“Brawly!” I said, waving to the aqua-haired teen. I’d found him merrily conversing with Missy, while Rocko and Dennis sat near them.

Brawly looked up and nodded. “Brock! Hey!” He gestured around the room. “I might not want as big a gym as you have, but wow, this place has some nice features that make me want to reconsider that.”

I chuckled at that. The lounge wasn’t that special, in truth. There were a few glass bar fridges along one wall for snacks and free drinks for the trainers, along with some lockers where people could store personal effects in if they desired. There was also a microwave and a small kitchenette if people wanted to get fancy with a long table that could fit five or six people at once. Toilets for people to use were tucked away near both entrances.

The centre of the room had a ring of lounges that were spaced haphazardly, along with a number of beanbags and chairs.

I always liked that the roof was high enough that I could release Titan in here without him having to stoop. Something Rocko was making good use of, with his Kangaskhan happily seated beside him.

Missy had her Arcanine and Rhydon out as well, while Dennis only had a Geodude sharing his couch. Crystal toddled in from the receptionist area and made a beeline straight towards the fridges with the sugary drinks. I nodded to Dennis. “How many of those has she had today?”

This got a chuckle from the group as they smiled fondly. Rocko waved his hand. “Relax Brock, she’s on her second since this morning. No need to big brother her.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, amused that he thought of it that way. I glanced to Dennis. “And how many have you seen her have?”

“...two as well?” he said, starting to see where I was going.

Missy popped up from the couch. “Hey! No more sugar! You’ll wreck your teeth!”

Crystal spun about with the bottle firmly lodged in her mouth, huge bubbles glugging up and down like a bubbler instead of a small girl with a soda bottle. Missy ran across to her. “Hey! No!”

Crystal finished before she could be stopped and then dove between Missy’s legs. “Ahahaha! You’ll never catch me! I’m all hyped up on energy! Raw unfiltered—”

“Selene,” I said calmly.

Selene, who’d been following Crystal around, glowed softly, and Crystal rose up. “Eh?! What? No! Selene! I give you the good scratches, don’t betray me!”

“Lunnnna!” warbled my pokemon as she deposited the small girl onto a chair in front of me.

Crystal looked up at me and pouted. “That’s cheating!”

“No, it’s just good resource management. Now, I’m not going to ask how much you've had. The answer is too much. However, I want you to know that you’re not going to get access to those drinks if you can’t control yourself.”

Crystal squirmed in her seat, eyes not meeting mine. “I will.”

“Good, cause otherwise I have to stop you from having any. And if you were to go behind my back, I might not want to let you borrow Selene.”

“I’ll be good!” Crystal said, much more earnest now.

“Alright. Go find your mum, and tell her what we said, alright?”

Crystal ran off at that. I huffed to myself before turning to find Rocko and Dennis sharing an amused look. Brawly rubbed his chin. “Man, I thought they were joking but you really are a full-time dad type.”

I coughed at that. “That’s!... I’m not that bad am I?”

Rocko waggled his hand while Dennis shook his head loyally. “Not at all Brock! You’re an inspiration with how you look after your brothers and sisters along with any young trainer that enters the gym!”

I stared at Dennis. I felt like he was, in his own way, teasing me. Rocko glancing away while shaking in silent laughter only deepened my suspicion. “Riiiiiiiight well,” I waved a sheet of papers. “Your chores, children.”

Rocko laughed heartily at that, while Dennis broke into a smile. Missy leaned forward to look at the roster I had laid out. Brawly made a gesture that took a moment for me to realise meant, ‘may I?’. I nodded and he leaned in.

“Huh, division of labour, with jobs everyone needs to do for the week. There are a lot of jobs on here.”

I shrugged. “There’s a lot to manage with this being a pretty big gym. We have a lot of facilities and a lot of pokemon to handle. Both our own and pokemon that have been stabled with us.”

“Huh nice. Get many rare ones?”

I shook my head. “Need to have a lot larger roster for those. The rarest pokemon around here are my Ancient pokemon.”

