Hard Enough - Chapter 104 - Dealing with trouble (Patreon)

Flint had gone pale when I told him. “Oh no! What happened?!” he said.

I jerked my head tightly. “No idea, I have Yolanda ready to look after things and Granny Legiga coming over to hold things down here. I’m going to the station.”

A flicker of hurt emotion appeared on Flint’s face before he straightened up. “I’m coming with you.”

I felt a momentary flicker of… I wasn’t sure what to call it. Surprise, validation, amusement, annoyance? I knew that he would come, expected it. But I still found it surprising?

Perhaps I was still getting used to having him around. I jerked my head outside and nodded to Yolanda. “We’ll be back with Forrest soon.”

She gave me a tight smile. “Yeah, well save some of him for me to tear into! He shouldn’t scare us like this!”

I snorted and stalked outside to find Flint had already released his Onix. “Climb on!” he said. I rolled my eyes and instead flicked out Selene. She appeared and turned to me with a curious tilt of her head.

“Forrest is at the police station. Can you get Flint and I there?” I said. Flint quickly returned his pokemon with a sheepish cough. Selene bobbed up and down and her eyes glowed before she, for lack of a better word, glitched and reappeared to the side.

She shuddered and gave me a glare and warbled her cry. “Luuuuuuuna!” she said.

I tilted my head before grimacing. I grabbed at my energy, not even realising it had been radiating off me like it had before I tightly compressed it into a ball.

Or at least trying to.

It felt like it didn’t want to go. Like it was too pressured to be held back. I took in a deep breath and tried again, only to find my control lacking. I let it go, and Selene flinched as it spilled out of me for a moment. Flint also stepped back, surprised.

“Brock?”

I held up a finger and took another breath, ignoring the way the darkness within me had become more powerful with his interruption. “A moment. Please,” I bit out.

I took another breath and drew it back into my body before cursing under my breath. “Great, just great.” I clapped my hands together and exhaled heavily before inhaling quickly and opening my eyes. I found myself staring into Flint’s concerned expression. My brow twitched in annoyance, and I bit back the demand for him to give me room.

I dropped the pose and shook my head. “No, alright I don’t have time for that. I need to get to Forrest and save him from whatever he’s gotten himself into.” I waved a hand at Flint, hating myself a little. “Send out your Onix again.”

Flint gave me a dubious look, and my gaze hardened. He released his pokemon and gave a reproachful look that I ignored as I hopped up onto the Onix’s side before it quickly raced away. I ignored the voice that demanded I simply send out Zephyr and ditch Flint. Zephyr could carry two but I didn’t want to get cosy with Flint of all people.

Instead, I tried to control the energy that felt like it had suddenly become too potent. A hand in the pocket had me rolling rocks around and feeling their coolness as they clinked and tapped into each other.

Flint chose then to speak up. “So I think I can talk with the—”

“You’ve burned most of the goodwill you had with your departure Flint,” My rock-type energy slipped through my fingers. The energy no longer feeling like I was toying with rocks and boulders but a mass of pebbles with something crawling underneath.

“As his father…” he started before trailing off, his jaw working. “How did things get this way?” he said.

I stared at him. He clenched his eyes shut and nodded slowly, realising what I was implying before he curled up a little on himself. I turned my head and reached into my pocket for the pebbles once more, resisting the urge to throw them at Flint.

When we got closer to Pewter City, Lawrence appeared riding on the back of a Tauros. He pulled up level with us with a tight expression. “Brock, got your message. Jenny is sure that Jonathan’s sticking his nose into it?”

I nodded tightly and Lawrence cursed. “Friggen dark types that’s annoying. This should be an open and shut case, with it being at worst a slap on the wrist for the brats before they get dragged around by their parents or relatives… they do have relatives right?” Lawrence said shooting me a look.

I opened and shut my mouth before shaking my head. “I’m not sure. I haven’t exactly talked with Forrest about his friends. I’ve offered to hold sleepovers and parties but he always declined. So I never met them much.”

“Really?” Flint said incredulously. I stared at him and silently reminded him that he was not one to talk about not knowing his family’s likes, dislikes or acquaintances. It annoyed me that he wasn’t wrong though. I had slipped up, and if I had paid more attention, I would know these details. I knew Yolanda was friends with Crystal because they hung out in the Gym so often, but that was practically gift-wrapped for me. What were the boys’ names that Forrest hung out with?

