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Hard Enough - Chapter 369 - Lore dump interruptions
🕑 Added 2025-10-13 19:00:07 +0000 UTCAs we predicted, no one was willing to leave, “a Legendary pokemon announced it to us” alone as a statement.
We’d messaged Lance, and then the local mayor, and then told several others in the League.
This had resulted in messages bombarding our inbox and Lance calling us.
“You’re certain that’s what they said?” asked Lance with a scowl.
“Yes! For the last time!” I snapped at him over the link. “If you want to question him, go down to Shamouti and throw rocks in the water or something!”
Lance gave me a flat look. “I’m not doing that.”
I held back a giggle as I responded with a flat stare. “Worked for us,” I muttered, causing Lance to scrutinise me.
“Well stop throwing rocks at fish alright? I’m quite sure that is frowned upon if not illegal depending on the sizes of the rocks and water sources involved. But we will make sure to have our coast guard and naval exploration fleet ready by the end of next year. The warning certainly has some weight coming from a Legendary pokemon like Lugia.”
“Wow, that’s impressive considering that Lugia was a bit of an unknown before a few weeks ago,” I murmured.
“It helps that its reveal to the world coincided with a storm that engulfed a significant portion of the world,” Lance replied, which was fair, demonstrations of power like that would put you on a lot of people’s radars.
Lance continued. “Cynthia has forwarded us several databases worth of texts and other information on missing regions and the Legendary pokemon that we know of.”
“Ho? Anything interesting?” I asked, probing for intel, that I would no doubt be pouring over later with the Guardian’s access to the League files.
“It’s a database on Legendary pokemon, it’s extremely dense in terms of information. It would be faster to list the regions not on it. The stand outs are what we got regarding Mt Coronet in Sinnoh which is said to house three Legendary pokemon with there being a chance of a fourth or fifth showing its face within the region. For security’s sake I cannot say their names lightly.”
Lance held up a piece of paper that read ‘Memetic threat’ with a border of yellow and black. Below that there was a much smaller caption reading cognito-hazard.
“You created cards for this?” I said.
Lance chuckled. “It became required when the extent of the threat was expounded upon. One researcher was a little loose lipped when they were discussing a text involving a certain ghost typed pokemon.”
I stiffened. Some idiot had said Giratina’s name out loud three times?
“What happened?”
Lance grimaced. “The lights in the room went dark and the person vanished, leaving behind all of their pokemon and clothes. We brought in Agatha for it and she had the room decommissioned and told us to send a termination package to the man’s family.”
I raised an eyebrow, silently asking Lance to continue only for him to wave a hand. “When can I expect to hear from Crowley?” he asked, pushing the topic away from the literal Ghost Legendary that had spirited away someone from their desk.
“I’ll talk to him today and he might have something sorted by the close of busi—”
“I will be in Pewter tomorrow then!” he declared as he hung up.
I smirked, just knowing he was probably posing in his office right now, before realising how ridiculous he looked and sitting back down to complete his paper work.
“Think they’re done?” Sabrina asked from where she was sitting at the kitchen table playing a game of Pika-Rata-Sentret snap with my sisters.
For the sake of fairness she was throwing the game pretty hard with Suzie and Tilly both having to snap hard to beat Cindy who wasn’t willing to go easy on them.
“No fair!” whined Suzie as she failed in her slap only for her hand to come down atop Cindy’s
“Yowch! That hurt!”
“That’s snap~,” teased Yolanda, who had the third least swollen hand of the group.
Munchlax nodded seriously only to lay down his card and snap it causing the girls to giggle.
“No you need a matching pair or a complete cycle of pika-rata-sent before you snap silly!” called Tilly.
Sabrina nodded seriously and laid out her next card, causing a round of gasps along with a series of slaps to echo through the room.
I gave the girls a firm look. I was starting to suspect this game was more an excuse to slap each other than actual play but I shook the thought away.
“I think the League will bug us for a few more days. And then go back to usual business. I’ll be surprised if they remember this in a year’s time.”
I glanced towards my room, my fingers itching to go look into the database of new regions and legendaries. Sabrina flicked her fingers and I headed to my room where I unlocked a safe. With the door locked and privacy guaranteed I turned on the Guardian datapad.
