Hard Enough - Chapter 332 - Premonitions

I woke up earlier than Sabrina typically. This was a relatively constant norm with very few outliers.

So when I woke up and found Sabrina staring at the ceiling like it had personally raided her piggy bank and gotten away with it, I knew something was up. 

“Hey, what’s up? you usually are dead to the world when I wake up,” I whispered in an effort to not wake up Kirlia, only to blink when Kirlia shuddered and I noticed she too had her eyes open.

She looked sad and annoyed which mirrored Sabrina neatly. Hmmm, the emotion pokemon indeed.

“I would say I had a bad dream but it was more than that. Unfortunately, I can’t recall what it was that caused the dream to be bad…” Sabrina admitted. “Tonight I will meditate before bed, no distractions, and then I will see what is plaguing me.”

Sabrina stroked Kirlia’s head. “Sorry Kirlia,” she whispered, giving the little pokemon a gentle kiss on the head.

“Kirlia!” chimed the little pokemon with a defiant shake of her head as she clenched her fists.

I hummed. I mentally translated that to mean that Kirlia didn’t mind offering Sabrina support when she needed it as Kirlia was tough.

Sabrina’s lips twitched into a smile and she kissed Kirlia once more. “Of course you are.” 

Sabrina lay back and stared at the ceiling only to groan. “I don’t think I can get back to sleep now.”

“Hmmm want to come with me?” I offered, knowing that other antics were off the cards with Kirlia in the room. Didn’t want the little pokemon feeling those emotions after all.

Sabrina gave another sigh before nodding. “It would seem that is how today will go,” she replied. She then floated upright and into the ensuite bathroom with the door shutting with a click behind her.

“Oi!” I growled in annoyance. She wasn’t the only one with a full bladder!

When I heard the shower start, I threw a pillow at the wall. “You’re going to get sweaty training with me, so don’t bother!” I called, causing the shower to shut off. 

She still took her time in front of the sink, I could tell.

Kirlia watched on and giggled at the entire show until Sabrina returned. 

I swept through my own morning ritual much faster and soon both Sabrina and I were quickly dressed for going outside.

Kirlia got her own small jumper and leg warmers which caused her to twirl with delight right up until we stepped outside and the first frigid wind blew through her.

I called upon my rock typing to help endure the cold as I marched out into the dark morning. I made my way to the training field mostly by muscle memory, rather than actually knowing where it was.

In the past I would have had to trudge through the snow and watch out for any ice that might be forming on the paths. Training would also need to be conducted in the cold, or as was more typical, within the gym itself. Quirrina, my Solrock, couldn’t do everything after all. 

This winter was different, I had a few additions to my pokemon roster that were able to help out with keeping the paths and training areas free of ice and snow. 

Slugma and Magcargo slowly slid their way throughout the reserve, melting the snow and causing steam to rise up. 

I’d been able to get another four after the initial purchase and the six fire-rock types were finding themselves to be extremely popular with any of the Gym’s pokemon that preferred to stay on the surface.

Bertha and a few of the others had stolen one of the slugma from its morning duties to huddle around it like a campfire.

I glanced over to where a few other pokemon were slowly trudging along in the wake of the other Slugma’s path.

Each pokemon typically caused the ground to retain a bit of heat for a few minutes so it wasn’t uncommon to see pokemon rolling or even diving into the dirt in those hot patches.

This had resulted in some funny habits for some pokemon.

And then of course there was Sanchez.

“Go lem!” he shouted as he dove directly behind one Slugma only to pop up with a worried look. 

He then dove out of the ground and into a nearby snowbank where he rolled around. 

“Gooooooo lem,” he sighed happily. 

I sighed. I had no idea where he’d picked that trick up from but he rather enjoyed the temperature shift. He also had thick enough skin to ignore the looks the other pokemon were sending him. 

He so far had no takers on his madness but I thought I saw a few impressionable geodude giving it thoughtful looks. 

I gave it a week before I had pokemon diving into snow banks while glowing cherry red. I’d need to check them later to make sure they weren’t getting cracks forming throughout their body.

Or should I encourage it in some Geodudes? Was there a possible rock-fire typing that could be created from long-term exposure to heat?

Something to suggest to Bianca to see what she thought.  

