Unseelie
(Verified True Fae)
- Location
- Tír fo Thuinn
Too bad he isn't a teen quite yet (I think).
...he is, however, a teen's Titan.
Hard Enough - Pokemon SI
- Thread starter Viva01
- Start date
- Users' Choice!
-
- Tags
- pokemon self insert
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
...he is, however, a teen's Titan.
- Location
- Scotland
Just from the description of this Darren and his actions I could immediately pinpoint his personality type. To put it rather crudely he's a stuck up, pompous, self absorbed, narcissistic, rules-obsessed PITA (aka a male Karen) who likely only became President of the Hoenn PFC because he badgered everyone else into giving him the position and they all both couldn't be bothered arguing and figured he couldn't do too much harm as President.
Should he try and push his opinion any further, however, he'll almost certainly find that he doesn't have anywhere NEAR the amount of support he might foolishly think he'll get. It would also be almost guaranteed career suicide to boot.
All that and his little attempt at trying to trademark "Contests" for Hoenn use only is so dumb even a trainee lawyer would laugh and say "not happening".
Really, the man would be light comedic relief, at best. I'm guessing he was put in to show that some people are so far into their own little fantasy worlds that they'll throw a temper tantrum whenever they see something that they don't like.
Should he try and push his opinion any further, however, he'll almost certainly find that he doesn't have anywhere NEAR the amount of support he might foolishly think he'll get. It would also be almost guaranteed career suicide to boot.
All that and his little attempt at trying to trademark "Contests" for Hoenn use only is so dumb even a trainee lawyer would laugh and say "not happening".
Really, the man would be light comedic relief, at best. I'm guessing he was put in to show that some people are so far into their own little fantasy worlds that they'll throw a temper tantrum whenever they see something that they don't like.
Despite what Darren wrote in that letter (I think he's trying to convince himself more than the reader) he seems to feel threatened by the idea that another region could develop their own unique traditions for contests. He probably fears that the Kanto style of contest might one day overshadow the 'official' Hoenn version.
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- Location
- Scotland
I got the feeling it was more that because it didn't fit his preconceived notions of what a contest should be it offended his delicate little sensibilities and so, like any good Karen (male or female), he lashed out. Even if he wasn't President of the Hoenn PFC he'd have still sent Brock a scathing letter about it. I hope Brock shows it to Howard and they both get a good chuckle out of it.
I think his response, especially going so far as to risk alienating pokemon clubs in other regions that already do 'proper' contests, betrays his true feelings. If he just found the new style of contest insulting to the original way of doing it then he'd probably just write the scathing letter and be satisfied with slandering Brock and the Kanto pokemon club. His attempt to actually stop future contests in other regions or at least force them to call it something else (even if it obviously wouldn't work) seems like fear that a new trend might eclipse the traditions he values.
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Chapter 195 - Job offer
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
After Sabrina's and my dalliance, I showered and wandered back to the Gym, only to be directed to the front fair-ground area. Apparently we'd been a bit too successful with our Tough showcase and it wasn't advised to hold a party in the Gym any more. Thankfully we had the pavilions set up already.
I entered the front pavilion to find a very loud party well and truly underway.
Monique must have been waiting for me, as she stood on the side, watching the chaos that was unfolding with a bemused look on her face.
"This is not how I imagined the afterparty would be," I said to Monique.
She could only nod stoically as we both openly stared.
"Bosco's number one!" screamed a rowdy biker as he shook up a can of lemonade and sprayed it onto Bosco like I'd seen people do in Formula One victories in my past life. Did giant cans of soda exist that could be used instead?
I tabled that thought and instead watched as the giant biker shook and sprayed what amounted to lemonade around on his friends.
"Number oooooooooone!" Bosco shouted as three other people began spraying him with the provided free lemonade.
The sight of a biker spraying lemonade alone was disconcerting enough, but it wasn't limited to just one of them. They were all taking turns to slam cans of non-alcoholic drinks together and throw them back with long glugs. They then belched loudly, laughing and cheering as they went.
This was supposed to be a calm and collected after-party.
Sort of like after Erika's events.
One of the bikers had challenged a group of girls to an eating contest with him, out-eating all of them only for Munchlax to be called up by Yolanda. Munchlax took one look at the situation and joined the team of girls, allowing them to turn the tables on the big guy.
"Hooray Munchlax!" the girls called as they tried and failed to lift the satisfied little pokemon.
"I was expecting a little more decorum," Monique said, watching another incident of what I could only deem a sugar high, as Vinny was trying and failing to flirt with Officer Jenny.
Vinny didn't seem to realise that his bragging of how fast he could fly was resulting in Jenny writing him a speeding ticket and not her number.
"They're certainly spirited," I said, as Vinny gave a loud shriek as he realised what he'd done.
Jenny laughed though and tore the ticket up to show she was joking before walking away.
"Rambunctious is what I'd call it," Monique said, as a cluster of bikers that had been watching Vinny burst into laughter.
"You're surprised about this?" said a new voice. "Really? In Pewter?" asked Nurse Joy, her face mask now hanging off one ear so she could enjoy a plate of hors d'oeuvres. "You both need to get out more," she said with the air of one that did in fact get out.
I hummed noncommittally, noticing the caterers furiously restocking the tables even as people tried to intercept them. "Guess I find my own mischief enough of the time," I said.
Joy shrugged before dainty wiping at the side of her mouth with a napkin. "The Pewter locals are always a bit more boisterous, and while we have the stylings of a fancy party with this garden set up, we don't have the people that would be that classy," she said.
She then shot me a smirk. "So? Where's Sabrina?" she said, pointedly looking around.
"She's… resting, the day has been rather exhausting for her," I said, alluding to Sabrina's lower tolerance for crowds with her psychic ability.
Nurse Joy chose not to take it that way. "Heh, tired her out, eh? Well good for both of you," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
I coughed and blushed a little. She wasn't wrong, and I had to repress the smirk. Sabrina might have many wonderful skills, but she lacked the physical endurance I had, which meant only one of us was up and about right now.
I decided not to say anything about that though, and instead looked around. It was true that I'd copied the idea from Erika's matches, but the 'rock garden' with the barbecues and chefs being on display gave the entire event a much more relaxed air. It was like being at a friend's barbeque with how everyone was talking and laughing.
You had the normal niche groups, but I could see more than a few people crossing over to trade stories and intermingle, making the entire thing a bit of a social melting pot.
"I suppose we should have expected this," I said, as another spray of lemonade shot into the air."Aren't we serving alcohol as well?" I asked.
Monique nodded, gesturing to the fenced-off area where a few people were looking amused that the majority of people were enjoying themselves more with their sugary drinks.
Nurse Joy giggled. "The Venom Pack don't drink because they want to be able to ride their crotch rockets home!"
Monique coughed as I wheezed a laugh at Nurse Joy's descriptor for their bikes.
"How responsible of them," I said, before excusing myself.
I moved to the side to check on my Crystal Onix while also releasing Link, Gawain, Bertha and Jormungandr. Sanchez, who'd been rolling around enjoying himself, quickly approached, while Titan waved at Bertha who gasped dramatically at Titan's 'tough' look.
My Crystal Onix welcomed them with a loud roar. Onix's roar caused the crowd to fall silent and had people turn towards me.
Whoops, now people were looking at me like they expected a speech.
Time to think quick! Could I have Sanchez give them the old one-two? He'd love that! No? What about having Bertha perform a magical… no, that was a terrible idea!
Damn! Speech it was then!
"I'd like to thank everyone who took part as Coordinators as well as their pokemon for their help. I would also like to give a special shout out to our announcers Rachel Raul, Archibald, and Gardevoir, who made this event so much more enjoyable!"
Archibald seemed pleased at the praise, or perhaps it was just that I made sure to include Gardevoir, who waved to the crowd like a famous celebrity might.
"I must also thank everyone on the Gym Staff, the catering team, and the clean-up crew that has yet to start, who will no doubt be vital to getting the Gym back to normal operation tomorrow for trainers!"
I made sure to give a wide range of thanks to everyone, before lavishing it on my fellow judges for their work. "Lastly, thank you to all the people who came to spectate, cheer and enjoy, making this first Pewter Contest a rousing success!"
I then raised a can of lemonade, ignoring how silly I felt for doing it, and took a drink in thanks.
I punched the air. "With that said, let's party!" I shouted, causing a round of cheers and hoots as everyone restarted the party.
"Excellent work," Monique and Joy said as they came up to me. "And thank you for letting us be judges! It was everything I hoped for!" Monique added.
Nurse Joy just giggled and nodded along.
Monique shot me a look. "So, can we schedule next year's event directly?" she said,
I chuckled and nodded. Monique did a little trot that I interpreted as her 'happy dance'. "Oh, next year will be bigger! We will bring in some local talent with bands!"
"Rock bands!" chimed in Nurse Joy.
"And have fire spouts! Lots of them!" said Monique, as she bounced ideas off Nurse Joy, only for them to both grow more excited with each idea.
I hummed, deciding I needed something to calm them down. I reached into my pocket, drawing out something I'd held in reserve for each of them.
"This is also the thank you gift for serving as Judges alongside me," I said, handing them an envelope each.
"Oooooh? What is it?" asked Joy as she expertly flicked open the envelope with a nail.
Inside each envelope, a voucher for a visit to a day spa rested. "I did a bit of looking around and the Rocky Springs Day Spa has the best reviews, along with the best word of mouth," I said.
"I'll say," said Monique, as she stared at the giant golden ticket with the words 'all-inclusive' in large bold text.
Nurse Joy fanned her face with the ticket. "Damn, showing a girl a good time isn't a one-off for you, is it?" she said while biting her lip.
I blinked in surprise and she giggled. "Sorry, couldn't resist, seriously thanks though! These are, wow, really nice!" she said, eyeing the ticket with a very pleased look.
I nodded slowly only for Monique and Joy to continue to gush over the voucher. Huh, if they were that good, maybe I'd have to look into going myself?
I made a note to book myself and Sabrina in.
If it was good enough for them to be this happy… Well, I think I wanted that.
My pokemon had garnered a lot of attention with their entry, but now they were happily mingling with other pokemon. I was surprised when I noticed Bertha and Titan locked in a discussion with Archibald and Gardevoir. He seemed to be looking them both over with an appreciative eye and Bertha looked like an innocent maiden as she batted at the air playfully at something Gardevoir had said.
I decided to leave them to it, they were safe enough with the Chairman, he loved pokemon, after all.
I paused and reconsidered the phrasing of that statement, and gave the group another look over.
Bertha was flexing in front of Gardevoir and getting praise, it seemed. Titan was laughing at something said, and I hummed.
Nah, it was fine.
I looked around, spotting more and more familiar faces. Sadly the face I wanted to talk with right now wasn't in the crowd. It seemed like Jet, the Crusher cosplayer, hadn't stuck around. Shame. I would have loved to discuss his Onix body paint style and its impact on the fight.
With Jet not around and therefore not an option, I turned instead towards the trio that I very much hadn't been expecting to find here.
I walked up to the buffet table where Jessie was receiving a good deal of praise for her showing. Next to her Arbok, Tentacruel, and Mawile were wiggling with joy as they stuffed their faces.
James and Meowth were themselves shovelling food into their mouths with a certain desperation, but they paused enough times to shoot Jessie amused looks.
"—said that we were due for some good luck! And I can't think of anything better than having a full stomach right now!" said James.
Meowth swallowed. "I can, we gonna sleep in a bed tonight?"
James and Jessie wilted and I raised an eyebrow in surprise. What was going on here?
I eyed the group and noticed that their little pity party, and probably their table manners, had caused a wide bubble of space around them.
"Seems like a good place for me to insert myself into the conversation, then," I said, grabbing a chair and plonking it down next to James, invading their bubble. He stiffened, causing food to get caught in his throat. He flailed and started to choke.
"Calm down, I'm not here to do anything like you're thinking," I said, slapping him on the back and dislodging the food.
James gasped and took a quick drink to settle his nerves. Jessie shifted so that she was slightly in front of James while he regathered himself. "What are you here for, Gym Leader?"
"Mostly to talk with you, I thought with your last appearance and my… well perhaps short-sighted warning, that you might not have ever come around," I made a show of looking around.
"And yet here you are. Do you like Contests that much?" I asked.
Jessie squirmed. "I… I wasn't sure until today, but Mawile wanted to give it a go and I couldn't say no to her," she said, shooting her pokemon an exasperated but still happy smile.
"Hmmm, rare find that, have you had her long?" I asked, curious, as Mawile happily took a big bite of food only for Jessie to wipe her face with a napkin. Mawile giggled and nuzzled Jessie's hand before Jessie could retract it.
"Not long," James said before coughing. "Not that you wouldn't know that," he said with a slightly snide tone.
I blinked before I realised what he was alluding to. Had he thought I was watching them? I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry to say that you haven't been a factor for me, I've been rather involved in… a lot," I said simply.
James, Jessie, and Meowth blinked and stared at me.
I stared back, feeling like I was missing something, but unsure what.
"You haven't been keeping tabs on us?" Meowth asked carefully, his words tentative as if he were probing murky waters with a stick from as far away as he could.
I chuckled. "Meowth, since we last spoke… I've had to deal with Ace Trainer Will probing my Gym with multiple other Ace trainers, the remnants of the trainer surge, establishing multiple training programs for the trainers under my purview, and deal with Team Rocket multiple times before busting them down."
I gave them a pointed look that would say more than any words that I knew what I was talking about with such a statement, "All of that? On top of running a gym, juggling my family and dealing with the whole issue of…" I trailed off, I'd been about to say something about Flint, but this wasn't the right crowd of people to talk about that.
Or perhaps it was? Jessie, James and Meowth could be surprisingly empathetic when it came down to it.
I decided to leave it at that though, and just shrugged. "There's been more in there, like dealing with the Mt. Silver issue, but yeah, I haven't been stalking you," I said.
Jessie, James, and Meowth all blinked at this. Then, as one, they slumped and exhaled.
"Oh, that's a relief!" said James with relief.
"Urgh! We're such small karp!" said Jessie with a put-upon expression.
"I want to demand that I get back all the beauty sleep I missed 'cause of the stress I've been dealing with!" Meowth said as he tugged on his whiskers.
I chuckled at their different reactions and waved off the heated look Meowth gave me. "Hey, that was entirely your own doing. Don't lay that at my feet," I said.
"Well I'm gonna!" said Meowth, crossing his arms and pouting.
I merely rolled my eyes at him. "What were you talking about with your lack of a roof over your head tonight?" I prompted.
The trio shared a look with each other and then all scratched at the back of their heads as one. "Well, you see," they all started to say together, before they each diverged with the story that meandered around only to bump into the others or contradict what one of them had just said.
Jessie realised this and quickly shut up Meowth and James before coughing into her fist.
"Through a series of unfortunate and totally unrelated events!" she said, giving Meowth and James pointed looks to shut up, before continuing. "We find that we've rather used up all our reserves of cash, and our supplies and camping gear have been damaged."
"It's rather a shame," said James. "But we'll be back on our feet within the week."
Meowth nodded. "Yeah, this used to be a weekly event for us!" he said, like that was something to be proud of.
Jessie facepalmed.
Meowth shot her a look. "Hey? What? It's a good thing we've been able to go three months without this happening! And it took James falling for that Magikarp salesman, you buying that outfit and losing to those creeps, and well, I did nothing wrong," he said shamelessly.
Jessie and James shot him furious looks. "You were the one in charge of our bags when that Raticate swarm came out of the grass!" they snarled together.
Meowth shook his head. "I refuse to take responsibility for that! One of you should have left a pokemon with me instead of going off to bathe in the creek like that! Don't you know what sort of diseases you can pick up washing like that?" he said seriously.
I nodded along. "You should take a camper shower if you're doing that," I said. I gave Jessie another look-over. "Impressive that you are all so clean for today's showing," I said.
The trio all looked away sheepishly and I knew they'd done something wrong.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. How had they lasted as criminals with such honest reactions? Was it just because it was me asking, or were they usually this bad?
"You broke into someone's house and had a shower, didn't you? What happened, did you get chased out?" I said shooting in the dark for the most likely event for a group of… former criminals?
The group coughed and Meowth smirked at James. "The old lady came home while James was in the shower and miiiiiiight have mistaken him for her lover, so we couldn't stay there any longer."
