Hard Enough - Chapter 129 - Interlude - The harmony of water - Part 3 (Patreon)

Surge bounced his leg and stared at the computer. He still hadn’t heard anything from the situation in the west, but he was confident in his little buddy. Some of his old pals had informed him that Sabrina was with him, so he was sure to be safe.

Any moment now, he would hear from Brock. His eyes slid to a picture on his mantel of Brock, his platoon of little siblings, and Sabrina, in front of the newly created Pewter City Gym.

He didn’t like to think about what might happen otherwise. It reminded him of darker times, hearing that his friends had been sent out to battle only after the fact. Unable to offer advice or see them off.

He scratched at a scar.

His knee continued to bounce with nervous energy. Hurry up and wait; he was used to this, but that didn't mean he had to like it. If his old RSM could see him, he’d be running laps like a puke.

Raichu sat on the desk, curled up but with an eye open, watching Surge. “I’m fine, Raichu! Just keeping warm!” Surge said only for Raichu to continue to watch him. Surge huffed and stood to run his hands over his pokebelt.

Raichu, Jolteon, Electrode, Electabuzz, Magnezone, Ampharos, Lanturn… and finally his transport pokemon in his Hypno. Check, all of them were ready and raring to fight. Sadly, he knew that a lot of the pencil pushers wouldn’t call him into the Mt Silver kerfuffle.

They’d take a look at his specialty and go, electric versus rock and ground type? Bad matchup. Keep Surge at home.

Never mind that he had a proven history of surviving against terrible odds. Against pokemon and their trainers with type and numerical advantages. And where were those punks?

They were in the ground.

Surge sat and bounced his knee again, only to stop when his transceiver buzzed. He answered it before he even saw the caller id. “Hey bud—”

Instead of his favourite rock headed buddy, Brock’s little brother, Forrest, appeared on the screen. “Surge! We need help!”

Surge opened his mouth to ask what the problem was, only for Forrest to point his transceiver around and reveal… Damn that was a big pokemon. He hadn’t seen anything like that before. Not even during the war.

He’d heard some rumours about Cerulean but…

“Where are you at little man?” Surge said standing and releasing his Hypno. He’d need to get there and do a proper sitrep.

“Porta Vista!” Forrest spoke quickly, only to gasp. “Hey! Ash, where’d Misty go?!”

Surge whipped out a map and snapped his fingers to have Hypno approach. He stabbed a finger into the map where Porta Vista was. It was within teleporting distance. Easy. Heck, at a day’s walk from Vermilion, it was also well within his jurisdiction for the local area.

Hypno nodded and put a hand on Surge’s bicep as Raichu leapt onto his shoulder. A moment later, they reappeared in a different location. Surge glanced around. It was like he’d been teleported back in time instead of space.

The buildings were wrecked, and people were screaming as pokemon struggled and fought. There wasn’t any smoke or dust in the air due to the damage being caused by a wave, but that would come. Surge knew all about the after effects of a broken city from a battle.

From the position they’d teleported knot, they were atop a hill overlooking the town, Surge could see a lot.

He swept his eyes over the area and spotted an Onix that stood out for how it wasn’t knocked out despite being what would be shin deep for some people. Forrest must have trained it alright to handle such annoyances, as it wasn’t reacting like a puke.

Surge snapped his finger towards a still intact building. A building that was still upright but that was also close enough to the giant Tentacruel that was starting to lash out with powerful water attacks.

Once more, Surge vanished in a teleport. When he reappeared, he moved. Pokemon exploded off his belt and Raichu leapt to the front.

“Alright team! Time to bring the thunder! We’re gonna pack these fish up with a side of french fries!”

His pokemon zapped either Raichu or his Magnezone. Both began building up their charges with their eyes locked on the enemy pokemon. Surge felt the hair all across his body prickle with the buildup of electrical energy.

It took him back to a darker, simpler time.

He was just about to punch forward and unleash the storm when a feeling… swept into him, for lack of a better term. He stiffened in surprise and blinked, only to snap his eyes down to where the feeling was coming from.

