A/N: Thanks for all the support up till now guys. I'm glad to hear that you think it's good to skip the irrelevant stuff, because I won't be focusing on every single random encounter Ash has ever had which usually amounts to nothing in that he meets someone and never sees them again- and I'll try to skip moments I think that everyone's seen.
Officer Jenny gulped as she felt the ice-cold claw next to her neck.
"You'll never get away with this," she spat.
"I didn't come all this way to here you whine," Silver said. His Sneasel had one of its claws near Officer Jenny's neck, and her Growlithe lay defeated nearby thanks to his Croconaw.
He, along with Butch and Cassidy, had ambushed this officer as she had headed out for Goldenrod City.
"Now, if you happen to value your life, sign these documents," Silver said. He handed Officer Jenny a stack of papers. They were documents that were necessary if Silver and his minions were to wander Johto unhindered and necessary for various economic activities. As they had been handwritten, they needed an official signature and stamp to be valid.
Officer Jenny reluctantly signed and stamped each of the papers.
"Thank you," Silver said coldly. "And to answer your statement, I do believe that I will, on the contrary, get away with this." He snapped his fingers and Butch stepped forward with his Hypno.
"Hypno's usually only strong enough to entrance children," Butch said. "But I'll have you know that this one is a special breed- rather good at wiping away memories no matter what the age group. By the time he's done, you'll be lucky to remember what color the sky is for several hours. Don't worry- the rest of your memories will come back but the past few weeks are going away forever."
"And don't worry," Cassidy said. "You'll probably be found in a couple of hours, or wake up on your own, hopefully before some Pokemon decides to make you its next snack."
"You… you…" Officer Jenny muttered before she fell under the Hypno's spell.
Silver nodded to his two team members as they head off. The papers were necessary as Silver needed to give Team Rocket a legitimate face within Johto. Hundreds of thousands of those documents were signed every year, and this Officer Jenny had probably signed off on many of them in the past few weeks which they couldn't all declare invalid- giving these ones credibility.
Getting started in Johto had been harder than Silver had thought. They didn't have many of their normal facilities like they did in Kanto, and very few of their criminal connections were there.
"What would be a good front for us?" Silver muttered as much to himself as his two associates.
"Perhaps another casino, sir?" Butch said.
"It's been done, and in case Kanto's casino gets compromised we need another alternative since it would put suspicion on our own casino," Silver said. "A dairy farm would be an easy way to do this… but there is already one to compete against."
"The competition can be taken care of," Cassidy said.
"True, but that will take time," Silver said. Suddenly, he smiled. He had come up with a great idea.
A few days later, Silver watched in satisfaction as construction began in Cherrygrove City.
His idea was a simple one, albeit borrowed from Unova. Silver had decided to open a stadium for Pokemon Musicals much like those in Unova.
As it was in Cherrygrove City there was no Gym Leader nearby to snoop on them, and the city itself had a relaxing air that would draw quite a crowd. Also, people from all over the region would come to show off their best Pokemon… meaning that Team Rocket wouldn't have to go to them to see who hunt for who had the rarest Pokemon- their Trainers would come to them!
Silver could sell tickets for shows also, meaning that it was also easy to falsify how many they had sold and whiten money they had earned through other activities. And of course, musicals needed lots of staff- make-up artists, lighting experts, extras, etc. which were easy roles for his grunts to disguise themselves as.
The icing on the cake was that the stages would be made hollow, making them places where Silver could hide smuggled Pokemon as well as equipment.
"Sir, there's been a problem," Butch said to him. Cassidy was also with him.
Silver snapped out of his reverie. "What happened?"
"A few of our boys were selling Slowpoke tails, as usual," Butch said. "But then there was a raid, and they're currently in prison in Azalea Town."
Silver sighed.
When he had been introduced to Team Rocket for the first time he had learned of their pecking order. Giovanni was at the very top, and beneath him were four extremely powerful and callous Trainers known as Giovanni's 'dogs of war' -though there were only three now that Mark had died in a mysterious accident near Cinnabar Island two years ago.
Beneath them were people like Butch and Cassidy who distinguished themselves by their white uniforms. Beneath them were all those who wore black uniforms, though there were five ranks even within these.
Silver was unsure where he (or Ash for that matter) fit onto this scale- all that he had been told by his father was that he was in charge over the Johto region, and that he had to bring it under his control.
That was quite literally all that Giovanni had told Silver. There had been no more help or hints- it was just that Giovanni expected it to be done.
That was actually quite fine for Silver, since he would've hated to be micromanaged and the freedom gained by his position was only soured by the fact that it meant that he had to take care of all of his underlings. And boy were they needy.
"How are they guarded?" Silver asked.
"Several officers, and Bugsy himself might also be there," Butch said. "It sounds like they've put some real manpower in holding them."
"My Zubat isn't old enough to carry me," Silver said. "We're going to need another way to get there."
"I'll get our hot air balloon," Butch said.
"Sir, let us come with you," Cassidy added.
Silver liked to work alone, but if he was going to be outnumbered, well, some help might not be too bad. "Let's leave quickly then," Silver said.
Butch and Cassidy were the highest-ranking people Silver had and the only ones who had earned white uniforms, which made him think that having one of Giovanni's dogs of war would be useful right now.
Silver observed the prison through his night vision binoculars. He had been told that ten regular members and a scientist had been captured.
He figured the best time to try and rescue them was during the wee hours of the night when the guards would be drowsy and they could easily slip away. He had considered leaving the imprisoned members to their fate- after all, they deserved it in his opinion for being stupid enough to be captured- but then reconsidered as he realized that they probably had knowledge about other things in Team Rocket and maybe even about his Pokemon Musical Theater. Who was to say that they wouldn't blab if offered a plea deal? Not to mention it was important, he supposed, for the grunts of Team Rocket to know that they had a sort of safety net to fall on if they were captured and it would look bad on him if Team Rocket members were doing prison time.
Because of course, not a single member of Team Rocket had ever been prosecuted. And Silver knew that that fact carried weight- and was why thousands of grunts didn't suddenly defect. Team Rocket had a reputation- you gave Team Rocket loyalty and Team Rocket took care of you, period. And Silver had to maintain that reputation.
The building had two entrances- one out front and another at the very back. The plan was that Cassidy and Butch would charge from the front with their Hypno putting the guards to sleep. It would attract notice from the other guards who would move towards the front, while Silver would sneak in from the back.
Silver put on his mask. It was important that his face go unrecognized now, and he didn't trust Butch and Cassidy to be able to handle this themselves and he had no one else strong enough that he could currently rely on… not to mention he preferred doing things himself. People sort of recognized him- or at least his description of him with red hair. Red hair really made him stand out. He had considered dying it a different color like black or brown... or maybe even silver.
He crawled towards the back door and then spoke into a walkie-talkie asking Butch to enter the front of the building. Once that was done, Silver waited for a minute before picking the lock to the back door.
There was a guard there, of course, but Silver had expected that. His Sneasel dealt him a swift Icy Wind and froze him in place.
Silver crept around when he saw Bugsy.
The leader was snoozing away at a desk, and Silver had not intention of waking him up.
He met up with Butch and Cassidy who were working on opening the locks to the cages- or rather, they were breaking them.
"You're here to rescue us?" one of the prisoners said.
"Yeah, I know those two- that's Cassidy and her partner, Bowser," someone else said.
Cassidy stepped on Butch's foot to stop a retort she knew was coming that might alert more guards. It was hard for people to remember Butch's name for some reason, the only ones who did were those who spent some time with him regularly- like herself and Silver.
"Who else is here?" Silver asked.
"There were ten of us and a scientist- we were all put in separate rooms except for us," the grunt answered.
"Find them," Silver said. "We need to get out of here quick."
"You should just surrender," a voice said. "Otherwise you may land in a sticky situation."
Bugsy appeared out of a doorway, and released his Scyther and Ledyba.
"Go! Go!" Silver said. "Find the others and get them out- I'll hold him off. Escape!"
Silver sent out his Sneasel and Croconaw. Neither side had a specific advantage, but Silver was confident in his ability to take on the Gym Leader.
He heard the others leave behind him- no one had offered to stay with him and they had all ran to save their own hide, as expected of course within Team Rocket.
"Icy Wind! Ice Fang!" Silver ordered, going for the Sycther first.
Both attacks landed and did devastating damage, though Scyther countered by using Double Team. Images of the Scyther hovered around in the air and completely surrounded Silver and his Pokemon.
Silver smirked. "That's an old tactic. Croconaw! The one with a shadow is the real one! Ice Fang!"
With that, the Scyther was wounded enough so that Bugsy didn't dare leave it undefended and its mirror images vanished.
Just then, the flow of battle was interrupted as Butch came back.
"What happened?" Silver asked in alarm, keeping an eye on Bugsy in case he tried to take advantage of this opening. Butch was panting.
"The entire place is surrounded by silk!" Butch said. "We can't cut through!"
