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The New Normal - 7-6
🕑 Added 2023-12-11 07:44:49 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 7-6 – A Learning Moment
Not wanting to accidentally forget about it, I called to double check with Oak as soon as I woke up the very next day to check that I could actually speak to Lance about it. He quickly gave his approval and mentioned that he had already spoken to Carolina as well, who was also okay with it. He further informed me that he was looking to publish the Fairy reveal in a week’s time while he went through all the final checks and reviews.
He did apologize by saying that the delay was due to wanting to check through his findings again to make sure he didn’t miss anything. He was especially concerned about the fact that he didn’t find a single Fairy type in Sinnoh out of all the Pokémon that Carolina brought him, and wanted to double check that he didn’t make a mistake somewhere. But I was quick to respond that there was nothing to worry about; we all had no problems with him wanting to make sure things were thorough.
With that conversation done, I moved to call Lance. Though, in hindsight, I may have called him a little too early because I could hear him yawning through the phone.
“…Lance here.” He said with a sleepy voice. He must have just woken up.
“Sorry for calling you so early, but I do have something important to talk about.” I said apologetically.
He sighed, “Go ahead…it feels like the workload keeps piling up these days.” He muttered to himself, “So, what’s the matter?”
“I need you to keep this a secret.” I began seriously, “And that means no telling this to ANYONE. Not your family, not the other Gym Leaders or Elite Four, and definitely not the Committee. I know it’s a lot to ask, but can you do this for me?”
“That’s quite the thing to drop on someone.” He remarked as I could feel the sleepiness leaving him, “What is it that you’re working on?”
“I’m not doing it alone. I’ve had the help of Professor Oak, Gym Leader Blaine, Head Researcher Carolina of the Celestic Town Research Centre, and Branch Head Shelly of the Indigo Branch of Devon Corp.” I stated, namedropping a few very big names on him to hopefully demonstrate the importance of what we were doing.
It seemed to have worked because Lance had momentarily fallen silent. “…I see.” He managed to say after a moment, clearly taken aback by the collective prestige of the participants. “Alright, if Champion Oak says so, then I’m not about to gainsay him. I swear that I will keep this a secret and treat this matter with the utmost seriousness.” He swore to me.
“Now, what is it that you need my help with, because I doubt you’d just tell me something like this on a whim.” He asked.
“You’re right. We do need your help as Champion.” I confirmed, “The five of us have been working together to discover a new type, and we’ve been successful. But we need your help with dealing with the fallout when it does get revealed.”
Silence descended on the call again. I thought that I might have just given Lance a heart attack. After a while of continued silence, I genuinely thought Lance had passed out or something.
“Lance, you there?” I asked with concern.
“…I am.” He eventually spoke up. “Arceus, this is not something I had expected to hear this early in the morning. Couldn’t you have at least waited another half an hour or something?” He grumbled.
He let out a huge breath, “Right, okay, so you discovered a new type. That’s already a big deal, but why do you think there’s going to be fallout? Did you discover any new Pokémon too?”
“Well…yes and no.” I replied, “We only discovered one new Pokémon, but what we DID discover was that plenty of existing Pokémon were actually misclassified. There were many Normal types, for example, that were actually this new type that we’ve called the ‘Fairy’ type. Similarly, there are many other Pokémon that were actually a dual type of Fairy plus another type.” I explained to him.
“…Shit, okay I can see why that it’s a problem.” He said after he processed my words, “So the five of you think that there’s going to be a rush of eager trainers looking to catch some of these newly reclassified Pokémon.”
“Exactly.” I nodded, “We fear that there’s going to be some serious disruption of public order over the next few days or even weeks after this news goes out. There’s a huge risk of these trainers accidentally destroying carefully cultivated ecosystems of Pokémon and their habitats. We can’t let that happen.”
“How popular do you think this new type is going to be?” He asked prudently, “I mean, will people REALLY be flocking to collect them? Even if its new, if the type matchups aren’t very impressive then maybe this new type won’t be as popular as you think it might be?”
Oh, this poor summer child. “Fairy types are immune and supereffective against Dragons.” Was all I said, ruthlessly tearing away his misplaced optimism.
