Hard Enough - Chapter 173 - The storm speaks (Patreon)

I didn’t Teleport into the front entrance.

Instead, I found myself brought directly onto the roof where police were ready with their pokemon already out.

No fewer than eight Arcanine were present which was a strong showing by the police but this was only the tip of the visible iceberg. A shadowy section of the building got a mere look over as I otherwise documented all the changes.

A quick glance up allowed me to see that even with it being late afternoon there was a wide ring of pokemon flying around the League, shepherding the office workers or staff working in the League to land. From there I could see a bus terminal with various transport pokemon ferrying the grounded workers.

I glanced over the side of the roof and looked down to find that there were several security guards on the ground with fences set up to keep out what looked like a horde of reporters and their technicians.

“Looks like someone kicked over a Trapinich nest,” I said with how people were marching back and forth hurriedly. I could see some harried-looking staff being hounded by the media as they exited the fenced-off League entrance. They kept their heads down and still got into and out of the building before being ferried away by pokemon or a car in the rare instance.

Sabrina hummed. “I’ve spoken with my parents about this, they say this is nothing. It was worse for some of the capital cities during the war.”

I grunted, knowing that she was likely right. If a Pokemon World War was anything comparable to my past life’s wars, there would have been even greater restrictions. I eyed the beating heart of the Indigo government. It was a flurry of activity, but at the same time, it could be worse.

“This place wasn’t even here back then.“ I pointed out.

Sabrina nodded as she indicated the reporters being held at bay. “Lance has announced that they have made the biggest raid, capture, and detainment in the League’s history. He has not released names, but there is a growing call from the media for it.”

“He’s holding back and trying to wrap things up neatly, sadly,” said Agatha, stepping out from a shadow to the side. I merely grunted, having spotted her earlier.

Sabrina nodded to Agatha and then vanished into another Teleport, having other jobs to do rather than escort me to Surge. Her time was in high demand.

“How are you handling all this?” I said, glancing at the ancient woman now playing chaperone for me.

“Feh! This is nothing! If you wanted to see people hard at work you should have been with me decades ago! I didn’t sleep for a week straight because I needed to work with Samuel and Blaine to get the cities of Kanto to accept us! People don’t ever want to give up power Brock! But we made them! We were tenacious! And we got things done!” she said with a firm stamp of her cane.

I blinked having not considered how much work the literal welding of two nations into one might have required.

I considered Agatha with this new information. I rubbed my chin and cocked my head to the side. “How the hell are we not in another war if it was up to you—”

Her cane flashed out and aimed for my kidney but I dodged her, well used to her antics.

I waved her off. “I’m joking! I’m joking! I know you’re great when you set your mind to it,” I said, making sure to calm her down with some compliments.

She waved her cane at me threateningly. “You and Samuel!” she said before huffing and marching off without so much as a warning. “Keep up! I have other, more important tasks to perform! I’m not retired yet, young one!” she said.

I jogged after her, surprised by how energised she was today. “Has anything else happened since I departed? Any more raids?” I said.

There hadn’t been, at least not any that the Guardians were aware of, and with how Sabrina, Koga, Agatha, and I had been heavily involved in the entire affair it was practically guaranteed that one of us would have heard something to pass on to the others.

Koga more so than anyone else.

I glanced around out of habit. Chances were— I’d learned thanks to training with the Guardians— that just thinking about him would sometimes see him appearing at your side.

“No, there hasn’t been anything serious. Merely clean up, Johto had just as many raids as Kanto. Thankfully with Olivine City’s Gym leader being one of the trainers that Sabrina is still slated to interrogate.” Agatha sniffed. “The fools think that she will have a rather easier time of it with how she is dating you!”

“Ah, they don’t consider who my starter is and how that impacts things,” I said conversationally.

Agatha nodded and continued to march on. Each time we reached a checkpoint or a door, her shadow would extend an arm and tap in a code, display a card with Agatha’s name and picture on it, or merely wave cheekily.

“It’s rather unique, isn’t it?” I asked as I stared down at her shadow, where I knew a teeming mass of Gengar were usually located.

