The New Normal - A Pokémon Elite 4 SI by CartecFF

Chapter 19: 74-77

The New Normal – 4-16 – INTERLUDE: WHITNEY

"Use Rollout, Miltank! Win this for me!" She yelled out. Her Miltank mooed and obeyed as she dodged under a swipe of Tyrant's arms and crashed into him with her Rollout.

"Transition it into a Brick Break, Miltank!" She directed.

"PROTECT!" Her brother yelled out in panic.

Her Miltank's arm descended, slicing cleanly through the Protect shield and hitting Tyrant hard in the face.

"Finish it off with a Body Press!" Her Miltank mooed once again as she pounced onto the stumbling Tyrant, ready to finally finish it off and grant her the victory...

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Whitney groaned as she was forcefully snapped out of her dream by the wail of her phone's alarm. She cursed at how busy the Gyms were that she was forced to book her match for early in the morning. She was not as much of a heavy sleeper as Karen, but she doubted anyone liked being dragged out of the bed as soon as the sun rose.

It also didn't help that the beds in the Cerulean Pokécenter were nowhere near as comfortable as her bed at home; she should have taken the offer to stay at home with her family a few days ago so that she could enjoy the comfort of her own bed instead of being so insistent. But it was too late now.

Both she and Sabrina had handily defeated Flint for the Boulder Badge. And to be honest, he was kind of disappointing. Even though Whitney restricted herself to only using her Whismur, it was far too easy to just dodge around in a circle while firing off Echoed Voices until Flint's Geodude fainted.

Whitney had honestly expected more of a challenge, though she supposed it was only the First Gym badge and those were meant to be easy. Still though, Sabrina had utterly stomped the fight with her Kadabra, and she also made comments about how disappointingly simple it was.

Perhaps they would find more challenges later.

Then Whitney suddenly got a surge of new energy as she remembered what she and Sabrina had been doing yesterday. The two of them had been training around Route 5, and to Whitney's immense luck, she managed to catch two new additions to her team.

Yes, her brother had repeatedly told her to be careful with catching new Pokémon and to always ensure that they would actually fit her team, but Whitney was just too caught up in the excitement at the time. Oh well, at least from what she saw yesterday everything seemed fine between them.

But her Hoothoot and Jigglypuff were just SOOO CUTEE!!

Coupled with the fact that she had a Gym fight to catch against the Cerulean Gym, Whitney managed to motivate herself enough to force herself out of her bed to complete her morning ablutions. With that out of the way, she went to wake up her friend, since her match was straight after hers.

"Sabrina! Are you awake?" She knocked on her door, before she heard a thump like something had just been thrown at the door. Whitney frowned and knocked even louder this time. "If you don't wake up then we won't make it to the fight. Hurry up! We still need to eat breakfast!"

Eventually, her door unlocked itself and Whitney was greeted with the sight of Sabrina's room. She was still lying on the bed asleep, her black hair tangled in a great mess, looking nothing like her normally put-together appearance.

Evidently, she had unlocked the door psychically, and yet still refused to get up. Whitney sighed and decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Come on then, let's get you up." She poked and prodded her friend with her fingers, trying to tickle her awake. She saw Sabrina's mouth curl upwards as Whitney continued to tickle her, until suddenly Whitney felt a weight press down on her and she became unable to move her body.

Normally, losing complete control of your body like this would be a cause for concern, but despite the short time she's spent with Sabrina, Whitney was already used to it and simply sighed. Besides, she was starting to get the hang of breaking free from the Psychic hold.

"Come on, Sabrina, if you're already using this much Psychic power then you can wake yourself up. Also, how many times do I have to tell you that it's rude to restrain someone like that?" She scolded softly, causing Sabrina to frown and release her.

"...Sorry." Sabrina quietly apologized, but that was enough for Whitney to adopt a beaming smile. She never used to apologize for using her Psychic powers like this; it was a huge improvement!

"You actually apologized, WOOO!" She exclaimed happily as she hugged her friend, ignoring her muffled protests as Sabrina tried to bury herself deeper into the pillow. "We're making progress! Okay, come on then, let's celebrate this with a nice breakfast and another Gym Badge. Let's go let's GOOO!"

With much reluctance, Sabrina finally pulled herself out of bed and started to prepare herself for the day ahead. Since she never explicitly kicked Whitney out of her room, she stayed to observe how Sabrina used her psychic powers to levitate objects to her so that her hands could remain free; she was pretty jealous about that.

After Sabrina got ready, the two of them went downstairs to have a quick breakfast. They still had some time before their match, so they didn't need to rush through breakfast.

"Your brother is on the news again." Sabrina suddenly spoke up as she gestured to the TV. Whitney had quickly told Sabrina about who her brother was after they both got the Boulder Badge, but Sabrina was hardly surprised. Considering Whitney's far above average strength, Sabrina told her that it was obvious that her brother was likely a very powerful trainer.

Whitney didn't know if those high expectations were a good thing or not.

Regardless, Whitney turned and saw that, sure enough, there was a news report that mentioned her brother's recent participation in the first new policy of Lance's Championship.

"...coupled with the support of both Elite John and Elite Agatha, the Champion's deciding vote in the recent Committee meeting means that a new Elite Four member has been appointed, Will from Johto! There will be a swearing-in ceremony in two days' time, which will be streamed live on this channel. So please check it out!"

Huh. Her brother didn't tell her about this. But she supposed that a new Elite Four member wasn't something that she had to urgently know about. Was this what him and Gym Leader Giovanni were discussing at home? Either way, it was interesting, but nothing too important for her.

If it was important, then her brother would have likely called her on the phone by now.

Anyways, the two of them then continued to scarf down their breakfasts while they made some small talk.

"How are you feeling today, Sabie? Are you ready for the Cerulean Gym?" Whitney asked using the nickname she had given Sabrina. It had annoyed Sabrina at first, but now she was resigned to it. Whitney felt like she secretly enjoyed it but didn't want to admit it. Sabie was cute like that.

"All research points to the Waterflower sisters being far weaker than their father. We should have no problems." Sabrina stated casually, then sighed. "I had honestly hoped for more of a challenge."

Whitney tried not to let the disappointment show on her face as well, even though she completely agreed with her friend. All of her research pointed towards the new Gym Leaders of Cerulean not being the greatest of trainers. They seemed to be more focus on their, admittedly amazing, shows rather fulfilling their duties as actual Gym Leaders.

But Whitney would remain optimistic! Maybe the Waterflower sisters were just going through a few bad days; Whitney really wanted something that could give her Miltank the chance to go beyond her limits.

She put that out of her mind for a moment before she ate up the rest of her meal. She thanked Arceus that she was never a picky eater or else she likely would have starved to death on the first few days of her journey. Home-cooked food this was not.

A few minutes later, and Sabrina stood up from her seat, "Let's go. We should head there early." She said, and Whitney nodded, finishing up the last bite of her sandwich and joined her after wiping her mouth.

The two of them proceeded to the Cerulean Gym. She had seen it plenty of times since she had lived nearby, but it was still an impressive sight. Especially now that she had seen what the Pewter Gym looked like, which was just a large, slightly decaying, boulder; the Cerulean Gym had an artistic grandeur that really drew in crowds.

The inside of the Gym was no less grand. The Aquarium inside was amazing as always and was always filled with tourists. Whitney could see the appeal, though she would never visit one by herself.

Then the two of them entered into the main chamber of the Gym where the Gym fights took place, and she mentally kicked away all of those distractions. It was almost time for her Gym Fight!

The two of them waited patiently in the audience stands for a few minutes, though it didn't take long before it was their turn. Since Whitney went first last time, Sabrina had registered before Whitney this time around, so Sabrina went up first.

Before long, Sabrina had cleared through the very...'average' Gym Trainers practically unscathed. Her Natu blew past them without issue.

"Trainers, this will be a 2v2 2-badge match between challenger Sabrina and Gym Leader Daisy! There will be no switches!" The referee announced, but Sabrina looked as unfazed and as cool as usual.

