I set up the projector and nodded to myself once it was aligned with the blank whiteboard. I had the room set up, the presentation set up, the powerpoint aligned and the clicker ready for the presentation. With this being my third start of the circuit proper I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to have my gym trainers hit the ground running. Or, at the very least avoiding a lot of the pitfalls that would come from dealing with trainers.

Rocko was the first to turn up and claim a chair at a halfway point for the seven I had laid out. Forrest came in after him, and then Dennis, Daniel, Celia, Missy, and Yolanda came in as a group. Yolanda bounced up to the front with Missy and Celia while the boys filled out the other seats. A knock on the door had me pausing.

Rachel stuck her head in. “Hi! I thought this might be something that I could sit in on!?”

I bobbed my head from side to side. “This is mainly the discussion on what they’ll be encountering as gym trainers when they have to represent Pewter. There’s not a lot of marketing I should think?”

“Heh! Even just a photo of this is something to throw up on pokenet for people to see!” she said.

“Oh, we have followers?” I said thinking of my previous life. Rachel blinked.

“Followers? Uhm no this isn’t a cult…” She glanced around. “Right?”

Dennis and Rocko shared a look before glancing at me. I thought I heard a muttered, “...Fanclub sometimes could be?” Pass between them but they didn’t volunteer anything when I raised an eyebrow at them. So instead I turned back to Rachel.

“Ah sorry, it’s a term I thought I read about for people that follow news releases or information about a set topic…” Rachel blinked slowly. I decided to shut up before I dug myself any deeper.

Rachel tilted her head and rubbed her chin. Then she shot me a thumbs up. “I like it! I’ll be sure to have it as a feature for people to ‘follow’ the news for the gym!”

I gave her a nod and let her take some pictures before we got underway only for another knock to announce Stephen.

“Stephen, can I help you?” I said carefully.

He rubbed his chin. “I was curious to sit in if that would be alright? Sort of a curiosity of mine to get a sneak peek into how things run at a gym like Pewter.”

I shrugged. “I don’t think what I do would be representative for any of the other gyms and vice versa, but sure.” Stephen grinned and trudged to the back of the room after waving to everyone. I glanced after him. “Bianca isn’t going to join us is she?”

He shook his head. “She had some equipment being shipped in from Elm that she is setting up in her office space. She sounded excited about it. Something about the virility of Don’s—” I held up a hand.

“I’m good,” I said firmly before clearing my throat. “Right! Thanks for getting here on time everyone! Today’s discussion is going to be some of the first presentations that I need trainers to know about. Rocko and Dennis have sat through all of these before so for you most of this will be a refresher, but I have added some new information so make sure to follow along. With this being your third year I’ll be relying on you for more senior trainer duties.”

I looked over the rest of the team. “While Forrest is officially my second in command he still has school so he will not be asked to run any of these sessions unless he wants to.”

“Uhm pass?!” Forrest said, making me roll my eyes. Not that anyone could see them. Yolanda and Forrest knew what I was doing though. They returned the gesture with smiles.

I clicked the remote for the powerpoint and decided to start things off. “Alright, so as trainers for the Pewter city gyms there are going to be a lot of different people and pokemon coming through our doors that we will have to deal with.” I clicked through a slide.

“The personalities of the trainers is something that we will deal with later and that will include the reception team that are learning the systems today instead of being here with us,” I said as an explanation as to the lack of Alexa and Bethany.

“Based on previous years, the most common trainer that we’ll see are those relying heavily on type advantages to carry them through. It’s not a secret what type of gym we are and we don’t have a rotating roster like some other… now failed gyms.”

“Heh suck it Commerce city,” said Daniel in a carrying whisper.

I wagged a finger at him. “Yeah, that was an organisation that had way too much money and not enough sense.” Forrest groaned and I paused. “Oh, I hadn’t even noticed that I was being punny…”

Forrest sank further into his chair. “No more! No! I’m not listening to you make bad jokes again!”

I wanted to point out I’d only ever done that once when I was trialling some jokes to see if they might be something Sabrina would like but Forrest in his oh-so-mature understanding hadn’t enjoyed them. The younger twins had liked them well enough. While I’d never done it again I’d given Forrest the impression that I wanted to do stand-up comedy.

I coughed to get things back on track. “Regardless! The trainers will mostly be dependent on using type advantages so expect to be seeing some of the following pokemon and their typing.”

On the screen, I flicked through Grass types with images of Oddish, Bellsprout, Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Treecko, Shroomish, Exeggcute, Paras, Lotad, and a Hoppip. Another click had evolutions of these pokemon appearing until the common grass-type pokemon we’d be facing were done.

“These are just some of the pokemon that we will be facing. At the lower levels expect to see vine whips, bullet seeds, razor leaf, leech seed and synthesis. If you’re not thoroughly familiar with all of these by the end of the season I’ll be amazed. Those are the grass types bread and butter. There are some interesting esoteric uses of all of these however that aren’t as well known. When we get into the three badges and up be on the watch for energy ball and solar beam as the current signature grass type moves.”

Dennis and Rocko shared confused looks but didn’t say anything else. I held in my grimace. Frenzy plant hadn’t yet been discovered but I was more than ready for one of the strongest pokemon moves to appear.

Not counting the Z-type moves that would come whenever we found the Alola regions. Bloom doom would then claim the strongest slot. But that was getting ahead of myself.

I clicked the remote and showcased another screen, this one showing off the fighting-type pokemon I’d be expecting us to encounter. I went through them and then moved on to the ground-type pokemon. Then the Steel-type pokemon. And finally, the water-type pokemon.

The room shifted in agitation or surprise that I’d been able to showcase so many pokemon that would have advantages against us. I merely smiled at them. “That’s a lot of type weaknesses, no?”

Daniel grunted, eyeing off the printed pokemon/summary lists I’d provided for them all. Yolanda chewed her lip and Forrest looked annoyed. The other trainers mostly watched me.

“In truth, Rock pokemon have the most weaknesses. We’re only equalled by grass typing with our five different weaknesses.” I stared around the room. “For most of the first-level badge that’s all they need to demonstrate. An understanding of base typing interactions and putting those moves to use… barring the strange instances where their attacks are honestly not strong enough to last against a first badge pokemon.”

“Seriously?” said Daniel with a snicker.

Rocko coughed into his fist. “Yeah, there have been instances of pampered pokemon that are more pets than battlers turning up and the trainers thinking they wouldn’t have to do much for a badge. They were quickly disabused of this,” said Rocko.

I nodded. “The other strategy that you will see a lot of is pokemon using power-based attacks. What I mean by this is pokemon that have been trained to tough it out and shrug off hits as well as dish them out. Usually, this is from trainers that have been building up their team for the day their journeys began or they have been handed older more experienced pokemon. I have no doubt after Lance and my showing we will have a lot of trainers trying to emulate this.”

I waggled a hand and grimaced. “It’s a valid strategy, to be honest, but if you see them just relying on power to win then force them to adapt or to use a different method. That doesn’t mean making them use speed moves or otherwise but try to get them to maybe stop and rethink what they and their team are working on. Power can get them through most of the badge circuit all told, but I doubt they’ll be getting a full big eight badge case. If they try to go the Ace trainer route they will be languishing for a long time unless they double down hard.”

“Technique, skill and having the right moves set up for a diversity of situations can mean a lot more in the battle club run tournament or in the open format.” I clicked to a slide showing the local, rather humble, battle club with its smaller training fields. Since we’d set up a lot more trainers had started to run some of their challenges out of the outside training fields instead of just relying on the battle club fields.

I clicked again showcasing pokemon using withdraw to attack and defend. I pointed to the screen. “Creative thinking is something that is tough to have trainers learn, but something worth us attempting. This is something I like to reward as it shows them thinking through situations more and having plans ready or being adaptable. Again this is on a scale. Those with too much technique and not enough power are going to seem too weak. If they have finesse they need to have the strength to make sure the hits they land are devastating.”

