Hard Enough - Chapter 117 Ancient Power up! (Patreon)

“—Tide! BB!” I shouted, causing my Lapras to fire short bursts of Ice Beam instead of merely blasting a singular beam forward. The wave that he’d fired into crumpled as the integrity became much more dubious, and Sabrina’s Starmie was forced to use Psychic to control his fall instead of using it to attack.

The new position allowed me to go for a different move. “DP!”

Sabrina’s pokemon flipped onto its feet and without Sabrina saying anything it formed a barrier in front of itself that broke when Tide’s attack blew through it. I pumped my fist happy that she’d gone with Barrier rather than Light Screen, as her pokemon was thrown backwards.

The top limb of Starmie sparked up, and I frowned. “Thunder!” I ordered Tide, more than willing to match Sabrina if she wanted to go for an exchange. It must have seemed an easier exchange with Tide being a bigger Lapras and therefore easier to hit.

As Tide released his Thunder and both attacks launched upward, I wasn't surprised to find Starmie shrinking in on itself with a Minimize combo. Something that should have made it easier to avoid my attack.

“CF!” I said before the Thunder could arc down. Tide’s eyes glowed, and waves of purple energy shot out even as Starmie’s Thunder slammed into him, forcing him to endure it.

“Hang in there buddy!” I shouted while locking eyes with my girlfriend. Her eyes were glowing like I knew they would be. I shot her a grin as Tide’s Thunder missed, but his Confuse Ray hit. Starmie resized himself and stumbled, and Sabrina staggered.

“Lock him down and HB threat display,” I said to Tide. He slid forward and bodied Starmie into the dirt before arching his neck down onto Starmie, his mouth opening, and a Hyper Beam channelling itself. Starmie twitched a few times before seeming to recover from the confusion.

Sabrina held her temple and frowned minutely. “That was uncalled for,” she said neutrally.

“It was a weakness I know you have when you’re deeply synchronised with your pokemon. Your strength can be a weakness if you don’t read the move. You were too committed to the Thunder and Minimize. I got you to commit and had an end set up move ready to go with Tide.”

Sabrina slumped and nodded, accepting the point. “Indeed. I will work on my synchronisation. I want to have the link but I need to keep myself slightly out of the feedback loop that can come from my pokemon.”

“Hmmm tough ask,” I said. “They’re pretty much part and parcel aren’t they? You can give faster, smoother orders and be hyper-aware of what is going on for the pokemon with what you have but that comes with the downside of having things like sleep or confusion can get to you.” I took a sip from a water bottle and then passed it to Sabrina who gave a smile before taking a drink herself.

“It does help to make things like paralysis faster to manage, and sleep is something I can help my pokemon fight through faster than other trainers.”

“Hmmmm interesting,” I said, considering what she’d said. I eventually had to shrug. “Yeah, I got nothing. I’m not sure how to help you out with that. I have no idea why it shouldn’t be possible.”

“Just as you don’t know if it’s impossible,” she said with a smile.

I scratched the back of my head. “I’m a glass-full kind of guy, you know that.”

Sabrina merely inclined her head and took another sip of the water bottle. We stood for a few moments, content to allow a silence to build. Then another voice intruded, “Daawwww,”  said Yolanda from a rocky shelf to the side. “You two are soooo cute!”

Next to her Ralts and Terra tussled, with Terra trying to hug/smother Ralts, while Ralts was desperately trying to break out of the much heavier pokemon’s grasp. Yolanda kicked her feet up. “That was a nice match!” she tilted her head. “Did you both mean to use water types?”

I shrugged. “I was happy to throw something out that would hold up, but that would force me to work for it. Tide’s moves are a bit different, and accounting for his size can make it challenging. He can’t pull off dodges as well as other smaller pokemon can.”

Yolanda bobbed her head up and down. “I see, what about you Sabrina?”

Sabrina considered Yolanda for a few moments before replying, “I thought that my Starmie could use a workout. While it is not one of my strongest pokemon, it could do with the challenge that some of Brock’s pokemon present. I wanted to hone it and test my own skills. In this exchange, your brother triumphed. I could have changed the choice as I knew he would be using one of his water pokemon. I saw his Steelix training hard earlier. Don will not accept a challenge from anything but my Alakazam due to his pride, and I know that he doesn’t have Bertha or Titan with him.”

“How did you… oh right, you’re a Psychic,” Yolanda said only to frown. “I thought you had trouble detecting Dark and Ghost types? How’d you detect Titan?”

