Hard Enough - Chapter 227 - Interlude - The Dragonmaster II (Patreon)

Lance watched as the Kabutops swept over the battlefield, scythes flashing. He paused it as it carved into its foe. The blade bit into the Magnemite’s body and despite the threat that the other pokemon had to Kabutops, it was the Kabutops that emerged triumphant. 

Lance had watched this fight play out when it was live and he’d not noticed this point. 

He made a note of it on his growing list that was titled “Brock’s Kabutops - Shin”. He had all the observations he could written out before him. Its known typing, move set and even more were laid out before him.

Under each move, he had a subsetting for different ways that Brock made his pokemon use them. From the Metal Claws helping the Kabutops reduce damage done to it through electrical attacks.

Although Lance thought it was a bit rich that a trainer had dared to bring an Electric type against Brock.

Of all the pokemon they could have faced, Kabutops was on paper the best pokemon due to not having a ground typing with its rock. Still, others would have been able to resist. 

Lance pressed play on the recording and continued to observe the match. 

A door clicked open and a woman called out, “Hello? Lance? Are you in here?” called Clair.

“I’m here,” replied Lance as he continued to watch the match while pausing every now and then to make another note. He ignored that the opening door led to the balcony. 

As Dragonriders, it wasn’t unusual to ‘pop in’ on a person’s balcony. It was in fact one of the design features that the clan insisted on these day’s for new buildings.

Clair entered and took a moment to take in the scene. 

Lance knew what she would see. Here he was, on one of his rare day’s off as Champion, sitting in front of a screen documenting Brock’s strengths and weaknesses. 

Clair didn’t say anything that might come across as judging. Instead, she moved to sit on the couch next to him only to reach out for the stack of papers that rested next to his own handwritten notes. 

Clair flipped through it for a few minutes as Lance finished up his own observations. 

“So? What’s this about then?” she said, indicating the two stacks. 

Lance sighed. “I wanted to test an analyst that has come into the League’s employ. I wanted them to detail all the pertinent points regarding Brock’s recent Ace match.” He then indicated his own handwritten notes. “Then I sat down and did my own. Now I’m going to read through what the professional found and see if they are worth hiring.”

Clair nodded thoughtfully. “What are you going to do when it becomes an important match for yourself? There’s potential for rather damaging deception, no?” she said reasonably. 

“There are others that monitor this sort of thing but when it comes to matches that truly matter? Like actual Champion challenges, I will do the work myself.”

“Got a report or two of these for Brock and Sabrina now I imagine,” Clair said casually. 

Lance snorted. “Everyone in the Gym Leader roster has them.” Then he grimaced. “Some of them are, or rather were grossly out of date and needed to account for changes.”

“Hmmm me too?” Clair said, perking up. 

Lance turned and made sure to lock eyes with her. “Yes, you are a potential threat to me as another Dragontamer.”

Clair narrowed her own. “I’m a Dragonmistress,” she said firmly. 

Lance snorted and broke the lock. “Tam-ato, Ta-mato,” he said only to get a sniff of annoyance from Clair. 

Lance raised his hand. “Peace, peace, I didn’t ask you here to talk to you about this. I wanted to get another read on something that has reached my ears. He reached to the other side of the couch and pulled out a folder with a few sheets of paper.

He held them out to Clair. “Read this,” he said tiredly. 

Clair took it, eying it like he’d given her a brightly coloured Ekans. It was an apt enough description. 

Clair opened the folder and began reading through it. A frown marred her features. “Koga is already… Bruce is doing what?!” she said, shooting to her feet. 

Lance raised a hand. “Read until the end, it will answer a lot of questions you might have had because Bruce had a lot of the same questions,” said Lance. 

Clair’s nostrils flared and she shifted her fiery gaze from Lance to the document that had caused the reaction. She inhaled and exhaled a few times and continued to read. 

Lance changed the channel onto Battlecast and was pleased to see he hadn’t missed the live broadcast. 

“—live from Pewter Gym! We have Brock once more defending his Gym’s honour and that of the undefeated Elite Challenge! Against him is trainer Ethan! This young trainer is on his first circuit and is a resident of New Bark Town! You know what that means!” 

“Johto starters!” chimed in the co-host, earning a nod from the other. 

Lance hummed, drawing up his transceiver to type in Ethan’s trainer number to see what the young man’s record was. He whistled at what he found. 

This young man had some serious potential. He’d come into the circuit with only Professor Elms backing, which was nothing like Oak’s level of support with funding and pokemon stabling. 

Elm only offered stable rights. That and of course the signature starter pokemon for Johto.

