The New Normal – 9-14 – Interlude – Steven & Bruno
(Steven POV)
Bringing in Bruno as his personal trainer was the best decision he's ever made.
Ever since he had started training with Bruno, he could feel that his Pokémon were getting stronger with every session they participated in. Bruno was not only a powerhouse of a trainer, but the man was an excellent teacher with a sharp eye on where his Pokémon needed improving.
As a Steel specialist, Steven had naturally trained up his Pokémon to have a great deal of focus on their defensive abilities, making up for their comparative lack of speed by giving them the ability to just tank through an onslaught of attacks without much issue.
But all that defense meant very little when Bruno's Pokémon just slammed into them, again and again, with jaw-dropping power and brutal efficiency.
Steven was unashamed to say it, but he lost more than he won against Bruno. He did not underestimate Bruno, but he still got a thorough thrashing by the man. That string of losses did bite at his pride; he had thought he was a lot stronger than that.
Yet he was not one to give up. His losses to Bruno were only a temporary setback. And he put his mind to work, analysing how Bruno's Pokémon fought and how best he could learn from it. Overtime, he came up with a two pronged strategy.
The first prong was simple, but it had been something he had previously overlooked. He needed to train up his Pokémon more with their long-ranged attacks, and be more creative with them. Previously, while he never neglected his Pokémon's use of longer-ranged attacks, he had thought that a bulk of his damage would be done at close range. Naturally, with his Pokémon's high defenses and solid attack, his strategy involved getting his Pokémon in close and overwhelming his opponent at close-range.
But Bruno had exposed his complacency for relying on a strategy like that - simply by being BETTER at this than him. The reason why he lost so much at the start against Bruno was because he foolishly allowed the Fighting master to get in range, thinking he could win by relying on his Pokémon's better defenses.
He did not. Bruno's team decimated his as soon as they got proving that he needed to come up with more methods of deterring attackers from getting in close. He needed to make full advantage of most of his Pokémon's part Psychic type.
The second way was inspired after he studied how Bruno's Hariyama fought. The Fighting type was extremely slow, but it made use of his huge bulk to soldier through attacks before retaliating with a crushing counterattack. And his Pokémon were all the same – huge defenses and endurance, with generally powerful attacks, but poor speed.
So he replicated Hariyama's fighting style, but with a more cunning edge that he picked up from watching the fighting between Sidney and Karen. Not only did he train up his Pokémon's attacks so that they could hit hard enough to punish their opponents for trying to land a hit, but he also trained his Pokémon to deliberately expose themselves to bait the enemy in.
And now, as he watched his Metagross pretend to overextend itself, he let out a grin as Bruno's Hariyama stepped forwards, thinking that it had an opening that it could exploit.
Only to be blasted by a quick Psychic that staggered the Hariyama for long enough to be smashed head-first with a critical Zen Headbutt, capitalising on its exposed state. Hariyama flinched back, and Metagross finished off its combo of attacks with a quick Bullet Punch to the gut.
This method of creating false openings and pretending to be exposed was an excellent way of overcoming his Pokémon's lack of speed, and it allowed him to strike hard with surprise critical hits on his opponents.
And through training up on both of these areas, Steven was able to slowly transform his Pokémon from being simply defensive walls with a good offense, into much more versatile and wily fighters that were also becoming more and more resilient to attacks as they battled against Bruno's monsters of the Fighting type.
Thus, with every battle that they fought, the more Steven felt his chances of winning rose. Not just against Bruno, but also his chances of winning the title of Champion altogether.
His Pokémon were becoming ever more refined.
He remained thankful that Bruno seemed to be so patient with him, so willing to continue training together. If Steven could be honest – Bruno was wasted as a wandering fighter. The man had so much more potential in him, not just as a trainer, but even as a member of the Elite Four. It was crazy to Steven that someone THIS strong wasn't an Elite Four member.
Especially when Steven thought he would be very suitable for it.
So, Steven had tried to nurture this other side of Bruno, but he wasn't sure how successful he had been. He knew he wasn't going to be able to change Bruno's mind in the short term, but that was fine, he had the patience for it.
If only Bruno wasn't so stone-faced, then it would be easier to read what he was thinking.
(Bruno POV)
Choosing to accept Steven's proposal turned out to be a prudent decision. But more importantly, he had underestimated the man.
In their initial meeting, he had thought he had gotten a good measure of Steven. An ambitious and cunning businessman that had the wisdom to not become obsessed with it. But he had overlooked a very important aspect of Steven's character.
His intelligence. And more crucially, his willingness to learn from his mistakes and not make it again.
When he first defeated Steven's team, Bruno admitted to a slight bit of disappointment. He had thought that Steven would have put up a better fight against his team, despite the poor type matchup on his end. The only really tough fight was against Steven's Metagross, as to be expected.
It was a little disappointing coming from a man whose ambition was to become Champion.
However, it was then that he realised that this was merely the surface level of the trainer that was Steven Stone.
The Steel specialist was a cunning man, with an analytical eye that was all too eager to learn from his own tricks. It only took a few battles, but it was impossible for Bruno to miss the noticeable improvement in Steven's battling style, as if the man had already studied his Fighting types and how best to counter them.
And during their next few weeks, barring the sudden distraction when the PSS was released (Bruno had no idea why everyone thought it was such a big deal – he carried all his Pokémon on him all the time anyways), Steven's Pokémon only continued to improve as they fought both smarter and harder.
They were becoming more mobile, more flexible in their movements. Steven began leveraging his Steel's types incredible bulk to bait his Pokémon into overcommitting into landing a powerful retaliatory blow that he had no hope of dodging. His Pokémon remained the better fighters, but Steven's Pokémon were just naturally more bulky, and Steven was becoming better at leveraging that bulk.
Thus, all of a sudden, his Fighting types' once dominant victories became a much more close-run thing.
However, Bruno was not upset by this development. Far from it. He was excited. There were very few trainers that could force Bruno to push his team harder. John could have done it, but Steven was even better suited for his Pokémon to train against, considering how much Steven relied on his Steel Type's bulk.
As Steven improved, Bruno slowly began to forget about his original intention of fighting against other opponents in Hoenn, because he was getting all the training he needed battling against Steven.
His Steel type's great defenses forced his Fighting types to dedicate themselves more into each attack, which in turn forced them to train up their attack power. He never would have thought that his Pokémon needed to hit harder, but the iron wall that were Steven's Pokémon had prompted such improvement.
And, as Steven's Pokémon became increasingly capable at fighting back with their powerful counterattacks, his Pokémon were also becoming more and more familiar with the pain of taking a big hit – which worked wonders for their endurance training.
Because the Steel types hit hard.
The most important training he got was when Steven decided to make mix in a few Special Attacks; Bruno wanted his Pokémon to get all the experience they could with handling that.
Therefore, it was impossible for Bruno to be displeased with this arrangement, especially seeing how both their teams were gradually improving and had created a positive feedback look where both teams were able to continuously improve alongside each other.
And as the days went by, he became more familiar with interacting with Steven. He hesitated to say that they had become friends, but there was undoubtedly mutual respect between the two.
Yet, one day, after one of their training sessions, Steven had surprised Bruno by asking if he was ever interested in joining the Elite Four in Indigo.
"You certainly have the strength for it." Steven had said. "If you hadn't challenged John, and instead someone weaker, you could have made it in. I could already imagine it."
"I do not have the interest with dealing with politics." He replied, "I thought I made this clear – I only desire to make my Pokémon even stronger – to explore the boundaries of martial arts."
"But I think that exact mindset is what would make you an excellent representative in the Elite Four." Steven countered, breaking out into that signature smile of his. "That kind of incorruptible honesty is something that could serve you well in politics and business. There's much good you could do in a position of power."
"Give it some thought, Bruno." Steven patted him on the shoulder, "I admit I'm trying to persuade you and that I'm putting the cart before the Ponyta, but it's only because I think you'd be an incredibly good Elite Four member. I think you have the mindset and the strength for it."
Bruno didn't know what to say to that, so he remained silent as Steven continued to stare at him with an unknowable look in his eyes. Bruno could see the gears turning in Steven's head, no doubt having some kind of plan in mind that he hoped to rope Bruno into.
Bruno shook his head. If only Steven was easier to read.
A.N. I thought that these two deserved another chapter to catch up on what they've been up to. I really wanted to explore the friendship between these two further, and I wanted to show how they've been able to help each other improve.
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!