The New Normal - 16-10

The New Normal – 16-10 – Developments

A.N. For those who didn’t see my discord message – sorry for the delay. I have been dealing with some personal issues recently which has taken up a lot of my usual free time. But I hope this wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.

I couldn’t deny that winning against Norman and Surge was very satisfying. Not because we were the underdogs or anything going into this battle – we certainly weren’t – but because it felt nice winning over another Normal and Electric pair.

Especially since our pre-battle planning worked out so well.               

We knew that they were going to target Elesa first. That’s why we had chosen to make use of her Stunfisk, her deceptively most defensive Pokémon on her team, to stifle their takedown attempt and turn the tables on them.

We didn’t expect for Surge to send out Electrode first, but that was a stroke of luck for us due to its utter inability to damage Ground types with its moves, which forced them to use up their only switch.

From there, the fight proceeded methodically. When Norman sent out his Slaking, I was tempted to engage it in a 1v1, for Tyrant to assert his dominance over his fellow Slaking, but I stuck to the original plan of having Emolga Helping Hand boost him to overwhelm it in a contest of strength.

In fact, I was pretty pleased to see how much Elesa’s Helping Hands, and other supporting moves, had grown over the course of this Tournament. And it wasn’t just me who noticed it either. Elesa told me that our partnership had really opened her eyes to the potential and utility of such moves in her regular battles.

I was more than happy to help.

Nevertheless, with our victory over Norman and Surge, that put us in at minimum within the Top 8 of the Tournament. There were only three more battles to go before the final victor of the Tournament would be decided.

Time had really flown past quickly, but that was just the nature of the Tournament. Even if everyone would have liked to, we couldn’t have the Tournament run on for too long as everyone couldn’t be separated from their usual duties for too long.

Still, since we were one of the first pairs to battle, our remaining opponents hadn’t been decided yet. Meanwhile, there had been a few political developments that Cynthia wanted to discuss with me. So after finishing up on one of our routine training sessions together with Elesa, I excused myself and met up with Cynthia at Celestic Town, in her own room.

“I assume you’ve seen the news?” She asked me as soon I stepped in.

“I did.” I nodded. Even though I had been busy with Tournament preparations, this was too important for me to overlook, “The vote for the proposal to make leaders appointable from any region has just passed in Sinnoh, right? I know it was all over the news, though I didn’t see the final tally.”

The successful passing of the proposal had been broadcasted by every news network in Sinnoh, and every political analyst out there was talking about it and the potential consequences or benefits that this will have for Sinnoh.

Fortunately, most seemed to understand that it had always been a matter of time before this proposal was passed. They understood where the winds of politics were blowing.

“It was a narrow victory, but a victory nonetheless.” She replied, “There was still some significant opposition to the proposal, more than I anticipated, but we still managed to pass it through anyways.”

“Will they be a problem?” I asked, “Will they cause you issues?”

“No. The vote passed fair and square. The majority of the Committee voted for it, so they don’t have any grounds to overturn it.” She shook her head, “I’ll just have to be more careful with my other proposals in the future. I’ll probably have to do something to placate them just so they won’t do anything regrettable.”

I nodded; that was just how politics was. It was always give-and-take.

“You know that means that I’ll have to delay introducing the creation of the position to serve as Regigigas’ guardian, right?” She told me, “I don’t think it’ll be wise to rush that through right after we’ve just passed something as radical as this.”

“That’s fine. I can wait.” I said, “We’re already so close to making this a reality. Let’s not fuck it up by rushing through the last bit.”

She agreed, “We’ll make sure that we’ll time everything perfectly so that the announcement comes when you’re also ready to move on from Indigo. Everything needs to be perfect.”

Cynthia and I had discussed this before. Basically, with any new role, whoever was first to take on the position was also going to be the one who could shape the responsibilities and authority of the role for the years to come. Therefore, we wanted to time everything right so that I could be available to immediately take on the position before anyone else could.

