Hard Enough

“Brock!” “Brock!” “Brock!” “Big Bro!” “Brother!”

One after another, the rest of the family piled in. “Timmy, Billy, Tilly, Cindy, Yolanda!” I replied in turn. My hands went up over my head so the egg that I was carrying didn’t get crushed as small bodies impacted me. Like a Growlithe with a treat in sight, their heads tracked the object.

They gasped as one. “IS THAT?!”

“It’s a pokemon egg. I got it from a friend and was rather surprised, but they told me I could give it to one of my siblings.”

They squealed in glee. “What is it!?” I grinned at them before looking around. I turned to Yolanda. “Where’s Forrest?”

Something flickered in her eyes for a second and I worried something had happened before she gave me a smile that didn’t look right for some reason. “He’s in the gym, I’ll go grab him.” She ran off quickly. Had I said something wrong?

“Brock! What sort of pokemon egg is it?” Salvadore asked. He approached with a notepad in hand, already busy sketching the pokemon egg onto paper.

I smiled and winked. “Let’s wait until everyone’s here first.” I led them into the lounge room and claimed a spot in the middle, keeping the egg in my lap. My siblings crawled over the back of the cough and crowded in on me. Tilly reached out and I watched her carefully stroke the egg. “That’s good. You have to be careful with it, Tilly. Eggs are delicate.”

Her actions emboldened the rest of my siblings to reach out and touch it. Slowly, more and more of the family came in until finally Forrest was led in by Yolanda.

“Hey big bro, congra—” He stopped when he saw the egg. “Is that an egg?!”

I snorted at the obvious answer. Instead of firing off something obnoxiously sarcastic I nodded. “Yeah. I got this from Titan’s mother. This egg will be one of his siblings.”

“Oh wow,” Forrest said quietly.

I nodded my head before raising it out to him. “Forrest, I want to offer you the chance to have this pokemon.” I watched him as he blinked and blanched. “Do… you not want it?”

“I don’t! I mean I do but I…” He trailed off and sighed before shaking his head. “I mean I want a pokemon as strong as Titan but… an egg?”

I frowned. “I know it’ll take a long time to hatch. It doesn’t yet have the minor tremors to indicate it’s out of the first stage, sure. And a pseudo legendary egg will take longer than pretty much any other pokemon to get up to their true potential peak, but the pay off with pokemon like Titan outweighs the wait a hundredfold.” I offered him the egg. “Trust me on this, I know.”

Forrest took the egg awkwardly and shifted from foot to foot. “...Thanks Brock.”

Yolanda shifted next to him before stepping closer. Forrest glanced to her, momentarily taking his attention off the egg. Right as he did this his grip shifted enough to have the egg wobble. I tensed and began to throw myself across the ground to catch it. Images of it shattering like a mere Doduo egg for breakfast filled my mind before horror even had a chance to set in.

Yolanda must have sensed the problem before I saw it as she whipped her hands out and snatched it from Forrest, leaving him gaping. He never had the option of even doing more than twitching wrong before Yolanda had it in her arms. I had already committed to the action though and had to bite back a curse as I landed on the floor belly first only to skid forward, knocking Forrest off his feet as I careened forward. Yolanda skipped backwards with the egg held firmly in hand.

Forrest lay on top of me groaning as I tried to work out what had just happened. I glanced at the floor spotting my own reflection on it. I replayed the moment in my mind and wondered how I had skidded so far before inspecting the glistening floor closer. “Oh?! You guys mopped the floors without me reminding you!” I grinned at them before looking at Yolanda who was now carefully holding the egg to her midsection. “Good save Yolanda!”

She gave me a tremulous smile as I rolled onto my feet and stood. Forrest thumped onto the ground and squawked before he scrambled up to his feet. I gave him a sheepish smile. “Sorry about wiping you out like that. Leapt before I could stop myself, little bro, you scared me. You need to have a more careful grip and never let the chance of slipping them come up.”

“Yeah well, I had it.” He coughed and thanked Yolanda as well. Then he held his hands out.

Yolanda eyed him dubiously. “Brock was right. You were holding it wrong… Here, hold it like this in the future.” Yolanda, I noted, looked extremely conflicted as she handed over the egg to Forrest.

