Hard Enough

Chapter 215: Pokemonopolis Puzzles!

Chapter 215: Pokemonopolis Puzzles!

I toyed with the egg in my arms. I had no idea where it had come from and how it had ended up in my arms. This… I wasn’t sure what to think of this. What had happened?

Had the egg rolled into my hands from somewhere in the cave or had a Togekiss or Togetic decided I’d make a good nest and therefore place to lay its egg.

I stared around the cavern trying to see if said parents were still close by. Memories of how this went down with the cartoon flashed to the front of my mind. It was an extremely iconic and action-filled chapter with lots of developments. Ash and co had encountered the fossil pokemon, then Ash had been abducted with Charmeleon evolving to fight Aerodactyl. Then at the end, Jiggylpuff had come in and put everyone to sleep.

And then.. Ash had woken up with it in his arms.

I weighed the spotty egg. It was precisely like it had appeared in the cartoon, red and blue with small triangular spots and splotches. I had no doubt in my mind that this was Togepi’s egg.

Togepi didn’t have much importance to a lot of the big plot points. One of the things that I did recall, was how it eventually became a defender of the Mirage Kingdom which was supposed to be somewhere in Hoenn.

From what I could remember the whole Kingdom of Mirage situation was very much an evil vizier situation where the man took advantage of Ash and Co’s arrival. Nothing needed to happen as the Princess would eventually get her own Togepi and the issue would resolve itself.

… possibly.

Maybe when Celia made it into the end-of-year tournament I could swing around to the Mirage Kingdom and resolve that issue. If Sabrina came it would be handled in five minutes tops.

I rubbed the egg. Of all the results of today’s adventure, finding Togepi’s egg hadn’t even registered to me as possible. I glanced at Ash. Should I… offer him the egg so it has a chance at ending up with Misty?

I frowned. I could offer it to her… but then again she was a water-type specialist. I shrugged and decided I’d mention it to her and see what she said. For now, I’d hang onto the egg and see what had Forrest acting so happy.

…apart from the frankly cute pictures of my drawn-on face. If he thought that was embarrassing, he really needed to be out in the world experiencing all its joys and heartaches. I’d experienced more than my fair share of waking up with my face being drawn on in my past life and that was just sleepovers!

Forget about parties at universities!

Jigglypuff hadn’t even drawn a dick on me!

This was kiddy stuff.

Not that I was going to tell her that. The last thing we’d need was for Jigglypuff, who for all intents and purposes never stopped hounding Ash and company with her singing to ‘step up’ her game.

I did not want some of the things bandied around in university happening to me… or others for that matter. Especially if Forrest was going to be hanging around and experiencing some of those incidents.

“So when we were…” Forrest coughed, “checking our six,” he said, trying to sound far more in control of what had been going on than he really was.

“I see,” said Flint nodding. On his face he had a number of love hearts and what looked like a naughts and crosses game on his other cheek. “So you looked behind you and made sure not to startle the local wildlife?” he asked cheekily.

Forrest coughed.

I glanced down at the cavern that branched off. There were a ton of footprints and from my inexperienced eye, a small stampede had taken place. There were several scuff marks in some places and I had to conclude that a fight had taken place.

The real clincher was the number of still knocked out Zubat and what looked like a very healthy Golbat in one of the tunnels. My light acred back around to find the boys had expressions ranging from contrite in Forrest’s case, exasperated for Humphrey, and smug for Ash and Gary.

I was, without anyone saying anything, starting to build a picture of what had gone down.

Flint and I shared a look of amusement with me rolling my eyes. Flint decided to encourage them by nodding seriously. “Good work defending yourselves and getting to us! If this was a pokemon scouts club, you’d have earned your cave explorer badge, and helping the elderly!” he said like he was praising them.

The kids perked up at first before adopting petulant looks. “We’re not kids!” claimed Gary.

I smirked at him and he adjusted his statement. “Not little kids! We don’t need badges!”

The others nodded in unison. “Yeah!”

Flint paused, his hand holding some rather shiny-looking badges. “Oh, then I guess I won’t give you these,” he said.

