Sabrina was easily considered one of the toughest gym leaders in the area to secure a badge from. The others were Giovanni of course, Blaine and Koga.

She had a known policy of not accepting anyone with less than three badges, which made all of her matches mean a lot more. It also meant that she faced far fewer challenges than other gym leaders. This made her no less popular to face however, and most sought to add the Marsh badge to their collection if for no other point than a point of pride. It was a mark of a good trainer if not a great one.

She wasn’t alone in having a slightly different set of requirements to challenge her gym. Again, however, more often than not it was those seen as the ‘toughest’ that had their quirks.

Blaine was technically the toughest opponent to face. Which was to be expected as a retired Elite Four member. He’d taken over the old Gym upon his retirement and also taken up a research facility. One that was highly restricted according to the gossip and news surrounding the man. He was held in the same regard as Professor Oak though. Which said things to those that understood that Oak was a class of his own.

Koga was a ninja with poison types as his speciality. He was ruthless in his battling style and the smallest of slip-ups in his matches were capitalized on. Fuschia enjoyed the multiple attempts that it took trainers to secure his badge as the man typically became a roadblock with trainers needing to set aside weeks if not months to work on bettering their skills. Koga also typically knew each trainer by name before they even reached his city. You typically were greeted at his gym with a profile on yourself along with all of your weaknesses made abundantly clear. It was highly unnerving, to say the least. Then they asked if you wanted to continue your challenge. It reminded me of the Black ops psychological warfare methods I’d read of in the past. Needless to say, everyone respected Koga and his information network.

Giovanni had Earth pokemon. His other quirk was that he had limited availability at the start of the circuit. It annoyed everyone, but he was seen as a ‘Philanthropist’ and he got away with things like that thanks to his charitable contributions to the local community. I always made sure to be very relaxed around him. You couldn’t always tense up and watch him too much. I suspected that I wasn’t the only one in my circle of Gym leaders that at the very least suspected he was not on the up and up, but proving that was much tougher. He also paid out more handsomely for any takers of his gym challenge, with certain caveats. Caveats, such as wearing helmets that monitored vital signs or taking part in experiencing the pain that pokemon go through during fights to throw you off. He then would take handsomely from you if you lost.

By comparison, the other four gyms —Pewter, Cerulean, Vermillion and Celadon— accepted any and all takers who entered our doors. This made us seem ‘weaker’ in some eyes. Less exclusive. Being comparable to Cerulean as it currently stood wasn’t a good thing. The Cerulean sisters were great performers. They had the best Contests around by far. But their battling aspect was sadly lacking. They didn’t have enough depth for their gym with dedicated trainers or with pokemon to handle more than four to five trainers a day.

The other four gyms were invariably standoffish to the big gyms despite any attempts on our part to reach out to them.

Of all the gym leaders in the Kanto region however, I seemed to click best with these two.

Sabrina, the Psychic mistress of Saffron, and Lieutenant Surge, the Thunderbolt of Vermillion.

Surge had been one of the only people to reach out to me when I had taken over my father’s gym. He’d been brash, arrogant, and altogether way, way too loud for my liking at the time, but I’d realized after the fact that he had taken time out of his schedule to come over and give me pointers in his own way. Some of it was not really applicable and some of it was gold that had seen me not faltering… as much during my first circuit as a gym leader.

Weird to think that had been almost three years ago now.

Sabrina… well I’d just have to mark our interactions as ‘complicated’ and leave it at that for now. I respected her despite any previous annoyances and emotional issues I had with her. She just operated differently.

“Gym Leader Sabrina, thank you for taking the call. I need to plan how to demolish him.”

She inclined her head, a usual behaviour for her. She usually disliked talking at all, and forcing her to talk by using the phone usually resulted in short calls. Her usual form of communication was thought projection, which had initially not worked on me. Which had made my challenge for her gym rather awkward and educational for both of us at the time.

