Hard Enough

“I’VE FAILED YOU!” wailed Celia over the video.

I could only stare back and chant one thought over and over in repeat. Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh. She didn’t mean to quote that silly Dexter cartoon from your childhood.

“I’M SOOOOO SORRRRRYYYY!” She continued, unaware that I found her hysterics amusing. She certainly wouldn’t find it funny if I said as much. I opened my mouth to remind her how proud I was, only for her to continue shouting self-castigations. “I should have sent out Lizzie earlier and swept the field! I should have evolved my Wartortle before reaching the League! I should have used some field effects of my own! I didn’t prepare enough!”

“CELIA!” I eventually shouted over the top of her. That got her to quieten down. She stared at me in a mix of fear and some other indecipherable emotion.

“I’m sorry I talked too much. I’m a waste of a trainer!” she said.

“Celia, don’t you dare hang up on me or I will fly up to the Plateau right this moment! Don’t see if I won’t, young lady!” I promised, channeling my best big brother voice.

It was super effective as she remained on the line and watched me like a small frightened animal. “...sorry,” she murmured, shrinking in on herself.

I huffed. “Celia…” I said. “You did incredibly well. Not many trainers in their first year make it out of the group stages, let alone advance through the knock out matches to make it into the top eight of the tournament. That other trainer was also seeded second for this tournament, and has a team that possesses way more tournaments and years of training under their belt.” I grinned at her.

“Your problem isn’t that you didn’t go far enough, it's that you’ve forgotten how far you’ve come from.”

“W-what d-d-do you mean?” She asked with a hiccup.

“Celia, let’s rewind to what you were doing for yourself precisely one year ago? You weren’t a sponsored trainer yet. What would you have been doing?”

“I was researching your sponsorship tournament…” She said quietly.

“Exactly. You didn’t get to start training with Lizzie until two weeks before the circuit started, where you had to build up trust and work with her. Since then you’ve travelled all over Kanto, made a ton of friends, won a lot of battles, and grown up wonderfully.”

“B-but I didn’t win!”

“And that’s not a problem. You’re learning, and it’s never guaranteed like people might presume.”

“I just wanted to make everyone proud,” she said while looking down at the floor. Her bangs hid her eyes but reflected the small tear tracks on her cheeks.

“Everyone is proud of you, Celia. You’re putting too much weight on your shoulders. There’s probably going to be a parade for you when you get back. You may even have to make a speech to inspire the orphans. Everyone knows your name more than they did two weeks ago.” I chuckled. “But don’t live your life for other people’s praise, find your own reason that works for you, alright?”

I propped my chin up and leaned on it lazily. “Did you think you were going to go all the way when you started out last year? What were your goals? Do you remember them?” She chewed her lip and frowned to the side. I hummed and leaned over to a folder detailing Celia’s training record that I’d created. On the first page, in her own messy scrawl, her goal was written down.

“Remember this?” I turned it around so she could read her own goal. “It’s been a while since you set them.”

“I wanted t…to... To make ten friends… and, make Lizzie strong… and earn all eight badges…”

“This last one was written after you tried against Sabrina. Remember how badly she beat your team back then? But you wrote it down and were determined, ‘cause it meant Lizzie wouldn’t be weak.”

I tapped a finger on the first goal. “You’ve made a ton of new friends this last year. Both with pokemon and people. Heck, you organised the Pewter trainers so well the organisers thought I had been running a boot camp. You kept working on this goal right up until now! The number of friends you had in the last week alone has probably skyrocketed!”

She nodded, a small smile appearing for just a moment. I let my finger slide down to the second goal.

“Make Lizzie strong. Lizzie is a powerful, fully evolved Nidoqueen now. You asked me three times how to evolve her and I held you back twice until you displayed more depth and understanding of how Lizzie would change with her evolution. When I told you about the method you didn’t run off and force it, but made sure Lizzie was ready. You worked with her and set a goal with and for your starter. That’s a great sign.”

“Do I need to mention this last one?” I tapped the ‘collect eight badges’. She shook her head and giggled to herself. “You made it to the top eight in the Indigo region, Celia. You didn’t fail me, or anyone, or your pokemon, and especially not yourself. You’ve done fantastically.”