“I didn’t.” Sabrina tilted her head and flicked her eyes towards a boulder. “He’s under that boulder, watching in case you or Terra were in danger from our sparring match.”

I chuckled as Yolanda whipped her head around to discover that yes, boulders did not have eyes peeking out from underneath them.

“Wait! There are two sets of eyes there!?” Yolanda said quickly.

Sabrina nodded. “Bertha is next to him, tickling him and trying to make him laugh.”

I blinked. “Oh! Is that why the rock is shaking every now and then?” I said watching the boulder quiver. I’d seen Titan hold a boulder above himself all day for training purposes. The last few minutes that it had taken to fight Sabrina’s Starmie with Tide shouldn’t have had him shaking, so Bertha teasing him made way more sense.

Yolanda stared at the shaking rock for a bit before shaking her head. “He’s so cute when you get past his scary face.” She then grabbed up Terra, who’d been nuzzling Ralts merrily. “But not as cute as you!”

Ralts used the break in play to get some distance from Yolanda and Terra before raising her arms plaintively towards Sabrina who levitated her into her arms. “Ralts!” she said happily.

I hummed and looked over Yolanda and Terra. I’d noticed that Yolanda had been putting in a lot of effort to attend training sessions lately. Hopefully she wasn’t overdoing it with her young pokemon. “How's she going?”

“She’s doing well and growing well. I have her do the stretching exercises with me in the morning and practising her steps. We’re getting really good at playing Simon says, although I’m not so good when it’s her turn or Munchlax’s turn to play.”

“Munchlax plays along as well?” That was news to me.

“Yeah, he and Eevee sometimes join in on the training; they like it as a game. We all take turns giving the others commands, but I’m not very good at understanding what they’re saying to do most of the time. They seem to like that cause it makes them laugh.”

“Simon says? The children’s game?” Sabrina looked from me to Yolanda.

I considered how to explain it before snapping my fingers. “Oh, its a game to help develop an early bond. Terra is too young to practise more than a few moves and she shouldn’t throw herself around with things like Tackle, or Growl as it will tire her out too much. She can however, get used to the commands that Yolanda might give her one day, such as hopping left or right, or jumping up and down. It’s a simple exercise to develop trust. Sometimes you give the orders, and sometimes you give the pokemon the chance to give the orders as part of the game. Yolanda’s just taken it a bit further by having the family pokemon join in.”

“Ah, that makes sense… I’ve never had to do that, as I can link myself to my pokemon… Perhaps I should play with them some more and do something similar, however.”

I nodded before gesturing for the waterbottle back. “So get a good show this morning?” I said to Yolanda.

“Yeah! Glad I caught you heading out! I thought you were just going to be training your pokemon today, not sparring with Sabrina!”

“She’s the best,” I said leaning over and giving my girlfriend a peck on the cheek. Sabrina blushed lightly and smiled at me.

Yolanda giggled and stood with Terra in her arms. “Come on Terra, we need breakfast!” She started to walk away only to loudly speak up, “Oh! We should say goodbye to Titan before we do!”

Titan’ leapt out of the hole he’d been in before turning and shoving the boulder back onto Bertha’s head. Bertha merely headbutted it and broke the boulder with a loud crash. Titan quickly hustled away from her, but Bertha merely hopped up onto ground level with a laugh as she dusted herself off.

Yolanda turned around, and Titan approached with a grin. “He’s such a dope for his little sister,” I said with a smile as Titan gushed over Terra waving her hands about in farewell. Sabrina nudged me and I shot her a look. “What?”

“You’re just as bad,” she said.

“I’m not like that!” I said waving a hand towards Titan who was waving both of his scaly hands at Terra as she was carried off.

“No but you did pause our relationship for your family,” she said with a put-upon expression. She shook her head and I tilted my head.

“Are you teasing me?”

“Yes,” she said with a smile. I merely shook my head and gave her a kiss.

“Well, I should check up on the Gym’s new acquisitions and then I have—”

“We are going to Celadon. We’re to have lunch with Erika. She’s got a fourth badge challenge this morning, and then she will have time for us.”

“Hmmm sounds like fun,” I said turning and walking towards the Gym to get my paperwork done.

“I want to go shopping afterwards,” Sabrina said following along with Ralts in her arms. “I wish to see if there are any dresses that suit me.”

I considered that as I entered the area of the reserve that was for the young or weaker pokemon. “Hmmm you in a dress? I’ll clear my afternoon.”

