Hard Enough - Chapter 366 - Dragon diversions

Gible leapt out of the ground only to whiff against Golbat as she had already darted out of the way.

A spray of powerful Toxic coated Gible and caused him to stagger when he landed. This in turn allowed Golbat to follow up with a strong Confuse Ray.

Now Gible was confused, and poisoned, which caused him to slam into the ground, messing up what I suspect was an attempt to use Dig to wash off some of the poison.

“Stop there!” I called.

Golbat fluttered back while Gible clawed at his scales. “Here settle down buddy, I know it’s stinging but give me a moment and I’ll have you fixed up.” 

I brought out a Pecha Berry and stuffed it into his mouth causing him to groan with pleasure as the internal sting faded. 

I brought out a bottle of water while he was distracted and poured that over him before grabbing a handful of non-poisonous sand and flicking it into him.

He recoiled at the first and stilled at the second.

Due to the rough skin he had, I had to don a set of fine metal chain gloves to rub the sand properly over him.

“Dig is a good move but not so great against a flying type. You need to stay out and mobile, or you need to only ever partially submerge so you can move around while tracking a flying type. It gets harder because Golbat is about to become much faster,” I said.

“Giiib!” Gible rumbled happily. 

“Hmm, we’ll work on your tactics a bit more. This is hard while you’re small but you’re still making Golbat work for it so don’t sweat the loss at all, alright?”

Gible nodded, ever the happy little pokemon. If I had told him to think about it some more I have no doubt he would have, but because I’d waved it off he was fine. He was one rather ‘chill’ for a dragon, and I could only conclude that I’d got fortunate with his temperament.

A quick glance at where the Tyranitar Triplets were sitting, watching along with Tyrunt drew a sigh from me.

Tyrunt pretending she wasn’t watching while peeking with her head turned just so to catch the battle. The triplets were all barking and growling at us with what I knew to be taunts and shouts.

A cheer team they were not.

In fact, they were more like a roast crew. 

Hopefully, they’d grow out of it, but with how old I suspected Empress was, and what she’d endured to reach her level of ‘stoic’, I didn’t have much hope for being around for the trio settling down on their own.

I was going to have to step in. 

When Mewtwo had first dropped them off I’d been rather vexed. 

A few days later I’d wondered if more of my family might be able to have Tyranitar starters. Having interacted, trained, and fought with them, I knew better than to even entertain such an idea.

The triplets took enough work as it was to make sure they didn’t pick up any more bad habits.

Merely letting them grow stronger wasn’t going to cut it. It was for this reason that I’d switched out their combat training for more team building and temperament exercises. 

When I worked with them, I made them perform tasks that were annoying and had high skill requirements.

Like footwork, dodging, or accuracy drills.

They lost their tempers regularly and tried to lash out, only for me to handle them each and every time. 

I’d started to have larger pokemon than them complete the same drills just to show that it wasn’t impossible. Then I’d started running the drill myself. That had silenced them all. I’d also made sure to have ‘real’ moment’s with each of them, taking them out on patrols into the Viridian Forest.

It was cold, it was quiet, and it was perfect.

Each of the trio wanted to run into a swarm of Beedrill and demonstrate their power, only for me to point out that true strength doesn’t need to be used to destroy.

Regirock’s simple nature but undeniable power backed that method of thinking perfectly. The trio had taken to joining Billy and Tilly as they stumbled around the reserve. They made for a pretty cute sight.

The twins had no idea what the triplets were ‘saying’ but the triplets were more often than not pulled into the twins' games. Which in turn saw other pokemon like Regirock learning how to play tag, hide and seek, and hopscotch.

In some ways, I think the time spent playing with the twins did more to calm the triplets down than my training, patrols and lectures.

I made sure to slip the twins more chocolate regardless. They promptly shared it with their buddies. 

Golbat’s wings flapping off to the side along with a blur, was all the warning I got before she slammed into my side. I braced just enough to not fall into the snow at her antics. “Hey girl, you pulled your side of the fight off perfectly. You faded in and out and then used your moveset wonderfully. Confuse Ray after Toxic was spot on,” I complimented.

“Gol!” she preened happily. 

