Hard Enough

Before going to the league, I had to deposit my newest pokemon at home. I marched into the living room and deposited Gible into Yolanda’s confused grasp.

Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and zeroed in on the new pokemon.

“Gib?” said my new pokemon, very unsure of what was going on. I straightened and waved a hand at the people and pokemon in the room.

“Gible, this is my family. They‘re nice, try not to bite them too much when they annoy you. Family, this is Gible, a pokemon I just rescued and who will be joining my team.”

Gible shot me wide eyes while his stubby arms reached for me. My family sensed weakness and approached as one.

“No!” I clapped my hands as they started to move in. “No crowding him! He’s very confused with everything, so! Yolanda is going to take him out to show him around the reserve. Empress will probably get involved if you introduce him to Teddiursa I should imagine.” I waggled my raised index finger back and forth. “There are not going to be any demands to hug him or pet him.”

I pointed at Yolanda. “Yolanda, watch out. He nibbles. Keep him away from Cranidos, because you know how that will end. Terra, he’s a baby pokemon like you so be nice. Yes, he’s a pokemon from another region.”

I then knelt down in front of Gible and offered him my hand to grab hold of. “I’m sorry, but I can’t stick around right now, because Lance needs me to help take out some more bad guys.”

I locked eyes with Flint. Flint understood that meant I needed things locked down here. The distraction of the new, very rare pokemon would keep all of my family in one place.

“Salvadore, you should go get Greta and start documenting this pokemon as it hasn’t been seen in this region. I’ve already fed him, so don’t overfeed him too much.”

I frowned and looked around. Every child in the room was twitching as though held back by an invisible restraint. I was proud they’d lasted this long. I decided to give Yolanda a bit of a head start, so I picked her up and moved her towards the doorway while putting Terra in her other hand.

Terra grinned at the new pokemon only to be pecked in the face. It didn’t deter Terra from babbling at Gible.

“And off you go,” I said, nudging Yolanda towards the front door.

Every child still in the lounge room unfroze at the command and sprinted after Yolanda.

Flint stood with a concerned expression. “Are you… going to be alright?”

I nodded, only for Sabrina to step up next to me. “I’ll look after him,” she said.

Flint nodded quickly. “Ho, he’s in safe hands then!” he said, marching off after the rest of my family.

I gave Sabrina an amused look. “Mind if I get my pokemon checked over before we head out?” I asked.

Sabrina teleported us to the medical bay and Chansey squawked in surprise. When she spotted us, she huffed and made a ‘gimme’ gesture with her hands.

I deposited my team in a tray, and she started popping them open and looking over them. She sniffed when none of them proved to be injured. It didn’t stop her from pushing some pink healing energy into them before nodding and returning to her magazine about gardening.

I stared a little at her, but she ignored me. A moment later Salvadore charged through the medical bay. “—and I’ve never seen this pokemon! It had teeth for days! It could be a rock-dragon or something!” Salvadore yelled as he sprinted through the medical bay with Greta and Crystal at his heels.

I hummed. I had to give him points for getting half marks on the dragon-type guess. It was impressive.

Chansey sighed and rolled up her magazine. She slapped it into her hands a few times before nodding and storming off after the trio. I blinked and realised there was a sign behind her that read: No running in the medical room!

Huh, she was about to mete out some justice.

Sabrina teleported us back to the League headquarters, where a number of other trainers were hurrying about. It was now rather early in the evening, but despite that, the League was in full chaos mode.

Men and women bustled about, and trainers ran into each other, only to ignore the impact and carry on. I saw several police escorting what looked like reporters out of the building. It seemed Lance was keeping things close to the chest, or the reporters had gone somewhere they shouldn’t have.

I shook it off and ignored the chaos. Instead, I marched towards the central elevator leading up to Lance’s office. With Sabrina at my side, we cut a swathe through the chaos. People moved around us, not willing to impede us, but I knew many took note of our arrival.

When the doors opened at the top, I was surprised to find Lorelei standing guard. “He’s got you doing guard duty?” I said, annoyed on her behalf and also annoyed at Lance being petty.

She nodded. “At least until a few other G-men arrive, he said.”

I frowned. “Alright,” I said with a nod.