She sniffled and wiped at her eyes. “I’m kind of being ridiculous, aren’t I?”

“No, not at all.” I shifted in my seat, gathering my words. “You’re caught up in the first loss that has meant something in quite a while. These sting, ‘cause you think you’re used to handling loss, but those losses didn’t hold the same meaning. Just like you remember your first official loss, you also remember these significant losses. You’ve been on a real streak, so this might be worse for you.”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

I flipped through her rather dense folder and selected a page that showed her League sheet as reported to the public. “You have a seventy-four percent win ratio Celia. That’s huge. If you wanted to, next year, you wouldn’t need to rely on my sponsorship.”

Her breath hitched. I raised a hand to stop her from jumping to a bad conclusion. “I’d like to extend the sponsorship to you once more, but I thought I might point out that you don’t need to just rely on me. You’ve built up a very, very, tidy nest egg, and you have a lot more options. I imagine there’s going to be a lot of corporations asking for a private word when you’re out and about so get ready for that.” I prompted her with the hand again.

She loyally stayed silent.

“I just wanted to highlight that you had options. I’d like you to stay, but you should definitely talk with some people, and consider their offers. Enjoy the Plateau. Think about what you want, we can discuss more later. Today was rough with your loss, and that always sucks. But at the end of the day, it won’t matter too much. You did fantastically and you don’t need to be sad because you think you let us down. You could never let us down.”

The sound of small feet running up the hall towards my office had me smiling. “Ready for your fans?”

“Huh?” Celia said just as the door to my office creaked open. Three heads peeked around and I waved for them to approach. Salvadore, Tilly, and Billy all bundled in, only to have the rest of my family follow them in. Tilly claimed my lap and waved at Celia.

“Silly! You did great!” “Yeah! You were amazing!” “Your pokemon were so cool!” “You looked good on tv!” said my family all over each other. Celia laughed and wiped the last of her tears away and began talking with them.

There was a small chance that Celia might find an enticing deal or sponsorship from someone else, but I doubted it. Even if she had a better deal she’d probably stick with Pewter just because of how I gave her the start into the circuit.

She really had come a long way from being a small orphan of Pewter City.

Eventually, Celia was found by her friends on her side of the call and she had to beg off as they dragged her out to start the night’s celebrations. I had the opposite problem, with the night supposed to be ending for most of my little brothers and sisters.

“Rawr! I’m a Nidoking!” roared Billy towards Tilly only for her to push him back.

“I’m a Machamp! Guoh!” They then proceeded to push each other around in a play fight. Suzie and Timmy sprinted off towards another part of the house, and I sighed to myself.

I gave the clock a glance. Then I chuckled. It wasn’t a school night. I stepped up to the tousling twins who paused as I loomed over them.”I’m a Tyranitar! RAAAAAAAAA!” I said loudly.

Both of the twins shrieked and ran for it. I turned on the still lingering little brothers and sisters. “I’ll gobble you all up!”

Yolanda giggled and ran for it, joining in while Salvadore blinked and looked to Forrest who scoffed. I grabbed him and spun him around before charging into the lounge room. I tossed him down into the cushions before pointing down at his unamused face.

“PUNY HUMAN!”

His face shifted from unamused to annoyed at being called puny. He threw himself into a tackle only for a pillow I had snatched up to whip around and club him. Yolanda peeked in, to laugh at our antics. She eventually joined in on my side to swat at Forrest. When he fell over she betrayed me without a moment’s hesitation.

“Raaaaa! I am too strong for your puny blows to hurt me!” I roared through her hits.

She stepped back with a determined glint in her eyes before undulating a warrior’s cry and tossing multiple pillows at my face before shoving herself into my midriff. I stood against her, and grabbed her around her own stomach before lifting her up.

Then I spun around. And around again.

“Brock! No! I’m going to be sick!” She panicked. Her shouts and my laughs served to draw in the rest of the family that had hidden away. The two sets of twins peeked in and found Forrest swatting at me as I spun Yolanda around. Salvadore stood nearby laughing at our antics.

They charged into the fray thinking it was great fun.