"Trainers, are you ready?!" Both trainers nodded, "BEGIN!"

"Shellder, go!"

"Natu."

Oh? It looks like Sabrina was copying her strategy of not using her Kadabra first in order to make things more challenging for herself. Whitney smiled at that.

"Water Gun, Shellder!"

A small stream of water shot out from Shellder's mouth, but Natu was able to hop to the side and fire off a small Confuse Ray towards the Shellder. The ray of light struck the immobile Shellder head on, and things quickly devolved from there.

"Oh no! Snap out of it and Water Gun again, Shellder!"

But Natu didn't give Shellder to recover, and with a few quick blasts of Confusion knocked Shellder out and ended the fight.

And Daisy's next Pokémon fared no better either. This time it was a Seel, and while this time it managed to make use of the water within the Gym to manoeuvre around a lot quicker, Natu remained safely out of reach by continuing to fly high above the pool and eventually wearing down the Seel with Confusion. And just like that, Sabrina had won and earned herself the Cascade Badge.

And then it was Whitney's turn.

She similarly blew past the Gym Trainers without any difficulty; it was almost boring to see how her Whismur stomped past them with an Echoed Voice or two each. It was almost insulting to the training that she did!

...Regardless, she now found herself matching up against the Cerulean Gym Leader. Inwardly, she hoped that there would be a challenge.

"Trainers, this will be a 2v2 2-badge match between challenger Whitney and Gym Leader Violet! There will be no switches!" The referee announced, and Whitney forced herself to focus and to ignore the sense of inevitable disappointment in the back of her mind.

"Goldeen, come!"

"Whismur, it's your turn once again!"

Whitney chose to send out her Whismur instead of her newer captures as she felt that the latter weren't ready for a Gym Battle yet. As soon as the two Pokémon emerged from their Pokéballs, Whitney went on the offensive.

"Echoed Voice, Whismur!"

"Water Pulse, Goldeen!"

Violet tried to match Whismur's Echoed Voice with a Water Pulse of her own, but the sound waves fired off from Whismur actually blasted right through the Water Pulse, dispersing the water harmlessly onto the floor and slamming into the Goldeen.

"Echoed Voice again, Whismur!"

Whismur yelled out and fired off more sound waves at the Goldeen, who was still reeling from the previous attack. Thus, it was unable to form up any sort of defense and went down to the second Echoed Voice.

...That was disappointingly easy.

Whitney could see Violet grimace for a moment at Goldeen's defeat, but she didn't know whether that was out of shame or annoyance that her Pokémon fell so quickly. The Gym Leader withdrew her fallen Goldeen and sent out her next, and final, Pokémon.

"Come, Seel!"

...And yet another Seel came out onto the field, looking nearly identical to the one Sabrina faced. The Seel dove straight into the water to take advantage of its aquatic manoeuvrability. This turned out to be a huge mistake though, as Whismur's Echoed Voice actually travelled faster through water than through the air, and Seel was pummelled repeatedly by Whismur's sound waves.

In a last-ditch effort, the Seel leapt out of the water and tried to tackle into Whismur, but she dodged out of the way and slammed into it with a Pound to finish it off. Thus, Whitney was able to, quite easily, secure the Cascade Badge as well.

The two of them then made it out of the Gym, but Whitney was unable to hide the disappointment that she felt at her easy victory. Sabrina evidently caught on and tried to comfort her by awkwardly patting her on the shoulder, which caused Whitney to smile weakly at the attempt.

"...Thanks, Sabie. I'm ok, just thought that the fight was too easy." Whitney said sadly.

"I understand." Sabrina replied, before she levitated Whitney's phone from out of her belt. "Call your brother. You will feel better."

Whitney's smile turned thankful as she grabbed her phone out of the air and proceeded to dial up her brother. She agreed that venting to him would probably help.

"Hello? John speaking." Her brother said through the phone.

"John, are you free to talk right now?" Whitney said, trying to hide her sadness, "I want to tell you some things about my journey so far."

"Oh sure, sis, no problem!" John said happily, "Actually, are you still in Cerulean? If so, I'll pick you up and we can discuss at things over lunch if you haven't eaten yet."

"Oh, ummm...yeah sure!" Whitney replied, before she looked to her Sabrina and frowned, "Actually, is it okay if I bring a friend home with me? I'll feel bad if I leave her here by herself."

She could see Sabrina gesturing that she would be fine alone, but John responded first. "Sure! Feel free to bring your friend along. I'll be happy to meet them." Whitney let out a breath that she didn't even realize she was holding; it was nice to know that her brother was open to meeting her friends.

"Say, Whitney, where do you want to be picked up?" John asked, "Because if I just land in the center of Cerulean City then everyone's going to know who you are. I don't mind, personally, but it's up to you if you want that kind of attention."

Oh! Whitney hadn't even been thinking of that. While a part of her wanted to show off her relation to her brother, she realized that she had come to enjoy the anonymity for now and didn't want it exposed so quickly. So, she just told John that she would just walk home instead since it was pretty close. John accepted that and said that they'd be waiting for them at home, then hung up.

"Are you sure you want me at your house?" Sabrina spoke up, with an undercurrent nervousness under that usual blank fa?ade, "I do not want to be intruding, after all."

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"It's okay! Don't worry about it." Whitney reassured with a hug, "Come on, let's get going."

Sabrina made no further protests and the two of them proceeded to head back to her home. The walk took about half an hour, but that time flew by as the two continued making small talk together and discussing the battle that had just taken place.

Sabrina pointed out that she was a little surprised by the fact that Whitney didn't rely purely on physical attacks to win, saying that the way that Whismur won was very different to Miltank's fighting style. Whitney replied that John had taught her to not tunnel-vision yourself down one singular fighting path, and to make use of the Normal type's large moveset to come up with various different techniques and fighting methods.

"You know, when you meet him, you should ask him for some tips. John might not be a Psychic specialist, but I'm sure he knows a few things that could help you." She remarked. Her friend hummed thoughtfully at that.

Soon enough, the two of them arrived at the gate of her family home. And, just like before, John was there to greet them at the door, but this time he was accompanied by Karen.

Whitney immediately took off into a sprint and grabbed her brother into a hug. Karen just waved from the side.

"Hey, Whitney, good to see you again. Who's your friend?" She greeted, and Whitney broke herself out of the hug to greet Karen.

"It's good to see you too, Karen. And this is my new friend, Sabrina!" She introduced her friend to the two of them. She noticed both Karen and John's eyes widen almost imperceptibly, but it quickly went away.

"Hello, Sabrina, I'm John. You probably recognize me from somewhere." John greeted, extending his hand for a handshake. Sabrina narrowed her eyes at John.

"I cannot read your mind." Sabrina simply stated, and this caused both Karen and John to chuckle.

"That's not surprising. Trainers at our level are pretty resistant to type energy, so being able to resist mind reading is quite normal." Karen remarked, "Though I finally recognize why you look so familiar. You're the daughter of the Saffron Gym Leader, right?"

Sabrina nodded carefully, and Karen continued, "Ah, yes, you're that prodigy with all of that Psychic talent. Agatha's heard of you. Hmm...speaking of which, are you able to read your parents minds?"

"A little bit. Though it is harder than with children. I can pick up fragments of their thoughts." Sabrina responded, getting an approving nod from Karen.

"Fascinating. No wonder Agatha was so interested in you." Karen praised, causing Sabrina to blush slightly, "But, like I was saying, if you continue to develop your own powers as a Psychic, then perhaps you'll even able to glean OUR thoughts as well in the future. That would be remarkably impressive."

John clapped his hands, "Right. That's enough talk about that for now; let's not scare off Whitney's new friend, shall we?" Karen looked away sheepishly, "Come, sis, let's have lunch together. We can talk about your journey over some food. I have some news to tell you as well."

