Missy was working with her Rhydon and her Growlithe as I emerged from the gym. Chansey was on my left and Janine flickered into place on my right. She jabbed at me but I stepped to the side out of habit.

She brightened up at my reaction. “Excellent! You can also follow up by sweep—”

Her advice had to be dropped as Chansey reacted poorly to Janine’s sudden appearance by unleashing a Double Slap that Janine wasn’t expecting. She rocked back onto her heels from the first hit only for the follow-up backhand from Chansey to knock her off her feet.

I put a hand on Chansey’s side. “Woah, easy there girl,” I said while trying to hold in my laughter. I hadn’t known that Chansey reacted so poorly to surprises.

Apparently, violence was her go-to option.

Janine bounced up to her feet into a fighting position and glared at Chansey. They both locked eyes and Chansey raised her tiny arms in preparation. I considered, for half a moment, just stepping back and letting them fight.

Then the responsible adult within me reared its head and I stepped between them.

“Alright, alright, we should just calm down. Janine, the issue with your training method just made itself very clear I think, no?” I held up a hand and she blinked before scowling.

“That! That was just… a lucky shot!?” she said but I could tell even to her it was a weak excuse. Her gaze was locked behind me though.

I shook my head, then turned to Chansey who was still bobbing back and forth and shooting her tiny arms out with the occasional ‘come get some’ at Janine.

“Chansey, that’s not helping.”

“Chansey! Chan! Chan!” she said as she shot out punch after punch.

“Chansey,” I said firmly.

Chansey settled down and sighed. I almost turned away only to stop as Chansey started to twitch into throwing her fist upwards while the other slapped it in an offensive gesture.

“Chansey, do you want to help train Missy’s pokemon with Gravity or not?”

Chansey dropped the aggressive stance and bowed politely to Janine only to skip past me and wave happily to Missy.

“Morning Brock!” Missy said as she noticed us. She glanced at Chansey and then at Janine. “Uhm? Is everything alright?”

“Just Janine learning how people react differently and one method of teaching isn’t a guarantee of success,” I said, summarising without restarting that little spat. Missy watched me and I realised that my lips were twitching.

I coughed to reset my mood. “Right! Let’s talk about your training methods. I reviewed what you’ve been doing and noticed the gap with no gravity training. That’s going to be especially important for pokemon that you’re looking to evolve such as your Growlithe and your Rhydon. Increasing their muscle mass prior to evolution can make things a lot easier than waiting.”

“Why is that?” Missy asked with a tilt of her head.

I glanced at Janine and gestured for her to take over. I wanted to test her and see how she would answer the question and any subsequent questions.

Janine straightened up. “Yes! Gravity training increases muscle density, bone mineral density and ligament strength! This allows for an earlier development for pokemon so when they undergo their evolution there is a greater mass for the multiplicative effect to come into play.”

Missy blinked. “Wait so my Rhydon has missed out because I evolved her already?!” she said with a shriek. Next to her, her Rhydon gasped theatrically and put her hands over her shoulder and chest where the most prominent musculature of a Rhydon was.

I had to resist the urge to step in as Janine scowled. “Don’t be ridiculous! Your pokemon still has the chance to regain the mass she missed out on. She has a range of growth, it is just something you will have to work out and increase her nutrient intake. Her growth factor will resolve all of that!” Janine crossed her arms and nodded.

Missy notably did not look relieved and in fact, looked more worried. “But my Rhydon has been evolved for a year and a half now… wouldn’t that mean her growth factor has stopped?”

Janine raised a finger before perking up. “Her next evolution will restart her growth factor!”

Missy considered that and slowly nodded. “So how long will it come into effect for her?”

“It typically lasts a month after the evolution takes place so it is important that if you want certain physical characteristics such as size or unusual arm reach for your pokemon then you should have training that will facilitate this!”

I decided to interject. “There are supplements that help induce more growth but these are expensive. It will depend on if you actually want the size increase or if you’re trying to stay quick and nimble! As a gym trainer, this will be covered by the Gym. It is recommended that you hold off evolution for at least a month with this training to get more from it.” I then rolled my hand to show Janine I wanted her to continue.

Janine stepped forward once more. “That concludes what you need to know!”

I coughed, and Janine and Missy stared at me. I sighed. “The risk factors and considerations for this type of training also need to be explained, Janine.”

“Oh! Yes! Stay within your limitations, and when your pokemon is tired, you should stop!” she said.

I facepalmed. “That explanation is missing a lot of details,” I said lightly. “In the future, it is best to explain all the details. For instance, why is gravity training not used extensively?”

“It… causes bulk up in pokemon?” Janine said.

I nodded. “Indeed. Some pokemon you will want to stay small and nimble. Also some pokemon, such as bug pokemon, won’t react well to having their wings suddenly weigh a lot more. There are benefits to getting them used to gravity training, but this is more so that they can handle the strain if they encounter it. Sustained gravity training will also negatively impact their ability to dodge. It is better for Pokemon that you want to hit with physical attacks or be able to handle heavier hits.”

“Like Flamethrower!” said Missy.

“No,” Janine and I said over the top of each other. Missy reeled back.

Janine glanced at me and checked to see if I wanted her to say anything, but I decided to take over. “Right, so I haven’t gone into this yet but Flamethrower has a physical component certainly, but it mostly uses energy. So Flamethrower is not an example of what you could improve from Gravity training. Gravity training is best for improving a pokemon’s vitality, or its physical stats. So in this case attack and defence or how hard it can punch or how hard it can take a punch.”

“What about speed?” Missy said.

I held up a finger. “Speed has had…” I rethought that. “Well honestly, the whole classification system has been something that researchers get into fights over.” I said scratching my head.

“There hasn’t yet been something more applicable ,so yeah I’ll put a pin in that whole conversation. But with regard to your question? Speed, as people use it for stats with pokemon, refers to both agility —aka the ability to change directions and control acceleration— and what is known as straight-line movement or velocity. There is a marked difference between these. This is also where people can get into a lot of trouble with gravity training. It’s also where all the warnings about gravity training mostly come from.” Missy nodded, looked intently at me to show she was listening.

I circled my hand about. “Now! Forgive me for dropping this on you but if you want to look it up, it is in the Gym network files that are for trainers to use.”

Missy nodded slowly and Janine tilted her head. I pointed to her. “Sorry, forgot to grant you access to it. Ask Alexa later alright?”

I then paused as I regathered where I’d left off. “Right! So when we stand, gravity is naturally pulling us down. Our joints come under normal body weight pressure. What happens when we start moving, even at a slow walk, is that the amount of force a joint is under increases in multiples, which can then be compounded with gravity.”

“Huh?” Missy said.

Janine nodded. “The amount of pressure placed on joints, ligaments and muscles increase when we move.”

I pointed at her and nodded. “Correct! Now when we move faster this pressure increases until it can easily reach over two times the normal pressure when factoring in our body weight at a quick walk.”

I pointed to Rhydon. “So, if we think about a pokemon like Rhydon running, there is a rather large force being placed on her joints, and when we add in Gravity? The risk of injury increases.”

Missy glanced at Chansey. “So she’s here for that? Healing any injuries?”

“And to increase her Gravity control. For today you are only going to be moving around slowly. You should never rush straight into the higher levels of agility drills with your pokemon as that will result in torn muscles and ligaments. We want muscle hypertrophy to occur. Don’t worry though, those levels will come but give your pokemon time and proper care. You just need to get over an initial hurdle that makes Gravity training dangerous.”

Missy nodded seriously as her pokemon eyed off Chansey excitedly. Chansey, for her part, merely smirked, knowing how much this training was going to suck.

“What about special attack and special defence?”

I wavered my hand. “We'll touch on that another day,” I said, not wanting to get into the whole ‘aura education’ that such a conversation would require today. “Just pay as much attention as you can to how your pokemon uses their energy reserves. The more they attack and the more powerful the attacks are, which is a good indicator of their reserves, and also that their special attack stat is increasing.”

Missy nodded. I quickly glanced down at my watch, relaxing as this talk had only taken ten minutes. I still had time before the day’s challenges started. I exhaled some of the tension that had built up and clapped Janine on the shoulder. “Right, you’re with me today.” Janine perked up as Missy began to order her pokemon to ‘endure the Gravity’ as Chansey laid it upon them.

I gestured to the cave system at the back and led Janine into the darkness. “So you wanted to see how I trained my aura you said earlier,” I said, referencing a talk we had had over the weekend.

“Indeed,” Janine said seriously while furtively glancing backwards. “Are you sure we can leave Missy’ and her pokemon with that… Brute?”

I shot a glance back to find Chansey shooting Janine a glare. “Chansey is probably the best for this. She understands how far she can push and is extremely professional.”

“Her tendencies aside?”

“Her tendencies mean she understands the breaking point a lot better. When she’s working there’s no issues from her. Trust me!” I said with a grin.

Janine hummed before nodding. “Very well. And, yes I wanted to discuss Aura development as it is something I…” She stopped at the cave entrance and kicked at a rock. “Have not yet developed.”

“Oh?” I said surprised at the admission. “Are… Are your fathers training methods not working for you?”

“My father’s training methods are wonderful!” Janine said with a snap of her teeth like an ursaring that had just been poked.

I waved a hand, turning to face her front on. “I didn’t say they were bad, merely that they haven’t worked for you is all.”

Janine worked her jaw and nodded tightly. “Tis true… I have not responded to them. I… I was hoping that your method might have some clues into helping me unlock my poison.”

“Hmmmm alright then.”

Janine bowed. “My thanks… For your guidance and discretion.” She fidgetted. “I have read all of the books that my father has supplied and found that I still have not been able to manifest or control my own energies.”

Janine faded from sight, using the darkness of the cave to hide. “It is most shameful,” she said from somewhere off to the side in a whisper.

I channeled dark energy to my eyes and she became… Well not easy to spot. But certainly possible to see. She glared at me when she noticed I was watching her move from rock to rock as quietly as possible.

She huffed and returned to walking at my side. “I feel like using your dark aura is cheating…”

I shook my head. “I think it is using what is natural to me. Also, it’s probably best if you don’t wander off down here.” I gestured for her to hurry along. While I still had time, I didn’t have as much as I normally would have.

Before she could ask why, a bolt of lightning lit up a cave nearby, revealing Sanchez sitting among a crowd of much smaller geodudes. The larger pokemon had his hands splayed out to the side and was catching bolts of electricity that were being shot at him from the five electric-rock geodude variants that the Gym now owned.

“I see,” said Janine carefully.

“Yeah, Sanchez’s area would knock you out. But he’ll bundle you up to the gym pronto if it happens. No, the big threat down here is from loose rocks and turning your ankle honestly.”

“That’s the worst thing that can happen?” Janine said incredulously.

I grimaced. “Ah no. If you get caught out of place by Don he’ll rip you apart. He’s very territorial.”

“Doesn’t the researcher… Bianca? Come in here all the time?”

“Yes, and she’s been introduced a number of times and knows exactly how touchy he can be. She is a trained professional. She’s not someone slinking around that’s new.”

Case and point as soon as I walked past the grotto that housed the ancient pokemon, Don shrieked a challenge. “Go back to sleep!” I called out to him, tossing a few pokeblock snacks into the cave as I did so.

I rolled my eyes as he continued to growl and make a loud showing of how fierce he was. I heard the other ancient pokemon join him in enjoying the snacks as well.

When we reached the deepest cave I paused. “You sure you’re going to be alright in the dark?”

“I am a trained Koga ninja and the future Gym Leader of Fuchsia! Darkness is not enough to deter me!”

“Ah,” I said intelligently, I’d put my foot into it again. “Right, sorry. Come on then.” I stepped forward and whistled to Titan to let him know I was coming in before speaking. “Hey buddy! Got a friend coming with me today for training!” I moved to the open area that had been worn down by Titan constantly moving to and from the small rise. I claimed a seat and indicated a spot for Janine to claim as we waited for my ‘darkness guru’.

Two mighty bodies shifted within the darkness. Bertha trudged out with a huge yawn and moved back to her own cave. Another yawn sounded out and the entire structure of the cave seemed to quake for a moment.

Then Titan shifted and the grinding of stone rang out as he dragged himself out of bed.

“Have an eventful morning?” I said, teasing the mighty pokemon.

“Tyyyyy,” said Titan as he sat heavily. Then he shook himself and a cloud of dust and sand exploded outwards. I had my eyes shut, having experienced Titan when he had only just woken up more than enough times to know what would happen.

“Bleh!” said Janine as she spat dirt out of her mouth only to snort as she realised she’d inhaled some as well.

Titan stared at her. I could just make out the glint in his eyes as he roused fully and became aware of her and what I’d said. Usually, he woke up much earlier. It was rare for Titan to sleep in. Then again he and the other elites usually had a training day, then a rest day scheduled in. Titan on the other hand usually trained seven days a week in the morning.

As my strongest pokemon, I’d spent long hours talking with him about how he would embody much of what my pokemon team was to become. He’d taken these discussions very seriously. Then again, unlike a lot of other strong pokemon, he was required to go through the second evolution dependent completely on me for mobility.

He had nothing to do but sit, watch, and listen. His first evolution had occurred just a week into the start of my journey. I’d had to get a lot stronger and a lot faster to be able to carry him around.

Bug pokemon trainers had it easy in that their second evolution for Caterpie, Weedle, and such only took a week or a month at most. Titan’s had lasted roughly eight months. Eight months of not being able to move without someone or something else acting upon him. He got very good at tanking hits.

He got very good at being patient and listening.

He got very good at controlling the flow of his energy. He’d had nothing else to do with all the time stuck immobile. That perhaps made Tyranitar as a species unique among other psuedo-legendary pokemon. None of the others had to endure complete immobility. The closest in comparison was Shelgon wanting to fly but being stuck in a chunky, heavy form. It could still run though.

In a lot of ways, Tyranitar reminded me of Gyarados. They both had that awkward phase of growth where they were weak and they could easily grow to be resentful, spiteful pokemon if the wrong circumstances occurred to them.

Titan warbled a greeting to me and Janine before putting his hands together, the claws clicked as they tapped against their opposite. Then he repeated the gesture with his feet. He’d picked it up from watching me work through some stretches and Tai chi moves with some grannies for pocket money during our journey a few times.

He’d been rather taken with it and I’d carted him to a few around Kanto while he’d been trapped as a Pupitar. It always seemed to interest him, even if I’d thought it slightly cruel.

He’d shown me after evolving that he’d been paying a lot more attention than I’d realised at the time.

Titan inhaled deeply, and then slowly exhaled. He was perfectly in time with a three count for his inhale before exhaling rapidly. I made sure to copy, breathing out and in at the same time so as to not be going opposite and inhaling any of the dust he was stirring up.

Janine coughed and spluttered causing Titan to drop his serene pose. “Ty!” he barked at her.

“He wants you to copy him. It’s best to follow as if you’re wrong you end up getting some of his exhale instead which is what’s causing you so much trouble right now.”

Janine took another minute to cough before she got control of herself. “I-I r-read-y!” she said wheezily.

Titan hummed and slowed down even more. His breaths were careful and controlled with Janine in the room. He focussed on her. His hands rose and fell with his inhales and exhales.

Janine fell into sync with us, and we continued this for another five minutes before Titan stopped, his claws unlaced and he bobbed a greeting. He then pointed to me. “Ran? Tar? Tyranitar?” he asked.

“Hmmm, I’d think it would benefit her mostly if we did a sensory training drill. Or at least let her watch one.”

Titan considered this, his claws tapping on his chest before he nodded. He then raised up both hands. Nothing outwardly changed but I closed my eyes to pay as much attention as I could to what I felt. Sight wasn’t what I wanted right now.

“Your left… middle, no! Hey don’t change it mid-drill!” I said snapping my eyes open and growling at him.

Titan merely shook his head back and forth. “Ty, ty, ty!” he said, clicking his tongue in mock disapproval.

“You were too fast!”

Titan snorted and gestured that we would start again. I shut my eyes and tried to feel it out faster.

“Left middle finger, dark, right pointer, rock, your… Tail? Rock?”

Titan grunted out a ‘yes’ and we continued with him varying the position, energy type, and amount of time it would remain around himself.

When he held a ball outside his body of rock I had to call out what move he was using. Janine watched on and didn’t comment until maybe twenty minutes in.

“So… you let him run the session?” she asked.

Titan stopped the training and glanced at her with a tilt of his head. I scratched at mine.

“You know that pokemon are going to be the first point of reference for energy awareness yeah? Especially for specialists like us, yes?”

Janine fidgetted. “I knew that it was just… I was expecting you to tell him how things would go, not to have him training you.”

I shrugged, an old lyric coming to mind as being much more appropriate than the writer likely intended. “I teach him and he teaches me.”

Janine chewed her lip. “My Venomoth… I might be able to train with him like this…” She frowned into her “I wouldn’t have thought of doing this,” she said glumly.

I shrugged. “I hadn’t thought of using dusk stones for dark type training.” I scratched my head and worked some of the dust out of it, well used to how dirty hanging around rock-types would get me.

“Say what items do you use when working with Poison types?'' The only ‘rock’ poison-typed item I could think of was the poison gem of poisonum z which I wasn’t sure she’d have access to.

“We have an old plate that was said to be found in the sludge and slurry of a ruin. We also have the sludge remains of a number of Muks that are… very pungent,” she said with a grimace.

“Ah… that might actually make it tougher on you as you're getting a stimulus that might distract you. Can you ignore it or is it too potent?” I considered for a moment that it might be like pepper spray with the ability to cause issues through the skin and eyes without being smelt. Then again, I had very little experience with the ‘old sludge’ and had no desire to in any event.

I shook my head. “How have you been thinking of poison energy by the way? What do you associate it with?”

“Protection! Poison-type pokemon are the defenders of Fuchsia, and have been for generations!” she said straight away.

I shot a look at Titan and he tapped his chest in thought. I hummed. “That uhm… was not how I thought you were going to answer.”

Janine sniffed only to inhale some dust and sneeze. Titan barked a laugh at her that had her glowering ineffectively at the much larger pokemon.

“Hmmm any other things you meditate on when trying to feel the energy?” I asked not wanting to offend her more.

“... medicine,” Janine said. I found myself stunned. She’d obviously wanted as many good associations with poison as possible.

“Huh yeah, poison in the right dosages can be medicine.”

“And vice versa,” said Janine with a pleased smile. “I happened upon an old scroll that details such a pokemon move but I have yet to make it work with any of my pokemon.”

I tilted my head. Was there a pokemon move like that linked to poison type? It wasn’t an area I had much, if any knowledge of. I knew of Toxic Spikes, Acid, Sludgebomb, and Toxic as the most commonly used moves but was there something like Janine was describing? I wasn’t sure.

I opened my mouth to mention that she should perhaps consider the ‘core commonly thought of’ concepts of poison types, but Titan shook his head slightly. He flicked his finger between me and him with a slight nod before flicking it between me and Janine. I frowned.

“Not my place?” I said after thinking about what he could mean for a while.

Titan nodded, his maw breaking into a happy smile.

Janine tilted her head. “What’s not your place?”

I huffed. “I was thinking about what you’d said, and how that isn’t the association I’d have made but… Yeah, I think Titan is right on this. I shouldn’t pidgey-hole you into a specific mindset. What you come up with for poison as a concept works for you, it's just about harnessing it.”

I shrugged. “Maybe, just keep walking your path.”

Janine smiled. “Thank you, I shall. I will also consider what you have shown me today. I think it could be very helpful.”

I nodded and unbent my legs. Then a thought occurred. “Hey, your dad also knows normal type energy as well doesn’t he?”

Janine didn’t even bat an eye. “What makes you think that?”

“When he gets close to me he’s using a quick attack or something like that yeah? That’d require normal type energy, no?”

Janine snorted. “Or, perhaps he is simply a Grandmaster in ninjutsu?”

I searched her expression but didn’t find anything but smug amusement. Alright, so I wasn’t going to pry their secrets of how they did it from her. I still thought I was on the right track. Somehow I doubted I was the only dual-wielding aura user. It made sense that Koga kept an ace like that up his sleeve.

At least, I believed so.

Admittedly a little less as I stared across at Janine’s amused expression. I stood and dusted my hands off. “Right well, I have to go raise a fuss soon with the League. So I need to give the team a heads up before I head off. Are you good to shadow Daniel today and have him show you around Pewter city?”

Janine nodded her head. “I shall enjoy the tour from a local!”

I nodded and moved to clap hands with Titan. He did so happily and warbled his own goodbye before resuming his meditation pose. I left with Janine looking over her shoulder. “He’s very dedicated,” she said, her tone laced with approval.

I chuckled. I’d never questioned Titan’s desire or dedication to becoming strong. Titan had been strong when he’d evolved into his Tyranitar form. This was thanks to the nutrition plans I had fed him, training, and the sheer determination he had to grow from what he had been. Whenever people saw him these days they assumed he’d been a big Larvitar. They wouldn’t have guessed he’d been a runt.

I suspected that had played a bit of a part in Titan’s mother handing him off to me, but not much of one. Whenever we went back, she always seemed glad to see him and never dismissed him.

Janine continued to walk alongside me for a while before coughing. “Brock, before I leave I would like to have a match with you. I know it would help my team more than yours at this stage, but facing pokemon as strong as you would help my team grow immensely.”

I chuckled. “Oh I’m sure they’d enjoy it and find it aggravating, no doubt. But the experience would be good for them. They don’t get enough Champion tier trainers challenging them usually. Think that might change with all the Ace challenges I see coming in. It’s not like we’re going to be crazy people chasing the next most powerful pokemon.”Some people were known to get a bit crazy and attempt to challenge people increasingly stronger than them in a quest to increase their pokemon onwards and upwards. There were stories about trainers trying for greater challenges only to find themselves across a field from a Legendary, and realise how wide a gulf there was. Or worse they did something that caused a Legendary to rampage.

That was one of the biggest issues of raising champion-tier pokemon. You needed worthy foes to raise them up. Technically as a gym leader, I had a lot of options to get those. While my training would see them gradually improving the best improvements would come from fighting.

Thankfully these days we didn’t lack for challengers.

Lance and a lot of other people would need to watch out with how my team was bound to be stronger by the circuit’s end. I couldn’t wait to show them off when Rachel and I finalised a proper exhibition match.

Sabrina already wanted first rights to such a match.

That was a rematch I was looking forward to.

Until then, I had the League to growl at. This was the second time they had interfered with how things were operating. It might be different but the theme seemed the work of the same architect. I checked my watch and grimaced. I just barely had enough time to jump in the shower, check to confirm the kids were on their way and make it to the first match. I jogged up the stairs, running my hand through my still-wet hair. Jackson, watching over the current gauntlet fight taking place, tapped his watch in amusement.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know, cutting it close.” I clapped my hands and did my reset ritual.

Then I inhaled and shook myself. “Alright, go time!”

The day’s matches actually ended up going much quicker than I’d planned. Which I felt worked perfectly for me. Rarely would I get so much free time at the end of my day to catch up on the various bits and pieces of being the Gym Leader. Not now that the circuit was underway anyways. I doubted the last two Gym Challengers for today had been expecting quite as hard a match-up as they did when Rocko and Jackon beat them but that sometimes happened when we had gauntlet runs.Daniel had been annoyed that I’d tapped him to lead Janine around the city. With nothing to do I’d closed off the main arena and let everyone relax after they saw to their pokemon. People could still reserve the battle courts for matches, but I wasn’t going to see any more challenges.

Then I’d departed for my house where I’d sat at the kitchen counter with a wad of paperwork. Munchlax sat across from me with a bowl of cereal I’d made up for him. Eevee was sitting curled up in my lap as I finished up the paperwork

“Brock I need your signatures on these,” Alexa said as she handed me a few hiring forms. I looked them over, recalling the people that had made it through the last round of hiring. Some of them had been ecstatic about a temp job with us. I signed the forms and handed them back along with a few others.

“Alexa?” I said as a thought occurred to me.

“Yes, Brock?”

“How many people have put down for the Elite challenge right now?”

She frowned and tapped on her handheld computer. “None,” she said after a while. She tapped a few more times. “Usually you don’t see any takers for that until after the third month.”

I hummed. “Put a sign over the Elite challenge out front. Say that we’re holding off on accepting that challenge until… let’s say four months into the circuit? Then people that are international trainers will have a chance with their stronger pokemon if they’re confident. I'll keep the attention otherwise on single, double, gauntlet and Ace trainer fights for now.”

Alexa shifted. “It might streamline things if we had the gauntlet challengers start on the battle courts as well and then be escorted in.”

I considered that before shaking my head. “No, I want people challenging for the badge to have an experience here. Changing courts might cheapen that.” Alexa hummed as though she thought otherwise but nodded to show she understood my reasoning. I drummed the table. “Should I cancel the Ace challenges as well?”

Alexa promptly deposited a page that detailed how much the Gym made for ‘reserving Brock the arena along with television rights for matches’. I also pocketed part of this as a separate entity. I tapped the figure. “Ah, yeah best not drop the Ace challenges if we want to handle the increase in costs we’ll be facing then,” I said.

