Hard Enough-Chapter 288 - Forrest Finale

I’d agreed to have a match against my brother. I’d been surprised when he actually called up and suggested the Elite Challenge.

I knew he’d grown while going on his journey, but to request that level of match? I wasn’t sure what to think. Was this a sign of him wanting to test himself against the best I had to offer, to see how far he still had to go? Was this a show of him thinking he’d grown enough to challenge me?

It was sure to make a statement and show Pewter how he’d grown.

I held Forrest’s gaze with the question of what he was trying to show me hovering there.

When I looked into Forrest's eyes, I felt a ‘connection’. There wasn’t any shame or hesitation in his gaze, which was a definite change from when he’d had to leave Pewter to let things cool down after Will and the Mayor mucked things up.

I plucked Sanchez’s pokeball from my pokebelt. It was a strange sensation to know that Forrest was one of the few people who knew precisely what my favoured tactics were when using him.

Or, he had been back at the start of the year.

A lot has changed since then.

I brought Sanchez’s pokeball up level with my face, held out towards Forrest. Perhaps that’s the best way to approach this match.

A measure of both of our growth.

“Sanchez!” I projected my voice and cut through all the cheering going on. “Come forth!” I ordered, making sure to ham it up for him. He always liked it when I was especially extravagant with his entrances.

Sanchez didn’t wait for his pokeball to hit the ground and release him but disgorged himself from his pokeball while it was still in the air.

He arced through the air, cackling while lighting crackled over his form.

When he hit the ground he did so with a wave of electrical energy blasting outwards in a small sphere.

Forrest’s eyes widened, and he took an involuntary step back. “O-oh… Sanchez is looking good,” he replied, taken aback by how the arrival of my Pokémon was already causing waves.

I smirked. Forrest hadn’t heard about my encounter with Zapdos yet, nor had he learned about the gift that my pokemon had received.

Sanchez gaining a ‘level up’ from the fight was putting it simply.

Sanchez slapped his hands together, causing a small arc of electricity between them. “Go Go GO lem!” he chanted, waving his hands back and forth before adopting a wide stance like one would expect from a sumo.

Forrest cracked a smile at the campy behaviour. “Right, well I have the perfect pokemon to ‘challenge’ you,” he declared as he grabbed for a pokeball that had a few nicks on it.

I smirked, knowing how things were about to play out.

“Let’s shine strong Challenger!” Forrest roared as he hurled out his first pokemon.

Challenger the… Golem took to the field, and I smirked as she slammed into it and caused a minor earthquake. She rose only to find Sanchez goofing around, pretending to stagger as if he was going to fall down.

When he ‘miraculously’ caught himself before he could, he laughed and then dabbed with his arms.

I almost burst out laughing in surprise. Where had he learned that from?

Challenger clenched her fist in the face of his playful attitude. “GO! LEM! GO!” she snapped, slashing her hand through the air and causing Sanchez to straighten up.

She continued to bark at him and gesture at him and then herself.

Sanchez took a moment to think about it before nodding. “Go lem,” he said with a much more serious tone that caused Challenger to blink in shock.

Hmmm, it would seem it wasn’t just going to be the trainers showing off how far we’d come since the last time we’d encountered each other.

I watched Forrest frown at his pokemon, a slightly clueless expression on display before he nodded slowly.

Good, he’d started learning how to parse pokemon mannerisms; that or he’d grown close enough with Challenger during their time together that he could accurately interpret her ‘speech’.

Both were good signs.

“Ahem!” called Yolanda from the referee’s podium. I shot her an amused look as Forrest twitched, having gotten too caught up in our prematch displays.

“I want a nice clean fight from everyone today!” Yolanda began, and I shifted into a relaxed pose.

My mind began to shut off as Yolanda started her prematch routine as the referee and across from me I thought I saw Forrest mouthing along with the words having spoken them enough times to know them by heart.

I held in a chuckle only for Yolanda to stop talking and give us both a frustrated look that I knew masked her amusement. “If you could both pay attention! I would remind you that the League requires all gym matches to recite these statements! It is important that you listen in case they have changed!”

