Hard Enough - Chapter 437 - Pokemon interludes (Patreon)

“You see this valley, that mountain, and those buildings over there?” Bertha proclaimed proudly.

Rhyperior nodded hesitantly. “Y-yeah?” he replied.

“Everything the light touches is my turf!” Bertha announced.

Titan coughed pointedly but Bertha ignored him, just like she ignored how Brock was face palming. 

“Really?” gushed Rhyperior. 

“Indeed! For behold!” She drew out her transceiver and slowly began to text a message to Sephen and Bianca to turn the lights on in a flickering pattern. With the message sent she gestured grandly. “That building on the hill? It will begin flashing its lights! Riiiiiiiiiiiiight—” she drew out the word for a long moment, waiting for her minions to read her message.

When it took almost a minute she started to sweat, only for the lights to begin flickering. 

“Now!” she declared.

“Woah! You have the humans obeying you?” Rhyrperior’s eyes had started to gleam with the light of a fan, and Bertha wasn’t about to deny a fan!

Brock took his hand off his face. “Oh Arceus Bertha don’t—”

“Indeed, see this transceiver? I’m able to order pizza for myself!” Bertha was on a roll! She wasn’t about to stop for anything like Brock complaining about the awesome story she was creating for them!

Titan coughed again. “When you’re able to, because you don’t want to be dropped from Brock’s elite team.” he stated.

Bertha flapped a hand in his face. “Semantics! I have a cheat day! We all have a cheat day!”

“Woooooooow!” Rhyperior said only to blink. “What’s a cheat day?”

Titan gave Rhyperior a long look. “Right, we’re ordering pizza for everyone.” Titan turned to Brock and bowed his head. “Apologies but your credit card will be required once more.”

Brock sighed but handed over his details.

Bertha twitched. Then she siddled up to Titan. “Why do you get to have his credit card?”

“Because I’m Titan and not Bertha,” he replied like that made… actually that made a lot of sense.

Bertha coughed. “Right! While My husbando—”

“Don’t call me that,” Titan muttered as he put in an order for fifty meatlovers, fifty vegetarians, fifty supremes and five other variants of pizza.

Bertha coughed. “What my mate was saying is right! We’re getting pizza!” She frowned at Titan. “Why only fifty?”

“It’s the highest number I could order,” he muttered. “It’s probably going to still be flagged as a joke though cause humans—”

His transceiver began to buzz, and Titan dutifully answered it with the video projection.

“Hello?” Titan rumbled.

The human was pimply faced, had braces and was slack-jawed. “... a Tyranitar?” they whispered. “Is this some dead person’s transceiver? They never covered this in the manual of situations that might happen!"

Bertha leaned in. “Hi! Listen! We need more pizza!” she rumbled at the human, ignoring the sound of Brock facepalming once more behind them.

“Oh for the love of… He can’t understand you like I can!” Brock growled, marching up and slipping under Titan’s arm to appear.

“Oh! A human!” shrilled the human teen. “Sir, are you in need of rescue?”

“What? No. I just need more pizza. Bill it to the listed Credit Card, give yourself and however has to deliver the pizzas a hundred pokedollar tip and up the numbers they’re ordering to a hundred each along with another hundred lemonades and hundred soda pops.”

“Ooooooooh,” groaned the teen as he adjusted the order. “We don’t have enough dough… or drink to handle that order… it would also put us out for the rest of the day.”

“So split it between the other two huts in Pewter along with the Viridian and Cerulean Pokepizza huts. They’re the closest branches for PokePizza Hut yeah?”

“That could work,” trilled the teen only to cough. “I’ll get that handled. Is the address correct? The backside of the Pewter Gym?”

“Yeah, there will be some trainers and pokemon ready to receive the orders when you’re done. Probably make sure they are arriving in a staggered fashion within ten minutes or else it might overwhelm them.”

“I’ll make a note!”

“You do that,” Brock replied before disconnecting. He then gave Bertha a look like this was somehow her fault.

