“I always knew?” Yolanda read aloud.

She lowered the gossip magazine that had a photo of myself and Walker shaking hands after our match. His face was bare to the world. In the corner of the front page, a picture of Falkner was shown looking towards the reader with the quote hanging above him.

He looked remarkably composed.

I scratched my chin and nodded. “Even if he didn’t know, that’s a good call he made. I have to give it to him, I’m impressed he went for that option,” I said.

Yolanda looked up. “What do you mean?”

I wobbled my hand lazily. “What he tells the public doesn’t need to be the truth. It shows a level of maturity to know that he doesn’t have to present the truth.”

“So he’s a liar,” said A.J. with a huff.

I nodded. “Possibly. I think chances are that he is lying, but honestly? That’s not a bad call on his part.”

“It’s a white lie?” Yolanda said with a thoughtful frown.

I nodded and made a so-so gesture. “It doesn’t hurt anything and it allows him to save face, while making Walker’s… transition into Ace challenges look more planned. That might not be the truth, but so what? Some personal things like what’s going on between him and his father? They don’t need to know.”

Yolanda tilted her head. “Is there any reason we couldn’t do something—”

“Not until she comes back. And our situations aren’t completely the same,” I said, feeling like a heel as I saw Yolanda’s hope shrivel.

“Why?” she said, clenching the magazine like a paper shield before her from my arguments.

“Because we have a much larger family. Everyone knows that Flint left with a large family to look after. There’s much more…” I paused to consider my words carefully. “Acceptance for any excuses and rationales for Falkner might offer up more than there is for Flint or Lola. There is a sticking point for Flint, as it wasn’t just the Gym but the entire family to look after.”

“Oh,” said Yolanda. “That… makes a lot of sense.”

I hummed and considered what else I could say. I could easily beat down on Flint or… her, if I wanted to but that wasn’t what I should go for. Instead, I sighed and sat up. “Things might have been tough for a little while Yolanda, but Flint’s back now.”

“When do you think Mum will come back?” she said quietly.

The rest of the people in the tent all shifted so that they were busy with something else.

Amazingly even A.J. realised he shouldn’t listen in on this moment as he stood and strode out, dragging Missy, Greta and Rachel with him.

Yolanda blinked, having apparently forgotten that they were even here with us.

I sighed.

With the canonical knowledge I had of Lola. I wasn’t expecting her back until the end of the second year of Ash’s Journey. But I had no justification for that.

I stared at my hands. “I… I’m not sure Yolanda. I think she will come back, and Arceus, when that happens?” I shot Yolanda a suffering look. “Things are going to be weird when she does return.”

“...” She opened and closed her mouth.

“I will let her come back Yolanda.” Despite how much that felt like a mistake, I thought to myself. “But, I think I need to draw some lines in the sand so to speak that she shouldn’t cross. Flint… he got a lot of my ire but he was here for us for a bit. … Lola, I’m not even sure what to think with her running off like that.” I gestured from Yolanda to me. “Normal families don’t have to talk about stuff like this.”

I held up a hand. “That said, like with Flint, when she comes back, I’m not going to ignore it. I’m going to tear into her for deserting our family. We should be her top priority. Ignoring what she did is just inviting her to do it again and that’s not healthy for us. And I don’t want our brothers and sisters to learn to be pushovers. Sometimes the people we love can hurt us the worst, so respect must be part of the relationship.” I felt myself tensing up just talking about her but I tried to control myself. Getting terse with Yolanda wouldn’t help.

Zubat must have somehow detected my stress as she crawled out of my vest’s top pocket to nuzzle at me. I took her in my hands and started to rub her head, the action soothing my nerves.

“I kind of hate that I understand what you’re talking about,” Yolanda said quietly while looking at the ground.

She then shot me a sardonic look. “Did you ever talk to Forrest about this?”

I snorted. “Heh! Please! Who are you kidding? Forrest likes to pretend to be a man’s man! He wouldn’t talk about things like this! This is soft, sissy stuff,” I said with a fake macho-sounding voice.

Zubat’s ears wiggled from me to Yolanda and her mouth stretched as she smiled. Hmmm she was a very aware little pokemon, wasn’t she?

“Hehehe, that does sound like him,” Yolanda said as she wiped at her eyes.

I felt a stab in my chest at the sight before sighing. “Yeah, he’s being dumb. It’s not sissy, it’s moments like this that often are some of the toughest situations you will find yourself in. It can be stressful and while you can be strong in other situations, you might be brittle when it comes to moments like this.’ I waved a hand around. “You can lash out, or leave or do something most of the time. In really tough situations? You just have to be there and endure, talk it out where you can.”

I gave Yolanda a sad smile and returned to petting Zubat. “It’s not very fun,” I said. “It can be hard though to learn to allow yourself to be soft when you need to.”

I waved a hand outside. “Common consensus is that this will be something learned through your Journey. It usually manifests with needing to ask for help from people. There are usually trainers that are wandering around keeping an eye out just to offer new trainers support.”

“What happens if people don’t go on their Journey?” she asked.

I tilted my head. “Where’d this question come from?”

“I just, never really thought about it till now, but not everyone gets to go on their journey, do they? A lot of people talk about their Journey and how great it will be but then, some of them can’t go, or they pull out after a while.”

I grimaced. “Hmmm good point, I am a bit biased as I had a good start and that can mean the world for a young trainer. But you’re right. There are plenty of folk that don’t or can’t go.”

I rubbed my chin and considered how it went for me in my past life. It wasn’t a one-to-one comparison, not with the lack of pokemon but… “Maybe they sort of float around a bit more and struggle. Some of the life lessons would be missed that some people are going to assume you know.”

I looked up. Yolanda had potentially hit on a rather large sticking point for a lot of our society. Not everyone wanted to or could be pokemon trainers through no fault of their own. Some jobs didn’t require it, but being a pokemon trainer was held up as the golden standard.

“I think I’d need to ask around a bit more to learn about it, which might be a bit odd as a pokemon Gym Leader,” I said.

“Ah, I just thought of some of the kids in my class, and also our siblings. What happens if some of them don’t want to go on their journeys.”

I opened my mouth to jokingly say something crass-like, ‘We push them out the door with a handful of pokeballs and a random pokemon’, but that wouldn’t go over well. So Instead I shrugged. “We just support them as best we can, I suppose. It might be a different sort of support than you, or Forrest have received. but that doesn’t mean we’ll leave them behind.”

I stood and moved over to her to put a hand on her shoulder, Zubat shifting to my shoulder to watch. “Hey, this is some pretty heavy stuff we’re talking about here. You shouldn’t have to worry about it.”

“I kind of feel like I have to somedays, otherwise people just ignore it,” she said bitterly. I leaned down and hugged her.

“Don’t be looking too shouldering too much. It’s not a good thing to have to grow up too early. Keep some childishness and wonder of the world.”

“Wonder for the world?” she said with a chuckle. “What does that even mean?”

“Well, allowing yourself to feel wonder can be important. I’ve been taking you older kids up to Mt Moon for ages and usually, I just sit there and don’t really feel much at the moment.” I blushed and broke the hug looking away. “Then I took Sabrina up there and got a reminder of just how… special moments like that are, and I relaxed. Then Link walked up and said he wanted to be my pokemon.”

“Oh,” Yolanda said. She shot me an amused look. “I knew that you and Sabrina going up there had resulted in you getting Link, but you hadn’t mentioned that part. Did you and her smooch?” she said gleefully.

I sighed. And with that statement, I knew that my little sister was feeling fine now. “Yes, we did,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“Awww!” Yolanda said happily.

I made a show of rolling my eyes at her again and she stuck her tongue out. Terra, who’d been sitting quietly waddled up and bumped herself into Yolanda to show she was happy her partner was feeling better. The little Larvitar shot Zubat a thoughtful look, hmmm she might have learnt a thing or two just now.

I walked to the tent flaps to see if the others were lingering only to find Rachel rocking back and forth on her heels while chatting up the towering form of Trixie.

“Rachel, Trixie,” I said with a nod to both of them. I was a little surprised to see Trixie here, but then again she was Rachel’s girlfriend. The girls waved back as I looked around for the other three. “They went and got into some fights?” I asked.

“They went and got into some fights!” confirmed Rachel with a nod.

“Even Greta?” I said with a touch of surprise.

“Especially Greta!” said Rachel with a huge smile.

I huffed, amused by this turn of events. I waved to the two girls. “Come on in, we’re going to talk shop about the next matches I have coming up.”