“Heh! So you’ve called both of us huh? Well I suddenly feel like a third wheel!” Sabrina and I both said nothing to that which merely encouraged Surge to fill the void. “You need to meet this challenge Brock! Lance might be the Champion but there’s a way to speak to gym leaders, and that was way out of line!” Surge started to build himself up. One of his pokemon must have been nearby as sparks started to fly as he spoke. “You need to step up to the plate and swing for his jaw!”

I ignored the mixing of sports metaphors. “I agree, thus the call.”

Sabrina’s gaze intensified on me and for a moment I thought I felt an itch in my mind flare-up. I shook it off. Sabrina was too far away to link with, wasn’t she? Surge leaned forward. “Ho? It sparked something in you did it? Made you feel the pulse? Get your blood running hot!”

I rolled my eyes. “No, I was watching it with my family. They heard everything.”

Surge leaned back, a spikey Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder and growled. “Huh yeah, that would get me out of sorts as well. Just thinking about those snot-nosed little brats tearing up and sad cause of what Lance said. That’s starting to make me fired up!” He launched out of his chair and started yelling about how he wasn’t going to stand it. He would march down to the League office at Indigo and demand Lance fall on his sword and apologize for disrespecting me and my family like that. His pokemon again got caught in his wake and between breathes a growl of ‘Chu!’ punctuated his tirade.

“Surge! I have a plan. I don’t need the league to arbitrate for me. You know how that would go anyway.”

Surge sat down at that, suddenly quiet but the gleam in his eye gave away his interest. “Oh got a plan? Let’s hear it then.” He settled but there was a certain twitchiness that spoke of him wanting to act. Or ambient current from his electric types forcing him to move.

“Well first off, I thought I’d bounce my thoughts off you both as sounding boards. You’re both… objective on this topic,” I almost said level headed but with the pseudo-American Surge, you could never really say such a thing. The man was a livewire. Sabrina merely tilted her head to show she was listening.

“Lance is new as Champion, so that’s why he wouldn’t have made the challenge the way he did. He’s also Johto region raised, so he’s biased towards them. I was going to run a meeting with the press later where I’d say how happy I am to get the exhibition. I’ll play along as a simple trainer but also make no comments about his statement. I’ll need to placate the mayor. Then I’ll meet in front of Lance before the tournament and demand he puts up or shuts up.”

“How?”

Surge halted, his mouth open, likely to ask the same question only to realize Sabrina had beaten him to the punch. He stayed quiet.

I worked a thought over in my mind. Here, Surge was right. Go big or go home. “Ten Million poke dollars as a wager enough you think?”

The video call went dead quiet. Surge swallowed as his Pikachu gaped before rolling backwards as if stunned. It landed with a dull ‘Piiiikaaaa’. I smiled at the reaction. That was a lot of money. Enough to run a Pokemon Gym for at least two years with a full trainer complement.

“It would suffice,” said Sabrina in her typical toneless manner. You had to watch her closely for the small twitches and tremors that were her ‘emotes’. She’d twitched when I announced the sum and now seemed pleased judging by the small twitch of her lips.

“That’s… a lot of moolah Brock,” I noted Surge hadn’t called me kid this time. “You gotta be good for it. Don’t gamble it if you can’t afford it. The banks don’t gamble like that. I can get in touch with some people if you need?”

I raised an eyebrow. “I can afford it. And it shows how serious I am. I can liquidate some assets and take the money along. I’ll need to go to the Conference with my sponsored trainer Celia. Then I’ll make the announcement the day before the match. They’ll keep our fights to the start of it, no?”

“It is what they have done in the past,” Sabrina said. She then tilted her head back. “You should merely say ‘No comment’ when a reporter talks to you.” She paused again before nodding. “You will require a sparring partner.”

“I’m down for that!” shouted Surge before nodding as the Pikachu leapt back only to be knocked off by a much larger Raichu that punched the air. “Reckon you’ll ask anyone else?”

