The New Normal - 15-4

The New Normal – 15-4 – Clash of Elites

I wasn’t entirely sure what my Pokémon were saying to him, but I could feel the love and affection that they had for me radiating through our bond. That was enough for me.

After speaking with Tyrant, N seemed to stare blankly at me – like his mind was filled with thoughts – before quickly bidding goodbye and wandering off to who knows where. He was clearly conflicted with what he had heard, and I supposed that was as much as I could ask for.

During my conversation with him, I had come to the realisation that N was Ghetsis’ biggest weakness, as he was what gave his takeover of Unova a sense of so-called ‘legitimacy’. N served as the ‘benevolent’ face of Team Plasma, thanks to his ability to speak and understand Pokémon. So if Ghetsis wanted to rule as a tyrant over Unova, he needed N by his side as a way of maintaining that control.

However, just like N did in the games, his loyalty to Ghetsis was not unconditional – it could be broken. And without N, Ghetsis was no different from any other demagogue. Therefore, if we could cause N to defect from Ghetsis’ side, though I knew that wasn’t going to be an easy feat, it would be an enormous setback to Ghetsis’ plans.

That wasn’t to say that Ghetsis wasn’t a threat without N, but he was a lot more neutered if they were separated.

That’s why I hoped that N took something from our conversation just now. I hoped that he would be able to come to the realisation that Ghetsis had been lying to him for his entire life, and that he deserved better than to follow a scumbag like him. N had incredible potential, both as a trainer and as a leader, and there was no reason for that potential to be stifled by Ghetsis’ mad ambitions.

However, for now, the matter was completely out of my hands – it was up to N to make that realisation himself.

Nevertheless, my conversation with N aside, I spent my time in Unova speaking with as many important movers and shakers as possible in hopes of making a good first impression with them. While this was all happening, Karen had caught a Roggenrola to bring back to Indigo for Brock. I had told her that it would make for a great Sandstorm opener since it had the ability Sand Stream.

Unfortunately, I did not get so lucky with an Audino. The rare Normal type still continued to elude me. Though, in fairness, I wasn’t particularly going my way to look out for one. Maybe I would dedicate a day to actually hunting one down before I returned to Indigo.

In order to cover more ground, Karen and I split up and met with different Gym Leaders, divided based on who we felt we would find it easier to get along with. Since I did my meet-and-greet event at Nimbasa, I met again with Elesa and then proceeded to meet up with both Burgh and Lenora, as they were an artist and archaeologist respectively they had links to my artistic (through the Waterflower sisters and their contests) and archaeological connections.

In all honesty, I found myself enjoying the talks with Lenora the most, mostly because we actually shared a common interest. Burgh and Elesa just had interests that were a little too different from mine; that wasn’t to say that we didn’t exchange friendly greetings, but for the time being it was hard to go beyond that. Though at least the both of them expressed their interest in seeing a few contests for themselves, which wasn’t currently a thing here, as they wanted to see if there were elements they could integrate into their own art.

However, with Lenora, it was a completely different story. Not only were we both Normal specialists, which was rare enough, we also shared a similar interest in archaeology. That was where I found myself now, talking with Lenora about our differing experiences when it came to ruins and archaeology. She obviously was more of an expert of the subject, but her eyes shined with fascination as I described the expedition journeys that I’ve been on.

“Oh how I wished that the Nacrene Museum could be able to display something as grand as a Legendary artifact.” She gushed enviously, “Sadly, the Museum’s greatest displays all revolve around fossils. It’s why we can’t wait for when we get our hands on your fossil revival machines! I’d love to see the type of Pokémon we could uncover from that.”

“Do you have some of the fossils here?” I asked.

“We do have a large variety, and in particular we’ve accumulated quite the stock of Cover and Plume fossils here.” She replied, “Why do you ask?”

“Well… I’m friendly with the heir to Devon Corp, which was the company that invented the Fossil revival machine in the first place.” I explained, “I could reach out to them on your behalf and see if we can get those fossils revived as a priority. So even though Unova might not be ready to open their borders quite yet, I think we can make an exception for something as scientifically interesting as this.”

Lenora’s eyes shined with excitement, “Did you even need to ask?! Yes! I’d go for it immediately.” But then her excitement calmed down, “Though what do you want for this? Nothing comes for free.”

“And if I just said I wanted to help out a fellow Normal specialist would you believe me?” She let out a chuckle at my words, so I gave her a real answer, “Truthfully, I just want there to be more opportunities to show off the benefits that Unova could have if they’re just willing to join hands with us. Having your fossils revived might not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but every little bit helps with winning over public opinion.”

She gave me a strange look, “You’re really invested into making sure that our regions would be friends, aren’t you?”

I shrugged, “Of course I am. My public stance for promoting internationalism wasn’t just because I wanted to look good in front of the public. I genuinely believe that it’s the way forward for our world, and I don’t want to see us as enemies.”

She nodded, “Neither do I. I saw your fight against our Champion, and you made him look like a newbie trainer compared to your own starter. If that’s the level of strength we should expect from your home regions, then I would much prefer being your friend too.”

Then her eyes widened as if she realised something, “Actually, if seeking friends is what you want. Then I think I have just the thing for you. Are you interested in one of our Normal types?”

“I am. I’ve already caught myself a Minccino while I was here.” I replied, “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I was thinking that we actually have a few Gym Pokémon that are starting to grow too strong and would be given away anyways.” She explained, “So would you like one? It’s really nothing much. We’ve had a few spare Herdier that I’ve been trying to give away, as they’ve grown a little too strong for our Gym.”

I was about to say no, since I really wasn’t interested in a Herdier when I already had so many powerful bruisers that could fulfil a similar role. But then I remembered that Whitney would probably appreciate a new Pokémon from Unova since she wouldn’t be able to catch one until much later. I know she didn’t really want me to just gift her more Pokémon, but I can always ask for forgiveness later.

“I’m not really interested in one, but I would like to get one for my sister if that’s okay with you.” I said truthfully.

“Of course, that’s no problem at all.” She replied, “Is your sister a Normal specialist like you?”

“Yes indeed.” I nodded, “And she’s already made great strides of her own. She made it into the Indigo Conference in the first year of her journey, having beaten all of our Gym Leaders on the first try! And she’s now working as a Gym Trainer, even though she’s a few years younger than me.”

I couldn’t help but gush about my sister. Fortunately, Lenora took that well as she just smiled at me, “It seems like you’re really proud of her.”

“I am.” I smiled, “I’m sure she will one day be as successful as I managed to become.”

“In that case, I think such a strong trainer deserves an equally strong Pokémon, don’t you think?” She said, “And I have just the one. We have a Herdier with the Scrappy ability. I’m sure she’ll be able to make great use of it and turn it into a powerhouse of its own – if you think your sister would like that.”

“I’m sure she will.” I replied with a small bow, “Thank you.”

“It’s not a problem.” She said, “Like I said, we’ve been intending to give these away anyways. And I’m sure my Herdier will be in safe hands under your sister’s care. I look forward to seeing how powerful it becomes in the future.”

Our conversation then moved on to more casual topics, including speaking about our respective Normal type teams. We even had a quick battle, where she fielded her Watchog, Braviary, and Cincinno against my own Winston and Euphie. I didn’t need to send out a third – Winston’s Rollout tactics caught Lenora completely off-guard and he took down both Watchog and Braviary, while Euphie’s Fairy type attacks (that Lenora had never seen before) easily took down Cinccino.

Still, it was nice to see just how swift and agile a fully evolved Cinccino could be. It gave me a good idea of what to visualize when it came time to train up my own.

Despite our pleasant conversation, we both had other duties to attend to, as the delegations from Hoenn was due to arrive today in the late hours of the evening. Sinnoh’s delegation would be arriving last, though that didn’t really matter for us for as we should have returned to Indigo by that point.

Yet, before I headed off from the museum, there was one other item of importance that I wanted to try to locate – and that was either the Light or Dark Stone that was supposed to just be displayed as an ‘ordinary old stone’. I didn’t know yet what I would do if it was actually there, but I just wanted to confirm its existence.

However, I didn’t need to worry about what I would do with it, because the ‘ordinary old stone’ wasn’t there. Despite my searching around, it wasn’t on display anywhere. That likely meant that I was too early and the Stone hadn’t been dug up yet.

There was nothing I could do about that.

With that sidetrack out of the way, I returned to Castelia City, meeting up with Karen as the two of us found the Unova Elite Four already gathered there – awaiting the arrival of the Hoenn delegation. They gave us a polite nod, but otherwise kept to themselves.

