John's Team

Tyrant - Slaking

Vordt - Ursaluna

Smough - Snorlax

Klee - Blissey

Port - Mantine

Zephyr - Pidgeot

Klaus - Wyrdeer

Luna - Clefable

Pixel - Porygon2

Euphie - Sylveon

Ornstein - D-Linoone

Wraith - H-Zoroark

The New Normal – 9-16 – Back to Business

I had hoped that my stress-free vacation would be able to last a bit longer than it did. However, duty called, and when Giovanni rang you up saying that he had news from Archer, that warranted enough importance for me to resume my duties.

Of course, I was just about to get started with training with Karen, so that was a bit of unfortunate timing.

"Sorry, Karen, but I need to head out. This probably shouldn't wait." I told her, "We can reschedule for another time."

"No, it's fine." She shook her head, "…But is something wrong?" She shot me a look of concern.

I shrugged, "Not sure yet. Hopefully there isn't – but I guess I'm about to find out."

"…Can I ask what it's about?" She said after a moment, "I want to be able to help too. Or at least help you with some of your burden."

I smiled, "Trust me, I appreciate it. But this is something that I've been told to keep quiet about. You know I would talk about it if I could, but this is best kept quiet."

Her eyes widened, "…Oh. I see. Then I wish you the best of luck. Let me know if you're heading back soon, and I'll leave some food for you."

Even though we weren't dating, our friendship had normalised, and Karen had continued spending more and more time at my place until she effective lived there. Whenever she wasn't taking care of Agatha, she would come over and spend time with me and my family; though she would always return home to sleep.

At this point, it was just a natural habit for her to join us for meals. And I knew it was because she had started seeing my family as an extension of her own. It was clear she had adopted my own parents in her mind, which they were only too happy to reciprocate.

I knew Agatha was happy about it too. She had made it loud and clear that she hated being pampered and didn't want Karen fussing over her. Nor was she one to feel 'jealous' of other people occupying Karen's attention.

Between my family and Brock's, it seemed like Karen had really integrated herself into both of our families while I wasn't looking.

Good on her.

Putting those thoughts out of my mind, I refocused myself as I exchanged a quick goodbye with Karen before flying off to Viridian City to meet Giovanni. I didn't know what Archer had for us, but I hoped he had at least managed to get SOMETHING on Team Galactic.

I landed and quickly moved my way into the Gym. I greeted Giovanni briefly, and that it was onto business. But what I wasn't expecting was for Archer to join us directly in a video call; this meant that whatever he had to report WAS important.

"Repeat to John what you just told me." Giovanni ordered.

Archer nodded, "John, as Giovanni reported to you before, our team thought we had caught a lead. I admit we got a bit hasty, because we were really struggling to find anything of use outppside of this, and we ended up pursuing this single lead a bit more enthusiastically than we should have."

"But this time our enthusiasm ended up paying off. I don't know if we just got lucky and we got caught up in a fortunate coincidence, but after following the money and looking into a few trails, we ended up catching a glimpse of some members that my team swore used to be ex-Rocket grunts that defected to join up with Proton. We kept monitoring those guys, until one day they eventually led us into stumbling into something we really didn't expect."

"It was a small facility that served as a base for a large smuggling operation that was for the illegal capture and sale of many Sinnoh Pokémon. After further investigation, we realized that this operation must have allowed them to supply the Team Aqua and Team Magma grunts with those Sinnoh Pokémon."

"The fact that they had a large operation didn't surprise me, but what WAS surprising was finding that the place was practically shut down. There was no smuggling going on, and the place seemed completely abandoned. We figured that the recent lockdown and increased wariness by the police must have forced them out of business."

"Or perhaps they had no one to sell to, since John kicked the criminals out of Hoenn and Indigo." Giovanni pointed out.

Archer nodded, "Yes, that's a possibility too. But this is a big deal, because an operation like this must have generated them plenty of cash before. Cash that they no longer have access to, or anytime in the future either."

"Okay, so how does this help us?" I asked, feeling a little confused.

"Because criminal operations like this need huge amounts of funding to run." Giovanni explained, "Think about the cost of their manpower, the resources that are needed to keep morale high and to sustain their daily costs. Then think about the operating costs of all their facilities. That's not even including all the additional costs they must have while they're doing whatever research they're trying to do."

"Trust me on this. Running a criminal operation is NOT as cheap or as easy as you might want it to believe." Giovanni said firmly, "And losing out a huge source of income like this is a BIG blow to their ability to keep up with their costs. They HAVE to be bleeding money."

"But couldn't they just be a big enough business to sustain all those costs?" I questioned.

Giovanni shook his head, "No. Once again, I have more than enough experience with this kind of thing. You know of my true role in Silph Co. You know the resources I have access to from that position, as well as my de-facto rule of Viridian City. But even then, it was a struggle to keep up the funds required to maintain Team Rocket alongside all my other projects and ambitions."

"I don't care how big their company is, but they won't be big enough to maintain all those men if they just lost one of their big money makers." Giovanni advised, "And it's even worse if their smuggling operations stopped being efficient a long time ago."

This is why I had to bring Giovanni on board. He was much more familiar with the intricacies of running a criminal operation. Far more than I ever could be.

"Okay, so what's the consequence of this going to be for them? How can we leverage this to exposing their identity?" I asked.

"We need to work on the legal side of things to ramp up the pressure and get them to slip up." Archer said immediately, "It's time for the authorities to step in to do the hard work for us."

"IF they're having money problems sustaining their criminal operations, that means they're going to have to take cash from other sources. The easiest way of getting more money is by siphoning it from their legal business." Giovanni cut in, "THAT's where we can punish them. Get the authorities involved, get them to do a big financial sweep, and that'll expose the cracks in their finances. Then we won't need to do anything, because as soon as the authorities catch wind of their activities then they'll be exposed."

"It'll make them panic at the very least." Archer added, "And we might see them have to limit their operations not because they want to, but because they're FORCED to. In the meanwhile, I'll have my team continue to monitor them. Perhaps we can continue catching them out and find more opportunities to expose them in the future."

Yes, I see why this was a big deal. What better way to limit their operations by forcing them to be unable to fund future ones? They'd just implode on their own.

I blinked, "I see…If I was being honest, I never thought THIS was how things would play out when I asked you to investigate them, Archer." I chuckled, "This seems a little more mundane than I was expecting, but I'm glad we're getting something done."

Would this really be how the big bad Team Galactic got uncovered? Because they had MONEY problems?! And out of all people, it was the CEO of one of the biggest companies in Sinnoh that got exposed like this? It felt a little surreal.

"You can't expect miracles with a small team." Archer shrugged, unaware of my inner thoughts, "Staying hidden and mobile is our greatest advantage, not performing daring rescues and other stupid heroics. And hitting someone in their finances is often the best way of destroying them. You can hide many things, but not from the taxman."

"Not without a lot of proper setup." Giovanni added, and I could feel the smugness radiating out of him for having done just that. Giovanni NEVER seemed afraid of the taxman, which really goes to show just how entrenched he was in Viridian.

I moved to refocus the topic, "Right, then I understand what needs doing. I'm assuming you informed me because you need me to make use of my connections to persuade the leadership of Sinnoh to get the Sinnoh police to do some sweeping up?"

"Exactly." Giovanni confirmed, "We can't do anything on our end. But we've seen the news. We know your 'friend' is one fight away from becoming Champion. If she does…then you have a very powerful ally that's only a phone call away, don't you? And more importantly, she'll be able to provide us with the help we need to sweep these insane terrorists, wouldn't she?"

I nodded in agreement. Giovanni and Archer had a point. If Team Galactic were as financially vulnerable as they described them to be, then this would be a good chance to really inflict some damage on them. Oh, I was under no illusions that a simple financial investigation would be able to bring down Team Galactic by itself – they were way too wily and cunning for that. But it didn't need to.

So long as the investigation bought us some time and disrupted their plans, then I was already satisfied with the outcome. Attacking them like this cost me very little, and had very little risk of alerting them that someone knew of their existence. Because the financial sweep would be targeting every business all at once, and not just Galactic company specifically. That way, their suspicions wouldn't be alerted.

It would be a small victory, but a victory nonetheless that took advantage of the best of both worlds. Archer was right, there was no need for heroics. Not at the moment.

"So what's the next step for your team in Sinnoh?" I made sure to ask Archer, "I appreciate all the work you've done, but are you going to keep snooping around hoping for different clues?"

"We'll keep trying." Archer confirmed, "Like I said, we'll continue to establish our information network here and set up a proper foundation for carrying out future operations if we need to so that we may act on future plans if they become necessary. Of course, if we find anything more incriminating, I'll be sure to keep you both informed."

"Stay cautious." Giovanni reminded, "We've secured a big lead; no need to lose it."

"We will." Archer promised, and the call ended soon after that. I thanked Giovanni for the help and for keeping me in the look, and the two of us reaffirmed our promise to continue working together to bring down this collective threat.