Sabrina merely patted me on the cheek, moving away to give me room to check the Geodude and Onix. Thankfully, it was a pretty easy task with the trainers I’d hired having caught appropriate strength pokemon. They all seemed to have good temperaments as well, which was a nice surprise. I glanced over to Dennis. “Did you go through them already?”

“No, Missy went out with them along with Greta. Greta made really good use of her pokedex and was able to observe and get a good baseline for what strength certain pokemon had along with which ones might have been ill-behaved. It wasn’t perfect, but Misy was able to work through the ones that should have come in and return them without any issues.”

“Huh, good job those two,” I said to myself.

I hadn’t thought to use Greta like that. She’d just proven herself quite the catch.

The check of the pokemon proceeded from there much quicker than usual, with my signing off on the Onix, Geodude, Aron, Electric Geodude, Rhyhorn, and Lileep that we would be able to use going forward for at least the next four to six weeks. That should hopefully see us through to the end of the surge, and then I would have to see about reopening my Elite challenge.

That would be interesting. I doubted I’d be able to hold onto my record of no one earning it on their first attempt, but damn if I wasn’t going to try. My pokemon were stronger, I would need to put in a lot more work with them, but it would be close.

I signed off on the work for the day and left some glowing comments in it with regard to Missy and Greta’s work. They’d made it much smoother than usual, which was something that would pay off in the short term and later down the line for them.

I scheduled some time this afternoon for training with them bo—

“Ahem,” Sabrina said, reminding me of what she’d mentioned she wanted to do this afternoon. I rescheduled it for a later slot and glanced up to check her reaction. Apparently, four o’clock was late enough for her, as she nodded after a moment’s consideration.

With that done, I sent off the update and signed off on the new pokemon. I opened my emails and worked through them only to feel the unamused look Sabrina was giving me.

“I am supposed to be working, you know?” I said, trying to be reasonable.

“Hmmm,” she replied, placing Ralts on the table and using her telekinesis to cross Ralts arms as the little pokemon pouted at me. “We don’t like that.”

“Alright, first, that’s adorable. And two,” I hit enter and send on the email I had been working on. “And done!” I said, only for a ping to announce another email arriving in my inbox. I glanced at it and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you’ll be interested in this, actually. It’s from Mahogany Gym. They want to look into some potential pokemon fossils that have been preserved in some ice caves. Want to come with me?”

“Hmmmm I think I’ll pass; as interesting as your fossils are becoming, I will spend some time with my pokemon… or my mother and father,” she said with some reluctance.

“Oh, alright then,” I said feeling a little let down, but then again, it was fair that she spent some time with her own family.

Sabrina patted my hand, “We can spend some time later on. Go to Mahogany; it will be fun for you.” She glanced at the clock. “Let’s go to Celadon.”

“Oh, you want to watch some earlier matches with Erika?” I said standing up and taking her hand. A moment later we teleported out. I did not find myself in the Celadon gym. Instead, I found myself in a shopping centre. Ralts was handed off to me and Sabrina turned to the clothing racks.

“Oh,” I said. I guess that was one issue with having a girlfriend that could teleport. You could end up shopping at any moment.

____________________________

“The Challenger may use up to six pokemon against the Gym Leader! They are allowed to withdraw and return their pokemon as per standard rules of competition, while the Gym Leader is restricted to not returning their pokemon!” the referee said from her position between Erika and her challenger. It was a youth with a cocksure attitude. His smirk painted him as someone who expected an easy match.

Sabrina and I had pride of place right in the middle of the Celadon Gym. Sabrina and Ralts were now sporting some rather stylish sunglasses, while I was wearing a cap in support of Celadon Gym. We all had small Celadon flags in hand, including Ralts. Erika had blushed terribly when she walked out and saw us sitting in the front row.

The locals seemed amused, especially when Sabrina had woven herself a crown of flowers for Ralts to wear. I’d leaned over and plucked a rose from the wall of Erika’s Gym in a rock-empowered hand, and offered it to Sabrina.

A nearby woman sniffed. “Young one! You should always strip off the thorns before you gift it to a lady!” She said before frowning at my hands. “I’m surprised you didn’t cut yourself on them with how you grabbed them.”

“I have tough skin, also Sabrina prefers her roses to keep their thorns.” Sabrina inclined her head at that, while the woman shook her head. “Feh! It’s meant to be refined and gentle!”

Sabrina twirled the rose by the stem around her fingers loosely. It was a deft trick and looked very impressive, regardless of whether you knew she was controlling it telekinetically. “A pruned rose is a lesser rose for its lack of self. The thorns are as much a part of the rose as the stem or the flower.”

