Hard Enough

“There.” I paused the video of Celia on the computer and tap her eyes. “See how you’re projecting your intent? When you have your Marowak dig, you begin looking to where you want them to come out.”

“No way people can notice that!” Celia exclaimed. “We’re over a hundred metres apart and there is no way people can see where I’m looking!” She crossed her arms shaking her head to emphasize her disbelief.

I shake my head back. “You’d be wrong. Lots of trainers have had to go through living in the wild where their instincts are honed and their sight picks up more. It’s not so much where you’re looking, as your focus that they’re picking up.” I drum the table before snapping my fingers. “Micromovements, is what they’re called. Small tells that others can read into and detect what you’re going to do before you do it. It mostly comes up in professional sports players but it can still appear for pokemon battles. Watch some of the semi-professionals, and then watch the Elites for the difference.”

I load up a few more videos and pause them before asking her what would happen next. I made sure to mute the sound. She got only a few right but she now sported a more thoughtful expression. “You and other gym leaders typically strike a pose and hold it for the duration of the fight…”

“I don’t strike a pose,” I said. Celia stared at me then stood and adopted an ‘at rest' position with her arms crossed just under her breasts. I had to avert my eyes. Once again, I caught the smirk with its double meaning.

“You pose. I just never realized it had more meaning than looking cool.” I chose to grunt at that, pleased despite hearing that holding my body still had appeared to be me posing. “I’ll have to think on this… Will the people at the Indigo League go this far? It seems a little niche.” Celia considered the video of herself and how much she revealed through simple actions.

I wave my hand back and forth in a so-so gesture. “It’s about giving you as much information as possible. If you’re aware and studying it I think that will be enough for this year. You could also learn to abbreviate certain commands with your pokemon for more advantages. Announcing what you’re going to do all the time isn’t the best strategy.”

“You realize you’re the only person who does that right?”

“Only for the higher badge challenges,” I said back. “It’s all about getting those small advantages. You’d be surprised how they pile up eventually. It might be milliseconds of advantage but often our victory can be determined by the smallest of windows.”

Celia nodded at this reasoning. “Right I can work on that.”

“Don’t try it on all your moves and only throw them out sparingly to start off with. Too much will confuse your pokemon. Keep it simple—” “Stupid,” Celia finished the phrase and I nodded. She wrote this down in a small diary that she kept on her for our tutoring sessions before fidgetting with her pen. I knew Celia well enough that she had a question on her tongue. Typically, it took a while for her to voice them though. I busied myself with looking up research articles by a few pokemon professors regarding Dragon pokemon. They hadn’t yet gotten around to fully legitimizing that ‘Fairy typing’ was a thing but there was some serious research being put into that. There had already been a lot of anecdotal evidence but it seemed funding had only just come in for this recently. I grinned to myself as I clicked through the articles.

I couldn’t wait until it came out that certain puffballs that were floating around as only ‘Normal’ were actually super effective against Dragon typings.

“Doesn’t it bother you?” Celia said.

I closed the computer and looked towards her. “I was wondering when you were going to ask me that question, you know?” She flushed but I waved off her stammered apology. “It’s fine. It’s fine. I normally would merely ignore it. You have to grow a thick skin as a Gym Leader. There are tons of people out there that will say terrible things. Heck some of them might even be justified. Some will just say it though regardless of if it's true. There’s now a lot of people out there saying how weak I am.”

“What!? No! You’re really good as a Gym Leader! Don’t believe those idiots!” Celia stood and clenched her fists as though she was ready to beat confidence into me. I merely waved her back to her chair.

“Celia. I can't always present myself at my best. Nor can my pokemon. Sometimes I make mistakes. I try to limit the frequency and the severity as much as I can but I’m not perfect.”

Celia mumbled something that I couldn’t hear so I merely shrugged at her. “Lance’s words shouldn’t bother me.”

“Shouldn’t?” she said.

“Yeah. Normally I’d have ignored him. Gone about things business as usual.” I glanced to the shut door before looking Celia straight in the eyes. “Celia, I’m going to apologize now but I’m going to have to make a spectacle of myself for the Exhibition match. A lot of attention is going to be dragged away from you and the other trainers.”

“You’re going to fight for real?!” She sat upright at that, a gleam entering her eyes at my words.

“Yeah, I’m training just as much as you these days. I’ve called in some favours and also have two of my fellow gym leaders working with me.”

“Oh wow. Good, I can tell people to back off from being such Houndooms to you.”

I shook a finger. “Don’t do that.”