I began ticking off my fingers. “Good applications of environmental effects, traps, environment awareness, move set up, positioning during matches, or making the most of quirks of moves or pokemon are the things I look for when I’m talking about technique. Speed is something I consider to be more of a power domain as people think about it in just straight-line speed rather than speed of reaction or speed of a dodge. They think about crossing the distance between two pokemon or the arena battlefield and not what it would take to divert or break off. This cycles back around to positioning during matches.”

“Now there are going to be different levels of skill, power, or strength of pokemon in general that you should be expecting. If a new trainer is bringing something approaching an Ace team then they better be challenging at a four badge or higher level,” I said firmly.

I tapped the remote and the slide switched from video clips showing various demonstrations of pokemon showcasing speed to that of a pokemon belt featuring six pokemon. The six pokeballs were broken into three different colours.

“At Pewter gym you will only ever be asked to face a trainer with a run of one or two pokemon for the set badge level. I still expect you to also have pokemon for the four or higher challengers in case someone is trying to pull a fast one by claiming a badge that is way, way under their level.”

I stared out at them, my face locking into a stoic expression. “Trainer’s claiming a first-level badge while having pokemon that are far stronger are the leading cause of injury and mortality for our pokemon. A young or not fully toughened up Geodude for example will not handle a hydro pump from a Blastoise well.”

I started looking around the room. Locking eyes with everyone present. “If it looks like your pokemon is getting overwhelmed I want you to pull it out and cede the match. I can give badges out all day but I can’t just keep catching pokemon for them to go through what would amount to a grinder.”

A few of the girls got green expressions at my turn of phrase. I get them a moment before I bulled on. “If a trainer is being cheap then flag it in the system or with the next trainer if they’ve selected a gauntlet challenge, or with me if it’s gotten that far. Do not keep it to yourself,” I said firmly.

I slowly made sure I met everyone’s gaze. Even Yolanda and Forrest. There was a reason we had a medical wing and I’d spent so much money on getting a Chansey. We’d need her.

“What happens if we’re still on our first pokemon and we work out what’s going on?” Daniel asked carefully.

I grinned and let a little darkness shine through. “Then you use one of the other two pokemon on your belt.” I gestured back at the powerpoint with the pokemon belt that was colour coded.

“With your holding limit being at six pokemon you already will have two slots taken for that level of badge challenge. The other two are for stronger pokemon and the final two are for personal pokemon. If someone is not giving the challenge the respect it deserves then toss out one of your stronger pokemon and smack them around.”

I raised a hand as Daniel and Forrest looked very pleased by this. “Within reason!” I said to clarify and calm them down.

Missy shifted. “What if they’re bringing far stronger pokemon than even a fourth badge challenge?”

I tapped on the final two pokemon. “ If you have a personal pokemon that has a Rock typing then by all means send them out just like this was an Ace trainer battle instead of a circuit battle.”

“Nice!” said Daniel.

“You’ll probably get a good number of fights for them as it is. This is thanks to Ace trainers being able to challenge a gym every three years for Ace points to boost their standings on the points board. Again, with Lance’s fight I think those numbers will grow, so expect plenty of work for your best pokemon.” I quickly jotted down a note to bring that up with Georgina. That would be something I’d have no issues raising the price of for the next circuit.

“Now some of these lower tier fights are places where you can still showcase a lot of finesse. You’re limited in power and the number of pokemon you can call out but that doesn’t mean you need to be dumb about how you fight. By the time a third badge is challenging you we’re only a few steps down from an Ace trainer technically.”

“I’m gonna run so many rings around those kids!” Daniel said with glee.

Forrest sniggered. “Roll rings around them more like it.”

I waggled fingers at one and then the other. “Hey, keep it reasonable. We’re not here to bully the new trainers but to teach them alright? Forrest, I’ll be watching you, because towards the end of the circuit some of your pokemon fights were getting a bit rough.”

“It had been a while since we regraded which pokemon went where!” he said, throwing his arms up in exasperation at my calling him out.

“Hmmm fair point,” I said, conceding that he probably had a point. I clicked to the final few slides for this presentation.