“You also made sure not to get close, cause if you had, I know Gible would have punished you in an instant.”

“Bat!” she nodded as she licked me. 

I shuddered as her poison-coated tongue swept over my cheek. A pecha berry appeared in my hand and I rubbed the fuzz on my face before taking a bite from the other side. 

“Man, part of me regrets coming up with an optimal fighting build for you, considering how affectionate you are,” I muttered. Golbat whined as she lowered her head.

My hand was quick to pat her head. “Eh, it’s fine. I just need to account for it. Just like how I let the trio shout from the sidelines,” I said eyes flickering to where the triplets were grinning with delight.

“Still, let’s check something.” I moved over to the patch of earth that despite the light snow was sizzling due to Golbat’s poison.

A quick scoop of a pH strip and a countdown had me whistling. “Huh, all the way to pH fourteen in less than three seconds. Guess all that work we’ve done has paid off. Congratulations girl, your poison is now potent enough that Janine would approve!”

Golbat perked up at that and wiggled. I pat her on the head. “We’ll assemble the gang later and take the everstone off,” I announced, causing her to fly off and begin informing the other Elite pokemon.

I watched her go, chuckling to myself. She would be able to find Titan or Bertha as they were inside with Rachel. 

I’d handed Titan and Bertha’s list to Rachel and she’d squealed with delight at all their ideas. Apparently, creating a television show linked to the Gym was the perfect next step at making Pewter Gym more famous. 

Not that I felt we needed that.

Some kids were already calling ahead in attempts to book in their challenge slots for next year’s circuit.

Mad geniuses was all I could conclude.

Still, in a week we were going to have a magical try out for kids who wanted to try their hands for the next circuit. 

It was thankfully a short two-day addition to my calendar to an otherwise sparse schedule.

I liked not having anything to focus on, it agreed with me wonderfully. An urge to break into an old yet familiar song about being the very best tickled the back of my mind as I glanced out over the reserve but I held off, this time.

The sound of wings buzzing over the reserve made me look up and sigh as a wave of rocks and boulders launched upwards. Don’s shriek of frustration let me know he’d both missed, and had to dodge the rocks suddenly filling the airspace.

The shape escaped the ground to air response that would see a normal pokemon cast from the sky and when it reached the boundary it whirled back around and hovered, allowing me to see that there was a rider on the back of the Salamence.

My wrist buzzed and I shook my head as I answered. “You do that on purpose?” I asked dryly. 

Lance’s smirk was answer enough.

He was lucky Sanchez wasn’t sitting up here but by the cackling I could hear echoing from caverns he wasn’t far off. My Onix were standing up and roaring in agitation having missed the target.

“I have half a mind to not call them off,” I mused aloud.

Lance scoffed. “Please you want to talk with me, and I want to see how you’re going with your dragon pokemon.”

I sniffed and put my fingers in my lips to unleash a powerful whistle to call my pokemon off.

If I happened to use the hand with my Xtransceiver on it, thus delivering a powerful blast of noise to Lance in the same action, well that was just unfortunate.

He scowled at me, knowing I’d done it on purpose but he hung up rather than call me out on it.

Within seconds his Salamence was landing before me and sending a wave of cold air washing over me.

I sniffed, not really all that bothered by it. Lance on the other hand hopped off the back of his pokemon and gestured inside. “Shall we take the training inside today?” behind him, Salamence hissed as snow fell upon it.

I gave Gible and Tyrunt a pointed look. Both merely tilted their heads to inspect the large dragon, not even registering the cold. “You ever think that you train the over-the-top reaction with how you behave?” I asked. 

Heck, even Don, who’d taken a swipe at Salamence on the way through, was hovering overhead in the cold wind without too much issue.

Lance sniffed. “It’s just good instincts!” he retorted. He jabbed a hand towards the snow. “A pokemon needs to be able to know what they’re weak against and to avoid it!”

“A pokemon needs to be resilient,” I replied. “It’s possible to train up resistances.”

“Eh, it’s always better to be able to dodge an attack.”

“You’re only saying that because all the dragons you currently have access to are highly mobile.”

“Not all of them!” he argued.