Then Whitney and Sabrina were invited into the house and sat themselves around the dining table. John informed them that both their parents were out in Johto for the moment to handle some business matters, so he himself prepared lunch with Karen.

While the two of them prepared lunch, Sabrina was fidgeting awkwardly in her seat. Whitney turned to her with a look of concern.

"Is there something wrong?" Whitney asked her.

"No. Not really." Sabrina admitted embarrassedly, "...It's just that I'm not used to having people so openly welcoming of me, outside of my family. Between you and your family, it is...unusual."

Karen spoke up from the kitchen before Whitney could, "I can understand that. When I first got started as a Dark type specialist trainer, I got weird looks from everyone because of the stigma that's attached to Dark type Pokémon as being 'evil' and 'untrustworthy'. People were afraid of me, and distrusted me, just because I liked using Dark type Pokémon and cause I was an orphan."

Sabrina nodded, evidently listening with rapt attention as Karen continued, "But then I met Agatha, my mentor, who didn't care at all about the Dark type stigma and took me in as her own granddaughter." She reminisced fondly, "And then I learnt not to care about how others look at you, so long as I was still loved by those that I cared about. And besides, that stigma against Dark types is not as bad now."

Sabrina fell silent as she pondered over Karen's words. Whitney kept staring at Sabrina with concern, but then Sabrina turned to Whitney and hugged her. The hug was stiff and awkward, but Whitney could feel how thankful Sabrina was to Whitney for taking her up as a friend, and so eagerly returned the hug to her first and closest friend.

The two of them stayed like that for a while before she heard the signature click of a phone camera.

Whitney quickly scrambled away from Sabrina to see her brother smiling while holding up his phone, having taken a picture of their hug.

"BRO!" She shouted out, embarrassed. Next to her, Sabrina was blushing red as well.

"Don't worry, sis, I'm sure that our parents would love to frame this photo somewhere in the living room. They'd love to see you spending time with your first friend." He laughed.

In embarrassment, Whitney shot out of her seat to grab his phone, but her stupidly tall brother simply held his phone too high for her to reach. She retaliated by pounding his stomach, to no avail. The picture was already sent.

"I'll get you back for this, John!" She swore to Arceus, but her brother just laughed off her threats and patted her on the head, leaving her to fume silently.

"Okay, okay, enough teasing your sister. Lunch is ready, so let's eat." Karen calmed everyone down, and the two of them made their way back to the seat. But not before Whitney kicked her brother in the shin once more, making him fake hobble as he pretended that he was in pain.

Then the four of them sat around the dining table to enjoy some home-cooked lunch. Even though it was just some Tauros steak and Miltank cheese sandwiches, she really did miss this.

As they ate, John asked the two of them how they had found their journey thus far, and while Whitney initially wanted to hide her disappointment from her brother, Sabrina made the choice for her.

"It has been quite disappointing, to be honest, John." She announced, causing both her brother and Karen to frown. "Before we came here, Whitney and I had just won our Cascade Badge, but the match against the Waterflower sisters were very disappointing."

"...I see." John replied seriously as he listened to Sabrina's description. He put down his sandwich and wiped his hands before he clasped them together, "Right, this actually segues into what I wanted to tell you, Whitney."

Whitney gave John a curious look as he explained, "Actually, there will be a new policy coming soon that will reduce the number of badges required to travel and capture new Pokémon from other regions from 4 to 2. Which means that, as soon as it's passed, you'll be able to travel to Johto to capture new Pokémon. Hoenn might not get changed though."

Sabrina and Whitney's eyes widened in surprise at that, but John wasn't done. "But not only that, I've realized that I should probably spend more effort building up Cerulean City now that I have the influence and power to do so. I've heard from a few people that the Cerulean Gym has been rather lacklustre recently, and I want to be looking into that to see if we can repair its reputation and to fix any problems. We don't want the League rescinding the Gym from Cerulean, after all."

Karen smirked at his words, "Are you finally going to be throwing your weight around?"

John nodded, "Yes. My reputation and power are solid enough to do so, and I might as well improve Cerulean since I am able to. I've already arranged to speak to Mayor Henry tomorrow."

Whitney spoke up with a question on her mind, "John, would the other Gyms be more difficult? I haven't really had a challenge for Miltank." She said gloomily.

"...Maybe. It's been a while since I challenged the Gyms, but I can say that Surge is probably going to give you some challenge." He answered consideringly, "Though remember what I told you. Your Miltank is far too strong for some of the earlier Gyms, so it's natural for you to not find it challenging. Don't let it get to you though, as I've repeatedly said, there are always stronger trainers ahead. You just need to find one."

"And finding a good training partner really helps." Karen added while gesturing to John, "I travelled to Hoenn to challenge the Gyms to get stronger, but I learnt just as much if not more just by practicing with John. If you can find a good partner to train with, you'll see some great progress with yourself and your Pokémon." She gave Sabrina a pointed look as she said that, and Whitney nodded at the implied meaning.

"Oh, and that reminds me." Her brother spoke up again, "If you and your friend plan to travel to Johto to train or catch more Pokémon, I suggest you not to challenge any of the Gyms." Whitney and Sabrina stared at him puzzlingly, "The reason why is because you should wait until you've cleared all of the 8 badges from Kanto before moving on to challenge the Johto Gyms. That way, you can challenge them at their strongest and go in blind, which should let you learn more from the battles."

"...That is some good advice, thank you." Sabrina replied with a slight bow, "I will keep that in mind for the future." Whitney nodded in agreement.

"Good. Now, while you're still here, what do you say we get in some training after you finish up on lunch? Maybe you can show off what you've learnt so far on your journey? I have something cool to show as well." John suggested, and Whitney's head bobbed excitedly, causing John and Karen to chuckle.

"Oh, and Sabrina, feel free to join in too. You're Whitney's friend, so you're always welcome here." He added, getting a shy, but genuine smile out of Sabrina.

The four of them proceeded to chow down their lunch before they made their way to the training yard to train.

The New Normal – 4-16 – Interlude – Lorelei

To say that announcing her challenge to Walker for his position in the Elite Four was poorly received would be an understatement.

She knew that her reputation was poor, but she didn't realize just how tarnished it was until she popped open the Pokénet one night after her announcement and saw the tide of criticism and anger pouring out towards her. Fortunately, not everyone was condoning such behaviour. Most notably, the Elite Four, including Walker, had been telling people to lay off with the vitriol.

Still, the public were enraged at the fact that she was making use of a loophole to issue her challenge towards the Elite Four, since she never actually won the Indigo Conference and was appointed to the Gym Leader position through nepotism.

Even with Walker's less-than-stellar reputation, the public at least felt that he was more deserving of the title than some greedy schemer like Lorelei. Plus, at least he was the brother of the respectable Violet City Gym, whereas Lorelei was the niece of the corrupt Pryce.

At first, she wanted to rage and scream that this wasn't her fault, that her damned uncle had pushed her into this position unwillingly. But she knew that her cries would fall on deaf ears.

The public had decided to crucify her, and no amount of pleading or apologizing would change that.

But, with that realization, came clarity and determination. She hardened her heart. Grit her teeth. And blocked out all of the unnecessary noise from the public. She forcefully reminded herself that she had one goal, and no amount of bleating from the public was going to dissuade her from achieving it.

Thus, she continued to dive headfirst into training. Distracting herself from the harsh words of the public and letting out all of her frustrations by pushing her Pokémon to be even better.

Fortunately for her, her Pokémon were more than understanding of her situation, and her determination seemed to inspire them to push themselves harder. Plus, her Gym Trainers, whether out of a desire to isolate her further from the Gym or to simply get her off their hands, were more than willing to take over some of her more neglected duties as she devoted more and more time to training.

Regardless of their intentions, she was appreciative of the extra free time they provided her.

Throughout her entire career as a trainer, she didn't think she had pushed herself or her Pokémon as hard as she did within the past few weeks. And the growth was noticeable. Moves and commands were smoothened out, and strategies were planned and understood. TMs were purchased and trained to supplement any areas that she thought needed to be covered in preparation for the fight.

