John's Team
Tyrant - Slaking
Vordt - Ursaluna
Smough - Snorlax
Klee - Blissey
Port - Mantine
Zephyr - Pidgeot
Klaus - Wyrdeer
Luna - Clefable
Pixel - Porygon
Euphie - Eevee
The New Normal – 4-3 – Training and Preparations
"A show match? Between the two of us?" I repeated curiously to Giovanni.
"Yes, what do you think? I believe that it would be a great way to generate some more goodwill from the public, both towards us and towards Kanto." Giovanni said.
"Well, yeah, sure, I'm on board." I replied. "But why are YOU doing this for Olivine? I thought you were against helping the Johtonians."
"Ah, I can understand your confusion, and normally I would agree with you. But you're thinking too narrowly." Giovanni admonished, "My first reason for helping is that there were people from Kanto injured at Olivine as well, and I'm not about to let their sacrifice be unawarded. I will make sure that they will receive the compensation they deserve and then some." Okay, that made sense, and I nodded despite Giovanni being unable to see it.
"Secondly, the ports of Olivine are very important for facilitating trade between Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn. The unfortunate reality is that Olivine City is, and will remain as, the main port between Hoenn and Indigo, and between Kanto and Johto. If I could change it so that Vermillion City was the main port, then I would have." Giovanni admitted with some bitterness.
"But the geography of the world dictates that Olivine City is the best place for trade, and thus, we need to both rebuild it to its former glory and also re-establish the public's trust that the ports will be safe from future attacks. If the public either refuses or is unable to make use of the ports, then the trade industry of Kanto will suffer as well. This is why I planned to use this event to both donate money towards rebuilding the ports and also make it clear to the public that such an attack will not happen again." Giovanni explained slightly begrudgingly. I guess he really disliked the fact that he NEEDED to support Johto.
"Oh…I never thought of it that way. That's very smart." I admitted with some genuine praise in my voice. "You've clearly thought through this more than I did. But yes, I like the idea and I'm certainly willing to do it. Do you have everything planned yet? When and where is it going to take place?" I questioned.
"Of course, it will take place in Viridian City. It will be in a week's time so that we can get the advertisements out to the public, and the match should just be a 3v3 match with 1 switch. Just like your typical 8-badge Gym challenge match." Giovanni instantly replied in a tone that made me look foolish for asking. "That way, I, I mean we, can have complete control over the event and we don't need to ask permission for hosting the event from the League. Not that they'll be in any position to refuse a charity event like this at the moment. I'm sure they would even welcome having this kind of distraction in the headlines!" Giovanni said amusedly.
I quickly realized that Giovanni also wanted the event to take place in Viridian so that he could further boost the economy of his own city, but I didn't need to point that out to him. I understood that Giovanni was always looking out for his own interests, even when he was being 'charitable'. Besides, it wasn't like his points weren't valid, so I just agreed with everything and told him that I'd be there.
"Oh, and John." Giovanni spoke up again. "Petrel did have this idea when I brought up this whole event to him. He said that to remind you that you shouldn't take this event too seriously. It isn't like with your match against Drake where your prestige is on the line. Your prestige has already been solidified, and this match is for fun. So, Petrel suggested to try to play to the crowd a little during the fight, showboat a little. It might be a good boost to your popularity if you seem personable."
"Oh, uh…yeah sure. I understand." I said after a moment of hesitation. "I'll try to think of something."
"Good. Well, if there's nothing else…" A part of me wanted to speak up about my new agreement with Agatha, but I reminded myself that I needed to be independent from Giovanni and keep a few things to myself, so I kept silent. Besides, I didn't think letting him know would change anything anyways.
Seeing that I had nothing else to add, he finished. "I'm going to leave and get this event properly organized. I'll let you know if anything happens." I thanked Giovanni and he hung up on me.
I stared down at my phone with a weird expression on my face. I didn't think that Giovanni had any malicious intent with telling me to play it up for the crowd during our battle, and his reasoning did make sense. I recognized that it would look bad if the show match ended too quickly because we went all out. This was supposed to be a feel-good event anyways.
