A hot wind blew through the valley turned caldera as everyone watched Lance and Agatha.
Lance swallowed. “Damn it Agatha you shouldn’t have done that.”
“But I did,” replied Agatha. “Blaine was too dangerous to be left alive. If he escaped, he’d find another weapon to threaten us with. Best for that old monster to finally pass from this world.”
“Now,” she raised her wrists once more. “How about this old monster?” she asked.
Karen landed in front of Lance and put her hands on Agatha. “She’s demented; don’t listen to her. I’ll make sure she gets home for her nap and game of bridge. She’s due for a retirement village.”
Agatha’s face twitched into exasperation only to shift into something much softer before settling into a scowl.
“Who are you calling—”
“Tomorrow,” Lance announced, cutting through the family drama.
Everyone turned to him to find that he was staring at Agatha.
“You will present yourself to me tomorrow,” he declared with a shuddering breath.
“Champion?” Agatha asked, uncertainty flashing across her features.
Lance turned from her. “It’s been a busy… week,” he said calmly. “Let’s handle this situation first, make sure nothing else is about to catch fire, and then… well… Then I will see if I have a decision on how to handle this,” he stated.
Agatha stayed still, her hands raised like she was expecting shackles.
Lance snorted and waved his hand. “Just… get out of here. I’m sure we can debrief on this later.” His eyes fell to Blaine’s form. “And I think I’ll sleep on what is just cause right now… I’m a little too close to the situation to be a fair judge, I think,” he declared.
He rubbed a hand down his face. “The paperwork is going to be a nightmare.”
Everyone twitched, knowing it was true.
Damn, why did victories like this have to have such poor endings?
“Fuck that, let’s go to a bar and celebrate!” Karen declared.
Lance snorted. “Hmmm, the others might be able to leave, but you, as a member of the Elite Four, will be staying right here and giving me your full report on everything you found,” he declared.
Karen blinked and stared. “Huh, you’re kinda hot when you’re being large and in charge,” she teased.
Lance blushed at that. “Karen, this is serious.”
"So's a girl’s heart,” she replied with a wink.
Erika made a little noise, only for Oak to give a loud rasping cough. Everyone turned to him only to find him coughing up black smoke. Seeing the issue, I advanced, wincing as the residual heat was still enough to make me feel like I had an instant sunburn.
Still, I ignored it so I could offer him a water bottle, which he gratefully drank from.
“Argh, thank you, Brock,” he croaked. “It was getting rather painful dealing with the heat.”
His gaze turned towards Agatha and his mouth opened before he clamped it shut, nodding once. “Champion Lance is correct. We need to secure Blaine’s pokemon. We cannot allow them to go feral upon learning of their trainer’s fate.”
Everyone grimaced at that, looking to the various pokemon that were unconscious.
“What should we do with all the ditto he has? Along with the electrode and the base?” I asked only to frown. “Is the base still there?”
Karen swore as she looked around at the lava puddles and torn-up ground. There was every chance that the underground facility had seen more than a bit of damage with the power of the fight breaking out directly above it.
“How big was the facility?” Lance asked.
“Gigantic,” Karen, Erika, and I said as one while Sabrina pulled up the map that she had been creating.
Lance gaped. “He built that?”
Oak coughed again. “That was probably made during the time he was an Elite Four and Team Rocket was being established. While we watched him like a hawk for anything out of line, I don’t suspect that Team Rocket did the same.”
“Hmph, it doesn’t bring me joy to learn that he was cheating Team Rocket as well,” Lance muttered.
Karen huffed. “We won’t be able to send just anyone into the facility, either as there were turrets and danger in almost every room. We barely scratched the surface, and I don’t doubt that Blaine had more traps.”
“We never found the swarm of Hypno that he was using to create the conditions for the Mystery Cave,” Sabrina stated.
Lance cursed. “Shit! I really don’t want to have to touch that too much. It will be a huge drain of man and pokemon power.” He rubbed his forehead and looked towards the various puddles of Ditto. “The breeders association alone would have conniptions if I announced I hadn’t moved heaven and earth to get chansey in here to recover all these Dittos," he groaned.
