Chapter 219: Walking tall

Chapter 219: Walking tall

There were few things in life that could dry out my happiness faster than the mention of Lola.

The only other triggers to douse the fires of happiness in my chest that I knew of were when people hurt my family. Something Lance had learned, and then William had also learned.

My... well, her, was another person that sadly could be included on the list of hurting the family.

It always made it worse that she was the woman that was supposed to be their mother.

I wasn’t sure what most of the younger kids thought when people asked about their mother or when they saw other kids with normal families.

Not that the pokemon world had what I would consider a healthy take on those, due to the wanderlust that permeated so much of our society.

Oddly enough, people were great at making families, but I could probably walk down a street and find at least two or three single-parent households. It didn’t surprise me that it was predominantly men running off on women, but that didn’t mean the opposite didn’t occur.

Hearing Flint, with that damned longing tone in his voice, like he was a growlithe calling out for his mother.

I made something twinge inside me. “Are you going to run after her?” I bit out.

Flint twitched and for a moment his lips twitched downwards before he sighed and slumped as all the fight left him. “I... thought about it,” he admitted quietly. “But, I know I can’t. And that I shouldn’t. Lola... she needs to come back on her own. My chasing her is doing nothing but creating gulfs with you and the children.”

I felt my darkness wriggle with glee at seeing Flint so weak while also snarling that he wasn’t putting up more of a fight. I’d wanted to savage him for even yearning for Lola still.

I sighed and let the darkness go, pushing it away. “Where did... what do you know,” I said slowly.

“I got an email from the League that some old protocols had been flagged with Lola’s identity being queried from Hoenn. Apparently, Lola wandered into a rather isolated pokemon centre thinking she was in a new region entirely, only for her babbling to worry the Nurse Joy on call that evening. She ended up triggering a distress call and having Lola sedated.”

I had to fight to stop the smile that threatened to break out at the idea of Lola being sedated. It struck me as oddly amusing.

In a dark manner it also seemed fair that a woman that held her freedom so highly would end up tied down in a hospital bed.

Damn, but that was sinister. I took a moment to weigh up if that said more about me, or the hurt that Lola had caused.

I liked to think the scales weighed more heavily on Lola’s part.

“So she’s recovering in some pokecenter in Hoenn?” I asked.

Damn, if that was the case then something would have to be done.

“No she broke out, stole supplies and fled,” Flint said casually.

I blinked. “She broke out? Despite being sedated?”

Flint coughed. “Your mot—” I held up a hand to signal I did not want her referenced like that to me. Flint swallowed and nodded tightly. “Lola,” he said, stressing the name instead of her title. “Is a highly trained operative that was known to occasionally do things like this in the past. There’s a reason it took a few days for her whereabouts to be passed through to me, despite me being her emergency contact. The League had to work out who she was from a lot of redacted files before calling me. Heck, they didn’t even know my name, they could only reference her as ‘Operative five’ and me as her handler!”

I paused. The naming method implied that there were four other individuals that were like Lola at least.

Four mess-up individuals that were like her. I shuddered thinking about that. One Lola was bad enough. I pitied whoever was related to the other four. If indeed there were only four.

Hmmm, that was something I wouldn’t have access to unless... Well, the guardians might have more information on it. They hadn’t mentioned it during my read of Lola’s file, but perhaps it was compartmentalised in other files.

What would I get if I looked into Kanto ‘operatives’ I wondered.

Thoughts for later. “So, Lola is somewhere in Hoenn... or around Hoenn looking for what?”

Flint sighed. “She seems to think that she is looking for another region. She has the pokemon for this due to her powerful water speciality. Few pokemon would be able to really challenge her. Her Lapras alone is probably as stronger as yours!” he said with a pleased smile.

I sniffed. I doubted that quite a lot, but for the sake of moving this along I decided to not mention that. “So another region? Why? What’s that about?”

Flint coughed. “I... don’t actually know which is more than a little worrying. I have put out some feelers on the coastline she was last spotted along. If she comes in again, people will know to keep me updated.”

“And then what?” I said, probing for his intent.

Flint looked away. “I’ve left messages with our photos asking for her to come home, nothing more. I’m sticking by my words and I’m here to stay Brock,” he said firmly.

I raised an eyebrow at that and met his gaze. He didn’t flinch or quaver which was a damn good sign.

I felt something relax within me. “That’s... good.” I searched around for something else to say and had to settle for. “Suzie and the others would be devastated if you left,” I said.

Flint nodded solemnly. “I know, and I’m not doing that to them. I’m their father and I’m going to be here for them, but... well I thought you should know about... Lola,” he said.

I nodded. “Yeah, yeah thanks for keeping me in the loop,” I said. “I have to go, good luck with your work today,” I said thinking he might be doing something with Megarock Inc.