That caused a few women to hum with approval as Sabrina dismissed the older woman in favour of watching Erika face the challenger.

“Go Charmeleon!” shouted the young boy.

“Go Venusaur!”

Both pokemon emerged, with the Charmeloen lightly dancing back and forth with a haughty sniff while Erika’s Venusaur called its name and settled itself low to the ground with the rather large petals and fronds of its flowers obscuring the pokemon.

I whistled in appreciation, “Now that’s a healthy pokemon.”

Sabrina inclined her head. “Erika is well-known for her well-grown Grass types,” she replied. My eyes turned towards the Challenger that was standing with his arms crossed smugly.

“Charmeleon! Use Fire Spin to start it off!”

“Venusaur use Stun Spore! Wall it off!”

Both pokemon unleashed their moves. The fire type did so with a leap before exhaling a twirling mass of flame while Venusaur merely exuded a glittering mass of golden spores that wafted forward. When the flames touched them, instead of merely passing through it unharmed, the spores exploded.

The crowd gasped in shock, and a few ladies screamed in worry, only to reveal that no injuries had occurred and that Erika had negated the fire attack with a wall of what had to be an especially potent Stun Spore. It could have been an effect of training, but it also might be a sign of extremely good health in Erika’s pokemon. I leaned forward, interested in how Erika’s care would show itself.

“Tch Charmeleon don’t be put off! Use Flamethrower next! We’ll burn through with a dedicated blast of fire!”

“Char!” shouted the pokemon as is inhaled. As it went to exhale, a pair of vines shot out of the ground and wrapped around Charmeleon’s muzzle. The flame tried to exit, only to result in soot and smoke being snorted out. Charmeloen’s eyes watered, and the vines sizzled at the Charmelon’s mouth, causing Venusaur to retract its Vine Whip.

The crowd murmured in surprise. They hadn’t seen when Erika used that move. I, myself had to consider the sequence of events. “She hid it during the explosive interaction of the first set of moves?” I asked Sabrina.

Sabrina nodded. “Erika flows into her moves easily. Her pokemon on the field might be slow but it is still one of her stronger pokemon.”

I hummed at that, surprised to learn it was one of her stronger pokemon. For a fourth badge challenge that would be overkill for me.  “Is it her strongest pokemon?”

“No, that honour goes to either her Vileplume, or her Exeggutor.” Sabrina preened a little, “I showed her how to strengthen her psychic pokemon and their moves.”

“Nice,” I said, and I meant it. Sabrina's gift of training someone was worth quite a lot. I certainly always learned a lot from it.

I watched the trainer return his pokemon as it struggled to unleash another fire attack after clogging itself up in the last exchange. Sabrina clicked her tongue. “He should have used a Smokescreen to clear out his pokemon’s problem.”

“Don’t think he understands that Charmeleon’s issue is such an easy fix.”

On the field, the trainer selected another pokemon. “Go Fearow!” he said with a snarl. Then he pointed at Venusaur. “Your foe is slow! Use it to your advantage with Aerial Ace!”

“Sleep Powder,” said Erika causing silvery powder to waft out.

“Abort!” screamed the challenger, making his pokemon break off. He snarled. “Another trick?!”

Erika shook her head. “It is no trick, merely a fighting style. You have chosen to use a type advantage against me. I have my methods of dealing with such disadvantages.”

“Tch! Use Whirlwind to blow it away, Fearow!” replied the Challenger.

“Use Toxic,” Erika replied, making large gunks of poison shoot out of the flower atop her pokemon’s back and through the forming gusts of wind. The liquid seeped onto Fearow, and it cried out in pain, making him growl in annoyance.

“Push through it Fearow! Use Air Cutter!”

“Match it with Vine Whip! Whip crack the air!” Erika said with a decisive slash of her hand that sent her sleeves flapping about after her. Her pokemon raised up its Vines in the face of the oncoming Flying attack and snapped its vines, causing a whipping noise and small bursts of wind to shoot forward and break up the wind attacks.

“Oh, that was nice!” I said. “Way to go Erika!” I shouted. I sat back and grinned. “And her Vileplume is stronger than her Venusaur you said?”

“Yes, her Venusaur is weakening, or at least his vines are from holding Charmeleon along with using such powerful Vine Whips. It needs to recover from the moves. Vileplume doesn’t need such respite.” Sabrina then tilted her head as the Vine Whips rose once more. “However, Venusaur does have the most weight behind his attacks.”