Initially, Trixie stood in the back performing what looked like calf raises as she shifted from foot to foot keeping her mouth shut. “You can join us if you’d like?” I prompted, gesturing to a spare seat.

Trixie liked her lips. “I’m not a trainer for the Gym though?”

“Eh, I employ you and you’re good people,” I said casually. I very much doubted anyone could copy Trixie’s constant need to perform some form of exercise. She took a seat and even as Rachel sat in her lap to keep her down she pulled out a grip strength trainer from her pouch.

Trixie looked over Clarence’s roster of pokemon and chewed her lip. “A fighting type pokemon or two would work?” she suggested, earning a giggle from Rachel.

I shook my head, having expected as much. Still, it wasn’t a bad suggestion and Hypnotoad was a good addition.

In the end, I went with Zephyr, Hypnotoad, Gawain, Knight, Shin, and Shrek. An unusual assortment to be sure but I was confident in Shrek holding down the anchor if I needed it from him. It was a fairly good diversity of pokemon as well.

I decided to roll with it. The next match wasn’t as high stakes with Clarence being even lower than my first two challenges.

He’d had a lucky run so far.

When we reached the stadium I could see that he knew it as well. There was a slight slump to his shoulders and no spark in his eyes when we locked gazes.

The referee performed the usual pre-match routine and I hefted my first pokeball.

“Go Sunflora!” he said, sending out the best chance he had at this match first. I had to give it to him. He might not have the will to fight, but he still had good insight. Chances were that they’d usually do very well against the majority of my pokemon.

Just not this time. “Go Zephyr,” I said with a slight grimace of apology sent to Clarence.

His eyes widened as he instantly recognised how terrible this match up was. “Sunflora! Return!”

“Calm Mind,” I said placidly.

Clarence held his pokeball for a long moment. His hand switching from pokeball to pokeball, before he growled and went for one at the back. “Go Graveler!” he shouted.

I whistled in surprise. That, had been one of the pokemon we’d assumed he would avoid using. With it coming out I knew what I had to look out for.

“Hypnosis,” I said quickly. Zephyr’s eyes started to glow and Clarence stiffened.

“No! Go for Self Destruct!” he called only for his pokemon to fall on its face as it fell asleep. “Urgh! No!” he called. “Wake up buddy! I need you up and fighting!”

I felt a little bad for him but that didn’t stop me from pointing at the downed pokemon. “Feast,” I said to Noctowl and he beat his wings and hovered as psychic energy built up and swept from him to Graveler before coming back. Gravler twitched in pain but remained sleeping.

“Again,” I said, committing Zephyr to Dream Eater. He devoured yet more energy from Graveler and a moment later the other pokemon stopped snoring and very calming rolled over to show that it was well and truly out of the fight.

“Return buddy,” said Clarence. He ran his hands over his pokebelt for a few moments as he lost himself in thought.

For my part, I called Zephyr back to my side of the field. That… hadn’t been a great showing on his part. I glanced about, eying all the people watching.

Was one of them noting down anything specific, my mind couldn’t stop itself from recalling earlier matches that had been…

No.

That situation wasn’t playing out. People were probing me, but it was nothing like what Will had set up with his specialised challenges.

“Go Flaaffy!” he said, sending out another pokemon that would do well against Zephyr.

I nodded, respecting the choice. I’d seen this on his roster and once again thought it had a low chance of appearing. It was a pokemon that wasn’t fully evolved. Also, I had a lot of video recordings of Zephyr beating down and enduring electric-type pokemon.

“Thunderbolt!” said Clarence, starting things off quickly.

“Steel Wing into Psychic,” I replied. Zephyr happily dove into the ground, his wings glinting as he stabbed them into the earth before the electricity could impact him.

With his body earthed only a fraction of the damage was done with the thunderbolt. Zephyr quickly snapped his head up and fired off a Psychic that resulted in Flaaffy being hurled across the field.

I blinked in surprise. That had been a lot faster and harsher response than I’d been expecting from Zephyr. Zephyr himself seemed surprised. I hummed. Ah, Clarence’s Flaffy wasn’t up to strength, its thunderbolt was weak compared to a lot of what Zephyr was used to dealing with from Sanchez.

“Moonblast,” I said, deciding to work Zephyr through a different move than he was used to. He didn’t falter from the unexpected command and a moment later had a powerful pink orb launched at Flaaffy.

“Dodge!” called Clarence and his pokemon leapt only to be struck by the edge. It flailed and hit the ground with a tumble before shooting back to its feet, baaing angrily.

“That’s it! stay in the fight—” Clarence started to say only for a white light to shine up around Flaaffy.

“Oh damn,” I said in surprise as Flaffy started to evolve in response to how tough a fight Zephyr was putting up. A moment later a glistening Ampharos stood ready to keep fighting.

“Yes! That’s the way boy! Show them your strength with Power Gem!”

“Dust off! Now!!” I called instantly, well aware of the danger that move could have on Zephyr.

Zephyr kicked his feet into the ground and flapped hard to escape the buckshot of rock. Some still hit him and he cried out in pain but kept rising up.

When he had a good position I stabbed my hand forward.

“Moon Blast!” I said and this time with the power of gravity backing it up, Moon Blast didn’t knock Ampharos around but rather hammered him down like a nail.

When the dust cleared Ampharos staggered to its feet disorientated and out of sorts. I shot Clarence a look and was pleased to see that he had his pokeball raised already. “I withdraw my pokemon from the match!” he called. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

I nodded, happy that he valued his pokemon. I could have easily dispatched his pokemon with how out of it it was.

Clarence locked eyes with my pokemon, a thoughtful frown appearing there. Hmmm he was smelling blood was he? Well time to quash that. Zephyr was a bit injured now, so I raised his pokeball and returned him. “Come back boy, you’ve done well.”

Clarence twitched before he shook his head and sent out his fourth pokemon, his slump returning in full.

“Go Golduck,” he called revealing a pokemon that wasn’t on his known pokemon roster.

“Hoh? You’ve been holding this one back,” I said.

Clarence nodded. “I want to see what he can do against one of your rock pokemon.”

I tilted my head. “Hmmm, I’m curious myself but… I have no reason to oblige you. Go Hypnotoad,” I said, sending out my next pokemon and the one Trixie had advocated for.

Clarence perked up and I knew straight away what he was going to go for. “Ps—”

“DL,” I said, feeding my intent into the bond I had with Hypnotoad.

She sprinted forward and just as Golduck started to unleash a powerful Psybeam, she spun over and over, dark energy wafting off her form and helping her tank the psychic attack.

Golduck and Clarence were completely taken by surprise when she reached Golduck, only to slam her arm into the other pokemon’s neck.

She bore him to the ground and with Golduck flat on his back it was all too easy for Hypnotoad to go to town with punch after punch.

After she’d unleashed a quick one-two combination she cocked her fist back and energy built up around it.

When she next struck down she finished the fight and stood tall, not a lick of damage to be shown.

“Poli!” she roared to the crowd, flexing and posing like a bodybuilder.

I chuckled and glanced towards Trixie, who was sitting with the others, a happy expression, as always, on display. I paused. Was she sitting, or doing a squat hold on the stairs?

Damn, while I was winning matches, she was training.

That woman was terrifying.

Almost as much as Sabrina.

I’d beat her one day in a running race. I had vowed to myself as much. It wouldn’t matter if it was a day she was sick, it would still count.

I turned back in time for Sunflora to take to the stage once more. I, suddenly feeling no mercy, pointed. “Hypno!” I said, and Hypno turned her body and flexed at the Grass type pokemon as her body swirl rotated catching Clarence and his pokemon once more off guard with Hypnosis.

“Ah no! Not again!” he said.

I started to feel a little bad as he was forced to watch his pokemon take a proper beat down as Hypnotoad slammed home blow after blow. Sunflora was quickly recalled leaving Clarence one last pokemon.

He hesitated as Poliwrath beat her chest and fired off punch after punch. I hummed and decided to give him a better shot with a less powerful pokemon. I returned Hypnotoad and instead reached for another pokemon that needed more experience.

“Go Gawain!” I said, sending out my Kleavor.

“Kleav!” he said, brandishing his axes and settling into a ready position.

“Urgh!” said Clarence as he revealed his last pokemon. “Go Victreebel! Start out with Vine Whip!” he said.

I coughed. Ah, he’d have had better chances against Hypnotoad. Whoops? I thought to myself as I pointed straight ahead. “X-scissor, cut your way to that pokemon and let’s wrap this match up!” I said.

And Gawain did just that, sprinting straight ahead, his axes raised and ready like a lumberman in a forest that had somehow offended him. He tore through the Vines that tried to slam into him making Victreebel screech in pain only to then be smashed back as an X-scissor swept through it.

Victreebel fell back and stood tall only for me to make another chopping gesture. I didn’t let up and Clarence had to use Vine Whip this time to evade my pokemon’s pursuit.

“Speed up!” I said, ordering Agility to get Gawain to go even faster.

“Sunny Day!” called Clarence.

I hummed and decided to go for it. “Charge in and get ready to block the attack!”

Clarence perked up, obviously sensing a chance for his pokemon. “Blast it!” he called as Gawain closed, much faster than before but still not fast enough to stop the Solar Beam that erupted from Victreebel.

The beam almost reached Gawain before he crossed his axes, and a Protect formed.

“Ah damn it!” called Clarence as he watched his last shot fizzle out.

It was a quick matter to have his pokemon swept from the field with another hit and just like that I advanced to the semi-final without breaking a sweat in this match.

I leaned forward, pleased by my pokemon’s showing. A cheer from a section of young boys made me glance over. The boys unveiled a huge banner pronouncing themselves as Bug Catcher’s Chapter house five of Celadon.

Gawain waved at them happily and I moved to give Clarence a shake before offering him some advice. He’d had some good instincts, and it looked like he’d tried to anticipate me, but I sadly had a relatively good roster with my Rock, Ground, Water, and flying types.

They did a rather remarkable job covering for each other and tripping people up who were aiming for my weak points with water, or grass-type pokemon.

I went straight back to the tent finding A.J. with a scowl, Missy with a smile, and Greta with a huge grin. Hmmm, it seems like they had productive sessions.

“Alright team! Time for review of my next opponent!” I glanced around for the pad and brought up the tournament brackets. “Who is… Fifi, currently ranked seventieth on the ladder,” I said with a soft nod.

When I brought up her roster I found it littered with water and grass pokemon that she surely had to use

With barely any discussion I laid out a team consisting of Sanchez, Tide, Don, Gawain, Bertha and Titan.

Yolanda whistled. “You’re going hard at her there,” she said. I grunted an odd sense of unease building as I stared at the brackets. One more victory and I’d be in the final… This was the best result I’d had to date.

I licked my lips, shaking off that thought instead deciding to focus on something more productive. “Let’s see some of her former matches. We’re the last match this afternoon and I want to be ready for any tricks she might have.”

I found myself leaning forward and bouncing my knee as Missy began outlining some specific tricks she’d noted.

“Her Donphan has this trick with his Earthquake where he knocks pokemon off their feet before going in hard so watch for that!”

I nodded trying to keep my attention on the here and now, even as I began to imagine what it would be like, lifting the trophy.

I shook it off and focussed on the here and now. It wouldn’t be long before the next match after all.

[/hr]

“Go Vaporeon!” called my opponent in the semifinals.

I frowned, alright. It seemed like more and more people had done their homework and were bringing pokemon with type advantages against me.

Sadly for them, I had their counters ready to go. “Sanchez,” I said and my eclectic rock type happily appeared with a laugh and a wave.

“Tch! Baton Pass!” said Fifi, my opponent for the match.

In the stands, I could see the girl, Scarlet, who had been pointed out watching on with her own group carefully documenting this fight. It made sense for her, she’d advanced to the finals and the winner of this match would face her.

Sadly my match had been held till last as the draw card for more people.

The stands were packed and there was an air of wonder with a lot of media starting to probe me for my next ‘reveal’. It was almost a given at this point that I brought something new to the table and I had jokingly pointed out that they weren’t satisfied with the reveal that I had two Tyranitar in my roster to be enough?

That had gotten them to stop and consider it while I’d smiled and mentally patted myself on the back for dodging the question.

I had to wonder how telling it was that I did in fact have something to reveal to the public.

I’d started to have doubts though. I wasn’t sure if it was the smartest move for me to send out Jormungandr and make a statement.

The important people knew, of course, but other Ace trainers? They had no clue what I could call up.

“Stealth Rock,” I said just as Fifi got her swapped pokemon onto the field to reveal a Donphan.

Ah, that was a good match up. I whipped out Sanchez’s pokeball and got him out of there with a quick withdrawal. Fifi perked up and I spotted Scarlet leaning forward with interest.

“Go, Tide,” I said, sending out a much better option for this exchange as Donphan got off a Defense Curl.

Tide smirked across at Donphan, his flippers twitching in readiness.

Fifi didn’t return her pokemon and instead leaned forward slightly, her intent all but being announced to me. I knew what she was going for having reviewed some of Fifi’s matches prior to my match against her.

She was a solid opponent, she had a good pokemon roster and she had good ideas for how to use them, but you could also anticipate her.

“Go!” she called trying to keep her command hidden but I knew what was coming as Donphan curled into a ball, spun up and then jumped. When he slammed into the ground it rumbled into an Earthquake.

Usually, this was a great one-two combination for her, even against pokemon that she had a disadvantage against such as Tide.

She first disrupted their footing, and then hammered into them with a Rapid Spin resulting in a knockout that could take people by surprise.

I had been counting on it however and instead, I had Tide lead with a Surf at the very last moment. Tide rose above the shaking earth and caused Donphan, expecting an off-kilter pokemon to start charging into a towering wave with Tide riding it.

“Break off!” shouted Fifi but it was too late.

Donphan skittered to a halt but the wave came on sweeping Donphan aside.

And like that, I went one up into the match with her Donphan out of action.

That didn’t stop Fifi from sending out her next pokemon quickly. “Go Vileplume!”

Her pokemon appeared only for a singular Stealth Rock to race out and smash into it. Hmmm the Earthquake and Surf might have wiped them out earlier.

I felt a bit bad for her as I gave the next command. “Ice Beam!” I called, stabbing my hand forward.

Tide happily disgorged the powerful attack.

“Protect!” shouted Fifi. Her Vileplume tilted its flower so that it was lined up towards Tide.

The Protect formed up and stopped Ice Beam in its tracks.

I whistled and had Tide cut off the attack rather than keep trying to hammer his way through something that wasn’t going to give. Not on the first use of it anyway. He was no Empress.

The Protect dropped quickly and Fifi was fast on the uptake. “Leaf Storm!” she ordered, sending her pokemon on the attack.

I stabbed my hand at her pokemon. “Hyper Beam,” I said, committing to having this exchange over fast. Fifi blanched as Tide opened his maw, and this time unleashed a much more powerful beam attack.

“Protect!” she called, and this time, as I’d expected the defensive move failed to manifest resulting in Vileplume being hurled from the field where it was held against the wall. This time the barriers held, only gaining an orange glow from Tide’s attack.

He tossed his head and took deep breaths to recover.

It took long moments for the dust to clear only to reveal a Vileplume that was still, just barely able to fight. Fifi perked up as I hummed in consideration. She had a strong pokemon there.

“Leaf Storm!” she called, and this time it was Tide’s turn to endure the move, which was sadly super effective.

Just as Hyper Beam hadn’t ended the match for me though, Leaf Storm wasn’t enough despite the type advantage. Tide was too strong and was more than able to tank the blow. He emerged damaged but more than ready to keep going. So I committed him fully. “Ice Beam,” I said, causing him to once more shoot a beam.

This time Fifi didn’t try to block the attack. She instead went for a dodge. “Vine Whip Leap!” she called. Her pokemon smashed its vines into the ground and launched it into the air.

Tide merely tilted his neck, correcting his angle of firing and kept up the Ice Beam, coating Vileplume in ice as she was unable to dodge.

I exhaled in relief. That… had been a bit closer than I’d perhaps wanted but then again I was brute forcing this match.

I wasn’t sure why, but I had a tension in my shoulders that came with an itch in my neck.

Like I felt something was going to go wrong, so I had to get through it as quickly as possible.

With that in mind, Tide had suffered.

I frowned at him and decided now was a good enough time to call him back. With Vileplume down and out Fifi had to send out her next pokemon. She chose her Vaproreon once again and I just knew she was going to switch out to get a more favourable match up if I didn’t send out something favourable.

So I decided to tempt her.

“Go, Don,” I said, sending my rock-flying type out.

Fifi paused at this and seemed pleased to let this play out.

I smirked. She wouldn’t know what hit her.

“Rise into DD!” I called, Don flapped his wings to ascend and begin twisting as a glow of energy built up around him.

“Hydro Pump!” shouted Fifi, stabbing a finger towards Don.

“Evade!” I called, and thanks to the height Don had, he was able to twist and tuck evading the long-range attacks. When Vaproen stopped he made sure to waggle his legs and screech obnoxiously, obviously taunting his foe.

“Dive into Stone Edge!” I called, and Don plummeted out of the sky. With his wings tucked up he was able to blitz Vapoeron, peppering it with a wave of large rocks causing it to flinch.

“Skip around and catch him with Surf!” Fifi called, eagerly apparently seeing a chance.

I also saw a chance as her pokemon committed the attack.

“Ascend and be ready to dodge!!” I called, letting Don know I had a plan. I watched carefully and just as Don was about to avoid the oncoming wave Fifi made her move.

Vaporeon blended with the water of the Surf but it was child’s play to fly over the attack close enough to tempt Fifi.

“Take him out with Aqua Tail!” she called.

Vaporeon leapt from the wave, its tail arcing around with glowing blue energy.

“Tuck a wing,” I said lazily. Don did so, evading the strike and leaving Vaproen to fall back to the ground, no longer in the water.

I pointed and didn’t even need to give the command.

Don opened his maw, eyes glinting malevolently. From his mouth another Hyper Beam swept the field, blowing Vaporeon away.

This time when the dust settled Vaporeon was revealed, but unlike Vileplume she wasn’t getting back on her feet.

“Damn! What is this a Beam show or something? Calm down!” Fifi called as she tugged on her hair in irritation, her hand questing for her next pokemon as she eyed Don who was quickly regathering himself.

I smirked. I did still have the option of other pokemon still. If I’d wanted to make a statement I could have used Empress.

Fifi went with a Persian next but I, feeling the niggling doubt come back, returned Don.

“Huh, if you’re going to oblige me like that, then Nasty Plot!” Fifi said, boosting her pokemon’s special attack.

“Go Sanchez,” I said, glad to send him out once again and keep things controlled.

“Seed Bomb!” said Fifi, quickly disabusing me of that idea.

“Dig!” I said, making Sanchez dive to avoid the explosive seeds that Persian spat out. Unlike Exeggutor’s attacks, the blasts were much smaller.

Sanchez was able to get under Persian and flick her into the air with a loud call of. “Golem!”

Persian, caught in the air, yowled. Fifi snarled, and punched her fist forward. “If you want a Beam Attack take this! Hyper Beam!” she called.

Persian, still falling, locked its head onto Sanchez and opened its maw to reveal a glowing build-up from the back of its throat.

I didn’t panic, despite the pressure I felt I was under. “Protect,” I said, happy to let this exchange play out. I could probably dodge with Dig, but it might also shake up the ground enough to hurt Sanchez.

Better to go for the guaranteed denial.

The Hyper Beam scorched a circle in the ground and shook the stadium causing a round of gasps from the crowd but I merely leaned into the shaking.

When Persian was done it landed lightly and panted only for Sanchez to march up to the Persian with a friendly smile. “Go lem!” he said encouragingly, like they weren’t in the midst of a fight.

He clamped one hand on the exhausted pokemon and the smile vanished as he lit up with a Thunder from point-blank range, knocking Persian out of the fight.

“Urgh! Damn you’re being brutal today!” called Fifi. I blinked and found her looking at the scoreboard with the time passed indicating that we still hadn’t reached five minutes despite all the change outs of pokemon we’d had.

I’d also yet to lose a pokemon compared to her four pokemon down. By this point the match was a foregone conclusion.

Huh, I was sort of forcing this wasn’t I?

I shrugged. “Sorry, guess my eyes are just looking past you,” I said.

For some reason that didn’t feel right though. It wasn’t a lie per se, but something about this situation had me on edge.

It took me until Fifi sent out a Starmie with a scowl that I realised what it was.

I was expecting something to go wrong, something to get in the way of my advancing.

This… it would be the furthest I’d ever made it through an actual tournament… I knew that though so…

Oh.

I shook my head and refocused on ending the match, the sense of impending certainty that something, anything, had to be about to go wrong causing me to push Sanchez for a fast close.

“Discharge! Let’s end this match!” I called, going for Fifi’s throat.

“Surf, but slide back and use Ice Beam! Don’t let that Golem get you!” She responded. Her pokemon moved quickly only to still be clipped as she hopped backwards a wall of water forming up only for a Ice Beam to freeze it solid.

Hmm she must have done her research enough to know that Sanchez could dodge Surf, so instead she was going for another tactic.

I decided I didn’t care. I punched the sky and barked out, “Thunder!” to Sanchez and he cackled as he launched a bolt of lightning up and over the frozen wave.

“Damn it no!” shouted Fifi, with enough heartfelt emotion to know that I’d gotten it down to the final pokemon.

Feeling whimsical I returned Sanchez, and called out Tide for the last exchange.

My large lapras appeared with a clap of his flippers and an excited gleam in his eyes, it was rare that he got to be the last pokemon out, usually he tanked out other pokemon.

Fifi sighed, and sent out her last pokemon. “Go Nidoqueen! Use Sludge Wave!”

“Counter with Surf,” I said, not missing a beat. From Nidoqueen a purple wave of poison shot forth whereas Tide unleashed a huge wave of water.

Fifi stared at the oncoming wave as her move was washed away. “Now!” she called and her pokemon dove into the ground.

I whistled in appreciation. It was rare that a trainer who hadn’t been a part of the Gym could pull off a Surf dodge with Dig. “Nice,” I said before pointing at her pokemon. “Ice Beam,” I countered, catching the still surprised Nidoqueen from behind.

When she froze over, Fifi was quick to shoot her hand up. “I withdraw Nidoqueen!” she called and I nodded.

I gave the crowd another look over and tried to relax but found I just couldn’t.

I kept looking for what would go wrong soon. I searched the skies and the stands, expecting a splinter cell of Team Rocket to attack, or Mewtwo to descend only to blink as I recalled that Nidoqueen was Fifi’s sixth and final pokemon.

I glanced up and realised I’d just swept her without losing a pokemon.

I looked down to find Fifi looking sad but still standing tall.

I’d… barely given it much thought, merely calling orders out distractedly.

When it came time to shake hands I found myself wondering what I should say to her.

The girl shook her head. “Damn, that was fast,” she said.

I merely grunted. My heart not in it.

A flash of hurt crossing Fifi’s face made me pause and shake my head. “Sorry, this is the furthest I’ve ever made it in a tournament, having never reached the finals before…” I licked my lips. “I kind of expected something to go wrong.”

Fifi blinked at that before tilting her head. “I mean… I guess for a Gym Leader this season, that’s valid?” she said.

I nodded, talked a little shop with her and then marched back to my group. Yolanda met me, her expression showing that she knew something was wrong but not what.

“What’s going on Brock? You were kind of out of it there at the end,” she asked.

I grimaced and told her what I’d said to Fifi.

Then I perked up. My family!

Of course! Something would go wrong there that would require me to come home! Flint would have split town again.

I quickly called home only to find the family all waiting for me with huge grins.

“Brock!” called my siblings. All of them looking healthy and hale. Flint was in the background with an apron on as he mixed up a healthy snack for the kids.

Oh, huh, they were fine.

I spoke with them for a bit, hiding my anxiety throughout the mundane chatter.

When I was done I felt a small amount of relief. Alright, things were fine at home, for now at least.

“Brock, I think you need to do your clap thing,” Yolanda said.

I blinked at her and realised that her suggestion had merit. I was being anxious, something that hadn’t happened, but rather a probability of something happening.

I clapped my hands and exhaled slowly. Then when I felt a bit of a burn I opened my hands, releasing the pressure and exhaling.

Yolanda licked her lips. “Better?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, yeah. I guess I just got in my head a bit.” I rubbed my chin. “This is the furthest I’ve ever gotten before,” I said.

Yolanda nodded and I elaborated. “Guess it just got to me a bit.”

A.J. snorted. “Your mental game is off! From what I’ve read, that’s one of the most important parts of a match! You need some distractions!” A.J. said.

A.J. grabbed the others and pulled them into a huddle. “Team, what we should do is keep him busy and away from stress for the final match!” he said, far too loudly.

I chuckled and shook my head as they, rather cutely, in my opinion, workshopped methods to get me ready and on my best form for tomorrow.

I found myself rather looking forward to whatever they would attempt, and they weren’t wrong either.

I did need to have my head on straight.

Tomorrow I’d be fighting for the trophy, and a small giddy part of me delighted in that.