The New Normal - 15-2

The New Normal – 15-2 – Unova Explorations

Thankfully, Iris was pretty quick to accept our request to meet, and so Karen and I quickly headed to meet up with her at her Gym at Opelucid City. We had already been given provisional flying licenses so that we could legally fly around Unova, though we needed to at least report in where we were so that it would be easier to find us in case we go missing.

Thanks to my memories of Unova’s geography, it didn’t take us long for us to locate and land in Opelucid City. We landed right next to the Gym, where Gym Leader Iris was already there waiting for us.

She was a small thing, smaller than even the two statues of Dragons that flanked the Gym’s entrance. She was very young, like she was the same age as Whitney, or maybe even a little younger than that.

But despite the bright and excited smile on her face, she stood with a level of confidence that most wouldn’t expect to see on a child that young. When her eyes met ours, while there was a hint of nervousness, most of that was overshadowed by the sense of assurance that she unconsciously exuded.

Even if you didn’t know who she was, you would be able to tell that she wasn’t just some random kid. No, she could be nothing less than a trainer. And a formidable one at that.

“It’s so nice to meet you!” Iris’ cute voice broke me out of my thoughts, “You really got here quickly! I thought you might have taken longer just to get used to where everything is in Unova.”

“I studied the map quite well before we arrived, so I knew approximately where all the major cities were.” I replied, lying slightly, “And you can’t exactly miss Opelucid City when you’re in the air.”

She puffed up her chest proudly, “That’s right you can’t! We’re very proud of our traditional aesthetics and architecture. Only Lacunosa Town could compare, but we have the nicer buildings, don’t you agree?”

Karen nodded, “It does remind me of a few cities that we have back home. We also put a lot of emphasis on traditions too.”

Iris grinned, “Really?! Oh, I’d love to see that for myself! But I have to take care of the Gym…” She said a little sullenly, “…I hope uncle Drayden at least brings back tons of pictures for me to look at.”

Then she quickly shook herself out of her funk, “Anyways, sorry about that. You said you wanted to meet me to get a tour of Unova? I do have some time to show you around, but you seem quite familiar with the map of our region already, so how can I help you?”

“Well we wouldn’t have asked to meet up with you if all we wanted was a tour.” I replied, “Instead, we were actually looking to capture a few Pokémon from Unova to bring home and train up. And while we can study the map of the region ourselves, we don’t actually know where the best locations to catch certain Pokémon are. Thus, we were hoping you could help us with that.”

“The Elite Four has already given us permission to make these captures, just in case you were wondering.” Karen quickly added to that, “And we’d be happy to pay you back for this, of course, since your time is valuable. Once the PSS system is connected to Unova, we’d be happy to send over a Dragon type or two from our own regions for your assistance today.”

Sending her a Pokémon in exchange would also give us another reason to interact with Iris, which would be even better. Like I mentioned before, I absolutely wanted to build a connection with Iris that could be maintained even when I returned to Indigo. She was too important to overlook.

Luckily, the excited look on her face already told us that she wasn’t about to decline, “Ooh! I haven’t really had the time to go through the new Pokémon in your regions yet. What kind of Dragon types do they have there?”

And so I began to give her a brief description of the many Dragon Types that could be found in our regions. Obviously, I placed particular emphasis on explaining the strengths of Dragonite, Salamence, and Garchomp as they were our respective pseudo-legendaries. Iris was very amazed by my descriptions of them.

“Say, Iris…” Karen spoke up, “I heard you were a Dragon specialist of your own. What kind of Dragon types do you have?”

“Me? Hehe…well I don’t actually have a full team yet.” She shyly admitted, “I only have the three Pokémon – a Zweilous that I’m still training up, a Druddigon, and my starter Haxorus. I’m hoping to catch more Pokémon soon, which is why the discovery of your regions was such good timing! I just felt like I was satisfied with the level of training of my current team, and I feel ready to include more Dragons!”

Karen looked shocked at the admission that she only had three Pokémon on her team and yet was made the 8th Badge Gym Leader in the Unova Circuit, the traditionally most important Gym Leader position in the region. However, I wasn’t all that surprised. Even if she only had the three Pokémon, I was very confident that those three Pokémon would probably be strong enough to make up for the empty space in her team.

Not only that, but it made sense for a Dragon specialist to not have a full team, especially considering the heavily limited number of Dragons in Unova. Dragons were extremely rare Pokémon in the first place, and they often were much harder to train up due to their innately unruly natures. So the fact that she even managed to train up three in the first place to a level where she was considered talented and strong enough to be made a Gym Leader at her age spoke volumes about how strong her Pokémon were.

And when she did eventually include those other Dragons from our regions to her team in the future… she was absolutely going to be a trainer to be reckoned with.

“—what about you guys?” She asked us, “What do you both specialise in?”

“I’m a Normal specialist.” I replied, “And Karen’s a Dark specialist.”

“Oh, just like Grimsley!” She nodded at Karen, “And I assume you both want to catch Pokémon that match your types?”

“Yep.” Karen said, “So if you know where the powerful Dark types are, please bring us there. And please prioritise me first – John doesn’t need to get any stronger.” She joked.

I didn’t have a problem with that; as not only would there be more opportunities in the future for me to catch my Normal types, but I also knew that in general my Normal types would be easier to catch. The Dark types that Karen was looking for would usually be rarer.

So with that settled, Iris decided to bring us to straight to the nearby Route 9, which was conveniently right next to Opelucid City and where many Pawniard could be found. It literally took us all of five minutes before we found our first Pawniard, but it took considerably longer to find a Pawniard that actually wanted to accompany Karen – especially since the Pawniard didn’t recognise or was familiar with any of the Pokémon that Karen had since they were from a different region and had never been seen before by them.

Furthermore, Karen’s unique looking Pokémon, and the fact that we were accompanying Gym Leader Iris, naturally caused us to attract the attention of many of the nearby trainers that had been hanging around the Route. Most of them were pretty content to take photos of us, but a particularly unruly biker decided to brazenly approach us.

“Oi. You the foreigner that everyone’s gotten worked up about?” He demanded from me, a sneer adorned on his face.

“I am.” I nodded politely, “I’m part of the Elite Four delegation that was sent over to establish interregional relations with Unova. My name’s John.”

He snorted at that, “Tch, so you some kind of hotshot back home? You’re being mighty familiar with Gym Leader Iris over there.”

Even though I could detect a slight hint of hostility aimed towards me, it was also interesting to note that there was an unmistakable tone of respect in his voice when he spoke about Iris. That was a surprise, as I would have thought that this biker was the kind of person that was naturally belligerent against most people they met.

So the fact that Iris seemed to be separate from that likely meant that Iris was more well-liked and respected than I first thought.

“She’s been kind enough to show us around when we asked.” I replied, shoving that thought aside for the moment, “We asked for help because we were unfamiliar with the region.”

“Is that so?” He didn’t seem like he cared about my answer, “Well, if you’re some kind of hotshot foreigner, surely you’d be willing to back up your words. Maybe the title of Elite Four means something different back in your region.”

“Are you challenging me to a battle?” I looked to confirm, while also giving him one last chance to back out.

“And what if I am?” He smirked at me, “You able to prove that you live up to your hoity-toity title?”

Since Karen was currently distracted with trying to catch a Pawniard, I gave a subtle look to Iris signalling that it was out of my hands now. I couldn’t turn down such a blatant taunt like that, not when the pride of Indigo was on the line as well – as people had been recording our conversation.

With a simple shrug, I gave my response, “So be it. Show off your strongest Pokémon. I’ll be sure to match it.”

The biker grinned, “You’ll regret those words. I’ll have you know I’m actually a veteran Ace Trainer! You won’t find me to be an easy opponent!”

“GO! Krookodile!”

“Smough.”

Just like its trainer, the Krookodile emerged with a taunting smirk on its face, gesturing with its hands as it dared Smough to approach.

Smough was quite happy to take it up on that offer.

I didn’t even need to give a command as Smough charged in, ignoring the Earthquake that split the ground as he simply tanked through the damage. But Krookodile was much faster than a charging Snorlax, and it easily dodged out of the way of Smough’s attempted Body Slam as it fired off a Taunt with an accompanying cocky grin, still not aware of the danger that it was in.

That grin on Krookodile’s face did not last long as large rocks suddenly erupted from below, temporarily pinning Krookodile in place. It broke out of the rocks with a quick swing of its tail, but it was then quickly met with a face-full of Smough’s belly as he Body Slammed into it.