“Now the pokemon typings that Rock types are strong against and therefore the pokemon that I expect you to be testing heavily if a trainer sends one out against us are Bug, flying, fire and Ice.”

“Testing heavily?” asked Daniel.

“Educating on the error of their ways,” I clarified. “At the start if they bring a weak one of these pokemon into our gym then I will back you up should you order your pokemon to rock throw them and wipe them out or use something else to that effect. If they can’t finesse or work through the type advantage then send them packing for not doing their homework!”

Daniel glanced back at Dennis and Rocko, “Please! Tell me people are dumb enough to try sending those types against us!”

Dennis snorted and Rocko grinned as he said, “We’re right next to Viridian forest which is known for its bugs and flying types. What do you think?”

Daniel pumped his fist. I shook my head at him. I kind of got the impression that he was the kind of guy that wouldn’t mind hanging out around the Battle club for new trainers and doing some rookie crushing. It was rather interesting to see what he was like personally. I’d have to probably ride herd on him a bit but I wouldn’t outright stop him.

Young trainers needed to experience all sorts of trainers and it was better for them to recognise it in a safe setting. If he proved too harsh I could always assign him other tasks or the higher badge matches.

I clapped my hands. “With that said, that’s the last thing I had to talk about with this presentation. Get familiar with your typings for when you’re using rock pokemon cause for the next… year at least you’ll be using them a lot. If you’re not familiar with what moves they have then I’d suggest doing some study of the gym register for what I and the other senior trainers will have the various pokemon know. Standouts like Izumi and Moxy from our Geodude groups will of course have a number of other tricks, but I usually keep them for my own battles.”

I ended the presentation there and pointed to the trainers as I reminded them of their duties for the day. “Small patrol around Pewter for Rocko and Missy, Dennis and Daniel you’re on meals for the pokemon. Celia you have the rest of the day off. Yolanda and Forrest you have to go back to school from lunch. You only got the morning off for gym duties.”

Forrest grinned, there were still at least two hours before lunch and I could tell he was going to be goofing off. I tilted my head. “Got all your homework done?”

When he nodded I shot him a thumbs up and left him to it. I gave Yolanda a raised eyebrow and she nodded as well earning another thumbs up.

“Which leaves me working with Rachel to discuss that magazine photo shoot, yes?”

“Yes!” she said happily, leaping forward to grab my arm. “To the office!” she said happily. I chuckled and led her on. It wouldn’t be anything super interesting today. Merely a chat over the phone to schedule something in. Then I’d spend most of the afternoon talking with Alexa and Bethany on their duties and seeing if we needed anything else for their role to operate smoothly.

The most interesting thing turned out to be when I was setting up for the Little League baseball training session. I had just sent out the Geodude to throw some baseballs to each other and warm up their arms when I spotted a very recognisable figure sauntering up.

“Hello Karen,” I said as I straightened up from arranging the bats that the kids would be using.

“Brock, what the hell! You have a friendly match with freaking Lance and you don’t think to invite me along!? I’m offended!” she said as she planted her feet and put her hands on her hips.

“Oh? You heard about that?” I said curiously. It had been a Rangers-only event apart from Claire, Lance and myself and I doubted they were going to talk about it. So that left the Rangers. Who… would be prime candidates to have agents of the Guardians seeded into wouldn’t they?

Karen sniffed and flicked her head to the side, “Of course I did!” She was trying to be dismissive but she couldn’t stop a grin slipping into place as she vibrated in place. “I heard you laid an absolute smack down onto him!”

I huffed at her “I wouldn’t call it that, I still had my final pokemon from our match last time.”

“Yeah! I heard! What the hell! You saved that pokemon against Lance? Why?”

“I wanted to keep that one close to the chest. She was going to be my sweeper if things went badly,” I said with a shrug.

“Feh! Well, I’m super bummed out that I didn’t see that!” She shot me a sly look. “Heard you did it in front of Claire…” she said leadingly.

When I merely raised an eyebrow at her she huffed at me. “She can be really hot or cold. We’ve looked into her and when she watched you beat Lance she was like an angry school kid that had just seen their idol beaten up in front of them.”

She looked down to her transceiver and began flicking through the apps until she got to a picture of Claire that had caught her looking…

“Ouch, looks like I broke her heart,” I said, feeling like a heel at the pain that was being shown.

Karen snorted. “Please! She likes to get on a high horse from what I’ve heard of her. Seeing Lance lose will be good for her,” Karen gave me a sly grin, “ and amusing for me if I can get some more pictures of her like this.” She looked at me hopefully like I might have said picture.

I shook my head. “You know you can be…” I didn’t want to offend her by calling her ‘kind of a bitch’ so I settled on, “Vicious.”

“Duh, I’m a Dark-type trainer and wielder.” When I raised an eyebrow she rolled her eyes and cocked her hip to the side. “That means personality traits like taking pleasure from other people’s suffering or ‘schadenfreude’ are right up my alley.” she grinned hugely as she glanced to the side to see a Geodude miss a catch and get beaned in the head. “Arceus, I could watch videos of people being dumb all day for example.”

She waved her hand about. “You know those feelings that typically get labelled as bad or that we push to the side? Well, you can use those with Dark typing. Helps if you lean into it cause you can grow if your understanding of it is higher. If you use them when channelling energy the energy also responds a little better.” She shrugged, “If that means I come across a bit ‘mean’ I have no problems with that.”

“Doesn’t that run the risk of you developing narcissism or other extreme personality traits?” I said.

She scoffed. “Please! You think I don’t deserve to be adored?” She chuckled at my stern expression.

The books had been rather apparent that you needed to not focus on just one emotion like that.

She shook her head. “You just need to have a line. I have no problem leaning into the traits and being sinister or mean, life’s meant to be lived after all. I have a team to help ground me as well as a regular touchstone session for checking how things are going up here.” She tapped the side of her head.

“Really? The books said that was to be avoided, “I said, giving voice to my earlier thoughts.

She waved her hand back and forth. “The books are good for building foundations and I’ll acknowledge that there are some potential issues but it's worth it. I have some friends that understand me and help keep me in check… just like the old hag does sometimes.”

She directed a manicured fingernail at me as she pointed. “Now what about you?”

“Me?” I said in surprise. This was not how I was expecting things to go. I glanced around and saw that no parents or kids had arrived yet and that so far only my geodude were on the field.

She nodded “Uhuh! You! Agatha might be an old hag and it comes across as her being an old crone when she assigned me to look after you, but there are some things you need to be reminded of to look out for.”

She waved a hand at me. “Your Rock energy is no less dangerous to you than mine is. You can become complacent and reactionary if you don’t work against it. Reactionary isn’t something you want to be when you’re swimming with big fish Brock.”

I blinked. “Well, it’s more that I’m in my off-circuit season. Most of my work comes during the circuit and that’s when I have the biggest—”

Karen held up her hands. “Bzzzzt! Wrong!” she said like some sort of electronic buzzer.

“See, you’re strong, everyone knows that. The thing is you need to be able to make some waves yourself and be the driving force!” she punched the air.

“Have people react to you rather than you to them! You’ve taken a lot of people by surprise cause well even us Guardians had dismissed you until you threw down with Lance. But now they know to be aware of you. Coming out of nowhere only works when you’re an unknown. You need to be predicting and throwing punches of your own!” She jabbed at the air again only to then direct another finger right at me.

“Doing your gym circuit like you have been is slow progression stuff! You’re also looking at it wrong. Times like now? When you’re not locked into the gym? That’s when you can be the freest! Change up your line up! Teach your pokemon new moves. Go to a few battle clubs and utterly stomp them into the ground just cause you can!” She clenched her fists like she could imagine just that and she liked the thought of it.

She slashed her hand through the air. “Or scrap that line of thinking entirely! Do not let yourself be chained down. You’re the boss of your gym so act like it! Take a day off if you want it! Cancel on trainers!”

The part of me that had been a health care worker in my previous life squirmed at that even as I agreed with her. I had been rather passive of late, hadn’t I? Hmm Karen had mentioned friends but I already had a go-getter in my team for Pewter that could help make me get out there and make some waves. The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of being more driven and not letting the rocks land where they fell.

I rubbed my chin. “Huh, this is not how I was expecting our chat to go. I thought you were just going to come around and be snarky while teaching the kids swear words.”

“I can still do that!” She grinned in delight. “but I’m also one of your contacts for aura training.” She clicked her fingers. “Also, we need to talk about your dark energy.”

I tilted my head. “What about it?”

“You’ve got way too much of it. I got a look at your team and what you normally do for training, you only have the one pokemon that’s dark typed.” She held up a hand to forestall me. “Sure it’s a Arceus be damned Tyranitar and your starter, but numbers count in this game!”

She then clapped her hands together, “So! Just as you’re now aware of how your Rock-type energy is showing itself you also need to be aware of those pesky dark emotions .” she grinned to show she was joking.

“This usually means that you don’t get too gleeful and all that muck like you were telling me earlier yeah? The best way to track yourself is to be reflective or to have a touchstone you can use to centre yourself emotionally. Keep a journal, take a hike, all that jazz.” She flapped her hand about but then got serious. “Also watch what you meditate on.”

“Like, where I meditate?” I said unsure if I was on the same wavelength as her.

She shook her head. “Nope! Specifically what you meditate on. If you have a recurring thought that you associate with dark type energy it will cling to it and make it harder to ignore when a situation that with that happens to you. It’s like if I channelled my dark type energy into the glee of when a clown fell on their faces if I encountered a clown I’d find myself either wanting to see them fall or even actively setting them up to fall.” she then shook her head. “Not actually a thing for me but you get my point right?”

When I nodded slowly in thought and didn’t say anything in response she hummed. Then she huffed and stuck out her chest. “Damn! I’m not bad at this teaching shit!” She then winked at me as she tugged on her sweater and exposed a bit of her cleavage.

“Got any dark thoughts to get off your chest Brock~?” she said with a husky purr.

I sighed as she slipped into teasing me. “No, Ms Karen,” I said sarcastically. Sadly this only got a thoughtful look.

“Oh? I like the sound of that! Might get some fake glasses and steal Lorelei's school teacher look! Would you like that?” I groaned into my hands as she cackled in a way that made me think of Agatha.

And suddenly, blood that had been rushing below my belt aborted its descent. “I’m good. Hey, what’s up with Fiore?” I said as an obvious distraction.

She gave me a faux sad look and toyed with her shirt a little longer but I didn’t look at her. I just had to remember that she had Agatha’s laugh and that made the old woman’s wrinkled face appear and block Karen’s teasing.

She huffed and let go of her sweater. “Fiore’s not going to be a problem, it’s a backwards region that doesn’t use pokeballs. It’ll have some of the Rangers in a tizzy cause not many of them are able to use their little baton thingie.”

“Stylus,” I said, correcting her.

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, They’re going to be raided by criminal organisations and we’re going to have to pay attention to them because of that more than anything else. There’s going to be a lot of people poaching pokemon cause it’ll be easier with most people only having companion pokemon compared to caught pokemon.”

I hummed. “What about their legendaries?”

“They got something like the Beasts of Johto… or well Indigo I suppose these days,” she said while rubbing her chin.

“Hmmm? What’s this?” I was surprised by her expanding the name.

“Oh, some people got evidence of a Suicine over near Cerulean. Which has all the locals in a tizzy. It’s on some of the news channels,” she said off-handedly. “Apparently there were sightings of some of these pokemon fighting with people during the war. Read about it in the texts we have, check it out on your holopad if you’re curious.”

“Huh, interesting, I might do that. Interesting to know about Suicine showing up like that.” That had happened during the games, hadn’t it?

Karen sniffed. “Yeah, I suppose. The recent sighting has the Cerulean sisters in a tizzy cause it was seen up at the cape that they like to go to for dates and when they capture pokemon.”

A chorus of voices announced the arrival of the kids and parents, making me glance at her. “So are you sticking around?” I said with a smirk, thinking she’d only come to talk shop with me.

She grinned though, and from a pouch on her hip drew out a cap with the words ‘Offense coach’. I raised a hand “Baseball doesn’t have an offensive… oh wait I see what you’re doing here,” I said as I realised the play on words.

She grinned. “Time to teach some kids some life lessons!” she said.

I sighed. Then I smirked as I decided to enact what we’d been talking about. “Right, well I’ll have you lead the kids on the warm-up runs and then you can do some batting practice against the good pitchers.”

I gave her a wink as I popped my whistle into my mouth and blew on it, the shrill tone had her grimacing and the kids sprinting towards me. “Three laps to warm up!” I shouted.

She blinked at me in surprise as the kids started running. “Yeah, no, nice try, I’m not some kid who’s going to fall in for you Brock,” she said.

I shrugged. “Geodude! Motivate her!” I said with a grin. The Geodudes that had been throwing baseballs to each other all turned as one and began chasing her. Karen hissed at the small avalanche approaching her.

I grinned as she took off, joining the team in running laps much to the children's delight.

I chuckled. “Alright I got her training with the kids like a proper assistant coach… now I just need to make sure she doesn’t teach them any more swear words.” I mulled that over as I watched Karen settle into the middle of the gaggle of kids.

I grinned as I ran to catch up. Time to put those training sessions with Trixie to good use.

“Loser has to do ten push-ups!” I said as I ran past her. I laughed as she scowled and came after me like an angry ursaring.

When the three laps were over I had her do her push-ups with the kids while I grinned off to the side. The kids had egged her into doing them at my urging and Karen proved to not be immune to social pressure as she pushed up and down with the kids. She shot me dark looks that promised retribution but I found myself smiling regardless. Karen had been right. It wasn’t all bad to lean into some dark tendencies.

I’d make sure to give Rachel more free rein to suggest and set things up. I had a whole other life to draw knowledge on and I could make some changes for good in the world. I could also set about working on some new pokemon for myself. And maybe it was time to draw some of my other pokemon out to train up for a line up shift for Ace battles. People knew about my Ace team. Maybe it was time to call back Hypnotoad from that fighting trainer that asked to work with her. She’d love to hang out with Shrek again and both of them would be great to have on my roster once more. Sort of like having my journey team once more.

I’d have to be mindful of the energies going forward. I hadn’t considered how rock energy was affecting me. I didn’t want to become like a mountain, fixed and immovable.

Still, I could address that. It hadn’t gotten too bad I didn’t think. Still, that was for future me to deal with.

When physical training was done Karen shooed away the kids that lingered to hang out with the ‘cool big sister type’ and levelled a glare at me. “Cute, real cute Brock.”

“I thought it was pretty funny,” I said as I took a sip from a water bottle. “Wanna let them practise catching with you?”

“What I want is to throw down with you. Which! We will be doing!” she said with a glare.

I shot her a grin. “Cool, sounds like fun!” I blew the whistle and called the kids back for the next training routine. I realised she didn’t have a response and a quick glance revealed that she was still drawing in breaths from the warm up.

“Are you out of breath from just that three-lap run?” I said incredulously.

“Shut up! You caught me by surprise is all! And good I can’t wait to fight you! Lock in the date! You and I are throwing down!”

“Cool,” I said, letting out some dark energy as a desire to fight came through me. I couldn’t say I wasn’t looking forward to it.

“Brock!” “Coach” shouted some kids only for a bespectacled kid to emerge at the front.

“Hey Brock and the weird lady! What do we do now!?” called Manny as the kids returned from their drink break. Karen spluttered and glared at Manny.

I sighed. Sadly I had to be the adult in this situation and not throw down with her here and now. I assigned a training drill and considered what my calendar looked like. The next free space of time… well It wasn’t for ages. There was perhaps that training session I could bump though…. There were still a number of days to go and a lot of work to get through until then. Oh well. Having something to look forward to for the end of the month always made it go faster.