Chapter 3: 8-11

Chapter 3: 8-11

A New Normal – 2-2 – A Normal Battle

We arrived at the Gym and were promptly greeted by Gym Leader Norman. At first glance, I noticed that he was much younger than his in-game counterpart and he lacked his stern and stoic expression that he was known for. He also wasn't balding and still had a full head of hair, which I found quite amusing. Instead, Norman's eyes were shifting around, and his posture seemed a little too forced.

I saved him from any potential embarrassment by ignoring his nervousness and shook his hand, "Nice to meet you, Gym Leader Norman." I greeted and gestured towards Karen, "This is Karen, my friend and travelling companion. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to humour me."

"Not a problem, Elite John." Norman said back with a mixture of nervousness and excitement, "It's an honour to meet you as a fellow Normal type specialist." I could tell that he was trying to conceal his nerves by forcing himself to act formally and stoically, with mixed success.

"Agreed, it would be nice to compare our teams." I nodded, before deciding to cut to the chase, "How about we battle each other if you have the time? A 3v3 fight, no stakes. I think a battle would be better than any conversation." I asked with an excited gleam in my eyes.

"Oh! Um, sure-I mean, yes, of course. I would be honoured to have a battle against you." Norman stuttered out before regaining his composure, "I will make the announcement now and have the arena cleared out in preparation."

I nodded and Norman dashed off to finish the preparations. I absentmindedly fiddled with my Pokéballs as I waited in anticipation; it's been only a few days since my last proper Pokémon battle, and yet I couldn't help but feel excited.

More importantly, it was a chance for Tyrant to challenge another Slaking. Throughout my journey through Kanto and Johto, we had never encountered a Slaking that was at the Elite level. That was likely due to the fact that it was a Hoenn Pokémon, and also because of how unpopular it was due to how difficult it is to overcome Slaking's inherent laziness to make it an effective fighter.

Admittedly, if this was a proper match that had stakes in it, I would have researched all of Norman's Pokémon and his fighting styles instead of going into the fight blindly like I am right now. But I was confident that my Pokémon were well-trained enough that could handle anything that Norman threw at them.

I thought about the differences between the games and the Pokémon world. For one thing, there were no such thing as held items. The use of berries and such were only allowed post-battle. Also, while abilities did exist, it needed to be trained up. Consequently, that meant that a Pokémon's ability could become far stronger or weaker than they were in the game, but it also allowed Pokémon to sometimes develop new abilities that weren't available in the games.

Therefore, the tactics and strategies that worked for the games often didn't work in the Pokémon world.

I was too distracted in my thoughts that I failed to notice that Norman had called out to me telling me that the arena was ready. Karen, seeing my lack of response, elbowed me in the side and pushed me forwards towards the arena, which caused me to stumble but it brought me back from my thoughts.

With renewed focus, I kept a lid on my excitement as I followed Norman into the arena. I immediately noticed that there was a sizeable audience sitting at the sides of the arena. I guess these were the audience members from Norman's previous battles that took place today.

Without prompting, Karen gave me a quick "good luck." and separated from me and made her way to join the other audience members, who were all chattering excitedly as some recognised who I was.

I turned back to see that Norman had taken his place on his side of the arena on the elevated platform, so I copied him and did the same.

At this distance, I couldn't make out Norman's exact expressions, but I could instinctively tell that he was as excited as I am for this battle. You couldn't call yourself a serious Pokémon trainer if your blood didn't get pumping at the prospect of a good battle. In the end, we were all battle junkies.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to this very surprising match between Gym Leader Norman and John of the Indigo Elite Four!" A loud voice yelled out with a microphone, eliciting many cheers and screams from the audience. "This will be a 3v3 battle! Each trainer is allowed 1 switch!"

I was a bit surprised at the showboating, considering how solemn and serious the in-game Petalburg Gym felt, but I suppose that this was supposed to be an impromptu show-match anyways, so some degree of hype was to be expected.

"Trainers, are you ready?!" Norman and I both nodded and we released our Pokémon simultaneously. The announcer paused dramatically for a moment before saying "BEGIN!"

"Go! Smough!"

"Come, Linoone!"

Linoone landed onto the arena with a graceful huff that heavily contrasted with the loud boom coming from Smough's entrance. The sheer size and weight difference between the two Pokémon immediately informed any reasonable viewer that Linoone had to keep its distance from Smough in order to win. There could not be a contest of strength.

"Linoone, dash backwards and set up a Belly Drum!" Norman evidently thought the same, as Linoone rapidly pedalled backwards as it then began to set up his Belly Drum.

"Smough, disrupt it with an Earthquake!" Smough roared and the arena started shaking heavily and cracks were appearing throughout the arena. Linoone cried out in pain, but it clearly showed its training as it held its balance and maintained the Belly Drum despite the damage it was taking from the Earthquake.

Seeing that the Earthquake was unable to break Linoone's Belly Drum, I kept up the offensive.

"Smough! Hyper Beam! Don't let it finish!" Smough instantly fired off a powerful beam of energy that shot towards Linoone almost without any charge-up time, but Linoone had managed to finish its Belly Drum and dived out of the way, causing the Hyper Beam to only land a glancing blow. The remaining beam of energy continued and tore out huge gashes in the arena as it melted through the ground.

Still, a glancing blow from Smough's devastating Hyper Beam still did noticeable damage to Linoone, as even the heat that was emitted from the Hyper Beam was intense enough to cause Linoone's fur to briefly catch fire from where the beam had glanced off Linoone. I saw it stumble slightly to put out the fire as it recovered from its hasty dive.

"Now, Linoone! While it's vulnerable, Extreme Speed! Full Power!" Despite its injuries, Linoone pushed through the pain as it began glowing with a white light as it rapidly picked up speed and charged at Smough with all the force that it could muster.

Now, if this was the games, then Smough would be forced to recharge from his Hyper Beam and promptly be knocked out by a Belly Drum boosted Extreme Speed from Linoone. Likewise, even in the Pokémon world, most Elite trainers would still expect a Pokémon to have to be tired after firing off a Hyper Beam and thus would be vulnerable to attack.

Therefore, it was reasonable for any trainer to expect the same for my Smough, and Norman believed no different. In his eyes, the moment my Hyper Beam failed to interrupt Linoone's Belly Drum and knock it out meant that Linoone's victory was secured. No ordinary Snorlax could withstand the incoming boosted Extreme Speed from a trained Linoone.

Except Smough wasn't an ordinary Snorlax.

