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
The New Normal – 8-9 – Lightning Freezing Over
After that busy day of travelling, I decided to spend some time resting at Celestic Town for a few days. There were no cave explorations either, as Cynthia informed me that she had to handle a few personal matters of her own and had been running around to and from the Sinnoh League over the past few days. She told me that she had been speaking to Lucian and Flint about something, but never elaborated about what.
I was curious, but I knew from her expression that this wasn't something I should ask about. So I left it there and wished her all the best. Though I suspected that after Cynthia's display of strength from her draw against me, I predicted that these conversations with the Elite Four were going to very important to the future of the region.
I wasn't stupid. I could piece together what she was planning.
Nonetheless, that was not any of my business, so I spent these days mostly spending my time training while also catching up with whatever was still going on back in Indigo.
It was at this point that I realised that I was handling a lot of the workload on my own when I really didn't need to. As a member of the Elite Four, why was I trying to handle all of the information gathering by myself?
One man could not know everything, so why did I try to?
I recognized that my lack of a team back in Indigo meant that I was forced to make my own calls in order to check up on the situation there. If I had a team behind me to help with this, then that would make things so much more efficient. I cursed at my previous foolishness.
I might have been influenced by the fact that my other Elite Four members didn't have teams either. Agatha certainly didn't, nor did Will or Lorelei. Only Lance did, and he was Champion. Though, perhaps they did have their own personal teams, but they were lowkey enough that I didn't know about them. I didn't think much of it until now, but that was something I needed to work on.
Luckily, I had good contacts with people who should be able to recommend me good employees. I called a few people up, namely Oak, Shelly, and my parents, to see if they had any people to recommend to me.
I was tempted to call Giovanni too, but then ultimately reconsidered.
Shelly came back empty, but my parents told me they would look into it and give me a list of potential candidates that they trusted and recommended when I returned to Indigo. They told me that they had a few that were currently part of the company but were interested in working under an Elite Four.
Most interestingly, was what Oak told me.
"I'm afraid I don't have anyone on my staff that I would recommend to you." He said to me over the phone, "Scientists don't often make for good administrators, and definitely not the ones you'll be looking for. It takes a certain type of person to be able to deal with the realities of politics, and most of my scientists chose their careers to AVOID such realities. I don't think I could recommend anyone to you. Sorry about this John."
"No worries." I replied, "I was just asking around. Thanks for letting me know though." And I was just about to say my goodbyes before Oak continued.
"Wait. John, even though I don't have anyone on my staff, I do have a suggestion." He said, spiking my curiosity.
"My granddaughter, Daisy. She's looking to expand her boundaries beyond the confines of my lab. She's been working here for a few years now and wants to try to do something else." He explained, "I just thought of this on the spot, but I think that this might be a good opportunity for her to try something else. She's a little younger than you, so maybe she'd do well as an intern or a junior assistant. Especially since I think you'll be a good boss for her to learn from."
"…You want to recommend your granddaughter to help me with politics?" I asked, a mix of confusion and amusement in my tone.
Oak chuckled, "Yes, she'll probably find it frustrating at times, but I do believe that dealing with politics is an excellent thing to learn about. If she were to work with you on this, even in a very junior role, I am confident that she would be able to learn much about how the world works. It would be extremely useful experience for her going forwards."
"I don't disagree." I responded, though I was still a bit surprised, "And sure, I'll look into it when I get back from Indigo. Assume that you have my consent about her joining, if she wants to do it."
I would be a complete fool to turn this down.
"Excellent. Thank you for this John." He replied cheerily, "I'll go speak to her right away. In fact, I might have to tutor her in a crash course of modern Indigo politics before I send her to you…I'm not sure how aware she is of the current situation. But I promise that she won't disappoint you. She takes after me, after all." He said that last part with what I recognized was familial pride and affection, and I couldn't help but smile back.
"Take your time." I said, "I won't be back from Sinnoh for some time anyways." We then exchanged a few more pleasantries before eventually hanging up the call.
With that fortunate turn of events, I spent the rest of the morning training with my Pokémon. This time, with a primary focus on training up Pixel, Klaus, and Ornstein. This was my first serious training session since I drew against Cynthia, and I intended to correct the mistakes that I noticed.
First, and most importantly, Klaus. His mastery of Teleport had given him a huge leg-up in terms of his mobility, but I failed to utilize this technique effectively against Cynthia. Teleporting around and firing off attacks was good, but it could be better. And so, there was another move that I wanted Klaus to learn that would suddenly make him a much trickier foe to face.
