The New Normal - 16-5

The New Normal – 16-5 – Finishing the Preliminaries

Drayden was the only Unova Elite Four member that I hadn’t really had an opportunity to talk to or see in action. But his strength was at least somewhat known to me, thanks to the recordings that I had searched up about his team in action. And Elesa was able to supplement that knowledge as well, giving me a good idea of where his strength lied.

“I think the best way to describe Drayden is much like that Hoenn Elite Four of yours – Drake. They basically fight in the same manner.” Elesa said, “However, he is even less flexible than Drake is, purely due to the lack of variety in his team. He only has the 6 Dragons, and of them there are only 3 different Pokémon within. He has two Druddigons, two Haxorus, and two Hydreigon. There’s no denying that they all strong Pokémon, but it does heavily limit the strategies he can make use of.”

“Does he have an ‘ace’ Pokémon?” I asked.

“No, each Pokémon just has their own strengths.” Elesa answered, “His Druddigon are resilient and tough to take down. His Haxorus are highly aggressive and hit very hard. And his Hydreigon are really powerful Special Attackers that have a varied movepool. But don’t expect status effects and the like from him. He’s very much a brute-force fighter.”

“So the same as Brawly then.” I muttered, “That should make things easier.”

She snorted, “Don’t get cocky. I’m massively oversimplifying the true strength of his team. I compared him to Drake for a reason. I know how much respect that man gets from you all – Drayden’s the same for us. Don’t look down on him.”

“We won’t.” I nodded.

Therefore, we quickly began making plans for our upcoming battle, with an obvious focus on isolating Drayden and taking him down first.

Personally, compared to my last two battles, I was the most excited for this one. This is the first time I would be fighting a Dragon specialist that I had never fought against before, and I always enjoyed clashes of strength. But I didn’t let that excitement translate into carelessness.

And so by the time our battle came rolling around, we headed out into the arena both well-rested and prepared for the fight to come. However, before the fight began, Drayden had apparently wanted to exchange a few words with me.

“I think this is the first time you and I met in person.” He said as we shook hands, “I hope you will be satisfied with the battle ahead.”

“Likewise.” I smiled back.

“I also have to thank you for treating Iris so well.” He continued, “Her talents and relative maturity aside, she is still a young child. When I was travelling to Sinnoh, I was worried about leaving her alone back in Unova. An unnecessary worry, perhaps, but it is the prerogative of the elderly to look after the youth.”

“I think you’ve got that backwards.” I chuckled, and getting one from him too, “But I’m glad that Iris has someone like you watching over her. She’s a good kid.”

“She is.” He agreed, “She looks up to me too much, though. She always said that I had the potential to be a better trainer than Alder and that I should have been Champion.”

“Do you?” I asked curiously.

He shook his head, “It’s nothing more than the innocent, yet naïve, thoughts of a child. She merely mislikes Alder because, in her words, he’s always so ‘mopey’. But don’t take her words as fact. The rest of the Elite Four haven’t tried to challenge him for a reason. Alder’s a Champion, no matter what anyone says.”

“But enough about that, we can chat more after the battle.” He said, “May the better trainer win.”

“May the better trainer win.” I nodded, and we both exchanged one final look together before we made our way to our respective starting positions.

It was time to battle.

“TRAINERS! YOU KNOW THE DRILL! IT’S TIME FOR A BATTLE IN THREE! TWO! ONE! FIGHT!”

“Go, Emolga!”    “Luna, your turn!”

“Haxorus!”          “Hariyama!”

One thing that both Elesa and I had both figured out before this battle was that neither Brawly nor Drayden had anything to counter Fairy types, which in turn completely nullify their greatest strengths. Especially with a Pokémon as defensive as I had trained up Luna to be, I was utterly confident that neither Drayden nor Brawly would be able to break through her.

And therefore it left Elesa’s Emolga free to cripple the two of them with Thunder Waves while harassing them from a distance.

Therefore, the plan was to defeat them with a death by a thousand cuts.

But that was not what happened.

At first, the battle went as we had expected. Emolga was able to run circles around our opponents, where Brawly had attempted to snipe it down with Stone Edges and Rock Throws – to no avail. Emolga was able to swoop and dive with such aerial manoeuvrability that even a full barrage of rocks failed to bring it down.