Still, young Ethan had advanced well, and garnered a great deal of praise from the various Gym Leaders he’d fought. Interestingly, he’d been one of the last few trainers that had gotten around to challenging Blaine.

In a normal circuit that would be impressive with how early he’d achieved victory but then again, with his starter fully evolved it made sense Ethan would push himself to challenge against Blaine.

He had sadly not been able to get a victory against Giovanni to complete a full set of eight major Gym badges before Giovanni had been revealed as the crime lord he was. 

Lance flicked away from the reports and instead opened up the page that listed the entire roster of pokemon that Ethan had to call upon. 

Feraligatr, Exegutor, Vileplume, Pidgeot, Spearow, Rapidash, Machoke, Dugtrio, Farfetch’d Tauros, Persian, Primeape, Raichu, Muk, and Lickitung.

It was a good list of pokemon and should offer Brock a good challenge. Now the question would become, if Ethan had done enough, or as others were discovering, spread themselves too thin?

Clair set the folder down before the draw for which pokemon Ethan would be facing began.

“That absolute snake!” spat Clair. “I can’t believe the nerve of him! To take the care and support that our family has given him and suggest this?”

Lance nodded, his lips forming a thin line. “Indeed, the Elders, when I reveal this to them will be wroth. The Head Elder…” Lance frowned. “I’m not sure what he will think of this… rank betrayal,” he said. 

Clair bared her fangs. “The nerve of him to do this after acquiring the rights to evolve and acquire some of the pokemon he has!”

Lance sighed. “As you read… he is not in the wrong to do as he did. It is just—”

“Morally bankrupt?” suggested Clair.

Lance chuckled. “I was going to say dubious morality but your description is rather apt,” he said. “Morally Bankrupt,” he said, tasting the words. “Yes, for Bruce, that rather fits.”

Clair nodded, her gaze on the stack of papers before she twitched and adjusted them into a perfectly neat tower. “Alright, so we have a report from Koga acting on League interests detailing that Bruce is reaching out to the Kanto Dragon society.” 

As she said this both Blackthron’s snorted in contempt before she continued. “And he is seeking out options to get their support for him to claim one of the Major Gym positions, specifically Cinnabar, but if he can get Viridian he will accept that as well.” 

Lance threaded his fingers and poised, eyes held firmly on the television as Brock’s pokemon was randomised. He exhaled in annoyance when the familiar face of Bertha was shown once more. “Tch, bad luck Ethan,” he said to himself. 

“Lance, this is serious! Focus!” she said reaching for the remote only for Lance to stop her.

“I know this is, and I am treating it seriously. Tomorrow morning we have a talk lined up with the Elders, all of them to share this information.” 

Clair flicked her eyes towards the television. “Could you turn off the television?” she said with a growl. “Take this seriously, please?”

Lance sighed and did so. With what he’d read of Ethan’s team he suspected he wasn’t going to have a good run against Bertha. “Very well,” he said, not expecting much. Bertha would wreck most of the team that Lance suspected that he would use with her Ice Beam alone. 

While the match would no doubt be entertaining, he wasn’t convinced that Ethan would have a chance. 

“So,” Clair said, indicating the papers. “We have a cousin that wants to start a new Dragon styled Gym in Kanto, with Kanto organisation support, anything else I missed?”

Lance sighed. “The situation is rather worse than that. There are few clansmen that have supposedly been swayed by Bruce’s view of things. He’s gathered those that have typically been assigned lesser duties and asked them to come with him. As they have a level of familiarity with Dragon pokemon they would form a solid core for any Gym he hoped to create.”

Clair growled. “Malcontents? In our clan? We live with some of the best conditions there are! None of them even have to work if they don’t want to due to clan investments! Next you’ll tell me they’re—”

Lance nodded. “This is why it’s being raised with the Elders as quickly as they can be gathered.”

“As quickly as they could be gathered? This is an emergency!” Clair continued.

“One that requires everyone to be read into the situation,” Lance said firmly. “WE are at risk of civil strife within our clan and factions breaking off!” he said, slamming his hand on the table. He stopped, feeling his aura press down on Clair and while she held and met his gaze he could feel her tremble at the effort. He gave her a nod and retracted his aura. “Sorry, I’ve been vexed about this and while my instincts scream at me to drag Bruce out and tar and feather him I can’t.”

Lance worked his jaw. “Everything he’s doing is… above board, also… there is some precedent with the ancient texts which he can even use if we’re going to try and apply Clan law internally,” said Lance.

Clair reeled back. “What? The Blackthorn clan has always been singular!” she said. 

Lance shook his head. “No, we haven’t,” he said. 

