Hard Enough - Chapter 86 - Terra, Training, and tests (Patreon)

Yolanda had been adamant that they meet as early as possible. Terra, as a baby pokemon had other ideas and had promptly fallen asleep when Yolanda had picked her up causing the plan to be shifted back.

Yolanda had happily accepted the compromise and gone to bed with her new pokemon and starter. On the way to bed, I’d made sure to tap Flint on the shoulder. “You probably need to get Forrest his starter as soon as possible, seeing as Yolanda now has hers.”

Flint nodded. “Do you know what he wants?”

“An Onix from you,” I said. Flint nodded and instead of turning to his room turned and began marching to the front door.

“I’ll be back in the morning…” he paused. “If… that’s alright?”

I blinked and realised that if he wanted to he could leave again. It would almost be like he’d gone to get milk. I grunted. “Be back by morning,” I said, turning away and feeling my stomach tighten. If Flint pulled a ‘going for milk’ now… I pushed the thought down. I had just decided to trust him a bit. I could extend this small olive branch to him, couldn’t I?

I nodded and pushed it aside. Come morning I’d have an answer either way.

I lay down after checking that everyone was asleep and promptly fell into a meditative sleep. Rock Aura was perfect for slowing the body and forcing it into a sort of hibernation if you wanted to.

It wasn’t my alarm that woke me up the next morning but Yolanda kicking my door open.

“Brock! It’s morning! Terra’s eaten and done her business! Let’s go let her meet her big brother!”

“Lar!!” cheered Terra happily.

I blinked at Yolanda and leaned over to glance at my alarm. It was an hour earlier than I usually woke up which made it earlier than early in the morning.

Yolanda coughed. “I couldn’t sleep? Sorry? I actually didn’t know it was that early…”She shifted on the spot and I couldn’t fault her for her enthusiasm. I sat up and smacked my lips.

“I need… a minute to wake up…” a yawn escaped me and I ran my tongue over my teeth. I’d forgotten to brush them last night with all the excitement hadn’t I? Urgh, yuk. I moved to my ensuite and ran some water to clear the sleep out of my eyes before I grabbed my toothbrush to scrub the gritty feeling off my teeth.

“Ha! I knew you were lying!” Yolanda said from where she was standing in the doorway. I blinked at her.

“Whuh?” I said intelligently. Yolanda’s eyes flicked to Sabrina’s toothbrush and her pillow on my bed. Terra was sniffing around my room with the curiosity of a newborn.

“Tar!? Larv!” she said as she crawled under the bed and found some underwear that most certainly weren’t mine.

Yolanda smirked at me and I rolled my eyes at her. “What? I like to feel pretty?” I said, digging deeper into the lie.

She pointed at me. “Yoooouuuu! Just admit those are Sabrina’s and you lied! No way you wear girl’s clothes!”

“I’m a complex man, don’t limit me!” I said, hiding my face in a towel lest my smirk give me away.

Yolanda didn’t say anything and when I straightened up she was looking at me with a tilted head. “You’ve worn girl clothes?”

“There are a few restaurants and places around Kanto, let alone Hoenn, that charge cheaper meals if you wear a dress.” I wiped off the last of the water. Hadn’t Ash worn a dress to challenge Erika in the cartoons?

“Huh,” Yolanda said before shaking her head. “Confess! They are and were your girlfriend's!” she said only to wince when she realised how loud she was being.

I huffed. “Yeah alright, they’re Sabrina’s”. I knelt down and looked under the bed. “Oh, she has a whole suitcase under there…” then I paused as I recalled something from last night. “Oh… she announced it last night to her Ralts didn’t she…

Yolanda giggled, her head bobbing up and down. “Yeah! You only just realised?” Yolanda knelt to see the suitcase. “Wow. I swear that wasn’t there last time I looked.”

“When was that?”

Yolanda didn’t meet my eyes. “The… last time I was helpfully cleaning your room?” She then coughed. “So how long have you been dating Sabrina?” she said, leaning forward.

“That’s…” I mean technically we were on break and I had said that one time that I couldn’t do it while Flint… Did this mean we were back together in Sabrina’s eyes?

“You two are good together! I approve! Sister approval is given for you to date Sabrina!” she said with a nod.

