Hard Enough

Life continued from Yolanda and Forrest’s heart to heart with me over Flint. I started looking out for him when I walked around Pewter on patrol. When I dropped off the kids I was expecting him to be there, watching them gambol around in glee.

I wasn’t alone in looking for him. Just as I had promised to do so, Forrest and Yolanda had also started keeping an eye out with the understanding that they could approach him freely. Now Yolanda had her head on a swivel. When Forrest passed me on his bike he had a focused look on his face.

It bothered me that two days had passed and we had yet to see even a hint of Flint. I couldn’t help but find his disappearance strange. He’d been lingering around the gym for… months now? Only to vanish? Strange. Very Strange.

Unfortunately, a disappearing parent was not something that the police, or indeed anyone, would bother themselves with. It was far too common for some parents to simply walk off. Police didn’t even consider it ‘missing’ when parents just… left.

The freedom of the pokemon world was a double-edged sword at times like this.

With Flint not immediately returning, my siblings thankfully hadn’t become depressed. However, that didn’t stop me from becoming frustrated with the man.

I vowed, once again, that we would have words when I next saw him.

Thankfully the kids and I had outlets. Forrest rode his bike around town more and more, and Yolanda spent more time with Crystal scooting around town. She also dedicated a lot of time talking with her egg. It made for a rather adorable sight.

I had my own pokemon to train. So I threw myself into that.

“No, Scyther you need to parry the strike with your blades not meet it head on!” I said.

In front of me, my newest pokemon once more tried to throw himself into a head-on clash of strength. He didn’t stand a chance against Shin, but he was being headstrong and brash.

He stepped out of the crater he’d been tossed into with a loud, “Scyther!” while glaring hatefully at Shin who merely shook his much larger head at the younger pokemon.

Don, who was watching on from the sideline, tore into the flank of meat that I had given him for lunch. He cackled in a degrading manner that had Scyther bristling. I clicked my tongue and flicked a rock at Don who growled at the disruption to his teasing. Bertha, who was sitting up against the rocky plateau, chuffed at Don’s antics but the prideful monster rounded on her with a flap of his wings. He often tried to throw his weight around with my team as he could be a prideful pokemon.

Bertha snatched him out of the air and brought him up to her face where she blew a dismissive snort of air into his face. He hated that, clawing and biting at her. I sighed and raised a pokeball.

“Don! Calm yourself down, you know the rules for when we’re training new pokemon. If you’re not going to be quiet while the new pokemon is getting trained up I won’t bring you to these sessions!”

He turned to glower at me but I stared back, unimpressed. When he lowered his head, Bertha let him go and pat him on the head.

“Rhy-Rhyperior,” she said soothingly. Don sniffed and strutted off with his head held high. Bertha looked at me and made a show of rolling her eyes. I snorted and nodded. Don pointedly ignored us and tore into his meat once more.

Every now and then I had to lay out the law with the overly proud pokemon. If I wasn’t firm with him he’d constantly be pushing for more and more until he either left or I had to give him up. Not that I ever had that issue. It was easy to stand your ground after you’d stood before a Tyranitar and asked for their son. It also helped that every other pokemon on my elite team were powerhouses that Don could respect.

The issue re-emerged however when I had a new candidate for the team.

Scyther shifted nervously from foot to foot. Scyther was literally and metaphorically green. He was a strong pokemon with a lot of potential. I could see as much with how fast he was without having any training, but he was still untested. He was like a young kid that had stepped into the human workout gym only to find himself in the heavyweight lifters and gym junkies section. In his case, he had me urging him on and telling him he would be just as strong one day.

Scyther continued to fidget. I watched him, documenting how he moved and how he reacted when he was nervous. Social cues with body language were important to pick up for any pokemon you wanted to train and it was best to learn them early to ensure a healthy development.

I clicked my teeth and gestured for him to approach Shin. “There’s a nuance to it, Scyther. You need to have softer hands rather than stronger, firmer hands. Rigidity is not what I want. I want you to be able to control the exchange of blows. It’ll make a lot of difference in close combat exchanges in future.” I demonstrated with a few taps and parries as Shin swiped his claws at me at half speed. I made a show of demonstrating movements that were simple.

