Hard Enough - Chapter 368 - Mega winds of change

Of all the mega stones I thought I’d get next… Well Aerodactylite was actually one that I thought might have been pretty easy to grab considering Grampa Canyon and the potential for Don, Shin, Shelly and the others would have spent down there. 

Still, I thought I’d have found Aggronite, or gotten hold of something like Swampertite. 

Was a Tyranitarite too much to ask for?

Probably, but the point still stood.

Mega evolving Don before any of them… just struck me as odd.

Not that I was going to hold off with him. Having the ability to use a different form for one of my pokemon was a major game-changer.

“So are you going to pick it up anytime soon?” Sabrina asked.

“You know why I’m letting it sit,” I replied tersely, staring at the innocently gleaming mega stone. I’d put it in a golf ball cleaner that I’d got when I first got my Steelixite and Keystone.

The fact that I’d already run it through the cleaner four times with different brands of cleaning agent was beside the point.

This stone… it would always be a little tainted.

“Now you’re just being dramatic for the sake of it,” she muttered.”You’re not even the one that needs to wear it! It’s going into a holding device for Don! Not you!”

“I still have to touch it,” I muttered as I made no move to touch it.

“Kazam!” Alakazam agreed, nudging me with a floating pen while a notepad hovered to the side. One of the pokedex that Professor Oak had given me also hovered, ready to capture anything interesting.

“Alright, alright, but you agreed that it needed a few cleans first,” I muttered as I toyed with my megastone.

“Zam!” barked Alakazam and I paused in reaching for the stone.

“What now?” I asked.

“Alakazam wants you to let Don out so he can interact with the stone before you slot it into your bracer,” she translated.

“Oh, he wants to do science,” I further translated. Sabrina rolled her eyes at me but nodded.

I did as instructed and released Don. Don emerged from his pokeball and perked up, glancing around to spot that we were on a beach. His gaze slid towards some flying Wingull and Pelliper who cawed with what sounded like greeting and fear.

Don smirked but turned his head away in a cool manner like they weren’t worth his attention.

It was only then that Don noticed the megastone sitting atop the cleaner. His head tilted as his eyes focused then dilated as though his interest had been piqued. 

“Ah, you can sense it now that you’re paying attention, can’t you?”

Don gave an odd crooning sound like he sometimes made when he was praising his daughter or had been handed a choice cut of Tauros steak as a treat and he knew more was to come.

He scrabbled across the beach and got close to the stone, sniffing it and nudging it. Then he reared up on his back legs and took the stone gently between his jaws. His tail began to sweep back and forth, not in a gentle manner like a growlithe would, but in erratic slapping that had the small hardened tip carving up the ground around him.

I’d actually never seen him be so careless before with his tail. 

I watched, fascinated by this level of excitement. Through the bond he was absolutely gleeful as he knew that this stone was meant for him.

He turned and locked eyes with me, crooning a question.

“Yeah, it’s ours. No one else is going to try to claim it anymore,” I announced. 

“Rrrrrrrrrr,” Don practically purred. 

“Huh he usually doesn’t make noises like that unless he’s really happy. I’ve only heard it from him a few times before,” I offered for the record keeping. Which, now that I thought about it made me wonder, was I a bad trainer seeing as I hadn’t heard this sort of reaction from Don all that often?

Don seemed to be aware of the line of my thoughts as I felt him probing me through our bond.

“Rrrrrr,” he turned his head away, shy as I blinked. 

“Oh, you just don’t like showing that side of yourself?” I asked which got a terse nod from him.

“Tsundere,” Sabrina declared. “Don is a Tsundere, with an extra helping of the Tsun.”

It showed how much Bertha discussed things like this around the rest of the team that Don didn’t become confused by what Sabrina was saying. If anything he held his ground and accepted it with a snort.

“Guess we all knew that already, so moving on, can we lock in the gem?” I asked, glancing at Alakazam who was watching ever so avidly. Overhead, the notepad and pen twitched back and forth as more and more observations were made.

He shot us a thumbs up and I plucked the stone from Don. I then attached a metal necklace in place before attaching the stone. As soon as I did, I felt something shift slightly within me.

“Woah, that’s weird,” I muttered. 

