Hard Enough - Chapter 140 - Return to the grind (Patreon)

The blare of my alarm had me up and about like normal. I was halfway through listing off what I needed to do for the morning before I remembered how things had gone for the last few days. I stopped cleaning my face and braced myself against the sink.

Right, a whole lot had happened.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance. Right, it had happened; I needed to move on.

Which was turning out harder than I expected it to be. It was like a thorn in my side that niggled and irritated me.

I shouldn’t have drawn to Will.

I shook my head and splashed water into my face to give myself a shock with the cold water. I hadn’t lost through any skill or strength difference. Rather, I’d lost match ups due to technicalities. Some of which I was going to make sure never happened again.

I donned my clothes for the day and marched out to find Yolanda standing with Terra in a carrier. “M-morning training?” she said with a yawn.

I shot her a grin and ruffled her loosely tied-up hair. “You know it. Are you going to look to start up some of the training I had Forrest doing?”

She nodded, a resolute expression taking over, while Terra waved from the baby carrier that Yolanda had her in. Yolanda peered around me and into my room. “Sabrina didn’t stay over?”

I huffed at her and pushed her down the hallway lightly before shooting Terra a look over. “Don’t worry about that. Also with regards to your training, you’re already lifting heavier items than we had Forrest at thanks to Terra. She’s starting to get heavier with her meals, yeah?”

Yolanda coughed. “Yeah, she has been putting on weight.”

“That’s a good thing, the average for her species is considered around seventy-two kilograms so don’t be surprised if you find yourself tiring out a bit. She’s probably only half that right now as a baby, but she’s getting her height, bones, and organs to grow properly. If she’s anything like Titan, then she’ll be in the eighty to ninety-kilogram margin.”

“Oh dear,” Yolanda said. “What about when she evolves?”

“Pupitar will see her doubling in weight easily due to the cocoon. That’s when you’ll be carrying her the most, as she otherwise will only be able to use her jets to propel herself. This is not a very precise form of movement. In the wild, Pupitar wreck their surroundings so much that it looks like something has been running around breaking trees. They usually go down into the subterranean tunnels of the Silver Ranges, which are a lot more sturdy to continue to grow.”

“Double?!” Yolanda said with an audible gulp. “That means around two hundred kilograms, right? If she gets to eighty or ninety?”

I nodded stoically. “Yeah, train up. It’s one of the most important points of her life, but also the point that will pay the biggest dividends.”

“How so?” she asked.

“Terra will be used to moving around and investigating things. During her time as a Pupitar that can become a lot harder for her as she won’t have as much ease of movement. You being able to carry her will just be another way of showing that you care. Best advice? Never complain about it.”

I raised a finger to make a point, “However, if you’re exhausted, then just say as much. Terra should be able to understand that you have limits. You’ll be able to deepen your bond a lot when one of you has to rely on the other. For the majority of the time, it might seem like you’re leaning on her for her strength when she gets strong, but she won’t get that way unless you put in the early work.”

“Huh,” Yolanda said thoughtfully as we walked around to the reserve proper. I nodded to Dennis, who shot me a salute. I was glad to see him back at work. I’d suggested a longer break, but it seemed he was more than happy to return. He turned back to working with Greta and Missy on some finer points of care for the Aron they were working with.

“Hey Brock?” asked Yolanda as we reached the area where I trained my Elite team.

“Yeah?” I said as I queued up the Sonata of Awakening once more to let my pokemon know I was up and ready for them.

“How long did you carry Titan around? I remember he evolved just before you left didn’t he?”

I considered that for a while. “Around a year or so?” I said. I rubbed my arms and shoulders, remembering the pain from back then. Yolanda made a considering noise as my pokemon started to appear.

She glanced around the reserve and frowned. “What’s with the new plateau being set up further back there?” she said, indicating the build up of earth and stone that was now a small hill. I could see a number of Slugma idling around it.

“Ah, that’s where we’re setting up a volcano; we’re hoping to create a variant on another pokemon for us.”

“Woah! Really?! Which pokemon?” she said perking up.

“Growlithe… hopefully, it will take a while, though. Remember, I spent roughly three years  before I got a hit with Sanchez.”

“But Bianca might speed that up, no?” she said with a thoughtful look on her face.

I considered her and smirked. “That might be true. Thinking of taking one with you when you set off?” I said knowingly.

