Hard Enough

Chapter 232: Round one shake up!

I drummed my fingers on the table, waiting patiently as my foe considered their options.

“Do you have any... threes?” said Tommy, watching my face like a Pidgeot watched the forest floor for a Caterpie.

I gave nothing away.

Silly little brother, bird types were weak to rock. “Go...” I started to say, watching his face, “Take your card,” I said, watching as Tommy began to slump, only to pump his fist in delight at getting one over on me.

He then made the mistake of turning his attention to the combined team of Sabrina and Suzie.

Suzie glowered at him, in her hands two cards were clenched tightly.

“Do you have,” he started, watching Suzie’s expression. “Any ssssssssss,” when she began to smile he shifted his target. “Tens!” he said triumphantly.

I had to give it to Tommy, it was a good attempt, but he’d forgotten that Sabrina was helping Suzie.

Suzie stopped smiling and blinked, causing me to chuckle. Her eyes darted down to the two cards in her hands.

“Is this a ten?” she asked Sabrina with a carrying whisper.

I continued to chuckle as Tommy realised the flaw in looking at Suzie.

Suzie still didn’t have a perfect grasp on her numbers.

Sabrina shook her head and Suzie whirled on Tommy. “Go Fish!” she shouted, pointing her finger right in his face.

I coughed lightly and Suzie retracted her hand, but not her megawatt grin of victory.

Tommy grumbled but took a card from the top, only to perk up and pair them off. He now only had two cards himself.

Suzie opened her mouth to challenge Tommy, only for Sabrina to nudge her in my direction.

Suzie glanced at me and I held up my handful of cards, which included my get out of jail free card, my Uno wild, Bianca’s driver's licence and a coupon for a facial treatment. It also had a jack stylised like a Mr. Mime, a King like an Alakazam, and a two.

Truly I had terrible luck.

As Suzie considered my hand, the extraneous cards began to vanish ‘mysteriously’ from my hand to be replaced by other, actual playing cards.

I shot Sabrina a deeply amused look. Did she think I wasn’t going to go easy on my siblings?

Sabrina’s eyes darted over to where Salvadore, Olga and Crystal were lamenting their having challenged me to a game of Smash.

I’d kicked their butts with Ness, and then Donkey Kong, just to prove a point.

...Alright, so sometimes I got a bit too competitive, but they should know better than to challenge me at video games.

“—a four!” said Suzie, as she held up four fingers.

I smiled and nodded. “Yes I do,” I said, handing it over to her. Suzie giggled and accepted it, adding it to her stack of cards triumphantly.

“Munchlax?” said Munchlax who, while sitting at the table, wasn’t part of the game, holding up his cards in confusion. I noted that all the cards I’d been holding a moment ago were now in his hands.

I shot Sabrina a look which wasn’t very effective, as she led Suzie to an unbeatable victory.

Tommy stared at the stack of pairs in front of Suzie. “I don’t think it was a good idea to play with Suzie when she has Sabrina to help her,” he announced with the air of one who has learned wisdom. ȐΑ????Ỗ฿ЕȘ

“Hmmm,” I said, toying with Bianca’s driver’s licence. I idly noted that there was no way her height was one metre seventy. She barely came up to my chest. “But it was fun playing the game, wasn’t it?” I asked.

Tommy thought about this for a moment before nodding, a smirk coming my way. “Yeah, it was,” he said with a laugh.

I just smiled back and collected the cards Munchlax had, to return them where they belonged.

“Brock! Mirea beat Tori!” announced Yolanda from the other lounge room.

“Yeah, she was all like! ‘Your attempts to rise are cute little girl, but not enough!’ Bam smash! She’s just the biggest bitch! I love her!” shouted Crystal excitedly.

“Language!” I said at the same time as Yolanda and Sabrina did.

Crystal flinched back and coughed. “It’s not that bad a word,” she muttered before readjusting. “Anyway! She used her Typhlosion and her Ampharos alone to win, which is super cool ‘cause she had to fight through a bunch of water-type pokemon!”

I considered that. “Isn’t her Typhlosion her starter? It might not have been such a good idea to tire him out in a tournament where she’s going to be fighting the next day,” I said.

Crystal waved it off. “I don’t think it was that much of a workout for him, and she got to spare the other four pokemon she had with her.” Crystal considered a booklet. “But it’s weird, I didn’t think she had an Ampharos... at least it’s not listed on her known pokemon,” she said.

I shrugged. “Plenty of people keep pokemon secret, or sometimes at this level, they can even trade a pokemon for someone else’s that they considered powerful enough to be worth the swap.”

I’d collected a bunch of notes on the trainers that I was expected to face from the Guardians. I had yet to go through Kaede and Bruce’s files, but I’d have them ready for tonight’s analysis.

“She traded for it?” Yolanda asked.