The sound of a glass shattering on the floor could be heard through his phone. His soul must have shattered alongside it as, despite not being able to see him, I swore that he must have frozen in place. A part of me wished I could see his face right now.
“…Your new type. Is supereffective. And IMMUNE. Against DRAGONS?!” He whisper-shouted at me. The shock and disbelief evident in his voice.
“Yes.” I confirmed.
Then there was even more silence. I could hear the poor man’s heart restarting. It took a moment, but Lance.EXE finally rebooted.
“…Fuck.” Was all he said as I heard him collapsing into a chair.
Poor Lance, this was a going to be painful series of revelations for him. I didn’t know whether to feel bad for him or laugh at his reaction. The schadenfreude was real. To his credit, despite the sheer scale of the revelation that I just dropped on him, he was holding it together. Though it was a close thing.
“…And how many Pokémon are going to be reclassified to include this new type?” He asked hesitantly, as if dreading the answer that I was going to give.
“Maybe around 2 dozen?” I guess-estimated. “As I said, most were previously classified as Normal types but have now since been proven otherwise.”
“…Okay, that’s less than I feared.” He sighed out. “But, if this doesn’t breach confidentiality, could you let me know which Pokémon are going to be reclassified?”
I had already discussed this with Oak, so I knew I was in the clear to reveal this. I listed out to him all of the Pokémon that Oak had found. Lance listened to all of this silently, but I could tell that the gears were whirling in his head.
He seemed to have gotten over his initial shock, and now was in full Champion mode preparing to run damage control.
“Okay, I can immediately think of the two greatest areas of concern.” He said, fully serious now as all of the earlier shock had completely left his voice. “One, Mt. Moon is a known protected habitat of Clefairy. We can’t have trainer run roughshod over that and destroy the delicate ecosystem that they have.”
I hummed my agreement, and he continued, “Secondly, I’m going to have to inform my counterparts in Hoenn about this. I don’t think Wallace would be happy if we sprung this on him without any warning. I don’t think the Ralts line is super rare, but it’d be good to inform him just in case. I’m sure he could keep a secret.”
I agreed. Wallace was a more than competent Champion. I had my faith that he wouldn’t let things slip like this.
“Now that I think of it, I saw a report on my desk informing me that Mt. Moon was recently moved under the jurisdiction of Cerulean City. I assume that’s your doing.” He questioned.
“It was, and I’ve already made my own preparations to possibly minimize the damage done to Mt. Moon after this reveal. But I fear it’s not enough.” I told him, “That’s why I wanted your permission to request for more of the Indigo Police to help out.”
“Hmm…” Lance fell into deep thought as he pondered my request, “Give me a moment.”
I heard the sounds of a chair scraping on the floor as he got up from his seat. The sounds of papers ruffing could be heard as he flipped through what I assumed were a few reports on his desk.
After a moment, he spoke up once again. “Can I get back to you on this? I appreciate you warning me, but I simply don’t have the information on hand right now to tell you if we can allocate more of the Indigo Police over to Mt. Moon.”
“I’m sure we have the numbers.” He continued, “But I would have to speak to a few other people to get a better handle of the full deployment layout of the Indigo Police. I promise to get back to you by tonight.”
“That’s fine. I appreciate it.” I replied, “Just keep me in touch.”
We shared a few more pleasantries before we hung up. Despite his initial shock, which was entirely forgivable considering what I had told him, Lance’s ability to pull himself together and come at the problem rationally was another mark in his favour of his capabilities as a Champion.
Still, I hoped I hadn’t frightened him too much when I told him that there was going to be a new type running about that was immune to Dragons. The trainer in him must have been panicking.
Hm, I wonder if he was going to make any changes to his team to adjust to this new information. Only time would tell on that one.
But with that discussion over and done with, I remembered that I had other commitments to attend to for the day, though they weren’t anything urgent. Thus, I took my time preparing breakfast by myself before eventually heading over to Viridian to speak to Giovanni and Silver.
I was going to fulfil my promise to Silver while also speaking to Giovanni on behalf of Blaine. Hitting two Pidgey with one stone.
Once again, I landed outside the Viridian Gym before making my way inside. At this point, my visits to the Gym had become a frequent enough occurrence that the Gym Trainers just simply nodded at my entrance, not reacting with any more surprise.
Quickly arriving at his office, I swung open the door to find both Giovanni, Ariana and Silver waiting for me.
“Ah, John. You’re early.” Giovanni looked up from his pile of documents. At the same time, Silver shot up from where he had been studying next to Ariana as soon as he saw me come in.
“Are we here to fight?!?” Silver exclaimed excitedly, his previous shyness long forgotten, “I’ll be ready to beat you!”
“Calm yourself, Silver, you’re tearing up the textbooks.” Ariana chided with a tone that knew that her words would fall on deaf ears. She turned to me, “I’m sorry about Silver. He’s been especially enthusiastic ever since you offer to battle him.”
“I hope I haven’t caused you any extra trouble then.” I replied smilingly before turning to face Silver, “But yes, Silver, I’m here to fulfil my promise. However, I’m going to need a moment to speak with your dad first.”
“Understood. Ariana, would you mind?” Giovanni asked his partner? Wife? I still wasn’t really sure on that distinction.
“No fair! I want to listen in too!” Silver complained, but a stern look from Ariana silenced any further complaints. Ariana shot Giovanni a nod before escorting the sulking Silver out of the room.
As soon as Silver left the room, Giovanni’s head fell into his hands, “That boy will be the death of me.”
I chuckled amusedly, “He’s just enthusiastic. And isn’t it every child’s dream of becoming a strong trainer? I don’t believe he’s acting unusually.”
“I suppose it could be worse.” He said with a sigh, “And, in a way, it’s my fault for not taking charge of his education sooner. Ariana did her best, but she had a lot to juggle as a single mother.”
“…Do you regret it, leaving them by themselves?” I asked hesitantly, suddenly venturing into personal territory.
“…Sometimes.” He answered after a moment, “I still maintain that it was likely the best decision at the time. But I’m now more aware of the consequences of such a decision. If I could turn back time…maybe I would have taken a different path.” He spoke in a way so unlike his usual confident tone, sounding vulnerable and melancholic. But I was sympathetic; abandoning family could never be easy.
He let out a huge breath, “But enough of my past. What did you want to speak about?”
I accepted the forceful change of topic, “Two things. First, I wanted to make sure you were informed with the situation with Team Rocket.” Despite his origins, I had no doubt that Giovanni WAS an ally against Team Rocket now.
“I know about their involvement and flight from Hoenn, as well as their true plans.” He said to me with a frown, revealing that his intelligence network was still as strong as before, “They’ve headed to Sinnoh, right?”
I nodded.
“Damn bastards. Since when in Arceus did Team Rocket associate themselves with fanatics and lunatics looking to end the world?!” He grumbled frustratedly. “We were supposed to be a group that helped the stability of Kanto! Not try to end the world!” I held in my doubts about ‘helping the stability of Kanto’, but I wouldn’t deny their original purpose was at least more sane than what Team Rocket were doing now. Even if that was a very low bar to clear.
“Please keep me in the know regarding them. I don’t want the world to end as much as you do. And I don’t trust these idiots to have enough of a braincell to NOT doom the world.” I just nodded again.
“The International Police seem to be doing good work though.” I reassured him.
“Yes, I saw the reports.” Giovanni agreed, “They’re well trained – I’ll give them that. But that’s to be expected of Kanto’s finest. I can only hope that Hoenn will reciprocate the favour.”
“Also, the other thing I wanted to speak to you on behalf of Blaine.” I told him, changing the topic.
A smile bloomed on his face, “Blaine? What’s he doing now?” He chuckled; his voice tinged with familiarity as his previous anger disappeared. “Another big science project that he’s roped you into?”
“Something like that.” I replied evasively, not wanting to get into the details of the Magmarizer, “He wanted to discuss the possibility of selling his recent discovery to Silph Co., and you seemed to be the go-to intermediary.”