Agatha merely cackled, resulting in the next door we made our way up towards, already being held open with the guard waving us through.

“Only one person can laugh like that,” he said when I’d shot him an unimpressed look.

I wanted to protest but I found I couldn’t.

No one laughed like Agatha. It had a tinge of something beyond the veil of life that tickled up your spine when you heard it.

It was like a sinister joke being made by a person that you knew, could, and would hurt you given the chance, despite the person doing nothing at the time. It was like a man holding a bare knife only to juggle it with several others.

You could laugh along eventually with exposure, but if it was done slowly enough, you never forgot the moment of trepidation.

“Have there been any attempts at anyone being broken out?” I asked.

“No,” Agatha said. “I would have expected something from Blaine… or Giovanni’s other subordinates, but it is very telling that nothing is amounting from them. We believe that whoever is left has formed a splinter organisation which is why information that we can access to deny them anything is so important. We’ve shut down many accounts, and pokemon storage facilities and other sites, but still haven’t worked out how much of the pie we’re missing.”

At my grimace, Agatha waved a hand and elaborated. “It’s much less than half, I believe the auditors even estimate we have as much as eighty percent of Team Rocket’s holdings. But… what we do have is extensive.”

Agatha continued to march, leading me deep into the league. I recognised a lot of the hallways we were moving along now, having come here when Daniel was being interrogated.

“Are they still in Indigo?” I asked, feeling like that was the next question that needed to be asked.

“That is one of the questions we are trying to figure out. We’re unsure where they would have gone and while we have some goodwill with Hoenn and the island nations, we still don’t have any authority to act internationally.”

She smirked. “Yet.”

Agatha frowned. “Oh, and there’s Fiore I suppose as well,” she said in an offhand manner.

“What’s up with Fiore?” I asked.

“Nothing honestly. They’re just crowing to whoever will listen. They don’t believe us that during the Silph Co. raid, the masterball was in fact destroyed, despite all the evidence we have provided. They are adamant that we still have one, if not the capabilities to make such a pokeball.”

Agatha rolled her eyes. “Meanwhile they are touting their own horn to anyone back home that will listen about how they got us to destroy the ‘abomination’ that was the Masterball.” Agatha shook her head. “Politics at its finest; they are presenting the story in a manner that suits the needs of different people.”

“Huh,” I said. “I think I hate it.”

My comment merely got a cackle of glee from Agatha. “Ohoh? You will learn young one! You will learn!” she spoke with the tone of one who knew my opinion far too well for my liking. Had she been the same before or when she’d become an Elite Four?

I wasn’t sure I liked what she foresaw in my future. My expression got another laugh out of her and I huffed at her. “So, Surge? I’m surprised you didn’t get him to talk,” I said changing the topic as we closed in on the interrogation room.

Agatha opened the door. “I felt it wasn’t my place, plus, while I can scare him, fear is a poor motivator for truth.”

She turned and looked at me, her expression oddly soft. “I learnt that sometimes, the softest touches can get people to open up. For better or worse, he is still trying to reach out to you.”

I locked eyes with Agatha and clenched my jaw. “Yeah, we’ll see how that goes for him,” I said.

I walked into the room and was surprised to find Looker in the waiting area with Officer Jenny from Pewter. I could tell thanks to the epaulets on her shoulder marking her as such. There was another man in the corner, with a pair of Haunter floating around the room.

The pokemon’s gaze swept over us as we entered and they gave Agatha respectful nods before leering at me like I was fresh meat. Not willing to let them play their games, I pulled up some dark energy and flexed it slightly.

They stiffened and found something else to do as the people in the room turned to us.

“Agatha,” Looker said before nodding to me. “Brock, thank you for coming.” His eyes searched my face, “I know this is a… tough situation with how Surge was a mentor for you.”

“Yeah,” I said noncommittally while swallowing down the feeling of rising emotion. “Guess he was.” I stepped up to the glass and stared at Surge.

They’d given him a chair to match his frame instead of attempting to push him into the standard chair they used. He lounged in it with his chin on his chest, asleep or at least pretending to be.

