Hard Enough - Chapter 290 - Training Camp Days II

“Remind me what today’s task was,” I said as I fought the urge to rub at my temples. 

I also fought the urge to lower my eyes to where the instigators for today’s… fiasco were all kneeling. 

“It was to be a game of capture the flag with colour bags…” replied Misty. 

“Capture the flag with colour bags,” I agreed with a slow nod. The smile on my face was not friendly. It was a rictus of muscles clenching in the wrong order as various ticks fought for primacy. 

“Colour bags,” I repeated. 

I lowered my gaze to the group of miscreants. 

I knew they were a cluster of personalities that were going to cause friction with their histories, but I thought it might be a good idea to break them up, make them join different teams. 

On the ground before me, Forrest, Misty, Ash, Gary, Bugsy, Mia, Ritchie, Dora, Silver and Pete Pebbleman were kneeling with various levels of contrition on display. 

“So, who wants to explain to me how a game of colour tag evolves into…” I waved a hand at the section of the reserve that I’d set up for this game. “This,” I said.   

It was meant to be a fun game. It was meant to be about team building and tactics with lessons in positioning, situational awareness, understanding of points of view and… well, none of that mattered now. 

Parts of my reserve were so multicoloured my Graveler, Onix, and Aron looked like a rainbow had been poured over them. 

Other parts were on fire. Rocks weren’t supposed to burn but when people brought out poison types and sprayed down sections before igniting them could cause fires to become very enduring.

Yet other parts of the area had clouds of colourful dust hanging in the air with small twisters keeping them going.

Finally, the pond's rainbow colouration made me worried about draining it due to poisons. If there wasn’t a ridiculously colourful Magikarp splashing around alongside a Feebas I might have done just that. 

I swept my gaze straight back to the kneeling youths. 

“So? Who wants to explain how this occurred?” I prompted. 

I wasn’t surprised when they all tried to talk over the top of each other. 

I sighed, knowing in my heart this was somehow all Brawly’s fault.

                                                            _____________

Ash grinned. He’d forgone wearing his lucky cap today in case he got hit, not that he thought it would actually happen, but still.  Today, he wore his team colours around his head with a coloured band.

There had only been a few tasks yesterday with points handed out for questions answered and engagement. There’d only been one round of matches against other teams, and Ash hadn’t exactly put his best foot forward.

He’d ended up fighting against a kid named Silver only for the three pokemon he’d chosen to fall short. Silver had won points for his Team with his victory, enough for Team Mystic to claim the victory for the first day and to get desert for them and their pokemon! 

Worse, Gary had been right there to rub his loss in his face while enjoying ice cream! 

But not today! Today he and his team were going to be the ones that enjoyed the ice cream!

He and all the others of Team Instinct had paid extra attention during their lessons, and they’d scored well. Not as well as Team Mystic, with how many smart kids they had, but still! 

The scores were close enough that today’s exercise would tip the scales in Team Instinct's favour.

From there, they’d be the ones to get the desserts! 

They just needed to win this game of capture of the flag.

Sadly, things weren’t looking good. From the get-go instead of Team Valour and Team Mystic fighting against each other they had made a beeline towards Team Instinct’s base.  

This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.

“Get down!” Bugsy roared as he threw himself behind a boulder only to be forced to keep rolling when the boulder got up and tried to get out of the line of fire as no less than eight paint bombs were flung. 

Bugsy wailed theatrically as four bombs went off, painting him in Red and Blues before he fainted to the ground only to get up and walk towards the ‘respawn’ area in the base with his hands held high.

“Fight on Team!” he called only to get another red bag to the face. 

Ash shot to his feet. “Hey! He was knocked out! You’re not supposed to throw them at knocked-out people!” 

“Down with Team Instinct!” shouted Pete Pebbleman Jnr and Ash had to throw himself to the side as Misty of all people followed Pete’s lead. She’d looked a bit too into it for Ash’s liking.

He flicked his own yellow bag and was satisfied to see the older boy get beaned in the head with a big puff of Yellow dust. 

Pete grunted and turned to jog back to his own team’s base with a nod of respect towards Ash. Misty ducked and rolled behind cover, knowing what would be coming next.