Bugsy smirked. "I had known that someone would come to try and rescue these crooks… so I had a team of Caterpie and Metapod hidden away in the forest and had them surround this house with String Shot when I noticed someone had broken in. You're not getting away that easily. Up till now, no Team Rocket member's ever done serious jail time- I'm going to change that! Your reign of terror ends here! This is the beginning of the end for Team Rocket!"
Silver smiled which sent shivers down Bugsy's spine. "… And it didn't occur to you through this plan that this would mean… that you're stuck in here with me? I can be a rather unpleasant person, you know, especially when I'm angry."
Bugsy gulped. "I can hold you guys off for enough time for reinforcements to get here."
Silver turned to Butch. "Do you have a Fire type Pokemon that can burn its way through?"
"Yes sir," Butch said. "But the thing is that the fire would spread too quickly- the silk is very flammable- and engulf the whole prison-"
"Do it," Silver ordered. He then glared at Butch when he saw that Butch hadn't budged. "That was an order!"
"Ye-yes sir!" Butch said.
"Finish them off!" Silver ordered his Pokemon. Croconaw took out Scytther with an Ice Fang, and Ice Shard from Sneasel took care of Ledyba.
"Darn it," Bugsy said. "You won't get away with this!"
Silver yawned. "Like I haven't heard that before. And trust me, I don't do things if I'm not certain that I can get away with them."
After he froze Bugsy- but not before he took the Hive Badge (maybe he could sell that thing, and anyway, he had technically defeated Bugsy) he turned his attention to the raging fire about to consume the house and found the others. Some of them had escaped, but Butch and Cassidy were still trapped due to the raging inferno.
"Croconaw, use Water Gun!" Silver commanded.
To his dismay however, the Crocanaw was not sufficient to take out the fire. It had spread too much and was far too much intense.
"What do we do?" Butch said, clearly worried.
"Well, I wasn't going to resort to this, but desperate times and all," Silver said and took out a Pokeball and released it.
A huge Tyranitar came out. Of course, the first thing that it noticed were the raging flames, and boy did that make it angry.
"I didn't know you had a Pokemon like that, boss," Cassidy said.
"Yes, for good reason," Silver said. "I don't know how to control it."
The Tyranitar called a huge sandstorm that cut off the fire's oxygen supply and extinguished it within a few seconds. Silver recalled it before it could go on a rampage. He remembered the last time he had sent it out- a building had collapsed before he had been able to withdraw it.
Silver got out and of course, people were coming towards them thanks to all the commotion.
"There will be more officers here," Cassidy said. "Hide in the woods! We'll get away once they're done looking."
"No!" Silver said. "Not the woods- he could have rigged them with some more Bug Pokemon. Go towards the road, we need to be fast. Our balloon can't carry all of us. We'll move in tight formation and take down anyone stupid enough to stand in our way!"
What followed was a long chase with them barely avoiding or beating patrols at times until they finally managed to beat their way back by sunrise. There, Silver finally took off his mask and the others changed into uniforms made for construction workers in order to blend in.
Silver sighed. Here he was, dealing with all this, and his half-brother was probably off somewhere far away enjoying life. Pah. Some people had all the luck in life, but Silver had learned to make his own luck long ago. He didn't like people in general, and that went doubly so for Ash Ketchum. Even someone as blind as a Zubat could see that his father loved Ash more than he cared for Silver. After all that time alone, right when Silver had thought he'd found a family and someone who'd care for him, he'd been brushed aside like he was some sort of nuisance and shipped off to Johto once Ash had appeared.
There was, however, a silver lining. Almost no one knew that Ash even existed, and once Giovanni was gone- Silver knew that it would be child's play to get rid of Ash and rule over Team Rocket on his lonesome.
Silver had learned long ago that strength was all that a person could count on, and he was determined to be as strong as possible.
For the strong ruled over the weak, and that was all that mattered to Silver.
A/N: So that breaks the flow with a chapter devoted to Silver. Not many of them will be, but Silver will be important later on so I thought a chapter showing him was needed.
Fans of the manga (of which I am one) will notice how I completely butchered Silver's personality somewhat and made him embrace his Team Rocket legacy far more readily.
Johnathen- not sure how to put them, but I'm thinking maybe cameos would work? Permanently scripting them in would be difficult. And I'd have to watch a few videos first.
Alternate title for this chapter: The Fresh Prince of Team Rocket (that would work for Ash, but not for Silver).
Alternate lines:
"I've trapped you!" Bugsy said.
"I'm not locked in here with you," Silver said. "You're locked in here with me!"