I walked in to find Lance locked in a stare-down with Pryce. Sabrina and my arrival caused their attention to shift, and for a moment, I felt their auras wash over me.

I shot them unimpressed looks. “What’s going on here?”

Pryce sniffed. “I have been remiss in making sure that my granddaughter is being treated appropriately it would seem. The… current Champion,—” Pryce said, some sting in his words as he reminded Lance that he, Pryce, had once sat where Lance was, and that Lance could be ousted as well. “—has apparently not been treating her as he should. I hadn’t known, as my dear girl has been stoic about the entire affair, something I must applaud her for given how… demanding this situation has been.”

Lance worked his jaw. “I have merely been setting her tasks appropriate for her skills,” he said.

Pryce sniffed. “You should reconsider what you think she is and is not skilled in then!”

“Riiiiiight,” I said carefully, realising I was stepping on thin ice. Still, I had to say something. “You have been a bit dickish to Lorelei though, Lance.”

When he shot me a betrayed look, I raised my hands to ward him off. “It’s probably your instincts acting up. She is a threat to you, as you do have a rather strong dragon aura.”

Lance nodded slowly. “Perhaps… I have allowed my instincts to speak up more than I should have. I will consider your… statements going forth.” He seemed pleased by the idea of his strength being what was holding him back. Or at least that his strength was being acknowledged.

Pryce snorted, showing how much he thought of that.

Lance grimaced before turning to the others in the room. Koga, Bruno, and Agatha all looked to be in various states of amusement about the way things had been playing out.

Sabrina nodded in greeting and then dragged me over to claim a seat, with her promptly sitting in my lap. I noted we were away from Bruno.

Lance raised a hand. “There’s no need to sit down. We’re going to go to another meeting room; there are too many people coming otherwise.”

With Sabrina in my lap, I couldn’t pinch the bridge of my nose like I wanted to. With one statement, he’d just revealed how petty he was being. Something that Pryce didn’t miss as the room literally dropped a few degrees in temperature as the former Champion glared at Lance.

Lance raised his hands. “We still needed to vet the people coming in?” When that didn’t result in Pryce losing his ire, Lance nodded. “I’ll call her in now,” he said with a huff.

Agatha cackled. “Oh, it must rub you the wrong way to be on the outs now, Pryce, eh?” she prodded.

Pryce swivelled his gaze onto her and Lance relaxed as he called Lorelei into the room. Pryce stared long and hard at Agatha, and she met his gaze without flinching.

Pryce narrowed his eyes. “How long have you known about the Snorunt evolution for the females of the species?” he asked, causing me to perk up with interest.

Agatha’s grin grew. “Oh, that would be telling! Did you really only now find out why all those Snorunt’s kept appearing in your mountains?” She cackled as a form shimmered into view behind her shoulder. The Froslass held up a hand to her mouth and giggled innocently, hiding her mouth like a fine lady might in polite company.

It was rather ruined by the scornful eyes staring at Pryce.

Pryce inspected the newly revealed pokemon with a critical eye. “Long enough for you to raise a pokemon of its type into your Elite team, eh?” he said thoughtfully. The door opened, and Lorelei stepped in.

She froze when she spotted the ice-ghost type. “That’s! Grandpa?” she said, apparently flabbergasted by the pokemon’s appearance.

Pryce shook his head. “It’s Agatha’s,” he said tightly.

“Oh,” Lorelei said, blinking as she processed this. She tilted her head and inspected Froslass. “Would it be possible to work with you on my own Froslass, Agatha? I’d love to get my own Froslass up to strength! I have her ice-type training all set out but I only have Grandfather’s observation notes on ghost types from fight—”

“AHEM!” said Pryce firmly.

I turned my head, feeling like this was the luckiest spectator event ever. Was Pryce blushing? What were in those notes? Agatha stared at Pryce. “You took notes about our fights?”

Pryce threw up his hands. “You were one of the trickiest combatants during the war; of course I took notes on what you were doing or how you acted! You were a significant threat to Johto!”

“Oh… but your notes continue well up to your time as—” Lorelei started to say only for Pryce to level a glare upon her. For a moment, I thought I saw the flickers of a smirk on her lips making me mentally sit up. Was she?

Pryce twitched, and I realised I was right!

