John's Team
Tyrant - Slaking
Vordt - Ursaluna
Smough - Snorlax
Klee - Blissey
Port - Mantine
Zephyr - Pidgeot
Klaus - Wyrdeer
Luna - Clefable
Pixel - Porygon2
Euphie - Sylveon
Ornstein - Obstagoon
Wraith - H-Zoroark
The New Normal – 10-11 – An Electric Atmosphere
Time quickly flew by when we were having fun. And the evening rays of light told us that we had been playing around for long enough.
Our stomachs also alerted us to the fact that we were actually pretty hungry. So despite the two of us still being soaked, we were tired enough from all that playing around that we had to drag ourselves to the same food stall to get some dinner.
Yet, ignoring all the tiredness, it was clear that we had a great time.
"I think that's enough of the beach for me for a while." She said to me over dinner, "It was fun, but it really took a lot out of me. I still have more to do after this!"
"Better than the cold, right?" I grinned.
"Well, you haven't really experienced a true and proper snowball fight yet, but I admit that there are more things to do on a beach." She relented.
"If we still have free time later, maybe I can bring you to walk around Mauville City." I said, "I still have a store to set up there."
"Sure, I won't turn down another date." She smiled at me, "I haven't really had a chance to experience much of the local cuisine here. Actually, I haven't been to much of Hoenn at all – this was the first time I could really leave Ever Grande City. I'm constantly stuck there due to all the meetings."
"Then I'll try to bring you on a tour of the place if you have time." I replied, "It'll just be like how you took me on a tour around Sinnoh."
"I'll see if I can find time for it, but I'm holding you to that." She responded.
Unfortunately, I couldn't spend the whole evening with Cynthia. Given that it was a rare opportunity for so many politically important people to be gathered in one place, and that she was the new Champion of Sinnoh, she had a lot of meetings and schmoozing to do. So she had to leave shortly after dinner.
Still, we should hopefully have another opportunity for a date again soon.
The next day flew by pretty quickly as well. While Roxanne and I waited for the rest of the matches for the first round to be over, I decided to focus on some individual training in preparation for my match against Lance.
Besides, I wanted to finally inspect Ornstein's new form and the potential that came with it.
It was amusing how Ornstein's evolution into an Obstagoon was ALMOST overlooked by the newspapers. Not that it wasn't a significant evolution, especially since the regular form of Linoone was not known to be able to evolve, but there were so many other possible headlines that the news of his evolution was buried underneath everything else.
The pairs that won, the pairs that lost, the pairs that should have won but ended up losing, everything was being reported. The news must be having a field day with all the headline-worthy events that were taking place. There was just so much drama to be had.
Though I was sure that the topic of my Obstagoon would resurface later, once things calmed down.
Not only that, but Giovanni also informed me of Archer's findings regarding Team Galactic and their movements. I was pleasantly surprised to hear about what they had discovered and what Giovanni had pieced together. I had hoped that Team Galactic would have gotten sloppy, but this was far more than I had hoped that Archer would find.
I was even MORE surprised about the proposed actions that Giovanni had informed me about. After thinking things through, I decided that to give my agreement and that he had my full support to go ahead with the plan.
Right now, the main obstacle that is preventing us from taking down Team Galactic is the shield of public opinion that they hide behind. Giovanni's plan was a step towards breaking down that shield and exposing the true face of Galactic Company to the world.
Bringing him and Archer on board for their 'experience' was really paying dividends.
Putting that aside for now, I ended up borrowing the training facilities kindly provided by Roxanne to test out Ornstein. Roxanne wasn't with me today, as she told me that she had plans that needed to be dealt with, and instead would meet up with me later for further preparations.
Therefore, with the free time given to me, I threw myself into training and released my team. They immediately surrounded the newly evolved Ornstein and inspected his form.
"Ornstein! Come here!" I called out towards my Pokémon, dispersing my curious crowd of Pokémon. Ornstein rushed up to me, tongue lagging in his mouth, and his eyes eager to show off his new form.
I could see why he was so proud of it. Unlike when he was a Linoone, his new form had muscles that were sculpted to be for more than just for speed; his arms were muscled and packed with enough strength that I felt could break a tree in half. Similarly, his chest was full of newfound bulk – giving him a level of endurance that he could have only dreamed of when he was a Linoone.
It was immediately clear to me that his newfound evolution into an Obstagoon had completely changed his role on my team, just as I hoped. He could now fight as more than just a Pokémon reliant purely on his speed, and was now able to muscle through powerful threats as well.
I grinned as I inspected his new form. It was finally time to train Ornstein to live up to his namesake.
"Ornstein, I want you to train against Smough." I ordered, "Test yourself and your new form against him. See if you can actually match him in a brawl."
Ornstein grinned eagerly before turning around and immediately rushing towards Smough without any hesitation. Smough blocked Ornstein's Brick Break with a palm, and retaliated with his own Hammer Arm.
However, whereas before Ornstein would have immediately be forced to dodge out of the way, this time Ornstein merely blocked the attack with a dark-infused arm before his whole body flashed orange and he struck back with another powerful Brick Break – this time further boosted by the Counter that he had just used.
Smough fell back with a pained grunt and a look of surprise on his face; he must have been too used to how Ornstein used to fight and wasn't expecting Ornstein to be able to outright block his attacks. On the other hand, Ornstein was grinning madly, clearly happy about his newfound ability to fight back against his old rival.
Yet Smough was always ready to adapt to new ways of fighting. Knowing that his rival could now block his attacks, Smough now took his opponent much more seriously, ramping up the ferocity of his attacks as he began to pummel Ornstein with a flurry of strikes.
Then Ornstein did something that surprised me – during one of Smough's attacks, Ornstein shouted at Smough, firing off a Hyper Voice that broke through Smough's concentration for a brief moment. That gave Ornstein just enough time to duck under Smough's swing before snaking out a leg and tripping up Smough, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Ornstein laughed out in celebration, only to immediately let out a yelp of surprise as Smough lunged at him from the ground and pinned Ornstein underneath him. Ornstein tried to struggle, but Smough's sheer weight was too much, and he was forced to tap out.
They continued their spars in a similar manner while I stayed back to observe. The more that I did, the more I was able to confirm that Ornstein would quickly become one of my more powerful Pokémon on my team.
He fought very similarly to Smough, relying on close range attacks to do most of his damage. However, Smough hit harder and was more durable, while Ornstein was much faster and had access to a wider range of disruptive moves than Smough. Once Ornstein mastered his new strength, I was going to see if he could train up his jump height so that he could be a surprise threat against would-be fliers.
I grinned as they continued to fight; he would be an excellent partner for Smough in a 2v2 fight. Just as I hoped he would be.
And now, between Ornstein's new powerful evolution, Pixel's mastery of Conversion, Klaus' continued mastery of his ability to Teleport around during fights, Wraith's improving sense of discipline and increasingly creative use of his Illusion ability, and Euphie's growing mastery of the Fairy type and her developing supporting move pool, I felt that my newer Pokémon were really coming together.
They were all slowly becoming Pokémon that I would be proud to have on my Elite team – and some were already there.
Still, I reminded myself to not get complacent about their training. My close call with Will had demonstrated that they were still somewhat lacking compared to my stronger peers, and so the training must continue. Not only that, but I also told myself to try to think up more creative ways to utilise their strengths, just to get that slight edge in battle.
It wasn't just enough to get them to be stronger or faster. Fighting creatively was an excellent way of compounding the strength of my team.
This was especially important for Zephyr, and I stared at my Flying type with a complicated expression.
Despite my best efforts, Zephyr was having trouble growing any further – it was almost like he had hit his limit in terms of what a Pidgeot could do. His strength, no matter how much I tried to train it up, just couldn't really match the level that I needed for really high-level fights. Flying fast to generate momentum could only compensate for so much.
He wasn't like Tyrant. Despite having a determined mindset to improve, Pidgeot as a species just weren't particularly suited to high level fighting. Still, I didn't let my thoughts show on my face – nor was Zephyr one to get jealous. In fact, he was happy to see the new additions get stronger, and he never expressed his dissatisfaction or concern about stagnating.
Yet I wanted to honour his determination, and I decided to train up his supporting movepool and his endurance, since his attacking power was already as high as it realistically could be. That way, he could still be used in certain niche scenarios.
The most obvious move to train up was Tailwind, something that I had previously underutilised. A properly setup Tailwind could give my slower Pokémon a huge advantage in a battle, both in 2v2s or after a quick swapping U-Turn from Zephyr.
The other move that I also wanted to train up for Zephyr, no matter how hard it would be, was Baton Pass. I was inspired by Cynthia's fight against ex-Champion Hayato and how Milotic's Baton Pass into her Garchomp swiftly won the fight for her. With Zephyr's incredible speed and flight, it wouldn't be difficult for him to set up with Baton Pass before passing on all those buffs onto a different Pokémon.
Of course, I knew that Pidgeot did not naturally learn Baton Pass, but I knew that Clefable do. The move wasn't great on Luna due to her slow speed and inability to set up safely, but she could help train Zephyr into knowing the move.
This was going to be a long-term thing. However, learning Baton Pass would skyrocket Zephyr's usefulness, making him a legitimate pick for me to use in high level battles. He had been one of my earlier Pokémon that I had caught, so he deserved better than to fade away in favour of my other Pokémon.
I made sure to tell him as such, and Zephyr squawked excitedly as he took off to begin his new training routine.
Lastly, I turned to Tyrant, who had already been sparring against a Guts-boosted Vordt. Vordt let out a primal roar as he crashed straight into Tyrant with a devastating Headlong Rush, which Tyrant did nothing against except to brace himself to meet the attack head on.
Tyrant winced from the impact, but he stood firm and managed to shove back. This pattern repeated itself over and over again, for I was training up Tyrant's endurance in preparation for his fight against Emperor. And having him tank the most powerful attack from a Guts-boosted Vordt was probably the best form of training that I could have for him.
We had already been doing this ever since Lance and I agreed to fight, so I hoped Tyrant would be ready when the time came.
Of course, that wasn't the only training I did with Tyrant. I had him practice the same strategies that we prepared for against Drake's Salamence – in the worst case scenario where Vordt lost to it in that battle all that time ago. I would make sure that Tyrant was ready for some aerial combat.
He was going to need it when he faced off against Emperor – to prove once in for all that my Pokémon were worthy to be Champions. To prove myself to be equal to them, and to fulfil my promise to my girlfriend.
Because she was a Champion. And what kind of partner would I be if I couldn't stand by her side, in both status or reputation?
The first round of matches for the Tournament had finally concluded. Among the 22 pairs of trainers that went into the first round, 11 would be making it to the second. That wasn't including the team that was chosen by the public vote to continue.
The Pokénet and the news were buzzing with posts about who made it to the next round and who were eliminated. As was the norm, there was a lot more focus on the 'losers', with many trying to dramatize their loss and what that meant for their positions and their futures.
I scoffed when I read through the posts. It was all full of overdramatized nonsense that I knew weren't going to lead anywhere. Not only was the Tournament explicitly done for fun, losing against your colleagues, who were all extremely respected trainers, was nothing to be disappointed about.
In comparison, Ornstein's new evolution into an Obstagoon continued to be buried within the many news articles and Pokénet posts. Not that I cared; I wasn't going out of my way to advertise it anyways.
With that out of the way, Roxanne and I were together once again as we waited for the announcement for who would be our next opponent for round 2.
"So…how was Flannery?" I asked as we continued to wait, "Is she doing okay?"
"She's doing better now, thanks for asking." Roxanne explained, "Flannery is just a very emotional person. So she's very easily excited and very easily disappointed. I knew she would be okay, but I just wanted to make sure she was. As a friend."
"It's good that you care." I replied approvingly, "I also feel a little bad about those who got knocked out so early in the Tournament."
"They should have used a point system." Roxanne said, "That way each pair could at least fight in a few matches before getting knocked out."
"I agree, but I think it was done this way because the planning for the Tournament was quite rushed." I pointed out, "And we needed to fit all the matches within the one week break of the Conference."
She nodded, "Maybe next year they'll reformat the Tournament, if one is hosted next year."
"Let's hope so. I thought this was quite fun." I agreed, "And it's nice getting everyone together like this."
"Were you surprised about who got knocked out?" Roxanne changed the topic, "There were a few pairs that I didn't expect would lose so quickly – no offense intended."
"No, I see what you mean." I nodded, "I didn't think anyone expected Blaine and Byron to be knocked out. Or Clair and Gardenia, for that matter. I definitely didn't expect them to lose."
"I remember those matches – they just didn't work well together." Roxanne recalled, "Blaine almost torched Byron's Pokémon during his fight, and Clair didn't bother with Gardenia and rushed ahead by herself without her partner and got punished hard by when Chuck threw her Dragonair to the ground."
Yeah, that sounded exactly like what Clair would do.
"It's harder to make use of overwhelming strength when you have another Pokémon to focus on and deal with." I commented, "It's all too easy for them to disrupt your attacks."
"Mhm…I first thought that the pairings that combined a strong and weak trainer would do the worst, since it would be harder to coordinate, but I guess I was proven wrong." Roxanne remarked, "In fact, most of them made it through the first round."
That was true enough. Pairs like Drake and the Waterflower sisters actually managed to work well together and dominate their foe. Drake brought out the best of the sisters and they dominated by abusing the Rain boost to Water type attacks. Just like what Pryce and Candice did with the Snow.
Or like Brock and Sidney, who despite their loss, managed to surprise the world with their effective teamwork that made up for Brock's weaker team. They had managed a narrow loss, but their efforts were so inspiring that they were basically a shoe-in to receive the public vote to be able to continue to the next round.
The projected votes weren't even close for any other pair. Brock's underdog story proved too strong and too exciting for the public to ignore.
In the meanwhile, Agatha and the Psychic twins had torn Phoebe and Erika a new one, proving why Agatha was the more proficient Ghost specialist. It was surprising how much stronger Agatha's Ghosts were compared to Phoebe's, though that might be because of her many years of additional experience.
So as odd as the pair of Agatha and the psychic twins were, they were extremely capable together. Agatha was the guiding hand that allowed the Psychic twins to make full use of their incredible talent. They were scarily competent.
Though that didn't stop people from poking fun at how odd they looked together.
"…OH!" Roxanne suddenly exclaimed, "I think they just published the next round of fights!"
I quickly got on my phone and went through the published lists for the next fights. I gave off an approving hum as I saw who our next opponents would be.
Samson and Winona.
"…A difficult pairing." I heard Roxanne mutter from next to me, "They're both Gym Leaders known for their experience and competence. Winona is a very experienced Gym Leader."
"Yes, but I don't think it'll be any harder of a fight than against Will and Flannery." I reassured, "For all of Samson's prowess, he's a weaker version of Will. And I don't think Winona is going to be much of a problem for me."
Winona was just another Walker – I knew how to beat that.
That being said, with my promise and agreement with Cynthia in mind, making it to the Top 3 had just become even more important for me. I was still going to try to train up my weaker Pokémon, but there would be less holding back now. I didn't want to push my luck too far – that battle against Will was a little too close for comfort.
And as much as I was confident in my chance of victory, I would play it safe.
"…Perhaps, and I do have the type advantage against Winona's Flying types." Roxanne said slowly, "Okay, I see that we have nothing to worry about. We have the advantage here."
"That's the spirit." I smiled as I stood up, walking over to the training fields, "Come, we need to get a head start on training and researching what our opponents are like. Since we have the advantage, we might as well make full use of it."
Roxanne nodded as she followed after me, "Yes, let's go. I intend to do better than in the first round."
Roxanne and I intended to fully make use of the time before our match against Samson and Winona to train together and refine our strategies. And indeed, that was what we did for the first day.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, on the second day I got a call from Blaine. One that I really couldn't ignore.
"John! Hope I haven't caught you at a bad time." He greeted over the phone.
"Uh, could be better, but how can I help?" I replied.
"Oh right, you're still in the Tournament. I forgot about that." He said. Wow, he sounded salty, "Well I'm sorry for bothering you from training together with your partner, but I just thought to let you know that Shelly's coming over with what should hopefully be a working prototype of the Electirizer."
My eyebrows shot up, "Woah, already?! I'd thought that it'd take longer – wait, since when did you have time to work on this? I thought you would have spent the time training up for the Tournament with Byron."
"I didn't get along very well with Byron, so I just spent most of my time continuing to work on the Electirizer. It was better than spending time around that stubborn crank, at least." Yep, that was definitely some salt, "But never mind that. Volkner really pulled his weight, and thanks to him we made a breakthrough and now hopefully have a working prototype to test. Are you going to be there to check it out? Volkner will be there too."
"Sure, I'll be there." I nodded, "Can't miss out on this. I'll let Roxanne know that I'm gone for a bit."
"Good, because I want to make sure we can publish this discovery at the same time as Sam's discovery of the Protector." Blaine said, "It'll be better that way."
"Aren't you afraid we'll be upstaged by Oak? He's more famous." I asked.
"That's why I wanted the discoveries to be published simultaneously." He explained, "Trust me, if we publish it together, we won't be buried under the other news. Don't think I haven't noticed how your new Linoone evolution was swept under the rug."
"Wasn't trying to keep it hidden." I shrugged, "Anyways, I'll meet you there."
After quickly explaining to Roxanne why I had to dash, I met up with Blaine, a newly arrived Shelly, and Volkner at one of the many labs of Devon Corp that Shelly had borrowed for this demonstration.
My first meeting with Volkner was about as I expected it to be. It was brief, but not unfriendly. He wasn't impolite to me, but it was very clear that he was a little awkward around strangers. Still, I tried my best to make a friendly impression with him.
"Congratulations on getting through the first round." I said as I shook his hand, "I'm surprised you had all this time to work on the Electirizer while you're still in the Tournament."
"Most of the work I did before the Tournament started." He explained, "I practically got started as soon as I received the rundown from Blaine and Shelly."
"What he means he pulled a whole lot of all-nighters." Shelly interrupted, "I told you that you didn't need to push yourself this hard."
"And like I told you, sleep is for other people." Volkner replied, "Besides, I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway now that I finally have something interesting to work on."
"Well I won't complain about your hard work." Blaine said as he entered in the room, pushing a trolley that had a small lockbox on top of it. Unlike the lockbox used for the Magmarizer, this was heavily insulated against what was likely an enormous amount of electricity that the Electirizer endlessly emitted.
The lockbox was essentially one big lump of rubber.
"Right then, we're finally putting this to the test!" Blaine declared impatiently as he carefully unlocked the lockbox that stored the Electirizer.
Volkner nodded at Blaine's words and released his Electabuzz onto the field. Its eyes snapped towards the Electirizer, and it stared at it with greedy eyes as it strained against its ingrained discipline – like there was some kind of magnetic attraction between it and the Electirizer.
We all promptly put on safety googles while Volkner carefully put on some really thick, and specially made, insulating gloves before he carefully lifted the Electirizer from the box.
"Moment of truth." He announced as he pressed the Electirizer to the top of Electabuzz's forehead.
Immediately a bright white light exploded out from Electabuzz as small sparks of electricity started flying out. We all winced as the light blinded us all, but I could make out the excited smiles on everyone's faces as they eagerly awaited the evolution that came out of it.
The signature white light of the evolution didn't last for very long, and eventually we came standing face to face with our latest success. Volkner's newly evolved Electivire roared proudly as it revealed its new form to the world. Electricity crackled out from its fists and back, electrifying the air around it.
"…Amazing." Volkner exclaimed with awe in his eyes, "It looks magnificent."
Blaine snorted, "I still think my Magmortar looks cooler." Shelly immediately slapped Blaine across the head, "…But it does look strong."
"I'm just glad it was a success." Shelly said, "We can actually coordinate with Oak now for publishing the reveal. I'm sure it would be get a lot of attention."
I was confident it would – especially because it was worked on by people from all three regions. It was another demonstration of what could be achieved by working together.
"Are you going to test it out?" I asked Volkner, and he proceeded to do just that. We relocated to a small training field where Electivire proceeded to fire off a few attacks.
The large grin on Volkner's face told us all we needed to know about this newfound strength. Once he returned, we continued running a few more tests on Electivire – which Volkner helpfully revealed to us was its new name – just to make sure that there weren't any complications with the evolution.
While that was happening, Blaine brought up an important question, "So, we've already had two successes as a group by condensing a Type's energy into a small box. I would be more than happy to continue this partnership, but does anyone have any suggestions on what we could work on? Volkner, feel free to chime in too – you're part of us now."
I saw a small smile break out on Volkner's face at Blaine's quick acceptance of him, but then we all fell into a thoughtful silence as we thought through Blaine's question.
My mind quickly ran through all of the available evolution items that I knew about, and I realized that, including the Protector, we had already created/discovered all that was to be found. The remaining evolution items were either naturally made/found, or didn't apply to any Pokémon that we had access to within our regions.
The only potential exception to this was the Reaper Cloth, but I was pretty sure that was naturally found. Even if it wasn't, I don't think this was something a group of scientists would know how to work with.
Therefore, any further efforts into this would only waste time. And I didn't want Blaine or Shelly to go down a path that will ultimately lead to a dead end.
Shelly ended up being the first to speak up, "…I'm drawing a blank right now…but you're right. I don't want to give up on our partnership now that we've done our bigger projects."
"Then how about this." I suggested, "There's no reason to force ourselves to work on something together right now. But we're all friends here, we could always just ask each other for help and cooperate on different projects in the future."
"I think I'd like that." Shelly nodded, "I've actually got a few old projects of mine sitting on the backburner that I'm interested in getting back to. I could easily bring you all along as independent assistants to work on things with me – assuming I get permission from Mr. Stone."
"I would be fine with that." Volkner immediately said, "I'm always happy to work on something."
"Same here." Blaine agreed, "Just let me know."
"I'm no scientist, but I'm always happy to help too with whatever's needed." I also said, pleased to see that everyone was still eager to continue working together. "Just, please ask me AFTER the Tournament."
"Same." Volkner said, "I'm busy until after then. I don't intend to lose quite yet."
Shelly and Blaine both agreed, though Blaine did so with a bit more grumbling, "That's not a problem. We can get in touch over the phone with you just like we did before, Volkner."
"Uh…actually, I'm going to be in Indigo after this Tournament. For a little bit." He said sheepishly.
"Really? Are you here on holiday?" I couldn't help but ask.
He nodded, trying but failing to hide his embarrassment, "Yes…Jasmine asked me to come, so I really couldn't say no."
The three of us shared a knowing smile, but we all made a pact with our eyes not to tease Volkner about it, "Well I'm sure you'll love it here." Blaine smirked, "You're always welcome at the labs if you come on by."
"Same here!" Shelly grinned.
"Thank you, I'll make sure to visit when I have some time." Volkner said with visible relief at our lack of teasing, "I'll ask Jasmine if she wants to come along."
"We'll be happy to have her." Shelly said, visibly holding back a chuckle.
Volkner ended up talking a lot more than I suspect he wanted to about his upcoming visit to Indigo with Jasmine. It was beyond clear to the three of us that he was absolutely smitten, though we barely held back the urge to tease him about it.
But eventually Volkner and I had to leave and return to training. The two of us had another battle ahead of us, and neither of us intended to lose.
I chuckled to myself as I left, thinking that it was a good thing that we weren't fighting each other. With the power of love on their side, Volkner and Jasmine might just sweep through everyone.
A.N. A slower chapter focusing more on setup for what's happening in the future. Though the Electirizer project has finally come into fruition with a success, which I'm sure Volkner will be very happy to show off soon.
And I wanted to show that even if the science group don't have a project to work on, they're still friends and are more than willing to stay in touch. They'll still be working towards their own discoveries, which you will be seeing more of in the future!
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!