Brock accidentally stumbling into the role of being the harsh judge and then crushing it was great.
Hard Enough - Pokemon SI
- Thread starter Viva01
- Start date
- Users' Choice!
-
- Tags
- pokemon self insert
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
xbox432
Lover of Editing
Oh, Jessie is getting an early start on her Coordinator career! The (former) Rocket Trio seem to be doing well for themselves, I'm actually looking forward to seeing how Jessie does in the battle portion. And I'm even more curious to see how/if Brock will have a conversation with them. Because they HAVE done a good job of turning their lives around.
Jessie's doing a lot better in this contest than her attempts in the OTL, her experience as a competitive battler seems to have given her some much needed insight.
xbox432
Lover of Editing
True enough. The trio have always been quite skilled, they just never had the chance to apply themselves. Now that Brock has scared them straight, I'm curious to see just what they'll be able to achieve.
Norr
Misophist
- Location
- Any chair
Good chapter. Fics usually show tournaments et al from the contestants perspective so it feels fresh to see it from the arrangers side of things. The little hiccups are also amusing and adds to the immersion.
This sentence could use a slight rework, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to refer to "the inaugural Pewter city Contest" or something along those lines.
Chapter 189 - Tough act to follow!
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
When Solidad stepped up people leaned forward, a hush falling over the crowd. They were aware that this was the hometown girl for this event.
Rachel made use of the quiet to hype up said hometown heroine. "Oh! Here's the first of our experienced Coordinators stepping up today! High hopes are resting on this lass! Let's see what Solidad can do!"
Solidad stepped forward with a long coat and sturdy boots when she took to the stage she effected a bow to us at the judge's table before presenting her pokeball. "Solidad of Pewter City presenting her Lapras!"
Monique nodded. "Good, proper deference, and a good sequence with presenting her pokemon," she said.
"Let's start strong! Come on out! Lapras!" shouted Solidad, as she twisted out of the bow.
From her pokeball Lapras emerged not on the field but rather in the air like it was breaching a wave, neck extended upwards as it rose high. Before it even touched the ground it was exhaling a controlled Icy Wind causing a shimmering effect around itself.
The Icy Wind blanketed outwards still sparkling as it hid Lapras' flippers.
It looked like they were landing in a field of diamonds. When the Lapras flicked its long neck it opened its eyes and glimmered.
"Sequence one! Let's make a statement!" Solidad shouted, stepping forward to punch the sky.
Lapras rose onto its back flippers towering over the stage, then from its maw a gigantic ball of ice was created.
It continued to charge beyond the point where the move would be useful before launching it straight up into the air.
It rose only to reach an early zenith as gravity reasserted itself.
Solidad surprised everyone by stepping around her pokemon and into the path of the falling glacier.
She grinned as the crowd gasped and even Monique wasn't unaffected as she clutched her pearls in fright with one hand as the other darted to her purse where she grabbed a pokeball.
Lapras however lowered itself down and the horn atop its head began to glow.
It lunged , driving its horn up into the falling glacier and for a moment the two were frozen.
Then the glacier cracked and splintered, sending a wave of fine snow powder out as the split icicles sheared off to form thin sheets that refracted the light.
When the field was clear of fog, it was revealed that the icicle shards had formed a barrier around Solidad and her pokemon who was now channelling and holding an Ice Beam instead of releasing it while Solidad held her hand aloft.
It created an impressive visual display of Solidad holding an orb of energy above her head with the light from the energy causing a rainbow to play out around the Gym.
The crowd roared their approval and Solidad bowed in time with her pokemon swallowing the Ice Beam, Lapras joined her in a long bow for a moment before they both rose.
Solidad then turned to us with an expectant air.
Nurse Joy giggled and took the lead for once. "I loved it! Ten from me!"
Monique smiled at her daughter. "You scared me dear, don't do that again, Nine for the fright!" she said giving her highest score to date.
The crowd turned to me and I crossed my arms. "I liked the light demonstration, I liked the entrance and your correct etiquette, something we haven't seen today." I levelled a finger. "I almost fell asleep with how long it took for Lapras to form that Ice Shard, however. I think a Sheer Cold would do the job better in future but that will take training to reach. I'm sad to see you didn't style your pokemon, and instead just yourself. So it's a seven from me!" I said.
I earned some boos for that and Solidad rolled her eyes but kept smiling. That was the second-highest score I'd given out today, and with her twenty six she ousted Jessie from second.
I hummed as Monique shot me an exasperated look. "I think you're enjoying being the heel a bit too much don't you?"
"Sorry, not sorry," I said, with a smirk before shooting her a look. "Why didn't she style her Lapras?"
Monique coughed. "It's not something done in Hoenn… I didn't give her any cues that you might like such a thing but she should have considered it."
I hummed, happy that she hadn't given her daughter all the tricks to get past me.
"And now," Rachel said, getting us back to the contest. "Kaede from Blackthorn City!"
I blinked in surprise and sat up, looking over to find a woman in a rather traditional robe of soft purple with stitches into the sleeves. I couldn't see her face as she wore a wide brimmed straw hat with a veil that obscured her face.
I considered the icicle patterns on her dress with a small frown. That was an interesting statement from a place that prided itself on its dragons.
"This one greets the judges, and Gym Leader Brock, your abode is mighty and your pokemon hearty," she said, her voice carrying easily with a husky quality to it.
I nodded slowly. I should know this woman… Kaede… why was that ringing bells in my mind? My hand inched towards my Greatball as I smiled at the hidden woman.
Kaede for her part straightened and plucked a pokeball out. "Come forth my champion" she said loftly.
The words twigged a memory and I suddenly knew exactly who was about to appear on the stage.
A small form emerged from the light.
Atop its head a wide, beaten metal samurai helmet glinted under the Gym's lights. At its hip, a small blade was sheathed. Its whiskers twitched as its dark beady eyes took in its surroundings.
It bowed to us. "Fur-ret!" it said with a strange deep voice.
The kids in the crowd all stood up and cheered as one. "Samurai Furret!"
They waved and cheered and a few tried to make their way to the edge of the stage only to be caught by their parents.
Kaede raised a hand that was covered in a far too long sleeve to her mouth. "Oh my, his fame precedes him as always," she murmured.
I chuckled and glanced towards the section of the stands that was behind where I'd had my Crystal Onix lay up. Sure enough my own younger siblings were cheering and waving as well. Thankfully they were behaving better than others and staying in their seats. Something Flint looked immensely grateful for.
It might have also had something to do with Nanny Grav sitting among them.
I turned back to the matter at hand.
Kaede raised her hand with a flourishing sweep. "Your fans call for you, my champion, sweep them away," she called.
Furret nodded his little armour head and dropped to all fours. Unlike the show where he pretended to brandish the sword, he instead began to glow with a light blue energy, causing the stage to begin taking on a cold atmosphere then suddenly it began to rain shards of ice easily as big as the small pokemon.
Furret kept up the blizzard causing more and more large icicles to rain down from the forming clouds.
Kaede stabbed her hand up at the cloud. "Defeat thy enemy my champion!" She called and Furret shot forward displaying amazing speed as he raced through the Blizzard, dodging the attacks. Then, to everyone's surprise he leapt and began jumping from falling shard to falling shard, making his way higher by running up the blizzard.
That was a display of skill, to be sure and soon enough Furret leapt teeth barred at the cloud as though he would fight a natural force itself. He vanished for a moment in the cloud only for the cloud to fade in on itself.
Everyone leaned in as Furret failed to appear out the other side or fall.
I had to admit I had no idea how it was doing this. The cloud broke apart and on the final shard of ice, Furret was revealed riding the Blizzard to the ground like a surfboard. It hit another shard of ice and skipped forward over a field full of sharp icicles, all of the glinting like knives that would tear Furret apart should he fall upon them.
He fell slowly and once more the crowd gasped.
"Shatter," said Kaede, and Furret twisted about himself and opened his mouth to scream out in defiance with Hypervoice, in his hand a suddenly drawn toy blade swept about himself as though he was unleashing some super attack.
Around him a resonation occurred with the ice shards and then the field of ice exploded in a cascade of small ice fragments. He landed deftly and skated through to safety where he came to stop before coming to a stop before the judges panel, kneeling with his sword extended like he'd just exchanged strikes with a foe. He stood on tiny furry feet and sheathed his plastic blade with a soft thunk. "Ret!" he finished, nodding his head to us.
The crowd went nuts and I could hear my siblings among the chorus of voices for that cool critter.
I hummed, rubbing my chin in thought. I waited for the crowd to settle, but sadly it seemed they weren't willing to let that happen on their own. I listened with amusement as the applause rose and fell.
Eventually, I made a sign to Rachel. "Yooooo! Let's bring it back down! Pewter! Kaede and Furret are feeling the love, but now it's the time for judging! Give us some quiet please!" she boomed over the speakers.
The crowd settled and all eyes turned towards myself, Monique and Nurse Joy.
Joy giggled. "I have no issues with giving the mighty Champion a ten for that performance!" she said, raising her paddle.
Monique went next. "I too give out a ten! It was an amazing performance from start to finish! You show a mastery of your skills and know how to deliver a mighty performance!" She raised her own ten paddle and the crowd cheered as with just those two scores, Kaede and Samurai Furret scored higher than half the field straight away.
I opened my mouth only for Cindy's voice to call from the other side of the room. "You be nice Brock!"
I leaned to the side and gave her a thoroughly unimpressed look which she and all of my siblings returned with a flat stare that was a little unnerving to receive as a united front.
I huffed. "Your performance has without a doubt, been the best demonstration of skill thus far, you display wonderfully cool skills," I said.
I coughed. "However!" I said, raising a finger. "They were cool, and some could argue not that tough!"
A gasp went through the crowd as they feared the worst of me only for me to grin. "That said, it was so damn cool I think it isn't a problem! If facing down and beating a storm can't be considered both cool and tough well I'm out of touch!" I said as I raised my ten-paddle for the first time.
Fireworks went off from the big screen as the first thirty was awarded and Kaede and Samurai Furret's pictures were put on display.
Kaede bowed to us. "This one thanks the judges for their kind words and their recognition of our efforts." She stayed bowed. "I must also beg the crowd's forgiveness as today will be the only day that we can compete, sadly we are contractually obligated to be at work tomorrow to start filming for the next Samurai Furret Movie, Blades of Justice three."
"Fuuuuuuuur," said Samurai Furret morosely.
I blinked. "So you came for just the first day?" I said, caught off guard by this development.
Kaede nodded. "Sadly the life of a star is demanding and this one was greedy with her desire to take part in Pewter's first contest. We have achieved our best and will look to schedule ourselves better in future, once more this one can only apologise and beg the crowd's forgiveness."
"We love you Samurai Furret and Kaede!" screamed Tommy and Cindy together causing another cascade of voices to sweep the field. Damn this pair were popular and damn that was unfortunate that we were not going to get them for the whole event.
I tilted my head. "Any chance you could make it if a Psychic pokemon could be arranged?" I offered.
Kaede shook her head. "The director for the movie is very particular, he only films for one day but it is from dawn till dusk."
I sighed and nodded saddened that we wouldn't get to see her again. "A shame, truly, but thank you for raising the bar. I think a lot of your fellow coordinators are breathing sighs of relief with your bowing out."
Kaede giggled at this and bowed again. "This one shall depart, we thank you for allowing us this indulgence," she said, as Samurai Furret ran up onto her shoulder and waved. Kids poured out onto the stairs and formed a tunnel for her exit and I could only sigh and shake my head as an impromptu fan meet and greet formed.
I'd certainly never gotten mobbed by kids like that. I shook my head in mock frustration as Kaede handed out presigned cards featuring Samurai Furret on them to the kids who happily scuttled away with their prizes.
"So that's what being truly famous looks like," I said, to Monique getting a giggle from her.
Eventually Kaede left, sadly leaving a lot of kids that were oscillating between jubilant that they got to meet Samurai Furret and sad that he'd left.
I coughed and signalled to Rachel who nodded. "Wow wow wow! Kids wasn't that crazy! A shot from the blue and a perfect score! Kaede and Samurai Furret shake things up! She's certainly going to be a tough act to follow!"
A few older kids groaned at the pun but Rachel powered on. "Next up we have a true power from Hoenn! So! With expectations so high let's bring out an experienced Coordinator in Chaz from Lilycove City! The home of Contests!"
A blond boy with his hair swept to the side stepped forward. His entire look, from his hair to his suit screamed money. To further feed into the trope, he had his head at just the right angle to announce himself as a pounce without saying a word.
"You should be honoured that I have come to this… contest," he said, his words dripping with derision. He nodded his head and Nurse Joy, Monique and myself and both of the ladies' eyebrows rose at the faint show of respect after the recent bows we'd had.
"Go Macherie my dear!" he said, sending out a Machoke like Walter had earlier.
"Brick Break into Low Sweep with a finale Bulk up," Chaz said dismissively.
Machoke leapt up high and I had to give it to her, she achieved a good height with the jump flipping as she did so, one fist cocked back.
She landed like a superhero and the shockwave caused spikes of earth to jut up only for Machoke to spin like a breakdancer casting them aside. Before standing and posing like a muscle builder with her biceps bulging.
Rocks rained down and dust wafted behind her with Chaz posing to the side, a terrible dichotomy that only called out how little thought had been shown.
"Five for the good showing but you lose out for making no attempt at sticking to the briefing of Tough," I said firmly, showing a four to the crowd.
Chaz spluttered only for Monique and Nurse Joy to both raise sixes, which was extremely notable.
Chaz face purpled. "I never! I have competed in top contests! This is a backwater display with you acting like common Mr Mime with how you copycat your betters!" he said. "I deserved at least a nine!" he ranted and for a moment I thought he was about to stomp his foot.
When everyone on the judging panel stared him down, he growled. "I shall do it again, slower this time so you might understand the intrcic—"
A pink glow surrounded Chaz and Macherie. They rose as one and barely had time to squawk before they were hoisted off the stage and towards the exit.
I glanced over and found Gardevoir, with her headset still on flicking her fingers at the pair with glowing eyes. Huh, neat, she'd just given them the hook as it was known.
Chaz now openly stomped his feet in rage and was about to thoroughly ruin the mood with his antics.
Rachel stood and began waving to him. "If you could all join me?" she said to the crowd with a huge grin.
"As one! Na na na na, hey, hey, heeeey, Goodbye!" she sang and within a few seconds most of the crowd had stood and were happily singing along.
Facing this Chaz seemed to finally understand his drama wasn't wanted. He stormed off, shaking his fist and shooting a venomous look at me. Hmmm I hadn't faced that kid yet had I?
That promised to be a fun encounter.
I shot Rachel a huge thumbs up and she grinned. "And with that folks! Let's get onto the fun stuff! Our next coordinator representing the Junior Trainers of Pewter, keep an eye out for her. She's going to be big! It's Crystal!"
I grinned as Crystal bounced down the stars seemingly undaunted by the previous display. If there had been anyone that could have livened things up after Chaz Crystal was the perfect call.
Crystal bounced onto the stage, her energy causing some people to perk up. I smiled, interested in what she'd bring to the table. She wore a bikers jacket that was far too big for her and had likely been borrowed at the last minute, but I gave her points mentally for achieving a cutesy yet tough look.
"Alright girl! Let's show our stuff!" she shouted, sending an Eevee out with its hair spiked into a punk look while it also wore what looked like a tiny Venom pack jacket with a spiked collar.
Crystal opened her mouth only to pause and offer a curtsy that looked odd for her to perform towards us.
She was obviously trying. Monique and Nurse Joy both giggled.
Crystal then shot her hand forward and shouted. "Let's go Eevee! Sand Attack!" she said making her pokemon kick up a burst of sand into the air. As it began to descend Eevee turned about and Crystal crossed her arms before them slashing out. "Tail Whip!" she said.
From her little pokemon's tail, a snap-snap went off like a whip double cracking. I was impressed as I watched the sand be slashed apart.
"Huh," I said. She had a pokemon that was very young with only low levelled moves, and she'd still created an impressive display.
Eevee yipped in excitement and spun about on itself before hopping in place.
Crystal grinned and shot us a V for victory before remembering herself and bowing.
I chuckled, more than happy to take the lead. "So, Lord Kris? Wasn't that how you introduced yourself to me when we first met?" I said smugly.
Crystal blushed. "That was just a joke," she said.
I snorted. "It was a more confident you. Don't bother curtsying ever again. Own the real you, bow or nod or salute, but don't try bringing that curtsy back," I said, making her cringe back.
I huffed and shot her a smile. "That said, I want to applaud your ingenuity. You've got a young pokemon there, with moves that are only the ones it knows very early on. Despite that, you've honed them well enough to put on a performance that I think has outdone a good number of others today. You also met the briefing for Tough!"
I shot her a thumbs-up as I held up my scorecard. "Six!" I said happily.
Monique laughed and awarded an eight and Nurse Joy joined her. With that Crystal inched herself into a place in the top ten for now.
The next Coordinator stepped up and surprised me by unleashing an Onix with artwork reminiscent of cave painting along its side.
I sat up and got to enjoy a well-controlled Sandstorm that was then melted with Dragonsbreath to form a crystal-like structure which Onix then destroyed with a well-placed Iron Tail to cause glass to radiate around it.
The trainer, a man who was wearing something almost reminiscent of the outfit I'd seen in the Pewter Museum stood stoically in the middle of the destruction, arms crossed and unaffected.
I had to give him points for radiating a tough aura. "I like the details of your outfit," I said to start my judging.
The man grunted at me and I chuckled at his committing to the act. "It's very proto-unification with the Crusher Tribe vibe, glad to see a history buff presenting today," I said, and the man merely blinked slowly at me.
Next to me Monique and Nurse Joy perked up. Monique gave the outfit another look. "Oh? Is your outfit paying homage to history? I hadn't realised! That is wonderfully clever!" she said, as she raised an eight for the man.
Nurse Joy nodded along. "Wonderful use of Onix's abilities and toughness!" said the nurse, raising a nine for herself leaving Arnold a place in the top of the leaderboard for now.
As the man walked away he shot me a look and I waved easily. "Shame he didn't go through the standard greeting and ending we've established. If he'd bowed and stuck to forms I could have scored him higher," I said.
When the next contestant sent out an Ice type and almost copied Solidad's performance move for move I could only scowl.
"Hmmmm, seeing a lot of people doing things similar to Solidad's earlier move but not quite" I said, allowed during a pause as a Coordinator made their way to the stage.
Monique hummed. "It's proven to be a useful move but it's not something that can be simply done," she said.
"And now! Coordinator Bosco of Celadon City!" announced Rachel.
I looked up and found the giant biker from earlier standing tall with two fingers raised. He then produced a blindfold which he donned. He then turned towards us, bowed with the air of a martial arts student to a master and took his pose.
"Like we practised Mittens," he said, aloud before exploding into action. Persian crouched down and then leapt up high into the air. I could only gape in surprise.
It was just a big jump, but for a moment I had thought that Persian had flown.
I almost missed the Power Gems being fired down into the ground. Over and over, as Persian rose into the air it unleashed a barrage of attacks.
I glanced down in time to see the rocks strike home precisely in front of Bosco. A few times it looked like he would collide with them only for a twist or a pause to be enough to delay the strike.
Bosco was putting himself on the line with his display of trust and it was something I had to approve of. Bosco performed what had to be a kata while his pokemon fired Power Gem after Power Gem down at him.
Each step brought another attack in which you thought that surely he would have to take a hit soon. One Rock looked to be off course as it shot straight at Bosco.
Everyone held their breath, expecting the next step only for that to not happen.
Bosco held his ground.
Instead, a star from Persian shot forward and scattered the rock into dust as Bosco advanced through the debris, unmarked from it as he stepped through a wave of stars that lit up the area around him.
Bosco performed a final huge stomp only to turn on the spot towards us bowing wide and sweeping his arms out. A clatter of rocks slammed into the ground and Persian landed lightly on his back causing him to bend but not buckle at the knees, still deep in his bow to us.
He was facing us, with his pokemon on his back with a sequence that would have been hellish to train.
It was damn impressive that he'd learnt it so well.
I stood and clapped, leading the crowd in thunderous applause.
I shot Monique a look when it died off and Bosco stood before us with Mittens the Persian. "I think we have a dark horse here," I said, as I pulled out a small booklet that had been prepared for me. I began to leaf through it quickly, signalling that I needed a moment.
Monique nodded and raised a paddle. "Your demonstration was everything a coordinator should aim to be, daring, and delightful all at once! I couldn't take my eyes away! Ten from me!"
Nurse Joy nodded. "And from me! I enjoyed how you took part and made the performance more than it otherwise should have been!"
When everyone turned to me I huffed. "I see you have observed all the forms and procedures, you have also announced your intent and the only possible way that I can think of you improving on it was to use but one move at the start instead of the two that you told us you'd restrict yourself to. Power Gem was of course a given, but the use of Swift was not what I was expecting."
I shook my head. "I am surprised that Persian could leap as high as it did without assistance from a Move. The only way I can conclude that this would be better would be to do it with one move, but then you wouldn't have the build-up that you do. For the people in the know, they are left wondering until right at the end when everything looks ready to crumble. I can't find anything to fault in your performance… except that you didn't style your pokemon."
I held up a nine with a cheeky smile as Bosco laughed. His image shot to the top of the leaderboard at twenty-nine right under Kaede and Samurai Furret. He and Walter were tied for second while really being first on the leaderboard.
"Haha!" Bosco shouted. "I should have thought of that but Mittens! She is a natural pokemon through and through! Hates wearing anything!" he explained amicably.
He then bowed again and walked off with his head held high and the crowd cheering his name.
Mittens walked at his side only to be stunned when a Meowth appeared out of nowhere with an ink pad and a piece of paper. I missed what was said but Mittens was amused and gave Meowth a pawprint and a lick on the coin on its forehead playfully.
Meowth stiffened and was struck spellbound as Mittens moved on to where the Venom pack were welcoming Bosco back having missed the small bit of drama playing out behind him.
Meowth shot back to his seat only for me to blink as I realised it was Meowth. Jessie and James shared smiles as their third musketeer sat next to them with a dopey smile on his face.
I snorted and turned my attention back to the rest of the performances.
"And now!!! Introducing this year's dark maiden! The Pewter Princessssssss! Yoooooo Landa!" said Rachel, as she did one of the most over-the-top announcements I'd heard.
Yolanda walked forward with a slight blush and her head held high, in her hand a Pokeball was held and she was wearing what looked like… my entire wardrobe of belts all about her, to form like some sort of punk rocker from a cheap anime.
She shot me an unrepentant look as she bowed. I sighed as I waved for her to get on with it.
"My name is Yolanda! And this is my pokemon Izumi and we're here to rock!" shouted Yolanda, as she released the strongest Geodude I possessed.
Izumi soared through the air and landed with a slam that shook the field causing it to quake. It was rather well timed with Yolanda's 'here to rock' statement and I hummed. She must have practised that.
