Hard Enough

I drummed my fingers on the table before me, as I toyed with my breakfast with the other hand. Next to me a stack of papers were arrayed with the various notes I’d created for Kaede and her pokemon team.

Surprisingly, and at the same time not really, the biggest stack of notes belonged to Furret.

AKA, Samurai Furret, the movie, drama, action star, cum professional battler pokemon.

For such a small pokemon, it had a lengthy list of accomplishments to its name, including outfoxing a Gyarados during Kaede’s journey to get her into the semifinals of the end-of-circuit tournament.

It had then stood up against two more pokemon during the semifinals, a Machoke and then a Wartortle, before falling to a Venomoth.

It had an annoying trick involving Baton Pass that I was glad to know about ahead of time along with its frankly absurd move pool. The latest match he’d featured in had him performing no less than nine different moves.

I was confident that it possessed Keen Eye, considering it had a penchant for fighting through low visibility to land hits on pokemon that should have been able to evade it.

It was an extremely versatile pokemon that was able to act as a ‘dodge tank’ along with delivering deft strikes that could tip the scales when push came to shove.

I was honestly very impressed that Kaede had trained her pokemon to this degree.

“So… is Samurai Furret going to be allowed to use his Ninetails Sealed Sword?” asked Tommy.

“No, this is a pokemon battle, not a samurai drama,” I said, not really understanding what he was referencing but knowing that that sort of item would not be allowed.

Tommy nodded. “That’s good, otherwise I was going to say, you should forfeit. He’s used it to beat an entire army before!”

I chuckled, knowing it was a losing battle to point out that what happened on the shows was not indicative of real life. There weren’t any magic swords that could solo armies in this…

Could Aegislash be used in that manner? That would make sense with it being the sword pokemon. Hmmm, if we eventually got access to Kalos, that might be worth looking into. Heck, if Forrest did decide to commit and become a steel type specialist, it would fit him perfectly. Although he’d need to learn some tricks that ghost types were known to need.

I shook my head. No, bad brain. Focus.

I turned to the other pokemon on Kaede’s team that I was worried about.

Gardevoir.

While it was a pokemon that was often viewed as nothing more than a paramour for certain rich gentlemen, it was also a powerhouse pokemon with a ton of versatile moves and skill. It had less special attack than an Alakazam and way less speed, but it made up for it with stronger defences and health.

Its known moves from the last report where Kaede had been observed training the pokemon listed it as knowing Teleport, Draining Kiss, Psybeam, Psychic, and Double Team, but I suspected that there would be more to this pokemon than meets the eye.

Just as Blissey was another worry. Most people had the impression that Chansey were weak healing pokemon that wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Those people hadn’t seen a Chansey wrestle recalcitrant pokemon onto a testing bed to find out what was wrong with it. They didn’t overpower their foes as much as they wore them down with their endurance..

Blissey would be a hard tank. It was a pokemon I knew to have a vast amount of health, special defense, and some decent special attack. If I faced that pokemon, I needed to get physical with it.

Blissey would also offer some off-the-wall challenges with Sweet Kiss and Copycat being known moves for it when it was a Chansey. As a Chansey, it had notoriously confused and left pokemon beaten in its wake that it should have lost to.

Then there was Whishcash.

A pokemon that was deceptively a good choice to have in any team. The water-ground typing making it much tougher for me to handle with its limited weaknesses. If I had a Cradily up to snuff, I’d use it here against Kaede. But if wishes were fishes I’d have a ton of Goldeen, as the saying goes.

“Brock, you’re sighing a lot,” said Yolanda.

“Yeah Brock, you need to smile more,” Tommy said. “Like this!” he said, making his face turn into a scowl only to then stand from the table and march to the side where he performed a handstand and turned his frown literally upside down.

The other kids giggled and clapped, and I felt my mood improve. Sabrina nudged me. “It’s alright Brock, I’ll stick around the house today and have some girl time with Suzie,” she said, deciding that my issues were due to the attempted break in that had occurred.

