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The New Normal - 5-18 - Interlude - Drake
🕑 Added 2023-10-18 06:00:03 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 5-18 – Interlude – Drake
Drake had rushed over to Devon Corp as soon as he heard about the attack. Fortunately for Hoenn, Joseph Stone had the decency and integrity to not let such an attack remain secret, even if it might hurt his stock prices. A couple of shareholders may have complained, but Joseph seemed keen to find the truth.
Drake could respect someone who valued the greater good over their personal needs. Drake always believed that it was only in in adversity that a person’s true character would be revealed. And here, his respect for the long-time businessman only grew. Turns out there WERE businessmen that could be respectable and weren’t just in it for the money. Go figure.
Still, that small silver lining was not enough to cover over the attack, which was, politely speaking, a disaster in the making. Sure, Team Rocket had actually minimized their damage, only inflicting several injuries and relatively minor property damage, but the idea that Team Rocket was resurfacing was one that Drake was imminently concerned about.
Unlike the rest of Hoenn, he wasn’t surprised at Team Rocket’s reappearance. He always knew, from his own gut instincts and from John’s warnings, that Team Rocket had yet to go to ground entirely. He KNEW that they were simply biding their time until the right opportunity presented themselves for them to strike once again. Because idiots like these would not simply go away with one ass-kicking. And, just like he predicted, they had resurfaced once again.
What was concerning to Drake, which the Hoenn League seemed to be blindfully ignorant about as usual with their incompetence, was the fact that Team Rocket were acting with far more precision and professionalism than they had previously seen from their time in Indigo. They were far more well-trained and disciplined. Moreover, this attack at Devon Corp was more akin to a precision strike than anything else, and the military man in Drake was deeply troubled by such realisations.
They had gotten in somehow, raided the storage facility where Joseph said valuable files were being stored, and then left before the Hoenn Police could catch them. They left no stragglers and very little evidence to go with. It was nothing like how they used to act, which was obviously very haphazard and undisciplined.
In fact, their operation was clean enough that Drake heard that some within the Hoenn League were looking to try to sweep this whole incident under the rug. Once he had heard that, it had taken every little bit of self-control for Drake to not explode into a furious tirade. He would have quit the Elite Four ON THE SPOT if the Hoenn League tried to cover up an attack like this for something as stupid as POLITICS!
Fucking imbeciles and their greed to stay in power. He always said that the Hoenn League would function better if they could get rid of the layabouts in the committee pretending that they were important when all they did was contaminate the air with their existence.
Fortunately, Wallace was quick to jump to his defense. He argued that with people hurt, they had to do right by Joseph Stone and his wounded employees so that the Hoenn League is seen doing something. Privately, Wallace had informed Drake that he was on his side, and that Wallace would use his position as Champion to support Drake in his pursuit of Team Rocket.
Drake was proud of his Champion for his support and fighting back against the committee to do the right thing. Their Champion might be a little too interested in Contests and competitions, but he was undoubtedly a good leader and had Drake’s respect. The other Elite Four were similarly supportive, which he was thankful for.
And hence, this was where Drake found himself now. He had the unofficial backing of the Champion, but many in the Hoenn League were against further escalation. They had demanded that Drake and the other Elite Four members to not act out in a way that might cause a public scare, stupidly tying their hands.
But Drake was a military man. He fought in the war as part of the navy. He wasn’t about to let some pencil pusher forcefully order him around.
He would protect his beloved region no matter what. He would be the guardian that shielded Hoenn from the rot that was Team Rocket, and he would root out the source of this rot and corruption and purge it from Hoenn entirely. He was not about to let some two-bit thugs spread their poison around Hoenn like they did in Indigo. He had destroyed bigger threats than them, and he would annihilate Team Rocket all the same.
His enemies would be met with dragon fire. This he vowed.
The problem now was that he hadn’t a clue where to start. Drake knew he was good in a fight, one doesn’t get into the Elite Four without being a good fighter, but the problem now was trying to FIND Team Rocket so that they could destroy them. Their cowardice frustrated Drake; he was a man that was used to using mass destruction techniques against his enemies, not precision strikes.
There was a reason he favoured Draco Meteor and Hyper Beam over something more precise, after all.
The other members of the Elite Four might have been more suited to this but getting them actively involved would really be stretching the tolerance of the Hoenn League. It was frustrating, but even the Elite Four couldn’t simply disobey the committee so easily. Not without being able to influence public opinion firmly to their side.
But he knew that this was more than some corporate espionage, no matter what the committee tried to stupidly push for. Hell, even Joseph agreed with him when he shared his suspicions. While Devon Corp was a very big company, this kind of direct attack from another company just didn’t happen; nor would they hire Team Rocket to do it. Something was definitely fishy, but Drake didn’t know what.
That was why he had called in John in hopes that he had more insight, and for the backup. Out of everyone, John was given the firsthand opportunity to learn about Team Rocket’s movements from his time in Olivine, and Drake hoped that he would have insights here. Plus, with his reputation for intellectual activities, he hoped that John would do a better job than he could to parse through their plans, whatever they might be.
And once their plans were unravelled, then Drake would be there, ready to crush these defilers back into the dirt where they belonged. His Salamence would not be merciful.
He clutched at one of the sleeves of his old uniform, a reminder of his glory days. Nowadays, he mostly wore it out of tradition, but perhaps it may be time for Drake to remind the world WHY he wore such a uniform, and what it truly represented.
Team Rocket would regret making an enemy out of him.
A.N. This was Drake’s initial thoughts on the whole incident, hope you liked them. His hands are tied by the Hoenn League, who don’t want to risk causing a public scare and making them look bad. He’s playing by the rules for now, but if push comes to shove, he’s going to damn the Committee and go on the hunt anyways.
