The New Normal - 19-10 - Interlude - Various

The New Normal – 19-10 – Interlude – Various

(Caitlin POV)

“My lady, I don’t think now is the right time to be a spectator. We should follow the instructions of the Rangers and join in on the evacuation.” Her faithful servant and butler urged her forwards as the blaring of an emergency horn echoed throughout the entirety of the festival.

“…You don’t think I could be of help?” She asked flatly, though she was not offended by the comment, “I thought you were one of the ones to actually believe in my strength.” The rest of her family certainly didn’t – despite her psychic potential.

They always labelled her as ‘lazy’ and ‘unmotivated’, especially since she expressed her disinterest in being a part of the family business. No matter how many times she tried to explain that her so-called ‘laziness’ was just a consequence of her high affinity as a psychic. She processed more information than the average human, so of course she would be tired!

She shook herself out of her thoughts as Darach responded, “No, my lady. But considering that your assistance has not been asked for, I fear that your participation will add chaos into an already chaotic situation.”

She was about to respond to that when she suddenly heard a deafening explosion echo out from a distance. Turning her head, thanks to the elevated position that they were currently in, she could just about see three titanic figures rising up into the air.

Before a familiar white blur suddenly sent one of them tumbling back to the ground as it was smashed in the face.

“Looks like John and Cynthia are currently engaged in battle.” She muttered, her eyes not moving away from the battle below them.

“And they will be able to handle it.” Darach said, before pulling her along, “Come on, let’s not stand here gawking. We should get to safety first.”

Somewhat reluctantly, she allowed herself to be pulled along. But that image of John and Cynthia immediately rushing forwards to fight against an unknown threat like that, despite the potential dangers of such a confrontation, had stuck with her.

She knew that she wasn’t as strong as the Elite Four or the Champions, at least not right now, but she had always assumed that with her talents, she would make up that difference in a matter of time. Call it pride or arrogance, but she always felt that there was no way she was destined for anything less than greatness.

However, she had never really thought about how she would do as an Elite Four even after she made it there. She obviously believed she would be strong, but today she had realised that there was more to being an Elite Four than just being strong.

She had to be brave too. She had to be a protector for the people and put herself in a dangerous situation just so that others would not be.

And she was self-aware enough to know that, right now, she was not that kind of person. She knew that she was not the easiest to deal with, and that Darach had been an unusually patient person to put up with her… unique behaviour. It was why he was the only butler that hadn’t ‘politely’ asked to be reassigned to some other family member after spending more than one week with her.

Therefore, she knew that it was not in her instincts to charge into a fight that dangerous without any initial preparation, as John and Cynthia had done. Because such a decision was foolish, since you could never know how powerful a threat was until you’ve studied her.

But that was what you had to do in a crisis like this – because the threat wasn’t going to just stand by idly as they waited for you to study it. Not when there were people to protect.

…It was something she had to work on.

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(Carmine POV)

The day had turned from the most exciting day to her life to the most terrifying day of her life as soon as those emergency horns began to blare out.

She didn’t know what had happened. All she knew that she had been cheering on the runners of the marathon before suddenly everything took a turn for the worst.

She knew that first emergency was a bad omen!

So with her little brother Kieran clutching tightly to her own hand, she followed after the Rangers and the Jennys as they evacuated them away from the dangers.

She tried to ask about what that danger was, but they didn’t respond to her.

Eventually, they brought everyone over to this large opening that was absolutely surrounded by all sorts of trained Pokémon – many of them she had never seen in her life.

She had never left Kitakami, and while she knew that there was a whole world out there for her to explore, she finally managed to get a glimpse of just how vast that outside world truly was, and just how much she was ignorant to before.

But despite that, she still sat there nervously as the emergency horns continued to blare out. Even with all these powerful Pokémon surrounding them, she didn’t allow herself to relax or drop her guard.

For Kieran’s sake.

“…Are we not able to do anything to fight back?” Her little brother asked her as they hugged each other for comfort, “Can we not do anything to help?”

“No, brother. We can’t. We’re not strong enough.” She replied to him, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible, “Maybe when we’re older.”

Her brother sulked at that, and he didn’t look very happy with that answer, but he at least fell quiet and didn’t argue.

