Chapter 254: Golden week interludes - The Champ and the Runner up

Chapter 254: Golden week interludes - The Champ and the Runner up

Lance lay on his couch.

He usually wouldn’t display such slovenly behaviour. Sloth, as much as pride could be a dragon’s worst vice.

People often thought of Pride as the draconic emotion, but Dragons were much like any others in that they had just as many personalities as humans or other Pokemon. They could be jolly, Wrathful, Prideful, Slothful, and even Charitable on occasion.

Pride was just a profile that they more often than not fit into.

Still, there had to be times when he could relax, and allowing himself and his team of pokemon time was even recommended. Golden week, therefore, as one of the times that the governance of the League was shut down, was the perfect time to step away.

He did some light training with his pokemon but otherwise, let them relax.

Most chose to spend time in the Dragon Grotto with the Dratini and Gyarados that made up the underground water reserve. Some, like Charizard, enjoyed a flight to the Charific Valley. Salamance merely enjoyed taking to the skies and staying aloft, its young dreams of soaring the skies being something it almost always sought out when given the chance.

Some, however, chose to relax with him which made for a much more enjoyable time off. Usually, it would have only been his Dragonite, but with the recent growth of his Hoenn-born pokemon he’d had some new inclusions.

Dragonite was the stalwart, his starter who loved to spend time with him and Lance enjoyed getting time to just ‘hang out’ as it were.

Altaria was the first to make her presence known, which at first had been an annoyance. Annoyance that had quickly morphed into convenience when Lance had tried to push her off the couch with a playful shove only to sink into her fluffy cloud-like feathers.

It had taken him all of a second to throw his face into his pokemon’s cloud-like body and melt with bliss.

The realisation of just how soft and blissful Altaria’s body was had seen some changes in Lance’s life.

He’d traded out his old couch and got it extended so that Altaria could comfortably sit in the middle, while Lance and Dragonite sat on either sides, enjoying her feathery goodness.

Lance had also purchased a set of Altaria feather pillows for his bed.

He’d heard of Altaria pillows and bedding before, but he’d always assumed it was part of Hoenn’s hype campaign around the pokemon. Nothing could be that soft, right?

In this, Lance was happy to be proven wrong and to learn that the hype, was very much not overrated.

Since then, Lance dared to say that his sleep was much better than normal. Sadly, it wasn’t perfect but any leader in a government position is said to never have a perfect night’s sleep.

Apart from Steven Stone.

Lance still wasn’t sure how the man managed it. Perhaps it was because he didn’t have to negotiate land boundaries with Fiore or handle the aftermath of a criminal organisation’s extraction from society.

There might also be the fact that instead of a super region as Indigo was referred to by outsiders, Steven only had to handle one region with all the complexities it entailed. He only had one set of Gyms to co-ordinate.

Steven Stone didn’t have to put his holiday on pause so that he could address the ongoing issue of missing Gym Leaders while trying to handle the absolute clusterfuck that was Brock suggesting Kaede and Bruce would both be good Gym Leaders!

Steven Stone didn’t have to have an answer for what would happen with the Viridian and Cinnabar Gym by the end of the week!

The Neon City Gym was sadly not up to par without Team Rocket’s support, so that minor Gym would need to be shut down and moved once more but it was not a significant loss.

Steven Stone certainly didn’t have to give a speech at the end of the week about the inclusion of Fiore and the newly formed Battle Frontier which was to be opening up at the end of the season.

There would be some stress testing required with select Ace trainers being invited to challenge the Frontiers. Lance knew that there would be quite a lot of attention drawn to them once it was known that two of the trainers were able to call upon Legendary pokemon to fight with them.

Or perhaps Lance was just being petty.

He rolled that he was positioned in a new, slightly cooler patch of Altaria’s wing, drawing the bird-like dragon’s attention. She leaned in and preened his hair with a gentle nuzzle eliciting a chuckle from Lance.

“Gon?” said Flygon, the final inclusion to his home. The ground dragon hopped from where it had been perched to just behind the couch to inspect what was happening.

Lance gave it an indolent smile. “Just relaxing Flygon, nothing to worry about,” he said casually.

Flygon nodded only for a noise from the television to have the twitchy pokemon snapping its head up and watching.

Flygon, was an interesting inclusion in that it was much more skittish than the other dragons. Most once they achieve their final evolution become more relaxed, almost at home with themselves after a period of familiarisation.

For Flygon, he became more anxious. Lance had considered the issue for a while and come to the conclusion that the evolution from Trapinch to Vibrava had changed Flygon’s eyes enough that the way it perceived the world had changed.

There had also been the realisation that Trapinich were pokemon that worked as large family units or ‘colonies’. So the issue might have actually been present from day one but Lance hadn’t been aware of it due to Trapinich’s… muted emotional state and ability to convey its emotions at its first stage of evolution.

So he needed more trapinich, or their evolutions.

Which sadly wasn’t possible as the trade deal Lance had made had meant he wouldn’t be able to get more than one Trapinich.

He’d need to trade some more pokemon, spend some serious cash, or breed up his Flygon… or, as was the potential stop-gap method, make the team into Flygon’s ‘colony’ which meant they spent a good deal of time together with activities and even going flying.

Which worked during the regular week but Golden Week, when the structure of the schedule shifting meant that his Flygon was always slightly anxious and needed to be coddled.

The elders would have a field day if they learnt of this, but Lance made sure to keep it private. Not even Claire knew about what he did for Flygon.

Lance was rather thankful for the documentation that he’d been able to collect from Giovanni’s Gym for Flygon’s development. Specific dietary boosters and training methods for stronger ground attacks had certainly made a difference in boosting Flygon into Lance’s Elite team.

Sadly, it didn’t close up his new issues with Fairy-type pokemon.

He needed to look through the records once more. Perhaps there was a move or a style he could use that allowed for more steel-type moves than just Iron Tail. Sadly he hadn’t found any poison-type moves that he could implement for his team.

It seemed he was going to have to continue to rely on his Elite Four… or rather rely on his Elite Three. Once Agatha was gone there was going to be a space in his roster. Which meant it would be up to Lorelei…, Bruno… and Koga.

Why was it that out of all three, he could put most of his faith in the ninja?

The irony of trusting a person known for subterfuge was not lost on him.

Sadly, Brock as perhaps the foremost expert on fairy type in the fighting arena, wasn’t interested in elevating himself to Elite Four status. Lance liked to think that Brock had seen how thankless the work was and said no thanks.

Lance reached towards the ceiling with his hand outstretched. What he really needed was a poison-dragon type or a steel dragon-type pokemon that could join his team and offer him more protection.

Sadly, he didn’t think a new region or their dragon-type pokemon were going to fall into his lap any time soon.

“Gon!” squeaked Flygon as Lanc’es transceiver started to buzz.

“Calm down, it’s just a video call coming through,” Lance said, sitting up and snatching his transceiver before positioning it so that only he showed up in the transmission. Altaria’s body next to him would just look like a giant cushion and nothing more.

A small smile formed as he caught sight of the caller.

Brock? Must want to talk after his victory against Karen. It was a good fight and if I can’t have Brock, Karen would make a wonderful second choice… honestly so would Kaede.

Bruce… Bruce would never be able to be a member of the Elite Four. There was no way that Lance was going to repeat the mistakes that Pryce made by assigning Lorelei to the Elite Four.

Too many of one type merely made for a weaker, more vulnerable Elite Four.

Still, it was annoying that Bruce’s plans had been smothered with his defeat, only for them to be reignited thanks to Brock.

Brock had been right in that the League needed more Gym Leaders right now, it was just a shame that he was handballing a flashing voltorb Lance’s way with his backing Bruce. The Clan were not happy, but Lance was planning to leave that to next week.

Despite all the issues that Brock had caused for him, Lance answered the call with a smile.

When he answered, he met Brock with a friendly smile, making sure not to show any teeth or squint too much. “Brock! Good morning and congratulations on your victory!” he said. It had been fun to watch and a good diversion. It had also kept him well aware of the political Voltorbs Brock was dropping in his post-match interviews.