Ash turned his attention to the others, his instincts flaring as he grabbed a brace of yellow bags between his fingers so he could flick them out in a spray that would push back his opponents. He had to be careful to conserve his ammunition as the assistants were only letting each person have ten bags.

Ash could do the math, and he knew he was going to have to get clever. 

Thankfully, Physical Education was one of the things he’d aced in school. He sprinted out of cover, zig-zagging left and right while flicking bag after bag and leaving tagged foes in his path. 

When he got to the last throw he realised he was lining up against Forrest and Forrest like him was dodging erratically while feinting. 

Ash locked eyes and prepared for the toughest fight he’d had so far only for something else to catch his eye. Someone had thrown a pokeball instead of a powdered bag. It came on so fast and was such a surprise that Ash didn’t have any time to evade it. 

So he braced and took the hit to his ribs only to skid back. 

Around him, other Team Instinct trainers were calling foul and drawing their own pokeballs and before he knew it people were dropping the coloured bags in favour of starting a proper pokemon brawl.

Forrest stiffened. “Guys! Stop! Stop!” he shouted, waving his hands to try and calm things down only for others on Team Instinct to see him as a sitting duck, resulting in a deluge of colour bags being thrown. 

Yellow powder exploded off Forrest, and he staggered out of the cloud coughing and spluttering with yellow powder all over his form. A follow-up pokeball smacked him in the forehead and sent him staggering back into the cloud.

Instead of merely being recalled the pokeball instead disgorged its pokemon.

“Muuuuuuuk!” roared the pokemon, looming large over Forrest who shrieked in surprise and scuttled away. This resulted in more pokemon appearing and soon an all out brawl was occurring with pokemon clashing.

Grass types were sneakily tripping people up with vines while water types were hosing off others. The Muk from earlier was leaving a large trail of toxic slime as it pursued Forrest who was fumbling blindly at his own pokebelt.

Ash grabbed for his pokeballs. “Come on out Butterfree! Pidgeot! And Charizard!” 

“Blow away the powders!” He ordered his pokemon flying pokemon only to shoot out a hand towards Charizard. “Take out those grass types that are tripping people up!” 

Charizard use—” was as far as he got when Forrest unleashed a trio of his own pokemon. The Steel-type pokemon all turned on Muk and sent it flying through the air.

It splattered out wide when it landed before shifting back into a tall, coherent form. 

“Leave Muk alone! He just wanted to hug you! He’s overly affectionate!” called a girl that Ash vaguely remembered as being named Dora. Ash whirled about, confused as Muk bristled.

“Ash look out your Charizard is—” Forrest started to yell and Ash twisted back around only to watch in horror as Charizard’s tail touched a part of the slime trail, causing it to ignite. 

“Oh shoot!” 

“Blastoise! Put out that fire!” called Gary as he made himself known. Blastoise emerged, and its twin cannons pointed directly at Charizard and the flames.

Ash didn’t have any time to get his pokemon out of there as a huge wave of water saw it getting splashed around while Forrest was shouting something about chemical fires.

The water certainly washed the fires away, but as soon as the water receded the fires returned, albeit in a wider section causing Gary to blanch. “What did you do Ashy boy?”

“Nothing! Stop blasting my pokemon!” Ash shouted heatedly. 

The sound of air horns and whistles started to cut through the noises, but Ash didn’t have any attention to spare for the Team Leaders and the various Gym Trainers getting involved. 

Charizard emerged from the soaking slumped over. Small twitches gave away how furious it was. Ash instantly zeroed in on him forcing him to ignore how Butterfree and Pidgeot were starting to clash with other flying types while rocks were being thrown to neutralise them.

Ash didn’t have to worry about them, they were well used to dodging Rock Throw and Stone Edges thanks to training against Forrest during their Journey. 

“Charizard, it’s alright, buddy we need to calm things down!” Ash called, reaching out a hand while reaching for the energy that he’d discovered while napping during Forrest’s ‘meditation sessions’. 

Ash felt himself connect, only for an inferno of annoyance and irritation to wash over him as Charizard threw back his head and roared out his feelings. 