There was a little girl down there.

Surge stared. Shocked, despite himself as the girl stood with none of her pokemon to back her up and no one around her.

Her arms were spread like a silly non-com diplomat.

“PLEASE! STOP THE FIGHTING!” she implored with her shout.

Surge wanted to snort. He wanted to shake his head at the idiot girlie.

But he couldn’t, cause her words... They’d gotten through and actually stopped the fighting.

He gestured to his pokemon to hold instead of attack. His pokemon held, like they’d been trained to. They held and listened with him and half the damn town of Porta Vista as a girl, barely even into her journey, it seemed.

They all watched on as the girl spoke with a monster from the depths, and the monster listened to her.

Surge had never seen or heard of anything like it before. Pokemon respected power, speed, cunning, and intelligence.

This… this was something new. Something surreal.

While his trained instincts were telling him to neutralise the threat his… other thing, was telling him to wait. He scratched at his chest and sniffed. Maybe he ate something funky?

Still, he held. And so the girlie kept talking with Tentacruel.

A tank tread whine working its way through town had him stop listening to girlie. He quick marched it over to another side of the building to spot an ugly old hag with a bunch of fuckboys marching around in fake army fatigues. Surge disliked her straight away. Then she brought out some machine guns, which he knew were illegal.

Never mind that he might have a stash or six furretted away for a rainy day. Hags like this shouldn’t have access to that sort of equipment. “Magnezone, Thunderwave on them pukes, I don’t want them ruining a good thing.”

Magnezone unleashed a powerful paralysis onto the group. Surge grunted in satisfaction when they all collapsed, twitching from the attack.

The hag got a shocked a little worse, but if she wanted to ride around in a tank, she could handle a bit of rougher behaviour. “Electabuzz, Ampharos, detain those pukes.” he ordered before marching back to watch the damn giant Tentacruel leading its swarm of Tentacool back into the ocean while the girl watched on.

“Huh, well, look at that; she did it.” Surge rubbed his chin and watched the girl turn and receive a standing ovation. He nodded.

Girlie…

No. The little Miss, deserved it and more. “Hypno, teleport me to that little pier she’s standing on.” He returned his pokemon but left Raichu out, just in case.

Hypno’s teleport was off, and it landed slightly off to the side. Surge returned it before it could fall into the water. The little miss whirled around and then tilted her head back to take him in.

He grinned down at her. “Little Miss, I’ve seen some crazy things in my time and that just now? Easily top three.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “I used to think water-type specialists were all weak woo-woo types.” Like those sisters of hers, or those street performers, or those people that were basically beach bums!

Damn beach bums, coming into his gym with surprisingly powerful fighting types. Dude had flowers in each hand that were tens easy!

Damn Woo-woo water-type trainers.

The little Miss looked a bit off balance and unsure, so Surge carried on. “But I ain’t never seen someone calm down a rampaging pokemon like that. Never, like that. That was impressive as all shit.” Heck, this girl, she was better than some of the officers he’d served under. She had balls, that’s for sure.

He clicked his heels together and performed a picture-perfect salute for the Little miss.“You’re a credit to Kanto young Miss!” and he meant those words. “You seriously impressed me, ask me a favour and I’ll think about granting it.” Obviously, he wouldn’t do anything too illegal, but he'd still entertain her if she asked for something.

“Maybe after we save everyone in danger first?” she said hesitantly.

Surge glanced at the water and nodded. “Right you are!”

He stood and inhaled before shouting in a voice that swept over the entire beach. “What are all of you yuppies looking at! A hero?! Damn straight but there are people in danger! I want people with water pokemon on rescue! I want people with flying types doing search and rescue! Only got pokemon that can walk or crawl? There are wrecked buildings! Get searching!”

It was all about having the loudest voice, and being able to be big and intimidating. He tossed out his Lanturn to help out and the little Miss sparkled with interest at his powerful pokemon. Surge grinned; she had good taste!

