“Your new fans are back,” said Jackson with a smile as I got ready for my next match.

I glanced over and noticed Anita and Trent both sitting in the front row. “They’re good kids then, must have good taste,” I said with a fake obnoxious smile, cupping my chin with my hand as I pretended to look suave.

“Sure thing, I think it’s just that you’re the first established trainer to give them any time of day,” he said.

I shot Jackson an amused look. “If a trainer in the top twenty of the Ace rankings and a Gym Leader to boot gave you the time of day when you started out on your Journey, wouldn’t you be leaping at the chance?” I said.

Jackson couldn’t refute that and I grinned for a moment before adopting my stern Gym Leader face for the coming challenger.

The challenger I faced was perfectly generic in that they’d done the required reading for their first badge, coming in with a well-trained Mankey and Weepingbell against my rock-type pokemon.

Anita watched on enviously, but when I gestured to the empty podium she merely mouthed the word ‘soon’. I replied with a nod, more than happy for a young person to show some restraint instead of throwing themselves into something.

It had been two days since Anita and Trent had both challenged me, and both of them, most likely at Anita’s insistence, had been coming back to the gym daily. They’d been tousling with the local kids who had started coming around more and more of late.

Speaking of young kids that threw themselves into things… “Where’s A.J.?” I asked when I reached the top of the stairs, back at the trainer section of the gym.

Yolanda and Crystal who were sitting around at the top shared an amused look, while Dennis coughed. “He’s not working right now… he usually uses his lunch breaks to get some more battling in with the local kids,” he said dutifully.

I nodded, knowing there had to be more to it than that, judging by the girls’ reactions. “Riiiiiight,” I said leadingly.

When Dennis merely smiled and nodded I turned to Yolanda, wondering what more she knew.

Yolanda rolled her eyes fondly. “A.J.’s set up his challenge again.” When I gave her a blank look she huffed. “You know? That ‘I will win one hundred times before I set off’? He’s doing mini versions of that each day, trying for twenty wins a day. Usually, he rushes over to the battleclub at the end of the day, or he sets up fights on the battle courts outside if the right people are here,” she said.

“Hmmmm,” I said thoughtfully. “He wins that often?” I asked, an idea for how to hit two Pidgey with one rock forming up.

Yolanda nodded. “Yeah, he wins roughly twenty matches each day so far. I think going off to Goldenrod and Celadon has really made him stronger.”

“That’s good,” I said, before glancing from Yolanda to Crystal. “Have either of you beaten him?” I asked leadingly.

That caused both of them to blink. “No?” said Yolanda thoughtfully. “I don’t really have a team beyond Terra and Spot right now…”

“So do a two-on-two, or a dual pokemon battle,” I suggested easily. I then turned to Crystal whom I knew had more pokemon thanks to her mother being freer with her money. "Or are you afraid you'll lose?" I taunted, baiting the trap further.

Crystal narrowed her eyes. “No?”

I nodded. “It’s alright, he’s a more experienced trainer, I’d be afraid of losing as well,” I said, deliberately playing up the pity in my tone. That caused Crystal to sit up indignantly.

“He’s not better than me!”

“I never said he was,” I said easily. “That said…” I trailed off leadingly and Crystal scowled.

Yolanda snorted. “You’re not fooling anyone, Brock,” said Yolanda with a sniff. “Stop baiting my friends into fighting each other!”

I raised my eyebrows. “I’m just pointing out that you have a trainer who is dedicating himself to his craft, while you sit back and wait for things to come to you. You could learn a thing or two, and if you wanted to have an easier match, you didn’t have to face him first off. I imagine it would rankle his pride if you beat him with two or three matches left to go for his twenty matches a day.”

Yolanda blinked. “What do you mean?”

I smirked. “If he’s set up a challenge like he used to have, then it’s twenty victories in a row, not a day. So he might be fighting way, way more than people realise,” I said, causing both girls to blink in shock.

I pointed at them. “I think both of you should consider it, I’m going to be ordering Greta to start doing it each day regardless, as A.J. has the right idea of honing himself, even if he overdoes it… a bit,” I said.

Dennis coughed loudly, letting me know he was listening and thought I was understating A.J.’s… passion for fighting a bit more than I should.

“Feel free to take from the three-tier match pokemon,” I said to Yolanda, who didn't have as many pokemon herself. I wanted her to test herself, and running face first into a better trainer in a controlled setting would be good. A.J. would learn that you couldn't always just grind for strength and that he'd need to be tactical. I'd probably need to have him run into the obstacle for a bit first before I demonstrated endurance battling with my Elite challenge.

Yolanda started to smirk, and I realised she'd thought of a loophole. “Not Izumi,” I said firmly, causing her to grumble but eventually nod.

I smirked and glanced towards Trent and Anita, who were heading out with a pair of trainers themselves to get into a friendly match.

Good, it seemed everyone had some goals and targets to improve themselves in the young crowd. Before I left, I tapped Yolanda on the shoulder. “Remember to remind Greta and A.J. that they’re going to be going to Cerulean with me tomorrow, and to Saffron on Saturday.”

“Hmmm an easy match before you make them face Sabrina… wait she only takes four badges or more…” Yolanda said before coughing. “Oh right, Kong, I forgot about him,” Yolanda with a small playful bonk to her head.

“I’m sure Kong is wounded, but yes, an easy match for Greta followed by a more neutral match. Whereas for A.J. it’s going to be two tough matches if he wants to rely on his Sandshrew.”

“Then you’re going spelunking with Dad, right?” Yolanda said leadingly.

I nodded and noticed how much wider and more natural her smile had become. I huffed at her and poked her on the forehead. “Go bug A.J., “ I said.

Yolanda nodded before stiffening, an evil grin forming as she seemed to realise something.

I considered what I’d said, before realising that Anorith and a few other pokemon were in the third tier and below roster. Hmmm, it seems like A.J. was about to face a few motivated trainers with plans to trip him up.

It’d be good practice for him when he was older.

It wasn’t hypocritical when I said it, I’d experienced people sniping me, and A.J. would do well to realise that people could do the same to him. Seriously, he needed to catch some more pokemon!

He still had the same pokemon he came to the Gym with!

I gave the rest of the day’s tasks a careful look over, considering times and distances before I nodded to myself. “Where’s Greta?” I asked as I continued to weigh up the feasibility of what I was about to do. It would be showing an extreme degree of favouritism… unless I offered to do it with all of my sponsored trainers, or the ones that wanted it at least, but it would still be worth a trip.

Plus it had been a while, I could write it up as doing a patrol.

I continued to weigh it up in my head. Eventually, I turned to Dennis. “If I offered to take the kids to… the base of the Silver Range, do you think—”

Dennis threw up his hands. “Are you trying to raise a year of monster trainers? If you do that for Greta and A.J. it will be bad enough! If Yolanda gets more options she’s going to be spoilt for choice!” he said passionately.

I blinked. “So… I shouldn’t do it?”

“Maybe leave it to them to ask? Are you still considering giving kids like Gary Oak one of the Ancient pokemon if he comes back?” Dennis asked.

I paused. Gary had been one of the only kids to ask. I quickly brought up his trainer form on the pokenet and found that he’d collected five major gym badges so far, along with Sophia, Kong, Manny, and Gray’s, putting him at nine badges, with only Sabrina’s left to acquire in Kanto.

I whistled. “Huh, yup, I think he’s going to earn it,” I said looking at the comments about Gary. A lot of them were to the tune of ‘cocky but has the knowledge and continues to develop well.’

“He’s also got a very wide list of pokemon,” I said, noting that the Rhyhorn he’d gotten from us was now a Rhydon. He also had a Graveler. Nidorina, Nidorino, Arcanine, Magmar, Scyther, Doduo, Kingler, Eevee, Abra, Fearow, Horsea, and of course, his starter, which was now a Blastoise. I whistled. The kid had a good team of pokemon that was only going to grow stronger.

I brought up Mia’s trainer profile out of interest, and found that she had eight badges, with only Manny and Sabrina left if she wanted to match Gary’s feat of all the Kanto badges. Her pokemon roster was also nowhere near as deep, with only five pokemon.

That being said, they were good pokemon to have. Silly Mouse, her starter, a Raticate now, along with Farfetch’d called Sir Quacksalot, a Houndour called Ember, an Azumarill called Bouncey… and a Dragonair…

I dialled Mia’s number right away.

“Hiya Brock!” she said with a huge smile. Silly Mouse appeared on her shoulder with a fanged grin and waved a paw at me.

