Hard Enough

Hard Enough - Chapter 301 - Homeward bound

Of all the ways that Lola could make her way back to Kanto and the family. This, this was the method that I’d never once considered.

How could I have?

The world had to have gone mad. For a moment I considered laughing at the absurdity of it, but I stopped myself before I could even start giggling, doing so would likely cause a manic episode that no one would like to see.

Still, in no sane world would I have ever considered Lola of all people being successful in finding the other regions.

Heck, she wasn’t just successful, but wildly successful.

Which probably made it worse, not better.

Lola was going to be in the public spotlight in a way that I don’t think I could understand. I’d drawn attention with my defeat of Lance and subsequent actions as a Gym Leader. That had gathered attention from various news outlets.

Lola though. She had done more. She’d opened the world back up. It wasn’t just Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and the archipelago islands.

Now it was Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos.

I’d assumed things were going to be like the games, with a single region being discovered at a time.

It seems Arceus was laughing at that idea. The world was about to get very chaotic with how much bigger it was going to get.

My mind could document all of that but the thing that really stuck in my craw was that I was in Hoenn when Lola turned up. Even if I was to teleport onto a plane right this moment, I was still ten hours away from landing back in Kanto.

Ten hours at minimum where Lola would have unrestrained access to my family. To my home where she’d plant and bury her roots in.

I’d spoken about her at length with my therapist and we’d worked out the best method would be to bar her. To create a safe space that was neutral.

I knew that plan was dead and buried before I’d even gotten a chance to try it. I’d spoken to Yolanda, Forrest, Salvadore, and Flint about it, but I knew that in the face of public pressure and Lola’s bombastic personality, they were going to be overwhelmed.

I needed to get back home now.

I turned. “You,” I said firmly, forcing Tabitha to look at me rather than the breaking news that was flashing across the big screen.

“A-ah?” he replied as he locked eyes with me.

“You’re going to honour the deal you offered me earlier regarding my student. If I have to come back or find out that you were responsible for harming a single hair on her head I will return and deliver a reckoning to Team Magma so powerful that what I did to Team Rocket will be a footnote in history,” I confirmed tersely as perhaps a tenth of the emotion swirling through my gut found a way out.

Tabitha swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing up and down slightly. “I will be sure to let my organisation know,” he stated carefully. “We’ll make sure she’s safe.”

“Good,” I said before standing. I offered Sabrina my hand. “Now get your men out of my way,” I said as I led Sabrina out of the stands.

The men ended up having to throw themselves over their chairs as I stormed through. If they’d remained, I would have swept them aside.

“Brock,” Sabrina said carefully. “I can’t teleport us until we get out of the arena. I’ll start making calls to get us the earliest flight back we can. Perhaps you should talk to Celia before storming off. Breathe, please?” she squeezed my hand and the honest care she was displaying made me pull back.

I nodded and took a moment to breathe. I couldn’t just sprint my way back home, as much as I wanted to.

I took another breath and calmed my screaming instincts into a semblance of order.

“Arceus, damn but that woman can find a way to get to me,” I stated. “Somehow, I’m not surprised that she didn’t reappear until I was in another country,” I said.

“It does rather suit her proclivities for being a nuisance,” Sabrina replied flatly.

I hummed and decided to try and reach out to my family. If there was any chance of stopping her I needed to get ahead of her. I checked my watch and did some mental math. “The kids and Flint are all going to be asleep now, it’s ten o’clock in Kanto,” I said.

I dialed through anyway, hoping against reason that I might be able to catch them. I knew they were going to stay up to watch Celia’s first match but I doubted they were going to stay up for the second match.

I dialled for Yolanda first, only to go straight to the message bank. I repeated it again and again before switching targets. Forrest was next, even though he was at the Indigo Plateau.

Again I got no response despite him no longer having a curfew. He was probably asleep with how he was going to be fighting a lot of battles tomorrow if he wanted to make it through to the Tournament proper.

