Hard Enough - Chapter 305 - Playing the hand dealt

Sabrina:- Best girl. No good girl, just Best girl. 

Lola:- Winner of Absentee mother of the year five years in a row! Former special forces commando during the war. Mother to ten children

Brock:- The MC and Gym Leader of Pewter

Flint:- Brock’s father and husband to Lola. 

Yolanda:- Oldest girl in Brock’s family.

Salvadore:- fourth oldest child after Brock, Forrest, and Yolanda. 

Cindy and Tommy:- first set of twins and fifth and sixth children of Flint and Lola. 7 years old going on 8 soon.

Suzie and Timmy:- second set of twins and seventh and eighth children almost 5 years old. Lola left very soon after they were born.

Tilly and Billy:- third set of twins and the ninth and tenth children of Lola and Flint. Only 4 years old. Lola left very soon after they were born.

Lance:- Champion of Indigo

                                                            _______________

It hadn’t taken any empathic ability on Sabrina’s behalf to know how angry Brock had been earlier today. 

A blind man would have been able to sense his rage. On the emotional spectrum that Sabrina could access, he had been like a tightly wound volcano, spewing red anger while repressing the wrath he wanted to unleash upon Lola. 

He had radiated a furious heat that almost everyone in the room had been aware of.

The children had noticed. Frightful yellows had swelled throughout the room and added to the underlying confusion.

Flint had noticed some of this and had been spewing his own toxic fear and concern while worry gnawed upon Yolanda. Surprisingly, a glimmer of steely resolve had also started to emerge, but it was flickering.

And in the middle of it all had been Lola, standing unbothered in front of her family. 

Completely oblivious to how she was damaging her family with her return. 

How she was playing upon good character and manners to force herself upon them. 

Brock had shared his concerns about what his mother would be like upon her return with Sabrina. It was made worse by Brock’s possible future knowledge, painting a picture of an airhead that didn’t care for the harm she caused. One who was all too happy to wander off once more if Brock’s knowledge was to be trusted. 

There was still a lot to discuss regarding what Brock knew, and what he had potential insights into. He’d briefly touched on several topics that sounded like there was going to be a lot more discussed.

Like the fact that Mega Evolutions were merely one form of powering up a specific pokemon.

That would have to wait however, as she’d approached Lola when she’d stepped away from Flint to give the woman an ultimatum like she had with Flint.

Only Lola wasn’t like Flint.

She didn’t cower in the face of a threat. 

In fact, she did the exact opposite, drawing blades and springing into action.

Sabrina could admit that she’d been taken by surprise at that moment, and it was only the constant probing strikes that Koga and Janine often tried to slip past her awareness that allowed her to respond. 

She’d been forced into close range, which was typically where she was defeated by the pair of ninja if they were allowed in close. It was why she always tried to keep an eye on them during Guardian training, but that was sadly impossible so she’d been forced to learn how to defend herself.

That training had come in clutch when Lola ducked low and tackled her feet. She recognised this as a move to help pin your opponent and knew that if she got held, she’d have difficulty escaping Lola’s clutches. 

She’d done one of the only things she could by teleporting them in a spur-of-the-moment decision. 

It had worked to break the tackle, and as they righted themselves, Sabrina was gratified to see that she’d made the right choice as Lola activated a dark emitter. If that had been on before the tackle… Lola would have had Sabrina at her mercy.

And if there was one thing she was sure of, it was that you never wanted to be at Lola’s mercy. 

Sabrina gripped and pulled mentally, sending a trio of statues at Lola only for the woman to dart out of the way while dropping a small canister that began spewing smoke.

Because, of course, the woman had smoke grenades hidden away in her pouch!

Lola tried to follow up with a flash bang as she came at Sabrina, but Sabrina avoided it by Teleporting herself into a different position. From the roof, she had clear lines of sight on Lola, who continued to move forward despite Sabrina’s teleportation trick.

Interestingly, when Lola passed by the space Sabrina used to be in, she made sure to slash the air. Huh, she knew it was possible for some psychics to camouflage themselves, did she? 

Sabrina grasped the gravel and made it reach for Lola’s ankles, only for Lola to bull through it like a wild Tauros. 

Lola kept herself moving as she swept her gaze about the area, searching for any signs of Sabrina, only to lock onto her a moment later. 

Fast. Sabrina thought to herself. She was highly experienced in searching for threats.

Another pair of daggers flew through the air . Sabrina caught the glint of something extra on the second dagger though. 

Ah, the second dagger was another type of grenade that exploded dark energy. 

Before it could detonate, Sabrina intercepted it with a rock and sent it flying off course, where it exploded harmlessly. 

Sabrina still mentally noted that area as a position she couldn’t afford to be driven into in case it became necessary.

“Ho? You’re experienced as a fighter? That’s good! My baby boy deserves the best!” Lola crowed as she threw herself into a nearby garden to hide. 

Sabrina’s eyebrow twitched. This woman was as annoying as she was delusional. Also, the woman had an oddly disciplined mind. No stray thoughts or emotions emitted from her, which was strange for one that was so… vicarious. 

Usually they were like taps turned fully on, spewing their thoughts and feelings into the mental space around them.

“I’ve had to learn a few tricks,” Sabrina replied as she sent a trio of boulders into the gaden to flush Lola out. 

Lola used the boulders themselves to reposition herself into yet another garden. “Tricks hey? Is that what the kids are calling it? Well don’t hold back on my account!” she cheered. 

Sabrina narrowed her eyes. She was starting to notice patterns of behaviour with this woman. Lola took the information presented to her and warped it for her own purposes. Instead of Sabrina being here to set her straight and make sure she knew to back off she had made this into a fight about ‘proving’ herself to Lola.

Sabrina didn’t need to prove anything.

Brock was hers.  

“How many kids do you think you’ll be able to have? I’m expecting at least four!” Lola said from the bushes. Sabrina glowered as she pulled deeper into her psychic energies to determine that Lola was throwing her voice. 

Sabrina cast her psychic energies out and felt for the ‘null zone’ that came with people using personalised dark emitters.

The trick wasn’t to feel for the person but instead where nothing was. Something that she’d again been drilled on heavily by Koga.

The man had rattled off a host of ways that psychics had been taken out during the war, along with handing her a manual on the process. 

The booklet had written out in exacting detail on how to handle psychics during a battle in chillingly clinical detail.

Lola was using some of those tactics here and now. 

Sabrina prepared, knowing what was most likely to occur. 

Lola barely even made a noise as she got onto the roof and leapt for Sabrina’s ‘exposed’ back. 

The blades sank in, and Sabrina was surprised to hear a slight hitch escape Lola. 

“Oh I—” the delusional woman started to say only for ‘Sabrina’ to shimmer and vanish. “Eh?” Lola said.

Sabrina chose that moment to strike, reaching out and snatching the dark emitter from Lola’s belt. She then had to throw herself backwards to avoid Lola sweeping her daggers around as instinct took over. 

Sabrina allowed the dark emitter to fall from her hand as she sailed out into open air from the rooftop. The ground came rushing up to her, only for her to stop just shy of impact. 

Lola stared at her with a shocked expression. 

Sabrina flexed her will and caught the wily woman in her psychic grasp before she could escape again. 

Then Sabrina and Lola shot up into the sky. When they reached a few hundred metres up Sabrina leveled them out so they were face to face with three metres between them.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke, they merely observed the other. 

“Hehe! You’re clever, I like you! Oh! But I was close to cutting you! Look! I gave you a trim!” Lola giggled, gesturing at Sabrina’s hair. 

Sabrina eyed the frayed strand of hair and gave a sniff. She’d had worse from Koga, and it was merely hair. 

Still, it rather stung that this woman could get that close. She was going to have to be careful of her in future. 

Or perhaps there was another option. Sabrina glanced down. Lola copied her.

“Wowie! We’re a long way up!” called Lola. 

Sabrina looked back at Lola, and Lola's smile faltered for the first time since Sabrina had announced herself. 

“Ahaha, you uhmmm, don’t want to do that? It will make my family sad!” she said quickly. 

Sabrina didn’t respond. 

The temptation was there, whispering of a much simpler future. 

It would be her and Brock, the children and Flint. 

No Lola, no complications caused by her mountains of issues. 

It would be all too easy to lie to the kids. Lola had simply left, like she always did only to never return. 

It was a story that repeated itself all too often across Indigo. 

Sabrina looked up at the moon and seriously considered it. “You being with your family is causing them to be sad,” Sabrina said, deigning to ‘feel’ Lola out. 

Lola’s expression flickered. “No I don’t! They love having me back!” 

Sabrina locked eyes with Lola. “Your youngest children, Tilly and Billy? Remember them? They have no concept of what a mother is. To them, you are merely an older woman. Your second youngest, Suzie and Timmy, barely remember you and are more worried that if they mess up, you’ll punish them by leaving. Your third eldest? Cindy and Tommy? They’re happy, but in their heads, they’re counting down until you leave.” With each pair of twins Sabrina listed out Lola twitched as though stung only to shake her head in denial.

Sabrina continued. “Salvadore has decided only to ask easy questions of you after he asked if you were going to be sticking around. You ignored him on that, remember?” 

Lola twitched. “When did he say that? I didn’t hear him! It’s tough with so many children!”

Sabrina directed a flat expression back at Lola. And who’s fault is it that you have so many children? She thought to herself before deciding to answer Lola’s question with damning accuracy, “He asked you that about an hour into your return. Then again five minutes later and one more time ten minutes before we arrived. He kept a record.” 

As Lola processed this, Sabrina continued her observations: “You ignored those questions, and he has been stuck on that point for hours now. He’s written it into his journal multiple times and is trying to process it. He has come to the conclusion not to ask too much from you, as he has come to believe you will run at the slightest sign of difficulty.” 

Lola blinked, and an ugly expression appeared on her face. She levelled her dagger at Sabrina. “Hey! Hang on a minute! You stay out of my children’s minds!” she snarled.

Sabrina shook her head. “That is not how this works. They are projecting their anxieties. If I had occluded my mind completely, it would still be obvious to anyone paying a lick of attention. I merely walked behind Salvadore, and I saw what he’d written.” 

Sabrina directed a finger right at Lola’s chest. “You have not paid any attention to them.”

“That’s not true! I’ve been showering them with attention! I’ve hugged them and kissed them and more!” Lola shouted. 

Sabrina hummed, there was something Erika had once said that came to mind. “Merely dumping water upon a plant is not nurturing it nor showing it love. You need to sometimes soak the roots and gently wipe away the build up of dirt from leaves.” 

“Your continued flights of fancy have left your family scarred in ways you have not addressed.”  Sabrina hadn’t even mentioned Yolanda, Forrest, or Brock yet. She wasn’t sure she wanted to complete the list. For all that they were the strongest of the family they were also the most fragile.

Sabrina let her gaze slowly return down to the ground  before she turned her head upwards to the sky above. “Things would be simpler,” she said simply. 

Lola growled. “They need their mother!” she snapped.

“And that’s supposed to be you?” Sabrina said, more to herself than in response to Lola.

“Yes! I am their mother, and I love them, and I will make things right! I just need to be with them so all this can go away!” she said as her breathing became erratic and a crazed look entered her eyes. 

Sabrina felt a sneer take hold of her features. “You can’t even acknowledge that there’s anything wrong or that you’re the cause of it!” Sabrina snapped, feeling her irritation grow. Was this it? Was she just talking with Lola to find a reason to do it? 

Was she looking to justify it?

To whom? 

Brock?

Herself?

Sabrina drew back and considered Lola once again. She dampened her own emotions and considered the last few minutes as Lola anted at her. Sabrina ignored her though. Right now she didn’t matter. Instead, she considered herself. 

She’d approached to make the same threat she had to Flint, but Flint was different from Lola as much as they had both left. 

Lola responded with fight rather than flight in the face of a threat.

Sabrina appearing to threaten her, had just triggered her issues and resulted in things spiralling until they reached this moment. 

Sabrina felt annoyed at herself. 

Doing the right thing was sometimes a lot harder than people made it out to be. 

“I’m going to be the bigger woman here,” Sabrina announced. 

Lola tilted her head. “Because you’re floating higher than me? You know you’re actually shorter and you’ve got smaller boobs and—”

Sabrina let go of Lola. 

“Eeeeeeeiiiiii!” screamed Lola as she plummeted through the sky. 

Sabrina let her fall for a few seconds revelling in how good it felt t odrop that bitch.

She allowed herself a whole extra second before sighing and telekinetically catching Lola. 

She brought her back up to level slowly. and catching her and bringing her back up. 

