Hard Enough

I felt Billy stir next to me. It wasn’t a gentle stirring of a person gradually waking up, but that of a child. It immediately woke me up despite my attempts to keep sleeping.

Sadly, Billy, as a small child, was all elbows and knees as he rolled around.

I stopped him rolling over me where he would have rudely awoken Sabrina but that only made his elbows dig into me worse.

Somehow he unerringly dug into my kidneys and stomach. Out of reflex, I tucked up my knees to protect other soft parts of myself.

Sabrina cracked her eye at the small grunts of annoyance I was releasing. “Billy, if you need to go to the bathroom, just go,” she said.

Billy rolled out of bed. On the way, his heel twitched into my guts which I knew enough to brace against while protecting my family jewels. Sabrina sat up and glared towards the window where the sun was clearly visible with sunrise having been a few hours ago.

I glanced at the alarm clock and groaned. “I needed to get up, like… ten minutes ago,” I said, scrubbing at my face.

I shot Sabrina a look. “Did you turn off the alarm again?”

She pouted and didn’t meet my gaze, causing a chuckle to escape me at how cute she was with her fake childish behaviour. I leaned in and kissed Sabrina. I felt her smile into the kiss.

“Eww, gross!” said Billy from the door to my ensuite. I broke off the kiss and levelled a highly unimpressed look at my little brother. A wingman he was not.

“Did you flush?” I said, knowing that he hadn’t.

He darted back in and the flush of my toilet echoed through the room. He reappeared in the doorway. “Yes!” he said.

Sabrina smiled. “Did you wash your hands?” she prompted.

Billy vanished back into the toilet and I sighed when the sink started gurgling. Billy’s voice began to chime out the doorway. “This is my hand-washy song and I sing it when I need to—”

Sabrina giggled before standing and stretching. “I should return to my own gym,” she said with a soft yawn. “I have a number of matches today,” she said.

I nodded. “I might poke over to watch your fights with my Gym trainers. We’re facing Kong today,” I said.

Sabrina paused. “Brock… Kong is going to do something that will greatly annoy you. It has a lot to do with you being my partner, but reacting too strongly may bite you. Let things play out if you can.”

I worked my jaw a bit while rubbing at the sleep still in my eyes, “That… makes way too much sense.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Not to mention it would be a bad idea for me to fight…” I said and Sabrina narrowed her eyes at me.

I just shrugged “Just stating that a fair few of my pokemon are going to be tired, if not outright unusable after this morning’s battles,” I said.

Sabrina nodded her head. “You should be able to de-escalate with him but expect some trouble,” she said as she leaned down to kiss me. Before she teleported away I made sure to catch her hand.

“Hey, you be careful as well, I don’t like the idea of Mewtwo just popping in on you,” I said.

She nodded. “As much as I can, I will,” she said. She vanished with a flash and I sighed. I resisted the urge to flop back on my bed and go back to sleep.

“—hand-washy song and I sing it when I need to—” continued Billy from the bathroom. I shot the door a questioning look.

“How many times have you sung that now?” I asked.

“Three!” chimed Billy.

I rolled my eyes. Oh well, at least he was being hygienic. “Alright, you can stop!” I called. The sound of the tap cut off along with the song. I recalled the next point “Just wipe your hands and—” Billy ran out, hands dripping only to wipe them on a nearby set of pants I had in a dirty laundry hamper.

I sighed. “Of course,” I said. It was once more time to work with my little brother to make sure he didn’t become a little Grimer. “right , so you need to…” I trailed off as I caught sight of the toilet.

I nodded slowly. “Right… you need to work on your aim,” I said with a sigh, while wondering if I didn’t need to upgrade him to a potential Muk.

I shook my head. Collecting him and depositing him at the breakfast bar with Nanny Grav. I proceeded to the Medical bay where I released my pokemon.

I gave them a look over. “Sorry for the short warning before going into that fight this morning,” I said looking them over. “You all performed great.” I paused on Don and Empress, who was creeping towards the exit. “That said, there are some pointers we can take away from it. I won’t have the time to address all those now, but I wanted to let you all know what I thought.”

“Empress…” I said addressing the Donphan in the room. Empress paused, not looking at me but still waiting to hear what I said. For that I was at least a little relieved. I licked my lips and considered what I could say. “You scared me back there, challenging Mewtwo like you did” I admitted.

Empress peered at me. She hadn’t been expecting that.

I gave her a small smile. “That said, I knew I couldn’t stop you. I don’t know your pain and I honestly hope I never have to. You did the right thing,” I said, deciding to back her.

Regardless of the moral implications of what was going on with Giovanni and Mewtwo. Empress had needed that, just as she didn’t need me chastising her for it.

“I’m sorry it went the way it did, but I’m not surprised. It took teams of pokemon to put a dent in Mewtwo last time,” I said, reminding her of the last two times we’d fought Mewtwo. “If we have to fight him a fourth time, let us help,” I said, indicating myself and the other pokemon.

Empress glanced around and was surprised when the others all nodded seriously. She glanced away. There might have been dirt in her eyes as she had to scratch at them. I just smiled.

“We’ll have to work on a few things still,” I said. “But for now I’m going to give most of you time to rest before I head out with a smaller team. Selene, you’ll be with me today as will Shin and Chou. Don… you stay here,” I said firmly, deciding to call him out and make it clear I wasn’t happy with him.

He curled away and looked contrite but I knew I’d need to do more with him soon by the flash of something malicious in his eyes.

Before I headed off I made sure to tap Titan on the shoulder. “Spend some time with your mum today, maybe get Terra and Teddiursa to spend some time with her?” I suggested

He nodded and headed off leaving me to sigh. Chansey walked up and patted me on the head. “Chansey Chans!” she said as she praised me.

I smiled, it was nice to have someone tell me I’d done well.

Saffron as the central city of Kanto was arguably one of the most popular cities to house non-trainers. With the centre of the city housing the large corporations of Kanto along with a few international businesses it made sense. The outer edges of the city were otherwise dedicated to parks, and housing with large open boulevards to walk down if you were on foot.

Saffron being the largest population of non-trainers didn’t mean people didn’t keep pokemon with them.

There were still plenty of people running around with growlithe on their morning jogs. The playgrounds all had various assistant pokemon and urban pokemon such as Machop, Mr Mime and various transport pokemon such as Rapidash, Rhyhorn, or Tauros were put to use.

This did make the place a lot more cosmopolitan, along with less fighting per person. It didn’t mean there weren’t fights, just that they happened in more specific areas of Saffron. The other sort… tended to be a little strange, but I just chalked that up to living in a world of pokemon.

I guided the Pewter detachment of trainers and support staff once more. With Saffron’s teleportation business being set to the heart of the city we had to walk through a number of intersections and work our way out of the skyscrapers that shot up in the financial heart of the city.

The kids all gaped openly like the obvious out-of-towners they were. I spotted more than a few people who must have likewise been only just making their way into Saffron for their first challenge.

It was as Sabrina had said. The trainer surge was well and truly crashing upon her. I might have had it hard initially with trainers seeking me out at the start, but without Giovanni and Blaise to act as ‘final bosses’ Sabrina was the only person with the prestige left for a lot of people to fight.

Well.. until next week. I already had a lot of slots for the next few weeks Elite battles locked in. I had a few dates circled for the very notable names that were returning to challenge me. But thankfully that was Monday’s problem.

Today was too damn bright and too damn loud. I adjusted the sunglasses and worked my jaw, fighting off the urge to yawn.

In truth there was enough going on around Saffron to be interesting, with all the street performers and people on show. I couldn’t find it in me to care though.

I was just too tired to give it much attention.

I still had enough attention to reach out and snag Crystal from walking across an intersection though. She blanched as a small crowd of bikes and pokemon swept past.

The inclusion of pokemon and vehicles on the road made for some interesting road rules, and even more interesting sights.

“Make way! I’m late for a meeting!” bellowed one man in a suit as his Tauros charged through an intersection.