“While you don’t have to worry about ‘grip’ like the old Kantonian fighters with their swords, you still need to focus on having soft hands. This training session is to show how things will change and give you a feel.” I gestured at Shin.

“Shin is, in a sense, an ancient branch of your species. Probably not a direct branch though.”

Scyther tilted his head and raised his blades to point at Shin’s blades.

“Hmmm he has similar blades?” I said. Scyther nodded letting me know that I had guessed his question correctly.

I chuckled, “Heh yes. There is a theory about that, and I don’t think people are wrong, but there is also another potential path that your pokemon species can follow.” Scyther looked dubious but interested.

I scratched my chi wondering if I should tell him my plans before shrugging. “Ah, alright, I’ll let you in on a secret? There’s the possibility that the evolution of the scyther blade is actually a more recent development.”

Scyther tilted his head.

“There’s a little-known rock type evolution that you can take,” I said. Shin shifted into a squat next to us much more interested in this than he had been a moment ago. Scyther stiffened in surprise and then glanced around at the others. Don had perked up from his meal and Bertha was also watching me.

I held up my fingers to my lips. “Shh though, it’s a secret. If it works out you’ll be super rare as an evolution.” I pointed at his blades. “But you won’t have scythes anymore, you’ll have axes.”

Scyther tilted his head again. It took me a moment to realise what he was confused about. “Oh! Axes are more specialised tools that can be used to chop trees or as weapons. They’re similar to swords in that you need to have deft hands to use them well, but the edge is typically shorter.”

I sketched out an axe in the dirt for him. “You’ll have an axe somewhat like this.” I indicated the axe shape I had drawn.

“This part is a beard, and you’ll also have a reverse point that you can use to use the back of your hand or the butt of your axe. This will allow you better armour penetration and also the ability to catch blades. So you will learn soft hands and then I hope to evolve you if I can find enough of the item you need for this.”

Scyther‘s wings vibrated and he stamped his feet up and down in excitement. “Scy! Scyther!”

Don and Bertha wandered over to look at my sketch. Shin rubbed his chin before shrugging, not at all bothered with the new information. Don sniffed and stalked off after nodding once at Scyther while Bertha rubbed her chin with her huge hand. She then held up her thick fingers and pointed to the butt of the drawn axe.

“Hmmm? Oh yeah girl, we’ll get him to learn a bit from you for the armour penetration that your drills offer. Will you be up for it?” I said with a grin.

Bertha shot Scyther a thumbs up and Scyther beamed at her before going back to his happy dance.

“Rhy!” barked Bertha to Scyther causing the bug type to look up at her. Bertha pointed a finger at herself with a grin. “Perior! Rhy! Rhy!”

Scyther nodded seriously and bowed to her, which had her huffing in a pleased manner. I got the impression that she wanted the new pokemon to call her ‘big sis’ from that interaction. Bertha then formed a grip like she was holding a weapon. She lifted her arm and swung it. “Rrrrr!” she said as she did so with a smile.

Scyther perked up and copied her in his chopping action. I snorted and watched her play around with Scyther. I got the impression that I’d need to think of a good name for him when he reached his potential. I was starting to think he’d well and truly live up to my hopes.

Most of the move pool for Scyther and Kleavor, as far as I could recall, were similar but I’d probably play into Scyther's known strengths with speed and technique over power. I ticked off my fingers: stealth rock, sword dance, rest, psycho cut, sleep talk, aerial ace, stone edge, x-scissor, along with giga impact or hyperbeam were all possible if I wanted to spend the time training up to those.

“Rhy!” shouted Bertha as she ‘chopped’ a rock in two. Scyther had stars in his eyes.

I shook my head as I rolled my eyes at her. “Did you forget that your tail is a giant club Bertha?”

Bertha whipped her head around and gaped at her tail. She then made a show of presenting it to Scyther like it was something new. Scyther ‘clapped’ his blades together with a ting sound, like metal hitting together. I facepalmed at her antics before deciding to leave them to their fun for a few more minutes.

I glanced over to find Shin squatting next to Don and sharing his meat. Their long friendship apparently meant Don never begrudged his friend taking food from him. In fact, any of the ‘ancient’ pokemon I found in Grampa canyon were all like that. Don might be a prideful pokemon, but he never tried to ‘lord’ it over the other pokemon I’d found with him. From what I had learned, they’d all spent so much time together they’d gone beyond having any hierarchy. Or maybe it had to do with the food scarcity in the Grampa canyons, which may have forced them to share what they had.

They weren’t super talkative about the times before I caught them. Even when I’d employed the yes-no method Salvadore liked to use for learning more about them.

“Brooooooooock!” shouted a shrill voice that had me glancing around.

“Celia?” I shouted back.

“Brooooock!” called Celia as her voice began working its way closer to me. I tilted my head and checked my transceiver. I still had another hour before our meeting didn’t I?

Celia ran around the plateau and waved. “Brock! Oh, I couldn’t find you! Sorry, I’m late!”

I tilted my head. “Uhm you’re not though? We didn’t have anything scheduled until twelve?”

Celia blinked. Then she blinked again. Then she deflated. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry! I must have written it down wrong!”

A crash of rock breaking behind me made me look back to see Bertha having smashed another rock. I rolled my eyes at her again as Scyther cheered her on before attempting to copy her. He got his blade stuck and Bertha laughed at him before she helped unsheathe his arm.

I turned back to find Celia shifting back and forth. I shook my head and jerked a thumb behind me. “I don’t think I’ll get any more training out of them for a while. They’re in a playful mood, so how about we have that chat?”

Celia perked up, almost lifting off the ground in her excitement. “Sure! That'd be great!”

I nodded at her. “Right, well formally this might be a chat best had indoors…”

Celia shifted from foot to foot. “I’d prefer to just talk here if it's all the same?”

I nodded at her. “Alright then. Well seeing as you’re sticking with us for the next year at least.” I ignored her muttered ‘and beyond’ and pushed on, “We need to decide what you’ll be doing for that year. Now your options will depend on what you eventually want to explore in the future. If there is a field of work you want to pursue we can set you up with a college study plan?”

Celia hummed and considered that before shaking her head. “I’ll pass on that, I think… I think I want to keep working with pokemon specifically. Maybe as a breeder so I can snuggle up to cute pokemon!” I chuckled at her rather typical young girl desires showing through. I suspected if I had her work with Bianca she might not want to work as a breeder, but perhaps she might.

“But honestly…” she chewed her lip, “I don’t want to do that right away… I want to keep seeing new sights.”

“So perhaps you should be looking to have another journey? Another circuit somewhere else perhaps?” I said thoughtfully.

Celia nodded her head. “Yeah! That’d be great!”

“Hmmm, if you’re looking for new experiences… honestly I’d recommend Hoenn as your next circuit. I went there during my journey and I loved the variance that came from learning about new pokemon. Also their climate is completely different from Kantos. They have a desert and a lot of waterways compared to Indigo.” I rolled my hand. “Nothing on the waterways in the Sevii or Orange islands of course.”

“I doubt anywhere is like that!” Celia said confidently.

I shook my head. “Nah, I think there are plenty of regions that will come out that are similar to the archipelago regions,” I said, thinking about Alola. Celia nodded without any argument. I gestured for her to walk with me and we left my pokemon.

“With your showing, you won’t be able to bring more than one pokemon with your team for any serious matches such as gym battles,” I shot her a questioning look, “unless you’re going to go the Ace challenge route?”

Celia shook her head. “No, I’ll go into the starter bracket and then build up for the end-of-year conference. I will be able to have a lot of my team by then from this last circuit right?”

I nodded. “Yes, you will be restricted to only one pokemon from this year for the tournaments you take part in for the first three months.” I made a circle to indicate that period of time before moving on to the next with hopping action with my hands.

“And then the next three months you will have access to three pokemon for the local tournaments. In the last three months, you’ll have complete access to them.” I grimaced. “Not that there’s typically a lot of tournaments running during the last period of the circuit.”

“Huh, how come they do that?” Celia asked.

“So they can give young trainers more of a chance to adapt to an increasing scale of skill. People that are serious will have had six months with their pokemon if not have a full roster by the time six months are up. It gives them time to also adjust to the increase in skill while showcasing strong pokemon at the end of the year tournament. It’s something the various Leagues all agreed on.”

We reached the perimeter and began to slowly walk around it. “Who will you take with you? Any thoughts?” I already knew who she’d say but she might surprise me.

“I’ll be taking Lizzie. As my starter I’m most familiar with her and she’ll also offer me the best safety.”

“Good call, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just cause you can’t use them for the big tournaments doesn’t mean, you can’t take other pokemon with you. It’d be good to keep cycling them to get more experience along with giving you a bigger safety net.” I grinned. “Also Hoenn is somewhere you’ll be able to experience true examples of Co-ordinators with their contests. With some of your pokemon that might be a great way to bond or broaden your own skills.”

Celia made a face. It looked like she was disgruntled to be told to try contests while wanting to put on a brave face for me. It made her look kind of grouchy.

I offered her my view. “Just give it a shot. It’s something new alright?”

That got a nod from her. “So… when will I need to depart?”

“You’ll need to arrange transport to leave at least a week before the start of the circuit. You’ll also want to look into what you will need and if any of your friends are going over there. It can be a pretty big deal to link up with friends for a different region.”

Celia nodded. “Right, I can do that!”

I hummed, pleased that Celia had made making friends one of her goals. I’d have her try and stay on the route as it was a great way of expanding her horizons and skills as a person. We walked for another few minutes with me detailing a few things to be aware of such as not talking down contests while actually in Hoenn. Or talking badly about pokemon such as Darkrai, Kyogre, Rayquazza, Groudon, or the Eon pokemon. Those pokemon were held up with an almost worship status in Hoenn. Or, in Darkrai and Giratina’s case, spoken of in careful whispers and never at night or while the moon was in the sky.

I had never learnt why, but enough people in Hoenn had mentioned it that it was either a shared joke at my expense… or something specifically cultural to Hoenn that had to be mentioned.

When we completed a loop around the pasture Celia looked very thoughtful. “Is there anything I can do while I’m over there to help out at the gym?”

I opened my mouth to say no before I shut it and thought more seriously about her offer. Celia perked up when I didn’t say no. “There is?”

I rubbed my chin and looked straight into Celia’s eyes. I gestured for her to walk another lap with me. “What do you know about fossils and ancient pokemon?”

And so I gave Celia a job for her circuit. With how fired up she was at receiving a mission I almost expected her to raid a museum. I had laughed at the thought before deciding to outright say very specifically to not do that to her.

I then outlined some other pokemon that I wouldn’t mind getting. She looked confused at my descriptions of Dweeble but highly interested in my descriptions of shiny stones that had helix patterns within them and how they potentially unlocked certain pokemon’s hidden power.

When we were done Celia looked like she had a goal in mind beyond merely winning the conference. I decided to give her another incentive so she didn’t spend all her time in the desert.

“Hey, if you make it to the conference and get through the group stages I’ll come over to watch your matches in person, sound good?” She gasped in surprise as I shot her a wink. “I’ll be hoping for an excuse for a holiday so give me a reason, yeah?”

She nodded firmly and I mentally blocked out some time in my calendar when the circuit ended. I fully believed she’d follow through on her end and so I would follow through on mine. I wasn’t going to say no to revisiting Hoenn. If the showing from this year's tournament was any indication then I wouldn’t be surprised if she reached the finals. Barring of course anyone like Tobias from the cartoon showing up.

I honestly had no idea how someone like Tobias would be taken in this world if he existed. Having a full-on Legendary wasn’t something that was currently considered possible, let alone a Darkrai. There had to be something going on there.

I rubbed my chin. Although, wasn't there that one trainer that was able to use Articuno for battling purposes? Noland had something going on that actually felt more like the Fiore method of companionship rather than actually capturing the pokemon. There was also Brandon to consider. Brandon had things like Regirock, Registeel and Regice… Was he the person with the most legendaries?

I’d have to keep an eye out for them… or, l could use my connections with the Guardians to ask around after Legendary pokemon. I rubbed my chin in thought. That had potential.

“Anything else you wanted to talk about?” I asked Celia before I marched off.

Celia shook her head. “Nope! I’ll set up the tickets and also get the paperwork to you soon!” she clenched her fists. “Expect to be at the Hoenn conference Brock! I’m going to win it all this time!”

I smiled and nodded at her. “I can believe that, now you best run along.” A crash from behind the plateau over the cave system made me remember that I still had my pokemon out and playing around. “Looks like I need to stop Bertha and Scyther from wrecking all the rocks just for laughs. The Onix don’t like having to push new rocks around too often.”

Celia giggled, waving as she left me to my pokemon. I turned and headed for my team before sending the Guardians a few messages. With that done I checked the schedule for the rest of the day. Hmmm, looks like I was patrolling Mt Moon with Daniel and Missy to show them the ropes.

That might be an opportunity for Scyther. I pocketed his pokeball on the way to collect my gear for an overnight camping trip.

Before I departed with the gang I picked up the holopad from my locked drawer. With it in hand I pinged the group, fully expecting to merely leave a message. Instead, Agatha connected, her face appearing in a flash of light above the pad.

“Brock, good to see you, I’ve been talking with Karen and she’s been praising your efforts in developing your aura control.”

I made a surprised noise. “Ho? That’s news to me, she seemed to be more disparaging of my efforts.”

“Hmpf, well don’t tell her I told you this but she is. Good work implementing our training methods. Have you begun training any of your own in your methods?”

I shook my head. “Celia is focusing on her training and my own family… they seem too young to grasp it just yet, along with not having pokemon of their own.”

“Hmmm it’s never too young really. But if you feel that way about them there is still a young man with some potential…”

“I’ll consider it,” I said, deciding to put it off again for now.

Agatha inclined her head. “Very well, now was there something you wished to discuss or have looked into?”

The previous talk with Karen came to mind about Rock types becoming passive. I’d been accepting a lot of things recently and rolling with the punches. Karen wasn’t wrong in her description but I had reflected on it and realised it was an oversimplification.

I might be slow to act, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t.

“What can you tell me about the audit? I didn’t bring it up with Koga as I mostly agreed with the other gym leaders when we came up with our response. But I still want to understand more about what was going on there.”

Agatha nodded. “Koga would be the one with the most information, but he is a rather stoic man. Given to short discussions. Do you have time for a longer talk?”

I checked the clock. “I have time.”

Agatha made a flicking gesture to the side and a chair slid into the hologram which she sat in. “Thank you Gengy,” she said to a shadow that suddenly had red eyes. She settled in and looked at me.

“Very well, the issue itself started with your Gym demonstrating that you had a lot more resources than they thought you would. Pewter gym was not thought of well despite being the traditional beginning challenge. It has long been a rather shabbily run affair that was only running on a shoestring budget. People hadn’t paid much attention to the idea that change could happen so quickly with a new gym leader at the helm. Your expansion and increased tax had been noted but not reviewed. You were perhaps going to be due a review soon, but your announcement and rather gauche demand for such a large prize pool with Lance lit quite a number of fires in people. You became a hot button topic that got many people sitting up and paying attention.”

Agatha grinned at me. “Well done there once again.” I got the image of her being like a kindly old granny. I could just imagine her praising Karen for beating someone up at school and offering her some candy.

Agatha sniffed. “There are however inner factions within the Indigo League. It was realised that reviewing you would be seen as pragmatic, and justified while pleasing a number of people at League headquarters upper hierarchy.”

“That sounds like departmental politics…” I said carefully.

Agatha perked up. “Oh? You do know about that concept then? Good well, that was certainly going on. There were a number of ‘young up-and-comers’ or people trying to make names for themselves. When you reach a certain position in some organisation politics always comes into play Brock.”

I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going and Agatha’s next words only proved my instincts right. “A young man by the name of Fletcher, who happens to be the son of the Pokeblock CEO, was the original petitioner of the audits. He was able to get ahead of others and get the approval of the secretary of the President. It was quite the feather in his cap I assure you.”

I felt dark energies begin to rise up within me. Agatha watched me as she spoke, “His agenda was never about doing right but rather showing himself to his superiors, or more specifically getting praise and earning himself a promotion in the League. I had to intercede with who he was sending where, otherwise people much less caring would have knocked on your door or that of the Cerulean sisters.”

“You… sent Timothy at me?” I said incredulously, my dark feelings stuttering in the wake of that revelation. I wasn’t sure I could ‘thank her’ per se but in review, Timothy hadn’t been… bad. Just… extremely inconvenient. You couldn’t exactly thank someone for their choice in auditor though, it just… no. I shook my head slightly at the thought.

“Yes Brock,” Agatha said in a matronly tone of a grandmother being amused by a young man, “I sent Timothy to you. Timothy, even if you had been in error, would have followed the book of rules and pointed out how to correct your oversights and given you a small slap on the wrist unless you had truly dropped the ball. That is how most audits should go. Audits when we, the original Elite Four of Indigo, introduced them were never meant to be tools to break people.” Agatha glowered away from me and at something on her side.

Then she grinned. “The Cerulean sisters in turn got that dumb fool, Sven, who they proved up to task, leading him by his nose. I think they’re still leading him by the nose so perhaps I did them more than just a favour, but also played matchmaker! Fehehe!” she cackled to herself.

“What about… Fletcher was it?” I said dark emotions and energy rising up at the mention of the man that had caused me and my friends weeks of stress for his ambitions.

Agatha sniffed pointedly. “Thanks to his raise he had also been able to petition to grant corporations, specifically Pokeblock, a small tax break.”

“... I really hope you’re joking,” I said with a flat tone.

Agatha raised an eyebrow at me before scoffing. “Please, I wouldn’t joke about this Brock.” She held my gaze for a few moments longer only to then grin in a sly manner. “He has since been removed from his position after information was ‘leaked’ that brought him to the attention of the internal auditors. Timothy is a wonderful man, so clinical by the book.” Agatha accepted a cup of tea from the side.

“Thank you Gengy!” she said again before taking a sip. She looked very pleased with herself and I suspect the timing of her getting the drink was no coincidence. A cake sliding into the picture only completed the picture. I snorted in amusement as she literally had her cake and ate it in front of me.

“Ah! Dear Gengy! Always giving me too much sugar in hopes it’ll kill me one day so I can become like him! Fehehehe! I’m much too bitter for that to happen any time soon!” Her shadow roiled and I got the impression it was laughing at her very dark joke.

I swallowed. “So is that it then?”

Agatha nodded. “For now… people might get ambitious with my retirement as I had to use some favours to have Fletcher’s review accelerated before he could dig in too much. I made sure to let the other ambitious fools know to keep their heads down, but I have no doubt my retirement will embolden others in other ways. It’s why it’s vital that we get Karen in alongside Koga. With both of them we will actually strengthen our position while apparently losing out due to my retirement.”

I nodded at that before realising I should probably say something. “Thank you then, for what you did. I didn’t know that was happening.”

“The League should mind their business most of the time Brock, and thank you for noticing my efforts. It’s good to see a polite young man,” She grinned at me teasingly. “Does it make you feel good knowing you didn’t take part in destroying a man’s house without reason?”

I coughed, glancing to the side. Agatha cackled once more. When she spoke she did so with a leer, “Oh, you young ones! You’ll need me and Koga around for a while yet to show you how things actually get done!” she crowed gleefully.

I shook my head at her before settling in. “I had another question about something if you know anything about it?”

Agatha inclined her head. “Certainly, certainly, ask away young man.”

