For some reason, I might be remembering this wrong, I think Shrek was a gastrodon. I think k it was mentioned at some point but can't recall where.
Hard Enough - Pokemon SI
- Thread starter Viva01
- Start date
- Users' Choice!
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- Tags
- pokemon self insert
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Nope, hasn't been specified, an has been kept deliberately vague.
Chapter 46 - The friendly rematch
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
There was movement at the HQ, for word had passed around, I thought to myself as we flew over the final stretch of trees. Lance and Claire had been darting in close only to then fall back and into aerial dogfighting maneuvers for the rest of the patrol.
It was no different as we came to land. When we had landed and our pokemon had been returned to their pokeballs, they swept in. Their landing was controlled, but there was still a great stirring of the people watching from the buildings and the shadows.
It wasn't normal to see so many people obviously lingering near the landing site. Now that Lance had appeared I could feel people's gazes flitting like Beedrill from me to him. There must have been some doubt as to the veracity of the rumors. I hadn't heard anything being said over the radio, but Rangers obviously had their own grapevines off the air. A quickly fired transceiver message would have worked.
But seeing was believing and with both myself and Lance? The Rangers were practically salivating to see what I'd promised Lance. I gave him a look and smirked. We were well aware of the attention but not bothered at all.
I let my grin show some teeth and he responded in kind.
A cough reminded us that we still had some business in the handover for the next Ranger team. I assumed Sylvie and Andrew had handled this when we'd departed, but then again maybe we were an extra patrol? The two teams that were replacing us trudged out unhappily, their eyes shooting to Lance and I. The knowledge that they were about to miss something big while everyone still on base was going to be watching obviously weighed on them.
Ginny and Sylvie informed their respective team leaders of what had happened in a brief overview in HQ. Honestly, the number of people we'd encountered had been pretty crazy. The competence of the poachers, in particular, had been startling, but then again commander Hank had said it would be this way.
"Were these incidents an outlier or is this on par for you right now?" I asked Sylvie.
She shook her head. "We got lucky or unlucky depending on how you want to look at it. We encountered a lot of people today. Usually, there are only registered trainers on the mountain and not so many people doing the wrong thing. I'm hoping today doesn't mark a trend…" she made a face, "We'll have to see."
She gestured into the building "Come on, I'll type something up quick and drop it off with Commander Hank. Then I think I'm going to need to claim a patch of grass in the training area."
I nodded, giving Lance a look. "You coming with us or just going to hang out?" I said casually.
Next to Lance, Claire watched me with narrowed eyes. She opened her mouth to say something but Lance merely nodded. "We'll come with you. How has Pewter city been?"
"Busy!" I said as I began to relay all of the different highlights since our match. He chuckled when I told him about the new hires and how I spent a sizable chunk of my winnings on getting an Eevee for my family, a Chansey for my gym and a Scyther for myself.
"Urgh! Boys and their scythers!" said Claire with a shake of her head. Her words caused a number of nearby trainers to scowl at her only for them to nod approvingly at me. Scyther was seen as a 'cool' pokemon to have so they could probably understand where I was coming from in buying it. Some of the girls shot Claire looks of solidarity. Bugs weren't typically seen as cool with female trainers.
Lance rubbed his chin. "A shame I have committed to the dragon style of pokemon."
"Dragon style?" I asked.
"Gyrados and Charizard both aren't dragon type," he said in reply. "Although I don't suppose… Don?" When I nodded to show he got the name right, he continued, "I don't suppose Don is a dragon type either?"
I shook my head. "Rock and Flying." I then shrugged. "And I wouldn't give up on always counting out some pokemon as being dragon typed. My own golem breeding methods show that pokemon can grow in a lot of different ways."
Lance perked up and Claire looked thoughtful at my words. "That is true. A dragon typed Gyarados…" he said wistfully.
I kept my mouth shut on the probably very near future where Charizard would be able to mega evolve depending on some shiny rocks. I was keeping my eyes out for anything like the Mega Stones but I honestly wasn't sure what I was looking for. So far I'd only been able to talk to hikers traversing Mt Moon and walk it myself but I suspected I needed to look into areas where the pokemon in question were heavily concentrated. Charific valley was therefore possibly a site for Charizard Megastones… but this was only a theory. For now.
Which… if I was looking for the ultimate Mega stone for my team would mean I would need to spend some serious time looking around the peaks of the Mt Silver Range.
That would see me stirring up a lot of very powerful pokemon and probably having lots of Rangers on me like a Shellder on a Slowpoke. Chewing my backside out.
I jerked my head towards Lance's belt. "So you've got yourself a Salamence, did you also get yourself an Altaria?"
Lance stared at me. For a moment I wondered if I had said something odd. It didn't seem that strange for him to get two Dragon-type pokemon did it?
He huffed. "You anticipate me well Brock."
I grunted realising what he'd been talking about. "Nah, when you narrow the scope of pokemon that are possible for you to go for." I ticked off a finger, "there's also only a few regions to look to that have different Dragon types."
"That obvious?" he said.
I shrugged, "A number of the regions that are open right now share a large portion of each other's pokemon population right now. It makes it pretty obvious that if you wanted to expand your pool of pokemon you'd need to expand through the Hoenn side of things which is further afield."
Claire had a mix of peevishness and pride on her face as I spoke. She shook her head and coughed. "Lance has been able to expand his team a great deal since the last time you two fought!"
I nodded. "Yeah, I thought that would be the case. Your Salamence looks strong," I said to Lance.
Claire tilted her head. Me complimenting Lance obviously hadn't been what she was expecting from prodding at me. I got the feeling she was rather out of her element seeing Lance being so relaxed with someone.
Lance smiled, his chest puffing up as he spoke "I'm very proud of him."
Any further conversation had to wait when Sylvie stood up from her desk with a printed-out report. She marched straight up to Commander Hank and dropped the report into the 'In box' on a table to the side.
Commander Hank turned from regarding his wall of maps. "Rangers, Gym Leaders, Champion," he said without changing his tone at all. "Good work out there with capturing those poachers and settling down that Donphan herd."
He gave Lance a smirk. "Just like old times for you, Area Ranger?"
Lance chuckled. "Simpler times, what wasn't to like?"
Commander Hank nodded once and then gave us all an amused look. "A little birdie mentioned there was going to be a… friendly match." At the word friendly, he narrowed his eyes and all but commanded that it would be so. Lance and I both nodded amiably.
Hank grunted. "Very well, give me five minutes to get another cup of coffee and I'll be out to watch the match." He smirked at us. "I'm looking forward to seeing a good battle."
Lance and I grinned. The Rangers that had been lingering and keeping busy —read eavesdropping— jolted in excitement. With the Commander announcing it, it was locked in that Lance and I would be fighting. Some had obviously been expecting Hank to shut it down.
Lance and I smirked. This was going to be fun.
The Rangers didn't have a giant arena to train their pokemon in or use for show matches. That would have gone against their creed. It also wouldn't have been suitable for their needs. They fought battles in the wilds where there weren't clear skies and flat ground. An arena for the rangers would be a gigantic waste of money and a sign that things were very, very wrong.
What they did have was a level field with small built-up hills that acted as a natural amphitheatre. The grass was long enough that if I wasn't wearing long pants it would have tickled my shins as it swayed in the wind.
Around us, the Rangers that were still on base and not handling critical tasks were all sitting on the hill and settling in. It was surprising to see just how many of them there were for the Pewter region. I knew the Rangers were a popular field of employment, but to see almost three hundred people as 'part' of Pewter's Ranger cohort was enlightening.
Commander Hank claimed the seat of honour in the middle of the hill with a few of his trusted veterans sitting around him. I saw him point out a few Student Rangers and signal them to join him. It almost felt like an old general picking out young cubs to sit and learn at his side.
Directly across from him on another hill, at the halfway point between Lance and I, Claire was sitting in seiza. She sat with impeccable poise and the only thing that gave away her excitement for the coming match was the way her hands laced and unlaced repeatedly.
I couldn't see Sylvie or Andrew but I assumed they were somewhere in the crowd of rangers. The various Ranger uniforms made them blend in better than any natural camouflage on their part.
I rolled my shoulders and let the crowd fade away. If they moved in I'd be aware of them as potential obstructions or threats. Instead, I focussed on the field, the feel of it and how the wind blew across it. I searched it for any little points of difference that could be exploited. Not that I expected there to be anything I'd need to worry about from the ground.
I had said I was going to use Selene and I was sticking with that. This would be her time to shine.
I locked eyes with Lance and as one we both reached for pokeballs on our belts.
"Go Salamence!" "Go Selene!" we both shouted.
Two pokemon appeared in bursts of red energy. From Lance, a blue and red western-styled dragon appeared and cried out. On my side of the field, a floating rock in the shape of a crescent moon drifted and trilled in excitement.
"Steady girl," I said as she bobbed back and forth.
Hank raised a hand from where he was lounging. "Trainers! Ready?" we both nodded and he dropped his hand. "Begin!"
"Steel wing!" Lance said with a sweep of his arm. His pokemon leapt into the attack, wings glinting as the Steel type energy infused them.
If I hadn't seen him playing around with Claire earlier I might have been taken by surprise at how fast such a large pokemon could move. Instead, I raised a lazy hand straight at his oncoming pokemon. "Moonblast!"
Selene's eyes glowed and if you were watching close enough you could almost spot something pulsing above us. I knew it to be an effect whereby she pulled on energy from the moon. A moon that wasn't actually there but the move itself had to be taught and trained during a full moon to actually develop it. Perhaps it was the nature of fairy-type energy, in general, to be elusive, I'd had to work hard to have Selene learn this move.
A large white orb formed up and floated forward. It was a deceptively slow-moving attack that was so translucent you could almost see through it. If this had been a fire-type move or a dark-type move, you'd have been correct in thinking that it was an attack that hadn't been formed correctly.
That was not the case.
All it would take was a single hit to bully this Dragon.
Which was why I was surprised when Lance's eyes bulged and he swept his arm to the side.
"BREAK OFF, NOW!" he roared. His Salamence barrel rolled to the side and upwards forcing the Moonblast to miss.
Selene warbled in annoyance as her eyes tracked the arcing dragon. I frowned at Lance. Had he experienced fairy-type moves before? The common consensus was still out on them, but Lance had instantly broken off the attack.
Lance wasn't looking at the fight and instead looking at his hands which were… trembling?
He stared at them in shock before looking up to Selene with an expression that radiated confusion. Then he looked down at his hand once more. He tightened it into a fist and nodded shaking himself and returning to the match. "Salamence! Don't let that attack hit you! Whatever you do!"
I leaned back. Now that reaction? That was very interesting. He could recognise it as a threat and had reacted accordingly. This was almost like the gag of Iris always reacting negatively against cold situations or moments where Ice type pokemon were in the picture. Only Lance had reacted instinctively in the middle of a fight.
Those were some great instincts. Or was it something else?
I already knew that Lance had access to Dragon-type energy. In the cartoon, Iris, who much like Lance, was a self-professed Dragon trainer always reacted just as poorly to Ice-types as her pokemon. I'd thought that just a gag from the cartoon. Now I was re-evaluating that thought.
"Future sight," I said to Selene. If he wasn't going to make it easy for us, I wasn't going to let him have time to bring his speedy dragon back in for another attack.
"Tch, Dragon dance!" His pokemon weaved through the air and returned fully into the enclosure. As a friendly, it wasn't a concern that he went out of bounds for a little bit. Then again this field wasn't to regulation League standards so he'd also have more room in any actual challenges.
"Dragonbreath!" Lance said, causing his pokemon to emit bluish-purple flames from its maw.
"Psychic," I said in response. Lunatone's eyes glowed and psychic energy wrapped around the oncoming inferno only to be tugged upwards and form into a disc-like shape that hurled itself back at the Salamence that once more dodged.
"Follow up with Rock tomb!" I said to get his pokemon locked into place.
"Protect!" commanded Lance with another sweep of his hand. Around his pokemon, a hexagonal pattern protected his pokemon from my entrapment.
"Hold!" I said to Selene. She paused as I held up a hand. "Moonblast!" Once again the pulsing energy built up in the sky before Selene fired off an attack straight at Salamence. Once more Lance hissed like a cat rubbed the wrong way by an oily yet sticky hand.
"Aerial ace out Salamence!" he said. Just as the hexagons fell and Selene's attack should have landed his blue dragon flickered and vanished in a burst of speed. Only to then appear right in front of Selene with his wing coming down.
I clenched in surprise before my mind could dismiss the attack for a flying-type effect. Not that Selene let it hit.
As the wing came down her eyes glinted blue and the tips of her crescent-shaped body gouged upwards to slam into Salamence's wingtip. For a second there was a grinding noise only for Salamence to be blown backwards and go tumbling. Selene was buffeted backwards but appeared to come off better as she shook herself off and returned to the fight faster.
"Selene! Like you were taught! Teleport now!" Selene's eyes glowed and a frankly huge amount of energy built up around her before it was her turn to wink out and reposition directly above the recovering Salamence as it got onto its feet.
"Moonblast!" I said clenching my fist as Salamence snapped its head upwards.
"Salamence use protect again!" ordered Lance.
Once more the hexagon shield formed… only to collapse when the Moonblast orb slammed into it. It carried on and pressed Salamence into the ground. The dragon cried out in pain only to slump when the orb dissipated.
I watched it for any twitches that would indicate that it was seeking to return to the fight. That Aerial ace would be a wonderful repositioning tool that I'd remember. Lance shouldn't have been able to escape from the protect as he had… only, he had, thanks to that move.
Lance grunted and raised his pokeball to return his pokemon. He looked at the pokeball for a long tense moment before nodding his head. He looked up to Selene to see her wobbling back and forth in what I knew to be a happy dance.
