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The New Normal - 16-12

The New Normal – 16-12 – Intermission

A.N. Sorry about the delay, again. I’ll probably remain quite busy for some time, so I do apologise in advance for any further delays. I’ll try to not make the delays be any more than half a day. Thanks again for understanding.

(Iris POV)

Before Unova stumbled across the New Regions, she h...

The New Normal - 16-11

The New Normal – 16-11 – Toughing out the cold

Eventually, after all the other battles had concluded, the final teams that represented the Top 8 had been finalised. They were:

Me and Elesa, Karen and Iris, Lorelei and Tate/Liza, Crasher Wake and Marshal, Drake and Burgh, Janine and Flint, Flannery and Koga, and last but not least, Brock and Bertha.

Includi...

The New Normal - 16-10 - Interlude - Looker

The New Normal – 16-10 – Interlude – Looker

As expected, the moment he arrived back in Unova, he was immediately summoned for a meeting with the Sages of PLASMA – likely to explain to them just what had happened back in Sinnoh.

Though fortunately, on the ‘perilous’ trip back, he was able to develop a strong sense of rapport with the other PLASMA members ...

The New Normal - 16-10

The New Normal – 16-10 – Developments

A.N. For those who didn’t see my discord message – sorry for the delay. I have been dealing with some personal issues recently which has taken up a lot of my usual free time. But I hope this wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.

I couldn’t deny that winning against Norman and Surge was very s...

The New Normal - 16-9

The New Normal – 16-9 – The Elimination Stage

Although I was told by Cynthia to put the matters regarding PLASMA aside and focus on the Tournament, that wasn’t completely possible.

Naturally, the news was filled with articles about PLASMA’s cheating scandal and the questioning of most of the PLASMA members that had come over to Sinnoh. No formal charges were...

The New Normal - 16-8 - Interlude - N

The New Normal – 16-8 – Interlude – N

He was so glad that Hilbert had joined PLASMA. He couldn’t deny that he had recently begun to feel a little lonely. He knew why he wasn’t allowed outside, but that meant that he wasn’t really able to meet new people outside the occasional new recruit that joined PLASMA. And even then, those recruits tended to treat him wit...

The New Normal - 16-8

The New Normal – 16-8 – Consequences

(Several minutes earlier…) (Looker POV)

Zinzolin had tried to be subtle about what he had planned to do. He had not told anyone about his decision to drug their own Pokémon in order to give themselves an unfair advantage in the upcoming fight, but Looker wasn’t a veteran member of the International Police for no...

The New Normal - 16-7

The New Normal – 16-7 – Exposed

Looker’s plan of personally infiltrating PLASMA’s ranks was turning out to be a better decision for each day that passed.

The very fact that we knew exactly what PLASMA planned to do with their challenge meant that the League had ample time to come up with a proper response. We knew that they were going to be cheating...

The New Normal - 16-6 - Interlude - Pokenet Reactions

The New Normal – 16-6 – Interlude – Pokenet Reactions

[The World Tournament’s preliminary stage is over! Who moved on to the next round, and who were eliminated? Did your favourite teams make it through?] By Battlecast

[A gallery of images all portraying the teams and their fighting. Some look happy, others are upset or disappointed]

For those of you l...

The New Normal - 16-6

The New Normal – 16-6 – Mega Research

My parents had gotten back to me regarding my business arrangements with Clay, and they were happy with what we had agreed to. So, once the Tournament was over, that was another avenue for me to work on when I got back.

As a sort of ‘thank you’ gift, we would also be sending him one of our newly raised Teddiursa. Hopeful...

The New Normal - 16-5

The New Normal – 16-5 – Finishing the Preliminaries

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

The New Normal - 16-4 - Interlude - Other Participants

The New Normal – 16-4 – Interlude – Other Participants

(Giovanni POV)

After winning their first battle against Bryon and Chuck, they decided to take a small break together since their next battle wasn’t until tomorrow.

So, as per usual at this point, Giovanni invited Juan over to a fancy restaurant that Ariana had helped him to reserve. Though...

The New Normal - 16-4

The New Normal – 16-4 – The First Opponent

Fortunately for my own patience, it turns out that we were among the first people to fight. So we were quickly shuffled away to one side of the arena as several layers of enormous psychic shields were thrown up, causing the once massive arena to be split up into several sections, each one just big enough for a 2v2 battle.

The New Normal - 16-3

The New Normal – 16-3 – The Tournament Begins

Just as I hoped, the public reception from my confrontation with PLASMA had been favourable. PLASMA had been made to look foolish, and better yet, they were made to be liars.

After our ‘debate’, whenever they were brought up in conversation over the Pokénet, it was no longer about whether their message was actua...

The New Normal - 16-2 - Interlude - Steven

The New Normal – 16-2 – Interlude – Steven

Setting in as a new Champion was a tiring and exhausting process. There were so many things to be read in on, and so many meetings and ceremonies that you had to attend to. That wasn’t even including the mountain of ‘congratulations’ that he got that he was politely expected to respond to.

Even though he had exp...

