Hard Enough

Hard Enough - Chapter 302 - Ripples

Kruger allowed himself the pleasure of slumping into his deluxe office chair.

He sighed, feeling everything of his fifty eight years of age. He cast a forlorn glance towards the wall of televisions, which all bar one were showing off the same black vessel that was within Fuchsia port.

They were capturing different angles but it was much the same in truth. The only difference was when the cameramen caught sight of the people on board. Thankfully Koga had taken the initiative and collected information on all of them. The ship was now bugged and more and more intelligence was being gathered with each day that passed.

The conclusion?

This was not a hoax.

This was not some fever dream that had been conjured up from his nightmares.

This was the real thing, despite how much he hoped otherwise.

It would almost be easier if the vessel disappeared like mist in the morning sun.

But no. The Sinnohans, Kalosians, and Unovians were here to stay.

Kruger watched the only television that wasn’t showing the black vessel. Battlecast was sticking to its target audience and showing nothing but the fights from the Indigo Plateau.

Kruger lamented the timing more than anything else. He’d spent months! Months! Planning the ultimate tournament that would see thousands of pokemon trainers whittled down. He’d had marketing teams creating interest in the tournament with the various personalities and even had the stadium refurbished for what promised to be the greatest event in decades.

And then it gets upstaged two days into the tournament.

Now the tournament of the decade was a footnote to people watching a ship with the emergence of the new regions.

And smack bang in the middle of it?

Was Brock’s mother.

There had to be something going on with that family. They just seemed to be a nexus point! for either chaos or disruption. Brock had triggered it last year and seen it continue into this circuit with his rise up the Ace rankings. Now, it was his mother!

What was next? Was one of the others going to find a Legendary?

Kruger leaned over and tapped twice on his wooden desk, trying to ward off such a future. “Touch wood,” he said aloud.

“Hmm?” said the other occupant of the room sitting up from the lounge with a blink. “What happened? Did we win?” muttered Lance before shaking himself awake.

“Oh Arceus I detest diplomacy,” Lance muttered.

Kruger grunted a small degree of vindication entering him as he saw the much younger man grouch. Kruger subtly rolled his shoulders and straightened up. He wasn’t going to let Lance show him up after all!

“We’ve got the relevant people talking with the Trinity Nation accord’s diplomats for now, so now we can step back and allow ourselves some breathing room,” Kruger said.

Lance slumped back onto the couch. “Good, I was getting sick of Dianthe trying to look down her nose at me for being a monotype Champion. Urgh I wish I could just fight her and put her in her place!”

“Please don’t,” Kruger said, thinking for a moment that he was going to have to beg.

Lance waved his hand dismissively. “No, I know I can’t fight them. That would be a diplomatic incident we can’t afford. An even worse one if I were to lose. And winning… as satisfying as it would be, it wouldn’t solve our issues.”

Kruger sighed in relief. Good. Lance had grown as a man and could see the bigger picture. Amazing that he could understand losing was a possibility. The Lance of last year wouldn’t have considered it possible and demanded a fight.

Still… there was some potential there to bleed tensions. “It may still be worth having some of our stronger trainers face off against them. Bruno is certainly chomping at the bit to have a shot,” Kruger suggested.

Lance rubbed his jaw. “I want to give Indigo the best chance at taking a win even if it is only symbolic.”

“So we need to use the intelligence that Koga has assembled. They have three generalist Champions, but they have also brought a Bug, Fire and Fighting specialist from their respective Elite Four along with the diplomats,” Kruger stated as he moved to collect the printed-out sheets.

He set each profile out. Marshal, Malva, and Aaron.

Lance rubbed his forehead. “Hell of a time for Brock and Sabrina to be on holiday,” he sighed.

Kruger shot the younger man an amused look. He knew Lance had many bones to pick with Brock over the recent fight against a Zapdos of all things. The fact that Brock beat the Zapdos was merely more incentive for Lance to seek him out.

Still, it would certainly help to have the ‘power couple’ on hand for this.

If they wanted to rely merely on type advantages, then their best options were to use Rock, Water, and Psychic. Two of these were unavailable, and the last of which… well, they weren’t going to use the Cerulean sisters.

“Lorelei could do it,” Kruger suggested.

Lance worked his jaw back and forth. “She could… yes. It would be risky.”

Kruger slowly bobbed his head up and down. He took a moment to consider his options before taking a mental step backwards. “Perhaps we don’t need to fight them so much as… test them?” he offered.

Lance’s head turned slowly to stare Kruger down. “Explain,” he commanded.

Kruger twitched at the tone before coughing. “We could simply have a series of Exhibition matches and ask them to reciprocate with their own trainers fighting against each other. That way we both get to display our strengths without any weakness being revealed. Or at least any weaknesses we don’t want to be released.”

Lance nodded slowly. “That has potential. It entertains the public while not making things worse on a diplomatic front, win or lose,” Lance surmised.

“We could also reach out to the other nations and get more of a read on their Elite Four members,” Kruger suggested, rather liking the idea the more he considered it. With one or two of their best showing some of their tricks, they could pick up lots of information about other nations.

Lance considered this before shaking his head. “Hold off on that for the moment. We’ll advance the other idea though. Prepare a match for Bruno and Lorelei. Until then, we have other tasks.”

Lance dragged out a stack of papers and laid them on the coffee table in front of the couch. “I had a look through their… information packet earlier, and it is dense but there are some interesting points laid out. Kalos has laid out historical claims of not being in the wrong for claiming territory with a colony to the west of Johto. Wasn’t that one of the instigating points of the war?”

Kruger grunted a nod. “It’s also something that is being very much talked about. The diplomats on their side are alluding to us having to pay compensation for the destruction of their towns.”

“Never!” snapped Lance. “I’m not paying for something that occurred over three generations ago! They should have respected the sovereignty and how much pressure they placed on Johto’s government at the time!”

Kruger nodded glumly, recalling how things had escalated when he’d been young. “It could be any number of diplomatic ploys. I doubt any of them truly wish to reignite the war, but they can still maintain their posture.”

Lance clicked his tongue. “Typical,” he said.

Kruger nodded. This was not going to be like Fiore’s addition to the world at all.

Fiore, for all that it was another region, lacked the danger of a unified trio of nations. It had also been carefully controlled due to the cultural differences.

The Trinity Nations had been released unto the world without any of the preparation or finessing of the public’s perspective. “I suppose it’s fortunate that we discovered Fiore when we did. If we hadn’t finalised negotiations with them and opened up the Battle Frontier, we’d be in a much worse position now,” Kruger suggested.

“What’s Fiore’s take on all of this?” Lance asked.

“They’re sending diplomats of their own, and I have received word that Steven Stone is also on his way,” Kruger announced.

Lance rubbed at his temples. “The man keeps me in Hoenn for negotiations for two weeks only to drop everything and fly over here? Urgh! He’s going to be as much of a headache to deal with as the others.”

“If we can get him to play along we could have him join us in negotiations, but I would suggest that we keep him to the side for now. If he wants to make his own deals, then that’s for him.”

“I’m worried that Hoenn might get ahead of us. What if they join this Trinity and make it a Four Nations?”

“Doubtful,” Kruger replied, shaking his head.

He drew out a map that had been created. As one of the first points of their meeting with the Trinity Nations representatives, a map of the world needed to be created to understand everyone’s new place within it.

Thankfully none of the Trinity Nation representatives had tried to bargain on this detail as it would have been devastating to Indigo to have their position given away while the others remained hidden.

Lola had thankfully been secured and was being debriefed on her route and other specific details that she could recall.

The new world map showed that Unova and Kalos were on the same continent, divided by some exceptionally large mountains while Sinnoh was a separate continent to the north of the other two regions.

Lance hummed and drew out an older map. He laid it out next to the new map, and both men leaned over it as they began comparing them.

“This is what the world was like before the war…” Kruger muttered.

It had been years since he’d seen a map like this. It made sense that Lance, as a member of the Blackthorn clan would possess such an item but it was still incredible to see in person.

“Sinnoh’s position has shifted drastically,” Lance murmured. “It didn’t used to be so far north, in fact, it used to be almost equatorial. Kalos and Unova didn’t have mountains around them either.” He traced the mountain ranges thoughtfully before tapping at the Silver ranges of Indigo in thought.

Kruger waved a hand dismissively. “The mountains are easily explainable. Groudon and other Legendaries were known to have shifted the world and provided more upward movements to the plates. The Silver Ranges weren’t so aggressive in the past after all. Nor was the Kingdom of Rota almost cut off.”

“Do you think the increased mountains and upward tectonic shift resulted in more mineral deposits being found in Kalos like they did for us?” Lance asked.

