John's Team

Tyrant - Slaking

Vordt - Ursaluna

Smough - Snorlax

Klee - Blissey

Port - Mantine

Zephyr - Pidgeot

Klaus - Wyrdeer

Luna - Clefable

Pixel - Porygon2

Euphie - Sylveon

Ornstein - D-Linoone

Wraith - H-Zoroark

The New Normal – 9-5 – Training for a Crowd

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. My sister – being the little pink ball of sunshine that she was – was able to quickly put Silver at ease.

Oh he was still very shy about suddenly being surrounded by older girls, but he soon relaxed as he realized that they really meant him no harm.

I think my sister really enjoyed being able to play around with someone that was younger than her.

And her friends were no less welcoming. Sabrina had taken up the role of showing off a few basic Psychic tricks while Janine was trying to one-up her by showing off some impressive dexterity as she showed off how her fingers could bend way more than they reasonably should have.

All-in-all, they were a perfect distraction for a nervous Silver and allow him to settle in to what should hopefully be his new friends.

Karen had even joined in – releasing her Umbreon to entertain and make sure Silver was comfortable. Karen was much better with young children than I ever was.

"They seem to be getting on well." I pointed out to Giovanni as he stepped closer.

He let out a relieved breath, "That was exactly what I was hoping for. To my shame, Silver has lived quite the lonely life thus far. He never really got an opportunity to make friends because he was always on the move with Ariana. I don't blame her for it, of course, but it has made Silver more isolated than lonely than I would like."

"I'm trying to correct that now." He continued to explain, "And I hoped that at least introducing your sister to him would allow him to get more comfortable around others. If he makes friends with your sister – all the better."

"My sister does seem quite taken with him." I chuckled as I watched them play and chat.

"Thank Arceus for that. Your sister is too nice for this world. I don't think I've ever seen someone so cheery." Giovanni praised, letting out a small smile, "How did she even turn out this way?"

"Luck, I suppose." I shrugged, though I couldn't help but smile.

He shook his head amusedly, "In any case, I hope you don't mind if I try to get Silver to spend more time around your sister and her friends. I'd always thought that she'd be a great role model for him, and I'd love for him to try to emulate her."

"I have no issues with that." I said, "Besides, I'm not about to tell Whitney who she can and can't spend time with. She and her friends are mature enough to know that already. And if they think Silver is someone they want to spend time around, I'd more than welcome it as well."

Knowing my sister, it was almost guaranteed that she would befriend Silver at this point. But like I said, I didn't see that as a bad thing. On the contrary, I thought that maybe Silver wouldn't turn out to be such an edgy, strength-obsessed brat if he got along with the cinnamon roll that was my sister.

Either way, I didn't believe Giovanni dragged me in here ONLY to introduce Silver to Whitney, "So…any news?" I asked him. He knew what I was referring to.

"Not here." He said, gesturing with his head to his office. I gave him a small acknowledging nod and followed after him.

Karen gave me a questioning look, but I just shook her head. She nodded back; understanding what we were talking about was not for her ears.

We secured the office door behind us before Giovanni began, "I received a report from Archer regarding the criminal activities in Sinnoh. It seems like your hypothesis was correct – whoever's funding these terrorists are big money, with everything pointing towards them being one of the bigger businesses in Sinnoh. We haven't narrowed it down to which one yet, but we now know where to look. The amount of money being moved around allowed us to cross out the small and medium sized businesses."

My eyes went wide, "Wow, that was fast."

"Archer tells me that their backer had gotten a little sloppy." He explained, "They've been moving around too much money too quickly for them to properly hide it, and it left them slightly exposed to Archer's investigations. But at the same time, Archer has also told me he's forced to move slowly – he can't be sure that the lead is a real one or a trap meant to expose any possible investigators."

"…So are we going to find evidence on who it is soon?" I pressed. I wanted to expose Team Galactic as quickly as possible. And the MOMENT I had just the slightest bit of evidence I could use against them, then I would pounce on them HARD.

"From my experience, these kinds of things don't move that quickly." He shook his head, "If the lead turns out to be a false one, then it's back to the drawing board. The issue is that we're unfamiliar with Sinnoh, and Archer is forced to set up the infrastructure all by himself. That really slows down our ability to make moves or investigate matters."

"And another thing slowing us down is the fact that our target is clearly highly entrenched in the criminal underworld. They've been around for a VERY long time – or at least have a surprising amount of influence. That fact only forces Archer to act more carefully; we don't want to accidentally expose our operations and spook the target to go into hiding." Giovanni added.

