The New Normal - 13-13

The New Normal – 13-13 – The Fight to the Summit

The sensation of being called upon lasted for about a minute before the sensation faded just as quickly as it came, leaving me standing there in dazed confusion as my team continued to worry over me after seeing me act so weirdly all of a sudden.

After reassuring them that everything was okay (at least, I hoped so), I took a moment to try to piece together what exactly just happened. Obviously, I suspected that the last Plate had been found, which subsequently triggered a reaction that led to Regigigas trying to summon me. But that only created more questions.

Why did Regigigas try to summon me of all people? What differentiated me from every other person out there? Was this why I was brought into this world?

…These were questions I didn’t have any answers to. Hoping to find answers, I explained to her everything that I just felt and asked if she knew what was happening. She was surprised at what I admitted, though promised to keep everything I had just told her to herself. Additionally, she confirmed my suspicions as she explained that the team had likely found the final Plate and that there was a sudden reaction from the Plates as small dots of lights formed on them.

I instantly recognised what those lights represented. Each of them matched the descriptions of the ‘eyes’ on the three Regis. Therefore, I knew that something must be going on with the Regi trio, and I asked if I could be read in on the discussions so that I could add my own input.

In the meanwhile, knowing that I couldn’t sit around ‘recovering’ while Cyrus and Team Galactic still lurked in the shadows, I quickly returned to my usual patrols and duties. As planned, our many forces were concentrated at Spear Pillar, with it currently being guarded by the largest contingent of Jennys alongside both Drake and Lucian.

Elsewhere, Aaron and Bertha were in charge of defending Turnback Cave and Lake Valor, given their close proximity with each other. I was put in charge of holding Lake Verity, and Flint in charge of Lake Acuity. Lastly, Koga and Phoebe would be on patrol of the major cities that were close to Mt. Coronet, with the Gym Leaders assisting them.

And in a day, further reinforcements would arrive from Hoenn and Indigo that would have bolstered our forces even further.

However, it seemed like Cyrus was well aware of the noose tightening around his neck as an emergency alert started blaring out of my phone. I took one look at the message before my expression was set into one of grim determination.

Whatever was going on with Regigigas could wait. Team Galactic had finally decided to strike.

The final battle was here.

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(Drake POV)

“INTRUDERS!” A Jenny’s voice shouted out from his radio, “TEAM GALACTIC HAS BREACHED MT. CORONET! THEY’RE COMING OUT OF THE TUNNELS—!” But whatever she was saying was cut off by the sounds of multiple explosions.

“REPORT!” Lucian barked into his radio, “WHAT WAS THAT EXPLOSION?!”

“BOMBS! THEY’RE USING BOMBS!” One of the Jennys screamed over the sounds of further explosions and the fighting of Pokémon, “THEY’RE BLOWING UP THE INSIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN! THEY’RE RUNNING STRAIGHT FOR SPEAR PILLAR!”

That news caused a wave of grim frowns to spread across the forces gathered here, many of them unable to hide the horror in their eyes at the lengths that Team Galactic would sink to in their fanatical madness.

But to Drake? He was unfazed. He never expected any better from the fuckers, so this was par for the course.

“…How did they even manage to get in here?” One of the Jennys whispered as they readied themselves for battle. They were currently guarding the midway point that led up to Spear Pillar, around the snowy mountains. “Our patrols should have covered everything.”

“The Jenny said something about tunnels – so Cyrus probably had those dug in secret to get around our patrols.” Lucian frowned, “He must have prepared this for a long time.”

“Bah. How they got in doesn’t matter.” Drake replied, “What matters now is that they are stopped, right here and now. They go no further than us.” If he was younger, he would have likely recklessly rushed down to where the fighting was currently happening. But he was older and wiser now. He knew his duty was to guard Spear Pillar. And that was what he would do.

A round of firm nods was his reply as everyone entrenched themselves in their prepared positions. Furthermore, now that Team Galactic were confirmed to be using bombs, some of them took the time to further reinforce the walls and ground around them to make sure that a single blast couldn’t destroy the ground from beneath them.

In the meanwhile, the chatter on the radio continued, “This is Aaron. Bertha and I are coming back over. Should be there in five minutes.”

“Koga here. Will be longer. Seven minutes.”

“This is John. I’m seven minutes away too.”

“This is Flint. Ten minutes.”

Many others proceeded to give similar statements, but before Drake could respond, a deafening explosion burst out from the ground, sending a waft of thick smoke everywhere that blocked their view.

And then a Hyper Beam pierced through the smoke, threatening to tear through their lines. Fortunately, Lucian’s Pokémon reacted quickly, forming an enormous Light Screen that shielded their forces and stopped the Hyper Beam in its tracks. Then someone managed to clear out the smoke, revealing the sight below.