With the field broken up Yolanda punched her fist into the air and Izumi launched a huge segment of rock into the air only for the tiny pokemon to leap, fist cocked back as it began to fall.
When her fist connected the boulder was blasted to smithereens leaving only a dust cloud. Izumi then fell from said cloud only to land in Yolanda's waiting grasp. Yolanda twisted and raised Izumi up tall like she was presenting her to the world and Izumi bellowed out as she began to shine under the lights.
I chuckled as the pair then signalled their act was done by bowing.
It had been clean, concise and well executed with the chance to make the most of each moment. Everything was fast, from start to finish without any chance to linger on a move.
Yolanda didn't have Izumi charge up her attack, she'd flown seamlessly into her next move or display which others had used to build suspense.
I nodded, impressed with her foresight. It was vastly different from what any other Geodude user would be capable of, but then again Izumi was Izumi for a reason.
"You've got a powerful pokemon there and you let us know from the outset. You rocked your way in and then didn't let up, each move flowed into each other with a notable smoothness that others wish they could duplicate. You've been working with Izumi on this sequence, haven't you?" I said. Yolanda nodded happily.
I hummed only to narrow my eyes at her and point at the belts. "Are those my belts?" I asked, and Yolanda coughed.
"Maybe?" she said shamelessly.
I sighed and shook my head. "You're spending too much time with Crystal," I said with mock sadness. I raised an eight and waved to the others who awarded her nines respectively.
I hummed, with that…. Crystal and Yolanda were now in the top ten with Crystal currently tenth and Yolanda tied with Jessie.
"Next up! Green girl Greta!" called Rachel, signalling for the final girl from the trio of friends.
After her bow, she whipped out her pokemon. "Let's show them what we've been working on! Come on out! Vulpix!"
I grinned. This wasn't the pokemon I'd been expecting. I'd expected Bulbasaur from her. When had she caught this pokemon?
I frowned. When had she? As her sponsor, I felt like I should have known that.
Greta grinned and waved her hand causing a Fire spin to whip up around her pokemon, Greta walked around it and Will-o-Wisp shot out of the flames in front of her in a sequence that looked like she would step into, only for her to time it well enough.
She had to be sweating something fierce with being so close to the fire but she seemed determined to complete her sequence.
I bit my lip, how long had she practised this? It would have been extremely dangerous to do and I suddenly felt worried about what Greta was getting up to when I was busy.
Then I noticed Missy, Dennis, and Rocko cheering for Greta along with a small, almost impossible-to-notice white sheen around Greta.
"She's using Safeguard," I said, honestly impressed with the forethought that had gone into it. It looked dangerous and tough but with enough preparation she and her Vulpix were obviously safe.
I shot my older Gym trainers a thoughtful look and they waved, noticing my glance. Rocko grinned knowingly, entirely aware he'd surprised me with this development. Hmmm maybe they'd done it deliberately? Show me just how much Greta had grown.
I laced my fingers together and watched as the Fire Spin reformed into a twisting Inferno. I shook my head. That was a damn strong Vulpix, and Greta must have been working on it for a while now. I watched as the performance ended and Vulpix happily pranced while Greta bowed.
This… This was a surprise.
Both Ash, and Gary had surprised me with their skills and insight. I'd thought Greta to be a bit more average but if that Vuplix was as strong as I thought, then perhaps she had a lot more skill than anyone was aware of.
"Eight, you forgot to style yourselves but otherwise I think you showed some clever use of Fire Spin, Will-o-wisp, Safeguard, and Inferno."
I chuckled. "I thought I knew what you were capable of Greta," I shook my head. "You've just blown my expectations of you out of the water. That is an amazing bond you have with Vulpix and I'll be looking forward to discussing it with you later."
Greta beamed at me and giggled. "Thanks, the others have been helping out. I read your notes to the other sponsored trainers and saw how much you rated Vulpix and Growlithe as great choices and I was able to make a trade for another pokemon that didn't suit me for her." she hugged her Vulpix and it nuzzled into her.
Monique coughed politely, reminding us this wasn't the time for such a talk and I coughed, raising my eight-paddle for her.
Nurse Joy and Monique both raised their own nine paddles and with that Jessie, Yolanda, and Greta were all in top spots.
When Greta left the stage another of the Venom pack stalked forward with their chin jutted out. I paused when I recognised the tall man as Zek. He gave a shallow bow and raised his pokeball. "Let's roll! Nidoking!" he roared releasing a pokemon that slammed into the stage and spun its arm while looking to the side as though it was doing an air guitar solo.
It took me a moment that it was doing precisely that while thumping its tail to create a pseudo rhythm.
Zek started hyping the crowd by swinging his arms up and down. "Come on Pewter! I heard you had more rocks than this!" he shouted and this was enough to draw the crowd onto its feet for his performance.
It was a rather clever use of Earth Power to raise some earth before having Nidoking stomp around and through the earth, crushing and smashing all while Zek belted out a song underscored by Zek. When Nidoking tripped on one lyric Zek shouted for Sludge Wave and his pokemon skated on its knees to finish out the performance.
I shot Zek a smile. That had been a neat save but it had been a save he shouldn't have needed.
I gave him an eight for his efforts as he'd been overly reliant on his own, admittedly good singing skills to carry the performance.
From there more and more demonstrations occurred, but by the end of the day and the first stage of the contest, the top list was littered with names that I knew.
In first, but sadly not continuing, thereby allowing the seventeenth-placed person to advance, was of course Kaede. Under her, tied for second was Bosco, and Walter. Then Solidad, before Yolanda, Greta, Jessie, Zek from the Venom pack, and in an extremely lucky turn of events, Crystal in what had been seventeenth.
With that done performers took to the stage as I departed.
I was happy to be able to stand and move about but mostly I wanted to talk with Yolanda and her friends, they'd really done well.
I could only hope they carried that into tomorrow's stage!
A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for their continued support!
Thanks also go to Twmmy for betaing this chapter!
I decided to make Kaede from Blackthorn as due to canon its on the Ice Path that Furret makes it's main series debut in what was another banned episode. This was the Jynx episode.
Rachel made use of the quiet to hype up said hometown heroine. "Oh! Here's the first of our experienced Coordinators stepping up today! High hopes are resting on this lass! Let's see what Solidad can do!"
Solidad stepped forward with a long coat and sturdy boots when she took to the stage she effected a bow to us at the judge's table before presenting her pokeball. "Solidad of Pewter City presenting her Lapras!"
Monique nodded. "Good, proper deference, and a good sequence with presenting her pokemon," she said.
"Let's start strong! Come on out! Lapras!" shouted Solidad, as she twisted out of the bow.
From her pokeball Lapras emerged not on the field but rather in the air like it was breaching a wave, neck extended upwards as it rose high. Before it even touched the ground it was exhaling a controlled Icy Wind causing a shimmering effect around itself.
The Icy Wind blanketed outwards still sparkling as it hid Lapras' flippers.
It looked like they were landing in a field of diamonds. When the Lapras flicked its long neck it opened its eyes and glimmered.
"Sequence one! Let's make a statement!" Solidad shouted, stepping forward to punch the sky.
Lapras rose onto its back flippers towering over the stage, then from its maw a gigantic ball of ice was created.
It continued to charge beyond the point where the move would be useful before launching it straight up into the air.
It rose only to reach an early zenith as gravity reasserted itself.
Solidad surprised everyone by stepping around her pokemon and into the path of the falling glacier.
She grinned as the crowd gasped and even Monique wasn't unaffected as she clutched her pearls in fright with one hand as the other darted to her purse where she grabbed a pokeball.
Lapras however lowered itself down and the horn atop its head began to glow.
It lunged , driving its horn up into the falling glacier and for a moment the two were frozen.
Then the glacier cracked and splintered, sending a wave of fine snow powder out as the split icicles sheared off to form thin sheets that refracted the light.
When the field was clear of fog, it was revealed that the icicle shards had formed a barrier around Solidad and her pokemon who was now channelling and holding an Ice Beam instead of releasing it while Solidad held her hand aloft.
It created an impressive visual display of Solidad holding an orb of energy above her head with the light from the energy causing a rainbow to play out around the Gym.
The crowd roared their approval and Solidad bowed in time with her pokemon swallowing the Ice Beam, Lapras joined her in a long bow for a moment before they both rose.
Solidad then turned to us with an expectant air.
Nurse Joy giggled and took the lead for once. "I loved it! Ten from me!"
Monique smiled at her daughter. "You scared me dear, don't do that again, Nine for the fright!" she said giving her highest score to date.
The crowd turned to me and I crossed my arms. "I liked the light demonstration, I liked the entrance and your correct etiquette, something we haven't seen today." I levelled a finger. "I almost fell asleep with how long it took for Lapras to form that Ice Shard, however. I think a Sheer Cold would do the job better in future but that will take training to reach. I'm sad to see you didn't style your pokemon, and instead just yourself. So it's a seven from me!" I said.
I earned some boos for that and Solidad rolled her eyes but kept smiling. That was the second-highest score I'd given out today, and with her twenty six she ousted Jessie from second.
I hummed as Monique shot me an exasperated look. "I think you're enjoying being the heel a bit too much don't you?"
"Sorry, not sorry," I said, with a smirk before shooting her a look. "Why didn't she style her Lapras?"
Monique coughed. "It's not something done in Hoenn… I didn't give her any cues that you might like such a thing but she should have considered it."
I hummed, happy that she hadn't given her daughter all the tricks to get past me.
"And now," Rachel said, getting us back to the contest. "Kaede from Blackthorn City!"
I blinked in surprise and sat up, looking over to find a woman in a rather traditional robe of soft purple with stitches into the sleeves. I couldn't see her face as she wore a wide brimmed straw hat with a veil that obscured her face.
I considered the icicle patterns on her dress with a small frown. That was an interesting statement from a place that prided itself on its dragons.
"This one greets the judges, and Gym Leader Brock, your abode is mighty and your pokemon hearty," she said, her voice carrying easily with a husky quality to it.
I nodded slowly. I should know this woman… Kaede… why was that ringing bells in my mind? My hand inched towards my Greatball as I smiled at the hidden woman.
Kaede for her part straightened and plucked a pokeball out. "Come forth my champion" she said loftly.
The words twigged a memory and I suddenly knew exactly who was about to appear on the stage.
A small form emerged from the light.
Atop its head a wide, beaten metal samurai helmet glinted under the Gym's lights. At its hip, a small blade was sheathed. Its whiskers twitched as its dark beady eyes took in its surroundings.
It bowed to us. "Fur-ret!" it said with a strange deep voice.
The kids in the crowd all stood up and cheered as one. "Samurai Furret!"
They waved and cheered and a few tried to make their way to the edge of the stage only to be caught by their parents.
Kaede raised a hand that was covered in a far too long sleeve to her mouth. "Oh my, his fame precedes him as always," she murmured.
I chuckled and glanced towards the section of the stands that was behind where I'd had my Crystal Onix lay up. Sure enough my own younger siblings were cheering and waving as well. Thankfully they were behaving better than others and staying in their seats. Something Flint looked immensely grateful for.
It might have also had something to do with Nanny Grav sitting among them.
I turned back to the matter at hand.
Kaede raised her hand with a flourishing sweep. "Your fans call for you, my champion, sweep them away," she called.
Furret nodded his little armour head and dropped to all fours. Unlike the show where he pretended to brandish the sword, he instead began to glow with a light blue energy, causing the stage to begin taking on a cold atmosphere then suddenly it began to rain shards of ice easily as big as the small pokemon.
Furret kept up the blizzard causing more and more large icicles to rain down from the forming clouds.
Kaede stabbed her hand up at the cloud. "Defeat thy enemy my champion!" She called and Furret shot forward displaying amazing speed as he raced through the Blizzard, dodging the attacks. Then, to everyone's surprise he leapt and began jumping from falling shard to falling shard, making his way higher by running up the blizzard.
That was a display of skill, to be sure and soon enough Furret leapt teeth barred at the cloud as though he would fight a natural force itself. He vanished for a moment in the cloud only for the cloud to fade in on itself.
Everyone leaned in as Furret failed to appear out the other side or fall.
I had to admit I had no idea how it was doing this. The cloud broke apart and on the final shard of ice, Furret was revealed riding the Blizzard to the ground like a surfboard. It hit another shard of ice and skipped forward over a field full of sharp icicles, all of the glinting like knives that would tear Furret apart should he fall upon them.
He fell slowly and once more the crowd gasped.
"Shatter," said Kaede, and Furret twisted about himself and opened his mouth to scream out in defiance with Hypervoice, in his hand a suddenly drawn toy blade swept about himself as though he was unleashing some super attack.
Around him a resonation occurred with the ice shards and then the field of ice exploded in a cascade of small ice fragments. He landed deftly and skated through to safety where he came to stop before coming to a stop before the judges panel, kneeling with his sword extended like he'd just exchanged strikes with a foe. He stood on tiny furry feet and sheathed his plastic blade with a soft thunk. "Ret!" he finished, nodding his head to us.
The crowd went nuts and I could hear my siblings among the chorus of voices for that cool critter.
I hummed, rubbing my chin in thought. I waited for the crowd to settle, but sadly it seemed they weren't willing to let that happen on their own. I listened with amusement as the applause rose and fell.
Eventually, I made a sign to Rachel. "Yooooo! Let's bring it back down! Pewter! Kaede and Furret are feeling the love, but now it's the time for judging! Give us some quiet please!" she boomed over the speakers.
The crowd settled and all eyes turned towards myself, Monique and Nurse Joy.
Joy giggled. "I have no issues with giving the mighty Champion a ten for that performance!" she said, raising her paddle.
Monique went next. "I too give out a ten! It was an amazing performance from start to finish! You show a mastery of your skills and know how to deliver a mighty performance!" She raised her own ten paddle and the crowd cheered as with just those two scores, Kaede and Samurai Furret scored higher than half the field straight away.
I opened my mouth only for Cindy's voice to call from the other side of the room. "You be nice Brock!"
I leaned to the side and gave her a thoroughly unimpressed look which she and all of my siblings returned with a flat stare that was a little unnerving to receive as a united front.
I huffed. "Your performance has without a doubt, been the best demonstration of skill thus far, you display wonderfully cool skills," I said.
I coughed. "However!" I said, raising a finger. "They were cool, and some could argue not that tough!"
A gasp went through the crowd as they feared the worst of me only for me to grin. "That said, it was so damn cool I think it isn't a problem! If facing down and beating a storm can't be considered both cool and tough well I'm out of touch!" I said as I raised my ten-paddle for the first time.
Fireworks went off from the big screen as the first thirty was awarded and Kaede and Samurai Furret's pictures were put on display.
Kaede bowed to us. "This one thanks the judges for their kind words and their recognition of our efforts." She stayed bowed. "I must also beg the crowd's forgiveness as today will be the only day that we can compete, sadly we are contractually obligated to be at work tomorrow to start filming for the next Samurai Furret Movie, Blades of Justice three."
"Fuuuuuuuur," said Samurai Furret morosely.
I blinked. "So you came for just the first day?" I said, caught off guard by this development.
Kaede nodded. "Sadly the life of a star is demanding and this one was greedy with her desire to take part in Pewter's first contest. We have achieved our best and will look to schedule ourselves better in future, once more this one can only apologise and beg the crowd's forgiveness."
"We love you Samurai Furret and Kaede!" screamed Tommy and Cindy together causing another cascade of voices to sweep the field. Damn this pair were popular and damn that was unfortunate that we were not going to get them for the whole event.
I tilted my head. "Any chance you could make it if a Psychic pokemon could be arranged?" I offered.
Kaede shook her head. "The director for the movie is very particular, he only films for one day but it is from dawn till dusk."
I sighed and nodded saddened that we wouldn't get to see her again. "A shame, truly, but thank you for raising the bar. I think a lot of your fellow coordinators are breathing sighs of relief with your bowing out."
Kaede giggled at this and bowed again. "This one shall depart, we thank you for allowing us this indulgence," she said, as Samurai Furret ran up onto her shoulder and waved. Kids poured out onto the stairs and formed a tunnel for her exit and I could only sigh and shake my head as an impromptu fan meet and greet formed.
I'd certainly never gotten mobbed by kids like that. I shook my head in mock frustration as Kaede handed out presigned cards featuring Samurai Furret on them to the kids who happily scuttled away with their prizes.
"So that's what being truly famous looks like," I said, to Monique getting a giggle from her.
Eventually Kaede left, sadly leaving a lot of kids that were oscillating between jubilant that they got to meet Samurai Furret and sad that he'd left.
I coughed and signalled to Rachel who nodded. "Wow wow wow! Kids wasn't that crazy! A shot from the blue and a perfect score! Kaede and Samurai Furret shake things up! She's certainly going to be a tough act to follow!"
A few older kids groaned at the pun but Rachel powered on. "Next up we have a true power from Hoenn! So! With expectations so high let's bring out an experienced Coordinator in Chaz from Lilycove City! The home of Contests!"
A blond boy with his hair swept to the side stepped forward. His entire look, from his hair to his suit screamed money. To further feed into the trope, he had his head at just the right angle to announce himself as a pounce without saying a word.
"You should be honoured that I have come to this… contest," he said, his words dripping with derision. He nodded his head and Nurse Joy, Monique and myself and both of the ladies' eyebrows rose at the faint show of respect after the recent bows we'd had.
"Go Macherie my dear!" he said, sending out a Machoke like Walter had earlier.
"Brick Break into Low Sweep with a finale Bulk up," Chaz said dismissively.
Machoke leapt up high and I had to give it to her, she achieved a good height with the jump flipping as she did so, one fist cocked back.
She landed like a superhero and the shockwave caused spikes of earth to jut up only for Machoke to spin like a breakdancer casting them aside. Before standing and posing like a muscle builder with her biceps bulging.
Rocks rained down and dust wafted behind her with Chaz posing to the side, a terrible dichotomy that only called out how little thought had been shown.
"Five for the good showing but you lose out for making no attempt at sticking to the briefing of Tough," I said firmly, showing a four to the crowd.
Chaz spluttered only for Monique and Nurse Joy to both raise sixes, which was extremely notable.
Chaz face purpled. "I never! I have competed in top contests! This is a backwater display with you acting like common Mr Mime with how you copycat your betters!" he said. "I deserved at least a nine!" he ranted and for a moment I thought he was about to stomp his foot.
When everyone on the judging panel stared him down, he growled. "I shall do it again, slower this time so you might understand the intrcic—"
A pink glow surrounded Chaz and Macherie. They rose as one and barely had time to squawk before they were hoisted off the stage and towards the exit.
I glanced over and found Gardevoir, with her headset still on flicking her fingers at the pair with glowing eyes. Huh, neat, she'd just given them the hook as it was known.
Chaz now openly stomped his feet in rage and was about to thoroughly ruin the mood with his antics.
Rachel stood and began waving to him. "If you could all join me?" she said to the crowd with a huge grin.
"As one! Na na na na, hey, hey, heeeey, Goodbye!" she sang and within a few seconds most of the crowd had stood and were happily singing along.
Facing this Chaz seemed to finally understand his drama wasn't wanted. He stormed off, shaking his fist and shooting a venomous look at me. Hmmm I hadn't faced that kid yet had I?
That promised to be a fun encounter.
I shot Rachel a huge thumbs up and she grinned. "And with that folks! Let's get onto the fun stuff! Our next coordinator representing the Junior Trainers of Pewter, keep an eye out for her. She's going to be big! It's Crystal!"
I grinned as Crystal bounced down the stars seemingly undaunted by the previous display. If there had been anyone that could have livened things up after Chaz Crystal was the perfect call.
Crystal bounced onto the stage, her energy causing some people to perk up. I smiled, interested in what she'd bring to the table. She wore a bikers jacket that was far too big for her and had likely been borrowed at the last minute, but I gave her points mentally for achieving a cutesy yet tough look.
"Alright girl! Let's show our stuff!" she shouted, sending an Eevee out with its hair spiked into a punk look while it also wore what looked like a tiny Venom pack jacket with a spiked collar.
Crystal opened her mouth only to pause and offer a curtsy that looked odd for her to perform towards us.
She was obviously trying. Monique and Nurse Joy both giggled.
Crystal then shot her hand forward and shouted. "Let's go Eevee! Sand Attack!" she said making her pokemon kick up a burst of sand into the air. As it began to descend Eevee turned about and Crystal crossed her arms before them slashing out. "Tail Whip!" she said.
From her little pokemon's tail, a snap-snap went off like a whip double cracking. I was impressed as I watched the sand be slashed apart.
"Huh," I said. She had a pokemon that was very young with only low levelled moves, and she'd still created an impressive display.
Eevee yipped in excitement and spun about on itself before hopping in place.
Crystal grinned and shot us a V for victory before remembering herself and bowing.
I chuckled, more than happy to take the lead. "So, Lord Kris? Wasn't that how you introduced yourself to me when we first met?" I said smugly.
Crystal blushed. "That was just a joke," she said.
I snorted. "It was a more confident you. Don't bother curtsying ever again. Own the real you, bow or nod or salute, but don't try bringing that curtsy back," I said, making her cringe back.
I huffed and shot her a smile. "That said, I want to applaud your ingenuity. You've got a young pokemon there, with moves that are only the ones it knows very early on. Despite that, you've honed them well enough to put on a performance that I think has outdone a good number of others today. You also met the briefing for Tough!"
I shot her a thumbs-up as I held up my scorecard. "Six!" I said happily.
Monique laughed and awarded an eight and Nurse Joy joined her. With that Crystal inched herself into a place in the top ten for now.
The next Coordinator stepped up and surprised me by unleashing an Onix with artwork reminiscent of cave painting along its side.
I sat up and got to enjoy a well-controlled Sandstorm that was then melted with Dragonsbreath to form a crystal-like structure which Onix then destroyed with a well-placed Iron Tail to cause glass to radiate around it.
The trainer, a man who was wearing something almost reminiscent of the outfit I'd seen in the Pewter Museum stood stoically in the middle of the destruction, arms crossed and unaffected.
I had to give him points for radiating a tough aura. "I like the details of your outfit," I said to start my judging.
The man grunted at me and I chuckled at his committing to the act. "It's very proto-unification with the Crusher Tribe vibe, glad to see a history buff presenting today," I said, and the man merely blinked slowly at me.
Next to me Monique and Nurse Joy perked up. Monique gave the outfit another look. "Oh? Is your outfit paying homage to history? I hadn't realised! That is wonderfully clever!" she said, as she raised an eight for the man.
Nurse Joy nodded along. "Wonderful use of Onix's abilities and toughness!" said the nurse, raising a nine for herself leaving Arnold a place in the top of the leaderboard for now.
As the man walked away he shot me a look and I waved easily. "Shame he didn't go through the standard greeting and ending we've established. If he'd bowed and stuck to forms I could have scored him higher," I said.
When the next contestant sent out an Ice type and almost copied Solidad's performance move for move I could only scowl.
