Hard Enough - Chapter 75: Surfs up

Chapter 75: Surfs up

Zephyr flew over Viridian as I chowed down on my breakfast with one hand. We had a good tailwind, but I’d urged him to go faster with the need to make up for the time I’d lost when I’d reminded the kids that the grannies were looking after them today. Suzie had demanded to come with me, and had latched onto my leg like a Shellder on a Slowpoke. She’d have refused to get off until I gave in and accepted that this was my new form and way of life.

Sadly, she vastly underestimated my strength and forgot that she was ticklish. So I had my leg back and was soaring away.

A buzz on my wrist notified me that Brawly was calling. “Brock! Where you at? Rocko and I are already out on the water!”

I quickly swallowed before replying, “Had some family stuff. I’m flying down your way now. What am I looking for? Is it where the river meets the ocean?”

“That’s where I’d aim to start with, and then I’d head south. You’ll see an island chain that will be where we’re at!”

I signed off before shoving the rest of my meal into my mouth. I tapped Zephyr to line him up with the small river that ran from the mountain range near Cerulean, past Mt Moon and straight south to the ocean. Zephyr beat his wings before adopting a glide. I huddled in to help him stay as streamlined as possible before popping back up when we reached the mouth of the river.

There we hovered before orienting towards a distant island that quickly grew larger. When I got to it, I had my pokemon circle lower and lower until I spotted a group of people riding boards while on the beach more people lounged about. In the water around the people various pokemon bobbed. I could see Seaking, Golduck, Horsea, Staryu, and when I swept over the entire group I noticed a shadow in the water that had to be big enough for a Wailord.

I made for the beach. “Yo Brock! Jump in!” Brawly called out. I looked at him before looking down at myself. I had my swimmers underneath, but I’d need a moment to get through my upper layer of clothes. I tapped Zephyr towards the beach only to receive boos from some of the swimmers as I ignored their calls to leap from my flying pokemon into the water.

I snorted, unclipped a pokeball from my belt, and tossed it out. “Tide! Give them some waves!”

From roughly ten meters up, a very large Lapras appeared. The swimmers all jolted as they saw it. Tide cried out in glee before opening his fins wide. He fell and I grinned as people scrambled about only for a loud ‘fwap’ to sound out. From where my Lapras hit the water, a large wave formed up and lifted everyone in. Pokemon and people alike, none were spared.

Then the wave began to tumble forward. The surfers whooped with glee while some people grabbed onto their pokemon to ride along as the wave carried them. They raced onto the beach, with some sliding along the wet sand while others face-planted and became like strange moving trees as their legs and arms twitched.

One swimmer that was ‘planted’ was approached by a Psyduck, who poked at it before the swimmer twitched, scaring off the little psychic duck. He came up for air, spat some sand and laughed before diving into the surf.

I shook my head as Rocko and Brawly approached. “Nice entrance! That was a sweet wave!”

“Well that’s good.” I gestured around the beach. “You know everyone here?”

“As much as anyone can know people that like to share some waves at a new place. I’ve met a few, and they’re all good people.” Brawly shrugged. I hummed as I lifted my shirt and tossed it into a bag. I turned back and shook myself off. Brawly grinned. “Damn bro! You gonna catch some envy rocking up to surf like that!”

I glanced down at myself. “Something wrong?”

“Nah, you’re just ripped as hell is all.” He nodded his head towards a pair of swimmers that were openly staring. One girl even had her mouth hanging open. Brawly sniggered at their expressions, then stepped up and clapped me on the shoulders while grinning at the girls. “Sorry ladies! I’m gonna have to give him a vest to keep him safe! So the show’s about to end!”

One girl pouted while the other accepted it with a nod. She then raised up a camera and took a picture of me before giving us a ‘nice’ gesture. Her friend smacked her on the shoulder in mock reprimand even as she leaned in to check out the picture.

I ignored them before donning the surfer vest Brawly had. He gestured to the boards. “Right, so how much do you know about surfing?”

I nodded like a sage and cupped my chin. “I know next to nothing!” I said without shame.

Rocko snorted. “He’s all yours Brawly. I’m gonna go surf with Gloom.” Brawly stiffened and shot Rocko some worried looks. His eyes slide from Rocko’s retreating form to me as he wet his lips. It took me a moment to realise why Brawly might be nervous about Rocko’s Gloom.

He tried to adopt a calm tone as she coughed. “He uhhh didn’t mean—”

I waved it off. “I’m not worried about his life choices. I know, and he knows that I don’t care as long as he’s sober when work starts. If I need him for an emergency, I have to take him how he is or not call him.”

That seemed to give Brawly pause. He blinked a few times and raised a finger before dropping it. “Huh, cool.”

“It is what it is,” I said before pointing at the surfboards. I made a mental note that Brawly had a terrible poker face. “So? Wanna teach me how to surf?”

Brawly’s grin grew once more. “For sure!” And so I spent the next twenty minutes being instructed exactly how to paddle on a surfboard. Brawly made sure I had a longboard to practise on before he had me learn how to transition into a standing position.

“Okay, you need to be a bit smoother with your shift and snap up!” He jerked a thumb out onto the water. “Let’s take you out into the shallows and get you practising that before I get you on some baby waves!” He then paddled out further, leaving me to one of his pokemon.

I spent the next half an hour having small waves splashed my way with Brawly’s Poliwrath. The pokemon would walk up and prod me in certain positions and point out issues before getting on a surfboard of his own and showing what I was doing, and what I was supposed to be doing.

I eventually got a begrudging nod from the pokemon.

I turned in the water and began paddling out into the deeper water. In the time I’d been learning how to surf Tide had become a rest spot. With his size that meant he’d become a pontoon with swimmers lounging about on him while other pokemon leapt over or under him. He leaned his neck into the swimmers that were scratching at his neck while he also kept one eye open.

I closed in and sat up on my board before shifting around. Brawly grinned at me. “Nice one! You ready to try surfing properly?”

“I suppose, think I’m more ready to wipe out a lot.” I scooched up, still not comfortable.

Brawly merely laughed, “Ha! That’s half the fun! Just make sure you don’t belly flop! Pokemon can handle it, but it’ll leave a sting if you do! If you do it right, your wipeouts are some of the best fun you’ll have.”

I snorted at that, only for Brawly to put his hand below the water and shake it up. “I’m gonna set up a wave for myself. When you’re ready, just wave your hand in a V under the water. Wailord will set you up. So paddle out and turn towards shore.” He did as he said, paddling away from us before spinning.

A swell soon built, and Brawly grinned as he began paddling it in. From the angle we had, I got to watch as he paddled before kipping up to his feet.

Another surfer approached me, smiling happily while adjusting her swimsuit. “Hi there! I’m Billie! This your first time?” I nodded. “Nice! Well, watch what Brawly does! He’s a natural at surfing!” she said, singing Brawly’s praises. “Oh, he’s about to do some cutbacks!”

I tilted my head but made sure to keep my eyes on Brawly as he rode the wave only to rise up and perform a fast turn at the top before dropping low and repeating the gesture. He did this a few times before lowering himself into the curling part of the wave.

“He’s in the tube!” Billie informed me as my new friend surfed along the wave. He held his hand out and held it in the water before leaning forward and speeding up. He shot out of the tube and then launched himself up and over the wave to flip up into the water.

“Yeeeeow!” He cheered as he let himself flip over.

Billie laughed before dropping her hand into the water to call up her own wave. A set of bubbles signalled that Wailord had recognised the order.

She paddled out and got ready for her wave while Brawly glided back towards me. “Hey man! How was that?” I shifted on the board and nodded at him.

“It was uhm… solid?”

“Heh! You’re such a landie Brock. We call it a sweet, or a sick ride! Not solid!”

I shrugged, “I’m a rock type trainer. Guess it shows.”

Brawly hummed. “Yeah, but we aren’t like our pokemon man.” I merely nodded, if Brawly hadn’t yet encountered aura, I wasn’t going to inform him. Most people I had discussed it with prior to the Guardians thought I was a charlatan. Well,except Sabrina of course.

With my body in the water, I was feeling a small weakness, but it wasn’t anything more than a slight stiffness. I wouldn’t want to play water sports but I had been described as a brick in water in both lives so that was never a concern of mine.

Rocko swam out and deposited his Gloom onto the back of Tide. Brawly gave us both hesitant looks. “I’m still weirded out that you know and don’t care man.” I shrugged again, only for Brawly to squint at me. “Waaaait, do you also—”

I shook my head. “Nah, I’ve never huffed or smoked anything. Always been careful with my lungs.”

Having asthma and being hospitalised as a child in a previous life had guaranteed I was never tempted, in both lives. Brawly stared at me before shaking his head.

“Damn, guess that’s a sweet deal.”

Rocko scratched at his belly and smirked. “Yeah, it’s pretty solid.”

Brawly and I shared a look and chuckled while Billie caught her wave. We watched her pull some moves of her own before crashing out when she tried to double back on the crest.

Brawly clapped me on the shoulder. “Wanna give it a try?”

I shifted back up onto the board. I had rather been enjoying just being a part of the group but… I did want to have a go. “Sure,” I made the gesture under the water. Bubbles tickled my fingers that had me shivering, it was certainly one way to let you know something big was underneath you.

“Alright, so just paddle out? And catch it yeah?” I asked.

“Yah man! I’ll tell you what to do!” Brawly said. Rocko raised a thumbs up and the people that had been playing around on Tide called out their encouragement.

“Baby Brock’s first wave woooh!” “Don’t screw up!” “Nah do it in a cool way!” “Do a flip when you wipeout!” I shook my fist at them before turning and paddling out in long strokes that worked muscles I wasn’t used to working. I might have to try swimming with Shin and Shrek more.

I reached the point and paddled around until I faced the beach. Brawly waved at me. “Watch behind you for the swell!”

I glanced behind while trying to stay on my board. Eventually, a swell began to build up behind me. I lay low on the board.

“Not yet! Don’t go now… Wait! Wait! Alright, paddle hard man! Go go go!” called Brawly.

I started paddling hard and felt myself being dragged back into the wave as it began to suck me in. It built, and I heard the wave cresting farther down from me.

“Try standing! Make it as smooth as you can!”

I nodded. Right, right. I needed to snap up but be balanced. I pushed up slightly, dropping my paddling and began to ready myself. I shot up onto my knees and wobbled horribly. I just hung on before standing slowly. With a tentative feel, I stood upright and waved to the crowd.

“I’m doing—” The board twitched under me, and I felt the board shift. “Shit!” I cursed as I lost control and was thrown. I slammed into the water and pushed down slightly to make sure I didn’t get clubbed by my board. I let the wave pass and then rose up. I gasped in a lungful of air before looking around for my missing board.

“Nice one! You actually stood for a bit there!” Brawly shouted. I gave him a thumbs up.

Rocko cupped his hands. “Try doing it for longer next time!”

I shot him a rude gesture and swam towards my board before hopping onto it. I then turned to make sure I was out of the next person’s wave only for them to wave for me to have another go. I shrugged and had another go.

I did just about the same before crashing out. They let me go again, and again, and again. After the fifth wave, I got a run of roughly five seconds before crashing out. When they gestured for me to run again, I shook my head and paddled over, strangely tired from riding the waves. I paddled over and set up next to Brawly and Rocko as another surfer paddled out.

“That was… pretty fun,” I said between heaving breaths.

Brawly chuckled and clapped me on the back. “It was sweet Brock. Nice work for your first tries! We’ll have you hanging ten proper soon!”

Rocko shot me a thumbs up and I sat up. “Right, well I think I need to work on a lot but yeah. I… wouldn’t mind that.” Brawly grinned and watched the next surf. I shook out my hair. “What’s it like having a pokemon make up the waves instead of surfing naturally?”

“It’s nice, convenient that you can pretty much set up anywhere and have a surf. Pretty much has me always having Wailord on my team but it’s not the same.” Brawly swept his hand out to the sea. “There’s something just so honest about having to watch the waves and make a choice of if a wave is going to be right for you or too much even. You might spend hours out on the waves at a time with a natural surfing spot but that’s part of the charm. You get so long where nothing but the next wave matters. It’s really freeing.”

That was kind of romantic to hear about. Romantic in the sense of being alluring and wondrous.

Brawly shifted and squinted out into the water. “Well, the waves and pokemon that is.” He put his fingers into his mouth and whistled. “Hey! Who’s on Sharpedo duty!? I see fins out there!”

A curse from atop Tide had one of the girls sitting up and grabbing from her belt. I coughed as her chest bounced around unhindered by any top. Apparently, she’d decided to catch a tan. She gave Brawly and I gimlet looks as she put a hand over her chest. Rocko just yawned, unmindful of the show she was putting on.

“Ah! Let me get that,” I said before clicking my tongue in a pattern. Tide opened his eyes from where he’d been asleep a moment ago. “Tide, Hyperbeam.”

Everyone that had been resting or playing about on his large shell sat up in surprise as he lifted his head and formed up a ball of energy in his maw. “Holy Ho-oh!” cried one girl.

Tide swept his flippers right as he discharged the beam towards the approaching fins. For a moment, I thought the fins stopped as if they detected the approaching attack but then the beam lanced into them and the water exploded upwards like the fist of an angry giant had punched down.

When the water cleared, a number of floating bodies appeared.

I nodded, “All good.”

Brawly laughed loudly while the people that had been casually lounging on Tide stared at the pokemon that had been languidly resting with them. They obviously hadn’t seen the scars on his flanks and front or else they might have realised he was a fighter. He turned his head at the people on his back and smiled at them.

“Nice one Tide!” I said shooting him a thumbs up. He splashed around himself with his flippers, trilling with glee before shivering slightly. He swept his long neck down and cleaned out his mouth with some water.

The girl that was supposed to be on Sharpedo watch was still standing. She stared up at Tide in awe. “Is this what it was like to be a naval commander during the old times? Damn, I swear I could feel the build-up of power before he fired off that Hyper Beam.” She shivered before bouncing from foot to foot. “Alright everyone! We’re going to be running a patrol with Tide as our vessel! Who’s with me!” She thrust her arm up and spun about maniacally

“Ahem!” I coughed pointedly, but she ignored that she was still giving everyone that cared to look a show.

Brawly shut me up by reaching over and pushing me off my board.

The rest of the morning passed by easily after that. I got a few chances to ride some waves and I felt like I made some progress in my surfing cred. Rocko agreed with me while Brawly grinned, merely happy to have me sounding like I’d come again.

The flasher girl had gotten to ‘patrol’ the ocean with Tide. Apparently, she had a small idea about Lapras being used in the past as patrolling vessels. They were apparently popular with coast guards until they were targetted by criminals resulting in the endangered status.

When I’d told her that Tide was a breeding male at the cove, she had been very interested. Brawly had smoothly slid in and mentioned heading there later in the week, resulting in getting her number and some plans to meet up later.

When the sun had gotten higher in the sky, I had decided that was enough surfing for me. The swimmers and surfers didn’t begrudge me taking away their convenient meeting spot on the water but that was probably because Brawly had made Wailord rise up to fill in the spot.

I said my goodbyes and took off for home with Zephyr. I’d had to put on a lot more clothes before flying off. I was feeling pretty good as I soared home. I had a certain lightness of body now that I was out of the water but I’d also really enjoyed just hanging out with people that were so relaxed. There hadn’t been anything that needed to be done or an event I was building toward.

Just waves and chill.

I snorted as I remembered the old saying for hooking up. I doubted Rocko was there for that but as I glanced over my shoulder I saw that a number of men and women sitting very closely on the island proper on a more private part of the beach.

Huh, waves and chill indeed.

Well, I suppose they had their fun for the rest of the morning all lined up. I continued north, not all that bothered with what I might be missing out on back in or around the water. I’d had enough fun for today to be happy.

I sighed expansively and spread my arms wide. The air swept through them, and I felt Zephyr bank around playfully. He must have caught my mood and was more than happy to comply.

I pat him on the back before coming to a quick decision. “Hey buddy? Want to do some loops and speed runs?”

“Noct!” he cried before flapping quickly to reach a safer height for aerial acrobatics. I grinned and locked my legs into the straps.

Zephyr rose before flattening out. Then he tilted forward and let his wings hang in front of him like some modern fighter jet. His wings glowed silvery as he channelled his Steel Wing to add more weight that saw him drop away.

He built up speed as he fell before twitching his wings to spiral off to the side. I hung on and grit my teeth at the feeling of being tossed and turned only for Zephyr to throw himself into a loop de loop. Then he flipped over so that we were flying upside down.

“Hahahahaha!” I laughed before letting my arms fall down. I looked down at the ground with my grin hurting it was stretching my face so wide. With the trees, ground and even the truck below me I felt… I paused as I registered the discrepancy.

“Zeph! Level out!”

“Noctowl?” he said, doing so while spinning his head about to check on me.

I pat his shoulder joint. “I’m fine. I just saw something weird. I stood in the saddle and stared down. “Is that a truck buddy?” His head rotated around to see where I was pointing before spinning back.

“Owl!” He nodded.

I nodded back. We weren’t anywhere significant. There weren’t any villages or discrete manors that I could see that sometimes dotted the landscape around Kanto. There seemed to barely be a road that the truck could rumble down. It wasn’t a small truck either. I rubbed my chin and glanced off to the west where Viridian rested.

Viridian, where Giovanni was.

I narrowed my eyes. “We’re following it Zeph stay out of their sight though.” I glanced around to check that there weren’t any other patrolling riders but I couldn’t spot anyone. Or anything in the air. “Stay high just in case anyone’s watching from the ground,” I ordered, just to be sure.

Zephyr hooted once before once more ascending upwards. He reached his gliding height and from there we followed along after the small dot. It trundled along seemingly without knowing we were watching it.

For ten minutes, it continued on. With each minute it spent driving I only had more and more doubts that anything legitimate was occurring beneath me. Was this a poaching operation? Perhaps even a Team Rocket run operation?

I kept watching the truck until I suddenly lost sight of it. “Where is it?” I said aloud.

Zephyr circled wide; his much sharper eyes must have been tracking the ground as his head turned carefully before he adopted a hover. He turned his head and shook it sadly. I chewed my lip, staring at where I had last seen the truck.

“Land over there buddy. I want to check something.” Zephyr did as ordered. I made sure to not withdraw him when we landed. I instead kept him close but not too close with my hand on another pokeball. I stalked along the road and stared at the recent tire marks that showed that the truck had existed and had been driven down this track.

And then suddenly it vanished in a patch of grass that was just oh so crisp. Far too crisp to be natural. I walked around that patch of grass. Then I checked the forest around me. There didn’t seem to be any cameras watching me but I still felt exposed. This was very suspicious. I wanted to kneel and dig a little earth up but the hair on the back of my neck was standing up.

This entire set-up was unnerving. I checked Noctowl and found that he was also glancing around as if something was agitating him.

I clicked my tongue and decided to get out of there. But not before I marked it on my transceiver map for later review. I wasn’t ready to investigate what I suspected was a hidden bunker. Not while no-one knew where I was. I’d have to ask around and find out if there was any information on someone buying and building something out here in the past.

But that might tip someone like Giovanni off. I doubted he hadn’t covered his tracks and set up watchers on his potential interests.

Still, if this was a hidden bunker I had little doubt it was a Team Rocket base. But what would they…

Hadn’t Giovanni had Mewtwo in a facility near Viridian? I glanced back over my shoulder and stared at the innocent patch of grass.

Was that what was under there? A Legendary pokemon?

I licked my lips suddenly very nervous. For some reason, I had thought that Giovanni might have made his facility that contained Mewtwo above ground and to the west, instead of east of Viridian. But wouldn’t it make more sense to have it hidden in the southern parts of the forest instead? I had just barely noticed it and it was very out of the way.

I’d only spotted it thanks to luck. Or perhaps I was counting my pidgey before they had hatched.

Still, I had something to investigate. When I dared to, that was, it might be something for the Guardians to poke their noses into.

Now I just needed to decide if sticking my head into the metaphorical jaws of a Legendary was worth the risk.

My transceiver buzzed and I nearly jumped three metres into the air at the shock of the sudden noise. I answered and tried to calm my racing heart.

“Brock here, what’s up?” I said.

“Hey Brock, it’s Rachel, Sabrina’s ready to go shopping for your outfits for next weekend!”

I blinked at the transceiver. I had mentioned it in passing to her hadn’t I? And she would have… I chuckled, what had I been thinking, I’d basically offered her the date.. And it wasn’t like I’d have wanted to go with anyone else after all. Hmmm, Sabrina dress shopping, that sounded fun.

“I’ll be there soon.”