A.N Thanks to the support my Pa tr eons and my extra free time, I've decided to try to write Omakes that will MOSLTY be canon to be uploaded every week on Wednesday (though this may change if I don't have the time). They will (hopefully) be around this length, and if you have any suggestions for the future, I would love to see them.
The New Normal – 2-10 – Interlude – Drake
Hanging up the phone with John, Drake sat back in his chair and thought about his upcoming battle against John.
As soon as he heard that the Hoenn League was finally arranging something interesting for once, he had hopped on board and volunteered to be the one to battle John. Like he said to John, the other Elite Four members were mostly ambivalent, but Glacia had also wanted the opportunity.
He could understand her reasons, Glacia was a very sheltered individual who hadn't been really able to visit other regions, so being given an opportunity to battle a foreigner was a particularly appealing for her.
However, Drake wouldn't let his sympathy get in the way of a good challenge. Well, that's not true, he DID feel bad for taking away Glacia's opportunity, and did promise to make it up to her some other time.
Despite Drake's gruff exterior, he knew that he did care in his own way for his fellow colleagues in the Elite Four.
He then decided that he should probably get started on actually researching John's team. He couldn't be doing his best if he didn't know what he would be facing, after all.
After a quick few minutes of research, Drake realized that it was surprisingly difficult to find good clips of John's previous battles. Sure, it was easy enough to find his recent battles against Norman and Shin during the Indigo Conference, but any further than that was really stretching Drake's ability to make use of all this new-fangled technology.
He supposed he could have asked one of his more tech-savvy colleagues to help him, like Sidney, but that might be a bit too embarrassing for even him to do. He'd just get called an old man again.
Well, accepting that he might have to just work with what he had found out so far, Drake began compiling information about John's team.
Unsurprisingly, Drake placed most of his attention on John's trio of bruisers, his Snorlax, Ursaluna, and ESPECIALLY his Slaking. While Drake himself had never fought against Norman or his Slaking, he still recognized that to be able to become a Gym Leader, your Pokémon must certainly be strong and well-trained.
Yet, despite this, John's Slaking was about to throw Norman's Slaking around like it was nothing. He watched the recording of the fight a few times, and he was certain that John's Slaking had hardly broken a sweat after defeating the other Slaking. Drake was undoubtedly wary about facing off against such a powerful Pokémon, but he remained confident that his Salamence was up to the task.
Fortunately, most of John's remaining Pokémon weren't nearly as threatening in Drake's opinion. He dismissed John's Blissey and Clefable as threats to his team, because though he was sure that they were likely strong in their own right, he was certain that they wouldn't be able to match up against the raw strength of his team. He was not trying to be dismissive, but he knew that Blissey and Clefable just lacked the power to knock out his Pokémon.
Similarly, while his Pidgeot and 'Wyrdeer', that new Deer Pokémon of his, were powerful Elites of their own, he didn't think that they were anything special over another Elite-level Pokémon. That didn't mean they weren't threats, but that Drake was confident that he could handle them without too much difficulty. His Flygon would be ready and waiting.
Of course, that just left his Snorlax and Ursaluna. He was concerned about Snorlax's endurance, but again, he mostly saw the Snorlax as just another strong Elite-level Pokémon that didn't really have any standout ability or moves. It certainly fought well and hard, and could tank powerful attacks, but Drake's entire team was built around those exact same ideas, so Drake wasn't too worried.
However, there was a distinct lack of information about John's Ursaluna. Not only was it a relatively new discovery by John himself, meaning that there wasn't that much information available about its battling abilities, but John also didn't really use his Ursaluna in any of his recent battles that Drake could find.
Drake didn't like being left in the dark, but he could say with some confidence that at least his Ursaluna wouldn't be as strong as his Slaking. That was cold comfort, since he predicted that he would struggle to find some way to counter John's Slaking, but he supposed that John would be saving his Slaking until he sent out his Salamence, for a starter vs starter fight.
Drake then suddenly had an amusing realisation, the two of them probably had very similar fighting styles, in that they both preferred to get close with their Pokémon and brawl. It was a rather mindless method of attacking, but Drake was very interested to see who would win in a brawl between their Pokémon.
Drake would bet that his Dragons would be the ultimate victors.
A.N Slight foreshadowing, and hope you enjoyed it! Again, I'll try to upload these shorter OMAKES every Wednesday.
Also, for clarification, both John and Drake are training very hard for their upcoming fight and aren't just lazing off. Just wanted to make it clear in case it was vague in the previous chapter!
EDIT: THIS IS A CANON OMAKE AND IVE CHANGED IT TO SHOW THAT. I didn't want to label it 'interlude' because these are supposed to be much shorter chapters so you can distinguish them easily enough.