He looked carefree, like this was just another day for him. If the chair could have been kicked back he’d have been leaning back and snoozing, I had no doubt.

He looked far too comfortable for a man behind bars.

His hair was still spikey despite lacking any product and he didn’t have any signs that he’d been mistreated.

Not that I expected Lance’s League to suddenly resort to physical means of interrogation.

No, they mostly had gentler methods, like Sabrina, to pry secrets from people. Which was so much more genteel. I wasn’t going to ask anyone, nor spare any time wondering what would happen to the Grunts or Executives when they had pried what they could from them.

You could scour a man’s mind psychically, but physically beating on him would be too much. What did that say about the League? I had to wonder.

That wasn’t something I shouldn’t have any say in. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t speak up if I didn’t want to.

I just… wasn’t sure I wanted to.

I stared at Surge and he stirred and opened his eyes to look around, knowing with some sixth sense that he was being observed.

“Hmmm? It lunch time yet?” he said, looking at me unknowingly.

“So, what do you want me to get him to say?” I asked to the room at large.

“We mainly want things tidied up. It is rather open and shut with current rulings and his being caught while supporting Team Rocket as he did. This is just to make sure there is nothing that can see him worm his way out,” Agatha said quickly.

“Ahem!” said the man in the corner, stepping forward.

I already didn’t like him just from the way he gave off airs of importance. Here was a man who delighted in crossing a t or dotting an i and making people’s livelihood’s crumble.

The man adjusted his glasses in an overly officious manner. “Gym Leader Brock?” he said plaintively.

Apparently, he expected me to look at him when he cleared his throat. I kept looking Surge over. He looked kind of ridiculous in his orange jumpsuit.

They apparently didn’t have one his size, as part of his calf was on display while the suit was crumpled up around his body. He looked extremely frumpy.

I didn’t laugh.

“Gym Leader—” said the man once again and I flicked my eyes at him.

“Yes? What do you want?” I said.

“I’m Fred Fan—”

I held up a hand. “No, I don’t care who you are. I meant what do you want?” my patience for this entire endeavour was already short.

The man shifted, ruffling himself up like a pokemon trying to make himself look bigger. “The League wants to discover any acts of negligence that Surge has committed. We want confirmation that he knew about Giovanni’s role, and that he denied the League such information!”

“Hmmm right,” I said. The League wanted to take their cut and take back Vermilion, I mentally translated.

Despite myself, I felt annoyed for Surge.

Perhaps it was just that the League was showing their hand to me. Or rather this little pencil pusher was trying to do it. Did Lance know this was being pushed or was he turning a blind eye to it?

If they had the chance, would they try to repeal my own family’s Gym charter?

It felt like yes, and the part that bugged me the most about it was the way the man stood there so gleefully at the idea of snatching such a thing. Like anything about this moment was good.

This entire situation was a story spanning years in the making.

And it was up to me to find out what the story was. A comedy? A tragedy?

Or, I thought, what Surge claims the story is. He didn’t need to tell the truth to me. Or he didn’t need to tell me anything but his version of the truth.

What was my truth?

He acted against me.

That was a betrayal.

Don’t see what you want to see, just what is, I reminded myself.

I inhaled and clapped my hands together before dispelling the dark energy.

In its place, I started to fill myself with rock energy. Before I could become lethargic from filling myself I made sure to move, walking around through the only door into the interrogation room.

Surge perked up when I opened the door only to sit up properly and put his hands on the table that rested between the two chairs.

I paused in the doorway to give him another once-over before marching in and claiming my seat.

“So, I’m—” I started to say only for the door to swing shut behind me with a loud boom causing me to frown.

Surge chuckled. “Heh, it’s a security feature they have. Can’t keep the door open for too long. You’ll also need one of those folk out there to buzz you out when you think you’ve heard enough,” he said.

His eyes swept over me. “You look good.”

“You look like shit,” I spat angrily back at him.

Surge smiled. “Ah, it’s the orange jumpsuit isn’t it? It don’t match my complexion, does it? When they send me off I think I’ll have to request somewhere with khaki as their jumpsuit colours!” he said.