“I’m patrolling the Rota route? I don’t think I ever went that way before?” Missy asked before glancing at me.

“Ah that’s a small route, you’ll pretty much have signage the entire way, but it’s a walking path that climbs up into the mountains. Check the files as you’ll have to take a climbing and tent pack with you. If there’s anything that you own that’s better than any of the gym gear, remember to lodge it with Dennis and Georgina.” Dennis perked up at this, and when Missy had more questions she directed them at him.

I turned towards Brawly. “Still want that tour?”

“Oh, for sure, man!” Brawly shot up and waved to the other three trainers. “Later dudes! Thanks for letting me chill here!”

The other three all waved at him. Seeing their reactions to him, I couldn’t help but be a little envious at how easily Brawly had inserted himself into the group and become fast friends with them. I shook it off, it wasn’t something you could control. I liked being me.

“Right, well guess I’ll show you the inside stuff, and then work my way out to the back where the pokemon are.”

“Ah! Saving the best for last, eh?” Brawly said. He trooped along next to me, his hands laced behind his head as he glanced around.

“No, just that there’s a lot more to see. Plus, if I time it right, most of the pokemon will be coming in for their evening meal. Forrest should be looking over it.” I led him back out into the arena.

"Right, so you already saw the arena and the stands. I had this built with the latest features, such as the damage barrier casters that can catch multiple Hyper Beams should the referee trigger the need for such.”

“They actually hold against that much?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I made it a condition that I’d have them installed and then would be putting those features to the test. Silph Corp practically has it as part of their standard contract.”

“Huh, that’s kinda sweet. Do they actually stand up to it?” Brawly said thoughtfully.

“They stood up to Titan, Knight, and Onix all unleashing a Hyperbeam at once, back to back. I had the parts replaced, but I have a technician come in every weekend. They also have an on-call technician for particularly rough days.”

“Huh, nice. Hey, I noticed the grills of water around the arena, how come you allow those? Lots of other gyms don’t allow something that will weaken their pokemon. Especially not with easy access to water for some of the bigger moves. No way I could use Surf easily in Chuck’s gym.”

“It makes battles more similar to those that will occur at the Plateau. These are mostly standard fields apart from the Rocks we have thrown about.”

I gestured to the rock-strewn field. "The majority of people who come here are younger trainers, and they don't have the pokemon that would be severely hampered. Also, I want my pokemon to be exposed to their weaknesses. It’s not so much about avoiding them as it is controlling them and coming up with methods to counter them.”

Brawly leaned over the railing, eyeballing the grills of water. “Huh, never thought I’d find myself envious of Rock types' more physical-based weaknesses. It’s almost easier to do it your way than it is for psychic types.”

I merely nodded and gestured to the next series of rooms. “Right, so the next lot of rooms are for admin with trainers having desks that are open for interaction while my senior trainers get larger spaces. We’ve got filing cabinets and reference material in those along with some supplies.” I walked through another door to reveal a hallway. “My house is up that way, that’s back to the arena, and this is my office.”

“What’s that door?” Brawly said, pointing to a door that had black and yellow paint bordering it with a large ‘restricted access’ printed across it.

“Security and server hub. Or as I call it, the duckpond.” I waved off Brawly’s confused look. “Sorry, it’s an inside joke.”

I opened the door to my office, revealing a mess of papers scattered around with a number of seats both in the corners and in front of the main desk while a large office chair rested in front of dual monitors.

Brawly whistled, “Damn, looks like you spend a lot of time in here.”

I grimaced. I probably should have cleaned up a little. Especially considering I could have gotten rid of the mugs that rested around the place.

“I see what they mean. You’re really like a parent.” He pointed to a few toys stuffed in a corner, along with a nappy bag that had been shoved atop a shelf.

I scratched the back of my head. “Ah, yeah. Kids always know to come here first if they need to find me and I’m not home.”

“How come you don’t have an office at home?”

“Oh I do, but it's smaller and I find I just get more done when I’m not being interrupted all the time.”