“Hey Mia and Silly Mouse,” I said with a chuckle. “Congratulations on qualifying for the end-of-year tournament! Or at least the preliminaries,” I said with a laugh.

Mia nodded her head. “Oh, thanks! I only just got it!” She squinted her eyes at me. “Do they send.. like a message or something?”

I shook my head. “No, I was just checking over your profile as it’s been a few weeks now, no?” I said casually.

Mia rubbed the back of her head. “Ahahaha! So… you know, then?” she said.

I nodded. “So you have a Dragonair now?” I asked.

Mia squirmed gleefully. “Yes! I do! And it’s so cool and graceful! I found her when I was swimming around Vermillion Beach with my Azumaril! She was hurt and I nursed her back to health and she bonded with me and I just! I just! Oh, she’s so great!”

“Anyone give you any trouble over having her?” I asked.

“A few people tried to pressure me when I brought her out in a match against another trainer a few days ago,” Mia confessed. “They were getting really demanding about me trading them for her and I kept saying no. It got to the point where I threatened to have Silly Mouse Super Fang them!” She giggled, “Then Gary’s girlfriends stepped in and fought them off before I could with their pokemon, they’re really strong, you know?”

I smirked. “Thus why they’re Gary’s girlfriends,” I said leadingly.

“Oh! That makes way more sense than them just pitying Gary,” she said.

“Hey!” called a voice that belonged to Gary.

Mia giggled as Gary stomped over and glared at her. “I’m not pitiable! I’m handsome and suave!”

“Sure thing!” Mia said with a nod. “Say, where do you want to have dinner tonight?” she said quickly.

Gary grinned. “Mr Mime’s!” he said with a confident smile, only for a round of tittering to break out on their end of the call. Even Silly Mouse was chuffing with laughter.

I hummed. “Nothing wrong with a flaming Tauros burger with some Miltank cheese,” I said, offering my support to Gary.

“See! Brock’s a man of culture!” Gary said.

I nodded, before recalling the conversation that had prompted me to seek out Gary’s information. “I see you’re one badge away from completing the challenge I set you when we spoke after our match, Gary,” I prompted.

Gary blinked, then frowned. “The challenge you set down for me…” he said before brightening up as though someone had just shone a Flash on him. “You were serious about that?” he said, sounding like he’d just been promised an early and a normal Christmas.

“If you can do it,” I said with a smirk. “Good luck against Sabrina,” I said.

Gary nodded seriously. “I’ll do it! And then I’ll be back to acquire my pokemon!” he said like he’d already defeated Sabrina. I merely hummed and glanced towards Mia.

“What’re your movements?” I asked.

Mia coughed. “Well, we’re going to Saffron so Gary can train up to fight against Sabrina, but in the meantime I’m going to work with Kong, he said I had good potential and that if I stuck around for a couple of months he’d assign a pokemon to me! I think a Machop would be pretty swell!” she said.

I merely nodded along, knowing that it would likely be much better than that if she impressed Kong. It wasn’t widely known, but trainers who did work with him got pokemon. Impress him? He’d give you a much better fighting-type pokemon.

I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of the Circuit Mia had a Hitmonlee or a Hitmonchan for herself like Humphrey did.

Speaking of which, I called to touch base only for him to be about to get into a trainer battle.

“Send me a record and good luck!” I said before hanging up.

With two Pidgeys taken out of the sky with one rock, or rather phone call, I bid them goodbye after thanking Gary’s security team for looking out for Mia.

I checked over my schedule and found I had one more challenger before the break, with a final challenger in the very last slot. I huffed in annoyance as I read the note that the trainer wouldn’t move the time slot earlier.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Urgh, annoying, but that was the gig sometimes. I marched towards the medbay to collect a tier three team for this match as I read through the trainer’s profile idly. When I was done I made a circuit around the gym and back to the top of the stairs.

Only then did I signal Rachel that I was ready.

“From Lavender Town! Yvonne the Horror!” called Rachel with a grin.

Huh, we usually didn’t get trainers that altered or adjusted their intro. They were usually too focused on the coming match.

A young girl stalked out, with her head tucked forward and her hands in her pocket, with a carefully curated air of one that doesn’t care about what’s going on around her, while also having an obvious chip on her shoulder.

Oh no, a young girl with attitude, I thought to myself as I went through my normal scowling introduction and challenge.

The girl snorted and something about the way she did it gave me pause. A snort shouldn’t be a way of recognising people, but it was rather distinctive with how she almost tossed her head as she did it.

Very dramatic and over the top.

“Trainers! Are you ready?” called Dennis from the referee stand.

We both nodded and I sent forth my first pokemon. “Go! Lileep!” I shouted.

“Come out to fight! Gastly!” she called, sending out what appeared to be a leery cloud of gas.

I paused at the selection. A snort of derision and a Gastly do not a trainer under Agatha make… However, there was an easy way to find out.

“Fan of Agatha’s, eh?” I said with a wide, innocent smile.

Yvonne shot me a furious look and I mentally ticked off another mark. Yup, this girl totally knew Agatha if she was reacting like that.

No girl who had met and trained with Agatha would retain their hero worship. Agatha was a stubborn old biddy that trained hard. I’d hate to be a trainer under her purview.

“Curse,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Ingrain!” I said, deciding to negate some of the effects of curse as best I could. “Then go into Mega Drain!” I barked.

“Tch! Going to make me work for it, are you?” she said. “Payback into Hypnosis!” she called, allowing her Gastly to take a hit of Mega Drain before it shot forward and launched itself through my pokemon, laughing as it did so.

“Astonich!” I called, making Lillep curl in on itself before popping out its frills and startling Gastly into stopping the Hypnosis. “Brine!” I said, following up with an attack as quickly as I could.

“Protect!” called Yvonne, and her pokemon blocked the attack earning a nod of approval from me. She didn’t seem super comfortable with her Gastly at the start there, but she was warming up.

That or she was adapting as we fought, which I’d have to test for. Shame she hadn’t gone for a gauntlet, then I’d have been able to really put her through her paces.

“Sandstorm!” I ordered, using one of the only moves this Lileep knew that was rock-type to make things harder for Yvonne.

“Tch! Gastly return!” she called. She then kept me waiting as my Lileep slowly drained. She gained a smug look from what I could see projected on the big screen and she was obviously patting herself on the back, for playing to her strengths like she was with Curse still in effect.

I was honestly impressed her Gastly had lasted through Curse, Mega Drain, and Astonish.

“Come on out Gligar!” called Yvonne.

I blinked, having expected another ghost-type pokemon to emerge. A ground-flying type was a wonderful counter to this situation, and Yvonne demonstrated that straight away.

“Acrobatics!” she called over the howl of the Sandstorm, her pokemon rising with the roaring winds only to streak down.

“Blast it with Brine!” I called and Lileep, like a turret firing at an oncoming kamikaze plane, began unleashing blast after blast of watery gouts at Gligar.

Gligar merely tucked one wing after the other, dodging the attacks before slamming home into Lileep and knocking out the first pokemon. With Curse in effect it only took the one normally effective move to knock out my pokemon.

I withdrew the pokemon and nodded. “Nicely done putting on the pressure there, Lileep,” I said, before selecting my next pokemon.

While Gligar had been a good answer to Lileep, it wasn’t going to be the same for my next pokemon.

“Go! Corsola!” I shouted, sending out my second pokemon, and specifically a water-rock pokemon.

“Urgh, wait, no this could work,” Yvonne said only to scowl. “Sand Attack!” she shouted, calling for what I could infer as the only Ground type move Gligar knew.

Gligar didn’t even need to lower itself with the sandstorm still in effect, instead, it beat its wings and sent a spray straight into my pokemon’s eyes. It caused Corsola to recoil and me to grimace, knowing I needed to get rid of that Sandstorm as it wasn’t impacting Yvonne and rather played in her favour. Still, I wanted one other move first.

“Aqua Ring!” I called and my Corsola formed a ring of water that surrounded it. Much like with Lileep, I had options to extend the fighting strength of my pokemon with this move.

“Repeat!” Yvonne said, sending out another Sand Attack causing me to glower at her.

“Rinse out your eyes with the next move! Surf! Fire straight ahead!” I called, giving Corsola a line of attack while also denying the continued easy Sand Attacks by taking away the Sandstorm.

Corsola bounced back and a wave formed up which, by my expectations, was rather pitiful. It barely rose to twice my height, but it was enough to threaten Gligar.

“Acrobatics! Get over the lip of that wave!” shouted Yvonne. Her pokemon jumped and performed a series of barrel rolls and twirls which I recognised as a flying-type method of building up quick speed. Then, just before it could be swallowed up by the wave it darted high, shooting over the wave.

Sadly for Gligar it did so right where my Corsola, now without sand in its eyes, was perched.

I didn’t even need to bark an order as Corsola leapt from the wave, Tackling Gligar back down, allowing the wave to crash over them. I whistled, damn this sequence of moves was working out in my favour.

Corsola emerged atop a bedraggled looking Gligar.

“Poison Tail!” snapped Yvonne, and her pokemon lashed out, stabbing its hooked tail into Corsola.

Corsola wailed as purple lines began to form around the site of the injury. Damn, she’d been poisoned! “Water Gun! Finish it!” I called and Corsola unleashed a blast of water with a vengeance upon her foe, knocking Gligar out of the fight.

“Urgh!” Yvonne grunted in annoyance before clicking her tongue. “Nice going out there Gligar! You put them on the ropes for us!” she said as she returned her pokemon, before instantly throwing out a Beedrill of all pokemon.

I raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her and pointed straight at the pokemon. “Ancient Power,” I said. Corsola gritted her teeth, ignoring the poison that she was fighting through, even as her Aqua Ring healed her, to fire a trio of rocks at Beedrill.

I leaned forward in anticipation. If Yvonne was this confident to send out a pokemon noted to be a bad match up, she must know how to leverage her pokemon. “Plan alpha!” she called and a shimmer took over Beedrill’s form that instantly had me looking around. I’d faced too many Ninetails using this trick to fall for it.

I therefore wasn’t surprised in the least when the mirage Beedrill had left behind with Substitute broke, only for Beedrill to reappear in a burst of speed at Corsola’s side. The lances on each of Beedrill’s arms flashed out once, twice, thrice before going still, only for Corsola to whip around furiously and try to unleash a close-range Ancient Power.

Once more it missed, but this time it was pure speed as Yvonne doubled down on Agility.

“Alright if that’s not going to work,” I said aloud, before waving a hand forward. “Surf,” I commanded.

Once more Corsola swept the field with a wave, with her riding it at the top.

This time Yvonne had no issues with her pokemon flying up and over the wave. Yvonne shot me a cheeky grin that made me want to rattle her composure a little. So I smirked right back.

“Launch a Water Gun above you!” I barked and Corsola followed without a hint of hesitation.

I then pointed at the orb of water, just before it started to let gravity reclaim it, I gave the next command. “Fire again!” I called. This time Corsola’s attacks slammed into each other and a cascade of water fell upon the field, dampening it and causing a pseudo rain effect.

This seemed to confuse Beedrill as it paused, hovering off to the side with lances raised in preparation.

Yvonne narrowed her eyes, unsure what I was doing, so I repeated the action.

When nothing appeared to be changing she scoffed and waved her Beedrill in. “He’s stalling to keep his pokemon in the fight with Aqua Ring! Don’t worry about it, Beedrill. Plan Gamma this time!” she said and I noted that this pokemon had obviously gotten a lot more attention than her Gastly and her Gligar, if it had specialised move combinations set up. The trick would be to simply learn what they were.

Plan Alpha was simple enough and I suspected I knew what Gamma was.

A moment later when Beedrill blurred in to deliver another hit to the side, twitching as water fell around it. It came in slower and this let me get Corsola lined up properly. “Ancient Power,” I said dispassionately as Beedrill closed, stinger raised, only for Corsola to spin, lifting a trio of rocks to slam them into Beedrill.

The move crumbled the bug type like I knew it would and Yvonne gaped in shock. “Huh? What!”

She stared at her downed pokemon, unable to comprehend what had just happened. I hummed and gave Dennis a signal not to start the minute counter as I was going to hand out some pearls of wisdom.

“You don’t spend much time with the Bug Catcher Chapter Houses, I take it?” I asked, rubbing my chin.

“Huh? No, why would I?” she then flushed as she realised how contrary that sounded. “I don’t need them!” she said.

I shrugged. “Eh, you sort of do, cause I get the idea that you went into the forest and got that Beedrill, who’s very well trained might I add,” I said, adding on a compliment to soothe her nerves for what was to come.

Yvonne preened and I shot her a grim smile. “Sadly, it’s you that’s failed your pokemon, as there are two key things about Beedrill you don’t know, which if you spent time in a bug-infested forest like say… Viridian, you’d know about.”

“Two things?” she asked with a scowl. “What two things?”

I raised one finger. “If you’d spoken with any Bug Catcher Chapter House, they’d tell you in detail about the specific ways that Beedrills perceive the world. They have what are known as compound eyes, which allows them to track lots of things in tiny details. This can make it difficult for them during rain, as sheets of rain block their vision.”

“Oh,” Yvonne said, understanding now what I’d been doing by having Corsola fire off Water Guns into the air before blowing them apart.

I raised the second finger. “They also sense with very fine micro hairs spread across their body. Getting those wet can obscure perception and awareness of their three-dimensional space. The water also catches slightly on their hair and slows them down. It’s not much, but it makes a difference, no?” I said with an open hand, indicating how her pokemon was down for the count while mine was still in the fight, albeit just barely.

I gave Corsola a commiserating look and sighed. “I think she’s running out of strength despite that rather fantastic showing. I withdraw my Corsola,” I said, putting words to action.

“Brock is now down two pokemon, with one remaining!” called Dennis dutifully. “Trainers! Please send out your next pokemon.

Yvonne scowled only to inhale and then exhale. “It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s just a setback,” she said as she returned her pokemon.

I smirked and sent out my third and final pokemon, an Aron. It barked happily and did a flip in excitement.

“Hmmm I can’t tell if you’re mocking me or trying to show respect,” she said as she sent out a Golbat like I knew she would. Yvonne only had four pokemon, after all.

“Absorb!”

“Metal Sound,” I said, putting my hands over my ears.

Aron grinned, inhaled and then exhaled, only the air that he’d inhaled shot through the holes adorning his body, causing a piercing metal shriek to cut through the air and causing Golbat to falter.

I was glad I’d convinced Zubat to not come in for this morning’s round of matches and instead work with Zephyr on her aerial combat. She would have hated this match, just as much as Golbat was right now, I assumed.

With Golbat floundering, I had what felt like all the time in the world to level my hand and dispassionately order, “Rock Tomb.”

Rocks were kicked from Aron’s feet onto Golbat’s legs, causing the flying-poison type to buckle and shriek in pain and fright as it was hurt and weighed down.

“Shit! Golbat! Beta! Beta!” she called, and her pokemon let its mouth burst wide open, startling Aron from closing for a final exchange with what had to be Astonish used against me.

Golbat then began to croon, causing a wave of purplish energy to radiate forward and into Aron, who looked steadily more and more unsure of himself.

“Metal Noise!” I barked, only for Aron to shake his head and roll to the side in confusion and pain.

Yvonne exhaled in relief. “Still got a chance, drain chain!” she called, and her Golbat fluttered up before releasing green orbs that wafted into Aron and caused him to cry out in pain, before wafting back towards Golbat.

“Sandstorm!” I growled, not willing to let things simply remain like that. Aron twisted on a foot and kicked up a Sandstorm which once more caused the winds to howl. Unlike Lileep’s efforts, this Sandstorm was much stronger.

“Urgh! Blow it away with Defog!” Yvonne called. Golbat flapped its wings hard and the Sandstorm that had been battering it died away.

I smirked as I felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me as I said, “Another one!”

Aron once more did a little break dance kick spin to stir up the winds, only for Golbat to take a modicum of damage before it could blow it away. Yvonne scowled, knowing that she was being forced into a routine that favoured me. I could see her furiously trying to find a way through but her mind wasn’t drawing up anything.

Eventually, it became too much for Golbat and it fell from the sky, not with a sudden harsh move but a slow, steady grind caused by the on-again off-again Sandstorm.

“Urgh! I can’t believe you’re this cheap!” Yvonne said, stomping her foot as she returned her fourth pokemon.

I scoffed. “You brought a flying and a bug type against me. Now, you did so with good tactics in mind, but you’ve got things a bit too fixed. You need to be more adaptable and ready to adjust on the fly.”

“Urgh, great! I’ve lost now!” she said with a slump of her shoulders.

I tilted my head, glancing up at the big screen. “Did you forget about your Gastly?”

She blinked cluelessly and glanced up, answering my question that yes, yes she did. I put a hand to my mouth to hold in the laugh that was threatening to burst forth at her expense. It had been a while since a trainer had lost count of their pokemon or not tracked their health states.

Usually it was when a pokemon was new.

I shot Aron a look and found him gasping heavily, he’d done a lot of break dancing to whip up those Sandstorms, and while it had worked to clear out Golbat, it left him in an exhausted state.

“Aron! We’re on her last pokemon, hang in there!” I called.

Yvonne perked up as she realised she still had a chance at this. “Gastly! Go for Hypnosis!” she said, releasing her pokemon and having it go straight for a shutdown.

“Metal Sound!” I called. Aron inhaled again, only to totter to the side as the Hypnosis waves that Gastly unleashed caused him to topple onto his side and start snoring.

I chewed my lip and hummed. I could force this to play out, but… I could see the writing on the wall. I’d had one shot and Aron had been too tired. I’d won a lot of battles, but lost the overall war. “I withdraw Aron, he’s too tired and will want to remain asleep instead of fighting on,” I explained.

Dennis nodded and raised a flag towards Yvonne. “Brock’s pokemon is withdrawn and Yvonne is therefore the winner!”

A round of applause rang out for Yvonne and she perked up, only for a constipated look to sweep over her face as she caught sight of Gastly bouncing around happily. “G-good job, Gastly,” she said.

I tilted my head and lowered the podiums, watching the stilted interaction between herself and Gastly. Gastly seemed to adore her, but Yvonne wasn’t reciprocating the feelings.

“Congratulations,” I said, approaching her with a snoring Aron tucked under my arm. The poor little guy was all tuckered out.

“Thanks,” Yvonne said, straightening up and shooting me a smirk. “Is this where you give me some more wisdom?”

I shrugged. “I think I gave enough of that out there. I can’t say much more beyond ‘don’t lose track of your pokemon’s health states or your number of pokemon’, can I?” I said with a smirk.

That caused her to lose some of her attitude as she blushed. “Y-yeah, that’s true.” she shot Gastly a look and sighed. “Urgh, that old hag is going to be a nightmare when she learns about this match,” she muttered to herself.

I got the impression she hadn’t meant for me to hear that. Then again, I could do something to help out.

“Want me to talk to Agatha about calming down a bit?” I said.

Yvonne shot me a clueless look before snorting. “Yeah, sure you’ll…” she trailed off as she looked at me, her mind calculating how I’d do. She must have been thinking something along the lines of ‘I had beaten Lance in a friendly match, how would I do against Agatha?’

I smirked, raising up my Xtrasciever and dialling a number, and when Agatha’s face appeared with her signature scowl I shot her a grin. “Hey Agatha! It’s Brock! I just met this lovely lady and she’s won a badge from me! From what I can tell, I think you’re being a bit too hard on her, lay off some, yeah?”

“That is none of your business. I’m glad she won against you, but we will review her match together,” Agatha said pointedly.

I grinned. “Ah, let her learn her own way and discover what works. In the meantime, I’m feeling like I need to blow off some steam, want to set up a friendly?” I said nonchalantly.

I could tell that everyone in the crowd was leaning forward, ears twitching at this new development.

Agatha snorted derisively. “It’s a duel!” she said, “Tell your people to set it up in three weekends’ time, I shall be there right after I wipe the floor with Bruno’s little challenge the weekend before!” she said.

Huh, so Bruno wasn’t going to let her go without one last challenge? Made sense.

Agatha nodded. “Goodbye for now,” she said before hanging up.

I lowered my arm and shot Yvonne a v for victory with one hand. “How’s that? She’ll be more focused on me now.”

Yvonne stared at me for a long moment before rocketing into my side to hug me. “I think you’re my hero,” she muttered quietly.

I chuckled and hugged her back, making a note to have a serious discussion with Agatha if this was the sort of reaction her new apprentice had to some support.

Had Karen gone through this sort of treatment?

Hmmm, it suddenly explained a lot of her mannerisms.

It didn’t forgive them, but still, it explained them.

I eyed Yvonne, maybe it would do everyone some good to distract Agatha. Then again, I was a bit of a sucker for young trainers looking to break out on their own. If I had to fight Agatha? Well, I'd thrown down with Lance.

Agatha would just be another tough fight, and these days I looked forward to those more than I feared them.

Yvonne let me go and smiled, looking much more relaxed and a little bashful. Her Gastly swooped in and cackled at her expression and I just chuckled.

Hmmm, so, Agatha, eh?

I could dig it.