“Most likely. Arceus works in mysterious ways. There were previously resource shortages, but once the war stopped, abundant mines and fields were found. To the more religious folk it was a sign of his favour,” Kruger replied as he tapped on a small pendant on his wrist that matched the crest that was said to surround the God pokemon’s body.

Lance hummed. “Have you picked up any religious undertones in the negotiations?”

“Nothing like Fiore, but it hasn’t been long enough. We’ll need to make sure there aren’t any Darkrai cults or—” Before Kruger could continue, a chill swept over the room, and the lights flickered.

Kruger and Lance both shared a worried look. “Has that pokemon’s name become a taboo as well?”

Kruger’s mind raced. What did that mean? Would it become a living nightmare? Was this an indication that Darkrai had been in the other regions and thus Indigo and other nations were out of its reach?

Lance straightened his spine and narrowed his eyes. “Darkrai,” he said, making sure to enunciate the word clearly. Then the damned boy repeated it again! “Darkrai, Darkrai!” Lance said.

Kruger gaped. “What are you doing?” he hissed, glancing about for suddenly darker shadows or flickering lights.

Or worse, for red eyes to appear where there had previously been only—a knock at the door made Kruger flinch. “Eep!”

He stood, and Lance shot him with an amused look. “Enter!” said the Dragonmaster, and Kruger grumbled at the man’s presumption, but took a moment to settle his racing heart.

When the receptionist entered with a harried look, he straightened up in his chair.

“Melissa! Thank you for coming in so early, have we gotten any word from the cultural experts? We need them for the talks to continue! Sinnoh’s diplomat is asking some questions we don’t yet have answers for!” Kruger said jovially in an attempt to mask how worried he’d been.

“I have, and they’re on their way to brief with the team. I also have to inform you of a power outage due to a faulty switch. The backup board is activated, but we’ve got some electricians coming around to look into it,” said Melissa.

Lance shot Kruger a smirk. “There you have it Kruger. Just a faulty board, nothing to worry about,” he declared, moving back to ponder the map.

Kruger just shook his head and began to prepare himself a cup of tea to settle his nerves.

As much as he didn’t like to acknowledge it due to it being a foreign idea, the concept of having the Champion merely as a decorative role rather than a seat of power was rather appealing, especially if he got fewer heart attacks from brainless acts like that.

“Back ups…” Lance murmured. Kruger looked up from his tea to find Lance lost in thought, his gaze a million miles away.

The boy was getting an idea, which could be a flip of the coin with it being good or bad.

“What’s the odds that these regions are going to have criminal organisations much like Hoenn does with Team Magma and Aqua?” Lance asked.

Kruger didn’t bother pointing out that Indigo still had remnants of criminal groups along with splinter cells of Team Rocket operating but he knew that was a losing argument so instead he gave a slow nod.

What was Lance planning now?

“I’m going to extend the offer of our G-men to the other nations!” Lance declared.

Kruger twitched. Indigo and the Archipelago nations were one thing but… hmmm, if Lance could get the Trinity nations on board with a global policing force, a lot of good could occur. The question would arise as to who would run it, however.

Kruger watched Lance’s cape flap behind him as he departed. Perhaps Lance’s ambitions weren’t limited to simply being Champion of Indigo?

Kruger let the young man go and entertain his idea, instead turning his attention to other sticking points that would need to be handled, like controlling the trade routes or establishing embassies. Or the odd denouncement the Unovan representative had given out about the starting age of Trainers undergoing their Journey at ten being the youngest.

Kruger shook his head. Fifteen was far too late in Kruger’s experience. Better to shake the kids up early and then get them returning to work or school with some proper work ethic! It wasn’t like they threw them into the wilds after all!

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They barely even had that many fatalities each year!

A buzz on his transceiver had him slap his wrist. “President Kruger here,” he answered.

“Uhm, yes. Hello, sir… it's Harold from the Debriefing team. We’ve lost the asset,” said a man whose voice rang with each word.

Kruger stared straight at the man. “I see,” he said. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised. It would be typical for that family to cause issues. “Did you take her pokemon from her?”

“We did,” said Harold.

From the way he said it, Kruger just knew he wasn’t going to like what came next. “Did she recover them?”

“Sir… yes, she did.”

Kruger pinched the bridge of his nose. The only way this could be worse… “Did she have a pokemon capable of Teleport?” he asked.

“They were all water-type pokemon sir so I don’t think so.”

Kruger wanted to slam his head on his desk. That wasn’t what he’d asked, once more glad that Lance was more than a figure piece as he sent a message to Lance to deal with this issue. To the security specialist he said, “Assume they can Teleport then. Send a message to the Pewter Gym that if Lola arrives, they are to hold her for… potential health concerns.”

“Sir?” asked Harold.

“She still needs to be cleared of potential diseases that she might have encountered in Sinnoh. With it being years since any interactions, different strains of diseases might have occurred. That is our argument,” Kruger stated firmly.

He then hung up and sighed explosively. Damned pokemon trainers and their inability to just do the right thing!

Kruger sighed and eyed his cooling cup of tea. He took a sip and found it to be lacking in some manner that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Movement outside his window drew his attention.

He keyed his intercom. “Melissa, can you send an intern to fetch the staff a large box of poffins? There’s a stall near the stadium and I think a treat would go down wonderfully.”

With that good deed done, Kruger threw himself back into his work, his mood slightly lifted at the sights of such entrepreneurs hard at work.

Those were the sorts of citizens he worked hard to look after!

“Poffins! Get your Poffins while they’re fresh!” Meowth shouted from their stall. Not that he really had to with how long the line was, but you didn’t get hundreds of customers by getting lazy.

You had to hustle as a merchant, and by golly, he was hustling!

“I’m starting to get tired Meowth!” Magikarp whined from where he was slapping a dish so that he could rotate it over a flame.

“Keep going!” Meowth growled, shaking a fist at the lazy fish. “Think of this as your waterfall or something! We sell out, and we’re ‘made men’ or pokemon for the next circuit at least!”

Magikarp glanced over at where they’d stacked up the crates of berries. They’d been able to get an amazing deal, having ordered way before the tournament’s commencement. “That’s going to take days!” wailed the fish.

“You don’t get anywhere in life without hard work!” Meowth claimed, reaching for a glass of juice he’d had James make up earlier as he reclined in his chair.

He allowed himself a few moments of peace before jumping up to the countertop and tagging out with James.

Meowth greeted the next customer with a large smile. “Hiya! What can I get for you?” he said with his best customer service smile.

“A talking pokemon?” said the person.

Meowth didn’t even bat an eye. He’d long since lost count of how many people got weirded out by his ability to talk human. So, instead of rolling his eyes and snarking back, he nodded. “Yup! The poffins here are so good that they raised my intellect!” Meowth’s smile stretched so wide it became a little off putting.

The customer sensed this and leaned back slightly only for Meowth to keep talking, “Buy some yourself, and you might get the same benefits,” he said with a pleased smile.

Alright, so he hadn’t stopped sassing the customers, but most of them didn’t even notice.

“H-hey!” said the customer, proving themselves to be in the one percent club.

“Hmm something the matter?” Meowth said innocently.

The customer wilted as they concluded they were mistaken about what they’d heard. They weren’t, but Meowth wasn’t going to tell them that. Dumb kids.

The customer got their order off, and Meowth quickly had them on their way with a smile and a wave. “Thanks for coming! Tell your friends!”

Meowth let his voice drop a bit lower in volume. “If you have any,” he muttered.

The kid must have heard something as he stiffened and glanced back for a moment, only to shake it off when Meowth appeared to be avidly collecting the next suckers’ order and payment.

Things continued much like this for the rest of the morning until they shut the stall up for an hour so they could move into the stands to watch Jessie’s match.

“So I couldn’t help but notice that you’re getting rather grumpy Meowth?” James asked as he ran a wet cloth over Magikarp’s body.

“Oooohhh, that feels nice on my aching fins,” whined Magikarp. “Tell him to keep rubbing there Meowth!” Magikarp begged.

“Keep rubbing there,” Meowth said to James before huffing. I guess I’m just more tired than usual. We’ve done stalls like this before, and it's usually with Jessie there to help out.”

Meowth took a sip from his drink, enjoying the way it tingled on his tongue. “Guess this time is just different with her still competing, is all.” Meowth shrugged. “I’ll deal with it. We’re making money hand over paw here, and that’s the most important thing.”

“Hmmm,” James said with a nod. “I still say we don’t really need to do this.”

Meowth shot his friend a disbelieving look. “Don’t need to? James buddy, do you want to have the old guards keep tracking our everything? Remember the academy days! You always, always, always keep a cash float. The bigger, the better! Digital currency can be tracked too easily. You get notes or coins, and then you can live it up without worrying about too many folks tracking you down!”

James nodded, conceding the point. “Fair enough.”

James glanced around. “You know, if we wanted to still be turning money over we could adapt to selling goods from a small carry case as well while we watched Jessie’s match.”

Meowth considered that. Then he considered how nice it was to sit down and just enjoy his drink. “Nah, maybe we’ll do so when Jessie gets pushed out of the tournament, but until then, we stick to what we have. No need to over-capitalise. What we have is working wonders for us.”

“You know she’s got at least two more days for that though right? The pool she is in means she gets to have at least two more fights before they determine if she’ll be advancing.”

Meowth clicked his tongue. “As much as I hate to say it, I think it’ll be that Cooper kid from Saffron and Roxanne in Jessie’s pool. Jessie would have to dig crazy deep to win against either of them and she ain’t advancing if she doesn’t beat at least one of them.”

“She also has to beat Misty,” James pointed out, and Meowth raised a hand to wobble it in a so-so gesture. “She can do that. We’ve seen her do it.”

James shot Mewoth a pointed look.

Meowth shrugged. “So she mostly does it when we got the drop on the twerps, so what? Still fair is fair and their record against each other favours Jessie.”

Meowth finished up his drink and handed it to James to be thrown out later. “Have to say I’m surprised that Forrest flubbed things like he did.”

James shook his head. “I’m not. He woke up to the news just like the rest of us and he has more at stake with it. He had an early match and he had a lot of attention on him. He wasn’t paying attention and lost out on advancing.”

Meowth nodded and they let a companionable silence build between them. “What’s your take on the new regions popping up like this?” Meowth asked.

James shrugged. “I don’t think about it.”

Meowth blinked. “You don’t think about it? There are entire other regions now revealed to us! With people and pokemon and money! How can you not?”

James just waved a hand. “I just don’t.”

Meowth continued to stare. “Why does that make perfect sense?” he muttered to himself as he settled back down.

On the field Jessie strode out and claimed one of the podiums. She glanced around, searching for James and Meowth. The instant she spotted them she perked up. Meowth chuckled. “She looks like a kid at a sports event,” he said, waving a paw at her silly pigtails with ribbons in them.

It was an effective disguise that made her look a lot younger than she was, which was important considering that she was going up against one of the twerps that they’d spent most of the last year harassing.

“What are we going to do next year?” Meowth asked, scratching at his chin.

“Jessie will work that out,” James suggested and Meowth nodded. That did make the most sense.

Both settled in to watch as Jessie sent out her newest evolution.

“Come on out! Milotic!”

Across from her Misty fumbled her throw causing her Kingler to appear at the back of the field rather than the front. Meowth smirked. “Heh advantage to Jessie!” he claimed as Misty floundered, staring slack jawed at Milotic.

Milotc, for its part, reared up on its tail and shimmied left and right. “That’s right! Praise me more 'cause I’m b-e-a-utiful babies!”

Jessie unknowingly did just that as she drew her hand up to her face. “Ohohoho! I knew we’d face each other, my rival! Now face my beautiful pokemon!”

Milotic giggled and shimmied, flashing the crowd with a rainbow of lights.

“Those two suit each other way too much,” Meowth declared, feeling an odd satisfaction grow within his heart as Kingler growled and snapped her claw in agitation. It was nice to watch other people get triggered from having to deal with that stupidly vain fish.

Meowth grabbed a bucket of popcorn from James and began shovelling it into his mouth. He gave Magikarp a pointed look. “Don’t yous get a big head when yous evolve, alright? Otherwise, I’ll tell James to sell you to the fish markets!”

Magikarp showed that he had gotten far too comfortable in his position as backup food supply by rolling his eyes. “You say that like you don’t enjoy having Milotic as your backdrop whenever you call your girlfriend.”

“Milotic simply makes an effective background that brings out my good side,” Meowth corrected.

Magikarp just snorted.

They watched as Misty, despite losing her cool, quickly showed her stuff by getting her Kingler in close despite Jessie and Milotic trying to play keep away.

It wasn’t enough. Misty revealed herself to be the ultimate water-type nerd. She knew how to predict Milotic’s movements from the shimmy of her scales and the twitch of her fins.

Misty was smart enough to only announce this after she’d gotten Kingler’s claw around the slippery Milotic.

Meowth and James stood as one. “NERD!” they yelled, causing Misty to twitch in annoyance.

“It’s merely an appreciation of all water types!” she roared back.

James leaned down to Meowth. “We can’t get in trouble for heckling her, can we?”

Meowth shook his head. “It’s unsportsmanlike, but nothing that Jessie has anything to do with. It’s also part of the sport. Johtoians do it all the time,” he said, waving his paw dismissively.

“You mean Johtonites don’t you?” corrected James.

Meowth gave James an annoyed look. “Shut up and heckle the twerp.”

James huffed but rose and joined in with Meowth to start heckling Misty. “Choke! Choke! Choke!” they shouted together.

Misty ignored them but Jessie seemed to appreciate their efforts even if others in the crowd tried to shut them up.

Meowth didn’t care, so what if the world was against them? All that mattered was that they had each other's backs.

Didn’t matter how big the world got. They were Team Guardian now! They’d adapted and were gonna emerge stronger than ever!

Things were looking up!

Well, until Jessie lost against Misty which was a shame. She still had a slim chance to advance but meowth wasn’t betting on her.

Not that he’d tell her as much, but the point stood.

Meowth, Magikarp and James returned to their stall, only to find a pimply-faced kid out the front waiting for them. Meowth flipped the sign of the stall around to display they were back in business before he smirked at the kid.

“So kid? What’s it gonna be?” he said, knowing that he was about to short-circuit the kid’s brain.

The kid twitched but gained an oddly resolved expression. “The President told me to buy a thousand poffins!” he said.

Meowth stared, and somewhere behind him, Magikarp floundered, and James tripped, causing clean pots and pans to crash into each other.

“A… thousand did you say?” Meowth asked, hoping against hope he’d heard the brat right.

The kid nodded. “A thousand!” he declared, bringing out the ultimate in currency guarantees.

A black pokebank credit card.

Meowth’s ears only heard the ka-ching of his register as he began to process the payment. He made sure to add a gratuity before the kid could question him and whirled upon his cooks. “Magikarp! Your waterfall just went into overtime! Show us what you got!” he called to the fish who began leaping back and forth from various pots to get the various pans spinning.

James quickly set up another burner and joined in, doubling the speed with which they were making poffins. Meowth grimaced realling he’d need to step in to make this work.

Soon all three of them were furiously spinning poffin pans and creating a small mountain of poffins.

By the time they were finished, the stall was a mess and they’d worked through their entire stock of berries.

But they’d done it. All thousand poffins were stashed away and the kid was staggering towards the League head office.

Meowth didn’t have it in him to remind the kid his bag coulda carried the poffins easier.

Meowth leaned over the stall front and flipped the sign back to closed.

“W-we did it!” James said from his position on the ground. His hair was a mess with all the batter spray that had landed in it.

Meowth grinned. “Good work you guys!” he announced, stretching himself out.

“I-I did it?” Magikarp said cluelessly.

Meowth nodded. “Yup! You sure did!” he said, enjoying the way his spine was popping as he arced his back.

“I did it!” Magikarp shouted, throwing himself into a leap only for light to explode of his form.

Meowth gaped. “Oh Come on! I was joking about the waterfall!” he shouted as Magikarp evolved into Gyarados.

James happily threw himself into hugging his newest pokemon while Meowth just shook his head.

The world had gone crazy, he thought to himself as he settled in for a well-earned afternoon nap.

Lola collapsed onto her knees.

“No! No! You animals! You burned it all down! Nooooooo!” she wailed as she slammed her fist into the ground. She might be exaggerating a little as the building she was in front of wasn’t burned so much as derelict, but the point stood.

Everything was wrong with this picture. This wasn’t supposed to be how things were supposed to go.

She’d done it. She’d won huge acclaim and helped heal the world… she’d gotten past the stuffy government types that always wanted to wrap things up in red tape and black ink, and now she was supposed to be in her home cuddling her babies!

Only she wasn’t!

She was kneeling in front of her home… and it was abandoned.

Large sections of it had sunken into the ground, which shouldn’t have been possible.

Flint, her hubby-bubby, was great at patching walls when they were broken. He wouldn’t have let things get this bad.

Which meant…

Lola couldn’t even begin to process what it meant. Her brain shut down, and a shrill noise began to build within her.

Tears ran down her face, and an ever-present itch in her brain that she ignored began to burrow deeper into her brain.

Everything was supposed to be perfect!

Next to her, Cloyster shifted and tried to nuzzle into her.