“Flygon, Altaria, Dragonite, Salamance, Kingdra, Charizard,” I listed off. 

“They weren’t always that way,” he stated. “Also you’re missing Gyarados, and Charizard isn’t a true dragon type pokemon.” He muttered the last part like it pained him but I chuckled.

“That might not have always been the case,” I mentioned drawing out the blue, grey and black mega stone that I’d found in Old Flamer’s cave. 

“What’s that?” he asked, taking the stone when I offered it to him. “It’s warm and…” he frowned. “Who is this for?” 

“As far as we can tell? Charizard. I found that,” I reached into my pouch and drew out the other. “As well as this one in the same cave.” 

“That’s a marvelous find,” he murmured, eyes flicking between the two stones. 

“We also found another of these,” I hefted the Charizardite Y into the sun. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but Daisy Oak had been the person to find this stone. 

“It was in the second oldest Charizard’s cave. It made us rethink how old some of them can reach. Did you know that your Charizard is into older ladies?” I teased.

Lance coughed. “There’s nothing wrong with that!” 

I shot him a smirk. “Oh? You share an appreciation of older women with your pokemon?” I said leaning over to prod him. “Ilene’s only a few years older than you!~”

Lance, rather than dignify my teasing, waved a hand at the field, “I’d like to test this if you’re interested,” he murmured.

That got a raised eyebrow from me. “You do know that it takes a while to sync up a stone with a pokemon right?” when Lance merely scoffed in response I tilted my head. “You’ve been practising with your Charizard I take it?”

“Since I knew it was possible. I’ve been working with all of my pokemon in preparation. Just because I only have one stone currently doesn’t mean I can’t lay the groundwork in advance. It could prove to be a huge advantage.” he lifted the Charizardite X so it glinted. “I mostly want to feel the resonance.” He nodded towards the stone in my hand. “I might still ask to take that one. It would be rather rude of me to take both samples, even with Indigo currently lacking a true fire type specialist.”

I shot a look at him. “Well, we would have had Bruce but he’s pretty much abandoning Cinnabar Gym.”

“He’s not abandoning it!” Lance snapped. “He’s keeping things operational until…” he sighed. “I’d rather not get into this with you if I could?”

“Alright, alright,” I offered as I rose to my full height. “So you want to test the stone? Go right ahead.”

Lance shifted. “I’d like to use Bruce’s method by pressuring myself and my pokemon if you’d be amenable.”

“Ho?” I replied with a smirk, my fighting instincts flaring up at the challenge he’d laid down. “Alright then.”

I was about to call out one of the many, many pokemon that would be able to truly punish Lance for his earlier hubris of flying over the top of my reserve when a screech filled the air and Don dropped out of the air.

“Ah, you heard that, did you buddy?” I commented slowly. Don rumbled, his eyes locking with Lance who merely smirked.

Something about the way that Lance was smirking caused me to narrow my eyes. He wasn’t usually one to disrespect the air over my reserve as he knew I’d trained multiple pokemon to swat flying types out of the air in case they were threats.

The way he looked pleased to have Don facing him however… had he planned that to antagonise Don and get him fired up?

Sneaky prick. I thought to myself. I couldn’t draw Don back without him pitching a fit and with Lance having an Aerodactyl himself he likely knew what their temperament was like.

“Don!” I snapped. “To me now!” I ordered, snapping my fingers and indicating the ground before me.

Don’s head twisted in surprise at the sudden intensity of the command, breaking the deadlock he’d had with Lance who frowned slightly. Ha! I was onto you! I thought to myself. 

Don flapped over to me with gritted teeth but I could tell he wanted to keep trying to intimidate Lance.

“Don, Lance is baiting us,” I informed him. 

Don stiffened at this and a low growl escaped him. “He is setting up so you fight his Charizard, one of his strongest pokemon. He wants to take the match and has no doubt prepared multiple methods of beating you.”

Don shifted. Through the bond, I felt a bubbling anxiety. Not that he was afraid of Lance or Charizard, but that he was worried I’d take this fight from him.

Don and I held our gazes on each other for a solid few seconds. “I want you to step into the trap boldly. You know the worst is coming your way. But you’re one of the pokemon I took with me when we might have been facing down Legendary pokemon. This fight isn’t going to be like that. No support. One and done. He wants to nip you in the tail with a loss and get out.”