I shook my head. “I trust you two the most with this. I’m going to go into training with a few of my pokemon before setting up the best six that I can. I already have somewhat of an idea though. Sanchez could use your support Surge.”

“Yeah, an Electric and Rock type Golem is something I never thought I’d see. Heh! I should get me one of his kids it’d stump a few people seeing me throwing down something they’d expect from you.”

“As to any other gym trainers…” I pressed on, “I’m not sure about Blaine or Koga… Giovanni would only make money off me, but he does have some powerhouse pokemon.” I looked to Sabrina. “Sabrina, think you can put the pressure on some of my pokemon?” She inclined her head with a small twitch of her lips upwards.

The talk went on for a few more minutes, hashing out dates that they could come to the gym to help me train. I wanted to hit Lance for all that he was worth and I’d only get one shot at this. I signed off and sat back only to stiffen when a flash of light erupted in the corner of my office.

“Brock,” said Sabrina as she stepped forward. I blinked in surprise at the dark-haired beauty. She was wearing what had become her signature style with red shirt and miniskirt over tights that covered almost all of her skin. Her ruby red eyes swept over me.

“Hey Sabrina.” I glanced back at the talk we had literally hung up from just a moment ago. “What’s up?”

“I wanted to check on you. Are you… well?”

“Mostly annoyed and a bit angry I guess. I just didn’t like the way it made my little brothers and sisters act. Heck, they’re still acting a little out of sorts.” I sat forward in my chair only to huff a laugh when Sabrina stepped up and placed her hands around me. “You’re… Are you hugging me?”

“Yes, I am hugging you.”

“Thought you didn’t like touching like that?” In any interactions we’d had, I’d always had to initiate, which made things slightly weirder even when she’d asked for it. Holding hands and hugs weren’t supposed to make you cringe.

“It is something I am working on. I understand that this helps as you are emotional. Hugs help.”

I smiled, enjoying the moment of having some support, both emotionally and physically. Eventually, I had to speak my mind. “Did you read that in a book?”

“...yes. I have been working on my social skills.” There was a moment of hesitation that I interpreted as ‘do you think I am improving?’.

“You’re getting really good at it. Funny how social skills can be weak or strong no? Before long, you’ll be a socialite at all the fancy Saffron parties.”

Sabrina physically shuddered and I had to hold in another chuckle. She wouldn’t appreciate being ‘laughed at’. She did like laughing though. “Hey what do Haunters eat for lunch?”

“I have no idea?” She said, leaning back to see me.

I grinned. “Boo-longa sandwiches. Get it?” She bit her lips and looked away. “How do you get a Pikachu onto a bus?”

“Stop it!” She said while stepping back and hunching in on herself.

“You poke’em’on!”

“Pfft!” She said while hunching in on herself further.

“Did you hear of the pokemon pirate? It was an Arrrrrr-bok!”

“Pu! Hahaha!” Sabrina gave up on holding in her laughter as I grinned and mercilessly continued to tell her worse and worse jokes. She eventually sat on me and buried her head into my shoulder. “Those were terrible jokes.”

I hugged her and rocked her back and forth. “Yeah, they were. But they made you smile.”

She touched her face and nodded, “Urgh. You’re not supposed to find such jokes funny.”

“Said the books?” I asked. She nodded, getting a shrug from me. “Who cares? You shouldn’t. If you find them funny then laugh. You’re cute when you’re enjoying yourself.”

She sat back and stared into my eyes. “Are you flirting with me?”

“A little. Mostly I’m just enjoying myself with a friend.”

She sighed and stood. “I feel like I have made a fool of myself acting this way.”

I merely smiled at her. “Thanks for coming Sabrina. It means a lot.” I offered a hand towards the door. “Want to stay and have an early lunch with my family?”

Sabrina shook her head quickly. “No. I have duties to perform. I will speak again with you soon.” She vanished in a flash of light and I sat back in my chair. I pushed aside the disappointment and glanced towards my computer.

She was right. I also had jobs to take care of, beyond just plotting Lance’s defeat.