Hard Enough Chapter 248: Dark plans

“Alright Brock, we need to talk strategy against Karen,” said Kaede.

I raised my eyebrow at her. “You don’t want to talk about what I suggested during my interview?” I asked.

Kaede sighed. “That Rapidash has already sprinted out of the barn after setting it on fire,” she said.

I nodded at the common phrase. “Still, sorry if you didn't want people to know. For what it’s worth, I think you’d make a great Gym Leader, and we do need you,” I said.

Kaede sighed. “The worst part about that? Is that you’re earnest in your suggestion, and that… I can’t say that I’m not tempted.” Her smile turned decidedly sinister. “Especially if I hold the eighth gym position above Bruce.”

I raised a hand. “Those are more traditional placents than anything serious,” I said, but Kaede ignored .

Cindy, who’d claid the position next to on the couch to watch the drama play out, giggled at our antics.

Kaede’s grin faded. “Also, what was going on with your tactics that match? You were nothing like that against !” she said with a double-ard chop through the air.

I quirked an eyebrow, was it just , or was that not the chop that Samurai Furret used in their show? I shot Cindy a look and judging by the stars in her eyes, I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed the mannerism.

Kaede continued, unaware of our thoughts, “What happened to our plan of sending Gawain out first?” she said.

I shrugged. “You controlled the pace a bit more, so I wasn’t able to establish myself or implent certain moves. The sa couldn’t be said for Bruce, as I started with a great match-up with Shrek against his Charizard.”

As soon as I said it I knew it was a mistake, as Kaede’s eyes narrowed and her fists clenched. Her eyes flickered to the kids about the room though, and she didn’t say anything.

I once more held up a hand to acknowledge it was a touchy subject.

Not wanting her to linger on it or let an awkward silence build, I said, “I trusted my instincts about Bruce’s pride. If there was anyone that might potentially have a ga Evolution in Indigo, it would be him,” I said, before reassessing that statent. “Well, Lance would be the primary candidate, actually,” I said, correcting myself.

That did not improve Kaede’s mood at all as she looked like she sucked on sitrus berry raw. “You just… urgh, no. Don’t worry about it,” she said with a shake of her head. “So, Karen’s fight tomorrow will take place at around seven in the evening, with your event featuring on priti. So this ti we have plenty of ti with no other restrictions.”

“Good, I wouldn’t mind checking over my pokemon after the last two matches,” I said. I needed to sit down with them and alert them ahead of ti about how the bond had grown.

I didn’t want to have any situations like what could have happened to Gawain. Don alone was probably going to take a while to adjust to the sharing of sensations and ideas.

Hypnotoad I expected to be like Bertha, in that she’d be excited more than anything.

“Hmmm, you will need to do a serious review of Karen’s matches,” Kaede said.

“Heh, Karen will love that I’ve not seen many of her fights, bar the match against Steven Stone,” I said.

This was obviously not the right thing to say as Kaede glared at . “You have… so much to look into, then. Do you even know who her strongest pokemon are, or which will be threats?”

“She’ll have Gengar, Honchkrow, Espeon, Houndoom, Vileplu and Absol as her primary six. I will need to watch out for Destiny Bonds, Perish Songs, an Looks, Spite, Hex, and other moves such as status effects,” I said, rubbing my chin in thought.

Kaede blinked. “I thought you hadn’t—”

“I haven’t seen her fights, but that doesn’t an I don’t know her or what pokemon she has as part of her complete roster.”

“She’ll have more than those six,” Kaede said firmly, to which I could only nod.

“That’s obvious,” I replied. I took a deep breath and leaned back on the couch, considering what I should say. Of everyone in this tournant, Karen was the person I perhaps had the best idea about. The sa was sadly true for her with regards to , though. The Guardian training sessions were a bit of a double-edged sword like that.

“Karen… she’s got a bit of a niche being a tricky opponent, you could say.” I perked up, with a wide grin. “With her tactics, I don’t think she’ll be much of a fan favourite,” I said with a slight bounce in my seat. “I’m looking forward to not being the heel of the fight for once!”

Cindy giggled at this. Kaede shook her head. “Sotis I wonder how I lost to you.”