"Hmmmm, seeing a lot of people doing things similar to Solidad's earlier move but not quite" I said, allowed during a pause as a Coordinator made their way to the stage.
Monique hummed. "It's proven to be a useful move but it's not something that can be simply done," she said.
"And now! Coordinator Bosco of Celadon City!" announced Rachel.
I looked up and found the giant biker from earlier standing tall with two fingers raised. He then produced a blindfold which he donned. He then turned towards us, bowed with the air of a martial arts student to a master and took his pose.
"Like we practised Mittens," he said, aloud before exploding into action. Persian crouched down and then leapt up high into the air. I could only gape in surprise.
It was just a big jump, but for a moment I had thought that Persian had flown.
I almost missed the Power Gems being fired down into the ground. Over and over, as Persian rose into the air it unleashed a barrage of attacks.
I glanced down in time to see the rocks strike home precisely in front of Bosco. A few times it looked like he would collide with them only for a twist or a pause to be enough to delay the strike.
Bosco was putting himself on the line with his display of trust and it was something I had to approve of. Bosco performed what had to be a kata while his pokemon fired Power Gem after Power Gem down at him.
Each step brought another attack in which you thought that surely he would have to take a hit soon. One Rock looked to be off course as it shot straight at Bosco.
Everyone held their breath, expecting the next step only for that to not happen.
Bosco held his ground.
Instead, a star from Persian shot forward and scattered the rock into dust as Bosco advanced through the debris, unmarked from it as he stepped through a wave of stars that lit up the area around him.
Bosco performed a final huge stomp only to turn on the spot towards us bowing wide and sweeping his arms out. A clatter of rocks slammed into the ground and Persian landed lightly on his back causing him to bend but not buckle at the knees, still deep in his bow to us.
He was facing us, with his pokemon on his back with a sequence that would have been hellish to train.
It was damn impressive that he'd learnt it so well.
I stood and clapped, leading the crowd in thunderous applause.
I shot Monique a look when it died off and Bosco stood before us with Mittens the Persian. "I think we have a dark horse here," I said, as I pulled out a small booklet that had been prepared for me. I began to leaf through it quickly, signalling that I needed a moment.
Monique nodded and raised a paddle. "Your demonstration was everything a coordinator should aim to be, daring, and delightful all at once! I couldn't take my eyes away! Ten from me!"
Nurse Joy nodded. "And from me! I enjoyed how you took part and made the performance more than it otherwise should have been!"
When everyone turned to me I huffed. "I see you have observed all the forms and procedures, you have also announced your intent and the only possible way that I can think of you improving on it was to use but one move at the start instead of the two that you told us you'd restrict yourself to. Power Gem was of course a given, but the use of Swift was not what I was expecting."
I shook my head. "I am surprised that Persian could leap as high as it did without assistance from a Move. The only way I can conclude that this would be better would be to do it with one move, but then you wouldn't have the build-up that you do. For the people in the know, they are left wondering until right at the end when everything looks ready to crumble. I can't find anything to fault in your performance… except that you didn't style your pokemon."
I held up a nine with a cheeky smile as Bosco laughed. His image shot to the top of the leaderboard at twenty-nine right under Kaede and Samurai Furret. He and Walter were tied for second while really being first on the leaderboard.
"Haha!" Bosco shouted. "I should have thought of that but Mittens! She is a natural pokemon through and through! Hates wearing anything!" he explained amicably.
He then bowed again and walked off with his head held high and the crowd cheering his name.
Mittens walked at his side only to be stunned when a Meowth appeared out of nowhere with an ink pad and a piece of paper. I missed what was said but Mittens was amused and gave Meowth a pawprint and a lick on the coin on its forehead playfully.
Meowth stiffened and was struck spellbound as Mittens moved on to where the Venom pack were welcoming Bosco back having missed the small bit of drama playing out behind him.
Meowth shot back to his seat only for me to blink as I realised it was Meowth. Jessie and James shared smiles as their third musketeer sat next to them with a dopey smile on his face.
I snorted and turned my attention back to the rest of the performances.
"And now!!! Introducing this year's dark maiden! The Pewter Princessssssss! Yoooooo Landa!" said Rachel, as she did one of the most over-the-top announcements I'd heard.
Yolanda walked forward with a slight blush and her head held high, in her hand a Pokeball was held and she was wearing what looked like… my entire wardrobe of belts all about her, to form like some sort of punk rocker from a cheap anime.
She shot me an unrepentant look as she bowed. I sighed as I waved for her to get on with it.
"My name is Yolanda! And this is my pokemon Izumi and we're here to rock!" shouted Yolanda, as she released the strongest Geodude I possessed.
Izumi soared through the air and landed with a slam that shook the field causing it to quake. It was rather well timed with Yolanda's 'here to rock' statement and I hummed. She must have practised that.
With the field broken up Yolanda punched her fist into the air and Izumi launched a huge segment of rock into the air only for the tiny pokemon to leap, fist cocked back as it began to fall.
When her fist connected the boulder was blasted to smithereens leaving only a dust cloud. Izumi then fell from said cloud only to land in Yolanda's waiting grasp. Yolanda twisted and raised Izumi up tall like she was presenting her to the world and Izumi bellowed out as she began to shine under the lights.
I chuckled as the pair then signalled their act was done by bowing.
It had been clean, concise and well executed with the chance to make the most of each moment. Everything was fast, from start to finish without any chance to linger on a move.
Yolanda didn't have Izumi charge up her attack, she'd flown seamlessly into her next move or display which others had used to build suspense.
I nodded, impressed with her foresight. It was vastly different from what any other Geodude user would be capable of, but then again Izumi was Izumi for a reason.
"You've got a powerful pokemon there and you let us know from the outset. You rocked your way in and then didn't let up, each move flowed into each other with a notable smoothness that others wish they could duplicate. You've been working with Izumi on this sequence, haven't you?" I said. Yolanda nodded happily.
I hummed only to narrow my eyes at her and point at the belts. "Are those my belts?" I asked, and Yolanda coughed.
"Maybe?" she said shamelessly.
I sighed and shook my head. "You're spending too much time with Crystal," I said with mock sadness. I raised an eight and waved to the others who awarded her nines respectively.
I hummed, with that…. Crystal and Yolanda were now in the top ten with Crystal currently tenth and Yolanda tied with Jessie.
"Next up! Green girl Greta!" called Rachel, signalling for the final girl from the trio of friends.
After her bow, she whipped out her pokemon. "Let's show them what we've been working on! Come on out! Vulpix!"
I grinned. This wasn't the pokemon I'd been expecting. I'd expected Bulbasaur from her. When had she caught this pokemon?
I frowned. When had she? As her sponsor, I felt like I should have known that.
Greta grinned and waved her hand causing a Fire spin to whip up around her pokemon, Greta walked around it and Will-o-Wisp shot out of the flames in front of her in a sequence that looked like she would step into, only for her to time it well enough.
She had to be sweating something fierce with being so close to the fire but she seemed determined to complete her sequence.
I bit my lip, how long had she practised this? It would have been extremely dangerous to do and I suddenly felt worried about what Greta was getting up to when I was busy.
Then I noticed Missy, Dennis, and Rocko cheering for Greta along with a small, almost impossible-to-notice white sheen around Greta.
"She's using Safeguard," I said, honestly impressed with the forethought that had gone into it. It looked dangerous and tough but with enough preparation she and her Vulpix were obviously safe.
I shot my older Gym trainers a thoughtful look and they waved, noticing my glance. Rocko grinned knowingly, entirely aware he'd surprised me with this development. Hmmm maybe they'd done it deliberately? Show me just how much Greta had grown.
I laced my fingers together and watched as the Fire Spin reformed into a twisting Inferno. I shook my head. That was a damn strong Vulpix, and Greta must have been working on it for a while now. I watched as the performance ended and Vulpix happily pranced while Greta bowed.
This… This was a surprise.
Both Ash, and Gary had surprised me with their skills and insight. I'd thought Greta to be a bit more average but if that Vuplix was as strong as I thought, then perhaps she had a lot more skill than anyone was aware of.
"Eight, you forgot to style yourselves but otherwise I think you showed some clever use of Fire Spin, Will-o-wisp, Safeguard, and Inferno."
I chuckled. "I thought I knew what you were capable of Greta," I shook my head. "You've just blown my expectations of you out of the water. That is an amazing bond you have with Vulpix and I'll be looking forward to discussing it with you later."
Greta beamed at me and giggled. "Thanks, the others have been helping out. I read your notes to the other sponsored trainers and saw how much you rated Vulpix and Growlithe as great choices and I was able to make a trade for another pokemon that didn't suit me for her." she hugged her Vulpix and it nuzzled into her.
Monique coughed politely, reminding us this wasn't the time for such a talk and I coughed, raising my eight-paddle for her.
Nurse Joy and Monique both raised their own nine paddles and with that Jessie, Yolanda, and Greta were all in top spots.
When Greta left the stage another of the Venom pack stalked forward with their chin jutted out. I paused when I recognised the tall man as Zek. He gave a shallow bow and raised his pokeball. "Let's roll! Nidoking!" he roared releasing a pokemon that slammed into the stage and spun its arm while looking to the side as though it was doing an air guitar solo.
It took me a moment that it was doing precisely that while thumping its tail to create a pseudo rhythm.
Zek started hyping the crowd by swinging his arms up and down. "Come on Pewter! I heard you had more rocks than this!" he shouted and this was enough to draw the crowd onto its feet for his performance.
It was a rather clever use of Earth Power to raise some earth before having Nidoking stomp around and through the earth, crushing and smashing all while Zek belted out a song underscored by Zek. When Nidoking tripped on one lyric Zek shouted for Sludge Wave and his pokemon skated on its knees to finish out the performance.
I shot Zek a smile. That had been a neat save but it had been a save he shouldn't have needed.
I gave him an eight for his efforts as he'd been overly reliant on his own, admittedly good singing skills to carry the performance.
From there more and more demonstrations occurred, but by the end of the day and the first stage of the contest, the top list was littered with names that I knew.
In first, but sadly not continuing, thereby allowing the seventeenth-placed person to advance, was of course Kaede. Under her, tied for second was Bosco, and Walter. Then Solidad, before Yolanda, Greta, Jessie, Zek from the Venom pack, and in an extremely lucky turn of events, Crystal in what had been seventeenth.
With that done performers took to the stage as I departed.
I was happy to be able to stand and move about but mostly I wanted to talk with Yolanda and her friends, they'd really done well.
I could only hope they carried that into tomorrow's stage!
A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for their continued support!
Thanks also go to Twmmy for betaing this chapter!
I decided to make Kaede from Blackthorn as due to canon its on the Ice Path that Furret makes it's main series debut in what was another banned episode. This was the Jynx episode.
TimEd
Meteor maker
stairs
Pewter Contest is off with a bang. I think the only issue I have is that I can't place which level of competition this should be, but this is an issue that the entirety of Kanto has to answer, not just Pewter so that gets a pass. Izumi definitely feels like cheating though. All the other geodude will develop a complex.
And nice to see Meowth get a positive response for once.
Hex
A Lingering Curse
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/They
Ooo, Meowth might have a girlfriend~!
Seriously though, great job as always. And like was said above, I like Meowth getting the positive response and giving the entire group more reason to go on the straight and narrow. I wonder what encouragement James will get...
Seriously though, great job as always. And like was said above, I like Meowth getting the positive response and giving the entire group more reason to go on the straight and narrow. I wonder what encouragement James will get...
- Pronouns
- She
This was absolutely incredible! Contests are always underplayed, it was awesome to see it written so well 
xbox432
Lover of Editing
Okay, first off? The Samurai Furret bit was pure gold. You really nailed the hype you've been building up with his mention throughout the fic. Hell, I could feel the joy of the kids emanating from the computer screen as I read the scene.
Hmm, one thing I'm curious for in the coming chapters... Brock did mention he was going to talk to the former Rocket Trio, so I'm wondering if he'll thank them for the help they gave Forrest and his friends? Maybe if he remembers it, he could tell Jessie to go visit the Pokecenter where her Chancey friend works? And possibly explain to Meowth that he's NEVER going to need to worry about money. Meowth could walk into any Pokelab or Pokecenter and be hired on the spot. Professors would love having a pokemon who can translate for them, nurses even more.
Hmm, one thing I'm curious for in the coming chapters... Brock did mention he was going to talk to the former Rocket Trio, so I'm wondering if he'll thank them for the help they gave Forrest and his friends? Maybe if he remembers it, he could tell Jessie to go visit the Pokecenter where her Chancey friend works? And possibly explain to Meowth that he's NEVER going to need to worry about money. Meowth could walk into any Pokelab or Pokecenter and be hired on the spot. Professors would love having a pokemon who can translate for them, nurses even more.
I think that last "Zek" should be "Nidoking".
Totally. The little genius finally met a girl who gave him the time of day. He's gonna be riding the high of that kiss for days.
- Location
- Scotland
Yeah, Giovanni and the Trio have really dropped the ball on just how gosh darned useful Meowth's ability to speak human is. That one ability is practically a blank cheque for him if he uses it right. Just think what could happen if he was able to TEACH other Pokemon how to do it.
- Location
- Texas
Aside from his skill at building giant mecha, James has a real emotional connection with Pokémon and I think he'd make a spectacular breeder.
And now that he isn't doing any actual thieving maybe he can get have his old arcanine on the roster! Make that poor puppy happy dangit!
Chapter 190 - Intermission
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
A.N. The much-asked-for but slowly delivered character list post chapter
Brock - The MC of this story and Pewter Gym Leader
Yolanda - Brock's younger sister aged 11
Crystal - Crystal Glass, daughter to Georgina Glass and a spunky trainer learning as much as she can while accruing a strong team for next year!
Greta - Greta Green, one of four trainers that Smauel Oak sponsored, she is working a year at the Gym to get her feet under her and take things a bit more relaxed. A steady and studious sort.
Jackson - a previously sponsored trainer of Pewter Gym turned Gym Trainer. He has knowledge of the Orange and Sevii Islands.
Bianca - The Breeding Specialist supplied by Professor Elm. She's a bit of a shortstack but extremely knowledgeable about her field of study!
Monique - Fashionista of Pewter and the mother of Solidad. She is an advocate for Contests in Kanto!
Jennifer - A previous Officer Jenny who was crippled in the line of duty. She is raising a line of Growlithes in the hope to get a variant Rock/fire type. She works as Brock's political representative.
Janine - Gym Leader of Fuchsia and lover of architecture and building codes. She's also a ninja in training.
Koga - Member of the Elite Four of Indigo, Ninja, and Guardian of Kanto.
Mrs Haridan - A political and social pillar of Pewter City, she is well versed on many tricks of child and pokemon raising.
Sabrina - Saffron's Gym Leader and Brock's best girl! Also the strongest Psychic around outside of pokemon with only a few contenders in that field as well. Avid doll lover.
The judging might have been over but that didn't mean my work as the host was done. Monique and Nurse Joy got to relax, albeit Monique did so by sweeping into the various large pavilion tents that had been set up for people to wine and dine while rubbing shoulders with the big names of Pewter City. Nurse Joy allowed herself to be tugged along into the tents to have more than a few people compliment her on her dress.
I considered it for a moment before turning away. I'd need to make an appearance but first I needed to seek out Greta and talk with her. I was feeling a touch guilty about not knowing she had caught more pokemon. We'd spent almost a whole week together and I hadn't thought to talk to her about how her time as a trainee gym trainer was going.
I had been busy but that was an excuse. I needed to make time for her.
And A.J. and also Missy.
The other sponsored Gym trainers we had all had assigned time to have lessons and call ups.
I needed to make time for the people close and not forget about them. I penned a message to Alexa about simply reserving slots in my schedule for them. Missy was the easiest as she got the most from sitting in on sessions, where we discussed my movements up the Ace rankings or reviewed other important matches. All of which gave her a baseline to show her how we operated and researched opponents.
She got a solid grounding in what worked, what didn't work and what to take into consideration beyond merely having a team of pokemon and a willingness to fight lots of matches.
I'd need to reflect on my revelations today.
I walked through the front area of my gym, now turned festival and waved or nodded at the various people who called out to me. A few people asked me for signatures and photos with both of us posing in front of my Crystal Onix.
I had to pat myself on the back for sending Jackson off to secure Crystal Onix.
Bianca had gone with him to get insight into the habitat of such a variant and made a few changes based on prior planning. Nothing beats getting such experience in person.
I rubbed his body, ignoring the way his rough edges dug into my skin. One of the perks of being able to call up rock energy? You're quite thick-skinned in a sense, which leads to me being able to pet pokemon others couldn't. Little Gible being the best example but with a Crystal Onix, you had to be rather careful due to how sharp some of his body parts became from moving around.
When I finally found Greta, she was on the battle courts with yet another pokemon in front of her, which felt like the final nail being hammered in. I really did need to spend more time with her.
"Pidgey Feather Dance!" Greta called.
"Ha! They're trying to buff up! Charge in Raticate, with Hyper Fang!" called what looked like that standard 'Youngster' trainer. The Raticate leapt across the court, fangs exposed only for Greta to smile.
"QA!" she called, and her Pidgey went from fluttering to blurring as it shot back with a hard beat of its wings, dodging the Raticate's fangs. As Raticate missed, it bolted back in with a powerful and fast attack that hammered into the top of Raticate's head.
Raticate crumpled to the side and the youngster gaped. "What? But my pokemon should be stronger!?"
I was about to step forward, but a young girl dressed in a school uniform did so quicker. "Pokemon can grow faster if they remain unevolved. This Pidgey should have evolved with how strong it is. It has a well cared for look and the talons and wingspan all indicate a pokemon that is young, but has reached the limits of its growth. Therefore, one can conclude that it is being held back to improve its mental growth and what moves it learns naturally, no?"
Greta nodded slowly with a small tilt as she observed the rather insightful girl. "Yeah, I didn't know it was that well known. Hi, I'm Greta by the way," she said.
The other girl flicked her head and caused her hair to arc out around her like blown by a fan. Amusingly another student who'd been standing behind her copped a face full of hair and spluttered, rather ruining the 'elegant moment' for the girl.
Her cheeks took a pink hue, as she coughed and ignored the setback, instead locking eyes with Greta. "I am Giselle, the Head Student at the Pokemon Technical Institute."
"Oh? That's, nice?" questioned Greta, completely unaware that she was putting her foot in it. I put my hand to my face and sighed explosively.
The sound carried through the sudden frosty silence of the court that had developed with Greta's words. Greta looked over and saw me. "Oh! Hi Brock!" she called.
I waved back at her. "Hey Greta," I said, before turning to Giselle. "I think you'll have to forgive my trainer for her ignorance. We haven't yet had to deal with any of the PTA's students so we haven't educated any of this year's trainers on the significance of the Head Student Role."
"Ah," Giselle said, shooting Greta considering look. "I suppose I will forgive her poor education, this time." Greta frowned but was ignored. "But! Only if you will expedite my match against you Brock! I am meant to be the standard that other students attempt to reach but I am to face you last!?"
"This will not do!" She stomped her foot and shook her head, once more causing her mane of long brown hair to punish her fellow student, this time to whip the boy on the other side, as the first victim now knew to duck.
"Ah," I said intelligently. It seemed Alexa's little joke was still in play. I hadn't considered how it would impact me and now it seemed my Hoothoot were coming home to roost.
"Yeah I can't change that, it's something that your Headmaster set up with us," I said, lying through my teeth. "It seems he wants to keep the best for last and locked it in this way."
Giselle paused at this. "He did? He assured me that…" The girl warred with this new information before shaking slightly, now causing all the boys around her to dodge away reflexively, not just the two to her left and right.
"Never mind!" Giselle roared, thrusting a finger to the sky. "He is a known scallywag! I shall simply be patient to demonstrate my skills!" she said. "Expect me in two weeks!" she announced grandly, like she was an actual threat to the Gym and not an academy kid.
I nodded along and Giselle marched off with her entourage.
Greta stepped up and tugged at my jacket. "I want to face her if she's opting for a Gauntlet run," she said, with a serious tone.
"Ah, rubbed you the wrong way?" I said, knowing that Giselle was the type to make enemies as easily as one might breathe outside of her controlled academy environment.
"She called me poorly educated just cause I didn't know what Head Student meant!" Greta fumed at me. "What does it mean though?" she said.
I snorted, realising that she was more annoyed at not knowing something, than being called poorly educated. A flash of light announced my girlfriend's arrival.
Onix, not used to Sbarina's penchant for sudden arrivals, reared back in surprise. I put a hand on his body and pulsed a feeling of calm and safety into him with what bond we had, before he could lash out. I mostly cheated by linking our rock energies and carrying the message in that manner while speaking "Easy there bud, it's Sabrina you're fine," I said.
"Oooooonnnn," he rumbled, relaxing gradually and lowering himself back down to eye Sabrina.
Ralts stared up at the Crystal pokemon and waved shyly. "Ra-ralts!" she said in greeting.
Sabrina hefted her pokemon slightly bouncing Ralts in her arms. Sabrina didn't flick her eyes away from mine, but she did go still for a moment. Enough that I knew she was reading the situation in some manner.
It took her a moment before nodding and turning away. "Ralts and I shall do some battling, it seems you two have things to talk about," she decided, marching away and demanding a challenge to the first person willing to meet her gaze.
I coughed and turned back to Greta. "I wanted to congratulate you on your showing today. I knew that you were going to take part and I'm really glad you did," I said.
Greta beamed at me. "Thanks! It was a really tough challenge with it being a side of training pokemon that I never got to experience!" she bounced from foot to foot. "All of my pokemon have grown from taking part in it!" she announced proudly.
"Right, that was another thing I wanted to talk to you about," I said, rubbing the back of my head as I gestured for us to walk through a side entrance to the Gym.
"Hmmm?" she asked curiously.
"I didn't know you'd caught Vulpix, or your Pidgey… or even your fourth pokemon. I feel like I've dropped the ball a bit while teaching you. We spent a week together during the recent run to Celadon and we didn't really get much time to talk." I offered her a pained smile. "I feel like I've been too busy or paying more attention to others."
"I don't mind," said Greta easily.
I blinked, her simple statement usually would be a way to make up, but when I looked into her eyes I only saw honesty reflected back at me.
"You… don't mind?" I said, testing the words back to her, lobbing a softball as one would to a rookie to test their skills at catch.
"I don't, I know that others might, but well, you giving me a place to calm down from the initial rush of going on my journey and having a pokemon. Since then I've been able to study a lot of the videos and written information that you've compiled regarding various pokemon and put that to use. I rather liked the importance of having utility pokemon or pokemon that can serve various roles. It's why I went looking for a Vulpix.
"Pidgey, as that girl Giselle pointed out, has been an experiment to test how fast I can get her to learn the stronger moves!"
At this point, Greta pulled out a notebook titled 'Pidgey's training program'. She handed it to me.