Don perked up instantly, and through the bond his delight radiated out as his hope began to grow.

I stopped looking at Don and instead locked eyes with Lance. “So? We doing this?” I announced, signalling Don forward. 

Don whipped around and let loose a shriek that was entirely about declaring himself the alpha of these lands, something I knew to be a bold faced lie.

He wasn’t even in the top five, not that I was going to break his ‘aura farming’ moment as other pokemon began to gather to watch the coming fight.

Lance looked entirely too pleased with himself even as the other pokemon began to appear. The Onix cluster formed up to the side, roaring softly and casting annoyed looks at Salamence.

Well, I guess that settled it, I was going to have to order a few balloons in the shape of Salamence to let them take their frustrations out on.

Don’s daughter shrieked in support of her father as she landed upon a rock near the triplets and Tyrunt, only for Tyrunt to attempt to snap at her. Both of them locked eyes and I sent Sanchez and Knight to keep those two apart.

With that done I turned and focused. 

My bond with Don wasn’t the strongest, that went to Titan, but I could still link myself with him and allow calm certainty to sweep through me and into him.

Rather than shrieking and swiping the air in agitation he settled, narrowing his eyes as Lance released Charizard only to whistle for it to land so he could lock the Charizardite X into a small necklace. 

I inspected our foe. As I’d noticed previously, Lance’s Charizard was rather big, but having come from Charific Valley I’d actually almost call it average these days. Still it had a palpable aura of strength around it.

Despite that… there was something off about it that had me narrowing my eyes. Its muscles looked as big as last time, and the scars… were they different?

Charizard crooned with delight as a wave of aura rippled through him.

Then it turned and locked eyes with Don.

“Ready?” Lance called.

 I nodded, and without any further delay, we both commanded our pokemon into the fight.

I made use of Aerodactyl’s greater speed by going for the kill straight away with Stone Edge causing him to sweep his wings down and rocket forward.

Waves of spear like boulders fired forward in front of him. We made sure to angle the attack slightly up so that if Lance tried to get airborne he was in for a world of hurt.

He must have predicted us as instead of going high he had his pokemon crouch low so that it was flat with the ground. 

From there, it twisted its neck and fired a potent Flamethrower at Don.

Don spun to the side, avoiding the attack and cutting into the side with his maw stretched wide for a Thunder Fang.

Again, Lance surprised me by going lower.

Charizard used Dig and vanished into the ground.

I felt Don and I’s minds both lurch at this strange bizarro world we had found ourselves in. We recovered quickly by having Don ascend with Dragon Dance to empower him.

Lance and I shared a look with me shaking my head. “You taught your Charizard Dig of all moves?” I asked.

“You wouldn’t have expected it, and if you hadn’t used Don…” He trailed off with a raised hand.

“I’d have used Earthquake and flattened you,” I replied as Charizard launched out of the ground and into the air for the first time in this fight on the far side of the ‘field’. 

Don swept in only for Charizard to meet it head-on with a Scary Face and its tail sweeping around.

I had Don tuck and roll past the offending limb to rake Charizard’s oddly pristine scales.

It was clean… far too clean for a pokemon that had just been underground.

“You taught it Dragon Dance and had it use that underground as well,” I muttered, annoyed that he’d gotten that off. 

Lance merely smirked, pleased with himself and his pokemon. 

I shook my head as our pokemon swept back around to fight each other. He really had taken the teachings from his fight against Moltres and applied them in lots of different ways, hadn’t he?

Don attempted another Stone Edge, only for Charizard to use Aerial Ace to escape.

Rather than close the gap Charizard evaded and swept its wings to unleash a Hurricane on the field with itself in the centre.

Upon Lance’s wrist, the keystone began to glow more and more and Lance’s fervour seemed to grow as he raised his hand up high.

“Charizard! Let’s go!” he roared and his pokemon answered with a roar. A glow began to shine from within the Hurricane.

Don screeched in fury, knowing very well what that was. Rather than allow him to strike now in an attempt to ‘stop’ the transformation I asserted my will through the bond.