"GRAB IT SMOUGH!" To everyone's surprise but mine, Smough stood tall and barely stumbled backwards as he tanked Linoone's Extreme Speed with an audible groan. Before Linoone could respond to Smough's unexpected endurance, one of Smough's arms swooped in from above and latched onto Linoone's much smaller body in a tight grip. The audience gasped and shouted as, without pause, Smough then slammed Linoone powerfully into the ground repeatedly; each impact from Smough causing the ground to shake briefly and for loose rocks to be shot into the air.

"Hammer Arm, Smough!" I ordered, taking full advantage of the trap that I had set and Norman's inaction and shock to continue the offensive.

Smough let go of Linoone and clasped his hands together before he smashed them into Linoone with such strength that it cracked a hole into the arena that Linoone fell into with a howl of pain.

"Linoone! Protect! And Quick Attack to get away from there!" Norman recovered from his shock and tried to separate Linoone from Smough. Linoone painfully scrambled away with a short burst of speed from the hole that it was in and threw up a Protect as it tried to create some distance.

"Don't let it go! Body Slam!" Smough rushed at and shouldered through the hastily made Protect, shattering it and failing to reduce his momentum, before crashing into Linoone. The sheer weight and strength difference between the two caused Linoone to be punted across the arena, screeching painfully as it slid across the ground involuntarily, leaving large trails behind in the arena. It was undoubtedly knocked out.

Smough's victory was greeted with shocked silence from the audience. The quick battle just now possessed none of the fancy manoeuvring that was commonly seen in Elite level fights. There were no fancy tricks, no surprise moves, no narrow dodges.

It was just a pure, simple beatdown that made use of Smough's inherent strength and bulkiness to overwhelm and pummel Linoone. At such close range and being trapped in Smough's vice-like grip, it couldn't make use of its nimble and agile dodges that it was so well known for. As I thought at the beginning, the moment Linoone got in range of Smough, the battle was over.

"Return, Linoone. Good job out there." Norman mumbled out, which broke the audience from their collective stupor as they screamed out their cheers. It may have been an unusual fighting style, but the audience didn't care so long as it looked cool. And it did.

"Linoone is unable to battle!" The referee finally announced, "The Gym Leader has thirty seconds to send out his next Pokémon!"

I noticed that Norman was staring at Smough thoughtfully before sending out his next Pokémon.

"Go! Swellow!" Swellow emerged with a loud cry and landed on the arena accompanied by a gust of wind.

I stared at Swellow with a concerned look. Nomran clearly learned his lesson from Smough's earlier showing by choosing to use Swellow. I knew Smough was injured from Linoone's attack, and I also knew that Swellow could easily keep its distance and continue hitting Smough with a mixture of long range and hit-and-run attacks that would eventually wear him down. I needed to find a way to ground Swellow so that Smough could get close enough to knock it out.

Like it was with Linoone, if Smough got into grabbing range of Swellow, the battle was over.

"Trainers! Are you ready?!" I shook myself out of my thoughts as I nodded with Norman. "BEGIN!"

"Swellow, take to the skies! Keep your distance!" Swellow immediately swooped into the sky and stayed far out of reach of Smough.

"Smough! Slack off and Amnesia!" Knowing that this might be a much longer battle of attrition, I decided to allow Smough to recover his health and bolster its defences.

I watched as Smough seemingly slumped over as he rested and restored his health, seemingly unaware of his surroundings. But I had trained all my Pokémon to remain alert during their recovery moves so that they could instantly counterattack if an opposing Pokémon tried to attack them while they were vulnerable. I was hoping that Swellow would take the bait and try to hit Smough with a Brave Bird, but it didn't fall for the trap.

"Swellow, Hurricane!" Swellow flapped her wings as the wings started to swirl around it, eventually forming a large tornado that quickly shot forward and devoured Smough within it. I briefly saw Smough getting battered and cut up by the howling winds before I lost sight of him within the tornado.

Although I could barely see Smough or hear anything in general due to the dust and rocks that the tornado kicked up and surrounded itself with, I shouted out my order hoping that Smough could still hear it.

"Disperse it and convert it into a sandstorm!" I think I made out Smough's roar of agreement through the howling wind as I noticed that the tornado was slowly dissipating and being converted into a general sandstorm that covered the entire arena.

"Swellow! Air Slash while it's busy!" Taking advantage of Smough's momentary distraction as he focused on creating a sandstorm, Swellow fired multiple blades of air that gouged painfully into Smough. Smough gave off a groan of pain as he tanked the hits to finish dispersing the tornado and creating a sandstorm.

"Now! Smough, Rock Slide!" Making use of the abundant rocks that were now being carried around the battlefield by the sandstorm, Smough manipulated the rocks and shot them towards Swellow.

"Dodge them, Swellow and keep Air Slashing!" Showing off its aerial prowess, Swellow managed to dive, swerve, and veer past all of the incoming rocks while continuously firing Air Slashes between its dodges.

I grimaced as I watched Swellow's display of skill. I knew that Smough wasn't the most talented at manipulating rocks, Vordt was far more skilled at that, and this weakness meant that Smough's ability to knock down aerial targets was poor. I had hoped that the sandstorm would force Swellow to fly slower to adapt to the unfriendly weather, but Norman had evidently trained Swellow to maintain its ability to dodge even from within the sandstorm.

I was tempted to switch out to Vordt, but I realized that I wanted this match to show the world my abilities as a trainer. Withdrawing Smough could imply that my team had weaknesses, and it might be construed as me being undeserving of my new title. It was probably just paranoia, but I wanted to be stubborn and not withdraw Smough. I wanted this match to be perfect.

Thus, the battle entered into a stalemate, with both sides seeing who would trip up first. If Smough could land a good hit with his Rock Slide that caused Swellow to fall out of the sky momentarily, then Smough would win. If Swellow could maintain its dodges and wear down Smough with its Air Slashes, then it would win.

Luckily, I had a trick up my sleeve.

"Smough, Yawn!" Smough stopped firing rocks as he let out a gaping Yawn. Swellow had been laser-focused on Smough in order to dodge the incoming rocks, so it couldn't tear its' gaze away in time to avoid the Yawn.

Swellow's eyes began drooping as it was overwhelmed with a need to sleep, and it was dropping steadily out of the air as it began to fell asleep.

"No! Keep yourself awake with a Boomburst, Swellow!" Norman quickly ordered with a panicked look in his eyes.

