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 – 7-11 – Getting down to business

The TV blared as I sat with my parents to eat breakfast.

"…AND what a crushing victory from Professor Oak, once again proving to the world why his battling skills are still held in such high esteem! Just yesterday, he utterly dominated the Blackthorn representative with a crushing 3-0 victory, fully backing up his scientific discoveries! Proving once and for all that the Fairy type is truly the Dragon killer that we all thought it'd be!"

"Wonder if the Blackthorns will finally shut up now that they've lost." My mom commented as she scooped up some egg.

"Knowing those prideful fools? Might take a little longer than that, dear." My dad muttered as he took a bite out of his toast, "They might have just suffered a crushing defeat, but their pride is much larger than their capacity for shame. They might give it another shot."

"That would be pretty funny." I smirked, thinking that Giovanni and probably Blaine had the entire fight recorded and saved so that they could view it again whenever they wanted. They must have loved it.

"Funny or not, at least the Champion didn't join in on this nonsense." My dad grumbled, "I would have lost all respect for him."

I thought it was more like Lance knew a losing battle when he saw one. The Blackthorns all had egg on their faces after the debacle, with most of the world laughing at them. Lance was smart to separate himself from that whole mess.

"Yeah, he was pretty upset about the whole thing in general." I replied, and the recent humiliation wasn't helping Lance either, "But at least it's mostly over now. All but the most diehard of supporters have gone quiet."

But I knew it couldn't be so simple. I suspected that Lance was likely doing something behind the scenes.

"Good riddance. It was a waste of everyone's time." My mom commented, "Can't believe they'd doubt YOUR work."

"I think there were many other names on that list more important than me, mom, but I'll take the compliment." I said wryly.

"Oh speaking of which, are you free for the rest of the day, John?" My dad asked, "We have something to discuss with you about regarding the business."

"Uh…sure, I'm free." I replied after thinking over my schedule. Aside from whatever planning I had to do for my upcoming trip to Sinnoh, and my attendance to the match between Karen and Sidney, I was rather free.

"Good." My dad nodded, "I know you're busy, but this is fairly important, and we've accidentally put it off for some time."

I was curious about what they wanted to talk about, but I let it lie for now as we all finished our breakfast. We continued making some small talk as we chowed down on our morning sustenance, and we ended up discussing about what we had heard Whitney was up to in Johto.

My parents expressed their slight concern for their 'baby girl' travelling so far from home, but I reassured them that she had good friends who were looking out for her. Besides, considering that all 3 of them had family within either the Elite Four or as Gym Leaders, I was confident that none would dare harm them.

Or if they did, that they would be very quickly brought to justice. Especially from me.

With breakfast over, we transitioned away from the dining table and to the couch, where my mom had brought down a couple of folders that she laid out on the table. I recognized some of them as being related to the family business.

"So, John, first things first, we wanted to discuss with you the future of the business. Or, more precisely, we're finally looking into buying some office space as a centralized location for our operations." My dad began. "We've previously been running things from the house, because the business used to be a fairly small one. However, now that things have expanded as much as they have; we're going to need some actual office space."

"You know that we've rented out a few warehouses and used some of the farmhouses as office space and storage, but that's not going to cut it in the future." My dad continued, "So your mom and I have been looking to buy a building for the business since we have the funds for it. After some searching, I think we finally landed a good deal."

"It's going to be in Cerulean, obviously, and our connections in the mayor helped us secure this." My mom joined us, "We were in a pretty unusual spot because of how fast our business grew, and we're currently playing catch-up. But we know that a majority of our success was due to us relying on your reputation."

"Don't belittle your efforts like that, mom." I cut in, "You and dad both put in a lot of work."

My dad patted me on the head, "Maybe, yet you cannot deny the positive effect that you've had on the business. The Smith Moomoo milk is only as popular as it is because of you, son."

I let out a sigh as I ultimately conceded the point. As much as I didn't want to deny my parents' efforts, they were undeniably right that my reputation went far in boosting the business.

Seeing my acceptance, my dad continued, "And this brings me to the second part. As soon as we've moved everything into our new office building, your mom and I want you to start getting a handle of how to run the business."

"We actually initially intended to wait a bit before we did this, but you've done so well for yourself in the Elite Four that we could push things ahead of schedule a bit." He explained.