Lola twitched. She needed to find out what had happened. She considered for a desperate moment about finding the nearest Nurse Joy and interrogating her. They always knew what was going on in the cities, after all!

Then she remembered how the League had adapted to her methods by replacing the local nurse with a much stronger trainer.

Lola dismissed that. She didn’t want a fight; she just wanted to find out what happened to her babies.

This called for desperate action!

“Cloyster! Teleport me back to the Ship!” she growled. Her pokemon quickly followed through, teleporting her onto the section of the ship that had been prepared for emergency teleports.

A sailor stationed nearby stiffened. “Miss Lola! You’re back! We had some officials talk to us about asking you to stay p—”

Lola chopped the man in the throat to silence him. He was only going to slow her down.

She needed someone to help her, not get in the way!

She marched towards a familiar door and shoved it open to find Cynthia sitting on her bed reading a book. Lola threw herself at the Sinnoh champion. “Cynthia! I can’t find my babies, so you need to help me!”

Cynthia dropped her book and caught Lola firmly so she was held slightly away from her. Outwardly, Lola slumped as if sad.

“What’s this? Your babies?” Cynthia said, her eyes darting about Lola, documenting the signs of distress. “What happened to you?”

“My babies run a gym in Pewter, and I went to find them, only to find my home and gym in ruins! I need help, will you help me? Please?”

Cynthia scrutinised her. “I will, but we shou—”

Lola didn’t wait. She turned to the still-rolling Clyster, who’d just arrived at Cynthia’s door. “Cloyster! Teleport back to the Gym!” she said as she got a good grip on Cynthia.

Cynthia’s eyes widened. “Lola no! Stop you’re—” Cynthia’s protests died on her lips as they vanished into a teleport only to appear before the ruins of the once proud Pewter Gym. “.—going to cause an incident,” Cythnia said before slumping forward.

Lola darted towards the ruins. “Here! See! That is where the gym was supposed to be!” she declared.

Cynthia pursed her lips and put her hands together. “Oh merciful Arceus, give me patience,” she muttered.

Cynthia took a deep breath and stepped forward. “Alright, let’s just breathe so we calm down and find out what happened hmmm?” she said towards Lola.

Lola nodded frantically only to stiffen at the sound of feet slapping on a footpath making her snap her head around.

“One-two keep it up! Three-four, let’s hit high scores!” chanted a voice, only for a giant blonde woman to come into view.

At her side, a smaller pink-haired girl was roller skating to keep up with her.

Lola perked up. “You there! What happened to the Pewter Gym?” she shouted as she sprinted towards the couple.

The two girls slowed, and the giant woman started to jog on the spot. “The Gym? It moved to a new location," she said, pointing to a sign that stood off to the side of the footpath.

The pink-haired girl, on the other hand, tilted her head. “Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere?”

Cynthia smiled. “Could you please lead us there? My friend is rather distressed and could use some help.”

Both of the girls nodded, and the pink-haired girl continued to stare at Lola with a scrutinising look. The taller blonde turned to Cynthia. “So I guess it’s been a while since you’ve been back here? Most people know about the relocation Brock did a couple of years back.”

“It's my first time, actually. What would you say is a must-see in Pewter?” Cynthia politely asked, only for both girls to start rattling off locations.

Lola smiled when her friend perked up at the mention of the history museum. When they reached the hill overlooking the Gym, Lola stopped and stared.

“Wow,” she said as she took in the giant building that was now the Pewter Gym.

It was slick but in a carefully structured way that made Lola think of slate rock that had been pulled from the ground.

A large space out the front of the Gym had numerous pathways with multiple obelisks rising up like a rock garden.

Off to the side, a series of battle courts stood.

Behind the Gym, there was even a volcano!

Then Lola’s eyes spotted colour, and she zeroed in on it. There, off to the side behind a tall hedge, was a garden with a washing line that featured a vast row of clothing.

It was a clothesline that was far too long for a typical family.

But a family the size of hers? It was perfect!

Lola grinned as her heart began to soar, and the itch in her mind was pushed back.

Cynthia whistled. “Your son went from that building we saw before to this in a few years? I must say I’m impressed! I wonder if I can convince him to move to Sinnoh?” she joked.

The pink-haired girl stiffened her head, snapping at Lola. “Oh my gosh! You’re Brock’s Mother?”

Lola nodded and took off, heading straight for the front doors.

Behind her, she heard someone mutter, “We’ve made a huge mistake,” but she ignored them. She only had eyes for her home.