“Ashy Boy, don’t try to get cute! Remember! Fire types are weak to water types!” Gary sing-songed as he toyed with Blastoise’s pokeball while the giant tortoise pokemon shifted behind him, its cannons readjusting to target Charizard

Ash felt his own annoyance spike, adding to that of Charizard’s. Ash and Gary locked eyes and Ash just knew he couldn’t back down now, only for another voice to announce itself.

“Tch! This is what everyone’s getting worked up about?” called Silver from atop a small boulder. He had his arms crossed over his chest and his cloak was flapping dramatically. 

“You’re all such children,” he said with a derisive shake of his head. 

Ash smirked. “And you’re not standing on a rock!” he said kicking a pebble so that it struck the boulder. 

The boulder rose, sending Silver falling off it with a squawk, only for his fall to be broken when Bugsy ran under him. “Hey guys, we should reall—” called Bugsy only to be cut off. “I can’t see!” Bugsy shouted as he began flailing about in the cloak only for Silver to be dragged along by the shouting bug specialist. 

Misty announced herself once more. “Think fast Forrest!” she shouted, throwing her red bags haphazardly so that they’d clearly miss. Only for them to all somehow hit Forrest. 

For a moment there Ash could have sworn he saw Forrest step into some of the thrown bags but that couldn’t be right.  

Before Ash could take Misty out, another girl leapt from the dust. “Pewter trainers ho!” screamed Mia, only to trip and tackle Misty to the ground. Her long rattail hair braid twisted itself around both girls, and they fell to the ground with a squeal. 

A sudden woosh tore through the battlefield as a grey blur cut through the air, resulting in huge clouds of powder and dust being blown away. All of the flying-type pokemon wobbled and some of the weaker pokemon ended up being blown away while others rallied in attempts to fight back.

They combined their efforts only for the now-revealed pair of Aerodactyls to flap their wings and counter with Whirlwinds. 

The larger of the pair cackled and shrieked with glee, taunting the weaker pokemon.

Ash felt his annoyance shift into outright anger as Charizard and he caught sight of the stronger pokemon bullying Ash’s team.

Charizard didn’t need a verbal order to unleash a Flamethrower up at Aerodactyl only for it to be dodged. 

The Aerodactyl shot them a glare before cackling at them mockingly.

The fire of indignation rose up within Charizard only for something else to spark within the inferno. Ash gasped as a wave powerful Inferno was unleashed only for the Aerodactyl to return fire with a Hyper Beam of all things! 

Ash threw himself behind a boulder only to feel craggy arms wrap around him to protect him from the heat, flames and a huge shockwave rocked the area. 

The fires Charizard had unleashed splashed aorund and ignited yet more poison slime causing an even greater hazard. 

Ash risked peeking over the top of the boulder only to find a destroyed section of the field with his Charizard staggering to his feet while the other trainers who’d been around for the fight were all tucked up behind various Graveler and Golem who’d been hiding in the ground.

“Everyone stop now!” roared Brock as he emerged with two Tyranitars, a Steelix, a Lapras, and his Rhyperior. 

The Aerodactyl quickly flapped over to join Brock and Ash gaped. Now it was pretending it had nothing to do with this mess?

                                                  _________________

—and then you had us come and sit down as we were the only ones that hadn’t stopped fighting or running around like we were on fire,” Ash said, repeating my own words from when I’d detained him and his ‘group’.

I rubbed at my temples. I had been half expecting Bertha to be involved in the entire affair in some manner, but then again her antics were usually much more fun and harmless. Don joining in the brawl and blowing people’s pokemon and adding the chaos of the entire event was all too expected. 

It was rather amusing that Don’s taunting of Ash’s pokemon led to Chrazird getting a ‘power up’ with what sounded like Overheat. I’d need to tap Flannery to spend some time with Ash to help him get his pokemon under control. 

I suspected Flannery wouldn’t mind the suggestion at all either. 

“Who threw pokeballs?” I asked. 

Instead of raising their hands and admitting to wrongdoing, the group pointed at each other. 

I sighed. “This got very, very out of control. There was a reason I suggested pokemon like Pikachu and Sparkie weren’t to join in. I even instructed people to not release pokemon at the start, did I not?” I prompted. 

The group squirmed. “We didn’t! We just used our powderballs until someone didn’t listen and then we had to defend ourselves!” Pete Pebbleman Jnr proclaimed loudly. 

I shot him a look. How he thought that argument would sway me, I had no idea. He had a loud voice and a bigger frame than most of his age group, but damn, he was still just a kid.

I suppose that was the issue here more than anything. I was dealing with kids. Kids with chips on their shoulders and a lot of reasons to get into fights.

I rubbed my temples. “I’m going to have to punish everyone for this… fiasco,” I said pointedly. The idea of evicting them from the camp came up, but I felt that was too much. Still, I couldn’t just give them a slap on the wrists for this either. 

“First of all, everyone here is going to have points from their team deducted. Tonight, I will be instructing everyone that due to today’s events, there will not be a prize for best performance meaning no treats for anyone or their pokemon teams,” I said to start things off. 

There we go, a bit of communal punishment to make people pull their heads in thanks to peer pressure. A few of them squawked at this but I shot my hand up and silenced them with a gesture. 

“Secondly,” I said pointedly, letting them know that I had more planned for them. “All of you are going to be cleaning up the pond, without your pokemon helping you,” I added quickly when some of them relaxed. “There are hoses and buckets by the sheds. I want you to work together and get it done.”

Forrest raised a hand. “I read on the packets that the powder will just degrade into…” he trailed off when he looked at me.

“I know what the packets say, I also know that I shouldn’t have to be wasting my time lecturing you on this. This is time that you could have been enjoying with others training and practising new things, instead, you’re going to be doing a pointless task because you have wasted my time.” 

I hadn’t been about to tell them all that initially but damn Forrest doing actual due diligence, then again perhaps it reinforced that they were not doing anyone any favours with how things had gone down.

“If I think I need to add to this later on… I may still do such.” I levelled a pointed look at all of them. “You are all on very thin ice. Do not make me expel you from this camp,” I stated, causing them to stiffen.

“We’ll be good!” “Sorry!” “We just got caught up in the moment!” “Was just backing my team!” “I was just standing there!” shouted or pleaded various kids. 

I waved a hand. “Just… start cleaning the pond,” I said with a wave of my hand.

I turned and marched away to inform Dennis of the punishment I’d given out before also giving him the heads up about rescinding tonight’s prize. 

“We’ve already got it in the freezers though? That’s a lot of goods,” he suggested. 

“Give it to the Gym trainers and their pokemon instead,” I suggested. “Where are Flannery, Roxanne, and Brawly?” I asked. 

“They’re with the rest of their teams over there with Rocko,” Dennis said, waving his hand towards the larger tents we’d set up. 

I nodded marching over only to find the trio glaring at each other. Or rather Brawly and Flannery were glaring while Roxanne made consoling gestures. 

“Right, you three with me,” I declared, collecting them up and making them follow as I strode into the Gym proper and then my office. I had them sit in front of my desk like naughty school children. 

“Alright, before the training camp started I would have said that you three were the perfect people to have as Team Leaders for the various groups with the skills and experience you bring. Better yet, it played perfectly into each of your desires to help foster younger trainers' skills. But then we started the training camp and instead of that I’ve had to deal with…” I waved a hand at all three of them.

“What the hell happened?”

Roxanne squirmed. “It doesn’t matter,” she said dejectedly. 

This caused Brawly to squirm and Flannery to glare harder at Brawly. “It does matter!” Flannery growled. 

Brawly shot her a look that all but said ‘stay out of it!’ but she wasn’t having a bar of that. 

“Roxanne’s been strung along by mister playboy here!” Flannery said, pointing a finger directly into Brawly’s face. 

“I have not! I’m just a friendly guy is all!” Brawly said pointedly. 

“So all the sitting together, the cuddles? Teaching her how to ride a surfboard? The walks together in Celedon Gardens? Flannery hissed. 

“Guys stop! It doesn’t matter!” Roxanne said as her two friends obviously grew more agitated. 

“Stop saying it doesn’t matter! It does!” Flannery said. “Don’t let him walk all over you!” 

“I’m not!” Roxanne stated.  

I clapped my hands and silenced them with the small thunderclap I unleashed. 

“Alright, speed round,” I declared. I pointed at Roxanne. “What happened on the night of your celebration dinner?” 

