65: Brock vs. Joy

"It's not cute," Cindy noted, looking up at the sign Brock was hanging above the shed outside Pewter Gym. The sign labeled the building as a breeding center, though it was only a makeshift version of one, and contained amateurish art of one of Brock's pokemon. "Golbat just can't be cute at all. Does it even show you're a pokemon breeder?"

"It's a pokemon, isn't it?" Brock pointed out.

Cindy sighed. "Even Geodude or Onix would be cuter," she said. "You think of cute pokemon when it comes to pokemon breeders, huh? Golbat is kind of scary."

"Anyone who got to know it wouldn't think so," Brock declared. His pokemon screeched in agreement from where it hung upside-down.

Cindy shuddered, noting Golbat in the tree before she laughed. "Yeah, I like Golbat, but it's going to scare away anyone that comes, hiding away up there."

"Maybe you're right," Brock said with an awkward laugh. "Golbat, come down here." Golbat flew, standing next to Brock, only somewhat shorter than the man himself. The pokemon really did look intimidating. "Um... Maybe in the back would be better," Brock directed his pokemon. Golbat stood with its default expression, leaning over in a away that would certainly surprise children or even other pokemon that approached it. Imaging that, Brock again laughed, his sister joining in. Brock loved his pokemon, but Golbat really was different from the smaller, more appealing pokemon that breeders made forefront, even if they worked with all pokemon.

"Maybe my pokemon could be your mascot instead!" Cindy said, holding out a pokeball.

"Oh," Brock exclaimed as he thought about the possibilities. When she'd turned ten, Cindy had gone out by the ocean with their mother and caught a horsea. That cute species definitely fit the bill as far as what people expected for pokemon breeders. The idea was definitely tempting, but Brock eventually shook his head. "Na, it's okay," he assured. "I wouldn't want to take your pokemon away from you."

"Maybe I want to be a pokemon breeder too," Cindy said, looking from her pokeball to Brock and back again. "Can't you let me help you, bro?" she asked.

Brock grinned. "I'd appreciate it. But only as long as you want, okay?" he asked. Cindy agreed. They went in the shed, dragged out the display tank, filled it up, and had Horsea play in the display to catch the eye of anyone that might happen by. That happened to be a fair amount of trainers during the day, given they were in front of Pewter Gym. Cindy added art of Horsea to their sign, showing that Brock would work with a variety of pokemon, not just rock type, and not even just 'cute' ones.

As the days went on, a trainer here and there sought out his services, but business was still slow. Those interested in pokemon breeding and pokemon training had some overlap, but trainers that cared about the concepts of pokemon breeding weren't a given. Some pokemon breeders also had an attitude of trainers in the gym circuit being careless. Was the breeding center hindered by being next to a pokemon gym?

Even so, that was the only place they had for the moment. Brock and Cindy worked together to decorate it the best they could, shutting it tight at the end of the day to prevent any weather from affecting it. Eventually, more people started to visit, some locals even frequenting to get Brock to help with their pokemon. Eventually, they even had a few pokemon boarders staying in the center, going in Pewter Gym on the off hours. "Maybe I can get more space by renting in town, eventually," Brock suggested to himself.

"You should!" Cindy encouraged.

Brock smiled down at his sister. "What do you think about pokemon breeding so far?" he asked.

"I'm studying hard," Cindy said. "I'll get my certification just like you!"

Though he hadn't meant to insist she did, there was some satisfaction with sharing this passion with one of his family members. "I have some books that could help with that," Brock said. "Oh, and there's classes I could have you go to as well."

"But I have to help you," Cindy insisted.

"Don't worry about me. I can handle myself here. You take all the time you need to get done what you need!" Brock insisted. He ended up not just taking on the work that Cindy couldn't, but also taking more time off hours to help his sister study for the exams he'd passed after much effort. All of that was exhausting, but Brock was still sure to greet everyone who came in with a smile and show plenty of energy.

Some guests were easier to do that for than others. "Welcome!" Brock greeted upon the sight of the woman. "Oh! Nurse Joy!" he exclaimed.

"There's no 'Nurse'," the woman said with a giggle.

"Hi, Brock."

"Huh?" Brock looked at the person next to the patron he'd assumed was a nurse. "Oh, Misty, you're here."

"That's a way to greet me when it's been so long," Misty said, though she still laughed at his antics. "This is my friend, Anita."

"Anita Joy of Cerulean, just to get that out of the way," the woman said. "I heard you can help get pokemon into shape."

"I can give you advice to help your pokemon be the best they can be," Brock said. "I can also take on raising them myself for a while, if that's appropriate."

"Even with water types?" Anita asked. "I mean, Pewter Gym is rock, right?"

"With any types," Brock asserted. "In fact, I'd say water types are one of the types I have more experience with. It's not here today, but there's our mascot, Horsea. Also I've had a lot of experience with water types from my mother's pokemon, and the pokemon of our mutual friend here, when we traveled together throughout Kanto."

Misty giggled as she petted the eevee laying outside, and then looked up at the drawing of Horsea, much larger than Golbat's, so not at all to scale. "It's kind of embarrassing to admit, but Brock helped me learn more about water types than I taught him."

"Oh, really? Then you can help with mine." Anita took out a pokeball, throwing it into the air. "Slowpoke! Look alive!"

Anita's pokemon's eyes remained wide open as it appeared. "Slow," it called in a low, quiet tone.

"What a fantastic pokemon," Brock said, leaning down to see it crawl along the ground. "I can tell you've been taking really good care of it."

"Ha, you can say it looks like an airhead, I already know," Anita said.

"It looks like a slowpoke," Brock said with a smirk as he stood up straighter. "But I also meant what I said. I could give some advice for different food to prepare, maybe how to treat the water it plays in. You have a pool for it, right?"

"It loves the fountain outside our house!" Anita informed.

Brock talked with the woman a while about her pokemon. As they spoke, Misty went in the gym to visit, and then eventually meandered back, informing she was going to say hello to everyone back at Brock's house. As his friend waved good-bye, leaving him alone with the pretty woman, Brock felt hesitant, but found he was still able to speak to Anita just fine, maybe because he spoke so often about these topics now. But even when the topic changed to something personal, he still didn't trip up.

"I'm kinda like Slowpoke," Anita informed.

"Oh, really?" Brock laughed. He didn't see much similarity. "I've noticed pokemon and trainers do end up with some commonalities."

"Maybe that's why I picked it. We're both so slow," Anita lamented.

"You seem kind of quick with picking all of this up," Brock said.

Anita looked at her pokemon, which was crawling slowly back to them after having pushing a nearby ball across the entranceway. "You saw me and you thought I was a nurse already, right? My family thinks I should be, too."

"What do you think?" Brock asked.

"I think... I dunno, I'm taking too much time to decide, that's what I mean by slow," Anita said with a sigh. "Maybe I want to, maybe not. Of course, by now I'm too old."

Brock stopped himself before he asked how old. "You don't look too old to me," he spoke honestly instead.

"I just turned twenty," Anita informed. "I can still start, but there's kind of a stigma about starting after your teen years. Most nurses in my family didn't start schooling right when they're ten, but they didn't wait this long either."

So, Anita was only about a year older than Brock himself. Did that mean he had a chance? Brock shook off the thought, trying to instead respond to what the woman had said. "If you want to, just do it," he said. "There's no issue with doing things on your own time. There's a lot of things that can delay you."

"Yeah, there kind of were," Anita said.

"I didn't get my certification until just a year ago or so. Now my sister's about to get hers. She's even younger than I was when I even considered getting mine. Some people can get ahead, that doesn't mean the rest of us have to give up." Brock nodded before gazing around at the small business he'd been able to build after getting his certification. He really had progressed far despite anything that might have delayed him before.

"That's right, huh?" Anita smiled. "Pokemon breeding, huh? I forgot that needed a certification. Maybe I could do that! It might be a better fit for me. But maybe I'm just looking to escape something. I don't know what it all entails."

"If you'd like, I'd be happy to discuss what I do more with you," Brock said, speaking quickly before he thought of things too much. "Maybe tonight I could take you to dinner at one of Pewter City's finest, and we could talk without distractions." Brock internally berated himself for his habit of bringing up something like this too quickly, then prepared himself for rejection.

But instead, Anita just smiled and nodded. "Sure! I'd love that," she said.

Brock was speechless for a moment, but he then continued with conversation about the various pokemon he was boarding before Misty returned. "Looks like you two hit it off," Misty teased. Anita looked confused as Brock himself put his hand to his head in embarrassment.

"Thanks for taking me here, Misty," Anita eventually spoke. "And thank you for all your help with Slowpoke, Brock. I'm going to go visit my cousin in the pokemon center. I'll see you tonight."

Misty giggled as she watched the woman leaving. "Oh?" she said, elbowing Brock. "Was there really something there?"

Brock decided to ignore the question. "How have you been, Misty?"

"Just great, actually. I'm getting a reputation as one of the top gym leaders!" Misty said.

"You don't still want to travel?" Brock asked.

Misty shrugged. "Yeah, maybe one day. When the world understands pokemon better and welcomes them. Even seeing new and exciting places, I think I'd feel lonely without them."

"Team Rocket isn't helping that much, are they?" Brock asked.

Misty scowled. "I don't know what they're up to. They're acting like pokemon are dangerous, but somehow they can handle them? I think that's why I've started to get less new trainers as challengers."

"Well, it's only been a slight decline," Brock said.

"I think it's been a lot when it comes to new trainers! It really sucks!" Misty said.

"It does," Brock lamented. "You know, what happened with the former champion - with Ritchie, it was really unfortunate. But I think most people know that pokemon aren't a danger to us."

"Do they?" Misty said, frowning as she swirled her hand in the empty tank. "I hear people talking about how only 'experts' should have them, experts like Team Rocket, I guess. And that's here, where pokemon and trainers are all around, forget overseas where people might not ever see any pokemon."

"I'm sure that attitude won't last long. Things will change," Brock assured.

"What if it doesn't?" Misty said. "I even hear Team Rocket people saying they have a right to take other people's pokemon away to ensure our safety."

"How annoying," Brock said. "If it comes to that, I won't let them. But I think it'll be fine." Brock stretched, reaching for his breeding center's sign. "Even Giovanni will want to keep the peace to avoid trouble, I bet."

Misty shrugged. "I wouldn't hold anything past him."

"Well, I'm not gonna worry about that now," Brock said with a grin. "I've got a date, you know."

"With Anita?" Misty said.

"Yeah, can you believe it?" Brock continued the conversation as he waved his hand, ushering the boarding pokemon outside.

"I can, actually," Misty said. "It's not like you've never had a date before."

"Not one I felt this good about," Brock said.

"You sure about that?" Misty playfully jeered before helping Brock lead the pokemon into Pewter Gym. "Well, good luck. And I hope you're right about everything else."

Brock waved good-bye to Misty, then set his mind to getting everything to where it needed to be for the night. Going through everything that needed to be done to close up the shed and care for the boarded pokemon, he realized that he may not have time to complete his tasks properly and make it for his date at the same time. Dragging himself back to his house to call the place he'd planned to meet her, his dad was already cleaning up from their dinner. "What's wrong, Brock?" he asked, noting his son's downtrodden face.

Brock had barely finished explaining when Flint called for Lola along with all of Brock's siblings that happened to be there at the time. Together as a family, they trudged back to Brock's makeshift breeding center. Brock told them all that needed to be done. "Right! I've got all the food for all your charges!" Lola said, picking up a large canister to show how willing she was to help.

"No, Mom!" Tommy chided.

"You've gotta look at the list, then see what types they are. Then we see what food we need," Yolanda said, picking up the clipboard.

"Right, I've got it," Lola said. She carefully put the canister back before looking over Yolanda's shoulder, asking her children questions to be sure she was doing the right thing.

Brock recalled when they'd been younger, their parents away, and he'd been tasked to do much of everything. Then he'd had to redirect his little brothers and sisters on top of that when they tried to help with all well intentions. Now, they were all growing up, and Brock felt he was hardly doing anything at all as his family helped him without question. "You go along, we've got this," Flint assured. Brock felt the additional lightness that he really believed they did, and would complete the tasks competently without Brock personally overseeing. He felt so incredibly grateful that he could be content leaving them to pursue his own personal joy.

Going out and having dinner with Anita and getting to know her better, any thoughts of burdens including Team Rocket were far from his mind. Since being caught red-handed after stealing the gym leaders' pokemon a few years ago, what had they done but talk? They seemed to be trying to repair their reputation. Despite Misty's wariness, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing if it led to them changing their ways. That was possibly what was happening, and they'd definitely have to keep the peace in order to keep up a positive opinion of them. Considering all that, what else could they do?

Having returned to Kanto just that day after a long plane ride, Jessie and Cassidy were exhausted, but still made to get on fresh uniforms and look presentable before they went to the boss's office. Cassidy stood in front, carefully placing the pokeball on the boss's desk. "Here you are, sir," she said. "We're happy to report our success in person. This is Mew."

Giovanni looked up at his agents before back down at the pokeball. "You two look in good health," he said.

"Thank you, sir," Cassidy said.

Giovanni then picked up the pokeball. "And how is Mew?"

"We've been sure to take care of it, keep training it," Jessie informed. "It didn't just stay in its pokeball the past few months. It knows an incredible amount of techniques!"

Giovanni stood, handing the pokeball back to Cassidy. "So you two know what it's capable of. I'd like to see for myself. I'll have a battle against it. Let's go."

They followed him to one of the inside arenas. Giovanni ordered one of the grunts that had been battling to close the shades on his way out, leaving the three humans alone. "You know it better," Cassidy said, handing the pokeball to Jessie.

Jessie took it without comment. This much was true, since Jessie had done most of the work, Cassidy only having her cast removed very recently. Jessie stood across from their boss. They both threw out the pokeballs in unison. "Mew!" Jessie shouted.

"Nidoking!" Giovanni called his own pokemon's name. Both named pokemon appeared at once. "Nidoking, thunder!"

"Mew, try psychic!" Jessie ordered. Nidoking raised its arms forward as it began the attack. Mew moved to the side with ease, avoiding the terrific bolt of lightning as a purple orb formed in front of it. It threw the energy forward, and Nidoking immediately began to fall forward.

Giovanni quickly returned it. "Rhydon, go! Rock slide!"

"Mew, try-" Jessie began, but then saw the pokemon was already starting an attack. "Mew, what's that?" she demanded. Water began to fill the arena. Mew rose about it as a large wave appeared, then crashing over Rhydon as rocks fell behind Mew, inside of the torrent. Before the waves could touch Jessie or Giovanni's toes, the water dissipated again.

"You haven't seen that before?" Giovanni asked Jessie as he returned Rhydon.

"I've seen it use a lot of techniques, but not surf before. It knows so many!" Jessie declared.

"So it was a surprise. But it's what I expected," Giovanni informed. "It goes along with one of the speculations about Mew, does it?" Giovanni said, nodding at Cassidy.

Cassidy sat in the spectator's area, rubbing her leg before she stood. "Yes. Based on its previous appearances, some have speculated Mew can learn any technique. And it has used some I wouldn't have expected of it," she informed.

"Right. Mew is an impressive pokemon," Giovanni declared, grinning at the floating pokemon.

"Mew?" Mew called in response.

"I'm glad you're pleased, sir," Cassidy said.

"I am. I'll talk about your bonuses soon. That includes immediate monetary rewards and eventually, more pokemon," Giovanni promised.

"Thank you, sir," Cassidy said. "I hope Mew becomes another powerful addition to Team Rocket's roster."

"It's more than that," Giovanni said. "Mew is a stepping stone, no, an escalator for our master plan."

"How?" Jessie asked, running forward in the arena to hear better in her excitement.

"Enough. I'm sure he'll tell us when he's ready," Cassidy said.

"No, it's fine," Giovanni said, gazing at the elusive pokemon with a grin. "I'll let you two know before others, since you've both been competent enough to complete this task. Just keep it to yourself for now."

"Yes, sir," Jessie and Cassidy said in unison.

Giovanni nodded. "All this time, we've been relying on gaining pokemon from the outside. We thought we had to rely on pokemon that already existed, but were denied to us."

"We'll just get them for ourselves, just like with Mew, right?" Jessie said.

"Perhaps," Giovanni said. "But that's not the most important part of the master plan. You might even consider it an after effect. Now that we have Mew, we're no longer going to just rely on the limits of the existing. We can create the perfect pokemon for ourselves, and completely overpower the rest."

End note: Yes, basically some fluff for Brock here. He deserved it and perhaps so did readers, heh. I hope you enjoyed. Now things will continue moving maybe a little quicker toward the actual finale. Yes, Ash will be back too... Eventually, ha. The true finale of the story will belong to him and Pikachu.

Next chapter: Mew vs. Mewtwo