The New Normal - 19-4

The New Normal – 19-4 – Students

(Ash POV)

In all honesty, he had never expected John to reach out to him in the way that he did. If anything, he thought that his one encounter with the Elite Four after the eruption at Cinnabar would really be the only time he would get to speak with the famed Elite Four member.

Well, ex-Elite Four member now, but John would always be a member of the Elite Four in his own mind.

However, in what might have been a stroke of luck, just when he was paying a visit to Professor Oak, he had stumbled into John doing the same as the man had taken a small vacation to visit his family back in Indigo.

At first, he didn’t think much of it, though he was happy at the opportunity to speak with such a famous trainer. But then the conversation suddenly took a very interesting turn.

“Have you spoken a lot with your sister lately, Gary?” John asked his best friend, “How’s she holding up?”

“Uh… a little bit.” Gary replied, “I think she was heading over to Hoenn to do the Gym Challenge there and catch more Pokémon. Aside from that, I think she’s pretty happy. She was talking my ear off about her newly evolve Togetic. But shouldn’t you know this already? I thought you were training her.”

John scratched his head with an apologetic expression on his face, “I’m not really her teacher or anything; I just check in on her from time to time. But one of my friends recently called me out for being too inattentive, so I’ve been trying to correct things.”

“Wait! Since when were you training up Daisy?!” He had to interrupt, his head whirling over towards Gary, “You didn’t tell me this!”

Gary shot him a strange look, “…Why would I tell you about what my sister’s been doing? You know I don’t like talking about her.”

“I know, but… but this is different!” He insisted, “You know how much I like talking about strong trainers! So why didn’t you say that your sister was being trained up by John!”

Gary shrugged, “You never asked. And it was supposed to be a secret anyways.”

He stepped forwards as he was about to grab onto his friend and violently shake him for his idiocy, but John interrupted that as he let out a chuckle, “Are they always like this, Sam?”

“Oh yes. But you get used to the noise.” Professor Oak laughed, “And honestly, it beats the silence. Besides, Ash comes over so often that I basically treat him as a second son.”

He blushed, “…Thanks, Professor.”

Oak chuckled, “No need. I’m just happy you’re a good friend and rival for Gary. I’ve always said that he needed one. Though – in regards to my granddaughter – you do have my apologies. It was me that insisted, on her behalf, to keep her mentorship under John as a secret. I didn’t want her to be plagued by any unwanted attention that might arise as a result, so I hope you understand.”

He nodded. He knew how the Pokénet and the news always liked to focus on any trainers that got the attention of a Gym Leader/Elite Four/Champion, so Daisy would have been under the spotlight if her connection with John ever got revealed.

It was then that John suddenly dropped the two of them a question, “Say, Gary, Ash, what do you both want to be when you grow up? Of course I know you both want to be trainers, but do you have a specific goal you’d like to work towards?”

“I want to be a Professor like gramps!” Gary declared passionately, “I want to make big discoveries like he did – and like you as well! I want to discover something as interesting as the Mega Evolutions or the Fairy type!”

Oak smiled proudly at his grandson’s answer, and so was John before he turned to him, “And what about you, Ash? What kind of ambitions do you have? What is your dream?”

“I want to be the very best!” He professed, “Like no one ever was!”

John actually laughed at that, but there was no mockery in it, “That’s an ambitious answer – a good answer, even. But I wanted something more specific. Do you want to be a Gym Leader? Elite Four? Champion? Is there a specific position you’re aiming for?”

Was there a title he wanted to earn? He never really thought about it that way. Of course he wanted to be the strongest trainer in the world, but what did that actually mean? Did he want to be Champion? Maybe… but for some reason he didn’t think the position suited him all that well.

He heard enough from Professor Oak about how being a Champion was not all fun and games. It was a position that demanded far more than just your skills as a trainer – it tested your administrative and political skills too.

As he had put it, “Being Champion is like being a teacher for a class full of unruly students. Every single day is spent trying to keep everyone in line, all the while trying to get them to listen to you as you try to guide them into the right direction. And every once in a while you’ll have some student try to challenge you for your position, so you have to make sure you’re strong enough to teach them a lesson and maintain your authority.”

