The New Normal – 4-20 – Interlude – Proton

This 'meeting between the bosses' was quickly devolving into a shit show. He didn't even know how two people could hate each other that much, but looking at the barely restrained look of fury on Archie's face, he knew better than to voice that at the moment.

Proton was currently just standing around like an idiot as him and all the other admins from Team Aqua and Team Magma were standing around, waiting for their bosses to stop wanting to punch each other in the face.

Though if it ever came time to throw hands, he was very confident that he could beat up his counterparts. Arceus, he was in pretty good shape physically, to say nothing about his partner who was basically just a wall of muscle. Compared to the both of them, the admins of Team Magna consisted of a girl with an, admittedly unnerving, blank stare, and some fat lard with a dumb smile.

"You know these delays are all your fault, right Maxie?" His boss sneered, bringing Proton back from his daydreaming, "If you and your eggheads could just finish your research instead of dillydallying, then we could actually move forward."

"You can't just rush research, that's just not how it works!" The other boss, Maxie, replied with a scoff, "Not that I'm surprised by your lack of knowledge. It's expected that a dumb brute like yourself wouldn't know anything about the intellectual prospects of what we're doing."

"You're right, I don't." Archie shot back, "But, what I can tell you is that my grunts ARE properly trained and ARE ready for standard operations. But we're waiting for you slow nerds to actually do your jobs!"

Maxie clearly wanted to say something back, but Archie forestalled it with a raised palm, "No, I don't want to hear your excuses. Let's face it, we're here today because we're running out of funds. You know as well as I do that our backer isn't willing to supply more funding until we can actually produce results."

Maxie gritted his teeth, but then eventually let out a weary sigh. "Hmph, unfortunately, you are correct, Archie." He bit out with extreme reluctance, "But I can understand that we've probably been lying low for too long. But doesn't our sponsor realize that if we act recklessly, we're just going to invite retribution?"

Proton unconsciously nodded to Maxie's words. He knew more than anyone how powerful the League was if they truly wanted to crush a threat. They were bumbling idiots most of the time, filled to the brim with easily corruptible and converted moles, but if you made yourself too much of a public threat, they would mercilessly crush you with an unending wave of trainers.

Proton had been spending much of his time in Hoenn training up himself and his team, and while he could proudly say that he had made great improvements, he remained hesitant to test the strength of the League, not without more time and training.

Luckily, his boss seemed to understand that too, and nodded to Maxie, "Yes, of course I know that. But the fact of the matter is that we NEED something to show for it. You said your research isn't ready yet, but surely you must have some idea of what we need to do?"

Maxie rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment, quietly whispering something to the fat admin, and then responded, "We do. After some extensive discussion with our backers, we realize that there IS a way to properly enforce control on even the most powerful Legendaries."

"Then what are you waiting for? We should go for it right now!" Archie interrupted and slammed the desk impatiently, but Maxie simply sneered at that.

"It's not so simple, fool." He received and ignored the glare from Archie, "The issue is that we're not entirely sure how such a system would be made. However, our current hypothesis suggest that we might find some clues regarding this if we can just study the Red Orbs and Blue Orbs."

"Why those?" Archie questioned confusedly, "Wait, what even are they? I thought they were just some ceremonial relics."

Maxie smirked with a look of superiority, "According to our hypothesis, those Orbs have a mystical element to them where they should be able to provide some controlling influence towards a specific Pokémon." He explained, "This was supported by the preliminary scans that our scientists managed to do on the orb while we were at Mt. Pyre, but further research is absolutely needed to see if we can repurpose that aspect of the orb for control of Legendaries."

"Why didn't your grunts just take the orb, if it's so important?" Archie asked with a grin, "Or perhaps, were your grunts too weak to act?"

Proton sighed as the conversation quickly devolved into more stupid bickering. Despite the fact the two of them were legitimately ambitious and were far more competent criminals than Proton had ever seen, they just simply couldn't handle being in a room with the other for more than a few seconds before devolving into more pointless arguments.

After a moment, the two of them seemed to finally have gotten the current round of bickering out of their systems and returned to their serious conversation.

"Right, well, I understand what you're trying to say." Archie spoke, "I'm assuming you want us to target the orb? Retrieve it for you?"

"No, though you might need to do that in the future." Maxie denied, "The Orbs have huge cultural significance, and are heavily monitored if not heavily guarded. Scanning it from a long distance was just about all we could manage without alerting them. Any overt action against them will bring the entire League down on our heads. We need to be absolutely sure that stealing them is necessary before we do anything."

Archie grimaced, but didn't gainsay Maxie and allowed him to continue, "Instead, Tabitha has very kindly informed us that Devon Corp has previously done some research regarding the Orb, before quitting due to a lack of funding and results. These notes are under lock-and-key, and despite being a scientist at Devon himself, Tabitha won't be able to access these notes without outside help. The notes would help confirm our hypothesis about the Orbs and would hopefully be less of a risk."

Proton could agree with that assessment; their spies in the Hoenn League did inform them that the League weren't very interested in hunting down Team Rocket and other criminals after their 'big success' where they had made the headlines with some arrests. According to their moles, while the Elite Four and Champion were still wary, the Committee very much wasn't. Thus, a covert strike at Devon Corp might not attract much of the League's attention. Or in fact, the Committee might even be so kind as to help them cover it up.

"I see, so that's where we come in, right?" Archie clarified, getting a nod from Maxie, "Okay, I can understand that. So, what do you need us to steal?"

"We need the files, and nothing else." Maxie stated, "I'll begrudgingly leave the planning to you, since you're more suited to this kind of thug work. Just give us some time to properly locate the files and to make sure that they're what we're looking for. BUT! Try not to bring down the League on us when you do so, we're not ready to handle that level of attention. At least not yet."

"Che, don't you worry your nerd brain, I'll come up with a plan." Archie responded with a sly grin, before he turned and locked eyes with Proton.

"Proton, you and your team still have your old Team Rocket uniforms, right?" Proton nodded, "Good. Then you'll be in charge. We'll work out the plans later, but it looks like we're about to see if your grunts have been taking to your training effectively."

Proton only responded with an evil grin.

A.N. Hope you enjoyed this insight into what the evil teams are doing. The plotting continues! They're being more careful now; they need the files (or at least think so), but they also don't want a repeat of what happened in Indigo.

I've always been excited to take the plot in this direction, while also trying my best to keep it recognisable among familiar canon lines, so I hope you like where this is going.

This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Cheers! And to anyone who wants to support me, please check out my p atreon at CartecTNN where you can read 8 advanced chapters! Thanks to those who have supported me already!