"This was your last pokemon for your match with me wasn't it?" he asked.
I nodded. "Yup, she would have been my sweeper if it came to that."
He inclined his head. "I see… in that sense Salamence did well…" I got the feeling he still wasn't satisfied with the loss but then again you didn't become champion by being content with a loss. His hand clenched once and he put the pokeball away. "Thank you for the match Brock, it was highly informative." He plucked another pokeball off his hip. "I don't supp—"
"Alright! Breaks over slackers!" shouted Commander Hank as he stood up and began to assign jobs to the watching Rangers. His intrusion broke through the haze of another match. Lance and I both blinked at the disruption.
"Awww!" some of the younger Rangers said. "They were about to have another match!"
"No they weren't!" said Hank in the tones of a parent that was trying to use raw stubbornness to make their unruly children see reason the way they needed them to. "They were done!" He shot a look at Lance and I and we both nodded in agreement. Selene floated down with a sad tone. She had obviously been looking forward to laying out another of Lance's team. I rubbed her rocky face.
"Nicely done girl. I knew I could put my faith in you!" That had her instantly perking up.
Sylvie ran up and gave me a hug. "That was great! Thanks for showing us that Brock!"
"Area Ranger Sylvie! You're on radio duty in ten minutes! That means you should be there now!" barked Hank. Sylvie shot off. The Rangers trickled out but they continued to cast hopeful looks at Lance and I as though we were about to ignore the Commander's order and fight again.
I just kept rubbing Selene until they were all gone and Lance had approached me with Claire at his side. Claire looked conflicted.
"Good fight," I said to Lance.
"Indeed, I thought I had anticipated some of your rock moves rather well with my dragon but you've got hidden depths." He looked over my Lunatone. "I've never known a Lunatone to be able to teleport?" The unasked question of how mine could, stood out.
"Ah, well, it pays to have the best psychic trainer around to help train her in how to do it." I wasn't going to mention how it took her way, way longer than any other pokemon that could learn it normally. While most of Selene's training for fighting Lance had been to strengthen her Psychic to be able to pull off the fire control she had, I had also asked Sabrina to attempt to teach Selene teleport.
The ability to evade or reposition was one that was often overlooked but that I knew paid out with huge dividends. It wasn't until after Sabrina had already reported her success to me that I remembered that what she'd done… technically shouldn't have been possible according to game logic. Then again it was only game logic.
Or was it just a case of Sabrina being the deciding factor? It said a lot about Sabrina's skill with psychics
Soooo, I mostly decided to chalk it up to Sabrina. She was pretty great like that.
"Sabrina right?" Claire said tentatively.
"Yup," I said, giving Selene another pat as she wobbled into me for affection.
"She's the strongest you say?" Claire said with a tone of interest.
"Oh yeah, easily," I said. I couldn't imagine another trainer beating her in the psychic department ever. Claire didn't comment on that, instead watching my pokemon wiggle in happiness.
"She's very well trained… what was that white orb attack? Moonblast?" she said, her tone oozing casualness.
I gave her and Lance both looks that showed I knew they were fishing for information. They had blank faces. Each sported a studied casualness to them that made me want to invite them both over for a poker night so I could rob them blind. Still, Lance was… a pretty nice guy, so it wouldn't be an issue to give him a heads up.
"Have you been paying attention to the recent news in the scientific communities regarding the newest energy type they've found pokemon to possess?"
"Fairy type they are calling it, yes?" Lance said, a thoughtful frown appearing on his face. "I had read some of the papers, but they're finding it tough to nail down which pokemon possesses it. There are a lot of established professors that are arguing against it. Claiming it to be a hoax."
I snorted in amusement. "Those are great!" when I got confused expressions, I shrugged and explained, "Some of those scientific debates can be as good as watching clowns have a fight with each other." I laughed once before coughing and getting serious. "But I'm in the camp supporting the Fairy typing." I rubbed Selene's body. "Selene isn't a Fairy type, I'd say she's a psychic-rock still but I think she can tap into it due to her connection to the moon. I think fairy types will have a lot to do with celestial bodies in a way. Sun and stars and all that."
"You're talking about clefairy, aren't you?" said Lance, still rubbing his chin.
Claire hissed in surprise and narrowed her eyes at me. "And Pewter city is the closest to Mt Moon, where Clefairy can be found in large numbers!"
I could see where her train of logic was heading and decided to stop her from thinking I was about to become some specialised anti-dragon trainer. "Hmmm, yeah nope. While they're cute and I could probably work them into my team I don't actually own any of the little puffballs. Most clefairy are pretty shy and actually don't like fighting. If you were looking for a pokemon more…"
I searched for the right word. "Threatening to your pokemon in terms of technical skill while having power to go the distance I'd be thinking of the most popular Hoenn pokemon," I said giving them something to focus on. I hadn't ever really considered the convenience of having dragon-slayer pokemon right near Pewter and across the range from the biggest threat to Kanto.
Maybe some of the defenders during the war had been assisted by the local pokemon more than they knew?
Claire scowled. "Gardevoir!? The pokemon that fools drool over?!"
"Oh you're aware of that are you?" I said, interested to see her bringing up how some of the groups, that were argued to be a small minority, adored the pokemon. Or even loved the pokemon, for a given aspect of 'love'.
Claire opened her mouth only to blush furiously as she realised what she'd brought up in 'polite conversation. Lance chuckled at her reaction and she shot him a venomous look as she got herself under control. "I'm merely stating that it has a distasteful reputation."
"Hmmm," I hummed non-committally. It wasn't something I wanted to pry into. I'd tried to keep a policy of what happens at home between consenting legal parties was between those two… or more parties. It was only when it got illegal that I was going to throw a rock through a window in the form of Sanchez 'tactically' entering. I still hadn't had to do that.
Attempts by 'concerned' citizens and pearl-clutching, sharp-tongued, men and women that sought out trouble to stir things up had targeted this aspect of pokemon and trainer relations. Only for the movement to be dissolved overnight. The rumours, if you cared to listen, had something to do with the Pokemon fan club having a much more persuasive voice which they only rarely used.
"Hmmm Gardevoir… I shall have to watch the scientific communities developments much more closely." Lance rubbed his hand. "I've trained to endure ice moves, but another weakness for my pokemon and I comes as a surprise… something that I will have to develop a method of dealing with." Rather than looking vexed Lance actually looked intrigued like he was welcoming the challenge.
"That's if the Elders haven't already recorded it in the archives!" said Claire with a flick of her ponytail.
Lance considered this before shaking his head. "We would have known earlier about the Fairy types if they were known… perhaps some older stories might need re-examination though, with this information for context?"
Claire hummed and bobbed her head up and down. I watched the two cousins trade theories back and forth, apparently, I might have been closer to the mark with there being two recorded incidents of "cute" pokemon being surprisingly effective in stopping Blackthorn members from beating a Kanto trainer during the unification dispute.
A thought intruded in my mind and I decided to bring it up now that Lance and I were alone from other less discerning ears. "Hey Lance, what was up with the audit that the Pokemon League did after I got back from our match? That really… seemed kind of targeted, I'm not going to lie."
"Ah! Yes, that was something that the League officials implemented and while it was legal in the strictest sense. I had words with Kruger about his auditing team's zealousness." He offered me a bow of his head. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. Not that you had anything to worry about. I saw your gym's records and they are impressive…, especially with your winnings," he said with a small smile.
I chuckled. "Ten million would do that." I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms. "Were you getting a sneak peek at what other pokemon I had?"
Lance nodded, "I won't deny I was curious about that, but only a to a small degree. While the League instigated the investigation I made sure to approve the results. I have also given the Kanto gyms approval for continued operations for another two years due to the heavy-handedness shown by the League. I shouldn't expect another audit any time soon. I know they were being zealous but it certainly was taken too far," he said with a firm tone.
"And if they don't abide by that?" I said probingly.
"Then they shall be expelled from the League. I want things to run smoothly and to the law," he said. When I nodded back an awkward silence took hold.
He rolled his hand in Selene's direction looking to break up the awkwardness. "You said this Lunatone was your final pokemon for our previous match? Before this match, I was confused about that decision but I see now why it was her. She would have been a wonderful sweeper, but don't think I won't have a counter for her next time!" he said with a fanged grin.
Selene chirped out a challenge of her own. I smirked. "We'll be ready for you, Dragonmaster Lance."
Claire puffed herself up. "I would also like to fight you!"
I grinned at her. "Hmmm is that so? Well, I won't say no if you want to step up," I said.
Rather than grinning she almost seemed to wiggle. That… wasn't the reaction I had thought I was going to get. When I looked at Lance I saw him looking away and biting his lips to stop himself from laughing.
Oh, it seemed this was normal for Claire. She was just pleased that I'd acknowledged her. I bit my own cheek to stop myself from teasing her. I didn't need to borrow any more trouble.
I rolled my shoulders and jerked my head to the side. "Well, it has been great to catch up with you, but I should probably be getting home." I tilted my head. "Unless you want to come hang out?" I'd already hung out with Professor Oak and he still came around to play Smash often enough to be a semi-familiar face. That really sort of normalised the idea of inviting Lance over to hang out.
Sadly Lance shook his head. "Another time perhaps. This was a bit of a scenic flight turned afternoon spent well for us, but we should be off as well."
"Ah alright then," I nodded in farewell both before putting a hand over Selene. "Think you can teleport us home girl?" She nodded her head and channelled her energy. A second later we vanished and reappeared.
We notably didn't make it home. I glanced around and judged it as being maybe a third of the way. I patted Selene on the head as she slumped in dejection. "Hey this is still pretty good, take your time and let's just give it a few tries." It turned out we needed another three teleports before we reappeared in front of my home. Selene wobbled tiredly after me and I directed her to the couch.
I still had another hour before the kids got out of school. I didn't have training with the Little League or my own trainers. So instead of doing something productive I settled in on the couch next to Selene and turned on the Tv.
"Luuunaaa!" chimed Selene when a game show came on. As the host began to ask questions she perked up and chimed her own answers only to gasp in shock whenever she got it wrong.
"Yeah, girl this seems good enough," I said as I wriggled deeper into the couch to enjoy some me time.
The events of the day played out in my thoughts as I lazed there. It had mostly been good and productive, but a moment of helplessness had stood out to me.
I hadn't been able to catch up to the Pidgeot when they'd chosen to loosen those Golbat on us. Zephyr wasn't the fastest pokemon, but he was strong as a transport pokemon while retaining a lot of his fighting skills. Sadly he didn't have the raw speed that I had needed. Don wouldn't have been able to do any better however so where did that leave me? I needed a pokemon that could engage and break off at it's leisure. Don would get caught up in fighting.
I considered the fight and realised that the answer was rather apparent. I'd have to see about getting myself a Crobat. I grinned as Selene chimed out again at getting another question wrong. It would be a nice homage to Brock's cartoon team.
A.N. Special thanks goes to my patreons for their support!
Special thanks goes to Raikor, Ab9999 and Elnoorz for betaing and editing this chapter.
Bonus internet points if you understood the homage the first line of this chapter was for! It's a bit of bush poetry from my country.
It was no different as we came to land. When we had landed and our pokemon had been returned to their pokeballs, they swept in. Their landing was controlled, but there was still a great stirring of the people watching from the buildings and the shadows.
It wasn't normal to see so many people obviously lingering near the landing site. Now that Lance had appeared I could feel people's gazes flitting like Beedrill from me to him. There must have been some doubt as to the veracity of the rumors. I hadn't heard anything being said over the radio, but Rangers obviously had their own grapevines off the air. A quickly fired transceiver message would have worked.
But seeing was believing and with both myself and Lance? The Rangers were practically salivating to see what I'd promised Lance. I gave him a look and smirked. We were well aware of the attention but not bothered at all.
I let my grin show some teeth and he responded in kind.
A cough reminded us that we still had some business in the handover for the next Ranger team. I assumed Sylvie and Andrew had handled this when we'd departed, but then again maybe we were an extra patrol? The two teams that were replacing us trudged out unhappily, their eyes shooting to Lance and I. The knowledge that they were about to miss something big while everyone still on base was going to be watching obviously weighed on them.
Ginny and Sylvie informed their respective team leaders of what had happened in a brief overview in HQ. Honestly, the number of people we'd encountered had been pretty crazy. The competence of the poachers, in particular, had been startling, but then again commander Hank had said it would be this way.
"Were these incidents an outlier or is this on par for you right now?" I asked Sylvie.
She shook her head. "We got lucky or unlucky depending on how you want to look at it. We encountered a lot of people today. Usually, there are only registered trainers on the mountain and not so many people doing the wrong thing. I'm hoping today doesn't mark a trend…" she made a face, "We'll have to see."
She gestured into the building "Come on, I'll type something up quick and drop it off with Commander Hank. Then I think I'm going to need to claim a patch of grass in the training area."
I nodded, giving Lance a look. "You coming with us or just going to hang out?" I said casually.
Next to Lance, Claire watched me with narrowed eyes. She opened her mouth to say something but Lance merely nodded. "We'll come with you. How has Pewter city been?"
"Busy!" I said as I began to relay all of the different highlights since our match. He chuckled when I told him about the new hires and how I spent a sizable chunk of my winnings on getting an Eevee for my family, a Chansey for my gym and a Scyther for myself.
"Urgh! Boys and their scythers!" said Claire with a shake of her head. Her words caused a number of nearby trainers to scowl at her only for them to nod approvingly at me. Scyther was seen as a 'cool' pokemon to have so they could probably understand where I was coming from in buying it. Some of the girls shot Claire looks of solidarity. Bugs weren't typically seen as cool with female trainers.
