Jormungandr worked himself into the sand, luxuriating in the feel of it. It polished his body and worked itself into the links between his segments. With his body in position, he began a slow roll, turning the sand over his body and allowing the sand to do its work.

After a few minutes of just rolling and indulging himself, he raised his head towards where Slugma stood to the side. “Alright, let’s try the hot sand now,” he said. Despite being assured by Bertha, he was still worried about the fire touching him and cooking him.

For that purpose, Shin was sitting to the side, ready to cool the sands if it got too hot. With his tail still exposed, Jorm let himself relax as much as possible.

The heat around him slowly increased until he twitched his tail. Slugma must have stopped, as the sand stopped growing hotter and Jorm shifted slightly, allowing the hot sand to move around. It was… rather nice; it was well before it would grow painful, and that allowed him to slowly relax.

Eventually, his eyes grew heavy, and he dreamed.

He dreamed he was larger than any Onix he’d ever encountered before. He had never encountered a Steelix before, but surely he trumped them as well?

His form was glorious, sparkling with gems as he cast shadows about the land. Atop his head, Brock pointed, and they soared into the sky, Jormungandr worming his way up into the very stars themselves.

There he encountered Moltres and felt no fear in his heart. Instead, he roared his challenge and watched as the puny god of fire quavered with his approach.

It did not flee but instead met Jormungandr head-on as he should have.

The fire merely swept over Jorm’s form as he lunged, his fangs glistening with dark intent as he crushed the god and cast him from the skies. Brock roared with Jormungandr in their shared victory.

Jorm wormed his way onwards, looking for greater challenges.

Then he felt something tap him lightly on the head.

“Jorm, it’s time to wake up,” said a calm voice.

Jorm opened his eyes and found Shin standing in a hole in the sand, his blades raised to tap Jorm on the head. Shin tilted his head. “Are you feeling alright? I was surprised when you started snoring.”

“Ah,” rumbled Jorm, surprised at how relaxed he’d been.

Shin twitched in such a manner that Jorm knew the older pokemon was amused. “You were twitching while you slept; you almost buried Slugma; I had to dig her out,” Shin said. “It was a good dream?”

Jorm nodded. “The best of dreams,” he said, recalling the feel of Moltres falling under his and Brock’s shared might.

Then he sighed. “It is a shame; it was just a dream,” Jorm said. Shin waved a blade, indicating that he was listening. Jorm shifted. “I had done it; I could feel the link between Brock and me. I was glorious in my mega-evolution form. Titanic in size and so powerful,” he said wistfully.

Shin tapped the back of his blade against Jorm’s head. “Do not worry, you will reach your goal; you and Brock are making progress. I think your agitation is caused by how close you are. I know Brock feels much the same way,” Shin said.

“Hmmm, I feel like I am wasting his time; he spends much longer with me than the others and I—” Jorm began to say, only for Shin to ram his broad, flat head against Jorm’s jaw.

“No, do not let such thoughts intrude on you. Each of us has had time when we were prioritised. You are merely the latest to receive this attention. The same has been true of Link, although he has forced Brock’s attention with his…” Shin trailed off, trying to find the right word to use.

“Heart?” Jorm said, recalling the talk they’d had last night.

“I was weighing up if recklessness was the correct term to use,” Shin said, the crook of his arm rubbing at his chin in a thoughtful pose they’d seen Brock do a few times.

Jorm huffed a laugh and rose from the sand, shaking himself as he did so to lose some of the sand from his joints. Shin darted back before even a speck of sand could fall on him, his agile body reappearing level to the ground.

Jorm turned his head around and found no sign of the Slugma beyond a trail of burnt earth indicating where it had gone.

“We have a meeting?” asked Jorm. Shin shook his head, and Jorm tilted his in confusion.

“Brock is inspecting us; some of us will be going with him tonight, as he suspects that Sabrina will face some interference,” Shin reported, shifting his blades back and forth in anticipation only to wilt.

Jorm glanced at his teammate in surprise. “You are worried that Brock will not select you?”

Shin shook his head. “He has better options with how he has recalled Hypnotoad and Tide into his team,” Shin said with a slight bend to his body. “I enjoy fighting, but I must recognise that Brock has better options than I, as far as water types go,” said Shin, beginning to march towards the Elite training area.

Jorm swept after him, sand trickling from his body as he weaved his body forward.

When they arrived, they were some of the last to do so. Brock gave Jormungandr an appreciative look as he reached out to rub at Shin’s head affectionately.

“Hmmm shiny,” said Brock with an odd, amused lilt entering his voice. Jorm knew it wasn’t meant in a mean way, and as a complement, he rumbled back a greeting.

Brock looked around and found that all of the other Elite pokemon, along with the trainees, were present. Teddiursa stood near Empress, his tiny paws lashing the air.

“—and then I was like, take that! And I won again!” said Teddiursa.

Jorm watched as Empress indulged in listening to the small bear pokemon with an amused smile on her scaly face. She looked rather motherly like this. Knight, who’d sat next to the pair, clapped his hands together and applauded Teddiursa.

“A might battle by the sounds of it! Well done on emerging the victor after being tested so much!” he said, shaking his head. He then turned his metal head towards Jorm and indicated the position next to himself. “Jorm! Sit with us!” he rumbled.

Jorm moved from Brock and claimed the spot next to his fellow steel type.

Brock chose that moment to clap his hands. “Alright, gang, it’s good to see that you’ve been engaging in light training or relaxation this morning, tonight I am expecting that we’re going to be getting into a fight.”

All the pokemon stiffened at that, but Brock merely nodded. “Now, before that, I need to assign pokemon that I know will be able to hold down the fort here.”

He waved a hand expansively. “The others and I can only fight as we do, knowing that there will be something to come back to. My family will be here as will the other pokemon. For that reason, I am entrusting this task to the pokemon that I know are up to the task.”

“Knight, Cradily, Link, Hypnotoad, Tide, and Sanchez, “I’m going to be counting on all of you to hold down the fort,” Brock said, locking eyes with all of the pokemon.

Shin stiffened, and hope entered his eyes as Jorm smiled for his friend.

“That means I will be taking Titan, Empress, Bertha, Jormungandr, Don, Zephyr, Gawain, Selene, Shrek, and…. Shin,” Brock said, looking around.

Brock nodded to himself and tilted his head. “Yeah, that seems like a good team set-up in case we end up fighting in a building. Shin can link up with Gawain and Shrek pretty well and they have good counters for grass type…” Brok nodded and smiled. “Yeah, we’ll go with that.”

A screech had everyone looking up to find Zubat flapping around, only to dart off in an excited manner. Brock frowned, watching it soar off only to sigh. “Damn, I need to go check on her. I’ll introduce you all to her later.”

“What about me?!” shouted Teddiursa, puffing up cutely.

Brock paused and looked back to the small pokemon. “You want to guard the house or the reserve?” Brock said with a twitch of his lips.

Teddiursa frowned and looked to Empress, who shrugged.

Bertha grinned and leaned in. “The girls will dress you up in cute ribbons if you guard them! Make sure you get pictures!”

Teddiursa snapped his head to Brock and pointed at the ground. “Outside!” he said instantly, causing Brock to frown before he worked out what had been said, as everyone but Bertha laughed. With Brock heading off everyone slowly broke off into their own groups.

Jorm made sure to nudge Shin. “Looks like you were worried for nothing,” said Jorm with a wide grin.

“Heh! So it seems. Fighting inside eh? I had forgotten about how I was suited for that.”

“You are suited for more than that teacher!” said Gawain who’d ambled across to talk with Shin.

“Would you care for a light spar?” Gawain offered, brandishing his axes. Shin seemed very pleased with this, and Jorm bid his friend a good match before moving off to find a good place to lay in the sun.

He made a long circuit around the reserve, passing a number of Onix, some of whom looked at him with respect while others ignored him. Onix paused when he spotted the older Onix that had been spoken about last night around the campfire.

Jorm took in the scars along the dark-toned Onix with new eyes. Which of those had he gained during the war?

When the Onix looked towards him, Jorm bowed his head in respect. The Onix didn’t say anything, merely nodding back and continuing to slither around, his gaze sweeping over the fence line.

Jorm watched him patrol, realising for the first time that that was precisely what this Onix was doing. When Jorm had first come here, he had joined in with the Onix patrols, and it had simply been a thing that was done.

Now he knew where this habit had started.

It wasn’t just training endurance as Jorm had originally assumed, but training to guard the home.

“It changes things, knowing... doesn’t it?” rumbled Titan from off to the side.

Jorm stiffened, not having heard Titan approaching.

“Ah! Yes, it does,” said Jorm, inclining his head to Titan.

“You don’t have to do that, you know?” Titan said, bobbing his head back.

“I feel like I should,” said Jorm. He shifted. ”I feel like a fraud sometimes, a… glass shield as some people have said.”

“Do not listen to the crowds that jeer at us,” said Titan sternly. “You are no glass shield. You stood up well against Will. Lift your head. You are an Elite of this Gym,” Titan said firmly.

Jorm found himself buoyed by this but still he squirmed. “Yes… but,” he trailed off, unsure how to have this conversation. Knowing what to say to get his point across… he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like you could receive training for such things.

Titan observed him for a moment and nodded. “Ah, you are worried that you are infringing on Brock and I with how you are training to Megaevolve first?”

Jorm nodded. “Yes! That!” said Jorm, surprised, but at the same time not, that Titan could say what Jorm had been tripping over; Titan the Tyranitar was Brock’s starter and it showed in moments like this.

“Brock has said that is not the case to you many times, no?” said Titan, scratching his chin in thought.

Jorm glanced away and Titan huffed. “So, it is not something that you have internalised or heard, eh?”

“I have heard it!” said Jorm worriedly. Did Titan think he didn’t listen to Brock?

Titan shook his head. “No, I don’t mean like that.” Titan waved a claw around. “Sometimes it is not enough for someone to just say something for you to understand. To internalise a message and accept it is different. Sometimes you need someone else to say it to allow understanding to set in.”

Jorm blinked. “Oh, that… thank you?” said Jorm uncertainly.

Titan shook his head, “Hmmm, don’t worry, you will see. Also, I have had a long time to acknowledge that I will probably not be the first of Brock’s team to Mega evolve. He has mentioned it to me before… we even had a plan to go and look for Tyranitarite, you know?”

Jorm blinked. “No? I thought he only mentioned it months ago when that silver-haired man came?”

“Steven?” Titan asked before nodding. “Indeed, to most of the team, he only mentioned it then, but he has spoken to me of the heights I and others could reach. I suspected Shrek might be the first, honestly.”

Jorm shifted. “You said Brock planned to look for your Mega Stone; did you not find it?”

“We never got the chance to look. Brock was hoping for more time in Hoenn,” Titan said, staring off into the distance.

“Hoenn?” Jorm said, tilting his head.

Titan waved a hand. “It is a different place, on a different continent. Brock had started the second year of his journey, and he had been drawn into the desert in hopes of looking for some rare rock-type pokemon with Sabrina’s help. Thanks to that, we ended up finding Selene and Quirina.”

“Ah,” said Jorm. “Where had they been planning to go after that?”

“Lavaridge, specifically to a place called Jagged Pass, even though Brock did not hold much faith in that location he thought he might as well try.” Titan shook his head. “Regardless, Flint called off Brock’s journey, and Brock had to return home instead of searching Jagged Pass as he wished to. Perhaps we will go there in the future, though?”

Jorm considered this, and Titan scratched his chin. Jorm shook himself. “Do you regret Brock’s original Onix not being in my place?”

“Guybro?” said Titan with a blink.

Jormungandr blinked, having not realised that the other Onix had been named. It made sense that Brock had done so.

“Guybro?” Jorm said, sounding out the name. “What does his name mean?”

Titan coughed and glanced aside in a sheepish manner. “Well, actually, Brock had jokingly asked for his family to help name Guybro and that was the name Cindy put forth… Guybro loved it, and Brock couldn’t change it after that, as he was too attached to it.”

Titan chuckled. “I think Brock was rather embarrassed about the entire thing.”

Jorm blinked, stunned at this revelation. He hadn’t been expecting that, but… it made a degree of sense. “Oh, that’s still… nice?”

Titan nodded. “Guybro was very nice; he was extremely calm and very slow to anger, but still a strong Onix with natural talent. He didn’t have as much drive as you do, but Brock had him for a lot longer, which forced Guybro to work hard.”

Jorm shifted again. “How did Brock handle losing one of his pokemon?”

“As well as can be expected. Much of the team was morose after learning of the fact. I…” Titan clenched his claws and snarled. “I had wanted to hunt down the trainer that had done it… It felt so… pathetic to only report the other trainer and have him fined for how he had fought. We were all very sad for a while, and Brock had to also handle his family learning about Guybro’s passing while himself being devastated by the loss.”

Titan shifted and looked down at the ground. “He rather struggled at the time I remember. Sabrina helped out a great deal but it took Gym Leader Surge kicking a fuss to get us out of our funk.”

“Ah,” said Jorm. “do you…” Once again, Jorm lacked the words to say what he felt needed to be said.

Titan snorted. “Do not sell yourself short. You have exceeded Guybro many times over. You have filled his gap well and are exceeding his memory. If you want to honour him, try making yourself available to play with Brock’s family. They would like that, I think.”

Titan then rubbed at his face before he smirked. “Just be ready for them to put their hands in places hands aren’t supposed to go.”

“Ah,” said Jorm, suddenly rethinking the idea before reaffirming it with a nod. “I think I will still try,” said Jorm, glancing towards the house.

Before he could put words to action, another thought occurred to him. “What of Brock’s original Geodude? I don’t hear much about him."

Titan grinned broadly. “Ah, Dwayne? He’s still around; he is old however, and Brock didn’t have the knowledge at the time to realise quite how old he was when he caught him as a Geodude. He held up well and evolved all the way to being a Golem, with Brock learning a lot from training him.”

“So he is still around? What does he do? I don’t think I’ve met him, or seen him about the reserve.”

Titan coughed. “Well, Brock needed a lot of eggs to test his theory about how to get electric-rock typed Geodude, you see? The Researcher… Bianca is very familiar with him, you could say. He does come out occasionally, but mostly only during feeding time. He doesn’t train or fight much and is considered retired.”

Jormungandr blinked at that, and it took a long moment for him to understand what was being said. “He is a stud now?”

“He has a very fine harem of three pokemon, to hear him speak of it,” said Titan. “Sanchez is his grandson.”

“Where does he spend his time?” Jorm asked, too curious to stop himself.

Titan waved for Jorm to follow and led Jorm towards the electrified cave. Both of them walked in without worry. They found Bianca in the cave wearing a rubber suit placing a few eggs off to the side.

“Hmmm good haul, ladies!” she said before noticing Titan and Jorm’s presence. “Oh! Hello there, boys! Come to contribute?” she said eagerly.

Titan shook his head quickly while Jorm glanced around.

“Hoh? What’s this? Bringing along another young one to my palace, Titan?” said a voice that sounded like it was being ground out between rocks.

“Dwayne,” Titan said. “Jormungandr was curious about the original team Brock had, and I thought to introduce him.”

“Hmpf! I suppose he also thinks my daughters and granddaughters aren’t good enough for him eh?” said the old Golem.

Jorm was thoroughly lost, and Titan shook his head and tapped at the side of his head to show that Dwayne wasn’t all there.

Sadly, Sanchez was there, and he rolled out with a huge grin. “You going to marry my sisters? Jorm yes! We can be literal brothers that way!” he exclaimed with far too much eagerness for Jorm.

Titan backed away, Jorm decided to do the same. “Nice to meet you all!” he hesitantly called back as he retreated.

“Feh! Young ones! Not enough vim and vigour by half!” said Dwayne to their backs.

“I’ve got that in bucket loads, pops!” said Sanchez, sparking up and zapping a nearby boulder just to demonstrate his point.

“Too much of it!” barked Dwayne, chopping his hand lightly on Sanchez’s head.

Jorm left the cave and gave Titan a look. “I see where Sanchez gets it from now,” he said.

Titan merely nodded. “So, still want to try playing with Brock’s family?”

Jorm considered that for a moment and nodded. “Yes, I would like to try… I will be careful though; they are very small from what I have seen of them.”

“They’re stronger than you realise. Just keep yourself calm and don’t take sudden actions. You can move fast, but make it smooth,” Titan said patiently.

Jorm smiled. “Heh, you’re so wise.”

Titan grinned. “You just say that cause I’ve learned more and I get to teach you. Don’t worry, you’ll learn your own tricks!” Titan said, leading Jorm towards the edge of the garden that marked the edge of the reserve.

Jorm leaned over the hedge and found a delighted tiny human child grinning up at him.

“Jorm!” it said as it reached up to him with tiny hands.

Jorm stared at the tiny being and felt himself go soft.

He decided then and there that his predecessor, Guybro, had good ideas, and he was glad he’d learnt about him.

Now he would honour him by playing with Brock’s family in his place and helping to make them smile.

When Brock came to collect him and Titan, Jorm had a sequence of artwork on one part of his body, with Billy and Timmy having signed their work like proper artists.

Jorm felt more sure of himself and ready to fight than ever before.