"Smough, Protect!" Swellow forced itself to stay awake as it let out a piercingly loud screech, waking it up and firing out sound waves that were so powerful that it actually managed to create tears in grounds of the arena as it blasted against Smough's hastily erected shields and also caused the arena's psychic shields to flicker dangerously.

Fortunately, the psychic shields held on, and the sound waves were dampened so that the Boomburst wouldn't destroy and likely cause permanent damage to the crowd's ears.

While the Boomburst did manage to negate the effect of Smough's Yawn, Swellow had already lost a lot of altitude from its earlier Yawn-induced descent. In fact, Swellow was currently only a few meters off the ground, which was something that both trainers noticed.

"Swellow, fly higher! Make some distance!" Norman quickly commanded with noticeable alarm.

"Smough, Shock Wave! Stun it!" Smough stomped and discharged a wave of electricity that zapped Swellow as it tried to take off into the air again. Strictly speaking, the electricity that Smough emitted was far weaker than attacks coming from most electric types, but it was sufficient in making sure that Swellow couldn't take flight.

Norman saw that Swellow wasn't able to fly up quick enough to avoid Smough's inevitable follow-up, so he changed tactics.

"Boomburst again!" Swellow again let out a penetrating screech, the sound waves this time impacting Smough directly as he was too close to dodge or block them. Smough was blasted backwards to the edge of the arena and let out a groan of pain as his feet slid backwards from the force of the attack.

"Swellow, Brave Bird! Hit and run!" Swellow squawked loudly as it did an aerial somersault to pick up momentum as it also started to become surrounded with silvery energy. It rapidly sped up and fell in a dive towards Smough as its surrounding silver energy was radiating with so much brightness that it was nearly blinding to look at.

Time seemed to slow as I quickly dived into my thoughts to analyse my next move. Smough was already hurt from all of Swellow's earlier attacks, though due to the Amnesia he probably wasn't as injured as Norman was expecting, but I wasn't confident that Smough could endure a Brave Bird right after taking a Boomburst. Similarly, I couldn't just order an Iron Defence to bolster Smough's defence, because Swellow would simply use the momentum of the attack to fly into the air again and remain out of reach of Smough's attacks.

Well, if playing defensive was no longer an option, then it made my next command very simple.

"Smough, Giga Impact. End it." Smough gave out a bellowing roar and rapidly broke out into a sprint as his own bright orange glow started to form and spread from within him. Smough's charge was rapidly picking up speed as he continued towards the incoming Swellow, now completely surrounded with his own bright orange glow that transformed into a purple orb with streaks of orange. Norman's eyes widened in alarm as if he wasn't expecting this course of action, but there was no stepping back now. Both Pokémon were far too committed in their attacks to stop.

Without any more commands that either trainer could give, we watched in solemn silence as we watched our Pokémon advance closer to each other. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the psychic shields were being reinforced in preparation.

And I could feel my heart beating out of my chest in controlled anticipation as I braced myself with the railings as the two got closer.

And closer.

And suddenly I was nearly knocked over as a wave of force crashed into me and I had to grip tightly onto the railings to avoid getting blown back by the resulting cascade of energy. All I could hear was the ringing in my ears as my platform was engulfed by a wave of dust as they continued to spill outwards. I forced myself to keep my eyes open and remain focused on the impact.

Apparently, the resulting boom from their collision caused waves of dust and energy to explode out from the point of impact. The psychic shields around the arena that had been reinforced flickered rapidly as they barely withstood the resulting impact and the blast of energy.

Members of the crowd, especially those of a younger age, were knocked over as the psychic shields failed to fully dampen the outward blast of force from the collision. A part of me wanted to look over at the audience and check to make sure if everyone was okay, but the competitive part of me kept my eyes locked on to the slowly dissipating smoke cloud that marked the impact point between our two Pokémon.

I wanted, no needed to know who had won. Cold-hearted as it may seem, but I owed it to Smough to not be distracted and be ready to give commands to finish the battle if necessary. Besides, I told myself that I didn't know if I could do anything to help anyone that was injured anyways. A traitorous image of Karen's face appeared in my mind briefly before I dismissed it as I remained focused on the arena.

The dust slowly scattered to reveal the damage to the arena, and I saw that there were numerous cracks that seemed to spread out from their point of collision. The immediate area where they collided was completely ruined, and all that remains was a giant hole that exposed the structural foundations of the arena that was still filled with dust.

Eventually, the remaining dust cleared to reveal a very badly injured Smough standing victoriously over a knocked over Swellow. When I saw him, I gave out a loud cheer and Smough responded by weakly raising his arms and letting out a roar that almost managed to disguise his very damaged state.

"SNORLAXXXX! SNORLAXX!" I watched as Smough continued roaring out victoriously, but I quickly noticed that he was wobbling uncertainly from his injuries that he tried to power through as he awaited the announcer's call.

"Swellow is unable to battle!" the referee declared as they recovered from the explosion and saw Swellow's fainted expression.

Not wanting for Smough to feel embarrassed by fainting in front of the audience, I quickly withdrew him and informed the referee that I was retiring Smough from the match, which he announced.

Norman withdrew his Swellow with a grimace, and he signalled to the other gym trainers to fix up the gym, as it was too damaged to be used for our last battle. As the arena was being fixed, he left his platform and walked up to where I was standing, gesturing with his eyes that he wanted to talk. Seeing this, I got down from my platform and waited for him. I heard the crowd muttering to each other as we approached each other. As he got close enough, he began to speak.

"I wasn't expecting that." He admitted, "I thought you would have tried to make use of your Snorlax's bulk to withstand the attack before following up with a counterattack like you did with my Linoone."

"You're right. It was my first instinct." I confessed, "But I realized that, with your Swellow's momentum, it would have been really hard for Smough to pin your Swellow down like I did with your Linoone. If that had failed, then you would be free to take to the skies again and continue your long-ranged attacks. Thus, I had to go on the offensive." I explained.

"I see, so it wasn't actually a calculated gamble." Norman thought aloud, "But rather it was your only sensible option left in this scenario." Norman shook his head as he finished his own explanation.

I remained silent as I allowed Norman to figure out his own thoughts. After a moment to think, Norman turned his attention back to me and asked.

"For our final battle, would you mind if we went Slaking vs Slaking?"

"Sure, that was what I was hoping for too." I said excitedly, "I've been looking forward to facing your Slaking. I wanted to see how Tyrant matches up."

"Ah, well, please take it easy on me." Norman spoke uncharacteristically nervously, "I'm sure my Slaking isn't as strong as yours."