He remembered asking, “So is it not just about being strong?”

“Sort of.” Oak had replied, “Being strong is what allows you to be a Champion in the first place, but what differentiates a great Champion from a decent Champion are the administrative and political skills I just mentioned. Or to put it another way – how many times has Lance needed to fight off challengers ever since he has become Champion? The answer is zero. Champion Lance has not fought a single challenger, even though its been years since he ascended. Even I only had to fight off less than a dozen in my entire time as Champion. So for a majority of the time, being a Champion requires you to be good at far more than just ‘being strong’.”

After that very enlightening explanation from Professor Oak, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to be Champion anymore. Sure, the title was still nice, but he knew it in his gut that he was not the kind of person that wanted to sit behind a desk for most of his life.

No, he wanted to be able to explore the world with his Pokémon by his side.

So what is it that he wanted to do? Just get strong? That seemed like it was a little too… aimless.

But then, a thought popped into his mind, and he came to the realisation about the type of trainer he wanted to grow into.

“I think I want to be like you, John.” He said confidently, “I want to have the power and freedom that you have. I want to be strong enough to be in fights that would help protect the world!”

John smiled at that answer, “Are you sure about that though? I can promise you that some of the battles I’ve been through… they weren’t easy. I won’t lie – I almost died a few times, and had things gone even a little differently, I wouldn’t be here talking to you today.”

“I know.” He nodded, “But you still fought anyways right? Because you knew you had to keep us safe?”

“I did.” John agreed.

“Exactly! So I want to be in your shoes too!” He pumped his fists into the air, “I want to have the strength to protect people! That’s why I want to be the very best, like no one ever was!”

There was a brief moment of silence at his declaration, but before he could start feeling awkward about it, John nodded.

“You know, I’ve been looking to train up a new student, especially since I’ve got a lot more free time on my hands now.” John said, looking intently at him, “And I can’t deny it – I like what I just heard.”

He understood the implication of John’s words immediately, “Really!?”

“Yes.” John nodded, “It’s not too difficult to find a talented trainer. I’m sure there would be many on offer if I just went to look. But many talented trainers don’t have the same level of ambition that I’m looking for. They want to be Gym Leaders or Elite Four or Champion. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but the path I walked, and will teach you to walk, will be a bit different from what is considered ‘normal’.”

“But hearing your words just now, I think you have the potential to be a worthy student.” John continued, reaching out a hand, “So what do you say, Ash? Do you want to learn under me, in an official capacity this time?”

What else could he say to that but yes? It was the easiest decision of his life.

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

(John POV)

Honestly, it was a stroke of luck that I was able to recruit Ash so easily. I had intended to slowly broach the topic with him over several visits, and slowly ease him into the idea of becoming my student.

That was why I decided to visit Professor Oak in the first place, because I wanted to ‘coincidentally’ meet up with him and subtly start to probe his interest.

However, all that went out of the window when Ash said what he did. In hindsight, hearing something like that from Ash was not unexpected – in the anime, I could never see him settling down as a Gym Leader or an Elite Four member either. Even his title as ‘Champion’ would never see him forced to handle administrative duties, especially not in a show meant for kids.

So perhaps it was only natural that Ash’s goals coincided so well with my own.

And while I knew that Ash wasn’t the strongest trainer I could have recruited, like I said, it wasn’t strength that I was looking for in particular. I just knew that Ash would not be corruptible, and would always be a force for good.

That alone put him so much higher than many other candidates I could have chosen. After all, strength was much easier to instil than character.

That being said, though Ash had taken me up on my offer, we didn’t become teacher and student right then and there. There were still many things we had to handle.

First of, we had to inform Ash’s mother about all this, and get her agreement on this too. Not only that, but we had to figure out some way to deal with the logistics of it all, since I lived in Sinnoh and Ash in Kanto.

While we could maintain a long-distance mentorship, it wouldn’t be ideal since we wouldn’t be able to spar in person. So either one of us would have to visit often, or he would have to move to Sinnoh since I couldn’t.

Not only that, but I didn’t forget about Gary, who looked at me with stars in his eyes as I made the offer to Ash. His eyes stared at me pleadingly, as if to beg me to make him the same offer, and I hesitated.

I wasn’t sure I could fully devote my time in training up both Ash and Gary at the same time, and give them both the same level of attention. Not when I also had other commitments on my time – Ash would probably be enough of a handful by himself. So I had to gently turn him down, but not completely.

“It’s not that I don’t think you have the potential or anything.” I said to him, “It’s just that I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to properly train you if I’m already training up Ash. It’s not as simple as just training you together – if I want to do a proper job of being a mentor, that requires a lot of time and attention. It’s not something I want to do with anything less than my full attention. It’ll be a disservice to you.”

Gary stared down sullenly, “…I understand.”

“Hey, hey, no need to be so down. I wasn’t done yet.” I gently lifted his head back up, “I said I couldn’t be your mentor, not that I can’t train you or help you. I’m more than happy to pop in from time to time to help you out if you’ll have me. That’s no problem for me.”

“Yes! Please!” Gary practically shouted out in excitement, “I can’t fall behind Ash or Daisy!”

I chuckled, “Then I’ll be glad to have you. But don’t forget, I’m not doing this so you can compete with your sister, and you shouldn’t be thinking of this as a competition either. I hope you can focus on growing strong not because you want to beat your friend or sister, but because you want to achieve your own personal goals.”

“It’s something I’ve been trying to teach him too.” Professor Oak nodded, “Growing strong just so that you can be better than someone else is a shallow goal, and you will not find fulfilment that way, Gary. I’d much rather you use your dream of becoming a Professor to become the driving force behind your journey as a trainer.”

“…I’ll do my best, gramps.” Gary said.

Oak smiled, “That’s all I expect.”

So that was me getting another ‘student’ of sorts to train up, but I was definitely not going to complain about being given the opportunity to train up Gary Oak. His talent as a trainer was undeniable, so I knew he would be a worthy battler in the future.

However, while in canon, he was the one to eventually replace Giovanni as Gym Leader of Viridian in the games, but that was something that was likely not going to happen here. I doubted Giovanni would ever step down as a Gym Leader for whatever reason, and even if he did, I had no doubt that it would be Silver that would take up the mantle after him.

Therefore, I expected him to end up more like how he did in the anime, as a researcher instead. But hopefully, with the training I was going to help him with, he could be more than just that. Perhaps I could introduce him to some other scientists that I knew in the future?

After that was all sorted, it was very fortunate that my follow-up meeting with Delia helped solved a lot of the issues with Ash. When I had first explained to her what was going on, she was very surprised to hear that her son was receiving such a ‘prestigious’ opportunity from me, and she definitely made that known.

“…Not that I want to question my son’s fortunes, but can I ask why you chose him over any of the other candidates that you could have chosen?” She asked, “I’m just very curious, since I don’t think you’ve known him all that well. Sorry if it feels like I’m questioning your intentions or anything. I know you’re not like that.”

“It’s not a problem at all. It’s only natural for a mother to worry.” I waved her off, “But to answer your question – it was your son’s heart that confirmed my choice. Your son doesn’t want to walk the traditional path, he isn’t aiming to become Gym Leader or Elite Four, or even an Ace trainer. He wants something different, something similar to the positions I now hold. So combine that with the talent that I’ve been told and can see that he holds, I think it was an easy choice for me.”

That last sentence was partially a lie. No one ever told me about Ash’s talent, since the only person that even knew about Ash was Professor Oak, and he wouldn’t be randomly talking to me about a pre-journey child like that. Especially since, for all of Ash’s eventual achievements, he was no genius of battling. His skills were something that were slowly and gradually developed overtime; very different from someone like Tate/Liza or Iris.

But Delia didn’t need to know that, and she believed my words. Especially since Ash did get training from Professor Oak, which was obviously helpful in developing his skills as a trainer.

“Well in that case… who am I to turn this down?” She chuckled, “But! I’m not comfortable having Ash leave the home so soon, especially since he’s still not old enough to go on his journey yet – he’ll be doing that next year.” She said to me, “But, I also don’t want to be the one to stifle his progress. I know he’s talented; so I’m willing to let him travel to Sinnoh for certain periods at a time until he goes on his journey, so long as he is accompanied by an adult. Once that happens, I’ll let him have his freedom.”

That was basically as good as I hoped for. Ash coming over for short bursts was definitely good enough, since that would allow us to have a good balance of him having his own individual training (which was good at developing his own habits and creativity), and some joint training so I can guide him on how he could best improve himself.

It was just a matter of finding someone that could help escort Ash from Kanto to Sinnoh since Delia couldn’t really do that herself. But I could always hire someone to do that for me.

With that sorted out, we could finally get to the fun part – learning more about Ash and his Pokémon. Although I already had an idea of what he had, I just wanted to see it for myself. So we moved back to Professor Oak’s ranch, where I got Ash to show off his Pokémon.

“I only have the one Pokémon right now.” He said to me, almost embarrassed, “He doesn’t like to be kept in his Pokéball, so I left him playing around in the ranch. Let me get him real quick – PIKACHU! COME HERE!”

A small yellow object came rushing out of the nearby foliage, and the most famous Pokémon to have ever graced existence stared at me with a cautious look on his face.

“Pika?” He gave his trainer a questioning look.

“Yes, this is John. You probably recognise him, right?” Pikachu nodded at that, causing me to smile, “He’s going to be training us from now on. Isn’t that exciting?”

“Pika!” Pikachu clapped his hands happily, mirroring the excitement of his trainer, “Pika pika?”

“He’s asking how strong you are.” Ash helpfully translated, though he seemed reasonably wary about that prospect, “He wants to test himself against your Pokémon.”

“Are you sure?” I asked Pikachu, “Do you think you can win?”

“Pika!” He nodded confidently, though in my eyes I only saw it as arrogance. Which tracks; Pikachu wasn’t the most humble of Pokémon early on.

Oh well, baby steps. “In that case – take your time, Sona.”

I sent out my Audino, and Pikachu reeled back cautiously, having likely never seen one before. But it’s cheeks sparked with electricity, and he shot Sona a confident smirk as he postured for battle.

…Sadly for Pikachu, that confidence was quickly wiped off his face as Sona easily tanked through a Thunder Shock and blasted Pikachu backwards with a Dazzling Gleam. There really wasn’t anything more to it. Pikachu just wasn’t strong enough, which was to be expected.

Despite being so outmatched like this, I caught glimpses of the unstoppable monster that I knew it would grow to become. The determination and the unbreakable will to fight – they were already present in his eyes, even as he struggled to his feet from his injuries.

I suspected that, unlike in canon, Ash already had time to train up with his Pikachu against Gary. Given their rivalry, they must have sparred a lot together, meaning that Pikachu was already getting good training and had learned to work with his trainer.

But right now, it was time to show Pikachu just what he needed to work towards. He needed a visual representation of just how much stronger he needed to get.

And Sona would serve as the brick wall for him to break himself against.

In the end, it only took several more Thunder Shocks for Pikachu to finally accept that he wasn’t breaking through Sona, especially since she just restored her own health every time she got hit, yet he couldn’t do anything with that realisation as a Hyper Voice blasted him back – putting him on the brink of being knocked out.

“Let’s stop there.” I halted the battle there; there was no point knocking Pikachu out when I wanted him to learn, “What did you think of your own performance, Ash? Try to be truthful.”

“…I think we fought too simply.” He said after a moment, “Pikachu’s strongest moves are his Special Attacks, so I just kept on using them. I’d thought we maybe could eventually break through.”

“Sure.” I nodded, “But was there anything else you could have done?”

“Maybe we could have tried to set up? Pikachu does know Nasty Plot.” He thought out loud, “But… I didn’t do so because we’re not very proficient in it. That’s something we need to work on.”

“Good. That was the conclusion I was hoping you’d come to on your own too, so I’m glad you did.” I smiled, “That’s also what I’ll be getting you to work on now. Basic moves like Thunder Shock or Thunderbolt I’m sure you can work on by yourself, but status moves and setup moves are what I can help you out with. So let’s get started there.”

I then spent the rest of the afternoon helping Pikachu to train up his support moves. Fortunately, there was no pushback on either Ash or Pikachu’s part. They were fully in agreement that this was something they needed to work on, and they were very diligent learners. Pikachu had also become especially docile after his defeat, and he lost all of that earlier arrogance.

I was glad he was so quickly able to learn his lesson.

After that, I held a discussion with Ash as we grabbed some dinner, “Ash, what kind of trainer do you want to be? Does being a specialist interest you?”

“Nope. I don’t want to be a Type specialist at all.” He shook his head, “I want to be able to train up whatever Pokémon I like… would that make me weaker?”

“No, generalists can be strong. My fiancé is a great example of this.” I replied, “But even among generalists, there are different styles of battling. For example, Cynthia’s focus is on versatility. Her entire team is composed of Pokémon that all fulfil many different roles. Her Roserade and Togekiss are her more supportive Pokémon, her Milotic and Spiritomb are her defensive Pokémon, and her Garchomp, Lucario, and Kleavor are her offensive Pokémon – she basically has a Pokémon for each role.”

“Is that better?” He asked.

“Well it’s also what I do, since my Ursaluna, Porygon-Z, and Blissey, for example, all fulfil different roles in my team too even though they’re all Normal types.” I replied, “But it’s not necessarily ‘better’. Being a generalist tends to mean you have fewer weaknesses, but it also might be harder to develop a particular strength. It’s also harder to train them up, since with differing Pokémon Types you will have a difficult time passing down skills and techniques from one Pokémon to another.”

“Drake and Lance are a good example of someone who’s done the opposite – they are both pure offense.” I continued, “Their teams don’t have any ‘support’ Pokémon or the like, and that makes them more vulnerable to disruptive attackers like most Dark types are, but also gives them incredible raw power. So they all have their pros and cons – it’s up to you to see what you prefer or are comfortable with.”

“I see…” He muttered, “I once had a list of Pokémon I wanted to catch. Do you want to see it?”

“Sure.” I nodded, and he went on his phone and texted me a crudely put-together list of Pokémon that he had wanted to catch.

As expected, many of his choices were commonly popular selections like Tyranitar, Charizard, or Dragonite – the Pokémon everyone wanted to have. I skipped over those, since those were unrealistic choices and could even cripple his development if he couldn’t handle them right.

But there were other, more interesting selections. For example, he included Pokémon like Gligar and Gallade onto his list – both Pokémon which were genuinely incredible Pokémon in the right hands.  There were other suggestions like Honchkrow and Darminitan, which were equally as good.

I was just happy to see very reasonable and sensible Pokémon suggestions there. At least the list wasn’t just 12 Dragons, and I told him the same.

Of course, just because I saw this list doesn’t mean I was going to get Ash any of these Pokémon. That would be too much; I wasn’t comfortable just gifting someone a Pokémon when they hadn’t had much time training up with their existing Pokémon yet. Even with Whitney, I only gifted her a Whismur because I knew she had plenty of practice with her Miltank already, and Whismur was weak enough so that it wouldn’t steal the spotlight.

That was maybe a consideration for another time, and I said as much to Ash, who easily agreed.

“That’s fine, I… probably wouldn’t like it if you just gifted me a Pokémon anyways. I want to earn my victories.” He said, “If you just gift me powerful Pokémon, then I might feel like I only won because of you, and I don’t want to feel that way.”

It was a very mature answer, and I patted his head in appreciation.

Nevertheless, our first day of training together eventually came to an end. I still had another day here in Indigo before I had to head home, but I started to draft out a few lesson plans that he could follow through on his own while I was away.

But overall, I’d consider this a big success. I couldn’t wait to see how strong Ash would get under my tutelage.

A.N. And the training session with Ash begins! Of course, I understand that this Ash is different from the Ash we see at the beginning of canon, but why would they be the same? They’ve gone through different things, and this Ash is miles more prepared than the one in canon. So I wanted to show a bit of that here.

And I haven’t forgotten about Cynthia either. She’ll have her own apprentices/students in time as well. You’ll see! I really wanted both Cynthia and John to start being mentors to the new generation. Hope you enjoyed!