Hard Enough

I told Surge why I was there. It was a long and rather shameful handful of minutes admitting my own failures.

Surge’s grin only held for a few seconds.

Then it morphed into hard lines. It wasn’t a scowl. It was something more calculating. There was an edge there that I wasn’t used to seeing in my once mentor/now friend. He rubbed his chin.

“So, Team Rocket set up a base in my city…” He rolled the words around in his mouth as though tasting them. He eyed me. “How sure are you of this? The intel good?”

I sighed. “Yeah. Positive. You know Daniel?”

Surge shook his head. “Nah, he that one you thought would have been good down here with me?” he said. Starting to pace back and forth.

This time it was my turn to shake my head. “No that’s Dennis. Daniel… he was a new recruit that I got from the Rangers. He’d been with them for years, so I figured he was a safe bet. He had lot of the skills I wanted and… well he had some good reasons to hire him on.” Surge’s pacing became a little too distant to hold a conversation with so I started pacing with him.

He must have been agitated to force it into this sort of action. “Turns out he was a plant for Team Rocket, and they saw a chance to slip him into my Gym. They even got him a fake wife.”

Surge shot me a look. “Shit… they really crafted him to hit your buttons just right didn’t they?”

I grimaced and nodded tightly. Surge shook his head in a faux consoling way. “See this is why you have big shiny issues like being a playboy! The bad guys want to get information out of you, so they send hot chicks!” He made a show of slapping his cheeks. “Oh no! Whatever will I do with these women!”

I rolled my eyes, not missing how we hadn’t stopped pacing during the entire tirade. Surge sniffed.

“Still this situation is fucked, I tell you. They’re damned close enough to roll some damn Electrode down the hill at me! Damn City giving me a gym located on the water! This is a terrible defensive position! I’m a sitting duck!” He scratched at his arm irritability.

He shot me a look. “Do they know that we know? Suspect anything at all?”

I shook my head. “Everything has been kept in house. We got Jenny to hold him in the gym while we got him moved.”

Surge whistled. “You must be treating her good. Jenny’s are hot for justice and not much else. Surprised you got one to break protocol like that. Usually, she would have marched him into the police station, which I remember having some… staffing changes recently.”

I grunted, having to stride to follow him through to a long hallway. “Yeah. Thing is I was well within my rights to have him locked there. Just like I was within my rights to have Sabrina there.”

Surge stopped dead and stared at me for the first time in the evening, stumped. “You got Sabrina there as well? She’s… Kind of not going to…” Surge tilted his head. “No you wouldn’t have done that and gotten away with it with Jenny there to bag him. You play the good honest man. The aww shucks family man to the public, but you can throw some sneaky punches when you need to.” He eyed me. “What gives? There’s something more going on with this Daniel beyond him being a stinking Rocket. What did you learn?”

I hummed. “He already qualified as breaking the Espionage Act." Surge tilted his head and opened his mouth, but I continued. “Vermillion is rated as a central Gym. Pewter is still a border Gym, so different laws come into effect.” Surge stared at me before I shrugged. “But we also found out he’s a foreign plant.”

Surge hissed. “The fuck!? Who? Unova? Kalos? I tangled with those pricks during the start of the war, and they’re messed up!”

I blinked. “You did?”

Surge merely sniffed and nodded. His jaw working tightly. “Didn’t start out as a Lieutenant Brock. I started things as a Private. In a war? You can get a lot of promotions if you're in bad situations.”

I blinked, nodding slowly. I didn’t really get what he was saying. “I… don’t really follow.”

Surge opened and shut his mouth before shaking his head. “Never mind…” He started walking again and led me through another door. He marched into a room that had tesla coils and a number of pokemon lazing about.

Surge pursed his lips and trilled a whistle, and instantly, pokemon were up and moving about the room. Some formed up into what I could only describe as ‘ranks’ while others bolted outside. Surge watched them go before looking at a single line of pokemon.

A Raichu held pride of place, followed by a Jolteon, Electrode, Electabuzz, Magnezone, Ampharos, and then oddly enough a juvenile-looking Graveler. I stared at the Graveler. Surge huffed at it and clicked his fingers.

“Straighten out that spine soldier! Damn private, I should bust you to cleaning latrines for a month looking that sloppy!”

