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. Hopefully he would appreciate it.

For the time being, the remaining preliminary rounds were still ongoing, as there were teams that still hadn’t earned their third win or third loss yet. But, just like Elesa and I managed, there were a few teams that had also managed to move onto the next stage with a 3-0 record.

Karen and Iris, Lucian and Lenora, Will and Brycen, Crasher Wake and Marshal, and Tate/Lisa and Lorelei were amongst those who shared our win record. I was a little surprised to see Drake and Burgh not being on this list, but they actually suffered a defeat against Jasmine and Grimsley.

Grimsley had prepared well for this battle, and he had managed to neutralise Drake’s Dragons for long enough for Jasmine to break through Burgh’s Bug types. Then, in the resulting 2v1, Drake had nearly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, but he was ultimately overwhelmed and taken down.

That was probably because neither he nor Burgh sent out their stronger Pokémon, likely because they were saving them for later. If he had, I think that the battle would be his. Still, Drake and Burgh managed an easy victory over Gardenia and Morty after that, so it was all good.

On the other hand, there were already a few teams that had been eliminated from the Tournament, as they had lost all three of their matches in the preliminary rounds.

I truthfully wasn’t surprised to see Byron and Chuck having been eliminated, as despite their veteran experience they just weren’t able to come up with a synergistic strategy together that utilised both of their strengths. And, from overhearing rumours, I was pretty sure they also suffered from communication issues.

However, what was surprising was seeing Clair and Maylene already out as well.

…That was a pretty big blow for the extremely prideful Clair. I didn’t watch their battles, but from what I heard from the others, Maylene had greatly chafed under Clair’s overly tyrannical leadership style and they weren’t able to communicate well. They were both basically fighting their own battles rather than as one cohesive team.

I wondered what Lance was going to think about his cousin losing so early in the biggest tournament ever hosted. That was a pretty big hit to the Blackthorn prestige. It also didn’t help that Clair was visibly upset about her defeat, and could be seen grumbling about her loss in the public. She didn’t explicitly blame Maylene for their loss, but it was pretty clear that she was unhappy with her partner.

Nevertheless, that was a headache for Lance to worry about – the problem of the Blackthorns had nothing to do with me.

In the meanwhile, I had intended to use this break to continue training with Elesa. However, she actually wanted to give her team an actual break for once, since we’d been pushing them really hard for the last week. I agreed, and we intended to hang out together with a few other Gym Leaders, but that those plans were nixed when I received a call from Blaine.

“Professor Blaine!” I deliberately emphasised his new title, “I didn’t expect a call from you! Did you need me for something?”

“Heh. I still haven’t gotten over that yet.” He chuckled, “I saw you doing well in the Tournament. Good job there. You’re really burning through your opposition, aren’t you?”

I remained silent in response to this pun, causing him to let out another chuckle, “I’ll get you to appreciate my puns one day. Anyways, you’re right that I didn’t just call you just to chat. Not sure if you knew, but we had a meeting between all of the many different regions Professors here in Sinnoh.”

“…I think I heard about that.” I replied.

“Yeah, we didn’t try to hide it.” He said, “But all the big names were here. Me, Sam, Rowan, Elm, Birch, and Juniper, the new Professor from Unova. She also brought along her friend Colress.” That name made my eyes widen in alarm, but Blaine continued on, “At first, we were just comparing notes and sharing discoveries with each other and what not. Yet while we’re doing so, Joseph Stone decided to reach out to us with a new research project to work on.”

All thoughts of Colress was shoved aside for the moment, “Wait, what? Joseph Stone? What did he want? And are you even allowed to talk about it with me? I’m not even a Professor – or a scientist, for that matter.”

I knew that Devon Corp had its own very well-funded R&D department, so unless the research topic was extraordinarily nebulous, then he should be able to do the research internally without needing to reach out like this. I tried to dig through my memories to think of what Joseph could be trying to research that required him to reach out like this, to no avail.

Fortunately, Blaine had the answers for me, “Joseph already said that it was fine to talk about with anyone that we trusted. We all have own assistants and whatnot, so as long as you don’t go babbling this out to the wider world then we should be fine.” And he knew I obviously wouldn’t do that, “And the project that he’s asked us to help with are with these strange evolution stones that he found. He explained to us that the stones, unlike normal evolution stones, are linked with one specific Pokémon. So far, he’s found a couple – ones that he’s called a Pidgeotite, Cameruptite, Manectite, Heracronite, and a Metagrossite. But despite having found this connection, he hasn’t found a way of activating them – hence why he’s reached out to us for help.”

…I barely heard the last part of his explanation as my brain was already going haywire as soon as I heard the word ‘Pidgeotite’. I obviously knew what these were – they were the Mega Stones.

However, that didn’t change the fact that I was extremely confused and shocked to hear about them. I did not expect to hear about Mega Stones right now – I thought that they would only show up when we ended up finding Kalos as a region, since Mega Stones and Mega Evolutions were far more prevalent there (and likely originated there).

So I had absolutely no idea that Joseph had been doing research on them already. What sparked this?

Still, from what Blaine told me about how they were stuck with finding a way of ‘activating’ the Mega Stone, I assumed that they would having trouble figuring out the Key Stone, which was what was needed for these Mega Stones to activate.

But therein lied the problem; I had absolutely no idea about where to source or create a Key Stone from. From what I remembered, a Key Stone was likely created by making use of the power of Xerneas and Yveltal – neither of which we had access to right now. It’s why I hadn’t bothered trying look for Mega Stones in the past, since I knew that they would be nothing more than fancy baubles if I couldn’t activate them. Not that I remembered where they were either.

However, not all hope was lost. I knew that in the remake of the generation 3 games that Devon Corp would have access to the Key Stone as Steven is the one who gives the player the Mega Bracelet. While I fully understood that this was most likely a case of the game just handing the player an item to let you make use of a cool new mechanic, it gave me a little bit of hope that this might mean that there was an alternate method of sourcing or creating these Key Stones.

Furthermore, if there were any group of Professors that I believed could identify an alternative activation method, then it was these people. However, this did mean that I had no idea on how to help them, as my metaknowledge was completely useless here.

And I said as much to Blaine, expressing my interest in the project but telling him that I had no idea how I would even be able to contribute.

“That’s hardly a problem.” He insisted, “I’m sure that there will be many other people that are informed that will likely be unable to contribute anything at all as well. But knowing you, I wanted to bring you in the loop so that you could offer up any ideas or resource that you might come across. It’s just like what you used to do when we worked together on those Evolution Items.”

I accepted that and thanked him for informing me in the first place, while also promising to do my best. I also asked if Shelly was onboard, to which Blaine said she was.

“...I’m really glad to be working on something like this, you know?” Blaine told me, “As soon as I realised the implications of what Joseph was telling us, I already knew that this was going to be the next big scientific thing that gets revealed. It’s going to be on par with the Fairy type reveal, I tell you. Finding out that certain Pokémon will have an additional evolution? That’s going to be a paradigm shift for both the scientific and battling communities. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it’ll change everything.”

I couldn’t agree more. I was fully aware of how big of a deal Mega Evolution was for the battling scene. Once trainers were able to use Mega Evolutions in fights, then they would have a supremely powerful Ace Pokémon that could win a battle practically all by itself. While I wasn’t sure just how much stronger a Pokémon would become when it Mega Evolved, I knew that the boost in strength was going to be very, very noticeable.

And sure, a part of me acknowledged that with Tyrant unable to Mega Evolve, it meant that there will be more Pokémon that are able to close the gap in strength between themselves and my starter.

But instead of being upset about this, I was actually pretty glad about it.

For one, it’ll give Tyrant even more motivation to grow stronger, as what use was all that strength when there was no one to compete against? Having the extra competition would be good for not only him, but the rest of my team. While they never slacked off on their training, it was always better to have a visual goal to train towards.

So if Mega Evolution really became a thing, then I was sure that my team would want to prove that they were strong enough to not only match up against a Mega Evolved Pokémon, but surpass them true.

Tyrant especially would see it as a challenge, not a threat.

On the other hand, I also realised that having Mega Evolutions would only widen the gap between ‘powerful’ trainers and ‘regular’ trainers, especially given how rare the Mega Stones were.

For example, as of right now there was technically no reason why any regular trainer couldn’t train up their own Gible to become as strong as Cynthia’s Garchomp. Admittedly, it would take an enormous amount of effort, skill, and time, but it was technically feasible. However, assuming Mega Stones weren’t reproducible (which they could be), then there was physically no way your Garchomp could be as strong as a Mega Garchomp unless you owned the Mega Stone.

You could always make up for that in skill or in other ways. But if both Garchomp were exactly equal in strength and skill, then the person who owned the Mega Stone was going to win. And that might not be seen as ‘fair’.

That was definitely going to have societal implications, as the topic of ownership of the Mega Stones was undoubtedly going to cause problems, but I left that headache for later. I also didn’t bring up any of that to Blaine, simply because this was far too much in the future. Though I made a mental note to bring up these potential problems if we ever got to the stage where we were about to announce Mega Evolutions to the world.

So instead, I just said something encouraging in response, “It’ll be good for you. This is going to be your first project as a Professor, right? Or at least your first major one?”

“Hmm, yeah it would be.” He nodded, “I have a few minor things that I might be publishing soon, mostly to do with other alternate forms that I might find, but that’s about it. I’ve already put a few things on the backburner in preparation so that I can devote my full attention to this. And I’m very excited to be working on a project like this with Sam and the others. It’s a great honour.”

Yes, it was. And I couldn’t wait to see what would come from this.

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

In fact, the talk of Mega Stones made me realise that I wanted the Pidgeotite for myself. Zephyr was one of the only Pokémon on my team who was eligible to Mega Evolve (the other being Sona, my Audino), and I felt that it really deserved to.

For a while now, Zephyr had been struggling to keep up with the rest of my team’s growing strength. Despite all of the effort he put into training, the fact that he was a Pidgeot meant that his potential was harshly limited by his poor base stats. I had been trying to remedy this problem by moving him to a more supportive role and by training up his support moves, but that was just a makeshift solution.

Yet with his Mega Evolution, it would be a completely different story. All of a sudden his strength would skyrocket to match that of my bruisers – or even some cases surpass them. He would become an incredibly powerful Special Attacker with the Speed to match; becoming a more mobile version of what I had trained up Pixel to be.

He might actually become the greatest Special Attacker on my team.

Which is why I wanted the Pidgeotite in my own hands. Right now, it was still owned by Joseph Stone. But now that I knew about the Mega Stones thanks to Blaine, I saw no reason why I couldn’t start negotiating for it.

Though instead of speaking to Joseph directly, I felt that it was better to talk with Steven first – given our better working relationship. So I ended up calling him, hoping that he wasn’t too busy.

He wasn’t, and he quickly picked up, “Hello John, I didn’t expect a call from you. Is there something the matter?”

I decided to skip right to the point, “I got read in on the new evolution stone project thanks to Blaine. I heard you had a Pidgeotite, and I want it. What do you want in exchange for it?”

He let out a chuckle, probably at my blatant interest, “You know I can’t just give it to you right now. We still need it for research.”

“Yes, but I want it in my own two hands after we figured out all of its secrets.” I said, “So, name your price.”

“And what if I decided that I don’t want it to be sold?” He asked probingly.

“You couldn’t keep all of these special stones in your possession anyways.” I immediately countered, “Not if Blaine and I are right about how much of a game changer this would be. The public wouldn’t stand for Devon Corp hoarding all this power for themselves, not when these stones are going to be as impactful as we suspect them to be. If you do try to hoard it, the PR hit would be very difficult for you to deal with. Therefore, it’d be better to sell off the stones to avoid such backlash.”

“…You really thought this through, haven’t you? Even I haven’t been thinking about the implications of these special stones yet, but I can see that you’re right.” He allowed, “I suppose it wouldn’t be a great look if Devon Corp hoarded all of these stones, even if it is within our rights to do so. Still, that doesn’t mean I’ll just hand it over just like that. What will you offer me in exchange?”

Now this was the issue. How do you value a unique evolution item like this? Technically, it was priceless, and I was certain that the business-savvy Steven Stone knew this too. Furthermore, it wasn’t like I had anything to offer him financially – the man was far richer than I was.

He also didn’t need my political connections – the man was Champion and heir to Devon Corp besides. He could make all those himself. And he definitely didn’t need any Pokémon, as he was already satisfied with his current team and could always find new members by himself.

However, by the same token, no one else could offer him anything either. Given that, I figured that there was only one real thing that I could offer that might catch his interest.

“How about I owe you a favour then; one that you could call in at any time.” I said, “I know it might sound ridiculous to offer something as vague as a favour for something as priceless as one of those stones, but I recognise that this is the best I can offer. And just to be clear, that favour is for anything, except for any request that will directly jeopardize the position or bring harm to myself or my loved ones. In that case, we can discuss for alternate ways for me to fulfil your request.”

He let out a chuckle, “You seem quite certain that you’ll be able to have something that I will ask for in the future.”

“Given my track record, I’d like to think I’m not just blowing out hot air.” I replied shamelessly, “And I think you know that I honour my word. I give you my solemn promise that I won’t back out of the favour right after I receive the Pidgeotite.”

He nodded, “That I believe. Your reputation has always been untarnished by scandal.”

His head tilted slightly as he fell into thought, “Hmm… how about this. Since I will not be able to hand over the Pidgeotite for the time being anyways, I will make you a verbal promise that I will not give or promise the Pidgeotite to anyone else until after all of this research is over. Considering how nebulous this project has proven to be, it means it could take months or even years to complete – and a lot of things could change in that time. Therefore, we can have this conversation again once we’ve properly identified just what the Pidgeotite does and what these stones actually are. Does that sound reasonable?”

“That sounds very fair. I agree.” I nodded, accepting that this was already a very good deal for me, “Thank you for hearing me out like this.”

“No need to worry about it; I would do the same in your shoes too.” He waved me off, “In fact, once rumours of this project begins to spread around, I suspect I’ll be having similar conversations with many other people. I’m sure there’ll be many other trainers out there looking to get their hands on these stones, much like you did.”

“You really lucked out by being the first ones to find these stones.” I said.

“We were.” He agreed, “But I suspect that we won’t be the only ones to have found or possess one of these stones. There will undoubtedly be people in the future that manage to get their hands on one of these, even if by accident. Maybe even you’d find one some day.”

“Maybe.” I chuckled, “I hope to get that lucky.”

If I did find one, and it was a Mega Stone that I couldn’t use, then it was very likely that I would try to sell it. Not for money, but for another usable Mega Stone – either for myself or my family.

A Mega Audino would be pretty nice to have too.

Nevertheless, with all those discussions with Blaine and Steven wrapped up regarding the Mega Stones, I decided that I had distracted myself away enough from the Tournament as the preliminary stage was just about to come to an end. There were just a few more battles to go.

The battle against Drayden had been a slight wake-up call. Not because I was lazy with either my own preparations or the training of my Pokémon, but with the strategies that I employed.

I was getting a little too used with being able to brute force through my opponent’s Pokémon. That wasn’t inherently a bad thing, since most of my team specialised and were very good at that style of fighting, but there were occasionally safer ways to achieve victory.

I needed to utilise those strategies more if I wanted to maintain my unblemished record of strength. Considering my large political ambitions, having that would be extremely beneficial for me.

However, just when I was about to call up Elesa and ask if she wanted to get in a late evening training session done, my phone buzzed as I received a message from Looker.

‘PLASMA intends to make a public challenge against regions’ leadership. Will fight your ‘captured’ Pokémon with ‘free’ Pokémon of their own. Intends to humiliate you with Pokémon that have been buffed up or drugged in advance to give them advantage.’

I frowned as I finished reading through the message, which had also been sent to other relevant people and law enforcement officers. It seems like Zinzolin was trying to earn back a lot of the public support that he had lost after I messed things up for them.

I could somewhat understand the logic of their plan. If they managed to defeat a Gym Leader’s or even an Elite Four’s Pokémon with their own ‘freed’ Pokémon, that’ll give legitimacy to their message and show the world why it is better for us to rely on freed Pokémon. Though in reality, it’d be nothing more than another one of their lies, especially since they seemed to be cheating to win.

Cheating was normally very difficult to pull off in an official battle, namely because of all the pre-battle checks you and your Pokémon had to go through. However, in an ‘unofficial’ battle hosted in a non-League setting, cheating would be much easier to pull off.

The thing was about cheating – it didn’t guarantee that you won. Even though the potency of artificial stimulants could be incredibly powerful, and could skyrocket a Pokémon’s stats, it wasn’t a foolproof way of winning.

And thanks to Looker informing us about their plan in advance – we could come up with ways of flipping the script on them.

If Zinzolin was looking to humiliate us – then he was in for a very unpleasant surprise.

A.N. Lots of talking about the Mega Stones, but I felt that this chapter was finally a good time to start going in-depth about them. I tried to think about all of the ‘realistic’ consequences that would crop up as a result of this discovery and the worldbuilding implications as a result, and I hope you enjoyed the discussions regarding the Pidgeotite. I felt that it was about time it was discussed.

Also, PLASMA is making a move again. But thanks to Looker, no one is going to be taken by surprise this time. Hope you enjoyed!