I hummed, considering suggesting that Mewtwo sweep by, but that was a bit too on the nose for me.
Lance glanced my way and rubbed his temples. “We will lock this facility down, the pokemon and… deal with it… eventually,” he stated. His eyes darted to Agatha and down at Blaine’s form. “Every part of it.”
Lance raised his transceiver and began calling in Rangers and men in long coats. I glanced around, wondering if I was going to see Surge but he wasn’t here.
Karen gave her report to Lance, who listened with a stoic expression.
Lola sighed, rolling her shoulders. “Alright, well, I guess it’s time to slip away and leave the professionals to their work. Anyone know a good bar?” she asked.
I gave her a bemused look.
“That’s the first good idea I’ve heard from you,” Sabrina commented, causing me to turn my head towards her incredulously.
Erika, who’d been standing near us stiffened. “We really should help out if we can!”
“Hmmm they’ve got this handled. Koga, and Karen are Elite Four so it’s their job,” Lola said with a wave of her hand. “Oh! Pryce! Samuel! Would you like to come get some drinks with us?” She shouted, not at all bothered by the looks she was drawing.
Pryce and Oak turned their heads to regard her, and Oak bobbed his head from side to side. “I wouldn’t mind having a drink or two after tonight’s efforts.”
Pryce coughed dryly. “I think I’d like something to wet my throat.”
Lola giggled. “It got a bit hot there, didn’t it?”
Oak nodded thoughtfully. “Indeed it was rather hot, wasn’t it? Lance, what do you say? Come have a drink?” he asked politely.
Lance shook his head. “I need to see to this.”
Oak hummed. “It was always easier to draft paperwork with friends at a bar rather than trying to do it in an office.”
Lance worked his jaw in thought before shaking his head. “No. I can’t. You enjoy.” Then he gave Erika, Sabrina, and me pointed looks. “No alcohol for you though. You’re all underage.”
Karen snorted, “Ha! Suckers!”
“You’re also staying here,” Lance stated firmly, causing her to squawk in indignation while everyone else chuckled.
Oak turned to Sabrina. “Do you happen to know the bar in Viridian? It’s perfect for this sort of thing.”
Sabrina tilted her head thoughtfully and nodded. She then turned to me and drew out a towel that she soaked with water. “Here, for the soot and dirt,” she stated.
Bemused I took the towel and wiped my face only to blink in surprise as I basically tarred the towel. Ah, that was why Lance had looked at me oddly earlier. Glancing around I spotted the others doing much the same, albeit Erika being much more subtle about her grooming.
Lola merely had one of her pokemon douse her, only to shake her body like a wet growlithe.
I huffed at her from behind one of Sabrina’s barriers to block the water and gave the caldera one more look. There was something I was forgetting…
I glanced down at Blaine’s lifeless body. His eyes stared at nothing, and the circle of metal on his brow had tarnished from what Agatha had done. I licked my lips and swallowed. She had told me she could kill with a touch, but seeing it in action was another matter entirely.
“Something the matter?” Oak asked me with a hoarse rasp as he handed back my water bottle.
“Just an odd feeling like I’m forgetting something,” I murmured, mind struggling to come up with what was causing the feeling.
Oak pat me on the shoulder. “There will be many moments like that after a fight. Take some time tomorrow to recover and go over what happened. But leave it for tomorrow,” he offered.
Accepting the wisdom for what it was, I nodded and let the issue drop for later review. I gestured to Sabrina that I was ready.
A few moments later, we all arrived in a flash of teleportation, and I sighed with relief as I took in a soot-free breath of air.
“Yeah, let’s not do that again,” I murmured, rolling my shoulders.
Noticing the outside tables and chairs, I swept my hand across my pokebelt and released all of my pokemon, including Regirock.
“I’ll get something nice for everyone?” I suggested, only for Bertha to take up the tiny drinks menu and peer at it carefully.
Titan gave the chairs around the table a thoughtful sniff, then nudged them out of the way before sitting down on the ground. He sent an impression of large amounts of food that drew another chuckle and nod from me.