"I've got my sights set on Pidgey learning Aerial Ace, Roost, Tailwind, and Wing Attack before I let it evolve! Then I'm going to set my sights on teaching it Sleep Talk to make it super competitive against other pokemon, with staying power for days!"
I flipped through the notes seeing how she had started her pokemon on a specialised regime of food, training flights that worked agility, endurance and power on separate days. She also had days stencilled in for rest and team drills.
"You've been looking through my old training regime and what I currently do," I said, pointing out the extremely familiar layout that I used for my own Elite team of pokemon.
There were even three, one hour blocks that were dedicated to 'play/fun time with pokemon' instead of training. I continued reading. "How are you handling Pidgey's desire to grow stronger while restricting her from evolving?"
"I saw your notes on discussing it and how you have to individualise it to the pokemon!" Greta said happily.
"Ah, you have been doing a lot of reading then haven't you?" I said. Usually that was a topic I handled during the off season and not during the time of the circuit, as I knew that most trainers had limited time frames to get their pokemon stronger. Ideally, it would be something taught to people early but… well it usually wasn't a lesson that was well received by trainers early on as it felt like they were limiting themselves and their pokemon.
You had to let them experience a year 'out in the wild' so to speak. I still had it tagged in my notes for 'things trainers need to know but don't'. It was just something that you had to do a lot of reading to find, as it only got referenced once or twice in the earlier lessons.
"I'm impressed," I said. If the catch analogue was still in play, she'd taken the ball, assembled a small team and started teaching them how to catch in a manner I'd considered top tier while I watched on. I licked my lips. "I still feel bad though, as I haven't been giving you as much attention."
"I don't mind," she said again. "You've been busy and I know that we have some time locked in for the coming weeks. When you have me working with the Gym pokemon you throw out a lot of insights on how to look for a pokemon's temperament or how to consider a lot of little issues. Then you put things into practice."
"I do?" I queried with a small frown.
Greta giggled. "I thought that was the case, you might not realise it but you give out tips to most people whenever you can, it's been really great working here as I've gotten a really good look at lots of different situations. I know that next year I will want to continue my journey but this year is all about getting me and my pokemon stronger!" she said with her fists clenched.
I chuckled. "If that Pidgey and Vulpix are any indication, then you're going to be a force to reckon with next year."
"Bulbasaur is getting stronger as well!" she said with a firm stance.
"Are you doing the same regime for him as Pidgey?" I asked.
"Ehehehe! He's already at the stage that I don't have to hold him back any more, not unless the move 'Frenzy Plant' differs?" she said curiously.
I kept walking, not giving a hint of how much I was shitting myself.
She'd read that deep into my notes on pokemon? "Wow, usually no one reads about those moves," I said, as I fished for time.
Greta grinned. "Dennis said it was super important that I read the Gym trainer manual and while he was joking about actually testing me on it, it still had a lot of neat information in it! Like if certain moves like Frenzy Plant, or Hydro Cannon get used, to withdraw your pokemon immediately and contact you!"
I blinked. "You found out about it from there?" I asked incredulously. I did have that as part of the training manual for new trainers to look over.
Certain moves like the one hit knockout moves, or more powerful moves such as Giga Impact, Hyper Beam, and yes the specialised tutor only moves that were up there had been included… I frowned as I recalled how I'd not included G-max moves in that list.
Whew, I'd dodged a Seed Bullet there.
I chewed my lip as I considered what to say about the move I had revealed.
"Frenzy Plant is an ultra rare, almost lost move. Only old masters from the bad times will know of it, so you'd need to find one of them to teach it. It's a move that requires pokemon to use up a lot of energy much like Hyper Beam or Giga Impact, so if you do find someone, expect for it to be tough training," I said seriously.
"Oh?" she said at my explanation. She searched my expression only to find it stoic. "Can… I ask about that a little more?" she said tentatively.
I sighed. "I looked into it… when I was starting out and found historical notes about powerful moves for most of the starter pokemon of Kanto but never the names. While the legends I found were super vague on details I always wondered." I swallowed and tilted my head back and forth.
"It was only when I… gained more access to information that I looked into the topic once more, and what I found was that these moves were used to change entire battlefields, not just end one on one matches. They have a very sinister history associated with them and while it is only a move at the end of the day, if you were to find someone able to teach you these days just be aware that… they will have a complicated past," I said, settling on something neutral.
"Keep yourself and your pokemon safe is what I'm saying," I said.
Greta nodded. "Thanks for that, it's good to know… I might ask Erika about it still if that's alright?"
I coughed. "Today?" I said in surprise.
Greta blinked. "Erika is here today?"
"Well she was for a bit but I think she had to leave," I said, causing Greta to deflate.
"I'll wait until we meet up, I get the impression this isn't something to talk about over an introduction pokemail message," Greta said.
"Good idea, I can vouch for you but yeah, let her get to know you," I said.
Greta perked up once again and I couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled up. "Hehe," I said, smiling at Greta.
"What?" she said defensively.
"It's just that sometimes you and Erika act rather similar. She wilts and perks up all the time when you talk to her. Maybe it's a grass type thing?" I suggested jokingly.
Greta pouted at me. "I'm not a monotype trainer! I have Vulpix and Pidgey! And Gastly too! Oh! And I also just recently caught another pokemon that none of the Gym trainers know about! A Beedrill!"
I blinked in surprise only to frown, the announcement of Beedrill was a surprise, but she'd skated past her Gastly very quickly there. Why? "Your fourth pokemon is a Gastly?" I frowned. "How did you find a Gastly around here?" I said sternly.
Greta coughed. "Promise you won't get mad?" she said in a manner that all but confirmed she or someone she knew had done something dumb and that I would have every right to be mad except due to the promise.
"Can I be disappointed?" I said.
"No! That would be worse!" Greta said, waving her hands back and forth frantically.
I huffed. Before taking a breath and exhaling my emotions out. "Alright, let's hear it, how did you get Gastly," I said.
"Well there was this bet that Crystal and I made with each other, see? She said that the person who went the furthest into the graveyard—" as my frown deepened Greta hurried held up her hands, "—at twilight! Not evening!" she said quickly.
"Hmmmm," I said. "What happened?"
"Well I went first and I had this… clever solution that I would just walk to through it, filming the entire way? I got jump scared by Gastly though and I ended up beating him up with Bulbasaur and capturing him?" She poked her fingers together. "The graveyard channeler was apparently walking behind me the entire time so I was safe really?" she said.
I sighed again and raised my hand. Greta flinched until I lowered it on top of her head and rubbed it. "Well, you had an adventure I suppose."
"You're not mad?" she said, peeking out from under my hand.
"Tiny bit," I admitted easily, but mostly scared. You do realise there was still a risk?"
"Yeah, we thought we'd mitigated it but yeah… showed us," she grumbled.
"What did you win for going the furthest?" I asked before frowning. "Was it just crystal or was Yolanda in on this too?"
Greta blinked at me and her eyes sort of wobbled guiltily ."Oh! I forgot Crystal still owes me!" she announced, before sprinting away. I stared after her. She'd basically just confirmed my sister had been part of the dare.
I sighed again. Being a big brother was hard sometimes. I'd have to think up a punishment for this.
A buzz on my Xtransciever showed that it was time to wine and dine some locals, so I headed back out and made a beeline for the pavilion tents.
There I found Alexa, Rachel, and Jennifer waiting for me. Jennifer waved, "Brock, glad you could finally make it! I need you to talk to the Pebblemans, Mrs Haridan, and Judge Howard with me."
"Politics?" I asked seriously.
"Yup, you just need to be seen talking with Judge Howard honestly, the other two have some sway in Pewter so you need to give them some acknowledgement."
"Let's go with Mrs Haridan first then," I said waving towards the woman that had occasionally stepped in for me before Flint had returned. We made some small talk for a while and I mentioned having her come over next weekend as I'd be out for most of the afternoon before I made to leave.
Mrs Haridan waved me off only to grimace as she took a step. "Ouch," she said, and I immediately turned and offered her my hand.
"Need a hand getting to a chair?"
"Hmmm, no I think it best I head home. A good soak and a lay up for me will do wonders for my old bones I should think," she said. "I've been away from home for a few days now, visiting grandchildren. Time to head home I think!" she said, as I escorted her out of the pavilion.
On the way a number of people appeared to bid her good evening and I had to blink in surprise when Janine appeared at one point, winked at me and then vanished into the crowd.
Mrs Haridan giggled at the byplay, proving that while her bones might ache, her eyes were still sharp. "That girl takes after her father!" she said with a smile.
She then released an extremely puffy looking Dodrio which sat to allow her to mount it side saddle. One of the heads twisted itself around Mrs Haridan before they took off.
I turned back and found a number of people pointedly lingering for me to 'bump into'. I sighed and stepped forward only for Sabrina to step in with a pleased air. "Have some good fights?" I asked, peering at Ralts who was being cradled in one arm.
"She performed wonderfully," Sabrina said, as she stroked Ralts hair. I linked my arm with her and escorted her around for the rest of the early evening.
Thankfully I was able to beg off instead of 'following' the party as some people were suggesting, back into Pewter where a bar was being proposed.
I could claim I needed to head home to look after my family and that was enough to have people waving and nodding. Sabrina joined me and we walked home to find my family all present with the inclusion of Crystal and Greta.
Greta locked eyes with me before I turned my gaze upon the other two of the 'trio'. Greta coughed and shrunk in on herself. I ignored her as I gave Yolanda and Crystal my patented 'disappointed face' which lowered attack damage.
Now, it only made the girls know I knew they'd done something wrong and were being caught for it.
"So, what's this about a graveyard bet?" I asked.
Yolanda coughed. "It was at twilight? And… well it worked out alright in the end?" She then perked up. "Can I go try and catch a Gastly as well?"
"No, not until you have your own pokemon trained up properly and as for you Crystal, I'm going to be informing your mother."
"Grk! No! I only just got tv rights back again!" Crystal wailed. I rolled my eyes and sent the message off and Crystal grumped for the next few minutes. She perked up when discussion around the table turned to tomorrow's battle phase of the contest.
Yolanda shot me a cheeky grin. "Brock? Can you please let me win?" said Yolanda, her face shifting into an innocent look.
Greta and Crystal slapped the air with the back of their hands. "Disqualify her," they said flatly.
I snorted at their gag routine. "No, I'm not going to help you win. I'm the Judge, that means I need to be impartial, not biased."
Yolanda nodded. "Can I borrow Bertha?"
"Hell no," I said, joining Greta and Crystal in showing her the back of my hand.
Yolanda narrowed her eyes and considered me. "Nope!" I said, predicting that she'd ask for Sanchez next. Honestly she should have asked for him first.
He'd have donned a Lucadore mask or something like that and swooped head-first into the Contest scene. He loved being out there and fashionable.
"Finnnnnnne!" I'll stick to using Izumi and Spot then!" she said.
Terra tugged on her shirt and gestured at herself. "Lar?"
"Sorry girl, you're strong as a battler but your moves don't quite have the control needed just yet. We'll keep working at it though, so next year you can take part!" said Yolanda.
Terra blinked at her and then turned away from Yolanda and curled up into a ball. "Laaaaaaaar," she said sadly.
I shot Yolanda a raised eyebrow while making sure not to say anything.
To me it was obvious she'd been spending a bit too much time focussing on other things if this was how her starter was reacting. Yolanda might have been excited to get her new pokemon with Spot pretty much confirmed but that came with the cost of her not spending as much time with Terra.
This was something they'd both need to learn to handle.
Yolanda floundered, unsure for a moment. "Uhm! No! Don't be sad! If you want, how about we go out now and practise your moves! You can take part instead of Spot!" she said, carrying Terra out to the garden to do just that.
Terra perked up and I chuckled. Soon enough Terra would have Yolanda twisted around her little claws with how she could be sad and get what she wanted.
It felt nice to see the shoe on the other foot for once.
Crystal shot me a pointed look. "You're not going to help your cute little sister?"
Greta shot her friend a look, then me, before firming up and coughing. "Y-yeah Yolanda needs all the help she can get!"
I took a long pull of the lemonade I'd made up for tonight, before exhaling in joy. "Ah! Well it's a good thing that she has such good friends then, no?" I said.
A moment later I was proven right as Yolanda's voice called out from the garden. "Greta? Can I borrow you and your pokedex for a moment? I want to see if Terra has any new moves since last week!"
"Coming!" shouted Greta.
Crystal huffed and poked her tongue out at me which had me chuckling. This led to the rest of my family charging out. Flint sighed and trailed after them with a small chuckle.
Zubat chose that moment to flutter into the house and land on me, where she whined at not getting to spend the day with me. "Sorry girl," I said, giving her some pats.
She pretended to whimper for a little bit before perking up as her nose started to twitch. I watched as she crawled down my arm, stopping just short of my drink, only to begin lapping at it tentatively.
She licked her lips and grinned before diving into the glass whereby a draining noise started up much like a clogged drain.
I held up the glass and watched it vanish only for Zubat to burp when she was done causing the glass to vibrate. She then tried to inch her way back only to find herself unable to.
"Are you stuck now?" I asked, watching with great amusement as she squirmed and shifted.
"Zuuuuuuuub!" she screeched, realising her mistake. I reached into the glass and tugged her out.
"No diving into drinks like that. When you're a Golbat you won't fit anyway but it's not the most hygienic way to get something tasty."
Sabrina who'd been feeding Ralts nodded, and telekinetically lifted the glass over to the sink.
"It is in fact the best way for Zubat to drink, far superior to having to tilt a glass into her mouth if that is what you were thinking," said Janine casually.
I nodded, controlling the urge to twitch in surprise. Damn, she'd been practising. "Hmmm that sounds right," I said, realising that other pokemon were the same, what with needing their water to be below them to drink it properly.
Janine pouted at me and I rolled my eyes. "How long have you been here for?" I said.
"No, I'm not telling you if you're going to be that way!" said Janine with a huff.
"She's been in the house for two minutes, she snuck in as the girls left," Sabrina supplied.
"Sabrina!" said Janine with a scowl.
"If you want to startle someone," said Koga from behind me, causing a ripple of gooseflesh to break out over my body as I felt instinctive fear sweep through me, "You need to give it a touch of menace," said Koga, only to move to the seat next to me.
"Raaaaaaaalts!" wailed Ralts having been startled as well. I shared a look with the little pokemon and offered her a nod of commiseration. Sometimes having your friends be ninjas meant putting up with things like this.
My fear vanished in a moment as I realised Koga was in a casual outfit with a drink in hand. It even had a silly straw and tiny drink umbrella. Had he gone to the after party before coming here? It would be where the big movers and shakers 'let their hair down' and spoke their minds a lot more so it made sense he'd investigate.
"Brock," he said, raising the drink in my direction.
I opened my mouth before realising how powerful a flex it was for him, wearing casual clothes while holding a drink, to have snuck up on me. Didn't that make him more terrifying, rather than less?
I wasn't sure what to think so I just nodded in greeting. "Koga, congratulations on the early promotion," I said, referencing the latest news that the League had released announcing Koga's early ascension to Elite Four.
"My thanks," he said easily.
I flicked my eyes from him to Janine. "Nice of you to drop around," I said eventually, deciding to be a gracious, if unwitting host. "Have you eaten yet?" I asked.
"We got some take-out," Janine said, raising up a bag from Mr Mime's bashfully. I shot her an incredulous look and she didn't meet my gaze.
Sabrina smirked, "They had a build your own castle set with the happy meal," she said, and Koga nodded while Janine blushed.
"Oh cool," I said, realising why that would be such a draw. "Cindy and Tommy have like five of them."
"Do they have any spare Mahogany Town castles? I will trade them my excess—"
"Ahem, we came here for other business daughter," said Koga, cutting off his daughter's hobby of architecture and lightly reprimanding her.
Janine ducked her head and gave a soft "sorry," to her father.
I now had the image of a room within Koga's house being nothing but small, to scale replicas of famous buildings.
I smiled before tilting my head. "Have they come up with a replica for my Gym that you can build?"
"They have not in fact!" Janine said, brightening up immediately. Sabrina huffed a laugh to herself.
Koga shook his head at the two of us. "I'm glad you three are having fun but we do have something to report," said Koga tiredly.
Janine straightened up and reached into a pouch at her back to reveal what looked like an intelligence dossier. "We've found the location where Mewtwo was created, within a hidden log in Giovanni's terminal," said Janine.
"New Island." I breathed the name and blinked as I found pictures of the island over the course of what had been a three week time span.
In one picture, a trainer was taking a selfie with the island in the background where there was nothing but green open spaces and a tall face.
The second picture showed a structure in the distance. The picture didn't focus on the island or the structures. In fact, the images were from a distant boat with the island just barely being in the background. A happenstance, more than anything calculated.
"We've thus far failed to get any more pictures despite sending reconnaissance pokemon with long range observation equipment."
"You've investigated the site? Has any trainers been deployed as of yet? I wouldn't mind heading…" I trailed off as Janine and Koga shook their heads.
"Thus far none of the people we have sent have made it close to the island. They get waylaid, they have pressing issues that suddenly arise, they fall ill the day before departure. Too often to be a coincidence." Koga gestured at the pictures and the files. "I am merely keeping you informed of this latest development. It shall be discussed in more detail later but I cannot dedicate any more teams or even my own direct attention to this as yet."
"Why's that?" I asked, slightly relieved that Koga wasn't going to poking the bear that was Mewtwo.
"Team Aqua vessels have been spotted in the Sevii islands," he replied.
"Oh," I said, frowning. "Are the local authorities being informed?" I asked.
Koga shook his head. "They are still not yet signatories for the G-men, they are interested but…" He trailed off meaningfully and I blinked.
Then I straightened. "Koga, I'm not comfortable with what you're implying," I said.
Koga huffed. "It would be for the best—"
"Who's best? Sitting on intelligence like this isn't doing good. It's standing by while evil is done," I said. "Let's do some good and protect people," I said.
"Brock is correct," said Sabrina firmly.
Koga sighed. "That is a naive way of thinking," he reprimanded.
Janine shifted and curled in on herself. I got the impression she hadn't agreed with her father, and his words while pointed at Sabrina and I, might also apply to her.
I considered Koga. "The Guardians are a defensive group," I said slowly.
Koga nodded. "Of course," he said.
"Well, allowing an enemy force to empower itself isn't helping us, it's standing back and letting something become worse. We shouldn't sit back and meet them on the back foot. Eventually Team Aqua will come knocking for us. I've read the histories, Indigo was attacked heavily by them," I said firmly.
Koga nodded. "Fuchsia faced more than a few such raids," he said placidly.
I paused and considered him. "You're testing me right now, aren't you?"
Koga smiled. "Indeed, I wanted to see your response. It was naive, but no less incorrect. We will pass on information while working to facilitate the G-men integration. Both objectives do not need to be mutually exclusive. International trainers in Sevii and Orange might be fewer in number, but there are still some people there that can be… relied upon," he said.
I huffed and caught Janine looking pleased. Had she been acting before? I shook my head. "So apart from the test and the information about Mewtwo's possible home base right now, was there anything else?" I asked.
Koga shook his head. "I thought it prudent to inform you both of Mewtwo seeing as you have also encountered it a number of times now," he said. "It is a powerful and known threat."
"He," Sabrina said. "Mewtwo identifies as a he, not an it."
Koga frowned but nodded. He then turned his gaze to the east. "Also, it has not yet been raised with the League, but should an enraged Zapdos appear, you will be needed as the best suited to face it."
"Huh? Oh yeah, I suppose that makes sense with Giovanni out of action. Is that likely to happen?" I said.
"During the war it happened three times. After the war? There was one such incident that occurred when you were very young involving a Zapdos destroying a powerplant. Since then facilities have much more rigorous testing with emissions lowered to not create a charged environment, not that it stops certain groups from cutting corners on safety."
Koga shifted slightly. "I shall have Janine send you the two known locations of Zapdos," Koga said.
"Shamouti island is one, right?" I asked.
Koga blinked. "Ah, you are correct, one of them is there," he said. I saw his eyes spark and his lips twitch as though he'd just confirmed something to himself.
Sabrina and I shared a look, Shamouti had been… interesting to go to.
Koga stood. "We will discuss more when we meet officially. For now I thought it merely best to keep you in the loop of the threats, you've proven yourself capable of surviving such encounters so I shall trust you with more," he said. He then bowed politely and shot away. I heard the window slide open and closed in another room and then nothing.
Janine coughed. "Do not mind father's words, he trusted you before this but he did not know if you would survive. During the later parts of the war, it was thought that up to eighty percent of people would be dead should they encounter a Legendary pokemon three times. After that people's mortality rates plummeted."
"Hmmmm," I said, interested despite myself.
Janine, seeing my interest, smiled and puffed herself up. "The worst statistics came from Kanto and Sinnoh! Certain pokemon there had the highest mortality ratings while others such as Moltres and Articuno would cause debilitating injuries. If you encountered them again you usually weren't able to flee a second time," she said.
"Huh, that's morbid," I said. I had a good idea of which SInnoh pokemon she was talking about
"Very!" said Janine.
"How's things?" I asked, deciding to shift the conversation to a more happy vibe.
"The trainer surge has well and truly reached me now. I am hoping to be done with it in the next few weeks but it is certainly… a test of my suitability as a Gym Leader," said Janine.
Sabrina nodded, "Yes it is, "she said, showing her own feelings of exhaustion for the first time that evening.
Janine and her shared a small smile and I stayed out of it, letting their moment be just that. Their moment. After a bit Janine shifted and looked around
"Well if you're hanging in there you're doing good. Most places always struggle when there's transition but if you're holding your own, despite this being a tougher year with all the trainers, then you must be doing good," I said, playing up how things would be. There was an inkling of truth in there, and I had no doubt that if Janine got the time to prepare she'd be well suited as the Fuchsia Gym Leader.
Janine smiled and bowed. "Thank you for your kind words," she said.
"No problem, they're just the truth," I said. I waved a hand to the side. "Did you want something to drink?" I asked.
Janine asked for some tea lemonade. I got myself and Zubat another glass each, with Zubat's being a small dish that she could drink out of properly.
"Mind if I pick your brain over training for Zubat?" I asked, bringing out my training program. Zubat perked up and scuttled up to watch.
Janine gave the program a quick look over. "Hmmm this seems to be in order for a flying type pokemon to make it a strong battler, but a poison type needs to make sure they are expressing their poisons to strengthen their effects. If you're looking to have her use moves like Gunk Shot, Toxic, or Toxic Spikes then you need to work on this as well," she said.
I frowned. I was pretty sure from my research of Zubat's line, Gunk Shot wasn't a move they could learn. I shot Janine a furtive glance as she continued to read through my training plan, a pen in hand as she made suggestions.
Sabrina had been able to teach Selene a move her species weren't known for learning, perhaps Janine and Koga were capable of the same?
"—there are also useful moves to use in team fights such as Quick Guard," Janine said with a nod.
