John's Team

Tyrant - Slaking

Vordt - Ursaluna

Smough - Snorlax

Klee - Blissey

Port - Mantine

Zephyr - Pidgeot

Klaus - Wyrdeer

Luna - Clefable

Pixel - Porygon-Z

Euphie - Sylveon

Ornstein - Obstagoon

Wraith - H-Zoroark

Winston - Lickilicky (Shiny)

The New Normal – 14-2 – Recovery and Plans

With the awards ceremony done, that basically wrapped up everything that we really had left to do in Sinnoh. Despite wanting to obviously spend more time with my girlfriend, I realised that I had stayed for way too long in Sinnoh – and it was about time I returned home.

Besides, there was much work for Cynthia to do as well, and her reputation had taken a blow for allowing Cyrus to get away with summoning a Legendary – even if he was stopped in the end. The panic that people felt during that crisis wasn't going to be forgotten so soon, and her failure to capture Cyrus before he could do so was still placed on her.

At the very least, when I asked about it, she didn't seem upset by the public's reaction.

"I don't blame them. Not at all." She had told me, "The protection of Sinnoh's civilians falls to me, as their Champion. And even if there was little more I could do, they are right to place the blame on me. Those are the responsibilities and burdens that I promised to uphold when I took this position, and I won't try to cast off these responsibilities."

"It just means I'll have to work even harder to earn it back." She stated firmly, "Luckily, I was an active participant in the fighting, so at the very least the public won't be able to label me a coward. I just need to prove to the public that this disaster with Cyrus was a one-time thing, and that the Sinnoh League under me can be trusted."

I wished her all the best with that. Still, from what I read up on the Pokénet, it wasn't like everyone had suddenly turned on Cynthia. Rather, most could understand the extraordinary circumstances that led to Cyrus summoning Palkia, and were sympathetic to her struggles. And they had seen that she had ramped up security measures beforehand anyways, so claims of incompetence weren't always agreed with. Therefore, while she had lost some public support, there were still many that remained confident in her leadership.

Nevertheless, that was out of my control for now, and the Indigo Elite Four and I made our way back to Indigo by the early morning of the very next day. I spent most of the travel time catching up with my colleagues about whatever I had missed back at home, but most of the conversation was dominated by their questions to Koga and I about everything we did in Sinnoh. They evidently wanted to know more, not just about the attack at Spear Pillar, but also the raid that we did to retrieve the Lake Guardians that nearly ended up in disaster.

However, while most of the news about Indigo was positive, there some bits of sad news. Karen had said that, when the reports first started coming in about the sky cracking above Sinnoh, Agatha's health had suddenly taken a turn for the worse as she fell over while walking around the house. The timing was most likely purely a coincidence, and Karen confirmed that she hadn't hurt anything, but she was still forcefully monitoring her health for the time being, despite Agatha's protests about being confined.

Hopefully that would be the end of that. It'd be sad to see her health deteriorate any further.

Once we did arrive back home though, we were greeted with a hero's welcome. Many of the Gym Leaders had gathered at Vermillion to congratulate us for our victory, and banners were raised as they celebrated our return. My sister wasn't actually there, but only because I knew she would there to see me once I got home.

Will was at the forefront of the Gym Leaders, being the first to greet us with a wide smile.

"Absolutely magnificent!" He said as he clasped his hands with mine and Koga's, "When this whole thing with Cyrus started, I never thought it would end like this! But you've really proven yourselves to far more than even an Elite trainer. You especially, John. I can't believe you got to awaken and work in tandem with a Legendary. It makes me honoured to have once stood by your side as a peer and colleague. And after everything you've done, Koga, all of a sudden my loss to you doesn't seem as bad."

"It's only a shame that you couldn't join in on the battle." I said, "You would have shared in the glory."

"Indeed. Your prowess would have not gone amiss." Koga agreed, "Psychic specialists and their support moves were instrumental in that fight. You would have been a great boon for us."

"Oh, how I wish it were true!" He laughed, "But John, I had a few things I wanted to talk about. It's to do with Goldenrod and its future development. Now's not the time for it, but maybe we can arrange to speak privately at a later date."

I agreed easily, though curious about what Will wanted to speak to me about. Given that he mentioned Goldenrod and its development, perhaps there was something he wanted to collaborate on with Cerulean?

Either way, I'd find out later, and I busied myself with speaking with the many other Gym Leaders that had gathered here. Everyone was here to congratulate us – even Pryce, the old grump, had reluctantly made an appearance.

Amongst those that I spoke to, it was my conversation with Giovanni that was the most interesting.

"Is everything actually over?" He asked me.

"It is." I confirmed, "Cyrus will not be returning."

"What about those remnants of Team Rocket that had escaped from here?" He must be talking about Proton. We had to be a little bit more discreet considering we were still in public.

"Gone as well." I answered, "Last I heard, everyone was locked up behind bars. I think their leaders had undergone some rather… substantial psychic interrogations."

He nodded, though I caught a small hint of relief from his expression, "Then I hope we never see them again. They deserve what's coming to them."

As much as I disliked the practice of psychic interrogations, but I couldn't really disagree with that sentiment, "Better than keeping them free. I highly doubt they'll be a problem again."

"Good." He smiled, "I'd rather not deal with such unpleasant business any longer. The future is ripe with plenty of opportunities, and I'd much prefer to focus my attention and manpower on building and creating, rather than hunting and destroying. Today marks the beginning of a new era for everyone."

I agreed wholeheartedly.

Besides the congratulations from the Gym Leaders, Lance also made a speech, stating how both Koga and I would receive similar recognition and commendations from the Indigo League for what we had accomplished. Similar to what Cynthia had done back in Sinnoh, a small plaque would be hung on the walls of the Indigo League building to signify our achievement – to show that we had gone above and beyond the call of duty.

It was a nice honour.

After his speech, there were many reporters interested in an interview with both myself and Koga, and we humoured them for some time as we spoke about what had happened in Sinnoh. However, by this point we had repeated the same story so many times that I was actually getting annoyed talking about it, so we both made our escape once we felt that we had answered enough questions.

After checking with Lance that there was nothing else that I needed to urgently attend to, I just headed straight home, where my family were all there. They greeted me with warm smiles and joyful laughs, and we all settled in for a nice dinner that they had specially prepared for my return.

It was far more lavish than I was used to, and I greatly enjoyed myself as I scarfed down the food – it was the first good meal that I've had in some time, and the fact that it was homecooked made it even better in my biased opinion. Of course, I had to repeat my actions in Sinnoh yet again, but speaking about it to family wasn't a chore at all. I didn't mind it whatsoever.

But after going through everything that I had done over there, I wanted to check up on Whitney and how she was doing, especially with her new Dudunsparce that I had just added to her team.

"I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to train up with it because of how busy the circuit has been so far, but I think it's integrating well into the team." She replied, "You were right about its potential, though. It's able to Dig really fast, to the point where Miltank struggles to hit it with her Rollouts during our spars. And it's even fast enough to Dig out of the ground before Miltank can unleash an Earthquake too."

"Sabie's actually pretty annoyed about it as well, since her Pokémon aren't as good as dodging close range attacks as mine are." She continued, "Like, I've already found out that the best ambushing combo for Dudunsparce is to Dig, then Glare, then transition into a Hyper Drill. That combo is really easy to land, and it does significant damage to frailer Pokémon like Sabie has – and it even pierces through Protect. Also, since Dudunsparce moves so quickly underground with Dig, it's actually able to reposition so much faster than most would expect."

I nodded, not surprised at this development path, but happy that Dudunsparce was working well in her team. Though I made sure to give her a few other tips, just like the fact that Dudunsparce was able to use moves like Tailwind and Baton Pass that would help it play more of a supporting role if needed.

However, after the dinner was over, the mood dropped slightly as I watched a serious expression form on my parents' face. They looked a little concerned.

"John." My dad said carefully, "…How was the fight, truly? I don't mean the glorious parts, but the parts where you were in real danger… surely a fight against a Legendary couldn't be safe."

"…It wasn't." I admitted, "I won't deny that there were a few too many close calls for my liking. Had things even gone slightly differently…" I didn't need to finish that thought. It was clear enough what I meant.

My parents shared a look at my admission, while Whitney frowned at me.

"The news didn't say anything like that." My sister said to me.

"Of course not." I replied with a bitter smile, "They wouldn't want to get the public worried. That fight was not as glorious as the news made it out to be. It was a real struggle for everyone involved, and as much as I know I would stand up and fight again should I be called upon, I would much prefer to never be in a fight like that ever again."

I stared my parents in the face, "That was probably the most scared I've ever been in my life."

…I didn't intend to say so much, but this admission was something that I hadn't realised that I needed to get off my chest. The talk with Gardenia helped a bit, and my time with Cynthia helped even more, but admitting so in front of my parents was just more… freeing.

Ever since I had come into this world of Pokémon, it had been a world where I had felt safe. Sure, there had been some threats to my life, but never anything as serious as this. The fact that I had come so close to my demise had rattled me – not enough for me to lose my composure, but it was something that lingered in the back of my mind ever for the past few nights ever since that battle took place.

My admission caused an air of silence to fill the room, and I began to feel uncomfortable about the concerned and pitying stares being sent my way.

"…Thank you for telling us, son." My dad finally spoke up, "I'm sorry that you had to go through this, but you don't know how proud your mom and I are that you were able to continue to fight despite such circumstances. And seeing you right now, it's clear that this fear hasn't broken you. Unsettled you, sure, but you're still able to laugh and enjoy life, which proves that you are stronger than that."

"We always knew that there was such a risk when you joined the Elite Four." My mom added, "At first, we had hoped your young age would have excluded you from such dangerous activities, but you quickly disproved that when you helped out at Olivine. Then, we held on to the confidence that your Pokémon and their strength would keep you safe no matter the odds that you faced. Despite all of this, we always knew that there was always something dangerous lurking around the corner for you."

"I know you're old and mature enough to not need to be mothered, so we'll leave it at that for now." My mom said, "But just know that if you need us, for anything at all, just let us know and we'll do our best to help."

"Me too!" My sister chimed up, "…I don't know really know how scary it was, but if you're sad, then I'll do my best to make you not sad!"

My dad then reached out and placed my hand in his. His callous and rough hands just felt warm in mine, "And I know you've probably been told this enough already – but thank you for keeping us all safe, John."

I nodded slowly, grateful for their words. I felt the love and affection that they were sending my way; their feelings wrapping around me like a snug blanket. Despite all the praise that I had received from the public, it was this acknowledgement from my family that truly mattered to me.

Family was everything.

So when I returned to my room and finally laid down on my bed, I slept soundly. I was at peace with what had happened, and was no longer weighed down by the fight.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt ready and refreshed – more than I had felt in the past few days. I stared up at the bright blue sky above, listening to the peaceful chirps of the wild Pidgey, as the morning sun shined brightly in the sky – lighting up all that it touched.

And I let out a relaxed smile.

It was in that moment that I had finally accepted that Cyrus and Team Galactic were finally dealt with.

That we finally had a moment of peace.

I actually sat there by the windowsill for far longer than I expected, simply basking in the morning sun for a moment. However, after sitting there idly for long enough, I finally decided to get a move on with my day.

Now that there was peace, plans upon plans started to flood back into my mind as my nascent ambition of creating a better and happier world rose back up to the surface. With Team Galactic dealt with, there were so many things that I wanted to accomplish.

However, first and foremost, I knew that I needed to keep up with training with my team. Thanks to my public victory over a Legendary, the news had labelled all of our Pokémon as being 'strong enough to beat a Legendary'. Obviously, that was a heavy exaggeration, and most knew it. But from what I saw on the Pokénet, there was a high level of prestige and attention attached to that label.

It was to the point that people online were clambering about wanting to challenge those very Pokémon for themselves to see if they could defeat a Pokémon that had supposedly 'beaten a Legendary'. Apparently, the Sinnoh Gym Leaders that had been in that Legendary fight had already received a long line of challengers looking to fight them at the 8th Badge level just so they could try their hand at defeating one of their Pokémon.

Fortunately, I wasn't a Gym Leader, and I could decline any non-official battles if I wanted to. But it did mean that I should expect to receive more official challenges soon, whether that it be from the Indigo Gym Leaders or otherwise. And in my case specifically, as the one who had been publicly acknowledged to have awoken Regigigas, there was quite a bit of envy aimed my way.

The attention that we got for simply having fought a Legendary was absolutely no joke. It really demonstrated how much the public venerated the Legendaries in their minds.

Personally, I doubted that these challengers wanted to win outright, but they just wanted to take down one of my Pokémon for the prestige. Even the Gym Leaders might not be immune from this. But if that was the case, then I'm certainly not going to make it easy for them – I would make sure that all of my Pokémon would be able to overpower whatever was sent their way.

Besides all of the battling stuff, there were also plenty of political objectives that I wanted to achieve as well. Most were very long-term plans, but I still wanted to see them done one day in the future. Because I had so many ideas, I sat down and jotted some of them down so that I wouldn't forget.

I wanted to improve the Sevii Islands, getting involved with its development and ensuring that it can become the tourist attraction that I believed it could become. This was probably something I could work on alongside Lorelei, given her interest in the Islands as well.

By the same token, I also sought to continue the development of Cerulean and grow the city's prestige and fame even further. I had ideas about setting up new museums, exhibitions, and other cultural sites that would attract tourists to visit. Furthermore, I wanted Cerulean City to expand into Route 25 more, making use of that currently empty stretch of land and turn it into something memorable. I'd have to discuss more with Mayor Henry about what we could do with it.

I was eager to turn my city into the most prestigious city in Kanto, or even Indigo. To that end, maybe another trading port could be built at the end of Route 25? Since it connected to the ocean? Food for thought.

Not only that, I wanted to grow the Smith family name by expanding our businesses. We had gotten a start on our new breeding business, and I wanted to raise the prestige of the Smith breeding farm so that it became the best location for raising powerful Normal type Pokémon. It'd cement us as being like the Normal type variant of the Blackthorns, though hopefully without all their arrogance.

And, even more ambitiously, I wanted to set up better transport systems between our three regions. The recent attacks at Sinnoh had really highlighted how inefficient it was for us to travel from one region to another, and I thought that there must be a better way of going about it. An interregional train network came to mind, even if it would be an incredibly expensive endeavour, but if we could afford it then I felt that it would really bolster our ability to trade and travel between us. The trains of Unova were a good example of this, and I thought that their subway station could be replicated in some way within our own cities sometime in the future.

Having a transport system like that would also help tie our regions closer together. Making it easier to travel from one region to another would hopefully change public perception so that our regions wouldn't be seen as three separate regions, but as one connected whole.

Speaking of Unova, I wanted to help out and locate further regions that we could bring into the fold. There were several reasons for this, with the main one obviously being that I wanted to see more of the world and the Pokémon unique to their regions. However, there was also a more cynical reason – as per the games, every new region would have their own threats to deal with.

I didn't know when Unova or any other further region would be discovered and integrated, but I hoped it would be as soon as possible. This was so that I could still help out and deal with any of those lingering threats before they could take action like Cyrus did. Thoughts of Ghetsis, Lysandre, Lusamine, and Rose came to mind. For better or worse, I wanted to stop them while I was still around to do so.

By the time I finished listing everything down, I realised that the list of my future plans was a rather long one. But that didn't discourage me. Instead, I smiled as I saw that there was still so much for me to do.

So, without waiting for another moment, I rang up Lance. There was so much I wanted to talk to him about.

The future was just so exciting.

At the same time, all the way back at Spear Pillar, the almighty and esoteric energies from the clash of Legendaries continued to linger in the air. The spike of Legendary power that radiated out of the Legendaries could not be hidden or ignored.

To the scanners and observational equipment surveying the area, it was as if an enormous beacon of light had been shot into the air.

And even for those far, far away, they did not fail to notice it.

A.N. A slower chapter this time, but one that I felt was necessary (and with a little hint of something to come!). I wanted to make sure that John's own personal feelings were addressed after that Legendary battle, while also laying down the foundations for what his plans are now that Team Galactic aren't a threat anymore. With all this free time, there's so much he wants to get done. I hope you like the scope of his plans, because we're about to head into a few timeskips now!

If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to let me know! I'll definitely read through them and I'll do my best to incorporate them into the story if I think they're suitable. Hope you enjoyed!

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