Hard Enough - Chapter 356 - Aftercare

The party ended up lasting deep into the night with the live feed cutting off at nine due to restraints on the broadcasting with other programs still needing to run their usual fare.

Not that it mattered, we’d broken a record with fundraising for the Orange Island and while there were going to be a lot of blurry, sore people tomorrow out and about. They had contributed by  doing a lot of good.

They had committed to helping out various islands on the way out.

Archibald Honda had a small fleet of ships prepared and was going to lead them towards Kumquat which was the closest major city that had been hit. 

My family and I were going to join him to help keep the Orange Island challenge going. I’d also been able to extend the invitation to Ash, Misty, and Forrest, but they’d begged off, instead choosing to swim atop Ash’s Lapras to the island early and get stuck into helping out.

So instead, I’d offered their places to Jessie, James, and Meowth who’d been ecstatic over the chance to experience how the point zero-zero-zero-one percent lived.

When we’d gotten around to mentioning it last night, Luana had mixed responses about it.

She’d been glad to receive help, but she’d been hoping for other people, and not Sabrina.

Sabrina had promptly set about ignoring her for most of the evening, only going so far as to introduce Luana to Lugia and Silver which had left the older psychic rather spellbound.

When we’d retired for the night I’d felt like something was missing and it wasn’t until we were having breakfast with Kirlia happily munching on some Unown cereal that I had a realisation. 

“Hey Sabrina, I didn’t see your parents?” I asked. 

I knew I’d sent them a message about what was happening and the wording had been as straightforward as I could make it.

“They prefer to avoid large parties. They were content to stay home and watch the party on tv,” she murmured.

“Hmmm makes sense,” I said before moving to open the door to invite my family in for breakfast only to find Luana glowering at me through what looked like a transparent pane of glass.

I turned back to Sabrina. “Did you barrier the door last night?” I asked.

“Lola was thinking of getting back at me.” Then she sniffed. “But also, I foresaw Luana making a menace of herself an hour ago.”

I gave her a look to remind her to be nice to Luana. The poor woman looked like she was running herself ragged and had just come out the other end of a natural disaster with a lot of work ahead of her.

Sabrina sniffed. “If she wants me to play nice she needs to stop attempting to trip me up so much. It’s her own fault really.”

A snort of amusement escaped my nose before I could stop myself. Was Luana sort of like Lance to me? Nah, Lance was everyone’s to bully, not just my precious one. Sabrina must have a special place for Luana seeing as the woman consistently tried things.

A flush from further in our rooms made me pause as Kirlia skipped her way out of the bathroom. Wait a second…

“Sabrina, my family were camped out there this morning and the kids morning routines…” I gestured towards the bathroom. “We’re the only ones with a toilet nearby,” I pointed out. “The kids would have had to walk…” I trailed off as Sabrina gave me an amused look.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Bush wee?” I asked, and she nodded.

“Bush wee,” she replied. “They loved it.”

“Of course they did, the little wild things,” I muttered only to twitch as Luana hammered her fist against the Barrier Sabrina was keeping up without any visible strain. Shoot, I’d forgotten about her.

I cleared my throat and gave the door a meaningful nod.

Sabrina sniffed.

“Let’s play nice? For at least one day?” I suggested instead.

With the barrier suddenly vanishing Luana toppled forward. “Awk!” she fell to the floor only to shoot into a standing position where she dusted herself off. “I’m fine!” she declared quickly before coughing.

“You! I know you’re coming to Kumquat as part of the relief team! I heard late last night! That means you’re mine to boss around—” Luana started to say, only for a stack of papers to flash in front of Sabrina. The small book levitated towards Luana who caught it and stared. 

“The Kumquat Island Disaster recovery plan?” she muttered. 

“While I was organising the party, I knew that I would have to help out an island or two on my way home. I spoke with a few engineers and civil planners to come up with a plan for Kumquat island.” Sabrina inclined her head. “With the work force we’re about to deploy we can achieve the first two phases.”

