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The New Normal - 6-2
🕑 Added 2023-10-23 11:22:26 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 6-2 – Orb-ital Warfare
As soon as I read the title of the news report, my mind began whirling a mile a minute as I tried to process the consequences. I didn’t believe for a moment that Silph Co. would be behind such an attack; it would be far too daring and out of character for them. Nor would they bother trying to steal the Porygon research; it wasn’t THAT valuable to them and I’m pretty sure they had some access to it already anyways.
But the Porygon research WAS valuable to the evil teams, since being able to produce Porygon would always be valuable.
Which meant that this was all a smokescreen for Team Rocket. And I could only hope the public to be smart enough to figure out that out for themselves, though I wasn’t going to stay very optimistic on that. Worse, the accusations against Silph Co. also threatened to drag Indigo’s reputation through the mud as well, shattering our newfound attempts to rebuild our relations with them.
According to the news report, an anonymous whistleblower pointed fingers towards Silph Co having received the Porygon information that was just stolen from Devon Corp and that they were their backer. Obviously, that evidence was a plant, but the news agencies were still doing what they do best, stirring up drama and making things generally difficult for everyone.
I cursed their callousness. Didn’t they know that this was exactly what Team Rocket wanted? Or did they simply not care, so long as they got the views that they wanted?
I shook off those thoughts. I could continue cursing the news agencies later. Right now, I had to do something about this before Indigo got dragged in the mud alongside Silph Co. I feared that, if this situation isn’t handled quickly and effectively, I might be withdrawn from Hoenn and barred from helping out with the investigation.
That would be bad enough, but Indigo CANNOT afford to damage our relations with Hoenn any further. It would risk them threatening to break off relations entirely, which would be utterly disastrous. And a huge win for Team Rocket and Team Magma, who I suspect were behind this ploy in the first place.
Thus, I racked my brain for ways to solve this. I needed someone who could properly dispel such accusations within Silph Co yet be trusted enough amongst the community that their word would be trusted.
Suddenly, a person came to mind. And I let out a laugh tinged with irony. Drake gave me a weird look at that.
“Something funny?” He asked with a frown.
I shook my head, quickly calming myself down. “No, no. Just a humorous thought. Sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed in such a situation. But I do need to make a phone call.”
“You got a plan? Cuz this is going to be a fucking mess for both of us if we don’t deal with it right now.” He said, and I simply nodded to him as I dialled up a number.
“Giovanni speaking.” Giovanni’s smooth voice came through the phone, but oddly enough, it sounded a little breathless.
“Giovanni, it’s John. Did you see the news recently?” I asked.
“No, I’ve been a bit preoccupied recently.” He said, and was it me or did I hear a hint of embarrassment in his voice? “Is there something wrong?”
“Yes. And I might need your help. Or in fact, Indigo might need your help.” I said, trying to convey the seriousness of the situation through my tone.
“Oh? That doesn’t sound good. Right then, give me a second.” I heard some shuffling, whispering, and then the sound of a door closing. I didn’t know what was going on, but now wasn’t the time to ask. “Right, I’m ready. What’s going on?”
“Look at the news. Apparently, an ‘anonymous whistleblower’ just announced that one of the directors at Silph Co has just received some of the information regarding the Porygon and their evolution process that was just stolen from Devon Corp. AND that they hired Team Rocket to do it.” I explained.
“Silph Co!?” He asked, astonished, “Impossible. They would never dare to do something like that, not without telling me– I mean, I’m on the board of directors too, and I never would have voted in favour of that. Nor did I hear anything about it. WHICH director was it?!” His fury was palpable, even through the phone.
I was fairly certain that Giovanni was far more than just a simple director at Silph Co. In fact, I’m confident that he was basically the puppet master behind the whole company. But I didn’t voice that out loud. No need to reveal more than I needed to.
“No idea, they never said. And I agree that it’s a ridiculous accusation.” I concurred, “But the issue is that the news agencies are running wild with the accusations, like they always do. Soon enough, the whole of Indigo and Hoenn are going to know about it, and people are going to get very upset very quickly.”