Lance rubbed his chin. "A shame I have committed to the dragon style of pokemon."
"Dragon style?" I asked.
"Gyrados and Charizard both aren't dragon type," he said in reply. "Although I don't suppose… Don?" When I nodded to show he got the name right, he continued, "I don't suppose Don is a dragon type either?"
I shook my head. "Rock and Flying." I then shrugged. "And I wouldn't give up on always counting out some pokemon as being dragon typed. My own golem breeding methods show that pokemon can grow in a lot of different ways."
Lance perked up and Claire looked thoughtful at my words. "That is true. A dragon typed Gyarados…" he said wistfully.
I kept my mouth shut on the probably very near future where Charizard would be able to mega evolve depending on some shiny rocks. I was keeping my eyes out for anything like the Mega Stones but I honestly wasn't sure what I was looking for. So far I'd only been able to talk to hikers traversing Mt Moon and walk it myself but I suspected I needed to look into areas where the pokemon in question were heavily concentrated. Charific valley was therefore possibly a site for Charizard Megastones… but this was only a theory. For now.
Which… if I was looking for the ultimate Mega stone for my team would mean I would need to spend some serious time looking around the peaks of the Mt Silver Range.
That would see me stirring up a lot of very powerful pokemon and probably having lots of Rangers on me like a Shellder on a Slowpoke. Chewing my backside out.
I jerked my head towards Lance's belt. "So you've got yourself a Salamence, did you also get yourself an Altaria?"
Lance stared at me. For a moment I wondered if I had said something odd. It didn't seem that strange for him to get two Dragon-type pokemon did it?
He huffed. "You anticipate me well Brock."
I grunted realising what he'd been talking about. "Nah, when you narrow the scope of pokemon that are possible for you to go for." I ticked off a finger, "there's also only a few regions to look to that have different Dragon types."
"That obvious?" he said.
I shrugged, "A number of the regions that are open right now share a large portion of each other's pokemon population right now. It makes it pretty obvious that if you wanted to expand your pool of pokemon you'd need to expand through the Hoenn side of things which is further afield."
Claire had a mix of peevishness and pride on her face as I spoke. She shook her head and coughed. "Lance has been able to expand his team a great deal since the last time you two fought!"
I nodded. "Yeah, I thought that would be the case. Your Salamence looks strong," I said to Lance.
Claire tilted her head. Me complimenting Lance obviously hadn't been what she was expecting from prodding at me. I got the feeling she was rather out of her element seeing Lance being so relaxed with someone.
Lance smiled, his chest puffing up as he spoke "I'm very proud of him."
Any further conversation had to wait when Sylvie stood up from her desk with a printed-out report. She marched straight up to Commander Hank and dropped the report into the 'In box' on a table to the side.
Commander Hank turned from regarding his wall of maps. "Rangers, Gym Leaders, Champion," he said without changing his tone at all. "Good work out there with capturing those poachers and settling down that Donphan herd."
He gave Lance a smirk. "Just like old times for you, Area Ranger?"
Lance chuckled. "Simpler times, what wasn't to like?"
Commander Hank nodded once and then gave us all an amused look. "A little birdie mentioned there was going to be a… friendly match." At the word friendly, he narrowed his eyes and all but commanded that it would be so. Lance and I both nodded amiably.
Hank grunted. "Very well, give me five minutes to get another cup of coffee and I'll be out to watch the match." He smirked at us. "I'm looking forward to seeing a good battle."
Lance and I grinned. The Rangers that had been lingering and keeping busy —read eavesdropping— jolted in excitement. With the Commander announcing it, it was locked in that Lance and I would be fighting. Some had obviously been expecting Hank to shut it down.
Lance and I smirked. This was going to be fun.
The Rangers didn't have a giant arena to train their pokemon in or use for show matches. That would have gone against their creed. It also wouldn't have been suitable for their needs. They fought battles in the wilds where there weren't clear skies and flat ground. An arena for the rangers would be a gigantic waste of money and a sign that things were very, very wrong.
What they did have was a level field with small built-up hills that acted as a natural amphitheatre. The grass was long enough that if I wasn't wearing long pants it would have tickled my shins as it swayed in the wind.
Around us, the Rangers that were still on base and not handling critical tasks were all sitting on the hill and settling in. It was surprising to see just how many of them there were for the Pewter region. I knew the Rangers were a popular field of employment, but to see almost three hundred people as 'part' of Pewter's Ranger cohort was enlightening.
Commander Hank claimed the seat of honour in the middle of the hill with a few of his trusted veterans sitting around him. I saw him point out a few Student Rangers and signal them to join him. It almost felt like an old general picking out young cubs to sit and learn at his side.
Directly across from him on another hill, at the halfway point between Lance and I, Claire was sitting in seiza. She sat with impeccable poise and the only thing that gave away her excitement for the coming match was the way her hands laced and unlaced repeatedly.
I couldn't see Sylvie or Andrew but I assumed they were somewhere in the crowd of rangers. The various Ranger uniforms made them blend in better than any natural camouflage on their part.
I rolled my shoulders and let the crowd fade away. If they moved in I'd be aware of them as potential obstructions or threats. Instead, I focussed on the field, the feel of it and how the wind blew across it. I searched it for any little points of difference that could be exploited. Not that I expected there to be anything I'd need to worry about from the ground.
I had said I was going to use Selene and I was sticking with that. This would be her time to shine.
I locked eyes with Lance and as one we both reached for pokeballs on our belts.
"Go Salamence!" "Go Selene!" we both shouted.
Two pokemon appeared in bursts of red energy. From Lance, a blue and red western-styled dragon appeared and cried out. On my side of the field, a floating rock in the shape of a crescent moon drifted and trilled in excitement.
"Steady girl," I said as she bobbed back and forth.
Hank raised a hand from where he was lounging. "Trainers! Ready?" we both nodded and he dropped his hand. "Begin!"
"Steel wing!" Lance said with a sweep of his arm. His pokemon leapt into the attack, wings glinting as the Steel type energy infused them.
If I hadn't seen him playing around with Claire earlier I might have been taken by surprise at how fast such a large pokemon could move. Instead, I raised a lazy hand straight at his oncoming pokemon. "Moonblast!"
Selene's eyes glowed and if you were watching close enough you could almost spot something pulsing above us. I knew it to be an effect whereby she pulled on energy from the moon. A moon that wasn't actually there but the move itself had to be taught and trained during a full moon to actually develop it. Perhaps it was the nature of fairy-type energy, in general, to be elusive, I'd had to work hard to have Selene learn this move.
A large white orb formed up and floated forward. It was a deceptively slow-moving attack that was so translucent you could almost see through it. If this had been a fire-type move or a dark-type move, you'd have been correct in thinking that it was an attack that hadn't been formed correctly.
That was not the case.
All it would take was a single hit to bully this Dragon.
Which was why I was surprised when Lance's eyes bulged and he swept his arm to the side.
"BREAK OFF, NOW!" he roared. His Salamence barrel rolled to the side and upwards forcing the Moonblast to miss.
Selene warbled in annoyance as her eyes tracked the arcing dragon. I frowned at Lance. Had he experienced fairy-type moves before? The common consensus was still out on them, but Lance had instantly broken off the attack.
Lance wasn't looking at the fight and instead looking at his hands which were… trembling?
He stared at them in shock before looking up to Selene with an expression that radiated confusion. Then he looked down at his hand once more. He tightened it into a fist and nodded shaking himself and returning to the match. "Salamence! Don't let that attack hit you! Whatever you do!"
I leaned back. Now that reaction? That was very interesting. He could recognise it as a threat and had reacted accordingly. This was almost like the gag of Iris always reacting negatively against cold situations or moments where Ice type pokemon were in the picture. Only Lance had reacted instinctively in the middle of a fight.
Those were some great instincts. Or was it something else?
I already knew that Lance had access to Dragon-type energy. In the cartoon, Iris, who much like Lance, was a self-professed Dragon trainer always reacted just as poorly to Ice-types as her pokemon. I'd thought that just a gag from the cartoon. Now I was re-evaluating that thought.
"Future sight," I said to Selene. If he wasn't going to make it easy for us, I wasn't going to let him have time to bring his speedy dragon back in for another attack.
"Tch, Dragon dance!" His pokemon weaved through the air and returned fully into the enclosure. As a friendly, it wasn't a concern that he went out of bounds for a little bit. Then again this field wasn't to regulation League standards so he'd also have more room in any actual challenges.
"Dragonbreath!" Lance said, causing his pokemon to emit bluish-purple flames from its maw.
"Psychic," I said in response. Lunatone's eyes glowed and psychic energy wrapped around the oncoming inferno only to be tugged upwards and form into a disc-like shape that hurled itself back at the Salamence that once more dodged.
"Follow up with Rock tomb!" I said to get his pokemon locked into place.
"Protect!" commanded Lance with another sweep of his hand. Around his pokemon, a hexagonal pattern protected his pokemon from my entrapment.
"Hold!" I said to Selene. She paused as I held up a hand. "Moonblast!" Once again the pulsing energy built up in the sky before Selene fired off an attack straight at Salamence. Once more Lance hissed like a cat rubbed the wrong way by an oily yet sticky hand.
"Aerial ace out Salamence!" he said. Just as the hexagons fell and Selene's attack should have landed his blue dragon flickered and vanished in a burst of speed. Only to then appear right in front of Selene with his wing coming down.
I clenched in surprise before my mind could dismiss the attack for a flying-type effect. Not that Selene let it hit.
As the wing came down her eyes glinted blue and the tips of her crescent-shaped body gouged upwards to slam into Salamence's wingtip. For a second there was a grinding noise only for Salamence to be blown backwards and go tumbling. Selene was buffeted backwards but appeared to come off better as she shook herself off and returned to the fight faster.
"Selene! Like you were taught! Teleport now!" Selene's eyes glowed and a frankly huge amount of energy built up around her before it was her turn to wink out and reposition directly above the recovering Salamence as it got onto its feet.
"Moonblast!" I said clenching my fist as Salamence snapped its head upwards.
"Salamence use protect again!" ordered Lance.
Once more the hexagon shield formed… only to collapse when the Moonblast orb slammed into it. It carried on and pressed Salamence into the ground. The dragon cried out in pain only to slump when the orb dissipated.
I watched it for any twitches that would indicate that it was seeking to return to the fight. That Aerial ace would be a wonderful repositioning tool that I'd remember. Lance shouldn't have been able to escape from the protect as he had… only, he had, thanks to that move.
Lance grunted and raised his pokeball to return his pokemon. He looked at the pokeball for a long tense moment before nodding his head. He looked up to Selene to see her wobbling back and forth in what I knew to be a happy dance.
"This was your last pokemon for your match with me wasn't it?" he asked.
I nodded. "Yup, she would have been my sweeper if it came to that."
He inclined his head. "I see… in that sense Salamence did well…" I got the feeling he still wasn't satisfied with the loss but then again you didn't become champion by being content with a loss. His hand clenched once and he put the pokeball away. "Thank you for the match Brock, it was highly informative." He plucked another pokeball off his hip. "I don't supp—"
"Alright! Breaks over slackers!" shouted Commander Hank as he stood up and began to assign jobs to the watching Rangers. His intrusion broke through the haze of another match. Lance and I both blinked at the disruption.
"Awww!" some of the younger Rangers said. "They were about to have another match!"
"No they weren't!" said Hank in the tones of a parent that was trying to use raw stubbornness to make their unruly children see reason the way they needed them to. "They were done!" He shot a look at Lance and I and we both nodded in agreement. Selene floated down with a sad tone. She had obviously been looking forward to laying out another of Lance's team. I rubbed her rocky face.
"Nicely done girl. I knew I could put my faith in you!" That had her instantly perking up.
Sylvie ran up and gave me a hug. "That was great! Thanks for showing us that Brock!"
"Area Ranger Sylvie! You're on radio duty in ten minutes! That means you should be there now!" barked Hank. Sylvie shot off. The Rangers trickled out but they continued to cast hopeful looks at Lance and I as though we were about to ignore the Commander's order and fight again.
I just kept rubbing Selene until they were all gone and Lance had approached me with Claire at his side. Claire looked conflicted.
"Good fight," I said to Lance.
"Indeed, I thought I had anticipated some of your rock moves rather well with my dragon but you've got hidden depths." He looked over my Lunatone. "I've never known a Lunatone to be able to teleport?" The unasked question of how mine could, stood out.
"Ah, well, it pays to have the best psychic trainer around to help train her in how to do it." I wasn't going to mention how it took her way, way longer than any other pokemon that could learn it normally. While most of Selene's training for fighting Lance had been to strengthen her Psychic to be able to pull off the fire control she had, I had also asked Sabrina to attempt to teach Selene teleport.
The ability to evade or reposition was one that was often overlooked but that I knew paid out with huge dividends. It wasn't until after Sabrina had already reported her success to me that I remembered that what she'd done… technically shouldn't have been possible according to game logic. Then again it was only game logic.
Or was it just a case of Sabrina being the deciding factor? It said a lot about Sabrina's skill with psychics
Soooo, I mostly decided to chalk it up to Sabrina. She was pretty great like that.
"Sabrina right?" Claire said tentatively.
"Yup," I said, giving Selene another pat as she wobbled into me for affection.
"She's the strongest you say?" Claire said with a tone of interest.
"Oh yeah, easily," I said. I couldn't imagine another trainer beating her in the psychic department ever. Claire didn't comment on that, instead watching my pokemon wiggle in happiness.
"She's very well trained… what was that white orb attack? Moonblast?" she said, her tone oozing casualness.
