The New Normal - A Pokémon Elite 4 SI by CartecFF

Chapter 46: 182-185

The New Normal – 9-6 – Interlude – Bruno

Bruno let out a satisfying groan as he just completed his final stretch of the evening. He had just got done wrestling with his Onix, but he still wasn't able to lift the Rock type fully over his head yet.

He'll manage it one day.

As soon as he finished up with his stretches and shattered one last boulder with his fist, he made the short walk back into town to buy some new supplies. He walked into his favourite shop, greeting the staff with a familiar nod as he went about buying his essentials for the upcoming week.

It was a strange feeling – this was the last time he was going to be doing this. After this week was over, he would be joining Steven in Hoenn as he promised. He would no longer need to buy supplies for himself, not with Steven reassuring him that his every need would be met.

He made a mental note not to let himself become too used to the luxury. An overindulge in luxuries was bad for the spirit. And martial artists who lavished in their wealth were poor fighters, only good to be shown around like a prized Tauros. But utterly incapable in an actual fight.

Shaking his head away from those thoughts, he finished up with his purchases before making his way out of the store and beginning his return trip to his tent on the outskirt of town.

However, as soon as he stepped out of the store, he found himself blocked by a plain-looking young man with slightly greyish hair. He looked like someone who had just exited their teens, but there was a strange hint of familiarity in his appearance that he just barely failed to place.

A normal person would have asked "Can I help you?". But Bruno chose to instead stare down this man, as if demanding a response.

The man cracked quickly under his intense gaze, "Bruno. Apologies for disturbing you, but I hoped to ask you a few questions."

"Ask." He allowed.

"How do you plan on avenging your defeat?" The man asked him strangely.

A curious and confused look appeared on Bruno's face, "I do not understand."

Now it was the man's turn to be confused, "I mean to avenge your defeat against John! He beat your team! Ruined your chances of joining the Elite Four! Don't you want to reclaim your lost glory!?" The man questioned passionately, leaning forwards slightly.

"No." Was all Bruno said, though he recognized that his response was far too brief so he elaborated, "I do not have any misgivings for John's victory over me. His Pokémon were the better fighters; the better warriors. There is no need for any ill feelings to have fallen between us. I respect him as a fighter, and I'm sure he does the same for me. There is nothing else that needs to be said. And certainly nothing to be avenged."

But his words did not bring the man any comfort – rather, it seems to have aggravated him, "I don't understand how you're so nonchalant about this?! Didn't you try to challenge John to make your way into the Elite Four?! To prove yourself—"

"You are mistaken." Bruno interrupted, "I did not make the challenge out of a desire for glory, nor for the position of Elite Four. None of those mattered to me. I merely challenged John as a means of testing my strength and skills. And I was found lacking."

"...But you were made a laughingstock when you lost! You lost all your prestige and reputation!" The man sputtered out, as if trying to make sense of what Bruno was saying, "Look at yourself compared to Will. Will didn't even win a fight – and he's already adored in the public eye!"

"I can feel that you are projecting your thoughts onto me." Bruno replied calmly, "But we are not the same person. We do not have the same goals or ambitions. Do not presume to assume my feelings based on the inadequacy that you must feel."

Any martial artist that could not sense the pure envy that was radiating out of this man was a poor martial artist indeed. Idly, Bruno wondered why the young man was being so riled up. He wasn't close with John, but he figured John was someone that wouldn't make enemies like this.

"In—Inadequacy?!" The man choked out, "I—I'm not feeling inadequate. No, I'm just looking to earn my rightful place among the Elite Four – before my future and glory were TAKEN from me. You know, I've been preparing for this moment for a long time. I've crafted the perfect plan – the perfect team – to defeat him. I WILL crush him, and show the world that his victory over me was the complete fluke that it was. I just don't understand why you don't feel the same."

Bruno raised an eyebrow, "I may not be very close with John, but his strength is quite real. He has a long string of victories as proof." Unlike you, was what he refrained from saying.

The man just let out a bitter snort, "He only managed to get so strong thanks to the resources and connections he got when he joined the Elite Four. If not for his lucky victory over me, he would never have been able to achieve all that he did. Instead, it would have been ME."

Bruno was becoming impatient, "Your point being?"

"I want you to train with me, make sure I can fix any small problems that I have in preparation for my challenge against him." He said, "You're a strong trainer with a good eye for this stuff, so surely you can help me out. And even more than that, I'll let you in on a plan that will FORCE John to fight us! He won't be able to say no!"

Bruno let out a sigh. Normally, he would never turn down a request to train, but the sheer envy radiating off this man was unpleasant. He really would prefer not to spend any time around him, "I apologize, but I have my own commitments to attend to. I am afraid I would not have the time for it."

"But you would be helping someone avenge your loss! You'd be helping me make sure John gets knocked off the position that he stole from me. And look at his past performance. He just drew against some nobody from Sinnoh. He's slipping! This is the perfect opportunity!"

Bruno let out another tired sigh, he was basically repeating himself at this point, "As I said, I do not care for any of that. Now if you please excuse me." He moved to walk around this man, having ran out of patience for this conversation. He was wasting time that he could have been using to continue training.

The man moved to stop him, but Bruno ignored him as he continued walking, no longer paying attention to whatever the man was saying. The spark of potential was there, but whatever strength the young man could have had was buried under a mountainous pile of envy.

He snorted. The image of a raging Slaking smashing his Machamp into the ground with dismissive ease thoroughly disabused Bruno of the notion that John was slipping.

If John was slipping, then what was he?

As he walked away – the one thought that lingered in his mind was why this man looked so familiar to him. Bruno could have sworn that he had seen him before – but every time his name seemed to escape from his mouth.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, he forced himself to drop the thought altogether. He was never good with faces, and there was no point wasting time thinking about a man that he would likely never see or hear off again.

Especially not one so unpleasant.

The New Normal – 9-7 – To the Indigo Conference

Time flew quickly after that. And in what felt like a blink of an eye, the Indigo Conference was starting up once again. It actually made me feel quite nostalgic – seeing the news talk about the many hopefuls and their predictions about who would win it all. This time last year, I was one of those hopefuls. And now, I was already an accomplished member of the Elite Four, with an unshakeable foundation that I leveraged into widespread popularity.

It was incredible just how much could change in a year.

In under a year, between my contributions to replacing Pryce with Lance, my proposals to push for and support a more unified Indigo, as well as my general support for Internationalism and for fostering good foreign relations, I had done much. More than I had expected.