I stared at him. That... was such a typical Surge answer that I found myself almost wanting to laugh.

Then the anger came back. I lashed out and slammed my fist into the table. An echoing boom rang out and Surge blinked in surprise at the dent I’d left in the table. “This is not a joke Surge. I’m here but honestly? I’m not sure what for! To listen to you play everything you did off? To let you tell some as you’d no-doubt call it, ‘Sally sob story’?”

I waved a hand towards the one-way mirror, my own reflection on this side copying me. “For them to get all their t’s and i’s crossed and dotted?”

I waved a hand in disgust. “Give me a reason I shouldn’t walk out of here now?” I said. And I knew in that moment, that I could. It hadn’t been like I’d feared, that upon entering I’d be stuck here. I could leave, cut myself off from him if I wanted to.

Surge nodded. “A reason… yeah… Well, first of all, I’m sorry things played out the way they did.”

“You’re sorry you got caught, not that you did it,” I said.

He wobbled a hand in a so-so gesture. “Yes and no. You’ve given me time to sit and think about this for a while and… I’m not a good person Brock.” He said with a humourless smile. “I never really styled myself as one. I know I’m too tough on the squirts that come in. I beat em up too easily and am prone to waving away their complaints.”

Surge looked down at his hands. “I’m also a terrible dad. Something you know a thing or two about.”

He looked up. “You must have been told about Visquez by now right?”

I merely grunted and nodded. “Yeah, I have.”

“She’s mine, full-blooded and everything which… well, I’d been told it would never happen. Injury during the war you see?” He waved a hand at his groin. “Not able to produce anything viable, shooting blanks whatever you call it, Visquez is a miracle and I wasn’t there for her until she was twelve and she kicked in the door of my gym.”

I shifted before frowning. I was being dragged into the story of Visquez, but that wasn’t what I was here for. It might be what Surge wanted to talk about, but he could take a long walk off a short pier right now. I should have felt a spike of annoyance but due to filling myself with rock energy I was happy to sit and wait.

I shook that off, knowing it wasn’t what I needed. I could do that, but I needed to be active and not let myself fall into the lull of patience.

“I don’t care,” I said, flipping the metaphorical table of this conversation.

“Fuck you and Rhyhorn you rode in on and are now trying to peddle to me. I’m not interested. What the fuck were you doing with Giovanni? Have you always been a Team Rocket plant?” I demanded.

“Fuck no!” Surge said. “Remember that listening post? I was pissed about that when I learnt about it. That wasn’t no dummy post Brock. That was a legit post meant to track my movements and dig up dirt. Fucking Giovanni knew about Visquez when every other prick out there didn’t!”

He cracked his neck. “Course I didn’t know it was him digging for anything I said in my Gym until I arrived at the hangar. By then… I wasn’t going to fight him on it, I was bound by a debt of blood.”

“A debt of blood?” I said incredulously.

Surge nodded seriously. “Brock, I've said before I didn’t start out as a Lieutenant when the war started no? I was a private when things began and I moved up the ranks fast. The brass didn’t like me but they didn’t have no choice but to do it cause I was the only person coming back or making it out of the scraps they threw my squad into.”

He leaned back “We were a tough-knit group, formally, we were platoon six of battalion eight of the scouts, but we were known better as the wreckers.”

I arched an eyebrow and considered if I should once again disrupt him. I decided not to after a moment’s consideration, instead deciding to let it play out. It was rare that anyone would talk about the bad times of the war.

“The wreckers, we were given all the tasks they considered impossible. Once got assigned a mission to blow up the warehouses and lighthouse in Olivine you know? Made it out with four men after going in with fifteen. The brass didn’t mind though. We got the job done and they loaded us up with fresh-faced punks within the week.” Surge waved a hand about.

“Got used to all the others dying and having to limp back home, in the end, it was just me and the captain. Course when Visquez made captain she always made sure to be upbeat about our chances, came up with plans to make it so as many people as possible had fallback points and everything.” Surge trailed off slightly, his eyes growing distant as memories took hold.

“Your daughter, you named her after this woman?” I asked rather redundantly, wanting to prod him along.