Gary coughed. “Well, I mean. If you’ve got them there why not?” he said, grabbing a pair of badges.

Unlike the Gym Badges these were the sorts found on Cub Scout lanyards with small pins at the back. Gary nodded in appreciation and popped it on the back of his pokebelt. The others chose other areas with Forrest putting them on his shoulders like epaulets.

I frowned. “I thought only Club Leaders could hand those out.”

Flint blinked. “But… I am one? You don’t lose the rank even if you’re inactive… at least you didn’t use to. I’ll need to touch base with the organisation. I haven’t since I’ve been home. I’ve had more important things to look after.”

I nodded slowly. “I… hadn’t known that about Flint.”

Forrest decided to open his mouth then. “Heh! You’re just like Brock then! He likes to teach kids outside of the Gym as well! Only he does it with baseball!”

I felt a stab in my gut. I didn’t like the idea of being compared to Flint of all people… that had hit a bit too close to home. I decided to direct the conversation in other directions. “Also, Assisting the Elderly? Flint yes, but me? I’m only turning eighteen this year!” I said.

Gary shook his head. “Old, so old,” he said.

Ash nodded along. “Practically in retirement.”

Humphrey took one look at my face and broke into laughter which made me pause.

Huh, he looked like he was having a lot of fun and relaxing today.

“Retirement! Why in my day children knew to be seen and not heard! These days they’re seen, heard, and smelt, I tell you!” I hammed up my response a bit and the others laughed at my joke.

Well, at least they could work together on some things.

The wall the boys led us to made Flint and I whistle in appreciation. “A puzzle wall! Wow, this is a big find! Who knew that something like this was located here! This indicates so much more. Oh if only we could sol—”

“It’s a Lileep,” I said, cutting through Flint’s enthusiasm.

Everyone turned to look at me and then turned to look at the puzzle.

Ash tilted his head. “Uhmmm, I don’t see it. It looks like a tangled-up Ekans.”

“No it’s obviously a Tangela!” said Gary.

Flint tilted his head. “What makes you think it’s a Lileep?” he asked me.

I was about to mention that the Ruins of Alph were all puzzles where the solutions were other fossil pokemon but then I recalled that the researchers who solved the puzzles never declared what the solution was.

I waved a hand and pointed out the curves and the section that looked like roots to me. “See here and here, these are all Lileep traits.” I reached out, only to pause as I noted that there wasn’t a missing piece for it to slide the others into. I tapped at the small squares only to feel it depress and for some of my rock energy to be drained.

My eyebrows shot up into my hairline. Hello? This was something new that I’d never encountered before.

I kept my hand there and felt at the drain it was, honestly miniscule but it was a novel experience.

“Hey? How’d you do that?” said Humphrey, leaning in and staring at the puzzle piece I’d pressed in.

I shrugged, “guess you have to work out which piece goes first? This one just made sense to me,” I said, deflecting the true answer.

Forrest stood to my other side and he looked extremely confused. I mouthed the word ‘aura’ to him and he stiffened in surprise before relaxing.

I coughed and turned back to the puzzle. “I’ll solve it and see if that changes anything neh?”

I considered the puzzle arrangement and plotted out which pieces needed to be flipped before beginning to do just that.

“How in Kanto does this work?” I said, playing up my lack of knowledge as the squares suddenly swapped places. “Woah,” I said.

Flint leaned in. “It seems to work on magnetic repulsion but it is tied to distance stopping the squares flipping out or causing them to—”

I nodded along as Flint happily recited something magnetic resonance with each square having its own that repelled the others and then became part of a cohesive whole. Apparently, it had something to do with the border.

“Does he get like this much?” asked Humphrey.

“Only about rocks,” said Forrest, reaching into his pouch and producing a bunch of snacks for all of us. I happily grabbed some before producing my own snacks which I shared with the others and their pokemon.

Gary shot me a weird look when I offered his Blastoise some of the chocolate-coated oran berries.

I just shrugged. “What? Pokemon like to be included, not ignored,” I said. When he gave me a thoughtful look I pushed my claim a little. “Trust me on this, do more than just train and fight with them.”