The New Normal - 16-2

The New Normal – 16-2 – Confrontation

Steven’s victory and subsequent ascension to become the new Champion caused many waves, as was to be expected. For one thing, I had asked Lance if it was necessary for us to head over to Hoenn to participate in his ascension ceremony, but was told that it wasn’t needed. I only had to go if I wanted to congratulate him in priva...

The New Normal - 16-1

The New Normal – 16-1 – A Battle of Champions

The upcoming battle between Steven and Wallace was probably the most anticipated event in the last few months – even if you take into account all of the political changes that have occurred. Everyone and their families were talking about the implications of a possible Steven victory, and what it would mean for Hoenn’s ...

The New Normal - 15-18 - Interlude - The Professors

The New Normal – 15-18 – Interlude – The Professors

(Blaine POV)

For those who didn’t know Samuel, they would have thought that the ex-Champion was as spry and as energetic as he used to be in his youth. It wasn’t strange for them to think this way, as despite his friend’s advanced age, he seemed to move around an act as if he was twenty years y...

The New Normal - 15-18 - INTERLUDE - POKENET REACTIONS

The New Normal – 15-18 – INTERLUDE – POKENET REACTIONS

[THE PAIRINGS FOR THE WORLD TOURNAMENT HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED! WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE TEAMS?! WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN?] By Battlecast

[Picture of the symbol of the Pokémon World Tournament. It is shaped like a Pokéball divided into four pieces, with each section representing a different region]

Ever...

The New Normal - 15-17

The New Normal – 15-17 – Hanging Out

“…If I had known I would be meeting with the Champion of Sinnoh, I would have dressed up in better clothing.” Elesa muttered to me as we sat down at a restaurant together in Sunyshore City, “This is way too casual for a first meeting with a Champion.”

We were taking a break from our usual training session, and I tho...

The New Normal - 15-16 - Interlude - Other Participants

The New Normal – 15-16 – Interlude – Other Participants

(Brock POV)

Truthfully, when he found out that he was to be paired with Bertha, he didn’t know all that much about the Sinnoh Elite Four outside of the fact that she was a Ground type specialist.

He really regretted not having studied up more about the Gym Leaders and Elite Four from the ...

The New Normal - 15-16

The New Normal – 15-16 – Getting Along

I picked up the phone, “Hello, this is John. Am I speaking to Elesa?”

“Yes it is.” Elesa replied, “I got your number from Iris, so I hope you don’t mind me contacting you out of the blue like this.”

“Not at all. I was going to do the same.” I said, “But I hope you’re glad to be saddled with me as...

The New Normal - 15-15

The New Normal – 15-15 – New Partners

I ended up watching Steven’s battle against Drake with Karen, Lorelei, and Lucian. My girlfriend had other things to attend to, and Koga had apparently gone to speak to Maylene, since he was mentoring her.

I could have teased Lorelei when I saw that Lucian was joining us, but I kept silent for politeness’ sake. I had the...

The New Normal - 15-14 - Interlude - Archer

The New Normal – 15-14 – Interlude – Archer

Today at the Battle Castle had been a particularly long day for him. There were many more challengers than he had expected, and many of them had earned the required number of wins to challenge him directly – which meant that he had to participate in several high intensity battles back-to-back-to-back for several hours wi...

The New Normal - 15-14

The New Normal – 15-14 – An Electric Atmosphere

Our dream home planning went well into the evening, and had our stomachs not growled to inform us that we were hungry, I was pretty sure we could have gone on until midnight.

It was a wonderful time. We even released our Pokémon so that they could play around together and check out what was likely going to be thei...

The New Normal - 15-13

The New Normal – 15-13 – Planning the Future

The next few days flew past quickly.

Normally, the Leagues were known to be rather slow when it came to pushing anything through. However, with all of the excitement that had been generated from the announcement of the new Pokémon World Tournament, the Sinnoh League put all political matters aside for the moment as t...

The New Normal - 15-12 - Interlude - Looker

The New Normal – 15-12 – Interlude – Looker

It had been a long journey by ship to Unova, but for once, he was grateful for the downtime. It allowed him to brush up on his crafted backstory, not only for the sake of his own memory, but also for his partner Croagunk, who he had specifically brought for this infiltration.

Unlike the previous undercover operations...

The New Normal - 15-12

The New Normal – 15-12 – Looking into Plasma

With so many different things in the works, there hadn’t been much of a chance for me to relax and unwind. But on one particular morning, when I was spending some free time that I had by myself, I received a phone call from an unknown number.

I contemplated on whether to answer or not, but ultimately decided that it...

The New Normal - 15-11

The New Normal – 15-11 – A New Tournament

Time was quick to pass, and things developed with equal haste. With Unova opening up their borders to business investments, larger businesses such as Silph Co and Devon Corp were very quick to jump in and start setting up their own branch offices in Unova.

Seeing them do so, many other businesses were quick to follow sui...

The New Normal - 15-10 - Interlude - Drake

The New Normal – 15-10 – Interlude – Drake

He threw open the door to Wallace’s office, not even bothering to knock. Wallace had tried to tell him off at first, but now he was just resigned to it.

“Oh? Didn’t think I’d get a visit from you today, Drake.” Wallace said, looking up from the small pile of paperwork that had stacked up on his desk, “How ...