Hard Enough - Chapter 266 - Old versus new

Yolanda gripped the edge of her seat. It was hard enough not shooting to her feet when Brock had taken down Agatha’s new pokemon and her Arbok. 

“I’m surprised she used a pokemon like that against Brock,” said Crystal as she took a long slurp from her lemonade. 

“Yeah I don’t get the reason she used Arbok it doesn’t make any sense to me,” replied Greta. “She should have known that most of Brock’s pokemon are resistant or immune to poison-type moves, so Arbok was always a risk.” 

“It was stupid,” A.J. grunted out. 

Crystal opened her mouth, and Yolanda rolled her eyes, knowing that Crystal was about to say something provocative that would drag her and A.J. into an argument. 

“Probably playing at a deeper game than you can understand I suspect,” Crystal said.

Yolanda looked over to Greta, who met her gaze knowingly and nodded. Now that Crystal had thrown out her barb A.J would reply with—

“That’s rich! You have no idea yourself what she’s up to!” snapped A.J. 

Crystal and A.J. locked eyes and if they hadn’t been in the stands to watch a higher-level match Yolanda just knew that they’d be storming to the closest training field to get into a fight. A fight that these days resulted in Crystal getting destroyed by A.J.. 

Yolanda had to give it to the slightly older boy, he’d already been a strong battler but since he’d gotten back his family’s circus for them he’d gotten stronger. 

It wasn’t that anything had changed with his pokemon so much as himself. He’d relaxed if that was the right word to use around the usually uptight boy. 

It was probably better to say that the chip on his shoulder had gotten smaller.

It was still very much there as evidenced by all the times Crystal had gotten him to fight her despite their disparity in strength over the last week but it didn’t flare up all the time. 

“Are they always like this?” asked Yolanda’s newest friend, Giselle, uncertainly. 

Greta nodded. “Lately yeah,” she replied before leaning over and whacking both Crystal and A.J. on the head with a paper fan she’d found tossed in some bushes in the reserve. 

Yolanda giggled as the fan gave a solid thwack that wasn’t actually painful at all. It never failed to amuse her that Greta had found the fan without realising whose paper fan it actually was. 

Both of the arguing preteens glared at Greta but she met their gazes imperiously. “You’re missing the fight. Brock just sent out Jormungandr,” she stated. 

That got everyone’s attention on the field as Brock’s Steelix rose high with a roar. 

The field effects of Toxic Spikes activated only to uselessly plink off Jorm’s metallic hide. 

“Yosh! Brock’s got this now!” Yolanda said. 

“I wouldn’t discount Agatha that quickly,” said A.J. and Crystal together. They both shared another glare at each other for having the temerity to agree with the other only for Greta to twitch the paper fan and break their stare. 

A.J. coughed. “Brock is going for power and while he had the field set up and type advantage right now… Agatha’s Gengar is held up as the standard for a reason,” he said. 

“Because of its speed and attacking prowess?” opined Giselle. 

The other nodded along but Yolanda merely grit her teeth. “I’m still backing Brock,” she said resolutely. 

The others didn’t even comment on that. It was just like saying the sky was blue. 

Brock could probably fight anyone and Yolanda would back him to win… Well, actually that wasn’t true. 

A fight against Sabrina would see her loyalties tested but Sabrina would understand and not hold a grudge over her barracking for Brock… At least she hoped she would in that hypothetical. 

On the field, Agatha unleashed her next pokemon only to reveal a Mismagius instead of the dreaded Gengar everyone was expecting. 

Brock twitched in a manner that Yolanda knew meant he was annoyed. 

It made sense, Agatha was fighting in a very slippery manner. She wasn’t coming at Brock head-on where he was strongest but rather making the match a furious fight where each team of pokemon and trainer had to be on their A game. 

In the initial fight, Brock had been the one weaving and bobbing with Titan whereas the roles had switched around in the second with Gawain struggling to land a decisive hit on Arbok. 

In both fights, Agatha had clung in with the use of poisons or trickery to take down Brock’s pokemon and force the battle into a tie so far. 

Yolanda couldn’t say she cared for the tactics that Agatha had employed but she had to rationalise them as no less valid than using Explosion or Self Destruct, both of which Brock had utilities on more than one occasion. 

It was interesting watching an obviously high-level match play out though. 

Yolanda was learning a lot from this and she had no doubt there were a lot of other trainers out there taking notes.

The first thing Yolanda had immediately noticed was that Agatha was not giving any verbal commands for any of her pokemon so far.

She hadn’t done that in the past during other matches or challenges by actual contenders against her as an Elite Four member. She usually only demonstrated that skill with her starter, Gengy the Gengar.

Although, if Yolanda really thought about it, there was a running trick where Agatha would give one order only for her pokemon to perform another entirely. 

Commentators for these fights had said in the past it was just a sign of good pre-match training with both trainer and pokemon understanding when to change things up.

 It was a tactic that had tripped up more than one challenger in the past and heavily contributed to her usually being the challenge crusher of the Elite Four. 

Now? Yolanda suspected that she’d always been able to do this and had just been playing with her foes, sandbagging on them until she’d needed the boost. 

At any point in time, Agatha could have raised the difficulty of those fighting against her.

Another thing that Yolanda noticed was how focused both trainers were despite the outcomes. 

Usually, a trainer would be rattled with how tight these exchanges were but both Brock and Agatha just shrugged it off and continued with their fight without batting too much of an eye. 

Yolanda was impressed and eager for more.

Agatha’s Mismagius’s appearance on the field caused the Stealth Rocks to fire up into it causing it to be hammered from a handful of different angles only for it to sway from side to side so that the various Stealth Rocks didn’t all hit at once. 

That was an interesting method of reducing the impact of the field effect, Yolanda thought and one she quickly made a note of in her pokedex. Said pokedex was getting a workout tonight with everyone in their group, bar Giselle, raising them up the instant the new pokemon had appeared. 

They were also using it to take notes of their own. 

Mismagius blurred to the side as Jorm fired off a powerful Dark Pulse only for Mismagius to not be visible. 

Brock turned his head taking in various parts of the field and Jormungandr began to shine brightly as Autotomize activated to make Jorm faster. 

Mismagius then appeared off to the side of the battlefield instead of on top of Jorm as everyone expected. 

Instead of sitting back however, small orbs of fire that flickered back and forth ignited around Mismagius. 

Brock must have recognised the attack as Jorm threw himself into the ground in a Dig only for parts of his body to still be visible. 

Yolanda gasped as she connected the dots. Agatha had planned for this! Most of Brock’s pokemon were big pokemon and if they couldn’t dig they couldn’t evade moves they normally would. “Oh no the field is—” she started to say as the fiery orbs of Will‘o’wisp shot towards Jorm only for Brock’s next move to make her words falter

Instead of trying to have his pokemon Dig, Jorm instead flexed and whipped his tail around, picking up what had to be tons of soil and sand only to launch it towards Mismagius.

A wave of sand and earth swept towards Mismagius like a tidal wave of the earth.

“Yes!” cheered Yolanda, rising out of her seat.

Mismagius squeaked in fear only for a Protect to form, blocking the guaranteed hit causing Yolanda to slump. 

“He just swept part of the field,” A.J. commented his eyes darting over the now carved up field. “I knew you could do that with Surf but that wasn’t an actual pokemon move so much as it was raw strength on Jormungandr’s part.” 

Yolanda’s eyes darted from right to left, using the searching trick Brock had taught her to spot a few points which still had spiky protrusions sticking up to the side and rear of Jormungandr. “There’s still some Stealth Rocks on the field, but that must mean there are also Toxic Spikes as well,” she said.

There was a lot to consider with this match!

As soon as the Protect dropped both pokemon were on the move once again, which had Jorm lunging forward to unleash another Dark Pulse. It was obvious that Brock was trying to lock down Mismagius even as Agatha was playing keep away. 

She in turn was trying to burn Jorm with a fire-type move that would burn Jorm. 

Mismagius was like a flitting wrath darting here and there while trying to stay at range only for Jorm to close and try to nail it with a Dark Pulse which the little ghost pokemon had to evade. 

The few times that Mismagius could get off an attack Brock denied it by digging in and attempting another tidal wave of earth which Mismagius once more blocked. 

“She won’t be able to do that again!” Crystal crowed.

Yolanda began to nod only to spot a scowl on her brother’s face. It was a tiny thing but once again it clued Yolanda in that something more was at stake.

Yolanda searched the field, looking for what it was only to see how the field itself was now torn and lacking significant parts of itself. “Brock can’t do that again either,” she said as she began to worry at her lip. 

If Brock continued to throw parts of the ground around, soon he’d run out of patches of land that he could use Dig or even spots where he’d be able to easily throw around rocks for moves like Rock Throw or the ranged versions of Stone Edge.

Agatha was baiting Brock into hampering his future potential while also having Brock get rid of all his Stealth Rocks.

The others saw what she meant a moment later but they couldn’t comment on it as Brock changed things up by having Jorm inhale deeply. 

Then with a large exhale draconic blue fire was exhaled at Mismagius as Dragon Breath was used to switch things up. 

Mismagius sped off to the side to where it inhaled and exhaled a scorching attack of its own, showing that nothing had much changed with this. 

Brock didn’t force his pokemon to go into the ground this time and instead had Jorm perform one of the most ungainly manoeuvres she’d seen him do only once before. Instead of having Jorm leap forward or throw himself backwards, he straightened out, going as long and low to the ground as he could before he rolled to the side quickly. 

This quick move startled Misdrevoius and caused the attack to miss.

Even better still Brock was, for perhaps the first time in the battle, on top of his opponent.

The Dark Pulse Jormungandr unleashed next almost had a vengeful tinge to it as it seemed to be more powerful than the last and for a moment Yolanda could have sworn Brock’s eyes flickered black. 

Ah, Brock had done a Dark aura empowerment. 

Mismagius flinched back as the Dark Pulse exploded out, hurling the little pokemon back and making it fall to the ground. 

Everyone gasped in shock and a few people shot to their feet cheering only for others to shush them and force them to recall that Agatha was a professional who could and would use darker tactics such as faking being knocked out. 

They were right too as before Brock could close the distance between Jorm and his foe, Mismagius shot up with a defiant scream. 

The little ghost unleashed a dark purple attack that lanced into Jorm and caused him to loosen a groan of pain that Yolanda could almost feel in her bones. Jorm straightened up with fire in his eyes and darkness almost blowing off him with smoke as he prepared to unleash yet another Dark Pulse. 

Before Jorm could so much as twitch in Mismagius’ direction the small ghost crumpled to the ground with a forlorn wail where it hit and caused a small puff of dust.

Everyone paused, unsure of what had just happened. 

Yolanda frowned and was about to access her pokedex to find out only to blink as Brock growled. “So instead of Mismagius knowing Destiny Bond it knows Curse?” 

“For now that’s the state of affairs, yes,” replied Agatha primly. 

“Urgh,” Brock said as he eyed Jorm who shook his head. “Alright fine, be that way,” he said.

A few people in the crowd dared to boo Agatha only for her to turn her head and direct a singularly unimpressed look that caused silence to fall over that patch of the crowd.  

Agatha smirked and nodded to herself after this. 

“I like her energy,” said Crystal with a grin, “I’d sure like to be able to shut up idiots with nothing but a look!” 

Yolanda held back a smirk. “Best get used to glaring at the mirror then,” she said cryptically. She’d followed Brock’s advice from the other day only for him to catch her glaring at herself each time she finished brushing her teeth. 

Terra loved to glare at her reflection though and had taken to adopting a variety of different faces each night. 

Her brother’s actions along with Terra’s antics made the entire ‘training exercise’ much harder but also kind of fun.

Greta chuckled at that and the others bar Giselle ignored her advice. Giselle nodded. ”I find having the right expression when talking with certain people can make all the difference but I have a drama teacher to assist me,” she announced. 

Yolanda considered that. She’d never really thought of the perks that would come with attending a more prestigious school or taking acting classes but if it linked up with being able to ‘quell pokemon with a look’ like Brock had done with Skarmory then maybe it would be worth it?

She made a note of it in her pokedex as she, along with all the others waited with baited breath for Agatha to send out her next pokemon. 

Interestingly enough she didn’t use the entire minute available to her for changing out her pokemon. 

She instead plucked a pokeball from the top of her cane and threw it up into the air where it disgorged a Gengar like no other.

An instant chill shot through Yolanda and she shuddered without knowing why. 

She glanced around and found more than a few people doing only for the feeling to vanish as Sabrina straightened up in the seat in front of her. 

Yolanda blinked in surprise. Was Sabrina glowing? 