Ash nodded. “Yeah, me and Pikachu are best friends and he’s easily one of the strongest pokemon I have! Having Pikachu has really helped me out when I’m in a clutch moment!” chimed Ash.

I nodded. “Exactly, and I’m sure with the same level of friendship, you can get just as much from your other pokemon!” I said.

Ash opened his mouth only to shut it as his eyes flickered towards Blastoise who was happily munching on his treats. Ash reached towards his pokebelt only for Forrest to cough.

“Bad idea man, there are already a lot of tensions in this room. Adding Charizard to the mix would just make things worse. Not the time,” he said.

I shot Forrest an approving nod. That was very well reasoned. Still, it was interesting that Ash and Charizard’s relationship was still rocky. Then again if some of the significant points such as Charizard’s rapid development coupled with Ash’s immaturity were still present, it would make sense it had still occurred like it had in canon.

“So you do actually have a Charizard?” Gary said, noting the interaction and instantly getting in position to have a go at Ash.

I shifted position so that I was behind Ash. I slowly shook my head and made sure Gary noticed.

He looked up and blanched slightly as I made sure to position the torch under my chin to make my warning doubly effective.

“Which… is pretty cool, good job?” Gary said, sounding out the words. I nodded slowly, the torch still positioned beneath me. “Really good job?” Gary continued.

I dropped the torch when Forrest glanced at me.

Ash shot Gary a suspicious look. “Thanks… I haven’t had a lot of luck with him, cause he’s really strong and he knows it. We’re working on trusting each other again though.”

Gary blinked. “Oh,” he said obviously not expecting for Ash to share such a weak moment. “That sucks,” Gary said, looking away from Ash as though unsure how to face his old friend in this moment. “Buuuuuut I guess it's to be expected with you being a wimp and all,” he said backsliding into old methods of interacting with Ash.

I facepalmed.

Damn, I really shouldn’t have expected more from kids. I suppose they’d done alright for a moment there.

Humphrey's twitching caught my eye. He was off to the side shaking with repressed laughter having seen everything. I huffed and turned back to Flint. “I think we get the point,” I said before pushing a panel on the puzzle and beginning to rearrange it.

It took a few attempts but I slowly had the puzzle resolved so that it looked like a Lileep. “Interesting choice having a grass type pokemon in an area known for fire types,” I commented idly.

Flint opened his mouth to no doubt correct me only for Gary, Forrest and Humphrey to chime in at the same time with, “The level of strat that we’re at right now is actually a few hundred if not a thousand years old. So at that time, it most likely was a jungle. You can tell by the colouration of the earth.”

They then shared a smile. Ash and I stared at them. Where had that come from? Salvadore spouting random geological facts was par for the course, but Forrest? Let alone Gary or Humphrey?

I could only blink in surprise while Flint looked on like a proud teacher.

“I see,” I said carefully, only to snap my head back to the wall as an ominous rumbling began. Around us, various pokemon cries rang out and I decided that it might be a good idea to not be near a wall triggering a response.

“Let’s get back to the central cave,” I said quickly, leading our group out only to be stunned when the cavern had changed with a set of stairs appearing in the middle.

I raised a hand. “I’m positive we all walked over that multiple times without feeling any give… right?” I said to the group.

The group at large, people and pokemon all nodded.

I licked my lips and signalled for Selene to float forward. “Stay sharp, your floating shouldn’t trigger anything untoward.”

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Flint shot me a look. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to put my foot down on exploring that tunnel Brock. As it is, the movement of the caves may have triggered something. We need to get some more people and pokemon in here to firm up the walls in case anything has shifted.

I sighed. Flint was sadly right. If this was just me by myself I might adventure down but that was with the knowledge that Selene could most likely get me out in case something happened. The same wouldn’t be true if I went down with the boys and Flint.

“Alright,” I said, dusting my hands off. I whistled Slene back and she returned easily with a chirp. I gave the room we were in another once over. There really had been no signs of anything amiss in this cave.

It was incredible that simple dumb luck, or that poor luck on my part had led to such a discovery.