I opened my mouth, about to ask which old lady as chances were I knew them, then I rethought that question and let it remain unspoken.
I didn't want to know what little old grannies were getting up to when they were behind closed doors.
Some of them were far too willing to discuss it without the topic even being brought up.
Old women could be entirely too shameless with you once you were old enough. Sure they had methods of speaking around it, but once you were old enough that you understood what innuendo was… well, suddenly those sweet old ladies gained a lot of… colour.
"Right, putting that way off to the side, where we won't raise that for—" I eyed the group of self-confessed criminals. "—multiple reasons," I said pointedly.
The trio then seemed to realise whom they'd just confessed to and swallowed the food they'd been eating a bit too quickly, causing them to splutter.
I rolled my eyes and let them regain control of themselves.
I raised up my transceiver and drew up 'Jessadia's trainer information. On it, her pokemon roster was displayed along with the various badges she had. I'd need to add that she'd come fourth in the Pewter Gym Contest later tonight, but that was future Brock's job.
I flicked my eyes over it, interested but not surprised to find several recommendations from various Gym Leaders, starting with my comment.
The trio shifted slightly and James mouthed what he was reading quietly, but not quietly enough.
"'Diamond in the rough'… from Brock. 'Skilled', Daisy. 'Top-notch adaptability' from Manny. 'Can bring the firepower', Surge. 'A flower that has blossomed later than most but is all the more beautiful for it, Erika," read James.
I tilted the projected screen so he could read more easily as I shot him an amused look. They had to know I didn't plan to arrest them to be this easy going with me, right?
I watched them gush over the praise that usually didn't get shown to people. This was for Gym Leaders or prospective employers to see. The trainers didn't learn of its existence until they were well and truly done.
When James was finished reading Janine's brief report on 'Jessadia's competencies as a trainer', I pulled my hand back and leaned forward.
Jessie had a big goofy smile on her face. I felt myself relax a little more, if she could make that sort of embarrassed happy face on command, she had missed her calling as an actress.
I considered that thought for a moment. Sabrina was supposed to be interested in that according to the games, but then again Will… I shut that thought down and gave Jessie a moment to bask in the good vibes.
I then coughed. "While the praises of various Gym Leaders will take you far, I'm more interested in the accomplishments that you have on your file," I said pointing at another tab. "Not everyone gets those," I said, opening the tab and finding a note about Jessie and her friends taking part in the Porta Vista incident and being lauded as heroes. Then there was the Saffron City situation where the trio helped capture some violent Team Rocket Members.
"I'm curious about your skills, you've come a long way from the trio that snuck into my Gym only to get tripped up helping people, and then caught in a challenge you never meant to give," I said.
The trio looked at me carefully, a small glimmer of interest sparked in Jessie's eyes while Meowth looked wary. James just looked straight at me openly.
I smiled. "How would you like a job, no," I shook my head before rubbing it and sighing. "I'm doing a bad job of this," I said, taking a moment to focus my mind.
I couldn't approach this like Agatha had, I had to do this in a way that would be tailored to Jessie, James, and Meowth.
I smiled. "You're an odd bunch, aren't you?" I said whimsically, as my mind played out all the cartoons that showed how wacky and weird they could be.
Rockets, blimps, submarines, pokemon riders, sales clerks, and more. Team Rocket had a can-do attitude and the will to pick themselves up time after time.
"You don't quite fit with how society or the people that raised you would like you to, do you?" I said. My words drew reactions, with all of them curling in on themselves slightly. They all noticed the others' discomfort and a spark entered their eyes.
Before they could speak up to protect each other, I smiled. "And that's what makes you great," I said, stopping them short. They went from defensive to bashful in a second.
I waved a hand at them. "You have what is perhaps the most eclectic range of skills around. You have passion and motivation in spades. You haven't had it easy, but that's alright, while things have been rough, you haven't let it hurt you or keep you down. You've struggled and grown into the beings you are today," I said, eying them.
"I like that, I need individuals like that helping me," I said.
James frowned. "You want more assistants for your Gym?" he said.
I shook my head and let my gaze drift over the crowd of rowdy people and the others who were a touch more dignified. They were smiling and laughing. Archibald was standing on the other side of the room with his Gardevoir.
They both smiled and waved at me and I mirrored them before continuing to speak. "Before you or I were born, there was a war so terrible it engulfed the world," I said, turning serious.
The trio blinked and straightened, aware of how serious discussions of the war were.
"There are lots of people working to keep tensions down, to heal old wounds, to find forgotten friends," I said.
"This world," I said, letting a touch of my love for this magical life I'd found myself within bleed into my words. "It's a marvellous place, so full of vibrancy, and if we work for it, it's a magical place full enough for everyone."
I sighed then and let some of the fatigue of running a Gym, of fending back would be Elite Fours, of raising a family, of the gnawing doubt that it wouldn't ever be enough, out to show.
I felt hollow in that moment of allowing it out. "It can be a dark place," I said, thinking of what Giovanni had done to Mewtwo, of how it had felt waking up and finding Flint was gone with barely a note left behind with his family.
I shook my body and pushed down the dark feelings that I knew helped fuel so much of my growth, with what was my secondary energy type with Titan. I smiled a well-practised smile that I'd used a lot in the days after Flint had left.
"The world is not made of just moments of light and dark, though. As much as I wish it were, the world is not some cartoon or child's game," I said. "It would be less if that were the case, but… I digress," I said.
Then I blinked and held in a chuckle as I watched Jessie, James and Meowth eye one another then watch my face, documenting the subtle ways my face tightened or how my eyes didn't light up like they should have. They were observing my mask and memorising it.
I waved a hand in front of myself and let some proper amusement show. "Sorry! Sorry, hehe! That got a little too deep," I said. I scratched the back of my head. "I can get like that sometimes, go running off on tangents of thought," I said.
Jessie opened her mouth for a moment before shutting it and smiling in a practised manner. "Of course," she said.
"What were you building towards?" asked Meowth leadingly. James merely nodded, continuing to watch my face thoughtfully.
I smiled and shook my head. I wasn't going to touch that topic with the Rocket Trio.
Instead I said, "You've all experienced a lot of the bad, I imagine, and you've gotten a taste for some of the good. I want to keep allowing you to have those good moments while also helping me… and people like me, that deal with some of the world's… darker moments," I said tactfully.
"A policeman?" asked Jessie.
James shook his head. "No, Champion Lance announced an initiative for something called the G-men."
"I don't want to be a copper!" wailed Meowth theatrically. "What about my street rep!? Who'd take me seriously?"
He then shot me a look while glancing about. "What's it pay?" he said out of the side of his mouth.
Jessie and James sighed and slumped over as though they'd expected this.
I smirked. "Please, you think I'm just a Gym Leader that helps out the League and the G-men?" I said.
Meowth snorted. "What, are you secretly Agent Pink of the Hero Force?" he said snidely.
I held a masterful poker face before chuckling thanks to a quick flex of Rock energy. "Haha! I don't think Pink's outfit would suit me," I said, crossing my arms and subtly showing that I was much too broad in the shoulders.
Jessie and Meowth nodded, but James tilted his head and narrowed his eyes.
"Yes…" he drawled slowly. "Her colour wouldn't work for you," he said, and I realised a second later that emphasising my build was just giving the disguise expert more information to work with. It didn't matter how good my mask was if he had other information to work off of.
He must have made the connection to Hero Black as he nodded slowly.
Meowth, unaware of what James had picked up, grabbed one of the few bits of food left in his vicinity. "So? You got a job offer?"
I nodded. "How'd you like to work for an organisation specifically aiming to preserve peace, and love, and protect the world from devastation?" I said, throwing some of their famous song lyrics back at them.
Meowth laughed, but Jessie and James looked at me seriously. It took a moment for Meowth to realise they weren't joining him. "Wait? Are you serious?" he asked before leaning in and whispering. "What would you even have us do?"
I laced my hands underneath my chin and smiled. "What you're doing right now," I said.
They blinked. Jessie scoffed. "Pull the other one, it has bells on it," she said sardonically.
I snorted. "Jessie, the three of you have helped out or been involved with some major incidents, I suspect that this will continue to be the case. I want you to be able to keep moving around and helping out where you can. If things are too much for you to handle or you want some support, however? Me and some friends can step in to help you out," I said, tapping on my Xtransciever to make a point of what they'd done in a few months.
That got them stopping and thinking more seriously. "Just, what we're doing right now?" James said, scratching his head thoughtfully. "No going extra or beyond?"
I started to nod, before I paused as another idea occurred to me. "Oh wait, you know my brother and his friends?" I asked.
The trio nodded slowly. "We… know them yes," James said.
"Yeah, that punk Pikachu is always trying to blow our cover!" Meowth said with clenched paws.
"You want us to leave them be?" Jessie said slowly.
I snorted. "Nah, keep challenging them," I held up a hand, "But do it in ways that a friendly rival would. Sometimes throwing them a curve ball is what they need to grow, you don't have to sabotage them, but… don't make it easy for them," I said.
Jessie, James, and Meowth all shared evil grins. "Keep messing with the twerps?"
"Keep it to harmless shenanigans, anything malicious like stealing their pokemon of course is out, but…" I waved a hand in an airy fashion.
I had to admit to finding it rather amusing how I was throwing barriers into Ash, Forrest, and Misty's way for their own good. Did that make me a bad guy?
I then smirked as yet another thought came to me. "My sister will probably be taking part in her Journey in the future, and some friendly rivals trying to catch her out would help sharpen her up some more too." I grimaced. "With her leaving here with a Larvitar, she's going to need it," I said.
The trio all nodded seriously at that, dropping their looks of giddy delight at being given approval to mess with my brother.
"Yeah, that's a hot pokemon right now, on the black market those go for two million," said Meowth. "Not many are willing to take that offer, though, with how close the nesting ground is to the League, along with it being well… a Tyranitar nest you need to raid," he said.
"Is she travelling with a group of friends?" said Jessie.
"Two others at this stage," I said. "She'll also be starting with a Growlithe she's training up now."
"Growlithe are wonderful pokemon, loyal to a fault and a good pokemon that will offer a lot of utility!" said James with a firm nod.
A pokeball on James belt started to open only for James' hands to snap around it and close it. "Not now boy!" said James with a panicked look.
The other pair stiffened and started looking around at the more well-to-do men and women.
I frowned. What were they… I blinked as I connected the dots. James was from an affluent family. His parents might even have come to something like this! Chances were I had been in the room with them if they were at all involved with the social scenes of Kanto. I'd been to too many events in Celadon for that to not be the case!
What were their names… I couldn't recall them, but then again it had been years since I'd watched the cartoon. I'd have to keep an eye out for people with matching features. I shot James' pokebelt a glance. More telling was that James had been talking up Growlithe, and a pokemon had been about to come out. James had Growlie with him.
That was a change from the way things went down in the cartoon. But then again, Jessie didn't get a Mawile for her team. Or at least one that stuck around.
I hummed in thought, drawing the trio's attention back to me. They adopted innocent expressions that wouldn't fool anyone. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "So, how about you give it some thought?" I said. I handed them a guest pass for the trainers' short stay area.
When I reached Meowth I held onto the keycard. "I had the readers and cards updated, are there any technical issues I need to know about with these?" I said.
Meowth inspected the keycard and whistled. "Oh wow! You did fork out good! Nice one! These don't have the issues of the old model you had… Hmmm, I'm going to have to tinker with these, give me a day or two and I can find something," he said.
I rubbed my forehead. "I don't… No, you know what, if there's something I think I'd like to know, write a report on it. I'll pay, we'll call it… Security consultations," I said. It was scarily enough true.
I stood and waved for them to stay seated. "Take the night to think about it. No rush and no pressure if you decide to not accept. I'm happy enough with you doing what you currently are, but I'd like to offer a safety net," I said, before nodding to each of them in farewell.
I made my way directly to the more affluent people to rub elbows and shake hands. More than a few people asked about the training camp at the end of the circuit, but I made sure to emphasise it would be for Pewter trainers predominantly and that other Gym Leaders were setting up their own, which garnered some interest.
When I had a moment to myself I wandered over to grab a drink, only for Archibald to ambush me. "Brock, wonderful event!" he said amicably, clapping my shoulder with one hand while shaking my hand with his other. He then leaned in. "I'd love to take part next year, as a shot caller or a Judge if you'll have me, I rather enjoyed working with Rachel and so did my dear," he said, indicating his companion.
I nodded to Gardevoir. "Glad you enjoyed yourselves," I said easily.
Archibald nodded his head up and down before coughing and dropping his voice to a whisper. "Also, as a silent backer for Agatha's little group, I must say I approve of your eye for talent," he said, flicking his eyes towards Jessie, James and Meowth.
I stiffened and shot him a look before relaxing. "Oh, Gardevoir listened in with…" I frowned. I'd been throwing around some intense emotions, there was no way dark energy hadn't spilled out.
Archibald chuckled. "No, nothing so generic. Gardevoir is skilled at lip reading, it's an old trick we used from… another lifetime ago," he said, and I saw a flicker of something dark in those eyes before they vanished as Gardevoir squeezed his hand and leaned into him. He patted her arm and relaxed. "Another life," he said simply.
I nodded slowly, an idea forming in my mind. "Ah, right, I'll have to keep that in mind going forward," I said.
Archibald clapped me on the shoulder. "Not to worry! I made sure no one else was doing the same and kept your conversation private!" he said with a wink.
He then stretched. "Do say hello to Agatha for me, I think I shall call it here, these old bones can't quite stand up so well these days." Then he winked at me. "Good thing I'll be laying down for what comes next, eh?" he said.
I felt my smile turn brittle as Gardevoir giggled and swatted at Archibald.
Urgh! Old people!
I shook my head and saw out the rest of the evening, knowing that I'd need to mention Team Rocket to the Guardians when we spoke next.
For now, though, I wanted to catch my own rest after supervising the Gym's restoration.
Tomorrow we were back to facing trainers for their badges after all.
I stretched and smiled as a familiar ping went off, reminding me that I had a chat with the Guardians lined up.
Truly, no good deed went unpunished.
Thanks go to my Patreons for your support!
This chapter was proofread by Twmmy and Meneldur! Many thanks for that!
I entered the front pavilion to find a very loud party well and truly underway.
Monique must have been waiting for me, as she stood on the side, watching the chaos that was unfolding with a bemused look on her face.
"This is not how I imagined the afterparty would be," I said to Monique.
She could only nod stoically as we both openly stared.
"Bosco's number one!" screamed a rowdy biker as he shook up a can of lemonade and sprayed it onto Bosco like I'd seen people do in Formula One victories in my past life. Did giant cans of soda exist that could be used instead?
I tabled that thought and instead watched as the giant biker shook and sprayed what amounted to lemonade around on his friends.
"Number oooooooooone!" Bosco shouted as three other people began spraying him with the provided free lemonade.
The sight of a biker spraying lemonade alone was disconcerting enough, but it wasn't limited to just one of them. They were all taking turns to slam cans of non-alcoholic drinks together and throw them back with long glugs. They then belched loudly, laughing and cheering as they went.
This was supposed to be a calm and collected after-party.
Sort of like after Erika's events.
One of the bikers had challenged a group of girls to an eating contest with him, out-eating all of them only for Munchlax to be called up by Yolanda. Munchlax took one look at the situation and joined the team of girls, allowing them to turn the tables on the big guy.
"Hooray Munchlax!" the girls called as they tried and failed to lift the satisfied little pokemon.
"I was expecting a little more decorum," Monique said, watching another incident of what I could only deem a sugar high, as Vinny was trying and failing to flirt with Officer Jenny.
Vinny didn't seem to realise that his bragging of how fast he could fly was resulting in Jenny writing him a speeding ticket and not her number.
"They're certainly spirited," I said, as Vinny gave a loud shriek as he realised what he'd done.
Jenny laughed though and tore the ticket up to show she was joking before walking away.
"Rambunctious is what I'd call it," Monique said, as a cluster of bikers that had been watching Vinny burst into laughter.
"You're surprised about this?" said a new voice. "Really? In Pewter?" asked Nurse Joy, her face mask now hanging off one ear so she could enjoy a plate of hors d'oeuvres. "You both need to get out more," she said with the air of one that did in fact get out.
