I was up and about early the next morning. The sun hadn’t yet risen over the horizon, and I was lapping some pokemon around the perimeter with my morning jog. When I was done, I set the pokemon to wrestling each other and warm their bodies up for when the other trainers came out.

I was about to turn towards my Elite pokemon team to work on one or two of them when I was interrupted.

“Woah!” said an unexpected voice. I turned around and found Ash, Misty, and Greta walking towards me.

I waved at them. “Hey there, morning to you all. You decide to come out for a walk?”

Greta yawned. “I was hoping to watch how a Gym Leader trained. Ash heard me leaving and decided to tag along….” she shot him a look that was obviously a prompt but Ash was too busy staring at the pokemon. Misty sighed and bowed her head but most of her attention was on the pond that contained my singular Corsola.

Greta shook her head. “Sorry, is it alright that we’re here?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I have no problem with any of you watching me but just no recordings of it alright?” I pointed towards the pokedex she had in her hands. She nodded quickly at that and nudged Ash to get his attention.

“Ash, no recording Brock’s training with our pokedex, alright?”

“Huh? Yeah, sure…” Ash ignored her, his eyes still roaming about the various pokemon on display throughout the reserve. “Wow! There’s so many pokemon back here!” he said, his fists clenched as his head snapped from one to another. “This is almost as many as Professor Oak’s ranch!”

Greta sighed and shared a look with Misty before shaking her head. “Yeah, you’re right Ash,” she said. I chuckled at his poor attention span.

When he pulled out a pokeball and enlarged it I blinked in surprise. “Hey what’re you doing there?”

“I’m going to capture one of them! Pikachu, are you with me?” Ash said as he narrowed his eyes.

The small electric mouse that had been happily walking along at our feet blanched as it locked eyes with the closest pokemon. The Graveler known as Challenger turned and grinned, the arms on her left side curling into fists before they slammed together with her other side, promising violence if Pikachu thought of trying anything.

I walked over and tapped the pokeball in Ash’s hand making it shrink while Misty stalked forward and grabbed Ash by the shirt front. “ASH KETCHUM! What in the watery maw of a Gyarados were you thinking of doing just now!?” Her scream should have deafened Ash but he merely shrunk away from her clutches and shot hopeful looks around at the rest of us only to see equally unamused looks being directed at him.

Greta shook her head. “Unbelievable Ash… just… unbelievable…”

“Sorry Misty!” shouted Ash.

Misty pointed at me. “Don’t apologise to me! Apologise to Brock! They’re his pokemon you were attempting to poach!”

I raised a hand. “Hey, hey. It’s fine, the pokeball wouldn’t have done anything beyond annoying some of them. So he was really only putting himself at risk.”

“Huh? Why wouldn’t it have done anything?” asked Greta, interested despite herself.

I plucked out a ball from my belt. “When a pokemon is caught their energy signature changes slightly. In a ranch or free-roaming area like this the pokeball can impact them but it ultimately won’t do anything. Now if the pokeball that corresponds with the pokemon was present,” I gestured towards Zephyr or Titan who were both walking towards us and talking with each other. Ash’s eyes widened at both pokemon’s appearance.

“ it will actually activate and try to break the offending poachers' pokeball. In some cases rendering the poaching ball destroyed for the attempt.”

“Huh, I never knew about that,” Greta said thoughtfully.

I shrugged. “Most people assume that people know better than to try poaching pokemon.” I pointedly didn’t mention that it was possible for criminal elements to create thief balls. The various companies had at first waved it off as not their concern until the League had mandated a policy of reimbursing a trainer. Then it had become their problem. Cue the criminal elements and the companies waging a war of pokeball security and robustness. No longer was it just about capturing a pokemon but also stopping a pokemon from being stolen from a trainer.

That wasn’t even touching on some of the things that occurred in the games, cartoons, or manga. Mewtwo’s pokeballs as an example… well, it wasn’t something that needed to be discussed with kids starting out on their journey, even if one of them was possibly a chosen one.

I waved to Zephyr and Titan as they approached and they perked up before responding with a quiet call of their respective names. Ash stared enviously at them and Pikachu made a small noise of surprise when they reached us and cast us into shadow easily. Titan smiled toothily down at us and Misty swallowed loudly.

“Ty! Ty!” he said amiably.

I coughed in amusement. “He’s saying good morning.”

Greta was the only one to wave and loudly respond. “Morning Titan!”

Ash stiffened. “This is the Tyranitar that beat Lance’s Dragonite!?”

Titan ducked his head and scratched the back of his head waving a claw back and forth. Zephyr hooted at his friend’s antics. Misty giggled nervously but I got the idea that she wasn’t going to be put at ease until she got used to Titan. It probably didn’t help that Corsola had vanished into the water with Titan’s approach.

“Right, well, before I get into training with my elite team I have a pokemon that needs to officially be called up…” I tapped Titan on the leg and nodded towards the Onix that I’d been using for the fourth level badges and that had even gotten to fight with Don and Scyther.

Titan nodded back before adopting a stern, unimpressed look. I chuckled. “ You wanna handle it that way huh?”

Titan stiffly nodded.

I sniffed and copied my pokemon with a stoic, unimpressed expression claiming my features. When I was like this people thought I was hewn from granite. My eyes became flinty and my jaw set.

“Tyranitar!” barked my starter pokemon.

Instantly the entire area stopped what they were doing. Eyes swivelled to lock onto the seemingly furious expression on Titan’s face. The Onix that had been called out carefully raised his head. “Ooooon?” it said.

“Tyran! Tar!” Titan barked at him. At his side I nodded along with whatever he was saying.

