Hard Enough

A sneer can do incredible things to a face. Typically, none of them beautiful.

Daniel’s sneer made his face sharper and more angular. His eyes seemed to sink into his face and become like dark gems that glitter out at the world. His lips twisted and thinned to display all his teeth without an inkling of joy.

The most drastic change, however, was his nose.

It physically remained the same, what changed was how I wanted to push it through his face. I drew on rock energy as heavily as I ever had before and let myself be the mountain in front of the breeze that was this tiny man.

“Yeah, she’s just a chick I had a fling with. Kid’s not mine, useful though isn’t she?” He tilted his head, scrutinising me. “What gave me away?”

His words resounded with me for a long moment as everything started to click into place properly. Ah, he still doesn’t know how many connections I’ve formed. I decided to let this play out. With Sabrina nearby, I’m going to be interested in what I can get. Jenny will no doubt be confused about my asking her to stick around. Until she suddenly won’t be.

I hummed. The words themselves slid off me easily enough, but I felt a deep sadness at my core from the meaning behind them.

“I think… pretty much everything from the past five minutes. I always thought it weird how you’d have those little offhand comments about your wife, but then again I figured each to their own. Plus, you seemed like the type of a guy who liked to play the field so I could understand that you needed time to adjust to the thought of suddenly having a family.”

I tilted my head. “But… you never actually wanted to change your ways, did you?” I don’t specify that I mean for his fake family, and I don’t feed his lie. He can do that well enough.

I raised a languid hand and traced the lines of his face in the air. “For just a moment I saw something that made me realise… that you can’t stand her.”

His sneer falls away into one of confusion before it becomes more neutral. A mask that he’s become apt at holding, but now I know it for what it is. I look into his eyes and I can practically see the emotions conveyed that he tries to hide. It helps to know what to look for, I suppose.

He had been very good. I could see how it all must have been laid out.

A good infiltrator with a very good cover story. Not perfect. Certainly not. But good. Certainly good enough to get in the door.

He must have spent years working in the Rangers as a plant for later assignment. Or perhaps that had been the assignment until an opportunity arrived. He would have funnelled information to his superiors in Team Rocket with the Rangers none the wiser. Then he got the chance to sign up with my gym.

So he does some research on what I’m like. My media appearances. What I say, what I do. What I don’t say and don’t do. Professionals would tear apart what I’ve put out into the world and my comments on certain aspects of the world.

So he deepens his appeal by appearing to be a man caught in a tough situation with a kid on the way. And he’s trying to do right by them.

Now where have I heard a story like that?

He must have felt really clever when he set that up. He would have been patting himself on the back for playing on my heartstrings like a damn guitar. And there I had been thinking I was being oh so benevolent in offering this man a place in my gym.

I’d fallen for it hook, line, and sinker, easier than a magikarp with a stick and a string attached to it. Or as the old timers called ‘ an old rod’. And now he had a ton of information that he has likely already passed on. Things like what composition of pokemon I had. The moves I prioritised training. Where I got my pokechow from. Hell, some of the pokemon at the gym would have happily followed him out the gates and into the waiting arms of Team Rocket if he wanted by now.

I’d let him closer than any threat I ever wanted to me and mine. For Arceus sake, he’d offered to feed my Elites, and escort my family to school.

It made my skin crawl.

I found myself hoping, wishing, he’d try something right now. I might not be a fighting-type trainer, but I’d gladly break him in two.

The smallest flinch from him lets me know I’ve dropped my own mask. I smile. Like nothing was wrong but he must know that I’m less than pleased.

“Guess I’m just not cut out for it like you are, eh?” he said casually like he wasn’t too worried about being caught.

I suppose if I hadn’t known about Jessie and James and their connection, it might not be something I’d make a leap of logic to. I just had to ignore the previous signs and red flags… like that damn phone call on Mt Moon.

I narrowed my eyes and sighed. “Hmmm, I think I’m going to have to call you out now cause I’m not sure how much more I can stomach of you pretending to not be a sack of shit.”

He blinked in surprise. I don’t often swear. You can’t with so many little siblings running around or else they’ll all be cursing like sailors. I let the mask drop fully and glared at him.

“Let’s put our cards on the table. If I confronted your ‘wife’ over what she’s doing here and that I knew you were full of it. What would she do?” I stared right through him.

He searched my face, looking for the answer. I could see he understood I knew something more than just his hate towards his “wife”, but he was still in the dark as to what it was. “She’d be devastated… the baby…” I glared harder. As if this man cared for the woman he had been using as his… his prop to evade further investigation.

I decided to rip the band-aid off the conversation. “When the raid failed cause you gave your superior faulty information. How mad was your boss?”

He gapes at me for a long moment. He makes to deny it only to catch my look of derision. Yeah, I wasn’t going to buy whatever Rhydon shit he tried to sell. He snorted and relaxed into the chair. His posture shifted until he was more sprawling in the chair than sitting in it. It reminded me of an Ekans I’d watched once lure a rattata into its clutches by playing dead.

Perhaps he still thought he had some control of this situation. Now that was interesting.

“So you know it all, huh?” he said with a jutted-out jaw, there was a gleam in his eyes like he was still laughing at me internally.

I got the impression that he was thinking things over. Reviewing how he’d played things out. Where he might have erred. I still got a glimmer of amusement from him. Like he was certain he’d tricked me.

‘Please try something, please.’

“Yeah, when you take that into account, there’s no reason that you wouldn’t have stuck it out. And while a gym job is good I doubt you’d have stuck around with a family. You don’t care for it. Not unless you were ordered to.” This was assuming that his wife, Helen, wasn’t also part of Team Rocket.

It struck me as odd that a criminal organisation wouldn’t have any women in a similar state. Unless they practised safer sex or support for those that found themselves in a family way. Somehow, that struck me as incongruous.

Imagine a world where criminals got better health care than everyone else… Hmmm, now there was a thought that would be worth thinking about later. For now, I remained focused on Daniel.

“Tch, I thought that having her around would be a risk. But I figured people would prefer to see she existed instead of just lying. Always knew she’d be the weak point of my plan.”

I grunted. “So how angry was your boss with you?” I said, restating the question he’d rather niftily dodged. I’d have to watch out for that.

“...” he stared at me. “They wouldn’t bother with me even if I did give that information.”

“Soooo,” I drawled, “you don’t think it was a coincidence that I gave you heads up on the date of the bonding exercise that just so happened to be when we got raided?”

Daniel worked his jaw. I sniffed. “Guess you weren’t that clever then.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “It would have worked.” I held in the smirk and instead raised an eyebrow in disbelief at him.

He sat up. “It should have been easy. You’ve never mentioned training your pokemon like you had and no one had seen your Swampert in months if not years! It didn’t even come up on the audit register they got a hold of!” He shot me a stink eye like he was put out by my —now-justified— paranoia.

I sniffed dismissively. “And still you’re fishing for information.” I shook my head at him.

He shrugged confidently, as if he knew I couldn't do anything against him.

I didn’t correct him.

Let him think the law was on his side. He really should have known better than to try this on a gym that had been raided before. If this had been a corporation, they would have made sure the law never factored in. But it was different for this situation, and now I could use the Law like a bludgeon or a scalpel, whatever I so desired.

“Where are your bases located?” I said with a glare.

He huffed at me. “Why would I ever answer that?” he said with an amused lilt to his voice.

“Are there any more bases in Pewter that you know of? Cells of Rocket operatives?”

He shook his head but I continued. “What about Cerulean city? Any Rockets you know of there?”

He raised his eyebrows at me.

“Celadon? Saffron? Vermillion? Lavender town? Cinnabar? Hophophop town? Gringey city? Hollywood? Neon Town?” I said, giving each location a small break. I watched him carefully but only got mild flickers when I mentioned places like Vermillion, Gringey city, and Neon city.

“I’m not going to talk!” he said, happy to sit there. I continued to stare him down.

“Viridian? Any cells there?” That got a twinge and I leaned forward. “Oh?”

He shook his head. “Nope, you’re playing a game you can’t back up any more Brock. Read me my rights and open the door to let Officer Jenny in.” He rolled his eyes. “It’s obvious you’ve got her waiting out there for me by now. I worked out that little trap of yours. You’re not booking me, so she can’t read me my rights and stop you from pestering me.”

I smirked at him, my amusement no longer able to be contained. “Is that what you think is happening right now?” His look of superiority flickered for a moment as uncertainty crept in.

I hummed. “Where is the Rocket Academy located?”

He blanched. “How the hell do you…” He clamped his mouth shut like a Cloyster under attack from a Squirtle. “Not! TALKING!” he said suddenly looking murderous.

“Ah good to get that confirmed. I’d heard rumours,” I said drawing on my prior life’s knowledge of the training that Jessie, James, Butch and Cassidy had to go through.

“Who the hell breathed a word of that place?” Daniel stared at me in shock. I smirked at him.

“Hmmmm, who knows? But what I do know is that I’ll be able to put out word of it and have people know that I’ve got you locked up as a Rocket member. And if people start to link you and that little slip up together in their minds, well that’s just a logical connection, right?” I tilted my head.

“How big was your class at the academy? Twelve, twenty students that were all fellow Rocket grunts? How many classes do they hold each year?”

Daniel glared at me. “Fuck no, I ain’t talking no more! Get Jenny in here and cuff me already!” He made to get up and march to the door.

I barked a laugh, unable to stop myself. “Haha! Oh it’s hilarious that you think you’re not deep in it.”

He frowned at me. “What do you mean?”

“Oh it’s just that… well this isn’t like being a spy for the Rangers. In the Rangers unless you had been around some of the senior rangers family there wouldn’t be a similar level of action brought to bear.”

I raised my hand and started ticking things off. “You fed information to outside parties which is first a breach of your contract with the Gym.”

A second finger. “You fed information to a party that damaged and injured pokemon on the gym’s property.”

A third. “You once asked to walk my family to school.” My gaze promised him he would not like what I was going to do to him.

“I can fill in the gaps about what might have happened now if you’d ever been allowed to do so.” Kidnapping was escalating in the worst of ways, they’d have me over a barrel… If that was on the cards, I’d need to draw a line in the sand in someone else’s blood. Thankfully, I had a system in place that hadn’t included Daniel. Yolanda and Forrest were very good at making sure one of them was walking the other kids to school with two of my Elite team ready to be called out.

Daniel swallowed. “That’s… that’s not provable!”

I stared him down. “Daniel, I did some reading since the last Team Rocket Raid. Did you know there’s a difference for people attacking a Gym and people infiltrating one according to Indigo law? Were you aware that the Gym, should another war break out, is to be designated as a military outpost that is deemed vital to Kanto’s defences?”

Daniel blinked. “What? But there’s no war?” For some reason, something I’d said had made him go white.

I waggled my finger. “Ah! But that’s not important. What matters is that as a spy caught red-handed, you will not be granted certain privileges, such as the right to counsel." I smiled darkly at him as his face turned green.

“Just as you are not going to be allowed to claim any right to not being interrogated by a Psychic.”

His eyes were huge as he stared at me. They involuntarily darted around the room. He sucked in a breath of air. Then he snapped his head to me and he snarled, “Haunter! Take him out!”

From his shadow, a purple form shot towards me. I had half a second to gasp in surprise before the pokemon was on me.

Then I punched out with my arm and let my emotions out. My fist connected with the smirking Haunter’s face and hurled the ghost pokemon to the opposite wall where it hit and slid down.

Daniel had taken a step back and was reaching for the door. His face was caught half in a smirk and half in shock as I strode up to him, darkness roiling out of me. I felt a deep anticipation for what was to come now well within my rights to do as I wanted.

“Wha? But you can’t punch ghos—” I raised a leg and kicked him square in the sternum.

He rocketed back into, and then through the door. The door shattered into splinters at the impact and he slammed into the wall on the other side of the hall. I strode after him as he struggled to draw in a breath through suddenly empty lungs.

“You!” It came out as a wheeze. “Can’t!” Another pained sob. “Do this!” he said.

“This is my home.” I stood over him. “I think you’ll find I’ll do anything to protect it.” I so wanted to lift my foot and stomp down on him.

It’d be so easy.

Like crushing a bug.

He stared at me in fear as I stepped forward again. Then Jenny and Rocko grabbed me.

“Woah! Woah! Brock! Calm down!” Rocko said.

“Gym Leader Brock he’s no longer a threat! Let me take over!” I still inched forward despite their grasp. Then I felt something else draw me back.

I looked back and noted Sabrina standing to the side. “Brock, relax. Your family is fine. I can feel them all with your father right now.”

I relaxed at that, exhaling out my dark energy. Jenny patted me on the shoulder. “Wow you’re strong. I’m going to have to start working out with Trixie as well if this is the result she produces.”

Rocko shook his shoulders loose and huffed before turning to glare at Daniel. “Damn man… you were an Ekans all this time?” He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair.

I inhaled and took the moment to work out my next step. “Jenny you’re going to have to only let people you’d trust little Jenny with have access to him.”

Sabrina coughed. “Actually, you’re going to have to include a League Agent in that list.”

I frowned. “Why?”

Sabrina stared straight into Daniel’s eyes. “Because he wasn’t just a Rocket spy, but also a spy from a Hoenn organisation called Team Magma.” Daniel’s eyes shot wider at that and this time he turned green.

“H-how?!” he said through his injured lungs.

“Your mind is like a book to me,” she said as her eyes glowed. “Now, sleep.” she said, tapping him on the forehead. Daniel’s head fell to his chest.

Jenny gave a small chuckle. “Damn, you’re scary Sabrina.”

“Good,” Sabrina replied.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Damn it. This just became so much bigger than I’d planned. Not that I’d planned anything beyond nailing Daniel through a wall. Heh, I’d actually gotten to literally do it. Still, things had developed further than I expected; I just needed to break it down into manageable steps. “Right, right. Jenny, you can hold him here right?” I glanced back into my office. “There was a Haunter in here…”

She nodded firmly. “Don’t worry! Arcanine and I can handle him no worries!” She glanced into the room “A Haunter?”

I glanced back through my splintered door. Hadn’t that been made of solid wood? How hard had I kicked Daniel? “I thought it was down for the count?” I said.

Sabrina’s eyes glowed. “... Interesting,” she said, tilting her head to the side. “I usually can’t detect Ghost types but this Haunter is fleeing and leaking energy… You must have hurt it. It is currently running away.” She tilted her head for a moment. “You terrified it Brock.”

Rocko snorted. “Now there’s a joke waiting to be told. What’re ghosts scared of!? Brock!”

Sabrina tilted her head considering it before nodding. “It is more a factual statement in truth than a joke, but it was a nice attempt.”

Rocko blinked at her and then eyed me. “Uhm… yeah actually you’re right…” He rubbed his jaw. “Still feel like there’s potential there though,” he said under his breath.

I sighed, happy that I didn’t need to get one of the channelers in to run around my gym after the pokemon. Although I probably could have just gone the nuclear option on it and asked Agatha to come flush Haunter out if it’d tried to hide. Actually…. Hmmmm.

I pointed at Rocko. “I need you to call Nurse Joy and get her up here to… monitor and hold Dani… Helen.” I clicked my tongue. “I don’t want her freaking out. She’s… she’s not in trouble but… she’s going to have to answer some questions for us.”

Jenny got a pinched look on her face. “Procedure is to not stress out a pregnant woman.”

“Yeah, I can understand that, but I also don’t want her hanging about the gym unsupervised knowing what we do now.” I glared up at the ceiling. There wasn’t really a cut-and-dry answer in this situation.

Jenny swallowed. “Right, well I’m glad you’re still thinking like that. I was worried.”

I looked down at her. “Hmmm?”

She shifted and straightened up having just cuffed Daniel’s hands after frisking his unconscious form. “Well it’s just seeing you kick Daniel through that door and march out. It was kind of scary, I have to admit.”

Rocko made robotic movements. “It was like watching the Magemiteman! Part steel, part man with how on a mission you were to mess up Daniel!”

Jenny coughed in surprise before nodding. “Well, yes, but it wasn’t something I expected to see from you.”

“Guess he got a reaction from me.”

Jenny chuckled. “I’ll say.”

She gestured at Daniel. “I think I’ll keep him here until Joy can look him over, but no rush. I’ve seen these sorts of injuries before and they shouldn’t be an issue for him. Bit of rest and we’ll have him singing.” She smirked, “Have to admit I’m looking forward to having full access to a psychic interrogation for once!”

I nodded. “Best make sure no one else gets access to him before that." I rolled my shoulders. “He just became a very important prisoner.”

I glanced at Sabrina and she nodded. I relaxed. Excellent, my baiting and poking at Daniel before I told him how deep in it he was had gotten some information.

Jenny and Rocko made their calls. I stepped back into the office and sent a message of my own off to the Guardians to inform them of what had happened. I made sure to ask to have Koga and Agatha present to lock things down. I was going to take this as far as I possibly could. Team Magma had a long-term spy with Daniel? Damn, I hadn’t seen that coming.

Joy arrived quickly, her Rapidash was perfect to see her blazing a trail up to the gym on the security cameras. I had no doubt that there would be a number of reporters knocking on my door, but Nurse Joy rushing up to the gym would be small news with what was to come.

I shot off a message to Alexa to cancel all my gym matches tomorrow and escorted Joy to Daniel and Helen’s shared room. I paused when I heard young voices still up.

Great, Ash, Greta, Misty, and Forrest were in the common area as we strode past. They waved only for Forrest to bolt upright.

“Bro!? Is something wrong?” he said.

I held a hand for Joy to stop for a moment. “Hey guys there’s been something that’s gone down and I’m going to have to ask you to steer clear of it.”

Ash of course only stood up. “Need any help?! Me and Pikachu can help out!” Pikachu nodded firmly at that, and I chuckled.

“Afraid not. I just need to have a chat with Helen.” At Forrest’s clueless look, I rolled my eyes. “Daniel’s wife,” I said. Next to me Joy, having been read in, clicked her tongue.

I shot her a look before looking back to the young trainers. “Hey tell you what? How about you go over to our house and set up the sixty-four in there. We’re going to need some space.”

Forrest nodded and started packing up the games and console to lead Ash away. Ash scratched his head. “Why’s he need space to talk to some lady?”

Misty’s agonised sigh lingered as she followed Ash and Forrest out. Greta lagged behind and shot me a worried glance. I smiled as best I could and shooed her away.

Then I led Joy to the family apartment and knocked. Helen opened the door. “Hey Helen… we need to talk,” I said.

This was not going to be fun.

“Please!” she gasped as her eyes widened. I could see the realisation setting in for what was going on. “I just wanted what was best for my baby!”

I felt any residual darkness that had been latched onto me vanish. Memories of another life as a health care worker making me empathise, with and understand her. “I can understand that… Let’s just talk and we’ll go from there,” I said as I closed the door.

When I was done, I was glad to have Helen settled in the rooms under watch with a tentative agreement not to run away. Joy had agreed to stay with her for the night and keep her calm so that nothing happened to Helen or her baby. In the morning Jenny from Viridian would be here to look after her throughout the investigation.

And eventually, when Helen was ready. She’d move back to her parents with whatever pay Daniel had accrued in his time ‘working’ for the gym.

I had almost not wanted to give her anything as crime shouldn’t have been rewarded. She likely would have already gotten a payment if she was smart but I wanted her gone. While we’d talked with her Sabrina had cleared her of any active or passive issues. Thankfully it turned out she hadn’t wanted anything but a pay check to set her and her newborn up with. She hadn’t been involved in spying on me.

Just acting as a patsy.

Sabrina walked with me back to the office. “Are you alright?” she said carefully.

I sighed. “Yeah… just… just annoyed. The whole issue with single parents isn’t usually something that bothers or affects me, but seeing Helen used like this just kind of highlights how it can make people vulnerable. I thought there was a system of support for this?”

Sabrina nodded. “There is, it is just that she wanted more than a basic government allotment." Sabrina shook her head. “Women will do many things for their children,” Sabrina said with an odd lilt to her voice that I couldn’t place.

“Oh,” I said eloquently.

Well, that was better than her just being greedy, and I couldn’t fault her for wanting better for herself and child. It just struck me as sad how the issue of single parents wasn’t an issue until it suddenly was. Single parenthood would obviously affect women far, far more than men. I might have to do something about that as it left a foul aftertaste even with it being handled in the best way I could stomach.

“Brock, there was something I think I should mention,” Sabrina said, coming to a halt.

I stopped and turned towards her. “Yeah? What’s up? Is there someone else I need to investigate?”

Sabrina shook her head. “I investigated the others while you were busy with Helen and her… tears. They are safe but no, this is about something else… during the investigation, I felt something in your office. Something that was giving off psychic energy.”

“Oh?” I led her into said room. Had someone snuck something into the room? My mind jumped to Will. He was a psychic.

She made a beeline to my desk and opened the drawer with the lock with a flex of psychic power. I almost had a heart attack when she lifted the folder with the collection of fan mail only to set it aside without looking through it. I only relaxed when she reached in further and pulled out the tawny, brown, and yellow rock that Flint had given me.

“What is this?” she said with wonder. I blinked as I made the connection to what this meant.

It was a psychic Mega stone.