Her Pokémon had all grown far beyond what she had expected was possible, and she was endlessly appreciate of their efforts.

Her once haughty fa?ade had been disposed of alongside her pride. She would make use of any tactic, even ones outside the usual scope of an Ice type specialist, to secure her victory.

She would leave nothing to chance.

Training aside, she also studied, studied, and studied. She repeatedly looked through Walker's matches again and again, determined to learn every single weakness that she may have missed. She looked through the other Elite Four's battles, to see if she could learn anything from them that she could apply to her own battles. And she looked through her own previous battles during the Indigo Conference, trying to see if she could spot any weak points in her own battling style that she could correct.

The recent battle between her uncle and Lance only served as a reminder of what NOT to do. She groaned as she saw her once genius uncle resort to using brute tactics with his Pokémon, completely forgetting what it meant to be an Ice specialist. There was no proper use of the weather, no moves that really took advantage of the Ice, and no attempts to use attacks to lower the stats of Lance's Pokémon. And when he did pull things together, it was already too late.

It was no wonder that he lost when he had handicapped himself like this! She vowed she would not make the same mistake.

Furthermore, what her studies revealed was that she was correct in her decision to make her Froslass her trump card, and a huge part of her strategy revolved around her success. It was, admittedly, a lot of pressure to be putting on a newly evolved Pokémon like this, but she needed the surprise factor to go a long way.

At least training her Froslass had gone better than expected. Probably sensing the urgency and desperation of her trainer, Froslass pushed herself harder than any of Lorelei's other Pokémon and achieved rapid improvements.

She still wasn't at the level of Lorelei's other Pokémon training-wise, but that was offset by her high base speed and unique move pool. Lorelei could only hope that it would be enough.

She knew that her preparations were entirely focused on winning against Walker, and that she had made no political preparations for what she would do if she won. But she couldn't find herself to care about that right now.

Right now, all she was concerned about was winning the battle. And looking at the determined expressions of all her Pokémon, she knew they were thinking the same.

Victory would be theirs. She would make sure of it.

The New Normal – 4-17 – Local Developments

The four of us made our way to the yard. I was very happy to see that Whitney had made a friend, even if that friend was the future Gym Leader of Saffron. Sabrina was far from the emotionless doll-creating Psychic that she was in canon and seemed to be far easier to embarrass and poke fun of.

I won't deny that I was initially concerned about Whitney's first choice of friend, but just by reading their body languages during our meal was enough to tell me that they had grown very close. Even without considering the political benefits of their friendship, I truly did hope that they would stay close friends for life.

Not only that, but I was confident that Sabrina was going to be good for Whitney's potential as a trainer, both as a friend and rival. I was fortunate that meta-knowledge allowed me to grow even without a rival, but I could see that Whitney desperately needed one to continue to push herself further.

I could not be that person for her. I was more of a goal for her to work towards, rather than a rival.

I broke away from those thoughts as we arrived at the training fields. Before I could say anything, Whitney dashed forwards and released her new Pokémon.

"All of you, come out!" She said excitedly, as her Miltank, Whismur, Hoothoot and Jigglypuff came out. Not overly surprising choices, and they were fairly common in the routes that she should have explored.

Still, I made sure to react appropriately, "Wow, Whitney, you've already caught 4 Pokémon already!" Then I gave her an inspecting look, "Are you sure they'd work and get along well with your team?"

Whitney gave me a sheepish look, but Karen spoke up first, "Come on John, lay off it." She turned to Whitney, "Ignore your brother's nagging. Congratulations on all those captures. It's a good start for any trainer."

Whitney smiled at Karen and ditched me as she began to spout out happily about how cute her new Pokémon were. I smiled as I idly listened to her rambling before I turned to Sabrina, who had been remaining silent.

"Hey, Sabrina, thanks for being friends with my sister. It does mean a lot." I said to her as I shot her a grateful smile. I saw a hint of red appear on her cheeks as she refused to meet my eyes.

"It is no problem, John. Whitney...has helped me a lot with my own issues, so I am grateful for her friendship." She replied, trying to hide her embarrassment. I could guess what those issues were, and if we could see a less psychically insane Sabrina, all the better. Still, I thanked her regardless and told her that I hoped to see them staying as friends into the future.

"John, John! Didn't you say you had something cool to show me!?" Whitney shouted out, as she ran over and shook my arm impatiently. I rolled my eyes at her impatience, but grinned.

"Fine, fine." I grabbed Pixel's Premier Ball, "Say hello to the all-new Pixel!" I released my new Porygon2.

Whitney's eyes widened comically as she saw the newly evolved form of Pixel. Even Sabrina's eyebrow rose slightly, which was probably what was considered to be a surprised reaction from her.

"Pory! Pory!" Pixel preened at the attention, before it then swooped down to greet Whitney's Whismur, as if to show off its new form to its former sparring partner.

"Whismur? Whis?" Whismur asked.

"Porygon! Gon!" Pixel replied, reassuring Whismur that she would be evolving soon enough.

"How much stronger is it?" Whitney asked as she excitedly observed my new Porygon2. Karen answered before I did.

"It was sparring against my Corphish, and my Corphish didn't stand a chance. It really has gotten a lot stronger from before it evolved." Karen remarked.

I clapped my hands together before we could get even more distracted, "Right, since we still have a bit of time together before I assume you and Sabrina will be making your way to Vermillion, why don't we get in some light sparring with some of our weaker Pokémon?"

Both new trainers brightened at my suggestion, "Yes! I can't wait to show off my newer Pokémon! How are we doing this, bro?" Whitney exclaimed excitedly.

"I think both Ornstein and Euphie would make appropriate sparring partners for your newer Pokémon, and maybe we could have both Whismur and Corphish challenge Pixel 2v1?" I suggested, "Sabrina, what Pokémon do you have?"

Instead of replying, she sent out her Kadabra and Natu. I nodded when I saw them.

"Right, then we could have Natu vs Karen's Carvanha. And with Kadabra and Miltank...let's have the both of them fight against Klaus. I think they would get the most out of that." I said, and everyone seemed to nod at my suggestion.

We got all of our Pokémon together and split them up into their assigned groups, and then we set them loose and they began sparring together. I made sure to keep an eye on everything to prevent any unnecessary injuries.

Going from the least to most skilled of the battles, I started with Ornstein and Euphie vs Jigglypuff and Hoothoot. My Pokémon were winning pretty handily, unsurprisingly, both in terms of teamwork and strength. Still, I was glad to see that Whitney's new Jigglypuff and Hoothoot weren't overly prideful Pokémon or have other potentially inhibiting characteristics or traits. They obviously needed a lot of work before they would become strong, but I was confident that Whitney was up to the task.

Moving on, Natu vs Carvanha was a pretty even stalemate. Natu had the mobility and range, but it was far worse in close range than Carvanha. Natu was forced to keep its distance and harass Carvanha at a distance, but Karen hadn't neglected Carvanha's training, and it was able to dodge past most of the attacks using Aqua Jet to move around even while out of the water.

And when my eyes turned to Pixel's fight against Whismur and Corphish, I noticed a very interesting sight. Pixel had been handily winning the fight with its now superior stats and firepower, especially now that I taught it Psychic with the gifted TM, it dominated both foes for the first part of the match.

Yet, things began to change. Despite being blasted by a Psychic, Corphish stumbled backwards but refused to go down. He glared defiantly at his old sparring partner, and I wondered what it was doing before I noticed one of its claws started to glow with Dark energy.

Pixel didn't spot this and fired off another Psychic. But this time, Corphish was ready. He cleaved through the incoming Psychic with a Night Slash, nullifying the incoming attack and suddenly putting him in a great position to land a follow up attack on Pixel as he immediately committed into an Aqua Jet and launched itself forwards.

Pixel immediately retaliated with a powerful Thunderbolt that struck the incoming Corphish supereffectively, but to my surprise, Corphish defiantly stayed standing. Instead, he started glowing with a harsh white light, and I heard a gasp from Karen as she saw what was happening.