“You make way! I’m running a meeting!” shouted another man coming the other way after dodging around a slow-moving Rhyhorn with an old man and woman sitting on top of it.

Both Tauros, who had been on opposite sides of the road, were now perfectly in line with each other. They locked eyes and lowered their heads, ignoring the way their riders tugged at them to move apart.

They instead sped up and committed.

Both men swore and braced only to lock eyes. “You should have moved!”

“Me? You’re the one who can’t control their ride!” snarled the other.

As both Tauros slammed into each other I got to watch a strange blend of fighting/grappling take place as the two business suit-wearing men locked slammed into each other. Their hands linked as they tried to tip the other off their pokemon.

“I’m a CFO!” snarled one man.

“I’m a VP of sales!” snarled the other as they and their pokemon pushed and shoved each other for position.

A.J. stared at the small fight taking part in the middle of the road.

Others, used to the antics didn’t even bat an eye, merely continued to ride past the small fight. I knew that as long as no actual pokemon moves or wider disruption occurred nothing would happen, even if one of the police happened upon them.

I noted that A.J. wasn’t alone in gaping at the weird fight. Several other out-of-towners had maps out and were wearing cheap merchandise declaring Saffron the ‘big-oran’ of Kanto.

When the light turned green I tapped A.J. on the shoulder. “Don’t focus on that. It’s side-dressing at most. These sorts of things seem to happen a bit in Saffron,” I said.

Greta peered around me and watched as the men disengaged their grapple to try beating on the other with suitcases that they must have pulled out of travel pouches.

“City folk are weird,” muttered A.J. before shaking his head and marching back up to me.

Greta who’d been watching, but not gawking like A.J. merely shrugged. “Seems pretty normal to me, have you never been to a big city before?”

A.J. shifted from foot to foot. “I lived on the outskirts of Cerulean for ages or travelled around. We… didn’t get welcomed into many big towns and if we did we stayed on the outskirts,” he said before stiffening and clamming his mouth shut.

I hummed, interested that A.J. had volunteered something of himself like that. One of the things that I had noticed about him was that he never, ever mentioned parents or caregivers. Despite that he had a very good tent to use for his training but everything else was rough about him.

I would have expected more backing. In another life, I might have just passed it off as cartoon logic but I knew that A.J. had a story.

I suspected that he had once been part of a circus as a child and something had caused a split with A.J. raising himself with only a few essentials such as a starter pokemon. During the few workouts we’d had, I probed around the topic and observed but he always seemed to close in on himself whenever conversations turned to parents.

Then again, I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to talk about parents. I didn’t want to talk about Flint and… Lola to other people.

There were plenty of people out there that had no parents as I suspected he didn’t. He was doing a lot better than most of the orphans I knew, but that was just a hypothesis at the moment.

I coughed and regathered myself. “Well, fights like this are fairly commonplace in most cities really, it’s just that with the population and… well the size of people’s egos that live here there’s more chance of fights breaking out.”

“Heh! Old men, board members and CEO’s fighting is pretty funny to consider,” Crystal said with a giggle.

I smirked. “Oh? So you haven’t been to Celadon when a sale is on in their department store? They have to move the goods to the roof to allow for the fights and usually it is a four-way free-for-all, all to make things more manageable,” I said grinning at her.

“Sales?” said most of the kids.

I nodded. “There are usually some sorts of sales on, if you check the magazine. You just have to be careful as sometimes during the big planned sales companies will run a line of goods that are similar but a lot of the ruggedness of them are not included,” I said, informing the kids of an old tactic companies made use of in my past life.

It didn’t happen as much here but there were still cases of it. Celadon department store was perhaps one of the worst sites for it happening. I shrugged. “I find it’s always good to make use of the end-of-financial-year sales that come around,” I said.

The others blinked and Yolanda shot me a look. “Is that why the teleport you had arranged is booked for later this afternoon?” she said connecting the dots.

I snapped a finger at her while once more repressing an urge to yawn. “Correct, you have your pocket money and I know there might be some interesting deals on, so by all means go for a jaunt over there after the matches.”

I shot Greta and A.J. a small look. “I’m hoping you won’t need retail therapy but it’s nice to have something to look forward to afterwards, win or lose,” I said.

“Some of the pokeball stock should be on sale as well for once,” I said and A.J. perked up. Ah, so A.J. was looking to expand his team. Good, that indicated that he was feeling safer with the Gym at least and hopefully would use the stable facilities going forward.

I’d have to ask what he was thinking of adding to his team. If I had to guess it was going to be something ‘cost-efficient’ like a Pidgey, or a Sentret. But perhaps he’d surprise me.

With the kids making plans to go shopping after their match I led them through the streets of Saffron city. We dodged past the street performers and the traffic and made good time getting to a wide street that had paved cobblestones leading up to it.

“Gym Guides! Get your Gym Guides! Every trick and tactic that’s been shown to work at every level! Get them while they’re hot! This week’s guide is going to be a must have!” cried a man with an afro.

I shot the man a baleful look and he stiffened, no doubt feeling the dark intent I was shooting his way. The man spun around and blanched when he saw me.

“Ah! Gym Leader Brock! My cousin sends his regards!” he said with a trembling smile.

When I grunted and jerked my head the man darted away. “Do you know this man’s family?” asked Yolanda, watching the man as he scurried through the crowd of pokemon trainers that were idling around on the street. A few of them shot me annoyed looks but I merely directed my gaze to them.

“Brock?” prompted Yolanda again.

“Hmm? Oh, that guy’s family? They’re sort of a running… scourge to most of the Gyms. they hawk…” my lip curled up. “Advice guides, to young trainers that don’t know any better.”

Crystal tilted her head. “Why is that so bad?”

“The guides are the most basic of basic information and they often contain information that hinders trainers from actually growing. They’re… cheat sheets for some levels of Gym challenges but they hinder development, and in some cases actively harm people as there is a lot of information that is outright wrong,” I said.

Yolanda waved a hand. “I’ve never seen a man like that selling guides for the Pewter Gym.”

I snorted. “You might have when the Gym was on public property with the original site. Back then I couldn’t restrict people from hawking goods right out the front if they wanted. I could if they tried anything in the Gym, but not out the front,” I said recalling the annoying man who in the games had been harmless as a rookie’s guide for people’s very first playthroughs.

In reality, they were a widespread family of sneaks and conmen that had found a niche to burrow into and had done just that. What was this specialty?

Gym information.

What pokemon to expect from the Gym. What common habits they had, set pokemon’s movespool, and references for speed and strength is what they marketed. In reality, it was all generic information pulled from libraries.

Sure they’d put in some effort, but it wasn’t what they said it was. It was publicly listed information that anyone had access to and honestly should know.

It was more impressive that one of them invariably appeared in front of a Gym. They were extremely prolific.

Sadly the information packets were also very outdated if not outright wrong.

People would buy the information only to find it contained things like ‘Rock being weak to grass, water, and fighting type. They didn’t include anything of Ground or Steel type pokemon and they toted things like Rock being immune to electric type attacks. While also flattening anything that was Fire, Flying or bug typed.

I hadn’t been able to get them thrown in lock-up when I realised how much disinformation there was being peddled as there was a clear subscript at the bottom of the first page that the information was not to be used competitively or taken seriously.

If you happened to need a magnifying glass to read said script, that was just a printing error.

I grinned to myself. “When I took over the Gym I took great pleasure in banning any peddlers from the Gym. The man apparently has taken up residence near the pokemart after getting run out of the pokecenter.”

Yolanda nodded slowly. “I’m surprised Sabrina tolerates them.”

“Eh, this is still public space,” I said. I pointed to a small kiosk where a professionally set up woman was seated with a line of trainers leading up to it. “That being said, Sabrina chose to take a different approach to dealing with the peddlers,” I said with an amused shake of my head.

Yolanda blinked. “Are those?”

“Information packets regarding psychic pokemon, including their strengths and weaknesses?” I said with a smile. Yolanda nodded and I pointed to another part of the kiosk. “They also sell some of the Gym Merch as official partners,” I said.

Yolanda and the others stared. “Why would she do that?” said Greta after a long moment of silence.

“Oh, that only contains information on the less experienced pokemon. It doesn’t highlight some of the higher-tier pokemon and what they can do. Sabrina changed things up with her approach. This forced the peddlers to actually do some work as she has a host of different techniques that can be countered if you know what you’re doing. That said, this is Sabrina we’re talking about. She can read most people before they enter the Gym if she wants to,” I said.

“Wow, go Sabrina,” said Yolanda.

I chuckled. In truth Sabrina had never even deigned to notice the peddlers until I’d mentioned being annoyed by them and what I was planning.

I think initially she’d almost forced the local branch of the peddlers to go bankrupt from her trick before they got their act together. They were extra careful around Sabrina these days and very careful with any information regarding her Gym.

The amusing part of all this was that it was entirely possible that Sabrina had forgotten about them and her kiosk was simply continuing to operate under her original parameters.

That or she was just keeping it there as a constant reminder to the peddlers that at any time, she could end their operations in Saffron.

We continued up onto the Gym Challenge corridor, as the street was called where we were met by a number of signs indicating that people were not to ride bikes, pokemon, or other people down the street.

A.J. shot the sign a confused look. “But, riding another person would be slow?” he said.

The girls also shot the sign a confused look only to blush. Yolanda shot me a wide-eyed look. I waved a hand at the numerous benches that were tucked underneath flowering trees. “It’s a popular date site during the evening,” I said cryptically.

Yolanda shot the seats a slightly worried look, edging away from them. I snorted, knowing that while people tried certain romantic acts, they didn’t get away with much. The area was too well-lit and too well-patrolled.

It didn’t stop some people from trying though.

We continued on past the flowering blossoms and other trees that lined the Gym Corridor. The golden pavement and trees made it an iconic feature for Saffron tourism.

It was a shame that most of the time there were tons of trainers moving up and down it. To accommodate this, further out, past the corridor itself, small courts were maintained by both Sabrina and Kong for trainers to battle on.

It was immediately obvious which side of the corridor belonged to Sabrina and which belonged to Kong. Kong favoured traditional stone and wooden structures that encompassed lamps, walls, and signposts.

Sabrina’s side of the corridor was well-lit with modern lighting.

On her side, the gym itself towered over the landscape. A giant stadium in itself. When we reached the intersection that led to each Gym’s entrance I shot a found look towards Sabrina’s gym before turning in the other direction.

Kong’s Gym reminded me of a traditional martial arts dojo, albeit one that had been joined with a shogun’s castle with multiple layers with walls that ringed around the structure. Each wall had a small gate in front of which a pair of Gym trainers stood creating a literal gauntlet that trainers had to fight their way through.

To either side of the door guards, a small space was prepared for pokemon battles.

A third Gym trainer stood in the gateway, stopping any that sought to advance without at least facing one of the door guards and defeating them.

I glanced at Greta and A.J. “Alright, this show is all yours,” I said, moving towards a small wooden set of stands and leaving the two trainers to face their first challenge.

“Hoha! What is this Brother Jong? Two squirts face us?” shouted the leftmost door guard.

“Haho! Indeed it appears so Brother Fang! So? Are you two ready to face the Fighting Gym of Kanto’s fury?” announced Brother Jong.

Greta nodded and A.J. started, only for him to perk up. “I’ll wait a moment,” he said with a small smirk that I felt I should have been worried about. I started to consider what sort of trouble he’d get himself into when a yawn ripped through me.

I smacked my lips and shook my head. “Oh, sorry,” I said but the others waved it off.

Yolanda eyed me. “Did you not get much sleep last night?”

I shook my head. “Had some issues for Billy to handle,” I said.

Yolanda blinked. “Oh, I thought you and Sabrina…” she trailed off and I huffed in amusement before another yawn ripped through me.

“Nah, just some small drama, “I said, the lie flowing off my tongue easily. Yolanda wouldn’t question it, and it wasn’t like Billy knew what time he got up to come into my room. Sometimes my family truly were the best at providing me with alibis.

As we settled into our seats on the wooden stands, Greta stepped up against Brother Fang.

To the side, a referee rattled off the usual prematch spiel which I dozed through only for Yolanda to jog my elbow. “I didn’t know that Kong only fought with two pokemon for his challenge?” she said.

I blinked, my eyes feeling gummy. “Uhmm, say what now?” I asked.

Yolanda gestured to the ref. “He just said that the Gym only accepts two pokemon challenges, with each trainer only allowed to use two pokemon.”

I worked my jaw. “Huh, he’s using that rule? That’s interesting,” I said, noting it down but not really caring. It was a little more than a point of style in the end plus I was feeling kind of drowsy.

Greta started things off with Beedrill coming out first.

“Interesting choice,” I said to myself, my mind playing with the list of pokemon that she had access to. Wouldn’t Pidgey have been a safer bet?

Across from her Brother Fang sent out a Machoke that locked eyes with Beedrill.

The flags dropped and both trainers called their orders.

“Beedrill! Speed sequence!” Greta commanded. Her beedrill blurred to the side and a harsh buzzing sounded as the wings on Beedrill’s back picked up speed as it moved in dizzying blurs.

Brother Fang merely had his pokemon perform a Bulk Up, with his pokemon flexing and growing more powerful.

Then, before anyone could blink or give another order, Beedrill was in close to Machoke, slamming its stingers into the larger pokemon over and over again with Fury Attack. After four hits, Beedrill had to back off with a sharp buzz as Machoke regathered itself and attempted a Karate Chop.

The chop hit nothing but the air as Beedrill evaded.

Doesn’t have No Guard then,” I muttered to myself sleepily. When Beedrill darted in again only to have to dodge another attack I chuckled. “Float like a Butterfree, sting like a Beedrill,” I murmured.

“Slow it down with Scary Face!” growled Brother Fang. His Machoke glowered at where Beedrill was and waves of energy radiated off it as Beedrill froze up for a second only to glower back a second later.

With that done Machoke looked solid but Fang went for another Bulk Up, once more boosting his pokemon’s defence and attack by one stage.

“Set up Sequence!” said Greta in response and her pokemon began laying out Toxic Spikes, earning a nod from me. Good, she was considering the next pokemon out as well.

From there Beedrill tried another Agility boost, only for Fang to deny it with Scary Face. Greta gritted her teeth at this.

“Probe him!” she shouted and her pokemon tentatively advanced with stingers raised. When it got within range it launched out two quick strikes that Machoke evaded before attempting a counter of its own that Beedrill evaded.

Both pokemon continued in this vein for a little bit and I hummed slowly.

I could only put it down to being tired as I was taken by surprise when Machoke collapsed. It took me much longer than usual to realise that Greta must have been banking on a build-up of poison to win the match.

I applauded with the others but some of the more hot-headed observers groaned in disappointment when the fists stopped flying.

The next match against a Meditite went even quicker with Toxic spikes zapping the small psychic-fighting type and Greta pressing the advantage to win the right to advance to the next gate.

As Brother Fang returned his pokemon Brother Jong turned to A.J. “So? Are you ready to fight now that you have seen our pokemon in play?” he said sternly.

A.J. just grinned. “I wasn’t waiting for anything but you guys to be ready!” he announced, putting his hands on his hips.

I blinked slowly as my mind registered that A.J. was about to do something typical of a shounen protagonist as he puffed up his chest. “I challenge you both! Let’s have a Duo battle! He announced smugly, that way I get to fight four pokemon!” he said.

I facepalmed and laughed into my hand. Yolanda just giggled. “Only A.J. would seek out the hardest path forward,” she said with amusement.

I nodded my head and looked up to find Jong and Fang grinning. “Ha! We have another taker this year! Oh let’s see if you’re as good as that child with the Pidgeot and Butterfree!” shouted Fang.

I tilted my head. Now why did that sound familiar?

I couldn’t quite place it but it felt like something that I should know. Sadly my mind wasn’t working as quick as it normally would, so I dismissed it as both Fang and Jong released their pokemon after an adjusted spiel from the ref.

A.J. merely grinned and returned fire with Butterfree and his own Beedrill.

Fang and Jong released a Medicham and a Hariyama. Both pokemon looked strong which made me sit up. Had A.J. just screwed himself over? I shot A.J. a worried look. He’d seen the strong pokemon in front of him and instead of fear entering his pose he looked if anything more happy.

“Begin!” shouted the referee and A.J was quick off the mark with his order.

“Butterfree, Beedrill! In close!” he shouted and both pokemon flapped their wings and shot into the space between Medicham and Hariyama. Butterfree even went so far as to open his wings and glare balefully at the Hariyama.

Both fighting types swivelled and towards the bug type pokemon their arms raised and ready as Jong and Fang gave their orders. “Arm Thrust/Fire Punch!”

“Dust off!” cried A.J. in response and both pokemon twirled in a harsh juke to the side.

Hariyama and Medicahm who’d been lunging at their opposite number suddenly found themselves slamming into each other. The Arm Thrust rocked Medicham backwards while Fire Punch merely scorched Hariyama’s skin slightly.

I hummed mentally logging that A.J. could have been smoother with the action. There had been a lot of warning as to what he’d been trying to do and a slower, smoother action would have baited them in better.

He’d need to learn to glide instead of leap which was something I could work on.

The fighting types both growled at each other and they even marched up on each other as if they were about to throw down.

“Hariyama cool it!”

“Medicham remember yourself!” barked both Fang and Jong as they attempted to calm their pokemon down.

It took Fang and Jong a moment to order their pokemon back from each other, but this gave A.J. more than enough time to line up a Confusion and Agility.

Instantly the Hariyama twitched and a gleam entered its eyes. Once more its arm shot out and knocked Medicham away. While Medicahm was down Beedrill shot in and slammed a stinger into the psychic-fighting type to put it down.

Medicham struggled but failed to get up, causing Jong to click his tongue and return it. In its place a Mankey appeared. “Play it smart!” He ordered his pokemon who hopped from foot to foot.

“Distract and destroy!” shouted A.J. and Butterfree shifted forward to get in Hariyama’s face. Its wings beat around and the powerful fighting type started to swat at Butterfree only for Butterfree to dodge repeatedly.

“Mankey go after the Beedrill that is at the back!” ordered Jong.

I glanced back to find that Beedrill was in fact at the back, but it was hardly lounging. A white glow built up around it and a moment later it twitched. “Now!” barked A.J.

The order caused two things to happen. Butterfree shot in close before rising up, resulting in Hariyama to look up after it. In the gap that Butterfree had left, Beedrill surged forward with a stinger held back.

As it closed with Hariyama it hammered straight into Hariyama’s head knocking the huge pokemon onto its back where it gave off a huge boom.

When Hariyama failed to stand back up Fang was forced to return his pokemon with a click of his tongue. His next pokemon, a Machop appeared and glowered up.

I leaned forward and watched as A.J. demolished the pair of them and earned his own right to advance. As one, our group rose and applauded him. He grinned and nodded.

The gate opened for Greta and A.J. and the pair advanced with our group moving through a side ‘spectator’s gate’. When we passed a single Gym trainer I shot him a look .”Many people try to sneak in this way?”

He grunted. “Only the dishonest,” he said before nodding his head to a Machoke who was standing on the other side. Ah, he was using pokemon much like I did with guarding the stands. Nice.

From there we watched Greta advance easily while A.J. fought against tough opponents. I had to applaud him for stepping out of his comfort zone and going for the double battles.

It was interesting to see him stretched during the fights and it revealed some areas that he could work on.

I rubbed my chin as we advanced to the last platform where Kong awaited. I’d have to make use of some doubles battles myself if they demonstrated weakness that well. It might be good for some self-reflection.

I and the others from the Pewter Gym settled in as Kong stood.

I found the fog of fatigue lifting as I leaned forward.

Greta and A.J. had caused a good stir on the way up. Now it was time to see how they did against the Gym Leader.