“Scyther! Get those blades slicing through those wooden posts!” I shouted as I moved through the training area of my Elite pokemon.

“Ther!” said the bug pokemon as he tried to maintain his momentum past the wooden posts while slicing through them. A tough ask, but one that I had predicted would become easier for him when he had heavier axes. The trick would be to either maintain his speed or to work on a slower style of fighting.

I moved on and found Bertha and Titan locked in a wrestling match. Both of them looked slightly ridiculous with their headgear on, but when a flick of a tail could see them knocked out or injured, it wasn’t worth risking them for the day or even days to come.

Bertha got a good grasp on Titan and pivoted into him to hurl him over her shoulder, only for him to break the hold and slide away. As he did so, he twisted and tried to snake his tail around her ankle, only for her to step backwards. They both huffed at the other before slamming back into each other, their hands locking firmly as they sought to dominate the other.

Betha blew some air into Titan’s eyes only for him to shut them, tighten his grip, roll to the side, and try for a lock on her. She used her larger arm to leverage herself out of the toss with a small kip before swinging about to backhand Titan.

He ducked under it and drove himself into her under the armpit. When he threw her, she caused a small quake. Pleased with what I was seeing, I checked my watch before blowing my whistle, causing them to both break-off.

They took heavy breaths as every other pokemon around us dashed for the water troughs or supplements that I had laid out on a rocky table. I nodded at them and said, “I have no criticism. Bertha, I saw the throw you went for, but Titan blocked it well enough before trying to counter which you evaded before closing in.”

I pointed to Bertha. “Good use of your arm to get off the ground, and nice work defending when you got turned around with the backhand. Titan? Good positioning to get her on the back foot which set you up for the win. Bertha, don’t be afraid to get Titan on his back; his spikes make it harder for him to reposition.” They both nodded thoughtfully.

I looked over to Knight, who was edging towards the drinks table. “Did you get that?”

He waved his hand back and forth, and I nodded. “Well keep watching them and learning. Now that they’re a little tired, I’ll have you wrestle with Titan in a second.” That had him straightening up. Titan merely clapped him on the shoulder as he moved past my Aggron to get a drink.

“Rhy! Rhy!” called out Bertha from where she’d chosen to sit down. Titan glanced back and huffed at her. He still tossed her the water bottle that was made to fit her hand. In truth, it was a large barrel. She held it easily and squirted the water into her mouth before splashing it around her face.

I hummed, moving on before she could feel playful and squirt me with a water bottle that would have the pressure of a firehose behind it. She’d done so in the past.

Instead, I moved towards my rather worried-looking Stantler. He was snorting and stomping his foot up and down as he watched the Elite pokemon drink and cajole each other. Don was hissing at Sanchez, who was grinning playfully and sparking some electricity through his moustache. Shin looked amused, so I judged that to mean whatever had happened had been innocent enough.

“Hey there,” I said as I moved up the skittish deer pokemon.

Stantler eyed me before tossing its head towards the others.

“Don’t worry about them, worry about how your own training is going. If you’re getting too distracted by watching them all the time, we can shift training areas. How have you been doing with your moves?”

Stantler shifted around before settling down and showing off his Agility skills by racing across the field with a quick clatter of hooves. I was impressed when he got to a section of loose stone, where Sanchez had been training his Stone Edge attack, and he didn’t lose his footing.

“Nice, any luck learning Zen Headbutt yet?” I asked as he returned.

He shook his antlers back and forth in agitation, and I shrugged. “That’s fine, we’ll need to make it larger than a normal Zen Headbutt anyway. For now, I’ll focus on loading you out with as many psychic moves as possible to give you the best chance at that evolution we talked about.”

That had Stantler stomping his foot with a proud, “Stant! Ler!”

I nodded. I in truth, didn’t have the best idea of how to make up for the agility style from the games but I was hoping to adapt Zen Headbutt to make up for the lack of Psyshield Bash move. Perhaps I could blur the lines enough to make him learn it and then practise it enough to evolve.

That was my plan for now.

“Alright, show me how fast you can go from Calm Mind to Agility,” I said, starting Stantler’s training up as the other pokemon returned to their own activities. I’d give him a bit of time with me one-on-one before I moved, hopefully, that would make him less likely to lose focus with the others fighting.

