Hard Enough - Chapter 100 - Psychic suprises (Patreon)

“So, want to go watch a movie?” I said when we arrived at my house.

She nodded and started walking towards the loungeroom, she dragged me along and I laughed. “I meant, go to the movies!” I said before jerking my head outside. “You know, something different.”

Then I paused. Ah, actually the movies might be a bit rough for her. Although she’d been handling larger and larger crowds so maybe—

“Brock’s home!” said Timmy before I could get a reply. Sabrina’s lips twitched as the smaller kids flooded out of the loungeroom to pile onto me.

“Brock!” “Bro!” “Big brother!” “You were gone for forever and a year! I counted!” “Come play with us!” They started tugging at me, but like a mountain, I remained unmoved.

Flint was the next to emerge, looking bedraggled, only to straighten up and tidy himself up when he saw us. “Brock! Welcome home!” He then smiled timidly at Sabrina. “Sabrina, lovely to see you as well… You’re looking nice?” he said.

Part of me was cringing at his compliment, while the other was wondering what was happening here. There had to be a subtext that I wasn’t picking up on. Sabrina merely nodded back.

“Flint,” she said succinctly.

She then smiled down at Suzie as she wiggled in front of her. “Hello Suzie, you’re looking pretty today.”

“Oh Sabrina!” she said with a flap of her hand. Suzie then inspected Sabrina. “I like what you did with your shoes!” Suzie then perked up. “Oh! Can you tell us another story!? You tell the best stories!”

The kids stopped tugging me and swivelled onto the new target. They rounded on her but still gave her a bit of room as they adopted begging poses. “Pleeeeeeaasssssseeeee!?” they said as one.

Sabrina tilted her head. “Hmmm, I’m not sure. Your brother wanted to go on a date.”

Yolanda’s head snapped around the corner. “Brock and Sabrina are going on a date?” In her hands, Terra waved hello. The little baby pokemon smiled and trilled a greeting.

Sabrina dipped her head once. “We were considering it.”

I inspected Yolanda’s Larvitar. “How’s she doing?”

“Pretty well, she still has the bad habit of giving some of her food to Munchlax, so I’m having to feed her away from him.”

Forrest rolled his eyes. “Just tell him off.” Flint nodded, and opened his mouth to say something only for his eyes to pause on Sabrina. His mouth snapped shut after that.

Yolanda shrugged. “Eh, it's fine. I don’t mind spending more alone time with her.”

The other kids continued to plead with Sabrina and Yolanda stiffened as she recalled what had called her out here. “Oh! Uhm Dad was going to make a cake!”

“I was?” Flint said with a tilt of his head.

“Yup!” Yolanda said as she started pushing siblings towards the kitchen. “First one there gets to lick the bowl?!” she said as our siblings stared at her doubtfully.

They didn’t want to leave us, only for Munchlax to charge out of the loungeroom and spring over their heads. “Lax!” he said as he ran ahead, only to trip on Eevee as she came the other way to find out what was going on. They fell to the ground with a thump and the kids giggled before the boys straightened up.

“I’m not going to be last!” they said as they gave chase. This led to an exodus of kids around us. Even Suzie only stopped to toss us a wave.

“Haha! Suzie’s last!” crowed Timmy loudly.

“I am not! Forrest is last!” said Suzie primly as she entered the kitchen.

“What?” Forrest said, from where he’d been leaning. “I wasn’t even trying to get in there?” he said as he stalked in to defend himself from a bunch of children. I shook my head. Poor Forrest, he’d learn one day.

I shifted my attention back to Sabrina now that we were alone. “So? Movies? Go for a walk in the gardens? Or something else?”

Sabrina hummed. Behind her head, I noted the calendar was open and there was a marking for the phase of the moon. “Oh, but we need to be finished before the moon is in the sky.” She considered me. I gave her an innocent smile. “It’s a surprise, a good one! Promise!”

“Very well, how about we simply hang out until then?”

