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The New Normal - 5-17
🕑 Added 2023-10-13 06:00:03 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 5-17 - Fairy Odd Discoveries
After a moment to think things through, I decided to stick to my previous plan and take the initiative to publish and announce the Fairy typing on my own terms. However, even with my great scientific reputation, a discovery of this scale would be even greater than when I had created the PIT technique. This was something that was going to need plenty of verification from many esteemed scientists if I didn’t want to be tied down with academic debates and naysayers.
Fortunately, these limitations would also apply to other scientists as well, so I at least had a generous amount of time before someone could make such a discovery as well.
But I still wanted to get ahead of the curve. And to do this, I knew that I needed to share my ‘ideas’ with some very reputable scientists so that they could back my observations up. It would mean sharing the credit, but I didn’t care much about that. This was going to be a huge discovery, with plenty of glory to go around once it gets out. I didn’t need to hog the credit.
To that end, I made the decision to write out a few invitations to some of my scientific friends for them to come over tomorrow afternoon. And I chose my selection carefully.
First, I invited Shelly via text. Not only did I think of her as a friend, but she shared important connections to Devon Corp, a leading entity in the scientific community. Her approval would mean a lot for getting the Hoenn scientific community on board.
Then, I sent another text to Carolina. Similarly, we had a developing friendship, but she was also a very important, if not the only, scientific representative from Sinnoh. Getting her involved would go a long way at ensuring that the publication of the Fairy type won’t be stifled in Sinnoh.
After that, I sent out a much more formal email to invite Professor Oak. With his gigantic reputation, and his genuine interest in science, I felt that he would be a great person to have onboard to give undisputable legitimacy to my observations.
Lastly, and I hesitated a bit before sending it, I also sent out an invitation to Gym Leader Blaine. Despite not having previously interacted much with him, I felt that inviting him would prove to be a good idea. Firstly, it would allow me to establish connections with an ex-Elite Four member and a prominent Gym Leader, and it would show that I was an Elite Four member that didn’t forget about the importance of Gym Leaders.
Inviting Blaine was definitely more of a political decision than anything, but he also had a robust scientific reputation that would be appreciated.
It was already pretty late, so after sending out those invitations, I went to bed and hoped that they would be free to come over tomorrow. It WAS fairly short notice, but I hoped that my invitation would be interesting enough to attract their attention away from their busy schedules.
=========
Fortunately, my luck turned out for the better. When I went to check my phone the following morning, I had received responses back from everyone stating that they were free to come over. Also, Lance had given me the thumbs up to go and explore Sinnoh on behalf of Indigo, but the when and how still needed to be arranged.
Which was why I found myself standing in the fields under the bright sun, waiting patiently for their arrival. I had already sent out a message to everyone informing them of my address and how to get here, and I made sure to clear out any of our new farmhands to prevent them from accidentally disrupting any observations that we made.
And suddenly, the signature flash of white from a Teleport heralded my first arrival. Professor Oak casually walked out of the light with his Alakazam and greeted me with a smile. He seemed to not be aware of the sheer Psychic energy that his Alakazam was radiating.
“John! It’s good to see you again.” He began as he withdrew his Alakazam, extending his arm for me to shake. “I’ve heard great things about you from others. Glad to see you’re doing well.”
“Thank you, Professor Oak, and I am very thankful that you chose to accept my invitation.” I replied with a slight bow.
“Nonsense! I could tell by your words that this was likely something very important. And from what I witnessed during your battle against Bruno, I think you’re about to reveal something VERY interesting.” He predicted, his eyes observing me intensely.
I didn’t let myself be intimidated, and simply nodded, “That’s right. I think this would definitely shake up the paradigm of what we know about Pokémon, but do you mind if I wait till the others get here before I explain myself? Saves me from having to repeat it.”
“No worries.” He waved me off. “Anyways, if you don’t mind, could we discuss more about possible alternate forms that could be discovered through your PIT technique?”
