Hard Enough

“Trainers! Are you ready?” shouted the referee.

Across from me, Carlos clenched his hand hard around his pokeball. A look of solid determination met my gaze and I felt my respect for him increase with how he didn’t falter.

I held a pokeball in my hand, ready to throw. The referee dropped the flags. I missed both the command to release and begin, to the cheering of the crowd.

It didn’t matter, I knew to react and not wait to hear the actual command by now.

My pokeball whipped forward, right up to the very front of my side of the field, and the light exploded around a huge form.

Bertha blinked in surprise and shot me a confused look only to brighten considerably.

It had been a long time since I’d ever sent her out first. She was better as a clutch fighter, or as someone that could turn the tide.

She shifted her attention to her foe who turned out to be a Poliwhirl.

The smaller pokemon raised its fists and I had to give my team props. They’d predicted this pokemon as Carlos’ first pokemon against me.

With this being a do-or-die fight for us both he had to send out his best options here and now. He didn’t have the luxury otherwise.

“Earthquake,” I said.

I reached out for the bond that I had with Bertha and felt it pulse a little as I tapped into it. I hadn’t done this in a while, but these fast matches would be the perfect training grounds for me to build up my aura reserves and to work on enhancing my bond.

It would also make my pokemon hit, and take hits, just that bit better.

“Leap up and use Bubblebeam!” Carlos shouted, making his pokemon soar over most of the Earthquake before unleashing a barrage of bubbles at Bertha.

“Charge in,” I said to Bertha in response, making her duck under the barrage of bubbles.

Poliwhirl landed and for a moment both pokemon were facing away from each other.

“Use your tail and skip back!” I ordered before Poliwhirl could react.

Poliwhirl spun about and looked ready to unleash another Bubblebeam, only for Bertha to jump straight back, her tail raised threateningly.

When she landed, she landed just shy of crushing the Poliwhirl, only for her tail to follow and crash down atop Poliwhirl.

Poliwhirl buckled and then slammed into the ground face-first.

The attack might not be super effective, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t powerful. I’d seen Bertha destroy boulders from idly swinging her tail about, with actual momentum behind it, Bertha had practically one hit K.O’d the Poliwhirl.

Sadly this was proven to be a lie with Carlos swiping his hand to the side. “Bubblebeam to get out of there!” he called, and despite her tail still pushing him down, Poliwhirl was able to rocket out of close range using Bubblebeam to blast away.

I nodded. I had to give it to him, that was a good variation of the move, it might not work for a Poliwrath, but by then you’d expect that pokemon to have Hydro Pump instead.

Before Poliwhirl could land I gestured. “Earthquake again,” I said calmly. Bertha didn’t even turn around. She merely raised her tail and her foot and slammed them into the ground, causing the field to quake and several spectators to fall over themselves as barriers set up where we fought could not absorb everything.

I softened my knees and absorbed most of the shaking but Poliwhirl stumbled as it landed, resulting in the pokemon falling down once more. This time it didn’t get up and Carlos had to raise his pokeball to withdraw his Poliwhirl.

“Bertha!” I barked, making her turn to me.

I raised my hand, palm out to indicate that I didn’t want her to move and she nodded before turning back to face the front.

With her well and truly still on Carlos’ side of the field, he faced a choice. Did he try, and give his pokemon as much room as possible for a long-range specialist, or did he try and close with another fighting type?

By staying in close I was making the choice tougher for him. Bertha had already demolished his Poliwhirl, a pokemon that if both were equal in strength, should have favoured Poliwhirl.

But that was the point, his Poliwhirl wasn’t on the same level as Bertha.

Bertha, by my estimate, was easily at an Elite Four, if not Champion tier strength these days.

In game terms, I liked to think that meant high fifties, if not level sixty. For all that she liked to goof around and play, she was a dedicated pokemon when it was time to put her giant nose to the grindstone.

“Go Breloom!” shouted Carlos sending in his best hope in close.

“Earthquake!” I said straight away. I didn’t want that pokemon to get too comfortable.

Breloom shuddered as Bertha unleashed her third Earthquake and once more people shuddered and shook. An idle inspection showed that more of them were able to stay on their feet this time around having been expecting it.

Breloom twitched for a moment only to hop up onto its tail to ignore most of the damage.

“Bre! Loom!” shouted the fighting-grass-type pokemon as it glared at Bertha.