"Any chance Archer would get exposed?" I asked concernedly. Archer was currently our only real way of exposing Team Galactic for the time being, so losing him and his team as an asset would hurt.

"He's more careful than that. He'll be fine." Giovanni replied confidently. "Don't worry, we're confident that we're on the right track. It's just that it might take some time to uncover what we want to find."

I frowned, but accepted that there was nothing really I could do about it. If or when Cynthia became Champion, then I would potentially have another avenue to shut down Team Galactic. But to my great annoyance, Team Galactic was still too trusted and beloved in the public eye so that any unsupported accusation from me would not be believed.

But I hoped to at least put Giovanni, and therefore Archer, on the right track for his investigation, "Has Archer looked into Galactic company?" I asked, taking a risk.

"They're someone we're already looking at." Giovanni confirmed, "Why, you suspect them?"

This was going to test the goodwill and trust that I had built up with Giovanni up until this point. I knew that my answer would be circumstantial at best – and nonsensical at worst, but it was important for me to nudge him onto the right target.

So I maintained my confidence as I answered, "I visited their headquarters before. I didn't think anything was suspicious then. But then I met Cyrus in person, just when I was shopping. And the entire time that I spoke to him my gut was screaming at me – telling me that there was something wrong with the person in front of me."

"I understand that it was only a gut feeling, but my gut has not led me wrong yet." I said seriously, "Even with that strange meeting with Cyrus, I didn't think much of it initially, but that feeling has now been screaming at me ever since you confirmed to me that their backers are likely one of the bigger businesses of Sinnoh. Galactic Company has both the resources and the manpower to be a secret backer of these terrorists. AND they have been around in Sinnoh for a long time, enough for them to be entrenched into the criminal world should they choose to be."

"I know this is conjecture, but if I were you I'd be looking closer into Galactic Company." I pressed, "Even if you dismiss my gut feeling, they are still one of the few large companies in Sinnoh that are a perfect fit for the descriptions you just provided. We should look into them."

Giovanni frowned thoughtfully, but it was a good sign that he didn't immediately dismiss my words. After what felt like an eon of thinking, Giovanni responded with a casual shrug, "This was your plan to begin with, and I haven't been there in Sinnoh to verify your words. Still, there's no harm with us looking into Galactic Company first if that's where you believe is where we should look first. They ARE the largest."

"I'll get in touch with Archer and tell him to follow up on this." Giovanni said as I held back the urge to let out a relieved sigh, "Maybe it'll help him to narrow down his search."

"Thank you, Giovanni. Please give Archer all my well wishes and my thanks for his efforts and hard work." I nodded to him, "I do hope you'll find something."

"I have my full trust in Archer to find something, I wouldn't have sent him there otherwise." Giovanni explained confidently, "And now that we're narrowing down where to look, rest assured that Archer will dig up something. Like I said, it'll just take time, but he won't fail."

I nodded, having done all I could for now. I had pointed Giovanni and Archer in the right direction, and I hoped that they could find something to prove my words right and dig up some incriminating evidence that we could use.

I was pleased that we were taking further small steps towards exposing Team Galactic.

With that serious talk done, we returned to the other room, where Silver continued to get along well with the girls. This time, Ariana had joined in, and was currently chatting with Karen.

That actually brought something up I had always wanted to ask Giovanni, "…Say, if it isn't too personal, what is your relationship with Ariana? Are you husband and wife, or…?"

He chuckled, "I was wondering when you'd ask. But we're not officially married, just partners. Before, we had wanted a ceremony, but that obviously got put off with…everything that happened. And now we both decided that it's a bit too late to host one, and we're more than content with what we have now."

"Why are you asking? Did something happen with you?" He smirked at me, "Come to think of it, you seem happier than when I last met you. I first thought it was because you were just happy to be back, but perhaps I was mistaken."

I scowled, and Giovanni chuckled, "Well I won't press you if you don't want to talk about it. Though if I could give you a word of advice…" His face turned serious, "It might be hypocritical for me to say this, considering my past actions, but I suggest you think REALLY carefully before you put aside your relationships in favour of something else."

He leaned forwards slightly, "I can promise you that in almost every scenario, your relationships, whether that be platonic, familial, or romantic, should come first."

"That sounds like a lesson that came from experience." I joked, but I knew he was being fully serious.

"It was." He nodded back firmly, "I made that mistake when I was younger, and I'm still regretting that to this day. So I'm doing my best to make up for it." He gestured towards where Ariana and Silver were. Though judging by the slight smile that suddenly adorned Ariana's face, I don't think Giovanni was being as quiet as he thought he was being.

I thanked him for his words and promised to keep them in mind. He just patted me encouragingly on the shoulder.