I huffed. “Alright, loungeroom, my room, or go do something with our pokemon?”

“Hmm, our pokemon I think,” she said. “I’d like to see what has changed since I was last in your reserve.” I nodded, pushing the slight disappointment aside as we headed out to release our pokemon. My pokemon all appeared and relaxed happily while Sabrina’s took a moment to inspect their surroundings.

Alakazam was the quickest to relax, as he adopted a hovering meditative pose before bobbing over to Selene who led him up to the top of the plateau. Claydol followed them along cheerfully, and the rest of Sabrina’s pokemon moved about to explore the reserve causing a number of my Gym pokemon to poke their heads out at the new arrivals.

I walked around with Sabrina and watched some fairly amusing reactions such as Hypno getting squirted in the face by my Corsola. Slowbro stood among the Lileep looking rather lost. I imagine he had no idea where the small trees had come from and how he had a grove grow around him. Eventually, he seemed to just shrug and accept it.

When we came around to the Elite training area Sabrina frowned slightly. “Why do you have a Stantler?”

I sighed and gestured for him to come over. The deer bounded over happily and barked once before butting his head into my hand. I rubbed him. “I’ve been trying to work out if I can make Stantler evolve. I’ve been studying them for an idea I had. See, I came across something interesting with there being previous fossils and records of another deer pokemon. One very similar in build and size to Stantler.”

I had actually gone through what data the Guardians had and discovered this information. It was not something many people had reviewed and there was actually very little commentary on it, but I knew it was something I could use.

“So Stantler can evolve into a rock type?”

Stantler snorted and shook his head about before nudging Sabrina. “Antler!” he said as he nudged into Sabrina. Sabrina tilted her head. “Psychic?” she said in surprise.

I nodded. “I think it needs a different method to evolve, namely a move to be performed in a certain way. The pokemon images had the pokemon being very long-legged. I think if we have Stantler using agility regularly and work on Zen Headbutt something will eventually happen. That or we need them to be immersed in an energy-rich environment.”

“A psychically rich environment?” she said. “You were trying to evolve this pokemon… for me?”

“Yeah, sorry it has sort of fallen by the wayside.” I scratched at the side of my head. “It will probably take me a while longer as well, with this not really being a psychically rich environment.”

“I would like to take this over.” Sabrina declared as she rubbed Stantler’s head. “Send me the notes you have, and I will continue Stantler’s training along with giving him a small herd to breed with.” Stantler snorted and for a moment I thought I saw hearts enter his eyes before he brayed happily and rubbed his head along Sabrina. She laughed. “He is open to that idea.” He rubbed his head back and forth and Sabrina laughed again. “Very open to it.”

I snorted. “I can see that.”

She eyed me. “Did you know of any other potential psychic evolutions or variants.” I hummed and her gaze sharpened on me. “You do?”

I waved a hand back and forth. “It’s a silly thought, but I just wondered, if Stantler can do it, why couldn’t another pokemon like Ponyta have a Psychic evolution?”

“Hmmm horse and deer pokemon…” she said thoughtfully.

“Seemed logical,” I said, defending my future knowledge. It would be great to see Sabrina with a psychic Ponyta or Rapidash. But then again, she’d probably become the most popular trainer with little girls everywhere if she pulled it off. Those pokemon were disgustingly cute.

From what I could remember of the shiny variant? Sabrina would have little girls swearing eternal loyalty to her for a chance to pet one, let alone own one. The only other pokemon I could think of with a variant to psychic was Slowpoke but I wasn’t going to advocate for a poisoning Slowpoke. Nor was I going to have Sabrina raiding an Articuno nest to raise one, as incredible as it would be.

“So have you been getting many challenges?” I asked.

When I got no reply I looked up from petting Stantler to see Sabrina was ignoring me. Instead, she was looking into the distance, lost in thought.