Eventually, I was toppled with the combined might of Tilly, Yolanda, Suzie and Cindy, much to Suzie’s delight. While I was ‘down and out’, she began weaving ribbons into my hair. I lay still and allowed it while the other kids bounced around like wild children of a lost tribe, rather than my normally calm little brothers and sisters. When Suzie was done she patted me on the head.

“Good boy!” She said before gesturing for me to rise. I stood up, planted my feet and put my hands on my hips in an authoritative pose.

“Alright, you children! No more play! There is only time for bath and bed now!”

I only got laughter and jeers like I had expected. I grinned at them knowing that I had other tricks up my sleeve. “Oh? No bath! No ice cream!”

There was a sudden rush to the bath at that, with Munchlax appearing in the bath before anyone else. He got a little shower cap for his troubles. Timmy watched on and nodded.”He’s sticky!”

“I think you mean stinky, Tim,” I said as I lathered up the hairy little stomach on legs.

“Munch!” He said as Suzie began to play patty cake with him. I kept an eye on the youngest twins as they lounged in the bath.

“Magikarp!” “Goldeen!” They both said to each other; continuing their earlier game but much more passively now that they’d burnt off their energy.

“Time to hop out and dry off!” I announced as I washed Munchlax off with a shower hose. “Cindy, think you can use the hairdryer on Munchlax?”

“Sure!” said Cindy. Suzie stayed close to ‘help’.

“You missed a spot! No, here! No, there!” said Suzie.

I dumped a towel on her before she could annoy Cindy any further. When all of the youngest were cleaned up, I led them back out of the bathroom and into the kitchen where temporary peace awaited me. For the next five minutes the only sound was the clinking of bowls and Munchlax begging for just one more scoop.

I hummed and shared a bit of my ice cream with him. Instead of indulging in the ice cream myself, I watched my family. When I put them to bed I ended up having to read at least four story books, but that wasn’t an issue. Cindy and Tommy had put themselves to bed but I made sure to swing around and tuck them in. Then I checked in on Salvadore to find him reading a textbook.

“Twenty more minutes, then go to bed Sal,” I declared from his door.

“Kay!” He said, his eyes not lifting from his book.

I found Yolanda checking in on Forrest and his egg. When she was happy with it she bid both myself and Forrest good night. I patted her head when she walked past me.

Forrest played with the incubator for a little, shifting it about minutely before leaving it be. I didn’t say anything but I kept catching a complicated expression when he looked at it. “Hey, everything alright?” I interrupted.

“Yeah, just… it’s nothing.”

“You sure? If it’s bothering you it's not nothing.” In reply Forrest just shook his head.

“It’s nothing, night Brock.”

“Night,” I said. I left him be for the moment but I certainly wouldn’t forget that something was bugging him. For now, I’d let the issue rest. I’d deal with it when it came time. For today, things had gone well enough.

I went to bed that night with a lightness that made sleep come easily.

“Good morning… is it Miss or Mrs?” I said to the older woman. She smiled gently at me and tucked an errant lock of blue hair behind her ear.

“Miss Glass, but please just call me Georgina. How should I address you, Gym leader?”

“Brock’s fine,” I said, waving her off. I glanced to the side to find a shrunken down version of the woman only instead of her loose bun of hair, this girl had two pigtails that draped over her shoulders. She didn’t have anything else of note, but my mind leapt across a gap and added a missing yellow cap on her head and stuck up her hair in a cartoonish method that some hairstylists were renowned for.

I knew this girl… or at least I had known her… vaguely.

“And this is your daughter?”

“Yes! This is Crystal!” Georgina said, putting her hands around her daughter and smiling beatifically.

Crystal grinned at me. “You can refer to me as Lord Kris!”

“Crystal!” said Georgina. “I’m sorry about her. She thinks she’s a little comedian, but she isn’t funny!” She growled at her daughter. A tinkling laugh caught our group’s attention.

Yolanda leaned out of the front door. “I thought it was pretty funny?”

“Heh! See Mum? You’re just old!”

“Young lady, if you think acting like this is going to help your cause for that bicycle, you are sadly mistaken.” Crystal just huffed before marching over to Yolanda. “Call me Kris.”

“Yolanda, want to come see the pokemon?” Yolanda asked, opening the door. I coughed and jerked my head towards her mother, an obvious prompt to Yolanda. “If that’s alright with you Miss Glass?”

“Please Mum!” Instantly all traces of rebellion vanished from Crystal as she turned watery eyes to her mother, her hands collapsed together.

Georgina stared at her for a long moment, until Crystal began to fidget. “Very well but don’t make a nuisance of yourself.”

“Sweet! Lead the way!” said Crystal. I watched the girls run off to the back of the gym before gesturing in another direction.

“Shall we?”

“Yes! Please, lead the way.” I led her to the office and made some idle conversation. “I was able to review the information you sent me, and I can only assume you have been using accounting software for your Gym's needs?”

“Yes, it seems to have been enough for me.”

“I find it handles most nuisances but with the audit, you also need to have everything sorted. One aspect that stood out to me, from the questionnaire you filled out, is that you don’t have separate legal entities for the gym and yourself. I believe you need to create a degree of separation.”

I scratched my head bemused at how that had played out. “I hadn’t been expecting you to send me a questionnaire when I sent a message that I’d be interested in having a talk about potentially hiring you.”

Georgina gave me an amused smile. “you will find there’s more to accounting than just making sure numbers add up or divide properly.”

“Huh, is that something you learnt from your work in the bank?” I asked, recalling her resume. Her document had been very professional and no-nonsense but she boasted a number of different experiences.

“Any interesting stories from being a bank clerk?” I asked, assuming it would be rather tame but deciding to avoid diving straight into what was to come.

“Oh, one time Team Rocket robbed us. That was rather terrifying as they had to fight their way out with the police appearing. I think they lost most of the money when the bank’s security team also started to arrive from other parts of Kanto. It was rather scary, all told, but then we had to go through a long round of interviews to make sure there wasn’t any inside assistance.” Georgina leaned in. “Turned out there was! They had some new hires replaced!”

“Huh, that’s something…” I then stopped and eyed her. “Would you think less of me if I asked you for some identification right about now?” I joked, mostly in jest. Georgina merely laughed and showed me her valid trainer permit which entitled her to have six pokemon, along with her driver’s license. I eyed the second one. “Don’t see these often. Go driving much?”

“I might own a sports car that I take out to the track,” she said with a quiver that seemed to energise her.

I nodded at that unexpected affirmation. “You like cars?”

“I like going fast! I had a hard time with slower pokemon when I was a trainer since I always wanted to be running places or flying! I had a Rapidash, Dodrio, Pidgeot and a Fearow!”

“You got rid of them?”

“Oh! No sorry, they’re all a little old now. I rent a spot at the ranch for them to live out their twilight years. They’re only good for taking Crystal on little adventures now.”

I opened the door to the office and gestured to my seat behind the desk. I stood behind the chair and adjusted the screen. “Alright so, Lawrence recommended you to look over my books and see if there were any irregularities. He also suggested I might look into hiring you on a more permanent basis, due to the gym getting more hires instead of sending information out quarterly like I have been.”

She raised a hand to the computer. “May I?”

I leaned in, hitting enter on the keyboard before tapping the screen. Georgina gave me a confused look. It was obvious that this wasn’t a touch screen so my tapping on the screen shouldn’t have done anything. She got the answer to her unasked question when a Porygon zipped onto it. It glanced at me with a digital eye before squawking. It promptly broke apart and vanished over the screen. “Alright, you’re good now. Go right ahead.”

“You have Porygon cyber-security?” Georgina asked as she clicked open the spreadsheet. Her eyes began to flick through them and suddenly she was working the mouse as hard as a professional Korean gamer. Numbers began to float through as she selected panels and tracked invoices. “Where are the invoices? Is this the complete set of books?” She asked casually.

I directed her to the scanned or emailed documents. Then I pulled out two folders that had some documents that had yet to be scanned in for the end of the quarter but that had been accounted for in the spreadsheet.

“That’s all of the accounting information. We haven’t had to do anything but pay expenses since the closure of the circuit.”

She nodded and tapped at a few numbers asking the occasional question.

“Are your accounts in accordance with accepted IGAAP?” That drew a blank stare from me which caused her to huff and make a mark on a notebook. I shifted in my seat. Had Sabrina mentioned that the other day at the cafe?

Georgina clicked through the accounting software. “... Yes…your software is up to date. So if this has been used correctly you should have been compliant.”

More questions followed on from there such as “This is how much you charge for the basic challenge?” and “Where do you keep your pay… ah I see it, yes you pay weekly with holiday allowance set aside.”

She worked through the spreadsheet and teased at it until she had everything she apparently needed. She began to work through it with her hands shifting to the keyboard, prompts and calculations occurred in shorthand that went far over my head. She created a graph and ‘tsked’ at the display before reworking it. She clicked her tongue again and continued to work through the numbers. It seemed she was tightening things up.

She continued to flick through the various sheets before nodding to herself. “Alright, where are your last three tax returns? Also from what I can see here, you are the sole proprietor of the Gym?”

“Yes. I made sure to transfer all the deeds when I took over.” I directed her to a file that was listed for each financial year.

Georgina paused in her work and gave me a searching look. “I’m sorry to hear what you went through. I wasn’t paying much attention but when you reached out to me I looked into you.” She nodded, “You appear to have handled yourself remarkably well. Also from a financial standpoint, it makes things much cleaner for everyone involved.”

I coughed at the praise and looked away from her. Feeling self-conscious, I redirected her attention back to the work. “So how long do you think you’ll take? Lawrence only needed ten minutes to find a few issues.”

She continued to watch me for a moment. Her eyes tightened with displeasure before she took the prompt for what it was and returned to work. “He was most likely glancing through it for anything glaring. He’s showy like that, but you might be surprised to find how much time out of sight he’ll spend doing lots and lots of research on the potential issues you might face. He just likes to have the answer and appear all-knowing.” She pursed her lips. “It’s rare when he admits he doesn’t have the answer on hand.”

“Land claim rights and disputes had him stumped for me,” I said in an off-handed manner. That drew a hum of interest from her but she didn’t pursue it, instead teasing out some more information and following a trail before dropping into a sum calculation and dividing by nine in some eldritch approximation of common sense.

When a number appeared she perked up. “Oh, very good!”

I stared at the number in complete incomprehension. She ploughed on without stopping.

Within two hours of her arrival, she had things squared away but her hands flipped through the folder I had prepared. That… had still seemed insanely fast. “Did Lawrence give you any heads up?” I asked, prompting her for why she had been able to dismantle and work out my spreadsheets so quickly.

“Hmmm? Oh no, it’s just that I have worked with this layout before… or, well, you could say I had a voice in designing it while I was working for that bank. Your accountant created a few errors in how they were using it that I’ve corrected and adjusted.” I coughed and mumbled to myself. That had mostly been me, Georgina seemed amused by this.

“So am I right to assume you did most of the paperwork prior to this?”

“Yeah, I took over and found that we already had the software and all I needed to do was expand on it with paying for employees, and then the stable usage.” I scratched the back of my head. “With things growing and the increased income, I think I will be looking to have someone hired on at least part-time to handle the work.”

“Very well. I also noticed some other points that I think would be worth reviewing, such as creating more separation with your revenue streams. Your Gym, your stables and indeed you yourself, should be individual entities for tax purposes. This will require you to have an accountant on to keep everything straight lest it overwhelms you, along with your expected growth, but in the event of an audit the League would also only ever be able to audit the Gym.”

“Huh,” I mused, appreciating the distinction. She nodded at me.

“We can get to work on that over the off-season, if you’d like? More options for making sure you’re getting the best value for your work would be another part of my job.” She tapped the number that represented the initial cost of challenging the Gym. “This number is something I believe could come up, but I’d need to do some more research to tell you anything more specific.”

“Like Lawrence, eh?” I teased.

She nodded, not at all ashamed. “Just so.” She chewed her lip for a moment before raising a hand. “Brock… I know this is a tough question.” She wet her lips. “You don’t have to answer it either… But have you considered setting up funds for your brothers and sisters should anything happen to you? Or perhaps even a trust fund for them to use for their own journeys?”

I sat there, and part of me recoiled at the idea of leaving my family to fend for themself. Still, it was a good question. I had fallen into the trap of thinking I’d always be around for them. If I wasn’t here… it’d fall to Flint. I stayed quiet and eventually nodded tightly. “I think that would be a good idea.”

I hurriedly waved my hand. “Find anything else?” I said, trying to move things along. I didn’t want to linger on this with the woman.

“Yes. the Pokemon League owes you money,” she said with a softer smile.

“Heh, I’m sure they will rush to return that.”

“I know a few people that work in the accounting department,” she said. “I can make them correct their figures and reimburse you.” She then turned to me and smiled. “Otherwise you should have nothing to worry about with your books.”

“Huh.” I glanced from the spreadsheet that was now much easier to run my eye over to the woman merrily sitting in the chair after taking a plastic surgeon’s scalpel to my seemingly healthy spreadsheet. “What are your hourly rates? And are you interested in joining the team?”

“I’d love to! I’ll send through an email with my rates depending on what you need, it might be better to set up a salary eventually? I assume you want me to come here?” She tapped the screen. “I don’t have anything quite up to the standard of a Porygon network at home.”

“Hmmm, best to come in then, if that’s alright. We’ll have to see how many hours I need you for each week. I sometimes run some meetings and I think it would be good to have you weigh in. I have a meeting coming up in a few days and I think it would be good for you to meet Rocko and Dennis, as they’re effectively my management staff when I’m unavailable.”

Georgina nodded. “Well, I shall keep the date free. I’ll review the contract when you’re ready to send it my way.” She stood and waved to the door, “Could you lead me to my daughter?” I once more led her out but this time I headed right to the back. We didn’t find Yolanda or Crystal in the open area at the back of the gym that served as the feeding and communal space for the pokemon.

I walked into the free-range area and listened as a voice rang out.

“MUUUUUMMM!” I looked up at the small rocky outcropping that stood above the cave leading to Tyranitar and the ancient pokemon’s area.

At the top, Crystal and Yolanda grinned down at us with Selene and Quirina floating next to them. Both girls leapt off the heights and Georgina stiffened.

“Crys—!” was all she got to shout before pink and blue energy surrounded Yolanda and Crystal respectively. Both of my pokemon used their psychic powers to catch and lower the girls to the ground. Yolanda and Crystal giggled as they landed.

I walked over. When Yolanda grinned up at me I raised an eyebrow. She blushed furiously but smiled and shrugged. “Sorry!? I got carried away?”

“We’re going to talk about this later,” I said firmly. This was different for the usually reserved Yolanda but… she was smiling in a way I hadn’t noticed before. I looked over to find Crystal frozen on the ground while her mother loomed over her.

“Am… Am I in trouble?” asked the girl. Georgina answered by snorting out a gust of wind from her nostrils that would have had a Tauros backing down.

“We. Will. Talk. About. This. Later.” Her mother said through clenched teeth.

Crystal stood and contritely moved to her mother’s side. “Sorry Yolanda, I got us in trouble.”

“No! I also went through with it… So I’m to blame as well! Or more so ‘cause Crystal didn’t know about Selene and Quirrina… and I told her about how cool they were and…” She bowed to me and Georgina with her hands clapped in front of her in apology. I put a hand on her shoulder.

“Yolanda. I’m not mad. You scared Georgina more than me. I know that Selene would have made that catch a hundred times out of a hundred. She did so while we climbed Mt. Moon many times. I know you know this, but that doesn’t mean you should have done it without giving Georgina a heads up. You got a bit caught up in showing off to your new friend, and leapt before thinking everything through.” I turned to Georgina and bowed. “Sorry for my sister. She’s very mature more often than not, but sometimes she acts her age.”

“Oh, no! You don’t need to, Crystal is exactly like how I was and I have no doubt she would have pushed Yolanda to let her do something crazy!” I rose into a standing position only to find Georgina bowing to me.

“Mum!” Said Crystal before offering her own bow. “Sorry! I was having a lot of fun! Don’t get mad at Yolanda because of me!”

I shared a glance with Georgina before we both smiled faintly. “Well… maybe remember to ask before leaping the next time, okay?”

Crystal and Yolanda bowed. I chuckled at them. When I turned to lead them back inside I found Georgina squirming and her eyes darting up at Selene. I blinked and recalled that she was something of a self-confessed thrill-seeker herself. An obvious solution presented itself. “Would you like to have a go, Georgina?”

She answered with a half-hearted nod. “Oh- well, I suppose I could have a go. Just to make sure it was safe for the girls.”

She didn’t jump but outright backflipped off the edge. She laughed the entire way down. This was met with huge applause from the audience. I chuckled only to have my sister and Crystal push me to also “jump off the cliff”. I merely laughed harder at their word choice. I made a show of hemming and hawing but I eventually scaled the rockwall.

“Ready?” I shouted down to them. They waved and whooped. I walked away as if I was backing out only to then run right off the edge and keep running with a classic running man to start things off.

By the time they left, I think Yolanda and Crystal had become fast friends. I sent the contract through to Georgina. It was promptly signed and returned before the end of the day.

Two days later she met me with Rachel at the Gym. The new Accountant and Public Relations Manager seemed to be getting along alright. I led them in and got them both log-ins for the system and key cards for physical access to the Gym. “Alright, we’re about to run a quick end-of-circuit meeting for some things. Mostly a meet and greet.”

“Ahem!” Rachel coughed pointedly. I raised an eyebrow at her and she bounced excitedly. “I have some items I have been reviewing for the Gym that I’d like to mention!”

“Alright, we can handle that in a bit.” I led the two into the meeting room that had a large open space, with chairs around a set of many little desks that connected together to allow for the shape and orientation of the table to change as needed. Dennis and Rocko were both there so they were quickly introduced.

I then pointed to two pictures. “The small ginger girl is Celia, she’s the gym’s sponsored trainer this year and in the photo next to her is Jackson. He was last years. Neither of them are here right now. Celia finished up at the Indigo Plateau and Jackson is down touring the Southern Islands.”

“Oh? Sevii or Orange?” asked Rachel

“Both,” I said. “He’s got some errands and tasks to do for the Gym down there, but he’s otherwise enjoying the different vibe.”

“What sort of jobs do you have him performing?” asked Georgina.

“Investigating potential pokemon that we might be interested in, such as Relicanth that are known as deep-sea pokemon. The islands are the best place to get training for diving operations. Also, there’s always some interest in investigating fossils. I have an agreement with the Museum Curator, in fact, for specific fossils.” I didn’t mention that the man had also gotten a sizable donation for future access to another machine the man was building right now.

I decided to shift topics. “Rachel, you had something for us?”

She grinned and her eyes gained a gleam as she gestured towards a projector that hung from the roof towards a blank wall. “Can I get access to that, please?”

Rocko chuckled. “Dang, new girl has a presentation for us on her first day? Good bye my lazy days!” He said with a laugh as he claimed a chair.

Dennis sat next to him in a much stiffer position. He didn’t say anything, but his alert position made it clear that he was paying avid attention as he laid out some papers and pens on a desk, ready to take some notes.

Rachel connected a small laptop and then set herself up with a powerpoint titled ‘Image development for the Pewter Gym! The first steps!’

“Oh dang,” Rocko said, sitting up despite himself as Rachel’s highly detailed powerpoint was shown for a few moments. “I was kidding about giving up my lazy days!”

I chuckled at his antics before waving for Rachel to get started. The room darkened and Rachel began to lay out her pitch to improve the image of our Gym.

Rachel stood in front of a small projector with a laser pointer. Her eyes gleamed as she finished, I clicked a remote and the room brightened.

Rocko scratched his head. “So? I need to make up a feature piece about myself on pokenet?”

“Yes! We need the long-term personalities on display! Continue to let people new to the region know who is representing them!”

Rocko glanced at me and shrugged. “I guess I’d have no problem with that.”

I waved my hand about. “It’s usually a method I see more used for medical settings…” At least it had been in my old world? I gestured for them to continue. “Keep it personalised though, I don’t want to have it read like a corporate-approved introduction of their CEO or something like that.”

