Chapter 02: Masks and Hearts
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Disclaimer: Pokémon is the Property of by Satoshi Tajiri
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Panic erupted throughout the grasslands as a large explosion rocked the landscape. While smaller Pokémon dove into their burrows and those that could fly took to the air, those who had neither started to run. As more explosions tore at the landscape, the ground shook under the force of a stampeding herd of Tauros, the Wild Bull Pokémon.
The herd thundered forward letting out loud and frenzied calls. They were suddenly forced to take an abrupt left when the grassland in front of them erupted into flames and turned once more when a howl echoed off of the rock walls to their right. As the herd crowded into a canyon that emptied into the grassland, two Pokémon could be seen chasing after them.
Above the chaos, a man leaned against a motorcycle looking over the canyon's edge watching as his Mightyena and Blaziken corral the bull Pokémon. As he watched, several of his Pokémon waited for his signal on the surrounding cliffs, ready to take the herd down. As the Tauros and his two Pokémon passed a certain point, the man flicked the detonator switch in his hand. More explosions rang out as the canyon walls collapsed and a landslide that trapped the herd in a dead end, surrounded on all sides by high walls, and his small army of Pokémon.
Eying the panicked Pokémon, the man yelled, "Take 'em down boys!"
The Pokémon roared as they slid down the canyon walls to join the two that were already battling the herd. Soon there was a small group of seven Pokémon where beating the bulls into submission and five more were lifting them into the air and preventing any escape attempts.
The Tauros were panicked, they did not know how to respond to this situation. As a Blaziken, Nidoking, Lairon, Crawdaunt, Mightyena, Dusclops, and Metang attacked from all sides an Alakazam and four Mr. Mime lifted some into the air. The Bull Pokémon could only attempt to fight back in the crowded space, unable to escape. The man smirked as he took out a pokéball with a green color pattern and threw it at the first Tauros that the Psychics had lifted.
As the seven Pokémon on the ground continued to lay out the struggling herd, the psychic Pokémon would lift the weakened ones into the air for capture. This continued until the herd was completely captured, contained within fifty of the special pokéballs. Surveying the damage, the man nodded, satisfied with his work.
"All right boys, we got them!" the man yelled as his Pokémon roared in victory, "Gather them up and we'll take them to the Boss man!"
As soon as his Pokémon were returned and all of the special pokéballs were safely stowed in his saddlebags, the man fired up the motorcycle, tearing across the highlands towards the highway. Behind him, the lower grasslands continued to burn, the wild Pokémon fleeing as they were unable to contain the flames that destroyed their habitat.
Ignoring the damage he caused, the man brought his hand up to the side of his helmet, activating the phone option, "Abbi, dial the Boss man."
"Right away Sir!" a bubbly electronic voice chirped before the phone started to ring. It rang a few times before it was answered.
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As the grasslands west of Fuchsia continued to burn, a man was sitting in Viridian, wondering how he would handle a rapidly approaching situation. This man sat in a fortress deep within the mountain passes north of the city, a fortress where his organization called home. He was Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket, and he was conflicted because due to the reports given to him by his undercover agent in Pallet Town.
His daughter, his youngest child and only daughter, was being allowed out on her Pokémon Journey two years early with the endorsement from Professor Oak. Frustrated, Giovanni hit the pager button on his desk, "Matori, is there anything demanding my attention for today?"
"Yes sir, Jessie and James have reported in for their new assignment, and the asshole is on his way with a new batch of Pokémon." Matori replied, distaste clear in her voice at the mention of the poacher.
"Let me know when he gets here." Giovanni said, he needed time to think.
Giovanni sat silently, reading over reports by his elites trying to calm the storm raging in his head. While the act would normally calm him as it reminded him of his success in steering Team Rocket away from they're former operating procedures, today it only served as a slight distraction. Now that the organization had moved mostly away from stealing Pokémon, they had a much higher success rate across the board. But as a direct result, they had no new incoming Pokémon except through what they got through poaching. This meant he needed to either employ or contract several poachers, and he only hired those with high success rates.
There were several of his own agents had volunteered to switch to poaching, mostly older agents that had no idea about the technology that was needed, letting the younger members of the organization deal with stealing or developing what was needed. Even with this agents working on it, Giovanni still contracted out to several independent contractors. Including the best of them, a young man who went by Griff.
Giovanni snarled at the thought of the man. He was everything that Giovanni hated about the younger generation of criminals with just enough skill to pull off his jobs without getting arrested. He had a crude sense of humor, he broke everything he touched, no manners as far as the eye could see, as well as a disregard for all forms of authority. His over-designed piece of junk motorcycle caused all sorts of havoc for everything, alive, dead, or inanimate, when he came into headquarters. With his personal motto of 'CHAOS!', he stood for almost everything Giovanni was against in a human being.
"Sir, the asshole is coming up the drive." Matori said stiffly over the intercom. Griff attempted to hit on her every time he bothered to show up for a briefing, only stopping when she would inevitably walk out of the room.
"Let him in, and send in Jessie, James, and Meowth once he's gone," Giovanni sighed as Persian lazily padded over to his master, the Poacher's mutt tended to annoy him as well.
Giovanni rubbed his temples, feeling the headache growing worse, "I swear, the only reason I put up with him is because of his track record. He's always been able to get something no matter how bad the job goes."
Minutes later came the loud clunking of boots and the click of claws. The door was thrown open without regard for his privacy as the poacher clomped in. Griff walked in there as his Mightyena at his heels, growling at his Persian. The large cat Pokémon hissed as the wolf sat next to his master, angered that the mangy mutt was back in his domain. Griff leaned his chair back and propped his feet up on Giovanni's desk, smirking at the man. Giovanni pushed down the urge to order Persian to rip the punk's throat out and glared at the young man.
Dressed in a worn wife beater, greyish jeans, combat boots, and a riding vest, Griff looked like the stereotypical punk biker. With that insufferable grin, Griff pulled a folder out of his vest and tossed it on the desk.
"The job's done, fifty new Pokémon, waiting for payment." Griff said, arrogance oozing out of his tone. Giovanni thought it was sickening.
"Remove your feet or this job was done for free," Giovanni growled as the younger man quickly pulled his feet off the desk. Giovanni opened the file and read over the captures. It was an impressive herd, all strong and could be sold to farmers and trainers alike.
Griff watched, bored as Giovanni took his time in reading over the report. As the Mob Boss put the report down and folded his fingers, Griff spoke up, "So a herd of fifty Tauros, all in untagged pokéballs. What's my pay this time?"
"The standard amount, two thousand for every five Pokémon." Giovanni said, "You can pick up your payment and a new batch of Acquisition Balls down stairs as usual. If there is nothing else, please leave."
"Just one thing," Griff said as he stood, "Those Mr. Mimes that you had me field test have been a big help, you should look into getting more of them."
Giovanni nodded as the poacher clomped out of the office. The squad of four Mr. Mimes to be used for capture and containment of large numbers of Pokémon had been the brainchild of a rather unmotivated, lazy, and unremarkable grunt. Said grunt would soon be put in charge of coordinating the training now that he had a confirmation of the tactic worked as it was supposed to.
Giovanni stood and turned to the window overlooking the training grounds of the Headquarters, watching the new batch of grunts selecting a Pokémon if they didn't already own one. Watching the grunts interacting with their new partners, both Pokémon and human, he had the beginnings of a plan.
He needed to ensure Ashlyn was protected, and he knew he couldn't have any of his elite operatives follow her around, at least not directly like he wanted. He needed them to get as many of the components as they could get for his plans, and the last thing he wanted was to alienate his second child like his eldest had been.
As he continued to watch the grunts, the intercom buzzed, alerting him to the three operatives that were waiting outside.
"Let them in," Giovanni said to Persian, not turning away from the window. Persian stretched before padding over to the desk and pawed the button that opened the door. The doors swung open, admitting two humans and a Pokémon into the room.
The first human was a blue haired young man by the name of James. While he looked tall and dashing, as expected of a romanticized rogue, he was somewhat naive and easily went along with another's plans. He was kind and caring when it came to his partners and his Pokémon, but could be brought into a simmering anger that made him dangerous.
His partner, Jessie, on the other hand was a hotheaded and easily angered woman. She would often take charge and was normally the first to lash out. Like James, the redhead had a soft spot not only for her Pokémon and partner, but also for small children that had a similar background to her own.
The final member of the trio was actually Persian's pre-evolved form, a Meowth. This Meowth, however, was special, given how he had taught himself the human language and how to walk upright as well. As Giovanni stood there, watching the trio from the corner of his eye, the rest of his plan came together.
Gesturing for the trio to take a seat, Giovanni walked back to his desk and slid a folder to James, "Jessie, James, this is the next project you to will be working on. I've noticed that you take to legal ventures better than the criminal ones, and I would like you to get everything in that folder up and running."
James opened the folder and held it between him and Jessie, allowing his partner to read over the contents. Mining operations, gambling parlors, restaurants, and specialty shops were several of the listed business ventures on the first page, and as they flipped through the pages they noticed that all of the correct licenses and permits, legally obtained by GioCorp, were included in the folder as well as budget plans and operation deadlines for each one. They also noted that they would be starting in three weeks, allowing them enough time to go over everything in detail.
Closing the folder with a nod, James asked, "Is there anything else that we can do sir?"
Giovanni had turned back to the window as they had looked over the folder, waiting for them to ask questions. Sighing, he turned back to the three agents, who immediately realized that they were receiving bad news.
"Meowth will not be accompanying you on your assignment, I am removing him from the team," Giovanni waited to see if there would be any complaints, but while they looked upset, they were too loyal to the Team to go against his orders. Especially since Meowth was technically his Pokémon.
"Meowth, your new assignment requires a partner of a different type." Giovanni said as Persian rubbed against his leg, smirking at the smaller cat, "Jessie, James, dismissed. Meowth, follow me."
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Meowth padded softly behind Giovanni, thinking about what he had been told by the boss. While He still had three weeks before his unit was split up, he still had training to do. Giovanni couldn't send his operatives with a young girl beginning her Pokémon Journey, so why not give her a few Pokémon that were trained to protect her instead?
As Giovanni opened the door into the holding cells for new captures, Meowth moved forward, looking for something that the girl wouldn't easily get but would be able to keep her out of harm's way as well. After several minutes of looking around, he saw a single Abra in a psychic proof enclosure.
Knocking on the frame to wake the Psi Pokémon, Meowth began a hushed conversation with it, explaining what he wanted and what the Abra would get out of it. Giovanni watched as the Abra seemed to think about it before slowly nodding its head. Taking out his key card to deactivate the Abra's enclosure, Giovanni looked down at the two first stage Pokémon.
"You two are being entrusted with my daughter's safety, and as such, you will be taught several new attacks to keep her safe," as Meowth made to interrupt, Giovanni motioned for him to be quite, "We've actually figured out that you were just doing several of the attacks wrong, which caused you to give up."
Giovanni looked down at the two before removing a pokéball from the enclosure and handing it to the Abra, and gave them both a stern glare, "Report to Viper on the training fields, he has already gathered the necessary materials to start your training."
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Giovanni was once again in his office overlooking the training fields as the drill Sargent like Viper began the Pokémon's training with a few TMs before having them practice their new attacks. They would learn enough to protect Ashlyn, and that would allow her to train them how she wanted for battle.
Closing the blinds, Giovanni walked to his desk and activated his video phone. He had a call to make, and the good Professor was never happy when dealing with him.
The phone rang a few times, and with it being the laboratory's public number, one of the professor's assistants could have answered. But with the late hour, only he would answer as he lived above the lab itself.
As the video screen flashed on and Professor Samuel Oak's image appeared on the screen, Giovanni smirked and cut right to the point of his call.
"So you believe my daughter is ready to start her Pokémon Journey early Professor?"
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Author's Note: Introducing the asshole poacher Griff! This guy is actually based off of a friend who goes by the nickname Griff and said this is exactly what he would do if Pokémon were real. The guy is a dick, but a great sounding board for a lot of my projects. It feels so great to actually get a chance to sit down and type everything up, especially with how working for a company where you do emails all day takes you out of the writing mood. As far as progress for my fics goes, all of it is currently on paper. This includes:
-four more chapters for this fic, kinda my go to piece of work at the moment
-the rewrite for Acidic blood is currently a prologue and a chapter done, on paper, hopefully soon to change
-a half a chapter for wings of the fallen angel, stuck on a part that's got me scratching my head
-and getting around to rewriting spirits of reality
Right now I'm going to work on this one because it has the most on computer, but hopefully the rest will soon follow.
The current poll for this fic is I am unsure which fossil I should give Ashe. I know when she's getting it, I'm just unsure which one. To me, fossils are not regional exclusive so any fossil is a go. Please leave a review or PM me with you vote on the subject.