
"I meant Proton! Not that other thing! Just! Urgh Yuck! Knock 'em out already!" she shouted at Brawly who did as asked, chuckling all the while.
When the Grunts were all squared away, I stood up. "Alright, let's make copies of all their information, just in case, and then call in the police for a pick up of this group."
"We're not going to stick around?" asked Roxanne.
"Nah, this actually works out better for us; Team Rocket won't know what to do when they get information on this raid. It sounds more like an internal raid, but there is enough to muddy the waters of what's going on for them to double-guess themselves."
"Won't the first group we knocked out give the game away?"
I chuckled. "I think our friend had the right of it. No one's ever going to believe them."
I walked back up to Oak and read him into the situation. He laughed and agreed to go along with what I had planned. "Oh my, I think this plan would make even Koga smile!" he said with a hearty laugh.
He sat up. "Still, it's a shame I never got the chance to show off for you all." He winked. "Oh well, it was wonderful to see you young trainers come together like you did."
I nodded, still curious if that was his true reason for coming here. I knew Oak was a much more complex man than he appeared, but he played up his characteristics as a helpful old man to a T. I decided to just nod in the end, and call the police.
When the flashing lights were within sight, Sabrina teleported us into an overwatch position to bear witness to the Police storming the Rocket base. They seemed rather bemused when they discovered the men and women already tied up and everything set up for them.
Roxanne fidgetted. "I still feel we should have stayed down there. What if our not being there allows some of them to escape being convicted of anything?"
Sabrina shook her head. "There is plenty of evidence regarding items, information, and stolen pokemon throughout their camp. Enough to implicate all of them. Also, Team Rocket is a recognised criminal organisation."
Brawly nodded. "I kinda like this method. We're like heroes from cartoons! We rush in and smash the baddies, then get out as the police do their job." He puffed himself up. "Like, I call Hero Blue if that's what we're doing!"
I snorted, only for Flannery to speak up. "I'm Hero Red then!"
Brawly made a noise of protest, only for her to glare at him. She glanced at the rest of us before nodding when no one else protested. She wrapped an arm around Roxanne. "She's Hero Pink!" This caused Roxanne to squawk in protest.
"Brock is Hero Black; I will be Hero Yellow," Sabrina said with a firm nod.
I bit my lip and decided not to point out how childish this all was.
Oak coughed and adopted a pose. "Well, in that case, I have no choice but to be Hero Gold!"
Flannery hissed. "The hell you do, old man! You can be the butler!"
I laughed and waved Sabrina to teleport us out, and like heroes, we left the scene in a flash of light.
Later, Sabrina and I deposited the information with the Guardians to be perused for any information they could garner. I was pleasantly surprised when Agatha appeared on her screen.
"What's this I hear of you going on a raid near my home territory, Brock?"
"You were incapacitated," Sabrina said loyally.
I offered Agatha a shrug. "I thought I'd clean up for you while you rest. You know how it is; we young ones have to blow off steam occasionally."
"Indeed, I caught the highlights of your match against that upstart!" she said and my face tightened into a sneer.
"A lot of information has been garnered from that match in particular," I said, alluding to the information I'd discovered regarding Will and my theory that he'd signed on with Team Rocket. Koga and Agatha nodded.
"We saw the information you sent us. There are too many coincidences. The attack on Mt Silver was bold of Giovanni, too bold unless he was sure of himself. Having faced the pokemon in question, I now understand that he is very sure of himself."
Koga inclined his head. "It was a good idea to obscure your identities the way you did. Many of the Rocket members are already speaking between themselves of internal politics or Team Magma due to the pokemon more commonly found in Hoenn being used to take them down. I have covered up your earlier slip-up for you, however."
I nodded to Koga. "Thanks; I have to admit I got caught up in the whole event so fast I didn't stop to think it entirely through."
I worked my jaw. "I can't throw punches at an enemy that won't stand up and face me, so the other option is to give them shadows to waste energy on."
Koga nodded. "This is the way of the shinobi, yes. It is a method that has worked many times. Often, people may suspect, but they will not act unless they are certain. We have the luxury of knowing who our foe is. He knows some of us as well, however. Caution is key going forward," he said while slowly chopping his hand in my direction.
I nodded, accepting the light rebuke for what it was. "One thing that still doesn't make too much sense to me was Oak. He came along and sure he helped but… he could have probably soloed that place on his own, right?"
Agatha snorted. "There is no probably about it. He could have had it if he desired it. He, however, likes his peace too much to move openly."
"So why come at all? He said he wanted to see the bonds we were making, but that doesn't seem entirely true." I scratched at my chin.
Agatha snorted while Koga chuckled. I blinked in surprise. Sabrina ended up being the one to speak up. "Brock, remember when you mentioned Lance talking about Oak spending time with him before and after he made a play for the champion position? Oak is making sure that if you ever decide to be Champion, you will be a good Champion for Indigo."
I blinked. "Oh," I said eloquently. Now that she'd said it… it really stood out, didn't it?
"Naive!" shouted Agatha. She pointed at Sabrina. "You're just as much on his radar little girl! And for good reason! I've said it before, and I'll say it again! You could be more!"
Sabrina merely smiled and shook her head. "I'm happy."
Karen retched in faux disgust. "Urgh, spare me your soap drama! What is our plan going forward?"
I rubbed my chin as Koga and Agatha talked about monitoring the situation and finding more points to apply pressure to Team Rocket. They also discussed how they might further muddy the water and get Team Rocket looking in the wrong direction.
"Will," I said, causing the group to look at me. "He's gotten past me but he will still need help to fight other people. Other Gym Leaders. If we can get proof of him needing assistance against Surge or Erika, then we can nail him and drag him into the light."
"Hmmmm," Koga said thoughtfully. "This has merit. I am not sure he will need it against Erika—" Sabrina's eyes narrowed slightly. "—but Lieutenant Surge… He will be a much tougher fight, as he will not hold back his considerable might. We will monitor any further incidents as well. I don't want any more Mt Silver episodes."
Sabrina stiffened. "I will need to set up a security detail for Erika then. She has volunteered to reseed and assist with the regrowth of the forests of the Silver Ranges that were recently burned down. She is exposed more than usual due to this."
Karen sniffed. "Will's not going to bother tripping her up; she's not that strong."
"She is my friend, and she is not weak." Sabrina glared at Karen, and Karen smirked. I sighed, Karen was going to remember this. She'd gotten a rise out of Sabrina. I didn't doubt she would want to keep jabbing that weak point for all it was worth.
The meeting ended once plans were set up for Surge and Erika to have protections placed around them, and when I logged out, I collapsed back onto my bed. Sabrina teleported into my room.
I ran a hand down her back. "Hey, wasn't sure you wanted to stay the night," I said. She murmured into my shoulder.
She lay next to me for the next few minutes and didn't say anything, her fingers played across my chest. I waited, knowing she wanted to say something. "I'm sorry for leading you into that raid. I hadn't considered how that might put you at risk. I just meant to help you feel better."
I smiled and wrapped my arms around her. "Don't sweat it; I adapted a plan that I don't think I would have thought up if I was given time. I think we happened on a weakness of Team Rocket's that I plan to keep exploiting."
She nodded. "And you? How are you feeling about your match with Will?"
I sighed. "Better," I said, shooting her a smile. She leaned up and pecked me on the lips.
"That's good. You're much more handsome when you smile… although your frown is attractive as well."
I chuckled and smiled at her. "You looked pretty good in that Rocket outfit," I said leadingly.
She smiled a playful smile and teleported away. When she returned, she was wearing nothing but the Rocket outfit and a teasing smile. I stood and kissed her, more than happy to play this game with her.
When we were done, she lay on my chest and slumbered. I looked up at the ceiling, feeling much more relaxed and at peace. I still had to go back to work tomorrow like nothing had changed.
"Man, that's going to be weird," I said aloud.
I'd be right as well, except there would also be a rather nice surprise waiting for me.
A.N. Thanks goes to my patreons for their continued support.
It also goes to Obiwankentucky for betaing this chapter!
Oak beat me to the punch, merely giving his surroundings a cursory glance before humming. "We're north of Lavender Town? An interesting location for a Team Rocket facility to be set up."
Sabrina inclined her head. "I believe they are in fact set up in a temporary facility, as most of the base is made up of tents instead of anything more permanent."
"You were able to get close?" I said with surprise.
Sabrina shook her head. "Not too close, the Zubat and Golbat that live in the Rock Tunnels react poorly to sudden flashes of light; if I teleported in, I would attract a swarm and potentially alert Team Rocket."
Flannery rubbed her chin, eying Sabrina, "Huh, that was clever of you… and in a way, clever of them too. A natural defence that acts as a sentry and warning system if we come in too hot."
Sabrina nodded. "We can walk in; however, we will just need to be careful with how we move."
Roxanne reached into a satchel she had slung over her shoulder. "Alright! If we're going into the tunnels, we need to set ourselves up with rope, a dark light, fresh water—"
Brawly coughed. "Like, Roxanne? We're not going for a long expedition, we're going in and raiding the place."
Roxanne flushed. "I also have some repels."
Brawly and Flannery made faces and Roxanne scoffed. "Synthetically made repels! This isn't some cheap market made repel."
Flannery relaxed. "Good, cause do you have any idea what they actually put in that stuff?" she said with a shudder.
Oak perked up. "In fact, I do! The natural excreme—" Flannery shot a hand over his mouth.
"And ah no thanks! I don't need any more brain bleach for that particular subject!" She jutted her chin at Roxanne, "How potent is this stuff?"
"It's rated as good for an hour!" she said holding up the bottle. She then sprayed it on herself. Her face twitched, and a shiver ran up her body. She gave us a sickly-looking smile. "It's… great!" she said unconvincingly.
Brawly stepped closer and sniffed her. "Urgh! Smells like old gym socks left in a hot locker!"
Roxanne shot him a less than impressed look. Brawly raised his hands in supplication. "Alright! Alright! I'll put it on!" he said, spraying the substance onto his arms and legs with a shudder.
"Ahem," said a polite voice. We turned back to find Professor Oak with a pokemon floating over his shoulder. He smiled and scratched at the back of his head. "I suppose this is a bad time to mention that I can use my Chimecho to repel other pokemon?"
Roxanne blinked in surprise. Brawly barked a laugh, and Flannery, who'd just accepted the bottle of repel and been about to apply it to her own body, sighed in relief at dodging a bullet.
"Huh," I said, impressed with the utility of such a pokemon. "That's a neat role to have."
"It's rather useful in the field to be able to have pokemon either approach you or be repelled from you when you are wandering around. It doesn't help as much in the more powerful areas, but it does decrease the odds of a bad encounter by having Chimecho release a very low cry that calms or makes other pokemon avoid us."
Sabrina eyed the little floating wind chime pokemon. It approached her and waved its little arms. "I had not considered such a pokemon before. This is a Hoenn pokemon no?"
"Indeed!" Oak said while preening. "My good friend sent it to me! She clued me in to the use of Chimecho in such a function. Hoenn professors are rather clever like that! Being able to go into the wilds and avoid pokemon chasing them!"
"The new guy kinda gets himself into a lot of trouble exploring the wilderness, from what I hear!" said Flannery brashly as she shoved the repel into Brawly's chest, accidentally spraying some more on him. She made a gagging noise and wiped her hand on his shirt, making him whine.
"Not cool Flans!" he said as he tugged at his shirt in annoyance.
I chuckled, and straight away I got the idea that Professor Birch wasn't privy to this little trick. I turned back to find Chimecho playing with Sabrina, its tail wafting out to lightly brush against her nose. I raised my transceiver and took a picture before coughing.
"Right! So, we can get close to the Rocket base now, but we also need to secure any Rocket Administration that we find; they are usually the most slippery and the fastest to run."
Sabrina bobbed her head up and down. Flannery snapped her fingers. "Don't members of Team Rocket like to wear uniforms? Things that identify them as crooks?"
"Yes, yes they do," I said with a grin. "So, we need to find some Team rocket uniforms—"
"Or some Team Rocket grunts?" said Brawly with a curious tone of voice.
"Yeah?" I said, glancing at him, only to turn and notice that he was eyeballing a crack in the local walls where a group of Rocket's had just emerged.
"Ah, well, that's perfect," I said, pointing them out to the others.
It looked like it was time to rustle up some disguises.
"Urgh! Tell a better lie man!" said one of the Grunts.
Joe, a card-carrying member of Team Rocket —albeit, one of their grunts— scowled at his group leader. "It wasn't a lie! I had to have a Team of Rangers, a pair of Gym Leaders, and the damned Champion take me down when I was running my sting in Mt Silver! I should be in charge of this op!"
