The New Normal - 17-1

The New Normal – 17-1 – New Direction

With the Tournament now over, I really didn’t expect for anything interesting to pop up as I prepared to make my way back home to Indigo. I did speak with Elesa and Iris before their own ship departed for Unova, exchanging a promise to continue keeping in touch and maintaining our friendships. And if there was ever an opportunity for one of us to visit the other, then we would do so.

However, just as I was about to head to Canalave City, I had gotten a call from Blaine. He had asked, on behalf of the other Professors, to speak to Regigigas about whether it was ‘safe’ for them to replicate a Legendary’s powers in order to unlock the secrets of the Mega Stone.

At first, I was utterly shocked at what I heard. I knew, intellectually, that the Mega Stones were probably created out of Yveltal and Xerneas power, and I had wondered how the group of Professors were going to overcome this limitation – since they obviously wouldn’t have access to those Legendaries without having first discovered the region of Kalos.

I absolutely did not expect them to try and replicate this power for themselves. When I heard this, my first thought immediately went to the potential dangers of such an act. Messing around with Legendaries was always a huge risk.

But then I thought it over a bit more, and I supposed that there was no better group to trust than those currently working on the project.

Which was why they had asked me to speak with Regigigas – they had no idea if it would respond, but it would hopefully serve as an additional precaution just in case. So naturally, I agreed to do this for them, and I headed off to the Temple of the Titan, now fully redecorated to house the Legendary Titan, where I was let in with only a brief pause to confirm my identity.

I approached Regigigas’ still figure, unsure if it would respond to me in its inactive state. Yet I could still feel the faint pulse of the bond that we shared, and I mentally reached out towards it as I asked it a question.

‘Regigigas. If you can hear me, I would like for you to see my memories – and tell me if the path that my colleagues will embark on is a safe one or not.’

I had half-expected my query to go unanswered, but then I felt a sudden surge of power infiltrate into my mind as our bond flared to life. But despite my shock, there was no pain. Regigigas’ intent simply flowed through me, gently reaching for my memories as it absorbed everything it needed to know.

After a few seconds had passed, even though Regigigas remained unmoving, I felt a singular word, a judgement, resonating throughout my mind.

Approval.

And then the silence returned. A small smile started to form on my face.

…Yet that smile quickly disappeared as I then realised a slight issue – I had no way of proving that Regigigas had just given me its approval. It wasn’t like it had left a physical receipt of its approval for me to show others, so all they had to go on was my own word.

Fortunately, when I relayed this information back to Blaine and the others, they all took me at my word. As Blaine had explained it, they were the ones to request for me to ask Regigigas about their future course of action, and they’d only do so if they trusted me.

And now, with Regigigas giving them the green light, they were off to try and replicate the power of Xerneas and Yveltal.

I had absolutely no idea about how that was going to go – this was beyond anything from my metaknowledge – but I wished them the best regardless. With Regigigas’ approval, I was reasonably confident that their efforts wouldn’t end up resulting in something crazy like summoning two hostile Legendaries into the world, but there were still big risks involved.

But it was out of my hands now. It was up to the Professors to see this through.

With that detour out of the way, I said my goodbyes to Cynthia and boarded the ship for Indigo, returning back safe and sound.

Yet there was this strange feeling that refused to leave me upon my return to Indigo. I had initially struggled to understand why, but then when I had just about entered into my home, that was when I realised it.

I was starting to see Sinnoh, and my new place with Cynthia, as my new home.

That wasn’t to say that I didn’t miss my family home in Indigo and didn’t want to return. Of course not. I still enjoyed spending time with my parents and my sister, who were all there to greet me upon my return home. But it was the realisation that my future was no longer in Indigo – that I had ‘outgrown’ the family home.

As much as I loved this place, I knew that I wanted to be by my girlfriend’s side more.

And I think my parents must have understood this too, even without me saying it out loud, because upon my return I noticed that their questions mostly focused on new home with Cynthia in Sinnoh and the type of life that we were planning out for the both of us.

I guessed they must have also realised that it was only a matter of time before I moved out. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to have any problems with that – if anything, they seemed to subtly encourage it – though I noticed that they were doing their best to treasure the moments they still had with me before then.

I wasn’t looking forward to the moment when I had to tell them. Even if it was something we all understood, leaving your parents behind wasn’t easy. At least for me. And that wasn’t even including how Whitney was going to handle it.

…I hoped she wouldn’t take it too badly.

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Many things had happened since my return to Indigo. Not long after I had come back, Lance and the other Champions managed to successfully propose that the Regional Union would adopt a new Article that League officials within Union-regions were able to be appointed from any of our three regions.

There wasn’t as much pushback as I had feared when the topic was brought up, mainly because the idea had already been successfully implemented in all three regions already, and enacting it as an Article was mostly seen as a formality.

But given that this was the first time a new Article had been added to the Regional Union, and one as wide-spread as this one, there were still quite a lot of discussion on it. Though I was actually rather distant from those discussions, as I had my own priorities that I had to focus on – namely, prepping for my eventual move to Sinnoh.

Part of that needed to be handled by Cynthia. With the passing of the Article, she had begun setting the stage in Sinnoh for Regigigas to finally have a League-appointed guardian. Right now, things were merely at a discussion stage. However, given that there was never any precedent for appointing a human guardian for a Legendary, and given how prestigious and important this position would definitely be, the position naturally attracted a lot of scrutiny.

There were even discussions to be had about whether it was necessary to assign guardians to the Lake Guardians and their Regi companions as well, or if just having one guard the Legendary Titan was enough.

Similarly, there were also concerns about the guardian being ‘corrupted’ by external influences, and whether certain measures needed to be implemented to counteract that. It was an understandable concern, given that there was a very real possibility that a corrupted guardian may turn the Legendary’s power against the rest of the world.

Although, knowing what I did about Regigigas, I fully believed that this was extremely unlikely to happen unless that person had access to a device like the Red Chain. Otherwise, Regigigas was no fool. It knew right from wrong, and it wouldn’t allow itself to be tricked. Then again, the wider public wouldn’t be aware of this either, so their concerns were legitimate.

Also, there needed to be discussions about the direct powers of this new position. Would the guardian have the ability to, at their own discretion, awaken the Legendary Titan? Or did they require consent from the Champion first? Did they hold any political voting power in the Sinnoh Committee meetings? Or were they not even eligible from observing in the first place? These were all relevant questions that needed to be answered.

Therefore, with all of these matters that needed to be addressed, Cynthia wanted to wait before she made any kind of formal announcement about her intention to appoint me for the position. That didn’t mean that there weren’t already rumours being spread around – given that I was the obvious candidate for it – but at least nothing had been officially confirmed.

And on my end, I knew that it was only polite for me to prepare the others for my eventual departure. I still loved Indigo, after all, and I would continue to wish it every success even after I was gone.

So today, with Lance calling us all over for a meeting, I decided that now was the time to give them a heads up, and I told them that my time with the Indigo Elite Four was likely going to come to an end because I intended to take up the position in Sinnoh.

“…I think I can say for all of us that we all expected this to happen eventually.” Lorelei replied first, “It doesn’t take a genius to see that you and Cynthia were working towards that eventuality, given how eager you were at promoting and pushing for the latest Regional Union Article to be accepted.”

“Well, yeah. We weren’t exactly being subtle.” I allowed, “I just wanted to let you know anyways so that there would be no misunderstandings.”

“And we appreciate the transparency.” Koga nodded, “However, are you certain of your choice, John? Moving to a new region like this, especially with the political position you currently hold, may prove to be a costly decision.”

“I am.” I nodded, “Admittedly, it wasn’t an easy choice. I have built a life here in Indigo. I have accomplished much here, and there are still things I want to do. For the last few years, I have built up a strong political foundation and web of connections that I am loathe to throw away – though of course I hope to maintain most of that even if I do move to Sinnoh. It’s why we’ve been working on this for so long, since I do want to continue being active in politics even after my move.”

“Just out of curiosity, would you still agree to the move, even if you were to give up all of your political power?” Lorelei asked.

“…Yes.” I said after a moment, “Yes, I would. It would not be ideal, but… I already see that my future lies next to Cynthia. Call me foolish, but there’s a lot I would give up just to be by her side. Besides, I fully believe that even if I were to have to start anew in Sinnoh, I am confident in my own capabilities, and my Pokémon’s, that it would only be a matter of time before I could build back my political connections once again. So me moving to Sinnoh wouldn’t be the end of my time in politics.”

“Knowing him, he wouldn’t be able to sit still if he wasn’t doing something.” Karen smirked, “Whether it be here or Sinnoh, he’ll still be on the big stage, making changes.”

Surprisingly, Koga actually smiled softly at me when he heard my words. It was a rare display of emotion from the normally stoic man, “A good answer. While my own situation was different, I too had to make a similar choice when I decided to marry my wife. I too had to make sacrifices for my love. And, with the benefit of hindsight, I can say wholeheartedly that it was well worth the price. It still would have been even if I had to pay it twice over.”

He gently patted me on the shoulder, “So I agree with your decision, John. And while it would be sad to lose a man of your calibre from the Indigo Elite Four, I trust that you will still continue to do good in Sinnoh in the future too.”

“…Thank you, Koga.” I smiled back, before turning over to Lance, “I’m pretty sure I did tell you that I was going to do something like this before – so do you have anyone you think could replace me in the Elite Four? Even though I am leaving, I would prefer if there’d be someone that you’d all feel comfortable working with in the future.”

“You did.” Lance nodded, “But sadly, none come to mind right now. Let’s be honest, the only person I really was thinking of was Clair. However, after her behaviour in the Tournament… she isn’t suitable to be in the Elite Four. She’d be like Will when he first came into the Elite Four, but a lot worse.”

We all grimaced. While Will was not all that bad when he first joined, and he got much better as time went on, he definitely rubbed a few of us the wrong way initially. If Clair was worse than that (and I could see it), then I could understand why Lance was hesitant to let her into the Elite Four, even if she was his cousin.

Koga crossed his arms, “Indeed. I greatly misliked the way she treated Maylene after their loss. It was very immature of her.”

“I wouldn’t get along well with her.” Karen agreed, frowning, “There must be other options besides her.”

Lance winced, “Her temperament is still a work in progress.” Then he returned to a neutral expression as he turned back to me, “Nevertheless, I think it would all be best if we work together to see if there are any new candidates that might be worthy of filling your shoes, John. Are we all agreed on that?”

“What about Will? You did just mention him.” Karen suggested, “I mean, I wasn’t there when he was working with you guys, but didn’t you guys all get along quite well? Couldn’t we just invite him back in?”

That was an interesting thought, “But isn’t he busy running the Goldenrod Gym?” I remembered, “I’m not sure he’s going to be able to just up and leave his old duties just like that.”

“We definitely should ask.” Lorelei said, “Besides, I’d like to continue working with him too. He was very good at his job.”

Everyone else agreed with that, and since we all trusted him not to reveal my plans beforehand, we decided to just call him straight up and ask his opinion. Therefore, one phone call later, and we had brought Will up to speed with what was going on.

“An interesting offer.” Will said, “But as much as I’m tempted by it, I’d be loathed to give up on what I’ve built up here in Goldenrod so soon. Though… perhaps I could continue working on these projects even after I’ve joined back into the Elite Four. After all, there’s no reason why I can’t focus on the continued development of Goldenrod even while I’m an Elite Four.”

“Just a warning – if you do take back your old position in this manner, there will be people that look down on you for doing so.” Lance warned, “So expect to receive a few challengers.”

Will just smirked, “As if that’d be a problem for someone like me. Relax, I wouldn’t allow myself to be knocked out of the Elite Four yet again. Once was certainly enough. If I come back in, I fully intend to show off just how much I’ve grown in strength.”

“But that also means that we’ll have to find someone to replace you at the Goldenrod Gym.” Karen sighed, “This is so frustrating. It feels like we need to find replacement after replacement.”

“True.” Will nodded, “I wouldn’t want to hand over the Gym to an incompetent.”

“We can discuss that later. It’ll be easier finding a Gym Leader than it is an Elite Four.” Lance said, “So Will, just so that it’s clear, you’re my candidate of choice to replace John for the moment. Of course, the decision remains in your hands, so please let me know if you’re certain about making a return to the Elite Four and giving up your position as Gym Leader of Goldenrod.”

“I will let you know as soon as possible.” Will nodded, “Thank you for reaching out to me. I’ll see if I can find anyone I trust to replace me.”

“Then let’s table the discussion here.” Lance stated, “We’ll return to this topic once we have a few more things worked out.”

With that, the discussion about my departure from Indigo was finally over for now, and we could actually get to the topic that Lance had brought us here to talk about – PLASMA.

“How many of you have been keeping up to date with our infiltration of PLASMA?” Lance asked, looking around at all of us, “I know I’ve forwarded the reports to all of you to read.”

We all nodded, “Good. Then you should know that we’re just waiting for an opportunity to strike. Once our informant finds something actionable, then we’ll be there to take action.”

“Are you sure Unova would welcome our involvement though?” Lorelei asked, “Seems like they might see this as us trampling on their authority. Even with all the goodwill we built with them through the tournament.”

“That’s a valid concern, which is why I wanted to set up the foundation for our involvement.” Lance said, “Especially because both the other two Champions have noticed that the Unova police are not as effective than they should be.”

“Corrupt?” Koga asked.

“No. Just understaffed and not as well trained.” Lance replied, “However, that means that I’m hesitant to rely solely on them to take down a criminal organisation as large as PLASMA. The last thing we want to happen is for PLASMA to split up and go into hiding. Therefore, I’m going to do all I can to ensure that the International Police be given jurisdiction over Unova as soon as possible.”

“Are you sure?” Lorelei asked, “I understand your position, but that feels really premature…”

“I know. That’s why I want all of your help.” Lance explained, “I’ll need all of you to start leveraging your connections that you’ve built with Unova’s leaders. That means their Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and whatnot. I want you to bring them onto our side, to make sure they understand why our involvement would be beneficial for them. I know it won’t be easy, but do your best.”

We nodded again. For me, it was simple enough. From my past conversations with Elesa, I knew she was onboard with taking down PLASMA as quickly as possible. And if I could also bring Iris (though I’m sure Karen would be better at convincing her) and Clay onboard too, then that would be a lot of political pressure on Alder to get things done.

It was just a shame that none of us had any direct connection with the Unova Elite Four, given that they were more influential than the Gym Leaders. However, just as I thought that, Koga idly mentioned that he would help speak to Marshal, as apparently they had gotten to talking during the Tournament. So that would definitely help a lot.

Either way, given how the meeting had already overran by a significant margin and Lance was super late for his next meeting because of it, we decided to call the meeting there after a few more minutes of discussion.

But I was happy about the things that we discussed. Not only did were we building a plan of action to deal with PLASMA once in for all, but we also began to plan out who would replace me once I inevitably took up my position in Sinnoh. Overall, couldn’t complain.

Hopefully, it would all turn out well. I wanted to deal with both matters as cleanly as possible.

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(Looker POV)

After his previous discussion with N where they agreed to work together to uncover the ‘truth’ about PLASMA’s actions, he had hoped that this would be the beginning of N’s ‘cleansing’, for him to start shaking off the taint of the Sages and let him see the truth for himself.

This was especially true now that he had become Rood’s assistant, since now he was more involved with the running of PLASMA and was given a degree of autonomy to do his own snooping around. So far, he hadn’t uncovered anything too damning yet, but he felt like it was only a matter of time.

However, that was when he began noticing something was wrong. Recently, Ghetsis had been calling up and speaking with N far more than he usually did. Normally, the leader of PLASMA would only speak to N every once in a while, but now that had changed to almost every day.

Looker did try subtly ask what N and Ghetsis were talking about, but even N wasn’t too sure.

“He doesn’t really tell me to do anything.” N had said, “He just talks to me and tries to reaffirm the values of PLASMA within me. I guess he just wants to spend more time with me.”

Looker had a feeling that it wasn’t so simple; that a man like Ghetsis wouldn’t waste his ‘precious’ time on N unless he wanted something out of him. But each time N was called up to spend more time with Ghetsis, he always gave the same response to Looker.

…He didn’t know why, but he had a feeling that the more time that N spent around Ghetsis, the worse it was going to be.

A.N. Welcome to Arc 17 – “Big Moves”. This serves as a set up chapter for what we’ll be exploring through the rest of the Arc, with John getting ready to leave Indigo and therefore setting up the necessary preparations for when he does so. Therefore, as mentioned before, Will is back! I think he’s obviously the best choice for John’s replacement, considering his past. And of course, the Mega Evolution research is going to press onwards as well.

Not only that, Ghetsis is also planning something. But I’ve deliberately not shown N’s POV for now to keep it a mystery. Maybe some of you will be able to guess his plans now that he’s spending more time with N. Hope you enjoyed!