He’d won the two matches he had yesterday which meant that he had one more and he’d make it through to the pool stage which would guarantee more fights for him.

I next tried for Flint, only for the call to not even connect. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “He’s forgotten to put it on the charger hasn’t he?”

Sabrina sighed. “Old people and technology,” she muttered, and I could only nod.

I clenched my fist a few times before deciding to roll the dice one last time. “Come on Salvadore, please be breaking curfew,” I muttered.

The transceiver rang a few times only to connect. My heart soared as Salvadore’s sheepish expression appeared only for him to attempt a very fake sleepy face.

I gave him a pointed look that said I wasn’t buying what he was trying to sell.

“Brock! You can’t be mad! I swear I’m in bed!” he rushed out.

I snorted. “No, I need you to go wake up Yolanda and Flint and get them to turn the television on. Something big has happened,” I said.

“Huh?” Salvadore said. “But it’s nighttime?” he said, like the time of day impacted when world-shaking events could occur.

I sighed. “Yeah bud, I know. Just go wake up Yolanda and Flint for me alright?” I asked again.

“Okay but you have to explain to them why I’m out of bed,” he muttered.

I watched as the screen tracked out of his room and into the hallway. It paused momentarily on Munchlax who was trying to sneak along the wall with what looked like a bag of sweets.

“Munnnnn~!” Munchlax said as he attempted what looked like a jedi mind trick on Salvadore into ignoring him.

Salvadore just shook his head and kept walking. I didn’t bother saying anything. Munchlax gave a little victory pump as he continued on his way with his spoils.

Little did Munchlax know that those treats were left at the bottom of the cupboard for this specific reason.

You did not want to wake up to a hungry Munhclax after all. Much better to trick him with a fake bag of sweets somewhere he could reach them rather than waking up to a slavering maw with teeth in your face.

When Salvadore reached Yolanda’s room, he knocked a few times only for the door to open and Yolanda to peek out. “What’s the matter, little brother? Can’t sleep cause of something you read?”

I snorted. “It’s actually my fault Yolanda. I need you to lock the front door, then wake Flint up and go watch the television. Lola just rocked up,” I said.

Yolanda blinked at me. “Huh?” she said.

I sighed and started explaining what was going on. Thankfully Yolanda listened to me and went for the door first.

When she woke Flint up things got a little more dicey.

“Your mother is back?” he said joyfully.

“Yes and I need you to block her out, don’t just let her run over the top of you,” I said tersely.

Flint shifted guiltily. “Brock maybe we should j—”

Sabrina stepped in close to me, and her eyes began to glow. “Lock. The. Door. If you don’t do this for Brock, I will bury you,” she growled.

Flint flinched. “Ah! Right! Sorry, I just… yes. We can do that,” he said.

Yolanda shot Sabrina a worried look as Flint hurried away. “You know he’s probably part rock type. Burying him isn’t going to do much.”

“Depth matters,” replied Sabrina primly, earning a soft snort from me.

I took back over the conversation. “Alright. I’m booking a flight back as fast as I can but it will probably take… well at least half a day, “ I said.

Yolanda nodded. “Alright. I’ll try to do what I can here Brock. Just… try and keep calm alright?” she said.

I grunted and hung up, feeling much better knowing my wishes regarding Lola were going to be upheld. I flexed my hands again. “It feels good to know they’re going to follow through with what I asked of them, but I just have this niggling doubt,” I said to Sabrina.

“It makes sense. Lola is, by all accounts, a very forceful person. There might not be anything they can do for this but then again, at least they will have made the effort. If she pushes aside their efforts, she may also damage her standing with them.”

“Somehow, I doubt she’ll care,” I replied.

I gave Sabrina a pleased look. “You were pretty cool with Flint just now. Had him shaking in his boots.”

“You say that like it’s hard,” she replied with a small smirk.

I chuckled and gave her a soft kiss, feeling better knowing that I had done what I could regarding Lola’s return. Having Sabrina in my corner so strongly also put some wind in my sails.

I walked into the trainer prep area and found Juan and Celia both staring at a television. Celia noticed our entrance straight away and perked up only to slump.

“You’re going to have to leave, aren’t you?” she said, aware of what this new revelation meant for Sabrina and I.

I grit my teeth and nodded stiffly. I couldn’t exactly sugar coat it. I had to leave and we both knew it.

I drew in another breath. She’d preempted me so the bandaid was already torn off. I searched around for the right words to say before smirking at her.

“Make me regret having to leave,” I stated.

Celia, Sabrina and Juan all blinked in surprise. A few people that had noticed my entrance also reacted but I kept my focus on Celia.

“I have to go, but I want you to make me regret it. Don’t go into any of your fights feeling sad. I want you to know I want to be here watching you excel. The situation, such as it is, means I can’t though. So make me regret it. WIN.”

Celia gained a huge smile as she understood exactly what I was doing. “I’m going to win this tournament!” she declared directly into my face. I nodded and looked towards Juan.

“Think you can handle an anger-focused student?” I asked.

Juan chuckled lightly and twisted at his moustache. “Oh, I think I can keep her motivated easily enough,” he stated.

I nodded and bid Celia goodbye with a hug. This wasn’t how I’d planned for things to go. In an ideal situation, Sabrina and I would get weeks of time to enjoy ourselves relaxing and searching around for rare items and pokemon.

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Once again though, Lola was forcing our hands.

There was a pattern there that I really didn’t care to repeat. As we marched out of the building proper I looked to Sabrina. “So, what’s the situation with the airplanes?” I said knowing I wasn’t going to like the answer.

“They’ve mostly all gone into lock down,” she replied.

“Mostly?”

“Steven Stone has already boarded his private jet and is on his way to Indigo.”

“Huh,” I said as I mulled that over. He’d been one of the people I might have been able to hitch a ride with. “He in the air yet?” I asked dialing his number only to get forwarded right to the message bank.

Sabrina nodded. “He’s gone.”

I clicked my tongue in annoyance before snorting a laugh. “Huh, after all the trouble he gave Lance to make him come to Hoenn, and he drops everything to get to Indigo with this. Lance is going to be a bit tetchy about that I imagine.”

Sabrina gave me a flat look. “I imagine he’s going to be too focussed on the three champions that just arrived in Fuchsia.”

“Ah, yeah there is that,” I said only just now, recalling that for all they were friendly faces in the games. Said Champions even when you challenged them for their crown, they were still some of the strongest trainers around.

Cynthia was also one of the best trainers from what I could recall. I wasn’t quite sure who came after Diantha and Alder but I think there was supposed to be someone stronger after Alola.

“Cynthia is strong,” I said, realising I needed to let Sabrina know asap.

Sabrina tilted her head. “I would assume so with her being Champion.”

“It goes deeper than that.” I chopped my hand. I tapped my head and projected what else I had to say. “She’s got a truly versatile team and has pokemon that can wreck most trainers. She was touted as the strongest by numerous sources for a while.”

Sabrina nodded, taking impressions of her team from my mind and engraving Cynthia as a potentially dangerous trainer to cross.

I sighed. “Not that it will matter if we can’t get back to Indigo.” I started searching on my Xtransceiver. “I’m not sure anyone has any idea how long this shut down on flights to Indigo is going to last,” I stated.

“We could potentially get a flight to the Archipelago islands but that flight will take longer as they don’t use the larger flights for those trips,” Sabrina pointed out.

“It would beat us setting out on Tide,” I pointed out.

“I wouldn’t have advised that,” Sabrina said firmly. “Sailing across the ocean is only something you do when you have prepared significantly for extended periods and are ready to be assaulted from all angles at any time of the day.”

“Guess that just makes Lola even nuttier than I thought.” Still, I had to give her credit. It was sort of impressive that she’d apparently been doing that for so long and looked no worse for the wear.

Well, I suppose if I discounted that time she ended up laid up in a pokecenter in Hoenn. Hmmm perhaps it was a sign of her desperation. For what exactly I didn’t know. Validation? Success? A Legacy?

For that I’d probably have to spend a lot of time with her. Something which I was quite opposed to.

“So we need to, what? Steal a plane?” I asked.

Sabrina gave me a flat look which got a shrug in reply. “What? Your Alakazam is smart, I’m sure he could pick it up easily enough,” I joked.

When Sabrina gained a thoughtful look I realized that I’d whiffed on my joke. “No, don’t give it anymore thought we’ll find another way. Let’s look into the flight to the Orange Islands.”

Sabrina nodded slowly and was about to do that only for a call to come through on my Xtransciever.

“Wallace?” I asked, seeing the name.

“Ah! The Hero has arrived!” he declared by way of greeting.

“Hello Wallace,” I replied. “Did you need to talk? We’re trying to organise a flight.”

“Ah! But I have an answer for you as I know that all the planes to Indigo are shut down with the alert!” He grinned, “It would be rude to not assist a friend after all, no?”

I nodded slowly, an idea starting to form in my mind. “You have a personal jet?” I asked.

“No, but I have the next best thing! A friend who owes me a favour who does!” he declared.

I tilted my head. Who did he have in mind?

I felt unclean in ways I have not felt in both of my lives, and I’d wrestled with Muk in this life which was saying something.

I sat on the leather seat stiffly. There were parts of me that knew they’d have to have the plane cleaned regularly but there was another part that was screaming at me to get a spray bottle out and start scrubbing.

Neither of us even contemplated the back of the plane which was set up with a bed, jacuzzi and a separate fridge for entertaining. I glanced to the side where a picture of an older man hugging a Vaporeon stood.

I moved the picture so it was face down. I didn’t need any more reminders of who owned this plane or what they got up to here.

“Don’t touch anything Kirlia,” Sabrina said as Kirlia moved towards the back room.

“Maybe it would be best if she stayed in her pokeball for this flight?” I suggested which got me a harumph and a glare from Kirlia.

“Kirlia,” Sabrina said with a tone that older siblings give to younger siblings to get them to comply.

Kirlia kicked her feet and her eyes started to glow in preparation.

I glanced to the side to see if the other occupant of this flight was going to help.

Alakazam idly leafed through a stack of magazines he’d had time to purchase while in Hoenn, ignoring us entirely.

Movement in my peripherals made me look up to find a spray bottle and a rag moving about the plane subtly.

Alakazam lowered his magazin to look me in the eyes and shudder. I suppose for beings with psychometry this plane would be even worse than I knew. I looked back to the young and very impressionable pokemon in our midst.

“I’m going to talk to my therapist about repressing memories,” I said as the bottle and rag began to rather vigorously work away at a benchtop near the back. I’d been thinking about making a drink up from there but now I think I was going to just stick to water.

I glanced to the side and found another picture with a vaporeon looking back at me.

Maybe I’d stick with the lemonade I had in my pouch.

Sabrina grunted, her gaze fixed on Kirlia, who was staring defiantly at her as she tapped Kirlia’s Luxury ball. “It really is for your own good,” she said to her pokemon only for Kirlia to double down on her pout and hunker deeper into her seat.

Kirlia then gained a vacant-eyed look. Sabrina struck instantly, activating the recall function with a ‘tsk’. “Excellent, now I’m going to have to give her the talk,” she said.

She gave the plane an annoyed look. “Do you think we could claim that we were attacked by Team Rocket upon landing and the plane was destroyed in the battle?” she asked.

I sighed. “Guy this rich? I think he’d just buy another one and decide to…” I shook my head, not willing to finish that line of thought.

I reclined my chair and set my mind to not thinking about what had been done in this plane. Instead I tried to think about how everyone else was taking the world suddenly becoming so much bigger than it had been a day ago.

Janine wanted to stab a lot of people.

Mostly Brock’s mother.

In her stupid face.

Lola had to be one of the only women in the world to have an almost instinctive understanding of tidal motions and how that played into restraining certain routes and timings placed upon the Rangers in their oceanic patrols along with that of the coast guard.

And what does she do with this knowledge?

She uses it to pull a ‘surprise’ which causes everyone to lose their minds.

Worse, her information network had been too slow. She’d gotten the alert of the unknown vessel minutes before the alarm had been raised. She’d barely gotten the Mayor on the line when the coast guard activated the sirens.

Now to the public, she looked like a buffon.

Her father had come and consoled her but it wasn’t going to change anything for her. The public trust in her had plummeted due to Lola’s trick.

Now, to win back some of her pride as a ninja, she was going to do something that others might consider foolish.

She was going to infiltrate that vessel and get as much information as she could for Indigo!

She darted along a mooring line, knowing that it was in a blindspot before grasping her energy and accelerating faster as a sailor walked up to the edge to have a smoke.

She tucked herself against the side and clung there, her fingers gripping the edge.

Her body quickly protested the horrible hold but she had done this most of her life. Her body could hold out. Pain was just weakness leaving the body.

The sailor continued his smoke, unaware of her below him.

She began slowly turning her head from side to side, inspecting the ship from her now new angle. It was a gigantic vessel, more in line with a cargo vessel than a yacht with what appeared to be numerous decks and areas.

The sound of people talking drew Janine’s attention. She could hear people moving about within and there appeared to be a good deal of cheer among the sailors.

She supposed this made sense. Discovering a new continent, let alone opening up two more regions would result in a lot of lucrative pay outs for all parties involved. At least that was what happened for Indigo explorers.

Janine blinked. The only one who could qualify for such a payment would be Lola.

Holy Crobats! She was going to get the payout for three regions being discovered! If Brock wasn’t already rich his family was going to be practically swimming in money!

The sailor moved away and Janine waited for a count of ten after his footsteps vanished,before jumping over the railing. She dropped low to the ground and made a circuit of the ship. She immediately started creating a map mentally.

She could see where the crew quarters were along with that of the helm and what appeared to be an observation deck.

Janine ducked into a lower section of the ship only to find that the black panels that had appeared to be the vessels’ hull was in fact a sort of one way glass that allowed people to look out.

Janine could see the various Rangers, police and reporters still milling about on the port. The major parties had already been led away to discuss the technicalities of this revelation with the Mayor being joined by President Kruger and Lance within minutes of the ship making landfall.

Interestingly enough, while the champions and Lola all moved away, a trio of plain clothed looking men and women had moved to join in the discussion.

Janine wasn’t sure of their roles but suspected her father would know when we returned to the Gym. Janine continued gliding along only to pause as she heard an argument occurring.

“—a rest already Marshal! We get it you want to crack skulls and take some names, but you gotta let things calm down first! We can show off later!” said a woman’s voice.

“I can’t! We’ve been cooped up on this ship for days now! I need some action!” growled a male’s voice. Janine presumed that this was Marshal. He sounded like a hothead. Or a battle junkie. She marked him down as a potential Fire or fighting type specialist.

It was interesting that the Champions hadn’t come alone. They had apprentices? Or at least some reserve fighters if events escalated into a fight.

As soon as she got near a doorway, she was able to put eyes on the pair and she amended her thoughts.

Definitely a fighting type specialist. The training gi rather gave it away. Although she wasn’t familiar with this particular style. It was rather loose and would be impractical in an actual fight. Perhaps it was a stylistic choice?

That or he was an idiot who had no idea about how easy it would be for someone to grapple and twist his outfit into a straight jacket.

Janiine turned her attention to the other occupant of the room. She was a pink haired woman with red glasses which she chose to have slipped in between her breasts rather than on her eyes. Her outfit had several patches of red on it.

Hmmm this one appeared to be a fire type specialist. Interesting that she was calming things down.

Janine continued to watch and learned that the woman’s name was Malva.

She would have stayed longer but the chandelier turned, revealing itself to be that of a pokemon as the fires within shifted tones and the eyes began to search around.

Janine faded away her instincts warning her that the chandelier pokemon was trouble. Janine adjusted her expectations and began double checking the roof. She even began double checking other items of furniture. She recalled from her training that some doorways might be dangerous.

Janine slipped up to the helm, where she found a set of officers observing the port.

“They’re certainly causing a ruckus,” murmured a lieutenant.

“Weren’t our folk when Lola rocked up with a freaking Lapras?”

“Still can’t believe they have Lapras. The conservation groups are going to go crazy about that. We’ll need to do some serious culls for the Sharpedo in our waters,” replied a woman at a console.

Another man entered and sighed causing the others to stiffen, only for the man to wave them off. Janine eyed him from her hiding place beneath a console. He was wearing an floral shirt but was obviously someone of importance.

The captain, perhaps?

“Professor Rowan sir! How’s the other guests?” asked the woman Janine suspected was the navigator. She began inching towards the console to plug a jack into the computer to run a virus that would pull data from their systems.

“Well enough. Marshal is chomping at the bit to test himself against the locals. Malva is enjoying the holiday but as soon as the alcohol runs out she’ll cause trouble. Aaron is buzzing around like a Vespiquen. He’s hoping to get into the local forests and see what the locals have.” The man sighed.

“So in summary? We’re sitting on a powderkeg it would seem. But that’s about as normal for exploring the unknown wouldn’t you say?”

This earned a round of chuckles from the staff. The professor joined them in looking out over the port. “I have to wonder if any of the old faces I once encountered are still around. We still haven’t been able to sync our network with whatever the locals have, but we have been able to jack into their television broadcasts.”

“Much on?” asked the navigator.

“Us,” replied Rowan drolly.

“Urgh sounds like boring television,” replied another of the bridgestaff as Janine plugged in her jack. It began to flash a small green light on the side, indicating it was working.

Janine slipped away, making sure to get a look at everyone. She paid special attention to ‘Professor’ Rowan. If he was anything similar to Oak, Agatha, or Pryce, then he would be worth keeping tabs on.

Janine performed another sweep of the vessel and she found ‘Aaron’ talking with a group of what had to be bug pokemon. He sounded like he was giving them a pep talk but Janine barely listened, her attention taken with the Drapion.

A pokemon she’d researched from the Guardian notes as a highly dangerous poison-dark type that would fit her pokemon roster perfectly.

Janine doubled back and searched the resting areas to find Aaron’s room. She rifled through his things and set up a small camera to collect more information. She also found what appeared to be a diary, which she took pictures of for later review.

Then she was up and out with no one any the wiser for her adventure. She made it all the way back to the Gym and her room where she did a happy dance at her success only for her father’s voice to ring out from the corner.

“Report!”

Janine stiffened but instinct took over and she dropped into a kneeling position before him. “I infiltrated the vessel and have several cameras set up to continue observations! I have observed several chandelier-like pokemon around the vessel that I suspect are ghost types. I will need to review our notes on ghost type pokemon!”

She dutifully gave out all her observations and discoveries. When she was done her father nodded.

“Excellent work my daughter,” he said before vanishing in a haze like he’d never been there.

Janine held in a pout. She still hadn’t worked out how to do that!

Janine sighed, knowing that her father had done such to motivate her efforts. She smiled to herself as she got out of her clothes and slipped into her nightwear so she could sleep.

She slipped into her futon and made plans for tomorrow to meet up with Erika and Visquez. Both of those girls would be no doubt interested in her discovery. Even if Erika pretended to be disappointed, Janine knew that she’d want the gossip if nothing else.

Girl was a gossip fiend.

Janine spared a thought for her other friend who was no doubt flying back to Indigo.

She hoped Sabrina was alright.

Janine settled in her bed, knowing that tomorrow would be the dawn of a new day for a lot of people.

They’d wake up to a new world.