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The New Normal - 3-8
🕑 Added 2023-05-19 14:39:26 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 3-8 – Scientific Discussions
It’s been two weeks ever since my tumultuous meeting with Giovanni, and a fire seems to have been lit under the Indigo political scene. Of course, despite the turmoil, I was pleased with the way things were going.
For one, my idea to get Giovanni to publicly fight against Team Rocket was paying off with greater dividends than I expected. After all, my main intention was to just force Giovanni into becoming enemies with Team Rocket so he couldn’t sit on the fence. However, it appears that Giovanni was able to reap the benefits of being the first Gym Leader to ‘step up’ and actively combat against Team Rocket’s criminal actions.
I got a lot of the credit as well for quickly endorsing his actions, which was nice. I was always pleased to see the many comments of praise that were thrown about on the Pokénet; it was doing wonders for my reputation as a member of the Elite Four. This, in turn, meant that my influence and status as a member of the Elite Four was also growing.
I intended to make use of my boosted status soon enough when I officially declared my support for Lance and to push forward any other proposals I may have, such as my ongoing proposal to change the 4-badge requirement. Though that was slow going due to all the other more important political matters going on at the moment. I hoped to at least get it pushed through by the time, or just after, Whitney was able to go on her journey, so that she would benefit.
Speaking of Pryce, he really was in trouble now. Lance was really putting the pressure on him by frequently attacking him on a myriad of issues, including blaming him for running Indigo incompetently and indirectly causing this crime wave to happen. It appears that it was an open secret that Lance intended to challenge Pryce for the title of Champion. I predicted that Lance only delayed in making the announcement because he wanted to shore up his own support base and continue whittling down and converting those who would support Pryce behind the scenes.
The power of the Blackthorns truly was frightening, as I’m sure that Pryce was slowly re-learning. It’s not like Pryce wasn’t trying to fight back, but the way the news was portraying it definitely made it seem like he was losing the war of public opinion.
In the meanwhile, all over the news and forums were a plethora of debates and discussions about Lance’s probable leadership challenge and what it would mean for the future of Indigo. It got to the point that many news agencies and reporters were starting to bother the Gym Leaders and Elite Four in order to find out more about our opinions on the issue.
I even had to throw out a few reporters out of the family farm who had tried to sneak in. Luckily, the Cerulean police were happy to assist in the protection of our farm, especially after I announced my support for the increased funding towards the Indigo Police.
Sometimes, it was nice to have power.
Besides all the politicking, I lived a relatively quiet life for the past two weeks. Whitney was soon to be starting her own journey in a few weeks’ time, and I spent most of my days just training with our Pokémon to make sure that she was as ready as she could be. I also had the great idea of telling her to study up on Gym Leader Norman’s battles, since I thought he’d be a good role model for her, and with Norman’s permission I even gave her his number so that she could ask him the occasional questions.
She seemed very ecstatic to be talking to such an esteemed figure, so I encouraged her interactions with him. Of course, she conveniently forgot that her brother was also a supposed ‘esteemed figure’, and I lamented about the fickleness of youth.
More gravely, my parents and I had spoken to Whitney about taking care of her behaviour while she was on her journey. While she had no history of bad behaviour, we unfortunately still had to remind her that since I was now a public figure, her actions could affect my reputation. It took a while, but she accepted that any adverse actions from her could cause significant damage to my reputation, and she should try to behave as much as possible to prevent this.
I hated that my newfound status meant that my sister would be placed under increased scrutiny, but that was the unavoidable reality of politics. At least I was comforted by the fact that Whitney understood the reasoning and didn’t seem to hold a grudge, if anything, she seemed to hold her head higher as she accepted the responsibility.
I was proud of my sister for being so mature.
Speaking of maturity, I finally decided to get a start on trying to learn about logistics and business matters. I even went to my parents when they were free to see if they could assist me in learning about it. I didn’t need to be proficient or be an expert in it, but I wanted to at least be able to understand and participate in logistical discussions if need be. After two weeks, I felt like I was good enough to at least speak about logistics on a very basic level.
My recent ‘disagreement’ with Giovanni was another reminder that I could never be too dependent on him. At least it appeared that our relationship was rekindled though by our recent shared prosperity.
Of course, I also spent much time chatting and texting with Karen. Her name did occasionally show up in the news as she continued clearing through the Hoenn Gyms and winning badge after badge. I think that the only badges that she had left to claim were the Knuckle and Heat badges.
She frequently told me about her exploits and how her Pokémon were getting stronger. Her Pupitar had yet to evolve into a Tyranitar, but she told me that she could feel that it was very close to doing so. Likewise, her Corphish had settled in well with the rest of her team and was slowly mastering his Water-type moves.
Karen also happily told me that she finally caught herself a Carvanha, but unfortunately, she didn’t have much luck finding an Absol. I expressed my worries about whether she might be catching new Pokémon too quickly before they could properly settle in, but she told me that her newly caught Carvanha was very easily adapting to her team as well and that she foresaw no problems.
That couldn’t be said for the Zigzagoon egg that she was carrying around, though, and now the both of us were increasingly concerned that our experiment might fail. Despite the two weeks of relative free time that I had and the constant discussions that we had about it, there seemed to be no changes in the egg despite the amount of Dark type energy we have infused into it.
Our lack of progress annoyed the both of us greatly, and I was especially frustrated because I was sure that this was a viable method for converting a normal Zigzagoon egg into a G-Zigzagoon. My gut was screaming at me that I was missing something crucial, but I still couldn’t figure it out yet.
I sighed to myself as I returned to where my Pokémon were training. At least I was seeing some progress here with Smough finally starting to become proficient at Thunderpunch.
Pixel was also making incredible progress with its own training and was starting to be able to fight at higher levels. It was starting to work on its mobility by training up on Magnet Rise and practicing manoeuvring in the air while simultaneously firing off Thundershocks. Having the power of flight was so important in high-level battles, and although it wasn’t the most proficient at it yet, I was sure that it would become much better with enough training.
In the distance, Zephyr was constantly doing dives and smashing through trees using Brave Bird, recklessly continuing his attacks despite the damage that he was taken. He was slowly moving to smashing through stronger and stronger targets as he repeatedly pushed himself to the limits and continued developing an all-or-nothing mindset.
Zephyr was making good work developing his ability. From my research on how others did it, I understood that trained abilities were more like badges to show that a Pokémon had reached a particular proficiency, meaning that they can be trained and developed. In Zephyr’s case, by continuing to develop an unyielding and all-or-nothing mindset with recoil moves and mastering them to such a high degree of proficiency, through his training, he’ll be able to add a bit more power to the recoil move. Hence, when he does so, he’ll have ‘earned’ the ability Reckless, a symbol to signify his achievement. Thus, the ‘earned’ ability does not actually give a boost of its own, but rather, just shows that the Pokémon has trained in a specific area so greatly that it was as if it had that ability to begin with.
Of course, developing abilities were much easier said than done, and should only be attempted by extremely well-trained Pokémon to begin with, like Zephyr. Moreover, there were just some abilities that couldn’t be trained, depending on the Pokémon, like Water or Volt Absorb. Still, I had confidence that he would be able to develop the ability Reckless so long as he could maintain this level of training.
=========
“…Does that mean you’re still unsure on who their backer is?” I asked Giovanni over the phone an hour or so later.
“Yes, unfortunately so.” Giovanni replied seriously. “Despite the many arrests I made and personal interviews that I had with the criminals, even with my own network I am still unable to find out who precisely is funding Team Rocket.”
I grimaced as I listened to Giovanni. Overall, the Indigo League had worked together and made significant progress in pushing back Team Rocket, and the jail cells were overflowing with their grunts. However, it appears that, even with the help of Giovanni’s underground network and the resources available to the Blackthorns, we were still no closer to finding out where Team Rocket was getting their funding.
And they must have gotten it from somewhere, as Giovanni had told me that he had deliberately cut off funding to Team Rocket when he realized he wouldn’t be using them.
“…I see…thank you for letting me know about this, Giovanni.” I finally responded. “I admit to finding it rather unsettling that we still aren’t able to find their backer, but at least we’re pushing them back within every major city.”
“Mhm. And at least they aren’t damaging the reputation of Kanto.” I rolled my eyes silently; leave it to Giovanni to be tunnel-visioned on his own priorities. “I’ll keep looking into it; I’m as curious as you are about their mysterious backer and where they got their resources from.”
Left unsaid was that Giovanni likely wanted to take in their resources for his own personal use, but it’s not like I could really stop him from doing so.
“Oh, and one more thing, John.” Giovanni spoke up again. “I was just informed by the new Devon Corp branch office that they want to speak with you. It’s not urgent, but apparently their new manager forgot to give you her number and she wanted me to pass on the message.”
“Ah, ok thanks Giovanni. I’ll be sure to visit them soon.” I thanked him. I totally forgot to visit the new branch ever since they were properly set up. Whoops! I checked the time and saw that I still had plenty of time until dinner, so I decided to go right now.
I finished up my conversation with Giovanni before I told Whitney that I was heading off again. She just gave me a distracted nod as she was busy training Miltank to use the elemental punches, as she was inspired by my own efforts at training Smough and wanted to join in.
I left her to it and quickly wrapped up my Pokémon’s training session as I then made my way on Port towards Viridian City. On the way there, I reminded myself that I shouldn’t treat Shelly any differently just because she might become a Team Aqua admin in the future.
Obviously, I would stay alert, but I shouldn’t be overly suspicious of her just because of her potential future affiliations. After all, if I could accept and work with Giovanni, I should be able to do the same with Shelly.
Another short flight later and I landed outside the new Devon Corp Viridian Branch office, fortunately unspotted. I made my way to their reception and spoke to the receptionist that I was expected. I also had a quick look around and realized that the new offices were rather plain with a distinct lack of décor compared to the main building in Rustboro, unsurprising for a new building. I also noticed that they didn’t have anything on sale at the moment, so I supposed that this building was mostly for R&D for the time being.
Luckily, the receptionist recognized me but didn’t make a fuss about my appearance and quickly told me that Shelly was waiting for me in her office. I thanked her and made my way there to her office via the elevator.
Soon, I found myself standing outside her door before I knocked politely and waited for a “come in” before I entered.
“Ah, Elite John, thanks for coming by.” Shelly greeted me, dressed in her previous lab coat and blue shirt getup. “I’ve been seeing you a lot on the news recently, so I’m sorry for taking up your time like this. I apologize for any inconvenience.”
“No worries, and please call me John.” I greeted back. I decided to make some small talk, both to get to know her better, but also to hopefully to sniff out if she’s a part of Team Aqua already to sate any lingering paranoia.
“How are you finding Indigo, Shelly?” I asked casually, “I hope that you’re used to the fact that there’s a lot less water here.” My words were tinged with humour, but my eyes were focused on her reaction.
Shelly didn’t seem phased at all at my potentially strange choice of words. “Well, I haven’t had much time to explore the whole of Indigo yet, but I do intend to explore a bit once I have some free time. I was feeling very cooped up in Hoenn, and I almost wanted to run away from everything, so this was a nice and needed change.”
“Well, that’s good to hear that you’re looking to explore Indigo.” I told her. “Exploring around Indigo was always one of my favourite things to do while I was on my journey. However, it might not be the best time right now considering the whole Team Rocket criminal stuff.”
“Yes, it’s unfortunate that some people seem to think that it’s right to steal Pokémon like that.” She said with what I thought was genuine sadness. “You have my sympathies for having to deal with them. I hope you can clean up these criminals soon.”
I nodded in reply and eased back on my pseudo-interrogation. I didn’t spot anything suspicious in her answers, which might not mean anything, but at least her responses didn’t trigger any alarm bells. Thus, I decided to switch topics.
“So, not to rush you or anything, but why did you ask me to come here?” I asked curiously.
“Oh, yes! So, some of my colleagues in Hoenn wanted some information about a ‘trained’ Porygon so they could use the data to help them with their research so they can get started as soon as the research facility is set up. They asked me to inspect your Porygon and do a few tests to see if that can give them a few ideas.” She explained.
“Oh sure, let me ask Pixel and see if it’s up for it.” Shelly nodded and waited patiently as I released Pixel and explained to it what Shelly wanted to do. Pixel buzzed thoughtfully before eventually agreeing and the three of us were brought over to another room filled with complex machinery as Shelly began her inspection.
I wasn’t worried that Shelly or some other person would implant some kind of monitoring virus into Pixel, as Pixel assured me that it was able to detect such malicious implants and remove them before they could collect anything. Thus, I felt safe allowing Shelly to run her tests.
We spent some time just running over a battery of tests, most of which involved Pixel using a move of some sort and then Shelly writing something down on her notepad. I truthfully didn’t understand what was going on, but Shelly seemed satisfied with whatever was happening, so I just waited patiently.
After a few more tests, Shelly finally spoke up.
“Thank you for waiting so patiently, John.” She thanked me as she released the straps on Pixel. “Your Pixel was very well-behaved. You must have trained it very well.” She complimented.
“Well, I can’t take all the credit. Pixel deserves much of the credit as it is very eager to train and improve itself.” I said humbly before asking, “Also, did you find out anything useful from these tests?”
She scratched her head for a bit and looked down on her notes again before responding. “The tests were certainly useful, but we definitely need a larger sample size before I can say anything definitive. From what I can see though from collating today’s data with the others, if your Pixel is capable of evolving, I think an external stimulus is likely going to be required since your Porygon, I’m sorry, I mean your Pixel, seems to not show any common signs of evolving with on its own.”
She then continued to explain herself in increasingly scientific jargon that I failed to understand but nodded politely anyways to show that I was still engaged. Eventually, Shelly realized she had lost me and blushed slightly in embarrassment.
“Sorry, I tend to get a bit obsessed with my research at times.” She apologized. “It’s a bad habit of mine that I’ve been trying to curb.”
“No, it’s alright.” I told her. “It’s good to see that you’re so passionate about Porygon, makes me think that Pixel is in safe hands.” I praised, before I remembered something about Porygon-Z’s Pokédex entry from the games. “Also, could you tell your colleagues that if you’re looking into researching potential evolutions for Porygon to please ensure that these evolutions are stable and don’t cause any adverse effect for the Pokémon.”
She nodded seriously and jotted my comments down and then excused herself so that she could copy down her notes more formally and send it to her colleagues. She quickly came back and apologized once again for the wait, but I easily waved it off as it wasn’t a problem.
While she was gone, I had the idea that I should ask her a few questions about Pokémon eggs to see if she could help me realize what I was doing wrong. I asked her the moment she returned.
“So, Shelly, I did have a question that I wanted to ask about Pokémon eggs.” She looked confused at my sudden question but gestured for me to proceed.
“Are the Pokémon within the eggs normally influenced by external factors?” I inquired.
“Yes, it’s common knowledge within the scientific community that external factors have an impact on the Pokémon within the egg.” She replied. “For example, it’s very common for Pokémon to come out of the egg already knowing who their trainers are because the trainer has unconsciously showered the egg with their own feelings of love.”
I stood up straight as something clicked in my head. “Wait, so you’re saying that emotions are able to affect the Pokémon while they’re inside the egg?” I asked excitedly.
“Yes, in fact, it’s one of the most common ways that you can affect a Pokémon while they are inside an egg.” She responded easily before my eyes shot up in surprise as the gears finally began to click together in my head. There was a small detail in G-Zigzagoon’s Pokédex entry that differentiated it from a regular Zigzagoon, Dark-typing aside; its’ signature love for battle.
I reached for my phone and began texting Karen.
‘Karen, I think I figured out what was missing. U are infusing Dark energy without emotion. U need emotion to affect the egg. Infuse the egg with emotions of a love for battle, like battlelust. Be careful tho, don’t get too excited.’
I momentarily ignored Shelly as I read through my text to make sure nothing was wrong before I sent it. If my theory was correct, then this was exactly what I was missing. I knew that G-Zigzagoon were known to be far more aggressive and hungrier for battle than their Hoenn counterparts, and I thought that these emotions were what was missing from our infusions. I didn’t realize that this process needed to be so exact.
My phone buzzed as I quickly got a reply from Karen.
‘!!!! Wait ok let me do this right now.’ She texted.
‘No rush but do it over a few days and let me know if things changed. Remember, infuse with emotion for love for battle.’ I reminded her, and she responded affirmatively.
I looked up and saw that Shelly was curiously waiting for me to finish up, and I put my phone away and explained myself with a hint of embarrassment.
“Sorry about that, but I think your words sparked a revelation into an experiment that I’m doing.” I explained to her.
“You’re doing an experiment regarding an egg?” I nodded, and her eyes flashed with interest and excitement. “Could I know more? Maybe I could help out?” She leaned forward with sparkling eyes.
I resisted her enthusiasm and shook my head. “Sadly, not right now. Maybe I’ll discuss things with you further if it works out. I’ll definitely be happy to share my notes once I’m done!” I quipped with a cheeky grin.
Shelly gave me a big pout, but I was unaffected by her pleading, and she eventually gave up. She did extract a promise from me that I’ll discuss things with her in more detail in the future, and I easily accepted that.
After all, there would be no harm allowing a more scientific eye look over our notes once we were done. I just wanted to ensure that our project stayed OUR project for the time being.
Our discussion then briefly shifted to the Premier Balls, and she asked if I enjoyed the look of them. I replied that I did, and then I asked if she knew anything about the sales, since I should be receiving my first cut from my 5% very soon.