The white light glowed even brighter, grabbing everyone's attention as many of the other battles paused to look. Eventually, as the light settled, a Crawdaunt emerged with a blisteringly fast Aqua Jet that slammed straight into a blinded Pixel, knocking it backwards.

Whismur, who had previously been lying low due to her injuries, chose to reveal herself at this very moment and screamed out a powerful Uproar that crashed into a defenseless Pixel. Still, with its now improved defenses, Pixel was barely able to stay afloat. But Whismur seemed to grow even more determined at Pixel's endurance, and she stood tall once more and unleashed another Uproar. As she did so, she too began to glow with a harsh white light.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And considering the shocked gasp from everyone else, neither could they. A Loudred roared out from within the white light, blasting Pixel with yet another Uproar.

But this time, the newly evolved Loudred was able to put even more power into her Uproar, and this boost in power was finally able to knock Pixel out. As soon as Pixel fainted, loud cheers emerged from the spectators as they congratulated the two newly evolved Pokémon for their victory. I joined in on their enthusiasm; I felt that it was well-deserved considering the amount of training I knew they both put in.

"That was incredible." Karen breathed out, "I knew Corphish was close to evolving, but I didn't think he would evolve in such a spectacular way." I nodded in agreement as I went to check up on Pixel. It was fine, just knocked out.

Whitney was far less circumspect, and immediately went and gave her new Loudred a big hug, who simply laughed happily at her trainer. A quick glance at the Loudred revealed that she was far more confident than when she was a Whismur, and I hoped that Loudred would serve Whitney well in her Gym Challenge.

After that, I gave the two newly evolved Pokémon and their trainers space to inspect the new changes. I went to Sabrina who had been silently concentrating on the match between the resumed fight between Klaus against Kadabra and Miltank, but it was a bit of a curbstomp.

Miltank and Kadabra might be Whitney's and Sabrina's respective aces, but Klaus was far above them as an Elite level Pokémon. Still, I noticed that Sabrina was not upset at how one-sided the fight was, but instead was intensely staring at Klaus' use of Psychic moves.

I decided to not interrupt her and allow her to learn as much as she could. I admitted that my knowledge of Psychic moves was limited to what I knew from meta-knowledge and wasn't comparable to a true Psychic prodigy like Sabrina. So, I left her to it. Maybe she'd learn something.

Overall, we had a very productive training session, and considering this was my second one today after I had just finish thinking up custom moves with Karen, I was exhausted.

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

?The next day, Whitney and Sabrina had sadly already left the house as they began making their way to Vermillion City. They stayed the night, with two of them sharing a bed together, which I felt was cute.

Before they left though, I had quickly written up some very rough notes about possible training techniques for Whitney's Loudred. I mentioned that she was capable of attacking on both the physical and special side, so equal emphasis should be placed on both areas of training. I didn't have anything for Sabrina, unfortunately, but she still thanked me for allowing her to observe Klaus up close. I wondered what she had learnt from that.

But today I had an appointment to keep with Mayor Henry of Cerulean City in the late afternoon. I had a few proposals in my head, and I hoped he would be an amenable guy. Or at least, I hoped he would be accommodating of my status as a member of the Elite Four.

I flew on Port and soon arrived at the main government building of Cerulean, where the mayor was. Before I could even land, I saw a swarm of reporters that were already ready and waiting for my arrival.

It seems like someone had leaked my appointment to the press. Honestly, that was to be expected of a government functionary.

I pushed my way into the building, ignoring the many camera flashes and hordes of eager reporters trying to get a quote out of me. I was sure they would be waiting for me to come out, so I was going to have to avoid them again.

As I entered the building, I was promptly escorted by a stern, no-nonsense looking receptionist to Mayor Henry's office. Soon enough, I found myself knocking on his door and being let in to meet him.

"Elite John, it's a pleasure to finally meet you in person." The mayor greeted as we shook hands. He was younger than the other cities' mayors, probably somewhere around his late thirties, which I hoped would be a good thing.

"Mayor Henry, it's good to meet you too. And I apologize for the short notice." I said, as we both sat down opposite each other. I noticed that his office was heavily decorated, but not with luxuries and displays of wealth, but rather with pictures of Pokémon. I even recognized some photos were taken from recent contests in Hoenn.

"Now, what can I do for you?" He asked, maintaining a friendly smile. "I'm sure an ambitious buck like you must have had a reason to meet me."

"True enough." I chuckled, liking his friendliness, "To be honest, I came here for two reasons. The first, I want to help out with the development of Cerulean and its future. More specifically, I aim to transform Cerulean into the cultural hub of Kanto. Secondly, I want to ensure that the Cerulean Gym is receiving any help that they might need to maintain the high standards required of all Gyms."

Henry rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Well I can't really help you on the second part, though I can give you the Waterflower sisters contact details if that would help?" I nodded and he quickly jotted them down and passed it to me. "But I am very intrigued about how you intend to turn Cerulean City into the cultural hub of Kanto. Please, I would like to hear more." He offered.

I smiled, "Right, well that comes in two parts. The first part is the trickier bit, where I would be suggesting hosting contests from Hoenn in Cerulean. I will be making this proposal to the Champion, who if he accepts, would forward this to the Committee to see if it would be pushed through."

"And do you think it is likely to be passed?" Henry interrupted curiously.

"I am confident that it would." I stated firmly, "That's because this is the perfect way of improving our damaged inter-regional relations with Hoenn. It costs Indigo very little, and it's the ideal puff piece for the headlines. I'm fairly certain that it would be approved by the Committee. Champion Lance would love it too as it earns him brownie points with the Hoenn League and separates him further from Pryce."

"But this project might be very costly for Cerulean. Contest halls are big investments for cities." Henry warned concerningly, and I nodded.

"Perhaps. But I do have a workaround. I think it would be fairly easy to persuade the Committee that the Indigo League should sponsor the construction of the contest halls as an act of good faith to Hoenn. After all, it would hardly be a drop in the budget of the Indigo League. That way, they'll get the credit for it, and we in Cerulean get free Contest Halls. Again, it's a cheap way for them to generate good headlines." I explained.

Mayor Henry leaned back on his chair as he pondered what I had told him. After a moment, he responded with a grin. "I like it. If everything goes as well as you say it will, which I believe it would, then yes, I'm definitely on board with this plan. Cerulean City has always gravitated towards the arts, and I believe that this would further solidify our status within Kanto."

I smiled back at him, pleased to see his acceptance of my plan. Then I continued, "Thank you. The second part of the plan is more small-scale, but it involves the establishment of a sponsorship program for the purpose of promoting the arts. Now, while I'm no expert at this, I could foresee the benefits of things like sponsoring small tournaments with modest prize pools, setting up a museum for the appreciation of our artistic culture, or even sponsoring talented individuals so that they may continue participating in contests. Although we might not see any immediate benefits, I am confident that these would make Cerulean City a very attractive option for tourists with an eye for art and culture."

Henry frowned slightly, "These are good ideas, but how are we going to pay for all of this? The unfortunate reality is that Cerulean City just isn't as prosperous as something like Viridian City."

"Well, my family business is willing to offset some of the costs through charitable donations. Likewise, I'm sure I can think of some other businessmen who would want to attach their name to something like this." I replied, thinking of Giovanni. "After all, it's tax-deductible." That caused Henry to chuckle.

"Very clever." He praised, but then he leaned forwards. "Now, while I do like your plans, all you've given me are ideas. Good ideas, admittedly, but I have been in politics long enough to know that most good ideas are often killed by the realities of the world."

"I understand." I said easily, "I was just here to inform you about my ideas and whether you liked them or not. Since you find them agreeable, I'll work on my end to see them turned into a reality."