Ash continued to stare at the stairs in a manner that made me worry that he was about to dash down them. Before I could say anything to warn him off he turned to Squirtle. “Squirtle, use Bubble beam on the walls and stairs to see if there are any more markings,” he said.

The rest of us watched on as Squirtle gently blew bubbles down the stairs and wall. Bubbles soon coated the wall and it reminded me of the time Tilly had gotten a hold of the bubble bath while Cindy was helping out with bathtime. I’d entered the bath to squeals and a wall of bubbles.

Gary perked up. “Oh right! Like with the puzzle!” he said, snapping his fingers. “Blastoise, gentle hose down!” he said.

Blastoise turned his cannons upon the bubbles and gently began to hose them down. Within a few moments, the stairs and walls leading down were transformed to reveal murals and what appeared to be some ancient writings.

“Boys…” Flint said, his voice tight with emotion. The pair of Pallet kids turned to him, eyes brimming with the expectation of what good work they’d done. I bit my lip, knowing what Flint was about to say.

Flint slumped. “Don’t… tell anyone that you used bubbles and water on a dig site like this, and don’t do that in future. Some relics and murals can become worn down worse with water.”

The boys blinked before curling in on themselves like chastised Growlithe. “Sorry,” they said.

I chuckled and began taking pictures with my Xtransciever. I considered walking down the stairs to take more before I decided that was a bad idea. “Selene, can you carry this down and slowly point it towards the walls for me?” I asked, handing her my Xtransceiver after I’d set it to record.

Selene slowly floated down the stairs once more, this time going far enough that she vanished but for the gleam of her eyes and the bright light on my Xtransciever. The return journey took just as long.

I took the Xtransciever and shut it down before giving the video a look over myself. Instantly a number of other heads leaned in to look over my shoulder. When the pokemon joined in I decided to just project it onto the wall.

The video showed that the stairs went down a long way. At least twenty metres. All the way down murals with pokemon and humans were on display. I whistled as several what looked like ziggurats were shown with pokemon standing atop each with their limbs or heads raised high. There was a ziggurat featuring Arcanine, Alakazam, Gengar, Dragonite, Lapras, and what looked like a Chansey? Or maybe it was a Wigglytuff? It lacked the spikes to be a Clefable.

“Whelp,” I said. “I think you boys have done enough to get yourselves the front of a science journal for this discovery, no?”

The boys all beamed at that. I gestured for them to stand slightly to the side of the stairs with their pokemon. There was a bit of jostle with Ash wanting to be in the front row only for me to suggest they take a knee while the larger pokemon take the back row.

I snapped a few pictures and sent off the message to Crowley detailing the find along with a few other contacts I’d picked up for the MegaRock Inc support team.

Forrest shot me a smug grin. “You won’t be able to send or receive messages down he—” he started to say only for a ping to signal I’d gotten a response.

The boys and Flint stared at me. “You can get messages?” said Gary, bringing out his own transceiver only for the ‘no signal’ symbol to be prominently displayed.

I chuckled and rubbed the back of my head. “What can I say? This is a special transceiver, it comes with all the bells and whistles,” I said.

Gary stared, “I can’t believe I don’t have the latest model transceiver, urgh I feel dirty!” he said.

Humphrey just shrugged, showing his own, much older model that he’d been gifted from attending all his classes at school while staying at the orphanage. I’d set that system up to encourage kids to stay in class more and it seemed to work wonders with graduation rates increasing a few percent since I’d been Gym Leader.

It wasn’t exactly Dolly Parton’s method from my last life of five hundred dollars for high school, but copying it seemed to be enough to get the same results with kids in this world.

Gary inched up to me, “How’d you get it?” he asked quietly.

“He probably got a new model for being a Gym Leader,” Humphrey said. I chuckled. “Nah, for that I need to do sponsor deals, and the Xtranciever is a bit more limited addition as it was one of the only models that Silph Co had made up prior to their meltdown,” I said.

“Oh wow, so that’s a limited series?” Gary said. “Of how many?”

I shrugged. “One of four,” I said.

Gary faceplamed. “You shouldn’t wear that man, you should seal that away and preserve it. It’s like a collectible! You need to store those right! The more wear and tear you get the more the value plummets! Trust me on this! I have some Models at home that are worth a mint and will be worth so much more as long as they stay in their boxes!” he said imploringly.

