Chapter 206: Reviews and interrupts

Chapter 206: Reviews and interrupts

I shifted and bobbed from foot to foot as I waited for the Nurse Joy of Commerce City to heal up my pokemon team. Thankfully, the place was empty at the moment, barring my group.

“Ahahaha! Let’s go! Damn, that was a fun match!” I said, as I bounced from foot to foot. Around me, my entourage snickered at my childish behaviour.

Missy shot me a smirk. “Good fights really get you fired up, eh?” she said, eying my bouncing form.

I shrugged. “Eh, it’s the truth? Being challenged like that? I’m pretty sure they call it a battle high, but damn it feels good to push yourself. I was sweating and working overtime with switching up tactics. If this is what the top ten trainers are like, I am going to have to work for every win!” I could already see it, the fights growing tougher and tougher with each of the top ten being seasoned veterans. It sounded like the perfect conditions to grow stronger.

Missy flicked her eyes over me once again. “That doesn’t seem to be a problem for you.”

I laughed. “Guess I’m a battle junkie? But then again, who isn’t?”

A.J. shrugged. “Eh, it makes more sense for you to react this way than other people.” When the others looked at him, he waved an arm at me. “Most of the time, you have to hold back.”

I waved a hand. “I wouldn’t call what I do holding back. I have to find ways to test people and challenge them, it's—” I rubbed some fingers over my jawline in thought. “—Not really the same thing, it’s still making me push myself, it's just that the stress is different.”

Yolanda giggled. “Wait until you see him after an Elite Challenge when he pulls a win. He’s bouncing off the walls.”

Rachel snickered at the thought. “You are almost as cute as Trixie sometimes,” said the small rainbow-haired girl.

I paused and considered Trixie. Instead of conjuring an image of her in cute poses or outfits, my mind shunted my thought process to that of her doing a salmon ladder. She was slamming the machine with her huge frame, and I could just imagine sweat glistening on her abs and a fierce grin as she worked herself further into rippled perfection.

Even in my imagination...

As a group, we shook our heads and I thought I heard Alexa say something about, “While we daydreamed, Trixie was training.” The others giggled and this disrupted Rachel, causing her to wipe at her mouth to get rid of some drool before coughing. “Anyway, the point is you showed off some serious skills and were able to lock yourself into the tournament next week. Now you can focus on running the gym and getting your pokemon up to par for it.”

I nodded, stretching out my arms. “Yup, gonna be a lot of review for this one, cause there were a ton of mistakes and moves that I think I’m going to have to expect going forward. Arthur has shown me that people are not sitting idly and letting me advance—” I got a number of blank faces at this, so I quickly tacked on a “—and getting results that force me onto the back foot,” I said.

This got a round of murmurs and nods. Before today, there had been a level of... well, power difference was perhaps the kindest way of describing it.

The trainers had the right pokemon and the right moves, but they were too slow in their orders and tactics, and their pokemon were likewise lacking in power or speed to knock back my pokemon.

I chewed my lip. “I also don’t think I’ll get as lucky again with people remaining ignorant of fairy typing and its effects.”

“What about it specifically?” asked Greta.

I rubbed my head. “A lot of people have associated it with being super effective against dragon types, but there’s more to it than that. It’s also strong against dark type pokemon, which shores up Selene’s weakness rather well. However, it’s also super effective against fighting type pokemon.”

Everyone stared at me while I said this and it took a moment for me to realise that Greta had her pokedex out and was in fact recording me.

I coughed. “Really?” I said, giving her a dubious look.Rêađ latest cha/p/ters on no/v/e/l(b)in(.)c/o/m

Greta held up her pokedex like a shield, peering through it, so she didn’t need to meet my eyes. “Uhm, it's just that a lot of the research that I’ve been able to read and what I’ve talked about with Professor Oak is its impact on dragon types, along with what moves and pokemons are and are not fairy types.”

Yolanda tilted her head. “Huh, Brock was always very aware of them, I remember him telling lots of stories about Dian—” I coughed harshly to cut her off.

