Viva01

Hard Enough - Chapter 61 - Gary's adventure III

When Gary returned to the gym he felt more than ready for the coming challenge. He walked in with his best pokemon at his side. Squirtle was practically strutting after the last few days of fighting other trainers. They’d made some real strides together, and Gary had let his pokemon know how pleased he was with their progress.

“Go Gary go!” The girls gave them one last cheer before entering the reception once more. This time there were a lot more trainers lingering around. Gary co...

What should be released for next month?

This month's chapter for the 'Fan's choice was Red Riot Chapter 4, I am finalising the details and editing it to release this weekend! I'm super happy with it and hope that it will be an entertaining read! That being said I have been remiss in not getting this posted earlier!

Now, as asked for previously, here are the options you can vote for with some more context in the comments. The vote will end next Saturday!

Hard enough - Chapter 60 - Gary's adventure II

“Argh! This place is so annoying!” Gary shouted.

“Weedle!” another bug pokemon leapt out at Gary, causing the Rattata that Gary had out to sprint at it. Rattata then intercepted it with a tackle mid-leap. Gary watched the fight progress, more than happy to let his pokemon fight without instruction for now. His pokemon won anyway. Gary looked over the Weedle before shaking his head. So far he hadn’t been impressed with how the Weedle and Kakuna he’d come across had acted. And...

Hard Enough - Chapter 59 - Gary sets out!

Gary Oak waved at his adoring crowd as the car slowly rolled down the road. “Thank you for coming out to see history in the making! Now I’m off to begin my pokemon journey!”

He could see Ash talking with Gramps about getting his pokemon. For the life of him, Gary couldn’t work out which pokemon he’d be given.

Gary already had his first pokemon. A rather cheerful Squirtle, something that would open a lot of doors for him. After all, Squirtle was clearly the superior choic...

Hard Enough - Pre-canon - A boy meets a girl

Thanks to Ryot_ryot on fiverr for completing this brilliant artwork of Brock, Titan, Sabrina, and Kadabra. I could just see this being a post episode freeze frame with Brock having just won but Sabrina not being sure what to make of this strange none person?

What are people's thoughts?

If you have something you'd love to see, or an artist you'd like to recommend I look into, please leave a comment or flick me a private message!

I currently have Brock and Lance with something...

Hard Enough - Chapter 58 - Challenger, are you ready?!

I tapped the board behind me and the kids all dutifully wrote down what I had projected onto it.

“As you can see you need to account for your budget for things such as medicine in the field, food, tents and more when you leave Pewter. For now, I know you have the tents that I gave you but those need to be assembled correctly. I have a trainer available to lead an expedition for any that might have gotten rusty on setting up camp.”

Dennis, who was standing to the side, straight...

Hard Enough - Chapter 57 - A challenger appears!

“I’ve come to challenge the gym!”

The words echoed through the reception room. The trainer’s words were a proclamation, intended to give pause to all that heard them. It cast the moment into people’s memory. This would be the day this trainer would face the gym and hopefully overcome it.

In truth, the words themselves were a formality from a bygone time when the cities of today were little more than small towns. Each their own hub of life that sheltered the residents fro...

Chapter 56 - Crossing t's and dotting i's

“Alright gang, for today’s training session we’re going to be working through the moves that you should have.” I looked over the small classroom that I had in the depths of the gym. The trainers that had signed on watched on with various postures and expressions.

Rocko was laid back, for him this was old news and more of a refresher with some small updates. This was an old hat for him, he could probably deliver this speech himself next year and I might even promote him ...

Chapter 55 - Celebrating

I loosened a sigh of relief. Ticking another item off the shopping list was a good feeling.  With that picked up I was finally done with today’s shopping. Now I just needed to check out, go pick up Tommy and Cindy’s gift… and then I should be able to get some me time. I chuckled to myself at that.

And to think, for a moment there I’d entertained the idea of trying my hand for a Championship run.

Screw that. Life was already complicated enough as it was. I didn’t n...

Notice from Viva01

Hi Patreons!

Just a heads up that there will be a slight delay in releasing the story as I want to give people the chance to read/edit before I post it for your consumption. Should have 2 people looking it over in the next day for release tomorrow...ish.

This won't affect the basic tier supporters but it will affect the Bronze tier. Apologies for that but I'd rather wait and have it looked over cause there's usually a lot of stuff that I miss ...