Ash shook his head. “I still can’t believe your sister did that to Dark Charizard,” he said.

Gary nodded. “It was a dark day.”

Forrest rubbed his head. “I get so much emotional whiplash keeping up with you two.”

Gary and Ash both just shrugged. “Makes sense to us,” they said.

I quirked an eyebrow. “It’s probably a time factor, initially they will antagonise each other but the longer they are near each other the more they relax into it,” I said.

Gary and Ash frowned at that shrugging again. Flint coughed. “Well let’s head out the way we came, we will draw back in others but I think we’re going to have to call up some different types for this,” he said, indicating the stairs.

“I’ll send this picture through to your Grandfather Gary, get him to register that this was your four boys discovery,” I said.

We huddled back through the tunnels and were lucky enough to find that none of them were collapsed or unstable. As we went Flint added markers to the walls and a few glowing tags.

“What are those?” I asked.

“Signal tags. They’re limited in distance, but for ranges up to one hundred metres we will be able to stand on the surface and search for them. I think we might need to map this cave system out a lot more along with any other caves around. Grandpa Canyon just became an even higher value site.”

I could only agree. It still had the potential for a Mega stone to be found here, along with the evolutionary stones, precious metals, gems and now there was an archeology site.

“Well good thing there are so many miners and excavators around. We’ll have things sorted out for the scientists quickly enough,” I said.

Flint shot me a look only for a noise like air escaping a balloon to leak from his lips. Then he threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Hahahahaha! If there are two groups that are more cantankerous to work with on the same dig site, its archeologists and miners! You saw the facilities upstairs? That was us paying them lip service! With the larger find? Oh they're going to be crawling all over Grandpa Canyon,” he said.

“Ah,” I said eloquently.

“Wait, so that’s a bad thing? But finding that building is a good thing?” said Ash.

“Depends what your goal was,” said Forrest. “Megarock Inc workers were looking for fossils and Mega Stones. That’s going to slow down with other people getting involved. Larger excavations will be much slower going forward.”

“Oh,” said Ash slowly.

Flint and I shared a nod. I clapped Ash and Forrest on the shoulders. “Sadly boys this is a case of being too successful! Sometimes it doesn’t always bring good things with it,” I said.

Hopefully whoever was recommended to us would be cool with other dig sites.

“I’m going to have to ask that you shut down all the other dig sites,” said the young woman who had arrived within the hour of our return to camp. She’d stormed in with a fire in her eyes and demanded to know who was in charge of this operation. Sadly Flint wasn’t here as he’d gone out to bring in some older miners that were a little further afield, to give them the news.

People had made the mistake of looking at me which resulted in Doctor Eve marching right up to me and making her demand.

I grimaced. “I think that’s a little presumptuous,” I started to say only for Eve to slam her hands into the table.”

“This is a historical site of unquestionable potential! The depth of the find is one of the best factors about this! With that alone it is almost guaranteed that the relics and murals are going to be more preserved than most!” she said, her hands weaving and waving about quickly with each sentence.

“Yes but the entire dig site is a rather large area,” I said, indicating a map.

Eve snapped her head down. “So much the better! The more privacy and more secure the site the better!” her eyes glanced to the side where Ash was regaling Misty with the tale of what had happened.

“For one we need to get children like these out of here!” she said imperiously.

I raised an eyebrow at that. “You’d be better off talking with them before that,” I said, starting to get annoyed with how she was trying to boss me and others around.

“Children have no place on an archeological dig site, this site while it was a mining site with laxer standards will not have any children bumbling about underfoot.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Those children?” I said, indicating the group of kids that had heard Eve’s words and were now listening in openly. In fact, everyone in the tent had fallen quiet to listen to me talk. “Those kids over there that you’re so dismissive of?” I said underlining her statement. “They were the original founders of this discovery,” I said.

The boys all puffed out their chests at this. Misty and Mia gave the group a few pats on the shoulder.

Eve, instead of backing down, put a finger to her chin. “Only children? Then I might be able to register this as my find and get more people listening to me. The University would have to provide—”

My fist thumped into the desk and caused the fold up table to collapse under the blow.

Eve stopped plotting and stared with wide eyes. Like a tiny pokemon that has only just realised they stand before a predator she swallowed fearfully and stayed perfectly still as her instincts took over.

“I am not impressed. I spoke with Crowley about his recommendation for this site and he nominated you. So far you have come in and attempted to push everyone out, harangued me, and now it sounds like you are attempting to steal the discovery rights from the rightful people!” I said summarising the last few minutes.

If the tent had been quiet before now there was a stillness that came from people listening in as another person got chewed out, and in my mind this girl deserved nothing less.

The nerve she had to try and speak of inserting herself as the discoverer was galling.

“I am frankly sickened, you will not be taking over this site, nor will you have anything to—”

Eve dropped to the ground amidst the debris from items strewn on the table I’d been standing in front of.

“Please! I’m sorry! I get carried away sometimes! This is the find of my lifetime and will be exactly what I need to support my earlier theories about the ancient empire of Pokemonopolis! I just got carried away! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” she said bowing her head above her hands in a dogeza position over and over again.

I stood over her and stared.

She kept her head down and in her bowing pose looked extremely small and vulnerable. A dark part of my mind noted how I could step on her and squash her like an irritating Weedle.

I drew in a breath before exhaling it. “You went about that poorly,” I stated.

Eve shifted to peek at me and I spotted that she had watery eyes. I felt part of myself relax but another recalled how calculating she’d been. It wasn’t like when Yolanda or my sisters did it for something innocent. This had serious ramifications.

I hardened my heart and exhaled again. You went about it extremely poorly,” I said. I pointed at the boys. “Those boys are the registered discoverers of this site. The find has already been documented with their pictures in front of the facility sent to certain academics,” I said.

Most of the information went to Crowley and Professor Oak but that wasn’t the point.

I worked my jaw. “I’m not sure I can allow you to work on this site if this is how you are going to act.” I gestured a hand. “The historical significance is there, but claiming everything on the map that Megarock Inc has been working is beyond excessive, it is rank hubris,” I said as I considered her.

“You will not be taking charge,” I said firmly.

Eve looked up, fear flashing in her eyes. I held my tongue for a moment, dragging things out.

“I think I will need to reconsider having you here,” I said.

“Please! I’m the expert on Ancient structures and the best shot you have at deciphering that language! I worked it out when I was a child and have been dreaming about finds like this my whole life! Please!” she said.

I exhaled again. I didn’t want to destroy this woman’s chance at discovering her life’s work. I could now recognise that she was Doctor Eve who did later help when the site near Pallet was unearthed. She’d had some rough edges in the cartoon, but it was rather worrying to see them on display.

I considered my options with her and decided on a few things. Before I locked in my response though, I decided to offer Eve one chance at righting things. “I want you to get up, walk outside, compose yourself and I will give you one chance to start over,” I said firmly.

Eve stared up at me from her kneeling position. I flicked my eyes to the tent flap.

She shot out of the tent leaving me standing in front of the destroyed table, I sighed and started picking up some of the things only for Eve to surprise me by walking back in and coughing quietly. She didn’t look at me but rather the first person she’d addressed last time.

“Hello there ma’am I’m from Celadon University. I’m Doctor Eve,” she said.

The other woman blinked at Eve. “Eh?”

Eve coughed. “Sorry, what is your name?” she said.

I held in a hum of approval and the nod. It was like watching a child walk themselves back through the moment they’d messed up only to do it the right way.

I, and all the people in the tent watched as Eve repeated the previous interaction that she’d started with only this time, she went about it much more politely and in the right fashion.

When it was time for her to approach me she did so quietly with the aide at her side. The aide coughed politely, now thoroughly caught in the game. She looked amused and a little unsure of herself with everyone watching on.

I held in a twitch of my lips at how silly this had turned. Then again, I was getting the impression that Eve didn’t behave as she should and tried to run roughshod over others. By calling her out and threatening the very thing she worked so hard for I’d forced her to adopt her very best behaviour.

“Brock, this is Doctor Eve, do you have a moment to talk with her about the recent discovery?”

I considered the aide for a second before tilting my head. “She’d probably be better off talking with the people that found the structure,” I said casually. “Ash, Gary, Forrest, and Humphrey, would you like to talk with this Lady?” I said.

The boys all shared a look before shrugging. Ash stepped forward. “I guess?” he said, nervous at all the people watching this play act itself out.

I nodded easily. “Well how about you get a seat over there and I’ll come in a moment,” I said. I then made a show of looking around. “I think we have some tasks to complete people!” I said making the frozen tableau of people listening in to jerk back into motion as they returned to work.

Forrest stayed next to me while the other three boys moved off with Eve. “That was pretty cool, but are you alright? You rarely get that angry bro,” he said delicately.

I clapped him on the shoulder and shrugged. “She pushed my buttons, it seems like she is going about it the right way now, but I think I’m going to have a word with Flint about putting someone else in charge of this site,” I said.

No way was I letting Eve call the shots around here.

“Oh, alright, and thanks bro for standing up for us,” he said.

I bumped his shoulder with mine. “No problem little brother,” I said.

When Flint returned he found me sitting with the boys listening as the boys talked about the find. I pulled him aside and told him what had gone down. Flint frowned. “She… technically has the right of it Brock. If the university gets wind of it they might make a big stink about this.”

“Yeah well technically is not going to be enough here. She’s going to be a menace if we let her be in charge. She can be in charge of the archeological side of things, but there is going to be someone acting as an overseer,” I said.

Flint nodded. “That could work,” he said.

“Get someone we can trust in charge and knows when she’s trying to blow smoke. She seems the type that needs to be ridden herd on,” I said.

Flint chuckled. “I know just the man.” He chuckled before looking to the side where the Togepi egg was resting. “None of the kids wanted it?” he said, referencing how I’d offered it up to the kids first.

None of them had wanted it, surprising me. Apparently, they were too focused on getting ready for the end-of-year circuit and a baby pokemon would hinder that. I had to admit that they weren’t wrong, I was just surprised by their reasoning.

So, I had the Togepi egg for now.

“Well it seems like you’re coming out of this adventure with something which is more than a lot of the men can say for today,” Flint said. He then coughed. “Thanks for coming down here Brock, it was a lot of fun spelunking with you even if it ended up being with a few others,” he said.

I blinked. “Ah, you’re not wrong,” I said. “It was fun,” I said, sounding out the words and reeling by how true that statement was. I had enjoyed my time with Flint today. I weighed up the next words carefully. “Want to do it again?”

Flint beamed and I knew I wasn’t the only one ending the day with a prize I could enjoy.

Flint then perked up. “Wait! We could come back tomorrow and investigate the ruins!”

I blinked. Oh yeah, I could do that. I was halfway to agreeing before I recalled what was coming up this week. I had a lot on, and I needed to spend tomorrow checking my pokemon.

“Sorry, I have to be a Gym Leader tomorrow and do some prep work for the week,” I lamented.

“Oh,” said Flint, wilting.

I grimaced. “I do really want to but… I just…” I trailed off meaningfully.

“Have too much on your plate?” he said.

I nodded. Damn but it had been a while since I’d had to not do something. Sadly I couldn’t ignore my pokemon.

I’d given them today to rest and relax so that they could depress after what happened this morning but I still needed to act on a lot of this morning’s minor moments.

It was coming back around to a short busy period for me. I was somewhat regretting it now that I was going to miss out on something this cool but… I had responsibilities.

I turned my head towards the setting sun and exhaled my regrets. We still had today which was nice, but it was a missed opputunity. “Sorry,” I said again.

Flint clapped me on the shoulder. “No problem. We’ll always have next time… Brock,” he said. I figured he wanted to say son but I knew I wasn’t going to feel right about that. I nodded to show I appreciated him keeping to my boundaries.

Tomorrow I’d spend some more time with the family, but I also needed to check in with my pokemon, particularly my Elite pokemon.

After all, with the week that was coming, I couldn’t afford to be lax.

It was time for the Elite Challenges to start.