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-Zigzagoon
The New Normal – 7-5 – Further Developments
The grand opening of the Grand Fountain Hall turned out to be a great success, much to the happiness of mayor Henry. He practically had his next election in the bag just by riding on the coattails of this grand opening. Personally, I was happy for his re-election. I felt that that the two of us had an understanding and were willing to cooperate together on most matters, and I wanted this positive relation to continue.
After all, there was every possibility that his replacement would turn out to be an ass.
And with the great success of the grand opening, the Waterflower sisters joyously invited everyone to their Gym to celebrate with a small afterparty. A few of the more esteemed guests were invited too, including Will, Sidney, and Giovanni, but everyone other than Giovanni and his family had to beg off due to having other duties.
Many of the performers were similarly invited, which turned the whole party into a rather substantial get-together. Still, it was fun, and although I would probably not talk to anyone there ever again, it was nice to meet all these amazing Contest performers.
Furthermore, I had hoped to take the chance to fulfil my promise of duelling against Silver while I had the time, but he had fallen asleep, much to the amusement of his parents.
"The excitement must have gotten to him." Ariana remarked with a fond smile as she looked down happily at her quietly sleeping son, "Typical of him to tire himself like this. Reminds me of his father."
"I'm not that bad." Giovanni protested, but an incredulous look from Ariana caused him to shut his mouth.
Besides that, the Waterflower sisters did ask if I wanted to join in on any further contest performances with them since this one went so well. Unfortunately, I politely declined, saying that I didn't really have the time, nor did I think that I personally wanted to go down the Contest route.
I was more of a spectator than anything else.
Still, I did tell them that if Klaus or any of my Pokémon was interested in participating in something like this again then I'll let them know. That put their smiles back on the sisters' faces.
As the party winded down, the ever-prudent Petrel came in and asked for some photos, clearly hoping to turn this whole party into a PR event for the benefit of the Gym. Thus, we all got together to take a few group photos which would be published. In the photos, I stood next to a smiling Giovanni and Ariana, both of whom were carrying a quietly sleeping Silver.
The photos were really cute - they really looked like a happy family. And what was surprising was that I no longer felt a sense of whiplash of Giovanni being a family man. It really did suit him.
On that nice note, the day finally drew to a close, and I went to bed thinking that the opening of the Grand Fountain Hall was going to be THE event that was talked about for the rest of the week.
I woke up the next morning to find out that I was partially correct. Indeed, there were many articles on the news about the success of the new Contest Hall opening in Cerulean, with many speculating and hoping for Contest halls to become a regular thing in Indigo like they are in Hoenn.
Not only that, but there was also quite a lot of interest in Giovanni and the sudden appearance of his new family. Apparently, the fact that he had a son was not a well-known fact. Coupled with the fact that Giovanni and Ariana weren't actually married, that drew much speculation and gossip onto the two of them.
Giovanni hadn't made a public statement on that yet, but I personally wished him all the best. He must have known that showing up with Silver was going to attract this kind of attention, so I'm sure he had a plan in mind.
However, what was the REAL show stealer was the sudden announcement by Steven Stone about the upcoming charity match between Sidney and Karen. Steven had announced that not only would all proceeds for the match be dedicated towards helping those who had suffered during the Team Rocket attacks in Hoenn, but also donations would be used to help the rebuilding of any damaged property and land.
But the part of the match that really grabbed attention was the fact that the number of Pokémon that Sidney and Karen would be fighting with would increase based on the number of donations received. Thus, for each milestone reached, Sidney and Karen would be battling with an additional Pokémon, up to a maximum of 6.
Mind you, I took one look at the 'milestones' and instantly realized that Steven had set the number too low. There was no way we wouldn't surpass it.
Even ignoring those who wanted to donate to charity, the star power of a match between Sidney, a member of the Hoenn Elite Four, and Karen, Agatha's apprentice and recently the temporary regent of Pewter, could not be underestimated. Especially because they were both Dark type specialists, which was a rarity in themselves, and newscasters were quick to label this battle as the match to watch for anyone interested in pursuing a Dark type specialty. Or anyone interested in high-level battles, really. Which was most people.
The charity match was going to take place in Olivine, for symbolic reasons, as it was also one of the places that became victim to Team Rocket's actions. I was still a little stunned at how much Stven managed to arrange in such a short time. I guess money and connections do grease the wheels of administration significantly.
But aside from all of that, I also made sure to personally call Professor Elm, both to introduce myself and to thank him for his contributions to the project and his aid with evolving Sylveon. He turned out to be far more humble than you would expect for someone of his position, and seemed very happy that I reached out to him at all.