Graveler stood slightly taller, as much as a boulder could anyway. Surge sniffed and continued on.

I glanced at the other pokemon and noted that he also had a small pond with Lanturn and Chinchou present.

Surge turned to me. “Who’d you bring with you?”

“Zephyr, Titan, Bertha, Knight, Shrek, Hypnotoad, Don, and Shin.” Surge continued to stare at me blankly while nodding as if he had any clue who I was talking about. I rolled my eyes at him. “My Noctowl, Tyranitar, Rhyperior, Aggron, Swampert, Poliwrath, Aerodactyl, and Kabutops.”

Surge nodded once. “Oh yeah, of course! You, you, you, you, you and you.” He said turning as he did so to point at his Raichu, Magnezone, Jolteon, Lanturn, Electabuzz and Electrode.

I lingered on his Electabuzz. That sort of pokemon needed a special, most likely man-made item to evolve. Perhaps I could experiment with a voltage converter or socket set to create one? I’d have to talk to someone at the powerplant in Pewter for where to start. It wouldn’t be as simple as AC to DC would it?

Still… I looked over to the other pokemon that was ‘early’ in terms of its arrival if this were a mere pokemon game. Magnezone, which required a specialised magnetic field which in an electric gym probably wasn't that hard to fall into. I had no idea if anyone else had seen it before but no one had commented on it in the past. I’d need to review some of Surge’s matches to see if he ever used it.

That made me pause.

Surge had walked me into the seat of his power which wasn’t something a lot of people typically would do. I was looser with letting people into the area at the back of the gym, but much more selective with who entered the cave system where I kept my elite team.

Surge hadn’t even batted an eye when I followed him in.

Surge withdrew his chosen pokemon, and selected a number of other electrodes for his team. Then he nodded. “Alright, so we have good intel about some punks that have set up in Vermillion next to the Pokemon… Fanclub. That might make things a little tricky, but as long as we don’t get too frisky with our area of effect attacks then there’s going to not be all that much backlash.”

It took a moment for me to recall that there were a lot of very rich men and women that happened to sponsor such clubs. If we did something against their club, I’d probably need to call Agatha for help.

Then again, this would probably be something she’d gladly leave me out to dry for just to mess with me.

Still, I nodded. “No damaging the next-door building, got it!”

Surge grunted. “Let’s go kick their teeth in.” He said as he cracked his neck by rolling it from side to side, then he broke into a jog out the back door.

I had to hurry to keep up with his frankly huge stride. “I was going to have the police join us to have the place locked down properly?!”

“Nah, I got my scouts roaming the gym and some circling us. I’ll have them lock the place down when we get there." We jogged up the hill and I could instantly tell which building was which. One building was done up with privacy hedges and dark shutters. The grounds happened to have a number of secluded alcoves that were roofed over from what I could see as well if patrons of the club wanted to go outside. The large gate on the front door with the sizeable security lock made it clear that you had to know someone to get in.

The burlesque house in Pewter had less features to keep people from seeing inside.

Not that I’d been inside. I’d merely patrolled past it.

Surge whistled again and broke into a faster jog. Around us, a pair of Raichu and a small pack of Manectric sprinted out and surrounded the building neighbouring the fan club’s manor.

"Alright, I’m going in the front! You back me up Brock!” He then broke into a sprint. “Gonna getcha! Gonna getcha! Gonna getcha!”

“Surge wait!” I called as he bolted away from me.

Surge wasn’t listening. His pokemon shot forward in blurs. I cursed and hurled Zephyr and Don’s pokeballs overhead. “Aerial blockade!” I ordered them.

Surge pounded up the entrance, and when he reached the door, he stomped one foot into the ground while rocketing the other into the door right at the side of the lock. The door splintered inwards and hung like a wreck on its frame.

“Knock knock!” roared Surge as he loomed in the doorway.

A young woman hesitantly walked up. “Uhm! Sir, we’re part of the pokemon club… You… You can’t do this!”

Surge stepped into the house. “I’m the Vermillion City Gym Leader I think you’ll find I can! Also!? I ain’t ever seen you at a club meeting!”

The woman blinked in surprise, and I skidded to a halt behind him.

Then I registered what he’d said. “Wait what?”