Oak hummed thoughtfully and released his own pokemon, with the others joining in soon enough. Only once they were all situated did we march into the bar.
It was much the same as last time we were here, and I swept my gaze over the occupants, only to pause on two giant men playing pool.
“Surge?” I asked, stunned to find him here of all… Actually, on second thought, this was precisely where I expected him to be.
The blond giant turned, revealing he had a black eye. “Sup Brock! Oh damn, you look all beat up. Rough night?”
“It’s the afternoon,” I vaguely replied, causing Surge to wave me off.
“Semantics,” he murmured.
Rather than argue, I nodded, glancing towards his companion, Bruno, who looked… singed and slightly electrified with some of his hair standing on end.
“Did you two…” I trailed off meaningfully.
“Hmm? Oh, minor dispute over who got to raid a site first, no biggie,” Surge said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Now, hush up for a minute while I hustle this dumbass’ money,” he announced with a smirk as he turned back to his game of pool.
Bruno paused in his shot, locked eyes with Surge and adjusted his pool cue. Then he struck the white ball. It streaked across the table, smashed into two other balls and sent them careening into different pockets.
"We'll see,” Bruno declared.
Rather than be daunted by the prospect of a loss, Surge began to chuckle. “Heh, good thing it’s best of three, eh?” he mused.
Shaking my head, I turned towards the tables our group had claimed, collapsing into it only to blink slowly and glance at the clock. “Oh, damn, is Flint going to be alright with the kids?” I asked, realising it was past school pick-up time.
Lola twitched, then forced herself to relax with a soft smile. “It’s fine. He loves spending time with the kids. Also, the kids are getting older, so it’s not as much a task as it might have been.”
“You mean like when I was raising them alone?” I pointed out snarkily.
“Yeah! Precisely so!” she replied all too easily as she missed the point entirely.
I raised a dubious eyebrow at her, and she shifted. “Alright I just want to spend some time with you. Is that such a terrible thing?” she admitted.
“That… no,” I muttered, knowing that the point I’d been making with my earlier comment had flown right over her head. I considered Lola and after mulling it over for a moment I recalled something I still had to act on.
I reached over and flicked her on the forehead hard, causing her head to snap back.
“Owwie! What was that for?” she whined, her hands shooting up to her forehead where a small mark had appeared.
“You abandoned us in the cave and attempted to solo Blaine’s secret base,” I reminded her. “Not cool. I vouched for you with Karen and the others.”
“I voted against including you,” Sabrina said, more to antagonise Lola than anything else.
I shot her a look, and she glanced towards the bar. “I’ll get the first round,” she suggested, leaving me with Lola and Erika who quickly shot after Sabrina.
“Alright, first off, I thought I was doing the right thing,” Lola declared.
‘You realise that doesn’t make it better?” I pointed out, "Actually, it might even make it worse?”
“Nope! I was looking out for you!” she stated. “It came from a place of love!”
“When you make decisions like this without regard for me, it’s not love, or if it is, it's kind of toxic,” I said firmly.
Lola worked her jaw. “That… I just…” she clenched and unclenched her hands. “It’s not something you should be doing Brock,” she admitted quietly.
“It’s something I’ve been doing for quite a while. Admittedly, it hasn’t been raiding some sort of… Supervillian’s base, too often,” I added when I remembered the Team Rocket bases, “but I’ve been in danger before. You can’t stop me from getting into danger Lola.”
“I can, I’m your mother!” she said reflexively, only to look down, apparently understanding it was a weak argument.
“I’m a grown man now,” I replied firmly.
“Guess I missed that happening… just one of those things that happened while I was… away.”
“Hmmm,” I replied evenly.
When she continued looking morose, I considered getting up and leaving her, but then I thought about Flint and Yolanda and even my younger siblings.
“You’ve been getting better,” I offered, “I was honestly surprised when you… betrayed my expectations as you did. That probably stung the most.”
Lola blinked. “Oh… sorry,” she offered, sounding like she actually meant it.
“Keep working on it,” I said.
