The New Normal - A Pokémon SI

by CartecFF

For most, becoming a member of the Elite 4 would be the culmination of their Journey. A great achievement that solidified your status in the annals of history. For me, it was just the start of my journey. Hopefully, everything stays Normal. A pre-canon self-insert into the world of Pokémon. Inspired by Hard Enough. Crossposted SB/QQ. Updates every Mon/Fri. Short Interludes on Wed.

85. The New Normal - 5-3

John's Team

Tyrant - Slaking

Vordt - Ursaluna

Smough - Snorlax

Klee - Blissey

Port - Mantine

Zephyr - Pidgeot

Klaus - Wyrdeer

Luna - Clefable

Pixel - Porygon2

Euphie - Eevee

Ornstein - D-Zigzagoon

The New Normal – 5-3 – A New Generation Arrives

I was joined by all the other members of the Elite Four, and Lance, as we waited at the Vermillion Ports for the Sinnoh delegation to arrive, since it was the closest port available for them to travel to. It had been a few days since my spar against Will, and while I saw that he wasn't exactly pleased to see me, he at least wasn't holding it against me.

Of course, he might have been a tad more annoyed if he knew that I had spent the past few days analysing our battle and relaying what I observed to both Karen and Agatha. Although I was only working with a small sample from Will's team, it was still a good piece of knowledge to have.

But I surmised from our battle together that Will's greatest strength was likely in his proficiency at making good use of the full range of Psychic moves available to him. Especially with the more common support moves like the screens and Teleport; Will's Pokémon were excellent at those. On the other hand, he was no brawler. In fact, his Pokémon seemed quite frail for an Elite Four member.

I concluded that it was probable that Will was unused to his Pokémon taking damage. He likely was used to overwhelming his opponents with skill and speed alone and hadn't really been focused on training his Pokémon to take hits. Likewise, his Pokémon seemed to struggle against opponents who could get in really close and force them into close-range engagements where they couldn't properly make use of their Psychic moves.

From our previous battle, I could see that once Klee got in close and was unable to be deterred by Will's Special Attacks, he suddenly wasn't able to deal with her and almost fell into a state of panic. Therefore, I felt that if I, or anyone else, could replicate my ability to get in close with tanky or fast physical attackers, Will would be put on the backfoot.

Of course, I shared these thoughts with Karen and Agatha as well, with an added warning to take my words with a grain of salt and to not tunnel-vision on such a strategy. If Karen was to ever battle will, it would be far into the future and there was every possibility that Will would iron out his weaknesses by that time. Still, they both thanked me for my information.

Returning back to the present, the distant blaring of a ship's horn let us know that the Sinnoh delegation was about to arrive. Before they did, Lance quickly turned to us.

"Right, I know some of you here would rather be somewhere else at the moment." He focused his look on Walker, who had his match against Lorelei scheduled for tomorrow, "But it's important that we are in full attendance today. I know that within the Sinnoh delegation is someone from their Elite Four, so I expect your full courtesy today."

We all nodded, and Lance continued, "Good. Don't worry Walker, you're all free to leave after we get through the diplomatic courtesies. I look forward to seeing your battle tomorrow."

Walker gave a small word of thanks before returning to his stoic expression, trying but failing to conceal his nervousness. Inwardly, I wished for him to give the best performance of his career. I too was looking forward to an exciting match.

Moments later, the ship had finally docked itself in the ports of Vermillion. A bridge was quickly dropped down over the side, and many very official looking people started making their way down the steps as the reporters, who had attached themselves to us, began snapping shots of them.

Among the sea of faceless League officials, I spotted a familiar old lady descending from the ship, followed by another less-familiar looking old lady. What's with today and old ladies?

"Champion Lance, may I have the honour of introducing to you Elite Bertha, of the Sinnoh Elite Four." One League official greeted before he stepped back to allow Bertha to take his place with her own greetings. She was looking rather similar to her in-game appearance, with her hair already fully grey.

"Champion Lance, it is an honour to meet you." They shook hands together and as they quickly exchanged introductions, "Behind me today, I have the honour to present a few of Sinnoh's prominent scientists and archaeologists that have travelled here today, both to learn more about your Pokémon and culture, but also to share ours as well."

"And, as thanks for hosting us and your lovely reception, we have also brought gifts for the Indigo League." She waved a hand behind her as a League official brought forwards a decorated box that was opened carefully for the wall of cameras, revealing a small assortment of stones cushioned in red velvet, "We offer a gift of Shiny stones and Dawn stones for the Indigo League to make use of. This is just a small sample size of them, more will be provided later."

Lance received the box with both hands, inspecting the stones inside for a moment before responding with a polite smile, "You have our thanks for this magnificent gift, Elite Bertha. Please, allow me to introduce the Indigo Elite Four." He then gestured to the four of us, each of us bowing politely as he did so.

Then came the mandatory photo session. Pictures were quickly snapped of us shaking hands and smiling for the cameras. I noticed that, amidst the Sinnoh delegation, they had brought their own reporters as well.

With the photo-op done, we moved out of the Vermillion Ports and were escorted to a reserved hotel that specialized in hosting diplomats where we would separate. I followed them silently as Lance and Bertha began a quiet conversation.

As we walked, I was approached by the other familiar-looking old lady in a lab coat.

"Elite John, it's so good to finally meet you. You don't know how many questions I have for you." She greeted excitedly.

I gave her a confused look for a moment before my eyes snapped to her lab coat and hair. It took me a moment, but I realized that these were the people Lance had mentioned to me before.

"Ah, yes, it's good to meet you too…?" I replied, the name just missing from the tip of my tongue.

"The name's Carolina, Professor Carolina." She replied, and I nodded as the pieces finally fell in place. "I'm the head of the Celestic Town Historical Research Center, where we specialize in researching Sinnoh's historical ruins and other archaeological sites. I'm not sure if your Champion informed you, but we were particularly interested in your Ursaluna and Wyrdeer evolutions."

"Yes, Lance did inform me, and I'm honoured to be meeting someone as esteemed in Sinnoh's scientific community as you." I said with a little flattery, "How may I help you?"

She looked around and saw that a few people were trying to eavesdrop on our conversation, "Not here." She remarked, "I hope you don't mind if we discuss this later, ideally in someplace more private."

I nodded and ended our conversation there. The rest of the walk went quietly before we all eventually arrived at the reserved building. As we all arrived, Lance spoke up.

"My thanks once again to the Sinnoh delegation for journeying all the way here with their gifts. For anyone with no further appointments, please feel free to rest and relax." He explained as he gestured to the many rooms of the hotel, "Otherwise, this hotel is specialized for hosting diplomats and comes with many conference rooms and other workspaces. It has been reserved entirely for your use, so feel free to make use of them."

With the announcement out of the way and the formalities properly adhered to, everyone began splitting up. I noticed Bertha accompanying Lance with a small delegation where they headed off somewhere, probably to discuss the possibility of the opening of Sinnoh's borders to Indigo. Most others, including the other 3 members of the Indigo Elite Four, chose to head home or to their new rooms.

I looked around to see if I could spot Professor Carolina before I was flagged down by one of her assistants and escorted to one of the private conference rooms. Inside, I found Professor Carolina and a few other lab coats were waiting for me.

"I think this is a better place to host our discussions, don't you think?" Carolina said to me as I entered before she gestured to the other members around the table. "These are my fellow scientists and assistants from the Celestic Town Research Center."

We quickly went through a round of introductions before Carolina got to the heart of the matter.

"Now, as I said, we here are all very curious and excited to learn more about your Ursaluna and Wyrdeer evolutions. You might not know this, but we have long-held evidence that your evolutions had once existed in Sinnoh but had gone simply extinct overtime. Thus, when I heard that a young man in Indigo had made such discoveries which proved our theories correct, we just had to meet you and see them for ourselves."

"Oh? Well consider me flattered." I said, trying to stay humble, "Well, I'd be very honoured to help you learn more about these long-forgotten discoveries. What would you need me to do?"

Carolina looked around at the other scientists before speaking, "We don't have any equipment at the moment do any large tests, but we do want to make our initial observations first. Not here though, there's not enough space. Today, we're just here to discuss the future of our relations with you. Am I correct in saying you want to work with us more in the future?"

I nodded, "Yes, I'm very interested in learning more about new Pokémon. One of the main reasons I was so excited for Sinnoh to open their borders was for the opportunity to learn about the unique Pokémon that you have in your region."

Carolina gave me a rueful grin, "Well, many of us in Sinnoh also want to open our borders to you for similar reasons, although those crusty traditionalists on the committee are being stubborn as usual." She grimaced, "Anyways, I'm glad that you're so interested in helping us. Of course, we won't be asking for your assistance without giving anything back, so what kind of compensation would you be seeking for your time?"

I frowned and contemplated about it for a bit. What DID I want for my time that these people could offer me?

