The New Normal - 17-11

The New Normal – 17-11 – New Operations

When Cynthia received a call late last night while we were trying and failing to make some kind of fancy dinner together, I already knew that something important had just taken place. And after one tense phone call, I quickly found myself in a conference call with not only the rest of the Sinnoh Elite Four, but also my former colleagues from Indigo and those from Hoenn too.

In short, Looker had come in clutch for us. He had managed to capture and extract three key witnesses that were highly involved and knowledgeable of PLASMA’s more secretive operations. Of course, he had sacrificed his cover in order to do so, but we all felt that the trade was more than worth it.

Because of this, and the frequent reports that he had sent us regarding the intentions of PLASMA, we had finally decided to bring Unova on board with our investigations – as we deemed it necessary to bring this to their attention, considering that we were going to be undertaking more extensive operations within their borders soon.

Therefore, all three Champions from the Regional Union, one Elite Four member from each region, and myself, were brought into a conference call with our counterparts in Unova as we explained the situation to them.

Naturally, this didn’t go over very well with them. They were certainly not happy about our unauthorised acts of espionage. We would probably have to give concessions, but that was for later. For the time being, they at least understood the seriousness of the situation and decided to put political matters aside for the moment as they agreed to cooperate regarding the interrogation of Looker’s prisoners.

The topic of whether the situation justified the use of Psychic interrogations on said prisoners was also brought up. Normally, using such an extreme procedure would not be reasonable as the situation did not warrant an emergency. However, after an initial round of standard interrogation, compiled with Looker’s own testimony as to their skillset, it was determined that normal interrogation methods were unlikely to yield any results as the prisoners were too skilled and resistant to such methods.

Thus, given the high value information that we hoped to extract from them, Psychic interrogations were reluctantly authorised and would be conducted upon the arrival of witnesses from the International Police.

All of that had been handled yesterday, and today consisted of full on discussions about what we were going to do moving forwards. One of the most important matters was deciding who amongst us would be heading over to Unova to handle things on-site.

I wanted to volunteer, given that I was probably the most experienced person here when it came to dealing with scum like this. However, I recognised that it was probably not the best look if the first official thing I did as the Protector-Guardian of Sinnoh was to run off to help deal with a foreign region’s affairs, so I reluctantly took a step back.

It was time for someone else to take up that role from me.

So instead of me, it was decided that Lucian be sent over. Alongside him, Lorelei and Bruno respectively were going to be accompanying him too. Personally, I was a little surprised to see Bruno be chosen to go over when he had just taken up his position – I would have thought that he would prefer to spend more time settling into his new role first and making his face known to the public.

However, this was likely because (as Steven probably recognised) this was an opportunity for him to earn a lot of acclaim for himself. Besides, it wasn’t like his great strength would be unwelcome for such an operation – quite the opposite. If the conflict against PLASMA ever escalated to an outright battle, then I was more than glad for his participation.

Meanwhile, while that was happening, we also had to placate the Unova League for our unauthorised acts of espionage. Though we felt confident that they weren’t actually as mad as they seemed, and were only acting this way in order to earn a few political concessions from us – we decided to not make things difficult and placate them.

Therefore, a deal was struck as we found an acceptable compromise. In exchange for them not broadcasting our breach of their regional sovereignty with Looker’s operation, and instead portraying it so that they ‘willingly’ invited the International Police to operate in Unova in an act of mutual cooperation, we were to approve of several financial agreements with them that they could benefit from.

This at least smoothed over any hard feelings that might have arisen so that we could focus on our true enemy – taking down PLASMA. Some were thinking that this was going to be a pretty easy job, considering the vast array of forces that were aligned against them.

However, knowing what I did about PLASMA, and from Looker’s reports, I knew that it wasn’t going to be so simple.

============

I may not have been able to leave Sinnoh for Unova, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t able to participate and be a witness to the psychic interrogations that took place.

A few days later, as our own Elite Four members managed to arrive in Unova, an online viewing platform was set up so that relevant people like myself could also be there to oversee the psychic interrogations.

Even though it had been a long time since I had seen one of these, that didn’t change how uncomfortable I felt with the technique. Even against individuals that were clearly trained to be resistant to pain like the Shadow Triad were, I knew that this was not going to be a pleasant experience for them in the slightest.

And it wasn’t. Even through the microphone of the camera, I could hear the pained groans and the metallic rattling of the clamps that held down the prisoners to the steel table as the relevant information was ripped out of their minds. Fortunately, likely as they recognised that resistance was futile, they didn’t put up much of a fight and simply allowed their memories to be read – which made things easier for everyone involved.

So despite the brutality of the procedure, it proved its worth in the value of the information that we were able to extract from the Shadow Triad – though we weren’t able to learn everything.

We discovered that while the Shadow Triad were certainly close with Ghetsis and only undertook orders from him directly, they were ironically left in the dark regarding the wider operations of PLASMA that did not involve them directly. As a result, they were only informed of missions that they were personally involved with.

Yet there was already enough incriminating evidence there to warrant a full investigation of PLASMA, and the arrest of their leadership. Just from the information extracted from the Shadow Triad, we learned that Ghetsis was far more vile of a person than we had thought.

For one, calling him a Pokémon abuser would be an understatement. The man practically tortured his own Pokémon, in a twisted way of ensuring their obedience. It was complete and utter anathema to everything that you were taught as a trainer, for he did not spare even the slightest modicum of respect for his own Pokémon.

It was frankly miraculous that Ghetsis’ own Hydreigon didn’t murder him out of rage by this point for what he had done to it. Actually, it was practically divine intervention that Hydreigon had even managed to survive being under Ghetsis’ ‘care’ when it had been just a Deino.

Aside from the disturbing amount of Pokémon abuse, the interrogation of the Shadow Triad also revealed that PLASMA had a history of using intimidation and blackmail to get what they want. Apparently, although this wasn’t all that surprising to me, they had informants in the Unova League that had been intimidated or blackmailed into pushing their agenda and reporting information back to them. The Shadow Triad had been involved in obtaining this information under the orders of Ghetsis.

Because of this, we had more than enough evidence from these psychic interrogations to warrant a full-scale investigation and raid into PLASMA. And with such overwhelming evidence against them, there was no way that PLASMA would be able to hide behind the shield of public opinion like Galactic Company had done.

Therefore, within the hour, a strike team had been quickly put together as they prepared to storm PLASMA’s headquarters and arrest the leadership of PLASMA and put them under questioning.

However, of course things couldn’t be so simple. Obviously, with the Shadow Triad suddenly missing, that had already spooked Ghetsis that a raid was imminent. Coupled with the fact that PLASMA had informants in the Unova League, and we expected most of the leadership to at least have escaped by the time the raid began.

So we moved with the utmost haste, and we had the entirety of the PLASMA headquarters surrounded within the hour. Seeing the sheer, overwhelming numbers arrayed against them, PLASMA didn’t even bother to put up a fight as our forces secured their headquarters.

The successful raid at the PLASMA headquarters managed to secure most of their manpower and equipment, probably because they didn’t have time to evacuate. Or, more cynically, Ghetsis and the others might not have informed the grunts of the incoming raid in order to buy time for him and the other Sages to escape.

This idea was reinforced by the fact that, upon an initial interrogation, many of the grunts were very confused about why the raid was happening in the first place, and they confirmed that they had not received any instructions from any of the leadership. Which is why most of them simply volunteered to surrender, as they truly didn’t think they had done anything wrong.

To be fair, unlike the grunts of Team Galactic, that might really be the case for some of the PLASMA grunts. As Looker had attested, a good majority of the grunts were simply misled and manipulated; they weren’t inherently trying to spread evil. Many of them simply believed that PLASMA was no more than a philanthropic organisation meant to do good, and they might not have ever been exposed to the dark underbelly of their organisation.  

Therefore, it would be unjust to paint them all with the same brush as we did with the Galactic grunts. We didn’t want to punish those that didn’t deserve it.

Then we received a stroke of luck. After the strike team realised that the Sages had escaped from their raid, they immediately ordered a search around the surrounding areas to see if they could catch any signs from their hasty retreat to see if we can get a lead on where they had run off to.

And we did find one. Ironically, one of the Sages, had somehow decided to wander back to PLASMA’s headquarters when he was scouted and caught by one of the Jennys Unfezant. More surprisingly, instead of trying to run away when he was found out, he willingly surrendered himself into our custody.

He was instantly taken for questioning, with a Psychic Pokémon overseeing the interrogation to make sure that he was telling the truth, and that’s where we uncovered something very interesting. Firstly, the Sage was called Rood, and he had disagreed with Ghetsis’ plan to simply abandon everything in favour of escaping. He protested against leaving the grunts behind to the authorities and insisted that PLASMA was an organisation that had done no wrong.

Because of this, the man was also offering to explain everything that he knew without resistance. He truly believed that PLASMA’s crimes were at most minor offences that didn’t deserve this level of scrutiny.

When I heard that, I thought that it was the most delusional thing that I had ever heard in my life. Even the fanatics of Team Galactic hadn’t said something so foolish; they were just insane.

But Rood was insistent that PLASMA’s goals were for the betterment of the world, which is why he chose to come back and look after the grunts that had been captured. He explained that he felt like he would not be upholding his duties as their leader if he did not do so, and he truly cared for their well-being. He wanted to look out for them.

That was why he was willing to speak to us now. He wanted to prove that the people of PLASMA were not criminals and never would be.

Obviously, we were very sceptical of his claims. But we wouldn’t turn down the free information and so we allowed him to explain everything he knew.

Through said questioning, we came to learn that, despite being a Sage and one of the leaders of PLASMA, he didn’t know everything. It turns out that the Seven Sages, while they were supposed to be of equal status with each other and would share leadership over PLASMA, in reality things were different.

In truth, Ghetsis held all of the power. It was him that was the final decision maker, and it was his vision that PLASMA followed.

In fact, as Rood explained, the other Sages could be split into two factions. One that followed Ghetsis, believing that only he had the vision to guide PLASMA to greatness, while the others followed N, believing that N and his unique talents would be the one to bring true happiness to all Pokémon. In the latter case, they saw Ghetsis as merely the guiding hand that would bring out the full potential in N – but he was not seen as the ‘true’ leader. He was more like a regent.

However, in practice, both factions still allowed Ghetsis to hold all of the power in PLASMA.

Or to put it another way, if we were to envision PLASMA as a company, then Ghetsis would be the chairman, while the other Sages were simply the board members.

Yet what that meant was that not all Sages were privy to the same information that Ghetsis did. And as we were soon to learn, Ghetsis kept several of his plans to himself – or to Sages that he directly trusted to execute them, who would be those that were a part of his ‘faction’. Apparently, Zinzolin had been one such individual, as he had been Ghetsis’ most loyal follower.

Therefore, in Rood’s case, he had been in N’s group, which was why he was not included in certain meetings like the rest were.

However, that didn’t mean he was uninformed – far from it. He was still a Sage, so he had much to tell us.

Most importantly, he revealed that Ghetsis had uncovered something very important.

“I wasn’t told what was found, but I know that there was a sudden shift in Ghetsis’ mood in recent times.” Rood explained, “Previously, he had been very stressed for the past few months since PLASMA’s growth was not as high as we initially projected them to be. Combined that with the massive PR failure at Sinnoh, and our leader was understandably in quite the foul mood for some time. But something changed recently. He’s been spending a lot more time with N, and he seems generally much more energetic. It’s like the ambition has returned to his eyes, and the visionary leader that we had all devoted ourselves to follow had finally returned.”

…That didn’t bode well. I had a strong suspicion that this was likely the Dark Stone or Light Stone that was found. After this meeting was over, I was going to have to tell Cynthia about it so we could be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

“Who knows about what was found?” One member of the International Police asked.

“Ryoku certainly knows.” Rood replied, “Giallo as well. The rest… like me, I doubt they were informed. Ghetsis was pretty insistent on keeping whatever they found a secret, and he stressed that it was a matter of paramount importance.”

“Then do you know where your other Sages have run off to?” Lorelei questioned, “What other bases do PLASMA have besides this one?”

“We have the PLASMA Frigate. A large ship that serves as our mobile base of operations.” Rood explained, “We normally keep it docked around Castelia City, though we do sail it around from time to time. The others may have fled there. Otherwise… I remember we had a meeting about the construction of a new base. It was supposed to serve as a castle of sorts for our lord N – a symbol of his prestige and status once the rest of Unova and the wider world acknowledged his vision. While the castle may still be under construction, I believe it could still serve as a functioning hiding location.”

All of this information was written down, “Where can we find both? Do you have identifying features for the PLASMA Frigate?”

“The castle can be found underneath Victory Road, but I wouldn’t know where the Frigate is currently. It can be sailed and moved around freely.” Rood said, “As for its appearance, it was intentionally designed to look like a regular large ship so that it could blend into a crowd. However, it does possess large sails. Perhaps you would be able to find it from that. And once you do locate the rest of the Sages, I’m sure that you will find that we are indeed innocent.”

The reveal of where the castle was located had caused some shocked reactions from the members of the Unova Police. They must have been surprised that PLASMA was even building something like this right underneath their noses – and beneath Victory Road, no less.

Nevertheless, everyone quickly moved to act on this information. While the Unova Police left behind a large group of Jennys to scour through the entirety of PLASMA’s headquarters and move the captured grunts to custody, the rest split off either to hunt down the PLASMA castle or the Frigate.

Hopefully we’ll be able to catch the remaining members of PLASMA there.

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(N’s POV)

Everything came so suddenly. One moment, he had been in another meeting with Ghetsis as the two of them took care of the Dark Stone together while on a fishing trip on the PLASMA Frigate. And the next, Ghetsis had suddenly shot out of his seat with an uncharacteristic look of alarm before the two of them immediately evacuated from the Frigate.

He didn’t really understand what was going on, but he knew from his father’s expression that this was no time for asking questions. He simply allowed himself to be dragged along as the two of them made their escape.

Later, he had come to learn that PLASMA had been caught up in a raid by the Unova Police. He didn’t understand why such a raid was necessary, but they had apparently violently taken all of the grunts that were at the PLASMA headquarters into custody.

As Ghetsis explained to him, the raid was merely done to make an example of them – to ensure that no one dared challenge their unjust status quo.

N bemoaned the fate of those that were captured, and vowed that he would bring those corrupt authority figures to justice. As his father had said, who were they to suppress the ideals of PLASMA? To crush their vision of the world? When they were in the right?

However, as they settled into their new secret hideout that Ghetsis had brought them to, one that Ghetsis promised that no one knew about, they finally got a full account of what actually took place. The good news was that the other Sages had managed to escape too, except for Rood. According to Ghetsis, Rood had made a heroic last stand and tried to protest their innocence to the Unova League, but they brutally silenced him.

But that was the end of the good news. The Unova League were very likely still on the hunt for them, so they weren’t safe even now. Not only that, but Ghetsis also revealed something that made his heart both sink with despair and fill with anger.

“Hilbert was the spy. As I suspected, he never intended to join PLASMA from the beginning.” He said, “And because of his actions, PLASMA is in ruins. Your dreams and ideals are as broken and as shattered as the rest of our organisation. You should never have trusted him.”

At first, he didn’t want to believe it. His first friend – the one that he had promised to once spilled out his heart to – was a traitor.

Was their friendship ever real? Or was he simply just a means to an end for Hilbert – if that was even his name. Was their shared suspicions about the dark underside of PLASMA real, or merely the lies of a man tasked with infiltrating their benign organisation?

He didn’t know what was the truth anymore. Everything had suddenly become so murky and confusing. And even his relationship with his father, closer as it had been recently, for some reason didn’t feel entirely genuine either.

It felt forced – the way every one of their conversations ended up circling back to the Dark Stone. No matter how much he tried to talk about other casual topics, as he had read that a father and son should, Ghetsis never really gave him the opportunity to do so.

At this point, the only thing he knew for real was his ideals. That was the only thing he could hold onto.

A.N. After Looker’s information is received, it was only natural for the Leagues to finally take action against PLASMA. This was a long time coming, and thanks to the prisoners that Looker brought back, it warranted an immediate raid that completely caught PLASMA off-guard. Unlike with Team Galactic, I didn’t think this warranted a big fight scene. That wouldn’t have been realistic, so instead, I wanted to take another approach to the situation and portray this a little differently.

Of course, this isn’t the end of PLASMA yet. Ghetsis is many things, but he isn’t entirely stupid. He has contingencies for this sort of thing. Also, the PLASMA Frigate here isn’t the flying ship that we see in the games, since without Colress, the tech doesn’t get invented. Right now, its just a ship.

As for N, Looker’s infiltration might have made things worse for him. In canon, he was never ‘betrayed’ like this. Hope you enjoyed!