Hard Enough-Chapter 278 - Normal Norman

To me, the match against Norman was something of a low-key event meant to showcase our two fighting styles and give Norman a chance to share the spotlight with me.

I’d had something of a crazy year since Lance’s challenge to me and my subsequent victory.

I’d gotten in a lot more fights than usual and it felt like my halcyon days had passed me by without me really understanding where they’d ended, but I knew it had all started with Lance’s challenge.

I’d been living the good life before that.

Running my gym, raising my siblings, and training with my pokemon. There hadn’t been any fights with Legendary pokemon, nor were there Ace trainers gunning for me. Team Rocket was a persistent, if silent, threat.

Then everything changed.

In less than a year at that.

Norman’s appointment to the city of Goldenrod was known as a temporary measure. He was well-regarded in the league and had all the credentials to slot into the role. However, his appointment had seen a lot of pushback as he was obviously a foreigner, and for the people of Goldenrod, that was a step too far.

Never mind that the past Gym Leader had been a criminal.

One thing that Goldenrod was good for was their loyalty to anyone that they considered their own.

I was reminded of that fact as my entourage exited the teleport centre to a wall of fans.

“Norman is going to crush you!” “Rah rah Goldenrod rah rah!” “Down with Brock!” “Give me an N! O! R! M! A! N!” cheered the crowd, causing people to turn and notice the spectacle.

Rather than avoid the group, locals charged in and joined the chaos, picking up extra signs that had been sitting at the back and beginning to wave them about, cheering for Norman and jeering at me and my Pokemon. Thankfully, none of the fans tried heckling my friends or family, but it was certainly a new experience for a few of them.

“Norman’s going to crush ya!” shouted one kid, only for Cindy to get in his face.

“No! My brother’s going to crush Norman! Bleh!” she shouted back.

An older man shifted, so they were close to the young Goldenrod resident. When the young kid pointed at Cindy, the man leaned in and waved a finger. “No, never the fan, always jeer the trainer; otherwise, things turn ugly, and we don’t want that in Goldenrod, do we son?” said the old man.

The son shook his head. “No, cause Goldenrod is the most beautiful city in the world. So we have to be just as beautiful so everyone knows Goldenrod is the best,” he muttered.

Huh, they taught them how to be polite Hooligans? Or was it Hooligans with a code?

I wasn’t sure, but I sent Yolanda to collect Cindy and drag her back while we continued on our way, heads held high and not at all daunted by the raving fans.

“Seems Norman’s been adopted by the locals,” I commented as more people continued to trickle into the crowd.

Brawly, who’d come along, shrugged. “It seems that way. I only got up here a little while training with Chuck, but they’ll close ranks against outsiders whenever they need to. Norman, in this case, is their representative, so they won’t say a bad word against him, win or lose.”

“Huh, should I have done this match earlier for him then?” I asked.

Brawly shrugged. “Eh, his appointment as a Gym Leader was always going to be unpopular, and I don’t think they would have closed ranks as quickly.”

He gestured at where some people were wearing tracksuits that looked like what Norman wore. “I think you might have gotten less interest in the match to be honest.”

Flannery chewed her lip. “I wonder what he did to earn their acceptance?”

“We’ll have a chance to talk with him before the match,” I reminded. “This is an exhibition match just like the fight with Agatha so it isn’t like we need to be locked away from each other. Also he wants my siblings to meet his kids.”

“Wait? Is this like a playdate?!” gasped Cindy theatrically.

I smirked. “Yes, all these fans, the renting of the Goldenrod Golden Dome stadium,” I indicated the far-off stadium with its signature gold paint that made it shine on the water, “and the match, is just so you get out of the house and make another friend,” I stated with a faux serious tone.

Cindy stared at me with an unsure expression.

I held my stoic gaze as a few crowd members who’d heard the exchange were tittering behind their signs, only to get slapped by their neighbours. “Shut up! Stop that! We’re not supposed to like him!” growled another. “Yeah, boo him!” cried another.

That got an amused twitch from my lips, and Cindy locked onto that. “Aha! You are joking around!”

I nodded. “Alright, you got me, but seriously, Norman did want to introduce May and Max to you.” I pointedly looked at Yolanda, Salvadore, Cindy, and Tommy as I announced this.