“Mach Punch!” barked Carlos and his pokemon rocked back further on its tail only to spring forward at a startling speed.

“Stone Edge!” I responded, having Bertha blast a giant boulder right into the oncoming Breloom. It smashed its way through the boulder and then slammed into Bertha’s flank making her groan in pain.

Breloom landed and shot Bertha a smirk as Carlos punched the sky.

“Sweep low!” I ordered, not willing to slow down.

Bertha swung herself in a tight arc, whipping the tail around.

“Leap!” replied Carlos haughtily. He seemed to think he was being clever here by avoiding the tail this time.

Before his pokemon could land, I stabbed my hand forward once more. “Ice Beam!” I said.

Bertha's grin stretched her face as she inhaled and then exhaled a beam of blue energy that slammed straight into the surprised Breloom.

I hummed and shot Carlos a surprised look. I had been expecting a Protect from him but instead, he’d just had his Breloom taken out of the fight with a one-two combination he should have been expecting.

Bertha rubbed her side and twitched as Breloom was recalled. “How are you feeling girl?”

Bertha straightened up and fired her massive fists into a furious one-two combination as she ducked her head and snorted. I shook my head. “There are going to be plenty of fights girl. No need to try and do it all yourself. I’m going to be using you again soon, don’t worry,” I said.

And with that said, I decided to withdraw her. She had enough time to lace her hands above her head and theatrically twirl as she was recalled, resulting in her looking like a boulder pretending to be a magical girl with her exit.

I heard the crowd that were watching our match laugh at the display and I shook my head.

Cindy must have watched some Magical Girl cartoons with her when Bertha slept inside. I hadn’t noticed as usually if Bertha was released inside, she’d make a lot more noise. Also if she got excited by a TV show she usually caused more destruction and left a lot more dirt inside.

I resolved to get Nanny Grav another magazine if she’d handled it. That or I’d have to get Flint something nice.

Carlos sighed, and sent out his last hope. “Go Vileplume!” he said with gritted teeth.

“Go Gawain,” I said, countering him and feeling particularly pleased with how our pre-match assessment had gone.

Carlos groaned. “You seriously chose those two as two of your three pokemon for this match?” he said with a shake of his head. “Who was your third? Your Tyranitar?”

I was about to shake my head and deny him, only to pause.

He was fishing, and there were enough people around that even if it didn’t matter for him, it would matter for my next opponent.

I frowned at Carlos. He hadn’t lost the spark in his eye that told me he’d given up. He was trying to judge how to play this match in case the next match was favourable to him.

As for other trainers? They’d get to look at my roster and cross three pokemon off that were guaranteed to not be possible for their match-up. By only using two and not giving the third away I didn’t show my entire hand.

I decided to just shrug. “Sorry, them’s the break sometimes,” I said. I then pointed straight ahead.

“X-scissor,” I said. Gawain sprinted straight at the Vileplume, axes raised in a cross position, preparing for the strike.

“Toxic!” said Carlos.

Gawain closed, and just as he was slashing out, Vileplume squirted a burst of purple gunk right into Gawain’s eyes making him cry out as he shut his eyes and dropped his head.

His training showed through however as before he staggered, he carried through with the strike and sent Vileplume soaring.

Sadly Vilplume got back up with a grint and a shake of its giant fronds. “That’s it Vileplume! Stay in the fight! Use Mega Drain!”

“Rock Slide at your eleven o’clock!” I shouted and despite being blinded and shivering from the effects of the poison, Gawain carried through with the move, launching a wave of rocks into Vileplume causing it to wail in pain once more.

Despite the Rock Slide getting in first, Vileplume still didn’t go down. Kleavor twitched as the Mega Drain pulled from him and the poison sapped him but I knew he could handle it. Neither move would be enough to see him drop.

This match, unlike Bertha’s match, was much closer in ‘level’ with Gawain being only one of the newest additions. I’d have to rate him at a solid forty-five. “Again! Aim a touch higher for distance!” I shouted.

Gawain once more swept his axes forward and sent another wave of rocks soaring into Vileplume. This time it was enough to clip and knock Vileplume out of the fight, much to my relief.

Carlos sighed. “Urgh! A Bug pokemon against my grass type. Damn it! You read me like a book.”

I nodded. “We did that, but…” I coughed sheepishly. “You do realise that Vileplume isn’t weak to bug type pokemon, right?”

Carlos blinked at me a moment before his eyes widened. He facepalmed a moment later before perking up. “So that means my Toxic was the right call? Ha! My instincts are better than I thought, now I just need to train up my pokemon and we’ll go the distance.”

I grimaced. He obviously hadn’t accounted for Rock being resistant to poison typing.

Vileplume versus a Kleavor was a rather neutral affair in truth. Toxic wasn’t bad, but that was more because he’d gotten it into Gawain’s eyes. I decided to just shake Carlos’ hand and take Gawain to the healing area where a trio of Nurse Joys were handling the influx of injured pokemon for the tournament.

I got the impression they were happy that in the early stages, they only had to deal with three pokemon from each trainer rather than full rosters.

I handed over Bertha’s pokeball and Gawain’s pokeball before sitting back and waiting.

Missy, Greta and A.J. joined me and when my pokemon were returned to me I led them back to the tent. “So?” I prompted.

Missy made a complex expression. “He… was better than I thought he might be?”

“He was a scrub,” said A.J. “We predicted which pokemon he was going to use and he got lucky with his Toxic actually doing something worth a damn by blinding Gawain. You could have kept Bertha out for that match I think.”

I shrugged. “Well, I decided to switch it up. There's no need to risk her in the first match. She did well though,” I said.

This got a grunt on confirmation from A.J. and a nod from Missy. I toyed with the final pokeball that had remained on my belt, Shrek’s Ultraball. If things had looked bad, I could trust in him as one of my most certain pokemon in a tight situation.

Yolanda jogged up and waved. “I got a video of your next opponent!” she said happily.

I dragged her to my side, for a quick hug before releasing her. “Nice job! We will know which pokemon to discount. What were your thoughts otherwise?” I said.

Yolanda happily talked my ear off on her observations regarding the match and I quickly had a plan being worked out for my next opponent that would be coming this afternoon.

Hazel seemed better than Carlos, but only by a few steps up the ranking. I let the others theory craft before I turned my attention to the next pokemon I could use.

“Gym Leader Brock! How do you think the event is going so far?” called out a reporter as they jogged along next to us.

I shot them a look and realised it was the woman that had been rather polite with Sabrina and I in the past, so I slowed down and answered some questions before signalling I was done. I watched her sign off even as I strode away wondering for the first time if it was a case of us teaching her, or her training us to accept her approach.

When we reached the tent we set up the whiteboard once again and laid out Hazel’s information.

“Rapidash, Raichu, Linoone, Roselia, Staryu, Seaking, Azumarill, Seadra, and Ludicolo are her pokemon,” I said. I tilted my head and had to frown. “That’s a rather short list,” I said.

Missy coughed. “She’s new and she only had the one circuit so she hasn’t done that poorly. I think she’s funding herself as an Ace Trainer right now.”

“Ah,” I said. “That was rather a bit elitist, wasn't it?” I said, earning myself some nods from Greta and Missy while A.J. just snorted.

I looked over her team with that in consideration and nodded. It was a relatively solid team all things considered, if a bit water-heavy.

I set up Yolanda’s video and watched it through for an idea of how she fought.

“She’s uhmmm,” I said carefully, only to grimace as her Rapidash took a heavy hit that I felt could have been dodged.

“She’s trash!” announced A.J. earning himself a few swats from the girls before they looked back.

“She’s not as experienced as I thought she’d be?” offered up Greta.

Missy sighed. “She got four badges from the big gyms and then went after the small gyms so she only really got pushed hard once instead of five times is my take.” She shook her purple hair. “She’s been too careful with herself but I think she’s not been able to afford a big set back,” she said.

Hazel’s first fight had been a poor match but with pokemon like Raichu and Rapidash she hadn’t played to her strengths as much as she could have. My expectations for the next match dropped a little.

I hummed for a moment and opened up Battlecast on the television, curious what they’d show me.

“—nthemum stadium! It’s Karen against her opponent!” said the presenter. I huffed and changed the channel to Battlecast two. Karen was going to win that match up, I could tell with just a glance.

On it highlights of the matches that had been so far started to show with my own match getting a bit of attention with Bertha and Gawain. The talking heads confirmed what Yolanda had already brought to me, but only showed snippets of the match.

Hazel had sent out a Raichu, Azumarill and a Rapidash to secure her win meaning I could scratch those from consideration.

I rubbed my chin in thought and selected two pokeballs. Zephyr, Tide… and I let my fingers dance on the Ultraball before nodding and picking it up with a spin. Sanchez.