As the ship carrying the Hoenn delegates arrived, Sidney stepped off first, followed by Drake. The latter was especially surprising, considering that Drake was not known to be a very diplomatic man, if anything he was the opposite of one – but I suppose he was sent over for his prodigious strength instead.

The two Hoenn Elite Four exchanged greetings with their counterparts, but after that, Drake made a beeline towards me.

“John! Glad to see you’re doing well!” He slapped me hard over the back, “It’s been some time since I’ve seen you!”

“Likewise.” I nodded, “Everything going well back in Hoenn?”

“Well, pretty much all eyes are on Steven Stone right now.” He replied, “Everyone knows that he’s going to make a play for being Champion, so we’re all getting ready for when that happens. It’s why I hope to get this trip to Unova out of the way as soon as possible – I don’t want to miss out on that.”

“You two seem to get along quite well with each other.” Grimsley politely interrupted as he approached us, “Are you two friends?”

“HAH! ‘Friends’ is too simple a word to use.” Drake barked out, “We’re battle buddies now. John and I have fought together through some pretty fucked up shit. We’ve battled together from the very beginning against those stupid fucking terrorists that used to plague our region, until the very end where we fought off a Legendary together. So I trust the man with my life, and I’m sure he feels the same.” I nodded in agreement. I very much did.

“Interesting. Are such bonds very common between foreign Elite Four members?” Grimsley asked.

“They can be. I mean, Sidney and Karen are good friends too.” I pointed to where Karen and Sidney were catching up with each other, “It’s really not uncommon for Elite Four members from differing regions to be friends with each other.”

“Don’t forget that John is literally dating the Champion of Sinnoh.” Drake reminded, “I think that makes it pretty fucking clear that we’re more than happy to work with each other.”

Grimsley blinked, “Hm. So you say.” He didn’t quite seem to believe us, but I could tell that he didn’t feel like trying to argue back at the moment. “Though this actually does segue well into a proposal that Marshal had.”

“That’s right.” Marshal suddenly approached us, “I know the incident that took place between you and Alder, but I think the public of Unova, and us included, would like to see the fabled strength of the Elite Four ourselves. A battle would be a good demonstration.”

“Fuck yes. I’m not going to turn that down.” Drake grinned, getting a supportive nod from Sidney as well, “So how are we doing this? Are we fighting now?”

Marshal looked like he was about to shake his head, but Grimsley cut in first, “Yes. Now would be best. Please, follow me, I’ve already made the arrangements.”

Grimsley then turned away as he gestured for us to follow after him, deliberately ignoring the look that Marshal was shooting his way. I hid a frown; was this a sign of some internal disagreement between the two? Did Marshal actually want to give us time to prepare, only for Grimsley to intervene and deny that to us?

Truthfully, I didn’t think a lack of preparation time would matter too much for us, but it was the principle of the matter. I wonder why Grimsley seemed so eager to obtain even the slightest advantage against us?

Was he hoping to win? To send a message that they weren’t weaker than us? Or was he trying to prove Unova’s superiority over us?

If it was the former, then I didn’t mind. But if it was the latter, then I was displeased at such notions.

As we headed over to the Castelia Gym, which had already been prepared to host this battle, I spent some time asking Drake and Sidney about what were Hoenn’s impressions of Unova, both their own and the public’s.

Just like we did, Sidney explained that he noted Alder’s inattentive and frequent wanderlust. Furthermore, he observed Alder’s inability to just follow the provided schedule, insisting on staying at certain places so that he could ‘see the sights’ or whatnot, even if it meant being late to his next big meeting.

It wasn’t a huge problem, and Alder more than made up for this with his natural charm and general aura of friendliness, but it was still something to note. I could only hope that his irresponsibleness wouldn’t affect any discussions between our regions.

Nevertheless, it didn’t take long for us to arrive at the Castelia Gym, with Burgh greeting us all politely before taking a step back and allowing the Unova Elite Four to run the show.

“For this battle, I thought it would be best if you all show how well you are able to fight with each other.” Grimsley said, “You’ve frequently claimed that the bonds of friendship and camaraderie between your regions are strong, and we would like to see it for ourselves.”

“Therefore, my proposal is this – since there are four delegates from Indigo and Hoenn combined, how would you guys feel about splitting up into groups of two, with each group comprising of members from different regions?” He proposed, “I believe fighting together like this would be a good way of showcasing to us the bonds of friendship that you’ve all claimed you possess.”

We all shared a look before Karen spoke up for us, “We don’t mind. So it’ll be a 2v2?”

“Let’s keep it simple to just that.” Marshal nodded, “There’s no need to scare the public into thinking that we’re having a real battle. This is just an opportunity to show off your strengths, after all.”

“Then I choose to pair with Karen. Sidney, you’re with John.” Drake said, surprising me a little bit. I had thought he would pair up with me, but then I quickly understood his rationale. Karen and Sidney were both Dark specialists, and their fighting styles wouldn’t really compliment each other since they both relied on trickery. However, paired up with either myself or Drake, then they would have the power to capitalise on their disruption.

“Since there’s only three of us, Grimsley shall partner up with the both of us.” Shauntal said, “So it shall be John and Sidney vs myself and Grimsley, and Karen and Drake vs Marshal and Grimsley. Are we all happy with this?”

We all nodded to signify that we understood, before I gestured for Karen and Drake to go up first.

The two of them took their positions opposite of Marshal and Grimsley. I saw Karen and Drake exchange a few quiet whispers before the match begun, and then they both nodded as a plan came into place.

“Salamence! Show off your power!”    “Weavile, disrupt them!”

“Bisharp, cut through them!”       “Smash them, Conkeldurr!”

All four Pokémon emerged at the same time, but Weavile was the first to make a move as he swiftly dashed in with incredible speed, rapidly closing the distance with Bisharp as he threw out a barrage of Ice Shards towards Conkeldurr. The Fighting type blocked the attack with its concrete pillars, but that distracted it for long enough for Salamence’s Dragon Pulse to blast it in the face.

As Conkeldurr attempted to block the attack, Weavile had just slid under a Metal Claw from Bisharp, before performing a quadruply supereffective Low Sweep that sent Bisharp tumbling to the ground.

However, instead of following through with the attack, Weavile instead chose to back off and – in an act of mutual cooperation – dove straight towards the Conkeldurr to distract it with another Low Sweep that momentarily knocked Conkeldurr off balance.

Drake did not waste this opportunity.

“OUTRAGE NOW, SALAMENCE! AND EARTHQUAKE!”

“SALAMENCEEEEE!!!” Drake’s starter let out an unholy roar as its draconic aura flared to life, causing the arena to be filled with a suffocating, primal energy. Then, before Conkeldurr could regain its balance, a truly devastating Earthquake ripped right through the field, sending a destructive wave of tectonic energies that tore through Conkeldurr’s health.

Then Salamence charged forwards with a Dragon Rush and slammed into Conkeldurr with his full, overpowering might and locked the two of them into a brawl. Salamence savaged the Fighting type  with an unrelenting series of brutal Dragon Claws, Zen Headbutts, and Double Edges.

Conkeldurr was holding on, but it seemed to me that Salamence had the upper hand.

Meanwhile, Bisharp was forced into the air to dodge out of the way of such a powerful Earthquake. But Weavile quickly caught up with it with his better speed and precisely ducked under the way of a Brick Break before punishing it with one of his own that struck before Bisharp could block. The quadruply supereffective move sent Bisharp painfully crashing to the ground.

“Stick to Ice Shards and Icy Winds, Weavile! Keep your distance and bring it down slowly!”

Yet instead of trying to go for the decisive knockout blow, Weavile continued to make use of his far superior speed to continually dash in-and-out of the fight against Bisharp, carefully maintaining his distance from Bisharp’s gleamingly sharp blades while harassing it with a series of Ice Shards and Icy Winds to slow it down even further.

As I watched this take place, I wondered what kind of strategy that Grimsley had planned to use when he chose to send out his Bisharp. As his starter, it undoubtedly must have something that allowed it to stand apart from its peers, but he didn’t seem to be able to show that off in this fight.

Unless it had something to do with Bisharp’s bladed arms? I noticed that they looked really sharp when compared to normal. Did he manage buff up with a Swords Dance somehow?

Either way, having all the attack in the world didn’t matter when you were slowly being frozen over by repeated Ice attacks from a Weavile you couldn’t catch up with. Furthermore, unlike its opponent, Bisharp didn’t seem to possess many attacks that could hit at range outside of a Flash Cannon and Stone Edge – both of which were easily dodged by Weavile. Especially since Bisharp only continued to grow slower and slower.

To its credit, Bisharp valiantly tried to fight back as it occasionally darted forwards with a Sucker Punch, or even tried to catch out Karen’s Weavile with a sudden pulse of a Thunder Wave, but Weavile was hyper aware of such tricks and didn’t allow himself to be caught out by them.

With incredible discipline and self-control, Weavile slowly but methodically continued to attack Bisharp until it was completely frozen over. Once it was, a precise and deadly Focus Punch was able to finish off the Bisharp in a single coup de grâce.

Bisharp instantly crumbled to the ground. There was no getting up from that blow.

Thus, Grimsley was out of the fight just like that. Meaning only Marshal remained.

However, seeing this, Karen raised an arm to stop Weavile from going after Conkeldurr, who was still engaged in a wrestling match against Salamence.

She clearly didn’t want to interfere with Drake’s battle. She seemed confident he could hold out on his own, and probably didn’t want the help anyawys.

Yet, Marshal’s fight was going a lot better than Grimsley’s. Despite being forced to brawl against an Outrage-boosted Salamence – something that very few Pokémon wanted to do – his Conkeldurr was holding up surprisingly well.

Unfortunately, Conkeldurr performing ‘surprisingly well’ didn’t mean that it was able to overpower Salamence. The Fighting type certainly gave as good as it got, slamming back with repeated Ice Punches and Stone Edges that actually battered Drake’s Salamence and causing visible injuries to form on its draconic body. However, consumed by rage as it was, Salamence was able to recklessly ignore the pain as it continued its brutal savagery against Conkeldurr.

In the end, the raw draconic might of Salamence proved too overwhelming for the Conkeldurr. Despite its best efforts, it failed to endure through the ferocity and sheer power of Salamence’s attacks, and after taking one too many Dragon Claws to the chest, Conkeldurr too was knocked out.

As Karen and Drake became the victors, there was a polite smattering of applause from the audience, but nothing more. Obviously, the people here were all Unovan, so seeing their Elite Four lose like that was… uncomfortable.

When I noticed this, I was tempted to send out a weaker battle in my battle with Sidney so that a more compelling fight could be had between us. Yet just as I considered it, I realised that it wouldn’t work.

Unfortunately, or ironically, my reputation would have sabotaged that plan. Even though they had only recently met me, the Elite Four of Unova certainly knew just how strong I could be since I convincingly dominated a battle against Alder’s starter. Therefore, it would be exceedingly obvious if I was to hold back in our next battle, and there was nothing worse than openly sandbagging against an opponent – as it was basically implying that you didn’t respect their strength.

No, I wouldn’t do that. That would be too disrespectful. So if Grimsley had given us the opportunity to demonstrate our strength, then I was going to make use of this opportunity to firmly engrave into the minds of the Unovans just how I managed to crush Alder in my fight.

I turned to Sidney, my voice dropping low to a whisper, “Let me take the lead in the next fight. Tyrant’s coming out.”

He nodded slowly, “…Are you sure about this? Perhaps you’d like to go for a more… ’balanced’ victory.”

“No. They would see right through it.” I replied, “Choosing a different Pokémon now would just be disrespectful.”

“…Fine, I don’t disagree.” He said, before a small grin began to split his face, “My gut tells me they didn’t invite us to a battle for such ‘pure’ intentions anyways. I think they wanted to fuck with us – or at least Grimsley certainly seems to want to – so we might as well show them why that’s a bad idea.”

Indeed – I couldn’t have worded it better myself.

It’s nothing personal, but Tyrant’s coming out to play.

A.N. If there’s one thing that people in the Pokémon world understand, it’s strength. Therefore, one of the best ways to convince someone to work with you is to just show off just how strong you are. Strength matters a lot.

And here I also wanted to give more characterisation for a few of the Unova characters. Not everything about their relationship with the three regions is going to be all sunshine and rainbows, and there’s going to be some doubt about their claims, especially when they ‘seem’ exaggerated.

Unfortunately for Grimsley, he’s about to find out that some claims are true. There’s a pummelling coming for him. Hope you enjoyed!