Clair frowned and Lance sighed, standing and waving for her to follow. “Come, I can’t take the texts out of the Clan archives and I won’t send you down a bunerary warren looking for them.” 

He walked quickly out of the apartment, which was one of the nicer, newer buildings that had been built into the cliffs of Blackthorn City at the rear of the Blackthorn’s lands. It gave the resident a glorious look over the city and down route forty-five on a good day. 

It also had a large balcony that allowed Lance to take off and land there whenever he desired. 

Sadly, Lance wasn’t going to be flying anywhere and instead would be taking the elevator to a sub-basement where the archives were located. Clair fidgeted as the elevator played that familiar annoyingly calming music. Lance resisted the urge to hum along as they descended the required twenty levels.

When the doors opened they emerged in a tunnel that was ancient in appearance with how the rock walls had been hewn into shape. Various dragon forms were etched into the walls with the artist depicting how dragon’s showcased their rage. 

Lance always found it interesting that the first pokemon depicted was Gyarados, a pokemon that was only water-flying. Then a Golduck, and then a Horsea before a Dragonair appeared. 

The Dragonair was the pokemon that definitely had longer-lasting impacts, but the Gyarados? That was where the Blackthorn’s Legend had begun.

It had earned itself a place of honour through being the Clan’s first acquisition when they had first settled near the Lake of Rage with the Gyrados that spawned there having many seasonal disputes that made most people avoid the area. 

Rowena, the founder of the Blackthorn Clan however, hadn’t. She’d seen potential and spent an entire year learning the ins and the outs of the pokemon. Then she’d captured a Magikarp and shown it how to be strong, legend had it that she’d made it crest the waterfalls that fell into the glaciers of Mahogany Town. 

She’d had her Magikarp fight through literal black ice in the depths of winter. It had been how they earned the name Blackthorn due to all the blackthorns of ice that Magikarp had ploughed through to reach the top of the waterfall.

When it reached the top, it had soared high and evolved, supposedly casting the valley in a light like a sun at midnight.

The Gyrados that had emerged had been truly impressive, to the point that she’d used it to tame all the other Gyrados and clam the Lake of Rage for the first time. 

From Gyrados, Rowenna had sought out others, only to find few pokemon like it. Dragonair however had been a find and happily enough she’d been able to breed it with a Golduck she owned. 

It wasn’t something that the Blackthorn clan liked to advertise but they had in truth started as water type trainers instead of their vaunted Dragons. 

The transition had been steady. Thankfully for the Blackthorn clan Rowena’s Dragonair has been a prolific breeder and to this day it was said that almost every true Blackthorn Dragon was based off Rowena’s Dragonair. 

Clair merely glanced over the cave wall markings, not knowing the significance of what she passed. Lance would forgive her as he led her into a new structure.

 “Lance Blackthorn, Champion,” he said when a soft beep chimed out. 

The door leading into the facility opened with a swish and Lance felt warm air blow over him. When he entered through another door after decontamination was completed, he nodded at the woman behind the desk. “I’ll be reviewing the tablets,” he said to her. He then inclined his head towards Clair to indicate she’d be joining him.

“As is your prerogative, Champion,” replied the woman, turning her attention back to her work. Lance gave it a quick glance over. Hmmm cataloguing war-era documents. 

He decided to keep moving lest he grow distracted. He led Clair though the towering shelves and to a back wall that he swept along before stopping at a section. Then he slowly reached out and clasped hold of a number of stone blocks. 

“That old?” said Clair incredulously. “Those things are ancient! There’s now way they would hold up nowadays!” 

Lance shook his head. “To outsiders no, but to the Blackthorn clan which is ruled by elders who take older as often better? They will uphold these as they are our traditions,” he said. He deposited a slab of rock in front of Clair and claimed a seat for himself. “Read them, I need a second set of eyes to see if I missed something.”

Clair made a face as she picked up the first tablet and began to read the ancient script. 

This was another thing that just any outsider wouldn’t be able to manage. Only trueborn Blackthorns that were born into the clan were taught to read Ancient script. It was a requirement for those who wanted to rise up the ranks.

Clair read slowly and Lance raised an eyebrow. It seemed she’d fallen out of practice. 

She made her way through them slowly and Lance decided to busy himself by browsing the shelves nearby for something to read. He happened on a rather interesting treaty written on a scroll about ancient Blackthorn members clashing with the tribe known these days as ‘the Crushers’. 

Hmmm, that was actually relevant with some of the sightings he’d made recently. Instead of moving back to sit with Clair, he sunk down onto the floor with his back to the shelves to begin pouring over them. 