Glimmet had already proven that I didn’t know everything about pokemon that might pop up or be possible. 

I highly doubted that a third Golem typing would be high on priority for Gamefreak however.

Sabrina exhaled and watched her breath mist over. Kirlia twirled to a nearby snowbank and began making a snowball that she telekinetically tossed at a nearby Lairon.

The Lairon raised its head and growled only for Kirlia to stick her tongue out. This caused the Lairon to start chasing her only for her to avoid it with a show of agility.

I hummed, watching their antics. “I suppose that’s one way to warm up,” I chuckled, only to take off my jacket and give a whistle, signalling for my Elite team to form up so we could get underway. 

Don, Zephyr and Golbat all had to work their wings harder to reach me but they got there.

Quirina levitated over and began to orbit the training field, acting like a blazing sun that had most of my pokemon sighing in relief.

“Oi! No slacking! We’re going to use the conditions! We’re slogging through the snow to the north for two kilometres! I don’t want any of you running in line! Push your way through! This is strength and conditioning!”

With that said I led the way. “Last one back doesn’t get their choice of poffins!” I called which lit a fire under their backsides. 

The flying type pokemon accelerated out fast, their previous sluggishness forgotten as they fought through the frigid air. They made it out and back in seconds, not the minutes that it would take some of the others.

… or it would have if the pokemon that knew Bulldoze hadn’t surged out, powering through the snow like Snow plows that had engines like supertankers installed into them. 

I found myself face to face with a wave of snow that washed over me and should have had me buried. 

I pulled on my rock energy as much as I could and leapt upwards, throwing myself into the sky and over the collapsing wave. When I landed I sank into the snow and gave the trio of offenders an unimpressed look only to be surprised by who the offenders were.

Shrek, Knight, and Cradily.

I stared at the last of that group. 

“Cradily?” I asked, watching as the normally extremely slow pokemon charged through the snow with a corona of Ground energy around it. 

Sabrina floated up to me. “Were you expecting this to go any other way?” 

“I really wasn’t expecting it from those three,” I muttered as the other pokemon began to use moves of their own to get forward. 

When I looked around and couldn’t find Bertha I frowned. “Where is Bertha?” I asked.

“She’s using Dig,” Sabrina replied, pointing back to the finish line behind me. 

I blinked. “Huh, that is actually inspired.”

Sabrina smirked. “She worked it out first and waited for the others to take off before using it so she didn’t give her trick away.” 

A huge wave of snow erupted off to the side and Sabrina raised a hand this time to kill its momentum. “That was Titan using Giga Impact by the way.”

I facepalmed. “This was so not the intent of exercise,” I muttered as I slowed down so that I would be last. 

“You know better than to threaten their poffin supply.”

“I only denied them a choice! It was going to be good poffins regardless!” I said waving my hands about. 

“That’s not how they saw it.”

“I gathered,“ I replied drolly. “Tell me when I can speed up please,” I asked after a moment of trudging.

Sabrina glanced to the side where Regirock was stolidly stomping forward without using any of the moves in its arsenal to power through the snow. It was doing it with raw power. Because Regirock hadn’t been given any order to use its moves, ergo in this situation, it would merely stomp forwards.

I facepalmed. “Most of the tests we’ve run on him mean that physical training doesn’t…Oh forget it!” I growled as I threw my hands up. It wasn’t like Regirock ate. It merely existed, somehow drawing energy from the world around it. 

When we’d discovered that fun little factoid I’d had several more offers for Professors and Researchers to enter the upcoming Research centre that was quickly taking shape. 

We’d already cleared the planning phase, now it was just a matter of negotiating with a construction group. Give it a fortnight and we’d have a functioning research facility on reserve grounds with all the bells and whistles. 

Regirock alone had several proposed studies lined up form his physiology, his energy gathering ability, his raw strength, and even psychology studies which were already underway with people observing him and gathering data. 

From what I gathered I was considered something of a hindrance for ‘getting in the way of their research’. I considered it a rather petty argument considering they wouldn’t have access to a Regirock full stop without me. 

I trudged along next to Regirock, “You know you don’t have to do this?” I asked.

Regirock chirped back at me. We trudged along for a moment as I deciphered what it had said. 

I could have cheated and asked Sabrina, but I needed to familiarise myself with Regirock. How it spoke was just another part of that. 

