The New Normal - A Pokémon Elite 4 SI by CartecFF

Chapter 29: 112-116

The 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 what was likely a common goal, and I instinctively wanted to let out a scream of anger.

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, that's true." I nodded, "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 wrong Drake 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, before the questioning even began, 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. I didn't know how much data the scanner could transfer, nor what they managed to scan, but any kind of progress was not something I wanted them to have. They might have been able to start and proceed to the next step of their plan, whatever it might be.

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. "...But then this means that the leaders are going to have already known that their operatives were captured. They might already be making plans to escape or withdraw from a few of their bases."

"We need to strike NOW!" He snarled, slamming a fist into his palm. I nodded in agreement.

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 until Tyrant disposed of it by tossing the Claydol like a missile at a group of Weezing.

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 as Drake ambushed them with his Flygon. Others were less fortunate, as they failed to scramble away before a sweeping Dragon Pulse from his Altaria blasted their Pokémon away.

The grunts' 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 Salamence 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. Understanding instantly flashed through my eyes.

"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 flooded 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. It was as if the entire place had been hit by a devastating flood.

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 growing concerned about what they insane plan they would come up with next.

The New Normal – 6-4 – Interlude – Proton

"Why are we running away?! What have we been training for if not to stand and fight?!" Proton shouted frustratedly at his boss, who was busy rushing around and directing orders to remove all of the evidence around their base.

It was a few days after their successful attack at Devon, and a day after their less-than-successful attempt to retrieve the two Orbs. However, the silver lining was that the specially made hidden scanners that they had discretely planted on the grunts' uniforms were able to collect whatever data was so important to his bosses.

And we got the Porygon research, whatever the fuck they thought it was so useful he couldn't understand. The eggheads were up to their usual shit as usual, and Proton didn't have enough fucking patience to listen to their endless droning.

But now, for some dumb reason, Team Magma and Team Aqua seem to have both agreed to start moving away their operations as soon as they realized that their operation had failed, and that retaliatory strikes were likely underway. Already, they were getting reports that a couple of bases were already being raided, and his bosses seemed to not be doing anything in response!

Or perhaps this was the plan all along.

Proton just didn't fucking understand. It was like his bosses suddenly lost all of their spines when it came to dealing with the Hoenn League. They had the numbers! They could fight! They could ambush them and sow chaos among those fucking do-gooders before they could react!

"Answer me, Archie!" Proton demanded furiously, pushing up to his boss who had been continuing to ignore him. "We have the numbers, and the training, so why should we rush off to someplace else without even TRYING to put up a fight?! We could engrave fear into their minds with the damage we'd sow! I didn't take you for a coward!"

Upon hearing that last comment, Archie turned and glared at Proton, "You fucking fool. Have you not learnt from your mistakes in Indigo?!" He spat out, "It doesn't matter how many numbers we have, you fucking idiot, because they will NEVER be enough!"

"And how do you know that?!" Proton argued stubbornly, "We have yet to try! We do all this training, and you're not even willing to put it to use!"

Then suddenly, Archie lashed out with a fist that smashed straight into Proton's stomach, causing him to double over in pain as he collapsed to the ground. Archie grabbed Proton by his hair and dragged him up painfully so that his face was inches away from his.

"IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW MANY GRUNTS WE HAVE!" Archie yelled angrily, "THEY WILL NOT BE ENOUGH! The League will ALWAYS have more! And if the Hoenn League lacks in numbers, they can always call on the Indigo League for even more! We would EASILY be overrun!"

Archie let go of Proton's head as he continued while ignoring Proton's coughs of pain, "This is one of the rare times where both Maxie and I are in agreement. Even if we were to stand and fight, we would gain nothing." He explained, "We have the data. Sure, it isn't as complete as we have hoped, but we have to make do with what we have. And from what Maxie tells me, what we have is mostly sufficient for the project our backer needs it for. I'm confident that the first step has been achieved towards making our goal a reality."

"So what? Because you have what you want, you're just going to leave?" Proton sputtered out as he tried to pull himself up.

"Yes. And that's because we do not think like you and your thugs, Proton." Archie responded, "We are visionaries. We seek to remake the world anew so that a utopian paradise can be created. Now that we have the first step of achieving our goal, what reason do we have to stay? We do not need to project strength. We don't need to preserve our reputation. None of those things matter to us."

Archie bent down and almost pressed his face against Proton's, "Our grunts understand this. They understand that sacrifices are needed for the creation of our eternal paradise. That's why, amongst Team Aqua, only you and the remnants of Team Rocket are questioning this decision. Look around you, and you will see that all the other grunts are willing to do what's best for the greater good." He gestured an arm to the rest of the base.

"They know that the best choice of action right now would be to leave all this behind and maintain as much of our strength as possible." Archie explained as if he was speaking to an idiot, "We will be making counterattacks, but only as far as necessary to cover our retreat. We cannot afford to relax until our final goal is finally achieved."

And indeed, as if to prove Archie's words right, Proton looked around and saw that on the faces of the Team Aqua grunts rushing around, there was no sense of dissatisfaction. Even if they KNEW that their retreat would likely cause many of their own to be captured and imprisoned, they accepted it with a determined mien. Or perhaps, a fanatical one.

Eventually, Proton shook his head, realizing that there was no winning an argument against his fanatical boss. Sometimes, he really regretted betraying the old Team Rocket. They might have kept him on a tight leash, but at least they were fairly reasonable about it.

"So, where are heading to now?" Proton asked, reigning in his temper and blatantly changing the topic. "If we're trying to get away from the authorities, where can we even head to?"

Archie shot him a grin, "Oh, curious now aren't we?" He chuckled, "Well, if you must know, Maxie and I have spoken to our backer, and all three of us agree that it's time to finally combine our forces. Our operations in Hoenn have come to a, mostly successful, end."

"You still haven't answered the fucking question." Proton grumbled.

"Come now, use your brain, Proton." Archie replied snidely, "I know that's not what we brought you on for, but you've been really disappointing me these past few minutes. I'm sure you could figure it out."

Proton bit back a retort and physically held himself from punching his boss in the face. For one, he would immediately be dogpiled by all of the other grunts that clearly held more loyalty to Archie than himself, and second, Archie was a BIG man. Proton was many things, but he knew a lost fight when he saw one.

So, he held himself back and wracked his brain for where else they could go. Obviously, they couldn't go back to Indigo, not since they had labelled all of Team Rocket as terrorists. That would be idiotic. And since they can't stay in Hoenn...that only left one place.

Sinnoh.

The New Normal – 6-5 – The Hunt Continues

We made use of the time where the Jennys were parsing through all of our collected information to rest up. Drake and I knew we were going to be pushing our Pokémon very hard over the next few days, so we cherished any available time to take a break.

Drake got admonished by Wallace for his 'over-enthusiasm' when it comes to dealing with the grunts. But I could tell that Wallace was only telling Drake off because he had to, and not because he was genuinely upset with Drake hurting the grunts too much.

Drake shot me a thumbs up after Wallace hung up.

Of course, that didn't mean that we weren't discussing things while we rested. And we had slightly differing opinions on what we should be prioritising.

"Our goals should be prioritising the infrastructure of these teams." Drake argued, "These fanatics are far too entrenched into Hoenn, and we need to make sure to destroy all of their foundation so that they won't be able to recoup their losses."

"But a decapitation strike against their leaders should be a bigger priority." I tried to argue, "Yes, they're much harder to find. But I guarantee you that without their leaders, their grunts will be nothing. They will have no direction." And I knew that the true danger behind the evil teams were the insane ambitions and determination leaders, not their individual strengths.

"And how are we going to find these leaders, John?" Drake shot back, "You can't expect us to hold off on raids just for the small chance we locate them. I get that taking them down is important, but we can't just spend time overanalysing every single clue to try to find them, nor waste time trying to set up bait to lure them out. No, we need to strike back as hard and as fast as we can."

I frowned, but I eventually yielded to Drake's logic. He had more experience at handling such matters than me, so I followed his expertise.

Drake sighed as he patted me on the shoulder, "I appreciate your concern for the state of Hoenn, and I get that you're worried about whatever data they were able to retrieve from their scanners. But things don't always go your way; you're going to have to adapt to situations like this from time to time where you're on the backfoot."

"I understand." I nodded back.

"Good." Drake smiled for a moment before his signature frown returned, "Then what do you think they'll be doing about the Porygon research? They must have stolen that for a reason."

"Mass production of unstable, yet powerful Pokémon to use to fight against us." I instantly replied, "It's not cheap, but Porygon ARE Pokémon that can be produced entirely from scratch. This means they don't have to take risks wandering outside of their bases to capture Pokémon for their grunts and are able to just produce it from their facilities."

"Wait, how powerful are these Porygon anyways?" Drake interrupted to ask, "I know you have that Porygon2, VERY creative name by the way, but I heard from Joseph that they found a more powerful, but unstable evolution to Porygon2?"

"Yes, Porygon-Z." I confirmed, "...Imagine if you traded your Pokémon's mental stability for raw offensive power. Porygon-Z are powerful Pokémon, but due to their mental instability I doubt they'll ever be well-disciplined or even be able to obey anything other than the simplest of commands."

"Ah, so they'll be like your standard artillery barrage of ranged attackers then." Drake nodded in understanding. "Well that's just fucking great – but that only emphasizes the need to shut these bastards down before they can get started on production."

"What I'm more afraid of is the hacking ability that having Porygon will provide them." I added with concern, "It's not completely all-powerful, and the Porygon WILL have to be trained up to get good at it, but it'll give them a significant boost to any technological espionage that they'll attempt. Fortunately, I seriously doubt they'll be able to mass produce that many Porygon nor train them up anytime soon."

Unlike what I initially believed, Porygon were not automatic super hackers just because they were created out of data. It was the same as how humans didn't have a full understanding of other humans despite being the same species. It still took time for them to learn the intricacies of hacking. But Porygon just picked it up faster, which was still very valuable to have.

"...Technological security is outside of my comfort zone." Drake admitted, "I'll inform Wallace to help look out for this, but I think this is something Joseph might be help out with. I'm the last person to ask about this."

He turned towards the clock nearby, "You should get some sleep, John. We have a long couple of days ahead of us." He told me, "Oh, and I just remembered. I need to tell Wallace to move the Orbs from Mt. Pyre to a safer location. Now that we aren't using them as bait and we don't need to conceal our intentions from their spies, I think I'll get him to store the Orbs with himself for the time being; I can think of no safer place than that." I nodded at that prudent suggestion.

The next day, we both awoke early as we headed straight to the Jennys to inquire about any updates regarding other locations for the grunts. Unfortunately, we got a little more than that.

"I heard from other branches of Jennys that they've been diverted to help control the protests that have broken out against Silph Co's alleged espionage attempt." A Jenny informed us, "The protests aren't very serious for now, but there are fears that the longer that we don't hear a proper response from Silph Co, the worse that these protests might get."

"Shit." I muttered, "Thanks for letting me know. Let me make a call." I walked away and dialled up Giovanni.

"Giovanni, I hope you're making good progress on clearing Silph Co's name." I told him as soon as he picked up the call, "I don't mean to rush you, but things aren't looking great here in Hoenn. The longer this goes on, the worse it's going to get." I quickly described the protests that were taking place around the region.

"I have already prepared a public statement that I will be making tomorrow." Giovanni responded firmly, "In the statement I will be revealing to the world that the accusations have been completely false, and that the evidence against us has been manipulated. I have also conducted a formal audit against the company to prove that no such payments have been made towards Team Rocket."

"Are you sure that will be enough?" I asked back, trying to make sure his confidence wasn't overblown. I knew Giovanni could be prone to arrogance at times.

"At the very least, I'm confident that it should placate most of the public in Hoenn." He reassured me, "After all, Team Rocket don't have the most stellar of reputations, so any kind of formal refutation from a trusted source should be sufficient to discredit their claims."

"Alright, thank you Giovanni. I look forward to the good news tomorrow." I thanked him before hanging up. Drake, who had been overhearing the call, nodded to me.

"I'm glad you have some trustworthy allies, John. Competent and trusted allies certainly make things easier." He smiled, "I should probably send Giovanni a gift or something for helping out like this."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate it." I replied, before turning serious once again. "Any news on the hideouts?"

"Yes, we got lucky and managed to recover a whole bunch of locations from the data servers." Drake responded with a frown as he pointed at the map where the Jennys had marked down the locations of the bases. Many of them were on the outskirts of major cities, but there was one particular base that seemed to be in the centre of Slateport City.

I studied the map at the moment, concern lining my face, "I'm very concerned about attacking that base in Slateport. There's a huge risk of collateral damage."

"Let us handle it, John." One of the Jennys spoke up, "We've been trained to handle threats like these while minimizing collateral damage. We can do this." The other Jennys nodded in agreement. I shot Drake a look and he gave me a slight nod.

I turned back to the Jennys. "Thank you, then I'll leave that one to you." They nodded and one of them starting barking order as a group of them rushed out.

"John, you and I should split up." Drake suggested, "There are too many locations to hit for us to go together. Just bring a few Jennys each, but I'm sure you can handle it."

"Are you sure we can't bring in the other Elite Four members?" I asked with a frown.

Drake shook his head, "I spoke to Wallace last night before heading to bed. He said that our early success has bit us in the ass. Because we seemed to have the situation handled, the Committee are now even more insistent in putting their fucking heads in the sand and pretending that the situation isn't as big of a shitshow as it really is. They won't be authorizing the other Elite Four to be sent out – no matter how much the others want to help. They think that this way, we can 'avoid panic' or whatever fucking nonsense they're still trying to peddle."

"Fuck." I bit out frustratedly, "Fine, we'll do it ourselves."

"That's the spirit." Drake chuckled, though I could tell it was slightly forced. "Come on then, pick your targets. And happy hunting."

And with that, Drake and I split up the targets between us, and then we were off. I set off on Port with a few Jennys on their Swellow trailing after me for one of the bases on the outskirts Dewford Town.

However, as soon as I arrived, I quickly realized that unlike when we hit that first base, these grunts KNEW we were coming. And they were ready for us.

A small group of grunts were waiting for us outside the base, accompanied by their Crawdaunts, Mightyena, and Golbats. The Crawdaunts immediately fired off a barrage of Ice Beams as they tried shooting us down out of the sky, and the Golbats took to the air and began firing off Air Slashes as they tried for the same.

"SPLIT UP!" I commanded to the Jennys, "We need to land!" In order to cover the Jennys, I released Klee onto Port as well. She immediately created a large Light Screen that was able to absorb most of the incoming hits. And Port, being a Water/Flying type, wasn't particularly vulnerable to Ice Beams anyways.

"Ice Beam, Port! Knock out those Golbat!" Despite not being specifically trained for battle, Port had still spent enough time around my other Pokémon to fight back if he needed to. As we continued our descent, he let out a sweeping beam of Ice that was mostly used to cut through any of the incoming Air Slashes and to force the Golbat to dodge out of the way, buying time for us to land.

Around me, some of the Jennys had already landed, only to immediately be swarmed by the Mightyena that had been patiently waiting for them. But they had their own Arcanine ready and waiting, and the fight turned into a brawl as the two groups began to fight. In the distance, I saw a few grunts trying their best to run away while carrying a few briefcases of something.

I was not going to allow them to escape.

"Klaus!" I sent out him out as soon as I landed, pointing towards the escaping grunts, "Go after them! Don't let them escape!"

With an affirmative snort, Klaus began leaping through the air on psychic barriers as he chased after the escaping grunts. The Golbats and Crawdaunts tried to stop him, only to be given a harsh reminder of who they SHOULD keep their focus on as Klee sent a flurry of Thunderbolts that crashed down onto them. A few Golbats fell out of the sky as they were struck down by the supereffective attack.

"Port, support Klaus!" I ordered, thinking that his speed would be more useful there. "The rest of you, come and fight!"

My whole team, minus Ornstein, emerged around me. In the meanwhile, the Jennys had already taken down the Mightyena and now joined me in the fight against the remaining grunts. Both sides charged at each other as the grunts refused to surrender to overwhelming numbers. They were met with a full onslaught of rocks, flames, and lightning. And fists.

The fight was brutal, but ultimately short. They stood no chance against our combined Pokémon, and they were quick to be defeated. Furthermore, the grunts that had tried to escape had all been forcefully knocked out by Klaus and Port, and we managed to retrieve the money that they were trying to hide away from us.

It was another successful attack, but it was only the first of many. I only had a few moments to rest as the Jennys quickly arrested everyone, and then we were off again to our next location.

===========

?The raids continued. The grunts were increasingly prepared for our arrival, and it had become almost routine that we were met with an onslaught of attacks from the grunts as we neared their base. But the outcome was always the same, the grunts never really outnumbered us too much and our Pokémon were always leagues stronger than theirs, allowing us to overwhelm them in a straight up fight.

And it was because of these series of successes that I may have gotten overconfident. I had gotten it into my mind that the raids would always be as easy and simple as before, so I never thought that the grunts would have the coordination to try to adapt to our plans.

That proved to be a mistake.

As I was flying over the outskirts of Pacifidlog Town with the Jennys towards our next base, I had seen in the distance a cloud of small dots suddenly take flight from the floating town. Neither myself nor the Jennys really paid much attention to this at first and continued flying away from the town, our guards not raising until we realized the dots were slowly gaining on us.

It was only when they got even closer did I even realize what those dots were. But it was already far too late, and I found myself surrounded by a small swarm of Golbat-riding grunts, who subsequently released even more Golbats and Weezing. My stomach dropped as I took in the overwhelming number of Pokémon arrayed against me and the Jennys. This was nothing less than a planned ambush.

I was in serious trouble.

"INCOMING!! DIVE AND DODGE!" Not wasting a second, I shouted out to Port as a flurry of Air Slashes narrowly missed us.

The Weezings that were in front of us tried to incapacitate us as they expelled a cloud of Poison Gas that Port nearly flew into. Luckily, he had the reaction speed to use a quick Defog that quickly dispelled the toxic fog before it could poison him.

But the Weezings weren't done yet, and they tried again by shooting out a barrage of Sludge Bombs. However, their attacks were slow, nor could the Sludge Bombs travel very far, and Port was easily able to make use of his superior flight speed to swoop out of the way and out of the line of fire.

However, the Jennys weren't as lucky as I was. Their Swellow clearly were not actually trained for battle, especially not in such unfavourable conditions, and many of the Jennys found themselves falling out of the sky as their Swellow were quickly taking down by a series of attacks by the grunts.

I grimaced, a part of me wanted to prioritize escaping this obviously pre-planned trap by the grunts. But I refused to allow a Jenny to fall into the deprivations of these grunts. And so, I forced myself to turn around and moved to protect the falling Jennys. Unfortunately, they didn't have any Pokémon that could fight in mid-air and help them.

"Come out and protect us!" The fact that we were flying over the deep blue ocean of Hoenn meant that I was unable to make use of my stronger Pokémon, such as Vordt and Tyrant, because they couldn't fly. Therefore, I was forced to rely on my three Pokémon that COULD fight in the air, namely Klaus, Zephyr, and Pixel. There was just enough space on Port for Klee or Luna to also join in as well. I chose Klee due to the more favourable type matchup.

I ordered my Pokémon to try and shield the Jennys as they fell and take down the enemies surrounding us, but things were looking grim. Heavily outnumbered as I was, and without my strongest Pokémon available, this was going to be a very difficult battle.

"BLISS!" Klee shouted as Gravity suddenly intensified in an area around us. A huge group of Golbat suddenly fell out of the air as they were pushed down into the waiting depths of the ocean by the intense Gravity, unused to flying in such conditions. Simultaneously, her eyes flashed blue, and a Light Screen formed in front of me, protecting me from a barrage of Air Slashes that just barely got blocked in time.

In the meanwhile, Zephyr let out a screech as he formed a huge Hurricane in the air that tore through the grunts' ranks, forcing their Pokémon to dodge out of the way or simply be consumed within the devastating Hurricane. Several of them failed to avoid it in time, and they were violently tossed around by the powerful gale winds.

Similarly, Klaus prioritized catching the falling Jennys with his Psychic. As soon as he had them safely within his Psychic grasp, I gave him a new command.

"Teleport them out to safety! They can't fight like this!" I ordered Klaus, who looked unhappy with my order. He must have wanted to stay and fight, but he knew better than to gainsay at this moment. With an affirmative snort, he disappeared alongside the Jennys as he Teleported himself out of the fight. I breathed a sigh of relief as the Jennys were safely removed from the fight.

But that meant that I was down another Pokémon, at least temporarily.

"BLISSEY!" Klee suddenly shouted out in an alarm, and my head swivelled to see a diving squad of Golbats coming straight at me with their Brave Birds. In those terrible few seconds, I finally came to the horrible realisation that THIS was the whole point of their trap. The ambush, the choice of the battle, the attack on the Jennys, all of this was just a setup to take ME out specifically, by putting me in as disadvantageous of a position as possible.

Klee wasn't able to shift the Gravity field fast enough in time to stop the diving Golbats. Pixel stepped in and tried to fire off a Thunderbolt to shoot them down. One of the diving Golbat was clipped in the wings and fell out of the sky, but the rest kept coming. And Zephyr was too entangled dealing with the Weezing to be able to help out.

I immediately ordered Port to perform a dive to try to get out of the way, but the Golbat were coming in too quickly for me to move out of the way.

But then, in a move that I will never forget, Klee suddenly shoved me backwards as she stepped in front of me. With determination lining her face, and a slowly forming Protect shield shimmering into existence in front of her, she threw herself in front of me, using her body as a wall that separated me from the incoming Golbats.

The Golbats came crashing into her, slamming into her hard with their Brave Birds. Her hastily formed Protect shield shattered instantly, barely able to block the first attack. But the Golbats kept coming, having perfectly lined themselves up to attack one after the other. Klee cried out in pain, but even as she stumbled backwards as the incoming Brave Birds savagely slammed into her again and again, she continued to hold on.

I saw Klee's legs wobble as the injuries built up. She was breathing heavily, and the last Protect shield that she tried forming was paper-thin and utterly ineffective. But she continued to shield me, her arms outstretched, and her eyes alight with pure and unyielding resolve as she continued to serve as my barrier keeping me safe from the incoming rush of Golbats.

She would protect me with her body until she could stand no longer. No, even then, she would not falter. Until I was safe, she would not fall.

A few of the other Golbats also joined in and fired a few Air Slashes at us to try to snipe me out of the sky, but Klee once again stood in their way. Even as the attacks left a litany of cuts on her body, she continued to be my shield, continuing to hold on.

And Klee's efforts had bought me the time that I desperately needed. With the Golbats fully tunnel-visioned into bringing me down, Zephyr had free reign to tear through the enemy ranks, knocking out many of the Weezings that the grunts had sent out; their slower speed making them no match for Zephyr's blitz of attacks.

Realizing we had entered the turning point, I moved to redirect Zephyr's focus, just as an Air Slash managed to sneak past Klee and narrowly glanced past me, leaving a small cut on my shoulder. I winced in pain, but I pushed past it and started giving out commands once again.

One of the Air Slashes managed to sneak past Klee and left a small cut on my shoulder as it glanced past me, but I ignored it and quickly took stock of the fight. I noticed that Zephyr had torn up a majority of the Weezings that the grunts sent out, their slower speed making them no match for Zephyr's blitz of attacks. I moved to redirect his focus.

"Zephyr, Whirlwind! Blow them all away!" "Pixel, continue using Thunderbolt!"

Letting out an affirmative cry, Zephyr gathered up a huge vortex of wind within his wings and unleashed a huge storm of wind that blew everything away. Port only barely managed to swoop out of the way to not get caught up in the powerful Whirlwind. Not letting this opportunity go to waste, Pixel continued firing off Thunderbolts, striking down the surprised Golbats as they were blown away helplessly by the Whirlwind.

The Whirlwind was exactly what I needed. With their Pokémon suddenly being blown away, it completely arrested the grunt's momentum and bought us the much needed breathing room to recover. And as soon as the Golbats were forced away, Klee collapsed onto Port, her duty finally completed.

"You've done well." I muttered to her with pure gratitude in my eyes, "Thank you for everything, Klee." I withdrew her into her Pokéball, allowing her a much-deserved rest.

I knew that if it wasn't for Klee's determined protection, I would be knocked out and in a similar state as the Jennys, likely badly injured as well. And so, with a mixture of gratitude and resolve swirling in my heart, I promised I would honour Klee's determination. I would win this fight and bring the Jennys to safety.

In her place, I sent out Luna. The battle was still not over yet.

And almost in perfect coincidence, I felt a shimmer of Psychic energy appear besides me as Klaus Teleported back into the fight. His presence sent a wave of calm to wash over me, as I now recognized that the balance of power was finally tilted in my favour. All the grunts had left of their once overwhelming ambush was a handful of Golbats, the rest of their Pokémon were likely sinking into the watery depths below. Pixel had been doing an excellent job sniping them out of the sky with its Thunderbolts.

If these were your standard criminals, they would have backed away seeing that they had already lost a good majority of their Pokémon and that my Pokémon were still in good fighting condition. But these were fanatics, and I knew in my mind that they were going to fight to the end.

Instantly, Luna reformed a double layer of Light Screen and Reflect in front of us, ready for the incoming assault once again. Seeing our reformed defences, the Golbat hesitated slightly, but were pushed forwards by the unrelenting determination from their trainers.

"Follow Me, Luna!" "The rest of you, blast them down!"

However, taking no chances with my own safety, Luna drew their attention with a Follow Me, forcing the Golbats to have no choice but to direct their attacks against my well-protected Luna, only to be shot down shortly afterwards by a burst of Thunderbolts and Psychics from my team.

Seeing their brethren being knocked out so quickly transformed the Golbats hesitation into terrifying fear. They knew they had no chance against us, and they refused to be knocked out and fall into the watery depths below. Nor did they have enough loyalty to their trainers to perform what was effectively a suicidal last-ditch dive towards us.

Their trainers may have had the fanatical zeal to charge in regardless of the costs to themselves, but their Pokémon did not.

And so, to my complete surprise, the Golbats suddenly turned tail and ran, flying away from the fight and dragging their trainers along with them. Their trainers protested and screamed against their retreat, but their mounts refused to listen to them, and they slowly disappeared into the horizon as they flew away.

I was tempted to chase after them, but I decided that I had already pressed my luck enough today. There were far too many occasions where if I had nearly been hit by a direct attack. And if it was not for Klee's pure determination, I may have been knocked out of the fight entirely and severely injured.

And as the adrenaline gradually faded, I suddenly felt my arm flaring up in pain. I turned and realized that the earlier cut by from the Air Slash was much deeper than I initially thought, and my arm was bleeding profusely. Luna shot me a look of concern, but I waved her off.

That, coupled with the sudden reminder of my mortality, led me to instead decide to check up on the Jennys to see how they were doing. Giving Port a few taps, we slowly flew downwards back to Pacifidlog Town, and Klaus directed me to where he had deposited off the Jennys.

As I landed, what greeted was the sight of a few Nurse Joys running around with their Chansey and tending to the Jennys, who I realized were also injured from the attack. The Nurse Joys suddenly spun towards me as soon as they noticed my injury.

"Elite John! You have to rest!" They admonished me and practically forced me into a makeshift bed that they had set up. "We understand that you have to be rushing around, but you have to take care of yourself. Do your Pokémon need to be healed?"

I nodded, caught up in their pace. But then I shook myself out of it and asked them, "How are the Jennys?"

"Some worse than the others. One was caught in a Poison Gas by a Weezing and needed to be rushed to Sootopolis for more intensive care." She informed me as she carefully disinfected my wound. I winced as I felt the sting of the alcohol. "The others had the wind knocked out of them as they fell off their Swellow. They're technically perfectly healthy, but we wanted to check up on them just in case."

I frowned as I heard that one of the Jennys was badly hurt in a trap that was set out for ME, and I felt guilty that I unintentionally dragged them into it. Nevertheless, I thanked the Nurse Joy as she finished covering my wound with a bandage and, with some hesitation, decided to listen to their advice and give myself some time to recover.

Of course, that was when I received a call from Drake.

"John, you doing okay?" He asked, his tone noticeably rushed.

"They tried to ambush me, but I'm fine." I said, trying to play it off.

"THEY WHAT?! Did they get you? You doing okay?" The concern was clear.

"Just got nicked in the shoulder, but otherwise I'm fine." I replied, pulling myself up from my bed. "What's wrong?"

"...I'm sorry to ask you this, but if you can, I need you to get to Mt. Pyre as soon as possible." He said regretfully, "We collected a few phones from our raids, and I was just told that the grunts are planning another raid at Mt Pyre for the Orbs." He explained, "But this time, the bastards aren't sneaking in. It's going to be a full on aerial assault."

As I listened to Drake, the pieces clicked together in my mind, "They must have tried to knock me out of the fight for long enough so that they could conduct their raid at Mt. Pyre without me to interfere."

And yet my gut was telling me that this wasn't the full story. But I didn't have time to think it over any further for the time being. Luckily, we had already removed the Orb from Mt Pyre. Those were safe. And I think we even finally got the replicas made and put in their place.

"Perhaps, but we can leave the speculation for later." Drake replied tersely, "If you're healthy, get over here to Mt. Pyre. Your presence will help out a lot."

"I'll be there." I promised him and I let out a sigh as the call ended.

So much for getting some rest.

The New Normal – 6-6 – Battle for Mt Pyre

Allowing Port to rest, this time I travelled on Zephyr as he flew over to Mt. Pyre. We prioritised speed over anything else, as I was determined to arrive before the grunts launched their assault. My Pokémon were not in the best condition, but at least this time we were going to be fighting on solid ground, where I could properly utilize the full scope of my team.

My injury still stung, and I was admittedly exhausted as I came down from my previous burst of adrenaline, but I still soldiered on.

Even if the Orbs had been switched out for fakes, and Mt. Pyre had long since been evacuated and cleared of any civilians, the grunts would still be able to cause chaos if they weren't dealt with. Or worse, if the grunts discovered that the Orb was a fake, then who knows how they would act next?

At least their focus was temporarily focused on Mt Pyre and the Orbs for now. This made them predictable and easier to defend against. If they decided to just cause widespread chaos like Team Rocket did back in Indigo, then the situation in Hoenn would become far worse.

However, as Mt Pyre came into view, I noticed that a huge flock of flying Pokémon were swarming down from above as all sorts of attacks were exchanged. Most noticeably, I spotted Drake's Blastoise suddenly fire off a huge torrent of water that shredded through the grunts' lines, blasting many of their Golbats out of the air as Blastoise swept the skies with its powerful Hydro Pump.

At the same time, Drake's Salamence was a true beast as it dove straight into the centre of the grunts. It was like a whirlwind of destruction as its Dragon Claws dismantled the grunts' assault, each furious rake of its claws bringing down another one of the grunt's Pokémon. And its tail smashed into their ranks, breaking apart their Pokémon with trained ease.

And while Drake's Pokémon were certainly the star of the show, the small army of Jennys that had gathered here were also helping. While Drake was primarily focused on taking down their flyers, the Jennys dealt with any stragglers that decided to fight on the ground. Their Arcanine mauled and overwhelmed the grunts' Mightyena and occasionally assisted with the aerial battle by sending out streams of flames that scorched a few unaware Golbat or Weezing in its path.

Not wanting to be left out of the battle, I dove in as well, staying low to the ground so that I could release my own Pokémon.

"Tyrant, Smough! Support the Jennys!" "The rest of you, focus down the flyers!"

My three bruisers emerged with a collective roar that stunned the battlefield. I could feel the gaze of every trainer fall upon me for a moment, evidently realizing what my entrance into the battle meant for their success.

The three bruisers landed on the summit with an audible bang, and Smough even managed to adjust himself so that he crushed a Mightyena underneath his full weight as he landed. Tyrant immediately took off, throwing himself straight into the middle of the fight as he grabbed a Mightyena into a chokehold before smashing it into another Mightyena. Simultaneously, Smough charged in as he grabbed a large slab of rock from the ground and fired it straight into a group of Mightyena, blasting them face-first and knocking them out.

A Camerupt tried to fight back with an Eruption, spewing out a geyser of fire and lava from its back. But an unamused Smough simply tanked through it, hardly even flinching as the scorching lava stuck to his body. The Camerupt eyes widened and it shot Smough a fearful look at the lack of damage before a devastating Hammer Arm came smashing down into Camerupt's head, burying it into the ground.

The rest of my team moved in to support Drake and the Jennys in their battle. And for a while, I was too busy focusing on the battle and my feeling of vicious satisfaction at seeing the grunts' assault crumble at the sheer might of our Pokémon.

Vordt joined up with Drake's Blastoise and Kingdra and together they formed the main trio that were tasked with primarily shooting down the enemy flyers. They positioned themselves right next to the fake orbs and Vordt launched an unending barrage of rocks that filled the sky, while Blastoise and Kingdra fired off sweeping beams of Ice and Water that tore through anything unlucky enough to be caught in its path.

Luna and Klaus switched roles as Luna took on more of an offensive role as she carefully manipulated Gravity in a large area, sending large groups of Golbats and Weezings coming crashing down into the ground. In the meanwhile, Klaus formed a large Light Screen as he protected the Jennys and their Pokémon from an incoming barrage of lava and rocks from the other Camerupts. Immediately after, Klaus retaliated with an earth-shattering Earth Power that sent powerful tremors towards the Camerupts, knocking them out of the fight.

But then, a couple of Mightyena had broken free from the rest of the Jennys and dove straight towards me. But before they could even reach me, a sudden Dragon Pulse from Drake's Altaria shot down from above and blasted the Mightyena out. Altaria gave me a small nod before swooping back into the fight in the skies, firing Air Slashes towards a group of Weezing before they could flood the area with their Poison Gas.

