Hard Enough - Chapter 142 - Stronger, better, harder, faster (Patreon)

I almost walked straight out to talk with Empress. But then I considered what I was about to do.

One does not simply walk up to a Pseudo-legendary pokemon and ask them to join your team.

There were good odds that she’d be offended by my offer and trash the reserve. I pinged a message to the Gym trainers to return all the pokemon that were too weak before checking that none of the pokemon we stabled for our trainers were out and about. This caused one trainer to approach and ask why, which had me grimacing.

“I’m going to do something a bit risky. Tell me, you’ve been on the roster for looking over the stabled pokemon. Has Empress, the new Tyranitar sheltering here, ever threatened or approached them?” I waved my hand about, “Looking to eat them?”

The trainer shook their head. “No, she’s observed them, but we keep the stabled pokemon in a segregated paddock. Only time we pull them out is for the twice a week training that we have mandated.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And she respected the paddock fence like the rest of our pokemon do? She hasn’t tried to walk up to it at all?”

The trainer nodded, and I could only frown. This didn’t make sense. She was respecting other pokemon that were around, but she went to snack on a caterpie? It had been fairly distant from its… person? Hmmm, then again they had said it was a wild caterpie… How would she know that? Did she smell it on the Caterpie? Was there some markings or feel to its aura that changed when it became captured.

Wasn’t she a wild Tyranitar? Certain behaviours weren’t adding up.

“Should I call Jackson and Dennis back? They left already, sir,” said the trainer nervously.

I shook my head. “I think I can handle her.” I’d just need Bertha to… I reconsidered that. I didn’t want to come in and threaten her or put her on the back foot. I needed to be able to talk with her.

I sent off another message, and a moment later, Sabrina appeared next to me. “Are you alright?”

“I’m good; today’s been an interesting day for me.” I rubbed my jaw in thought. “I was thinking of doing something and—”

“And you realised how risky it would be, so you thought it a good idea for me to be with you, Sabrina said over the top of me.

I coughed and nodded. “Yeah pretty much.”

She nodded seriously and levitated above me. She patted my head. “Good.”

She seemed all too amused and pleased, like I was a well-trained Growlithe that had just followed her training without prompting.

I bristled slightly before snorting. “You didn’t even hear what I was planning, though. How can you call it risky already?” She raised a dubious eyebrow, and I dropped my head. “Yeah, alright, there's a bit of risk.” She continued to stare at me, and I sighed. “Alright, a fair amount!”

She nodded. “Excellent. Admitting you have a problem is one of the first steps, according to the books I have read. Tell me what you’re going to do.”

So I told her about offering Empress a place here permanently. How I was hoping to add a truly powerful pokemon to my roster.

Sabrina pursed her lips in thought. “That… is not a terrible idea. Lance thought it was what you were going for eventually, and I thought you might end up seeing it that way, but I knew you didn’t initially make the offer with this in mind.”

“Thanks,” I said, pleased she knew where I had been coming from.

She nodded. “Empress might still be hurting, and having her here might help. I would point out that she’ll never be able to fight at anything beneath an Elite level; however, even then, I would be hesitant to use her as she is a wild pokemon. She will not lessen herself or hold back her punches.”

I waved my hand back and forth. “Yeah, about that, actually. I was thinking about it, and she’s reacted a little too easily to being around other pokemon and people. She hasn’t been as aggressive as I would have thought. Some of that is due to being fed regularly, I imagine.

“Also having Terra and Titan around to help her calm down, but she’s too quick to pick up on certain things, like not eating her fellow pokemon. I hadn’t considered it, but I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear that she’d tried. She’s only tried it once, and to what was an uncaught caterpie.”

Sabrina tilted her head. “That is irregular behaviour.” She frowned. “How long are Tyranitar known to live for?”

I rubbed my chin. “They’re known to live a fairly long time, honestly. They’re thought to live upwards of two hundred years old.”

“Thought to?”