Lorelei was teasing her grandfather! It sort of made sense that she would do this, seeing as she’d had to endure his rather poor behaviour for a number of years only for me to apparently swoop in in the last few months and make him clean up his act.

Agatha’s grin was more subdued, but she seemed rather pleased with how things were going. “I suppose it would be… a good idea to help correct any misconceptions you might have about the Ghost-type. Yes, before I retire, I think I would enjoy that,” Agatha said while smiling smugly at Pryce.

The man twitched in annoyance, and I held in a chuckle.

A slow clap sounded from the doorway, causing most of the room, barring Koga, to jump in surprise. “My goodness, it is pleasing to see that the Indigo League is doing well!” said Samuel Oak.

I turned and found him beaming at us like a proud parent who had just discovered that his children had cleaned up after themselves. Agatha huffed at him, while Pryce and Koga merely nodded.

Bruno started eyeing Samuel up and down, sizing him up.

I wanted to stop him, but another part of me was whispering to let them fight.

I glanced up and noted Sabrina had a matching expression as her eyes flickered between Oak and Bruno. After Bruno’s rather poor behaviour with Sabrina and myself, it would be rather cathartic to watch Samuel smack him around.

For some reason, I didn’t doubt that Samuel could still do it either.

Samuel coughed. “Well, regardless, I have come as a courtesy to Champion Lance; do you wish to talk?” he said, directing his gaze towards Lance.

Lance stood, “Yes, we have a few other people that will need to be part of this conversation, however,” he said, directing us to stand and follow him. Instead of entering the elevator, he stepped around to the wall and pressed a hand against a panel, causing it to light up in a handprint display that you would have had to know existed to unlock.

“Feh! Made some changes, have you?” Pryce said snidely.

Lance nodded. “I’ve made some additions, yes. One of which is a meeting room with the latest security features that we have available to us.”

Pryce sniffed while Samuel merely looked around the hallway, acting like he was a tourist. The hall itself had a camera in each corner, and the doors were solid metal with number pads set into them.

I whistled, “This is quite the setup, but are you going to have to personally ferry everyone else up here?” I asked.

Lance shook his head. “Most of them are already here. They completed their raids and objectives before us. It was just Gym Leaders Sabrina and Brock, along with Professor Oak, that we needed.” He led us to a door and rapidly tapped out a sequence of numbers.

I decided not to point out that Sabrina would easily be able to remember the code, despite how fast Lance was punching in the numbers. He seemed rather proud of himself.

When the door opened, a number of faces looked up.

I only recognised a few of the G-men who’d sat in on Daniel’s interrogation and Commander Hank of the Rangers.

I could recognise that there was a cluster of Rangers. All of the commanders were dressed the same, but a number of them had different badges on their sleeves denoting their fields of work. The prominent ones appeared to be oceans, grasslands, mountains, forests, and, interestingly, what looked like a swamp from what I could see from my angle.

The men and women all nodded, not rising when our group strode in. Lance claimed a seat at the table, and it took me a moment to realise that it was in fact round, allowing for people to sit as equals.

It seemed an odd touch for Lance considering his pride, but he merely adjusted his cloak so he wasn’t sitting on it.

“We have much to discuss and little time,” Lance said to get us underway.

We claimed our seats as Lance continued to speak. “Over the past day, we have, through previously restricted methods, taken in a number of higher-ranked Team Rocket Executives that have allowed us to move on a number of key sites within Kanto and Johto.”

I shifted, having not expected that.

Lance nodded. “A few smaller sites were raided, but the primary sites were located in the rail subbasement of Goldenrod City, along with a daycare centre, a hidden communications tower north of Mahogany Town, and a sleeper cell in Blackthorn City…” The last admission caused Lance to gain a pinched expression.

“These have been taken care of, while in Kanto, the Academy was raided, which stands as a sizeable score for us alone, other hidden bases were also found in Mt Moon, Gringey City, and Dark City.”

Lance let his gaze roam the room. “This has been the biggest raid pulled off since the formation of the League and has been the first major operation of the G-men working in conjunction with a number of different groups. You have my praise and respect for pulling off what you have.”

The room seemed to shift a little as people accepted the praise, with a feeling of pride swelling through them.