I dragged a hand down my face and sighed. “That’s not… Urgh whatever. Yes! We’re dating….” Yolanda giggled and I palmed her face causing her giggles to be muffled but not stopped. I huffed at her and released her, “Come on, I’ll grab some food to help me wake up and then we can go get Titan up.”

When we reached the kitchen we found Flint asleep on the countertop with a blanket around him. Yolanda smiled fondly and adjusted his blanket to cover him and I paused when I noticed the pokeball clutched in his hand. “Looks like Forrest is going to have his starter pokemon.”

Yolanda nodded happily as I scrounged for some food. The rummaging must have woken Munchlax up as he walked into the kitchen, yawning and blearingly investigating.

“Munch?”

“Tar!” said Terra as she popped out to surprise Munchlax who jerked back and landed on his backside. Terra giggled to herself while Munchlax grumbled.

I handed Munchlax a juicebox to help him get over it while I slurped up a breakfast shake that had me feeling a little more awake. “Right, let’s go!” I said, leading Yolanda out and inadvertently waking Flint up.

“Huh?! What’s that?” he said as he marched out.

“Go to bed dad, Forrest won’t wake up for another two hours,” she said kindly before rushing after me. I shut the door behind us and walked through the garden of sleeping Lileep before making my way to the cave system.

When we got outside the cave I hoisted Terra and Yolanda onto my back. “No lights, you’ll startle the pokemon that are still asleep. Titan will wake up fine but Don and some of the electric Geodude will react badly to light at this hour.”

“Sorry!” Yolanda said while wrapping me up. I just patted her elbow and channelled dark energy to my eyes allowing me to walk down the tunnels without issues.

“Tar?!” Larvitar said as she snapped her head up to look at me. Huh, interesting, she could pick up on what I was doing? She watched me curiously as we moved through the tunnels. I could probably have navigated them from memory at this point but with Rock pokemon a shift in the path was likely to happen from their passage so it wasn’t a sure thing.

When we got to the lowest section I deposited Terra back into Yolanda’s arms as I had her stand off to the side. “Alright, I’m going to wake him up and then turn the lights on so you can see.”

“How did you see?!” Yolanda whispered. “I never knew you could do that!”

“Secret big brother power?” I said teasingly.

“Brock! Be Serious!”

“Hmmmm, secret… but one that you can technically unlock if you and Terra form a close enough bond. That’s all I’ll tell you for now.”

I could see her thoughtfully looking at her pokemon as I stepped away. Yolanda, by gaining a Larvitar, had stepped onto  a path I’d already walked. She’d be able to avoid a lot of the pitfalls while getting my insight into her pokemon. If she wanted it that was… I really hoped she did though because I had a few journals of notes that I could offer her.

I whistled a few times to announce myself before I got too close to Titan. Bertha wasn’t with him today, apparently choosing to sleep in her own cavern. Titan was sleeping on a slightly raised stone that came up to my hip for his bed. When I whistled his eyes snapped open and I heard Yolanda’s breath hitch as his eye gleamed in the dark.

“Hey Titan, it’s me buddy. Sorry for waking you up so early but I have good news and a surprise!”

“Ty?” he rumbled as he shifted into a more upright position.

“Watch your eyes buddy. I’m hitting the lights.” I moved over to the side where a switch was located before flicking it. The light flickered on slowly but it still was enough to cause  Titan and I to shake  our heads as we adjusted.

“Tar?” he said, flicking a claw at his eyes to get rid of the gunk in them.

“Tar?” said a much smaller voice.

Titan blinked and tilted his head. I could see his sleeping mind comprehending the noise and the oddity of it but not matching it up to a pokemon he knew. He swivelled his head.

“Tar?! He barked out, causing Yolanda to step into view with Terra clutched in her arms.

Terra wiggled as she spotted Titan and Yolanda almost dropped her only to kneel and deposit the little pokemon onto the ground. Titan stood as Terra waddled up to the base of the ledge to gaze up adoringly at Titan.

“Taaaaaaaarrrrrrr!” she said in awe.

Titan shifted, his body shaking to loosen up before he stepped off the edge. He did so carefully, his weight coming down gradually so as to not shake the earth with his passing. When he reached the same floor as Terra he stood and looked her over.