She put a hand to her chest and feigned innocence, which merely drew a snort from Brock. “You need to work on your acting cause if this is you playing innocent then you need to get some lessons, or else I’d be afraid of watching your upcoming series about Magical Girls.”

Bertha drew herself up. “I will have you know I play the role of a naive young girl and I channel that perfectly! The heart of a maiden is not so easy that it can be taught! The Director was extremely happy with my performance for the recording sessions!” She clenched her fists and trembled with earnest energy.

Titan sighed and offered her a slow clap that was far too mocking for his own good. Bertha shot him an annoyed look but it was sadly not that effective.

Rhyperior, who’d been content to stand off to the side and watch everything unfold in front of him blinked. "You have a Magical Girl series?”

Bertha turned slowly, her face stretching into a grin. Titan sighed at the same time Brock did. The pair shared a look with Brock gesturing at Bertha. “Can you handle her? I need to go talk to some of the trainers to help out. I’ll have knight handle the pizza delivery along with Link, Gawain, Shin, and Jorm alright?”

“Roger,” Titan dutifully said, only to turn and find Bertha had her transceiver out and was playing the trailer for her upcoming series.

It was glittery, flashy, and there were far, far too many explosions in Titan’s opinion, and that was with him supposedly causing most of them.

He smirked when it reached his intro, or hint at least as a shadow of his form wearing a top hat and mask flew over the camera.

Most humans wouldn’t be able to pick it out without slowing or pausing the video, but for pokemon with faster vision, it was all too obvious that titan was playing the bad guy of this series.

Rhyperior however didn’t clock it on the bare second that gave away the reveal, instead he stared at Bertha. “You’re… a magical girl?”

“Shhh, don’t tell anyone! Your senpai is pretty cool right?” 

“So cool!” cheered Rhyperior.

Titan sighed but had to give Bertha some credit. Her just being herself was certainly making Rhyperior relax and come out of his shell. Brock had made sure he, Bertha and Selene were careful to watch for any tricks he might attempt to play, but so far his read on the new pokemon was that Rhyperior was painfully earnest in his emotions and actions and that he really had been hurt by Blaine’s betrayal.

This wasn’t a long con.

It would have been rather impressive if it had, because from what Titan knew of the Rhyhorn species, they tended to be extremely forthright. A spy would either have to be terrible, or so incredible at their role that Titan would suspect they were another species.

Still, he’d be careful and observe, just in case there was something more at play.

It helped that doing so resulted in some pretty great perks, like a pizza night for all the pokemon. He’d make sure to spread around that the night was thanks to Rhyperior’s arrival, which would go a long way into making him well-liked before any of the other pokemon met him face-to-face.

__________________

Cradily inched across the training field as his teammates moved towards their respective trainers.

Cradily’s own trainer trotted up to him with a vibrant grin. “You did way better today Cradily! It’s pretty rough that you got lined up against Aggron today, but it’s a pretty good indicator of how far we have to go!” gushed the peppy blonde human.

“Yeah,” grunted Cradily as he finally reached the trough that had his nutrient-rich water while lights that were supposed to be the exact brightness for optimal growing conditions shone down on him.

For a single moment, he shut his eyes and extended his fronds, pretending that this was a different water source, and that the lights overhead were an actual sun.

But the illusion soon vanished when music started to play.

“I’ve been reading some research about the best conditions for growing plants and grass type pokemon! Did you know that certain vibrations work best for inducing improvements?" 

“I hadn’t,” he replied tersely, annoyed that his small period of remembering better times had been interrupted. “Is… is there any chance I could go outside?” he asked.

The woman blinked at him slowly and smiled. “Sorry I’m still working to learn your language nuances Cradily! Did you want more nutrient water?”

Cradily stared at her for a long moment before slumping. “Sure,” he nodded.