I shared a look with Forrest, and we both knew what to do. As one we turned and bowed from our waists at ninety degrees. “Our greatest apologies Ref!” we shouted.

Yolanda returned our ‘apologies’ by giving us both stink eyes while pretending to rub at her top pocket which held yellow and red cards that could serve as warnings or penalty cards.

The crowd chuckled at our antics with the locals rather enjoying the by play.

Yolanda sniffed but was quick to finish up her pre-match recitation before raising her flags. “Trainers! Are you ready?” she yelled and we both nodded.

“Begin!” she shouted and instantly chaos erupted on the field as both pokemon moved.

“Quake!” Forrest bellowed.

Challenger threw herself into the ground, seeking to make good use of her type advantage from the start, only for Sanchez to roll up into a ball and launch himself into the air with a deft leap.

He soared up through the air as the field rippled and bucked, only for him to slam right into Challenger herself and ride her deeper into the ground.

“Go!” she cried out in shock.

I kept on the pressure, and before Forrest could get himself out of danger or attempt an Explosion, Sanchez raised his fist and hammered Challenger with a Brick Break directly into the face.

Challenger rocketed away, and she tried to dig in. She stumbled to her feet and staggered only to fall face-first. Her craggy face peered up at Sanchez as he stood his ground.

“Gooolem?” Challenger said in shock, surprised at the difference in their strength. Through the bond, I also got the feeling that she was asking if she was really that weak.

Sanchez solemnly shook his head. “Lem lem Go,” he said, telling her that she had grown stronger and that he acknowledged her.

Challenger seemed to like that as she stopped fighting and collapsed, spent from the two attacks we’d landed.

Forrest stiffened in shock at her defeat, and Yolanda forced him to react. “Challenger the Golem is unable to battle! One nil to the Gym Leader!” she declared.

Forrest hurriedly returned her, praising her efforts before he raised his eyes once more to look at me.

Where before he’d met my gaze, now he seemed to inspect it, weigh it up in his mind and get a measure of me.

I smiled at him knowingly. He should have done that earlier, but then again, he was young and still learning.

Then again I probably could have played this better by not aiming for a critical strike by having Sanchez use Brick Break against Challenger’s head.

That all but guaranteed she was going to be knocked out. A smarter play might have been to weaken her enough to stagger her and then use Stealth Rock. We couldn’t discount the rest of Forrest’s team after all. Also it would have made the match easier to have Forrest continue to underestimate us.

Now, he was going to be much more careful.

Forrest clenched his fist and took a moment to inhale, then exhaled slowly as his hand moved to his pokebelt.

Yolanda sent me an amused smirk, which made me roll my eyes. Yes, yes, I noticed that he looked a lot like me when he copied my centering routine.

“Come on, little brother!” I called, deliberately playing into my heel persona as Gym Leader to shake him. “Are we going to fight or what?”

Instead of floundering, Forrest gained a glint in his eyes, and more than a few locals rallied to cheer him on.

“Give it to him, young one!” “Let’s go Forrest! Let’s go!”

Forrest nodded and drew out his next pokeball. “Let’s show them what we can do, Metang!”

The pokeball unleashed a pokemon I had mixed feelings about. It was a damn powerful pokemon and a great addition to any team, but the fact that Steven Stone had just gifted it to my brother… I wasn’t sure what to think about that.

Was he playing a long con, or was something else in play?

“BP!” barked Forrest, dragging my attention back to the fight.

Metang rocketed across the battlefield closing in with Sanchez to land a powerful blow that I had Sanchez roll to dissipate the attack. He rolled back before kipping up onto his feet, and with how close Forrest had brought himself I had no qualms with the next move.

Thunder boomed off Sanchez as he lit up the battlefield, blinding a good deal of the crowd as he unleashed from close range.

Metang, being both close and living metal, worked as a wonderful lightning rod.

“Dig into the ground with Metal Claw!” Forrest ordered, and I had to give him points for not losing sight of the fight despite the power we’d just unleashed.

Metang surprised me by pushing through the electrical storm to slam its twin claws into the ground, earthing itself and mitigating some of the damage.

