The New Normal – 8-10 – Interlude – Blaine
Blaine grumbled as he walked back to his office. It had been another boring and tedious session of battles that he was forced to perform as the Gym Leader of Cinnabar. Honestly, did these trainers think that the 7th Gym Badge was just a joke? A warm-up for their showdown against the 8th Gym Badge?
He sent any that came to him under those false assumptions back to the Pokémon Center with their Pokémon thoroughly scorched.
While he recognized that it was the dream of all aspiring trainers to be able to collect their 8th Badge, which opened many an opportunity for said trainer, they really ought to show some more respect to him and his position. It was like these kids forgot that he was part of the Elite Four!
And he only left because he didn't want to deal with Pryce's crap for any longer, not because he was too weak to hold the position.
Though he realized that he was a being a little unfair on those challengers. He enjoyed pushing trainers a little harder than he intended to, and his Pokémon often fought at a level slightly above what was expected for the 7th Gym Badge.
Even in his more advanced age, it seemed like he was still very much the hot-headed battler of his youth. He might have favoured more intellectual pursuits nowadays more than battling, but the flames of battle never failed to get his blood pumping with fiery excitement.
However…he was starting to feel battles as a Gym Leader to just not be fulfilling for him. He enjoyed battling, but not when he had to hold himself back. There was a marked difference between fights where he could truly let loose, and those that he routinely fought as part of his duties as Gym Leader.
It made the battles feel hollow. They weren't able to test him, to improve on his strength. It was only the rare occasion where he could leave a battle feeling satisfied.
He put away these thoughts for now as he entered into his office, greeting his now-frequent visitor with a nod. Shelly greeted him back casually as she continued looking through a few of her notes, probably about the Magmarizer that they had worked on together.
He had been pleasantly surprised with working with Shelly. At first, he had his doubts about her capabilities. The first impression that he had of her was that she was a mere administrator of scientists rather than an actual scientist herself.
He despised those.
But it turns out that she was definitely capable of handling both roles. She proved to be an able partner for figuring out the logistics of how to mass produce his Magmarizer as well as helping him with trying to refine an Electric version of it. In fact, he found himself working with Shelly more than he did with John.
Not that he blamed John for being unable to help. He understood that John had other obligations that he had to handle.
Which brought them to this very moment. After weeks of work, Blaine and Shelly had been able to refine the Magmarizer to something that would be 'easier' to reproduce. Despite their best efforts, gathering an enormous amount of magma energy into a small box would never be easy. That required some very careful handling of the magma that was produced by the volcano at Cinnabar. So each Magmarizer produced required plenty of time and effort; meaning that it wasn't going to be some cheap product!
"So are we agreed then?" Blaine spoke up and asked, "The Indigo branch of Devon Corp will be handling the advertising and sale of the Magmarizer, while Cinnabar Island is responsible for the production?"
As agreed between them, a majority of the profits would go to him as it was his idea and invention. Devon Corp would be taking the rest for their help in helping to distribute and sell the product; Blaine had no idea how to do so and he was happy to leave it up to their expertise.
He had considered having Silph Co do the distribution and selling, but Devon Corp had offered him a better deal. That would probably piss off a people at Silph Co, but Blaine only scoffed at that. If they wanted to distribute the Magmarizer, they should have offered him better terms.
They had already run this agreement by John, who was happy to be left out of this project since he didn't have time to be involved. At first, they wanted to give John a small cut of the profits anyways because of his early assistance, but John felt it was unfair for him to be even taking such a cut when his contributions were cut short by his trip to Sinnoh.
Though the two of them didn't really mind sharing the credit with him, Blaine knew that they were both pleased by his principles and honesty.
Instead, John simply reaffirmed his wish to help work on the future Electirizer project that Blaine had in mind. Both him and Shelly were easily willing to accommodate this; nor would they turn down the myriad of connections that working with John offered them.
"Yes." Shelly nodded, "I've already run it through with the others and Joseph. He's very happy for this to proceed. He even wants some shipped over to Hoenn too."
"…Might be hard." Blaine replied after thinking it over for a bit. "I don't think we'll be producing enough to fulfil demand here in Indigo, let alone Hoenn...I guess we could set aside some Magmarizers to be sent over to Hoenn each month? So that at least you'll be getting SOME Magmarizers to use?"
"That's a good idea, and I think Joseph would be happy about such an arrangement too." Shelly agreed. And having Joseph's approval was good, they both knew, as approval meant more funding. Despite his personal distaste for sycophancy, especially after working under Pryce, Blaine knew when he needed to keep his boss happy.
"Then it's agreed." Blaine smiled, happy to be rewarded for his efforts, "The Magmarizer will be sold openly in shops all around the world soon enough!"
He KNEW that the Magmarizer was going to be an important invention. Not because it allowed for Magmar to evolve into a Magmarizer, but because it proved that it was possible to create an evolution item by refining one specific Type and concentrating an intense amount of it into a small space.
Blaine knew that as soon as the Magmarizer was released, scientists all over the world will be trying their hand at recreating its effects with a different Type. That was why they would be shifting their focus to the Electirizer as soon as the Magmarizer was properly released to the public before anyone got steal their thunder.
Heh. Steal theirthunder. Heh.
It was times like these where Blaine regretted having taken up the title as Gym Leader. It was certainly a prestigious position, and when he retired as an Elite Four he felt happy to be able to at least remain relevant in the public eye.
But now, with the sudden scientific boom that Indigo was going through, he wanted to spend more time as a scientist rather than as a Gym Leader.
He knew that he could have had the Magmarizer prototype finished far earlier if he didn't have to spend most of his day handling the administrative duties of a Gym Leader. Yet at the same time, he didn't want to retire from the position just yet and let some other idiot take up the position.
Right now, he was de-facto in charge of Cinnabar Island. If some other fool took up the position as Gym Leader, then they might think they suddenly have the authority to order him around! He would sooner admit that he was balding than let that happen!
So, for now, he would keep his position. Even if it frustrated him at times. Maybe one day, in the future, he would finally be able to hand off the position to someone he felt worthy. He would just have to tough it out and deal with the monotony of being a Gym Leader in the meantime.
He just hoped that he would finally have some good battles that would reinvigorate his fiery spirit once again. That, or he could hopefully quickly find someone worthy enough to take his position as Gym Leader.
However, as Blaine returned to working with Shelly on his Magmarizer, he would never have known that he was going to be getting his wish sooner than he would have ever expected.
Sometimes, it was necessary to be careful what you wished for.
A.N. Foreshadowing! Blaine's Magmarizer project is a success, and it's a BIG discovery too, since it can snowball into other creations, so his reputation in the scientific community is only going to grow from here!
And yes, this is a setup chapter. You're about to see Blaine in action!
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Thanks man! 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!