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The New Normal - 8-15
🕑 Added 2024-03-08 07:40:44 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 8-15 – Tabling the Results
Who knew that the feeling of having warm, fresh air breezing past your face could be so comforting? But upon returning from the cave systems and back to the surface, just being able to see the open sky and feel the wind on my face was nothing short of heavenly.
I definitely needed a break from those freezing caves.
The reporters, who had returned earlier than us, immediately swarmed us and pestered us with questions. But this time, with tiredness streaking our faces, we didn’t have the patience to deal with them and begged off.
The first thing any of this was head to the showers before getting a good night’s sleep. None of us had the energy to do anything else before that.
It was only the next day when I had the energy to actually do things again. And the first item on the list was the missed call that I received from Lance.
So, I rung him up again, “Lance? This is John.” I said to him as he picked up.
“John, I heard a little about the expedition you went on!” He replied cheerfully, “Was it successful?”
“I believe so.” I responded, doing my best to hide what we had uncovered, “You got something for me?”
“I do. Unless you have something urgent that requires you to stay in Sinnoh for, we’re going to pull you both you and Will back home by the end of the week.” He informed me, giving me just a few more days to remain in Sinnoh, “You’ve stayed there for long enough, and Sinnoh have agreed for us to send a permanent diplomatic representative in both your places. They’ll serve as our liaison to the Sinnoh League.”
“I see. Truthfully, I expected this to have come earlier.” I said to him.
“I’ve been pushing for a permanent representative for some time, but the Sinnoh League are…uncooperative at the moment. That delayed matters even further.” He complained, “I just hope the Sinnohnians actually appoint an actual Champion soon who can rein in the Committee. Trying to organize things with them was such a hassle.”
My thoughts went to Cynthia, but I promised to not say anything for the moment, “…I do too. Sinnoh needs the stability.”
“Will had mentioned how he was almost accidentally caught up in one of those protests.” Lance agreed, “You’ve been lucky to avoid them, staying in Celestic Town as you are.”
“Oh – and speaking of Will.” Lance continued, “Since you couldn’t be reached yesterday, he told me to inform you that he’d be coming over to speak about something with you. I believe he mentioned something to do with business deals…?”
“Oh yes.” I remembered, “Thanks. I’ll talk to him. Is there anything else?”
“Yes. There is one last thing.” He suddenly turned serious, “Are you in a secure location right now?”
“One second.” I released Pixel and asked him to scan my room for any listening devices. Pixel buzzed back after a moment confirming no one was electronically listening in.
“…Go ahead.” I finally said.
“Do you have any leads on where the criminals have been hiding out in Sinnoh?” He questioned.
Fortunately I had prepared for such a question, “Nothing concrete.” I told him, “But my gut is telling me that whoever is funding them must have access to massive amounts of resources. That points to big businesses.”
“Why is that?” He pushed.
“Do you remember when we did all those raids in Hoenn, and then collated all that we found?” I asked, and he replied that he did, “What we never found in any of those raids that we performed was a way for these terrorists to be earning income. And from the psychic interrogations, we knew they weren’t going on raids to acquire resources, nor did they have any fake companies set up in Indigo or Hoenn where they could funnel money into their criminal activities.”
“…Meaning that they had to get their resources from somewhere else.” Lance finished for me, “And you believe that whoever is backing them must be a big player in Sinnoh.”
“Yes.” I confirmed, “In my opinion, that’s the only thing that makes sense. It’s why they retreated to here, after all. That’s why I’m asking if you could set up or conduct investigations in Sinnoh to locate who these backers are.” I deliberately left out my arrangements with Giovanni.
I could hear his thoughts whirling as he processed my request.
“…I agree with you, and it makes sense considering all that we know – especially when backed up by what we found out in the psychic interrogations, but we don’t have the authority to conduct investigations in Sinnoh just yet.” He said reluctantly, “A part of me wants to damn the rules and go hunting anyways, but our relationship with Sinnoh is too fresh and new for us to risk something like that. We could be dooming them to close their borders once again if I pushed too forcefully for something like that. That being said, I will keep pushing for it if I think the political climate warrants it.”
I let out a sigh, expecting but still disappointed in his answer, “I understand…but we can’t just sit around and remain passive. We need to do more.”
Lance stayed silent for a moment, deep in thought. I could hear the gears churning in his brain.
Eventually, he could only say this, “We’ll discuss this further when you get back to Indigo. I’m afraid my hands are tied for the moment. Perhaps once Sinnoh gets a new Champion, then we’ll bring this topic up again.”
“I’m not dismissing your suggestions out of hand, and I did promise to put this as our highest priority, but even with my position I do not have the ability to force this through in Sinnoh.” He explained patiently, “We’ll wait for a different opportunity, and I promise I place my full attention on this.”
“Thank you, Lance. That’s all I ask.” I replied, realizing that this was probably the best outcome I could have hoped for.
“Nonsense, this is a problem that we’re all concerned about. I appreciate your diligence.” He said, waving off my thanks. “Anyways, just to remind you. Tie up any remaining commitments you have in Sinnoh. You’ll be back home soon. Talk to you then.”
Hanging up the call, I had a few mixed emotions roiling around within me. On one hand, I was happy to be heading back; I was starting to miss my home ever since spending so much time away from it. But on the other hand, I wanted to be there to witness Cynthia’s rise, and I also wanted to do more explorations in the caves.
I had really enjoyed cave diving and wanted to do something similar in Indigo. But then I had a thought. There WAS a cave in Indigo, in Cerulean City, in fact, that had yet to be really explored or opened up. Cerulean Cave was a place known for its dangers and powerful Pokémon, so people had left it alone for the time being.
But could I do something about it to open it up to the public? I definitely had a few ideas on how that would go after seeing how Cynthia had done it here. It would make for an interesting landmark to have in Cerulean, and have our city be known for something more than just the arts. That was certainly something to bring up when I got home.
But that was for later. For now, I had to make my way back to the labs to continue running a few tests on my new H-Zoroark, Wraith. As I made my way to the labs, I spotted many scientists rushing around with excited smiles on their faces.
I smiled back to a few that I recognized before I approached Cynthia, “Hey, hope you had a good sleep.”
“I feel SO much better.” She confirmed with a large stretch, and I forced my eyes to not move, “Definitely not going to do something like that anytime soon, being both in charge and forced to exert myself so much is TIRING.”
I chuckled, “Yeah, my legs are still sore.” I gave them a shake as emphasis, before my smile turned serious, “Also, I just got the call from my Champion. Both Will and I will be heading home soon.”
Cynthia frowned slightly, “…As we expected. Well, I hope you’ll still cheer for me back at home.”
“Of course.” I nodded dutifully, though I swallowed the slight feeling of regret that rose to the surface.
“Thank you.” She smiled, “Though…I assume there’s going to be small leaving ceremony for when you do leave?”
“Most likely.” I confirmed.
“Then that might be a good opportunity for me to make my announcement to become Champion then.” She said thoughtfully, “I’ll bring this up with Lucian and see what he thinks.”
She shook her head, “Anyways, if you’re leaving soon, would it be alright if we performed those extra tests later this afternoon? I can barely hold back the others’ excitement at seeing a completely new Pokémon.”
“Sure, I did intend to spend this morning trying to get my latest capture to be properly introduced to my team.” I replied.
“I tried that this morning for a bit with Kleavor. It was not a fun time.” Cynthia admitted with a frown, “These Pokémon are strong, of course, but they’ve spent too much time independent and fighting for every scrap of resources. I doubt they’d easily bend to a new trainer.”
“I feared that would be the case.” I agreed, “But, I’ll still have to give it a shot. Wish me luck!” She waved me goodbye as I left the labs, making my way to one of the more secure training fields. I couldn’t use the ones in the open because that would expose my new H-Zoroark for all to see.
I gave off an acknowledging nod towards the assistants running about as I entered into the training facility. Making sure the doors were properly secured – we didn’t need a wild Pokémon running about, I released my team first.
“Okay team. You know we have a new addition.” I addressed them, “But they probably won’t be the most cooperative.” There were some groans and grunts at that, “I don’t expect you to play nice with them right now, but we need to establish obedience at the very least.”
My team all nodded, and there were even smirks on my more battle-hungry bruisers. Ornstein tried to join them, but he was held back by Klee and Euphie, who didn’t think Ornstein could win in a straight up fight against the new Pokémon.
“Lin! Linoone!” Ornstein protested, but I just shook my head at him.
“Now’s not the time. I can’t trust it to control its strength, and I don’t want to see you hurt.” I told Ornstein, trying to placate his desire for battle, “Maybe in the future.”
Ornstein wasn’t super pleased, but he had enough discipline to stand down for the time being, choosing to huddle near Euphie. Satisfied that my Pokémon were all ready, I finally released Wraith into the field.
Wraith emerged onto the field with a snarl, not even bothering to shroud itself in an illusion. Its white and red fur shined brilliantly as they reflected the bright lights of the arena, but any thoughts of its beauty was overshadowed by the aura of vengeful anger that surrounded it.
It turned to glare at me, its eyes shining with malice and rage as it recalled its ignoble defeat. It looked like it was moments away from rushing at me, but then Tyrant merely stepped in front of me with an amused snort.
Tyrant stared down Wraith with a raised eyebrow, as if to say, “You really want to do this?”
Wraith growled, but then it looked around and realized that it was surrounded by Pokémon that could easily beat it down if I gave the command. I could feel his malicious anger fighting against its survival instincts.
But then its anger won out, and it shot forwards with its claws slashing in front of it, only to be immediately slammed into the ground by a nonchalant Tyrant. It snarled, trying to break free of Tyrant’s iron grip with a Shadow Sneak, but Tyrant casually slammed it into the ground once again, interrupting the escape attack and keeping Wraith pinned to the ground.
Yet, Wraith’s raw defiance remained unbroken. Despite finding itself completely outmatched and outnumbered, it refused to stand down. It continued to struggle against Tyrant, desperately trying everything it could to free itself from his grasp. It even started to create illusions of itself breaking free and attacking me just to try to throw Tyrant off, but he didn’t fall for any of them.
Eventually, Wraith’s defiance broke in the face of overwhelming force. It finally calmed itself down as it realized that we weren’t deliberately hurting it and that we were just trying to defend ourselves. So long as it didn’t venture into our ‘territory’, we would not harm it in kind.
Realizing it no longer had overtly hostile intentions, I gave a nod to Tyrant who slowly released his hold on Wraith. Wraith stood up uncertainly, stumbling slightly from the pounding that it just took. Though the hostility faded from its eyes, it still stared at us distrustfully, as if expecting another attack to come.
It didn’t, “Do you remember me?” I asked, careful not to step forwards to not intimidate it.
A low growl was my only response, but a nearly imperceptible nod of its head was my answer. “Good. Then you understand that you fought and lost.”
It growled again, and its eyes flashed briefly with vengeance before a reminding snort from Tyrant held back any potential hostility. I didn’t want to enrage it, but I needed to squash its pride, to get rid of the idea that it knew better.
Wild Pokémon were often strong, but they often performed poorly in fights. They did reasonably well in a fight of pure brute strength, but they had no creativity in their fighting style. Nor did they have much technique beyond just swiping at their opponents. It might have worked out for them when they were fighting other wild Pokémon in the caves, but for the level that we were going to be fight at, it wasn’t going to be good enough.
It was why having a trainer was so essential for forging strong Pokémon. But there was one important question that I needed to ask.
“Do you have a pack?” I questioned Wraith. It, no he, I realized, stared at me for a moment before shaking his head. Good. It would be much more difficult to train him if I had unintentionally separated him from his pack.
“Would you like to get stronger?” I asked it directly, not bothering to sugarcoat my words. I gestured to Tyrant, “Would you like to get as strong as my team?”
He glanced warily at my team. But for all of his simmering anger and rage, he still had enough left in his mind to recognize strength. He could see that my team severely outclassed him in all respects.
And the greedy gleam in his eye was a familiar one to me. It was the greed of any Pokémon; the instinctual desire to grow stronger and to become the very best. And as soon as that gleam appeared in his eye, I knew I had him.
All I had to do was to reel it in, “My Pokémon are far from your average Pokémon. And I am proud to say that all of them are near the pinnacles of what their species can achieve.” My team all growled and grunted in support. “I see your illusions, and the potential that it can bring. I promise that, if you trust me, if you allow me to nurture your strengths, you will find yourself growing as strong as the team that you see in front of you.”
There was no need for anything fancier than that. I didn’t need to flashy words to hook his interest when the strength of my Pokémon, and their easy defeat of him, were so fresh in his mind.
“Zor….Zoroark?” He bit out, still a little reluctant.
Smough translated for me, and I nodded. “Yes, your illusions. I won’t be neglecting them, nor do I think they are weak. In fact, I think they are your greatest strength, and what would you set you apart from the rest of my Pokémon. Your illusions will be your strongest tool, and I intend to refine it even further.”
Wraith looked confused, as if not expecting such a response. He stared at me warily, as if trying to decipher whether I was lying to him.
I gestured towards Klee and Luna, “Not everyone Pokémon on my team is strong because of their raw strength. Klee and Luna here are strong because they have the ability to make use of a large variety of moves to help support my team and cripple key opponents.” I explained, “And they have both saved my life many a time, as well as defeating Pokémon traditionally much stronger than them.”
I moved onto Pixel, “Pixel here is also not a Pokémon reliant on raw power, but rather on its large and versatile movepool as well as the ability to switch types.”
Then I walked up to Wraith, who now trusted me enough not to step back, “So believe me when I say I will make full use of your illusions. If you would just allow me to help you train it up, then I guarantee you that you will be a powerhouse of your own. Only a few Pokémon could be your match. You are already quite strong, but now I will be aiming to refine that strength even further. I assure you that as your trainer, you will grow strong and proud.”
Wraith continued watching me carefully, his wrathful eyes boring into mine. But after a moment, he gave off a minute nod as he accepted my words. I had enough experience to know that this didn’t mean he was going to suddenly listen and obey to my every word, but I had earned enough of his trust for now for him to consider listening to me.
And that was enough for now, “Good.” I smiled back, making sure not to show too much teeth, “Then let’s get started with some sessions. I want you to spar against Pixel. Show me what you got.”
Pixel immediately gave off an excited buzz as it floated forwards, while the rest of my Pokémon formed a protective ring around the perimeter of the arena.
“BEGIN!”
As I expected, Wraith immediately rushed in, while he also formed a basic illusion of himself trying to flank around to the side. But such a simple illusion wouldn’t fool Pixel, and it blasted off a Tri Attack while it used Magnet Rise to fly high into the air, out of reach of Wraith’s sharp claws.
Wraith used his speed to dodge out of the way of the Tri Attack before firing a blast of Shadow Balls towards Pixel, only to growl as they slammed harmlessly into Pixel. Wraith immediately switched to using Agility, only to be immediately punished as Pixel paralyzed it with a surprise Thunder Wave.
Snarling in frustration, Wraith’s form shimmered before a horde of illusions appeared around the arena, all of them leaping into the air as they tried to bring down the flying Pixel. But Pixel simply responded by firing off a powerful Discharge, and the explosion of Electric energy ripped through all of the fake H-Zoroarks.
But despite being hit by a powerful burst of electricity, Wraith showed off his endurance as he forced himself through the Discharge, continued to leap through the air as he grabbed a hold of Pixel. Before Pixel could fire off another attack, Wraith came slamming down with a Brick Break that caused Porygon to emit a loud whirl as it began falling to the ground.
However, just before Wraith could strike with another Brick Break, the paralysis suddenly took of him, and his muscles locked up, buying Pixel a few extra seconds to complete his Conversion. Then, when Wraith finally muscled through the paralysis and struck down with a Brick Break, the attack was suddenly far less effective than before as Pixel had already switched its type to Fairy.
Not realizing he was doing far less damage now, Wraith was completely taken by surprise as Pixel shrugged off his attack and retaliated with a crackling Thunderbolt that blasted Wraith backwards and off of Pixel.
Wraith’s form collapsed to the ground, and he looked like he was completely out of the fight. And Pixel cheered at its ‘victory’, only for Wraith to suddenly appear behind it with a Shadow Claw primed and ready to rake through the surprised Pixel.
Unfortunately for Wraith, his illusion tactic was too obvious, and he failed to hide the sound of his footsteps as he creeped behind Pixel. So, instead of finding Pixel’s unguarded back, what he found was a Zap Cannon, ready and waiting for him.
“Zor!” He couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise before an electrocuting ball of condensed lightning slammed straight into him – sending Wraith flying into the ground as a painful amount of electricity coursed through him. A critical hit!
This time, he collapsed to the ground for real. His once white fur was singing and burnt in a few places, and the bright red highlights were now more muted as the burnt remains of his fur stained them. The only signs of movement were from the twitching of his muscles from all of that lingering electricity that had entered into him.
Klee immediately perked up and rushed over to the fallen Wraith, happily healing him up and completely unafraid of being attacked in turn. Not that Klee was under any threat, she could and would body Wraith into the ground if need be. I took the time to play around with Pixel, celebrating its clean victory.
It took a few moments, but eventually Klee’s careful ministrations were about to heal Wraith up enough for him to sit up.
“Zoroark…” He growled weakly, clearly upset by his defeat.
“You see what I mean? Your use of illusions was too simple.” I told him, “That last trick where you faked that you fainted was good, but you didn’t hide your footsteps, and there was still a slight shimmer in the air that gave away your position. That alerted Pixel to your plan, which is why it could charge up a Zap Cannon to surprise you.”
“Zor…” He whined, upset at his failure. But I stepped in front of him, carefully kneeling down so that we were the same height.
“But that was a good start. You already have the strength of a strong Pokémon.” I praised him, “And I can help you with your illusions, make them better than they were before. Do you believe me? Do you trust in me as your trainer to help you grow strong, as strong as the rest of my team?”
Wraith was still sulking at his loss, but he still gave off a small nod.
“Good, because I’m going to work you very hard from now on.” I offered a hand, and Wraith simply allowed me to pull him up to his feet. “Welcome to the team, Wraith. I hope you like your new nickname.”
Wraith growled softly at me, but after a moment’s hesitation, he grasped my arm in his.
A.N. And Wraith formally joins the team! I tried to highlight that Wraith is already quite strong, unlike many of John’s previous captures, but there’s still quite a lot of work to be done regarding its mindset and drilling it out of bad habits.
Also, hope you liked the talk with Lance. He understands how serious the situation is, but political realities continue to be a pain in the ass for everyone. But like I promised, that won’t stay the same forever.
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