Ren, Stimpy? Snot boy? I had no idea.

It hadn’t been an issue in the past. And now suddenly it was a huge, glaring issue. I pinched my brow and exhaled. "Alright, let’s get in there, make sure Forrest is fine, and then get him out of there.” I hopped off the Onix when we got within the region of ‘no riding’ zone around the police station and started marching forward.

This all started with Lance’s declaration.

Then people had come out of the woodwork trying to have a piece with the audit and getting Team Rocket sniffing around. I’d been so focused on all those issues with running the Gym, finding Flint, and balancing out my family obligations. Also the whole leaving with Ash issue had still been up in the air for a while there.

Urgh! I’d had this all managed it felt like!

Flint had come home. Problem solved, only it wasn’t cause I had to deal with him and all the… issues him being home brought with it. I’d mostly handled Ash though… just not the way I’d ever planned to.

I’d let Daniel get close to me!

In hindsight, he had glaringly large red flags with how he’d acted!

I felt like I was building up steam with all the recent issues. Some of them were successful but I could only categorise some as unmitigated failures on my part. This was already shaping up to be the latter rather than the former.

How had I let it get this bad?!

“Brock it would probably be a good idea to calm down,” Flint said.

“I’m perfectly calm, I assure you,” I said as I held tight to the darkness that threatened to boil out of me.

Lawrence coughed from next to me, jogging to keep up with my long strides that I now realised had just a touch of rock-type energy in them to propel me further. “Brock, you’re angry and you might lash out if things don’t work out well.”

“I’m not going to lash out unless I have to,” I said firmly.

Lawrence broke into a run and turned to plant himself in front of me. “Brock! You’re walking in there with a chip on your shoulder and intent. As your lawyer and more importantly, as your friend, I want you to stop! Take a second and calm down!”

For half a second, I thought about going through him. What was he but a pebble in the way of of… I stopped and stared down at him, realising where my thoughts were taking me. I shut my eyes but that didn’t stop me catching the look of fear that had morphed across his face with my looming over him.

I took in a breath and focused on something else. Something positive.

Forrest was in the police station. Not the hospital… or the morgue. Things weren’t that bad. I didn’t have the answers, and I’d need to talk to Forrest to get them. Talk, not threaten or growl like some beast.

Forrest was my brother, and I was just scared for him. I felt my lips twitch for a moment. It was a stretch but it was almost like the scene in the Lion King when Mufasa admitted he was scared.

I was scared and lashing out.

I let the breath out and found myself much looser. Lighter in both the sense of weight and illumination. I opened my eyes and nodded at Lawrence. “Thanks,” I said simply.

He took a shuddering breath of his own. “Whew, yeah, no problem. It’s my job to do that… well for both roles actually.” He laughed weakly, and I nodded.

“Sorry,” I said again. Lawrence merely nodded.

“Right, before we step in there, I imagine you want Forrest out, yeah? We’re going to have to talk with him. Let him tell us the story and then go from there. I can’t imagine he’s done anything too serious. He’s a good kid, he’s grown up well with you Brock.”

I gave Lawrence a smile. “Now you’re laying it on a bit thick.”

“Take the compliment, Brock,” Lawrence said before standing up and adjusting his tie. “Now, keep calm and let me do my thing yeah?”

I nodded and followed Lawrence in. It took a moment to remember Flint was there with how quiet he was being as he walked next to me. I considered saying something but that would go against what Lawrence had said so I kept my mouth shut as Lawrence stormed up to the front doors and opened both doors wide together like he was some cowboy from the wild west films that had been oh so cool once upon a time in my past life.

Lawrence stalked into the room with energy like he owned the place. Behind the front desk a grey-haired woman with a her hair done up in a bun glared at him. Her hands twitched towards a pokeball on the barrier. She looked like she wanted to release whatever was in it but held back as Lawrence hadn’t overstepped himself, yet.

“Lawrence Wright and family members! Here to pick up Forrest of Pewter City out of holding for interview and—” He rattled off a number of things that needed to happen.

The receptionist bared her teeth as if she expected him to flee before responding with something about needing to see the necessary paperwork, which Lawrence slapped onto the dividing space. She squinted through her glasses as she assessed it. She flicked through each line, her eyes darting across each line as though expecting some error to leap forth and allow her to reject Lawrence and therefore us entry.

“Interrogation room four,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Has he been formally charged?” Lawrence said.

“I’m not sure, you would need to talk to Officer Jenny who led the raid on the… gang.”

“That’s as yet to be established!” Lawrence riposted.

The woman sniffed and slipped out a tray to hold pokeballs. “Please store your pokemon here.” I stiffened for a moment before realising that it was a sensible precaution, for all that it rubbed me the wrong way.

Lawrence handed his over but held a hand out to me. “Gym Leader privilege,” he said to me with a smirk. Then he gave Flint a consoling look. “Current Gym Leaders only, I’m afraid, are allowed to carry their pokemon with them.”

Flint grimaced and deposited the five pokemon he had on him into the tray. I shot them an idle glance. Did he still have the Onix, Golem, and Sandslash he’d had years ago? I hadn’t seen him use any of them in a while… but then again I didn’t want to spend much time with him if I had to. Plus I was busy… yeah, that’s why I didn’t know what pokemon he had.

I was just busy with other things.

Lawrence nodded at the woman before waving his hand to Flint and I. “Let’s move.” He glided through the police station. Lawrence navigated it with the airs of someone walking a familiar haunt.

“Been here before?” I asked, unable to stop myself.

“Used to intern with another lawyer and ended up working with a lot of criminal cases that ended up here.” He glanced back. “Lawyers have a grey reputation Brock, but I made sure I gave anyone I represented their best options.”

We came upon a long corridor with a number of rooms that had numbers on them while other doors had no numbers. Lawrence walked past room four. Flint paused with a frown only for Lawrence to rip the door open next room four.

“Has my client been formally charged?” he said loudly as he announced himself.

I thought I heard a curse from the room and when I entered the room and looked around Lawrence I noted that there were three occupants. Two looked like the cliche detectives with suspenders over white shirts while next to them sat Officer Jenny who looked relieved for a moment before a flash of guilt flickered across her features. Then she adopted a stoic mask of professionalism.

She stood. “Mr Wright, thank you for arriving. We have not conducted any interrogations due to Forrest’s status as a minor.” Her eyes twitched towards the other two in the room. “If you’d like to accompany us as we—”

Lawrence shot a finger out in objection, cutting her off. “You will allow me and my client’s family to confer first! While this is occurring, I want no one else in this room, and no recordings.”

Jenny inclined her head and gestured to the other two. “Detectives?” I glanced at the wall and realised this was a room looking into the interrogation room in which a miserable-looking Forrest was sitting.

Both men swung themselves out of their chairs and grumbled past us. One shot me a look and muttered something about ‘paying our way out’. I clenched my jaw at that. It felt like something that I would have rejected in the past, but here I was, sweeping in with my lawyer and making demands.

Jenny marched us out of the room, turned and locked the room. She then gestured to the other room which she unlocked with a keycard. “You will have time to talk with Forrest.” Lawrence nodded cooly and swept into the room with Flint barreling in to wrap Forrest in a hug as my brother rose up. I sighed in relief as I noticed he didn’t have any injuries.

“Brock…” Jenny opened and shut her mouth when I turned towards her. She exhaled and adopted a professional look. “I was doing my job,” she said simply.

I nodded at her. “Yeah,” I said simply. “I get that.” I didn’t say anything else and instead moved into the room and shut the door behind me.

I had no idea how to even deal with that tangled web of emotions. I liked Jenny for her professionalism. It was a strange world indeed when that professionalism was the thing biting me in the backside.

I clapped Forrest on the shoulder, no longer feeling as tense. He looked up at me and then shot his eyes to the floor. “Sorry! I… I’m not sure what was going on! We were just going for a bike ride when they started spray painting a wall and I realised it was them doing it all the time and then we were riding away and they were laughing and—”

Lawrence clapped his hands, startling Forrest out of his hurried and rather frantic retelling.

“Forrest,” he said simply. “First off, I am Lawrence Wright, and I look after your brother’s affairs. As he’s the guardian of your family, you fall into that category. Now, everyone in this room, we’re here because we want what’s best for you and we want to help with this. There’s probably a lot more people, but they wouldn’t fit in this room would they? Your… Onix for example?”

“Heh, yeah,” said Forrest wetly before he sat up. “They took my pokeball with him in it!”

Lawrence nodded. “Standard procedure. We will be getting him back. So before we start getting into the details. Flint, Brock, aren’t we glad Forrest is alright?”

“Yes!” “Yeah,” Flint and I said together.

I stopped standing and moved to take the last seat around the table before reaching across and squeezing Forrest’s shoulder. “It’s gonna be fine little bro.”

He choked back a wet cough. Lawrence produced a handkerchief that Forrest blew into a few times. When he handed it back Lawrence grabbed it with two pencils that he then used to flick at the wall where the two-way mirror was. It thwacked into it wetly and stuck. Forrest barked a laugh and I realised it was a calculated, and perhaps practised move to make people relax around him.

Lawrence smiled easily. "Alright, Forrest, starting from when you left home, I want you to tell me what happened until we got here.” He put a notepad in front of himself and sat as though he couldn’t wait to record the tale.

Forrest licked his lips and shot Flint and me hesitant looks, only for us both to flash him supportive smiles.

“Alright, I had originally been called to come hang out, but I told the guys that I wanted to train with Onix and Dad.”

Flint got a deliciously guilty expression at this which I had a moment to enjoy before I crushed the emotion. It wasn’t helpful though so I held a neutral expression.

“We did that for a bit and I was finishing up with Ash when they came over. I decided to go with them cause I hadn’t hung out with them in a while see?” We all nodded. It was perfectly reasonable after all.

“We were riding our bikes around and then we passed by this wall that had been painted over. The guys stopped and said something about it being crazy how often they repainted the thing. Which I thought wasn’t as funny as them cause they didn’t do charity work like I sometimes do with the Gym trainers. I said as much and they laughed, and then Bobby pulled out some spray cans and started shaking them up. I asked him what he was doing, and he said putting up his tags; he said it was something he did all the time.”

Lawrence nodded. “Did you or anyone else tell him to stop?”

“... not at first. I thought it was a bit funny but not all that serious.” Forrest licked his lips. “So, no I didn’t think it was that bad. I was amused that it had been going on so long, but then I remembered that as a Gym trainer, I should be stopping them, so I told them to cut it out.” He shifted about in his seat. “They laughed at me, but then I pulled out my pokeball and told them it was serious and not a joke. That made them stop but they were really… they were… kinda of assholes about it.”

Flint shifted but didn’t say anything. Lawrence raised a hand. “This was the first time you’d witnessed this behaviour from them?”

“Yes!” said Forrest instantly. “I had no idea they were doing it… they had some jokes that talked about putting up tags but I never got the reference.” He swallowed as Lawrence made a few notes before prompting Forrest to continue with a polite nod.

“Right, so they stopped and started riding off and I wasn’t sure what to do… I guess I was going to report them later. They shrugged it off and said that if I didn’t chill out I wouldn’t get to come to the clubhouse, which I waved off cause I had the Gym which has everything. That got them kind of annoyed and they said their base was cooler and then the said to follow them. We rode out of town a bit to this really big oak tree. Chad pulled out his Drowzee and had it use this move that opened… like a portal.”

“Secret Power,” I said. Lawrence glanced at me with a frown. “The move is Secret Power and is used in creating secret spaces which can be used by smugglers.”

Flint shot me a look. “It was a move that was used a lot when I was younger, and things were… rough,” Flint said tightly. 

I blinked. Oh, Secret Power could be used to make temporary bases or shelters couldn’t it? Huh, that added an interesting angle to the pokemon move that had been little more than a gimmick in the games.

Lawrence nodded slowly at that while Forrest stared. Lawrence coughed. “What then?”

Forrest licked his lips. “They had like this really big space that we could walk around in. They had some ratty old couches that must have been in the dump and also like posters…” His face went red, and the adults in the room shared knowing glances over what was on said posters.

“Anyway! There was this uhm… other thing that caught my attention straight away, which was that they had a police bike there. The one Officer Jenny had stolen from her…” He chewed his lip. “I started to confront them about it when a Haunter entered the space and opened the portal from our side allowing the police to storm in. It was crazy! One second I was arguing with my friends and then… we were getting tackled by Growlithe and Machoke.”

Lawrence nodded. “Standard procedure, I’m afraid… Unless they got overly rough with you?”

Forrest shook his head. “I’ve had worse from Aron before. These were hardly that bad honestly. Bobby started blubbering straight away and Jenny stalked in looking smug, then she seemed surprised we were all kids and she got kinda angry.” Forrest squirmed in his seat.

“Then she saw me and got all quiet. I think she swore, but then the other cops came in and started dragging us away. Then we got transported here, and all our pokeballs got taken from us. They took us to separate rooms and then left me alone until you guys came in… thanks for again, by the way.”

I shot him a grin. “Not going to let them do anything with you little bro.”

Lawrence nodded. “Quite so, now there is an interesting situation that we can claim by having you state that you were in the midst of arresting or having the boys turn themselves in.”

“They’re my friends!” Forrest said but there was a fear in his eyes now.

Lawrence raised his hands. “Arresting or having them turn themselves in. The second obviously holds lesser sentencing. This whole thing is not all that serious.” Lawrence waved his hand about. “Youthful indiscretion. No judge would give it serious time in court or entertain it. It’s the police putting fear of the law into these boys. Scaring them straight if you would.” Lawrence laced his fingers.

“Where it becomes more complicated is with you.” Lawrence pointed a finger right at Forrest. “You, Forrest, are the brother to the current Gym Leader.” He inclined his head towards me.

Forrest face turned red. “But that’s not right! Why would they…” His face turned pale. “Oh.”

“Ah, you are familiar with the… politics of the situation. It doesn’t look good you see. You being arrested. If however, we claim you were taken in mistakenly while performing your duties, we can sweep a lot of this under the rug. The police won’t have a leg to stand on, and no one can really fault you. This becomes a humorous story around the water coolers and no further.”

“The others won’t get in more trouble? I won’t be selling them out?” Forrest said.

Flint shifted but didn’t say anything. I could see the conflict he had in remaining quiet about telling Forrest he should be looking out for himself. I agreed with him but could also see how Forrest would be conflicted. These were apparently his friends, and it could burn a lot of bridges if it wasn’t handled delicately.

“Alright, I think I can explain it to them later…” Forrest said slowly. “They’re not going to like it, but they did the wrong thing.”

Lawrence beamed, and I could almost see the internal relief of ‘oh thank goodness my young client is seeing sense’. “Excellent, so what we will do is—”

Someone knocked on the door, and Lawrence stood straight up and marched towards it. He opened it with a scowl. “I’m afraid that I am still discussing this situation with my client!” he said waspishly.

He stood in the door firmly but that didn’t stop me from seeing who was on the other side.

“Well, this is a surprise. I didn’t know you were here Lawrence! Not that it matters.”

“Why would I not represent my client, Mayor Jonathan? I’m precisely where I should be! You are the one out of place!” Lawrence said testily

“Oh now that’s where you’re wrong. I need to look after the good citizens of Pewter! I hadn’t heard you were in the building is all. Now as to what you were saying, it’s all good and well but this is a serious matter that needs to be handled—”

“Mayor Jonathan you have no reason to be involved here, nor do you have any reason to be involved in any criminal process!”

“Ah? This is a criminal case?” Jonathan said leadingly.  I bounced my leg as I heard the smug tone of Jonathan. I flicked my eyes toward Forrest as I felt my dark energy slipping. I didn’t want to explode while sitting in the room with him. That wouldn’t help anyone.

Lawrence was holding his own though. “In the case of the other boys it will be perhaps, but I think we can work out something with all of them and their parents to make this a lesson. This has nothing to do with you!”

“Really? That’s interesting because I just came from talking with those boys, and they said the most interesting thing. Apparently, this was all your client’s plan, the whole graffiti, or should I say, gang tags, and the theft of a police officer's means of transportation, thus hindering them in their duties over the course of an entire week?”

“That’s not really what happened!” snapped Lawrence. “This is beyond irregular and I will be pressing charges on this ham-fisted—” I heard Jenny speaking up as Lawrence began to wind up. She was asking the Mayor to return with her to see the chief of Police while others also spoke up. It sounded like it was getting chaotic out there.