Alexa made an agreeing noise before she departed.

With her gone, I could focus on other things. Like making some very pointed inquiries at the League. I drew out a notepad to jot down some thoughts.

While Giovanni had been right about my showing and advertising drawing more people in, there was a limit to how many trainers I could face and someone had to have been ignoring things at the League for it to get this bad. Someone wasn’t doing their job and I felt like I needed to make my point clear. This after all was another problem for the gym that could have been handled better.

So, I’d probably need to go to Lance and give him the heads up that I wasn’t happy to have so many challengers. I might even have to lay out the ramifications of this many trainers being let through. I just needed to jot down my thoughts.

“Alright, so what sort of—” I started to say to myself.

“Gym Leader Brock! I challenge you!” cried out a voice through the window.

Eevee startled out of her nap and ran off with a cry. I glanced up and saw a trainer standing with his pokeball extended towards me. I also noted he was standing in the middle of the flower garden.

“Get off my petunias!” I shouted at him as I wound the curtain down.

“What? Oh! Sorry! Hey! You can’t just hide behind your curtain I saw you!”

“No, you didn’t! I’m just a recorded hologram!” I shouted back.

There was a moment of silence. Then the trainer said, “Really? That’s kinda coo… Wait a second! You saw me in your flowerbed!”

I clicked my tongue. I should have known he’d be one of those pesky not a complete idiot sorts. Then again, he was, after all, standing in my garden shouting challenges. “

Read the signs kid! I don’t accept challenges like this, go around the front!” I was already turning to the Graveler that served as the nanny. I jerked my thumb towards the kid. She bobbed her whole body once and marched out.

“Your signs won’t stop me! Ahaha! So you accept my—” there was a moment of scuffling and an aborted shout. A few minutes later Graveler walked back in, dusting her hands off. I shot her a thankful look. Munchlax merely handed her his empty cereal bowl before toddling off. The cheeky pokemon patted me on the side as he did so. He certainly had it good living under my roof. Six meals a day by my count and his choice of places to sleep when he wanted to.

I grumbled as I made another mark on the tally for trainers that had challenged me so far at home. That had been the tenth… I was only two weeks into the circuit…

I looked down at the points that I would be able to raise in argument with Lance. The need to give my pokemon rest was a serious concern and the increased strain on infrastructure were good, solid dependable points. They sadly had no zing to them.

I needed points with punch. I shot a message off to Rachel and she mentioned the two I’d already come up with.

‘Got anything the League would be interested in? Also, don't you have a Lawyer for this?’ she messaged back.

I paused at that. She was right! … On both counts. I sent a message to Lawrence and he shot me a picture of a slowpoke. I grumbled some more before he sent me a message that he’d start looking into the issue straight away. I flicked through my address book on my transceiver and called the first number that might have some potential for something ‘the League’ would be interested in. “Hey Bianca, got any fertilised eggs from Don yet?” I said to the in-house breeding specialist.

“Yes actually! Good timing! I was going to talk to you when you had a chance, as there has been a clutch laid!” she said.

I grinned through the screen. “Enough to send one to Professor Elm and Professor Oak as per our agreement?”

“Oh yes! Don has been most vigorous with my team of Ditto!” Bianca said happily.

I nodded, not really wanting that imagery, but having it now despite my best attempts to push it away. “... Right. Got another left over? I happen to know someone else interested in buying an egg.”

Bianca turned to the side. “Three, four, five… Yeah I think with six of them now you’ll have a good start on a breeding population that we can expand on slowly… one of those to a seller should be no issue. Are you going to be putting any restrictions on your sale to others?”

I blinked at that. Not expecting to be asked that by Bianca. I considered it before shaking my head. “No, I’ll allow them to breed as they want. I’ll just make sure they know and charge them extra for it. Alright?”

Bianca nodded. “That’s perfectly fine with me! I’d prefer there being more options in breeding partners out there in fact!”

“Any other eggs?”

“Not as many no. I have a Kabuto egg and an Omantye egg but no one so far has been as wonderful as Don with his ardour.”

I nodded again. “Alright cool. I’ll swing around to talk with the client this afternoon, so can you put the Aerodactyl egg in an incubator for me?”

“Can do!” Bianca said as she signed off.

I hummed, considering the next number. It would probably be overkill, but I hadn’t heard anything from the man recently and it might be nice to have another arrow in my quiver.

“Afternoon Crowley!” I said as the dark haired man answered my call.

“Brock! Yes, good morning!”

I tilted my head and glanced at the clock. Crowley blinked blearily at me. I had an idea to ask him what day he thought it was, but decided against it.

Crowley nodded again. “I am pleased to hear from you… I’m sorry to say we’ve stalled out on making the leap from plants to animals in resurrecting ancient pokemon… I…” The man licked his lips.

“I might need to ask for another extension of funds?” he said, cringing away from me like he expected this to be an issue.

I stared at the video in thought. It had been an idle thought with some loose money when I started funding them. I knew in the games, that after you lose Cinnabar as an option, Pewter Museum had become the site to resurrect pokemon, but perhaps I was throwing money down the drain.

On the screen, Crowley fidgeted. Oh well, I wasn’t hurting for money and I could back myself a bit longer. I was about to open my mouth to say I had no issues with that before a pink flower pokemon inched its way along a shelf behind Crowley’s shoulders. It turned and inspected Crowley, its dark eyes shining out of its hidden face as its fronds waggled about.

“Lileep!” it chanted as it tickled the back of Crowley’s head.

I pointed at it. “Crowley. Who's that pokemon?”

Crowley glanced back to see what I was talking about. “Oh! This is one of the plants we resurrected. We've gotten very good at resurrecting plants but we’re still not to the animal phase quite yet.” He glanced back and some atrophied social instinct he had must have twitched as he tilted his head. “Are you… Interested in them?”

I sighed. “Crowley, consider your funding requirements a thing of the past. I, and at least one other trainer I know, would love those in our roster.”

“Consider them yours!” he said.

I nodded before tilting my head. “How many did you resurrect?”

“Fifty!” said Crowley happily. “I had to make sure the process was viable and repeatable! Sadly we ran out of genetic samples before we proved what the success rate truly is. It’s an untested hundred percent so far!” Crowley, rather than looking pleased, shook his head sadly.

“How many tests are you thinking you need to conduct?” I said before I could stop myself.

“Oh?! Well Brock, as a Gym Leader and not a scientist, I’m sure it must come as a shock, but proper research standards dictate at least a few thousand!” He then panned his screen around to show his lab with a number of Lileep inching around it with an intern shooing one off some paperwork.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’ll be over to pick them up, along with depositing some money to you soon.”

“Excellent!” said the man in a totally normal and not at all maniacal way. He hung up quickly.

I sighed. “Why… why is this my life?” I said to the air. I shrugged, it could be way worse actually.

I called Lawrence and he spat what looked like coffee over himself when I announced Crowley’s failure to him. “I’ll be right over there in a few minutes!” he said before hanging up.

I stood to walk outside and ride Zephyr over. Then I stopped as I considered something. I opened my transceiver and dialled Sabrina. Sabrina appeared next to me instead of answering.

“Yes Brock?” She considered me. “You have a look of exasperation on your face.”

I pointed at her. “Correct,” I said. Sabrina nodded and walked forward to pat me on the head.

It was nice and I relaxed into being pat.

Then the doorbell began to ring obnoxiously.

“Gym Leader Brock! I, Vandal Vicenzo challenge you—” Graveler stormed to the front door only to open it to reveal no trainer. I frowned. Had I been rang and dashed? Then I remembered Sabrina.

“What did you do with him?”

“Deposited them in the pond in the middle of Pewter city,” Sabrina said neutrally.

I felt such a surge of emotion I almost blurted out how great she was. Instead, I hugged her. She returned to patting my head.

It was nice.

“Hey, I was surprised the other day.” She tilted her head and I grinned. “The stationary store moved,” I said.

Sabrina’s shoulders twitched.

“I went to the bank and saw a woman with a stain on her blouse, should I teller?”

Sabrina giggled and I enjoyed the sound before telling her how things were. Then, because I liked her smile more than her serious face, I told her another joke.

“There’s a really annoying guy going around. He thinks that just cause he’s the only chimney sweep in town he can raise his prices through the roof.”

I continued to tell some jokes for a few minutes. With all my farfetch’d in a row, it was time to go poke a sleeping Dragon master.