“Hmm…I can definitely see that happening.” Giovanni agreed, and I could hear the gears turning in his head. “Damn, I really picked a bad time to slack on the news…I assume you want to counteract such statements as quickly as possible?”
“Yes, because I’m almost certain that this is a ploy by Team Rocket to distract us.” I replied firmly, “While we’re all running around like fools trying to deal with the fallout, they’re going to use that as a distraction to launch their real operation.”
“Yes, all very sensible.” He stated, sounding like he had thought of using a similar plan before and was very familiar with it. I put that thought aside for now.
“And even if Silph Co releases a statement denying the claims, no one’s really going to believe them. It’s going to sound like they’re just trying to deflect the blame.” I continued, “They’re going to need someone trustworthy to clear their name.”
“You mean someone like me?” He assumed, and I hummed in affirmation. That seemed to cause Giovanni to break out in laughter, one very similar to the one I had earlier.
“…I never thought the day would come where I would be the one to clear Silph Co’s name rather than the other way round.” He remarked wryly. I stayed silent at that, but inwardly I agreed with his thoughts. It WAS quite strange.
“Damn. Right then, I can see the urgency. Leave it to me, I’ll deal with it.” He declared with conviction, “You’re right in that Indigo can’t afford the damage that might be caused if we don’t clamp down on such accusations right away. And I personally would prefer Silph Co to remain untarnished. So you have my support.”
“May I ask how you’d deal with this?” I asked politely.
“Best not to.” He stated firmly, as if it was an order. “What I CAN do is assure you that I’ll do my best to solve this problem without having anything show up on the news. This will be handled quietly and internally. But I will do everything I can to ensure that Silph Co’s name is cleared, and the ploy exposed as a lie.”
I hummed, understanding what he was implying. I didn’t approve of such methods…but I wasn’t going to complain about it now. Not when we needed this framing attempt to be stopped as soon as possible. In the end, I voiced my agreement.
“Good, then I’ll get on that right away.” He said curtly, a tinge of urgency in his voice. “I’ll let you know how things go. Keep up the good work John, speak soon.” We exchanged farewells and then hung up the phone.
I put away my phone and walked back to where Drake was, who had recently just finished up with a phone call as well. He spoke up as I approached.
“Good news?” He asked, and I nodded.
“Probably. I called up Gym Leader Giovanni who has connections to Silph Co. He promised to deal with the rumours.” I told him, leaving out HOW he was going to do it.
“Excellent.” Drake replied with a firm nod, “I just got off the phone with Wallace again. He’s been on the phone with Lance, assuring him that this was all a plot and that we weren’t going to do anything. Lance seemed reassured but urged a quick resolution. I hope you have this handled.”
I nodded, but inwardly I was still a bit unsettled. I had totally forgot about Lance’s possible response with this; I was just glad that he was staying calm.
“Then are we sticking to the plan to trap them?” I asked, putting any of my doubts aside.
“Yes. Let’s get the fuckers.” Drake replied with a smile full of teeth.
==========
(Rocket Grunt POV)
He was a simple grunt of Team Rocket, though if he pulled off this mission then he was unlikely to remain a mere grunt for much longer. He had been due for a promotion for a long while, and this was the chance to earn it.
He and his team were discretely making their way through the graveyard that was Mt. Pyre. It had been a few days since that other team successfully acquired the files from Devon Corp, and apparently the bosses were satisfied with what they found out, because he and his team were now deployed to acquire the two Orbs.
They were disguised as your typical grieving trainer travelling as a large group of friends, pretending to pay their respects to a fallen Pokémon. Inwardly, he snorted at the idea of ever doing something like this; Pokémon were useful, but he could never see himself ever mourning their loss.
After all, who would mourn a tool when it breaks? That just reeked of unnecessary sentimentality.
Still, his internal thoughts aside, he and his small team of about a dozen grunts had to be very careful as they climbed the many floors of Mt. Pyre. They couldn’t afford to get caught before they had even reached their goal. While he and his teammates had been through rigorous training in preparation for this operation, it had been drilled into him that surprise was their biggest factor to succeed. Blowing their cover now would doom them.
They could not afford to spend too much time tangling with the Hoenn Police or else the Elite Four would arrive. And then they would be screwed, training or not.
