Whitney's Team
Miltank
Whismur
The New Normal – 4-16 – INTERLUDE: WHITNEY
"Use Rollout, Miltank! Win this for me!" She yelled out. Her Miltank mooed and obeyed as she dodged under a swipe of Tyrant's arms and crashed into him with her Rollout.
"Transition it into a Brick Break, Miltank!" She directed.
"PROTECT!" Her brother yelled out in panic.
Her Miltank's arm descended, slicing cleanly through the Protect shield and hitting Tyrant hard in the face.
"Finish it off with a Body Press!" Her Miltank mooed once again as she pounced onto the stumbling Tyrant, ready to finally finish it off and grant her the victory…
*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*
Whitney groaned as she was forcefully snapped out of her dream by the wail of her phone's alarm. She cursed at how busy the Gyms were that she was forced to book her match for early in the morning. She was not as much of a heavy sleeper as Karen, but she doubted anyone liked being dragged out of the bed as soon as the sun rose.
It also didn't help that the beds in the Cerulean Pokécenter were nowhere near as comfortable as her bed at home; she should have taken the offer to stay at home with her family a few days ago so that she could enjoy the comfort of her own bed instead of being so insistent. But it was too late now.
Both she and Sabrina had handily defeated Flint for the Boulder Badge. And to be honest, he was kind of disappointing. Even though Whitney restricted herself to only using her Whismur, it was far too easy to just dodge around in a circle while firing off Echoed Voices until Flint's Geodude fainted.
Whitney had honestly expected more of a challenge, though she supposed it was only the First Gym badge and those were meant to be easy. Still though, Sabrina had utterly stomped the fight with her Kadabra, and she also made comments about how disappointingly simple it was.
Perhaps they would find more challenges later.
Then Whitney suddenly got a surge of new energy as she remembered what she and Sabrina had been doing yesterday. The two of them had been training around Route 5, and to Whitney's immense luck, she managed to catch two new additions to her team.
Yes, her brother had repeatedly told her to be careful with catching new Pokémon and to always ensure that they would actually fit her team, but Whitney was just too caught up in the excitement at the time. Oh well, at least from what she saw yesterday everything seemed fine between them.
But her Hoothoot and Jigglypuff were just SOOO CUTEE!
Coupled with the fact that she had a Gym fight to catch against the Cerulean Gym, Whitney managed to motivate herself enough to force herself out of her bed to complete her morning ablutions. With that out of the way, she went to wake up her friend, since her match was straight after hers.
"Sabrina! Are you awake?" She knocked on her door, before she heard a thump like something had just been thrown at the door. Whitney frowned and knocked even louder this time. "If you don't wake up then we won't make it to the fight. Hurry up! We still need to eat breakfast!"
Eventually, her door unlocked itself and Whitney was greeted with the sight of Sabrina's room. She was still lying on the bed asleep, her black hair tangled in a great mess, looking nothing like her normally put-together appearance.
Evidently, she had unlocked the door psychically, and yet still refused to get up. Whitney sighed and decided to take matters into her own hands.
"Come on then, let's get you up." She poked and prodded her friend with her fingers, trying to tickle her awake. She saw Sabrina's mouth curl upwards as Whitney continued to tickle her, until suddenly Whitney felt a weight press down on her and she became unable to move her body.
Normally, losing complete control of your body like this would be a cause for concern, but despite the short time she's spent with Sabrina, Whitney was already used to it and simply sighed. Besides, she was starting to get the hang of breaking free from the Psychic hold.
"Come on, Sabrina, if you're already using this much Psychic power then you can wake yourself up. Also, how many times do I have to tell you that it's rude to restrain someone like that?" She scolded softly, causing Sabrina to frown and release her.
"…Sorry." Sabrina quietly apologized, but that was enough for Whitney to adopt a beaming smile. She never used to apologize for using her Psychic powers like this; it was a huge improvement!
"You actually apologized, WOOO!" She exclaimed happily as she hugged her friend, ignoring her muffled protests as Sabrina tried to bury herself deeper into the pillow. "We're making progress! Okay, come on then, let's celebrate this with a nice breakfast and another Gym Badge. Let's go let's GOOO!"
With much reluctance, Sabrina finally pulled herself out of bed and started to prepare herself for the day ahead. Since she never explicitly kicked Whitney out of her room, she stayed to observe how Sabrina used her psychic powers to levitate objects to her so that her hands could remain free; she was pretty jealous about that.
