Hard Enough

Chrysanthemum City had gone all out for the Golden Week Tournament.

Throngs of people and pokemon mobbed the streets. The streets themselves were awash with colours and petals that fell to the ground, creating a carpet. The iconic flowers that the city was named after were also proudly on display in gardens, imprinted into walls, footpaths, and even a few select stained glass windows.

People peered out from windows, balconies and rooftops, while others lined the main street.

Banners and flags of pokemon were waved or carried aloft by various pokemon and people.

I peered out from a flap of a tent that housed all of the sixteen top ranked Ace Trainers.

I continued to stare outside, wondering if my family were going to get a spot on the street or on a rooftop for a better view.

“You know you’re not scheduled to go out for a while yet?” asked a familiar voice.

I turned from looking outside to smile at the Ace Trainer who stood before me. “Hi Tori,” I said, recalling the young girl that I’d fought in the Plains and Meadows. “I did think you had a lot of potential,” I said, feeling oddly pleased to see her here.

She’d obviously been working hard to rise up the rankings.

Tori grinned at me and shot me a V for victory sign. “I might have used your advice and pushed myself and my pokemon!” she said. “We threw ourselves into a lot of fights and earned a lot of Ace points!”

I tilted my head, recalling that exchange slightly differently. “Didn’t I say something about being too obvious with your grass team?” I said.

Tori coughed, her eyes darting away. “You… might have said that, yes,” she said.

I chuckled and rubbed the back of my head. “Well you sound like you made it work for you,” I said, shifting the conversation back to complimenting her. I glanced around, catching sight of a few others that I could recall having fought in the past.

Most of them I even had positive interactions with.

Walker was here, no longer wearing his mask and openly proclaiming himself instead of being ‘Masked Owl’. He nodded in greeting to me but stayed where he was, talking with another familiar face in the form of Scarlet.

Scarlet, the Celadon Tournament’s finalist, fought well before I kicked things up a notch and overpowered her. I noted that she had the specialised pokeball privacy carrier, as did Walker. Huh, I hadn’t spotted that last time.

“There’s actually a lot of familiar faces here,” I said.

Tori nodded. “Yeah, I was surprised Mirea held her spot after her loss to Scarlet. It was that match that got Scarlet her spot in the top sixteen and boosted her so high! Lucky girl!” said Tori with a shake of her head.

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

Tori shot me a look. “Did you know that by close of matches last week, the difference between twelfth and twentieth on the Ace Leaderboards was only seven points?” she said. ŗᴀΝȱ𝐁Εs

She pointed at herself. “I’m tied in fourteenth spot and I’m lucky at that! Corvo made a late run as well and fell short by one point to Boss Doug!”

“Who are you tied with?” I asked, interested in hearing the familiar names.

“Leo,” replied Tori. “He’s a trainer out of the Orange Islands that came over a few years ago. He’s quite popular with certain types,” she said, waving a hand towards a dark skinned man with bleach blond hair in a white suit. He was standing in front of a full length mirror, checking himself out.

“He’s a model?” I asked, watching him primp and preen.

“Nah, he’s just a narcissist,” she said. She then shot me a smug look. “He’d been higher up the Leaderboard but I got to him before the points closed out and beat him to tie things up.”

I hummed and looked over to where some men and women in vests were conferring with each other. They all had headsets on and were babbling away so much it was amazing they could make out what they were each saying. They seemed to be pointing at a large map rather animatedly.

“What‘s the hold up?” I asked.

Tori shrugged. “No idea,” she said.

I decided to saunter over and see. My height allowed me to loom and watch as words like “Sonic boom”, “It’s the spectacle of the thing!” “Let her do it!” “It’s a mythic pokemon!” flowed around the group.

I hummed, causing the group to stiffen. “Ah! Trainer Brock! This is classified,” they said, closing ranks around their map like it was a state secret. I raised a singularly unimpressed eyebrow at them.

“You have a pokemon trainer that has an extremely rare pokemon that is going to do a fly over,” I said, guessing at it. They gaped at me. “I thought Sabrina was the smart one?” whispered one of them.

I shot him an unimpressed look. “Ow,” I said, letting him know I had heard him. “And for your knowledge, I was the one in charge of our budget and map when Sabrina and I went on our Journey,” I said smugly.

That being said, if we went anywhere these days, I had little doubt she’d be the one in charge of both, with the amount of study she’d done during our Journey. I’d mostly gotten the job through using my greater social skills to manoeuvre conversations with her while she hadn’t been as aware of what I’d been doing.

Was it scummy? Yes.

But there had been a number of very specific landmarks and sites that I had needed to go to to get the most out of my Journey.

Sunburst island, Grandpa Canyon, the Hoenn Desert, and of course, Mt. Chimney sprang to mind as sites I’d had an agenda going to, for a variety of reasons.

I gave the group a look over and decided to not poke them. I had a few suspicions about the pokemon and the trainer that might have offered their services.

If I had to guess, I suspected that Nurse Joy had offered up her Latias for today’s event.

The question would be if Nurse Joy got to remain anonymous, otherwise we were going to have a lot of people suddenly loitering around Pewter.

I doubted that, though.

Joy was much too aware of what that sort of attention would bring. “Just have them demonstrate their speed with a shot up the street, then turning and posing before rocketing back and away,” I said.

The group all shared looks with each other before they began to mutter among themselves. I rolled my eyes and left them to it.

“Hopefully that’ll speed them up,” said a small kid from where he was lounging against the tent’s support beam.

“Hopefully, “ I said, nodding to Carr.

Carr turned his attention to me, only to scowl as he was forced to look up. Heh, he really was short, wasn’t he? Some of my amusement must have shown, that or he was just a prickly sort.

“You laughing at me?” he asked with a growl that reeked of false machismo.

“Nah, just them acting like Farfetch’d with no heads,” I said.

Carr sniffed, eying me. His eyes paused on my pokebelt. “You still haven’t gotten yourself a privacy belt?” he said. “Thought you would have learned your lesson,” he said.

I shrugged, not at all bothered by his words. In truth, I’d gotten a false set of cases to put over the top of my pokeballs that made them all look like pokeballs. If people were going to read into that, more fool them.

Carr narrowed his eyes at my nonchalant reaction. “Hmmm, maybe you’re not so dumb, just hope you don’t draw my side of the bracket,” he said.

I frowned. “Your side?” I asked.

He scoffed. “Don’t you know how this is going to work?”

I tilted my head. “It’s not like last year’s tournament, as that only featured the top ten trainers with the later match ups for the top two seeded trainers,” I said.

I then made a show of looking around at all sixteen trainers that had been announced. “I could have eased things up if I’d known that I only needed to reach the top sixteen,” I said.

“You’re a rookie at this, despite being part of the Ace rankings for a few years now,” he said with a shake of his head.

“It’s not just about scoring points as fast as you can. It’s about knowing the right people. Organisers and event planners, they talk. They’ve had this whole production in the works since the start of the year. Pretty much anyone in the top ten at the start of the year knew they only needed to be top sixteen to make the tournament,” he said.

I nodded along slowly. That tracked, what with the limited fights that had broken out among the top ranked trainers. There’d only been a bit of reshuffling at the end of the day, but the shift that stood out the most was Carr’s ascendance. “You seem to have done well enough for yourself,” I said.

Carr snorted. “I plan to do more,” he said as he kicked off the pole. “Smell ya later,” he said as he sauntered off to talk with Bruce.

I watched for a second before looking for any other familiar faces.

Karen I noticed, was sitting in the corner nursing her arms, which looked extremely scratched up and raw. Her hair also looked wild and unkempt. I considered staying away for a moment before shrugging it off and approaching. “So, you look like you’ve been through a few rounds with a pack of Houndoom. What gives?” I said, gesturing at her arms.

Karen smirked. “Please, nothing that plebeian. I’ve been going a few rounds with packs of Houndoom,” she said.

I paused at that, wondering if she was messing with me or serious. Her smirk grew, letting me know she knew how uncertain I was right now. She stood and marched past me. “Keep it close to your chest, I got a few cards of my own for this tournament,” she said smugly, marching past me as the organisers finally got things started.

“Boss Doug! You’re to walk forward with three of your pokemon in the next two minutes! Proceed down the main thoroughfare while waving and smiling!” a woman with a headset demanded of Boss Doug.

I watched the rather roughed up looking man scratch at his head before shrugging and releasing a Muk, a Weezing, and a Magmar.

I and many others in the tent took several steps back as we realised how volatile that trio was.

The organiser that had been rather brusque with Boss Doug looked like they suddenly regretted turning up for work, as they had to escort the man to the edge of the tent. There they had to stand, waiting for the go ahead as other organisers moved up on various trainers.

“Tori and Leo! You’re both together as you’re equal fourteenth!” announced another man as he read off a clipboard.

A line slowly formed.

Scarlet came next, followed by Walker. Then it was Fergus, and Neesha.

I was rather surprised when Karen was approached before me. She shot me a scowl, but I ignored her with practised ease.

She must have vanished right after the Mewtwo incident. That would have only given her a week in the wilds. Was that enough to look for a Megastone?

She seemed to imply that she had one, but I had no leads on any sites where Houndoom frequented, apart from perhaps Sinnoh, but we had no access to that region as yet. Barring that… there was the Johto Safari Zone… which… was that even a thing right now?

As I waited, I brought up the maps of Johto and realised that the area of that particular Safari Zone was marked as ‘wild’ territory of a similar danger level as that of the Silver Ranges.

Now that was interesting.

I hadn’t really considered the island far to the west of Johto, as I’d largely ignored it in favour of other areas of greater interest to me specifically. And since taking over as Gym Leader I hadn’t really gone on any adventures to look for rare pokemon.

I scrolled through a number of articles on my transceiver about various trainers coming back heavily injured, along with some brief statements from Rangers that took care of the area.

For all intents and purposes, it was a wild land and a long, long way away from becoming anything like a Safari Zone as it had been in the games.

People that did come out of there had supposedly come back with rather rare or powerful pokemon.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Of note, Bruce featured as one of those trainers, only he ended up in hospital afterwards due to multiple fractures throughout his body. That article I had a good read through.

It listed Bruce as having gone beyond Route Forty Eight and into the wilds for a month during the circuit’s break earlier this year.

I rubbed my chin in thought and brought up the notes I had.

That matched with when he acquired a Bagon for himself, a pokemon known for throwing its head into things.

Hmmm, while interesting to learn a bit more about Bruce, I was more interested in what else could be found there.

If Karen had discovered a Megastone, there might potentially be others to locate.

I’d need to look into the site and see what plans the League had for the area. They were potentially looking to expand Johto to the west.

It was worth investigating, considering that just the Megastone potential alone made it important and there was theoretically a chance that pokemon that otherwise belonged to other regions might be there.

“—Brock! You’re next, please release the three pokemon you wish to escort you,” said an attendant.

I blinked and looked up to realise that Karen and the others had departed already with how focused I’d been on my map. I swept my hand over my pokebelt and released Knight, Shrek, and Selene.

All three of them blinked and glanced around while the organiser coughed. “You’re not going to take your starter or your Steelix that is famous for being capable of Mega Evolving?”

I gave them a look before ignoring them to look at my pokemon. “You’re escorting me,” I said, locking them in. They all puffed up, looking proud at this decision, and I decided it was the right one. All my pokemon deserved time in the sun, not just the more gregarious and extroverted.

“Selene up high, Knight and Shrek, you’ll be at my sides,” I said.

The organiser didn’t say anything else beyond opening the tent to let me and my pokemon proceed down the main thoroughfare.

As soon as we exited the tent, the roar of the crowd rose up to greet us.

People waved and cheeredת with more than a few pointing out my pokemon. The streets had petals galore draped across them as the trees shed their flowers. On light poles that bent over the sidewalk banners with all the Ace competitors stared out.

I could see my own banner flapping in the breeze, and had no doubt that should I investigate Chrysanthemum City, I’d find more and more of them spread around.

I had to tip my metaphorical hat to the organisers.

It served as a great way to hype up the tournament and draw people in.

The only downside was that any trainer taking part in the tournament would not have an easy time at anonymity.

“—used that Lunatone to defeat—” I heard one man shout to another just as kids shrieked in surprise as Knight began to bounce his way forward like an excitable puppy.

The ground shook and I laughed.

Instead of telling him to stop I hopped along with him with my hands pumping up and down, like I was trying to ‘raise the roof’. Shrek happily joined in, hopping next to me with a huge grin.

Selene bounced along in the air, not causing any turmoil with her actions, but looking rather cute.

People soon began to brace and bob up and down with our hops as we moved along, causing a pseudo Mexican Wave that evolved into a proper one after a few moments.

Karen, her Houndoom, Honchkrow and Gengar that were in front of us, paused to see the disturbance we were making of ourselves, only to make a show of throwing her hair back and scoffing.

If anything she slowed down and challenged us to try and run her over.

I considered it for a second before deciding it was better to calm things down. “Alright Knight, we had our fun,” I said, pausing our advance to spend some more time waving to the crowd.

A few people pointed at Shrek. “—didn’t know he had a Swampert, when has he used it?”

I caught a bit more of that conversation and was pleased when the other person laughed. “Did you not watch the match against William? Brock’s Swampert was clutch in that match! Held off against like two or three of William’s pokemon alone!”

I shot Shrek a proud smile and put my hand on his and Knight’s sides when they got close enough. I felt like we were pretending to be the three amigos, with Selene dancing above us like a happy moon.

It felt nice to kind of just kick back.

“Brock!” “Brock!” “Big Brother!” “Over here!” called a chorus of voices that I could just make out from the crowd.

I looked over and found my family with all the other families that had come with us standing as a wedge on the side of the road, with banners and signs for me and my pokemon. They had claimed a spot under one of my banners and were madly cheering at me and my pokemon’s approach.

Olga and Salvadore were waving a sign that said, “Go-go Golem!” with a picture of Sanchez on it .Sabrina stood in the middle with Suzie on her shoulders and Timmy at her feet, waving a small flag with the Boulder Badge on it. Next to her, Kirlia had a flag with Titan on it, which Terra was also waving.

I waved both hands and they cheered at having been seen and acknowledged.

“Shrek! Use a light Bubblebeam!” I ordered, and Shrek croaked as he released a stream of small, unpowered bubbles that popped and wafted along in the breeze, causing kids to shriek in delight as small bubbles burst upon them.

I noted that Karen, who was only a few metres ahead of us now, was poking her tongue out at Sabrina. Kirlia was replying with her own tongue out, while Sabrina ignored the dark type specialist.

I laughed and continued to wave as we approached, and as we drew level I stepped up and ran my hand across the offered hands, slapping them with high and low fives.

As the line continued to move I turned and continued to wave, walking backwards as I did so, much to the crowd’s amusement. When I eventually turned I found myself approaching a large podium that stretched out in front of the newly finished stadium that was to become the pride and joy of the battle section of Chrysanthemum City.

The stadium was a resplendent white with inbuilt coral patterns and huge arches that would allow even the tallest of pokemon to enter the stadium.

From my position on the thoroughfare, I could look right into the heart of the stadium where I knew the arena would be. The open air structure would cause people merely passing by to witness some of the match and no doubt lead to more people poking their noses in as battles raged.

It was a structure that invited spectators and competitors alike within it.

I had to give it to Kruger. When he’d laid down the plans for this city, he’d known his business.

I took my place atop the stage with Selene following me up. Knight and Shrek both took positions at my sides to put me in the middle of three powerful pokemon.

Slowly others trickled in behind me and with them, more and more of the crowd took up seats in pre arranged seating that rose up to the sides of the stage.

Arthur stood next to me and I made sure to send him a smirk, which he returned with a tight nod.

From there Mirea, Corey, Joshua, and Kaede all took their places.

When it came time for Carr, he earned a special announcement from the host.

“And in second place! Our pint size punter! Carr the Kid!” he said.

Carr shot at the host what for a pokemon would have been a Glareand I held back a chuckle. He really didn’t like having his age and size pointed out, did he? Not even as a compliment.

“And now!” the host shouted, not at all bothered by Carr’s promise of doom. “Our Ace of Aces! The number one ranked Ace Trainer this season! Give it up for Bruce of Blackthorn City!”

The crowd roared their approval as Bruce entered with a Dragonite at his side, along with a Vibrava and a Dragonair. Hmmm, interesting choices, I thought to myself.

When all of us were on the podium the host grinned. “And now, for our master of ceremonies, give it up for the hometown hero! President of the Pokemon League! Kruuuuuuuger!” shouted the man as Kruger appeared.

He got a round of cheers, but nothing like what we’d gotten. He didn’t seem bothered by it and instead looked pleased.

He stood for a moment and opened his mouth, only for something to rocket down the main thoroughfare and stop on a dime above us.

I had been expecting this, but was still caught by surprise as Latias blitzed into the show.

She hovered for a moment, waved at everyone and trilled her name once. “Latias!” Then she turned and streaked away, leaving everyone gaping.

“Was that a Legendary?” screamed one person and I had to hold in a chuckle.

“Oooooh, Bruce looks annoyed,” Karen stage whispered to me.

A quick glance proved Karen was right. He was staring after the Latias with a look of a man that had just had a rare pokemon appear before them only to vanish in a heartbeat.

“Makes sense, with him being a Dragon Master and all,” I said.

Karen snorted and chuckled. “Feh, yeah, Dragon Master, him! Good one,” she said.

“Hahaha! Well that was quite an experience, wasn’t it?” said Kruger, drawing people back from staring at the sky.

Well everyone but Bruce, who looked like he was considering mounting a flying type and trying to track down the dragon Legendary pokemon.

Kruger stepped out from his podium and waved. “People of Chrysanthemum City! It does my heart well to see you thriving!”

The crowd cheered at this and more and more people were now calming down and remembering what they were here for. I hummed. Hmmm, he certainly knew how to work these people. That or he was used to dealing with outlandish events and then having to follow up afterwards.

“Today I come to you as the Pokemon League President, but know that as this is my hometown, I am glad to be back! With that being said, I know you want to get to what we came here for! Let’s start the draw!” he announced, his hand shooting up, and the loudest cheer he’d received yet ripping itself from the throats of the crowd.

Behind him, on a huge screen, a bracket that was split down the middle appeared.

“First, let the top ranked trainers take their seeding places!” Kruger said.

On the top and bottom most positions on both sides of the bracket four names and faces appeared.

Bruce, Carr, Kaede, and Joshua, as the top ranked Ace Trainers, took up positions well separated from each other behind us. On the large screen I could see various highlights of their matches playing out for us.

I hummed to myself, understanding that this was the tournament organiser’s method of making sure that two trainers that were known to be great battlers didn’t eliminate each other too early in the tournament.

The earliest the top seeded trainers could face each other was in the semifinals, in fact.

There were certainly more than enough chances for an upset to take place, but with this method, good fights were technically guaranteed.

“And now we shall draw the others! For the first match up! We have…!” Kruger drew his hand up and then slammed it down, making a show of pressing a button on the podium.

Names and faces spun in a mishmash and I saw my own appear no less than three times before it and other names flashed off to set positions.

Kruger grinned widely. “The first match up…!” On the screen a familiar face appeared and I whistled as Arthur’s handsome face was shown against Carr.

“The first match to start us off will be Arthur facing off against Carr!” announced Kruger.

Next to me Arthur was cursing his luck under his breath for drawing Carr straight out of the gate. I just smirked. So, he didn’t rate his chances against Carr, eh?

I had a few moments to observe him before glancing over at Carr who looked particularly pleased. He shot Arthur a thumbs down and a huge smirk, which Arthur could only growl at in response.

Kruger drew us back with a laugh. “Ha! A good start! The next will be a double draw as both brackets are empty! And they shall be—” He made another show of pushing the button and once more faces spun about, only this time both positions showed different faces.

I amused myself with the idea of how much of an oopsie moment it would be if the computer assigned someone to fight themself.

“Karen will fight Walker!”

I glanced to the side and watched as both Karen and Walker locked eyes. Hmmm, dark type versus flying type. Now that might make for an interesting match up.

Karen outright leered at Walker, but the man stared back stoically. Apparently that wasn’t the reaction she was going for “I spanked baby boy, now it’s time to spank daddy~!” she said with a sickly sweet tone.

Walker’s eyes widened and he released a growl. “You’ll regret those words!” he said through clenched teeth.

I shook my head, knowing that Walker had fallen right into the headspace that Karen wanted him in.

“Joshua against Scarlet!” said Kruger for the next pairing.

Then it was, “Tori v Mirea!”

I whistled, I’d fought Tori before and she’d been good, but I suspected that Mirea would be the better of the two.

“Kaede v Boss Doug!”

I chuckled, well that would be an easy sell. Boss Doug looked like he’d dumpster dived for everything he wore, whereas Kaede was a cool beauty. Interestingly enough cheers went up for both with kids, families, and girls in the crowd cheering for Kaede, while a loud group of men chanted for Boss Doug.

“Doug! Doug! Doug!” they repeated over and over, with Kruger urging them to quieten down.

“Brock v Corey!” Kruger shouted over the top of them and it took me a moment to register my name being called.

I looked up at the screen and found myself facing down against a face I knew relatively well from this life.

Corey was a skilled trainer at fifth on the standings.

I looked to my left in time to lock eyes with him. He held it before offering a polite nod, which I returned. Hmmm, seems like it’d be a good match, at least.

“Neesha against Fergus!” shouted Kruger, announcing the other two trainers that I’d been watching ever since I started to tangle with Mewtwo.

In another life they might have encountered said Legendary alongside my counterpart. In this life they were merely skilled Ace Trainers.

Both shot each other smirks and made faces. “You’re going down this time, Neesha!”

“Shellshocker is ready to smash you!” she said.

Both held their smirks before smiling and nodding.

“Urgh, spare me your happy sappy shit,” muttered Karen as she rolled her eyes.

I shook my head. “Come on, they’re not even in your bracket, you’re not facing them,” I said quietly.

Karen snorted. “They aren’t making it past the round of eight, either of them.”

I nodded and watched as the last matchup was made.

“And finally! Bruce shall face off against Leo!” announced Kruger.

Leo dropped his head and grit his teeth as Bruce turned and looked at him. Hmmm, not a good sign, but then again, if he was taking it on just his ranking, his match was actually the biggest disparity, with a shared fourteenth facing the number one seeded trainer.

I didn’t like the way Bruce smirked at Leo, so I cupped my hands. “Give it to him, Leooooo!” I shouted, surprising everyone around me.

The crowd, noticing Leo’s wavering spirit, joined in with their own chants and applause and Leo looked up, swallowed and locked eyes with Bruce, who looked like he wanted to glare at me now.

“Urgh don’t do that, it gives me indigestion,” said Karen.

“Oh eat some cement and harden up,” I said out the side of my mouth as I continued to applaud.

Karen shot me a surprised look, but I ignored her.

Arthur must have heard me as he snorted a laugh.

The crowd roared as Kruger announced that the draw was finished and that the first match would begin tonight with Carr against Arthur.

“Good luck,” I said to the man I’d faced only a few weeks ago. He nodded and marched off with a straighter spine. Hmmmm, it seemed my encouragement of Leo had buoyed him as well.

I gave Corey another look over before moving off to the side, waving as I did so. Selene lowered herself to rub against me and I idly pet her side.

I made my way to my family and our vastly extended cohort of friends and trainers. Missy was the first to greet me. “Nice one Brock! You got Corey! That’ll be a good fight to ease you into the tournament.”

A.J. appeared next. “When is your fight?” he demanded.

I chuckled. “In two days at around lunch time. If I win that, my next match will be the next evening,” I said.

“You might get to fight against Samurai Furret!” said Tommy and Timmy as they held up a brochure with the names filled in. I nodded, she was the more likely of the two that I might face, considering the rankings. But still.

“You never know, Boss Doug might surprise us,” I said. I nodded my head to the side and we started moving the group through the throng of people.

“Place your bets! Place your bets here! I have eight-to-one odds on Arthur defeating Carr!”

“Place your bets on the teams they’ll use! I have it as a lock-in that Carr will use his Steelix! Guess all six and you could win thousands of pokedollars!” shouted another bookie.

I glanced over, amused to hear them hawking their goods, only for my mood to sour.

“Urgh, it’s the information brokers,” I said.

Sabrina, who’d drifted to my side with Suzie still in place on her shoulders, nodded. “Sadly I cannot disperse them here… as much as I would like to,” she said while eying a man in a shabby brown overcoat as he slapped at a whiteboard with the various odds they’d garnered.

“Any chances they’re doing something dodgy?” I asked hopefully. Then Sabrina could lock them up.

She shook her head. “No, they’ve just done a lot of data crunching and have skewed their odds to favour themselves, like any gambling organisation,” she said, matching my forlorn tone.

“Are those guys baddies?” asked Suzie.

“Sadly they’re just bottom feeders,” I replied, causing her to tilt her head.

Suzie frowned. “So is Mr. Forge bad for placing a bet with them?” she asked, pointing to one of the information brokers. I glanced over to find Mr. Forge making a sizable bet, it seemed.

Nearby I heard Olga groan and facepalm. “Daaaaddy!” she whined.

Dr. Forge marched out to drag her husband back. “Not in front of the children, dear! We don’t want them to get involved in gambling!” she said.

I coughed, knowing that was a failed idea, what with how pokemon battles usually had a payout at the end, even for two kids battling in a grassy field.

Mr. Forge was dragged back. “Ouch! No, but dear! I got good odds on Brock winning, I swear!” he said.

I shook my head.

Well, that was one way to show loyalty. I made my way to the conference room that I’d requisitioned for my entourage to enjoy. Sabrina joined me, Suzie floating down to the ground, much to her displeasure.

“I need to help your brother,” said Sabrina with a soft tone. “Can you show Kirlia the play area? She’s never been able to play like other kids, but she can now,” she pointed out, giving Suzie a task and distraction which Suzie eagerly grabbed onto.

I chuckled and turned my own attention to my entourage. “Alright gang, time to study up on our opponent Corey. We’ll also be watching most of the other matches so let’s get to it!” I said, clapping my hands.

Time to get down to business.