“Hmmm, ‘kay,” he said. Rachel bounced in place, happy that her suggestions so far had been met with general positivity. She’d created a group share file for employees to send images of interesting moments that occurred around the gym or their lives for later marketing or to create a Pewter Gym picture gallery. Now she was updating the pokenet webpage for us, so that it was a much more substantial site in general.

She’d gotten everything about the story of how I had designed it, and what had inspired the aesthetic. She’d even gone and gotten thoughts from the builders. Rachel turned off the projector so we could talk normally.

At shoulder height, her newly arrived Magnemite floated happily. It bumped into Rachel on occasion and she gave it fond little looks before nudging it back.

Apparently, it had been a while since they’d hung out openly.

Rachel turned her attention towards me. “Alright! So now that we have the webpage planned out, I think we need to get you out in public on some radio waves and tv screens!” She tapped on a page and gave me a copy before dropping one in front of Dennis, and Rocko.

“So! I put some feelers out and got some interest from Battlecast, Lifestyle, and PTN for a television segment.”

Rocko grinned at me. “I double Doduo dare you to go on Lifestyle Prime boss!”

Rachel brightened up. “Brock could really raise his appeal if he went on that channel, especially as a young male! It would be great for everyone!”

“But mostly the ladies that watch it, no?” Rocko said back with a lazy smirk. Rachel huffed at him. Rocko nudged Dennis, “Hey, you like watching the Lifestyle channel, don’t you?”

I glanced over, surprised by this little tid-bit. I would have thought he enjoyed watching other shows. Dennis stiffened and his eyes dimmed a little. “From three to seven the channel will not be changed in my household from the Lifestyle channel.” I blinked as the light returned and Dennis looked away. I was impressed. I’d never seen a long-range possession but just then I had almost seen Dennis’s wife manifest through him to state the rules. I held in my amusement as he shifted uneasily. “It is highly advised to be quiet during this time as well when around my house.”

Rocko made whip-cracking noises and Dennis flushed. “My wife has only a few rules, but that’s one of them. I’m sure she’d love to see you on there, Brock.”

I coughed, “I think I might pass on that for now. I can’t say that I’m too interested in appearing on tv at all.” Part of me squirmed at the idea.

Rachel gained a determined glint that made me think she was about to challenge me for a badge. “We’ll talk about this more,” she said instead. She then offered up another page.

“Radio chats then! We can let people do call-ins, and it will feel far more casual. No glaring spotlights or cameras on you.” The unspoken ‘for now’, somehow echoed.

I looked over the list. “Radio seventy-sixer FM, Pewter, and WPR?”

“Yes, I think it would be best to go with Seventy-six as they’re the most local for Kanto. You could also do a spot on Battlecast, but for their magazine department. We should use your natural good looks to our advantage.” She grinned widely at me.

I blushed and waved my hand. “That’s just silly.”

Rachel stopped, blinked and then slowly tilted her head. “Brock… people would love to see you on the cover and read your take on it. Let me line it up for you, okay?”

“Argh, alright. Set up the magazine and the radio chat. When will they—” “Tomorrow! I can have it set up tomorrow!” I gave Rachel’s response a flat stare.

“I do have… something of a life, you know?”

Rachel squirmed. “It is just that it's best to strike while the iron is hot and you are present in people’s minds. You’ve already let it lapse more than you should have! Can you do it?”

I grumbled more for show than anything else. “Very well, but the day after I can’t ‘cause I’ve got that PIA accountant coming through.” Georgina sniffed.

“He won’t find anything wrong with your books.”

I gave her an amused look before waving to Rachel. “Get me the time I need to go to… where is Seventy-six?”

“Celadon!” said Rachel before she whipped out her transceiver. “Hi, Franko? It’s Rachel Hi! Yeah, I’m great, I got Brock to agree! What time!?” I stared at her as she rapid-fired a conversation. A few seconds later she hung up and rounded on me. “Eight o’clock! I’ll get you some talking points we can go over, shall I?” she said.

Rocko turned to me and clapped his hands together before bowing over them in fake condolences. “Goodbye to your lazy days boss.”

I gave a weak laugh at that. I had wanted to do this, hadn’t I?