“Ah. This again.” He said fondly, “I’ll let him know then. I assume that the reason he asked you to deliver the message was because he wanted to inform me of your involvement as well.”
“I guess.” I shrugged, “Maybe he thought you’d be more receptive if it came from me.”
“True enough.” Giovanni nodded, “I’ve worked with Blaine a few times in my capacity as a director of Silph Co. His projects are…hit and miss most of the time.”
“Were they failures?” I asked, curious.
“Not exactly.” He shook his head, “It’s just that while Blaine is undoubtedly a brilliant scientist, he’s not much of a businessman. What HE thinks is interesting is not necessarily what the public finds interesting. And ultimately, Silph Co is a BUSINESS, not a research centre. His ideas aren’t always the most suitable for our needs.”
I could understand that, the interests of businesses and scientists don’t always overlap. “Well you can feel free to take a look at his new research item. Honestly, I’m not sure how well it’ll sell, since its use case is very specific, but it is an extremely important discovery.” I mentioned.
“Is it now? Interesting. Well, I’ll definitely have a look.” He hummed, “Actually, is Devon Corp looking to be selling this item too? Knowing Blaine, he wouldn’t just sell it to us.”
“They most likely are.” I confirmed, getting a frown from Giovanni.
“Well, that changes things.” He muttered, “Anyways, I’ll look into it. Now, let’s not keep my son waiting. I’m afraid he’ll make a scene if we get him to wait too long.”
I nodded and followed him out of his office. But instead of bringing me to arena where the Gym battles were hosted, he instead brought me to a private elevator that descended into a hidden basement.
“It looks like some kind of secret lair.” I commented. Giovanni let out a cough at my statement, his eyes shifting uncomfortably.
“…There might be a time when it was intended to be used that way, yes.” He answered awkwardly, “That time has long since passed though.”
Despite myself, I couldn’t help but chuckle. Of course, he would build a secret underground facility for his evil plans.
“Looks very dramatic.” I pointed out.
“…I was a younger man when I had this built.” Giovanni admitted sheepishly, “In hindsight, not my proudest moment.” I laughed again.
As we arrived, I was greeted with the sight of a large room that was clearly to be used as a private training facility. Everything was state-of-the-art, which I personally felt was a bit overboard for something that would never see the light of day.
But I guess it wasn’t my money to spend. And to be fair, I’m sure that this was hardly a drop in the bucket of Giovanni’s wealth.
“You’re here!” Silver shouted as he ran up to us, Poké ball in hand. “Let’s fight! Let’s fight!”
“Sure!” I replied, “How are we doing this though? How many Pokémon do you have, Silver?”
“Just the one.” He replied, “Father and mother won’t let me have more.” He said bitterly.
“You’ll get more when you’re older.” Ariana placated, “But you need to learn how to handle them better first.”
“But some of the other kids already have 2 or 3 Pokémon already!” Silver whined, “I want to be as strong as them too!” I wisely stayed silent as I allowed the parental argument to occur.
Giovanni scoffed, “You mean those children with Caterpie and Kakuna and Weedle? You’d crush them easily.”
Silver shook his head, “No, but I mean I saw that boy last time with a Ponyta! I want one too!”
“Didn’t you beg me to give you a Nidoran?” Giovanni asked with a frown, causing Silver to pout. “I promise you’ll get more Pokémon later. Now, let’s not waste any more of John’s time. Didn’t you want to battle him?”
“Oh yeah!” Doing a complete 180 in mood, Silver rushed to the other side of the arena “It’s going to be 1v1 John. And I’ll crush you!”
I saw Ariana roll her eyes at her son’s antics, “Please take it easy on Silver.” She muttered to me.
“I will, don’t worry.” I replied. “How strong would you rate his strength though? Just so I know what to use.”
“Nothing particularly special even for an underage trainer.” Giovanni commented ruthlessly, “There’s a lot of work to be done with him. But that arrogance of his has got to go.”
I wisely did not bring up the hypocrisy in that statement, “Sure, I’ll try to match his level then.”
I wandered over to my side of the arena while Ariana moved to the centre as the unofficial referee.
“Trainers, are you ready?!” She declared, and Silver eagerly stepped forwards in a pitcher’s stance as he got ready to release his Pokémon. I just stood casually as I palmed Ornstein’s Pokéball.
He might be a little weak to handle a Nidorino, but I might as well make this a training moment for him.
“RELEASE!”
“Nidorino, crush them!”
“Ornstein, maintain your discipline!”
Both Pokémon emerged from their Pokéballs with a running start. But while Ornstein carefully maintained his distance like I taught him to, Nidorino rushed straight towards the weaker Ornstein.
“Poison Sting, Nidorino!”
“Snarl, Ornstein! Keep your distance!”
Not stopping its charge, Nidorino reared backwards before firing off a small volley of poisonous needles towards Ornstein. But Ornstein was already dashing out of the way, continuing to circle around the Nidorino as he responded with a snarl of Dark Energy.
Nidorino, either unable to or uncaring about the attack, simply took it head on. It flinched slightly, but clearly was able to simply shrug off the attack even if it lowered its Special Attack.
“Fury Attack, Nidorino! Chase it down!”
“Snarl again! Keep dodging!”
I wasn’t used to this – the power disparity was too tilted in Silver’s favour. I was forced on the defensive as Ornstein kept trying to circle away from the charging Nidorino. Even despite landing another Snarl at the approaching Nidorino, Ornstein’s attack just lacked any power to halt its approach.
To make things worse, Nidorino was actually slightly faster than Ornstein. Silver seemed to have neglected training Nidorino’s evasiveness by focusing heavily on speed and power. And, right now, this blunt method of fighting was paying off.
With Nidorino slowly but surely closing the distance on Ornstein, I knew it was only a matter of time before he was caught. And with such a limited move pool, I didn’t have many options to make use of to try and deter Nidorino.
But I still had one trick up my sleeve. I waited patiently as Nidorino continued chasing after my fleeing Ornstein, but just before it could slash at Ornstein with a series of Fury Attacks, I made my move.
“Payback, Ornstein! Hit it hard!”
Dark energy started radiating around Ornstein just as Nidorino caught up to him and slashed at him with its front paws. Ornstein flinched backwards, hurt by the damage, before the dark aura around him exploded and he slammed into the Nidorino with a fully powered Payback.
Nidorino stumbled backwards, reeling from the power of the blow. I quickly followed through.
“Assurance, Ornstein! Smash it!”
“Keep up the Fury Attack! You can tank it!”
But before the Nidorino was able to recover, Ornstein slammed a dark-infused paw that impacted the centre of Nidorino’s face, dealing critical damage. Nidorino skidded backwards, crying out in pain, but my gut was screaming at me that it wouldn’t be enough to bring it down.
A part of me wanted to pull Ornstein back, but I knew that now was the best opportunity to bring down the Nidorino while it still hadn’t fully reoriented itself.
“Headbutt, Ornstein! Knock it down!”
“Horn Attack, Nidorino!”
Unfortunately, I had overestimated Ornstein’s power here, because Nidorino recovered much faster than I was expecting. Before I could change the order, Nidorino crashed into Ornstein with a powerful Horn Attack, sending Ornstein flying backwards as his wails of pain echoed throughout the arena.
I winced as I took in Ornstein’s condition. As much as I had trained him, Ornstein was still a young and basic Pokémon. His endurance was always going to be poor. With just one attack, Ornstein looked like it was about to fall over. This was bad.
“HAH! I’M GOING TO WIN! HORN ATTACK AGAIN, NIDORINO!” Silver boasted with a smug grin as he cheered his Pokémon on.
However, Silver’s taunts seemed to have given Ornstein a second wind as he struggled to but successfully pulled himself off the ground. His face was one of rictus fury, as if completely insulted by Silver’s earlier words. His expression screamed that he refused to go down like this. Not in his first proper battle.
I respected my Pokémon’s determination. But I knew that determination alone couldn’t win a match. Ornstein was swaying slightly even as it stood still, so I knew there was no chance it could outrun the approaching Nidorino.
Thus, there was only one real course of action. It would all be up to him now.
“Payback, Ornstein. It’s all up to you now.”
“ZIG!” He shouted out in reply. Dark energy rapidly gathered around his small figure, swelling up to a size that I hadn’t seen before. His face was one of painful concentration, as he began to channel more Dark energy than I had ever seen before.
Yet Silver seemed ignorant of this, as he stared at Ornstein with a boastful smile, already anticipating his victory. And, true enough, even with all this Dark energy being gathered, it would be all for naught if Ornstein couldn’t survive the blow.
But then, just before Nidorino could slam into him, Ornstein seemed to explode with energy. My eyes snapped to him, only to see that a bright white light was expanding outwards from within the haze of Dark energy.
“NO! SMASH IT BEFORE IT EVOLVES!” Silver shouted out in desperation, realizing what was happening.
Nidorino burst forwards with renewed haste, clearly sensing the urgency from its trainer. Ignoring the energy radiating out of the new evolution, it charged straight into the centre of the light as it tried to finish off Ornstein with one last Horn Attack.
The blinding white light of the evolution prevented me from seeing what was happening. But, barely a second later, the cries of Nidorino could be heard as its figure was flung unceremoniously backwards, dark aura still clinging to its body from the attack.
The white light dissipated to reveal my new D-Linoone, his face filled with satisfaction despite its litany of injuries.
“LINOONE! LIN!” He cried out confidently as he stood his ground against the Nidorino, as if daring it to charge him again. But there was no need to, because Nidorino had already been knocked out by the previous attack.
“NO! THAT’S NOT FAIR! HE-”
“AND JOHN IS THE WINNER!” Ariana declared, deliberating interrupting her son’s complaints, “A well fought battle!”
I could hear Silver began to complain about his loss, but I ignored him for the moment as I approached my newly evolved Pokémon.
“Well done, Ornstein. That was really impressive.” I praised honesty, carefully rubbing his fur as to not aggravate his injuries.
“Lin! Lin!” Ornstein chimed happily, excitedly inspecting his new form. With this new evolution, Ornstein suddenly became a Pokémon that could viably be used in a battle with more training. The increase in his speed from the evolution was an enormous boost to him, and finally unlocked his potential of being one of the fastest Pokémon on my team.
Of course, it’d still be a while before he could matchup against my stronger threats. But at least he and Pixel would be on more even ground now.
“YOU CHEATED!” Silver shouted, interrupting me from my thoughts. I was about to respond before Giovanni cut me off.
“Silver.” Giovanni warned sternly, his tone broking no argument as he stared at Silver. “Do not.”
Silver stared at his father defiantly, but that only lasted for a moment. His defiance quickly broke down into anger and tears, and he ran off crying. Letting out a sigh, Ariana quickly moved to follow Silver to comfort him.
“I think I’m going to have to deal with this.” Giovanni said reluctantly, “I’m sorry, but you could you let yourself out?”
“No worries, hope you get it sorted.” I said easily, not wanting to get involved in this family drama.
“Thanks, John. And I’ll make sure to speak to Blaine soon.” He said before he walked off and chased after his son.
I made my way out too, filled with thoughts about the ups and downs of fatherhood. Once again, I wished Giovanni all the best with Silver. He seems to be trying, but suddenly entering Silver’s life as his father after abandoning him for so long must not have been an easy task.
As I got onto Port to return home, I quickly shook those thoughts out my head. My main priority right now was to get Ornstein all healed up, and to show off his new evolution to the rest of my team.
I can’t wait to see what he’s capable of now.
A.N. Writing Silver is hard. He’s not the arrogant, thuggish brat that he’s in the games, but I can imagine that he’d have plenty of father issues considering Giovanni ditched him for so long. They’re trying to repair things, but it’s very slow going.
In the meanwhile, John casually gives Lance a mini heart attack in the morning. Always fun.
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Thanks man!
Comments
Mike Trevino
Poor Lance, he doesn't need that kind of jumpscare so early in the morning. 😂 What's next gonna tell him that there's more than enough fairy to beat dragons?! The horror 👻