But then, as my rationality returned to me, I realized something.

This assault by the grunts was never going to work. There were too many things that could have gone wrong for them.

Firstly, they communicated such plans over the phone, when they knew that their bases were being raided and their grunts were being captured. There was barely even an attempt to try to hide the message from unwanted eyes. Any reasonably competent leader should have expected for these messages to have been intercepted and for us to be ready.

Secondly, they must have expected us to increase the defences around Mt Pyre ever since their first failed attempt to sneak the orbs out. Attacking into extra-prepared positions, when you knew your grunts had weaker Pokémon than your opponent, was a terrible idea.

So then why did they choose to attack like this? When they must have expected this attack to be doomed from the very beginning. These criminals have been avoiding getting themselves entangled in a straight-up fight for some time, and had been cleverly relying on quick ambushes and precision strikes, so why would they commit to one right now?

But as I looked around, and I saw how a huge group of Jennys had gathered here to fight back against the grunts', alongside both Drake and I, the pieces clicked into my head.

This was a distraction. Whether the purpose of this entire doomed assault was to force the Hoenn League to respond to their massed assault and buy time to cover the retreat of their leaders, or they intended to strike elsewhere. But none of our other patrols that remained on the lookout had reported anything back before my arrival into this fight, so I felt that the latter was unlikely.

That meant that the grunts were all here on a doomed mission to buy time for their retreat. Probably to extract their high priority assets out of Hoenn, while most of Hoenn's law enforcement was relocated here to hold off against their assault.

This was a plan that could only be achieved by these insane fanatics. After all, the common criminal would not be so self-sacrificing as to agree to such a plan.

Shit. This realization left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I forcefully pushed those thoughts aside for the time being as I refocused on the fight ahead of me. My wounded arm served as a constant reminder of the dangers of being overconfident, and I refused to allow myself to fall victim to my own hubris again.

I couldn't leave the fight now, not while it was still raging on, so I committed to wiping these grunts away so that we could refocus ourselves to arresting those that are trying to flee from Hoenn.

The fight didn't last much longer, and the grunts quickly found themselves overpowered as their numbers dwindled while ours remained strong. None of them even managed to get close to touching the replica Orbs.

I approached Drake as he descended from his Salamence, a deep frown on his face.

"Drake, good work out there." I told him, "But this entire battle has been nothing more than-"

"A distraction?" He cut me off, his frown deepening, "Yes, I guessed that halfway during the battle as well. I don't have much fucking respect for criminals, but even I know that they aren't normally this idiotic. They're probably covering for their leaders to retreat. Fucking fanatics."

"We better try to stop them." I stated, but then I looked around and saw all of the fallen grunts and their Pokémon. But more importantly, I noticed that our fighting had accidentally torn up many of the graves that were buried around the summit. It was a grisly scene, with the surrounding area completely devastated by our attacks and looking like the broken remnants of a battlefield.

I frowned, "On second thought, I think we need to clean all this up first. This is not the sort of collateral damage that we want to be showing in the news." Not when Mt. Pyre was known as the graveyard for many trainers and their Pokémon. It being in this state would not be seen well by the public.

Drake followed where I was looking and nodded, "...Aye, what a fucking mess this was. And it's not like we could have avoided causing this damage considering how many of them there were." His gaze turned sad as he saw all of the destroyed graves, "I think you're right...we can't leave Mt. Pyre like this."

He sighed, "Okay, let me talk to the Jennys a bit and see if we can redistribute the patrols to try to catch anyone trying to escape from Hoenn, but I'm not liking our chances. And I'm also going to call Wallace and inform him of what just happened."

And so Drake dialled up Wallace and explained everything to him. However, to my surprise, Drake suddenly passed his phone to me and switched it to speaker mode.

"Hello? Can everyone hear me?" I heard Wallace's voice filtering through the speakers.

"I can." I replied, "How can I help you, Champion Wallace?"

"Ah, good. Now, Drake has filled me in on what happened at Mt Pyre and the situation that you got yourselves caught up with beforehand. He also informed me that the current situation at Mt Pyre...isn't looking great. Is that correct?"

"Aye. It looks like a tornado smashed through everything." Drake responded, "It's not a pretty sight."

"Hmm...that's not great. I'm not looking forward to what the headlines look like when they hear about this." Wallace commented thoughtfully, "However, I'm not about to leave you two in the lurch for this. You both have been doing a great job repelling the threat of these criminals while having a hand tied behind your back, so I think it's about time that I step in and take responsibility as your Champion."

"I'll be heading over to Mt Pyre now, where I will be inviting over the press to make an announcement commending your actions." Wallace explained, "I will also be shifting the blame for this damage over to the criminals. I'm not about to let you both be slandered in the news for something that was out of your control."

"Thank you, Wallace." Drake replied respectfully, "We appreciate your assistance."

"Think nothing of it. It is merely my duty as Champion." He waved us off, "The committee might not be in favour of escalating the situation any further, but they cannot stop me from doing something like this. Regardless, I'll see you all soon. Oh, and get ready to answer some questions. You both are bound to be asked a few." We both stated that we understood.

After hanging up the call, the two of us continued coordinating with the Jennys to ensure all of the grunts were securely arrested and sent off for questioning and imprisonment. Then, we tried to tidy up the surrounding areas as best we could, cleaning up some of the loose rubble. Just so that when the reporters got here, the immediate area wouldn't look so much like it had just been through a warzone. Even though that was exactly what happened.

Not long after, a familiar sounding cry called out from the skies. I looked up and saw a Mantine descending gracefully from the skies, carrying a man dressed in eye-catching and colourful clothing. I couldn't help but note that the Mantine was significantly more intimidating than my own Port, clearly trained for battle.

The Jennys all bowed slightly in respect as the Champion of Hoenn landed on the summit of Mt Pyre.

He made sure to respectfully wave off the signs of respect and requested everyone to continue their duties before he turned to us. "Drake, well done out there!" He smiled at the Elite Four member, "I knew I could count on you to handle these criminals. I'm very pleased to see that my trust wasn't misplaced. You've done a fantastic job, very much like the hero that I know you are." Drake gave Wallace a slight nod, but I could tell that he was pleased by Wallace's words.

"And John, it's lovely to finally see you in person." He turned to me with a bright and genuine smile, "You have done much for the continued prosperity of Hoenn, even when it was not your responsibility to help out. As the Champion of Hoenn, we sincerely thank you for all that you have done for us."

"I was only doing what I had to in order to stop these criminals from causing more damage." I tried to say humbly, "Please don't put me on a pedestal for my actions. I'm sure any other member of the Elite Four would have done the same. From both regions."

Now that I was actually seeing him in person, my first impression of Wallace was that he was remarkably similar to Lance, although there were several key differences. Both of them just radiated with charisma and presence, making it so that they were easily the centre of attention at any given time.

However, where Lance achieved this through his strength of character and unrelenting confidence in himself, Wallace had this easy grace to him that granted him this noble mystique. It was like he was born to be a celebrity. Yet, much like how Lance was far more than a prideful brute, there was an unmistakable gleam of intelligence in Wallace's eyes, carefully observing his surroundings and taking a measure of everything around him.

"Your humbleness is only another sign of your good character! However, there is no need for you to downplay your magnificent contributions, for I will ensure that you are properly awarded for your actions!" He said graciously, "Nevertheless, we will speak more about this matter later. I believe we have a press conference to prepare for."

Then he looked around and took in the devastation and destruction that had taken place here as a result of our battle, a small frown forming on his face. "Whoof. There really was a big fight taking place here, huh? I guess you can't underestimate the tenacity of fanatics."

He turned back to the two of us, "Drake, John, I need another rundown of everything that has happened thus far and what your plans are for dealing with what comes next. I want to make sure we are on the same page."

And so we summarized what had taken place over the past few days, going over our thought process and all of the revelations that we had uncovered leading up to today's battle. Wallace just listened silently, his face one of careful consideration.

"And lastly, we're pretty fucking sure that the committee is compromised." Drake finished, "There's no way they could be THIS stupid if it wasn't the case."

"...I understand, thank you for your thorough explanation." He thanked us.

"I agree with you about your point on the Committee." Wallace said thoughtfully, "But there's not that much I can do about it short-term. There's just no way to quickly separate the corrupt traitors and those who are just voting out of their political interests. We'll have to do a deep cleaning soon, but not now. Not when the situation is still so volatile."

Neither Drake or I were happy with that, but we realized that it was the best we were going to get. Wallace clearly wanted to say more, but then the reporters began flooding in. He shot us a wry smile, "Don't worry, I'll handle these reporters. I believe it is showtime!"

The reporters all swarmed around Wallace, who made sure to stand on a rock to use as a makeshift speaking platform. For extra dramatic effect, he even released his Walrein just to hang about in the background and look intimidating. The man had a good eye for giving off the right impression. "My good people of Hoenn! Over the past few days, our fair region has been the subject of many heinous and malicious attacks from evil criminals and thugs that sought to disturb and disrupt the peace and security that we have fought so hard to maintain!"

"And today, they have struck hard! Driven by their insatiable avarice and battered ego, they sought to try to steal the famous Red and Blue Orbs by launching a full on aerial assault! Unfortunately, in their spite, the criminals showed off their malice as they decided to unleash a trail of destruction, destroying the many treasured graves and memories that were stored here on Mt Pyre. These criminals defiled Hoenn's resting place for our treasured Pokémon! Disturbing the peaceful rest and slumbered that they should have been allowed! All for their greed!" Wallace's face transformed into one of genuine sorrow as he gestured towards the destructions that surrounded him.

The sheer emotion in Wallace's words were undeniable, to the point where I was caught up in the emotions of the crowd. He was an excellent orator, and I had no doubt that his words had the effect that he wanted them to have.

Through his excellent and careful construction of a specific narrative, he placed the blame for the destruction strictly on the heads of the criminals and their failed attack, absolving us of any responsibility. But more importantly than that, he was able to direct the emotions of the crowd to one filled with righteous anger at the criminals and their actions.

And it was clearly working. The crowd were horrified as they took in the sheer devastation, with ripped up and smashed gravestones and caskets littering the place. That horror quickly turned into anger, but it wasn't directed at us.

And Wallace leveraged that anger excellently, "BUT! Thanks to the bravery of the Jennys, Elite Drake, and Elite John, all of whom have been working extremely hard over the past few days to repel and capture these criminals, have managed to fight back and punish these criminals for their reckless greed! Thanks to their efforts, the criminals who participated in this heinous attack have all found themselves in shackles and imprisoned for their actions!" There was a huge wave of applause from the crowd, and Wallace waited carefully for it to die down before continuing.

"YET! The fight isn't over. The criminals are still out there, lurking in whatever dark hole they crawled out of. As such, the Hoenn Police will be continuing their hard work in ensuring that all these criminals are captured and given their righteous punishment for their actions!"

"MOREOVER! As Champion of Hoenn, I promise to enact new policies in the future that will aim to crack down harder on these criminals and prevent them from taking root in our region. And I believe that working closely with other regions to share resources and intelligence is the best way forwards to achieve this! I have been in active communication with Champion Lance, and we believe we have something in store that will greatly improve our abilities with dealing with these threats in the future!" The applause grew to deafening heights, with many reporters now actively cheering in support of Wallace's words.

Wallace waited patiently for the applause to die down, before gesturing for me to come on stage. I shook my head at him, but he gave me a look that insisted for me to do so. Reluctantly, I complied and joined him on his makeshift platform.

"However, I would be remiss if I overlooked the heroic actions of our Indigo Elite Four member!" He announced grandly as he gestured for me to stand in front of him, "Even though he isn't from Hoenn, John quickly answered the call for help when it was asked of him, dropping everything he was doing and immediately making his way to help out. And he played an active and essential role in helping stop the threat of these criminals from causing further damage on our beloved region."

I had to do my best to not let the embarrassment show on my face. I never was good with compliments.

"Aye! And he even came to fight in Mt Pyre despite having just been injured in an ambush too! Smashed them up for the attempt real good too!" Drake shouted out from behind us, and I wanted to strangle him. Fortunately, the crowd was all too busy looking shock to notice the sudden look I gave Drake.

Wallace only nodded in agreement, "Yes, and so, as Champion of Hoenn, I thank John on behalf of our grateful region for your assistance and support during these troubled times! This just goes to show the heights that we can achieve through international cooperation. And Hoenn will always welcome our friends from Indigo and are ready and willing to lend a helping hand if they ever ask for it!"

The crowd went wild once again, and Wallace used that opportunity to whisper to me, "Anything I can do in my personal capacity as Champion, and I will. Just ask for us at any time, and I will do my best to come and help." He finished off his sentence by patting me twice on the shoulder.

I thanked him quietly and allowed him to finish off the rest of his speech, carefully stepping away from the spotlight. I took the moment to think over everything that had happened today.

From a rapid series of raids, to getting out an ambush, to being caught up in a full out assault against Mt Pyre. Today was a very busy day, and I just wanted to find a bed and get some rest.

Although we fell for the evil team's distractions, we undoubtedly brought down many of their numbers and resources after their failed attack. I was confident that they wouldn't be able to recover from this, or launch something of this scale, for a VERY long time.

And while they continued to retreat, we would be there to ensure that all they had were destroyed and reclaimed. Every asset, every facility, all would be found and turned over.

We would bleed them out of Hoenn. One step at a time.

The New Normal – 6-6 – Interlude – Giovanni

The directors at Silph Co. all fell silent as he stalked into the meeting room like he owned the place. And, technically, he did. Though not everyone knew that.

Giovanni paused as he walked in, allowing himself to bask in the power that he had over these men for just a brief moment, before he casually sat down at the seat that was just one space away from the head of the table. Although on paper he was just a common director like many of them were, none dared to start the meeting without his say so. Even those who did not know of Giovanni's true position within the company; they were likely too cowed by his presence to do so.

He held back a smirk before he gave a small nod to the managing director sitting at the head of the table. Only when he gave his permission did the managing director begin.

"Gentlemen, I've asked all of you to gather here with such urgency because of the recent matter regarding the slander that is being targeted our way." The managing director stated, drawing the eyes of everyone. "In that regard, you should be aware of our response to such accusations, which was to bring in an outside auditing company to check through our finances to prove once in for all our innocence in this heinous crime against our friends at Devon Corp."

The managing director tried to subtly look his way, but Giovanni ignored him. Within those aware of Giovanni's true influence, it was practically an open secret that Giovanni had forced the audit through. Those even smarter or more observant would likely realize that the audit team was firmly under Giovanni's control, as they naturally would be.

Only an idiot would allow an outsider to check through their finances freely. And Giovanni certainly was no idiot. He would never let an auditor within a mile of his finances until he was sure that the auditor would not find anything he didn't already want them to know. The results were obviously completely doctored to his liking.

Furthermore, with the auditing team investigating Silph Co fully under his control, it gave him another opportunity to clean house within Silph Co and remind everyone that those who did not meet his high expectations did not deserve their place within the company. Silph Co was a foundation of Kanto; an important pillar that allowed for the continued economic prosperity of their dear region.

So, when he found out that one of the newer director had been secretly taking bribes from an unknown source...the director had been quietly 'disappeared', following standard procedures. Archer assured him that it was dealt with.

Giovanni wouldn't allow anyone to tarnish HIS company's reputation.

But it was not only the corrupt that he found, as the audit revealed the sheer inefficiency and laziness that had somehow pervaded the upper echelons of Silph Co. These wastrels that called themselves directors had somehow infected the beating heart of Kanto! But not anymore.

He had no tolerance for their Slakoth-like behaviour that a few of the directors had shown. He would see them kicked off the board as a demonstration and a reminder to everyone else that being a director of the company was a privilege, not an Arceus-given right.

Actually, come to think of it, he really shouldn't use Slakoth as an insult anymore. Knowing John, it was probably a bad idea.

"Fortunately, the auditing team has come back to us with a positive result which should clear us from all of this absurd suspicion that we were somehow backing these heinous criminals." The managing director continued, "In addition, director Giovanni will be making a public announcement and present this good news to the public to finally demonstrate our innocence. The results found by the auditing company will be simultaneously published freely to the public to support our statements."

There were a round of nods from that, though Giovanni noted that some of the directors were trying to conceal their anxiousness at the news. He held back a scoff; those wastrels were already on borrowed time. They just didn't know it yet.

After these allegations with Team Rocket were cleared up, then he was going to clean house. Maybe the company needed more a more youthful outlook? It WAS easier to obtain the loyalty of the young and inexperienced. They were...more impressionable, and more trusting of a senior authority figure like him.

"Giovanni, do you have anything else to add regarding the audit? Any news or change of plans? You're the one that has been hardest at work defending our company from these baseless accusations over the past week." The managing director asked him, obediently deferring to him like the loyal subordinate that he was.

He simply shook his head, "No, everything is going as planned. Now, if you don't mind, I have a speech to prepare for. Is there anything else?" In other words, wrap this up now because you're wasting my time.

The managing director took the hint and the meeting ended shortly after, stating that other menial discussions could be simply made over email. The meeting immediately broke up into useless bickering, but Giovanni ignored them all and went back to his office as he went over his speech one last time.

An hour or so later, the time had come for him to make his public announcement. The reporters were swarming around the reception area, eagerly awaiting the news from the company, hoping for anything they can use to put in tomorrow's headline.

He had to hold back an urge to frown as he casted his gaze on these parasites, all of them who wanted nothing better than to extend the drama just so they could print more of their drivel, completing ignoring the damage that they would do to the prestige of Kanto.

But he didn't let any of that show on his face. He walked on stage, a confident smile on his face as the cameras began their barrage of flashes. He had made sure to change his clothes into something more suitable for his position. He wasn't about to look cheap in public.

As he approached the stand, he patiently waited for the crowd of reporters to quiet down before he began. It was a reminder that they were here to listen to HIS words, not the other way round.

"Over the past week, Silph Co has been subjected to baseless and malicious rumours that sought to shatter the ironclad integrity of our fine company. Team Rocket slandered us with their spiteful LIES about how we were somehow involved with attacking our dear and longtime friends at Devon Corp."

"And somehow, overnight, the many news agencies of Indigo suddenly turned on us. They chose to believe the poison that was being spewed by a known terrorist organisation rather than the long-running honest reputation that our company has carefully preserved over our long history. The overeager news agencies pointed at the evidence found at Devon Corp, not even pausing once to think that these terrorists may have been attempting to frame us. They published damning headlines that completely ignored the fact that we would NEVER betray our friends at Devon Corp in this way."

He got several hostile looks from the reporters, but he ignored them. His speech was intentionally so aggressive to remind the reporters who they OUGHT to have sided with, and to remind the public more importantly to be wary of the over-dramatized headlines of the news.

"However! This ends today!" He lifted the printed results of the audit towards the cameras, "With me are the results found by an INDEPENDENT auditing company. They have meticulously combed through the finances of our company and prove BEYOND ALL DOUBT that our company has not done something as foolish as to sponsor a terrorist organisation to attack our friends in Hoenn."

The reporters began to mumble, but he silenced them all by slamming a fist onto the podium. "These results will be published openly, free for the public to access, after this press conference is over." He stated firmly, "And yet! I would like to use this opportunity to remind the public that Silph Co is here to conduct honest business that aid in the continued prosperity of our region. We would NEVER stoop as low as to aid or assist a terrorist group and their actions." His eyes stared straight towards the cameras that were pointed his way as if to demonstrate the honesty of his words.

"I will now be taking a few questions." The reporters were quick to pounce on him with their onslaught of questions, but he only humoured a few of them before calling an end to the press conference and headed home. He was confident that this would put an end to this ridiculousness.

As soon he arrived home, he opened the door and was promptly met with silence. He let out a sigh, realizing that his son still wasn't comfortable spending time with him.

"Silver! You there?!" He asked and was greeted with another round of silence.

It was only after a while that a response was heard. "Yes Father, what do you want?" His son's reluctant voice echoed through the house, filled with annoyance.

Giovanni tiredly dragged a hand over his face. Even after these few weeks, he still refused to call him 'dad'. And he knew that he was the only one to blame.

Fatherhood was proving more difficult than politics.

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