It performed a sweep of the room before blinking green.
“Guardian Brock, identity verified! Greetings!” it chimed as the detector arm settled back into its housing.
I clicked through the links of information and found what I was looking for.
It was divided into two folders.
Legendary pokemon, and Regions.
I hummed in thought.
I was quite confident that I knew most of the Legendary pokemon that would be on the list, but the same would be true for regions… Regional information could reveal more to me however so I clicked on that link.
From there more information was divided further into sub folders.
Several of the folders I knew the names of, with Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh/Hisui, Unova, Kalos, Alola, and Galar but then other files jumped out.
Paldea?
Kitakami?
Ransei?
I had no idea about any of those regions. Which… didn’t surprise me too much… No, that was a lie, I thought to myself. I was honestly rather shocked to learn that my knowledge really was lacking when it came to knowing just how vast this world was.
I clicked on Paldea, suspecting it was the next major region in the pokemon franchise.
More and more files began to populate the screen causing me to grimace. This had to be Cynthia’s work as these files looked to be ancient texts and from the image files I could see there were several wall carvings or artworks that were being shown.
I decided to start with the easiest and first file, helpfully named ‘Summary of Paldea’.
“Paldea was a major region within the world that was known for its cultural focus on culinary arts and sampling different towns’ flavours. Each town was known to be named after ingredients, cooking terms, utensils, or kitchen related objects, such was their love for cooking,” I read aloud.
Huh, that made sense. Trust the developers and or Arceus to include some jokes into the world building.
Which, if it was that latter meant that Arceus had a sense of humour.
Weird thought to have potentially confirmed but still neat. I shrugged and kept reading.
As I continued to read, I noted that the author of this text, who I still thought of as Cynthia, had helpfully added links into the document which allowed ease of referencing along with keeping with proper referencing standards with superscript numbering.
A quick scroll to the bottom of the document… which was much longer than I’d thought it to be revealed that yes she had included a references section.
Paldea it turned out was arranged around a central crater that was hypothesised to be a meteor impact site. Supposedly the exotic minerals within the crater resulted in much stronger pokemon than any other area within Paldea.
It reminded me of Mt Silver, or other ‘end game’ regions that could only be reached once you had demonstrated a set level of power as a trainer in the games. In reality they were nature preserves holding entire populations of dangerous pokemon.
Still, for a ‘crater’ to have the same size and cultural weight as that of Mt Silver struck me as odd. If such a meteor struck the planet it would have caused significant damage and… oh wait, pokemon mechanics.
I sighed. Arceus or some other Legendary probably stepped in to protect the world, I mused, expecting to see just that in later parts of the summary text.
The crater supposedly required multiple Elite trainers working as teams to be able to enter and exit the crater alive, but few if any had reached the centre of the crater.
Supposedly around two thousand years ago a central Paldean Empire emerged which, rather than turning outwards and expanding, focussed on exploration within the crater. Supposedly the expeditions were so lucrative that the ruling family at the time were able to pay explorers and soldiers vast sums for going into the crater and returning with various minerals, herbs or other items of note.
This was apparently viable for over a thousand years until more and more exploration teams started to return empty handed, citing that the areas around the rim were already stripped bare of significant resources with less herbs growing there.
Problems then arose as exploration teams attempted to push further into the crater only to come up against stronger and stronger pokemon.
Here was also the first time that pokemon ‘titans’ were cited as being seen destroying entire pokemon teams.
I tilted my head. Could pokemon naturally Gigantimax? I thought to myself. Was the mechanic different than that of Mega evolution or was I confusing Paldea’s Titans with something else?
I took out a notepad and started sketching out my thoughts to help keep them in order but before long I had to draw out my second secret reference book that I hid in a completely different safe that wasn’t on any building records and meant I actually had to drag my bed out to reach.
With pad in hand and my notebook laid out I referenced what I knew of Gigantimax.
Then I frowned and clicked out of the summary of Paldea to look at what was listed on Galar, even going as far as to do a search on ‘timax’ only to find nothing written in those files, meaning it wasn’t well known.
That or it was referenced under another name.
I wrote a note to read through Galar next.