Lance didn’t let his stern expression drop. “Those of you here have proven to me without a shadow of a doubt that you are trustworthy. I have sealed the doors, and I have confirmed all of your identities through various methods.” He raised a hand. “I apologise for this, but the news I am going to release to you is so important that I had to.”

He once again locked eyes with everyone.

“During a number of raids, we have come into possession of a number of documents that cast certain high-ranking members of our society as being part of Team Rocket.”

I blinked. Holy hell, was Lance about to share what I think he was going to share?

I let my gaze cast about the room. I didn’t linger on Agatha and Koga, that might be a bit telling, rather I made my gaze roam to take in everyone’s reaction.

The main expression seemed to be a stoic willingness to hear things out, but there was a tinge of worry now.

Some people seemed to be toying with Lance’s statement, trying to fit it in with what they knew. A few people seemed grim. Hank was one of them.

Koga seemed oddly focused, while Agatha had a predatory set to her shoulders. She looked like someone waiting for a very choice steak to be placed before them. As much as she anticipated this, she obviously planned to savour this moment.

They must have done something.

I tilted my head and toyed with the idea. If they’d known where a number of raids were going to take place, it would have been child’s play for someone like Koga, or Agatha, or any number of Koga’s ninja to plant evidence.

Evidence that would point the League in one direction.

I flicked my eyes about the room. Inserting such evidence might not pass muster on a single location, but if a number of sites were verifying it? Well, that was a dangerous game certainly. But the pay off?

It would be worth it.

Agatha had tried to tell me something before the raid took place… Perhaps this had been it.

With the League finally moving she must have felt safe in pointing them in the right direction.

Lance clicked a slide, and a list of names appeared. “These are all the known Rocket plants that we have discovered within the Indigo League. These people are being monitored and will, over the coming hours, be quietly arrested and interrogated.” The number of names caught me by surprise. There seemed to be over a hundred names.

“How many are card-carrying members?” I asked, thinking that this was too many people, but then again, I had no idea how big Team Rocket was in terms of staff. This could be a tiny percentage, in truth.

Lance clicked his tongue. “At this stage, that is unknown. Some of them are simply passing along the information to any and all that pay, for which they will still be punished. I have no doubt there will be some Team Rocket members hidden away. Before that, however, I will be aiming for some of the larger fish, so to speak.”

Another click revealed another list. “These are the known Ranger plants; these names have already been forwarded to the Commanders.”

“We’ll see to them,” said one grey-templed man. Other Ranger Commanders nodded their heads sternly. I noted a few of them had pained expressions, and it took Sabrina tapping a name and rank for me to notice that one name on the list was a commander themselves.

One apparently not present, but that would see some very interested parties coming their way soon.

Ah... awkward that. Still, it wasn’t the worst reach that Team Rocket had demonstrated by far.

“Moving along,” Lance said, clicking a button and shifting the slide. This time a picture of a person was revealed.

Grey, the Gym leader of Neon Town was revealed.

“Gym Leader Grey is a recent addition to the Kanto Gym Leaders. He comes to us as a solid recruit who has a few years in the Ace circuit along with a facility that was well suited for facing challengers. His tender was accepted and he passed probationary periods with no hassles beyond not having enough Gym trainers, something that was quickly rectified.”

Lance clicked another button, and a list of banking transactions was shown. “We have, with the information provided, investigated his banking and linked him with identified holding companies that move money for Team Rocket. He has been a plant for them and one that offered a voice at some of the highest levels. He is not the only person that we have discovered that has raised concerns.”

He clicked, and another slide presented itself to display a woman’s face. “This is Haley of Florando, another Gym leader at the minor scale. She has been a Rocket plant for over five years and was in a position such that if any of the Johto Gym’s fell in status, she would move into the top eight of Johto.”

Pryce snarled at that. “Her?! I approved her!” he said, leaning forward. “She was a war veteran and a skilled water-type trainer.”

Lance nodded. “Indeed,” he said placidly. “She served well and, in recent years, has been bought off by Team Rocket. Her husband is, in fact, Team Rocket.”

I hissed. Ah, literally and metaphorically, in bed with Team Rocket.

“Two Gym Leaders?” muttered one of the G-men.