I shrugged. “I’m just pointing out it’s possible, not that she did it. From what I saw of Carr’s match against Arthur, Arthur traded out a number of his pokemon in preparation for his match, but it didn’t do him any good.”

“Carr’s Steelix was... decent,” said Yolanda begrudgingly.

“It was,” I said, “but it has nothing on Jormungandr,” I said.

Yolanda nodded and turned back to the lounge room. “So, don’t you have to go soon? You’ve been spending the entire morning relaxing, and now there’s only Kaede and Boss Doug’s fight before your own.”

As though awaiting this very question, my Xtransceiver began to chirp, only for me to silence it with an absent swat of my hand. “Eh,” I said with a shrug. “I had more important things to do,” I said.

Yolanda glanced around the room that was full of shopping bags from where we’d gone shopping earlier in the morning for the board games, cards, and Nintendo sixty-four.

I chuckled at her dubious look. “You know what I mean,” I said as she started to smile.

I wandered into the lounge room to find Greta sitting in front of a desk with notes spread out around it. Next to her, on a chair rated for heavy individuals, Bertha lay on her stomach with a stack of pokepuffs within reach.

“Rhy rhy rhy,” said Bertha to Greta knowledgeably.

Greta nodded along only to turn to us and mouth ‘I have no idea what she’s saying!’.

I chuckled, only for the chirping of my watch to return. “Urgh, looks like they're getting desperate,” I said. “So, who’s coming with me for this match?” I asked.

Greta shot up to her feet while Yolanda claimed a seat on the couch. “I’ll watch from here,” she said.

I collected A.J., Rachel and Missy to round out our group as I moved through the resort collecting my pokemon back into their pokeballs bar Tide, Shin, Bertha, Empress, Gible, Zubat and Hypnotoad who I left out.

Don was back at the reserve, because... well unless I was actively training him, I really should have known better than letting him out near the ocean.

“Alright, I’ll have to—” I started to say, only for Zubat to hug my face.

“Zuuuuuuuu!” she whined plaintively.

“Mmmmmm,” I said into her body.

When she refused to move I reached up and tugged her off my face. “Sorry girl, I can’t let you just relax on my shoulder this time. Things are going to be serious and I need to keep all my attention on the match,” I said.

Zubat wilted as I deposited her on top of the incubator. Suzie was quick to reposition her onto her lap. “No Brock, the egg might get too hot!” she said.“Here, my lap is a much nicer spot.” She carefully stroked Zubat to calm her down. Zubat considered this for a few moments with a perked head.She seemed to accept the pats as she nuzzled into Suzie’s lap, making herself more comfortable.

“Ah, good call,” I said, deciding to not fight her on how incubators regulated the temperature of the egg inside. “Alright, bye family and friends and pokemon!”

“Rhy!” “Bye!” Growl!” “Good luck Mr. Brock!” “Win bro!” “Growlithe!” “Yeah!” “Go Brock!”

I smiled for a moment only to frown. Some of those noises hadn’t sounded right.

I gave all of my suddenly very innocent-looking siblings a pointed stare down. “Guys, how many Growlithe did you bring?” I asked.

“None!” “Nope, not me!” “Not I!” said the various kids.

Cindy then pointed at Yolanda. “I saw Yolanda bring Spot so I figured that Lady could come.”

“You dare?!” Yolanda said, whirling about on her sister.

Hephaestus chose that moment to waddle up to sit down next to Olga. “Growlithe,” he said, flopping onto his stomach and yawning loudly.

I eyed them.

How had they hidden three Growlithe from me? Was I that distracted last night?

I glanced at Sabrina and she smirked, likely knowing what I was thinking.

Yeah... I probably was distracted.

“Alright, that’s three of them, any more?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Nope!” “Nadda!” said Suzie and Tilly.

“I brought Sirius cause I need a pokemon to keep me warm in bed,” said Timmy, as he looked at the floor as though ashamed.

I held up a finger, considered what I was going to say and then let it go with a sigh. “The beds all have electric blankets but... alright fine... it's just that I got the Growlithe pack to protect our home.”

Yolanda adopted a reclined position as she wafted her hand about. “What is the home but the people that make it?” she said with a wise tone.

I couldn’t argue that so I chopped her lightly on the head. “Smarty pants,” I said. “So, how many are here?” I asked.

“Five,” said Sabrina. “The others are at home protecting the house as you want them to,” she said.

I huffed and gave my siblings a stern look. “Well, that’s good at least! As for the rest of you... I’m putting Olga in charge,” I said.

Olga stiffened. “Me?” she said, staring at me through her thick glasses.

“Yup, you’re the only one here I can trust,” I said, playing it up. Sabrina’s gaze bore into the back of my head. “That isn’t coming with us to the arena,” I clarified quickly.

I held up my hands to Olga in a faux pleading position. “Only you can make sure the little ones are in bed and the adults don’t drink too much,” I said.

“So... I’m in charge?” she said carefully.

I nodded.

I shifted Sbarina’s legs and stood, marching over. I was about to place my pokeballs into the six receptacles to confirm which pokemon I was going to use when I slowed and began to reconsider what I was bringing to the table.

Was this the best team I could field against Corey?

I licked my lips and weighed up what I had. Should I call back Hypnotoad? Or maybe even bring out Empress?

I ticked off the team I had lined up.

Shrek, Gawain, Knight, Selene, Zephyr, and Titan. They offered me a great degree of versatility with what Corey had.

It would just depend on what he sent out first. A fighting type? His Venusaur, or even a Muk?

Would he anticipate my reading into his team and counter that?

I sighed and shook my head. I was going to stick with what I’d decided earlier.

I locked them in and toyed instead with who I was going to send out first. Gawain had some serious potential as a first pokemon, as did Titan if I was perfectly honest.

I returned, having spent maybe two or three minutes tops weighing up my choices, only to find the match had greatly progressed.

“Three nil?” I said with surprise at the television.

It showed that Boss Doug had lost his Muk, Machoke, and a Weezing.

A quick glance at the smoking Scizor that was battling against an Ursaring. Despite being the fresher pokemon, Ursaring was on the back foot.

I didn’t need to have anyone ‘read me into what had happened’, it looked obvious enough. Scizor had fought through an explosion of some sort, thus the damage to his form.

It was clearly affecting how the fight was playing out, so I couldn’t call it the worst move on Boss Doug’s part.

Scizor was darting in and out, hammering light blows on the opposite pokemon, while Ursaring was swinging at nothing but air due to the speed with which Scizor was still moving thanks to Ambipom’s earlier boosting swap.

“Baton Pass!” Kaede shouted once more and I whistled in appreciation, as she had her pokemon withdraw just enough to make the move work.

Once more her pokemon vanished, leaving everyone in a lurch.

People leaned forward as the pokeball in her hand opened to reveal a white and red furry pokemon.

“Zan-zangoose!” cried the pokemon.

Greta was quick to raise her pokedex and snap a picture of the pokemon which had her pokedex chirping.

“Zangoose, the cat-ferret pokemon. This pokemon is known for harbouring a great rivalry and hatred for Seviper. It is said that the feud is passed down from generation to generation of Zangoose. They will often seek out their hated foe and fight with them. This has led to the pokemon developing immunity to various poisons. It is a fierce pokemon that is known for its agility and exceptionally sharp claws. For more information about this pokemon please take a picture in person. This pokemon is not known to be outwardly hostile to humans without cause,” said her pokedex.

I quirked an eyebrow. I hadn’t known about that little feature, but then this was the first time I’d heard Greta’s pokedex talk after taking an image from television.

Did they have aura readers that a television couldn’t relay? Is that how they sensed what moves the pokemon could use?

It was an interesting line of questioning. Maybe I should toy around with the pokedex I had with me thanks to Oak.

I let that thought fade as the match took an interesting turn.

Once more the poisonous barbs shot up and into the newly arrived Zangoose.

I was about to comment on how clever Kaede’s plan was with Zangoose, the pokemon known for its immunity to poison being used.

Then the spikes stabbed home and I blinked as it yowled in pain. Eh?

“Looks like your pokedex is faulty,” said A.J. with a scowl. “It’s usually pretty accurate,” he continued, not noticing the flash of annoyance that morphed into thoughtfulness on Greta’s expression.

On-screen, Zangoose stopped screaming and instead roared with pain as Kaede merely gestured at Ursaring.

Zangoose shot forward and folded the powerful normal type over the top of its claws.

Ursaring was thrown out of the arena and into the wall violently.

I whistled as the referee raised his flags. “U-Ursaring is unable to battle!” He glanced at the growling, snapping Zangoose who only calmed when Kaede let out a note that made it seem like she was about to sing to her pokemon. It was enough to settle the aggression and Zangoose settled into a crouched position, its eyes locked on Boss Doug as it awaited its next foe.

“What was that about?” asked Greta.

“Checking to make sure Kaede had control of her pokemon.” I explained, only for Greta and A.J. to shoot me confused looks. Missy nodded, understanding my point.

I waved a hand at the referee as he raised a green flag to allow the match to continue. “You need to prove that you have actual control of your pokemon. Imagine that you had access to a wild pokemon that is powerful and were able to get it into a pokeball. If you just unleashed it on a foe, well you might win matches, but... you’d also be putting people at risk.”

I leaned forward to watch as Zangoose twitched in pain and a small purple splotch of blood seeping out began to appear in Zangoose’s white fur.