If I was doing this properly I should probably spend the time going through every region that had been included to see what others suspect along with what I knew to be right or wrong, or what was yet to be confirmed, it would help to validate certain information at the very least.
Rather than being down about such a prospect I found myself rather looking forward to it.
From what I could recall from my past life, Giganitmax involved a temporary surge in height and power for pokemon while also slightly altering their base form, as opposed to Dynamax which merely increased the strength and size of a pokemon.
I scratched my head. This was starting to feel a bit like the Ultra situation I had been forced to explain to Sabrina.
Too much of a similar term made it highly confusing to read through… or explain.
Sabrina appeared right at that moment, saw all the papers I had laid out along with my Guardian datapad and raised an eyebrow.
“You realise it’s bed time right?”
“Yeah I kind of got on a bit of a Furret hole by looking into just one region.”
Sabrina sat down next to me. “Explain it to me?” she asked, gesturing at the papers which now that I looked at them, really did look like the start of a madman’s layout. All I needed was a some string connecting things together and a dedicated room to keep it all—”
Sabrina nudged me. “Brock,” she teased.
“Sorry,” I replied before leaning forward and tapping the datapad. “So I started looking at the folder list and was rather surprised when—” I started to explain how I’d gotten to this point and Sabrina sat and listened calmly.
I was able to streamline my thoughts with her and she made noises of interest at a few key points.
“All of this from just a few minutes reading?” she asked.
“Yeah, it’s a pretty dense document,” I answered. “Interesting too.”
Sabrina’s lips twitched into a smirk. “Well, leave the history work for tomorrow. It will still be there tomorrow and you can enjoy yourself then.”
I accepted that and had her help me lock up the various documents in their cubbyholes. “Still got your doll auction tomorrow?” I asked.
“Indeed, you may come if you wish,” she suggested but I begged off. I’d barely started reading up on Paldea and I already had a whole host of questions to ask. What would I be like when I read up on Kitikami or this Ransei region? Was that all that was out there or just what Cynthia had records of?
“She didn’t have any records of Orre,” I said suddenly, sitting up and—
Sabrina’s eyes snapped open and a telekinetic force knocked me back into bed. “No, sleep now Brock, be a historian tomorrow,” she ordered.
“But I want to be a historian now!” I sulked.
Sabrina glowered at me. “Historians don’t get to sleep in a bed with their fiancee,” she stated.
“Sleep?” I asked with a noted inflection.
Sabrina rolled over. “Yes, sleep,” she said flatly.
Damn, I thought to myself, shouldn’t have sulked, that was never attractive. I stretched out in bed and rolled over to spoon her, “Alright, night,” I said, kissing her neck as I focussed on relaxing my body and slowing my breathing.
I might have been like a kid waiting for christmas but I knew well enough that tomorrow would be here all too soon.
The next morning saw me sitting at the kitchen counter with a tea in hand and the remnants of my breakfast.
My training with my pokemon was done, my family had all set off to school or to complete their own tasks and now I had nothing to do but sit around and read up on some abstract lore.
Perfect.
Which is why I just knew it was going to be interrupted. It was a rule of every universe, like getting comfy on the couch only for your pet to scratch at the back door or your child/sibling to start screaming.
Thankfully, that interruption ended up taking hours to come in, allowing me to get well and truly read up on Paldea, which sounded like a wonderful place to visit.
I might have wanted to go to Galar one day to catch a giant Coalossal along with taking Sabrina to Alto Mare along with going for a beach holiday to Alola for the chance to find Diancie would be great. Still, I had no doubts that I could also swing a holiday/business trip for pokemon expeditions to Paldea in the future.
My list of places to visit around the world was growing the more I read. I had no doubt that my list of destinations for holidays would only grow.
What would Kitakami hold? Or Ransei?
Part of me was rather eager to learn of these new regions. I felt like a kid again who was about to explore the unknown.
It was strange to think that in a way, I could possibly be the first person from Indigo to reach these regions if I put serious effort into it.
Maybe I could be someone that arrived after the explorers found the regions however. I could be like a Tour Guide, writing and experiencing all that the regions had to offer.
Sort of like a Tour Guide Pokemon Professor, I thought to myself.
It had some appeal to it.
It was then that my Guardian pad chimed with an incoming message.