“But! But they’re putting down the reputation.”

“Sometimes it’s moments like this that help to let you know who will have your back in tough times and who are fair-weather friends that will float off like Drifblim as the wind changes. It’s good to know now rather than in an actual emergency.”

That drew a smirk from her before she got a thoughtful look. “If you need to, you don’t need to waste—” “Ututut! Nope. You’re not wasting my time. Sometimes teaching others helps to remind and deepen the lesson.”

“Huh?” Celia said with a cute head tilt.

“If you have to teach something, you typically need to make sure you know what you’re talking about enough to impart it. It’s a great way to learn content for anything really. You set yourself up as a teacher and you really need to broaden your understanding cause sometimes you’ll get questions. Sometimes you’ll have never even considered the questions and have to do more research resulting in you widening your understanding of a topic even more.”

“Huh, wow. I never thought of that before.”

I gestured around us. “For that, I blame the hyper-specialization that occurs with most fields. There is some great technology but there isn’t as much crossing of minds and broad education for people unless you go into that field. We speed through our initial education to get to our pokemon journey before setting into something.” I shrugged. “That’s the way it happens for most people. It has its upsides but also its downsides.”

“You’re really smart Brock.” She said while twirling her hair in between her fingers. I merely shrugged.

“Nah I just think about things and am fortunate I guess.”

Celia was about to say something else when a phone buzzed on the wall. I plucked it up.

“Gym Leader! The Mayor is looking to talk to you again!” I groan while Celia began to giggle her head off having obviously heard the loudspeaker that is Dennis. My ear canal would feel this for a while.

“I’ll be with him as soon as I can Dennis.”

“Sir!” I rubbed my ear after hanging up before tapping my nose.

“Fair weather friends?” I prompted.

“Ooooooh the Mayor?” she said.

I nodded and headed out the front of the gym. A microphone was instantly in my face.

“Brock! What are you going to do with the Champion of the League shining a highlight on your failings!?” “How long do you expect to be Gym Leader with this level of scrutiny!?” “Do you have any hope of giving a good showing?” “Is there any truth to the rumors of your gym charter being revoked?”

I raised a hand and narrowed my eyes. Instantly a lull fell over the crowd as they suddenly found themselves swallowing their tongues. “As I have stated previously, no comment.” I paused on one of the reporters and pulled open the bag I had grabbed before departing the gym. From within I pulled a form.

“PTN reporter Joshua, this is a restraining order for harassing my little siblings at school. I am fair game as Gym Leader. Do not harass my family, if you fail to comply with this restraining order the police will be informed.” I swept my gaze over the rest of the reporters before nodding at them as Joshua’s sudden paling was caught on camera. “Good day ladies and gentlemen.” I extracted myself as the piranhas turned on one of their own for the story.

I jogged on toward the center of the city where the large marble building that served as City Hall was located. I waved at some of the Pewter City residents that noticed me but used the old trick of wearing headphones to make it seem like I couldn’t hear their questions that had begun to get repetitive a little under a week ago when the match had been announced.

When I entered, I made a show of taking off my headphones. The receptionist ignoring me as I waited for her to notice my arrival let me know how this was likely going to go. I merely adopted a polite expression before checking my watch. I turned towards the door and instantly she whipped her head up at me.

“Gym Leader Brock, please take a seat. The Mayor will be with you soon.”

I returned her fake smile. “I have twenty minutes before I have other business to attend. If the Mayor needs me, he can make an appointment. I’ve got room in my schedule in a few days.”

The receptionist’s nostrils flaring let me know enough about her to know that I’d just ruined her little potential threat. She’d have later locked this moment away in her dusty cupboard of a mind only to be recalled, polished and gleaming as a moment that she’d gotten to flex on a Gym Leader which would have made it all the sweeter. By rejecting the concept of social superiority that I should bow and scrape to the Mayor, I’d probably made an enemy in her. She’d find all the petty ways she could to hurt me later on. I didn’t have time for her and the Mayor’s little games though.

I glanced again at my watch. “Is he free now or should I have my crew send a time I’m available?”

I could see her furiously working through her options, leafing through her procedures and manners to find some way to restore her little world. She sniffed pointedly when her speaker buzzed and the Mayor’s voice called through, “Trixie, send through the good Gym Leader. I can talk now.”

I merely nodded as she gestured towards the doors. I then almost ran into them as she failed to unlock them. I took a deep breath in and considered escalating. For a moment, I tapped into the pool of energy. My hands opened into flat palms. It was so tempting. It’d be so easy.

A harsh thunk of the door unlocking sounded out and I pushed the door again. The energy within was exhaled out as the door closed behind me. I refocused towards the actual person I’d come to see.

The Mayor of Pewter city had chosen to sit at the lounge instead of behind his desk. The man was the quintessential ‘hiker’ from the Gen I iteration. The only difference was that he was a solid wall of muscle. The man didn't have hands as much as he had twin mauls. His hair wasn’t so much a beard as a mane. And yet, the man had coated himself in fur to the degree that I had to wonder if Hagrid from Harry Potter had fallen for a Discworld Dwarf.

“Mayor,” I said as a greeting, watching as the muscle and hair twitched in greeting.

“Gym Leader,” he said back. He rubbed his chin causing some parts of his mane to stick out oddly. His eyes searched me from the dark caves of his face before a smile stretched his face. “So, you’re not just a good battler eh Brock?”

I considered that for a moment before replying, “I suppose I haven’t had many chances to prove myself before have I… Jonathan?” I used his name as a test. He merely nodded his head.

“Indeed you’ve done well as Gym Leader since your father abandoned you with your family. If anyone has been paying any attention to you, they’d be mad to call you into question,” he gestured at the seat to show I could sit. “You’ve taken a disaster on so many fronts, and turned it into a shiny gem. Your playing coy sort of gives the game away though.” He tapped a newspaper section that highlighted the odds of the match. “How much should I bet on you?”

I rubbed the back of my head in consideration. For a long minute, neither of us spoke before I considered the man that seemed so in his element. Like an old lion in the savannah, he was in his element. I liked that thought, the old lion of Pewter, it should be a nickname for the man. I had to admit it was a pleasant surprise after the last week I’d had to hear him being open.

“How much have you got to bet?”

His smile turned feral before nodding at me. “Anything the city can do for you? We have some Rangers that I’m close with. Ones that head out to the silver mountains and north in the wild ranges even. They'd have some pokemon that could test you.”

“I’ve already got some plans in place. Thank you for the offer though. I’d prefer if you could get the reporters to stop hounding me as much.”

“Not an undoable task. I can certainly talk to their managers about how they’ve been lingering.” He rubbed his chin. “You alright if I have some support pieces made up? Start a grassroots surge before you do your thing?”

“Do my thing?” I asked curious about how much he suspected.

He smirked. “You got a look about you. You’re not defeated or letting it tumble over you. If you’d come in here looking like you were just out for a stroll, or at the park letting the kids play on you, it’d show. Instead you got your hackles up.”

“Is the receptionist deliberate?”

He clicked his tongue. “Nah she’s a hire that I had to do cause of,” he waved around at the office, “politics.” I made a noise of understanding before agreeing to the idea of some articles slowly filtering into the public. It felt rather strange planning such things regarding myself but perhaps this was a sign that I wasn’t just anyone anymore.

Later that night, after dealing with the Mayor, I turned the conversation over in my head. Despite coming in as nominal social equals, I couldn’t help but feel slightly worried about how the man had taken control of the conversation. He hadn’t shown any of his cards before peeking at mine in a way. He might have been bluffing for all that I knew.

He’d agreed after my initial comment to ‘bet all that he had and more’, very well. He’d also made a good show of getting some Rangers in to take over gym duties. That might have seemed like a harmless gesture but I understood that you needed duties to justify certain things. It might help now but it would hinder me later with what I could have a voice in. If I couldn’t win while doing my job properly, I didn’t deserve the victory. Also, I shouldn’t allow that sort of behavior to creep in.

I wasn’t sure if that had been like a Tentacruel feeler testing the waters before diving in with other ‘helpful’ suggestions, but my mind couldn’t help replay the talk over in my head. I eventually sighed, sitting up and turning on the computer to write down my thoughts. I’d need to handle myself at least this well or better, in future. Being a Gym Leader meant rubbing elbows with the Movers and Shakers. That meant politics. I wondered for a moment if I needed to hire or have someone train me for that. How did I currently ‘score’ in such a setting? Did I even want to blend in or should I force them to flow around me? I wrote all of this down in my virtual diary for later reflection.

I paused every now and then to play with a handful of pebbles that I left near my bedside. I let the feel and sound of them clacking into each other wash over me before writing another section.

After an hour of jotting down my thoughts and toying with my Rock-type energy, I found I had no issues falling asleep. I knew tomorrow would be better. That alone made things seem brighter for me. I also had a lot to look forward to with it being a training day with Surge and Sabrina.