And I wanted to make sure that everything was right, because this was a position that I foresaw I would hold for the near future. Since I didn’t want to step down from politics entirely, I needed to make sure that my new position would still afford me the same level (or hopefully, a greater level) of political influence as I currently had now.

Admittedly, I wasn’t actually emotionally ready to leave Indigo behind yet. There were still many matters that I wanted to settle before I would be ready to leave. But I’ll deal with that when the time comes.

Cynthia interrupted me from my own thoughts, “Anyways, the other Champions and I have already agreed that our next priority is to entrench this policy as an Article in the Regional Union. So that’s what we’re going to be working on next.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Lance didn’t say anything about that to me. Not that I disapprove, of course.”

She shrugged, “He probably didn’t want to bother you with something like this while you’re still focused on the Tournament. Oh – and that reminds me, I know you don’t need me to tell you this, but try to make sure that you give off a dominant performance in this Tournament. Having the public on your side is going to be very important if you want to become appointed as Regigigas’ guardian, and so making sure that your reputation of strength isn’t tarnished in the public’s eyes is going to be crucial.”

She patted me on the shoulder, “So try not to fumble. I expect to see you in the very Finals themselves. Got that?”

I chuckled, “Yes ma’am. I’ll be sure not to disappoint.”

“Good.” She pecked me quickly on the cheek, “Now shoo, shoo. You need to get back to training!”

I obeyed dutifully and returned to Elesa, who I found was slumped over on a table as she idly watched how the other battles in this round were playing out.

I quickly joined in. We had already done a lot of research into our future opponents, but it was always a good idea to see if they pulled out any new tricks that we needed to be aware of.

==========================

(Brock POV)

He was very proud to have made it to the elimination rounds, and with a pretty decent score as well. They had gone 3-1 in the preliminary rounds, having only lost a fight to Crasher Wake and Marshal.

But more importantly than that, he was just happy that he was actually managing to pull his own weight in these battles. Of course, Bertha still did most of the heavy lifting, and her Pokémon were generally stronger, bulkier, and more powerful than his own.

But the tricks and strategies that he had meticulously developed on his own (or with the help of Karen) had allowed him to narrow that gap significantly. Therefore, though he still considered himself to be one of the weaker trainers in this Tournament, he felt that he was capable of punching well above his own weight class.

And today was the day that would prove whether these thoughts were justified or not, as their first opponent in the elimination round was against Volkner and the Waterflower sisters.

It was a very fitting match for them. Not only were their type matchups pretty much evenly balanced, but their pair also consisted of a relatively inexperienced Gym Leader being teamed up with someone far more experienced and powerful. In fact, if you considered the fact that Volkner was widely considered to be an Elite Four member disguised as a Gym Leader, which he most certainly did, then the teams were practically equal in strength.

The comparisons didn’t end there. Both himself and the Waterflower sisters were both growing their reputations, and were both considered by the public to be ‘competing’ for which ‘early’ Gym was the most successful in Kanto. This battle would likely be seen as merely an extension of that.

It was like the perfect setting for a friendly rivalry to develop between them – one that he was fully determined to win.

Yet, as he stepped into the arena, he met Daisy’s gaze with his own and saw the familiar flare of determination searing in her eyes, and he knew that must be feeling the same way.

He gave off a nod of acknowledgement. They both understood the stakes.

And so the battle begun.

“Go! Sudowoodo!”    “Your turn, Hippowdon!”

“Rotom!”             “Starmie, dazzle them!”

Thanks to Hippowdon’s Sand Stream, a Sandstorm was immediately whipped up, causing the battlefield to be surrounded in a thick storm of sand. This was their greatest advantage in this battle, giving them an instant head-start in the weather war.

However, he frowned as he took in the new form of Volkner’s Rotom. Volkner hadn’t used it in the Tournament thus far, so this was the first time he had seen Volkner’s Rotom in action. Right now, it had possessed a lawnmower, and if he could recall correctly, that made it an Electric/Grass type. A very good combination of types to be against their team.

