To Care for Him
ACT 1: DIAMONDSHIPPING
Chapter 4: A Son's Request
Author's note: A passage in the previous chapters somewhere has been edited from Pokemon League to Pokemon Elite, as I have discovered I want the formation of the league to be told in this story as well.
Giovanni studied his mother's office that next morning as he sat in one chair awaiting her arrival, with a stack of papers in his hands. The room was small, less than ten feet in any direction. There was a small metal desk, a large leather office chair, a smaller leather chair opposite the big one, a metal bookcase, a stained-glass window with abstract colorful designs, a gold clock on the red walls, and a black safe behind the desk. Not that there was room to hold a lot of furniture, but Giovanni's mother wasn't the cluttered type anyway. She was the type who would sell all her possessions for one rare item -- even if it meant living in an empty house for the rest of her life.

Finally, his mother walked in, sat down in her big leather chair, and twirled around for a moment before coming to rest and staring into her son's eyes. Before she could speak, though, her cell phone rang.

"Madame Roquet," she announced cheerfully. "Ah yes, that sounds perfect. We would definitely like to come to the meeting. I'm certain we'll find mutual benefits. Thank you. Goodbye!"

As she placed her cell phone, one of the first in the region to have a camera installed on it, in her suit jacket pocket, she clasped her hands together and rested her elbows on her desk, leaning forward in great interest. "Those are the specs I requested?"

Giovanni nodded and handed them over, suppressing his reluctance to do so. Fortunately, he had spent most of the night "fixing" the blueprints so most of his ideas wouldn't be made public, but his mother didn't need to know that. "Who was that?"

She smiled. "There are certain trainers interested in starting a league of some kind to help regulate the training process. They have grand plans to grow it into an international body. These elites, as they like to call themselves, will require regional assistance to help in the training of young pokemon journey-takers. They want to instill a sense of discipline and honor among those who currently view pokemon training as a hobby. They plan on remodeling their headquarters into a huge stadium where the best of the best will come and test their mettle. It's such a fascinating concept -- and I want our family to take part in this as well. That's why we will provide food and merchandise services, if our contract talks work out -- but I'm sure they will." She glanced at the blueprints for the training machines. "Maybe we can also sell training machines to young trainers -- really cater to the sense of beating the top guys by any means." She noticed her son making a contorted face of disgust. "Spit it out, boy."

"Why be content to serve these 'elites'? Our path is obvious, yet once again you take 'the road less traveled.'"
"We could become rich beyond our wildest dreams if this works out," she retorted derisively. "I can't see why you don't want the best out of your life. If you'd stop playing around and get serious, there could be no stopping us."

Giovanni grabbed the thin arms of his seat, turning his knuckles white. He informed her through gritted teeth, "That's what I've been attempting to accomplish. With more support from you we could turn my 'playing around' gym into an official one, once they start labeling such things. Being a gym leader would give us more access to League decisions than simply making nachos for a bunch of Pokemon Master-wannabes. I don't see why you, a trainer yourself, can't appreciate my goals, since in my opinion they're more worthwhile than yours."

She stood up and slapped her hand on the desk in front of her. "Listen to me, boy," she threatened, "if you want to see your twentieth birthday this year, you won't insult me like that again, do you understand? I will always be your superior and don't you forget it! I was training pokemon before your geodude was a pebble on the mountainside!"

Giovanni smirked. "Pfbbt. For all your talk of superior training ability, I've yet to see you go out and actually train."

Madame Roquet leaned back and laughed. "Fine. You want to challenge me, go right ahead and see how far you get."

Giovanni glanced around. "Where do you want to battle?"

She pointed to her desk. "Right here, in this room, you little twerp."

Giovanni's face twisted in confusion. "The room's rather small and," he noted with great satisfaction, "my pokemon are very destructive."

She glared at him, all sense of the ditzy gold-digger vanishing. "I only need one pokemon to take you down before your team can make a single move. Now choose."

"One-on-one, then?"