“I… decided to confess my feelings for Brawly.” Roxanne blushed. “I told Brawly I wanted to date him, as a boyfriend and girlfriend and he… said we shouldn’t date. That it was a terrible idea.”

Roxanne looked down at the ground, and Brawly squirmed as I looked at him. “That’s correct.”

“I mean…. Yes?” he said. “We wouldn’t work out. She wants to be a Gym Leader, and I want to roam around a bit more! I… I don’t want to settle down!” 

I blinked, feeling a sense of recognition at his words. In my past life, I’d gotten the chance to finish school and attend university. In a way, I’d very much regressed in maturity with unsupervised access to alcohol, social events, women and good times. 

Back then, I had been approached by a few ladies looking to deepen their relationships with me. However, I hadn’t been looking for a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship and denied them.

At first glance, Brawly was doing much the same. 

Despite it appearing that he and Roxanne would do well together, Brawly wasn’t ready for that. It wasn’t a terrible thing to declare that you didn’t want a relationship of that nature. 

Even if I’d been sure that the ‘Broxy’ relationship had been about to set out from port properly. 

I drummed my fingers, knowing this was going to need to be navigated delicately. 

“Hmmm, I can see how that would affect your friendships,” I decided to say eventually. “Brawly… has the right to say no, just as Roxanne would if she’d been approached by Brawly instead of the opposite occurring.”

“But he’s been practical—” Flannery started to say, only for me to raise a hand. 

“Have you or Brawly ever kissed or done more?”

“More?” Roxanne said before blushing as her mind caught up with what I was suggesting. 

Flannery didn’t let the conversation's subtext remain merely subtext, however, and dragged it to the front. “He means did you sleep together?”

“No!” “No, we didn’t!” said Brawly and Roxanne together. 

I huffed and waved my hand. “Alright, that’s all good and well. Roxanne, I can see how things have been built up with all your previous interactions. I honestly thought you were already dating.”

Roxanne nodded glumly, and Brawly squirmed. “I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was leading you along.”

Roxanne just nodded. “I.. understand, and I’m sorry for lashing out like I did.”

I hummed and looked to Flannery. “Flannery, I can understand you trying to be a good friend to Roxanne, but stirring up the Camp attendees has really caused this to blow up way worse than a rejected confession.”

“It wasn’t just…” Flannery said before clamping her jaw shut. Roxanne and Brawly shot her confused looks. Flannery worked her jaw. “Roxy, babe? Can you step outside for a second?” she asked. 

A flicker of confusion appeared in Roxanne’s eyes before she nodded and stepped outside. The second the door shut, Flannery locked her gaze on Brawly.

“After you rejected Roxy, what did you do?” she said firmly. 

“I went back to my room in the hotel I rented to give Roxanne some space?” he replied, unsure where this was going. I flicked my eyes between the pair. Flannery had a look of vindication like one would see from a lawyer in a court drama who’d just had the criminal step into their trap. 

Flannery gave a tight smile. “Did you go there by yourself? Alone?” she said pointedly, and I felt an inkling of understanding creep in. 

Brawly stiffened. “Oh…”

Flannery’s eyes, if anything, began to flicker with an inner fire. “Yes, oh. I saw you meet up with the floozy! What the actual fuck Brawly?! You flirt and play around with Roxanne until she confesses, then reject her only to sleep around less than an hour later?”

Brawly raised a hand. “Now, that’s not what happened. This and that are separate incidents! And Shelia isn’t a floozy!” he said.

I put my head in my hands at his all-but confession. “Oh man,” I said. “Brawly, that’s not cool, man. Not cool,” I said. 

“They’re separate issues!” he said defensively. 

Flannery snorted. “They aren’t!” 

“They are!” Brawly denied. “Brock, come on, man back me up!” he pleaded. 

I raised my hands. “Nope! Not it! I’m not touching that! I’m touching on the issue of this whole…” I waved a hand at Flannery and Brawly. “Thing, blowing up in our faces.” 

Although I could now understand a lot more of the context of why Roxanne was annoyed, Flannery was pissed, and Brawly… well, he didn’t and did have a leg to stand on. 

