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The New Normal - 2-14
🕑 Added 2023-04-03 14:30:49 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 2-14 – The Man Who Sailed The World
I barely felt the twenty minutes pass by as I sat there in the waiting room fiddling with my Pokémon’s Premier Balls. And I almost didn’t hear the voice of the League official telling me that it was time to go.
I wasn’t nervous, no, I had gotten over my nervousness a few hours ago. Now, I just wanted to prove to the world that I deserved to be here, that I deserved to be a member of the Elite Four alongside the rest of them. I wanted to use this battle, and my victory, to get back at Pryce and all those who side-lined me here.
Drake was certainly one of the stronger Elite Four members, and this was the time to show the world that I deserved to stand alongside him. As equals.
But more importantly than my own status, I wanted to show off my Pokémon’s strength and training to the world. I knew that my Pokémon were strong enough, I just needed to make sure that I did my job and direct them properly so they can show off their full potential. That was what consumed my entire focus. I wished for them to be engraved into the annals of history, just like THE Samuel Oak’s Pokémon were.
This was just the first step into making my Pokémon a household name, and I wouldn’t squander this opportunity by messing up.
I stepped out of the waiting room and was escorted through a small tunnel until I was greeted by the bright sunlight of Hoenn. I could see on the opposite side of the arena that they had synced up my entrance and Drake’s, probably for dramatic effect. I looked up and saw a massive television screen that was currently showing some dude with a microphone in his hands which I assumed was the announcer.
Sure enough, the moment we made our entrance, the announcer’s voice boomed out through the speakers.
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO THE SPECIAL SHOW MATCH BETWEEN THE ELITE FOUR OF TWO REGIONS!” The entire stadium erupted with deafening cheers and shouts from the audience. “TODAY, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE THESE TWO POWERHOUSES FIGHT WITH THEIR BEST POKEMON IN AN EPIC BATTLE TO SHOW OFF THE BEST OF BOTH REGIONS!!”
I looked around and, unsurprisingly, I could see a few banners with “GO DRAKE!” and similar ones that were all supportive of Drake. But what was a pleasant surprise was that I spotted a few banners and signs that were cheering me on.
That made me smile. I was happy to see that even in a foreign region I was still popular enough to have fans. The announcer allowed the audience to go wild for a moment before he continued.
“AND, YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM ON THE NEWS RECENTLY, BUT COMING ALL THE WAY FROM KANTO, PLEASE WELCOME, THE NEWEST AND YOUNGEST EVER ELITE FOUR MEMBER, ELITE JOHN!!!” The crowd once again exploded with excitement and cheers as the cameras focused on me and my face was shown on the large screen.
With some quick thinking, I took this opportunity to fulfil my promises to Devon Corp, I waved around to the audience while I held a Premier Ball in my hand, making sure that the Premier Ball clearly visible on the large screen. I hoped that this would certainly fulfil my portion of the contract.
“AND HIS OPPONENT, PLEASE WELCOME OUR FAMILIAR ELITE Four MEMBER, THE GRUFF AND TOUGH, THE MAN WHO SAILED THE WORLD, MASTER OF DRAGONS, ELITE DRAKE!!!” The support from the crowd was considerably louder from what they gave me, but I wasn’t offended since obviously Drake would be more popular in his home region than some foreign Elite Four member. Also, unlike me, Drake didn’t even react to the cheers of the crowd and stood stoically with his arms crossed. Typical Drake.
At this moment, I felt his stares on me and I matched it with a stare of my own. I could barely hear the announcer listing the rules of our upcoming match, which was fine because I already knew them. They were just the typical show match rules of a 6v6 with 3 switches allowed.
“GENTLEMAN! ARE YOU READY?!” That broke through my staring contest against Drake, and I forced myself to focus on the battle and my plan. I gripped my Premier Ball tightly in my hand and I nodded to the announcer. “THEN LET’S COUNT DOWN TOGETHER! RELEASE YOUR POKEMON ON ONE!”
I could feel Drake’s eyes lock onto me once again as the countdown began, but I didn’t bother meeting his gaze. I didn’t feel like there was a need for posturing or intimidation at this moment. I had studied him, looked through many of his previous battles, and noted down his strategies. I knew his strengths, and what Pokémon he was likely to be sending out. I kept going over what I knew one more time in my head in some ritualistic routine to maintain my calm. And so, I just stared at my Premier Ball as the crowd slowly and dramatically counted down around us.
“TWO!” This was it, no more time for idle thoughts. I reflexively put a foot forward as I prepared to release my first Pokémon. I was tempted to send out Luna first, but I knew she was best saved as a reserve surprise factor to knock out an unsuspecting Dragon. She wasn’t strong enough to fight against Drake’s non-Dragon Water types.
“ONE!” I didn’t even realize that I had released my Pokémon until I saw the distinctive white glow spread out and Klaus, my Wyrdeer, landed majestically in front of me. Although Klaus lacked the intimidation and size that my other Pokémon had, he had a natural grace and a distinct sharpness that subtly revealed his offensive capabilities and relentless training.
I looked up and saw that Drake had released his Blastoise. That wasn’t the Pokémon I was hoping for, but at least it wasn’t his Flygon or Salamence. Nevertheless, I still had contingencies planned for such events, and I immediately started to enact my plan.
“To the air and Sunny Day, Klaus!” Klaus started off the battle by showing off his Psychic mastery and creating panels of pure psychic power that he could leap off and effectively gallop through the air. All the while, he fired off a white beam of light into the sky and made the already bright sunlight of Hoenn even harsher. I needed to lower the power of Blastoise’s Hydro Pumps.
“OH, WHAT’S THIS?!” The announcer shouted out in surprise, “IT LOOKS LIKE JOHN’S WYRDEER IS ABLE TO STAY IN THE AIR USING ITS OWN PLATFORMS! WHAT A DISPLAY OF SKILL!”
“Cannon Mode, Blastoise. Double Dark Pulse.” Drake said calmly. Blastoise firmly planted its feet into the ground before rapidly firing orbs of darkness towards Klaus like it was trying to replicate an anti-aircraft gun. I forced myself not to be overly worried about Blastoise’s sheer rate of fire.
“Light Screen, Klaus! And Solarbeam!” A faint screen of light shimmered into existence in front of Klaus as he continued leaping from one platform to another to dodge the incoming barrage of Dark Pulses that were being launched by Blastoise.
Then, Klaus paused momentarily and began to quickly gather energy into his horns causing them to glow brightly, as he allowed the Light Screen to block a few of the incoming Dark Pulses that he didn’t manage to dodge, before unleashing a wide gold beam of light that shot towards Drake’s Blastoise, disintegrating any Dark Pulses in the way.
“Shell form, Protect!” Blastoise stopped firing off his Dark Pulses and immediately withdrew itself into its shell while surrounding itself with a shield. The Solar Beam bounced off the Protect shield harmlessly and Blastoise remained unscathed.
That was fine though, as while he was dodging, Klaus had intentionally dodged in a manner that allowed him to get progressively closer to the Blastoise. The Solar Beam was also just another distraction to force Blastoise into going defensive so that Klaus could land safely on the ground close to the Blastoise without being bombarded by Dark Pulses.
“Psyshield Bash, Klaus!” Taking advantage of Blastoise’s lack of firing, Klaus surrounded his head with a pink glow as he charged towards Blastoise. Drake clearly noticed the approaching danger as he reacted.
“Dragon Pulse, Blastoise! 6 o’clock!” Without withdrawing from its shell, Blastoise spun around so that its cannons were now facing my charging Wyrdeer and fired off a continuous stream of draconic energy. However, Klaus used his psychically reinforced horns to cleave through the Dragon Pulse and deflect it off to the sides as he maintained his charge.
Because Blastoise’s view was limited when it was hiding in its shell, it couldn’t see that its Dragon Pulse failed to deter Klaus’ charge and couldn’t set up any defensive measures before Klaus rammed into its shell with his horns, blasting Blastoise with psychic energy that knocked it high into the air and forcing Blastoise out of its shell.
However, Drake remained calm and continued giving orders. “Cannon Mode, Double Dark Pulse.” Showing off its discipline and training, Blastoise spun itself while still mid-air and began firing off a storm of Dark Pulses once again towards Klaus.
I debated using Protect to keep Klaus safe from the attacks, but I decided to take a risk and hope that Klaus’ Light Screen could mitigate most of the incoming damage so that I could continue the offense.
“Thunderbolt, Klaus!” Klaus pointed his antlers towards the sky, thrumming yellow with electricity, and sent out bolts of thunder that struck Blastoise while it was in the air and unable to dodge out of the way. I could see that the Thunderbolt struck true as Blastoise momentarily stopped firing as the Thunderbolt painfully coursed through its body.
However, Klaus also didn’t come out of the exchange undamaged either. To my slight surprise, Blastoise had quickly managed to break through Klaus’ Light Screen with just a few of Dark Pulses and the remaining Dark Pulses pummelled painfully into Klaus and caused him to slide back and buckle slightly from the force of the impacts.
I knew that Klaus’ Light Screen wasn’t weak or fragile, so the strength of Blastoise’s attacks really took me by surprise at how powerful since they were to be able to break through Klaus’ Light Screen so quickly. From that exchange, I immediately realized that trading attacks with Blastoise would not end in my favour, so I had to find and make use of other methods to win.
“WHAT A POWERFUL EXCHANGE OF ATTACKS!” The announcer hyped up, “THAT MUST HAVE BEEN PAINFUL! BUT IT LOOKS LIKE BOTH POKEMON STILL HAVE QUITE A BIT OF FIGHT LEFT IN THEM!”
I looked towards where Blastoise had landed and noticed that our Pokémon were once again rather far apart. Using the newfound distance between Blastoise and Klaus, Drake decided that he wanted to get rid of the debilitating weather so that Blastoise’s Water attacks wouldn’t be hindered.
“Rain Dance, Blastoise!” Blastoise started summoning dark rain clouds that threatened to block off the sun, and I immediately shouted out my next command that I had planned just for this situation.
“Imprison it, Klaus! And charge forward!” I could see Drake’s eyebrows rise in surprise as Klaus’ eyes glowed briefly before he created a force field that surrounded the Blastoise and imprisoned it within, preventing it from moving. However, more importantly than restricting Blastoise’s movement, Imprison also had the benefit of temporarily preventing the opposing Pokémon from using moves that the caster knows so long as the victim remained caged.
It was for this reason that I had trained Klaus learn Rain Dance in the past, just so that he could prevent others like Drake’s Blastoise from cancelling out his Sunny Day through denying its use through using Imprison. This was a crucial element of my plan, as if Blastoise was able to change the weather into Rain, its’ attacks would become so powerful that Klaus would not be able to withstand them.
“That’s a nice little trick, John.” Drake complimented before pointing forwards and directing his Blastoise, “Cannon Mode. Double Dark Pulse.”
Despite the fact that Blastoise was now immovable, it didn’t mean that its firepower had lessened at all. And as Klaus closed the distance between them, it would only make it harder for Klaus to dodge the incoming barrage of Dark Pulses as he had less time to react. I couldn’t just rely on dodging.
“Solar Beam, Klaus! Blast through them!” Once again, Klaus’ horns started to glow as he charged up and energy gathered into them before he fired off another gold beam that overwhelmed and cut through all of Blastoise’s incoming Dark Pulses. However, this time, instead of going on the defensive like he ordered previously, Drake instead tried to match the Solar Beam.
“Double Dragon Pulse.” Blastoise braced itself once more and stomped its feet into the ground to steady itself before firing off Dragon Pulses from both of its cannons. Unlike the time when it was firing from within its shell, now that Blastoise could properly brace itself, it didn’t have to worry about managing the recoil of its attacks and could devote more strength into the Dragon Pulse.
The two beams smashed against each other, but it became clear almost immediately that Klaus’ Solar Beam couldn’t match up against Blastoise’s double Dragon Pulse and was quickly pushed back. But that was fine, I just needed to use the Solar Beam to buy time for Klaus to get even closer to Drake’s Blastoise.
And so, just seconds before the Dragon Pulse would break through Klaus’ Solar Beam and blast him, I changed tactics.
“Partial Dig, Klaus!” Just before the Dragon Pulse broke through, Klaus stopped firing off his Solar Beam and burrowed rapidly into the ground by surrounding his head with a psychic aura to increase how fast he could burrow, and Klaus did so just in time so that the Dragon Pulse only managed to graze past the top of his head for minimal damage.
“Earthquake, Blastoise!” Unsurprisingly, Drake tried to capitalize on Klaus’ dig by trying to land a double damage Earthquake against him. This was why I had Klaus only dig slightly into the ground so that it could quickly get out again.
“Get out and stay in the air!” Klaus fortunately was able to quickly leap out of the small pit in the ground moments before the Earthquake hit, and quickly created more psychic platforms in the air to leap from to stay off the ground and avoid the Earthquake. Seeing that the Earthquake wasn’t accomplishing anything, Drake cut it off with a flick of his arm.
“NOW! WILD CHARGE!”
“Double Focus Blast!”
With the Earthquake stopping, Klaus was freely able to land on to the ground once again as he surrounded itself with a barrier of electricity and continued his assault towards Blastoise. By now, the two of them were getting so close that it was impossible for Klaus to dodge the incoming cannon fire of Focus Blasts.
Klaus valiantly attempted to deflect several of the incoming Focus Blasts with his reinforced horns, but many were still able to slam into Klaus. Still, in an inspiring display of determination, Klaus pushed through his injuries as he continued with his attack despite being hammered by Blastoise’s Focus Blasts.
“Shell form! Iron Defense!”
“Thunder Wave! Interrupt it!”
Seeing that Klaus was nearing striking distance, Drake tried to get Blastoise to protect itself from most of the damage by withdrawing into its shell once more before boosting its’ defences. However, just before it could do so, Klaus emitted a faint spark of electricity that managed to briefly paralyze the Blastoise as it was trying to withdraw into its shell.
Even worse for Drake, Blastoise was no longer attacking and was now paralyzed with his soft underbelly exposed to Klaus. Taking advantage of this perfect opportunity, Klaus rammed into Blastoise’s exposed stomach and landed a critical hit with his Wild Charge, blasting Blastoise backwards as he broke through the Imprison and spun uncontrollably through the air.
I could hear the announcer shout something that elicited a loud cheer from the audience, but I ignored it as I focused on Klaus’ condition. I could tell that Klaus was tired and reaching his limit after his relentless Wild Charge, but I could see that Blastoise still wasn’t out of the fight yet. So, I clenched my fists and clamped down on my instinct to withdraw Klaus in order to prevent any more harm from coming to him and commanded him to continue the assault.
“Psychic it while it’s vulnerable!” Even though Klaus was now panting heavily as he was wracked with injuries, Klaus still managed to lift his horns once more and fire off a burst of Psychic energy that crashed into Blastoise while it was still defenseless in the air, blasting the Blastoise backwards and causing it to slam painfully into one of the psychic barriers of the arena.
I paused briefly and waited to see if Blastoise was knocked out, since I didn’t want to injure it any further if it was already unconscious. However, I saw that the Blastoise was slowly getting up from where it landed, and so I waved my arm once more to gesture Klaus to attack.
“Thunderbolt, Klaus! Finish it off!” Klaus bellowed out and forced through the pain as his horns glowed a bright yellow as he fired off another Thunderbolt. However, just before the bolt of lightning crashed into Blastoise from above, I saw a faint Protect shield shimmer into existence just above the Blastoise and protected it from the Thunderbolt.
Apparently, Drake’s Blastoise still had some fight left in it. I could tell that Drake’s eyes sharpened as he saw this unexpected second wind.
“Cannon Mode and double Dark Pulse! Show’em what you’ve got!” Blastoise groaned as it managed to slowly push itself upright. I ordered another Thunderbolt in hopes of knocking it out before it could fire, but Klaus’ injuries and exhaustion meant that he took longer to charge up the energy needed for another Thunderbolt.
And with that delay, Blastoise was able to force itself into its natural firing position as it fired off a short burst of dark orbs that shot towards Klaus.
I stared dispassionately at the dark orbs that were rapidly speeding their way towards Klaus. I knew that Klaus had already gone beyond his breaking point, and now he was only running off pure determination. In such a state, I didn’t think that Klaus would be able to dodge or block the incoming Dark Pulses, even if they were weaker than usual due to Blastoise’s own tired state.
With this realization, I knew that the best outcome of this fight would be a double knockout. So, I closed my eyes briefly and reopened them with newfound determination. It was slightly cruel, but I needed Klaus to focus all of his attention into landing the supereffective Thunderbolt that he was currently charging up, even if meant getting knocked out by the Dark Pulses as a result.
“Keep charging that Thunderbolt, Klaus! Full power!” Klaus roared out in agreement as his horns started to glow brighter and brighter before he eventually lifted them into the air and shot off a huge Thunderbolt that smote down on the Blastoise like the wrath of Arceus.
Second wind or not, the Blastoise failed to create another Protect shield and was promptly knocked out as it got struck down by the bolt of lightning. At the same time, Blastoise’s Dark Pulses slammed viciously into Klaus and blasted him into unconsciousness. Silence seemed to descend momentarily on the arena as both Pokémon were knocked out.
“OH, WHAT AN EXCITING FINISH! BOTH TRAINER’S POKEMON MANAGED TO KNOCK EACH OTHER OUT WITH THEIR FINAL ATTACK! IT’S A DOUBLE KNOCKOUT!!” The announcer’s loud voice cut through the silence. That led to the crowd joining in as they started shouting and applauding the battle that just occurred. Amusingly, I could hear some people were starting to chant our names in support.
“CRUSH HIM NEXT TIME DRAKE!”
“LET’S GO JOHN! YOU GOT THIS!”
I didn’t let myself get distracted for too long though, as I took out Klaus’ Premier Ball and withdrew him. As I held his Premier Ball in my hand, I muttered softly to him that I was proud of him and that he had done a great job. And I wasn’t lying, Drake’s Blastoise was one of the greatest threats on his team despite not even being a Dragon type and managing to achieve a double knockout against it was a great accomplishment.
I patted Klaus’ Premier Ball affectionately for a short moment before I placed it back on my belt and refocused myself on the battle.
Knocking out Drake’s Blastoise was a great start, now I just had to make sure that I could continue it.
A.N The first of many rounds against Drake. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks to all my Patreons for your support.