I felt my stomach twist as realisation set in. I hadn’t had the chance to get anything else. The offer had been a surprise to me but now it created an issue in that I’d accidentally snubbed everyone else by having a gift for only one of them ready upon my return home. I had already decided to do something for the family as a whole, but perhaps I should also consider giving something more personalised to Yolanda. She did a lot and deserved recognition.

I clapped my hands together to try and drag everyone out of a depressive funk, my younger siblings mimicked me before continuing to clap like I’d started a game. I chuckled. Alright, maybe I was just projecting my mood.

“Alright! Forrest getting this egg was a surprise even for me! That doesn’t mean I’m not going to do something for everyone else though! So let’s find a way to celebrate by having some food and you can all start telling me your thoughts—” ''THE CAKE!” gasped Suzie as her eyes widened. Then she snapped to look at me. She slapped her hands over her mouth as if that’d stop me from hearing what she’d said.

“Yeah! Cake!” Tilly and Billy cheered ignorant that this was obviously supposed to be a secret. I bit my lips to hold in my laughter. Cindy sighed while Salvadore tilted his head in thought.

Salvadore tapped his lip with his pencil. “Hey… did anyone cover the cake before we all came into the lounge room?”

I blinked at that before remembering that we’d recently added a new pokemon to the ‘family’. It took the family a bit to register what he meant. Yolanda hadn’t heard due to triple-checking that Forrest had a proper hold on the egg. “I got it Yolanda! Leave me alone.” he muttered at her; she ignored him.

Cindy and Tommy understood what Salvadore was talking about first. They turned together and sprinted towards the kitchen. “Munchlax! No!” This time I couldn’t stop the snort of laughter that escaped my lips.

I laughed harder when a dramatic wail echoed from the kitchen followed by a content-sounding “Munch…laaaaax!”

I followed the others in and found the destroyed remains of a large cake on the island. In a corner, slumped against the cabinets, with frosting smeared over his lips, Munchlax lay. Tommy and Cindy stood over him berating him but he looked far too content to be bothered by their words. When Tommy raised a fist as if to strike at Munchlax I cleared my throat pointedly.

“No hitting Tommy. Munchlax didn’t understand that he couldn’t have the cake now. You can tell him what he did was wrong but you can’t do something wrong yourself. And why is that?” I said with my best ‘big brother’ voice.

“Cause two wrongs don’t make anything right…” He muttered before shaking a finger at Munchlax who did now look a little ashamed of eating the cake. Yolanda walked in and swept her gaze over the scene.

Yolanda merely giggled before clapping her hands. “Alright, everyone! It’s fine! We’ll just make another cake! A better one!” This got the girls to cheer while the boys groaned. Yolanda smiled at them fixedly. “That means we need the bowls cleaned right now!”

I eyed the bowls that had been left in the sink. “Were those supposed to be a welcome back surprise as well?” This got them to trade some embarrassed looks before they set to work. I tagged Forrest to come along with me to get a proper egg carrier and incubator first though, before we got distracted.

The gym had a few as it wasn’t rare to find one of the pokemon huddling up on an egg occasionally. It wasn’t something we promoted however and most of the pokemon were fed a mix that rendered their chances of making an egg much lower. I led Forrest into an area that served as the medical bay for emergencies at the gym. In a locked cupboard I drew out the durable glass incubator and showed it to him.

“That’s it?” he said. I smirked at him, picked it up and hurled it straight at the ground. “Woah what are you—” the incubator hit the ground and wobbled slightly. It didn’t bounce and it didn’t shatter. “What the?”

“Forrest, I wasn’t going to buy some cheap incubators for the gym.” I picked it up and gave it a quick polish. “These beauties are expensive but they are redundant as anything. You can plug them into a computer and have it scan the egg, calibrate an optimal temperature, register the Egg’s current health, protect the egg, and it can also be tracked if you happen to lose it.”

Forrest leaned closer. “It just looks like a glass display case over a slab of metal?”

“And most good backpacks just look like backpacks,” I replied. Forrest gave me a confused look. I shrugged. I didn’t expect him to understand but, then again, you had to live another life where expansion technology wasn’t standard. While they hadn’t yet gotten it to the stage of improving housing for people, they had been able to make a two-foot box fit as much as a small storage container recently.