Sanchez dropped the attack only to spin, sliding his foot about to cause a spray of small rocky spikes to rise up around him.

Forrest was caught blinking rapidly to get his sight back so I doubted he had seen the move, just to make sure to sell the trick better I had Sanchez kick up a wave of sand into Metang’s face as he spun around.

“Tang!” cried out the psychic-steel type in surprise at the underhanded attack.

“BD!” roared Forrest, stabbing his hand directly at Sanchez.

Metang swung around and began to charge at Sanchez with his claws dragging through the earth as he came in.

Knowing it was merely Bulldoze, I wasn’t too worried about the attack.

I had Sanchez roll to the side and perform a quick Dig Dip to dive under the ground only to pop out a second later out of danger.

“Earth— urgh!” Forrest growled, spotting that he hadn’t been quick enough to get off an attack while I had to chuckle. He should have committed to the attack instead of hesitating.

Foolish little brother, I found myself thinking,

If this had been a Gauntlet or a simple fourth-tier badge match, I might have paused to teach him his mistake, but against my best, he would get nothing from me—perhaps after the match, but not now.

A flicker of thought had Sanchez dig a fist into the ground and cause a retaliatory Earthquake to knock Metang out before Forrest could recover.

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Another mistake was to not have his pokemon lift its claws out of the ground. It was a strong pokemon, but—

Metang hovered back into the air and shook itself, red eyes glinting with a fighting spirit that surprised me.

Huh, it seems Forrest really had raised a strong pokemon.

“Confusion!” barked Forrest, backing his pokemon.

I smirked.

Forrest had a long way to go if he thought he’d be able to use psychic moves against me and for me to do something as amateurish as provide him the ammunition to throw back at me.

Sanchez dove into the ground with a short Dig Dip once more.

Forrest’s eyes flashed. “Quake!” he shouted only for Sanchez to launch himself out of the ground and tackle Metang as he initiated the Earthquake.

Sanchez rode his opponent down and held him with another fist raised in readiness to hammer Metang into place.

Metang stayed down, however, and Forrest was forced to withdraw it. This time, I immediately had Sanchez roll back to my part of the field.

Thanks to my status as a Gym Leader, I knew precisely which Pokémon Forrest possessed, but I also spent a lot more time talking with him than other trainers. I’d also discussed training methods with him.

I knew most, if not all of the tricks Forrest had up his sleeve.

So when he sent out his third pokemon and revealed a Magnezone, I had to admit to being caught off guard. I’d checked his pokemon list just this morning.

Forrest’s gigantic smirk let me know he’d planned this. “You always get reports on the people you face early in the morning! Meaning any changes they undergo from then until their fight doesn’t get flagged due to how busy you typically are!” Forrest announced smugly.

Damn, lots of people were taking shots at me and exposing some of my weaknesses these days.

Well, before Forrest there wouldn’t have been anyone who’d have known that little administrative detail of my fights.

I’d need to update it going forward against any Ace trainers, because the chances of them not picking up on Forrest’s helpful reveal were rather small.

As the Stealth Rocks around the field activated and slammed into his Pokemon, I gave Forrest a smile with a lot of teeth.

“Thanks for that. I’ll be sure to remember it,” I said.

Forrest growled in response, having not caught on to my earlier use of Stealth Rocks with his pokemon on the backfoot I struck first, not giving him anymore leeway for this fight.

Sanchez dove into the ground, safe in the knowledge that a lot of Magnezone’s arsenal wasn’t suitable for a subterranean pokemon.

“Gyro Ball! Do it like we practised!” he ordered.

Magnezone began to tilt forward, only to slowly swing itself into a slowly building ball of metal that spun. The speed of the spin was much slower than I’d seen from any Pokémon performing that move before, and it instantly raised red flags in my mind.

Forrest knew the mechanism of how this move worked. He was deliberately making his pokemon slower.

Sanchez aborted the assault on the levitating pokemon and instead shot out of the earth just in time to raise a Protect around himself.

Right in time for Magnezone to flop into the ground and cause a cascading wave of destruction outwards as the power of the built-up Gyro Ball was released.

Chunks of the field rose up and jutted into the air while others sank.

I gave Forrest an approving nod. He’d found a niche move and built on it.

I expected to see people copying this in Ace matches within a week.

When the shaking stopped Forrest had all of a second to be pleased with himself, only for a dark shape to drop out of the air directly on top of his pokemon.

“Protect!: he barked quickly enough to barely save his pokemon.

The barrier rose, and Sanchez slammed into it like a bug on a windscreen causing it to flare up brightly.

“Goooooolem,” Sanchez whined as he slowly slid down the barrier before touching down on the ground.

I could tell that he wasn’t even winded from hitting the barrier, he was merely back to hamming it up for the crowd who were on their feet as he knelt down desperately.

Against another opponent, that might have prompted them to go on the attack, but Forrest was used to Sanchez’s antics and knew better.

The Protect stayed well and truly in place for the full duration, and Sanchez clicked his tongue and threw the handfuls of dirt he’d collected right as the Protect faded.

Most of the dirt failed to connect, but it was enough to catch Magnezone by surprise even as it tried to fade back to gain distance from us.

I wasn’t having a bar of it, and Sanchez tried to grapple only for Magnezone to dip and twist, the magnets on the rim of its body sparking as it came in contact with the ground and vaulted off to the side.

Sanchez was forced to spin only to come face to face with Magnezone who’d stopped running and had two of the magnets pointed directly at Sanchez.

“Flash Cannon!” ordered Forrest. His pokemon unleashed a grey mass of energy right into Sanchez.

I had him dig his feet in and weather the attack even as he began to gain a polished gloss to his body. Forrest was outspeeding us with his pokemon being slightly too fast, despite the difference in communication allowing us to react quicker.

Time to deny him that option.

“Magnezone! Return!” Forrest called revealing that he too understood that I was about to lay his pokemon out if he kept pushing.

He flicked his wrist and another pokeball arced out to reveal a Lairon.

This time I was much more on the ball. His Lairon had a glint and vitality to it that instantly caught my attention. There was also a certain looseness to parts of its joints that let me know it was preparing for a growth spurt.

I considered calling him out on his tactic right then and there but decided against it. If he pulled it off, good for him.

Small rocky spikes slammed into Lairon in greeting before he could relax and Sanchez was quick to stomp his foot and unleash an Earthquake.

At four times additional damage, Forrest would be lucky to get his pokemon to do anything.

“Protect!” Forrest once more ordered as the field continued to break and splinter underfoot.

Hmmm, perhaps he was hoping to make the field unusable for any more Earthquake usage?

With Protect once more in use I had no qualms with having Sanchez close the distance so that the instant Lairon dropped Protect, Sanchez was in his face with Brick Break. I made sure it was an overhead chop, so we stayed right on top of his pokemon as it was nailed into the ground.

Lairon’s legs buckled out from underneath it, and it wheezed in pain before struggling to rise.

“Come on Lairon! I need you!” Forrest called with a tinge of desperation. A small tingle ran up my spine as I thought for a second I felt something else being infused into Lairon.

Regardless of my thoughts, Lairon responded, rising with a mighty cry and the light of evolution causing his form to straighten up until he towered over Sanchez.

My Golem leaned back as the light faded to look Aggron in the eyes, only to smirk and form a fist.

“IRON HEAD!” Forrest roared in desperation.

Aggron threw itself headfirst at Sanchez only for Sanchez to match it and hammer Brock Break right into Aggron’s crown.

Aggron was once more thrown backwards, and this time he didn’t get up.

“Urgh! Damn it! I should have known you weren’t going to let me have my moment.”

I snorted loudly. “You were right. You should have trusted that.” I waved a hand at the field. “If you wanted a ‘moment’ you should have challenged at a different level.”

Forrest nodded. “Eh, I’m not sure Lai-Aggron would have responded the same way if I wasn’t putting my heart into it,” he said leadingly.

I matched his nod with a knowing one of my own. So he was saying he had started to tap into Aura eh? Good for him.

“I’m still not going easy on you,” I said firmly.

