The New Normal – 8-13 – Explorers of Time
With the battle with Flint over and with him retiring to have his Pokémon healed up, Cynthia turned back to me.
“I’m glad you seem to believe in me.” She said with a cheeky smile.
“Why wouldn’t I?” I shrugged, though I was also smiling. “Anyways let’s talk and work at the same time. I need to clean...
2024-03-01 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – OMAKE – Ingame Snippets v4
When speaking at the Battle Frontier:
[“I’m sorry, but the Battle Frontier seems to still be under construction.”]
[“It’s really unfortunate, but it seems like construction just started a couple of days before you arrived. Weird how they seem to close just before you want to challenge it, right...
2024-03-01 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – OMAKE – The Survivor
Her parents had always been against her participation in the war. They had tried to instil into her that a lady’s duty was in the household, to manage the finances of her husband, and to be a loyal wife. She had scoffed, never really buying into that nonsense. Besides, she had always been better as a trainer than she was at chor...
2024-02-28 11:19:32 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-12 – Ignition
It had been a good few days after Lorelei’s victory against Surge. I spent the past few days both continue up with training my Pokémon as well as spending some time doing my duty as the Indigo representative. In this case, that meant welcoming the small group of people from Silph Co as they hashed out a deal with the Sinnoh League s...
2024-02-26 11:36:21 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-11 – INTERLUDE – SABRINA & WHITNEY
(Sabrina POV)
After Janine’s victory over her parents for the Marsh Badge, neither herself or Whitney had much difficulty against her parents for their own Marsh Badge.
Oh, she knew that her father had tried to make things harder for them, but he was still constrained by the limitations...
2024-02-23 07:20:00 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-10 – Interlude – Blaine
Blaine grumbled as he walked back to his office. It had been another boring and tedious session of battles that he was forced to perform as the Gym Leader of Cinnabar. Honestly, did these trainers think that the 7th Gym Badge was just a joke? A warm-up for their showdown against the 8th Gym Badge?
He sent any that cam...
2024-02-21 13:08:34 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-10 – Commentary
Seeing the determination in Cynthia’s eyes made it hard for me to focus back on the match. But I figured that just staring at Cynthia would be awkward, so I did my best to refocus on the battle.
Lorelei had sent out a Glalie that was trying to slow down the speeding Manetric with a barrage of Icy Winds. But instead of firing ...
2024-02-19 07:20:00 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-9 – Lightning Freezing Over
After that busy day of travelling, I decided to spend some time resting at Celestic Town for a few days. There were no cave explorations either, as Cynthia informed me that she had to handle a few personal matters of her own and had been running around to and from the Sinnoh League over the past few days. She told me that...
2024-02-16 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-8 – Interlude – Proton
It had taken some time for them to settle into Sinnoh, mostly because their ‘mysterious’ backer was not so keen on their intrusion into their territory. But a promise was a promise, and so whoever their backer was very reluctantly allowed their teams access to their resources.
Of course, they immediately revealed t...
2024-02-14 12:51:17 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-8 – A Legendary Moment
Just because I had made important calls to Joseph and Giovanni didn’t mean Flint and Cynthia’s tour of Sinnoh was over, nor did I want it to be. Cynthia and Flint clearly had more in store for me, as they told me we would soon be heading to the freezing fields of Snowpoint City.
As soon I heard, I couldn’t help but...
2024-02-12 07:20:00 +0000 UTC
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A.N. I have made amendments to 7-15 as published today in the standard chapters! It's not a big change, but I added in a short Pokenet Interlude to replace Karen's victory speech. Feel free to check it out if you want!
The New Normal – 8-7 – A Galactic Introduction
As soon as the match was over, I had hardly any more time to talk to Cynthia as s...
2024-02-09 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-6 – Interlude – Karen & Lorelei
(Karen POV)
Having just finished up with her usual meeting with Agatha in Lavender Town, Karen flew over to Pewter City with the pleasant breeze blowing past her face. She had regularly visited Brock and his siblings; it served as a nice break from the remedial training sessions that she had been ...
2024-02-07 11:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-6 – A Display of Power
I didn’t need to wait long, because Cynthia quickly made up her mind as she fished up her last Pokéball. I leaned forwards instinctively, waiting to see which of her Pokémon she had chosen.
“Lucario. Defeat them.”
And her Lucario was her answer, which came sprinting out of its Pokéball in a blur as it imme...
2024-02-05 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-5 – Cynthia’s Rise
I shouldn’t have been surprised at the large turnout, since a match like this was bound to attract attention. Especially since it was known that members of the Sinnoh Elite Four would be watching.
However, I was more impressed at the work that the Research Centre had put into create a makeshift battel arena, with everyth...
2024-02-02 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-4 – Interlude – Lucian
“You have an intense look in your eye again, Lucian. What’re you thinking about so deeply about?” Flint asked him with his hands in his pockets as he usually did.
Flint always liked to put up an air of casualness to raise the mood, which Lucian appreciated. He tended to drift into more melancholic thoughts if he ...
2024-01-31 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-4 – INTERLUDE – Janine
“Urghhhh….” Sabrina moaned on the bench as she tried her best to recover from seasickness. Despite the fact that this was the second time taking the ship from Johto to Kanto, she didn’t seem any more used to it.
“There there.” Whitney patted Sabrina soothingly on the back, only to receive further groans of ...
2024-01-29 07:20:00 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-3 – The Daily Life in Sinnoh
The next week in Sinnoh were mostly ones of idle exploration, where Cynthia continued to show me the ropes of how I could get the most out of my time in the caves. She did not hold my hand, instead pushing me to do better and to go deeper yet always remaining close by in case she needed to bail me out of trouble.
O...
2024-01-26 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-2 – Interlude – Lorelei
Despite the absence of two members of the Elite Four, the atmosphere in the Indigo Committee wasn’t much different. There was still the usual bickering and arguments made by people who thought themselves to be overly important, while their Champion tried his best not to shut them up with his Dragonite.
She could rel...
2024-01-24 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-2 – Explorers of Ruins
Despite having just travelled to a whole new region, I woke up bright and early the next morning – with my enthusiasm and excitement forcing me awake. I couldn’t wait to get started with some cave delving.
I quickly made my way to the canteen where I got some breakfast. I got some curious and interested stares from t...
2024-01-22 12:50:30 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 8-1 – A New Horizon
The rest of the boat ride continued peacefully, with me being able to successfully catch up on some much-needed sleep. When I woke up and saw that there was barely half an hour left until we arrived, I decided to just get changed and spend the rest of the ride idling around in bed.
Soon enough, the signature blaring of the ho...
2024-01-19 07:20:00 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 7-16 – Interlude – Cynthia
When she had received a call one afternoon that she was to be the tour guide for Elite John when he came to Sinnoh, to say that she was surprised was an understatement. Ever since Sinnoh had become aware of their foreign neighbours, Cynthia had instantly hopped off of her piano and had done everything she can to find out m...
2024-01-17 07:42:19 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 7-16 – Road to Sinnoh
As expected, Karen’s victory over Sidney made the headlines over the next few days. They played it up really hard, trying to dramatize it as a huge underdog victory that was going to completely upset the Indigo and Hoenn political scene.
Though anyone with a brain knew that it probably wasn’t going to be as dramatic as ...
2024-01-15 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 7-15 – Victory Celebration
Karen had won. She had done it. Even if this was only a charity match, she had demonstrated her prowess by defeating a member of the Hoenn Elite Four.
“HAH! I knew she could do it!” Agatha shouted out proudly, her face lined with excitement and pride, “THAT’S MY GIRL!”
Steven and I shared an amused look...
2024-01-12 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 7-14 – Interlude – Whitney
The three of them sat huddled in her room, all of them staring intently at the TV screen as they watched the final few moments of Karen’s fight against Sidney. They were still at the Safari Zone Gates, figuring that it would be a great place to continue training up their new captures before they eventually returned to Ka...
2024-01-10 07:20:01 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 7-14 – Darker yet Darker
The two didn’t wait long until they sent out their next round of Pokémon.
“Weavile! Speed up!”
“Shiftry! Fan out!”
Two figures silently appeared on the battlefield before their figures blurred as they quickly dashed against each other. Without any preamble, a battle of speed rapidly commenced as bo...
2024-01-08 07:20:00 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 7-13 – Dark and Darker
Olivine city was packed to the brim with people, almost reminding me of the time when Team Rocket tried to escape on the ship. But at least this time I was reassured with the fact that they weren’t about to launch an attack, not when they were mostly all locked up or on the run.
Instead, everyone had gathered here today ...
2024-01-05 07:20:00 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 7-12 – Scientific Summit
Even though some time had gone passed, the hype around the Fairy type had yet to die down. In fact, it was still going strong as many trainers continue trying to experiment and train with the new Fairy types.
According to Karen, there were apparently many new trainers that had originally failed to beat her, who were now ...
2024-01-01 12:48:54 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 7-11 – Getting down to business
The TV blared as I sat with my parents to eat breakfast.
“…AND what a crushing victory from Professor Oak, once again proving to the world why his battling skills are still held in such high esteem! Just yesterday, he has managed to back up his scientific discoveries with this impressive 3-0 victory over t...
2023-12-29 12:37:20 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 7-10 – Interlude – Oak
Oak let out a jaunty whistle as he walked into the middle of the arena, ignoring the many cheers of the crowd. He didn’t think it was deserved anyways; they were merely cheering on a man far past his prime. He hadn’t even been in a battle like this in many, many years. Their adorations were wasted on him.
Still, misp...
2023-12-27 12:38:10 +0000 UTC
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The New Normal – 7-10 – A Fairy New Reality
The week after the Fairy reveal was a barely contained mess, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. While the excitement and fervour of the trainers were at an all-time high, good policing turned out be an effective deterrent to prevent would-be trespassers from trying their luck and disturbing the delicate ecosystems...
2023-12-25 12:59:35 +0000 UTC
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