This was a good start. Let's hope we can build on it.

I was in a better, if contemplative, mood after my conversation with Giovanni finished. If things truly went well, then we were really going to start doing some serious damage to Team Galactic. However, as I arrived home, I reminded myself that I had promised my parents that I would call Joseph about helping out with our expansion into Mauville.

Sure, I could have done so while I was walking about, but that didn't feel right for a business discussion like this. I figured doing it in the privacy of our own home was more suitable.

So I rung up Joseph on a video call, and he picked up only after a few rings.

"John! I was just about to call you!" He greeted cheerfully, his happy smile visible on the screen. "How have you been? It's been some time."

"I'm doing great. And you?" I replied.

"These days have been quite busy, but it's the good kind of busy." He responded, "Even putting aside all of that confusion with the PSS, just dealing with new Fossil discoveries have taken up most of my time. Thanks to all the extra supply we're getting, of course."

"Don't you have assistants to help with that?" I asked.

"I prefer to stay more hands on with projects that I am personally interested in." He chuckled, "And seeing all these interesting new Fossil Pokémon never ceases to amaze me."

"Where are you up to on that? I think I heard you revived the…Skull and Armor fossils, right" I asked.

He nodded, "Yep. Into a Cranidos and a Sheldon respectively. Those were from the fossils that we got from Sinnoh. Something that we've noticed is that the fossil Pokémon all seem to share a common Rock typing. Among the four that we've revived so far, all of them have been Rock type. Sure, we've only have a small sample size to work with, but it IS becoming a noticeable trend."

Then he let out a sigh, "Unfortunately, progress isn't going as quick as we wanted it to. For every success we have with a Root or Armor fossil, we have more failures when we tried testing out fossils that didn't lead to anything. It's hard to know what constitutes a revivable fossil and what doesn't."

"Yeah, I can see how that could be an issue." I said understandingly, "So how many fossils are you reviving at this point? Can we expect to see fossil Pokémon in the hands of regular trainers anytime soon?"

"Possibly." Joseph replied slowly, "I don't want to make any promises I can't keep, but with the funding we're getting and the successes we have, it should only really be a matter of time. I've already started to give a few fossils to Steven so he can train them up if he's interested. I do have a few I could give to you to train up, if you're interested in them? We still haven't managed to evolve one yet – though I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time."

I shook my head, "Not particularly. I just recently got a new Pokémon, and I'm not really looking to add yet another to my roster. Especially not a type that I'm not familiar with working with. Thanks for the offer though."

"Anyways, let's get back on the reason why I called – thank you for offering your help with our family's business move to Mauville City." I said, switching the topic, "I hope you don't mind lending some assistance."

He waved his hand, "It's not a problem. It really wasn't that big of a deal. Here, one second. Let me fetch something." He rummaged through his desk and withdrew a few pieces of paper.

"...Ah, yes, here we go. My assistants compiled a few locations that we could help you get set up in. They're all within the new build of Mauville City, inside the shopping complex, and their difference really comes down to size and rent. Obviously, the bigger they space, the more rent it'll cost." He explained, "But what kind of business are you looking to set up anyways? Or is it just another store to sell your family's Moomoo milk?"

"No, we're doing something different with Mauville." I replied, "We've done our research, and we know that the people that visit Mauville often have more money to throw around. They wouldn't be interested in plain old Moomoo milk, even if my name is on it."

Joseph nodded, allowing me to continue, "What MIGHT catch their interest are specialty products. Products that take our family's Moomoo milk and turn it into something more interesting and unique."

"Are you going to be making fancy drinks using your Moomoo milk?" Joseph questioned.

"Yes." I confirmed, "At least that's the plan. We have the framework with what we want to do, but we need to see how much everything's going to cost first to see what we can do with it."

"Well I think I can help with that. What do you need help with to set up this new branch?" Then the two of us fell into discussion about what we needed.

I obviously kept out some of the more important details. Friends or not, I wasn't about to be blurting out confidential information about our business to Joseph. Nor did he ever push to ask, seemingly very aware of the boundaries of what he was allowed to ask and what he wasn't.

So I explained to Joseph that we wanted to set up was a specialty drinks shop that used our Moomoo milk as its primary ingredient. The drinks would be priced highly, but hopefully the quality and novelty would offset the high price. We explicitly chose to go down this path because we knew that we currently didn't have any competition in Mauville City that was going to be selling the same products as us.