But outside all those political achievements, the thing I valued the most was the myriad of connections and friends that I had made. Even ignoring the political benefits of such friendships, they were all still excellent and vibrant personalities that were all unique, fun to be around, and who I wished to spend time with.

Drake, Giovanni, Lance, Cynthia, Agatha...all these people were those that I was honoured to call my friends.

And one of them was more than just a 'friend'.

Cynthia and I tried to make as much of the moments that we had with each other. We both longed to physically be with each other, but with our current commitments, that was just unfortunately not feasible for the time being.

That didn't mean to we didn't train together or share tips with each other, which Karen also joined in on. Having Cynthia and Karen spending time together wasn't nearly as awkward or as uncomfortable as I feared, though there was still a distinct tension between them.

The two of them had spent some time talking together privately upon their first meeting, but I wasn't privy to their conversation nor would they tell me about it. Whatever the case, they seemed to have reached some kind of understanding or accord with each other.

The tension and slight wariness was still there, but at least they were cordial and weren't sniping at each other. There was no overt hostility, which was good enough for me.

Nevertheless, training together was a productive time. Karen helped a lot with training up Wraith to better master his Ghost type moves, and she even gave off some pointers to help Cyntha with her own Spiritomb. In the meanwhile, Cynthia helped Karen improve Tyranitar's speed, using her own experiences with training up her Garchomp as a guide.

On my end, I also assisted Cynthia with her Togekiss, since I had a better understanding of Fairy type moves than she did.

"I can't help but feel your Zoroark is quicker to listen to you than my Kleavor." Cynthia had muttered to me during one of our training sessions, "Yours is way more obedient than mine."

"Maybe you're not friendly enough? Or you lack authority?" I jested.

"Hmph. I don't hear you complaining about my friendliness when you were still here. If anything, it seemed like you really appreciated my friendliness." She shot back, "And I'll make you eat your words next time we meet. My Kleavor will overpower your Zoroark."

"Try saying that AFTER you've got your Kleavor to listen to you." I smirked, "But sure – I welcome the challenge."

"You're too smug for your own good. Watch out that your head doesn't become too big." She sniped, but there was no heat in it.

"I'm perfectly humble." I replied, "I'm just being competitive. Not my fault that you bring out the competitiveness from within me."

"Well...it's the same for me." She admitted, "It's nice to have someone to measure yourself against. Especially when that someone is so successful."

"Aw. Thanks." I chuckled, "But you aren't doing so badly yourself. You've been on the news more than I've been!"

The revelations of our discovery of the new Kleavor and Zoroark, coupled with her continued winning streak by knocking out Bertha and claiming victory over the second Elite Four, skyrocketed her reputation. Her clean victory against yet another member of the Elite Four solidified her reputation as a formidable trainer and valid candidate to become the next Champion, and now the public were waiting with baited breath to see if Flint or Lucian would put an end to her impressive run.

"That's only because of the excitement of my first victory over Aaron and Bertha, and due to the 'discovery' of Kleavor and the Zoroark." She dismissed, "Also, John, sorry if your contributions to that were partially overlooked in Sinnoh. I did try to emphasize it in my interview, but it seemed like that part was mostly left out of all the newspapers."

"It's fine, I was only there to be along for the ride anyways." I said easily, "Just make sure you're able to keep up your winning streak, or your rising reputation could quickly crumble."

"You sound like you have no faith in me." She pouted, but she couldn't hold that expression for long before she broke out into a giggle, "But don't worry, I have things well in hand. All you need to do is cheer me on, as always."

"It's a shame I can't cheer for you in person." I lamented.

"There'll be an opportunity for us to meet up again." She replied, "We just have to count down the days until then, don't we?"

I smiled at her optimism.

Aside from my own personal developments, the past few weeks also saw plenty of other developments from other areas too.

Our family business got recently placed in the spotlight once again as our Johto branch continued to expand, to the point where my parents were now really thinking about a possibility of an expansion to Hoenn, following my previous suggestion to expand to Mauville City.

We still needed to check through with our accountants to see if such a plan would be viable, but if we were going to go ahead with it, then I was going to ask Joseph to honour his promise and lend us a hand in Hoenn to smoothen things out for us.

Not to sound arrogant, but it helped that with my ever-increasing popularity, there was really no need for us to spend much money on advertisements. Just being tied and recognized to be THE brand of Elite John was enough. That was part of the reason that we could expand so much over the past year.

Aside from all this, there were still the occasional committee meetings that I had to attend. But there was a feeling of unease that was spreading around the committee members. With this year's circuit ending, that meant election season was coming.

Some of the committee members knew that they were on the chopping block, and were now desperately trying to land a big win in order to reverse their fates.

That unease had spread to a few members of the Elite Four as well, since it also meant that more challengers were likely going to be coming. Obviously I was unaffected – I didn't think I was being arrogant to think that my position was more than secure. Barring any extraordinary trainers like Bruno, I was pretty secure in my position.

But Will was a different story. He had yet to be formally challenged for his position and he knew that his turn was coming up any moment now. His strength wasn't secured, and the voices and whispers of doubt were slowly growing.

There were still no challengers yet, but Will was not sitting easily.

In comparison, Lorelei seemed to be charging full speed ahead – fully utilising her latest victory to her advantage. She had shed off her earlier hesitation; a far cry from how she was when she came in.

Compared to when she had first joined, her reputation had improved greatly. She had mostly shrugged off the stigma of nepotism, especially from what I've heard of the work and connections that she's built through her efforts as the new leader of her new organisation, which she aptly called the Indigo Revenue Service (shortened to IRS), and she had regained her confidence as a trainer both in herself and in the public eye.

I wasn't sure how much stronger she had gotten, but I assumed she was putting equal amounts of effort into her training like she was with her political ambitions.

Putting all that aside, the Committee meetings themselves didn't really cover any topics that I found particularly interesting or made me want to step in. I still didn't think that my proposal to allow foreign Gym Leaders to take up local postings would be well-received at the moment, and so I was mostly content with hanging back and playing the neutral mediator.

I was just happy to let any grievances that people had towards my old policies settle down and slowly be forgotten. After all, there was no need to get too involved and butt in on their discussions – that would only lead to me making unnecessary enemies.