So it was poisoned... I rubbed my jaw. Zangoose, an already extremely agile pokemon, had gotten handed the boosts from Agility that Ambipom had set up when Boss Doug had buffed up his own pokemon.

So that accounted for the extreme speed that was on display, but the power of the hit?

It had to have been something else.

A triggered state?

“Triggered state?” asked Missy, eyes flickering to me as Boss Doug held off on releasing his pokemon for the full minute available to him.

“Ah, I said that out loud?” I asked. Around me, the others nodded. I coughed. “Triggered state is an innate ability that some pokemon have that responds to certain conditions. In this case, I suspect Zangoose has become more powerful from being poisoned, rather than being immune,” I said.

“You don’t talk about that in your lessons,” Greta said.

“Maybe I need to make it a lesson,” I said as Boss Doug finally sent out his fifth pokemon, revealing a Nidoking.

“That’s his starter,” said A.J. leaning forward.

On-screen, Zangoose rose, only to stiffen as the poison took hold once more. It staggered and I narrowed my eyes. It looked like it was on its last legs, but the image I’d gotten of Kaede so far was not of a woman who was going to leave things to chance.

I was proven correct when she clenched her hand into a fist. “Rest,” she intoned seriously and Zangoose shut its eyes and fell asleep.

That did make me frown for a second. Shouldn’t that move have failed, due to already being poisoned?

I shook the thought off. This wasn’t like the games... or was this an indicator of some special skill Kaede had trained her Zangoose to possess? I made a mental note to review that later.

“Earthquake,” growled Boss Doug and Nidoking stomped, causing Zangoose to be thrown into the air a second after it shut its eyes.

“Sleep Talk,” Kaede replied and instantly Zangoose twitched and landed onto all fours.

It charged straight into Nidoking with a pink glow on its forehead.

Nidoking buckled under the power of the Zen Headbutt and was hurled back, only to dig his feet in and roar in defiance. It rose up to loom, only to grimace as something twinged within its body.

Kaede saw the momentary weakness and pushed for the finish. “Sleep Talk,” she said again and once more Zangoose charged in to hammer a fist into Nidoking. That proved enough to end the battle between the two pokemon.

Nidoking hit the ground with a forlorn cry and it was only as it crumbled to the ground that Zangoose awoke.

“Zan?” it said in surprise before smirking at the downed pokemon. Then it grimaced and dropped to one knee. “Goooose,” it said sadly.

Kaede nodded and raised its pokeball. She returned it and Boss Doug growled as he returned his own before sending out his last bet for this match.

I sat back as a Breloom took to the field, while across from it, Scizor once more appeared.

We watched as Kaede closed out the match and the commentators and the crowd went crazy.

“And Kaede has turned up the heat here today! She’s announced herself with this showing, six nil to her! I think we’ve got a contender here, and it might just be going to be her year!” roared the commentator.

I glanced up as I felt the roof above us shift. While the television was blaring with the noise, I knew that even if I hadn’t been watching this match, it would have been apparent that something was going on with how the crowd was shaking the very foundations of the arena with their stomping and cheering.

I watched Kaede shake Boss Doug’s hand and then turn to wave at the crowd with a demure smile.

“She had that worked out to a T,” I said, impressed at her showing. It might have just been a good match-up, but she’d also had the audacity to see it through.

“So, you’re facing her next?” prompted Greta.

I nodded thoughtfully. “We’re going to have to do a lot of research on her, I think,” I said. “She’s shown she’s going to play for keeps and has the skill, power, and wits to make it happen.”

The others nodded and we watched Kaede complete a victory lap with the crowd cheering her name while her Scizor escorted her.

“T-trainer Brock,” said the organiser once more. “It’s time for you to head out.”

I nodded, rising, and this time everyone rose with me.

We marched out with the crowd roaring for the next match. I appeared at the same time as Corey did on the other side, we locked eyes, but then movement off to the side had us both glancing away.

Kaede stood in the middle of the walkway leading up to the stands. A coat around her form flapped slightly, with her having thrown it over her shoulders.

She spared us both a glance and nodded once before claiming her seat, openly showing that she was watching our match.

I chuckled and turned back to Corey.

Again we locked eyes, and this time a spark of understanding was coming our way.

We were both prepared to go through each other.

Kaede had announced herself as the next step beyond this match, and we were both determined to meet her there.

I stood on my podium and it rumbled into position. The referee ran through the usual spiel before raising his flags, “Trainers! Are you ready?” he bellowed.

“YES!” we both shouted, palming our pokeballs to the cheers of the crowd.

“Release and begin!” said the man.

I threw Knight’s ball forward and he appeared with a mighty roar.

Across from him, Corey’s starter, Bruteroot the Venusaur appeared.

I narrowed my eyes and prepared myself to dig in.

Looks like it was going to be an uphill slog.