She was tiny compared to him. As a baby pokemon she hadn’t even reached the ‘typical’ height of a normal Larvitar and seemed like a tiny figurine as he stared down at her.

“Taaaaaaaar!” she said again grinning hugely.

Titan knelt and then lowered himself onto his belly so that his head was level with Terra. His head alone was bigger than her. He then extended his neck and sniffed her carefully. She giggled and tucked her head into her shoulders before leaning towards him and sniffing him back. She then darted forward and started to inspect the various parts of him while crying out in happiness. Titan shifted so that he could keep her in sight, his eyes were latched onto her and drinking her in like she was a wonder to behold.

Yolanda danced from foot to foot. “Titan! Meet your little sister! Terra!”

Titan glanced at Yolanda for a moment before smiling widely. I moved up and rubbed his head. “Terra is the name of an ancient Earth Titaness.”

Titan snapped his head to look from me to Yolanda before he wiggled with glee which caused Terra to shriek in surprise. He stopped only to resume when Yolanda and Terra giggled at his antics.

He stood then and shifted about happily and barked his name out.

This caused Bertha and Knight to wake up and investigate, which drew them into sniffing the new baby pokemon. Terra laughed happily when Bertha held her aloft with one hand. Yolanda shifted nervously as Bertha lofted the little pokemon about and I chuckled as Yolanda fretted over her baby pokemon.

When I checked my watch it was only ten minutes before my normal wake up time so I hummed and looked up at Titan. “Want to show off for your little sister this morning?”

Titan clenched his claws and punched the air causing a small quake. “Tyranitar!” he barked fiercely before grinning towards a suddenly nervous Knight. Bertha laughed and gave Terra back to Yolanda.

“Rhy! Rhy! Perior!” she called as she jogged head of us. I hummed. “Well, looks like they’re not getting a nice calm song to wake up to this morning,” I said casually as Bertha roared into the Ancient pokemon’s cavern causing Don to shriek in protest and a scuffle to break out. I clapped Knight and Titan on the flank. “Escort Terra and Yolanda to the training area would you?”

They nodded while I headed off to break up Don from trying to eat a laughing Bertha. Don wouldn’t be able to hurt her and that would just enrage him more and make him harder to handle. Not that Bertha cared about that by the sound of her laughter.

I set about breaking them up and then marched up to meet the rest of my bleary-eyed Elite team that were circled around Yolanda and Terra. Terra was once more squirming to escape Yolanda’s grip but my sister wasn’t having that happen again now that all of my big pokemon were out and close by. I nodded approvingly.

“Alright gang back it up! Give them some room! Titan! Start it off!!”

Titan straightened up and barked out an order causing my pokemon to whirl about and start jogging towards a distant rock. Titan usually was at the back but I saw him sneak a Rock Polish before he sprinted to the rock much to the other pokemon’s shock.

He then sprinted back and bowled through them like pins at the bowling alley before hurtling back to Yolanda and Terra. I rolled my eyes at him and the others that were gaping at him. “Someone is motivated!” I shouted to the team.

Titan nodded and puffed out his chest as Terra cheered for him. He then proceeded to out wrestle Bertha, Onix, Sanchez, Knight, Shrek, and Hypnotoad. He’d then eyeballed Tide and the others only for them to square up on him with Tide giving a warning bark,a Hydro Pump held ready in his mouth. This forced Titan to stop and calm down.

“Woah! Titan’s motivated!” shouted Forrest as he walked around the plateau with a very young-looking Onix at his side. On his other side, Flint was walking with a pleased look on his face and a huge cup of coffee. He looked like he’d been up most of the night judging by the bags under his eyes. I offered a nod before noticing that Challenger was also with them.

Challenger locked onto Sanchez who was sadly readjusting his iron sand moustache after the beatdown Titan had given him. She smirked and advanced, only for Titan to slide in front of her and lock claws with her. Challenger baulked at the new opponent only for Titan to not care and whip her around and hurl her away. He then adopted a hero pose.

Terra applauded Titan causing him to get a pleased smirk. Yolanda merely stared at Challenger, who was looking more than a little shocked at her instant loss. She hadn’t even gotten a chance to say anything about a fight before she’d found herself in one.