After a few minutes of explanations and back-and-forth, Joseph had a better understanding of what we wanted to do. "Well I can't say for certain if it'll turn out to be a success, but from what I'm hearing, and knowing of your reputation, I'm sure it'll garner some popularity. Initially out of curiosity, more than anything else."

He flipped through the notes that he had written during my explanation, "I don't see any big problems that jump out at me. I'll put your parents in contact with someone who can help you get set up. You should have no problems with logistics. Do you want me to send Steven to come over on your big opening day just to garner some popularity?"

I blinked, a little surprised by his offer.

"Yes, if he's free – that would be great. Thank you." I replied sincerely, not expecting the offer. I heard Joseph typing as if to make a note of it for himself. Having Steven show up would do wonders to attract attention and boost awareness of the new shop. He had a very different popularity to someone like me. And in Hoenn, his popularity was substantial.

I thought the call was going to end after our discussion was over, but Joseph apparently had something else he wanted to bring up, "Say, John, have you realized that Cerulean City has just become the main source of fossils in Indigo?"

I blinked, "I did not know that." I replied, "But…now that you've said it. I guess we do have both Mt. Moon and Cerulean Cave under our authority. But wouldn't the other cities have fossils as well? And that's not even including Mt. Silver."

"Well, yes. You're right. But Mt. Moon is known to be the most popular place to locate fossils from Indigo." Joseph explained, "And that's not including whatever you can find out from Cerulean Cave. That's just a whole new area of untapped potential."

"But the reason I mentioned it is because I would like to have access to the fossils you dig up from these locations." Joseph said, "Not all of them, naturally. But Devon Corp would like to make a contract with Cerulean City to buy off the fossils you find."

I put up a hand, "I don't actually have the authority to make these kinds of agreements. I'd have to speak to the mayor and get his approval. But I'll pass on the message."

"Thank you, that's all I ask." Joseph nodded, "You can speak to Shelly if you come to an agreement and she can sort out the rest of the details. I'll fill her in after we finish this call."

"What ARE you going to do once you are able to revive more fossils, if you don't mind saying?" I asked, "Because yes, fossils ARE rare, but at some point you're going to have over hundreds of fossil Pokémon just lying around. Surely you must be planning to do something with them?"

"This might sound bad, but we'll hold an auction to sell them off to the highest bidders." Joseph stated, "After all, we ARE a business, and that's just the most logical thing to do when you have a monopoly over the supply of certain rare Pokémon. Of course, we'll give a few out as gifts, but that's the gist of our plan. The offer still stands if you ever change your mind about receiving one, by the way."

I wasn't surprised or offended by what I heard. As Joseph put it – they were a business. This was what they did. The fossil revival machine was built entirely by Joseph and his company's own efforts, so they deserved to reap the rewards of their success. And while the price for a single fossil Pokémon would likely be out of arms reach for most trainers, I was confident that as soon as the supply of fossils went up, the price of these fossil Pokémon would become more affordable to the average trainer.

And there certainly would be a high demand for it, considering how unique they were. Not to mention that fossil Pokémon were all quite strong as well.

"I'm fine." I repeated, "But thanks again for the offer and for the help with Mauville. Maybe one day I'll ask you for a fossil Pokémon to be used as a gift, if you don't mind."

"Of course not! And there's no need to thank me." Joseph said immediately, "If we're counting who owes who, I'm still in the red. Helping you and your family out with Mauville is a very small thing. Even gifting you with a fossil would be a small ask for us. And I know you're still bringing the fight to these criminals – you're just waiting for an opportunity to strike."

I stayed silent, but he deemed my silence as confirmation, "Exactly. So don't feel bad for coming to me for help, especially if you need resources to fight back against these terrorists. THAT kind of help I'll provide for free."

I was grateful for his support, and made sure to mention it to him. The two of us shared a few more words before he ended the call, having to run for another meeting. I made sure to jot down a few notes as soon as the call ended so that I would have a note of this discussion when I got back to my parents.

I was sure they would be happy about this development. The expansion to Mauville was a huge milestone for our family business – as it meant that our family business was now going to become a properly international business. Not only that, but it was also going to be our first foray into going into a different type of business than the simple selling of Moomoo milk.

It was a really big step up for the former farmers that lived in poverty. And I was going to make sure it would be a success.

A.N. Two different types of things going on. With the Team Galactic stuff, I always thought that running a criminal empire was going to be an expensive undertaking. And that would be a crucial weakness that could be exploited. I hope you enjoyed that.

And yes, the family business is finally moving to Mauville. It took some time, but it's happening. The business won't ever be as big as something like Silph Co or Devon Corp, but it's getting there. One small step at a time.

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!