Yet before Emolga could paralyse Hariyama, it had ignited and Burned itself with a Fire Punch first – both triggering its Guts ability and denying the paralysis.

Meanwhile, I had Luna to stay back and simply flood the arena with blast after blast of Dazzling Gleams, knowing that neither of our Pokémon had any good defenses against the move. And when I saw Haxorus come charging forwards with a Double Edge, I had Luna switch over to Moonblast with the intention of shattering it mid-charge.

However, that was not what happened.

Instead, Haxorus gleamed with a metallic glow for a brief moment right as the Moonblast smashed into it. As the resulting explosion of pink energy faded away, instead of having its charge halted, Haxorus continued rushing forwards with its head, tail, and claws all reinforced with a reinforced layer of pure Steel.

My eyes widened as I realised what it had done – it had channelled an Iron Head, Metal Claw, and an Iron Tail all at the same time to give itself as much protection as it could against the Fairy type Moonblast, using it like it had donned armour.

I never knew that Drayden had prepared so extensively for the Fairy type like this, as there were no recordings of him doing so – probably because this was the first time he had faced off against a Fairy type in a public battle.

It was my mistake.

So, much like me, Luna had not expected for Haxorus to defend against her attack successfully and was completely unprepared as Haxorus crashed into it with the Double Edge, before following up by cracking their skulls together with a painful Iron Head.

Luna fell to the ground with a pained cry as she reeled from the blow, before instinctively firing off a Moonblast to try to drive Haxorus back. But Haxorus had spun around and used its Iron Tail to not only deflect the blow, but also smash a hammering blow right into Luna’s side. And another violently slammed down onto her head, partially burying her into the ground.

Shit. This was bad. But I acted decisively and reached for her Pokéball, “I’m switching out my Clefable! Go, Pixel!”

I caught Elesa shooting me a concerned look in the corner of my vision, but I ignored it for now as I watched as Pixel let out an excited buzz as it entered the battle.

“Conversion: Fairy!”

“Take it down, Haxorus!”

Pixel quickly began to glow pink as it changed its own type to Fairy. Thinking that it could disrupt it, Haxorus immediately charged towards Pixel with another Double Edge, while once again reinforcing itself with an armour of Steel as it anticipated another Fairy attack coming its way.

But I had learnt my lesson.

“Tri Attack, Pixel!”

Pixel finished its Conversion before Haxorus was even close to reaching it. Then it fired off a triangle of rotating and multicoloured orbs. Which Haxorus charged right into, thinking that it could resist and break through the attack like it did before.

It could not.

The Steel armour it had equipped might have fended off the Ice portion of the attack much like it did with the earlier Moonblast, but covering itself in Steel had only made itself into a better conductor for both the Fire and Electric portions of the Tri Attack. Making both elements all the more potent.

Therefore, Haxorus abruptly stopped as all of its muscles locked up in paralysis, while the layer of Steel that once protected it was set ablaze. Haxorus let out a determined growl as it valiantly struggled in an attempt to force itself to move, but it was suddenly struck by a bolt of Thunder that came crashing down from the skies above.

Emolga had come in with the timely assist.

That extra bit of paralysis kept Haxorus stunned for long enough so that it was unable to do anything as Pixel fired off an enormous orb of pure Fairy energy right towards it. Unable to resist, Haxorus was sent flying backwards into the psychic shields, crumbling to the ground.

I judged that it was too injured to be a threat anymore, so I quickly directed Pixel to target the unsuspecting Hariyama while it was still distracted trying to take down Emolga.

Despite not being paralysed, Hariyama had not had much success against the much-faster Emolga. Especially not when it was able to fly far out of its reach.

So the surprise attack knocked Hariyama face-first to the ground, where another Thunder speared it right through from above.

With both of our opponents practically incapacitated, I held back from any further attacks as I had Pixel set up with a Nasty Plot, boosting its already high Special Attack to even greater heights. Elesa followed after me and had her Emolga set up with a Light Screen.

Realising that we were simply stalling for time, our opponents both withdrew their Pokémon and sent out their final two.

“Crush them, Hydreigon! Show off your power!”

“Medicham, as we planned!”