The girl started tapping away at her transceiver only to shake her head. “Sorry, I can’t give you any more. Apparently we need to keep you lean and adding too much water will result in you being weighed down. We're trying to get stronger Cradily, not bog you down.”

Cradily nodded, accepting the reasoning even as he felt his spirit wilt a little more. “Right.”

The woman stared at him for a moment, her smile flickering before she shifted. “You’re not doing so well are you?” 

Cradily didn’t respond or look at her. 

No, he wasn’t, this training environment was nothing like what he’d been raised in.

He had been young when he’d been traded, but he still recalled a lot of things.

Like growing up in a field of Lileep, moving as a bunch towards water while tracking the flying types that flew overhead. Some of them were threats, and others were potential morsels of food that he and his siblings might enjoy if the Pidgey decided to attempt to bully them as ‘grass types’.

He recalled the kindly researchers who would come and observe them, letting themselves be swarmed by the bunch of Lileep only to laugh and hand out small snacks while documenting their thoughts out loud.

There had been other pokemon as well. So many of them! They’d tumble and roll, and sometimes stumble through the bunch as they rested in the sun, enjoying the warmth.

And the wind! He’d almost forgotten what it felt like to be outside and feel the wind in his fronds while swaying to a dance that only he and his bunch knew. Ever shifting and ever changing with the mood of the wind.

“You doing alright?” barked a metallic voice and Cradily opened his eyes to find himself looking at his previous opponent for the mornings training session.

Aggron.

“Yeah, yeah, just… hurting a bit I guess. You landed some heavy blows,” Cradily offered as their human trainers flitted nearby, watching to make sure they didn’t attempt to fight each other. Supposedly, that was a thing that sometimes occurred with pokemon teams.

He didn’t recall ever hearing of that in his previous… home.

Aggron studied him for a while. “Yeah, I did. You held up well with your Ingrain though and for a stationary pokemon I had to work a lot harder. That’s quite impressive when you consider that you’re not as old as me and haven’t been training as long. You’ll do well here.”

“I don’t feel that way,” replied Cradily, still looking at the trough that was now sadly empty of water.

After a few moments of quiet Cradily raised his head. “You’re rather smart.”

Aggron’s lips twitched. “Compared to my species, yeah?”

“I wasn’t implying that!”

“You came from that Rock Gym yeah? They have an aggron and a whole pack of Aron and Lairon, right?” 

“Yes, Knight was very kind,” Cradily replied, defending the gentle giant that would sometimes come and sit and watch their Lileep bunches dance without comment.

“Hmmmmm, well I can’t say I was always like this, but as you grow older you might pick up a thing or two, especially if you talk with Metagross. He’s terrifyingly smart and will often make you feel… small if you can’t keep up with him.”

“Ah, I haven’t had anything to do with him,” confessed Cradily. “He’s the first to Steven, yes?”

“Yeah, Steven always keeps him close, and he gets the most personal training. Despite not training as much he still has an edge on all of us. You watch. One day Steven will come in and run some three-on-ones, and you’ll get an idea how strong he is.”

“Oh,” muttered Cradily. “Hey… if I wanted to go outside, how would I manage that?” he asked of the much larger pokemon.

“Outside? Why would you want that? You’re not thinking of running off are you?” Aggron asked.

The human trainer assigned to Aggron stiffened. “Hold up, I need to listen to this,” he muttered to the blonde.

“No, I just want to feel the wind. The light and… well everything in here is so… it’s just not right, you know?”

Aggron chewed on that before shaking his head. “Can’t say I do. I was raised from an egg with Steven. He made sure I always had the best to see to my needs.”

“Oh.” Cradily stared at the much larger pokemon. Somehow that felt like something he should pity Aggron for. Like he was missing something he didn’t know he should miss.

Aggron tilted his head. “I can ask for you I suppose?”

“Could you? My human doesn’t understand me yet.”

“Give them time, they’ll get there,” Aggron offered.

Cradily nodded, wondering at how everything worked. He supposed one day it would make sense, but for now it felt… just wrong. He missed what he’d had back with Brock and the other pokemon.