Flint smiled. “Thanks! I’m going in for a music recital that Yolanda is doing! She’s getting very good with her guitar!” he said.

With the metaphorical ground no longer shifting under me at this line of conversation I felt myself relax fully as we talked about family. Or more specifically the younger members of our family. They were safe, easy topics.

Flint happily filled me in on Yolanda and how she’d continued to busk sometimes with Crystal and Greta while they spent time in the battlecourts out the front. Crystal surprisingly enough, had a really good voice that went well with Yolanda’s performances.

I made a mental note to check in on that. I hadn’t heard it from the other Gym trainers but then again the girls could be sneaking about things like this sometimes. Flint knew though...

“Oh! And Billy and Tilly made some rather nice drawings the other day! I have them up in my room! Timmy and Suzie have been making macaroni artworks themselves. Oh! Oh! Did you know Salvadore’s grades are so good, the school is considering him for an award on pokemon studies? He’s apparently top of the class and the teachers think it could come down to him or another young boy with young Lyla, who’s Mrs Shaft’s granddaughter, getting top of the class this year with how she’s been going!

I blinked at this deluge of information. “Huh, really,” I said, impressed with Salvadore’s progress from last year where he hadn’t been scoring so well. It seemed getting his interest and enjoyment up was paying a lot of dividends. I’d need to find a way to reward this. The question became, how?

Flint spent a few minutes filling me in on other small milestones that were occurring within the family, such as Tommy becoming popular in his class or Cindy coming second in a running race.

It felt... nice being able to have a normal conversation like this.

Then again it was still a conversation that was probably more reminiscent of two estranged men acting as parents than what should occur between a father and a son, but I had to say that I rather liked it. Flint seemed to enjoy it.

In the end, I had to hang up as I was due to start ‘grading’ some of the Pewter Academy students back at the Gym.

I returned to the Gym to find Alexa conversing with one of the chaperones that had come with the afternoon’s worth of students.

For Pewter Tech, this meant a whole six of them.

Alexa looked a little worried so I wandered over to see what the issue was.

“Hey there Alexa, what’s up?” I said.

Alexa gave me a vain smile and swallowed. “Uhmmm, I might have messed up Brock,” she said, her eyes dipping to the side furtively.

“Ho? You realised your prank against the Headmaster might be a bit much for the kids?” I said.

Alexa coughed. “I knew you weren’t going to make it about them! It was just to create pressure on the headmaster!” she said not liking that I was calling out perhaps the biggest downside of her gambit.

I hummed. “I see.” I glanced towards the teacher. “So, is there something wrong? I’m Brock by the way,” I said, extending my hand to shake.

The woman shook it with a sort of dazed expression. “Uhmmm, I know that? You’re the Gym Leader,” she said before muttering to herself. “Who doesn’t know that these days,” she said in what probably wasn’t meant to be such a loud whisper.

I coughed into my fist. “Sorry, it’s just something I try to keep up doing. I’m not great at it but yeah, stay grounded and such,” I said while chuckling. “Nothing brings you crashing back down as expecting people to know who you are, only to get this blank look and ‘who are you’ comment,” I said.

The woman giggled. “Well, in that case, I am Mrs Harriet Hooper. I teach at Pewter Tech and well the issue was that we didn’t restrict who could apply for the Gym badges... I’m afraid that one of our... non-battling students decided to put their name down and it wasn’t caught until just now,” she said contritely.

I shrugged. “So a kid that doesn’t typically fight wants to have a trial match. I don’t see the issue.” I narrowed my eyes, “Unless this is a tracking and ‘prestige’ issue for the school,” I said.

I could recall a lot of ‘standardised tests in my past life, whereas children we’d cruelly joked that the less school-inclined students should call in sick, or not take part. The school had rightly not done anything of the sort and in fact supported those who had tried.

If the school was blocking a student I was going to have to investigate.

Thankfully Mrs Hooper shook her head. “No, Saul is a good student, rather precocious, but... he has health issues,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow. “I’m not following,” I said. My mind instantly tracked to Wally, who was a rival who had similar health issues that were never disclosed in the games. I had always assumed that it was merely tuberculosis, or perhaps polio.

Then again his health had drastically improved from spending time journeying around.

“Saul is extremely weak from a disease that he contracted as a child. We think there was something involving a Muk exposure but we were never sure. His mother was distraught and has given him the best treatments available up and including some... rather experimental procedures. If he becomes too excited he will fade quickly. The fear is that with white outs he could be pushed too far,” Mrs Hooper said.

“Ah, I can see the issue,” I said. “I suppose there’s something of a risk and reward issue at foot.”

Mrs Hooper blinked slowly. “Ah?” she said but I was already tossing around thoughts.