Future Sight.
If Klaus had Future Sight, then he would be able to plant traps of Psychic energy around that would explode after a specific time. With this move, it would open up plenty of possibilities to allow Klaus to trick his opponents into stepping into one of those traps and getting hit by a powerful and unexpected attack. If Klaus had this move against Cynthia's Lucario, then Klaus would have limited Lucario's mobility options significantly, forcing Cynthia to second guess potential moves just in case a Future Sight trap was waiting for her.
Unfortunately, Klaus did not naturally learn Future Sight. And worse, NONE of my Pokémon knew the move either, meaning there was no one available to help teach Klaus the move. Luckily, Klaus was an Elite Pokémon that was very proficient with Psychic type moves. And there were plenty of videos of the move in battle to help Klaus visualize what he needed to do. It was still going to take time, but I trusted Klaus to be able to add the attack to his move pool in due time.
Moving on from Klaus, my other priorities were Pixel and Ornstein. Over the many, smaller training sessions that I had done over time, Pixel had finished up with its Recover training and had now gotten somewhat proficient with Conversion. Changing types on the fly like that was very demanding, and I was very surprised by the progress it had made thus far. But its tankiness was still a problem; in practice matches against my brawlers, Pixel wasn't able to last long enough for me to be satisfied with it.
Therefore, Pixel wasn't ready for fights against Elite opponents for the moment yet. Pixel was currently a decent jack-of-all-trades, with a varied movepool able to hit many different types supereffectively, coupled with good regeneration and support moves, but it just didn't hit hard enough nor was it durable enough. That was why now, instead of focusing on expanding its movepool, I left those where they were for the time being and prioritised training up its durability and evasion.
I paired Pixel up against Smough and Vordt, alternating between them so that it could learn to properly evade and tank through very hard-hitting attacks.
Finally, with Ornstein, I had a similar plan for him. From last time's training session that was focused on his raw offensive power, I was satisfied that for a Pokémon at his level that he hit more than hard enough. Nowhere near Tyrant's level, of course, but it was still satisfactory at bringing down a weaker Pokémon in a few good hits.
But now I needed him to work on something other than his raw power. Just like Pixel, I had Ornstein train up on his evasiveness. Previously, Ornstein had been relying on his pure speed to dodge past moves, but that wasn't good enough. He needed better and quicker reaction times, and to be able to have full command over his body to dodge the way he wanted to. Luna and Klee were paired up with him to assist with that.
Surprisingly, Ornstein had no complaints with that; he was just happy that he got to run around.
I also made sure to check up on my more powerful members. After they had helped their juniors, I made sure to get even more endurance training in for Smough and Vordt. I wanted them to be able to match Tyrant in endurance.
And with Smough specifically, I wanted to train up his speed, as impossible as that sounded. Vordt helped slightly with that, as he was generally a slow Pokémon that only moved fast because of Headlong Rush. I hoped that Smough could replicate such techniques. Having Smough be able to suddenly move fast would be devastating for my future opponents.
After all, a Snorlax that could move faster than you, even for a moment, generally meant you were screwed.
Admittedly, I might have gotten a little too into my training session, because I had completely forgotten that the match between Lorelei and Surge was taking place today. I had only realized because Cynthia called me up on the phone, asking me where I was and that the match was starting.
It was only then that I remembered that we would be watching the match together in her room. Immediately, I called out to my Pokémon and quickly returned them to their Premier Balls before rushing back to the labs, over to where Cynthia's room was.
She opened the door before I even had to knock on it.
"You're late." She admonished me, but still stepped aside to let me in, "Did you forget about the match?"
"I lost track of time." I admitted embarrassedly but paused to take a good look at her room.
To my surprise, it was not the clean room that I had expected. Instead, there were many random pieces of papers scattered haphazardly around the room. Scientific drawings and books littered the walls in no particular order, which only compounded the sense of messiness. I hadn't even gotten started on the clothes that were left carelessly everywhere. It reminded me more of a college dorm room that anything else.
If I was honest, it wasn't what I expected from the usually so composed and tidy Cynthia.
I dragged my eyes away from all the mess and turned to look at the huge TV screen that took centre stage in the middle of the room, where it had already begin broadcasting the battle between Lorelei and Surge. Realizing that the fight had already started, I carefully took a seat on the small couch, careful to not accidentally sit on any of the loose papers.
