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.

258. The New Normal - 12-1

John's Team

Tyrant - Slaking

Vordt - Ursaluna

Smough - Snorlax

Klee - Blissey

Port - Mantine

Zephyr - Pidgeot

Klaus - Wyrdeer

Luna - Clefable

Pixel - Porygon2

Euphie - Sylveon

Ornstein - Obstagoon

Wraith - H-Zoroark

The New Normal – 12-1 – Incoming

To my lack of surprise, Indigo was buzzing with conversations and discussions about the recent events that had taken place.

The topic that was discussed the most was Karen's victory in the Indigo Conference; both her victory and her subsequent announcement of her challenge against Agatha. Despite her on-paper score being a 6-3 victory against Vettel, the fact that she managed to cleanly triumph over Vettel's team of traditional powerhouses got a lot of people excited.

It also helped that those knowledgeable about Karen's tactics knew that the score was not reflective of just how she managed to dismantle Vettel's on-paper stronger team. She had reminded the world again about how she managed to beat Sidney, and also showed that she had improved since then.

Of course, it was her announcement against Agatha that was the main topic of conversation for most. It had been a very long time since Agatha received a formal challenge, and for one to come from her own apprentice and student was just an added slice of excitement for the masses. People were talking about this so much that Karen's challenge actually managed to overshadow the upcoming battle between Koga and Will for the time being, since it had a more interesting narrative.

The fact that Agatha hadn't seen a proper battle in some time only fuelled discussion as people tried to predict what kind of team she'd field, which only added to the hype. Not only that, but people also suspected that Karen and Agatha would be evenly matched, making the match all the more exciting.

I agreed with that analysis. For all of her fearsome reputation, I knew that Agatha's strength had reached a plateau long ago, and she wasn't super dedicated to training up her team with new tactics in her advanced age. That was to be expected for a trainer as experienced as her, and nor did that mean that she was at all weak. No, it was even more impressive that she had managed to maintain her Pokémon's strength to be at such a high level despite her old age.

However, Karen's strength had only continued to grow over the past year. I was excited to see if her team of fresh Elites would be able to win against Agatha's team of old veterans.

Still, I was rooting for Karen.

On the other hand, the other main topic of discussion was not as positive or exciting. It was instead about who was going to be the replacement Gym Leader at Goldenrod following Lewis' less-than-amicable departure from the position.

Which was why I was now sitting with the rest of the Elite Four as we listened to the Committee members drone on about who should be the replacement Gym Leader, despite the match between Koga and Will literally being around the corner. Lewis had not appointed a successor, and even if he did it was unlikely that his successor would be accepted at this point. Therefore, a compromise candidate had to be found, which meant that no one was happy.

Unfortunately, we had a distinct shortage of notable trainers that were suitable to becoming a Gym Leader at the moment. Ironically, Karen's name was waved about as a potential candidate, but that was quickly shut down by the entirety of the Elite Four.

Agatha was the most displeased about this, "You wish to deprive her of the opportunity at a challenge by saddling her with the role of a Gym Leader? Are you daft in the head?"

"The role of Gym Leader is as prestigious as it gets!" The Committee member sputtered out.

"And an Elite Four member is even more prestigious!" Agatha shot back, "Don't look down on my student."

"But she worked as a Gym Leader before—" The man tried again, only to be shut down.

"Feh! I don't know whether to consider you deaf or blind, or perhaps you just possess stupidity beyond my own imagination." Agatha spat, "If you know anything about Karen, she will not be satisfied with anything less than her goal. She would never accept the position of Gym Leader, not when the position of being an Elite Four remains within her reach. There is nothing else that needs to be said."

And that shut down that avenue of discussion; Karen was officially off the table. That led to the other Committee members to continue their mind numbing discussion about who it ought to be.

I had considered throwing Whitney's name into the pool, as she was Gym Leader there as per canon. But I quickly dismissed that thought – it was way too early for that. Even if Whitney had accomplished much in her young age, and she had proven to be a rising star that would surely shine exceptionally bright in the future, she wasn't suited to being a Gym Leader right now.

Thus, I kept my silence as the discussions eventually came to a close. In the end, no one was happy, and a compromise candidate was chosen to temporarily hold the position until someone better could be found to take up the position on a more permanent basis.

The new temporary Gym Leader of Goldenrod would be a trainer by the name of Jackson; a trainer that I had never heard of before until today. Plus, judging by the similar lack of recognition from my fellow Elite Four members, only confirmed to me that they didn't know who he was either. They didn't even know what Type he specialised in.

"Bah, a political appointee." Agatha muttered sourly, "What a waste of time. I don't even know what made me come here today."

"Surely he must be competent enough for the position?" Lorelei asked, as the 'virtues' of Jackson were laid out. They couldn't have sounded more inflated if they tried, "Or at least a trainer of some worth."

Agatha rolled her eyes, "On paper, maybe. In practice, they're the same paper pushers with a glorified title. He's probably got all 8 badges, and maybe a couple notable placements in Conferences, but don't expect too much from them. Competence might even be too much to ask, though he should at least be a marginal improvement from Lewis. He probably would be a decent administrator, and at least the Gym Trainers could pick up the slack."

"That really isn't saying much though." Will added. I was genuinely surprised he was wasting time here despite his match against Koga being very soon. I guess he was always diligent like that. "Lewis was kicked out for a reason. The man was way past his prime, and he was trying to hide that very fact."

If both Pryce and Clair were willing to put aside their mutual animosity to work together to kick out Lewis, then I believed them. What a fool he must have been.

"…I guess we'll keep our expectations low then." I sighed, "It's such a shame though. Goldenrod is a fine city, it doesn't deserve to be saddled with what likely is going to be a barely competent or even incompetent Gym Leader."

"Well then you should hope that he gets replaced soon." Agatha replied, "And judging by the fact that Jackson was named as temporary, it seems that even the Committee has low expectations for him and only want him so that the next circuit would at least run smoothly. I suspect he'll be thrown out as soon as any suitable replacement gets found. Thank Arceus for that."

…Indeed, there was an opportunity here.

---

The announcement of Jackson's appointment came right after the meeting was over. It really didn't generate much buzz, because everyone knew that the appointment was a temporary thing. The appointment would probably dominate the headlines tomorrow, but then I'd imagine it would be quickly forgotten amidst the discussions about the upcoming battles.

Since it was already night, I had wanted to get in a quick training session before heading to bed before I was interrupted by a call from Cynthia.

"Hey, something the matter? I thought we were going to talk later tonight."

"Hm, we can talk then too, but I have something I thought you would like to hear about a little earlier." I could hear the teasing tone in her voice, "Try to have a guess at what it is."

"…You're going to act on your Regional Union idea?" I guessed.

She chuckled, "That's a good guess; but you're only partially right. Yes, I am looking to propose that, but that's not the main reason I'm calling."

"I'm coming over to Indigo."

As soon as I heard her words, a wide smile instantly spread across my face as I felt the excitement rush through my body, "Really?! When?!"

"You sound so excited." She laughed.

"Hey, you were the one who rushed to tell me the good news. THAT sounds like excitement to me." I countered.

"Fair enough." I could feel her smiling, "But like I said before, it's going to be a purely diplomatic venture, filled with a lot of schmoozing. Don't expect me to have a lot of free time, since I'll be busy trying to get my Regional Union idea off the ground, though I'll be sure to maximize whatever time I do get."

"It's good enough for me." I replied, "And the offer to come stay over at my place is still open. I'll let my parents know. They'd definitely welcome you. But when are you coming over?"

"Sometime soon – the exact timeframe hasn't been finalised yet. Lucian's doing that right now, since he's also coming with me. Don't worry, you'll be first to know when I find out." She answered, "Oh, and by the way, I hope you haven't forgotten my request."

"You mean for us to have a 'proper' fight?" I remembered, "Of course I do. You just need to make time for it; I'm always happy to fight."

"So long as you didn't forget." She nodded, "My Garchomp has been chomping at the bit to test her strength against your Tyrant. Don't think we'd perform any worse than Emperor did."

"We'll see about that." I smirked, "Tyrant hasn't grown arrogant since his victory. Girlfriend or not, he won't take it any easier on you."

We chatted like that for a bit longer. Although I did ask to make sure that Cynthia and Lucian leaving Sinnoh wouldn't suddenly expose her region to further risk from Cyrus. She reassured me that their absence wouldn't lead to a security risk, reminding me that this was part of their plan to bait out Cyrus into making a bad move with the illusion of Sinnoh being 'unprotected'.