It was why the bosses spent so much time and effort preparing the distraction. He had heard on the news about the huge drama that ‘Silph Co’s conspiracy’ had kicked up, and how that had led to the straining of Indigo-Hoenn relations. Truthfully, he didn’t care about any of that. All he and his bosses were concerned about was whether the Hoenn League would be too busy dealing with the fallout for them to realize their true plan at securing the Orbs.
They had already sent in a few forward scouts yesterday to make sure there wasn’t a sudden increase in security, and the scouts all said that there were no changes.
He did hear a few concerned whispers about how the distraction wasn’t working as well as they had expected but looking at the lack of new or additional patrols here at Mt. Pyre, they probably bought enough time for this mission to be a success. That, or the idiots in the League weren’t smart enough to figure out their plan. He didn’t care either way; he’d leave it to the bosses to do the bigger picture thinking. That’s what they were good for, after all.
He took a discrete look around to check for any nearby Jennys and nearly tripped over a grieving trainer, a young kid bawling his eyes out in front of a tombstone. Fortunately, he stopped himself just in time and walked around the pathetic kid, plastering an apologetic smile on his face. Inwardly, he cursed at the boy for almost drawing attention to himself and resisted the urge to punt him into the very tombstone he was crying at.
As he reached the stairs ascending upwards to the next floor, he had to force down the panic and surprise that he felt as a Jenny walked down the steps. Technically, they had yet to do anything wrong; yet the very presence of a Jenny, and the danger of breaking their cover, greatly rattled him. It took all of his willpower to keep a straight face, and he hoped to Arceus that he had drilled a sense of discipline into his fellow grunts standing next to him that they would not break under the pressure.
As if sensing his nervousness, the Jenny paused and gave them a considering look. He tried to give off a reassuring smile, but if he could react, he would have scowled as the Jenny took in his appearance. In order to avoid suspicion, he and his team weren’t allowed to wear full face coverings, so his face was completely exposed to the world. He hoped that this wouldn’t bite him in the ass later.
He could feel her eyes boring into his, as if she was trying to drill a hole into his very soul to ferret out his deepest secrets. His heart felt like it was beating out of his chest, and he prayed that she couldn’t hear the loud thumps of his heart. In a moment of weakness, images flashed through his head where the Jenny would catch them, and he had to force himself not to bite down on his lip reflexively.
After what felt like an eternity later, the Jenny gave a small nod to their group before walking off. Without looking back, he quickly walked up the stairs before letting out a sigh of relief as soon as he was sure that the Jenny couldn’t hear him.
“That was too close.” One of his fellow grunts whispered to him, and he had to agree. They were still a few floors from the summit, so they couldn’t afford to have their cover blown now.
He took a moment to recollect himself before he continued making his way up Mt. Pyre. Fortunately, there were no other close encounters with the Jenny’s, and progress was smooth. Therefore, it only took them a short while before they reached the summit. They were in the home stretch now.
As soon as he made his way outside onto the summit, he was immediately blasted by the howling wind and cursed. The winds meant that their prepared smoke bombs would be ineffective as the smoke would be quickly dispersed by the wind.
But there was nothing he could do about it, so instead he and his team performed one final check through of their Pokémon in preparation for the inevitable fight. They had gotten lucky to not have been discovered so far, but there was no chance he could simply walk out with the Orbs without a fight.
He sent a quick message to command to check on where the Elite Four were. After a few seconds, he got a response saying that Drake’s Altaria was spotted over at Mt. Chimney, while John’s Mantine was spotted near Mauville. He let out a sigh of relief as his luck; that meant that he had more time than he had expected before their arrival, hopefully enough time for him to escape and reach the backup teams.
After making sure they were all ready, they proceeded up the summit at a steady pace. They walked past many a grave as they continued to get closer to where the Orbs were being displayed. But then, his luck eventually came to an end as a Jenny called up to them.
“Hey! Could you come over here for a minute?” She ordered, calling them to her. Next to her was a fearsome Arcanine, looking far scarier than the ones that he saw in his briefings. Immediately, he recognized that this was not the usual Arcanine deployed by the Jennys. This was something far stronger.
Time seemed to slow for him as he pondered his choices. Did he think he could trick the Jenny into letting him pass? But even if he did, how much time would that buy before he and his team eventually got exposed? Did he want to risk getting close, without his Pokémon, to a deadly Arcanine that could maul him in an instant?
No, he realized that the jig was up, and that the time for stealth was over. Making up his mind, he let out a sharp whistle, signalling to his team that it was time to fight. The Arcanine immediately made a beeline towards him, but he already had released all of his Pokémon out on to the field.
White lights flashed all around him as his team released all of their Pokémon simultaneously. A small horde of Golbat, Mightyena, Dustox, Weezing, Claydol, and Hypno. These Pokémon were specifically chosen and trained for this operation in order to quickly suppress their foes and buy time for the team to escape.
His team appeared just in time as Arcanine slammed straight into one of them, putting their Extreme Speed to good use. But like they had practiced, they quickly made use of their significant numbers advantage to pile on the approaching Arcanine. A quick Psychic from a few Claydol broke its charge before it was immediately pounced upon by a pack of Mightyena. Taking advantage of the chaos, a Hypno fired off repeated pulses of Hypnosis before the Arcanine was finally removed from the fight.
Despite quickly dealing with the Arcanine, he knew there was no time to waste. Securing the Orb and escaping had to be their first priority before the reinforcements arrived. Already, he could see the Jenny barking orders into her radio, and he knew it was a matter of time before their numbers advantage would be flipped around.
So, like they had planned, his team rushed forwards with their Pokémon. The Jenny quickly released a few more Pokémon, including a few more Arcanine and a Meganium of all things. One of his team members immediately diverted his Pokémon to deal with the new threat, and the rest of them continued moving forwards, running up a flight of stairs.
As he got to the top, he could see in the distance the two pedestals that held the two Orbs. They were so close!
Of course, his elation was immediately ruined as he saw more Jenny’s rushing over with their Pokémon. Oddly enough, a Nurse Joy was joining them with her Blissey. He guessed that, when you were desperate enough, you had to throw everything at the problem. He would have sneered, but there wasn’t enough time for that.
He knew that this was likely the last line of defense before they could take the Orb. If they could just deal with these busybodies quickly, then they could escape with their prize before the Elite Four arrived.
“Take them down! Rush them!” He commanded, his tone urgent and filled with adrenaline. His fellow grunts let out a yell of their own and ordered their Pokémon to charge forwards to meet the Jenny’s head on. Their Pokémon might be inferior to theirs, but they still held a significant number advantage on them. If he could defeat the Jenny’s piecemeal, then their victory should be in the-
Suddenly, a huge pressure started pressing down on him, and he instantly collapsed to his knees. His joints felt like they were about to be crushed from the sudden pressure, and his neck nearly snapped as he hit the ground. As he struggled against the force to raise his head to look around, he found that his team and their Pokémon were all in a similar state.
The Jenny’s instantly took advantage of their sudden inability to fight back by unleashing powerful attacks against their horde of disabled Pokémon. Instantly, multiple torrents of flames scorched his Pokémon; the Arcanine all releasing their Flamethrowers simultaneously. As his Pokémon writhed in pain, quickly burning in the pulsating heat, he realized he needed to do SOMETHING before they would all be defeated!
His eyes frantically searched around to find the source of the sudden pressure before he found the eyes of the Blissey glowing a powerful pink as it continued to suppress them with Gravity. He was very confused for a moment before a memory flashed by him, and his eyes widened in recognition.
This wasn’t an ordinary Blissey at all! This was JOHN’s Blissey! What the fuck was it doing here?!
Still, fighting against an Elite Four Pokémon or not, he was in too deep to stop now. Plus, he figured that even such a powerful Blissey would not be able to suppress so many Pokémon at the same time. If they could disable it first, then they would be given free reign once again.
Luckily, his Pokémon must have been thinking the same thing, as their small group of Claydol immediately fired off repeated blasts of Psychic towards the Blissey. Blissey instantly formed a Light Screen in front of it to protect it from the blasts, but their Hypno quickly joined in as well, and they eventually overwhelmed and shattered the Light Screen and blasted the Blissey backwards, cancelling the Gravity.
With the Gravity finally nullified, his other Pokémon finally regained their mobility and dove back into the fight. A huge barrage of attacks blasted the enemy Arcanine, cutting off their Flamethrowers. The Jenny’s quickly ordered their Arcanine to rush in with Extreme Speed to nullify the range advantage, and the fight quickly descended into a disorderly brawl, but he remained in command and ordered his team to slowly encircle the Jennys and pick them apart one by one.
Annoyingly, the Jennys were putting up a much tougher fight than they were anticipating, and their Pokémon were clearly far more well-trained and powerful than the usual fare. Obviously, a lot of that was due to John’s Blissey firing off wave after wave of Psychics, Shadow Balls, and Thunderbolts at their Pokémon, which was frustrating a lot of their efforts.
They WERE winning, but he was growing increasingly worried that they were rapidly running out of time. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but his gut was screaming to him that he had to end the fight NOW before it was too late.
And yet these stupid Jennys and their Pokémon refused to fall. That annoying Blissey was constantly healing them up in between its own attacks with Heal Pulses, making it extremely difficult to even knock down a single target despite their overwhelming numbers and encirclement. It was such a pain in the ass.
But they continued to make progress, and as a lucky Air Slash from one of their Golbats landed a critical hit on one of their last few Arcanine’s, knocking it out before Blissey could heal them, the tide was rapidly turning in their favour.
However, just as he could taste the victory, a thunderous roar filled the skies as a large shadow enveloped the summit. Dread immediately filled his veins as he realized that too much time had passed, and that the reinforcements had successfully made their way here.
He dared to look up, and he saw the rapidly falling figure of John’s Ursaluna descending from the sky like a meteor from space. Panic immediately set in.
“SCATTER!” He shouted to his team, “I’m going for the Orb! Join me or distract them! QUICK QUICK QUICK!”
To their credit, his team were swift to respond to his commands, and he was joined by a fellow grunt as they frantically rushed to the Orbs. Behind him, he could hear the signature sounds of rocks shattering as the Ursaluna immediately dominated the battle with its geokinesis. Rocks were ripped out of the ground and he could hear his Pokémon crying out in pain as they were impaled upon a landslide of rocks. And yet, a part of his mind recognized that Ursaluna was so careful with his efforts as to not accidentally destroy any of the nearby graves.
He had seen the footage of John’s battle at Olivine, and he was absolutely certain that he and his team stood no chance against his, better training or not. Still, a part of his mind, the one that clung to hope, believed that he could still make it out if he could just fly off and scatter into the crowds, orb in tow.
But just as he thought that, another thunderous roar boomed out from the skies, this one so deafeningly loud that he instinctively stopped to cover his ears. This time, he didn’t even bother waste time looking up as he continued his single-minded charge towards the Orbs. He was barely a couple feet away before a terrifying blue beast landed in front of him, and he found himself staring face to face with Drake’s Salamence.
Possibly out of desperation, his fellow grunt and his Claydol fired off an Ice Beam at the Salamence, only to be met with a searing vortex of flames that quickly engulfed the lone Claydol and swiftly burning it into unconsciousness.
Drake merely stared at them with an unimpressed look, as if daring them to make another move. Despite not saying a word, his eyes stared at them with such anger that it seemed to match the wrath coming out in torrential waves from his Salamence. He could feel his face rapidly paling as something warm filled his pants.
Knowing that the fight was lost, he was about to raise his arms up in surrender before he was blasted face first into the ground from a Psychic. As his consciousness slowly started to fade, he caught a glimpse of the Blissey walking up to him, a frown on her face with eyes glowing a powerful pink.
And then another impact slammed into the back of his head, and he passed out before he even hit the ground.
A.N. Mission failed! We’ll get’em next time. Or has it? Hope you enjoyed the fight and the shift in POV. I thought it would be more interesting if you saw the operation from the Grunt’s POV rather than John’s, just because I felt it would be more tense.
Sadly, no BETA this time.
Comments
The Tallest Tree
Really great start to a new volume
Shisui34
Love your story and can’t wait for more.