Hard Enough Artwork - Pewter Gym Trainer Celia reporting in!

Thanks to Ryot_ryot on fiverr for completing this brilliant artwork.

If the title didn't give it away this is Celia! the current sponsored Trainer that was a Quarterfinalist at the Indigo Plateau. This also features Lizzy! Her starter Nidoqueen.

I really like how Ryot_ryot incorporated all the extra Pewter badge symbols for Celia as she's totally overdoing it trying to represent the gym with her gear. 

What are people's thoughts?

If you have something you'd lov...

Hard Enough - Chapter 54 - For every action...

When I sent out the call to all the Kanto gym leaders about this meeting, I knew I would have a strong response. But I hadn’t expected everyone to message or call me back almost immediately upon receiving the message with their confirmation.

I had all three Cerulean sisters, Erika, Surge, Kong, Grey, Koga, Blaine, Giovanni, and the two gym leaders I’d yet to meet in person —Manny and Sophia— respond within half an hour. Sabrina of course had already committed herself to attend....

Hard Enough - Chapter 53 - Firing a shot over the bow

A.N. Bad news is that due to some IRL tasks next month I am not super certain from the week of the 14th to the 21st I will be able to post any chapters. I'm not sure how much this will affect releases but thought I should mention it for people to understand that I'm going to be a bit busy! Apologies in advance!


“Hey Sabrina, you heard about the incident I take it?” I said in greeting to my… ex-girlfriend.

“... Brock, where are you?” she said in a ca...

Birds of a Feather DxD - The Summoning - Chapter 3

The summoning of a Devil is not something that takes any actual pomp and ceremony. People like to dress it up as more than it is. In the future during ‘canon’ people would merely have little leaflets to help proliferate the spread of contracts. These days people would set up elaborate rituals with sacrifices and chanting and even special attire.

What’s not known is that you really only need the first step of the ‘ritual’ to actually conjure a Devil.

That being that a sac...

Hard Enough - Chapter 52 - Rocket Raid

Traversing the wilds in the pokemon world was a skill. It required that you have a level of awareness of your surroundings beyond just your sides like you would when walking a route. The routes didn’t advertise it, but there was a natural deterrent with the trees. Some Rangers even planted certain species of shrubs that deterred stronger pokemon or acted as irritants for larger pokemon.

When people were forced to traverse caves and ‘long grass’ areas they often were surprised by t...

Hard Enough - Chapter 51 - Training day tricks

I chewed on my gum as my aviators glinted in the afternoon sun. Before me, my once hopeless baseball team of miscreants and minors were chasing a victory. They were in position for one of the last pitches they’d get a chance at.

I rubbed my chin in thought and made a vaguely stroking gesture. Next to me, my manager made the actual gestures they were supposed to follow. I’d spent a lot of time pushing him to train his body just as hard as his mind and while he put in the effort he wa...

What should be released for next month?

This month's chapter for the 'Fan's choice was Bird's of a Feather Chapter 3, I am finalising the details and editing it to release probably some time this week.

Now, as asked for previously, here are the options you can vote for with some more context in the comments.

Hard Enough - Chapter 50 - Training days, Mt Moon

Scyther darted up the rocky path to inspect a stone. His head tilted this way and that way before nodding his head and slicing a specific section out of the surrounding hill. Then he darted back to me with the rock balanced on top of his blades. Then he darted back down to us.

“Scyther!” He presented the rock to me with a proud grin.

I inspected the rock seriously and nodded to him. “Hmmm this is good. Want me to keep it for you to show the others?” Scyther tilted his head...

Hard Enough - Chapter 49 - Behind the scenes

A.N. Slower release of chapters once more! Be another day or two for the next one as it gets beta'd

Life continued from Yolanda and Forrest’s heart to heart with me over Flint. I started looking out for him when I walked around Pewter on patrol. When I dropped off the kids I was expecting him to be there, watching them gambol around in glee.

I wasn’t alone in looking for him. Just as I had promised to do so, Forrest and Yolanda had also started keeping an eye...

The boys playing Smash!

Thanks to Ryot_ryot on fiverr for completing this brilliant artwork. I got this one done lat week and have been looking forward to this as one of those scenes I wrote that I was just like, DAMN! I want a picture of that! I really like that Ryot_ryot took the previous image of Rocko and just made it so much more fun. 

who would people prefer to see as a single image first? Dennis or Celia? There is obviously still Alexa, Bethany, Missy, Daniel and Jackson as options but Celia and De...

Hard Enough - Chapter 48 - Training day sweets

“So we’ll be doing this a lot then?” asked Daniel as we walked through the Viridian forest.

I pushed aside a branch that had started to grow over the path. “Yup! We’re out here because the routes leading to the city are something that should be checked and maintained as part of the gym charter. Walking them for any strange or unnatural behaviour is something we need to be doing. This is in conjunction with the Rangers. We work with them and help link things together with our j...

Hard Enough - Chapter 47 - Training day talks -

I set up the projector and nodded to myself once it was aligned with the blank whiteboard. I had the room set up, the presentation set up, the powerpoint aligned and the clicker ready for the presentation. With this being my third start of the circuit proper I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to have my gym trainers hit the ground running. Or, at the very least avoiding a lot of the pitfalls that would come from dealing with trainers.

Rocko was the first to turn up and claim a...

Brock and Sabrina

This was one of the first artworks I commissioned and it's only just gotten finished thanks to andromedakrow on tumblr for completing this brilliant artwork.

What are people's thoughts?

If you have something you'd love to see, or an artist you'd like to recommend I look into, please leave a comment or flick me a private message! I'm thinking of locking in Ryot_ryot fo...

Hard Enough - Chapter 46 - The friendly rematch

There was movement at the HQ, for word had passed around, I thought to myself as we flew over the final stretch of trees. Lance and Claire had been darting in close only to then fall back and into aerial dogfighting maneuvers for the rest of the patrol.

It was no different as we came to land. When we had landed and our pokemon had been returned to their pokeballs, they swept in. Their landing was controlled, but there was still a great stirring of the people watching from the b...

Hard Enough - Chapter 45 - Ranger suprises

By the time we’d stopped for lunch, I’d only encountered four trainers. Three of them had been well within their rights to be on Mt Silver having reached the top sixteen in the last cycle. I was happy that my pessimism was proven wrong so far.

The one young girl had been, so far, the only trespasser. Thankfully she’d chosen the easy option by trying to flee. Sylvie had carried her back to HQ to deposit her while Andrew and I had continued to patrol.

Now, it was lunchtime and...

Hard Enough - Artwork - Georgina Glass

Meet Georgina Glass, the accountant for the Pewter Gym and mother of Crystal

This was one of the first artworks I commissioned and it's only just gotten finished thanks to doyouknowthe324 on fiverr for completing this brilliant artwork.

What are people's thoughts? I've been collecting a few of these for later selection. I've been liking the idea of slow release of im...

Hard Enough - Chapter 44 - Ranger Patrol

Pidgeot and Fearow were renowned for their speed in the air. In fact, they are considered the fastest pokemon that the common trainer has available to them. After all, there’s only a small amount of people that could raise and keep a Dragonite. It was possible for elite courier services —owned by the Blackthorn Clan— to have them, but you had to pay for it. They were still considered rare to see flying anywhere however. The most commonly seen Dragonite was in fact Lance’s Dragonite. A...

Hard Enough - Chapter 43 - Pewter Gym Trainers

Rachel whimpered while lying face to the ground. The wonderful trustworthy ground. It was always there to catch you when you fell. Good old dirt. Nature’s bed.

“You’ve all done wonderful today! Especially you Brock, you really put in some solid effort! I saw you working harder than anyone here! Rachel, great job  on the battle ropes! Bianca your footwork—” Rachel felt a warmth build in her chest but at the same time her legs locked in cramp. She cursed the feeling and her...

Hard Enough - Chapter 42 - Pewter city days

“Alright, the Grannies are coming to pick you up this afternoon,” I said to my siblings as I locked the door. I waved to Graveller, Munchlax and Eevee through the window. Graveller was having to hold Eevee as she’d started to try and sneak after the kids when they went to school. I’d been halfway home from dropping them off when I’d come across her last time.

Since then it became Graveller’s duty to hold onto her.

The little fluffy pokemon whined and made pawing motion...

Hard Enough - Artwork Rocko

Another artwork I commissioned and it's just gotten finished thanks to Onlona8 on fiverr for completing this brilliant artwork. this is our OC frumpy-looking Rocko! I have used this image to make another image that I am going to hold off until the first weekend of next month! It's a good one trust me! 

What are people's thoughts?

If you have something you'd love to see, or an artist you'd like to recommend I look into, please leave a comment or flick me a private message! I l...