I looked over the program only to find it littered with small suggestions and prompts along with a trio of movepool suggestions depending on what I wanted.
I hummed. "What if I had a very niche role in mind that could make use of a speed build?" I asked.
Janine tilted her head. "A further niche?" she asked.
I grinned and brought out another set of papers. Janine accepted them. "Counters for Mega-evolution pokemon?" she opened the first page and blinked. "Thief?" she said incredulously.
I smirked and Janine kept reading. "Switcheroo? Trick? Ah wait, you're not sure if this move will work." Janine kept reading. "Oh you've also thought of how to use a poison item or… what is a choice band?"
"I've been looking into item usage a bit more," I said. "It's something I heard about that locks a pokemon into a set move but boosts their power. Could be a good way to clock a strong pokemon into a useless move or force a switch from the trainer," I said.
Janine blinked. "I've never heard of an item like that. I imagine methods like this would be used more otherwise," she said with a frown. The poison item might work however. It's just that it is… well a certain type of person to give pokemon an item that might injure them."
"Unless they're poison typed," I pointed out.
Janine nodded and closed the notepad. She then directed a serious look at me. "We have used methods like this in the past. I'm surprised you thought it up yourself as it is something we teach to trainers that work with us. I can't forbid you from using it as you've obviously thought it up yourself but be careful sharing it around," she said.
"Oh, you already thought of it, and just don't use it?" I asked.
"I use it at some of the fourth… tier battles," she said, using my terminology for trainers with four or more badges. "Most people simply don't mention their fights or have the time to reflect with us when they're done. Invariably a few of the pokemon on their team are poisoned and they need to depart quickly even with liberal uses of antidotes," Janine explained.
"Huh," I said. This made me rethink a few things regarding my plans. It would take a while for Choice Bands or scarves to be truly effective and when they were, I would have to dust off my meta-knowledge as competitive pokemon fighting with items would shift the dynamic greatly.
Still, it was nice to know Janine guaranteed some of these plans I had would work.
We kept talking for a while longer with Zubat snuggling up into my lap as we discussed other battle methods that would work, or even that we could theorise about until Yolanda trudged in with a tired but happy-looking Terra in one arm while an exhausted Spot was held in the other wagging his tail limply as Yolanda carried him in.
She was followed by a pair of grumpy-looking friends.
Flint trudged in with some tired-looking kids. The boys must have been exhausted as they barely even perked up seeing Janine sitting with me.
Janine easily handled their leaps and tackle attacks before sending them on their way to bed, leaving us with just the older trio of girls who were arguing.
"This is such bullshit! If I'm fighting you tomorrow, I'm not letting you pull that off!" said Crystal firmly.
Yolanda just giggled. "We have a one in eight chance of fighting each other," said Yolanda.
Greta shifted worriedly at that only for Crystal to glare at Yolanda. She then gained a shrewd look. "Not if I beat you up now!" she said, leaping at Yolanda and initiating a play fight.
Yolanda promptly subdued her friend in seconds leaving Greta gaping. "Oh, that wasn't very smart of you Crystal,"
Crystal bucked only for Yolanda to remain in place, sitting on her back. Crystal growled and looked up to see me watching her. "What are you feeding her?"
"Vegetables," I said with a proud nod.
When Crystal rolled her eyes at me I chuckled. "Nah she just works out a lot and carries Terra around most days."
"Eh? What do you mean by—" Terra chose that moment to waddle onto Crystal's back, thinking this a great game. Crystal started thumping the ground instantly. "Auntie! Uncle! Grandpa and Grandma! I give!" she said, as the rest of us giggled.
"Which match ups you're hoping to get tomorrow?" asked Sabrina, ignoring the flailing Crystal.
"Not Solidad," the girls said together. Crystal was allowed up after that and they all adopted thinking faces.
"Jessadia was also strong with her Mawile," said Greta, pulling out her pokedex to look up the fairy-steel pokemon. "I scanned it earlier and I have to say she's a strong pokemon," she said.
"Good job on having the foresight to scan it. Did you scan the others to learn what moves they might have?" I asked.
Greta blinked and screwed up her eyes before groaning. "Urgh! I could have done that! Stupid!" she said.
Janine shook her head. "Reconnaissance is vital. Know yourself and your enemy and you will never lose," she said wisely. Sabrina nodded along.
I just laughed and waved it off. "Don't worry about it. Just remember it for tomorrow when you get a look at the people taking part, you'll get a better shot at advancing thanks to your pokedex," I said.
I once again resolved to myself that Yolanda at the very least, would be departing for her Journey with a pokedex. If I had my way, I was hoping to get every trainer under our banner to have one. It offered too many advantages to ignore.
When the trio started to yawn they headed inside to have their sleepover. I turned, only to find Janine had vanished during the chaos. I shot her a message complimenting her on her mysterious exit which earned me a smiley face in reply.
"She's behind the kitchen counter," whispered Sabrina, causing me to chuckle. I then lifted Sabrina up into my arms to carry her to bed with me. She gave me a soft kiss while cradling Ralts.
As we were making our way to my room to sleep, I passed the bathroom door and caught Yolanda flexing at herself in the mirror. Terra was copying her. Sabrina raised my Xtransceiver instantly and began recording.
"We are looking good aren't we girl?" said Yolanda.
"Tar!" said Terra, agreeing.
Yolanda flexed a few more times only to freeze, as she caught sight of Sabrina and me in the mirror. "How long have you been there?" she asked.
Sabrina made her eyes glow ominous. "We saw everything," she intoned.
I just winked and continued on to my room.
Yolanda pursued. "No! Delete it!" she shouted chasing after me.
I reached my room and shut the door behind me only to hear a thump a moment later. "Brock! Sabrina? Delete it! Please?"
I chuckled to myself as I deposited Sabrina and Ralts on the bed. Sabrina sent herself a copy with a smile before sitting up to stretch and join me for a shower.
Yolanda eventually left after Greta and Crystal came to find what was taking her so long. Yolanda made sure to whisper before she left. "Don't you dare show that to anyone!"
Too late. I considered sending it to her friends straight away before shaking my head.
No.
No, videos like this you didn't show and forget, you saved them for parties.
A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for their continued support!
And also a huge thanks go to Twmmy for betaing this and other chapters! They really do help speed up my writing and lighten the load of posting two chapters a week for me!
Brock - The MC of this story and Pewter Gym Leader
Yolanda - Brock's younger sister aged 11
Crystal - Crystal Glass, daughter to Georgina Glass and a spunky trainer learning as much as she can while accruing a strong team for next year!
Greta - Greta Green, one of four trainers that Smauel Oak sponsored, she is working a year at the Gym to get her feet under her and take things a bit more relaxed. A steady and studious sort.
Jackson - a previously sponsored trainer of Pewter Gym turned Gym Trainer. He has knowledge of the Orange and Sevii Islands.
Bianca - The Breeding Specialist supplied by Professor Elm. She's a bit of a shortstack but extremely knowledgeable about her field of study!
Monique - Fashionista of Pewter and the mother of Solidad. She is an advocate for Contests in Kanto!
Jennifer - A previous Officer Jenny who was crippled in the line of duty. She is raising a line of Growlithes in the hope to get a variant Rock/fire type. She works as Brock's political representative.
Janine - Gym Leader of Fuchsia and lover of architecture and building codes. She's also a ninja in training.
Koga - Member of the Elite Four of Indigo, Ninja, and Guardian of Kanto.
Mrs Haridan - A political and social pillar of Pewter City, she is well versed on many tricks of child and pokemon raising.
Sabrina - Saffron's Gym Leader and Brock's best girl! Also the strongest Psychic around outside of pokemon with only a few contenders in that field as well. Avid doll lover.
The judging might have been over but that didn't mean my work as the host was done. Monique and Nurse Joy got to relax, albeit Monique did so by sweeping into the various large pavilion tents that had been set up for people to wine and dine while rubbing shoulders with the big names of Pewter City. Nurse Joy allowed herself to be tugged along into the tents to have more than a few people compliment her on her dress.
I considered it for a moment before turning away. I'd need to make an appearance but first I needed to seek out Greta and talk with her. I was feeling a touch guilty about not knowing she had caught more pokemon. We'd spent almost a whole week together and I hadn't thought to talk to her about how her time as a trainee gym trainer was going.
I had been busy but that was an excuse. I needed to make time for her.
And A.J. and also Missy.
The other sponsored Gym trainers we had all had assigned time to have lessons and call ups.
I needed to make time for the people close and not forget about them. I penned a message to Alexa about simply reserving slots in my schedule for them. Missy was the easiest as she got the most from sitting in on sessions, where we discussed my movements up the Ace rankings or reviewed other important matches. All of which gave her a baseline to show her how we operated and researched opponents.
She got a solid grounding in what worked, what didn't work and what to take into consideration beyond merely having a team of pokemon and a willingness to fight lots of matches.
I'd need to reflect on my revelations today.
I walked through the front area of my gym, now turned festival and waved or nodded at the various people who called out to me. A few people asked me for signatures and photos with both of us posing in front of my Crystal Onix.
I had to pat myself on the back for sending Jackson off to secure Crystal Onix.
Bianca had gone with him to get insight into the habitat of such a variant and made a few changes based on prior planning. Nothing beats getting such experience in person.
I rubbed his body, ignoring the way his rough edges dug into my skin. One of the perks of being able to call up rock energy? You're quite thick-skinned in a sense, which leads to me being able to pet pokemon others couldn't. Little Gible being the best example but with a Crystal Onix, you had to be rather careful due to how sharp some of his body parts became from moving around.
When I finally found Greta, she was on the battle courts with yet another pokemon in front of her, which felt like the final nail being hammered in. I really did need to spend more time with her.
"Pidgey Feather Dance!" Greta called.
"Ha! They're trying to buff up! Charge in Raticate, with Hyper Fang!" called what looked like that standard 'Youngster' trainer. The Raticate leapt across the court, fangs exposed only for Greta to smile.
"QA!" she called, and her Pidgey went from fluttering to blurring as it shot back with a hard beat of its wings, dodging the Raticate's fangs. As Raticate missed, it bolted back in with a powerful and fast attack that hammered into the top of Raticate's head.
Raticate crumpled to the side and the youngster gaped. "What? But my pokemon should be stronger!?"
I was about to step forward, but a young girl dressed in a school uniform did so quicker. "Pokemon can grow faster if they remain unevolved. This Pidgey should have evolved with how strong it is. It has a well cared for look and the talons and wingspan all indicate a pokemon that is young, but has reached the limits of its growth. Therefore, one can conclude that it is being held back to improve its mental growth and what moves it learns naturally, no?"
Greta nodded slowly with a small tilt as she observed the rather insightful girl. "Yeah, I didn't know it was that well known. Hi, I'm Greta by the way," she said.
The other girl flicked her head and caused her hair to arc out around her like blown by a fan. Amusingly another student who'd been standing behind her copped a face full of hair and spluttered, rather ruining the 'elegant moment' for the girl.
Her cheeks took a pink hue, as she coughed and ignored the setback, instead locking eyes with Greta. "I am Giselle, the Head Student at the Pokemon Technical Institute."
"Oh? That's, nice?" questioned Greta, completely unaware that she was putting her foot in it. I put my hand to my face and sighed explosively.
The sound carried through the sudden frosty silence of the court that had developed with Greta's words. Greta looked over and saw me. "Oh! Hi Brock!" she called.
I waved back at her. "Hey Greta," I said, before turning to Giselle. "I think you'll have to forgive my trainer for her ignorance. We haven't yet had to deal with any of the PTA's students so we haven't educated any of this year's trainers on the significance of the Head Student Role."
"Ah," Giselle said, shooting Greta considering look. "I suppose I will forgive her poor education, this time." Greta frowned but was ignored. "But! Only if you will expedite my match against you Brock! I am meant to be the standard that other students attempt to reach but I am to face you last!?"
"This will not do!" She stomped her foot and shook her head, once more causing her mane of long brown hair to punish her fellow student, this time to whip the boy on the other side, as the first victim now knew to duck.
"Ah," I said intelligently. It seemed Alexa's little joke was still in play. I hadn't considered how it would impact me and now it seemed my Hoothoot were coming home to roost.
"Yeah I can't change that, it's something that your Headmaster set up with us," I said, lying through my teeth. "It seems he wants to keep the best for last and locked it in this way."
Giselle paused at this. "He did? He assured me that…" The girl warred with this new information before shaking slightly, now causing all the boys around her to dodge away reflexively, not just the two to her left and right.
"Never mind!" Giselle roared, thrusting a finger to the sky. "He is a known scallywag! I shall simply be patient to demonstrate my skills!" she said. "Expect me in two weeks!" she announced grandly, like she was an actual threat to the Gym and not an academy kid.
I nodded along and Giselle marched off with her entourage.
Greta stepped up and tugged at my jacket. "I want to face her if she's opting for a Gauntlet run," she said, with a serious tone.
"Ah, rubbed you the wrong way?" I said, knowing that Giselle was the type to make enemies as easily as one might breathe outside of her controlled academy environment.
"She called me poorly educated just cause I didn't know what Head Student meant!" Greta fumed at me. "What does it mean though?" she said.
I snorted, realising that she was more annoyed at not knowing something, than being called poorly educated. A flash of light announced my girlfriend's arrival.
Onix, not used to Sbarina's penchant for sudden arrivals, reared back in surprise. I put a hand on his body and pulsed a feeling of calm and safety into him with what bond we had, before he could lash out. I mostly cheated by linking our rock energies and carrying the message in that manner while speaking "Easy there bud, it's Sabrina you're fine," I said.
"Oooooonnnn," he rumbled, relaxing gradually and lowering himself back down to eye Sabrina.
Ralts stared up at the Crystal pokemon and waved shyly. "Ra-ralts!" she said in greeting.
Sabrina hefted her pokemon slightly bouncing Ralts in her arms. Sabrina didn't flick her eyes away from mine, but she did go still for a moment. Enough that I knew she was reading the situation in some manner.
It took her a moment before nodding and turning away. "Ralts and I shall do some battling, it seems you two have things to talk about," she decided, marching away and demanding a challenge to the first person willing to meet her gaze.
I coughed and turned back to Greta. "I wanted to congratulate you on your showing today. I knew that you were going to take part and I'm really glad you did," I said.
Greta beamed at me. "Thanks! It was a really tough challenge with it being a side of training pokemon that I never got to experience!" she bounced from foot to foot. "All of my pokemon have grown from taking part in it!" she announced proudly.
"Right, that was another thing I wanted to talk to you about," I said, rubbing the back of my head as I gestured for us to walk through a side entrance to the Gym.
"Hmmm?" she asked curiously.
"I didn't know you'd caught Vulpix, or your Pidgey… or even your fourth pokemon. I feel like I've dropped the ball a bit while teaching you. We spent a week together during the recent run to Celadon and we didn't really get much time to talk." I offered her a pained smile. "I feel like I've been too busy or paying more attention to others."
"I don't mind," said Greta easily.
I blinked, her simple statement usually would be a way to make up, but when I looked into her eyes I only saw honesty reflected back at me.
"You… don't mind?" I said, testing the words back to her, lobbing a softball as one would to a rookie to test their skills at catch.
"I don't, I know that others might, but well, you giving me a place to calm down from the initial rush of going on my journey and having a pokemon. Since then I've been able to study a lot of the videos and written information that you've compiled regarding various pokemon and put that to use. I rather liked the importance of having utility pokemon or pokemon that can serve various roles. It's why I went looking for a Vulpix.
"Pidgey, as that girl Giselle pointed out, has been an experiment to test how fast I can get her to learn the stronger moves!"
At this point, Greta pulled out a notebook titled 'Pidgey's training program'. She handed it to me.
"I've got my sights set on Pidgey learning Aerial Ace, Roost, Tailwind, and Wing Attack before I let it evolve! Then I'm going to set my sights on teaching it Sleep Talk to make it super competitive against other pokemon, with staying power for days!"
I flipped through the notes seeing how she had started her pokemon on a specialised regime of food, training flights that worked agility, endurance and power on separate days. She also had days stencilled in for rest and team drills.
"You've been looking through my old training regime and what I currently do," I said, pointing out the extremely familiar layout that I used for my own Elite team of pokemon.
There were even three, one hour blocks that were dedicated to 'play/fun time with pokemon' instead of training. I continued reading. "How are you handling Pidgey's desire to grow stronger while restricting her from evolving?"
"I saw your notes on discussing it and how you have to individualise it to the pokemon!" Greta said happily.
"Ah, you have been doing a lot of reading then haven't you?" I said. Usually that was a topic I handled during the off season and not during the time of the circuit, as I knew that most trainers had limited time frames to get their pokemon stronger. Ideally, it would be something taught to people early but… well it usually wasn't a lesson that was well received by trainers early on as it felt like they were limiting themselves and their pokemon.
You had to let them experience a year 'out in the wild' so to speak. I still had it tagged in my notes for 'things trainers need to know but don't'. It was just something that you had to do a lot of reading to find, as it only got referenced once or twice in the earlier lessons.
"I'm impressed," I said. If the catch analogue was still in play, she'd taken the ball, assembled a small team and started teaching them how to catch in a manner I'd considered top tier while I watched on. I licked my lips. "I still feel bad though, as I haven't been giving you as much attention."
"I don't mind," she said again. "You've been busy and I know that we have some time locked in for the coming weeks. When you have me working with the Gym pokemon you throw out a lot of insights on how to look for a pokemon's temperament or how to consider a lot of little issues. Then you put things into practice."
"I do?" I queried with a small frown.
Greta giggled. "I thought that was the case, you might not realise it but you give out tips to most people whenever you can, it's been really great working here as I've gotten a really good look at lots of different situations. I know that next year I will want to continue my journey but this year is all about getting me and my pokemon stronger!" she said with her fists clenched.
I chuckled. "If that Pidgey and Vulpix are any indication, then you're going to be a force to reckon with next year."
"Bulbasaur is getting stronger as well!" she said with a firm stance.
"Are you doing the same regime for him as Pidgey?" I asked.
"Ehehehe! He's already at the stage that I don't have to hold him back any more, not unless the move 'Frenzy Plant' differs?" she said curiously.
I kept walking, not giving a hint of how much I was shitting myself.
She'd read that deep into my notes on pokemon? "Wow, usually no one reads about those moves," I said, as I fished for time.
Greta grinned. "Dennis said it was super important that I read the Gym trainer manual and while he was joking about actually testing me on it, it still had a lot of neat information in it! Like if certain moves like Frenzy Plant, or Hydro Cannon get used, to withdraw your pokemon immediately and contact you!"
I blinked. "You found out about it from there?" I asked incredulously. I did have that as part of the training manual for new trainers to look over.
Certain moves like the one hit knockout moves, or more powerful moves such as Giga Impact, Hyper Beam, and yes the specialised tutor only moves that were up there had been included… I frowned as I recalled how I'd not included G-max moves in that list.
Whew, I'd dodged a Seed Bullet there.
I chewed my lip as I considered what to say about the move I had revealed.
"Frenzy Plant is an ultra rare, almost lost move. Only old masters from the bad times will know of it, so you'd need to find one of them to teach it. It's a move that requires pokemon to use up a lot of energy much like Hyper Beam or Giga Impact, so if you do find someone, expect for it to be tough training," I said seriously.
"Oh?" she said at my explanation. She searched my expression only to find it stoic. "Can… I ask about that a little more?" she said tentatively.
I sighed. "I looked into it… when I was starting out and found historical notes about powerful moves for most of the starter pokemon of Kanto but never the names. While the legends I found were super vague on details I always wondered." I swallowed and tilted my head back and forth.
"It was only when I… gained more access to information that I looked into the topic once more, and what I found was that these moves were used to change entire battlefields, not just end one on one matches. They have a very sinister history associated with them and while it is only a move at the end of the day, if you were to find someone able to teach you these days just be aware that… they will have a complicated past," I said, settling on something neutral.
"Keep yourself and your pokemon safe is what I'm saying," I said.
Greta nodded. "Thanks for that, it's good to know… I might ask Erika about it still if that's alright?"
I coughed. "Today?" I said in surprise.
Greta blinked. "Erika is here today?"
"Well she was for a bit but I think she had to leave," I said, causing Greta to deflate.
"I'll wait until we meet up, I get the impression this isn't something to talk about over an introduction pokemail message," Greta said.
"Good idea, I can vouch for you but yeah, let her get to know you," I said.
Greta perked up once again and I couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled up. "Hehe," I said, smiling at Greta.
"What?" she said defensively.
"It's just that sometimes you and Erika act rather similar. She wilts and perks up all the time when you talk to her. Maybe it's a grass type thing?" I suggested jokingly.
Greta pouted at me. "I'm not a monotype trainer! I have Vulpix and Pidgey! And Gastly too! Oh! And I also just recently caught another pokemon that none of the Gym trainers know about! A Beedrill!"
I blinked in surprise only to frown, the announcement of Beedrill was a surprise, but she'd skated past her Gastly very quickly there. Why? "Your fourth pokemon is a Gastly?" I frowned. "How did you find a Gastly around here?" I said sternly.
Greta coughed. "Promise you won't get mad?" she said in a manner that all but confirmed she or someone she knew had done something dumb and that I would have every right to be mad except due to the promise.
"Can I be disappointed?" I said.
"No! That would be worse!" Greta said, waving her hands back and forth frantically.
I huffed. Before taking a breath and exhaling my emotions out. "Alright, let's hear it, how did you get Gastly," I said.
"Well there was this bet that Crystal and I made with each other, see? She said that the person who went the furthest into the graveyard—" as my frown deepened Greta hurried held up her hands, "—at twilight! Not evening!" she said quickly.
"Hmmmm," I said. "What happened?"
"Well I went first and I had this… clever solution that I would just walk to through it, filming the entire way? I got jump scared by Gastly though and I ended up beating him up with Bulbasaur and capturing him?" She poked her fingers together. "The graveyard channeler was apparently walking behind me the entire time so I was safe really?" she said.
I sighed again and raised my hand. Greta flinched until I lowered it on top of her head and rubbed it. "Well, you had an adventure I suppose."
"You're not mad?" she said, peeking out from under my hand.
"Tiny bit," I admitted easily, but mostly scared. You do realise there was still a risk?"
"Yeah, we thought we'd mitigated it but yeah… showed us," she grumbled.
"What did you win for going the furthest?" I asked before frowning. "Was it just crystal or was Yolanda in on this too?"
Greta blinked at me and her eyes sort of wobbled guiltily ."Oh! I forgot Crystal still owes me!" she announced, before sprinting away. I stared after her. She'd basically just confirmed my sister had been part of the dare.
I sighed again. Being a big brother was hard sometimes. I'd have to think up a punishment for this.
A buzz on my Xtransciever showed that it was time to wine and dine some locals, so I headed back out and made a beeline for the pavilion tents.
There I found Alexa, Rachel, and Jennifer waiting for me. Jennifer waved, "Brock, glad you could finally make it! I need you to talk to the Pebblemans, Mrs Haridan, and Judge Howard with me."
