After a short five- or ten-minutes wandering around the dark, soundless halls of Team Rocket HQ, Nanu and the infamous Rocket quartet arrived at the massive doorway to Giovanni's private meeting room. The door was almost twice as tall and the automated fence that surrounded the building, and was painted a regal red with the organization's iconic red 'R' logo in white, making it look like Jessie's and James's uniforms, but inverted. On opposite sides of the door, two larger-than-life snarling Persian statues, presumably made from solid gold, stood guard as their piercing eyes seemed to watch the group's every move. Nobody even dared to move a muscle, until Nanu volunteered to brave the beasts. He slowly raised his shaky, wrinkled, fist to the door, but before it even could make contact, Giovanni's voice growled through a nearby intercom: "No need to continue, agent. Come in."
He called him 'agent'. Nanu felt both invigorated and infuriated at Giovanni assigning him that title. It caused him to hesitate for a second, looking back at Jessie and James behind him with innocent eyes, before they motioned for him to enter the room without them. He accepted their command, and walked into the room, his eyes gazing down at the blood-red carpet beneath him.
Giovanni smiled: "Agent Nanu, so very good to finally see you again after all these years." He slowly reached his thick hand for him to shake. Nanu did so, slowly, almost like it was a question.
"My, you seem nervous today, agent Nanu." Giovanni evilly chuckled, making Nanu jump a little and his skin crawl. It was terrifying to listen to Giovanni laugh, as Giovanni is, indeed, a terrifying man. Even though he was much younger than Nanu, he still felt intimidated by him.
"I guess you could say that, sir." Nanu mumbled a little.
Giovanni laughed again. "Now now, Nanu, there's no need to be nervous. You may be a police officer now, but there's still quite a bit of Team Rocket blood in your veins. Just tell your supervisor that you're doing a favor for an old friend, that's all. Now, before we get started, I believe you owe me a little something."
Nanu paused for a brief second before remembering what he had explicitly told him to bring during one of their phone calls, "Oh, yes, of course." Nanu reached into his pocket and presented Giovanni with a rolled-up piece of paper. He opened them swiftly and read them with hungry, eager eyes.
"Yes, yes, this is exactly what I needed." Giovanni said, still looking down and examining every word on the slip of paper. After a few seconds, he looked up and grinned at Nanu, "Excellent work, Nanu. You've proven to me that you're still one of the best hackers Team Rocket has ever seen. Nobody else here on base could have possibly done as well as you with finding a loophole in the Aether Foundation's private research server to gain research on Cosmog. I knew I could count on you for giving me exactly what I want."
"It didn't take much. I work for the Alola PD; I have the ability to access virtually every computer in Alola. Grant it, I can't do it legally without probable cause, but you did beg me ever so nicely to doing your bidding once again, so I made an exception." Nanu mumbled.
"You flatter me, Nanu. You really do." Giovanni chuckled, taking a seat in his armchair at the head of the long, wooden table, "But in all seriousness, thank you. This is exactly the kind of information we need in order to carry out the first phase of our operation."
"With all due respect, Giovanni, now that I'm here, would you kindly inform me what this 'operation' is, and why you needed such information on such an incredibly weak Pokémon?"
"My dearest Nanu, did you not read the data you collected before handing it to me? If you did, you would know that Cosmog is quite the opposite of weak. In fact, this creature has the ability-"
Before Giovanni could finish, a loud crash and several shrieks and moans of pain could be heard from across the room. Giovanni and Nanu turned around and noticed that Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet had fallen through the door and landed on top of one another like dominos.
"YOU FOUR?!" the duo yelled, "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
They slowly picked themselves off the ground as James stupidly replied in the phoniest surprised voice he could manage: "Wait a minute… this isn't the cafeteria."
"You IDIOTS! You were SUPPOSED to keep me covered from BEHIND the door! Didn't you tell me in Viridian that the boss doesn't exactly want you to be here?!"
Giovanni looked at Nanu as harshly as the Persian statues outside. "They're with you?" he growled.
Nanu's stomach dropped. He felt compelled to lie, however, what good would that do? Giovanni was already upset with him, and contrary to the fact that lying was considered honorable to the organization, Giovanni hated being lied to face-to-face. Instead, he took a deep breath in, let it out, looked Giovanni right in the eyes and let out a sincere "yes. They're with me."
