Brock didn't get many challenges late into the League season, and he didn't actually have too many trainers schedule a slot to challenge him, either.
He was the first stop on the traditional League circuit, the first hurdle for most trainers coming in fresh out of the various schools throughout the cities, trying their luck with whatever young Pokemon they'd been able to capture or been given.
During the last few years since he'd taken over for his father, Brock had seen the beginning of legends. Great and powerful trainers had challenged him long before they'd found the ace of their team, struggling against his mighty Rock-types with Caterpies and Pidgeys.
The good ones had understood that his Gym was not necessarily about achieving victory. Earning such would certainly see someone awarded with the badge, provided their victory was fair and honest, but the true test was for those who did not achieve victory the first, the second or even the third time.
The road to greatness, be it as Champion or anything else, was fraught with roadblocks and challenges. For a trainer to truly achieve success?
They needed to persevere through the hardship. Endure beyond those setbacks. Brace themselves for more, and more, and more.
Those who refused to give up? The ones that could fight through the bitter taste of defeat? The ones that got knocked down and just kept getting-
"Sir?" Brock's receptionist (and sole employee), called out from the door leading to the backroom of his gym. "Your one o'clock is here."
"...Thanks, Liam," Brock told the boy after taking a brief moment to get his thoughts back in order.
Reaching up to scrub at his face, Brock would admit, privately, that he might need a little more time away from his family than he was getting.
His youngest siblings and their demands for storytime, while something he would always cherish, might be getting to him...
Just a bit.
"Alright," Brock muttered, dropping his hands from his face and rubbing them across the pair of Pokeballs strapped to his belt. "Let's do this!"
Liam stepped to the side as Brock stepped out of the room, the young man hot on his heels. As the approached the main part of the gym, the arena, Liam hurried to the side as Brock stepped out to his square.
The opposing trainer was a young man wearing a blue hoodie with a yellow boater on his head that cast his face into shadow-
Except for the eyes. A pair of yellow eyes that seemed to glow from underneath. The effect, something Brock was sure was intentional, looked like it was supposed to be intimidating.
Brock had seen better. As a point of fact, he'd met Sabrina and she did it much, much...
Sabrina...
The stoic beauty, the serious expression on her face matched with the professional appearance and the way she kept her hair, long and smooth and so, so silky that Brock could just-
Brock shook his head and fixed a scowl on to his face.
He had to focus. This wasn't like mooning over Joy or Jenny on his free time!
"Challenger!" Brock shouted, pitching his voice to carry across the distance. "You've come to challenge the Pewter Gym, where we stay Rock hard!"
"...Well," a voice responded, coming from seemingly right next to Brock's ear and jolting the man out of his cross-armed stance. "I hope you went to the hospital if that lasted longer than four hours."
Recovering quickly, Brock crossed his arms over his chest again and put the scowl back on his face.
He'd dealt with weirder things. This wasn't even in the top-
Wait... had that been a joke?
"As the challenger has brought two Pokemon, I will be using two Pokemon!" Brock continued once he snapped out of his Confusion. "You may switch freely, however I will not be doing so! The battle will be concluded when both Pokemon have been deemed unfit to continue!"
Brock unclipped one of the Pokeballs on his belt and held it out in front of him while, on the other side of an arena covered in rocky terrain, a small dog walked out from behind the opposing trainer's legs.
"Trainer Alec!" Brock shouted, his eyebrows tilted in a glare. "Are you ready for a Rock Slide!? You'd better be, 'cause now it's on!"
Brock tossed his ball out to the arena, his Geodude materializing in a beam of red light.
"Aww, that's so cute," Alec clearly wasn't moving his lips but Brock could still hear that voice, right next to his ear. Quiet and Taunting.
"Sirius?" The opposing trainer called out, the small hound's ears perking up though it didn't turn around. "Why not show this 'Rock Slide' our respect?"
Brock glared in confusion for a moment, then brought a hand up and pinched the bridge of his nose as the Houndour facing his Geodude raised up one of its hind legs and released a stream of foul liquid, soaking into the hardened dirt of the arena.
"...Really?" Brock called out to the latecomer. "Is- are you seriously-"
"Now, Sirius," the boy called out, ignoring the Gym Leader. "Mud Slap!"
Geodude, who'd been turning to face Brock with a very, very unhappy expression on his face, swiftly turned back to the pooch-
And got a face full of 'mud' for his troubles.
The arena was silent for a long, long moment before Geodude turned back to Brock again and began to hover over to him. The entire time, the Pokemon just kept on muttering "Geo-geo-geodude," darkly under its breath.
"Uh... Geodude?" Brock asked as his Pokemon approached him, mud dripping down the flying rock's face. "Use-"
Geodude reached out with one finger and pressed it against his Pokeball, disappearing back into the containment unit.
"Brock's Pokemon... forfeits?" Liam shouted from the side of the arena, the youngster looking as confused as Brock felt. "Uh... Gym Leader! Send out your second Pokemon!"
Brock grabbed his second Pokeball, his glare shifting from the all-too happy Houndour and to the mostly-spent 'mud' puddle it had used on his first Pokemon.
There was embarassing. Then there was... that.
That was disgusting.
And, hopefully, the pokemon had fully emptied its bladder and wouldn't be repeating that particular trick.
"Onix!" Brock shouted as he tossed out his second Pokemon, the massive rock-snake. "You're up!"
"Let me guess!" the challenger, Alec hollered from across the arena, his hands cupped around his mouth to direct his voice. "His signature move is 'Harden'!"
"Bide!" Brock called out, a growl deep in his voice.
Across the arena, he could see Alec's head lift slightly out of his hoodie, a wicked smirk across his lips. In the arena, the Houndour loosed a rasping laugh instead of attacking.
A frown crossed the gym leader's lips.
Bide was... a fairly unpopular move. For a host of reasons.
It would leave a Pokemon vulnerable for several gut-wrenching moments as it stored the power of every blow against it, just to reflect it all when the power reached its peak. However, Bide would do absolutely nothing if the Pokemon using it was left unharmed.
"Waiting for your little buddy to firm up?" the challenger shouted, another off-color joke at Brock's Pokemon. "It's alright! Everyone has performance issues!"
There was a subtle shift in the energy on the field, something Brock barely caught as the Houndour kept laughing at his Onix.
...That wasn't laughter. That was a technique!
It couldn't be Taunt, Houndour didn't learn that so far as Brock knew. Leer would be much more obvious. Roar would have dragged Geodude out and forced him to replace Onix, which would count as a loss for Brock under the conditions he'd set.
Brock's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
That couldn't be Nasty Plot, could it? Houndoom might learn that, but Houndour was a little young, wasn't it?
Brock clicked his teeth in mounting irritation as the puppy kept on laughing and Bide reached its climax and did nothing, failing to accomplish its goal.
"Sirius!" Alec shouted, pointing out with one finger to his Pokemon. "Ember, now!"
"Onix!" Brock roared, his temper flaring. "Rock Tomb!"
Under normal circumstances, the rocks that Onix sent flying at the little dog should have doused the flames and impacted the unfortunate Fire type.
Normal circumstances didn't see a blast of white flames roaring out of a Houndour's mouth more reminiscent of an up-charged Flamethrower instead of an Ember.
"Ni-ix!" his Onix cried, falling back and landing on his side as the torrent of fire ripped apart the rocks he'd conjured. Brock could see the burns on his Pokemon's hardened shell, could see the air warping over his longtime companion to indicate just how much heat the Rock Snake had absorbed.
He could see his Onix struggle to open one eye. Brock watched as his Pokemon's pupil struggled to adjust back to normal light after it had tanked the overbuffed ember to his face. As his Pokemon struggled to rise back up, Brock had a decision to make.
"Onix," Brock called out, his voice subdued. "Return."
Brock worked his jaw for a moment as he decided how to handle the loss he'd just been given.
"Who's my good boy?" but across the arena, Alec was congratulating his Houndour. He was rubbing the dog's ears and its little tail was just wagging away. "Yes you are, you did a great job!"
Brock squeezed his eyes shut a little harder and exhaled slowly before squinting them open again.
Inhaling deeply, Brock began to make his way across the arena. The battle, brief as it had been, was underhanded. It was dirty. It was... legal.
Dishonorable. But legal.
"Alec Mist," Brock stated the challenger's name as he approached. "For defeating me, you are awarded the Boulder Badge of the Pewter City Gym."
Brock extracted a case from one of his back pockets and opened it, extracting one of several little, grey, octagonal pins.
"The Pewter Gym represents the first step on the road to becoming a Pokemon Master," Brock explained as he held up the badge. "Most that challenge my gym do not succeed upon their first try. Many do not succeed by their second. Some give up before trying a third time. The Boulder Badge represents endurance, the ability to persevere through hardship and difficulty, to look beyond failure."
"Thank you," Alec said as he accepted the badge, a surprisingly bright and open smile on his face as he did so. "And... I'm sorry, about the tactics."
Brock was surprised to hear that. Alec's smile turned sheepish as he bent back down to continue lavishing attention on the Houndour. Brock noted with some unease that there appeared to be something moving underneath of the boy's hoodie before a wide head with big, bulbous yellow eyes popped up and out from behind his neck.
"Sirius is a Dark type," Alec continued to explain, heedless of the unknown Pokemon poking out of his clothing. "And he's got the power to get into a straight-up fight but most of his kind tend to prefer to be a bit..."
"Underhanded," Brock finished with a sigh. "You're not the first trainer to challenge me with a Dark type. Though, given that the local Pokemon with Dark typing are also Fire, Flying or Ice?"
Well, there weren't many trainers in Kanto that started with a Dark type for a reason. And Brock was that reason.
"Well, I appreciate the apology," Brock reached out and shook Alec's hand, feeling much better for it, truth be told. Fighting to a Pokemon's strengths was just good sense, even if those strengths could best be considered bad behavior.
He wasn't going to complain -too- much. It was still better than the rookie trainers that came in with angry Mankeys.
"Now, if you'll excuse me?" Brock turned around and began to walk away. "I need to go and wash my Pokemon."
And for Brock, unlike the numerous times he'd been told that by Jenny or Joy, it was even the truth!