Oh well, I guess I'd just have to think about how I could ham it up. I guess I had a couple of ideas. As I thought about it, an image of Tyrant trying to flex his muscles with a goofy grin to the audience appeared in my head, and it was so out of character for his normal battlelust that I ended up laughing out loud.
This might be more fun than I expected.
Apparently, both my mom and I had surprises for each other. She started off with telling me that she would be looking to hire a few farmhands to help manage the Miltank's at home and asked to make sure that I was okay with it.
I replied that I was fine with it, and truthfully expected it to happen much sooner. Though I reminded her that I would like it if they didn't take photos of me or my Pokémon around the house, and to make both this and a mandatory background check to be a stipulation into their employment contract. She easily agreed and would extend such protections to the entire family.
She also let me know that they were looking to set up a branch near Goldenrod, though that would be handled by a hired manager, possibly by my uncle Milton. I just nodded and wished them luck on that one.
Then it was my turn to tell her that I was going to invite Karen over the next day to our house. I explained that I had been wanting to train with her. Though I was also doing this to honour my promise with Agatha and see how much she had improved ever since she had cleared out all of the Hoenn Gyms; I knew from her text messages that she had struggled with a few of them, but still managed to clear everything from the first try.
Of course, I forgot about the unsurprising consequences that comes about telling your parents that you're inviting a girl over to your place. Thus, the next day I found myself standing outside our house with my mom waiting for Karen to arrive.
"Karen said she'd be here any moment, right John? Oh, I can't wait to properly meet her!" My mother asked with a mischievous smile. And I prayed to Arceus that she wouldn't embarrass me too badly with Karen. I let out a sigh that my mom chuckled at before I responded.
"Yes, she said she'll be here in a few minutes." I answered exasperatedly. "You know we don't have to be standing in the doorway like this, we could just wait inside and let her in once she knocks on the door."
"Nonsense! This is the first time I'm meeting her properly. Of course, I have to make a good impression! Now stop slouching or you'll crease your shirt." My mom then began to fuss over me as she tidied up my clothes, even though I knew they were inevitably going to get dirtied as we started to train. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes.
Luckily, Karen's Honchkrow appeared on the horizon, signalling the beginning of my end for this display of public torture.
"She's coming." I told my mom as I pointed towards Karen's Honchkrow.
My mom immediately stopped fussing me and stood ramrod straight, which I struggled to not laugh at. I didn't understand why she was so nervous, but I supposed that it was just a mom thing.
Karen landed moments later and got off her Honchkrow before she withdrew it into a Premier Ball. She turned to the two of us and gave a wide smile as she saw my mom standing there with me, approaching the two of us with a hand extended towards my mom.
"Mrs. Smith, it's a pleasure to meet you, and thank you for allowing the two of us train to train today." They shook hands, and I noticed that my mom was very carefully observing Karen.
"It's very nice to meet you too, Karen, and please call me Angela. I remember you from John's swearing-in ceremony. You looked great in that dress of yours!" My mom complimented, and the two of them began trading compliments. I just had to stand there silently and patiently wait for this to be over.
"…Ok, I think John's going to get annoyed at us if we keep talking so I'll leave you two to it. If you want, I can bring out some lunch for you, Karen, if you haven't eaten already." Karen said that it wasn't necessary, and my mom tried to insist before eventually made her way back into the house while Karen and I went to the training yard.
As soon as the two of us were finally left alone, Karen spoke up amusedly. "I didn't think I'd be ambushed like that by your mom."
"Me neither, I didn't think she'd make such a big deal of you coming here." I responded ruefully, "Sorry if that made you uncomfortable."
"No, of course not, it was nice to meet her too. And I should've expected it anyways." She shook her head. "Oh, and thanks for having me over. I know you and Agatha had that agreement to train me, but I know that you would have trained with me anyways, so thanks for that." She said genuinely, without a trace of her usual teasing. Instead, her gaze was one of focus and determination, which I couldn't help but find all the more attractive.
"No worries, I'm happy to help." I replied easily, and the two of us continued walking to an empty spot in the field where Whitney and I usually trained. She wasn't here at the moment since I think she was out shopping or something.
