43-46

The New Normal – 3-7 – Interlude – Lorelei

Her uncle may have thought of her as an incompetent fool that was unable to even run the Gym that he gifted to her, but even this 'incompetent fool' could read the writing on the wall.

Pryce was in trouble, and his hold on the title of Champion was slipping away from his grasp.

Oh, when she was on the telephone with him the other day and expressed her concern about his ability to stay as Champion, he scoffed at her and denounced her for fearmongering and being swept up in the public opinion. Her uncle offered no reassurances other than the determined, obsessive insistence that he would be able to maintain his power as Champion for the years to come.

Lorelei really doubted that would actually be the case.

Lance was making a very good challenger against her uncle, and he was rapidly gaining powerful supporters to back up his claim. She was practically the only Johto Gym Leader that wasn't directly in support of Lance, and that was solely because of Pryce's looming hands endlessly pressing down on her shoulders.

To make matters worse, she realized that all of her Gym Trainers would much rather have Lance as their Champion, and the fact that she was forced to support Pryce did not endear her to them any further. Not that they needed any more reason to hate her, they were practically revolting in silent mutiny against her leadership.

And as the days crept ever closer to the restarting of the circuit, her despair grew as she realized that she would never be able to reign in her Gym Trainers in time to form an effective Gym. Oh, they would do their duty to not completely shame the Mahogany Gym, but they would make it clear to the challengers that she was not in charge of the Gym.

Initially, seeing the hopeless situation laid out before her, Lorelei was tempted to just wallow in her despair and moan about the unfairness of life to kill the potential of a promising trainer like herself by dragging her down with politics. And yet, one day, as she was browsing through the Pokénet, she saw her old opponent, and now the youngest Elite Four member, John, speaking in an interview and giving his thanks for the kind treatment that he received in Hoenn.

Oh, she knew all too well what her uncle did to Elite John. Even before Elite Lance called out her uncle for his disgraceful actions, she knew that he had planned to do something like this as soon as she was knocked out of the Indigo Conference. It wasn't anything personal to John, but her uncle was so consumed with the status quo that he could see nothing else beyond it.

But unlike her, Elite John was able to rise above her uncle's machinations and even turn the tables on him. John's popularity had skyrocketed ever since his defeat of Drake, and now went even higher as he continued getting involved in the politics of Indigo. He seemed to adapt to the treacherous waters of Indigo like a fish to water, and she had to fight down her jealousy at the fact that he seemed to be thriving while she was stuck in a hopeless cycle as a doomed Gym Leader with a reputation that was tarnished by the stigma of nepotism.

Absently, she ended up looking through his match against Drake that she had saved into her phone once again. Initially, she had just wanted to see how far the winner of her Indigo Conference could go against someone of Drake's strength but seeing him win so convincingly was a huge surprise. She had never faced up against John in any of her matches during the Indigo Conference before she was knocked out by Shin, but to see the enormous canyon between their respective strengths was both humbling yet frustrating, and she couldn't help but feel bitter.

But as she continued re-watching John's match against Drake, that bitterness slowly morphed into ambition as an idea settled into her mind. Suddenly, she could see a way out of this vicious cycle of hopelessness. She recognized that, if she continued to do nothing, then she would eventually be removed as a Gym Leader and be banished to obscurity, with nothing but her irreparable tarnished reputation to her name.

However, there was an opportunity available to her to break free from the chains that shackled her. One way to repair her reputation and to clear her name from the stench of nepotism.

She had to make use of the loophole that Gym Leaders could challenge a member of the Elite Four, even if they have yet to win the Indigo Conference.

If she could just win her place in the Elite Four, it would prove to the world that she EARNED her strength, and it would separate her from just being known as 'The Champion's niece'. Oh, she realized that this wouldn't be an easy task, nor would making it into the Elite Four suddenly mean that she would be well-liked. In fact, she might just be seen as an ultra-ambitious woman who made use of a loophole to force her way into the Elite Four.

But at this moment, she didn't care. It would still be a better outcome than whatever awaited her if she continued down her current path. She quickly got up out of her chair, put away her phone, and grabbed the Pokéballs of her team.

She had one chance to make something out of her life, and she wasn't about to let this opportunity slip away from her. She had her target, and now she would do everything she could to surpass him.

'Walker, you're in my way.'

The New Normal – 3-8 – Scientific Discussions

It's been two weeks ever since my tumultuous meeting with Giovanni, and a fire seems to have been lit under the Indigo political scene. Of course, despite the turmoil, I was pleased with the way things were going.

For one, my idea to get Giovanni to publicly fight against Team Rocket was paying off with greater dividends than I expected. After all, my main intention was to just force Giovanni into becoming enemies with Team Rocket so he couldn't sit on the fence. However, it appears that Giovanni was able to reap the benefits of being the first Gym Leader to 'step up' and actively combat against Team Rocket's criminal actions.

I got a lot of the credit as well for quickly endorsing his actions, which was nice. I was always pleased to see the many comments of praise that were thrown about on the Pokénet; it was doing wonders for my reputation as a member of the Elite Four. This, in turn, meant that my influence and status as a member of the Elite Four was also growing.

I intended to make use of my boosted status soon enough when I officially declared my support for Lance and to push forward any other proposals I may have, such as my ongoing proposal to change the 4-badge requirement. Though that was slow going due to all the other more important political matters going on at the moment. I hoped to at least get it pushed through by the time, or just after, Whitney was able to go on her journey, so that she would benefit.

Speaking of Pryce, he really was in trouble now. Lance was really putting the pressure on him by frequently attacking him on a myriad of issues, including blaming him for running Indigo incompetently and indirectly causing this crime wave to happen. It appears that it was an open secret that Lance intended to challenge Pryce for the title of Champion. I predicted that Lance only delayed in making the announcement because he wanted to shore up his own support base and continue whittling down and converting those who would support Pryce behind the scenes.

