The New Normal - 10-3

The New Normal – 10-3 – Plans and Preparations

As I laid down on my bed the previous night, I had come to startling realisation – and it was something that, in hindsight, I couldn’t believe I had overlooked.

The Tri-Regional Tournament that Wallace was setting up was a fantastic opportunity to finally push for my long-time proposal – to have all Gym Leaders within Indigo be able to be appointed from either Kanto or Johto.

Previously I had held back on bringing it up because I knew that public sentiment still wasn’t there yet. Gym Leaders were extremely important and prestigious positions, and were frequently a source of a national pride. Discussions were often held on the Pokenet about which region had the better Gym Leaders, and who was the strongest Gym Leader.

Therefore, pushing to have Gym Leaders be appointable from either region was always going to be a tough sell.

However, with the Tournament serving as a strong unifying declaration, I felt that the time was coming to make a start on this plan. It was time to test the waters.

So, with a single call to my assistants asking them to schedule a private meeting with Lance, since this was not really something I wanted to discuss over the phone, and I found myself the next morning flying on Port over to the Indigo Plateau to meet up with the Champion.

It didn’t take me very long to be escorted into his office.

“John, how can I help you?” He asked, fully serious. He knew I wouldn’t have arranged for a formal meeting like this if it was just a social call.

“I have an ambitious proposal that I’d like to introduce into the Committee some time in the near future,” I explained, “But I wanted to run it by you first as to give you a heads up.”

“I understand. Please explain.” He replied.

“It’s been obvious that our once-divided region has become far more unified. Previously, ‘Indigo’ was a term that was forced down by Champion Oak as a way of stopping the fighting. But everyone still referred to themselves as ‘Kantonian’ or ‘Johtonian’. The divide was still too real. However, that’s been changing recently, to the point where I feel that most of the public are far more receptive to ideas of unity than ever before.” I explained.

“Furthermore, with the Tri-Regional Tournament likely coming around the corner, I felt that this was a great opportunity to push for a proposal that I’ve kept in the back of mind exactly for a time like this – to have all Gym Leaders be capable of being appointed from any part of Indigo, regardless if they were from Kanto or Johto. So, for example, a Johto Gym could be held by a Kantonian and vice versa if a vacancy becomes available.”

To my surprise, Lance did not even look shocked at my words. He simply stared at me with what looked like silent acceptance – as if he knew that I was going to say something like this.

“…I had expected something like this to come from you.” He said, confirming my thoughts, “I didn’t think it would come in this form, but I knew you would be pushing to further unify our region once the opportunity presented itself.”

“Then what are your thoughts on it?” I asked. We both knew something like this would not pass easily, despite my popularity and the fact that the Elite Four could now vote.

“…I’m naturally wary, but not because I think your idea is a bad one.” He replied after giving it some thought, “I’m sure you know that this is going to be quite the radical change, and people are inherently going to be reluctant to make such big changes so quickly.”

“I understand. That’s why I predicted that something like this could be implemented in steps; to ease the public into things.” I said.

“That would be better.” Lance nodded as he idly tapped a finger on his desk, “…This is going to take some careful planning. Leave the idea with me. I’ll come back to you when I figure out how best to present this to the Committee.”

I was taken aback by his easy acceptance, “…Aren’t you going to ask something from me?”

He snorted, “Let’s not pretend that I don’t owe you massively for not challenging me for my position as Champion. By all accounts you should be someone I ought to be incredibly wary of, but I trust that we have come to a mutual understanding with each other. This is just my way of repaying you, though I would expect to be credited alongside you for this idea once its announced so we both benefit.”

I nodded, that was an easy enough ask.

“Plus, you should know by now that I too favour a more united Indigo.” He added, “Nor does having Gym Leaders be appointable from any region hurt my own interests or my own future policies at all. Besides, I’ve seen a few times how capable candidates for being a Gym Leader were snubbed simply because they were from the wrong region. This way, it will encourage those who are truly competent to be given the position rather than some compromise candidate.”