"Politics?" I asked seriously.
"Yup, you just need to be seen talking with Judge Howard honestly, the other two have some sway in Pewter so you need to give them some acknowledgement."
"Let's go with Mrs Haridan first then," I said waving towards the woman that had occasionally stepped in for me before Flint had returned. We made some small talk for a while and I mentioned having her come over next weekend as I'd be out for most of the afternoon before I made to leave.
Mrs Haridan waved me off only to grimace as she took a step. "Ouch," she said, and I immediately turned and offered her my hand.
"Need a hand getting to a chair?"
"Hmmm, no I think it best I head home. A good soak and a lay up for me will do wonders for my old bones I should think," she said. "I've been away from home for a few days now, visiting grandchildren. Time to head home I think!" she said, as I escorted her out of the pavilion.
On the way a number of people appeared to bid her good evening and I had to blink in surprise when Janine appeared at one point, winked at me and then vanished into the crowd.
Mrs Haridan giggled at the byplay, proving that while her bones might ache, her eyes were still sharp. "That girl takes after her father!" she said with a smile.
She then released an extremely puffy looking Dodrio which sat to allow her to mount it side saddle. One of the heads twisted itself around Mrs Haridan before they took off.
I turned back and found a number of people pointedly lingering for me to 'bump into'. I sighed and stepped forward only for Sabrina to step in with a pleased air. "Have some good fights?" I asked, peering at Ralts who was being cradled in one arm.
"She performed wonderfully," Sabrina said, as she stroked Ralts hair. I linked my arm with her and escorted her around for the rest of the early evening.
Thankfully I was able to beg off instead of 'following' the party as some people were suggesting, back into Pewter where a bar was being proposed.
I could claim I needed to head home to look after my family and that was enough to have people waving and nodding. Sabrina joined me and we walked home to find my family all present with the inclusion of Crystal and Greta.
Greta locked eyes with me before I turned my gaze upon the other two of the 'trio'. Greta coughed and shrunk in on herself. I ignored her as I gave Yolanda and Crystal my patented 'disappointed face' which lowered attack damage.
Now, it only made the girls know I knew they'd done something wrong and were being caught for it.
"So, what's this about a graveyard bet?" I asked.
Yolanda coughed. "It was at twilight? And… well it worked out alright in the end?" She then perked up. "Can I go try and catch a Gastly as well?"
"No, not until you have your own pokemon trained up properly and as for you Crystal, I'm going to be informing your mother."
"Grk! No! I only just got tv rights back again!" Crystal wailed. I rolled my eyes and sent the message off and Crystal grumped for the next few minutes. She perked up when discussion around the table turned to tomorrow's battle phase of the contest.
Yolanda shot me a cheeky grin. "Brock? Can you please let me win?" said Yolanda, her face shifting into an innocent look.
Greta and Crystal slapped the air with the back of their hands. "Disqualify her," they said flatly.
I snorted at their gag routine. "No, I'm not going to help you win. I'm the Judge, that means I need to be impartial, not biased."
Yolanda nodded. "Can I borrow Bertha?"
"Hell no," I said, joining Greta and Crystal in showing her the back of my hand.
Yolanda narrowed her eyes and considered me. "Nope!" I said, predicting that she'd ask for Sanchez next. Honestly she should have asked for him first.
He'd have donned a Lucadore mask or something like that and swooped head-first into the Contest scene. He loved being out there and fashionable.
"Finnnnnnne!" I'll stick to using Izumi and Spot then!" she said.
Terra tugged on her shirt and gestured at herself. "Lar?"
"Sorry girl, you're strong as a battler but your moves don't quite have the control needed just yet. We'll keep working at it though, so next year you can take part!" said Yolanda.
Terra blinked at her and then turned away from Yolanda and curled up into a ball. "Laaaaaaaar," she said sadly.
I shot Yolanda a raised eyebrow while making sure not to say anything.
To me it was obvious she'd been spending a bit too much time focussing on other things if this was how her starter was reacting. Yolanda might have been excited to get her new pokemon with Spot pretty much confirmed but that came with the cost of her not spending as much time with Terra.
This was something they'd both need to learn to handle.
Yolanda floundered, unsure for a moment. "Uhm! No! Don't be sad! If you want, how about we go out now and practise your moves! You can take part instead of Spot!" she said, carrying Terra out to the garden to do just that.
Terra perked up and I chuckled. Soon enough Terra would have Yolanda twisted around her little claws with how she could be sad and get what she wanted.
It felt nice to see the shoe on the other foot for once.
Crystal shot me a pointed look. "You're not going to help your cute little sister?"
Greta shot her friend a look, then me, before firming up and coughing. "Y-yeah Yolanda needs all the help she can get!"
I took a long pull of the lemonade I'd made up for tonight, before exhaling in joy. "Ah! Well it's a good thing that she has such good friends then, no?" I said.
A moment later I was proven right as Yolanda's voice called out from the garden. "Greta? Can I borrow you and your pokedex for a moment? I want to see if Terra has any new moves since last week!"
"Coming!" shouted Greta.
Crystal huffed and poked her tongue out at me which had me chuckling. This led to the rest of my family charging out. Flint sighed and trailed after them with a small chuckle.
Zubat chose that moment to flutter into the house and land on me, where she whined at not getting to spend the day with me. "Sorry girl," I said, giving her some pats.
She pretended to whimper for a little bit before perking up as her nose started to twitch. I watched as she crawled down my arm, stopping just short of my drink, only to begin lapping at it tentatively.
She licked her lips and grinned before diving into the glass whereby a draining noise started up much like a clogged drain.
I held up the glass and watched it vanish only for Zubat to burp when she was done causing the glass to vibrate. She then tried to inch her way back only to find herself unable to.
"Are you stuck now?" I asked, watching with great amusement as she squirmed and shifted.
"Zuuuuuuuub!" she screeched, realising her mistake. I reached into the glass and tugged her out.
"No diving into drinks like that. When you're a Golbat you won't fit anyway but it's not the most hygienic way to get something tasty."
Sabrina who'd been feeding Ralts nodded, and telekinetically lifted the glass over to the sink.
"It is in fact the best way for Zubat to drink, far superior to having to tilt a glass into her mouth if that is what you were thinking," said Janine casually.
I nodded, controlling the urge to twitch in surprise. Damn, she'd been practising. "Hmmm that sounds right," I said, realising that other pokemon were the same, what with needing their water to be below them to drink it properly.
Janine pouted at me and I rolled my eyes. "How long have you been here for?" I said.
"No, I'm not telling you if you're going to be that way!" said Janine with a huff.
"She's been in the house for two minutes, she snuck in as the girls left," Sabrina supplied.
"Sabrina!" said Janine with a scowl.
"If you want to startle someone," said Koga from behind me, causing a ripple of gooseflesh to break out over my body as I felt instinctive fear sweep through me, "You need to give it a touch of menace," said Koga, only to move to the seat next to me.
"Raaaaaaaalts!" wailed Ralts having been startled as well. I shared a look with the little pokemon and offered her a nod of commiseration. Sometimes having your friends be ninjas meant putting up with things like this.
My fear vanished in a moment as I realised Koga was in a casual outfit with a drink in hand. It even had a silly straw and tiny drink umbrella. Had he gone to the after party before coming here? It would be where the big movers and shakers 'let their hair down' and spoke their minds a lot more so it made sense he'd investigate.
"Brock," he said, raising the drink in my direction.
I opened my mouth before realising how powerful a flex it was for him, wearing casual clothes while holding a drink, to have snuck up on me. Didn't that make him more terrifying, rather than less?
I wasn't sure what to think so I just nodded in greeting. "Koga, congratulations on the early promotion," I said, referencing the latest news that the League had released announcing Koga's early ascension to Elite Four.
"My thanks," he said easily.
I flicked my eyes from him to Janine. "Nice of you to drop around," I said eventually, deciding to be a gracious, if unwitting host. "Have you eaten yet?" I asked.
"We got some take-out," Janine said, raising up a bag from Mr Mime's bashfully. I shot her an incredulous look and she didn't meet my gaze.
Sabrina smirked, "They had a build your own castle set with the happy meal," she said, and Koga nodded while Janine blushed.
"Oh cool," I said, realising why that would be such a draw. "Cindy and Tommy have like five of them."
"Do they have any spare Mahogany Town castles? I will trade them my excess—"
"Ahem, we came here for other business daughter," said Koga, cutting off his daughter's hobby of architecture and lightly reprimanding her.
Janine ducked her head and gave a soft "sorry," to her father.
I now had the image of a room within Koga's house being nothing but small, to scale replicas of famous buildings.
I smiled before tilting my head. "Have they come up with a replica for my Gym that you can build?"
"They have not in fact!" Janine said, brightening up immediately. Sabrina huffed a laugh to herself.
Koga shook his head at the two of us. "I'm glad you three are having fun but we do have something to report," said Koga tiredly.
Janine straightened up and reached into a pouch at her back to reveal what looked like an intelligence dossier. "We've found the location where Mewtwo was created, within a hidden log in Giovanni's terminal," said Janine.
"New Island." I breathed the name and blinked as I found pictures of the island over the course of what had been a three week time span.
In one picture, a trainer was taking a selfie with the island in the background where there was nothing but green open spaces and a tall face.
The second picture showed a structure in the distance. The picture didn't focus on the island or the structures. In fact, the images were from a distant boat with the island just barely being in the background. A happenstance, more than anything calculated.
"We've thus far failed to get any more pictures despite sending reconnaissance pokemon with long range observation equipment."
"You've investigated the site? Has any trainers been deployed as of yet? I wouldn't mind heading…" I trailed off as Janine and Koga shook their heads.
"Thus far none of the people we have sent have made it close to the island. They get waylaid, they have pressing issues that suddenly arise, they fall ill the day before departure. Too often to be a coincidence." Koga gestured at the pictures and the files. "I am merely keeping you informed of this latest development. It shall be discussed in more detail later but I cannot dedicate any more teams or even my own direct attention to this as yet."
"Why's that?" I asked, slightly relieved that Koga wasn't going to poking the bear that was Mewtwo.
"Team Aqua vessels have been spotted in the Sevii islands," he replied.
"Oh," I said, frowning. "Are the local authorities being informed?" I asked.
Koga shook his head. "They are still not yet signatories for the G-men, they are interested but…" He trailed off meaningfully and I blinked.
Then I straightened. "Koga, I'm not comfortable with what you're implying," I said.
Koga huffed. "It would be for the best—"
"Who's best? Sitting on intelligence like this isn't doing good. It's standing by while evil is done," I said. "Let's do some good and protect people," I said.
"Brock is correct," said Sabrina firmly.
Koga sighed. "That is a naive way of thinking," he reprimanded.
Janine shifted and curled in on herself. I got the impression she hadn't agreed with her father, and his words while pointed at Sabrina and I, might also apply to her.
I considered Koga. "The Guardians are a defensive group," I said slowly.
Koga nodded. "Of course," he said.
"Well, allowing an enemy force to empower itself isn't helping us, it's standing back and letting something become worse. We shouldn't sit back and meet them on the back foot. Eventually Team Aqua will come knocking for us. I've read the histories, Indigo was attacked heavily by them," I said firmly.
Koga nodded. "Fuchsia faced more than a few such raids," he said placidly.
I paused and considered him. "You're testing me right now, aren't you?"
Koga smiled. "Indeed, I wanted to see your response. It was naive, but no less incorrect. We will pass on information while working to facilitate the G-men integration. Both objectives do not need to be mutually exclusive. International trainers in Sevii and Orange might be fewer in number, but there are still some people there that can be… relied upon," he said.
I huffed and caught Janine looking pleased. Had she been acting before? I shook my head. "So apart from the test and the information about Mewtwo's possible home base right now, was there anything else?" I asked.
Koga shook his head. "I thought it prudent to inform you both of Mewtwo seeing as you have also encountered it a number of times now," he said. "It is a powerful and known threat."
"He," Sabrina said. "Mewtwo identifies as a he, not an it."
Koga frowned but nodded. He then turned his gaze to the east. "Also, it has not yet been raised with the League, but should an enraged Zapdos appear, you will be needed as the best suited to face it."
"Huh? Oh yeah, I suppose that makes sense with Giovanni out of action. Is that likely to happen?" I said.
"During the war it happened three times. After the war? There was one such incident that occurred when you were very young involving a Zapdos destroying a powerplant. Since then facilities have much more rigorous testing with emissions lowered to not create a charged environment, not that it stops certain groups from cutting corners on safety."
Koga shifted slightly. "I shall have Janine send you the two known locations of Zapdos," Koga said.
"Shamouti island is one, right?" I asked.
Koga blinked. "Ah, you are correct, one of them is there," he said. I saw his eyes spark and his lips twitch as though he'd just confirmed something to himself.
Sabrina and I shared a look, Shamouti had been… interesting to go to.
Koga stood. "We will discuss more when we meet officially. For now I thought it merely best to keep you in the loop of the threats, you've proven yourself capable of surviving such encounters so I shall trust you with more," he said. He then bowed politely and shot away. I heard the window slide open and closed in another room and then nothing.
Janine coughed. "Do not mind father's words, he trusted you before this but he did not know if you would survive. During the later parts of the war, it was thought that up to eighty percent of people would be dead should they encounter a Legendary pokemon three times. After that people's mortality rates plummeted."
"Hmmmm," I said, interested despite myself.
Janine, seeing my interest, smiled and puffed herself up. "The worst statistics came from Kanto and Sinnoh! Certain pokemon there had the highest mortality ratings while others such as Moltres and Articuno would cause debilitating injuries. If you encountered them again you usually weren't able to flee a second time," she said.
"Huh, that's morbid," I said. I had a good idea of which SInnoh pokemon she was talking about
"Very!" said Janine.
"How's things?" I asked, deciding to shift the conversation to a more happy vibe.
"The trainer surge has well and truly reached me now. I am hoping to be done with it in the next few weeks but it is certainly… a test of my suitability as a Gym Leader," said Janine.
Sabrina nodded, "Yes it is, "she said, showing her own feelings of exhaustion for the first time that evening.
Janine and her shared a small smile and I stayed out of it, letting their moment be just that. Their moment. After a bit Janine shifted and looked around
"Well if you're hanging in there you're doing good. Most places always struggle when there's transition but if you're holding your own, despite this being a tougher year with all the trainers, then you must be doing good," I said, playing up how things would be. There was an inkling of truth in there, and I had no doubt that if Janine got the time to prepare she'd be well suited as the Fuchsia Gym Leader.
Janine smiled and bowed. "Thank you for your kind words," she said.
"No problem, they're just the truth," I said. I waved a hand to the side. "Did you want something to drink?" I asked.
Janine asked for some tea lemonade. I got myself and Zubat another glass each, with Zubat's being a small dish that she could drink out of properly.
"Mind if I pick your brain over training for Zubat?" I asked, bringing out my training program. Zubat perked up and scuttled up to watch.
Janine gave the program a quick look over. "Hmmm this seems to be in order for a flying type pokemon to make it a strong battler, but a poison type needs to make sure they are expressing their poisons to strengthen their effects. If you're looking to have her use moves like Gunk Shot, Toxic, or Toxic Spikes then you need to work on this as well," she said.
I frowned. I was pretty sure from my research of Zubat's line, Gunk Shot wasn't a move they could learn. I shot Janine a furtive glance as she continued to read through my training plan, a pen in hand as she made suggestions.
Sabrina had been able to teach Selene a move her species weren't known for learning, perhaps Janine and Koga were capable of the same?
"—there are also useful moves to use in team fights such as Quick Guard," Janine said with a nod.
I looked over the program only to find it littered with small suggestions and prompts along with a trio of movepool suggestions depending on what I wanted.
I hummed. "What if I had a very niche role in mind that could make use of a speed build?" I asked.
Janine tilted her head. "A further niche?" she asked.
I grinned and brought out another set of papers. Janine accepted them. "Counters for Mega-evolution pokemon?" she opened the first page and blinked. "Thief?" she said incredulously.
I smirked and Janine kept reading. "Switcheroo? Trick? Ah wait, you're not sure if this move will work." Janine kept reading. "Oh you've also thought of how to use a poison item or… what is a choice band?"
"I've been looking into item usage a bit more," I said. "It's something I heard about that locks a pokemon into a set move but boosts their power. Could be a good way to clock a strong pokemon into a useless move or force a switch from the trainer," I said.
Janine blinked. "I've never heard of an item like that. I imagine methods like this would be used more otherwise," she said with a frown. The poison item might work however. It's just that it is… well a certain type of person to give pokemon an item that might injure them."
"Unless they're poison typed," I pointed out.
Janine nodded and closed the notepad. She then directed a serious look at me. "We have used methods like this in the past. I'm surprised you thought it up yourself as it is something we teach to trainers that work with us. I can't forbid you from using it as you've obviously thought it up yourself but be careful sharing it around," she said.
"Oh, you already thought of it, and just don't use it?" I asked.
"I use it at some of the fourth… tier battles," she said, using my terminology for trainers with four or more badges. "Most people simply don't mention their fights or have the time to reflect with us when they're done. Invariably a few of the pokemon on their team are poisoned and they need to depart quickly even with liberal uses of antidotes," Janine explained.
"Huh," I said. This made me rethink a few things regarding my plans. It would take a while for Choice Bands or scarves to be truly effective and when they were, I would have to dust off my meta-knowledge as competitive pokemon fighting with items would shift the dynamic greatly.
Still, it was nice to know Janine guaranteed some of these plans I had would work.
We kept talking for a while longer with Zubat snuggling up into my lap as we discussed other battle methods that would work, or even that we could theorise about until Yolanda trudged in with a tired but happy-looking Terra in one arm while an exhausted Spot was held in the other wagging his tail limply as Yolanda carried him in.
She was followed by a pair of grumpy-looking friends.
Flint trudged in with some tired-looking kids. The boys must have been exhausted as they barely even perked up seeing Janine sitting with me.
Janine easily handled their leaps and tackle attacks before sending them on their way to bed, leaving us with just the older trio of girls who were arguing.
"This is such bullshit! If I'm fighting you tomorrow, I'm not letting you pull that off!" said Crystal firmly.
Yolanda just giggled. "We have a one in eight chance of fighting each other," said Yolanda.
Greta shifted worriedly at that only for Crystal to glare at Yolanda. She then gained a shrewd look. "Not if I beat you up now!" she said, leaping at Yolanda and initiating a play fight.
Yolanda promptly subdued her friend in seconds leaving Greta gaping. "Oh, that wasn't very smart of you Crystal,"
Crystal bucked only for Yolanda to remain in place, sitting on her back. Crystal growled and looked up to see me watching her. "What are you feeding her?"
"Vegetables," I said with a proud nod.
When Crystal rolled her eyes at me I chuckled. "Nah she just works out a lot and carries Terra around most days."
"Eh? What do you mean by—" Terra chose that moment to waddle onto Crystal's back, thinking this a great game. Crystal started thumping the ground instantly. "Auntie! Uncle! Grandpa and Grandma! I give!" she said, as the rest of us giggled.
"Which match ups you're hoping to get tomorrow?" asked Sabrina, ignoring the flailing Crystal.
"Not Solidad," the girls said together. Crystal was allowed up after that and they all adopted thinking faces.
"Jessadia was also strong with her Mawile," said Greta, pulling out her pokedex to look up the fairy-steel pokemon. "I scanned it earlier and I have to say she's a strong pokemon," she said.
"Good job on having the foresight to scan it. Did you scan the others to learn what moves they might have?" I asked.
Greta blinked and screwed up her eyes before groaning. "Urgh! I could have done that! Stupid!" she said.
Janine shook her head. "Reconnaissance is vital. Know yourself and your enemy and you will never lose," she said wisely. Sabrina nodded along.
I just laughed and waved it off. "Don't worry about it. Just remember it for tomorrow when you get a look at the people taking part, you'll get a better shot at advancing thanks to your pokedex," I said.
I once again resolved to myself that Yolanda at the very least, would be departing for her Journey with a pokedex. If I had my way, I was hoping to get every trainer under our banner to have one. It offered too many advantages to ignore.
When the trio started to yawn they headed inside to have their sleepover. I turned, only to find Janine had vanished during the chaos. I shot her a message complimenting her on her mysterious exit which earned me a smiley face in reply.
"She's behind the kitchen counter," whispered Sabrina, causing me to chuckle. I then lifted Sabrina up into my arms to carry her to bed with me. She gave me a soft kiss while cradling Ralts.
As we were making our way to my room to sleep, I passed the bathroom door and caught Yolanda flexing at herself in the mirror. Terra was copying her. Sabrina raised my Xtransceiver instantly and began recording.
"We are looking good aren't we girl?" said Yolanda.
"Tar!" said Terra, agreeing.
Yolanda flexed a few more times only to freeze, as she caught sight of Sabrina and me in the mirror. "How long have you been there?" she asked.
Sabrina made her eyes glow ominous. "We saw everything," she intoned.
I just winked and continued on to my room.
Yolanda pursued. "No! Delete it!" she shouted chasing after me.
I reached my room and shut the door behind me only to hear a thump a moment later. "Brock! Sabrina? Delete it! Please?"
I chuckled to myself as I deposited Sabrina and Ralts on the bed. Sabrina sent herself a copy with a smile before sitting up to stretch and join me for a shower.
Yolanda eventually left after Greta and Crystal came to find what was taking her so long. Yolanda made sure to whisper before she left. "Don't you dare show that to anyone!"
Too late. I considered sending it to her friends straight away before shaking my head.
No.
No, videos like this you didn't show and forget, you saved them for parties.
A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for their continued support!
And also a huge thanks go to Twmmy for betaing this and other chapters! They really do help speed up my writing and lighten the load of posting two chapters a week for me!
Artwork - Hero Black
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
Ozlyk - check them out here! - Work | Ozlyk
Also, I got some more art from Ozlyk for Hero Black with his mask off!
Also, I got some more art from Ozlyk for Hero Black with his mask off!
xbox432
Lover of Editing
Ah, holding on to sibling blackmail until the perfect moment. Truly, Brock has mastered the art of the big brother. It was fun just getting to watch the simple interactions between Yolanda and her friends here, alongside the further character building and relaxed atmosphere of the Fuschia pair. The bit with Janine hanging out with Brock and Sabrina was also well done. Just some friends enjoying time together, discussing battle strategies.
And speaking of them... The info on Aqua is interesting. I don't think Archie is gonna have as easy of a time causing trouble as he thought he would. And if the scenes with Brock's mom are an indication, we might be moving towards her eventual return to her family. Especially if Brock himself gets caught up in suppressing Aqua's actions on the islands when his mom happens to wander in.
Lastly, Brock's thoughts on countering Mega Evolution... I SO want to see him pull a Thief/Trick (with a Flame Orb) on Steven's Metagross. Then just have Crobat U-Turn, or withdraw her, to prevent Steven from getting the stone back. It would be such an amusing way to crush the slimeball. Maybe that could be the way Brock knocks the arrogance out of him like he did with Lance?
And speaking of them... The info on Aqua is interesting. I don't think Archie is gonna have as easy of a time causing trouble as he thought he would. And if the scenes with Brock's mom are an indication, we might be moving towards her eventual return to her family. Especially if Brock himself gets caught up in suppressing Aqua's actions on the islands when his mom happens to wander in.
Lastly, Brock's thoughts on countering Mega Evolution... I SO want to see him pull a Thief/Trick (with a Flame Orb) on Steven's Metagross. Then just have Crobat U-Turn, or withdraw her, to prevent Steven from getting the stone back. It would be such an amusing way to crush the slimeball. Maybe that could be the way Brock knocks the arrogance out of him like he did with Lance?
Wasn't ash confirmed to have aura abilities in one of the movies? I think he might be temporarily boosting his strength without realizing it.The Ash Ketchum Workout.
Chapter 191 - Friend feuds
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
The next day saw me once more behind the judge's desk with Joy and Monique.
Joy and I were wearing the same attire as yesterday but Monique had gone for an entirely different ensemble.
This time she was wearing something that had chains and buckles all over it. If she'd had a sword at her hip I'd have been tempted to call her the raid boss instead of the judge.
She seemed happy with the looks she was getting so at the very least she was making a statement.
Rachel, Archibald and Gardevoir once again were hyping the crowd and welcoming them to the second day of competition. I noted that Rachel, Archibald and Gardevoir all were wearing new outfits.
Rachel had gotten a hold of a jacket with the sleeves torn off and a collar around her neck that made her 'tough-cute' more than tough but it seemed to work.
Archibald had lost his tie and jacket while rolling up his sleeves to display tattoos that would have fitted right in with a yakuza mob boss. More than a few people were giving him a lot more respect.
Somehow Gardevoir was still wearing the most out there outfit with a jacket where the lapels were huge spikey things that made her look thuggish. She'd also had her hair styled into a greaser look and alternated between scowling and giggling, so she seemed to be enjoying herself.
This led to Archibald… a possible gang leader in his youth, to also be happy.
Rachel keyed up her microphone as she skipped out to the front with Archibald and Gardevoir to the side. "Welcome back everyone" she crowed with obvious delight. "Today is the second round with our sixteen participants for the Battle Stage where coordinators will go head to head in a battle that needs to show style and finesse!"
Archibald nodded seriously. "Showing results, taking damage and not being artistic can see man and pokemon expunged from the competition! It becomes a balancing act if you will!"
Gardevoir made a show of juggling and launching small juggling balls at Racehl who nimbly dodged them much to the crowd's approval. One ball snuck through and tagged Rachel but she worked with the nudge and flipped over onto her feet to land a backflip earning herself some more applause.
I smiled and glanced over the crowd noting that today Sabrina, Erika and the Cerulean sisters were in attendance. The patch of bright colours rather drew the eye with Erika and friends sitting in a field of flowers as some might say with how many girls had grouped up.
I nodded towards Sabrina before checking with Monique. "We're still on for the final event of the day?" I asked.
She nodded and winked before turning her head to the announcers.
Archibald nodded seriously. "For those of you following at home or looking for the more technical details. Each battle lasts at maximum five minutes and the object of the battle is to decrease the opponent's points more than knock out your foe!"
He indicated the screen above where two fake accounts and pokemon were shown trading blows and points began to drop. "Coordinators lose points when their Pokémon are hit by an attack, when their Pokémon's attack fails, when the opponent's Pokémon performs a particularly appealing move, or when the opponent's Pokémon uses their Pokémon's attack to its own advantage." The screen showed a variety of such events playing out earning some thoughtful looks from the crowd. Most of these had been taken from Hoenn contests.
Rachel stepped back in. "A battle can also end when one of the Pokémon is unable to battle, called Battle Off by the judges. In this case, the Coordinator with the remaining Pokémon is declared the winner!"
Archibald nodded and gestured to the screens. "And now, we shall randomly allocate the match ups!" he said.
On the screen, sixteen faces appeared. The most notable being Walter, Jessie, Yolanda, Greta, Crystal, Solidad, Bosco, and Zek.
Yolanda, Greta and Crystal were all standing together with their fingers crossed. Walter was standing with his arms crossed and his face set in a scowl. Jessie was hopping from foot to foot with a pensive expression.
"And the first match!" announced Rachel, as faces began to cascade around like pinwheels.
Yolanda's face slotted into the first bracket causing a stir from the people that knew she was my sister. "Yolanda from Pewter city!" screamed Rachel, as the crowd roared their approval. I raised an eyebrow. That was rather interesting to have her coming out first like that.
The next face was the man who'd come in ranked eighth overall with his Pidgeotto.
"Vinny from Fortree City!" announced Rachel.
I shot both trainers a smile and a nod as they stepped up onto the stage.
Vinny bowed to us in time with Yolanda, first to each other and then to us. Then they drew out their pokeballs as a timer counted down above them. When it hit zero a chime sounded out and they both released their pokemon.
"Let's go Swellow!" shouted Vinny.
Vinny sent out a Swellow which had me sitting up, it had an extremely vibrant plumage and had small golden bands around its feet that seemed to be the nod to the Tough Theme.
Yolanda bounced on the spot as she sent out Spot the Growlithe. "Let's go Growlithe!"
The small Growlithe appeared and growled fiercely. I exhaled in relief, glad that she hadn't sent out Terra. On paper it might have been a better match but I could tell that Vinny and his Swellow were serious contenders and powerful in their own right, from a quick look at Swellow's plumage.
From Yolanda's grimace she was well aware of her back being up against a wall.
"Begin!" called Rachel, as both of their points were put on display.
"Twister into a Sky Strike like we practised!" ordered Vinny.
"Spot! Use Agility and kick up some dust!" Yolanda said, playing a hit-and-run game by camouflaging where her pokemon was, as the dust cloud caused them to become shadows with Spot further playing into it by barking. The sound of his barks echoing as dust rose up obscuring him.
I watched for a long moment before sighing, it had been a good attempt on Yolanda's part.
Vinny didn't even have to give his pokemon an order, it was well trained enough to gain height and then sweep its wings forward, once, twice, thrice and then the field was clear again.
This revealed a rather startled Spot who was doing his best to run against the Hurricane force winds but coming up short. Vinny then raised and dropped his hand and Swellow stopped beating its wings to tuck and dive.
Spot launched forward as the wind that had been pushing it back vanished only to run face first into a powerful Sky Strike that had been well executed. They'd even thought to target ahead of where Spot had been.
Spot tumbled end over end and for a moment I thought he would be thrown off the side of the stage only to dig his claws in and struggle to stand. "Lithe!" growled Spot, as he locked eyes with Swellow.
On the screen above, his points plummeted while Vinny and Swellow stayed the same.
Yolanda gritted her teeth. "Go again!" she shouted, and Spot loyally threw himself into the same move, once more accelerating and kicking up dust. Yolanda kept her eyes locked on Swellow while Vinny just shook his head.
"Let's finish this," he said. He gestured and Swellow shot in to blow away the dust.
"Now!" called Yolanda and right as the dust was blown away, Spot vanished.
"Eh?" shouted Vinny as his Swellow baulked at the vanishing act.
I chuckled. "She wouldn't get away with this anywhere else," I said, as Spot popped out of the stage behind Swellow with what had to be a dig.
Spot didn't need the order as he leaped straight at Swellow, an orb of flame taking over his form as she slammed into Swellow and caused a blinding flash.
I chuckled as Swellow was revealed, still flying with its feet raised and locked in a grip with Spot as flames lashed the flying type. Swellow cried out in pain but before Spot could make it to the ground Swellow swooped down and snatched him out of the air.
Spot twisted in Swellow's grip, trying and failing to land another blast of fire on his foe. Swellow merely continued to hold Spot by the neck, a glint appearing in its eye as it surveyed the ground.
It stopped beating its wings and instantly both pokemon plummeted, just before they hit however. Swellow kicked off, which left Spot smashing into the ground harshly and escaping danger itself. Swellow finished off, by beating its wings once again and caused the shockwave of dust to sweep away, letting everyone clearly see its power.
It looked rather impressive even if I didn't want to acknowledge it due to how it was beating up my sister's pokemon.
"Oh! A Reversal plays out with Yolanda's tactics backfiring!" exclaimed Rachel. "Tough show!"
A small dip showed that Vinny and Swellow had taken a small hit of their points initially, only to have their fortunes reversed by their smart tactics.
I sighed having seen enough to know that Yolanda and Spot had been up against very long odds of winning. I tapped a button and a chime rang out showing that Yolanda only had a few points left with those last two exchanges not working out for them.
Spot stood, barely there with how he was quivering and shaking, but still pushing himself. I had to give it to him, he was a loyal pokemon and wasn't going down without giving it his all.
Yolanda's eyes darted about looking for something she could use only for Vinny to not hesitate to send Swellow in once again.
"Aerial Ace to finish with style!" he called.
I grimaced, knowing that it was overkill.
I stood, unclipped a pokeball and threw it in one clean practised action. "Shin! Block!" I called, and Shin exploded into action getting next to Spot in a heartbeat
Swellow lunged talons raised to rake Spot only for Shin to appear between them with his scythe to block the attack only for Swellow to vanish..
For a second I felt my heart lurch that Swellow had still been able to get off the Aerial Ace that late, only for shin to twist and raise his other Scythe This time instead of a physical block however, wall of water shot up as Shin performed a small Surf, snatching Spot up and away from danger.
Swellow swept through the point Spot had been only for nothing to hit.
I exhaled in relief as Swellow arced around unhurt.
I signalled to Vinny and keyed my microphone. "I rule Battle Out on grounds of potential injury or worse had Spot continued," I said.
"I second this motion," said Nurse Joy. I glanced at her and noticed for the first time she too was standing with a pokeball in hand. Had she been about to send out someone to protect Spot if I'd been too slow?
The only pokemon that had the speed would have been… Latias, and damn that would have created some issues for her if people knew she had a Latias.
I nodded in thanks as Yolanda slumped, dejectedly.
I strode over to her and clapped her on the shoulder. "Sorry it didn't turn out the way you wanted. It was a bad match-up for you cause you're not even out there Journeying, but I don't want you to feel too bad. "I waved a hand towards Vinny. "That guy is a pushing Ace trainer, at least I should assume so, His Pidgeotto is good for a circuit pokemon but his Swellow is really good," I said.
He was at least fourth tier as a trainer, not yet an Ace trainer, but he'd be a strong battler at the end of year circuit.
Vinny approached Yolanda and I . "I should have gone for a lighter exchange at the end there, I must apologise," Vinny bowed politely and I nodded.
"Y-yeah I just thought I could find a way to win," Yoland said with a sigh. "I got Spot to learn your Dip dig trick last night and I thought I could use that."
"You did? That's impressive," I said, giving Yolanda a small squeeze. That wasn't an easy trick to learn. "Sadly he had an answer for it, you did well today. You've shown that you're growing. Terra and Spot are going to be terrors when you set off," I said, giving her another squeeze.
Vinny approached. "Sorry again! I'm so used to battling instead of contest-style fights!" he said apologetically.
I sighed and nodded. He was entirely correct of course. "Just be more careful in future," I said, letting the two coordinators depart to the crowd's applause.
"I should have deducted more points for the lack of style," I said as I sat down.
Nurse Joy rubbed the back of her head having not done so. Monique smirked and preened. It was then that I noticed that Vinny hadn't gotten away with a perfect score.
"Huh, nice work," I said before nodding at my other judge. "Thanks for having my back," I said.
"No problem, happy to help," she said easily. She then turned her gaze upwards as the next match was announced.
Two very familiar faces appeared.
Greta versus Crystal.
Both girls stiffened only for Crystal to gain a cocky smile. Greta swallowed and nodded to her friend before marching stiffly to the stage.
Crystal palmed her second pokeball and I had to admit to being a bit curious about what she had.
"Let's go Flamer!" she shouted, as she revealed a Cyndaquil. I whistled, damn, Georgina hadn't been kidding that she was going to be setting Crystal up for her journey, with an Eevee and a Cyndaquil she had a lot of potential firepower.
Greta swallowed and most tellingly didn't react with surprise.
So, she'd known about this before today had she? I shot Yolanda a look and she too wasn't surprised.
Greta's pokemon turned out to be a Beedrill of all things.
"Huh, she's that confident in her Beedrill," I said. Nurse Joy shot me a look and I waved a hand. "She told me she only caught it recently, she must have been making use of Bug Type pokemon's fast growth rates," I said.
Crystal twitched in surprise. "Bwuh? When did you catch that pokemon?"
"Not that long ago," smirked Greta. "I caught Weedle after talking with the Bug catchers. I saw some potential so I went for it." Greta stood tall. "I'm sorry I had to face you, but Crystal? You're going down!" she said.
Crystal gaped at this seeming one-eighty from her friend only for Rachel to call the start.
Greta slashed her hand forward. "Encirclement method with Poison Sting!" she called, causing Beedril to blur and leave after images that raised their stingers and began to fire from all angles.
Flamer, Crystal's Cyndaquil wailed in pain causing Crystal to drop her shock and get her head in the match. "Blow your top, sweep the field with Ember! Limit their options!" she called. Her pokemon inhaled before exhaling and causing its back to explode with fine motes of flame shooting up into the air while its mouth exhaled more embers down low.
The embers trailed through the air and stung Beedril who twitched and the after images faded to reveal the actual pokemon.
"Ha! Got you now! Ember again but do a barrel roll at the same time!" called Crystal.
Flamer blinked in surprise but did as asked, inhaling and then exhaling Ember once again, dutifully barrel rolling to the side and causing a sort of twister like wave of flame that had me nodding along. It wasn't too shabby for style.
"Drop and Brick Break!" called Greta, making her pokemon plummet from the sky and slam a stinger into the ground where it raised part of the earth to shield itself. The Embers washed against the raised shield ineffectively and Beedril remained kneeling looking like a knight with a shield raised.
"Build up your power!" Greta called and Beedril's wings began to vibrate faster and faster a droning pitch was quickly achieved.
"Smokescreen and then light up the air with Ember once more!" Crystal called, making her pokemon exhale smoke around itself before sending out small pulsing Embers that made the Smoke look like a night sky.
The crowd 'oohed' with wonder. I hummed and had to give Crystal some credit she was coming up with some nice-looking combinations.
Greta however wasn't just twiddling her thumbs as she pointed to the sky. "Launch Poison Sting up into the air!"
Beedrill did just this only for Greta to snap her hand to the side. "Agility to the side then shoot the falling Posion Sting!" she called. Beedril blurred to the side and raised his stingers once more and fired, resulting in a cascade of spinning twirling purple stingers.
It looked like the sky had been flipped with glow sticks and added an air of unpredictability as the tumbling stingers fell to the ground in a chaotic pattern that covered where Flamer was hiding.
"Defog to clear the field of Ember but don't just twirl! Remember! Pirouette to keep any blow back away!" she called.
Beedrill buzzed angrily only to surprise me as it raised its stingers and spun like a ballerina, its wings fluttering gracefully. Instead of a harsh wind blowing away the smoke, the smoke cleared in an almost calm manner. This revealed a punctured Flamer who was wailing in pain.
Greta opened her mouth only to pause and glance in our direction. Nurse Joy and I shared a look and a nod.
"We're ruling another Battle Out, Flamer can not continue to fight!" Nurse Joy said this time.
I stood and signalled for some applause for both Coordinators with Rachel leading the charge happily.
Archibald took over the commentary this time with a pleased rub of his moustache. "I rather like being surprised with how young trainers can perform. They used style, grace and skill all at once. They created a wonderful display while fighting it out I have to say. That Beedrill was also a startling find with its control of the winds. I dare say a flying type would be envious," he said.
"Voir!" Agreed Gardevoir.
Crystal and Greta marched over and shook hands. "Can't believe you hid that you had a Beedril from me!" said Crystal.
"Sorry, most people find it weird?" said Greta.
"Feh! They're feckless idiots!" said Crystal. "Urgh! I thought you were going to be shaky but you were all cool and collected!" Crystal sighed. "Guess being part of the Gym means you get used to fighting?"
Greta smirked. "More than you realise," she said.
Crystal sighed and rolled her eyes and hugged her friend. Something was said that was muffled by the hug but it seemed to be positive. The crowd ate it up awwing at the show of friendship.
Greta just giggled. "Better you lose to me than some idiot you can't stand!" she said with a giggle.
Both girls strode off the stage with their heads high and I chuckled as they received a round of applause with each of them bowing together.
Beedrill had surprised me, she'd certainly done well with a pokemon that she'd only caught recently. But then again she'd also sought out the local experts on said pokemon, so perhaps it was warranted. I peered into the crowd and spotted a number of the local chapter house proudly cheering for Greta with banners for Beedrill raised high.
Once more I turned to the overhead display only to find it was yet another pair I'd marked as 'to watch'. Walter appeared first and then Jessie appeared.
Huh, that promised to be good.
Jessie marched out with James and Meowth cheering for her as loudly as they could while Walter strode forth with a measured gait. "Fair maiden! I must apologise for the defeat I am about to hand you!" barked Walter.
Jessie narrowed her eyes, any hint of worry fleeing as she locked eyes with the martial artist trying to be gentlemanly. "I'm no maiden!" Jessie hissed as she enlarged a pokeball.
I heard a number of women hoot and cheer for Jessie at this statement and Rachel was quick to call the match to a start. Jessie sent forth her Arbok while Walter sent out a Primeape.
"Arbok set the stage with Acid Spray around Primeape!" Jessie called. Her pokemon unleashed a barrage of poison in a single long burst like a hose unleashed a deluge of water. The poison splashed around in front of Primeape seemingly doing nothing for the moment.
Primeape marched up to the edge of the poison and snorted contemptuously swaggering back and forth. Arbok snarled angrily and I could see a glow overtake it as Walter smirked.
I lowered both of their points for the initial poor showing causing both Walter and Jessie to twitch as they recalled that this was a contest and not a battle. Jessie grimaced, but was the first to look serious while Walter considered his options.
"Advance Arbok!" Jessie called, making her pokemon slither forward, an annoyed tick still showing that it was under the effects of Swagger.
"Primeape! Use Brick Break and send some rocks that Arboks way with a strong right!"
Primeape stomped its feet and caused a pair of rocks to be fired off one after the other at Arbok.
Jessie blanched. "Brace and use Stockpile!" she called.
Arbok did just that, standing tall. Then it opened its mouth and swallowed both rocks straight down its gullet. It rocked back from the momentum of the strikes but then came back and made an exaggerated swallowing action.
The crowd went silent.
"Well, that was certainly a unique method of stopping damage," said Monique.
I raised a finger. "I can't tell if that was Arbok being confused or planned," I said.
"I think it didn't mean to Swallow!" said Nurse Joy with a gleam in her eyes.
I glanced at her but her mask hid her mouth. She had to be smirking though. No way she'd delivered that line with a straight face. I wanted to remind her that there were children listening but that had most likely passed over their heads.
"It's worth points!" chimed Nurse Joy as she awarded Jessie and penalised Walter.
Jessie twitched at this sudden turn of events. "Spit up!" she called, and Arbok fired back a pair of rocks that were now covered in poison straight into the gobsmacked Primeape.
"Dodge with Swagger again!" roared Walter. Primeape stumped to the left and right only for flecks of poison to touch it as the first rock sailed past. The second rock slammed home though and Primeape glowered at Arbok.
"APE!" it roared.
Jessie stiffened. "Dive into the poison and use Mud shot!" she called. Arbok did just that, lashing its tail and sent forth a wave of mud that was encrusted with the earlier Acid Spray to splash into Primeape's eyes.
Primeape howled with rage and began thrashing about in earnest. When it got close to Arbok, Jessie had her pokemon coil around it and bring it down into the poisoned mudpit.
Walter sighed and bowed. "I withdraw my pokemon, Jessie has countered me well this day!" he said stoically.
Jessie beamed as Primeape was withdrawn from Arbok's clutches.
On the display Jessie's face grew large with the words 'winner' displayed. She grinned hugely and once more James and Meowth were the first to start cheering for her.
From there Bosco, and Zek both advanced with the Weezing and Muk causing Rachel to perk up. "It's a poison sweep by the looks of things! We've had Beedrill, Arbok, Weezing and Muk all taking over! I hope the poison enthusiasts out there are enjoying the show cause their pokemon are representing today!"
I glanced up to find an extremely pleased looking Janine buzzing with energy among the ladies of Celadon.
"And now to close out the round of sixteen! We have Solidad of Pewter versus Argo of Fuchsia!"
Argo emerged with a confident grin ."Seems like the odds favour me today eh?" he said with a smirk.
Solidad merely smiled and when they were asked to send out their pokemon it was clear why.
While Argo sent out a Venomoth, Solidad sent out a Slowbro.
"Let the last match! Begin!" called Rachel.
Slowbro yawned hugely and I felt a wave of something wash over me causing me to frown. That had been oddly fast for a move from a pokemon notorious for being slow.
"Let's go with poison powder!" called Argo, and his pokemon began beating its wings and sending out clouds of purple glittering powder, but oddly it didn't go forwards to cover the entire field instead it hovered.
"Water Gun sequence!" replied Solidad, and her pokemon responded slowly, arcing a trio of watery bullets up into the air that didn't seem to even be getting close to Venomoth's form, where it was sweeping its wings and causing poison to drift forward.
Monique leaned forward with a predatory gleam in her eyes which was matched by her daughter, alerting me that something was about to happen.
"Venomoth use Confusion to sweep all the poison upon Slowbro!" called Argo, and the drifting clouds formed ribbons that began to flow towards Slowbro.
Slowbro yawned and the world seemed to slow down as things just got a lot more— a pulse of energy appeared in its mouth and then with only the barest warning, Slowbro unleashed a Hyper Beam that shot clear through the trio of water Guns that had not been aimed at Venomoth, but rather as preliminary target for her pokemon to hit.
All three orbs of water burst and caused water to rain out in a shimmering display that dispersed the Poisonpowder as the Hyper Beam punched into the startled Venomoth blowing it away and ending the match with a third Battle Out.
Argo stared at his downed pokemon and then back over to Solidad who now had a rainbow forming on her side of the field.
I whistled and dropped his points while awarding Solidad for that perfect three move set. "The early Yawn move is a surprise, that's to lower speed and reactions isn't it?" I asked Monique
Monique nodded. "It also causes a lull that turns into a sudden surprise, making it twice as effective as you almost grow bored with slowbro on the field, only to then have it startle you with wow."
I nodded. "It is certainly that," I said.
Soledad waved and I glanced at the other competitors. With that match, Solidad had just emerged as the coordinator to beat.
Rachel led a round of applause before directing people's attention to the overhead display. "And now! To give people a taste of what's to come! We are going to give out the next four matches at once!"