“I will, it’s just…” she swallowed and sighed. “In that situation, I just stopped thinking and started reacting to it. Things got messed up in here,” she said, tapping her head. “The fighter in me and the Mum you could say?”
“That makes a lot of sense,” I replied.
“Does this mean you won’t call for my help again? I was super happy to spend time with you saving those people in Cinnabar, even if I didn’t like being left behind then.”
“Ah, sorry, in that situation Sabrina and I needed to move fast, and adding you might have messed up our teamwork; that and I suspected that if Blaine had truly been there, having you come in as cavalry might have been the best call,” I suggested.
Lola blinked, then blinked again. Then she blushed and flapped her hand at me sheepishly. “Oh you! Such a smooth talker! You got that from Flint!”
“Hmmm,” I replied, deciding not to grace that with an actual response.
Lola smiled at me before nodding. “I’m going to get a drink!” Then her eyes turned to Bruno and Surge. “And I might see about earning some pocket money.”
I had a suspicion that both men were about to be hustled as she adopted an innocent expression.
“You do recall that you have like a ton of money from connecting those three regions to ours, yeah?” I pointed out.
Lola smirked. “This and that are different things,” she remarked. “Also, money won is much sweeter than money earned!”
That got a snort from me as she flounced away with a vapid expression.
A nudge from my bond alerted me to my pokemon wanting to ‘order through me’ causing me to snort again as I rose and joined Sabrina at the bar.
“Gym Leader,” the barman grunted, “you’re a good man, but I won’t give you alcohol!” he declared sternly.
I glanced to the side where Erika had a large glass with bubbles, fruit and a swirly straw in front of herself.
“That’s a mocktail,” the man defended firmly, and I chuckled.
“Right, well I need to put in a food order for the outside tables. “I need thirty plates of nachos, twenty ribs, the pizza vegetarian special, eight ‘barrels’ worth of chips and fifty jugs of lemonade,” I stated.
The man paused, then leaned slightly off to the side to look out the window. “Oh, we got customers alright,” he muttered as he rang me up, only to activate his transceiver. “Hey, it’s Frank, get everyone. We just got a rush during off-hours,” he said to his transceiver.
Then he hung up and nodded. “Anything else I can get you?” he asked.
“Lemonade for myself I guess?” I replied, not really feeling up for a mocktail or any fake beers.
“On the house,” he replied merrily.
My eyes drifted to the bottom of the receipt, or more specifically, to the three zeros at the end. I decided not to point out how it had damn well better be as I took the drink and walked back to my table.
Erika happily sipped from her straw, “Mmmm, coconut!” she gushed.
I raised my glass towards her. “Great work out there. I liked what you did with Rage Powder,” I offered.
“I liked how you struck that Moltres out of the sky!” Erika replied merrily before turning and bowing to Sabrina. “Thank you for all the Barriers and Reflects you were layering over my pokemon.” She glanced outside and shook her head. “It’s going to take days of care to get them fully rehydrated and patched up.”
“Yeah, I’m going to have to do a pretty careful sweep over my pokemon. I’m pretty sure Titan has a few melted scales at least, which will make him unable to fight while they heal.”
Pryce and Oak joined us only to sink into their chairs with matching groans.
Erika bit her lip and looked away, only for Pryce to snort. “I know I sound old, but that’s because I am! You’ll pick up some habits of grunting and groaning when you move, trust me!”
He brought his drink up to his lips and blew on it, causing the glass to frost over slightly while Erika shivered and adjusted her chair.
Oak stared at the ceiling for a long moment, then raised his beer only to pour some on the floor.
Pryce’s lips twisted in annoyance, but he took a drink instead of commenting on the action.
I wasn’t sure if it was for Blaine or his memory of Blaine before things went truly bad. Perhaps there had been a period when Blaine had been perfectly friendly?
“What’s going to happen to Blaine’s pokemon?” I asked. “The usual appeasement methods with breeding groups unless they prove to be too violent?”
“I worry that Blaine has taught them too much for them to ever be introduced into society in a healthy manner,” Oak replied, still staring at the ceiling. “He never had any eggs from his pokemon, you know? In retrospect, that should have been a warning sign.”
“Eggs?” I asked, confused by the question or its significance.
“None of his pokemon bred,” Pryce stated. “Do you know how much stress you need to induce into a species to make them not want to breed? Then again, with what we know now, Blaine might have broken them to only enjoy violent acts. His pokemon always were more sadistic during fights.”
I recalled a few moments in the fight that I hadn’t been able to react or acknowledge at the time, where pokemon had gone for trainers’ throats. Sometimes attacks that might have been debilitating instead went for strikes at injured parts, trying to elicit more pain from the injured pokemon.
Which had somewhat worked in Oak’s favour with so many of Blaine’s pokemon targeting his Blastoise’s damaged shell.
Erika perked up. “Speaking of pokemon! Those moves you used! Frenzy Plant and the others! Blast Fire and Bubble Cannon!” Erika gushed, causing me to chuckle as she zeroed in on her move while remembering the bare minimum of the others.
“Ah, Frenzy Plant, Blast Burn, and Hydro Cannon are moves that I have been working on. You’ll be happy to learn they are not combination moves that are the product of specialised training, just hard work I suppose you could say?” Oak answered, straightening up into his professor pose.
“I also noticed that your Dragonite’s Hyper Beam was way stronger than… well, pretty much any other Hyper Beam I’ve witnessed before bar perhaps a few Legendary pokemon I’ve encountered.”
Oak made a tamping gesture with his hands. “The effect is the same as a normal Hyper Beam but I realised that instead of unleashing a long beam, it is actually more devastating to make an attack with a single hit. It comes with its own issues of course.”
“Looked like it took your Dragonite slightly longer to recover?” I asked, earning a nod from Oak.
“Indeed!” he grinned at me happily.
“Did you work backwards from there? Develop a move specific to the starter trio that mimics Hyper Beam?”
Oak’s smile grew slightly wider. “Ha! Right in one! It always interested me that some of the strongest moves that exist are all normal typed. So I decided to put that to the test. I’ve worked out a special attack move with the trio, but as yet I have no physical attack.”
“Can you teach it?” Erika asked quickly, stopping us from delving too deep into theory with Oak blinking.
“Hmmm? Oh Yes! Indeed, I will be able to! I have yet to verify if it is a move that can be inherit—”
“My gym would gladly offer up their breeding population to check!” Erika offered instantly.
I chuckled and sat back as Oak and Erika began discussing logistics.
Lola, I noted, while listening in, didn’t offer up her pokemon but then again, she probably wouldn’t see the benefit of such a big attack that left her team struggling for the next few seconds in a fight.
“Oooooh, does all this talk of stronger moves make you worried Pryce?” Lola called from where she was lining up what looked like a winning shot of pool.
Bruno looked a bit stumped while Surge had a huge grin on his face.
Meanwhile, I was reeling that she was apparently taunting Pryce?
Pryce set his beer on the table and locked eyes with her. Then, with a dry voice he said, “Sheer Cold.”
“Oh? Remind me how that worked against Blaine? Oh, what’s that, it didn’t!”
Pryce surprised me by making a rude gesture at her that drew a giggle from Lola. He went back to drinking and she returned to robbing Surge and Bruno.
Their interaction got another chuckle out of me, and I settled back with Sabrina leaning into me.
It was rather amusing hearing Erika gush over the power of these new ‘ultimate moves’ but I knew that as soon as we got to Z moves and Dynamax attacks.
Then again, with the new regions and pokemon that I was learning about that exist these days, there was every chance that even those had been left in the dirt in terms of raw power.
Still, the second it was feasible, I was going to make a beeline to Alola to learn it. If for no other reason than to see how it interacts with aura to get the training for various typings.
Oak had proven it was possible after all.
Just as I was starting to relax, an idea slipped to the front of my mind like Ash past a police tape.
“If Blaine had access to all of that for the last few years… what about the organisation that was supporting him?”
Everyone paused at my words.
Prcye sighed loudly, causing another chill to sweep the table. “I’m too old for this sort of talk. Leave that for the young ones or at least until tomorrow,” He raised his hand, and the barman brought another beer over for him.
Surge nodded. “Yeah, Brock! Don’t be a buzzkill!” he called as he snatched up another beer, only for the barman to give him a flat look.
Surge coughed. “Uhmmm, put it on his tab!” he said, pointing to me.
“Oi!” I called as I attempted to sit up, only for Sabrina to hold me in place.
She remained perfectly still with her head on my shoulder. “Don’t move Brock, I’m comfortable, and you can afford it.”
Surge, sensing weakness, grinned wider only for Sabrina to lift her head slightly. “Surge, if you don’t behave, I will play you in pool,” she threatened.
“You’d cheat!” Surge growled, stabbing a huge finger in her direction.
Sabrina arched an eyebrow. “Like you haven’t been?” she replied, resting her head back down.
Bruno swivelled his head about onto Surge, like a turret locking onto a target. “You cheated?” he rumbled, muscles tensing in a way that my training sessions with Lola told me he was about to throw a punch.
“Only when you did!” Surge shot back.
Bruno paused to consider this with narrowed eyes, his hand coming up to rub his chin.
Pryce snorted. “That’s going to keep him busy for the rest of the day,” he joked.
Surge decided to join us, sitting with the chair in reverse with a six-pack in front of him that he slowly worked through.
Bruno remained standing, still rubbing his chin while Lola tricked any other patrons of the bar into attempting to claim the table from her.
“I suppose if there’s one good thing to come from all this chaos, the organisation Blaine was working with won’t want to cause trouble for a bit, with how pretty much everyone jumped on Blaine after what he did. I can’t imagine Lance is going to leave them alone after the Porygon swarm alone.”
Which caused me to sigh. “I still need to refit my server room… and possibly redo… so many training videos that I had up on the pokenet page.”
“Young people's problems,” Pryce cut in.
“Oh, go get yourself a mint lolly,” Surge grunted. “Old people like those, right?”
Oak, who was in the process of unwrapping a lolly glanced down at it. “Ah… caught in the crossfire,” he muttered, only to shrug and pop it into his mouth.
Erika giggled, and that caused the rest of us to laugh along at the silliness of the moment.
The rest of the afternoon passed in much the same vein with us all unwinding from the various battles we’d been involved in, along while throwing the occasional joke at each other.
When it was time to depart, I stepped outside only to find most of my pokemon team asleep, with Link walking around busing the tables and helping the waitstaff to clean up, along with a few of Erika’s pokemon.
Glancing around, I found Titan caught by Bertha in a ‘trapped’ position, which explained why he wasn’t helping out like he might have usually.
Returning my pokemon and stretching once before the final Teleport I was glad to find myself back home after the adventure we’d just been on.
“Mum! Brock! Big Sis!” cheered my family, causing me to feel another piece of me unwind.
Suzie threw herself at Sabrina, of course while the others split evenly between myself and Lola only to give Lola odd looks. “Ewwww! " You smell like cigarettes and bad drinks!” said Tilly.
Flint stiffened. “Lola?”
“I was at a bar with Brock after our recent adventure. We were just unwinding,” she said, only to draw out a stack of pokecash. “And I was making some money!” she cheered.
Flint snorted, relaxing as his eyes darted to me. He gave me a once-over before nodding once, glad to see I was alright. I returned the nod.
It was damn good to be home.
Sadly, I knew that I was going to have a lot of work to catch up on. Sabrina yawned loudly and I shot her a worried look that she waved off. ‘I’ll sleep later,” she murmured, "Just don’t expect to see me for a day or so out of bed.”
Inwardly, I slumped. I’d forgotten that she’d get like that for a moment there. I’d hoped that after dealing with my family, we’d get some one-on-one time.
She shot me an amused look. “I’m not that tired,” she pointed out with a slightly husky tone of voice.
Oh… nice!
With my happy ending pretty much locked in, I grinned, knowing that despite everything that had happened, the day had been saved.
[hr][/hr]
A.N. Thank you to my patreons for your continued support!
It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading!