Hard Enough - Chapter 136 - The day after (Patreon)

A mocking laugh had me turning to find Will standing on a ridgeline. His hand was raised in front of his face in the most prissy manner I could imagine, and he cackled at me. I frowned. What was I doing here? I was standing in the midst of a broken landscape that… No. Not just any broken landscape; this was the battlefield after our match.

I glanced further around and felt a weight settle on me, with a crowd of faces leering down from the stands. Judging me as a cold voice announced Will’s victory. I glanced around for my pokemon only to not see them. I ran my hand along my pokebelt only for nothing to be there.

I reached for Titan’s Greatball only to find nothing.

A cold sweat broke out over me.

Will opened his mouth and an alarm tone blared out of it.

I shot into an upright position, sleep abandoned as I lashed out with a rock empowered fist.

The alarm clocked squawked once more and fizzled only to fall silent. I sighed and rubbed at my forehead.

“Wow, way to go me, you sure showed that alarm,” I said. What if that had been one of my little brothers or sisters? Was I going to swat them as well? I felt an ache run through me. Urgh, I was apparently a bit sore from overusing my aura yesterday. Hmmm, that was a fun discovery.

“Brock?” said a voice. I glanced back and found Sabrina blinking blearily behind me.

“Hey, morning,” I said wondering if I could hide the broken alarm clock before she noticed.

Her eyes flicked over to it and nodded. “Good you got to it before I could,” she said without a hint of shame in her tone.

Her eyes returned to me. “You look unwell… you told everyone that you were fine yesterday….” She wet her lips. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Just more of yesterday and a stupid dream.” I said with a sigh, falling back into bed. Sabrina lifted herself up telekinetically and repositioned my arm so that she was curled into my side with my arm around her without any input from her. She lay her head on my shoulder and looked up at me.

I played with her hair and enjoyed the heat that bled from her into me.

“It’s… alright to be bothered by this. Remember, we’ve spoken of handling losses. This is just a draw. You’re very good at letting the small things wash over you.”

“Doesn’t feel small, what if my lo—” I stopped that line of thought as I felt Sabrina frown at me. “Draw,” I bit out. “What if my draw let’s that dirtbag Will get enough recognition to do as he wants? Claim a spot on the Elite Four?” I said knowing that, according to some ‘canon’ references, that’s what he’d achieve.

“There are still quite a few hurdles ahead of him. While the Cerulean sisters…” Sabrina made a face. “Well, Surge will be a strong match, I have no doubt. And you shouldn’t discount Erika either. And Brock, if he tries to pull off a Psychic terrain against me? I’ll make him regret it.”

“Yeah, he won’t be able to use the same tricks, but I think that’s part of the trouble I got into. I underestimated him and what he was willing to do to win.”

Sabrina nodded. “That’s fair. Would you change anything if you could have?”

“Maybe… If I had my entire team, things might be a bit different… Selene, Bertha, Don, Sanchez… I wouldn’t have been able to use all of them but still…”

“They fought very well against that Moltres, and none of them are permanently injured. In fact, I think most of them are now back to full health, no?”

“Yeah, yeah they are. Sorry for backsliding like this,” I said rubbing a hand over my face.

“Don’t apologise,” Sabrina said smiling up at me. “Feelings are important things.”

I chuckled. “It’s silly I guess now that I’ve said it aloud…” I toyed with her hair. “It… was nice having everyone come out to talk with me like they did… after the match… they’re good people, I said.

“Indeed they are,” Sabrina said. She shifted. “What will you do today? I know the press are chewing at the bit to interview you.”

I griamced. I could just imagine how that was going to go. Urgh, so many smug reporters. Would they be accusing me of failing or pitying me?

Yesterday hadn’t seen me having much energy after the match. I’d passed out from over using my aura for most of the afternoon, only to wake up for dinner. I ate, spent some time with my family, checked in with my pokemon and then tried to settle down, only to find myself restless.

Sabrina had helped keep my mind off yesterday rather marvelously and tired me out enough to keep me in bed. I lifted the sheet and saw that we were still naked.

“Down,” Sabrina said as she saw where I was looking. I grumbled and settled for a stretch while squeezing her shoulder.

I was thankful that today was a Sunday. It would probably be a slow news day if I did the press conference. Some of them might be snippy about having to wait an entire day, but I needed the time to recover and check in with my pokemon.

“So, are what are your thoughts about yesterday?” Sabrina said probingly.