One could only hope.

There was a lot on my plate. I knew this and hoped that others entering the Gym knew it as well. It should have been obvious. After all, the Gym was positively teeming with trainers.

I had all my gym trainers arrive at least half an hour before the doors opened and stay at least an hour after the doors closed each day. As requested, Alexa had gotten in touch with a number of people who had just been beaten out in the hiring process. I got only five that I wanted for temporary/possibly long-term jobs. The others had found different employment but thanked Alexa for the phone call.

I now had enough people to patrol the area surrounding Pewter. The routes to the east, south, and north were all manned, along with Pewter City itself, having at least two trainers wandering and handling any issues every day. Most of the time, it was making sure pokemon fights happened where they were supposed to, and with the recognition that it was a bad idea to throw down an Earthquake or Hyper Beam in the middle of the street. If people wanted to get that fired up, they needed to come out and fight at the courts located outside my gym.

Courts that were permanently full.

Bethany—our elderly receptionist woman— now worked alongside two other receptionists for bookings and handling trainers. Outside people were constantly hiring the battle courts to train or fight matches with other trainers that had rubbed them the wrong way, or just seemed interesting. Georgina was already sourcing a vending machine set up for hiring the courts instead of having one or two of the Gym’s trainers locked down, monitoring the courts and collecting keys and rental fees.

Despite the busyness, I stuck to my routine with an early start which saw me exercising, for myself and my pokemon. I now had to try and build up Scyther and Onix while also working on Sabrina’s future Stantler/Wyrdeer. Then breakfast with the family. By the time I finished that, Alexa usually had a clipboard full of the day and night reports. Anything noteworthy that had happened got marked down, and I got a look at it in case I needed to follow up on it.

Alexa usually used this time to make herself what I hoped was only her second cup of coffee. I shook my head. She was a grown woman and didn’t need me chasing her around. She wasn’t like Crystal. I was falling into my ‘big brother’ antics way too much. I continued to flip through the notes.

“Less crime since we got those trainers on the streets. I see a ‘thanks’ from the police chief here.” I chuckled at the note that probably hadn’t meant to be included about how Mayor Jonathan had gotten greedy. I couldn’t help but agree. Alexa smiled over the top of her coffee, likely aware of what I was reading.

“It’s strange to be seeing all this information that I would never hear about as a civilian. I’m finding it kind of rough not to correct a lot of ladies at the get-togethers we have. They’re catching on though as apparently my poker face needs a lot of work.”

“Hmm?” I said, not quite catching her meaning.

“I never realised that Gym Leader’s have access to crime statistics, detentions, the number of fights, the load on the local pokemon centre, and even the local ecosystem. I mean, I probably would have understood some of it crossing your desk, but you’re a lot more tapped into the beat of what’s going on than most people know. They only see Brock, the local gym leader, and Pewter's face, but they don't see everything."

“Isn’t that the way it is for most people? I don’t have a clue what doctors do most of the time, just like this is only snippets in truth.” I weighed up the clipboard that showed all the last day’s information.

“It’s a responsibility as well as a perk of the job.” I flipped over a sheet. “Oh.” I swallowed my suddenly dry mouth. “That’s a lot more money than I was projecting for.”

Alexa nodded. “Georgina ran the numbers for last week and got them to me last night. Turns out that having the rentals, the matches, and the higher fees this year is paying off. Feel like giving out a bonus?”

“Yup!” I said without missing a beat.

That drew a surprised but pleased look from Alexa. “I think by the time this surge is over everyone will have earned it. That and some time off, we should consider offering it as a lump sum or as paid time off. I’m sure people would like that.” I eyed the numbers, and a few of them were jumping out at me for some reason.

“Am I really beating back that many challengers? The rate at which people are reapplying…”

“Seems a lot of people don’t want to move on until they get their first badge from you.”

I rubbed my chin. “I didn’t think about that. They’re going to stick around and, if anything, extend the duration of the surge on us at this rate.”

“Going to go easier on them?”

I snorted, “Not a chance. They need to demonstrate a level of skill.”

I tapped the next number that had been bothering me. “Like I thought, there are a lot more people applying for the Ace Challenge.” I flipped onto my weekly schedule and noted the different colourations marking them in my planner. “That’s… six, seven, eight in the next two weeks alone?” I looked up at Alexa, but she didn’t have the experience to understand what that meant.

“I usually only get twenty a year, and we’re only in the first month.” She made a small ‘ah’ of understanding as I returned to the clipboard. Something about that was making me itch, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“You also have an invitation from Mandy, the Mayor’s wife for a gala next weekend on Saturday evening for the orphan’s charity fund.”

That drew another snort out of me. “Pass.”

Alexa grimaced. “See, now… I might have mentioned it to Rachel… She’s going to be after you to attend.” She bonked her head and stuck her tongue out. She then got serious. “Also, it's for the Orphan’s Charity fund. The same one that you regularly support.”

I stared at her as I slowly pieced together what she meant by that. “Damn it,” I said, putting a hand over my face. I eyed the wonderfully decorated invitation card that may as well have been dripping with poison. “I don’t own a suit.”

“I’ll schedule some time on your Saturday… or sunday for that,” Alexa said helpfully. I gave her a gimlet eye. I sighed and rubbed my temples. That was another event on my calendar when I would have preferred to just stay in. Or was that just my inner introvert whining?

I just needed to get… Oh, right, Forrest wasn’t going to be taking over. Damn it past me! I flicked through the crime statistics and sighed. “Things are getting a bit crazy out there with my not really being able to walk the streets of Pewter without being challenged. I never thought it’d get this bad.”

Alexa shrugged, not having a response for that one. I huffed and flipped through the rest of the information. “Alright, so we’ve got a normal morning with mostly First Badge challenges, and then an Ace Challenge today for the lunch crowds. They’ll like that. Following that is a first badge challenge, then two gauntlets before finishing things off with a single firstie.” I clapped my hands together. “Alright, no meeting is needed for today; everyone’s got their assigned jobs. Let’s get out there and see what these trainers have got!”

Alexa fell in behind me, and on the way into the arena, we were joined by Rocko as he sauntered out of the Gym’s trainer residence area. He shot me a thumbs up which I took to mean he’d finished his tasks and was ready to get to work as well.

I grinned; it was going to be a good day.

The first few matches weren’t anything special. Both of the trainers that selected to and ran the gauntlet had a good enough understanding of type match-ups and depth to see themselves advancing beyond Pewter. I was more than happy to give them the boulder Badge and wish them well on their circuit.

It wasn’t that hard to go out and have an Oddish or a Bellsprout in the team but people sometimes had a well-trained Rattata. The last two had won with a Machop and a Mankey, which were much more uncommon.

Still, I had another trainer, and probably the biggest treat for the day looming now. I stood on my side of the gym in the raised trainer area in the arena and watched the lunch crowd file in.

We always tried to schedule Elite or Ace Challenges around this time so that we could get more locals that had ‘season tickets’ to come in. That way, people had less disruption to their lives. It wasn’t uncommon for some shops to post ‘BRB after Brock’s match’ on their storefront windows these days. I had a fairly loyal group of locals and with the surge, the gym was packed.

I waited for my opponent for the Ace challenge up in the trainer area overlooking the arena. I glanced over to Dennis. “What do we know about this guy?”

Dennis held a pose that made me want to say ‘at-ease’. “Trainer Fred completed his journey roughly five years ago with a tour of Kanto! He’s now a former Ranger! He used to work around Cerulean for a while but then got reassigned to the inner regions with Celadon and Saffron. He has since been scouted to work in security roles for some of the corporations on boat trips to Sevii and Hoenn.

“Hmmm, alright, do we know much about his pokemon?” I said.

“Known to have a Slowbro as his starter, he also has a Kadabra, but he otherwise had the standard recommended field response Ranger pokemon of Pidgeot, Victrebel, and Arcanine. Since he shifted to working with the corporations, he has an Electabuzz registered as well.”

“Hmm, so he has some depth then.” I rolled my shoulders. I was used to fighting people with no lead up to what they had or where they’d come from, so getting this information was nice but not critical. Still, that didn’t mean I had to go in blind to what strengths and weaknesses he might have. I stretched my neck. “Bit weird he’s challenging the gym despite being out of the Ace circuit for so long. Is this a pride thing you think?”

Dennis shook his head. “Couldn’t say boss.”

I ran my hand over the pokeballs at my belt before selecting one of them. I entered my selection into the computer and bounced on my feet. Alright, opening pokemon locked in. I hummed before smirking, I wonder how far I could take this? Maybe treat it like a faux Elite challenge? Make my pokemon work for it?

“Ladies and gentlemen! From the seas of Pomecia! We have a pokemon trainer that is widely travelled and ready to throw down with the best that Pewter has to offer! Give it up, for Fred of Fuchsia!”

“Rachel’s working well in the announcer role,” I said as a tall, wiry man strutted out from the main entrance, the lights tracking him perfectly as the crowd roared in approval at his brave appearance.

“Annnnnnnnd now!” Rachel said theatrically, like she was announcing a heavy-weight boxing champion. “Your local hero, and the Pewter City Gym Leader! Give it up! For BROCK!”

The crowd started one-two stomping before clapping. I smiled, much happier at getting a proper ‘Rock you’ chant going. Supposedly, Rachel was also talking with a musician to get a song for it after I’d given her what I could of the lyrics.

Hopefully, her efforts resulted in some great rock music. I'd intervene if they messed up and tried to cram half a dozen Pokemon names into the lyrics.

I walked down the stairs with my eyes firmly locked on Fred. He licked his lips. A sign of nervousness, especially with how his eyes twitched around the room instead of matching my gaze.

When I landed on the already raised podium, I rose upwards and smiled at him. “Trainer Fred.”

Fred jerked his head towards me and nodded. “Gym Leader Brock.”

“You understand that this is a standard Ace Challenge? I will be able to withdraw and return pokemon to the field as normal?” I gestured to the side where Rocko stood as the referee.

Fred nodded. “I do.”

“Very well,” I said. I raised the pokeball with my choice up. The crowd began calling out names for who they hoped to see. Most prominent was of course Titan, but I did hear Don and Shin also getting called out.

“Trainers! Are you ready!” We both nodded. Fred selected his own pokeball. “Throw your pokemon and begin when they’re both on the field!”

I drew back before hurling the pokeball straight forward. “Go! Sanchez!”

The crowd roared as my variant Golem landed on his knees and skidded forward in a slide. He raised his arms like he was praising the heavens. Then he stood and shot a wink at the crowd which only made them cheer louder.

Across from him, Fred tossed out a pokeball to reveal a Hypno.

“Hypno! Use Hypnosis!”

“Quick, Dig!” I ordered. Waves of pink energy shot out of the Hypno as it swung its pendulum. Sanchez dove into the ground only to bob up precisely like he had been ordered to. The pink waves shot past him, missing thanks to the stone floor.

“Rock Throw!” Rocks lifted up and hurtled forward as Sanchez performed his rolling grasp and throw maneuver to speed up the attack.

“Psychic!” said Fred. Around a few of the rocks, pink energy appeared, catching the rocks and stopping them. It wasn’t enough to stop all of the rocks from getting through, however. Hypno flinched as two rocks slammed into its body causing the rocks it had been gripping to clatter to the floor.

“Commit to the Rock Throw!” I shouted as Hypno lurched forward.

“Hypno! Use Future Sight to dodge!”

“More rocks! Tighten the target around it!” I ordered in response, making it so that Hypno would only be able to ever dodge some of the flying rocks.

When it staggered back again I held up a hand. “Stealth Rock!” I said instead of committing for the win here and now. If I wanted to test Sanchez and take him as far as I could, then I needed to play it smart. I needed to plan for the other pokemon I was going to face.

With Sanchez that meant I needed to have the field set up to knock down each pokemon that came in.

“Hypnosis!”

“Dig again!” I said, countering the move before it could really be a threat. As soon as Sanchez was up I followed up with another Stealth Rock. Sanchez stood and twizzled his moustache.

Fred gritted his teeth before raising up his pokeball. “Return Hypno!”

I hummed, wondering what he was going to play here. “Go Slowbro!” on the field a pink pokemon with a shellfish attached onto its tail formed up. It blinked languidly as the stealth rock slammed into it, eliciting no response as yet. Instead, it slowly said its name. To anyone unfamiliar with the pokemon they would have thought it was unbothered by the attack, or that it was ineffective. Rocko dropped his flag.

I wasn’t sure how Fred thought this was going to play out but I had an idea. “Dig into a backstab.” I deliberately said. Sanchez nodded, understanding the specific order. He dove into the ground and vanished.

“Slowbro use Surf!”

“Sllooooooooooooow,” said Slowbro as it gathered up the water. Then it jerked. “Bro!” it shouted as the pain from the earlier hit registered. A wave formed and roared out across the arena. The hole where my pokemon had vanished was submerged, but I wasn’t worried.

The wave splashed over the barrier in front of me harmlessly. It stood out to me that this wave didn’t have anything close to Brawly’s Wailord. That had been a powerful Surf.

I grinned as another hole behind the back of the wave appeared. Fred’s eyes bulged even as Sanchez rolled away from the hole. He did so with impeccable timing as a geyser of water chased after him but due to the pressure could only go upwards.

“Thunderpunch!” I called out; my pokemon now more than close enough to the slowly turning Slowbro.

“Slowbro, Psychic!” shouted Fred as he realised the problem. Slowbro turned, still trying to register where he needed to attack, only to take a Thunderpunch to the face.

Slowbro sailed into the wall as electricity arced over his body. Slowbro stood up, blinked once, and then collapsed. “Brooooooo,” it said with a yawn as it toppled over.

“Slowbro is unable to battle! Brock takes out the first pokemon!” announced Rocko, raising a green flag in my direction.

Fred withdrew his pokemon. “One hit?” he said in shock, not realising that the microphones on his podium picked up even the smallest sound.

I leaned forward. “You didn’t think I was going easy on you did you? Sanchez wouldn’t be on my Elite team if he didn’t have at least this much strength.”

The best way I could think of it in-game terms was perhaps like having a level seventy pokemon fight a level fifty pokemon. You knew that level fifty was good, but there was a world of difference in stats available to the higher levelled pokemon. Levels, of course, weren’t a thing and neither were IV’s or stats.

You could train things like special abilities, physical attacks, defence, speed and awareness though.

I always made sure my Elites could take what they could dish out. Most people didn’t understand the scope of difference until they faced me. Fred was learning of the difference between a highly trained pokemon, and one of my Elite.

He glanced at the roaring crowd again before nodding his head. “Well, don’t expect me to back o-off!” he said, sadly with a quaver.

I merely nodded, more than happy to meet him. “Go! Xatu!” he said.

I frowned. Three Psychic pokemon? That was strange. Especially considering he was using a flying type against me, something Sanchez was more suited to than almost any of my pokemon.

“Future Sight!” he said, in the opening when the flags dropped.

“Stealth Rock,” I said, happy to get the third stack of rocks around the arena. Fred clicked his tongue. His Xatu, despite starting with Future sight, hadn't been able to dodge the field effect, as it took a number of hits that hadn’t been wiped out by his earlier surf. This was another thing I’d train Sanchez in. Proper placement of Stealth Rocks could set him up very, very well.

It would only get worse for Fred with each pokemon he sent out.

“Use Air Slash!”

“Roll to dodge,” I said. I chuckled as Sanchez threw himself into full-on combat rolls to dodge the Air Slash sent his way like some sort of action movie hero. The crowd loved it.

“Rock Throw,” I said, once Sanchez had reached the previously dropped stones. With those accessible, he was able to shoot his attack off much faster than normal. Sadly the Future Sight must still have been in effect, as only one rock actually hit. It was enough to send the bird to the ground.

“X-xatu?” Fred said. He looked at me in shock. I shrugged. Alright, so it seemed he hadn’t grasped how wide the gap was.

“Xatu is unable to battle!”

“Go Espeon!” When the next pokemon was revealed to be another Psychic I couldn’t help the frown that appeared on my face.

Hypno, Slowbro, Xatu, and Espeon. I could understand Slowbro seeing as it was his starter but for him to have four of the same type? It stunk worse than a Muk. I hovered my hand over my necklace. If I sent Titan out and he continued this trend…

Sadly, I couldn’t take my eyes off the match right now. The gap might have been demonstrated, but that didn’t mean I should lapse in my attention.

Espeon took some hits, which drew a pained cry from it. That in turn made me refocus. I cursed at myself having zoned out for a moment there. Something that should have been a costly mistake. “Sanchez, Stealth Rock,” I said quickly to get the field effect up to full strength.

“Rock Hold!” I said, giving a variation. Sanchez paused as he registered the order before nodding, around him, rocks rose like a typical Rock Throw but were held, like hovering threats.

“Future Sight!” said Fred as his pokemon’s eyes glowed.

“Close in and grapple,” I said, making Espeon have to dodge a few furious swipes. When Sanchez fired off his punches he did so with a cry like a machine gun. “Go, go, go, go!”

His fists flew furiously, and I hummed. He wouldn’t be able to keep this speed up so I’d need to be more conservative after this. When the small cat pokemon committed to a jump I punched forward.

“Now!” I barked, the rocks suddenly shooting forward to nail the airborne Espeon.

The Espeon was still able to stand up despite being thrown back, but it was clearly on its last legs. Sanchez closed with a fast movement, anticipating the order to keep up the pressure from me.

“Protect!” shouted Fred to give his Espeon a bit longer on the field. My pokemon’s fist slammed into the orb of hexagons before he rolled backwards.

“Now Hyper Beam!” Fred shouted as my pokemon was caught on the back foot out of his roll.

“Protect!” I ordered.

Fred gaped at me, not expecting the counter. His pokemon’s beam lanced out only to slam into Sanchez’s defences. When the beam wore off my pokemon was revealed. The cocky pokemon idly brushed at his shoulder before winking as he flicked his arm about to hurl a rock throw right into Espeon’s shocked face.

While Rocko announced my victory, I leaned over the podium. “Sanchez, feeling good? Think we can go for a one-pokemon sweep?”

Fred’s head snapped up at that to shoot me and Golem an incredulous look. It was a bit of a slap in the face that I could declare my intentions like that, but he obviously needed a wake-up call. Unless he revealed something strong with his next pokemon at three to zero, this match was already lopsided.

“GOOOOOLEM!” he shouted while shooting a thumbs up back at me. He then pointed to a woman in the audience. “Gol, Lelemlem!” he said like he was asking a maiden for her favour.

“Hey, keep your head in the game!” I shook my head at his antics even as Fred gritted his teeth.

Sanchez adopted a more serious pose but still shot some winks at the crowd. I huffed. It might seem strange, but I knew he actually worked better when the crowd was energetic and hyped up. I just needed to rein him in a little on occasion. He was far from the trickiest pokemon to handle.

That honour went to Don. I just needed to work with his quirks.

“Go Starmie,” Fred shouted once more, following his trend. The hair on the back of my neck rose as my suspicions grew. Once more, the Stealth Rock came into play giving me a moment to get Sanchez moving.

“Bit late to send this one out,” I said to myself before sweeping my arm in a wide gesture for Sanchez. “Use your rolls and stay tight!” I said as Starmie started blasting out Hydro Pumps.

“Zig zag it up!” I said as Sanchez advanced on the firing Starmie.

“Now hold!” I said when he got behind a particularly large rock. I eyeballed the angles and noted where Fred was looking. “Ready to close the distance! Dig deep for this one Sanchez!”

“Starmie! Get ready to nail that golem!” said Fred as he focused harder on the rock.

I held back my grin. A few moments later, I swept my hand. “Charge!” I said… only for nothing to happen.

Fred blinked only to gasp. “Starmie, it's a trap!”

I laughed as Sanchez surged out of the ground and slammed a Thunderpunch straight into the starfish pokemon.

“Staaaaaaaaaaaarrr!” it cried as it soared backwards.

Sanchez landed behind the hole he’d dug to reach Starmie. I mentally patted myself on the back for that little trick. Fred had been so focussed on the rock and which side Sanchez would come from he’d forgotten that I had another option rather than just going around or over the boulder available to me.

When Fred threw out his Arcanine, he did so with gritted teeth. “Use Iron Head!” Instantly, he went on the attack. I nodded. This was a better match-up for him and one he was obviously much more comfortable with it. However, before he could land a hit on Sanchez Stealth Rock once more came into effect.

“Roll to evade! Get behind a boulder!” I said, making Sanchez tuck and roll like the Elite he was.

Fred was once more intently focused as my pokemon rolled behind a boulder and out of sight. “Watch out for the trick where they di—”

“Punch through it,” I said instead of ordering a Dig. Sanchez slammed a fist into the boulder revealing that over, around, and under were never my only options. Arcanine flinched as rock shards peppered him and he yelped.

“Thunder Punch.” My follow-up order was immediate.

“No! Iron Head Arcanine!” Fred shouted desperately. Before his pokemon could lower his head to slam into Sanchez, my pokemon slid in and then launched himself upwards with a rising uppercut that lifted the Arcanine into the air. Arcanine landed heavily, and his body sparked with electricity before slumping into unconsciousness.

I exhaled in relief. The earlier setup was paying serious dividends. We’d been caught out of position with that initial Iron Head. It wasn’t just about Sanchez keeping his head in the game. We’d been able to regroup, though. I needed to use what was available if I wanted him to take a one pokemon sweep. Sanchez was panting lightly now, and I checked him over. One more pokemon and he had it.

Fred slumped, the fight going out of him as he tossed out his Hypno once more. The Hypno stepped back and I knew they’d already given up. Sending out Hypno was merely playing out the match. “Hypnosis,” said Fred.

“Dig and go for the end.” Was all I had to say, and we ended it.

Hypno fell and didn’t stand back up and like that the match was called. I blew out a breath of air I hadn’t realised I was holding. I’d been expecting a teleport, or barriers, or even more tricks from Fred but he didn’t seem comfortable with this team. Which, more than the pokemon selection itself, really made my suspicions flare up.

When the fight was over I marched over and offered Fred a handshake. Fred cringed as the crowd roared their approval for Sanchez pulling off a one-man sweep. Sanchez, the great ham, was kneeling before the woman he’d singled out earlier playing out some bit of drama.

“Thanks for the fight. I’m surprised you went with a psychic line up against me? It didn’t seem you were very comfortable with them though?”

“Oh, uhm, well you know, I thought they were pretty strong but man, looks like I have a long way to go if I ever want to try being able to contend again. Must have lost my edge!” he said while sheepishly laughing.

“Is that so?” I hummed while eying Sanchez as he started getting bouquets of flowers from the crowd. He was now crying like he was the belle of the ball instead of the charming prince. I’d missed how that had developed. I suspected Sanchez pokedoll sales were going to spike for a good while. “Well, I would have preferred you come against me at your best,” I said to Frank.

When he looked to the stands, I didn’t turn with him to see where he was looking, but I noted the direction. When I turned to wave to the crowd, I did a slow sweep, not minding that I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

While the crowd trickled out, I didn’t linger. I whistled to Sanchez and then pointed to the medical bay only for Sanchez to happily leave, a small meadow’s worth of flowers clutched in his arms.

I laughed, and I made my way to the back rooms and opened the security room. “Morning Andrew,” I said to the lone security guard manning the console. He put down a mug that announced himself as the ‘world’s most meh uncle’ to begin toggling the camera feeds into playback.

“Brock! Got something suspicious to look into?” the man asked.

“Nothing bad, just something I want confirmation of.”

I sat down and toggled the camera that watched the stands. I zoomed in on a section of the stands and played it with that as the locked-in perspective. Andrew watched on without comment.

If I didn’t have my previous life’s knowledge, and the warning from Brawly I wouldn’t have known who to look for. But I had both, which meant I was able to spot the dark-haired young man in the crowd.

I watched the playback as Will sat on the sidelines and documented how I fought.

“Sneaky,” I said to myself as I watched him.

I ran this morning's conversation back through my mind. Eight Ace Challenges were a lot at this stage of the circuit. Unless they were specifically here for a reason, such as to scope out my talent pool.

Other than Fred's behavior, I had no evidence that this was the case. That and my gut instinct. I stood and marched back out to the trainer lounge for lunch.

Looked like I didn’t have to go find any trouble. It was already coming my way. Alexa chose that moment to charge up to me.

“Brock, Lorelei of the Elite Four is here to talk with you!” she said hurriedly.

I felt a moment of panic as my paranoia ran rampant.

Then I blinked. “Oh, right. Lance said she was coming around.” I relaxed as I scratched my cheek. “I’d been expecting her a bit earlier though…” I shrugged. “I’m sure it’s cause we’re just busy people,” I said casually. Alexa merely shrugged back.

I clapped my hands and exhaled the momentary jolt of anxiety away fully.

Alright, ignoring Will lurking about, I needed to go talk with Lorelei and hopefully seem reasonable while doing so.

Shouldn’t be too hard, right?