I tilted my head as Venusaur wrapped its two vines together in a way that made me think of someone lacing their fingers together before they— Venusaur slammed his woven vines into the ground on either side before taking a step back and stabbing his vines into the ground, and peeling the turf back. “Huh, he’s building himself a bunker?” I paused as I realised that the challenger had stopped to work out what was going on here.

“Hmmm he should have buffed his pokemon up if he wasn’t sure if Erika was about to fling rocks.”

“Indeed, Erika has set herself up. I doubt she will lose this match.” Sabrina then slowly punched their air and announced, “Go Erika,” in a very neutral tone.

I chuckled. “You’re supposed to do it a bit more enthusiastically, you know, so she can hear you.”

Sabrina glanced at me, revealing her slightly glowing eyes. “Erika heard me.”

I chuckled as Erika flapped her sleeves around frantically before shooting a weak glare at Sabrina. Sabrina merely punched the air again, slowly. “Go,” she intoned. Erika slumped and turned back to her match.

“Venusaur! Use Sleep Powder!” She seemed to fall back into her groove from there and while Venusaur and her Victrebell went down, I was impressed when she had her tiny Bellosom use minimise to hop around the field and lay out flowers that the crowd claimed to empower Grass types. The Challenger took out her second last pokemon with a Rapidash that trampled the tiny flower maiden, causing boos to erupt from the crowd.

“Boo,” said Sabrina in support. I bit my lips, causing Sabrina to glance at me. “What is funny?”

“Nothing, it’s just adorable watching you support your friend.”

Sabrina got a flash of pride at that and turned back to continue calling out for Erika. Erika huffed this time and selected her final pokeball. “Let’s go Tangela!” she called out, releasing her last pokemon.

The small bundle of vines emerged and wobbled about happily, only to lock eyes with the Rapidash that snorted derisively.

“Tangela! Swirl and dance with Vine Whip!”

Tangela spun up onto its toes, and two vines shot out at frightening speeds. Tangela started whirling about like a top, and suddenly Rapidash was assaulted as the Vine Whips came hard and fast.

“Rapidash! Use Fire Spin! Burn out this weed!” he shouted

“Leap high!” Erika ordered causing her pokemon to hop upwards only to float a little as it descended, causing the Fire Spin to miss. It took me a moment to assess how that had happened.

“She used the heat of the fire to improve her pokemon’s gliding somehow?”

Sabrina tilted her head only to shake it after a moment. “Tangela extended the smaller vines that make up it’s body and increased the lift that way. The thermals caused by the fire wouldn’t have impacted its flight to a significant degree. If it was a bird or another pokemon that could hover or float perhaps, but not with Tangela.”

“Hmmm,” I said, noting down what she’d said. That was an interesting mechanic to keep in my back pocket. It might have been wrong today, but I did have pokemon that it would work with, such as Clefairy or Zephyr.

Tangela landed and this time when he lashed out with his vines he snared the Rapidash and snapped his vines. This flipped the horse pokemon only to have it nailed in the air as it tried to right itself with a Slam I assumed.

The final pokemon the challenger threw out ended up being a Machop, which was easily outclassed.

I rose to my feet and joined the crowd in applauding Erika. She’d fought well to earn the victory. I wasn’t surprised when the Challenger stormed out instead of sticking around to receive his verdict. Erika merely watched him go sadly. Then she turned to the crowd and bowed politely.

“Thank you for coming out today! We’re going to take a brief intermission before running any more matches this afternoon!”

The crowd clapped once more and Sabrina stood. “Let’s go,” she said, grabbing me and teleporting us all to Erika’s side.

Erika eeped and flapped her hands about as she almost lost her balance. It made a rather impressive fwapping noise as she pinwheeled her arms only to remain standing. She took a breath to settle her nerves before sighing as she put a hand on her chest. “Please, stop doing that.”

“No, it’s the most convenient form of travel,” replied Sabrina, completely ignoring what Erika was actually talking about.

When Erika merely shook her head and indicated we should follow her, I shot Sabrina a look and a whisper. “Be nice; she’s all amped up from her match.” Sabrina merely hummed and ignored me.

Erika led us into a lovely greenhouse that was so large that we wouldn’t have known what it was without carefully inspecting the tree canopy. She had trees set out in patches, with each having enough space for themselves without making the area crowded. Around the garden, a number of girls and young women were enjoying meals served to them by a trio of older ladies. Each time they reached a new group, the younger girls sang their thanks before taking a lunch box.

Erika gestured towards another part of the garden that had a nice pavilion that overlooked all of it and happened to be next to a babbling brook of water. Along the edge of which there were a number of Lileep. A shimmer of colour showed that the water also had goldeen swimming up and down the built-in water feature.