Hydreigon instantly became the centre of attention as it came roaring out of its Pokéball. With no delay, it began firing off three different beams of Dragon Pulses from all three of its heads, in a variety of different directions, as it looked to shoot down Emolga out of the sky.

Hydreigon fired off attacks with such speed that it was like a triple barrelled artillery cannon turned into a Pokémon.

At the same time, Medicham rapidly dashed forwards with a Bullet Punch as it locked eyes against Pixel, preventing Pixel from stopping Hydreigon.

Therefore, fast as Elesa’s Electric type was, even with the Light Screen, it only took one slight mistake for it to be caught by one of those attacks.

And that was exactly what happened. Before Pixel could even try to assist, one of the many Dragon Pulses managed to land a glancing blow on the side of one of Emogla’s wings, causing it to spin through the sky wildly as it lost control of its flight.

Before it could even hit the ground, the unceasing barrage of Dragon Pulses first broke through the Protect shield that it had thrown up protectively, and then ravaged the frail Electric type head-on – knocking it out while it was still mid-air.

Meanwhile, Pixel and Medicham continued their duel. At first, Medicham seemed to have gotten the advantage in close range as it managed to get close and flinch Pixel with a Fake Out, before smashing it hard with a supereffective Bullet Punch since Pixel was still a Fairy type.

However, a quick Discharge forced Medicham back, giving enough space for an intense Gravity to set in – pushing Medicham to the ground.

That gave Pixel enough space to Convert itself into a Ghost type, making it either immune or resistant to most of Medicham’s common moves. That had completely ripped away any advantage that Medicham had over it, so that even with its greater proficiency in close-quarter battle, Pixel was now in the better position.

Knowing that it was vital for Hydreigon to not be able to interfere in this duel, Elesa quickly sent out her Galvantula and had it skitter over to Hydreigon to distract and keep it busy. Impressively, Galvantula’s Lunge had actually managed to leap over an incoming Flamethrower, allowing Galvantula to strike down hard with both the Lunge and a savage X-Scissor at the same time.

The combo of supereffective attacks actually did significant damage against Hydreigon, but that was all it could do. Before Galvantula could follow up, a triple blast of Hyper Voices forced it back and onto the defensive as Hydreigon renewed its unending torrent of Flamethrowers.

Fully overpowered like this, I knew it was only a matter of time before Galvantula fell. But that was fine, because Medicham was going to fall first.

With Gravity heavily weighing it down, making it lose much of its previous mobility, Medicham was quickly forced to burn through all of its defensive options as it desperately tried to keep itself in the fight against Pixel. But it wasn’t enough, and after a quick Ice Beam froze over one of its arms that it had tried to use to block, it was not able to defend itself as a Nasty Plot-boosted Shadow Ball detonated in its face.

Instantly knocking it out.

And with Medicham down, Galvantula – already on its last legs – decided to sacrifice itself so that it could provide one final Helping Hand boost towards Pixel, who had now used Conversion to switch back to Fairy type.

Before proceeding to annihilate Hydreigon with an overpowered Moonblast.

Drayden might have given his Pokémon Fairy-resistance training, but it wasn’t enough for his Hydreigon, who was eradicated by the move in a one-hit KO.

With the Helping Hand, the Nasty Plot, and the fact that the move was quadruply supereffective against Hydreigon, that wasn’t unexpected.

But with that, despite the rocky start when it almost all went wrong, we had secured our third win.

Thank Arceus for Pixel. It had really pulled its weight during this fight.

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

With our third victory, it meant that we had made it into the elimination stage. It also meant that we were afforded a small break, as we still needed to wait for the remaining battles in the preliminary round to conclude. Our next battle shouldn’t be for a few days.

That was perfect timing, as it allowed me to catch up on the other political developments that I had put on the backburner during my previous battles.

The World Tournament might take up most of the public’s attention right now, but that didn’t mean the wheels of politics didn’t continue to turn.

And turn it did, as Steven had been hard at work with trying to get his proposal passed for making Hoenn leaders appointable from any region. Thanks to his hard work, today was actually the day where the Hoenn Committee would finally be voting on this proposal – to see whether it would be enacted into law.

