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The New Normal - 8-10
🕑 Added 2024-02-19 07:20:00 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 8-10 – Commentary
Seeing the determination in Cynthia’s eyes made it hard for me to focus back on the match. But I figured that just staring at Cynthia would be awkward, so I did my best to refocus on the battle.
Lorelei had sent out a Glalie that was trying to slow down the speeding Manetric with a barrage of Icy Winds. But instead of firing out Flamethrowers like I was expecting it to, Manetric only attacked with Electric moves, once again trying to burst down the Glalie with a spam of Thunders.
“Very stubborn, isn’t he?” Cynthia commented, breaking out of the sudden slump that she was in. “Not even going for the supereffective attack.”
“…If you’ve met Surge, you wouldn’t be that surprised. His stubbornness and bullheadedness is well-known, almost infamous.” Was all I said, and she shot me an amused look before her eyes returned to the match. “It’s so bad that you probably won’t see any Johto Pokémon or his team either…he’s a very well known ‘nationalist’.”
She chuckled, “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone like that before.” She tapped a finger on her chin, “You know, I think I’d like to meet him one day.”
I shot her a weird look, “Really?”
“Oh yes, it’s always nice to see people who aren’t what you’re used to dealing with, at least to get used to them.” She nodded, “…I think I’m going to need a lot of experience dealing with difficult people, in time.” I nodded back in understanding and commiseration.
Without having all of the buffs like Slowbro did, Glalie was having a much tougher time dealing with the far more agile and mobile Manetric. But Lorelei was doing her best to limit the battlefield by forming huge Ice formations, creating obstacles in the arena that Manetric had to move around while also providing cover for Glalie to use against some of Manetric’s moves by breaking Manetric’s line of sight.
“Freeze the ground, Glalie!”
“Wild Charge, Manetric! Rush forwards!”
Not satisfied with merely creating icy obstacles, Glalie quickly unleashed a wave of frost that painted over the arena, turning the once solid ground into a rink of slippery ice. Manetric initially ignored the sudden change in terrain as it continued to charge forwards, only to suddenly slip and trip over itself as it was unused to moving so quickly on such a slippery surface.
“Ice Beam!”
Trying to take advantage of Manetric’s fall, Glalie fired off a beam of Ice that Manetric barely managed to scramble away to dodge, suffering only a glancing blow as it took cover behind one of the icy formations to block the beam.
But the results of the new icy terrain was undeniable. Now fully cognizant of just how slippery the ground could be, Manetric was forced to move more carefully and slower to avoid tripping over on the slippery ice, slowing it down significantly.
And now, bereft of its valuable speed advantage over Glalie, Manetric’s ability to threaten Glalie was greatly lessened as it could only really rely on Electric attacks to hopefully wear Glalie down over time.
“Blizzard, Glalie!”
This was a fight that Glalie could win. With the Snow still falling over the battlefield, Lorelei proved that there was nowhere to hide as a freezing storm of a Blizzard rapidly formed in the centre of the arena, which quickly grew into a vortex of snow and frost that spread itself to envelop the entire battlefield.
“Discharge, Manetric! Destroy everything and hunt down the Glalie!”
Perhaps realizing that the enormous Blizzard was going to bring down his Manetric, Surge commanded it to go all out.
“MANE! MANETRIC!” Manetric let out a thunderous howl as it released a blindingly bright explosion of Electric energy. Lightning crackled as the destructive Discharge sent large whips of Electric energy smashing everything in all directions, shattering the icy formations that had formed. The psychic shields on the edge of the arena flickered slightly as they strained against the sudden explosion of energy.
Glalie, who had been hiding behind one such formation as it channelled the Blizzard, was suddenly forced to dodge out of the way as a piercing spear of lightning smashed through the structure.
“PROTECT, GLALIE!”
Glalie shifted its concentration away from the Blizzard and formed a Protect shield to block against the incoming wave of electricity. But while the shield was able to block against most of the damage, the electricity created by the Discharge lingered in the air, creating an electric cloud that paralyzed Glalie as the Protect shield faded.
However, Manetric was in no condition to take advantage of the paralysis. It practically collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion after unleashing such a powerful attack. I thought this would be a repeat of before, but Cynthia suddenly spoke up.
“It’s faking.” She said, raising a finger towards the screen, “Look at its eyes.”
I let out a snort at her observational skills. Of course such lowly tricks wouldn’t work against her. Sure enough, as I squinted to get a better look, I saw that a spark of life was still retained in Manetric’s eyes. It was merely waiting for its time to strike – waiting patiently for that single moment of weakness.
And Lorelei didn’t notice it.
“Ice Beam, Glalie! Finish it off!”
Confident that Glalie had survived through the worst of the attacks, Glalie floated slowly into the air as it casually fired off an Ice Beam, thinking that the battle was already over.
And this was when Surge struck.
“NOW! THUNDER!”
Suddenly springing up from the ground, Manetric let out a howl as it summoned one last burst of Thunderbolts that came raining down from above. Glalie, caught off-guard, wasn’t able to move out of the way in time as the bolts of Thunder slammed it into the ground; its earlier paralysis also hindering its reaction speed.
On the other hand, Manetric had tried to dodge out of the way of the Ice Beam, only to slip over and trip on the slippery icy surface and was blasted face-first with the powerful spear of Ice, causing its face to freeze over.
This time, both Pokémon were down on the ground, heavily injured from enduring through the previous attacks. It was clear that neither of them were in fighting condition.
However, despite the tension on the screen as both Pokémon were on their last legs, it seemed like my fellow audience member was less-than-impressed. Her interest in the fight was very obviously waning.
“…How would you rate Lorelei’s strength, amongst the current lineup of Elite Four?” She asked me, bringing my attention away from the fight.
“Not very high.” I admitted, “Wait, are you talking about within the Indigo Elite Four, or do you mean to include all the other regions too? Because I don’t know that much about the Sinnoh Elite Four.”
“Compare her to the Elite Four that you do know about.” Cynthia clarified.
“Well my answer doesn’t really change.” I said as both Surge and Lorelei decided to retire their Pokémon, “I don’t mean to disparage Lorelei. She has a lot of potential and drive, but it’s still going to take some time before she can reach the heights I’m confident that she can reach.”
“Well an all-out fighter like Surge is hardly going to be her best matchup.” Cynthia agreed, “Someone that fought more methodically would likely be a better matchup for her as it’ll let her to slowly wear them down with her Ice moves.”
She shook her head, “Well, never mind that. I was just comparing Surge to Volkner in my head and trying to see how Lorelei would stack up against that. I was just trying to take her measure.”
I blinked, “Wait. Firstly, isn’t Volkner practically Elite Four level? And what are your thoughts on Lorelei?”
“To answer your first question, I’ve seen Volkner battle a few times against Flint, and he holds himself quite well.” She explained, “I would definitely say, if not for his personality, Volkner would have been an easy choice to be part of the Elite Four. I rate him higher than Aaron.”
“High praise.” I whistled. I had looked into the respective strengths of the Sinnoh Elite Four. Aaron was the weakest, but he was still a very formidable trainer. Especially considering that he specialised in the use of the notoriously ‘weak’ Bug types.
“Well he’s too attached to his lighthouse to ever consider joining the Elite Four.” Cynthia laughed, “I’m pretty sure he only accepted the position as Gym Leader of Sunyshore to spend more time around it.”
“Anyways, as to your second question, you know I make a habit of studying powerful trainers to see what I can learn from them.” I nodded, she had made that clear enough, “But, at least before this battle, I skipped out on Lorelei because I didn’t have any Pokémon on my team that could make use of her tactics.”
Then she shot me a look, “And I admit that out of all of the notable trainers in Indigo - most of my attention was on you.”
Her words sent a shiver through my body as I failed to meet her gaze. Though she had said something like this before, her compliments were still very flattering. Especially because it came from her.
The battle between Lorelei and Surge continued in the background, but it was long forgotten.
I coughed, trying unsuccessfully to hide my embarrassment, “…Why me? And not Lance?”
“Because you’re more interesting.” She replied simply, “I take one look at Lance and I know everything about him. He’s a man that has an exceptional talent at training up his Pokémon to be as ridiculously strong as possible. That IS impressive, but it’s also boring.”
“But you…you train your Pokémon while focusing on more than just their strength.” Her gaze turned even more intense. Her eyes seemed like she was seeing straight into my soul, “I watched you train with your Pokémon. I’ve studied how you use your Pokémon during our cave explorations. You might like to play up your Pokémon’s ability to punch through your opponents, but your Pokémon are more than just brutes.”
“You are a mish-mash of different fighting styles.” She stated, “You have Pokémon that fight head on, like your Ursaluna. You have Pokémon like your Blissey and Clefable that fight with a whole host of supporting abilities. Then you have Arceus knows what with your Porygon2.”
“You’ve convinced the world that you are a Normal type trainer.” She shook her head, “But I see the truth. You are a generalist trainer disguised as a Normal specialist. And how do I know that?”
She leaned forwards, “Because you fight like me.”
I couldn’t help it. But I burst out into laughter as I heard her words. I had never considered it; I was only really concerned about training up my Pokémon so that they could reach their full potential. However, now that she pointed it out, I could see the similarities.
I had to take a breath to calm myself down, “…You’re too right.” I wiped a tear from my eye, “I’d never even thought of it that way, but you’re right. I do fight like a generalist.”
“You can’t fool me.” She grinned smugly, “I’ve spent a lot of time studying what made you so strong compared to other trainers, and the realisation was an inspirational one for me. It reinforced the fact that my training style wasn’t wrong, since I saw you succeed so much with yours.”
“Wait, I inspired you?” I asked confusedly.
She nodded, “Partially. I had already decided to become a generalist long before I even knew who you were, but you fought most alike a generalist than anyone else I knew – at least within our generation of trainers. Your success just proved to be me that I was on the right path.”
“That’s quite the compliment.” I replied as a smile unconsciously appeared on my face. Her words were like music to my ears.
“You deserved it.” She smiled back, “But don’t let your head get too big. I studied many other trainers too. Wait – let me show you.”
She stood up and started scrounging through the many notes and documents thrown around the room. As she did, I took a brief moment to look at how the battle between Lorelei and Surge was going.
I found that her Froslass was utterly dominating Surge’s Electabuzz, as I would have expected. Froslass was just too agile and mobile for Electabuzz, and it was never able to close the gap to get in some real damage. All the while Froslass continued harassing Electabuzz down at a safe distance.
Surge was in a bad position, but I thought he had brought it upon himself. He had made some crucial mistakes early in the fight that would likely cost him the battle. And at this rate, I didn’t see how he would reverse his fortunes.
“Woah!” The sudden cry yanked my attention away from the screen, and I turned to see that Cynthia had tripped over something. Probably the messy pile of notes that she refused to clean up.
“You alright?” I quickly stood up to pull her up.
“It’s fine.” She waved me off, “It happens a lot.”
“Maybe you should consider tidying up your room.” I said dryly.
She clicked her tongue, “What kind of scientist organises their room anyways?”
“…Uh, all of them? I mean, I know quite a few.” I started listing them off, “Professor Oak, Gym Leader Blaine, Director Shelly, your grandmother…”
Cynthia frantically cover my mouth with her hand, “Okay! Okay! I get it.” She sighed, “I just don’t see why I should waste time clearing everything up when I’m just going to make things messy again in a few days’ time.”
“Sounds like a you problem.” I smirked.
“Every girl has their flaws – you’ll just have to deal with mine.” She said imperiously, intentionally flicking her hair at me. The scent that floated up to my nose was enrapturing. “Anyways, enough about that. You can have a look at these.”
She shoved a few notebooks into my hands. I took a quick flip through them, and I saw that they were filled with hastily scribbled notes. There were many crossings out, and they looked like a disorganised mess of scribbling.
But behind the mess was a meticulous and thoughtful analysis of a few trainers that Cynthia considered to be powerful enough to be worth studying from. I couldn’t help but notice that my name was featured prominently within many pages, with many annotations next to it. Shamelessly, I decided to read through them.
‘Ursaluna? More than just a brute? Took down Drake’s Salamence with long range rocks? Maybe copy with Garchomp? Try to teach headlong rush?’
‘Clefable Fighting resist? How to train a Normal type to resist fighting? Potential training path for Togekiss?’ Next to that was another note that said ‘Fairy type revealed. Power against Dragons confirmed. Need to prepare Garchomp and Togekiss to take advantage.’
‘Slaking – how did John get it that strong? Most powerful member on his team? Would beat Lance’s starter Dragonite? Comparable strength. Garchomp would lose. How to defeat?’
“Reading about yourself? That’s quite narcissistic of you, isn’t it?” Cynthia smirked at me. “You were meant to what I wrote about the others.”
“Couldn’t help it.” I chuckled, “Though seriously – this is extraordinary, Cynthia. This must have taken quite some time.”
I wasn’t exaggerating. I could feel the passion and ambition in her notes.
She shrugged, “When we realized that other regions existed, I wanted to know everything I could about you all. Like I said, you had a fighting style that most complimented mine. Besides, you know why I did all that studying anyways. I’m sure you’re already aware of my ambitions.”
“You weren’t very good at hiding it.” I replied with a grin, “But yes, you intend to make a play for Champion, right?”
She nodded, “I am. And I need to make sure I can beat all of the Sinnoh Elite Four. No, not beat, but sweepthrough them. It needs to be an undeniable display of strength.”
She snorted, “I’ve studied them so much that I can practically imagine our battle at this point.”
“Think you can win?” I had to ask, even though I already knew the answer.
She rolled her eyes at me, “John, did you think we would be having this conversation if I wasn’t confident in my chances?”
I laughed, “That confidence of yours is really magnetic.”
She grinned, giving me a brilliant smile, “Of course it is.”
I stared at her smile, my eyes refusing to move away from them as something ran through my body. Before I could really think about it, my phone rang.
My eyes widened as I realized it was Lance.
“Hi, Lance, what’s the matter?” I greeted.
“…What do you mean? Did you not watch Lorelei’s match against Surge?” He asked strangely.
Oh shit. I quickly turned to the TV and saw that she had won the match 6-4. “Uh…yeah, good victory. She won it 6-4. That’s good.” I did my best to conceal the fact that I, in fact, had missed out half of the match.
Whoops. I blame Cynthia for distracting me. I apologized to Lorelei in my head.
Luckily, I don’t think Lance caught on to that, “It was a pretty good victory.” He agreed, “I think she did much better than how it was reflected in the scores. The way that she shut down Surge’s starter Raichu with her Dewgong was impressive – and of course it helps that she didn’t even need to use Lapras. It was a much-needed reminder of her strength.”
“Yes, it was.” I lied through my teeth, and I saw Cynthia holding back a giggle at my blatant lie, “Make sure to pass on my congratulations to her.”
“I’ll definitely do so.” Lance replied, “I suspect that Lorelei’s worth will go up in many people’s eyes. Especially now that she’s able to focus back on the plans and proposals that she had for the committee.”
“Anyways, I didn’t just call to discuss the match. I have more news for you.” He added.
“Oh? Go on.” I said.
“Hoenn will be sending a representative over to Sinnoh as well.” Lance explained, “Not sure when they’re arriving, but it should be sometime soon.”
“Wait, who are they sending?” I asked, “Don’t tell me it’s Drake.”
I respected Drake, both as a trainer and as a friend. But even I knew that he was probably as bad as if we had sent Agatha as a representative. Diplomacy was DEFINITELY not his strong suit.
Lance chuckled, “No, definitely not him. They’re sending Phoebe.”
“Phoebe? Not Sidney?” I didn’t know much about Phoebe, to be fair, but I thought Sidney would be more suited as a representative. I thought he eased in very well when he was in Indigo. He just seemed like the more natural choice.
“Sidney’s still hanging about in Indigo, so he can’t come over.” Lance informed me, “Plus, Hoenn can’t really afford to send more than one member while Sidney’s still away. That’d just leave one single Elite Four in Hoenn. And considering the trouble that they just dealt with, it’d be better to keep more two Elite Four on standby just in case.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded, “Well thanks for letting me know. Oh – and one more thing, am I about to be sent home from Sinnoh soon?”
“Not just yet.” Lance replied, “Why, are you eager to come home?” He quipped.
“No, I think I’m quite enjoying it here.” I responded jokingly, glancing at Cynthia, “I’ve had a wonderful host.” Cynthia shot me a smile from across the room.
Lance laughed, “Well that’s good to hear. But don’t get TOO attached to Sinnoh. I will have to recall you one day.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll head back if asked.” I said, “I just wanted to know if I needed to head back anytime soon. There’s still more I want to do while I’m here.”
“Now you’re just making me jealous.” He said, “Anyways, I’ll leave you to it. Have a good evening.”
I hung up the call and turned around – just in time to see Cynthia putting on an apron as she walked over to the kitchen.
“You making something for dinner?” I asked as casually as I could. But my eyes kept snapping back to how she looked in that apron.
“Yes, just something simple.” She nodded, seemingly unaware of the looks I was giving her, “You want to stay for dinner? It’s already getting pretty late – and I’d be happy to cook for you.”
There was only one answer I could give.
“Of course. I would love to.”
A.N. AND LORELEI WINS! And yes, I decided that you probably didn’t need to read much more of Lorelei’s fight against Surge. Instead, I hope you enjoyed the dialogue and banter between Cynthia and John. I finally confirmed a direction I want to go with the two of them. The two of them will continue being a big part of the arc.
Comments
The Tallest Tree
I'm not going to comment on Cynthia vs Karen but I'm not impressed with John's reactions to Cynthia and Sinnoh in general. It's like he's overawed by things he should find either normal or somewhat impressive. To have his reactions constantly be over the top makes me feel that either the John I thought we were following never existed or that he/you are being disingenuous which I don't want to feel. I like the dynamic between C&J romantic or otherwise. I'm curious as to where you'll take things from here
Cerber
On one hand Karen, but then we gave Cynthia? What about a middle ground qnd he takes both?