It was probably overkill, but I wanted to advance with the least hassle which meant I should play it smart.

With that all done I just had to sit back and wait.

By the time the match came around the media had set up a small presence outside my tent to pepper me with questions on occasion. I got the impression that the further I advanced, the more media would be present.

I had a few of them tag along, dogging me as I made my way to face Hazel. They only broke off when I stepped onto the field and marched up to shake her hand.

“Gym Leader,” she said in greeting.

I nodded back. “Ace Trainer,” I replied with a smile.

She perked up at that and nodded. “Huh, I am, aren’t I?” she said to herself.

I just kept smiling. A bit of the research I’d done on her had shown that she was considered a strong trainer thanks to her rise up the ranks despite this being her first year. To make the top hundred in your first year of being an Ace trainer was considered very good.

I was obviously an outlier as a Gym Leader, not that I counted for such acclaim as I had been registered since my second year as a Gym Leader. It was only now, in my fourth year that I had started to advance up the ranks.

We broke apart and I entered the box marked out as the trainer area on my side of the field. When I turned a referee was in position in the middle of the field. The woman gave the field an intense inspection before bowing in each of our directions. “The field is up to standards, and the battle may commence!” she said, straightening up and marching to her spot.

Hazel and I shared a look. It would seem we had a stickler for the rules in this referee. I made a note to not linger on any of my tradeouts.

The referee raised her flags, ran through the standard set of instructions and before too long, she dropped her flags while shouting, “Begin!”

Hazel and I both hurled out our pokemon.

On my side, Sanchez took to the field with a loud cackle and a wave to everyone present.

On Hazel’s side, a Linoone took to the stage. Hmmm, we hadn’t guessed she’d use that pokemon first, or indeed, at all during this match.

What did she have planned sending out a normal type?

“Stealth Rock,” I said, setting the field for my purposes.

“Baby-doll eyes!” chirped Hazel, causing me to nod as Sanchez gained a goofy grin and waved towards Linoone. Okay, so that was her strategy? Lowering Sanchez’s attack stat?

“Again,” I said, unimpressed by this turn of events.

“Now! While their guard is lowered! Double-Edge!” Hazel cried.

I had to respect her pokemon knowing that move, but at the same time, I was disappointed that she didn’t know what Baby Doll Eyes actually did. Then again, to the layperson, perhaps that’s what they thought it did?

“Match it,” I said, causing Sanchez to exaggeratedly throw himself into a sprint before starting to roll. With Linoone having taken off before this and Sanchez’s mucking about the impact happened closer to our side.

Both pokemon slammed into each other and there was a solid whump of displaced air only for Linoone to come off worse from the hit. Sanchez shook his head while Linoone staggered and growled in pain.

“Thunder!” I said going for the kill on the first battle. Sanchez sparked up and Hazel stiffened.

“Evade with Dig!” she ordered. Linoone dove into the ground and dodged a huge bolt of lightning.

I nodded in respect at the move before snapping my fingers. “Earthquake,” I said.

Sanchez stomped his feet and clapped his hands like he was doing a war dance, albeit with a lot more hip sway than I’d ever seen. Sanchez had a huge silly grin strewn across his face as Linoone was hurled out of the ground, beaten and broken.

“No! Linoone, hang in there with Rest!” Hazel called.

I shifted. I had half a mind to end the match with a shot to her sleeping vulnerable pokemon, but then I realised I had better options to close out the match. By not withdrawing her Linoone now, and instead going for Rest, Hazel had made a huge error.

“Stealth Rock,” I said and for a third time Sanchez got off his field effect.

Linoone surprised me by being a quick sleeper as just as the rocks formed up it opened its eyes and locked back onto Sanchez.

“Thunder,” I said again, deciding to put the pressure on Hazel.

“Charge in! Dodge it with Double-Edge!” she cried out, punching her hand forward.

Linoone charged in but this time Sanchez wasn’t to be denied.

His Thunder struck from the sky like a bolt from the heavens slamming into and ending Linoone’s charge.

It slid closer towards us only to regather its feet and surprise me with a sudden faster burst of speed even as lightning coursed around its form.

Linoone once more slammed into Sanchez and this time Sanchez was the one to fall back in surprise. He quickly bobbed up however and shook himself off. “Go go golem!” he shouted encouragingly to Linoone.

“Discharge,” I said, making Sanchez erupt in lighting around him and locking Linoone with volts of electricity.

When the Discharge finished Linoone was revealed, laying on his back with his paws in the air twitching as electrical jolts arced through him.

The referee inspected Linoone and hurled out a flag, “Linoone is unable to battle! Brock is the victor!” she cried.

Hazel wilted. “Urgh, that didn’t go how I was hoping,” she said.

I quirked an eyebrow and had to wonder how she was hoping for that match to play out.

It was honestly a rather terrible choice for a three-on-three match for her opening pokemon against me.

“Let’s go Ludicolo!” cried Hazel. Her next pokemon took to the field only to get a welcome of three Stealth Rocks slamming into it from various angles.

I felt a little bad as I pointed straight at the stumbling pokemon. “Thunder,” I ordered.

Once again Sanchez lit up, and once again, I could tell Sanchez’s aim was on point.

So could Hazel. “Protect!” she screamed.

Ludicolo reacted just in time to raise a shield to deflect the powerful electric attack and I had to click my tongue in annoyance. Damn, that had nearly been a one-and-done showing for her. Still, she had the answer she needed.

It was just a shame she hadn’t started with this pokemon.

Ludicolo dropped the Protect and took to bouncing around merrily. Sanchez joined in the other pokemon hopping from foot to foot like this was merely a game.

“Astonish!” shouted Hazel.

Her Ludicolo hid its hands like it was doing peekaboo and a monet later opened its hands to reveal its eyes were in different locations and a truly huge tongue was stuck out of its mouth as it leapt forward at Sanchez.

“Go?!” he said, startled by this odd turn of events.

“Discharge,” I said firmly. Sanchez reacted even as Lucicolo closed, zapping the other pokemon as it made an impact.

Sanchez stumbled back and fell on his backside as Hazel got lucky with the flinch effect.

“Yes! Now use Mega Drain!” she said.

I held in a sigh. Someone really needed to teach these kids that there were better-draining grass-type moves, such as Giga Drain to use.

Green energy shot into Sanchez and then back to Ludicolo as I shot my hand forward. “Thunder!” I said.

Sanchez rocked up onto his knees and let loose a powerful blast that shot up and then down into Ludicolo causing it to buckle under the power of the attack. When the lightning vanished Ludicolo tottered back and forth before falling to the side, having fallen unconscious.

Once more the Referee shot their flag up towards me and I had to frown. Hazel was making a lot of mistakes, it seemed to me. I felt the Gym Leader within me wanting to sit her down after the match for a review, much as I had for Carlos. Some of these mistakes seemed simple to me.

I wasn’t sure what she was thinking, using the Linoone choice. On a whim, I glanced away from the field and instead looked around for anyone in her section of the stands only to find them empty.

Hmmm, she didn’t have a support team or anyone to workshop ideas with.

Not surprising considering she was only in her first year as an Ace trainer, but it might start costing her more going forward.

“Go! Roselia!” Hazel shouted sending out her final pokemon, and the pokemon that I had been expecting first from her. The only reason I could think she had held back on it, was that this Roselia, was her starter pokemon.

“Earthquake!” I said as the Stealth Rocks shot towards Roselia.

“Petal Dance!” screamed Hazel. “Dance through the attacks and stay light!” she screamed.

I, and all the spectators watched as she unleashed a powerful wave of petals while stepping lightly around the Stealth Rocks that should have been guaranteed to hit.

The only hit Roselia took ended up being when it buckled with Sanchez getting off his Earthquake and forcing Roselia to take a shot to the arm with the final Stealth Rock.

Then the petals that had been swirling around Roselia swept forward and slammed into Sanchez, dropping him with the powerful storm of pink.

“Return Sanchez,” I said surprised that Hazel had some power in her pocket with her Roselia. I hadn’t been expecting it to be so strong that it could weave its way through Stealth Rocks while under pressure like that.

I ignored the referee announcing the score as I selected my second pokeball. “Go Zephyr!” I said, revealing my answer to the Grass-poison type pokemon.

Hazel grimaced and shot me a look. “You were expecting him?” she asked.

I nodded. “I was expecting him earlier honestly, I thought I was going to get off a single Stealth Rock.” I shrugged. “You didn’t play that game though,” I said before waving towards Zephyr. “Air Slash.”

Zephyr swept his wing and unleashed a cutting wind.