Don’s bond had just changed. I swept my awareness through the bond and found it to be slightly more robust. I had a greater sense of clarity through him. Scents were stronger, the feel of the wind blowing off the ocean tickled at his wings.

Some colours were also slightly highlighted, particularly Sabrina who was wearing a red top similar to her normal gym attire.

It looked darker and I felt an itch in my mind stirring.

“Do you see reds as potential injuries?” I asked aloud.

Don nodded, and an impression of ‘of course!’ shot through the bond.

“Brock?” Sabrina asked.

“Hmm? Oh sorry about that. I noticed something just now. The bond between Don and myself changed when I set the stone into place.” I explained the phenomenon as best I could with Alakazam hovering closer, interest at this byplay.

I toyed with taking the megastone away from Don but with how his tail was lashing around, I knew he wouldn’t be pleased to be reduced to a mere experiment, even if it was for a good cause.

“I think if you want to pursue this line of research, you’re going to have to do it with another subject,” I suggested. 

Alakazam pointed to Sabrina with a pleased smile only to stiffen and droop.

“Uhm, is he alright?” I asked..

Sabrina sighed. “He made a logical leap that I would corrupt his data as I’m already aware of the potential change in bond. He needs to inspect others.”

“Huh, that’s something to work into the signings. Perhaps you…” I glanced away knowing that Sabrian would love my idea but knowing I shouldn’t encourage her villainous side.

“What were you going to say Brock?” Sabrina asked, well aware of my tics. 

“Weeeeellll,” I said, my eyes sliding to the side. 

“Brock,” she said quietly, her tone slipping.

“Try not to be evil with this?” I asked her.

“No promises.”

“Yeah that’s what I was worried about,” I replied before sighing. “You’ll work it out in a second even if I don’t tell you so whatever. Luana’s about to get an Alakazamite so…” I trailed off leadingly. 

Sabrina perked up. “I know what to do.” She then vanished in a Teleport, leaving mestaring at where she’d been.

“Hmmmmm, did I do bad?” I asked Alakazam.

Alakazam merely shook his head, the floating pen tapping the notepad quickly. 

“Ah who am I kidding, you’re in research mode right now. Things like ethics just get in the way,” I said only for Don to start headbutting me.

“Reeeeeee!” he screeched. 

“Alright, alright settle down, let’s do some training with this. First step is to match emotional states and feel out the bond,” I prompted, settling down onto the sandy beach.

Don lay down across from me.

I shut my eyes and drew up the dark mountain technique. Like this I felt grounded and aware of my surroundings.

It didn’t help however. 

If anything, it made the bond tougher to move through. Don twitched and I shook my head as my focus broke, causing the technique to shatter. 

Blinking furiously, I had to take a moment to regather my mind. “Urgh, that was unpleasant,” I muttered. “Mark that down as a failure,” I said, only for Alakazam to lean in.

I could only sigh. This was going to be a thing, wasn’t it?

Alakzam merely smiled happily.

For the next hour, Don and I attempted to meet in the middle with our bond, establishing our emotional state and energies so that we could begin the Mega Evolution process.

It didn’t help that Don’s attention would waver every time a Wingull or other flying-type pokemon called out to him from overhead. At one point, a pokemon and its rider flew overhead and Don’s instincts locked onto it with a sudden urge to leap up and intercept the pokemon.

I had to force down his instincts to not leave, instead turning him back to the exercise. 

After an hour we hadn’t made much progress. We had a list of things not to do, which certainly narrowed things down, but didn’t do anything for giving us a sense of progress.

Instead, all we had was a rising sense of frustration. 

“I think this is going to take longer than we anticipated,” I declared. “Don and I are quite different personality-wise.”

Alakazam hummed and drew something on one of several whiteboards he’d assembled as a makeshift lab. Around us a variety of different observations and graphs were written down.

Sabrina, who’d returned with a far too pleased expression, perked up from where she’d been sitting off to the side. She floated over and watched as Alakazam sketched out a large circle with multiple partitions. The circle was so large I could easily make out the symbols that he drew at the ends and that let me know where his line of thought was taking him.

“You’re drawing a pokemon type chart? Only as a pie graph?” I asked.

Alakzam replied with a ‘so-so’ gesture that had me tilting my head.

