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The New Normal - 2-3
🕑 Added 2023-03-14 18:36:59 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 2-3 – Tyrant
“Trainers, are you ready?!” The referee announced once more, receiving nods from both trainers. My grip unconsciously tightened around Tyrant’s Pokéball as I prepared to release him.
This was it. I would show Hoenn just exactly how I earned my title. Tyrant will show them all.
I barely even heard the “Begin!” as I reflexively threw Tyrant’s Pokéball, releasing him onto the arena.
“SLAKINGGGG!!!” Tyrant powerfully let out a roar out to the ceiling that managed to shake the very foundations of the Gym as he made his grand entrance, causing the psychic shields to flicker slightly from the power of Tyrant’s roar. His scarred body landing onto the arena on all fours with an audible crack as the newly repaired arena fractured slightly at his weight and power. All eyes were on him as his presence radiated with such strength of presence that he caused lesser Pokémon to cower in fear. Tyrant was certainly living up to his name.
In comparison, Norman’s Slaking was a fine specimen of his species too, and definitely was well-trained by maintaining an alert and non-lazy posture. If it was not currently facing my Tyrant, it would definitely have made an impressive sight on its own, easily worthy of being a Gym Leader’s Ace. However, when compared to Tyrant, it was noticeably smaller, its muscles were less defined, and it still had a hint of laziness that it failed to shrug off.
Unlike the games, where Slaking was severely hampered by its Truant ability, the Pokémon world’s version of Slaking was similarly hampered by its inherent laziness that could cause it to ignore its trainer’s orders and laze around. If this happened in a serious battle, the results were catastrophic because if it disobeys a command and lazes around during a critical moment of the battle could cause the Slaking to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Hence, it was why Slaking was a very rare Pokémon to see in the ranks of the Elite. The trainer must have sufficiently trained the Slaking to go against its own inherent lazy nature and to develop battle instincts that would distract it from wanting to laze around during a battle.
Yet, this was much easier said than done and that was why, despite Slaking’s prodigious strength, many trainers skipped over Slaking in their considerations as there were other powerful Pokémon that they could use that didn’t require so much training.
But, if you DID manage to overcome a Slaking’s inherent shortcomings, then you had a powerful, Elite level Pokémon that had a great combination of strength, endurance, and speed.
And Tyrant had done more than just overcome his laziness, he had surpassed it and transformed his laziness into a raging lust for battle that made him into an unstoppable monster that could fight with such immense strength and endurance that he would break even the strongest of Pokémon.
As a result, the moment Tyrant locked eyes with Norman’s Slaking, without warning, Tyrant shot forward like a bullet and sprinted on two legs like an Olympic athlete straight at the opposing Slaking. I could see the surprise in the opposing Slaking’s eyes as it could barely comprehend what was about to happen as Tyrant closed the distance.
Speed was always something that I emphasized in my training of Tyrant. For some reason, even most elite trainers would not realize just how fast Tyrant could be. They all saw Slaking as a ‘slow and lazy’ Pokémon and believed the same for Tyrant. My opponent in the finals of the Indigo League Conference certainly believed so. They could not be more wrong.
Thus, before Norman could issue a command, Tyrant had already closed in on the Slaking and crashed into it with a Body Slam with such force that it sent shockwaves exploding outwards.
I could hear the various gasps and shouts of surprise from the audience that I ignored as I watched Tyrant transitioning his slam into a charge that carried and dragged Norman’s Slaking far backwards, creating several tears in the arena that trailed behind Norman’s Slaking as it was forcefully dragged along by Tyrant, before eventually Tyrant slammed into it once more as they collided with the psychic shields at the edge of the arena.
The sound of glass shattering could be heard as the psychic shields creaked and flickered at the strain of the impact. I inwardly hoped that Norman had some way of reinforcing the psychic shields, as I highly doubted that it could endure more than a few more attacks like that.
“Slaking! Get up! Hammer Arm!” To Norman’s credit, he responded quickly to Tyrant’s sudden burst of aggression, but Tyrant was not one for allowing his opponents to fight back. Tyrant easily caught Slaking’s descending arm with his own, and not letting up on the offensive, Tyrant roared and, in an impressive display of his immense strength, lifted Slaking’s fallen body by the arm, carried it over his head, and suplexed it back into the ground with a loud bang that shattered and shook the ground of the arena once again.
Tyrant’s preferred method of fighting was unbelievably aggressive; he would close the distance on his opponents before unleashing an onslaught of attacks at such close range that would disorient the opponent so that they couldn’t make use of their long-ranged attacks or fancy tricks and dodges.
To compliment this fighting style, I had trained Tyrant’s combat instincts so that he didn’t need to rely on my commands before attacking, which was beneficial at such close ranges as it allowed him to react quicker than if he needed to wait for me to give him commands. This led to Tyrant adopting an almost completely barbaric way of fighting that abused Tyrant’s unbeatable strength, endurance, and his own battle lust.
Against less experienced Pokémon or trainers that were not used to such a method of fighting, they could find themselves overwhelmed and too disorientated to fight back. This was why I told Norman to clear his emotions and to not allow his nervousness to affect his judgment.
“Tyrant! Get on top of it!” Continuing with the aggression, Tyrant pounced on top of Slaking’s prone state and ferociously Headbutted it as he pinned it down underneath him before he raised his arms and struck them down savagely with a Hammer Arm. Each blow by Tyrant caused the arena to crack more and more, until eventually, the ground separated into a large gash that both Pokémon fell into.
The sudden displacement didn’t deter Tyrant though, as he continued hammering into Slaking with focused rage that Slaking could barely block or fend off. Each subsequent strike by Tyrant was accompanied by a loud thud and dug them both deeper into the hole, until eventually all you could see was the top of Tyrant’s head.
But Norman’s Slaking proved that it was a powerful and well-trained Pokémon in its own right as, despite the pummelling it was receiving, it still had plenty of vitality and spirit to keep fighting.
Fortunately, as it made the match more exciting, I could see that by this point of the battle Norman’s Slaking had lost all of its earlier laziness as it brought its full attention back into the battle at hand.
“Slaking! Use Low Sweep on his legs!” Slaking fought back and cleverly kicked out at one of Tyrant’s legs that was keeping it pinned down, causing Tyrant to stumble and miss his next attack as he fell over.
“Now! Brick Break!” Taking advantage of Tyrant’s stumble, Slaking sliced downwards with a powerful chop into Tyrant’s shoulder that forced him down onto his knees.
“Drain Punch!” Slaking roared and followed up his attack with a critical Drain Punch that crashed into Tyrant’s face, knocking him back and allowing Slaking to regain some health.
“Keep going, Slaking! Hammer Arm!” Pushing the offensive, Slaking brought up both of its arms and was about to smash them into Tyrant’s face, as if it was trying to crack Tyrant’s head in two.
“Tyrant, Sucker Punch!” Much faster than you would expect from such a large Pokémon, Tyrant’s fist shot out like a snake and found purchase in Slaking’s stomach, interrupting his attack, and breaking its stance.
“Tyrant, Giga Impact!” “Prote-”
“SLAKINGGG!!!” Before Slaking could create a shield, Tyrant erupted with a shattering roar and exploded in a orange light as he rocketed forwards, tearing deep trenches in the ground in his wake as he did, and collided into Norman’s Slaking with a humongous BANG. The impact blasted Slaking backwards and it completely shattered the psychic shields as he hurtled through them and continued to fly uncontrollably past them before eventually crashing into the concrete walls of the Gym and falling to the floor. The Gym shook momentarily as the Gym’s foundations worryingly wobbled from Slaking’s unceremonious crash into the wall and the ripple of force that Tyrant’s Giga Impact generated.
The audience screamed in panic, with many ducking for cover, as the energy from the Tyrant’s Giga Impact caused the stadium to shake and also managed to scatter many of the benches and chairs that were not properly fastened into the ground as if a large gust of wind had blown through the stadium. Many had become momentarily deafened as the psychic shields failed to dampen the piercing BANG that Tyrant caused with his attack.
To my admiration and respect, I could see that, despite the wounds that it suffered, Norman’s Slaking was still determined and capable of continuing the fight as it pulled itself back into a fighting stance. There was a short lull in the action as Tyrant and I waited for Slaking to pull itself back into the arena, so that we wouldn’t be fighting outside the psychic barriers when they were repaired.
I could see that Tyrant was also giving Slaking a nod of respect as he watched Slaking re-enter the arena, before Tyrant roared out once more and once again charged towards Slaking, not even pretending to be winded by his use of Giga Impact.
“Slaking! Slack Off and Counter!” Norman’s Slaking slumped over as it rested its eyes and its wounds visibly healed at a rapid rate. However, much like how I trained my own Pokémon, an observant eye could see that Slaking was ready to fight back at a moment’s notice despite its use of Slack Off.
“Tyrant! Flamethrower!” Tyrant halted his charge before letting out a pillar of flame that engulfed Slaking and interrupted its healing. At this point, the psychic shields had been repaired and recharged and were put back in place.
“Interrupt it with a Rock Throw!” Despite being scorched in flames, Slaking powered through the flames as it tore up a large chunk of flooring and heaved it towards Tyrant, battering him and causing him to cancel the Flamethrower.
“Slaking, Giga Impact! Full power!” Norman abandoned all defence as he knew that a battle of attrition would not end in his favour. His only chance was a decisive blow.
“Tyrant, BRACE!” Tyrant took on a defensive posture and crossed his arms in a ‘X’ shape as Slaking also started to glow with silver energy as it shot towards Tyrant with a thundering roar of its own.
In that brief moment before impact, Slaking forgot about all of its injuries as it rushed forwards. It forgot about how it was slammed around and nearly knocked out by Tyrant’s Giga Impact. All it cared about was that one decisive blow. That one hit that would take advantage of Tyrant’s momentary distraction and crash into him with everything that it had.
Slaking rammed into Tyrant with as much force and determination as it could muster and the silver glow around it detonated simultaneously as Slaking tried to will every inch of strength and power that it had against Tyrant. The psychic shields warbled once again as another wave of force crashed into it, and the arena was now scarred with gouges from the two Giga Impacts.
Despite all this, I remained supremely confident that Tyrant would be able to withstand the blow. He was my partner, my ace, and my confidant. He had been with me since the beginning, and he grew up with me and was by my side through every battle, thick and thin. He wasn’t going down, not to this, not to anything. He would rather die by my side than surrender a fight. And I loved him all the more for it.
And so, Tyrant determinedly dug his heels in and endured the blow with a pained, but determined, grunt. That grunt transformed into a roar of “SLAKINGGG!!” as Tyrant grabbed on to Slaking’s shoulders as the Giga Impact petered out and exhaustion began to set in for Norman’s Slaking, and Tyrant Headbutted the opposing Slaking with a savage grin.
“Tyrant, Suplex!” Slaking stumbled back from the Headbutt, and before it could reorient itself, Tyrant surged forwards and grabbed Slaking by the sides and threw it over himself as he slammed it again into the ground.
“Slaking, Rest!” “Tyrant, throw it!” Slaking tried desperately to enter a recovery state with Rest, but before it could Tyrant grabbed it by the legs and threw him viciously into the psychic shields. The poor abused shields flickered once again as Slaking crashed into them.
“Finish it Tyrant! Mega Kick!” Tyrant took off in a running start before leaping into the air and diving forward towards the Slaking. The opposing Slaking was too slow to react in time and Tyrant’s feet smashed critically against Slaking’s face, battering him further into the psychic shields and almost causing the latter to shatter once again.
At this point, Norman’s Slaking had unfortunately expended all of its energy with its all-out Giga Impact, and when that failed it could no longer sustain itself from Tyrant’s onslaught and fell over unconscious.
“SLAKING! SLAKINGGG!” Seeing his opponent knocked out, Tyrant roared out towards the ceiling and beat his chest in a primal show of strength at his victory. He was injured, sure, but I knew that it would take far more than a couple of hits and a Giga Impact to knock him down. The crowd soon joined in his revelry, chanting, and cheering at the magnificent battle that had just taken place, conveniently forgetting about how they were almost injured and deafened by the ferocity of the battle.
“The Gym Leader’s Slaking is unable to battle! Elite John is the victor!” The referee announced. As I saw Norman nodding with a satisfied smile as he withdrew his Slaking, I looked around and saw that a few people in the audience had their phones or other video recording devices out and had probably recorded most of the battle.
I replayed the battle in my own mind as I thought about how others would have thought about the battle just now, and Tyrant’s performance within it. I felt that Tyrant had achieved a decisive victory, and the injuries he sustained were an inevitable consequence of his primal and almost reckless fighting style. Besides, I had yet to make use of his recovery moves, meaning that Tyrant still had plenty of juice in the tank to continue fighting.
Distancing myself from my thoughts, I ran up to where Tyrant was still basking in the attention of the crowd before I gave him a proud hug.
“Way to go, Tyrant! You showed them all!” I praised, eliciting another roar from Tyrant as he expressed his joy.
“Yes, it certainly was a good battle.” Norman cut in as he approached, “Congratulations on your victory. You really are deserving of the title of the Elite 4.” Norman complimented with a smile that lacked any bitterness at his recent loss, which I was happy to see. I didn’t want to have soured our relationship just because of my victory.
“Thank you for your kind words.” I accepted, “But, as you saw, I barely had to give any commands to Tyra-my Slaking, he just reacted instinctively most of the time.” I gestured to Tyrant, who flexed at my words with a goofy grin on his face.
“Ah, but you were the one that trained your Slaking to be able to react instinctively, didn’t you?” Norman countered, “If it wasn’t for your own abilities as a trainer, your Slaking would not have become so strong, right?”
“I suppose so.” I said as humbly as I could, before changing the topic, “Do you still have time to discuss things further? I would like to go over the battle with you and talk about some other matters.” I asked.
“Of course!” Norman replied, “In fact, I was just about to ask you. Give me a few minutes to make sure all the audience members are doing okay and to make sure that there are no problems with resetting the arena; we did do a number on it. Oh, and before I leave, here’s your Balance Badge.” He chuckled as he handed over the Balance Badge to me and I received it with both hands and a slight bow.
Then I watched as he turned away to talk to his Gym Trainers. In the meanwhile, I withdrew Tyrant as he was having a bit too much fun before I looked around to see if I could spot Karen, but she was already making her way towards me.
“Good work out there.” She congratulated, “Your Tyrant really is something isn’t he? You really need to tell me one day how you got your Pokémon to become this strong. You’re making a girl jealous.” Though she said that, I could tell that Karen’s words had no bite in them.
“Perhaps I could do that sooner than you think.” I responded with a smirk, which caused her to raise her eyebrow inquiringly, “Norman and I wanted to discuss our match and a few other topics in a few minutes. Would you like to join?”
“Do you even have to ask? Of course I will.” Karen replied sarcastically.
“Are you alright?” I suddenly asked, and Karen looked at me with confusion at the change in topic, “I meant that when the psychic barriers failed during the fight, did you get hurt?”
“Awww, you’re so sweet.” Karen teased, “Were you worried about me?”
Determined to not let her get the better of me, I simply nodded in response as I put on my best poker face. Karen clicked her tongue at my lack of embarrassment.
“Tch, you didn’t even blush.” Karen said with a frown before it turned into a small smile, “but thanks for looking out for me. I was fine. I’m an experienced trainer too y’know, I’m more than used to these sorts of things happening during a battle.”
I nodded at that. Many scientists in the Pokémon world have documented that, as a trainer spends more time with their Pokémon and their Pokémon grows stronger, the trainers themselves become quicker to heal, stronger, and more resistant to injury. No one could really understand why this was the case, so it remained unexplained.
Personally, I thought that it was because of aura, and that by developing a stronger connection with your Pokémon, you yourself grew stronger because of your aura. However, that was still complete guesswork and not something I could intellectually debate about.
I was brought back from my musings as Karen tapped me on the shoulder and pointed over to the corner of the Gym. I looked at where she was pointing to and could see the receptionist from earlier standing next to a doorway. She was signalling to me and gesturing for me to enter into said doorway that I assumed was Norman’s office.
I walked over with Karen, and as we neared Norman’s office, I thought about the things I wanted to ask him about. Besides the battle, I did want to ask him a few questions about the politics of Hoenn, in case he has any good ideas that I could replicate in Kanto.
I hoped Norman wouldn’t get annoyed at me asking him questions about politics.
A.N Similar to the previous chapter, this chapter had gone through many revisions before I was happy with it. It seems to me that I struggle quite a bit with writing fight scenes, but I hope that this finale for the Norman fight was able to meet your expectations.