I shot Monique a raised eyebrow and she coughed. "We wanted the surprise for the first match but now we want people to know what is to come. We all have our favourites, so now the crowd can see and cheer more," she said.
I hummed and let the matter drop. It wasn't a big issue, but next time I think I'd just announce the entire bracket format ahead of time. I whistled when I saw that Bosco and Vinny each had 'easier' matches. Most of my attention though was turned to the other two matches.
Solidad versus Zek.
And Greta versus Jessadia.
A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support!
Also another big shout out to Twmmy for their support with proofing the chapters!
Joy and I were wearing the same attire as yesterday but Monique had gone for an entirely different ensemble.
This time she was wearing something that had chains and buckles all over it. If she'd had a sword at her hip I'd have been tempted to call her the raid boss instead of the judge.
She seemed happy with the looks she was getting so at the very least she was making a statement.
Rachel, Archibald and Gardevoir once again were hyping the crowd and welcoming them to the second day of competition. I noted that Rachel, Archibald and Gardevoir all were wearing new outfits.
Rachel had gotten a hold of a jacket with the sleeves torn off and a collar around her neck that made her 'tough-cute' more than tough but it seemed to work.
Archibald had lost his tie and jacket while rolling up his sleeves to display tattoos that would have fitted right in with a yakuza mob boss. More than a few people were giving him a lot more respect.
Somehow Gardevoir was still wearing the most out there outfit with a jacket where the lapels were huge spikey things that made her look thuggish. She'd also had her hair styled into a greaser look and alternated between scowling and giggling, so she seemed to be enjoying herself.
This led to Archibald… a possible gang leader in his youth, to also be happy.
Rachel keyed up her microphone as she skipped out to the front with Archibald and Gardevoir to the side. "Welcome back everyone" she crowed with obvious delight. "Today is the second round with our sixteen participants for the Battle Stage where coordinators will go head to head in a battle that needs to show style and finesse!"
Archibald nodded seriously. "Showing results, taking damage and not being artistic can see man and pokemon expunged from the competition! It becomes a balancing act if you will!"
Gardevoir made a show of juggling and launching small juggling balls at Racehl who nimbly dodged them much to the crowd's approval. One ball snuck through and tagged Rachel but she worked with the nudge and flipped over onto her feet to land a backflip earning herself some more applause.
I smiled and glanced over the crowd noting that today Sabrina, Erika and the Cerulean sisters were in attendance. The patch of bright colours rather drew the eye with Erika and friends sitting in a field of flowers as some might say with how many girls had grouped up.
I nodded towards Sabrina before checking with Monique. "We're still on for the final event of the day?" I asked.
She nodded and winked before turning her head to the announcers.
Archibald nodded seriously. "For those of you following at home or looking for the more technical details. Each battle lasts at maximum five minutes and the object of the battle is to decrease the opponent's points more than knock out your foe!"
He indicated the screen above where two fake accounts and pokemon were shown trading blows and points began to drop. "Coordinators lose points when their Pokémon are hit by an attack, when their Pokémon's attack fails, when the opponent's Pokémon performs a particularly appealing move, or when the opponent's Pokémon uses their Pokémon's attack to its own advantage." The screen showed a variety of such events playing out earning some thoughtful looks from the crowd. Most of these had been taken from Hoenn contests.
Rachel stepped back in. "A battle can also end when one of the Pokémon is unable to battle, called Battle Off by the judges. In this case, the Coordinator with the remaining Pokémon is declared the winner!"
Archibald nodded and gestured to the screens. "And now, we shall randomly allocate the match ups!" he said.
On the screen, sixteen faces appeared. The most notable being Walter, Jessie, Yolanda, Greta, Crystal, Solidad, Bosco, and Zek.
Yolanda, Greta and Crystal were all standing together with their fingers crossed. Walter was standing with his arms crossed and his face set in a scowl. Jessie was hopping from foot to foot with a pensive expression.
"And the first match!" announced Rachel, as faces began to cascade around like pinwheels.
Yolanda's face slotted into the first bracket causing a stir from the people that knew she was my sister. "Yolanda from Pewter city!" screamed Rachel, as the crowd roared their approval. I raised an eyebrow. That was rather interesting to have her coming out first like that.
The next face was the man who'd come in ranked eighth overall with his Pidgeotto.
"Vinny from Fortree City!" announced Rachel.
I shot both trainers a smile and a nod as they stepped up onto the stage.
Vinny bowed to us in time with Yolanda, first to each other and then to us. Then they drew out their pokeballs as a timer counted down above them. When it hit zero a chime sounded out and they both released their pokemon.
"Let's go Swellow!" shouted Vinny.
Vinny sent out a Swellow which had me sitting up, it had an extremely vibrant plumage and had small golden bands around its feet that seemed to be the nod to the Tough Theme.
Yolanda bounced on the spot as she sent out Spot the Growlithe. "Let's go Growlithe!"
The small Growlithe appeared and growled fiercely. I exhaled in relief, glad that she hadn't sent out Terra. On paper it might have been a better match but I could tell that Vinny and his Swellow were serious contenders and powerful in their own right, from a quick look at Swellow's plumage.
From Yolanda's grimace she was well aware of her back being up against a wall.
"Begin!" called Rachel, as both of their points were put on display.
"Twister into a Sky Strike like we practised!" ordered Vinny.
"Spot! Use Agility and kick up some dust!" Yolanda said, playing a hit-and-run game by camouflaging where her pokemon was, as the dust cloud caused them to become shadows with Spot further playing into it by barking. The sound of his barks echoing as dust rose up obscuring him.
I watched for a long moment before sighing, it had been a good attempt on Yolanda's part.
Vinny didn't even have to give his pokemon an order, it was well trained enough to gain height and then sweep its wings forward, once, twice, thrice and then the field was clear again.
This revealed a rather startled Spot who was doing his best to run against the Hurricane force winds but coming up short. Vinny then raised and dropped his hand and Swellow stopped beating its wings to tuck and dive.
Spot launched forward as the wind that had been pushing it back vanished only to run face first into a powerful Sky Strike that had been well executed. They'd even thought to target ahead of where Spot had been.
Spot tumbled end over end and for a moment I thought he would be thrown off the side of the stage only to dig his claws in and struggle to stand. "Lithe!" growled Spot, as he locked eyes with Swellow.
On the screen above, his points plummeted while Vinny and Swellow stayed the same.
Yolanda gritted her teeth. "Go again!" she shouted, and Spot loyally threw himself into the same move, once more accelerating and kicking up dust. Yolanda kept her eyes locked on Swellow while Vinny just shook his head.
"Let's finish this," he said. He gestured and Swellow shot in to blow away the dust.
"Now!" called Yolanda and right as the dust was blown away, Spot vanished.
"Eh?" shouted Vinny as his Swellow baulked at the vanishing act.
I chuckled. "She wouldn't get away with this anywhere else," I said, as Spot popped out of the stage behind Swellow with what had to be a dig.
Spot didn't need the order as he leaped straight at Swellow, an orb of flame taking over his form as she slammed into Swellow and caused a blinding flash.
I chuckled as Swellow was revealed, still flying with its feet raised and locked in a grip with Spot as flames lashed the flying type. Swellow cried out in pain but before Spot could make it to the ground Swellow swooped down and snatched him out of the air.
Spot twisted in Swellow's grip, trying and failing to land another blast of fire on his foe. Swellow merely continued to hold Spot by the neck, a glint appearing in its eye as it surveyed the ground.
It stopped beating its wings and instantly both pokemon plummeted, just before they hit however. Swellow kicked off, which left Spot smashing into the ground harshly and escaping danger itself. Swellow finished off, by beating its wings once again and caused the shockwave of dust to sweep away, letting everyone clearly see its power.
It looked rather impressive even if I didn't want to acknowledge it due to how it was beating up my sister's pokemon.
"Oh! A Reversal plays out with Yolanda's tactics backfiring!" exclaimed Rachel. "Tough show!"
A small dip showed that Vinny and Swellow had taken a small hit of their points initially, only to have their fortunes reversed by their smart tactics.
I sighed having seen enough to know that Yolanda and Spot had been up against very long odds of winning. I tapped a button and a chime rang out showing that Yolanda only had a few points left with those last two exchanges not working out for them.
Spot stood, barely there with how he was quivering and shaking, but still pushing himself. I had to give it to him, he was a loyal pokemon and wasn't going down without giving it his all.
Yolanda's eyes darted about looking for something she could use only for Vinny to not hesitate to send Swellow in once again.
"Aerial Ace to finish with style!" he called.
I grimaced, knowing that it was overkill.
I stood, unclipped a pokeball and threw it in one clean practised action. "Shin! Block!" I called, and Shin exploded into action getting next to Spot in a heartbeat
Swellow lunged talons raised to rake Spot only for Shin to appear between them with his scythe to block the attack only for Swellow to vanish..
For a second I felt my heart lurch that Swellow had still been able to get off the Aerial Ace that late, only for shin to twist and raise his other Scythe This time instead of a physical block however, wall of water shot up as Shin performed a small Surf, snatching Spot up and away from danger.
Swellow swept through the point Spot had been only for nothing to hit.
I exhaled in relief as Swellow arced around unhurt.
I signalled to Vinny and keyed my microphone. "I rule Battle Out on grounds of potential injury or worse had Spot continued," I said.
"I second this motion," said Nurse Joy. I glanced at her and noticed for the first time she too was standing with a pokeball in hand. Had she been about to send out someone to protect Spot if I'd been too slow?
The only pokemon that had the speed would have been… Latias, and damn that would have created some issues for her if people knew she had a Latias.
I nodded in thanks as Yolanda slumped, dejectedly.
I strode over to her and clapped her on the shoulder. "Sorry it didn't turn out the way you wanted. It was a bad match-up for you cause you're not even out there Journeying, but I don't want you to feel too bad. "I waved a hand towards Vinny. "That guy is a pushing Ace trainer, at least I should assume so, His Pidgeotto is good for a circuit pokemon but his Swellow is really good," I said.
He was at least fourth tier as a trainer, not yet an Ace trainer, but he'd be a strong battler at the end of year circuit.
Vinny approached Yolanda and I . "I should have gone for a lighter exchange at the end there, I must apologise," Vinny bowed politely and I nodded.
"Y-yeah I just thought I could find a way to win," Yoland said with a sigh. "I got Spot to learn your Dip dig trick last night and I thought I could use that."
"You did? That's impressive," I said, giving Yolanda a small squeeze. That wasn't an easy trick to learn. "Sadly he had an answer for it, you did well today. You've shown that you're growing. Terra and Spot are going to be terrors when you set off," I said, giving her another squeeze.
Vinny approached. "Sorry again! I'm so used to battling instead of contest-style fights!" he said apologetically.
I sighed and nodded. He was entirely correct of course. "Just be more careful in future," I said, letting the two coordinators depart to the crowd's applause.
"I should have deducted more points for the lack of style," I said as I sat down.
Nurse Joy rubbed the back of her head having not done so. Monique smirked and preened. It was then that I noticed that Vinny hadn't gotten away with a perfect score.
"Huh, nice work," I said before nodding at my other judge. "Thanks for having my back," I said.
"No problem, happy to help," she said easily. She then turned her gaze upwards as the next match was announced.
Two very familiar faces appeared.
Greta versus Crystal.
Both girls stiffened only for Crystal to gain a cocky smile. Greta swallowed and nodded to her friend before marching stiffly to the stage.
Crystal palmed her second pokeball and I had to admit to being a bit curious about what she had.
"Let's go Flamer!" she shouted, as she revealed a Cyndaquil. I whistled, damn, Georgina hadn't been kidding that she was going to be setting Crystal up for her journey, with an Eevee and a Cyndaquil she had a lot of potential firepower.
Greta swallowed and most tellingly didn't react with surprise.
So, she'd known about this before today had she? I shot Yolanda a look and she too wasn't surprised.
Greta's pokemon turned out to be a Beedrill of all things.
"Huh, she's that confident in her Beedrill," I said. Nurse Joy shot me a look and I waved a hand. "She told me she only caught it recently, she must have been making use of Bug Type pokemon's fast growth rates," I said.
Crystal twitched in surprise. "Bwuh? When did you catch that pokemon?"
"Not that long ago," smirked Greta. "I caught Weedle after talking with the Bug catchers. I saw some potential so I went for it." Greta stood tall. "I'm sorry I had to face you, but Crystal? You're going down!" she said.
Crystal gaped at this seeming one-eighty from her friend only for Rachel to call the start.
Greta slashed her hand forward. "Encirclement method with Poison Sting!" she called, causing Beedril to blur and leave after images that raised their stingers and began to fire from all angles.
Flamer, Crystal's Cyndaquil wailed in pain causing Crystal to drop her shock and get her head in the match. "Blow your top, sweep the field with Ember! Limit their options!" she called. Her pokemon inhaled before exhaling and causing its back to explode with fine motes of flame shooting up into the air while its mouth exhaled more embers down low.
The embers trailed through the air and stung Beedril who twitched and the after images faded to reveal the actual pokemon.
"Ha! Got you now! Ember again but do a barrel roll at the same time!" called Crystal.
Flamer blinked in surprise but did as asked, inhaling and then exhaling Ember once again, dutifully barrel rolling to the side and causing a sort of twister like wave of flame that had me nodding along. It wasn't too shabby for style.
"Drop and Brick Break!" called Greta, making her pokemon plummet from the sky and slam a stinger into the ground where it raised part of the earth to shield itself. The Embers washed against the raised shield ineffectively and Beedril remained kneeling looking like a knight with a shield raised.
"Build up your power!" Greta called and Beedril's wings began to vibrate faster and faster a droning pitch was quickly achieved.
"Smokescreen and then light up the air with Ember once more!" Crystal called, making her pokemon exhale smoke around itself before sending out small pulsing Embers that made the Smoke look like a night sky.
The crowd 'oohed' with wonder. I hummed and had to give Crystal some credit she was coming up with some nice-looking combinations.
Greta however wasn't just twiddling her thumbs as she pointed to the sky. "Launch Poison Sting up into the air!"
Beedrill did just this only for Greta to snap her hand to the side. "Agility to the side then shoot the falling Posion Sting!" she called. Beedril blurred to the side and raised his stingers once more and fired, resulting in a cascade of spinning twirling purple stingers.
It looked like the sky had been flipped with glow sticks and added an air of unpredictability as the tumbling stingers fell to the ground in a chaotic pattern that covered where Flamer was hiding.
"Defog to clear the field of Ember but don't just twirl! Remember! Pirouette to keep any blow back away!" she called.
Beedrill buzzed angrily only to surprise me as it raised its stingers and spun like a ballerina, its wings fluttering gracefully. Instead of a harsh wind blowing away the smoke, the smoke cleared in an almost calm manner. This revealed a punctured Flamer who was wailing in pain.
Greta opened her mouth only to pause and glance in our direction. Nurse Joy and I shared a look and a nod.
"We're ruling another Battle Out, Flamer can not continue to fight!" Nurse Joy said this time.
I stood and signalled for some applause for both Coordinators with Rachel leading the charge happily.
Archibald took over the commentary this time with a pleased rub of his moustache. "I rather like being surprised with how young trainers can perform. They used style, grace and skill all at once. They created a wonderful display while fighting it out I have to say. That Beedrill was also a startling find with its control of the winds. I dare say a flying type would be envious," he said.
"Voir!" Agreed Gardevoir.
Crystal and Greta marched over and shook hands. "Can't believe you hid that you had a Beedril from me!" said Crystal.
"Sorry, most people find it weird?" said Greta.
"Feh! They're feckless idiots!" said Crystal. "Urgh! I thought you were going to be shaky but you were all cool and collected!" Crystal sighed. "Guess being part of the Gym means you get used to fighting?"
Greta smirked. "More than you realise," she said.
Crystal sighed and rolled her eyes and hugged her friend. Something was said that was muffled by the hug but it seemed to be positive. The crowd ate it up awwing at the show of friendship.
Greta just giggled. "Better you lose to me than some idiot you can't stand!" she said with a giggle.
Both girls strode off the stage with their heads high and I chuckled as they received a round of applause with each of them bowing together.
Beedrill had surprised me, she'd certainly done well with a pokemon that she'd only caught recently. But then again she'd also sought out the local experts on said pokemon, so perhaps it was warranted. I peered into the crowd and spotted a number of the local chapter house proudly cheering for Greta with banners for Beedrill raised high.
Once more I turned to the overhead display only to find it was yet another pair I'd marked as 'to watch'. Walter appeared first and then Jessie appeared.
Huh, that promised to be good.
Jessie marched out with James and Meowth cheering for her as loudly as they could while Walter strode forth with a measured gait. "Fair maiden! I must apologise for the defeat I am about to hand you!" barked Walter.
Jessie narrowed her eyes, any hint of worry fleeing as she locked eyes with the martial artist trying to be gentlemanly. "I'm no maiden!" Jessie hissed as she enlarged a pokeball.
I heard a number of women hoot and cheer for Jessie at this statement and Rachel was quick to call the match to a start. Jessie sent forth her Arbok while Walter sent out a Primeape.
"Arbok set the stage with Acid Spray around Primeape!" Jessie called. Her pokemon unleashed a barrage of poison in a single long burst like a hose unleashed a deluge of water. The poison splashed around in front of Primeape seemingly doing nothing for the moment.
Primeape marched up to the edge of the poison and snorted contemptuously swaggering back and forth. Arbok snarled angrily and I could see a glow overtake it as Walter smirked.
I lowered both of their points for the initial poor showing causing both Walter and Jessie to twitch as they recalled that this was a contest and not a battle. Jessie grimaced, but was the first to look serious while Walter considered his options.
"Advance Arbok!" Jessie called, making her pokemon slither forward, an annoyed tick still showing that it was under the effects of Swagger.
"Primeape! Use Brick Break and send some rocks that Arboks way with a strong right!"
Primeape stomped its feet and caused a pair of rocks to be fired off one after the other at Arbok.
Jessie blanched. "Brace and use Stockpile!" she called.
Arbok did just that, standing tall. Then it opened its mouth and swallowed both rocks straight down its gullet. It rocked back from the momentum of the strikes but then came back and made an exaggerated swallowing action.
The crowd went silent.
"Well, that was certainly a unique method of stopping damage," said Monique.
I raised a finger. "I can't tell if that was Arbok being confused or planned," I said.
"I think it didn't mean to Swallow!" said Nurse Joy with a gleam in her eyes.
I glanced at her but her mask hid her mouth. She had to be smirking though. No way she'd delivered that line with a straight face. I wanted to remind her that there were children listening but that had most likely passed over their heads.
"It's worth points!" chimed Nurse Joy as she awarded Jessie and penalised Walter.
Jessie twitched at this sudden turn of events. "Spit up!" she called, and Arbok fired back a pair of rocks that were now covered in poison straight into the gobsmacked Primeape.
"Dodge with Swagger again!" roared Walter. Primeape stumped to the left and right only for flecks of poison to touch it as the first rock sailed past. The second rock slammed home though and Primeape glowered at Arbok.
"APE!" it roared.
Jessie stiffened. "Dive into the poison and use Mud shot!" she called. Arbok did just that, lashing its tail and sent forth a wave of mud that was encrusted with the earlier Acid Spray to splash into Primeape's eyes.
Primeape howled with rage and began thrashing about in earnest. When it got close to Arbok, Jessie had her pokemon coil around it and bring it down into the poisoned mudpit.
Walter sighed and bowed. "I withdraw my pokemon, Jessie has countered me well this day!" he said stoically.
Jessie beamed as Primeape was withdrawn from Arbok's clutches.
On the display Jessie's face grew large with the words 'winner' displayed. She grinned hugely and once more James and Meowth were the first to start cheering for her.
From there Bosco, and Zek both advanced with the Weezing and Muk causing Rachel to perk up. "It's a poison sweep by the looks of things! We've had Beedrill, Arbok, Weezing and Muk all taking over! I hope the poison enthusiasts out there are enjoying the show cause their pokemon are representing today!"
I glanced up to find an extremely pleased looking Janine buzzing with energy among the ladies of Celadon.
"And now to close out the round of sixteen! We have Solidad of Pewter versus Argo of Fuchsia!"
Argo emerged with a confident grin ."Seems like the odds favour me today eh?" he said with a smirk.
Solidad merely smiled and when they were asked to send out their pokemon it was clear why.
While Argo sent out a Venomoth, Solidad sent out a Slowbro.
"Let the last match! Begin!" called Rachel.
Slowbro yawned hugely and I felt a wave of something wash over me causing me to frown. That had been oddly fast for a move from a pokemon notorious for being slow.
"Let's go with poison powder!" called Argo, and his pokemon began beating its wings and sending out clouds of purple glittering powder, but oddly it didn't go forwards to cover the entire field instead it hovered.
"Water Gun sequence!" replied Solidad, and her pokemon responded slowly, arcing a trio of watery bullets up into the air that didn't seem to even be getting close to Venomoth's form, where it was sweeping its wings and causing poison to drift forward.
Monique leaned forward with a predatory gleam in her eyes which was matched by her daughter, alerting me that something was about to happen.
"Venomoth use Confusion to sweep all the poison upon Slowbro!" called Argo, and the drifting clouds formed ribbons that began to flow towards Slowbro.
Slowbro yawned and the world seemed to slow down as things just got a lot more— a pulse of energy appeared in its mouth and then with only the barest warning, Slowbro unleashed a Hyper Beam that shot clear through the trio of water Guns that had not been aimed at Venomoth, but rather as preliminary target for her pokemon to hit.
All three orbs of water burst and caused water to rain out in a shimmering display that dispersed the Poisonpowder as the Hyper Beam punched into the startled Venomoth blowing it away and ending the match with a third Battle Out.
Argo stared at his downed pokemon and then back over to Solidad who now had a rainbow forming on her side of the field.
I whistled and dropped his points while awarding Solidad for that perfect three move set. "The early Yawn move is a surprise, that's to lower speed and reactions isn't it?" I asked Monique
Monique nodded. "It also causes a lull that turns into a sudden surprise, making it twice as effective as you almost grow bored with slowbro on the field, only to then have it startle you with wow."
I nodded. "It is certainly that," I said.
Soledad waved and I glanced at the other competitors. With that match, Solidad had just emerged as the coordinator to beat.
Rachel led a round of applause before directing people's attention to the overhead display. "And now! To give people a taste of what's to come! We are going to give out the next four matches at once!"
I shot Monique a raised eyebrow and she coughed. "We wanted the surprise for the first match but now we want people to know what is to come. We all have our favourites, so now the crowd can see and cheer more," she said.
I hummed and let the matter drop. It wasn't a big issue, but next time I think I'd just announce the entire bracket format ahead of time. I whistled when I saw that Bosco and Vinny each had 'easier' matches. Most of my attention though was turned to the other two matches.
Solidad versus Zek.
And Greta versus Jessadia.
A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support!
Also another big shout out to Twmmy for their support with proofing the chapters!