“My pokemon had greater depth, sothing that Karen also possesses, as she threw down with Steven Stone and forced his hand on a few things,” I said easily.

The doorbell ringing made look up. I glanced around to see if anyone had invited a friend over, but none of the kids reacted. Hmmmm, I continued to look and none of them so much as glanced at . Pointedly so.

Ah, they wanted to get the door, didn’t they?

Just because nothing had been organised didn’t an that it was probably just one of my siblings' friends coming around to hang out.

I rose and gestured for Kaede to remain seated, making my way to the front door. I opened it expecting a child.

Instead, I ca face to face with Walker and Falkner.

“Oh, hello there?” I said.

Walker nodded his head while his son, Falkner, bobbed his upper body into a slight dipping bow. “Gym Leader Brock,” said Falkner.

I afforded him a small bow in return with a smile. “Gym Leader Falkner,” I said, leaning into his formal attitude for an appropriate response in a bow of my own. As I rose I twisted to the side. “Please, co in… I’m sorry to say that the apartnt is a ss,” I said, glancing at Falkner’s very nice attire which reminded more of a festival outfit than everyday wear.

Walker I noticed had adopted a similar outfit, so perhaps it was a family style?

I felt almost underdressed in my jeans and sweater. Especially with all the stains and markings that had been left on due to small, grubby hands.

Munchlax trundled up next to and tilted his head at the new faces. “Munchlax?” he said.

“They’re friends and work colleagues,” I said to the little pokemon.

“Munch!” he said. He then reached into a patch of fur under his armpit and drew out what looked like a rolled-up bag of chips, which he offered to Walker and Falkner.

“Uhmmm, no thank you,” Falkner said, shooting a confused look.

I sighed and waved Munchlax back into the apartnt. “Thanks but no, we’re good, could you get the kettle boiling?” I asked, deciding to get him out of the way and helping. “Please,” I said, gesturing to the father-son pair to follow.

We walked into the sitting room where Kaede blinked in surprise at seeing a forr competitor. Walker also blinked in surprise. “Kaede?”

“Walker? Or do you prefer Masked Owl?” she said with a tilt of her head. In her lap, Furret put his paws over his eyes and mid forming a mask with them as he peered out.

Walker coughed. “I’m done with that ruse… not that it worked very well,” he said with a sigh.

I gestured for everyone to sit down and began to walk to the kitchen, only for Munchlax to waddle out with a tray with cookies, a steaming teapot, and mugs for everyone in the room.

… including all of my siblings. Everyone sat up, ready to join in on the tea party.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Little brothers and sisters, I think I need the room,” I said.

None of them moved, and I gave them a look.

“I need to have a grown-up talk,” I clarified when I got only confused or annoyed looks.

My siblings rose but not before pilfering the tea tray. Munchlax watched them go and gave a placid smile. I mirrored it back. “Sorry buddy, I know you love tea ti, but maybe set up another with my siblings?” I said.

He accepted this with a nod and then took the entire tray of cookies. At my look, he considered us all for a second and then laid down four cookies for each of us before walking off with the rest. Furret barked after him, but Munchlax rely ran off quicker, not willing to give up any more of his loot.

“Well, your family is… charming,” said Walker politely.

I nodded. “They can be that when they want to,” I replied. I then poured so tea. “So I suspect that both of you, along with Kaede, are here for the sa reason,” I said.

“Oh?” asked Walker and Kaede at the sa mont. They shared a look with each other.

I nodded. “You don’t want Karen to win and are coming over to do what you can to make sure that’s the case.”

Walker and Falkner blinked at this before bobbing their heads as one. “That is indeed the case, although I must apologise if this is us overstepping ourselves.”

“I have no problem with you joining my team,” I said.

“Oh,” said Walker. “I was expecting to have to state our case more,” he said, scratching at his head.

I chuckled. “It’s kind of obvious that Karen can be… a bit much when she wants to be.”

“You know her?” said Falkner.

I considered what to say, using my tea to buy myself so ti as I took a sip.

In the end, I decided to just run with it. I nodded. “We’ve trained together a few tis. She has spoken with a few tis. Do you recall so of the earlier raids that were conducted against Team Rocket during the winter?” I asked.

Falkner frowned. “I was focusing on training my roster then, so no… I was aware sothing occurred for you, but not that Karen had been involved.”

Kaede shook her head. “I knew you’d trained with her and taken part in that raid together. I’m guessing that she didn’t use all of her tactics against you back then.”

“Well, I an, that was literally months ago now. I expect she’s adapted and grown a lot since then. After all, haven’t we all?” I said with a smile.

Falkner shifted and looked away, only for Walker to subtly put his hand on his son’s shoulder. “You have grown, son,” he said firmly.

Falkner blushed at this and bobbed his head up and down in thanks. I smiled, enjoying the mont, only to scowl when Flint leaned around the door to mouth ‘you have as well’.

Urgh. I made a point to put a hand to my eyes and show him I very much was not looking and that he was embarrassing/annoying.

He retreated with an amused chuckle.

Kaede coughed, her expression pinched and slightly sickly looking. “As touching as that was…” she said while wearing a face that said it was anything but, “we need to consider the tactics that Karen will use and which pokemon are truly the most likely to be used.” She turned to . “Which raises the question of if you’re willing to let Walker and Falkner assist you?”

I glanced back and both of the father and son pair straightened in their seats. I smiled. “Welco aboard,” I said, without having to think about it too much. They were trustworthy people.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

A rumble from my stomach made pause. “Ah, I probably need to have a proper al before we do that, though. Is anyone up for so Cheri Charizard? I’m feeling like a bit of spice would be nice,” I said while firing off a quick ssage to Sabrina. I had yet to hear from her and how the investigation had gone.

Instead of her flashing into the room as I was expecting, I got a brief, ‘check channel six news,’ from her.

I frowned, looking around for the remote. On the television, a news crew were revealed with what looked like a serious cohort of police leading out a large group of people from a warehouse.

“—just in! Sabrina has led a series of raids across Kanto, targeting pokemon trafficking groups and sellers of illegal boosting agents! Through her skills she has been able to lock down nurous sites and identify previously missed criminals!” announced a blonde reporter.

A flash behind the woman was all the warning the woman had before Sabrina was next to her. The woman’s microphone levitated out of her grasp and in front of Sabrina where she adopted what I recognised as her ‘public speaking’ face.

“It is not so much that these criminals were missed as they were taking steps to elude police and myself. I would also like to state that my skills were marginal in today’s arrests, with other groups contributing more to these arrests,” said Sabrina.

I blinked. Huh, she’d taken Jessie, Jas, and owth and employed them in a direction that I hadn’t considered before.

The reporter’s eyes darted to the floating microphone clearly considering taking it back only to glance at Sabrina and think better of it. Instead, she leaned in to speak. “Ah! Thank you for joining us, Gym Leader! Can you tell us anything about the various sites you’ve raided? So far we’re aware of Pewter, Saffron, and Viridian.”

“The only other site of criminal activity that our new… taskforce has been able to identify and act on has been Cerulean. So facilities and products were locked down. Other sites are currently being evaluated,” replied Sabrina.

“So people are saying that you have started to employ your psychic abilities more to assist police. What would you say to that?” asked the reporter as she held a hand to her ear and pantomid that soone else was feeding her the question, even though I could see no earpiece.

Sabrina gave the woman a long, blank stare and the reporter shifted guiltily. When it was obvious that the reporter had overstepped Sabrina began speaking, “I have always assisted the police to the best of my ability. Unfortunately there are thods that criminals use to make themselves seem more benign or even to elude my senses. Through new thods, we have identified them and been able to act.”

Sabrina then looked straight into the cara. “Your ti is running out, criminals around Kanto. I suggest that you present yourself to the proper authorities. We will find you,” she said, her eyes glowing slightly in a manner that I thought made her look damn powerful and extrely sexy.

“Huh,” I said. “So that’s where she is,” I said, before sending off another ssage to Sabrina, informing her that we’d be getting Cheri Charizard’s and what she wanted.

A list of items followed and I chuckled, only to look around at my guests who were staring at .

“What? This is normal for us,” I said, nodding at the television.

Kaede put one hand on her chin and the other on Furret had also been staring at . “I suddenly am rethinking being a Gym Leader,” she said.

“It cos with a lot of perks,” I said before looking to Falkner and Walker. “So what would you guys like to order for dinner? My treat!”

They shared a glance and coughed. “We’ll have the combination special with extra spelon spice,” they said, causing to stare.

“Damn, that’s intense,” I said, tapping out the order. I ordered my own mild dish with Kaede joining in. I stood and waved a hand for them to follow . “Co on, if we talk shop up here my family will try and run off with Furret again. So let’s eat in the boardroom where we can talk shop,” I said.

I led the group to the planning room and talked Walker and Falkner through my process. When Missy joined I added her order on to ours and settled back to fire off a series of ssages to check in with A.J. and also Mia, who I suspected was around but still hadn’t turned up.

A.J. replied with a ‘busy’ ssage, which led to fire off ssages to Forrest once more. Mia responded with a small story about coming to the island to challenge herself and her team.

Silly Mouse was showing off his smarts and was now up to seven moves, which Mia was using to win a lot more matches than normal.

When I asked if she wanted to catch up she wrote back saying she’d love that after my match as she didn’t want to get in my way.

“Brock, can you be serious about this, you should be reading through the information you have,” Kaede said, catching typing another reply to Mia.

I sat up. “Sorry, I was just working on so Gym Leader duties,” I replied.

When she raised a dubious eyebrow at I waved a hand. “No, honest, as a Gym Leader you can take in and train several young trainers, giving them better starts than they might otherwise have gotten. I run a mini-tournant at the start of the year and everything. Mia is one of the winners of a full sponsorship on my part and I’m just checking in with her.”

Kaede paused. “You can sponsor trainers through the gym?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, I currently have like…” I rubbed my chin and counted them off. “Nine? Trainers, with three of them being completely sponsored. I should be able to take in a few more next year, with how well things have been going. The orphans in Pewter will be really happy!”

Kaede didn’t reply to this, instead, she continued to stare at like she’d never seen before. “I didn’t know you did things like that. Can… all Gym Leaders do that?” she asked, with a hint of sothing in her voice.

I nodded. “Yeah, with gym facilities that are good enough, you can help stable other trainers’ pokemon. I went out of my way to build a big facility with a reserve for that reason,” I said. I rubbed my chin and chuckled. “You know, if you were able to claim the Viridian Gym you’d probably have access to facilities even better than mine, considering that Giovanni… well he wasn’t exactly ever hurting for cash,” I said.

Kaede continued to give a blank stare. Then she surprised by bowing from the hip so that she was bent ninety degrees to . “Please! I want to be a Gym Leader!” she said.

Now it was my turn to stare. What was… Oh, wait. Kaede was an orphan with a horrible start as a trainer, so my story about being a Gym Leader and getting to impact others’ lives by offering more sponsorships probably would have resonated with her. It wasn’t like that was sothing that many other gyms did.

Heck, Sabrina only took in people who were interested in training their psychic abilities.

Kaede… was eighteen. So, if she’d started her journey as early as possible, then she’d have been ten in Johto. Which would have been very rough. Damn, now that I thought about it, Kaede had clawed her way up from nothing.

She was the definition of a self-made woman.

“You don’t have to bow, Kaede,” I said first. I stood and smiled at her. “You know, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of you being a Gym Leader. I think you more than anyone else would be amazing, you’d have a lot of lessons that I wouldn’t know how to teach, and you seem to have your heart in the right place, if I’m guessing what you’ll use your expanded stable for,” I said.

Kaede gave a watery smile and I clapped her on the shoulder.

The mont felt good and it was only broken when soone shifted and a stack of papers toppled over. I glanced over to find Falkner looking extrely sheepish.

“I- sorry! I was just… I hadn’t considered how I should be helping my community… hearing your efforts and Kaede’s ideas has humbled .” He bowed. “Please! Allow to voice my own support, paltry as it might be!” he said.

I shook my head. “Don’t discount yourself ,Falkner, you took over when you were young and by all accounts had things pretty rough. Allow yourself ti to grow,” I said.

Falkner smiled bashfully, only for his father to reach out and put his hand on his son’s shoulder.

Once again father and son shared a loving and supportive mont.

Kaede and I shared a look coupled with a grimace as I took my hand off her shoulder. Damn, they’d ruined the mont for us.

I gave her a sickly smile and a frankly lacking thumbs up before I moved things along with a quiet, “I’ll uhhh, check on our order,” I said while Kaede busied herself by looking over Karen’s pokemon roster.

I looked it over.

Houndoom, Gengar, Sneasel, Honchkrow, Absol, Umbreon, Vileplu, Banette, Mismagius, Sableye, Froslass, Mightyena, Sharpedo, Cacturne, Shiftry, Gyarados, Crawdaunt, Priape, Machoke, dicham, Skarmory, and Nidoqueen.

The outliers from her typical dark type specialisation were the main pokemon that stood out to from the others. The ghost pokemon made the most sense if you understood that she was Agatha’s granddaughter.

Heck, even through a certain lens Gyarados made sense, due to how it ga Evolved. Not that there was a known… no, that wasn’t true. Cerulean had evidence of using one during the war, so there was no way Agatha hadn’t passed the knowledge along about Gyarados… that or Karen had done her research for every pokemon she could claim that had dark typing attached to it.

When the food turned up I had everyone sit down so we could run over what we had worked out thus far.

Walker was the first to summarise. “She uses foul language quite a lot at the start, but she can be serious when the fight starts. The main thing to be watchful for is that most of her pokemon are defensive specialists. I rewatched the match against Steven Stone and her Umbreon… held out for much longer than I expected. That pokemon is a powerhouse in its own right.”

I nodded, recalling sothing to that effect from her match.

“She also used her Absol to good effect, no? I seem to recall that Steven Stone had to alpha strike it to take it down?”

That drew a round of nods. Everyone had highlighted that mont as significant, but when you had a pokemon that could perform Perish Song, that made all too much sense.

I tapped my fingers on Umbreon.

“I think due to the nature of so of her pokemon, especially this Umbreon, I need to include Bertha once again. She’s too much of a counter to ignore,” I said. I then tapped on Karen’s roster. “She also has so moves that I can quickly re-teach her that counter so of these grass types,” I said.

We began to trade around notes and it quickly beca clear that for all the fights that Karen had taken part in, most of the serious information about her fighting properly ca from her showcase match against Steven Stone where she’d used delays, tricks, and even specialised commands on more than one occasion.

We rewatched Vileplu twirl and unleash Drain Punch and Solar Beam more than a few tis.

I nodded. “No way she’s not including that pokemon. It pairs up too well with Sunny Day for her Houndoom to ignore,” I said.

It joined the list of most likely pokemon to face and I responded with Tide which drew a bit of scepticism.

“Ice-type moves, plus he can handle status moves better than any of my other pokemon,” I said. Which neatly negated the risk of her Gengar getting off a Toxic or two. For that matter, Jormungandr was placed on the list of pokemon.

We tossed around more suggestions and eventually, I decided to lay out my team's make up.

Titan, Hypnotoad, Bertha, Jormungandr, Tide … and finally Zephyr.

Although once again I was toying with Link being a fill-in, only to discard it as a bad idea.

“Why Zephyr?” Kaede asked.

“He has his own status attacks he can use, while knowing a fairy type move that can run rampant against Karen’s dark types. It is also yet another counter to Karen’s grass types in case I decide to keep Thunder for Bertha.”

Right as I finished saying this, Sabrina made her appearance with a flash. I smiled and indicated the chair I’d left out for her with a tray of her food.

She claid it and floated the spiciest sauce we had over to herself, while glancing at Falkner and Walker for a mont before nodding. “Looking to topple Karen through Brock? Clever,” she said with an approving nod before taking a bite.

Falkner nodded slowly, slightly awed by Sabrina’s casual displays of telekinetic ability.

“How are you eating that?” he said, causing to pause.

Ah, he was impressed that Sabrina was eating the spiciest al on the nu, and then adding more spices to it.

“I enjoy the tingles and sensations that co with it,” she said.

“She cheats,” I said with a soft smirk.

Sabrina turned her head and pointedly swallowed her mouthful of food. I realised what she was going to do an instant too late. I leaned back only for her to lunge as she made to kiss .

She paused right before actually kissing though, the threat implicit. She leaned back, pleased at having gotten a reaction out of .

For my part, I licked my lips, only to feel a sting from getting that close to Sabrina.

Damn, had she breathed on or what?

How many Scoville was her al?

My tongue burned and I coughed. I pushed her back further and felt my eyes beginning to water.

“Alright, you got ,” I said as I grabbed up a glass of milk. I swallowed it quickly and felt the pain fade. I shot Sabrina a pretend-annoyed look. “I thought you promised not to do that after that one ti?”

“I rember no such promise,” Sabrina said haughtily, taking yet another bite of her dish.

“Uhmmm, what was that?” Missy said, slightly worried at my flushed appearance as I took another pull of my milk.

“Sabrina hates when I imply she cheats,” I said.

When Missy continued to look confused I elaborated. “She also once ate her dish and kissed . Back then I didn’t think any better of it, and she burned my mouth.”

Walker chuckled. “Heh, psychic type burnt a rock type,” he said, nudging his son.

I shot them an unimpressed look, toying with the idea of reminding them what their preferred typing’s major weakness was.

Sabrina flicked her hair. “I am rely reminding Brock that I do not cheat,” she said, shooting a look. “I am in control of my emotional reactions and state of being. If food is spicy, I am able to control myself and enjoy the sensations more than so,” she said.

She made a point to take another bite of her food, chew and then swallow. “I do not cheat, this cos from my self-mastery,” she said. She then offered a peace offering of her spring rolls. “I… hadn’t considered how the spices would linger that one ti after a al. I now carry..”

I playfully interrupted by flicking so rice at her, which she rely caught in the air with her mind before dropping them on her plate. “Don’t waste food,” she replied with a smile. She then took out a mint and a cloth, chewing the mint and wiping her lips with the cloth.

She gave a kiss on the cheek which, now that she was safe, I accepted.

Missy giggled. “Cute!” she said while glancing between us.

Sabrina shot her a pleased look before glancing at the stacks of paper. “So, what have you worked out so far regarding Karen?” she asked as she returned to her al.

I coughed when Kaede shot a smug look. “We have been working through the information Brock has available to him, while he handles other duties. We have several tactics such as Fake Outs, Pursuits, and Taunt that she has had her pokemon use nurous tis.”

I humd. “I won’t be able to use Link and his Healing Wish,” I said casually.

Kaede blinked. “Your Clefable knows that move?” she said.

I nodded. “Yeah, I taught him a special variant of it,” I replied. “He’s crazy dedicated and worked it out months earlier than I thought he would.”

Kaede continued to stare at . “So, you knew about Healing Wish?” she said.

I nodded. “Yeah, I wasn’t expecting you to use it, though. Also, your adaptation was really good for keeping pokemon that you had already used in the fight,” I replied.

I raise an issue with it however. “You wouldn’t have been able to use it against Karen though, for one simple move that I know she’ll have at least two of her pokemon know,” I said while glancing at Sabrina.

Karen, as a Guardian, knew about Link’s ability, so it would make sense that she had counterasures in place, even if she hadn’t demonstrated them during training as yet.

“What move?” asked Kaede with narrowed eyes.

“Snatch,” I replied. “It would allow one of her pokemon to steal the healing energy for themselves and flip your strength into their strength,” I said. I sighed. “Which is a bit of a sha, as I think Link would be perfect to fight against a lot of her pokemon.”

“You could just use him in other ways,” Sabrina suggested.

I humd, not as convinced.

Sabrina put aside her al and turned in her seat so she was fully facing .

She looked in the eyes while taking my hand in hers. “Brock, Karen will needle you about any emotional issues you have to get you angry and not fighting as you should,” she began.

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think I will be able to handle it,” I said slowly.

Despite saying that, my mind considered Sabrina. She was in support mode, like what we were about to talk about might seriously piss off. I knew her well enough to pick up the cues.

So, that ant there must be sothing I wasn’t thinking about that she’d picked upon. So, what was it?

“Karen is going to needle you about your mother,” Sabrina said, ripping the taphorical band-aid off.

I stared at Sabrina and all I could think for a single mont in ti was ‘fuck’, right before I felt dark emotions rise up within .