He gave me a look, “I suspect you already have spoken about this idea to other members of the Elite Four?”

“I spoke to Lorelei beforehand, yes.” I confirmed, “Assuming she honours our agreement, she’ll be onboard with this idea.”

“And Agatha and Will?” He asked.

“I haven’t told Agatha yet, but I don’t foresee her objections.” I responded, “Nor do I think Will would have any reason to reject it either. Where a Gym Leader is appointed from has very little to do with his interests. At most, he’ll abstain from the vote.”

“Hmm…I don’t disagree.” Lance nodded, “But this is something we’re going to have to also get approval from the Gym Leaders for, as it directly affects them and their successors. Suddenly being able to choose a successor from Kanto or Johto is going to seriously affect their future decisions, and some of the more nationalistic Gym Leaders might not like it.”

My mind immediately flashed to a few Gym Leaders that might have a problem with this, and I frowned.

“So we might need the Gym Leaders to vote on this as well?” I asked.

“Yes. Almost certainly.” Lance confirmed, “It’s going to be an unusual situation, but their consent would be absolutely necessary.”

That would prove problematic. My political influence might extend pretty far within the Elite Four, but I didn’t have the same pushing power within the circle of Gym Leaders. I had friends there, but politics had a way of getting in the way of that.

Lance was right; this was not going to be an easy sell.

He must have seen the growing frustration on my face, because he spoke up once again, “Don’t worry, we’ll can tackle this in stages like you said. Plus, by my estimates, this proposal won’t even take place until after the Tri-Regional Tournament is over.” He reassured, “Perhaps you could spend some time before then reaching out to the Gym Leaders that you are friendly or acquainted with and get them on your side in advance? That would be better than suddenly having something like this being sprung on them.”

“That’s a good idea, I’ll do that.” I nodded, “Thanks for the advice.”

“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you who will be against your proposal as soon as they hear it.” Lance smirked, “But you have to try with them regardless.”

I chuckled, “Yes, I know. I’ll try my best anyways.” People like Surge were NEVER going to be brought to my side. Even if he did think I was ‘Kanto’s Golden Child’ or whatever.

But first things first, I was going to have to speak to Giovanni again. I wasn’t sure on what his stance would be. He had always been a Kanto nationalist, but he had been coming over to my way of thinking recently. I hoped he wouldn’t be adverse to something like this.

“I’ll leave you to butter up the Gym Leaders then.” Lance said, “I think you’ll get along with them better than I could. Though I will speak to Clair and see what she thinks.”

“Do you think she’d be against it?” I asked curiously.

“The Blackthorn Gym will always fall to a Blackthorn. It would be a dark day when it doesn’t.” Lance stated, “So I doubt that Clair would care. She’s more concerned in holding her position than anything else.”

I nodded. “Thank you, then I’ll be heading off now. Thanks again for your time and for all your help on this. It’s much appreciated.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He waved me off, “Oh, and one more thing before you go.”

I turned around to see him giving me a challenging look. “It’s about the Tri-Regional Tournament.”

“What about it?” I returned.

“Let us not pretend that you wouldn’t be a favoured candidate to be in the top 3 to face off against us Champions. We both know it to be true.” I nodded at his words, “And I also think that this would be a great opportunity for us to fight each other with little to no consequences to whoever wins or loses. A battle between starters.”

My face quickly split into an eager grin, “Your Emperor vs my Tyrant?”

“A fitting battle, don’t you think?” He smirked, “And something that I feel was a long time coming.”

“It was bound to happen one day.” I agreed, “But aren’t we supposed to be fighting as a group?”

“It’s not like they will begrudge a little friendly duel between friends, would they? I’m sure Wallace would be happy to make an exception for the two of us.” He chuckled, “Besides, I’m sure the crowd would love it. You’ve must have seen it on the Pokenet about often they discuss how we would compare in a battle.”

I nodded, “True enough, and I eagerly accept.” I extended a hand, which he quickly shook. “May we have a good battle.”

““But I’ll win.”” We both said at the same time.