"No promises," I joked, before turning serious as I saw Norman remained nervous, he really lacked his in-game stoicism. "Norman, take a deep breath and regain your calm. If you are nervous when it comes to a battle, your Pokémon will be negatively affected by that. You owe it to your Pokémon to stay calm and direct them as best you can."

It was weird giving advice to someone who was nearly twice my age, especially since that person was Norman, but I instinctively maintained a mentoring tone as I tried to reassure Norman. I blame Whitney for developing my mentoring instincts.

I watched as Norman took a deep breath and exhaling. After repeating this a few times, he looked back at me. "Thank you, Elite John. You're right of course, I owe it to my Pokémon to be the best that I can." He sighed and shook his head, but had a smile on his face, "I still have a lot to learn as a trainer and as a Gym Leader."

"Don't worry Norman, I'm sure you'll be able to get it in the future." And I knew that because canon Norman was stoic and always appeared calm.

One of the Gym Trainers approached the two of us to inform us that the arena had been fixed and that we may continue our battle. We both nodded at that, and I gave Norman a thumbs up before we separated and returned to our platforms.

As I stood on my platform while fiddling with Tyrant's Pokéball, I put my recent conversation with Norman in the back of my mind. I did want to discuss things further with him later, but now wasn't the time for it.

I felt my heart pumping eagerly in my chest again. It was time for Tyrant to battle.

The New Normal – 2-3 – Tyrant

"Trainers, are you ready?!" The referee announced once more, receiving nods from both trainers. My grip unconsciously tightened around Tyrant's Pokéball as I prepared to release him.

This was it. I would show Hoenn just exactly how I earned my title. Tyrant will show them all.

I barely even heard the "Begin!" as I reflexively threw Tyrant's Pokéball, releasing him onto the arena.

"SLAKINGGGG!!!" Tyrant powerfully let out a roar out to the ceiling that managed to shake the very foundations of the Gym as he made his grand entrance, causing the psychic shields to flicker slightly from the power of Tyrant's roar. His scarred body landing onto the arena on all fours with an audible crack as the newly repaired arena fractured slightly at his weight and power. All eyes were on him as his presence radiated with such strength of presence that he caused lesser Pokémon to cower in fear. Tyrant was certainly living up to his name.

In comparison, Norman's Slaking was a fine specimen of his species too, and definitely was well-trained by maintaining an alert and non-lazy posture. If it was not currently facing my Tyrant, it would definitely have made an impressive sight on its own, easily worthy of being a Gym Leader's Ace. However, when compared to Tyrant, it was noticeably smaller, its muscles were less defined, and it still had a hint of laziness that it failed to shrug off.

Unlike the games, where Slaking was severely hampered by its Truant ability, the Pokémon world's version of Slaking was similarly hampered by its inherent laziness that could cause it to ignore its trainer's orders and laze around. If this happened in a serious battle, the results were catastrophic because if it disobeys a command and lazes around during a critical moment of the battle could cause the Slaking to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Hence, it was why Slaking was a very rare Pokémon to see in the ranks of the Elite. The trainer must have sufficiently trained the Slaking to go against its own inherent lazy nature and to develop battle instincts that would distract it from wanting to laze around during a battle.

Yet, this was much easier said than done and that was why, despite Slaking's prodigious strength, many trainers skipped over Slaking in their considerations as there were other powerful Pokémon that they could use that didn't require so much training.

But, if you DID manage to overcome a Slaking's inherent shortcomings, then you had a powerful, Elite level Pokémon that had a great combination of strength, endurance, and speed.

And Tyrant had done more than just overcome his laziness, he had surpassed it and transformed his laziness into a raging lust for battle that made him into an unstoppable monster that could fight with such immense strength and endurance that he would break even the strongest of Pokémon.

As a result, the moment Tyrant locked eyes with Norman's Slaking, without warning, Tyrant shot forward like a bullet and sprinted on two legs like an Olympic athlete straight at the opposing Slaking. I could see the surprise in the opposing Slaking's eyes as it could barely comprehend what was about to happen as Tyrant closed the distance.

Speed was always something that I emphasized with my training of Tyrant. For some reason, even most elite trainers would not realize just how fast Tyrant could be. They all saw Slaking as a 'slow and lazy' Pokémon and believed the same for Tyrant. My opponent in the finals of the Indigo League Conference certainly believed so. They could not be more wrong.

Thus, before Norman could issue a command, Tyrant had already closed in on the Slaking and crashed into it with a Body Slam with such force that it sent shockwaves exploding outwards.

I could hear the various gasps and shouts of surprise from the audience that I ignored as I watched Tyrant transitioning his slam into a charge that carried and dragged Norman's Slaking far backwards, creating several tears in the arena that trailed behind Norman's Slaking as it was forcefully dragged along by Tyrant, before eventually Tyrant slammed into it once more as they collided with the psychic shields at the edge of the arena.

The sound of glass shattering could be heard as the psychic shields creaked and flickered at the strain of the impact. I inwardly hoped that Norman had some way of reinforcing the psychic shields, as I highly doubted that it could endure more than a few more attacks like that.

"Slaking! Get up! Hammer Arm!" To Norman's credit, he responded quickly to Tyrant's sudden burst of aggression, but Tyrant was not one for allowing his opponents to fight back. Tyrant easily caught Slaking's descending arm with his own, and not letting up on the offensive, Tyrant roared and, in an impressive display of his immense strength, lifted Slaking's fallen body by the arm, carried it over his head, and suplexed it back into the ground with a loud bang that shattered and shook the ground of the arena once again.

Tyrant's preferred method of fighting was unbelievably aggressive; he would close the distance on his opponents before unleashing an onslaught of attacks at such close range that would disorient the opponent so that they couldn't make use of their long-ranged attacks or fancy tricks and dodges.

To compliment this fighting style, I had trained Tyrant's combat instincts so that he didn't need to rely on my commands before attacking, which was beneficial at such close ranges as it allowed him to react quicker than if he needed to wait for me to give him commands. This led to Tyrant adopting an almost completely barbaric way of fighting that abused Tyrant's unbeatable strength, endurance, and his own battle lust.

Against less experienced Pokémon or trainers that were not used to such a method of fighting, they could find themselves overwhelmed and too disorientated to fight back. This was why I told Norman to clear his emotions and to not allow his nervousness to affect his judgment.

"Get on top of it, Tyrant!" Continuing with the aggression, Tyrant pounced on top of Slaking's prone state and ferociously Headbutted it as he pinned it down underneath him before he raised his arms and struck them down savagely with a Hammer Arm. Each blow by Tyrant caused the arena to crack more and more, until eventually, the ground separated into a large gash that both Pokémon fell into.

"No? Sorry, I'm afraid I haven't." He responded guiltily, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's because of the criteria for Stantler to evolve into Wyrdeer involves it mastering many Psychic type moves." I explained, "Once a Stantler possesses a certain level of mastery in its Psychic moves, it evolves into a Wyrdeer and gains the Psychic typing." I rubbed the egg affectionately as I said this.

"It was the same for Ursaluna. If an Ursaring masters several Ground type moves, it becomes eligible to evolve into an Ursaluna." I continued, "And, with these discoveries, I have a theory that other Pokémon could also have undiscovered evolutions that we have yet to discover."

Karen's eyes shot up in realization as she understood what I was getting at. Norman still looked a bit confused as if he didn't realize why this was relevant.

"You see, if my theory proves true, then what better way of testing it then with an egg?" I said, to which Norman finally gained a look of realization as he pointed questioningly towards the egg that he had just given me. "Yes, that's right, I did my research and found that Linoone had plenty of Dark types moves that it can learn. Similarly, Stantler has plenty of Psychic type moves that it could learn. Do you see what I'm getting at?"

Karen nodded excitedly, "You mean to say that Linoone may have an undiscovered evolution that may be found if we trained it to master Dark type moves?!"

Norman frowned at that, "That can't be the case. I can see how you would think so, John, but I believe that my Linoone has mastered many Dark type moves already. Mine even knows Night Slash. If your theory was true, then shouldn't my Linoone have already evolved?"

I adopted a thoughtful expression as I started to think. I already knew about Linoone's 'undiscovered' evolution, after all. What I didn't know was how I could evolve a Linoone into an Obstagoon. I didn't even know how to create a Galarian Zigzagoon!

"Hmm, you make a good point." I conceded after a bit of thinking, "Then perhaps I should alter my theory. For some reason, my gut is telling me that the Linoone line has more to it than what we currently know, likely to do with some kind of Dark type evolution. That's my hypothesis for why it has so many Dark type moves."

Again, I tilted my head as I absent-mindedly rubbed the egg and thought about how I would evolve a Linoone into an Obstagoon.

"What about infusing the egg with Dark type energy?" Karen suddenly suggested, and I shot out of my seat at her comment.

"Yes! That's it!" I shouted with excitement as I gave Karen a kiss on the cheek. I was so thrilled about the possibilities that I didn't even notice that I had done so. "Yes, that's brilliant, Karen! Perhaps if we could carefully infuse the egg with Dark type energy, then we could perhaps create an alternate form of Zigzagoon that might be Dark type!"

I really hoped this worked, though I was confident that it would. If you could create the alternate forms of Pokémon by infusing them with the correct energy while they're in an egg, then we could have access to many new Pokémon that were normally limited to the other regions!

"Hmm, that could work." Norman said consideringly, breaking me out of my enthusiasm. I began to blush deeply as I turned to Karen, remembering what I had done. Fortunately, she only seemed shocked and not disgusted. We needed to talk about this later.

"...but you would have to be careful not to harm the Pokémon in the egg." Norman finished after a minute or so; I didn't catch most of what he said but only nodded in response. My mind was too distracted and was awhirl with thoughts. I took a deep breath to calm myself down before I returned my attention to Norman.

"Yes, I'll be sure not to harm the egg." I replied, "In fact, I'll ensure that my Blissey is always monitoring the egg to make sure that we aren't harming it."

I then turned to Karen, ignoring the awkwardness between us, "Karen, this was your idea as well, so I'd like your help." She gave me a look of confusion, "I don't have any Dark type Pokémon, but you're a Dark type specialist. I think it would be safer, and more effective, if you would help me to infuse the egg and monitor it. This will be a joint project, what do you think?"

Karen brightened and nodded at my question. That was a good sign that I didn't ruin things with my impromptu kiss.

With that revelation out of the way, I continued giving a worried Norman a few more reassurances that I would do my best not to harm the egg. I couldn't guarantee that the process would be 100% safe, as no one had ever attempted it before, but I did promise him that I would be careful and would halt the experiment if I noticed that the Pokémon was at risk.

After he was appropriately reassured, we discussed a few more things together about the training of Normal types before eventually saying our goodbyes and leaving. I found that we had a lot of similarities in what we focused on for our training, mainly maintaining the discipline of our Pokémon and working to cover our areas of weaknesses.

Before we left, Norman asked if we had any accommodations for the night, which we didn't. He then booked us in at the Pokémon Center and told us we can stay there on him. We both thanked Norman for that, and we left the Petalburg Gym. Overall, I felt like my trip to Hoenn was going to turn out far better than I expected, especially if my theory about infusing an egg was correct.

I considered letting Giovanni know about what I was experimenting but decided against it as I didn't want him to interfere unnecessarily with the experiment. I forcefully reminded myself that Giovanni and I weren't friends. Besides, the experiment could fail, and I didn't want more people knowing about the project if it did.

Seeing that I still needed to heal my Pokémon, I started walking to the Pokémon center, with Karen following distractedly behind me. Noticing that she was being uncharacteristically silent, I asked her if there was anything wrong, and received no response.

As I was about to ask her again, she turned to me and finally spoke up.

"Hey, John, can we talk about that kiss?" She said with a carefully blank expression.

Ah, shit.

The New Normal – 2-5 – Thoughts and Discussions

We made our way silently to the Pokémon Center, my new Zigzagoon egg still in my hands, but my head was roiling with thoughts. I had kissed Karen as a spur of the moment kind of thing out of pure excitement at her comment, and I immediately realised that it was a mistake to have done so. But the fact that I even kissed her did bring up questions in my mind. Was it a kiss that was done out of excitement? Or was it the beginning of something more? Was I ready to accept that it might be the latter case?

Upon reflecting on my actions throughout the previous days, I admitted to myself that I did enjoy spending time with Karen, and maybe I even enjoyed it too much. However, we've only known each other for a short while, and I really didn't want to rush into things. I realized that I was probably acting on my hormones too much, leading to my mistaken actions, and that I wasn't thinking over things rationally like I usually do. I was too excited, too eager, and I ended up kissing her because I didn't keep a lid on that excitement.

A part of me wanted to blame my hormones, but I knew that I was as much at fault for letting my impulses run free and unchecked. And I felt horrible for doing so.

We kept our silence as we entered the PokeCenter, and I distractedly greeted the Nurse Joy before depositing my Pokéballs for Smough and Tyrant to be healed up. Technically, Klee could've taken up the healing duties instead of bringing them to a Pokécenter but doing Pokécenter style healing took a lot out of her, so I found that just making use of a Pokécenter was easier.

After that, we went to the nearby vending machines to grab some dinner and we made our way to our reserved rooms, courtesy of Norman. We quickly settled into my room and made sure the egg was placed safely before we sat down to eat our meals. After a moment of quiet eating, Karen spoke up.

"Ok, this honestly shouldn't be that awkward." She began with a false bluntness that I felt was a fa?ade to hide her nervousness, "It was just a kiss on the cheek, and I'm probably overreacting, but I need to ask what that kiss meant and why it happened."

"Well honestly I wasn't thinking that hard when I did it." I admitted guiltily while scratching my head, greatly hoping that she wasn't mad at me. "I was just so excited at your comment that I kissed you, I didn't really mean anything by it." I shrugged.

My tone shifted to become more serious and nervous, "I can only apologize if that kiss made you uncomfortable. I certainly shouldn't have done it, and I feel terrible for having done so. I can understand if you are angry or upset at my actions. However, I am willing to say that I still value you as a friend, Karen, but I'm not ready for anything more yet." I bowed my head deeply in apology.

Karen let out a big sigh in relief, which I wasn't sure if I should be offended by or not, "That's good...Oh, shit, sorry I didn't mean it that way." She quickly backtracked as she saw the hurt spread across my face, "Look, John, I've only known you for a short while. And I'm not mad, just mostly surprised really." She sighed out again. "I realize that I probably share some of the blame as I can be a bit of a flirt thanks to Agatha's teachings, but I do only see you as a friend, and I would rather keep it that way for the time being. So please, no more of that." She looked away and couldn't meet my eyes.

"That's understandable, and I was thinking the same thing too." I told Karen honestly, who turned to look back at me, "Honestly, I think you're a great friend and I really enjoy your company, Karen, despite only knowing you for a few days. And I will take the blame and apologize once again for making this situation as awkward as it is and am genuinely sorry that I did it. But I'd like to spend some more time with you in Hoenn getting to know you better for the time being." I admitted with a slight blush.

"It's alright, John. Just make sure to not do that again, I'm definitely not ready for it. And sure, I'd like that to get to know you better too." Karen said and gave me another one of her sincere smiles. Damn, she really needs to stop doing that.

We held each other's gazes for a bit before we both simultaneously broke into relieved laughter.

"I'm glad that's over with." Karen laughed out.

"Yes, I wouldn't want to be confronted on something like that again." I responded with a smile as I was filled with relief at her acceptance. Inwardly, I hated how my teenage hormones made me act like this. I was very fortunate that Karen was understanding, otherwise I would have been in the shit. I vowed to myself that I would try harder to keep a lid on them so that I wouldn't act up like this again.

Oh, the horror of going through puberty a second time.

With that little bit of relationship drama out of the way, we both settled in and finished our dinners while returning to our regular small talk. We had a few discussions on how we wanted to infuse the egg with Dark type energy and how we were going to document our experiment.

Though, with both of us airing how we wanted our relationship to move forward for the future, I felt that a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was happy to be friends and spend time with Karen, but anything more needed to wait until much later.

With dinner done, I split up with Karen as she returned to her own room to start preparing to go to sleep while I headed down to the reception to pick up my healed Pokémon. Pokécenters in this world healed quickly like the games, unless the Pokémon was severely injured to the point where its life was threatened, then they took more time to heal.

"Here you go, sir." The Nurse Joy greeted me as she returned my now healed Pokémon to me.

"Thank you very much." I said in response and returned Smough and Tyrant's Pokéballs to their rightful place on my belt.

"I hope you don't mind me saying this but thank you for having that battle with Gym Leader Norman." The Nurse Joy suddenly said to me, which caused me to adopt a look of confusion.

"Uhhh, you're welcome?" I said confusedly, "I didn't think it was such a big deal."

"Well, you might not know this as someone who isn't from Hoenn, but Gym Leader Norman was not actually born here in Hoenn. He's actually from Olivine City in Johto but married his wife who is from Hoenn." She explained, "Which meant that when he was made Gym Leader at Petalburg, there were some that looked down on him because he was a foreigner."

I frowned when I heard that, I had forgotten that bit of trivia from canon. After my talks and battle with Norman, I considered him a friend, and I was mad for him on his behalf.

"But I watched your battle with him today on the Pokénet, and I'm sure many others have done so as well." The Nurse Joy continued, "He might have lost, but he did really well today and really showed why he deserves to be the Petalburg Gym Leader. Hopefully, with his good showing from today, he'll have more respect from the people of Petalburg."

I nodded as I understood what she was saying. Basically, the situation that Norman was facing was very similar to what I was currently facing as the newest member of the Elite 4. We both had to prove to the public that we deserved our positions through a display of strength and ability.

Although, the fact that Norman was a foreigner and was still able to become a Gym Leader of Hoenn did make me consider a few things that I could apply in Indigo for the future. I thought about how, in canon, Whitney became the Gym Leader of Goldenrod. Could I encourage her to do the same here? If so, it would prove to be a great boon for my goal of achieving unity between Kanto and Johto. It was a very far off goal, but I hoped it would work out. Of course, I would actually ask her if she wanted to do it; I wouldn't force her into anything.

I broke myself from my thoughts and thanked the Nurse Joy for her explanation but said that she didn't need to thank me because it really wasn't a big deal and that I was happy for Norman.

After that, I made my way back to my room, got myself cleaned up, and collapsed on my bed. It's been a long day. Just before I fell asleep though, I texted my parents to make sure everything was okay and let them that I was doing fine and double checked to make sure the egg was in a safe position. I quickly got a text back that everything was fine, but Whitney had seen my battle against Norman, and she really wants to talk about it soon. I told her I would do so later, then I put my phone away and quickly fell asleep.

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

I found out quickly the next morning that the disadvantage of travelling with Karen was that she absolutely refused to be woken up in the mornings. I had already gotten ready and bought breakfast, and yet she still hadn't left her room yet. I was pretty certain that she hadn't even woken up yet.

She remained absent even until I finished my breakfast, so eventually I lost my patience and decided to knock on her door and force her awake. After a full minute of knocking on her door, I was finally greeted with the sight of a newly awake, and utterly dishevelled Karen.

"Let me die." She told me dramatically with barely opened eyes.

"Well, good morning to you too." I said dryly and she merely groaned unintelligently in response. She really was acting like a zombie, hell, she even looked like one too at the moment.

"Come on, I want to start making our way to Rustboro City today so that I can discuss things with Devon Corp." I nudged her, but seeing that she remained unwilling I changed tactics, "Come on, didn't you catch a new Corphish yesterday? Wouldn't he be excited to come out and play? If you go back to sleep like that, he'll be very sad in his Pokéball."

"Ughhhh, fine, let me go get ready." She finally conceded as she rubbed her eyes sleepily and closed the door on me.

Admittedly, I was worried that she would just close the door and immediately go back to sleep, but not too long later she made her way down and somehow didn't look like a freshly revived zombie. She had a quick breakfast and then we left for Rustboro City, but we decided to go the scenic route and walk through Petalburg Woods rather than just fly straight to Rustboro.

I still felt bad about kissing her like that, but she seemed to not really have any problems with it after our conversation yesterday, or at least she wasn't bringing it up, so I decided to let it go.

We quickly bought a few more supplies at the nearby Pokémart before we head off for Petalburg Woods, our luggage transferred into big rucksacks that were far easier to carry. I had also bought an incubator for the egg so that it could hopefully remain undamaged and stored it safely in my rucksack as we travelled.

Karen considered releasing her new Corphish as we walked, but I told her that it might be better to save Corphish's energy for some potential battles and training in Petalburg Woods, since I was planning to do the same with Pixel, and she agreed.

By noon, we had already made it to the entrance of Petalburg Woods, and we both decided to have a quick lunch before we made our way in. If we had stopped to eat within the woods, we might have attracted a few too many Pokémon with the smell.

With lunch wrapped up, Karen and I released our Corphish and Porygon respectively. From my memory and the research that I did on Petalburg Woods, it was mainly inhabited my weak, 'lower-level' Pokémon and it was a suitable area for new trainers to go and train in. Thus, the wild Pokémon there should be at a suitable level for our new captures to battle and train with.

Sure enough, we had only just ventured into Petalburg Woods for a few minutes when a lone Shroomish approached Corphish with a challenging expression. I saw Karen give it a quick glance before nodding and gesturing for Corphish to step up.

"Corphish! Cor!" Corphish snapped his claws in what he thought was a show of aggressiveness, but to me it only looked cute.

"Shroom! Shroomish." Shroomish growled back, and both Pokémon started circling each other as they continued their posturing.

Deciding that the two had done enough posturing, Karen gave her first order. "Okay Corphish, show me what you can do. Hit it with a Slash!"

Corphish charged forward and sliced Shroomish with one of his claws, eliciting a cry of pain from the wild Pokémon. However, Shroomish countered and slammed into Corphish with a Tackle of its own.

"Keep Slashing, Corphish!" Corphish surprisingly didn't wince at the Tackle from the Shroomish and continued Slashing at it until eventually the Shroomish fainted.

"Good job, Corphish!" Karen praised, "That was a great first battle!" Corphish raised his claws in the air as he cheered and puffed out slightly at his victory.

"Pory?" Pixel suddenly called out, "Pory. Pory pory." With Pixel being so new to my team, I still struggled with understanding what it was saying. Pixel evidently caught on to my confusion as it began to gesture with its head towards the fainted Shroomish.

"You want to fight that Shroomish?" I guessed, but Pixel shook its head at that, "OH, uh, you want to fight a Shroomish?" Pixel nodded excitedly and I had to think about it.

Not to look down on Pixel, but I really didn't feel like it was ready to fight a Shroomish yet. It was still very new to battling, and I really didn't think it was ready until it got more training in with my own Pokémon. Still, I saw the value in getting some hands-on experience for it, so I made a compromise.

"Hmm, Pixel, I don't think you're ready to take on a Shroomish just yet." I said carefully and I saw Pixel predictably wiggle in frustration, "But, I think I'll let you battle a Wurmple if we find one. I think you can handle that." Pixel's frustration was quickly replaced by excitement and joy as it cheered out with a mechanical whine.

With Pixel's sudden request sorted out, I nodded to Karen who had been waiting patiently and we headed deeper into the woods. I hung back with Pixel as we watched Corphish take on a few other wild Pokémon, such as Poochyena, Taillow, and Zigzagoon. Sadly, we didn't come across any Slakoth's, which I suppose wasn't that surprising considering that it was supposed to be rare.

Luckily for Pixel, though, we soon ran into a Wurmple and Silcoon pair that was just minding their own business. Sadly, Pixel was too excited to battle and decided that them 'minding their own business' was an insufficient excuse to avoid battling, and so quickly approached them and challenged them to fight.

I could tell from the Wurmple's expression that it was clearly reluctant to battle, but Corphish had joined in on Pixel's enthusiasm and wanted to continue his winning streak. Thus, the two wild Pokémon had no choice but to fight.

I let Corphish deal with the Silcoon as I focused on aiding Pixel in its battle against Wurmple. "Okay Pixel let's go. You can do this. Tackle it!" Pixel beeped in response and charged at Wurmple like it had practiced so many times against Smough and rammed into the small Bug type, landing a good blow and knocking the Wurmple back a few paces.

"Keep using Tackle, Pixel, you got this!" Wurmple fired back a String Shot to trip up Pixel but Pixel powered through it with another Tackle that, this time, managed to knock out the Wurmple. Overall, it really wasn't that exciting of a battle for a trainer at my skill level, but Pixel definitely saw it as the most exciting thing to ever happen to it and was cheering happily as its victory.

"Congratulations Pixel, you won your first battle!" I patted Pixel on the head over its epic victory against a wild Pokémon that really just wanted to be left alone, and I saw that in the corner of my eye Corphish had already wrapped up his battle with the Silcoon. Despite how simple the battle was, I felt that it helped Pixel get into the right mindset for future training and ensured that it saw that it was making progress and steadily getting stronger.

With the battle wrapped up, we continued making our way through Petalburg Woods mostly uneventfully. Any wild Pokémon that we encountered would either be handled by Corphish or Pixel, and both Karen and I were ready to release our much stronger Pokémon just in case we ran into anything that our two newer captures couldn't handle. Sadly, we didn't encounter any Slakoth's. If we did, I'd definitely catch another one to send to Whitney.

It was late in the evening when we managed to make our way out of Petalburg Woods and into the outskirts of Rustboro City. I asked Karen if she wanted to slow down and camp out for a night or speed up so that we could make our way to Rustboro and hopefully find a room in the Pokécenter. She decided on the latter, so we withdrew our now tired and battered Pokémon and quickened our pace as we walked to Rustboro City.

We arrived just as it started to turn dark, and luckily, we were both able to find rooms for the night at the Pokécenter. We were both pretty tired from today's walk, but I told Karen that I wanted to get started on our experiment with the egg. She agreed, and we both had a quick shower and scarfed down our dinners before we both went back to my room to check on the egg.

"Okay, how are we doing this?" Karen asked as she carefully inspected the egg. I could tell that she was both equal parts excited and nervous about the experiment.

"Well, it's not like I've ever done this before." I replied, to which she frowned at. I guess she was hoping that I had a more confident plan or something. "Wait, let me release my Blissey so that she can make sure what we're doing is safe."

I released Klee into the room, and she immediately hugged me as she always did. But, this time, she had a look of surprise as she saw Karen sitting next to me. After a short pause for Klee to inspect Karen, she immediately let go of me and glomped Karen with a hug of her own. Karen was briefly surprised at the hug, but eventually returned a hug of her own to Klee.

"Wow, she's a real hugger, isn't she?" Karen remarked.

"Yeah, she is. She's almost a second mother to me." I said fondly. I watched the two hug for a while before I coughed to regain their attention. "Okay, Klee, sorry to disturb you but I need you to make sure that we aren't going to be damaging the egg."

Klee turned back to me with a questioning look, as if asking why we would even consider hurting a Pokémon egg.

"No, we're not going to be harming the egg on purpose, Klee." I said placatingly, "But, Karen and I came up with an idea on how we could discover a new evolution line for a Zigzagoon. We think that if we can infuse the egg with Dark type energy, then we can create an alternate form of Zigzagoon that would be a Dark type. But we need you to make sure that we aren't harming the egg while doing so." I told her.

I could tell that most of what I said flew over Klee's head, but she understood the 'not damaging the egg' part and so nodded and proceeded to carefully inspect the egg and started monitoring it.

"Ok, Karen, I want you to use your most skilled Pokémon at manipulating Dark type energy." I told her, and she nodded and thought for a bit before releasing her Umbreon. With two Pokémon and two people sharing one room at once, it was starting to get a little crammed.

"Umbreon?" The Umbreon barked out confusedly. Karen began explaining to the Umbreon what they were doing with the egg as I turned my attention back to Klee.

"Any problems?" I asked Klee, and fortunately she shook her head. I looked back at Karen, and she gave me a nod to show that Umbreon understood its, no, his assignment.

"Ok, are we ready?" I asked the Umbreon, and I got a nod in return as he began to release a very faint and weak burst of Dark type energy that slowly seeped into the egg.

I saw that Klee's eyes were narrowed in focus as she continued staring at the egg, making sure that there was nothing going wrong and that the Zigzagoon inside remained healthy and unharmed.

"Should we send another pulse of Dark energy?" Karen asked Klee. Klee went over the egg once more before giving a careful nod. With that, Umbreon sent out another weak pulse of Dark energy towards the egg that was also quickly absorbed.

We repeated this process a few more times, each time double checking with Klee to make sure that things remained safe. Although we had allowed a few pulses of Dark energy to be absorbed by the egg, we noticed no noticeable change in the egg's outer appearance, nor did Klee or Umbreon notice any changes happening to the Zigzagoon inside the egg.

We decided to stop it there for the night, both because we didn't want to accidentally damage the egg by sending too much Dark type energy in a short period of time, and also because it was getting late.

I was about to return Klee to her Pokéball but she waved her hands as if she wanted to say something.

"Bliss...Blissey Blissey?" My eyes widened as I listened to Klee's suggestion. Of course! I totally forgot that I could use Klee's Fairy type moves to disperse any excess Dark type energy in case the egg absorbed too much of it.

"Thank you, Klee, that was a great suggestion. I can't believe I didn't think of that." I praised Klee, giving her a thankful hug that she returned before I withdrew her back into her Pokéball. Karen gave me questioning look, but I just shook my head at that. She let it go but instead asked me a question of her own.

"So, what do you think of the today's process with the egg?" She asked with a bit of disappointment. I guess she was hoping that we would make noticeable progress today.

"Well, I wasn't that surprised that nothing occurred honestly." I told her, "I didn't think that a night's work of infusing Dark type energy would be enough to change a Pokémon's typing while they are still in an egg. It probably takes a lot more work than that." I answered honestly.

"That's true." She nodded her head in acceptance before letting out a sigh. "I guess I was just really hoping that this experiment would work out. Not just because we'd be able to discover a new Pokémon if it really works, but also because it'd give me the fame that I need to prepare for a run for the Elite 4." Karen admitted.

I rubbed my mouth thoughtfully at that. I hadn't previously considered how Karen would run for the Elite 4, but now that she had explained it makes sense why she wants this experiment to work out. But I remembered how, despite my discoveries of two new evolutions, I still didn't have much personal influence so when I was made an Elite 4, so they were able to side-line me to Hoenn.

I told her my thoughts and I got a solemn nod in return.

"I know that. But your discoveries still gave you a measure of personal influence for when you eventually became an Elite 4. If I also made a big discovery, then if Walker does retire or gets kicked out and a spot becomes open on the Elite 4, then having this discovery would make me a better candidate to be chosen. I would show another aspect of myself that isn't just my ability at battling...and I would be known as something more than just being Agatha's apprentice." She said seriously.

I could tell that she was a bit bitter and nervous about her chances of joining the Elite 4, and I could certainly empathize with her. I gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulders, careful to remain platonic not go any further than that, and she gave me small smile as thanks.

"I believe you can do it, Karen." I told her sincerely, "Regardless of whether this experiment is a success, I truly believe you can make it to the Elite Four on your merits alone, and not just because you are Agatha's apprentice."

"Thank you, John." She said with a slight frailness that I hadn't seen on her before, "I hope that one day I can join you in the Elite Four."

"Yes, that would be great." I replied with a slight chuckle.

Inwardly, I hoped that she had forgiven me for my previous kiss. I was tempted to hug her, to reassure her, but I stopped myself as I didn't want to make the same mistake as I did the day before. We then wrapped up our conversation with some mundane topics before she eventually calmed herself and thanked me for my reassurance before heading back to her room to sleep.

I stared briefly at her retreating back before I got up and showered and prepared to go to bed. With a quick check on the egg and a few texts to my parents, I fell onto my bed as all the exhaustion seemed to hit me all at once and promptly fell asleep.