“They would make a powerful combination.” She smiled at me and ticked off her fingers. “A Larvitar, a variant geodude, an aron, and a variant growlithe would be a strong start. Wouldn’t you say?”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “That’s a little ambitious. Think I’m going to give you those for your start?”

She smiled widely at me, and her eyes started to glimmer hopefully.

I coughed and looked away. I really hoped she didn’t teach Suzie her Baby Doll Eyes. They were powerful.

Titan yawned as he walked out of the cavern beneath the plateau. He shook himself and accidentally destroyed part of the cave wall when his tail swept around. Yolanda stopped being so smug and eyed him.

“How heavy do Tyranitar get?”

I smirked. “Two fifty on average,” I said, knowing that she would understand that Titan was heavier. She glanced from me to him, and I chuckled and nodded at the unasked question.

“No way,” she said, waving her hand back and forth in disbelief.

Terra tilted her head, having caught the gesture. She tilted her head before putting a small hand to her nose as though to ward off a smell.

Yolanda giggled. “No sorry, that doesn’t just mean there’s a bad smell but that I—”

I left Yolanda with her explanations, instead striding towards my team. I released two pokeballs and a pair of Lileep appeared.

“Team, I’m not going to waste time spending any more time on what happened on the weekend. It’s time to go to work.” I clapped my hands and then nodded my head to the distant marker. I plucked up the Lileep.

“You’re joining my team, Lileep,” I said to the one on my right. This was the pokemon that I had used in a few matches already, and it had shown that it was a powerful addition. Its natural Storm-drain ability made it a strong candidate for my Elite team but it had some serious potential beyond that. With both Lileep on my shoulders, I had a decent amount of weight on me as I ran.

“What should I do?” cried out Yolanda.

I paused and doubled back. “Sorry! I forgot that you wouldn’t know the complete routine. Seeing as this is your first day, jog out and back to the stone the others are running to right now. Do that three times. If you need to stop, then slow to a walk.”

“I’ll run it!” she said, taking off. I noted that she had a fire in her eyes that mirrored my smallest and fluffiest pokemon, Clefairy, which was hopping furiously after Bertha in front of us. The giant swinging mace of her tail served as a target for him to chase with his hops. Behind him, Teddiursa ran along with a growl after Clefairy.

Yolanda lasted two laps before having to slow to a walk. I jogged on the spot next to her. “You’re carrying heavier than Forrest did on his first day. Don’t be down on yourself; you’re doing great,” I said, making her brighten up.  The Lileep waved their fronds, and she grinned at me.

I rolled my eyes. “I know, I look ridiculous,” I said easily.

When we were done with the warm I started pointing to my pokemon and assigning them tasks to focus on. “Tide, Knight, Hypnotoad, I want you in a three-way battle; nothing worse than a Water Gun or Rock Throw on each other. Knight, you’re going to be working for it; keep your head up. If you get the chance, use Iron Tail, Steel Head, or Dark Pulse to absorb any hits that might threaten you.”

Knight considered that in his own slow manner before nodding and moving off with Tide and Hypnotoad.

“Shrek, you’re with Shin,” I said, starting to rattle off the rest of the training plans.

As I did so, I started to notice a gleam in my pokemon’s eyes. Each of them were focused and working with intent. Their minds were on the training in front of them as they worked. I had Bertha and Titan running through fast feet drills while others fired occasional zaps or light attacks, which they had to dodge.

I tapped Yolanda on the shoulder and set her to the side to meditate on Terra while Terra performed some simple moves such as Rock Throw. “Also, make sure to work on other moves just to see if you can feel a difference. It might be a good idea to work on normal type moves.”

“Why Normal type?” she asked with a furrowed brow.

I sighed. “It will come up later for you and will make things easier for a certain power-up that pokemon like Tyranitar possess.”

Yolanda nodded slowly, and I chuckled before whistling for Jormungandr to work with me. While I wasn’t going to get the chance against Will, in truth, it seemed I had never had enough time unless I had focused solely on this since I got the Mega Stone.

I could feel Yolanda staring at me, and I shot her a look before flicking my eyes to Terra in silent reprimand.

For the next hour, I worked with Jormungandr to build on the link that we’d been forming now. It was slow, steady progress, and there might have been a degree of degradation since I’d last worked on this with him, but we certainly made more progress since last time, with the vessel of energy coming easier and building up until it was almost half complete on my end.