I gave her and Lance both looks that showed I knew they were fishing for information. They had blank faces. Each sported a studied casualness to them that made me want to invite them both over for a poker night so I could rob them blind. Still, Lance was… a pretty nice guy, so it wouldn't be an issue to give him a heads up.
"Have you been paying attention to the recent news in the scientific communities regarding the newest energy type they've found pokemon to possess?"
"Fairy type they are calling it, yes?" Lance said, a thoughtful frown appearing on his face. "I had read some of the papers, but they're finding it tough to nail down which pokemon possesses it. There are a lot of established professors that are arguing against it. Claiming it to be a hoax."
I snorted in amusement. "Those are great!" when I got confused expressions, I shrugged and explained, "Some of those scientific debates can be as good as watching clowns have a fight with each other." I laughed once before coughing and getting serious. "But I'm in the camp supporting the Fairy typing." I rubbed Selene's body. "Selene isn't a Fairy type, I'd say she's a psychic-rock still but I think she can tap into it due to her connection to the moon. I think fairy types will have a lot to do with celestial bodies in a way. Sun and stars and all that."
"You're talking about clefairy, aren't you?" said Lance, still rubbing his chin.
Claire hissed in surprise and narrowed her eyes at me. "And Pewter city is the closest to Mt Moon, where Clefairy can be found in large numbers!"
I could see where her train of logic was heading and decided to stop her from thinking I was about to become some specialised anti-dragon trainer. "Hmmm, yeah nope. While they're cute and I could probably work them into my team I don't actually own any of the little puffballs. Most clefairy are pretty shy and actually don't like fighting. If you were looking for a pokemon more…"
I searched for the right word. "Threatening to your pokemon in terms of technical skill while having power to go the distance I'd be thinking of the most popular Hoenn pokemon," I said giving them something to focus on. I hadn't ever really considered the convenience of having dragon-slayer pokemon right near Pewter and across the range from the biggest threat to Kanto.
Maybe some of the defenders during the war had been assisted by the local pokemon more than they knew?
Claire scowled. "Gardevoir!? The pokemon that fools drool over?!"
"Oh you're aware of that are you?" I said, interested to see her bringing up how some of the groups, that were argued to be a small minority, adored the pokemon. Or even loved the pokemon, for a given aspect of 'love'.
Claire opened her mouth only to blush furiously as she realised what she'd brought up in 'polite conversation. Lance chuckled at her reaction and she shot him a venomous look as she got herself under control. "I'm merely stating that it has a distasteful reputation."
"Hmmm," I hummed non-committally. It wasn't something I wanted to pry into. I'd tried to keep a policy of what happens at home between consenting legal parties was between those two… or more parties. It was only when it got illegal that I was going to throw a rock through a window in the form of Sanchez 'tactically' entering. I still hadn't had to do that.
Attempts by 'concerned' citizens and pearl-clutching, sharp-tongued, men and women that sought out trouble to stir things up had targeted this aspect of pokemon and trainer relations. Only for the movement to be dissolved overnight. The rumours, if you cared to listen, had something to do with the Pokemon fan club having a much more persuasive voice which they only rarely used.
"Hmmm Gardevoir… I shall have to watch the scientific communities developments much more closely." Lance rubbed his hand. "I've trained to endure ice moves, but another weakness for my pokemon and I comes as a surprise… something that I will have to develop a method of dealing with." Rather than looking vexed Lance actually looked intrigued like he was welcoming the challenge.
"That's if the Elders haven't already recorded it in the archives!" said Claire with a flick of her ponytail.
Lance considered this before shaking his head. "We would have known earlier about the Fairy types if they were known… perhaps some older stories might need re-examination though, with this information for context?"
Claire hummed and bobbed her head up and down. I watched the two cousins trade theories back and forth, apparently, I might have been closer to the mark with there being two recorded incidents of "cute" pokemon being surprisingly effective in stopping Blackthorn members from beating a Kanto trainer during the unification dispute.
A thought intruded in my mind and I decided to bring it up now that Lance and I were alone from other less discerning ears. "Hey Lance, what was up with the audit that the Pokemon League did after I got back from our match? That really… seemed kind of targeted, I'm not going to lie."
"Ah! Yes, that was something that the League officials implemented and while it was legal in the strictest sense. I had words with Kruger about his auditing team's zealousness." He offered me a bow of his head. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. Not that you had anything to worry about. I saw your gym's records and they are impressive…, especially with your winnings," he said with a small smile.
I chuckled. "Ten million would do that." I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms. "Were you getting a sneak peek at what other pokemon I had?"
Lance nodded, "I won't deny I was curious about that, but only a to a small degree. While the League instigated the investigation I made sure to approve the results. I have also given the Kanto gyms approval for continued operations for another two years due to the heavy-handedness shown by the League. I shouldn't expect another audit any time soon. I know they were being zealous but it certainly was taken too far," he said with a firm tone.
"And if they don't abide by that?" I said probingly.
"Then they shall be expelled from the League. I want things to run smoothly and to the law," he said. When I nodded back an awkward silence took hold.
He rolled his hand in Selene's direction looking to break up the awkwardness. "You said this Lunatone was your final pokemon for our previous match? Before this match, I was confused about that decision but I see now why it was her. She would have been a wonderful sweeper, but don't think I won't have a counter for her next time!" he said with a fanged grin.
Selene chirped out a challenge of her own. I smirked. "We'll be ready for you, Dragonmaster Lance."
Claire puffed herself up. "I would also like to fight you!"
I grinned at her. "Hmmm is that so? Well, I won't say no if you want to step up," I said.
Rather than grinning she almost seemed to wiggle. That… wasn't the reaction I had thought I was going to get. When I looked at Lance I saw him looking away and biting his lips to stop himself from laughing.
Oh, it seemed this was normal for Claire. She was just pleased that I'd acknowledged her. I bit my own cheek to stop myself from teasing her. I didn't need to borrow any more trouble.
I rolled my shoulders and jerked my head to the side. "Well, it has been great to catch up with you, but I should probably be getting home." I tilted my head. "Unless you want to come hang out?" I'd already hung out with Professor Oak and he still came around to play Smash often enough to be a semi-familiar face. That really sort of normalised the idea of inviting Lance over to hang out.
Sadly Lance shook his head. "Another time perhaps. This was a bit of a scenic flight turned afternoon spent well for us, but we should be off as well."
"Ah alright then," I nodded in farewell both before putting a hand over Selene. "Think you can teleport us home girl?" She nodded her head and channelled her energy. A second later we vanished and reappeared.
We notably didn't make it home. I glanced around and judged it as being maybe a third of the way. I patted Selene on the head as she slumped in dejection. "Hey this is still pretty good, take your time and let's just give it a few tries." It turned out we needed another three teleports before we reappeared in front of my home. Selene wobbled tiredly after me and I directed her to the couch.
I still had another hour before the kids got out of school. I didn't have training with the Little League or my own trainers. So instead of doing something productive I settled in on the couch next to Selene and turned on the Tv.
"Luuunaaa!" chimed Selene when a game show came on. As the host began to ask questions she perked up and chimed her own answers only to gasp in shock whenever she got it wrong.
"Yeah, girl this seems good enough," I said as I wriggled deeper into the couch to enjoy some me time.
The events of the day played out in my thoughts as I lazed there. It had mostly been good and productive, but a moment of helplessness had stood out to me.
I hadn't been able to catch up to the Pidgeot when they'd chosen to loosen those Golbat on us. Zephyr wasn't the fastest pokemon, but he was strong as a transport pokemon while retaining a lot of his fighting skills. Sadly he didn't have the raw speed that I had needed. Don wouldn't have been able to do any better however so where did that leave me? I needed a pokemon that could engage and break off at it's leisure. Don would get caught up in fighting.
I considered the fight and realised that the answer was rather apparent. I'd have to see about getting myself a Crobat. I grinned as Selene chimed out again at getting another question wrong. It would be a nice homage to Brock's cartoon team.
A.N. Special thanks goes to my patreons for their support!
Special thanks goes to Raikor, Ab9999 and Elnoorz for betaing and editing this chapter.
Bonus internet points if you understood the homage the first line of this chapter was for! It's a bit of bush poetry from my country.
Warning of early fairy rushes might have done the Blackthorne clan a real solid. Also that Poor Salamence. Moonblast through a protect and still one tapped.
Also kek at Claire knowing about the Garde fascination. Really want to see some out of towner pokemon added to the team. would be so cool.
Also kek at Claire knowing about the Garde fascination. Really want to see some out of towner pokemon added to the team. would be so cool.
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
Couldn't the scyther act as a flying interceptor as well, the anime usually showed them and scizor as fairly fast flyers, crobat definitely wins out for speed but it just seems odd for Brock to be thinking of going for the bat Pokemon already when he has said he has another flying Pokémon.
Then again if he's going from meta-knowledge he might go for croagunk, ludicolo and vulpix. If going for a rock type why not archeops, the fossils were in Hoenn if you go by the omega ruby timeline.
- Location
- United States of America
Cindar
Probably a lurker
- Location
- Canada
Well he wants that Syther to become a Kleavor right? I don't remember any Kleavors flying in game...
I do remember the Lord jumping and then spinning in the air like a helicopter though. Maybe that's how they fly, turning their axes into propellers?
TimEd
Meteor maker
He's already planning on turning that Scyther into that rock type evolution it got. And even then, Pigeot is still faster (at least if it can ignore the rider's weight, which we have to assume if it is a dedicated transport 'mon).
Selene is Best rock. Wonder if he is gonna look for a big Zubat or Golbat. Also the chances of finding a shiny is probably really high given how numerous the species is.
- Pronouns
- She
Selene enjoying the game show is adorable
I am always amused to see pokephylia acknowledged in more serious Pokemon stories because there's just no fucking way it wouldn't happen, particularly with the more humanoid pokemon. I mean, irl humans who encountered other hominid species definitely boinked, given that their DNA is present in modern populations (Neanderthal DNA being the most famous instance). So if you have a situation where in a humanoid pokemon like gardevoir loves their trainer very much and said trainer reciprocates...
Well, it's going to happen.
At least it wasn't the vaporeon meme.
Well, it's going to happen.
At least it wasn't the vaporeon meme.
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- Location
- Scotland
Just finished the latest chapter and had an amusingly evil thought. Since all of us here (and Brock of course) know how to get a Sylveon Brock should totally do it just to see Lance's reaction when faced with the small, cute and comparatively harmless fluffball. The expression on his face ought to be utterly hilarious since he did have an instinctual reaction to a fairy type attack. Claire's reaction ought to be pretty good also, I think she'll be torn between cooing at how adorable it is and recoiling because, well, Fairy type 😁.
- Location
- Borderworld, Xen
Pretty sure most of the Pokemon series acknowledge pokepylia even if indirectly and subtlety.
- Location
- Borderworld, Xen
Honestly why Sylveon is my second favorite eeveelution. The image of such a cute thing on top a pile of defeated dragons it's flesh ribbons fluttering majestically threw the air amuses me greatly
Garreon
Paldean Top Champion
- Location
- Mesagoza, Paldea
I mean....they do have wings....they are just Itty bitty sized
- Location
- Canada
Yeah, I know at least one of the main series games has like an interactable bookshelf with books talking about human and pokemon marriages in olden times.
Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
That was in the Sinnoh games. Also in Legends Arceus we have evidence of a Frostlass and human relationship. Not that the human knew.
Chapter 47 - Training days -
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
I set up the projector and nodded to myself once it was aligned with the blank whiteboard. I had the room set up, the presentation set up, the powerpoint aligned and the clicker ready for the presentation. With this being my third start of the circuit proper I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to have my gym trainers hit the ground running. Or, at the very least avoiding a lot of the pitfalls that would come from dealing with trainers.
Rocko was the first to turn up and claim a chair at a halfway point for the seven I had laid out. Forrest came in after him, and then Dennis, Daniel, Celia, Missy, and Yolanda came in as a group. Yolanda bounced up to the front with Missy and Celia while the boys filled out the other seats. A knock on the door had me pausing.
Rachel stuck her head in. "Hi! I thought this might be something that I could sit in on!?"
I bobbed my head from side to side. "This is mainly the discussion on what they'll be encountering as gym trainers when they have to represent Pewter. There's not a lot of marketing I should think?"
"Heh! Even just a photo of this is something to throw up on pokenet for people to see!" she said.
"Oh, we have followers?" I said thinking of my previous life. Rachel blinked.
"Followers? Uhm no this isn't a cult…" She glanced around. "Right?"
Dennis and Rocko shared a look before glancing at me. I thought I heard a muttered, "...Fanclub sometimes could be?" Pass between them but they didn't volunteer anything when I raised an eyebrow at them. So instead I turned back to Rachel.
"Ah sorry, it's a term I thought I read about for people that follow news releases or information about a set topic…" Rachel blinked slowly. I decided to shut up before I dug myself any deeper.
Rachel tilted her head and rubbed her chin. Then she shot me a thumbs up. "I like it! I'll be sure to have it as a feature for people to 'follow' the news for the gym!"
I gave her a nod and let her take some pictures before we got underway only for another knock to announce Stephen.
"Stephen, can I help you?" I said carefully.
He rubbed his chin. "I was curious to sit in if that would be alright? Sort of a curiosity of mine to get a sneak peek into how things run at a gym like Pewter."
I shrugged. "I don't think what I do would be representative for any of the other gyms and vice versa, but sure." Stephen grinned and trudged to the back of the room after waving to everyone. I glanced after him. "Bianca isn't going to join us is she?"
He shook his head. "She had some equipment being shipped in from Elm that she is setting up in her office space. She sounded excited about it. Something about the virility of Don's—" I held up a hand.
