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The New Normal - 2-13
🕑 Added 2023-03-31 14:31:08 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 2-13 – The Hoenn Elite
The next few days flew past as I spent most of the time talking with my family, celebrating Karen’s victory with another light training session with her uninjured Pokémon, and planning for my battle against Drake. Overall, it was an enjoyable week of just routine training and preparation, with some moments of relaxation scattered about and just enjoying Hoenn like an actual tourist should. Sadly, we made little progress with the egg, but I was going to worry about that later.
We spent most of the time hanging around the outskirts of Mauville, with the occasional trek into Route 119 to train with our Porygon and Corphish. Speaking of Pixel, after it watched and recorded Karen’s match against Wattson, it seemed to be very enthusiastic about training and practicing its Electric type attacks. Apparently, it had gotten very inspired by the fight and wanted to replicate some of the Electric type moves that it saw. Of course, I encouraged its practicing.
Karen also decided to take a break from the Gym battles for the moment, in order to ‘build up hype’. She explained to me that she had a plan to maximize her popularity.
Now, a week later, I found myself at Ever Grande City once again, trying my best to not be nervous and maintain some level of respectability as a member of the Elite Four.
“You doing okay? You look nervous.” Karen asked with some concern, which meant that I clearly wasn’t hiding my nervousness well at all.
“Of course, I am.” I admitted, no longer trying to conceal how I felt. “No matter how many times I do this, I always get nervous when I’m about to face up against strong trainers. And Drake is no mere ‘strong trainer’.”
“I get that.” Karen replied, “When I get nervous, I tend to get a bit silent and focus on my plans for the battle. I find that helps settle my nerves a bit.”
I nodded distractedly and didn’t offer a response. Karen sighed slightly and patted me on the shoulder.
“Look, you’ll be fine, John.” She comforted, “It’s just a show match, and so what if you lose? Drake is a well-respected and powerful trainer, losing to him would not be that damaging to your reputation if you’re worried about that.”
I turned to her and gave her a small smile in reply. “Thanks for that, Karen. But I’m going to be okay. Like I told Norman, I can’t afford to be nervous in the battle itself or else I might hinder my own performance and give bad orders, and I owe it to my Pokémon to not let them down like that.”
I took a deep breath before continuing, “I’m only being nervous now because I know I will force myself not to be nervous later. So, in a way, I’m just venting out my nervousness now, so it doesn’t affect me during the battle later.”
“That’s good.” Karen remarked and we fell back into silence once more as we walked towards the Hoenn League building. I had already called ahead and told them that I was arriving shortly with a friend, and I had also requested that Karen be provided some VIP seating for the upcoming match. They easily agreed and said that they would be handing those out when we arrived.
Shortly later we could see the entrance hall of the Hoenn League, and unlike the first time I was here there was an actual reception to greet me, consisting of all of the Hoenn Elite Four and a few League officials. There was a line of Machamp on either side of them that were blocking the screeching fans from swarming them like a hive of Beedrill.
Overall, this was a much grander affair than the complete silence that I got when I arrived here. And I could see many photographers started taking photos of Karen and I as we walked forwards towards them. Fortunately, I had anticipated having my photo taken so I had changed into a slightly more formal and photogenic outfit before arriving.
As we walked, I noticed in the corner of my eye that Karen took a step back to allow me to walk forwards, signifying that I was the important one here, and so she wouldn’t be stealing my spotlight.
Personally, I thought that it was way too late as I was certain that there would be photos circulating of my arrival with Karen and what that meant for the two of us. I looked back and asked a silent question with my eyes to Karen to make sure she was okay with this, and she gave me a subtle nod to tell me that it was fine, so I let it go.
I felt that the two of us have come far ever since my mistaken kiss, and now we understood how to read each other and remain comfortable.
Looking forwards again, I wanted to greet the Hoenn Elite Four and ignore the League officials, but they quickly approached me and physically blocked me from moving forward until I addressed them. With an inward sigh, I turned and greeted them politely.
“Thank you very much for hosting such a grand entrance for me.” I politely stated as if I was giving an interview and considering how many people could overhear my words at the moment, I’m sure someone was recording my every word. “I’m very much looking forward for my match against Elite Drake, and I hope that it will be a memorable battle for those watching here or at home.”
“Thank you for coming, Elite John. It’s an honour for us to host you for this show match.” An official simpered, “Of course, before your match, we would hope that you could allow us to take a few photographs of you and the other members of our Elite Four. I’m sure you understand how important these photos are for the unity of our two regions.”
I had to hold back yet another sigh at his words before I nodded and allowed him to finally escort me to greet the Hoenn Elite Four. And, once again, before I could say anything, I was cut off by another League official that insisted on doing the greetings.
“Elite John, may I have the pleasure of formally introducing the Hoenn-” And to my utter relief, he was cut off by what I now believe was the typical bluntness of Drake.
“Arceus you’re boring us to fucking death here.” Drake snapped in frustration, “Shut your fucking trap and let us do the talking. We’re not statues for you to parade around. We all agreed to your fucking photoshoot, so shut up and let us talk.”
The League official was about to retort to Drake’s words before an icy glare from Glacia caused him to reconsider. He endured Glacia’s stares for a short moment before he bowed politely and backed off with the other League officials, finally giving us the peace and quiet to talk. Before they left though, I noticed one of them passing a ticket to Karen and escorting her to the viewing area.
“Finally, the parasites are all gone.” Drake spat out. “Worst part of the job is to deal with those snivelling little shits. All puffed up with unearned importance and yet when they talk, they act like they’re just asking to be punched in the face.”
“Ok, ok, we get it gramps. Chill out.” Sidney interrupted, before turning to me with a surprisingly kind smile that was very unlike the cruel and mocking expression that he adopted in the games, “It’s nice to meet you, Elite John. And on behalf of the remaining Elite Four we are deeply sorry for not being there when you arrived in Hoenn. We were foolishly led to believe that you were here on holiday, but Drake has since corrected us on our mistaken assumptions.”
“Yeah, sorry about that, Elite John.” Phoebe spoke up, “We didn’t know that you were getting screwed over like that, I totally would have met up with you if I had known better!”
Glacia didn’t say anything but simply nodded silently and gave me a small smile, which I thought was supposed to be supportive but only managed to look creepy.
“Well, thank you all for your apology, though I think that it’s not needed.” I told them with a polite smile, “After all, you were the ones that were tricked as well, so I’m not going to hold anything against you.”
Then I looked around and realized that someone was missing.
“Hey, um, where’s Champion Wallace?” I asked, “I don’t mean to be rude, but for such a big show event like this wouldn’t it be normal if he was here?”
“Ahahaha, yeah sorry about that.” Phoebe answered, “He’d normally love to participate in these big events, and he can’t normally stay away from the spotlight. But, today he’s busy with something in the cave of-” Phoebe suddenly slapped a hand over her mouth as if she said something she shouldn’t have.
“What Phoebe meant to say was that Champion Wallace is very sorry that he can’t be here, but he is currently doing something very important that requires his attention.” Sidney interjected.
“Ah, well that’s fine. I can understand if he’s too busy.” I replied. I felt that I should be concerned about what Phoebe was leaving out, but for some reason I couldn’t place my finger on why that was.
“Aight, enough talk.” Drake stated, “It’s nice to see you again, John, but I want to get this stupid photoshoot over with so that we can get to battling.” He stared at me with an excited gleam in his eyes, and I gave him a grin of my own in reply.
“You still owe me for allowing you to battle, Drake.” Gloria suddenly spoke up and she gave Drake a serene look with a calm smile that greatly unsettled me. Arceus this woman was scary. Drake clearly agreed with my own thoughts as he coughed slightly and looked away, refusing to meet her eyes.
We then all walked together towards where they were going to host the photoshoot. It was in a large studio with an enormous green screen that was easily bigger than even my Tyrant. I supposed that having such a large green screen was a necessity when working with larger Pokémon.
As we entered the studio, we were once again set upon by a few League officials and photographers that wanted to greet us but luckily Drake shooed them away with his typical impatience. Before long, I was then seated in a chair in the makeup room and being fussed over by a few makeup artists that tried their best to make something of my generic face. They even had a set of fashionable clothes that they wanted me to wear.
Despite their pleading, I stuck to the clothes that I was currently wearing as I thought that a white suit and tie with white pants was far too unnatural for me to actually wear. What kind of entitled rich boy did they think I was?
I gave myself a once over in the mirror when they were done, and I literally couldn’t tell the difference in how I looked before and after they applied the makeup. I shrugged to myself since I didn’t really care that much, but as I was about to get up and leave the makeup room, they asked me if they wanted me to add any makeup or decorations to my Pokémon as they had a wide variety of Pokémon-friendly makeup products that they commonly used.
I gave them a wide look of surprise as they told me this. I didn’t know they even had makeup for Pokémon, though I guess it would make sense considering the Pokémon contests that they held. After a short moment of consideration, where I made myself laugh as I imagined Tyrant wearing a silly pink bow on his head, I told them that my Pokémon didn’t need any decoration and that they were fine.
Finally done with the makeup, I was allowed back into the studio where I saw that the other members of the Elite Four were standing, besides Sidney. They literally all looked the same. Maybe someone with a better eye for fashion could have pointed out the differences, but with the exasperated and impatient look that Drake had I could tell that we both thought that it was a huge waste of time.
Besides, why does Glacia even need makeup anyways? She’s already so pale that any makeup would ruin her appearance.
Almost a minute later, Sidney came out of his own makeup room and I, once again, couldn’t tell the difference. With that waste of time out of the way, Drake and I were instructed to stand together for a few photos for the upcoming show match.
The photographers instructed us to stand in all these different poses, some back-to-back, some while holding out our Pokéballs, and with my request some with a closeup of me holding my Premier Ball.
The other Elite Four members did notice and question me about my Premier Ball, and I explained to them that it was just a new Pokéball design created by Devon Corp and that they’ve asked me to market it for them. Sidney was the most interested, and he asked if I could get him some for his own team. I told him that sadly I had already given away the extras that I had but that I was sure that he could simply ask Devon Corp to give him a few.
I finished off my set with Drake with a few photos of us posing with our starters. The moment we released our starters, Tyrant and his Salamence immediately locked eyes and gave out powerful roars that nearly knocked over the cameras as they attempted to exert their dominance on the other. We had to reign them both in to prevent the destruction of the studio.
To our amusement, and to the dismay of the photographers, they couldn’t get Tyrant and Salamence in the same shot as if they tried to move the two Pokémon together, they would almost instinctively lock heads and a fight would almost break out. So, they had to settle with taking individual shots of our Pokémon and then putting them together in the edit.
Once they had finally taken enough photos of Drake and I, they then moved on to photos with the other members of the Hoenn Elite Four. The entire shoot was so mind-numbingly boring that whenever it wasn’t my turn I just daydreamed and went through my plan once again for my battle against Drake.
Luckily, the Hoenn Elite Four seemed to share my boredom, and I found them to be surprisingly friendly and personable as we chatted about mundane topics as we struggled through the photoshoot. Eventually, and nearing afternoon, they said that there would be a break and lunch would be provided.
I was graciously invited to join the rest of them for lunch, and we ate together contentedly while continuing our discussion on whatever topics came to mind. I asked them a few questions about what it was like to be a long-standing member of the Elite Four, and they all unanimously said that they all hated doing publicity events after a while.
I could see why, just this one photoshoot was enough to bore me to death. I couldn’t imagine going through another one of these on a frequent basis.
Then, we moved on to more serious topics as they asked me about my journey to the Elite Four and what I thought about the political situation there and why I got side-lined. I decided to indulge them, since the truth would eventually be revealed anyways, and I explained what I thought were the reasons for sending me to Hoenn and why they wanted me out of the way.
They all listened attentively and were all sympathetic to my plight, which was nice.
“If your reasonings are correct, John, and I suspect that they are, then I have to say that I’m quite disappointed with the actions of your Champion.” Sidney remarked, “I may not have a full understanding of the situation in Indigo, but it seems to me that Pryce has stayed as Champion for too long and is looking for ways of staying in power even through using such distasteful methods.”
I was taken aback at just how intelligent Sidney sounded. It really was at odds with his rebel and punk appearance. I think my face showed my surprise as he chuckled.
“Ah, were you surprised by how different I am to how I look?” I nodded sheepishly but fortunately he only chuckled again and didn’t seem offended. “Ah, don’t worry about it. I intentionally play up the punk aesthetic for the crowds, because that’s what people ‘think’ Dark type specialists should look like.”
“Do you mind playing into the stereotype?” I asked, now seeing Sidney in a new light.
“Not really.” He shrugged, “I mean, it does wonders for my popularity and I honestly quite like the punk look. I also love it when people are taken aback at how different I truly am from how I look. Always good for a quick laugh.”
“Yeah, like, Sidney’s a really kind guy.” Phoebe giggled, “He just looks scary, but he’s a real softie.”
Sidney gave Phoebe a kind smile as he rubbed the top of her head affectionately. I looked at this and thought that the two of them had a nice, almost familial, dynamic. But looking at how happy and friendly the Hoenn Elite Four were too each other really emphasized the difference between them and the Indigo Elite Four. I remember how distant and almost hostile they were, and how they had been sitting in the room in near silence before I arrived.
A frown must have appeared on my face as Glacia addressed me with a touch of concern.
“What’s wrong, John? You look unhappy about something.” She asked softly and slightly worriedly. Truthfully, I thought that she no longer looked so scary when she didn’t have a blank smile on her face. Now, she just looked like a concerned mother, which was a huge improvement.
“Ah, there’s nothing wrong exactly.” I claimed as I rubbed the back of my head, “it’s just that you guys are all so friendly with each other. And I really admire that dynamic. I just wished that the Indigo Elite Four were as friendly with each other as you guys are.”
I then began to explain what I saw when I was first introduced to the Indigo Elite Four, and how hostile and distant they were to each other. Except for Walker, but even his friendliness was unable to shine through the mire of hostility that radiated between the rest of them.
“That’s terrible!” Phoebe blurted out, with a shake of her head. “I would hate it if my fellow members of the Elite Four were so rude and hostile to each other. It would be such a nightmare to work with.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if she was hugging herself.
“Aye. That sounds horrible, lad.” Drake spoke up, “I might not be the friendliest of peoples, and I do let my temper go sometimes, but I’d like to think that I’m not a horrible person to work with.”
“Awww, don’t worry, Drake, we all like you.” Phoebe interjected with a smile that got a chuckle out of Drake.
“Thanks, lass, but as I was saying, even I wouldn’t like it if I had to work with people that I couldn’t stand. Not only would that be a pain in the ass to do, but sometimes us Elite Four are required to attend to big emergencies that require us to work together. And I’m not sure I could work well with someone that I hated no matter how professional I am.” Drake stated seriously.
The other members shared similar thoughts of sympathy towards me and how they hoped that the situation would improve soon. I was grateful for their kindness and understanding, and it gave me hope that one day that the Indigo Elite Four could be more like the people that I was spending time with now.
Then I remembered that, in canon, the future of the Indigo Elite Four consisted of Will the psychic, Bruno the musclehead, Koga the stoic ninja, and Karen. While I obviously had no problems with Karen and would be happy to see her join me in the Elite Four, I had serious doubts that the other 3 members of the Elite Four from canon would be ‘nice’ to hang around. That really killed my optimism.
Though I hoped that some of them were similar to Sidney, as in their gruff or unfriendly appearance didn’t reflect on their inner kindness. I desperately hoped so, as I didn’t want to spend the rest of my time in the Elite Four mired in hostility and competition.
Eventually, our lunch break was over, and we were dragged back into finishing the photoshoot. Luckily, our earlier discussions had revitalized me, and I managed to get through the remainder of the shoot without feeling too bored.
Finally, after almost another half hour of photos, we were all done. The other members of the Elite Four gave Drake and I their well-wishes and hoped that we would have a great battle. They also informed me that if I wanted to make a fuss about my side-lining to Hoenn, they would say something in my support. I thanked them before I turned to Drake and gave him a respectful nod before we parted.
I still had another 20 minutes before the battle. I texted my parents and asked them if they were going to be watching it live, and they quickly replied back that they had their snacks ready and waiting. Karen replied similarly and told me that she was already seated and that most of the audience had also arrived.
She then asked me about the photoshoot and if I was doing okay. I told her honestly that the photoshoot was boring and that I was surprisingly not nervous at this moment. Instead of nervousness, I was nearly shaking with excitement for the battle.
I knew that win-or-lose, it was going to be my greatest and hardest challenge to date. But I had prepared for it and my Pokémon were all ready and willing to show the world their strength.
Dragon types were commonly seen as the most powerful type, and for good reason. However, I was going to show the world that there were always exceptions to every rule. And that my Normal types were not going down without a fight.
A.N The battle against Drake is finally here! Thank you for reading so far. Big thanks to all my Patreons for your support.