“Man I hate to say this, but you’re kind of a symbol to not get hitched before you have it all worked out. I can’t imagine setting all this up while raising a family.”

“Yeah well … guess it just worked out?” I said with a shrug.

“I’ll say, man, you ever get to relax?” Part of me instantly felt like I knew what was coming. I raised my hands instinctively only for Brawly to speak up. “You want to go surfing this weekend? I found some good spots and we can be there and back again, easy!”

I lowered my hand. I’d… Well, I’d honestly been expecting something like what Surge would have said.

“I can’t, I have a lot of work to do,” I said out of reflex. Surfing… didn’t sound like something I’d usually do, but it did kind of sound nice.

“Work will be there for work hours man!”

I chuckled, hadn’t I said as much to myself earlier today? “Ah, well yeah we’ll see, come on I’ll show you the temporary infirmary we have then lead you out to the back.”

“Infirmary?” Brawly stiffened. “Why do you need that?”

“Cause accidents happen sometimes. You’d be surprised... Well, if you’ve spent time with Chuck, you probably have a better idea than most, but lots of trainers like to overestimate themselves. I like to brag about never losing an Elite challenge but I do have the odd trainer attempt it, when they really shouldn’t have. But those are rare and my pokemon are honestly great at controlling themselves.”

I opened a door and lights flicker on to reveal a sterile room that I know from past experience can hold an Onix comfortably. “Most of the injuries in the Gym occur to my pokemon nine times out of ten. Sometimes, I need to stabilise them before getting them to Nurse Joy.”

“Ah, People sandbagging and choosing fights easier than they should?”

“Yeah.” I didn’t have to say anything else about the room and instead shut the door and led us out through our gymnasium which was rated for pokemon and personal use. Brawly was a bit more impressed with this.

“Nice! You got all the gear that you want to stay fit! Urgh, this big complex is messing with my dream for low budget low fuss! There’s so many features that I want!” he said as he picked up some of the padded headgear that could be used for training pokemon.

“Well this took a few years to put together, I’m not going to lie. Maybe you can build from a basic set up?”

Brawly hummed thoughtfully before I waved him off. His eyes lingered on the training area and I chuckled. Trust a Fighting type specialist to instantly be enamoured with the weights and sparring mats.

I started to bounce in anticipation as I led Brawly out into the reserve. I was extra looking forward to this with the new acquisitions that I'd recently signed off on, particularly the trio of Slugma being added to the gym. Finally, I’d have the pokemon to build up some proper fire types! I also had a Corsola, which was neat.

I led Brawly out into the yard just as the sun was starting to vanish over the horizon. I noticed pokemon milling about troughs and small dishes around the yard. Justin, Phoebe—both new temporary hires—, and Daniel carried bags or buckets of feed towards various pokemon that were spaced out, or they were ordering various pokemon through some moves. Daniel himself was using an Onix to fill in a trench while Shrek watched on with the newly acquired Corsola who looked dubiously at the new trench.

Salvadore was happily sitting and explaining things to my new Corsola acquisition, while writing something on a notepad. I suspected it was an initial impression of the Corsola. I decided to leave him be and just gave a wave of greeting.

Near the feed troughs. Bertha loomed over the feeding frenzy. When pokemon started to try and fight each other over meals she gave a harsh growl that had them settling down before more trouble could occur.

The Gravelers and Golems were off to the side watching Sanchez trade blows with a Graveler I recognised. She seemed to be doing well for herself right up until she tried to grapple with Sanchez obviously thinking herself stronger thanks to her extra set of arms.

She was quickly corrected when Sanchez picked her up off the ground and hurled her skyward. Then he leapt after her and slapped her into the ground. It reminded me of watching a volleyball player more than a pokemon fight.

He landed and crossed his arms cooly, only to get a mudslap from Izumi the geodude, who wasn’t impressed with his antics having been disrupted while eating her own meal.

Brawly whistled. “Daaaamn, this is a lot of pokemon.”