"I'm good," I said firmly before clearing my throat. "Right! Thanks for getting here on time everyone! Today's discussion is going to be some of the first presentations that I need trainers to know about. Rocko and Dennis have sat through all of these before so for you most of this will be a refresher, but I have added some new information so make sure to follow along. With this being your third year I'll be relying on you for more senior trainer duties."
I looked over the rest of the team. "While Forrest is officially my second in command he still has school so he will not be asked to run any of these sessions unless he wants to."
"Uhm pass?!" Forrest said, making me roll my eyes. Not that anyone could see them. Yolanda and Forrest knew what I was doing though. They returned the gesture with smiles.
I clicked the remote for the powerpoint and decided to start things off. "Alright, so as trainers for the Pewter city gyms there are going to be a lot of different people and pokemon coming through our doors that we will have to deal with." I clicked through a slide.
"The personalities of the trainers is something that we will deal with later and that will include the reception team that are learning the systems today instead of being here with us," I said as an explanation as to the lack of Alexa and Bethany.
"Based on previous years, the most common trainer that we'll see are those relying heavily on type advantages to carry them through. It's not a secret what type of gym we are and we don't have a rotating roster like some other… now failed gyms."
"Heh suck it Commerce city," said Daniel in a carrying whisper.
I wagged a finger at him. "Yeah, that was an organisation that had way too much money and not enough sense." Forrest groaned and I paused. "Oh, I hadn't even noticed that I was being punny…"
Forrest sank further into his chair. "No more! No! I'm not listening to you make bad jokes again!"
I wanted to point out I'd only ever done that once when I was trialling some jokes to see if they might be something Sabrina would like but Forrest in his oh-so-mature understanding hadn't enjoyed them. The younger twins had liked them well enough. While I'd never done it again I'd given Forrest the impression that I wanted to do stand-up comedy.
I coughed to get things back on track. "Regardless! The trainers will mostly be dependent on using type advantages so expect to be seeing some of the following pokemon and their typing."
On the screen, I flicked through Grass types with images of Oddish, Bellsprout, Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Treecko, Shroomish, Exeggcute, Paras, Lotad, and a Hoppip. Another click had evolutions of these pokemon appearing until the common grass-type pokemon we'd be facing were done.
"These are just some of the pokemon that we will be facing. At the lower levels expect to see vine whips, bullet seeds, razor leaf, leech seed and synthesis. If you're not thoroughly familiar with all of these by the end of the season I'll be amazed. Those are the grass types bread and butter. There are some interesting esoteric uses of all of these however that aren't as well known. When we get into the three badges and up be on the watch for energy ball and solar beam as the current signature grass type moves."
Dennis and Rocko shared confused looks but didn't say anything else. I held in my grimace. Frenzy plant hadn't yet been discovered but I was more than ready for one of the strongest pokemon moves to appear.
Not counting the Z-type moves that would come whenever we found the Alola regions. Bloom doom would then claim the strongest slot. But that was getting ahead of myself.
I clicked the remote and showcased another screen, this one showing off the fighting-type pokemon I'd be expecting us to encounter. I went through them and then moved on to the ground-type pokemon. Then the Steel-type pokemon. And finally, the water-type pokemon.
The room shifted in agitation or surprise that I'd been able to showcase so many pokemon that would have advantages against us. I merely smiled at them. "That's a lot of type weaknesses, no?"
Daniel grunted, eyeing off the printed pokemon/summary lists I'd provided for them all. Yolanda chewed her lip and Forrest looked annoyed. The other trainers mostly watched me.
"In truth, Rock pokemon have the most weaknesses. We're only equalled by grass typing with our five different weaknesses." I stared around the room. "For most of the first-level badge that's all they need to demonstrate. An understanding of base typing interactions and putting those moves to use… barring the strange instances where their attacks are honestly not strong enough to last against a first badge pokemon."
"Seriously?" said Daniel with a snicker.
Rocko coughed into his fist. "Yeah, there have been instances of pampered pokemon that are more pets than battlers turning up and the trainers thinking they wouldn't have to do much for a badge. They were quickly disabused of this," said Rocko.
I nodded. "The other strategy that you will see a lot of is pokemon using power-based attacks. What I mean by this is pokemon that have been trained to tough it out and shrug off hits as well as dish them out. Usually, this is from trainers that have been building up their team for the day their journeys began or they have been handed older more experienced pokemon. I have no doubt after Lance and my showing we will have a lot of trainers trying to emulate this."
I waggled a hand and grimaced. "It's a valid strategy, to be honest, but if you see them just relying on power to win then force them to adapt or to use a different method. That doesn't mean making them use speed moves or otherwise but try to get them to maybe stop and rethink what they and their team are working on. Power can get them through most of the badge circuit all told, but I doubt they'll be getting a full big eight badge case. If they try to go the Ace trainer route they will be languishing for a long time unless they double down hard."
"Technique, skill and having the right moves set up for a diversity of situations can mean a lot more in the battle club run tournament or in the open format." I clicked to a slide showing the local, rather humble, battle club with its smaller training fields. Since we'd set up a lot more trainers had started to run some of their challenges out of the outside training fields instead of just relying on the battle club fields.
I clicked again showcasing pokemon using withdraw to attack and defend. I pointed to the screen. "Creative thinking is something that is tough to have trainers learn, but something worth us attempting. This is something I like to reward as it shows them thinking through situations more and having plans ready or being adaptable. Again this is on a scale. Those with too much technique and not enough power are going to seem too weak. If they have finesse they need to have the strength to make sure the hits they land are devastating."
I began ticking off my fingers. "Good applications of environmental effects, traps, environment awareness, move set up, positioning during matches, or making the most of quirks of moves or pokemon are the things I look for when I'm talking about technique. Speed is something I consider to be more of a power domain as people think about it in just straight-line speed rather than speed of reaction or speed of a dodge. They think about crossing the distance between two pokemon or the arena battlefield and not what it would take to divert or break off. This cycles back around to positioning during matches."
"Now there are going to be different levels of skill, power, or strength of pokemon in general that you should be expecting. If a new trainer is bringing something approaching an Ace team then they better be challenging at a four badge or higher level," I said firmly.
I tapped the remote and the slide switched from video clips showing various demonstrations of pokemon showcasing speed to that of a pokemon belt featuring six pokemon. The six pokeballs were broken into three different colours.
"At Pewter gym you will only ever be asked to face a trainer with a run of one or two pokemon for the set badge level. I still expect you to also have pokemon for the four or higher challengers in case someone is trying to pull a fast one by claiming a badge that is way, way under their level."
I stared out at them, my face locking into a stoic expression. "Trainer's claiming a first-level badge while having pokemon that are far stronger are the leading cause of injury and mortality for our pokemon. A young or not fully toughened up Geodude for example will not handle a hydro pump from a Blastoise well."
I started looking around the room. Locking eyes with everyone present. "If it looks like your pokemon is getting overwhelmed I want you to pull it out and cede the match. I can give badges out all day but I can't just keep catching pokemon for them to go through what would amount to a grinder."
A few of the girls got green expressions at my turn of phrase. I get them a moment before I bulled on. "If a trainer is being cheap then flag it in the system or with the next trainer if they've selected a gauntlet challenge, or with me if it's gotten that far. Do not keep it to yourself," I said firmly.
I slowly made sure I met everyone's gaze. Even Yolanda and Forrest. There was a reason we had a medical wing and I'd spent so much money on getting a Chansey. We'd need her.
"What happens if we're still on our first pokemon and we work out what's going on?" Daniel asked carefully.
I grinned and let a little darkness shine through. "Then you use one of the other two pokemon on your belt." I gestured back at the powerpoint with the pokemon belt that was colour coded.
"With your holding limit being at six pokemon you already will have two slots taken for that level of badge challenge. The other two are for stronger pokemon and the final two are for personal pokemon. If someone is not giving the challenge the respect it deserves then toss out one of your stronger pokemon and smack them around."
I raised a hand as Daniel and Forrest looked very pleased by this. "Within reason!" I said to clarify and calm them down.
Missy shifted. "What if they're bringing far stronger pokemon than even a fourth badge challenge?"
I tapped on the final two pokemon. " If you have a personal pokemon that has a Rock typing then by all means send them out just like this was an Ace trainer battle instead of a circuit battle."
"Nice!" said Daniel.
"You'll probably get a good number of fights for them as it is. This is thanks to Ace trainers being able to challenge a gym every three years for Ace points to boost their standings on the points board. Again, with Lance's fight I think those numbers will grow, so expect plenty of work for your best pokemon." I quickly jotted down a note to bring that up with Georgina. That would be something I'd have no issues raising the price of for the next circuit.
"Now some of these lower tier fights are places where you can still showcase a lot of finesse. You're limited in power and the number of pokemon you can call out but that doesn't mean you need to be dumb about how you fight. By the time a third badge is challenging you we're only a few steps down from an Ace trainer technically."
"I'm gonna run so many rings around those kids!" Daniel said with glee.
Forrest sniggered. "Roll rings around them more like it."
I waggled fingers at one and then the other. "Hey, keep it reasonable. We're not here to bully the new trainers but to teach them alright? Forrest, I'll be watching you, because towards the end of the circuit some of your pokemon fights were getting a bit rough."
"It had been a while since we regraded which pokemon went where!" he said, throwing his arms up in exasperation at my calling him out.
"Hmmm fair point," I said, conceding that he probably had a point. I clicked to the final few slides for this presentation.
"Now the pokemon typings that Rock types are strong against and therefore the pokemon that I expect you to be testing heavily if a trainer sends one out against us are Bug, flying, fire and Ice."
"Testing heavily?" asked Daniel.
"Educating on the error of their ways," I clarified. "At the start if they bring a weak one of these pokemon into our gym then I will back you up should you order your pokemon to rock throw them and wipe them out or use something else to that effect. If they can't finesse or work through the type advantage then send them packing for not doing their homework!"
Daniel glanced back at Dennis and Rocko, "Please! Tell me people are dumb enough to try sending those types against us!"
Dennis snorted and Rocko grinned as he said, "We're right next to Viridian forest which is known for its bugs and flying types. What do you think?"
Daniel pumped his fist. I shook my head at him. I kind of got the impression that he was the kind of guy that wouldn't mind hanging out around the Battle club for new trainers and doing some rookie crushing. It was rather interesting to see what he was like personally. I'd have to probably ride herd on him a bit but I wouldn't outright stop him.
Young trainers needed to experience all sorts of trainers and it was better for them to recognise it in a safe setting. If he proved too harsh I could always assign him other tasks or the higher badge matches.
I clapped my hands. "With that said, that's the last thing I had to talk about with this presentation. Get familiar with your typings for when you're using rock pokemon cause for the next… year at least you'll be using them a lot. If you're not familiar with what moves they have then I'd suggest doing some study of the gym register for what I and the other senior trainers will have the various pokemon know. Standouts like Izumi and Moxy from our Geodude groups will of course have a number of other tricks, but I usually keep them for my own battles."
I ended the presentation there and pointed to the trainers as I reminded them of their duties for the day. "Small patrol around Pewter for Rocko and Missy, Dennis and Daniel you're on meals for the pokemon. Celia you have the rest of the day off. Yolanda and Forrest you have to go back to school from lunch. You only got the morning off for gym duties."
Forrest grinned, there were still at least two hours before lunch and I could tell he was going to be goofing off. I tilted my head. "Got all your homework done?"
When he nodded I shot him a thumbs up and left him to it. I gave Yolanda a raised eyebrow and she nodded as well earning another thumbs up.
"Which leaves me working with Rachel to discuss that magazine photo shoot, yes?"
"Yes!" she said happily, leaping forward to grab my arm. "To the office!" she said happily. I chuckled and led her on. It wouldn't be anything super interesting today. Merely a chat over the phone to schedule something in. Then I'd spend most of the afternoon talking with Alexa and Bethany on their duties and seeing if we needed anything else for their role to operate smoothly.
The most interesting thing turned out to be when I was setting up for the Little League baseball training session. I had just sent out the Geodude to throw some baseballs to each other and warm up their arms when I spotted a very recognisable figure sauntering up.
"Hello Karen," I said as I straightened up from arranging the bats that the kids would be using.
"Brock, what the hell! You have a friendly match with freaking Lance and you don't think to invite me along!? I'm offended!" she said as she planted her feet and put her hands on her hips.
"Oh? You heard about that?" I said curiously. It had been a Rangers-only event apart from Claire, Lance and myself and I doubted they were going to talk about it. So that left the Rangers. Who… would be prime candidates to have agents of the Guardians seeded into wouldn't they?
Karen sniffed and flicked her head to the side, "Of course I did!" She was trying to be dismissive but she couldn't stop a grin slipping into place as she vibrated in place. "I heard you laid an absolute smack down onto him!"
I huffed at her "I wouldn't call it that, I still had my final pokemon from our match last time."
"Yeah! I heard! What the hell! You saved that pokemon against Lance? Why?"
"I wanted to keep that one close to the chest. She was going to be my sweeper if things went badly," I said with a shrug.
"Feh! Well, I'm super bummed out that I didn't see that!" She shot me a sly look. "Heard you did it in front of Claire…" she said leadingly.
When I merely raised an eyebrow at her she huffed at me. "She can be really hot or cold. We've looked into her and when she watched you beat Lance she was like an angry school kid that had just seen their idol beaten up in front of them."
She looked down to her transceiver and began flicking through the apps until she got to a picture of Claire that had caught her looking…
"Ouch, looks like I broke her heart," I said, feeling like a heel at the pain that was being shown.
Karen snorted. "Please! She likes to get on a high horse from what I've heard of her. Seeing Lance lose will be good for her," Karen gave me a sly grin, " and amusing for me if I can get some more pictures of her like this." She looked at me hopefully like I might have said picture.