I did not need Yolanda ‘helping out’ by telling tales about Diancie. It didn’t stop Greta from gaining a look and turning her attention to Yolanda who merely shrugged and whispered. “I’ll tell you about her later,” she said.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I can hear you,” I said, before deciding to ignore it. Instead, I exhaled in a long slow manner to get rid of the excess energy that I still had jittering through my body.

“Right, so that match fairly shook things up though,” I said as I checked my watch. “Hmmm, we have another thirty minutes before our transport Teleport is booked in, so if everyone’s alright with it, let’s do a quiet debrief while things are fresh.”

I gestured to a lounge off to the side while reaching into my pouch and drawing out one of the work laptops.

Alexa raised a hand. “You don’t need me for this and I got a later Teleport lined up, as I’ve got a date.”

Crystal wolf-whistled at Alexa. “I knew you were more dolled up than usual!”

Yolanda merely nodded. “Good luck on your date!”

I waved a hand, more than happy to let her clock off now. “Have fun and I will see you... Monday?” I said as I opened up the roster on the laptop to see that she had tomorrow off. I shot her an amused look and resisted the urge to ask her how late her Teleport was booked for.

I had a sneaking suspicion that if her date went well, she might just reschedule it for later. Alexa pointedly looked to the side, not meeting my knowing gaze as she waved and trotted off.

I heard Nurse Joy calling for me and I moved to collect my pokemon from her with the customary. “We hope to see you again!” given with a bow.

I turned back to find the younger girls nudging A.J., Crystal leading them. “Did you even notice that she had dressed up more than usual?”

A.J. opened his mouth and without having to hear what he was about to say I instinctively knew that he was going to put his foot in it. So I spoke over him. “A.J., when a lady asks you that, the safest and most correct answer is that they always look amazing. Never tell a girl they look tired or frumpy,” I said as I quickly typed up some notes.

Missy, Yolanda, Greta, and Crystal’s attentions all turned to me but I, like Alexa had earlier, avoided their gazes with a practised nonchalance. I finished what I was doing and clapped my hands. “Right! So, the match?” I said, nudging things along instead of letting them linger.

I spotted A.J. writing something in a small notepad, only to glance up and mouth a ‘thanks’ to me.

“Right, so one of the biggest and first things I noticed was that due to just the waiting area for this stadium, the meta is different,” I said, getting us underway and further dispelling the girls' critical gazes.

I ran through my observations from earlier, noting how everyone had been prepared for it. “The situation is that of ‘if you know, you know’. I can assure you that no emails or notifications were given to me regarding the shared space, but it could perhaps be implied depending on how many matches one has in the gym circuit,” I said.

“How would that make you aware of it?” asked Greta with a raised hand.

I held in a chuckle at her schoolroom antics and gestured to her like a teacher would. “A lot of matches can be quite spontaneous or seemingly spontaneous when you are in the gym circuit. You don’t hear about it, but there are a lot of trainers that are known as rookie crushers, or people that will ‘snipe battle’ you.” I raised a hand and glanced around for a whiteboard and was rather surprised when there was one.

Huh, the Commerce City Pokecenter had a few nifty features I thought to myself as I pointed to the whiteboard and moved our group over to it. I grabbed a marker and began jotting down my thoughts.

“So! The rookie crushers are just that, bullies that like to come at young or inexperienced trainers. They will look for certain tells with their opponents and are typically way more active during the start of the circuit, as that’s when you have the most young and inexperienced trainers moving about.” I drew a free-hand drawing of a large brutish man laughing at a pair of young trainers, a little boy and a girl who looked like they were barking at the crusher.

“Now, they do this as there is the possibility of earning a decent amount of prize winnings from young trainers if you can get three or four a day.” I made the pokedollar symbol and tripled it. “If they can get more than that? They’re doing very well for themselves.” I added another two pokedollar symbols to the board.

“Now these people are an example of this, as they can generally tell what young trainers will start with depending on the area they are in and what gym badges they have. Something that lots of young trainers are known for is flashing their badges, which can inadvertently signal themselves as weak and or inexperienced.”