Titan only needed to warn me of slipping into dark-aligned energy once, which I considered significant progress. Hopefully, with my warning, Yolanda wouldn’t slip into my bad habits. Not that I could imagine someone like Yolanda gaining a dark alignment with her aura.

Then again, she wasn’t a teenager yet… Maybe she’d become sassy in her teenage years?

I considered her with narrowed eyes as we worked through our cooldown. She tilted her head at me, and I shook my head, not willing to voice my thoughts. Yolanda wasn’t like Forrest, she was much more mature and might decide to have a goth phase or some such just to mess with me, whereas Forrest would have just scoffed.

My eyes then alighted on Titan. I clicked my tongue, and he perked up. I clapped my hands together in a quick one-two pattern and then held them up at shoulder width.

Titan’s eyes widened before he shot Yolanda and Terra a look.

Then he smirked at me. He barked once and a hush fell over the group.

I braced my muscles and flooded my body with rock energy as he ran towards me. Then, like we’d practised and played with years ago, only to not repeat it for years, Titan leapt.

I caught him mid-leap and held him aloft. He kept his arms and legs spread wide like a star as I slowly twirled about like we were a pair of cheerleaders.

I clenched my jaw and bent my knees before straightening. At the same time, I shot my arms up higher and launched Titan up and away from me to land on his feet. He made a crater when he landed.

“Ta dah!” I said, performing jazz hands towards Titan, who bowed like a professional gymnast. Yolanda and Terra applauded with what looked like stars in their eyes. I shot Titan a subtle thumbs-up.

“Rhy! Rhyperior!” cried out Bertha as she snorted and pointed at herself.

“Bertha wants to go next!” Yolanda translated somewhat unnecessarily, in my opinion.

Bertha didn’t wait for me to potentially deny her; she lumbered forward and leapt, making me brace and catch her. I held her aloft and spun her gently around.

“Rhy! Rhy Rhy!” she said with what I could only assume was a huge smile. I lowered her, and she landed daintily. In that, I meant she only crushed a few pebbles as she twirled and skipped away, her steps causing shudders and quakes in the ground.

“Golem!” shouted a rapidly descending Sanchez.

I snatched him out of the air with finely honed big brother reflexes and spun with him before realisation set in. I scowled and launched him. He flew with a laughing cackle. When he landed he bounced, and rolled along before popping up to shoot me a thumbs up.

I eyed the rest of my team and was relieved when Jormungandr and Tide, who were easily the heaviest of my pokemon, looked uninterested in being held aloft. Shrek rather politely tapped me on the shoulder, and I indulged him.

Hypnotoad didn’t let me drop him and instead carried him off when I was done, much to my other pokemon’s amusement.

When Clefairy hopped at me, I laughed and held him aloft as he cheered, happy to be included. When I deposited him onto Bertha’s shoulder, I relaxed and turned to shoot Yolanda a victory sign, only to find her recording me with her transceiver.

I stilled. Shit, she could do that as well, couldn’t she? I consisered coughing and sheepishly smiling, only to decide to take a leaf from Bertha’s book and own it. I nodded seriously. “And that’s one method of building team cohesion!” I said like I’d planned it all along.

Yolanda tittered at me and dropped her arm. “Smooth big brother,” she teased.

I huffed at her and stuck my tongue out before waving her to follow me to get everyone’s food. I noted that Empress was watching with a stern expression. I offered a nod and kept walking while Yolanda approached and let Terra wave to her mother.

When Yolanda caught up to me, she watched me, and I hummed a questioning note. She indicated Empress. “You know she was watching you and the others train the whole time, yeah?”

“Hmmm is that so?” I said.

Yolanda nodded and continued to watch me for a while. “Are you… going to ask her to stay?”

That made me pause. “I was just letting her stick around to help her deal with the grief and to also allow her mountain to be regrown. I think I heard something about Erika taking part in that event, so it shouldn’t be long.”

Yolanda considered that. “I think she likes it here. It would be better for her, I think…” She glanced at me. “It would also be great for you if she joined your team?”

I blinked. “Well, yeah,” I said, considering the truths that Yolanda was saying. I glanced over my shoulder, where Empress was sniffing at Sanchez, who was laughing boisterously as Clefairy practised his Pound on the Rock-electric type pokemon.

“I might ask her…” I eventually said. “Hopefully she doesn’t take it the wrong way when I ask her.”

Yolanda frowned at that. “I hadn’t considered that.”

I shrugged. “It’s something that needs to happen when you add an already strong pokemon to your team. It makes a world of difference to train up a pokemon and have them attribute a degree of their strength to your work. Pokemon that have gained it themselves can be more stubborn, and it becomes a lot harder to have them follow orders. There is a whole group of people that debate the benefits and negatives of catching an already strong pokemon.”

Yolanda took all of this in with a thoughtful expression. I patted her on the shoulder, pleased to see her listening. “I'll be careful about suggesting she stick around, or join me.”

And by that, I meant that I would be careful about when I asked her that Yolanda and the others weren’t around. I’d also be careful with how I worded the offer.

“I suppose even just having her around would add a degree of security,” Yolanda suggested.

I hummed in agreement before handing her a few trays and dishes of food to carry back with her. Terra made the task more difficult by trying to sample each dish, her little arms and legs wiggling to reach each food tray.

I took care of my more temperamental pokemon’s meals. On a whim, I made up another tray that I fed to Titan and dropped off to Empress. She eyed it before nodding with a grunt, lowering her head, and eating it without watching me. Hmmm, so she’d let me feed her… that… was a good sign towards her being comfortable with me at the very least.

I departed before I could irritate her. I would need to think on this some more, as I hadn’t invited her to the reserve to have her join my team, but now that it had been pointed out to me… having a second Tyranitar on my team… damn, that was appealing.

I could be like Lance with how he fielded more than one Dragonite… Huh, maybe he’d been thinking I’d do that when I’d made the offer back on Mt. Silver.

Oops. I might have made him a bit more worried, that I’d end up gunning for his position.

Oh well, that’s on him.

I handed off the other meals to my pokemon and then made for home for my own breakfast.

_________________________________________

When Alexa deposited the day’s schedule, I perked up when I spotted a name I recognised right before lunch.

“Bugsy from Azalea Town? Now that’s interesting; he’s the grandson of Cricket?” I said, already knowing the answer.

Alexa produced a small profile. “Indeed, he is touted to only have one year for a Journey according to the notes on his file with the League, as he has been hand-picked out of his family to inherit the Gym.” Alexa tapped a section of text. "Interestingly, the rest of his family have all supported his claim instead of standing against him.”

“Huh, that’s neat,” I said, unsure how I should feel about his story. I could almost see some parallels, but then again, we were also worlds apart in our situations. I shut his file and instead turned back to the others. We had a few first-timers and some repeat challengers, but there were two whole gaps in my day. This said a lot considering I’d already had this week set up for early finishes, along with a slightly longer lunch.

After the last six weeks or thereabouts, it seemed I was starting to poke out the other side of the Surge. I wasn’t out of it, as there would be a lot more challengers still to come, but it wasn’t going to be a huge peak and crash of trainers as it had been.

“Alright, let’s head out and see how they do,” I said, more than happy to slide into a normal routine.

Sadly, as soon as the first challenge was done, a number of the people in the crowd stood and waved microphones in my direction. “Gym Leader Brock! It’s been a few days since your match with Will? What are your thoughts on the League setting up measures to make sure the Elite Four or the champion can’t be cheated like you were? Is the League too slow on this suggestion?”

“Brock! What corrections to your team have you made seeing as they were too weak? Is your starter undergoing remedial footwork drills?!”

The trainer that I’d just awarded a badge to looked startled as the people that we’d assumed were standing to cheer for him suddenly revealed themselves to be vultures. I sighed and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Sorry about this kid; if you make it to the higher levels, you’ll encounter types like this,” I said, ignoring the shouted questions.

I toggled a button on my radio, and an alert was sent out. The reporters continued to shout questions and thus didn’t see the security Gravelers that were rolling towards them. They paused when heavy hands reached out and clapped two reporters per Graveler before they found themselves frog-marched out. I shook my head as they cried out about abuse and the silencing of the free press.

I’d have Alexa read them the riot act on harassment and being public menace.

I shook my head and pushed the thoughts of the reporters and what they represented out of my mind so I could get on with my day.

After that one blip, things continued up until the last match before lunch, and Bugsy challenged at the fourth-tier badge level with a gauntlet match.

I sent Yolanda down first, and she selected a Lairon and a Graveler to face him.

Bugsy came out and politely waved to the crowd, but I noted he paid special attention to one group of young boys. They stood out because all of them wore odd uniforms that reminded me of the scouts from my past life.

He bowed politely when he reached his podium and then selected a pokeball from his belt.

“Begin!” shouted Missy from the referee stand.

“Go Lairon!” called Yolanda.

“Go Heracross!” shouted Bugsy.

Both pokemon appeared, and the crowd stirred at what immediately seemed like a very interesting matchup. Bugsy had made a good choice while also taking risks with his pokemon, whereas Yolanda fielding Lairon was a powerful statement to start things off.

“Rock Tomb!” Yolanda began with a chop of her arm.

“Move with Aerial Ace, get in close!” shouted Bugsy.

His pokemon blurred and shifted before vanishing in a display of speed only to appear in front of Lairon with its horn lowered. Bugsy punched a fist forward. “Close Comb—”

“Protect!” screamed Yolanda, and I nodded at the call. It was a good stoppage to make Bugsy not get in a super-effective move against Lairon. Bugsy nodded in acceptance when his pokemon’s move bounced off the dome.

“Heracross! Step back and use Swords Dance!” his pokemon adopted a stance where its wings began to beat rapidly. Dust started to be stirred up as it got stronger and faster.

When the Protect shell dropped away, Yolanda didn’t hesitate. “Rock Blast!”

“Punch through Close Combat!” Bugsy said, not hesitating in the least to have his pokemon blast through the weak but fast rock attack.

Lairon took Heracross’ horn to the head, only for Bugsy’s pokemon to reveal how well-trained it was as it lifted Lairon up, allowing Heracross to slam its fists into the weaker metal underbelly.

Lairon rocked back and collapsed on his back, resulting in Yolanda returning him. She was quick to send out her Graveler, and this time while she fought a delaying keep-away match with Sandstorm, and Dig, she wasn’t able to handle a single hit from the buffed-up Heracross.

As soon as the match was over Bugsy brought his pokemon back to his side and used a potion.

I agreed that the choice was a good one. Dennis marched out next, and I was amused when he tossed out an Electric Graveler as his first choice.

“Thunder!” bellowed Dennis as his opening move, causing Bugy to have to think quickly.

“Megahorn the ground! Throw up the earth!” he cried, causing his Heracross to hurl up a large chunk of earth to absorb most of the threat.

“Rollout!” said Dennis in follow up making his pokemon start to charge forward in a roll. “Build it up with Sparks!” he said, causing his pokemon to become like a rolling firework with how sparks radiated outwards.

“Heracross! Return!” Bugsy cried before Graveler could close with his Heracross. He didn’t hesitate to throw out another pokemon in its place though. “Go Shuckle!”

I inhaled in surprise at the Rock-bug type pokemon making an appearance. It was notably a pokemon I still didn’t have for the Gym and having Bugsy use it definitely had me sitting up and paying attention.

“Shuckle, take the hit and use Power Split!” he said boldly. I whistled.

“Damn, that was a good move,” I said, causing Yolanda, Greta, and Crystal to shoot me confused looks.

“Why? That pokemon is notoriously slow?”

“Yeah but it has some of the best defences around; it also just averaged the attack abilities that Graveler has with itself. That’s what Power Split does, making it very useful.”

I was proven right as the move impacted Graveler just before it could slam into Shuckle. The Graveler’s charged-up sparks practically vanished right before it hit, resulting in a much weaker impact.

From there Bugsy displayed a mastery of how to use his Shuckle by beating down on Gravler and the follow-up Lileep with Bug-type moves while keeping his pokemon in good health. He made sure to keep his pokemon out and rub a potion into it as I was called down.

I could only nod. It was a good move with the Gauntlet allowing him to buff up his pokemon before a match, with this strategy, he’d bring a much stronger pokemon out for our match without tiring it out.

I launched myself from the side and onto the podium. I

rose, locked eyes with the future leader of the Azalea Gym, and offered him a nod of respect. “I can see that you’ve done your homework. You have a very goodsetupp for this match,” I said letting my gaze fall to his pokemon as I selected a pokeball.

Bugsy nodded. “I wanted to bring my best against you!”

I grinned and released my first pokemon for this match. “Go Shelly!” I said tossing out my Omastar.

She popped out and waved merrily to the crowd before settling down. The flags rose and fell.

“Surf!” I declared, causing Bugsy to click his tongue.

“Shuckle! Hold until the wave is right on top of you!” Bugsy said, clenching his fists and eyeing the approaching super-effective move. He held his nerve well, and just as it threatened to crash onto Shuckle he punched his fist forward. “Shell Smash!”

Around his pokemon, red energy built up and then exploded outwards like a bomb going off. The blast blew apart the wave and caused Shelly to falter and crash out.

“Go! Close in! Use Gyroball!” His pokemon leapt forward and rolled into a glowing ball of Steel energy that descended atop my pokemon.

“Protect!” I barked just in time to stop the attack from knocking Shelly out of the match.

Bugsy’s Shuckle reappeared, and I grinned as the Protect dropped away. “Ancient Power!” I felt that it was an apt move in this instance. It slammed into Shuckle, but the beast of a Shuckle shrugged it off despite having taken a debuff from the Shell Smash.

“Bug Bite!” he barked hurriedly, causing his pokemon to lunge forward and snap its thin jaw around Shelly. I breathed a sigh of relief at his choice. When Shelly shook off the hit and remained standing, Bugsy hissed at his mistake.

“Stone Edge, I said, deciding to punish Bugsy’s slip-up. A bug-type move, such as Bug Bite, while empowered, was actually rather weak against Omastar thanks to its rock typing.

The powerful rock move slammed home and dropped the Shuckle after the impressive showing.

Bugsy knocked his fist on his head in frustration. “Stupid, stupid, urgh, you had better moves to use,” he said to himself.

I hummed. He was being hard on himself, but he wasn’t wrong; a different move there might have seen me having to return Shelly rather than him returning his Shuckle. He might have fallen into a predictable issue of favouring bug-type moves over others. For all that he was a good trainer, he still had some slip-ups and rough edges to work out, it seemed.

“Let’s go Pinsir!” shouted Bugsy, releasing yet another rare bug type. He released it right on top of Shelly.

I heard the crowd gasp in surprise, and the section dominated by the scout-like boys practically rioted with how much noise they started to make.

Bugsy didn’t give me time to appreciate the rare bug, however, and instead punched his fist forward.

“Earthquake!” he said, causing Shelly to be thrown upward. She landed roughly but still struggled to her legs to keep fighting, making Bugsy blink in surprise.

“Stealth Rock,” I said to her before he could react. She sent out the move, and I raised her pokeball and withdrew her, signalling I wouldn’t use her again.

Bugsy eyed the rocks hovering around the battlefield before deciding to ignore them. “Pinsir! We’re not going to let those bother us! We’re going all the way from here!”

“Bold words,” I said as I selected another pokeball before revealing my choice. “Go Sudowoodo Let’s take the fight to them!”

Sudowoodo, my ever-fearless pokemon appeared with a grin as he flexed his twiggy arms. Pinsir snapped his pincers together threateningly.

“Superpower!” Bugy shouted.

“Rock Tomb,” I replied with a smirk. Sudowoodo grinned and kicked at the ground, causing a line of rocks to shoot up and snap around Pincer’s leg before he could close his glowing pincers onto Sudowoodo.

The pinchers clacked together loudly, and I eyed the speed before deciding to risk it. “Head Smash!”

“Protect!” Bugsy said quickly, causing my pokemon’s attack to slam ineffectively against the shell. Both pokemon glowered at each other and I grinned as they stepped closer together.

“Ready for it Sudo?” I asked, causing him to twitch a limb. “Backflip and use Stone Edge!” I shouted, giving Sudowoodo space away from Pincer, before unleashing a large boulder.

"Superpower, break that rock apart!” Bugsy said, causing his Pincer to catch and crush the boulder. Both pokemon eyed each other once again as Bugsy and I grinned.

“Rock Tomb!”

“Hyper Beam!” Bugsy said, catching me and my pokemon by surprise as his pokemon lined up and fired off a powerful beam of energy.

Sudowoodo was caught off guard and was hurled backwards before collapsing against the back wall. I hissed in surprise. That had been quite the sly move. I shot Bugsy a nod. Clever boy.

I returned Sudowoodo and grinned as I selected my third pokemon. “Quirrina! Let’s go!”

“Solrock!” cried one of the few pokemon I’d gained during my short trip to the Hoenn desert.

Bugsy laughed. “You’re really not going to let me have this easy, are you?” he said.

I shook my head and punched straight ahead. “Flamethrower,” I said, unleashing a torrent of flame on the still-exhausted Pincer.