I waved my hand back and forth again. “The reports I have of them only have a few examples of them staying with a family line. So some of it is anecdotal. Documentation from before the war was rather lacking, especially in terms of scientific rigour. What is known is that if a trainer attempts to trade them or have another person, deemed unworthy by the Tyranitar, inherit them upon their passing, the Tyranitars are known to simply wander off after breaking their own pokeballs.”

“Hmmm interesting; this opens up another possibility,” Sabrina said.

“Alright? I’m all ears,” I replied.

“Brock, what happened to the Gym Leader of Pewter before Flint?” she asked. That pulled me up short. I scratched my chin.

“I’m not sure? I think he was reported to have died during the war?”

Sabrina nodded her head. “Would Flint know this?”

I inclined my head and gestured towards the house. Sabrina touched me, and a moment later we teleported into my kitchen, causing my family to gasp in shock. Flint flinched and knocked a few things around. I grimaced as pots and pans hit the floor.

“Oh goodness! Hello Brock! Sabrina! You startled me!” said Flint only to flinch as Billy and tilly upended their bowls, deciding to join in on the game. Sabrina caught their bowls and they clapped with delight.

Sabrina’s lips twitched upwards and I had a sneaking suspicion that she’d teleported in deliberately. Suzie hopped off her stool and approached Sabrina before raising her hands up. Sabrina lifted her up to hold her against her hip without a hint of strain.

I decided not to chide her and instead coughed. “Can I ask you a question Flint?” I said instead.

“Yeah! Sure thing Brock!” Flint said, suddenly much more upbeat and energetic.

I made a circle in the air, indicating the building around us at large. “The Pewter City Gym wasn’t always ours; did you know the previous Gym Leader?”

Flint blinked and sat back. “You want to know about Brock?” he said.

I blinked. “Uhm what?” This was news to me.

Flint coughed. “Oh sorry! You were actually named after him. He was a great man! I’m surprised more people didn’t name their kids after him but…” Flint shrugged and shook his head.

Salvadore and Yolanda turned their heads from their food. I could practically feel their stares as they drank in this new revelation of Flint’s history.

I rubbed my chin. “I hadn’t known his name was Brock… what sort of pokemon did he have?”

Flint grinned. “Oh he had Steelix, Graveler, Pidgeot, Sandslash, and a Tyranitar!” He smiled widely at me as the others gasped in surprise. “You certainly won a lot of praise from the community when they learned you’d come back from the Silver Ranges with Titan. Everyone was thinking you were the next coming of him!” He laughed. “They were sort of right, I suppose!”

I nodded. “Right... and with his passing, is it possible that his Tyranitar might have taken up a spot on top of the Silver Ranges?”

Flint blinked slowly. When he spoke, he did so with careful deliberation. “You think Empress, as you call her, is, or was, an old Gym Leader pokemon?”

I nodded. “Certain things, such as her willingness to allow people around her and the fact she has only tried to eat one pokemon in the entire time she’s been with us, points to a certain level of… domestication.”

Flint rubbed his chin and nodded. “That would make a lot of sense, but she’s not Brock’s, old Brock that is, pokemon. He had a male Tyranitar and it was confirmed to have fallen alongside him during one of the worst fights in Pewter city.”

“Ah, I hadn’t seen any records of that,” I said.

Flint inclined his head. “Again… the war isn’t something that people like to talk about… I know a lot of records got misplaced or worse, so people couldn’t avenge fallen comrades when things settled down.” He stared off into the distance.

What he’d just said made me stop and reconsider my previous stance. I’d always thought it was shortsighted and ridiculous that so many people didn’t like talking about the war, but what if it had been a short-term measure to stop tensions from reigniting? Only it had become more by the time the next generation came around.

It almost made sense after all.

I nodded. “Right, well, thanks for that. I had a suspicious about her but that seems to be a dead end.”

Flint jolted, realising that he had lost himself in memory. “Hmmm, what’s that? Oh, yeah, no problem.”

I ran a hand through Salvadore and Yolanda’s hair before considering them. “Hey, can you all make sure that the others stay inside? I’m going to go talk to Empress and feel her out about sticking around on a more permanent basis.”

Both of them perked up, but Salvadore grinned. “That’d be amazing! Then you could be like Lance! Able to throw down multiple powerhouse Tyranitar during a match! Ha!”

I chuckled and rubbed his head again. “Maybe, Let’s not count our eggs before they hatch eh? I’ll ask, politely,” I stressed before pointing at the ground. "Alright, you hold down the fort here, kids.”

Yolanda turned to Sabrina. “You’ll look after him?” Sabrina inclined her head and Yolanda relaxed. I stuck my tongue out at her and huffed before walking around to where Empress liked to camp out in the early evening.

I approached openly with my hands visible. Empress barely looked at me, instead, her eyes were turned towards the lights of Pewter city.

“Hey Empress,” I said to start things off.

She glanced at me and grunted. She tilted her head and made an odd little noise before turning back to inspect the distant lights.

I shuffled back and forth and glanced to the top of the plateau, where I could feel Sabrina’s gaze boring into me. She was close enough to help if things went south, but not too close to threaten Empress.

I swallowed my trepidation and decided to start talking. “It’s been almost a week since you first joined us here; I thought I’d check in with you. How are you feeling?”

Empress’ claws dug into the ground, and she narrowed her eyes.

“Still raw, huh?” I said, adjusting my stance in case she felt like lashing out. I worked my jaw and considered how to go about this, I could lead her to water if I wanted to, drip feed her information and give it the right view to—

“Tar! Ty!” she said gesturing around at the other pokemon that were still out; all of them were part of my fourth badge challenge or greater. She pointed at a Lairon sparring with a Rhydon. She snorted dismissively before waving her hand in a sort of begrudging manner.

I tilted my head. That sort of expression and gesture with Titan would mean… “You think the pokemon around here are pretty strong?” I said.

She snorted dismissively and turned her head awya only to chuff out a breath. Then she nodded slightly.

I chuckled. “Thanks, that means a lot from you, considering how strong you are.” I let a silence grow between us, once more wondering how I should approach this. What was the best way to do it? What could I stomach? I didn’t want to manipulate her.

Having a pokemon like Empress on my roster was a very large temptation. I shook my head and decided to work my way around to other topics that I should discuss first. “Hey, about today with caterpie, thanks for not eating—”

“Tyran, tar, tyran,” she said shaking her head and huffing. She then glanced around as if looking for anyone else before turning to me and bowing her head slightly. “Taaaaar,” she said with a soft croon that I knew meant she was remorseful of her actions.

This was yet another confirmation that she must have at one point grown up with people to know to apologise. Sure, she’d waited until it was supposedly just me and her, but she’d still done it. That had implications. She was proud, but not too proud.

“Oh, uh, thanks for saying that. And don’t let it bother you. That Caterpie hadn’t yet been caught properly so it might have seemed like a wild pokemon.”

She shot me a look that I couldn’t quite understand. grunted and fell silent, her head rising and turning away once more. A thought occurred to me, and before I could stop myself, I blurted. “You eat many caterpie before? Are they tasty?”

Instead of being offended, she got a thoughtful look on her large, scaly face. She made a thoughtful growl and scratched under her chin. She then pinched two claws together and puffed a small flame out of her mouth. She grinned.

I stared and my mouth spoke up once more. “You like them when they’re charred?” Empress nodded, and I stared harder.

The implications of that comment alone. She knew how to cook her food.

Tyranitar’s also couldn’t learn Flamethrower naturally, and the only fire typed pokemon in the Silver Ranges would have been Rapidash, Magmar, Entei —possibly—, or Moltres. All of whom had specific reasons they wouldn’t want to be caught close to a Tyranitar’s hunting grounds or vice versa.

Even the implicaiton that she could learn from observations spoke of a highly intelligent mind that usually was only demonstrated in trained pokemon.