When he drew up the rock typing he made sure it was next to ground and steel. He then made sure to put ‘flying type’ on the other side.

“Ah you think that Don’s flying type is hindering their progress?” Sabrina suggested. 

Nodding along I moved to inspect the circle. “It’s an interesting theory but not one that would have as much support. I trained with a Steelix for my first Mega evolution and ground is super effective against rock as is steel,” I pointed out.    

Alakazam shot Sabrina and I a scowl as he began to draw arrows, indicating a passage of weaknesses? It wasn’t very clean though so eventually he scratched the circle out with a grumble.

“Hey it was a good theory but it’s just a bit… too cludged to work in a real setting?” I said, offering Alakazam a soft pat on the shoulder.

“Zam,” he replied before straightening up with a huff and flicking his fingers so the whiteboard floated away, only to be replaced by another. 

As I stepped back to let him theory craft, I shot Sabrina a look. “Where is he getting all of those?” I asked.

“The local school. No lessons are in session so he’s borrowing them.”

Again I found myself pinching the bridge of my nose. “Sabrina no, don’t teach your pokemon to commit theft… or arson for that matter,” I added on after a moment’s consideration. 

“I have no idea what you mean,” she declared as she looked to the side as though the ocean was interesting to her. 

“I think you do,” I muttered only to sigh. “Why is it that when you love someone you forgive their bad qualities.”

Sabrina glanced back with a smirk and I stabbed a finger at her. “Don’t you—”

She shot me a cheeky wink and I groaned. “Please do good,” I asked. 

“I will,” she said, bowing her head. “I know it makes you happy.”

That got a more earnest smile from me. It was relieving to know I wasn’t going to have to worry about having the police knock on my door for something Sabrina had done. Not that I’d let them take her, but still, I didn’t want it to happen.

Sabrina nodded towards Alakazam. “Also he got permission first before taking them. From what he tells me the janitor was all too happy to let him take them as they were supposed to be moved up three floors. Alakazam has given the janitor a break while promising to relocate them all when he’s done.”

“Good, good, that’s much better,” I said, giving Sabrina a quick hug and kiss on the temple to help reinforce her behaviour. 

“I’m not a child,” she mumbled into my neck. I started to lean away only for her to telekinetically shove me back into position. “I didn’t say stop either.”

That got a laugh from me and for the next few minutes, we enjoyed the moment.

Then I felt Don starting to get antsy. His attention was shifting skyward and he was starting to think with his belly, among other things.

“So one thing we haven’t tried is the Bruce force method of—” “You mean the Bruce method?” Sabrina asked.

“Huh, giving him naming rights are we?”

Sabrina shrugged. “He’s the first to use it publicly successfully and later acknowledge what he was doing. I won’t call it the Blackthorn method as that would have them preening and suggesting it to be the one true method. Bruno could also work as that man is like a brick to the face rather than spending time building things up.”

“Eh, I think we can give Bruce the credit for this,” I murmur, agreeing with her that calling it the Blackthorn method would just be inviting trouble, even if they were the ones that had used it the most.”

Don perked up as Alakazam flicked his hands, sending the whiteboards flying to the far side of the beach where they would be safe. 

“Zam!” he declared as she flicked his lab coat authoritatively. 

“Did he just say schools in session?” I asked.

Sabrina floated out of my arms and behind Alakazam “Indeed he did,” she stated as a pair of half-moon glasses floated up onto her nose. Oh damn, she looked incredible. 

Like a sexy teacher.

Some of the blood must have left my brain as I made a fist and grinned. “Well it’s time to show you school isn’t everything! Don! Let’s dumb it up!” I called.

Sabrina and Alakazam stared at me but I wasn’t about to feel shame for deliberately butchering a turn of phrase I was too high on… oh this really was working, I noted as Don’s more primal instincts flared at the chance of a fight against a known powerful foe.

“Let’s soar and roar Don!” I bellowed with the thump to my chest, playing up the role.

Don shrieked in excitement and swept his wings, throwing himself into the air with a glint in his eyes.

I felt my own battle instincts lock into place as I took in the field while slipping into the bond, allowing me to see through two different points of view.

I knew from earlier attempts not to call up my Dark Mountain technique as it interfered with Don, so instead I stayed in the moment with just me and him.

“Hyper Beam!” I roared like I was done playing nice. Inwardly, I actually demanded Don use Taunt to deny Sabrina any build up.

Sabrina and Alakazam responded with Alakazam teleporting above Don where he levitated with a smirk. 

Smirking right back at them, Don unleashed a Dragon Pulse while Alakazam fired off a Psybeam.

We tucked and rolled under the beam, using the momentum from the slight move to cut under Alakazam where we went for Supersonic, only for a Light Screen followed by a Barrier to emerge in front of Alakazam.

The attack still stung, but it didn’t look like the confusion took hold like we needed.

Alakazam grinned as he made a downward gesture with a spoon in hand. A moment later he sparked up into a thunder that had me stiffening. 

“Dive into Stone Edge!” I called, knowing that being as close as we were wasn’t going to do us any favours. Instead I had Don dive beneath Alakazam once more, causing his attack to miss. 

Instead of changing locations, Alakzam pivoted on the spot, rotating so that he was tracking Don, causing his beard to flap down as gravity took hold of it. 

As we moved I had Don start performing some Dragon Dances to give us more chance of landing a hit. 

In response Alakazam began peppering us with Pyshic, throwing rock after rock at us. 

The one time he tried to lock us down with Psychic itself, I snapped my hand right at him. “HYPER BEAM!” I once again roared.

This time it wasn’t a fake out and Don manifested and unleashed a powerful strike at Alakazam.

Alakazam stiffened in surprise, dropping the Psychic only to raise his spoons as Protect went into play.

I clicked my tongue. “Tuck your wings and let yourself fall!” I ordered Don, rather than letting him sit in the air where he was a sitting Farfetch’d 

I knew how long it took him to recover from such attacks so I needed to give us a little more time. 

Allowing him to fall like a rock actually helped with energy recovery, as well as making us a harder target to hit.

Not that it stopped Alakazam from doing so. 

From the smoke a spoon stabbed towards Don and a glow enveloped him, causing him to stop dead in the air. Then with a contemptuous flick of his wrist, Alakzam sent Don hurtling into the water. 

Don and I both flinched. Damn beach setting. Of course Sabrina accounted for that!

Don shot up out of the water, flapping mad and wet, his anger radiating through the bond. I countered it and soothed it with logic, pointing out with all the cool calculus of a vizier advising a nobleman that Alakazam had weakened himself before with that Protect. 

It might have been us that took the damage but we’d given ourselves a better chance.

Don smirked cruelly and I felt and allowed the emotion to seep into me. 

I matched it and for a moment, I felt something starting to click home. I channelled as much blank aura into the keystone on my forearm as I could and a glow began to build.

Around Don’s neck a matching glow formed and I felt my heart begin to synchronise with his. 

I was just about to throw my energy fully into the bond when I felt my control shift as Don let his emotions sweep through him, disrupting the process. 

I staggered and grabbed my head as a backlash occurred. “Urgh that’s not nice,” I grunted. 

Don, likewise found himself flapping in an almost drunken manner. “Reeee?” he shrieked in surprise.

I shook my head. “Urgh, sorry buddy! Seems we’ve still got some work to do. No Bruce method for us!” I called.

Alakazam chose to Teleport down to where he’d left his whiteboards, rather than continue. The rank dismissal from him caused Don to see red and I had to whistle sharply. 

“No! Control it Don! We were doing this for your bond. This is our loss, don’t take it beyond that!” I snapped at him. I held back my own, slight tinge of annoyance at Alakazam bailing on us like that.

Sabrina walked across the beach. “Are you alright?” she asked, watching my reaction.

“Yeah, just a bit of backlash from failing to Mega evolve. Felt like all my concentration shattered in that one moment. Sort of like I’d gotten a cheap shot in the head and gut at the same time,” I said.

“Zaaaaam,” encouraged Alakazam, having Teleported back to me. Don almost snapped at him and I was tempted to let him with how Alakazam was asking me to describe the sensation along with querying if I felt like I could repeat it.

“Yeah, no. It was unpleasant enough. Why don’t you practise your Mega evolution and give Don and I a feel for what it should be like?” I asked.

Don, despite himself, did perk up at that, even if he tried to feign disinterest.

“Tsun, tsun,” Sabrina murmured as she stepped back. Alakazam floated above her and posed like he was about to… Has Bertha been corrupting every pokemon she knows with Magical Girl content?

The Mega evolution went off without a hitch, and the feeling of a powerful psychic washed over us as Both Sabrina and Alakazam glowed slightly.

For a moment both merely hovered slightly, then their gazes snapped to the side, widening in surprise.

“Is somethin—” I began to ask only for a huge geyser of water to erupt from the water. Around us Wingull and other pokemon fled the area as a shape swam up through the water spout.

An all too familiar form took shape and a moment later Lugia shot out of the water spout and soared towards us.

Instinct took over. My hands swept down in a practised action along with a pulse through the bond calling my pokemon into a defensive arrangement. 

I only had a moment to regret that as Golbat, the triplets, and Tyrunt landed in the sand alongside Empress, Regrirock, Knight, Tide, Shrek, and Shin.

Damn it, I’d given some of my usual Elite’s a break and brought in others to give them some experience traveling around.

My flash of regret was barely registering to me when Lugia opened its wings and stopped on a pokedime.

A terrible silence washed over us, like the world was suddenly holding its breath for what came next. 

I braced, knowing in my bones what was coming. 

Empress turned and curled herself around her daughters, snatching up Tyrunt in the action. 

Golbat, thankfully, had emerged close to me and even drawn closer in the intervening moments, so it was all of a moment’s work to reach out and snatch her into my chest. 

Which turned out to be the right call as a shockwave of air washed over us, causing wind and sand to go flying past us. I channelled my rock aura to stand strong in the face of the sudden tempest.

As quickly as it came, it vanished in the next heartbeat as Lugia swept its wings back and around, adding a counter force to the rushing wind. 

It caused a small boom behind it but other than sending a tidal wave away from the beach nothing appeared to be damaged. 

My pokemon shifted formation to push the younger pokemon back while Don flapped up into position. Thank Arceus he hadn’t been in the air just now, I found myself thinking. He’d only been blown backwards a few metres.

Lugia hung there, imperious and watchful. 

“I thought I detected you once more,” announced the Lugia with a powerful psychic voice that had the triplets and Tyrunt stir even as Empress deposited them all behind her. Knight stepped in front of all of them, his gaze locked forwards with an intensity I’d only felt from him a few times before.

Empress stepped forward with a rumbling growl of warning to Lugia, unafraid of his Legendary status. 

Lugia, however, had no eyes for us, instead observing Sabrina and Alakazam.

“Did we disturb you with our training Lugia? If so, we’re sorry.”

“You did no such thing,” boomed Lugia. “I was passing by through the waters and noted your presence. It was rather hard to ignore.”

I tilted my head. Had Lugia just made a joke?

Sabrina bobbed her head up and down. “Well thank you for your attention. Is there anything you require?” she asked carefully.

Lugia’s head shifted like a great serpent eying her from different angles. “No, nothing for now. I will give my thanks however in the form of a warning. The battles currently underway to the south east have stirred the waters. I can feel the currents shifting. Forgotten realms will soon be open to you, and you to them. Take that as you will.” 

Huh, that was rather ominous. “Other regions?” I asked, unable to stop myself from speaking up.

Lugia’s head curled around Sabrina to look down at me. “Indeed. As you humans call them, different Regions will soon be able to reach your shores.”

“Do you have any idea how long and from which direction?” I asked, pushing my luck.

“It is difficult to say. The currents have as yet not settled, but I would expect within a cycle of seasons,” Lugia claimed. “Continue as you are.” Lugia glanced between myself and Sabrina. “Both of you.”

Then with a flap of its wings it cartwheeled and sped away, leaving more sand to be kicked up. This time Don was sent flying back through the air, much to his displeasure.

He shrieked back into the fight only to find there was no fight to find.

Sabrina exhaled and the glow from around her as she floated back down to the sand. 

“That was a bit more than we bargained for, wasn’t it?” I suggested to her slightly ruffled appearance.

“That, would be a vast understatement,” Sabrina replied drolly. 

I nodded only to facepalm. “Oh my goodness! That!” I said, gesturing at the beach. “That right there would have been a perfect opportunity to have Empress or the others hold some evolution stones!”