“On the seventh day of the black sun, the ravaging clan was tracked back to the mountains to be revealed to be none other than the Crushers…” he read, slowly working his way through the archaic text. 

Clair eventually finished but found him with a stack of his own while he had his notepad out. “Urgh, you really are a history nerd sometimes, I can’t believe you read those things for pleasure.”

Lance made a face. “This isn’t pleasure reading, this is simply me making progress, moving. I dislike sitting idle.” He tapped the stack of scrolls. “These are actually extremely relevant for another matter I have been looking into but nevermind that. Tell me, what did you find?”

“There’s precedent and should you call Bruce out on what he’s planning, he can literally activate it as you suppressing him which led to the schism in the texts,” she said. “It’s a ‘fig leaf’ excuse though, and for him to be able to claim compensation in assets of the clan is just… we need to get this off the books!” 

“It has only ever happened once that the clan experienced a person dissatisfied with their position. It’s actually this case that led to the Clan adopting such a supportive structure and the comforts many enjoy today with the pooling of resources.” 

Clair hissed. “It’s still going to cause a huge issue. Now that it’s been raised it might continue to be raised! On paper, he will be creating a ‘secondary branch but we all know he’s not going to follow anything the Clan asks of him. Once he has what he wants he can break off and then the Clan can’t do anything!” 

Lance nodded. “Right, so you had the same reading as I did.” He put his head back against the shelves. “So, we can’t confront him lest he trigger it, but if he continues to run his course he’s going to use a big event to no doubt make a big deal of himself and still force the issue.” 

“We need to shame him, but not be seen contributing to it,” Clair said suddenly. 

Lance blinked looking up at her in shock. That hadn’t been a suggestion he’d expected her to utter. Clair looked just as startled. “If we can’t do it, we will need to rely on someone else.”

She wet her lips, perhaps we need to make a larger deal of the Golden week Ace Tournament than normal?” she suggested. 

Lance nodded slowly. “Brock’s going to be there,” he said slowly. 

“As is… Karen,” said Clair distastefully. “She’s a known quantity with how she’s going for Elite Four position. Brock has a proven ability to best Dragons that has only gotten stronger with that Clefable on his team.” 

Lance nodded. “It’s a solution but let’s see if we can find others. I don’t want to put all our eggs in one clutch,” he said, rising and signalling for her to return to his apartment with her. The elevator was calming this time as they traded suggestions back and forth rather than standing in silence with bubbly music playing.

When they reached the apartment, Clair broke away to make a pot of tea to calm themselves further. 

Lance fished out the remote and turned the television back on. 

The battlecast announcer was shown. “WHAT A MATCH! IF YOU MISSED IT, YOU REALLY WILL BE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE RERUN!” 

The other announcer bounced back and forth. “I have to give it to Ethan! I was not expecting that Muk to come out first and to set the tone of the fight with a huge Toxic! That really forced Brock’s hand. It suddenly became a much closer thing and you could see Bertha was struggling!” 

“Urgh! So many clutch moments where it could have gone either way!” 

“Tune in for the rerun at seven after the final Ace match of the circuit before the Golden week break! It’s Bruce versus Carr in what many are tipping as the finals of next week playing out early! How will these two face off knowing that they’re destined too next week!” 

Lance felt his face morph from one of stoic resolve to disgust tinged with annoyance. So, not only had he missed an interesting match, but Bruce was going to do a little victory lap and drum up some more awareness with a match before the tournament. 

Everyone else in the top ten rankings was avoiding matches due to not wanting to give their opponents more of a read on them.

Well, everyone but Brock. But Brock was extremely atypical for a number of reasons. At first glance, he should have an easy-to-counter team, but then you started getting into the moves that said pokemon had along with their training. 

Lance had watched more than a few matches where Brock’s starter had gone up against fighting type pokemon and prevailed, something that should have been avoided Brock would sometimes lean into, exploiting people’s expectations and defying the odds. 

And while the Elite challenge appeared to broadcast a lot of his strengths it also showcased something else. 

All of Brock’s pokemon, his rock type pokemon, were at least approaching Elite Four levels in terms of strength. Some of that had to be the Elite challenge pushing them to be stronger.

It made Lance want to challenge himself in new ways instead of simply sitting and waiting for worthy foes. He needed to create conditions that challenged him so that when the fetters came off, his pokemon could truly shine. 

 “Ooooh looks like you missed out,” Clair said rather redundantly as she set down the teapot. 

Lance gave her a gimlet stare. If he hadn’t had to escort her to the archives for the ancient texts… He exhaled through his nostrils and waved a hand. “I’ll watch it later, after Bruce’s match” he said even while a bitter taste filled his mouth. 

He didn’t want to but he felt he should watch it, just in case there was something he could pick up from Bruce. 

Who knows, perhaps Carr would surprise him and deliver a shock last minute victory to claim the top seeded position going into the tournament. 

Stranger things had happened. 

Clair poured the tea, “What do you make of the claims that the Kanto dragon society made?” she said.

“Less than nothing, they are just trying to entice Bruce by the prospect of seeking out the fabled Kanto hidden home of dragons. The claims that the pokemon are close to the cycling road is a blatant reach. If anything I’d expect the land to be somewhere close to the Safari Zone. There is more than enough proof of Dratini with the extremely rare Dragoniar appearing there to give us an idea that the habitat is somewhere close to Fuchsia.”

“So it could be to the northwest of Fuchsia?” prodded clair from behind her teacup. 

Lance worked his jaw. “Surveyors have trodden through those lands many times and found nothing. Dragonite are not known for being able to hide their habitats well. It must be a preserve that is maintained by a more powerful pokemon such as Lord Rayquaza.”

“Not Mew?” Clair said with a thoughtful tone. “If what we’ve learned about fairy typing it is possible that Mew, as a capricious trickster pokemon might have a paw in hiding a valley of dragon pokemon from people interested in it, no?”

Lance blinked. “I hadn’t considered that before, that…” He stared out over the balcony, “makes entirely too much sense, but it might be fitting details to suit our expectations. There has only been a few sightings of the pokemon and it being pink and exceptionally powerful as it dispatched flights of Dragon tamers while appearing to play…”

Lance sighed. “Alright I can hear it,” he said.

Clair just smirked at him. 

“It does fit, I will review some of the files and stored items that Team Rocket had. If they still have a DNA sample I might be able to get a fairy typing for it,” Lance said.

Clair sipped her tea in a manner that was all too pleased for Lance’s liking. “Anything else catching your eye?” he prompted. 

“Just how desperate the Dragon Society is to get to establish an actual Gym for Dragons, “ she replied as she set her tea down. “It seems like they pooled a lot of resources for this pitch and while Bruce is taking them for all they are worth, I have to admit to being surprised with what they’ve put together.” 

She made a show of lifting the stack of papers detailing the meeting and flipping to a point that detailed specific Gym plans that would cater to a Dragon’s needs rather well.

“Some of these facilities are impressive and if I didn’t know how… fanatical they were about Dragons I would wonder if they hadn’t bribed one of the handlers in the creche.”

Lance shook his head. “No such luck, then I could get them for something and stop this cold from another angle.” Lance waved a hand at the notes. “That right there is the combined and collective work of a group of people desperate to host Dragon pokemon in Kanto. Some are doing it out of their love for the typing, and others are doing it to have a firm counter to our Clan. They hope to create something like we have,” he said gesturing expansively, 

“They have tried to entice Professor Oak more than a few times,” said Lance conversationally. 

Clair paused, her eyes dilating with fright. While the Blackthorn clan had the claims for the best at raising dragons and the current Champion, there was some serious debate on if they actually had the strongest Dragon in Kanto due to the existence of Samuel Oak’s Dragonite. 

Lance wasn’t in a hurry to find out, choosing instead to follow the ancient teaching of letting sleeping dragon’s lie. He shrugged. “He never accepted their offers, obviously,” he said.

The pair of them shared a nod, relaxing marginally despite them both knowing there wasn’t much threat of Samuel Oak breaking away from his retirement. The idea bandied around in most circles was that he’d won and continued to win by doing nothing but being an ever-present threat. 

If he was roused, then he might cause waves but he was more than content to explore scientific mysteries about pokemon these days.

Clair frowned and lifted the stack of papers. She didn’t read through them again, merely hefted them with a thoughtful frown. 

“So, Koga found all of this information out from an extremely secretive meeting?” she said thoughtfully. 

Lance could only sigh and nod, knowing where this line of thought was leading.

Clair’s eyes flickered around the apartment. “How do we know he’s not watching us at the moment?”

“We really don’t,” Lance sighed and stared down at his cup of tea. 

There were days when he wished he was allowed to drink something a little stronger. Sadly, he had to maintain an image for the youth of today. 

You did not want to inspire drunks with pokemon that were capable of levelling buildings after all. 

Lance settled in to wait, ideas and plots forming in his mind as he attempted to keep the ship that was Kanto even and stable even as it seemed everyone wanted to upset things. 

Lance felt more than a little envy on days like this for Samuel Oak. 

It made a lot of sense that the man stayed retired. 

He wasn’t a fool. 

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A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for your continued support!

It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!