Lola  appeared, gasping and shaking. “Wow, that was a shock!” she wheezed before giving Sabrina a playful smile. “You know if you hadn’t caught me, I could have gotten away with my trusty parachute right?” she said as she patted the pouch at her side. 

Sabrina made a mental note that if she ever had to murder this woman she’d drop her without her pouch, but otherwise didn’t outwardly react. 

“As I was saying,” Sabrina said, steering things back on track. “You, as horrible as you are as a mother, are desired by some of the family.”

“Of course I am!” chirped Lola with the air of someone that hadn’t just been dropped out of the sky. 

Sabrina felt her eyebrow twitch slightly. She ripped Lola’s pouch off her and let her drop again for a few seconds before Teleporting down to catch her before she hit the ground. 

Annoyingly, the woman had reacted well and streamlined herself such that she’d angled her fall towards a nearby pond. She’d have had good odds of survival if nothing else. 

Sabrina could almost respect her skills at survival, if she ignored how horrible she was as a mother. 

Orbit. If Sabrina had to kill her, she’d launch her into orbit. She wouldn’t survive that. Also, it would be much harder to find the body.

Lola drew in a shuddering breath, “Wow, you’re catty! I like you! You’re going to be such a great daughter-in-law!” 

“You have a way of making me regret catching you,” Sabrina replied as she reconsidered the value in dropping Lola.

A few months in traction might not be such a bad idea. Then Lola wouldn’t be able to run and her children could visit her when they wanted to. 

It was a win-win. 

Lola opened her mouth, but Sabrina decided she was done being tempted to break this woman, so she telekinetically silenced her. That would help limit the desire to break the annoying woman. Lola was already too broken mentally to worry about any physical injuries. 

“Here is how things are going to go,” Sabrina announced. “You are going to go back with Flint and have him join you in quarantine. You two sleeping together like you did does put him at greater risk of being infected by something you might have picked up. You will remain there and assist the League officials in answering all their questions.

“You might have missed it, but the arrival of the regions is a big deal that needs everyone working together. We do not need some headless Torchic running around abducting region’s champions or getting into fights!” Sabrina snapped. 

“When, and only when you are cleared will you return here and ask to come back! And you will ask! You abandoned them! You will not show up with a champion in tow and intimidate your family into opening the door for you!” 

Lola struggled as though trying to deny that but Sabrina wasn’t having a bar of it. “No! That is what you did! Stop hurting your family!”

Lola jolted at the words and Sabrina noted it down as a trigger phrase for Lola. 

From what Brock had shared about the woman’s history, it made a startling amount of sense. Lola’s eyes began to water but again Sabrina paid it no mind. “Do this because otherwise I’m going to have to break every bone in your body to make you sit still, understand me?”

Lola nodded morosely. Sabrina huffed. She should be satisfied, but dealing with this woman was exhausting. 

Lola gestured at her mouth and Sabrina spent a long moment considering it before releasing her grasp on Lola’s mouth. 

Lola smiled at her. “I’m glad that Brock found someone like you. You’re strong.” 

Sabrina snorted. “And if you ever decide to learn who Brock is, you will realise he is as well. Now, I’m going to put you back with Flint, and you’re going to follow the plan, got it?” 

Lola nodded glumly, only to perk up. “Oh! Can I have my cigarette pack back?” 

Sabrina’s brow twitched, and she made a point to draw out the offending packet. She then tore the cigarettes up in front of Lola, enjoying the way her face fell. 

“You’re evil!” wailed Lola dramatically. 

Sabrina nodded. “To some I am. So stay on my good side,” she said as she flicked her fingers and Teleported Lola back to her hotel room. 

She made it a point to keep Lola’s pouch, lest the woman use it to break out of containment again. Sabrina looked up at the moon and sighed. Well, she couldn’t really claim she’d handled that as well as she’d have liked to, but the message had gotten through she hoped.

She also realised it probably wasn’t the best idea to drop the woman, twice, like she had, but damn if it hadn’t been satisfying. 

Sabrina cast her attention down and found Lola snuggling up to Flint. Sabrina shifted the shovel she’d left outside their room to just in front of Flint so the man would know she’d been there last night and that he needed to behave. 

She also added a small note tied to the handle that read ‘keep trying you’re doing well’. He’d have a small heart attack first and then get the actual message. 

She didn’t want Flint to think she was going soft on him after all. 

Sabrina fired off a message to the League Officials about where Lola and Flint were awaiting pickup before Teleporting back to bed. 

She gave a lingering look at the parenting books that were splayed out on the bedside table. Brock had obviously been doing some late night reading.

Brock grumbled when she slipped into bed and roused himself enough to wrap his arms around her. “Everything alright?” he asked, and Sabrina enjoyed how his breath tickled her ear before adjusting closer to him. 

“Everything’s fine,” she said. 

Brock roused a little more and gave her a more thorough inspection. His gaze lingered on her hair momentarily before he locked eyes with her.

“I decided to address some things with Lola,” she clarified. 

“Huh, she still alive then?” Brock asked seriously. 

“Sadly, being good has rubbed off on me,” Sabrina replied drolly. 

“Hmph,” Brock said with a slight smile. He then leaned down and kissed her tenderly. “I’m glad you didn’t. You’re better than that.”

“Hmmm I know,” replied Sabrina. 

Brock settled back in, and Sabrina turned her head. “I did drop her out of the sky twice though.”

Instead of chastising her, Brock merely chuckled. “Oh, now I’m envious. I seriously wanted to punch her,” he replied, and Sabrina giggled. 

“I noticed. Good work not doing that in front of the children. You’re a good role model.” 

Brock huffed at her again and settled back in so that he was the big spoon to her little spoon in the bed. Sabrina sighed and let the tension drain out of her mind and body. 

Things would be rough with Lola’s return, but they’d adjust and get through it. 

“We should buy the land for that beach house for some more privacy,” Brock murmured sleepily into her ear and this time it was Sabrina’s turn to give Brock a kiss.

She rather liked that idea, and it was a much nicer thought to linger on as she drifted to sleep.

                                                            _______________

The next morning at breakfast everyone was eating their meal like nothing had changed. Really the only difference from when I’d left for Hoenn was that Flint wasn’t at the table. 

We’d mitigated that by adding a small transceiver with the projection blown up with Lola and Flint sitting off to the side. 

They were now in a secure facility and I could see a few Machamp in the background while others moved past the glass walls of the facility. It looked like the officials had collected some blood work from both Flint and Lola along with other points of consideration that had been missed in favour of the debriefing Lola had skipped out from. 

“—really sharp needle, and it hurt so bad!” whined Lola, causing me to rub my temples. 

Yolanda shot me an amused look and then surprised me by winking at me. 

She turned back to Lola. “Wow, I thought you were some sort of tough woman but you’re kind of a wimp aren’t you Mum?” 

Everyone in the room paused and stared at Yolanda in shock. Lola and Flint gaped. I blinked, had she really just sassed Lola like that?

“Heh,” Sabrina said, raising a glass of tea in salute to Yolanda, who gained a smirk of her own.

“Young lady that…,” Flint trailed off, unsure what to say. I could actually see his lips twitching a little as he warred with himself.  

Yolanda merely shrugged. “Was I wrong?” she replied, earning a snort from me and another ‘heh’ from Sabrina. 

Suzie’s head twitched back and forth from Sabrina to Yolanda and then the projection of Lola, observing and taking all of this in. I suddenly had a lot less fears of Lola’ corrupting the younger kids. 

It would be kind of hard with such good role models being present after all. 

Lola beamed proudly. “Oh! You caught me! I thought I’d play it up and get more sympathy points but you’re too clever!” she said. 

I rolled my eyes at the shift in topic, that was rather typical of the woman. On my wrist my Xtransciver buzzed but I ignored it. 

Sabrina glanced at me and raised an eyebrow in question but I shook my head. “It’s just Lance. I’m on holiday and officially, I’m just a Gym Leader. I don’t have to worry about their international stuff as much.”

Flint coughed. “You know as part of Megarock Inc he might have grounds to ask you to come in for the negotiations?” he said and I had to hand it to him, that was a good point. 

Then I shrugged. “It’s a sunday and my working hours for that job are at most weekdays nine till four,” I replied. 

“Brock, it’s monday today…” Flint pointed out. 

I didn’t even bat an eye. “I’m on holiday,” I replied. 

Flint chuckled at that while Lola tilted her head. “You have another job?” she asked but I just waved her off. 

“Ask Flint to explain it,” I said, not really interested in talking with her. 

Lola opened her mouth only for Sabrina to shift and Lola to shut her mouth. Instead, she turned to Salvadore. “So honey! What’s it been like spending time with all the researchers around the Gym?” she said and Salvadore perked up, more than happy to talk about all the experiments he was taking part in. 

I listened with half an ear while giving Sabrina a thankful look. 

I was just starting to stack plates and utensils up with Munchlax’s help when Salvadore said something that surprised me. “Oh! And Bianca found an Egg that she thinks belongs to the Growlithe line, but that has markings on it which she has linked to the Growlithe within being a shiny!” 

I blinked. “Huh? When did this egg get found?” I asked as the rest of the table stirred. 

“ More puppies?” asked Timmy excitedly, which drew a chant of ‘More puppies!’ from the others. The trio of growlithe that had been lurking out of sight perked up and started looking around for scraps at this excitement, which led to a lot more chaos as pokemon and kids started to make noise. 

I clapped my hands lightly once to settle things down. “Calm down. Yes there are going to be more puppies. That was the whole point of the volcano. Despite what some people have said,” I said, glancing pointedly at Yolanda and Sabrina who’d been playing up the whole ‘girl volcano ritual thing once or twice as a ‘game’. Neither so much as batted an eye, and I huffed. 

“The Growlithe are here to provide security to the family and take part in a breeding experiment. It will take a few years to see results, but we’re confident it will work,” I stated to Lola. 

I turned, signalling that was all I was going to say. Lola hummed in thought before she made a thoughtful noise that I was starting to associate with Lola stirring problems. 

“Oh! Everyone make sure to congratulate Brock and Sabrina! I don’t think we got around to that yesterday, but I saw the engagement ring on Sabrina’s finger!” 

The room once more stilled as everyone’s gaze swivelled onto Sabrina. 

Sabrina, rather than hiding the ring, raised it so all could see it glinting on her ring finger. 

I smiled when people’s gazes turned to me, and I nodded. 

Then an excited scream escaped Yolanda and Cindy’s mouths, making all the boys recoil. 

Sabrina merely smiled wider as the two girls launched themselves at Sabrina for details and to inspect the ring.

“Hey!” Yolanda said, catching sight of the ring. “This isn’t a diamond, this is a mega stone!” she said, snapping her head up and glaring at me.

Before I could mount a defence, Sabrina put her hand on Yolanda’s shoulder. “A Mega stone is more valuable Yolanda.”

Yolanda blinked for a moment as she processed this. “Oh, actually, that makes sense, good work!” she declared before turning back to Sabrina. “So? How’d he do it and where?” 

Cindy inched closer. “Was it romantic?” she asked. 

Suzie, who was still sitting in her seat, tilted her head and turned to me. “What’s this mean?” 

“It means that Sabrina is officially going to be your big sister now,” I replied, thinking she would like that. 

Suzie just shrugged and finished her juice. “So the same as last week then,” she declared before marching over to listen to the discussion. 

I huffed at their antics. I made to clean up more of the kitchen only for a very specific ding on my Xtransceiver to make me look down and find a notice from the Guardians.

“An alert?” I murmured. 

“What’s that Brock?” Yolanda asked, missing how Sabrina checked her own messages only to frown. 

“We need to get the television on again,” I said as I marched into the loungeroom only to have no idea where the remote was. 

I groaned. “Who was the last one to be in here watching tv?!” I called back.

“Cindy!” “Tommy!” “Yolanda!” “Munchlax!”  came a chorus of voices. 

I pinched the bridge of my nose and was about to start searching the usual places that the remote vanished to when Sabrina walked in, and the remote levitated out of Munchlax’s typical hiding spot. 

As the tv turned on I leaned so I was able to shout into the kitchen. “Munchlax? Please put the remote back on the coffee table in future!” I said knowing that it would likely go missing again before the week was out. 

“Munch!” replied Munchlax. 

On the television, another announcement was starting up, and I raised my eyebrows at the scrolling text. 

“Announcement from Hoenn Champion?” I read aloud. What was Steven Stone up to now?

All of the kids that hadn’t followed Sabrina into the room suddenly poured into the room and sat on the couch, extremely interested in what was going on. 

“Hello? Where did everyone go?” called Lola from the call that was still running in the kitchen.

I didn’t listen, though, as instead, my mind locked onto what the announcer was declaring. 

“And you’ve heard it here on Indigo Investigator news first folks! Steven Stone, in a stunning display, has entered negotiations with the Trinity Nations and has emerged after only a few hours to announce that he has raised a ‘friendly’ challenge against one of the visiting Champions!

“Experts are dumbfounded and uncertain what the typically savant CEO of Devon Corp and the Champion of Hoenn is trying to achieve with this announcement!” declared another news host. 

Video played showing Steven saying exactly that, while next to him Cyntha smiled warming into the camera. I gaped. What? Steven was going to face Cynthia? 

I blinked and realised that the news article wasn’t done with. “—only yesterday it had been decided that a few friendly matches would occur with Lorelei and Bruno from Indigo, with Malva and Marshall lined up to demonstrate the Trinity Alliance’s strengths!”

The other news host chuckled. “Only things didn’t pan out that way did they? As Bruno and Marshall took all of a second to lock eyes when they entered the same room and they both demanded that they fight each other despite the protests of their Champions!”

“Champion Lance tried to de-escalate, but Bruno even went as far as stating he would resign from being an Elite Four if this didn’t occur!” 

I felt my mouth opening in shock. 

I’d missed all that due to my family drama? 

What the hell was going on in Fuchsia? This was nuts! 

My Xtransciver buzzed and this time I answered it. “Hey buddy,” I said to the annoyed visage of Lance. 

“Don’t you hey buddy me, I’ve got enough on my plate! What the hell is your mother doing escaping her debriefing and abducting the Sinnoh Champion! Do you realise the ramifications of—”

“Woah! You’re assuming I have any control over what that woman does or says! You’re dead wrong there Lance. Now I get that things are stressful, but there’s not much I can do for you on what’s happening. She’s back in quarantine now anyway.”

Lance sighed. “Very well, you are correct and I… apologise for my words,” he said looking like he was swallowing an egg with how constipated apologising made him look. 

“Hmmm well thank you for acknowledging that. Now what else did you need? I doubted you just called me about Lola,” I asked. 

Lance sighed. “We need to steal a march on Hoenn. Steven for all that he’s making a spectacle of his fight against Cynthia, is getting several deals through that might set Hoenn up into a slightly too advantageous position. I want to get your man Crowley, the resurrection expert, to offer his services for Cynthia and a few of the experts she brought along. If we can resurrect an ancient pokemon for them they will grant Indigo some favourable deals.”

I hummed. “So Steven Stone is playing smoke and mirrors along with setting up bread and circuses huh?” 

“Something like that, but it’s still exceptionally strange. He risks more than he will earn should he win. I don’t doubt that some Hoenn Elites will hold a vote of no confidence should he lose. I can’t be sure why he’d risk his position like that though.”

Sabrina stepped in, so she was part of the call as well. “Perhaps he’s set himself up so this is only a win-win for himself. Should he win, he will have the ultimate prestige before any talk of World Championships can be expanded, and he will hold it for years until then, securing his position like never before.”

Lance nodded thoughtfully. “And if he loses?” he asked. 

Sabrina pursed her lips. “He’s still the CEO of Devon Corp. They might need him to expand into the three new regions,” she said.

Lance sucked in a breath with a hiss. “That… is a scarily thoughtful assessment.”

“Isn’t my daughter-in-law amazing?” chimed Lola, having been carried in by Tommy. 

Lance blinked, only for his eyes to dip to Sabrina’s hand. “Oh! Congratulations to both of you then!”

 He smirked. “If you were hoping to make a splash with your announcement, I’m sorry to say that it isn’t going to have the same effect as other slower periods,” he teased.

I snorted. “Please, you know me and Sabrina. We’re happy when the focus is in other places.”

“And yet,” he said with a knowing smile. 

I rolled my eyes and waved at him to get lost. He chuckled and offered another round of congratulations before signing off. 

The kids all stared at me. “Soooo what was that all about?” Tommy asked, still holding up the transceiver with Flint and Lola watching on. 

I shrugged. “Politics basically.”

“Urgh yuck! Boring!” he said which drew a smile from me. Then he tilted his head. “We’re still going to watch the Steven Stone match though, right?” 

I barked a laugh. “Count on it!” I said. 

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

Thanks also go to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!