“Empress… Were you a trainers pokemon once upon a time?” I said.

Empress sighed and stared far into the distance, her eyes not looking at anything but lost, much like Flint had been. She nodded after a while. “Tar, Tar, Tyranit, tar, Tyran,” she started to say. Her words flowed out of her while she gestured. I got a vague understanding that she was speaking of a time long, long ago.

I narrowed my eyes and considered what she’s said. “Long ago… before you were a Tyranitar?” I asked. She nodded empathically. “Before you were a Pupitar?”

She nodded again. “You were a trainer’s pokemon as a larvitar?” I asked. She considered this for a moment before waggling her hand.

“You were… you had a person that spent time with you?” She waggled her claws back and forth before glancing towards a rock face. She started scratching at it only for her claw to bite into the rockface too deeply and crumble it. Empress growled and clenched her claws, causing further damage.

She exhaled deeply in a manner that had to be practised. She then started to trace a light picture that looked like it would take a long, long time to complete, with how detailed it was.

“Empress… Would it be possible to ask a friend to link us psychically so you could explain what you’re trying to say?” I asked.

Empress paused in her carving. She didn’t move beyond that for a long minute, during which I held my breath.

Eventually, she nodded.

“Alright, I’ll call her over,” I said, pinging my transceiver. A moment later, Sabrina was at my side. “Sabrina, this is Empress; Empress, this is Sabrina,” I said. “You met back during our fight with that Moltres.”

Empress straightened and considered us before nodding. “Tar! Tyran!” she said, indicating us both and nodding in an approving manner.

Sabrina shot me a look. “She thinks we make a good couple,” I said. In reality, it had been something more like a good mate, but it was the same message in the end.

I indicated Empress’ head. “Are you able to draw in your dark energy? Sabrina won’t be able to link us otherwi—” I started to say only for Empress to shuffle herself into Titan’s meditative pose awkwardly.

She fidgeted in a manner that let me know she was far from comfortable.

“You can just stand if you’d prefer?” I suggested.

She huffed in relief and stood back up, kicking her legs out as she did so. Huh, I had never thought how flexible Titan would have had to have been to be able to cross his legs. I pushed that thought aside and gestured to Sabrina.

“Alright, so we’re going to withdraw our dark energy so Sabrina can let us view your memories.”

Empress eyed her for a moment before lowering her head and allowing Sabrina to touch her temple. With her other hand, Sabrina reached out and touched my temple.

A moment later, I wasn’t standing in the reserve with them but rather in what appeared to be a hut. The wooden walls were rustic and rough, and dirt floors with a firepit indicated that it was an altogether rudimentary affair. The stretched skin hanging over the doorway kept the wind from blowing in. There was a table and even a basic hammock setup that was made of wooden sticks lashed together. Everything looked huge, like it was made for giants.

Someone spoke, but the words were unintelligible, and I found my point of view toddling out of the hut. For a moment, light blinded me before the point of view shook itself, and a laugh made me look up to find a young girl smiling down at me.

For a moment, I thought she looked a bit like Yolanda but then I started to note the differences. Her eyes were nothing like Yolanda’s, her hair was dark, and her attire was rough—more fur and leather than the synthetic styles that Yolanda would wear.

It put me in mind of the Hisuan style, but the fur that poked out around the edges didn’t match. If anything, it looked sort of like that tribal style that the Pewter Museum had been displaying. The girl reached out, warbled something happily, and picked me up. I found myself oddly happy at the gesture, and a cry broke out of my lips.

“Tar! Larvitar!”

Ah, so this was what it was like to be in a pokemon’s memories. I looked around and was surprised to find that there was an entire village atop a mountain that was all too familiar.

Another shout had the girl turning and jogging towards a larger hut that she quickly entered. The girl bowed to an older woman and then marched down a tunnel that led to a cavern with a large mural that was also familiar. This had been Empress’ nest!

The memory faded then, and I found myself blinking, suddenly back in the reserve with Sabrina stumbling and Empress snorting and shaking her head. I reached out and caught Sabrina. “Hey, are you alright?”

Sabrina rubbed her head. “No, Empress lost control of emotions at the sight of the mural and her dark energy spiked and ejected me.” she eyed me. “Are you not… no dark energy wouldn’t have hurt you.”

I rubbed her temples gently. “No, it didn’t hurt me at all. It merely disoriented me.”

I eyed her. “Still hurts?” She nodded and pushed herself into my hands. I chuckled and continued to massage her head. I turned my head towards Empress who was shaking her head.

“You were a pokemon that lived with the tribe that lived in the mountains?”

Empress stopped shaking her head and looked at me. She nodded her head. I whistled. “So you’ve been in those mountains a long time?”

She considered me with narrowed eyes. Sabrina tapped me on the cheek. “Don’t call her old; she’s not that old; the impression I got was that her memory was not that long ago—pre-war yes, but not ancient.”

“But the tribal village I saw was said to be ancient,” I pointed out.

Empress tilted her head in a confused manner. I huffed and scratched my head, considering Empress. “Any chance you could tell us why the tribe left?”

She made a twitching gesture that had me tilting my head. I glanced at Sabrina, and she shook her head. Empress shifted testily and lowered her head once again. Sabrina linked us once again, and I found myself falling into a memory.

Fire, so much fire.

In the skies above the burning village a Dragonite pack flew overhead, only for a roar to echo from Mt Silver and a very different pokemon to emerge. Bodies lay about the village. I had a moment to recognise a Moltres erupting from the mountain.

The memory vanished once again. Sabrina stood to the side, lowering her hand. I put my own hand on her shoulder. “You alright?”

She nodded. “She didn’t want to go any further and raised her energy much slower this time.” Empress looked to the side, her pride no longer there. I felt like I had more questions than before. What had the pack of Dragonite been doing there? Wild Dragonite were only down near Vermilion, not in…

Unless they weren’t wild Draognites but rather trained pokemon. I’d come to Empress to try and make sense, but I found myself with more questions than I had started with.

“So, you were that girl’s pokemon I take it then?”

Empress nodded her head. I sighed and kept myself from slumping. “So you set up your nest, waiting for her to come back?” I said. I was reasoning out her history. So, she’d been part of a tribe that probably didn’t use pokeballs/ Sort of like Fiore. And they’d come into conflict with the Blackthorn clan.

Empress frowned and tilted her head. She eventually shook her head. Instead she reached up and traced a line down her cheek. “Crying?” I said.

She made a so-so gesture.

Sabrina put a hand on Empress’ body and looked up at her. “The girl didn’t make it, Brock.”

“Oh…” I said. “So she stayed there because…?”

“It was safe at first, I imagine; she would have struggled at first, but then she would have grown strong.” Sabrina rubbed the Empress’s body lightly. “She remembers the girl sometimes.” She stared up as Empress turned her head. “She remembered the girl when a young boy asked her for her son.”

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. “Oh, well.” I paused when I realised Empress was also looking away sheepishly. We caught each other’s eyes and I chuckled. She gave a hesitant smile of her own and relaxed.

I shook myself. “Right, well, that answered a few questions. I wanted to check in with you honestly. You’re happy here, yes?”

Empress glanced around and considered the reserve, the various pokemon about, and the view. She slowly nodded. “Tar,” she said, allowing a small smile to show on her scaley face.

“Right, well, if you want, you can stay here; I have no issues housing you, but I also wanted to offer another idea I had.” Empress glanced at me; her eyes locked on mine. I held her gaze. “I’m looking to go into some serious fights in the future. Fights at least as serious as we were against Moltres.”

That got her nostrils flaring.

“I won’t be going against Moltres, but there is almost a guaranteed chance of my having to face the pokemon that caused Moltres to awaken like it did.”

She growled and jerked her head. “Tar!”

“We learned that its name is Mewtwo, and it is a pokemon that a criminal organisaiton used to raid the Silver Ranges. They also did what they did to get to me. They knew I’d come up to check on you and used that,” I said.