Both Lance and Cynthia had expressed their intentions to follow suit in their own Committees if it were to pass, with plans to turn it into another Article of the Regional Union. Cynthia was obviously doing so because of me, but Lance had also agreed because both Steven and Cynthia had promised to owe him a favour each if he did so. That had been too valuable for him to pass up.

That was why I had separated with Elesa for the day as I ended up staying in with Cynthia, with the two of us both watching the news as we awaited the result of the vote.

“This should pass.” Cynthia remarked to me as we sat there cuddled on her couch, “Steven’s told me about all the prep work he’s done for this. There’s no reason it shouldn’t.”

I knew about that too. Steven had capitalised on the momentum of his victory, alongside his own incredible personal influence, to sway most of the Hoenn Committee onto his side.

“Then what’s the plan afterwards? Are we going to move forwards with our previous ideas?” I asked.

“First step is to make this into an Article into the Regional Union first – it’ll help expand our options.” She explained, “Once that’s done, we’ll monitor the public response to these changes. If they react well, then I see no reason why we can’t start laying the foundations for your eventual move. You know, drumming up public support and the like.”

I nodded; that sounded like a good plan to me. I returned my attention to the TV screen, where they had just begun to tally up the votes. Even though I knew that this would most likely pass, I felt my fists clench unconsciously as I watched the two numbers go up. My girlfriend was clearly feeling the same as I felt her grip on my arm tighten slightly.

But then the two of us let out a sigh of relief as the votes were finally tallied – the proposal had passed.

“He’s actually done it.” I remarked with a smile, “Steven’s actually managed to achieve the first step.”

“Yes, and it’s time we capitalised on it—” Before she could even finish her sentence, her phone began to ring. I saw that it was a conference call from Lance and Steven. I gave her a questioning look, silently asking if I needed to leave, but she told me with her eyes that I could remain seated.

“Cynthia.” Lance’s face could be seen as she picked up the phone, “I assume you saw the news—oh, John, didn’t see you there. I guess you were both watching the vote.”

“We were.” Cynthia replied, “And good job on that, Steven. As agreed, Lance and I will follow up on this, isn’t that right?”

“I will be making a speech to the Indigo Committee tomorrow to bring up this topic.” Lance confirmed, “I assume you will do the same in Sinnoh. If this passes in both our regions too, then we’ll bring up the topic of including this as an Article in the Regional Union. But only after they pass, not before.”

“Reasonable.” Cynthia nodded, “Steven, keep us updated on the reaction in Hoenn. We’ll discuss things further, but regardless, congratulations on your success.”

“Thank you all.” He replied, “I’ll leave you to it then.”

With their conversation over, Cynthia unfortunately had to rush away to get a start on all that. But that was fine, as there was one other person that I wanted to speak to. I had already messaged them beforehand, so they knew to expect me.

Therefore, I left Cynthia’s room and made my way over to the nearby hotel where the Unova delegation was staying at, where I was promptly invited into the dining area where I sat down opposite Clay.

“Some mighty fine fighting you did out there.” He smiled at me, “Saw you were surprised when Drayden pulled out that trick against you, though.”

“I really wasn’t expecting that.” I admitted, “I thought that having the advantage of Fairy types would be enough to secure me the fight. I guess I should have taken Elesa’s words of caution a little more seriously.”

“Heh. I guess we Unovans can still surprise someone like you.” He chuckled, “But I reckon that fight was good for both Drayden and Elesa. Drayden got to show off that he ain’t in the Elite Four for no reason, and Elesa got the opportunity to hold her own against Drayden – even if only for a moment. The public will take notice of that.”

“She’s doing really well.” I agreed, “Our fights would have been much more difficult without her incredibly fast Electric types. And if not for her timely assists, that fight would have been much harder. She has a good eye for battle,”

“Yeah, I can see that.” He nodded, “Now, I assume you didn’t ask me here to exchange pleasantries – not that I mind, of course. But I presume you have something for me?”

“I do.” I clasped my hands together, “I have a business proposal to bring to you. On behalf of my family.”

“Your family?” He asked curiously, “Forgive me, but I didn’t know your family had a business. Sorry if I overlooked it.”

I waved him off, “We’re nowhere near as big as any of the giants like Silph Co. or Devon Corp., so it’s totally understandable if you don’t know about it. But my family actually runs a Moomoo milk business and a Normal type breeding ranch. The former is our main business, though recently we’ve been trying to grow out the latter too.”

He nodded, “Tell me more about it.”

So I did, giving him details about the kinds of products we sold and the size of our business. I told him that we had gone international, with the Smith family products now being sold in both Indigo and Hoenn, and that we were looking to expand into Sinnoh very soon. Likewise, I gave him a rough explanation of our plans regarding the Normal type breeding ranch, and how we were looking to grow it.

“I see…” He muttered, “Then I’m assuming you’re looking for a way into Unova?”

“That’s exactly right.” I confirmed. It was something that my parents and I had already discussed, “We’re not going to expand the Moomoo milk business into Unova for now. But we believe that our breeding services might be an extremely attractive commodity in Unova, especially since our Normal types are still considered new and ‘interesting’ there.”

“Well you’re right about that. Pokémon from the New Regions are still frequently talked about on the ‘net.” He agreed, “Okay, so I get your plan. But what do you need me for? I ain’t in the breeding business.”

“Simple. We need your reputation.” I replied, “Just like you proved to me just now, most people in Unova don’t even know about the Smith family business. They know about me, but only insofar as my capabilities as a trainer and little else. If we were to try to market our breeding farms to the public of Unova as we are right now, then we doubt that we’d be able to gain much traction. We don’t have the level of trust and reputation over there that we’ve built back home.”

“But if you have me on board, then it’s a different story.” Clay finished the thought for me.

“Exactly.” I nodded, “I’ve done my research. I know you’re considered to be one of the premier businessmen in Unova. Even beyond your prestige as a Gym Leader, the public readily acknowledges your business acumen. Therefore, having you endorse our brand would go a long way in helping us establish a foothold within Unova’s markets.”

It had been a plan that I had brought to my parents ever since I knew that Clay would be coming over for the Tournament. I quickly realised how lucrative the Unova markets would be given how excited their public was for all of our regions’ Pokémon. And I wanted to get a head start on all the other breeding farms in Indigo, Hoenn, and Sinnoh when it came to the Unova markets, and I was fully willing to utilise my connections from the Elite Four to do so.

“Got it. But what is it for me?” He asked, leaning in like a Sharpedo that smelt blood in the water, “Why should I help you?”

Despite his tone and his Sharpedo-like grin, I knew I had caught Clay’s interest. I could tell from his eyes that he wanted to enter into a working relationship with me. He was just looking for the right excuse to do so.

Luckily, I had that very excuse already prepared, “We aren’t looking to enter into a partnership with your company – as we understand that you run a mining business and there’d be no logical reason why you’d partnership with a breeding farm. However, we are just looking for an endorsement from you specifically to get us into the public’s psyche. We can handle the rest. And in return, we’d offer you a cut of the profits.”

“Then I want the same from you.” He replied, “My company’s actually been looking to expand into the foreign markets as well – which of course includes Indigo. We sell rare, Unova-exclusive gemstones, evolution stones, and the like. Your endorsement would likewise go a long way for us as well. In return, we can forget about the cut of the profits. I don’t need more of it anyways.”

We went back and forth for a while to hash out the details, but after several minutes of discussion, we had come to a preliminary agreement. Essentially, we would both be endorsing each other’s businesses in a personal capacity, with an oral promise of further cooperation down the line. We both could have certainly asked for more, but we both understood that it was better to keep things cordial and use this as an opportunity to build a new connection with each other.

Because we both knew that the connection was what was truly important.

Not only that, the better that I did in the Tournament with my Normal Types, the more interested the Unova’s public would be in them. Which would only benefit my family’s breeding business.

I looked forward to seeing it grow.

A.N. A half battle chapter and a half political chapter. I felt it was important to catch up with all of the political developments happening in the background, and Steven has achieved the first big step. There will be further developments coming as well, as you will see soon.

As with the battle with Drayden, I knew from the previous comments that some people wanted to see more from the Unova’s Elite Four. So I felt that, despite being similar in personality to Drake, Drayden’s not just a musclehead. At least when it comes to battling, old age or not, he’s a man that can quickly adapt to a new weakness. His trick with the Steel attacks was just one of them. Hope you enjoyed!