When Titan finished speaking, the Onix looked very nervous and there was an undercurrent of worry among my pokemon. It must seem like this Onix had messed up bad because I never ever chewed them out like this.

I sniffed and raised my chin. “Onix!” I said, my voice carrying across the field of still pokemon. “You’re in the wrong training area!”

Onix blinked slowly. Obviously confused.

Onix warbled a question back at me. I sniffed again, cutting over his question. “No excuses! In the future I expect you to make it to all Elite team training sessions early!”

There was a moment of stillness before the Onix tilted his head. “Onix?”

In unison, Titan and I broke our stern expressions, grins appearing on our faces. “Onix! You’re being called up for the Elite team officially! Congratulations!” I said.

Onix swept his head to Titan who nodded seriously. Zephyr hopped up and down happily and trilled his name.

Onix then tilted back his head and roared as if he’d just won a match against Lance. He wasn’t at that stage yet. But maybe one day soon I might have him up to take on one of the champion’s pokemon.

Around him the pokemon that had been frozen in worry cried out their own congratulations before they advanced on the Onix to pat him on the back/head/tail or just hop around him.

I chuckled and turned back to the dumbfounded young trainers that had only moved a few metres away before I started this little show. “Titan likes to make it a memorable moment when other pokemon make the cut into the Elite Team.” I paused when I noticed that at some point Forrest, Flint, Salvadore and Yolanda had joined the others.

I gave them a nod. “Still got thirty minutes until breakfast, no?” Yolanda nodded.

“I just thought I’d check in.”

I chuckled. “I’ll be there. Maybe someone should stay at home in case someone wakes up though.”

Flint hummed, “Perhaps I should do that?” Salvadore and Yolanda both moved off while Forrest remained where he was, offering Misty a dopey-looking smile. I glanced between them to find she had merely smiled in greeting at him before returning to look for Corsola who was now watching the celebrating pokemon.

“Hmmmmmmm, interesting…” I said aloud.

Forrest straightened up. “What’s interesting?” I gave him a look and he blushed while furtively glancing at Misty. I huffed, he really wasn’t subtle in any sense of the word. Greta giggled having seen it as well.

I tapped Forrest on the shoulder. “Maybe you should see to Challenger,” I said, indicating the gobsmacked Graveler that made a point of challenging all the Elite pokemon.

Onix probably hadn’t even been on her radar. Forrest moved over and started patting her on the head.“This isn’t about you right now girl. Onix really earned this. Try and enjoy his success but remember that it might be you one day soon if you keep up the hard work. I know you’ve been putting the time in!” She grunted and rumbled but didn’t move away from his pats which I made a note of.

She clenched her fists and nodded. I could almost see her making a vow to herself as she watched Onix gain the crowd of pokemon’s congratulations.

I clapped my hands just as a few of the Gym’s trainers wandered out and started putting the various pokemon through their paces in preparation for the day along with feeding them in groups. “Alright! Elites! You’re with me!” I called.

I waved for Forrest to bring Challenger along. “She can observe,” I said. I then pointed to Misty. “You’re… a water specialist right?” I said leadingly.

Misty stiffened. “Oh! Yes! A specialist!” She perked up. “Oh! You have a few water types in your Elite team, don’t you?! Like your Omastar and Kabutops!”

“I have way more than that,” I said as we walked around the plateau.

Misty perked up as soon as she spotted a certain group of pokemon. “Oh! My! Gosh! You have a Poliwrath, a Swampert, and a Lapras!” She squealed, darting towards them. She practically tackled Tide’s shell as she rubbed her face into it. “He’s so handsome! And big!”

I felt a sharp jab in my calf and turned around to Forrest pouting. Challenger looked amused which made me realise what had just happened. “Did you just kick me?” I asked.

“Stop showing off!” he grumbled.

I snorted. “You could try talking to her, you know?”

Forest kicked a stone on the ground and grumbled. I hummed. “Or, I could go—”

“Hey Misty! Want to see a trick that Shrek can do?” he said, almost sprinting to talk with her. I rolled my eyes while Challenger laughed.

I spent the next little while working with Hypnotoad on perfecting how to chokeslam someone with her arm with the perfect lariat.

She got it down after a few attempts and I nodded. “Nice, now we can start working in dark-type energy and you’ll have a really powerful move. It will all come down to the acceleration that you can pull off. That’s going to be the key to making it hit hard so work on that when I’m not with you. The faster you can burst into movement the more you’ll catch another pokemon by surprise.”

Hypnotoad nodded seriously just as a buzzer went off on my wrist informing me that I had run out of time. I whistled to my pokemon just as Salvadore rounded the plateau with a number of meal bowls for my team. “Alright gang I have to go! Keep up the good work. Onix congratulations again on making it to the Elite team. You train around here with us from now on!”

I turned to Forrest. “Alright, breakfast time little brother!”

A gurgling noise had me stop and glance around to find Ash, who’d been watching Sanchez practise his electrical moves, now drooling. “Did someone say breakfast?”

I chuckled and checked Greta and Misty who both looked a little hungry. “Did you want to join us?” I pointedly didn’t watch Forrest perk up at the thought of Misty having breakfast with us.

“Yeah!! Breakfast!!” “Pi! Pikachu!” “Go-lem!” shouted the trio. Sanchez marched off with us and I rolled my eyes.

“Sanchez you realise Don will eat your breakfast if you come with us right? You know it gives him gas.” Sanchez turned and ran back to the food bowl Salvadore had come out with for him.

I turned to the waiting crowd of people. “Alright! Breakfast time! Let’s go!” I nudged everyone into action with my shout before physically shoving Forrest so he just so happened to be next to Misty. “Hey Forrest! What do you think of Sidewinder for Onix’s name?” I said more to distract him from Misty being right next to him than seriously asking for his opinion.

