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

Wraith - H-Zoroark

The New Normal – 9-12 – Calm Conversations

"Oh…damn. Is Sabrina doing okay?" I asked concernedly to my parents.

My dad gestured to my mom, "She's talking to Sabrina's parents right now."

"Don't worry, Katrina says that Sabrina's doing fine." My mom spoke up as she saw me walk in, "A little disappointed, but not devastated."

"That's a relief." I replied, "How did she lose?"

"She just went up against a trainer that was just far beyond her level." My dad explained, "There was nothing underhanded about her defeat, if that's what you're worried about. Just bad luck to be matched up against someone strong."

"…Well, I'm glad that it wasn't from anything nefarious." I sighed. I did NOT want a repeat of what happened to Whitney. "So, what's happening now?"

My mom shrugged, "It's up to the girls and what they want to do. You know we're proud of them for what they've already achieved, so we're going to stay hands off."

"And we trust you to keep Whitney safe, or to get revenge when needed." My dad added, his face forming into a frown, "I hope we don't see Shin anytime soon."

Considering what Giovanni hinted to me, I think the problem had been dealt with. "There shouldn't be. I doubt we'd see him again."

With that, the conversation turned to the upcoming dinner that we were planning to host. With Sabrina's defeat, we decided to push forwards the dinner and frame it as a 'celebration of their achievements' – just so Sabrina wouldn't feel down about being the first to lose.

My dad and I left sorting out those details to mom before we both retired for the night.

The next day, I had to drag myself out of bed early as I was woken by a phone call. Apparently Blaine and Shelly were both free NOW and wanted to check out the power plant on Route 10. Agatha had also said that she'd be sending Karen to scout it on her behalf, since she didn't have a match scheduled for this morning for the Open Qualifiers.

So I made my way over to Route 10 on Port, arriving there after only a short moment; I had forgotten how close the abandoned power plant was to Cerulean City. As I landed, I noticed that the exterior of the power plant was still in good condition. You wouldn't be able to tell that the power plant had been abandoned if you just looked at the exterior alone.

Blaine and Karen were there already, seemingly in casual discussion. Though they both perked up as soon as I arrived.

"John, sorry for waking you up early." Blaine greeted, "I got a little too excited to see if this power plant is really suitable for what we want."

"It's fine. I had a free day anyways." I replied, before I waved to Karen, "Hey there, just you today?"

"The others are coming – I just came early because I was already up to train with my Pokémon." She greeted with a smile.

"So early?" I asked.

She shrugged, "Had a moment of inspiration that I wanted to work on. And the Open Qualifiers aren't really that much of a challenge to me anyways."

"Be careful – don't get overconfident." I warned.

"Bah, it's not about being overconfident or not." Blaine interrupted, "I watched her fight against Sidney – she won't lose to some scrub. Else she'd be an embarrassment to the old hag."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence." Karen said dryly, "But it's true that I don't see myself struggling. Sorry to hear about Sabrina though – nothing happened right?"

"Yeah, just a regular loss. I heard she was doing fine." I reassured, dispelling the hint of worry in Karen's voice.

"Oh you're talking about little Whitney and her group of friends?" Blaine asked, though my attention shifted as I saw the signature flash of light from a Teleport appear behind him. "I know them. They were basically burning with potential. HAHAH!"

"…It's way too early for your stupid puns, Blaine." Shelly muttered as she stepped out of the Teleport, getting an exaggerated frown from Blaine, "But I can't disagree. I'm not much of a trainer, but your sister is one to watch. Oh, and thanks again John for getting all this together. Saved us a lot of hassle."

"Not a problem, and I'll make sure Whitney gets your compliments." I smiled, but the flashes of more Teleports cut me off as I realized that this was the rest of Karen's contingent from Lavender Town Teleporting in.

Quick greetings were exchanged with everyone, and we headed inside the abandoned power plant.

Our Pokémon flanked us as we walked in. The place was swarming with Electric types, but fortunately none of them looked all that powerful and none dared to challenge the combined might of our group; they simply scurried away and avoided us.

These wild Pokémon were not nearly as strong as those living in the caves of Sinnoh.

We stuck together as we approached the main line of machinery, which had long been abandoned. Blaine spoke up as he swept his gaze over everything, "…This is a lot more than I expected. These parts don't look nearly as rusty as I thought they might."

He turned to Shelly, "Shelly, think we can work with this? You know more about machinery than I do."

Shelly considered his question, "Hmm…I think we could repair this to a functioning state to generate electricity, but it's not going to be anywhere near enough for our purposes."

She walked around as she continued inspecting the machinery, "However…judging by what I can see…the fact that most of this is still reusable still saves us a lot of time and effort. We probably wouldn't need to buy everything again, just the custom parts. Mind you, those custom parts are going to be pricey."

Karen took the opportunity to speak up, "How much would those parts be then? Oh, and just to ensure that there isn't any confusion, I'm here on Agatha's – I mean, Lavender Town's behalf – to facilitate an agreement between us. I have been given the authority to negotiate and make agreements as necessary."

The group from Lavender Town nodded at Karen's words, but I saw that their eyes remained fixed on her – and not in a friendly or supportive way. No, my gut told me that they were evaluating her – either on behalf of Agatha or not – and were testing to see if she could hold her own in a negotiation like this.

Considering that her connection to me was an open secret, was this a test to see if she could stay unbiased and reasonably serve the interests of Lavender Town despite our connection?

"We understand." Shelly replied for the three of us, "As for the parts, like I said, they'll be pricey. Everything must be custom made to be able to concentrate the sheer amount of Electric energy that we need to create an Electirizer. Standard equipment just wouldn't work."

"We'd have to build these parts ourselves as well." Blaine added, "You wouldn't be able to find anything like this directly on the market. That's where most of the funding will have to go to – aside from the funds used for the renovation of this power plant."

"And how much would that actually be, in actual figures?" Karen questioned.

"The amount needed for the custom parts would be almost impossible to fund for a small group of scientists. However, I'm sure that with the funds available to both Lavender Town and Devon Corp, it would merely be a drop in the bucket – assuming I can get approval." Shelly explained, "As for the costs for renovations – I haven't a clue. But just by looking around I can already see that there are quite a few areas that aren't up to safety protocols, so it probably isn't going to be cheap either."

"I'll leave that to my own evaluators to judge then." Karen nodded.

The back and forth continued for some time, with Karen often the ones asking questions about the finances and the expected construction time for a working prototype. On our end, we let Shelly handle the questions – she was the most experienced out of all of us when it came to finances and costs of distribution.

While those two continued to negotiate and haggle, Blaine and I continued to investigate the power plant and see if there was anything else of note that we could spot.

As we walked, I noticed a faint thrum of power radiating through the abandoned building. It was almost unnoticeable, but it was as if the very walls of the building themselves were infused with Electric power.

Knowing what I knew about the power plant from canon, I suspected that there was a reason why the entire building seemed to radiate with a powerful aura of electricity. But the source of that power was currently not here – and I wasn't sure if it would return anytime soon. Nor, as I suspected, had it been here for some time.

I couldn't say I was disappointed about that. To say that its presence would have been an unnecessary and headache-inducing complication would be an understatement.

Overall, we found that clearing out the Pokémon could be done quite easily – since none of the Pokémon that hung around seemed to be very powerful – but the whole place really needed some touching up. Years of abandonment have not been too kind to its interior, and the power plant looked like it was one bad hit from falling apart.

After that, it took some more time, but Shelly and Karen eventually came to an agreement. The final result was very similar to the agreement we hashed out with Agatha, with Lavender Town to receive 70% of the profits until their initial investment was returned, then 30% afterwards. However, we also confirmed that this whole facility would be turned into an exclusive specialized production factory for Electrizers, which would be rented to Devon Corp. Likewise, security and authority would still fall under Lavender Town's jurisdiction, and they would remain the landlords.

There was also a separate discussion about the rent, expected deadlines to demonstrate results, and other business matters, but we left that to the professionals to deal with. Even Karen didn't join in – she left it with those that were actually trained to deal with this minutiae.

Blaine let out a breath as we exited the power plant, "…Glad that's over with. I never had the patience to deal with this aspect of business. At least all that's left now is to actually produce the results. I hate negotiations like that with a burning passion." I couldn't tell if that pun was intentional or not.

"I thought you would have to deal with them quite often as Gym Leader." Karen commented, "I certainly had to when I was temporary Gym Leader."

"That's cause you were new and untested, and didn't have staff that you could rely on, no offense." Blaine replied, "That's why I hire people for my Gym that handle all this stuff for me. If I had to deal with that nonsense, AND the battles, AND my work as a scientist? I'd be completely overwhelmed."

He turned to me, "Take it from me, John. Hiring those assistants of yours was probably the best idea you've had yet. Any time you can get someone else to do the boring work for you is always a good idea."

"Wow – you sound like Agatha." Karen muttered, and the horrific look that appeared on Blaine's face was comical. He looked like Karen had just insulted his whole family, his Pokémon, and himself all at once.

I couldn't help but laugh.

Shenanigans aside, our group eventually split up after Shelly was done talking. She and Blaine had to return to the labs to actually work on the Electrizer project, and to build those custom parts that they mentioned. I asked if I was needed, but they said that they didn't need to waste my time on this.

Similarly, Karen had to head off to fight in yet another Open Qualifiers match. She was nearly through with them, and her position in the Preliminary Rounds was all but secured.

So – with nothing that needed my immediate attention, I decided to head home and continue training with my Pokémon. Of course, as soon as I got home, my mom dropped me the news.

"Whitney and Janine both got knocked out of the Open Qualifiers today." My mom said to me as soon I stepped through the door, "They're doing okay, but we've decided to push forward the dinner and have it be hosted tonight."

"…Wait, what happened? I feel like you skipped out on a lot of that." I remarked confusedly.

"Oh, they were just sadly outmatched. Whitney went up against someone with a trio of Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise and lost. Janine lost to a trainer that had 2 Flygons." My mom explained, "I'll let them explain more over the dinner. Everyone's coming over."

Okay. I can imagine why they lost. Still, I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. However, as soon as I thought that, I quickly pushed that thought out of my mind.

My sister and her friends didn't deserve for me to think of them like that. I'm sure they worked as hard as they could, and we should rightfully be proud of them.

Then I realised something, "Hold on, they're coming over on such short notice?"

My mom smirked, "Koga agreed to it, and everyone else was okay. Don't underestimate your mother's ability to gather people up for a dinner. Friends and family come first! Now come over and give your dad a hand with the cooking."

There was nothing I could say to that, and since my dad had already been drafted, I was also forced to accept the forced conscription and joined him in the kitchens. The two of us shared a brief look of commiseration before we wiped it off our face and got to work.

Food was cooked. Drinks were made. Rooms were cleaned. It was a lot of work to do in the few hours that we had before the guests arrived. But dad and I knew better to voice our complaints to mom. And I wasn't even allowed to get my Pokémon to help out because mom didn't 'trust them to not destroy the kitchen'.

…It was ONE time! And it was her fault for leaving bananas out where a Vigoroth could see it. That was just asking for it.

Regardless, tables were set and the food was all prepared. I was just glad that my mom did the majority of the cooking beforehand – my dad and I were…only adequate at cooking. And with such an esteemed list of guests arriving, it would be embarrassing if the food was bad.

Eventually, it turned evening, and the first of our guests began arriving. Unsurprisingly, the first pair of guests arrived perfectly on the dot.

"Gym Leader Koga, Janine, thank you both for coming." I greeted at the door, "I'm sorry about your loss. Please, come in."

"It is fine, John. I knew that I would lose eventually." Janine replied.

"It was within our expectations, but I am proud of my daughter's journey regardless of her defeat." Koga added as they both stepped into our house, causing a smile to break out on Janine's face.

"Oh my! Gym Leader Koga!" My mom exclaimed excitedly, making sure to straighten out her clothes as she ran over, "Thank you for coming!"

"It is my pleasure." He replied firmly, but not unkindly, "You have my gratitude for hosting this celebratory dinner. It is…much more than I would have arranged with Janine." He admitted.

"Think nothing of it." My mom waved him off, "Janine's been such a great friend to Whitney, so how could I not celebrate their achievements together? Getting all 8 badges in their first circuit at their age! Incredible!" Janine lowered her head to try and conceal her blush. It wasn't very successful.

And that was how Koga got roped into a conversation with both of our parents. I was afraid that it was going to be a very awkward affair, but Koga turned out to be a good conversationist – he was just very to the point.

He actually turned out to be knowledgeable on a large range of matters, and the three adults ended up talking about the current state of the economy of all things while they waited for the others to arrive.

Fortunately, our next guest arrived soon as the signature screech of a familiar Honchkrow echoed through the outside of our house.

"Whoof. Almost didn't make it in time." Karen sighed out as she withdrew her starter, "Match almost ran late."

I instinctively reached out and helped her with her coat, "Why? Difficult battle?"

Karen snorted, "Of course not. The kid was just late and we had to wait for him. Then he tried to play all defensive and wear me down. So I turned the tables on him and confused and paralyzed all his Pokémon and wore them down at a safe distance."

"Sounds petty." I replied without any heat.

"I can be." She chuckled before heading inside as she greeted everyone at the table, making sure to congratulate Janine on her journey.

The final guests arrived shortly after that with the flash of a Teleport. "We're here!" I could hear my sister's shouting out.

"Yes, you are. Welcome back, sis." I greeted, as she squeed and ran over to give me a big hug.

"I hope you don't feel too bad about your loss. Sorry that I wasn't there to see it." I said into her shoulder.

"Nah, I'm okay. I was just worried if Sabrina turned out to be the only one who didn't need to make it to the Preliminary Rounds, but I guess there's no need to be worried about that." She remarked happily.

"I would have been happy for you anyways." Sabrina cut in.

"Nope! We're doing it together! We're not leaving you behind in the Open Qualifiers if we got to the Preliminary Rounds. I don't like that." Whitney shook her head, "It's together or nothing."

As Whitney and Sabrina fell into a back and forth about this topic, I made sure to greet her parents, "Thank you for coming. I hope my mom didn't pester you two too much." I joked.

"Don't be. In fact, it made us very happy to see your parents so openly inviting." Katrina replied with a smile, "It's been some time since we got invited to a dinner like this."

"The downsides of being a Gym Leader, unfortunately." Samson mumbled, "We're too often placed on pedestals; idolized and worshipped. But that idolization leads to distance. I'm just glad that it doesn't appear that Sabrina will have to deal with that when she grows up." He turned his gaze knowingly to Sabrina and Whitney, who were still bickering.

I smiled, "I hope so too. The three of them really are close."

"Anyways, please, come in. You're just in time for dinner." I invited the four of them into the house.

That led to a big round of greetings from everyone. I was a little surprised at how familiar Samson and Koga seemed to be, but I supposed they had both been acquainted for some time as Gym Leaders. In the meanwhile, Katrina and my mom began gossiping as if they hadn't seen each other for years, despite them literally having just talked on a phone barely hours ago.

The dinner quickly split into two different groups of conversations as we all tucked into the food. I joined the 'kiddie' group with Karen, Whitney, Sabrina, and Janine, while the parents began chatting together in the big adult group. From what I overheard, the adults flip-flopped between talking about something more serious and gushing about their kids.

On our part, Karen and I simply listened patiently as we allowed the trio to spew out everything that they had done over their journey. Even though most of what they did we already knew from their phone calls and text messages to us, it was just nice to see the sheer happiness and excitement that glistened in all their eyes as they reminisced about their journey together.

The pure joy that radiated out of them was infectious, and I couldn't help but break out into a wide smile.

THIS was why I had always wanted Whitney to go on her journey, because I knew that she would make friends and bonds with Pokémon and trainers that would last an eternity. Even if her friends weren't future Gym Leaders, I still would have been happy for her making friends that she trusted regardless.

Eventually, as dinner progressed, the conversation groups joined up again as questions were passed around. It was then where Whitney brought up Daisy Oak, and how she had been training as my assistant.

"I totally forgot about that." Samson said as he chewed on some food, "I saw it on the news, got surprised, then forgot about it. How is little Daisy Oak doing?"

"She's very smart." I replied, "But I suppose that partially comes with who her grandfather is. Oak has raised her well. It's a little bit of a shame that she doesn't really want to be a trainer, because she really does have the potential for it."

"Then it may be your duty to encourage her." Koga spoke up, "She may not be enthusiastic about being a trainer now, but there is every possibility that she might want to pick it up in the future. As you say, she has the talent and potential for it, so why not nurture it?"

I blinked, "…I didn't think of it like that. I thought it would be better to respect her wishes. She DID say that she wanted to achieve all 8 badges, but that was it."

"She does not hate training, does she?" Koga asked, and I shook my head, "Then clearly she must have some passion for it, especially if she is aiming for all 8 badges. Achieving all 8 badges is no easy task, or else we would not have gathered here today to celebrate our daughters' wonderful achievement." The trio smiled at his praise.

"So, if you have some time, try to train up Daisy Oak." Koga continued, "I know that mentoring is something you favour, or else your sister would not be as strong as she was. Daisy may end up not being a trainer in the end, but since you have already taken her under your wing, should you not do all you can to make sure she can fly?"

I was briefly taken aback by Koga's words, but then I nodded firmly as I realized how right he was, "I will. Thank you for opening my eyes."

Koga shook his head, "No need to thank me. It is the duty of the experienced to advise the young. And even if you are in the Elite Four, forgive me for saying, but you are still a young soul."

"And it is the duty of women to get the men to do the washing up." Katrina cut in, dispelling the sombre and reflective mood that had set in, "Look at all these unwashed plates! Get to it!"

The men all collectively groaned but knew a losing battle when we saw one. So we all – yes, even Koga – got up and started doing the dishes while the womenfolk turned on the TV and pretended to laze around on the couch.

But they ended up joining us in helping us to clean up – joking or not, it wasn't the best look to have 2 Gym Leaders and an Elite Four member doing the washing up while you lazed around. And with the help of 3 Psychics and 2 Ninjas, everything got tidied up real quickly.

Koga and Janine ended up leaving the house at that point, having a habit of retiring early for the night. But the rest of us hung around, simply chatting or watching TV. Karen had an arm around both of the kids as I sat next to her, idly texting away with Cynthia as I casually listened in on their conversation.

I was chatting away with Cynthia about today's gathering, and how we were celebrating my sister and her friends' achievement of obtaining all 8 badges.

'Make sure you pass them my congratulations as well.' She texted, 'I hope they're not feeling too bad about losing. They've done better than many others their age. Far better.'

'They aren't too upset about it; they know we're proud of them.' I wrote back.

'That's good. If I ever get to visit you in person you'll have to introduce me to your sister and her friends.' She texted, 'You've always praised them and their potential so highly that I'm eager to see it for myself.'

'More excited than to see me?' I jokingly texted.

'Are you fishing for compliments? Because you already know the answer to that.' She shot back.

I was about to text back when the voice of the newscaster caught my attention.

"...And this just in! We have a magnificent announcement to make today! Scientist Bill has announced today that he has released his new invention, the PC Storage System, which is now available to be bought and used on the open market! That means that everyone can now purchase the new system on their very own computer! This opens up a whole new avenue for Pokémon transfers and Pokémon storage in general! How will the world change from this invention?!"

Even before the newscaster finished speaking, I had already shot out from my seat as I dialled Lance, ignoring the curious looks I got as I did so.

I had already realised the implications. And they did not bode well.

"Lance, I was just about to call you. You saw the news?" I asked with a deep frown; the earlier look of relaxation from the dinner disappearing from my face.

"Yes." He growled, "I had been reassured by Bill that he would not release his invention to the public like this. He PROMISED that it would be released in small waves, so that we could manage the impact. This was NOT within our plans."

So someone messed up, but that doesn't matter right now, "This is going to be just like the PIT technique all over again. Or even the Fairy reveal." I warned. The unrestrained release of the PC Storage System might mean that everyone would suddenly get access to be able to transfer and receive Pokémon wherever and whenever they wanted.

Thinking about the consequences of that power, and how it could be maliciously exploited, was nightmarish. We needed to act fast.

I could hear Lance sigh, "No. It will be worse."

A.N. Hope you enjoyed the moment of calm, because the unregulated release of the PC Storage System is going to cause a lot of headaches for everyone.

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!