“No problem!” replied Tommy.

“Uh, sure,” grunted Salvadore, who was using the Pokedex I’d given him to take photos of the various pokemon that were part of the crowd.

Yolanda merely smiled, but I had no doubts she’d find a fast friend with May. I just had to hope that ‘Yolanda’s entourage’ weren’t going to put May off. Crystal could be quite loud, but thankfully Greta and Giselle balanced her out.

I gave our group another look-over. Huh, we’d certainly picked up a lot of strays since last year. Last year, when I’d had an exhibition match, I’d marched on the Indigo Plateau with just Celia.

Well, that wasn’t the truth, actually. Sabrina and Surge had been there for me as well, with Erika joining in not long after.

Now, a trip for an exhibition match featured no less than five people at a minimum. Today’s match?

Our group was an easy twenty-five people with the various tag-alongs I’d gained. Although most of them were family so I couldn’t really fault everyone else joining in.

We made it to the giant pier before anything else of note occurred which of course was when my siblings caught sight of all the sideshows, games, and giant ferris wheel.

“Oh! Can we go now?” cried Cindy, only for me to shake my head.

“Nope! After!” I replied easily. This was why this match had been set for Saturday at lunch time. That and it also let me block out a chunk of time for lunch. No Ace matches for me today which was good, since after Brawly the slots had been filling up.

So far Bertha, Knight, Sanchez, Shin, Titan and Selene had all been drawn with Sanchez having two matches this week while Selene had ended up fighting in the last match yesterday.

So far we’d been able to crush all comers, but that seemed to only make people more interested. They’d seen I could fall if they fought hard enough and they wanted the shiny.

Frankly, it was a little obscene how much money I was earning to beat people with my best pokemon, just so they could have a shot at a one-time shiny badge.

Better still? Even after people lost their shot at the Bejewelled Badge, most of them still came back in an attempt to defeat me for their bruised egos, resulting in even more money being thrown at me.

I’d posited lowering the cost of the challenge only to have Georgina, Crystal’s mother and my accountant, leap across the room with Titan’s paper fan to strike the thought from my mind.

I’d had to confiscate the fan from her after enduring her argument that it was too much of a cash cow for the Gym to be lowered.

I was starting to think the damn thing was cursed with how it kept coming back after I’d thrown it in the trash.

That or someone was messing with me. I gave my group a look over. My suspicions were mostly on Rocko, Dennis, or… Oh who was I kidding? It was Sabrina. It had to be. She knew I found the damn thing amusing more than I did troubling, and so she’d either make a new one or bring the old one back.

I reached into my trusty pouch, feeling around in it for a few moments, only for a papery edge to enter my grasp. Yup, definitely Sabrina was messing with me.

Only she had access to my pouch when I wasn’t wearing it.

That or Yolanda had gotten really sneaky, but I doubted it. She wouldn’t risk entering my room while Sabrina and I were asleep in there.

For one, I locked my door, usually.

Two, because she was old enough to understand that we might not be sleeping.

And three, unless Sabrina wanted you in the room, you could often find that her response to intruders was to teleport them into a nearby fountain.

I led our group of trainers and kids into the Goldenrod stadium and into the premium seating area where Norman and his family were waiting.

“Brock! Good to see you again! And you brought the whole family!”

I shook hands with him, noting the way he kept his grip firm without squeezing too tight. When we locked eyes I could feel a small spark, but both he and I repressed it, knowing that getting caught up in a fight of wills would do us no good this early into the day. We still had an hour before the match afterall.

Norman nodded at me and I turned my attention away to begin introducing the various people in my party starting with my family but quickly having to tack on the friends.

—and her friend’s Crystal, Giselle, and Greta, who’s also a promising trainer at the Gym,” I said for Yolanda’s group before shifting to introduce the younger kids, only for a nasal voice to speak up.

“Is that a pokedex? Your family has pokedex?” said a small bespectacled youth who looked a bit like Norman.

Norman clapped a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Ha! This is Max. I'm sorry about his manners! He’s a bit of an enthusiast for learning all things pokemon!”