“I think… I handled that as well as I could have I suppose, all things considered…” I glanced over at the wrecked clock. “Urgh I’ll need a new alarm clock as well.”

“It’s alright,” Sabrina said.

“It’s… I’d rather not lash out like that but I had a nightmare and lashed out.” I said, feeling annoyed at myself.

“It happens,” she replied easily. I huffed at her but she tapped me on the chest. “Also, you wouldn’t do that,” Sabrina said. I shot her an unamused look.

She met my gaze easily. “Do you remember? I was much the same initially. What did you say when I got startled and broke that tree?”

“That it was alright… and you could control yourself…” I replied, recalling the incident in question.

Sabrina tapped my nose. “Correct, and the same will apply here. You will control yourself and not hurt those you care for. Also, that alarm was annoying.”

I chuckled. “I mean, it was supposed to wake me up; it’s not supposed to be to quiet.”

“You can find better ways to get up.”

“Oh yeah?” I said yawning. “It worked pretty well. You have a better idea?” I said teasingly.

Sabrina shot me a smirk and leaned up to kiss me on the lips. She then leaned clsoe to my ear. “Brock, time to get up,” she whispered into my ear.

She was right. That was a much better way to wake up.

                                 ________________________________

After the morning's activities, I had a shower and freshened up. I gave Sabrina a kiss before I headed out.

“I’m glad that got you feeling better,” she said sardonically from in front of the mirror as she ran a few combs through her hair all at once.

“Ah yeah, that certainly helped. You coming out with me today?” I asked, jerking my head towards the reserve.

Sabrina started to nod before a thoughtful expression took over her features. “In a little while, I think I’m going to look into a few things first. I’ll meet up with you again later.”

She pulled me in for another kiss and smiled. “Don’t get too caught up in your draw, please?” she asked.

I nodded. “I’ll try,” I said. She let me go then, but her eyes continued to search my face. I departed, feeling rather upbeat.

I got all the way to the kitchen before my mood went up in smoke when Flint stepped forward. I watched him like one would watch a stray growlithe you weren’t sure about.

“Brock, I'm sorry about your match yesterday. That match was the most rotten affair I’ve seen in years.”

“Ah,” I said intelligently. I cast around for what to say to him. “Thanks?” I ended up settling on. He shifted, and I flicked my eyes around.

“I thought you were incredible out there,” he said. “All of the family were really proud of you.”

“Yeah thanks for that, Flint,” I said. “I’m… gonna go and check in with my pokemon.”

“Ah yeah, you should do that… if you want to talk… I’m always here for you,” he offered with an open hand.

“I…” I considered him for a moment. The way he was looking so hopeful. A part of me wanted to lash out at him for approaching me while I was down in the dumps, but I knew that wasn’t what he’d been trying to do.

I decided to try… a little… for the family. “I know that you’re always there to talk, and I appreciate the gesture,” I told him. I considered telling him that I had others that I would rather talk to, but that would just come from a petty part of me. A part that wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t a part that needed to be spoken aloud.

I edged my way out of the kitchen, nabbing a piece of fruit as I did so. “I’m gonna go check in with my pokemon.” I ignored how his smile dropped a fraction and his shoulder slumped a little. Instead, I got out of there and made my way past the garden of Lileep.

“Haha! I knew camping out would lead me to catch you unawares!” shouted a trainer that sprang out of the bushes.

I raised the piece of fruit and was about to toss it at them, only for Nanny Grav to walk around the corner with a small watering can in her hand. Without breaking stride, she grabbed the trainer in one arm and tucked him under her arm like an errant child… which he pretty much was.

She walked away after giving me a polite nod. I blinked in surprise before relaxing and taking a bite of fruit.

“Huh, so that hasn’t stopped yet…” I said to myself as I kept walking. When I got into the reserve I nodded to a number of the Gym trainers who were already up, feeding and working with a few pokemon.

Greta was leading a small pack of Aron around with one hand on a link of chain while her other held onto her pokedex to document the game.

I went deeper and found a number of my Elite pokemon sitting around talking with each other. They looked like they were having a pretty deep discussion. I walked past Tit— I paused when I realised I wasn’t just walking past Titan but in fact his mother, Empress.

“Oh, hey there, Empress, morning,” I said, carefully judging her mood.

She stared down at me before looming in to sniff me. She locked eyes with me, and I held her stare, but not in a way that would cause her to feel like she needed to fight. It felt more like she was feeling me out.