Heavy fighting had taken place, with the wounded scattered around the caves of Mt. Coronet haphazardly. And with a quick scan he could see that said caves were also completely wrecked and devastated, resulting from the multiple explosions that they had heard. The once winding caves of Mt. Coronet was now a patchwork of bomb craters, and the natural staircases that previously connected each floor were destroyed. Instead, Team Galactic seemed to have made their own pathway from the rubble of their explosions.

He didn’t get to dwell on that for long as Team Galactic continued to rush towards them, seemingly unbothered by the horde of Pokémon amassed in their way. His own Pokémon then began to unleash their own barrage of attacks, and he watched as ranks of the grunts’ Pokémon were annihilated from a Hydro Pump or Dragon Pulse from his Pokémon – each attack cutting through swaths of their Pokémon like a knife through butter.

His Gyarados especially was like an avatar of destruction as it flung itself into the middle of the enemy before it burst into a rampage. It thrashed everywhere, sending its powerful tail slamming into huge swaths of Pokémon and knocking them all out in one strike.

Lucian was also doing his part as an unending volley of Psychics from his Pokémon knocked out wave after wave of Pokémon and grunt alike. The Jennys were practically unneeded as the sounds of the terrorists’ pained screams echoed throughout the caverns of Mt. Coronet.

He was tempted to unleash even more powerful and destructive moves, but in that case the risk of friendly fire would be too great.

Despite this, the grunts were utterly no match for them. They never were, but now with their diminished numbers, it felt like the battle would be over in an instant. Their suicidal charge into their lines might have been fuelled by their fanaticism and twisted determination, but willpower alone didn’t mean anything when you were struck by an Aqua Tail from his Gyarados that smashed you against a wall.

But, as if to punish him for his hubris, a wave of explosions suddenly detonated from right in front of him, catching them all by surprise. Drake quickly tried to brace himself to little avail as the explosions sent him flying backwards. He heard something crack as his back painfully smashed against a nearby wall, causing him to let out a pained grunt.

His ears were ringing loudly, and his body was screaming in pain, yet he refused to yield. Gritting his teeth, he fought through the pain and forced himself to his feet, taking a brief moment to study what the fuck had just happened.

Those fucking terrorists just set off even more bombs. Likely knowing that they could not win without them, the fuckers didn’t even care about being caught in the crossfire as they just blew everything up.

They were doing everything they can to force their ways through their defences, no matter the cost.

Despite the ruthlessness and vileness of such a tactic, it worked. The second set of explosions had blown up a significant number of their Pokémon. His Gyarados was fine – bombs or not, it wasn’t going to go down just like that – but the Jennys were less fortunate. Having thrown their own Pokémon deep into the middle of the fight, their Pokémon had been devastated by the unexpected explosion, and the fallen forms of their Pokémon were now scattered around them. Likewise, the cavern floor around them had been destroyed, and if Drake hadn’t been thrown back by the explosion he might have fell all the way down.

But there was good news. The explosion had also taken out much of the grunts’ own Pokémon too, and he managed to spot the distinct shade of red and pink hair in the far back of the remaining grunts’ ranks.

According to the information they received from their psychic interrogations, those were Mars and Jupiter – two of the leaders of Team Galactic. And if they were here, then it meant that Cyrus would be close by. If they could just take him down, then the fight would be over.

But he had already been punished for his hubris once already, and he didn’t intend for that to happen a second time. So, refocusing his attention on the fight, he ordered his Gyarados to continue its destructive rampaging while both he and Lucian reformed their ranks. With the Jennys having taken the brunt of the attack, it mostly fell down to the two of them to hold off Team Galactic before reinforcements arrived. So they rearranged and regrouped their Pokémon, falling back deeper into the upper floors of Mt. Coronet where there was more solid ground to stand on.

However, that was when an opposing Gyarados revealed itself as it instantly threw itself against his own, leaving the two Gyarados in a pile of wrath and rage as they rampaged against each other.

In the chaos of battle, he spotted a group of Purugly that had been sneakily trying to land a Hypnosis on his Blastoise, but that attempt was cut off as Lucian’s Gallade intercepted the attack. It sliced through their Hypnosis with a clean Night Slash before taking down the offenders with a series of precise and deadly Sacred Swords.

Drake was then forced to duck as a Crobat came sailing over his head, courtesy of a powerful Psychic from Lucian. His fellow Elite Four member was currently holding back a whole nest of Crobats with his Psychic types, and seemed to have no trouble sniping them out of the air one at a time. A pair of Honchkrow tried to distract his fellow Psychic specialist, but his own Blastoise was quick to retaliate with its own Ice Beams. Blastoise froze over and brought down one while the other was forced away, allowing Lucian to continue taking down Crobats unimpeded.

“BRING DOWN THE ARCHENEMY! UTOPIA AWAITS!!”

“DRACO BEAM, SALAMENCE!” He ordered, “SEND THEM TO THEIR UTOPIA!”

He was long out of mercy. If these terrorists were so eager to reach their ‘promised utopia’, then he would bring them there himself. His Salamence fell onto all fours as a blinding blue ray of light was unleashed out of his draconic maw. The laser of pure draconic energies disintegrated everything in its path, completely annihilating anything that it touched.

The grunts’ Pokémon were absolutely no exception.

A trio of Bronzong that had previously been throwing up Light Screens and Reflects for the grunts had tried to intercept and block the attack, throwing themselves into the Draco Beam with Protect shields up to try to protect what little remained of their ranks. But their Protect shields were practically non-existent in the face of his most powerful attack, and even though they supposedly ‘resisted’ the attack, the Bronzong were incinerated as a result of their failed attempt.

Therefore, his Draco Beam practically managed to entirely wipe out his section of grunts. None were spared from his attack, and only those who were wise enough to dive out of the way and into heavy cover were still able to fight.

However, in the corner of his eye, he just about managed to spot a dangerous glint from a hidden yet sharpened claw. His body moving on his own, he threw himself to the ground and into a roll, narrowly dodging past a Night Slash that came swinging for his head. Reacting on instinct, he kicked his assailant with his boot, which did little to nothing but enrage the revealed Weavile.

The Weavile snarled at its failed attack, with its Night Slash only managing to cut through his clothes.

Now knowing that it had missed its chance, the Weavile swiftly repositioned itself and ducked under a Hydro Pump from his Blastoise before it dashed over and slammed a quadruply supereffective Ice Punch into the side of his Salamence and interrupting the Draco Beam.

Roaring in fury, Salamence whipped its head around to see who had just dared to strike it. But the Weavile moved quickly, backflipping through the air as it retreated away from the Flamethrower that his Salamence unleashed. At the same time, a Crobat, this time more powerful than the rabble that Lucian had dealt with, dove down from above and slammed into his Salamence with a Cross Poison and a Taunt.

“Drake! Be careful! The leaders are sending out their Pokémon now! They’re much stronger!” Lucian shouted to him, though he had already figured that out himself. For right in front of him stood Mars, surrounded by her Pokémon and whatever grunts remained.

Her eyes burned with a mixture of insanity and utter fury as she seemingly tried to incinerate him with her glare alone. She looked at him as if he was nothing less than the scum of the earth.

Ironic, for that was how he saw her.

Luckily, that was his radio sparked to life once more as Aaron’s voice came out of it, “Drake, Lucian. We’re here. We’re running up from the bottom to cut them off from behind.”

Mars must have heard that too, as she let out a crazed snarl before she charged at Drake, flanked by a group of Purugly and Skuntank. His Blastoise and Kingdra tried to stop them with a double torrent of powerful Hydro Pumps, but her Purugly actually managed to block the attacks with a well-placed Protect. Meanwhile, their Skuntank continued charging towards him while expelling a noxious cloud of poisonous fog.

But his Flygon stopped them in their tracks as a massive Earthquake knocked them to the floor – their Purugly wasn’t able to block two attacks at the same time – before bombarding them with a volley of Stone Edges. Their Skuntank did actually manage to recover quickly from the Earthquake and tried to fend off the Stone Edge, cutting through many of the sharpened spears of stone with their Night Slashes, but there were too many coming their way. They were eventually overwhelmed from the pure numbers of rocks heading its way and were subsequently impaled against the wall by multiple rock spears.

Then his Altaria swooped in, having just dealt with and overpowered the Crobat annoying his Salamence, and dispersed the cloud of poison with a quick Defog. Mars’ Purugly tried their best to fight on, but then they were suddenly enveloped underneath the looming shadow of his Salamence.

Her Purugly may have been stronger than any of the ones he had seen utilised by the grunts, but that meant little when it came to fighting his Salamence. To his starter, it might as well have been comparing a Wurmple to a Delcatty. The latter was significantly stronger than the former, but what did that matter when faced off against a Pokémon that had fought at the same level of a Champion’s own starter?

One of her Purugly’s tried to parry a Dragon Claw from his Salamence, only to realise far too late the sheer difference in strength that they had between them – and was unceremoniously thrown aside like it was nothing more than a broken doll. The other fared little better as it successfully managed to block a Dragon Pulse with a Protect, only for Salamence’s Dragon Tail to come swinging around like a sledgehammer and brutally smashed it deep into a wall.

Seeing the writing on the wall, Mars made one last attempt to rush towards him, letting out a shout of crazed fury as she looked to fight him herself, but she wasn’t even able to make it more than a few steps when his Salamence slammed into her with a Zen Headbutt.

…She wasn’t getting up after that one. If ever. Oh well, good riddance to bad rubbish.

Seeing one of their leaders be taken out, the small group of injured grunts that had somehow remained tried to avenge the loss of their leader with their own Pokémon, but Altaria dealt with them with contemptuous ease.

Now that his side was dealt with, he turned over to where Lucian was fighting and realised that his partner was having a much tougher time. The Psychic specialist was being matched by a horde of Dark types, and if not for Lucian’s expert training of his Pokémon, he would have long been overwhelmed like a lesser Psychic specialist would have been in his position.

Even then, Lucian was being gradually pushed back, forcing to give more ground.

In particular, Drake recognised that a trio of three Pokémon were giving Lucian the most trouble – a Houndoom, a Honchkrow, and the Weavile that had failed to assassinate him. They were much more well trained than the usual rabble, almost comparable to the Pokémon you’d expect to see from a Gym Leader or an Elite Four member. Were these Jupiter’s Pokémon?

Fortunately, that was when a few friendly voices suddenly came from behind him, “Drake, we’re here!” Bertha and Aaron came running towards them, alongside Crasher Wake, Fantina, Maylene, and several more Jennys, who they likely picked up on the way.

Their reinforcements were here.

They immediately sent their Pokémon out and crashed into the backs of Team Galactic, now making use of their overwhelming numbers to finally bring an end to this fight.

However, when Jupiter turned and saw their reinforcements charging towards them, her face was not one of horror or despair at their impending defeat. No, she instead shoved a person onto the Houndoom before they broke out into a sprint towards the summit of Spear Pillar.

“STOP THEM!” He shouted as he spotted a glimpse of cyan hair underneath the hood that they were wearing, “THAT’S CYRUS!”

His words caused the entire battlefield to turn all of their attention onto the man fleeing on the Houndoom. Without wasting any time, all of them sent their Pokémon charging forwards, desperate to stop Cyrus from being able to reach Spear Pillar and unleash the Red Chain. Likewise, Dragon Pulses, Hydro Pumps, Stone Edges, Bug Buzzes, Focus Blasts, and all other sorts of Special Attacks were fired at the sprinting Houndoom. Even Lucian, who was previously focused on dealing with the threat in front of him, also turned his attention away to take down that Houndoom.

All of them threw everything they could to knock out that Houndoom and its rider. And they did so, for even with its great speed and training, the Houndoom wasn’t going to outrun the sheer amount of attacks that bombarded it.

Yet so focused and tunnel-visioned they were on the Houndoom, they failed to notice or stop the Honchkrow from unleashing a Haze, covering the battlefield in a thick and dark smoke that blinded them all from view.

“DEFOG, ALTARIA!” He instantly shouted, already fearing the worst. Everyone else either did the same or moved to fire attacks at Team Galactic’s current position.

His Altaria was quick to obey and quickly dispersed the thick cloud of smoke with a flap of its wings.

As vision returned, his eyes immediately moved to locate where Houndoom and its rider had fallen. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that despite the Haze, Houndoom’s rider was lying down unconscious on the ground, completely unmoving as he had been thrown against a large rock. Similarly, Jupiter and the grunts around her were doing no better, having been utterly devastated by the overwhelming number of attacks that struck down on them.

However, his relief turned to horror as he heard Lucian shouting out, “CYRUS! STOP!”

His head spun around, only to see a grunt with the typical turquoise hair being carried on a Weavile sprint out towards Spear Pillar, having somehow snuck out from wherever it hid in. They had previously sealed up the exit to Spear Pillar with a wall of rocks while also tearing out most of the ground to make it harder for Cyrus to actually enter into Spear Pillar, but Weavile did not care about that.

With speeds that surpassed the previous Houndoom, it leaped over the chasm that they had created and cut through the wall of rocks that blocked its way to Spear Pillar. Just as it did so, a Flash Cannon from someone managed to strike the Weavile dead in the chest, taking it down and knocking off the grunt.

No. As the turquoise bowl-cut wig slid off the man’s hair, he realised that this was no mere grunt.

Cyrus didn’t waste any time scrambling to his feet and throwing himself through the small exit hole into Spear Pillar. A Dragon Pulse chased after him, literally meters away from eradicating the last remaining stain of Team Galactic from this world.

But he managed to raise a small Red Chain into the air.

A.N. AND IT COMES! Cyrus has finally made his move, making his way to Spear Pillar as he did in canon. Of course, the circumstances are very different, and I reversed the roles as in the games. In the games, you had to fight your way up through many grunts, but this time, Cyrus is the one on the offensive.

I had to rewrite this fight so many times. I really tried my best to make this fight cohesive and understandable, while hopefully keeping it realistic about how Cyrus was able to make it to Spear Pillar despite all that was laid out against him. I really do hope that that has managed to come through, and that you enjoyed this chapter. The Legendaries are coming. Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed!