Disclaimer: I don't own the Pokemon franchise, and I probably never will. The Pokemon universe belongs to Nintendo, but do I really need to be explaining this to you?
A young man sat in his cell, he had been arrested only a few hours ago. His Pokémon, Pokédex, and money had all been confiscated. Nothing seemed to be going his way. He stuck his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall, thinking back on the events that led him to that moment.
He grew up like most people, that being he was hyped into the idea of Pokémon training and became a trainer at age 10. He was an average trainer, not very exceptional, but not a complete failure. He traveled around and lived his life generally carefree, occasionally having to deal with thieves, but most petty criminals were easily handled by the Officer Jennies. As he got older though, he found he was having more and more trouble maintaining his lifestyle, especially when he tried to start a family with a girl he met along his journeys.
Being a Pokémon trainer didn't exactly pay enough to meet a typical adult's financial needs, and unless you were an exceptional trainer, or you had connections, your career wasn't going anywhere. So he tried to find employment in other sectors, but like most people, he hadn't received the education necessary to do any jobs outside of things involving Pokemon. The only things he could do for a living, involved him being a wage slave for the rest of his life, and it all went downhill from there.
Now, all the trainer could do was sit down and wonder what was going to happen to him, and wonder what would happen to his family and his Pokemon. Just than he heard footsteps approaching his cell, as a shady individual wearing a suit walked up to the door and entered. The suited man took his seat opposite to the prisoner as the jail door shut.
"So" the man in the suit said "you must have done something pretty bad to be in police custody".
The trainer responded with "it's not like that, I can explain!".
"It's ok" the suited man responded "I know of your situation, but I'm not here to criticize, quite the opposite actually. Now, was any of this your fault?"
"How the hell should I know!" answered the trainer. "All I wanted was food for my family, and a chance for a life as something other than a wage slave. I never got the chance to go to a real school, my mom pushed me into being a Pokémon trainer when I was only 10! I just wish I could do it all over again, somehow change all this from happening."
The suited man listened carefully, and asked a question that was more of a statement "so, you're not a fan of the system. You're an enemy of the Pokémon League".
"I guess, if you put it that way" said the trainer.
The suited man was starting to get a smirk on his face as he said "You know, with an attitude like that, and what you did, many people would think of you as some evil crook who wants to plague the world."
"I'm not like that!" stated the trainer. "So what if I complained about my situation! So what if I stole a few loaves of bread to feed those I cared about, the place had plenty, and my family was starving! Sure I tried to sell my Pokémon, but it's no better than trading them. They try to tell us that Pokémon are our friends, but I didn't have a choice, and it's not like other people are any better."
The trainer stopped for a moment, standing up as he continued "all my life, I've been fed into being a Pokémon trainer. I was ushered away by my mother who was always finding an excuse for me to go on another journey. I've done the dirty-work of others countless times, and I've gone through more Pokémon than I can count. And now what? Now that I'm older, I have to either become a wage-slave or curl up and die!?"
The suited man looked quite pleased as he stopped the trainer then and there. "So, ultimately that's what you are, a tool of the Pokémon League that is to be discarded as soon as your use has run out. Your mother likely never cared for you, used the league as a convenient tool to not take care of you."
As the trainer sat back down gripping his hair in frustration, and the suited man continued. "What if I told you that there are thousands of people just like you?"
The trainer raised his head in attention.
The suited man continued "I represent a certain organization, where people just like you band together. We're something akin to a resistance movement, and we're growing by the day. However, our biggest problem is our shortage of manpower, which is why we need you. We could give you a decent paying job, a new starter Pokemon, and best of all you get to fight back against the system that screwed you over, and even prevent others from suffering the same fate. If you take our offer, we can get you out of here, you can get a new start as a whole new person, fighting beside people who are in similar situations as yourself. What do you say?"
A few months later
After basic training and a few starter missions, that former trainer was a full fledged grunt of Team Rocket. They taught him the truth about the world, the corrupt practices of the Pokémon League, and the ultimate sham that was being a Pokémon trainer. They showed him the truth behind the definitions of "good and evil" the world accepted, and ultimately embraced the sense of being "evil".
Now he was stealing Pokemon from young trainers, but it was for a good cause. When a young trainer gets their Pokemon stolen, they tend to be discouraged and seek a different path in life. Ultimately, by stealing Pokemon, they were giving young trainers a chance to have real lives, and in the process funding Rocket operations, all while providing a thorn in the side the Pokémon League.
It wasn't an easy fight, but he knew that he was now fighting for the right side, and although the children he robbed would never know it, he had been just like them and was now their savior.
AN: This is something I wrote up awhile ago and finally decided to put it out. I know I'm looking too hard at this, but it always seemed strange to me that Team Rocket willingly called themselves an "evil" organization, when every faction throughout history has always seen themselves as the good guys. I see it as a waste of story potential to simply caste them off as two-bit villains. This is what I would see as being a realistic interpretation of how Team Rocket members think of themselves, and that their idea of being "evil" is just a means of being spiteful towards the Pokémon League, which seems to serve as the de facto government of the Pokémon Universe.