I nodded. She wasn’t wrong, as that was a weight on me that I couldn’t really resolve. When the dead drop proved to be a dead end with there being multiple people and even pokemon that deposited and picked up packages from the box, it became extremely hard or outright impossible with how you would have to practically squat there.

No one wanted to have Sabrina sit around doing nothing. She was way too valuable for that. That being said, Looker still had a few agents watching the site and following through on anyone that picked up anything.

I suspected that anyone who was dropping off were also getting assessed, with the drop site being a potential point of interest for blackmarket dealers.

“Thanks, Sabrina,” I said, easily leaning over and giving her a kiss in thanks.

Yolanda flicked her eyes to the papers spread out in front of me. “Having trouble with who you’re going to use?”

I shook my head. “If anything, I think I have a solid team ready to go, I just… need to make a call.”

I decided now was as good a time as any and so I moved to the nearby pokemon transfer system. A quick ring had Dennis on the phone.

“Brock! Who do you want me to send?” he asked seriously.

“Send over Don, and Empress,” I said. Dennis’ eyes widened, but he just nodded. I thought about it for a second more before adding. “Also send over Teddi… ursa,” I hurried to add, not wanting to let the name ‘Teddy’ stick with him.

He was strong enough that I could have him guarding some of the younger kids without people thinking too much about it. Teddiursa were cute pokemon after all.

When the three pokeballs emerged before me, I attached them to my belt, having already swapped them for other pokemon.

With that done I considered the team I’d started to compile.

Empress, Don, Sanchez, and Hypnotoad… which left one slot for Titan… and then who else?

Should I go with Gawain? He had a good set up, but he’d only be matching off against Gardevoir if things went well. Something that Empress and Titan should be more than able to handle.

As for the grass types, I was going to bet on Don against them.

For her normal types I was going to stick with Hypnotoad for her fighting type moves, but also have further back up with her Darkest Lariat.

Looking over her team, a few things had stood out to me. She didn’t have any flying type pokemon, and her team could be summarised as ‘anti-dragon’ to an extreme extent.

From the small interaction I’d had with her, that… made a bit of sense, with how she’d seemed to detest Bruce. Or had there been something else in place?

It was interesting that she was from Blackthorn and instead of having dragon-type pokemon in her roster, she had their antithesis.

Considering her team, I felt like I was more threatened by her fairy-type pokemon than anything else.

So, if I read into the fact that her team was anti-dragon, it stood to reason that she knew how powerful these pokemon were when used properly.

So… Gardevoir would be throwing down not just Psychics and Psybeams, but also Moonblasts. It might be a stretch, but my instincts were flaring up, and after yesterday’s issues I was going to follow them as much as I could.

So, I needed something that would be strong against that.

And one of the strongest teams I could assemble would need a steel type for this match.

And the strongest I had also had another ace up their sleeve.

I added Jormungandr to my team of six and nodded to myself, confident that this was my best team for fighting Kaede. I glanced towards Link’s pokeball… unless… No, that was getting too complicated. I had set up, I had power and skill, along with a Mega Evolution.

I had counters to psychic, fairy, normal, ice, grass, and fighting types.

I could do this.

“So what are we going to do this morning, gang?” I said marching back into our now much cleaner apartment to find my family lounging around. With my match later this afternoon once more, I was planning to just relax and keep things as normal as possible.

It would also be a good idea to keep things calm with my family, make things business as usual.

I plucked two pokeballs off my belt and sent out Link and Teddiursa. Both pokemon blinked in surprise, only for Zubat to flutter up to them and greet them by circling them.

“Zu! Zu! Zubat!” she chirped, flitting around and around and around their heads.

Link spun around on the spot to keep his eyes on her. “Fable? Fable?” he said with a gasp, while Teddiursa merely sat down and tracked her by moving his eyes. I watched them interact with amusement.