“Control!” I urged, giving him the command to perform a Dragon Dance once more.

He followed the order reluctantly only to smirk when I informed him of my plan.

Mentally, I began to count down, knowing full well how long a Mega Evolution would need to take hold. In that space of time, due to the energy bleed over, there was very little that could actually harm a pokemon going through Mega Evolution. Something that very much didn’t match one for one with the games. 

It also wasn’t fully proven as I had yet to attempt a Giga Impact, Hyper Beam, or a Regirock Sand blast against a Mega Evolving pokemon.

It wasn’t something I was in a hurry to test as it might result in a seriously injured pokemon. 

Instead, my research indicated it was better to wait until the energy bleed off was done with and then attack.  

Three missingno’s, I mentally count down before slashing my hand forward and pulling the mental trigger. 

“Now Don! Fire!” I roared over the winds of the hurricane.

Don opened his mouth wide and let the Hyper Beam build before unleashing it straight at the heart of the glowing Hurricane.

The beam tore through the sky with a shrill pitch and cut past the Hurricane like it was nothing. 

Then it slammed into the Charizard on the other side. 

I instantly noticed a few things about the Charizard. It hadn’t changed colours. Its tail flame had turned blue however, while it was an overall failure, there was a partial success.

Then Charizard was blown out of the air by the Hyper Beam hammering into it.

It fell from the sky, smoking like a boulder after reaching the peak of its arc from a volcanic eruption.

Rather than let it hit the ground Lance sighed and raised his pokeball returning it and signalling that the match was over.

Don, exhausted from the recent use of Hyper Beam shrieked victoriously but I only frowned.

That… had been far too easy. Charizard was one of Lance’s strongest pokemon, one that would have only grown stronger since the last time we fought, and back then it had endured far more… in fact, it had practically tanked an Explosion from Sanchez to the face.

I shot Lance a scrutinising look. “What gives?” I asked.

Lance sighed. “Ah, you caught that, did you?” I raised my eyebrows as if to say ‘duh’ and he chuckled. “Dragonite and Gyarados aren’t the only pokemon I have multiple of,” he stated.

I pursed my lips. “You know I think if you said that on live television you’d become extremely unpopular with all the kids that applied and failed to be allowed one of the Kanto starters.” I shook my head. “I won’t ask why you feel the need for more than one Charizard cause it makes a lot of sense if you’re going to get into a lot of fights.” I jerked my head towards where his Charizard had fallen.

“I’m assuming that was a younger, weaker one? It didn’t seem as…” I mulled over what I’d seen. “Hardened,” I stated. It had the size and the intensity of its Flamethrower at least had been strong but while it could dish it out, it certainly couldn’t take the same punishment.

“Ah, yes that’s something that takes a while,” he replied.

“Impressive that you were able to get a secondary Charizard to the level that you’re almost able to get off a mega Evolution,” I pointed out.

Lance coughed. “Well, I have been spending a lot of time with him,” he declared happily.

I shook my head and glanced up at Don, who was pouting at the reveal that the Charizard he’d fought wasn’t Lance’s stronger pokemon. 

“So does this mean you should be able to pull it off with the other?” I prompted.

Lance hummed in thought. “Yes, I think I could but I’m not able to use him today as we took part in a patrol of the Battle Frontier recently and he was injured fighting a particularly cunning Sneasel that had been plaguing trainers. Led us into a valley before awakening an entire avalanche of Geodude and Graveller. I had to fight off what felt like half a mountain of pokemon.”

“Half a mountain you say?” I asked dubiously. Lance wasn’t one to lie, but hearing him say that… I tilted my head. It was impressive but definitely possible with twelve pokemon.

Still, with how Lance was talking… “The Sneasel got away, didn’t it?” I asked.

Lance clicked his tongue, which got a chuckle from me. 

Lance waved a hand to a nearby boulder next to Spyro the Growlithe and I obliged him, much to Don’s displeasure. He rumbled in annoyance even as he dropped down to brag to his daughter and the other young pokemon about his victory.

I decided to not announce what had happened even if the other Elite pokemon in my roster could tell that something had been up with that match.