Not only that, but she also explained that Flint was currently hard at work trying to undermine Cyrus' network of connections that he had built up around Galactic Company. Basically, it was never good for any business to be in direct opposition against a popular government, and everyone knew it. Therefore, Flint was trying to see if he could dismantle Cyrus' alliances with other businesses and chip away at his political support base, weakening and exposing them even further.

Because without this network, the Sinnoh League will have a much easier time winning the public onto their side, and eventually have the necessary political power to press formal charges against Galactic Company without the risk of severe political repercussions.

"Prudent." I nodded after her explanation, "Hope it works out for you."

"Me too. We've stalled this issue for long enough – everyone's itching to take action." She said, "Once Galactic Company's current allies abandon them, then we can really ramp up the pressure. If they prove themselves to be the criminals they are, then they will receive no sympathy for us. Galactic Company may be one of our oldest institutions, but we will uproot the entire thing if we have to."

I smiled at her conviction, "I'm happy you're taking it so seriously."

"And we should stop talking about such serious topics." She joked, "Tell me more about what's going on with you. That's what I'm most interested in."

"I'd hope you were interested in me." I joked back, "But let's see…there was Karen's victory over Vettel—"

"Ah yes, I watched that." She interrupted, "I expected her to win from the start, and she very cleanly met that expectation. Very well fought by her. Really showed off why specialised training and truly getting to know your Pokémon is better than just having powerful Pokémon."

"You think Vettel didn't train well with his team?" I questioned.

"Of course not, and it showed in his fighting." She replied, "Knowing people like him, he probably used money to hire people to assist him, meaning that he didn't actually have the full experience of watching his Pokémon grow, and he wasn't fully knowledgeable about their capabilities. That really hurt him in the fight – I would have done much better in his place."

"Cynthia, you would do better in most people's places." I deadpanned, "Or did you forget you were Champion?"

"Of course not – I have a pile of unfinished paperwork and meeting requests on my desk to remind me of my position." She scowled, "Oh how I wish I could pass some of this off to my Elite Four, but they'd probably try to overthrow me just to avoid it!"

I chuckled at the image, completely agreeing with it.

"Speaking of Elite Four, I don't think I've ever gotten your thoughts on who you'd think would win between Koga and Will." I mentioned, "Do you have a favourite?"

"I want Will to win." She said, "But truthfully that's only because I've actually met him in person and I've seen with my very own eyes how much he's changed since his first appearance as an Elite Four. I approve of the change, and his newfound self-awareness, and I think the world would be worse off if he was no longer in the Elite Four, regardless if Koga would be a good replacement or not. His competency is unquestionable."

"I feel similarly." I nodded, "But do you think he'd actually win?"

"Now that I'm not sure of." She admitted, "I only know a few things about Koga, since I didn't really study him because his strategies don't fit in well with my team. But I know he favours surprise strategies and uneven fights, and that always has a chance of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat if you're caught off-guard by it."

"As much as I just praised Will, I fear that he will fall into this very trap." She said, "I do think he's more powerful, though. So ultimately it's very evenly matched and it's going to be down to their team's performance on the day."

"Oh, and speaking of team." She continued, "My Kleavor is finally strong and disciplined enough to join the ranks of my proper roster. Expect to see it in use if I ever get challenged."

"If you ever get challenged." I corrected, "Let's not forget how you fought your way to your position. I don't think anyone's going to be bold enough to challenge you after that."

"Well perhaps that challenger will be you then, when I come over." She teased, "Didn't you say your Zoroark would best my Kleavor? Well, it might be time to put your money where your mouth is."

"What do I get if I win?" I asked.

"…I can think of a few things." She said after a sudden pause, with her tone suddenly taking a seductive turn, "Or…perhaps you might have something in mind? Something you'd like me to do?"

"Oh, there are many things that I'd like to do." I replied shamelessly, playing along easily, "But we might not have time to do it all."

"We'll find a way." She smirked, "I'm sure we can think of something. Especially if you're motivated enough."

"I'm sure you will find my motivation to be plentiful enough." I replied, "In fact, if you keep teasing me like this, you might find me a little too 'motivated'."

"Or maybe that's what I'm trying to do." Her smirk widened, "…Is it working?"

Unfortunately, any further talk along those lines was annoyingly interrupted as I received a phone call from Shelly. I was tempted to ignore the call for the time being, but the atmosphere had already been broken.

So, with a sigh, I apologised to my girlfriend and picked up the call from Shelly.

"Hey, John. Hope I wasn't interrupting anything." She greeted.

"…No, it wasn't anything important." I forced out, "What's the matter?"

"Do you have time to come visit the lab?" She asked, "We've made a breakthrough of sorts on that Porygon2 evolution item that I mentioned before. We have a prototype…but we wanted to do more tests first, especially since your Porygon2 is so different from our ones with all the additional training that you've done with it. We wanted to do some scans to make sure that there wouldn't be adverse effects."

"Oh, certainly!" I responded excitedly, instantly forgiving her in my mind for the untimely interruption. It had been a long time since Pixel's evolution into a Porygon2 with the UpGrade. Was this finally the time for it to receive its final evolution? "I'll head there right away."

Excitement buzzing through me, I quickly got on Port and made my way to Viridian City and to the Devon Corp branch office. Since it was already night, the office was practically empty as I made my own way to Shelly's office, where I found her tapping away at her keyboard while another Porygon2 was strapped into some testing machine.

"That was quick." She smiled, "Just give me a second to finish up here…" She tapped away at her keyboard, "…and done! Okay. Anyways, thanks for coming so quickly. We're all excited to have this final evolution finished. Having your Porygon2 be evolved into its final evolution would be excellent advertising, even if the sale of Porygon to be used as battling Pokémon isn't all that popular. Having a powerful final evolution should turn that around."

"Really?" I blinked, a little surprised by that admission, "I thought a Pokémon made of data would be more popular amongst trainers; if only for the novelty."

She shrugged, "The sales figures show otherwise. Maybe it's because there haven't been any high profile battles with Porygon being used. You didn't even use your Porygon during the Tournament."

"Oh. Right." I scratched my head, "Yeah, I didn't. It just wasn't the right time."

"Well, you'd be doing us a favour if you could use your Porygon in battles from now on." She grinned, "Of course, you don't have to go out of your way to do so. We certainly won't force you."

"No, it's about time that my Porygon take centre stage for once. I haven't trained it up all this way for nothing." I replied.

"Good to hear." She nodded, "Anyways, for what we're here for. Let me show you something…" She pulled up a document on her laptop and showed it to me. There were a lot of graphs, diagrams, tables, and basically the whole document was a blur to me.

"This is the data that we've collected during our tests of the new evolution item." She explained, "As you can see…we had a lot of trouble trying to salvage and repair the work that our reckless scientist achieved all time ago. He managed to create a Porygon-Z evolution, but the thing was completely manic and insane. Over time, we managed to create more stable versions, but until now, the insanity would either come back, or we would overdo it and completely suppress the Pokémon's power until it was basically useless."

"Fortunately, there is a way to 'undo' the evolution, which is only possible because of Porygon's unique nature of being created out of data." She said with a relieved sigh, "Otherwise, I think the project would have been terminated on ethical grounds. As it should be."

Ah, yes. That was good. I wasn't comfortable either if we had evolved Porygon and just allowed them to suffer. It was good that we could undo the evolution and spare them the pain.

"Wait, are we still calling it Porygon-Z?" I asked. I had thought the name might have been changed.

"We've been calling that internally, yes." She nodded, "I think we all meant to call it something else, but we just forgot about it and now the name's stuck. Unless you think it should be renamed to something else?"

"No, it's fine. Actually makes things simpler that way." I said. At least I wouldn't have to correct myself mentally if it was called something else.

"Right. Back to the topic at hand…we've been trying to stabilise the evolution so that the insanity doesn't set in." She explained, "What we realised was that the extra power we gave Porygon was too much for it to handle in one go, and the data we were providing was inevitably going to corrupt its rationality."

"So eventually we came up with a different method. Instead of transferring the data all in one go like we did with the UpGrade, we tried to stagger the delivery of data into much smaller chunks, allowing the Porygon2 to process each individual chunk fully before accepting the next set of data." She pointed to one of the tables on the documents, "As shown here, we were met with some limited success – and overtime we managed to decrease the instances of insanity."

"Which is why I invited you over today." She picked up a small box off of her desk, "This is our latest prototype of our evolution item. It's got no official name yet, but we hope that this will finally be the item that creates a Porygon-Z evolution that isn't insane."

"I see…sounds like it was a lot of hard work." I commented.

"It was, but it was rewarding work." She nodded, "It helps that we were making visible progress each time; that really kept us motivated."

"So, as for why you're here, like I said earlier we wanted to run some tests on your Porygon2 before we even CONSIDER applying this new evolution item." She said, "Firstly, the Porygon2 that we use in the lab are MUCH weaker than yours, so we don't know if the data delivery method will be equally applicable. Secondly, we don't want to offer you something that even has the slightest risk of causing insanity, so we're going to run a lot more tests before you do."

"Sorry if I got your hopes up, but we want to make sure we do this right." She apologised.

"No, it's perfectly fine." I waved her off, "Trust me, I would rather ensure the safety of my Porygon than rush through this kind of evolution. No insanity required, thank you very much."

"Though, if worse comes to worst, and my Porygon does become insane after the evolution, can you reverse its effects?" I asked concerningly.

"Yes, we can undo the evolution…but the process isn't perfect." She replied frowningly, "You might lose a lot of your Porygon's strength for some time, and it might lose quite a bit of memory. Not to say you couldn't recover from this loss, but it's a process I'd rather not put you through."

"I understand, thank you for the information." I nodded.

"No problem. Your concerns are natural." She said, "Now, if you may, just strap in your Porygon2 over there and we can start running a few tests."

I nodded and released Pixel, who buzzed around happily as it recognised Shelly. It actually 'leapt' at Shelly and gave it an armless hug, and Shelly cooed over it appropriately.

Huh. In some ways, Shelly was like Pixel's aunt of sorts. I never thought of it that way before.

Having made the appropriate greetings, Pixel was strapped in and the tests were run. While the tests were underway, Shelly and I caught up about what she had been up to ever since we stopped working with Blaine.

"Correction – I'm still working with Blaine. He uses my lab from time to time since he lost his." Shelly told me, "Actually, if you came about an hour earlier you would have saw him. He just headed home."

"Oh really? That's nice to hear." I nodded, "So you guys working on something together?"

"A few things, but they aren't a high priority." She replied, "He's mostly focused on that PIT technique project of his with the Growlithe. While I've been busy on this." She pointed at Pixel, "So we're currently working on different things."

"Makes sense." I nodded, "Any other developments planned for after you finish up with this one?"

"I think Mr. Stone wants us to work on Pokéball research again." She said after a moment to think, "He says there's untapped potential there, and there's not been a new Pokéball introduced in a while. The Premier Ball doesn't really count, as it was more an advertising tool than an actual new ball."

"That's interesting." I agreed, "Any ideas that you guys have so far? That you can tell me?"

"Sorry, it's all confidential." She apologised, "But you'll be one of the first to know if it does become a success."

"All the best then." I smiled, which was just as the tests finished for Pixel. We unhooked Pixel from the contraption, and I played around with my Pokémon while Shelly studied the results.

After a moment, she turned back to me. "Whew, you really spent some time training your Porygon2 now haven't you?" She patted Pixel on the head, "What a strong thing you are."

Pixel buzzed happily at her compliments.

"So, you find anything noteworthy?" I asked her.

She shrugged, "Can't answer you at the moment; I'll have to pass this around my team before I can give you a definite answer. Once I do, I'll let you know if we can safely give you the greenlight for your evolution. We must confirm that there's no chance of insanity first."

"Okay, that's good." I patted Pixel on the head, "We've waited this long. We can wait longer."

I already considered Pixel to be worthy enough to be on my Elite team. If it were to evolve into a Porygon-Z, it would be sacrificing some of its defenses for a massive increase in attack power. Which wasn't even that bad of a trade, considering I had trained it so heavily in its regeneration moves. Power was what it currently lacked; and it would get that in spades once it got its final evolution.

I couldn't wait for that.

A.N. Lots of setup for the rest of the arc! This also marks the beginning of Arc 12 – Change and Challenge! I hope you enjoyed so far, and thanks to everyone who has stuck with me thus far!

Also, usually I would try to summarise the conversation with Cynthia more. However, considering that the focus hasn't really been on her for the last few chapters, I felt that it might be good to allow their dialogue to flow a little more freely. I hope you preferred to see them interact like that.

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!