Today was looking good. I had some interesting people to entertain, and while Flint was probably going to trigger a lot of landmines he unknowingly planted with his departure, that was very much a him problem.

I was going to enjoy my breakfast and the show that was sure to arise.

I was part dark type after all.

Breakfast was already being seen to by a humming Yolanda while a sleepy Munchlax helped out. It turns out as long as Munchlax knew that good food was on the way he would assist. Assist and occasionally taste test, of course. I could hear Flint moving about upstairs waking everyone up which drew a thoughtful hum from me.

Yolanda glanced back at us when we entered. Misty, Greta, Ash and Pikachu weren’t visible to her as she smiled at Forrest and I walking side by side.

When I moved further in to make up some more batter of the pancakes she was making she shot me a confused look.

“Who’s that pokemon?!” Ash said loudly.

Yolanda was startled by his voice and whipped around to find she had missed the others in our group. “Oh! Hello there… who are all of you?”

“Greta Evergreen from Pallet Town,” Greta said with a bow.

Pikachu hopped forward and bobbed his head. “Pi! Pi-kachu!” he said. Yolanda giggled and bobbed her head back.

“Hello there Pikachu! I’m Yolanda!”

“I’m Misty from Cerulean!” said the ginger-haired girl.

“Ash Ketchum from Pallet town! Pikachu’s my pokemon!” he said before leaning in to look at Munchlax. “I’ve never seen this pokemon before… I think?” He scrunched up his face and hummed loudly.

Misty shook her head. “What do you mean you think you’ve never seen this pokemon before? You either have, or you haven’t?”

Ash shook his head. “I don’t remember everything!”

“That’s obvious,” Misty said out the side of her mouth causing Forrest and Greta to laugh. Ash ignored them. Or he didn’t hear them as he pulled out his pokedex to scan Munchlax.

“Munchlax! The big eater pokemon! It will devour food in huge bites, sometimes without swallowing! It has long body fur that allows it to hide food only for it to forget about said food!”

Munchlax frowned before putting the bowl of pancake batter aside. He then ruffled through his fur only to pull out some fruit, a chocolate bar, a hairy-looking slice of pizza, and a few wrapped-up candies. He gasped hugely and quickly wolfed them down. I stared at the pizza slice. That… surely that was last week’s pizza… right?

Yolanda grimaced. “Ewwww Munchlax that’s worse than watching Salvadore eat pineapple pizza!”

Forrest rubbed his chin. “I don’t know…”

Flint walked in and glanced around having heard the conversation. “What’s wrong with Pineapple pizza? I like it!”

Forrest grimaced. “Urk! My own father?”

Misty giggled at their antics but I was paying attention to Ash and Greta.

Greta was pointing at Ash’s pokedex. “Ash you realise you can make it more factual and less short clips of information right?”

Ash shrugged. “Yeeeaaah but I like this one better! It is short and to the point!”

“It’s barely got any content worth reading!” Greta argued.

“I need snappy information in the field when I encounter new pokemon!”

“The pokedex isn’t for snappy information but for collecting accurate data! Have you even been recording pokemon in their natural habitat like Professor Oak asked us to?”

“I have! I’ve been doing it everyday! At least once a day even!” Ash said to the now mollified Greta. He then sat up. “Oh no I forgot to scan all those cool pokemon Brock had out back!”

Greta sniffed. “I did that yesterday!”

I raised a hand and waved him back to his seat. “Professor Oak is well aware of all the pokemon I have… well mostly anyway. But he has a research assistant here by the name of Stephen.”

“Oh! Stephen was really nice. Sometimes he would run expeditions into the ranch for young kids around Pallet town!” Greta said, perking up while Ash looked stunned.

“I never got to adventure through Oak’s ranch!”

“Ash… you grew up with Gary. You probably did it all the time,” Greta said with an aggrieved look.

Ash opened his mouth before shutting it as he realised Greta had a point. Then he grumbled something about Gary not inviting him over as much recently… and ‘oooh that Gary with all his fancy pokemon’… Ash continued to grumble while I chuckled.

He was such a kid.

I blinked at that and stopped mixing batter to actually look at Ash. I hadn’t really thought about it because of the whole… Flint situation that had transpired last night and was still technically occurring but Ash… Ash was a kid. He wasn’t some destined chosen one.

Heck, I’d heard and seen him do stupid things that were perfectly normal for kids.

I mean I’d known he’d be young. You couldn’t think of Ash as old due to the ongoing agelessness he had for the cartoons. And yet seeing him sort of made it apparent. Ash was young, barely starting his journey and I thought I could leave the possible world or regional disasters to him?

Did that mean I needed to go with him?

I glanced up from my batter of pancake mix as Munchlax picked up the bowl to inspect it. He nodded and took it over to join the other bowl next to Yolanda who was now furiously working the stove to create a bigger number of pancakes. I tapped her on the shoulder. “Here let me take over.”

She nodded in thanks and hopped around to claim a spot next to Flint.

“So how’d you sleep?” she asked him. I kept an ear to their exchange while physically working the pan. A few pancakes got burnt as I split my attention but thankfully Munchlax was an expert at not wasting food. Although occasionally I had to tap him on the head to stop him from rummaging around his fur for any more food he might have stored away but forgotten about.

The conversation picked up slowly with Flint asking about how Yolanda was and had been with school and her life. She gushed about hanging out with Crystal while Salvadore came back in and claimed the other seat next to Flint. Forrest blinked, realising he’d lost his chance as he’d instead chosen to sit next to Misty. He dropped the issue though as he was quickly drawn into an argument with Ash when Greta was brought up to speed on Ash’s arrival.