“There would be greater strain on his energy at the lower levels with the body, or in this case his energy reserves not being used to helping with a pokemon, but if he could improve this gradually to the level of a normal trainer where a complete team wipe not resulting in whiting out, he could probably be a lot better off,” I surmised.

Was that what had happened with Wally? Perhaps it was. Most trainers that advanced to the fourth badge were in good health, even those that didn’t outwardly appear so due to excessive visceral body fat.

Under that layer of fat however was typically an exceptionally strong body that could run and lift heavier than most people.

Memories of my past life stirred letting me know what I was about to see moments before Saul stepped, or rather crutched his way forward.

Saul walked forward, slightly bent and crooked but still upright for a kid. His dark hair was swept back with sweat glistening on his head as he struggled to march forward.

I stood and watched him put foot and crutch forward, his legs holding for a moment before they had to brace where they invariably popped a little to the side only for the other crutch to come down. If you looked past the crutches and the unhealthy gait, Saul also had a sickly colouration with being too pale and thin.

He must have some spunk in him to ask for Rachel to announce him how he did though. Also, there was nothing but desire in his gaze as he lurched towards the podium. I subtly triggered a medical call to make Chansey poke her head out in case he didn’t make it.

Chansey poked her head out, saw the kid and started moving towards him only for me to raise a hand to ward her off. She shot me a confused look but took a moment to look around. When she got a good enough grasp on the situation she moved up into the stands where she opened up a magazine and pretended to read through it.

A few people shot her looks only to glance in my direction and nod.

Saul only took two minutes or so to reach the podium and when he got there he clutched the railing and braced himself. He exhaled in relief and took a deep breath before straightening up. “Whew! Make a guy work for it, why don’t you?” he called out.

I considered how I wanted to play this. I could joke around with him or I could play it straight.

I decided to be the straight man, making sure he got the same, albeit with a few more safety nets in place. “That’s rather the point, you wish to challenge my Gym for the Boulder badge?”

“No, I got lost on the way to the hospital and ended up here! Where’s my Nurse Joy?” he snarked back sarcastically with a grin to show he didn’t mean it.

I felt my lips twitch in amusement. The kid had an attitude that I could enjoy.

“Hmmmm don’t get too confident,” I said sternly as I crossed my arms. “Things are rocky around here.”

“Good! Let’s shake, rattle and roll!” he said, making his legs twitch as he said this. “I’m rather good at that!” he called as he pulled out a pokeball and held it up towards me in challenge.

I nodded, locking eyes and liking what I was seeing. I toggled the podiums to move into the proper position, signalling to all that this battle was happening.

Saul glanced to the side as the podiums moved, a smile forming on his face. When he stood across from me properly I raised my own pokeball. “Saul? You have challenged my Gym, this match is at a third-badge level, are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be!” he said giddily.

I nodded and sent out my best choice. “Go Izumi!” I called.

Saul tossed his own pokeball. “Go! Chimecho!” he shouted, sending out a small pokemon. A few people in the crowd murmured at the choice but with what I knew of the pokemon and Saul’s condition, it actually made a lot of sense.

Heal Bell would suit a health-impaired person extremely well. Healing Pulse for group battles. Not to mention Healing Wish, which if he could learn to copy Link would be a very powerful move... Hmmm, food for thought.

“Chimecho! Use Confusion!” Saul shouted. Chimecho raised up some debris from earlier battles and launched it at Izumi.

“Izumi, Defence Curl,” I said, making her tuck up for the incoming attack. She absorbed the hits before I flicked my fingers to the side. “Roll Out dust storm,” I said. I kept my eyes on Saul in case the dust triggered a coughing fit or any breathing issues.

Saul straightened his own gaze tracking after Izumi. “Urgh, can’t see her so I can’t hit her... But she can’t hit Chimecho with dig either,” he muttered.

With him hesitating Chimecho floundered and I snapped my fingers causing Izumi to shoot two rocks into the smaller pokemon causing it to cry out in pain and flounder lower so that its tail was dragging on the ground. “Uhm... Baton Pass!” Saul called straight away.

Chimecho vanished in a burst of light and in its place a Magnemite appeared. I whistled, very interested in this choice. Most people never dared bringing out an electric type against me, but Magenemite had two points of difference.

It was electric-steel, and it also levitated naturally, making it impossible for moves like Earthquake and Dig to properly hit without some tricks employed.

“Swift!” Saul said.

Stars formed around his pokemon and were launched into Izumi who made a point to cry out and stop rolling around and causing as much dust to fly up. Izumi shot me a look and I subtly shook my head. She rolled back up and punched her fists to show she was still able to fight.

“Dude!” she cried out.

Saul leaned forward, his eyes bright as he gave his next command. “Electro Ball!” he commanded.

His pokemon formed up an electrical ball and blasted it straight at Izumi. I didn’t even have her react, instead choosing to stand and ignore it. As the electrical discharge sparked off her she made a show of stretching and yawning.

“I have to say, I was impressed up until you used that move,” I said, pretending like I hadn’t noticed how his Magnemite had moved a little closer. While everyone had been tracking the Electro Ball.

Saul paused to wipe the sweat from his eyes. “Huh? Oh, really? I didn’t see too much impressive on display yet!” he said.

I waggled a hand. “It shows in your prep work. It’s subtle but you’ve chosen two good pokemon so far for this exchange. I’m curious to see what else you’ve prepared,” I said as I decided I’d spent enough time talking. “Izumi! Nail them with Rock Throw!”

Izumi did just that, knocking Magemenite back a little. Saul growled. “Electro Ball again! Trust the plan!” Saul called and once again a move that had no purpose but as a distraction shot forward.

Once again Magemeite raced forward while everyone else watched the ball, when they looked up they were surprised to see Magnemite almost hovering atop Izumi.

“Supersonic!” called Saul and from close range his pokemon’s attack couldn’t be dodged.

I nodded in approval but still gave my order. “Mud Slap!”

Izumi’s fist shot up and slammed into Magnemite causing it to crash to the ground with a wail of pain. Saul returned it quickly and pulled out another pokeball.

“It’s up to you Pineco!” called Saul.

I held back a grimace. So far, Saul had shown me that despite it appearing like he was making a mistake he was still making a move forward or advancing his plan in some manner. Pineco might be bad as a Bug type, but it had some potential. It all came down to if it knew a certain move.

“Rock Throw,” I said firmly.

Izumi drew her fist back and Saul called his own order. “Gyro Ball!” he called.

Izumi threw her Rock Throw into the ground, well away from where Pineco was, showing that Saul’s earlier plan to use Magnemite was well thought out. Pineco slammed into Izumi and sent her flying.

This time when she looked up she did so very groggily showing that it had been a damn good hit. I winked and she slumped and just like that a flag shot up.

“Izumi is unable to battle!” announced Yolanda.

Saul straightened up and I could see the hope shining in his eyes. I tilted my head and considered the sequence of events. “You were building up a lot into this moment, weren’t you?” I asked.

He nodded his head. “Yeah, I was,” he said, wiping a hand across his forehead.

I nodded. “Let’s see if you can do it again,” I said, sending out my next pokemon in the form of an Aron.

Saul slumped and I nodded. He’d done his research and with the pokemon he had available, he wasn’t going to win. He’d been hoping for something like Onix no doubt.

He still put up a fight but it was easy to dismantle his Pineco with one move hitting it. With Pineco out he stood drawing in breaths. He considered his two pokeballs before shaking his head. “I... forfeit,” he said.

I nodded and lowered the podiums so I could approach him. “You fought well, but sadly your endurance wasn’t up to the task,” I said.

Saul gave me a weak smile. “Story of my life.”

I nodded. “You came in with a very good plan that would work out better with a few tweaks. Your Pineco must be close to evolving, that is if it learnt Gyro Ball naturally,” I said.

Saul blinked. “Yeah, it learned it naturally. And do you really mean that?” he asked, staring up at my taller frame. “You can tell that just from knowing it knows that move?”

I nodded. “Yup, I’m guessing it’s close, it just needs a little more time and you’ll have a very strong pokemon, especially with that Gyro Ball move,” I said.

“Huh, neat,” he said only to blink when I offered him the badge. “I think you’ve demonstrated enough—”

“I don’t want your pity,” he said bitingly.

“It’s not,” I replied firmly, meeting his gaze. “You must get a lot of that with your condition, but this isn’t that. You demonstrated you knew enough and were able to put in practice, that knowledge enough for me to justify it.”

Saul shifted and looked guilty. “Is it wrong to take it? I won’t end up in remedial class like the other kids but...”

I shrugged. “It’s up to you,” I said.

“I think... I want this to prove to others that I’m not wrong,” he said.

“I put the badge in his hand. “Well, you are not wrong to want challenges like this. Saul, I’m glad you came today.”

I then put a hand to his shoulder. “I think you’re doing great, keep it up and I know you’ll get there. If you want you can come around here next week and spend some time with the other trainers,” I offered. “I think that Pineco at least is close so a bit of time would do you wonders,” I said.

He smiled. “I think I’d like that.” He then looked back over his shoulder. “Can you uhmmm raise the podium? I don’t think I can manage the stairs.”

I chuckled and did just that. He walked back to Mrs Hooper and the others with a lot more pep in his step than the other kids had when they returned to Mrs Hooper. His new badge was proudly on display which caused the others to congratulate him on his showing.

It had been a strong, clever showing and something that I had no doubt would have him walking tall for days to come.

I finished the day feeling very good only to get a surprise when Sabrina teleported behind me.

“We need to talk,” she said.

Damn, those were words a boyfriend never wanted to hear.