“Yup,” Surge said, his smile wide as he rubbed at a scar on his wrist. “Now, the brass at the time took this as a sign that we could handle more assignments with less downtime between missions… that or that we were just getting pressed during the war and they had no choice but to call us back up. Zapdos knows I had to beat back that asshole Matt from Hoenn enough times it’s a wonder I didn’t kill him. That Shelly, woman with him was always ready to interrupt our fights or get out,” Surge said.

I blinked, surprised that I recognised the names of two Team Aqua Admin.

“Anyway, we got another mission… It ended up being the last mission we’d ever have to run with Sammy Oak stepping up a week later, but well, things were bad. You remember the stories about Legendary pokemon awakening during the end of the war? It weren’t no myth, I witnessed them.”

“Them?” I said.

Surge nodded. His hands moved to tap on his shoulder where I knew a sizable scar was located. “I was fighting a battle with some real hard Johto soldiers. There was enough of them that they had us pinned down. Now usually Visquez would have gotten us out of there but she got hit early in the fight by a lucky shot from them, started bleeding rather badly, I could do nothing but hold back the Johto pricks with the rest. Raichu and I alone must have taken out sixteen of them that day and still they came on trying to get into Vermillion so they could charge on up into Saffron where the main HQ was at the time. The fighting got so bad a freaking Zapdos swept the field shooting lightning out like it was nobody's business. It helped me stay in the fight longer but it soon left”

Surge mimed a phone with one hand. “We got on the blower and started screaming for support, other trainers, heck anybody but no one could hear us or was able to respond.”

Surge shook his head. “I’m not sure what it was, but no one was coming for us anyway, so we started to drop. Hank, Dave, Charlie, Betty, Chuckie, Lave—” Surge rattled off eight names and I waited for him to announce Visquez.

“I got pushed back to where our medic was patching up whoever she could at the time, but she was running low on supplies, energy and time.” Surge shifted. “I could see the writing on the wall and the sickos from Johto, they were calling out what they’d do to us, cause they knew we’d held them up long enough and weakened them enough there was no way they’d be able to make a run for HQ. They weren’t the sort to pull back neither!”

Surge smiled a dark, humourless smile. “So I realised I needed to go down a blaze of glory. I charged out with Raichu, Electrode, and any pokemon I could but it wasn’t enough, got crippled as I tried to make my last heroic charge.”

Surge‘s expression hardened. “I remember how they laughed at me, telling me they’d make me watch.”

Then he smiled and his face became that of a Meowth that watched his greatest rival suffer a deserving fate. “Instead I got a front-row seat to watching them getting taken in the rear. See, we’d fought long enough that a nearby group, against their commanding officer’s orders, sallied out and attacked from Celadon, which was where the supplies were being kept.”

I sighed knowing what was coming. “That small group fought tooth and nail and they paid a huge price for it in blood. Of their platoon, only five made it out. They rescued us and then got their asses chewed out for doing it. The CO even went as far as to hide what they’d done. They never got official medals or recognition for it and I couldn’t do nothing about it with how delirious I was.”

Surge sighed. “Those five men? They visited me in hospital to check on me and I thanked them for what they did and swore If they ever needed anything, I’d come and help them, no questions asked.”

Surge raised his hand and counted down the fingers. “I spent three years training Blake’s daughter when she was ready to go out into the world. I helped John build a house and shed for his family, ramps and specialised wheelchair carrier and everything for him. Samantha? She got a ship that I owned.” He chuckled. “I won it through a poker game. Didi? She died before I could ever help her out… So I helped her family out of debt and got her kids a starter pokemon each.”

Surge waggled his last finger. “Giovanni never wanted anything from me. Said he had everything but that he liked having me in his debt. I knew he was greasy when he said that, but it didn’t matter; thanks to him, my platoon… what was left of them, got to see the end of the war and then some.”

“And he called in your debt,” I said leaning back.

I sighed, finding myself… annoyed at myself that I could understand why Surge would do what he did. In that sort of situation, it made all too much sense.

I stared up at the ceiling for a long while and sighed again before looking down. “That is entirely too believable for my liking,” I said. “Although that’s the issue, isn’t it? How can I trust anything that comes out of your mouth after what you did?”

Surge worked his jaw a few times before looking down. “You can’t Brock… I know this hits you close to home the most with how your dad—”

I raised and swung my hand through the air between us. It caused the air to ‘thoom’ with pressure. “No,” I said firmly. We weren’t going there.

He stopped talking and I eyed him. “You don’t get to comment on that. As it is, I’m not sure if you coming to help wasn’t some sort of trojan hor…” I shook my head knowing I’d said too much. I cast around for something that was like a trojan horse for this world, but the pokeworld didn’t have an example that I could call to mind. “The point is that I can’t trust what you say. You  talk a good talk but I’m not buying the Ekans oil you’re selling.”

“Brock, I’m not asking for anything myself, I’m asking for my daughter. She could use someone to look out for her.”

“Tsk,” I said. I leaned forward. “How come you signed over your Gym to her when you did? You must have known something was up.”

Surge met my gaze unflinchingly. “I had a suspicion. Old wounds started to itch again like they haven’t since the war, and I started looking around and finding out what was going on. I wasn’t certain but… I had fears, fears that turned out to be true.”

Surge put his hands on the table. “Brock, you know I'm as blunt as they come. A spade is spade and I know spades having spent a lot of time digging in with them, but when I give my word on a debt, which came about thanks to Giovanni helping my men and captain live? I wasn’t going to let laws stop me. It was only when I realised I’d be going against you that I backed up and went through the motions.”

Surge grimaced. “Anyone else? Lance, Lorelei on her own? Professor freaking Oak? I’d have thrown down as hard as I could.”

“Not you and Sabrina though… You’re good kids,” Surge said.

I huffed and looked away.

“What happened to your captain?” I asked more for something to say than any actual interest.

Surge sighed. “She woke up from a coma, three weeks after the battle and… Well, she didn’t remember me or much of the war. I figure that was good cause well, there wasn’t a lot that was good about the war. By the end, it didn’t feel like it was about winning or losing, just surviving. Visquez lives on Mikan Island these days with her husband and family. Her daughter picked up her skills and apparently runs a sort of Gym down there these days.”

Surge smiled. “You fought her husband when you made your Journey through there,” he said.

I blinked, realising that I had met her. She’d come up after our match and delivered tea for us.

Sabrina had looked very confused back then about the wife but hadn’t been able to explain why the woman confused her. It must have been the chip in her brain that stopped Sabrina from reading her mind casually.

“Huh, small world,” I said.

“Ain’t it?” said Surge with a chuckle.

I eyed him. “So, what are you going to do now? Break out, or go to jail?”

“Jail I reckon, but I have a few depots of old guns and such that I’m licensed to handle for the League.” He grinned at the mirror. “Oh, whoops! I was licensed to handle! I guess I need to hand those guns, mortars, and tanks over now don’t I?”

I glared. “I think it would be good if you complied with them going forward Surge.”

“Oh I intend to but I also know that these sorts of things? Well they’re fluid. I’ll have some forms put in front of me and a map I think. They know what I have to offer and I’ll trade fair.”

Surge smiled. “But I know there ain’t no way I don’t end up in a cell Brock.”

He stood and bowed his body, uncaring of the chains that hampered the action. He kept his head down as she spoke. “Can you please help my girl with the things she doesn’t know she doesn’t know? There’s going to be a lot of Fearow circling on her now.”

I huffed. “I’ll think about it,” I said deciding that I had done enough. I stood and departed the cell. “See you around Surge,” I said over my shoulder.

“I hope so Brock, I hope so,” Surge said with a tinge of something.

I looked back and locked eyes with Surge and he offered me another bow that seemed so strange. It was weird to see the proud man with his head bowed to me.

I stepped up and the door buzzed open for me before shutting. I glanced at the people who had been watching the drama play out. “That good enough for you?” I asked the room at large.

Looker nodded, his eyes darting down to a stack of papers that had black lines all through them in various points. “Yes, yes I think that worked out wonderfully. We have confirmation and a high rate of accuracy. I think we can accept his rationale for his acts now.”

“Hmmm motive, you mean,” said the League official. “The courts will—”

“Surge can’t ever see a public courtroom. Any knowledge of his involvement with the Wreckers might see certain groups seeking to kill him and torture information about other members out of him. Lance will accept a deal for anything else he knows,” Looker said firmly.

I huffed. It was playing out precisely how Surge thought it would. Guess you can’t trick an old hound like that.

“I think I’ll head off unless there is anything else you want from me,” I said moving towards the door.

Jenny darted over to stop me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Are you alright?”

I gave her a quirk of the lips. “I think I will be,” I said.

She nodded and let me go after giving me a quick hug.

I marched out of the hallway only to encounter Sabrina waiting for me on a couch. “I heard you were here, want to go home?”

I nodded. Sabrina and I vanished in a flash of light. I lay on my bed with Sabrina on my chest running through the events of the day. I was emotionally spent and just ready for this day to be done and over with.

Eventually Sabrina stood to have a shower. I stayed where I was, tossing around what I should do.

It had been… about what I expected. I wasn’t overly surprised by anything, it all just… Fit in a way that I hadn’t known it would. It all made too much sense that Surge and Giovanni would have known each other.

It was awfully fortuitous of Giovanni to get Surge in his debt like that, but it made sense.

I sighed and raised my Xtransciever, staring at the contact details for the Vermillion Gym. I really had enough on my plate. These days even with the trainer surge having moved along.

… which likely meant Visquez was in the thick of it right now.

I dialed the number and found myself annoyed despite myself. Sabrina must have detected something as a gentle pressure squeezed my arm, causing me to twitch for a moment only to relax as I realised what was going on.

“Hello? Uhm this is the Vermillion Gym?” said a young woman. I stared at the tanned features and noted how some of them matched Surge’s.

“Hey, “ I said for lack of anything better.

“Oh! Gym Leader Brock! I was hoping you’d call! Dad said you might!” she said with a grin that died away.

I felt a pang of sadness. She smiled like him. She rubbed the back of her head in a sheepish manner that was all too familiar to me. “Sorry if he caused a big mess. He wasn’t all too clear on what he was doing, just that it might go south… seeing as I haven’t heard from him and the League is sniffing around I guess that was about right. He wouldn’t tell me what was going on cause of something about plausible deniability.”

She blushed. “Sorry! I’m babbling,” she said only to break off with a yawn that ripped out of her. She yawned so wide that all of her teeth were on display. “ Sorry! I get this way when I’m tired.”

“I see,” I said. “I was calling to… check in on you. I spoke with Surge earlier.”

“Oh? You did?” The girl squirmed. “Did he talk about me at all?”

“He asked for me to check in with you,” I said neutrally.

She tilted her head at that and hummed. “Oh! Right cause you run a really solid Gym and I need to look after things for him while he’s away,” she said and I had to frown.

“I don’t think he’s going to be back,” I said. “You…” I considered telling her that she should have the League set up a talk with him but that would send her into the deep end for something highly emotional. It was best she heard from me what happened and then she could make up her mind.

“So—” I laid out how things had gone down to Visquez and she remained quiet.

By the time Sabrina was done in the shower, I had hung up and Sabrina gave me a look. “So? What’s she going to do?”

I smirked. “She’s heading up to the League to beat the hell out of Surge for being a deadbeat,” I said with a chuckle.

Surge had been right, she and I were going to get along pretty well. Right now we were united in being annoyed at him

I sighed and stretched, letting myself relax. “Seems like there’s going to be a lot of change happening this year,” I said as Sabrina slipped into bed with me.

“Change is always happening,” she murmured.

“Ain’t that the kicker,” I said, agreeing with her.

I shut my eyes and let sleep claim me as I relaxed.

Change might be constant but that wasn’t a bad thing. Things were settled as much as they could be.

I’d still be here though and I’d make the most of what was to come.

For now, that meant advancing up the Ace rankings.

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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support.

It also goes to Twmmy for betaing this chapter.