She nodded once. Then she smirked and leaned closer to swipe my bit of fruit. She swallowed it and then smirked. I got the impression she was teasing me, which was a novel experience. I snorted in amusement at her antics. Without really thinking about it, I reached out and rubbed her snout.

“Good to see you’re feeling better, Empress.” I decided to leave while the going was good and she was confused. She touched her nose where I’d rubbed her in bewilderment, shooting me a confused look.

“Hey gang,” I said, causing my pokemon to perk up. Sanchez bounced onto his feet and waved both arms ecstatically. Bertha smiled widely. Titan nodded stoically, and the others trumpeted their own names. I moved around and hopped up onto a segment of Jormungandr’s body.

I looked them all over. Nurse Joy and Chansey had done well to get them all back to fighting fitness, and while they were sore, I knew that wouldn’t be enough to hamper them.

I locked eyes with all of them and noted that there was a glint in each of their eyes. A feeling that was just waiting to be tapped into.

“So,” I said, shifting my gaze, assessing my pokemon and considering them and myself. “That match sucked.”

My pokemon nodded. Some slumped. Others growled in annoyance.

“Yeah, that had to be one of the most annoying matches around. We did a lot of prep work for it and then had some of the worst buildup to it with having to fight one of the strongest pokemon around.”

I continued to shift my gaze. “But we held them off despite having to defend pokemon and people that were injured. Not an ideal situation for us; otherwise, I think we might have plucked that flaming chicken,” I said, not holding back.

I gave Bertha a huge grin. “You nailed that feather duster, Bertha, and then I saw some great work from others both defending and blocking hits that would have seen a lot more injuries if we hadn’t been so on the ball.” I nodded to Hypnotoad, and she puffed up.

“We didn’t go into Will’s match with all our options, but we still had a very solid team with the pokemon I picked. Gawain, your debut is stealing the hearts and minds of a lot of people, you then stood up and really demonstrated your skills and grit. Knight, Tide, they had to use some seriously underhanded techniques to take you both out as you were solid powerhouses during that match.”

“Shrek, you traded hard in a matchup that you were hugely disadvantaged against.” I bowed my head towards him. “You then held the line with the final trade of blows despite how spent you were.”

Shrek nodded his head before marching up to me. He put a huge hand on my shoulder. And squeezed it. “Swampert,” he said with a nod.

I nodded back, feeling a bit lighter.

“Titan, you took some serious abuse with them dropping the biggest cheap shot of the match into your face, but despite that, you still drew a lot of attention and forced things back into our control.” Titan raised a claw in a thumbs up.

“Jormungandr,” I said patting the segment of his body I was sitting on.” You did amazing, you were holding them off and able to grow during that match to get way, way stronger. You surprised everyone with your endurance and your versatility.”

I looked at all six of the pokemon I selected. “I’d be hard-pressed to pick six pokemon better to have faced Will if I had my entire roster. You all stood up and did great.”

The positive energy had them all perked up and smiling. I let my own smile drop away. “In the end… we drew.”

Instantly, the positive mood was cut off, but instead of being sullen and depressed, they looked to me.

“And that, sucks.” I sat up and looked around. “None of us are here to lose or draw. We’re not weak, we didn’t train for hours on end to just falter. We fought a Legendary and walked out of it with only mild injuries,” I said indicating Bertha who pumped her fist.

“We’re not done with how strong we can get. We can reach higher.”

I put a hand on my chest. “I can be smarter and more aware.” I smiled as the others tried to wave their hands. “I messed up a few times.”

“Rhy!” Bertha barked to silence me. She then mimed me picking up Knight and lifting him off the battlefield. Everyone nodded at that, and Titan shot me a huge thumbs-up.

Knight ducked his head.

“Ah you saw that, did you?” I asked, scratching at my cheek in embarrassment. I’d forgotten about that moment when I’d lifted Knight. I chuckled, “Did it look cool?”

Bertha nodded her head, and Sanchez pumped his arms.

I grinned and adjusted my sitting position. “So, I have an idea that I wanted to run by all of you first.” My pokemon perked up.

I laced my fingers together. “With us forcing a draw with Will he may or may not have to face us again. I don’t want to leave it up to him. Let’s force the issue by actively advancing up the ranks of the Ace trainer circuit.”

“Rhy!” “Golem!” said Bertha and Sanchez.

“Yes that would mean you’d get a wider audience, you’d also have to train more and fight more. This… isn’t something I have been able to do and there will be changes in how the Gym operates to allow us to do this but with Flint home and looking after the kids.”