“I’ve faced a few around Pewter on the patrols I go on,” said A.J. with crossed arms. “They like to run around with Machop and Growlithe for any rock, bug, or grass types.”

“Oh?” said Greta, turning her head along with the other girls apart from Missy who was nodding along. This caused the younger girls to blink and shoot me some looks.

I grinned. “It’s not something that I advertise, but I do have gym trainers that break up fights like this by challenging and running off rookie crushers in my area when out on patrol. This limits them to the lower earnings bracket most of the time, but... well, during the Trainer surge I know numbers were way higher, while also being something we couldn’t deal with as they were actually legitimate trainers.”

“You.. don’t get me to do that?” said Greta with a tilted head.

I grinned. “I hadn’t so far, but I think you’re overdue a ‘promotion’, so to speak,” I said, giving her a nod. “You’ve handled yourself well against some tough fights.”

I dropped the smile to allow myself to grow serious. “That said, you and A.J. are going to be facing some of the crushers that will adapt to you, and indeed to our gym trainers.”

I wrote out the second name I’d mentioned earlier. Snipe Trainers.

Rachel jogged over with a smile on her lips and nodded when I glanced her way. “They were playing it straight. They’re a news crew that heard you were here. Came to talk but they seemed very pleased to catch your lecture instead,” she said, offering up what looked like a local news anchor’s business card.

“Huh, neat,” I said, turning the card over and inspecting it.

Yolanda jogged up to me with a wide smile and I eyed her. “What’s up?”

“Nothing! You’re just smiling,” she said, pointing at herself and I realised I was and that she was merely mirroring me.

“Eh,” I shrugged, enjoying how loose my shoulders felt. “I feel pretty good about today. It was a good day,” I said with a grin. “Tomorrow is looking good, what’s not to like?”

“I think it’s because you had a pretty good match and you got to lecture,” she said as we jogged into the Teleporter hall where we were met with a receptionist. She quickly guided us to a trio of Hypno who nodded politely before we vanished in a flash of Teleport.

We appeared in front of the Pewter Gym and I thanked the Hypnos before they vanished in another Teleport. I played with what Yolanda had said as I bid the others goodbye for the afternoon.

I was feeling pretty good after the match with Arthur, more so than usual, and while getting the chance to educate a lot of trainers had been nice, I was already feeling good.

“I think,” I said slowly, sounding the words out and drawing Yolanda’s attention back to me as we walked towards the front entrance to our house. “That the fight was good, both in that we won, but also in that there was a... trainer difference, today.”

“What do you mean by that?” Yolanda said, pausing to turn and watch me with interest.

I waved a hand, slowing to stand in the entryway of the garden. I could see Nanny Grav watering our garden of Lileep and Cradily “Arthur has pokemon that are on par with mine.”

I rubbed my chin and considered what I’d seen. “Or at least close enough that it is debatable. I’d faced this before with a few matches and I’ve spoken about the top ten or even top twenty trainers being better, but it was really on display and that excites me, but mostly I think I’m happy...because the difference was me as a trainer. I could have played things better, especially at the beginning, but we countered and rose to the occasion. I had the answers, I’d done the research with my entourage, I was able to pick up on his plays and counter plays and just negate them. Today, I felt like I was syncing up with my team.”

Yolanda nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think you’re right, you had the options and plans going in, and while things didn’t start off as you might have liked, you did make the difference in a lot of notable ways.” She reached up, stretching onto her tiptoes to pat my head. “Good job,” she said with a grin and I huffed at her.

“You’re messing up my hair!” I fake whined at her, earning myself a giggle and a swat.

“Well it’ll help keep boys away from you!” she said in a fake gruff-sounding voice.

“I never said that,” I said with a raised eyebrow, knowing that it was one of the points of advice that I’d read in the parenting books that I’d implemented.

Yolanda adopted a stern expression. “I never said that,” she mimed back at me and I snorted, recalling fake meme images of Morgan Freeman quoting him as saying just that. With his iconic voice you could turn heads. I tried adopting it and rumbled. “I didn’t say that,” I said with as much smooth velvetiness as I could.

Yolanda squinted at me and tried to make her voice gruffer, even going so far as to hunch in on herself. “I didn’t say that,” she almost grunted out.

I chuckled and dragged her into a hug before making my way towards the house to enjoy some family time. I released my pokemon in the garden.

They all appeared with a snort and shake of their heads. Sanchez perked up and glanced around, when he locked eyes with me I nodded. This got him to relax and a grin to break over his face.

“Go? Go lem?” he cried when he spied Nanny Grav in her apron. He snatched up a bunch of Lileep and held them out to her like he was wooing her, earning himself some giggles. Nanny Grav pretended to sniff them only to fall on her back and faint.

Sanchez sniffed the Lileep and copied her a moment later, only for both of them to shoot to their feet and laugh.

I chuckled and turned my attention to Titan, whose gaze I’d been able to feel as soon as he’d come out. I paid a little more attention to our bond and found it had changed from the fight.

I sent Titan an impression of growth and he replied in kind before looking in another direction. I felt the bond shift as he fed me his point of view.

My mind swam with the extra senses available to me. To Titan the world was sharper, with smells and some colours that stood out to him while others were muted.

I sat down and shook my head. Then I looked in the other direction and sent my own view of the garden.

Titan crooned in surprise, and I felt his body stiffen up through the bond.

Huh, so we could share the other’s senses if we wanted to? Interesting. I sent Titan a more complex idea, how he could move and shift. I’d done something vaguely the same with a bit of training against Pryce, but that had been nothing compared to this.

Now I felt like we were practically of one mind.

This... had some serious implications. Would I even need to give Titan verbal orders any more?

Wait, there had been something like this in the anime, hadn't there?

Between Ash and his Greninja.

Shock ran through me and Titan stiffened, turning to check on me, only to get a feel of the excitement coursing through me. This was going to be so much more than just sharing senses and having a tactical improvement.

This... this was a Bond Phenomenon.

The implications were huge and I shared a huge grin with Titan.

Damn if finding him a mega stone hadn’t just grown even more important for us.

I toyed with the Bond for a little while longer, enjoying the closeness it brought to my closest friend.

“Hey bro! Come play Hide and Seek with us! Titan and you can pair up!” shouted Salvadore.

Titan and I shared a smirk.

Titan and I used the bond to hunt for my family and the other pokemon. With our combined senses and awareness it became all too easy to track everyone down.

Titan and I took a moment to relax after the game, enjoying the knowledge that we had grown closer.

We watched another round of games between my siblings and pokemon. The noise drew in the younger pokemon to my Elite team with Zubat leading the charge into my face. When she slammed a hug into my face I was amused to find Titan reeling back as I forgot to stop feeding him my point of view.

I dimmed the bond a little and allowed myself to return to normal. Titan nodded at me and then nodded his head to Bertha, causing me to sigh in relief. If he was going to get intimate I didn’t want to feel that.

Not that they were going to do anything in front of the kids. Dinner that evening was a shared event, with us setting up in the garden. Bertha happily took the head of the table with Cindy sitting next to her.

When Sabrina came around, she congratulated me on my win with a kiss and levitating me a burger and drink while sitting next to me. I chuckled, amused at how she’d gotten me some food without having to lift a finger. Having a psychic girlfriend certainly had some perks.

Later that night we relaxed with a movie and I went to bed with Sabrina.

Plans for tomorrow swirled about in my mind, only to be rudely ripped from my slumbering mind as an alarm went off, causing Sabrina and I to stir at what must have been midnight.

I dragged open my bedside drawers to find the Guardians’ holopad raising a racket. I tapped it and Koga’s visage appeared on the scene.

“Brock, we have a situation. Team Aqua just made landfall on New Island, we need to get there now!” he said and I felt my stomach drop out.

A military group landing on an island with a possible volatile pokemon like Mewtwo?

This... was the very definition of not good.