“Bend under it!” said Hazel, surprising me once again as her pokemon.

Instead of taking the hit, blocking it, or leaping away, Roselia leaned all the way back, like a willow tree in the face of a raging storm to avoid the Air Slash.

As It bent back up Hazel punched forward. “Leech Seed!” she commended, resulting in seeds shooting up into the air towards Zephyr.

“Dive into a Hurricane!” I commanded, feeling a small spark. This was more like it, I thought to myself as I felt my focus intensify and the link I had with Zephyr being tested. Hazel was pushing back despite the type advantage being in my favour and making me fight her properly.

Zephyr dropped, spinning as he did so, causing a Hurricane to form and throw off any seeds that had been threatening him. Then, with his defense sorted, he swept the Hurricane forward straight at Roselia, turning back on the offensive.

“Roselia! Dig your heels in and Endure!” called Hazel.

Roselia did just that, curling in on itself as the Hurricane swept over him, battering and tearing at his huddled form.

When the Hurricane was spent, Zephyr turned to assess his foe. Around where Roselia had been a wave of detritus had built up with the pokemon twitching and shivering in the middle, mostly hidden from view.

Another person, one not good friends with Erika, might have hesitated and waited a moment. I merely chopped my hand down again. “Aerial Ace!” I barked.

Roselia, hearing the order twitched, throwing off the loose leaf litter that had covered it as it turned to face Zephyr. It had to bend its body as its feet, or roots rather, remained Ingrained.

Endure, with an Ingrain, resulting in Roselia not truly reaching the dredges of energy it otherwise might have.

“Toxic!” shouted Hazel as her pokemon lined up its two roses that acted as arms to fire a noxious substance at Zephyr, or rather, where he’d been.

Just before the Toxic was about to impact, Aerial Ace activated, and Zephyr blurred in a sudden acceleration to the side where he swept in and finished off the exceptionally strong Roselia.

Roselia was hurled and rolled back only to lay flat after a soft cry and a rose being extended towards Hazel. Hazel returned him with a forlorn sigh. “You did great buddy.”

“Roselia is unable to battle! The match goes to Brock!” The referee shot her flags up as she pronounced me the winner.

I approached Hazel and shook her hand. “Good match, That last pokemon is seriously strong. It’s impressive that your Linoone knows the moves that it does as well.”

“Ah, yeah… he wasn’t my first pick but a number of my other pokemon are fatigued cause we had a hard match on sunday… that I’m sort of regretting, but at the same time not,” Hazel said with a sigh.

“Hoh?” I asked.

Hazel rubbed the back of her head. “Even with those pokemon I don’t think I would have won today’s match.”

I waved a hand. “Never discount yourself. You and your team could be firing on all cylinders or I could be feeling flat you know?”

“Hmmmm, I had a friend challenge you… do you want to talk about the match?” she asked.

I grinned. “I would be happy to!” Holy heck but I wanted to correct some misconceptions this girl had!

I happily led her back to the Pewter tent with my entourage. Yolanda was highly amused at how I was discussing the match and giving Hazel insights into things she could do better. With the knowledge that Hazel had come into this match with limited options, her Linoone first choice… made a bit of sense, but it was honestly a bit ambitious.

She must have been expecting her Roselia to carry her through the first day to give her other pokemon time to rest. Sadly, she got caught out.

When I was done I sent Hazel off to enjoy herself before spending an hour going over the match, and my own next match up against Han from Ecruteak City. Apparently, Han had spent some time training with the Gym there so I already knew to expect some Ghost pokemon and it showed with his pokemon roster being mostly dominated by them.

Sadly he seemed to have a penchant for using very annoying tactics such as switch-outs to gain himself favourable matches up as much as he could.

“Should be an easy win for you,” said A.J.

I nodded. “Yeah, I have to wonder though, this has kind of caught me in a whiplash situation with last week’s matches being something I had to really struggle and be on point with… today’s matches… they kind of…” I trailed off and searched for the right word.

“Suck?” said A.J. bluntly.

“Aren’t up to your standard?” said Greta cautiously.

I pointed at her. “Yeah, it’s kind of odd. If you aren’t careful you could get caught off guard I think because for some of these matches I’m really just overpowering my opponent’s pokemon. Carlos was a good example, but there are some outliers. If Hazel had more pokemon like that Roselia she’d be in the top twenty easily I think.”

That made A.J. lift up Hazel’s information with a bit more interest. “Her Roselia was that strong?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, but the point I’m trying to make is… there’s a skill to staying sharp and watching for strong contenders in matches like these, cause you can sort of get lulled into dropping your standards.”

The others nodded at this and Missy even went as far as to write it down in a journal that looked like it was overflowing with notes. “Been a good day for you?” I asked.

She bobbed her head up and down quickly. “Yeah! Fantastic! My head is just swimming with everything I just… I don’t know if I can take any more in though,” she said, looking up and revealing she had a slightly dizzy look.

“Ah, time to go outside and just blow off some steam, yeah? You have your keycard for the hotel room, right?” When she nodded I directed her out the tent flap. “We’ll clean up here. Go relax, do some shopping, whatever you need to do, alright? Yolanda, Rachel, how about you girls go with her?” I prompted.

With that seen too A.J. and I packed up the tent and then moved on to the hotel we were staying at. When I opened the door, I was greeted by Yolanda in a pink fluffy robe with a towel around her head. Terra was next to her with a towel around her horn.

“Can I order room service?” Yolanda asked. I chuckled and waved my acceptance while asking for a burger. With her checked in, I moved down to a specialised area where I laid out my pokemon’s food on plates. My team appeared in a flash of light and I sat down to talk with them about the day for an hour or so.

Sanchez was full of praise for Roselia and Zephyr got a round of cheers for beating the strong pokemon. Tide looked a bit sad that he didn’t get to fight but I was quick to assure him that I’d appreciated having him in my pocket as a pinch-hitter.

“Alright, anyone want to watch some movies with Yolanda and I? We got the penthouse so you can watch with us?” I asked. That got them to all chirp up and when I returned and released them Yolanda laughed and settled in for a few movies with me.

I made sure not to spare a thought for my next match. I already had done what I needed, so I didn’t spare it any more thought.

When I awoke I went through a quick breakfast to get to the grounds early. Yolanda jogged out with me and we set up the tent before sending off a message to the others to join us when they were free. I then led Yolanda around the grounds, buying some goods that were being sold by stalls about the tournament grounds.

“We’ll have to make a concerted effort to go to the department store tomorrow depending on what time my next match is,” I said to Yolanda.

I returned to the tent to find an amused Rachel staring at Missy as a much larger crowd of reporters clamoured for her attention.

“So are you going to be the new heir now that Forrest has been pushed aside?!” called one reporter.

I blinked at that and stepped up. “What’s going on here?” I asked.

Missy curled in on herself. “I was still feeling a bit out of it so I decided to have a match and I used… Rhyperior… and people think that means I’m the heir now?” she said, shooting me a plaintive look.

I hummed. “Hmmm That doesn’t… actually,” I considered it from an outsider’s perspective. It would have been a huge concession for me to hand over how to evolve Rhydon. It could be construed that way.

I coughed into a fist. “Right, to clarify, Missy, as skilled a trainer as she is, is not the Pewter Gym’s heir. At this stage, it is still being held by my family. We will decide among ourselves who is the best suited. Forrest, may or may not want to, just as Yolanda here may, or may not want to,” I asked.

As though sensing maximum drama potential, the bag that Yolanda had been carrying over her shoulder opened and Terra poked her head out. “Lar? Vitar?” she said innocently.

The reporters went into a frenzy.

“Is Yolanda the next heir?” shouted one.

“The next Brock! She’s following in his footsteps!” cried another.

I raised a finger and then lowered it. I shot her a look, “Well, she sort of is, but I think she’ll do herself very proud, she’s got a lot of potential and I am going to be very interested in it when she goes on her Journey.”

The reporters paused at this and then turned back to their cameramen. “You heard it here first folks! Brock has an heir in Yolanda! An inheritor of will that will one day rock the League with her arrival! Her Journey will be one we eagerly await!” cried one reporter.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I didn’t say that… but.. Sure, whatever makes you happy.”

At my side, Yolanda stared, with open eyes. “Are they always like this?”

I sighed. “I think they were just extra excited with Missy’s reveal, and then things sort of spiralled from there,” I said.

I waved my hand towards the tent. “Let’s just ignore them, we have better things to do,” I said.

Such as running through final preparations to face a ghost specialist.

I doubted Han would hold up against Agatha, whom I’d sparred with quite a few times now, but it wouldn’t pay to get sloppy.

I swallowed down my hesitation and got ready to fight.