I spread my hands wide. “It’s an option. Are you alright with putting in more hours though? The fights will be tougher, we’ll need to be strategic in how and when we fight. The Ace circuit is something we’ve only dabbled in but it is still something that we’ve still risen up. I want to stop dabbling and claim a spot at the top. We’ve been seen as a standard people need to match, let’s cement that!’”

“Tyranitar!” Titan bellowed immediately. He lifted his fist and the other pokemon copied him, unanimously roaring his own approval before even a shred of doubt could come in. Clefairy leapt up and punched his tiny fists in fury. Bertha raised her huge arms and pumped them up and down. Sanchez sparked. Tide lifted his head and crooned hopefully. Selene bustled to the front and got in my face.

“Luna! Tone!” she said insistently.

“You want to lead the charge girl?” I asked. She nodded quickly, and I rubbed my chin. “I have been holding out on sending you out haven’t I?” I said thoughtfully. I’d used her in the friendly match against Lance but she otherwise hadn’t seen a lot of action… I nodded. “Let’s make it happen. You’ll be locked in for whoever I challenge next, alright?”

Selene trilled with happiness and this caused my other pokemon to crowd in. all of them wanting to be locked into the next fight. I raised my hands and gestured for them to give me room. “I need to find someone to fight first. We’ll set something up, don’t worry! But first we need to gather information.”

This caused them to settle down but I saw there was a fire in their eyes now.

“In the meantime, there’s going to be a lot of training happening to upskill what we can. Before we throw ourselves into it I think we’ll take some time today. For today’s training, Titan, I want you to lead a round of reflection and meditation.” Bertha slumped and grumbled at this apparently hoping for some hard work.

“For the new members, I want you to ask the others about their experiences fighting Moltres, or Will’s pokemon.” I gave Bertha a look. “Yes, that does mean story time.” That had her perking right back up only for Sanchez to put a foot on Jorm’s tail like he was an adventurer about to set out.

“Golem, go, go, lem, lem,” he said not waiting to start his tale of what appeared to be woe and hardship. Clefairy and Teddiursa, were drawn in and Bertha, seemingly despite her annoyance, was also drawn into the tale.

I snorted and looked at the others. “I might also look into acquiring some new pokemon to add t othe team. While we have some new pokemon coming up, that doesn’t mean we can’t look to the future as well. Yeah?” I said.

The others nodded, and I looked to Zephyr. “Means more trips for you and me buddy.”

He hooted at this rather happily.

I clapped my hands and decided to leave it there. Titan took over with the other pokemon, before I left I laid out some snacks for them all.

I’d need to have a serious think on what sort of pokemon I wanted to add to the team. I could probably easily train up a Lileep and get a strong Cradilly. Or I could go in another direction entirely. Get something different that people wouldn’t expect me to have. What gaps exist in my roster right now?

I hadn’t wanted Will to get past me. I’d wanted him to break on what I had thought was a wall of strength. Turns out my wall had some gaps he could exploit.

The question became, how did I handle those cracks. Did I seal it off by broadening my pokemon roster or train my pokemon specifically against it? Lay traps for anyone trying to exploit the same method with strategies? Some of the gaps only existed due to my roster being depleted from fighting Moltres.

A niggling doubt wormed its way into my mind, and I moved through the gym. I headed straight for the security room. When I entered, I found things as they should be.

The guard looked up from his desk with a small mug of coffee. “Gym Leader, rough shake yesterday,” he said with a nod.

“Thanks, were you on yesterday?”

He shook his head. “No Jules was on yesterday. Is something the problem?”

“I’m not sure; I just want to check things over. Yesterday… it didn’t sit right with me on multiple levels.”

The thing that stood out the most to me was how many different specialised techniques his pokemon seemed to have. They’d taken moves beyond the norm. Alakazam’s Ally Switch being one of the prime examples, along with Jynx’s Mean Look. Sabrina didn’t have that many. Did that make him a better trainer than Sabrina?

A better Psychic?

I just couldn’t believe that. There had to be something else going on.

I brought up the security log and found nothing from either the security guard or the Porygon that circulated the Gym’s internal systems. I flicked through the outside cameras and played out the time during the match.

I found one overlooking the gym from a distant hill. If my memory served… this was the hill that I’d caught footage of Jessie, James, and Meowth on before they approached the gym. It was meant as a passive wide scan view of the front of the gym. It had helped discover the fate of Officer Jenny’s bike.