“Misty! Are you alright?!” shouted little Forrest from the shore, atop his Onix. Surge flicked his eyes between the two. Oh? Ohohoh! Well, if little miss grew up anything like her sisters, Forrest was in for a treat.

With someone who had half a clue setting the crowd to work, they had a good chunk of the danger settled and most of the trainers fixed up. The others… Surge had them put under some sheets and away from all the kids' sight.

No need to spoil their mood, they thought everyone had gotten out fine and dandy. During all the chaos, Surge made sure to set aside the tank and the machine guns for safe storage in a container that he marked to be transported to one of his storage facilities. Nastina herself was placed in cuffs and was going to get multiple counts.

The sheets over bodies made his instincts start acting up, and he had his pokemon scouting out the Town, making sure that everything was safe. That no Tentacool were still in the town.

When a crowd formed up of disgruntled locals, Surge marched up, towered over them, and gave them an unimpressed snort. “Yall look like good folk! I know you’re hurting, but you’re not going to be taking justice into your own hands today! Make sure you write down what you saw and what happened, though, cause the police will be mighty interested in any written testimonies.”

That made them stop being a mob and start thinking like people. They broke up and Surge nodded to his hovering Magnezone. No need for any anti-riot responses from his pokemon today.

With the threat of a lynch mob broken up and another job kicked to people whose job it was to handle that sort of rubbish full time, he performed a final sweep of the town. He relaxed when no threats were reported by his pokemon or visible to his old eyes.

Time for some answers. Surge marched towards a tent that he’d claimed. “Hup! You lot! On me!” he said, whistling and getting Little Miss’ group of friends to round up on him.

Little Miss trotted up to him with a Horsea in her arms and an innocent smile. Surge swept his eyes about and noticed that none of this group had the hunted look, like they’d seen the real cost of this clusterfuck. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Good.

None of them were gonna have nightmares.

He set out a few seats for Misty and her friends. He grabbed another and sat down. Then he pointed right at her.

“Alright, now talk,” he commanded.

And talk she did.

“Well it started with an announcement from Nastina—” Misty started singing a song of that old hag being a real piece of work. When they reached the point about the money, Surge flicked his eyes over the suitcase that the redhead and the blunette had between them.

They noticed him looking and leaned in as if they could protect the little Meowth from him if he wanted to get to him. Surge assessed both as Misty played up the help that she’d received from the trio. Surge grunted like he was listening.

Girl was obviously idolising the other woman. The redhead was hot, he’d give that to her. In another circumstance, he’d put the moves on her. Still can’t hurt to lay future ground work in case she ever ditches the wimp… he shot her a wink but left it at that.

“There was also this poison that Nastina was going to use,” Misty said.

Surge stiffened up. “Poison?” He didn’t like the sound of that. People were still suffering from Agent poke-orange from some parts of the war.

Misty shifted and licked her lips, looking at the hot redhead who coughed. “The poison was something that Nastina was planning to use against the Tentacool.”

Surge snorted loudly, and everyone nodded in agreement. Redhead coughed and continued, “We realised that this would make her do a lot more damage to the ecosystem than the Tentacool, so we added a neutralising agent. It’s why the pokemon that got splashed in it only got knocked out instead of… something worse.”

The blue boy nodded and said, “Yeah I don’t want to become an eco-terrorist like those Hoenn crazies!”

This time, when Surge snorted, he silenced everyone. Everyone stared at him, and he waved a hand. “Nothing, just that you said something funny.” It was hilarious that most people bought into the shit that Hoenn’s Army and Navy were ecoterrorists. Surge didn’t need to smell the taurosshit to know that the story of those organisitions mutinying against the League when Hoenn joined up for new leaders stunk to high heaven.

He couldn’t buy it.

It’d take a special sort in both organistions to inspire such a response with the rank and file after all. Perhaps they had that for one of them, but for both? Yeah, nope!

The easier answer was that it had been approved by some government official.

“Continue,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand while the kiddies shared confused looks. Oddly, the Meowth and the Pikachu kept their eyes on him. Weird response that.

“Right… Well, the neutralising agent worked, cause I don’t see a lot of floating goldeen… or people out in the bay or worse. It should have diluted when it hit the water so I think it will remain safe to swim in as it breaks up… It sadly had another reaction to the poison when it landed on a Tentacool.”

Surge tilted his head.

“Franko saw it,” said the woman.

Blue boy nodded his head. “The barrel landed perfectly atop the Tentacool and caused…” he waved his hand towards the bay, and Surge resisted the urge to sit up. He stopped himself with just a short inhale.

They’d caused that gigantic evolution? Did any of these people not understand the tactical… he hummed innocently. “The rest of the poison…” and the potential evolution agent for a Tentacool to super evolve? Hmmm super evolution… nah that name sucked worse than that girl last week. Surge mentally shrugged, it was a work in progress; he’d workshop it. “Where was it? We’ll need to secure it.”

Franko— him and the girl had earned the right to names due to being interesting— coughed. “It was washed away in the wave.”

“Those barrels still sealed?” If they were sealed, chances were they’d be good still. Sunken sure, but those would be worth more than gold. He’d even be able to claim them as hazardous materials. They’d be the perfect hidden ace if another fight broke out. Tanks and guns were nice, but they were cute when compared with the power of a strong, gigantic pokemon.

Jessadia and Franko glanced towards the Meowth. The little cat shrank into itself and hid behind the suitcase. “M-Meowth?” It said like it didn’t have half a clue what was being talked about.

Jessadia coughed and shook her head. “No, when Meowth put the secret sauce into the barrels, he left them unsealed to let them spoil more.” Surge nodded and made some plans to look around further for any barrels or suspicious puddles for collection.

“What was in the secret sauce?” he asked instead. He had other options first, though; he wasn’t a dumb grunt after all.

“Uhm the sauce is made by a specialist… I’m not sure how to contact them,” said Jessadia as Surge stared her down.

“I’ll want her name,” he said, knowing that it would probably be a dead end. “If you know anything or find anything, it’ll pay well.” He made sure to incentivise the carrot a bit more.

Jessadia and Franko nodded and Surge grunted. Listening to the rest of the debrief with half an ear.

When Forrest mentioned calling Brock and Sabrina first, Surge nodded only to pause when Forrest pouted like a school girl. “What’s that face for?” Surge asked.

“It’s just I can’t believe Brock didn’t come… I needed his help and…”

Surge huffed. “Come with me brat.”

He waved a hand and marched into a nearby cafe that had taken minimal damage. He snatched up a TV remote and turned it to the news channel. And sure enough, like he’d thought, there was a press release from the Rangers with Old Major Hank, glaring into the camera.

“—through a joint operation with our Johto brethren, we were able to mitigate a true disaster!” Hank was saying. He then gestured to the side. “I’d also like to make special mention to Gym Leaders Brock from Pewter, and Sabrina from Saffron for assisting us, investigating the cause, and then going above and beyond during the course of this disaster.”

The cameras swept to the side and revealed a sooty-looking Brock and Sabrina. Surge’s eyes narrowed on the burn paste smeared across one of Brock’s arms.

“Oh, wow, they look like they were fighting a wildfire,” Ash said.

Surge snorted but ignored the kids’ inquisitive looks, instead waving it away with a nod. The kid was right, but probably wouldn't understand in that it was probably like that, but wouldn't know as yet what sort... especially if it burned Brock.

Old Major Hank continued to praise the pair. “Through their selfless actions, a platoon of Rangers and their pokemon were rescued while injured. For this service, I will be awarding to each of them, the highest honour a non ranger can be gifted, the Red Heart for Valour!” He opened two boxes and handed one to Brock and Sabrina who looked happy at being recognised.

Forrest gasped, “He… he got into a rescue operation?!” he said.

“Feh please, he got into more than that, I reckon,” Surge said. “Mt Silver ain’t for sissies after all. The pokemon there are all extremely powerful. Only the folk that rank in the top sixteen get to go there, that or Rangers themselves. Brock would have been in for a throwdown brawl if there was an emergency there. I was waiting for him to call me when I got your message and came running.”

He nodded to Forrest, “Good call by the way.”

On the screen, the reporters started clamouring. “Gym Leader Brock, Gym Leader Brock! Is it true a number of your pokemon sustained injuries and won’t be able to fight this weekend against Will?!”

Both Hank and Brock glared at the reporter, and Surge frowned. Now how would they know that? Were they just fishing for intel or was this something else?

“Due to the nature of the fights that we got into, a few of my pokemon will need to rest but the depth that I have in my Elite team will be more than enough to put on a strong showing against Will.”

“Woah, that’s crazy. Some of Brock’s pokemon got injured?” Forrest leaned closer. “Man, Brock looks angry.”

“Which pokemon will that be!” shouted another reporter.

“You’ll have to wait until the weekend to see,” Brock said evasively before signalling that he would take no more questions. Sabrina likewise shook her head. The reporters turned to the only other person willing to talk.

“Commander Hank! Commander Hank! What do you say about allegations that this was a deliberate event? The perpetrators are still at large! Do you have a comment on this failure?”

Surge whistled as Hank leveled a stare that was so frosty the reporter and those around them shivered on the spot.

“What should I say about this… event?” he said  glaring directly into the camera.

“I say the following to the people that caused this event. I urge anyone involved in this disaster to turn themselves in to the police. If they do this, I will merely allow them to prosecute you.” His glare intensified and flipped as though a roaring fire was trying to stream out of his eyes. “But if you don’t? I will hunt you down to the ends of the world and beyond. No lies or processes will spare you from what is coming to you. For I will find you, and I will destroy you.”

Surge whistled. “Huh must have been very touch and go over there for the Major to be this steamed.”

Jessadia and Franko shared a look while Jessadia mouthed ‘Major?’ to her friend. The other just shrugged.

“So… Brock just couldn’t come…” Forrest said with a slump.

Surge shot the kid a look as Misty comforted him. Right, kid had issues, probably was worse off than Brock had been when he decided to drop in on the newbie Gym leader of Pewter. How to handle this?

He mulled it over for a moment before shrugging. “Your big bro won’t always be able to bail you out you know?”

Forrest twitched his head up and stared at Surge. Surge stared right back. “You’re going to have to stand on your own two feet ya hear?” He made a circling gesture. “Not straight away and not against threats like that Tentacruel back there, but this journey you’re on? That’s what this is about, learning to be strong.”

Forrest nodded slowly at that, his jaw clenching.

Ash crossed his arms. “We handled it though!”

Surge nodded slowly and looked towards Misty. “Yeah, this time you did. But maybe it will be different next time. Who knows? You can’t prepare for everything, but you can sure handle the stuff that you know might be coming your way.”

He let them think about that for a bit before sniffing. “Some things will take you by surprise, however,” he said, glancing back out. “Zapdos knows that these people are gonna struggle for a while now. The government is going to make a bit heap of noise about Mt Silver and Porta Vista might get the short end of the stick.” He crossed his fingers out of sight from the kids, and hid his smirk as they accepted the lie.

He pointedly didn’t look at the suitcase in the Meowth’s grasp. “Shame that money Nastina was touting never got secured. People around here could sure use it.”

The younger trio nodded sadly while the older pair and their Meowth squirmed in their seats.

Jessadia and Franko shared a look, and then shot the Meowth one. He clenched onto the case tighter.

“Be a lot of hungry people… sad little faces, all dirty with tears…” surge said, shaking his head and clicking his tongue in faux sadness. “Well! It’s a shame! But they’ll struggle on I suppose!”

Meowth slumped and handed the suitcase over. Surge made a show of opening in. “Oh my goodness! The missing money!” He shot them a wide smile. “You’re too kind!” he announced loudly, causing some of the other people in the cafe to look over. “Look everyone! The Heroine Misty and her friends found the money Nastina offered!”

The people started excitedly whispering, only for the cafe owner to sidle up to him. “You realise there’s not enough in there to fix the town right?” said the man out the side of his mouth.

“Shut up, I’ll cover it. Don’t tell anyone, though. In fact, pretend it was thanks to this group, make em a statue even,” Surge said furtively.

The cafe owner shot him a look and nodded slowly. Surge sniffed pointedly; it wouldn’t do for folks to think he was a charitable sort. Otherwise, he’d have freeloaders and bootlickers crawling out the woodwork.

He turned to the Misty and her friends. They were all being patted on the back and praised. Surge nodded to himself, feeling good. When he glanced down, he noticed the Meowth eyeballing him.

“Good kitty,” Surge said leaning down and pawing at its head to give it a rub.

“Blah!” said the Meowth as its hair came away all mussed up. Surge straightened and clapped his hands together.

“Righto! So heroes like you folk deserve some recognition! I’m willing to give you my badge if you want it! Otherwise, I can gift you something from my Gym!” He scratched his chin. “Shame I gave away all my S.S Anne tickets; I could have gotten you a week trip onboard, but that ship is mighty popular these days.”

Ash and Forrest perked up and shared a look, only for Misty to cough shyly. “Mr Surge sir?”

“Lieutenant Surge, sir” he corrected gently.

“Lieutenant Surge, sir! I uhm noticed that Brock had some pokemon that were water type that he was giving away to trainers that earned his recognition… do you think… is it possible to get one of your water types?”

“You want one of my Chinchou? Done!” he said happily. Girl like her would do well with a proper pokemon in her team. “Train it well, and it’ll take you far!” Misty danced on the spot with glee.

Surge turned to Ash and Forrest. “What about you pair?”

“An early battle!” Ash shouted. Surge grinned widely and nodded.

“I can do that! Right now work for you?” Ash beamed and Forrest nodded, Jessadia coughed.

“May I join in on that?”

Surge shot her another wink. “Anytime for a lady like you!”

Jessadia’s grin wobbled a bit, but Surge ignored that, instead focusing on the excited kids in front of him.

Time to spank some babies and show them how far they had to go. He’d keep their current bookings, but a quick throwdown wouldn’t take too long.

When he was done with them, they were all staring off into the distance, shocked. He clapped them on the shoulders. “It wasn’t bad for a bunch of rookies but you’ve got a ways to go before you can challenge me, ya hear?!”

“You could have gone easy on us with your Elite team you know?” Forrest grumbled at him.

Surge rubbed Forrest’s head in a noogie. “And not show you how far you have to go? Nah! Next time bring your A game! I know you’re all booked in for a week’s time! Get good and I’ll see you then!” he said before marching off.

Surge didn’t feel at all bad using his strongest pokemon against them. In reality it was all he had on him, kids should have realised. Still… They’d impressed him. It was a rare sort of trainer that stood up to an army of Tentacool, let alone a giant. Surge glanced back at the now laughing group.

It was a strange feeling to know that maybe… just maybe, the future was in good hands.

Surge rubbed at his chin. Urgh, he was getting feelings or something. He shook himself and marched off to see if he could find anything like those barrels that had been mentioned. He reckoned he knew a man or two that’d be interested in those.

____________________________________________

Steven Stone swirled his tumbler of Shuckle wine as the yacht he was on began to pick up speed. He’d accomplished much of what he desired upon being drawn to Kanto. Blaine had been muzzled, and Devon Corp wasn’t likely to see any mysterious firebombings with Lance leaning on the man. He’d identified a number of promising sites for acquisition for future mining operations with his hikes around Kanto, and met some truly remarkable people.

Flint was a positive treasure trove if he could ever get the man to open up about where he found some of the stones and minerals he had on display. Sadly the man was a humble sort that also knew the worth of some of his goods.

Perhaps a private investigator could piece together his ramblings of journey and distance to locate the sites that Flint identifies in his blog. Surprisingly, a good deal of the content saw the man wandering into the wilds.

And not the wilds that saw people walking through tall grass, but rather the deep wilds, so that would be a tall order for any investigator.

Steven waved a hand towards a steward for another fill of his tumbler as he loaded up his laptop. He’d need to do some work while they traveled, but then again, the work of a CEO never truly ended, did it?

He took another sip from his tumbler and nodded to his steward in appreciation. “Inform me when we are an hour out from the Orange Islands,” he told the man as he began pursuing the list of sites that his representative had sent through to him.

Mandarin island north and south would need to be on the list, as well developed city centres for offices, while mines could be established for phosphate on Butwal island. The island was a veritable goldmine with its phosphate readings. This had been one of the few sites that Steven had been able to secure from Flint during a brief discussion. It took a phone call to have a representative sent out to conduct soil samples on the island to discover that this was a source of huge amounts of phosphate.

Steven worked through a few other islands that might hold promise, only to pause when he realised that local Gyms held the rights to the island. A not insurmountable task… but there could be issues. He’d need to talk with the local Leader to feel out how open they were to business development.

With that done, he sat back and considered other tasks. Lance had gained Salamencite from him and now had a few months to work with it, however, he suspected that Brock would be the first to build up the necessary bond, albeit in a few more months.

Brock seemed to have a good handle on his aura and was prone to demonstrating rare pokemon and abilities without fully considering what he was doing.

That gave Steven a deadline.

He needed someone worthy to challenge him to allow himself to be shown as the modern master of Mega-evolution. The first reveal would always be the most memorable in people’s minds.

Steven swirled his glass and stared out at the waves as the yacht swept past them. He could admit to himself that he had a small stirring of fear in his stomach, what if Brock used Steelix in his match against Will?

What if he’d been able to create the bond already? What if Brock just forced the evolution and unleashed an enraged Steelix? No, no. He was confident in his assessment of Brock, he wasn't that big a risk-taker. It was a risk but Steven considered it a low risk. Yes, that was all it was, a low risk.

Yes, it had taken Steven a year… but that wasn’t a guarantee it wouldn’t happen quicker for others. Lance was able to focus on just the league and working with his pokemon. He had the advantage of an entire clan also supporting him.

Brock seemed no less confident in himself, and it had made Steven somewhat unsettled, but he’d made the deal and was going to stick to it.

As soon as he had the Lileep, he would be sure to have it bred with others of its egg group to create his own breeding group, something that would be sure to earn him a good deal of favours with certain types, such as the Rustboro Gym leader or their eventual successor.

Still, the matter remained that he needed someone who could create a narrative that forced him to reveal his ace. Karen… she’d been good, but Steven hadn’t wanted to reveal his hand against a Kanto trainer.

Perhaps Drake would suit his needs. The man was getting rather agitated under his rule and it would be good to show that he wasn’t Champion just due to his business acumen, but also his own power and skills as a trainer.

Steven snapped his fingers. “Send a message to the League that I want to schedule a match against Drake for when I return to Hoenn.”

“Sir, Drake will be scheduled for a trek during that week, will a month and a half suit your needs? We can use the founding date as the reason for the match.”

Steven snapped his fingers at the steward. “Yes, that will work, lock that in my schedule and set aside some time in the lead-up for me to work with my pokemon for an extra hour…” Steven rubbed his chin. “Make that an extra two hours a day with them to shore up their skills. Drake is formidable after all.”

“I’ll make the adjustments to your schedule, sir,” said the steward before fading back.

Steven nodded to himself and sat back into his chair as he took a final sip of his wine before setting it aside. Yes, that would suit his needs well. In six weeks, he would face Drake as part of the Founding Day ceremony of Hoenn and reveal Mega-evolution to the world.

Which would handily be months before Lance or Brock were capable of the act. Steven nodded to himself before turning his attention to the next item on his schedule.

Lunch.

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A.N. Thanks to all my Patreons.

This is currently unbeta’d. Sorry for any errors that seem obvious! Also some stuff Surge said isn't meant to be grammatically correct... or politically correct either.