Hard Enough - Chapter 357 - Intermission I

Jessie continued to stroke the incubator, her eyes occasionally darting down to double-check that it was still there. That it was real.

It had been a dream of hers to be a Pokemon Nurse growing up. A silly, whimsical thought that hadn’t stood up well in the face of reality. What had she been thinking? Biker girl Jessie trying to step into nursing school? 

She could only shake her head at her younger, more naive self.

That was as bad as her attempt at becoming a pop idol!

Still, she’d tried. She’d sent in her forms and gotten an acceptance letter and everything.

So what if she’d attended classes with the Chansey instead of the Nurse Joy that were in training? 

It wasn’t the normal way, but Jessie had actually rather enjoyed it. The Chansey all had hearts of gold, wanting to help, especially after the rough and tumble of gang fights and people from her past still seeking her out to brawl, she’d often come to class pretty beaten up.

Then she’d get swarmed by the dears of her class, all dying to put their skills to the test in helping her. 

However, there was one Chansey that always went above and beyond. She made sure Jessie always had a soft-boiled egg each morning and would lead Jessie to a quiet garden. They’d become study buddies.

Jessie glanced around to make sure Meowth and James were distracted by the twerps' battle going on below.

Misty was fighting well, and Jessie didn’t doubt she was going to earn her badge, but right now she just wanted to reflect. Misty worked best for that as she was a very showy battler.

With everyone else distracted, Jessie drew out a small keepsake that she’d kept on her person for years. 

It was half of a pendant. 

It was supposed to be an Egg pendant to symbolise a graduate of the Pokemon nursing school.

When Jessie had failed the class, she’d packed up her things and left, only for her study buddy to hand her half of the pendant. 

Despite everything, Rocket Boot camp, her antics as a member of Team Rocket, and what had to be two major incidents with Saffron, and then Shamouti, she’d kept it close.

It was a memento of better times and a friend that was out there somewhere doing good in the very literal sense.

Jessie rubbed the pendant slowly as her eyes dipped to the incubator she had in her lap. The warmth it radiated was soothing to her in a way she hadn’t experienced since those days when they’d had classes on Egg care. It was different now, knowing that the egg within was real and not a fake.

And all hers.

If… they wanted to be, that was. Jessie knew about imprinting, but she was going to give this little one all the chances in the world if possible. She was going to be a mother, or a trainer, or if the little one wanted, they could even do contests! 

Or, if they had other plans she’d find out when they got to that stage!

One of the big benefits of having Meowth on the team was that all of the team’s pokemon had a mouthpiece to talk through their wants and needs. It made so many little things just that much easier.

“What’cha got there Jessie?” Meowth asked and Jessie stiffened, realising that the pendant had started to flash in the light with how she was rubbing it.

Of course, Meowth with his sharp eyes, would notice the gleam.

“...” for a moment, Jessie considered downplaying it, before she coughed. “It’s uh, a keepsake from an old friend,” she replied.  

Meowth gave it a long look before nodding. “Looks nice,” he said.

Jessie waited for any off comments from him, but Meowth merely glanced at it before nodding, without a hint of recognition. Jessie tucked it away with a small sigh.

What had she been expecting? Him to recognise a Nurse Chansey pendant, or rather half of one?

She worked her jaw back and forth for a moment. Nurse Chansey pendant…

Now that she thought about it… Why had she been attending classes with only Chansey? That was weird. And that hadn’t been the only oddity now that she came to think more of it.

In fact… hadn’t the school’s principal been a bit of a creep that she’d rejected when she first met him? And hadn’t he come around to snicker?

“Hey, when we’re done here, can we go somewhere?” Jessie asked innocently. She half considered asking Sabrina to come with her, or even looking in her mind to make sure she was recalling this correctly.

That… might be an overreaction. Like needing a fire for smores only to start a forest fire. 

Or perhaps that was being mean. Sabrina was scary, but she could also wield her skills like a surgeon… one that left no marks when they fiddled with your mind.

Yeeeeah, best to just have this as a trip for her and the team. She could call it reconnaissance for Johto’s next season even!

It would just depend on what Jessie found at the Pokemon Nursing School.

It wasn’t like she was going to burn it down if she found her suspicions about the Principal’s intentions were correct.