Right now it show… Nothing

At least nothing appeared there. I huffed and toggled it to fast forward at double time.

Nothing happened until a shadow moved.

I frowned and replayed the video. The guard sat up, catching what I’d seen. “What was that?”

I scowled as the video played at half speed. On the camera, an armoured limb rose up from offscreen and gestured towards the gym.

It glowed with a blue energy that I recognised. “That is something using psychic energy,” I said. I lined up a video of the match and synchronised the time to match it to the video.

At the start nothing seemed, but when the first Psychic Terrain occurs the area near where the the limb came from glowed, lighting up the area slightly. I frowned. “It… starts supporting Will when he has Psychic Terrain up?”

I frowned in thought. Why would he do that. I played through the videos and noted a few more moments. I noticed some movement in the gym and paused it to reveal Brawly and Jackson moving about inspecting people with other gym trainers. I rewound it and found Sabrina twitching in surprise.

I drummed my fingers in thought. Gradually, a suspicion formed in my mind.”the Psychic terrain empowered his pokemon… but what if it was meant to do more than that?” I said aloud.

The guard frowned and opened his mouth, only for me to raise a hand. “Sorry, I’m just talking aloud. Sounding out a theory.” He nodded and I continued to toss the idea back and forth.

“Sabrina would have had more trouble with the battlefield saturated in psychic energies of multiple pokemon. Will created a saturated field first!”

I fast forwarded the video to when Titan had Alakazam in his jaws and was thrashing him back and forth. Next to me the guard pumped his fist. “Get im!” he said as though he hadn’t seen it before. I chuckled and replayed it again, enjoying the video of Titan whipping his head back and forth to slam Alakazam into the ground. It was extremely cathartic.

I stopped the video eventually when it came to the point of time when Alakazam apparently glowed and stopped himself in midair. I then synced up the video of the outside and the match inside to the same time.

Sure enough, the armoured limb rose up and gestured. Both movements were perfectly timed that I couldn’t unsee the link.

Mewtwo, had helped Will.

I clapped my hands together in front of my lips and breathed as I glared at the video, which continued to play. It showed Titan taking hits that he should never have had to deal with. He’d had Alakazam to rights.

“That bastard,” I said through grit teeth.

“Motherf…” Jeff started to say only to cough. “ Sorry, shouldn’t say that,” he glanced around. “Little ears might hear,” he said before indicating the video. “That’s clear evidence of interference, though right?”

I wanted to gnash my teeth. A glow and a limb raised up with glowing psychic energy? Was it enough? I wanted to say yes, as I could see how it linked together. Was it clear cut however? No, it was not. I shook my head.

Jeff frowned. “Wait a minute! How’d a psychic outside the Gym impact inside with the Dark emitters? Did he know how to slip through? That takes specialised attunement and readings!” He rolled to a system that was separate from the others and opened it up. The lights on the system didn’t even turn on even as Jeff ran through a number of boot-up options.

I could only scowl as another piece of the puzzle slipped into place. “The entire system has been overloaded,” I said.

I grabbed the radio. “Den—” I stopped remembering that I told Dennis to spend time with his family. I raised the radio back up. “Missy, I need you to do a sweep of the dark emitters that we have around the gym. Do you know the codes to access them?”

When she replied in the negative, I rattled off the codes. I then walked to the wall and slid a panel out of the way before keying in the code to a manual lock. When it popped open, I was greeted by a blackened, dark emitter.

I swore, and Jeff hissed in surprise. “There wasn’t a smell or nothing! I would have thought we’d at least smell if they burned up like that!”

I sighed, remembering a small trivia fact I’d picked up from reading about the war. “They’re too secure for that. Overloaded dark emitters used to cause fires and were a method used by some combatants during the war to burn down structures. Emitters therefore had to be robust but fizzle out without causing fires.” I tapped the blown-out machine. “They would have had to do it fast with overwhelming force, otherwise an alert would have sounded.”

In my mind, the facts all slid into place with this clinching it.

Will was in bed with Team Rocket. He had to be. I ran the events leading up to the match through my head.

Not only was the attack on Mt Silver a raid for rare pokemon, but it was likely a method of drawing me out and getting me to commit to a fight that was out of my League.

Heck, it was out of most people’s League!

That gave me pause.

I felt a sudden chill run down my spine.