Luana robotically marched towards a seat where she began to flip through the plan.

“Reestablishment of the hotels, apartments, and beaches along with the natural habitats of various pokemon…” Luana flicked through the book quickly only to chew her lip. “I’ll need to hand this over to the Mayor but… this does look feasible… somewhat,” she bit out grudgingly.

“I’ve already had it sent to her. Odd woman, but knew what we were giving her was gold. We can start at nine o’clock and have things wrapped up by three pm with a half an hour break,” Sabrina declared.

Then she inclined her head to the north. “Also, Archibald Honda has already sent his fleet with the construction goods. We will join him on his yacht and network in an hour or two.”

While Luana reeled from Sabrina’s response to her intent to ‘press gang her,’ I chuckled.

Once again, my Fiancé was just too competent, and somewhat scary at the same time.

“Isn’t he that guy who deliberately holds the tenth-richest position due to always giving exactly the right amount away to charities or some such?” Luana murmured. 

“A good person to know, no?” Sabrina riposted and Luana nodded quickly.

I blinked as I recalled that I still hadn’t called out for my family and made to call them in for breakfast only for Sabrina to raise her hand. “Brock, your family has made other arrangements. Apologies, I only checked on them just now.” 

She directed her gaze towards Luana. “Eat up, you’re going to need your energy. This afternoon you’re going to face no less than eight challenges.”

Luana stiffened. “My pokemon can’t handle that many!” 

“I said face, not accept,” replied Sabrina with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” she muttered into her coffee.

Sabrina sighed. “With your current state, you’ll only be able to manage four at most before being at risk of whiting out. You’ve been running yourself ragged.”

Luana squinted as Sabrina met her dubious gaze head on. “You’re trying to butter me up for something, aren’t you?”

Sabrina sighed, again. “No, but I am picking up a lot of the doubt that you’re projecting into the world about me.”

Luana shifted only to grimace. Sabrina sat up. “You’re injured?”

“It’s nothing, just a wound that had to be stitched up. I’m still adjusting to it.”

I decided to speak up at that. “Perhaps you shouldn’t accept any challengers this afternoon regardless of how quickly we get things patched up.”

Sabrina shot me a look. “You say that, but that will delay Ash, Misty, Forrest, and Jessie a week.”

I shrugged. “They can wait till Luana’s at her best. I’m pretty sure that Ash, Forrest, and Misty would even agree with me.”

Luana shot me a smile only to blink. “What about your other friend?”

“She’d sucker punch you and tell you to get good,” I replied, taking a long sip of my tea.

Sabrina chuckled and nodded, knowing that Jessie wouldn’t have any qualms about beating someone when they weren’t at their best. She understood that you couldn’t always be at the top of your game.

Sabrina hummed, drawing Luana’s attention back to her. “I have to admit to being curious about a rumour that has been floating around.”

“Urgh. here we go,” Luana cut in with a roll of her eyes. 

I tilted my head. Rumour? I hadn’t heard anything that would garner Sabrina’s attention, let alone Luana reacting like that. What had I missed?

“I usually don’t give such things mind,” Sabrina stated. “But considering that Erika was the one that brought it to my attention, I thought it worth discussing.”

A confused look flicked across Luana’s features. “Erika, as in the Leader of Celadon?”

“She was moving through various social circles last night, I’m not sure if you’ve had a proper chance to talk with her. She is very gifted socially,” Sabrina stated. “She has noted that there is an undercurrent of resentment with the Rangers and some locals about Yuji’s actions. Actions that you’ve publicly defended. Would you happen to know more about this?”

Luana blinked. “What, are you part of the Yuji haters?” She waved a hand dismissively. “He’s just a young Champion that has ruffled some feathers is all. He was out and about fighting I can assure you. I even saw him on a few occasions.”

“The murmurs of the various people around state that Yuji wasn’t very active during the recent incident. You were seen sprinting back and forth across Shamouti constantly handling infiltrators, but Yuji was only seen a handful of times no?” Sabrina. “People only took note of  him in the command centre for most of the night. Are you sure?” Sabrina pressed.

Luana glared. “I saw him alright!” she snapped. 

I stiffened. Sabrina was on the scent of something here but Luana was digging her heels in. “Sabrina?” I asked. This was the first I’d heard of Yuji not being active. “The news outlets were all praising him though?”

Sabrina flicked her eyes from me towards Luana. “How many groups of infiltrators did you handle Launa?” she asked, shifting tracks.

“Seven… they all had explosives or pokemon capable of Explosion on them…” she replied, wetting her lips.

Something about the way she’d paused, or the way her voice had hitched made me sit up. Sabrina paused and her lips pursed. She must have picked up on something, but wasn’t sure how to handle it. 

“Luana, have you been sleeping all right?” I asked, but in truth I meant was she alright in general.

She shook her head, fidgeting in her seat for a few moments before speaking up. “There was one group… They didn’t understand how strong Explosion would be, and got themselves caught within the blast radius… It was towards the end of the night.” Her hand slipped to her side.

“Oh,” I said, realising why she had been so manic, as well as how she’d gotten injured.

She wasn’t sleeping right, and with how important Sabrina had demonstrated that to be a few things were clicking together. I gave Sabrina a meaningful look, and she gave me a slightly vexed one in response only for it to morph into acceptance a moment later.

“Want to talk about it?” I offered, and Luana slumped.

“That… might be nice,” she said quietly.

Sabrina rose. “I won’t intrude, I understand tha—”

“You can stay,” Luana said. “I… I think it’s time I buried the hatchet as it were. I shouldn’t have a grudge with a girl on her journey… More so just cause  you were far stronger than I as a psychic.”

Sabrina opened her mouth, and I got the impression she was going to correct Luana on her still being more powerful, but she caught my small shake of the head and adjusted course.

“I suppose I should also apologise for sleeping through our Gym battle,” Sabrina replied.

Luana slammed her hands on the table. “I freaking knew it! You cocky brat!” she snapped before coughing and adopting a more serene expression. “That is to say, thank you for that. It means a lot,” she said, ignoring the outburst she’d just had as she sat back down only for her lips to shift into a smirk a moment later.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Could these two… oh, whatever, they could fight it out later if Luana so desperately wanted to continue running face-first into that wall.

“Alright, so I should probably start things off that we’re not really trained for this,” I began only for Sabrina to sniff.

“I’d rather be somewhere else,” she stated, earning an annoyed look from me but Luana smirked.

Luana waved a hand. “You can go the—.” Before she’d even finished her sentence, Sabrina and her pokemon vanished in a Teleport. 

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Well, I can’t say I was expecting that. On some level you must get to her.” 

Luana looked thoroughly pleased by that and I shook my head. 

This was not how I was planning to spend my day so I decided to move things along. 

“As I said before. Not a trained psychiatrist, but I can listen, which I’ve found helps when I talk to my psychiatrist,” I said to move us in the right direction.

Luana blinked. “You attend psychiatrist sessions?” she asked. “You?”

“Yeah, helps with the pressure and a few other issues I have.”

Luana tilted her head before her eyes flicked to the empty seat causing me to roll my eyes. “No, Sabrina is perfectly loving to me and people in general. You just bring out a childish side of her that I haven’t seen in a while.” I decided not to mention my mother, or how Sabrina acted with her.

Luana coughed at that. “Right, continue.”

“What I was suggesting was finding a local psychiatrist going forward so you can have other strategies. It might even be a good idea to see if you can get government support for others that will have been put through a lot with the recent disaster.”

Luana hummed. “Yeah, I could do that. It might also help the locals to know I was doing the same.”

“Is there anything that is particularly bothering you about the recent event?” I began.

Luana turned her head away and tapped the table for a few moments. “... one of the infiltrators… they would have been my son’s age. He only just left for his Journey you know? Thankfully, he went to Johto rather than Kanto so he didn’t have as many people impacting his Journey, not until the end anyway. He couldn't break into the tournament proper but I was still proud of him. He’s headed off to Challenge the Battle Frontier to get stronger as he will be coming through Kanto next season.”

Luana wet her lips. “When one of the… one of the men. I’m not sure what his name was and I’m not sure I want to know it, he ordered his Weezing to use Explosion. It did so. The boy in their group got scared… Heck, they all did when they realised their mistake but they had no idea how to stop the pokemon. They could have just recalled it, but they didn’t… instead they got… blown up.”

Luana’s eyes began to brim with tears. “And all I could think about was the boy and how he was my son’s age.”

Luana pulled out a tissue and wiped her tears away quickly. “It’s silly I know but… it just stuck with me. A Ranger approached me then, saw what had happened, patched me up and told me I’d done well, but I don’t think I did all that much good.”

“I think you did great,” I replied. “Those people… the infiltrators. They had the chance to do a lot of damage. I think that last group, as unfortunate as they were, might have been the most worrying. They had some dangerous moves in their arsenal and they had no clue. If they’d gotten into the middle of a crowd or something else?”

I left the question hanging and Luana nodded. 

“Have you been home yet?” I asked.

“Not yet,” there’s been a lot of focus here,” she stated.

“Spoken with your son?” I followed up, and she nodded with a smile, taking hold of her features.

“Yes, he was coming back to Kumquat but I told him to finish his challenge of the Battle Frontier first. He has won three Emblems! I’m quite proud of him.”

I whistled. “Considering what I’ve heard of the Brains out on the Battle Frontier, that’s significant,” I replied.

With Luana’s mood restored we talked for a few more minutes before Luana yawned loudly. 

“Hmmm we’ve still got a while before we’re due to meet up with Archibald. Would you like to grab a nap first?” I asked. 

“Oh, yes that would be wonderful!” she replied as she stood and marched into Sabrina and I’s room.

I raised a hand. “I actually thought that you could—” the door shut firmly behind her and I lowered my hand.

I hadn’t meant to offer her my bed… that was kind of weird.

Sabrina reappeared in a flash a few minutes later and gave the bedroom a small glare before she shook her head. 

“You’re too soft on women sometimes Brock,” she said and I blinked. 

“What, you want me to kick her out?” I asked. 

Sabrina seriously considered it and before she could levitate Luana out of our room I raised a hand. “Just… let it be for now. She’s been through a lot.”

“So’s everyone.” Sabrina grumbled. “She’s just being annoying by stealing my bed.” 

“Hmmm, that might be so,” I offered before taking a seat on the lounge. 

Sabrina sniffed. “I suppose it’s better than her continuing to blare her neurosis,” she muttered.

That got a huff from me. Of course that was what Sabrina was annoyed about. I decided to shift tracks. “What was up with that rumor regarding Yuji? What were you worried about?”

Sabrina pursed her lips as she sat next to me on the lounge so her legs were draped in my lap. “I’m not sure. Trying to read the past around here to discern truth is a mixed bag, as that point in time was fraught with emotions and a lot of psychic energy being thrown around. There have been many who have said Yuji wasn’t while others claim he was. I for one never saw him which stands out to me considering he is touted as a ‘Champion’.

I snorted. “Yeah but…” I made a so-so gesture. Yuji’s title was more for show than actual acknowledgement. I had no doubt that even the weaker Gym Leaders around Indigo could beat Yuji.

“He’s a big Magikarp in a small pond,” I said instead, and Sabrina’s lips twitched.

“I wouldn’t even call him a magikarp.”

A ping on my transceiver had me glancing through a string of messages that got me relaxing. Sabrina arched an eyebrow.

“The crystal cavern with the eggs on Sunburst Island are fine,” I said, only to click my tongue as another message came through. “Sadly, Fukihara Island number four has been submerged and the cavern full of Kabuto’s are gone.”

“Hmmm shame, but not too much of a loss. This will just mean that Kabuto moves off into the wider world when the red moon appears,” Sabrina offered.