“Gooooolem!” said Sanchez as he shifted his moustache into a fake feminine haircut and swooned theatrically. Titan scowled at Sanchez’s dramatics before Sanchez shifted his moustache back and slapped his knee at the joke.

Terra stopped clapping and giggled at their antics with Yolanda joining her.

I huffed. “Alright big guy, why don’t we let you really show off and get the most out of your motivation with some resistance training. I’m not going to have an Elite team left otherwise. Selene fetch Chansey would you?”

When Chansey arrived, she looked pleased at the battered appearance of my team. I merely pointed at Titan and made him move through a few fighting moves we’d worked out for him. “Gravity!”

Titan instantly shifted downwards as the ground beneath him buckled. He kept his body unbent however and continued to move through the poses. His eyes sliding to Terra as she cheered him on. I snorted. “Right, with that handled I think I’ll see to some of my other pokemon’s training,” I said aloud.

“And I can do the same for my pokemon!” Forrest said happily, moving away and leading his Onix to start working on some maneuvers. I considered shifting my focus before shaking it off and moving about the rest of my pokemon to give instructions.

When I reached Onix and Scyther I had them play a game of tag with Scyther having to only target markings I put on Onix’s sides.

Both pokemon threw themselves into action and I nodded as Onix writhed to make Scyther work for his hits while Scyther had to work on his precision. Their game went on for a few minutes before I was disrupted by a new voice announcing itself.

“Tyranitar, the Armor Pokémon. Tyranitar has a heavily armoured body that can withstand powerful attacks and is able to crush a mountain with one hand,” said a robotic voice that had me looking away from my pokemon. I found Ash staring at Titan in awe as my starter continued to move through his work out with little Terra cheering him on. Yolanda was now looking much more impressed so I decided to give Titan a moment to catch his breath and have a drink.

“Selene cut the gravity, Titan? Grab a drink!” I called out, making him nod and march off to the side where he discretely took some huge lungfuls of air to recover from what had to have been an intense workout.

I moved over and patted him on the leg. “Doing alright? Or still trying to be a hero?”

“Tyran!” he said, snorting at me. I shook my head. “Well, now you can show off how good of a boss you are,” I said before pointing him towards Don, Bertha who was trying to take over Terra’s attention along with Knight, Shin, and Zephyr. Titan barked at them and happily made them scatter.

I frowned, looking around only to find Don locked onto Pikachu who was sniffing the Stantler.

“DON!” I bellowed, making him startle and break off his flight so he didn’t snatch up Pikachu. Ash blanched when he realised he’d been too focussed on the deer. Stantler himself bucked in surprise and ran off making me sigh.

“Alright, I think you need a time out if you’re stalking like that.”

Ash approached. “Hahaha, thanks for that, he sure gave us a scare!”

“Yeah, sorry, he must have thought Pikachu would make for a good snack before breakfast.”

“Hahaha,” Ash said as though I’d told him a joke. I raised an eyebrow at him and he stopped laughing. “Oh…” he said as he realised what I was saying.

I offered a shrug. “Yeeeeaaaaah, Don’s not what I’d call domesticated or tame. He very much will hunt if he’s feeling hungry. That’s why he gets fed twice a day usually.”

Ash nodded loosely and I clapped him on the back. “Don’t let it bother you. How are you and Pikachu doing?”

“Good! But I was curious, how do I get Pikachu to fire off Thunderbolts like your Golem?” he said pointing to where Sanchez was performing Thunder on  Zephyr with his Steel Wing grounded into the earth.

“Hmmm show me your Thunderbolt?” I asked, surprised that Pikachu could pull off such a move.

“Pikachu, use Thunderbolt on that rock!” Ash said, causing Pikachu to fire off a respectable lightning attack. I hummed and made an ‘again gesture that took Ash a second to work out. “Go again, Pikachu! Thunderbolt!”

When the attack was pretty much the same I nodded. “I’d say your pokemon still hasn’t reached the necessary power threshold for Thunderbolt. It’s impressive for a Thundershock, but it falls a bit short of that next level. The move that Sanchez is using over there is Thunder, a move further along the power chart.”