The power of the Blackthorns truly was frightening, as I'm sure that Pryce was slowly re-learning. It's not like Pryce wasn't trying to fight back, but the way the news was portraying it definitely made it seem like he was losing the war of public opinion.

In the meanwhile, all over the news and forums were a plethora of debates and discussions about Lance's probable leadership challenge and what it would mean for the future of Indigo. It got to the point that many news agencies and reporters were starting to bother the Gym Leaders and Elite Four in order to find out more about our opinions on the issue.

I even had to throw out a few reporters out of the family farm who had tried to sneak in. Luckily, the Cerulean police were happy to assist in the protection of our farm, especially after I announced my support for the increased funding towards the Indigo Police.

Sometimes, it was nice to have power.

Besides all the politicking, I lived a relatively quiet life for the past two weeks. Whitney was soon to be starting her own journey in a few weeks' time, and I spent most of my days just training with our Pokémon to make sure that she was as ready as she could be. I also had the great idea of telling her to study up on Gym Leader Norman's battles, since I thought he'd be a good role model for her, and with Norman's permission I even gave her his number so that she could ask him the occasional questions.

She seemed very ecstatic to be talking to such an esteemed figure, so I encouraged her interactions with him. Of course, she conveniently forgot that her brother was also a supposed 'esteemed figure', and I lamented about the fickleness of youth.

More gravely, my parents and I had spoken to Whitney about taking care of her behaviour while she was on her journey. While she had no history of bad behaviour, we unfortunately still had to remind her that since I was now a public figure, her actions could affect my reputation. It took a while, but she accepted that any adverse actions from her could cause significant damage to my reputation, and she should try to behave as much as possible to prevent this.

I hated that my newfound status meant that my sister would be placed under increased scrutiny, but that was the unavoidable reality of politics. At least I was comforted by the fact that Whitney understood the reasoning and didn't seem to hold a grudge, if anything, she seemed to hold her head higher as she accepted the responsibility.

I was proud of my sister for being so mature.

Speaking of maturity, I finally decided to get a start on trying to learn about logistics and business matters. I even went to my parents when they were free to see if they could assist me in learning about it. I didn't need to be proficient or be an expert in it, but I wanted to at least be able to understand and participate in logistical discussions if need be. After two weeks, I felt like I was good enough to at least speak about logistics on a very basic level.

My recent 'disagreement' with Giovanni was another reminder that I could never be too dependent on him. At least it appeared that our relationship was rekindled though by our recent shared prosperity.

Of course, I also spent much time chatting and texting with Karen. Her name did occasionally show up in the news as she continued clearing through the Hoenn Gyms and winning badge after badge. I think that the only badges that she had left to claim were the Knuckle and Heat badges.

She frequently told me about her exploits and how her Pokémon were getting stronger. Her Pupitar had yet to evolve into a Tyranitar, but she told me that she could feel that it was very close to doing so. Likewise, her Corphish had settled in well with the rest of her team and was slowly mastering his Water-type moves.

Karen also happily told me that she finally caught herself a Carvanha, but unfortunately, she didn't have much luck finding an Absol. I expressed my worries about whether she might be catching new Pokémon too quickly before they could properly settle in, but she told me that her newly caught Carvanha was very easily adapting to her team as well and that she foresaw no problems.

That couldn't be said for the Zigzagoon egg that she was carrying around, though, and now the both of us were increasingly concerned that our experiment might fail. Despite the two weeks of relative free time that I had and the constant discussions that we had about it, there seemed to be no changes in the egg despite the amount of Dark type energy we have infused into it.

Our lack of progress annoyed the both of us greatly, and I was especially frustrated because I was sure that this was a viable method for converting a normal Zigzagoon egg into a G-Zigzagoon. My gut was screaming at me that I was missing something crucial, but I still couldn't figure it out yet.

I sighed to myself as I returned to where my Pokémon were training. At least I was seeing some progress here with Smough finally starting to become proficient at Thunderpunch.

Pixel was also making incredible progress with its own training and was starting to be able to fight at higher levels. It was starting to work on its mobility by training up on Magnet Rise and practicing manoeuvring in the air while simultaneously firing off Thundershocks. Having the power of flight was so important in high-level battles, and although it wasn't the most proficient at it yet, I was sure that it would become much better with enough training.

In the distance, Zephyr was constantly doing dives and smashing through trees using Brave Bird, recklessly continuing his attacks despite the damage that he was taken. He was slowly moving to smashing through stronger and stronger targets as he repeatedly pushed himself to the limits and continued developing an all-or-nothing mindset.

Zephyr was making good work developing his ability. From my research on how others did it, I understood that trained abilities were more like badges to show that a Pokémon had reached a particular proficiency, meaning that they can be trained and developed. In Zephyr's case, by continuing to develop an unyielding and all-or-nothing mindset with recoil moves and mastering them to such a high degree of proficiency, through his training, he'll be able to add a bit more power to the recoil move. Hence, when he does so, he'll have 'earned' the ability Reckless, a symbol to signify his achievement. Thus, the 'earned' ability does not actually give a boost of its own, but rather, just shows that the Pokémon has trained in a specific area so greatly that it was as if it had that ability to begin with.

Of course, developing abilities were much easier said than done, and should only be attempted by extremely well-trained Pokémon to begin with, like Zephyr. Moreover, there were just some abilities that couldn't be trained, depending on the Pokémon, like Water or Volt Absorb. Still, I had confidence that he would be able to develop the ability Reckless so long as he could maintain this level of training.

=========

​"…Does that mean you're still unsure on who their backer is?" I asked Giovanni over the phone an hour or so later.

"Yes, unfortunately so." Giovanni replied seriously. "Despite the many arrests I made and personal interviews that I had with the criminals, even with my own network I am still unable to find out who precisely is funding Team Rocket."

I grimaced as I listened to Giovanni. Overall, the Indigo League had worked together and made significant progress in pushing back Team Rocket, and the jail cells were overflowing with their grunts. However, it appears that, even with the help of Giovanni's underground network and the resources available to the Blackthorns, we were still no closer to finding out where Team Rocket was getting their funding.

And they must have gotten it from somewhere, as Giovanni had told me that he had deliberately cut off funding to Team Rocket when he realized he wouldn't be using them.

"…I see…thank you for letting me know about this." I finally responded. "I admit to finding it rather unsettling that we still aren't able to find their backer, but at least we're pushing them back within every major city."

"Mhm. And at least they aren't damaging the reputation of Kanto." I rolled my eyes silently; leave it to Giovanni to be tunnel-visioned on his own priorities. "I'll keep looking into it; I'm as curious as you are about their mysterious backer and where they got their resources from."

Left unsaid was that Giovanni likely wanted to take in their resources for his own personal use, but it's not like I could really stop him from doing so.

"Oh, and one more thing." Giovanni spoke up again. "I was just informed by the new Devon Corp branch office that they want to speak with you. It's not urgent, but apparently their new manager forgot to give you her number and she wanted me to pass on the message."

"Ah, ok thanks. I'll be sure to visit them soon." I thanked him. I totally forgot to visit the new branch ever since they were properly set up. Whoops! I checked the time and saw that I still had plenty of time until dinner, so I decided to go right now.

I finished up my conversation with Giovanni before I told Whitney that I was heading off again. She just gave me a distracted nod as she was busy training Miltank to use the elemental punches, as she was inspired by my own efforts at training Smough and wanted to join in.

I left her to it and quickly wrapped up my Pokémon's training session as I then made my way on Port towards Viridian City. On the way there, I reminded myself that I shouldn't treat Shelly any differently just because she might become a Team Aqua admin in the future.

Obviously, I would stay alert, but I shouldn't be overly suspicious of her just because of her potential future affiliations. After all, if I could accept and work with Giovanni, I should be able to do the same with Shelly.

Probably.

Another short flight later and I landed outside the new Devon Corp Viridian Branch office, fortunately unspotted. I made my way to their reception and spoke to the receptionist that I was expected. I also had a quick look around and realized that the new offices were rather plain with a distinct lack of décor compared to the main building in Rustboro, unsurprising for a new building. I also noticed that they didn't have anything on sale at the moment, so I supposed that this building was mostly for R&D for the time being.

Luckily, the receptionist recognized me but didn't make a fuss about my appearance and quickly told me that Shelly was waiting for me in her office. I thanked her and made my way there to her office via the elevator.

Soon, I found myself standing outside her door before I knocked politely and waited for a "come in" before I entered.

"Ah, Elite John, thanks for coming by." Shelly greeted me, dressed in her previous lab coat and blue shirt getup. "I've been seeing you a lot on the news recently, so I'm sorry for taking up your time like this. I apologize for any inconvenience."

"No worries, and please call me John." I greeted back. I instantly went back on my previous decision to not be suspicious of her and began making some small talk, both to get to know her better, but also to hopefully sniff out if she's a part of Team Aqua already.

Just to sate my lingering paranoia.

"How are you finding Indigo, Shelly?" I asked casually, "I hope that you're used to the fact that there's a lot less water here." My words were tinged with humour, but my eyes were focused on her reaction.

Shelly didn't seem phased at all at my potentially strange choice of words. "Well, I haven't had much time to explore the whole of Indigo yet, but I do intend to explore a bit once I have some free time. I was feeling very cooped up in Hoenn, and I almost wanted to run away from everything, so this was a nice and needed change."

"Well, that's good to hear that you're looking to explore Indigo." I told her. "Exploring around Indigo was always one of my favourite things to do while I was on my journey. However, it might not be the best time right now considering the whole Team Rocket criminal stuff."

"Yes, it's unfortunate that some people seem to think that it's right to steal Pokémon like that." She said with what I thought was genuine sadness. "You have my sympathies for having to deal with them. I hope you can clean up these criminals soon."

I nodded in reply and eased back on my pseudo-interrogation. I didn't spot anything suspicious in her answers, which might not mean anything, but at least her responses didn't trigger any alarm bells. Thus, I decided to switch topics before I accidentally embarrassed myself.

"So, not to rush you or anything, but why did you ask me to come here?" I asked curiously.

"Oh, yes! So, some of my colleagues in Hoenn wanted some information about a 'trained' Porygon so they could use the data to help them with their research so they can get started as soon as the research facility is set up. They asked me to inspect your Porygon and do a few tests to see if that can give them a few ideas. Would you be okay with this?" She explained.

"Oh sure, let me ask Pixel and see if it's up for it." Shelly nodded and waited patiently as I released Pixel and explained to it what Shelly wanted to do. Pixel buzzed thoughtfully before eventually agreeing and the three of us were brought over to another room filled with complex machinery as Shelly began her inspection.

I wasn't worried that Shelly or some other person would implant some kind of monitoring virus into Pixel, as Pixel assured me that it was able to detect such malicious implants and remove them before they could collect anything. Not that I felt that Shelly was going to do anything nefarious. Thus, I felt safe allowing Shelly to run her tests.

We spent some time just running over a battery of tests, most of which involved Pixel using a move of some sort and then Shelly writing something down on her notepad. I truthfully didn't understand what was going on, but Shelly seemed satisfied with whatever was happening, so I just waited patiently.

After a few more tests, Shelly finally spoke up.

"Thank you for waiting so patiently, John." She thanked me as she released the straps on Pixel. "Your Pixel was very well-behaved. You must have trained it very well." She complimented.

"Well, I can't take all the credit. Pixel deserves much of the credit as it is very eager to train and improve itself." I said humbly before asking, "Also, did you find out anything useful from these tests?"

She scratched her head for a bit and looked down on her notes again before responding. "The tests were certainly useful, but we definitely need a larger sample size before I can say anything definitive. From what I can see though from collating today's data with the others, if your Pixel is capable of evolving, I think an external stimulus is likely going to be required since your Porygon, I'm sorry, I mean your Pixel, seems to not show any common signs of evolving with on its own."