I nodded, a little glum that things hadn’t worked out for me like they might have in the cartoon, where the Fukihara episode and therefore the red moon appeared before the events on Shamouti island.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Also, Jackson had sent in his resignation. I hummed, I’d expected it for a while now. He was good as a trainer, so I’d be sad to lose him, but he loved the Orange Islands far too much to stay away.

I drummed my fingers on her boots and glanced towards the bedroom door. “Do you know what’s happening with the Legendary Pokemon and the Fiore situation now?” I asked.

Sabrina nodded. “I have an idea of the situation thanks to Erika keeping her ear to the ground. Fiore wanted to take possession of the pokemon, but only the Cats needed ships to transport them back to Orre. They’ve been rebuffed which has caused initial tensions between the regions. I happened to talk with Maron who has been contracted as one of a trio of ship captains that’s going to transport them back to Orre secretly,” Sabrina informed me.

“From what I have heard, the Doctor that you encountered is going to lead a group of G-men to a resistance movement base and they’re going to start to fight back against Cipher before Fiore can make landfall.”

“Ah, they want to present it as a fait accompli, do they?” I suggested.

Sabrina nodded. “Our fundraising party has also caused some turmoil with Fiore regarding the ‘will of the Legendaries’ so the Fiore Government has had to slow their plans as they adjust to the imagery that was shown of everyone getting along so well.”

“Huh, so that’s what’s been going on,” I muttered as a part of me unclenched. I hadn’t even felt the tension… and yet. “Feels good to know someone else is handling it.”

“Lance is competent when he has his head on straight,” Sabrina replied. She nudged me and smirked. “Which we sadly can’t bully him about.”

“Eh, watch me,” I replied with a playful smirk that earned me a laugh from Sabrina. 

“And you want me to not bully Luana, you hypocrite,” she mocked, earning a roll of my eyes at her.

We ended up spinning our wheels and watching television for a while as we allowed Luana time to rest up before we collected my family and headed down to the beach. 

My family gasped in awe at the lounging Legendaries and as I expected Salvadore’s pokedex shot into his hand while the others merely watched. 

Silver tottered over, rather round from last night’s feast. He crooned at me and nuzzled at my siblings. 

Sabrina made her way over to where Lugia was laying and knelt to put her head against the mighty psychic. 

They remained like that for a moment before Lugia rose. It lifted its wings and opened its mouth to let out a echoing song that caused the air to vibrate. I felt the song reverbaret through my being.

Without knowing why tears slid down my face. 

Sabrina rose and bowed. “Yes, I think this will be goodbye.. But not a farewell forever,” she stated. That shifted the tone of Lugia’s song into a fondness that had me smiling. 

Then Sabrina surprised everyone by putting a hand to her chest and singing a single pure note that complemented Lugia’s new song perfectly.

Silver joined in, and when they were done, the Legendary cats rose and roared together to bid us goodbye.

I led my family in a bow before turning towards where a gaping shore crew and Archibald Honda were standing in slack-jawed amazement.

We approached and I gestured to the boat that would take us to the ship. “Permission to come aboard?” I asked.

The crew continued to gape and Archibald took a moment to clear his throat. “Y-yes,” he croaked, his eyes sliding to Sabrina like he’d never seen a woman before. 

For a moment, I considered leaning into his field of view and shaking my head, only for his Gardevoir to make a loud huff and for him to stiffen and step back to her. 

“No! My Dear I was merely moved by the song! I swear!” he hurried to say.

When Gardevoir stormed to the boat he followed her and I chuckled. My family followed after him, bouncing along. As Lola passed me I felt my mood dip a little.

I stepepd up next to her. “Lola, I need you on your best behaviour. This is—”

“I know Archibald Honda better than you Brock,” she stated firmly, giving me a small smirk. 

I considered her. “Of course.”

Sabrina laced her hand in mine. “So all old people really know each other huh?”

Lola sniffed. “That’s a little hurtful.”