Madame Roquet shrugged. "I only need one. Choose as many as you like."

"Go, Gaia!" he announced, releasing his geodude from its pokeball. It appeared on her desk, pumping its arms in a show of strength. Giovanni smiled maliciously. "Earthquake."

"Protect," his mother announced strangely. After all, she never called out a pokemon. A faint glow covered every item in the room as Gaia punched the desk to rattle the room, although its face expressed some doubts over whether or not this was a good idea. Madame Roquet's face relaxed as nothing happened. She condescendingly petted the rock pokemon on the head. "There, there, Gaia. It's not your fault your performance was positively ghastly -- it was your arrogant trainer's."

"A Ghastly?" Giovanni barked. "Figures. Why bother with a defensive move like that, though? They are immune to ground attacks."

Madame Roquet chuckled to herself. "You were going to destroy all of my expensive furniture." She leaned forward in an exaggerated way and crossed her eyes. "Duh…

Giovanni was about to recall his pokemon when his mother cheerfully announced, "Mega drain." A green aura filled the room and then settled onto Gaia, who suffered intensely as its life force was drained from it. A green blob of light floated away from Gaia and stopped just behind Giovanni's mother, briefly illuminating the basketball-sized ball of purple gas, its glaring eyes and vampiric fangs shuddering Giovanni's soul. The ghost pokemon absorbed the green light and announced with a gloomy voice yet a cheerful smile, "Ghas, ghastly." Gaia shuddered and fainted, rolling off the desk and nearly smashing Giovanni's feet. He sighed, disgusted, and recalled his favorite pokemon into its pokeball. So this was going to be a metaphysical battle, then, he thought to himself. Fine.

"Abra!" he ordered, demanding the golden cat-fox-like pokemon appear before it. It called out its name and promptly went back to sleep on the desk.

Madame Roquet laughed. "I told you you were lazy and good for nothing! Lily can wipe up the floor with a psychic pokemon!"

Giovanni nodded and bowed in fake humility. "Be my guest, then -- show this pathetic worm of a human being how it's done."

"Dream eater," she ordered. "Destroy that abra's dreams!" Her ghastly, Lily, nodded and its eyes glowed as it telepathically intruded into the young abra's mind and proceeded to search for its most emotional dreams. However, Lily, in her own language, expressed her confusion to her trainer since there did not seem to be much success. "Strange," she replied quietly.

"Isn't it, though?" Giovanni replied wryly. "Better try again to make sure."

Madame Roquet sighed and shrugged. "It is a pity to have to do this to my flesh and blood, but," she added, nodding towards Lily, "shadow ball -- blow that thing's soul to the other realm!"

A ball of dark smoke appeared, equal in size to the ghost pokemon who formed it, and shot forth toward the sleeping pokemon. It tossed the golden pokemon back toward Giovanni, who grunted as he was sent flying toward the wall just behind him. Finally, after convulsing, the body of the abra shattered into several pieces like pottery. Just as Madame Roquet's eyes widened in the shock of this development, she felt a rush of air behind her. She turned around to see another, more lively abra floating just behind Lily, who also was beginning to turn around. A dark aura enveloped the ghost pokemon. The abra teleported in a brief shaft of light, reappearing on the desk, standing tall and proud. Just as his mother ordered another shadow ball, Lily screamed in terror and flew quickly through the walls of the office, wailing in horror.

Madame Roquet stood there, staring blankly at the spot in the wall where Lily disappeared. She turned to her son, who was grinning as he got a book from her bookshelf and pretended to read with a sarcastically snobbish air.

He cleared his throat. "Substitute: the formation of a corporeal double that absorbs a foe's attacks without harming one's pokemon." He flipped a few pages and continued his lecture. "Torment: a feeling of dread is imposed onto a pokemon to such an extent that successive use of a particular move drives the foe into a frenzy of distraught trauma." He tossed the randomly-picked book at his mother. "I hope you give my idea some further thought -- mother," he said cheerfully as he beckoned Abra to leave the room with him.