I shook my head. "You know you can be…" I didn't want to offend her by calling her 'kind of a bitch' so I settled on, "Vicious."
"Duh, I'm a Dark-type trainer and wielder." When I raised an eyebrow she rolled her eyes and cocked her hip to the side. "That means personality traits like taking pleasure from other people's suffering or 'schadenfreude' are right up my alley." she grinned hugely as she glanced to the side to see a Geodude miss a catch and get beaned in the head. "Arceus, I could watch videos of people being dumb all day for example."
She waved her hand about. "You know those feelings that typically get labelled as bad or that we push to the side? Well, you can use those with Dark typing. Helps if you lean into it cause you can grow if your understanding of it is higher. If you use them when channelling energy the energy also responds a little better." She shrugged, "If that means I come across a bit 'mean' I have no problems with that."
"Doesn't that run the risk of you developing narcissism or other extreme personality traits?" I said.
She scoffed. "Please! You think I don't deserve to be adored?" She chuckled at my stern expression.
The books had been rather apparent that you needed to not focus on just one emotion like that.
She shook her head. "You just need to have a line. I have no problem leaning into the traits and being sinister or mean, life's meant to be lived after all. I have a team to help ground me as well as a regular touchstone session for checking how things are going up here." She tapped the side of her head.
"Really? The books said that was to be avoided, "I said, giving voice to my earlier thoughts.
She waved her hand back and forth. "The books are good for building foundations and I'll acknowledge that there are some potential issues but it's worth it. I have some friends that understand me and help keep me in check… just like the old hag does sometimes."
She directed a manicured fingernail at me as she pointed. "Now what about you?"
"Me?" I said in surprise. This was not how I was expecting things to go. I glanced around and saw that no parents or kids had arrived yet and that so far only my geodude were on the field.
She nodded "Uhuh! You! Agatha might be an old hag and it comes across as her being an old crone when she assigned me to look after you, but there are some things you need to be reminded of to look out for."
She waved a hand at me. "Your Rock energy is no less dangerous to you than mine is. You can become complacent and reactionary if you don't work against it. Reactionary isn't something you want to be when you're swimming with big fish Brock."
I blinked. "Well, it's more that I'm in my off-circuit season. Most of my work comes during the circuit and that's when I have the biggest—"
Karen held up her hands. "Bzzzzt! Wrong!" she said like some sort of electronic buzzer.
"See, you're strong, everyone knows that. The thing is you need to be able to make some waves yourself and be the driving force!" she punched the air.
"Have people react to you rather than you to them! You've taken a lot of people by surprise cause well even us Guardians had dismissed you until you threw down with Lance. But now they know to be aware of you. Coming out of nowhere only works when you're an unknown. You need to be predicting and throwing punches of your own!" She jabbed at the air again only to then direct another finger right at me.
"Doing your gym circuit like you have been is slow progression stuff! You're also looking at it wrong. Times like now? When you're not locked into the gym? That's when you can be the freest! Change up your line up! Teach your pokemon new moves. Go to a few battle clubs and utterly stomp them into the ground just cause you can!" She clenched her fists like she could imagine just that and she liked the thought of it.
She slashed her hand through the air. "Or scrap that line of thinking entirely! Do not let yourself be chained down. You're the boss of your gym so act like it! Take a day off if you want it! Cancel on trainers!"
The part of me that had been a health care worker in my previous life squirmed at that even as I agreed with her. I had been rather passive of late, hadn't I? Hmm Karen had mentioned friends but I already had a go-getter in my team for Pewter that could help make me get out there and make some waves. The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of being more driven and not letting the rocks land where they fell.
I rubbed my chin. "Huh, this is not how I was expecting our chat to go. I thought you were just going to come around and be snarky while teaching the kids swear words."
"I can still do that!" She grinned in delight. "but I'm also one of your contacts for aura training." She clicked her fingers. "Also, we need to talk about your dark energy."
I tilted my head. "What about it?"
"You've got way too much of it. I got a look at your team and what you normally do for training, you only have the one pokemon that's dark typed." She held up a hand to forestall me. "Sure it's a Arceus be damned Tyranitar and your starter, but numbers count in this game!"
She then clapped her hands together, "So! Just as you're now aware of how your Rock-type energy is showing itself you also need to be aware of those pesky dark emotions ." she grinned to show she was joking.
"This usually means that you don't get too gleeful and all that muck like you were telling me earlier yeah? The best way to track yourself is to be reflective or to have a touchstone you can use to centre yourself emotionally. Keep a journal, take a hike, all that jazz." She flapped her hand about but then got serious. "Also watch what you meditate on."
"Like, where I meditate?" I said unsure if I was on the same wavelength as her.
She shook her head. "Nope! Specifically what you meditate on. If you have a recurring thought that you associate with dark type energy it will cling to it and make it harder to ignore when a situation that with that happens to you. It's like if I channelled my dark type energy into the glee of when a clown fell on their faces if I encountered a clown I'd find myself either wanting to see them fall or even actively setting them up to fall." she then shook her head. "Not actually a thing for me but you get my point right?"
When I nodded slowly in thought and didn't say anything in response she hummed. Then she huffed and stuck out her chest. "Damn! I'm not bad at this teaching shit!" She then winked at me as she tugged on her sweater and exposed a bit of her cleavage.
"Got any dark thoughts to get off your chest Brock~?" she said with a husky purr.
I sighed as she slipped into teasing me. "No, Ms Karen," I said sarcastically. Sadly this only got a thoughtful look.
"Oh? I like the sound of that! Might get some fake glasses and steal Lorelei's school teacher look! Would you like that?" I groaned into my hands as she cackled in a way that made me think of Agatha.
And suddenly, blood that had been rushing below my belt aborted its descent. "I'm good. Hey, what's up with Fiore?" I said as an obvious distraction.
She gave me a faux sad look and toyed with her shirt a little longer but I didn't look at her. I just had to remember that she had Agatha's laugh and that made the old woman's wrinkled face appear and block Karen's teasing.
She huffed and let go of her sweater. "Fiore's not going to be a problem, it's a backwards region that doesn't use pokeballs. It'll have some of the Rangers in a tizzy cause not many of them are able to use their little baton thingie."
"Stylus," I said, correcting her.
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, They're going to be raided by criminal organisations and we're going to have to pay attention to them because of that more than anything else. There's going to be a lot of people poaching pokemon cause it'll be easier with most people only having companion pokemon compared to caught pokemon."
I hummed. "What about their legendaries?"
"They got something like the Beasts of Johto… or well Indigo I suppose these days," she said while rubbing her chin.
"Hmmm? What's this?" I was surprised by her expanding the name.
"Oh, some people got evidence of a Suicine over near Cerulean. Which has all the locals in a tizzy. It's on some of the news channels," she said off-handedly. "Apparently there were sightings of some of these pokemon fighting with people during the war. Read about it in the texts we have, check it out on your holopad if you're curious."
"Huh, interesting, I might do that. Interesting to know about Suicine showing up like that." That had happened during the games, hadn't it?
Karen sniffed. "Yeah, I suppose. The recent sighting has the Cerulean sisters in a tizzy cause it was seen up at the cape that they like to go to for dates and when they capture pokemon."
A chorus of voices announced the arrival of the kids and parents, making me glance at her. "So are you sticking around?" I said with a smirk, thinking she'd only come to talk shop with me.
She grinned though, and from a pouch on her hip drew out a cap with the words 'Offense coach'. I raised a hand "Baseball doesn't have an offensive… oh wait I see what you're doing here," I said as I realised the play on words.
She grinned. "Time to teach some kids some life lessons!" she said.
I sighed. Then I smirked as I decided to enact what we'd been talking about. "Right, well I'll have you lead the kids on the warm-up runs and then you can do some batting practice against the good pitchers."
I gave her a wink as I popped my whistle into my mouth and blew on it, the shrill tone had her grimacing and the kids sprinting towards me. "Three laps to warm up!" I shouted.
She blinked at me in surprise as the kids started running. "Yeah, no, nice try, I'm not some kid who's going to fall in for you Brock," she said.
I shrugged. "Geodude! Motivate her!" I said with a grin. The Geodudes that had been throwing baseballs to each other all turned as one and began chasing her. Karen hissed at the small avalanche approaching her.
I grinned as she took off, joining the team in running laps much to the children's delight.
I chuckled. "Alright I got her training with the kids like a proper assistant coach… now I just need to make sure she doesn't teach them any more swear words." I mulled that over as I watched Karen settle into the middle of the gaggle of kids.
I grinned as I ran to catch up. Time to put those training sessions with Trixie to good use.
"Loser has to do ten push-ups!" I said as I ran past her. I laughed as she scowled and came after me like an angry ursaring.
When the three laps were over I had her do her push-ups with the kids while I grinned off to the side. The kids had egged her into doing them at my urging and Karen proved to not be immune to social pressure as she pushed up and down with the kids. She shot me dark looks that promised retribution but I found myself smiling regardless. Karen had been right. It wasn't all bad to lean into some dark tendencies.
I'd make sure to give Rachel more free rein to suggest and set things up. I had a whole other life to draw knowledge on and I could make some changes for good in the world. I could also set about working on some new pokemon for myself. And maybe it was time to draw some of my other pokemon out to train up for a line up shift for Ace battles. People knew about my Ace team. Maybe it was time to call back Hypnotoad from that fighting trainer that asked to work with her. She'd love to hang out with Shrek again and both of them would be great to have on my roster once more. Sort of like having my journey team once more.
I'd have to be mindful of the energies going forward. I hadn't considered how rock energy was affecting me. I didn't want to become like a mountain, fixed and immovable.
Still, I could address that. It hadn't gotten too bad I didn't think. Still, that was for future me to deal with.
When physical training was done Karen shooed away the kids that lingered to hang out with the 'cool big sister type' and levelled a glare at me. "Cute, real cute Brock."
"I thought it was pretty funny," I said as I took a sip from a water bottle. "Wanna let them practise catching with you?"
"What I want is to throw down with you. Which! We will be doing!" she said with a glare.
I shot her a grin. "Cool, sounds like fun!" I blew the whistle and called the kids back for the next training routine. I realised she didn't have a response and a quick glance revealed that she was still drawing in breaths from the warm up.
"Are you out of breath from just that three-lap run?" I said incredulously.
"Shut up! You caught me by surprise is all! And good I can't wait to fight you! Lock in the date! You and I are throwing down!"
"Cool," I said, letting out some dark energy as a desire to fight came through me. I couldn't say I wasn't looking forward to it.
"Brock!" "Coach" shouted some kids only for a bespectacled kid to emerge at the front.
"Hey Brock and the weird lady! What do we do now!?" called Manny as the kids returned from their drink break. Karen spluttered and glared at Manny.
I sighed. Sadly I had to be the adult in this situation and not throw down with her here and now. I assigned a training drill and considered what my calendar looked like. The next free space of time… well It wasn't for ages. There was perhaps that training session I could bump though…. There were still a number of days to go and a lot of work to get through until then. Oh well. Having something to look forward to for the end of the month always made it go faster.
A.N. Special thanks goes to my patreons for their support!
Special thanks goes to Raikor, Ab9999 and Elnoorz for betaing and editing this chapter.
Rocko was the first to turn up and claim a chair at a halfway point for the seven I had laid out. Forrest came in after him, and then Dennis, Daniel, Celia, Missy, and Yolanda came in as a group. Yolanda bounced up to the front with Missy and Celia while the boys filled out the other seats. A knock on the door had me pausing.
Rachel stuck her head in. "Hi! I thought this might be something that I could sit in on!?"
I bobbed my head from side to side. "This is mainly the discussion on what they'll be encountering as gym trainers when they have to represent Pewter. There's not a lot of marketing I should think?"
"Heh! Even just a photo of this is something to throw up on pokenet for people to see!" she said.
"Oh, we have followers?" I said thinking of my previous life. Rachel blinked.
"Followers? Uhm no this isn't a cult…" She glanced around. "Right?"
Dennis and Rocko shared a look before glancing at me. I thought I heard a muttered, "...Fanclub sometimes could be?" Pass between them but they didn't volunteer anything when I raised an eyebrow at them. So instead I turned back to Rachel.
"Ah sorry, it's a term I thought I read about for people that follow news releases or information about a set topic…" Rachel blinked slowly. I decided to shut up before I dug myself any deeper.
Rachel tilted her head and rubbed her chin. Then she shot me a thumbs up. "I like it! I'll be sure to have it as a feature for people to 'follow' the news for the gym!"
I gave her a nod and let her take some pictures before we got underway only for another knock to announce Stephen.
"Stephen, can I help you?" I said carefully.
He rubbed his chin. "I was curious to sit in if that would be alright? Sort of a curiosity of mine to get a sneak peek into how things run at a gym like Pewter."
I shrugged. "I don't think what I do would be representative for any of the other gyms and vice versa, but sure." Stephen grinned and trudged to the back of the room after waving to everyone. I glanced after him. "Bianca isn't going to join us is she?"
He shook his head. "She had some equipment being shipped in from Elm that she is setting up in her office space. She sounded excited about it. Something about the virility of Don's—" I held up a hand.
"I'm good," I said firmly before clearing my throat. "Right! Thanks for getting here on time everyone! Today's discussion is going to be some of the first presentations that I need trainers to know about. Rocko and Dennis have sat through all of these before so for you most of this will be a refresher, but I have added some new information so make sure to follow along. With this being your third year I'll be relying on you for more senior trainer duties."
I looked over the rest of the team. "While Forrest is officially my second in command he still has school so he will not be asked to run any of these sessions unless he wants to."
"Uhm pass?!" Forrest said, making me roll my eyes. Not that anyone could see them. Yolanda and Forrest knew what I was doing though. They returned the gesture with smiles.
