The New Normal - 6-3

The New Normal – 6-3 – Q&A Session

As soon as I got the notification that the raid was taking place, I rushed out of my hiding spot in Lilycove and jumped onto Zephyr’s back as we rapidly made our way to Mt Pyre. I knew that Drake was doing the same from Sootopolis City.

When planning the trap, both Drake and I realized that we would be the ultimate deciding factors in halting the operation, and our swift arrival was vital to the plan’s success. Thus, we also knew that Team Rocket would not launch their operation unless they were confident that we couldn’t interfere with their operation in time. It would be idiotic otherwise.

But the both of us were very conspicuous individuals, and we couldn’t be certain if they had informants scattered around Hoenn informing them of our location. Furthermore, if we ventured too far away from Mt. Pyre in order to bait them into attacking, we risked not being able to respond in time and letting them get away with the Orbs.

However, Drake actually came up with a clever plan. He said that, when in the air, recognition revolved around the Pokémon, rather than the trainer. For example, if one of the Team Rocket informants saw Drake’s Altaria flying around Mt. Chimney, then they would assume that Drake was at Mt. Chimney as well.

With that in mind, Drake came up with the simple, yet effective, plan of having our signature and recognisable mounts flying around Hoenn far away from Mt. Pyre. Then, Drake and I would squirrel away somewhere where Team Rocket couldn’t find us, while also remaining close to Mt. Pyre, so that we could respond quickly.

That was why I found myself hiding out in a cave in Lilycove, where in canon Team Magma or Aqua used as their base. Evidently, they hadn’t moved into here yet, because the entire cave was empty barring a few wild Pokémon. Still, it made for a convenient hiding place.

And now, with the trap sprung, I got a message from Drake that said that he was on the way. We would arrive in a few minutes, which should be quick enough to capture Team Rocket before they could escape.

Just as I thought that, my radio sprang to life, “This is Jenny, the back-up team is in position. The exits are all monitored, and the anti-Teleportation field set.”

“Understood. ETA 4 minutes until my arrival. Any news on the battle?” Drake asked.

“This is Joy. I’m currently hiding near the edges of the battle, and Team Rocket seems to have been temporarily halted in their advance. But I’m not sure if this stalemate can be maintained.” The Nurse Joy who had been charged with Klee reported.

“We hear you.” I responded, “I can see Mt. Pyre in the distance, just give me a few minutes more.”

“Hurry!” She replied urgently, “Your Blissey is doing much to hold them back, but she’s growing tired!”

I grimaced and pushed Zephyr to fly even faster. Despite the seriousness of the situation, I took deep breaths to keep myself calm. I had a duty to perform right now, and I would not let my inner doubts sabotage our efforts.

Team Rocket will fall. And this operation would prove to be the beginning of the end for them.

Zephyr let out a squawk to inform me that we were moments away from arriving at the summit of Mt. Pyre. I could just make out a number of moving dots in the distance which were undoubtedly where the battle was taking place.

I spoke into the radio, “This is John. I’m about to arrive. Less than a minute.”

“Drake here. I’m just a minute behind John. We’re nearly there.” His voice filtered through the radio.

As we drew even closer, I clutched Vordt’s Premier Ball tightly in my hand. And as soon as we flew over the top of Mt. Pyre, I released Vordt into the air.

I watched as his large figure rapidly descend out of the sky, before eventually slamming into the ground with an audible crack. Vordt immediately dominated the battlefield by ripping out large chunks of rocks and fired them in huge devastating volleys that quickly decimated ranks of Team Rocket’s Pokémon.

To the grunts’ credit, their Pokémon swiftly retaliated with a barrage of Ice Beam from their Claydol. But Vordt was made from far sturdier stuff than that, and rushed straight towards the Claydol, getting him into the thick of the fight. The Claydol didn’t stand a chance at close range, and many were getting quickly knocked out by an onslaught of Night Slashes and Crunches.

I took this opportunity to fly down from behind them and released Luna and Smough to join in the fight, encircling the grunts and preventing them from escaping. As soon as my reinforcements appeared behind them, many of them were looking around uncertainly, as if they realized their imminent doom.

And then, as if to rub salt on the wound, a thunderous roar shook the skies as Drake’s Salamence made his appearance. And with that, even the foolhardiest of grunts must have realized that it was over.

With Drake’s arrival, rounding up the remaining grunts was just a matter of clean-up, where we quickly but ruthlessly suppressed and knocked out all of their Pokémon. Of course, just for safety purposes, I had Luna knock out all of the grunts with a light Psychic blast to ensure that they didn’t have any clever ideas.

As soon as the last grunt went down, one of the Jenny’s who had been part of the initial patrol at Mt. Pyre started barking out orders on her radio, “This is Jenny. The grunts have all been subdued. I want the back-up team doing a large sweep of the perimeter to clear up any escaping grunts and to capture their extraction team. We know they had one.”

She got a round of affirmatives back, and continued, “Anyone that we have spare, make your way over here with more handcuffs. Arrest them all, and as planned, we’re holding them at Sootopolis.”

I watched as the Jenny’s all began rushing around to arrest all of the unconscious Team Rocket grunts. Now that I could actually count the number of fallen grunts and their Pokémon, I frowned as I noticed that the grunts’ Pokémon were far more trained than what I had faced off against in Olivine. It seems like my concerns were valid.

The evil teams were becoming far more organized. So even though we were successful in our operations here today, we couldn’t afford to slack off and give the evil teams time to build and continue training up their troops. We needed to strike hard and fast.

The sounds of huge thumping footsteps from behind me pulled me from my thoughts. I turned around to see Drake approaching me, followed by his signature Salamence, who seemed pleased by this victory.

“John, good work today.” He said to me, a small smile breaking out on his lips. “Thank Arceus they decided to strike sooner rather than later. I would have gone mad if I had to stay hidden for any longer.”

I shot him a wry smile, “True. I didn’t like having to hide out in a cave any more than you did. I really should have picked a better hiding spot.” And I probably smelled something nasty. Being deprived of Klee and Mantine meant that I had no Pokémon that could use Water moves on hand. So I hadn’t showered since a few days ago. Ew.

“At least this operation was a success. It made the suffering worth it.” I joked, getting a small chuckle from Drake.

“That’s true enough.” But then his face turned serious as he turned his gaze towards the grunts, “Damn these terrorists. We got lucky that with the collateral damage. It would be a very bad look if we had accidentally torn up the graves of some of these fallen Pokémon. Not that we had a choice otherwise.”

I winced; I was careful, but clearly not careful enough. Drake must have saw the look in my eyes because he waved me off, “It’s no fault of yours John. Team Rocket decided the battlefield, not us. It’s just another crime that we can pin down towards them.”

I hummed, trying to not be affected by this, “So what happens with them now? We’re obviously going to question them, right?”

Drake nodded, “Of course. This is only the beginning, after all. Let’s hope these grunts will be able to provide significant leads for us to follow. We probably only have a short window of time before news of their failure spreads. So we must act fast.”

I agreed, time was of the essence. Then, a thought popped into my mind that I voiced, “Are we allowed to use psychic interrogation techniques?” I asked, my voice lowering to a whisper.

Psychic interrogation techniques were, in a sense, a technical term for ripping the information straight out of their minds. It was definitely not a pleasant process and could sometimes do significant harm to the victim, occasionally leaving them completely comatose. That was rare, but the probability of permanent damage was why, generally, it was illegal to perform. The only exception to this was against direct threats against the League, which included terrorists.

In Indigo, Team Rocket WERE labelled as terrorists due to the widespread harm that they caused with their previous actions. But here in Hoenn, they hadn’t made that distinction yet because they had mostly gone into hiding. Without this label, we couldn’t actually employ such tactics on them.

Drake shrugged, “That’s not up to me. I’ll be speaking to Wallace after this to see if we can finally get the committee to see the threat that Team Rocket poses.” He grimaced, “Especially with all this new training. It speaks of further backing and resources. That’s greatly concerning.”

I nodded, not knowing what to think. On the one hand, I was uncomfortable with being so blasé about forcefully ripping information out of their minds. On the other hand, I could see the necessity and I knew better than anyone what the threat these evil teams posed to the world. They MUST be stopped.

In a way, I was fortunate that the decision was left out of my hands. I could tell myself that I wasn’t responsible for the decision.

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

It took some time, but eventually we had all the grunts properly cuffed and transported to Sootopolis, where they would be held for questioning. The Jenny’s chose to hold them at Sootopolis because it was one of the hardest cities to escape from, since you practically had to be flown out of there. Teleportation would work too, but you had to have a very powerful Teleporter to teleport out of Sootopolis in one jump.

Unfortunately, Drake got back to me and informed me that, despite telling Wallace about our successes, the Committee was still unwilling to label Team Rocket as an outright terrorist group just yet.

Apparently, Wallace told Drake that the Committee didn’t want the situation to escalate any further and labelling the so-called ‘diminished’ Team Rocket as a terrorist group, especially after their recent loss, would be far too premature and would ‘cause widespread panic’. And already, considering how loud and eye-catching our capture operation was, I was certain that the news agencies would have picked up on something happening and would do their utmost to find out what was going on.

Which meant that it was only a matter of time before Team Rocket found out about their failure, if they hadn’t already.

Still, it wasn’t all bad news. With our success, the Committee was more willing to give us a free hand at disposing of the Team Rocket threat. Thus, they wouldn’t be shutting us down anytime soon, which was a silver lining. An unquestionable success made them look better, after all.

Furthermore, to get around the restriction of not being able to employ psychic techniques, Drake had requested for me to ask Lance if it would be okay if we transferred some of the prisoners from Hoenn to Indigo after they had done questioning them with more mundane methods.

Which was why I found myself on a call with Lance, looking to seek his approval.

“Lance speaking.” He picked up.

“Lance, it’s John.” I greeted, “Not sure if you heard, but the operation was a success. We defended the Orbs and had the grunts all arrested. They’re waiting in holding cells now.”

“Fantastic news.” He cheered, “Glad those scumbags are being put away. But what do you need me for?”

“I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but Hoenn hasn’t actually labelled Team Rocket to be a terrorist group yet.” I explained, “And despite our efforts, they still aren’t willing to slap that label on them. Which means we can’t employ Psychic interrogation techniques.”

“Ah. I understand.” He muttered, “I guess you want to bring them over here so that we can interrogate them psychically?” His voice took on a bit of an edge to it. I guessed that he was still rather furious about Team Rocket’s actions in Indigo.

“I do.” I replied, “I think that it would help speed up the investigation.”

“Done.” He said instantly, “Send them over whenever. We’d be ready to pick them up.”

“…Actually, now that you’re here, I have something to propose as well.” He added, “I was thinking that this would be a great opportunity to kickstart the International Police idea. If I could talk Wallace into agreeing with it, what would you think of having some more assistance?”

I stopped to think about his proposal for a moment. I certainly wouldn’t mind the manpower, but I needed to know more, “What kind of people would you be sending over? And how many? Would I be responsible for them?” I asked.

“In order, just a handful of candidates that I had already pre-picked in advance. They’re very professional, and certainly have the skills. I assure you that you won’t be disappointed.” He responded, “And no, you wouldn’t be responsible for them. If Wallace gives permission, Lorelei will be overseeing them. She specifically requested this, after all.”

“Lorelei? That’s surprising.” I commented. But after I thought about it for a bit, I realized it was actually quite reasonable. I knew that Lorelei was trying to angle herself as incorruptible to distinguish herself from Pryce, so managing something like this would be right up her alley.

Shaking myself from my thoughts, I continued, “And no, I don’t mind. This seems like a good opportunity to finally get those plans of yours in place. I’m sure you’ve been waiting a long time for the chance.” I joked.

He chuckled, “True enough. But I do hope that I didn’t need to take advantage of such circumstances.” I could sense him frowning, “Anyways, thanks John. I’ll let you know if Wallace agrees. Keep up the good work and I wish you luck.”

After he hung up the call, I relayed the information back to Drake, who nodded. “Huh, would be interesting to finally meet another Elite Four member from Indigo. Anyways, let’s not waste any more time. I think they’re starting in on the questioning.”

I silently followed him as we made our way to the holding cells, where the prisoners were brought in one by one to be questioned. It took some time for the Jennys to properly secure them and separate them from their Pokémon before they could begin their questioning.

The questioning process was…difficult. After observing for a little while, I could split up the prisoners into two groups. The first group consisted of the mercenary types, those who were doing crime for the payday, and nothing else. These guys were annoying to deal with, because they only looked out for themselves and were doing everything they could to avoid a lighter sentence, but they were at least willing to negotiate and feed us the occasional morsel of information.

On the other hand, there was the other group. The true fanatics. These were completely and utterly unwilling to even give out the slightest hint of information. They were truly devoted to the cause, and no amount of persuasion could steer them off their course. Without psychic interrogation, we would never be able to get anything out of them.

Fortunately, there were far more of the former group than the latter, but the existence of these fanatics confirmed something horrifying for me. At first, I had suspected that Team Rocket had probably joined up with Team Magma, since Tabitha was a Team Magma admin in canon and had been the one to let Team Rocket into Devon Corp to steal the files.

However, as I listened to the fanatical ravings of the prisoners, I realized that my assumptions were wrong. I had expected to hear statements regarding the “expansion of land” or “terraforming the ocean”, but instead all they rambled about was the “remaking of the world”.

…I did not like the sound of that. A sneaking suspicion started forming in my mind, and my gut was screaming at me that something was wrong. That something was happening outside of my initial expectations. I needed to know more.

Without even thinking about it, I made my way into the interrogation room. I heard Drake ask me what I was doing, but I ignored it as I sat myself opposite of one of the fanatical grunts.

He immediately began rambling and let out a slew of insults. I ignored all those and asked the question I wanted to ask.

“Why do you want to remake the world?” I said as I stared deeply into his eyes, trying to take in every detail.

My question seemed to have taken him aback for a moment, before he formed a wide, slightly crazed smile as he responded, “The world is corrupt and impure. Humanity has made many irreversible mistakes. They have polluted the ocean, ripping away the habitats of many Pokémon. No, in order for Pokémon to flourish, the world must be remade anew, where the oceans will be reformed and purified, cleansed of all its impurities. It will be a perfect utopia.” He said as if he was reciting the words that he had fanatically devoted himself to.

But, as soon as he had finished talking, my heart sunk as the horror began to set in. This wasn’t a Team Magma grunt. This was a Team AQUA grunt! And worse, that meant that Team Magma and Team Aqua were likely working together now, for a different goal than the one they were aiming for in canon.

But then what was Tabitha doing working with grunts from Team Aqua? Unless Tabitha had somehow switched loyalties and joined Team Aqua, but I didn’t see that happening. I was fairly confident in his canonical loyalty towards Maxie and didn’t think that he would somehow join Team Aqua. Thus, I thought it was very likely that Team Aqua and Team Magma had, for whatever reason, chosen to combine their forces for a shared goal.

“And how do you plan to accomplish that?” I asked, shoving down my instinctive horror as I steeled myself and faced down this madman once again. I needed more answers.

The man only sneered at me, “Our plans are not for the unfaithful to know. Just know that you are standing on the wrong side of history! When the world is remade, you will only be able to lament your decisions in life, your blindness and inability to see what a better world would be! The endless possibilities awaiting us...”

I tuned the guy out as he continued his mad ramblings; he clearly wasn’t going to give me anything that I could use. Instead, I chose to focus on what I knew. I knew that, in canon, both teams either wanted to awaken Groudon or Kyogre to terraform the world to their liking. Which was why I was confident that they had been aiming for the Orbs to awaken them. It was also why them joining forces together was such a surprise for me, as their original goals were mutually exclusive from one another.

But now, these claims of ‘remaking the world’ implies that they had a different plan in mind. They were no longer satisfied with mass terraforming, but they wanted to reshape the world itself.

My eyes narrowed as I remembered the only evil team that had wanted this as a goal.

Team Galactic.

A.N. John finally pulls the strings together and realizes just how much the butterfly has flapped.

This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Big thanks!