The glow faded a moment later, right as Gengy, the starter Gengar for Agatha cackled and floated down to headheight with Jorm.

Wow, that was certainly something, it was like feeling Titan announce himself on the field only the vibrations were felt some other way. 

Yolanda made another note of it even as she leaned forward to watch as Brock faced off against the strongest Gengar in the world. 

                                                                       __________________

I clicked my tongue, Agatha was making this a fight on multiple fronts. It didn’t help that the field perhaps favoured her despite the objective rocky soil that I had available. 

The issue was it wasn’t regulation heights and with this being an Exhibition fight with no breaks there wasn’t going to be any repair to the field mid-match. 

It had been the smallest of decisions a few weeks ago but something that I hadn’t considered the implications of when agreeing to the fight. 

No use complaining about it now. What’s done was done and I needed to work with what I had available to me. 

Which was a cursed Jormungandr against Gengy. 

His appearance caused a powerful chilling wave to sweep over me as ghost energy flooded the arena. I could see a lot of people in the stands shivering. 

Gengy took two Stealth Rocks to the body and if anything his malevolent grin grew by inches like he was feeding off the pain and growing stronger.

I didn’t let myself get unnerved by Gengy’s antics, with Jorm’s energy whittling itself down I needed to go aggressive now. 

Jorm lunged across the field fangs bared only for Gengy to zip to the side and spin in the air with a cackle as he formed up what had to be an Energy Ball. 

It glowed within the ghost pokemon’s hands only to be unleashed at Jorm who dove into the remaining patch of ground. 

With him protected from attacks like that for the moment I had him Rest to get back some of his energy.

Agatha’s gleeful cackle made my gut sink and I met her gaze. “Do you honestly think that the ground will deny me?” she crowed even as Gengy zipped over the point above Jorm’s buried body.

He stared right into my eyes as he sank into the ground, leering at me. 

Shit, I flexed the bond and tried for Sleep Talk. I didn’t usually like to play the chance game as I had found I typically had terrible luck with instances like this. 

I didn’t have much of a choice, however.

Jorm’s sleeping body flexed and I sighed in relief as he performed a submerged Dark Pulse.

Dark Energy exploded out of the ground, causing it to buck like a landmine had gone off.

Despite this Gengy wasn’t ejected out of the ground and I could only scowl as another light show began to flash and despite Jorm’s slumber a creeping pain began to seep into his body. 

Damn it, Agatha was willing to tank the hit thanks to her pushing Gengy to use Dream Eater. 

I flexed the bond as much as I could, jerking it with energy even as I demanded another Sleep Talk, hoping to get something. 

Jorm responded by unleashing an Earthquake. 

“Yes!” I crowed knowing that was another super effective move only to spot the crowd of Mr Mime working to contain any quakes. 

I clicked my tongue and raised his pokeball. I couldn’t allow him to keep shaking the field unless I was willing to risk the crowd. It wasn’t even a choice I needed to think on.

I toggled the return switch and made a sign that I would be withdrawing him. “Sorry, I had him use Rest and Sleep Talk which caused the Earthquake, he wasn’t going to hold back!” I said, projecting my voice. 

I could see some people slump at this as they’d obviously been expecting me to Mega Evolve him and that had been the plan.

But the plan hadn’t survived contact with Agatha. 

Agatha inclined her head towards me. “I can respect that Brock.” She made a show of looking over the crowd for the first time, and I caught her gaze lingering on one section of the stands where Yvonne was. “It can be tough to fight to your full potential when the ones we care for are at risk.”

Somehow I don’t think she was talking about this moment right now, but instead referencing an event in her past. 

“Just means I need more control and precision,” I replied as I palmed my fourth pokemon of this match. 

I hurled the pokeball to the central point of the field to get my pokemon as close to Gengar as I could. 

Shin emerged with a slash of his blades only to lock eyes with Gengy. 

Gengy saw him stiffen for a moment and his grin grew. I held back a smirk, knowing that Gengy must have believed Shin was afraid. 

Shin’s next actions took Gengy by surprise as instead of showing a hint of hesitation I merely flicked the bond with a single command. 

‘Attack’, and Shin went on the attack.

Blades swung through the air with gleaming energy. Gengy’s grin faltered as he suddenly had to backtrack and dodge, twisting and ducking as Shin unleashed a furious assault. 

Both pokemon found themselves locked in a close-range brawl which suited me perfectly as I didn’t want Geny getting even a lick of room to unleash another Energy Ball. 

Where before the match had been a slog we were now locked into a rapid-tempo battle where either pokemon could falter and see themselves cast down.

Agatha disengaged first by having Gengy fade into the ground. I made sure to rub that in by smirking directly at her.

She tried to play it off with a sniff but I knew it annoyed her. Gengy rose up on the other side of the field already in a position to channel and unleash an Energy Ball. 

The ball tore through the arena only for Shin to dodge with a well-timed Aqua Jet that propelled him around in a wide arc. 

I twitched the bond and he adjusted his movements as Gengy went for another Energy Ball. A wide arc wasn’t going to cut it and so instead of keeping up a continual fast sprint Shin cut off and restarted Aqua Jet in a stuttering run that allowed him to juke and change directions on a pokedime. 

Even if he hadn’t learned Psycho Cut, just changing the way he used Aqua Jet would have been a great payoff for the week’s training.

Gengy surprised us by rapid firing three Energy Balls which was a trick I hadn’t even seen one of Erika’s pokemon do. 

It didn’t surprise me that Agatha of all people had tricks like this up her sleeve.

“Fucking bullshit old people,” I muttered as Shin had to juke, jerk, and jank to evade the attacks and their subsequent explosion of grass type energy as he closed in on Gengy. 

I tracked the movements with nothing but my eyes which got harder with all the explosions Gengy was causing. 

When we reached strike range Gengy didn’t back down this time and instead stepped in with a Shadow Claw to counter our Psycho Cut. 

Both attacks slammed together and detonated causing both pokemon to be hurled back. 

Shin dug his blades in what remained of the ground so he wasn’t pushed back as far while Gengy allowed the blast to carry him.

I chewed my lips and shot Shin a query about how far he’d gotten on training himself with aerial Ace only for a sheepish feeling to be my answer. I quickly assured him that learning Psycho Cut was enough along with the variation to Aqua Jet but I could feel his lingering feeling of self-doubt. 

I heaped praise on him mentally as quickly as I could only to shout a warning through the bond as I caught sight of a glow. 

Shin response was so quick I likened it to a professional racer’s instincts as he raised a Protect to block the hidden Energy Ball. 

As smoke fro mthe previous blast cleared Gengy cackled and waggled a finger reproachfully as he appeared. 

I grimaced. Urgh, I’d hadn’t even lost focus on the match and Agatha had been able to capitalise. 

There was no doubt in my mind that she was demonstrating the effectiveness of being able to read others' intentions. 

I wasn’t sure if that was something she could do as a ghost specialist or something that people could all reach should they work hard enough on their bonds and aura. 

I wouldn’t be able to ask until the end of this fight.

As the Protect dropped I decided to roll the dice on some luck by having Shin once more charge in on Gengy only this time when we closed Shin raised a Protect.

Which didn’t falter. 

I offered a quiet prayer to Arceus, to help with my terrible luck as Gengy’s attack was absorbed, I then had Shin cut the energy to Protect as quickly as he could to get in another strike on the backpedalling Gengar. 

The instant the Protect faded Gengy dropped any pretence of retreating and surged back in with Shadow Claw raised. 

I met him but this time Shin twisted into a spin, forcing Gengy to reach a little bit further with his left hand for the strike which allowed Shin to slash with his left hand and cut a line across Gengy’s body. 

Gengy’s attack faltered for a bare moment only to then power through twice as hard. 

Shin got his blade up and blocked that attack on his right blade with Psycho Cut still active. 

This time when the attack launched both pokemon back I had Shin tuck and roll to the side with momentum which proved to be a good decision as Gengy once more fired off an Energy Ball.

The follow-up attack however accounted for Shin’s change in position as Gengy blurred forward and slammed into Shin, knocking him off balance. 

I tried for a third Protect only for it to fail and for Shin to take a super-effective attack that dropped him. 

I returned him with a sigh. I’d asked a lot from Shin with that fight but it was a good fight nevertheless. I got to test him against a seriously strong opponent and I was impressed by his showing.

I palmed my fifth pokemon. Hopefully this one would help me turn the tides somewhat. 

Selene took to the field and locked eyes with Gengy who waved mockingly. 

Selene instantly flashed with psychic energy, performing a Future Sight to give us an edge or a save depending on what the situation was like in the next few rounds. 

Gengy countered with Energy Ball only for Selene to twist around on herself and float to the side making the attack whiff. 

Selene then jutted her lower point up in a challenging manner while narrowing her eyes. 

Through the bond, I could feel her offering up a challenge as she barked her name. “Luna-tone!” 

Gengy drew himself up only to expand his mouth and let his tongue loll out exaggeratedly. “Gengar!” he responded. 

Something twinged in my mind as I thought I saw a flicker of light behind the smile so I quickly ordered Selene to fire off a Psybeam. 

My paranoia was proven correct a moment later as Gengar’s smile returned to its normal levels only to reveal he’d been forming up yet another Energy Ball. 

This time he fired it off only for Selene to respond with a Psybeam that tore through the weak Grass-type move.

Gengy was forced to dodge and his smile faded momentarily as Selene trilled out her challenge once more. 

Gengy growled and threw himself into the ground where he practically warped into Selene’s face where he dropped his shoulder and slammed into her causing her to rocket backwards. 

“Gen Gen Gen!” chuckled Gengy as Selene regathered herself. The ghost-poison-typed pokemon made a show of dusting off his chest which filled Selene with annoyance.

I flexed the bond focusing her anger into a powerful Psychic which tightened around Gengy only for him to respond with a Dark Pulse to escape the attack.

I hummed, mentally juggling the timing of what would come next. It should work… I had Selene line up another Psybeam.

Gengar snorted as he adopted a countering position and this time a Shadow Ball formed up in his grasp to fire upon us. 

Both attacks rocketed forward and s impacted right at the centre of the field causing another detonation to rock the field. 

Gengy then grinned at me as he waggled a finger. I frowned, wondering what the gambit was as I prepared another attack only for Gengy to cross his hands in front of his body like a child forming a Barrier. 

A Protect shimmered around him which had me blinking in surprise. 

Gengy tapped at his wrist and I snorted. 

Of course, he and Agatha had been keeping the timing of a Future Sight coming into effect in mind despite this being a rather chaotic battle.

It was impressive their levels of awareness.

They were however, in the wrong in one of the most glaring ways I’d ever seen from Agatha and one that I or Sabrina hadn’t ever tried against her. 

Specifically they were wrong about Future Sight and Protect. 

I was pleasantly surprised they didn’t know about.

I allowed myself a smirk as I wagged a finger at them in response. 

They’d had long lives, but apparently, they’d never encountered someone using Future Sight against them with them trying to block or Protect against it.

Future Sight couldn’t be blocked by protection moves or Endures, which meant I got a front-row view as Gengy and Agatha got to experience something new.

The Future Sight attack went off and a psychic blast appeared out of thin air within the Protect to slam Gengy to the ground. 

I grinned viciously as I went for the win. 

As the Protect faded I had Selene unleashing a potent Psybeam to slam into the downed Gengar. 

He tumbled with the attack only to hit the back barrier where a trio of Mr Mime braced to hold him and the attack back.

When I relented, smoke wafted up from Gengy’s body.

The arena went quiet. 

Everyone leaned forward.

What happened next reminded me of a horror movie where you thought the good guys had slain the big bad evil only for music to start blaring out of the speakers of your television.

Gengy didn’t even twitch as he rose, his whole body stiff as he arched forward with gleaming red eyes that blazed with fury. 

A chill once more swept through the arena as Gengy made his presence known.

I called forth my darkness and held it against the waves of ghostly energy that were wafting off Gengy. 

I’d once thought that Empress or Moltres were the scariest pokemon I’d ever encountered. 

Somehow, Gengy in this moment eclipsed them. 

I was forcibly reminded that Gengy had once been alive before his death and returned as a ghost-type pokemon. He knew death in a way few others would have without even taking into account that Agatha would have taken him through their fair share of battles where no one was pulling their punches.

Gengy wasn’t just an old veteran.

Gengy was an old veteran who had survived and most likely thrived during the war.

His red eyes promised a future where I and all that I loved would see death come for me with a certainty that should have chilled me to the bone.

Selene quavered slightly only for me to take control of our bond. I gently encapsulated Selene with my dark energy while calling more forth from within myself.

I met Gengy’s stare calmly. 

Life takes on a different feel to it when you’re in your second life. 

I wasn’t afraid for myself that death would come. 

I knew that, and in some manner, I couldn’t bring myself to articulate on, I knew that I did not need to fear looking a visage of death in the face. 

Gengy paused. 

His expression shifted to one of confusion as I stared at him without a flicker of fear running through me.

His gaze slowly turned assessing. 

He must have liked whatever he saw as he nodded once and looked away to Agatha. 

Agatha raised her eyebrows and made a surprised noise. “Hoh? What’s this? Gengy has lost his will to fight? Interesting young Brock, very interesting!” she said. “You’ve done two things to surprise me tonight!” she declared. 

I merely crossed my arms as Agatha returned Gengy to the pokeball atop her cane. “I’m more surprised you didn’t know about Future Sight and how it interacts with Protect,” I said.

Agatha raised up another pokeball and shot me a smirk. “Most psychics didn’t ever get the chance to use it in the past,” she informed me with a tone that made it clear that said psychics hadn’t survived those encounters.

Ah, that would explain her not encountering it during the war. She killed any psychics she enctounered.

I considered the state of the battle and my mind began to conjure up the most likely scenario that would happen.

I found I didn’t like the most likely scenario.

I could do nothing but sigh. 

I suddenly felt like a chess player with the board laid out before more having played a series of moves only to be staring down inevitability.

I knew what was coming and there wasn’t much I could do.

It felt like checkmate was waiting for me in two moves. 

Despite that, I forced Agatha to make the calls as her second Gengar took to the field. 

I had Selene perform another Future Sight as Gengar shot across the field to claw at Selene with Shadow Claw, another super-effective attack. into Selene. 

Selene took the hit like a champ soaring back only to bounce off the ground instead of being embedded. She spun like a chakram through the air as she set herself back into a fighting position and with a little wobble she roared out a challenge.

With her holding out I dared to hope. 

I pushed the next order out and she channeled her might into one more Psybeam only for her attack to be dodged. 

Gengar closed with a vicious smirk as it blitzed us from the side. 

This time the Shadow Claw knocked her into the ground hard and Selene didn’t get back up.  

I sighed and sent forth Knight. 

In another situation, I might have sent out Empress as part of my team. She could have slotted in for quite a few of my pokemon such as Gawain or Shin or even Knight. 

But thanks to Mewtwo’s gift I was hesitant to take her away from what was basically a honeymoon period of positive emotions with her little family.

So I made the most of what I had available to me.

I stared right into Agatha’s eyes, knowing what was about to come next. 

For the first time in the match, she pointed her cane at my pokemon. “Destiny Bond!” she cackled. 

And there it was, Checkmate.

I chuckled even as I tried to throw off the oncoming Destiny Bond by having Knight dive into the patchwork of earth. 

He dodged into the earth only for Gengar to be fast enough to follow him into the ground.

I felt the Destiny Bond connect through the link I shared with my pokemon.

I could only sigh and stare up at the ceiling as Agatha had her pokemon float back up through the ground. 

Knight popped back up a moment later with an annoyed glower at his foe. I shook my head and mentally apologised to him before pointing out that he’d get to hang out at the rodeo properly. That had him perking up as I recalled him and made a sign to the referee.

In a way I was laying my king over and acknowledging the defeat but I also knew there was more at play here. This had been a terrible format for me, but despite that, I had still come out of it with a lot more than I'd gone in. 

“Brock has withdrawn his Aggron! The score is therefore six to four with Agatha the victor!” The referee shot his flags up and shouted the result for all and sundry to hear but I paid it no mind.

I could have perhaps padded the fight out and gone through the motions to get it to six to five but that wouldn’t have served me in any way beyond pride. 

I marched over to Agatha and shook her hand which she matched. 

“You could have done that for all of your pokemon… couldn’t you?” I suggested. 

Agatha nodded her head. “I could have and I have done it to upjumped trainers before.” She cackled to herself and leaned in to whisper, “I did it once to Bruno when he got too hot-headed. Sent the man into a conniptions it did but he didn’t dare challenge me for a whole year after that!”

I blinked, imagining Bruno, the hard-working Elite Four trainer that was basically a walking to being amped up for a fight. Only for Agatha to counter him with a team that basically used nothing but Destiny Bonds, Curses, and Perish Songs to deny him a straight-up match.

“That… is both the most evil thing I think you can do to a man like that but I also would have loved to watch such a fight,” I said as my inner darkness acted up. It was more his reaction to Agatha’s tactics that I wanted to see.

I nodded at Agatha. “Thanks for not doing that against me.” 

“You are many things but upjumped is not a term I’d use for yourself Brock,” she said quietly. 

She made a show of looking me up and down. “I wanted you to experience what it was like to fight another who had the same level of aura awareness as yourself and then some. I should warn you that tipping my hand like this will send the Elders of Blackthorn into conniptions and make them double down on their training with Lance and others like him. That being said…” she looked over the crowd of cheering fans that were in the stands. “I don’t fear such a future anymore,” she admitted only to blink as though the admission surprised her. 

“You’ve got hope,” I said. 

Agatha blinked and stared at me. “You’re a surprise Brock, one I find myself…” she trailed off and opened and closed her mouth a few times before she shook her head. “Bah! Look at me diddling on like an old woman! I won! There! Cower before me for your defeat!” she growled, slipping into her usual acerbic antics.

I sighed. For a moment there she’d been a useful mentor and insight if polite elderly woman.

“I think I got an idea what you were trying to show me by the way,” I said, steering things back in a productive direction.

Agatha didn’t respond beyond a nod. 

I was about to ask her some pointed questions when a loud shout interrupted our chat. “AAAAAAAGGAAAATHA!” 

Agatha and I looked over to find Samuel Oak sprinting towards us. 

I chuckled, “Congratulations I think you got Samuel’s attention,” I said. 

Agatha sighed. “Typical man, I help him forge a nation and he doesn’t so much as look at me! But if I find a pokemon not native to this region? Oh, that brings him running doesn’t it!” she snapped. 

I chuckled. Ah, she wasn’t wrong and Samuel must have known he was annoying her as when he reached her he twisted to the side, dodging her cane stab to his gut so he could close and put his hands on her. 

“I need to know everything!” he said like a child that had just learned their friend had discovered a secret. 

I chuckled at their antics and waved to the crowd. 

My fight might be over and I might have lost but I knew it wasn’t a true reflection of me or my team. 

Now that it was over I could relax. 

For now, though I planned to stay close and demand some answers from Agatha once Oak was done with her. 

Her discovery of a pokemon like Aegislash raised some serious questions that I wanted answers to as well, because if she’d found something like that, then was there the potential to find more hidden gems that I could use?

                                                      ________________________________

A.N. So I started writing this playing with ways to make it so that Brock wouldn’t win too hard with how strong some of the pokemon he has access to when I started seriously considering the teams that Agatha could put together and what that would mean for an Exhibition match. 

What I quickly worked out?

Never offer Agatha an Exhibition match. 

She will always have the means to make it a draw at minimum for herself unless you possess a team that can go for alpha strikes faster than her so that moves like Destiny Bond and Perish Song can’t be used… which… with her possessing multiple Gengar alone, is asking a bit much. You also can't swap your pokemon out in an Exhibition match.

If you can get yourself one or two pokemon leads you have less to fear with Perish Song and Destiny Bond. 

This of course then runs into the issue of Agatha’s Gengy being the oldest Gengar around. 

Morty the Ghost Gym Leader in Johto? He wishes he had a Gengar a tenth of Gengy’s strength. 

Now with that being said I got towards the end of writing this chapter and I had an existential dread come over me cause I know how readers dislike any plotline that involves Brock losing.

I hope you can see this was always a no-win scenario for Brock unless he went at this fight with everything he had along with stopping it from being an exhibition match.

Also, he only ever made the challenge to show Yvonne he could and would stand up for her against her mentor. 

I could honestly write out a huge post chapter author note about this but I hope the intent of this fight comes through. 

In short, Agatha knew she could have screwed Brock over and made this a poor showing but instead chose to make this a learning experience. 

In the end she learned a few things herself much to her surprise.

Also if you missed why she hadn't had to deal with Future Sight in the past it's because she killed any psychics she encountered before they could be a threat to her and her team. 

Love it? Hate it? Tolerate it? Please comment and I’ll try and read them over and reply to your comments! 

Thanks got to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!