“Oh, this is quite a lovely habitat you’ve made up for your Lileep,” I commented.

“Thank you, I had a very skilled group of girls working on it,” replied Erika as we walked past a group of girls. A few of them seemed to preen, making me suspect I had timed a nice moment by accident. I stepped closer to the water and held out my hand for a Lileep to grapple with. I was impressed by how strongly they tugged.

“Good strength and size to them.” I eyed the rest, noting that the one I’d approached happened to be on the smaller side of Erika’s garden of Lileep at ninety centimetres. This size was average for me, while all of Erika's were pushing a metre or more on average. “I think I will need to get some advice from you. None of my Lileep have grown to this size.”

“The water feature helps a good deal. Lileep seem to like being immobile or having to move very little. They don’t seek out the sun and instead seem to prefer the shade. I also make sure to sprinkle fertiliser around on their roots every three days that has mulched up berry skins within it.”

“Huh, thanks,” I said.

Erika merely bowed. “It’s thanks to you that I have access to them Brock; don’t worry.”

We claimed a seat at the low table built into the pavilion floor. Ralts barely reached the table and the tips of her horns were barely visible with her tiny crown of flowers. “Raaaaaaalts!” cried the pokemon, causing Sabrina to shift her into her lap. Erika cooed at the little pokemon with Ralts accepting a gentle pat from Erika.

“I was surprised you went after the three Lileep you did with the auction,” I said as Erika pulled out a teapot and some cups from a built-in storage area. A deft push on the centre space had a small stovetop popping up for boiling the tea.

“Oh yes, most of the girls have been involved in raising and experimenting with what the Lileep like. Some have even gotten the chance to fight with one during a lower-level badge fight and they are quite pleased with them. I suspect they have a lot of potential.” Erika tilted her head. “Do they evolve into anything do you know?”

“Yes,” I said as Sabrina shrugged. Erika tilted her head, and I coughed. “The research that I’ve done on them does feature that the pokemon will evolve. It hopefully won’t be anything too tricky like needing a stone, or a set of conditions to be met, but rather good growth both in size and strength.”

Erika accepted that and set the teapot to boil. She then turned her head to the garden and relaxed slightly. I pushed back the urge to keep talking and instead turned to enjoy the sight of an idyllic garden that my friend obviously took pride in.

I wasn’t sure if she was more proud of the young ladies sitting and talking with each other politely over their picnics or the garden. Or perhaps it was both. Both needed to be checked and worked on. I couldn’t help but feel it rather suited her.

I relaxed and merely enjoyed the moment. Sabrina shifted around so she could lean on me. It was nice. Simply enjoying a moment with my girlfriend while spending time with a friend. Erika didn’t seem put out by the display of affection, even as a few girls subtly pointed and giggled in our direction.

We ignored them, and eventually, they settled. When my arm started to go numb, I flexed some rock energy into my arm to help me stay in position. I wouldn’t have moved even if my arm was going numb; some moments could be spoiled by needing to shift. I was thankful that I had a stronger body that could be further strengthened.

By the time the teapot boiled and Erika had served us tea and even had a small cake delivered, cut, and plated up, my arm had just started to quiver due to being pressured. Ralts had noticed and had either been helping with a soft massage or had been prodding my arm to try and make me buckle. If so, I was made of stronger stuff.

Sabrina shifted off me for the cake and tea, allowing me to take my weight and shift my position. Pins and needles didn’t set in, but I still needed to clench and relax my hand a few times before taking a mouthful of the treat.

“I’m curious; what did you mean about conditions for pokemon to evolve?” asked Erika after a sip of her tea.

I paused in taking a sip of my own tea; somehow I always ended up in these awkward positions, or at least it seemed that way.

I lowered the teacup. “Pokemon can evolve after growing physically and through combat, which is linked to spiritual growth, according to some of Sam’s research. There are other methods, though, that are conditional. These can be through the use of items, the location, the time of day, the stimulus provided, and what moves the pokemon uses, to name a few.” I wasn’t going to get into the whole friendship and love discussion, Erika knew about them, so I didn’t need to mention it.

“Sam?” Erika said with a tilt of her head.

“Oh, sorry, I meant Professor Oak; he comes around to hang out every now and then.” I waved off the slip, but Erika nodded slowly, a thoughtful expression on her face. I made to sip from my tea again only to be interrupted.

“The location?” asked Sabrina, leaning in to ask about something else.