My eyebrows rose slightly, though I had expected something like this for some time.

"What would that look like?" I asked, very curious. And a little excited.

"It won't be anything too drastic to start off with." My mom reassured, "But we would at least want you to get involved with the other employees at the company and introduce yourself. That includes any employees helping us right now, and also helping us a little bit with the hiring process since we're looking to increase our staff. Most importantly, we want you to show your face around and get comfortable with our employees."

"We might also have you help out a bit with managing the finances, how to meet with suppliers and so on. Consider it something like work experience." She stated.

"Not that we think you'd have any trouble with this; I'm sure the stuff you put up with in the Elite Four has already granted you plenty of experience handling difficult personalities." My dad chuckled, "After all, I highly doubt anyone that you'll be meeting in the business field will be intimidating to you at all. Not with what you've been through."

I nodded. After dealing with the likes of Lance, Oak, Giovanni, Pryce and so many others, I REALLY doubted anyone that I would meet helping out with the family business could possibly intimidate me.

"Better yet, you'll at least have a level of respect that many other heirs to companies don't have." My dad added, "Ignoring that Steven boy, while it's not uncommon for teenagers to get involved with the family business, it IS rare for said teenager to be an Elite Four member. You won't be looked down upon, I assure you of that."

"Fair enough." I remarked, "So what should I get started on first?"

My dad shook his head, "Nothing at the moment, though we had a few ideas we were going to discuss in a later meeting that you could start thinking about now." He said, shuffling over a few of the papers on the coffee table. "You remember the 'Elite' line of Miltank that your Pokémon mated with before? They've hatched now, and I reckon they're a few weeks away from producing their first batch of Moomoo milk."

"I know this is a lot of information to suddenly drop on you." My mom said apologetically, "But I hope this isn't too overwhelming for you. We just want you to have a better understanding about the inner workings of our business."

"Nah, I think I can handle it." I remarked confidently, before I raised up another question, "Any chance Whitney is going to get in on this?"

"Not so soon." My dad shook his head, "She's still figuring out her path for the future, unlike you. Once her future career becomes a little clearer, then we'll decide on whether to include her. But don't worry, she'll always be a part of the family business. It's just a matter of when."

I smiled, accepting my dad's words. Whitney really didn't any of these distractions for not – not when she still had so much growing to do, both as a trainer and as a person. These matters were better pushed aside for the time being.

Besides, my parents were still quite young, so it's not like there was any rush to take over the business anytime soon anyways.

"Are you planning on buying the building now?" I asked.

"Maybe. But that's up to the other side to stop playing around and actually give us a reasonable price." My dad grumbled, "As soon as they stop playing games with us, then yes, most likely."

"Okay, let me know if you need me to help you move in. It's the least I can do." I replied.

With all of the business talk over, I made my way back to the training fields, making sure to wave and greet the nearby farmhands that were working hard. Over the past week, with the extra spare time that I had, I went back into training hard with my Pokémon. I especially focused on Ornstein and Pixel in particular, because now was the best time to mould them into future Elite Pokémon on my team.

"Come on out!" I shouted as I released all of my Pokémon. And, as I expected, Ornstein emerged from his Premier Ball and rushed straight towards the emerging Smough.

"LINOONE!" He cried as he smashed headfirst into Smough, only to slam into the wall that was Smough's belly ineffectively. At least he didn't bounce off this time.

I sighed amusingly at the sight. Despite his newfound evolution, some old habits, like his one-sided rivalry against Smough, hadn't changed.

I clapped my hands to get everyone's attention, "Okay, that's enough of that. Unless I've given you specific instructions, just continue on with your general training." My Pokémon all nodded or grunted their assertions. "Good, now Ornstein, Smough, Vordt, come over here."

As I watched Ornstein grumble but nonetheless obey, I thought back to the training we had gone through the previous week where I had been exploring the potential of his new evolution. Unsurprisingly, with his newfound speed, he was actually an effective fighter able to make use of hit-and-run attacks. I used both what I remembered of Norman's Linoone and Karen's Weavile for inspiration for how to train up Ornstein.

Therefore, I had Ornstein focus on an all-out style of attacking, primarily focusing on training up moves like Night Slash and Double Edge to maximize his attacking power. Then, like any good Dark type, I had him train up his Taunt and other status moves so that he could be more than just a pure attacker. His access to moves that could cripple his opponent gave him an edge over attackers who could only rely on their high attack.

He was far from reaching his full potential, but he was getting there. As soon as he got a handle of those, I was going to train him up with the elemental punches as soon as possible. Those were going to be essential for him to master.

"Right. Ornstein, I want you training with Smough. Just like you usually do, I need you to try to hit him as hard as you can while also Taunting him at the same time." I began, and Ornstein perked up excitedly as he listened to my words, "Smough, you'll be doing the opposite. You need to learn to train your speed to catch the faster Ornstein. You can't yourself be stifled by your slow speed." Smough let out an understanding snort at my words.

I turned to Vordt, "Vordt, you're observing them while training on your own. You already have a good balance of what both these Pokémon lack – so I want you to supervise and give pointers where necessary. Help Smough with his poor speed, and let Ornstein hit harder." Vordt gave a grunt of acknowledgement.

This was I paired the trio up like this. With his mastery of moves like Headlong Rush, Vordt had the ability to burst forwards with speeds comparable to Ornstein, if only for a moment. Yet he also had the pure strength that Smough had. I hoped his supervision would grant great benefits for both Pokémon.

With those three sorted out, I moved onto my next pair, "Pixel, Tyrant, come." I ordered.

Pixel slowly floated over, buzzing excitedly, while Tyrant obediently sauntered over, patiently awaiting further instructions.

"Pixel, I know you're now proficient at using Recover, is that right?" Pixel beeped affirmatively, "Good, then I want you to focus next on using and mastering Conversion. I know I've put it off for a while, but now I think is finally the time you got good at it."

Pixel whirled enthusiastically, but I continued, "I suspect that you're going to need some help with mastering Conversion, since it'll require you to be able to switch into whatever type you choose. So if you need any help with a specific type, you can ask any member of the team to help you with them." Pixel let out an affirmative buzz.

Mastering Conversion was going to be an incredibly important step in Pixel's development as an Elite Pokémon. The ability to switch types at will, and hopefully instantaneously, was an extremely valuable tool to have in a battle. Theoretically, it would allow me to secure a type advantage against any opponent I would face. I hoped it could master it quickly, but I knew that with such a move, it was going to take some time.

Moving on, I turned to Tyrant. "Tyrant. You need to get better at Special Attacks. Expand your movepool and power even more. Mix them into your physical attacks." He snorted affirmatively and wandered off, not needing any more instructions. He sought strength more than any Pokémon on my team, so I knew he would do his best to achieve what I wanted him to.

Plus, the reason I had chosen to have Tyrant focus on his Special Attack was simple. Looking back against both my battle against Bruno and during the raids, I realized that, realistically, Tyrant was strong enough on the physical side. There was very little, if at all, that could challenge him on that front. Thus, in order to improve him even further, I had to switch my focus to work on his Special Attack side.

He was already proficient with moves like Flamethrower and Thunderbolt, but I wanted him to be able to use more than that. He already knew a whole plethora of elemental moves, so hopefully learning to master new moves, even ones beyond what a normal Slaking could learn in their inherent movepool, shouldn't prove to be too difficult.

I really wanted him to be able to use moves like Moonblast and Psychic, for example, since he already knew how to use attacks like Play Rough and Zen Headbutt. I believed that with enough hard work, he would able to utilize those attacks too. Ideally, I hoped he could mix up his a few Special Attacks into his normal beatdowns just to further disorient an opponent and frustrate any attempts to counterattack.

My goal was to have Tyrant be able to not just defeat Lance's Emperor, but to dominate him entirely. I didn't want a close win – I wanted a decisive victory. One on one. Starter vs starter.

I shook myself from my daydreaming as I returned to helping my Pokémon train up. I made sure to also give the Pokémon that I wasn't specifically training some attention too, just so that I could check on their respective progress and so they wouldn't feel left out. Not that there was any risk of that; they knew I cared for them.

Time passed as I watched my Pokémon training, sometimes stepping in to make some adjustments to what they were doing. But my team was a like a well-oiled machine; even my newer additions hardly needed my direct input. Either they would know what they did wrong, or another one of my Pokémon would correct them in my place. That was the benefit of training together like this, everyone could help everyone.

But I was broken out of my idle spectating as my phone started to ring. Seeing that Lance was calling me, I made sure to step away so that we wouldn't be disturbed.

"Hello?" I picked up.

"John. Update from Sinnoh. I just heard from Bertha that the first of their Committee members have begun to resign, and she expects more to follow suit very soon. It's the beginning of the end for the traditionalists." He explained.

"I see…so that's good news for us then?" I asked.

"Very likely." He agreed, "But Sinnoh is going to be quite politically unstable…and a fertile ground for any criminals to act." He warned, and my face twisted into a grimace.

"You're right. I hadn't considered that. Damn, I was too focused on them opening the borders." I admitted with a frown, "You think that the terrorists had something to do with the protests?"

"I asked Bertha that, and she says it was unlikely." He replied, his voice serious, "She says that the discontent had been building up for some time. It would be unlikely, almost impossible, for the criminal teams to have manipulated the public into this. Bertha firmly believes that the traditionalists brought this on themselves. BUT she does say that the evil teams might be taking advantage of it. They'd have an easier time moving around resources, for example."

"Fuck. Anything we can do about it?" I asked, a little frustrated. I did not want them getting ANY kind of opportunities.

"Unfortunately not." Lance sighed, "I dislike it as much as you do, but the political situation in Sinnoh is going to be very fragile. We can't afford to upset it. Especially not as foreigners."

My frown deepened, but I reluctantly accepted Lance's words. Unless we had a clear target, we wouldn't be able to recreate the manhunt that I did in Hoenn.

Yes, canon taught me that Team Galactic was very likely going to be one of those threats, but I couldn't simply barge into their main headquarters and start arresting everyone. Not without some serious evidence.

My connections and reputation paved the road for me in Hoenn. But I wouldn't have either of those in Sinnoh. Not to start with.

Furthermore, unlike in Hoenn, public opinion was not automatically going to be on my side. For a traditionally deeply isolationist region like Sinnoh, I feared that they might even side with the domestic criminals over a foreign Elite Four, if only because they were locals. We REALLY did not want to get into a war of public opinion with them.

"Any news on the Sinnoh Champion?" I asked, shaking away those thoughts. "Is he on the way out?"

"Same as everything else, Bertha thinks it could happen any day now." Lance replied, getting a nod from Bertha. "He's deeply unpopular for having gotten into bed with the traditionalists. It's extremely doubtful that he could survive this transition."

Which meant the political situation in Sinnoh was only going to get even worse. I hoped that whoever was still in power in the Sinnoh League could hold things together. I guess that Will and I were going to have to do a lot of careful work to bring over the Sinnoh public to the idea of opening up to foreigners.

"On the bright side, it's looking like you and Will might be heading off to Sinnoh sooner than we may have expected." Lance remarked, "I hope you're ready to go on what might be very short notice."

"I have a luggage packed and ready." I confirmed, "How long will we be there for? A fortnight?"

"It'll probably be longer than that." Lance told me, "I have no intention of returning either of you to Indigo without an emergency, as setting up good relations with Sinnoh is of paramount importance. So even if you have to stay there for a month, then so be it. Though of course I'm willing to accommodate for any personal emergencies if you need to return."

Lance hung up shortly after that. Though before we ended the call, I did question him about what was going on with the Blackthorns. He didn't give me a straight answer, but he hinted at the fact that he was currently working on something though failed to provide any details.

As the call ended, I stared down at my phone with a complicated expression on my face.

More than ever, it appears like my trip to Sinnoh was not going to just be fun and games. There was clearly a lot that was boiling just underneath the surface, but I at least hoped that things wouldn't get too bad. I did NOT want to get caught up in a political uprising.

However, on a brighter note, there was a very special person I really wanted to meet in Sinnoh. I wonder what she was doing now?

A.N. A slower set-up chapter, but I wanted to finally highlight some things I've left to the side over the past few chapters. I hope you enjoyed the discussions about the family business and training. It's been a while since I really emphasized those things.

And you'll see a bit of more of the Blackthorns in the future. The consequences of their 'actions' aren't quite over yet. 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!