John's Team
Tyrant - Slaking
Vordt - Ursaluna
Smough - Snorlax
Klee - Blissey
Port - Mantine
Zephyr - Pidgeot
Klaus - Wyrdeer
Luna - Clefable
Pixel - Porygon2
Euphie - Eevee
Ornstein - D-Zigzagoon
The New Normal – 4-17 – Local Developments
The four of us made our way to the yard. I was very happy to see that Whitney had made a friend, even if that friend was the future Gym Leader of Saffron. Sabrina was far from the emotionless doll-creating Psychic that she was in canon and seemed to be far easier to embarrass and poke fun of.
I won't deny that I was initially concerned about Whitney's first choice of friend, but just by reading their body languages during our meal was enough to tell me that they had grown very close. Even without considering the political benefits of their friendship, I truly did hope that they would stay close friends for life.
Not only that, but I was confident that Sabrina was going to be good for Whitney's potential as a trainer, both as a friend and rival. I was fortunate that meta-knowledge allowed me to grow even without a rival, but I could see that Whitney desperately needed one to continue to push herself further.
I could not be that person for her. I was more of a goal for her to work towards, rather than a rival.
I broke away from those thoughts as we arrived at the training fields. Before I could say anything, Whitney dashed forwards and released her new Pokémon.
"All of you, come out!" She said excitedly, as her Miltank, Whismur, Hoothoot and Jigglypuff came out. Not overly surprising choices, and they were fairly common in the routes that she should have explored.
Still, I made sure to react appropriately, "Wow, Whitney, you've already caught 4 Pokémon already!" Then I gave her an inspecting look, "Are you sure they'd work and get along well with your team?"
Whitney gave me a sheepish look, but Karen spoke up first, "Come on John, lay off it." She turned to Whitney, "Ignore your brother's nagging. Congratulations on all those captures. It's a good start for any trainer."
Whitney smiled at Karen and ditched me as she began to spout out happily about how cute her new Pokémon were. I smiled as I idly listened to her rambling before I turned to Sabrina, who had been remaining silent.
"Hey, Sabrina, thanks for being friends with my sister. It does mean a lot." I said to her as I shot her a grateful smile. I saw a hint of red appear on her cheeks as she refused to meet my eyes.
"It is no problem, John. Whitney…has helped me a lot with my own issues, so I am grateful for her friendship." She replied, trying to hide her embarrassment. I could guess what those issues were, and if we could see a less psychically insane Sabrina, all the better. Still, I thanked her regardless and told her that I hoped to see them staying as friends into the future.
"John, John! Didn't you say you had something cool to show me!?" Whitney shouted out, as she ran over and shook my arm impatiently. I rolled my eyes at her impatience, but grinned.
"Fine, fine." I grabbed Pixel's Premier Ball, "Say hello to the all-new Pixel!" I released my new Porygon2.
Whitney's eyes widened comically as she saw the newly evolved form of Pixel. Even Sabrina's eyebrow rose slightly, which was probably what was considered to be a surprised reaction from her.
"Pory! Pory!" Pixel preened at the attention, before it then swooped down to greet Whitney's Whismur, as if to show off its new form to its former sparring partner.
"Whismur? Whis?" Whismur asked.
"Porygon! Gon!" Pixel replied, reassuring Whismur that she would be evolving soon enough.
"How much stronger is it?" Whitney asked as she excitedly observed my new Porygon2. Karen answered before I did.
"It was sparring against my Corphish, and my Corphish didn't stand a chance. It really has gotten a lot stronger from before it evolved." Karen remarked.
I clapped my hands together before we could get even more distracted, "Right, since we still have a bit of time together before I assume you and Sabrina will be making your way to Vermillion, why don't we get in some light sparring with some of our weaker Pokémon?"
Both new trainers brightened at my suggestion, "Yes! I can't wait to show off my newer Pokémon! How are we doing this, bro?" Whitney exclaimed excitedly.
"I think both Ornstein and Euphie would make appropriate sparring partners for your newer Pokémon, and maybe we could have both Whismur and Corphish challenge Pixel 2v1?" I suggested, "Sabrina, what Pokémon do you have?"
