Hard Enough-Chapter 297 - Circuit’s end

I inspected the pile of shirts I’d assembled. I’d needed to purchase some new gear with the plan in Hoenn to be in attendance for Celia’s tournament, along with spending a not insignificant amount of time in the desert.

Then to round things out, Sabrina and I would be enjoying a four-night stay at the Battle Resort where we’d be able to relax. I planned to spend an hour or two each day training with some of my fresher pokemon. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

I was seriously hoping that by the end of the trip I’d have Crobat, Gabite, Rampardos, Carracosta, and Armaldo added to my roster as either fourth-tier fighters or outright Elite pokemon.

Next year was also going to see me featuring a lot more fossil pokemon within the Gym with the latest batch of fossils being found via Mega Rock Inc and sent to Crowley. He was as happy as Bertha in a pile of mud at this development.

“Brock? Are you listening?” Forrest said, leaning around my body to peer at me.

“Yes yes, I’m listening,” I lied. There was only so often that you could hear certain retellings of a story and not lose interest. Forrest had obviously forgotten that while he hadn’t spent much time with the rest of the family, I had been with him for most meals for the past week.

I’d also had regular updates on his adventures from the various Gym Leaders he’d faced.

Forrest narrowed his eyes at me and gave a disbelieving hum. He didn’t call me on my bluff though and instead continued with his story.

“Anyway, it was the biggest Snorlax I’d ever seen! It was so big a garden of grass types had almost started to set down roots on its belly!”

“Woah!” said Salvadore as he began sketching out what looked like a large blob. Next to him Munchlax gained stars in his eyes upon hearing how great his ‘cousin’ was.

Forrest beamed. “And it was just laying there blocking the road with a bunch of trainers poking it with a stick and debating whether or not they should start a fight with it or try and capture it. Thing was whenever someone tried to throw a pokeball, it either didn’t work, or it broke!”

“It broke?” Slavadore paused in his notetaking and gave Salvadore a pointed look. “Did the Snorlax do anything?”

“Most of the time no! But then this rich-looking guy rocked up with something called a heavy ball, and he threw it only for Snorlax to turn while still asleep and bite the ball, breaking it! Caused the rich guy and the others a big shock Cause that wasn’t what they were expecting at all!”

I hummed in thought. “It wasn’t owned was it? That might explain why some of the pokeballs didn’t work or outright broke,” I said.

Forrest coughed and shot me a look. “Let me tell the story!” he said.

I shook my head fondly and folded up my shirts, ignoring how Suzie and Togepi were ‘sneaking’ into my suitcase. Their giggles were giving them away, but I continued to pretend I hadn’t noticed them.

Togepi was by no means stealthy with how excited the little egg pokemon got simply toddling around after Suzie each and everyday.

“—and then this like scruffy trainer guy comes out and he smelt like… well kind of like Rocko actually,” Forrest said with a thoughtful tilt of his head.

I snorted, knowing exactly why a ‘scruffy’ looking guy might smell similar to Rocko.

“Did he smell really bad?” I prompted, earning a confused nod from Forrest to which I just hummed. Guy obviously partook way more than Rocko did.

Forrest shook it off and then continued with his story about how they and others had needed to help the scruffy guy find enough food for his Snorlax as otherwise his pokemon would rampage when he woke up!

“Which was super confusing cause if you’re going to own a Snorlax, you’d think you’d know that they take a lot of food!”

“They can eat up to four hundred kilograms before they feel satisfied! And that’s just the regular ones! If the one you encountered was as big as you say, then it would take five or six hundred easily!” Salvadore helpfully chimed in. “Where did you encounter this Snorlax?” Salvadore asked with stars in his eyes.

“Uhmmmm, I think it was Riversley, a little village outside Dark City,” Forrest said before coughing. “Anyway we found a whole hedge worth of noxious vines that were strangling nearby trees and we were able to chop them up and bring them back to Snorlax! From there we woke up the Snorlax using a recording I happened to have of someone playing a pokeflute.”

Cindy who’d been hovering next to me and shooting me ‘cute’ looks in readiness to spring her demands on me stiffened. “Oh? You had a recording?” she said carefully.

Forrest opened his mouth only to pause and reconsider what he was about to say. “Yeah! Snorlax was a real fan! Loved it so much he sat up and listened for like the entire recording. When he moved over to the vines he even wanted a repeat performance!” Forrest said, laying it on a bit thicker than perhaps he had to but nevertheless it worked in calming down the situation.

I shot him a thumbs up, glad to see that spending time around Ash and Misty had taught him to mind his words. He’d even been able to build Cindy’s efforts at music up a touch.

Yolanda tilted her head. “I wonder if I could have done that with my guitar?”

“Maybe?” Forrest said, hedging his bets with a shrug.

I nodded and finished folding up my shirts before moving to put them in my suitcase where I discovered Suzie and Togepi. “Argh! What’s this? Stowaways? I can’t have stowaways! Hoenn will lock me up if I try that!” I said dramatically.

Suzie and Togepi giggled with Suzie lifting Togepi out before following her. “Again!” she shouted before running over to the doorway where Flint was watching us.

He had a nostalgic look in his eyes and appeared to be enjoying watching his kids all interacting together. For the moment things were pretty calm, there wasn’t even that much screaming.

“I’d have sung it awake!” shouted Billy, standing and splaying one hand out while the other was held firm to his chest. “Oooooooh~!” he sang… badly.

Munchlax put his hands over his ears while Eevee rolled her up tight against her skull. Togepi folded herself into her egg form to escape while the rest of us were forced to endure the five minute rendition of a single note sung out of key, timing or any sense of skill.

I grimaced and considered suggesting singing lessons. If Billy was any worse he might have started cracking glass.

“That was… very nice,” I said diplomatically. “But no more for now!” I hurriedly added when it looked like he was going to give a repeat performance. “I want to hear Forrest’s stories more, don’t you?” I said, prompting him towards the path of less headaches.

Billy promptly sat down and tucked his knees behind his chin. “What other stories do you have?” he said with the air of a child expecting to be entertained… or else.

“Uhmmmmm,” Forrest said as he searched his mind. “Did I tell you about the Squad of squirtles we encountered near Cerulean City? Ash and Misty both got one and Misty’s is now a Blastoise!”

“A Squad of Squirtles?” Yolanda said dubiously. “And people just let them wander around? With the trainer surge on and everything?”

Forrest tilted his head. “Huh, you know I never really expected all those little side trips to add up like they did.” Forrest offered a shrug. “I guess just not that many people were going around the less beaten paths like we were.”

Forrest rubbed the back of his head. “It was really hard keeping Ash and Misty on task most of the time. They’d see something shiny or there’d be something mentioned about a river or body of water like the swimming contest we entered near Lake Cerulean. Ash once led us into a cave convinced it was a short cut, only to find out it was a smuggler’s hideout! The police were super pleased with us!”

I shook my head in amusement at him and when Yolanda looked towards me I nodded. “Forrest isn’t lying. I’m not sure what the deal was with the Squirtle Squad, they might have just been staying away from larger groups of people or people coming through with larger pokemon like some tourist trainers do.”

Behind me Togepi fell onto her face and glanced up at everyone, unsure what to do. Suzie tried to kiss the ouch away only for Timmy to point and laugh.

This in turn caused Togepi to break into peals of laughter while Suzie rounded on her twin. “It’s not funny!”

“It kinda was! She toddles around like a little ball!” Timmy said while continuing to laugh.

I nudged Suzie away from her twin, knowing she was contemplating violence. “Come on now, be a good role model for your Togepi,” I said, knowing Togepi was watching closely.

Suzie deflated and scooped up her little friend. “Alright Togepi, you don’t get to learn about how to perform Close Combat today. We’ll leave that for another day,” she said before trotting off to her room.

I raised a finger only to lower it. That, hadn’t been the point I’d been trying to make. I looked to Timmy who was rocking back and forth, waiting for Forrest’s next story. I pat the poor clueless boy on the head.

“Hope you know Detect,” I said before turning back to continue packing my suitcase.

Cindy chose that moment to strike. “Hey big brother… do you think you’d be able to get me—” she proceeded to detail a list.

I hummed and held in a smirk. “Oh, that is a lot of things, I’d need to write it down to remember all of—”

“Here you go!” she said, handing me a list.

I blinked and stared at the list of her demands. She’d been expecting me to try and Sneasel out of it hadn’t she?

Had I just walked into a trap?

I gave Cindy a thoughtful look. As a parental figure, I sort of wanted to encourage this forward thinking, while also chastising her.

Damn, this was tough.

“Ask Flint if this is alright,” I said, resorting to the time-tested method of passing the buck along.

Flint stiffened as Cindy swivelled around on him and began to use her Baby Doll Eyes.

“Oh no! I left something in the oven!” Flint said darting away using the time-honoured tradition of retreating to not lose.

Before he’d gotten further than three metres, Munchlax was up, out the door and in the kitchen.

Everyone blinked. “Since when do Munchlax know Extremespeed?” asked Salvadore.

I gave the cushion Munchlax had been sitting on a thoughtful look before glancing at the calendar. “Tuesday the eighth apparently?”

Salvadore took that much more seriously than he should have while I just waved it off as a quirk of Munchlax and knowing that food was at risk.

The sound of Flint getting berated by Munchlax wafted down the hall and I chuckled. Apparently Munchlax didn’t like food being in danger, being something anyone lied about.

I shook my head and finished off packing my suitcase, making sure to go as far as to lock the sides so no actual stowaways could sneak into it.

Yolanda looked up at me. “What time is your flight?”

“We fly out at around three in the afternoon. Sabrina has to finish up some last minute challengers and then she’ll be over to pick me up. Sadly these ones are competent enough to reach and challenge her apparently.”

Yolanda blinked. “Wait? Hold up, does she really not wait for her challengers if she thinks they’re going to fail in a gauntlet and secondly she’s fighting trainers the day before the Tournament elimination rounds starts?”

I chuckled. “Sabrina has a ninety five percent accuracy on her divinations. She only really gets tripped up by very specific trainers these days and that’s due to them possessing an abundance of certain types of pokemon. She has a system in place to catch these trainers in advance these days, but even if she’s not there when they reach her, all it takes is one of her trainers to send her a message and she’s there.”

Yolanda gave me a dubious look and I shrugged. “Sabrina’s kind of crazy strong like that,” I offered.

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Suzie nodded, knowing this was a fact. “Yup Big sis is the strongest!”

I nodded along as Yolanda giggled before I coughed. “As for the second thing? Well she isn’t the only Gym Leader allowing last minute challengers. Janine, Erika, Noland and Kaede are all still working.”

Forrest perked up. “So the Cerulean Gym is closed up like ours is?” he asked.

I gave him a look. Everything I’d just said, and he picked that up?

“Yeah they’re closed up. I’m not sure about Kong and the other smaller gyms, but most places are done and glad for it,” I said.

“Huh I wonder what she’s going to be doing then,” Forrest said thoughtfully.

“Probably relaxing on a beach somewhere with her sisters,” I suggested.

Forrest gained a slightly flushed look and I considered calling him on it before deciding to not touch that. It reeked of puberty and young love.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” I said as I marched down to collect up the pokemon who’d be joining me for my Hoenn trip.

A giant explosion of water echoed over Cerulean lake, causing a lot of would-be lake goers to look around and grimace at what they found.

“Cerulean Sisters! I challenge you to a Gym Match!” shouted a young boy who was standing on the beach with a pokeball raised. In the water before him a large Gyarados was starting to rise from the depths where it joined the boy in glaring at the group of people that had claimed a floating pontoon for themselves.

The four girls that could be described as the cerulean sisters each had a beach chair they were lounging on. As the pontoon bobbed up and down in the water a few of the others in their group were looking visibly seasick but the girls merely ignored it, more than used to the movement of water.

A tall, tan beefcake of a man tripped off the side only to have a floatie thrown expertly around him so he wouldn’t sink while disorientated.

“Fooey! I was about to ask Gavin to rub in some tanning oil!” whined Lily.

“Slut!” said Daisy and Violet as one.

“Oh screw off!” said Lily, giving the other girls a rude gesture.

“Heh, just cause you can’t keep a man!” said Violet which caused both Daisy and Lily to twitch as though in pain.

Misty sat to the side and raised her sunglasses, “Should we do anything about him?” she asked, gesturing towards the looming Gyarados.

Daisy shook her head. “Oh little sister, we’ve still got so much to teach you about being a woman.”

“What does that have to do with anything right now?” Misty said, swivelling the milkshake she’d been enjoying so the straw was pointed right at her sister.

Daisy shook her head and reclined, making sure to push her chest up theatrically. “Uhnnnn! If only I had a big brave—”

A trio of men that had been ‘swimming’ nearby shot out of the water and landed on the pontoon. Water ran down their muscled forms as they knelt before Daisy’s chair. “Let us help you mistress!” they said in eerie synchronicity.

Daisy gave each a considerate look, enjoying the way they were all only wearing speedos. She waved them towards the befuddled trainer. “There, that’s sorted. If he gets through those three he might maybe be worth addressing.”

“That… I don’t think that’s the right way to solve things,” Misty said dubiously, eyes tracking the fight as the trio of men unleashed water pokemon in a brawl.

Violet scoffed. “Please, those three were being creepy, and that kid was being belligerent. I’d say it wrapped things up nice and neat.”

Misty shot her sister a disbelieving look while pointing at Daisy. “She was basically ogling them!”

“Looking is not consent or anything implied little sis,” Daisy said. “When you take over as Gym Leader, you’re either going to have to work out ways to deal with belligerent trainers, or you’re going to have to hole yourself up in the Gym to avoid them. I don’t know about you, but I want a life outside of work. I like being able to walk around!” Daisy snapped.

Misty recoiled slightly. “I guess I hadn’t really thought about it.”

Daisy tossed her hair. “Sometimes it’s worse cause there’s three of us. Kids who get rejected by one of us think they can be cute by hunting down one of the others. When you take over things might be less chaotic.”

Misty nodded and curled into herself while giving her older sisters thoughtful little glances as they all reclined back and relaxed. “You’re all acting… different,” Misty said carefully.

Lily sniggered. “We’ve just had to deal with months upon months of trainers sweeping through our Gym with a lot of serious work along with actual employees to look after. Getting proper time off and knowing that we can go on vacation soon? Why wouldn’t we be more chill than usual?”

Misty tilted her head and considered. Her sisters had been rather out of sorts this year.

Violet coughed. “We might have also realised… that we’ve been kind of slack, in just waiting around for you to take over,” she admitted.

Daisy nudged her sister in the side with a bit of ice from a nearby cooler Lily shrieked and leapt off her chair.” Ah! Bitch! What was that for?”

“Don’t tell her that! She’ll get dumb ideas in her head!” Daisy whined playfully only to whirl around to Misty. “Tell us about Forrest!” she demanded, not using anything near approaching her usual tact to change the topic.

Misty rolled her eyes before looking away. Without meaning to, a small smile slipped onto her face as she accepted the diversion. Maybe she’d never understand her sisters and how they showed love? “He’s been good. He changed a bit when we got back to Pewter, was less moody and was happy. He even started playing tricks on Ash and I instead of just letting us shout at each other.”

“Oh? He’s teasing back and not just being a doormat?” Violet teased.

“He’s not a doormat!” Misty refuted.

“Oooooooh~!” Lilly sing-songed. “I think she likes him!”

Misty rolled her eyes and huffed. “Have you looked over the paperwork that Brock gave me?” she asked, diverting things once more.

A large explosion of water rocked the pontoon, but all of the cerulean sisters bobbed with the wave while others were tossed off the pontoon. Misty and Daisy flicked out some pokeballs to check that everyone was alright without even batting an eye.

Daisy sat up. “We did and we worked out that they only want information, not physical items so things are fine to sign off on. Apparently, Gramps didn’t keep anything written down for us to find. He did however leave behind two gems.”

Misty’s head snapped to the side, and she almost shouted before remembering they were in public. “You… found them?”

“Yup! The Keystone was part of one of Mum’s necklaces which we’ve been wearing for some of our shows. Heh, we always fought over who got to wear it for each show,” Daisy said with a look of fond remembrance.

“It always felt nice to wear,” Lily chimed in.

Misty nodded before gaining a smirk. “How long did it take you to work out what it was?”

The older sisters all pointedly looked away and Misty’s grin grew. “You didn’t even think to look or know what it was until the paperwork came did you? So, how long?”

“It took a few days…” Daisy said without meeting Misty’s eyes. “We had to search each other’s jewelry boxes alright and well… you don’t just let your sisters into those!” Daisy said.

“I’ll say you thieving Serviper,” groused Violet. “Steal many of my bangles much?”

“Oh don’t you try! You had four of my necklaces!”

Misty watched her sisters’ fight with each other and had an odd sense of superiority. She hadn’t stolen any jewelry and what few pieces she had she kept under lock and key underneath her bed.

“You’re about the only sister that hadn’t ‘borrowed’ anything,” Daisy said in an offhand manner.

Misty stiffened. They’d found it! She glared. “Why did you need to break into my jewellery box?” She was going to switch out their shampoo for food dye if they’d stolen anything!

Daisy smiled. “We had to add two gems to it, no?”

Misty blinked, her inner wrath vanishing like mist in the midday sun. “O-oh… thanks,” she said.

“We’re going to sign the papers, by the way. So you’ll have two to work with. Like, you know this means you’re going to have to train up a Gyarados?”

Misty slumped, knowing that was going to be a tall ask. “I’ll work on that next year. For now, I’ll focus on Blastoise.”

“Brock also sent around a book that has to do with linking up with your pokemon, if you can believe it,” Daisy said. “It was kind of kooky reading though. Sounds like you’re going to have to do meditation and stuff to access your aura.”

Misty was about to ask if they’d opened mail meant for her again, despite knowing what the answer would be before she paused. Forrest had been showing her how to do that for months now and she’d worked out a few things with it… Had Forrest known that it would speed up her efforts if she found a Mega Stone?

Misty sat on the edge of the pontoon, idly watching the local beach patrol chase off the boys who’d been fighting on the beach.

Why was it that she only learned things like this about Forrest when he wasn’t there with her?

She’d thought he was a simple boy but then she’d gotten to see some surprising depth from him. Depth that he’d shared with his aura training.

And then there had been Ash, who was an idiot.

An idiot savant who had looked like the least talented of them, right up until Forrest had watched Ash throw a tree off the road in a fit of anger.

Misty hadn’t even realised it until Forrest had pointed it out, but it was weird that he alone could lift boulders or fallen logs that should have weighed tens if not hundreds of kilograms was mind boggling.

Forrest had eventually just had Ash ‘feel’ it out which somehow had worked for him. In the end, they’d worked out that Ash had huge reserves compared to what he and Misty had. Not that she was jealous, her’s was perfectly in tune with her and let her do some pretty impressive things.

Like swim faster and longer, and even ‘talk’ sometimes with her pokemon.

Misty kicked her leg idly back and forth in the water, feeling the pull and push of the waves.

She hoped the boys were doing alright for themselves. Forrest was a given considering he was the most level headed of their group and was back home with his family.

Ash… He’d probably stumbled down a hole and found some lost civilisation or something.

Misty laughed to herself.

Yeah! Right!

Ash stared at the weird lady that had materialised seemingly out of nowhere when he’d called up Professor Oak about his discovery outside Pallet Town.

“Yes! Yes! This is exactly what I needed to prove my thesis! With this discovery the name ‘Dr Eve’ will be the standard others are measured against! AHahahaha! No more crawling through dusty caves for this girl!” said the young woman.

Ash glanced around at the dusty shrine that he’d stumbled into while chasing his newest pokemon. It was still pretty filthy.

“So you’ll credit me as well right?” Ash prompted, recalling how this woman had been with Brock at the Grampa Canyon excavation dig.

Eve stiffened and shot him a considering look. Ash stepped back. “Professor Oak knows where I am,” he said, unsure why he felt that was important to state right now.

It made the woman cough sheepishly and nod. “You’ll get credited,” she said, only for her lips to twitch like someone had just fed her a Persim berry. “For your second site of discovery,” she said through grit teeth. “Urgh I can’t believe this was one of the sites I was about to investigate next before I took up my placement at Grampa Canyon! Oooooh so close, only to have some kid stumble upon it!”

“I’m pretty lucky like that!” Ash said with a sniff.

Eve nodded begrudgingly only to pause and then continue to nod, only this time it was much more thoughtful. “Yeeeeeeeesss, you are aren’t you?”

She smiled winningly at Ash like he was a shiny rare pokemon that had just stumbled out of the bushes. “How would you like my personal contact information young man?”

Ash wasn’t sure what was going on here.

Was this that puberty thing that some of the older boys sometimes talked about? Where women went hot to cold and their moods swung all over the place?

Ash had tried to confirm it with Misty only for her to get angry with him really fast.

Ash brought out some chocolate just in case.

Eve tracked the chocolate. “For me? How considerate! I haven’t had lunch today!” she said, biting off a chunk and giving him a bright smile. “So how about it? You encounter any more ruins or shrines or things like this and you call me straight away in future?”

“I’ll consider it,” Ash said carefully.

A pair of larger men jogged into the worksite and bent over on themselves as they paused to get their breath back. “Dr Eve, please don’t run ahead like that! We were supposed to stay together. What if the site had been dangerous?”

“Pish posh! I have an excellent sense of danger!” Eve said as she picked up a dark dumbbell to inspect only for the assistants to stop her.

“We need to document everything as we found it first Doctor Eve!” said the man.

Eve sighed. “Fiiiiine!” she said with a whine only to blink when she spotted Ash still being there. “Umm you can go now?” She said, making to shoo him off.

“Pika!” huffed Pikachu at being shooed away.

Ash stared at Eve. “You’re a Doctor?” he asked, imagining her with a stethoscope putting it to various fossils and pronouncing then unalive.

“In archeology!” declared Eve proudly, hands planted oner her hips.

Ash nodded, unsure what that meant for looking after pokemon. Maybe she specialised in Rock types? He decided to step away rather than question it although he couldn’t help as a niggle wormed away at him.

For some strange reason he really felt like he shouldn’t leave that woman alone with the various artifacts.

He shrugged it off. She had assistants that seemed to know what they were doing. It wasn’t like anything bad could come from an ancient shrine after all!

Ash turned, knowing he was only a five minute bike ride from home, but instead of riding he continued to walk, enjoying the slower pace as he passed familiar landmarks.

Tonight he was going to enjoy a lovely meal with his Mum and show off the newest pokemon to join his team! He’d sure showed that cheeky pokemon who was boss!

Mum was going to be so impressed with him!

Mr Mime were super rare!

I settled into my seat for the flight right at the front of the plane. Next to me Sabrina floated a few choice treats in the air while inspecting them.

Across the aisle from us, Kirlia considered them seriously and made her selections before allowing us our choices. Next to her Alakazam had his seat reclined and was browsing what looked to be an encyclopedia at a steady rate.

The hostess and hosts of the flight, who were already inclined to give us preferential treatment for being in first class seats, were positively fawning over Kirlia.

I rolled my eyes as Sabrina sat back and watched on like a proud parent as Kirlia was gushed over.

An announcement over the speakers reminded me to turn my Xtransciever into flight mode and I did so gladly, knowing that any emergencies from here on out would be someone else’s to deal with.

I leaned forward and drew out my notebook from my pouch. “Hey, so I had some thoughts about my Destiny Bond training,” I said, offering the notepad to Sabrina.

Sabrina accepted the notepad only for a red marker pen to float out of her pouch and uncap itself.

I huffed. “Rude.”

Sabrina smiled as Kirlia giggled at our back and forth. Sabrina recapped the pen, her ‘joke’ done with. She opened the notes and began to read only for her eyes to zero in on one specific point I had written some dark text around.

Ah, that would be the idea I had about sharing damage with my pokemon that Destiny Bond caused.

Her eyes narrowed.

“I can expla—” I began to say only for the red pen to zip back out and scribble across my face furiously.

“No,” Sabrina said.

“Rude,” I said, knowing I must look like a child’s drawing with the amount of red ink on my face.

Across from us Kirlia giggled again and I hummed, knowing this was going to be an amusing flight for her. Sabrina floated a wet wipe my way and tapped at the line of dark text.

“Let’s talk about this and how terrible an idea it is,” she stated, her tone brooking no argument.

I offered her a charming smile knowing that she would be all the more motivated to explore other options, knowing now what I had even considered that option on paper.

I suspected that by the time we landed in Ever Grande City I was going to have a lot more options to make sure I never attempted this along with an oath to never ever, ever try and ‘share’ Destiny Bond’s demand of energy with my pokemon.

I’d consider that a good start to my holiday.