I suppose my biggest interest would be to be able to explore and catch new Normal types in Sinnoh. Like I mentioned before, I was very interested in catching myself a Lopunny. Also, I was also very interested in seeing if I could 'discover' any more Hisuian evolutions. In particular, I would love to have a Hisuian Zoroark if I could find one; that would be an amazing addition to my team.

I inwardly nodded as I made my decision, "Well, I hope this isn't too big of an ask, but I would love to be able to explore more of Sinnoh when you finally open your borders. I would love to be an honorary explorer and be given supervised access to any ruins that you might have discovered."

Carolina's eyes widened slightly with surprise at my request, "That's…an unusual request. Truthfully, I thought you would have asked for something more monetary. Or perhaps a rare Pokémon from our labs."

I shrugged, "Money's not really an issue for me anymore." The family business was raking huge amounts recently, which my parents and I were very pleased about. "And I much prefer to catch my own Pokémon if I could. I find that it helps establish a closer bond between Pokémon and trainer."

"I see." She replied, before she looked around at the other scientists as she they shared a silent discussion, "Well, I don't think there'll be any problems on that front accommodating that request. Though, I am curious, what makes you so interested in exploring our ruins?"

"This is just a theory of mine, but I believe that, when Pokémon are left to their natural environment free from human interference, then we are more likely to see the true potential of the Pokémon." I explained.

"Could you elaborate on that?" A random scientist asked.

"Okay, let's look at my newest discovery of the D-Zigzagoon. I assume you've all read through my article on it." They all nodded, "Right, I hypothesized in that article that these 'alternate forms' are just undiscovered potential forms of the Pokémon. Thus, in the case of a D-Zigzagoon, if we had just placed a Zigzagoon in an environment where it would be exposed to Dark type energy over a long period of time, it might have naturally laid eggs that would have transformed into D-Zigzagoon."

"Using that logic, I figured that these ruins, which are often in areas of unusual or hostile environments, lend the most potential to creating alternate forms of Pokémon as they have to adapt to their environments." I continued, "This is why I want to be given an opportunity to prove my theory by investigating more ruins in Sinnoh."

This was a hypothesis formed from what I knew of canon. Obviously, I knew that regional and alternate forms existed, and they were likely created from their unusual environments. From that, I extrapolated that Hisuian forms were likely created from similar conditions. Thus, I figured that the best place to be hunting for Hisuian forms would be in those ruins.

I couldn't guarantee that my theory was correct, but anyways I felt that given the opportunity to explore the ruins would be a great trade for my time.

"…that's an interesting hypothesis, and something well worth testing out." Carolina admitted, "Truthfully, we've held on our theories that a few Pokémon that are currently labelled as extinct aren't actually extinct but are hiding in some undiscovered ruin in Sinnoh. We're hoping that some intrepid explorer could shine a light on our theories one day."

"Anyways, thank you for indulging this old lady's curiosity." She said, adopting a small smile, "Returning to the point, I would be very happy to grant you permission to explore the ruins under our supervision. Of course, you'd have to wait for those old fogeys in the Sinnoh committee to open up our borders first."

"It's not a worry. Thanks as well for granting my request." I replied, "Okay, so how are we going to work together? I assume that you've got a place in mind for setting up all your big research equipment?"

Carolina nodded, "Yes, I think our assistants and some handymen are hauling most of our equipment off the ship now towards our new lab. Your Champion has helped us obtain permission from Vermillion City for establishing a small temporary research facility here. We'll be staying in Vermillion for the time being, and maybe if our research proves fruitful, we might look into setting up a branch office here in the future."

"Oh, that's very interesting." I remarked, "So, I guess then I'll be meeting up with you at your new building when you've finished moving everything in?"

"Yes, that's the plan, at least." She replied, "From what we've been told, it's a repurposed office building, so it shouldn't take too long to set everything up. Please, let us exchange contact details so that we may communicate and decide when we should meet up."

With that, we exchanged contact details and a promise to continue our discussions at a future date.

"Oh, John, before you head out, do you have any theories on why you were able to discover Ursaluna and Wyrdeer?" She asked curiously, "I mean, there are plenty of regular Ursaring and Stantlers' in Indigo, and yet none have recorded to have evolved. So, how did you figure it out?"

"Luck." Was what I said immediately, obviously hiding my meta-knowledge, "There aren't that many Normal specialists out there, as many see Normal types as just one of your more basic types to let newbie trainers learn about training their Pokémon. But, since I was one of the few that actually took Normal types to the Elite level, I was able to train with my Ursaring and Stantler to practice high level moves that most others wouldn't bother to try."

"Then, it just a matter of luck to get the evolutions. With Ursaring, I wanted him to learn and master Earthquake and Rock type moves for general type coverage. That mastery of geokinesis ultimately triggered his evolution into an Ursaluna. Later, with my Stantler, he naturally knew a lot of Psychic types moves from his movepool. So, I ended up triggering his evolution into a Wyrdeer as I naturally began to train his Psychic moves."

Left unsaid was the fact that I deliberately trained my Pokémon specifically to trigger the evolution, but the Sinnoh scientists seemed to buy my explanation.

"That's a very lucky coincidence then, though I'm sure you were just being humble." Carolina remarked, "Hmm…that could mean that there are other evolutions that we've missed that could be evolved like this. Well, thank you anyways for that explanation. As usual, it's always better to actually speak to a person than to read through an article. I hope for our cooperation together to be fruitful and productive."

With that, I shook hands with each and every one of the scientists, before I said my goodbyes and exited the room. I started to make my way out of the hotel, and as I turned a corner, I suddenly stumbled as I bumped into one.

"Oh, pardon me." I said, apologizing. Then I paused as I recognised who I had just bumped into. It was Bertha.

"No worries." Bertha said, looking me over with scrutiny until her eyes widened with realization, "OH! You're the young Elite Four member. Champion Lance spoke very highly of you. It's a pleasure to meet you, Elite John. I'm Bertha."

I shook her hand, "Please, just call me John. And it's a pleasure to meet you as well. How have you been finding Indigo so far?"

"Well, it was a lot more pleasant than I thought it would be." She admitted, causing me to raise an eyebrow curiously, prompting her to explain, "You see, I had the displeasure of meeting your previous Champion when he spoke with our Sinnoh League about opening our borders. I didn't have the best impression of him and was worried that this trip to Indigos would be a terrible thing."

"Luckily, speaking to your new Champion has alleviated most of my concerns, and hopefully most of the concerns of the Sinnoh committee." She continued, "Champion Lance has been more than accommodating with our concerns, and I predict good things to come out of our two regions."

"Well, I'm very happy to hear that." I replied with a small smile, "Champion Pryce…wasn't the best for Indigo during his later years, and I've been hopefully optimistic about Lance's leadership. I was one of his greatest supporters, you see, and I'm glad he lives up to my expectations."

"Oh? Someone so young is so influential?" She chuckled as I hid a blush, "Ah, I think the other members of the Sinnoh Elite Four would have loved to meet you. Unfortunately, they're stuck back there in Sinnoh and sent me instead. Still, it would be great to show you around Sinnoh one day."

"I'm sure I would love it." I said truthfully, "I'll be looking forward to that."

The two of us parted ways after that, and I returned home with a slight spring in my step as I reflected on the discussions that I had today.

From what I've inferred, it seems like Sinnoh was getting close to opening their borders to Indigo, which I hoped meant that I would have the opportunity to explore Sinnoh soon. There were so many things I hoped to achieve there, and I really hoped that I was allowed to do so.

As I flew back home on Port, I made sure to text Giovanni about Bertha's comments about Lance and her confidence in him. I figured that I should reassure him that the new Johto Champion wasn't about to sink Kanto like Pryce was. He was already having a conniption over his fears regarding Lorelei; there was no need to add to the stress.

Idly, I also realized that with the closest Port between Sinnoh and Indigo being at Vermillion City, this did open up more avenues of investment opportunity for Kanto. I made a note of it and promised to discuss this detail with my parents. Who knows, maybe this would be another opportunity to expand the family Moomoo milk business?

Either way, tomorrow was proving to be exciting. Lorelei's challenge against Walker was tomorrow, and I really wondered if she was going to win.

If she did, how would she stir up the politics of Indigo?

A.N. And John's making more connections with the Sinnoh delegation. Hope you enjoyed his conversations, and the setup that's being done for later!

To clarify a few thing regarding John's descriptions of Ursaluna's evolution, you STILL need Peat. But because Peat is realistically something very common (its just mud), and full moons are common enough, I added the geokinesis requirement because it made more sense that way considering Ursaluna becomes a Ground/Normal type. Otherwise, you'd just have plenty of ursaluna everywhere when it's supposed to have been 'lost to time'.

Thanks to Allute for BETAing this chapter! 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!