Shelly told me that she didn’t know anything about it since most of that data was still back in Hoenn, but she did tell me that this branch would be looking to sell Premier Balls in the future. She informed that she had full authority to handle the marketing campaign as she saw fit, and so asked if I was interested in participating in their marketing for another three-month extension on my 5% cut.
I told her that I was, but that would be heavily dependent on my schedule and that we should probably table the discussion for later. Since we were on the topic, I did ask what kind of research that this branch would be focusing on in the future, and Shelly told me that it was very likely that they would be involved with inventing new Pokéballs that were more than just aesthetically different, and she explained that they already had a few projects in the works already.
I immediately had a few ideas based on the games, but I kept them to myself for now. Perhaps I’ll share them with Shelly later down the road. Shelly also very kindly gave me a few extra Premier Balls as a gift, since she had some sent over for advertising purposes and had a few spares.
I looked out the window of the office and realized that it was already rather late in the evening, so I politely asked if she had anything else she wanted to discuss with me before I left the branch office. I reflected on my meeting with Shelly, and I thought that I could see us working together on projects in the future, and I didn’t notice any signs that she might be a part of Team Aqua already.
As I was about to saddle up on Port, I was blessed with a hilarious sight. Just opposite me, Petrel was walking down the road carrying two heavy bags of groceries from the local Pokémart, looking like some tired salaryman. He didn’t spot me, but I had to stop myself from laughing my head off at the sight.
Eventually I got control of myself and I flew back home on Port. Idly, I hoped that the scientists would discover the ‘Upgrade’ soon as I really wanted to be able to evolve Pixel into a Porygon2. As soon I got home, I found my parents with their eyes glued to the television, and they shushed me as I was about to ask what was going on.
‘…And thanks to the hard work of Champion Pryce, we have begun to enter into diplomatic communications with the new region of Sinnoh. The Indigo League has announced that they hope that our two regions will be willing to open our borders to each other very soon…’
How interesting…
A.N As promised, Sinnoh is here! But it will be some time before John actually get over there to explore it. This was a very delicate chapter, so I hope everything was handled satisfactorily.
And, to not be coy, the final aspect of ensuring the egg’s transformation is done. I made emotion/intent to be an important aspect because it is specifically said that for G-Zigzagoon that they are far more aggressive than their counterparts. Thus, it took three factors to achieve success. 1) the father was a Dark type, and the mother was proficient in dark type moves, 2) The egg has been constantly infused with Dark type energy, 3) The dark type energy has been properly directed with the correct emotions/intent to ensure the change (if relevant). Some eggs will require the correct emotion to cause a change, others won’t. Depends on the Pokemon.
Repeating myself, there will be NO fakemons. The process MUST be exact to achieve success. No abominations here.
Also, regarding abilities, I hope my explanation made sense. Basically, trained ‘abilities’ just prove that a pokemon is capable of doing something. For example, Early Bird proves that a pokemon can wake up earlier with less sleep needed. So, if a pokemon can train itself to do that, then it will EARN Early Bird as an ability. The ability doesn’t do anything, but rather shows that the pokemon is able to do this. Another example, Guts allows a pokemon to gain a boost from status effects and resist the attack drop of burn. But, if a pokemon can train itself to do that, then it will EARN Guts as an ability.
TLDR: The ability doesn’t provide a boost, but it’s just a mark of recognition that a pokemon has reached such a high level of training that it duplicates the effect of an ability. This way, training a new ‘ability’ just shows that a pokemon can do certain things, and it gives a ‘goal’ to train towards.
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Thanks man!
Comments
Vtec
No, it will go to John. When I wrote it, I saw that it would be a huge insult to Norman if the egg went to Karen after Norman gave it to John. So the egg goes to John. It won't hatch yet.
The Tallest Tree
Will the egg go to Karen? She’s the one imbuing energy emotions and who will be there when it hatches… kind of rude to the Hoenn gym guy who gave it as a gift to John
Vtec
There will be a few chapters like that in the future, but John IS busy right now, and so the chapters reflect that. Also, I've been really careful to not just write 'filler' chapters, so I try to have each chapter accomplish something.
Retribrutus
While I do enjoy everything going quite fast with the story's development, especially Pierce's removal from his throne as champion. I'm more curious to see into the personal life of John when he's not overrun with his duties as an elite. Stuff like his chores that he still has to do around the farm, more familial interactions between him and his parents, more brother-sister time with Whitney, and the occasional interactions that Cerulean City (including Misty and her family) have with their very own Elite 4 resident. All of these would add more interesting takes around the SI and his overall influence on the community.