He just shouldn’t have done some things so close together. 

“This… thing definitely could have been handled… better,” I said simply, deciding to leave it at that. “I can see tensions are running high right now. I… Don’t have a solution to this, and I need people that can work together. There’s been a lot of miscommunication, as I see it, that has been exacerbated by…. Events,” I said while pointedly not looking at Brawly. 

“I’ll have to ask all three of you to step back as Team Leaders for the rest of the camp,” I said. 

Flannery stiffened. “Brock, can I ask you to keep Roxy on as Team Leader? She loves it, and it would do her good!” 

I considered her for a moment before deciding to shake my head. “No, this is a lesson for her. For lack of a better metaphor off the top of my head, she might not have been throwing as much fuel onto the fire, but we still had an explosion. Each of you will step down, and I’ll have Gym Trainers take over,” I said. “You can still tutor young trainers and I would appreciate that, but I’m going to have to change things up.”

Flannery nodded, and I rose to bring Roxy back in to tell her the news. She deflated a little but accepted it well enough before bowing and apologising. The two girls departed, and Brawly remained. 

“Brock, I’m sorry that things went this way. I didn’t think it would,” I raised a hand to cut him off. 

“You didn’t think,” I announced clearly. “I get that passions were running… high,” I said carefully. “But damn, man… that could have been handled better.” 

Brawly squirmed before nodding. “Right, you’re right. Sorry again.”

“Yeah, me too.” I considered saying something else to show I understood but decided to leave it at just that. Brawly departed and I exhaled a huge sigh of relief. 

Damn, I had a ton of work to do to salvage the situation and bleed tensions. I started typing up the changes I was going to have to make.

I’d need to adjust tomorrow’s excursion and elevate Jackson, Missy, and… I chewed my lip and added Dennis to the list of new Team Leaders before a chime made me look at my Xtransceiever. 

“Brock here,” I answered before a memory stirred. “Oh shoot, I’m late, aren’t I?” I declared as I recalled the psychologist appointment I’d booked in. 

“You are indeed Brock. This is Doctor Lauren. I assume something has happened at the Gym?” announced a kindly voice, as the image showed a middle-aged woman wearing half-moon spectacles. 

“Ahahaha, you could say that, just drama drama drama here as usual!” I said as I furiously started closing things up so I could rush out the door.

“Brock I can see you’re rushing, how about for today’s session we do it over the phone and you lock your office door?”

I paused, about to exit the room. “Are you sure? I can make it to your office in five minutes if you’d prefer?”

“What I’d prefer is for you to relax, and I don’t think rushing about is going to help. I can see a comfortable-looking couch. Sit down and breathe. I know we have a lot to cover and discuss with this being our first session, but, let's get to know each other. Believe me, I’m not at all worried about doing this over the phone. In fact I rather enjoy it as it has allowed me time to have a small break and get a cup of tea for myself!” she said with a small laugh as she raised a mug towards me.

I settled down on the couch. This wasn’t the start to my therapy sessions I’d have liked, but perhaps it wasn’t so bad.

“What should we talk about?” I said after a moment of silence between us.

Dr Lauren smiled. “Anything at all is fine.”

I shifted on the couch. I wasn’t sure I was ready to attempt working on the… situation that was my family, but I wouldn’t mind getting neutral parties take on the clusterfuck that had been dropped into my lap that was the Roxy-Brawly-Flannery situation. “Can we talk about what happened at the Gym just now which has made this call necessary?” I asked. 

“That sounds perfect!” she said, and I already felt better knowing I had someone I could talk to about this.

That was neutral to the whole situation. I had no doubt that when I spoke with Sabrina about today’s events and revelations tonight, she’d need to be talked down from smacking Brawly around the head a few times.

Then again I had my own gripes with Brawly over the whole incident. The guy was my friend and I somewhat got it, but Arceus damn if I would mind slapping him over the head for not thinking!

Or rather, thinking with the wrong head. 

                                                    ____________________

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

I originally was going to have it as just a rejection but then I felt like that didn’t have enough oomph to inspire the annoyance from Flannery at Brawly. Him doing something dumb after kind of works out well as a thoughtless act though.

Thanks go to Twmmy for Proofreading this chapter!