Through familiarisation, you could gain a basic understanding of most pokemon with the way they spoke. 

In some ways Regirock was easier than the others as its words were typically devoid of emotion. When it did feel, it did so strongly, but that was conveyed with the chirps being louder or more… final in their tone?

Yeah that made sense…. To me at least. 

The harder part of deciphering Regirock was that it didn’t use its name or rumble or growl. It chirped like a droid from the Star Wars franchise.

I rubbed my chin. “Because the team were doing it, you did it also?” I asked.

I got a single, confirming chirp that drew a smile. 

“That’s a good attitude. You’re a solid friend Regirock, I’ll stay with you,” I replied and we trudged on. A moment later Sabrina sighed and dropped down to walk next to me. 

“I don’t like this show of comradery at all,” she stated. 

“You don’t have to be here,” I pointed out. 

She wrapped an arm through mine and shot me a heated look that did nothing in the face of my smile. 

“Thanks,” I added a moment later, defusing her annoyance. 

We trudged on until we reached the two kilometre mark, which was a boulder that I’d painted in reflexive yellow paint before the snow had started. 

I turned only to find my Elite pokemon trudging out to me, slogging through the snow like I’d wanted them to. Titan led with a determined glint in his eyes. 

When the team reached Regirock they fell into a straight line, matching his pace while overhead my flying pokemon had to work hard to stay in formation. 

Gible surprised me by popping up out of the snow to check his position before falling back into the snow. 

I grinned at my pokemon as we trudged back to the training field. When we all passed the finish line at the same time I broke out into a body shaking laugh. 

“That was brilliant!” I declared. “Extra poffins for everyone!” I announced earning a cheer from my team. 

I turned and gave the obvious ringleader in Titan a pleased nod. He smirked and nodded back.

“There are times when pokemon surprise me,” Sabrina mentioned as she walked with me to the supply shed to acquire more poffins. 

“You know what? I’m not surprised,” I replied. “That was Titan to a T, but it was also all of my pokemon at the same time.” I gave my pokemon another look over and within my chest I felt something grow a little. I felt at that and found that my bonds with all of my pokemon had grown a little for all of them.

It would seem they’d respected the hell out of my decision to slog along with Regirock. Rather amusing considering that I’d respected their choice to come back out and join me.

A mutual understanding on a large scale leads to growths like that huh?

Could that be replicated or was it because it was an honest moment of unity?

I made a note of it in my Xtransciever under a training notes file.

Sabrina hummed, interrupting my thoughts as she shook her head. “Karen really would have had no chance if you’d fought in the Ace Tournament.”

I paused, mentally stepping back into the conversation before I shrugged. “I decided not to attend while she did. That’s all there is to say,” I replied. I tilted my head. “Her match is tonight isn’t it?”

“Her final match is. It’s her against Kaede. Winner gets to challenge the Elite Four and maybe even the Champion.” 

I hummed. “Bruce didn’t compete this time around did he?”

“Neither did Carr,” replied Sabrina tersely. “There hasn’t been any sign of Carr in months now. He must have a bolthole somewhere,” she stated. 

I could only nod along. “Yeah, if he was linked with Team Rocket, that makes sense.” 

When we made it back to the training field, it was just in time to catch Titan finishing up a stretching routine to help the other pokemon cool down from their previous exertions. 

I opened the sack I’d brought with me and began handing out each pokemon a variety of different poffins. 

I made sure to include Regirock.

It stared at the offered treats. I coughed. “If you don’t want them you can use them to bargain for others to do favours or just—” 

Regirock chirped twice and Gible who’d been munching on the remnants of his own poffins suddenly found himself with another stack as Regirock deposited its poffins in front of the little shark pokemon.

“Gib?” Gib asked even as it hurriedly took a bite out of the poffins, afraid that Regirock might retract its offer. 

Regirock merely turned away. 

I hummed in appreciation only for other pokemon to click their tongues and grumble about Gible only getting the extra poffins due to being the closest to Regirock.

Gible just kept chomping away, not at all bothered by his lucky break. 

A loud huffing made me look around to find Yolanda running along the melted pathways with Terra on her back. A tight band around Terra’s neck made me frown for a moment only to blink in shock.

“Is that an Everstone band?” I asked.  

Yolanda stopped running and smirked at me. “Yup!” she declared with her chest puffed out only to blanch as she overbalanced and tipped backwards. She arrested her fall with a quick backstep and exhaled in relief before straightening up.

“Ahem, you didn’t see that,” she declared with a wave of her hand. 

I snorted and gestured to Terra’s bracelet. “Everstone band?” I repeated.

Yolanda nodded, bouncing back and forth with a huge grin. “Yeah it only happened recently after we’d had another training session with the girls and A.J.! Terra started to glow after beating one of A.J.’s Golbat and I asked her to stop and she did. We both had talked about it and decided it would be best to get the most out of her youth.”

Yolanda shifted Terra around so she was being cuddled. “Also I want to spend more time with her like this!” 

Terra giggled and nuzzled back into Yolanda happily. 

Titan approached and smiled at them both. I leaned in and began running a critical eye over Terra.

As a Larvitar she was rather small, but now that I was looking specifically for it the signs were all there that she was ready to evolve.

The most obvious was that her colour had darkened. The belly plate had lengthened slightly, and the small dark void in her side had also moved upwards slightly. There was also a slight bump to the side of Terra’s horn on both sides of her head that were forerunners for the crown she would eventually have.

“What does she weigh in at these days?” I asked.

“She’s up to a whopping seventy five kilograms!” Yolanda announced proudly as she held the pokemon out with straight arms. 

Neither of Yolanda’s arms so much as quivered, highlighting just how strong she’d gotten thanks to all the training she did. I suspected that If Yolanda wore a crop top she’d be flashing abs with how strong she must be these days.

“Thinking of trying to skip the Pupitar phase by shortening that down some?” I asked, testing how well she’d read my notes.

“Nope! I saw your theory that Tyranitar needs time spent as Pupitar to get used to hard shocks to fully develop their carapace.” Yolanda hugged Terra and swayed sided to side. “Which means lots of impacts by using her propulsion system once she evolves.” 

Yolanda held Terra up to Titan’s face where Terra began to wiggle and laugh as Titan bopped her with his nose. 

Yolanda lowered and locked eyes with me. “The plan is that we’ll have her as a Tyranitar by the end of the season however. Then we’ll be back for the Elite Challenge!” she declared. 

Terra straightened up and gave a small growl towards her brother. 

My lips twitched and I felt through the bond how Titan also found the display of aggression to be rather adorable, rather than being in any way intimidating. 

“Well I’m going to look forward to that,” I declared as I crossed my arms and assumed my Gym Leader’s pose.

Yolanda smirked. “I know your weak spot!” she replied knowingly. 

Terra nodded and babbled something. 

Both Titan and I felt a moment of worry before we crushed it. This was just prematch banter. 

She was trying to psych us out, was all. 

Right?

Sabrina started giggling off to the side and Yolanda whirled on her. “Big sis Sabrina! You cannot tell him my plan! Don’t even hint at it!” 

I shot a glance towards Sabrina only for her to offer Yolanda her hand with the pinky extended. 

I threw my hands up in exasperation. “Okay now I know you’re messing with me! The Pinky promise? Oh that’s adorable! This is just like your running gag with the Volcano cult that probably only meets on full moons am I right?” I said sarcastically.

Sabrina and Yolanda shared a look then in perfect synchronicity muttered. “Yeeeah, full moons.”

I rolled my eyes and waved them away. “Right, well I’ll do a review of my fighting style and have things closed off. I’m not going to simply give you a Bejewelled Badge because you asked nicely!” I declared, returning the moment to some proper banter.

Rather than rising to the challenge Yolanda just nodded. “Good.” She gave Sabrina a nod and then picked Terra up to jog off towards where the Growlithe pack were running around with the Houndour. 

Sabrina shot me an amused look and I pointed at her. “That does it, we’re sparring, get your pokemon out! Gible! Time for a challenge!” 

Gible scampered over gleefully. 

With Yolanda’s reveal I made sure to give Gible a more thorough inspection. I roughly had an idea of Gabite being taller with the jaw structure being different along with the arms and fins. 

None of that appeared to be greatly different so Gible still had a fair way to go, but Yolanda was right that delaying evolution, especially for something like a pseudo-Legendary pokemon would result in big payoffs at the end. 

I’d need to get him an Everstone band soon. 

Sabrina sent Kirlia out and both pokemon and trainers locked eyes.

Then I began to feed Gible some dark energy through the nascent bond that we were developing. 

Sabrina stiffened and Kirlia twirled to the side. 

They were obviously expecting Bite but I didn’t play into the action, instead I dropped the feed of energy and Gible built up an orb of energy and fired it directly at Kirlia.

Lance had been right, there had been other ways to use Draco Meteor other than launching it into the air. The blast still sent Gible launching backwards, but the attack caught Kirlia by surprise and slammed her into a nearby boulder. When she staggered upright there was a defiant glare in her eyes.

She’d seen Gible as Beneath her and he’d just blown her away. I channeled the dark energy again to obfuscate any awareness Sabrina might have had.

Kirlia still skipped and twirled high into the air where she hung in an artificial gravity as her eyes glowed. She descended slowly and when she was in range Gible lunged out of the ground with Dig to try and bite her.

Instead of sinking his fangs into flesh he slammed into a Protect that was raised and lowered with a precision timing.

Gible landed awkwardly and staggered back only to get nailed by a Pysbeam from Kirlia. 

When he slammed into a boulder he landed and shook it off only to come back harder.

Sabrina and I both grinned as our pokemon pushed each other. I flubbed the next order by trying to give Gible a complex command only for it to confuse Gible.

I cursed, the bond wasn’t established enough to pull that off just yet and Gible suffered as the delay resulted in another Psybeam smashing into him and knocking him out. 

I sighed and conceded the first match to Sabrina before sending out my next pokemon in Golbat.

Sabrina narrowed her eyes and settled in for a drawn out spar. I wasn’t going to let Sabrina just walk out of here without some effort on her behalf. 

The sun was only just rising by the time we were done and Sabrina had begun to pant.

The battlefield around us was shattered with various boulders and even the field itself splintered. 

Knight stood over Sabrina’s Claydol and shook his head causing the metal plates to clack loudly as he stepped back.

I exhaled with relief and shot him a mental thumbs up.

Knight responded with a thumbs up of his own as he bounced off the field. I glanced up and found Sabrina eyeballing me. She didn’t want to end the fight here. We’d gone the normal six rounds but both of us still had pokemon that could fight.

We both began to call out our next pokemon only for a whistle and a shout from the side to make us pause.

“Brock! Sabrina! Are you guys ready for breakfast?” called Salvadore, having trudged out.

He made for a rather comical sight with how rugged up he was in jumpers and beanies.

Sabrina and I glanced at each other. Both of us were wearing skin tight thermals under our standard fare and had only really needed windbreakers over the top. 

“We’ll finish this later,” I offered, which drew a sniff from Sabrina. 

“I was going to win. I was already up four to two,” she replied. 

“You couldn’t use Kirlia anymore and your Espeon was done in,” I pointed out as we made our way back to the house.

Sabrina sniffed. “They’d have gotten a Recover off,” she stated primly. 

“Yeah, sure they would have,” I replied, letting the argument fade to the side. We’d done this enough times to not really feel any resentment over a win or a loss. It wasn’t about that, it was a part of the process of strengthening our pokemon and ourselves.

Sabrina was still one of the toughest people to face as you had to be lightning fast with orders and field awareness. I had lined up a six on six Unovan battle against her in a few days and I suspected I was going to get my backside handed to me.

Tactics and plans would go in smoke in the face of Sabrina’s ability to handle raw information and faster thought speed in that area. I had seen it enough times from her during Guardian training sessions with the only person able to handle her was usually Agatha.

I took that as a sign of how terrifying an unleashed Sabrina could be if it took a trainer with a slight advantage along with over five decades of experience to bring Sabrina down. 

Sabrina and I walked into the house only to find it in turmoil. 

“Nuh uh Karen will make it to champion!” declared Tommy to Cindy who looked ready to hurl her breakfast at him. 

“She can too! She’s going to win tonight’s match and go straight to becoming Champion!” Cindy retorted only for Tommy to sniff dismissively.

She stepped forward with her hand curling into a fist to bonk Tommy only for me and Flint to both step forward and clear our throats.

We both paused, glanced at each other, and indicated the other could step in.

“Go ahead.” “Feel free.” we both said only to groan as the kids giggled at us. 

I rolled my eyes and repressed the smile. Well at least the tension was gone now. 

I waved a hand to Flint to let him handle it and he did so as Sabrina and I claimed our own breakfast. Lola, who had been sitting to the side pouted. “Ah, I was hoping to show the kids how to intercept a punch,” she whined. 

I shot her a look. “Not at the breakfast table Lola. Do that in the training room if you want to do that.” 

She perked up and I raised a finger. “Only if it’s not being used by a trainer and if the kids want that, alright?”

Lola nodded, not at all dissuaded by my restrictions. She gave me a thoughtful look. “You know Brock, you could benefit from some training as well. Your punch is pretty good but so is your uppercut, but in a serious fight you’d be done pretty quick.” 

That got me to pause. I stared at her, unsure what to make of that. From what I’d gathered Lola was… well rather devastating as a fighter. The fact that she’d been able to get up even after my uppercut was a testament to her abilities.

That being said… “I’ll take a rain check. I have someone I can ask if I need that.” 

“Hmmm Koga right? He specialises in hit and run tactics. You need someone that can fight in any situation.” 

I loaded up my plate and gave her another look. “You’re rather insistent on this,” I pointed out.

Lola bounced. “Well I realised where I can help you out! You’ve got most things worked out now that you’re an adult. You’ve got a great house, a job, a fiancée, a pokemon team, and you’ve even got the family humming along like they’re a well trained unit!” 

“Nuh uh!” shouted Tommy to the side as Flint’s attempts at calming things down failed, resulting in the twins starting to fling food. 

“For the most part,” Lola added to her earlier statement.

I leveled an unimpressed stare at her. She shouldn’t be one to point the blame for kids being kids at me. This was just normal antics.

It wasn’t very effective however, which didn’t surprise me as Lola resisted most subtle prompts. If you wanted to get a message through you needed to beat it into her.

“Maybe I will take—”

“Awesome! We’ll set something up for the evenings as then you can recover afterwards!” Lola gushed. “I’ll show you how to turn a batista bomb into a practical move!” she shot me a thumbs up.

My eyebrow began to twitch as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I will check my schedule first Lola. I’m not jumping into anything like that straight away.”

“A maybe, so definitely!” she crowed, only to lift up a familiar clipboard. “I’ve got your schedule here! You don’t do much in the early evenings beyond fun sessions with your pokemon in the afternoons. You can add a martial arts training session there!” she declared.

“First of all,” I said pointing at the clipboard. “Did you steal that from Alexa?”

“Yes!” Lola didn’t have a lick of shame and I sighed and stuck my hand out in a ‘give me’ gesture. 

“Right, secondly I’m not moving that as it’s important to destress pokemon after a day of training for a day of fighting Gym battles. Also it’s fun,” I stated.  

“You need a space at least three to four times a week for an hour or two to get truly proficient!” Lola stated. “I do mine in the morning in my room!” she stated. 

I made a note of that and again dismissed it. “Are you even very good as a teacher?” I asked.

“I’ve trained tons of recruits!” she declared. “Success or death!” she gushed with a slightly manic expression in her eyes that had me leaning back. Yolanda who’d looked interested also had a slightly wary response.

I suddenly felt like I needed to experience her training first before I subjected my siblings to anything Lola might do to them.

I glanced at Yolanda and she shot me a pleading look. 

“Let’s try something around lunch and I’ll make my mind up then, alright?”

“Yes!” Lola pumped the air with a fist. “You’re going to learn so much with me as your master!” She perked up. “Oh! I should get some training props!” she quickly rushed out of the house to… I wasn’t even sure where. 

I rubbed at my temples. “Well I’m going to have a lot of motivation to get better,” I muttered to Sabrina as we sat down.

Sabrina shot me a smirk. “Use Foul Play and Fake Out as much as you can.”  

I coughed. I suspected I was going to be quite proficient with those too if I practised them against Lola enough.

Yolanda mouthed a thank you to me and I shook my head.

I suspected that despite being younger, and stronger, I was about to get my ass kicked by a war veteran, so I could at least gauge her ability to teach others like my siblings. 

Me and my damn bleeding heart. 

_________________

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

It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter.