I lowered the podiums and marched towards Gertrude. It’d been fun fighting her, and I wouldn’t mind picking her brain over some items regarding Ace trainer quirks that I had started to notice.

I was also planning to try and boost her up a bit more. For all that I defeated her to climb the ranks, I still clung to the idea that I could make her stronger and see her rise up the ranks. Which, as a fellow Pewter Trainer, was always nice.

I reached out and offered up my hand.

She slapped her hand into mine and grinned. “That was a good match, Gym Leader!” she said. “Thanks for setting things up with my sponsors like you did. I imagine you’ve got a lot of people knocking on your doors offering sponsorships these days.”

I chuckled. “Yeah they have been, but I don’t really need them as I’m well set up,” I said with a shrug. “Also I’m not controlled by any contractual obligations, so I think it works out best. That’s not something many can say,” I said as I waved a hand at the promotions that featured her sponsor’s name.

“Hmmm, so do you still give out advice to trainers that face you?” she said with a smirk. “Lots of Ace trainers that initially challenged you got rather amused by that until they realised it was actually good advice.”

I huffed. “You make it sound like I would give bad advice.”

“Eh, in the Ace circuit, you’re supposed to be competitive, and it’s not unusual to fake someone out, cause it’s not like you can’t end up facing them in another month or two. Or during tournaments where competitors will be paying a lot more attention to what does and doesn’t work.”

I nodded and then bobbed my head from side to side. “Hmmm, I’ll have to keep that in mind,” I said rubbing my chin.

“As for some advice,” I grimaced, “I hate to say it, knowing how things went down for you, but diversity in your pokemon would be a great feature. You made great use of the pokemon that you had. I think you need a bigger pool of pokemon.”

She nodded. “Yeah I’m working on it. I attended your auction to see how much some of the rare pokemon are going for, and it was too rich for me.”

I hummed. “No need to go rare; just depth is important enough. There's nothing wrong with a Raticate, Pidgeot, Fearow, Clefairy, or such. I’d recommend having a trip to the Safari Zone, or maybe even applying for a permit to the Silver Range.”

Gertrude laced her hands behind her head. “I did hear that Erika’s crew of girls had finished up revitalising the area. Not sure what that means for when the silver Range will be open again, however.”

I grimaced. “Yeah…. That last one might not be the best option. Maybe look into some psychic or fighting type pokemon otherwise?”

Gertrude nodded her head. “Fair enough. Also, can I point out something I’ve noticed?”

I raised an eyebrow and gestured for her to do so.

She coughed. “So, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve noticed that you attach a lot of pride to your starter.”

Titan, who’d been standing next to me waving at the crowd, turned his head.

Gertrude raised her own hands. “That’s not to say you’re not a pokemon not to be proud of! You are! It’s just that you could be sent out earlier to shake things up. You dominate a lot of the fights you get into when he comes out; entire strategies will be dedicated to countering him!” she said hurriedly.

“I had a few myself, but those strategies can be meaningless or too expensive at the end of the day if you send him out early and dictate the pace early,” she said, her eyes flicking between Titan and I, gauging how we were taking her advice.

I tilted my head. “I’m too predictable with sending him out, is that what you’re saying?”

She wobbled her hand in a so-so manner. “If you get the right type matching laid out before you, things can go very quickly in your favour. While it was an exhibition match against Lance, your Golem? Perfect pokemon to send out first.”

She waved a hand at Titan. “I’m just saying something I’ve noticed. Don’t get so hung up on the idea that you’re honouring your foe by sending out your starter. He will always be worth a lot to take down, but you can really make it expensive if you want to. I know the old way of thinking is to keep back your ‘King’ but there’s a lot of debate about also getting the most out of them.”

I nodded along. “I think I can understand what you’re saying. I’ll have to consider it,” I said, giving Titan a look. “What are your thoughts? Want to come out earlier?”

Titan crossed his arms and huffed out a breath. I chuckled at his nonchalance. His slowly wagging tail gave away his interest.

I looked back to Gertrude. “We’ll take it under advisement.” I then turned towards the waiting stands. “I believe we have the home crowd to show some love to, no?”

Gertrude nodded. “Yeah! And don’t forget, we’re doing the press conference together!” she said.

I huffed; Rachel had snuck that in as an additional benefit for Gertrude but I couldn’t fault it, beyond it being annoying.

If I’d had my way, it would have been a very short discussion, but I suspected it would be a bit longer. When I was done talking with the crowd and taking pictures with some locals, I joined Gertrude in a room that we’d made into a proper press room.

I understood she was starting to run Missy through mock post-match conferences with various scenarios in preparation for when Missy joined the Ace Circuit proper. Missy was taking to it rather well according to what Rachel was reporting.

My own press conference started with the question I’d been anticipating.

“Gym Leader Brock! How do you think your girlfriend and fellow Gym Leader, Sabrina, will go against Will?”

“I’d be surprised by anything less than a total victory on her part,” I said flatly.

From there, a number of other questions were targeted at me, and I had to drag some of the reporters to include Gertrude. When I hinted at and discussed the upcoming matches, I made sure to have some back and-forth with her rather than just speaking myself.

She proved rather insightful.

“Some of the upcoming generalists, have some tricks that can make them tough, but I think Brock has shown that he has the resilience to push through those matches. I was expecting a much closer match, but if anything, Brock was very ready for everything I had. It was almost formulaic. Which you don’t see very often.”

Gertrude shook her head. “I have to admit to being surprised as Brock and his team are stronger than I anticipated,” she said to one reporter.

“What will you both be doing now?” asked another report.

I gestured for Gertrude to go first. “I think I’m going to look into the idea of a hiatus for a few weeks; I feel like I’m hitting a ceiling with what I can currently achieve. Which is frustrating, and it is something that I have discussed with my pokemon and myself. I’ll be talking with my sponsors first, however, as I want to go higher and I think I can, but I currently don’t have as much depth in my pokemon roster to commit to more matches than two a week and not suffer burnout or put forth pokemon teams that are highly predictable. If I want to take part in tournaments and do well, I need more.”

As the reporters turned towards me, I adjusted and took a sip from the milk bottle that Mary-Sue Lonlon had sent in.

“Gertrude has highlighted one of the significant issues that a lot of trainers face; in order to rise up the Ace rankings, you need to be fighting a lot,” I said, making sure to speak clearly.

“Now, obviously, winning helps a lot, but there needs to be a frequency of fighting each week. Going forward, I have a number of slots free throughout the week where I will be facing Ace trainers. I need to be fighting three times a week, and if I want to be making the midseason invitational, then I need to be winning those matches or going two out of three at the very least so that I am stepping up.” I was quietly confident of winning all of the matches honestly, I had a solid number of the trainers up until the fifteenth ranked reviewed with plans in mind. Things became a bit harder after number fifteen.

“Brock, you’ve yet to lose an actual match! At what point will you be happy?” one reporter asked.

I hummed. “I think I should be aiming for the top ten, whether this is something that I only do for this circuit will depend on a lot of different factors but I think it’s something I will take into consideration. It’s been pointed out that Pewter stands as the first big challenge many trainers will face and I’m toying with the idea of setting my ranking to a high enough position that it is true for those looking to use the Ace circuit.”

A number of people hurriedly wrote or tapped this out on computers. This was the first time I’d announced my idea of forming Pewter into a ‘barrier’ for the Ace circuit.

I tapped the table. “Otherwise, until next week, I will be training my team as well as attending Sabrina’s upcoming match against Will. I think it will be an interesting event for all,” I said with a smirk.

“Does Sabrina have any pokemon that she’s not revealed to the public?!” cried out someone in the back.

I hummed playfully, my own mind going to Stantler and how it might have evolved into Wyrdeer by now. Sabrina had had it for a while now. I hadn’t heard anything from her regarding that but then again… “I wouldn’t put anything past her; she’s amazing like that,” I said.

Rachel gave me a thumbs-up for that comment.

I merely smiled and waited for the next question. When the reporters once again tried to sideline Gertrude, I turned to her and started asking about her dream pokemon team or which coastal city she thought of as the best holiday destination, taking on the role of reporter myself.

She seemed very appreciative of the media attention being brought back to her, and when we were all wrapped up, she shook my hand with both of hers. She then trotted towards her Sponsor’s Rep with a megawatt grin.

I turned to my own employees and waved for us to move into the back as the reporters departed with their scoop. I claimed a chair at the front and sighed explosively as I lay back.

“Alright, short debrief, then we’ll see if we can talk some of the higher-ranked Ace trainers into a battle.” I accepted a burrito wrap from Yolanda with a quick thanks. “Is it wrong that I miss braggarts like Gavin Gumshoe?” I said before taking a bite of my meal.

Everyone tilted their heads before Rachel laughed. “You mean Gavin Glady?”

“Yeah, him,” I said as I toggled my email app on my transceiver and saw a host of emails and messages from various Ace trainers. I began flicking through them only for a scowl to form. Most of them had rejected my offer. I huffed in annoyance, nothing had changed since I last looked. “He was easy to draw into a match. Some of these ace trainers are being downright skittish.”

I rubbed my chin. “This is going to seriously delay me from reaching the top sixteen for the midseason tournament.”

“You should join a smaller tournament,” Missy chimed in.

I sighed. “That would take me away from the Gym for at least a few days…”

Alexa and Rachel shared a look. “So, just do it?” my assistant said. “We can reschedule things or go onto a longer day format for the rest of the week to allow things to not impact people too much.”

Rachel nodded. “Yeah! You’re going to have to go to them! For if the trainers will not come to Brock! Brock must go to the trainers!” she said with a voice that she must have thought was wise. I grunted and nodded, only to pause as I realised the quote she was mangling.

“That was bad and you should feel bad,” I said as I waved my burrito at her threateningly. I took a bite out of it. “But not wrong,” I said.

Yolanda perked up. “Oh! You could do what Walker is doing and go in a mask! Then you can face everyone without them knowing who you are!”

Alexa, Rachel, Dennis, Rocko, and Missy all gained looks ranging from thoughtful to amused.

“What sort of mask?” A.J. said.

I took another slow bite out of my lunch. Why was it, of late, that all my problems seemed to have solutions with me wearing a mask?

“I don’t think a mask… is quite the right way to go about things?” I said carefully.

“So you don’t think the Masked Hero group is doing the right thing?” Yolanda said, all too quickly.

I narrowed my eyes at her. Did she know? No, she’d have teased me more if she did. Or was she being sly? I considered her and finished my lunch while trying to gauge what her angle was.

“I think they are, and I think that Lance is being very sharp with the power he’s entrusted with them, but certain measures need to be put in place for them and to stoprandom people from copying them,” I said carefully.

Yolanda nodded seriously. “Good, but still, the point stands you need to be able to get these people to meet you for fights, and they’re not! I think… it stinks like a Muk-ridden junkyard,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean the whole thing of so many people being slow or not accepting matches. You need to fight people that are higher ranked than you to rise up the ranks,” Yolanda pointed out.

I nodded. “I might have to increase the pot for them if they win against me.”

Dennis and Rocko snorted, and I shot them an amused look.

Yolanda, however, had a faraway look, as though she was working on a particularly troubling puzzle. “You challenge them… only for them to reject you.” She twitched, her hands moving as though she was shifting pieces into place in her mind’s eye.

“But meanwhile, Will is still advancing… He must be using up some of the challenges that the people are willing to extend, but it doesn’t make sense.” Yolanda squinted at the whiteboard in thought.

That had me sitting up and loading up Will’s profile. She was right. Everyone in the room now sat up as they realised that Yolanda was on to something.

Yolanda nodded as she focused on the screen. “You’ve reached Twenty-ninth with today’s match, but he’s reached nineteenth in the same time frame with the trainers accepting his challenges! I think he’s up to something!” she shouted, crossing her arms.

I blinked as I felt it click into place. “That… makes a lot of sense,” I said. It wasn't as if Will was worried about scruples, and with my vocal demands for a rematch and pointedly rising up the rankings to force the issue, he had to face the fact that it was more than likely that the rematch would happen. But only if it became inevitable.

“He’d need to pay them off or make it worth their time to not accept a challenge against me,” I said. I opened up the trainer list to see who was ahead of me. He only had to get ten people to reject me. Not everyone. It wasn’t like I could…

“Missy, what’s stopping me from challenging the current number one to a match?” I said in consideration.

Missy whistled. “There’s a lot of prestige for the top of the Ace rankings sir. They are mostly able to hold their position thanks to tournament wins as those award more points than straight head-to-head matches. They also don’t have the same acceptance ratio that others have if the challenger is above tenth on the rankings. They won’t entertain anyone seriously below twentieth from what I’ve researched! The best way to climb is through tournaments, which can lock in fights with other trainers.”

I hummed. I wonder if I could force it by putting some pressure on Lance to make Bruce accept a challenge from me. Regulations be damned. I paused. Potentially I could also force Masked Owl to accept as well…

The idea alone left a bad taste in my mouth, so I shook my head. Too much like what Will would do.

Anyway, it wasn’t like others wouldn’t know that Bruce was there for Lance’s sake. It would have to be an open secret by this point. Urgh, now I'm thinking like a villain. I felt scummy considering these options.

“Is that true for all of the top five? What if I challenged number five? When I reached twenty-fifth??”

“Corey?” Missy prompted.

I blinked. “What happened to Walker?” Then I coughed. “Sorry! Masked Owl,” I said with a sarcastic drawl.

Dennis and Rocko, who hadn’t been privy to that conversation, glanced around as the others snorted in amusement.

“Carr is now number three, and Masked Owl is number four, Corey got pushed down,” Missy said.

“So could I go for one of them when I had a rank within twenty?” I suggested.

Missy nodded slowly. “That’s… possible,” Missy said, and I nodded as I understood that some people might liken it to me trying to skip fighting the Elite Four to fight Lance... Which, I’d technically already done.

Huh, go me.

“Alright, let’s go with the tournament idea,” I said as I brought up the application for entrance into the tournament. “We’ll block out a few days in two weeks and then run longer on those days to make it up for the…” I paused as I noticed that only ten slots were actually full for those three days. Ten out of a potential thirty slots.

Well, it had only taken something like three months, but I was now into the quiet months.

“Right, well, l we can reschedule them without too many issues, I think. Let’s otherwise set things up for Missy, Greta, Yolanda, and A.J. to join me for the tournament. With it being in Celadon, you can go for your gym matches on the side, and Missy can experience an Ace tournament.”

I waved a hand. “Let you get a feel for it and make connections; see how things operate, what needs to happen, and when.”

“Oh, that’ll be fun!” Missy said

Rocko sighed loudly. “Oh no, that means Dennis and I shall have to hold down the fort; whatever shall we do?”

Dennis licked his lips and looked to the side. “Run… tactical drills on the security?”

Rocko shot Dennis a thoroughly unimpressed look. Dennis shifted in his seat. “While… wearing colourful clothes… the foam noodles, and water balloons?” Dennis offered up.

Rocko pretended to consider it for a moment before brightening up. He shot Dennis a thumbs up, “The others will love it!”

Yolanda, A.J., and Missy stared at the pair in disbelief.

“You’re going to play around like that when we’re away?!” Yolanda said.

Rocko and Dennis shared a look before nodding. “Yup!” Rocko said unrepentantly.

Yolanda swivelled on me, her eyes watering already. “Brock!” she said.

It was super effective.

“Uh, we’ll have a session of it the week after,” I said, my resistance to my little sister demanding something collapsing like a poorly dug mining tunnel.

Yolanda instantly stopped sniffling and perked up, alerting me that she’d just manipulated me. A.J. glanced between us in thought, and I levelled a finger at him. “Don’t even try it.”

He huffed, crossing his arms. I nodded and clapped my hands. “Alright! That’s enough for today! Remember that we’re ending early tomorrow so that Salvadore and I can go to Silph Co.!” I shot the group at large a pointed look. “I still have a slot in the group if you want to come? Any takers?”

The group didn’t seem all that interested, so I huffed and shot Janine a message telling her that tomorrow was a go.

I’d told the Guardians about the trip to Silph Tower, and Janine had jumped to get a spot to tour their facilities without being under suspicion.

I knew her main reason was coming was the Master Ball, which was fine. If it wasn’t secure enough to be safe from her, then if Team Rocket mimicked the games and attacked, Silph Co. would have no hope.

Still, there was no reason I couldn’t combine a business trip with some fun. Salvadore was positively ecstatic about getting the chance to see proper pokemon technicians and researchers at work.

It should prove an interesting day.

We assembled in the Saffron City Square, where Janine, who was dressed remarkably casually, introduced her friend who would be joining us.

“Ace trainer Annie,” she said, bowing to us. “I’m a former ward of Koga, and I am based out of Fuchsia.”

“Wow really? What rank are you? What’s your favourite pokemon? Is it a poison type?” Salvadore said, already well and truly in motormouth mode, with how excited he was for the coming tour of the Silph Co. facilities.

Annie chuckled. “I’m only in my first year. I’m doing alright at rank eighty, I like to think, but then again it’s been a slow grind for me. I’m still getting a feel for how things work and being careful. I have a good win-loss ratio though!” she said with a firm nod.

“Uhuh! And your favourite pokemon? What’s your favourite route that you travelled on your journey?” he said, adding in another set of questions.

Sensing the pattern, Annie answered both. “Ivysaur currently, but I’m hoping to get Venusaur soon. I also think I like the cycling track outside Fuchsia the most. It’s just so enjoyable getting on your bike and crossing huge distances while overlooking the ocean,” she said.

I reached over and put a hand on Salvadore to signal that he needed to calm down.

“Alright, we’re all set, shall we?” I said, gesturing towards the tallest building in Saffron City by far.

As we walked, I slowed a step and shot Annie a pointed look before flicking my eyes to Janine. Janine shot me a smirk before looking at Annie in front of her. Annie didn’t so much as glance or twitch to show she’d caught the interaction, but she did raise her hands above her head before lacing them together in a hand sign synonymous with ninja.

Nin, nin indeed, I thought to myself before giving Janine another look. She must have decided to dress casually so that she wouldn’t appear as threatening to Silph Co. If they just thought she was a harmless girl, then she’d have more freedom to roam.

I merely hummed and walked us along to the Silph Tower. We entered, and a trio of receptionists greeted us in unison from the front desk.

“Good afternoon Gym Leader Brock! Vice-president Howard will be down in a moment!” they chorused all together.

I nodded and smiled as I led my group to a set of couches, although we didn’t even get the chance to sit, as an elevator in the centre of the walkway dinged and opened to reveal Howard.

“Brock! Wonderful to see you in person! Thank you for accepting our offer!” he said grandly.

“Oh, I’m looking forward to the rest of the offer, but we can talk about that later,” I said, quickly reaching out and shaking Howard’s hand. “This is my brother Salvadore, who’s extremely interested in seeing what Technicians and Researchers do in big businesses like this. And this is my other friend—”

“Jane!” said Janine, hopping in quickly and curtesying perfectly.

Annie waved and smiled. “Hi, I’m Annie, this one’s friend and minder for today! She’s a bit of a scatterbrain, but interested in what you do here!” Annie said.

Janine shot her a furious look, and for a moment I was taken by it.

Did they actually behave this way in front of…

Then I remembered that this was likely a ploy by them to further lower Silph Co.’s guard. If Janine just so happened to get lost and be found in a place she shouldn’t be? Oh dear, whoops! No harm, no foul.

Howard nodded amicably at both of them, only for another elevator behind him to ding and a bellow to erupt from the elevator as a group of people emerged.

“You can’t treat me like this! I’m the brains of the department! You won’t make any progress for a hundred years without me!” screeched a man as he was forcefully dragged through the foyer.

The Machoke holding both arms didn’t even slow as he tried to dig his heels into the carpet.

Salvadore, Janine, Annie, and I all turned our heads to watch the group. Howard, who’d been in the process of saying something, swallowed loudly.

“Hahaha, I’m so sorry about that. It seems we had an incident that needed to be handled,” he said, trying to talk over the shouting. A handkerchief appeared from his pocket and he began dabbing at his forehead.

“Susanne! What about that after-work party? You liked me, didn’t you?” screeched the man being dragged out.

One of the receptionists lowered her head, trying to remain at her post while sinking below anyone’s sight.

When that failed to get a response, the man switched targets. “Sally! Sally, what about last year? At the end of year party?”

Another receptionist lowered her head. The third one must have known which way the wind was blowing, as she disappeared behind her desk entirely.

The Machoke reached the door and deposited the man on the front steps. The man who had been following along with a box of belongings put the box down and tried to leave, only for the wailing man to grab his pokeball.

The Machoke tackled him to the ground, causing an audible whump as the fired researcher was re-educated about vectors and force.

Janine clapped her hands together. “My goodness, this is a wonderful start to the tour! I can’t wait to tell my whole family about this!” she said in an innocent tone.

“Ohohoho!” she said with the perfect haughty tone, causing me to shudder. She even had the ojou-sama laugh perfected!

Howard started to sweat right away. I could only imagine this was a nightmare start for him.

Still, he rallied and indicated the elevator. “Shall we?” he said weakly.

Salvadore proved undaunted and charged to the elevator, with the rest of us following. Howard soon reclaimed control of himself from there, and when the tour itself started, he led us through a host of different hallways, ranging from business and accounting sections of the building to sections that were dedicated solely to product development.

“Oh wow! What are those!?” Salvadore said as we encountered a group of brown pokemon that were all strapped into machines with cords trailing off them.

“Oh this is the Technical Machine Development Center, or rather one of the research centers,” Howard said.

“From here, we develop the technology to create Technical machines that can draw from a pokemon into the format. We need to work on the design of the storage device, the cords, and even the linkage. We use specially trained Smeargle for the role as they are best known for the greatest capacity to learn, forget, and relearn moves more than any other pokemon!”

“Are they… alright?” Salvadore said, indicating the asleep Smeargle, unknowingly causing a burst of pride to surge through my chest at his show of concern. It was good that he still had his morals in situations that excited him, and didn’t become blindsided.

“They’re well looked after!” said Howard, a little too quickly for my liking. “Now the next floor is our developmental technology! This is something that we’re particularly proud of! It’s our teleportation pads!” He said, leading us to another level.

When we emerged, I found the floor was an entirely open plan with only a few support pillars blocking complete sight of the various labs.

In each glass room, there were four pads in the corners with groups of researchers working around them.

We approached one and watched as the researchers worked with Hypno, Kadabra, and even a Gardevoir, all of whom wore lab coats.

The pad that the group was clustered around flashed and a man in a red labcoat appeared. The group as a whole groaned.

“This is the southwest lab?” said the newly appeared man. “Damn it, we had it calibrated for the northeast!”

“Alright, there’s an error in the code somewhere!” said one of the researchers.

“Voir?” asked the Gardevoir as it raised a hand and put it on the redcoat man.

The man tilted his head. “Uhmmm, things are spinning a little bit, yes? And were the walls always yellow?” He promptly passed out, and the Kadabra caught him while the Hypno hit another red button.

“Hahahaha! Progress! Isn't it wonderful?” said Howard, a touch too maniacally. He then once again hurried us away from the display of mad science going on.

Salvadore jittered excitedly. “Oh wow! You can teleport without Psychic types?”

Howard nodded. “So far we can, within the floor. We’re testing longer ranges, but so far we seem to be curtailed to just the building as there is an unknown psychic interference that comes up when we try for outside field testing of similar distances.”

“Is it safe?” I asked.

“Very! Everything we do meets League standards!” he said, like that meant everything.

Knowing how some standards could be quite lax, I merely hummed as we ascended to another level.

“Now! This is the floor I know you’ll be interested in Brock!” Howard said as we exited the elevator and found ourselves looking over another floor that appeared to be dedicated entirely to pokeball development.

I perked up and looked for the signature two-toned purple pokeball that I knew would have to be around.

I couldn’t see it, and I had to remind myself that was a good thing.

If they had it in plain sight, I’d have deliberately caused a distraction to let Janine steal it if they were being that cavalier.

“The pokeball development floor?” I prompted.

“Indeed! This is a floor that typically only artisans and highly qualified technicians can enter, but we’re happy to escort you around today!”

“More than happy, I should say!” said a voice, causing our group to turn to the side as another businessman strode up to us. For some reason that I couldn’t put my finger on, this man reminded me of someone.

“Board member Arashi! What a… pleasant surprise!” said Howard with a clipped tone.

“Howard, running errands as always, I see?” said the man with a dismissive nod.

He then turned to us and smiled. “Well, Erika told me her friend would be coming around here, and with my work seeing me coming around, I thought I’d come to say hello in person to Gym Leader Brock!” said Arashi.

“Oh? Erika knows you and talked to you about us?” I said. And just like that I suddenly noticed how similar Erika and Arashi’s facial features were. It had to be the chin and the eyes that had clued me in.

“Ha! I’m her uncle! Her father’s older brother, of course! So yes! You could say I know her!” he said, teasingly.

I nodded and glanced at the oddly sweating Howard who was eyeing me and Arashi nervously. “Are you alright, Howard?” I asked, deciding to play up the clueless man routine.

Instead of Howard answering, Arashi barked a laugh. “Ha! He’s just sweating cause I’m flouncing around in the company my brother and I founded years back! When Takeshi passed… because of his bad heart…. a strange buyout took place, causing me and him to lose a good deal of the stock we owned through some very… interesting… circumstances,” Arashi said pointedly.

He smiled a smile that had far too many teeth to it. “Course Howard here wasn’t nothing but an intern back then, and the board of directors we’d had at the time were a different pack of Sharpedo, but hey! A lot can change in fifteen years!”

Howard nodded and coughed. “How’s the acquisition of stock going, sir?”

Arashi shot Howard a sharp look. “That’s private, and it’s going,” he said, giving Howard a much more assessing look before nodding his head once.

He shot me another nod. “Well, I’ve said more than I planned to, and I don’t want you and your little brother here missing out on the marvels of Silph Co. so I’ll see myself off.”

I nodded in farewell, and Salvadore mimicked me. Salvadore then tilted his head and looked around. “Where’d Annie and Jane go?” he said. Howard and I both blinked in surprise, only now realising that they were missing.

I frowned. Had…Janine been here when Erika’s uncle walked up? Had she departed due to his chances of recognising her? Or was it a useful distraction she’d made the most of?

Or had she set something like this up earlier?

Howard coughed. “I’ll have some secretaries go looking for them; the poor girls must be lost,” he said.

I nodded, barely holding in a snort of disbelief. Oh, you sweet innocent child, I could only think to myself as Howard instructed a group of men and women to look for his missing guests.

“—couldn’t have gotten far,” he said as he sent them off. He then turned back, his handkerchief now thoroughly drenched as he dabbed at his forehead.

“Shall we take a break while they find our friends?”

I shrugged. “I think they were most likely looking a touch bored. Perhaps we should continue?” I prompted.

Salvadore nodded seriously while flicking me a confused glance. He must have been expecting me to wait up, but then again, he knew Janine, so he might possibly have an inkling of something else going on here.

I shot him a wink, and he nodded slowly.

“What’s your best pokeball!” he said, throwing himself back into the avid kid with a hundred questions routine.

Howard smiled widely and led us to the back of the facility, where he had to slip a keycard into a reader and scan his fingerprint and retina to be allowed entrance. I mentally noted that the walls in this area had extremely thick black cables running around and through the walls. I could feel the dark energy pulsing through them. When we entered I noticed that in each corner, a bunker was built into the walls, with the cords branching out of them.

Howard noticed my gaze. “Oh! Those are our high-capacity dark emitters! We need to have four Houndoom in house constantly to run them, but they are a state of the art feature for any big business to avoid corporate espionage from Psychics!” he said. I hummed, wondering if it would be worth it, or humane, to try and install a similar system at home.

I eyed the room we were in and discarded it. If it took four Houndoom to protect a space this small, I didn’t want to know what it would take to protect the Gym and my house.

The room itself still had another room within that was clear glass. A pair of Alakazam worked with another pair of researchers as they worked on a table with a lot of tiny little parts all laid out.

“Those are… parts of a pokeball?” I said.

Salvadore nodded. “I can see the pins, the reflecting arrays, what… might be an energy source… I… what are they made of? They’re so different than normal pokeballs?”

Howard perked up. “Oh! Those are trade secrets, I’m afraid. I don’t even know myself. The two researchers have to do three-day shifts before allowing themselves to have their memories cleansed by a specialised drowzee before they are allowed to leave the building!” he said.

Salvadore blinked. “That’s… I don’t think I could ever do that. I like knowing things too much.”

“They are appropriately compensated for their work,” Howard said.

I hummed and decided not to comment on that. “So, this is it, then? Your best pokeball?”

“Yes, this is the best pokeball that we have and possibly will ever create. It will have a perfect capture rate unlike so many other pokeballs that have come before. With this, the taming of legendaries will be possible! This is the Masterball!” Howard declared proudly.

I hummed. “The capture? Perhaps. The taming?” I made a dismissive noise. “That, I’m far less confident in and where people might come unstuck. There are plenty of pokemon out there that simply don’t want to be with humans,” I said as I observed the group assemble the Masterball before my eyes.

It felt strangely momentous to watch as the Masterball was assembled before my eyes.

In the games, this had been such a big deal when you first gained it. Even as a child, I’d known that I couldn’t use this on just any pokemon. It made me weigh up which Legendary I wanted to be guaranteed on my playthrough.

Sure, the concept of trading pokemon made that rather meaningless in the end, but still.

This was it.

The Masterball.

Seeing it in real life stirred desires and thoughts of power in my mind.

Moltres, Articuno, Zapdos… Mewtwo… all of them from the first games alone. With one throw of a pokeball.

This world wasn’t like that game. This world was so much bigger, and a person with the Masterball would have a much greater array of choices.

Terrible and great choices...

We watched it being put together for ten minutes without uttering a word.

I grunted and tore my gaze away from the assembly process, noticing how Salvadore and Howard had also been drawn into the hypnotic lull of the siren song that the Masterball seemed to cause.

“We should find Annie and Jane,” I said.

“Hmmm,” said Salvadore and Howard together, their eyes still glued on the assembly process.

I coughed, and they stirred. Howard glanced around. “Oh, sorry! I was rather mesmerised there! It’s just so interesting watching them put it together, no?” he said.

Indicating the masterball as the technicians trialled different arrangements for the ball only to inspect a readout on the computers to the side.

“Yeeeeeeaaaah,” said Salvadore as he was dragged back into the trance.

I clapped him on the shoulder. “Right, that’s enough.” I dragged the group out and noted that the exit procedure was much quicker. With the line of sight broken, Howard and Salvadore both seemed to fully return to themselves.

I gave them both considering looks before giving the room a final glance, my eyes tracking the pair of Alakazam that assisted.

It occurred to me that it might not be just the resources that went into the Masterball that made it special, but also the way it was made.

“Right, right… your friends. My assistants should have…” said Howard only to look around and find a group of rather flustered men and women sprinting around the building.

I decided to have mercy on them. “Has anyone looked on the roof?” I prompted.

Howard laughed. “Don’t be silly, of course, they couldn’t be on the roof,” he said.

I merely smiled as a shadow seemed to flit out of a corner and towards the stairs. When an assistant headed up there and returned with Annie and Jane, I merely chuckled.

“Got lost?” I said.

Jane stomped her foot petulantly. “It’s not funny! I just got distracted and then turned around!” she whined. The men who had been looking for her scoffed while the women all stepped in to comfort her, causing me to merely shake my head in wonder.

I decided that was enough for today. When we reached the reception once again, I gave Howard a handshake. “Thanks for the interesting tour, it was way more than I was expecting, and I think Salvadore learned a lot.” I could only imagine that Janine had learned more.

Howard grinned magnanimously at us. “Not at all! Not at all I was glad to give it. Here, please take our latest product that we’re going to be putting to market soon!” He handed each of us a small box

Salvadore ripped the gift wrap off and stared. “The Xtransciever?” he said.

“Indeed, the latest model! We’re going for a cool new marketing method by using a different numeric!” Howard said.

Janine and I shared a look while Salvadore tilted his head. “But the latest transciever is only up to the sixth generation?” he said.

Howard coughed. “Well, that’s just how good it is!” chimed Howard.

I snorted and thanked the man for the new phone/watch/piece of equipment. I was pleased to see that it had a lot of new features and an updated and even easier user interface. It certainly looked good.

When we got outside Janine narrowed her eyes. “Don’t use this for anything sensitive just yet, I will have some experts look this over,” she said firmly. She then bowed to Salvadore and I. “thank you for access to Silph Tower. It was very informative!” she said.

I chuckled and departed with Salvadore for home myself.

Later, after I’d settled in for the night, Janine and I spoke with the other Guardians about her discoveries.

It turned out that her assessment of their security wasn’t very high. “—a clever use of a Ditto and some light fingers would get you entrance into the lab, which would negate most of the security features they have. The keycards are the most important aspect of it all but there are in fact two keycards in existence, with the President and the Vice President having them.”

Agatha scoffed. “They obviously haven’t had anyone actually test the system!”

Karen chuckled. “Might be a job for a ninja girlie?” she said. Janine huffed, and Karen chuckled.

“How was it? The Masterball?” Koga prompted me, causing the banter to fall away.

I considered what to say and eventually settled on one word. “Dangerous.”

This got some serious nods from Koga, Agatha, and Lucy.

The conversation then turned to setting Koga up on the top of Silph Tower as the best vantage point of Saffron City while others swept the other skyscrapers of Saffron that had a direct line of sight of Sabrina’s gym. Janine had also plugged us into the rooftop cameras.

Agatha then addressed Sabrina, who was leaning against me. “Are you ready for your match?”

“I am,” Sabrina said confidently. “I have little doubt of my success in a match against Will. I, however, cannot see any other method but outside interference for Will to defeat me. I will be relying on all of you,” she said, locking eyes with each of the other guardians. “I don’t want to allow Will even the smallest excuse to claim the high ground and avoid another match.”

Agatha nodded. “Put your faith in us and focus as much as you can on your match against Will; we will deny him any interference!”

When things wrapped up, everyone seemed confident. That didn’t stop Sabrina from staying over and cuddling up to me.

“Think you’re going to be alright?” I asked.

“I will be,” she said, locking eyes with me. “I completed it,” she said.

I blinked and had to think for a moment to realise what she could mean. “You and Alakazam?” she nodded, and I laughed. “You’re incredible, and I am so envious of your success.”

Will really had no chance.

I kissed her, and grinned, feeling a weight come off my mind. If anything, Sabrina was that much more guaranteed to win. “What was it like?” I asked.

“It was… powerful and slightly disorientating. It is strange to be so close, I think I will need to use it wisely, lest it backfire on me. I have acquired it in lab settings and will practise a little more.” She shifted in my arms. “I won’t be able to come camping with you tomorrow night,”

“That’s fine. Want me to test you before I go hiking, or I can cancel with my—” I started to say only for Sabrina to shake her head.

“No, if there are any violent reactions like those written about in the reports we have, I want them pointed at an acceptable target… Not that I think such will occur. It was simply… staggering how much more I could sense while linked with Alakazam.”

“I’ll have to work hard with Jormungandr to catch up,” I said, knowing right away what I was going to train tomorrow morning.