“Work, work, work,” I muttered as I opened the message. I stared at it for a few moments, then I threw my head back and roared with laughter.
“Alright this is going to be so worth it,” I muttered as I stood up to head out.
I had no idea how things had gone down with Janine but she’d sent a group message to all the Guardians reading, “Help! I knocked out Visquez cause she was asking too many questions!”
So I was to meet her during the middle of the day in a barn on the outskirts of Fuchsia.
I laughed when Sabrina replied with, “Dig a hole and toss her into it. I’m busy.”
When Janine didn’t respond, I started moving quicker to get to Fuchsia. Looks like it was going to be up to me to be the adult once more.
________________
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “It was a joke Janine,” I muttered, staring at the tied up figure laying next to a hole with pokemon milling about. While also secretly adjusting my Xtransceiver to take a picture.
Janine’s Muk and her Nidoqueen shifted about as I gave the entire group a long, disappointed look.
Overhead Janine’s Crobat fluttered about and on a whim I released mine which caused them to both perk up and began racing each other.
Janine tracked the pair of them as though they were more interesting than the tied-up girl at her feet. ”I knew that, it was just that I needed to make her more fearful and less in control!” she claimed.
“You’re saying that, but you’re not meeting my eyes,” I replied, trying to lock eyes with her.
“Am I?” she asked shiftily. Then she sighed. “Alright so I had this big plan laid out and then Visquez cornered me and started asking questions. Apparently, we’ve been too slow in inviting her into the Guardians.”
“I rubbed my forehead. “Most of that is because we’ve been busy. Your dad is in another country right now, no? And so is Karen for that matter,” I reminded her. Then I ticked off the others. “Sabrina is doll collecting and I don’t think the industry can handle her delaying her hobby for another day.”
Janine tilted her head and I waved the comment off before she could ask too much about what that meant.
“Lucy is busy with the Battle Frontier due to the influx of trainers going up that way, which leaves you, me, and… Agatha,” I said, giving the shadows around us a pointed look.
“We could do it,” Janine suggested.
Our Crobats zipped around a tree branch and then wove around each other while shrieking happily. At my feet, the shiny Bulbasaur watched on and clapped his little vines at their antics.
“Well, I was relaxing after everything in Shamouti but sure, I guess if she wants to force our hand we can do this today,” I muttered.
I marched up to Visquez’s feet and kicked her boots. “Alright time to stop faking it, or else I’m going to have Janine here throw your boots into her Muk.”
“Oh fuck that,” Visquez replied, sitting straight up with her hand and feet still tied together. “Can I get this sack off? It smells like two Rattata were in here doing the nasty.”
“How long have you been awake for?” Janine hissed.
“Since you dropped me down the front steps and loaded me up on your Nidoqueen. She was really gentle about carrying me though so I think I napped on the way out here.”
Nidoqueen made a happy noise and I rolled my eyes as I dragged the sack off Visquez’s head.
“Did you learn anything from trying to push Janine around?” I asked.
“She’s got a nasty right hook! I didn’t even see it coming and then she was mounting me and jabbing me before I knew what was up!”
“And?”
“And maybe I shouldn’t discuss your secret clubhouse out in public,” she muttered with a roll of her eyes.
“The Guardians are not some game to be trotted out in public!” Janine countered, chopping her hand at Visquez.
“Guardians huh? Sounds neat! I’m in!” she called.
I knelt down and tugged the ropes off. “I thought Surge would have taught you how to get out of these?” I asked.
“Yeah he did but I don’t think he ever got tied up by a ninja before!” Visquez replied almost proudly. “She’s way better at knots than I thought!”
“Some structures use…” Janine muttered only to cough .”Nevermind you wouldn’t find it interesting.”
Visquez looked like she wanted to object but I cleared my throat in an attempt to keep us on track.
“Alright you two, some things happened that both of you seem able to let go of, so I’ll count that as a win. Janine, try not to resort to such methods too much even if Visquez was basically asking for it.”
“Hey! I resent that!” Visquez grumbled.
“Am I wrong?” I asked.
Visquez muttered something that I couldn’t make heads or tails of but decided to take it as agreement.
“Alright,” I glanced around once more, this time channeling my new trick. There were some shadows lurking in the trees that captured my attention. “Now that Agatha is here I think we can do things properly.”