Putting that aside for the moment, she looked around and, to her relief, managed to spot many familiar faces among the evacuees – which meant that the evacuation of Mossui Town must have been a success too.

In particular, she spotted the old shopkeeper of Peachy’s, who was smiling back at her too.

“Ah. Carmine, Kieran. I’m glad you both made it out okay.” She said to them.

“That should be our line!” Carmine replied, “I hope the evacuation wasn’t too tough on you.”

“Feh. The Rangers were very nice people. They carefully bundled this old fart onto one of their new Pokémon of theirs and brought me over here.” She explained, “Honestly, I wanted to stay behind to look after the store, but they wouldn’t let me.”

Carmine chuckled, “I thought you’d at least bring along the Never-Rotting Peach along. I didn’t think you’d ever let it leave your sight.”

“I wanted to, my dear, I really wanted to. But they wouldn’t let me.” The old shopkeeper replied, “I can only hope that the Peach is still there when I return. I hope one of the outsiders don’t try and steal it. It’s one of the most valuable possessions that I have!”

She frowned at that, but before she could respond, she was cut off as the sound of a distant earthquake rippled out from below.

And she turned her head to see something incredible. Something that she never expected to see in her life.

Okidogi, a member of the Loyal Three, and with its appearance being much larger than she could have ever imagined, was running away and into the wilderness of Kitakami. Behind it were several Flying types that relentlessly pursued it, harassing it with various attacks while staying far out of its range.

And Okidogi looked injured – like it had just taken a beating.

…Just what was happening down there?

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(Drake POV)

“…I’m surprised you aren’t rushing into the fight.” The voice said over the phone, “I didn’t think you could physically hold yourself back from a battle like that.”

“Hmph. I was tempted to, but I know my duties need me here.” He replied, “I am the only person that the locals trust, and the only person that can give immediate commands to the Jennys and Rangers. I’m more useful here than in a fight at the moment, and besides, I trust John and Cynthia to handle the fight for now. But enough side-tracking – when are the reinforcements arriving, Lucian?”

“Give or take 10 minutes.” The Elite Four member replied, “You have my apologies for the delay, but we weren’t expecting an incident like that to break out.”

“Neither were we.” He grumbled, “No idea why the Loyal Three chose now of all fucking times to cause a ruckus – or why they’re three times as big as the stories say they are, but we can only play the hand we’re dealt. No matter how shitty it is.”

“You’re right about that.” Lucian nodded, “Anyways, I won’t distract you for any longer. Call me if you need any more assistance from us back here on the mainland. Otherwise, I trust that Cynthia, John, and Flint will be able to handle things over there.”

The phone call ended there, which was just in time as his phone started to ring once more. It was a call from John.

“Still alive?” He asked, “Any wounded?”

“Still alive. No major injuries; just some exhaustion.” John confirmed, “We managed to capture one of the Loyal Three. The other two ran off. We’ve eyes on them for now, but we’ll need to take them down before they can do any more damage. We can’t take the risk without knowing what their intentions are.”

“Understood. I’ll start organising a raiding group now.” He nodded.

“And I need you to send a group of trusted locals over here to inspect the fallen form of the Loyal Three.” John said, “You should come with them. They trust you, so make them understand that we had to take them down in order to protect Kitakami – and that the Loyal Three attacked us first.”

“Will do. I’ll be over there shortly.”

He knew that convincing the locals probably wasn’t going to be an easy task, especially since he wasn’t the most persuasive of people, but it had been the role he was saddled with. And even if he hated being some kind of ‘diplomat’, he still had to do his duty in order to make sure that there wouldn’t be any unnecessary conflicts between the League and the locals of Kitakami.

Inwardly, he let out a sigh. Even after leaving the Elite Four, it seemed like he could never let go of the mindset of being one.

Oh well. At least he got to fight against another ‘Legendary’.

He wouldn’t be side-lined this time.

A.N. I wanted this chapter to focus on the side perspective of other characters involved in the incident. With Caitlin. I wanted this chapter to be an opportunity to expand a little more about them and to hint at some future developments with them. Also some minor foreshadowing if you could spot it for what’s to come!

As for Drake, I just wanted to make it clear that retirement or no, he’s still a man of action and service. Hope you enjoyed!