“Hi, thanks Lance!” Brock said with an oddly loud voice.

Lance quickly checked to make sure his volume was set appropriately as Flygon flinched due to Brock’s booming voice. Flygon adopted a crouched position signalling it was once more ready to fight or fly away.

Lance waved for Flygon to relax and Dragonite moved to help his fellow pokemon.

Brock’s face shifted until it was almost as serious as the time he’d called Lance out with his challenge a day before their exhibition match last year.

Instantly, Lance sat up, wondering what was wrong.

“Sorry about this buddy, but… we need to talk,” I said.

Lance’s expression blanched at hearing that turn of phrase and his hands twitched.

Was Brock going to announce that he would be challenging him and making a run for the Champion position?

He would have the Public’s support as with Brock as Champion Lance would have no doubt that Sabrina would join him.

They’d be more than just the ‘power-couple’ of Kanto! They’d become the King and Queen of Indigo in all but name!

Brock would probably want Bruno gone though so perhaps Lance would get to keep his elite status as one of the Elite Four. Perhaps third in the roster after Koga?

Dragonite, Flygon and Altaria all looked towards him worriedly and Lance coughed. “Ah, apologies, Brock, go on,” he said slowly.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“We need to talk about Kaede and an incident that happened before your time as Champion, so this… will probably involve Pryce at some point as well,” Brock said and Lance’s mind snapped back from hypothetical situations to what was being said.

“Not during my tenure?” Lance asked, cocking his head to the side.

Could this be something easily dealt with by passing the buck to something the previous administration didn’t handle? It wasn’t a pretty thinking to do but sometimes it was necessary in the political arena to limit where you put your efforts.

Brock shook his head. “I’m doing a poor job of this, let me read you in from the start,” he said.

“So Kaede is an orphan that was raised in the Blackthorn City orphanage,” Brock said and Lance grimaced.

That particular facility… hadn't had the best track record for a few years. When Lance had reviewed the system he’d been ashamed to see his own hometown had the second worst orphanage in Indigo with only Dark City in Kanto being worse and that was because Dark City was basically a ghost town.

He’d fixed it of course but… well there was certainly a lingering stain on Blackthorn for having such an establishment that had been so… lacking.

“That can’t have been good for her. I will make—” Lance began to say only for Brock to hold up his hand and stop him.

“I wish it was just talking about. She got placed in the orphanage due to situations surrounding her mother’s situation so… sit tight please?”

Lance nodded and Brock sighed before restarting. “She was born in a place called Eggseter Town—”

From there Lance sat and listened.

At more than a few points he wanted to scoff and wave things off, but there was a part of him, the part that had made him want to be come Champion of Indigo in the first place that wondered if there wasn’t an injustice being done against her.

It was hard to even attempt impartiality for this. This… this affected his family in more ways than one.

The internal politics of there potentially being a cousin that, instead of being celebrate,d was besmirched and all but cast out. That there was effectively a hit placed on her family. That the pokemon she’d been raising had been stolen and then gifted on.

It made him sit on his outrage and familial loyalty.

Perhaps the worst part of it all was… that a not-insignificant part of him thought it could be true. That some of his family, for all that they played at being upright and noble dragons, were in fact no better than ekans waiting in the grass to strike.

When Brock was done he was divided.

If he was merely a member of the Blackthorn Clan he would seek to suppress this. He’d need to have Kaede bought off so as to not tar the good name of the clan.But in a way Kaede was also part of the family, albeit one that had not been formally acknowledged.

That was if her story was true.

As the Champion, and a man who sought justice and protection for all, he had to take a step back.

Lance stared down at his hands and wondered, perhaps for the first time if it wouldn’t be better for someone like Brock to take over the role of leading Indigo. Arceus knows, surely his family drama couldn’t be as convoluted as this!

Lance laced his fingers together and hung his head. “I… am not a sound judge for a case such as this,” he said out loud, trying and failing to ignore the pang that came with essentially betraying his Clan.

No, that wasn’t right.

That was simply the staunch, naive child who thought his clan could do no wrong. They could, and in this case, very likely have done wrong at some level. What that was still had to be determined but… there was more to this than there could have been.

It wasn’t betrayal if he was apprehending people who caused the damage. He wasn’t at fault! It was the Elders the ones that had committed this crime in the first place!

Lance considered who else he needed to contact. Pryce as a given, Kaede of course to give her testimony, along with Bruce for who it was that gave him his starter pokemon.

Urgh, that would be a thorny issue to untangle.

There was no way Bruce would accept that his pokemon had been stolen from its rightful owners.

“Leave this with me Brock, I will be talking to Pryce, Kaede, Bruce,... and perhaps Detective Looker to help out with this.”

“Ah, thanks, and sorry for dumping this in your lap,” Brock said apologetically.

“It is better than having it announced in the manner Kaede was considering,” said Sabrina and Lance snapped his head up. He hadn’t even realised she was on the call! He spotted her leaning around Brock, a towel wrapped around her head while she wore casual clothing.

Ah, they had been celebrating, hadn’t they?

Lance felt a blush flourish on his face. “I’ll let you get back to your time off I’ll handle this,” said Lance as he signed off as quickly as he could.

When the screen went blank Lance was left with a list of chores and a hot feeling across his cheeks. In front of him, Dragonite and Flygon snickered while Altaria trilled at them in admonishment. She then crooned and rubbed her head against his to show she didn’t mind that he didn’t have a partner.

That just made it worse. Lance put his head in his hands. How long… He’d never had a partner, not a serious one since becoming Champion. There had been dates, and appearances with some rather fetching women but that was what was expected of him. They were dates but Lance couldn’t call them actual relationships.

Ah, damn, it had been years since he’d had a girlfriend.

Not since his days as a Ranger.

It sadly wasn’t something he could pursue these days. It was lonely some days as Champion, but he could probably try and emulate Brock and Sabrina. He just needed to find the right woman.

Sadly Lance had requirements of them. A strong pokemon trainer was a given. They needed to be able to understand what he was going through. What challenges and hardships he had with raising and maintaining his team.

Perhaps one of the Gym Leaders? Sabrina was of course not an option.

Which left… Erika… the Cerulean sisters, Sophia, Danica Nightfall, and… Clair.

Which… well he really didn’t want to consider that as she was his cousin and while past Clan marriages had encouraged such antics…

No, just no.

Although there were also the new hires with the Frontier Brains. Lucy, Greta, and Anabel? Hmm that did open up his options a touch.

There was also … no. Lorelei wasn’t an option. He shook his head. He’d talk to Clair about a date before he talked with Lorelei. Just… no.

Lance plucked up his transceiver to make the next series of calls that were undoubtedly going to cause another incident.

He couldn’t help but click his tongue.

Steven Stone wouldn’t have to deal with this.

Probably because he could just fire his advisors if they messed up like this.

Lucky bastard.

Lance made the call to Prcye first. He’d take point on this. Kaede… well Lance was probably going to have to prepare a blank cheque for the young woman if this all worked out for her.

Heh, only this time he was going to make sure the Elders were the ones to feel the pinch.

Hmmm and just like that, Lance thought, I’m feeling so much better about this.

[/hr]

Karen threw back her glass of shuckle wine, she didn’t drink it immediately, instead, she swirled it around in her mouth; she let the sweet flavours fill every nook and cranny before she swallowed.

“Ahhhh, that’s some good shit!” she said holding up her glass.

Across from her, Tony sniffed, his glass of wine looked like that of a child’s cup in his giant hand. “There will be a lot we can work with from this tournament,” he said, once more forcing a conversation that Karen didn’t want to have right now.

“Can’t I just wallow in defeat for a moment?” she whined.

“No,” said Tony, his voice rumbling out of him.

“Y-yes?” said Annabelle quietly.

“Nah, you need to woman up,” said Molly.

Karen held back a scowl, her eyes darting to the odd woman out. Annabelle used to be a lot more confident. Nowadays, she was like one of Erika’s little neophytes, a shrinking violet and wallflower!

Ever since the Guardians had explored New Island Annabelle had changed.

It was all due to that injury she’d sustained fighting Team Aqua. Unlike Team Rocket who’d been criminals, all of Team Aqua was made up of people who had served or at the very least trained like they were in a fighting force.

Karen set her glass down, deciding she didn’t want to draw attention to Annabelle and instead played up her childish tone. “Waaah! I’ve got it rough with my own support crew these days!” she said, throwing up her hands before flopping down on the table and hiding her eyes..

When no one said anything, she took a peek to see their reactions to her messing around.

When she only got a flat look in response from the giant man she sat up and huffed while rolling her eyes. “Urgh! Fine! Tony!” she barked, snapping her fingers towards the man.

“Let’s start with the good side of things! Tell me people love me more right?” she said as she reached for another glass of the good stuff.

“People think you’re a loser,” said Tony without a lick of hesitation. Karen twitched in surprise which caused her to mistime her grab of the bottle. It wobbled precariously, and Molly snatched it up.

“I think you’ve had enough. You know how hard it is to get some of this with Agatha sniffing around,” said Molly.

Karen clicked her tongue, annoyed that Molly was talking sense. Damn old hag, she hadn’t guarded her liquor cabinet when Karen was younger but now it was a problem? Urgh! Karen waved her hand for Molly to take the bottle, not wanting to waste any of the precious contraband.

She instead gave Tony a dangerous look. “Care to repeat what you said earlier?”

Tony stared her down. “They know that you lost to Brock first and foremost.”

Karen ground her teeth in annoyance. “Not what I was looking for!” she growled. “I wanted to hear about how they liked my shift with him! Otherwise, what was the point in playing nice?”

Tony crossed his arms. “You know that people noticed your much more personable approach with Brock. They even enjoyed your banter, but your previous actions are not forgotten. We need to keep that in mind. You’ve been too rough in the past.” Tony said firmly.

He then pointed right at his chest before shifting to tap at his head. “It is what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. We might be friends with you paying me to look after your image, but I know you, Karen.”

He wagged a finger back and forth. “No wallowing in your pity party. You’ll come out of it eventually, I know, but spare us the days of angst and let's get to the part where you make a plan to become stronger, like you did after Annabelle got hurt,” he said.

Annabelle blinked. “What do you mean?” she asked, looking from Tony to Karen. Even Molly looked surprised.

Karen scowled. “That wasn’t what it was about!” she snapped.

Tony gave her a look that screamed ‘bitch please’. “Whatever it was you fought that hurt Annabelle—” he held up a hand to forestall anything Karen or Annabelle might have said.

“I don’t need to know what or who you fought,” he said calmly. “What my point is about was that you were more motivated to grow that day than you have been in months! You got all the way to the final before falling short. Now you’re trying to have your pity party, like you did back then. I’m just speeding things along is all!”

He coughed. “So, we need a new training space, or would it be possible to go back into the wilds like you did last time?”

Karen clicked her tongue. “I could go back to Cianwood but I don’t think it’s going to help out as much as it did. The returns aren’t going to be as good,” she said.

And they had been good.

She’d spent practically a week scouring the lands to the west of Cianwood. The area, which would become route forty-seven and forty-eight once developed, was still wild. It was so wild in fact that only the Rangers and the local Gym Leader, Chuck ventured into the area.

The thing that had drawn Karen in was a set of reports. One was something Brock had put together surmising that Megastones could be found in regions with high populations of a specific type of pokemon.

That had led Karen to investigate the region after discovering a report from Chuck, the Gym Leader of Cianwood detailing the high concentration of Houndour and Houndoom. A concentration that wasn’t moving or known to be migratory.

So she’d decided to test Brock’s theory about Megastones.

This had led to her trudging through the wilds with her pokemon fighting pokemon that rarely saw people and were thus much more aggressive.

Houndoom, Crawdaunt and even Sharpedo had all come in clutch with the latter two bullying the pack so much that Karen had been able to live among them without issue after a few days of them trying to assault her.

A pecking order with her at the top had quickly formed thanks to their efforts but both pokemon had still gotten a serious workout.

Karen had spent almost a week tramping aorund the various haunts of the dog-dark type. She’d quested to their dens, their hunting grounds and even their mountain tops where they liked to holw to let other pokemon know they were the alpha predator of the area.

It was in this last location that she’d stumbled on a rainbow-like rock that also housed a keystone.

On the way back, she’d made another run at Chuck, only this time she’d done it on the down-low, without actually registering the fight.

She’d wanted to see how much she’d grown and the results were fairly staggering, but that was also to be expected with her having used baby gloves last time. Now she ripped through Chuck’s best despite the man’s efforts.

Annoyingly, the man had just laughed off the defeat and wished her well.

Damn, jolly fighting types. They were always the worst to fight as even if you beat them, they were still running on a high from the mere aspect of combat.

Still, Tony’s idea wasn’t a terrible one. She needed another area to grow strong. She’d need somewhere with stronger, wild pokemon…

“I need to go to the Silver Ranges,” she said as something clicked together. The Silver Ranges were perfect for fighting stronger pokemon, even better there was a chance she could… well, not find a site that Absol liked to congregate, as they were known as loners, but she could still look around.

Another thought occurred to her, and the more she thought about it the more the smirk on her face grew until a cackle that had her shadow writing around beneath her sounded out.

Molly, Annabelle and Tony all leaned back. “Uhmmm Karen?” Molly asked hesitantly.

Karen held back her mirth. Brock had been right, Gym Leaders were too busy to reap the real benefits of what was going on around the League these days, and he wasn’t immune to this. “Imagine if I could get myself a Tyranitar,” she said.

The others perked up at this. Tony rubbed his chin while Molly bounced in excitement at the idea.

Annabelle coughed. “Won’t… that sort of feed into Brock’s style? People will think you… well never mind,” she said.

Karen wanted to snap a little but held herself back. “Nah, Brock doesn’t own a license to the entire species, I’ll hunt around to get myself a Pupitar or something, maybe even just a straight-out Tyranitar? Who knows I might get two or three like Brock,” she said with a smirk.

“It’s not like it’s hard to find an alpha pokemon normally,” she said with a smirk. “They come to you.” And if she was really lucky, she might even beat Brock to find a Tyranitarite. Heh, wouldn’t that be neat to hold over his head!

She found herself liking this idea more and more.

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that for a week, then I’m coming back and going hard at the Ace scene cause I need to get more of an edge or find a new angle,” she said, rousing as she started to put together a plan to achieve her dream.

“Like different moves? Or using your non-dark types?” suggested Annabelle delicately.

Karen nodded, making sure to boost Annabelle’s confidence. It helped that it was a good suggestion.

“Any thoughts on running a Gym?” asked Molly. “It sounds like Kaede and Bruce are going to try for it.”

Karen shook her head. “Nah, they don’t have a good enough idea what’s coming their way. It’s a trap,” she said. “They’ll falter and might not even make it into the final tournament which will let me clean up and make a stronger run when I try for Elite Four status. Might even take the number one spot from Koga,” said Karen.

Karen paused as a shadow flitted over the wall. She gave it a pointed stare before nodding. The shadow lingered for a moment before nodding back and vanishing.

Tony, Annabelle and Molly all shivered. “Brrr, did you all feel that?” said Molly glancing down. “Was Gengar messing with us again?” she asked.

Karen snorted. “Nah, he wasn’t,” she said. It would blow their little minds if they knew that Agatha had just ‘stepped in’ to check on her. Karen allowed herself a smile.

Damn old hag, still checking up on her. She was going to enjoy watching Agatha tangle with Brock next week. Old bat might even enact some vengeance on her behalf.

Or she’d lose. Karen had an odd pang in her chest, unsure which result she’d prefer before she shoved it aside. She had to make plans, not wallow in useless emotions. Wallowing might be good for Dark type energies but there was no need right now.

Karen let herself lean back as Tony put up some images he’d gathered from her run through the tournament. All of them were great shots and would go great on her pokenet page.

The girls started making their own suggestions which only grew when Karen opened her emails to find several businesses looking to sponsor her. This… this opened up possibilities.

Hmmmm, she might have lost this fight, but she was far from done.

She’d be back, stronger than before and twice as strong.