The first corporations to crack the housing issue were set to become the big megacorporation. Silph Co, Devon, Poketech, and more, were all heavily invested in solving this. I wouldn’t be surprised if ten million pokedollars was a drop in the ocean compared to the funds they poured into R&D around that particular issue.

I opened the case, grabbing a soft brown pillow literally designed for this before I settled the egg atop it and sealed it back up. “There you go, keep it close so it can get used to your voice. That way it will imprint on you easier and follow your orders without too much hassle to start with.”

“To start with?!” Forrest said.

“Well, I mean, it’s going to possibly one day be a Tyranitar. By then you’ll need to be ready to handle a strong pokemon by already having its respect or else you’ll have a huge problem. Best to work on it early, imprinting while it's still in the egg.”

Forrest nodded dubiously, eyeing the container. I clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, this will be a walk in the park. I’ll show you some tricks and walk you through the whole way, it’ll be great!”

“I guess.” I raised an eyebrow at his lacklustre response. “Thanks Brock.” I decided to merely nod before leading him out. Before I left, I looked over the room. It wasn’t all that effective without some highly trained people, or rather pokemon, to man it. I had rows and rows of antidotes, potions, revives, gauze and more. All of that was a stop-gap measure compared to a dedicated, specialised pokemon. I’d never be able to get a nurse… but a pokemon? That was more doable. I decided I’d bite the bullet and buy a Chansey if one came up for auction.

When we came back to the kitchen I was pleased to see everyone busily working, either cleaning or engaged in some aspect of the cooking.

I patted Yolanda on the head before pointing towards my office. “I’ll make some calls then be back out, alright?”

“No problem!” She said leaning into my hand and smiling up at me. I gave her a quick hug and left her to it.

I entered my office and sighed when I spotted a frankly intimidating tower of mail sitting in my inbox. I clicked my teeth together before deciding to run awa— check something else first. Turning on my computer and booting up the email revealed a slew of more mail except this time in digital form.

I sighed and set to work, either reading and ignoring, briefly deleting, reading and replying, or reading and setting aside as something to deal with later. Most of the mail, both physical and digital, was congratulations for beating Lance.

“Dear Brock, congratulations on your…” I read through a lot of mail that started in that vein before rambling on. A lot of the letters were fan mail. Some, though, were a bit more interesting.

“Dear Brock, congratulations on your victory. We at Silph Co. are interested in having you as the face of our new hiking attire. We’d love to…” I created a new folder and named it ‘Sponsor Deals’ before flicking the email into that. I’d need to hire myself a… What had Sabrina called it? A Media Officer, before I dealt with this.

It felt weird for such a thing to be an issue. I kept flicking through my emails and each company correspondence I got asking me to make an appearance, or to appear wearing, eating, or using the companies’ goods made me feel… Out of my depth. I had to sit in my chair for a while and wonder where things had gone so terribly right that this was a problem for me. It had only been a week ago that all I had to worry about was a pokemon battle.

Sure, it had been a battle against Lance, but still. It was amazing what one strong showing did. Was this what it would have been like If I had managed to win a serious regional tournament when I was on my journey? Would that have meant that Flint would have stuck around? I stopped at that. My mind roiled as I considered how that would have changed… everything. If I’d had all my ducks in a row and really worked at it, surely I might have been able to win?

I sat back and tapped the armrest of my chair.

No. Truthfully it was not as easy as the cartoons or the games made it out to be. You didn’t simply go about catching pokemon willy-nilly. There were restrictions and small considerations to take, such as the costs of having them stabled. Few were the trainers that got unlimited storage unless you were sponsored by the truly Elite. I’d had an advantage simply as Flint’s son with access to a pokemon stable to keep any captures I had as soon as I started my Journey.

Other trainers had to pay or win the right to stable their pokemon in gyms or large organisations. Trainers that passed Oak’s exams needed to do so with a certain percentage to earn the right for them to keep pokemon at his ranch.

This made it tough to have more than six pokemon for the majority of people. Often it grew tougher for the majority of people on their journey as the decreasing slots available to them made them more conservative in what they might catch. Despite my access to a larger pokemon pool thanks to my father’s stable, and all my prior knowledge, I still hadn’t been able to win a tournament.