Henry looked at me consideringly, "...you're really like what the news says you are, aren't you?" I gave him a questioning look at that, causing him to chuckle, "Sorry, but I had initially thought that your reputation on the news was overblown at first. Thought they were putting you on a pedestal to show off how a new young face was doing some good in Indigo. But I can see now that I was mistaken with my first impression of you." He complimented.

I coughed sheepishly, "...well, uh, thank you for that. I am glad to have met your expectations." I simply said, trying to force away my embarrassment at his praise.

"Oops, my apologies." He laughed good-heartedly, "But yes, I'm looking forward to seeing these plans actually put in place." He handed me a slip of paper with his contact details, "Let's stay in touch. Please let me know how things progress."

We then exchanged thanks and then I left the office and the building. I dutifully ignored the swarm of reporters as I made my way home on Port. I was very pleased with the meeting with the mayor, it was a good first step, and I was glad to see that I could build a working relationship with him. That certainly made things easier.

As soon as I arrived home, I dialled up Lance.

"Lance speaking." He greeted on the phone.

"Lance, I have a proposal I would like for you to bring up in the next committee meeting." I began.

"Oh? Do tell. I thought we were going to be proposing your reduction to the 4-badge rule in the next meeting." He questioned.

"Yes, but I have another proposal for the meeting after that one, and I think you'll like it." I replied.

"Go on." He said, interest piqued.

"I understand that you've been looking for a way to restore our relations with Hoenn. Thus, I had an idea where we would build Contest Halls in Cerulean and invite participants from Indigo and Hoenn to participate, on our Pokédollar of course. After all, contests are a big thing there, and establishing contests here shows that we're willing to integrate with their culture and would serve as the perfect generator of good headlines for the news." I explained.

"Even better, I know that you're looking to push forwards your International Police proposal, so I think that this idea would be a great appetizer to whet the public's appetite for large-scale international cooperation. It's cheap too!" I added.

Silence descended on the call as I allowed Lance to ponder my proposal.

"...I like it." Lance replied after a moment, "I agree that this is just the kind of thing that we need. But why does it need to be established in Cerulean?" He asked pointedly.

"Well, that's because I want to turn Cerulean City into the cultural hub of Kanto." I replied, not intending to hide anything since I felt that Lance would respect my honesty better. "I just spoke to the mayor a few moments before calling you, and he was in favour of the idea after I suggested the same proposal to him."

"I see. Well, I can see why you want it in Cerulean." He remarked unoffended, and I could feel the gears churning in his brain, "Alright. How about this. I definitely like your idea, and since I previously promised you that I would be supportive of any ideas that you propose that would be of benefit to Indigo, then you have my support on this. However, if you want me to push for the Contest Halls to be developed in Cerulean, I'm going to need a direct promise from you to support my International Police idea."

I hesitated for a moment, but eventually agreed as I realized that getting Lance on board was necessary to ensure that the Contest Halls would actually be established in Cerulean. "Yes, sure. I will offer my public support for your International Police within reason, and I must be able to go over your proposal before it gets voted on by the Committee." I said to him.

"Agreed." Lance stated. "I had feared that some of the public and the committee might see my idea as overly dictatorial, so getting your public support on this would definitely calm their nerves."

He then asked if there was anything else he could help me with, and after I said no, he hung up after promising that he would discuss this idea with his counterparts in Hoenn and make sure that my proposal would come up in the next Committee meeting after this one.

I smiled as the call ended, pleased to see that there were no foreseeable problems with my plans. I really hoped to be able to enact my vision of Cerulean City; I think that it would both serve to help leave a family legacy behind as well as bolster Cerulean to become a vital pillar of Kanto.

Before I forgot though, I quickly dialled up Agatha as well.

"Oh, John? If you're looking for your girlfriend, I'm afraid you called the wrong number." Agatha answered with an audible smirk.

I ignored her, "Agatha, I have a new proposal that I want to get passed through the Committee. It involves building Contest Halls in Cerulean City and then inviting participants from Indigo and Hoenn to participate. I already have Lance on board, I just want to make sure that I would have your support, even if the two of us couldn't vote." I explained.

"Hmm...looking to play city builder, eh?" Agatha remarked, "Don't worry, boy, you'll get my support. I'll approve of your practice run. Now, is there anything else boy?"

I said no, and she hung up before I could ask what she meant by 'practice run'. Eh, probably wasn't a big deal.

"We're home!" My mom called out as she arrived home with my dad, shaking me out of my thoughts.

"Hey, just got back from Johto?" I asked as I turned around to greet my parents.

"Yeah, we had a look at the new location for the farm near Goldenrod. It looks good, and the price is acceptable, so we've already put a deposit down on it." My dad explained to me.

"Oh, great!" I remarked, "Glad to see that your efforts are going well too."

"How was your talk with the mayor?" My mom asked, "From what you said just now, it seems like it went well."

"Wait. Let us all get settled in first, and we'll discuss this over dinner." My dad cut in, and we all nodded.

Thus, over dinner, I proceeded to explain to my parents everything that I had discussed today with the mayor and Lance. I had already told them beforehand I was going to do so, since I needed their permission so that they would know about the potential sponsorship donation from our family business.

They weren't exactly eager to jump on board with the sponsorship discussions, but they agreed that the further development of Cerulean City could only be a good thing for us.

"Does that mean we're going to have a hall named after our family?" My dad jokingly asked, causing us to all laugh. We ultimately decided to table the discussion of sponsorships for later when more information was available.

After dinner ended, I headed up to my room and texted the Waterflower sisters using the contact details provided by Mayor Henry to ask if they were amenable to a meeting tomorrow. I emphasized that I was coming as a private citizen, and not under any capacity as an Elite Four member. I hoped that would ease any panic they might have had.

Just before I fell asleep, I got a text back from them letting me know to meet them early in the morning. I sent back an acknowledgement and went to bed.

I hoped tomorrow's meeting would be as fruitful as today.

The New Normal – 4-18 – The Waterflower Sisters

Early the next morning, I rushed off to Cerulean City to meet the famed Waterflower sisters. I honestly didn't know what to expect going into the meeting, as they were barely developed characters in canon and were regulated to an extremely minor role. I hadn't even met them during my first run through of the Gyms all those years ago, as they hadn't become the Gym Leader yet.

Despite this, I hoped to at least build friendly relations with them. Not only were they a cornerstone of Cerulean City, but I did intend to prevent any of their future problems regarding the Cerulean Gym as soon as possible.

I quickly arrived at the Gym and found no one there to greet me, which was a bad start. Still, I made my way inside of the Gym to see the Gym Trainers running around frantically as they got ready for the day ahead.

I couldn't help but comparing the conditions of the Cerulean Gym with Giovanni's Gym. Compared to the Viridian Gym, the Gym Trainers looked a lot more harried and disorganized, and I could see from some of the Pokémon idling about that they were far weaker than they should be, even for a Gym normally meant to be challenged at 2 badges.

Fortunately, I thought it wasn't unsalvageable. As I walked to the Waterflower sisters' office, I felt that many of their problems could be fixed just with some better organisation.

Soon, I arrived and knocked on their door, and was promptly greeted with a trio of 'hellos' and 'come in'.

"Hello all, thank you all so much for accommodating my private visit. I hope I won't be intruding." I greeted the teenage trio of sisters, who all seemed flummoxed and nervous to greet me. Oops?

"Oh, uh, thank you for coming!" The oldest, and blonde Daisy greeted nervously, her eyes shifting around slightly as she spoke. "I hope everything's been okay with you, Elite John."

"Yeah, we were kinda surprised when we heard you were coming." The blue-haired, and middle sister, Violet added uncertainly, "We really weren't expecting a visit."

"Of course! We are welcome to help you with anything, uh, Elite John." The pink-haired and youngest, Lily, continued anxiously, "So, uh, how may we help you?"

Wow, they were a bundle of nerves at the moment. I tried to calm them down, "Well, thank you for letting me visit regardless, and I apologize for how unusual this is." I said, "As I mentioned before, I'm not here in any capacity as an Elite Four, I'm just here as a citizen of Cerulean who wants to do his best to help out the Gym where possible."