“I didn’t lose!” snarled Forrest as he glowered at Ash.

Ash shook his head. “I dunno, I think I’d pretty easily have you next time!”

“That doesn't mean I lost!” pointed out Forrest.

“Doesn’t it?” Ash said as he tilted his head, now genuinely confused.

“I don’t think it should?” Misty said reasonably.

Greta rubbed her chin. “If Forrest just needs to adjust his fighting strategy and Ash needs to get stronger who’ll emerge victorious next time?”

“Me!” “I will!” said Forrest and Ash together before they locked eyes.

Ash sniffed. “You sure about that?”

Forrest grunted and nodded. “I know it!”

“Well let’s have a poke—” I flicked some food at both boys causing both to topple off their chairs in surprise. “Awah!” Ash screamed as Munchlax pounced on them, his tongue sweeping across both his and Forrest’s faces.

When they sat up, they positively dripped with saliva.

I reached into a pocket and handed Munchlax a treat. “Good boy!”

“Munchlax!” said the little guy, not really knowing what he was getting rewarded for but nevertheless enjoying it. Forrest and Ash glowered at me.

I merely raised a finger at them. “No pokemon fighting at mealtime. Also Forrest, no more fighting with the gym pokemon cause I think I ran across a certain Onix.” I said.

He didn’t meet my gaze and instead look away only to lock eyes with a highly unamused Greta. He shrunk into himself and I sighed. “You need to get yourself a starter if this is how you’re going to be.” I then looked at Flint and coughed pointedly

He blinked before sitting up. “Oh! Right! How about you and I head out this afternoon and get you one Forrest? We can make a proper trip of it!”

Forrest beamed. “That’d be great!”

Ash sniffed, grumbling under his breath, “My pokemon aren’t going to lose to some newly caught pokemon.”

I snorted at that and shook my head. He really had no idea just how strong pokemon could get in their natural environment did he? Ash shot me a confused look but before I could answer him a small stampede of feet cut through the room as Tilly, Billy, Timmy and Suzie all ran into the room with Nanny Graveler at their heels. They spotted the food and were quick to claim a spot at the table.

They looked at me. “Brock can we go to the park today?” said Suzie as she kicked her legs on her chair. I almost nodded before shaking my head. “Not today, sorry. Flint needs new clothes.”

Suzie turned her head to him. “Oh, you’re still here?” She stood on her chair and leaned close before sniffing. “Brock’s right, you need new clothes.” She then sat back down and kicked her legs back and forth under the chair. I chuckled at Flint’s gobsmacked expression while helping Tilly and Billy into their seats.

Tilly and Billy stared at Flint. “Who’re you again?” they said unapologetically.

“I’m Flint, remember? Your father?”

“Oh,” said Tilly simply.

Billy however stared at Flint’s beard. “Is that fake?”

Timmy leaned over Yolanda and tugged on Flint’s beard causing him to grunt in pain. “It’s not fake!”

Timmy continued to tug. “Are you sure?”

“Ouch! Yes I’m sure!” He pried Timmy’s hand off his beard. “Why would you think my beard is fake?”

“Samurai Furret’s bad guy sometimes claims to be his father but Samurai Furret never believes him. He wears a fake beard!” Billy and Timmy said seriously. Salvadore and Tommy both nodded seriously. I hummed. I must have missed that episode but it sounded right for tv logic with kids.

“Samurai Furret? What?” Flint said.

I coughed. “Ah, that’s a show they like to watch. It’s weirdly good.”

Misty and Greta looked to Yolanda who shrugged. “It has its moments.”

I watched Flint as he continued to feel out how the youngest of our family felt about him. “So… you don’t remember me?”

“I remember someone that looks like Brock. Brock doesn’t have a beard!” Timmy refuted earnestly.

I huffed and set out some pancakes on the table for people to claim then selected two small pancakes for the youngest twins before grabbing some presliced berries from the fridge to drop among their pancakes. When I turned around I was surprised to find everyone smiling.

Everyone in my family was sitting around and listening as Flint talked about what some of them had been like as babies or how he’d worked things at the old Gym. He told some story of finding one of the biggest Onix he’d ever seen out in the wilds and having to run away from it. It sort of sounded like a fishing story with how he stretched his arms out wide and exaggerated things so much. Still it had everyone smiling… and that… that was a good thing right?

They all looked happier with him back.

That made me relax a little. This… would take some work but it was a good thing. They obviously wanted him back and I could work with this. I had the evidence right here. I just had to deal with it. I watched them laugh and smiled a little, happy that they were happy.

I set the rest of the pancakes that had been whipped up around the table in reachable positions. One plate of pancakes ended up in front of Ash.

Ash grinned and pulled them towards himself. “Thanks!”

Misty swatted him. “That’s for all of us Ash!” she said as she took a stack. Pikachu claimed some for himself and Greta quickly snatched up some of her own leaving Ash a paltry inch-high tower of pancakes.

“Awwwww,” he said sadly, causing a laugh to go around the table.

Flint smiled and looked at the others. “So… can I get a good morning hug?” Flint asked, sounding out the youngest.

Suzie shrugged, hopped off her chair and gave him one without any real feeling behind it. I’d seen her hug her friends at preschool with more feeling. The others ignored him to munch away at their pancakes. Suzie turned to me. “So after he’s done shopping can we go to the playground?”

I shook my head and Suzie huffed only to angrily devour her breakfast. When breakfast was done I sent the kids off while quickly making up and packing their lunches. Ash, Greta, Misty Pikachu, Flint, Yolanda, and I remained in the kitchen. When everyone was done with breakfast the sun had well and truly risen. Ash stood up and stretched a little. “Thanks for the meal Brock! That was fantastic!” He then gave me a sheepish grin. “I don’t suppose you could—” I shook my head.

“Wait until your scheduled time like everyone else.”

“That’s an entire month away though!” Ash said pleadingly.

“It’s like a week and change seeing as you booked a single challenge actually.” I shrugged. “But, like I said, plan ahead. This is going to be a tough season for new trainers with the League allowing so many trainers to take part in the circuit.”

“I’m going to take this year to learn more about pokemon and then go for the Plateau at the end of the year at least Ash,” said Greta.

Ash turned to her. “What? But? You’re giving up?! You could come with Misty, Pikachu and I if you’re having trouble!”

Her eyes widened and she made a face that said she wanted nothing to do with that. “Nope! I think I’m good slowing down!”

I snorted. I got the impression that whatever had gone on during their childhoods hadn’t endeared her to Gary or Ash.

She sniffed and straightened up. “Also, I’m not giving up!” Greta said firmly. “I’m just broadening my understanding of pokemon.”

Ash crossed his arms. “Well, I’m not giving up!” Greta shot him an annoyed look at how he’d ignored what she’d said. “I’m going all the way this year! And nobody is going to stop me! Right Pikachu?” Pikachu nodded his head and smiled at Ash.

Misty hummed. “We’ll probably get lucky when things are towards the later half of the season with more trainers dropping off. The badges get harder after the first three.”

“The pokemon that other trainers can bring are also harder,” I pointed out.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. My sisters’ always whined about the tougher trainers making a later run after the first three months.”

“Huh?” Ash said, staring at Misty.

Misty coughed. “Nevermind!” she said, trying to get Ash to drop that line of conversation. Ash did so with a shrug although Greta gained a thoughtful look.

I looked over the group. “So, while I take my family into town perhaps you four could look around the festival again?” The first part got nods while the second destination got some lacklustre shrugs as they started cleaning up the table.

Flint frowned. “What is the festival for, I saw that it’s about the ‘celebration of Pewter city’ but not anything significant like the founding so is there an actual reason?” asked Flint looking to me.

I sniffed. “Money.”

When I didn’t elaborate he blinked. “That’s it?”

I shrugged, “Mayor Jonathan basically thought it would be a great idea to have a prolonged festival as I informed him about the strain that all the trainers were going to have on the city. I spoke with him and he got some buses organised to help distribute the load but then also organised a large festival to make the most of the incoming trainers and their pokemon. It’s been going on now for… two weeks? I think the residents are going to start complaining about it soon, as while they’re getting lots of money it is also really disruptive to their lives.”

“What? Jonathan? What happened to Mayor David?” asked Flint.

“He got sick and retired two and half years ago. There was an election but I didn’t get involved. I was too busy with…” I made a vague gesture at the Gym and family members still present. “He moved out of the city to run a small farm with some Tauros and Miltank, and he doesn’t make the trip into Pewter much. Jonathan ran for office and won,” I said.

“Oh…” said Flint.

I raised a hand and started ticking off my fingers. “They replaced Police Chief Warren as well, now it’s old man Bosco. The family doctor also retired and now we go to Dr Annabelle.”

“She’s got a tan from the beach!” supplied Yolanda who’d been the last to have a check up since the doctor came back from holiday. I nodded and smiled.

“Oh… wow people have really moved on since I’ve been away.”

I merely shrugged again and took a sip of my tea. “Yeah, life won’t wait for you,” I said neutrally. Yolanda must not have liked it as she shot me a ‘be nice’ look that I rolled my eyes at.

Flint stared at the counter. “I thought… I thought they might remember more about me,” he said.

Yolanda gave him sympathetic eyes then rounded on me with a look that said ‘help him!’.

I gave her a ‘nope, not my problem’ look back.

She jerked her head forward in the silent ‘do it!’ that all women develop when men are being reluctant to do something they think needs doing. I frowned at her. She widened her eyes in a threatening display that reminded me of Zephyr. I turned to Flint.

“You’ll have better chances with Cindy, Tommy and Salvadore obviously, they’ll remember you,” I said. Then I shrugged. “The others were too small to remember anything about you when you left. Give them time and spend time with them.” I gave Yolanda a ‘there! I did it!’ look and she rolled her eyes at me. Misty who’d been watching this play out looked confused.

Flint however perked up. “Yeah! You’re right!”

When all the kids trooped back in, once more with Nanny Graveler herding them, I gave them their backpacks.

Flint stared at Nanny Graveler, “What’s with her?”

“She’s Nanny Grav!” announced Suzie.

Flint nodded slowly as though he understood what was going on. It was obvious he had no clue.

I gave Nanny Grav a fond rub. “She helps watch the kids. She sort of dropped the battling life to just help out at home and has beena natural fit. Flint, meet Nanny,” I said introducing the female Graveller. She had some paint and chalk drawings on her sides from where the kids had apparently used her as a surface to play on, but that didn’t stop her grunting her name and nodding politely.

“Huh, I never had one with the temperament to help out before,” said Flint.

I just shrugged and led the family out to get ready. “Perks of having a bigger gym,” I said before inspecting everyone. When I was satisfied they were all set I led them to the front door.

“Gym Leader!” shouted a new voice, making me turn to find a random trainer pointing at me.

The kids all giggled while Flint had leapt to the side and raised a pokeball. The trainer looked at him askance. “Not you old man! I’m talking to the Gym Leader!” He then turned back to me as Flint blinked and realised he’d just reacted.

“How long have you been out here?” I asked the kid.