I just smirked  while Sabrina made a point of tapping near the side of her eyes causing Lola to gasp. “I do not have Mukrow’s feet!” she shrieked.

Fighting the urge to laugh I tugged Sabrina towards the awaiting boat that would ferry us out to the megayacht. “So I shouldn’t point out the hair on your chin?” I asked over my shoulder.

Sabrina leaned into me when I plopped into the seat next to her. “That was deliciously evil,” she whispered into my neck, earning a chuckle from me.

My reply came in the form of a kiss to her forehead.

When we reached the megayacht, things were controlled chaos with Suzie sprinting up to Sabrina. “Sabrina! There’s a giant bowl of candy just sitting in the lounge room! And you can have some whenever you want! And there are sixteen televisions! In eight different rooms!” she shouted.

Sabrina just laughed as she was dragged away. Watching them depart, I could only thank my lucky stars that Lola and Flint were going to have to deal with them for most of the afternoon.

Lola, rather than running off, approached Archibald where he was sitting on a raised deck overlooking my family running around below.

“Thank you for this,” I said as a way of greeting.

Archibald waved a dismissive hand. “Think nothing of it. It’s been many years since I’ve had so many young people running about underfoot. It’s a rather wonderful sound,” he said. “Makes me think about adopting even.” Archibald wave a hand towards some stairs. “Your other guests arrived before you.”

“Heh, I think you’d grow tired of the madness that comes with kids,” Lola stated as she stepped forward. “Good to see you Archie,” she said as she kissed his cheeks.

“Long time since we last saw each other, young Lola,” he replied with a knowing smirk. “Good to see you’re doing well,” he glanced over his shoulder where a crewman was standing. With a nod the man stepped back.

“Under way!” they shouted, and a moment later, a soft whirring sound signalled the engines starting and then the ship shifted underneath us.

“We’ll be there in twenty minutes, which might not mean much to you Brock as I’m sure you’re used to instantaneous movement, but I can assure you there is something to be had with a slower approach.” he laced his fingers and laid out a map on the coffee table.

“Shall we review the plan?” he suggested and I moved in only to pause as I spotted Luana, who was hanging back. 

“Archibald, this is Luana, the Gym Leader of Kumquat,” I said, introducing her. 

He nodded. “Ah, the Kumquat Gym Leader. I have heard good things, and if it’s not too much of an imposition, I’d like to explore some options that the mainland Gyms aren’t able to do if you’re willing to listen to me.” 

Luana blinked, and I gave a small nod, which she echoed a moment later. “That would be interesting,” she replied, and Archibald smiled winningly at her before indicating a free seat at the table, so to speak.

I gave her a smile as she sat only for Cindy, Timmy, and Tilly scamper into the room. “Brock! There’s a giant videogame room! You have to come check this out!”

“I should probably—” 

“You can go, if you’d like?” Archibald offered, which only made my siblings grip firmer as they tried to drag me out of my seat. Archibald flicked his eyes towards Luana pointedly.

Ah, he wanted to spend more time with her to ensure things were okay and read her in, rather than run through things with me. 

“Ah, alright, alright, Luana? Can you direct things when we arrive?” I asked as if I hadn’t already looked over the plans. 

Luana perked up at that, and I departed to play with my siblings for the short time we had aboard Archibald’s megayacht.  

This would be good for her. She was getting the help she and the people of the Orange Islands would need, and they got to keep their pride. 

It might be a little deceptive of us, but we needed Luana at the front of the Orange Islands recovery. I could see what Sabrina was aiming for with this. Yuji had a split reputation that caused people to argue more than follow. 

Luana? People respected her as they knew she’d been in the thick of it.

I allowed my siblings to lead me into the games room only to find James playing with a pinball machine. “Ha! Suck it Archie! Your highscores all belong to me now! Just like last time I was at your mansion!” he declared.

Meowth was sitting next to Gardevoir in a lounge, laughing as they talked with each other. 