“I wanted to ask if you might be willing to sign up to help out with the Battle Frontier in the coming weeks,” Lance said, cutting to the core without waffling.

I huffed. “Have to admit that having a vacation has been kind of agreeing with me,” I replied.

“I can tell. Your pokemon have certainly gotten stronger, and you deserve one after everything you encountered, but at the same time, good work reward is simply more work.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” I muttered. Lance nodded in commiseration. 

“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. With Fiore pulling so many of their Rangers into the fighting in Orre there has been a bit of a gap in the patrols for the Battle Frontier. Usually I would say that the trainers marching about would be enough to deal with any troubling pokemon but the truth is that most of the time the issue is the trainers.”

“Bunch of them trying to ‘stumble into Fiore’? I asked.

“Precisely so,” he replied as he rubbed his face tiredly. “Despite Fiore displaying just how zealous they can be, there are still idiots.”

“Hmmm I see,” I said carefully. “I’ll look at the roster, but if I’m honest I just want to relax for the next few weeks.”

“You can sign up for a patrol later in the roster!” he declared. “I’ll have others slot in if I can. I’m trying to have the new Gym Leaders shadow one of the more experienced Leaders but that has been like herding cats.”

“Too many newbies?” I asked.

“That and they are spending most of their off-circuit break getting as much worked out with the operations and Gym as they can, which… I can’t fault them for,” he stated.

“Alright,” I offered. Lance perked up and I shot two fingers into the air. “In two weeks! Two! No less! I’ll do a patrol.”

Lance sighed in relief. “Thank you, a proper patrol will take at least four to five days just to let you know but—”

I shot him a highly unimpressed look but he ignored it so I asked a different question. “How’s things in Orre? We’ve got boots on the ground now, yeah?”

Lance hummed. “Surprisingly well. We’ve had an extremely smooth roll out with Indigo trainers being perceived very well by the locals. Doctor Kaminko is to thank for some of this while the rest of the effort can be laid at the feet of the Legendary Cats being so friendly with our trainers. They have often presented to our groups and more than a few times have even bunkered down in our camps…”

Lance’s lips twitched. “It’s causing something of a crisis of faith among some of the Fiorians, seeing Legendary cats favour us over them.”

I whistled. “That’s a PR coup, a moral victory and a great point of reference all rolled into one!”

Lance agreed. “Indeed! It is helping our efforts immensely. Another positive is that Karen has been extremely active as a member of the Elite Four. If there has been any trouble she has been there in the thick of it with her team, sorting out disputes, calming tensions or fighting with people acting in bad faith.”

Lance shook his head. “I’ll be honest, when she made her announcement, I was worried I was about to be saddled with another Agatha who would sit to the side and snark left, right and centre and at first she seemed to be going that way,” Lance shook his head disparagingly.

Then he perked up. “But this Orre expedition? She’s been active and engaged. She’s become the person many are turning to, and with how often the Legendary cats have been seen around her it’s certainly buoying her reputation. She’s a beacon of what a peak Indigo trainer can be! She’s a real go-getter. When she gets back, I think I’ll promote her to be my official number two!!” Lance gushed.

“That sounds…” I put a hand over my mouth to hide the giant grin I was sporting.  

There was no Arceus damned way that Karen would have been that active! She liked sitting around and being edgy!

Hearing all the praise that was being laid at her feet, I had no doubt in my mind that she wouldn’t have done anything like what Lance described. 

The only way she’d have gotten involved? She was being forced to get involved.

I hadn’t really thought about what would happen when I’d provided Ash with Karen’s contact information and the suggestion that if he was going to throw himself into a warzone he should do so with some protection.

Apparently, this was what happened.

Karen wasn’t the one seeking out all those situations, she was being dragged into them kicking and screaming most likely.

Karen would be hating this arrangement and probably trying to dig her heels in, but Ash being the kind-hearted, well-meaning hero that he was would only be more motivated by his success.

And he wouldn’t care for the spotlight. He wouldn’t see the need to announce himself. He’d just be glad that good was happening and that he was helping.

And people’s attention would be caught by Karen no doubt.

I tightened the grip on my face as the laughter that was threatening to escape bubbled up. 