“Three hours!” said the kid before sneezing.

“Hmmmm, impressive,” I said. When they perked up, I shook my head. “I don’t take challenges like this. You know who does take challenges like this?”

“No?” said the trainer in confusion.

I grabbed Ash and pushed him to the front. Ash locked eyes with the kid. “I’m not fighting a dumb kid!”

“What!? You’re a dumb kid!” shouted the kid.

“No I’m not!” replied Ash.

I simply ushered my family away. Misty hovered, unsure if she wanted to watch and make sure nothing happened or continue on with us. Greta followed with a giggle as Misty sighed and stayed behind.

“That… was kind of funny,” she said. I merely smirked and shot her a wink. She tilted her head. Oh right, she’s not like Yolanda who can realise when I wink. Damn my narrow eyes!

“So, dad? Where have you been?” Cindy asked. I tilted my head, curious about how he was going to ‘sell’ the idea of his disappearance as we walked along to the shops.

Flint grimaced and looked down. “I’ve been… trying to find your mother, children. She’s been out there for a long time now and I thought I could find her and bring her home.”

“Oh,” said Cindy sadly.

“We have one of those?” said Tilly to Billy who just shrugged. I saw Yolanda give them a worried look so I put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, it’ll be fine, trust me.” I looked at her egg. “Hmmm it’s gone still… might want to take tomorrow off school, usually that’s a day’s warning.”

Yolanda snapped her head around to notice the incubator wasn’t moving anymore. “Oh! You’re right!” she said.

We continued to walk for a bit only for Tommy to approach Flint. “You said what you were doing, but where did you go?”

Flint hummed. “I ended up spending a fair amount of time around Cerulean to start off with but then I had to go around the Sevii and Orange islands as I found information leading there. The last I heard was that she was in Hoenn but… I wasn’t willing to go that far…”

“How far away is Hoenn?” said Tommy.

“About a week on a cruise ship,” I said, answering before Flint could. I checked over the family quickly to make sure we didn’t have any stragglers. I turned back in time to see Cindy tapping Flint on the side.

“What did you do when you weren’t looking for Mum?” I felt my insides twist a little at that word but I set my jaw and kept walking.

Flint hummed. “Well, I trained my pokemon to make them as strong as they could be!”

“Oh so you’re as strong as Brock then!?” said Cindy cheerfully. I could tell there was now a lot of attention on Flint as my entire family plus Greta, listened in.

Flint coughed his eyes darting around. He obviously hadn’t been expecting that question and it wasn’t something he could ignore. But it wasn’t something he could claim easily. I had proof in the form of a televised match against Lance’s best.

“Uhm! That is to say… Well… No,” he wilted and I got a dark satisfaction at the words. Like I had just been stroked in just the right way.

It felt good to see him squirm like that and hear those words. To hear him admit that he’d trained in the mountains and tried to get strong only to have me pass him here at home. Looking at it objectively it looked like a giant waste of time when I’d been able to achieve more while balancing more responsibility. The only reason he had for leaving his family, which was somewhat plausible, was the excuse of looking for… her.

Flint rubbed the back of his head and laughed at himself. “Hahaha! Guess that’ll show me! But then again Brock always was an overachiever!”

That felt like a backhanded compliment. I glanced at the kids who were listening and watching him avidly. Yolanda shot me a look and I gave her a tight smile.

The kids started to fall into their normal routine of running about before coming back in as though on invisible bungee cords.

When Yolanda dropped back near me I tapped her on the shoulder. “Hey, I used your song to wake up my pokemon again.”

She blushed, “You’re still doing that?!”

“Course I am, they love that song!” I said happily.

She put her hid her face in her hands. “Broooooock! Delete that song! It’s so bad!”

“Nope it was you honestly trying really hard to learn how to use the flute, I’m not deleting it!

“I don’t even play the flute anymore!” whined Yolanda.

“You stopped?” said Flint, butting into the conversation.

Cindy grinned and popped up in front of Flint. “She stopped and started playing the guitar! But I’ve taken over playing the flute! Mrs Elliot, our music teacher that is, thinks I’m better!”

Yolanda rolled her eyes and I chuckled as Cindy sniped at Yolanda. I merely huffed and gave Yolanda a one armed hug, causing her to huff at me and my smile to grow.

I’d been trying to reinforce her self-esteem by playing the song regularly for my elite team. I listened half-heartedly as Flint praised the girls for their musical interests. Both girls beamed and shared a sisterly smile before Cindy poked her tongue out and Yolanda sighed. I chuckled.

Flint’s praise of the girl’s drew the others in and they all started chiming in like an out-of-tune orchestra about the instruments they had been learning at school. Mostly the drums or the sticks or the triangle as none of them had really tried apart from Cindy. It… bugged me to have them fawning over him. Urgh, I’d have to deal with that and suck it up.

I plucked a few pebbles from the ground and rolled them around in my hand. Almost instantly I felt a calm peacefulness come over me. Yeah, it wasn’t a problem. It was fine. They’d be fine. I was fine.

I led the group into the city but in doing so walked the kids past a park. The struggle to corral them all reach new levels after that little oversight. Suzie pleaded for just five minutes on the swings, but we both knew she really meant at least thirty so I was unswayed.

A Kangaskhan stood in the middle of the park watchfully looking over the kids and little pokemon. It occasionally looked up to the skies but otherwise seemed happy to be a small mountain for the kids to clamber over.

Forrest spotted some of his friends and moved to talk with them only for me to call out to him. “Forrest! Stick with us for now!” I said.