Instead of replying, she sent out her Kadabra and Natu. I nodded when I saw them.
"Right, then we could have Natu vs Karen's Carvanha. And with Kadabra and Miltank…let's have the both of them fight against Klaus. I think they would get the most out of that." I said, and everyone seemed to nod at my suggestion.
We got all of our Pokémon together and split them up into their assigned groups, and then we set them loose and they began sparring together. I made sure to keep an eye on everything to prevent any unnecessary injuries.
Going from the least to most skilled of the battles, I started with Ornstein and Euphie vs Jigglypuff and Hoothoot. My Pokémon were winning pretty handily, unsurprisingly, both in terms of teamwork and strength. Still, I was glad to see that Whitney's new Jigglypuff and Hoothoot weren't overly prideful Pokémon or have other potentially inhibiting characteristics or traits. They obviously needed a lot of work before they would become strong, but I was confident that Whitney was up to the task.
Moving on, Natu vs Carvanha was a pretty even stalemate. Natu had the mobility and range, but it was far worse in close range than Carvanha. Natu was forced to keep its distance and harass Carvanha at a distance, but Karen hadn't neglected Carvanha's training, and it was able to dodge past most of the attacks using Aqua Jet to move around even while out of the water.
And when my eyes turned to Pixel's fight against Whismur and Corphish, I noticed a very interesting sight. Pixel had been handily winning the fight with its now superior stats and firepower, especially now that I taught it Psychic with the gifted TM, it dominated both foes for the first part of the match.
Yet, things began to change. Despite being blasted by a Psychic, Corphish stumbled backwards but refused to go down. He glared defiantly at his old sparring partner, and I wondered what it was doing before I noticed one of its claws started to glow with Dark energy.
Pixel didn't spot this and fired off another Psychic. But this time, Corphish was ready. He cleaved through the incoming Psychic with a Night Slash, nullifying the incoming attack and suddenly putting him in a great position to land a follow up attack on Pixel as he immediately committed into an Aqua Jet and launched itself forwards.
Pixel immediately retaliated with a powerful Thunderbolt that struck the incoming Corphish supereffectively, but to my surprise, Corphish defiantly stayed standing. Instead, he started glowing with a harsh white light, and I heard a gasp from Karen as she saw what was happening.
The white light glowed even brighter, grabbing everyone's attention as many of the other battles paused to look. Eventually, as the light settled, a Crawdaunt emerged with a blisteringly fast Aqua Jet that slammed straight into a blinded Pixel, knocking it backwards.
Whismur, who had previously been lying low due to her injuries, chose to reveal herself at this very moment and screamed out a powerful Uproar that crashed into a defenseless Pixel. Still, with its now improved defenses, Pixel was barely able to stay afloat. But Whismur seemed to grow even more determined at Pixel's endurance, and she stood tall once more and unleashed another Uproar. As she did so, she too began to glow with a harsh white light.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And considering the shocked gasp from everyone else, neither could they. A Loudred roared out from within the white light, blasting Pixel with yet another Uproar.
But this time, the newly evolved Loudred was able to put even more power into her Uproar, and this boost in power was finally able to knock Pixel out. As soon as Pixel fainted, loud cheers emerged from the spectators as they congratulated the two newly evolved Pokémon for their victory. I joined in on their enthusiasm; I felt that it was well-deserved considering the amount of training I knew they both put in.
"That was incredible." Karen breathed out, "I knew Corphish was close to evolving, but I didn't think he would evolve in such a spectacular way." I nodded in agreement as I went to check up on Pixel. It was fine, just knocked out.
Whitney was far less circumspect, and immediately went and gave her new Loudred a big hug, who simply laughed happily at her trainer. A quick glance at the Loudred revealed that she was far more confident than when she was a Whismur, and I hoped that Loudred would serve Whitney well in her Gym Challenge.
After that, I gave the two newly evolved Pokémon and their trainers space to inspect the new changes. I went to Sabrina who had been silently concentrating on the match between the resumed fight between Klaus against Kadabra and Miltank, but it was a bit of a curbstomp.
Miltank and Kadabra might be Whitney's and Sabrina's respective aces, but Klaus was far above them as an Elite level Pokémon. Still, I noticed that Sabrina was not upset at how one-sided the fight was, but instead was intensely staring at Klaus' use of Psychic moves.
I decided to not interrupt her and allow her to learn as much as she could. I admitted that my knowledge of Psychic moves was limited to what I knew from meta-knowledge and wasn't comparable to a true Psychic prodigy like Sabrina. So, I left her to it. Maybe she'd learn something.
Overall, we had a very productive training session, and considering this was my second one today after I had just finish thinking up custom moves with Karen, I was exhausted.
The next day, Whitney and Sabrina had sadly already left the house as they began making their way to Vermillion City. They stayed the night, with two of them sharing a bed together, which I felt was cute.
Before they left though, I had quickly written up some very rough notes about possible training techniques for Whitney's Loudred. I mentioned that she was capable of attacking on both the physical and special side, so equal emphasis should be placed on both areas of training. I didn't have anything for Sabrina, unfortunately, but she still thanked me for allowing her to observe Klaus up close. I wondered what she had learnt from that.
But today I had an appointment to keep with Mayor Henry of Cerulean City in the late afternoon. I had a few proposals in my head, and I hoped he would be an amenable guy. Or at least, I hoped he would be accommodating of my status as a member of the Elite Four.
I flew on Port and soon arrived at the main government building of Cerulean, where the mayor was. Before I could even land, I saw a swarm of reporters that were already ready and waiting for my arrival.
It seems like someone had leaked my appointment to the press. Honestly, that was to be expected of a government functionary.
I pushed my way into the building, ignoring the many camera flashes and hordes of eager reporters trying to get a quote out of me. I was sure they would be waiting for me to come out, so I was going to have to avoid them again.
As I entered the building, I was promptly escorted by a stern, no-nonsense looking receptionist to Mayor Henry's office. Soon enough, I found myself knocking on his door and being let in to meet him.
"Elite John, it's a pleasure to finally meet you in person." The mayor greeted as we shook hands. He was younger than the other cities' mayors, probably somewhere around his late thirties, which I hoped would be a good thing.
"Mayor Henry, it's good to meet you too. And I apologize for the short notice." I said, as we both sat down opposite each other. I noticed that his office was heavily decorated, but not with luxuries and displays of wealth, but rather with pictures of Pokémon. I even recognized some photos were taken from recent contests in Hoenn.
"Now, what can I do for you?" He asked, maintaining a friendly smile. "I'm sure an ambitious buck like you must have had a reason to meet me."
"True enough." I chuckled, liking his friendliness, "To be honest, I came here for two reasons. The first, I want to help out with the development of Cerulean and its future. More specifically, I aim to transform Cerulean into the cultural hub of Kanto. Secondly, I want to ensure that the Cerulean Gym is receiving any help that they might need to maintain the high standards required of all Gyms."
Henry rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Well I can't really help you on the second part, though I can give you the Waterflower sisters contact details if that would help?" I nodded and he quickly jotted them down and passed it to me. "But I am very intrigued about how you intend to turn Cerulean City into the cultural hub of Kanto. Please, I would like to hear more." He offered.
I smiled, "Right, well that comes in two parts. The first part is the trickier bit, where I would be suggesting hosting contests from Hoenn in Cerulean. I will be making this proposal to the Champion, who if he accepts, would forward this to the Committee to see if it would be pushed through."
"And do you think it is likely to be passed?" Henry interrupted curiously.
"I am confident that it would." I stated firmly, "That's because this is the perfect way of improving our damaged inter-regional relations with Hoenn. It costs Indigo very little, and it's the ideal puff piece for the headlines. I'm fairly certain that it would be approved by the Committee. Champion Lance would love it too as it earns him brownie points with the Hoenn League and separates him further from Pryce."
"But this project might be very costly for Cerulean. Contest halls are big investments for cities." Henry warned concerningly, and I nodded.
"Perhaps. But I do have a workaround. I think it would be fairly easy to persuade the Committee that the Indigo League should sponsor the construction of the contest halls as an act of good faith to Hoenn. After all, it would hardly be a drop in the budget of the Indigo League. That way, they'll get the credit for it, and we in Cerulean get free Contest Halls. Again, it's a cheap way for them to generate good headlines." I explained.
Mayor Henry leaned back on his chair as he pondered what I had told him. After a moment, he responded with a grin. "I like it. If everything goes as well as you say it will, which I believe it would, then yes, I'm definitely on board with this plan. Cerulean City has always gravitated towards the arts, and I believe that this would further solidify our status within Kanto."
I smiled back at him, pleased to see his acceptance of my plan. Then I continued, "Thank you. The second part of the plan is more small-scale, but it involves the establishment of a sponsorship program for the purpose of promoting the arts. Now, while I'm no expert at this, I could foresee the benefits of things like sponsoring small tournaments with modest prize pools, setting up a museum for the appreciation of our artistic culture, or even sponsoring talented individuals so that they may continue participating in contests. Although we might not see any immediate benefits, I am confident that these would make Cerulean City a very attractive option for tourists with an eye for art and culture."
Henry frowned slightly, "These are good ideas, but how are we going to pay for all of this? The unfortunate reality is that Cerulean City just isn't as prosperous as something like Viridian City."
"Well, my family business is willing to offset some of the costs through charitable donations. Likewise, I'm sure I can think of some other businessmen who would want to attach their name to something like this." I replied, thinking of Giovanni. "After all, it's tax-deductible." That caused Henry to chuckle.
"Very clever." He praised, but then he leaned forwards. "Now, while I do like your plans, all you've given me are ideas. Good ideas, admittedly, but I have been in politics long enough to know that most good ideas are often killed by the realities of the world."
"I understand." I said easily, "I was just here to inform you about my ideas and whether you liked them or not. Since you find them agreeable, I'll work on my end to see them turned into a reality."
Henry looked at me consideringly, "…you're really like what the news says you are, aren't you?" I gave him a questioning look at that, causing him to chuckle, "Sorry, but I had initially thought that your reputation on the news was overblown at first. Thought they were putting you on a pedestal to show off how a new young face was doing some good in Indigo. But I can see now that I was mistaken with my first impression of you." He complimented.
I coughed sheepishly, "…well, uh, thank you for that. I am glad to have met your expectations." I simply said, trying to force away my embarrassment at his praise.
"Oops, my apologies." He laughed good-heartedly, "But yes, I'm looking forward to seeing these plans actually put in place." He handed me a slip of paper with his contact details, "Let's stay in touch. Please let me know how things progress."
We then exchanged thanks and then I left the office and the building. I dutifully ignored the swarm of reporters as I made my way home on Port. I was very pleased with the meeting with the mayor, it was a good first step, and I was glad to see that I could build a working relationship with him. That certainly made things easier.
As soon as I arrived home, I dialled up Lance.
"Lance speaking." He greeted on the phone.
"Lance, I have a proposal I would like for you to bring up in the next committee meeting." I began.
"Oh? Do tell. I thought we were going to be proposing your reduction to the 4-badge rule in the next meeting." He questioned.
"Yes, but I have another proposal for the meeting after that one, and I think you'll like it." I replied.
"Go on." He said, interest piqued.
"I understand that you've been looking for a way to restore our relations with Hoenn. Thus, I had an idea where we would build Contest Halls in Cerulean and invite participants from Indigo and Hoenn to participate, on our Pokédollar of course. After all, contests are a big thing there, and establishing contests here shows that we're willing to integrate with their culture and would serve as the perfect generator of good headlines for the news." I explained.
"Even better, I know that you're looking to push forwards your International Police proposal, so I think that this idea would be a great appetizer to whet the public's appetite for large-scale international cooperation. It's cheap too!" I added.
Silence descended on the call as I allowed Lance to ponder my proposal.
"…I like it." Lance replied after a moment, "I agree that this is just the kind of thing that we need. But why does it need to be established in Cerulean?" He asked pointedly.
"Well, that's because I want to turn Cerulean City into the cultural hub of Kanto." I replied, not intending to hide anything since I felt that Lance would respect my honesty better. "I just spoke to the mayor a few moments before calling you, and he was in favour of the idea after I suggested the same proposal to him."
"I see. Well, I can see why you want it in Cerulean." He remarked unoffended, and I could feel the gears churning in his brain, "Alright. How about this. I definitely like your idea, and since I previously promised you that I would be supportive of any ideas that you propose that would be of benefit to Indigo, then you have my support on this. However, if you want me to push for the Contest Halls to be developed in Cerulean, I'm going to need a direct promise from you to support my International Police idea."
I hesitated for a moment, but eventually agreed as I realized that getting Lance on board was necessary to ensure that the Contest Halls would actually be established in Cerulean. "Yes, sure. I will offer my public support for your International Police within reason, and I must be able to go over your proposal before it gets voted on by the Committee." I said to him.
"Agreed." Lance stated. "I had feared that some of the public and the committee might see my idea as overly dictatorial, so getting your public support on this would definitely calm their nerves."
He then asked if there was anything else he could help me with, and after I said no, he hung up after promising that he would discuss this idea with his counterparts in Hoenn and make sure that my proposal would come up in the next Committee meeting after this one.
I smiled as the call ended, pleased to see that there were no foreseeable problems with my plans. I really hoped to be able to enact my vision of Cerulean City; I think that it would both serve to help leave a family legacy behind as well as bolster Cerulean to become a vital pillar of Kanto.
Before I forgot though, I quickly dialled up Agatha as well.
"Oh, John? If you're looking for your girlfriend, I'm afraid you called the wrong number." Agatha answered with an audible smirk.
I ignored her, "Agatha, I have a new proposal that I want to get passed through the Committee. It involves building Contest Halls in Cerulean City and then inviting participants from Indigo and Hoenn to participate. I already have Lance on board, I just want to make sure that I would have your support, even if the two of us couldn't vote." I explained.
"Hmm…looking to play city builder, eh?" Agatha remarked, "Don't worry, boy, you'll get my support. I'll approve of your practice run. Now, is there anything else boy?"
I said no, and she hung up before I could ask what she meant by 'practice run'. Eh, probably wasn't a big deal.
"We're home!" My mom called out as she arrived home with my dad, shaking me out of my thoughts.
"Hey, just got back from Johto?" I asked as I turned around to greet my parents.
"Yeah, we had a look at the new location for the farm near Goldenrod. It looks good, and the price is acceptable, so we've already put a deposit down on it." My dad explained to me.
"Oh, great!" I remarked, "Glad to see that your efforts are going well too."
"How was your talk with the mayor?" My mom asked, "From what you said just now, it seems like it went well."
"Wait. Let us all get settled in first, and we'll discuss this over dinner." My dad cut in, and we all nodded.
Thus, over dinner, I proceeded to explain to my parents everything that I had discussed today with the mayor and Lance. I had already told them beforehand I was going to do so, since I needed their permission so that they would know about the potential sponsorship donation from our family business.
They weren't exactly eager to jump on board with the sponsorship discussions, but they agreed that the further development of Cerulean City could only be a good thing for us.
"Does that mean we're going to have a hall named after our family?" My dad jokingly asked, causing us to all laugh. We ultimately decided to table the discussion of sponsorships for later when more information was available.
After dinner ended, I headed up to my room and texted the Waterflower sisters using the contact details provided by Mayor Henry to ask if they were amenable to a meeting tomorrow. I emphasized that I was coming as a private citizen, and not under any capacity as an Elite Four member. I hoped that would ease any panic they might have had.
Just before I fell asleep, I got a text back from them letting me know to meet them early in the morning. I sent back an acknowledgement and went to bed.
I hoped tomorrow's meeting would be as fruitful as today.
A.N. Lots of things happening in this chapter, from the double evolutions to the local developments in Cerulean. Hope you've enjoyed!
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!