The group leader shook his head. "Honestly, I can see why you were bumped down to Grunt status from what you'd been. You need to learn to lie better."
Joe glared only for George, his buddy in this group, to nudge him and shake his head. Joe ignored him. "I wasn't lying!"
The Leader shook his head. "Listen, a good story needs to have a sliver of truth. You had that with the team of Rangers, yeah? But then you got greedy, Two Gym Leaders, and a champion? What would they be doing hanging around like that? Your story makes no sense; it's no wonder an executive took one look at it and dismissed it out of hand when we sprung you out of jail!"
The man held up his hand to forestall Joe's protests. "Don't, just don't. I've heard it all before. A good story is allowed to stretch the truth no more than… like two hundred... No! Three hundred percent embellished!" He pointed at Joe. "You say a team of Rangers? Should have stuck with two or three and left it at that. Way more believable, even if it only took one to take you down."
Joe glared harder.
"Honestly it's unbelievable. You're as bad as that rookie who's always picking fights with people stronger than him. Only you tell the most stupid stories. No one's ever going to believe you about two Gym leaders and a Champion."
"Yeah, that's like crazy," said a voice from their side. The team of Rocket grunts all turned as one towards the voice. They stiffened when they found Brock, the Gym Leader of Pewter city sitting on a boulder.
Before the Rocket's could reach for their pokeballs another voice spoke from behind them. "Indeed, two Gym leaders? It wouldn't be believable."
The group turned to find Sabrina, the Saffron Gym Leader hovering down to the ground.
"Think they accept future Gym Leaders?" asked another voice. The Rocket grunts whipped around to find…
Joe tilted his head. "Who are you supposed to be?"
The aqua haired teen winced. "I'm a future Gym Leader?" he said. "What? That doesn't work for you?"
Joe sighed. "I guess you'll do, this time I have witnesses," he said reaching for a pokeball. With people around, he needed to at least appear to put up a fight.
"Ahem," said a polite voice. Once more the group of Rocket Grunts turned only to blanch when they found Professor Samuel freaking Oak smiling politely at them. His smile turned slightly evil. "I'm sorry to announce… no one will ever believe you regarding this story, young man!"
Joe gaped.
He didn't even see the judo chop that the aqua teen used to knock him out; he was still reeling from the situation he'd found himself in.
He had to be the most unlucky Rocket around!
I chuckled as Brawly dispatched the last Grunt. "Man that one guy can't catch a break. Lance and I caught him on Mt Silver!" I said.
Flannery hummed. "Huh, now I get what he was whining about." She shot Oak a smirk. "And damn Professor, that was cold."
Oak chuckled. "Most people either overestimate or underestimate my legend, and therefore don't believe in encountering me in the wilds. Or, as is growing to be more the case these days, many of the younger generations forget my role as a Champion of Indigo."
"Hmmm a shame," Roxanne said politely. "What are we going to do? This group was only made up of five Rocket members and there are six of us?"
Oak raised his hands. "I might hang back from infiltrating the base if it's all the same. I am sadly a very well known figure… that and an old Team Rocket grunt might be harder to overlook."
I nodded, agreeing with his suggestion even if I didn't like it. "Alright there's only two girl Rocket so who's wearin—"
"Dibs the pants!" said Flannery as she walked up to a thinly built Team Rocket Grunt before unbuckling his belt and ripping his pants off.
Brawly raised a finger. "What were you going to do if he was going commando?"
Flannery blushed, her stolen pants held in front of her. "I… well. Whatever! He didn't! Good luck taking your guy's clothes off! Chances are someone is going commando!"
That caused Brawly, Roxanne, and I to eyeball the rocket grunts that all had similar builds to us. Were they—
"Everyone is wearing underwear," announced Sabrina.
I heaved a sigh of relief. Good, I hadn't wanted to see some grunt's junk… or wear his clothes afterwards… that… urgh, just would have been weird.
Brawly chopped his hands towards Sabrina. "You can tell if someone is wearing underwear with your psychic abilities?"
Sabrina nodded her head seriously. "I looked into the future, and the future foretold underwear on all of them."
I wasn't sure what to make of one of the oddest uses of Sabrina's abilities I had ever encountered to date, so I just shrugged and stripped my Grunt before donning the Rocket uniform. "Alright, Roxanne we need some rope to tie them up."
Roxanne perked up and gave Flannery a superior smirk. "I knew that rope was a good purchase!"
Flannery rolled her eyes. "Sure, sure, you've been hanging onto it for months now, and this is the first time you've gotten to use it."
"Better to have it and not need it than—" Roxanne began to lecture, only for Flannery to wave her off.
"Yeah, yeah. Tie up these punks already."
Soon we were all changed into our Team Rocket uniforms. I had to admit that Sabrina's uniform suited her a little too much for my liking. Or maybe the issue was that I liked her looking like a villain a bit too much. She looked good. Or rather bad… but in such a good way.
I ended up having to drag my focus away from Sabrina's outfit and back to the reason we were here. I tugged my Rocket cap down over my eyes a little more and adopted a villainous smirk. "Excellent, we all look suitably mookish. Time to infiltrate this Team Rocket facility!"
"Huhahaha!" said Roxanne with a deep laugh while crossing her arms. "Evil!" she said. She then coughed. "Sorry, I was just trying to get into character."
Flannery snorted. "You're such a dweeb!"
I chuckled at the girls banter before coughing. "Alright, time to be serious. Let's get in there. Sabrina? Lead the way, yeah? Oak you're on repel duty with Chimecho." I rubbed my chin, thinking how else I could utilse him. "You alright with being on overwatch in case we need help?"
Oak shot me a thumbs up.
Sabrina took the lead, and we wandered into the dark tunnels. The others clicked on some torches, and I took a moment to remember that it would raise some eyebrows if I was walking without a torch, so I stepped closer to Sabrina to 'use' her torch for light.
For a few minutes, we walked through a tunnel with a number of twists and turns, only to open into an expansive cavern. I could see a few tents set up on the other side of the cavern and was surprised by the lack of light that was seeping out of the facility. They should have been bleeding light, but they were very much 'running dark'.
"Alright," I began to say as we closed in. "Oak will take a position of overwatch; make sure we've got backup in case anything goes wrong." Like a wild Mewtwo appearing, I thought to myself.
I gestured to the rest of us in Team Rocket garb. "We're to infiltrate and find the most highly ranked people we can… Unless you can detect something, Sabrina?"
She shook her head. "They have their dark emitters up still."
I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "Can we alter them to stop incoming and outgoing?"
That caused the group to shift. Oak coughed. "It is possible to calibrate the dark emitters, but these days there is a central console. You would be best to find where the highest ranked Team Rocket Member is, then get access to their computer."
"Woooah, you like, have it all worked out, Oak man!" said Brawly.
I shot him a look. Oh, that's right, he might not associate Professor Oak, the face of Pokemon research in the Indigo region, with the man who ended a war, and united two regions. Oak would probably have the biggest knowledge base of all of us on how to raid an enemy encampment.
I shot Oak a look but didn't see any hardening of his expression or anything that made me think he wasn't just an affable elderly man out for a walk.
"Right," I decided to say eventually, settling on just putting that realisation to the side for later examination. "Let's wander in, nice and casual."
I stood and rolled my shoulders while the others followed. Roxanne marched robotically.
Flannery rolled her eyes with a groan. "Roxy! Just loosen up a bit!" She then draped herself over Roxanne's shoulders and whispered with her while they walked. Sabrina dropped back to be included in the girl talk.
Brawly and I shot each other looks, and I just knew his ears were twitching to hear anything spoken between them as much as mine were.
It took a moment to recall that we were… Actually, on second thought, this set up worked perfectly. We were just a group of young men and women walking along, instead of people trying and failing to act casually.
I wasn't sure if Flannery knew what she was doing, but she relaxed Roxanne which helped. We wandered past a few Rocket members with pokemon out that were watching the various sides of the camp. They nodded at us, and a few eyed the girls, making me want to walk over and lean on them a bit, but I resisted and instead made my way further into the center of the encampment.
Without meaning to, I started to play with a pokeball. Sabrina walked back up to me and eyed the pokeball.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm doing good," I said with a wink. I eyed another cluster of rocket grunts and chewed my lip. "Just surprised that there are so many. If they all have their carry limits… then there's going to be a lot of pokemon around here. I've seen twenty so far."
"Flannery has an idea about that," Sabrina prompted, making me hum and toss Flannery a look. She shot me a thumbs up, and I grunted and looked back ahead as we came upon a larger tent. It looked like it had a lot of foot traffic with how the ground in front of it was tramped down.
We entered to find an array of tables and chairs with some laptops and paperwork scattered about. I eyed those before flicking my eyes up to the man who commanded the central table. I almost slumped my shoulders when it only revealed a man in a lab coat.
Hmmm, a Pokemon researcher or some type of scientist. I'd known Team Rocket had members like this, but I hadn't considered I'd bump into one here, especially not as the leader of this base. What were they researching? The closest point of interest was the Lavender Tower… or the Power Plant that was set up in the hills far to the east of Cerulean.
Huh. Why did they have the power plant so far out? Was it nuclear? I thought it ran off pokemon like Electrode? Perhaps that added an element of danger to it? Maybe Surge would know?
I made a discrete gesture for the others to fan out around the room to get close to rest of the Team Rocket members in the tent with us. Roxanne was tugged over to a pair of Grunts that perked up at their approach. Sabrina approached a woman in a lab coat, and Brawly nodded his head at two other men.
I stood in front of the 'boss'. "Yes?" he said with a nasal tone, not looking up from his work.
"Reporting in from our—" The man held up a finger and I felt my heart hammer in my chest. Did he know I was a spy? Shit! I shouldn't have said anything! This is most likely a small, tight-knit group.
"You're the group that was sent over from Gamma base? No don't say anything, its obvious with how lacking in respect you are." The researcher straightened up and adopted a pose that he must have thought made him look suave. "I run things differently here. This is a tight ship where respect for your betters is given!"
I heard one of the men near Brawly sigh and mutter. "Shit, here he goes again." Hmmm interesting. This man was a known authoritarian, but he didn't truly have their respect.
I grunted. "Isat so," I said, donning a tough guy accent while sneering in such a way that practically begged him to take umbrage.
He narrowed his eyes and stood up. He walked around the desk and poked me in the chest. "I run things around here, and if you have a problem with that I will—" I channelled some rock energy into my head and headbutted him.
He folded like a Mr Mime acting out the part of a dropped wet spaghetti. He hit the floor, and the woman next to Sabrina blinked and looked up. "Oh dear, another one of those rough Grunts," she said with a shake of her head. "Listen you can't go beating on Dave like that. He's an asshole, but he does run things. What's your name?" she said like someone that was going to write me up on report.
I snorted and released my Sudowoodo. He smiled widely as a new plan took hold in my mind.
"You don't get it do you?" I said with my fake tough guy accent. Behind the woman, Sabrina released her Hypno without anyone being alerted.
"Get what?" said the woman. "This is highly inappropriate!"
I snorted and chopped my hand towards to people still on computers. Sudowoodo leaped across the room and chopped his arms into both of them. I let my smile turn into a smirk. "Proton wants this shut down," I said deciding to sell the fiction this was an internal spat rather than a raid. It suited my purposes and who knows it might muddy the water for Team Rocket a bit. He was thus far the only 'executive' that I knew about.
Around me, people stood in surprise at he sudden violence, only for Sudowoodo to knock out another two before they could get pokeballs out.
The town men near Brawly dropped when he punched them both. He then sprinted over to the Roxanne and Flannery, who had thrown themselves at the other men.
Flannery had hers in a chokehold while Roxanne was hugging hers around the waist. It was ineffective at bring him down but he couldn't get at his pokeballs either. He had all of a second to try and rip her off but she was like a Shellder clamping onto a Slowpoke with her grip.
"Damn it let—" was all he got to say before Brawly slammed into him.
I turned to find Sabrina pointing her Hypno to various people and making them fall asleep. The researcher who'd been reprimanding me for headbutting the boss ended up being the only person left standing after a brief scuffle that barely got louder than a few grunts and loud coughs as either Sudowoodo or Brawly knocked them out.
"Proton won't get away with this! The big boss will hear about this through Executive Archer!"
I snorted and kept my face down. With my cap pulled low, she couldn't see my face too well. The darkness of the cave helped with that. "Don'tcha know? He's on the way down. Boss Proton is on the rise!" I said with a fake-sounding confidence I'd heard all too often from kids facing me with pokemon that really wouldn't help them.