“Power chart?” Ash said, tilting his head.

I scratched my chin. “You know how the big impressive moves are typically moves like Hyper Beam or Giga Impact?” Ash blinked at me cluelessly while Pikachu tilted his head, causing his ears to flop to the side. Misty and Greta who’d been talking a small distance away stopped talking and started paying attention.

“Right, well you typically have to work up to high power moves like Giga Impact or Hyper Beam. It’s possible for it to be taught to pokemon early using Technical machines, but the results are almost always subpar without additional training. It’s actually better to work along a chain of pokemon moves that lead into each other. Now for the sake of argument and familiarity, I’m going to use Giga Impact as an example. Giga Impact is a powerful normal-type move that hits really hard, however, what a lot of people don’t understand is that it comes about from having a pokemon that knows Tackle.”

I made a fist and slammed it into my palm, “Tackle can then progress to Slam, or Body Slam, or even moves such as Double Edge. This trains the pokemon to throw itself into the attack while also building up energy channels for stronger moves. Some pokemon moves that use similar parts of the body are also able to be strengthened with this type of training. I’m doing something like that for Stantler over there,” I said pointing towards my meditating deer pokemon.

Zephyr was inspecting him and nodding every now and then before offering advice.

Forrest, who’d sidled up to listen in, jerked in surprise. “I’ve heard you talk about this before but… what about the TM's you give out? Wont Mia and Silly Mouse be affected? And I know you’ve built up moves from TM before so what gives?”

I raised a hand. “Excellent point, Forrest. Now, what I said earlier only applies to pokemon that don’t have trainers and have to build up pokemon moves the natural way. Trainers can funnel a pokemon towards certain moves and make some moves stronger. Technical Machines allow people to skip those steps and this can result in the pokemon move initially being weaker. That doesn’t mean you can’t get the strength up to what would be seen naturally, however.”

I held a hand up to forestall Forrest. “How would you go about doing that?”

“Use the move lots?” Ash said with a tilt of his head. Misty groaned only to stop when I nodded.

“That’s one way, there’s another you can use.”

I was met with clueless expressions. “Order Pikachu to build up the attack for a Thundershock towards that rock, but not fire it off.”

Pikachu, use Thundershock but don’t!” Ash said, making me grimace as Pikachu blinked before slowly building up an electrical charge that surged out of his body and zapped Ash. Ash’s hair stood up straight but otherwise he was fine. “That was weaker than his normal thundershocks…” Ash said.

“Pikachu’s not used to building up a charge or stressing himself in this manner. It takes a bit of work but you can also train energies with a build-up and hold method like we just tried.” I whistled and Titan turned his head. “Come over here and show off your Dark Hold move,” I said.

“Ty!” barked Titan as he moved over. He drew in a breath and then exhaled as dark energy built up over his body only to remain there.

“Oh wow it’s sort of giving me chills to feel!” Misty said.

I nodded. “Yeah, this is one way of building up a pokemon’s special energy attacks.” I hummed “It’s also good for other tricks,” I said pointedly towards Yolanda. Her eyes widened as she realised what I was alluding to before she nodded. I made a note that I’d have to spend some time with her… Her, and maybe Missy. Missy had shown that she was capable enough and interested in learning more from me.

“Anyway, Mia is aware of this with Silly Mouse and has been working on it with the move I awarded her from day one. Her Thunder is going to be quite strong by the end of the circuit.”

“Not as strong as Pikachu and me!” Ash declared before leading Pikachu off to practise the new form of training. Misty nodded with a thoughtful expression before wandering off herself. I rubbed my chin when she moved over to Tide’s area and released her Staryu and began practising with it.

I smiled towards Greta who finished writing her notes and likewise ran off to start working with Bulbasaur only to sheepishly come back. “We don’t have a move like that…”

“Tackle is perfectly viable. Otherwise, try building up the strength of his Vine Whips.” I pointed to where Chansey was standing with Bertha practising moving under Gravity. “Try lifting some rocks with his vines in that area, just go slow alright?”