She then continued to explain herself in increasingly scientific jargon that I failed to understand but nodded politely anyways to show that I was still engaged. Eventually, Shelly realized she had lost me and blushed slightly in embarrassment.

"Sorry, I tend to get a bit obsessed with my research at times." She apologized. "It's a bad habit of mine that I've been trying to curb."

"No, it's alright." I told her. "It's good to see that you're so passionate about Porygon, makes me think that Pixel is in safe hands." I praised, before I remembered something about Porygon-Z's Pokédex entry from the games. "Also, could you tell your colleagues that if you're looking into researching potential evolutions for Porygon to please ensure that these evolutions are stable and don't cause any adverse effect for the Pokémon."

She nodded seriously and jotted my comments down and then excused herself so that she could copy down her notes more formally and send it to her colleagues. She quickly came back and apologized once again for the wait, but I easily waved it off as it wasn't a problem.

While she was gone, I had the idea that I should ask her a few questions about Pokémon eggs to see if she could help me realize what I was doing wrong. I asked her the moment she returned.

"So, Shelly, I did have a question that I wanted to ask about Pokémon eggs." She looked confused at my sudden question but gestured for me to proceed.

"Are the Pokémon within the eggs normally influenced by external factors?" I inquired.

"Yes, it's common knowledge within the scientific community that external factors have an impact on the Pokémon within the egg." She replied. "For example, it's very common for Pokémon to come out of the egg already knowing who their trainers are because the trainer has unconsciously showered the egg with their own feelings of love."

I stood up straight as something clicked in my head. "Wait, so you're saying that emotions are able to affect the Pokémon while they're inside the egg?" I asked excitedly.

"Yes, in fact, it's one of the most common ways that you can affect a Pokémon while they are inside an egg." She responded easily before my eyes shot up in surprise as the gears finally began to click together in my head. There was a small detail in G-Zigzagoon's Pokédex entry that differentiated it from a regular Zigzagoon, Dark-typing aside, which was its' signature love for battle.

I reached for my phone and began texting Karen.

'Karen, I think I figured out what was missing. U are infusing Dark energy without emotion. U need emotion to affect the egg. Infuse the egg with emotions of a love for battle, like battlelust. Be careful tho, don't get too excited.'

I momentarily ignored Shelly as I read through my text to make sure nothing was wrong before I sent it. If my theory was correct, then this was exactly what I was missing. I knew that G-Zigzagoon were known to be far more aggressive and hungrier for battle than their Hoenn counterparts, and I thought that these emotions were what was missing from our infusions. I didn't realize that this process needed to be so exact.

My phone buzzed as I quickly got a reply from Karen.

'!!!! Wait ok let me do this right now.' She texted.

'No rush but do it over a few days and let me know if things changed. Remember, infuse with emotion for love for battle.' I reminded her, and she responded affirmatively.

I looked up and saw that Shelly was curiously waiting for me to finish up, and I put my phone away and explained myself with a hint of embarrassment.

"Sorry about that, but I think your words sparked a revelation into an experiment that I'm doing." I explained to her.

"You're doing an experiment regarding an egg?" I nodded, and her eyes flashed with interest and excitement. "Could I know more? Maybe I could help out?" She leaned forward with sparkling eyes.

I resisted her enthusiasm and shook my head. "Sadly, not right now. Maybe I'll discuss things with you further if it works out. I'll definitely be happy to share my notes once I'm done!" I quipped with a cheeky grin.

Shelly gave me a big pout, but I was unaffected by her pleading, and she eventually gave up. She did extract a promise from me that I'll discuss things with her in more detail in the future, and I easily accepted that.

After all, there would be no harm allowing a more scientific eye look over our notes once we were done. I just wanted to ensure that our project stayed OUR project for the time being.

Our discussion then briefly shifted to the Premier Balls, and she asked if I enjoyed the look of them. I replied that I did, and then I asked if she knew anything about the sales, since I should be receiving my first cut from my 5% very soon.

Shelly told me that she didn't know anything about it since most of that data was still back in Hoenn, but she did tell me that this branch would be looking to sell Premier Balls in the future. She informed that she had full authority to handle the marketing campaign as she saw fit, and so asked if I was interested in participating in their marketing for another three-month extension on my 5% cut.

I told her that I was, but that would be heavily dependent on my schedule and that we should probably table the discussion for later. Since we were on the topic, I did ask what kind of research that this branch would be focusing on in the future, and Shelly told me that it was very likely that they would be involved with inventing new Pokéballs that were more than just aesthetically different, and she explained that they already had a few projects in the works already.

I immediately had a few ideas based on the games, but I kept them to myself for now. Perhaps I'll share them with Shelly later down the road. Shelly also very kindly gave me a few extra Premier Balls as a gift, since she had some sent over for advertising purposes and had a few spares.

I looked out the window of the office and realized that it was already rather late in the evening, so I politely asked if she had anything else she wanted to discuss with me before I left the branch office. I reflected on my meeting with Shelly, and I thought that I could see us working together on projects in the future, and I didn't notice any signs that she might be a part of Team Aqua already.

As I was about to saddle up on Port, I was blessed with a hilarious sight. Just opposite me, Petrel was walking down the road carrying two heavy bags of groceries from the local Pokémart, looking like some tired salaryman. He didn't spot me, but I had to stop myself from laughing my head off at the sight.

The image of a Team Rocket executive looking like your average salaryman coming back from work was hilarious to me.

Eventually I got control of myself and I flew back home on Port. Idly, I hoped that the scientists would discover the 'Upgrade' soon as I really wanted to be able to evolve Pixel into a Porygon2. As soon I got home, I found my parents with their eyes glued to the television, and they shushed me as I was about to ask what was going on.