The woman reacted by reaching for a pokeball on her belt. Surge proved faster on the draw though. However, instead of releasing his pokemon he hurled a pokeball of his straight into her gut, knocking her flat. “Ha! Gottcha! Get good, ya baby!”

“Team! Out! And clear the house!” he barked. A moment later, his pokemon were out of their balls and partnered up. They went through the room before two of them broke off to a door to the side. I stared at the coordination.

“Damn, you’d be the Champion if things were done with duo battles,” I said, impressed with how he had trained his pokemon. I glanced down at the wheezing woman. “Nice fake out with Pokemon fan club!”

Surge tilted his head at me. “Huh? Fake out?”

I stared at him a moment before deciding to let that lie. I didn’t want to get into that conversation with him. Instead, I walked through the room that his Jolteon and Magnezone had cleared. At a window, I wrenched it open and tossed out Bertha and Knight to start roaming the grounds.

“Also, don’t touch the fence,” I said seriously. Bertha glanced at the fence and sniffed at it. I knew her well enough to know she was calling it ‘weak looking’.

"Seriously, just don’t.” I then turned back and grimaced. “I should have brought my Geodude line instead.”

“Your Kabutops and Poliwrath should work out for you,” Surge said as he opened another door only for his Raichu to dart in while his Lanturn stayed on his shoulder.

“What the hec—” said a voice before a zap and a thump announced that Raichu had found someone. Surge opened the door carefully all the way.

“Clear,” he said after inspecting the room. I followed him in to find the room to be merely a bedroom with a set of binoculars and what looked like a radio dish with an antenna sticking out of it.

Surge picked it up and growled. “Damn listening devices! They musta known that I inspect my Gym for devices like this! Instead of putting something in the Gym, they had an external team monitoring me.”

I whistled. For a moment I was about to ask why they would do that before remembering that Surge was a veteran of the last war. It would have been more surprising if they didn’t have people monitoring him.

I would be paying extra attention to, if Cinnabar-rated surveillance teams. …Or Pallet Town, for that matter.

“Shin, Hypnotoad, come on out,” I said releasing them. They both appeared and took in the room. I waved them into the building which had an annoyingly twisted hallway with a number of doors. “We’re clearing rooms,” I said.

Surge coughed pointedly. I glanced at him and he shifted. “Uhm, listen Brock maybe have your team at the rear.”

“Huh?” I said.

Surge grimaced. “They trained to clear out rooms?”

“Ah, no. They’re not,” I said, now understanding where he was coming from.

A boom from outside had me running to the window. There I found Knight pounding on an Arbok that was hissing furiously while Don had tackled a Fearow and rider out of the sky. “Maybe I should go outside?” I offered.

Surge shook his head after checking the window. “Nah, you’re good here, just let me take point. Have them guard our six.” he winked. “Watch and learn. This guy’s got some tricks!” he said while pointing at himself.

I snorted at his bravado but followed along. I had to admit that it was actually extremely interesting to watch Surge and his pokemon go room to room. When a room didn’t receive a ‘clear’ from one of the pokemon Surge had me send in Shin to start stabbing walls.

“Got a basement there!” Surge said when I ordered Shin to flip up a rather suspicious-looking carpet.

Surge studied it before clicking his teeth. “Urgh… is it trapped or is it an escape tunnel…” he clicked his teeth and nodded to me. “Have him cut around it if there’s a trip wire we should be able to avoid it.”

I nodded, agreeing with his take. Shin tapped out the grove for the door before cutting around it. Hypnotoad stood next to him and lifted the entire door piece out of the ground. We were greeted by a smirking white and red pokemon rolling up the stairwell. The pokemon spotted us and then grinned wider as it began to flash white across its body.

Surge turned and leapt at me. “Trap! Buckle up!” he said as he tackled me out of the room. I had enough time to call up my rock energy before I hit the ground. The Lanturn that had been on his shoulder fired off an electric wave back at the Electrode but I failed to see what it did to the other pokemon. Then the explosion detonated.

Surge lay over the top of me as the explosion rocked the building. A concussive wave hit us and Surge was tossed a little but he clenched harder down ontop of me me.

A moment after it was done I was shaking my head and Surge was kneeling and looking into my eyes.

“BROCK! CAN YOU HEAR ME!?”

I nodded. “I can hear you,” I said before shaking my head to clear a slight ringing.

Surge nodded. “THAT’S GOOD CAUSE I CAN’T HEAR SHIT! GLAD YOUR OKAY SOLDIER! DON’T WORRY! WE’LL WALK IT OFF!”

A door to the side, that Electabuzz and Electrode had been approaching to clear before the explosion went off, was kicked open. A Rocket Grunt stood behind it with a Raticate snarling. It leapt forward only for Surge to once more throw himself into the fight. He grappled with the Raticate only to be pushed back when the pokemon swatted him.

“FULL AUTO!” roared Surge as he hit the wall. His pokemon stilled for a second before leaping to attack both the pokemon and the trainer. The trainer gasped in shock as a sparking fist from Electabuzz slammed into him. The Electrode blasted lightning at the Raticate and kept up electrocuting it even as the rat pokemon screamed in pain.

I grabbed Surge’s arm and tugged on it. “Surge! Cool it!”

Surge snapped to look at me, and his eyes were slightly unfocused. They were both different sizes. I relaxed my grip and waved my hand slowly. “Surge? Hey! Calm down buddy,” I said.

Something must have gotten through to him, as he blinked and his eyes returned to normal. “SAFETY ON!” shouted Surge. Instantly his Electrode stopped roasting the Raticate and the Elctabuzz paused. It gave us a glance before dropping the lightning from its fist.

The Grunt slumped in the Elecktrabuzz’s grasp. “Oh thank good—” Then it cold-cocked the Rocket grunt one more time to knock him out. I shot it an unimpressed look but the pokemon merely dropped the Grunt and continued clearing the room.

Surge stood up shakily. Then he looked at me. “YOU ALRIGHT?” he bellowed. Lanturn hopped up onto his shoulder and began forming up a small ring of water that lapped at Surge’s ears.

I nodded at him and he smiled. “THA’S GOOD!” shouted the man.

I pat him on the shoulder. “Thanks! But maybe next time just focus on yourself; I can handle an explosion or two.” His eyes watched my lips closely and there was a long delay as he worked through what I’d said.

He snorted and pat me on the head. “LITTLE ROOKIE IN HIS FIRST BATTLE THINKS HE’S HOT SHIT!” He rubbed me harder and I grumbled.

I shook my head at him and checked quickly on Shin and Hypnotoad. I found them dusty but otherwise unbothered. The section of the floor they’d been holding up was in pieces but it apparently served as a barrier for them better than the wall had for me.

Then the ringing in my ears cleared fully and I realised it wasn’t ringing so much as it was sirens.

Then came the sound of running feet. A moment later, police poured into the building, with Vermillion’s Officer Jenny leading the charge.

“Vermillion Police! Freeze!” she screamed while holding out a pokeball in front of her. At her feet, a Growlithe snarled. Then Jenny blinked and sighed. “Alright Surge what have you—”

“Got a Team Rocket member here!” called one of the policemen from another room.

Jenny lost her exasperated look and stiffened up. Her pokeball was released and revealed a Graveler. A normal rock-ground type. Surge sniffed pointedly.

“HEY JENNY! WE’RE BUSTING UP THIS BASE! CAREFUL OF THE BASEMENT THERE WAS AN ELECTRODE TRAP!”

Jenny’s eyes widened before she had her radio in hand relaying the news. “All units be advised! Team Rocket base with potential booby traps! All units be advised!”

Surge chuckled. “Heh, booby!’ he said at what he assumed was a whisper but carried clearly throughout the room. I sighed and shook my head.

Jenny nodded. “Got the message from my cousin in Pewter. She said you’d need us at the gym but we found that place locked up tight with pokemon blocking any entrance. Then we heard the explosion. Couldn’t you wait?”

I shrugged. “Turns out I needed help holding back Surge.”

Jenny gave me a look before sighing. “He started pacing and it seemed innocent but he secretly was walking to an objective of his?”

I tilted my head and recalled that, yes, Surge had done exactly that. Huh, I hadn’t even realised what he was doing. Surge grinned widely and winked at me.

“Yeah, that,” I said. Surge winked again.

“I WASN’T WAITING AROUND WHILE NO ROCKET PUNK WAS OPERATING IN MY HOME TURF!” Surge shouted.

Then Lanturn dropped the watery ring and Surge blinked. “Oh, the sound’s back!”

Another explosion rocked the building and Surge stiffened. “SHIT!” He snapped his fingers and instantly Jolteon and Racihu tore down the room to the back room only for a Rocket grunt to step out with a smug grin. Surge pointed at her and before she could say anything Raichu was launching into her gut and she was convulsing.

Jenny marched up. “Enough! Surge!”

Surge whistled and the Raichu stopped zapping the woman. She lay on the ground gasping.

Jenny cuffed her and read the woman her rights. Surge sniffed. “Shame I can’t pull what you did with this being their base instead of them infiltrating my Gym Brock.”

Jenny glanced up at that having heard what Surge said. “Your Gym was infiltrated Brock? Is Jenny there?”

Surge grimaced. “Oh shit! Thought she knew!” he said sheepishly. I shot him a look and rolled my eyes.

“Keep that close to your chest. This is the first raid of many that are happening tonight,” I said. Jenny and Surge stared at me.

Surge whistled. “You got other sites to raid?” He grinned. “I’m down!”

I snorted at him and then caught Jenny’s hopeful look. “Ha, no sorry, other people are getting involved. I’d say more but…” I flicked my eyes around the room, “I’ll wait until we’re out of the probably bugged house.”

Surge gave the room a look over and clicked his tongue. “Yeah good call, she must have fried all the equipment to stop us, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still be watching and listening to us.”

A buzz on his wrist had him raising up his transceiver. “Can’t talk baby girl I’m busy cleaning house with my favourite rat.” Raichu who’d been patting down his fur bristled at the name.

Surge winked at the pokemon before leaning in. “Listen snookums I have to go. I can come around in a day or two. There’s a lot going on kay! Love you bu-bye!”

He hung up and coughed. “Nothing to see here.” I shook my head and moved back into the building to poke around a little.

A number of policemen were poking around downstairs and I trailed in after them to find a room with a few trays of pokeballs.

Onix, Geodude, Graveller, Rhydon, Nidoking. I whistled. “Looks like this was a room with pokemon that were prepared to fight against Surge,” I said aloud. The police grunted their agreement and continued to take photos of the scene.

One approached me and coughed. “Gym Leader Brock? We’re going to need a statement.”

I nodded. “Yeah sure. No worries, best we do this outside though we’re worried the place is still bugged.” That got a reaction as instantly the nearby police officer stopped taking photos and began inspecting the room much more thoroughly.

“Got one!” “Got another!” announced two people, one after the other.

The man that had approached me nodded and gestured back out the door. I signalled for my pokemon to follow and soon we were outside on the lawn. The building had been sectioned off by a number of Machoke that stood behind two onix that had been painted in yellow and blue along their sides. The words "Police" were also prominent on their bodies.

Behind them, reporters were already dashing up with cameramen following after them. I could see a number of red lights glimmering already. I suddenly wasn’t sure if giving a statement out here would remain private. The policeman seemed likewise as unsure.

Then the gates from next door opened, and a very dapper-looking gentleman with a magnificent white beard sauntered out of the manor. He gave the police a curious look and then made a beeline for the reporters.

The reporters looked at him in annoyance as he approached them one by one. Then their faces morphed into looks of worry. They each made a chopping gesture at their necks and the cameramen dropped their cameras to their hips.

When one reporter tried to continue the man leaned into her space and whispered something while dropping a card into her hands. The female reporter turned white and ran for it, leaving her highly confused cameraman, who the gentleman merely nodded to.

I stared at the suddenly empty space beyond the onix. The gentleman approached the onix and gave them both quick pats. He nodded at the policeman and then sauntered back to the manor he’d come from.

The gates closed without a sound behind him. In the space of not even five minutes, he’d cleared out the reporters.

I pointed at the gates. “Who the hell was that?” I said incredulously.

The policeman coughed. “That was uhm… well he is the Chairman of the Kanto Pokemon club. Big name. Very… influential. He founded Silph co before he gave it over to his nephew… Big mover. Reclusive gentleman that likes to not be bothered.” The policeman glanced at the empty space where the reporters were.