“Need em all for the gym challenges. We go through a lot. There are more that we keep in the pokeballs but the ones that fight expel more energy than those in their balls so we feed them. Also, they need to be cycled for rest purposes. Gets a bit hectic, but once you set up a system it works out.” I leaned down and brushed my hand over a Geodude that had taken a nasty Mega Punch earlier today. It grunted at me and made sure to keep stuffing its face so I knew it was going to be alright.

Another injured pokemon, a Rhyhorn, was being fed straight from a bucket while its leg healed up. It crooned when Phoebe shook her head. “Sorry girl, no more for now.”

I nodded at her before inspecting another pokemon. I caught her slipping the injured Rhyhorn a treat with my peripherals. I grinned to myself; that girl would work well back here. She had already earned a lot of the various pokemon’s affection after only two days of work.

Brawly’s smirk when I rose from patting an Aron let me know he’d also spotted the sneaky move. I shook my head before gesturing towards the cavern.

“Daniel! How are the Slugma?” I called out to him.

He looked up from his work with the Onix and rubbed his chin. “We got them some tunnels near your cave system. They seem to like the dark but they have a central cavern. Ask Salvadore, he literally crawled after them and mapped it out with Izumi following him along for safety.”

I grunted at that. “Hmmm good to know.” I glanced about only to frown when a face I was expecting to see wasn’t visible. “Have my pokemon been fed yet?” I glanced around for Forrest only to not spot him.

“Ah? Ummm no, not yet. I was going to do that!” I turned slowly and shook my head.

“That wasn’t your job. I had Forrest doing that cause he wants to get a chance to use some of them in fights. If they’re not familiar with him, they're going to ignore most of his orders. No one else apart from him, Yolanda, Salvadore or myself are to feed them. It’s supposed to be Forrest’s turn.”

I pointedly looked around. “Is he around?”

“Ah, uhm. No?” Daniel swallowed as I looked straight at him. I sighed explosively.

“Right well, if Forrest does this again, tell me.”

“Sure I can’t just do it, boss?”

“No.” I didn’t elaborate on it, and I really shouldn’t have to. I marched towards the shed. Brawly walked along next to me, not saying anything but nevertheless following along.

I grabbed two bags of pokechow before snatching up another two. I balanced all four on my shoulders before grabbing some meat out of a fridge.

“Need a hand?” Brawly eyed the stack of pokefood on my shoulders but I just shrugged. “Nah, I need to be the one to feed some of them. Shin is fine, but Don,” I raised the meat,” Can be a real shit. When my brothers and sister came to do this they had Titan and the others to look out for them at the start but lately, Don’s really relaxed around them. He’d probably attack Daniel or anyone else though if they came in with meat.”

There were more reasons on top of why I didn’t want other people feeding my pokemon but those weren’t worth raising here.

“They have to do that often?” Brawly asked.

“Nah, they do it three times between themselves.” I paused, "Actually, Forrest is supposed to be doing jobs like this more. He’s trying to pick up jobs around the gym but…” I gestured around and shook my head. “He doesn’t seem to be interested in losing time from his other interests.”

“Eh he’s young, he’ll get there eventually.” I nodded once more, not thinking about how he might need to get it a lot faster than ‘eventually’.

Daniel hovered at the feedshed’s entrance. “Uhm boss? Was there supposed to be a Stantler in that new patch of pokemon you got delivered?”

I smirked. “Yup, and don’t worry about it. It’s a gift I plan to train up for someone.” Sabrina was going to be so shocked when I gave her a Wyrdeer! “Just feed it for now and introduce it to Scyther. They’re going to be running drills together tomorrow morning!” That would take care of the ‘agility’ aspect of Stantler’s evolution. Now I just needed to create a psychic rich environment.

Daniel nodded dubiously, and I smiled innocently as I trudged towards the caverns.

The food itself I deposited into raised bowls around the various caverns. When I came down to the grotto I signalled for Brawly to wait before taking the meat out of the cryovac bag. I slapped it against the wall.