“How many people are there that… own Legendary pokemon?” I said carefully.

Agatha’s grin vanished and she stared at me. “That… I’m surprised you could even consider such blasphemy…”

“It is possible though, right?” I said, not conceding the point. It was interesting to hear that Agatha considered it ‘blasphemy’.

Agatha worked her jaw. “It depends on your definition of ‘Legendary’. Trainers such as Young Nurse Joy in Pallet town with her Latios? There are a handful around.” She peered at me. “Or were you thinking of other pokemon specifically?”

I sucked on my teeth wondering how to approach the idea of Mewtwo with her. Could I? I decided to tread carefully. I did not want to face an angry Mewtwo. His idle threats of remaking the world didn’t seem so hollow when I had spent some time reading the Guardian’s unredacted accounts of old pokemon battles and history. A Moltres had torched Fuschia, supposedly in a single pass over the skyline of the city.

“I’ve been reading up on my history. Have any of the Legendary birds been captured before? Or perhaps the Legendary titans?”

Agatha hummed. “I suppose you wouldn’t have met him, but we do have a Ranger that has captured two such pokemon. Specifically Regirock and Regice.” she tapped her fingers on her jaw. “You have also been read into the Fiore situation, yes?”

“I know that Fiore has been located and that they supposedly have much of the Indigo biodiversity for pokemon,” I said.

“Indeed, the Fiore region itself is directly north-east of Cerulean and Lavender. A land route is still being worked on but the border is contentious. It is technically close enough to Kanto that we should share a land route, but the route itself would only be possible for powerful trainers. The League wants to establish travel, but due to cultural concerns there is a lot of hold-up. They want to have a… shared area where the best of their people can be shown off while screening newcomers into Fiore.”

Agatha took a large swig of tea. “And to make matters worse Silph co has been touting they have a ‘perfected pokeball’ that is capable of capturing any pokemon. They’ve dubbed it the ‘Master ball’ creating more tensions as that was one of the first things the Fiore representative heard on the radio when they arrived,” she said with a scoff. “Master ball! Please! They delude themselves if they truly think it has a perfect capture rating.”

I rubbed my chin. “And Fiore is a region that doesn’t capture pokemon… yeah that’s gonna be rough.”

Agatha nodded. “It’s ridiculous we’re entertaining their petty demands, but they do have a trainer that has demonstrated a bond with one of our most famous Legendary birds in Articuno. He has other pokemon that are happy to follow him along. He is for all intents a trainer, but he’d never stoop to capturing his pokemon. Feh!” she huffed.

“Hmmm, so like a Battle frontier?” I said remembering something from the cartoons where Ash got to fight an Articuno. Hadn’t his Charizard beaten it?

Agatha stiffened. “A battle…frontier?” she said, repeating what I had said.

I coughed. “Well yeah!” Bugger, damn it! I did it again! Stupid mouth! Wait for the brain to catch up! Urgh! Alright damage control or commit? Before I could think I found myself once more speaking, “You know? Have the area as somewhere where highly skilled trainers can meet up? Maybe have a sort of gym challenge for strong trainers?”

Agatha gave me a dubious expression so my mouth continued. “But we wouldn’t call them gyms, more challenges or ‘sites?” What had they been called in the Anime? “Pyramids? They could be bosses and the positioning or repositioning of them could have trainers moving through the wilderness and fighting back wild pokemon while civilians or transports move back and forth.”

Agatha stirred her teacup while looking off to the side thoughtfully. Eventually, she nodded. “That is actually a very good idea, Brock.”

I relaxed and coughed. “Just a re-adapted gym system really.” It was kind of making me cringe with how I was really just stealing future arcs of the pokemon cartoon and feeding it to Agatha.

“Well, sometimes being able to reinvent the wheel is a good thing,” she said with a thoughtful tone. I very much got the impression she didn’t truly think it was a good thing and they were mere hollow words. “I think I will mention it to the people looking into how to set up the ‘neutral area’ between Kanto and Fiore…”

“Hmmm cool,” I said, happy to shut myself up now.