Alakazam twitched, understanding what I was getting at. “Ala kazam!” he wailed mournfully. 

Sabrina shook her head. “I think we can forgive ourselves for not testing that piece of research Alakazam. We were rather busy not offending the powerful Legendary,” she stated.

“The way they talk I think they would have just chalked it up as human weirdness,” I suggested, “But anyway, chance missed and all that.”

“Tyyyy!” roared Tyrunt as she stomped her feet and puffed up her chest.

“Tar! Tar!” replied the triplets with eyes that were practically glowing. 

I snorted and Sabrina chuckled. Yeah, I suppose that had been a lot cooler than what I had planned for them which was to let them gambol about on the beach. 

They could still do that. “Shall we trawl the beach just in case?” I asked hopefully.

Sabrina patted me on the shoulder. “I’m not detecting anything.”

“But would you?” I asked, drawing into myself to call up my new aura technique which allowed me to sweep the field. 

I didn’t feel anything jump out at me. I slumped. “Damn,” I muttered.

Golbat nuzzled at my shoulder, and I pet her gently. “Well, we can still celebrate something,” I suggested, putting my hand next to Golbat’s collar. “You ready girl?” I asked.

She began to vibrate with excitement and I unlatched the Everstone collar. “Fly!” I ordered.

She swept her wings up and into the air, the light of evolution starting to shine through her body within the next beat. Then she vanished into a wave of light.

My pokemon turned and watched as Golbat’s form, rather than growing larger, shrank and gained a second set of wings. 

Then her form blitzed down the beach as instincts took over and her speed picked up. She sent a wave of sand up into the air with her passage. 

I tracked her with a whistle. Damn that was fast.

Then she turned, and like before my instincts flared up. She rocketed back at me. 

“Croooooooooooo!” she squealed with glee as she attempted the mother of all tackle hugs. 

I could either brace and let her flatten herself on me like a bug on a mountainside, or I could let the hit happen.

I let the hit happen and kicked myself backwards to bleed off some of Crobat’s speed.

She continued to shriek with delight which was thankfully into my chest, so I didn’t have to deal with a screech, even if it was a happy one.

Four wings batted at me happily and I laughed. “Welcome to the team Crobat, although we’re going to have to work out a name for you now.” 

The beat of Crobat’s wings, if anything, sped up. When she finally calmed down, enough that I could reach down and pluck her off my chest and set her on my shoulder, the rest of my team had arranged themselves around us. 

Knight stepped forward and greeted her like a new friend, and from there the others offered their own congratulations. 

Don was quick to try and challenge Crobat to a speed contest, only to be shocked when she kept up pace with him until he used Dragon Dance to boost himself. Crobat was however far more agile with her ability to maintain her top speed through maneuvers that were impossible for other pokemon.

He tried to take solace in beating her with boosts but I knew he was pouting at being even with another flyer in my roster.

“Don’t worry Don, once you mega evolve there won’t be many pokemon that can outspeed you,” I told him which had him perking right back up. To maintain his pride I didn’t tell him that one of the pokemon able to match him for speed was Mega Alakazam, as that would be too cruel.

From there, things settled down into a more relaxed afternoon. I sat with Sabrina watching my pokemon and hers enjoy the beach while we simply watched the sunset. 

“We’re going to have to tell someone about Lugia’s prediction, aren’t we?” I asked.

Sabrina nodded. 

“Going to be a big incident, isn’t it?”

She continued to nod. 

“Think we can bat this on to someone else?” I asked.

Sabrina sighed and I nodded. “Yeah I didn’t think so. Still, today’s been a good day.”

Hopefully things would continue to be good with the introduction of more regions. I just had to hope they weren’t like Orre. What else was out there?

I knew about Galar and Alola as major regions, but there had to be more. I just had to wonder where they were and what they’d be like.

If it did take a year for the currents to settle, then in a year things would be very interesting.

What would the world be like then?

“Huh, we’re going to be married by then,” I said as the realisation settled. 

Sabrina nodded. “Yes, we will be.”

Then she kissed me.

It was a good way to finish the day.

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A.N.  Thanks go to my Patreons for your continued support!

It also goes to Twmmy for editing this chapter.