The New Normal - OMAKE - GAMER POV

The New Normal – OMAKE – Pokemon Gamer POV

Eric was an 18-year-old university student who had recently bought the new Pokémon game. Normally, he would consider himself too old to play games like this, but out of nostalgia and procrastination to avoid doing any more uni work, he decided on a whim to try out the new game.

At least it got good reviews. This recent game was apparently famed for the fact that you could travel between the 3 regions of Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn.

And like any true gamer, he played for hours non-stop and rushed through the game as fast as possible, skipping all cutscenes and dialogue because he didn’t want to waste time reading a cookie-cutter Pokémon story meant for children.

Now he found himself staring down the next Elite Four member.

“Phew, that last Elite Four really took a lot out of my team. Thank God I have potions and revives aplenty.” He remarked to himself.

“Right then, time to do the next one.” He said as he approached the overworld sprite of the next Elite Four member in his way and initiated the conversation.

[“Hello, I am John Smith of the Elite Four. I see you’re the rare sort that’s decided to challenge the Champion directly. That’s very ambitious…especially for an 11-year-old kid like you. I mean, even if you win…I’m not sure if the public would want a kid as their Champion, you know? Anyways, that’s none of my business. That’s just how this world works I guess.”]

Okay, that’s true. But what the fuck was this fourth wall breaking?! Also, weren’t they supposed to reveal their Typing by now???

[“Ah…I remember who you are now. You’re the one that made my sister cry after you defeated her Gym Challenge. Well then, that makes my next task easier.”]

[*Doodododoodo*]

[The game flashes as the trainer versus battle screen appears. John’s Smith pixelated avatar appears on your screen.]

[You are challenged by Elite Four John!]

[Elite Four John sent out his BLISSEY!]

Eric sent out his trusty and overlevelled starter, his Blastoise, and frowned. He initially assumed that he could just Hydro Pump his way through anything. But against a Blissey, that wasn’t going to happen.

At least he knew now that John was a Normal-type trainer.

[“BLASTOISE, switch out! Come back!” Your avatar says as he swaps out his Blastoise. “Go! MACHAMP!”]

[The foe’s BLISSEY used Toxic!] [MACHAMP was badly poisoned!]

Eric’s frown only deepens as his Machamp is badly poisoned. Since he refused to use items in battle out of pride, it meant that his Machamp was now on a time limit for the rest of the match. Well, he guessed that there would be no problems so long as he could knock out the Blissey in one hit.

[The foe’s BLISSEY used Protect!]   [“MACHAMP used Drain Punch!”]  [The foe’s BLISSEY protected itself!] [MACHAMP is hurt by poison!]

Bruh. What the fuck was this cheap stall tactic. Did this AI plan to just out stall his opponents with toxic stall? That annoyed Eric, but he knew that at least his next move would finish off the Blissey for sure.

[The foe’s BLISSEY used Psychic! It’s super effective! MACHAMP has fainted!]

…

…

…

FUCKKKKKK!!!!!! SINCE WHEN WAS A BLISSEY FASTER THAN A MACHAMP!?!??! He KNEW he should have EV trained his Machamp in speed!!!

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A few infuriating minutes later, he was finally at John’s last Pokémon. It was a struggle, honestly, because John seemed to have really powerful Pokémon on his team. From the recently released and never before encountered Wyrdeer and Ursaluna, to his extremely fast and surprisingly hard hitting Pidgeot, Eric had to slog through each one of those battles to get to where he was.

And now he was here, down to John’s final Pokémon. And he wondered what it would be. He still had three Pokémon left of his own, his starter, an Ampharos, and a Gengar. He figured he should be fine for whatever was left.

[“Go! Gengar!”] [Elite Four John sent out his SLAKING!]

[“You know, it’s been a while since someone pushed me this far. But it’s time for you to try again.”]

Well, this would be easy. Slaking were weak Pokémon because they could only move once every two turns due to Traunt. He could probably dodge the first move with his Gengar’s type immunities and just slowly wear it down for a quick win.

At least, that was what Eric was thinking.

[The foe’s SLAKING used Sucker Punch! It’s super effective! GENGAR has fainted!]

…Bruh. Okay, that was fine, it couldn’t attack the next turn, so his Ampharos should be able to land a quick Thunder Wave to paralyze it.

[“Go! AMPHAROS!”]

[The foe’s Slaking used Earthquake! It’s super effective! AMPHAROS has fainted!]

WAIT, WHAT THE FUCK?! DID THIS SLAKING NOT HAVE TRUANT OR SOMETHING?!?!

HOLD THE FUCK ON WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?!

[“Go! BLASTOISE!”]

“Okay, calm down. With Blastoise’s high defenses and the fact that he’s 10 levels overlevelled, everything should be ok. We’re not wiping.” Eric mumbled to himself as he ordered his Blastoise to use Hydro Pump.

[The foe’s Slaking used Giga Impact! BLASTOISE has fainted!]

[ERIC is out of usable Pokémon! ERIC whited out! Lost $11037 to the victor!]

FUCKKKK!!!!!!!!

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Eric was so mad at his loss that he forgot that he could just reset the game instead of having to trudge through the Elite Four again. But his anger currently consumed his rationality, so he used the first two Elite Four members as vents for his anger.

With his anger partially vented, he returned to the room to face off against Elite Four John once more.

[“Hello, I am John Smith of the Elite Four. Are you back so soon? You know, I don’t really like taking money from 11-year-olds…”]

[“But hey, if you want to win, have you considered purchasing some of the Smith’s family Moomoo milk? I guarantee that it’ll give you a better chance at beating me. Trust me!”]

Minutes later, Eric nearly broke his gaming device as barely stopped himself from throwing it against the wall at yet another loss.

A.N. Huge thanks to ChocoRon for the idea on SB for this random OMAKE idea that I quickly wrote up! And yes, this is an AU Pokemon game. Any prompt inconsistencies with the game are because of that. Please don’t think too hard about it.

And yes, I recently learnt while writing this chapter that Blissey and Machamp share the same Speed stat. Who knew?

This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Cheers!