“Is Zubat explaining what happened yesterday?” I asked Sabrina.

She nodded. “Yes, she is rather dramatising it, however, with the fight being much closer.”

Zubat pretended to flutter and fade before suddenly accelerating and shouting something.

I narrowed my eyes. This level of energy sort of reminded me of a much younger Bertha… Or a Bertha that had just found a mud pit… or been given too many jazz berries.

“Is she talking about magical girls now?” I asked suspiciously.

Sabrina’s lips twitched. “No, she’s not,” she said.

I shot Sabrina a look, but she moved away from me to sit next to Suzie.

I looked around the room and found that no one had moved. “Hey? Guys? Girls? What are we doing this morning? We have the beach? The pool? We can go shopping!” I said listing off various activities, a few kids perking up, only for Salvadore to straighten up.

“No! We need to watch the matches and see who you’re going to be facing! Today is the snarky girl’s turn!” he said.

“Snarky girl?” I asked, taking a moment, only for an image of Karen smirking flash to the forefront of my mind. “Oh, Karen,” I said. “I forgot about her,” I said, rubbing my chin. With all the drama of yesterday, I hadn’t even checked to see how she'd gone against…

“Who did she fight yesterday?” I asked, turning to Sabrina.

Sabrina preened in a way that let me know I’d done something good.

Ah, this was me not paying attention to Karern, wasn’t it? I had to admit I didn’t do it for her, but I’d happily claim the benefits of my forgetting Karen to score with my girlfriend.

“She fought Walker,” said Savladore. “It was superheated! Walker was all trying to fight against her for his son’s honour! He had Noctowl blowing away her pokemon, and then had a Skarmory lance her pokemon!”

“Ho?” I said. It sounded like Walker might have—

“She beat him three to six,” said Olga from next to Salvadore.

Salvadore rounded on her. “Olga!? I was trying to hype up the match! Walker did really well!”

“He got cocky and fell to a Perish Song with a Mean Look… twice,” said Olga.

I glanced around and noted that all the boys looked rather annoyed. Like Walker hadn’t stood up for male pride, or something. If that had been the case, it would have been playing right into Karen’s hands. So I really hoped he hadn’t let Karen get to him.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Still…”Perish Song? Twice?” I said looking at Olga.

Olga nodded. “Yes,” she said curling in on herself. I blinked.

Sabrina coughed. “He’s not angry like the other boys were when they learned how Walker lost, he wants to know more details. “

Salvadore shot back to his feet. “See the thing was, Brock, that Pidgeot was out with Agility, setting it up as a beast in terms of speed! So—”

“Pidgeot got Sucker Punched and while it was floundering it got hit with a Confusion by her Mismagius, which left it open to Perish Song after Honchkrow got off an earlier Mean Look. Karen then waited him out by baiting him into trying his luck against her Gengar, who was even faster than Pidgeot,” summarised Yolanda.

I turned my head to her, ignoring Salvadore as he stood with his mouth open for a moment. Then I coughed, hiding my smile behind my hand. “Yolanda, Salvadore was talking, maybe let him talk?” I said.

It was amusing how the girls were shutting down any excitement that boys had. I would have to let the boys have their chance to build it up though, otherwise they’d be grumbly for the rest of the day.

“It sounds like Karen was her usual loveable self,” I said, claiming a spot next to Sabrina, only for Zubat to claim my shoulder while Teddiursa moved over to inspect the incubator Suzie had in her arms.

Link trotted over to greet Kirlia. He then spun on the spot, only for the little fairy pokemon to sniff and twirl herself. Her spin was much more graceful.

Link grinned and repeated himself, if anything doing it even worse. I watched, mesmerised, as Kirlia went for more and more skilful spins, while Link went the opposite way.

Both of them were impressive, but I couldn’t help my bias for Link’s style. It was way more amusing.

When he eventually tottered over, everyone in the room noticed and laughed.