“Hang in there, Pincer! Hang in there!” Bugsy shouted, imploring his pokemon to endure the super-effective move. Pincer screeched in pain but when the flames died away, it was still standing tall. I whistled in appreciation. Bugsy had some strong pokemon, my opinion of him rose another notch.

Bugsy opened his mouth before shutting it, as a thought seemed to occur to him. He returned his pokemon and tossed out a Scyther.

“Oh come on!” screamed a young voice from the crowd. Evidently, someone wasn’t pleased by Bugsy’s depth of bug pokemon.

Scyther brandished his scythes, only to shriek in surprise when Stealth Rock slammed into it.

“Get it together, Scyther! I need you!” Bugsy said causing Sycther to catch itself.

“Flamethrower!” I said again.

“Double Team!” ordered Bugsy, causing his pokemon to vanish into a blur with afterimages left in place. “Now use X-scissor!” I grinned, pleased that Bugsy knew that this pokemon I’d sent out was weak against bug-type moves and was moving to capitalise on it.

“Fire Spin,” I intoned, causing both pokemon to take hits they didn’t want. Scyther landed poorly and staggered, whereas Quirrina struggled but remained in the air.

Scyther fell, and Bugsy groaned.

The group of boys all wailed in sadness. Bugsy gained a determined expression and selected his next pokeball. “Go Butterfree!” he cried, releasing a Butterfree that flapped its wings and caused a torrent to break out.

I held up a hand in front of my face to shield my eyes from the wind; that was a strong Butterfree.

“Butterfree use Bug Buzz!” he shouted, causing his pokemon to stiffen up and vibrate. A powerful wave of green energy blasted out and slammed into Quirinna, causing him to stagger again but remain in the air.

“Rock Throw!”

“Weave around it!” Bugsy growled slashing his hand and making his Butterfree tuck a wing and dive out of danger.

“Flamethrower!” I ordered.

“Confusion! Toss it back!” shouted Bugsy, causing his pokemon to hurl back the fire.

“Psychic, blast it back,” I said, happy with Bugsy’s performance.

“Bug Buzz again!” shouted Bugsy once the flame broke apart. The psychic waves impacted with the green Bug Type energy to slam into Quirrina and see my pokemon finally fall.

I toyed with my last pokemon and eyed Bugsy. He lifted his chin and kept his eyes locked on me. I grinned and tossed out the last pokemon, I’d already determined that Bugsy was going to get my badge, but damn if I didn’t want to keep fighting with him. He was good, and I wanted to see how good he was.

“Go Onix!” I said.

Bugsy deflated slightly, only for me to grin and his expression to falter.

“Sandstorm!” I said, causing my pokemon to sweep its tail about like a whip and call forth a giant gout of sand that swept the entire battlefield.

Butterfree opened his wings and prepared to deny it. Bugsy didn’t disappoint. “Whirlwind!” he shouted. With a powerful flap of his wings, the Sandstorm was dispersed, but in doing so, his pokemon became a sitting target.

“Stone Edge,” I said, causing a pillar of stone to slam into the flying-bug type, crumpling it and ending the contest.

Bugsy hissed, and I grinned. “Four to three, no?” I said pointedly.

“Pincer’s still able to fight!” Bugsy said fiercely. “And so can this guy! Go Heracross!” He released his first bug pokemon, and I grinned.

“Dragonsbreath!” I ordered

“Close Combat!” ordered Bugsy, causing his pokemon to surge through the flames, ignoring much of the damage that I knew would be accruing to slam home and devastate Onix.

I returned him and raised my hand to another pokeball causing Bugsy to lean forward in anticipation.

I chuckled and waved him down. “I’m just playing, as much as I’d love to keep this match going, I think you’ve more than proven yourself, Bugsy from Azalea Town.”

Bugsy leapt upwards. “Yatta!” he said before leaping down to start celebrating with his Heracross.

I chuckled and started lowering the podiums. I’d have to offer him the badge, he was too skilled for me to ignore as a trainer. A glance up to the stands revealed that his group of friends were all exuberantly calling out his name.

I presented him with his badge, and he waved at the group. “You guys! Come join me for my photo!” He then shot me a look. “If that’s alright?”

“The more the merrier,” I said. I then smirked at him and said, “Did you also want to have a look at Gawain?”

“Yes!” he and the others cheered. I merely laughed.

It looks like I know what I’d be doing for the rest of the afternoon.