The New Normal - A Pokémon Elite 4 SI by CartecFF

Chapter 40: 157-160

The New Normal – 8-8 – Interlude – Proton

It had taken some time for them to settle into Sinnoh, mostly because their 'mysterious' backer was not so keen on their intrusion into their 'territory'. But a promise was a promise, even amongst criminals, and so whoever their backer was very reluctantly allowed their teams access to their resources.

Of course, they immediately revealed their cowardly nature by firmly warning everyone not to make a fuss, which really infuriated Proton.

Who were these cowards to say what he could or could not do? They who had not done a single thing besides throwing money at the people doing the REAL work. They were just the moneybags; him and his team were the TRULY capable, the people who were actually fighting on the front lines.

Still, Proton kept his mouth shut regarding their cowardice. He didn't need to be told to not anger their 'kind hosts'. Ultimately, they were still dependent on their backer for access to their resources and facilities, especially after they had lost most of their resources after their hasty escape from Hoenn.

And what a backer they were. Proton laughed when he found out that their mysterious backer turned out to be the number one most dominant business in Sinnoh, Galactic Company. What a joke that was. It was like finding out Silph Co was being run by a terrorist. Truly, it could only happen in such a backward region like Sinnoh.

But Proton wouldn't complain. Their backer being as rich as they were allowed him access to so many more resources than he thought capable. No wonder they seemingly had an unlimited supply of money to use.

Unfortunately, he saw that most of that money was being dumped into stupid R&D projects. He wasn't privy to those conversations, only the bosses were, but all Proton knew that tons of resources were being wasted by those eggheads instead of being put to actual practical use, like purchasing better Pokémon and equipment for the grunts.

He supposed that was why he was being called into a meeting with the bosses right now. He and Matt, alongside the fat lard and the creepy girl under Maxie, headed into a heavily secured meeting room that used airlocks as doors. Proton rolled his eyes at all this 'protection'. They only LOOKED strong and sturdy, but it wasn't like they could withstand a hit from a truly strong Pokémon. He was sure his Pokémon could bust through if needed.

He kept those thoughts to himself as he entered the room, and his eyes locked onto the man at the end of the table, surrounded what must have been three of his subordinates. The first thing he noticed was their hair. What the fuck was wrong with them?!

The girls he could forgive; colourful hair was not an entirely unusual sight. But that last guy, with the weird blue hair. What the fuck was he thinking?! Firstly, how the fuck did he get his hair to stand up like that? And secondly, why would he get his hair to stand up like that? No true criminal would be stupid enough to have that kind of haircut; they'd be laugh out of any meeting!

He wanted to laugh too, but he suddenly felt a harsh and piercing gaze fall on him, and he quickly swallowed that humour. He turned to meet the stare with his usual sneer, only to find himself suddenly staring at a monster.

Blue, inhuman eyes met his own. With a face completely devoid of any emotion, like a corpse had taken control of a person. The man was completely still, his eyes unblinking as they continued to stare a hole into Proton.

Proton had seen many criminals over his career. Many of them tried to posture or look tough. Others tried to act like your friends or suck up to you to get you to lower your guard. Some had charisma, like his boss did.

But none were like this man. Despite Proton letting out a snarl, trying to maintain his tough persona, the man didn't even flinch. No, he didn't even react at all. He just continued to stare at Proton like a watchful statue.

...This was the man who wanted to remake the world? He couldn't believe that such a lifeless man could have such an ambitious goal. How would that thought even come to a corpse like him? And what kind of warped mindset did that require?

Although Proton would never admit it, he found this man unnerving. Was he the only one that could see it? Why was no one else reacting?

Fortunately, the man moved on from Proton, choosing to stare at his other companions. Archie gestured for him and Matt to sit next to them.

A moment later, after they were all seated, the man finally spoke up. Yet, unlike what his appearance might suggest, his voice was calm and measured, but also with a distinct hint of charisma and passion.

"Welcome, dear friends. We thank you for your successes in bringing us the key data needed to continue our research." He began with a friendly and gentle tone that surprised Proton, "As you may know, I am Cyrus. These are my subordinates, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn respectively." He gestured to his three subordinates, who didn't react.

Proton had to fight down another smirk; what the fuck were those names?!

"We have invited you here today to discuss the changes in our organisational structure, as agreed upon by myself and your bosses." He continued, and Proton leaned forwards. "Your bosses will be joining me in planning out the future strategy of the Team. As for the rest of you, you will all be deployed as field agents, instructors, or intelligence, depending on where your talents lie." Proton nodded; this was acceptable. The more freedom he had to beat up some fools, the happier he was.

"As for the direction this Team will be taking, thanks to the research you have developed, our goals are ever closer to success!" Cyrus stood up from his seat, arms spread wide, "With the data from the orbs, and our own research, we now know that there IS a method possible to control the Legendaries! And wield their power for our own! The very idea of godhood is now potentially within our grasp!"

Proton's eyes widened then, as did many others in the room who hadn't already heard the news. He never truly believed in the final goal of his team, more so using them for convenience rather than anything. But to hear such a thing...to be able to control the Legendaries...the possibilities with that power were endless.

Cyrus wasn't done yet, "But! That research is not complete yet. There are still many important components that we currently lack. Which is why our R&D team are working overtime to discover what that might be. I can only ask you for your patience, because obtaining the power of Legendaries is a delicate and slow process."

"But with their power, we will become GODS! The very world will be ours to mould, to control, and to use as we liked! You could shape, not just this world, but any number of worlds to your perfect ideal of your very own personal paradise! And with their power, there will be NONE that could stop us! ETERNAL POWER! ETERNAL CONTROL! ETERNAL FREEDOM! ALL OURS TO USE!"

The meeting room erupted into cheers of support, roused up by the sheer passion and determination in Cyrus' speech, and Proton wasn't ashamed to admit that he joined in at first. The very idea of having control of a Legendary's powers was too appealing even for a cynic like him. If such a goal could actually be brought to reality through Cyrus, then he would happily be his subordinate.

But as Cyrus began talking about their long term plans, the feelings of excitement faded away, and Proton's rationality returned – allowing him to stare at Cyrus with his unclouded eyes once more.

And he realised the truth.

Cyrus' eyes were still as blank as they were before. His passionate smile was nothing more than a fa?ade. His speech, what he once thought was full of excitement and determination, was merely the affectations of an actor. Something meant to look convincing, but was merely a show for the world.

And then the image of a charismatic leader faded away, once again revealing the true image of Cyrus to Proton.

Cyrus was not a fanatic like Archie and Maxie were. No, he was a true madman. One that walked towards a goal without any reason for why he wanted to achieve it, and someone who lacked any sort of passion or emotion. A man who wanted nothing but the emptiness that he possessed in his eyes.

Despite this revelation, nothing really changed for Proton. In the end, the man was giving Proton the power to change the world and FINALLY give him the opportunity to indulge in his desires to his heart's content. Such a reality was too good to pass up.

Yet what did it say about them, that they willingly followed such a madman and his plans?

The New Normal – 8-9 – Lightning Freezing Over

After that busy day of travelling, I decided to spend some time resting at Celestic Town for a few days. There were no cave explorations either, as Cynthia informed me that she had to handle a few personal matters of her own and had been running around to and from the Sinnoh League over the past few days. She told me that she had been speaking to Lucian and Flint about something, but never elaborated about what.

I was curious, but I knew from her expression that this wasn't something I should ask about. So I left it there and wished her all the best. Though I suspected that after Cynthia's display of strength from her draw against me, I predicted that these conversations with the Elite Four were going to very important to the future of the region.

I wasn't stupid. I could piece together what she was planning.

Nonetheless, that was not any of my business, so I spent these days mostly spending my time training while also catching up with whatever was still going on back in Indigo.

It was at this point that I realised that I was handling a lot of the workload on my own when I really didn't need to. As a member of the Elite Four, why was I trying to handle all of the information gathering by myself?

One man could not know everything, so why did I try to?

I recognized that my lack of a team back in Indigo meant that I was forced to make my own calls in order to check up on the situation there. If I had a team behind me to help with this, then that would make things so much more efficient. I cursed at my previous foolishness.

I might have been influenced by the fact that my other Elite Four members didn't have teams either. Agatha certainly didn't, nor did Will or Lorelei. Only Lance did, and he was Champion. Though, perhaps they did have their own personal teams, but they were lowkey enough that I didn't know about them. I didn't think much of it until now, but that was something I needed to work on.

Luckily, I had good contacts with people who should be able to recommend me good employees. I called a few people up, namely Oak, Shelly, and my parents, to see if they had any people to recommend to me.

I was tempted to call Giovanni too, but then ultimately reconsidered.

Shelly came back empty, but my parents told me they would look into it and give me a list of potential candidates that they trusted and recommended when I returned to Indigo. They told me that they had a few that were currently part of the company but were interested in working under an Elite Four.

Most interestingly, was what Oak told me.

"I'm afraid I don't have anyone on my staff that I would recommend to you." He said to me over the phone, "Scientists don't often make for good administrators, and definitely not the ones you'll be looking for. It takes a certain type of person to be able to deal with the realities of politics, and most of my scientists chose their careers to AVOID such realities. I don't think I could recommend anyone to you. Sorry about this John."

"No worries." I replied, "I was just asking around. Thanks for letting me know though." And I was just about to say my goodbyes before Oak continued.

"Wait. John, even though I don't have anyone on my staff, I do have a suggestion." He said, spiking my curiosity.

"My granddaughter, Daisy. She's looking to expand her boundaries beyond the confines of my lab. She's been working here for a few years now and wants to try to do something else." He explained, "I just thought of this on the spot, but I think that this might be a good opportunity for her to try something else. She's a little younger than you, so maybe she'd do well as an intern or a junior assistant. Especially since I think you'll be a good boss for her to learn from."

"...You want to recommend your granddaughter to help me with politics?" I asked, a mix of confusion and amusement in my tone.

Oak chuckled, "Yes, she'll probably find it frustrating at times, but I do believe that dealing with politics is an excellent thing to learn about. If she were to work with you on this, even in a very junior role, I am confident that she would be able to learn much about how the world works. It would be extremely useful experience for her going forwards."

"I don't disagree." I responded, though I was still a bit surprised, "And sure, I'll look into it when I get back from Indigo. Assume that you have my consent about her joining, if she wants to do it."

I would be a complete fool to turn this down.

"Excellent. Thank you for this John." He replied cheerily, "I'll go speak to her right away. In fact, I might have to tutor her in a crash course of modern Indigo politics before I send her to you...I'm not sure how aware she is of the current situation. But I promise that she won't disappoint you. She takes after me, after all." He said that last part with what I recognized was familial pride and affection, and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Take your time." I said, "I won't be back from Sinnoh for some time anyways." We then exchanged a few more pleasantries before eventually hanging up the call.

With that fortunate turn of events, I spent the rest of the morning training with my Pokémon. This time, with a primary focus on training up Pixel, Klaus, and Ornstein. This was my first serious training session since I drew against Cynthia, and I intended to correct the mistakes that I noticed.

First, and most importantly, Klaus. His mastery of Teleport had given him a huge leg-up in terms of his mobility, but I failed to utilize this technique effectively against Cynthia. Teleporting around and firing off attacks was good, but it could be better. And so, there was another move that I wanted Klaus to learn that would suddenly make him a much trickier foe to face.

Future Sight.

If Klaus had Future Sight, then he would be able to plant traps of Psychic energy around that would explode after a specific time. With this move, it would open up plenty of possibilities to allow Klaus to trick his opponents into stepping into one of those traps and getting hit by a powerful and unexpected attack. If Klaus had this move against Cynthia's Lucario, then Klaus would have limited Lucario's mobility options significantly, forcing Cynthia to second guess potential moves just in case a Future Sight trap was waiting for her.

Unfortunately, Klaus did not naturally learn Future Sight. And worse, NONE of my Pokémon knew the move either, meaning there was no one available to help teach Klaus the move. Luckily, Klaus was an Elite Pokémon that was very proficient with Psychic type moves. And there were plenty of videos of the move in battle to help Klaus visualize what he needed to do. It was still going to take time, but I trusted Klaus to be able to add the attack to his move pool in due time.

Moving on from Klaus, my other priorities were Pixel and Ornstein. Over the many, smaller training sessions that I had done over time, Pixel had finished up with its Recover training and had now gotten somewhat proficient with Conversion. Changing types on the fly like that was very demanding, and I was very surprised by the progress it had made thus far. But its tankiness was still a problem; in practice matches against my brawlers, Pixel wasn't able to last long enough for me to be satisfied with it.

Therefore, Pixel wasn't ready for fights against Elite opponents for the moment yet. Pixel was currently a decent jack-of-all-trades, with a varied movepool able to hit many different types supereffectively, coupled with good regeneration and support moves, but it just didn't hit hard enough nor was it durable enough. That was why now, instead of focusing on expanding its movepool, I left those where they were for the time being and prioritised training up its durability and evasion.

I paired Pixel up against Smough and Vordt, alternating between them so that it could learn to properly evade and tank through very hard-hitting attacks.

Finally, with Ornstein, I had a similar plan for him. From last time's training session that was focused on his raw offensive power, I was satisfied that for a Pokémon at his level that he hit more than hard enough. Nowhere near Tyrant's level, of course, but it was still satisfactory at bringing down a weaker Pokémon in a few good hits.

But now I needed him to work on something other than his raw power. Just like Pixel, I had Ornstein train up on his evasiveness. Previously, Ornstein had been relying on his pure speed to dodge past moves, but that wasn't good enough. He needed better and quicker reaction times, and to be able to have full command over his body to dodge the way he wanted to. Luna and Klee were paired up with him to assist with that.

Surprisingly, Ornstein had no complaints with that; he was just happy that he got to run around.

I also made sure to check up on my more powerful members. After they had helped their juniors, I made sure to get even more endurance training in for Smough and Vordt. I wanted them to be able to match Tyrant in endurance.

And with Smough specifically, I wanted to train up his speed, as impossible as that sounded. Vordt helped slightly with that, as he was generally a slow Pokémon that only moved fast because of Headlong Rush. I hoped that Smough could replicate such techniques. Having Smough be able to suddenly move fast would be devastating for my future opponents.

After all, a Snorlax that could move faster than you, even for a moment, generally meant you were screwed.

==========

?Admittedly, I might have gotten a little too into my training session, because I had completely forgotten that the match between Lorelei and Surge was taking place today. I had only realized because Cynthia called me up on the phone, asking me where I was and that the match was starting.

It was only then that I remembered that we would be watching the match together in her room. Immediately, I called out to my Pokémon and quickly returned them to their Premier Balls before rushing back to the labs, over to where Cynthia's room was.

She opened the door before I even had to knock on it.

"You're late." She admonished me, but still stepped aside to let me in, "Did you forget about the match?"

"I lost track of time." I admitted embarrassedly but paused to take a good look at her room.

To my surprise, it was not the clean room that I had expected. Instead, there were many random pieces of papers scattered haphazardly around the room. Scientific drawings and books littered the walls in no particular order, which only compounded the sense of messiness. I hadn't even gotten started on the clothes that were left carelessly everywhere. It reminded me more of a college dorm room that anything else.

If I was honest, it wasn't what I expected from the usually so composed and tidy Cynthia.

I dragged my eyes away from all the mess and turned to look at the huge TV screen that took centre stage in the middle of the room, where it had already begin broadcasting the battle between Lorelei and Surge. Realizing that the fight had already started, I carefully took a seat on the small couch, careful to not accidentally sit on any of the loose papers.

"...Want anything to drink?" Cynthia asked from the kitchen, unaware or uncaring about the mess around the room.

"Just water, thanks." I said appreciatively, though my focus was on carefully moving the loose paperwork OFF the couch and onto the coffee table. I had no idea how these weren't crumpled to bits.

After finally clearing enough from the couch, I turned back to the TV to find Lorelei and Surge having already sent out their first Pokémon. A Raichu was dashing around the battlefield, swift as lightning, as it ran circles around the opposing Jynx.

Bolts of Lightning were being rapidly fired off by Raichu as it continued zipping around the field, but each crash of lightning was stopped by a Psychic shield formed by Jynx, who had already set up a Light Screen and the Snow.

"Thunder! And Wild Charge!" Surge commanded his Raichu, and an ear-piercing explosion rattled throughout the battlefield as a gigantic bolt of Lightning slammed down into Jynx. A large crack tore through the ground as the Thunder struck with such force that Jynx nearly fell onto her knees from the impact, the Light Screen insufficient at blocking all the damage that was coming through.

At the same time, Raichu charged forwards in a ball of lightning, pushing itself to the fullest as it moved to follow up on its powerful Thunder.

Jynx prepared to fire off an Ice Beam to punish Raichu for its recklessness, but a sudden jolt of paralysis caused it to pause for just long enough for Raichu to come crashing in with another devastating Wild Charge. The two Pokémon tumbled onto the ground, with Jynx twitching repeatedly as she became overloaded with electricity.

"Discharge, Raichu!"

Still grappling onto the fallen Jynx, Raichu let out a huge Discharge of electricity, the shock exploding outwards from its position. Jynx was forced to take the full brunt of the attack and let out a cry of pain that was quickly silenced by the fact that the paralysis prevented it from making any noise.

Jynx was in a horrible position, being pinned under a Raichu and almost completely paralyzed by the sheer amount of electricity that she had been hit by.

But despite the position she was in, Raichu looked like it was about to fall over too. It was panting heavily, and its arms drooped to the side as sweat rolled down its face. It must have pushed itself to the extreme to fire those powerful moves out in succession like that.

"AGAIN!"

But Surge knew that Jynx still had some fight left in her, and so he ordered Raichu to attack one last time. Raichu strained itself to the limit, its face twisted in exertion, as it let out one last explosion of electricity that nearly blinded the screen. That surge of electricity rapidly overwhelmed the Jynx and she fell unconsciousness.

"That was quick." Cynthia commented as she sat down next to me, making me scoot over to the side a bit. It was then that I just realized that Cynthia wasn't wearing her signature coat, instead wearing a light blue shirt and pants. They clearly were her indoors clothes, and I couldn't help but stare at her exposed arms for a bit longer than usual.

And then, realizing what I was doing, I shook myself out of it, "Surge definitely embodies his typing." I replied, hoping she didn't notice my staring, "His Raichu was all speed and power. That was a very quick knockdown." But judging on the lack of surprise on Lorelei's face, I guess she expected something like this.

I was still confident in Lorelei's victory, but she was coming in with a partial type disadvantage. Most of her Ice types were also half-Water, so a significant part of her team were weak to Electric attacks.

"Looks like it's run out of steam though." Cynthia pointed out, as the camera focused on Raichu, panting as it kneeled on the floor on all fours. "Might not last much longer."

"You're right...but why isn't Surge switching it out?" I questioned. I thought Surge would have immediately swapped out his Raichu, retiring it so that he could start the next round with a completely fresh Pokémon. But he seemed insistent on leaving Raichu out on the field.

And as Lorelei sent out her next Pokémon, her Slowbro, he still made no move to withdraw his Raichu.

"Not withdrawing his Raichu's a mistake." Cynthia commented, and I couldn't help but agree. Facing off against a completely fresh Pokémon with a tired and battered Raichu that looked like it was about to fall over was ASKING to be set up on.

Which was exactly what Lorelei did, "Calm Mind, Slowbro. Ignore it and setup."

"Thunder, Raichu!"

Instead of the huge spears of Lightning that it had fired earlier, the incoming Thunder was far more pathetic in size, easily being blocked by the earlier Light Screen. This left Slowbro completely free to continue setting up with its Calm Mind, ignoring the meagre attacks that it hardly even felt.

"Yawn, Slowbro."

"Charge up and Thunder again!"

Surge remained stubbornly insistent and got his Raichu to begin gathering up energy. But it could only do so slowly, as it was so exhausted at this point that even channelling electricity became difficult for it. And worse, as soon as Slowbro hit Raichu with a Yawn, Raichu immediately fell asleep, not even bothering to resist the wave of sleepiness.

"GET UP, RAICHU! NO SOLDIER SLEEPS ON THE JOB!" Surge tried to order, but Raichu was simply too tired to get up.

And now Lorelei was given free reign to continue setting up with her Slowbro, who continued channelling Calm Mind until Raichu woke up. Which didn't happen for a while, which practically allowed Slowbro to set up to the max.

"No offense, but Surge has doomed himself." Cynthia said with a frown, and I didn't disagree. I was also surprised at Surge's stubbornness, even if I had heard rumours of the same before.

No, this wasn't stubbornness. This was idiocy. What was this?!

It was only after Slowbro had already maxed out both its Special Attack and Special Defense that Raichu finally managed to wake up. Surge immediately ordered another Thunder, trying to make use of the newfound energy to hit Slowbro hard.

Unfortunately, with all that setup done, the Thunder barely even tickled Slowbro despite its type weakness, and a single boosted Psychic immediately knocked out Raichu, who was still too tired to dodge in time. The sheer force from that attack sent Raichu flying, and it crashed into the Psychic barriers, undoubtedly knocked out.

"Does Surge have anything that resists Ice and Psychic?" Cynthia asked.

"...Maybe his Magnezone? I think he has one of those." I replied after thinking over Surge's Pokémon. "It's either that or just your standard Magneton."

"He's screwed if he doesn't send it out." Cynthia said firmly, completely confident in her analysis. "Not returning Raichu might have cost him the entire match. I have no idea why he didn't do so."

And true enough, Cynthia words proved prophetic. The next Pokémon that Surge sent out was his Electrode. At first, it made a very impressive display of its speed, easily outspeeding and dodging past the few Ice Beams and Psychics that were shot its way. But dodging was all it could do.

Every single one of Electrode's attacks were just shrugged off. It didn't matter how hard it tried, it couldn't hit hard enough after Slowbro had boosted itself to the max like that. And to add insult to injury, once Lorelei saw that Electrode was unable to harm her Slowbro, she got Slowbro to also start setting up to Iron Defense as well, just to raise its Defense as well.

It was only when Lorelei had set up with Iron Defense too that it finally got through Surge's bullheadedness, and his eyes widened slightly as he finally realized how bad of a situation he was in. But to his credit, he switched tactics instantly and without hesitation.

"Explode, Electrode."

Without any warning, his Electrode instantly detonated, blinding all of us again with a harsh explosion of light. But instead of a regular Explosion, this one sent out a flood of electricity in every direction that the psychic barriers strained to contain. And even with all the defensive buffs, I saw Slowbro stagger backwards as the torrent of electricity flooded through it. There was no way it wasn't paralyzed from that.

Of course, that meant Electrode was out of the fight, and Cynthia continued to provide her helpful commentary. Some might have been disliked the interruption, but I was just happy to listen to her.

"He just wanted to paralyze Slowbro and switch out of Electrode." She thought aloud, having figured out Surge's thought process, "Sure, he could have used Volt Switch and Thunder Wave, but there was no guarantee that Electrode could avoid taking any hits while it tried to use those 2 attacks. This way, Surge guarantees the paralysis and the switch without any risk. I'd praise him for his decisiveness, if nothing else. Though it's probably a bit too late."

So just like we thought he would, Surge went out his Magnezone next. Instantly, the Magnezone Locked-On to the Slowbro and the arena was dominated by the sounds of cannon fire as it immediately began firing off an enormous barrage of Zap Cannons while bolts of Thunder hammered down onto Slowbro from above. Each shot creating a sonic boom as the Zap Cannons whipped forwards like cannonfire.

Cynthia whistled impressively as she watched the Magnezone unleash its full firepower, "Powerful stuff. More than what I would expect from a Gym Leader. I think Volkner is more formidable though."

In response, Slowbro froze the entire arena in a freezing Blizzard, the power of which instantly caused most of the surrounding ground to freeze over with a layer of ice. With the sheer number of buffs on Slowbro, Magnezone's Steel typing was the only thing keeping it in the fight as it was constantly battered by the freezing winds. Frost crystals rapidly creeped up Magnezone's steely exterior, and it became a race to see who could knock the other Pokémon out.

Would Magnezone's repeated barrage of Thunders and Zap Cannons overwhelm the overbuffed Slowbro? Or would Slowbro be able to tank through the attacks and freeze Magnezone over with its buffed Blizzard?

The answer, once again, came down to stamina. Magnezone started strong with its attacks, with each explosion of lightning tearing holes into the ground as the Thunders came crashing down like they were Arceus' wrath. The Zap Cannons were shot forwards with such force that they easily pierced through the Blizzard like it was nothing more than paper. Of course, it helped that Slowbro, for all of its buffed defenses, was still WEAK to Electric attacks.

But Magnezone could not sustain that intensity of attack for long. And being slowly frozen over was not helping its stamina. Therefore, as the fight carried on, Magnezone slowly succumbed to the biting frost as it quickly tired out and its attacks gradually grew weaker. The once powerful storms of Thunder became regular bolts of electricity; still powerful, but far less so.

On the other hand, Slowbro was hindered by the stifling paralysis that severely restricted its ability to both concentrate on maintaining the Blizzard as well as fire off additional attacks to follow up. At first, I thought that it was unusual for an Elite Pokémon to be having so much trouble with a paralysis, but I reminded myself that this was Surge.

His version of paralysis was obviously going to be far more debilitating than usual.

Ultimately, it was Magnezone that fell first. With the growing frost having spread like an infection and completely enveloped its outer shell, Magnezone fell to the ground in a solid, frozen lump. It was nothing more than a frozen statue before a final blast of Psychic shattered that ice, simultaneously finishing off the Magnezone and securing the second knockout for Slowbro.

But Slowbro was given no time to recover as Surge, in what some might consider as a unsportsmanlike move, instantly withdrew his Magnezone and sent out his Manetric to fire off a burst of Thunderbolts that caught and struck Slowbro completely unawares.

Not having any time to heal, and coupled with the injuries that it built up over the past fight, the overbuffed Slowbro finally collapsed onto the ground, twitching from the overload of electricity. It was finally out of the fight.

There was some booing at his actions, but Surge only smirked unrepentantly at his victory. Next to me, I felt Cynthia turn to me with a questioning look, as if to ask what I felt about this.

"I'd have done the same. In fact, I had ALREADY done the same against Drake." I replied with a shrug, "You have to do what you have to do to win."

"...I suppose you do." Cynthia muttered, "Sometimes, when victory is all that matters, you have to do everything to win. Ambition can be ugly sometimes, don't you think?"

I felt like she was talking about something else and not the match that was happening in front of us. "Something the matter?" I couldn't help but ask.

She smirked, "I'm sure you could figure it out."

I could. Especially after she told me earlier that she had been speaking to Flint and Lucian over the past few days. Coupled with her performance against me, and from what I knew from my metaknowledge, it wasn't hard to guess. She was making a play for Champion.

She had likely been communicating with Lucian and Flint to ensure a smooth transition in the case that she actually managed to win.

"I think you'll do great." Was all I said, "Ambition isn't bad, not when it is used for a good purpose. And I definitely think you're acting for the best interests of all."

"Thank you. I'm glad you think so too. But don't worry, I'm going into this with both eyes open. I know what I'm getting into, and I WILL cherish the opportunity." She said, her smirk turning into a smile that just radiated with confidence. As if she had never had any doubts about what she wanted to do.

Her eyes were the same, utterly brimming with determination and ambition. This was a look of someone who recognized the thorny road ahead but was still willing to traverse it.

Nay, not traverse, but conquer it.

Seeing this confidence and drive to achieve her goals caused my heart to beat just a little faster, and I had a hard time tearing my gaze away from the determination that blazed in her eyes. Cynthia was not someone who needed much encouragement, only direction. And at this moment, as I felt her resolve and determination radiating out of her, there was only one thing I could think of.

This was the future Champion of Sinnoh. There could be no one else.

The New Normal – 8-10 – Commentary

Seeing the determination in Cynthia's eyes made it hard for me to focus back on the match. But I figured that just staring at Cynthia would be awkward, so I did my best to refocus on the battle.

Lorelei had sent out a Glalie that was trying to slow down the speeding Manetric with a barrage of Icy Winds. But instead of firing out Flamethrowers like I was expecting it to, Manetric only attacked with Electric moves, once again trying to burst down the Glalie with a spam of Thunders.

"Very stubborn, isn't he?" Cynthia commented, breaking out of the sudden slump that she was in. "Not even going for the supereffective attack. That being said, those are some powerful Electric type moves. He's clearly got it very well trained."

"...If you've met Surge, you wouldn't be that surprised. His stubbornness and bullheadedness is well-known, almost infamous." Was all I said, and she shot me an amused look before her eyes returned to the match. "It's so bad that you probably won't see any Johto Pokémon or his team either...he's a very well known 'nationalist'."

She chuckled, "I don't think I've ever met someone like that before." She tapped a finger on her chin, "You know, I think I'd like to meet him one day."

I shot her a weird look, "Really?"

"Oh yes, it's always nice to see people who aren't what you're used to dealing with, at least to get used to them." She nodded, "...I think I'm going to need a lot of experience dealing with difficult people, in time." I nodded back in understanding and commiseration.

Without having all of the buffs like Slowbro did, Glalie was having a much tougher time dealing with the far more agile and mobile Manetric. But Lorelei was doing her best to limit the battlefield by forming huge Ice formations, creating obstacles in the arena that Manetric had to move around while also providing cover for Glalie to use against some of Manetric's moves by breaking Manetric's line of sight.

"Freeze the ground, Glalie!"

"Wild Charge, Manetric! Rush forwards!"

Not satisfied with merely creating icy obstacles, Glalie quickly unleashed a wave of frost that painted over the arena, turning the once solid ground into a rink of slippery ice. Manetric initially ignored the sudden change in terrain as it continued to charge forwards in a crackling blur of thunder, only to suddenly slip and trip over itself as it was unused to moving so quickly on such a slippery surface.

"Ice Beam!"

Trying to take advantage of Manetric's fall, Glalie fired off a beam of Ice that Manetric barely managed to scramble away to dodge, suffering only a glancing blow as it took cover behind one of the icy formations to block the beam.

But the results of the new icy terrain was undeniable. Now fully cognizant of just how slippery the ground could be, Manetric was forced to move more carefully and slower to avoid tripping over on the slippery ice, slowing it down significantly.

And now, bereft of its valuable speed advantage over Glalie, Manetric's ability to threaten Glalie was greatly lessened as it could only really rely on Electric attacks to hopefully wear Glalie down over time.

"Blizzard, Glalie!"

The tables quickly turned. With the Snow still falling over the battlefield, Lorelei proved that there was nowhere to hide as a freezing storm of a Blizzard rapidly formed in the centre of the arena, which quickly grew into a vortex of snow and frost that rapidly began to envelop the entire battlefield in an icy prison.

"Discharge, Manetric! Destroy everything and hunt down the Glalie!"

Perhaps realizing that the enormous Blizzard was going to bring down his Manetric, Surge commanded it to go all out.

"MANE! MANETRIC!" Manetric let out a thunderous howl as it released a blindingly bright explosion of Electric energy. Lightning crackled as the destructive Discharge sent large whips of Electric energy smashing everything in all directions, shattering the icy formations that had formed and tearing huge chunks out of the ground as they lashed out. The psychic shields on the edge of the arena flickered slightly as they strained against the sudden explosion of energy.

Glalie, who had been hiding behind one such formation as it channelled the Blizzard, was suddenly forced to dodge out of the way as a piercing spear of lightning smashed through the structure.

"PROTECT, GLALIE!"

Glalie shifted its concentration away from the Blizzard and formed a Protect shield to block against the incoming wave of electricity. But while the shield was able to block against most of the damage, the electricity created by the Discharge lingered in the air, creating an electric cloud that paralyzed Glalie as the Protect shield faded.

However, Manetric was in no condition to take advantage of the paralysis. It practically collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion after unleashing such a powerful attack. I thought this would be a repeat of before, but Cynthia suddenly spoke up.

"It's faking." She said, raising a finger towards the screen, "Look at its eyes."

I let out a snort at her observational skills. Sure enough, as I squinted to get a better look, I saw that a spark of life was still retained in Manetric's eyes. It was merely waiting for its time to strike – waiting patiently for that single moment of weakness.

And Lorelei didn't notice it.

"Ice Beam, Glalie! Finish it off!"

Confident that Glalie had survived through the worst of the attacks, Glalie floated slowly into the air as it casually fired off an Ice Beam, thinking that the battle was already over.

And this was when Surge struck.

"NOW! THUNDER!"

Suddenly springing up from the ground, Manetric let out a howl as it summoned one last burst of Thunderbolts that came raining down from above. Glalie, caught off-guard, wasn't able to move out of the way in time as the bolts of Thunder slammed it into the ground like a rain of electric arrows; its earlier paralysis also hindering its reaction speed.

On the other hand, Manetric had tried to dodge out of the way of the Ice Beam, only to slip over and trip on the slippery icy surface and was blasted face-first with the powerful spear of Ice, causing its face to freeze over.

This time, both Pokémon were down on the ground, heavily injured from enduring through the previous attacks. But Glalie was in a far worse state, and its only signs of movement was from the involuntary twitching from the overload of electricity that coursed through it.

However, despite the tension on the screen as both Pokémon were on their last legs, it seemed like my fellow audience member was less-than-impressed. Her interest in the fight was very obviously waning.

"...How would you rate Lorelei's strength, amongst the current lineup of Elite Four?" She asked me, bringing my attention away from the fight.

"Not very high." I admitted, "Wait, are you talking about within the Indigo Elite Four, or do you mean to include all the other regions too? Because I don't know that much about the Sinnoh Elite Four."

"Compare her to the Elite Four that you do know about." Cynthia clarified.

"Well my answer doesn't really change." I said as both Surge and Lorelei decided to retire their Pokémon, "I don't mean to disparage Lorelei. She has a lot of potential and drive, but it's still going to take some time before she can reach the heights I'm confident that she can reach."

"Well an all-out fighter like Surge is hardly going to be her best matchup." Cynthia agreed, "Someone that fought more methodically would likely be a better matchup for her as it'll let her to slowly wear them down with her Ice moves."

She shook her head, "Well, never mind that. I was just comparing Surge to Volkner in my head and trying to see how Lorelei would stack up against that. I was just trying to take her measure."

I blinked, "Wait. Firstly, isn't Volkner practically Elite Four level? And what are YOUR thoughts on Lorelei?"

"To answer your first question, I've seen Volkner battle a few times against Flint, and he holds himself quite well." She explained, "I would definitely say, if not for his personality, Volkner would have been an easy choice to be part of the Elite Four. I rate him higher than Aaron."

"High praise." I whistled. I had looked into the respective strengths of the Sinnoh Elite Four. Aaron was the weakest, but he was still a very formidable trainer. Especially considering that he specialised in the use of the notoriously 'weak' Bug types.

"Well he's too attached to his lighthouse to ever consider joining the Elite Four." Cynthia laughed, "I'm pretty sure he only accepted the position as Gym Leader of Sunyshore to spend more time around it."

"Anyways, as to your second question, you know I make a habit of studying powerful trainers to see what I can learn from them." I nodded, she had made that clear enough, "But, at least before this battle, I skipped out on Lorelei because I didn't have any Pokémon on my team that could make use of her tactics."

Then she shot me a look, "And I admit that out of all of the notable trainers in Indigo - most of my attention was on you."

Her words sent a shiver through my body as I failed to meet her gaze. Though she had said something like this before, her compliments were still very flattering. Especially because it came from her.

The battle between Lorelei and Surge continued in the background, but it was long forgotten.

I coughed, trying unsuccessfully to hide my embarrassment, "...Why me? And not Lance?"

"Because you're more interesting." She replied simply, "I take one look at Lance and I know everything about him. He's a man that has an exceptional talent at training up his Pokémon to be as ridiculously strong as possible. That IS impressive, but it's also boring."

"But you...you train your Pokémon while focusing on more than just their strength." Her gaze turned even more intense. Her eyes seemed like she was seeing straight into my soul, "I watched you train with your Pokémon. I've studied how you use your Pokémon during our cave explorations. You might like to play up your Pokémon's ability to punch through your opponents, but your Pokémon are more than just brutes."

"You are a mish-mash of different fighting styles." She stated, "You have Pokémon that fight head on, like your Ursaluna. You have Pokémon like your Blissey and Clefable that fight with a whole host of supporting abilities. Then you have Arceus knows what with your Porygon2."

"You've convinced the world that you are a Normal type trainer." She shook her head, "But I see the truth. You are a generalist trainer disguised as a Normal specialist. And how do I know that?"

She leaned forwards, "Because you fight like me."

I couldn't help it. But I burst out into laughter as I heard her words. I had never considered it; I was only really concerned about training up my Pokémon so that they could reach their full potential. However, now that she pointed it out, I could see the similarities.

I had to take a breath to calm myself down, "...You're too right." I wiped a tear from my eye, "I'd never even thought of it that way, but you're right. I do fight like a generalist, just that I'm more biased to Normal types."

"You can't fool me." She grinned smugly, "I've spent a lot of time studying what made you so strong compared to other trainers, and the realisation was an inspirational one for me. It reinforced the fact that my training style wasn't wrong, since I saw you succeed so much with yours."

"Wait, I inspired you?" I asked confusedly.

She nodded, "Partially. I had already decided to become a generalist long before I even knew who you were, but you fought most alike a generalist than anyone else I knew – at least within our generation of trainers. Your success just proved to be me that I was on the right path."

"That's quite the compliment." I replied as a smile unconsciously appeared on my face. Her words were like music to my ears.

"You deserved it." She smiled back, "But don't let your head get too big. I studied many other trainers too. Wait – let me show you."

She stood up and started scrounging through the many notes and documents thrown around the room. As she did, I took a brief moment to look at how the battle between Lorelei and Surge was going.

I found that her Froslass was utterly dominating Surge's Electabuzz, as I would have expected. Froslass was just too agile and mobile for Electabuzz, and it was never able to close the gap to get in some real damage. All the while Froslass continued harassing Electabuzz down at a safe distance.

Surge was in a bad position, but I thought he had brought it upon himself. He had made some crucial mistakes early in the fight that would likely cost him the battle. And at this rate, I didn't see how he would reverse his fortunes.

"Woah!" The sudden cry yanked my attention away from the screen, and I turned to see that Cynthia had tripped over something. Probably the messy pile of notes that she refused to clean up.

"You alright?" I quickly stood up to pull her up.

"It's fine." She waved me off, "It happens a lot."

"Maybe you should consider tidying up your room." I said dryly.

She clicked her tongue, "What kind of scientist organises their room anyways?"

"...Uh, all of them? I mean, I know quite a few." I started listing them off, "Professor Oak, Gym Leader Blaine, Director Shelly, your grandmother..."

Cynthia frantically cover my mouth with her hand, "Okay! Okay! I get it." She sighed, "I just don't see why I should waste time clearing everything up when I'm just going to make things messy again in a few days' time."

"Sounds like a you problem." I smirked.

"Every girl has their flaws – you'll just have to deal with mine." She said imperiously, intentionally flicking her hair at me. The scent that floated up to my nose was enrapturing. "Anyways, enough about that. You can have a look at these."

She shoved a few notebooks into my hands. I took a quick flip through them, and I saw that they were filled with hastily scribbled notes. There were many crossings out, and they looked like a disorganised mess of scribbling.

But behind the mess was a meticulous and thoughtful analysis of a few trainers that Cynthia considered to be powerful enough to be worth studying from. I couldn't help but notice that my name was featured prominently within many pages, with many annotations next to it. Shamelessly, I decided to read through them.

'Ursaluna? More than just a brute? Took down Drake's Salamence with long range rocks? Maybe copy with Garchomp? Try to teach headlong rush?'

'Clefable Fighting resist? How to train a Normal type to resist fighting? Potential training path for Togekiss?' Next to that was another note that said 'Fairy type revealed. Power against Dragons confirmed. Need to prepare Garchomp and Togekiss to take advantage.'

'Slaking – how did John get it that strong? Most powerful member on his team? Would beat Lance's starter Dragonite? Comparable strength. Garchomp would lose. How to defeat?'

"Reading about yourself? That's quite narcissistic of you, isn't it?" Cynthia smirked at me. "You were meant to read what I wrote about the others."

"Couldn't help it." I chuckled, "Though seriously – this is extraordinary, Cynthia. This must have taken quite some time."

I wasn't exaggerating, as I flipped through the copious amounts of notes for all the other trainers she had studied, I could see where the inspiration for her team came from. She learnt from the best, and took as much as she could and implemented that into her own team. Considering that Indigo was revealed to them not too long ago, the fact that she already had written so much about us was genuinely impressive.

This book was a physical manifestation of her hard work and determination.

She shrugged, "When we realized that other regions existed, I wanted to know everything I could about you all. Like I said, you had a fighting style that most complimented mine. I didn't just study you of course, as you saw, but I wanted to learn from all the notable trainers I could find and see what I could use – being a generalist allowed me to do so. Besides, you know why I did all that studying anyways. I'm sure you're already aware of my ambitions."

"You weren't very good at hiding it." I replied with a grin, "But yes, you intend to make a play for Champion, right?"

She nodded, "I am. And I need to make sure I can beat all of the Sinnoh Elite Four. No, not beat, but sweep through them. It needs to be an undeniable display of strength."

She snorted, "I've studied the Sinnoh Elite Four so much that I can practically imagine our battle at this point."

"Think you can win?" I had to ask, even though I already knew the answer.

She rolled her eyes at me, "John, did you think we would be having this conversation if I wasn't confident in my chances?"

I laughed, "That confidence of yours is really magnetic."

She grinned, giving me a brilliant smile, "Of course it is."

I stared at her smile, my eyes refusing to move away from them as something ran through my body. Before I could really think about it, my phone rang. I looked down and saw that it was Lance.

"Hi, Lance, what's the matter?" I greeted.

"...What do you mean? Did you not watch Lorelei's match against Surge?" He asked strangely.

Oh shit. I quickly turned to the TV and saw that she had won the match 6-4. "Uh...yeah, good victory. She won it 6-4. That's good." I did my best to conceal the fact that I, in fact, had missed out half of the match.

Whoops. I blame Cynthia for distracting me. I apologized to Lorelei in my head.

Luckily, I don't think Lance caught on to that, "It was a pretty good victory." He agreed, "I think she did much better than how it was reflected in the scores. The way that she shut down Surge's starter Raichu with her Dewgong was impressive – and of course it helps that she didn't even need to use Lapras. It was a much-needed reminder of her strength."

"Yes, it was." I lied through my teeth, and I saw Cynthia holding back a giggle at my blatant lie, "Make sure to pass on my congratulations to her."

"I'll definitely do so." Lance replied, "I suspect that Lorelei's worth will go up in many people's eyes. Especially now that she's able to focus back on the plans and proposals that she had for the committee."

"Anyways, I didn't just call to discuss the match. I have more news for you." He added.

"Oh? Go on." I said.

"Hoenn will be sending a representative over to Sinnoh as well." Lance explained, "Not sure when they're arriving, but it should be sometime soon."

"Wait, who are they sending?" I asked, "Don't tell me it's Drake."

I respected Drake, both as a trainer and as a friend. But even I knew that he was probably as bad as if we had sent Agatha as a representative. Diplomacy was DEFINITELY not his strong suit.

Lance chuckled, "No, definitely not him. They're sending Phoebe."

"Phoebe? Not Sidney?" I didn't know much about Phoebe, to be fair, but I thought Sidney would be more suited as a representative. I thought he eased in very well when he was in Indigo. He just seemed like the more natural choice.

"Sidney's still hanging about in Indigo, so he can't come over." Lance informed me, "Plus, Hoenn can't really afford to send more than one member while Sidney's still away. That'd just leave one single Elite Four in Hoenn. And considering the trouble that they just dealt with, it'd be better to keep more two Elite Four on standby just in case."

"Makes sense." I nodded, "Well thanks for letting me know. Oh – and one more thing, am I about to be sent home from Sinnoh soon?"

"Not just yet." Lance replied, "Why, are you eager to come home?" He quipped.

"No, I think I'm quite enjoying it here." I responded jokingly, glancing at Cynthia, "I've had a wonderful host." Cynthia shot me a smile from across the room.

Lance laughed, "Well that's good to hear. But don't get TOO attached to Sinnoh. I will have to recall you one day."

"Don't worry, I'll head back if asked." I said, "I just wanted to know if I needed to head back anytime soon. There's still more I want to do while I'm here."

"Now you're just making me jealous." He said, "Anyways, I'll leave you to it. Have a good evening."

I hung up the call and turned around – just in time to see Cynthia putting on an apron as she walked over to the kitchen.

"You making something for dinner?" I asked as casually as I could. But my eyes kept snapping back to how she looked in that apron.

"Yes, just something simple." She nodded, seemingly unaware of the looks I was giving her, "You want to stay for dinner? It's already getting pretty late – and I'd be happy to cook for you."

There was only one answer I could give.

"Of course. I would love to."

The New Normal – 8-10 – Interlude – Blaine

Blaine grumbled as he walked back to his office. It had been another boring and tedious session of battles that he was forced to perform as the Gym Leader of Cinnabar. Honestly, did these trainers think that the 7th Gym Badge was just a joke? A warm-up for their showdown against the 8th Gym Badge?

He sent any that came to him under those false assumptions back to the Pokémon Center with their Pokémon thoroughly scorched.

While he recognized that it was the dream of all aspiring trainers to be able to collect their 8th Badge, which opened many an opportunity for said trainer, they really ought to show some more respect to him and his position. It was like these kids forgot that he was part of the Elite Four!

And he only left because he didn't want to deal with Pryce's crap for any longer, not because he was too weak to hold the position.

Though he realized that he was a being a little unfair on those challengers. He enjoyed pushing trainers a little harder than he intended to, and his Pokémon often fought at a level slightly above what was expected for the 7th Gym Badge.

Even in his more advanced age, it seemed like he was still very much the hot-headed battler of his youth. He might have favoured more intellectual pursuits nowadays more than battling, but the flames of battle never failed to get his blood pumping with fiery excitement.

However...he was starting to feel battles as a Gym Leader to just not be fulfilling for him. He enjoyed battling, but not when he had to hold himself back. There was a marked difference between fights where he could truly let loose, and those that he routinely fought as part of his duties as Gym Leader.

It made the battles feel hollow. They weren't able to test him, to improve on his strength. It was only the rare occasion where he could leave a battle feeling satisfied.

He put away these thoughts for now as he entered into his office, greeting his now-frequent visitor with a nod. Shelly greeted him back casually as she continued looking through a few of her notes, probably about the Magmarizer that they had worked on together.

He had been pleasantly surprised with working with Shelly. At first, he had his doubts about her capabilities. The first impression that he had of her was that she was a mere administrator of scientists rather than an actual scientist herself.

He despised those.

But it turns out that she was definitely capable of handling both roles. She proved to be an able partner for figuring out the logistics of how to mass produce his Magmarizer as well as helping him with trying to refine an Electric version of it. In fact, he found himself working with Shelly more than he did with John.

Not that he blamed John for being unable to help. He understood that John had other obligations that he had to handle.

Which brought them to this very moment. After weeks of work, Blaine and Shelly had been able to refine the Magmarizer to something that would be 'easier' to reproduce. Despite their best efforts, gathering an enormous amount of magma energy into a small box would never be easy. That required some very careful handling of the magma that was produced by the volcano at Cinnabar. So each Magmarizer produced required plenty of time and effort; meaning that it wasn't going to be some cheap product!

"So are we agreed then?" Blaine spoke up and asked, "The Indigo branch of Devon Corp will be handling the advertising and sale of the Magmarizer, while Cinnabar Island is responsible for the production?"

As agreed between them, a majority of the profits would go to him as it was his idea and invention. Devon Corp would be taking the rest for their help in helping to distribute and sell the product; Blaine had no idea how to do so and he was happy to leave it up to their expertise.

He had considered having Silph Co do the distribution and selling, but Devon Corp had offered him a better deal. That would probably piss off a people at Silph Co, but Blaine only scoffed at that. If they wanted to distribute the Magmarizer, they should have offered him better terms.

They had already run this agreement by John, who was happy to be left out of this project since he didn't have time to be involved. At first, they wanted to give John a small cut of the profits anyways because of his early assistance, but John felt it was unfair for him to be even taking such a cut when his contributions were cut short by his trip to Sinnoh.

Though the two of them didn't really mind sharing the credit with him, Blaine knew that they were both pleased by his principles and honesty.

Instead, John simply reaffirmed his wish to help work on the future Electirizer project that Blaine had in mind. Both him and Shelly were easily willing to accommodate this; nor would they turn down the myriad of connections that working with John offered them.

"Yes." Shelly nodded, "I've already run it through with the others and Joseph. He's very happy for this to proceed. He even wants some shipped over to Hoenn too."

"...Might be hard." Blaine replied after thinking it over for a bit. "I don't think we'll be producing enough to fulfil demand here in Indigo, let alone Hoenn...I guess we could set aside some Magmarizers to be sent over to Hoenn each month? So that at least you'll be getting SOME Magmarizers to use?"

"That's a good idea, and I think Joseph would be happy about such an arrangement too." Shelly agreed. And having Joseph's approval was good, they both knew, as approval meant more funding. Despite his personal distaste for sycophancy, especially after working under Pryce, Blaine knew when he needed to keep his boss happy.

"Then it's agreed." Blaine smiled, happy to be rewarded for his efforts, "The Magmarizer will be sold openly in shops all around the world soon enough!"

He KNEW that the Magmarizer was going to be an important invention. Not because it allowed for Magmar to evolve into a Magmortar, but because it proved that it was possible to create an evolution item by refining one specific Type and concentrating an intense amount of it into a small space.

Blaine knew that as soon as the Magmarizer was released, scientists all over the world will be trying their hand at recreating its effects with a different Type. That was why they would be shifting their focus to the Electirizer as soon as the Magmarizer was properly released to the public before anyone got steal their thunder.

Heh. Steal their thunder. Heh.

It was times like these where Blaine regretted having taken up the title as Gym Leader. It was certainly a prestigious position, and when he retired as an Elite Four he felt happy to be able to at least remain relevant in the public eye.

But now, with the sudden scientific boom that Indigo was going through, he wanted to spend more time as a scientist rather than as a Gym Leader.

He knew that he could have had the Magmarizer prototype finished far earlier if he didn't have to spend most of his day handling the administrative duties of a Gym Leader. Yet at the same time, he didn't want to retire from the position just yet and let some other idiot take up the position.

Right now, he was de-facto in charge of Cinnabar Island. If some other fool took up the position as Gym Leader, then they might think they suddenly have the authority to order him around! He would sooner admit that he was balding than let that happen!

So, for now, he would keep his position. Even if it frustrated him at times. Maybe one day, in the future, he would finally be able to hand off the position to someone he felt worthy. He would just have to tough it out and deal with the monotony of being a Gym Leader in the meantime.

He just hoped that he would finally have some good battles that would reinvigorate his fiery spirit once again. That, or he could hopefully quickly find someone worthy enough to take his position as Gym Leader.

However, as Blaine returned to working with Shelly on his Magmarizer, he would never have known that he was going to be getting his wish sooner than he would have ever expected.

Sometimes, it was necessary to be careful what you wished for.