Salvadore perked up, head lifting from the pokedex he’d been looking through. “You are? Me too! Brock got this from Professor Oak cause of all the contributions that he’s made towards research articles and discovering new and old types of pokemon!” 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

“Old types?” questioned Max. “How can you discover old types?”

Salvadore made to explain only for Flint and I to cough and remind him now might not be the best time for this. He ducked his head sheepishly. “Sorry! And I’ll tell you later!” he replied.

Max looked annoyed at everyone for getting in the way of his inquiry, but it washed off our backs. I finished up the introductions, and Norman chuckled. “Wow, you brought the whole family! It's good to meet you all. I’ve heard amazing things beyond just how large your family was!” he boomed.

I was calling it now; there was no way he wasn’t going to use an Exploud on me today.

Plans began to shift as I took in his personality. I’d done a bit of research with the usual team, plus Flannery and we’d come up with some ideas.

I’d sadly had to nix bringing Sanchez in as he’d gotten a bit tired out after the two matches he’d had this week, plus the fight against Zapdos.

If the fight with Zapdos had ended up being any later in the week, I might have cancelled this match but with a day’s rest and no real injuries to show for the fight, I’d been confident we could show up today.

“Well this is my darling wife Caroline and our two delights May and Max! Say hi, kids!” he announced with a gleam of pride in his eyes.

May waved her hand shyly as she eyed the largest group of girls her age.

Max rolled his eyes. “Hi, kids!” he parroted, causing me and a few of my siblings to chuckle at his dry wit.

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Norman just rolled his own eyes, showing that the Aspear berry didn’t fall far from the tree.

Caroline stepped forward, “Lovely to meet you all! And I must say it’s nice to see some Hoenn faces after so long in Johto!” she gushed looking to Flannery and Roxanne pointedly.

Brawly coughed. “I’m actually a Hoenn native as well!” he answered, “I’ve just been studying under Chuck for his fighting-type specialisation.”

Norman shook his head. “Ah, fighting types,” he said with a flatness that told me us he didn’t care much for his type’s major weakness. Not that we were expecting anything else from him.

Norman coughed and glanced around. “Now, sadly, my protege and the gym’s future Leader isn’t here ye—”

The door at the back of the room was kicked in and a small pink-haired girl sprinted in. “Sorry, I’m late! They haven’t arrived yet have… oh hello there!” The girl changed track quickly and bowed to my family and me. “I’m Whitney!”

Huh, well would you look at that? I thought to myself while bowing my head in greeting. “Brock, nice to meet you. So we’re going to see each other quite a bit I imagine, with Lance wanting to run an Indigo Gym Leaders talk after the conference?”

“Oh! Uhmmm, is that going to happen this year?” Whitney suddenly drew in on herself, poking her fingers together. She turned to Norman. “Hey Norman, are you still going to be around so I don’t—”

Norman shook his head. “Ha! No way! My wife and I have already bought a plot of land and have contracted a builder to design our home in Petalburg City!”

May shot her father a dark look as he announced this gleefully, while Max had started Crabbying to the side. From our group, Salvadore was mirroring him, edging slowly away from the main discussion.

Caroline gave Whitney a contrite smile. “Sorry Whitney, I know it’s going to be a big upgrade for you, but you’ve got a lot of people from the League looking over your work and ready to help should you need it.”

“But they can’t help me when it comes to the Gym Leader meet-up at the end of the year!” she wailed.

I chuckled. “It’s really not that big a deal. It’s more about just getting together and discussing things with others, sort of like what we’re doing now except with more people. You can meet Sabrina, Erika, Sophia, and the Cerulean Sisters along with the others. Manny is great, and also you’re not going to be the only new Gym Leader around, so don’t sweat it!” I said, lying my ass off for Whitney.

Since I took over as Gym Leader, I had never had to have all the Gym Leaders of the Indigo region meet up.

One aspect I hadn’t ever considered was how the various ways Gym’s got assigned would impact the meeting. I, as a Legacy Gym, would always have a family member present sitting in and our points of view and opinions were our own, but if anything ever needed the weight of most of the gym leaders, there could be a form of socio-political pressure applied with the new Gym Leaders all having certain outlooks on points.

Not that I suspected the League was doing that, but it was a thought.

Norman clapped his hands together. “Let’s grab something to eat, Whitney, stay close, you and I need to talk with Brock about the upcoming match.”

Norman indicated off to the side, where a table was laid out with canapes and a drinks station.

Salvadore and Max, who’d already moved to a corner of their own, didn’t even notice they were missing out on a rather nice buffet-style meal.

I sent Rocko over to nudge them into eating something before turning my own attention to getting a small plate of my own. Norman led me off to the side and nodded.

“Right, so one of the things that Whitney and I decided might be a good thing to do would be to use one or two pokemon that Whitney has a good grasp on. This will allow a small link for the crowd to follow when I eventually leave.”

“Oh, alright, so… is there an issue?” I said.

Norman shook his head. “No, just…” he squirmed a bit and Whitney lowered her plate of food to sigh.

“He means I use more cheese tactics than his ‘balanced style’,” she stated while shooting the taller man an annoyed look. “If you get mad, chalk it up to me.”

“Riiiiiight,” I replied slowly as I mentally adjusted and added that Miltank with Rollout and Milk Drink was absolutely part of Norman’s team for today.

“Taken part in many Ace matches recently?” I asked casually.

“Huh? Nah don’t have the time these days working to clean out the gym from the previous

Leader’s stain and training this one,” he replied as he gestured towards Whitney..

I nodded in response. I hadn’t thought he’d be involved in the Ace scene.

His rather leading comments about which pokemon he would be using with which tactic was rather telling. If Norman tried his hand at Ace matches, I suspected he’d get chewed up and spat out. He’d make for a great Gym leader though, but as I’d learned, you needed different skills and mindsets for each role.

I decided to change the subject.

“Do you want me to keep things at base level or is Mega Evolution something you want to see?” I asked in reply, deciding to keep things friendly. It was pretty much a given these days that people expected to see Jormungandr, but I also knew that it was an edge that a lot of other pokemon trainers couldn’t yet match me on.

“Heh, I want to take on your best at their best,” Norman said while sliding a finger and thumb under his chin to adopt a cool guy pose. I could almost imagine his teeth sparkling with how he was smiling but before things could get that ludicrous, Whitney elbowed him in the kidneys.

“Don’t get depressed when you get crushed!” she barked.

“Urgh! My not-so-cute protege has no faith in me!” Norman chuckled as Whitney scowled at him.

I shot Whitney a thoughtful look. She didn’t buy into the common Goldenrod support culture?

Norman shifted and his joking demeanour fell away. “So Brock, I’ve been tracking your company, Megarock Incorporated, and seen that you’ve been staking claims on a handful of sites. Found anything yet?”

“Lots of evolutionary stones, a few historical digs sites which are of cultural importance, but as yet we have yet to find a single Mega stone,” I replied sadly. “Hoping for us to find a stone for a normal pokemon?” I asked.

Norman grimaced. “Yeah I was hoping for something like a Taurosite, or even a Slakingite if possible,” he replied.

I almost replied that those weren’t possible, but I held back instead of blurting out such an answer.

I didn’t really have any proof that they didn’t exist, but by the same metric, I didn’t have any proof they did either. I had knowledge from the games and cartoons that such things were highly unlikely, however.

“So far we haven’t had much luck, but I also haven’t checked in with the Head of Operations in a while,” I commented.

Norman tilted his head as I turned. “Hey Flint! Need you for some Megarock Inc talk!” I called, causing Flint to turn away from Caroline, who he’d been talking with.

Flint bowed his head to Caroline to excuse himself only for the woman to beat him in coming over. “What’s this about rocks? Norman’s been rather interested in finding himself a super stone I believe it’s called?” Caroline said.

I blinked at her, stunned that she wasn’t up to date on the big news of the year but then I spotted her lips twitching as she watched Norman.

Norman slapped the air. “None of your jokes dear! I know when I’m being led down the garden path!”

Caroline stepped in and took his hand in hers. “Ah, but don’t you enjoy walking down garden paths with me?” she replied with a flutter of her eyelashes.

Norman grinned dopily, and Whitney stepped back and made some whipping noises that made me chuckle. Norman coughed as the romantic moment was lost. He shot his wife a fond look and Whitney one that promised they’d talk later.

“Right, so Mega stone?” he prompted Flint.

“We’ve found two, but are still trying to work them out of the stone encasing them,” announced Flint.

I blinked and turned to him. “You didn’t mention this to me, why?”

Flint coughed. “We only just discovered them two days ago and have been chiselling them out. I was going to talk to you about it but with…” He splayed his hand at me and I hummed. Hmmm, seems I must have rattled him by getting into a fight with Zapdos.

“Alright but maybe in the future send an email? Or a message instead of waiting?” I said.

Flint glanced at his transceiver. “I’m sure I did,” he muttered, pulling up a mail browser only to show that he’d yet to hit send.

I eyed him for a long beat. Was he one of those old people who were just bad at using technology? “I might need to have you sit down and complete a tech literacy course,” I informed him.

Flint looked away but notably did not deny the allegation. “So where did we find the mega stones?” I prompted.

“Squirtle island for the first,” Flint replied which made it rather obvious which mega stone we’d found there. “The other was discovered by some trainers we sent into Ilex forest.” Flint shuffled. “The second stone is causing a lot of… tension among the trainers as they swear up and down that they investigated the root system of a tree earlier in the trip only to pass by after their week was up and one of them saw a glint. The trainer dove in and came out with a Mega Stone.”

I frowned. “They said they already searched that specific tree?” I parroted.

“Easiest answer is that they’re lying or lazy,” replied Norman firmly.

Flint grimaced. “I personally know some of them. They’re good people and wouldn’t have shirked their jobs like that. I think it might have been the work of a trickster pokemon that took a liking to them and Ilex forest is known to sometimes house ghost pokemon.”

That triggered a memory of me and three others in front of a small shrine in Viridian, which I could have sworn I’d never encountered before, despite all the trips I’d taken into Viridian forest.

“Did they encounter a small shrine during their adventures?” I asked, cutting through the slight tension that had built up with Norman’s accusation of laziness.

Flint blinked. “Yes? On the third day… you don’t really think the Guardian of Ilex did that, do you?” he asked.

I hummed. “It’s possible. The Ilex forest guardian is known as something of a trickster.” It would match up with it being a grass-fairy type. “It might want us to succeed, or one of the trainers might have done something to please it.”

“Hmmmm,” Norman said. “Not sure I believe that, but more importantly which Mega Stones are they?” he said eagerly.

Around us, everyone that had started listening in once Mega Stones were mentioned leaned in.

Flint coughed. “Well the squirtle island Mega Stone has a number of—”

Norman and I waved our hands back and forth. “It’s Blastoisinite,” I said as Norman said, “I’ve read the papers doing the rounds, it’s for Blastoise.”

We shared a look and smirked before I rolled my hand. “What about the second stone?” Ilex Forest would be… well I suspect a bug type or a flying type perhaps?”

Flint coughed. “We’ve only just begun testing!” he protested.

“What colour is it?” I asked.

Flint blinked cluelessly.

“One of the things that we’ve noticed from the few examples that have been shown publicly is that the colours of the stones correspond with the colours of the pokemon that will link with them.” I pulled up my Steelixite showing how it was blue, white, and grey.

“So, which colours are they?” I asked once more.

“Blue, orange and red,” Flint responded dubiously.

I hummed and drew out my pokedex to flip through the types of pokemon that could potentially be encountered within Ilex forest. I had a suspicion but nothing more. I paused on a picture of Heracross and tapped on it. “This sort of blue?” I asked.

Flint nodded slowly. “That… it can’t be that simple can it?”

I shrugged. “We’ll have to test it out, I suppose, but it will stand as a good example for any future discoveries we might have.”

Brawly, who’d been creeping closer at the mention of Heracross, coughed to add himself into the conversation. “You know I would be more than happy to volunteer my own services to test out this new Mega Stone!” he said with a winning grin.

Norman barked a laugh. “Ha! Good one kid! No way the League wouldn’t throw a hissy fit if a Hoenn trainer was given one of the new rare stones. Especially while Chuck or Bugser were options!”

“Bugser?” Flint asked.

“The current Azalea Gym Leader? They’ve been making noises about retiring?” Norman replied.

Flint nodded. “Oh, that makes sense, it was Buginto when I was Gym Leader.”

Huh, apparently Bugsy’s family had something of a naming pattern, at least it seemed that way for the three I knew of.

“Why were you asking about Mega Stones if you would have caused the same issues as Brawly?” I asked Norman.

Norman shrugged. “I need to keep my options open, you know? Also, I need to know which pokemon I should be spending more time training with. The same will also be true for Whitney.”

Whitney nodded. “Yup! As two Gym’s that share typings, we’re going to be sharing a lot of notes and talking a lot going forward!”

“Huh, normal type pooling of resources,” I said, glancing at Roxanne. Sadly, Jasmine wasn’t going to be rock-type when she eventually took over but there would be a bit of an information exchange to talk shop with.

Norman nodded, crossing his arms over his chest which caused Yolanda to giggle for some odd reason. “We were thinking about adding Manny into the list from Kanto but… well the recent Fairy typing reveal shows he’s not actually normal type aligned.”

“Also, he likes hitting on you,” Whitney added with a cheeky smile.

Norman didn’t respond to that beyond grunting.

I chuckled. “I suppose he’s just missing Surge, who was his favoured target at get-togethers. He used to chat with them, living relatively close.”

Norman shifted again. “Surge is welcome to him,” he stated tersely.

I merely shook my head. If Manny found out Surge was in prison… well, it might actually be really funny watching Surge freak out. Hmm, might be worth giving that big idiot a call. He’d be stoked to hear about how Visquez is going, as well as how I’d gotten into a fight with Zapdos and won.

“I’ve got something in the works that might interest you about one of my pokemon that I think you’d be interested in.”

I checked my watch and nodded. “It’s getting close to our match, so let’s talk about it after?”

“Urgh! Tease much!” Whitney whined but Norman just nodded.

I glanced out from the viewing box and spotted the various crowds of people pouring into the stands of the Goldenrod stadium. Most of them bore banners and flags announcing their support for Norman and Goldenrod, but a few patches of people in the crowd were waving Boulder badge symbols.

It looked like my own cheer squad had come from afar to watch.

I was looking forward to giving them a show.

I gestured to the battlefield. “Shall we?”

Norman grinned, and we locked eyes properly and let the desire to fight come to the foreground of our minds.

We marched out onto the arena, and I smirked as I selected my first pokemon.

Let’s see how Norman reacts to Teddiursa taking to the field.

Teddiursa appeared and shook his head as a wall of noise stung at his ears. It took a second to acclimatise to the battlefield. His seniors in the Elite squad had mentioned that it was different at this level, but experiencing it was certainly different from hearing about it.

Across from him, a giant purple pokemon appeared with a huge gaping maw. Damn, it was ugly. So this was an Exploud?

The Exploud stomped its feet and growled, only to blink in surprise when it spotted Teddiursa across from it.

“Really Brock? You’re going to use a baby pokemon against me?” said the human trainer they were fighting today. Brock had mentioned there was likely going to be some sneering from the guy when Teddiursa came out so he was ready for it!

“Hey, this is a good match-up for him,” Brock replied calmly. Teddiursa felt something tickling at his brain, and he flapped his ears again to get rid of it. The others spoke about it being their trainer doing it but it felt weird to Teddiursa.

He knew it’d make him a better fighter, but for now, it just tickled, so it was a distraction.

“Teddiursa? You know what to do,” Brock said, and Teddiursa nodded firmly.

“You’re going down, you giant brute!” Teddiursa growled at his foe.

“WHAT WHAT IS THIS? I WAS EXPECTING AN EPIC MATCH AND THEY SENT YOU KID? GET OUTTA HERE YOU LITTLE BRAT! SEND OUT SOMEONE WITH SOME ACTUAL STRENGTH!” boomed the Exploud.

Teddiursa grimaced at the shouting, but when he straightened up, a glint entered his gaze. Mama Empress wasn’t here, but he knew she’d be watching along at home with his new sisters.

“Mama told me to knock you out,” he growled, planning to do just like she told him.