After Sabrina got ready, the two of them went downstairs to have a quick breakfast. They still had some time before their match, so they didn't need to rush through breakfast.
"Your brother is on the news again." Sabrina suddenly spoke up as she gestured to the TV. Whitney had quickly told Sabrina about who her brother was after they both got the Boulder Badge, but Sabrina was hardly surprised. Considering Whitney's far above average strength, Sabrina told her that it was obvious that her brother was likely a very powerful trainer.
Whitney didn't know if those high expectations were a good thing or not.
Regardless, Whitney turned and saw that, sure enough, there was a news report that mentioned her brother's recent participation in the first new policy of Lance's Championship.
"…coupled with the support of both Elite John and Elite Agatha, the Champion's deciding vote in the recent Committee meeting means that a new Elite Four member has been appointed, Will from Johto! There will be a swearing-in ceremony in two days' time, which will be streamed live on this channel. So please check it out!"
Huh. Her brother didn't tell her about this. But she supposed that a new Elite Four member wasn't something that she had to urgently know about. Was this what him and Gym Leader Giovanni were discussing at home? Either way, it was interesting, but nothing too important for her.
If it was important, then her brother would have likely called her on the phone by now.
Anyways, the two of them then continued to scarf down their breakfasts while they made some small talk.
"How are you feeling today, Sabie? Are you ready for the Cerulean Gym?" Whitney asked using the nickname she had given Sabrina. It had annoyed Sabrina at first, but now she was resigned to it. Whitney felt like she secretly enjoyed it but didn't want to admit it. Sabie was cute like that.
"All research points to the Waterflower sisters being far weaker than their father. We should have no problems." Sabrina stated casually, then sighed. "I had honestly hoped for more of a challenge."
Whitney tried not to let the disappointment show on her face as well, even though she completely agreed with her friend. All of her research pointed towards the new Gym Leaders of Cerulean not being the greatest of trainers. They seemed to be more focus on their, admittedly amazing, shows rather fulfilling their duties as actual Gym Leaders.
But Whitney would remain optimistic! Maybe the Waterflower sisters were just going through a few bad days; Whitney really wanted something that could give her Miltank the chance to go beyond her limits.
She put that out of her mind for a moment before she ate up the rest of her meal. She thanked Arceus that she was never a picky eater or else she likely would have starved to death on the first few days of her journey. Home-cooked food this was not.
A few minutes later, and Sabrina stood up from her seat, "Let's go. We should head there early." She said, and Whitney nodded, finishing up the last bite of her sandwich and joined her after wiping her mouth.
The two of them proceeded to the Cerulean Gym. She had seen it plenty of times since she had lived nearby, but it was still an impressive sight. Especially now that she had seen what the Pewter Gym looked like, which was just a large, slightly decaying, boulder; the Cerulean Gym had an artistic grandeur that really drew in crowds.
The inside of the Gym was no less grand. The Aquarium inside was amazing as always and was always filled with tourists. Whitney could see the appeal, though she would never visit one by herself.
Then the two of them entered into the main chamber of the Gym where the Gym fights took place, and she mentally kicked away all of those distractions. It was almost time for her Gym Fight!
The two of them waited patiently in the audience stands for a few minutes, though it didn't take long before it was their turn. Since Whitney went first last time, Sabrina had registered before Whitney this time around, so Sabrina went up first.
Before long, Sabrina had cleared through the very…'average' Gym Trainers practically unscathed. Her Natu blew past them without issue.
"Trainers, this will be a 2v2 2-badge match between challenger Sabrina and Gym Leader Daisy! There will be no switches!" The referee announced, but Sabrina looked as unfazed and as cool as usual.
"Trainers, are you ready?!" Both trainers nodded, "BEGIN!"
"Shellder, go!"
"Natu."
Oh? It looks like Sabrina was copying her strategy of not using her Kadabra first in order to make things more challenging for herself. Whitney smiled at that.
"Water Gun, Shellder!"
A small stream of water shot out from Shellder's mouth, but Natu was able to hop to the side and fire off a small Confuse Ray towards the Shellder. The ray of light struck the immobile Shellder head on, and things quickly devolved from there.
"Oh no! Snap out of it and Water Gun again, Shellder!"
But Natu didn't give Shellder to recover, and with a few quick blasts of Confusion knocked Shellder out and ended the fight.
And Daisy's next Pokémon fared no better either. This time it was a Seel, and while this time it managed to make use of the water within the Gym to manoeuvre around a lot quicker, Natu remained safely out of reach by continuing to fly high above the pool and eventually wearing down the Seel with Confusion. And just like that, Sabrina had won and earned herself the Cascade Badge.
And then it was Whitney's turn.
She similarly blew past the Gym Trainers without any difficulty; it was almost boring to see how her Whismur stomped past them with an Echoed Voice or two each. It was almost insulting to the training that she did!
…Regardless, she now found herself matching up against the Cerulean Gym Leader. Inwardly, she hoped that there would be a challenge.
"Trainers, this will be a 2v2 2-badge match between challenger Whitney and Gym Leader Violet! There will be no switches!" The referee announced, and Whitney forced herself to focus and to ignore the sense of inevitable disappointment in the back of her mind.
"Goldeen, come!"
"Whismur, it's your turn once again!"
Whitney chose to send out her Whismur instead of her newer captures as she felt that the latter weren't ready for a Gym Battle yet. As soon as the two Pokémon emerged from their Pokéballs, Whitney went on the offensive.
"Echoed Voice, Whismur!"
"Water Pulse, Goldeen!"
Violet tried to match Whismur's Echoed Voice with a Water Pulse of her own, but the sound waves fired off from Whismur actually blasted right through the Water Pulse, dispersing the water harmlessly onto the floor and slamming into the Goldeen.
"Echoed Voice again, Whismur!"
Whismur yelled out and fired off more sound waves at the Goldeen, who was still reeling from the previous attack. Thus, it was unable to form up any sort of defense and went down to the second Echoed Voice.
…That was disappointingly easy.
Whitney could see Violet grimace for a moment at Goldeen's defeat, but she didn't know whether that was out of shame or annoyance that her Pokémon fell so quickly. The Gym Leader withdrew her fallen Goldeen and sent out her next, and final, Pokémon.
"Come, Seel!"
…And yet another Seel came out onto the field, looking nearly identical to the one Sabrina faced. The Seel dove straight into the water to take advantage of its aquatic manoeuvrability. This turned out to be a huge mistake though, as Whismur's Echoed Voice actually travelled faster through water than through the air, and Seel was pummelled repeatedly by Whismur's sound waves.
In a last-ditch effort, the Seel leapt out of the water and tried to tackle into Whismur, but she dodged out of the way and slammed into it with a Pound to finish it off. Thus, Whitney was able to, quite easily, secure the Cascade Badge as well.
The two of them then made it out of the Gym, but Whitney was unable to hide the disappointment that she felt at her easy victory. Sabrina evidently caught on and tried to comfort her by awkwardly patting her on the shoulder, which caused Whitney to smile weakly at the attempt.
"…Thanks, Sabie. I'm ok, just thought that the fight was too easy." Whitney said sadly.
"I understand." Sabrina replied, before she levitated Whitney's phone from out of her belt. "Call your brother. You will feel better."
Whitney's smile turned thankful as she grabbed her phone out of the air and proceeded to dial up her brother. She agreed that venting to him would probably help.
"Hello? John speaking." Her brother said through the phone.
"John, are you free to talk right now?" Whitney said, trying to hide her sadness, "I want to tell you some things about my journey so far."
"Oh sure, sis, no problem!" John said happily, "Actually, are you still in Cerulean? If so, I'll pick you up and we can discuss at things over lunch if you haven't eaten yet."
"Oh, ummm…yeah sure!" Whitney replied, before she looked to her Sabrina and frowned, "Actually, is it okay if I bring a friend home with me? I'll feel bad if I leave her here by herself."
She could see Sabrina gesturing that she would be fine alone, but John responded first. "Sure! Feel free to bring your friend along. I'll be happy to meet them." Whitney let out a breath that she didn't even realize she was holding; it was nice to know that her brother was open to meeting her friends.
"Say, Whitney, where do you want to be picked up?" John asked, "Because if I just land in the center of Cerulean City then everyone's going to know who you are. I don't mind, personally, but it's up to you if you want that kind of attention."
Oh! Whitney hadn't even been thinking of that. While a part of her wanted to show off her relation to her brother, she realized that she had come to enjoy the anonymity for now and didn't want it exposed so quickly. So, she just told John that she would just walk home instead since it was pretty close. John accepted that and said that they'd be waiting for them at home, then hung up.
"Are you sure you want me at your house?" Sabrina spoke up, with an undercurrent nervousness under that usual blank façade, "I do not want to be intruding, after all."
"It's okay! Don't worry about it." Whitney reassured with a hug, "Come on, let's get going."
Sabrina made no further protests and the two of them proceeded to head back to her home. The walk took about half an hour, but that time flew by as the two continued making small talk together and discussing the battle that had just taken place.
Sabrina pointed out that she was a little surprised by the fact that Whitney didn't rely purely on physical attacks to win, saying that the way that Whismur won was very different to Miltank's fighting style. Whitney replied that John had taught her to not tunnel-vision yourself down one singular fighting path, and to make use of the Normal type's large moveset to come up with various different techniques and fighting methods.
"You know, when you meet him, you should ask him for some tips. John might not be a Psychic specialist, but I'm sure he knows a few things that could help you." She remarked. Her friend hummed thoughtfully at that.
Soon enough, the two of them arrived at the gate of her family home. And, just like before, John was there to greet them at the door, but this time he was accompanied by Karen.
Whitney immediately took off into a sprint and grabbed her brother into a hug. Karen just waved from the side.
"Hey, Whitney, good to see you again. Who's your friend?" She greeted, and Whitney broke herself out of the hug to greet Karen.
"It's good to see you too, Karen. And this is my new friend, Sabrina!" She introduced her friend to the two of them. She noticed both Karen and John's eyes widen almost imperceptibly, but it quickly went away.
"Hello, Sabrina, I'm John. You probably recognize me from somewhere." John greeted, extending his hand for a handshake. Sabrina narrowed her eyes at John.
"I cannot read your mind." Sabrina simply stated, and this caused both Karen and John to chuckle.
"That's not surprising. Trainers at our level are pretty resistant to type energy, so being able to resist mind reading is quite normal." Karen remarked, "Though I finally recognize why you look so familiar. You're the daughter of the Saffron Gym Leader, right?"
Sabrina nodded carefully, and Karen continued, "Ah, yes, you're that prodigy with all of that Psychic talent. Agatha's heard of you. Hmm…speaking of which, are you able to read your parents minds?"
"A little bit. Though it is harder than with children. I can pick up fragments of their thoughts." Sabrina responded, getting an approving nod from Karen.
"Fascinating. No wonder Agatha was so interested in you." Karen praised, causing Sabrina to blush slightly, "But, like I was saying, if you continue to develop your own powers as a Psychic, then perhaps you'll even able to glean OUR thoughts as well in the future. That would be remarkably impressive."
John clapped his hands, "Right. That's enough talk about that for now; let's not scare off Whitney's new friend, shall we?" Karen looked away sheepishly, "Come, sis, let's have lunch together. We can talk about your journey over some food. I have some news to tell you as well."
Then Whitney and Sabrina were invited into the house and sat themselves around the dining table. John informed them that both their parents were out in Johto for the moment to handle some business matters, so he himself prepared lunch with Karen.
While the two of them prepared lunch, Sabrina was fidgeting awkwardly in her seat. Whitney turned to her with a look of concern.
"Is there something wrong?" Whitney asked her.
"No. Not really." Sabrina admitted embarrassedly, "…It's just that I'm not used to having people so openly welcoming of me, outside of my family. Between you and your family, it is…unusual."
Karen spoke up from the kitchen before Whitney could, "I can understand that. When I first got started as a Dark type specialist trainer, I got weird looks from everyone because of the stigma that's attached to Dark type Pokémon as being 'evil' and 'untrustworthy'. People were afraid of me, and distrusted me, just because I liked using Dark type Pokémon and cause I was an orphan."
Sabrina nodded, evidently listening with rapt attention as Karen continued, "But then I met Agatha, my mentor, who didn't care at all about the Dark type stigma and took me in as her own granddaughter." She reminisced fondly, "And then I learnt not to care about how others look at you, so long as I was still loved by those that I cared about. And besides, that stigma against Dark types is not as bad now."
Sabrina fell silent as she pondered over Karen's words. Whitney kept staring at Sabrina with concern, but then Sabrina turned to Whitney and hugged her. The hug was stiff and awkward, but Whitney could feel how thankful Sabrina was to Whitney for taking her up as a friend, and so eagerly returned the hug to her first and closest friend.
The two of them stayed like that for a while before she heard the signature click of a phone camera.
Whitney quickly scrambled away from Sabrina to see her brother smiling while holding up his phone, having taken a picture of their hug.
"BRO!" She shouted out, embarrassed. Next to her, Sabrina was blushing red as well.
"Don't worry, sis, I'm sure that our parents would love to frame this photo somewhere in the living room. They'd love to see you spending time with your first friend." He laughed.
In embarrassment, Whitney shot out of her seat to grab his phone, but her stupidly tall brother simply held his phone too high for her to reach. She retaliated by pounding his stomach, to no avail. The picture was already sent.
"I'll get you back for this, John!" She swore to Arceus, but her brother just laughed off her threats and patted her on the head, leaving her to fume silently.
"Okay, okay, enough teasing your sister. Lunch is ready, so let's eat." Karen calmed everyone down, and the two of them made their way back to the seat. But not before Whitney kicked her brother in the shin once more, making him fake hobble as he pretended that he was in pain.
Then the four of them sat around the dining table to enjoy some home-cooked lunch. Even though it was just some Tauros steak and Miltank cheese sandwiches, she really did miss this.
As they ate, John asked the two of them how they had found their journey thus far, and while Whitney initially wanted to hide her disappointment from her brother, Sabrina made the choice for her.
"It has been quite disappointing, to be honest, John." She announced, causing both her brother and Karen to frown. "Before we came here, Whitney and I had just won our Cascade Badge, but the match against the Waterflower sisters were very disappointing."
"…I see." John replied seriously as he listened to Sabrina's description. He put down his sandwich and wiped his hands before he clasped them together, "Right, this actually segues into what I wanted to tell you, Whitney."
Whitney gave John a curious look as he explained, "Actually, there will be a new policy coming soon that will reduce the number of badges required to travel and capture new Pokémon from other regions from 4 to 2. Which means that, as soon as it's passed, you'll be able to travel to Johto to capture new Pokémon. Hoenn might not get changed though."
Sabrina and Whitney's eyes widened in surprise at that, but John wasn't done. "But not only that, I've realized that I should probably spend more effort building up Cerulean City now that I have the influence and power to do so. I've heard from a few people that the Cerulean Gym has been rather lacklustre recently, and I want to be looking into that to see if we can repair its reputation and to fix any problems. We don't want the League rescinding the Gym from Cerulean, after all."
Karen smirked at his words, "Are you finally going to be throwing your weight around?"
John nodded, "Yes. My reputation and power are solid enough to do so, and I might as well improve Cerulean since I am able to. I've already arranged to speak to Mayor Henry tomorrow."
Whitney spoke up with a question on her mind, "John, would the other Gyms be more difficult? I haven't really had a challenge for Miltank." She said gloomily.
"…Maybe. It's been a while since I challenged the Gyms, but I can say that Surge is probably going to give you some challenge." He answered consideringly, "Though remember what I told you. Your Miltank is far too strong for some of the earlier Gyms, so it's natural for you to not find it challenging. Don't let it get to you though, as I've repeatedly said, there are always stronger trainers ahead. You just need to find one."
"And finding a good training partner really helps." Karen added while gesturing to John, "I travelled to Hoenn to challenge the Gyms to get stronger, but I learnt just as much if not more just by practicing with John. If you can find a good partner to train with, you'll see some great progress with yourself and your Pokémon." She gave Sabrina a pointed look as she said that, and Whitney nodded at the implied meaning.
"Oh, and that reminds me." Her brother spoke up again, "If you and your friend plan to travel to Johto to train or catch more Pokémon, I suggest you not to challenge any of the Gyms." Whitney and Sabrina stared at him puzzlingly, "The reason why is because you should wait until you've cleared all of the 8 badges from Kanto before moving on to challenge the Johto Gyms. That way, you can challenge them at their strongest and go in blind, which should let you learn more from the battles."
"…That is some good advice, thank you." Sabrina replied with a slight bow, "I will keep that in mind for the future." Whitney nodded in agreement.
"Good. Now, while you're still here, what do you say we get in some training after you finish up on lunch? Maybe you can show off what you've learnt so far on your journey? I have something cool to show as well." John suggested, and Whitney's head bobbed excitedly, causing John and Karen to chuckle.
"Oh, and Sabrina, feel free to join in too. You're Whitney's friend, so you're always welcome here." He added, getting a shy, but genuine smile out of Sabrina.
The four of them proceeded to chow down their lunch before they made their way to the training yard to train.
A.N. Unsurprisingly, Whitney is having difficulties finding a challenge in the first few Gyms, but that's just because she truly is way too overprepared. Whoops! Things will get harder for her though in the future. And she'll face greater fights.
I hope you enjoyed the interactions! Sabrina and Whitney are becoming closer friends, and likely lifelong partners.
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!