I'd been willing to hold back my strongest moves and pokemon against Brandon.
He'd done something similar by not using some of their stronger moves as well. It felt perfectly reasonable that he had to have a wide area attack like Sand Blast for both Regice and Registeel.
I wasn't counting Explosion as, while insanely powerful, upon reflection, I suspected he'd only done that to get both of our Regirock off the field while making it impossible for people to claim that he was holding back.
That and it gave him better odds of winning.
The point was that while I was willing to hold back and allow some different pokemon to shine…well, the problem was that Sabrina had no such restrictions.
"She's doing it! She's doing it!" screamed a cluster of female trainers in the row behind me.
On the field, Sabrina and Alakazam had begun to glow with the power of mega evolution sweeping over them.
Across the field, Lucy looked like she was regretting a lot of her life decisions, but in particular the one that resulted in her challenging Sabrina.
Still, as Pike Queen and one of the Leaders of the Battle Frontier, Lucy proved her mettle by standing her ground while her Seviper glowed only to flash with a dark energy and vanish a moment later.
Oh?
I perked up as realisation sunk in.
While Sabrina was throwing down the biggest warning she could, Lucy wasn't going to go down without a fight.
Sabrina's Mega Evolution was just starting to finish when the lights and feeling suddenly cut out.
The entire arena blinked in surprise, as did Alakazam, who was still very much not in his mega form.
Eyes shifted to the soaring Seviper, who, rather than remaining in position, had lunged in a flash of darkness.
A smile twitched its way into place as Seviper landed on the ground with a shiny stone within its mouth. It spat the gem out and sent it rolling out of the arena and therefore out of use for Sabrina as per the standard rules of a pokemon battle.
"What just happened?" gasped the trainer behind me.
I chuckled, knowing that Sabrina was going to be furious. Lucy, blinked, herself caught by surprise that it worked. She then, rather than apologising, lifted her chin and smiled proudly.
"I thought you might try for that. It's been nagging at me for a while, but I always wondered why people didn't try stealing the Megastone's from their opponents before the evolution could get underway."
"Because they didn't know about it," Sabrina replied tersely. "Excellent work for thinking outside the box," Sabrina complimented, knowing that credit was due to the other girl.
Lucy grinned.
Her grin vanished when Alakazam made a gesture without even turning and grasped Seviper with a powerful Psychic.
The dangerous snake pokemon was flicked like a doll into a wall, where it was embedded.
"But don't lose sight of the fight," Sabrina declared firmly.
Lucy grimaced. "Right, of course," she growled, baring her teeth in annoyance.
The crowd were rather stunned by this series of events. Some were still annoyed that they weren't going to get to witness a Mega evolution which I understood, while others were applauding Lucy for her out-of-the-box thinking.
As Seviper swirled its way slowly back onto the field Alakazam rubbed at its flank.
Ah, I'd forgotten that along with stealing an item, Thief also caused a bit of damage. To a Psychic type that would have been super effective, and disorientating.
If Lucy hadn't stopped to gloat she might have been able to one-two punch Alakazam to land some devastating blows against a powerful opponent.
Then again, she hadn't thought it would work either so it could be forgiven.
Once both pokemon were on the field they struck again. This time with Seviper using a Dark Pulse that shot an orb forward while Alakazam ducked to the side and retaliated with an ominous glow that I knew to herald Future Sight.
"Keep on the pressure!" Lucy roared as more Dark Orbs filled the air. Seviper even began to wiggle back and forth, making sure not to remain idle as the residual effect began to saturate the field.
It was a minor detail but an important one that would limit Sabrina's ability to Teleport later in the match.
It earned her another nod of approval from me. Lucy, as much as she hadn't been aiming for it, hadn't backed down, and had done her due diligence in how to best fight Sabrina.
Sabrina responded by having her pokemon snap its fingers with a white flash erupting from Alakazam
A moment later Dark Pulse failed and Seviper choked a little.
"Sev?" the pokemon rasped in shock.
"Protect!" snapped Lucy and her pokemon obeyed instantly which was all that saved it from yet another Psychic.
Lucy clenched her jaw. With Disable in play on Seviper's Dark Pulse Lucy was going to have less options.
Which wasn't the same as none.
The Protect fell away and rather than attack Lucy swept her hand across the field. "Swagger!" she called out, attempting to use the confusion effect on Sabrina and Alakazam.
Rather than being confused. Sabrina replied with her pokemon ducking backwards and performing a recover.
The blatant use had Lucy snapping her hand forward. "Crunch now!" she roared.
Her pokemon braced to leap, only for Future Sight to activate right at that moment and slam into Seviper, knocking it out of the arena.
Sabrina huffed in annoyance and I shot her an amused look. The Confusion from Swagger must have taken hold, but Sabrina had overruled it through her connection with Alakazam.
Hmmm, it seemed she'd put in some work herself as sometimes moves like that could impact her as well.
I marked it off as one of the tricks I wouldn't get to use as much anymore in our spars. One trick I still hadn't gotten to test but that I suspected would work was how a well-placed Lick to a ticklish part of a pokemon would work against Sabrina.
Knowing her as well as I did, it would be super effective.
I doubted she'd forgive me if I used it however, so in my back pocket it would remain for now.
With Seviper out of the fight Lucy called up her second pokemon which turned out to be her Milotic.
Once again, the trainers behind me squealed in delight at the appearance of a beautiful pokemon.
"Twister!" Lucy ordered only for Alakazam's hand to snap up and clench.
It was like watching Darth Vader grab one of the Imperials by the neck.
There was a moment of shocked realisation when Milotic was launched out of the arena with a heavy shunt.
It wasn't enough to keep Milotic down, as it came back with a growl, slithering in fast. This time when it entered, it instantly rose up on its tail and began to glow a faint, nightmarish purple.
It exuded Confuse Ray from its eyes but Sabrina countered with a potent Psybeam that hammered Milotic once more out of the field.
Lucy growled and glared at Sabrina but she was unmoved, forcing Lucy to return her pokemon.
Huh, so she didn't have a method of blocking Sabrina from Psychic Spamming her with Milotic? Bad choice of pokemon then.
She really should have known better.
The next pokemon had me sitting up.
Lucy's Steelix hit the ground with a tremendous roar and I took a long moment to inspect the giant metal snake. It had a good sheen to its body and the colouration let me know she'd gone for a slight physical deviation with the metal to make it slightly more resistant to water types.
It was a fine application with there being small lines occasionally to help guide any water that struck the pokemon away from the Steelix's body. The head was also slightly narrowed.
It made for a rather fast-moving Steelix.
At least by my measure of Steelix.
Compared to an Alakazam, it was a slow pokemon.
Which ultimately made all the difference.
Rather than allowing Lucy a shred of a chance, Sabrina went on the offensive quickly with Alakazam launching a simple Psybeam to the head.
It caused the larger pokemon's head to snap to the side, where it turned and retaliated with a Dark Pulse.
Alakazam watched the attack coming only to Teleport away right at the last moment.
It took Lucy a moment to glance around, searching for the missing pokemon.
Only for that single moment to be more than enough for Sabrina to order a final attack on Steelix.
Steelix had just enough time to look up and spot Alakzam hovering above it before Alakazam unleashed a potent Focus Blast that flattened the giant snake.
Steelix didn't twitch and lay where it had embedded in the field giving a low, painful groan.
Lucy sighed and returned her pokemon. "For all that I can trip you up, I'm really not in the same League huh?" she declared with a shake of her head. "Well at least I know now."
Sabrina huffed, knowing that Lucy's words were for the crowd rather than her. They'd fought many times, both with and against each other during Guardian training. Lucy, more than anyone knew how outclassed she was.
But she still tried.
I rose and offered the two trainers and their pokemon applause with the rest of the crowd.
"Maaaaaan, I can't believe we didn't get to see Sabrina's Mega evolution!" whined the trainer behind me.
One of their friends scoffed. "Please! Lucy just showed us a way to stand a chance if you know someone is bringing it out against you! No more having to worry about getting slapped with that. Heh, I can't wait to try it against Wilbur, that rich Hoenn prick!"
I made a note of the name and that apparently, there was someone running around the Battle Frontier with those capabilities.
I was surprised to see that they were already being introduced to the general public, with trainers on their Journey having to interact with some professionals. But the Battle Frontier, catering to a higher level of battling and travel was supposed to be the main draw.
In a way, trainers came face to face with more wild pokemon, along with the various structures not being fully developed helps demonstrate the importance of the Rangers and the established Routes.
If the various Commanders had much of a say I knew they'd be keeping things roughly the same.
The Battle Frontier could be a fertile recruitment exercise for them.
Which was interesting due to their lack of presence.
Sabrina twitched her head in a clear indicator that I should join them so I skipped over the dividing wall only to twitch when my pokemon joined me in.
We sent a rumble through the arena with most of the departing trainers shrieking in fear at the sudden shaking.
"Sooooorry!" I called, giving them a wave as I glanced over to check on my pokemon.
The Larvitar Triplets had all been caught by Ursaring who was flat on his stomach while the trio blinked in shock having leapt before they looked.