Even with our short conversation, I was confident that he would be a great guy to get along with.
With our introductions made, I was heading to my next meeting on Cinnabar Island. As I had promised Blaine, I was going to meet up with him to see what he wanted help with. Plus, he said he had something to show to both Shelly and I, which stoked my curiosity.
Beyond that, I still needed to ask for his permission to warn Lance about the consequences of the upcoming Fairy reveal. But knowing his dislike for the Dragon master, I doubted it would be an easy conversation.
Regardless, after a short flight on Port, I arrived at Cinnabar Islands near his laboratory. As soon as I walked in, I found Shelly and Blaine already deep in conversation speaking in the lobby.
"Hey there." I called out, causing both their heads to turn towards me. "Hope I'm not late. Stayed a tad too long at the afterparty."
Blaine laughed, "Hah! Not a worry, I saw that on the news. That was a great performance from the sisters; about time they finally got their acttogether. Water performance, am I right?!" He giggled madly at his own pun.
For that monstrosity of a pun, I immediately ignored him and turned to Shelly, "So how are you doing? It's been some time since we last spoke." I asked her, ignoring Blaine's grumbles to himself about my lack of appreciation for 'good humour'.
"I've been more than well." She replied happily, shooting me a grin full of teeth, "I got promoted recently. I'm now the head of Devon's newly created international outreach and research department. Basically, it's a new title for my old job, but now with the ability of being able to independently request cooperation between notable scientists on behalf of Devon Corp. It helps that I'm now at least acquainted with Steven, since I helped him with setting up his charity match."
"Oh, wow! Congratulations! That sounds like a big step up!" I remarked, genuinely excited for her, "How are you finding it?"
"It's more or less similar to my old job, but with more pay, so I can't complain." She smiled, "There's probably going to be an expansion of our offices here in Indigo to accommodate my larger scope of responsibilities, which is both a good and bad thing."
"Bah. Having more employees can be a huge pain in the ass if you don't hire the right ones." Blaine added with a scoff, sounding remarkably like another grumpy old woman I knew, "It's why I handpicked all my of Gym Trainers and junior scientists. You'd only get a bunch of fools otherwise."
Shelly shrugged, "Unfortunately that's not up to me. The HR team handles all of that, and they're back in Hoenn. I don't really have a say in that."
"Then let's just hope you get lucky then." Blaine remarked, "Anyways, now that you're both here, I want to show you the thing I mentioned earlier. Come this way." The two of us followed him into his offices, where he took out a heavily secured and reinforced lockbox that looked like it could take an attack or two from a Pokémon and still not be broken open.
But more interestingly, it looked like it was built for thermal insulation.
"This has been something I've been working on for quite a while." He explained to us as he took out a key and began to unlock the box, "I got distracted for a while with the whole new fad of the PIT technique and with the Fairy evolution, but in a way, both projects gave me an idea on how to finalize this one."
With a loud snap, the box was finally opened to reveal a small red box that I clearly recognized as a Magmarizer. However, what I didn't expect was the fact that the Magmarizer was just exploding with heat. Even at a distance and without even touching it, I could feel the scorching waves radiating off it. Sweat was already beginning to drip down my forehead.
And Shelly was doing even worse, "Arceus, what IS that?!" She exclaimed as she fanned herself with her hand. "Why is it so hot?!"
Blaine just shot us both a smirk; he was barely affected by the heat. "This is the culmination of all my research into creating a special evolution item for Fire types. I call it the Magmarizer!"
Shelly's eyes turned wide, even as sweat continued to pour down her face, "That's…quite the discovery…" She spoke through panted breaths, "How did…you manage it? Also, could you…please put that away…I'm dying here." She continued to fan herself as her tongue lolled out.
"Bah, bunch of weaklings." He taunted with a chuckle, but he did put away the box. I didn't know what kind of material that box was made out, but to be able to resist the sheer heat of the Magmarizer was very impressive. That was some quality material!
Luckily, as soon as the Magmarizer was stored away, the room no longer felt as swelteringly hot as it just did; and the temperature dropped to something far more comfortable.
Arceus, that thing was hot.
"Thank you." Shelly said as she took a swig of water from the water cooler, "So, do you know what you could use it for? And how did you even make it?"
"Naturally, otherwise I wouldn't have called it the Magmarizer. Didn't you like the pun?" He replied with a smirk.
I got it, but clearly Shelly didn't because she was still giving Blaine a confused look. Blaine sighed, "It's a pun on Magmar. You get it? Magmarizer?"
Shelly facepalmed, "Really?! You're going to name your discovery after a PUN?!"
Blaine shrugged, "Hey, I discovered it. I get to name it!" He chuckled to himself, "Anyways, to answer your other question and summarize things a little, I got my Fire types to help me heavily condense some magma into that box you just saw. The whole thing took some serious and meticulous effort on my Pokémon's part to condense together. It's practically just an entire block of condensed and refined magma, so I'd really not recommend touching it with your bare hands unless you want to seriously burn yourself."
Suddenly, I remembered my earlier thoughts on the Cinnabar eruption, "Wait, how did you extract the magma to make this?" I asked urgently.
"I just used my Pokémon to assist me with the gathering process. It was nothing special." He looked at me curiously, "Why do you ask?"
"I mean, is it wise to be poking around with a potentially active volcano?" I questioned seriously. "Seems like you're just playing with fire there." I accidentally made a pun.
"HAH! Good one!" He laughed, "But don't worry about that kid, when it comes to playing with fire, I'm the best there is. Thank you for the concern, but even if the volcano does erupt, we've plenty of measures to buy us time to evacuate. I might not look it, but I still uphold my duties as Gym Leader seriously. Everyone will be fine." He finished with confidence.
Seeing the look of confidence he had, I swallowed whatever I had to say and just nodded. I recognized that Blaine was unmovable at this moment. And to be fair, I would be the same in his position. He WAS right about the plethora of early warning signals around Cinnabar to warn of a potential eruption.
"Maybe you could double check those systems to make sure they function correctly." I tried, "An eruption would be…bad."
Blaine paused for a moment before nodding, "Yeah, sure. I guess you're right that we should check up on the warning systems." Blaine fortunately agreed, "I'll have a look when I have some free time." I shot him a relieved smile, glad that he was at least doing SOMETHING.
In the meanwhile, Shelly was carefully observing the Magmarizer, inspecting it from different angles. "And I assume the thing works?" She asked.
"Naturally, wouldn't have been so confident to show you otherwise. See for yourselves." He grabbed a Pokéball off his belt before releasing a Pokémon into the room.
A large red figure emerged into the office, immediately causing the temperature to rise up once again. It was an intimidating figure, with small plumes of fire spewing out of its two long cannon arms. But it was also solidly muscled, looking like it was ready to brawl if it came to it. A natural mix of firepower and brawn.
There was no doubting the raw potential that radiated out of this Pokémon. And I was confident that, with just a little bit more effort, it could turn into something REALLY powerful.
"It looks like you got your new Ace." I said to Blaine, who grinned back at me.
"It really is a powerful thing, isn't it?" He remarked proudly, "It's called a Magmortar. And I've already done a few tests with it. Magmortar here still needs some more training before it really becomes an Ace, but let's just say that it meets my expectations and more."
"It definitely looks like it." Shelly commented as she continued inspecting the new Pokémon, "Looks like it could beat my team by itself. Not that I'm a strong trainer or anything."
"HAH! If I had this evolution back when I was an Elite Four?! I would have been more than just second fiddle to Agatha." He boasted, seeming VERY pleased with himself about this evolution.
I didn't blame him; if I was a fire specialist too I would have been ecstatic.
Shelly and I seemed to let Blaine show off his new Pokémon for a little while, not wanting to ruin his moment. After a few minutes of letting him continue to ramble, Blaine finally seemed to have gotten it all out of his system.
Eventually, he withdrew his Magmortar and let out a sheepish cough as he realized that we had been indulging him. "Ehem. Sorry about that. Got too heated for a moment there. HAH!"
He must have been numbed us to his puns by this point, because we both barely batted an eye at his most recent one. Seeing a complete lack of reaction on our part, Blaine continued onwards, "Anyways, besides showing off the Magmarizer to you, which I hope to be publicizing and distributing soon, I had hoped to start a new project that we could cooperate on. If that still sounds like something you both want to be doing?"
"I should have the time for that." I replied, before looking to Shelly, who nodded back as well. "Actually, before we talk about that, I wanted to discuss the Fairy type project."
Both of them grew concerned, "What's wrong? Something the matter?"
I hurriedly waved them off their concerns, "No, no, sorry it's not like that." They quickly relaxed, "I meant that I just wanted to know when I could speak to Lance about the upcoming consequences of the Fairy reveal so that we could prepare for it."
"I have no problem with that. You, Blaine?" Shelly shrugged as she turned to Blaine.
As expected, Blaine was gritting his teeth at my question. Clearly, he had a response on the tip of his tongue that he was holding back. After a moment, he managed to grumble out, "What do you need to speak to him for?"
"The impending invasion of Mt. Moon by overenthusiastic and reckless trainers." I pointed out, "I've already hinted at something happening to the mayor, but I need Lance's express permission to mobilize more of the Indigo Police to protect the area. I fear that the ecosystem of Clefairy would be irreparably damaged otherwise."
"Yes, you mentioned it before." He said with a sigh, and I could see the moment where he let go of his instinctual hate. "Fine. Go speak with him. Samuel already gave his approval to it anyways."
"Any idea when we're going to be publishing the Fairy type?" Shelly asked. "No rush though, just wanted to know."
Blaine shrugged, "No clue, but it's up to Samuel. He should still be confirming a few things."
"Then I'll make the call once I've double checked with Oak again." I nodded. "Anyways, what did you want to cooperate on?" I returned to our previous topic.
"Two things really." He began, raising a finger, "One, I wanted to be able to sell the Magmarizer once everything gets tested. I didn't do this for the profit, but I might as well now that I've actually created it. And Devon Corp and Silph Co would likely be eager buyers of something like this."
"I don't actually have the authority to do something-" I started to say, only to be cut off.
"Sure, sure, but everyone knows you're friends with Giovanni." He interrupted, "I've worked with him on a few things before. Just float the suggestion to him, and he should be able to take care of the rest."
Huh, I wasn't aware that Blaine was knowledgeable of Giovanni's true power in Silph Co. Must have forgotten that detail. Then again, it could just be that Blaine was more knowledgeable than his mad science appearance made him seem.
Shelly broke me away from my introspection as she nodded, "I can do that. In fact, I would love to get a better idea of how you've accomplished this. I was thinking maybe we could try to create alternate versions of the Magmarizer with different types."
"I did think of that." Blaine agreed, "That was actually the next thing I wanted to work on. I have all the notes here for us to use which should give us a head start, but I felt that working together on this could save some time and provide some immediate funding."
I spoke up at this point, "Okay, I understand. But, no offense intended, what do you need ME for? I'm not exactly in a position to provide funding or anything. And I'm not actually a scientist." I pointed to Shelly, "Not like she is."
"That's true. And, admittedly, you hit the nail on the head there." Blaine remarked, "Strictly speaking, your help wouldn't be necessary for the completion of this project, though I'm sure having you help would prove valuable in some way or another."
"Then why have me on board if that means sharing the credit?" I asked, confused.
"Son, I'm an old man trying to live out until retirement, it's a little too late for me to be caring about something like 'credit'." He stated, as he straightened up with his arms behind his back, "Sure, I would like to be praised and rewarded for my efforts, but I don't need to hog it all for myself. Besides, my main motivation for all these discoveries is because I truly want to be able to uncover more of the mysteries behind Pokémon; to push the limits of what we know even further."
"However, the other reason I wanted you to join was because I felt that I owed you for bringing us on board for the Fairy project." He told me, eyes locked onto mine, "We both know that the only person you really needed was Samuel. The rest of us were just extra additions. No offense intended, Shelly."
"None taken." She replied easily, "I understood that as well."
I moved to protest, but Blaine cut me off, "So what if I bring you onto this project for little gain? I don't particularly mind. I guarantee that whatever we discover here is not nearly going to be as big of a deal as discovering a whole new type. And besides, I'm sure having your assistance with this matter will help us in some way or another. Especially with all those connections of yours."
I sighed, realizing I wasn't winning this argument, "Thank you. Then I'll be glad to help." I smiled while performing a short bow, "But I promise I'll work to earn my due."
"Then welcome aboard." He smiled at me, "We can get started on this right away. And John, there's no need to thank me. We're all friends here." Shelly nodded in agreement. Then Blaine moved to pull out some chairs as he moved over to his desk and computer, "Come, take a seat. We'll start by going over my notes."
And thus, the three of us spent the afternoon deep in research as we began to discuss and share our ideas on how we could create an alternate type of a Magmarizer equivalent. I added my two cents, hinting towards the possibility of creating an Electrizer, but making sure that I was careful to not give anything directly away.
And although some of the topics we discussed were far beyond my intellectual capacity to understand, I still found the whole thing to be strangely relaxing.
Day turned to night as I unknowingly spent the rest of the day hard at work with the two of them. I made sure to treasure it. After all, I was going to have to reveal the big news to Lance tomorrow.
I wonder how he'd react.
A.N. Definitely a slower chapter this time, but I hope it set up some nice plot points that'll take place in the future.
And yes, Karen v Steven IS HAPPENING! And there's more jolly cooperation between Blaine, John, and Shelly. Hope you guys liked the interactions!
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!