Oh man, she was going to be pissed when people started expecting things from her, cause if there was one thing she hated more than hard work it was not living up to people’s expectations. 

“Are you alright Brock?” Lance asked.

“Never better,” I replied. My voice squeaked as I spoke while trying to hold back the laughter. “So glad that Karen is proving her chops.”

Lance eyed me. “Indeed,” he said, aware that something weird was going on but unsure what precisely.  “I also wanted to talk to you about the OA deal you mentioned being important. I think I agree with you that we do need to be sweeping the islands where the fighting took place as the theory of Legendary energy contributing to Mega Stone Formation is one that looks quite solid.”

With a titanic force of will I shoved the giggling fit back into my gut. I’d roll on the floor laughing about it later but for now I needed to be serious.

Super serious… 

“Heh,” I said without meaning to which earned me another concerned look from Lance.

“Are you—”

“I’m fine!” I barked hoarsely. “Super fine! Heheh. Go ahead. What deal will need to be worked out?” I asked.

Lance hummed, eying me. “They need the first three Mega stones to go to themselves rather than into a pool. Which is certainly fair enough. We can trade which stones we acquire but the first three will be ‘theirs’ regardless of what they are. I suspect that most will be sent to Yuji to help bolster him some more, as despite turning around his poor showing post the Shamouti incident, he has garnered a bit of a reputation.”

“Alright, we can work with that,” I said before humming. “Hmm looks like I’m heading back there.”

Lance shot me a disbelieving look. “What happened to not working for the next two weeks?” he asked.

I waved a hand at him. “This is this and that was that, obviously.” I rose and gestured inside. “Now want to grab some lunch?” As a shiver ran over me.

Lance considered that for a moment and stood to follow me in. “I think I’d enjoy that. And if I get the time… I might also like to come down to Shamouti.” 

I didn’t mention how I wasn’t about to hold my breath on that. As Champion I had no doubt he was being run pretty ragged these days.

“Before lunch,” Lance said as we reached the front garden. “Any chance you could talk to your man Crowley and hurry him along with the next Tyrunt?” he asked.

“Resurrecting a pokemon takes precision. You don’t want a mal—” I started to say only for Lance to raise his hand and nod.

“I understand, and you’re right,” he conceded only to glance at me for a moment. His lips twitched in a manner that had my parenting instincts flaring up.

He was up to something.

“You look cold, you should try wearing a cape,” he suggested.

“I don’t think it would go with my look,” I replied idly.

“Have you tried it?” he prompted. Without waiting he drew out a cape from his pouch. “Here try this!”

He swept it onto my shoulders quickly, and I had to resist the urge to knock him away. I was still waiting to see where he’d strike with his mischief.

Was it itching powder or something else? Like an electric zapper of some sort? Joke would be on him in that case, because I was resistant to such shocks.

The cape was kind of cool, though, even if it was a spare.

“You have spare capes, Charizard, and Dragonite. I think I’m starting to see a pattern here, Lance,” I murmured as I flicked the cape around like a cartoon villain.

Lance smirked as he took a few photos. “You look good,” not as good as me of course, but it takes skill to wear a cape like this,” he stated while showing my the pictures of me clowning around.

“Heh, send those to me. They’re pretty funny,” I chuckled before detaching the cape and handing it back. “I think I’ll stick with my style though,” I replied waving a hand at my ruggard clothing.

Lance just continued to smirk like he’d gotten something over me just now.

I wasn’t sure what but I wasn’t too worried about it. 

With that done, we didn’t talk any more shop and instead enjoyed a pretty relaxing lunch with Flint and Yolanda who spent it asking Lance for insights into the coming circuit. 

When Sabrina turned up later that night, flush with victory from her doll sales, I made her sit down before telling her about Karen’s situation.

Only then did I let the laughter I’d been holding back spill forth.

We ended up collapsing onto the bed, breathless, not from any lovemaking or other antics, just purely from laughing ourselves sick.

I couldn’t wait until they established communication lines with Orre. I was absolutely going to heckle her for this.

Lance might be the person I bully in public, but damn, did I just find myself a huge payload to use on Karen. 

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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for their continued support!

It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!