'…And thanks to the hard work of Champion Pryce, we have begun to enter into diplomatic communications with the new region of Sinnoh. The Indigo League has announced that they hope that our two regions will be willing to open our borders to each other very soon…'

How interesting…

The New Normal – 3-9 – A New Horizon

I sat down curiously with the rest of my family as we all silently watched the news. Apparently, Sinnoh was currently in the process of being brought into the fold and the Indigo League is looking to see if they will be opening their borders for Indigo trainers and citizens.

Though the report said that the opening of Sinnoh's borders was not going to happen anytime soon, both for trainers and Pokémon. However, the Indigo League proudly announced that they have already compiled much of the data of Sinnoh's Pokémon and have already released them to the public on their website. Furthermore, some Pokémon would naturally be sent over for research purposes.

That was a huge, but pleasant, surprise. I didn't think that they would have entered into diplomatic talks with Sinnoh this early, but they must have been doing that behind-the-scenes. I grabbed my phone and browsed through the Indigo site until I found the one specifically for the new Sinnoh Pokémon entries.

Since I already knew what the Sinnoh Pokédex was going to look like, I was more concerned about seeing whether anything differed from my meta-knowledge. Comparing the released information with my meta-knowledge, I found that they were mostly the same. However, there were some notable missing Pokémon like the lack of Porygon-Z, all of the fossils and their evolutions, and obviously all of the Mythical and Legendaries.

I did note with some surprise that apparently all of the Generation 4 evolutions were there, even the ones that 'we' didn't know about like Roserade and Togekiss. Apparently, the scientists over at Sinnoh had managed to discover Roselia and Togetic evolve into Roserade and Togekiss respectively using a Shiny Stone. They also discovered Gallade and Froslass and how to evolve them. I imagined that this would be a mind-blowing discovery for most others; the Pokénet was already going wild over it.

Though it seems like they still didn't really know how to evolve Rhydon into a Rhyperior, or Dusclops into Dusknoir, since they still didn't manage to figure out the specific item that was required for those types of evolutions. At least they knew about them, rare as they were.

Thinking over what I knew about Sinnoh, I was willing to bet that they were able to make this discovery when the Indigo and Hoenn League couldn't was because of the relative abundance of Shiny and Dawn Stones present in Sinnoh as compared to Indigo and Hoenn. This meant that the scientists were able to experiment with it more over the many long years of Sinnoh's history.

As I was browsing through the webpage, an errant suspicion appeared in my head. Why did the Indigo League choose NOW to release their 'discovery' of Sinnoh?

After some thinking, I realized that Pryce had probably asked one of his supporters to reveal this information to buy him good headlines and grant him another huge achievement to distract the public and recover his reputation. After all, the public do have short memories. Perhaps Pryce's administration had already been in talks with the Sinnoh League for a while, and only recently accelerated their discussion so that Pryce could release the good news at such a critical moment.

I felt my phone ring and saw that it was Giovanni. I picked up and we quickly discussed how the discovery of Sinnoh would affect our plans. We both concluded that it didn't really have that big of an effect on our future course of action. Sure, this would probably be seen as a huge win for Pryce's foreign policy ability and that we didn't really have any way of throwing mud on him for this, but we could easily just continue our strategy of attacking him on his many other failings until the public realizes that he's unsuitable to be Champion again.

When we finished speaking, I returned to my family where Whitney eagerly bounded up to me.

"John! John! Did you see all those new Pokémon?!?" She asked excitedly and I barely had time to nod before she continued. "There're so many cool new Normal types in Sinnoh! Oh, did you see that new 'Bidoof' and 'Lopunny' and 'Staraptor'! Oh, and that 'Purugly'! It's all so cool bro!" Whitney gushed.

"Now now, dear, try not to get too excited or else you won't be able to eat your dinner. The news report did say that they wouldn't be opening up their borders to trainers for a while." My mom remarked gently, hoping to temper Whitney's enthusiasm. "Besides, didn't you say that you didn't want John to catch any new Pokémon for you?"

Whitney pouted at my mom before she whined, "Yeah…but they're still so cool though!" Then she turned those pleading eyes onto me. "John, you have to promise me that you'll bring me to Sinnoh one day! I want to see what cool things are in Sinnoh and catch a few of those Pokémon!"

I pretended to think about it for a moment, "Hmm…only good girls get new Pokémon. Have you been a good girl, Whitney?"

Her head bobbed up and down rapidly, and I had to fight down a smirk as I pretended to say seriously. "Well, good girls finish their dinner before they ask their brother for things. Have you finished your dinner yet, sis?"

Whitney realized what I was doing and mock-glared at me before she settled down and visibly tempered her excitement. My mom gave me a pat on the shoulders for the assist as my dad finally finished serving all of the food.

Despite this, it seems that my parents were excitable as my sister and we spent most of the dinner discussing all of the new discoveries we thought would be found in Sinnoh, and I had to carefully watch my words while doing in case I accidentally gave something away. I was more than content to just listen to Whitney's excited babblings.

Over dinner, I thought that it would be nice to add a Lopunny to my team. Not only did I need another agile physical fighter, but it's potential to Mega-Evolve would be a huge boon for my team as well. That is, assuming that I could find its Mega Stone.

Whitney perked up at that and demanded again for me to catch her one, or to at least bring her to Sinnoh. I couldn't promise anything, but I told her that I would try my best. She nodded, seemingly satisfied with my promise.

Before I left the dinner table, my dad tapped me on the shoulder and hesitatingly asked if I could look into whether Sinnoh would be suitable to expand the family business, and to make use of my influence if so. My dad looked uncomfortable having to rely on his son for stuff like this, but I gave him a hug to ease his worries and told him that I would be happy to help.

After dinner I quickly went to my room and texted Karen to ask if there was any progress with the egg. She said that she was working on it, but that no progress could be seen yet. I told her to relax and that I had a really good feeling about this. It probably just needed a few more days, and hopefully we'll be seeing some notable progress soon.

We then switched to a more casual conversation, where we discussed what we had been doing. Obviously, most of our conversation was focused on the new discovery of Sinnoh and the potential new Pokémon that were there. I was happy to sit patiently and listen as Karen spoke animatedly about the new Dark types, although she was bitter that there were only two new ones in 'Drapion' and 'Skuntank' since the others were already discovered in Indigo and Hoenn.

Like my sister, she then asked if, one day, we could explore Sinnoh together. I thought about it and cautiously agreed, though I warned that our ability to do so was highly dependent on our future schedules and whether it would conflict with our duties. She accepted my promise regardless.

Still, I was looking forward to exploring the many ruins of Sinnoh with her; we could even perhaps make another discovery to work together on!

Beyond our discussions about Sinnoh, Karen told me how she had recently won the Heat Badge from Lavaridge, and this time I stayed silent as she ranted and complained about how the ash filled areas around Lavaridge and Mt. Chimney completely ruined her hair and complexion. I mean, I WAS sympathetic, but I just didn't know what to say to her.

Our conversation proceeded among similar lines for the rest of the night, and I happily spoke to Karen about a whole host of different topics like we often did. Most memorably for me, she said that she was proud of me for my growth as a pillar of Kanto.

Overall, I felt that, despite the distance between us, we were still able to connect with each other and I very much enjoyed our conversations together. I also noticed that, over time, our conversations became more casual, and we were more at ease with each other. Likewise, a hint of my inner sarcasm often unconsciously leaked out when I spoke with her.

Of course, I was excited to see her in person again, and she told me that she'd be back soon enough after she cleared out the final remaining gym, probably in a few days' time. I told her to let me know when she'd be back, and that I would pick her up at Olivine for a meal together. She agreed. Seeing that it was late, we both decided to end the conversation here and head to bed.

=============​The next day was mostly spent helping out with running and learning about the family business with my parents. They told me that our posters were now in the shops, and that there has been a noticeable increase in the sales of our Moomoo milk ever since. I groaned when they began to tease me about the fact that I seemed to have fangirls that eagerly chased after the posters of me posing with my Pokémon.

Seeing the success of the posters, my parents asked if I could spend some time hanging around specific Pokémarts to help advertise the posters. I hesitantly agreed; I had bad memories of my Hoenn photoshoot and didn't look forward to effectively being a statue for photographs.

However, I did tell them that I wouldn't be doing any advertising for the time being, because any kind of situation where you were exposed to the public ran the risk of affecting your public reputation, and the political situation in Indigo was so volatile at the moment that I needed my reputation to be as pristine as possible for the near future. My parents accepted that and said that they could delay it until later. Though they also brought up expanding the posters to include other prominent trainers like I mentioned before and asked me if I could be one to bring it up to them. I accepted.

A quick customer survey discovered that many buyers were especially interested in getting a poster with my trio of bruisers, especially Vordt since he had skyrocketed in popularity after his victory over Drake's Salamence, which were apparently the most popular Pokémon on my team.

I did feel bad for my other Pokémon that were lower down on the popularity, like Klaus, who I felt deserved equal share of the limelight. However, there wasn't really anything I could do about it. I hoped he would get his time to shine in due course.

In the meanwhile, our 'Elite' line of Miltank were underway as the Miltank eggs had already been laid and were currently being incubated. Our Miltank were very eager and willing to 'spend time' with my trio of males, and vice versa, so it seems that we didn't have any problems on that front.

My parents and I agreed that we would do some testing to ensure that the new Moomoo milk produced by these 'Elite' Miltank were actually noticeably different from our standard stock. We didn't want to actually advertise them as being different unless they actually were, after all. But we had high hopes that this idea would turn out to be successful.

I spent some time running through the numbers with my parents, and they taught me a few tricks about negotiating with suppliers and other business partners, such as the difference between being respectful and being weak during business and political discussions. More importantly, they spent some time discussing with me about the structure of our family business in case I had to take it over for some reason, though that was less difficult than it sounded.

They said that, assuming that the family business continued to grow at its current rate and if it didn't conflict with my duties in the Elite Four, they would appoint me to be the head of some branch office to gain some valuable experience about running the company in the future. They would do the same with Whitney as well when she grew older.

While I didn't foresee myself ever retiring from the Elite Four, I wanted to be able to be in a position to handle the family business if it ever fell into my lap. I was somewhat confident that I could balance both my responsibilities as an Elite Four, and as a businessman. But that was something to worry about in the future.

Once that was done, I was about to head out and have another idle training session with my Pokémon when my phone started to ring. Curious, I picked up the phone and saw that it was Karen.

"Hello? What's up?" I answered, only to wince as Karen shouted into her phone.

"JOHN! ITS WORKING! THE EGG!" She exclaimed with so much excitement that she failed to form full sentences. "LOOK LOOK LOOK THE EGG HAS CHANGED COLOURS!" My phone pinged as she made a request to switch to video. I quickly accepted.

"DO YOU SEE IT JOHN?!" She pointed to the egg on my screen, and although the video quality wasn't great, I could still make out the fact that the egg had turned from a mixture of white and brown to white and black. My mouth broke out into a wide smile, it was working!

"Holy shit! I see it!" I said in excitement. "How many times did you infuse it with your emotions? Did you write all of this down?"

"I only channelled my emotions thrice!" She told me, having calmed down slightly. "I did it once last night after you told me, and then twice again this morning and afternoon since I had some free time. But the moment I did it for the third time I noticed that the spots on the egg turned from brown to black!" She gestured to the black spots. "That means it's working right?!"

"I think so." I stated carefully. "Of course, we need to check with a Chansey and a Nurse Joy to make sure that everything's still okay inside the egg, but I'm confident that our experiment was a success!" I cheered.

"Okay, okay. Yes, you're right. I'm going to go downstairs and check up with the Nurse Joy to make sure everything's okay, and then I'm going to document everything down." Karen said as I watched her pace around the room. "Okay, yes, I'm going to do that now. I'll call you back later." And then she hung up the phone before I could say anything else.

I smirked amusedly at seeing Karen so worked up, but I could understand. This was a huge discovery that I foresaw would open up many different possibilities for discovering new evolutions for existing Pokémon. Of course, that was much easier said than done, but I was certain that with the publication of our discovery, there would be a whole host of scientists looking to copy our methods in hopes of finding out new evolutions and forms as well.

Likewise, I wasn't worried about the egg accidentally 'imprinting' on Karen or whatever. It was more than common in this world to have eggs be raised and born by one person, only to be given and trained by another. Otherwise, Pokémon breeders would be out of a job.

"I recognize that girl, John. I think I saw her at your Elite Four swearing in ceremony." I was jolted out of my thoughts as I heard my mom's voice speak up from behind me. I turned around and saw her looking at me with a pleased smile. "You seem to be very excited to speak to her about something. What were the two of you talking about? You seem very close." She noted with a knowing grin.

"Uh…It's an experiment that the two of us had been working on." I muttered embarrassingly. "I just got excited because it finally worked out."

"Uh huh. Sure, John. I'm sure that's all that was." She commented with a hint of something in her tone. "It looks like you had something to do, so I'll leave you to it." She patted me on the head and walked away, leaving me at a loss.

I shook my head from that conversation and went back to my room and checked up on all of my current notes that I had typed up for the Zigzagoon egg experiment. I carefully went over all of my notes just to make sure that everything was orderly and properly written so that they could be shown to a scientific board for review. I trusted that Karen had appropriate documentation as well since I constantly reminded her to take notes.

Luckily, I still had my old notes and reports regarding the evolution of Ursaluna and Wyrdeer, so I used those as references to ensure that my documentation would be up to standard.

I had just finished going over everything when Karen called me again.

"I've checked everything over with the Nurse Joys, and they said that there's no problems!" She said excitedly, "They even said that there was no damage to the Pokémon inside, but they were certain that the Pokémon had undergone a transformation of some sort. This is amazing, John! We did it!"

"That's amazing! Oh man, that's incredible!" I repeated myself in my excitement, "Well done Karen, can't believe we actually did it. This is going to be big!"

Then I forcefully calmed myself as I focused on the more serious issues, "Have you made sure you got everything written down? If we want to publish this soon, we can't afford to have sloppy notes." I warned.

"I do, I do." She assured me, "I know how big of a project this is, so relax. I'm a big girl too y'know. You can trust me."

I sighed in relief, but Karen continued, "Anyways, what are we going to call this new type of Zigzagoon? We obviously need a new name for it."

That actually brought me up short, because I realized we couldn't just call it Galarian Zigzagoon considering that the way we discovered it had absolutely nothing to do with Galar.

"Hmmm…how about something like D-Zigzagoon?" I said, and I heard Karen sigh over the phone, "What? No good?"

"John…for all your smarts, your naming sense sucks." She muttered.

I frowned, "Do you have a better name, then?"

"Well, no…but…" Then the two of us went back and forth, until ultimately, we decided on D-Zigzagoon out of a lack of better alternatives.

It was utterly uninspiring, but I hoped that it would at least make it easy for others to recognize what it was just by looking at the name. Admittedly, it was going to be slightly odd for me to call it a 'D-Zigzagoon' in my own head, but I'm sure I would get used to it soon enough.

"I've got the Knuckle Badge booked in for tomorrow morning, then I'm taking the next ship back to Indigo as soon as possible." She told me after we had decided on the name.

"Oh? Are you that confident that you'll win? After all, you'll be at a type disadvantage going in against a Fighting Gym." I said with a grin.

"Please, who do you think you're talking to?" She boasted, "Anyways, I'm going to do some last-minute prep for the match and then double check my notes before I send them over. I'll talk to you soon."

We exchanged goodbyes and then hung up. Afterwards, I made my way to the fields where my Pokémon were training; I had something to announce to them.

"Everyone! Gather over! I have some news for you all!" I shouted out once I arrived and my Pokémon all paused their training and made their way over. I had to stifle a laugh as I watched Klee and Luna try to put out a slowly burning Tyrant with small pulses of water, since he had been in the middle of training his resistance to Burn.

"What's up bro? Why'd you call for a meeting?" Whitney curiously asked me, pausing her own training as she overheard my announcement.

"Oh, it's nothing special, but I would just like to let my team know that we are going to have a new addition joining us in the future!" I announced excitedly, and I was glad to see that my Pokémon shared my enthusiasm as they all cheered as well. I had already agreed with Karen that I would be one to own the new Zigzagoon, since it was originally a gift from Norman, and it would be disrespectful to just offer it to Karen.

"BUT! Our new addition is still an egg at the moment, so when it does join us, please make sure to be gentle and give them a warm welcome." I reminded my team.

"Bliss? Blissey." Klee asked, and I nodded.

"Yes Klee, it's the Zigzagoon egg that we were experimenting on. It's been successful!" I told her happily. And Klee bounced on the tip of her feet as she congratulated me for my success.

"Wait, bro, what do you mean?" Whitney tilted her head, "What experiment are you talking about?"

I then proceeded to explain to Whitney what Karen and I had been doing with the egg. Whitney's eyes widened like saucers as she listened to me detailing my experiment and our thought process. By the end of it, she looked really excited about the experiment as if she had participated in its discovery.

"Wow! I didn't know you were doing something that cool, John!" Whitney exclaimed, "I wish that I could do something like that in the future! I would love to discover new Normal types on my own!!"

"I'm sure you will one day sis." I told her gently, "And if you need any help, I'll be sure to be there for you if you need it."

"Hehe, thanks bro. Maybe I can discover a new evolution for Miltank! She could be even stronger!" Whitney declared excitedly.

"Mil, Miltank!" Miltank cheered in agreement.

Whitney then thanked me sincerely before she went back to training with her Whismur, who waved at me with one of her ears as I looked at her. I waved back before I turned my attention to my Pokémon, who were either curiously discussing who they thought the new Pokémon would be or had already returned to their training.

I spent the rest of my day training with my team and making solid progress while at it. It seems that my Pokémon were all inspired by the fact that they would be gaining a new member and were all training hard so that they could show off to them. Pixel especially seemed especially eager to show off to someone that would be 'weaker' than it, which was an amusing sight.

I hoped that the new D-Zigzagoon would be happy to be a part of my team. As always, every new Pokémon that joined your team would run the risk that they may break the team's cohesion, but I hoped that it wouldn't happen. I was also confident that I could discipline the D-Zigzagoon if needed to behave itself, if necessary.

I couldn't wait for Karen to return and for the D-Zigzagoon to hatch. I foresaw our new discovery just utterly dominating the headlines within the scientific committee once it was announced.

However, I didn't realize at the time just how big of a deal this discovery would turn out to be.

The New Normal – 3-9 – Interlude – Agatha

She gazed upon her wrinkled and frail hands with a solemn grimace. For all of her achievements as a trainer, age was not something that she could stop. Time continues to pass, unheeding of your wishes.

If she was honest, her age was one of the main reasons she was so bitter and spiteful. She hated feeling powerless to stop the steady march of time; and she detested and, admittedly, feared being weakened by her growing age.

As each day passed, she knew her time in the Elite Four grew shorter. Her enemies started to circle around her like scavengers to a dying prey. Her grip on power was waning, and they knew it.

She would be the first to admit that her abrasive attitude made her little friends, but in her youth that hardly mattered as she had the power and capacity to back up her vicious tongue. She would have never foreseen the day where her body would betray her like this, gradually turning her too weak to even command her team properly.

It was like she was failing her Pokémon. As Ghosts, they hardly changed with age, and unlike her, only grew stronger with time as they continually refined their skills. It was a bitter situation to be in, and her mouth only grew more acidic as reality closed in on her. To know that all that she had done would eventually collapse on itself when her body eventually failed her, and she would finally be removed from the Elite Four, and possibly as the unofficial puppet master behind Lavender Town as well.

However, her unexpected apprentice has been a recent spot of hope for her old bones. She certainly never expected to obtain an apprentice in the first place, but a sudden bout of sympathy for a lost orphan has proven to pay unexpected dividends as she discovered and nurtured her apprentice's innate talent as a Pokémon trainer.

Karen has come far since the day she took her under her wing. Agatha had all of her recent battles saved somewhere on her new digital computer, with the help of her assistants of course. A feeling of pride coursed through her as she watched her apprentice tear through the Dewford Fighting type Gym with dismissive ease, making use of her Sneasel's superior mobility to avoid and dodge attacks while retaliating with hard-hitting attacks of his own.

Then when the Gym Leader sent out his Hariyama, a single Confuse-Ray was enough to end the match. Oh, it took a bit longer before it got knocked out, but the confusion rendered it useless. Agatha let out a small smile of pride at the sight of her apprentice winning using the methods that she had taught.

If her apprentice proved to be a successful trainer in her own right, then Agatha would have been satisfied knowing that she had someone who would remember her and carry on her legacy. However, when a boy far too young to be in the Elite Four suddenly joined their prestigious ranks, and her apprentice managed to catch his wandering eye…well, then things changed.

At first, Agatha half-expected Karen to be leading the boy by the collar by the end of the week. John looked so taken with Karen that she thought that hormones would do the rest. But from the conversations she had with Karen, that never happened. Oh, it got close, but apparently John had some brain in that skull of his.

Although she was initially disappointed at missing an opportunity to put the newest member of the Elite Four effectively under her thumb, later events made her reverse her opinion. As John won his great victory against Drake, she realized that he was no young boy, but rather a formidable and strong political figure in his own right that would likely affect the course of Indigo.

And thus, when John returned to Indigo, she forcefully dragged him aside and took his measure. He seemed kind, easily impressed, and somewhat naïve, but not so much so that he would become easily led around the nose and still had strength in spades. But most importantly, he clearly cared for Karen, and that's all she wanted to know. She came out of that conversation with a smirk, knowing that her plans to use John to support Karen's career was likely going to work.

That opinion only solidified itself as Karen continued to speak about John while she remained in Hoenn. It only proved to Agatha that, despite the two of them not giving into their baser instincts, they both seemed to enjoy each other's company and treated each other as close friends. That was perfect for her purposes.

Then John impressed her even more, showing off his mind for politics as he began working with Gym Leader Giovanni to publicly fight back against that horrid tide of criminals, further boosting his popularity. He then went one step further and made a deal with Lance to install the latter as Champion. Oh, the two of them may have tried to hide the fact between them, but Agatha was no idiot and was able to read between the lines of the news reports. If those two were successful, and they most likely were going to be since Pryce still had his head firmly up his own arse, then John would only continue to grow in popularity and influence.

She recognized that as talented as Karen was, there was a cap to her potential. Considering the other contenders in her generation, Karen was not strong enough as a trainer to challenge for the Championship. But with John in the picture, who had already proven himself to be a great trainer in his own right, then who's to say how far the two of them could reach together?

Just look at the new egg experiment that Karen was aiding with. Though the egg had yet to hatch, Karen had excitedly informed her about the possibilities stemming from such a critical experiment. Agatha herself didn't particularly care about discovering new Pokémon, not at her age, but she understood that this would likely give her apprentice an in with the respected scientific community.

Agatha wanted to ensure that the responsibility of maintaining the prosperity and safety of Lavender Town could be passed down to safe hands, someone who would have the influence and power necessary to continue her legacy of a strong and secure Lavender Town. And it had to be protected, as Lavender Town did not possess a Gym Leader to call its own. And now, she saw the union of John and Karen as a vehicle to continuing her legacy. If Karen could persuade John to help maintain and grow Lavender Town like she knew Agatha wanted, then Agatha could rest easy.

She just had to make sure that they got together.