"…Want anything to drink?" Cynthia asked from the kitchen, unaware or uncaring about the mess around the room.
"Just water, thanks." I said appreciatively, though my focus was on carefully moving the loose paperwork OFF the couch and onto the coffee table. I had no idea how these weren't crumpled to bits.
After finally clearing enough from the couch, I turned back to the TV to find Lorelei and Surge having already sent out their first Pokémon. A Raichu was dashing around the battlefield, swift as lightning, as it ran circles around the opposing Jynx.
Bolts of Lightning were being rapidly fired off by Raichu as it continued zipping around the field, but each crash of lightning was stopped by a Psychic shield formed by Jynx, who had already set up a Light Screen and the Snow.
"Thunder! And Wild Charge!" Surge commanded his Raichu, and an ear-piercing explosion rattled throughout the battlefield as a gigantic bolt of Lightning slammed down into Jynx. A large crack tore through the ground as the Thunder struck with such force that Jynx nearly fell onto her knees from the impact, the Light Screen insufficient at blocking all the damage that was coming through.
At the same time, Raichu charged forwards in a ball of lightning, pushing itself to the fullest as it moved to follow up on its powerful Thunder.
Jynx prepared to fire off an Ice Beam to punish Raichu for its recklessness, but a sudden jolt of paralysis caused it to pause for just long enough for Raichu to come crashing in with another devastating Wild Charge. The two Pokémon tumbled onto the ground, with Jynx twitching repeatedly as she became overloaded with electricity.
"Discharge, Raichu!"
Still grappling onto the fallen Jynx, Raichu let out a huge Discharge of electricity, the shock exploding outwards from its position. Jynx was forced to take the full brunt of the attack and let out a cry of pain that was quickly silenced by the fact that the paralysis prevented it from making any noise.
Jynx was in a horrible position, being pinned under a Raichu and almost completely paralyzed by the sheer amount of electricity that she had been hit by.
But despite the position she was in, Raichu looked like it was about to fall over too. It was panting heavily, and its arms drooped to the side as sweat rolled down its face. It must have pushed itself to the extreme to fire those powerful moves out in succession like that.
"AGAIN!"
But Surge knew that Jynx still had some fight left in her, and so he ordered Raichu to attack one last time. Raichu strained itself to the limit, its face twisted in exertion, as it let out one last explosion of electricity that nearly blinded the screen. That surge of electricity rapidly overwhelmed the Jynx and she fell unconsciousness.
"That was quick." Cynthia commented as she sat down next to me, making me scoot over to the side a bit. It was then that I just realized that Cynthia wasn't wearing her signature coat, instead wearing a light blue shirt and pants. They clearly were her indoors clothes, and I couldn't help but stare at her exposed arms for a bit longer than usual.
And then, realizing what I was doing, I shook myself out of it, "Surge definitely embodies his typing." I replied, hoping she didn't notice my staring, "His Raichu was all speed and power. That was a very quick knockdown." But judging on the lack of surprise on Lorelei's face, I guess she expected something like this.
I was still confident in Lorelei's victory, but she was coming in with a partial type disadvantage. Most of her Ice types were also half-Water, so a significant part of her team were weak to Electric attacks.
"Looks like it's run out of steam though." Cynthia pointed out, as the camera focused on Raichu, panting as it kneeled on the floor on all fours. "Might not last much longer."
"You're right…but why isn't Surge switching it out?" I questioned. I thought Surge would have immediately swapped out his Raichu, retiring it so that he could start the next round with a completely fresh Pokémon. But he seemed insistent on leaving Raichu out on the field.
And as Lorelei sent out her next Pokémon, her Slowbro, he still made no move to withdraw his Raichu.
"Not withdrawing his Raichu's a mistake." Cynthia commented, and I couldn't help but agree. Facing off against a completely fresh Pokémon with a tired and battered Raichu that looked like it was about to fall over was ASKING to be set up on.
Which was exactly what Lorelei did, "Calm Mind, Slowbro. Ignore it and setup."
"Thunder, Raichu!"
Instead of the huge spears of Lightning that it had fired earlier, the incoming Thunder was far more pathetic in size, easily being blocked by the earlier Light Screen. This left Slowbro completely free to continue setting up with its Calm Mind, ignoring the meagre attacks that it hardly even felt.
"Yawn, Slowbro."
"Charge up and Thunder again!"
Surge remained stubbornly insistent and got his Raichu to begin gathering up energy. But it could only do so slowly, as it was so exhausted at this point that even channelling electricity became difficult for it. And worse, as soon as Slowbro hit Raichu with a Yawn, Raichu immediately fell asleep, not even bothering to resist the wave of sleepiness.
"GET UP, RAICHU! NO SOLDIER SLEEPS ON THE JOB!" Surge tried to order, but Raichu was simply too tired to get up.
And now Lorelei was given free reign to continue setting up with her Slowbro, who continued channelling Calm Mind until Raichu woke up. Which didn't happen for a while, which practically allowed Slowbro to set up to the max.
"No offense, but Surge has doomed himself." Cynthia said with a frown, and I didn't disagree. I was also surprised at Surge's stubbornness, even if I had heard rumours of the same before.
No, this wasn't stubbornness. This was idiocy. What was this?!
It was only after Slowbro had already maxed out both its Special Attack and Special Defense that Raichu finally managed to wake up. Surge immediately ordered another Thunder, trying to make use of the newfound energy to hit Slowbro hard.
Unfortunately, with all that setup done, the Thunder barely even tickled Slowbro despite its type weakness, and a single boosted Psychic immediately knocked out Raichu, who was still too tired to dodge in time. The sheer force from that attack sent Raichu flying, and it crashed into the Psychic barriers, undoubtedly knocked out.
"Does Surge have anything that resists Ice and Psychic?" Cynthia asked.
"…Maybe his Magnezone? I think he has one of those." I replied after thinking over Surge's Pokémon. "It's either that or just your standard Magneton."
"He's screwed if he doesn't send it out." Cynthia said firmly, completely confident in her analysis. "Not returning Raichu might have cost him the entire match. I have no idea why he didn't do so."
And true enough, Cynthia words proved prophetic. The next Pokémon that Surge sent out was his Electrode. At first, it made a very impressive display of its speed, easily outspeeding and dodging past the few Ice Beams and Psychics that were shot its way. But dodging was all it could do.
Every single one of Electrode's attacks were just shrugged off. It didn't matter how hard it tried, it couldn't hit hard enough after Slowbro had boosted itself to the max like that. And to add insult to injury, once Lorelei saw that Electrode was unable to harm her Slowbro, she got Slowbro to also start setting up to Iron Defense as well, just to raise its Defense as well.
It was only when Lorelei had set up with Iron Defense too that it finally got through Surge's bullheadedness, and his eyes widened slightly as he finally realized how bad of a situation he was in. But to his credit, he switched tactics instantly and without hesitation.
"Explode, Electrode."
Without any warning, his Electrode instantly detonated, blinding all of us again with a harsh explosion of light. But instead of a regular Explosion, this one sent out a flood of electricity in every direction that the psychic barriers strained to contain. And even with all the defensive buffs, I saw Slowbro stagger backwards as the torrent of electricity flooded through it. There was no way it wasn't paralyzed from that.
Of course, that meant Electrode was out of the fight, and Cynthia continued to provide her helpful commentary. Some might have been disliked the interruption, but I was just happy to listen to her.
"He just wanted to paralyze Slowbro and switch out of Electrode." She thought aloud, having figured out Surge's thought process, "Sure, he could have used Volt Switch and Thunder Wave, but there was no guarantee that Electrode could avoid taking any hits while it tried to use those 2 attacks. This way, Surge guarantees the paralysis and the switch without any risk. I'd praise him for his decisiveness, if nothing else. Though it's probably a bit too late."
So just like we thought he would, Surge went out his Magnezone next. Instantly, the Magnezone Locked-On to the Slowbro and the arena was dominated by the sounds of cannon fire as it immediately began firing off an enormous barrage of Zap Cannons while bolts of Thunder hammered down onto Slowbro from above. Each shot creating a sonic boom as the Zap Cannons whipped forwards like cannonfire.
Cynthia whistled impressively as she watched the Magnezone unleash its full firepower, "Powerful stuff. More than what I would expect from a Gym Leader. I think Volkner is more formidable though."
In response, Slowbro froze the entire arena in a freezing Blizzard, the power of which instantly caused most of the surrounding ground to freeze over with a layer of ice. With the sheer number of buffs on Slowbro, Magnezone's Steel typing was the only thing keeping it in the fight as it was constantly battered by the freezing winds. Frost crystals rapidly creeped up Magnezone's steely exterior, and it became a race to see who could knock the other Pokémon out.
Would Magnezone's repeated barrage of Thunders and Zap Cannons overwhelm the overbuffed Slowbro? Or would Slowbro be able to tank through the attacks and freeze Magnezone over with its buffed Blizzard?
The answer, once again, came down to stamina. Magnezone started strong with its attacks, with each explosion of lightning tearing holes into the ground as the Thunders came crashing down like they were Arceus' wrath. The Zap Cannons were shot forwards with such force that they easily pierced through the Blizzard like it was nothing more than paper. Of course, it helped that Slowbro, for all of its buffed defenses, was still WEAK to Electric attacks.
But Magnezone could not sustain that intensity of attack for long. And being slowly frozen over was not helping its stamina. Therefore, as the fight carried on, Magnezone slowly succumbed to the biting frost as it quickly tired out and its attacks gradually grew weaker. The once powerful storms of Thunder became regular bolts of electricity; still powerful, but far less so.
On the other hand, Slowbro was hindered by the stifling paralysis that severely restricted its ability to both concentrate on maintaining the Blizzard as well as fire off additional attacks to follow up. At first, I thought that it was unusual for an Elite Pokémon to be having so much trouble with a paralysis, but I reminded myself that this was Surge.
His version of paralysis was obviously going to be far more debilitating than usual.
Ultimately, it was Magnezone that fell first. With the growing frost having spread like an infection and completely enveloped its outer shell, Magnezone fell to the ground in a solid, frozen lump. It was nothing more than a frozen statue before a final blast of Psychic shattered that ice, simultaneously finishing off the Magnezone and securing the second knockout for Slowbro.
But Slowbro was given no time to recover as Surge, in what some might consider as a unsportsmanlike move, instantly withdrew his Magnezone and sent out his Manetric to fire off a burst of Thunderbolts that caught and struck Slowbro completely unawares.
Not having any time to heal, and coupled with the injuries that it built up over the past fight, the overbuffed Slowbro finally collapsed onto the ground, twitching from the overload of electricity. It was finally out of the fight.
There was some booing at his actions, but Surge only smirked unrepentantly at his victory. Next to me, I felt Cynthia turn to me with a questioning look, as if to ask what I felt about this.
"I'd have done the same. In fact, I had ALREADY done the same against Drake." I replied with a shrug, "You have to do what you have to do to win."
"…I suppose you do." Cynthia muttered, "Sometimes, when victory is all that matters, you have to do everything to win. Ambition can be ugly sometimes, don't you think?"
I felt like she was talking about something else and not the match that was happening in front of us. "Something the matter?" I couldn't help but ask.
She smirked, "I'm sure you could figure it out."
I could. Especially after she told me earlier that she had been speaking to Flint and Lucian over the past few days. Coupled with her performance against me, and from what I knew from my metaknowledge, it wasn't hard to guess. She was making a play for Champion.
She had likely been communicating with Lucian and Flint to ensure a smooth transition in the case that she actually managed to win.
"I think you'll do great." Was all I said, "Ambition isn't bad, not when it is used for a good purpose. And I definitely think you're acting for the best interests of all."
"Thank you. I'm glad you think so too. But don't worry, I'm going into this with both eyes open. I know what I'm getting into, and I WILL cherish the opportunity." She said, her smirk turning into a smile that just radiated with confidence. As if she had never had any doubts about what she wanted to do.
Her eyes were the same, utterly brimming with determination and ambition. This was a look of someone who recognized the thorny road ahead but was still willing to traverse it.
Nay, not traverse, but conquer it.
Seeing this confidence and drive to achieve her goals caused my heart to beat just a little faster, and I had a hard time tearing my gaze away from the determination that blazed in her eyes. Cynthia was not someone who needed much encouragement, only direction. And at this moment, as I felt her resolve and determination radiating out of her, there was only one thing I could think of.
This was the future Champion of Sinnoh. There could be no one else.
A.N. And Lorelei v Surge begins! Surge is exactly what you would expect from him, I hope, which is that he hits hard, moves fast, and is all about bursting his opponents down. Unfortunately, while this tactic certainly works well against lesser opponents, it struggles when against opponents that could withstand his initial onslaught to wear him down overtime. Also, he's extremely stubborn. That's already bit him in the ass, but it will continue to do so as well.
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