I hummed noncommittally, noticing the caterers furiously restocking the tables even as people tried to intercept them. "Guess I find my own mischief enough of the time," I said.
Joy shrugged before dainty wiping at the side of her mouth with a napkin. "The Pewter locals are always a bit more boisterous, and while we have the stylings of a fancy party with this garden set up, we don't have the people that would be that classy," she said.
She then shot me a smirk. "So? Where's Sabrina?" she said, pointedly looking around.
"She's… resting, the day has been rather exhausting for her," I said, alluding to Sabrina's lower tolerance for crowds with her psychic ability.
Nurse Joy chose not to take it that way. "Heh, tired her out, eh? Well good for both of you," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
I coughed and blushed a little. She wasn't wrong, and I had to repress the smirk. Sabrina might have many wonderful skills, but she lacked the physical endurance I had, which meant only one of us was up and about right now.
I decided not to say anything about that though, and instead looked around. It was true that I'd copied the idea from Erika's matches, but the 'rock garden' with the barbecues and chefs being on display gave the entire event a much more relaxed air. It was like being at a friend's barbeque with how everyone was talking and laughing.
You had the normal niche groups, but I could see more than a few people crossing over to trade stories and intermingle, making the entire thing a bit of a social melting pot.
"I suppose we should have expected this," I said, as another spray of lemonade shot into the air."Aren't we serving alcohol as well?" I asked.
Monique nodded, gesturing to the fenced-off area where a few people were looking amused that the majority of people were enjoying themselves more with their sugary drinks.
Nurse Joy giggled. "The Venom Pack don't drink because they want to be able to ride their crotch rockets home!"
Monique coughed as I wheezed a laugh at Nurse Joy's descriptor for their bikes.
"How responsible of them," I said, before excusing myself.
I moved to the side to check on my Crystal Onix while also releasing Link, Gawain, Bertha and Jormungandr. Sanchez, who'd been rolling around enjoying himself, quickly approached, while Titan waved at Bertha who gasped dramatically at Titan's 'tough' look.
My Crystal Onix welcomed them with a loud roar. Onix's roar caused the crowd to fall silent and had people turn towards me.
Whoops, now people were looking at me like they expected a speech.
Time to think quick! Could I have Sanchez give them the old one-two? He'd love that! No? What about having Bertha perform a magical… no, that was a terrible idea!
Damn! Speech it was then!
"I'd like to thank everyone who took part as Coordinators as well as their pokemon for their help. I would also like to give a special shout out to our announcers Rachel Raul, Archibald, and Gardevoir, who made this event so much more enjoyable!"
Archibald seemed pleased at the praise, or perhaps it was just that I made sure to include Gardevoir, who waved to the crowd like a famous celebrity might.
"I must also thank everyone on the Gym Staff, the catering team, and the clean-up crew that has yet to start, who will no doubt be vital to getting the Gym back to normal operation tomorrow for trainers!"
I made sure to give a wide range of thanks to everyone, before lavishing it on my fellow judges for their work. "Lastly, thank you to all the people who came to spectate, cheer and enjoy, making this first Pewter Contest a rousing success!"
I then raised a can of lemonade, ignoring how silly I felt for doing it, and took a drink in thanks.
I punched the air. "With that said, let's party!" I shouted, causing a round of cheers and hoots as everyone restarted the party.
"Excellent work," Monique and Joy said as they came up to me. "And thank you for letting us be judges! It was everything I hoped for!" Monique added.
Nurse Joy just giggled and nodded along.
Monique shot me a look. "So, can we schedule next year's event directly?" she said,
I chuckled and nodded. Monique did a little trot that I interpreted as her 'happy dance'. "Oh, next year will be bigger! We will bring in some local talent with bands!"
"Rock bands!" chimed in Nurse Joy.
"And have fire spouts! Lots of them!" said Monique, as she bounced ideas off Nurse Joy, only for them to both grow more excited with each idea.
I hummed, deciding I needed something to calm them down. I reached into my pocket, drawing out something I'd held in reserve for each of them.
"This is also the thank you gift for serving as Judges alongside me," I said, handing them an envelope each.
"Oooooh? What is it?" asked Joy as she expertly flicked open the envelope with a nail.
Inside each envelope, a voucher for a visit to a day spa rested. "I did a bit of looking around and the Rocky Springs Day Spa has the best reviews, along with the best word of mouth," I said.
"I'll say," said Monique, as she stared at the giant golden ticket with the words 'all-inclusive' in large bold text.
Nurse Joy fanned her face with the ticket. "Damn, showing a girl a good time isn't a one-off for you, is it?" she said while biting her lip.
I blinked in surprise and she giggled. "Sorry, couldn't resist, seriously thanks though! These are, wow, really nice!" she said, eyeing the ticket with a very pleased look.
I nodded slowly only for Monique and Joy to continue to gush over the voucher. Huh, if they were that good, maybe I'd have to look into going myself?
I made a note to book myself and Sabrina in.
If it was good enough for them to be this happy… Well, I think I wanted that.
My pokemon had garnered a lot of attention with their entry, but now they were happily mingling with other pokemon. I was surprised when I noticed Bertha and Titan locked in a discussion with Archibald and Gardevoir. He seemed to be looking them both over with an appreciative eye and Bertha looked like an innocent maiden as she batted at the air playfully at something Gardevoir had said.
I decided to leave them to it, they were safe enough with the Chairman, he loved pokemon, after all.
I paused and reconsidered the phrasing of that statement, and gave the group another look over.
Bertha was flexing in front of Gardevoir and getting praise, it seemed. Titan was laughing at something said, and I hummed.
Nah, it was fine.
I looked around, spotting more and more familiar faces. Sadly the face I wanted to talk with right now wasn't in the crowd. It seemed like Jet, the Crusher cosplayer, hadn't stuck around. Shame. I would have loved to discuss his Onix body paint style and its impact on the fight.
With Jet not around and therefore not an option, I turned instead towards the trio that I very much hadn't been expecting to find here.
I walked up to the buffet table where Jessie was receiving a good deal of praise for her showing. Next to her Arbok, Tentacruel, and Mawile were wiggling with joy as they stuffed their faces.
James and Meowth were themselves shovelling food into their mouths with a certain desperation, but they paused enough times to shoot Jessie amused looks.
"—said that we were due for some good luck! And I can't think of anything better than having a full stomach right now!" said James.
Meowth swallowed. "I can, we gonna sleep in a bed tonight?"
James and Jessie wilted and I raised an eyebrow in surprise. What was going on here?
I eyed the group and noticed that their little pity party, and probably their table manners, had caused a wide bubble of space around them.
"Seems like a good place for me to insert myself into the conversation, then," I said, grabbing a chair and plonking it down next to James, invading their bubble. He stiffened, causing food to get caught in his throat. He flailed and started to choke.
"Calm down, I'm not here to do anything like you're thinking," I said, slapping him on the back and dislodging the food.
James gasped and took a quick drink to settle his nerves. Jessie shifted so that she was slightly in front of James while he regathered himself. "What are you here for, Gym Leader?"
"Mostly to talk with you, I thought with your last appearance and my… well perhaps short-sighted warning, that you might not have ever come around," I made a show of looking around.
"And yet here you are. Do you like Contests that much?" I asked.
Jessie squirmed. "I… I wasn't sure until today, but Mawile wanted to give it a go and I couldn't say no to her," she said, shooting her pokemon an exasperated but still happy smile.
"Hmmm, rare find that, have you had her long?" I asked, curious, as Mawile happily took a big bite of food only for Jessie to wipe her face with a napkin. Mawile giggled and nuzzled Jessie's hand before Jessie could retract it.
"Not long," James said before coughing. "Not that you wouldn't know that," he said with a slightly snide tone.
I blinked before I realised what he was alluding to. Had he thought I was watching them? I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry to say that you haven't been a factor for me, I've been rather involved in… a lot," I said simply.
James, Jessie, and Meowth blinked and stared at me.
I stared back, feeling like I was missing something, but unsure what.
"You haven't been keeping tabs on us?" Meowth asked carefully, his words tentative as if he were probing murky waters with a stick from as far away as he could.
I chuckled. "Meowth, since we last spoke… I've had to deal with Ace Trainer Will probing my Gym with multiple other Ace trainers, the remnants of the trainer surge, establishing multiple training programs for the trainers under my purview, and deal with Team Rocket multiple times before busting them down."
I gave them a pointed look that would say more than any words that I knew what I was talking about with such a statement, "All of that? On top of running a gym, juggling my family and dealing with the whole issue of…" I trailed off, I'd been about to say something about Flint, but this wasn't the right crowd of people to talk about that.
Or perhaps it was? Jessie, James and Meowth could be surprisingly empathetic when it came down to it.
I decided to leave it at that though, and just shrugged. "There's been more in there, like dealing with the Mt. Silver issue, but yeah, I haven't been stalking you," I said.
Jessie, James, and Meowth all blinked at this. Then, as one, they slumped and exhaled.
"Oh, that's a relief!" said James with relief.
"Urgh! We're such small karp!" said Jessie with a put-upon expression.
"I want to demand that I get back all the beauty sleep I missed 'cause of the stress I've been dealing with!" Meowth said as he tugged on his whiskers.
I chuckled at their different reactions and waved off the heated look Meowth gave me. "Hey, that was entirely your own doing. Don't lay that at my feet," I said.
"Well I'm gonna!" said Meowth, crossing his arms and pouting.
I merely rolled my eyes at him. "What were you talking about with your lack of a roof over your head tonight?" I prompted.
The trio shared a look with each other and then all scratched at the back of their heads as one. "Well, you see," they all started to say together, before they each diverged with the story that meandered around only to bump into the others or contradict what one of them had just said.
Jessie realised this and quickly shut up Meowth and James before coughing into her fist.
"Through a series of unfortunate and totally unrelated events!" she said, giving Meowth and James pointed looks to shut up, before continuing. "We find that we've rather used up all our reserves of cash, and our supplies and camping gear have been damaged."
"It's rather a shame," said James. "But we'll be back on our feet within the week."
Meowth nodded. "Yeah, this used to be a weekly event for us!" he said, like that was something to be proud of.
Jessie facepalmed.
Meowth shot her a look. "Hey? What? It's a good thing we've been able to go three months without this happening! And it took James falling for that Magikarp salesman, you buying that outfit and losing to those creeps, and well, I did nothing wrong," he said shamelessly.
Jessie and James shot him furious looks. "You were the one in charge of our bags when that Raticate swarm came out of the grass!" they snarled together.
Meowth shook his head. "I refuse to take responsibility for that! One of you should have left a pokemon with me instead of going off to bathe in the creek like that! Don't you know what sort of diseases you can pick up washing like that?" he said seriously.
I nodded along. "You should take a camper shower if you're doing that," I said. I gave Jessie another look-over. "Impressive that you are all so clean for today's showing," I said.
The trio all looked away sheepishly and I knew they'd done something wrong.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. How had they lasted as criminals with such honest reactions? Was it just because it was me asking, or were they usually this bad?
"You broke into someone's house and had a shower, didn't you? What happened, did you get chased out?" I said shooting in the dark for the most likely event for a group of… former criminals?
The group coughed and Meowth smirked at James. "The old lady came home while James was in the shower and miiiiiiight have mistaken him for her lover, so we couldn't stay there any longer."
I opened my mouth, about to ask which old lady as chances were I knew them, then I rethought that question and let it remain unspoken.
I didn't want to know what little old grannies were getting up to when they were behind closed doors.
Some of them were far too willing to discuss it without the topic even being brought up.
Old women could be entirely too shameless with you once you were old enough. Sure they had methods of speaking around it, but once you were old enough that you understood what innuendo was… well, suddenly those sweet old ladies gained a lot of… colour.
"Right, putting that way off to the side, where we won't raise that for—" I eyed the group of self-confessed criminals. "—multiple reasons," I said pointedly.
The trio then seemed to realise whom they'd just confessed to and swallowed the food they'd been eating a bit too quickly, causing them to splutter.
I rolled my eyes and let them regain control of themselves.
I raised up my transceiver and drew up 'Jessadia's trainer information. On it, her pokemon roster was displayed along with the various badges she had. I'd need to add that she'd come fourth in the Pewter Gym Contest later tonight, but that was future Brock's job.
I flicked my eyes over it, interested but not surprised to find several recommendations from various Gym Leaders, starting with my comment.
The trio shifted slightly and James mouthed what he was reading quietly, but not quietly enough.
"'Diamond in the rough'… from Brock. 'Skilled', Daisy. 'Top-notch adaptability' from Manny. 'Can bring the firepower', Surge. 'A flower that has blossomed later than most but is all the more beautiful for it, Erika," read James.
I tilted the projected screen so he could read more easily as I shot him an amused look. They had to know I didn't plan to arrest them to be this easy going with me, right?
I watched them gush over the praise that usually didn't get shown to people. This was for Gym Leaders or prospective employers to see. The trainers didn't learn of its existence until they were well and truly done.
When James was finished reading Janine's brief report on 'Jessadia's competencies as a trainer', I pulled my hand back and leaned forward.
Jessie had a big goofy smile on her face. I felt myself relax a little more, if she could make that sort of embarrassed happy face on command, she had missed her calling as an actress.
I considered that thought for a moment. Sabrina was supposed to be interested in that according to the games, but then again Will… I shut that thought down and gave Jessie a moment to bask in the good vibes.
I then coughed. "While the praises of various Gym Leaders will take you far, I'm more interested in the accomplishments that you have on your file," I said pointing at another tab. "Not everyone gets those," I said, opening the tab and finding a note about Jessie and her friends taking part in the Porta Vista incident and being lauded as heroes. Then there was the Saffron City situation where the trio helped capture some violent Team Rocket Members.
"I'm curious about your skills, you've come a long way from the trio that snuck into my Gym only to get tripped up helping people, and then caught in a challenge you never meant to give," I said.
The trio looked at me carefully, a small glimmer of interest sparked in Jessie's eyes while Meowth looked wary. James just looked straight at me openly.
I smiled. "How would you like a job, no," I shook my head before rubbing it and sighing. "I'm doing a bad job of this," I said, taking a moment to focus my mind.
I couldn't approach this like Agatha had, I had to do this in a way that would be tailored to Jessie, James, and Meowth.
I smiled. "You're an odd bunch, aren't you?" I said whimsically, as my mind played out all the cartoons that showed how wacky and weird they could be.
Rockets, blimps, submarines, pokemon riders, sales clerks, and more. Team Rocket had a can-do attitude and the will to pick themselves up time after time.
"You don't quite fit with how society or the people that raised you would like you to, do you?" I said. My words drew reactions, with all of them curling in on themselves slightly. They all noticed the others' discomfort and a spark entered their eyes.
Before they could speak up to protect each other, I smiled. "And that's what makes you great," I said, stopping them short. They went from defensive to bashful in a second.
I waved a hand at them. "You have what is perhaps the most eclectic range of skills around. You have passion and motivation in spades. You haven't had it easy, but that's alright, while things have been rough, you haven't let it hurt you or keep you down. You've struggled and grown into the beings you are today," I said, eying them.
"I like that, I need individuals like that helping me," I said.
James frowned. "You want more assistants for your Gym?" he said.
I shook my head and let my gaze drift over the crowd of rowdy people and the others who were a touch more dignified. They were smiling and laughing. Archibald was standing on the other side of the room with his Gardevoir.
They both smiled and waved at me and I mirrored them before continuing to speak. "Before you or I were born, there was a war so terrible it engulfed the world," I said, turning serious.
The trio blinked and straightened, aware of how serious discussions of the war were.
"There are lots of people working to keep tensions down, to heal old wounds, to find forgotten friends," I said.
"This world," I said, letting a touch of my love for this magical life I'd found myself within bleed into my words. "It's a marvellous place, so full of vibrancy, and if we work for it, it's a magical place full enough for everyone."
I sighed then and let some of the fatigue of running a Gym, of fending back would be Elite Fours, of raising a family, of the gnawing doubt that it wouldn't ever be enough, out to show.
I felt hollow in that moment of allowing it out. "It can be a dark place," I said, thinking of what Giovanni had done to Mewtwo, of how it had felt waking up and finding Flint was gone with barely a note left behind with his family.
I shook my body and pushed down the dark feelings that I knew helped fuel so much of my growth, with what was my secondary energy type with Titan. I smiled a well-practised smile that I'd used a lot in the days after Flint had left.
"The world is not made of just moments of light and dark, though. As much as I wish it were, the world is not some cartoon or child's game," I said. "It would be less if that were the case, but… I digress," I said.
Then I blinked and held in a chuckle as I watched Jessie, James and Meowth eye one another then watch my face, documenting the subtle ways my face tightened or how my eyes didn't light up like they should have. They were observing my mask and memorising it.
I waved a hand in front of myself and let some proper amusement show. "Sorry! Sorry, hehe! That got a little too deep," I said. I scratched the back of my head. "I can get like that sometimes, go running off on tangents of thought," I said.
Jessie opened her mouth for a moment before shutting it and smiling in a practised manner. "Of course," she said.
"What were you building towards?" asked Meowth leadingly. James merely nodded, continuing to watch my face thoughtfully.
I smiled and shook my head. I wasn't going to touch that topic with the Rocket Trio.
Instead I said, "You've all experienced a lot of the bad, I imagine, and you've gotten a taste for some of the good. I want to keep allowing you to have those good moments while also helping me… and people like me, that deal with some of the world's… darker moments," I said tactfully.
"A policeman?" asked Jessie.
James shook his head. "No, Champion Lance announced an initiative for something called the G-men."
"I don't want to be a copper!" wailed Meowth theatrically. "What about my street rep!? Who'd take me seriously?"
He then shot me a look while glancing about. "What's it pay?" he said out of the side of his mouth.
Jessie and James sighed and slumped over as though they'd expected this.
I smirked. "Please, you think I'm just a Gym Leader that helps out the League and the G-men?" I said.
Meowth snorted. "What, are you secretly Agent Pink of the Hero Force?" he said snidely.
I held a masterful poker face before chuckling thanks to a quick flex of Rock energy. "Haha! I don't think Pink's outfit would suit me," I said, crossing my arms and subtly showing that I was much too broad in the shoulders.
Jessie and Meowth nodded, but James tilted his head and narrowed his eyes.
"Yes…" he drawled slowly. "Her colour wouldn't work for you," he said, and I realised a second later that emphasising my build was just giving the disguise expert more information to work with. It didn't matter how good my mask was if he had other information to work off of.
He must have made the connection to Hero Black as he nodded slowly.
Meowth, unaware of what James had picked up, grabbed one of the few bits of food left in his vicinity. "So? You got a job offer?"
I nodded. "How'd you like to work for an organisation specifically aiming to preserve peace, and love, and protect the world from devastation?" I said, throwing some of their famous song lyrics back at them.
Meowth laughed, but Jessie and James looked at me seriously. It took a moment for Meowth to realise they weren't joining him. "Wait? Are you serious?" he asked before leaning in and whispering. "What would you even have us do?"
I laced my hands underneath my chin and smiled. "What you're doing right now," I said.
They blinked. Jessie scoffed. "Pull the other one, it has bells on it," she said sardonically.
I snorted. "Jessie, the three of you have helped out or been involved with some major incidents, I suspect that this will continue to be the case. I want you to be able to keep moving around and helping out where you can. If things are too much for you to handle or you want some support, however? Me and some friends can step in to help you out," I said, tapping on my Xtransciever to make a point of what they'd done in a few months.
That got them stopping and thinking more seriously. "Just, what we're doing right now?" James said, scratching his head thoughtfully. "No going extra or beyond?"
I started to nod, before I paused as another idea occurred to me. "Oh wait, you know my brother and his friends?" I asked.
The trio nodded slowly. "We… know them yes," James said.
"Yeah, that punk Pikachu is always trying to blow our cover!" Meowth said with clenched paws.
"You want us to leave them be?" Jessie said slowly.
I snorted. "Nah, keep challenging them," I held up a hand, "But do it in ways that a friendly rival would. Sometimes throwing them a curve ball is what they need to grow, you don't have to sabotage them, but… don't make it easy for them," I said.
Jessie, James, and Meowth all shared evil grins. "Keep messing with the twerps?"
"Keep it to harmless shenanigans, anything malicious like stealing their pokemon of course is out, but…" I waved a hand in an airy fashion.
I had to admit to finding it rather amusing how I was throwing barriers into Ash, Forrest, and Misty's way for their own good. Did that make me a bad guy?
I then smirked as yet another thought came to me. "My sister will probably be taking part in her Journey in the future, and some friendly rivals trying to catch her out would help sharpen her up some more too." I grimaced. "With her leaving here with a Larvitar, she's going to need it," I said.
The trio all nodded seriously at that, dropping their looks of giddy delight at being given approval to mess with my brother.
"Yeah, that's a hot pokemon right now, on the black market those go for two million," said Meowth. "Not many are willing to take that offer, though, with how close the nesting ground is to the League, along with it being well… a Tyranitar nest you need to raid," he said.
"Is she travelling with a group of friends?" said Jessie.
"Two others at this stage," I said. "She'll also be starting with a Growlithe she's training up now."
"Growlithe are wonderful pokemon, loyal to a fault and a good pokemon that will offer a lot of utility!" said James with a firm nod.
A pokeball on James belt started to open only for James' hands to snap around it and close it. "Not now boy!" said James with a panicked look.
The other pair stiffened and started looking around at the more well-to-do men and women.
I frowned. What were they… I blinked as I connected the dots. James was from an affluent family. His parents might even have come to something like this! Chances were I had been in the room with them if they were at all involved with the social scenes of Kanto. I'd been to too many events in Celadon for that to not be the case!
What were their names… I couldn't recall them, but then again it had been years since I'd watched the cartoon. I'd have to keep an eye out for people with matching features. I shot James' pokebelt a glance. More telling was that James had been talking up Growlithe, and a pokemon had been about to come out. James had Growlie with him.
That was a change from the way things went down in the cartoon. But then again, Jessie didn't get a Mawile for her team. Or at least one that stuck around.
I hummed in thought, drawing the trio's attention back to me. They adopted innocent expressions that wouldn't fool anyone. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "So, how about you give it some thought?" I said. I handed them a guest pass for the trainers' short stay area.
When I reached Meowth I held onto the keycard. "I had the readers and cards updated, are there any technical issues I need to know about with these?" I said.
Meowth inspected the keycard and whistled. "Oh wow! You did fork out good! Nice one! These don't have the issues of the old model you had… Hmmm, I'm going to have to tinker with these, give me a day or two and I can find something," he said.
I rubbed my forehead. "I don't… No, you know what, if there's something I think I'd like to know, write a report on it. I'll pay, we'll call it… Security consultations," I said. It was scarily enough true.
I stood and waved for them to stay seated. "Take the night to think about it. No rush and no pressure if you decide to not accept. I'm happy enough with you doing what you currently are, but I'd like to offer a safety net," I said, before nodding to each of them in farewell.
I made my way directly to the more affluent people to rub elbows and shake hands. More than a few people asked about the training camp at the end of the circuit, but I made sure to emphasise it would be for Pewter trainers predominantly and that other Gym Leaders were setting up their own, which garnered some interest.
When I had a moment to myself I wandered over to grab a drink, only for Archibald to ambush me. "Brock, wonderful event!" he said amicably, clapping my shoulder with one hand while shaking my hand with his other. He then leaned in. "I'd love to take part next year, as a shot caller or a Judge if you'll have me, I rather enjoyed working with Rachel and so did my dear," he said, indicating his companion.
I nodded to Gardevoir. "Glad you enjoyed yourselves," I said easily.
Archibald nodded his head up and down before coughing and dropping his voice to a whisper. "Also, as a silent backer for Agatha's little group, I must say I approve of your eye for talent," he said, flicking his eyes towards Jessie, James and Meowth.
I stiffened and shot him a look before relaxing. "Oh, Gardevoir listened in with…" I frowned. I'd been throwing around some intense emotions, there was no way dark energy hadn't spilled out.
Archibald chuckled. "No, nothing so generic. Gardevoir is skilled at lip reading, it's an old trick we used from… another lifetime ago," he said, and I saw a flicker of something dark in those eyes before they vanished as Gardevoir squeezed his hand and leaned into him. He patted her arm and relaxed. "Another life," he said simply.
I nodded slowly, an idea forming in my mind. "Ah, right, I'll have to keep that in mind going forward," I said.
Archibald clapped me on the shoulder. "Not to worry! I made sure no one else was doing the same and kept your conversation private!" he said with a wink.
He then stretched. "Do say hello to Agatha for me, I think I shall call it here, these old bones can't quite stand up so well these days." Then he winked at me. "Good thing I'll be laying down for what comes next, eh?" he said.
I felt my smile turn brittle as Gardevoir giggled and swatted at Archibald.
Urgh! Old people!
I shook my head and saw out the rest of the evening, knowing that I'd need to mention Team Rocket to the Guardians when we spoke next.
For now, though, I wanted to catch my own rest after supervising the Gym's restoration.
Tomorrow we were back to facing trainers for their badges after all.
I stretched and smiled as a familiar ping went off, reminding me that I had a chat with the Guardians lined up.
Truly, no good deed went unpunished.
Thanks go to my Patreons for your support!
This chapter was proofread by Twmmy and Meneldur! Many thanks for that!
Take away from this chapter? Archibald is a little off but a good man, Hoenn Chairman and his Vaporeon are much much more disturbing than I realized with new context.
Props to James for picking up his Growlithe/Arcanine. He's making up for past mistakes bit by bit. Thank you for including that little tidbit there.
Thanks for the chapter. Hope your time has been filled with new joys and treasured memories.
Props to James for picking up his Growlithe/Arcanine. He's making up for past mistakes bit by bit. Thank you for including that little tidbit there.
Thanks for the chapter. Hope your time has been filled with new joys and treasured memories.
It's kinda inevitable that some people would like pokemon a little too much, the Harkness test exists for a reason.
Let's just hope they're not as prevalent as furries IRL. *remembers the costumed pokemaniacs from all of the games*
and I just disturbed myself by realizing how common this might be in that setting.
Last edited:
- Location
- Philippines
It's not exactly new for this fic though. If I recall correctly, Surge had a Jynx for a girlfriend and he was part of the Pokemon Fanclub as well.
I thought that was a fake girlfriend and actually some sort of spy/informant
Norr
Misophist
- Location
- Any chair
Yeah, that scene gave me a weirdly visceral reaction for some reason.
Now that I've had time to think on it, I think it was the fact that he named his vaporeon Candy (probably as in 'eye candy'). It was just the one thing that took that scene from "A person calming himself by looking at something beautiful" to "Shudder".
And I think that was exactly what Viva01 was going for.
Well...Gardevoirs are kind of the archetype staple.
Chapter 196 - Talks and a return to old tricks
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
"—monitoring the Aqua submarine, but when we take into account their previous tactics there should be another two or three subs," said Agent Wilkins, the man on the ground that we had in the Orange Islands.
I rubbed my eyes to work out some of the irritation. It'd been a long day and I was backing up story time with my family with another meeting. I sadly needed to be part of this to find out what the latest intel on Team Aqua was.
"What would you say they're doing?" Karen said, speaking up first.
Wilkins hummed. "They came around Ascorbia before diverting hard north to evade being detected by the local firefighting team."
I frowned. "Firefighting team?" I said slowly, my mind pinging with the memory of something.
"Captain Aidan," Koga said. "He is a man who fought well during the war, retired there and has taken over training a dedicated group of pokemon. We butted heads a number of times, but his dedication to Fuchsia was never in doubt. He has since followed the flight path of a certain Legendary fire type and set himself up so that he will be one of the first responders."
Agatha nodded her head. "He is also the source of many of the young starter Squirtles that trainers who excel in Kanto receive," she said.
I blinked slowly. "We stopped there for a few days, didn't we, Sabrina?"
Sabrina nodded. "Tide, Hypnotoad, Shin, Chou and my own Starmie received training there while the Captain ran us around." She sniffed pointedly. "I did not appreciate volunteering for it and the Captain did not like the way I 'lifted weights' or got through his obstacle course," she said.
"It got very… heated," I said as I nodded. It was slowly coming back to me. A memory of a much younger, much less patient Sabrina outright disassembling the obstacle course and walking through it to prove a point. I lifted up my Xtransciever hoping against hope that I still had the video. I found it quickly and tapped it.
Sabrina inhaled and vanished on her screen in a teleport to appear at my side. "You took a video of that?" she said.
I chuckled and shut it down. "Yeah? It was pretty amusing to watch the Captain get all angry only for you to shut him down like that. I'd forgotten I had it."
"Ahem," said Koga. "As glad as I am for you two to have personal experience with the residents of Ascorbia, we need to continue our discussion of the threat of Team Aqua," Koga said. "Did Captain Aidan not discover anything?" he said, dragging the meeting back.
Wilkins nodded. "He did detect something and we tried to assist him, but the submarine was too fast for Captain Aidan to get close despite using a Blastoise. He eventually had to return to his island, but he certainly gave them a fair chase."
"Good, that will make Team Aqua more cautious in future," Koga said.
Agatha sniffed. "They may react the other way, though, and see Captain Aidan and his pokemon as a threat, especially with the number of utility pokemon he will have transporting him and his team around. We will need more local agents with eyes on the island and funds allocated to support any… accidents that might befall the good Captain."
Agatha narrowed her eyes. "We need people that are willing to move to tropical islands," she said.
Everyone on the call bar Sabrina snorted in amusement. Karen went as far as to drape a hand over her head. "Oh dearie me, I'm being required to move to a tropical island for work! Whatever shall I do?"
Agatha shook her head despite her lips twitching. "Alright, we shouldn't have any issues with people wanting to move to the islands. I am already aware of some channellers that want to move out as they feel like they have seen too much of the dreary cemetery-ridden landscape of Lavender Town," she said with a haughty sniff.
Karen tilted her head. "Uhm, they aren't kidding, you crazy old woman, they hate it there beneath you since you've started moving back," she said shamelessly.
Agatha shot Karen a look. "You've grown cheeky since you left my tutelage, perhaps some remedial lessons are in order?"
Sabrina tapped me on the shoulder and I glanced back to find her offering me a small plate of cut up berries which she munched on while watching Agatha and Karen have a catfight. I bit my lip, amused despite myself.
"Bring it you old—"
I decided to cough and smile pleasantly. "Janine, as the host it might be best for you to mute Agatha and Karen while giving them a private chat channel for them to talk it out," I said.
Janine typed quickly on her side and nodded. "Done," she said.
Sabrina let out a little 'heh' of victory as Karen's mouth moved but no sound came out. Agatha mirrored her. Lucy must have muted her own feed as she fell silent while her hand shot to her lips as she burst into giggles.
Koga flicked his daughter a look that shifted from amused to begrudging respect. "Continue, Wilkins," he said, and the man detailed how it had taken him another two days to find the Aqua sub once again.
"The far eastern side of Butwhal seemed to have been assessed, but was passed over. The submarine then assessed Hamlin and Kumquat islands. I believe they have established a temporary base in Kumquat, as they have gone low into sea caves that I can't access without giving away that I am observing them."
I drew up a map. "Kumquat is a major city for the Orange islands, why would they settle there?"
"Proximity to Kanto seems to be the deciding factor," Wilkins stated. "I believe that they will eventually ditch Kumquat, however, and go for the much easier option of Tarroco Island, which is a no-capture zone for trainers. It will be an easy site for them to set up in, with access to local water pokemon."
Lucy cleared her throat. "Why wouldn't they set up further south in islands such as Cleopatra, or even going as far as Mandarin Island? It offers the most room for them to disguise their activities," she said.
Janine looked to her father, but he merely looked ahead. Wilkins made a noise of thought. "It's probably operational ranges on their submarines, they need to come up for air every now and then, and the further they have to go through populated centres, the more risk they take of being spotted, especially if they're operating as a standard submarine pod."
I shared a glance with Sabrina. She nodded before speaking up, "It may also have something to do with the Shamouti current that runs through the centre of the archipelago." She clicked on my computer and drew up the map which she shared with the others.
She started drawing different coloured loops.
"The current of Shamouti is considered treacherous due to how it shifts through the various islands. It always centres around Shamouti, but it never remains on the same course." She demonstrated the various routes that the current could take, drawing murmurs from Janine and Koga.
