The New Normal - 17-2

The New Normal – 17-2 – Preparing for Departure

As per Lance’s request for us to assist him with mustering up public support so that Alder could be persuaded to allow the International Police to have jurisdiction over Unova, I immediately got to work.

I went to text Elesa first, since I knew that she’d be the easiest to bring onboard. And indeed, it only took a few minutes of conversation before she agreed to at least speak to the other Gym Leaders about it. With her newfound influence thanks to our shared win in the Tournament, her support would help a lot.

However, it was my conversation with Clay that proved even more fruitful. Though we were hardly friends, we did have a business connection thanks to the earlier deal we made regarding our respective businesses. So I used that connection to ask if he was willing to support such an initiative, to which he gave a pretty interesting response.

“Do you truly believe that the intervention of the International Police will be necessary to ensure the complete destruction of PLASMA?” He asked me.

“I do.” I nodded firmly, “Having dealt with such criminal organisations before, I’ve learnt that there’s no such thing as overkill.”

“And you think we won’t be able to deal with it ourselves?” He questioned.

“You might be able to, but why take that risk?” I shot back, “Having more assistance would never be a bad thing. Surely that’s all that matters when it comes to ensuring the safety of your people?”

He snorted, “No need to try to manipulate me. I was already going to agree. I’ll host a meeting with the rest of the Gym Leaders, and we can come together and discuss this proposal together. How’s that sound?”

“That’d be lovely.” I said immediately, “Thank you for doing this – it’s more than I expected.”

“No need to thank me.” He replied, “I know of your history. I know why you take these criminal threats so seriously. Your paranoia and concern is justified. And at least I know you’re primarily doing this because you’re just looking out for us. I can appreciate that. Plus, I may not think that all of PLASMA deserves to be behind bars, but I do agree that a proper investigation must be done after what they did to embarrass us at Sinnoh.”

So with that, I was later informed that a meeting between all of the Unova Gym Leaders would be held later within the week. Not only that, but Shauntal and Drayden were also invited to participate so that they could listen in on the discussions and understand the mood of the Gym Leaders too.

I hoped that meeting would prove fruitful.

Speaking of Gym Leaders, there was an interesting development going on in Hoenn as well. Ever since Drake made his official declaration towards Bruno that he expected the Fighting specialist to challenge him if he wanted to make it into the Elite Four, people have been wondering just when and how Bruno was going to do so – since he wasn’t eligible to make such a challenge yet.

No one thought that the man was going to wait an entire year for the next Hoenn Conference to come around just to do so – though I did think that this was something that Bruno would actually do if he was doing this alone. Therefore, everyone expected he (or more accurately, for Steven to do so something) to temporarily take on the position of a Gym Leader just to grant him the necessary qualifications to make the challenge.

However, what no one, not even me, expected to happen was for Wallace to announce that he was ‘temporarily stepping away from his duties’ as Gym Leader of Sootopolis City and offering the position to Bruno.

Everyone knew it was a farce, but no one was going to tell that to Wallace of all people. Despite having stepped down as Champion to become a Gym Leader, Wallace still retained much of his massive influence and popularity that he once had. Furthermore, with him being the one to give Bruno his position, it meant that Wallace was supporting Bruno’s actions, which would help neuter whatever criticisms might have come Bruno’s way.

And the moment Bruno was made Gym Leader, he instantly made a formal challenge to Drake for his title of Elite Four. In a recent press conference, Bruno explained that he would be holding on to the position of Gym Leader until the date of the battle, and whether he wins or lose, the position would pass back to Wallace. Meanwhile, Wallace was appointed as his ‘executive assistant’ to run the management of the Gym.

Or in layman’s terms, nothing changed in regards to the Sootopolis Gym.

I had no idea what kind of secret arrangement was made between Steven and Wallace for this to happen, but I supposed I shouldn’t have expected anything different from the new Champion.

With that in mind, their battle was scheduled to take place within a fortnight. I had already been asked about my opinion from a few news agencies that were covering the upcoming battle, to which I had this to say:

“Having faced off against both Drake and Bruno, I would say that I am far more familiar with the fighting style of the former, given how often I’ve fought alongside the man. So I know full well how strong he is, and I know that Drake’s recent defeat against Steven means nothing in regards to measuring Drake’s strength. The man will be, and has always been, the strongest of the Hoenn Elite Four.”

“That being said – Drake, I know you’re listening to this – you better take this battle seriously.” I grinned into the camera, “You know Steven better than I do at this point. You know he isn’t some guy who makes plans without thinking them through, then thinking them through again and again and again. If he thinks that Bruno will beat you, then I would be wary of his confidence. So if you don’t want to lose your position, then you best start training up! I don’t want to hear excuses if you do end up losing!”

Then I left before the interviewer could recover from their shock; they probably weren’t expecting such a response. Though as I got out of sight, I let out a chuckle.

I was probably going to receive a pretty scary text message from Drake later today for my teasing comments, but he’s a guy who could take a joke. Besides, it’s not like I was wrong – Bruno really had a good chance of winning, so Drake was going to have to bring his A-game for the upcoming battle.

I couldn’t wait to see who would win between them.

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However, I couldn’t just focus on the battle between Drake and Bruno, as I also had to start making preparations from my departure. Just because I had informed Lance and my Elite Four colleagues doesn’t mean that this was all I had to do. There were still many more people that I had to meet and make arrangements with.

Most importantly amongst these were the other leaders of Cerulean City – Mayor Henry and the Waterflower sisters.

For a long time now, they’ve been supported by my influence to help bolster their city’s reputation and prosperity, and while their reliance on me has lessened over time as the Waterflower sisters continued to prove their worth as Gym Leaders and contest performers, my departure would undoubtedly be a setback for them.

I needed to make sure that they were informed of my departure beforehand, and could make the necessary preparations to adapt when it happens. And for a conversation like this, it was best if I spoke in person.

So I arranged for a meeting with them at the Cerulean council office in the afternoon, and arrived there promptly afterwards. Henry was already there, and we greeted each other with friendly smiles while we made small talk about what the other had been doing – since it had been a while since we last spoke.

A few minutes later, Daisy Waterflower arrived too, and the meeting began.

“So what did you want to discuss with us?” She asked, “You wouldn’t have called us here to meet in person if it wasn’t something important.”

“Before I say anything, I’m going to have to ask you to keep what I’m about to say to yourselves.” I said seriously, “It would be problematic if this was leaked before it should be.”

They both nodded, signalling that they understood. So I began, “I will be stepping down from the Indigo Elite Four in the near future.” That got shocked gasps from the both of them, “But—”

“Why?!” Daisy couldn’t help but interrupt, “There’s no way you’d step down for no reason!”

“Let me finish, please.” I said, “But as I was saying – I am stepping down. And the reason is because, if things go to plan, then there should be a new opening for me in Sinnoh that I’d like to take on so I could be closer to my girlfriend.”

“…It must be the new Guardian role that she’s proposing, right?” Henry figured me out.

“Yes, exactly.” I nodded, “Because of this, I’m trying to make preparations to those who will be most affected so that you won’t be blindsided by my move. Obviously, the both of you fall into this category, as I know that my departure will undoubtedly hurt Cerulean city’s influence. So if there are anything you think you’ll want from me to help you with before I depart, now will be the time to do it.”

As the more politically astute of the two, Henry naturally had a question to ask, “Wait, John, do you know who your replacement might be?”

I shook my head, “Nothing’s been confirmed yet, so I’m not at liberty to say. However, we do have someone in mind, and that person shouldn’t be hostile against your interests.”

“So it’s someone you consider an ally?” He checked.

“Yes, and a friend.” I nodded, “So there shouldn’t be any need to worry. Besides, I’m sure that the Cerulean Gym has grown to be influential enough that no one would dare try to replace it, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“No, I’m not worried about that. I know that the Cerulean Gym has grown to be very prestigious in recent times.” Henry denied, giving a smile to Daisy, “But your departure is undoubtedly going to take a bite out of our development funds. You know we’ve been trying to expand the city as much as we can, and I’m pretty sure that we were only able to do so smoothly was thanks to your influence. With you gone…” He didn’t need to finish that, we all knew what he meant.

Even though I wasn’t actively seeking out their support, many League officials and Committee members would be frequently trying to earn my favour, or avoiding my ire, and not make things difficult for me by allowing proposals coming from my home city of Cerulean to pass through more easily. This was a commonly accepted practice, and it was sort of a ‘reward’ for the home city of the appointed Elite Four member.

That would mostly dry up with my departure. But I trusted that these two would still allow Cerulean to prosper even without me.

“So if you’re going to be going soon…” Henry continued, “Would you be able to make use of your influence one last time and secure us some good deals for the years to come? If it wouldn’t be too much trouble for you.”

“Same here!” Daisy added, “We’ve been trying to get a grant to set up a learning facility of sorts for contest performers, but I’m pretty sure our proposal is still stuck behind all the red tape. Could you help us push it forwards, John?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” I nodded, “But I’m surprised you waited this long to tell me. Surely you could have asked earlier.”

Henry coughed, “…Well, we didn’t want to bother you. We know how busy you are already, so our concerns are relatively minor in comparison. And besides, we didn’t think you would actually step down from the Elite Four anytime soon, so there wasn’t any rush for us.” He let out a sigh, “…It’s a shame that you’re leaving. I would try to persuade you to stay, but I know that it would be fruitless. I can see that you’ve already made up your mind.”

He bowed slightly, “So all I can is this – thank you for your service. Because of your efforts, you’ve made the lives of many Cerulean citizens, and myself, much better.”

Daisy nodded too, “Yeah, thanks for getting us in touch with Giovanni too. I don’t know what we would have done if not for Petrel.”

I felt that it was an exaggeration, that I hadn’t really done all that much. But I knew that my words would simply fall on deaf ears, so I just returned a quiet thanks. I also promised to help out, even when I was in Sinnoh, wherever I could. I didn’t want to completely abandon Cerulean, even if I was gone.

We chatted for a bit longer, and we went over a few more things that they wanted me to help out with. But overall, none of their requests were going to be particularly difficult for me to help to enact, so I didn’t foresee any issues there.

Thus, as we had all plans to attend to, the meeting ended not long after that. I headed straight home, but not to relax, but because there was something I had wanted to discuss with my parents.

It turned out that they weren’t home yet, so I spent the time training up both Tails and Sona, since they had been trained up to the point where we could start focusing on more specialised training.

For Tails, that meant actually training her up to make use of her multi-attack moves to not only hit as hard as possible, but to also be able to fired off while moving without losing any speed. This also meant that she had to train up her stamina, as we soon discovered that her style of fighting took a heavy toll on her energy reserves. Therefore, I paired her up with Klaus, since I felt he would be best to help train that aspect up for her.

Then for Sona, I wanted her to be able to make use of certain support moves as quickly as possible, while also developing her mental resilience so that she wouldn’t become completely irrational if she fell under a Taunt. Said moves included both Simple Beam and Skill Swap, two moves that I currently don’t really make use of in my team. Their effectiveness was self-explanatory; it would help completely shutdown an annoying ability from any opposing Pokémon. Furthermore, Simple Beam would make the target especially vulnerable to debuffing moves such as Baby Doll Eyes and Confide, both moves that Sona was able to learn that could decrease an enemy’s Attack or Special Attack respectively.

With such great access to such a varied pool of supportive moves, I foresaw that Sona would become invaluable in any group battle.

I ended up training with my Pokémon for an hour or so before I heard my parents calling out to me from the house – signalling that they had returned home. So I returned all of my Pokémon into their Pokéballs before taking a seat opposite of them on the sofa.

“So, what is it that you want to talk about?” My mom asked, “I saw you heading into the local council building today. Does this have anything to do with that?”

“Sorta.” I replied, hesitating a little bit with what I was about to say, even though I expected that they had already figured it out, “Though first of all – I’m sure you must have expected this, but… I do plan to move to Sinnoh with my girlfriend for the foreseeable future. That means I’m leaving for Sinnoh, more than likely permanently.”

My mom and dad shared a look before they both nodded slowly, “We knew that it was inevitable. I mean, we figured it out once you went and bought that house with her.” My dad chuckled, “So I’m presuming that this conversation is going to have something to do with that?”

“It is.” I confirmed, “Namely – I don’t want to give up and distance myself from the family business just because I’m no longer living in Indigo. Especially since the breeding business can’t exactly operate without me there.”

“That’s true.” My dad nodded, “I’m assuming you have a proposal for us then?”

“I’m thinking we could set up a new branch office in Sinnoh, under me.” I said, “Naturally, the breeding business will have to move too. But I should already have a good spot for it – the house that Cynthia and I purchased has a lot of free space next to it, since it’s on an unused Route. We could have the breeding farms set up there, since there’ll be more than enough space to house all those Pokémon. And before you ask, I already checked with Cynthia – she’s okay with it.”

I was referring to the place that would, in canon, be where Pal Park was going to be built. However, I wasn’t all that interested in building up something like that next to my house, and I felt that having the breeding farm there would be a far better choice. Cynthia easily agreed, and in fact, she said that she’d love to have the opportunity to try her hand at being a Pokémon breeder too if we could agree to an arrangement between us.

“…Well, we do have the funds to support an expansion to Sinnoh. In fact, we had already been thinking of doing so.” My mom said thoughtfully, “We had just been delaying it because we wanted to make sure that the new breeding business was running smoothly first.”

“However, it isn’t a bad idea for you to start running your own branch of the business.” She continued, “Your father and I aren’t getting any younger, so it’s best if you and Whitney could get started actually running the business. In that respect, I think you running a branch office for now would be good for you. Managing a company requires different skills than just being in the Elite Four, after all.”

“I hope this whole move isn’t too costly.” I apologised, “I know the breeding farms were just set up in Johto, so I know it’s going to be a hassle to get everything moved to Sinnoh.”

“It isn’t as much of a problem as you think it’ll be.” My dad replied, “I mean, the biggest costs would be constructing the new facilities over in Sinnoh. But it’s not like the facilities here in Johto will go to waste – we can always repurpose it for something else. So don’t you worry about that.”

I nodded, accepting the point.

“Also, when exactly do you plan on leaving for Sinnoh?” My mom asked, “Ideally, we’d like to have everything set up in Sinnoh before you do move.”

“Well, there’s not been an exact date yet as everything’s heavily dependent on the political situation over there in Sinnoh.” I explained, “I’m trying to get myself appointed into their new ‘Guardian’ position that’s still being discussed – so as soon as that position is made available, I guess I’ll be moving out around that time then.”

“Okay, then we’ll check up on the news and follow along with its progress.” My dad nodded, “Speaking of which, your mother and I haven’t actually seen your new house yet. We should really do that sometime soon.”

“We’ll make a tour of it.” I agreed, “I assume you’ll have to head to Sinnoh to set up the new branch office. Just let me know when you’re going and we can make a trip together. We can even bring Whitney along too if she’s free.”

“Sounds like a deal.” My mom nodded too, before suddenly letting out a bittersweet sigh as she reached out and pulled me into a tight hug. Her voice had dropped to a whisper, “…Enjoy your life in Sinnoh, John. I’m sure you’ll be happy with Cynthia.”

“…I will, mom.” I replied gently, “And it’s not like you won’t be able to see me. You’re always free to visit whenever.”

“I know, I know. And even though I know you’re already a man grown by now – especially with all that you’ve already done – I don’t think any loving mother would not feel sad when their child leaves the roost. As your parents, its our duty to worry.”

“But please don’t feel burdened by us.” My dad added, “We support your move wholeheartedly – every Pidgey needs to leave the nest eventually. So don’t feel guilty about ‘leaving us behind’ or whatever. Your mother and I are happy for you.”

Their words caused my eyes to moisten, but I did my best to put up my usual smile, “…Thank you. But I’m not leaving yet, so let’s make the most of our remaining time together.”

Despite the poverty that plagued my youth, I have never, ever, been disappointed in my parents – for I would never take their love and affection for granted.

A.N. A slower chapter focusing on John’s eventual departure from Indigo, and wrapping up a few loose ends as a result of it. I debated whether this deserved to be skipped over, but I felt like that would be undermining the impact of the move. John has spent his entire life in Indigo, and this story has also focused so much on the developments happening in Indigo, so I felt like skipping over these moments would be a disservice to this story.

With John and his parents especially, I felt that a conversation between them was absolutely necessary, especially in regards to the family business. Hope you enjoyed!