“Apparently he doesn’t want trouble with people snooping around. The news will do a piece later, but they’ll make sure not to mention where it happened or what’s next door like some of those houndoom reporters would have.”

I scratched at my temple. “I’m not sure that answered my question or raised more… Soooo I’m just gonna leave it be.”

The man nodded. “That’s a good call. Now could you tell me—”

I wrapped up the talk quickly and then sought out Surge. He was talking with Jenny and the woman seemed highly unimpressed.

“—Can’t go nuts like that! I know it must have set you off with the explosion but that’s more of a reason for us to get involved instead of you haring off like you did! You dragged Brock into it as well! Did you think about him?!”

Surge didn’t meet her gaze. “Yeah, sorry, just… I kept him close, alright?”

I was tempted to step in and defend him, but held back. He certainly didn’t need my support in this.

Jenny sighed. “Urgh stop giving us heart attacks. Can’t you just be like other Gym Leaders?”

“Which ones? Koga? Blaine?” He leered. “Or should I be like the Cerulean sisters? Dress in drag and do the hula? Want me to shake what my momma gave me?!”

Jenny groaned. “Alright, so that’s a bad example! Just don't fly off the handle and wreck a place!”

“This place warranted it!” Surge said. Then he got a sly look. “Say you doing anything now? Wanna get a beer?”

Jenny shot him a highly unimpressed look. “I literally, not ten minutes ago, heard you talking to your girlfriend.”

“Nah she was my side girl. I got a slot for a main girl!”

Jenny groaned into her notepad. Surge glanced around, spotted me, and waved.

I waved back only for a pokemon to call out. “Jynx~!”

I glanced behind and found a Jynx waving from the gates of the manor at us— no actually at Surge. He coughed and waved at her before marching into the house. I marched up to him and gave him a look.

“Hey! Don’t give me that look!” he turned to the side to find Officer Jenny giving him the same look. He walked faster. “Damn punks judging me!” he said.

I sighed and shook my head only to pause as my transceiver buzzed. “Sabrina?” I said.

Surge spun about and nudged Jenny sending the much smaller woman stumbling. “Heh! He’s getting called by his girlfriend as well!”

I shot a look at him… But didn’t deny it. It was… true.

Sabrina looked at me. “Brock I see you have already raided your site. Well done. I am at the Plateau and we have begun interrogating Daniel. We’re getting a number of facilities but are starting to get all that we can.”

“That’s good,. Are you feeling alright?” I asked carefully.

Sabrina nodded her head. “I am fine. I can do this with no issues.” A small groan to the side made me know Officer Jenny — from Pewter— was listening in. Sabrina’s eyes flickered off screen for a second before she said, “Thank you for asking after me though. I appreciate it.”

I snorted. “That’s good to know. Surge and I took the Listening outpost with all the Rocket members but the last one destroyed some equipment. The police are still combing through the building.”

A huff announced Agatha entering the conversation. “Gym Leader Brock, you and Gym Leader Surge should make your way to League headquarters to debrief. A teleporting pokemon will be sent your way.”

A moment later a familiar Alakazam appeared.

“Debrief and then meet up with us,” Agatha ordered. I nodded and hung up. I waved goodbye to Jenny — from Vermillion — as well as calling back my pokemon. Then I vanished in a teleport.

When I reappeared, I did so in a new clean building that just screamed high-tech and rich. Clear strips of metal ran along the floors and walls. With a number of signs indicating what room was in what direction.

“Gym Leader Brock we meet again!” said a voice from my nightmares.

I spun about my hand landing on my belt. “Auditor Timothy!” I said.

Next to me, Surge jumped backwards. “Oh, shit where!?” He spun about and took a defensive position.

Timothy laughed. “It’s wonderful to see you again. Sadly, this isn’t a social visit though. I have been asked to compile a report. Shall we?”

“Urgh,” I groaned. “Do we have to?” I said as I felt my heart rebel about being questioned by this Gengar puppeting a human body.

The man laughed jovially. “Hahaha! Oh, yes, yes we must.” Then he smiled, evilly, and indicated a possibly booby-trapped couch. “Let’s begin shall we? Get this all sorted out and filed away quickly!”

I sat down and sighed. This was not how I expected this night to go.