The two of us then began an animated discussion on the possible undiscovered alternate forms of Pokémon as we waited for the others. Of course, I was careful to ensure that I wasn’t giving away more than I should know and kept my commentary on a purely hypothetical basis.
A short while later, and another flash of light appeared, revealing the second representative of Kanto.
“John, I was very surprised by the invite-” Blaine began to say as he stepped out of the light, before cutting himself off as he was taken aback by Oak’s presence.
“Oh. Um, Samuel, it’s good to see you again. I didn’t expect you to be here.” Blaine greeted with a respectful bow.
“Haha! Blaine! It’s been a while!” Oak said jollily, slapping Blaine on the back. “I hope retirement has been treating you well.”
“Not as well as yours.” He smirked with a fond smile, before turning to me. “And John! How could you leave out the fact that Samue- Professor Oak was going to be here? I would’ve definitely came earlier!”
I rubbed my head embarrassedly, “Whoops? I sent those invitations pretty late…must have forgotten it.”
He grumbled good-naturedly, “Rookie mistake. Anyways, now that Professor Oak is here, I’m sure that this wouldn’t be a waste of my time. Very interested to see what you’ve invited us all here for.”
Blaine then returned his attention back to Oak as they began making small talk and catching up. From the outside, they definitely seemed to be good friends and looked like they knew each other well. Honestly, considering Blaine was an ex-Elite Four member during when Oak was Champion, this wasn’t very surprising.
I joined in on their banter occasionally, and eventually after another short wait the remaining invitees arrived together, which was a nice coincidence.
“Sorry we’re late.” Shelly said, brushing her fingers through her hair, “Turns out the Kadabra used for Teleporting provided by your League are shared between us, so we ended up just going together coincidentally.” Carolina nodded in agreement.
“Don’t worry about it.” I waved her off, “Anyways, now that you’re here, let me introduce everyone.” We all moved to exchange brief introductions.
Shelly look a bit starstruck at the presence of so many other scientific giants, but she managed to remain calm and professional. After that round of introductions, I finally explained why I had gathered everyone here.
“Firstly, thank you once again for coming. I appreciate you taking your time out of your busy schedules for something like this. Now, onto why you’re here.” I released both Luna and Euphie from their Premier Balls. “It’s to do with something I had noticed over time with both of these Pokémon.”
Except for Oak, they all shot me looks of confusion. Oak instead stared fixedly onto Luna, as if trying to piece together a puzzle in his head. I kept going, “Ever since I caught my Clefable, I noticed that during our training sessions together that she was unusually resistant to Fighting type moves. And for those of you who saw my match against Bruno, she was able to brush off even the greatest of Fighting type attacks with unusual ease.”
“And while I’d like to believe that I’m a good trainer, I know I’m not THAT good. I started to realize that there may be other factors in play here that are the cause of this unusual resistance to Fighting.” I explained, “And, after some time, I’ve come to the conclusion that we may have had a new type that has always existed, but we’ve previously not looked into.”
THAT caused everyone to gasp in surprise, Oak included, though his was significantly more subdued. A new type was a BIG deal, and it spoke to their professionalism that didn’t instantly bombard me with questions. I gave them a moment to digest what I had just said before continuing.
“I realized that I had discovered something more than just a generic resistance to Fighting because my Clefable was able to generate attacks with a different sort of Energy. One that I hadn’t seen before.” I gestured to Luna for her to start generating Fairy energy around her, and a small pink orb formed in her hands.
“At first, I thought that pink energy was just Psychic energy, especially considering how similar their colour palette is. But, after I did some tests with Dark type moves, I found that it wasn’t nullified by it. Instead, whatever this energy is, it crushes through Dark types, as if it was supereffective towards it.” That got more noises of surprise.
“Then I remember that I’ve seen my Clefable take damage from Ghost type attacks back when she was a Clefairy when it really shouldn’t have. Individually, each factor alone wouldn’t have roused my suspicions. But a combination of all 3 factors? I started to realize that I might have something here. I’m not exactly sure, which is why I’ve invited you all here to go through my observations and bring up any questions you might have.” I finished, opening the floor to the others. Inwardly, I was pleased with my explanation that should hopefully be logical enough to not trigger any suspicions about my otherworldly knowledge.