“You look like you’re considering homicide,” James offered quietly. “Maybe think happier thoughts,” he suggested, his eyes flicking over to where Sabrina was sitting with Brock and Brock’s family.

In Sabrina’s lap, Suzie, the little girl with a Togepi companion, waved merrily at them.

“Right, right, sorry,” Jessie said, turning her thoughts towards Arbok and Milotic who always amused her when they did their happy dances during meal time. She relaxed her grip on the incubator.

Meowth glanced down at it. “Don’t worry about it. We’ve got the shovels and I know a place that has some wild Houndour, no one’ll question it,” he muttered, earning another snort from James.

“Ixnay on the urder-may!” he muttered from the side of her mouth.

Sabrina deigned to glance at them, and the trio stiffened.

Then she rolled her eyes and looked away, causing the group to exhale in relief.

“Think we’re good?” Meowth asked.

Jessie coughed. “Thoughts can’t be used to incriminate, but let’s talk about something else, like you James? What was up with you on that yacht?”

“Yeah? Did you see the spread they’d put out for us? Only Jessie was pilfering the food for later! What gives?” Meowth demanded.

“Eh,” James said with a sniff. “I had more important things to handle.”

“Like setting all the high scores you could on his games?” Jessie snarked. “Why were you doing that?” she asked.

James coughed, squirming in his seat. Meowth and Jessie stared harder, not letting up. 

He sighed, deflating like a balloon. “You know I wasn’t always a criminal, yes?”

“Obviously, no one just appears out of nowhere and decides to do crime,” Meowth said with a smirk. “You about to give us your tragic backstory?” 

“Yes! If you must know! I am!” James growled. “I… I was born into a rich family,” he confessed. He shot a quick glance at his friends to see how that would be taken only to see bored expressions. 

“Yeah? And? Go on,” Meowth prompted.

“You’re not surprised?” James asked, searching their features for annoyance or anger or calculation. 

Jessie sighed. “James, it’s been obvious to us from almost the first day of interacting with you that you were from a rich family.”

“Huh?” he muttered. “How?”

“When we first started training, someone dropped a hundred pokedollars and you didn’t even glance at it, like it was trash!” Meowth said.

Jessie nodded. “You once called staying at a hotel ‘roughing it’ cause the room service menu only had twenty options.”

“Those are…” he trailed off with a cough.

Jessie and Meowth shared a smirk. 

“You checked in with the uniform department, asking who’d designed our outfits.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear the same set of clothes more than once unless it was a uniform or part of your disguise kit,” Jessie pointed out.

“You’ve never said ‘I’ll wait for it to go on sale’ once in my earshot.” 

“You once turned your nose up at a teapot that you said poured wrong!”

“Alright alright!” James said cutting in before they could list any more… character traits of his. “And that teapot did pour wrong! They’re supposed to be even and flow nicely! Not… whatever that thing was doing!” he growled.

The smirks continued to hold, and James pouted. “Alright, so I wasn’t exactly good at hiding it!” he muttered before he began eying them. “You never minded that I was… born wealthy?”

“No. It’s not something you can control,” Jessie said. “I’m sure it came with other hardships for you that we didn’t understand.”

“This is this and that was that,” Meowth added with a nod. “Also Growly asked if I was your butler one time. I told him ‘nah’ and Growly said he was looking forward to ‘slumming it’ with you after you disappeared to go and get him that one time.”

“Oh…” James coughed. “Well, thanks, I suppose,” he said. “But yes. I was being forced into a marriage with a girl I couldn’t stand. The very sight of her, the sound of her voice, the…” he shuddered.

“She sounds horrible,” Jessie offered in support, and James nodded. 

“She was,” he said. “But, there were some good parts.”

“Fancy steak dinners?” Meowth suggested.

“Nice bedding?” Jessie asked.

“Maid service?” Meowth tacked on.

“Pocket money with five zeros?” Jessie said, her lips twitching upwards.

James gave them a flat look. “Are you both quite done?”

Jessie and Meowth shared a look. “For now,” they offered, smirking.

James pinched the bridge of his nose. “What happened to not caring about my birth circumstances?” he asked.

“That was that, and this is this,” Meowth and Jessie said together.