Greta nodded and moved off to do just that. I considered the groups of pokemon and saw that they were all training well. I considered the various trainers I had just given an impromptu lecture to. I was tempted to go talk with Ash but he seemed to be working through the lesson easily. Honestly, he was working through it the fastest with Pikachu working on eclectic attacks and also on doing a speedy tackle that informed me he was trying to get Pikachu to learn Quick Attack. That or he was trying something else out. Perhaps hoping to make his Quick Attack’s hit harder?

No, he had this lesson well in hand and as he released Butterfree to try other moves with another of his pokemon I decided against it. Instead, I turned to Misty who was looking frustrated.

“Hey Misty, how’re you doing?” I said as I approached her.

“Fine!” she said through gritted teeth.

“Hmmmm,” I said neutrally as her Staryu tried to hold in the water attack only to end up spiralling off like a children’s spinning top. “How did you word it?”

“Like Ash did! I didn’t do anything different!”

“Ah,” I said.

Misty scowled at me. “What’s that mean?”

“You’re not Ash. You’re Misty. Pikachu is also not Staryu. Both of them will respond differently to different cues.”

Misty considered this with a thoughtful nod. “Staryu… don’t hold it in… instead… think about the flow of energy as building up through your body like a pool of water being filled!”

I nodded, as Staryu cried out and repeated the move. This time he held for ten seconds before a blast of water shot out. “ Looks like progress,” I said with a smile.

Misty beamed “Yeah! Way to go Staryu!” She bowed to me. “Thanks for that Brock!”

“No problem, say, while I’m here, could I ask a question?” I said, alluding to the real reason I’d come over to talk with her.

“Sure?” she said.

“How come you didn’t apply to challenge my Gym alongside Ash?”

Misty blinked. “Oh, well I guess… I’m not really not doing a circuit I guess.”

“How come?”

Misty fidgetted and glanced over at Ash. I waved a hand. “He won’t hear us, and I’m aware of who your family is, Misty. I’d have thought it would have been a good thing to complete the circuit.”

“Really? I just hadn’t really considered it before… Plus you know, I want to be a Gym Leader one day, won’t it look bad if I fail against another Gym Leader?”

“It’d look worse if you never tried,” I said. She was startled at that, having obviously not thought of what it might look like. She shot me a look and I shrugged. “But then again you could get away with it if you wanted. It’s not something that’s actually written anywhere. I was just surprised. I thought you wanted to take over the Gym from your sisters?”

“I do! They barely run it! When I take it over I’ll give it the dedication it deserves!” She fidgeted “How’d you know about my goal anyway?”

“I have talked with your sisters, you know? They’re aware of what you want. They mentioned in passing once that they’d drop things on you when you were ready.”

“Urgh, those stuck up bit…” she swallowed what she was going to say and coughed. “Well yeah, they’re right. I want to be Gym Leader.”

I nodded. “Well going on a journey like this seems like the perfect chance to build yourself up.” I pointed to her Staryu. “You can build up a team, make some mistakes without it mattering too much, learn how other people do things and how you do things.”

Misty considered that and I hummed before deciding she needed some time to think things over. “Give it a thought. I’d love to face a challenge from you. If you take over as Cerulean Gym Leader one day we’ll have to have a match and you can be sure I’ll bring my best pokemon.” I pointedly looked towards Sanchez.

Misty turned her head towards Sanchez and watched as he unleashed a powerful Thunder and obliterated a boulder. “Oh,” she said.

I patted her on the back. “Don’t let that bother you though. Set goals and go from there. And feel free to ask questions. I get asked a ton already so don’t feel like you need to hold back!” I said while looking towards where Greta was working with her Bulbasaur.

Misty giggled at that and I moved off to work on a few others. When I made my way over to Stantler I found him looking a bit sad. “Still struggling with it bud?”

He nodded sadly and I gave him a few rubs. “No problem. What I’m asking of you is tough. We’ll keep working on it, but don’t for a minute think I’m putting the blame on you. Let’s take a step  back and work on holding the Calm Mind move in your head and horns for now. We’ll keep building from there, alright?”

It would be worth— My alarm started to blare and I looked down before grimacing. “Alright gang! That’s enough for today! Let’s get you all fed and then I need to get my own breakfast!” I checked my transceiver and was relieved that I didn’t have any Ace battles today. That’d be rough with my pokemon tired from a harsh workout. Titan leaned against the rock wall and heaved in air having apparently continued to go all out. Terra was just out of sight and when she walked around and chirped Titan whirled around and adopted an upright pose that made it look like he was still willing and able.