Sabrina turned the woman to face her Hypno and soon the woman was fast asleep.
Brawly clapped me on the shoulder. "Nice improv my man!"
I held up a hand. "No names from here on out. I don't want it getting out who we really are." I shot him a wink and eyed the tent. Chances were there might be recording equipment observing some of these people. Chances were that I wouldn't get away with this, but it still seemed like a good idea. I had no idea if Rocket had such internal politics but with Daniel's arrest, they might also point the finger at another criminal organisation if I played things right.
"Let's get this place blacked out," I ordered. I pointed to Flannery. "What did you have planned to round up the others?"
Flannery grinned and tugged off the research coats. She swept them over her and Roxanne's shoulders. Sabrina made a gesture, and a few small cameras were torn from the walls and crushed. She then took over the main computer.
Brawly bounced up next to her. "Oh! Oh! Look into the future and find out the pas—"
Sabrina reached under the desk and drew out a sticky note with the password on it. Brawly deflated like a balloon. "Awwww," he said morosely.
I snorted and nodded to Flannery, who readjusted her hair into a serious-looking plait before pulling out some wide-rimmed glasses. She donned them and smiled widely. "I call this my nerd disguise! I styled it after Roxy!"
Roxanne shot her friend an affronted look. Flannery ignored Roxanne as she also put the Labcoat over her Team Rocket uniform. "Right! So I did some investigating into these Rocket people, and I learned this interesting little factoid when I was talking with one of your police officers!"
I nodded, following along easily.
"So they mostly don't keep their own pokemon on them! The Team Rocket Organisation gives them out and recalls them when they want."
"Oh, I see," I said as her plan registered with me. "That's pretty bold."
"But it'd work, no?" Flannery said with a leer.
Roxanne and Brawly looked between us. "What are you two talking about?" Roxanne said as she readjusted her hair into loops around her ears.
Sabrina spoke up from the computer she was playing with. "They're going to call in the Rocket Grunts, ask them to hand in their pokemon and then deal with them."
Roxanne gaped at us. "What? No! That has no chance of working."
Sabrina and I shared a look. I made a so-so gesture. "It has a pretty good chance to work, actually."
Roxanne gaped at us. Thankfully, she shut her mouth when we walked out and told a few Rocket members that there would be an announcement.
"Urgh, Dave wants to grandstand again?" One Rocket Grunt asked.
I nodded in commiseration. "Yeah, I pissed him off, so he's got me running around like this."
"Yeah, he's not gonna settle for just that man, good luck on your job assignment for the next week chump!" he said as he marched off.
I chuckled to myself and continued to round up other Rocket members, making sure to keep my face shadowed or tucked under my cap.
I kept an ear out for any struggles or signs that things weren't working out for us, but it seemed to be going well. Eventually, everyone was assembled in front of the main tent. Roxy and Flannery, dressed in their labcoats, stepped out and handed out two large sacks.
"We're going to be trading out pokemon for the next raid! We need to give you all some specialty pokemon for the coming raid!"
A few grunts looked sad at this, but most handed over their pokemon without complaint. I watched them do so disdainfully. Not a hint of a bond or attachment to be seen…
One clutched onto his pokeball. "My Ekans likes to be read stories at night! Do you think you can keep doing that?" he said. A few other Rocket Grunts snickered at him, but Roxanne put a hand on his shoulder.
"We'll make sure they are looked after," she said comfortingly. This got a few more snorts of derision, but the Rocket Grunt looked relieved. I eyed them with interest, a single person showing compassion for his pokemon in a crowd of people? I wondered, perhaps for the first time, what their stories were, and how they ended up in cahoots with a criminal organisation.
With their pokeballs returned to them, the tent flaps opened once more, and people perked up; they were obviously expecting their leader, Dave, to be giving a speech. Instead, Hypno walked out.
At the same time, Brawly released a Hariyama in between one row of tents, while between another row, Medicham appeared. I crossed my arms and nodded. At my signal, Sudowoodo wandered forward with a leer, right as Hypno's eyes glowed and he started to sweep his medallion in front of everyone's eyes.
A few stumbled and fell to the ground, while others gasped and took in the trap they'd stepped into. "Oh shit! It's a set-up!" shouted one Rocket grunt causing the still awake Rockets to stagger and reach for now absent pokeballs. One Rocket member proved to be a sneaky sort as an Abra appeared in front of him.
He grabbed it by the head. "Get me outta here!" he barked, only for Abra to twitch but not flash away.
Medicham launched itself at him and the Abra and dispatched them both.
Flannery grinned cruelly. "Everyone else! On your knees! Prostate's orders!" she barked.
That caused a few men to gain sickly looks as I facepalmed. Roxanne walked over and whispered information into Flannery's ear. I could tell the exact moment that Roxanne explained what Prostate meant to Flannery, as Flannery's face turned bright red.
"I meant Proton! Not that other thing! Just! Urgh Yuck! Knock 'em out already!" she shouted at Brawly who did as asked, chuckling all the while.
When the Grunts were all squared away, I stood up. "Alright, let's make copies of all their information, just in case, and then call in the police for a pick up of this group."
"We're not going to stick around?" asked Roxanne.
"Nah, this actually works out better for us; Team Rocket won't know what to do when they get information on this raid. It sounds more like an internal raid, but there is enough to muddy the waters of what's going on for them to double-guess themselves."
"Won't the first group we knocked out give the game away?"
I chuckled. "I think our friend had the right of it. No one's ever going to believe them."
I walked back up to Oak and read him into the situation. He laughed and agreed to go along with what I had planned. "Oh my, I think this plan would make even Koga smile!" he said with a hearty laugh.
He sat up. "Still, it's a shame I never got the chance to show off for you all." He winked. "Oh well, it was wonderful to see you young trainers come together like you did."
I nodded, still curious if that was his true reason for coming here. I knew Oak was a much more complex man than he appeared, but he played up his characteristics as a helpful old man to a T. I decided to just nod in the end, and call the police.
When the flashing lights were within sight, Sabrina teleported us into an overwatch position to bear witness to the Police storming the Rocket base. They seemed rather bemused when they discovered the men and women already tied up and everything set up for them.
Roxanne fidgetted. "I still feel we should have stayed down there. What if our not being there allows some of them to escape being convicted of anything?"
Sabrina shook her head. "There is plenty of evidence regarding items, information, and stolen pokemon throughout their camp. Enough to implicate all of them. Also, Team Rocket is a recognised criminal organisation."
Brawly nodded. "I kinda like this method. We're like heroes from cartoons! We rush in and smash the baddies, then get out as the police do their job." He puffed himself up. "Like, I call Hero Blue if that's what we're doing!"
I snorted, only for Flannery to speak up. "I'm Hero Red then!"
Brawly made a noise of protest, only for her to glare at him. She glanced at the rest of us before nodding when no one else protested. She wrapped an arm around Roxanne. "She's Hero Pink!" This caused Roxanne to squawk in protest.
"Brock is Hero Black; I will be Hero Yellow," Sabrina said with a firm nod.
I bit my lip and decided not to point out how childish this all was.
Oak coughed and adopted a pose. "Well, in that case, I have no choice but to be Hero Gold!"
Flannery hissed. "The hell you do, old man! You can be the butler!"
I laughed and waved Sabrina to teleport us out, and like heroes, we left the scene in a flash of light.
Later, Sabrina and I deposited the information with the Guardians to be perused for any information they could garner. I was pleasantly surprised when Agatha appeared on her screen.
"What's this I hear of you going on a raid near my home territory, Brock?"
"You were incapacitated," Sabrina said loyally.
I offered Agatha a shrug. "I thought I'd clean up for you while you rest. You know how it is; we young ones have to blow off steam occasionally."
"Indeed, I caught the highlights of your match against that upstart!" she said and my face tightened into a sneer.
"A lot of information has been garnered from that match in particular," I said, alluding to the information I'd discovered regarding Will and my theory that he'd signed on with Team Rocket. Koga and Agatha nodded.
"We saw the information you sent us. There are too many coincidences. The attack on Mt Silver was bold of Giovanni, too bold unless he was sure of himself. Having faced the pokemon in question, I now understand that he is very sure of himself."
Koga inclined his head. "It was a good idea to obscure your identities the way you did. Many of the Rocket members are already speaking between themselves of internal politics or Team Magma due to the pokemon more commonly found in Hoenn being used to take them down. I have covered up your earlier slip-up for you, however."
I nodded to Koga. "Thanks; I have to admit I got caught up in the whole event so fast I didn't stop to think it entirely through."
I worked my jaw. "I can't throw punches at an enemy that won't stand up and face me, so the other option is to give them shadows to waste energy on."
Koga nodded. "This is the way of the shinobi, yes. It is a method that has worked many times. Often, people may suspect, but they will not act unless they are certain. We have the luxury of knowing who our foe is. He knows some of us as well, however. Caution is key going forward," he said while slowly chopping his hand in my direction.
I nodded, accepting the light rebuke for what it was. "One thing that still doesn't make too much sense to me was Oak. He came along and sure he helped but… he could have probably soloed that place on his own, right?"
Agatha snorted. "There is no probably about it. He could have had it if he desired it. He, however, likes his peace too much to move openly."
"So why come at all? He said he wanted to see the bonds we were making, but that doesn't seem entirely true." I scratched at my chin.
Agatha snorted while Koga chuckled. I blinked in surprise. Sabrina ended up being the one to speak up. "Brock, remember when you mentioned Lance talking about Oak spending time with him before and after he made a play for the champion position? Oak is making sure that if you ever decide to be Champion, you will be a good Champion for Indigo."
I blinked. "Oh," I said eloquently. Now that she'd said it… it really stood out, didn't it?
"Naive!" shouted Agatha. She pointed at Sabrina. "You're just as much on his radar little girl! And for good reason! I've said it before, and I'll say it again! You could be more!"
Sabrina merely smiled and shook her head. "I'm happy."
Karen retched in faux disgust. "Urgh, spare me your soap drama! What is our plan going forward?"
I rubbed my chin as Koga and Agatha talked about monitoring the situation and finding more points to apply pressure to Team Rocket. They also discussed how they might further muddy the water and get Team Rocket looking in the wrong direction.
"Will," I said, causing the group to look at me. "He's gotten past me but he will still need help to fight other people. Other Gym Leaders. If we can get proof of him needing assistance against Surge or Erika, then we can nail him and drag him into the light."
"Hmmmm," Koga said thoughtfully. "This has merit. I am not sure he will need it against Erika—" Sabrina's eyes narrowed slightly. "—but Lieutenant Surge… He will be a much tougher fight, as he will not hold back his considerable might. We will monitor any further incidents as well. I don't want any more Mt Silver episodes."
Sabrina stiffened. "I will need to set up a security detail for Erika then. She has volunteered to reseed and assist with the regrowth of the forests of the Silver Ranges that were recently burned down. She is exposed more than usual due to this."
Karen sniffed. "Will's not going to bother tripping her up; she's not that strong."
"She is my friend, and she is not weak." Sabrina glared at Karen, and Karen smirked. I sighed, Karen was going to remember this. She'd gotten a rise out of Sabrina. I didn't doubt she would want to keep jabbing that weak point for all it was worth.
The meeting ended once plans were set up for Surge and Erika to have protections placed around them, and when I logged out, I collapsed back onto my bed. Sabrina teleported into my room.
I ran a hand down her back. "Hey, wasn't sure you wanted to stay the night," I said. She murmured into my shoulder.
She lay next to me for the next few minutes and didn't say anything, her fingers played across my chest. I waited, knowing she wanted to say something. "I'm sorry for leading you into that raid. I hadn't considered how that might put you at risk. I just meant to help you feel better."
I smiled and wrapped my arms around her. "Don't sweat it; I adapted a plan that I don't think I would have thought up if I was given time. I think we happened on a weakness of Team Rocket's that I plan to keep exploiting."
She nodded. "And you? How are you feeling about your match with Will?"
I sighed. "Better," I said, shooting her a smile. She leaned up and pecked me on the lips.
"That's good. You're much more handsome when you smile… although your frown is attractive as well."
I chuckled and smiled at her. "You looked pretty good in that Rocket outfit," I said leadingly.
She smiled a playful smile and teleported away. When she returned, she was wearing nothing but the Rocket outfit and a teasing smile. I stood and kissed her, more than happy to play this game with her.
When we were done, she lay on my chest and slumbered. I looked up at the ceiling, feeling much more relaxed and at peace. I still had to go back to work tomorrow like nothing had changed.