“Hydro Pump, Starmie! Take out that Hippowdon!”          “Leaf Storm, Rotom! Do the same!”

“Fake out, Sudowoodo.”                “Earth Power the Starmie, Hippowdon.”

With its incredible speed, the Starmie moved first. The Water type spun across the battlefield as it got ready to fire off what would have been a powerful torrent of water – only for it to be interrupted by a Fake Out from his Sudowoodo. Then, as Starmie flinched, his Sudowoodo swung its arms around and smashed into the Water type with a devastating and supereffective Wood Hammer, knocking the Starmie through the air as it was blown back. Starmie tried to use Recover, but Sudowoodo also stopped it with a quick Taunt.

However, his partner was having a much harder time. The Leaf Storm that Rotom unleashed had shredded through Bertha’s Hippowdon; the supereffective attack having savagely ripped through its health. Hippowdon wasn’t able to fire off that Earth Power before it was set aflame by a Will-O-Wisp, and it was too slow and immobile to dodge out of the way of the powered up Hex.

Fortunately for them, Hippowdon was one of Bertha’s most resilient Pokémon, and even though it had taken a lot of damage so quickly, he knew that wasn’t going to be enough to bring it down. As if to prove his point, Hippowdon began to heal itself up with a Slack Off and rapidly restored much of its lost health.

However, its attempt to heal up did not go unpunished. Because of its inaction, Rotom was now given free reign to target down his Sudowoodo alongside Starmie, momentarily putting the fight into a 2v1.

But he was ready for it.

So as a Hydro Pump and Leaf Storm came his way, Sudowoodo used Protect to block against one of the attacks while relying on its buffed-up Special Defenses in the Sand to resist the other. Just like he hoped, Sudowoodo was blasted back by the Hydro Pump, but it wasn’t enough to take it down.

And now, that gave both Hippowdon and Sudowoodo to fire off a Sand Tomb and a Block respectively against both Starmie and Rotom, trapping them both in the fight. Sudowoodo also fired off another Taunt at Rotom before both of their Pokémon began to heal themselves up with Slack Off and Rest.

Just as they planned.

This was their strategy – as unorthodox as it was. They were going to trap both of their opponents in the fight, and stall out both of their opponent’s Pokémon by repeatedly healing up their own until their opponents tired themselves out.

Naturally, one of the core aspects of their strategy was the Sandstorm, and the Special Defense boost it granted to his Rock types. Thanks to that, his Sudowoodo could almost match the resilience of Bertha’s Hippowdon, and they knew that neither Volkner or Daisy would have an easy way of taking either of their Pokémon out – especially without being able to boost up or change the weather thanks to the Taunt.

Karen and Sidney had taught him well. Thanks to all of their guidance, his Taunts were only slightly weaker than theirs.

All the while their Pokémon would take residual damage over time thanks to the Sandstorm, which helped to slowly wear them down.

Better yet, both of their Pokémon knew Sleep Talk. And due to all of their earlier training, they had specifically trained up their Pokémon to prioritise using defensive setup moves like Amnesia, Iron Defense, and Calm Mind during their Sleep Talk to buff up their defenses even further.

Was it a glamourous way of winning? Absolutely not. Bertha was even surprised and a little shocked when he had proposed this strategy to her. But just like he was taught, you had to use every little advantage you could to secure yourself the best odds of winning, and the two of them were just making use of their Pokémon’s superior defenses.

In order to make sure that their strategy would work, the two of them worked deep into the night as they meticulously studied and calculated Volkner and Daisy’s offensive capabilities, just to ensure that their Pokémon would be able to survive and heal off their onslaught of attacks.

Fortunately for them, their calculations were correct. Their Pokémon just about managed to hold on.

Because of all this, Volkner and Daisy were forced into a bad situation. Without being able to break through their Pokémon, even after trying to do so with several Hydro Pumps and Leaf Storms that were just healed through, all they were doing was tiring out their own Pokémon.

In fact, their strategy was actually working better than he expected, due to the fact that Rotom’s own Leaf Storms were lowering its own Special Attack after each use – meaning that it grew progressively weaker as the battle went on. They weren’t even able to switch out thanks to the Sand Tomb and Block respectively.

Realising they were trapped and unable to break through their opponents, both Rotom and Starmie switched tactics as they desperately tried to status their Pokémon. They prioritised using moves like Thunderbolt and Ice Beams against his Sudowoodo and Hippowdon respectively in order to try to land a paralysis and/or freeze.

Their attempt was met with mixed success. Sudowoodo did get paralysed, but Hippowdon never got frozen.

However, the paralysis was not enough to stop Sudowoodo from eventually knocking out both Rotom and Starmie with a series of Stone Edges, as they had become too exhausted and tired to dodge out of the way, securing them a massive advantage in this fight.

Though he had hoped for a bit more. He had hoped to also set up with Stealth Rocks in preparation for whatever Pokémon that Volkner and Daisy were going to send out next, but Starmie would constantly clear them out with Rapid Spins.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t deny being proud of this win. It had been primarily his strategy that secured them this knockout – and it was only feasible due to the extensive pre-battle research that he had done as well as his own Pokémon’s capabilities and training.

Yet when he saw that Volkner and Daisy had sent out their Electivire and Gyarados respectively, he knew that their strategy wouldn’t work any longer.

Before they could stop it, Electivire had immediately dispelled the Sandstorm with its own Rain Dance, setting up the Rain for their team. Then Gyarados instantly charged in, rampaging around the battlefield like an avatar of wrath as it brutally slammed into his Sudowoodo with a hammering Aqua Tail. Yet that wasn’t all, as a massive Whirlpool had formed beneath his Rock type, trapping it within its swirling depths.

Worse for them, Electivire was devastating the Hippowdon in the 1v1. Unfortunately, even Hippowdon’s admittedly impressive Defenses was not enough to stand up to the intensity of Electivire’s assault. The brutal Electric type rained down a flurry of powerful and precise blows against his Hippowdon, striking it with a series of Ice Punches and Cross Chops – the latter frequently landing with a critical hit that each tore through Hippowdon’s health.

Therefore, just like he feared, Electivire was doing too much damage for Hippowdon to heal back. And while he desperately tried to get Sudowoodo to assist, his own Pokémon was too busy dealing with the rampaging Gyarados and the Whirlpool that it was trapped in to be in any position to help.

Sure, his Sudowoodo might actually be holding on thanks to a more even distribution of its defensive buffs, but its resilience only seemed to further enrage the Gyarados and cause it to attack with even greater intensity.

In the end, it was Hippowdon that actually broke first, as it was too immobile to get away from the powerful blows of Electivire. Hippowdon tried to fend it off with a series of Earthquakes and Stone Edges – attacks that should have been powerful enough to deter most Electric types – but Electivire seemed to shrug that all off as it continued to pummel into Hippowdon with violent abandon.

Therefore, Hippowdon soon fell, being knocked out by a final critical Cross Chop.

But with Hippowdon’s fall, that allowed Bertha to send out her final Pokémon – a Gliscor. The newly emerged Gliscor quickly took to the skies, moving far out of range of any of Electivire’s fearsome physical attacks before proceeding to poison itself with a Toxic. This activated its own Poison Heal ability, allowing it to restore its own health overtime.

This was another thing that they had extensively prepared for. Because of the advantage that they had obtained by basically securing two free knockouts of both Volkner’s and Daisy’s first Pokémon, their opponents were forced to reveal their final Pokémon beforehand. Therefore, because they greatly respected Electivire’s impressive physical attacks, they both deemed it necessary to avoid getting close to Electivire.

That’s where Gliscor came in, as it was immune to Electivire’s usual barrage of Electric Special Attacks while being able to fly fast enough to stay far away from Electivire’s devastating punches.

Following this, even with all of the defensive buffs that it had, Sudowoodo was also unable to withstand against the endless and fierce assault from Gyarados and was knocked unconscious. But this just allowed him to send out his Steelix in return.

Only a few years ago, he could never have imagined that he would have the financial security necessary to safely afford a Metal Coat to evolve his Onix, given how expensive it was to do so. However, with his recent success and the growth of the Pewter Gym, buying a Metal Coat was no longer as prohibitively expensive as it once was.

The days of living in poverty, where he and his family had to scramble to save every last Pokédollar, was now long behind them. They were by no means rich, but even with a family as big as his, they could all live a comfortable life.

And this newly evolved Steelix was going to bring them the victory in this fight. Out of all of his remaining Pokémon, it was the only one that didn’t have a quadruple weakness to Water. Additionally, his Steelix boasted the most impressive Defense out of all of his Pokémon, which was especially relevant considering both his opponents were primarily physical attackers.

Therefore, given that Electivire wasn’t able to effectively target Gliscor, both it and Gyarados both chose to focus down his Steelix instead. That gave Gliscor free reign to set up the Sandstorm once more, disabling the Rain and doing chip damage to both of their opponents’ Pokémon overtime.

So while both Electivire and Gyarados began to pummel and slam into Steelix with their most powerful moves, Gliscor remained in the air and was able to take advantage of their distracted state to badly poison them both with two globules of Toxic.

That put both of their opponents on a timer, which meant his Steelix only needed to do what it did best – defend and hold its ground.

And that was exactly what it did. Their opponents unleashed a vicious and fearsome assault, delivering blow after blow into his Steelix. Critical Cross Chops and powerful Brick Breaks from Electivire smashed into it, while Gyarados powered itself up with an Outrage that only made its Aqua Tail even more potent and destructive.

Steelix did its utmost to hold on. It tried its best to reinforce itself with an Iron Defense, while using Iron Head and Iron Tail to try and parry and fight back against its attackers. But in a 2v1 like this, and with how slow his Steelix was, it was inevitable that his Steelix would be overwhelmed – especially against Pokémon as strong as their opponents were.

But that was fine. Every second that it bought meant that the Toxic and Sandstorm were able to do more and more damage.

And once he judged that Steelix had taken enough punishment, he gave the order.

“Explosion.”

Realising what was coming, Electivire and Gyarados immediately tried to backpedal away while simultaneously throwing up Protect shields, but it was already too late for them. Within a second, his Steelix was now glowing a blindingly bright white before it Exploded in a violent detonation that echoed throughout the battlefield.

Both Electivire and Gyarados were caught at the epicentre of the blast, meaning they had taken the full brunt of the damage.

Coupled with the damage that it had already taken from fighting against Hippowdon, the Explosion was almost enough to knock Electivire out of the fight. Yet it held on, valiantly struggling to its feet as it refused to be knocked out.

Only for Gliscor to rip that decision away from it as fired off a Swords Dance boosted Earthquake that finished off Electivire.

That left only Gyarados in the fight, and it too had been knocked out of its Outrage by the detonation. So while it stumbled around in confusion, Gliscor bombarded the Water type with an avalanche of rocks, eviscerating it with a critical, supereffective Stone Edge.

And once Gyarados was sufficiently injured, Gliscor finally swooped down from its safe position in the sky and crunched down with a quadruply effective Thunder Fang.

So even though it was technically a 1v1, the conditions of both Pokémon couldn’t be any more different. Gliscor was completely fresh, and was able to constantly restore its own health with Poison Heal. It didn’t take a veteran analyst to determine who would come out on top in that matchup, and indeed, Gyarados eventually succumbed to both its wounds and the ticking poison ravaging through its body.

They were the victors. And what a satisfying victory it was.