I glanced at Forrest and noted how he’d gone an interesting shade of pale green. He’d obviously heard what the Mayor was insinuating.

“My man and I have been cleared with their families to act in their interests! I assure you!” Jonathan said merrily.

“Your man!?” said Lawrence with a snarl.

“Hello there little lawyer man! If you could jus—” I was out of my seat and surging past a slightly dazed-looking Lawrence. I locked eyes with Will and the control I’d been straining to maintain on my emotions broke as the realisaiton that Jonathan had brought Will with him.

That stunk on so many levels. Will’s eyes dilated as dark energy exploded out of me. I made sure to project the cold darkness straight forward. None of the malice I felt in this moment would touch my family.

“You overstep yourself,” I said with a snarl, “greatly.”

The hallway I was in pulsed as shadows crept out. A few feet back from Jonathan and Will, a few police officers reeled at the darkness that roiled about the area. I noted that Officer Jenny was suddenly being nudged back by a Haunter, an Arcanine and a Machamp while she stared at me in shock. The Haunter looked oddly familiar to me, but I dismissed it as irrelevant.

I kept my focus on Will.

“Mayor Jonathan, as my good friend Lawrence Wright was stating. It is not your prerogative to interrogate people. Particularly children.” My eyes stayed on Will and part of me delighted in how dilated with fear his eyes were. He’d remember this moment as one of the biggest mistakes of his life and I planned it make it a mistake he knew never to repeat.

“You have also brought a known psychic-type specialist into a police station. This creates a number of… questions that will need to be asked about proceedings.”

I looked at the police officers. “This entire case, as it is, seems to have lots of mishandling associated with it.” I turned my gaze back onto Will and watched him sweat.

He hadn’t known I was in there had he? Had he tried to scry Forrest or see a potential future perhaps? Sabrina had told me how I sometimes appeared out of nowhere to her if she tried that with me. Maybe I was reading into it too much? I doubted it though.

Jonathan had been surprised at Lawrence being here. He now looked terrified with my appearance. He’d thought he had a done deal, slam dunk before I’d even made it onto the station.

I let a smirk appear. I loved having dark-type energy. “Lawrence, I think we’ll be taking Forrest home right now. If this matter is raised again, then you will have carte blanche on everyone present and the police as a whole.”

Lawrence didn’t say anything, but I heard him shift back into the room. A few seconds later, I heard a “We’re leaving Flint, Forrest. The police don’t have a leg to stand on.”

I heard them approach and so reined in my energy. It collapsed back into me, and the room returned to its dull grey as lights suddenly illuminated the space properly.

I stepped forward and waved for the others to follow me. When I got to Will I leaned into his personal space. He sucked in a breath and I didn’t stop myself from smiling at the thrill of pleasure his fear gave me.

“If you ever try anything against my family again, I’ll break you. No laws of man or pokemon will stop me.” I stared at him and glanced across to Forrest. “If you’re smart you’ll drop your challenge and rethink your life choices.” Will stared at me in shock.

He swallowed. “You’re… like me?” he whispered.

“No, you and I are nothing alike,” I replied as I straightened up and nodded to my group to continue to the front desk where we collected our pokemon once more. Lawrence frowned at the front door.

“Best not go out the front door…” he said.

I glanced up from watching Forrest check the metrics on his pokeball to spot a number of what looked like cameramen setting up. I huffed in annoyance. “Damn that Mayor. Lawrence let our friend know I’m more than open to my side of the deal, and let’s go to the roof.” I drew in my dark energy when we reached the roof. A number of pokemon and three police officers on break eyed us curiously but didn’t challenge us. I had no trouble controlling my dark energy now.

Perhaps that little outburst had helped? I released Selene and nodded. “Take us home girl.”

This time we all vanished in a flash of light. We appeared a few hundred metres shy of the Gym and Selene warbled a defeated tone. I patted her. “Hey, no sweat. I’m asking a lot. Try again please?”

This time we appeared in the living room. Forrest collapsed into the lounge with a groan. He stared up at the ceiling. “Now what?”

I nodded and sat down opposite him. “Yeah…so about that…I’m open to suggestions.” I looked at the group at large, just as unsure of what the future would bring.

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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