I held in a curse. I lowered the teacup back down. what had I been thinking about with that? Oh right! I’d been thinking of Sanchez with an Alolan Golem for that example. “Uhmmm, certain pokemon seem to differently evolve in certain locations. Sanchez and the electrical variant of the geodude line had to be raised in an electrically charged cave compared to the normal rock-ground geodude.

“What about moves?” Erika said with a tilt of her head. Sabrina raised her own drink and I envied her grace as she sipped daintily. Ralts tried to copy, only to fumble the cup in her too-small hands. Sabrina caught it in a telekinetic grip and helped her.

I coughed, distracted by the cute display. “Right! Moves! Some pokemon require certain moves to evolve. I know for example that Bonsly and Mr Mime Jr need to learn Mimic before they can evolve.”

“Hmmm Bonsly and Sudowoodo would make interesting additions to my Gym. They’d certainly fit right in with their appearance alone,” Erika said playfully. “Are there any other pokemon that appear to be plants?” Erika tilted her head only to then blush and cough politely into her sleeve. "My apologies, I was caught up in Bonsly. You were talking about pokemon evolutions?"

I nodded and picked up from where I'd left off. “I’ve been toying around with trying to evolve a Stantler with environmental exposure but don’t think I had the success I wanted. Sabrina ended up taking over as it is more likly to work out for her.” I slumped a little, and Sabrina reached out to pat my hand.

"How does that work?" Erika then ducked her head into a bow. “Sorry if that was prying too much! The ways pokemon evolve are so different and interesting!”

I waved it off. “No, it makes a lot of sense that you’d be interested in this. With how Tangela evolves and all,” I said, reaching down and taking a sip of my tea. Then I looked up to see Erika blinking in confusion with Sabrina.

Erika tilted her head like a curious Sunflora. “I’m… sorry? Did I miss something? I didn’t know my Tangela could evolve.”

Shit! I thought to myself as I realised I’d messed up. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of what was and wasn’t well known. I had assumed Tangrowth was well known… I decided to just play it off with a shrug. “Oh, well, cause of my fossil pokemon I’ve done a fair bit of research into what sort of pokemon were around in ancient times. Pokemon that looked a lot like Tangela were found. In fact, there seems to be a linkage from Lileep and Tangela with Tangela occupying forested and jungle areas while Lileep might be more found on coastal regions which might indi—”

“Brock, you're getting off the point. Erika would like to know what move helps her pokemon evolve,” Sabrina said, cutting me off.

“Oh, I was getting to that, it’s Ancient Power.”

“Ancient Power?” Erika tilted her head. “I… don’t have any pokemon that know that move…”

“I have a few.” I shrugged. "What happened to the Lileep you purchased?"

Erika stiffened. "Oh! that's right! Lileep have that move as well, don't they!?"

I nodded before considering the still juvenile plant pokemon. They... might not be good teacher's for the move. I decided to make an offer. “... Would you like one of my pokemon to teach yours?” I paused and considered her. “Your Tangela won’t be able to do that flight trick that—”

Erika waved it off. “That was just my fourth badge Tangela. My strongest Tangela is much heavier. I had overfed it as a young girl and not known it could pull off moves like. She’s actually been rather depressed of late, as I haven’t been able to use her as much as others such as Venusaur and Viluplume can do what she can, but better…” She tapped her fingers together. “Could you show her how to use Ancient Power?”

I waved my hand back and forth. “No problem, come on out Shelly!” I said, releasing my Omastar, who trilled happily before relaxing as she noticed we weren’t in a battle.

“Star!”

Erika rose and bowed to Shelly before releasing her own Tangela. I instantly noted that it was much, much bigger than the other Tangela I’d seen not thirty minutes ago. If the Tangela she'd used earlier was like a pile of spaghetti that Munchlax would consider a snack, this one was at least a few meals worth... that is it was at least three times the size.

“Oh yeah, she looks like she’s more than ready to evolve,” I said, shaking off the idea of Tangela being like a ball of giant moving spaghetti.

Tangela blinked from behind the curtain of vines. “Tang?” it said. Erika smiled. “Brock thinks he has a method of making you stronger with an evolution Tangela. Would you like to—”

“Tangela!” said the viney pokemon as it leapt to its feet and nodded furiously.

I smiled and gestured to Shelly. “Alright, this is your sensei for now, listen and watch as she teaches you how to perform Ancient Power, alright?”

Shelly trilled and beckoned Tangela to follow her to a clear space where she demonstrated the move before gesturing for Tangela to have a go. Erika shuffled from foot to foot. “Should I help her?”