Teddiursa ‘roared’ with laughter, curling into himself and kicking his feet back and forth while his barks rang out.

Link just stood there with a huge grin. He bowed like a trooper, and then adopted a sheepish expression as he rubbed the back of his head, like he couldn’t believe he’d just challenged a Kirlia to something she’d innately be good at.

Kirlia lifted her nose smugly, not realising how she’d just played the straight man in Link’s impromptu comedy skit.

I chuckled and looked back to Salvadore. “Sorry Salv, you were saying?” I asked.

Salvadore blinked, having forgotten what we’d been talking about only to perk up. “So Walker led with his Noctowl, which seemed a bit weird, but he had a plan—”

I lay back and listened in. The fight sounded like it went much as I would expect it to, with Karen calling the shots. Her third ‘knockout’ of the match was in truth a Destiny Bond that she’d committed to, in order to knock Walker’s Swellow out after it proved to be a bit more powerful than people had been expecting.

She’d then gone to town on him with her Sneasel ripping through the last remaining pokemon of his team after she’d devastated him.

“It’s kind of impressive how she can psych people out with her words and shi…” Salvadore broke away from swearing before the word could fully form. His eyes darted around the room at all of the little kids and he changed tack quickly. “Horrible attitude,” he said.

I nodded, amused that Salvadore of all people had almost sworn. Good thing he’d stopped himself. I shot Salvadore a pleased look, glad for his correction. Still, I’d need to talk to him about where he’d gotten the idea it was a good idea to swear at all.

Movement in the doorway made me spot Flint who’d been looking in. He was mirroring me, his eyes locked on Salvadore with approval.

I coughed, “Heh, well yeah, she’s dedicated herself to using a pokemon type that isn’t as popular but she can do really well with it to be perfectly honest.”

The kids nodded along at this. I gave the room another look over. “So, we’re watching her match? And not going to the pool or anything else?” I said, double-checking. I flicked my eyes to Cindy who was being very quiet.

That was something I would need to check in about.

Sabrina sighed in mock exasperation. “They’re committed to trying to help you, Brock,” she said.

She then leaned in. “Some of the older kids also want to stay in to make sure people don’t try to sneak in again,” she said, eyes pointedly not looking at Cindy as she stage whispered this to me.

I grimaced. That… wasn’t what I was hoping would be their reaction, but it did make a little too much sense given what had happened.

I nodded and turned on Battlecast to watch the morning announcers begin to hype up the match of Karen versus Carr.

I hummed, interested now that I knew Karen would be facing off against the second seed.

“So, Carr. He’s got some strong pokemon, but is there anything about him that stands out?” I asked.

Yolanda opened her mouth before grimacing. “This match is probably… going to have a lot of censoring,” she said.

I blinked at that. “Excuse me?” I asked, unsure if I heard her right.

Yolanda nodded. “It doesn’t happen all the time, but when Carr gets heated, he can start swearing at people. It’s… something he does and has been penalised for, but…” she shrugged. “It sorta puts off his opponents, so… it works for him?” she said.

I blinked in surprise. “So you mean to tell me that the second seed trainer in the Ace Circuit is a foul-mouthed kid?” I said.

Yolanda nodded. “It’s impressive that he got that high for his age.”

I was about to ask about that when realisation hit me. “Oh no… Karen’s going to feed into that, isn’t she?” I asked, knowing what was about to happen.

I suddenly sat up. “Do we have parental controls on this television?” I asked, reaching for the remote before I blinked. I glanced at Salvadore.

“How heated did Carr get yesterday?” I asked. Had Flint been watching the match with the kids? What did they hear?

Salvadore blushed and looked away.

Suzie looked up and opened her mouth. “What is a dumb mother—” Sabrina’s hand came down on her mouth.

“It’s not a nice word,” she said gently. “Magical Girl Scouts don’t use those words,” she said seriously.

Suzie nodded. “I understand!” she said.

I glanced towards Salvadore and he blushed. “I forgot she was there!” he said.

I huffed. “You shouldn’t have been listening to it if it got that heated either,” I said.

I turned my attention from him to the normally responsible one, Yolanda. She pointed at Billy. “He needed to go to the bathroom and wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I had to escort him. By the time I got here I missed most of Carr’s match,” she said. She grimaced. “When he’s winning he doesn’t swear, so I kind of forgot.”

“It’s alright, I guess,” I said. “Nothing that they wouldn’t pick up from walking through the foundry or a wharf in Cerulean, I suppose,” I said aloud.

Salvadore coughed. “Carr apparently swears like he does because he hangs out with pokemon technicians! Is that better?”

I snorted. “That’s worse, so much worse.”

I nodded, bringing up the television’s settings to adjust them so that the censor was firmly in place so little ears wouldn’t be learning any more ‘interesting’ words.

When Karen and Carr appeared on the field, this was proven to be a good idea.

Karen didn’t even wait for them to be on the podium. She locked eyes with Carr as they marched into the stadium, smirk firmly in place as she said: “So? Have your balls dropped yet, or are you still squeakier than a —’s chew toy?”.

Carr’s eyes narrowed to slits. “You f—ing —! I’ll f— you up! You’re going to —” he said, sprinting up to his podium to lean over it so he could shout obscenities at Karen.

Karen just grinned wider at his reaction. She made a sign that I knew to mean ‘little man’ in a lot of circles. It usually had connotations about the size of a man’s family jewels, but Carr obviously took it as a slight to his height.

“You cocky b—”

The referee tried to get things under control, only for him to be ignored.

Both Karen and Carr continued to insult each other.

The crowd seemed to both love and hate it, as various people were cheering, while parents who had come with their children were horrified. More than a few had their hands clamped over their children’s ears while they dragged the kids from the stadium

I pursed my lips and decided to mute the television to be on the safe side.

“Wow, maximum no chill from the start much?” I said aloud.

The referee looked very annoyed and his hand came down on a button in the middle of his console. His mouth worked for a moment and I kind of regretted muting him, but there was no way I was risking hearing what Karen and Carr were saying.

“What’s he saying?” asked Suzie, kicking her feet while cuddling her body around the incubator.

Sabrina sat upright, her eyes glowing slightly. “He’s saying that he is mortified and disheartened about their lack of sportsmanship. That both trainers are not upholding the code by which trainers should conduct themselves, and that if they continue in this manner they will be both expelled from the match, allowing their bracket to simply be closed off,” she said.

“Oh! Right, you can make out what they’re saying, can’t you?” said Yolanda, leaning back into the couch.

I kept my eyes on the television, glad that we had a workaround. I didn’t trust the captions to not report the exact words said despite the censor, so having Sabrina act as an intermediary was the best option.

The referee’s declaration seemed to garner a reaction from both Carr and Karen as they shut up quickly. On-screen, their jaws snapped shut and they looked a little chagrined.

The referee eyed them both and then continued speaking, his mouth opening and closing.

“He says he wants a clean match and that his earlier statement stands,” reported Sabrina. “He is now going through the standards by which trainers should conduct themselves and what regulations are in place.”

I watched along with everyone else as the screen split to show both Karen and Carr as they eyed each other. Karen looked all too amused, while Carr looked seconds from spitting out more profanities.

“How come Carr hasn’t been called out in the past?” asked Salvadore.

I had to admit it was a good question. I tilted my head. “I… don’t know?” I admitted.

The kids all stared at me, before as one swivelling their attention to Sabrina.

Sabrina hummed. “The rules that govern pokemon battles are often left to the referee that conducts the match. Often if the trainer swears or talks to put off their opponent, then it is up to the referee to determine what is too much. Referees in the past might have been willing to let things slide, due to it being deemed match banter, however this referee appears much stricter and also the ‘banter’ was occurring before either had sent out a pokemon.”