“Heh! No! You should seriously think about switching your shampoo and conditioner. That stuff has all the wrong additives. If you want sheen and lushness then you should use Monty’s! It’s the best!”

Gardevoir cooed over that, and I gave Meowth a wave, only to glance around for the third member of their party.

I found her with her feet up on another lounge with Milotic and Ekans draped over her. She was stroking both of them and humming softly. 

“Ah, one moment guys, I need to talk to Jessie,” I said as I cut away from my family to approach the redhead. “Jessie, good news. Your bonus came through this morning,” I announced.

Jessie blinked. “My bonus?” she asked.

I grinned and pulled out an incubator with a Happiny egg within. “Congratulations,” I said as I deposited it in her lap.

“Happinys are such great pokemon,” I offered.

Suzie instantly stopped bugging me and moved in close to inspect the egg. “Ooooh, pretty.”

Jessie stared at the incubator for a while, only to squeal with delight and if she hadn’t been weighed down by her serpentine pokemon I suspect she’d have thrown herself at me to hug me. 

I just waved her off and nodded to the other two. “Your bonuses are also in your accounts,” I replied.

Meowth. “Nice! This is one of the best jobs I ever got!” 

James just shot me a thumbs up as he worked his way around to another arcade game. “Thanks! Can’t talk! I need to destroy Old Man Archie’s high scores!”

I shook my head and moved off to join my family having given the trio the good news. We only had maybe thirty minutes tops but we could make the most of it.

__________________

We arrived at Kumquat shortly afterwards and we hit Kumquat island as one of the last waves of relief workers to arrive.

With that in mind we still made sure to make an impact on the work being done. It helped that we had strong pokemon, psychic abilities and sheer coordination, which allowed us to make visible steps in improving the state of the island.

Roads were cleaned and huge swatches of the beach were swept of debris.

Kumquat Gym was quickly repaired to working order and from the thoughtful looks Luana had as she eyed her gym there were going to be a few other changes happening in the future.

I’d have to check in with her later to see how things developed.

As we left the gym we encountered Ash, Forrest, and Misty.

Ash instantly locked onto Luana. “You’re the local Gym leader aren’t you?”

Luana blinked and focussed on Ash. “Huh? Travis?” she asked only to shake her head as Ash tilted his. 

“What? I’m not Travis, I’m Ash!” he replied loudly. 

“Oh, sorry. You just look alike… also you both have Pikachu as your starter pokemon… hmmm imagine that,” she said with a whimsical shake of her head.

“He sounds like a cool guy then,” Ash said with a playful smile earning a laugh from Luana, then he got serious. “I want to challenge you but…” he glanced around. “There’s still a lot to fix up… Can we—”

“We can fight at the end of the day,” Luana replied, her eyes glittering. “You’re a nice young man so I think I can make an exception for you.” 

Ash pumped his fist and Misty and Forrest stiffened. Luana sighed. “Your friends can do the challenge as well,” she offered, earning fist pumps from them.

I shook my head. Sabrina’s prediction had turned out accurate so far…

I was answered a few minutes later as I watched Jessie lead a brigade of Chansey through the streets. 

“Luana, this is Jessie,” I said, leadingly.

Luana watched Jessie work for a while, only to smile. “You’re also one looking to challenge me? Aren’t you?”

Jessie nodded but made to beg off only for Luana to insist. I chuckled at Jessie’s dumbfounded expression. 

When I next encountered Sabrina, she shot me a little wink and a V for victory that Luana missed. I just chuckled. Luana had no idea she’d just walked into Sabrina’s prediction, had she?

I decided not to point it out, as otherwise she’d force a fifth challenge just to be petty, and we didn’t need her whiting out on us.

As much as we’d come a long way in a day’s coordinated effort, there was still going to be a lot of work to deal with the aftermath of Shamouti.

For now, we’d stemmed the bleeding though and with time, healing could happen. 

For now, I just wanted to kick my feet up and relax.

No more adventures for me for a while.

_________________

A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support! It makes a world of difference to me!

Thanks also go to Twmmy for proofreading!