It wasn’t just an opportunity for stealing pokemon. It was a targeted attack on me. I barely registered Missy calling in and reporting that other dark emitters were blown out. I merely had her continue checking them and any other security measures we had in place. I grabbed at my rock energy and methodically began to work through what needed to be done, starting with checking in on the guard from yesterday.

I tapped Jeff on the side. “Get someone over to Jules house… there’s a risk he might have been compromised if this was a psychic attack.” Jeff stiffened at that but made a hurried call to do just that. I made another call to get some security technicians in here and make a report on the dark emitters.

I called Flint as another issue occurred to me. If they’d attacked the Gym, what about our house?

Flint answered, his image appearing on my transceiver. “Brock?” he said looking surprised. “Where are you?”

“I’m in the duckpond.” When he gave me a clueless look, I realised he wouldn’t understand the reference. “In the security room of the Gym. I need you to come over so we can talk about something.” He nodded and quickly bustled over.

When he knocked, Jeff opened the door and checked him over before leading him to me.

“What's the matter Brock?” he asked, his eyes darting around.

I indicated the screen and pressed play, showing off the video for the few key damning moments. Flint frowned. “That… is a very worrying video, as it implies quite a bit. Especially...” he trailed off and glanced at the still exposed blown-out emitter.

Interesting, he knew to look for those straight away.

I nodded. “I need you to check the ones in the house. They’re on a separate circuit to the Gym as it was a recommended security feature.” I worked my jaw back and forth. “I think we’re going to need to increase our security as this is most likely Team Rocket.”

“Team Rocket?!” said both Jeff and Flint together in surprise.

I nodded and tapped the still frame of the armoured limb. “I saw a pokemon that looked like this antagonise the…” I glanced at Jeff, the League had been clear with me not to announce that I’d fought a Legendary. The media would have blacked out the interview if I’d said anything but I should be able to tell Jeff without him setting off a panic.

“I fought a Moltres after a pokemon like this angered it.” Flint looked alarmed.

“You fought a Moltres!” he hissed.

I shrugged. “With Sabrina. That was during the Mt silver incident. Which Hank and I suspect was caused by Team Rocket as some poachers were found stealing large amounts of pokemon. A good number of them were found to be part of Team Rocket, but not all.”

Flint shifted. “And you and they have been trading blows for a while now with your raids and their probing your Gym…” He rubbed his jaw. “I think I might ask around for some friends to watch over the kids from now on…” He ran a hand over his face. “I’ve never regretted having so many kids before—” I shot him a sardonic look that he didn’t seem to notice, “—because keeping them all safe is going to be a nightmare.”

“This might just be Team Rocket setting up against me and making the most of Will,” I said, voicing a thought I didn’t trust. I couldn’t and wouldn’t trust Team Rocket to leave things well enough alone.

They’d escalated.

Worse they’d escalated in a way I wasn’t sure how to answer without calling Giovanni out. I doubted that would end well for anyone.

“Doesn’t matter,” Flint said unknowingly mirroring my thoughts on the subject of Will. “We need to keep it from happening.” He sighed. “I really wish your mother was here.”

I twitched in annoyance. I very much did not want her here of all people. “What will your friends do?” I asked, changing the topic.

“I’ll have them hang around the kids' schools with the school’s awareness,” he shot me an amused look. “Don’t want any more incidents like when Dennis was monitoring them.”

I huffed in surprise. “You heard about that, did you?” I sat in front of a computer nd started typing up a message to one of the security companies I’d contracted to work on the gym.

“During a Parent’s and Teacher’s night, yes.”

“I missed that?” I asked, pausing in my message.

Flint nodded. “I took over; you’re busy enough, and I wanted to do that.”

I decided to leave that alone and settle for just a nod. It was normal and good to have him taking on that role. It was what he was supposed to do.

It only irked me a little.

“You’d best see if any of them have kids themselves if they’re going to be watching over little ones. Tommy and Tilly like to explore after all,” I said.

Flint merely nodded. He turned to me and indicated the video that was repeating of Titan thrashing Alakazam back and forth. Hmmm I might get a videoclip of that made. Make it one of this world's first memes.

“I wondered about that at the time. He’s far too strong for an Alakazam to escape in the manner it did.”

I tried to repress the smile, but it still came through. “Thanks, it still ended up costing me.” I sighed as the cynical part of me reared its head. I waved a hand at the video. “Shame this is all a bit too circumstantial… It casts doubt but doesn’t definitively prove anything.”

“It might still be worth mentioning to people. They already know Will is a sneak with how he fought. But not how big of a sneak he truly is.”