“Ohhhhh,” said Salvadore. “So it’s possible he could have been penalised in the past if the refs had thought it too much?”

“Most refs want to stay as hands-off as possible,” I said, knowing this to be true. “No one likes it when refs had to step in too much. My match with William was one that featured the most referee involvement in recent history.”

“Recent history?” Olga asked.

“There was a match about…. Five years ago? I said uncertainly. I shrugged. “Anyway, it was during the Indigo Tournament and the trainer in question had reached the semi-final. They then realised they weren't going to get any further for whatever reason so they decided to cheat. That match had eight involvements from the referee due to tampering, pokemon doping, and illegal switchouts,” I said.

“I see,” said Olga, eyes darting down to her own transceiver.

Yolanda eyed me. “Was that around the time you were Journeying?” she asked.

I nodded. “It was. I didn’t face that trainer, but I was at the Plateau when a lot of the drama unfolded,” I said.

“The match is starting,” Sabrina said, making us look back to find that both Carr and Karen were sending out their first pokemon.

Carr unleashed a Forretress, while Karen led with Gengar.

“Hmmm, Gengar should take it,” I said.

We watched as on the silent television Gengar started the match by accelerating in with a Fire Punch straight into the steel-bug-typed pokemon.

The hit probably would have been enough to knock Forretress out if it wasn’t a pokemon with the Sturdy ability.

Carr growled something out and his pokemon glowed before exploding, releasing a powerful shockwave.

Salvadore scratched his head. “It’s kind of weird not being able to hear the commentators and the sound,” he said.

I grimaced and decided to risk it. I turned the volume back on in time for Gengar to stagger out of the dust cloud, only to smirk and hover up with a mad cackle.

“Oh yeah! Who’s bad? We’re bad!” cheered Karen.

“You got lucky, you…” Carr trailed off only for his eyes to flicker to the ref who was leaning forward in anticipation. Carr swallowed down what he was going to say and instead selected his next pokemon. He chose Mr. Mime.

I hummed. “On paper… albeit the current papers anyway, that was a decent idea,” I said.

Salvadore and Olga glanced at me, but Yolanda beat them to the punch. “It’s a psychic pokemon, no?”

“It is, but it also has a fairy typing,” I said.

Sabrina nodded. “And Gengar is part poison type. Karen… horrible woman that she is, will know this, but she will most likely stick with the advantage her ghost pokemon confers,” she said.

The girls whirled back, looking extremely enthused, which caused Sabrina to roll her eyes as they took up cheering on Karen over Carr.

Karen knew she was taking hold of the fight as well, as she hammered Mr Mime with Shadow Ball after Shadow Ball, only to close with her foe after it used Barrier after Barrier to deflect or delay moves from slamming into it.

Gengar didn’t punch or blast Mr. Mime from up close, he instead chose to Lick Mr. Mime, which resulted in it stiffening and falling on its face.

Karen leered at Carr and went for the kill, only for a lash of psychic energy to blast out of nowhere into Gengar, blowing it back and sending it into the ground where it struggled to stand before collapsing.

Carr grinned maliciously. “What’s the matter? Need some glasses? You missed me getting off a Future Sight!” he announced proudly.

Karen, rather than getting mad, merely returned her pokemon and sent another back out. “Finish it,” she said to the Honchkrow that appeared.

Mr Mime remained on the ground and Karen had no issues beating it into the ground and taking the match to a two-one lead.

From there things stayed tight, with Carr revealing that he’d assembled a powerful anti-dark team with fighting types like Poliwrath, Beedrill, and a Hitmontop, only for them to amount to nothing in the face of Karen’s own strategies that anticipated and countered her weaknesses.

It helped that she had pokemon like Honchkrow and her Houndoom to close out bug and fighting type pokemon. With the match reaching five to two after Hitmontop and Honchkrow took each other out in a double knock out, Carr was twitching and glowering at Karen, who looked all too pleased with herself.

He glared at Karen before a smirk began to form on his lips as he reached for a pokeball on his hip.

I sat up, instincts from having to deal with various gym matches giving me insight into what was happening. “Carr’s about to do something stupid,” I said.

I was proven correct when a moment later he sent out a Gyarados that was gigantic, and it looked already enraged. It glowered like it hated the world, and I knew instantly this was a pokemon that had not evolved in happy circumstances.

It went straight into a rampage against Karen and her Houndoom, catching them off guard and causing Houndoom to be sent soaring into a wall.

Karen herself had to duck a lash of water. The referee was quick to slap a bell. “Contain your pokemon!” he ordered Carr, but Carr was too busy watching Karen get assaulted.

I rose about to say that we needed to get there and help out, only for something in Karen to snap.

“Houndoom! Overheat!” she roared.

Houndoom, instead of still being against the wall from the powerful hit, revealed itself to be right in front of Karen’s podium. It braced itself and a powerful wave of heat rippled out, causing the lashing waves that Gyarados’ rampage was causing to evaporate.

Houndoom didn’t stop there and a bright red flame built within its maw as it locked onto Gyarados.

The water serpent locked eyes with Houndoom and what looked like a Hyper Beam began to form, only for Houndoom to act first, unleashing a powerful blast of flame that was white hot in intensity.

Around me more than a few kids lurched back in shock at the intensity of the attack.

When the screen dimmed it revealed a charred-looking Gyarados swaying uncertainly. Carr gaped in shock. “What? But that… no! Water types beat fire…” he said.

“Shows what you know. Don’t lump my Houndoom with the rest of those sissies,” Karen huffed.

She then looked Gyarados up and down and gave a sniff, as though annoyed her not very effective move had only staggered it. “Finish it with a Hyper Beam of your own!” She called, and this time instead of a beam of flame, Houndoom unleashed a beam of pure energy to end the match.

The referee was quick to call the match when Gyarados hit the ground with a wet gurgle. I noticed it was leaking a bit of blood. Carr returned it with a scowl. “Fat lot of good you were!” he said to the pokeball.

He didn’t wait around to congratulate Karen, instead, he shot her a hateful look, only to turn his back on her and hop off the podium to march out of the arena. He notably ignored the commands from the referee to stop, instead kicking a door open and storming out.

I whistled. “Wow… that… was not how I expected that match to go… at all,” I said. I couldn’t say I was surprised. Carr had lost his cool from the start and Karen had pounced with better tactics. Gyarados however… That was going to raise some questions.

“He’s going to be in so much trouble!” sing-songed Suzie.

I nodded. Carr was probably going to be questioned about that stunt with the Gyarados. No ifs or buts. You simply did not do that at a high end tournament, and as an Ace trainer? He had no excuses that a trainer starting out might have had.

It had to be deliberate.

A ping on my Xtransciever notified me that it was time to go, as the organisers tried to settle things down. Sabrina teleported me over to the arena, before leaving me to watch over the kids.

There was only one more match before me and I only watched it idly. I noted down that Joshua took it rather easily all told, but that he was notably much more sportsmanlike in congratulating his opponent for a well-fought match.

With that done, it was my turn.

I marched out and locked eyes with Kaede, letting everything else fall by the wayside.

I allowed myself to forget my family, forget what had happened here earlier today, and instead focus on the here and now. Kaede met my gaze and I had to admit, she looked just as motivated.

We both raised our first choices and sent them out at the referee’s direction.

Kaede sent out Furret, the Samurai Furret as her opening move. The crowd went nuts with the little pokemon spinning and landing with a heroic pose. If this were a contest, I’d have given her points for the entrance.

Instead, I countered with Empress, who landed on two feet, but sent a shockwave through the field while rumbling out a growl.

Both pokemon locked eyes as trainers did the same. I felt the frisson through the air.

Time to see what she could do against my best.