Koga put a hand to his chin in thought. "Wherever did you learn of this?"
"Shamouti," I said, "It is a known phenomenon there and well documented. They have watchers out each season to track the current, as it will dictate the flow of currents for the entire archipelago for the rest of the year."
"What causes it?" asked Wilkins.
I drew up Wilkins' file which I had access to in the Guardians' information. I flicked Sabrina another look as I replied. "It's thought to be influenced by all the water pokemon in the Orange Islands," I said. In a more private chat, I wrote out a message 'Classified above Wilkins' clearance level. Upgrade?'
Koga, Janine and Agatha didn't bat an eye while Karen and Lucy twitched in surprise.
Koga slowly nodded. "I think it might be wise to keep Wilkins in the loop. Wilkins, I am going to advocate that your clearance level be raised to the highest level, this will grant you access to much more sensitive information. Brock, Sabrina, it seems we have much to learn about Shamouti. I can only assume that the current is caused by energies given off from the nesting sites of the Legendary birds located around Shamouti?"
"Legendaries? Multiple? Sweet creator!" Wilkins hissed out a startled oath.
I wavered a hand back and forth. "That is one local theory, but it is poorly understood. The locals of Shamouti have a ceremony where they will 'calm' the local Legendary birds," I said.
I frowned and brought up my Xtransciever. "There is a local tale they recite each year and it is retold as the Shamouti Prophecy," I said, paging through the files I had. "I'll have to upload the recordings I took from the ceremony years ago."
"Disturb not the harmony of Fire, Ice or Lightning, lest these Titans wreak destruction upon the world in which they clash. Though the Water's Great Guardian shall arise to quell the fighting, alone its song will fail, thus the earth shall turn to ash. O Chosen One, into thine hands, bring together all three. Their treasures combined tame the Beast of the Sea," said Sabrina reciting the Shamouti Prophecy perfectly, or at least the part that was relevant to what we were talking about..
Koga and the others blinked.
Lucy chewed her lips. "Fire, Ice, and Lightning are easy enough to draw conclusions on, unless it's deliberately misleading. Urgh, I've read so many books with prophecies being brought up as a plot point and they're never as good or straightforward as they seem!"
Agatha's finger rose and poked at the video. I chuckled. "I think Agatha wants to speak again," I said.
Janine unmuted Agatha and the woman shot her a cross look. "Well, thank you for allowing me to speak once more, child," she said heatedly.
Karen mimed laughing as her video showed it had 'raised its hand'. Janine did not unmute Karen but merely nodded equanimously. "It helped to keep us moving along," she said.
Agatha's scowl deepened before she huffed and dropped the matter. "The matter of course turns towards that of 'Water's Great Guardian,' and that its song alone will fail. This clearly marks out another pokemon that we have not noted. Kyogre has never been noted to pass through this region. Kyogre… failing is also a concerning prospect," Agatha said.
"It's not Kyogre that we think is there," I said.
I brought up some of the temple wall pictures and began to share them with the group. "Rather, we think it is a pokemon known as Lugia, an extremely rare Legendary that is known for calming other pokemon according to the legends surrounding it," I said. The stone carving showed a very crude drawing of Lugia.
"It has a powerful psychic presence," said Sabrina. "I could feel it at times when we were travelling through the Orange islands. It had a beautiful song," she said, causing me to blink in surprise.
She'd never mentioned that, but there had been a few times when she'd wander off to stand with her feet in the water, staring out into the sea with a calm expression. That certainly explained those moments.
"Lugia, a psychic-water pokemon?" asked Agatha.
I shrugged. "It has large wing-like fins that might make it flying as well," I suggested, just for the sake of accuracy.
The others dismissed this due to the words 'Guardian of Water', with only Sabrina giving me a momentary glance over. When I shot her a smile she merely nodded. Sometimes I had to wonder if she knew that I knew more than I should.
She never pushed for me to reveal anything, though, not since her initial freak-out over my arrival at her Gym when we were young.
I think that was one of the reasons that she was easy to love, she didn't push me about things I was uncomfortable with.
Koga thanked Wilkins before dismissing him with a reminder to look over Shamouti when he had the chance and to establish potential sites where Team Aqua would set up bases in or around Tarroco Island.
"This marks another site we may need to keep an eye on," Koga said thoughtfully, his face cast in a stern expression. "The Orange islands are becoming contentious sites."
I paused to consider that. He certainly hit the nail on the head with that comment. "Perhaps there might be other organisations looking to move there as well? Remnants of Team Rocket?" I suggested.
"Very likely," said Koga.
Agatha grunted at this. "We will need to shift some resources away and cultivate others, we will also need people that have a good understanding of the islands."
I hummed in consideration. "We could increase our recruitment, I had considered three possible candidates already," I said, deciding now was a good enough time to broach the topic of Team Rocket.
"Ho? You'd allow us to poach Jackson?" Agatha said with a pleased smile.
I blinked, having not considered him. He did rather fit the slot of a trainer who had experience in the Orange and Sevii islands… I frowned. "I'm not sure if he's the right fit for induction into—"
"He is not," said Koga firmly.
When I blinked at him slowly Koga waved a hand. "While Janine was there she performed some assessments for the older trainers with an eye towards potential recruitment… We sadly did not focus our attention on the new hires." Koga bowed his head. "I apologise for this oversight on our part, Daniel… was not within our expectations."
Janine also bowed with him and I sighed, understanding that this had probably been something weighing on him for a while now.
"I don't blame you for that," I said easily.
Koga rose and returned my nod. "If you want we can perform more reviews with your staff?" he said.
I considered that. Would it be useful to have people like Rachel, Alexa, Rocko, or Dennis as part of the Guardians?
I shook my head. "No, let them be, they have their own duties, but you're not wrong in that Jackson could be useful for his familiarity with the islands. I'd be very interested in a few of them, along with some of the deeper ocean areas for their potential access to as yet unfound Rock pokemon," I said. "I'll mention it to him as an option to expand the Gym, now that things are calming down," I said.
I then raised a hand. "He wasn't who I wanted to raise up though. I know a trio of… well, misfits and delinquents. They all don't really fit in any typical-sized hole if you catch my drift. They also… haven't always been on the side of good," I said, my eyes darting around to see if anyone reacted to this.
Agatha raised an eyebrow, as though telling me to get on with it. "They used to work for Team Rocket," I said, "but they've also been involved in a number of incidents where they were critical in assisting the situation by making it less severe than it could have been." I linked Jessie and James's trainer profiles.
"Who's the third?" Lucy asked as she squinted at the feed, showing that she must have been reading their trainer information.
"Meowth," I said.
"You want to induct a pokemon?" Agatha said.
I nodded. "He's an extremely clever cat, and can come up with a lot of cons. He reads and uses security magazines. He'd be a great… cat burglar if nothing else," I said. Next to me Sabrina twitched and shot me a look, demanding I stop making puns.
I resisted the urge and shot her a wink to show I'd behave. She narrowed her eyes but relaxed against me, her hands shifting to pet Zubat who'd been asleep on my shoulder like some quasi-epulaet.
"A pokemon as a Guardian," Agatha said with a shake of her head. "Well, it's not like pokemon aren't part of our teams already, so why not?" she waved her hand. "You have my support. They won't be the first people that we've flipped for our purposes." She smirked in an off-hand manner and I had a premonition of what was to come.
"During the war, I had a bit of a reputation for 'flipping' people, you could say," she said with a glint in her eyes. "I had this move in the bedroom where I'd—" her voice fell silent as Janine muted her once again.
Karen, who'd yet to be unmuted, began laughing hysterically.
"You… are rather proficient at that, daughter," said Koga, his words holding a certain level of caution to them. Janine merely smiled and I mentally attributed her with a wagging tail for earning praise from her father.
"So, you're good with them? I'll inform them they're in," I said.
Koga nodded. "I shall send a courier Fearow with a package only you can open Brock, take it and hand it to them."
"That's fine," I said before scratching the back of my head. "I told them that I want them to keep doing what they're doing right now, which is going around Kanto challenging Gyms and contests to get stronger. Make them a roving band of troubleshooters," I said.
Koga blinked. "Unorthodox, but not unheard of." His eyes flicked to Agatha. "What are your thoughts, Agatha?"
Janine unmuted Agatha just in time for her answer. "Feh! Let them be if they're that small, but make sure they come around to Lavender, I want them to meet my latest protege," she said. "I shall also test them myself! No doubt you were easy on them, Brock!"
I rolled my eyes and waved her off.
Finally, the topic turned towards the final item on our agenda. "New Island…" Koga began.
"It's where Mewtwo was created and it seems to be where he has returned to," I said, bringing up the information that had been compiled since we'd last had a chat about this with Koga. I turned my attention to Sabrina.
"You have the best understanding of Mewtwo," I said carefully. "Do you have any idea why he's gone here?" I asked.
Sabrina frowned slightly. "Mewtwo, was not a blank slate, he is like…" She considered her words for a moment before speaking. "Imagine that your memories form up a set of buildings and are organised into streets. Mewtwo is like a town that has been partially demolished, only for the ruins of the former town to be paved over with shoddy building material. It looks like everything is normal at a glance, but as soon as you start trying to dig up a basement or lay any true foundations, the previous memories are uncovered."
Sabrina gestured in a vague motion. "When we were fighting with them, I made sure to implant a number of what would be deemed 'core memories' of mine. These core memories are fundamental and powerful. By exposing him to experiences like this, I caused a flood of emotion that washed away the mental constructs that Team Rocket had built."
"Huh, so you just gave him a shock to the noggin? Doesn't sound that hard," Karen said with a sniff.
I raised an eyebrow as Sabrina shook her head. "I was using a metaphor that is barely adequate to give you some idea. What I did was infinitely harder than that, but I had to dumb it down for you to understand," Sabrina said.
Karen narrowed her eyes, only for Janine to clear her throat and move her hand towards a button once more. Karen kept her mouth shut.
Sabrina nodded in thanks and continued. "I believe that Mewtwo has returned to New Island due to it being his birthplace and the place that he has the strongest resonance with. He is establishing a home for himself. I believe that we should give him some more time before attempting to visit him ourselves in a peaceful manner. Mewtwo is a young pokemon despite his power and will lash out if we come in too aggressively. I think that I need to be there to make… third contact," she said.
The others all nodded at this and Agatha eventually sighed and bobbed her head in acceptance. "You are the expert in psychic matters, we shall default to your judgement."
She then straightened. "Was there anything else that needed to be raised for this meeting?"
"I'm organising a group of geologists and scientists to look into potential sites for Mega stones," I said.
"Hoh, that is something that we will need to con—" Agatha began only for me to shake my head.
"I've already mentioned it to Oak, and he's too big a name. I'll also be having Flint lead things up so best to let this be a more… public project," I said.
"Tch, very well then," Agatha said.
"This is something that we require," Koga said. "With Steven Stone stealing a march we will need to facilitate discovering as much as we can about Mega stones."
"I've already bounced some theories to Flint and I think we have some solid leads," I said.
"Hmmm, well dibs on any of the dark-type stones you can find," Karen said.
"Might be a bit tough as we're looking into nesting grounds or swarm sites. With Sharpedo that's going to be a tough ask. Houndoom might be easier?" I said carefully.
Karen snorted. "Easier to find? Yeah? To set something up that is dedicated? Yeeeeeeaaaaah this is going to be hard," she said.
I shrugged. "We'll be looking for investors," I said.
Agatha nodded. "I shall talk to some people," she said. "Good work taking the initiative on this," she said. "Anything else to raise for discussion?"
When none of us had anything more to raise, Agatha bid us a good evening and we signed off.
Sabrina yawned and wrapped her arms around me. "Carry me to bed?" she said playfully.
"I think I can handle that," I said, taking her in my arms and standing.
Sabrina smiled winningly at me, only for her expression to falter. "Brock, there is a Meowth that is… oh, he's just testing himself against your security doors," she said with a tilt of her head. "Ah, he's the one you nominated?" she asked.
I nodded and Sabrina continued to stare at the wall where she could no doubt see him. "Hmmm, he can have his fun, let's go have our own," she said with a smile.
I returned Zubat to a pokeball and carried Sabrina to bed. When I took too long Sabrina teleported us to the room.
The next morning saw me scaling the plateau while Selene watched on. Gible clung to me while Zubat fluttered around me, getting in the way far more than she was assisting me. Her little wings flapped into my face more than a few times as she flitted in and out.
"You gotta work on pulling up sharper Zubat," I said, as she smacked me for the fifth time in ten metres. "In and out darts, keep working on it for agility," I said.
When she tried to go faster she ploughed into the side of my head, causing me to grunt in pain. I could probably reinforce myself with rock energy, but then Zubat would be like a bug hitting a windshield.
So instead I took the hits as part of the training and continued to climb the plateau, my muscles aching at the new morning workout that Trixie had dropped off for me before sprinting off.
It had been a while since I'd done some proper mountain climbing.
Beneath me, Yolanda led a cadre of trainers in her own workout, with Spot and Terra at her side.
At the moment the group were working through as many push-ups as they could.
Dennis and Rocko were leading the pack easily, while A.J. was doggedly working to catch them. Yolanda otherwise came in a solid fourth place with Greta in fifth. Crystal, who'd joined in, looked gutted when she failed on the twenty-eighth push-up, only to learn she wasn't even in the same ballpark as Greta or Yolanda.
"I'm the weakest of us?" she whimpered with a twitch.
I glanced around, wondering for a moment if I hadn't heard the noise of glass shattering.
I shook it off, must have just been Crystal's understanding of the world breaking.
When Yolanda led the gang through a jog while carrying Terra with Spot at her side to keep her moving, Crystal was forced to scamper after her, her own pokemon jogging along with hints of exhaustion showing.
When I was done I scrambled down, the climb down working similar yet different muscles than the ascent.
I quickly jogged on to catch up with Greta. "Hey, good work during the Contest. How's Ivysaur going with his evolution?" I asked.
Greta grinned through her fatigue and shot the faithful starter a proud look. He was shuffling along doggedly, but his new weight was making it rough for him. "He's adjusting! I think he's really gotten stronger, though! We tested out some of his moves late last night and he's gotten faster and more powerful in a whole range of ways!" She then shot Ivysaur a small grimace. "He is a bit slower and larger, though, so we have to take that into account."
"Nice, let's you and I do some work together this week. I think it's due time for you to challenge another Gym. You and A.J. can talk to each other and we can set something up later in the week, yeah?" I said.
Greta licked her lips and nodded. "Y-yeah! I mean yes! That would be good!" she said.
I clapped her on the shoulder only to accelerate and catch Cranidos before he could launch a sneak attack on Greta. I grabbed him by the neck and drove him into the ground.
"It was cute when you were a baby, but I think you need to learn to stop attacking out of nowhere like that," I said.
I then lifted him up and flicked him on the snout. "If you want to fight, challenge them, but accept that they can say yes or no." I tapped him on the nose when he started to look a little defiant. "Do you want to fight today in the Gym? We have a few first-badge challengers," I asked.
That got him perking up and I wagged a finger in front of him. "Time to listen well then, 'cause you need to be on your best game," I said, leading him off to do some obedience training that started with Simon Says.
I quickly had Cranidos following along until he was visibly growing frustrated.
Just before he threw a tantrum I let him off the chain. "Simon says Headbutt that rock!" I called and he leapt to obey, earning a firm pet and a reward treat from me.
"Nicely done buddy, you lured them in and then crushed them with a single well placed headbutt. That's real strength," I said, stroking along his spine and cleaning his dome. He crooned happily and I ran him through another round.
When Rocko approached I gave him some instructions, "Can you grab those trainers in the guest rooms from last night? Give me another twenty or thirty and bring them to me?"
"Roger boss!" he said as he continued to jog on.
I then turned my attention back to Cranidos. "Alright! Simon says stand on one foot!" I said to continue.
Zubat and Gible joined in, and I didn't have the heart to tell them this was meant to just be for Cranidos.
I got a whole three minutes of him following orders before he started to twitch in agitation. "Alright, your turn," I said, allowing Cranidos to lead the game for once.
"Cran?" he said before he grinned and chirped about lowering your head.
I did not need to be psychic to predict what he was going to do next. Thankfully he charged and I merely stepped out of the way with a grin. "Ha! You forgot to say Simon says!" I said as he slammed into a rock wall.
"Gibl—" I started to say before aborting that and pointing to Zubat. "Zubat's turn!" I said, and for the next minute, we flapped around happily before hugging each other. When Gible hugged Cranidos, the hard-headed pokemon tried to headbutt the ground shark, only to get a nibble in response.
I snorted and Cranidos grumbled while Gible chattered happily.
I called that game to an end then before going through some basic moves with Cranidos. "Alright, show me your Rock Smash!" I said, letting Cranidos off the leash.
Cranidos sprinted at a rock before pummeling it. "Good! Now I want a Fake Out with a kick! Use your legs! They're strong too!" I called, and this time Cranidos did as I ordered, spinning and smashing with his legs.
"Excellent!" I said, making sure to give out praise. "Show me your Leer!"
Cranidos straightened up and shot me a look that had me shivering. "Perfect!" I said. "Let's get you cleaned up for today's matches! Report to Chansey!" I concluded, calling the training to an end as I moved on to work with Tirtouga and Anorith, who I was also hoping to give some time to.
As I made my way to the pond Rocko intercepted me. "Morning Brock! Got those trainers you wanted to talk to," he said, waving a hand to Jessie, James and Meowth. I thanked him and he trotted off to perform another task, leaving me with plenty of room to talk privately with the trio.
Meowth, I noted, looked very tired but pleased with himself. "So it took you a while, but you worked out a hack, eh?" I asked.
Meowth blinked at me before rearranging his features into a smug look. "What else were you expecting when you called in the best but success?" he said.
"Hmmmm, how long does your method take without knowing about it?"
Meowth coughed. "It took me half the night to stumble on it, and then another couple hours to verify it works… It only works on some of the doors, though, cause I saw you've gone for extra security with a two-factor authentication and transceiver tech." He shot me a finger. "I wasn't aware of that!"
"I'm not going to hand out my security specs to just any Meowth," I said smugly, pleased that he hadn't been able to get past that extra feature I'd asked for on my own office, the medical bay and pokeball storage room, and the 'duck pond'. There was also the fact that the Porygon monitored the doors nowadays.
I'd woken up to a lot of low-priority warnings that featured camera snapshots of Meowth. It was good to see he was being honest with me on how long it had taken him to 'break in'.
"So I spoke with the group I mentioned last night, and they're for it, if you are," I said, cutting to the chase.
Jessie, James and Meowth all shared a look. "We… talked," Jessie said. "We've agreed that… a safety net would be nice and that our current… circumstances are good for us." She made a face as though this was a difficult admission for her.
I smiled and James coughed. "They've been pretty incredible actually, we're still waiting for the other shoe to drop," he said.
I shot him a look. "Yeah, I get feeling that way," I said.
Meowth coughed. "Not to ruin a good thing, but… what if our old… pals decide to reach out to us?"
I smiled, I had an answer for this already thought up. "You accept and go along while telling us. Keep your eyes and ears open. The group you're going to be a part of from now on? We're very interested in what Team Rocket is up to," I said.
"Fearow!" shrieked a bird as it began to plummet towards me.
No less than eight rocks shot up from the ground in front of the Fearow, forcing it to pull up from its dive sharply. "Row!?" it shrieked as it darted its head around in fear.
I whistled. "All good! It's expected! Fearow, come in more carefully!" I called, cupping my hands so it could hear me. It came down much more slowly with its head darting about.
Jessie, James and Meowth looked around and spotted three of the pokemon that had launched the preemptive air defense attacks. I knew from training that the first round was always just warning shots.
If Fearow had kept on coming, then they and others would have gotten serious.
There was a no-fly zone around most Gyms in Indigo due to their potential nature as military assets, after all. The only exclusions that I knew of were Celadon and Cerulean. Surge had been very twitchy about allowing people to watch his match against Will via pokenet due to old instincts, but had allowed it with so many eyes watching for trouble.
Fearow delivered a packet that had a code lock on it, and with a swift input of my Guardian code the case unlocked to reveal three matching holopads.
"Welcome to the Guardians," I said, handing over the flashy pieces of technology.
The trio accepted them and blinked when three identical identification sequences began. Meowth dropped his, only for it to not interrupt the process.
"Jeez lewiz! Warn a guy first!" he said to me as the scan locked in his biometrics.
"Sorry, forgot about that," I said, which mollified Meowth a little.
When the sequence was done and he unlocked the pad he whistled. "Wow! There's some interesting little tidbits on display here!" I smirked. He'd gone straight for the morning news that was compiled for easy reading.
Jessie looked to be doing a deeper dive on what features it had, while James was personalising his to have a different colour scheme.
Meowth glanced up at me. "This is pretty nice!" He said, like a cat that had just discovered how to invest in Cream Co. He then tilted his head. "What comes next?"
I smiled, "Well, how about—" a rumble interrupted me and I took a moment to realise it had come from all of our stomachs. I shared a look of disbelief with the others before laughing as one.
When we were done I waved a hand for them to follow. "Let's start with breakfast, from there? The world!" I said.
The trio cheered at this and I felt like everything was falling into place.
Over breakfast I prodded them into revealing the various adventures they'd had so far this year. Learning about the various holes they'd dug leading to Ash, Forrest, and Misty falling into them was a little amusing but also worrying. "Probably best to change it up. While they'll probably walk it off, let's not actually hurt them going forward, yeah?"
The trio considered this. James tilted his head. "You want harmless fun pranks that jerk them around?"
Jessie squinted while tapping her spoon on her empty bowl. "I feel like there's a word for that?"
"Shenanigans?" suggested Meowth as he finished licking the cream off his bowl.
"Munchlax!" chimed Munchlax, indicating the dishwasher.
"Huh? Oh right, yeah I can do that," said Meowth as he moved to collect the plates from the trio and myself before depositing them in the sink.
I hummed, glancing at Munchlax who was ignoring me as he bustled into the lounge room where he started putting away the younger twins' toys. I considered Meowth.
Hmmm, why not? "Can you ask him if he's happy here? Or if he needs anything?" I asked.
Meowth repeated the question to Munchlax when he wandered back and the little pokemon shot him a thumbs up before chattering away. "Munch! Lax Mun Munch! Munchlax Munch Munch Munch Lax!" he chirped.
Meowth nodded along. "He says that he likes his life here. He especially loves it when he gets to listen to story time, but that you haven't been telling as many stories of late. He misses that."
I coughed in surprise, feeling touched that all he wanted was more stories.
Jessie cooed at that and James shot the little pokemon a radiant smile.
I nodded at Munchlax. "Sure, I'll try and read more to you and my siblings," I said.
Munchlax darted in to hug me before running off with a happy "Munch!"
The trio shared a smile with each other.
"So? What next?" I prompted.
Jessie frowned. "I need to complete my pokemon team and get stronger."
"Don't forget I've given you access to a stable, not mine, but one that handles other pokemon to a high level," I said, causing Jessie to blink in surprise.
"Oh? Really? I hadn't realised our deal would encompass that," said Jessie.
I smirked. "You're going to find a lot of prior issues gone now, Jessie," I said. "Maybe take your trainer I.D. to the bank sometime to get yourself some more supplies to start off, hey?" I said.
The trio quickly checked Jessie's card and whistled at the amount on there. "That's enough to get parts for me to build at least three Rocket blimps!" Meowth said.
I chuckled and was about to suggest they spend it on less flashy items, before clamping my mouth shut. If they wanted to do this their way, then I just had to trust in them to reach the milestone by shutting up.
A task that was much more difficult than it should be with how each suggestion grew more and more outlandish, leaving me to hold my placid smile while Guardian Team Three— formerly Team Rocket— grew more and more excited about the future.
When they departed, they did so with a much more upbeat spirit, while I could only rub my chin and wonder if I hadn't just made a terrible mistake.
For an infinitely small moment of time, I empathised with Giovanni. Then I crushed that emotion ruthlessly.
I entered the Gym and swept through the morning's paperwork, seeking a distraction.
When it came time for the first gym match, I had to fight the grin off my face as the lights went out.
The trainer entered and one light burst to full power, lighting them up and causing them to flinch.
Out of the darkness, I spoke lines that I'd said a hundred, if not a thousand times now to first-time trainers.
My voice, like the stone carving out its grove in the mountain, rumbled out, filling all corners of the room. "You dare challenge the Pewter City Gym?"
The boy, a young trainer by the name of Trent, flinched and turned in my direction, eyes wide with fear. He hadn't been expecting this and it was clear to anyone watching he was crumbling.
"Well?" I said, prompting them to speak. "Have you come here to challenge me?" I asked, lowering my tone just a fraction.
Trent swallowed and straightened. "I-I have! I have come to-b-b-beat you!" he bleated out, turning cherry red.
"Ho? Is that so?" Another light burst to life above me. "I am Brock and this is my Gym, let's see if you have what it takes!" I said, striding down before leaping across to the podium.
I locked eyes with the trainer and got to watch as a fire entered his eyes and he began to stand taller. The fear vanished.
I felt myself relax a little more and enjoy the moment as Cranidos' pokeball enlarged in my hand. This was one of the things I'd been missing and getting to return to it felt like I'd come back to a favourite hobby more than a part of my job.
"Trainers! Are you ready?" called Jackson from the referee's podium.
We both nodded and sent out our pokemon.
"Go Nuzleaf!" Trent called.
"Go Cranidos!" I said, interested that he had a second stage pokemon like this for his first badge. It was a good match up.
"Nuzleaf! Razor Leaf!" called Trent. A good move to start, and against Cranidos it would surely knock him out if I allowed it to land. Sadly for Trent, I didn't want to let it be too easy for him.
"Cranidos! Charge to the right fast! Break up that boulder and get some dust coverage!" I called, surprising everyone with how hard I was going out.
Trent didn't know any better, merely grunting and leaning in as his pokemon's attack missed. "Nuzleaf! They're afraid of that move! Let's do some Growth!"
"Cranidos, lead with a Mudslap before closing in!" I called. Out of the dust a slap sounded out as Cranidos slapped some mud with his tail and launched it straight into Nuzleaf's eyes, startling the pokemon as it was blinded.
Cranidos poured on the speed seeing his chance. He lowered his head and brayed in excitement.
"Fire on the nose! Slightly to your left! Hold firm!" Trent called out. His Nuzleaf listened and followed the order and Cranidos suddenly found himself having to charge through a wave of Razor Leaf that cut him down.
He brayed once and fell, sliding to a stop just before Nuzleaf.
"Nuz?" asked the still blinded pokemon as he listened carefully.
"Cranidos is unable to battle!" called Jackson. His voice startled Nuzleaf before he did a happy jig. Trent grinned but gave his pokemon a quick look over. "Best not to test our luck! Let's trade out for Mankey!" he called, sending out said pokemon.
Mankey appeared and looked around with a deceivingly happy expression. I sent out my Onix and sure enough the happy-go-lucky Mankey's smile dropped as it unleashed a pair of Karate Chop onto my pokemon as I only got off one Tackle in return.
Trent gaped when Jackson raised his flag. "Onix is unable to battle! Trent is therefore the victor!" he called.
"I did it?" Trent said hesitantly.
I grinned and nodded, returning my Onix. "That you did, young man!"
Trent blinked. "You're not kidding with me? You didn't go easy?"
I coughed, suddenly sheepish. "I went to the limits of and a bit beyond the first badge level," I said. I eyed him. "You probably could have challenged at the second tier with the pokemon you have and comfortably won, third tier would have been a tougher match, but for your first badge? You had a very strong showing," I complimented him.
"Oh! Anita must not have known about that! She always said I was too weak to fight you and I needed to keep training… with how things were with all those scary-looking trainers that came through for months at the start of the circuit, it made sense," he said.
"Ah, yeah, this year is tougher with trainer battles, but the Gym itself is still the same. It's different when you accept a fight out in the wilds or at the end of year circuit," I said. I gave him a smile. "You'll have to hustle if you want to make this year's circuit," I said.
"You think I could make it?" he said, with the air of someone who had spent so long being told he couldn't, he didn't have the confidence in himself.
Jackson and I shot each other a worried glance. "Yeah? With some work?" I said.
"Huh, I'll have to talk to Anita about it," he said with a nervous twitch.
"Anita?" I asked.
"TRENT! TRENT! YOU BETTER NOT BE GETTING A BIG HEAD DUE TO BROCK GOING EASY ON YOU!" screamed a voice from the stands.
I blinked and looked up to find a girl who looked to be of age with Trent. Trent flinched. "Ah! I won't!"
"Good! Now come up here and cheer for me!" she shouted.
Trent scurried off and I stared. He'd forgotten to take his badge. I shot what I knew to be my next challenger a frown. "Right, this is going to be… different," I said, as an idea of what was going on started to form.
I stepped over to the podium wondering what I'd find with my next challenger.
For better or worse it was time to throw a barrier or two at this young Anita and find out what made her tick as a trainer.
A.N.Thanks to all my supporters!
Thanks also go to Twmmy and Mendelur for proofreading this chapter!
I rubbed my eyes to work out some of the irritation. It'd been a long day and I was backing up story time with my family with another meeting. I sadly needed to be part of this to find out what the latest intel on Team Aqua was.
"What would you say they're doing?" Karen said, speaking up first.
Wilkins hummed. "They came around Ascorbia before diverting hard north to evade being detected by the local firefighting team."
I frowned. "Firefighting team?" I said slowly, my mind pinging with the memory of something.
"Captain Aidan," Koga said. "He is a man who fought well during the war, retired there and has taken over training a dedicated group of pokemon. We butted heads a number of times, but his dedication to Fuchsia was never in doubt. He has since followed the flight path of a certain Legendary fire type and set himself up so that he will be one of the first responders."
Agatha nodded her head. "He is also the source of many of the young starter Squirtles that trainers who excel in Kanto receive," she said.
I blinked slowly. "We stopped there for a few days, didn't we, Sabrina?"
Sabrina nodded. "Tide, Hypnotoad, Shin, Chou and my own Starmie received training there while the Captain ran us around." She sniffed pointedly. "I did not appreciate volunteering for it and the Captain did not like the way I 'lifted weights' or got through his obstacle course," she said.
"It got very… heated," I said as I nodded. It was slowly coming back to me. A memory of a much younger, much less patient Sabrina outright disassembling the obstacle course and walking through it to prove a point. I lifted up my Xtransciever hoping against hope that I still had the video. I found it quickly and tapped it.
Sabrina inhaled and vanished on her screen in a teleport to appear at my side. "You took a video of that?" she said.
I chuckled and shut it down. "Yeah? It was pretty amusing to watch the Captain get all angry only for you to shut him down like that. I'd forgotten I had it."
"Ahem," said Koga. "As glad as I am for you two to have personal experience with the residents of Ascorbia, we need to continue our discussion of the threat of Team Aqua," Koga said. "Did Captain Aidan not discover anything?" he said, dragging the meeting back.
Wilkins nodded. "He did detect something and we tried to assist him, but the submarine was too fast for Captain Aidan to get close despite using a Blastoise. He eventually had to return to his island, but he certainly gave them a fair chase."
"Good, that will make Team Aqua more cautious in future," Koga said.
Agatha sniffed. "They may react the other way, though, and see Captain Aidan and his pokemon as a threat, especially with the number of utility pokemon he will have transporting him and his team around. We will need more local agents with eyes on the island and funds allocated to support any… accidents that might befall the good Captain."
Agatha narrowed her eyes. "We need people that are willing to move to tropical islands," she said.
Everyone on the call bar Sabrina snorted in amusement. Karen went as far as to drape a hand over her head. "Oh dearie me, I'm being required to move to a tropical island for work! Whatever shall I do?"
Agatha shook her head despite her lips twitching. "Alright, we shouldn't have any issues with people wanting to move to the islands. I am already aware of some channellers that want to move out as they feel like they have seen too much of the dreary cemetery-ridden landscape of Lavender Town," she said with a haughty sniff.
Karen tilted her head. "Uhm, they aren't kidding, you crazy old woman, they hate it there beneath you since you've started moving back," she said shamelessly.
Agatha shot Karen a look. "You've grown cheeky since you left my tutelage, perhaps some remedial lessons are in order?"
Sabrina tapped me on the shoulder and I glanced back to find her offering me a small plate of cut up berries which she munched on while watching Agatha and Karen have a catfight. I bit my lip, amused despite myself.
"Bring it you old—"
I decided to cough and smile pleasantly. "Janine, as the host it might be best for you to mute Agatha and Karen while giving them a private chat channel for them to talk it out," I said.
Janine typed quickly on her side and nodded. "Done," she said.
Sabrina let out a little 'heh' of victory as Karen's mouth moved but no sound came out. Agatha mirrored her. Lucy must have muted her own feed as she fell silent while her hand shot to her lips as she burst into giggles.
Koga flicked his daughter a look that shifted from amused to begrudging respect. "Continue, Wilkins," he said, and the man detailed how it had taken him another two days to find the Aqua sub once again.
"The far eastern side of Butwhal seemed to have been assessed, but was passed over. The submarine then assessed Hamlin and Kumquat islands. I believe they have established a temporary base in Kumquat, as they have gone low into sea caves that I can't access without giving away that I am observing them."
I drew up a map. "Kumquat is a major city for the Orange islands, why would they settle there?"
"Proximity to Kanto seems to be the deciding factor," Wilkins stated. "I believe that they will eventually ditch Kumquat, however, and go for the much easier option of Tarroco Island, which is a no-capture zone for trainers. It will be an easy site for them to set up in, with access to local water pokemon."
Lucy cleared her throat. "Why wouldn't they set up further south in islands such as Cleopatra, or even going as far as Mandarin Island? It offers the most room for them to disguise their activities," she said.
Janine looked to her father, but he merely looked ahead. Wilkins made a noise of thought. "It's probably operational ranges on their submarines, they need to come up for air every now and then, and the further they have to go through populated centres, the more risk they take of being spotted, especially if they're operating as a standard submarine pod."
I shared a glance with Sabrina. She nodded before speaking up, "It may also have something to do with the Shamouti current that runs through the centre of the archipelago." She clicked on my computer and drew up the map which she shared with the others.
She started drawing different coloured loops.
"The current of Shamouti is considered treacherous due to how it shifts through the various islands. It always centres around Shamouti, but it never remains on the same course." She demonstrated the various routes that the current could take, drawing murmurs from Janine and Koga.
Koga put a hand to his chin in thought. "Wherever did you learn of this?"
"Shamouti," I said, "It is a known phenomenon there and well documented. They have watchers out each season to track the current, as it will dictate the flow of currents for the entire archipelago for the rest of the year."
"What causes it?" asked Wilkins.
I drew up Wilkins' file which I had access to in the Guardians' information. I flicked Sabrina another look as I replied. "It's thought to be influenced by all the water pokemon in the Orange Islands," I said. In a more private chat, I wrote out a message 'Classified above Wilkins' clearance level. Upgrade?'
Koga, Janine and Agatha didn't bat an eye while Karen and Lucy twitched in surprise.
Koga slowly nodded. "I think it might be wise to keep Wilkins in the loop. Wilkins, I am going to advocate that your clearance level be raised to the highest level, this will grant you access to much more sensitive information. Brock, Sabrina, it seems we have much to learn about Shamouti. I can only assume that the current is caused by energies given off from the nesting sites of the Legendary birds located around Shamouti?"
"Legendaries? Multiple? Sweet creator!" Wilkins hissed out a startled oath.
I wavered a hand back and forth. "That is one local theory, but it is poorly understood. The locals of Shamouti have a ceremony where they will 'calm' the local Legendary birds," I said.
I frowned and brought up my Xtransciever. "There is a local tale they recite each year and it is retold as the Shamouti Prophecy," I said, paging through the files I had. "I'll have to upload the recordings I took from the ceremony years ago."
"Disturb not the harmony of Fire, Ice or Lightning, lest these Titans wreak destruction upon the world in which they clash. Though the Water's Great Guardian shall arise to quell the fighting, alone its song will fail, thus the earth shall turn to ash. O Chosen One, into thine hands, bring together all three. Their treasures combined tame the Beast of the Sea," said Sabrina reciting the Shamouti Prophecy perfectly, or at least the part that was relevant to what we were talking about..
Koga and the others blinked.
Lucy chewed her lips. "Fire, Ice, and Lightning are easy enough to draw conclusions on, unless it's deliberately misleading. Urgh, I've read so many books with prophecies being brought up as a plot point and they're never as good or straightforward as they seem!"
Agatha's finger rose and poked at the video. I chuckled. "I think Agatha wants to speak again," I said.
Janine unmuted Agatha and the woman shot her a cross look. "Well, thank you for allowing me to speak once more, child," she said heatedly.
Karen mimed laughing as her video showed it had 'raised its hand'. Janine did not unmute Karen but merely nodded equanimously. "It helped to keep us moving along," she said.
Agatha's scowl deepened before she huffed and dropped the matter. "The matter of course turns towards that of 'Water's Great Guardian,' and that its song alone will fail. This clearly marks out another pokemon that we have not noted. Kyogre has never been noted to pass through this region. Kyogre… failing is also a concerning prospect," Agatha said.
"It's not Kyogre that we think is there," I said.
I brought up some of the temple wall pictures and began to share them with the group. "Rather, we think it is a pokemon known as Lugia, an extremely rare Legendary that is known for calming other pokemon according to the legends surrounding it," I said. The stone carving showed a very crude drawing of Lugia.
"It has a powerful psychic presence," said Sabrina. "I could feel it at times when we were travelling through the Orange islands. It had a beautiful song," she said, causing me to blink in surprise.
She'd never mentioned that, but there had been a few times when she'd wander off to stand with her feet in the water, staring out into the sea with a calm expression. That certainly explained those moments.
"Lugia, a psychic-water pokemon?" asked Agatha.
I shrugged. "It has large wing-like fins that might make it flying as well," I suggested, just for the sake of accuracy.
The others dismissed this due to the words 'Guardian of Water', with only Sabrina giving me a momentary glance over. When I shot her a smile she merely nodded. Sometimes I had to wonder if she knew that I knew more than I should.
She never pushed for me to reveal anything, though, not since her initial freak-out over my arrival at her Gym when we were young.
I think that was one of the reasons that she was easy to love, she didn't push me about things I was uncomfortable with.
Koga thanked Wilkins before dismissing him with a reminder to look over Shamouti when he had the chance and to establish potential sites where Team Aqua would set up bases in or around Tarroco Island.
"This marks another site we may need to keep an eye on," Koga said thoughtfully, his face cast in a stern expression. "The Orange islands are becoming contentious sites."
I paused to consider that. He certainly hit the nail on the head with that comment. "Perhaps there might be other organisations looking to move there as well? Remnants of Team Rocket?" I suggested.
"Very likely," said Koga.
Agatha grunted at this. "We will need to shift some resources away and cultivate others, we will also need people that have a good understanding of the islands."
I hummed in consideration. "We could increase our recruitment, I had considered three possible candidates already," I said, deciding now was a good enough time to broach the topic of Team Rocket.
"Ho? You'd allow us to poach Jackson?" Agatha said with a pleased smile.
I blinked, having not considered him. He did rather fit the slot of a trainer who had experience in the Orange and Sevii islands… I frowned. "I'm not sure if he's the right fit for induction into—"
"He is not," said Koga firmly.
When I blinked at him slowly Koga waved a hand. "While Janine was there she performed some assessments for the older trainers with an eye towards potential recruitment… We sadly did not focus our attention on the new hires." Koga bowed his head. "I apologise for this oversight on our part, Daniel… was not within our expectations."
Janine also bowed with him and I sighed, understanding that this had probably been something weighing on him for a while now.
"I don't blame you for that," I said easily.
Koga rose and returned my nod. "If you want we can perform more reviews with your staff?" he said.
I considered that. Would it be useful to have people like Rachel, Alexa, Rocko, or Dennis as part of the Guardians?
I shook my head. "No, let them be, they have their own duties, but you're not wrong in that Jackson could be useful for his familiarity with the islands. I'd be very interested in a few of them, along with some of the deeper ocean areas for their potential access to as yet unfound Rock pokemon," I said. "I'll mention it to him as an option to expand the Gym, now that things are calming down," I said.
I then raised a hand. "He wasn't who I wanted to raise up though. I know a trio of… well, misfits and delinquents. They all don't really fit in any typical-sized hole if you catch my drift. They also… haven't always been on the side of good," I said, my eyes darting around to see if anyone reacted to this.
Agatha raised an eyebrow, as though telling me to get on with it. "They used to work for Team Rocket," I said, "but they've also been involved in a number of incidents where they were critical in assisting the situation by making it less severe than it could have been." I linked Jessie and James's trainer profiles.
"Who's the third?" Lucy asked as she squinted at the feed, showing that she must have been reading their trainer information.
"Meowth," I said.
"You want to induct a pokemon?" Agatha said.
I nodded. "He's an extremely clever cat, and can come up with a lot of cons. He reads and uses security magazines. He'd be a great… cat burglar if nothing else," I said. Next to me Sabrina twitched and shot me a look, demanding I stop making puns.
I resisted the urge and shot her a wink to show I'd behave. She narrowed her eyes but relaxed against me, her hands shifting to pet Zubat who'd been asleep on my shoulder like some quasi-epulaet.
"A pokemon as a Guardian," Agatha said with a shake of her head. "Well, it's not like pokemon aren't part of our teams already, so why not?" she waved her hand. "You have my support. They won't be the first people that we've flipped for our purposes." She smirked in an off-hand manner and I had a premonition of what was to come.
"During the war, I had a bit of a reputation for 'flipping' people, you could say," she said with a glint in her eyes. "I had this move in the bedroom where I'd—" her voice fell silent as Janine muted her once again.
Karen, who'd yet to be unmuted, began laughing hysterically.
"You… are rather proficient at that, daughter," said Koga, his words holding a certain level of caution to them. Janine merely smiled and I mentally attributed her with a wagging tail for earning praise from her father.
"So, you're good with them? I'll inform them they're in," I said.
Koga nodded. "I shall send a courier Fearow with a package only you can open Brock, take it and hand it to them."
"That's fine," I said before scratching the back of my head. "I told them that I want them to keep doing what they're doing right now, which is going around Kanto challenging Gyms and contests to get stronger. Make them a roving band of troubleshooters," I said.
Koga blinked. "Unorthodox, but not unheard of." His eyes flicked to Agatha. "What are your thoughts, Agatha?"
Janine unmuted Agatha just in time for her answer. "Feh! Let them be if they're that small, but make sure they come around to Lavender, I want them to meet my latest protege," she said. "I shall also test them myself! No doubt you were easy on them, Brock!"
I rolled my eyes and waved her off.
Finally, the topic turned towards the final item on our agenda. "New Island…" Koga began.
"It's where Mewtwo was created and it seems to be where he has returned to," I said, bringing up the information that had been compiled since we'd last had a chat about this with Koga. I turned my attention to Sabrina.
"You have the best understanding of Mewtwo," I said carefully. "Do you have any idea why he's gone here?" I asked.
Sabrina frowned slightly. "Mewtwo, was not a blank slate, he is like…" She considered her words for a moment before speaking. "Imagine that your memories form up a set of buildings and are organised into streets. Mewtwo is like a town that has been partially demolished, only for the ruins of the former town to be paved over with shoddy building material. It looks like everything is normal at a glance, but as soon as you start trying to dig up a basement or lay any true foundations, the previous memories are uncovered."
Sabrina gestured in a vague motion. "When we were fighting with them, I made sure to implant a number of what would be deemed 'core memories' of mine. These core memories are fundamental and powerful. By exposing him to experiences like this, I caused a flood of emotion that washed away the mental constructs that Team Rocket had built."
"Huh, so you just gave him a shock to the noggin? Doesn't sound that hard," Karen said with a sniff.
I raised an eyebrow as Sabrina shook her head. "I was using a metaphor that is barely adequate to give you some idea. What I did was infinitely harder than that, but I had to dumb it down for you to understand," Sabrina said.
Karen narrowed her eyes, only for Janine to clear her throat and move her hand towards a button once more. Karen kept her mouth shut.
Sabrina nodded in thanks and continued. "I believe that Mewtwo has returned to New Island due to it being his birthplace and the place that he has the strongest resonance with. He is establishing a home for himself. I believe that we should give him some more time before attempting to visit him ourselves in a peaceful manner. Mewtwo is a young pokemon despite his power and will lash out if we come in too aggressively. I think that I need to be there to make… third contact," she said.
The others all nodded at this and Agatha eventually sighed and bobbed her head in acceptance. "You are the expert in psychic matters, we shall default to your judgement."
She then straightened. "Was there anything else that needed to be raised for this meeting?"
"I'm organising a group of geologists and scientists to look into potential sites for Mega stones," I said.
"Hoh, that is something that we will need to con—" Agatha began only for me to shake my head.
"I've already mentioned it to Oak, and he's too big a name. I'll also be having Flint lead things up so best to let this be a more… public project," I said.
"Tch, very well then," Agatha said.
"This is something that we require," Koga said. "With Steven Stone stealing a march we will need to facilitate discovering as much as we can about Mega stones."
"I've already bounced some theories to Flint and I think we have some solid leads," I said.
"Hmmm, well dibs on any of the dark-type stones you can find," Karen said.
"Might be a bit tough as we're looking into nesting grounds or swarm sites. With Sharpedo that's going to be a tough ask. Houndoom might be easier?" I said carefully.
Karen snorted. "Easier to find? Yeah? To set something up that is dedicated? Yeeeeeeaaaaah this is going to be hard," she said.
I shrugged. "We'll be looking for investors," I said.
Agatha nodded. "I shall talk to some people," she said. "Good work taking the initiative on this," she said. "Anything else to raise for discussion?"
When none of us had anything more to raise, Agatha bid us a good evening and we signed off.
Sabrina yawned and wrapped her arms around me. "Carry me to bed?" she said playfully.
"I think I can handle that," I said, taking her in my arms and standing.
Sabrina smiled winningly at me, only for her expression to falter. "Brock, there is a Meowth that is… oh, he's just testing himself against your security doors," she said with a tilt of her head. "Ah, he's the one you nominated?" she asked.
I nodded and Sabrina continued to stare at the wall where she could no doubt see him. "Hmmm, he can have his fun, let's go have our own," she said with a smile.
I returned Zubat to a pokeball and carried Sabrina to bed. When I took too long Sabrina teleported us to the room.
The next morning saw me scaling the plateau while Selene watched on. Gible clung to me while Zubat fluttered around me, getting in the way far more than she was assisting me. Her little wings flapped into my face more than a few times as she flitted in and out.
"You gotta work on pulling up sharper Zubat," I said, as she smacked me for the fifth time in ten metres. "In and out darts, keep working on it for agility," I said.
When she tried to go faster she ploughed into the side of my head, causing me to grunt in pain. I could probably reinforce myself with rock energy, but then Zubat would be like a bug hitting a windshield.
So instead I took the hits as part of the training and continued to climb the plateau, my muscles aching at the new morning workout that Trixie had dropped off for me before sprinting off.
It had been a while since I'd done some proper mountain climbing.
Beneath me, Yolanda led a cadre of trainers in her own workout, with Spot and Terra at her side.
At the moment the group were working through as many push-ups as they could.
Dennis and Rocko were leading the pack easily, while A.J. was doggedly working to catch them. Yolanda otherwise came in a solid fourth place with Greta in fifth. Crystal, who'd joined in, looked gutted when she failed on the twenty-eighth push-up, only to learn she wasn't even in the same ballpark as Greta or Yolanda.
"I'm the weakest of us?" she whimpered with a twitch.
I glanced around, wondering for a moment if I hadn't heard the noise of glass shattering.
I shook it off, must have just been Crystal's understanding of the world breaking.
When Yolanda led the gang through a jog while carrying Terra with Spot at her side to keep her moving, Crystal was forced to scamper after her, her own pokemon jogging along with hints of exhaustion showing.
When I was done I scrambled down, the climb down working similar yet different muscles than the ascent.
I quickly jogged on to catch up with Greta. "Hey, good work during the Contest. How's Ivysaur going with his evolution?" I asked.