I clicked the remote for the powerpoint and decided to start things off. "Alright, so as trainers for the Pewter city gyms there are going to be a lot of different people and pokemon coming through our doors that we will have to deal with." I clicked through a slide.
"The personalities of the trainers is something that we will deal with later and that will include the reception team that are learning the systems today instead of being here with us," I said as an explanation as to the lack of Alexa and Bethany.
"Based on previous years, the most common trainer that we'll see are those relying heavily on type advantages to carry them through. It's not a secret what type of gym we are and we don't have a rotating roster like some other… now failed gyms."
"Heh suck it Commerce city," said Daniel in a carrying whisper.
I wagged a finger at him. "Yeah, that was an organisation that had way too much money and not enough sense." Forrest groaned and I paused. "Oh, I hadn't even noticed that I was being punny…"
Forrest sank further into his chair. "No more! No! I'm not listening to you make bad jokes again!"
I wanted to point out I'd only ever done that once when I was trialling some jokes to see if they might be something Sabrina would like but Forrest in his oh-so-mature understanding hadn't enjoyed them. The younger twins had liked them well enough. While I'd never done it again I'd given Forrest the impression that I wanted to do stand-up comedy.
I coughed to get things back on track. "Regardless! The trainers will mostly be dependent on using type advantages so expect to be seeing some of the following pokemon and their typing."
On the screen, I flicked through Grass types with images of Oddish, Bellsprout, Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Treecko, Shroomish, Exeggcute, Paras, Lotad, and a Hoppip. Another click had evolutions of these pokemon appearing until the common grass-type pokemon we'd be facing were done.
"These are just some of the pokemon that we will be facing. At the lower levels expect to see vine whips, bullet seeds, razor leaf, leech seed and synthesis. If you're not thoroughly familiar with all of these by the end of the season I'll be amazed. Those are the grass types bread and butter. There are some interesting esoteric uses of all of these however that aren't as well known. When we get into the three badges and up be on the watch for energy ball and solar beam as the current signature grass type moves."
Dennis and Rocko shared confused looks but didn't say anything else. I held in my grimace. Frenzy plant hadn't yet been discovered but I was more than ready for one of the strongest pokemon moves to appear.
Not counting the Z-type moves that would come whenever we found the Alola regions. Bloom doom would then claim the strongest slot. But that was getting ahead of myself.
I clicked the remote and showcased another screen, this one showing off the fighting-type pokemon I'd be expecting us to encounter. I went through them and then moved on to the ground-type pokemon. Then the Steel-type pokemon. And finally, the water-type pokemon.
The room shifted in agitation or surprise that I'd been able to showcase so many pokemon that would have advantages against us. I merely smiled at them. "That's a lot of type weaknesses, no?"
Daniel grunted, eyeing off the printed pokemon/summary lists I'd provided for them all. Yolanda chewed her lip and Forrest looked annoyed. The other trainers mostly watched me.
"In truth, Rock pokemon have the most weaknesses. We're only equalled by grass typing with our five different weaknesses." I stared around the room. "For most of the first-level badge that's all they need to demonstrate. An understanding of base typing interactions and putting those moves to use… barring the strange instances where their attacks are honestly not strong enough to last against a first badge pokemon."
"Seriously?" said Daniel with a snicker.
Rocko coughed into his fist. "Yeah, there have been instances of pampered pokemon that are more pets than battlers turning up and the trainers thinking they wouldn't have to do much for a badge. They were quickly disabused of this," said Rocko.
I nodded. "The other strategy that you will see a lot of is pokemon using power-based attacks. What I mean by this is pokemon that have been trained to tough it out and shrug off hits as well as dish them out. Usually, this is from trainers that have been building up their team for the day their journeys began or they have been handed older more experienced pokemon. I have no doubt after Lance and my showing we will have a lot of trainers trying to emulate this."
I waggled a hand and grimaced. "It's a valid strategy, to be honest, but if you see them just relying on power to win then force them to adapt or to use a different method. That doesn't mean making them use speed moves or otherwise but try to get them to maybe stop and rethink what they and their team are working on. Power can get them through most of the badge circuit all told, but I doubt they'll be getting a full big eight badge case. If they try to go the Ace trainer route they will be languishing for a long time unless they double down hard."
"Technique, skill and having the right moves set up for a diversity of situations can mean a lot more in the battle club run tournament or in the open format." I clicked to a slide showing the local, rather humble, battle club with its smaller training fields. Since we'd set up a lot more trainers had started to run some of their challenges out of the outside training fields instead of just relying on the battle club fields.
I clicked again showcasing pokemon using withdraw to attack and defend. I pointed to the screen. "Creative thinking is something that is tough to have trainers learn, but something worth us attempting. This is something I like to reward as it shows them thinking through situations more and having plans ready or being adaptable. Again this is on a scale. Those with too much technique and not enough power are going to seem too weak. If they have finesse they need to have the strength to make sure the hits they land are devastating."
I began ticking off my fingers. "Good applications of environmental effects, traps, environment awareness, move set up, positioning during matches, or making the most of quirks of moves or pokemon are the things I look for when I'm talking about technique. Speed is something I consider to be more of a power domain as people think about it in just straight-line speed rather than speed of reaction or speed of a dodge. They think about crossing the distance between two pokemon or the arena battlefield and not what it would take to divert or break off. This cycles back around to positioning during matches."
"Now there are going to be different levels of skill, power, or strength of pokemon in general that you should be expecting. If a new trainer is bringing something approaching an Ace team then they better be challenging at a four badge or higher level," I said firmly.
I tapped the remote and the slide switched from video clips showing various demonstrations of pokemon showcasing speed to that of a pokemon belt featuring six pokemon. The six pokeballs were broken into three different colours.
"At Pewter gym you will only ever be asked to face a trainer with a run of one or two pokemon for the set badge level. I still expect you to also have pokemon for the four or higher challengers in case someone is trying to pull a fast one by claiming a badge that is way, way under their level."
I stared out at them, my face locking into a stoic expression. "Trainer's claiming a first-level badge while having pokemon that are far stronger are the leading cause of injury and mortality for our pokemon. A young or not fully toughened up Geodude for example will not handle a hydro pump from a Blastoise well."
I started looking around the room. Locking eyes with everyone present. "If it looks like your pokemon is getting overwhelmed I want you to pull it out and cede the match. I can give badges out all day but I can't just keep catching pokemon for them to go through what would amount to a grinder."
A few of the girls got green expressions at my turn of phrase. I get them a moment before I bulled on. "If a trainer is being cheap then flag it in the system or with the next trainer if they've selected a gauntlet challenge, or with me if it's gotten that far. Do not keep it to yourself," I said firmly.
I slowly made sure I met everyone's gaze. Even Yolanda and Forrest. There was a reason we had a medical wing and I'd spent so much money on getting a Chansey. We'd need her.
"What happens if we're still on our first pokemon and we work out what's going on?" Daniel asked carefully.
I grinned and let a little darkness shine through. "Then you use one of the other two pokemon on your belt." I gestured back at the powerpoint with the pokemon belt that was colour coded.
"With your holding limit being at six pokemon you already will have two slots taken for that level of badge challenge. The other two are for stronger pokemon and the final two are for personal pokemon. If someone is not giving the challenge the respect it deserves then toss out one of your stronger pokemon and smack them around."
I raised a hand as Daniel and Forrest looked very pleased by this. "Within reason!" I said to clarify and calm them down.
Missy shifted. "What if they're bringing far stronger pokemon than even a fourth badge challenge?"
I tapped on the final two pokemon. " If you have a personal pokemon that has a Rock typing then by all means send them out just like this was an Ace trainer battle instead of a circuit battle."
"Nice!" said Daniel.
"You'll probably get a good number of fights for them as it is. This is thanks to Ace trainers being able to challenge a gym every three years for Ace points to boost their standings on the points board. Again, with Lance's fight I think those numbers will grow, so expect plenty of work for your best pokemon." I quickly jotted down a note to bring that up with Georgina. That would be something I'd have no issues raising the price of for the next circuit.
"Now some of these lower tier fights are places where you can still showcase a lot of finesse. You're limited in power and the number of pokemon you can call out but that doesn't mean you need to be dumb about how you fight. By the time a third badge is challenging you we're only a few steps down from an Ace trainer technically."
"I'm gonna run so many rings around those kids!" Daniel said with glee.
Forrest sniggered. "Roll rings around them more like it."
I waggled fingers at one and then the other. "Hey, keep it reasonable. We're not here to bully the new trainers but to teach them alright? Forrest, I'll be watching you, because towards the end of the circuit some of your pokemon fights were getting a bit rough."
"It had been a while since we regraded which pokemon went where!" he said, throwing his arms up in exasperation at my calling him out.
"Hmmm fair point," I said, conceding that he probably had a point. I clicked to the final few slides for this presentation.
"Now the pokemon typings that Rock types are strong against and therefore the pokemon that I expect you to be testing heavily if a trainer sends one out against us are Bug, flying, fire and Ice."
"Testing heavily?" asked Daniel.
"Educating on the error of their ways," I clarified. "At the start if they bring a weak one of these pokemon into our gym then I will back you up should you order your pokemon to rock throw them and wipe them out or use something else to that effect. If they can't finesse or work through the type advantage then send them packing for not doing their homework!"
Daniel glanced back at Dennis and Rocko, "Please! Tell me people are dumb enough to try sending those types against us!"
Dennis snorted and Rocko grinned as he said, "We're right next to Viridian forest which is known for its bugs and flying types. What do you think?"
Daniel pumped his fist. I shook my head at him. I kind of got the impression that he was the kind of guy that wouldn't mind hanging out around the Battle club for new trainers and doing some rookie crushing. It was rather interesting to see what he was like personally. I'd have to probably ride herd on him a bit but I wouldn't outright stop him.
Young trainers needed to experience all sorts of trainers and it was better for them to recognise it in a safe setting. If he proved too harsh I could always assign him other tasks or the higher badge matches.
I clapped my hands. "With that said, that's the last thing I had to talk about with this presentation. Get familiar with your typings for when you're using rock pokemon cause for the next… year at least you'll be using them a lot. If you're not familiar with what moves they have then I'd suggest doing some study of the gym register for what I and the other senior trainers will have the various pokemon know. Standouts like Izumi and Moxy from our Geodude groups will of course have a number of other tricks, but I usually keep them for my own battles."
I ended the presentation there and pointed to the trainers as I reminded them of their duties for the day. "Small patrol around Pewter for Rocko and Missy, Dennis and Daniel you're on meals for the pokemon. Celia you have the rest of the day off. Yolanda and Forrest you have to go back to school from lunch. You only got the morning off for gym duties."
Forrest grinned, there were still at least two hours before lunch and I could tell he was going to be goofing off. I tilted my head. "Got all your homework done?"
When he nodded I shot him a thumbs up and left him to it. I gave Yolanda a raised eyebrow and she nodded as well earning another thumbs up.
"Which leaves me working with Rachel to discuss that magazine photo shoot, yes?"
"Yes!" she said happily, leaping forward to grab my arm. "To the office!" she said happily. I chuckled and led her on. It wouldn't be anything super interesting today. Merely a chat over the phone to schedule something in. Then I'd spend most of the afternoon talking with Alexa and Bethany on their duties and seeing if we needed anything else for their role to operate smoothly.
The most interesting thing turned out to be when I was setting up for the Little League baseball training session. I had just sent out the Geodude to throw some baseballs to each other and warm up their arms when I spotted a very recognisable figure sauntering up.
"Hello Karen," I said as I straightened up from arranging the bats that the kids would be using.
"Brock, what the hell! You have a friendly match with freaking Lance and you don't think to invite me along!? I'm offended!" she said as she planted her feet and put her hands on her hips.
"Oh? You heard about that?" I said curiously. It had been a Rangers-only event apart from Claire, Lance and myself and I doubted they were going to talk about it. So that left the Rangers. Who… would be prime candidates to have agents of the Guardians seeded into wouldn't they?
Karen sniffed and flicked her head to the side, "Of course I did!" She was trying to be dismissive but she couldn't stop a grin slipping into place as she vibrated in place. "I heard you laid an absolute smack down onto him!"
I huffed at her "I wouldn't call it that, I still had my final pokemon from our match last time."
"Yeah! I heard! What the hell! You saved that pokemon against Lance? Why?"
"I wanted to keep that one close to the chest. She was going to be my sweeper if things went badly," I said with a shrug.
"Feh! Well, I'm super bummed out that I didn't see that!" She shot me a sly look. "Heard you did it in front of Claire…" she said leadingly.
When I merely raised an eyebrow at her she huffed at me. "She can be really hot or cold. We've looked into her and when she watched you beat Lance she was like an angry school kid that had just seen their idol beaten up in front of them."
She looked down to her transceiver and began flicking through the apps until she got to a picture of Claire that had caught her looking…
"Ouch, looks like I broke her heart," I said, feeling like a heel at the pain that was being shown.
Karen snorted. "Please! She likes to get on a high horse from what I've heard of her. Seeing Lance lose will be good for her," Karen gave me a sly grin, " and amusing for me if I can get some more pictures of her like this." She looked at me hopefully like I might have said picture.
I shook my head. "You know you can be…" I didn't want to offend her by calling her 'kind of a bitch' so I settled on, "Vicious."
"Duh, I'm a Dark-type trainer and wielder." When I raised an eyebrow she rolled her eyes and cocked her hip to the side. "That means personality traits like taking pleasure from other people's suffering or 'schadenfreude' are right up my alley." she grinned hugely as she glanced to the side to see a Geodude miss a catch and get beaned in the head. "Arceus, I could watch videos of people being dumb all day for example."