They’d laughed more, joked, and hadn’t been so focused on strength.

He’d grown stronger, certainly, but it wasn’t the same as what he’d seen and heard about from Brock’s Elite. The pokemon there had felt like a team, and even as one of the bunch, Brock had still come around every few days and checked in on them.

Here with Steven as his trainer, it felt so… detached.

He recalled that the Elite had spoken of sharing a bond with Brock, and Cradily wondered how any of the pokemon here could ever achieve that same feeling with Steven.

Perhaps that was why he’d lost against that woman from Sinnoh?

Not that he’d ever say that. Young he might be, but he knew that would not be taken well.

“Hey! Good news! Your trainer is setting us up to do some outdoor training!”

“Us?” asked Craily.

Aggron grinned, and for a moment Cradily thought he was looking at a different, more friendly Aggron. “Yeah, I convinced them that a change would be good for everyone! We can head outside and train. You’re doing accuracy this afternoon yeah?”

“I’m not sure,” replied Cradily.

“Hmmm, you gotta start tracking that. Getting invested in it is the best way to grow strong little weed!” laughed Aggron.

“I’m not a weed,” bit Cradily back angrily.

Aggron grinned. “You’re growing like one! Ha! You actually zinged me earlier with your Stone Edge you know?”

“Good,” replied Cradily with some relish.

“That’s the spirit!” cheered Aggron as he and the other pokemon were all returned to their pokeballs. When they reappeared, they did so in a clearing. 

It wasn’t perfect. The grass was uniformly cut to height, and the trees were curated shrubs rather than wild, untamed land.

There was also a lot of machinery that was used for training, like the disc launcher and ball shooter that made Cradily work on his dodging, but none of that mattered as he straightened up and lifted his head up to the glorious ball of fire in the sky.

His fronds spread, and he took a long deep breath of fresh air.

The wind tickled his fronds and his roots wiggled with delight. Above the sun shone so fiercely that it almost burned with how unused to it Cradily was.

Despite that, for the first time in a while, Cradilly felt right.

“Ooooooh, that’s some warm sunlight!” crowed Agron from where he shaded his eyes. “Gonna have a sweat worked up after this session!”

“Hmmmmmmmm,” replied Cradily, as he began to drift back and forth with the wind. 

His trainer approached with her controller pad only to pause as she watched him float happily. She opened her mouth then thought better of it. “You… can have another ten minutes before we start I think.”

Cradily opened his eyes and peered at her. “Thank you,” he offered.

She smiled back at him. “I think I understood that one,” she replied, bowing her head and sitting down.

“Oi! Get your pokemon training! Steven doesn’t pay for us to laze around!” called another trainer, causing Cradily to tense up slightly. Just when he thought he’d get a small break.

“Sorry I have to recalibrate the launchers! They’re not used to handling outside conditions and need to defrag!” replied his trainer.

“Urgh! That figures! Well get it done! If the boss comes around and sees you sitting down you’ll be out on your ass and unemployed before you can say retirement!” warned the other trainer.

Cradily watched the other man stalk away to train with Skarmory.

“Typically Chad, always gotta nose into other people’s business,” muttered his girl. 

“What’s your name?” Cradily asked for the first time. She might have told him when they were first introduced but he couldn’t recall. Or was it that he hadn’t bothered remembering it?

“Hmmm Betty,” replied the girl, only to blink. “Heh, this was a good idea!” she chimed in. “I think I’ll need to start arguing for more grass-style training sessions outdoors!”

“I’d like that,” offered Cradily.

When ten minutes passed, the girl made a show of dusting herself off and stretching. “Alright, all sorted!” she announced to anyone that might be listening in. Then she smiled towards him. “Feel like showing me what you’ve got?” she asked.

Cradily inched into position and then nodded. With the sun and the wind touching him, he sighted on the first target and began to launch move after move, nailing the targets.