Fortunately, that seemed to calm their nerves a bit. "Well, I'm glad for that." Daisy remarked after she let out a breath, "Are there any issues you see with the Gym you can point out?"

I tried to put on as friendly of a smile as possible, "Well, actually, yes. My sister had come through the Gym recently, and I'm sorry to say that she was fairly disappointed in the strength of your Gym." That caused all of the sisters to wince, "I followed on my sister's words with more research, and I realized that on the Pokénet that others have made similar complaints. Now, I really do hope I'm not overstepping my boundaries, but may I ask if you have noticed these problems as well?"

The sisters glanced uncertainly at each other before Daisy sighed and turned back to me, "Yes. Unfortunately, it's been pointed out to us by some of our Gym Trainers as well. Truthfully, we aren't at the same level as our dad; our interests lie more in the shows and contests, rather than as traditional Gym Leaders. We've tried to make do, of course, but I guess we just aren't doing enough." She shrugged.

"I mean, it's not like we don't put in the effort. But this isn't where our interest lies, y'know?" Violet added.

"Yeah, we don't want to disappoint our late dad, but we're not really cut out for this kind of thing." Lily finished sadly.

I nodded thoughtfully as I listened to them; this was about what I expected from what I knew of canon. But this was far from the worst-case scenario, I was glad to see that they were at least willing to put in the effort.

"Well, that's fine, and I'm sure your shows are very good." I praised, and they all blushed. "It's alright to not be the best at everything, especially since you're all very new to the position of Gym Leader anyways. Trust me, I know how that feels." That caused them to split into small smiles of their own.

"Now, the reason I'm here to offer my assistance is because I have ambitions to transform Cerulean City into one of the pillars of Kanto. And to do that, I want to ensure that the Cerulean Gym, a crucial element of our city, will maintain its stability and prosperity into the future. So, in this case, I would like to offer a helping hand to see if I can help solve any problems that you might have, if you'd have me." I explained carefully.

That seemed to catch the sisters off guard, and they seemed to silently communicate with each other before Daisy spoke up, "...Honestly, we would very much like the help. We're still very new into our positions of Gym Leaders, and there's a been a lot to manage that we're still very unsure of. Many of our Gym Trainers are new hires as well, and they don't have the experience to help out with the administrative aspect of the Gym."

"I see." I responded thoughtfully, "Could you let me know what those problems are? Maybe I could help you, or at the very least, find someone who I think is trustworthy to help."

The girls looked at each other again before Daisy spoke up again, "I think our main issue is being able to source and train up Pokémon that can fight at the 2-badge level. Our problem right now is that we either can't find new Water Pokémon to train up, or dedicate enough time to train them up, and the Pokémon that we do train up get misused by our Gym Trainers and they get too strong too quickly and eventually have to be retired because they become unsuitable for the 2-badge level."

"And we're not really sure how best to manage the Gym's finances. Running this Gym is more expensive than we thought, and we don't have much in our budget to buy all these new Water types for our Gyms. Our shows bring in decent income, but nowhere near enough for everything that we need." Violet explained.

"Also, because we need to spend all this time between managing the Gym and to perform our shows, we don't have any time in our schedule to train up our 8-badge team, so we've really fallen behind on that front." Lily sighed out as she finished.

I hummed consideringly as I pondered what they had just told me. It seems that while they were far from incompetent, they just didn't have the necessary experience to run the Gym effectively and the problems simply compounded on themselves.

However, I thought that most of their problems could just be handled if they just had a good administrator who knew what they were doing and could teach the three young sisters about how to manage the Gym appropriately.

I suspected that, in canon, they likely didn't receive this support and the Gym continued to spiral downhill as their unresolved problems continued to mount, until the sisters eventually gave up entirely on the Gym and focused on their performing passions. But I hoped that I could provide enough assistance that they would choose to instead split their focus between their performances and the Gym.

"It seems like most of your problems could be solved if you just got yourselves a good administrator." I told them, "If someone could be assigned to handle all of these problems, and free up time for you to properly train up yourselves and your Pokémon, then I'm certain that the Gym would be able to run far more smoothly."

The three sisters nodded, "Yes, we've thought of that too. But we don't really have anyone that we could ask to help us. As we said, our Gym Trainers are all young hires, and are all inexperienced. In fact, we've also had problems with our Gym Trainers being too tough or too weak on the challengers, and a few of them have problems showing up on time. It's a mess." Violet lamented.

A smile appeared on my face, "Well, you're in luck. I think I have just the person to ask for." The girls looked at me curiously, "Do you mind if I call Gym Leader Giovanni and explain your problems to him?"

The girls all gasped, "G-G-Giovanni? Uh, uh, you don't have to bother someone like him! I'm sure he's very busy!" Lily exclaimed anxiously, with the other two nodding in agreement.

I smiled, "No, no, I'm sure he's more than willing to help you." I turned serious, "But it does mean that you would have to explain your problems to him. Are you comfortable with that?"

The sisters all looked at each other, and after a silent agreement, nodded back to me. "We can trust someone as kind as Giovanni."

I had to really hold in my laugh that time; to think that Giovanni's name was now associated with trustworthiness and kindness. Still, I nodded back to them and made the call.

"Hello? Giovanni speaking." He answered.

"Giovanni, it's John. I'm currently in a meeting with the Waterflower sisters in their capacity as the Gym Leaders of Cerulean. I have been speaking to them about some of their problems that they're facing, and I was hoping I could get some assistance from you here." I responded formally, making him aware of the seriousness of this conversation.

"Oh? That's very interesting." Giovanni chuckled, "Please, go ahead."

"Mind if I move it to speaker?" I asked and switched to speaker after Giovanni agreed. "Right, I'll let the Waterflower sisters explain their issues to you."

And so, I stayed silent as I allowed the sisters to explain the problems to Giovanni. As I silently listened to their conversation, I reflected on how I truly felt that recommending Giovanni's assistance to the Waterflower sisters was the right and surprisingly trustworthy thing to do.

After all, it was not unusual for Gym Leaders to help out other struggling Gym Leaders if need be. And Giovanni doing so would just be furthering his image as a model and kind Gym Leader, which I'm sure he would be appreciate of. And, not only that, but by establishing public ties with Cerulean, Giovanni would also want to ensure that the Cerulean Gym is a success, or else his name would be tarnished as well.

And I'm sure he knew that as well, so I was confident that he wouldn't act maliciously towards the Cerulean Gym.

"...I see. I think I have a good understanding of the problem." Giovanni spoke as he finished listening to the sisters' explanation, "And I think I understand why John reached out to me. John, you're looking for someone who can help them with the administrative aspects, right?"

"Yes. And I know that you have some very capable subordinates of yours who might be free at the moment. Do you think Petrel could help out?" I asked.

"Petrel?" Giovanni chuckled, before he hummed thoughtfully. He replied after a moment, "Yes, I think that's a good choice. I was initially going to suggest another individual, but I like your choice more. Petrel hasn't had much to do at this point, and his role could easily be taken up by one of the Gym Trainers."

"Ummm...Sorry to interrupt, but who's Petrel?" Lily spoke up questioningly.

"Oh, Petrel is one of my most trusted subordinates who helps me with the administrative areas of the Gym. He's my administrative assistant." Giovanni explained, "I agree with John that he'll be a great choice for helping out with your Gym."

"Of course, you don't have to accept our help if you don't want to." I immediately interrupted, emphasizing to them that I didn't want to pressure them into accepting our help. "Actually, why don't we set up an interview for Petrel, and you can interview him for a job like you would for any normal administrative assistant. If you're happy with him, then you can make the choice to hire him yourselves."

"Yes, that would be better." Giovanni said, "I apologize if it seemed like I was pushing Petrel onto you."

The sisters' shook their heads, "No, no, it's fine. We didn't mind at all...and, um...yes, we'd really like to interview him for his help. We think we really need it." Daisy replied, and the others nodded.

"Excellent. I'll let him to know to come over when I get back from Hoenn." Giovanni accepted. Huh, he must be in Hoenn for that Porygon2 discovery. "John, thanks for arranging this. We'll speak later." He hung up the call after that.

I put away my phone and addressed the sisters, "Well, that's that. I apologize again if I was too pushy with this. But I really want to help make Cerulean City as best that it can be."

The girls waved me off, "No, it's fine! It's fine! We understand, and honestly, we're very happy that you came to check up on us. I think it would be worse if you just ignored us and left us with our problems." Violet said for the three of them.

"Well, thank you for your understanding." I bowed slightly, "I consider it my duty and pleasure to ensure that Cerulean City is as prosperous as it can be, so if you three need any more help in the future, with anything, please let me know. I'll try my best to help."

That got the three of them giving out murmurs of thanks.

"Oh, speaking of which, I do have some news for you. It's not confirmed yet, but I'm in the process of getting some new contest halls built in Cerulean, and we're going to be hosting people from around Hoenn and Indigo to participate in these competitions. I feel like this is something you'll be interested in, no?" I informed them.

THAT got their eyes gleaming excitedly, "WOW! That's amazing! We'd always wanted to have a contest hall of our own!" Daisy exclaimed eagerly, "Do you think we'll be able to participate?"

I shrugged, "I'm not sure, though I don't see why you wouldn't be able to. My job really is to just get the thing passed by the Committee, but Mayor Henry should be dealing with the actual running of it. I think if it passes and you let him know that you're interested in being a part of it, then he'll arrange something for you three." I told them.

The trio bobbed their heads excitedly, and I could see in their eyes that ideas were flickering through at a mile a minute. I guessed that this was a dream come true for them.

"Is there anything else I can help you with, while I'm here?" I asked them once more before I left, breaking them from their daydreaming.

The three of them looked to each other, before Lily stepped forwards hesitantly, "Um...could we get an autograph? And a photo?" She mumbled out embarrassedly, causing me to chuckle.

"Sure." Was all I said, and the girls quickly rushed around to grab a piece of paper and a polaroid. They quickly stood next to me, and we all posed for the photo, which I then signed after it was printed and developed.

They then thanked me once again before I left the Cerulean Gym, very pleased about the meeting. So long as the Cerulean Gym would never fall into disgrace, I was confident that I could transform Cerulean City into a pillar of Kanto in the future.

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

?As soon as I returned home, I made sure to dial up Mayor Henry and inform him of everything that happened.

"Mayor Henry, it's John." I greeted him on the phone.

"John, good to hear from you again." He replied, "How are things going on your end?"

"Better than expected." I told him, "I have Lance on board with the idea, and I'm confident that it will pass through the Committee."

"Excellent! We here in Cerulean would very much appreciate the new investment and tourism." He remarked pleasantly, "How was the talk with the Waterflower sisters at the Gym?"

"It was a very fruitful discussion, thank you." I replied, purposely leaving out of all the details from our discussion. I may like the mayor, but I didn't feel he should be privy to what was discussed.

Clearly, he knew where to draw the line and didn't push any further than that. "I'm glad. It's good to finally have an Elite Four member from Cerulean that is actually invested in the continued growth and prosperity of our city. Arceus knows that some Elite Four members are concerned with nothing else than their position and strength." Mayor Henry grumbled.

"I hope to be of service in the future as well." Was all I said, getting a chuckle from the mayor as he wished me good luck with my endeavours. We ended the call on that pleasant note.

With the phone call over, I figured that I had the rest of the day free before I had to attend Will's swearing-in ceremony tomorrow.

Deciding that I had nothing else better to do, I went to the training fields and quickly got to training. There wasn't anything new that I wanted to work on, so this session was more focused on just continuing what my Pokémon had previously been practicing.

More specifically, I had really doubled down on trying to perfect custom moves for my Pokémon. I felt that it was currently the best path forwards to developing my Pokémon's strength in a battle; providing a bit more power in certain moves could be the deciding factor in a match.

On that front, I was very pleased with Vordt's progress mastering the new Seismic Eruption. Seeing the move in action, I felt that it would serve as an excellent surprise finisher for a wounded opponent, since the tremors from the Earthquake make it difficult to dodge the subsequent spears of rocks. Perhaps I could have a few of my other Pokémon, like Tyrant and Smough, learn this move as well?

As I thought that, I also figured that I should probably advise Karen to start developing custom moves of her own, if she hadn't already started. I'm sure that watching that battle between Pryce and Lance must have sparked a few ideas in her mind by now.

My other priority was to ensure that Pixel, Euphie, and Ornstein were training themselves appropriately, and that they were developing healthily and not picking up on any bad habits. On that front, things seemed to be going smoothly.

Pixel was very pleased about its new power level and has thrown itself headfirst into its training to master its newfound evolved capabilities. Despite its' very wide potential array of attacks, I decided to focus on the more basic, but universally useful, attacks such as Psychic and the newly TM taught Shadow Ball. As soon as it got sufficiently proficient in those attacks, then I was confident in transitioning into more supportive and utility moves like Recover and Conversion.

Euphie hadn't lost her innocent curiosity, but after weeks of training, she's finally tempered some of that curiosity so that she could focus better on training. She was continuing to practice her Fairy type moves, and was now somewhat proficient in Play Rough, but she still took some time to gather up enough Fairy aura before she attacked. Still, pairing her up with Luna had proved itself to be a great decision.

Meanwhile, Ornstein was just as overly energetic and fight hungry as ever, but at least he actually listens to me now. He still recklessly challenges my Elite Pokémon, especially Smough, on the regular, but since he uses these challengers to push himself even harder with his training, I allowed it to continue. He was already very experienced with the more basic Normal and Dark type physical attacking moves, such as Payback and Headbutt, which was always good for practice.

Just as my Pokémon continued training, my phone vibrated as it received a message. I went to check it and saw that it was from Karen.

'What time should we meet tmr for the swearing-in ceremony?' She texted me. She was my plus one tomorrow for the ceremony. My parents had chosen to stay at home this time round, since the ceremony wasn't for me.

'I can't afford to be late, so let's arrive on time. Ideally, a couple minutes early.' I replied.

'Fine. At least it's in the evening so I don't have to wake up early. Besides, I do want to meet Will.' She wrote.

'Why? Scoping out your competition?' I remarked, smirking.

'Of course . Can't let myself be caught off-guard; you know?' She replied.

We made some small talk after that, but then I put my phone away and returned to training with my Pokémon. But as I did so, my thoughts wandered back to Karen and our relationship together.

Strangely, I didn't know where to place our friendship. Were we friends? Or did we want to be more than that? Sure, I had messed up at the beginning and was over-eager, but what were we now? We spent almost all of our free time together, and I was most certainly attracted to her. Likewise, I was fairly confident that the same could be said for her as well.

And then there were all the comments from Agatha about us being together. Even the densest of individuals would be aware that Agatha was trying to push the two of us together, likely for her own personal reasons. She had been increasingly obvious about her attempts recently, to the point where I didn't feel like she was even trying to hide it.

Not that my parents were any different. My mom especially had been giving me hints for a while for a while now that she greatly approved of Karen and had basically been treating her as her own daughter every time Karen came over. Even Whitney thought of her as a big sister!

What did that mean for the two of us though? I certainly wanted to advance the relationship, but not if Karen was uncomfortable with it.

After fretting over it for a bit, I decided that I would speak to her about it tomorrow at the ceremony. I felt like we had danced around the topic enough, and we should finally set clear lines of communication with each other going into the future.

With that plan in mind, I tried to pull myself back to focusing on my Pokémon's training, with little success.

Then, I was hit with the realisation that I had come full circle; I had attended my own swearing-in ceremony a relatively powerless teen where I was first introduced to Karen, and now will return to a different swearing-in ceremony as a powerful political figure in Indigo with Karen as my date.

It was nice to see how far I've come.