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The New Normal - 6-4
🕑 Added 2023-10-30 11:55:37 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 6-4 – On the Hunt
It was a momentous realization. To think that, for whatever reason, Team Galactic had gotten involved with the evil teams in Hoenn. It horrified me to imagine all of the evil teams working together under a common goal, and I instinctively wanted to scream and panic.
But before I made a fool of myself, Drake bumped me on the shoulder and turned to me with a concerned look on his face. “What is it, John? You look like you realized something terrible.”
His words pulled me back from the brink, and I managed to hold on to my rationality. Drake’s presence reminded me of where I was, and most importantly, how I wasn’t alone. Yes, the fact that the evil teams were cooperating together was a terrifying thought, but their combined manpower was still dwarfed by the forces of the League.
If we could just locate where they were, we could crush them before they could start anything.
With that silver lining, I took a deep breath to calm myself before I addressed Drake, “Let’s speak outside. In private.”
With a silent nod, he followed me out and into an empty interrogation room. Before I started talking, I released Pixel from his Pokéball, and gestured for him to scan the room.
Drake raised an eyebrow at my actions, “So what did you realize that requires all this secrecy? Did their fanaticism unnerve you?”
I stayed silent until Pixel let out an affirmative buzz, signalling that the room was clear of any recording devices. Only then, did I speak.
“In a sense.” I said, before letting out a breath as I steeled myself for what I had to say, “Their words about reshaping the world is deeply concerning to me, especially when you consider their actions.”
“What do you mean?” Drake asked as he crossed his arms.
“Considering the cultural significance of the Orbs, Team Rocket must have known that there was no chance that stealing the Orbs would not lead to an immediate region wide manhunt like what we did in Indigo.” I explained, “And yet, despite all the effort they put into lowering their perceived threat level during their raid at Devon Corp, they were still willing to try to steal the Orbs.”
“Surely that’s just because they’re fucking idiots, like I mentioned before.” Drake interrupted, “Must have gotten greedy as criminals usually do.”
I shook my head, “I highly doubt that it’s so simple. Did you notice how there seemed to be two groups of criminals, one that was in it for the money, and the other were far more fanatical? I believe the former to be the remnants of the old Team Rocket, but the fanatics must be from a different criminal group entirely.”
Drake tilted his head in thought, “…It makes sense.” He eventually said, “A group of career criminals don’t suddenly become fanatics out of nowhere.” He sighed, “So what you’re saying is that we actually have a new group of criminals that have joined up with Team Rocket and are working together for a common goal?”
“Exactly.” I nodded, “And THAT common goal is what I’m particularly concerned about. Especially when the fanatics continually harping on about ‘remaking the world’.”
“You don’t think it’s a bunch of nonsense?” He questioned, “Fanatics aren’t known for their rational state of mind.”
“Sure, I agree with that.” I replied, “But what if they could?”
I was testing the waters here to see if Drake could be persuaded to realizing the evil teams’ true goals, as farfetched as they were to someone without meta-knowledge. Awakening and controlling Legendaries just wasn’t a thing that was done.
“Impossible.” Drake stated, like I expected, “There’s nothing in this world that could do something like this except for…the…Legendaries…” His eyes widened in horror and realization, but he quickly shook off those thoughts as he returned to his usual gruff frown, “No. I refuse to entertain such a thought. Obtaining control over a Legendary is inconceivable. They are far beyond the realms of man and science.”
I shrugged, trying not to wince at how wrongDrake was, “I can’t be certain, but it would be the worst possible scenario, wouldn’t it?” I said rhetorically, “But even the simple act of awakening any of the Legendaries could risk incalculable amounts of destruction. Everyone knows that Legendaries are more like pure forces of nature. We can’t risk them ever being summoned, especially not by these fanatics.”
“Is that why that so-called legend-obsessed leader of Team Rocket went for the Orbs?” Drake frowned thoughtfully, “Because he thought they could grant him control over the Legendaries? Preposterous!”
“Maybe. But ultimately whether they ARE able to awaken these Legendaries or not is going off topic.” I said, switching topics as I realized I couldn’t persuade Drake of the evil teams’ true goals. “The main issue for now is what I brought up before. There are two teams operating here. One is the former Team Rocket, and the other consists of fanatics.”
“Aye. And that means we’ve been looking at this whole thing wrong.” Drake grumbled, “We were under the assumption that Team Rocket was a far smaller operation than this, but between this revelation and the increase in training that we saw…this means that the scale of their operations must be far larger than we first thought.”
I nodded, “Yes, and that means we have our work cut out for us.” I sighed, “And to make matters worse, their leaders should have already been informed of the mission’s failure, which means they’ll be trying to squirrel away and hide as soon as possible.”
“Fuck. You’re right.” Drake snarled, “Then let’s not waste any more time. You said Lance gave approval right?” I nodded, “Then let’s get these fanatics transferred over to Indigo as soon as possible. I doubt we’d get anything out of them otherwise.”
He stalked out of the room, “Come. We need to strike them hard and fast before they can hide away once again. Let’s hope the Jennys’ got something for us.”
We made our back to the viewing room, and Drake immediately approached the Jenny to see if we had found any leads for us to go on. However, just before he could ask, Pixel started buzzing widely.
“PORY! PORY! GON! GON!” It whirled loudly, and my eyes widened in alarm as I realized what Pixel was saying.
Without a second thought, I rushed into the interrogation room with Pixel, where a grunt was in the middle of being questioned, and Pixel immediately slammed into the grunt.
“ELITE JOHN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” The interrogating Jenny shouted, but I ignored her as I kneeled down to where the grunt was groaning in pain on the floor. Pixel then fired off a weak Psychic to ensure that he stood down before its eyes glowed as Pixel began to perform a full scan on the grunt.
“GON! GON!” It buzzed to me as it levitated a tiny object off of the grunt’s clothes. I inspected it and realized that, just like Pixel was shouting about, it was a miniature scanner. If it wasn’t for Pixel’s scanning abilities, it would have been near impossible to spot.
I quickly turned to the Jenny, “My Porygon has just informed that the grunt has a miniature scanner on him that was able to scan and send off the data from the Orb.” Her face widened in surprise as I continued, “We need to check all of the other grunts to make sure they don’t have similar devices. Pixel here will help with that.”
She nodded and immediately set to work, Pixel following after them as I told it to. I let out a breath as I watched them hurry away, as my mind started to process the implications of the scanner.
The fact that they had managed to scan the data and send it off meant that their mission was likely a partial success, and there was nothing we could have done about it. Even if we had detected the scanners earlier, they would have still been able to send off the data that they scanned.
“FUCK!” I couldn’t help but shout out in a statement of anger and frustration. This meant that they had the data that they likely wanted from the Orb, which could mean that they could proceed to the next step of their plan, whatever it might be.
Therefore, our attempts to have tried to stop them might have been mostly for nothing. If they got the data anyway, then I truly feared they were going to do something insane and risk the world.
I let out a frustrated grunt as I approached Drake and explained to him the ramifications of the scanner.
He growled, “Arceus, does this shit never end!? Thought we could finally taking a fucking breather before they pull this kind of shit on us. Fucking shit!” He continued to let out a few more swears before he took multiple deep breaths to calm himself down. Then, he lowered his voice to a whisper, “I’ll have to inform Wallace about this, and I suggest you do the same with Lance. We can’t let the public find out about this; it’d cause widespread panic, but neither can we ignore the worst-case scenario. We’ll have to be ready.”
I nodded. Inwardly, I was glad everyone was taking this seriously. The evil teams were often existential threats to the world, and they HAD to be stopped at all costs.
After a few minutes, the Jennys returned to us and informed us that they have extracted the scanners from all of the captured grunts. Likewise, Pixel confirmed to us that they had all sent off whatever data they had.
But there was a silver lining. Thanks to Pixel, we KNEW where that location was.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Drake asked as he started making his way out the door, “Let’s get a move on and strike while the iron is hot!”
And with that, we split up. Drake and I would take a few of the Jennys to form a perimeter around the location, while the rest would stay and continue to identify more leads. On the way there, Drake informed Wallace of what was going on, and asked him if we could bring the entirety of the Elite Four to bear.
Unfortunately, Wallace regretfully denied the proposal, saying that the Committee was adamant in not escalating the situation any further. Plus, with only one known location, bringing the entire Elite Four would be overkill. Drake reluctantly agreed with the latter. And at least he gave us full authorisation to strike and capture those found at valid targets.
Still, Drake and I were more than enough to handle them, so we made our way to where Pixel directed us, towards a nondescript warehouse at the outer edges of Slateport City. Our small group landed a small distance away to avoid being spotted, and Drake quickly informed of the plan.
His Pokémon were a bit too destructive for such an operation. So, he would be focused on circling around the building with his flyers to support the Jennys and ensure that no one tried to escape. Then, I would be in charge of breaking in with the remaining Jennys to capture them all.
We all agreed. And with the plan in place, we double checked our radios and made our move.
Within under a minute, we had the entire warehouse surrounded. Not needing to announce ourselves, I released out Smough, Klee and Luna and busted down the gate using Smough as a battering ram.
“PUT YOUR HANDS UP! HOENN POLICE!” One of the Jenny’s shouted out as we immediately funnelled inside.
As the dust settled, we were greeted with the sight of many a surprised grunt, all wearing Team Magma uniforms. That was a shock, but I quickly put it out of my mind as I directed my Pokémon to attack before the grunts could recover.
“BLAST THEM DOWN!” I ordered.
Klee and Luna immediately shot out a wave of Psychic that crashed into a few surprised grunts, quickly knocking them out of the fight. The others, shaken out of their stupor, rapidly scrambled to release the rest of their Pokémon as they either stood and fought or tried to escape out of the back.
To my left, an Arcanine blitzed into the fray as it tackled one of the grunt’s Arbok. At the same time, Smough slammed his head into a Weezing with a devastating Zen Headbutt, which fainted instantly.
Klee’s eyes flashed as a large screen of light formed in front of us like a barrier, the Light Screen protecting us from the incoming ranged attacks. I heard a howl of pain coming from my right, and I turned to see a Mightyena getting blasted back by a Moonblast before another Arcanine slammed into it while it was on the ground.
With the first wave of Pokémon knocked out, we had established a firm foothold within the warehouse and were beginning to push the grunts back. Making use of the extra space, I released Tyrant into the fight.
“SLAKINGGG!” He roared as he charged straight into where the fighting was thickest, unheeding of the opposition in his way. I saw him casually grab a Claydol before using it as a Pokémon shield against any attacks while it struggled helplessly in his grasp.
A Golbat tried to swoop in from above, but it flew too close to Smough and got pulled out of the air and savagely thrown onto the ground. An Ice Beam from Luna ensured that it stayed down.
While Tyrant was pulling all of the attention onto himself, the Jenny’s Arcanine were flanking around and striking at a few stragglers that were trying to hide away on the sides. The Arcanine made use of their impressive speed to rush them down and savage them at close range, playing to their own strengths.
In the meanwhile, Klee was focused on maintaining the Light Screen while also firing off the occasional Heal Pulse to ensure that our Pokémon were all in fighting condition.
Seeing how quickly they were losing the fight, a few of the more cowardly grunts tried to escape out the back with their Pokémon. However, as soon as they did so, a huge pillar of stone erupted from below them and crushed their Pokémon in an avalanche of rocks that I recognized was from Drake’s Flygon. Others were less fortunate, being met with a powerful Dragon Pulse to the face from his Altaria.
The grunt’s Pokémon were being blitzed down and encircled. From the front, Tyrant was leading the charge as he ripped apart their Pokémon with brutal ease, while Smough and the rest were making sure that any and all stragglers that he missed were quickly knocked out. From behind, Drake and his Dragons had their only escape route under lockdown, and trying to escape through it was a doomed affair.
At this point, I thought the battle was effectively won and done, but then a grunt’s shout suddenly cut through the entire battle, “BURN THE DATA SERVERS! DON’T LET THEM GET ACCESS TO IT!”
Shit! “PROTECT THE SERVERS! WE NEED TO SEE WHAT’S INSIDE!” I commanded, pointing towards where the servers were located at the far end of the room. Although losing the data servers wouldn’t be too big of a loss, it meant that we wouldn’t be able to glean more about what they had learnt from their attack at Devon and Mt. Pyre.
One of the grunts immediately made a dash towards the servers with his Houndoom. I quickly turned to a nearby Jenny, “MOVE YOUR ARCANINE! STOP THAT HOUNDOOM!”
Without needing me to clarify, she swiftly ordered her Arcanine to intercept the Houndoom. Arcanine rushed forwards with Extreme Speed and arrived just in time to absorb the stream of flames with its Flash Fire, protecting the data servers from being burnt down.
Realizing their first attempt had failed, the grunt who had made the order initially barked out another command, “TEAM MAGMA, GET TO THE DATA SERVERS NOW! ABOVE ALL ELSE!”
And, just like the fanatics they were, the Team Magma grunts put aside all of their self-preservation instincts as they all charged towards the data servers with their Pokémon. Some of them were even using themselves as human meatshields for their Pokémon to buy time, knowing that we couldn’t seriously injure them.
It was a disgusting action that took advantage of our mercy to stop us from attacking. But just as I was about to wrack my brain for options to stop the grunts, a huge section of the warehouse’s roof was suddenly ripped out.
A terrifying roar filled the now exposed warehouse as the battle seemed to pause as everyone and their Pokémon stared up to where the source of that roar came from. And that answer quickly revealed itself as Drake landed with his Salamance and Blastoise standing by his side, right in the path of the charging grunts.
“JOHN, SHIELD THE JENNYS NOW!” Drake shouted out as both of his Blastoise’s barrels began to gleam a dangerous blue. I instantly understood what was about to happen.
“GET TO COVER!” I yelled to the nearby Jenny’s while Klee and Luna rapidly shouldered in front of me while they both reinforced the Light Screen and surrounded us with a Protect Shield. The Jenny’s swiftly recalled their Pokémon before huddling up next to me within the safety of the shields. I shouted to Drake the moment they did so.
“NOW!”
And not a second later, Blastoise unleashed a devastating double barrel Hydro Pump that swept through the entire warehouse. Screams of pain rang out as all of the charging grunts and their Pokémon were ruthlessly blasted with an enormous torrent of water. Some of the more intelligent grunts had tried to put up Protect shields to block the incoming attack, but to no avail. Those Protect shield were shattered just like all the rest.
Drake showed absolutely no mercy as he stared impassively as the grunts and their Pokémon were all knocked down by Blastoise’s attack. The only exception was Tyrant, who stood outside of the Protect shield and simply tanked through the attack with a pained, yet stoic, grunt.
As Blastoise’s attack petered out, I glanced over the remains of the warehouse to find that all of the remaining grunts and their Pokémon had been knocked out, barring a few lucky survivors. A swift command to Luna and Klee resulted in a quick barrage of Psychics that knocked out the last few Pokémon.
Because of where Drake had landed, his side of the warehouse, which was also where the data servers were, remained intact. Everything else had been smashed apart by the sheer power of his Blastoise’s Hydro Pump, with only rubble remaining.
Not wanting to risk anything, I rushed over to where Drake was and released Pixel to scan and save all of the data. Unfortunately, Pixel could only do so at close ranges, otherwise I would have deployed him as soon as the data servers were under threat. Luckily, with an affirmative beep, Pixel informed me that it had saved everything, and my phone immediately pinged as the information was sent.
I gave Drake a nod and he started barking out orders to the Jennys. “Data secured. Let’s clean all this shit up.”
The Jennys rapidly began making calls to the nearby Pokécenter at Slateport for some Nurse Joys to carry out all of the fallen Pokémon and the grunts. I took a quick glance and winced as I saw that a few of the grunts were pretty badly injured by the attack. I turned to Drake with a questioning glance, but he just shrugged.
“Reasonable force.” He simply replied, “They shouldn’t have gotten in my way or use themselves as fucking meatshields. This is just the result of their idiocy.”
I agreed, but still had to voice out my concern anyway, “Wouldn’t you get told off for causing undue harm against the grunts?”
“HAH!” He barked out a laugh, “Just leave that shit to me. I’d like to see them try.” And I nodded as I let the topic drop. If Drake seemed unconcerned about it, then I certainly wasn’t about to make a fuss. In my eyes, these grunts deserved it.
“But I guess this proves us right about the fact that there are two different teams in play.” Drake supposed as he glanced down at the uniforms of the fallen grunts, “They’re wearing a very different outfit to Team Rocket. I think I heard one of the grunts shout out something about ‘Team Magma’. A shitty name.” He scoffed.
“But they’re very fanatical.” I frowned, “Takes a lot more than money to put yourself in harm’s way for the cause. This is some devotion.”
“Aye. And that makes them dangerous.” Drake agreed, “We got lucky today. Let’s keep up the momentum and destroy as much of their organisation while we still can.” I nodded.
The clean-up took a while, which I used to inspect the information that we had so painstakingly retrieved from the data server. In it, we found what we suspected, which was that the scanners had been used to scan the Orbs at close distance and send off that data. However, whatever they had picked up from those scanners were immediately wiped from the server as they got sent out, and we had no way of retrieving that data or the location of where it was sent to.
However, there was a silver lining. The retrieved data still consisted of a few undeleted financial transactions and other leads, which I hope we could make use of to quickly locate more of their hideouts. Thus, I quickly forwarded the data to Drake and the Hoenn Police so that they could extract whatever they could from it.
I only hoped that they could find out more soon. I knew that, with each hour that passed, more and more of the grunts would wise up to our raids and quickly remove themselves and anything incriminating.
And with the data they obtained from the scanner, I was truly unsettled by what they would do.
A.N. And the beginning of the raids against the evil teams. And John and the team got some confirmation of their theories. But, like I mentioned in the chapter, the evil teams aren’t just going to sit down and let themselves be captured. They’re going to fight back or hide as much away as possible.
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Big thanks!
Comments
Cerber
I agree. The small devies could hardly be calibrated properly or strong of enough to getvwhat they want. Not to mention how much data it could have sent and lastly as you pointed out - they dont have the orbs themselves. Most of the controlling legendary plots required some legendary materials of some sort to do it
The Tallest Tree
This feels a bit contrived. But I don't know much about the 'evil teams' other than Team Rocket. Where do they get the funding, manpower, actual power, secrecy, and ability to actually threaten the world in this way? Anyway, it's not a ding on your writing as I understand that this stuff is part of the newer Pokemon verse but it just feels silly and an unrealistic (in a narrative sense) prospect. I enjoyed how you wrote the raid though.
Jabari M Hamilton
I mean them getting the data is bad but let's be real here. 1. How much data could they have really gotten in that short time frame, and 2 without the orbs themeselves I imagine whatever they can do is limited.