"Excellent work Ursaring. You three! You're lucky your teddy bear caught you cause that fall would have seen you laid up for a day or two which would have meant no battles for that long!" I called, causing the girls to stiffen.
"Thank him," I prodded.
The trio leapt off his back and nodded once.
I coughed pointedly and they bowed their heads. "Tar!" they growled softly only to stand straight and glare at him. I knew they were all but daring him to demand more and see what that got him. He just beamed at them proudly.
"Ursa!" he waved a paw happily at them, and they huffed imperiously.
However, Empress was not as forgiving and a trio of really tiny, at least for her, rocks smacked into all three of their skulls simultaneously making them all bow down to Ursaring. "Tyran." she simply rumbled as she inspected Ursaring for injuries while her daughters backed away.
Sabrina and Lucy, rather than hanging back, approached me.
"That was certainly an entrance," Lucy called.
"Were you getting envious that we'd taken all the attention off you Brock?" Sabrina teased.
That got a huff from me. "Ha, just too eager to get down her and talk with you," I replied as smoothly as I could
Sabrina rolled her eyes but allowed herself to be pulled into my side, where she accepted a kiss on the cheek. "Words will get you some things," she remarked.
Lucy coughed, caught out by our displays of affection so I decided to hold off on sweeping Sabrina off her feet and instead turned to her.
"I think you've inspired a lot of trainers with that Thief. I've been wondering how long it would take for people to cotton on to that strategy for facing a Megastone wielding pokemon."
"You knew about it?" Lucy asked, only for her eyes to flick towards Sabrina who likewise nodded. "You never said anything about it during the training sessions," she muttered.
That got a shrug from me. "It was always a viable battle strategy that people knew of but it never saw mainstream use as it only had niche uses. If anything, I'm glad that you're going to be attributed to its resurgence," I offered.
Lucy nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose there's that to consider." She gave Sabrina a suspicious look. "You didn't… no, who am I kidding that pulled the carpet out from your feet with your megaevolution. There's no way you—"
"Lucy, you're getting flustered. Remember we spoke of this. You need to centre yourself and remain calm."
"Right!" Lucy took a fortifying breath. "I wanted to ask where you were going next! Will you check in with Anabel? See how good a psychic she is? She's been reporting some issues with an uptick in dark type pokemon hounding her town so she might appreciate an expert."
"We hadn't heard that," I replied, sharing a look with Sabrina. "We had been planning to go to see the Frontier Palace and Spenser before finishing up closer to the Fiore side with Noland."
Lucy made a face. "Things are sort of tense with them. Not sure what's going on. Noland isn't like Anabel, she's a lot more open, but Noland… " Lucy twitched. "I haven't been able to get much solid, but I suspect that he has links with the leadership in Fiore in some way."
"What makes you think that?" Sabrina asked, interest piqued.
"Lots of Fiorians linger around him, like an honour guard which I haven't seen. It's sort of crazy, but there might also be a religious context that I don't understand, considering that I know Noland can call upon an Articuno to fight with him when he wants to," she said.
She offered a helpless smile. "I've interacted with him a handful of times but it's always limited and extremely formal so I haven't been able to learn more," she admitted.
"It's still something," I said, not wanting to let her keep beating herself up. "You've done great." I shot her a thumbs-up to give her a boost. I would have patted her shoulder, but I found my other arm locked to Sabrina's waist, keeping me in place.
"We'll investigate it for you. Don't let it worry you," Sabrina stated.
Lucy beamed at us, unaware of the byplay between Sabrina and I. "Thanks a lot, it's good that you guys came up here!" she gushed.
With the Challenge handled, Sabrina and I retired to our hotel rooms with Sabrina Teleporting us straight to the reception.
Even there, we found several trainers approaching us. "Brock! Sabrina! Can I fight you?"
"No! Fight me instead!" barked another trainer, holding out a pokeball.
Sabrina and I shared a look and sighed.
For all that this was a different region, the trainers were still reacting like newbies on their Journey. "No," I stated firmly, accepting our room keys before sauntering away.
We were about to exit the foyer when Sabrina stiffened and glanced behind her.
Her gaze locked onto a group of rather rough looking… I wanted to call them miners, or cave explorers with their attire, but there was something just slightly off.
It took me a moment, but when I compared them to the other hikers, miners, and geologists that I'd hung out with in the past, I realised that they were all lacking carabiners and safety equipment. They weren't wearing hardened gloves either. None of their group was oddly pale, having spent too long underground. In fact, one and all of their group were heavily tanned.
Oddities upon oddities were building up with that group.
"I can't detect those men," Sabrina muttered to me quietly.
That got me giving them another, more thorough inspection. The group noticed our gazes however and rather than stare back they all got up and left immediately.
"That… was extremely suspicious, no?" I voiced.
Sabrina nodded slowly. "I'd ask Xatu or another of my pokemon to monitor them… but it wouldn't end well for them if those men turned on them."
"I'll message Agatha, see if she can get here or get one of her Channelers here," I said. "Ghost types would be best for this situation, I think."
"Sadly, I have to agree," Sabrina stated. "The only other option we have is Meowth, Jessie, and James, but they're… I mean, relaxing right now."
I decided it would be better to ignore Sabrina's pause. It was rather telling that she'd done that. The fire at the Pokemon Nursing School, along with that of the doll auction, struck me as oddly fortuitous in a lot of ways but again, I didn't want to dig into that.
Which wasn't the same as having strong suspicions.
Just like I had strong suspicions about that group. "Lucy mentioned that there have been attacks against Anabel by dark type pokemon. And here we are encountering a group of people that universally you can't detect," I murmured. "That strike you as a coincidence?"
"No," Sabrina replied, raising her transceiver to fire off a message. "Which raises the priority of us getting a ghost specialist here, I believe."
It took a bit of time, along with numerous calls, but before long, we had a Ghost Specialist knocking on our door.
Sabrina made a face which let me know I wasn't going to like what I found even before I opened the door.
On the other side, Tiffany, the Shrine Maiden who had been there to serve us tea during my initiation, along with helping us on other missions, leered at me.
I had a sudden urge to slam the door in her face.
Oddly enough, it made me recall that I'd once wanted to flip the table on her.
A terrible idea claimed hold of me and before I could stop to think it through I barked "Skill check!" at her face and slammed the door.
I then stepped back and reconsidered my choices.
That… might have been a slight overreaction to seeing her.
"Oh~ you do remember me!" she crooned as she slid through the door while her shadow glowed with a multitude of red eyes that laughed silently.
Suddenly, my overreaction seemed perfectly valid as I took another step back. "Yes, hello Tiffany," I offered flatly. "...it's… thank you for coming so quickly," I said for want of something polite to say.
Which seemed odd to default to after throwing a door closed without saying hello.
She shifted back to being fully corporeal and nodded at me before offering Sabrina a bow. "Greetings Guardians," she intoned. "It's wonderful that you could call on me. The report I received listed off a group of men that you wish for me to observe?" she asked.
I was about to describe them when Sabrina coughed and put her fingers to her temple. "I got a good look at them. This is what they looked like," she said. I felt the air shift once more as a psychic presence washed past me and Tiffany stiffened.
"Ooooh? Hmmm Yes they do seem like big burly men don't they?" she tittered.
"They had several oddities about them, but with Lucy's warning we want to keep our heads on a swivel," I declared.
"Of course," she replied with another bob of her head. "I shall see to tracking them down and giving regular reports on my findings." Then she smiled at me. "You two sleep well~." She then slipped through the floor, causing me to frown as something occurred to me.
"What happened to the dark emitters?" I asked, moving to the cupboard where they were usually built into the room's circuit board.
I stared at the flipped switch in annoyance before glancing back at Sabrina. "Did you notice that happen?" I asked.
Sabrina grimaced and shook her head. "Ghosts," she spat like it was a curse word rather than a typing. She gave me a look as the circuit flipped back on. "So why do you get away with slamming doors in people's faces?" she prodded.
I shot her a look. "Somehow, I don't think you have the right to throw stones," I said, referring to the often used phrase of glasshouses and rocks.
Sabrina flicked her head imperiously. "I'm not the one trying to be a role model for others."
"Except you are a role model for others," I pointed out.
"Yes, but that's a consequence of being myself," she declared, which, again, true. "So, when do I get to slam doors in people's faces?"
Collapsing on the bed next to her I rolled my eyes as I got comfortable. "I'm not sure it was worth it, to be honest. I reacted, and I think if anything, she's the sort that was happy she got a reaction."
"Hmmmm," Sabrina hummed in thought with her eyes narrowed.
For a moment, I wondered what she was thinking, then my mind made a leap of logic. "Yes, if you must, you can slam a door in Karen's face, but expect her to do the same to you when she gets the chance."
Sabrina's eyes narrowed, and without her saying it, I knew she was thinking. Challenge accepted.
I shook my head and decided to invest in ear protection as slammed doors were likely going to be a recurring theme in the near future.
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Tiffany reported the moment she found the group. She gave us photos taken from obscure angles that captured each member's face. Oddly enough, they were all different from what they had been at the hotel lobby.