Had Krookodile actually respected Smough’s incredible physical strength, it would have made more distance between themselves instead of getting cocky. But it hadn’t, and now it was forced to deal with the consequences of that decision as the two Pokémon were locked into grappling each other.

Yet the biker hadn’t realised how bad of a position he was in, and worse for him, seemed content to allow the two Pokémon to duke it out in a battle of strength.

“Outrage yourself, Krookodile! Crush that fatty!”

The biker shot me an arrogant smirk as a blazing blue aura erupted out from Krookodile as the Outrage took effect. Though I didn’t even bother acknowledging the look, as I instead remained focus on the two Pokémon.

A huge surge of draconic strength surged into Krookodile, and I could see its muscles bulging with power. Using its newfound power, it let out a vicious roar as it delivered a Brick Break that struck Smough right in the gut – only for Smough to not even move an inch.

Krookodile hissed and grunted in rage, but Smough simply held the Ground type down, refusing to move.

Outrage or not, Smough was still stronger.

I made sure to glance back at the biker and saw the look of realisation that slowly set in for him as he gradually began to understand just how outclassed his Krookodile was. I savoured the look of shocked despair that adorned his face as his inevitable defeat finally set in.

I was tempted to have Smough continue to hold down the Krookodile like that for a bit longer – just to really rub it in – but ultimately I decided to be the better man and gestured for Smough to end the fight.

He easily did so by tripping Krookodile up with a Low Kick and then proceeded to pound Krookodile’s face in repeatedly with a brutal pummelling of Ice Punches. It only took three to knock the Ground type out of the fight.

I smiled at my opponent, “I hope that was enough of a demonstration for you. Though I’m always happy to continue if you want to try again with another Pokémon.”

“…I think I’m good. You’ve made your point.” He said slowly, trying but failing to keep up a brave face, “Um… good battle. I’m going to head off now.” And he ran off with his tail tucked between his legs without saying another word.

“That wasn’t even your strongest Pokémon was it?” Iris said accusingly, who approached me from behind now that the fight was over, “You were toying with him from the start.”

I shrugged, “Can you blame me? I’m patient, but I have a limit to that. And he was really testing it.”

“Well I guess I can’t say he didn’t ask for it.” Iris sighed, “I suppose I should thank you for that, actually. I know full well how annoying it can get when you have members of the public annoying you for a battle when you don’t want one. It sucks!”

“It was way worse when I first became Gym Leader.” She continued, “Because at that time no one actually believed that I could do it. I still remember a few of the headlines that were created that accused me of all sorts of crimes, trying to get me thrown out of the position. The reporters were really interested in getting their interview after that. It was completely ridiculous.”

I was about to respond, but Karen’s return cut me off before I could speak, “Wow, John. I leave you for a couple minutes and you already got yourself into a fight?” She chuckled, “I really can’t leave you on your own can I?”

“Hey, I was upholding Indigo’s honour – and he brought it on himself.” I defended with an exaggerated puff of my chest, “Anyways, did you see the match? And did you catch your new Pawniard?”

“I did, to both questions.” She replied, “So that’s a Krookodile, huh? That probably wasn’t the best performance from it.”

“Usually it should be able to overpower its opponent. Even coming from a Dark type, Krookodile are known for their power.” Iris explained, “But… in this case, it didn’t really get to show that off. Are you looking to capture one as well?”

“I was torn between that or something from the Hydreigon line.” She admitted.

“The Hydreigon line? Are you sure about that?” Iris asked concernedly, “They’re notoriously difficult to get to behave and train up. This might sound arrogant, but it takes a certain level of Dragon mastery before you can get them to obey you in battle. I don’t know much about you and your team, but I need to warn you anyways.”

Karen waved her off with a smile, “It’s fine, I’m not offended. Besides, while I’m sure I could handle something from the Hydreigon line, I haven’t made my choice yet. Actually, you said you had a Zweilous of your own, right?”

“I do.” Iris nodded.

“Excellent. Then if you have the time, would you mind showing off its strength in a battle against me? I’d like to get a measure of it for myself.”

“I’ll do you one better.” Iris responded, “It’s almost about time for me to return to my Gym anyways, so why don’t you come with and I’ll slot you in for a regular 8th Badge challenge at the end of the day.  You can challenge me with your Pokémon, and I can show off my Zweilous to you.”

“Done deal.” Karen quickly agreed, “So should we head back to Opelucid City now? Wait, then John, what are you going to do?”

“You can head off without me.” I replied, “I just saw a few Minccino around the Route already. I’ll just hang around here for a bit and catch one – and I’ll meet up with you later tonight then.”

With that agreed, we proceeded to split off as they returned to Opelucid City while I hung around the Route to catch myself a Minccino.

Out of the many Normal types that Unova had, Minccino was one of the Pokémon that I really wanted to capture. The reason was simple – it was really fast and agile, and gave me a way of attacking at a distance with non-Special Attacks. It also had plenty of useful supporting moves, which were always appreciated.

It didn’t take me long for me to spot my first Minccino as they were pretty common around the Route. However, the issue was that I couldn’t just catch any Minccino – I needed one that had Skill Link as its ability.

Skill Link functioned differently in the world compared to in the games. In the games, Skill Link allowed any multi-hit attacks to always hit with the maximum possible number of hits. However, in reality, Skill Link made it so that a Pokémon with the ability would be innately proficient at attacks that threw out multiple projectiles, meaning that Pokémon with the ability got really good at attacking really quickly with repeated and ‘spammy’ attacks. It was pretty similar to how the ability was in the games, just tweaked slightly.

Nevertheless, it meant that I had to identify whether a Minccino actually had the Skill Link ability before I could catch one. Luckily, that wasn’t too hard to do. Since its other two abilities were Cute Charm and Technician, it was pretty easy to tell when a Minccino had one of those abilities once I battled against it.

After all, it wasn’t difficult to spot when a Minccino would instinctively try to infatuate a target or when its supposedly weak attacks were powered up more than usual.

So I was going around challenging the small horde of Minccino to a battle, using Euphie as she was the least intimidating member on my team, hoping to find one that would be willing to join my team. A few people who had hung around after my battle with the biker saw me doing this and asked why I was going out of my way to catch a Minccino of all things when I had such strong Pokémon already, since Minccino weren’t known for their strength.

My answer was simple, “I don’t need another Pokémon that has a lot of brute strength – as I have enough of those already. That’s why I sought out Minccino, because when it eventually evolves I’m sure that it’ll be able to help me patch up a hole in my team and make it all the more robust. With the right training, I really feel like I could unlock the full potential of a Cincinno and turn it into a real powerhouse.”

Apparently, a Minccino had been hanging around when I said that, as it cautiously approached me with eyes that looked at me that asked if I meant what I said.

To that, I just nodded, “I do mean it. I’m just looking for the right Minccino to join my team. Do you think you could be the one?”

It bobbed its little head up and down, and I gestured for Euphie to come forwards, “Then prove it. Show me your determination.”

Of course, with the huge difference in power between the two, Minccino didn’t last long before a weak Moonblast nearly knocked it out. However, in that brief battle, I had observed that it not only had Skill Link as an ability, but it also was very quick on its feet.

It made an attempt to try to dodge around Euphie’s Moonblast, and even tried to roll under one to land a Tail Slap against Euphie. For what its worth, that was a respectable attempt, and definitely not something that a young wild Pokémon were known to do. That made it a cut above the rest.

I had already made the decision before the battle was over, “Okay. I think I’ve seen enough.” I kneeled down slowly so that I was more at its eye level, “Minccino, I think you have what its take to become great. But now it’s your turn – do you want to join me?”

It looked at me hesitantly; I could tell it wanted to accept, and Euphie helpfully translated for me that it was still a little doubtful whether I could actually back up my words.

I just grinned in response, “If you need proof, then I’ll show you.”

“COME! MY TEAM!”

I threw out all my Pokéballs, causing my entire team to appear around us. There were shocked gasps and even expletives thrown around from the surrounding crowd as they were surprised by the sudden appearance of my full team – consisting of Pokémon that they hadn’t even seen before.

However, I ignored all that as I focused my attention on the small Minccino.

“Is this enough proof for you?” I asked, “Know that if you join me, you can one day be as strong as the Pokémon you see here. I promise you that. You will become great.”

There was nothing else I needed to say after that. Minccino caught itself on the spot.

And I had a new Pokémon on my team.

A.N. It’s been quite some time since either Karen or John has caught a new Pokémon, and what else could be better when they first entered into a new region. Naturally, having a Bisharp would be a great fit for Karen’s team, and I promise that Cincinno would be an excellent addition as well. There might be others coming in the future. Hope you enjoyed!