Oak spoke up first, “And I assume you have brought your Eevee here because you intend to see if you can evolve it with this new type, right?”
I nodded; Oak was very observant. “Yes. I felt that the best way to prove a new type would be to get Eevee to evolve using it. After all, Eevee is well-known to be very adaptable and to have many evolutions with different types, so I felt that this might be a good way of proving it.”
“Have you tested anything else with your Clefable? Other types of moves?” Blaine asked curiously, his eyes observant.
“Yes. I’ve made some observations that whatever this type is, it’s practically immune to Dragon type moves. It’s even more effective against it than against Fighting or Dark.” I told them.
Oak’s eyebrows rose to his head as he looked at me with surprise. On the other hand, Blaine started laughing loudly. “HAHAHA! If that’s true, then we finally have a type to crush those pesky Dragons! Imagine the look on the Blackthorn’s face if this gets published!” Blaine laughed even harder.
Oak looked away and muttered something about “if we had this during the war…”, which shut Blaine up really quickly. Fortunately, Carolina spoke up before an uncomfortable silence could descend.
“This is all well and good and all, and while I’m not fully doubtful of your suspicions, John, I would really like to see more evidence of your claims first.” Carolina said to me. “After all, the fact that we somehow missed a type for all this time is a rather extreme claim to make.”
“Certainly. Let me show you what I mean. Professor Oak, could you release a Dragon type Pokémon for this demonstration?” He nodded, and casually released a Flygon. I blinked, taken aback. I wasn’t expecting him to have a Flygon of all things.
But upon closer inspection, the Flygon evidently wasn’t trained and was likely used for research purposes only. Still though.
“I was looking into Flygon recently because I thought it was actually a Bug/Dragon type.” He said, pre-empting my question. “Sadly, I am highly doubtful that it is actually the case.”
He shook his head, “Well anyways, what do you need me to do? Fire off a Dragon Pulse?” He confirmed, and I nodded.
“Yep. It’ll be a good demonstration.” I replied, and Luna let out a supportive cry.
With a quick gesture towards Flygon, it unleashed a respectable Dragon Pulse that slammed into Luna. However, besides a slight stumble, Luna managed to shrug off the Dragon Pulse entirely, completely devoid of any injuries. Seeing the attack be nullified, Oak gave off a satisfied nod and withdrew his Flygon.
“Fascinating.” Shelly muttered, looking over my unharmed Clefable, “The implications of this would be staggering.”
“Yes, it would be.” Carolina agreed, “But how much of this resistance is due to your Clefable’s status as an Elite Pokémon? Surely a less trained and wild Pokémon sharing this type would not be able to shrug off an attack this casually.”
“Sure, which was why I wanted to do further testing before making such an announcement.” I responded with a shrug, “After all, we need to still confirm the other resistances and strengths of the type.”
“Do you have a name for it?” Shelly asked, “We can’t just keep calling it ‘the type’, after all.”
I nodded, “Considering the pink energy that it gives off, I thought calling it the ‘Fairy’ type would be a suitable name.”
Blaine let out another bark of laughter, “FAIRY! THE TYPE THAT BEATS DRAGON IS CALLED ‘FAIRY’?! HAHAHA! Oh, John, I’m liking you more by the minute.” He wheezed as he tried to catch his breath.
Oak stifled a smile of his own as he spoke, “I admit to finding it a very…fitting nickname. I quite like it, in all honesty.” But then his face quickly turned serious once again.
“You know, John, the idea of a hidden type isn’t a remarkably surprising concept to me.” He admitted, “I’ve long thought that it was the height of arrogance for us humans to believe that we knew everything there was about Pokémon. There will always be more to find, more to research, and more to discover.”
We all stayed silent and listened with rapt attention as Oak spoke, “While I was in the process of creating the Pokédex, I had spent a lot of time doing research on a large variety of Pokémon to ensure that the information would be as accurate as possible. However, I admit to being unable to verify everything, and with my reputation, many were unfortunately more likely to accept anything I published as the truth.”
He sighed, “It was here where my reputation actually backfired on me. After my release of the Pokédex, I noticed that research on already existing Pokémon stalled, with none wanting to challenge my conclusions about Pokémon. No matter how many times I repeated myself that my research was not as detailed as I wanted it to be, it fell on deaf ears as people blindly sang my praises.”
“This ‘Fairy’ type must be something that slipped through the gap due to a lack of comprehensive testing for each and every Pokémon for all the Pokémon between Hoenn and Indigo, which was what was available when I created the Pokédex. Regardless, I’m thankful that someone has managed to catch this slip-up. If we can receive accurate confirmation that such a type exists, then I’ll be sure to scrounge through the Pokédex and update each and every Pokémon that this new type actually applies to.” He said as if making a vow.
I was taken aback at Oak’s explanation. He was seemingly putting the blame on himself for our collective failure to discover the new type. While I could see where he was coming from, I felt that he was being far too harsh on himself. I was about to speak up before Blaine cut me off.
“Bah! To put all this on your shoulders is going a bit too far, don’t you think Samuel?” He snorted, “This is something we all missed. And who could blame us? How often do you see people pitting a supposed Normal type against a Dragon anyways?”
“Yep. Even in Hoenn, it was our decision to simply accept the Pokédex information we received from you without accurately checking through it.” Shelly added, “Our failure to find out about the Fairy type comes from our COLLECTIVE negligence. Not from any fault of yours, Professor Oak.”
“Not only that, but even in Sinnoh, we don’t often do tests with Dragon types because of how rare the Garchomp line are, which are practically the only Dragon type that we experiment with.” Carolina concurred, “It’s no surprise that there may be Fairy types that exist within the Sinnoh Pokédex that we similarly missed.”
Oak let out a breath, “Yes, I can see that. Anyways, I think I might have distracted you all enough with my tangent. Let us get back to the subject at hand.”
We all nodded and returned to the matter at hand. I coughed and spoke, “Does anyone have a Dark type? I wanted to demonstrate Fairy’s type supereffectiveness against one.”
Shelly nodded and sent out her Sharpedo, which snarled menacingly as it appeared. It was to everyone’s credit as professionals or Elite trainers that none of us flinched.
“Dark Pulse, Sharpedo.” Shelly ordered, causing Sharpedo to launch a wave of Dark type energy towards Luna.
“Moonblast, Luna. Make it weak.” I returned. Luna nodded and shot a small orb of Fairy energy towards Sharpedo, managing to rip through the incoming Dark Pulse like it was nothing, before blasting the Sharpedo backwards supereffectively. It looked like it was about to faint from the one attack.
Shelly frowned, “Return, Sharpedo. I think that was enough of a demonstration.” Then I heard her mumble to herself, “Probably should train up my Pokémon more. That was a pathetic showing.”
Oak stepped up once again with a thoughtful expression on his face, “That was a good example…but I can’t help but think that I’ve seen your other Pokémon use similar moves like this before. Even your non-fairy ones.” He pointed out observingly.
“Yes, they do.” I nodded, not bothering to hide anything, “I suspect the move Play Rough that my other Pokémon use is also Fairy type-”
“Which is how you did so much damage against Drake and Bruno!” Blaine finished for me, looking astounded at the discovery. I nodded again in confirmation.
“Yes…I pieced that together too after your demonstration.” Oak commented, his eyes sharp as a Noctowl, “…You’ve been sitting on this for some time, huh?”
I moved to speak up, but Oak waved me off. “I’m not accusing you of anything if that’s what you’re worried about. I can appreciate keeping cards close to your chest for an advantage in battle, especially when the information overturned what we previously knew about Pokémon’s types.”
I could only nod in response. Oak shot me a knowing smile before moving on.
“…Anyways, we’ve gotten distracted again, and we definitely should be doing more testing. There’s only so much we can do with just a single Fairy type Pokémon to test with. John, do you have any ideas on how you want to proceed?” He asked.
I went through my pre-arranged answer in my head before I answered, “I do. A part of the reason why I invited all of you here today was so that we could set up a joint-research project on the Fairy type. Collectively, you are all important representatives from the 3 regions. If we were to publish our joint findings together, people would be hard-pressed to outright deny such claims, as surprising as they may be.”
They all nodded, so I continued, “To that end, I was hoping that this project could be run by you, Professor Oak, since out of everyone here you are the one with the greatest access to the necessary scientific facilities as well as an ample supply of Pokémon.” I also wanted to make sure that his name would be front and centre of this project.
I didn’t need to hog the glory; I just wanted to make sure that such a discovery would actually be accepted by the public.
Oak nodded, “I can see where this is going. Yes, I’m happy to take the lead with such a project. You m ay all consider that my laboratory in Pallet town is open for you.” He declared. “I assume you want us to undergo tests on this Fairy type to accurately determine what resistances, weaknesses, and strengths that it possesses?”
“Yes. That’s exactly right.” I confirmed, “It’s not going to be a cheap project, or one that could be done in the short-term, but I’m willing to contribute whatever resources I can to help out if necessary.”
Oak waved me off, “No need. I assure you that funding won’t be a problem. I have tons of grants lined up that I could easily accept if I wanted to. Leave that to me.”
I let out a sigh of relief, “Well, that’s good. One less problem to worry about. Oh! And one more thing.” I gestured to Euphie, who throughout our discussion had been running around playfully in the field while being happily chased by Luna, “I’ve already spoken to my Eevee about this, but I would also be happy to lend you my Eevee for the time being so that we can study more about to see if we could trigger her evolution with the Fairy typing.”
“And how far have you come with that?” Blaine asked.
I shook my hand in a ‘so-so’ manner, “I think I’m halfway there. I’ve had Eevee train with Clefable to learn to manipulate Fairy energy. I’m not sure if she’ll also need a specific stone to trigger the evolution, but for now I’m hopeful that just being proficient enough at using Fairy energy might be enough.”
I wasn’t entirely lying. Unlike in the games, where the method to trigger an evolution to an Umbreon or Espeon was just with Friendship alone. Here, friendship was insufficient, since you actually needed your Eevee to be proficient at using Dark or Psychic type moves respectively before it could evolve. Hence, this was why I assumed the same for Sylveon, though I couldn’t confirm it until the actual evolution triggered.
“Well, I’m more than okay with that, so long as you’re happy.” Oak replied as he shot Euphie a smile, “It’s been a while since I’ve worked with an Eevee, but I’m sure I’ll manage. Don’t worry, she’ll be in safe hands.”
“Let me help out with that as well.” Blaine cut in, “I work with Eevee all the time since I’m often the guy people come to for Flareons, so I should be an old hand at this.”
I nodded towards the two of them, before Carolina spoke up, “So, what would our roles be?” She gestured towards herself and Shelly.
“I was thinking Pokémon acquisition, unless you have the time to help out with the researching.” I suggested, before turning to Oak, “What do you think, Professor Oak?
“Hmm…I’m confident that I can handle most of the research by myself or with my assistants, but yes, having someone on hand who could have easy access to Hoenn or Sinnoh Pokémon would make things much easier. Of course, an extra pair of eyes and hands wouldn’t go amiss either.”
The two ladies nodded. And then the discussion devolved into talking about the finer details about how we would tackle such a project. In the end, Professor Oak suggested that we should first focus on identifying the type matchups of the Fairy type, which shouldn’t take too long. That would involve capturing a few Clefable or Clefairy to test with, but luckily Oak had a few on hand.
After that, we can use those results as a guide to identify other Fairy types. Which would also have to be tested to ensure that their type matchups prove the same as Clefairy’s. Then it’s going to be a long slog of going through the many Pokémon in the Pokédex and check through each one manually.
Fortunately, there wouldn’t be a need to check through Pokémon that already have two types confirmed. Just the rest. Which was still a lot.
We also unanimously agreed to uphold secrecy as far as possible. While a project of this size was impossible to keep a secret, the finer details should be kept under lock-and-key so that no one could steal credit. Oak informed us that rumours were undoubtedly going to spread, and at a certain stage of our research we could afford to confirm some of it, but for the time being he urged everyone to keep quiet about this.
Still, with that plan sorted, and with the sun slowly started to set, we all shared our numbers with each other before we all split up. Interestingly enough, Shelly opted to stay behind for a while.
“Hey John, wanted to speak to you for a bit.” She spoke up after the others left.
“Oh? What’s up? Something the matter? Unhappy with the project?” I replied curiously.
“No, no, no, absolutely not.” She quickly denied with as she waved her hands, “I don’t think you really understand the grand opportunity that you’ve just given me. Compared to everyone else here today, I’m just some head of a branch office.”
“Technically, that’s not too different from Professor Carolina’s position.” I responded, “She’s only the head of one of Sinnoh’s research laboratories, after all.”
“That’s different. It’s…never mind, that’s not what I wanted to say to you.” She changed the topic, “I just had something to bring up regarding the Porygon project. There’s been an incident.”
“Oh? Tell me more.” I asked, suddenly curious.
“One of the other scientists working for Devon Corp got a bit too overeager and tried to force an evolution on a Porygon2 with an unapproved evolution item.” My eyes widened, “It worked, and we’re calling this new evolution a Porygon-Z, but we quickly realized that the new Porygon-Z was completely unstable.”
She sighed, “It was just like you feared. New evolution or not, it wasn’t a Pokémon that we could make use of with its current insanity. Fortunately, it was quickly contained before it could do too much damage, but we’re currently going through everything to make sure there won’t be a repeat.”
“Ah…well I’m glad that this incident didn’t escalate any further.” I commented, inwardly sighing in relief that my Pixel wasn’t subject to such a fate. “Still, good to know that such an evolution exists.”
“Yes…that’s the silver lining. Now we just have to find a way to trigger such an evolution WITHOUT inducing insanity. It’s harder than it seems.” She frowned, before she shook it off and reformed her smile. “Oh, and on better news, I think I’m coming close to creating a functional replacement to the Premier Ball. Funding has been coming in easily recently, especially with the success of the Premier Ball.”
“Hm? What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean, it will be a Premier Ball that actually lets your Pokémon remain in a more luxurious state while they’re inside. So, instead of just LOOKING luxurious, it actually WILL be luxurious.” She explained.
“So…a ‘luxury ball’?” I replied.
“Yes! That’s the name I was going to go with too.” She bobbed her head excitedly, “Once I do have everything finalized, I’ll be happy to show you the prototype.”
“Sure, I’m excited for it.” I nodded.
“Great! Anyways, I really do have to be off. Thanks once again for inviting me. See you soon!” She waved me goodbye before she released a Kadabra and Teleported out.
I let my hand fall back to my sides. Then, figuring that I still had a few moments before I had to start making dinner, I started ruffling Eevee’s fur as I idly went over everything that had happened today.
I was VERY pleased with being able to secure the joint-cooperation of so many esteemed individuals. With such a stacked roster, I was very confident that my goal of revealing the Fairy type would be a success.
A.N. And here comes the start of the Fairy reveal! It’s been a long time coming, so I hope that people are satisfied with the reasoning behind why Fairies have yet to be discovered. This will be something going on in the background for quite a while, but I hope you enjoyed all the interactions.
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Huge thanks!
Comments
Mike Trevino
I was wondering what the chances of Oak impeding scientific discoveries are, and that this would happen in real life; then I remembered I saw a news report about a group of women who literally changed the automotive industry when they added Female test dummies. Years of testing and no one thought to add a woman in the picture because everyone working there were men. So confirmation bias is not only real it can have implications on an international level.