As we walked to the field, I explained to Karen about my earlier conversation with Giovanni and about the show match that we would be having in a week's time at Viridian City.
"And how are you planning on 'showing off'?" She asked with a chuckle, "Using your Tyrant to beat up Giovanni's Pokémon does not count as showing off, you know. That's just a beatdown."
"I'll think of something." I shrugged. "I doubt I'll be using my stronger Pokémon against Giovanni though; it would be very unfair."
"I hope you do come up with something…" She put her arms behind her head, "I'll be looking forward to seeing you hold back. Still, I hope you have fun. And raise a lot of money for charity. Those people at Olivine deserve it." I nodded seriously to her remarks.
We continued our banter until we arrived at the training fields, where I then cut off all the banter and turned serious.
"Ok, in order for me to properly help you, I need to know how much stronger your Pokémon have become ever since I left Hoenn. Maybe we can arrange a few spars with my Pokémon as demonstrations." I suggested.
Karen agreed, and we both released our Pokémon into the field. We split our Pokémon into their usual pairings, and we had them trade attacks one by one so that we could see where they were at.
As I watched our Pokémon start duelling or practicing against each other, Karen started going over her own observations and notes about her own Pokémon. She informed me that her Pokémon had all grown stronger across the board, and I observed them to verify her words.
From what I could see, the more notable standouts were her Pupitar and her Sneasel, though her Houndoom and Corphish deserved an honourable mention as well. Houndoom was just continuing to prove herself as Karen's Ace as she quite rapidly overwhelmed Klaus, and Corphish and was definitely becoming a strong Pokémon in its own right as well, just like Pixel was in my team.
On the other hand, Pupitar's improved strength was definitely recognisable, and I could see that it was almost ready to evolve into a Tyranitar. I watched as Vordt and Pupitar fired off rocks at each other, and Pupitar was putting up a decent fight against my much stronger Vordt, though Vordt was still holding back. Regardless, Pupitar was much better with his Ground and Rock type attacks than he previously was, which I heard proved helpful in Karen's battle at the Lavaridge Gym. That was good to see; Karen definitely needed some more type diversity in her Pokémon's attacks.
In the meanwhile, as I watched her Sneasel land a flurry of rapid slashes against Smough, all while continuously dodging under Smough's much slower swipes, I thought that he had reached, or nearly reached, the pinnacle of what he could achieve as a Sneasel. He was only held back by his relative lack of power, but that could be resolved if he evolved into a Weavile. Thus, I turned to talk to Karen about my theories.
"Hey, Karen, are you planning on evolving your Sneasel into a Weavile?" I asked her, and she turned to stare at me curiously.
"Of course, why do you ask?" She shot back. "In fact, it was something that I planned to do as soon as I got back to Indigo."
"Well, did you ever figure out how Sneasel evolves into a Weavile?" I queried, and she tilted her head in thought.
"Hmmm…I've heard that the common theory is that a Sneasel evolves into a Weavile by defeating other Sneasel in the wild, until eventually they've defeated enough to trigger their evolution. That was why I planned to make a trip to Mt. Silver so that I could get my Sneasel to battle some wild ones and hopefully trigger his evolution." Karen described to me, but then frowned. "But I heard that this is a rather unreliable theory as it never seemed to be successfully replicated under test conditions."
I nodded my head in agreement, "Yes, I've heard of this theory too. However, I have my own theory that I had previously thought up when I was doing research into Pokémon evolutions while trying to figure how to evolve my Ursaring into a Ursaluna. You see, I thought that the current prevailing theory was missing something. Why would a Sneasel just evolve into a Weavile after defeating enough of its brethren? If it was just a matter of needing sufficient strength, then it would evolve after it got strong enough just like every other Pokémon." I explained carefully so that Karen could follow my train of thought. I waited for her to nod in understanding before I continued.
"So, I thought that it was more likely that defeating other Sneasel specifically was causing the evolution. However, as you know, the scientists were never able to replicate this under test conditions. Thus, I figured that there was likely something that differentiated defeating a Wild Sneasel with defeating a captured Sneasel. This had led me to believe that there was likely some kind of trophy or item that a Sneasel collects from defeating other wild Sneasel, and THAT triggers its evolution into a Weavile." I finished, using backwards-logic from my meta-knowledge to try to theorize how a Sneasel evolves via a Razor Claw.
Karen blinked at me blankly for a couple of moments before she replied, "Huh, that does make a lot of sense. I never really thought about it that way…but I can see why you'd think so." She crossed her arms and tapped a finger on her elbow, "I see no harm in testing out your theory when I head out to Mt. Silver in the future, and I could probably bring a camera or something to document everything. This is another research paper in the making!"
I nodded at that, and we started to discuss how we would split the research. Karen was definitely more excited than I was; I never really expected to turn this into yet another scientific paper, but Karen was right that there was no harm in doing so. After all, more popularity and recognition were never a bad thing and would just add to my credentials.
After that, we returned to focusing on our Pokémon's training. After our Pokémon completed their spars, which were just warm-ups, we decided to move to a round of Gravity training. Karen unfortunately lacked a Pokémon that could use Gravity on her team, like my Klee and Luna, so she had slacked on that aspect of her training when she was alone in Hoenn.
However, it seemed like her Pokémon were determined to make up for that lost time as they pushed and exerted themselves to their limit as we began the Gravity training. Seeing Karen's Pokémon training so hard encouraged my own to match their determination, which I found greatly inspiring.
Karen was almost concerned with how hard her Pokémon were pushing themselves, but since I was more familiar with Gravity training, and with Klee at hand to prevent any serious injuries, I comforted her and insisted that things were fine.
We then spent a few hours just training with our Pokémon. During that time, I pointed out that Karen needed to rely less on her tricks to win fights, and she agreed with me. She told me her plans of getting bulkier Dark types that are able to withstand attacks and actually be able to brawl against her opponents, gesturing to Pupitar as an example.
I accepted that explanation but warned her that just having one brawler wasn't enough. She nodded and said that she was planning to catch more in the future. Suddenly, I had a thought and gestured to her Spiritomb.
"Hey, what about your Spiritomb? Couldn't you use it as a brawler as well?" I asked her, and she raised an eyebrow at me as if to tell me to clarify what I had just said.
"You're already having Spiritomb practice its regeneration moves like your Umbreon, and I can guarantee that your Spiritomb will hit a lot harder than your Umbreon, so why not train it to be able to take hits as well?" I suggested, causing her to frown thoughtfully at my words while observing her Spiritomb carefully.
"…I never really thought of Spiritomb that way. Now that I think of it, I have been slightly neglecting its training ever since I received it from Agatha because it came pre-trained and seemed strong enough. I didn't even realize that it could be used like that." She admitted to me. "That's something I've definitely overlooked. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention, or else I would have completely missed and underutilized my Spiritomb for Arceus knows how long."
I nodded easily enough before I spoke up again, "Have you looked through the Sinnoh Pokédex yet and check out their list of Pokémon?" I questioned, and she shook her head.
"I gave it a quick look, mainly for the Dark types, but I didn't really look into them with much detail. Why?" She replied.
"Well, you should check out that new Pokémon called a Skorupi and its evolution into a Drapion; you brought it up before. It's a Dark/Poison type, which is crucially not weak to Fighting, and it's also got some very good bulk for a Dark type. I think it would be a great addition to your team if you ever acquired one from Sinnoh." I explained to her.
Karen's eyes widened with interest, and she agreed with my explanation, promising to check it out in the future. She then moved to check out her Spiritomb and actually get to know it better. I was pleased to have caught onto the fact that Spiritomb was being somewhat neglected by Karen, as it is a great Pokémon in its own right with a fantastic typing and good potential. It would have been a huge waste if it never was able to reach its full potential as a Pokémon.
Besides that, the most interesting thing that happened was that Pixel was finally winning spars against her Corphish, which never really happened before. I suppose that it was because of the fact that Electric attacks, which Pixel was getting very proficient at, was supereffective against Corphish, giving Pixel the advantage. And hopefully, as Pixel began to master the newest Psychic TM that I gave to it, it should be able to continue achieving victories against Corphish.
More amusingly, Euphie and her new Carvanha were also sparring against each other, and Euphie was trouncing Carvanha with her Tackles. That was probably because we were fighting on land, where Carvanha was really unsuited for. Perhaps I should arrange some sparring matches for the Carvanha against my Port in the water for the future? Port wasn't really a fighter, nor did he want to be, so they should be rather evenly matched in the future when Carvanha got stronger.
As we neared the end of our training session, I did contemplate whether to talk to her about training her Pokémon with new custom moves. It was a rather common sight within the higher levels of battling, and I figured that it would a great boost to Karen's overall strength. Custom moves would allow her Pokémon to have more versatility in their moves as well as hit harder, both areas that Karen needed to work on.
However, this took time, and I wasn't sure if it was something that Karen should worry about at the moment.
Ultimately, I decided to wait to tell her about this. I felt like we had made good progress with today's session, and I thought that she had enough on her plate to focus on at the moment. Prioritising getting her Sneasel to evolve into a Weavile and properly training up her Spiritomb was definitely a better use of her time at the moment.
With that in mind, I returned to Karen and wrapped up our training session, and just in time for my mom to invite Karen for dinner. Karen said that it really wasn't necessary, but this time my mom's insistence won out and Karen conceded and hesitantly joined us for dinner.
It was a relatively peaceful dinner, since my dad and Whitney were away at the moment, but of course we were still subjected to my mom's 'interrogation'.
"You know, Karen, John never told us what you got up to in Hoenn." She began in a teasing tone, and I could feel the headache slowly starting to rise. "All I know is that you both spent a lot of time together."
Karen was seemingly unaffected by my mom's teasing, "That's true. We were together for a lot of that time, and I could say that I very much enjoyed our time together. Didn't you, John?"
Fuck, they had allied together! "…Of course. I felt that our training together was very fruitful."
"Oh, don't be so shy, John. You can just say how you feel!" My mom said with a smirk, then she turned to Karen, "Speaking of which, Karen, you're welcome any time in our house. I'm sure my husband and my daughter would love to spend more time with you. Not as much as John though…"
She chuckled, but gave my mom a nice smile, "I'll take you up on that, Mrs. Smith, and thank you very much for your offer."
The rest of the dinner progressed on similar lines, though they only kept it to a light level of teasing. I joined in sometimes, but overall, it was a very happy atmosphere. I was glad to see that my mom approved of Karen; it would have made things more difficult to train together if Karen rubbed my mom the wrong way.
Things almost went awry for a moment when my mom asked about Karen's family, and she responded that she didn't have one. I had never directly asked Karen about her family, but I figured that she was probably an orphan based on the fact that she had never mentioned them.
My mom looked horrified at that, but Karen explained that Agatha was taking care of her and that the worst has passed. I could see that that triggered my mom's motherly instincts, but she let it go for the moment, though she insisted for Karen to at least finish the food. Karen grumbled good-naturedly but obediently followed through. I had to hold back a chuckle at Karen's expression.
Overall, it was a peaceful meal, and I was happy to see that my mom was approving of Karen and vice versa.
Before dinner was over, I brought up to my mom that I was going to having a charity match against Giovanni in a few days' time.
"Oh, well I wish you all the best, dear." My mom remarked, though her expression turned weird after a moment. "Do you think you're going to win?"
"I wouldn't be worried about that." Karen spoke up, "He's won against Elite Drake from Hoenn. I'm sure your son wouldn't have any issues with a Gym Leader."
"I know, I know." My mom said, "Well, anyways, I'm glad that you're thinking of doing something for those poor souls at Olivine. I guess you're really living up to your title as the Hero of Olivine, huh."
My mom and Karen broke out into huge grins, and I groaned as I was subjected to their torture.
A.N. A slower chapter more focused on training and some setup for future chapters, and to mainly catch up with Karen and her training progress. And I hope my justification of what a Razor Claw makes sense, the wiki description on its own gives very little to work with.
Also, big thanks to those who gave suggestions for how to incentivise donations for charity matches. While I might not be able to apply them to this match, I have already made a note of them for future battles!
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! 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!