“I will pursue this.” she eventually declared. “I can set up the facilities without any issue.” She stroked Stantler’s snout. “I would like to have those pokemon around the gym as well.”

“Well alright?” I said, realising she was still thinking about what I’d said. Or more likely giving it even more thought than I had “Sorry I couldn’t take it any further.”

“You have already given me a wonderful gift. I shall be sure to list you in any research papers I need to post once I am successful.”

I shot her a smirk. “If you’re successful, don’t you mean?”

She stared at me. “I have faith in your discoveries, Brock. They have proven true enough over the course of our journey, no?”

I chuckled. “Got me there!” I said. Our journey must have seemed ridiculously lucrative with all the pokemon I discovered along with the various areas or items that I happened upon.

We left Stantler to frolic around in a much happier mood. I was glad for him, he’d been rather downcast with how we hadn’t had any success of late in developing the Psyshield Bash that he needed to evolve. Handing him off to Sabrina felt like a failure on my part, but then again she would have the best chance at getting him to evolve, so it wasn’t that big an issue.

“Will you require me to help prepare you for Will’s challenge?” she said.

I considered it before shaking my head. It would honestly be overkill with the team I had. I doubted Will would be able to mount a proper challenge. That had been why I’d felt so confident demanding a fight then and there at the Mayor’s ball.

We rounded the plateau to witness her pokemon lounging around with some of mine. Slowbro was still not sure what to do with the Lileep but now Zephyr was sitting on his head peering down at him. Sabrina didn’t notice though as she was staring at me.

She coughed pointedly, and I glanced at her. “Hmmm?”

“I said, did you want my help to prepare?”

I blinked at her and was about to tell her that I didn’t need it, only to realise what she was really getting at. “Oh! Yeah, I’d love to have your help.”

She perked up at that. I coughed to hide a sheepish chuckle. I’d dropped the ball there initially before catching on. I mentally patted myself on the back, nice save me.

Sabrina eyed the setting sun and then turned to me. “What did you have planned for us?”

I gestured to Mt Moon. “Ever seen a Clefairy evolve naturally?”

Her eyes gleamed with interest, and I knew I’d thought up something interesting. I considered it a pretty big win when we got to sit on a rock on top of a mountain under a full moon as a tribe of pokemon danced their special dance. Sabrina was captivated. I’d seen it a few times, so I didn’t watch them.

Instead, I watched Sabrina.

She had a look of open wonder that I hadn’t seen since our time journeying together. It made me feel good inside that I could still make her feel that way despite us having grown up.

She also had this look of glee that made it all the more special. I knew she was getting more expressive these days, but these looks were especially precious as they were some of the ones I enjoyed the most when we were kids.

“Brock,” Sabrina said as she tapped me.

“Hmmm?” I said, noticing she’d caught me staring at her. She had a lovely blush now that made me want to lean in and kiss her. I started to do just that only for her eyes to dart to the side.

“Clefairy!” chimed a voice, making me turn to see that we had a voyeur at our viewing show. A small Clefairy was laying on a rock kicking up its heels and smiling at us. It waved and stood before bouncing up to us when it noticed we were now both looking at it.

“Cle! Clefairy!” It said, tapping on itself before grinning. Then it pointed right at me before nodding seriously.

I glanced at Sabrina. “What’d it say?”

“He wants to go with you. He wants to get a strong female like you have,” she said, her blush returning.

I turned back to the clefairy to find him nodding his head. “Huh…” I thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “Sure thing.”

I plucked a pokeball and held it out. The clefairy bounced forward and headbutted the ball resulting in his body being absorbed. The pokeball chimed once for a successful capture.

I stared at it. “I’ve been coming here for years and that’s the first time one of them ever wanted me to catch it.”

“Apparently you lowered your dark aura for once, and he got a better view of you. He said you were very kind-hearted.” Sabrina continued to blush and not meet my gaze.

“Was that all he said?” I leaned forward and peered past her bangs.

She huffed and a second later, she was kissing me furiously.

I didn’t know what I did that caused that reaction but I’d take it. At my waist my newly caught pokemon emerged and sat down to watch us kiss. I was conscious of it, and weirded out for all of a moment; then Sabrina grabbed my face and made me pay attention to more important things.

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When we returned, I was feeling pretty good. Yolanda took one look at my dopey smile and giggled to herself. Clefairy chose that moment to emerge from his pokeball to inspect his new home.

“Oh my gosh! You caught a Clefairy!” she said, causing the heads of every girl in the room to snap onto the new pokemon like a Pidgeot onto prey.

Flint took one look at the Clefairy and chuckled. “Another pet pokemon? Don’t you have enough of those with Munchlax and Eevee?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Clefable are strong pokemon if used right.”

Flint shook his head and I hummed, not all that mindful of his criticism. Clefairy was glaring at him though, apparently a little miffed. I knelt down next to my new pokemon. “Hey, ignore him, I have a plan to make you a superstar of my team. If you can handle the training, I’ve got a spot for you.”

Oh, did I have a plan for him.

“Clefairy!” said the little puffball with fierce determination in his eyes. I grinned. I couldn’t wait to introduce him to the gang.

After the excitement of a new family member wore off, it was off to bed for little ones and myself. Sabrina pointedly walked into my room and settled in to sleep with me much to Yolanda’s amusement. She continually knocked to ‘check in’ with me on some training point I knew she knew. Worse, she knew, I knew, that she knew. She still smirked at me until Sabrina bid her good night, apparently she enjoyed the comedy act Yolanda and I had put on.

The next morning, I woke up with Sabrina cuddled up to me. “Good morning,” she said, sitting up and yawning as I got ready. “This is for you,” she said, while lifting a card up for me to read. I opened it and blinked.

“Oh… it’s my birthday today?” I said, surprised. Sabrina yawned again and blinked blearily. I leaned down and kissed her on the lips. I hid the grimace I wanted to show at her morning breath before thanking her. “How about you get ready on your own time. I have a few surprises I want to set up for today.”

Sabrina nodded and glanced back at my bed, obviously considering it before shaking her head. “I need to check in with Ralts. I will return to train with you soon.” I nodded and waved as she teleported away. I glanced down at the card. I’d forgotten about the date with all the excitement of the past few days.

I shook my head and chuckled before heading out to meet up with my team for the start of the week’s training. And to introduce Clefairy to the elite team.

I released him and he appeared with a shake of his head once my team had gathered. They all stared at the tiny pokemon. Don opened his maw, obviously expecting this to be a meal rather than a new teammate.

“Team, this is Clefairy, he’s a pokemon I plan to train up to take on a utility role in our roster. He’ll be able to learn a lot more moves than most of you, but as a Fairy-type pokemon he will also serve as a Dragonslayer.”

“Cle?!” said Clefairy in shock. Titan rubbed his chin thoughtfully and nodded while Bertha inched closer to the startled Clefairy. I could tell she just wanted to snuggle but it was amusing watching her ‘sneak up’ on the smaller pokemon.

Don looked annoyed. “Reeeee!” he screeched, before snapping his jaws in Clefairy’s direction. He made to stalk forward to correct my mistake, only for me to step right into his path and glare at him.

“Clefairy isn’t here by mistake,” I said firmly. Don locked eyes with me. Titan shifted slightly, probably ready to smack Don if he tried anything. Which wouldn’t help this situation.

“Don, decisions on this team are not yours to make. I am the trainer due to understanding that there is more to fighting than just using power. Clefairy will fill a niche that we are seriously lacking. When I said Utility, I meant he will provide support with healing moves, both for himself, and others.”

Don blinked at that. “Aero?” he said, tilting his head.

I nodded. “There is a move that can heal other pokemon. It’s called Healing Wish.”

I looked down at Clefairy and knelt. “Clefairy, the training I have planned for you is something that will be tougher than anything I’ve done with any of my pokemon. I plan to make you master a move, that if successful, will knock you out. That’s when you use it successfully. It will then confer health to the next pokemon that reaches where you were knocked out.”

Clefairy gasped before looking down. Before I could say anything else he nodded. “Cle! Clefairy!” he said before glaring at Don. I huffed in amusement.

“I wasn’t done Clefairy.” I slapped Bertha on the shoulder, who was now in grabbing distance of Clefairy. She stiffened at the slap, realising she’d been caught. “This is Bertha, my Rhyperior. She’s special in that she’s smart enough to have learned how to combine powerful attacks.” I pointed straight at clefairy.

“You are going to learn the same trick with Healing Wish. I don’t want you passing out. I want you to be a ghoulish nightmare that simply will not let any of my pokemon go down, yourself included. That is my plan for you. I won’t lie, you more than any other pokemon on my team will have it tough. Most won’t appreciate your arrival until that moment when you showcase yourself. It will not be a quick process either. It took Bertha years to—”

“Cle! Clefairy!” he said, swiping his hand forward as though rejecting what I was saying.  He pumped his fist and glared up at everyone, his fiery spirit back. “Fairy! Cle! Clefairy! Fairy! Clefairy! Fairy!!!” he said with another slash of his hand before he stood definitely and waited for a response.

Don looked shocked. Hypnotoad, Shrek, Scyther and Shin all grinned before sharing pleased looks. Titan leaned down and stared straight into Clefairy’s face before snorting. Clefairy tried to stand his ground, but the breath from Titan was too strong and blew him back.

“Cle!” said Clefairy as he clicked his tongue. He stalked straight into Titan’s face and glared harder. Titan barked a laugh and stood tall before bellowing something then he shot Clefairy a thumbs up that had the rest of my team trumpeting their own approval.

I raised my whistle. “Alright gang, training time! Will’s coming up soon and I plan to put the hurt on him! Bertha, Scyther, stick around!” My pokemon moved off with an eagerness that I hadn’t seen since I’d announced I was going to challenge Lance. I eyed my new puffball that was squirming in Bertha’s grasp.

“Fairy!” he said with a whine as Bertha stroked him.

I snorted. “Better get used to it Clefairy, she’s going to be your mentor in how to combine moves.”

“Rhy! Perior!” Bertha said like all her dreams had just come true.

Clefairy wilted for a moment before bowing as deep as he could to the giant Rhino pokemon that was still patting him. I shot my head over to the side where there was a large free space. “Clefairy, hope up on her shoulder and let her demonstrate her Seismic Twist, a move that combines Horn Drill with Fissure.”

Clefairy gaped and bowed again as Bertha marched off with her new shoulder puffball.

I turned to Titan who hadn’t moved off before addressing Scyther. “What did he say?”

Titan rubbed his chin and made a clenching fist of determination. “He accepted my challenge?” Titan clenched his fist harder, and Scyhter’s wings buzzed excitedly. Something Clefairy had said had them all pumped up. I considered what could have been said to get such a response. I huffed a laugh and decided to jokingly say the most anime response possible.

“He rejects my claims that it will take him years and that he’ll learn it in months, not years!” I said faux-heroically.

Scyther nodded but Titan made a narrowing motion with his claws. I stared at him before looking over to the hyper-focused Clefairy as Bertha demonstrated her combination move.

“He said weeks didn’t he?” Titan narrowed his claws further.

“Days?” The claws got narrower as Titan’s smile got bigger.

“By Today?” I said in shock.

Titan gave me a thumbs up with a smirk as he looked approvingly at Clefairy. I whistled. Damn, what a gutsy little guy. I suddenly was reminded that, in truth, I had no idea just how strong this little pokemon was. I’d seen cute and cuddly and thought that meant he was ‘low leveled’, but that might not be the case. Did he already know Healing Wish?

I glanced at Scyther. “Alright, change of plans, you go get Chansey out here now, cause this is going to kill him otherwise. I’ll need to ride herd on this guy or he’ll kill himself without understanding what he’s trying to do. His pride is good and all but I want an able-bodied pokemon, not a suicidal pokemon.”

Beneath my feet, the earth bucked once making me stagger. Titan caught me and chuckled before waving me towards Clefairy who was already on the ground and putting his hands together with a pink bubble forming up in front of himself. Part of his body twitched and he suddenly fainted, his eyes going slack as he collapsed face-first into the ground, leaving a pink floating orb where he’d been standing. I sprinted over to him as Bertha reached through the pink orb to check on her student.

She snorted in shock as the pink orb was sucked into her and she suddenly became slightly more energetic as she shook Clefairy. I had to stop her as I was worried she’d injure him worse.

I started running through a rudimentary health check only for a new cry to make me look up. I did so in time to see Chansey switch from jogging to outright sprinting at me to get to Clefairy. She arrived in the blink of an eye and a dust cloud was about to follow her before Titan swept his tail through it and disrupted it. I nodded in thanks only to find myself pushed back as Chansey made me give her some room.

She tapped her hands about Clefairy’s face for a bit before nodding to herself and lifting up her egg to hand feed it to Clefairy. A moment later, he blinked awake. “Clefairy?”

“Tch!” said Chansey as she sniffed disapprovingly. She opened her mouth to start giving him a dressing down only for him to push himself to his feet and shake his head.

“Clefairy,” he said simply before marching up to Bertha and barking a question. Bertha sheepishly rubbed her head and said something back that had him gaping. He then sheepishly walked up to me and said some words. From the gist of the situation I guessed he was asking about what two moves he needed to combine.

“I was going to teach you Endure through a TM and make you combine that with Healing Wish.”

Clefairy had a shocked expression before he coughed and nodded seriously. I stared at him. “You’re the sort of idiot that jumps before the thought of even looking comes to mind aren’t you?”

Clefairy rubbed the back of his head and laughed as though I’d complimented him. Chansey stared daggers at the little puffball only to be ignored.

I sighed. “Alright, let’s get you that move and we’ll work on it together.” I said, stressing the together. I waved at Titan. “Teach him about controlling his energy channels.” Titan sat down with a crash and raised two hands so he started to teach. He was an old hand at teaching this lesson by now so I left them to it. I jogged into the Gym and passed a few of my trainers that were feeding the other pokemon.

“Morning! Nice day isn’t it?” Missy said.

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I’m suddenly very glad we have some gauntlets to run cause I need a little more time to ride herd on my pokemon.” When she tilted her head and looked around for Don I chuckled. “I got a new pokemon.”

“New pokemon?” said Missy, clearly interested. “What’s he like?”

I hummed as I kept jogging. “A surprise, for everyone I think.” I returned with the TM and found Clefairy once more holding up a pink orb, the others waving at him frantically. I snapped out his pokeball and returned him, making him abort the move.

When I returned him, I glowered down at him. “Damn it Clefairy you don’t even know Endure yet!”

When he tried to ignore me and return to talk with Bertha about his attempt I put my foot down.

“Stop,” I said, drawing on the depths of mountains and the darkness of the abyss to convey just how unamused I had become.

Clefairy stopped and looked up in shock. I stared down at him.

“Clefairy, I know you want to be gung ho about this, but I’m going to lay down the law. You are not going to learn this move without seriously hurting yourself, possibly permanently.”

A glint of defiance entered his eyes and I snorted. “It is also incredibly selfish of you.”

That made him baulk. “Cle?”

I nodded. “If you were to continue this training, I’d need to hover around you, Titan would need to spend some time teaching you about using different energies, Bertha would need to constantly show you how to merge them with moves, and finally Chansey, who is the on-call healer for all of my pokemon would also need to stick. None of us would be able to do anything else while we watched you kill yourself.”

