The New Normal – 4-16 – Interlude – Lorelei
To say that announcing her challenge to Walker for his position in the Elite Four was poorly received would be an understatement.
She knew that her reputation was poor, but she didn't realize just how tarnished it was until she popped open the Pokénet one night after her announcement and saw the tide of criticism and anger pouring out towards her. Fortunately, not everyone was condoning such behaviour. Most notably, the Elite Four, including Walker, had been telling people to lay off with the vitriol.
Still, the public were enraged at the fact that she was making use of a loophole to issue her challenge towards the Elite Four, since she never actually won the Indigo Conference and was appointed to the Gym Leader position through nepotism.
Even with Walker's less-than-stellar reputation, the public at least felt that he was more deserving of the title than some greedy schemer like Lorelei. Plus, at least he was the brother of the respectable Violet City Gym, whereas Lorelei was the niece of the corrupt Pryce.
At first, she wanted to rage and scream that this wasn't her fault, that her damned uncle had pushed her into this position unwillingly. But she knew that her cries would fall on deaf ears.
The public had decided to crucify her, and no amount of pleading or apologizing would change that.
But, with that realization, came clarity and determination. She hardened her heart. Grit her teeth. And blocked out all of the unnecessary noise from the public. She forcefully reminded herself that she had one goal, and no amount of bleating from the public was going to dissuade her from achieving it.
Thus, she continued to dive headfirst into training. Distracting herself from the harsh words of the public and letting out all of her frustrations by pushing her Pokémon to be even better.
Fortunately for her, her Pokémon were more than understanding of her situation, and her determination seemed to inspire them to push themselves harder. Plus, her Gym Trainers, whether out of a desire to isolate her further from the Gym or to simply get her off their hands, were more than willing to take over some of her more neglected duties as she devoted more and more time to training.
Regardless of their intentions, she was appreciative of the extra free time they provided her.
Throughout her entire career as a trainer, she didn't think she had pushed herself or her Pokémon as hard as she did within the past few weeks. And the growth was noticeable. Moves and commands were smoothened out, and strategies were planned and understood. TMs were purchased and trained to supplement any areas that she thought needed to be covered in preparation for the fight.
Her Pokémon had all grown far beyond what she had expected was possible, and she was endlessly appreciate of their efforts.
Her once haughty façade had been disposed of alongside her pride. She would make use of any tactic, even ones outside the usual scope of an Ice type specialist, to secure her victory.
She would leave nothing to chance.
Training aside, she also studied, studied, and studied. She repeatedly looked through Walker's matches again and again, determined to learn every single weakness that she may have missed. She looked through the other Elite Four's battles, to see if she could learn anything from them that she could apply to her own battles. And she looked through her own previous battles during the Indigo Conference, trying to see if she could spot any weak points in her own battling style that she could correct.
The recent battle between her uncle and Lance only served as a reminder of what NOT to do. She groaned as she saw her once genius uncle resort to using brute tactics with his Pokémon, completely forgetting what it meant to be an Ice specialist. There was no proper use of the weather, no moves that really took advantage of the Ice, and no attempts to use attacks to lower the stats of Lance's Pokémon. And when he did pull things together, it was already too late.
It was no wonder that he lost when he had handicapped himself like this! She vowed she would not make the same mistake.
Furthermore, what her studies revealed was that she was correct in her decision to make her Froslass her trump card, and a huge part of her strategy revolved around her success. It was, admittedly, a lot of pressure to be putting on a newly evolved Pokémon like this, but she needed the surprise factor to go a long way.
At least training her Froslass had gone better than expected. Probably sensing the urgency and desperation of her trainer, Froslass pushed herself harder than any of Lorelei's other Pokémon and achieved rapid improvements.
She still wasn't at the level of Lorelei's other Pokémon training-wise, but that was offset by her high base speed and unique move pool. Lorelei could only hope that it would be enough.
She knew that her preparations were entirely focused on winning against Walker, and that she had made no political preparations for what she would do if she won. But she couldn't find herself to care about that right now.
Right now, all she was concerned about was winning the battle. And looking at the determined expressions of all her Pokémon, she knew they were thinking the same.
Victory would be theirs. She would make sure of it.
A.N. Another Interlude to delve into the mind of Lorelei and how her preparations are going. As you can see, she's getting blasted for her challenge, but she's ignoring it and working and training very hard. She won't let this opportunity slip away from her.
And for anyone wondering, this will be the final Lorelei Interlude until her battle.
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Huge thanks! And to anyone who wants to support me, please check out my p atreon at CartecTNN where you can read 8 advanced chapters! Thanks to those who have supported me already!