“They’re minor,” said another man dismissively. “It makes sense they would use what connections they had to boost themselves,” said another man.

I held in a grimace, knowing the worst was still to come.

Lance sighed, agreeing. “They are not the major concerns we have at the moment. There are larger concerns that we have to focus on.”

“The raid upon the Goldenrod rail system… revealed that Hannah of Goldenrod, and Samwise of Olivine are also in collusion with Team Rocket. Goldenrod… due to finances,” Lance said, causing a chorus of scoffs to ring out.

The rebuilding of Goldenrod, it seemed, wasn’t something that was being accepted as an excuse by the others in the room.

Lance nodded. “They will be taken in. I will have teams assembled for the Johto Gym Leaders led by Bruno, and Clair.” He then held up his hands. “Others in this room will have other targets. There are more,” he said with a defeated tone. I felt a bit bad for him, apparently discovering the sheer scale of the rot that had pervaded Indigo was rather getting to him.

Lance clicked another button, and this time the room hissed.

Professor Oak stood and leaned in closer to stare at the display. He seemed to age a little before slumping. “Ah, I find… that I am not actually surprised,” he said as he stared into the face of Blaine.

A number of articles appeared around Blaine, and I whistled as they continued to spread. Lance held a grim expression while Pryce seemed to devour the information—a look I couldn’t quite place my finger on, taking hold.

“Former Elite Four, Blaine… and the current Gym Leader of Cinnabar Island. He is a leading researcher in a number of studies that were never approved, such as the use of Ditto in human tissue donations for longevity treatments, the experimentation of pokemon Flare states, and the sharing of certain League secrets such as where certain former military bases were located along with supplies. Blaine has been a major scientific mind contributing to Team Rocket’s development in the last few decades.”

Samuel rubbed his face. “Uh, he was always too willing to push the envelope of his studies…”

I raised a hand, “Flare state? What’s that?”

Oak sighed. “It is a well-established ability for some pokemon to, while deeply injured, tap into reserves of energy that empower them further and allow them to fight harder for the duration of combat.”

Samuel sighed again, his eyes raising to the roof. “During the war, it was something that was regularly triggered. It was hypothesised that you could tap into this and permanently improve the power of a pokemon but doing so would require constantly injuring a pokemon to the point of being nearly knocked out or on death’s door. Such studies would no doubt enrage a pokemon and lead to nothing but more harm all around. It was a line of study I banned in my tenure as Champion,” Oak said.

Oak put a hand to his forehead and rubbed it. “Blaine argued against my ban on it and other studies that I deemed unethical…” Oak stared into Blaine’s picture. “I suppose he ignored my orders. For someone that I consider such an old friend… I can’t say that I am surprised.”

Oak turned his head to Lance. “You want my help in taking him in, don’t you?”

Lance nodded his head. “He and others will be dangerous targets, and I wish to make sure we have the ability to handle anything Team Rocket might throw at us.”

“I also want to be there when we take him in,” Pryce said gruffly.

Lance frowned, “I was hoping to have you focus on the Gym Leaders in the Johto area, Izuo especially,” he said.

Pryce shook his head. “No, I know Blaine better than anyone here!”

Agatha snorted. “I think I knew him in more ways than you did,” she said teasingly.

It took a moment before I understood, but when I did, I shuddered as the image of Blaine and Agatha came together in my mind.

Agatha glared at the room at large. “Oh, don’t be like that! We were young at the time!”

Samuel chuckled, and Agatha shot him a venomous look before muttering something under her breath that I didn’t try to listen in on.

Lance coughed. “Regardless, there are others that we might be able to use for this, but for now I am laying out the targets.” He clicked, and a final face appeared on the screen. It was of a man leaving his middle years behind with a combed-back hairstyle and a bespoke suit.

A man of class and power. Someone that moved in the highest of social circles.

I barely held back a smirk as Giovanni’s face stared back at me.

Gotcha.

“As we understand it currently, the man that leads Team Rocket and has been the largest beneficiary of their criminal activities is none other than Gym Leader Giovanni.”

A few people shifted, but this didn’t elicit anywhere near the level of excitement that Blaine’s reveal did.