I had no doubt about that. Terra had stars in her eyes when I returned and deposited Titan’s food bowl. She licked her lips and inched forward only for Titan to nudge some food her way. He then devoured the rest. Terra looked over to the others eating and Yolanda quickly grabbed her up.

“No, you might be able to get away with it from Titan and Bertha but other pokemon won’t like you stealing their food. Come on, I’ll get you some food at home.”

I cupped my hands over my mouth. “Ash! Misty! Greta! I can’t leave you out here! Turn in for now. We can meet up tomorrow for more training if you want!” The others marched up quickly and I led them to the breakfast table for what was becoming a regular occurrence now.

Flint was thankfully already making breakfast which earned a nod of approval from me. I started making up the kids' lunches when a thought occurred to me. “Hey Ash, Misty? Why did it take you so long to reach Pewter if you were just coming from Pallet town.”

Ash shrunk into himself. “I thought that Samurai knew what he was talking about…”

I tilted my head only for Greta to snort some milk out her nose. She hurriedly wiped her face with a napkin. “That bug catcher cosplayer?! His advice was the opposite of good! Literally! You listened to that?” Greta swept her attention from Ash to Misty who both didn’t meet her gaze.

Forrest leaned in. “What did he say?”

Ash squirmed before adopting a stern expression. “The sun rises in the east and sets in the west! That means if you keep the east to your left you will be heading north!” he said with a pompous tone.

Misty tilted her head. “Or was it the other way around? Keep East to your right?”

Greta facepalmed and I chuckled. Forrest awkwardly tapped his fingers together. “If he said the first thing he was wrong. If he said the second then he was right… Uhmmm do you guys not have a compass?”

Ash shrunk further into his seat and murmured something about Pikachu breaking it on their first day. I shook my head and made a note to give him an electric type resistant compass before he left Pewter.

Greta groaned. “Urgh, I can’t believe you listened to him! Gary and I had no problems ignoring that idiot! You should have been the same!”

“Gary just got lucky!” Ash said with a snarl before sitting back down. “Most likely…”

I turned my attention to my schedule as I finished up making up the lunches for the kids. I started to switch into work mode as I considered what else I needed to do. Urgh, it was still only the middle of the week! I couldn’t wait for the weekend!

I paused as I realised that no actually, this weekend was the Mayor’s ball. Wait, no… Sabrina was going to come with me. Sabrina who had…. Hmmm, I needed to address this before it got away from me.

Sabrina’s little declaration had escaped me last night. So… she thought we were back together. I tapped my transceiver and sent a message. “So we’re together… right? I forgot to talk about that last night…”

“Yes,” she sent back. I glanced around expecting her to teleport near me only for her not to appear. I shrugged and got through my morning chores and was about to walk into my office when Sabrina teleported to my side.

“Oh hey Sabrina, is something—” She approached and put a finger on my lips, silencing me.

“I have been talking with Erika and she told me I should make sure there is no doubt. We’re dating, yes?”

I nodded glancing down at the finger that was still on my lips.

“Good, in that case I will pick you up for the ball this weekend.” She nodded and was about to teleport away only for me to grab her hand before she could.

“No,” I said. When she blinked I hurried to elaborate. “No, you come over to my house and I’ll organise something. We should make an entrance.”

Her lips tilted upwards. “Hmmm, very well, I look forward to what you come up with.” she leaned back in and pecked me on the cheek before teleporting away.

I rubbed at the spot where she’d kissed me and felt myself grow oddly hot. Alright, well good. That was… good. Yes.

Damn. Now I needed to find something cooler than teleporting in for our entrance… Urgh, there had to be something for that right?

That would be future Brock’s problem. Right now I had to get to my first challenge of the day.

Still, it gave me something to look forward to for the weekend. I just needed to reach it without too much going wrong.

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A.N. Special thanks goes to my patreons for their support!

Special thanks goes to Raikor, Ab9999, Kurlinni, and Elnoorz for betaing and editing this chapter