She waved her hand about. "You know those feelings that typically get labelled as bad or that we push to the side? Well, you can use those with Dark typing. Helps if you lean into it cause you can grow if your understanding of it is higher. If you use them when channelling energy the energy also responds a little better." She shrugged, "If that means I come across a bit 'mean' I have no problems with that."
"Doesn't that run the risk of you developing narcissism or other extreme personality traits?" I said.
She scoffed. "Please! You think I don't deserve to be adored?" She chuckled at my stern expression.
The books had been rather apparent that you needed to not focus on just one emotion like that.
She shook her head. "You just need to have a line. I have no problem leaning into the traits and being sinister or mean, life's meant to be lived after all. I have a team to help ground me as well as a regular touchstone session for checking how things are going up here." She tapped the side of her head.
"Really? The books said that was to be avoided, "I said, giving voice to my earlier thoughts.
She waved her hand back and forth. "The books are good for building foundations and I'll acknowledge that there are some potential issues but it's worth it. I have some friends that understand me and help keep me in check… just like the old hag does sometimes."
She directed a manicured fingernail at me as she pointed. "Now what about you?"
"Me?" I said in surprise. This was not how I was expecting things to go. I glanced around and saw that no parents or kids had arrived yet and that so far only my geodude were on the field.
She nodded "Uhuh! You! Agatha might be an old hag and it comes across as her being an old crone when she assigned me to look after you, but there are some things you need to be reminded of to look out for."
She waved a hand at me. "Your Rock energy is no less dangerous to you than mine is. You can become complacent and reactionary if you don't work against it. Reactionary isn't something you want to be when you're swimming with big fish Brock."
I blinked. "Well, it's more that I'm in my off-circuit season. Most of my work comes during the circuit and that's when I have the biggest—"
Karen held up her hands. "Bzzzzt! Wrong!" she said like some sort of electronic buzzer.
"See, you're strong, everyone knows that. The thing is you need to be able to make some waves yourself and be the driving force!" she punched the air.
"Have people react to you rather than you to them! You've taken a lot of people by surprise cause well even us Guardians had dismissed you until you threw down with Lance. But now they know to be aware of you. Coming out of nowhere only works when you're an unknown. You need to be predicting and throwing punches of your own!" She jabbed at the air again only to then direct another finger right at me.
"Doing your gym circuit like you have been is slow progression stuff! You're also looking at it wrong. Times like now? When you're not locked into the gym? That's when you can be the freest! Change up your line up! Teach your pokemon new moves. Go to a few battle clubs and utterly stomp them into the ground just cause you can!" She clenched her fists like she could imagine just that and she liked the thought of it.
She slashed her hand through the air. "Or scrap that line of thinking entirely! Do not let yourself be chained down. You're the boss of your gym so act like it! Take a day off if you want it! Cancel on trainers!"
The part of me that had been a health care worker in my previous life squirmed at that even as I agreed with her. I had been rather passive of late, hadn't I? Hmm Karen had mentioned friends but I already had a go-getter in my team for Pewter that could help make me get out there and make some waves. The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of being more driven and not letting the rocks land where they fell.
I rubbed my chin. "Huh, this is not how I was expecting our chat to go. I thought you were just going to come around and be snarky while teaching the kids swear words."
"I can still do that!" She grinned in delight. "but I'm also one of your contacts for aura training." She clicked her fingers. "Also, we need to talk about your dark energy."
I tilted my head. "What about it?"
"You've got way too much of it. I got a look at your team and what you normally do for training, you only have the one pokemon that's dark typed." She held up a hand to forestall me. "Sure it's a Arceus be damned Tyranitar and your starter, but numbers count in this game!"
She then clapped her hands together, "So! Just as you're now aware of how your Rock-type energy is showing itself you also need to be aware of those pesky dark emotions ." she grinned to show she was joking.
"This usually means that you don't get too gleeful and all that muck like you were telling me earlier yeah? The best way to track yourself is to be reflective or to have a touchstone you can use to centre yourself emotionally. Keep a journal, take a hike, all that jazz." She flapped her hand about but then got serious. "Also watch what you meditate on."
"Like, where I meditate?" I said unsure if I was on the same wavelength as her.
She shook her head. "Nope! Specifically what you meditate on. If you have a recurring thought that you associate with dark type energy it will cling to it and make it harder to ignore when a situation that with that happens to you. It's like if I channelled my dark type energy into the glee of when a clown fell on their faces if I encountered a clown I'd find myself either wanting to see them fall or even actively setting them up to fall." she then shook her head. "Not actually a thing for me but you get my point right?"
When I nodded slowly in thought and didn't say anything in response she hummed. Then she huffed and stuck out her chest. "Damn! I'm not bad at this teaching shit!" She then winked at me as she tugged on her sweater and exposed a bit of her cleavage.
"Got any dark thoughts to get off your chest Brock~?" she said with a husky purr.
I sighed as she slipped into teasing me. "No, Ms Karen," I said sarcastically. Sadly this only got a thoughtful look.
"Oh? I like the sound of that! Might get some fake glasses and steal Lorelei's school teacher look! Would you like that?" I groaned into my hands as she cackled in a way that made me think of Agatha.
And suddenly, blood that had been rushing below my belt aborted its descent. "I'm good. Hey, what's up with Fiore?" I said as an obvious distraction.
She gave me a faux sad look and toyed with her shirt a little longer but I didn't look at her. I just had to remember that she had Agatha's laugh and that made the old woman's wrinkled face appear and block Karen's teasing.
She huffed and let go of her sweater. "Fiore's not going to be a problem, it's a backwards region that doesn't use pokeballs. It'll have some of the Rangers in a tizzy cause not many of them are able to use their little baton thingie."
"Stylus," I said, correcting her.
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, They're going to be raided by criminal organisations and we're going to have to pay attention to them because of that more than anything else. There's going to be a lot of people poaching pokemon cause it'll be easier with most people only having companion pokemon compared to caught pokemon."
I hummed. "What about their legendaries?"
"They got something like the Beasts of Johto… or well Indigo I suppose these days," she said while rubbing her chin.
"Hmmm? What's this?" I was surprised by her expanding the name.
"Oh, some people got evidence of a Suicine over near Cerulean. Which has all the locals in a tizzy. It's on some of the news channels," she said off-handedly. "Apparently there were sightings of some of these pokemon fighting with people during the war. Read about it in the texts we have, check it out on your holopad if you're curious."
"Huh, interesting, I might do that. Interesting to know about Suicine showing up like that." That had happened during the games, hadn't it?
Karen sniffed. "Yeah, I suppose. The recent sighting has the Cerulean sisters in a tizzy cause it was seen up at the cape that they like to go to for dates and when they capture pokemon."
A chorus of voices announced the arrival of the kids and parents, making me glance at her. "So are you sticking around?" I said with a smirk, thinking she'd only come to talk shop with me.
She grinned though, and from a pouch on her hip drew out a cap with the words 'Offense coach'. I raised a hand "Baseball doesn't have an offensive… oh wait I see what you're doing here," I said as I realised the play on words.
She grinned. "Time to teach some kids some life lessons!" she said.
I sighed. Then I smirked as I decided to enact what we'd been talking about. "Right, well I'll have you lead the kids on the warm-up runs and then you can do some batting practice against the good pitchers."
I gave her a wink as I popped my whistle into my mouth and blew on it, the shrill tone had her grimacing and the kids sprinting towards me. "Three laps to warm up!" I shouted.
She blinked at me in surprise as the kids started running. "Yeah, no, nice try, I'm not some kid who's going to fall in for you Brock," she said.
I shrugged. "Geodude! Motivate her!" I said with a grin. The Geodudes that had been throwing baseballs to each other all turned as one and began chasing her. Karen hissed at the small avalanche approaching her.
I grinned as she took off, joining the team in running laps much to the children's delight.
I chuckled. "Alright I got her training with the kids like a proper assistant coach… now I just need to make sure she doesn't teach them any more swear words." I mulled that over as I watched Karen settle into the middle of the gaggle of kids.
I grinned as I ran to catch up. Time to put those training sessions with Trixie to good use.
"Loser has to do ten push-ups!" I said as I ran past her. I laughed as she scowled and came after me like an angry ursaring.
When the three laps were over I had her do her push-ups with the kids while I grinned off to the side. The kids had egged her into doing them at my urging and Karen proved to not be immune to social pressure as she pushed up and down with the kids. She shot me dark looks that promised retribution but I found myself smiling regardless. Karen had been right. It wasn't all bad to lean into some dark tendencies.
I'd make sure to give Rachel more free rein to suggest and set things up. I had a whole other life to draw knowledge on and I could make some changes for good in the world. I could also set about working on some new pokemon for myself. And maybe it was time to draw some of my other pokemon out to train up for a line up shift for Ace battles. People knew about my Ace team. Maybe it was time to call back Hypnotoad from that fighting trainer that asked to work with her. She'd love to hang out with Shrek again and both of them would be great to have on my roster once more. Sort of like having my journey team once more.
I'd have to be mindful of the energies going forward. I hadn't considered how rock energy was affecting me. I didn't want to become like a mountain, fixed and immovable.
Still, I could address that. It hadn't gotten too bad I didn't think. Still, that was for future me to deal with.
When physical training was done Karen shooed away the kids that lingered to hang out with the 'cool big sister type' and levelled a glare at me. "Cute, real cute Brock."
"I thought it was pretty funny," I said as I took a sip from a water bottle. "Wanna let them practise catching with you?"
"What I want is to throw down with you. Which! We will be doing!" she said with a glare.
I shot her a grin. "Cool, sounds like fun!" I blew the whistle and called the kids back for the next training routine. I realised she didn't have a response and a quick glance revealed that she was still drawing in breaths from the warm up.
"Are you out of breath from just that three-lap run?" I said incredulously.
"Shut up! You caught me by surprise is all! And good I can't wait to fight you! Lock in the date! You and I are throwing down!"
"Cool," I said, letting out some dark energy as a desire to fight came through me. I couldn't say I wasn't looking forward to it.
"Brock!" "Coach" shouted some kids only for a bespectacled kid to emerge at the front.
"Hey Brock and the weird lady! What do we do now!?" called Manny as the kids returned from their drink break. Karen spluttered and glared at Manny.
I sighed. Sadly I had to be the adult in this situation and not throw down with her here and now. I assigned a training drill and considered what my calendar looked like. The next free space of time… well It wasn't for ages. There was perhaps that training session I could bump though…. There were still a number of days to go and a lot of work to get through until then. Oh well. Having something to look forward to for the end of the month always made it go faster.
A.N. Special thanks goes to my patreons for their support!
Special thanks goes to Raikor, Ab9999 and Elnoorz for betaing and editing this chapter.
Does this mean Brock is gonna get more Dark types? A Sneasel or Houndour are the closest to Kanto. Also did this chapter hint at one of his past pokemon dying cause someone sent out a mon they shouldnt have?
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- Location
- Moscow, Russia
Love interactions. It may be a little mistake on my part, but I think that there are three main avenues of thoughts Brok have for Dark Meditation.
Worry over future (future of his family and his personal, In the sense that he is afraid of becoming or being a person who would abandon his family)
His Mother (And father but that is secondary, this can be also described as abandonment issues)
His pokemon journey (Anger and resentment of the fact, he finished it early, worry over Ash journey with potential for Finishing his own)
With how wordy my descriptions are, it would make sense to split those three into more points, but I believe that those all are so connected that it would make sense to portray them all as one complex issue.
About how Dark energy influence Brock. Aggressive protectivnes (of His, things and people), a little bit Possessiveness (I believe that is one of the main reason he can't cut off his relationships with one Psychic trainer fully, despite his Intellect telling him to. He is also rather possessive of his Grudges) , Anger (he is actually quite aggressive, but he quells his anger by wrestling with Pokemons), Territorial instinct (His insistence on Hiring people from His territory, vigorous patrols, training kids from his territory, he is basically five steps from being some tribal War chief from wild tribe).
Worry over future (future of his family and his personal, In the sense that he is afraid of becoming or being a person who would abandon his family)
His Mother (And father but that is secondary, this can be also described as abandonment issues)
His pokemon journey (Anger and resentment of the fact, he finished it early, worry over Ash journey with potential for Finishing his own)
With how wordy my descriptions are, it would make sense to split those three into more points, but I believe that those all are so connected that it would make sense to portray them all as one complex issue.
About how Dark energy influence Brock. Aggressive protectivnes (of His, things and people), a little bit Possessiveness (I believe that is one of the main reason he can't cut off his relationships with one Psychic trainer fully, despite his Intellect telling him to. He is also rather possessive of his Grudges) , Anger (he is actually quite aggressive, but he quells his anger by wrestling with Pokemons), Territorial instinct (His insistence on Hiring people from His territory, vigorous patrols, training kids from his territory, he is basically five steps from being some tribal War chief from wild tribe).
- Location
- Scotland
If you look closely at one of the previous chapters it outright states that one of the gym Pokemon died, presumably going up against a much stronger Pokemon and Brock couldn't get it to Nurse Joy fast enough. He said that's why he wanted a Chansey, so that the little graveyard out behind the gym wouldn't gain any new spots.
dhasenan
always lowercase
- Pronouns
- She/Her
What's a horse again? Is it anything like Horsea?
nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
Ohhh. I get it now. I just reread the interludes from the first Lance battle, which ended with Flint. With that and the most recent chapter, I see what Karen's nudging will lead to.
Brock is going to challenge Flint to a battle. It'll allow them to address the barrier between them and help them get some emotions out.
Brock is going to challenge Flint to a battle. It'll allow them to address the barrier between them and help them get some emotions out.