Janine glanced around and stiffened while Visquez flicked her eyes. “Eh I’m not falling for that old trick.”
“Except you are dearie,” cackled Agatha as she rose out of the ground behind Visquez.
“Oh shit! Dad’s journal was right! Ghosts are freaks!” she shrieked.
Agatha cackled. “Ohoho, you don’t know the half of it! Now, I was going to be much more polite about this but then you decided to force my hand girl.” Her eyes glinted. “Brock, Janine? Clear the area!” she ordered.
I tilted my head but decided to give Agatha her moment, she like me was probably relaxing. It would do Visquez some good to settle down a bit.
Janine and I stepped back to the trees, leaving the clearing and taking our pokemon with us.
The forest, which had been previously well-lit, suddenly shifted into darkness and I glanced up to find that a cloud had moved in front of the sun. A rumble ran through the sky.
“Rain Dance only makes my pokemon stronger,” Visquez growled as she stood tall across from
“Is that so?” mused Agatha as the shadows around the area lengthened and began to shift. Red glowing eyes leered out at Visquez. “Are your pokemon out of their pokeballs?”
Visquez’s hands swept for her belt only to find it gone. Her hand shot up to her necklace a moment later and a Raichu emerged, sparking up aggressively.
“You stole my pokemon?” growled Visquez.
“Did I? Or maybe you’re just a careless girl,” Agatha replied with a cruel smirk.
I frowned, touching her pokebelt was certainly hitting below the belt but it wasn’t too bad. I glanced around and spotted a glint of metal hanging from a tree. Ah, she had created an objective to reach.
Visquez noticed it as well. “I’m getting them back,” she growled.
“As you should but do remember that there are easy ways, and hard ways to go about this. Much like life. Stop making things hard for yourself girl!” she snapped. Her cane stabbed forward and pokemon began to channel attacks or shift about, creating a fully haunted forest.
Suddenly, multiple Shadow Balls erupted from the area and Visquez, rather than fighting back, dropped to the ground to avoid the attacks.
“Raichu! Get your friends up and out!” she ordered.
Raichu blazed across the ground towards the pokebelt.
Agatha nodded. “Yes, sending your pokemon out is a good idea. It’s fast,” she praised. “Shame it’s not the fastest around,” she announced as a Gengar shifted into place in front of Raichu, intercepting it with a swipe of its claws.
Visquez wasn’t left unmolested either as more attacks shot out, keeping her on the move.
“Oi! Are you lot sleeping in there? I need you up and out!” bellowed Visquez in an attempt to rouse her team. Only for a Haunter to appear next to the pokebelt and hold up a finger in a shushing gesture.
“Fricker frack! Really?” Visquez snarled.
Agatha just grinned. “Easy way or hard!” she singsonged at the taller girl.
Visquez narrowed her eyes as she leaned around at the leaping Haunter that had its tongue stuck out wide.
She planted her feet and opened hand. “Can I please have my pokemon back?”
Haunter nodded and floated the pokebelt towards her, passing over where Raichu and Gengar were fighting. Raichu and Gengar both paused as the objective floated over their heads.
Visquez blinked as her pokebelt was dropped in her hands. “Huh?”
Agatha clapped her hands as her pokemon stopped attacking Visquez and shifted to a position around her. They still leered and laughed at Visquez but they no longer attacked. Gengar even nodded to Raichu before peeling away. “There, wasn’t that so much easier than forcing our hands and starting off on the right foot? You’ll find I can be reasonable if you—”
I couldn’t help myself. I snorted out loud and the sound carried like an echo in a cavern.
Everyone glanced at me.
I waved a hand. “Sorry, I smelt some Tauros shit and it flares up my sinuses,” I replied. “Do continue,” I suggested. Agatha narrowed her eyes.
I raised my eyebrow at her, ignoring how Janine had her face tucked into her Bulbasaur’s back where she was giggling like a loon. “I seem to recall you ganging up on Sabrina and I when you first introduced yourselves to us, no?”
Agatha sniffed. “We’ve refined our methods and learned of better ways since then!” she stabbed her cane towards Visquez. “Just like this one needs to learn some lessons herself! She’s as bad as a Tauros in a china shop!”