It was only in the later rounds where they used highly sped-up discs that were even smaller that he began to falter.

When they were done Betty hummed. “That… was your best session to date! I think we’re definitely going to have to come back here!” she gushed.

Cradily felt warm, and just a little better about his situation. Now if only he could organise time to make friends with the others. Aggron seemed like a good enough place to start. They were both rock types after all.

Maybe if these sessions continued he could also lure a Pidgey in for a snack?

As Bertha used to say, it’s good to dream.

__________________

Meowth took a long sip on his straw only to sigh in contentment. Next to him Mittens yawned lazily, content to lounge in the sun half-draped over him. Ahhhh, this was living!

In the water Jessie was playing roughhouse with a few of the bikers that came with Mittens and Bosco. Some of them were making eyes at Jessie, only for her to throw them into the water with a loud laugh that served to inflame their fighting spirit more and more.

Hehe, she seemed to be enjoying herself and the number of guys trying to catch her attention actually seemed to be growing with the longer she tossed them around.

James on the other hand, was hiding under an umbrella with the sand pulled up around him like a tiny castle that would protect him from anything.

“Hehe! You sure you don’t want to come out James? The water’s amazing!” declared Bosco from where he was standing at the water’s edge.

“I’m fine!” came James’ reply from the shadows of the umbrella-fort.

“Heh, I still can't believe you’re hiding under there after giving us the heads-up about this place James! What gives?”

“I just… I’m not feeling well. I must have ate something that’s not agreeing with my stomach!” James said.

Meowth would call Tauros dung on that, as James was being as frantic as him that one time they entered the museum of rocking chairs! Shuddering at the memory of all those rolling edges that threatened to catch his tail, Meowth decided to drop the issue.

He had other things to worry about after all.

Like Mittens as she rolled onto her back and began to wriggle.

Wow… she was some pokemon!

Mittens paused and shot him an amused look. “You’re drooling,” she purred at him.

What can I say? You're drool-worthy!" he chimed back only to cringe at the horrible line.

Rather than get disgusted, Mittens laughed and Meowth felt himself falling head over heels for this gal all over again.

They shared a chaste nuzzle and then Mittens flicked her eyes to a small alcove that offered some privacy. “Care to… go for a walk?” she teased.

Meowth shot to his feet instantly. “Yeah! I sure do!” he shouted.

Mittens laughed again and swiped her tail across his face playfully. When they passed Bosco, she gave him an idle. “Going for a walk.” and her trainer waved at her. “Have fun you two!” he cheered, only to return to trying to convince James to come out of his fort.

As soon as they reached the private alcove, Meowth spared the area a quick glance before locking onto Mittens and grinning.

By the time they returned the sun had fallen a bit lower in the sky and they had tousled hair from their time together. Mittens continued to nuzzle up to him as they walked with their tails entwined.

Meowth felt tired, but also like a million pokebucks.

“Must you go overseas?” whined Mittens. “I won’t be able to see you for so long~.”

“I got to babe, someone has to keep my humans looked after! They’re useless without me! Believe me!” 

“Oddly enough I do,” remarked Mittens.

“WHO DARES TRESPASS UPON MY PRIVATE BEACH!” screamed a shrill voice.

Everyone on the beach paused in that moment and turned towards the stairs that led up to the mansion above the beach. Standing at the top of the stairs was…

“Jessie what are you playing at?” Meowth complained. “Seriously the dress and hair are nice but you gotta change up a few things if you want to actually trick us!” 

From James’ umbrella fort a soft groan could be heard only for it to pass unremarked.

‘Jessie’ drew her head back and flared her nostrils. “I am not this Jessie you speak of! I am—”

“She’s open lads! Chuck her in the water!” roared the bikers and the men that Jessie had been defeating handily all afternoon charged up the stairs to grab her.

Jessie shrieked indignantly, only for the men to race back to the beach, in doing so they knocked over James' umbrella fort, causing him to cry out. Meowth snorted, about time he got dragged out.