“Don! Dinner time!” I then hurled it up in the air and over the water. The four ancient pokemon I owned that weren’t flight-capable all perked up at the soaring meat only for a screech to sound out as Don rose from his rock nest to snatch it out of the air. He then settled back and made a show of ripping the meat apart.

He loudly gulped and tore at the meat while leering at the others that looked up. The Kabuto and Omantye did so with small whines while Shin and Shelly approached me. Both old enough to know that this was all a show to let Don preen and feel special.

They took their meals and bobbed their heads before calling out to their unevolved fellows.

“Wow, they're pretty impressive,” Brawly said from where he stood at the entrance of the grotto. Don snapped his head up and growled.

“Don! Eat your dinner!” I said, pointing at some of the meat that was now falling into the water beneath him. He snapped his head down to see it splash before snapping his head straight up at Brawly. His glare intensified, and I could just see that he was practically shouting ‘you did this!’.

“Dinner!” I said again before gesturing for Brawly to follow once more into a darker part of the cave. I started to walk into the dark before I realised that Brawly wasn’t joining me. “Oh, right, sorry!” I reached into a pocket and withdrew a flashlight.

“Huh, you’re that used to the place you can navigate by memory?” he said while squinting at the bright light.

“Something like that,” I said, avoiding the question. I led him deeper into the dark cave and eventually, we reached the point that opened for a large cavern.

“Ty?” said my starter as he noticed me coming but with a flashlight in hand.

“Hey Titan, made a friend today and wanted to show him around. This is Brawly.” Titan shifted and stalked over to me before leaning down to inspect Brawly. He sniffed and the other trainer happily accepted the inspection, before Titan leaned back and nodded seriously.

“Ran! Ty!” He said with a smile before nodding at myself and Brawly.

“Ha! Yeah, more friends are always nice aren’t they?” I said. Brawly chuckled.

“Yeah, I’ll agree with that!” Brawly chimed in from where he stood appreciating titan. A rumble of earth informed me that the cave heralded another two large pokemon crawling out of their own caverns to inspect myself and Brawly. Bertha snorted and made grasping gestures at the food while Knight lowered his head.

“Huh, you have a strong Hoenn pokemon here.” Brawly ran his hands over the metal plates and smiled when Knight crooned happily. “I’ve seen a couple of these back in my hometown of Dewford but they rarely travel above ground.”

“In the Granite cave yeah? That’s where I found Knight and a bunch of the other Aron that I own. Couldn’t find a Probopass at the time though.”

“Oh, looking for one? I know a few people that like those! They’re great pokemon! I’ll see if I can get in contact with them for you!”

“That would help actually,” I said appreciatively. “I was in Dewford when I had to call my journey short so I feel like I missed out on a lot of great pokemon from Hoenn.”

“Oh man that’s bogus!” he said with a shake before rubbing his chin. “Yeah, I’m not surprised you didn’t find a Nosepass or Probopass. They’re only in some of the more dangerous parts or in the depths of the Granite cave, and if you go that deep you run into weird types.”

“Weird how?” I said, thinking of the pokemon that turned up in the games after you captured Groudon or Kyogre.

“There are people that swear they’ve seen ruins and others that are just as good as bandits with how they attack people down there. But that’s only way, way deep in the caves. Now that I’m a lot stronger I’m planning to make a proper dive of it to see what’s down there with my team.”

“Huh, interesting.” It wasn’t often that you heard of bandit groups or stray people that weren’t part of the region's governance. I knew Lance had apparently fought a few tribes but I had no idea what that actually involved. It’d be something to look up using the Guardian’s information network. Knight interrupted my thoughts by crooning and thumping the ground with his foot as Brawly got to a good spot.

“He likes the spot to the side of his neck but be careful he doesn’t shut the plates on you when he leans into the scratch,” I said.

Brawly carefully scratched the specified area and almost had to leap as Knight practically fell over from going limp. He caught himself before he hit the ground though, and gave Brawly a confused look.

“Sorry! You’re too heavy for me!” Brawly said sheepishly.

“Oh! Sorry, I usually let him lean on me while I give him scratches.” Brawly gave me a stunned look before pointedly looking at the indent Knight had caused from flopping on the ground.