The gang of boys stiffened at my shout and took off. I was tempted to call out that they needed to learn to put things away when they were done. I’d checked the area they dirtied in the gym only to find the mops and trash bags left out. Still, now wasn’t the time to run them down, as tempting and hilarious as it would be.

Forrest jogged up and rolled his eyes at me. “You really have to scare them off like that?”

“Not my fault they spook easily. They’re kinda nervous kids, aren’t they?”

Forrest shrugged. “Eh, none of them got a pokemon from their parents to go on their journey this year. They’re kinda annoyed.” I raised an eyebrow at him. He still hadn’t gotten a pokemon or gone on his journey.

He blushed. “It’s different for me cause I can borrow the gym’s pokemon and that makes me pretty cool.”

I shook my head. “Well, not really, but hopefully you can head out with Flint later and deal with your lack of starter.”

Forrest nodded, a grin firmly etched in place. We trundled on with the entire family once more orbiting myself and Flint as we walked. Munchlax tugged at my pants when we passed a few food stalls and I bought him and the kids some snacks to keep them a little closer at hand. Flint grumbled when I bought three snacks for Munchlax. When I looked around for Greta I found her talking with another trainer. She waved me off and indicated she was staying with her friend.

Flint coughed, drawing me back to my family. “Do you really need to give him so much?” he said, looking at Munchlax as he devoured his snack.

“He’s a Munchlax. It’s healthy for him to have a solid layer of fat. That just means he needs more food than the normal pokemon,” I said with a shrug.

As we continued on, we passed by a group of people selling crystals and rare metals.

“They’re said to be as good as a metal coat! Gym Leader Brock! You have a Scyther! Why not buy this and see it evolve!” said the salesperson as he proffered a large tub of what looked like metal but the glint and glitter in it seemed off. I shook my head and waved them off.

Flint wasn’t happy to leave it at that though. “What are you trying to pull here? These aren’t anything special! This is quartz? And that’s just a pebble you’d painted in gold paint! And these are—”

“Sir! Please you’re only looking at the sales models!”

“Sales Models!? They’re rocks and minerals! How are you selling this garbage?!”

I coughed and spiked my energy to stop the argument. “I think we should move along. Flint, if people want to buy goods from a festival shop then they should understand the risk they run doing so.”

“But! But! This is trash! He doesn’t even have an actual evolution stone here!” he said pointing to a back display. I frowned.

“Sir you do realise those stones, or even claiming to sell those stones, require certain certificates, yes?”

The man laughed and nodded only to turn and sprint away. Flint looked like he was going to give chase but I put a hand on his shoulder. “Leave it, we’re here to get you some clothes not chase after rock salesmen.”

“He wasn’t a rock salesman! This is just…. Stuck together dirt!” Flint said hotly.

I prodded him to get him moving along.

“I never knew you were so passionate about rocks Dad?” said Salvadore.

Flint rubbed his head. “Ah! Well with my specialty being Rock types I have a pretty strong interest in investigating rocks and what are some of the best around. I studied to be a geologist for a while there!”

Salvadore perked up at that. “Huh, so are there many rocks that affect pokemon?”

“Tons! There’s the metals that need to be mined and then refined for things like the metal coats used for Scyther and Onix to evolve, just as there are certain hard rocks that empower pokemon!” He said gushing about rocks and their importance for pokemon.

“I found a few interesting rocks that seem to extend the effects of certain moves as well!”

“Weather rocks?” I said as a memory tickled at my mind.

Flint blinked in surprise. “You know of them? I thought I was the first to discover them?”

“No, I just assumed that was the logical name,” I said quickly. “Certain moves extended? Only moves that I could think of were weather effects?” I tilted my head.

“Things like Sandstorm?” I said, deliberately choosing the wrong weather effect to throw off any suspicion. I didn’t think there was one for that, was there? Damn there was! Smooth stone!

“Not… yet no,” said Flint. I blinked in surprise. He hadn’t found that yet?

Flint continued to speak, heedless of my surprise, “I found something I call a heat stone and a damp stone for rain and sun effects, but nothing for Sandstorms yet. I suspect those might be more present somewhere with winds to wear away at stone however. The Hoenn Desert comes to mind.”

“Huh,” I said eloquently. Then I stopped and jerked my head towards the shop. “Alright Yolanda he’s all yours.” She grinned only to frown.

“Are you not coming with?”

“Nah, I don’t need to help a grown man pick out his clothes,” I said. “I’m going to walk around for a bit with the twins and tire them out.”

The twins nodded along with that and then took off running. I hummed and used my longer legs to catch up. “Meet back here in half an hour!” I called back.

The twins then led me on a run around the streets only for me to corral them back after twenty minutes had passed. By twenty five they were stumbling and staggering. At twenty seven minutes they were nestled in my arms. Suzie was hanging off my neck and Timmy was being held by Nanny Graveler. I was passed by Forrest’s friends once more as they hooned around, only to turn around when they saw me coming down the road towards them. That got a good chuckle out of me.

When we rounded the corner to the street the shop was on I found Jenny’s bike parked on the corner. Jenny herself was crouching down outside the shop and peering inside intently. I walked up, curious to see what she was doing.

Flint emerged with a large number of shopping bags in hand and a sheepish look. I could see Yolanda back in the store paying for the items and huffed. He must not have had enough and needed to use the family card I’d given to Yolanda and Forrest.

Jenny launched herself into Flint’s chest, arm swinging up to catch him in a textbook clothesline move while she swept his feet from under him, “You’re coming with me mister! Your family has been looking for you! You have the right to give parental love and support!” she declared loudly as bags of clothes fell to the ground.

“Whuh?” Flint said intelligently from the ground.

I held up a finger. Oh damn, I forgot to tell Jenny we’d found Flint, hadn’t I? I hummed for a moment before chuckling. This was actually pretty funny and probably just another moment of Flint getting something he’d had coming for a while.

Jenny grabbed Flint’s wrists and began cuffing him. “You are going to go home and start helping out! You have a lovely family and you will cherish them so help me—” I coughed pointedly.

Jenny stopped what she was doing and snapped her head up to find me watching with a sheepish smile.

“Heeeeey Jenny, nice take down… Ummm yeah Forrest actually got him to come in … a few nights ago…”

Jenny gaped at me like a Magikarp before her face flushed red.

Tilly giggled, “Do it again!” she said in her shrill toddler voice.

Jenny looked mortified while I was rather amused. “

Jenny’s radio squawked to life, saving her from any more awkwardness. “Got reports of multiple graffiti spots! I repeat, multiple graffiti! The perps are mobile and currently active!” said the radio.

Jenny grasped that like a drowning man grabbed a lifeline. “Officer Jenny is on the case!” she shouted into her radio. Then she lifted Flint up, dusted him off, swept his shopping bags into his arms, and clapped him on the shoulder. “Apologies citizen! Stay well!” She then sprinted off as fast as she could, only to turn around and have to run past me to her bike.

I watched her go and felt a mix of amusement and guilt at unexpectedly setting her up like that. Flint rubbed at his chest, and I huffed. “You alright?”

“Yeah, just knocked the wind out of me is all.” He glanced at me as Yolanda approached with a confused expression. “You had the police looking for me?”

I nodded. “Yeah, among other people.” I considered him. “Watch out for some ninja alright?”

“Ninja?” Flint said. “I’d believe you sent the local grannies after me more than I would ninja.”

He snorted a laugh only to stop when Forrest made a cutting gesture at his throat. “He’s serious dad. We’d all seen you hovering around and were getting tired of waiting. Soooo, yeah? Janine from Fuchsia was looking for you while she was here…” Forrest glanced around. “She might have left… but you never know with ninja.”

Suzie snorted. “It’s easy to know! You just ask Sabrina!”

Flint twitched at that, and I chuckled. Heh, that’d teach him to mock my claims of sending ninja’s after him.

I waved to the family at large. “Come on, it’s time to get you all to school.”

The kids all grumbled at that but we quickly had them dropped off at the right locations. Munchalx waved, hugged, and gave good bye licks to any that wanted them. Flint seemed to enjoy the experience of dropping his kids off. I left him to enjoy a long chat with a teacher at the front of the gates who was very pointedly discussing his absence in their lives and its effects.

I settled in on a bench and began toggling through my transceiver for various newsfeeds to catch up on what had been happening around Kanto and ‘the world’.

I couldn’t see anything regarding Devon Corp and the Cinnabar research facility anymore which was notable in how it had been a headline until it suddenly wasn’t.

There was a notice of there being a lot more trainers than normal. ‘Experts’ predicted that roughly four times as many trainers were expected to be present in the Kanto circuit this year. I hummed. I was expecting roughly five times with how I had at least a month booked up solidly of pokemon trainers and there would probably be a lot more still to come. Thankfully the frequency and density of the work would be more spread out.

I’d probably also have a number of takers for the Elite challenge this year and that would see us facing more challenges. But I expected that to be more of an issue towards the end of the year.

I continued to scroll and spotted a report on Karen’s match with Chuck. She’d apparently beaten him four to six and the match was being touted as a must see with another showing going to be on Battlecast tonight. I made a note to tell Forrest about it. He’d love to see that and I also had an interest in it. I could even call her and get her take on the match afterwards.

I read through the weather report and was glad to see that there weren’t any spring rains predicted until next weekend. Bertha wouldn’t have a chance to jump into any mudpits and wallow. For all that she was supposed to be like a rhino she was more like a pig in how she loved the feel of mud on her thick hide.

“Pikachu! Use Thundershock!” I glanced up to find Ash had apparently made his way after us and was outside the school with what looked to be one of the parents engaging in a casual match to the side of the gates. The Dad’s Mightyena took the hit and wobbled before collapsing.

The kids that had been cheering on the Dad groaned as Ash whooped and hollered at Pikachu’s victory. Before the Dad could even return his pokemon a small kid stepped forward with a pokeball raised up. Ash grinned and leaned forward more than ready to take on the next challenger. I chuckled.

“That young man certainly has a lot of spunk!” Flint said as he approached me. I considered it for a moment before nodding.

“That he does, if he keeps his determination I think he’ll go pretty far.”

“Hmmm, have to say I envy his energy. I look at him and feel tired with how he throws himself around.” As he said this Ash swept his arms to the side to indicate how Pikachu should dodge.

“Hnnn,” I said expressively. I looked him over. “All done dropping off the kids?”

Flint paused before sitting on the bench with me. “Ah, yes, I am.”

“Alright, time to head home then,” I said.

Flint got a wobbly smile at that before nodding and walking along with me. “Say I have some gifts I’d like to give to you and the kids…”

Munchlax tugged on Flint’s hand and pointed at his mouth. “Munch?”

Flint gave him a confused look and I chuckled. “I don’t think he meant food, Munchlax.”

Flint nodded and turned away from Munchlax. “I know they won’t ever be enough to make you forgive me for… going away but...would you kids like some gifts I picked up in my travels?”

I laced my hands behind my head. “Are they rocks?”

Flint blinked and rubbed the back of his head. “Well… yes mostly…”

“Hmmm, well you can give them out this afternoon after I’m done with the Gym. We’ll see how that goes then yeah?”

“Right!” he said happily. I hummed and put it to the side, my mind instead turning towards the Gym and what I had to do for the day.