"Man, that's going to be weird," I said aloud.
I'd be right as well, except there would also be a rather nice surprise waiting for me.
A.N. Thanks goes to my patreons for their continued support.
It also goes to Obiwankentucky for betaing this chapter!
Oak keeping things low key on his end so he doesn't draw attention and can see Brock works makes a lot of sense. Him scouting him out to see if he's a good potential Champion makes sense too. He did come along to have fun and he does like Brock but that's not the motive behind his choices.
Yeah he really wants Brock's schedule clear so he can explain about the unknown variant (Hisuian Growlithe) that got dangled in front of him to distract him from smash and the champion thing gives him the perfect cover for his cover motive.
- Location
- Elsewhere
Now think of all the non-underwear futures she sees!
"You know how it is. An elderly friend is injured and they can't maintain their house the way they used to..."
- Location
- Illinois
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA man what a dig at Rowan
It's Birch in Hoenn, but yeah dude is kinda spacey.
That takes quite some luck to be taken down twice this way lol.
...we're seeing him on the next raid aren't we?
Dragonmaster150
Firstborn of Dragonkind
- Location
- Dragendolan: Land of the Dragon Kings
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I hope this guy gets to at least meet his Ekans again at some point.
- Location
- Scotland
I suspect that when they find it Flint will give Brock a thumbs up for "becoming a man" while the younger siblings will tease Brock endlessly.
nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
Oh no, I love her!
Also, I'll add this to the list of adventures her (future) class of students won't believe her capable of.
- Location
- Philippines
Considering they're both still underage, that has some creepy connotations - especially coming from Flint. I can see his siblings teasing him, but mostly just because of the style and not because of any kinkiness.
- Location
- Scotland
Honestly, I keep forgetting Brock is only what, 14? He's just constantly presented as much more mature than they by our standards that I keep bumping him up to at least 16 in my mind which is legal enough in most places. As for his siblings the youngest wouldn't get it yet but once kids are about 8-9 y/o they start learning that adults do the kissy stuff and regularly tease older siblings about it alongside complaining about cooties.
- Location
- Canada
Brock is 17. Dramatis Personae says Brock is 16 years, 8 months at beginning of story, and so Chapter 102 is Brock's 17th birthday.
Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
And at that age, it's perfectly reasonable for a dad to give his son a thumbs up for losing his V-card. Well, if they were close.
Jordisk
<Unverified N00B>
- Location
- Blind Eternities
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Plus, we don't actually know what the Pokemon world age of majority is. They send out kids at 10 years old to literally capture and fight giant monsters while travelling the world. Brock became a gym leader, an actual POLITICAL POSITION comparible to the Mayor (as the Champion is comparavle to the League President), when he was like 14.
Chapter 141 - Return to the grind
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
The blare of my alarm had me up and about like normal. I was halfway through listing off what I needed to do for the morning before I remembered how things had gone for the last few days. I stopped cleaning my face and braced myself against the sink.
Right, a whole lot had happened.
I clicked my tongue in annoyance. Right, it had happened; I needed to move on.
Which was turning out harder than I expected it to be. It was like a thorn in my side that niggled and irritated me.
I shouldn't have drawn against Will.
I shook my head and splashed water into my face to give myself a shock with the cold water. I hadn't lost through any skill or strength difference. Rather, I'd lost match ups due to technicalities. Some of which I was going to make sure never happened again.
I donned my clothes for the day and marched out to find Yolanda standing with Terra in a carrier. "M-morning training?" she said with a yawn.
I shot her a grin and ruffled her loosely tied-up hair. "You know it. Are you going to look to start up some of the training I had Forrest doing?"
She nodded, a resolute expression taking over, while Terra waved from the baby carrier that Yolanda had her in. Yolanda peered around me and into my room. "Sabrina didn't stay over?"
I huffed at her and pushed her down the hallway lightly before shooting Terra a look over. "Don't worry about that. Also with regards to your training, you're already lifting heavier items than we had Forrest at thanks to Terra. She's starting to get heavier with her meals, yeah?"
Yolanda coughed. "Yeah, she has been putting on weight."
"That's a good thing, the average for her species is considered around seventy-two kilograms so don't be surprised if you find yourself tiring out a bit. She's probably only half that right now as a baby, but she's getting her height, bones, and organs to grow properly. If she's anything like Titan, then she'll be in the eighty to ninety-kilogram margin."
"Oh dear," Yolanda said. "What about when she evolves?"
"Pupitar will see her doubling in weight easily due to the cocoon. That's when you'll be carrying her the most, as she otherwise will only be able to use her jets to propel herself. This is not a very precise form of movement. In the wild, Pupitar wreck their surroundings so much that it looks like something has been running around breaking trees. They usually go down into the subterranean tunnels of the Silver Ranges, which are a lot more sturdy to continue to grow."
"Double?!" Yolanda said with an audible gulp. "That means around two hundred kilograms, right? If she gets to eighty or ninety?"
I nodded stoically. "Yeah, train up. It's one of the most important points of her life, but also the point that will pay the biggest dividends."
"How so?" she asked.
"Terra will be used to moving around and investigating things. During her time as a Pupitar that can become a lot harder for her as she won't have as much ease of movement. You being able to carry her will just be another way of showing that you care. Best advice? Never complain about it."
I raised a finger to make a point, "However, if you're exhausted, then just say as much. Terra should be able to understand that you have limits. You'll be able to deepen your bond a lot when one of you has to rely on the other. For the majority of the time, it might seem like you're leaning on her for her strength when she gets strong, but she won't get that way unless you put in the early work."
"Huh," Yolanda said thoughtfully as we walked around to the reserve proper. I nodded to Dennis, who shot me a salute. I was glad to see him back at work. I'd suggested a longer break, but it seemed he was more than happy to return. He turned back to working with Greta and Missy on some finer points of care for the Aron they were working with.
"Hey Brock?" asked Yolanda as we reached the area where I trained my Elite team.
"Yeah?" I said as I queued up the Sonata of Awakening once more to let my pokemon know I was up and ready for them.
"How long did you carry Titan around? I remember he evolved just before you left didn't he?"
I considered that for a while. "Around a year or so?" I said. I rubbed my arms and shoulders, remembering the pain from back then. Yolanda made a considering noise as my pokemon started to appear.
She glanced around the reserve and frowned. "What's with the new plateau being set up further back there?" she said, indicating the build up of earth and stone that was now a small hill. I could see a number of Slugma idling around it.
"Ah, that's where we're setting up a volcano; we're hoping to create a variant on another pokemon for us."
"Woah! Really?! Which pokemon?" she said, perking up.
"Growlithe… hopefully. It will take a while, though. Remember, I spent roughly three years before I got a hit with Sanchez."
"But Bianca might speed that up, no?" she said with a thoughtful look on her face.
I considered her and smirked. "That might be true. Thinking of taking one with you when you set off?" I said knowingly.
"They would make a powerful combination." She smiled at me and ticked off her fingers. "A Larvitar, a variant Geodude, an Aron, and a variant Growlithe would be a strong start. Wouldn't you say?"
I raised an eyebrow at her. "That's a little ambitious. Think I'm going to give you those for your start?"
She smiled widely at me, and her eyes started to glimmer hopefully.
I coughed and looked away. I really hoped she didn't teach Suzie her Baby Doll Eyes. They were powerful.
Titan yawned as he walked out of the cavern beneath the plateau. He shook himself and accidentally destroyed part of the cave wall when his tail swept around. Yolanda stopped being so smug and eyed him.
"How heavy do Tyranitar get?"
I smirked. "Two fifty on average," I said, knowing that she would understand that Titan was heavier. She glanced from me to him, and I chuckled and nodded at the unasked question.
"No way," she said, waving her hand back and forth in disbelief.
Terra tilted her head, having caught the gesture. She tilted her head before putting a small hand to her nose as though to ward off a smell.
Yolanda giggled. "No sorry, that doesn't just mean there's a bad smell but that I—"
I left Yolanda with her explanations, instead striding towards my team. I released two pokeballs and a pair of Lileep appeared.
"Team, I'm not going to waste time spending any more time on what happened on the weekend. It's time to go to work." I clapped my hands and then nodded my head to the distant marker. I plucked up the Lileep.
"You're joining my team, Lileep," I said to the one on my right. This was the pokemon that I had used in a few matches already, and it had shown that it was a powerful addition. Its natural Storm-drain ability made it a strong candidate for my Elite team but it had some serious potential beyond that. With both Lileep on my shoulders, I had a decent amount of weight on me as I ran.
"What should I do?" cried out Yolanda.
I paused and doubled back. "Sorry! I forgot that you wouldn't know the complete routine. Seeing as this is your first day, jog out and back to the stone the others are running to right now. Do that three times. If you need to stop, then slow to a walk."
"I'll run it!" she said, taking off. I noted that she had a fire in her eyes that mirrored my smallest and fluffiest pokemon, Clefairy, which was hopping furiously after Bertha in front of us. The giant swinging mace of her tail served as a target for him to chase with his hops. Behind him, Teddiursa ran along with a growl after Clefairy.
Yolanda lasted two laps before having to slow to a walk. I jogged on the spot next to her. "You're carrying heavier than Forrest did on his first day. Don't be down on yourself; you're doing great," I said, making her brighten up. The Lileep waved their fronds, and she grinned at me.
I rolled my eyes. "I know, I look ridiculous," I said easily.
When we were done with the warm up, I started pointing to my pokemon and assigning them tasks to focus on. "Tide, Knight, Hypnotoad, I want you in a three-way battle; nothing worse than a Water Gun or Rock Throw on each other. Knight, you're going to be working for it; keep your head up. If you get the chance, use Iron Tail, Steel Head, or Dark Pulse to absorb any hits that might threaten you."
Knight considered that in his own slow manner before nodding and moving off with Tide and Hypnotoad.
"Shrek, you're with Shin," I said, starting to rattle off the rest of the training plans.
As I did so, I started to notice a gleam in my pokemon's eyes. Each of them were focused and working with intent. Their minds were on the training in front of them as they worked. I had Bertha and Titan running through fast feet drills while others fired occasional zaps or light attacks, which they had to dodge.
I tapped Yolanda on the shoulder and set her to the side to meditate on Terra while Terra performed some simple moves such as Rock Throw. "Also, make sure to work on other moves just to see if you can feel a difference. It might be a good idea to work on normal type moves."
"Why Normal type?" she asked with a furrowed brow.
I sighed. "It will come up later for you and will make things easier for a certain power-up that pokemon like Tyranitar possess."
Yolanda nodded slowly, and I chuckled before whistling for Jormungandr to work with me. While I wasn't going to get the chance against Will, in truth, it seemed I had never had enough time unless I had focused solely on this, since I got the Mega Stone.
I could feel Yolanda staring at me, and I shot her a look before flicking my eyes to Terra in silent reprimand.
For the next hour, I worked with Jormungandr to build on the link that we'd been forming now. It was slow, steady progress, and there might have been a degree of degradation since I'd last worked on this with him, but we certainly made more progress since last time, with the vessel of energy coming easier and building up until it was almost half complete on my end.
Titan only needed to warn me of slipping into dark-aligned energy once, which I considered significant progress. Hopefully, with my warning, Yolanda wouldn't slip into my bad habits. Not that I could imagine someone like Yolanda gaining a dark alignment with her aura.
Then again, she wasn't a teenager yet… Maybe she'd become sassy in her teenage years?
I considered her with narrowed eyes as we worked through our cooldown. She tilted her head at me, and I shook my head, not willing to voice my thoughts. Yolanda wasn't like Forrest, she was much more mature and might decide to have a goth phase or some such just to mess with me, whereas Forrest would have just scoffed.
My eyes then alighted on Titan. I clicked my tongue, and he perked up. I clapped my hands together in a quick one-two pattern and then held them up at shoulder width.
Titan's eyes widened before he shot Yolanda and Terra a look.
Then he smirked at me. He barked once and a hush fell over the group.
I braced my muscles and flooded my body with rock energy as he ran towards me. Then, like we'd practised and played with years ago, only to not repeat it for years, Titan leapt.
I caught him mid-leap and held him aloft. He kept his arms and legs spread wide like a star as I slowly twirled about like we were a pair of cheerleaders.
I clenched my jaw and bent my knees before straightening. At the same time, I shot my arms up higher and launched Titan up and away from me to land on his feet. He made a crater when he landed.
"Ta dah!" I said, performing jazz hands towards Titan, who bowed like a professional gymnast. Yolanda and Terra applauded with what looked like stars in their eyes. I shot Titan a subtle thumbs-up.
"Rhy! Rhyperior!" cried out Bertha as she snorted and pointed at herself.
"Bertha wants to go next!" Yolanda translated somewhat unnecessarily, in my opinion.
Bertha didn't wait for me to potentially deny her; she lumbered forward and leapt, making me brace and catch her. I held her aloft and spun her gently around.
"Rhy! Rhy Rhy!" she said with what I could only assume was a huge smile. I lowered her, and she landed daintily. In that she only crushed a few pebbles as she twirled and skipped away, her steps causing shudders and quakes in the ground.
"Golem!" shouted a rapidly descending Sanchez.
I snatched him out of the air with finely honed big brother reflexes and spun with him before realisation set in. I scowled and launched him. He flew with a laughing cackle. When he landed he bounced, and rolled along before popping up to shoot me a thumbs up.
I eyed the rest of my team and was relieved when Jormungandr and Tide, who were easily the heaviest of my pokemon, looked uninterested in being held aloft. Shrek rather politely tapped me on the shoulder, and I indulged him.
Hypnotoad didn't let me drop him and instead carried him off when I was done, much to my other pokemon's amusement.
When Clefairy hopped at me, I laughed and held him aloft as he cheered, happy to be included. When I deposited him onto Bertha's shoulder, I relaxed and turned to shoot Yolanda a victory sign, only to find her recording me with her transceiver.
I stilled. Shit, she could do that as well, couldn't she? I considered coughing and sheepishly smiling, only to decide to take a leaf from Bertha's book and own it. I nodded seriously. "And that's one method of building team cohesion!" I said, like I'd planned it all along.
Yolanda tittered at me and dropped her arm. "Smooth, big brother," she teased.
I huffed at her and stuck my tongue out before waving her to follow me to get everyone's food. I noted that Empress was watching with a stern expression. I offered a nod and kept walking while Yolanda approached and let Terra wave to her mother.
When Yolanda caught up to me, she watched me, and I hummed a questioning note. She indicated Empress. "You know she was watching you and the others train the whole time, yeah?"
"Hmmm, is that so?" I said.
Yolanda nodded and continued to watch me for a while. "Are you… going to ask her to stay?"
That made me pause. "I was just letting her stick around to help her deal with the grief and to also allow her mountain to be regrown. I think I heard something about Erika taking part in that event, so it shouldn't be long."
Yolanda considered that. "I think she likes it here. It would be better for her, I think…" She glanced at me. "It would also be great for you if she joined your team?"
I blinked. "Well, yeah," I said, considering the truths that Yolanda was saying. I glanced over my shoulder, where Empress was sniffing at Sanchez, who was laughing boisterously as Clefairy practised his Pound on the Rock-electric type pokemon.
"I might ask her…" I eventually said. "Hopefully she doesn't take it the wrong way when I ask her."
Yolanda frowned at that. "I hadn't considered that."
I shrugged. "It's something that needs to happen when you add an already strong pokemon to your team. It makes a world of difference to train up a pokemon and have them attribute a degree of their strength to your work. Pokemon that have gained it themselves can be more stubborn, and it becomes a lot harder to have them follow orders. There is a whole group of people that debate the benefits and negatives of catching an already strong pokemon."
Yolanda took all of this in with a thoughtful expression. I patted her on the shoulder, pleased to see her listening. "I'll be careful about suggesting she stick around, or join me."
And by that, I meant that I would be careful about when I asked her that Yolanda and the others weren't around. I'd also be careful with how I worded the offer.
"I suppose even just having her around would add a degree of security," Yolanda suggested.
I hummed in agreement before handing her a few trays and dishes of food to carry back with her. Terra made the task more difficult by trying to sample each dish, her little arms and legs wiggling to reach each food tray.
I took care of my more temperamental pokemon's meals. On a whim, I made up another tray that I fed to Titan and dropped off to Empress. She eyed it before nodding with a grunt, lowering her head, and eating it without watching me. Hmmm, so she'd let me feed her… that… was a good sign towards her being comfortable with me at the very least.
I departed before I could irritate her. I would need to think on this some more, as I hadn't invited her to the reserve to have her join my team, but now that it had been pointed out to me… having a second Tyranitar on my team… damn, that was appealing.
I could be like Lance with how he fielded more than one Dragonite… Huh, maybe he'd been thinking I'd do that when I'd made the offer back on Mt. Silver.
Oops. I might have made him a bit more worried that I'd end up gunning for his position.
Oh well, that's on him.
I handed off the other meals to my pokemon and then made my way home for my own breakfast.
When Alexa deposited the day's schedule, I perked up when I spotted a name I recognised right before lunch.
"Bugsy from Azalea Town? Now that's interesting; he's the grandson of Cricket?" I said, already knowing the answer.
Alexa produced a small profile. "Indeed, he is touted to only have one year for a Journey according to the notes on his file with the League, as he has been hand-picked out of his family to inherit the Gym." Alexa tapped a section of text. "Interestingly, the rest of his family have all supported his claim instead of standing against him."
"Huh, that's neat," I said, unsure how I should feel about his story. I could almost see some parallels, but then again, we were also worlds apart in our situations. I shut his file and instead turned back to the others. We had a few first-timers and some repeat challengers, but there were two whole gaps in my day. This said a lot considering I'd already had this week set up for early finishes, along with a slightly longer lunch.
After the last six weeks or thereabouts, it seemed I was starting to poke out the other side of the Surge. I wasn't fully out of it, as there would be a lot more challengers still to come, but it wasn't going to be a huge peak and crash of trainers as it had been.
"Alright, let's head out and see how they do," I said, more than happy to slide into a normal routine.
Sadly, as soon as the first challenge was done, a number of the people in the crowd stood and waved microphones in my direction. "Gym Leader Brock! It's been a few days since your match with Will? What are your thoughts on the League setting up measures to make sure the Elite Four or the champion can't be cheated like you were? Is the League too slow on this suggestion?"
"Brock! What corrections to your team have you made seeing as they were too weak? Is your starter undergoing remedial footwork drills?!"
The trainer that I'd just awarded a badge to looked startled as the people that we'd assumed were standing to cheer for him suddenly revealed themselves to be vultures. I sighed and gave his shoulder a squeeze. "Sorry about this kid; if you make it to the higher levels, you'll encounter types like this," I said, ignoring the shouted questions.
I toggled a button on my radio, and an alert was sent out. The reporters continued to shout questions and thus didn't see the security Gravelers that were rolling towards them. They paused when heavy hands reached out and clapped two reporters per Graveler before they found themselves frog-marched out. I shook my head as they cried out about abuse and the silencing of the free press.
I'd have Alexa read them the riot act on harassment and being public menaces.
I shook my head and pushed the thoughts of the reporters and what they represented out of my mind so I could get on with my day.
After that one blip, things continued up until the last match before lunch, and Bugsy challenged at the fourth-tier badge level with a gauntlet match.
I sent Yolanda down first, and she selected a Lairon and a Graveler to face him.
Bugsy came out and politely waved to the crowd, but I noted he paid special attention to one group of young boys. They stood out because all of them wore odd uniforms that reminded me of the scouts from my past life.
He bowed politely when he reached his podium and then selected a pokeball from his belt.
"Begin!" shouted Missy from the referee stand.
"Go Lairon!" called Yolanda.
"Go Heracross!" shouted Bugsy.
Both pokemon appeared, and the crowd stirred at what immediately seemed like a very interesting matchup. Bugsy had made a good choice while also taking risks with his pokemon, whereas Yolanda fielding Lairon was a powerful statement to start things off.
"Rock Tomb!" Yolanda began with a chop of her arm.
"Move with Aerial Ace, get in close!" shouted Bugsy.
His pokemon blurred and shifted before vanishing in a display of speed only to appear in front of Lairon with its horn lowered. Bugsy punched a fist forward. "Close Comb—"
"Protect!" screamed Yolanda, and I nodded at the call. It was a good stoppage to make Bugsy not get in a super-effective move against Lairon. Bugsy nodded in acceptance when his pokemon's move bounced off the dome.
"Heracross! Step back and use Swords Dance!" his pokemon adopted a stance where its wings began to beat rapidly. Dust started to be stirred up as it got stronger and faster.
When the Protect shell dropped away, Yolanda didn't hesitate. "Rock Blast!"
"Punch through Close Combat!" Bugsy said, not hesitating in the least to have his pokemon blast through the weak but fast rock attack.
Lairon took Heracross' horn to the head, only for Bugsy's pokemon to reveal how well-trained it was as it lifted Lairon up, allowing Heracross to slam its fists into the weaker metal underbelly.
Lairon rocked back and collapsed on his back, resulting in Yolanda returning him. She was quick to send out her Graveler, and this time while she fought a delaying keep-away match with Sandstorm, and Dig, she wasn't able to handle a single hit from the buffed-up Heracross.
As soon as the match was over Bugsy brought his pokemon back to his side and used a potion.
I agreed that the choice was a good one. Dennis marched out next, and I was amused when he tossed out an Electric Graveler as his first choice.
"Thunder!" bellowed Dennis as his opening move, causing Bugy to have to think quickly.
"Megahorn the ground! Throw up the earth!" he cried, causing his Heracross to hurl up a large chunk of earth to absorb most of the threat.
"Rollout!" said Dennis in follow up making his pokemon start to charge forward in a roll. "Build it up with Sparks!" he said, causing his pokemon to become like a rolling firework with how sparks radiated outwards.
"Heracross! Return!" Bugsy cried before Graveler could close with his Heracross. He didn't hesitate to throw out another pokemon in its place though. "Go Shuckle!"
I inhaled in surprise at the Rock-bug type pokemon making an appearance. It was notably a pokemon I still didn't have for the Gym and having Bugsy use it definitely had me sitting up and paying attention.
"Shuckle, take the hit and use Power Split!" he said boldly. I whistled.
"Damn, that was a good move," I said, causing Yolanda, Greta, and Crystal to shoot me confused looks.
"Why? That pokemon is notoriously slow?"
"Yeah but it has some of the best defences around; it also just averaged the attack abilities that Graveler has with itself. That's what Power Split does, making it very useful."
I was proven right as the move impacted Graveler just before it could slam into Shuckle. The Graveler's charged-up sparks practically vanished right before it hit, resulting in a much weaker impact.
From there Bugsy displayed a mastery of how to use his Shuckle by beating down on Gravler and the follow-up Lileep with Bug-type moves while keeping his pokemon in good health. He made sure to keep his pokemon out and rub a potion into it as I was called down.
I could only nod. It was a good move with the Gauntlet allowing him to buff up his pokemon before a match; with this strategy, he'd bring a much stronger pokemon out for our match without tiring it out.
I launched myself from the side and onto the podium. I rose, locked eyes with the future leader of the Azalea Gym, and offered him a nod of respect. "I can see that you've done your homework. You have a very good setup for this match," I said, letting my gaze fall to his pokemon as I selected a pokeball.
Bugsy nodded. "I wanted to bring my best against you!"
I grinned and released my first pokemon for this match. "Go Shelly!" I said tossing out my Omastar.
She popped out and waved merrily to the crowd before settling down. The flags rose and fell.
"Surf!" I declared, causing Bugsy to click his tongue.
"Shuckle! Hold until the wave is right on top of you!" Bugsy said, clenching his fists and eyeing the approaching super-effective move. He held his nerve well, and just as it threatened to crash onto Shuckle he punched his fist forward. "Shell Smash!"
Around his pokemon, red energy built up and then exploded outwards like a bomb going off. The blast blew apart the wave and caused Shelly to falter and crash out.
"Go! Close in! Use Gyroball!" His pokemon leapt forward and rolled into a glowing ball of Steel energy that descended atop my pokemon.
"Protect!" I barked just in time to stop the attack from knocking Shelly out of the match.
Bugsy's Shuckle reappeared, and I grinned as the Protect dropped away. "Ancient Power!" I felt that it was an apt move in this instance. It slammed into Shuckle, but the beast of a Shuckle shrugged it off despite having taken a debuff from the Shell Smash.
"Bug Bite!" he barked hurriedly, causing his pokemon to lunge forward and snap its thin jaw around Shelly. I breathed a sigh of relief at his choice. When Shelly shook off the hit and remained standing, Bugsy hissed at his mistake.
"Stone Edge, I said, deciding to punish Bugsy's slip-up. A bug type move, such as Bug Bite, while empowered, was actually rather weak against Omastar thanks to its rock typing.
The powerful rock move slammed home and dropped the Shuckle after the impressive showing.
Bugsy knocked his fist on his head in frustration. "Stupid, stupid, urgh, you had better moves to use," he said to himself.
I hummed. He was being hard on himself, but he wasn't wrong; a different move there might have seen me having to return Shelly rather than him returning his Shuckle. He might have fallen into a predictable issue of favouring bug type moves over others. For all that he was a good trainer, he still had some slip-ups and rough edges to work out, it seemed.
"Let's go Pinsir!" shouted Bugsy, releasing yet another rare bug type. He released it right on top of Shelly.
I heard the crowd gasp in surprise, and the section dominated by the scout-like boys practically rioted with how much noise they started to make.
Bugsy didn't give me time to appreciate the rare bug, however, and instead punched his fist forward.
"Earthquake!" he said, causing Shelly to be thrown upward. She landed roughly but still struggled to her legs to keep fighting, making Bugsy blink in surprise.
"Stealth Rock," I said to her before he could react. She sent out the move, and I raised her pokeball and withdrew her, signalling I wouldn't use her again.
Bugsy eyed the rocks hovering around the battlefield before deciding to ignore them. "Pinsir! We're not going to let those bother us! We're going all the way from here!"
"Bold words," I said as I selected another pokeball before revealing my choice. "Go Sudowoodo! Let's take the fight to them!"
Sudowoodo, my ever-fearless pokemon, appeared with a grin as he flexed his twiggy arms. Pinsir snapped his pincers together threateningly.
"Superpower!" Bugsy shouted.
"Rock Tomb," I replied with a smirk. Sudowoodo grinned and kicked at the ground, causing a line of rocks to shoot up and snap around Pinsir's leg before he could close his glowing pincers onto Sudowoodo.
The pinchers clacked together loudly, and I eyed the speed before deciding to risk it. "Head Smash!"
"Protect!" Bugsy said quickly, causing my pokemon's attack to slam ineffectively against the shell. Both pokemon glowered at each other and I grinned as they stepped closer together.
"Ready for it Sudo?" I asked, causing him to twitch a limb. "Backflip and use Stone Edge!" I shouted, giving Sudowoodo space away from Pinsir, before unleashing a large boulder.
"Superpower, break that rock apart!" Bugsy said, causing his Pinsir to catch and crush the boulder. Both pokemon eyed each other once again as Bugsy and I grinned.
"Rock Tomb!"
"Hyper Beam!" Bugsy said, catching me and my pokemon by surprise as his pokemon lined up and fired off a powerful beam of energy.
Sudowoodo was caught off guard and was hurled backwards before collapsing against the back wall. I hissed in surprise. That had been quite the sly move. I shot Bugsy a nod. Clever boy.
I returned Sudowoodo and grinned as I selected my third pokemon. "Quirrina! Let's go!"
"Solrock!" cried one of the few pokemon I'd gained during my short trip to the Hoenn desert.
Bugsy laughed. "You're really not going to let me have this easy, are you?" he said.
I shook my head and punched straight ahead. "Flamethrower," I said, unleashing a torrent of flame on the still-exhausted Pinsir.
"Hang in there, Pinsir! Hang in there!" Bugsy shouted, imploring his pokemon to endure the super-effective move. Pinsir screeched in pain but when the flames died away, it was still standing tall. I whistled in appreciation; Bugsy had some strong pokemon, raising my opinion of him another notch.
Bugsy opened his mouth before shutting it, as a thought seemed to occur to him. He returned his pokemon and tossed out a Scyther.
"Oh come on!" screamed a young voice from the crowd. Evidently, someone wasn't pleased by Bugsy's depth of bug pokemon.
Scyther brandished his scythes, only to shriek in surprise when Stealth Rock slammed into it.
"Get it together, Scyther! I need you!" Bugsy said causing Scyther to catch itself.
"Flamethrower!" I said again.
"Double Team!" ordered Bugsy, causing his pokemon to vanish into a blur with afterimages left in place. "Now use X-scissor!" I grinned, pleased that Bugsy knew that this pokemon I'd sent out was weak against bug-type moves and was moving to capitalise on it.
"Fire Spin," I intoned, causing both pokemon to take hits they didn't want. Scyther landed poorly and staggered, whereas Quirrina struggled but remained in the air.
Scyther fell, and Bugsy groaned.
The group of boys all wailed in sadness. Bugsy gained a determined expression and selected his next pokeball. "Go Butterfree!" he cried, releasing a Butterfree that flapped its wings and caused a torrent to break out.
I held up a hand in front of my face to shield my eyes from the wind; that was a strong Butterfree.
"Butterfree use Bug Buzz!" he shouted, causing his pokemon to stiffen up and vibrate. A powerful wave of green energy blasted out and slammed into Quirinna, causing him to stagger again but remain in the air.
"Rock Throw!"
"Weave around it!" Bugsy growled, slashing his hand and making his Butterfree tuck a wing and dive out of danger.
"Flamethrower!" I ordered.
"Confusion! Toss it back!" shouted Bugsy, causing his pokemon to hurl back the fire.
"Psychic, blast it back," I said, happy with Bugsy's performance.
"Bug Buzz again!" shouted Bugsy once the flame broke apart. The psychic waves impacted with the green Bug Type energy to slam into Quirrina and see my pokemon finally fall.
I toyed with my last pokemon and eyed Bugsy. He lifted his chin and kept his eyes locked on me. I grinned and tossed out the last pokemon, I'd already determined that Bugsy was going to get my badge, but damn if I didn't want to keep fighting with him. He was good, and I wanted to see how good he was.
"Go Onix!" I said.
Bugsy deflated slightly, only for me to grin and his expression to falter.
"Sandstorm!" I said, causing my pokemon to sweep its tail about like a whip and call forth a giant gout of sand that swept the entire battlefield.
Butterfree opened his wings and prepared to deny it. Bugsy didn't disappoint. "Whirlwind!" he shouted. With a powerful flap of his wings, the Sandstorm was dispersed, but in doing so, his pokemon became a sitting target.
"Stone Edge," I said, causing a pillar of stone to slam into the flying-bug type, crumpling it and ending the contest.
Bugsy hissed, and I grinned. "Four to three, no?" I said pointedly.
"Pinsir's still able to fight!" Bugsy said fiercely. "And so can this guy! Go Heracross!" He released his first bug pokemon, and I grinned.
"Dragonsbreath!" I ordered
"Close Combat!" ordered Bugsy, causing his pokemon to surge through the flames, ignoring much of the damage that I knew would be accruing, to slam home and devastate Onix.
I returned him and raised my hand to another pokeball causing Bugsy to lean forward in anticipation.
I chuckled and waved him down. "I'm just playing, as much as I'd love to keep this match going, I think you've more than proven yourself, Bugsy from Azalea Town."
Bugsy leapt upwards. "Yatta!" he said before leaping down to start celebrating with his Heracross.
I chuckled and started lowering the podiums. I'd have to offer him the badge, he was too skilled for me to ignore as a trainer. A glance up to the stands revealed that his group of friends were all exuberantly calling out his name.
I presented him with his badge, and he waved at the group. "You guys! Come join me for my photo!" He then shot me a look. "If that's alright?"
"The more the merrier," I said. I then smirked at him and said, "Did you also want to have a look at Gawain?"
"Yes!" he and the others cheered. I merely laughed.
It looks like I know what I'd be doing for the rest of the afternoon.
Thanks go to my Patreons for their continued support.
Thanks also go to Obiwankentucky for their betaing this chapter!
Right, a whole lot had happened.
I clicked my tongue in annoyance. Right, it had happened; I needed to move on.
Which was turning out harder than I expected it to be. It was like a thorn in my side that niggled and irritated me.
I shouldn't have drawn against Will.
I shook my head and splashed water into my face to give myself a shock with the cold water. I hadn't lost through any skill or strength difference. Rather, I'd lost match ups due to technicalities. Some of which I was going to make sure never happened again.
I donned my clothes for the day and marched out to find Yolanda standing with Terra in a carrier. "M-morning training?" she said with a yawn.
I shot her a grin and ruffled her loosely tied-up hair. "You know it. Are you going to look to start up some of the training I had Forrest doing?"
She nodded, a resolute expression taking over, while Terra waved from the baby carrier that Yolanda had her in. Yolanda peered around me and into my room. "Sabrina didn't stay over?"
I huffed at her and pushed her down the hallway lightly before shooting Terra a look over. "Don't worry about that. Also with regards to your training, you're already lifting heavier items than we had Forrest at thanks to Terra. She's starting to get heavier with her meals, yeah?"
Yolanda coughed. "Yeah, she has been putting on weight."
"That's a good thing, the average for her species is considered around seventy-two kilograms so don't be surprised if you find yourself tiring out a bit. She's probably only half that right now as a baby, but she's getting her height, bones, and organs to grow properly. If she's anything like Titan, then she'll be in the eighty to ninety-kilogram margin."
"Oh dear," Yolanda said. "What about when she evolves?"
"Pupitar will see her doubling in weight easily due to the cocoon. That's when you'll be carrying her the most, as she otherwise will only be able to use her jets to propel herself. This is not a very precise form of movement. In the wild, Pupitar wreck their surroundings so much that it looks like something has been running around breaking trees. They usually go down into the subterranean tunnels of the Silver Ranges, which are a lot more sturdy to continue to grow."
"Double?!" Yolanda said with an audible gulp. "That means around two hundred kilograms, right? If she gets to eighty or ninety?"
I nodded stoically. "Yeah, train up. It's one of the most important points of her life, but also the point that will pay the biggest dividends."
"How so?" she asked.
"Terra will be used to moving around and investigating things. During her time as a Pupitar that can become a lot harder for her as she won't have as much ease of movement. You being able to carry her will just be another way of showing that you care. Best advice? Never complain about it."
I raised a finger to make a point, "However, if you're exhausted, then just say as much. Terra should be able to understand that you have limits. You'll be able to deepen your bond a lot when one of you has to rely on the other. For the majority of the time, it might seem like you're leaning on her for her strength when she gets strong, but she won't get that way unless you put in the early work."
"Huh," Yolanda said thoughtfully as we walked around to the reserve proper. I nodded to Dennis, who shot me a salute. I was glad to see him back at work. I'd suggested a longer break, but it seemed he was more than happy to return. He turned back to working with Greta and Missy on some finer points of care for the Aron they were working with.
"Hey Brock?" asked Yolanda as we reached the area where I trained my Elite team.
"Yeah?" I said as I queued up the Sonata of Awakening once more to let my pokemon know I was up and ready for them.
"How long did you carry Titan around? I remember he evolved just before you left didn't he?"
I considered that for a while. "Around a year or so?" I said. I rubbed my arms and shoulders, remembering the pain from back then. Yolanda made a considering noise as my pokemon started to appear.
She glanced around the reserve and frowned. "What's with the new plateau being set up further back there?" she said, indicating the build up of earth and stone that was now a small hill. I could see a number of Slugma idling around it.
"Ah, that's where we're setting up a volcano; we're hoping to create a variant on another pokemon for us."
"Woah! Really?! Which pokemon?" she said, perking up.
"Growlithe… hopefully. It will take a while, though. Remember, I spent roughly three years before I got a hit with Sanchez."
"But Bianca might speed that up, no?" she said with a thoughtful look on her face.
I considered her and smirked. "That might be true. Thinking of taking one with you when you set off?" I said knowingly.
"They would make a powerful combination." She smiled at me and ticked off her fingers. "A Larvitar, a variant Geodude, an Aron, and a variant Growlithe would be a strong start. Wouldn't you say?"
I raised an eyebrow at her. "That's a little ambitious. Think I'm going to give you those for your start?"
She smiled widely at me, and her eyes started to glimmer hopefully.
I coughed and looked away. I really hoped she didn't teach Suzie her Baby Doll Eyes. They were powerful.
Titan yawned as he walked out of the cavern beneath the plateau. He shook himself and accidentally destroyed part of the cave wall when his tail swept around. Yolanda stopped being so smug and eyed him.
"How heavy do Tyranitar get?"
I smirked. "Two fifty on average," I said, knowing that she would understand that Titan was heavier. She glanced from me to him, and I chuckled and nodded at the unasked question.
"No way," she said, waving her hand back and forth in disbelief.
Terra tilted her head, having caught the gesture. She tilted her head before putting a small hand to her nose as though to ward off a smell.
Yolanda giggled. "No sorry, that doesn't just mean there's a bad smell but that I—"
I left Yolanda with her explanations, instead striding towards my team. I released two pokeballs and a pair of Lileep appeared.
"Team, I'm not going to waste time spending any more time on what happened on the weekend. It's time to go to work." I clapped my hands and then nodded my head to the distant marker. I plucked up the Lileep.
"You're joining my team, Lileep," I said to the one on my right. This was the pokemon that I had used in a few matches already, and it had shown that it was a powerful addition. Its natural Storm-drain ability made it a strong candidate for my Elite team but it had some serious potential beyond that. With both Lileep on my shoulders, I had a decent amount of weight on me as I ran.
"What should I do?" cried out Yolanda.
I paused and doubled back. "Sorry! I forgot that you wouldn't know the complete routine. Seeing as this is your first day, jog out and back to the stone the others are running to right now. Do that three times. If you need to stop, then slow to a walk."
"I'll run it!" she said, taking off. I noted that she had a fire in her eyes that mirrored my smallest and fluffiest pokemon, Clefairy, which was hopping furiously after Bertha in front of us. The giant swinging mace of her tail served as a target for him to chase with his hops. Behind him, Teddiursa ran along with a growl after Clefairy.
Yolanda lasted two laps before having to slow to a walk. I jogged on the spot next to her. "You're carrying heavier than Forrest did on his first day. Don't be down on yourself; you're doing great," I said, making her brighten up. The Lileep waved their fronds, and she grinned at me.
I rolled my eyes. "I know, I look ridiculous," I said easily.
When we were done with the warm up, I started pointing to my pokemon and assigning them tasks to focus on. "Tide, Knight, Hypnotoad, I want you in a three-way battle; nothing worse than a Water Gun or Rock Throw on each other. Knight, you're going to be working for it; keep your head up. If you get the chance, use Iron Tail, Steel Head, or Dark Pulse to absorb any hits that might threaten you."
Knight considered that in his own slow manner before nodding and moving off with Tide and Hypnotoad.
"Shrek, you're with Shin," I said, starting to rattle off the rest of the training plans.
As I did so, I started to notice a gleam in my pokemon's eyes. Each of them were focused and working with intent. Their minds were on the training in front of them as they worked. I had Bertha and Titan running through fast feet drills while others fired occasional zaps or light attacks, which they had to dodge.
I tapped Yolanda on the shoulder and set her to the side to meditate on Terra while Terra performed some simple moves such as Rock Throw. "Also, make sure to work on other moves just to see if you can feel a difference. It might be a good idea to work on normal type moves."
"Why Normal type?" she asked with a furrowed brow.
I sighed. "It will come up later for you and will make things easier for a certain power-up that pokemon like Tyranitar possess."
Yolanda nodded slowly, and I chuckled before whistling for Jormungandr to work with me. While I wasn't going to get the chance against Will, in truth, it seemed I had never had enough time unless I had focused solely on this, since I got the Mega Stone.
I could feel Yolanda staring at me, and I shot her a look before flicking my eyes to Terra in silent reprimand.
For the next hour, I worked with Jormungandr to build on the link that we'd been forming now. It was slow, steady progress, and there might have been a degree of degradation since I'd last worked on this with him, but we certainly made more progress since last time, with the vessel of energy coming easier and building up until it was almost half complete on my end.
Titan only needed to warn me of slipping into dark-aligned energy once, which I considered significant progress. Hopefully, with my warning, Yolanda wouldn't slip into my bad habits. Not that I could imagine someone like Yolanda gaining a dark alignment with her aura.
Then again, she wasn't a teenager yet… Maybe she'd become sassy in her teenage years?
I considered her with narrowed eyes as we worked through our cooldown. She tilted her head at me, and I shook my head, not willing to voice my thoughts. Yolanda wasn't like Forrest, she was much more mature and might decide to have a goth phase or some such just to mess with me, whereas Forrest would have just scoffed.
My eyes then alighted on Titan. I clicked my tongue, and he perked up. I clapped my hands together in a quick one-two pattern and then held them up at shoulder width.
Titan's eyes widened before he shot Yolanda and Terra a look.
Then he smirked at me. He barked once and a hush fell over the group.
I braced my muscles and flooded my body with rock energy as he ran towards me. Then, like we'd practised and played with years ago, only to not repeat it for years, Titan leapt.
I caught him mid-leap and held him aloft. He kept his arms and legs spread wide like a star as I slowly twirled about like we were a pair of cheerleaders.
I clenched my jaw and bent my knees before straightening. At the same time, I shot my arms up higher and launched Titan up and away from me to land on his feet. He made a crater when he landed.
"Ta dah!" I said, performing jazz hands towards Titan, who bowed like a professional gymnast. Yolanda and Terra applauded with what looked like stars in their eyes. I shot Titan a subtle thumbs-up.
"Rhy! Rhyperior!" cried out Bertha as she snorted and pointed at herself.
"Bertha wants to go next!" Yolanda translated somewhat unnecessarily, in my opinion.
Bertha didn't wait for me to potentially deny her; she lumbered forward and leapt, making me brace and catch her. I held her aloft and spun her gently around.
"Rhy! Rhy Rhy!" she said with what I could only assume was a huge smile. I lowered her, and she landed daintily. In that she only crushed a few pebbles as she twirled and skipped away, her steps causing shudders and quakes in the ground.
"Golem!" shouted a rapidly descending Sanchez.
I snatched him out of the air with finely honed big brother reflexes and spun with him before realisation set in. I scowled and launched him. He flew with a laughing cackle. When he landed he bounced, and rolled along before popping up to shoot me a thumbs up.
I eyed the rest of my team and was relieved when Jormungandr and Tide, who were easily the heaviest of my pokemon, looked uninterested in being held aloft. Shrek rather politely tapped me on the shoulder, and I indulged him.
Hypnotoad didn't let me drop him and instead carried him off when I was done, much to my other pokemon's amusement.
When Clefairy hopped at me, I laughed and held him aloft as he cheered, happy to be included. When I deposited him onto Bertha's shoulder, I relaxed and turned to shoot Yolanda a victory sign, only to find her recording me with her transceiver.
I stilled. Shit, she could do that as well, couldn't she? I considered coughing and sheepishly smiling, only to decide to take a leaf from Bertha's book and own it. I nodded seriously. "And that's one method of building team cohesion!" I said, like I'd planned it all along.
Yolanda tittered at me and dropped her arm. "Smooth, big brother," she teased.
I huffed at her and stuck my tongue out before waving her to follow me to get everyone's food. I noted that Empress was watching with a stern expression. I offered a nod and kept walking while Yolanda approached and let Terra wave to her mother.
When Yolanda caught up to me, she watched me, and I hummed a questioning note. She indicated Empress. "You know she was watching you and the others train the whole time, yeah?"
"Hmmm, is that so?" I said.
Yolanda nodded and continued to watch me for a while. "Are you… going to ask her to stay?"
That made me pause. "I was just letting her stick around to help her deal with the grief and to also allow her mountain to be regrown. I think I heard something about Erika taking part in that event, so it shouldn't be long."
Yolanda considered that. "I think she likes it here. It would be better for her, I think…" She glanced at me. "It would also be great for you if she joined your team?"
I blinked. "Well, yeah," I said, considering the truths that Yolanda was saying. I glanced over my shoulder, where Empress was sniffing at Sanchez, who was laughing boisterously as Clefairy practised his Pound on the Rock-electric type pokemon.
"I might ask her…" I eventually said. "Hopefully she doesn't take it the wrong way when I ask her."
Yolanda frowned at that. "I hadn't considered that."
I shrugged. "It's something that needs to happen when you add an already strong pokemon to your team. It makes a world of difference to train up a pokemon and have them attribute a degree of their strength to your work. Pokemon that have gained it themselves can be more stubborn, and it becomes a lot harder to have them follow orders. There is a whole group of people that debate the benefits and negatives of catching an already strong pokemon."
Yolanda took all of this in with a thoughtful expression. I patted her on the shoulder, pleased to see her listening. "I'll be careful about suggesting she stick around, or join me."
And by that, I meant that I would be careful about when I asked her that Yolanda and the others weren't around. I'd also be careful with how I worded the offer.
"I suppose even just having her around would add a degree of security," Yolanda suggested.
I hummed in agreement before handing her a few trays and dishes of food to carry back with her. Terra made the task more difficult by trying to sample each dish, her little arms and legs wiggling to reach each food tray.
I took care of my more temperamental pokemon's meals. On a whim, I made up another tray that I fed to Titan and dropped off to Empress. She eyed it before nodding with a grunt, lowering her head, and eating it without watching me. Hmmm, so she'd let me feed her… that… was a good sign towards her being comfortable with me at the very least.
I departed before I could irritate her. I would need to think on this some more, as I hadn't invited her to the reserve to have her join my team, but now that it had been pointed out to me… having a second Tyranitar on my team… damn, that was appealing.
I could be like Lance with how he fielded more than one Dragonite… Huh, maybe he'd been thinking I'd do that when I'd made the offer back on Mt. Silver.
Oops. I might have made him a bit more worried that I'd end up gunning for his position.
Oh well, that's on him.
I handed off the other meals to my pokemon and then made my way home for my own breakfast.
When Alexa deposited the day's schedule, I perked up when I spotted a name I recognised right before lunch.
"Bugsy from Azalea Town? Now that's interesting; he's the grandson of Cricket?" I said, already knowing the answer.
Alexa produced a small profile. "Indeed, he is touted to only have one year for a Journey according to the notes on his file with the League, as he has been hand-picked out of his family to inherit the Gym." Alexa tapped a section of text. "Interestingly, the rest of his family have all supported his claim instead of standing against him."
"Huh, that's neat," I said, unsure how I should feel about his story. I could almost see some parallels, but then again, we were also worlds apart in our situations. I shut his file and instead turned back to the others. We had a few first-timers and some repeat challengers, but there were two whole gaps in my day. This said a lot considering I'd already had this week set up for early finishes, along with a slightly longer lunch.
After the last six weeks or thereabouts, it seemed I was starting to poke out the other side of the Surge. I wasn't fully out of it, as there would be a lot more challengers still to come, but it wasn't going to be a huge peak and crash of trainers as it had been.
"Alright, let's head out and see how they do," I said, more than happy to slide into a normal routine.
Sadly, as soon as the first challenge was done, a number of the people in the crowd stood and waved microphones in my direction. "Gym Leader Brock! It's been a few days since your match with Will? What are your thoughts on the League setting up measures to make sure the Elite Four or the champion can't be cheated like you were? Is the League too slow on this suggestion?"
"Brock! What corrections to your team have you made seeing as they were too weak? Is your starter undergoing remedial footwork drills?!"
The trainer that I'd just awarded a badge to looked startled as the people that we'd assumed were standing to cheer for him suddenly revealed themselves to be vultures. I sighed and gave his shoulder a squeeze. "Sorry about this kid; if you make it to the higher levels, you'll encounter types like this," I said, ignoring the shouted questions.
I toggled a button on my radio, and an alert was sent out. The reporters continued to shout questions and thus didn't see the security Gravelers that were rolling towards them. They paused when heavy hands reached out and clapped two reporters per Graveler before they found themselves frog-marched out. I shook my head as they cried out about abuse and the silencing of the free press.
I'd have Alexa read them the riot act on harassment and being public menaces.
I shook my head and pushed the thoughts of the reporters and what they represented out of my mind so I could get on with my day.
After that one blip, things continued up until the last match before lunch, and Bugsy challenged at the fourth-tier badge level with a gauntlet match.
I sent Yolanda down first, and she selected a Lairon and a Graveler to face him.
Bugsy came out and politely waved to the crowd, but I noted he paid special attention to one group of young boys. They stood out because all of them wore odd uniforms that reminded me of the scouts from my past life.
He bowed politely when he reached his podium and then selected a pokeball from his belt.
"Begin!" shouted Missy from the referee stand.
"Go Lairon!" called Yolanda.
"Go Heracross!" shouted Bugsy.
Both pokemon appeared, and the crowd stirred at what immediately seemed like a very interesting matchup. Bugsy had made a good choice while also taking risks with his pokemon, whereas Yolanda fielding Lairon was a powerful statement to start things off.
"Rock Tomb!" Yolanda began with a chop of her arm.
"Move with Aerial Ace, get in close!" shouted Bugsy.
His pokemon blurred and shifted before vanishing in a display of speed only to appear in front of Lairon with its horn lowered. Bugsy punched a fist forward. "Close Comb—"
"Protect!" screamed Yolanda, and I nodded at the call. It was a good stoppage to make Bugsy not get in a super-effective move against Lairon. Bugsy nodded in acceptance when his pokemon's move bounced off the dome.
"Heracross! Step back and use Swords Dance!" his pokemon adopted a stance where its wings began to beat rapidly. Dust started to be stirred up as it got stronger and faster.
When the Protect shell dropped away, Yolanda didn't hesitate. "Rock Blast!"
"Punch through Close Combat!" Bugsy said, not hesitating in the least to have his pokemon blast through the weak but fast rock attack.
Lairon took Heracross' horn to the head, only for Bugsy's pokemon to reveal how well-trained it was as it lifted Lairon up, allowing Heracross to slam its fists into the weaker metal underbelly.
Lairon rocked back and collapsed on his back, resulting in Yolanda returning him. She was quick to send out her Graveler, and this time while she fought a delaying keep-away match with Sandstorm, and Dig, she wasn't able to handle a single hit from the buffed-up Heracross.
As soon as the match was over Bugsy brought his pokemon back to his side and used a potion.
I agreed that the choice was a good one. Dennis marched out next, and I was amused when he tossed out an Electric Graveler as his first choice.
"Thunder!" bellowed Dennis as his opening move, causing Bugy to have to think quickly.
"Megahorn the ground! Throw up the earth!" he cried, causing his Heracross to hurl up a large chunk of earth to absorb most of the threat.
"Rollout!" said Dennis in follow up making his pokemon start to charge forward in a roll. "Build it up with Sparks!" he said, causing his pokemon to become like a rolling firework with how sparks radiated outwards.
"Heracross! Return!" Bugsy cried before Graveler could close with his Heracross. He didn't hesitate to throw out another pokemon in its place though. "Go Shuckle!"
I inhaled in surprise at the Rock-bug type pokemon making an appearance. It was notably a pokemon I still didn't have for the Gym and having Bugsy use it definitely had me sitting up and paying attention.
"Shuckle, take the hit and use Power Split!" he said boldly. I whistled.
"Damn, that was a good move," I said, causing Yolanda, Greta, and Crystal to shoot me confused looks.
"Why? That pokemon is notoriously slow?"
"Yeah but it has some of the best defences around; it also just averaged the attack abilities that Graveler has with itself. That's what Power Split does, making it very useful."
I was proven right as the move impacted Graveler just before it could slam into Shuckle. The Graveler's charged-up sparks practically vanished right before it hit, resulting in a much weaker impact.
From there Bugsy displayed a mastery of how to use his Shuckle by beating down on Gravler and the follow-up Lileep with Bug-type moves while keeping his pokemon in good health. He made sure to keep his pokemon out and rub a potion into it as I was called down.
I could only nod. It was a good move with the Gauntlet allowing him to buff up his pokemon before a match; with this strategy, he'd bring a much stronger pokemon out for our match without tiring it out.
I launched myself from the side and onto the podium. I rose, locked eyes with the future leader of the Azalea Gym, and offered him a nod of respect. "I can see that you've done your homework. You have a very good setup for this match," I said, letting my gaze fall to his pokemon as I selected a pokeball.
Bugsy nodded. "I wanted to bring my best against you!"
I grinned and released my first pokemon for this match. "Go Shelly!" I said tossing out my Omastar.
She popped out and waved merrily to the crowd before settling down. The flags rose and fell.
"Surf!" I declared, causing Bugsy to click his tongue.
"Shuckle! Hold until the wave is right on top of you!" Bugsy said, clenching his fists and eyeing the approaching super-effective move. He held his nerve well, and just as it threatened to crash onto Shuckle he punched his fist forward. "Shell Smash!"
Around his pokemon, red energy built up and then exploded outwards like a bomb going off. The blast blew apart the wave and caused Shelly to falter and crash out.
"Go! Close in! Use Gyroball!" His pokemon leapt forward and rolled into a glowing ball of Steel energy that descended atop my pokemon.
"Protect!" I barked just in time to stop the attack from knocking Shelly out of the match.
Bugsy's Shuckle reappeared, and I grinned as the Protect dropped away. "Ancient Power!" I felt that it was an apt move in this instance. It slammed into Shuckle, but the beast of a Shuckle shrugged it off despite having taken a debuff from the Shell Smash.
"Bug Bite!" he barked hurriedly, causing his pokemon to lunge forward and snap its thin jaw around Shelly. I breathed a sigh of relief at his choice. When Shelly shook off the hit and remained standing, Bugsy hissed at his mistake.
"Stone Edge, I said, deciding to punish Bugsy's slip-up. A bug type move, such as Bug Bite, while empowered, was actually rather weak against Omastar thanks to its rock typing.
The powerful rock move slammed home and dropped the Shuckle after the impressive showing.
Bugsy knocked his fist on his head in frustration. "Stupid, stupid, urgh, you had better moves to use," he said to himself.
I hummed. He was being hard on himself, but he wasn't wrong; a different move there might have seen me having to return Shelly rather than him returning his Shuckle. He might have fallen into a predictable issue of favouring bug type moves over others. For all that he was a good trainer, he still had some slip-ups and rough edges to work out, it seemed.
"Let's go Pinsir!" shouted Bugsy, releasing yet another rare bug type. He released it right on top of Shelly.
I heard the crowd gasp in surprise, and the section dominated by the scout-like boys practically rioted with how much noise they started to make.
Bugsy didn't give me time to appreciate the rare bug, however, and instead punched his fist forward.
"Earthquake!" he said, causing Shelly to be thrown upward. She landed roughly but still struggled to her legs to keep fighting, making Bugsy blink in surprise.
"Stealth Rock," I said to her before he could react. She sent out the move, and I raised her pokeball and withdrew her, signalling I wouldn't use her again.
Bugsy eyed the rocks hovering around the battlefield before deciding to ignore them. "Pinsir! We're not going to let those bother us! We're going all the way from here!"
"Bold words," I said as I selected another pokeball before revealing my choice. "Go Sudowoodo! Let's take the fight to them!"
Sudowoodo, my ever-fearless pokemon, appeared with a grin as he flexed his twiggy arms. Pinsir snapped his pincers together threateningly.
"Superpower!" Bugsy shouted.
"Rock Tomb," I replied with a smirk. Sudowoodo grinned and kicked at the ground, causing a line of rocks to shoot up and snap around Pinsir's leg before he could close his glowing pincers onto Sudowoodo.
The pinchers clacked together loudly, and I eyed the speed before deciding to risk it. "Head Smash!"
"Protect!" Bugsy said quickly, causing my pokemon's attack to slam ineffectively against the shell. Both pokemon glowered at each other and I grinned as they stepped closer together.
"Ready for it Sudo?" I asked, causing him to twitch a limb. "Backflip and use Stone Edge!" I shouted, giving Sudowoodo space away from Pinsir, before unleashing a large boulder.
"Superpower, break that rock apart!" Bugsy said, causing his Pinsir to catch and crush the boulder. Both pokemon eyed each other once again as Bugsy and I grinned.
"Rock Tomb!"
"Hyper Beam!" Bugsy said, catching me and my pokemon by surprise as his pokemon lined up and fired off a powerful beam of energy.
Sudowoodo was caught off guard and was hurled backwards before collapsing against the back wall. I hissed in surprise. That had been quite the sly move. I shot Bugsy a nod. Clever boy.
I returned Sudowoodo and grinned as I selected my third pokemon. "Quirrina! Let's go!"
"Solrock!" cried one of the few pokemon I'd gained during my short trip to the Hoenn desert.
Bugsy laughed. "You're really not going to let me have this easy, are you?" he said.
I shook my head and punched straight ahead. "Flamethrower," I said, unleashing a torrent of flame on the still-exhausted Pinsir.
"Hang in there, Pinsir! Hang in there!" Bugsy shouted, imploring his pokemon to endure the super-effective move. Pinsir screeched in pain but when the flames died away, it was still standing tall. I whistled in appreciation; Bugsy had some strong pokemon, raising my opinion of him another notch.
Bugsy opened his mouth before shutting it, as a thought seemed to occur to him. He returned his pokemon and tossed out a Scyther.
"Oh come on!" screamed a young voice from the crowd. Evidently, someone wasn't pleased by Bugsy's depth of bug pokemon.
Scyther brandished his scythes, only to shriek in surprise when Stealth Rock slammed into it.
"Get it together, Scyther! I need you!" Bugsy said causing Scyther to catch itself.
"Flamethrower!" I said again.
"Double Team!" ordered Bugsy, causing his pokemon to vanish into a blur with afterimages left in place. "Now use X-scissor!" I grinned, pleased that Bugsy knew that this pokemon I'd sent out was weak against bug-type moves and was moving to capitalise on it.
"Fire Spin," I intoned, causing both pokemon to take hits they didn't want. Scyther landed poorly and staggered, whereas Quirrina struggled but remained in the air.
Scyther fell, and Bugsy groaned.
The group of boys all wailed in sadness. Bugsy gained a determined expression and selected his next pokeball. "Go Butterfree!" he cried, releasing a Butterfree that flapped its wings and caused a torrent to break out.
I held up a hand in front of my face to shield my eyes from the wind; that was a strong Butterfree.
"Butterfree use Bug Buzz!" he shouted, causing his pokemon to stiffen up and vibrate. A powerful wave of green energy blasted out and slammed into Quirinna, causing him to stagger again but remain in the air.
"Rock Throw!"
"Weave around it!" Bugsy growled, slashing his hand and making his Butterfree tuck a wing and dive out of danger.
"Flamethrower!" I ordered.
"Confusion! Toss it back!" shouted Bugsy, causing his pokemon to hurl back the fire.
"Psychic, blast it back," I said, happy with Bugsy's performance.
"Bug Buzz again!" shouted Bugsy once the flame broke apart. The psychic waves impacted with the green Bug Type energy to slam into Quirrina and see my pokemon finally fall.
I toyed with my last pokemon and eyed Bugsy. He lifted his chin and kept his eyes locked on me. I grinned and tossed out the last pokemon, I'd already determined that Bugsy was going to get my badge, but damn if I didn't want to keep fighting with him. He was good, and I wanted to see how good he was.
"Go Onix!" I said.
Bugsy deflated slightly, only for me to grin and his expression to falter.
"Sandstorm!" I said, causing my pokemon to sweep its tail about like a whip and call forth a giant gout of sand that swept the entire battlefield.
Butterfree opened his wings and prepared to deny it. Bugsy didn't disappoint. "Whirlwind!" he shouted. With a powerful flap of his wings, the Sandstorm was dispersed, but in doing so, his pokemon became a sitting target.
"Stone Edge," I said, causing a pillar of stone to slam into the flying-bug type, crumpling it and ending the contest.
Bugsy hissed, and I grinned. "Four to three, no?" I said pointedly.
"Pinsir's still able to fight!" Bugsy said fiercely. "And so can this guy! Go Heracross!" He released his first bug pokemon, and I grinned.
"Dragonsbreath!" I ordered
"Close Combat!" ordered Bugsy, causing his pokemon to surge through the flames, ignoring much of the damage that I knew would be accruing, to slam home and devastate Onix.
I returned him and raised my hand to another pokeball causing Bugsy to lean forward in anticipation.
I chuckled and waved him down. "I'm just playing, as much as I'd love to keep this match going, I think you've more than proven yourself, Bugsy from Azalea Town."
Bugsy leapt upwards. "Yatta!" he said before leaping down to start celebrating with his Heracross.
I chuckled and started lowering the podiums. I'd have to offer him the badge, he was too skilled for me to ignore as a trainer. A glance up to the stands revealed that his group of friends were all exuberantly calling out his name.
I presented him with his badge, and he waved at the group. "You guys! Come join me for my photo!" He then shot me a look. "If that's alright?"
"The more the merrier," I said. I then smirked at him and said, "Did you also want to have a look at Gawain?"
"Yes!" he and the others cheered. I merely laughed.
It looks like I know what I'd be doing for the rest of the afternoon.
Thanks go to my Patreons for their continued support.
Thanks also go to Obiwankentucky for their betaing this chapter!
- Location
- Elsewhere
The Hu-mon is generally regarded as a weak mon with only a few underpowered moves on average.
However, it is remarkable for the many type-changes it undergoes during its life.
Starting as Normal type, it swiftly changes to Fairy type in childhood.
Then typically changing to either a Dark type or Fighting type during adolescence.
It can change to any type through its adulthood, before finally changing to Ghost type.
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Has Brock been inventing moves again or is that supposed to be Iron Head?
Did something happen to the Stealth Rock? It triggered against Scyther but after that isn't mentioned again aside from possibly being why Brock was counting Pinsir as out and while Brock may have missed it hitting the Butterfree due to shielding his eyes from the torrent there isn't anything like that for the Heracross.
This was from a previous chapter, but it made me start wondering. Just how old is Empress?
Because this here? I'm starting to think that she's older than Kanto.