The bikers grabbed him up and tossed him alongside Jessie, and Meowth grinned.

James shot into the water like a pale spear while Jessie floundered as her dress caught in the wind. 

“Haha! Victory is ours!” declared the bikers as both Jessie and James vanished into the water.

A moment later Jessie emerged with a snorkel and a speared trio of magikarp. “I got a snack for everyone!” she shouted, waving the dead fish.

Meowth blinked. “Damn Jessie! That was a fast transition even for you!”

Jessie tilted her head. “What are you talking about?”

Mittens stepped up, her nose twitching. "Something is wrong. This Jessie smells different than the one just thrown into the water.”

“Different?” Meowth asked only to sniff the air himself as two shapes emerged from the water. James’ head popped up only to sink back down and glance around like he was worried he’d call up a Gyarados… which… was all sorts of ridiculous considering he owned one!

A moment later another body emerged, only this one did so with more screeching and flapping of limbs.

“Hoodlums! Vandals! Visigoths and Perverts! How dare you throw a lady into the water like this! I shall have you locked in irons and flogged for—” whatever threats she was going to give were lost as she was dragged under the water due to the weight of her dress.

A moment later she breeched the water again. “H-help! I can’t swim in this dress!” she screamed only to fall back into the water, this time further out.

Bosco grimaced. “Shit! She’s a lookie-loo, and she’s stuck in a rift! Men! SAVE HER!” he roared, and the bikers threw themselves into the water after the woman.

Oddly, the sight of a biker gang roaring towards her did not calm the woman down, and if anything, she began to flap harder and push herself further out to sea.

The men hit the water and swam after her only for several to scream in shock. “I’m cramping! Help!”

Meowth facepalmed. “This… is why I need to go to the Trinity nations with my humans,” he declared as he marched over to where a jetski was.

Hmmm, no keys.

He unsheathed a claw and with a few deft twists had the jetski purring along as he revved up the throttle and idled out. 

Within moments he caught up to the gang of bikers that were floundering, throwing lifejackets and safety rings to them before sweeping out to the distant swimmers.

He glanced around and frowned a moment later. “Oooooooh, we’re in trouble. Where’s that Jessie look alike?”

A moment later he realised he also couldn’t see James but that should be a lesser concern considering James had a Gyarados. He was just about to return to talk to Jessie when Gyarados and Milotic emerged from the water.

“Hi Meowth!” gushed Milotic. “We were like swimming around and just loving life when we got dragged into this crazy rip! It took us ages to fight our way out of it! How has your afternoon been?” 

Gyardos nodded his head in greeting.

“Oh shit,” Meowth muttered, realising that neither of the water types had been with James.

Which meant his bud was adrift at sea, with some crazy noble woman that looked like Jessie.

Instead of replying, Meowth turned the Jetski and charged back into the beach. “Jessie! I can’t find James and that lookalike of yours!”

“Tch! Typical James getting washed out to sea with some floozy! WE’re going to have to set up a search and rescue!” her gaze turned towards the manor above. “Even if we find the girl we’re going to be in so much trouble.”

Meowth coughed. “You know… Brock does owe us a favour. Maybe he can help? If Sabrina gets involved who’s to say a memory just happens to… be forgotten?” he offered hopefully.

Jessie snorted. “You’re an idiot if you think Sabrina would do such a thing. But you’re not wrong that Brock owes us for all the work we’ve put in. Let’s get some help combing the Vermillion coastline!”

“Yeah it’s not like it’s bad weather. Should be a quick search for them, Teleport in, pinpoint our boy and bring him back… along with that girl,” Meowth tacked on. “In and out, two minute adventure for them, tops!”

Overhead thunder rumbled and rain began to pour in from what had been a clear sky.

Meowth held out a paw and stared as it grew damp.

Damn, he really should have known better than to tempt fate.

What was the saying? Men and pokemon plan and Arceus laughs?

__________________

A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support!

It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!