Regardless, we didn't spend that much longer hanging around at Giovanni's office. He had his Gym duties to attend to, and it was starting to get pretty late. I left with Karen and the trio, inviting them all back home for dinner. Karen accepted, but the trio turned us down in favour for more training. Apparently they had a sudden burst of inspiration they'd like to start working on, so I left them to it.

So Karen and I flew back towards my home. On the flight back, I tried asking Karen what she was discussing with Ariana, but that seemed to only make her embarrassment return and she adamantly refused to answer me.

I wondered once again was that was about – but I didn't think an answer would be forthcoming.

I had invited Karen over for dinner, and the two of us enjoyed a nice dinner with my parents. My mom was especially pleased that we had 'repaired' our friendship, but she was considerate enough not to push Karen or I for answers at the moment.

Karen retired for the night shortly after dinner, but I stayed up to speak to Cynthia as was my usual routine. We didn't speak for very long as we both had to wake up early tomorrow.

Cynthia had her battle against Aaron, and I was duty-bound to watch it live.

Next morning, the world realised that she ended up stomping Aaron in a 6-3 victory, which was pretty much what I thought was going to happen.

The public was ecstatic over her dominant victory. After her match against Aaron the public perception of her had went from 'oh, let's see how far she goes', to 'she might win it all'. Though there was still a healthy dose of scepticism since this was just her first win.

I was confident that if she could repeat her performance against Bertha, then the public would REALLY consider her to be an actual contender to be Champion.

But, likely as a result of her victory, I received a text this morning from Professor Carolina asking me to come over. She explained that she had wanted to discuss the publicising of our discovery of Kleavor and Zoroark respectively.

So I headed over to her lab and promptly greeted her at her office. After a quick exchange of pleasantries, Carolina got right into the heart of the matter.

"Did you watch Cynthia's match against Aaron yesterday?" She asked.

"Yes, it was a remarkable performance." I replied, "I think many were very surprised by her victory."

"My granddaughter was always an overachiever. I guess I should have expected nothing less." She chuckled proudly.

"Regardless, both she and I thought that this would be a good time to boost her popularity even more." She said, "We figured that we could start showing off our newest discoveries now, while Cynthia's name is still really hot in the news."

That was about what I expected, "Sure, I'm okay with it. Does that mean I get to start training with my Zoroark in public now?" I had been eager to continue training with Wraith without all the restrictions. It had been difficult to keep him concealed from prying eyes.

"I'll do you one better. I want you to deliberately start training with him in the open, where reporters can see." She told me, "I'll be publishing our discovery into the scientific journals right after this meeting. That way, we can quickly generate interest and hype around what the two of you have found. Cynthia will do the same with her Kleavor."

Oh, she didn't mention this to me yesterday. Though likely because we only talked for a few minutes, "She planning on keeping it on her team?" I asked curiously.

"Of course she is. A powerful Rock/Bug type like that? Especially when she lacked those exact types? There's no way she would have passed on the opportunity." Carolina exclaimed. "Though I hear it still has a long way to go with its training and discipline, so don't expect to see it in any of her upcoming matches. It's far from ready for those."

I shrugged, "Same here. But that's why I'm looking forward to getting more training done with him. Do you have a place where I should train? Or can I pick my own?"

"We won't dictate that to you, just that you make it obvious enough to catch the public eye." She said to me, "But you're free to train your new Zoroark as you see fit. From the moment you walk out of this door, consider your obligations to the Celestic Town Research Center to be fulfilled. That new Pokémon is now yours." I nodded appreciatively at her words.

"Of course, we won't turn you down if you allow us to do a few more tests, or lay a few eggs." She smiled wryly, "More data is always appreciated, even if we manage to catch another one."

I didn't have a problem with that, so I followed her into a nearby room where a few more tests were performed on Wraith. The scientists seemed especially excited at studying his illusory abilities, and tried to discover what differentiated it from Kecleon's camouflaging.

With that done, we exchanged goodbyes and I immediately got to work with training with Wraith. I decided that training just outside of the lab, at Vermillion City, would demonstrate an obvious enough connection with my latest acquisition.

So I wandered over to the Vermillion Pokémon Center completely undisguised, and I already was drawing attention just by doing so. When the following crowd overheard that I wished to reserve a training ground to make use of, that only piqued their interest even further.

I didn't let my spectators wait for too long, and I could hear their gasps and shock as I released Wraith and a few of my other Pokémon onto the field.

"Wraith, no illusions." I whispered to him, making sure my voice wasn't overheard, "We don't need to advertise that particular strength just yet." The fact that the Zoroark species was able to use illusions would be included in the public report that Carolina was publishing, but I wanted to keep the extent of his illusory powers a secret until I could put it to use.

Every advantage counted, after all.

Immediately after sending Wraith out, the cameras began to flash as all of the spectators took out their phones and tried snapping images of Wraith. To Wraith's credit, even if he was unused to this amount of attention, he didn't lash out against them. Or he would have, but he understood that Smough was currently looming over him, and he dared not act out under Smough's watchful gaze.

But I put the spectators out of my mind and began a normal training session. This one was mostly focused on both Ornstein and Wraith. I wanted Ornstein to develop his Dark type powers even further and maximize the impact of his Dark type attacks. Similarly, I wanted to train up Wraith's resistance to his only weakness.

Wraith was NEVER going to be a bulky Pokémon, but I at least wanted to train him up to make sure he wasn't a complete glass cannon.

The two of them training together actually went better than expected, since they were both speedy Pokémon with a love for hit and run attacks. Of course, Wraith was far stronger than Ornstein, but Ornstein was far more used to training against more powerful opponents and he didn't have any of the bad habits that Wraith still had, such as Wraith's frequent habit of overextending himself when he tried to land an attack.

Wraith also had a distinct lack of supporting moves, likely due to them being rather unnecessary back when he was a wild Poekmon, but this was something I intended to rectify as soon as possible. Likewise, his teamwork skills severely needed work, and that was why I arranged for Wraith and Ornstein to try to fight against Smough.

It didn't go so well – Wraith was just unable to keep up or work with Ornstein and the two of them fell completely out of sync with each other. Smough was quick to punish this lack of coordination.

Oh well, I expected this to take some time. This was the drawback of capturing an already trained Pokémon onto your team.

As we continued training, I noticed that a few of my growing crowd of spectators had tried inching closer, obviously warring with themselves to ask a question. I spotted a few reporters in the crowd too, but they seem content to hang back and just film the sparring sessions for now.

But I knew it was only a matter of time before someone would approach me for questions. So I did my best to ignore them and continue with my training for now – I had Wraith take a rest while I focused on training up Ornstein to get proficient at using Belly Drum to setup, which would temporarily allow him to match the power of my stronger Pokémon.

I didn't know how long it was, but like I suspected, I was eventually approached by an overeager reporter.

"Elite John! What is that Pokémon?!" He practically shouted out the question at me as he came close.

I did my best to give him a patient smile, "It's the recent discovery that I made with the Celestic Town Research Center called a Zoroark – I found him during one of our cave explorations together with Cynthia. You can find more information about it in the article that's just been published."

"So even though you captured it while working with the research center, they just let you keep it?" He questioned. And now that SOMEONE had approached me, that gave the others the bravery to follow suit. So I soon found myself surrounded by cameras and microphones in what became an impromptu interview.

"They're nice people. I was very happy to work with them." I simply answered, trying to do my part in promoting my girlfriend's reputation. He frowned at my unsatisfactory answer, but I wasn't going to elaborate. Too much praise would seem disingenuous.

"Then what does your new Pokémon do?!" Another reporter asked, "Is it strong?"

"You can find out more in the article." I replied, "And of course he is – any Pokémon can be strong with the right training."

"Are you saying that it is the fault of the trainer and not the Pokémon when someone fails to beat a Gym?" Someone immediately pounced on my answer, looking to start up drama.

I simply let out a sigh, why did these people have to be like this, "If you're going to twist my answers like that, then we're done here. I think you've seen enough anyways." Before anyone could stop me, I withdrew my Pokémon back into their Pokéballs and flew away on Port, ignoring their cries of protest, immediately setting off from home.

I would continue my training there, away from the crowd of reporters. I had done as Carolina asked, and I didn't intend to spend more time answering questions like that.

With all the filming they did, there was no way the reveal of Zoroark wouldn't be in the papers tomorrow.

I shook the thought of all those reporters out of my mind and began to strategize about how I would train up Wraith, now that I had free reign to train him however I liked.

Already, I could see the huge potential of Wraith, just waiting to be utilized. He was going to be an excellent addition to my team in the future, I was sure of it.

And now, with my cleared schedule, I had plenty of time to train not just Wraith, but all my Pokémon. With the reputation that I had managed to foster, I needed to make sure that my strength could live up to it. There would be no further draws allowed.

Only victory.

A.N. Wraith is now in the public eye! You'll be seeing more of Wraith now that John doesn't have to hide him anymore. You can bet that a certain Ghost type Elite Four would be extremely interested in taking a look at Wraith. Expect to see more of him in the future!

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!