“... huh, you ever learn any fighting styles?”

“Noooo?” I said, carefully, knowing I was treading dangerous territory either way.

“Huh, shame you’d be a terror on the mats with strength like yours!”

I shrugged, more than happy to not be offered training that would see me grappling another guy. I changed the conversation and pointed to an adjacent stairwell. “Come on, I’ll take you up there before the sun goes down. It’s a pretty good view and we can feed Selene and Quirrina.”

We marched up the winding stairs. In a few places metal rods were spaced to make the structure overall more stable but otherwise the entire structure was something that I'd had my pokemon create.

The top of my pokemon built plateau gives a great view of Pewter city. In the afternoon it acts like a perfect observation deck as lights start to become more prevalent. During the actual night it is rather cold up here with how exposed it is but the view of the stars was wonderful. When we reached the top I got to watch as Brawly’s eyes widened in surprise.

I grinned before turning to the other person that was up here. “Yolanda?”

My little sister turned, in her grasp, the egg incubator wobbled slightly making her tighten her grip. “Brock! And… Who’re you?”

“I’m Brawly! I had a match with Brock earlier and we’re friends now!” he said with a thumbs up causing me to laugh. It really was that easy in the pokemon world I’d found.

Yolanda looked to me in shock before getting a teasing smile. “Well, be nice to him. He doesn’t have many friends.”

Brawly bowed while his shoulders shook from laughter.

I huffed. “I have friends.”

Yolanda gave me an unamused look. “Dennis and Rocko don’t count cause they work for you.”

“I like to think they count extra despite working for me!” I countered.

“Nuh uh!” I shook my head at her antics.

“I’m not getting into that with you,” I said, choosing the higher ground. “And I have other friends. Friends you’ve never met!” A pokemon journey did make you interact with a lot of different people after all. I smiled towards Selene and Quirrina as they floated down towards me. “Also, I have my pokemon.”

“Well… yeah alright then,” Yolanda grumbled, unable to refute that. I set up some dishes for my pokemon and she checked over her egg. Brawly merely sat off to the side turning slowly to take in the landscape.

“Did I see the egg jump just now?” I asked.

Yolanda bounced up and down. “I knew I wasn’t imagining it!”

I grimaced. “That just means it’s out of the first stage of being hatched. The third, and final will be pretty annoying. It'll move around a lot. Have you been talking with Bianca?”

“A little, she’s in and out so often that I don’t get to talk with her much. She did give me a good list of books to read over for when it actually hatches.” I don’t say anything more to that. Instead, I tilted my head.

“Where’s Forrest by the way? He was supposed to feed the pokemon today. If he wants to use them for some of his matches eventually or get a feel for them he’s going to need to feed them and get used to them. If he can’t do it he needs to tell me so I can take over.” I said with a grumble mostly to myself.

Yolanda hopped up. “I think I saw him riding off to look for…” she trailed off and her eyes flicked to Brawly before giving an awkward smile. “Well anyway, I didn’t know it was his turn but I can do it!” She hopped up and Quirrina spun to the other side of her to make sure she didn’t fall off the ledge.

I shook my head. “I’ve taken care of it. I just… this is getting a bit ridiculous. I’m going to have to talk to him.”

Yolanda had a momentary smirk that vanished faster than a stray chip near some Winggull.

Yolanda merely nodded again before hugging her egg tightly. I sat down on the edge of the plateau, when Quirina was done he floated into my side and provided a nice warm body to hold. For long minutes, no one spoke. We merely watched the world pass on by as pokemon returned home to roost and people began to come home as lights in Pewter city grew brighter.

“The mountains around here are pretty big. We don’t have anything quite that big back home.”

“Mt Chimney right?” I said, trying to recall the exact landmark in question.

Brawly bobbed his head up and down. “It’s about the size of Mt Moon over there but we don’t really have such big mountain ranges is what I meant.” He gestured widely to the north, “What’s out that way?”

“Only place we’ve kept contact with is the Kingdom of Rota which is really a singular city nestled in the valley of the ranges. Has a nice little ecosystem that we send patrols up to pretty often. Not a large place but it is very traditional. They have a Queen running the Kingdom right now. Queen Ilene.”

“Huh cool. Anything else?”

“Only the wilds that we’ve found so far. The ranges themselves haven’t been crossed in any meaningful way apart from out west which is Johto, but the route around Mt Silver is much easier to travel through.”

“Crazy that there’s so much of the world out there that we don’t know about, or can’t reach. Some of it is right there in front of us.”

“Coming from the man that surfs the oceans, I think you’d have a good grasp on that.”

Brawly merely hummed, while Yolanda glanced between us. “Huh you are actually friends aren’t you?” I reached over and rubbed the top of her hair, messing it up. “Brock!” she slipped my hold and brushed her hair out before giving me a stink eye.

I clapped my hands together. “Want to head down now?”

Brawly agreed, his eyes looking around the plateau. “Do we have to go back down the stairs?”

“Nah, we take the express route. Selene, if you would please?” I drew in my dark energy as tightly as I could. Around me, a film of blue light grasped hold of us and lifted up Yolanda, Brawly, and myself.

“Woah!?” Brawly said before pausing as we were rapidly lowered over the side and back to the entrance of the cave. “Huh, that’s neat.”

“Bit faster way of getting around, when I’m not leading people around I usually just have Selene lift me up before gliding down the stairs.”

“Nice!” Brawly rubbed at the back of his head. “Well I’m gonna head back to my accommodation and get an early sleep, then I’ll be able to get out in time for tomorrow's peak waves. Any chance you’d come on Sunday with me man?”

“I don’t—”

“He’d love to!” Yolanda said. I gave her a look. Was she trying to get me out of the house for something?

“What are you up to?” I asked suspiciously. She shot me a flat look.

“Brock you go out and have fun with your friend!” her tone was spot on and with her egg in her arms she gave off just the right ‘motherly’ vibe to make me want to agree with her. I held her gaze before slowly turning to Brawly.

“Alright, what time?” Brawly whooped and gave me his transceiver number to send me the information when he found out himself.

Later that night, I made another call.

“Hello? Kanto Lapras reserve, this is Hermoine, how may I help direct your call?”

“Hey Hermoine, it's Brock. I was wondering if I could come to collect Tide for this sunday, I’d need to come in late.”

“... one moment please.” I heard some rustling before Hermoine returned. “Sir what is your pokemon trainer I.D number and may we also have…” she opened an envelope and read it. “The name of the first girl you kissed?”

I rattled off the number before glancing around carefully, “... and Elizabeth.”

“Your details check out! Alright, we’ll have Tide ready for you, when did you want him?”

“Think I’ll grab him on Saturday. I’ll be arriving by teleport.” And with that done, I shut off the phone and headed into the lounge room to enjoy an evening movie with my siblings.

“What movie are we watching?” I was fully expecting ‘Macho Machamp’ from the boys

“Furret Samurai!!” shouted Tommy and Timmy together.

“No Macho Machamp?” I said in surprise. I noticed the girls perking up as well and was more surprised.

The boys nodded and started to make cutting actions like they were wielding swords. “Yeah! Furret is a samurai that has to wander all over and save people!”

I merely nodded. “Well alright then.” I eyed the strangely excited-looking girls.

This didn’t sound like something they’d typically like. “If you don’t want to watch play with these.”I gestured to some gameboys but no one but Forrest picked one up. When no other takers happened I checked the room once more making sure all my siblings and the essentials were present for a good movie night.

I paused on a missing detail. “No one made popcorn yet?”

Instantly Cindy threw herself over the couch towards the kitchen. “Munchlax, no!”

I huffed. One day they’d learn. And that should have been the last notable event of the evening. The movie was rather odd with the main hero being a small, adorably fluffy, Furret that toddled around in some instances before stalking like a honed warrior in others.