I stared at the sponsorship offers and tried not to let my thoughts darken any further. I shook my head. I was only looking at the bad. In truth, this was a great issue to deal with, I just had to shift my point of view to realise that.

I sat back pleased as the issue shifted to a positive in my mind. Then I spied an email that simply said, ‘Thank you! So, so much!’. The email address of Lolonranch@pokenet… furthered my curiosity.

‘Dear Brock,

First and foremost, congratulations on your win!

But most of all, thank you so much for choosing to drink our ranch’s milk on Live tv during your interview! It might not have meant much to you, but it has made a world of difference for our family! We’ve been inundated with orders and requests which will guarantee our family continues to operate our farm! Your support means the world to us!

Thank you from all of us at Lon Lon Ranch.

Sincerely,

Mary-Sue Lonlon’

I felt that same warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach. It had been a simple gesture, but it meant the world to someone and it seemed to have changed a lot for them. I glanced through the big sponsorships. For a moment I considered moving them to another folder that I’d marked ‘to be replied to’. That folder held emails from people like the Mayor, the Chief of Police, Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny and other acquaintances. I decided to hold off for now.

I would wait until I had a …Media influencer? Is that what Sabrina had called it? That sounded wrong. I had a feeling I was associating it with an old-world memory but I couldn’t recall what. I shrugged.

I think I’d just hire someone on as a Public Relations Manager and call it done. Then I’d have them to bounce ideas off. My criteria for hiring might make it tricky. They would need to be local… and someone passionate… maybe? I wasn’t sure, but perhaps someone with Surge’s energy would be good? I hummed for a bit but then nodded. That felt good. Right in a way, I couldn’t always coast along.

I sat that aside for now having outlined what I wanted. I’d send it to the employment agency later. For now, I continued to work through the emails.

“Spam, spam, sponsor deal to look over later, copy-paste reply for thank you to local businesses for ‘knowing I’d come through’. Email from League to read later, another sponsorship deal, fan mail to be sent to folder for later response with signature and advice reminder...” I quickly worked through the stack making headway while writing notes with my right. When that was done, I repeated the action, only this time on the pile of mail. I once more found some letters that were heartwarming to read over. I also read some letters that I could only dub as hate mail, decrying me for what I’d done to Lance.

The language was colourful and I learnt some interesting insults. I’d never been called a ‘dung throwing pokemon-trainer-opportunist’ before. It was interesting how many complimentary letters could also slot into hate mail if read from a different perspective. It was all about the way they had worded things. I stacked such letters to the side. I’d fold them up into paper aeroplanes and have some of my pokemon practising Fire type moves use them as target practice after letting Rocko and Dennis read some of the letters.

I continued to note down any letters that needed responses on a pad with my right hand while my left opened and flicked through them. Eventually, I unfolded another letter only to stare at its contents.

I stared long and hard before glancing to the side to make sure no little siblings had crept into the room. Then I checked behind me that Sabrina hadn’t flashed in behind me either. With the coast clear, I reached under my desk for a hidden key to unlock the middle draw on my left.

There I opened a very different folder. On the front of the folder, in large emboldened text, the words ‘CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS!’ rested. Inside sat numerous other pictures, anything but innocent. I plucked the picture out and put it with the others of its kind. I noted the stack and my mind idly counted as I leafed through them. After going through the entire stack of mail I now had exactly twenty such fans along with some serial supporters. I felt a twinge as my self-restraint beat back the primal part of my mind that was demanding I send a more aggressive letter back. That was probably the teenager in me. Or perhaps it was something more in line with the canonical Brock?

I promised myself I’d only send the proforma letter I had created which thanked them for their strong feelings on the matter and that I would think about their letter fondly. I’d do so after considering their letter in private for a while. Maybe I’d give it a week or so?

After taking a moment to centre myself —and hide the evidence on a corner of my desk— I got back to work. “Right… Fan mail, more thanks to copy-paste, fan mail… she certainly drinks her milk….” Another photo was inserted into the folder before I returned to working through my stack. I mentally tallied everything up as either being fan mail, congratulations, sponsorship deals, ‘Fan’ mail, some hate mail and finally— My hand clutched the last letter only for the notable weight to register. I glanced at the package and was surprised to find that it was a finely pressed charcoal paper.

There was no sender address and the front only said ‘Brock’. I frowned. This was giving me some bad vibes but I couldn’t quite put my finger on the why. Perhaps it was because it was so different from the other letters I’d received?

Unlike the other letters, I opened it with a penknife. One I’d gotten from the Pewter Museum’s gift shop, shaped like a miniaturized Kabutops claw. A thick pad of metal fell onto the table when I tilted the letter down. My feelings of worry grew as I recalled old memories of hologram pads like these. Had it been that old hero movie? The Incredibles? The front of the pad pulsed with light before words appeared.

‘Place on a flat surface. Do not stare directly at the screen on startup. Strobe lights starting in: Three. Two. one.” On two I had the pad flat on the table and when the counter hit one a bright light pulsed upwards before it steadied into a figure that began to lift off the screen.

“Huh. I was right, it is a hologram.” Instantly my mind began to whirl. Holograms were not something that was typically seen in public, not even from large corporations. They were known to exist but few people used them as the technology base simply wasn’t there right now. The only time I had seen a hologram used in the show was… I felt my gut drop as I recalled the first pokemon movie. Was this Mewtwo? I thought that wouldn’t happen for a year or two at least! Suddenly my decision to merely watch the areas around Viridian seemed to be far too little, too late.

The hologram thankfully did not resolve into a poorly disguised Nurse Joy, but rather a much older female.

“Greetings young Brock. You may know me as Agatha of the Elite Four. I am the Ghost Mistress and have served on the Elite Four for decades now. You must be wondering why I am contacting you?” She smirked at me for a long moment as the video kept its silence.

The small form of Agatha remained quiet before nodding slowly as if coming to a decision. “Your recent match with Lance has caught a number of figures’ attention. Chief among those are the people that truly make decisions within the League. Your ability to control and use your Aura is impressive for one so young. I am also an Aura user of some skill.” She nodded her head seriously, while for a second her shadow played out behind her, despite her body not moving an inch. I swallowed out of reflex as the shadow leered out at me from the tiny hologram.

“However, it was by no means good control.'' She raised her stick and jabbed it forwards. “You are very brutish in your application of Aura. For that purpose, I would like to invite you into a select…group.”

I noted the way she paused on ‘group’. Did she mean an organization or something else?

“We are not a well-known group, and it is not advised that you advertise knowledge of us in any manner. Overt or subtle. To extend a hand however, I will inform you of our name. A name you will not find in any textbooks for very specific reasons.

“We do not want most people to know we exist.” She thumped her stick into the ground. “Our group is known as the Guardians. And our duty is to make sure that society’s walls remain strong.”

I was getting an old-school Freemason’s vibe now. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“We will reach out to you further in future. Keep this pad. It works as one of the ways we communicate with each other. As you advance, more features and… perks, will be made available to you, should you join us.” She smirked at me. “We will be in touch.”

With her message delivered, the hologram vanished. The room felt darker, and not just with the sudden absence of light. I sat back and swallowed.

That… had implications.

Agatha of the Elite Four… In the games, she was merely a barrier to overcome but in the comics, she represented something much darker. Hadn’t she? I wasn’t as familiar with those. I knew the comics weren’t as nice as the other media forms of pokemon. Then again, the world seemed closer to the anime in structure than the comics or games. For whatever that was worth.

I groaned, rubbing my eyes in frustration. I wasn’t going to achieve anything right now. This was important. Extremely important. But it didn’t sound like it would need an instant response. Not that I seemed to have an option to respond, I thought as I toyed with the hologram pad. It definitely sounded like they would come knocking soon but I had time to think about the offer.

That let me relax for now. With the other letters and emails, it basically became ‘important’, but not urgent. I chuckled at that thought before standing; I’d done enough for the evening. I clapped my hands and made my way back to the kitchen to check in with my family.

Hopefully, I might even have a cake waiting for me. I’d have some more work later on but for now, I was happy and I wasn’t going to let tomorrow’s work affect today’s mood.

I tucked the fanmail away and hid the hologram pad in another, secure drawer.