Agatha continued to rub her chin. “We could have the Rangers nominate ‘Leaders’ for two of these Pyramids… Brandon could take over one and the other… someone young, possibly even Koga’s apprentice… Lucy should be a good candidate. She’s done a number of years with the Rangers… Hmmm.”

I blinked, surprised to hear Agatha outlining her plans while recognising the names. Brandon being the trainer that showed up in the cartoon with three of the Titan Legendary pokemon and Lucy… hadn’t she been the girl that had actually been receptive of Brock’s affections? Then again Lucy was a pretty common name. It was just that she was being put forth as a potential Pyramid boss… much like Lucy in the cartoon.

So… it wouldn’t be that strange would it?

Agatha nodded and glanced back at me. “Hmmm this discussion with you is bearing more fruit than I thought!”

She set her teacup aside. “Good to see you young ones have ideas in your heads!” She stood.

“Well this was nice, I’m pleased that you have taken Karen’s information about your Rock typing affecting you and you’re being more proactive Brock.” She smiled before tilting her head, “Was there anything else you needed to talk about before I left you?”

I chewed my lip but decided to take the leap. “What are we doing about Giovanni?”

Agatha stilled but then sighed. “Giovanni… He is a difficult topic and person to deal with. He has ingratiated himself into many different levels of Indigo with his business, his social connections, and also his strength. Koga informed me that you have been suspicious of Giovanni for a while but… he is a necessary evil Brock. He serves a purpose and allows us to act in ways we otherwise couldn’t.”

“I’m sure that’s cold comfort to a lot of people,” I said bitingly.

Agatha narrowed her eyes. “Do not deride our understanding of Giovanni Brock. When you were not even a babe he was hard at work forming deals and rebuilding much of Kanto. When your father was but a brat serving as a reserve during the war Giovanni was in the thick of things. He has earned his leeway.”

I blinked in surprise. I hadn’t ever thought about what Giovanni would have done during the war. But one right in the past didn’t mean he should be merely allowed to run free. If he had developed Mewtwo in this world he could be potentially playing with the equivalent of nuclear weapons while people are ignoring him.

“I still don’t think you should be giving him a free ride. Just because he did good in the past, doesn’t mean he is doing good in the present,” I said while feeling a niggle. What had that been about Flint?

“We monitor him and his associates, don’t you worry about that Brock,” Agatha said firmly as she stood and if she had her cane I could imagine her stamping it to signal the end of this discussion. I narrowed my eyes.

“I’m not ignoring him, Agatha.”

“I’m not asking you to. But don’t antagonise him needlessly.”

“Hmmm, I’m not going to promise anything,” I said.

“Feh! Young ones! You’ve barely wet your toes in the deep end and you’re already thinking you know what’s best!” She grinned. “Don’t lose that drive Brock, just make sure it’s used in the right direction!” She nodded one final time before the signal cut out.

I stared at the blank holopad and sighed before toggling a different feature.

I flipped open their files and began to read what I had access to of one Giovanni of Viridian city. I had just opened the file when I got a knock on my door.

“Brock! It’s Missy? Are we still doing the patrol of Mt Moon?” she said.

I glanced at the clock and cursed. Apparently, my talk with Agatha had taken longer than I’d planned. “Yes! Sorry! Got stuck on a phone call! Ready to go?”

Missy nodded before adopting a sheepish expression. “I am but Daniel is a bit annoyed, I don’t think he realised we were going to be out for the night.”

I snorted and grabbed my travel bag. “And he was once a Ranger? I think he got used to living in the city faster than any former ranger I know!”

Missy giggled as I led her out. I ducked back in a moment later and locked away the holopad once more. I didn’t want that sitting out in the open. I would be back and I would be learning what I could about Giovanni.

Just because the Guardians weren’t going to do anything right now didn’t mean I had to sit on my hands. I just had to come up with an idea of what I could do… which I’d have to do while raising my family and running this gym. …And also finding Flint.

I grumbled to myself; so much to do, so little time. I adjusted the pack on my shoulders as I got ready for a night in the wilds.