Most of the cast were pokemon, and the dialogue beyond the pokemon’s names was nonexistent. And yet… it was captivating enough to have everyone in the room watching it. Even Forrest completely ignored whatever was on his gameboy to watch the movie.

The smallest of my siblings fell asleep halfway through and had to be deposited in their rooms when it was over. Then I pushed the others off to clean up for bed before returning to potter about cleaning up.

Before I went to bed, I knocked on Forrest’s door, “Hey little bro, what was up with you ditching out on feeding the pokemon? You know I don’t want Bertha getting grouchy and breaking into the shed for her dinner. She’ll stop after eating her fill, but some of the other pokemon won’t.”

“Oh! Oh… I left a note?” he said sheepishly. I gave him an unimpressed look and tapped my transceiver. “Alright, I went biking with my friends. I was hoping to find dad.”

I gave him a slightly less stern look. “You should have organised that after feeding the pokemon. It doesn’t take long and you know that.” A sat on his bed and levelled a look at him. “What’s up recently. You’ve been… well you’re dropping your game on a lot of tasks and forcing others to pick up on you.”

He clenched his jaw. “I just know dad is out there is all. And you’re too busy!”

I raised a hand forestalling what must appear as a justified argument from his point of view. “Forrest. I have Janine, Sabrina, and Jenny all keeping an eye out for him. I know he liked to lurk around the Gym, and have been keeping an eye out. But that isn’t a reason you can ditch your duties.”

“It just feels more important! Dad’s out there somewhere!” he said with a snap.

I stared at him as he glared at the floor, not willing to meet my gaze. I inhaled and exhaled to get rid of the urge to snap back at him, something I’d likely regret. I felt the darkness stirring within me and so I pulled on my Rock energy to sooth myself. When I was calm I spoke, “Forrest, it might not seem like it because you’re so focused on one thing but if you lose sight of everything else you’re going to be in a terrible position. Do you want Flint coming back to things in shambles?”

Forrest grumbled something that I took to mean ‘no I don’t want that’ before plowing on.

“Good. you can do both things but it means you need to be more earnest in finishing one before running off. Unless he’s right there at that exact moment, all you’re going to be chasing after is an idea.” What I was saying rang certain bells, and I once more considered if I needed to get someone in to talk with the older kids. Heck, I’d probably need someone to check the younger ones as well.

“So, Flint not being here is not an excuse you can use. Without a sighting you're just tearing off and making problems for people. If you want to trade duties, talk to people, don’t just assume it is going to happen.”

I scratched my chin. Was now a good time? I hesitated and felt my reluctance kick in only to pause. I was channelling my Rock energy. Therefore I was going to be more patient than good. I dropped the energy and exhaled before deciding to just rip the band aid off.

“Forrest, I’m not going to make you run the Gym. I don’t think it would be good for anyone, the Gym, you, me, or our family to do that.”

His head snapped up and I held up a hand. “The Gym is big, Forrest. I didn’t notice it as much having been the one to build it so I know how literally everything works and why it was built the way it was but dumping that on you is irresponsible of me. If you’re worried about that, I want you to just relax and reconsider. One day you can take things over but we need to teach you the skills first.”

Forrest got a conflicted look before he nodded. “Alright,” he eventually said tightly. “I’m sorry I’ve been messing up.”

“Alright. I hope this news takes some pressure off.” I almost mentioned how he obviously hadn’t handled it well but that wasn’t the right thing to say. I was already being brusque about this.

So instead, I nodded.“With that out of the way, tomorrow you can make it up to me by cleaning Bertha’s cave.” I wished at that moment that I had a camera as his face morphed into a look of horror.

“What!? Brock no!”

“Brock yes! You messed up, and that means you need to make it right. Clean her cave, and make sure you use the oran berry spray. She likes it the most. If you don’t and she’s annoyed I’ll tell her it was you. And no using your pokemon or any of mine beyond spraying the cave down.”

“Urghhhhhh!” he said with a groan. I grinned.

It looked like my job as his older brother and his boss was done here!

I departed feeling much better having hopefully given him the kick and the relief he needed to grow.