“I can be discreet, I just suck at being patient!” snapped Visquez.
Agatha huffed. “We can work on that girl. We do want to offer you a position in our organisation but you’ll need to keep it secret!” she snapped.
“Cause of the shady dealings, got it,” winked Visquez.
“No, more so that we can do more with people unaware of our existence than if we were an open organisation.”
“Hmmm, alright I can do black ops,” Visquez said only to grin and crack her knuckles. “But how about I prove my spark first?” she said with a challenging grin.
Agatha grinned right back.
Visquez released her pokemon team, and this time a proper pokemon battle ensued with pokemon throwing themselves at each other.
Janine and I stood to the side and I shook my head. “Well, at least this is somewhat entertaining,” I mused.
Janine nodded and I gave her a thoughtful look. “You said something about using rope in building techniques?” I prompted, as off to the side Raichu unleashed an Electro Ball at Agatha only for her to slide to the side without so much as lifting a foot.
From her shadow, Gengy the nightmare Gengar emerged shaking a finger in admonishment at Raichu.
Janine tilted her head. “You want to know about it?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been doing some reading on the lore of Paldea and I kind of really liked the sound of it. Even with it being a lost region to us at the moment, I’d like to travel there one day, along with a few other places. I just realised that for all that I’ve been on a Journey around Kanto, the Orange Islands, and parts of Hoenn I never really got a chance to just play tourist like I would have if I wasn’t so focused on pushing as fast and far as I could.”
Janine started to grin. “There are many wonderful landmarks and architectural wonders in Indigo!”
“Tell me about them,” I replied as I sat and got comfortable.
By the time Agatha had beaten down Visquez’s team, and then for good measure had a Haunter lick Visquez to lock her in place, Janine and I had a small table with a tea set laid out along with several notes I’d assembled.
Agatha marched over and claimed a cup of tea and some snacks for herself and when the Paralysis faded Visquez joined us.
“Friggen cheating old hags,” she muttered as she lay down next to the table.
“Wet behind the ear brat,” Agatha said without any heat in her words.
“Do you just like collecting enemies with other women or…” I gestured at Visquez and Agatha.
Agatha huffed. “Young ones these days aren’t raised with any manners.”
I turned to Janine. “Do you want to fight her?”
“Mostly I just avoid her,” Janine replied.
Agatha got a thoughtful look and Janine plucked Bulbasaur into her lap while reaching for her pouch. I suspected she was about to throw a smokebomb and escape so I decided to intervene.
“Alright everyone calm it down.”
“I’m perfectly calm, so don’t tell me to calm down,” snapped Agatha.
“Of course you are,” I replied. “Visquez needs to be read into certain facts and how we operate. She also needs a datapad, no?”
Agatha reached into a bag and tossed a datapad at Visquez who snatched it out of the air.
“Put your thumb to it and allow it to scan you in a private setting. Don’t tell anyone else about this and secure it. If anyone attempts to unlock it it will wipe itself clean.”
“Ooohhh neat! Now I really feel like black ops!” Visquez announced.
Agatha ignored her antics and waved a hand to Janine. “Janine will see about showing you the ropes and your security.”
“She already showed me her ropes!” Visquez joked.
I shook my head. “There are some things I think Karen will like about you, and others that will have you being the worst of enemies,” I muttered.
Visquez winked at me. “Well if she’s got good taste she’s got good taste.” She set the datapad down. “But seriously I want to see the flying fortress. Y’all got away clean with that right? Can I see it? It looks incredible!”
Janine grinned, and I chuckled, knowing that the pair would be busy for the next few days. Turning my attention to Agatha I cleared my thoughts. “If we’re inducting other people into the Guardians, what do you think of Erika? She’s stood up a few times and helped out. I’d trust her to do so again.”
Agatha pursed her lips. “She has been a strong candidate so I will tentatively agree. I shall approach her and see if she would be interested.”
“Try not to get into a fight with her as well,” I suggested.
Agatha just took a long sip of her tea before setting it down. “We will see what she’s made of,” she stated, only to slip into her shadow and vanish.
Janine shivered. “I dislike when she does that.”
Visquez snorted. “That’s rich coming from you short and deadly!” She leaned forward. “So this Guardian stuff, it shows you how to knock someone out in a few touches?”
“That’s something only Janine and Koga probably know, the rest of us just hit hard enough to knock people out,” I stated.
“Ah, I see,” Visquez nodded, “Good old brute force!”
I chuckled, knowing she was mostly right. With no other plans for the day I decided to make the most of the impromptu picnic, showing off my new pokemon in Tyrunt and Crobat, which had both girls whistling in appreciation.
Janine and I were showing Visquez how to navigate the datapad when I got a call. I answered it and Erika’s face appeared.
She looked thoroughly dishevelled and annoyed. “Brock, did you send Agatha after me?” she growled.
A sigh escaped me. Why was I having to play adult and clean up a grown woman’s messes?
“Just… come to Fuchsia and I’ll read you in,” I muttered as I sent Erika my location ping.
When I hung up I narrowed my eyes. “I think Sabrina knew to avoid today,” I muttered.
Janine nodded. “Most likely, she’s clever like that.”
That got a nod from everyone and when Erika stomped into the forest she did so with a scowl that vanished when she spotted the shiny Bulbasaur in Janine’s lap.
“Eeeei! He’s adorable!” she squealed.
Visquez and I shared a look. “Well, that’s one way to calm her down… somewhat,” I said as Erika began fawning over the little pokemon.
By the end of the day, we had two new members of the Guardians read in with Janine, ostensibly their go-to mentor. Something I was extremely happy to escape as I returned home to relax with my family.
While not much had changed, I still counted it as progress.
___________________
A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support.
Thanks also go to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter.
Had a stray thought, but what sort of files or revelations would Erika or Visquez discover in their read through of the Guardian documents that people would enjoy reading as an interlude?
Comments
Connor Deer
Seems like wasted opportunities to only be inviting gym leaders/ elite 4 to the guardian group. Particularly as they are all public figures with demanding jobs. Isn't it also kinda seditious to be running this technically behind the leagues back?
olyver
Can you image Lance's reaction when Erika pops up with an Alolan Executor?
olyver
The footage of the fight between Brock, Surge and Will. Especially when he threatens to beat Surge using Will. Still one of my favorite scenes.
Adam Ford
Allolen variants
Fred Steel
It could be fun/interesting to have Erika and Visquez read up on Sinnoh and Hisui and learn that their variant Voltorbs are culturally significant to Sinnoh. I know Brock showed off Kleavor and Sabrina Wyrdeer, but any discussion about H-Voltorbs wasn't done on screen.
Viva01
Lol the Agatha comment is hilarious. Even a Dreepy would be fun to see. If Lance thought Brock was annoying to deal with when he was teasing him, wait until Agatha gets a ghost dragon.
Docnox
I wanna see agatha stuggling with an over affectionate Greavard. Florges and sawsbuck are right up Erica’s alley. And Janine i can see with a thievul lol, or dragalge for soom major oomf oh Foongus is perfect ninja poke.
no-thoughts-only-vibes
the whole hero thing? dont know if they know already. How deep the rabbithole of aura really goes
Glitched Knights
It would be interesting to see if Brock tried to recreate Hisuian Lilligant
LazyF0x02
How much do Erika and Visquez know about Brock and Serina's involvement in the Team Rocket takedown? Might be interesting for them to learn about Mewtwo, or at least recognize him being the "knight" from Rota being active.
Oblivious Bookwyrm
If you’re talking about Tyranitarite, Viva’s a smart author. Power-ups like that are best used during climactic moments with narrative weight. Just having it handed to Brock via his Megastone company would be low impact for a power so game-changing. We’ll likely see it once or after we explore the Crusher tribe storyline. Their coexistence with Tyranitars, ancestry with Brock, and savagery has been forshadowed throughout the story.
ShinLupin
Bertha would be over the moon. Might also become a Time-travel Adventure and Brock has to be the MC in the past/game
Forint
There's a quite a few more megas out there by canon now. With one being *very* relevant to this story. To the point that it's a shock he hasn't found the stone yet.
Mr_Penguin27
Oh this would be good. Plus an easy template to write from since you already have 369 chapters to work off of.
Onean
This is mostly because they're my favorite Pokemon and I don't think they get enough attention, but I think a very minor, nifty tidbit would be seing Erika interested in Lilligant. For something more notable I can't really think of anything specific outside of Mewtwo (I believe they're both still ignorant of him, unless I'm misremembering) and the final showdown with Giovanni.
HoldTightAndPretendItsAPlan
... anyone else suddenly want a Visquez & Janine pairing?
Mario Schade
Could be the biggest red herring from Viva and next comes Alola.. haha. :O
Mario Schade
I like the Teravolt ability and the way that it would be covered under other names in the reports.. maybe just hinting at to effect even against Ground types. Nice goal for Visquez she could not believe but dreamed about it with her father. Do not see a lot of connection going on with Erika and Agatha.. but if Viva wants to keep both close, Poltchageist would be a fun way to force learning the ghost side. Maybe rotom with Visquez in the same way.
Mario Schade
Hm.. rare pokemon seems like the first bet for new infos Erika: Shaymin? general grass types from other regions (how much do gym leaders know? i think thay already got the lists from new pokemon, or?) Visquez: Rotom as a Electric revenge ghost type thing to Agatha? evolution methods (but i think these are also already known like Magnezone, electevire? Special Attacks (not yet shown in lore) like Volt Tackle? Fusion Bolt, Bolt Strike? Z-moves (was Alola already known?) Sappy Seed (special case..)Frenzy Plant? Hunting grounds for rare/powerful pokemon not disclosed in public? Something like Agahta Aegislash? But there would be a reason thay do not know of this yet. But Visquez got no infos about Zapdos.. so yeah.. Visquez seems to know a lot from Surge.. but maybe some old stories he told and maybe were better/worse/darker/embarassing for him in reality? But this father/daughter connection isnt really damaged..so.. hmm Aura training? Annoyed Visquez and Erika because nobody told them before. Erika.. something she needed political but couldnt use yet because she has to play nice.. but now has backup info (business, pokemon poacher, criminals,...) How public is the general Megastone list? We got some new ones in ZA.. but even Brock doe snot know this and did not find it.. so difficult to explain.. Visquez: Funny things about Janine to annoy her (maybe old mission reports from her father which results in embarassing Janine or show her little ninja start) Okay.. no more ideas.
Matt H
Zekrom's Teravolt ability (although it likely wouldn't be called that in the documents) would certainly catch Visquez's attention. As is, it would already be interesting as a way to bypass Lightning Rod, but if you go a step further like a couple other stories have done and made it even start to remove Ground types' outright immunity to Electric types I could imagine Visquez making it a lifelong goal to try to recreate the effects of Teravolt to some extent. As for Erika, Kitakami could certainly draw her eyes if lists of Pokemon are included. There's a rather high number of grass types that aren't available in Indigo or Hoenn, some of which have unique or almost unique type combinations. Poltchageist (and eventually Sinistcha) could be a fun way to draw Erika and Agatha closer.
Qweku_v
Such a fun chapter
SnS_main
I think Erika learning about the historical accounts of Virizion from the war and the history of Wo-Chien from the information on Paldea. And having Visquez learning about the historical accounts of Thundurus during the war. and the legend Zekrom and Reshiram. Would be interesting.
Alexander Gofric
Ransei will be super interesting given all the warlords and actual army like fighting that happens in the country. Also how you plan to handle the warlord transformations (human mega evolutions) and how it relates to aura I can't wait. Brock and Sabrina need to go to Ransei and learn how to do their own warlord transformations I.E. MAGICAL GIRL TRANSFORMATIONS. BROCK AND SABRINA NEED TO BE MAGICAL GIRLSSSS
Imspinnennetz
Brock knows about Alola right? I mean Sanchez is the Alolan variant. Lugia's warning could also relate to Alola being discovered too. Although I suppose the foreshadowing is primarily focused on Paladea.
ShinLupin
this was fun, Brock is getting used to Agatha, she can barely push around him anymore, soon she'll declare him the next generation leader of the guardians. For an Interlude: how about a review of all secret adventures Brock had? So the newcomers gets to see how the previous newcomers started out. And get some insight what the Guardians deal with.
Vgoldtime
Some of the legendary Pokemon for starters
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