James sighed. “Whatever! Well, the point is that I sometimes rubbed elbows with Old Man Archie, only he wasn’t that old back then! He used to be this really annoying man who came and beat me at video games! I’m just paying him back is all!”

“Ah,” Jessie said. “Alright, that makes sense.”

Meowth patted James on the shoulder. “Yeah, you weren’t being childish at all by getting back at your childhood bully! Good work!”

Jessie hummed. “Any thoughts on reaching out to your parents again?”

“No, they’re the sort to guilt-trip me or entrap me if I do anything with them. It was risky enough stealing back Growly from them,” he said, patting a pokeball on his hip that popped open to reveal James’ Growlithe. 

It leapt out and gave Meowth a lick before flopping into James’ lap where it waggled happily. “Good boy! Good Boy!”

Meowth pulled a towel from Jessie’s bag and dried his face. “Got another way I knew yous was rich. Your Growlithe has a gold and silver collar,” he said casually.

Jessie leaned in, enduring the licks that coming in close proximity to Growly brought with it to check. “Oh, he’s right. I just thought that was colouring but it’s actual gold and silver,” she muttered.

“I’m starting to feel attacked,” James grumbled into his pokemon’s back.

Before Jessie or Meowth could mount any more witty remarks, Luana called out to them from the middle of the Gym. “Jessie! Do you want to make your attempt now?” she asked.

Jessie perked up and handed Meowth the incubator. “Protect this with your life, cause if anything happens to it that will be the price,” she growled.

“Urgh! You know Meowths eat these things in the wild right?” he called at Jessie’s back, only for Jessie to whirl about on him and glare.

“Good thing we’re not in the wild then, get James to buy you a steak if you’re feeling hungry!”

“I am being attacked!” James wailed dramatically into Growlithe’s fur.

Meowth rolled his eyes. “Oh, buy yourself a sense of humour why don’t’cha? You already made that joke and it fell flat the first time!”

Jessie marched down to the podium, ignoring the boys of her team, instead getting her head on straight. 

When she neared Brock and his family, Jessie spied Ash, Forrest, and Misty with their badges in hand and an innocent gleam in their eyes as they sat and began to cheer for her.

It was a weird relationship to have with the twerps. 

They’d started as foes, with she and her team attempting to steal the abnormally powerful Pikachu, only for things to twist on their head when Brock got involved. He’d given them a way out of their criminal life, and when the supports of their life were tugged out from under them due to Team Rocket collapsing like a house of cards, he’d once again reached out.

Only to hire them to harass and challenge the twerps once more. 

Now they were… friends of sorts, with Brock no longer needing them to be ‘tempered’.

Oddly, Jessie knew that all the tricks, traps, and battles they’d had against each other had made them both better pokemon trainers, as well as helped to keep them on their toes.

Ash had been touted as ‘the Chosen one’ and Jessie knew that in some way, shape or form, she’d contributed to him being the person he was.

It was weird.

So she tried not to think about it and instead focused on more important things. Like her future best friend and companion, Happiny.

Perhaps it was thinking of said pokemon that caused her to stop at the top of the podium.

Instead of enlarging a pokeball she stared at Luana.

“Are you alright?” Jessie asked.

Luana blinked. “Hmm? I’m fine, I assure you. Why? Is something the matter?”

Jessie tilted her head. “It’s just… You look tired,” she offered.

For some reason, that caused a chuckle from behind her, and she thought she heard Brock say something about ‘dangerous words’, but she ignored him, continuing to watch as Luana shifted. She kept her weight off one side of her body. Her eyes didn’t gleam, and there were bags under them. 

When she spoke, it took a moment for her to consider what she was saying. It was all small things, but together… Luana just looked done in.

“We can reschedule for later if you want?” Jessie offered.

Luana tilted her head. “You know, they said you’d be the one most likely to try and take advantage of me, you know?” 

“They?” Jessie murmured, which earned her a nod of the head from Luana as she indicated Brock and Sabrina.

“Guess she was wrong,” declared Luana with a hint of relish for some strange reason. “You’re a nice young woman, aren’t you?” 

She said it like it was praise, but it honestly offended Jessie a little. She liked being a bit rough. “Guess recent events have us all out of sorts,” she offered as she took up her pokeball. 