Greta grinned through her fatigue and shot the faithful starter a proud look. He was shuffling along doggedly, but his new weight was making it rough for him. "He's adjusting! I think he's really gotten stronger, though! We tested out some of his moves late last night and he's gotten faster and more powerful in a whole range of ways!" She then shot Ivysaur a small grimace. "He is a bit slower and larger, though, so we have to take that into account."
"Nice, let's you and I do some work together this week. I think it's due time for you to challenge another Gym. You and A.J. can talk to each other and we can set something up later in the week, yeah?" I said.
Greta licked her lips and nodded. "Y-yeah! I mean yes! That would be good!" she said.
I clapped her on the shoulder only to accelerate and catch Cranidos before he could launch a sneak attack on Greta. I grabbed him by the neck and drove him into the ground.
"It was cute when you were a baby, but I think you need to learn to stop attacking out of nowhere like that," I said.
I then lifted him up and flicked him on the snout. "If you want to fight, challenge them, but accept that they can say yes or no." I tapped him on the nose when he started to look a little defiant. "Do you want to fight today in the Gym? We have a few first-badge challengers," I asked.
That got him perking up and I wagged a finger in front of him. "Time to listen well then, 'cause you need to be on your best game," I said, leading him off to do some obedience training that started with Simon Says.
I quickly had Cranidos following along until he was visibly growing frustrated.
Just before he threw a tantrum I let him off the chain. "Simon says Headbutt that rock!" I called and he leapt to obey, earning a firm pet and a reward treat from me.
"Nicely done buddy, you lured them in and then crushed them with a single well placed headbutt. That's real strength," I said, stroking along his spine and cleaning his dome. He crooned happily and I ran him through another round.
When Rocko approached I gave him some instructions, "Can you grab those trainers in the guest rooms from last night? Give me another twenty or thirty and bring them to me?"
"Roger boss!" he said as he continued to jog on.
I then turned my attention back to Cranidos. "Alright! Simon says stand on one foot!" I said to continue.
Zubat and Gible joined in, and I didn't have the heart to tell them this was meant to just be for Cranidos.
I got a whole three minutes of him following orders before he started to twitch in agitation. "Alright, your turn," I said, allowing Cranidos to lead the game for once.
"Cran?" he said before he grinned and chirped about lowering your head.
I did not need to be psychic to predict what he was going to do next. Thankfully he charged and I merely stepped out of the way with a grin. "Ha! You forgot to say Simon says!" I said as he slammed into a rock wall.
"Gibl—" I started to say before aborting that and pointing to Zubat. "Zubat's turn!" I said, and for the next minute, we flapped around happily before hugging each other. When Gible hugged Cranidos, the hard-headed pokemon tried to headbutt the ground shark, only to get a nibble in response.
I snorted and Cranidos grumbled while Gible chattered happily.
I called that game to an end then before going through some basic moves with Cranidos. "Alright, show me your Rock Smash!" I said, letting Cranidos off the leash.
Cranidos sprinted at a rock before pummeling it. "Good! Now I want a Fake Out with a kick! Use your legs! They're strong too!" I called, and this time Cranidos did as I ordered, spinning and smashing with his legs.
"Excellent!" I said, making sure to give out praise. "Show me your Leer!"
Cranidos straightened up and shot me a look that had me shivering. "Perfect!" I said. "Let's get you cleaned up for today's matches! Report to Chansey!" I concluded, calling the training to an end as I moved on to work with Tirtouga and Anorith, who I was also hoping to give some time to.
As I made my way to the pond Rocko intercepted me. "Morning Brock! Got those trainers you wanted to talk to," he said, waving a hand to Jessie, James and Meowth. I thanked him and he trotted off to perform another task, leaving me with plenty of room to talk privately with the trio.
Meowth, I noted, looked very tired but pleased with himself. "So it took you a while, but you worked out a hack, eh?" I asked.
Meowth blinked at me before rearranging his features into a smug look. "What else were you expecting when you called in the best but success?" he said.
"Hmmmm, how long does your method take without knowing about it?"
Meowth coughed. "It took me half the night to stumble on it, and then another couple hours to verify it works… It only works on some of the doors, though, cause I saw you've gone for extra security with a two-factor authentication and transceiver tech." He shot me a finger. "I wasn't aware of that!"
"I'm not going to hand out my security specs to just any Meowth," I said smugly, pleased that he hadn't been able to get past that extra feature I'd asked for on my own office, the medical bay and pokeball storage room, and the 'duck pond'. There was also the fact that the Porygon monitored the doors nowadays.
I'd woken up to a lot of low-priority warnings that featured camera snapshots of Meowth. It was good to see he was being honest with me on how long it had taken him to 'break in'.
"So I spoke with the group I mentioned last night, and they're for it, if you are," I said, cutting to the chase.
Jessie, James and Meowth all shared a look. "We… talked," Jessie said. "We've agreed that… a safety net would be nice and that our current… circumstances are good for us." She made a face as though this was a difficult admission for her.
I smiled and James coughed. "They've been pretty incredible actually, we're still waiting for the other shoe to drop," he said.
I shot him a look. "Yeah, I get feeling that way," I said.
Meowth coughed. "Not to ruin a good thing, but… what if our old… pals decide to reach out to us?"
I smiled, I had an answer for this already thought up. "You accept and go along while telling us. Keep your eyes and ears open. The group you're going to be a part of from now on? We're very interested in what Team Rocket is up to," I said.
"Fearow!" shrieked a bird as it began to plummet towards me.
No less than eight rocks shot up from the ground in front of the Fearow, forcing it to pull up from its dive sharply. "Row!?" it shrieked as it darted its head around in fear.
I whistled. "All good! It's expected! Fearow, come in more carefully!" I called, cupping my hands so it could hear me. It came down much more slowly with its head darting about.
Jessie, James and Meowth looked around and spotted three of the pokemon that had launched the preemptive air defense attacks. I knew from training that the first round was always just warning shots.
If Fearow had kept on coming, then they and others would have gotten serious.
There was a no-fly zone around most Gyms in Indigo due to their potential nature as military assets, after all. The only exclusions that I knew of were Celadon and Cerulean. Surge had been very twitchy about allowing people to watch his match against Will via pokenet due to old instincts, but had allowed it with so many eyes watching for trouble.
Fearow delivered a packet that had a code lock on it, and with a swift input of my Guardian code the case unlocked to reveal three matching holopads.
"Welcome to the Guardians," I said, handing over the flashy pieces of technology.
The trio accepted them and blinked when three identical identification sequences began. Meowth dropped his, only for it to not interrupt the process.
"Jeez lewiz! Warn a guy first!" he said to me as the scan locked in his biometrics.
"Sorry, forgot about that," I said, which mollified Meowth a little.
When the sequence was done and he unlocked the pad he whistled. "Wow! There's some interesting little tidbits on display here!" I smirked. He'd gone straight for the morning news that was compiled for easy reading.
Jessie looked to be doing a deeper dive on what features it had, while James was personalising his to have a different colour scheme.
Meowth glanced up at me. "This is pretty nice!" He said, like a cat that had just discovered how to invest in Cream Co. He then tilted his head. "What comes next?"
I smiled, "Well, how about—" a rumble interrupted me and I took a moment to realise it had come from all of our stomachs. I shared a look of disbelief with the others before laughing as one.
When we were done I waved a hand for them to follow. "Let's start with breakfast, from there? The world!" I said.
The trio cheered at this and I felt like everything was falling into place.
Over breakfast I prodded them into revealing the various adventures they'd had so far this year. Learning about the various holes they'd dug leading to Ash, Forrest, and Misty falling into them was a little amusing but also worrying. "Probably best to change it up. While they'll probably walk it off, let's not actually hurt them going forward, yeah?"
The trio considered this. James tilted his head. "You want harmless fun pranks that jerk them around?"
Jessie squinted while tapping her spoon on her empty bowl. "I feel like there's a word for that?"
"Shenanigans?" suggested Meowth as he finished licking the cream off his bowl.
"Munchlax!" chimed Munchlax, indicating the dishwasher.
"Huh? Oh right, yeah I can do that," said Meowth as he moved to collect the plates from the trio and myself before depositing them in the sink.
I hummed, glancing at Munchlax who was ignoring me as he bustled into the lounge room where he started putting away the younger twins' toys. I considered Meowth.
Hmmm, why not? "Can you ask him if he's happy here? Or if he needs anything?" I asked.
Meowth repeated the question to Munchlax when he wandered back and the little pokemon shot him a thumbs up before chattering away. "Munch! Lax Mun Munch! Munchlax Munch Munch Munch Lax!" he chirped.
Meowth nodded along. "He says that he likes his life here. He especially loves it when he gets to listen to story time, but that you haven't been telling as many stories of late. He misses that."
I coughed in surprise, feeling touched that all he wanted was more stories.
Jessie cooed at that and James shot the little pokemon a radiant smile.
I nodded at Munchlax. "Sure, I'll try and read more to you and my siblings," I said.
Munchlax darted in to hug me before running off with a happy "Munch!"
The trio shared a smile with each other.
"So? What next?" I prompted.
Jessie frowned. "I need to complete my pokemon team and get stronger."
"Don't forget I've given you access to a stable, not mine, but one that handles other pokemon to a high level," I said, causing Jessie to blink in surprise.
"Oh? Really? I hadn't realised our deal would encompass that," said Jessie.
I smirked. "You're going to find a lot of prior issues gone now, Jessie," I said. "Maybe take your trainer I.D. to the bank sometime to get yourself some more supplies to start off, hey?" I said.
The trio quickly checked Jessie's card and whistled at the amount on there. "That's enough to get parts for me to build at least three Rocket blimps!" Meowth said.
I chuckled and was about to suggest they spend it on less flashy items, before clamping my mouth shut. If they wanted to do this their way, then I just had to trust in them to reach the milestone by shutting up.
A task that was much more difficult than it should be with how each suggestion grew more and more outlandish, leaving me to hold my placid smile while Guardian Team Three— formerly Team Rocket— grew more and more excited about the future.
When they departed, they did so with a much more upbeat spirit, while I could only rub my chin and wonder if I hadn't just made a terrible mistake.
For an infinitely small moment of time, I empathised with Giovanni. Then I crushed that emotion ruthlessly.
I entered the Gym and swept through the morning's paperwork, seeking a distraction.
When it came time for the first gym match, I had to fight the grin off my face as the lights went out.
The trainer entered and one light burst to full power, lighting them up and causing them to flinch.
Out of the darkness, I spoke lines that I'd said a hundred, if not a thousand times now to first-time trainers.
My voice, like the stone carving out its grove in the mountain, rumbled out, filling all corners of the room. "You dare challenge the Pewter City Gym?"
The boy, a young trainer by the name of Trent, flinched and turned in my direction, eyes wide with fear. He hadn't been expecting this and it was clear to anyone watching he was crumbling.
"Well?" I said, prompting them to speak. "Have you come here to challenge me?" I asked, lowering my tone just a fraction.
Trent swallowed and straightened. "I-I have! I have come to-b-b-beat you!" he bleated out, turning cherry red.
"Ho? Is that so?" Another light burst to life above me. "I am Brock and this is my Gym, let's see if you have what it takes!" I said, striding down before leaping across to the podium.
I locked eyes with the trainer and got to watch as a fire entered his eyes and he began to stand taller. The fear vanished.
I felt myself relax a little more and enjoy the moment as Cranidos' pokeball enlarged in my hand. This was one of the things I'd been missing and getting to return to it felt like I'd come back to a favourite hobby more than a part of my job.
"Trainers! Are you ready?" called Jackson from the referee's podium.
We both nodded and sent out our pokemon.
"Go Nuzleaf!" Trent called.
"Go Cranidos!" I said, interested that he had a second stage pokemon like this for his first badge. It was a good match up.
"Nuzleaf! Razor Leaf!" called Trent. A good move to start, and against Cranidos it would surely knock him out if I allowed it to land. Sadly for Trent, I didn't want to let it be too easy for him.
"Cranidos! Charge to the right fast! Break up that boulder and get some dust coverage!" I called, surprising everyone with how hard I was going out.
Trent didn't know any better, merely grunting and leaning in as his pokemon's attack missed. "Nuzleaf! They're afraid of that move! Let's do some Growth!"
"Cranidos, lead with a Mudslap before closing in!" I called. Out of the dust a slap sounded out as Cranidos slapped some mud with his tail and launched it straight into Nuzleaf's eyes, startling the pokemon as it was blinded.
Cranidos poured on the speed seeing his chance. He lowered his head and brayed in excitement.
"Fire on the nose! Slightly to your left! Hold firm!" Trent called out. His Nuzleaf listened and followed the order and Cranidos suddenly found himself having to charge through a wave of Razor Leaf that cut him down.
He brayed once and fell, sliding to a stop just before Nuzleaf.
"Nuz?" asked the still blinded pokemon as he listened carefully.
"Cranidos is unable to battle!" called Jackson. His voice startled Nuzleaf before he did a happy jig. Trent grinned but gave his pokemon a quick look over. "Best not to test our luck! Let's trade out for Mankey!" he called, sending out said pokemon.
Mankey appeared and looked around with a deceivingly happy expression. I sent out my Onix and sure enough the happy-go-lucky Mankey's smile dropped as it unleashed a pair of Karate Chop onto my pokemon as I only got off one Tackle in return.
Trent gaped when Jackson raised his flag. "Onix is unable to battle! Trent is therefore the victor!" he called.
"I did it?" Trent said hesitantly.
I grinned and nodded, returning my Onix. "That you did, young man!"
Trent blinked. "You're not kidding with me? You didn't go easy?"
I coughed, suddenly sheepish. "I went to the limits of and a bit beyond the first badge level," I said. I eyed him. "You probably could have challenged at the second tier with the pokemon you have and comfortably won, third tier would have been a tougher match, but for your first badge? You had a very strong showing," I complimented him.
"Oh! Anita must not have known about that! She always said I was too weak to fight you and I needed to keep training… with how things were with all those scary-looking trainers that came through for months at the start of the circuit, it made sense," he said.
"Ah, yeah, this year is tougher with trainer battles, but the Gym itself is still the same. It's different when you accept a fight out in the wilds or at the end of year circuit," I said. I gave him a smile. "You'll have to hustle if you want to make this year's circuit," I said.
"You think I could make it?" he said, with the air of someone who had spent so long being told he couldn't, he didn't have the confidence in himself.
Jackson and I shot each other a worried glance. "Yeah? With some work?" I said.
"Huh, I'll have to talk to Anita about it," he said with a nervous twitch.
"Anita?" I asked.
"TRENT! TRENT! YOU BETTER NOT BE GETTING A BIG HEAD DUE TO BROCK GOING EASY ON YOU!" screamed a voice from the stands.
I blinked and looked up to find a girl who looked to be of age with Trent. Trent flinched. "Ah! I won't!"
"Good! Now come up here and cheer for me!" she shouted.
Trent scurried off and I stared. He'd forgotten to take his badge. I shot what I knew to be my next challenger a frown. "Right, this is going to be… different," I said, as an idea of what was going on started to form.
I stepped over to the podium wondering what I'd find with my next challenger.
For better or worse it was time to throw a barrier or two at this young Anita and find out what made her tick as a trainer.
A.N.Thanks to all my supporters!
Thanks also go to Twmmy and Mendelur for proofreading this chapter!
Brock using Jesse, James and Meowth as a roaming band of trouble shooters makes sense that's what they're good at and they lack genuine malice and are pretty decent all things considered so they make good Guardian recruits.
To be fair to them they did it several times in the movies when everything would go to shit. Tho that has yet to happen for this TRio yet.
Dragonmaster150
Firstborn of Dragonkind
- Location
- Dragendolan: Land of the Dragon Kings
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Honestly, is it strange that I'm more excited to see what kind of Mecha, or other vehicles, gadgets, etc., that Meowth can build when he has an actual budget instead of whatever spare parts he could scrape together?
xbox432
Lover of Editing
Heh, yeah, this is perfect for them. And now Brock knows what it's like to be the "Mysterious and Powerful" Quest-giver, sending out a D&D adventuring party. The amount of antics the TRio get up to certainly qualify them as such.
And now rather than looking forward to Agatha putting them through the ringer, I'm instead looking forward to the WTF look on her face at how the TRio pass her tests.
dhasenan
always lowercase
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I am suddenly curious about the etymology of this phrase in the Pokémon universe.