I shrugged. “Give them a bit of time to work on it together, and then we’ll step in. I don’t expect she’ll get it any time soon, but the first steps will be taken.”

Erika nodded. “True, we only have another half an hour for lunch.”

I considered that, accounting for how long she’d already spent with us. “You have an hour for lunch?”

“Yes, proper nutrition and digestion are important. I don’t usually finish until five thirty or six, however.”

“Ah,” I said. “I try to finish earlier cause sometimes I need to go pick up my little brothers and sisters.”

“I see.” Erika sat and considered me for a moment before shaking her head.

“Yes you are correct,” Sabrina said out of seemingly nowhere. She then nodded. “He would make a good pokemon professor as well.”

I blinked, realising she must have read something from Erika’s mind. Erika blushed and flapped her sleeves about, flustered at the invasion. “Sabrina! Don’t do that!”

“I apologise, but you were thinking it very loudly,” said Sabrina, like that forgave her.

“Ralts,” said Ralts as she nodded along with Sabrina’s words.

Erika wilted. “Well, alright, but it’s not a bad thought…” Her eyes didn’t meet Sabrina’s, or mine, making me wonder what her thoughts had involved.

Sabrina merely hummed. “Hmmm indeed.” She then turned her head towards me. “She isn’t wrong though Brock.” There was a moment’s pause as she shot a quick look, that I wasn’t sure what to make of, towards Erika. Erika blushed again, and then Sabrina was focused back on me. “You are very knowledgeable about pokemon.”

“I have my areas of knowledge.” I waved a hand towards the much larger Lileep.” Erika has hers, just as you have yours Sabrina.”

A lull fell over the conversation. Erika seemed too embarrassed to dare speak up again, and while the soft cries of two pokemon tearing up the garden disrupted the ambience, it was still very nice tea and cake.

Erika eventually regained control of herself. “So I understand you are both on break? Anything planned?”

“I have a family event to… attend,” stated Sabrina.

“I might check in with Dennis for a bit, make sure he’s up to speed with Rocko taking some time off to help his step siblings on their journey for two weeks. Then I might head up to talk with Lorelei and Pryce. They have a potential lead on some more fossils.”

“Oh! Really?” Erika leaned forward. “That will be interesting. I look forward to what you find,” she said quickly.

I nodded and glanced over at Tangela. Wasn’t there another pokemon that evolved with Ancient Power? Yanma was another… but Piloswine was also one, wasn’t it? Then again, surely Pryce knew about that evolutionary step? I’d have to check. Although if I did that, I might annoy Agatha.

That… somehow made me want to do it more rather than less.

“TANGELA!” cried Erika’s Tangela, causing our group to stop and look around. Tangela was huffing and puffing in a garden that now looked destroyed. Erika didn’t mind though as she smiled towards her pokemon.

“Yes Tangela?” Erika prompted.

Tangela puffed itself up, and its vines waved energetically before it turned slightly and glowed. Energy spilled out in a spiral pattern before lifting some rocks and firing them off into the trees that broke upon impact. Tangela crowed its success even as a group of ladies rose from where they’d ducked for cover.

I blinked. “Oh, it learnt Ancient Power fast,” I said.

Erika beamed. “Excellent work, now we can practise it so you can—” Before she could finish, Tangela glowed brighter. The ladies that had been storming up to tell it off stopped and leapt into the bushes, obviously fearing a much stronger attack being launched.

They were wrong, of course, as instead, we got to watch as Tangela evolved.

“Tangrowth!” cried the newly evolved pokemon. Shelly cheered and Erika beamed before leaping from the pavilion to hug the giant tentacle monster.

When she emerged, she was very dishevelled but still a maiden, I had no doubt. She beamed at me and bowed. “Well this wasn’t what I expected from our lunch but I thank you for coming!”

I departed feeling very good about myself. I had a smile on my face as we teleported home. Sabrina gave me a kiss and then smiled. “You would make a good Pokemon Professor.”

“Nah, I wouldn’t enjoy all the paperwork that comes with it,” I said waving my hand back and forth. Sabrina nodded before smirking.

“You’d look good in the lab coat though.” She then gave me another kiss before departing.

I hummed and tapped at my lips. Then I went and bought myself a labcoat for later teasing. All in all, it was a good day.

I rolled my shoulders and sought out Greta and Missy to do some training with them.

It was shaping up to be a good week with how things were going.

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A.N. Thanks to all my Patreons.   

This is currently unbeta’d. Sorry for any errors that seem obvious!