Sabrina blinked in surprise, and I realised I’d let slip Mewtwo’s name. Had I told her before this? Sabrina merely nodded, accepting the information. I mentally felt like I’d dodged an interrogation.

Empress frowned and considered that. She then gestured from me to her.

I nodded. “Now, I could ask you to stay here, and you’d be great as a threat deterrent. You’d ward off many of the threats that might come after me, but I want more.” I clenched my fist. “I need more if I’m going to face down Mewtwo.”

I stretched out my hand to her. “Empress, I want you to join my team, work with me, and help me punish Team Rocket for what they’ve done.”

I locked eyes with her. “If you join me there are chances I will need to give you orders, orders that you will follow. This would mean you’d need to train with me and my team.”

I kept my hand outstretched. “Will you join me?”

She stepped forward and loomed over me. Then she reached out with her claws and wrapped them around my hand. “Tyranitar,” she said firmly.

Sabrina smiled. "Congratulations to both of you,” she said. She stepped closer. “Empress, my name is Sabrina, Brock’s girlfriend. I look forward to training with you sometime in the future, and my pokemon will also be training with you. My pokemon will enjoy testing themselves against you.”

Empress blinked at this before giving a wide, fanged grin at Sabrina. “Tar!” she said, accepting the future challenge. I grinned and patted her on the chest.

“Alright, well, we train before the sun rises, usually. Titan is the leader in this. You come out tomorrow and join us, and we’ll start from there.” I grinned up at her. “It’s going to be funny watching you work with him. Mother and son, neh?”

Empress nodded a pleased expression on her face. She then gave me a considering look. With a single claw she reached up and flicked a sharp edge into one of her joints. A red line appeared a moment later and I blinked only to stiffen when she reached out and traced a line of blood straight across my cheeks and nose. She then flicked the blood off, spraying me.

“Uhm? Thank you?” I said uncertainly.

Empress clapped me on the shoulders and waved her claws around my head in a circle. “Tar!” she barked before nodding once more. She lowered her head and licked me on the forehead. She then turned and marched off.

Sabrina inspected my face. “It seems she has accepted joining your team, and decided to adopt you in turn.”

“So it would seem.” I touched my now very wet face. “Does it look as bad as it feels?”

Sabrina considered me seriously. “You have the biggest Miltank lick with how your hair is sticking up... and I’m not kissing you until you sanitise your face.”

I snorted and nodded. “That’s fair.”

I trundled back home only to find my family waiting for me in the lounge.

“Are you wearing make up?” Suzie asked even as Flint blanched at the blood on my face.

“No, Empress did something symbolic to show she accepted me. Hang on I need to change clothes and clean myself off.” I got changed and then returned once I was clean. The kids hounded me about how it went and I told them she’d accepted but that it was a secret they weren’t to share around. Tilyl and Billy giggled as they made shushing gestures at each other.

Timmy then announced that he wanted story time, much to my other siblings ire. I decided to tell them their bedtime story in the lounge room. “Hooray!” shouted Suzie. “Munchlax!” cheered Munchlax. Everyone got comfortable with Eevee claiming Yolanda’s lap while Nany Grav handed out hot chocolate. I rubbed my chin and considered what story to tell them.

I smiled. “Long ago… there was a little Larvitar,” I said to start things off. Terra perked up and the kids became spellbound as I told them the story of Empress.

The next morning, I got to enjoy watching the moment when Titan noticed his mother had joined us. He shifted nervously and approached her subtly. My ears twitched as they broke into a discussion, only to break apart. Titan stepped up to me and stared at me with the most betrayed expression. I was confused until I noticed the other pokemon were snickering to themselves.

Yolanda had to break off as she burst into giggles at the by-play.

I shrugged. “Sorry buddy, she’s strong, so I made an offer. She’ll make a great addition to the team.” I shot him a look. “If you’re worried about having to order her about, don’t be; I need to work on her with regards to that before anything else.”

Titan huffed and I got the feleing I’d missed the point of what was annoying him. He shook it off however and instead considered his mother as she copied Bertha doing some stretches. Titan nodded slowly, a conflicted look on his face. He then leaned in. “Ty? Ranitar?” he said flicking a claw from himself to her.

I considered him. “Who’s stronger?”

He nodded seriously. I snorted. “It’d be close, but I think you’d beat her in a straight match, but don’t discount her. I imagine she’s got more than a few tricks up her sleeve. Out of anyone, Bertha is the most at risk of losing her spot as second strongest,” I said, pitching my voice so that Bertha heard me.

Bertha paused in her stretch and looked over at Empress. Her grin widened, and she pumped her fist in mock threat.

I snorted, it seemed if anything, Bertha welcomed the challenge. Empress straightened up and then looked from Bertha to Titan. She barked something, and Bertha blinked before waving her hand back and forth before laughing.

Titan looked like he wanted to crawl off and hide.

I hummed. “Did she just say that she’d test Bertha as a worthy mate for you?”

Titan nodded, his face in his hands. I chuckled. "Well, I'm sorry that I didn’t consider the team dynamic before I made the offer.”

Titan sighed and shoved me before barking out an order and having everyone fall in for the morning run. I took off with them, tapping Empress as I passed her. “Yolanda catch up!” I called to my sister, causing her to run after me.

When the warm-up was done I grinned. “Alright Yolanda let Terra down, we’re going to work through Simon says! Empress! Follow along; this is part of the training to get used to commands that might be given.”

Yolanda gaped. “Brock! She’s a fully evolved pokemon! You can’t play Simon says with her!”

I grinned. “It’s one of the basic drills, but that just makes it all the more important.” I nodded to Titan. “Alright start up the others.”

Don who’d been nearby, laughed and shrieked at us in a jeering manner. Empress narrowed her eyes at what must have been a taunt. I grinned. Well,  if Don was going to offer himself up like that I could start things off with an order that Empress certainly wouldn’t mind following.

“Alright! Everyone! Simon says! Whip around like we’re using Iron Tail to smack away a pest!”

I spun on the spot and was amused to hear a dull thwack. When I turned back, Don was still sailing away, and Yolanda was gaping. Terrra fell on her backside, giggling.

Empress snorted, more than happy with herself. I grinned.

Alright, one small step to having her follow my orders. It would take a while, but it would be so gloriously worth it to be able to use her in a high-end pokemon match.

Or throwing her out against Will.

That would be just deserts for that sneak. By the time the morning’s training was over, I felt like I’d made some significant progress with her. I tapped her on the side and pointed to the back wall of the Gym. “I’ll have the matches for the day projected there. Yolanda, you’re on Gym duty today instead of school again, yeah?”

She nodded “Yup! No school for me this week!”

"Huh,” I said getting an idea. “I think I want you to sit down with me later when Will fights against the Cerulean sisters. Lots of people are writing them off, and while I don’t think they’ll win, I think we might learn something if we watch the fight.”

“Sounds good!” she said enthusiastically.

I grinned. “We might as well set up the back screen for us to watch it with my Elite Team…”

“Oh! I like that!” Yolanda said.

“Nice,” I said before considering something else she could do. "Also, do you think you’d be alright with no gym battles for today?”

At her curious expression, I elaborated. “I want you to sit with Empress and explain what we do and why certain moves are good or bad. Also, explain to her what we’re doing; I don’t want her to think I’m weak with how some of these matches will go.”

Yolanda nodded seriously. “I can do that Brock!” she said, turning to start talking with Empress.

I chuckled and wrapped an arm around her. “After breakfast, little sister, after breakfast.”

I walked with her back to breakfast, feeling much more upbeat about the future that was to come. While I didn’t think the Cerulean sisters match would amount to much, that didn’t mean I couldn’t keep the motivation high in my team.

If anything, seeing Will fight would motivate them further.