Forrest grunted at that and sent out his next pokemon, revealing it to be a fierce-looking Skarmory.

I sighed. Oh, Forrest. Against another pokemon in my roster, this might have been a good selection as Skarmory didn’t suffer the weakness to rock-type attacks.

Sadly for it, Sanchez wasn’t merely a rock type pokemon.

“Light it up,” I said openly and Forrest had just enough time to realise his mistake before Sanchez threw back his head and cackled as a storm was unleashed.

Thunder boomed into existence and claimed most of the field, frying Skarmory before it could even get a move off. It fell to the ground, and Forrest staggered back with wide eyes.

“That… is a lot stronger than what you used before,” he pointed out while wetting his lips.

I nodded, eying him carefully as Yolanda called the score at four to nil in my favour.

When he sent out Onix next I took a moment to look over his ’starter’.

It had grown significantly and had a number of pockmarks indicating it had gone through some rough fights.

It had also grown stronger. Its weight caused the destroyed field to become compacted, another indicator that Forrest had put the work into training his Pokemon.

Sanchez greeted him with a wave and yet another rock to the face in the form of Stone Edge that accompanied the Stealth Rocks. Unlike others in Forrest’s team, Onix practically ignored them as it wove like a dancing cobra to evade the attacks.

Huh, not just strong but limber as well. Someone really had been reading through the training notes I had on Onix as a species.

“High Horsepower Hammer!” snapped Forrest and his pokemon hurtled forward.

I had Sanchez clap his hands together and raise them over his head in readiness. If Forrest forced this, I was going to finish his pokemon in one big shot.

Instead of committing, however, Forrest snapped his hand out. “Now!” he snapped, and Onix dove into the ground. His head stuck and suddenly twisted, causing the momentum that Onix had been building up to shift from straight ahead into rotational.

Onix’s huge tail swept around with a metallic glow to it.

Iron Tail. He was trying to nail me with Iron Tail.

I flashed a warning to Sanchez and he kicked off the ground, spinning like a madman through the air so that he arced over the tail that whooshed underneath him.

He cackled the entire way as he swung himself around, hands still licked to slam into the back of Onix’s tail and send Onix into an uncontrolled spin that saw the giant rock snake’s entire body twisting awkwardly from the attack.

It wasn’t a direct hit, but it still did some serious damage as when Onix came up it did so with a dizziness to it that made it look like I’d used Dizzy Punch over Break Break.

Forrest took one look at his pokemon only to sigh in defeat and return his pokemon. “I… withdraw my pokemon and I shan’t be sending out Magnezone again. Brock’s too prepared for him now,” he said and Yolanda nodded, her flags raising as she announced my victory.

I didn’t hesitate to lower the podiums so I could march forward.

The crowd erupted in applause during the match, and I gave them an absent-minded wave as I closed in on Forrest.

I clapped a hand on his shoulder and smiled widely. “That was a good fight. Rough in parts but you have grown Forrest,” I said firmly, making sure to look him right in the eyes as I said this.

Forrest straightened up at this. “Thanks Brock. I was kinda hoping to do a bit better though.”

I hummed. “If this had merely been a fourth-tier match, I have no doubt you’d have won and earned yourself a Boulder Badge. At this level, however?” I shook my head.

I then inclined my head towards the rapidly approaching Yolanda. “That being said, I think you’ve demonstrated a good enough understanding that if you want, you have earned the normal Boulder Badge.”

Forrest grinned and nodded. “I’ll display it proudly,” he replied, and I held back a twitch of surprise.

I would have assumed he’d have felt the need to ‘earn it’ through victory over one of my teams. Especially having Journeyed around Kanto with Ash of all people.

I couldn’t consider it anymore as Yolanda threw herself at us.

“Welcome home!” she called, slamming into us both and forcing us into a group hug.

I chuckled and glanced over her head to find the rest of the family being ferried down the wall by Flint’s Onix with Sanchez standing close to help them clamber down.

Suzie, carrying her incubator, had to be helped down by Flint and Sanchez.

When everyone reached the ground they sprinted right for us and soon soft impacts were felt as they joined us in welcoming Forrest home.

Forrest grinned dopily, and when the hug finished, he blushed as the crowd roared their approval at our reunion as a family.

I waved to Rachel to signal that the ‘show was over’ and led Forrest towards the medical bay to get his pokemon seen to.

Around us our siblings gushed over the fight, calling out the various ‘cool’ points that Forrest had shown.

Yolanda held her tongue, merely walking along next to us with a knowing little smirk. Forrest noted this and raised an eyebrow. “How come you’re so quiet?” he asked as he deposited his pokeballs with Chansey.

Yolanda grinned. “Oh, it’s just that while it was fun watching you fight Brock, when it’s my turn I’m going to win.”

I smirked at that declaration. “Oh, are you just?” I said, amused that Yolanda tossed out banter like this. Seems she’d picked up a bit of fighting spirit this year

Yolanda looked me right in the eyes. “Yup! Terra and I know exactly how to beat you at your best!” she declared.

I snorted. “If you think I’ll go easy on you cause you’re my sister you have another thing coming,” I stated firmly.

“I know, but I have a plan,” she said tapping me on the chest with her damnable knowing smirk.

I narrowed my eyes. If she thought a powerful Baby Doll Eyes was all it was going to take when she challenged me she was in for a world of shock.

I continued to give her a doubtful stare but she weathered it easily and instead turned to watch Chansey work. I shared a look with Forrest and rolled my eyes which got a laugh out of him.

The doors to the medbay opened up again with Ash, Pikachu and Misty being led in by Dennis. “Got some friends of the big guy looking to check in on him!” Dennis reported firmly.

“Welcome back Ash, Misty, and Pikachu!” I said.

Ash grinned and rushed up to me. “That fight was awesome! When can we fight like that?”

“Make a booking, and we’ll see,” I replied casually before nodding towards Misty who’d moved up to hug Forrest as he displayed the Boulder Badge I’d given him.

“Knew you’d prove yourself!” she declared and Forrest grinned happily like he’d just won a prize.

Huh, seems he’d mellowed out from Misty rather than picking up Ash’s habits from their team-up.

“It’s hatching! It’s hatching!” shrieked an exalted Suzie. Within seconds, all eyes turned towards her as the egg in the ever-present incubator began to crack.

I inhaled sharply as everyone moved to crowd around. Hadn’t Ash lost the chance at Togepi because of something like this?

A flash of light heralded Sabrina appearing with a Teleport.

“You came!” Suzie gushed and Sabrina smiled.

“I wouldn’t miss this moment,” Sabrina replied, holding Suzie back from a hug and instead directing her to stand in front of her egg.

“Everyone, back so Suzie can bond with it!” I said firmly, reaching to the side and grabbing a curtain that slid out to allow Suzie some privacy.

I thankfully didn’t have to drag my other siblings into the area with me but I suspected that had a lot to do with Sabrina being there.

I heard the egg crack open, and I held my breath hoping it all worked out for Suzie.

“Toge… pi?” cried the voice before it trilled in happiness.

“Oh my gosh I love her!” cried Suzie happily and I drew back the curtain in time to watch Suzie and her first pokemon hug. “With this, our family is even bigger!” she declared gleefully as she rubbed her cheek into Togepi’s cheek.

My smile dimmed a little, but I shook the feeling off as I focused on the moment. Sabrina stepped up next to me and squeezed my hand, which helped.

But urgh, that right there was something I was absolutely going to have to talk about with my psychologist when my first appointment came around.

I snorted in amusement as both Ash and Salvadore’s pokedex were raised. “Who’s that pokemon?” they declared as one, only for Cindy to turn with a malicious grin.

“Jinx!” she called before sprinting away.

Ash and Salvadore stiffened at this and gave chase to try and avoid being ‘jinxed’ together while the others giggled. The robotic voices of their pokedexes went unheard with the sudden noise.

“Skins!” shouted Cindy precisely ten seconds later and I whistled. Oh damn, she’d outrun them both.

I chuckled, happy that my good mood could come back just as quickly as it had left.

Kids were good for that I’d found.