Lance raised a finger. “Giovanni has always been a man who has pulled a number of strings and remained beyond doubt. He is a known philanthropist, with his money coming through a number of investments that always seemed above board. He builds these investments with Team Rocket funds and will no doubt have a much deeper pool of pokemon than we have ever seen. He has a number of true Executives that he will be able to call on, and each of these are significant trainers in their own right.”

More slides appeared showing off faces I recognised from the games; Petrel, Archer, Arianna.

Lance continued to lay out the facts. “He has gathered these trainers to him through debts, loyalty, or other methods, but the Executives are deemed to be at least able to match a trainer that has gathered all eight of their Gym badges, with all of them having full pokemon teams.”

Lance clicked, and a collage of pictures appeared of an armoured pokemon that I recognised as Mewtwo.

“One of the other dangers that Giovanni poses, is access to an as yet unknown Psychic type pokemon that appears to wield considerable strength.”

Lance clicked away a few times, and blurry pictures of Mewtwo fighting Moltres appeared, before shifting to an image of Mewtwo hovering above Vermilion. A video of Mewtwo’s arm waving that I recognised as from my gym’s security cameras.

With a final click, a video of Silph Tower played. I frowned only to blink as the video panned upwards to show Empress’ Hyperbeam blowing away a section of the tower. Whoever had taken this video screamed in surprise but held the video up to continue filming, their own words gibberish and fearful, only for a form to move in the smoke.

I blinked as the smoke cleared and the armoured, tattered form of Mewtwo could be seen holding someone by the neck.

I reflexively rubbed at the bruise on my neck. Oh, damn, someone had gotten that on video?

I swallowed as I realised how far up Mewtwo was from the ground. Sabrina laced her hand into mine and squeezed.

Lance shot me a look. “Brock, you and others submitted a report on this incident when questioned by one of the police, later that night.” He tilted his head. “You said you unleashed a Hyper Beam at that pokemon from one of your Tyranitar…” Lance paused and let that hang for a moment before continuing on, “And it barely injured it? How would you rate its strength?”

“It’s easily a Legendary pokemon… not as strong as Moltres, but I believe that might be only a matter of time from what I’ve read about Legendary pokemon,” I said.

That caused a shift in the room as people mumbled.

“What was it like? Was it angry?” Oak said, staring at the image.

I blinked. “The voice coming from the armour around it was, but I never got the impression it was.”

“It wasn’t,” Sabrina said. “When I mega evolved my Alakazam I was able to talk with it and ask it to put you down. Until that moment, it had muted responses to everything around it, like it was just following orders as an automation would. When I interceded it seemed curious… like a child,” Sabrina said.

“Hmmm, interesting,” said Oak.

Lance hummed. “I think then it is important that, should we require it, you be present when we move to take down Giovanni.”

Sabrina inclined her head. “I will be there when we move,” she said with a firm tone.

Lance nodded his head. “I am hoping… To make this easy on us, I will be asking Giovanni and Blaine, separately, for specific reasons pertaining to them, to come to the League to talk with me. With them away from their power base, I can arrest them easier,” he said.

I hummed. “No way he’s going to take it; you’ll be showing your hand.”

Lance drummed his fingers. “I’m all for the simplest solution. Does anyone else have a better method of disarming Giovanni?”

I frowned. It was… logically, the easiest method if it worked. I could even imagine a world where it might work.

But it would rely on Giovanni being naive and delivering himself into our hands, and my mind was screaming at me that there was no way in hell it would work.

It was too simple.

It wouldn’t work for Giovanni, or Blaine either, for that matter.

Samuel sighed. “It might be necessary to simply raid their bases of power,” he said. “I shall intervene with Blaine… if he doesn't see reason, I will be able to handle him… with Pryce’s help.”

Lance nodded and laced his hands together. “Very well, let us work on a plan for how things will proceed on Team Rocket’s swansong.” He locked eyes with everyone in the room.

“Let me be clear. By the time the sun sets tomorrow, I want Team Rocket to be a footnote in the history of the Indigo region,” he said.

Unconsciously, my spine straightened at his words, even as I smiled.

It seemed like a thorn that had been bothering me for far too long was about to be dealt with. Now I just needed to make sure I was part of the team to guarantee that Giovanni and Team Rocket fell.