Where before they'd had shaggy hair and beards, in private they appeared to have closely cropped dark hair. Without the different colours of hair masking it, it also became very obvious that they were related in some manner.
"They've all got narrow eyes, dark hair, a tan, and a mean resting face," I muttered. "They also look really familiar," I mused.
"They look like Flint," Sabrina stated, and with her saying it I couldn't unsee the comparison.
"... I'm going to call Flint," I said, deciding that was the only rational course of action before me. If I wanted to do the tried and true 'plot' style decision I could ignore it, but it was obvious there was a linkage here with these men.
Which was seriously starting to cause red flags to go up in my mind.
"Brock?" Flint answered quickly. "I saw your match against Brandon! It was quite impressive! A shame he used—"
"I need to ask you a serious question," I said, cutting him off.
"Ah, alright? Go ahead," he replied.
"Do you have any relatives that we don't know about?" I asked.
Flint tilted his head, perplexed by that answer. "No Brock. I've said it before but I was an orphan of Pewter. I was found with a head injury when I was a young boy and that resulted in me having to relearn things like reading and writing!"
Flint shook his head. "It really took me a while but I had some good teachers that thankfully got through to me!"
I rubbed my face as what he'd said hadn't answered my question at all but had instead raised more red flags in my mind. "Next you'll tell me you can't go out under a full moon," I muttered.
"I don't follow?" Flint asked. "Was that a reference to something?"
"Don't mind me, I'm just…" I waved a hand dismissively. "Say, do these people look at all familiar to you?" I asked. Sending him an image of the four men we'd been suspicious of.
Flint took a moment to look at each before shaking his head. "Can't say it rings a bell. They're handsome devils, though!" he chuckled.
"Right, thanks, Flint," I replied before deciding that while I'd been rude to Tiffany earlier, Flint didn't deserve me to just ring him up and hang up so I made some small talk with him.
When I was done Sabrina shot me a look.
"What? He deserves better than me just hanging up on him."
Sabrina nodded. "Hmmm he has been doing well. I haven't had to touch your garden shed in weeks," she mused.
"The garden shed?" I asked. "Was that a reference to something?" I asked, feeling oddly in tune with Flint for once.
Sabrina just shook her head with a knowing smirk, and I once more decided I didn't want to know.
With a wave of my hand I pointed at the images we had. "So… Flint's story of being an orphan… it kind of makes me think there might be a link between him and these guys, whoever they are."
"It's possible," Sabrina stated. "We'd need a genetic sample to know for sure… and with how they have bound their hair under wigs and bears, I doubt anything telling will have been left behind from where they were sitting."
She flicked her fingers and the security camera feed that oversaw the hotel reception rewound to before our arrival.
Interestingly, the group of men arrived and sat around for hours before we turned up. But there was a noticeable shift in their demeanour when we Teleported in.
It wasn't that they perked up or stared. That would have made them less obvious.
They almost ignored us, which made them stand out compared to all the other trainers in the room.
What they did do was snap a picture of us both and relax into their chairs, adopting a casual recline that looked perfectly natural.
A chill ran down my spine. "They're here for us."
"Yes, which makes learning who they are all the more important," Sabrina growled as the Guardian pad that she'd been operating at the same time chimed a soft negative tone.
A glance at the screen revealed that there was no registered identification or image of these men before.
There were several 'similar' individuals which featured me, Flint, and…
"Wasn't that a competitor at the Gym's Contest?" I asked.
"Yes, I believe he was," Sabrina laced her fingers. "Who himself does not have any appearances beyond that event."
"Are we chasing this too far, or is this starting to feel like a conspiracy?" I asked.
Sabrina shut her eyes. "It isn't paranoia when people are out to get you," she replied with that saying certainly hitting close to home.
We continued to search various security systems that we had access to, only for a timer to go off. Both of us shared a confused look.
"Did you set that alarm?" I asked only for Sabrina to shake her head as she flicked her fingers to access the pad's app only to find nothing. When she went through several screens, only to find one that was flashing red.
"Tiffany hasn't reported in," she muttered. "It's an automatic alarm."
I checked the time. "It's only been an hour?" I muttered in surprise.
"I don't like this," Sabrina growled as she sat up and held a hand in a vaguely western direction. "They're gone… all of them," Sabrina announced.
That got both of us moving, and within moments we were across town at the site that Tiffany had been observing.
When we got there it was bare with no sign of the men.
Or Tiffany.
"Shit," I announced. "This isn't good."
If anything, it was an understatement.
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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for continuing to support me!
Thanks also go to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!