Luana smirked and flicked out two pokeballs. “Let’s go Hypno and Marowak!” she declared.

“Mawile and Milotic! Let’s take this match!” Jessie called her two pokemon as they appeared on the field.

Mawile did a little happy dance while Milotic shook out her glorious scales to send a cascade of rainbow light shimmering about the field.

“Bonemerang! Confusion!” Luana called, getting the match underway almost immediately. 

“SP, and Surf!” Jessie called and Mawile, who’d been doing a cute little jig blurred forward as dark energies enveloped her. Milotic on the other hand, began to rise up as a wave swept her up and carried her forward. 

Hypno’s confusion found no traction on Mawile and instead attempted to hold back the oncoming tidal wave. 

Marowka’s Bonemerang swept over Mawile’s head and began to arc around. Jessie tracked it, knowing it could do some unusual things, especially with a psychic pokemon on the field.

“Parry it!” she called when it arced around towards Milotic’s blind spot.

Milotic gave up on empowering her Surf and swept her tail around with Aqua Tail to deflect the ground-type move.

The Surf collapsed and Milotic fell to the ground, but in the space of time that everyone had been focusing on Milotic, Mawile had slammed herself into Hypno.

“Follow up!” Jessie called and Mawile swept around, her huge maw behind her head opening to gobble Hypno up with Crunch. When Hypno went limp, she spat the pokemon out.

Marowak then slammed into Mawile and sent the fairy-steel type sprawling on the ground. 

Marowak raised its bone club to finish Mawile off, only to get blasted by a Hydro Pump from Milotic.

Marowak went tumbling and this had Luana grimacing before signalling for her pokemon to step back. “I’ve seen enough! Jessie of Mahogany town, you have completed the Kumquat Gym Challenge by demonstrating skill in a duo battle!” 

Jessie blinked. When had they registered her hometown? She usually didn’t mention that, and it felt weird for it to be announced like it was.

She got a little lost in her memories and missed most of Luana’s speech as she held up the Kumquat badge. 

Something Luana eventually noticed. “Are you asleep?” she growled only for Jessie to jerk and shake her head.

Luana shot Jessie an unimpressed look before scowling over her shoulder at someone. “Great, another one probably,” she muttered under her breath as she handed Jessie her badge.

“Enjoy challenging Yuji,” she muttered, and Jessie nodded, feeling like she’d missed something, but deciding it wasn’t for her to worry about.

She’d done enough worrying to last a lifetime in the last few days. She marched back up to her friends and collected her incubator and friends.

She hadn’t expected to win against Luana as easily as she had, but she could probably chalk this up to the other woman being fatigued from the recent events.

She’d have to see if she could strike quickly on Yuji, perhaps she could get lucky twice?

And if she wrapped things up, well, a certain Pokemon Nursing School would be one of her next places to investigate… for reasons.

Perhaps she should check how powerful Growly’s flamethrower was.

_________________________

Ash pumped his fist as on his shoulder, Pikachu bobbed back and forth. They were riding high after winning the final badge they needed to compete against the Orange Island’s Champion.

“Alright, Pikachu, we’re going to book in a time and then train like maniacs for as long as we have!” he announced.

“Pika!” Pikachu replied with a nod.

Ash grinned. “So where do you guys want to eat?” he asked, glancing behind him only to find that Forrest and Misty weren’t following him like they normally would have. “Huh? Where’d they go?” 

“Pika Pi?” Pikachu asked, whipping his head from side to side only for Ash to sigh.

“They’re probably still hanging around Brock and Forrest’s family,” he mused aloud. 

Misty probably wanted to talk about the megastone that she’d gotten from Brock. Ever since she’d gotten it, they had been forced to commit to dedicated stopovers by at least two in the afternoon so Misty could train for a few hours. This was on top of the training she did with her pokemon in the morning, which she tried to hide from Ash and Forrest but Ash had caught her getting up too often to miss it.

Misty was pushing herself, and Ash supposed he could see a reason for it.

She wanted to unlock mega-evolution as fast as she could as it would be a serious Ace for her.

“Wish I could find a megastone, or get gifted one like she did,” Ash muttered to himself, trudging along. He rubbed the back of his head. “Man, it feels weird not having them with me after a victory… we usually all celebrate together,” he muttered. 

“Pikachu?” Pikachu asked. 

Ash considered that for a while before bobbing his head back and forth. What to do? What to… his ears twitched as he heard the sound of people babbling and calling out loudly to each other while the smell of something heavenly wafted on the wind causing his stomach to rumble.

“Pika!” Pikachu adopted a pointy shape and stabbed a hand towards where the smell was coming. 

“Heh! Lead the way Pikachu!” Ash ordered and a few moments later, he took off running after his starter as they tore down the street towards what appeared to be a night harbour.

Within, there seemed to be a lot of people milling about, and several had large grills set up.

“Cheap meat! Cheapest you’ll ever find it! Three pokedollars for five skewers!” Called one vendor and Ash approached them.

“That’s cheap! What’s going on that caused it to be that cheap?” Ash asked.

The fisherman snorted. “Where you been kid? We just had a super storm come through! That’s caused widespread devastation. There’s a lot of fish floating instead of swimming. Give it another day, and none of them will be floating anymore or good to eat. All of this? This is just the high before the low. There’s so much we’ve got meat packers working back-to-back shifts and they can’t store it fast enough!”

Ash blinked, only to grimace at the image that the man was explaining. “Oooh, that doesn’t sound good.”

“Nah, it’s going to be rough around here for the fisheries for a while. We’re going to have to be very strict with any fishing. There’s going to be a lot of ecological flow-ons from it, but I ain’t got a clue what it will entail.”

“Sorry,” Ash said, bowing his head.

The man tilted his head. “Eh? Nothing for you to be sorry about kid. It’s just the way the world is sometimes. You get bad seasons and good seasons. In some senses, this is currently a good thing, but it’ll lead to slim times for a while.” The man just shrugged. “So, how many you want?” he asked, gesturing to the barbecue. 

Ash considered mentioning that he’d been there at the heart of the storm, fighting to protect the pokemon and stop the storm… but it wouldn’t do anything.

“Give me everything you’ve got,” he said instead as he tapped Charizard, and Kingler’s pokeballs.

Both appeared and glanced around. Ash grabbed some skewers for his pokemon. “Here you go guys!” he said, indicating the bevy of cheap meat. Both pokemon called out in delight at the reward, and Ash lingered as they demolished the pile of meat with a skewer in both hands. 

One for him and one for Pikachu, who leaned forward to grab a bite occasionally.

Keeping his pokemon out Ash waved farewell to the fisherman and continued on his way only to pass several other stalls running a similar trade. Nearby residents were making the most of the deal Ash had by loading up what they could.

Ash passed more than a few talking about grabbing new freezers from the relief depot that had been set up.

With the meat stalls came other, smaller stalls for people who were selling whatever they could. Some of it was junk from their houses that weren’t working ,while others had bits of debris and various knick-knacks.

Ash started walking past them, only to spot several items that his training at the Pewter Gym made him pause at.

Big Pearls that were typically much more expensive than they currently were had drastically slashed tags next to them. Ash considered them for a few moments before reaching into his pack searching for a notebook he’d filled up during his week of training at Pewter.

He flipped through it only to pause on the list of ‘quality finds’ when in the field. 

Big Pearls, pearls, Prism Scales, Pearl Strings, Water Stones, Pretty Feathers, Shoal Shells, Shoal Salt, Star Pieces, and coloured shards were all on sale for cheap!

Ash compared the prices that the people were asking for against what he’d been told the ‘market price’ of these items was.

Ash performed a fast sweep of the ‘market’, noting that there were dozens of stalls with the same items for sale.

Ash warred with himself only to sigh. He could make so much money if he just bought them up, but that didn’t sit right with him. Not with people who were hurting. The fisherman was right, tough times were ahead for the island residents. They needed people helping them, not taking advantage of them!

With his mind made up, Ash approached the first stall. “Hey, you’ve got some items here worth a lot more than you’re asking for,” he said.

The stall owners all stared at him like they couldn’t believe he was real, but he kept working at them, showing them his notes from the Pewter camp and showing them pokenet pages where they could sell some of their goods for ten times their current asking price.

They thanked him and tore down their signs quickly. This caused a bit of a furore among the various stalls as word started to spread before long, Ash didn’t even need to do anything.

Ash stepped back with a smile. Pikachu patted him on the head. “Pi Pi Pika!” he said, praising Ash.

Ash chuckled and moved away, knowing that he’d probably just helped out a lot of people, and all it had taken was a few words.

It felt good.

Ash turned only to find himself face to face with a hideous, tanned face. “Ah! A Jynx!” he shouted, flailing backwards.

“Who are you calling a Jynx! This is just my natural Gyaru girl style!” growled what had to be someone’s grandmother. 

“Uhmmm, you?” Ash said as he started to inch away, inspecting the woman. 

She had her hair up in a topknot while her face was slathered with brown makeup. Her eyes were a different tone that made them look weirdly big… with the wrinkles and sagging skin, it just looked wrong.

“Hmph! The nerve of some young ones these days! And here I had heard that you were a young gentleman!” snapped the old woman. 

She clicked her nails as she bobbed her head side to side in a weird manner. “Just shows you ain’t all that!” she said with a weird inflection.

“Oh, alright?” Ash said as he continued to back up.

The woman sighed. “No appreciation of classic movies either! I’m the local Mayor.”

“You’re the mayor?” Ash shouted, drawing a few looks from people passing nearby who chuckled and pointed at Ash. A few nodded towards the old woman respectfully.

The ‘Mayor’ of Kumquat Island sniffed and drew herself up again. “That’s right! I’m the Mayor! My fashion sense took the election by storm as did my liberal agenda!” she said.

“Cool,” Ash said. “Listen, I’ve had a big day and I want to go to bed.”

“Not before you get your reward!” announced the Mayor.

Ash felt a shudder run up his spine. He hadn’t had a granny growing up but from what Misty had said, they always liked to kiss and pinch cheeks and with her makeup and talons that she called nails, Ash didn’t like his chances of getting out unscathed. 

“I’m good!” he said, only for her hand to lash out and catch his arm.

“Oh, but I insist!” she crooned. 

Ash braced, ready to take a kiss to the face that would leave him permanently scarred in some form, only for something round to settle into his hand.

“Eh?” he asked, relaxing and glancing down. A small orb with a blue and yellow helix rested within his grip. “Wait! Is this a Megastone?” he shouted.

The Mayor snorted. “It is, we’re not part of the treaty on Megastones, but this item we knew was going to be worth a lot. We were going to keep it in trust for one of our own but…” She smiled kindly at Ash. “We couldn’t ignore your kindness, young man, and if there’s one thing that needs rewarding, it’s good, honest kindness.”

She patted Ash’s hand, making sure to keep her talons away from his skin. “Keep being such a kind young man, and the world will be a much better place. I’m not sure what pokemon it’s for, but regardless it will be a useful item for you to have.”

Ash nodded seriously. “Thank you,” he muttered before bowing towards the weird Mayor.

She giggled. “Now that’s more like it!” she chimed before leaning down and giving him the smooch that he’d been afraid of. It wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it might be.

It was actually kind of nice. “Now off you go, young man!” she called, and Ash scampered away.

He would work with this and get so strong… Ash slowed. Wait! He needed to find out who this stone worked for!

Ash turned and made a beeline for Forrest. His family knew about this sort of thing!

He found them out on the beach enjoying a huge pile of fish and chips with several giant sandcastles made up.

“Brock! Forrest! You have to see what I found!” he called, holding up the stone to show them.

Brock and Forrest’s dad shot to their feet and intercepted him with a gleam in their eyes. Within moments, Brock declared it to be Sharpedonite, which had Ash wilting.

“Awww man, I don’t have a Sharpedo,” he muttered. 

Brock merely shrugged. “Well, my advice is either trade it for a favour, or keep it and catch one to train up. They’re pretty handy pokemon to have, but it’s up to you. The Mayor was right about the Orange Islands not having any laws regarding Megastones. You were gifted it, so it’s yours.”

Ash stared at his prize, suddenly unsure what he would do, still, it was nice to have options. It was even nicer to have his good deed rewarded like this.

Now he just needed to work out what to do with it.

He decided he could sleep on it, which earned him a laugh from Forrest, Flint and Brock when he said as much.

_________________

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

It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading!