The New Normal – 14-6 – Interlude – Cynthia
Taking a step into the meeting room, she felt all four pairs of eyes quickly dart towards her – curiosity present in each and every single one of them.
She could understand; she had been deliberately vague in why she had chosen to invite them. If she weren't Champion, she doubted any of them would have entertained her request at such a short notice.
Nevertheless, they had come. And it was time to introduce her idea to them.
"Thank you for coming." She began, "I'm sure you're a little confused about why you're all here, but don't worry, none of you are in trouble."
"It's totally no problem, Champion." The most fashionable of the four, Dahlia, spoke up, "I'm going to assume this has something to do with your new proposal regarding the Battle Zone that you're building up? After all, everyone here is a prominent Ace Trainer."
"You are most observant." Cynthia nodded, "Indeed, that is the case. I meant to have five members, but the person I intended to invite to be the fifth member unfortunately turned me down due to having other commitments on his time."
She had meant to invite Darach, but he had apparently decided to begin his training as a butler and so turned down the opportunity. He told her that it was his always his dream to do so, so she didn't begrudge him for the refusal.
"Sorry, but I'm still not in the loop here." Palmer said, his fingers tapping on the desk a little impatiently, "Could someone please give me a rundown of what's going on?"
She nodded, "Basically, I'm sure you've heard that I'm setting up a new 'Battle Zone' for Sinnoh, next to Stark Mountain. Essentially, this new Battle Zone will contain a building that I'm dubbing the 'Battle Frontier', which shall be a place for Ace Trainers to freely come and battle not only each other, but also specialised and highly skilled trainers that will allow them to test their skills."
"I intend to have five very skilled and powerful trainers to run this new building, which I am now calling my 'Frontier Brains'. Therefore, I chose you all because I recognised your skills and abilities, and I know that all of you here would have had a very good chance of making it into the Elite Four should you have chosen to. And those skills will be required, as being a Frontier Brain is very similar to being a Gym Leader, in that you will receive challenges by many trainers. Though you won't have to restrict yourself to fighting at a certain level, and there are far less politics to deal with."
"I see. So even if we lose, nothing happens to us." Thornton said.
"Exactly." She nodded, "Of course, if you do lose too frequently, then we may question and reassess your suitability for the position, as you are meant to pose a reasonably difficult challenge for the Ace Trainers to test themselves against, but otherwise there's no stress."
"Assuming a fifth member is found, are we going to be rotating through the five of us when it comes to dealing with challengers?" Argenta asked, "Or are we each going to have our own individual challengers?"
"My idea is that as a 'Frontier Brain', you will all be running different battle facilities that would be unique from each other." She explained, "Therefore, you'd all be designing your own special type of battling facility, allowing challengers to choose between you five and get something new each time. For example, let's say Palmer only does 1v1 battles, while Dahlia does 2v2 battles, and so on."
"It's actually why I wanted to talk to you here so early on, before the Battle Frontier is even fully built. I wanted you all to design your own sections that you would then oversee. You'll be assigned a budget for your designs – so feel free to come up with something creative! Just submit it to the Sinnoh League for approval beforehand."
The very fact that they were allowed to design their own sections seem to spark a wave of enthusiasm within all four members, and they all quickly accepted their roles as Frontier Brains, just like she hoped they would.
Just like she said, every one of these members were veteran Ace Trainers in their own rights, who for whatever reason, just didn't want to take up a formal position as either an Elite Four or Gym Leader. That's why she had specifically reached out to them, knowing that the position of being a Frontier Brain of the Battle Frontier would be an appealing position for them.
Honestly, the position was even quite appealing for her too! If you didn't care too much about fame or politics, then she felt that it would be an ideal position to have, given that you were able to constantly train up your Pokémon against an unending and varied stream of challengers while still being paid for it.
However, as the meeting concluded, she still wanted to find that missing fifth member to take up the last position of Frontier Brain. But as she looked through her list of potential candidates amongst the Ace Trainers from Sinnoh that she had looked up, she felt that none of the remaining candidates would be a good fit for the position.
So instead she reached out to her boyfriend, given that his web of connections was larger than hers, and inquired if he knew anyone that he would recommend and was interested for the position.
After John made a few inquiries of his own, it turned out that he did have someone to recommend. But it was a trainer that she had never heard of before.
He went by the name of Archer.
John had reassured her that he was eminently suitable for the position, and explained to her that Archer was a long-time subordinate and assistant of Gym Leader Giovanni, who likewise could vouch for his competence. He also provided his contact details to her so she could speak with Archer and learn more about him.
So she did so, deciding to call him up immediately.
He picked up quickly, "This is Archer. Is this Champion Cynthia?"
"I am." She replied, "I'm calling because I was hoping to learn more about you. John spoke very highly of you, but from the quick bit of research that I've done, I've never heard of you before. I know you've worked with Giovanni for a long time, so why the sudden desire to take up a posting in Sinnoh?"
"I'll address your concerns in order. Firstly, for many years now I've worked as Giovanni's right-hand man for whatever he needs me to be. Whether that be as a secretary for his work in Silph Co, to helping him run his Gym, or to even serve as a Head Gym Trainer in the Cerulean Gym when they reached out to Giovanni for help. You can consider me as a… handyman of sorts, for Giovanni. But because of the nature of my position, I've not really had much of a chance to step into the spotlight. That's likely why you've not really heard of me until now."
"Similarly, this links to why I'm interested in the position. I've worked with Giovanni for a long time now, and the two of us both felt that it was about time that I try something new – to explore fresh pastures." He explained, "So when John reached out to me, I knew that this was something I was pretty sure I wanted to do."
"That's certainly good to hear." She nodded, "In that case, if your schedule allows, would you mind heading over to Sinnoh? I'd like to speak with you more in person to see if your skills are sufficient for the position."
"Certainly. I'll be there in a few days." He replied, "I'll let you know when I arrive."
"See you then." Their conversation ended there, but from what she had heard already and given that he came highly recommended, if he could prove that he was strong enough then she was fairly certain that Archer was going to be her final chosen Frontier Brain.
And with that, she hoped that her roster of Frontier Brains would be complete.
A.N. SURPRISE! IT'S FRONTIER BRAIN ARCHER! I know Archer's role in the story was mainly to do with sneaking around and helping to deal with Team Galactic, and originally I didn't have him be much more than that. However, just like I've tried to show off the growth in both Giovanni, Petrel, and Ariana, I felt Archer deserved the same. And honestly, I really felt that becoming a Frontier Brain would be a really interesting choice for him. Hope you enjoyed!
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