The New Normal – 2-12 – Interlude – Karen
It was a day or two after Drake told John that they were going to be fighting each other. John had unsurprisingly become hyper-focused in his training for the battle. He only had the week, but he was very busy trying to figure out what was the most likely Pokémon that Drake would send out and how best to deal with them. She knew that he had scoured through many of Drake's old battles in order to do so.
Karen wasn't privy to most of his inner thoughts, and she didn't want to disturb him while he was doing some serious thinking either. She understood how important this upcoming match was to his reputation, and if he could either win or get close to a win, then she knew that he would finally be acknowledged by the public as a worthy member of the Elite Four.
They even toned down their training together since John wanted to focus on his specialized training for a bit. Which she was more than fine with.
She had read through the Pokénet and saw that many were less than optimistic about his chances against Drake, but Karen begged to differ. Sure, Drake was more experienced, but John had that instinct where he was able to recognize exactly how he should train his Pokémon to maximize their potential. Coupled that with his frequent use of Gravity training, and Karen was now confident that John had a good chance of winning outright.
…or maybe she was just biased? Who knows.
Still, she did manage to overhear John planning his strategy one day. John didn't realize she was listening to him as he was probably deep in thought trying to create a possible plan for Drake, but he did mutter something in frustration about his Blissey and 'unreliable stall tactics', and 'can't cheese'. Karen didn't know exactly what that meant and what food had to do with it, but she assumed that it was something about John's battle plans.
Karen was able to guess what Pokémon John would be bringing in though. She noticed that John was training especially hard with all three of his brawlers, and they spent much of their time in uncontrolled brawls where John didn't issue a single command and allowed his Pokémon to fight instinctively. Perhaps John realized that close-ranged fighting was likely going to occur during his match against Drake? Considering Drake's potential line-up of Pokémon, that was a very reasonable assumption to make.
His Pidgeot, Wyrdeer, and Clefable were also getting a lot of attention from John, so perhaps he'd be bringing them in as well? She thought that his Pidgeot was on the weaker side of John's team, but she saw previously how it was capable of flying laps around her slower Honchkrow, so perhaps it fulfilled a niche? He did spend some time with his Blissey but stopped after a while and returned to practicing with his Wyrdeer. Perhaps whatever he was doing wasn't working out.
Karen also spent a bit of time pondering about how she would beat Drake herself. Unfortunately, any good trainer like Drake would likely do a lot of research on her team, and they'd be quick to realize that Karen favoured the use of tricks and surprises to win. And her Confuse Ray strategy didn't really work if her opponent was ready and waiting for it, since Confuse Ray was a slow-moving attack that was easy to avoid and exploit.
Sure, she still had a few extra tricks up her sleeve, but that wasn't going to be sufficient to beat all 6 of Drake's Pokémon. Perhaps she could knock out 3 or 4 of them? If she was being optimistic about her own chances.
Karen recognized that she really needed a tanky Pokémon of her own that could take and dish out hits. Or barring that, just a Pokémon that could really brawl with another and be the victor.
She hoped that her Pupitar would be able to fulfil this role when it eventually evolved into a Tyranitar. As she idly watched John's Slaking jump up high into the air and try to grab onto his Pidgeot, she knew that she needed to get stronger and stronger, and it felt like, some days, that John was getting further away from her in strength.
If John, Drake, and Agatha were the level that she needed to reach to make it into the Elite Four, then she was worried that she would never catch up to them.
A.N A bit more foreshadowing! The fight is soon! Really hope you enjoy it!