I nodded and brought out my transceiver to make some calls starting with Lawrence. Then I might call Lance. Flint stood. “I’ll go check the house’s emitters, and Brock?”

I glanced up. “Yeah Flint?”

“Something I learnt during the war? Don’t trade blows with your opponent. Ghost them where you can without letting them hit you back. When you get the chance to land a blow make sure it's a good one they can’t recover from. Hammer them until they’re well and truly down and out or running with their tails between their legs,” he said this with his eyes cast down.

It took a moment for me to realise he wasn’t proud to give me this information. It revealed a side of Flint I’d never considered. Flint was a war veteran. One that must have seen combat.

“Thanks, that’s good advice,” I said. I waved a hand at the armoured arm on display. “Sadly Team Rocket aren’t going to make it easy for me to hit them back.”

“Yeah, some fights are like that.” He nodded and left.

I watched him go, suddenly much more curious about what he’d been through, before returning to sending off some messages and making some calls. I wasn’t sure it was a talk Flint would be interested in ever having. I would’t push.

Lawrence was quick to bustle up to the Gym and look over what I’d found. His grimace didn’t fill me with any hope.

“We’ll document it all and have a technician look it over. Get signed reports on all of this along with testimony. I can build a case on this but it's circumstantial…” Lawrence sighed his hand running through his mohawk. “Will can jsut cry foul that he was a victim as there isn’t a solid link. It’s certainly beneficial to him but he can pretend to be a target of a smear campaign if he even talks with a half way decent lawyer.”

“Those exist?” Jeff snarked from around a mug of coffee.

Lawrence, rather than getting offended, smirked and winked playfully. He then indicated he’d like a cup himself. Jeff happily set about doing so as Lawrence turned back to me to keep talking.

“Also, it’s not something that usually even the League will handle after the event. If it is caught during, they’d back you, but afterwards, it becomes much moreiffy. Also, it was a draw so nothing eventuated from it.” Lawrence drummed his fingers on the table. “There is also the risk that Will, or Team Rocket might have demanded an investigation into the match if you’d won. Then they’d be able to claim the interference wasn’t in fact beneficial.”

I snarled at that, and Lawrence nodded. “Yeah it would be dirty but it would cast doubt, and is a play they could make with your dark emitters being blown out.”

Lawrence sighed and accepted a mug of coffee from Jeff. “The rules about discovering interference are usually something handled with the referee… there hasn’t been a high-profile case and no-one has successfully pulled off interference like this…” Lawrence chewed his lip. “That we know of…”

“Well it seems Will is bringing a whole host of League shortcomings to light,” I said knowing full well Lawrence was right that this level of interference was unprecedented. That or it was occurring and just not being caught out until now. How many people had state of the art Gym facilities with dark emitters, a high-stakes match, and security surrounding their gym.

My transceiver buzzed and I raised it up to find Lance calling me.

“Champion,” I said in greeting.

“Gym Leader,” he said back with a nod. He then relaxed. “That match was rough Brock. Thank you for sending through that information. I will be having on of my G-men collect a copy. The information is… I’m sorry to say—”

“It’s too circumstantial?” I said cutting over Lance.

He nodded, his lips tight. I sighed. “Lawrence just said the same thing,” I said indicating my lawyer.

“He is correct,” Lance said. He then laced his fingers together. “That does not mean we aren’t going to act on this new information. It is clear there is some link between Will and Team Rocket. This will not be an official League operation but one that I turn over to the G-men. Will is going to be monitored as closely as possible for any and all links. If we find something, we are going to act on it and Will is going to be detained.”

I shut my eyes, relieved despite it not being the answer I’d hoped for. Lance was going to do something—possibly even the smartest thing. “Good, that’s… good.,” I said simply.

Lance nodded. “I’m pleased to hear that Brock. You’ve done well all told. I’ll take it from here with the G-men. We’ll let Will have enough rope to hang himself and then we’ll take him into custody.”

I hummed. “Some of those people he’s going to be facing are my friends,” I said. “I’m not going to just stand by. I’ll be watching him…” I toyed with my idea. “Maybe I might also make some moves of my own…”

Lance looked troubled, so I told him my idea. He smiled, but I noted he also had a slight pinching in his lips like he was worried about something for a moment. The expression didn’t last and vanished after a moment, so I decided it was nothing.

I decided to voice another thought. “Any chance you could just take him in for an interview now?” I said.

Lance shook his head. “As a Psychic specialist, he would be resistant to any invasive methods, and there would be an uproar. He has made himself high profile with how he challenged you. He also does have Mayor Jonathan’s open support. For all that the public disapprove of how he fought they would not simply accept him being taken into custody. It would be too much of an over-correction. Let him wander for now. We’ll be watching and we’ll catch him out, I have no doubt.”

I huffed. “Shame,” I said, thinking I would like to have Will to myself in an interrogation room. I might even invite Surge. I shook those dark thoughts off and nodded to him. “Thanks for listening to me,” I said.

“I trust you Brock, thank you for this information.” He signed off after that.

Lawrence tapped away at the keyboard next to me, enhancing the armoured limb. “Hmmm I hadn't considered the public perspective, Lance was right.” He shot me a look. “What are you going to do?”

“I think I’m going to hold a press conference,” I said.

“Hmmmm, Rachel will be happy to hear that,” Lawrence said. He straightened and stretched. “At least you’re not like Surge, or Blaine… If they suspected Will did this against them…” Lawrence mimed an explosion. I gave a snort but nodded.

“I can’t say that I’m not going to seek out some fights of my own, but I think I’m going to have to be smart about them. I have some gaps to shore up as well that I’ve been dragging my feet on.”

“Less pleasing to hear,” Lawrence pointed out. “What gaps are you thinking of shoring up?”

I toggled the information I'd had for a while but not used. ‘Old Jenny’ the former police officer’s profile, shot up. I glanced it over and hummed thoughtfully as I made the call.

“Gym Leader Brock?” said a woman who looked, and sounded like the Officer Jenny that I was used to. Only this wasn’t my Jenny. This Jenny was sitting in a wheelchair and where mine had a fresh eagerness of youth, this woman had lines where age and hardship had worn her down.

“Jenny, I’ve been meaning to reach out to you for a while but I just noticed something about your current employment. You breed and raise security Growlithe?”

“It’s not hard, Growlithe have it in their PNA but yes I have a select breeding facility.”

“Could I purchase some?” I asked innocently.

“Sure thing! How many of them you need?” she said bringing out a notepad. “I have a selection of twenty pups right now.”

I smiled. “I’ll take the lot.”

She blinked at me. “All of them?”

“All of them, and a moment of your time if you’d please?” I said pleased when she gaped at me.

“I… can do that?” she said. “Want me to bring them around?”

“Please, meet me out the front of the Gym in a few hours? Also, don’t worry, the gym is wheelchair accessible.”

She nodded mutely at that, and I hung up, amused at her reactions.

“Twenty Growlithe?” Lawrence said with a raised eyebrow.

I nodded. “It’s a starting point,” I said as I put together a message for Bianca, our resident Breeding specialist.

It's time to nail a flock of pidgeys with a single rock. After that I called Rachel. “Can you get the media informed that we’re going to hold that press conference?” I said.

“On it boss!” she said in a chipper tone.

I hummed and tapped the table. Alright, those were set up. I just needed to find someone—

“—u and everyone else are Brock simps these days. Wah wah wah! Brock had some questionable tactics used against him. So what!” said a voice into the quiet.

I glanced up and found Jeff nervously turning the volume down on a television show that had been playing in the corner.

“What is that?” I asked.

Jeff nervously shuffled back and forth. “Just a rerun show from yesterday  that I have off to the side while I work. It’s just background noise I swear! Things get a bit too quiet in here during my shift!”

I waved a hand. “I’m not worried about that. It’s fine as long as you’re not drifting off. I’m curious about the show,” I said.

“Oh,” said Jeff before turning back up the volume.

“—s strength right there,” said one of the hosts.

The big man from earlier sniffed derisively, he had a very punchable face. “He’d had his pokemon use Autotomize. That means it wouldn’t have weighed as much.”

I sat and listened in silence. When he got into a fight with the female anchor, I hummed and looked up his trainer's profile. Gavin Glady, ranked forty in the Ace Circuit currently.

Noted for his contentious takes on Battlecast.

I hummed and watched a bit more of the show. I listened to him spew bile. Jeff and Lawrence shared a look when I didn’t react at first.

Eventually, I surprised them by smiling so wide a Sharpedo would have been nervous approaching me.

“Oh, he’s perfect!” I said a dark feeling of glee filling me up as I started to inspect his pokemon team.

I headed out to the press conference with a worried Lawrence flanking me.

This Gavin fellow was just the perfect recipient of some age-old wisdom from the schoolyard.

Talk shit, get hit.