Giovanni looked none to pleased. He grabbed Nanu by the shoulder and pulled him close to him, "Why would you bring them with you? This was supposed to be our project. Nobody else even knows that I've been planning this operation, and they weren't supposed to know until I got my hands on a Cosmog. Of all the Rocket agents I sent to Alola, why them?"
"Uh, we can still hear you, you know!" Jessie griped, crossing her arms over her chest and trying to control her temper as best as she could, "And for the record, we were the only agents you sent to Alola, remember?"
Giovanni paused, "Oh yeah. I forgot about that…"
"Besides, it was Nanu's idea ta schlep us around Kanto, anyway." Meowth grumbled.
WOOOOOOOB-BUFFET!
"Thanks for throwing me under the bus, fur brain!" Nanu hissed.
"Agents, please." Giovanni roared, taking a seat in his armchair and staring at the group of them, "Please. I am losing my patience. Agents Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet; you are dismissed. I would like to continue to speak with agent Nanu alone, if you please. This business does not concern you in the least."
"For the record, sir, we already know exactly what you're talking about, and it is our business." Jessie replied scathingly.
"From the little Nanu told us, this project concerns all of Team Rocket, and I personally think it's a crying shame that you've just been keeping it to yourself all this time." James added.
"Those few small rolled up pieces of paper in your hands contain the blueprints for Team Rocket's success…"
"This is to further our organization, after all the failures we've been faced with. And if you keep them to yourself, only so much will get done, if anything at all, and Team Rocket will only continue to fail."
"There's power in numbers, boss. Isn't that why all Rocket agents are assigned in duos or trios instead of completing missions alone?"
"Without us, you might as well dismiss us all and call your plans off."
Giovanni was floored. Ever since he hired Jessie and James, he never once heard them say something as compelling and intelligent as what had just come out of their mouths. In some ways, those seemingly incompetent goobers were right for once!
"Come on, Meowth, let's go." Jessie commanded, as she stood up from her chair and followed James's lead back to the front door of the room.
"N-now wait just a second!" Giovanni called out to them, raising his hand slightly in order to get their attention, "You're absolutely right. There is no use trying to keep this a private matter. Please, do stay for our discussion. In fact, that reminds me, I have a job for you to complete for me."
The foursome turned around.
"We're listening…" James replied.
"How much did your hear about the rare Pokémon that is needed in order to begin the process of the operation, Cosmog through the door?"
"We hoid a'nuff." Meowth added.
"Good. Now, as of right now, I am not currently in possession of such a Pokémon, as I have been much too busy to seek one out myself. What I have recently heard, however, is that there is one residing in one of the laboratory wings in the synthetic island of Aether Paradise in the Alola Region. With that said, I would very much like for you to break into the building and steal it for me."
Jessie's, James's, and Meowth's eyes lit up. This was it: their chance for an opportunity to steal one of the rarest and most powerful Pokémon currently known, and their opportunity to prove to the boss that they were not the incompetent screw-offs he considered them to be. However, this moment of eagerness and surprise quickly faded. The quartet knew that the boss was infamous for assigning them seemingly-important missions just so that he would not have to tolerate them for a while, and this could have quite possibly been another one of his cruel tricks.
"Are… You sure?" James asked, his voice sounding very suspicious of Giovanni's intentions.
Giovanni smiled: "My dear James, I am positive."
James's uncertain face morphed into an excited and twisted grin. He began to let out one of his signature laughs, Jessie and Meowth following his lead.
"Thank you, boss sir!" Jessie replied, bowing to Giovanni and Nanu, "We won't let you down."
"I know you won't. Now, go out there and catch me a Cosmog!"
"Sir yes sir!"
WOOOOOOBBFFET!
Upon their boss' command, the overly-enthusiastic Rocket agents went on their way, skipping and giggling through the halls like schoolchildren at recess, until they disappeared from out of Giovanni's line of sight.
Once they were gone, Giovanni began to laugh hysterically. Chills shot down Nanu's back.
"What? What's so funny? What did you do to them?" Nanu demanded like a frustrated parent.
"Oh, it's nothing." Giovanni chuckled, dismissing himself, "It's just that I've already assigned the Cosmog mission to my new squadron of specialty agents known as the Matori Matrix."
"The… Matori Matrix?" Nanu asked.
"Precisely. The Matrix is my secret weapon for these kinds of missions. All of them are ruthless; skilled in both battling Pokémon and hand-to-hand combat, and will absolutely will not stop until my needs are completely met." Giovanni added, "Just like you, you know."
Nanu went pale. Once again, Giovanni was appealing to the Rocket agent side of him he tried to stifle upon joining the Alolan Police Force. What on earth was than man trying to get at with him? Regardless, that had to wait. There was still another major question that needed to be asked of him regarding Jessie and James:
"Wait a second… when it was just the two of us originally, you told me that nobody knew of the Cosmog mission other than you and I… You just directly lied to Jessie and James, didn't you?" he growled.
Giovanni laughed again, "Well, in technicalities, yes, but can you blame me? Those idiots can never do anything right. They still haven't even managed to capture that supposed 'rare Pikachu' they've been chasing after for years. They're a nuisance; four little pests that I have to put up with day in and day out. And how do I manage? Well, I try to make them feel important for a change. I give them missions to do where the entire weight of the world is on top of their shoulders, and when they're failing miserably, I send in someone to do their job for them. But they're not complete ignoramuses: they did remind me that there is indeed 'power in numbers'; now I know that sending the Matori Matrix is a good idea!"
Nanu nearly blew a gasket. Sure, Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet could be extremely annoying at times, but at the same token, they seemed to sincerely care about furthering the mission of Team Rocket any way they could. On top of everything else, Acerola, his beloved niece, adored them dearly. She saw something in them that not even he could see, and because of that, he began to almost see them as family. But before he could say anything, Giovanni interrupted his thoughts:
"Oh, before we continue with our discussion, there is a little something I'd like you to have." He reached under the table, pulled out a large black box, and slid it over to Nanu across the table top. He took a look at the unexpected gift, placed one hand on the side of the box, and used the other to cautiously lift the lid. Inside was his old uniform, weathered a little from presumably being tucked away in a storage closet somewhere, but the signature emblem emblazoned on the uniform shirt's chest was still as fiery red as ever.
"The maid found it when she was going through my closet." Giovanni replied, "I thought you might like to have it, at least for a little while."
Nanu's jaw dropped slightly, his eyes transfixed on the wrinkled old Team Rocket uniform in front of him. Looking at that thing brought back so many memories and emotions: he was scared of it, yet he coveted it. Ashamed of it, yet so very proud that it was once his. He looked up at him with the same look of innocence he gave to Jessie and James before he first entered the conference room and replied, "You can't be serious."
"No, Nanu, I don't think you know how serious I'm being. I want you to have it. When I first asked you to come to Kanto and meet with me, I thought that no matter how much I begged and pleaded with you, you would still ultimately turn down my offer, but much to my surprise, you didn't. Nanu, can't you see? You were your best self here! You reached your fullest potential here! And yet, you left the Team Rocket life all for working some silly night shift at a police station."
"Giovanni, I hope you realize that my days of being your… your… slave… are over!" Nanu growled, "I have a family now, and I'm happy with the job I have. I don't want my little niece to know that her uncle is or was ever a criminal."
"Oh really?" The brown-haired gangster sneered, "When we spoke together on the phone, you didn't sound happy, Nanu. Now that you're here, you sound much different. You're happier, here, Nanu. Stop denying who you really are."
"Boss, er… Giovanni! I…"
"Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes sir…"
"Now… Will you please assist the Matori Matrix and I in furthering the mission of Team Rocket?"
Nanu looked down at his old uniform in the box once more, let out a long sigh. He knew he couldn't fight with Giovanni any longer, and in reality, the statement he made about him being happier in a life of crime than in a life of crime prevention was true. He knew now what he had to do. He turned around to face Giovanni, allowed his eyes to lock on his, and replied: "Yes."
Giovanni grinned, "Glad you finally came to your senses… Welcome back to Team Rocket, agent Nanu."
Back in Viridian Forest, the Rocket Quartet continued to sing and dance and skip throughout the woods. They were more than overjoyed that the boss had given them such an important mission to compete, and their heads were completely lost in la la land. However, once they reached the dock, Meowth's enthusiasm faded.
"Meowth, what's wrong?" Jessie asked, her voice still a little sing-songy.
"Gois… WE DON'T HAVE ANYTING TO GET HOME!"