=======================

(Volkner POV)

He let out a sigh as he watched as his partner’s final Pokémon went down. Despite all the preparations they had done, it had proven insufficient at earning them the victory today.

The responsibility of this loss fell on him. As the more experienced of the pair, he should have anticipated the Rest stall tactic. They might have never utilised this tactic before, but he knew that Brock had the unusual tendency to fight like a Dark specialist. Enacting a plan like this was always a reasonable possibility.

Going into this fight, they had mistakenly thought that speed instead of power was the path to victory. They believed they could capitalise on Brock and Bertha’s slower Pokémon and outmanoeuvre them with Rotom and Starmie, but that was completely countered by their Rest stalling.

It was a mistake that snowballed into costing them the whole match.

But even though it was a plan that he and Daisy had come up together, he wanted to shoulder the burden as to prevent Daisy from being overly burdened by this loss. She had done her best, it was just that their opponents fought better.

It was such a shame too. Daisy had really gotten so much stronger over the course of this Tournament – the fact that she was comfortable deploying her Gyarados and for it to be as strong as his Electivire was clear proof of her growth as a trainer.

“…Sorry about this loss.” He apologised to his partner, “There were things that we definitely could have done differently had I been better at predicting their strategies. I was taken off-guard, and that cost us the fight.”

“No need to apologise, Volkner. The mistake falls on both of our shoulders.” Daisy replied as she gave him a small smile, though she wasn’t able to hide the disappointment in her eyes, “We couldn’t have won every battle. And I’m just glad we made it this far.”

He nodded, knowing that it was natural to feel disappointed. But he still made sure to pat her gently on the shoulder, “Even though we lost – I can wholeheartedly say that you were a great partner to have. Thank you for the effort you put in.”

Daisy smiled at that, and the two of them stepped forwards and exchanged a handshake with their opponents. They both congratulated them on their victory, before both him and Daisy started to walk out of the arena for the final time in this Tournament.

“…So are there any new plans for you now that this is all over?” He asked her, “Didn’t you say you and your sisters were planning on doing something with the Gym?”

“Yes, we’re trying to host more of our water shows in areas outside of our Gym.” She explained, “It’s one of the benefits of having multiple Gym Leaders. Either Violet or Lily could easily head up the Gym while the rest of us travelled around to do other things, just like how Misty’s going over to train up with you. Thanks again for that, by the way. And yeah, we’re trying to make the Waterflower sisters more than just a household name in Indigo – we want more of the world to know of our talents and performances.”

“Good on you.” He smiled back, “If you ever expand to Sinnoh, don’t forget to give me a call. Our time as partners might be over, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep in contact. Feel free to visit anytime.”

And so marked the end of their time in the tournament. But at the end of the day, that was all it was. Just a tournament. Sure, it was sad that they had been eliminated, but the world continued to turn, and they still had their own lives to live.

Speaking of which, he had to run to see how Jasmine was doing. He hoped she would have better luck than he did.

Then he suddenly had a realisation that immediately stopped him in his tracks.

He realised he had been knocked out before Flint.

Fuck.

His friend would never let him hear the end of it.

A.N. A split chapter containing multiple POVs, as I did say that I wanted to place the spotlight on more people than just John and Elesa. So here, I wanted to focus on Brock and the Waterflower sisters (by proxy through Volkner) in particular because they are the Kanto Gym Leaders that are still developing and also have a connection with John. With Brock especially, I wanted to show more of Karen and Sidney’s influence on his battling style, and how he diverges very radically from other Rock type specialists. He still relies heavily on his Pokémon’s innate defenses, but he also uses that to start trapping his opponents in unfavourable matchups.

I know that Volkner and the Waterflower sisters were one of the stronger contenders for winning this Tournament, but it just takes one bad match to end the chances in the Tournament. Once again, sorry for the delay, and I'll try not to let this affect future chapters. But hope you enjoyed!