"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I growled as I thundered down the flattened path leading to a target that was on a swivel.
My lance, couched in my arm and held as firmly as I could manage, wobbled as I closed.
I thrust when I closed with the target, only to whiff by an inch.
Sadly, with the way a lance was shaped, that meant I ended up nudging the target shield and causing the bag of sand to swing around with me barely having the time to duck.
Not that I could with the armour I was wearing, limiting my range of motion.
My helmet clanged as the powdered sand I'd settled for smacked me on the way past and I sighed in frustration.
"Ooooooooh, bad miss boss!" called Rachel from the side.
I nudged my mount, which in this case was a Rhyhorn, towards her. "What do I need to fix up? I feel like I'm getting shaken up like I'm holding a jackhammer rather than keeping a lance square."
"I think you need to move with Rhyhorn. When he rises, you need to go with him and when he flattens out, you need to follow. Right now, you're going the opposite way, which is causing you to bounce around more than you should," suggested Dennis.
I raised my visor and squinted at him. "I didn't know you were versed in jousting?"
"No, but my eldest daughter is part of the local Ponyta club, and I've spoken… or rather been told all about what makes a good rider."
That had me rubbing my chin. "Maybe we need to get them here to help me train?" I suggested.
"I think you need to learn to ride first, Brock," Dennis offered. "You're leaping towards jousting right now, but you only have a little bit of experience riding pokemon."
I nodded, conceding the point. I was used to riding Jorm, or Zephyr these days. It had been ages since I'd ridden Bertha as a Rhyhorn, and that had only been a few times over the course of the year and a half. She'd well and truly evolved before I had any chance to 'get good' at riding a rhyhorn.
"Yeah, that… sounds about right. Let's rejig the course and build it up," I suggested.
"You know you don't have to win Brock," Rachel offered.
"That sounds like quitter talk!" I replied with a raised fist that I hoped looked heroic.
Rachel giggled at my antics and continued filming me. Both for me to see what I was doing wrong, and also to create some content for the Pewter Gym pokenet page.
Hopefully no memes came from this, I thought to myself as I set Rhyhorn to start walking around, making a conscious effort to move with my pokemon.
When I got close to Salvadore, I tossed him the lance which he caught and stacked with the others, more than happy to play his part as my 'squire;.
Sanchez sat to the side, eying him and waiting for him to 'slip up' so he could show Salvadore the ropes, having squired for Mewtwo in the past.
Everyone knew that Sanchez just wanted to take over, but he was at least trying to play it 'fair' for the moment.
"Go Go go go go lem!" he called to me, cheering me on and heaping praise upon me. I rolled my eyes at him as I knew that I was the only one who understood his words and the witty double entendre of praising my 'lance', or he was just terrible at phrasing.
Still, his shouting caused Salvadore to flinch as he realised that.
"Ah! Mighty fine strike sir knight! With a lance as strong as yours, nothing will stand in your way!" Salvadore praised, catching on to Sanchez's game of one-upmanship.
Sanzhez and Salvadore locked eyes, and I thought I saw a spark sprout between them.
I made a show of shaking my head at their antics while Rachel stuffed a hand into her mouth to muffle her giggling.
Dennis had turned his head away and was blushing, all too aware of the way that could be misconstrued.
The Crusher Tribesmen that had followed me back watched on with the air of people thoroughly lost with what was going on, but finding themselves enjoying the show.
Glimmer grinned at me. "Maidens will swoon with a lance like that!" she called.
I made a point of flicking my fingers towards my visor and then back to her, letting her know what her game was.
If she discovered the pokenet anytime soon, she was going to become an pokenet troll, I just knew it. That and a celebrity with how many songs she could perform.
The woman had a unique look that she rocked confidently.
When I'd deliberately led the Crusher tribesman through Pewter to rattle them with how small their 'nation' was, more than a few women had apparently approached the Gym via Rachel to ask about Glimmer and the others 'unique look'.
A few hairstylists were also getting requests for beads in their hair and other ornaments.
Without even trying, she'd started a small fashion trend.
I shuddered to think what she could do if she started performing or trying to push the Crusher culture via fashion, song, and dance.
I'd played more than my fair share of empire-building games. I knew that sometimes you could win even when you were grossly outnumbered or vastly smaller in terms of land.
The Crusher tribe didn't have the biggest army or any 'nuclear threats'. Their diplomacy was frankly abysmal, given how they were about to be absorbed into Indigo. As for their scientific developments?
I'd caught Agate the other day, trying to pour juice into the toaster.
This had led to a round of educational lectures regarding kitchen safety for electrical appliances.
What the Crusher tribe had in spades, however, was a unique way of life that tons of people would find appealing. What wasn't to like about a continual journey that roamed far and wide?
Culturally, they were going to cause a splash by way of simply being 'new while also old' They would throw 'Retro' into their side of the ring.
Or maybe I'd taken a few too many hits to the helmet, and my head was ringing a bit.
"Let's have a drinks break," I suggested to my erstwhile steed.
"Rhyhorn!" he grunted happily, letting me get off only to scamper over to Titan and Bertha, who were watching on from the side.
Which reminded me a lot of two proud parents watching their kid at soccer practice.
Bertha even offered their kid a moist towel to wipe his face and some cut up oran berries.
I glanced towards where Lola was watching on, drinking what looked like a milkshake out of a curly straw.
She wasn't offering me any insight or help and instead sitting back and enjoying the show. Apparently, jousting, where we merely smashed into each other with sticks wasn't up her alley.
I called bullshit.
Still, I wasn't annoyed at her being in my general vicinity, so this counted as progress.
When the break was done, I mounted back up on Rhyhorn after watching the previous videos of my efforts and compared them to those of professional riders.
"So this small band allows you to stare at people's backsides?" asked Glimmer innocently as I watched a how-to guide.
I raised a hand to deny that, only to lower it. Rachel grinned. "That and more! Learn to read and new worlds will open themselves to you!" she gushed, all too pleased to be offering corruption to the Crusher Tribals.
I put my hand to my face and sighed. Right, that could be someone else's problem to deal with them. "You're teaching them about safe browsing and not clicking on ads or other traps," I ordered.
Rachel didn't even flinch, just nodded like she'd been expecting such an order.
By the time lunch rolled around, I was sweating heavily underneath my armour and had to take a break with it off. The instant the armor came off, large clouds of steam began to waft off me in the cold air.
A hint of spring was in the air, however, and I couldn't wait to be done with the snow and ice. Sadly, once that was done, I was going to have to endure a week of Bertha being a filthy mess with all the melting ice creating large swaths of mud.
When we'd first moved out here it had taken me two weeks with the ground being sodden to work out that Bertha had been at fault.
It was rather clever in retrospect how she bribed various water types to help keep the ground wet rather than dry out.
Sabrina had been very amused when I'd reached out to various civil engineers to work out why the grounds weren't draining away or drying out.
She hadn't told me how Bertha had bought her silence on the matter, but I had several suspicions considering that the Pewter Gym now stocked Bertha and Titan dolls alongside the collectible action figures.
A flash of light heralded Sabrina's arrival, and I raised a hand in greeting.
"Hard at work, I see," she commented idly as her eyes drifted around the field.
"Yeah. I think I'm going to be walking funny for the next month after I'm done with this," I commented while patting my inner thighs and behind my knees. I'd forgotten how new exercises like this could strain even a healthy body.
A dull ache was already building up, but I had Chansey ready to step in at the end of the day. Her appearance alongside that of Link caused the watching Crusher Tribesman to stiffen in surprise before murmuring to themselves as she began healing Rhyhorn and me.
I was about to ask them about this odd reaction when Sabrina spoke up.
"Would you like me to help hold you in position?" Sabrina asked as she sat next to me. Sandwiches that had been set out on a tray floated towards her.
"No, I need the muscle memory more than anything. You can nudge me into a proper position, but locking me in will do me more harm than good," I replied.
That earned a nod from Sabrina, and we sat, enjoying the moment before I shivered and drew a blanket around myself. I opened it up to offer Sabrina a cozy snuggle with a smirk, only for her to raise a perfectly curated eyebrow at me.
"You're a sweaty mess," she pointed out flatly.
"Aw? Don't you love me?" I teased.
"I'm between shoots right now. I'm not going to have to sit through ten minutes of makeup and dressing again just because you want to hold me. So no," she replied, only for a small snowball to flick into the blanket. It touched my neck, causing me to yelp.
"Cool off," she muttered as she smirked and vanished into a Teleport before I could grab any nearby snow to retaliate.
With her departure, I sighed and looked towards the armor that had been set aside.
"We're going to need to warm that up before I put it back on," I called to my... Squires.
Sanchez made a show of sparking up his hands while Salvadore ran to grab several Slugma and Growlithe.
I stared at both of them.
"Right… both of your solutions are going to see me dead, either fried or roasted. Just.. go get the heat packs we use for the Onix and warm them up before dumping the armor in for a few minutes," I suggested.
"Aaaaaaww," groaned Salvadore as he and Sanchez trudged away.
"Gotta give them an A for enthusiasm!" remarked Rachel.
"That's not how letters work. With the Crushers here, don't use such statements, or you'll just confuse them," I replied.
Rachel blinked at that and tilted her head, running what she'd said back through her head, only to giggle.
I then chopped my hand towards her. "And no. Bad ideas are still bad. Sometimes they're worse for the levels of enthusiasm involved."
Rachel raised her hands in surrender, and before long, I had the armor warmed up and back on so I could continue my training with riding and jousting.
As the afternoon dragged on, I found my stamina flagging and eventually had to call it quits, too tired to hold my lance properly.
Rhyhorn, for his part, was exhausted, but at the same time, he looked rather pleased with all the attention Titan and Bertha were heaping onto him. Probing the bond, I felt a certain pride emanating from both of them, while also a slight guilt.
Marching up with a water bottle and proper clothing on, now that I knew I wasn't going to be donning my armor I nodded at them. "Hey, good work today Rhyhorn. You did great carrying me around like that. Did you enjoy it? It's not the usual sort of pokemon training, and if you didn't I can—"
"Horn!" he barked firmly, and I smiled. He still had energy to show some life, huh?
"Well, alright. You and I are going to be practising this for the next few days straight," I said.
"Rhy!" he agreed, a fire in his eyes. Then he adopted a slightly more sheepish pose as he curled in on himself. "R-rhy horn?" he asked, nodding his horn towards the distant target.
"Oh, you want to do more jousting tomorrow?" I asked.
He nodded quickly, and I laughed. It made sense that a pokemon like rhyhorn enjoyed slamming into other pokemon and a joust was pretty much a headlong charge. He'd probably prefer it if it was more pokemon to pokemon… which…
"Hey Rachel are there any pokemon battles that focus on just head-first charges?" I asked.
Rhyhorn and Bertha perked up at this while Rachel tilted her head.
"Not that I've heard of?" she asked, staring at me. "Who'd want to see two pokemon just charge headlong at each other? Where's the skill?"
Bertha and Rhyorn both began shouting at her and making various gestures that had Rachel backing up in surprise. Then Bertha realised what she was doing and coughed into a giant fist while giving her son a proud pat on the head.
Titan's rumbling laugh caused the trio to all break out into giggles, and I hummed.
"Might be a market for that," I commented. There were always fringe interests like that, and seeing powerhouse pokemon launching at each other would always be entertaining. "Just need some Chansey on hand to deal with any injuries," I pointed out.
"You could even have weight classes to make sure pokemon that are too heavy aren't getting flattened by pokemon that weigh more or have more experience," I said as my mind started to conjure up various ways to make it work.
Off the top of my head I knew pokemon like Aron, Lairon, Aggron, Rhyhorn, Rhydon, Rhyperior, Stantler and more that would love nothing more than to charge at each other. There would likely be other pokemon as well with horns or hard heads that would look to take part.
I shook my head. "Yeeeeah, I think I've got enough on my plate without trying to create a new genre of sport for hard-headed Pokémon," I declared.
This drew a chorus of groans from Rhyhorn, Bertha, and surprisingly, the Crusher Tribesman.
"Eh?" I asked, turning towards them.
Glimmer coughed. "We have some festival games that include such 'battles', it is usually won by the heaviest pokemon which is typically Golem, who love to slam into each other." She smirked. "We have a song about it actually, as the first such game was how we learned to evolve Graveler into Golem."
"Well, that sounds fascinating!" called a familiar voice.
I turned and nodded towards Oak. The former Champion turned pokemon professor had a sparkle in his eyes as he beheld the Crusher tribesmen and me.
"Hello there! I'm Samuel Oak! I'm the local poke—"
"You are the man known as the Peacemaker," Glimmer proclaimed, bowing her head. Instantly, the others bowed their heads.
Everyone else did a double-take at this instant show of respect.
"Ah? I hadn't heard that title in quite a while. I ask not to be referred to as such these days." Sam scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Of course! My apologies. When our scouts reported that you had stepped down and you no longer were part of the battling scene, it was assumed you had passed from this world," replied Glimmer easily.
Oak tilted his head. "I've had a few friends tell me about you and your… situation," he said carefully, eyes darting to me before looking at the group. He paused on Ruby. "I've heard that you're in line for a rather cutting-edge treatment. Are you looking forward to it, young lady?"
Ruby grinned. "Does a Pidgeot not look to the skies after breaking its wings?" she asked.
That had Oak and I pausing before we nodded along at the sentiment. It was quite appropriate for her situation, if darker than a young girl would normally say.
It wouldn't be long before she was 'flying around the place', I had no doubt.
Oak hummed. "I must ask, how did you learn of me?"
"There is a song of your accomplishments," Glimmer announced. "It was meant as a warning for the Crusher Tribe not encourage too close to the new nation of Indigo for at least two generations, given how powerful you were." She pursed her lips. "It was not listened to."
Her lips twitched upwards as she inclined her head towards me. "But that might have resulted in some good."
"Hmmm, just so," replied Oak as he rubbed his chin. "So you're a singer, dancer, and composer, I have heard?" he grinned as she nodded once more. "I'll have you know I'm something of a poet myself."
I couldn't help myself, I snorted in amusement.
Oak shot me a hurt look that had me instantly raising my hands and waving them. "Sorry, it's just that. She's dedicated her life to those things as Lorekeeper, so this sort of made me think of a child presenting their drawings to a parent who was a professional artist."
Oak huffed, but Glimmer glared at me, causing me to blink in surprise.
"A child should never be discouraged," she stated firmly. "As lorekeeper, that will be my wisdom for the day for you, Overlord." She then turned her attention back to Oak. "I would be very interested in your poems," she remarked.
Oak beamed, like he'd just met an idol and she'd agreed to listen to his mixtape… which…
I held back a smile, lest it be taken the wrong way, and coughed instead. "So, were you coming over to grill us about the new pokemon and regions that the Crusher tribe is potentially opening up?" I prodded.
Oak made a face as he laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Ahahaha! I'm not getting too obvious, am I?"
"No, but I know you well enough that you're a busy man." I nodded my head. "That being said, there were some… experts documenting the pokemon and routes."
"Sadly, I won't have access to them for a few more days…" he trailed off as he caught sight of Salvadore sprinting towards us with a large folder in his arms.
"Professor Oak! I tried using the Pokedex to get images and data on the new pokemon in the Crusher Tribe, but the League did something to the network to trap the information! But I took a secondary camera and made notes!" he called.
Oak beamed, and when Salvadore handed him the folder, he took it with reverence. "You are a wonderful young man whom I look forward to seeing grow. If anything, keep your passion, young man!"
Salvadore blushed even as a huge grin split his face.
Glimmer sidled up to me and nudged me gently. "See? Like that!" she pointed out.
I rolled my eyes. "I wasn't discouraging him. I was just amused!" I defended only for her to ignore my comments.
Despite myself, I did find that I was interested in finding out what Salvadore had observed. I'd gotten to walk around the camp a few times, but I highly suspected I hadn't seen all of the pokemon they might have had.
Not with most of them who walked around with pokeballs on their hips.
I glanced at Glimmer, noting the two pokemon on her belt. "Say, I never got around to asking, but how do you have pokeballs?"
"There are several apricorn groves that we pass along in the great migration. We pluck the apricorns and give them to a family that specialises in crafting pokeballs out of them."
"Oh wow, that's impressive," I replied.
Glimmer shrugged. "It is what it is. Most people are gifted three pokeballs when they turn twelve but you can get them earlier, or get more by doing work for the family."
"I'm surprised they weren't mentioned or part of the discussions we had last week," I murmured.
"They are a quiet bunch that prefer to keep their heads down. Doubly so with Granite's rule." Glimmer chewed her lip. "They had faced quite a lot of blame for the issue with the Tyranitar families losing their companions."
"Ahh, they were shunned?" I suggested.
Glimmer nodded. "Yes."
"I'll make a note to have them apologised to. What happened with the Tyranitar wasn't their fault."
"You don't have to," replied Glimmer. "I imagine that anyone who wronged them will find themselves on the outs with the family now. They are a patient people that know their worth."
"Ah," I replied, understanding her meaning. There would no doubt be a lot of people put out. "There might be issues with the League introducing machine-made pokeballs," I murmured.
"Are they better than handmade, personalised pokeballs from a master that has been honing his craft for years? Built upon generations of work?" Glimmer asked.
That caused me to blink. "I'm not sure. I only know of the one family in Johto that still make pokeballs through apricorns, and lots of people in Johto swear by the balls, but again… getting one made is a tough ask. It was seen as too much of a bottleneck for a larger population, so most prefer to use the pokeballs, greatballs, or ultraballs that you can buy at any regular pokemart."
Glimmer's eyes darted down to my pokebelt. "Those aren't what you have though?"
"I have a smattering of various pokeballs. And I've also splurged before to buy things from Celadon while being gifted Luxury balls and more," I commented.
"Hmmm it seems there is much still to learn," Glimmer mused, and I could only nod.
To the side, Salvadore and Oak were still going through the reports, and I could only shake my head and announce that we were done for the day.
Oak paused as I began packing away the armor with Sanchez. Salvadore tensed, torn between his desire to outdo Sanchez and to talk with the pokemon professor. Oak solved the issue by ducking his head.
"Apologies young man, might I pause our discussion. I'm rather interested in this… oddity before me," he stated.
"No worries! I'm supposed to help pack and clean that up as his squire!" Salvadore declared only to kick a nearby rock. "I'm not very good right now, but I'm taking it slow and steady! Cause that's how you get good at something!"
For some reason, Oak stiffened and looked at Salvadore. Then his eyes swept to me, and there was a glimmer of uncertainty. "Oh? You're taking your brother as your Squire?" he asked.
I made a show of shaking my head and affecting nonchalance. "He is interested in a lot of things these days."
"Think he'll become a knight?" he said with a troubled expression.
Turning, I gave Oak my full attention. "Hey, do we need to have a private conversation? You're acting a bit weird, and right now I can't tell if it's because you're worried he'll have a go at jousting and the other events too early and get hurt or if something else is going on?"
My sudden declaration caused everyone to stop what they were doing and look to Oak.
He pursed his lips and tightened his hands only to forcefully exhale and relax his stance.
"It's nothing. Nothing I should speak of, it's not my place… or time," he said cryptically.
Which, for me, was yet another nail in the coffin.
I glanced at Salvadore and chewed my lip. But damn, he'd just introduced a hell of a curveball into the equation by noticing how Salvadore and I looked alike.
I scrubbed a hand across my face. Urgh, this had Celebri's prints all over it. Which meant that there was some time fuckery at play. I knew of the one movie where Ash and Oak interacted but wasn't that supposed to be a young Sam Oak brought into the future or some such?
Why was Oak being so weird about the armor? Mentally, I listed off the reactions he'd had, along with how he'd nudged me to talk to someone to get them to match the shield.
Urgh! What the hell was I supposed to do here?
Demand he tell me what he knew?
That wasn't something he could do with time mechanics.
I rubbed my face and pondered how to even touch on it delicately. Were there any movies about time travel?
In my past life, it had been Terminator, Marvel and Back to the Future. Futurama, and… urgh.
Oak decided to scuttle off after that, apparently, the revelation that it might have been Salvadore instead of me causing him to become jittery. I had to admit that the idea didn't fill me with much joy either.
I'd thought I'd been the magnet for trouble, but there was a strong possibility that something might be angling for one of my brothers.
"We're going to watch some movies tonight," I announced as we finished packing away the armor.
"Oh! Something with knights?" asked Salvadore.
"Nope!" I said, already searching my Xtransceiver for anything that involved time travel.
It then started compiling lists of other typical movie genres and their plots.
It might be time to try and make my family 'genre savvy'.
Nothing wrong with having them a bit wiser to situations and what 'not to do' in certain situations.
That caused me to grimace. Damn, it also meant I was going to have to sit through a bunch of horror movies.
Urgh, the things I do for family.
Maybe I could start with a Samurai Furret movie or two? Those should be easy enough sells without jumping into something terrifying like Shriek Six - The Haunter House of Horror.
Hmmm, if I wanted to spread wisdom around even further, I could make it a streaming situation.
Although I might not be that entertaining.
Hmmm, I wonder how Janine and Visquez would react if we watched some horror movies?
Actually, that would probably see my time —which was already in short supply and also possibly about to get majorly disrupted— pinched, I could probably offload that to just Janine, Erika and Visquez. They didn't have much of a 'pokenet' presence so this could be a good idea for them.
I glanced back to where the churned-up field was and sighed. Yeah, that was a better idea. I had my hands full. I was going to be sore and tired enough as it was.
Still, movie night with my family was a good idea, and I stuck to it enough to set us up with a fantasy movie. It was a nice way to settle down for the night.
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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support.
Thanks also go to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!