We shared a look of mutual respect, recognizing each other as both rival and friend. We would do our best to fight to our limits, as that was the best way of showing respect to the other.

It was going to be the battle of kings.

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

Not wanting to leave things by the wayside, after leaving from Lance’s office I immediately called up Giovanni and arranged to meet, wanting to discuss this proposal with him. I also wanted to see if he had any ideas that could help improve my proposal and smoothen out its implementation.

Since I wasn’t a Gym Leader, I remained unaware of the more subtle relationships and tensions amongst the Gym Leaders – but Giovanni wouldn’t be. He would be able to provide me with the information I needed.

“I wasn’t expecting you to drop in.” Giovanni said as I arrived at his office.

“Hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time.” I replied, pulling out a chair for myself, “I had something I wanted to discuss with you.”

“No, it’s fine. The Viridian Gym is hardly going to be busy with the Indigo Conference running.” He responded while steepling his fingers together, “But I can tell that you have something important that you wish to discuss with me. What can I help you with? Is it about the criminals in Sinnoh? Because I’m afraid there’s nothing I can really report to you on that front.”

I shook my head, “It’s not about them. I just had a new proposal that I’d like to pass through the League that I wanted your opinion about.”

“Oh? That’s interesting.” He said with a raised eyebrow, leaning back in his chair, “And what would you need my assistance with?”

“I was planning to create a new policy that would allow Gym Leaders to be appointed from either region.” I explained, “So for example, if there was a vacancy for a Gym Leader in Goldenrod, then the new replacement could be appointed from either Kanto or Johto. I wanted to know your thoughts about this plan.”

Giovanni pursed his lips as he fell silent, staring at me with an unknowable look in his eyes. Was he upset? Was he interested? Curious? I couldn’t tell.

“…The position of Gym Leader cannot be so easily given to a foreigner.” Was what Giovanni ended up saying after a small pause, “They are meant to be the protectors of the cities under their authority–”

“I’m not asking for foreigners from Hoenn or Sinnoh to be able to take up our Gym Leader positions.” I interrupted, “Just that anyone within Indigo could be appointed instead of being limited to Kanto or Johto respectively.”

“But that doesn’t change my point.” Giovanni denied, “It would set a dangerous precedent to have a Johtonian have control over a Kantonian city.”

“Kanto and Johto are going to be expressions of the past, Giovanni.” I defended, “Do you think a Johtonian Gym Leader would deliberately sabotage their own city to give Johto an ‘advantage’? There is no war with Johto looming over the horizon – you needn’t be as paranoid as you are.”

I sighed, knowing that persuading Giovanni was not going to be an easy task, “Look, I can understand your concerns. And perhaps I’m being too optimistic about this too – but I really do think the terms ‘Kanto’ and ‘Johto’ are going to fade away as time goes by. Indigo is more and more trending towards unification, whether you approve or not.”

Giovanni grimaced, but he did not object.

I continued, “You’ve already seen how much Kanto is able to prosper when we’re able to work with our neighbours, not just against them. This is just the next big step forwards to ensuring our continued prosperity. Furthermore, if we ARE able to unify Indigo into one singular region, then the chances of a war between Kanto and Johto would drastically decrease, because we’d be one in the same. The more unified we’d become, the less chance that war could break out due to ‘regional tensions’.”

Giovanni’s resistance seemed to falter, so I pushed and smiled reassuringly, “Besides, it’s not as if we will be implementing all this straight away. We’ll be doing it in small, controlled steps to ensure that the panic that you fear won’t come to pass. You could consider it a test run of sorts.”

Giovanni’s silence extended for a little longer, but he eventually let out a helpless sigh, “…Fine, I’m still wary, but I’m not blind to public sentiment. I’ll cautiously agree to a test run. However, are you going to offer me anything for my support?”

Despite framing it like a request – I knew it wasn’t. But I was already prepared for it, “And what would you like in return for this, Giovanni?”

He chuckled, “Don’t make it sound like I’m about to fleece you for everything. I can be reasonable. I just want to have assurances that your new proposal won’t backfire on Kanto. Therefore, I request that there be a clause to ensure that there will be a formal evaluation performed by yours truly, if the Gym Leader is assigned to Kanto, to evaluate their progress after some time has passed. Only IF I am satisfied, then they will be allowed to maintain their position.”

I thought about it for a moment, “…I think that’s very reasonable, but I think it would better if the evaluation involved all of the Gym Leaders in Kanto, rather than just you. And if the Gym Leader is assigned to Johto, then the same applies there. They will be evaluated by their peers in Johto.”

“That is acceptable.” Giovanni nodded, “Then, assuming things remain as you described, you will have my support.”

“But just like you did with me, you’re going to have to persuade the other Gym Leaders to jump on board with this plan too.” He added.

“I know.” I nodded, “But I’m not actually familiar with a lot of them – I was hoping you could give me advice on who you’d think will agree or disagree to such a policy. Or, more precisely, who are the key individuals I would need to persuade.”

“Your biggest dissidents, by far, would be Surge and Pryce.” Giovanni said immediately, “On the other hand, excluding myself, your biggest supporters would be the Waterflower sisters, young Brock, and Jasmine from Olivine.”

Jasmine? Why would she – oh that’s right, I remembered that I had helped her at Olivine. Still… “None of those seem to be very influential Gym Leaders in the grand scheme of things.”

“You’re right.” Giovanni agreed, “Young Brock is still too young to have much influence, and while the Waterflower sisters have been doing well, they fall in the same category as Jasmine – they are competent Gym Leaders, but they lack real influence among the other Gym Leaders.”

“In the meanwhile, Surge and Pryce are both quite notable in their own right. Pryce more so than Surge, of course.” He continued, visibly frowning at the mention of Pryce, “I suspect they will never vote on board with such a plan, though I have heard that Pryce was mellowing out recently.”

He tapped his fingers, “Hmm…this might actually present you with an opportunity. Is Clair going to support this proposal?”

“Yes, she will.” I nodded, “Lance will speak to her.”

“Then you need to see if you can bring Pryce onto your way of thinking.” Giovanni said, “The rest of the Johto Gym Leaders will fall in line with both Clair and Pryce. As for Kanto, so long as you get Blaine to agree, you can drown out Surge’s voice of dissent. Persuade those people, and the vote will overwhelmingly pass in your favour.”

I blinked; persuading Pryce!? The man that probably hated me as much as he hated Lance? Mellowing out or not, he was certainly not going to be positively predisposed to me in the slightest.

But Giovanni was right. For all his flaws, Pryce was undoubtedly a pillar of Johto, even with his fall from grace. His support would help a lot.

I let out a sigh, turning back to Giovanni, “I suppose I’ll have to break out my most convincing smile.” I joked weakly.

He chuckled, “I don’t envy you. Just try not to break out into a fight if you can avoid it. That wouldn’t look for you–” Whatever Giovanni was going to say was interrupted as the door to his office opened, allowing a small Silver to slip in.

“Dad, are you busy– woah!” His eyes grew wide as he saw me, “John! What are you doing here? Is Whitney here?”

I laughed inwardly at his mentioning of my sister; who knew they would become as fast friends as they did, “Sadly not, Silver. She’s still training up as a Gym Trainer at Saffron.”

He pouted, “Why couldn’t she train up here?!”

Giovanni patted him on the head, having gotten up from his desk as his son entered the room, “Because we are the 8th Gym, Silver. It wouldn’t look good if we brought on a trainer like Whitney to be a Gym Trainer for us, not when she’s still so young and inexperienced.”

“But she’s strong!” Silver said stubbornly, “She would do fine as a Gym Trainer here!”

“Speaking of strong, how has your training gone?” I asked, quick to switch the topic, “Have you been getting stronger since your last battle?”

Silver whirled to me, his eyes sparkling, “Yep! I’ve spent a lot of time training with my Nidorino. There’s no way we’ll lose to your Linoone now!” The topic of Whitney was long forgotten.

“OH! And we also got a new Pokémon, check it out!” He reached into his bag and threw out a Pokéball, revealing a Pokémon I really wasn’t expecting to see from him. A small Marill came bouncing up cheerily, wrapping itself around Silver’s arm as it let out a happy chime.

“…A Marill?” I blurted out confusedly. “Did you catch that yourself?”

Giovanni coughed, “Like everyone else, Silver was also infected with the craze for the new Fairy types. And with the PSS, he begged me to get him a Fairy type for him.”

“I wanted a Togepi, but dad said no.” Silver muttered, though his attention was still on pampering his Marill, “But I’m happy with getting a Marill too. It has a strong typing.”

“I wasn’t going to get him a Togepi, even if I could afford it.” Giovanni shook his head, “That would be going too far and spoiling him. So Ariana and I discussed it, and we bought him a Marill instead.”

“A good choice.” I nodded, “There’s a lot of potential with Azumarill. They are strong Pokémon. However…I thought you’d wanted to be a Ground specialist like your father.”

“That’s boring.” Silver replied, “Ground types are strong, sure, but I think I could get stronger by making use of different types. That new Champion in Sinnoh is a generalist too! And she’s strong!”

I smiled indulgently, “She sure is. I’m sure you can follow in her footsteps. You have the potential for it.”

“I know.” Silver nodded proudly, “So do you want to fight me in a battle? Like I said – I’ll win this time.”

I scratched my head, “I’m sorry, but I’m not really free at the moment. Maybe next time.” More importantly, none of my Pokémon could really give a fair fight to Silver. Sure, I could repeat the lesson that I had with Whitney and scare the shit out of him with Tyrant, but that would be far overstepping my boundaries.

Such a lesson ought to be given by his actual parents, not some outsider like me.

Silver frowned, “Okay. I understand, grownups are always so busy. That’s what my dad always says.”

I laughed, “They really are. So enjoy the time while you still can.” I ran my hand through his hair, “Make sure to train up your Pokémon well before the start of your circuit. It’ll give you a huge advantage over all the other new trainers if you do.”

“I know. Whitney said the same thing.” He nodded, “Just watch, John, I’ll also be getting all 8 Gym Badges in my first circuit like she did.”

“And you’ll also be doing your homework like you’re supposed to.” A voice suddenly came from the door, and I turned to see a frowning Ariana looming over a suddenly frightened Silver. “I thought you were just going to ask your father a question, but instead you’re here bothering John instead of doing your homework like you were supposed to.”

“Eek! Save me, John–!” But his protests fell on deaf ears as Ariana dragged Silver out of the room by his shirt, his cries for help slowly fading away into the distance.

“Are you upset that he’s not following in your path as a Ground specialist?” I asked Giovanni as soon as Silver’s cries for help faded away.

“Not at all.” Giovanni said, “In fact, I’m glad that he’s taking his own steps to becoming his own person. Better that then someone who blindly looks up to me. I’m not the role model that he thinks I am.”

I patted him on the shoulder, “You’re doing fine. He seemed much livelier than he was before.”

Giovanni said nothing, instead staring at where Silver disappeared to with a proud smile on his face. I smiled proudly as well, though it was not because of Silver. But rather, it was because I could finally see that Giovanni had well and truly become a doting father, who looked out for his son’s wellbeing and was nurturing of Silver’s potential as a trainer.

It was this change in character which allowed me to feel comfortable to trust him; to believe that he had opened his heart to new possibilities instead of holding on to his old stubbornness. I would have never dared to approach the old Giovanni with a proposal like this, knowing I would be immediately shown the door, nor would I ever trust the advice he gave me.

Idly, as I stared at Giovanni looking like a proud father, I chuckled inwardly to myself. I wondered how much different Silver would become?

A.N. A slower set up chapter, but I hope it paves the way for what to expect coming up. Not only do John’s long term plans start getting put into action, but his long-awaited duel with Lance is finally in the works.

And yes, I know that Silver has canonically different Pokémon, but his living situation couldn’t be more different than in canon. He has an actual family to support him, so naturally his team would be different to reflect this.