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 – 9-2 – Building a Team

"Welcome home, son." My mother and father greeted me at the door. "How was your journey?"

"It was good. I made some new friends." We then moved to the dining table, where we continued our discussion over dinner. I wanted to ask about the list of employees that they had shortlisted for me, but that could come after I regaled them about my time in Sinnoh.

I should have expected this, but as soon as I mentioned my time with Cynthia it became all that my mother wanted to know about; and she ignored everything else in favour of asking more and probing deeper into my interactions with her.

A mother's intuition was a frightening thing.

Eventually, I came clean. I saw no harm in telling my parents about it, since I knew they were not one to gossip, and I would be impossible to hide the sudden awkwardness between myself and Karen when she next visited.

Plus, they were my parents. They deserved to know.

So I kept it short, summarising how Cynthia and I met and how we got close to each other and how our relationship developed. My mom stared at me all the while with a knowing smile on her face, which only grew larger after she saw the locket that I had of her.

"I'm very happy for you, dear." My mom eventually said as I finished my explanation, "Long distance relationships can be difficult, and it requires both parties to put in the work for the relationship to work. But if you truly care about each other, then distance is no obstacle."

"Be careful to not let your respective ambitions corrupt your relationship though." My dad warned, "Ambition can be a good thing, but make sure it doesn't taint your interactions with each other."

I nodded, "I'll keep it in mind, though Cynthia and I have already talked about that."

My mom smiled and patted me on the back, "It's good that you chose someone so mature and wise, then."

Then she sighed, "Have you told Karen?"

I frowned, "…I already spoke with her. She's…coming to terms with it. Whitney promised to check up on her on my behalf. I told her that I didn't want our friendship to end because of this, and that she's always welcome here if she wants, but I'm just giving her space for now."

"That's good." My mom said, "It's a shame, though. I don't doubt your choice with Cynthia – by all means I think she would be good for you, but I always thought you and Karen had potential."

My dad spoke up, "Never mind that. As long as you made your choice and don't regret it, then there's nothing to think about. Let's not burden John with more unnecessary thoughts like this." He told my mom, who nodded.

"Anyways, John, the new offices have been doing better than we hoped." My dad explained, blatantly changing the topic, which I appreciated, "Having an actual official place of office has really allowed us to centralize a lot of our administration, saving us a lot of time that we would have otherwise wasted. Of course, it helps that the business is growing at a steady pace as well – we even had to increase the capacity of the Johto farm to keep up with demand. Your uncle Milton was ecstatic at handling so many Miltank!"

"Everyone wants to buy the Moomoo milk from your brand, John." My mom grinned at me, "It seems your public appeal is increasing by the minute."

"It's hardly my brand." I disagreed, ignoring my mom's needling, "Any ideas about that expansion into Mauville?"

"We did consider it, but we think it's safer to wait a bit longer first. Especially with the new markets being opened in Sinnoh." My dad explained, "We want to see how the markets react to that first."

I nodded; that was an understandable explanation, "But I assume you have no plans to move to Sinnoh?"

"Definitely not." My mom replied, "We can't afford it."

We chatted away at a few more things about the business, but then we switched topics again and I told them about my plans to open up the Cerulean Cave for expeditions, and asked my parents about their opinion about it.

My dad laughed when he heard it, "It seems like you really enjoyed your time with Cynthia!"

My mom elbowed him, "Don't tease him like that." Then she smiled at me, "Anyways, I think it's a great idea. Neither of us are trainers or cave-explorers, so we don't know the slightest thing of how safe or how dangerous an undertaking like that would be, but it's definitely interesting."

"You have to make sure the right safety measures at in place though." My dad reminded, "But from what we've been hearing at the meetings, Cerulean City can definitely afford such an expansion."

"Cerulean City has been running more smoothly than we expected, and growing at a good rate too!" My mom added, "I think your idea would be a good way to diversify our city and make it be known as something more than just for the arts. It's a good plan."

With their support, I reaffirmed my decision to speak to mayor Henry about it, and called him straight after our dinner to arrange an appointment with him at his earliest convenience. With that done, I spent the rest of the night organizing through my schedule, familiarizing myself with my duties in Indigo once again.

I had a lot to do. My trip from Sinnoh had really thrown my schedule completely out of whack.

That being said, there was one thing I wouldn't forget to do before I headed off to bed.

"…I was waiting for you to call." Cynthia's beautiful voice came through the phone as she appeared on my screen. Even through the poor quality of the screen, in my eyes she looked as radiant as ever.

"Sorry, I was still settling back in." I replied, "How are things since your announcement?"

She groaned, "As busy as we expected. Big uproar, everyone's surprised, blah blah blah. The usual nonsense."

"I thought you would be more enthusiastic." I chuckled.

"I understand that being Champion is not a privilege, but a responsibility." She responded, "That doesn't mean I enjoy doing all the PR tours and interviews that come along with it. I would much prefer to be spelunking than dealing with those fake reporters."

"Speaking of caves, you know I'm trying to get the Cerulean Cave open up to be fit for exploration? I'm in the process of convincing the mayor." I informed her.

She laughed, "You couldn't stay in Sinnoh, so you decided to try to remake one of our best features back at home? How audacious!" She grinned, "But I approve. Let me know if you need any help with that. Wait, let me send you a few numbers you can call if you need help."

"Thank you, I'll let you know if that's necessary." I said, then I paused as an idea popped into my head, "You know, I want to do more with these phone calls than just catching up on our day. I know we have distance between us, but I want us to be able to interact and do more than just chat every night before we head to bed."

"I would love that." Cynthia replied, "What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking that we could be more active with our calls, assuming the other isn't busy." I suggested, "For example, if you or I are training by ourselves – why not call each other and see if we're available? That way we can train and trade ideas with each other. I know that's not always possible, but I think it's something to try."

"Of course, that would be good." Then she smiled at me, "I'm glad you suggested something like this, John. I admitted that I was worried that our relationship might stall with the distance, despite my fighting words."

"I'm as invested into this as you are, don't worry." I chuckled, but inwardly was relieved that she was receptive to this as I was, "Anyways, anything else you want to talk about?"

We chatted a little more before we retired for the night. I told Cynthia that I had told my parents and Karen about our relationship. She said she was fine with it – though she would continue keeping it a secret from Carolina.

"Unlike your parents, I do not trust my grandmother to not talk about it to everyone she came across." She groaned, "I would still prefer our relationship to not be public knowledge – it's none of the public's business anyways."

"And if we were to reveal our relationship, I want it be on OUR terms." She added, "WE will dictate the narrative, not let the news and media twist it to their own ends."

I nodded in agreement.

We talked for a little longer, though eventually my eyes started to grow tired, so we both decided to end our conversation here. I went to sleep with a smile on my face.

The very next day, I asked my parents about the shortlist, and they passed me a small folder of CVs and cover letters to read through.

After a brief scan through them, no one really caught my eye, but they all seemed competent enough. They all had experience with administration and/or as personal assistants, so I trusted them to all be of use. My parents wouldn't have picked bad options for me, after all.

After a moment to think things through, I decided that I could only really make a choice after interviewing them. I was about to call them directly to check their availability, but then I had an idea. Wasn't this a good way of introducing Daisy and getting her to settle in to her role, as I promised Oak? So I ended up calling Professor Oak and asked him to pass the phone to her.

"Sure thing, John. That's a good idea. It'll let the newcomers get more used to Daisy's position amongst your assistants." He said to me after I told him my plan, "Just pass their phone numbers to her, and I'll let her make the calls. I'll watch over her shoulder to make sure she doesn't get too nervous."

"Thanks. Maybe we can get her to sit in the interviews too." I said and placed the phone down, trusting Daisy to make the arrangements for me. Getting her to sit in the interviews would also give me a better idea of their personalities.

They might respect Oak, but there was no guarantee that their respect would extend to his granddaughter. And anyone who looked down on Daisy was unworthy to work for me.

With that handled, I headed to the city hall to speak to mayor Henry. He had cleared out his schedule as soon as I made the call.

Maybe it was a little vain of me, but I found that to be a nice feeling to have.

I arrived at the city hall, where I was quickly ushered in to avoid the reporters who had somehow caught onto my arrival nearly instantly. They were a persistent bunch.

"Hey, John! Welcome back!" Mayor Henry greeted me cheerily, "I hope this conversation isn't going to be too difficult, I already have enough to deal with just handling the more mundane matters! Who knew taking control of Mt Moon would be so stressful!" He joked.

I smiled, "No, nothing so serious. How is Mt. Moon doing anyways? Are we handling it well?"

"As well as could be expected." He replied, "We all knew what we were getting to when we took over authority of Mt Moon from Pewter City. It was always going to be a slight overextension of our resources. We're managing at best we can, but there are a few gaps."

"Fortunately, the fervour of collecting new Fairy types have died down significantly after people stopped overhyping it. So our current security arrangements are proving sufficient at keeping Mt Moon safe from overeager trainers and poachers." He explained to me. "Not that there's been too many of those after a majority of them got arrested from the initial craze."

"That's good." I said, relieved, "Anyways, about what I came here for. I wanted to propose an idea to you – but feel free to turn it down if isn't a realistic proposition."

"Sure, go ahead." Henry responded.

"I want to open up Cerulean Cave for expeditions. I know it's been hardly explored, mainly due to the powerful wild Pokémon living within that made it previously too dangerous to explore. But I feel like if we can dedicate the resources to keeping things safe, there's much we can utilize there."

"Ah, this must be something you were hoping to bring back from Sinnoh." He chuckled, and I nodded, "Well it is certainly an interesting proposal, but what would opening up Cerulean Cave bring to our city? It's not going to be a cheap undertaking."

"It would give the city some much needed diversity – rather than just being known as a city comprising only for the arts." I began and lifted a finger, "But not only that, I can guarantee you that the Cerulean Cave would be an excellent place for capable trainers to come and catch new wild Pokémon for their team. There aren't THAT many areas in Indigo with already powerful wild Pokémon, and I'm confident that this will be a popular destination for such trainers if they could capture wild Pokémon inside."

"Not only that, but Cerulean Cave must be a treasure trove of rare resources – think fossils, gems, and the like." I continued, "Sure, those resources are limited, but they'll help offset whatever initial costs that it takes to open up Cerulean Cave for the public anyways. And whatever's left over would be pure profit."

Henry thought it through for a while, "…Yes, that wouldn't be too bad. But where are you going to find all those trainers to serve as protection duty? We don't have of a cultural emphasis in cave diving as Sinnoh. And I'm reluctant to make use of Jennys and our rangers for this – we're already stretched thin as it is." He pointed out.

I frowned, "Surely it can't be that hard to hire on some trainers? There must be plenty of 8-badge trainers looking for a job, right? And this job doubles as training too. It's a win-win for them."

He shrugged, "I'll speak to a few of my assistants and see if we can get the numbers that we need. But we'd also need to properly scout out Cerulean Cave, from top to bottom, to make sure there aren't any unexpected surprises or dangers. No quicker way than to kill this project than through actual deaths of the visitors."

"Fair enough." I nodded, "There's no rush on this – I just thought it was a very cool idea that I wanted to bring back from Sinnoh."

"Maybe you can speak to those friends of yours from Sinnoh to help us out?" Henry suggested, "Might make things easier for us."

I chuckled, "Already ahead of you. Let me pass you a few numbers you can use." I sent over a text with the numbers that Cynthia provided, "Just let them know that I gave you their number."

"I'll do that." Henry nodded, "And John, it's a good idea – I just think we need to refine the execution. Cerulean City is growing very healthily at the moment, and there's no need to ruin that out of impatience."

I agreed with his words.

We chatted on a few more topics before our meeting wrapped up. I had to head to my next meeting, which was with the Committee once again. It had been a long time since my last one, but that doesn't mean I was looking forward to them.

Leaving the city hall, I dodged out of the way of the reporters and flew once again to the Indigo League. I skipped past all of the security and just walked into the Committee meeting, which had barely just started.

Lance sent me an acknowledging nod at my arrival, before returning his attention to the member that was speaking, where he was extolling the virtues of Lorelei's new organisation. I just sat myself down next to my colleagues in the Elite Four.

"…With the recent rise of widespread and daring criminal activity, the formation of an organisation dedicated to investigating our companies and ensuring that no nefarious actions are taken place is paramount!" The committee member said, "Ensuring fair competition in the market and equal opportunity for all is what the Indigo League should strive to achieve!"

The businessmen and those with similar interests had to hide a grumble, but they knew the odds did not favour them. I don't know what exactly Lorelei had done, but she had earned enough support to push this through regardless of their opposition.

Also, it helped that business was booming recently, so they had little to complain about in the grand scheme of things.

As the committee members continued making their speeches, I turned to Lorelei, interested to see how she was reacting. She looked calm, but I noticed that she was staring at all of the committee members with a calculating eye that she previously lacked. My gut was telling me that she radiated a different sort of confidence than before, almost as if she had found her path.

I wondered what had happened to her during my trip to Sinnoh.

Eventually, the committee members finished speaking, and it was time for the vote. The proposal passed unceremoniously – Lorelei had obviously stacked the deck heavily in her favour this time. I assumed she must have used most of her political capital to ensure that this passed.

"And the motion is passed. The formation of Lorelei's proposed organisation will be undertaken." Lance declared as the voting concluded, "However, we now have to move on who we shall appoint as the leader of this organisation, or simply have this organisation be run internally."

"I nominate myself." Lorelei instantly spoke up, causing the hall to break out in murmurs and whispers.

"You do?" Lance asked her, but there was a rehearsed quality to it that he failed to hide. Was this all planned beforehand? "And what qualities could you bring to the organisation?"

"I do not intend to micromanage every single element of this new organisation, but I believe it would be appropriate for such an organisation to answer directly to the Indigo League." Lorelei stated, "I plan to appoint a second, someone with the necessary experience and skills, to run the day-to-day operations. My role would simply to have oversight over the entire organisation, not to micromanage it."

The whispers grew even louder at her statement, and I heard a few Kantonians expressing their concerns about an organisation dedicated to investigating financial crimes to be run by a Johtonian. They feared that their businesses will be unfairly targeted because of Lorelei's bias. Some of the more daring Committee members even directly spoke out against Lorelei's appointment, claiming that she lacked the experience and fortitude to run the new organisation.

Lorelei took this time to shoot me a look, her gaze requesting that I honour our previous agreement. I nodded back to her as I stood up, "I believe that this would be a fantastic opportunity to build upon Lorelei's already existing skills and experience during her time establishing the International Police in Hoenn." I said in support of her, "With her plans to appoint an experienced second, I doubt she will run into many issues. I trust that her upbringing and her time in the Elite Four will make her a worthy leader of such an organisation."

"But, Elite John, wouldn't she be biased against Kanto businesses? She is a Johtonian, and Pryce's niece, after all." A Kantonian member idiotically asked me.

I rolled my eyes, "And if this was Pryce being nominated, then I would be against it. But Lorelei's obviously not like her uncle, or otherwise she wouldn't have distanced herself from his old policies, now would she?" I pointed out sarcastically, "Lorelei is her own person, who has clearly shown time and time again that she is able to be above the petty grievances and squabbles between our regions."

"Kanto and Johto are old expressions. There is only Indigo now. And the sooner that we are able to set aside our history, the better we will be able to get along as a singular region. I fully trust that appointing Lorelei to this position would help to root out the rot and disease that continue to hold back Indigo from greatness." I finished powerfully.

There was a smattering of applause at my speech, though I could tell no one was actually moved by what I said. These politicians had too much experience to be swayed like that.

But my speech was a mere formality to demonstrate my support for Lorelei. With Agatha following suit, that left Will as the only non-supporting vote. Will quickly saw how the wind was blowing and joined in – he might as well get in on the bandwagon.

Not like he would have been interested in the position anyways. He had WAY too many conflicts of interests to be appointed to that position. Come to think of it, with my many connections to powerful businessmen, so did I.

Huh.

Regardless, Lance moved on to the vote, and Lorelei was appointed as the leader with very little opposition. I saw Agatha giving Lorelei a knowing look, who acknowledged it silently. I was tempted to ask Agatha what that was about, but Lance moved onto the next proposal before I could.

The rest of the Committee meeting was taken up by discussions related to economic and business policies and taxation. It really wasn't something that I knew too much about, and only Will was interested in it. Though, unlike Lorelei, he didn't seem to have pushed very hard for any of them, instead he seemed to be using the policies as a means of testing the waters to see which way members of the Committee leaned.

Agatha did speak up one or few times when it came to discussing policy changes to local councils, but otherwise stayed silent. Lorelei did the same, not wanting to speak up after her success.

The discussion went back and forth, but ultimately nothing got passed. Not yet. The backroom deals still hadn't taken place yet.

The Committee meeting ended soon after that. But before we could retire, Lance asked the Elite Four to join him in his office.

"I'll keep this short, since I know we're all busy." He said to us when we all entered his office, "With the circuit coming to an end, I plan to host a summit with all of the Gym Leaders of Indigo to discuss things with them. I think we've given enough time for the inspections and the new Gym Leaders to settle in, and I want to remind them who they answer to."

"Is there anything you wanted to discuss in this meeting?" Lorelei asked.

"Yes." Lance nodded, "In light of the increasing threat of the hiding terrorists, I plan to start ramping up security measures throughout Indigo. This is something I have discussed with Wallace, and he will be doing the same in Hoenn. We want everyone to be ready and alert for any future infiltrations into our region."

We all nodded. Even though we all knew that the criminals had escaped to Sinnoh, there was always the chance that they could try to sneak their way back in.

"So what? You're going to gather everyone together for that one point? Seems like a huge waste of time to me." Agatha mocked.

"Clair pointed out to me that I've not actually hosted a formal summit with the Gym Leaders ever since my ascension, so I'm rectifying this now." Lance explained, "Aside from that, I also intend to use this opportunity to see how their cities are doing, and if they need any specific assistance from the League."

"Ah, so the Blackthorn wishes to extend a helping hand once again?" Agatha said sarcastically, "What a kind Champion you are."

Lance shook his head, "This is purely done from my position as Champion. You can be sure that I'm not here to extend my clan's interests. Not after what happened." He frowned tellingly, and I inferred that the rift that had appeared between Lance and the clan elders must not have healed since the Fairy incident.

I guess they took his abandonment of them harder than expected. But considering how prideful they all were, that shouldn't have been surprising in hindsight.

"And when will this summit take place?" I asked.

"I will be informing all of the Gym Leaders of my intentions by the end of the day, but I will leave the summit until the Indigo Conference begins." He said, "Participation is obviously mandatory. So I expect to see you all there. Feel free to use the opportunity to further your own interests, if you can manage it. I won't begrudge you for it."

We all nodded, all of us likely thinking the same thing. A gathering of all of the Gym Leaders, Elite Four and the Champion of Indigo in one place was ideal for making connections.

"Will the media be joining us?" Will asked prudently.

"No, but a minute of the meeting will be published." Lance informed us, "Obviously, that minute will be carefully edited before publication. We won't be painting anyone in a bad light."

"…If there isn't anything else?" Lance asked us, and I briefly played with the idea of introducing my idea to have Gym Leaders able to be appointed from both regions. But I figured that now was still too early for such a proposal, so I stayed silent.

Everyone else stayed silent too, so Lance just let us go. But instead of leaving, I stayed behind.

"This is what you wanted to talk to me about, isn't it?" Lance asked as I nodded, "Go on. Let me hear it."

I decided to rip the band-aid off now, "I'm dating Cynthia. The trainer who's currently making a challenge to become Champion.

"…Oh." Lance seemed shocked at my words, and he took a few seconds to process my words, "…And I assume this is recent?"

"Yes, very." I said.

There was another pause. Lance tapping his fingers as I saw his face twist in thought, "…Well I appreciate you telling me, I guess you're worried about a potential conflict of interest?" I nodded, and he paused again to think as he tapped his fingers across his table, "Well if you're worried about me kicking you out of the Elite Four then you needn't worry. I wouldn't resort to such extreme actions for something as little as this. Especially when nothing's happened yet."

That was relieving, but Lance wasn't done, "But I will have to restrict you from voting on any policies that directly involve Sinnoh – unless it's explicitly related to some joint cooperation with them. I won't make this a public announcement, because I presume you won't be going public with your relationship either, right?"

"We don't intend to." I replied.

"Good. Then outside of that, I won't be doing anything else to interfere." He stated, "If the public were to find out and make a fuss about it, then your consequences are for you to deal with by yourself. I won't condemn nor support you. It's on you to figure something out that will mollify the public. Are you happy with that?"

That was good enough for me, "I am. Thank you for this, Lance."

He waved me off, though he had a smirk on his lips, "I can't fault your feelings. And I trust your judgment enough to keep the good of Indigo in mind when it comes to policies. As long as you keep it that way, then you and I won't have problems."

"…And John, between me and you, I do hope your relationship succeeds." His smile turned a little more genuine, "Not only would it lead to immense political benefits in joining our regions together, but I do consider you a friend. I'd hate to see let politics ruin a relationship for you. I hope you can overcome the obstacles in your way."

I nodded, "Thank you, Lance. We will do our best."

He waved me off and I left the room, while also informing him of my intentions to hire assistants that would shadow his. He didn't have a problem with that, and told me he would inform his secretary on my behalf.

Finally, I made my way out of the building. But before I left, I felt an ominous shadow stalking my every move.

I let out a sigh and turned around, "I was just about to look for you, Agatha."

"Oh? I thought you would be trying to avoid me." She cackled, "So – you found yourself caught up in a romance with someone from Sinnoh. And for her to be potentially the new Champion of Sinnoh too? I don't know whether to praise or mock you."

"And how is Karen doing?" I asked, ignoring her words, "I hope she's doing okay."

"She came in with tears in her eyes if that helps." It did not, "But I always warned her that she should have grabbed onto the chance when it presented itself."

"I thought you would've been more upset with me." I admitted.

Agatha grinned, "And if you had truly done something wrong, then we wouldn't be talking right now." She shook her head, "But no. My apprentice brought this misfortune upon herself. She has my sympathy, but no more than that."

"Still, this mistake will serve as an excellent lesson for her to grow from. Hopefully she'll be a stronger person after this." Agatha remarked, then her eyes narrowed, "But don't expect me to thank you for it."

"I would never dare." I raised both my hands, "Still, I'm glad you're looking after her. Please let her know that I would be happy to talk to her when she's feeling better."

"I'll let her know." She accepted, "Oh, and one more thing, John. Despite this incident, our deal still holds. I assume you intend for your friendship with Karen to continue?"

I nodded.

"Then I see no reason for changes. My plans will still work regardless." Agatha stated, then before I could say anything more Agatha disappeared into her shadow, leaving me by myself once again.

I rolled her eyes at her dramatics before I realised that it was already evening. Even after a full day of running around Indigo, I was still nowhere close to clearing out my schedule.

The grind never ends.

A.N. A slower chapter this time because I wanted to catch up on a few plot threads to set the stage for later events. But Lorelei moves up in the world! Her political influence will only grow as time goes on, and she will be a formidable member of the League if she can hold on to her successes.

And yes, the summit is going to have a lot of personalities involved. For good and for ill. But it'll be a great opportunity for everyone to make new friends!

This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Cheers! 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!