But that was where my new team of assistants came into play. Andrew and Emily, my two new hired assistants, did great in stepping in for me and helping me collect information that I would normally have to waste time and find. Most importantly, they got along well with Daisy, and they didn't seem to treat her any differently ever since she revealed her full name to them. She was learning much from their experience, and she was quite the fast learner.

That was all I hoped for.

Admittedly, I drew some amusement from the confused and strange looks that I got whenever Daisy ran up to me before a meeting to hand me a stack of documents. The fact that they all now knew that this little girl was actually Champion Oak's granddaughter had thrown them for a loop, especially because of how out of place a little girl was at a 'serious' and 'formal' committee meetings.

The Elite Four all shared my amusement. Agatha was probably still cackling about it.

Despite all the fun and games, Daisy was under strict orders to come to me if anyone dared to be rude or dismissive to her. She might be very mature for her age, but I had no intention of allowing her to deal with those kinds of people by herself.

If that happened, then I promised her that I would step in and 'deal' with the problem on her behalf.

Fortunately, nothing of the sort had happened yet, but I had really taken a shine to Daisy and her earnestness and diligent nature. Her budding interest in the Fairy type was also nice; I enjoyed teaching her more about the type and how she could improve her team.

She always insisted that she wasn't much of a trainer, but seeing how she acted around her Pokémon, I inwardly begged to differ. She really could be an excellent trainer if she tried, and I couldn't help but try to push her to reach that potential.

Who knows? Maybe one day I'll be seeing her taking on the Indigo Conference as a prospective challenger.

That thought brought a smile to my face.

===============

?"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome one and all to the grand opening of this year's Indigo Conference!" The voice of the announcer boomed out from the speakers that surrounded the stadium from all angles, "For those of you who have signed up to participate in the Open Qualifiers, please remember that the first battles begin two hours after the Champion's speech is over! So you may want to make your way there as soon as soon as possible!"

I stood there in the middle of the stadium with my other Elite Four members, all of us standing stock still just a couple paces behind Lance. It wasn't just us though – just a few paces behind us, and all standing in two lines, were the 16 Gym Leaders of Indigo.

Unfortunately, Walker wasn't in attendance. He must have still allowed his brother to keep the title of Gym Leader.

Just as Lance had announced to us, he intended to use the time after the ceremony to host an 'informal' summit of the Gym Leaders and Elite Fours. Unfortunately, none of us had any speaking roles for the actual ceremony itself, so we all had to just stand around and wait for this to be done.

And already, some of us looked far more enthusiastic about being here than others.

Comparing Will and Agatha were like a study in opposites. Agatha looked like she wanted to glare at the audience for forcing her participation, while Will was practically preening at being a part of such a historical event. Lorelei was doing her best to NOT look at her uncle, but he was too busy being distracted glaring at Clair and Lance to really bother her.

But more importantly, young Brock was here too instead of his regent, which was a good sign for his future prospects. Admittedly, he looked very out of place, considering how much younger he was than everyone else, but he was doing a good job holding a stiff upper lip and not looking too overwhelmed by everything.

Naturally, as Champion, Lance was going to be the main speaker, which was why he went up to the podium as soon as the initial announcement was over. "Last year, our very own Elite John ended up sweeping through the many participants of the Indigo Conference and came out on top. From his victory, he has since joined with the Elite Four, and I'm sure there's no need to reiterate the many achievements that he has accomplished during his single year here."

The crowd exploded into cheers, and Lance waited patiently for them to settle down slightly before continuing, "But – John's situation is not unique. After this year's Conference, that could be YOU! Every single one of you has the opportunity to achieve widespread fame and success! There is nothing stopping you from claiming the final victory, and allowing your name to be remembered in the annals of time!"

"The Indigo Conference is YOUR opportunity to demonstrate your training, your ability, and your Pokémon to the wider world!" He raised his arms dramatically, "But it won't be an easy task. Look around you! Look at just how many aspiring trainers there are – all of them sharing the same dream as you do!"

"AND YET! There can only be one winner. Only one person that can rise above the rest and be honoured with the opportunity to challenge and make their way into the Elite Four! So SHOW US your potential! SHOW US your strength! SHOW US that you have what it takes to sweep through the competition!"

Lance took a dramatic step forwards, his voice coming out loud and clear and filled with genuine emotion, "SO WELCOME ONCE AGAIN TO THIS YEAR'S INDIGO CONFERENCE! AND MAY THE BEST TRAINER WIN! WE WILL BE WAITING!"

The crowd roared out – their applause rising to deafening heights. Even us Elite Four members joined in on the clapping; Lance's speech was miles better than the almost monotone one that we got from Pryce – I could still remember his droning voice even to this today. In comparison, even I found Lance's speech to be emotive and moving – and I wasn't even participating!

With Lance's speech done, we returned to the less dramatic ritual explanation of the rules and regulations of this year's Indigo Conference, as well as a rundown of the schedule of the Open Qualifiers. Of course, everyone who had signed to the Open Qualifiers should have already been aware of their schedule, but this was mostly for the benefit of the people watching at home.

As this was just the Open Qualifiers, there was not going to be a proper opening ceremony. That was reserved for the Preliminary Rounds, which everyone considered to be the 'true' beginning of the Indigo Conference. The Open Qualifiers were generally seen to be an uninteresting necessity to the Indigo Conference, which was an opinion that I agreed with.

Ultimately, the lack of restrictions to join the Open Qualifiers, aside from getting all 8 badges, meant that the quality of trainers heavily varied. And it was not uncommon to see very one-sided matches during their fights. The Preliminary Rounds were generally where you saw the more exciting and evenly balanced fights. I really hope Whitney and her friends were able to at least get to this stage, which was be a huge achievement for someone as young as they were, even if I knew it was going to be tough for them to do so.

...I was supposed to meet her after the ceremony. I wondered what she was doing now?

==============

?(Whitney POV)

To her immense happiness and relief, Sabrina and Janine also managed to make it past Giovanni and collected their 8th and final Gym badge alongside her.

She didn't know what she'd do if any of them were left behind and became ineligible to compete in the Indigo Conference. They had to do this together!

Admittedly, their victory over Giovanni was as nail-bitingly close as hers was. Of the three of them – Sabrina pulled off the most convincing victory. Her agile and Special-Attack focused Psychic types were more suitable at avoiding Giovanni's attacks and were able to break through his defenses more effectively with their barrage of super-effective moves.

It also helped that her Kadabra took that moment to evolve into an Alakazam.

But it was more surprising, and relieving, that Janine also managed to scrape a win against Giovanni. Out of the three of them, she had the hardest battle, especially with her Type disadvantage against Giovanni.

However, her Toxic stall strategies worked as well as ever, and she focused on pure evasion to keep her Pokémon long enough in the fight that Giovanni's Pokémon eventually succumbed to the Toxic. It didn't really matter how hard Giovanni's moves COULD hit if he wasn't able to land them. Or worse for Giovanni, even when he DID land the hit it led to a Destiny Bond double KO that stole all of his momentum away from him.

Overall, Janine had utterly refused to play Giovanni's game of matching bruiser against bruiser.

It was still a very tough battle for Janine, and Whitney did suspect that her tactics wouldn't work nearly as well if Giovanni was actually using his proper team. She explained that to her friends, and they all let out a sigh as they saw, once again, just how much further they still needed to go.

After all, their Pokémon were still not all fully evolved!

Nevertheless, a win was a win. And after a jolly night or two of celebration they had now all gathered at the Indigo Plateau.

Whitney had told her friends that she wanted to listen to Lance's speech and say hi to her brother and deliver the good news to him personally, so her friends accompanied her. They had already signed up to join the Open Qualifiers, and luckily their matches were all on the same day, in two days' time, and fortunately not against each other.

She didn't dare to even entertain such a thought.

That was why they were all in the audience stands, idly listening as Champion Lance wrapped up his speech.

"I think Father approves of Lance's speech." Janine said, barely being able to be heard over the roars of the crowd.

"How could you tell?!" Whitney shouted back, fighting to be heard.

"He's not frowning as hard as he usually does." Janine replied as if such a thing was obvious. Whitney just shot her an unamused look.

"Actually, it's not just him." Sabrina added, "Looks like the rest of the Gym Leaders and Elite Four seem pretty taken with his speech. Even your brother."

A quick glance towards her brother had Whitney nodding in agreement.

With the speech over, they decided to head out and grab some food from one of the many food stalls that had been set up around the large stadium. They had all agreed to get in some last minute training done before the gauntlet of fights that was about to occur.

The three of them all split up to grab a bit to eat. But just as Whitney walked up to a store to buy some food, a young man suddenly stepped in front of her. His slightly greying hair was quite distinct.

"Excuse me, but are you Whitney? The Normal specialist who just beat Giovanni?" He approached, a polite but hesitant expression on his face.

Whitney was surprised, but that didn't stop her from responding, "Yes, I am! How can I help you?"

The man smiled, "Oh, wow! This is quite the honour! I've actually been quite the fan of yours for some time." He seemed a little nervous, but Whitney didn't care. Did she actually have a fan?!

"Really!?" She exclaimed excitedly. She ACTUALLY had a fan! "How did you become a fan?! I'm so curious!!"

He rubbed his head sheepishly, "Haha, well I was just browsing the Pokénet one day and I stumbled across your battle against Koga by accident." He explained, "But then I was shocked by what I saw. I think that was the first time I've seen a Miltank do that. THAT really caught my interest."

"After that, I also caught your performance against Blaine – which was incredible by the way – and then I recently saw your battle against Giovanni. They were all really impressive, and I don't think I've seen someone utilise Normal types so effectively before." He said.

"I immediately knew then that you would go far in life." He concluded with a smile, "So I knew when I spotted you in the crowd just now, I couldn't stop myself from saying hi."

"Hehehe...thank you so much." Whitney chuckled, failing to keep the happiness from blossoming on her face.

"Actually....if you don't mind, would you like to battle?" He asked a little awkwardly, his head turning to the ground as if he was ashamed. "I've always wanted to see how I would fare up against you. Oh, and don't worry. This would just be a friendly match, so feel free to use your less trained Pokémon. I'm not as strong as you are."

"Sure!" she immediately responded, eager to show off to a fan of hers. AND it would be another opportunity to train up! "Actually, let's go about this right now!"

"Excellent!" The young man grinned widely. "Come this way, I know just the spot for our battle. Thank you so much for agreeing to this. You don't know how happy you've made me. I really was hoping you'd say yes."

"Hehe, it's okay. I'm just happy to have a fan!" She giggled excitedly, "Come on, I'll race you there!"

And then she zoomed off, following after her first fan to their new training spot. Despite her excitement, she didn't forget to send a quick text to the girls to let them know what was happening. Hopefully they could come over and watch!

This was going to be so cool!

==========

?(John POV)

With Lance's speech done, we were all finally allowed to retire and exit the stage. We all gathered around in one of the available meeting rooms provided by the stadium to host the meeting.

But having over twenty people stuffed into one meeting room was...very cramped. Especially when you consider people like Chuck and Surge needed more space than usual.

Lance began without any fanfare, explaining the need for all of us to remain alert for any future infiltrations by these criminals. No one, not even Pryce, disagreed on that point, and we all collectively promised to stay alert and ready to respond to outside threats – which practically meant making sure their branches of the Indigo Police were all well-funded and trained, and that the public could actually see us working together.

With that done, Lance moved on to addressing the more personal concerns of each respective Gyms. The rest of us just decided to use the time to mingle around, just chatting and building up connections with everyone here. I did my best to talk to Gym Leaders that I hadn't really interacted with yet, but I wasn't really sure how successful I was.

Agatha and Pryce almost instantly got into a verbal spar, spewing insults at each other. I don't think anyone expected anything different.

At least Jasmine seemed to be happy to talk to me. Though I suspected that was because of the hero-worship at play after what I did at Olivine.

It was then that I felt my phone ring, and I opened it happily as I saw that it was my sister calling.

"Hey, sis. What's up? Kinda in a meeting right now." I picked up.

But the person that responded was decidedly NOT my sister. "John, it's Sabrina. Can you get over here now?"

"Why? What's wrong?" I suddenly asked, recognizing the anger in her voice.

"It's Whitney. She...fought against someone she shouldn't have. And lost. But that's not the problem. He tricked her, and hurt two of her Pokémon badly. Intentionally so. She thought it was going to be a friendly match...but we're now at the Pokémon Center to recover. She's not taken this well." She explained curtly, but I could hear the distress in her voice.

"I'm coming over now." I replied, quickly hanging up the phone and immediately heading over there now.

I walked up to Lance, uncaring that I had just interrupted his conversation, "I need to leave. It's personal."

He looked surprised at the steel in my voice, and just nodded, "...Right, okay. If it's urgent, then I wish you all the best with whatever you're dealing with." I nodded, giving him a brief word of thanks before heading out.

My sudden departure drew some curious looks from a few people, but no one really tried to stop me, likely seeing the look I had on my face.

Except one.

"I know that look on your face." Giovanni whispered as he followed after me, "Do you need any help?"

"I'm not sure." I replied, not even stopping to look at him as my fists clenched in anger.

"But I intend to find out."

The New Normal – 9-8 – Growing Wrath

I hurried out of stadium and rushed over to the nearby Pokémon Center, immediately finding Sabrina and Janine hovering over protectively over my tearful sister.

Sabrina's eyes immediately snapped to mine as I arrived, "Don't push her." She warned me, and I gave off a stiff nod.

Janine patted Whitney once more on the shoulder before she stood up, walking away with Sabrina and leaving the two of us alone.

I slowly took a seat next to my sister, seeing that her tears had yet to dry. My anger rose, but I held it back.

Now was not the time for it.

"Are you okay?" I asked softly, taking extra care to make sure my anger wasn't audible in my voice.

"...My Pokémon..." She sniffed out, "...They're hurt."

"I'm sure they'll be fine, sister. The Nurse Joys will be able to help them." I reassured her gently, but my eyes shot to the nearest Nurse Joy, as if daring them to refute my statement. They hesitated for a moment, but returned a small nod, with eyes full of sympathy.

"...But if it's okay, could you tell me what happened?" I asked gently.

"...It was a Scizor and a Poliwrath." She revealed after a shared moment of silence, "It was strong. Stronger than me. But that...that's not why I lost."

"He...he said it would just be a friendly match so that we could train up our weaker Pokémon, and I believed him." She continued, sobbing as she did, "It was a 2v2...so I sent out Wigglytuff and Girafarig. I had Wigglytuff distract Scizor and try to wear it down, and Girafarig to blast them at a distance...but Scizor just rushed forwards and smashed...smashed Girafarig into the ground. And then it did the same to Wigglytuff while Poliwrath pinned down my Girafarig."

"I knew immediately I was outmatched, so...so I told him to stop. But...but he didn't listen. He just kept going – and pummelled and smashed both my Pokémon again and again into the ground."

She sniffed, "I screamed for him to stop, and I tried recalling my Pokémon, but he...he still hit them with a Pursuit from Scizor. And my Wigglytuff...she was wailing out in pain. By the time I recalled both of them, they were so hurt. I'd never seen them this injured in my life. It's...I still remember how they were laid out in front of me, broken and in pain."

New tears leaked out of her eyes, "I failed them, John. I shouldn't have taken the fight. The Nurse Joys...they said that they were so hurt that it would take them some time to heal."

"You did not fail them." I said firmly, "I've seen how your Pokémon look at you. You have their full trust and love. You could never fail them, not when you've already done so well for them. And the Nurse Joys didn't say your Pokémon won't be able to heal fully, just that it'd take some time."

"I got careless." She mumbled quietly, "I...I wanted to show you how strong I got after beating Giovanni...I thought I was strong."

"No. You couldn't have known." I immediately replied, not liking the path that she was taking with this conversation even as I filed that titbit of her earning her 8th? Gym Badge for later, "And even then, it wasn't your fault. The other trainer, whoever they are, should have known better than to use so much force on a weaker enemy."

"I thought he was just a fan!" Whitney blurted out, the hurt evidence in her voice, "I thought...I thought it was just going to be a fun battle!"

My fists clenched tightly, with my fingernails digging deep into my skin. Despite my urge to ask more about this 'trainer', I had more urgent priorities, "Well it's not your fault for being tricked." I comforted, but I could see that she could not be convinced at the moment.

Deciding I needed to take a different route, I released Klee into the Pokémon Center.

"Bliss? Blissey!" Klee asked curiously as she was released, before making a beeline for Whitney as soon as she saw her tears.

"Blissey! Bliss! Bliss!" Klee quickly wiped off the tears from Whitney's eyes and immediately began mothering her, the concern evident on her face. Whitney just sat there listlessly as she allowed Klee to do her work.

The sight of my sister – my bright and energetic sister – acting so lifeless and depressed caused something in me to snap.

I was not normally one for anger. But this was an exception that I'd willingly make.

But once again, I took a deep breath, forcefully calming myself down as I reminded myself that now was not the time for anger. My sister, nice as she was, would not be happy if she saw me get angry on her behalf. Even now, despite all the pain she was in, not once had she expressed a single hint of rage at what happened to her.

Fortunately, she had not been completely robbed of her pure innocence. She could recover from this.

"Hey, Whitney, why don't we head out somewhere? Somewhere fun. We haven't hung out together as just brother and sister in some time, right?" I suggested.

"...I want to wait for my Pokémon to heal." She tried to insist, but I shook my head.

"Waiting around here isn't going to change anything. Trust me, your Pokémon will be fine. In fact..." I walked up to a Nurse Joy, who had so far been spectating this situation with a familiar sadness on her face. "Excuse me, would you care to allow my Blissey to help yours with the healing process of my sister's Pokémon? I'll come back soon to collect her."

The Nurse Joy mustered up a small smile, "Of course, Elite John. Please, right this way." She motioned towards Klee to follow after her, and Klee did so after giving Whitney one more reassuring hug and a cheerful "Bliss!".

I took my sister's hand in mine, "Come on, Klee will help take care of your Pokémon. Have you eaten?" She shook her head, "Then let's go get you some food."

"...But my Pokémon might be too hurt to participate in the Conference." She mumbled, but she still walked after me.

I patted her on the head, "Silly sister – don't you trust Klee? She'll heal up your Pokémon in no time. And besides, you have plenty of time to heal before fighting off against the really difficult opponents – I'm sure even with injured Pokémon you'll do fine in the Open Qualifiers."

"And besides, only your Girafarig and Wigglytuff got hurt right? You can still use your other Pokémon. Your Exploud and Miltank will be enough." I tried to comfort.

She remained silent at that. But I could tell some of my words had gotten through to her.

I made sure she was saddled up properly on Port as I continued to try to distract her, "Hey, have I shown you my new project in Cerulean yet?" She looked up to me, a hint of interest flashing through her eyes as she shook her head. I smiled, "Well let's go then! I think you'll like it."

So off we flew towards Cerulean City. During the flight, I made sure to keep up with my small talk to make sure that my sister wasn't alone with her thoughts. As long as she was engaging me in conversation, then she wasn't thinking about what happened.

And it was working. I could feel the sadness slowly leaving her eyes as the bright and energetic energy that she always possessed slowly returned.

I also made sure to send a text to Sabrina, letting her know where we had gone. I also subtly asked if she knew who the trainer was that did this to my sister.

"He didn't introduce himself." Sabrina texted back, "But I only saw the end of their battle. He just walked away, not saying anything else. I would recognize him if I saw him again though." That was frustrating.

"Please keep an eye out for him, and let me know if you see him again. And thanks again for comforting my sister." I wrote.

"We had to. And I will." She texted.

The two of us landed in Cerulean City shortly after. And as we hopped off of Port, Port must have sensed the lingering unhappiness in Whitney's expression because he playfully squirted with a small burst of water.

"HEY!" She squawked, only to be the target of more squirting. Then the target switched to me, but this time, Port let loose with a much greater blast of water – enough to knock me on my feet, soaking wet.

"OI!" I shouted out indignantly, but Port just let out a playful chuckle as he shot me with another torrent of water, turning me into little more than a wet mop.

Whitney giggled at the sight.

After a short round of me being soaked, I returned Port to his Premier Ball and escorted my mostly dry sister to the nearby Cerulean Cave.

I wasn't wearing a disguise, but fortunately, there were luckily no reporters stalking us in sight. After all, most if not all of them were currently occupied with the Indigo Conference and the Open Qualifiers, probably interviewing a whole bunch of hopefuls to find a compelling narrative that they could use in their next headline.

So we weren't harassed by any untimely reporters, which was really good because I did NOT have the patience to deal with them at the moment. After a short walk, we arrived at the entrance of Cerulean Cave, where a large construction site was setting up for its redesigning.

A foreman came down as soon as he saw me, "Elite John, it's a pleasure to see you today. Is there anything I can help with?"

"I'm just showing my sister around. But I would prefer not to be interrupted today." I stated politely, but with a firm look in my eye. The man took the hint.

"Understood. I'll pass it around." He wished me a good day and backed off. What a good man.

Whitney and I walked closer to get a better look at the construction efforts, with my sister occasionally asking me a few questions about what they were doing.

"The original entrance to the Cerulean Cave was too inconspicuous." I replied, as we stared at the construction work that was being done on the entrance, "It really just blended in with the surroundings a bit too much, and you could barely see it from a distance. So we decided to try to build the entrance up a bit – make it look more appealing and inviting."

"So more people come visit?" Whitney asked.

"That's part of the reason." I nodded, "But we're trying to sell this as an experience for strong and ace trainers, partially because of how powerful the Pokémon inside are. So the appearance of the cave has to LOOK the part of an Ace-level challenge."

"...Do you think my friends and I could visit here?" She tilted her head at me.

"...Maybe give it some time." I said after thinking it over, "The Pokémon inside are really quite strong, and I'm not exactly comfortable with letting you into such a dangerous area just yet. Not until your Pokémon are a bit stronger."

"On that note, it's why we're planning to set up a testing area to ensure that whoever goes in has the necessary strength to hold their own inside there." I continued, "Of course, we'll be doing our best to ensure the experience inside never gets too dangerous, but we must ensure that each person that comes in at least has a certain level of strength."

"When do you think I can reach that, bro?" She asked, turning her no-longer puffy eyes towards me.

I reached down to pat her on the head, "You'll get there eventually. You've already done so well getting all 8 Gym Badges you know? I'm already so very proud of you for that."

I was about to pull my hand back, but then my sister pulled me into a tight hug, "Thank you, John. I...I'll get stronger, so I don't lose to someone like that ever again." She mumbled into my shoulder, but I didn't feel my shoulder turning wet.

"It's okay to lose." I replied with a gentle smile, realizing she had stopped crying. "You don't have to win every match that you fight."

"And don't forget – you can always call me for help if you need it." I said softly, "I'll always come running as soon as I can."

"Thank you." Was all my sister needed to say, before her head drooped and I felt her relaxing in my arms. She must have been tired from everything that had happened today.

So I picked her up with both arms, carefully positioning her as I lifted her onto my back. Then, with my free arm, I released Klaus and had him carry the both of us home, where I gently nestled my sister back into her room, allowing her to take a well-deserved rest.

Seeing her sleeping soundly drew a relieved breath from me – and I took a photo of it to send to Sabrina, reassuring her that Whitney was doing fine.

But as soon as I shut the door to Whitney's room, my face dropped the calm and gentle smile that I had plastered on for my sister.

The wrath that I had suppressed bubbled up to the surface. How dare someone do this to my sister?!

I stomped down to the living room, glad that my parents weren't home. They deserved to know what happened, but not right now.

Not when my sister remained unavenged.

=======

?But the first step was finding out who this man was. Sabrina provided me with a general description of his appearance, but nothing that was described about him seemed at all familiar to me. He just seemed to be a plain, generic young man. The only really unique feature about him was his greying hair, despite his youthful looks. After a few more questions to Sabrina, she confirmed that she saw him withdrawing his Poliwrath and Scizor just as Whitney recounted. But that didn't really give me anything to work off.

More importantly, Sabrina had briefly sensed the malice and anger that the man seemed to radiate, but she said that none of it felt directed to my sister. Frow how Sabrina described it from the brief glimpse she had, it felt that the man was just venting his anger at Whitney, but she was not the target for his malice.

I suspected that meant that his actions against Whitney was meant to serve a greater purpose. However, considering Whitney's connections and the fact that the man had left Janine and Sabrina alone, I began to suspect that his real target was me.

I wracked my brain to think of anyone who could have a personal vendetta against me. But I hit a roadblock. The people that I had pissed off the most – and who would have an actual reason to target me – were the criminals that I had ravaged all the way to Sinnoh. But that didn't match – a criminal wouldn't have been satisfied with just hurting my sister's Pokémon. He would have pushed a lot further than that.

But that left me stumped. No one came to mind. And my frustration only grew.

However, before the frustration could take a hold of me, my phone rang. I was tempted not to answer it, but then I relented when I saw it was Karen.

"Hello?" I picked up, trying to not let my anger be audible.

"Tell me what's wrong." Karen all but demanded, "Agatha saw the look on your face when you walked out of the meeting – and she told me that she's never seen you as angry as you looked then."

"Don't you have a battle to fight? I thought your Open Qualifier matches were today." I asked, trying to deflect.

"Don't try to change the topic; you know I've already beaten them. It's why I could only call now." She stated, "Now, tell me what's wrong."

I sighed, "It's about Whitney..." I then began to give her a thorough explanation of everything that happened.

"Oh." Was all that Karen uttered after my finished my explanation.

"I see. So someone targeted sweet Whitney to get to you?" She asked, her tone completely blank. But I could tell that was underneath the fa?ade of calm was a volcano of anger that was threatening to erupt. I knew she treated Whitney as the younger sister she never had, so she cared about her as much as I did.

"That's my best guess." I confirmed.

"Do you know what this person looks like?" She asked, and I gave her a quick rundown of the man's appearance, and the Pokémon he was seen with.

"...One moment. I'll call you right back." She said before abruptly hanging up.

I blinked; staring blankly at my phone. Did Karen figure something out?

I didn't have to wait long for Karen, because she called me back a few moments later. "Can you call up Sabrina for me? I'd like to confirm something with her."

I complied, and the three of us, and Janine, fell into a conference call.

Karen started us off, "Sabrina, Janine, can you give me a description of the man's clothes. How tall was he? I want every detail."

Sabrina nodded, "He was about John's height. Seems like he was in his early twenties, or around that. Looked young, but he was wearing a long-sleeved grey dress shirt that matched his hair. No glasses, but he had a nice-looking watch on his wrist."

"Did he look like this?" Karen asked, putting a picture that she had recently printed to the screen. My eyes went wide – I knew who this was!

"Yes. He does." Sabrina confirmed, with Janine nodding in agreement. "Who is he?"

"Shin." Karen answered before I could.

"Who's that?" Janine asked confusedly, but I saw the recognition in Sabrina's eyes.

"I'm not surprised you don't know – he fell into obscurity after his loss to John in the finals of last year's Indigo Conference." Karen explained, "But before that, he was THE trainer that many in Johto thought was going to win the Indigo Conference and take the whole thing home. In fact, he was slated to become the next member of the Elite Four, until his loss against John."

"I had to study him a lot in the past, because Agatha had plans for him." Karen continued, "Those plans have all since faded away, but I could recognize that greying hair from anywhere. So when you mentioned that one specific characteristic, my mind instantly went to him."

Karen's words took some time to register in my mind. I had forgotten about Shin. He had just been the final challenge for me to defeat during my run through of the Indigo Conference, and I hadn't heard hide nor hair of him since.

If he hadn't done what he did, then I MIGHT have felt bad for robbing him from his chance to make it big and join the Elite Four. After all, I remembered him not being such a bad guy when I first met him.

But now, those positive feelings have all died a swift death. Only leaving my vengeful anger.

"Shin..." I growled, "So was he the one to hurt Whitney?"

"He was." Sabrina confirmed, and I closed my eyes as I took a deep breath. I finally had my target.

"...Thank you, you two. Feel free to visit our house if you want to speak to Whitney. I'll speak to you both later." I said to them after a moment before ending the call with them, leaving me with Karen.

"...Do you want me to come over?" She asked.

"If you want. I need to think, but you can come to say hi to Whitney. I'm sure she'd appreciate it." I replied.

"I will be." She nodded, "See you soon."

I let out a small smile despite myself, "Thank you. Talk to you later."

I hung up the call and began pacing around the room, I tried to figure out what Shin wanted from me. Why would he go after Whitney? His victory over her meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. Was he doing this only to rile me up? But why do so?

What was his plan?

I collapsed onto the sofa and went through my phone, browsing through anything that I could find of him. And just like Karen had said, he really was quite the big deal before he ended up losing against me. I remembered that too – just like me, he was the perfect underdog rags to riches story, apparently having come from a lowly middle class background with no ties to any Gym Leaders or Elite Four member.

But I had the exact same story, and my victory over him knocked him out of the public spotlight. There was nothing on him ever since.

Was this why he was coming after me? Out of some misplaced jealousy that festered and transformed the rather pleasant young man that I knew to do something that could brutalize a young child's Pokémon to get his revenge?

My rage grew just thinking about it. My sister had to suffer for something as inane as this?

But then my browsing was interrupted as my phone rang again, and I blinked as I saw Karen was calling again. "Hello? What's the matter?"

"John, turn on the TV and watch the news." She said immediately, and I curiously moved to do so.

And my anger flared up as I was suddenly met with the person that I had just been thinking of this whole time. Shin was there, standing in the open, apparently giving an interview to some reporters.

"...And you think you can show how much you have improved over the past year?" He was asked.

"Yes. I can." Shin replied with a smile that I couldn't help but think looked fake, "I'm not sure if John would accept such a fight, with how busy he is as a member of the Elite Four, but surely he could have time for his old rival back in the Indigo Conference? And plus, I think a fight between us would be just the thing to encourage and inspire the new generation. Show them what it's like to fight at a really high level, and a show match between us would be a great way to start off the Indigo Conference. I'm sure others would agree."

"You seem very confident about your chances this time around." A reporter observed, "No wonder you asked us for this interview."

"Well of course. I've pushed myself really hard ever since the previous Conference, and I've not had the commitments and distractions that John no doubt had to deal with as an Elite Four. And everyone knows that's he been slipping since his disappointing draw against that trainer from Sinnoh. So I'm sure that I'll be able to put on a much stronger showing than last year – maybe even surpass him entirely." Shin responded, that kind smile of his never leaving his face.

I already wanted to punch him.

"And from all of John's many achievements, I don't think he'll turn down a battle like this. After all, everyone knows his strength as a trainer is waning, and I'm sure he'll be looking for another opportunity to prove his strength. No Elite Four could dare be seen as weak, after all."

"So do you think you could actually win against him?" Another questioned.

"Definitely. If you don't mind me saying this, but I think John's reputation is slightly overblown due to his actions against the criminals. It was praiseworthy, but criminals aren't known as the strongest." Shin stated, "He's not fought a serious, proven opponent since his victory over Drake, but that was quite some time ago and had no stakes involved. Bruno wasn't even an Elite Four. If anything, I think I'm about to give him a little bit of a wakeup call. And even if he does lose, it's not like he'll lose his position in the Elite Four because of it. At most he'll just have some egg on his face."

"Those are some fighting words! Such confidence from you, even though John won a decisive victory against you last time!" A reporter chuckled, and in that one moment I saw a small crack appear in Shin's kindly and magnanimous fa?ade.

"Yes...well, it won't happen again. This time things will be different." He said, before turning to face the camera, "And John – if you're watching this. Please don't disappoint me. We can just have a little FRIENDLY challenge! There doesn't need to be any stakes between us. I really do hope you accept."

"...So he's thrown down the gauntlet, what are you going to do now?" Karen asked me. I knew it was all a bait; he had targeted Whitney to get me to accept this fight. But...

"I will accept, of course." I replied immediately, standing up from my table as I switched off the TV. "After all, he's been kind enough to invite me to a match. Who would I be to refuse such a welcoming gesture?"

Indeed, Shin – this time, things WILL be different.

The New Normal – 9-8 – Interlude – Intermission

(John POV)

Putting down my phone, I walked out of the house and back into the training fields. Right after my talk with Karen, Cynthia had called, apparently having coincidentally having watched Shin's challenge against me on TV. She asked me how I was doing, and I utterly failed to hide how livid I was.

I gave her a quick rundown on what happened and what we discovered, and my girlfriend quickly shared my rage and anger. I half-expected her to tell me to calm down, but she had other plans in mind.

"I can tell I won't be able to calm you down, so all I will say is this." She said firmly, "Crush this man. He has hurt someone you loved – so there is no need to hold back. Use everything you can to break him until he doesn't dare to challenge you again."

"The world has seen your nicer side – but it's time to unleash your Pokémon's full potential. I know what your Pokémon are capable of, so it's now time to remind the world once again. Show them why your strength should NEVER be challenged."

That was probably more supportive than anything else she could have said.

Returning back from my own thoughts, I saw that the farmhands were mostly off for lunch, so there were none to disturb me as I released Tyrant into the field.

Tyrant emerged silently, simply staring off into the distance as I was doing. A moment of silence stretched out between us, but neither one of us felt the need to say anything. He could sense my emotions – there was no need for me to explain how I was feeling.

Tyrant had grown up with Whitney. He watched her grow, just as I did. He watched her smile and laugh, just as I had. He watched her train with her Pokémon and create an unbreakable bond of love with them, just as I saw. To see her hurt like that was more effective of a motivator than anything I could have said, and his blood boiled just as mine did.

As ever, Pokémon and trainer were of one mind. My rage was his, and his was mine.

"...King?" He grunted out a question after a small period of silence.

"...This isn't like our other fights. I'm not here to win honourably or show off my strength. That would be too good for him." I replied slowly, my fists clenching instinctively. "I want him gone, completely humiliated. I'm not going to ask you to hold back for this. I want you to use everything you can to crush him and his team. Don't hold anything back – not after what they did to our sister. Do you understand me?"

Tyrant let out an agreeing huff, before raising himself to full height and slapping himself on the chest. Just the once. But the strength and surety that it conveyed was everything I needed to know.

I patted him on the thigh, "Thank you, Tyrant. Now let's warm you up, shall we? We have a fight to dominate."

A savage grin broke out on Tyrant's face – as it did on mine. If Shin thought he could rile me into accepting a challenge, then he's going to understand the full consequences of that decision.

Tyrant would show no mercy, for I had none left to give.

==========

?(Karen POV)

Karen put down the phone, closing her eyes for a few moments and trying to expel all of her anger, just as the old hag had taught her.

She made sure to paint a smile on her face and bury that anger deep within. A large part of her wanted to fly over to wherever Shin was hiding and rip him apart for what he did to someone as pure and innocent as little Whitney.

For what he did to her family.

But she knew it was not her place to take revenge, and she trusted John to deliver it on her behalf. She could feel the sheer fury radiating out of him, so she knew it'd be a match to watch.

Therefore, her role was to be the supportive sister while John was on the hunt. To be a friendly face to Whitney and to comfort her during these dark times. And most importantly, to make sure that she and her two friends don't end up doing anything rash.

This was the first time they were hurt by something like this, and she wanted to make sure that their friendship still held as steady as ever.

'...We haven't hosted a celebration party for Whitney's victory over Giovanni yet, have we?' She thought to herself. '...Maybe I could bring her to a nice restaurant...'

She quickly decided that bringing Whitney somewhere nice to enjoy some nice views and good food was probably better than wallowing in her memories in her room. And while they were at it, why not enjoy a nice performance from the Kimono Girls? Maybe if there was some time she could even have them hang about with Brock and his siblings as well.

Nodding to herself, she went to pick up her phone again to make a few calls. She quickly confirmed a reservation for everyone at a nice restaurant and secured tickets for the next Kimono Girl performance, which conveniently had spaces open for tomorrow.

She was lucky that it wasn't too busy at the moment.

Satisfied with her preparations, she finally made her way to John's place. Before she stepped inside, she checked herself in a mirror to make sure that her anger was completely hidden from her face. Letting out one last breath, she entered the house.

It was time to be a good sister.

==========

?(Giovanni POV)

Giovanni put down the phone, finishing up with the call that he just had with his subordinate. He never intended to be snooping around like this, but one of his subordinates had coincidentally spotted a crying Whitney hanging around the Indigo Plateau's Pokémon Center, and felt obliged to report it to Giovanni.

With that piece of information in mind, he now knew why John had stormed out of the meeting with his face twisted with rage. He had never seen John so angry before, but now he instantly understood.

Whitney was a bright young girl, completely innocent and deserving of all that happiness that she got. She had made fast friends with Silver, despite how...difficult his son could be at times. But she pushed past her son's abrasiveness, and now Silver was always talking about how he wished she would come over to play with him again.

Giovanni was quick to admit that he had a soft spot for young Whitney. She reminded him of the reason he fought so hard for the continued prosperity of Kanto, to see children like her be happy and worry free. So, seeing her cry like that - it made him displeased.

It didn't take him long to put two and two together, realizing that Shin was the cause of Whitney's tears. He didn't know the full story, but seeing his 'friendly' challenge to John was all that he needed to know.

He was going to speak to John about the details and to express his sympathy, but to see this Johtonian harm someone as sweet and as kind as Whitney?! The very thought of it darkened his mood, and the beginnings of a plan clicked into place.

It had been a long time since he made use of his business and underground connections for a personal matter like this, but he thought that this situation warranted it.

And so, he moved to pick up the phone once again. It was time to make a few calls.