Clefairy lost his defiance and stared at the ground with droopy ears. I felt like a heel, but I also needed to set some ground rules. “We will help you Clefairy. I, and everyone who heard you speak, know that you have a lot of heart. I want you to show that it isn’t a selfish heart. Cause otherwise I’ll release you back onto Mount Moon.”

Clefairy looked up at me and searched my gaze before bowing his head. “Clefairy!” he said, bowing his head up and down before he jogged over to Titan and repeated the bowing. He did the same to Bertha, Chansey and even Scyther. Then he dropped to his knees before me and bowed his head.

Huh, where had he learnt the dogeza from?

I knelt down and patted him on the shoulder. “You impress me for a lot of reasons Clefairy, but taken too far those positives can be big problems. I’m glad you’re willing to listen, I think you’ll go a long way.” I pointed to Titan. “Let’s teach you Endure and get you to master it first and then start working on energy manipulation.”.

I stood up and nodded at him. “A month,” I said with a nod as I set the TM against his head. He perked up. “You’ll do it in a month.” I activated the TM and it flashed as it pushed the knowledge of the move into Clefiary. When it was done it turned a dull grey to show it was now empty. I’d return it for a partial credit to the pokeshop, but that would be for later.

Chansey snorted and marched off primly but I noticed she shot a considering gaze at Clefairy before she left. Seems she’d also been moved by his guts.

I set Titan off to work on the move with my new pokemon before patting Bertha on the side. She looked a little sheepish. “Hey, it's alright, we stopped him before he did any permanent damage. Kid’s got heart.” I tilted my head. “He’s got a whole lot of heart…”

I shook my head to stop myself from remembering something about a movie from my past life. The teasings of a potential name presented itself before I shook it off. I clapped Bertha on the shoulder. “Go train Knight. He’s a bit tougher and can take your enthusiasm. Don’t let this get you down. This is all part of being a teacher. Sometimes the student is too eager. You did good otherwise.”

She snorted and marched off.

I huffed and tilted my head. What was I about to do again?

Sabrina appeared in a teleport and blinked when she noticed the group of hyper-motivated pokemon along with the group looking slightly morose. “What’s been going on here?”

I sighed. “Well it started like—

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By the time I’d finished recounting the story, Sabrina was staring at the Clefairy, who was currently meditating with Titan and her Alakazam, with interest mixed with concern. I nodded. Then I turned to Scyther who I’d now remembered what I wanted to do. “Hey, weren't you going to show me your rock collection?” I said leadingly.

Scyther tilted his head before perking up and dashing towards a frankly huge pile of rocks. Sabrina must have sensed something was happening, as she stopped looking at Clefairy to focus on Scyther.

“Brock he thinks he’s about to—” she was cut off as Scyther dove into the pile of black, shiny rocks that he’d been collecting. He submerged himself in the pile and a moment later, a blazing white light that any trainer would recognise shone out.

I grinned. “He’s evolving.”

From the rocky pit, a new pokemon emerged. “KLEAVOR!” he said as he crossed his axes across his chest and knelt like a knight swearing to a lord. I grinned.

“Kleavor, I hereby name you Gawain, a knight known for wielding an axe with great skill and valour.”

The newly named Gawain shot up and cried out in celebration. The rest of my pokemon swarmed him. Clefairy hung back, but I picked him up to put him on my shoulder.

Sabrina stared before shooting me a suspicious look. “You... knew about this didn’t you?”

I grinned at her. “I certainly hoped I was right.” I tapped Clefairy on the side. “Today will be Gawain’s day, as he spent a lot of time working towards this. You’ll be just the same in time. Trust in me, and I’ll make you strong.”

Clefairy nodded, his gaze locked on my new pokemon. I grinned, Bianca and Stephen were going to freak out when I told them. I tilted my head. Actually, so were Oak and Elm when they heard. I couldn’t wait to see that reaction.

Heh, their dumbfounded faces would be yet another present for my birthday.

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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