*~~*Chapter Thirty-Five: This Means War : Silver's Viewpoint *~~*
That was a very interesting half an hour.
The sound of footsteps echoed loudly off of the stone walls as I lead the way down into the darkest bowels of the Rocket Base. In front of me, Champion Hibiki Gold wandered with a broken stare, acting as if he was just a dead man walking ahead, blind to his steps. Hibiki's hands were now bound at the wrists with a bit of rope scrap I had been lucky enough to pick up that morning, his wrists already red and most likely throbbing from the tight weave of material. His shoes stumbled against the stone steps as I followed him, a hand on my concealed belt of Pokémon at all times. I knew that he had only bothered to bring one Pokémon, a now dead Murkcrow. He hadn't been expecting to stay here, that much was obvious. Anyone who would bother to try to talk his way out of a conflict was just desperate.
Desperate or delusional.
I turned my eyes to my back and found my apprentice walking along with downcast eyes of her own, mocking the hypnotism that seemed to have infected the Champion. Pah, I frowned and turned away. This is a poor excuse for a Champion if all he wanted to do was try and charm my apprentice into leaving. My eyes narrowed at the memory of the desperate pleas to his case, trying to sway the brunette behind me into running from Team Rocket. He's nothing more than a child.
Pathetic.
I lifted my gaze and smiled as I found the familiar glow of the first of the Team Rocket prisons surrounding us, casting faint orange and red glows across the stone-carved walls. While the rest of the base ran on electricity from Pokémon generators, the main underground prison was a tad more...archaic. A few simple candles flickered on the walls as a few squeaks filled the room—undoubtedly from a few Rattatas. Instead of wasting precious resources in illuminating this dismal room, I had decided to go back to the basics with simple candlelight.
There wasn't much use in lighting a correction room, after all.
"Welcome to your new home, Champion Hibiki." My eyes narrowed in pleasure as the Champion numbly turned around and gave me a broken stare, confusion written all over his face. I felt my face twist into a smirk as my apprentice just stopped beside me, her eyes fixated on his new living conditions. "I'm afraid the place is a bit drab, but that's nothing a few guards and years in captivity cannot fix."
"This is the Rocket dungeon?" Kotone's eyes shifted to my face as I gave her a quick glance. Her face was almost devoid of emotion, leaving me at a loss to judge her motivations or feelings towards the newest location. "I was expecting something a bit more...modern."
I raised an eyebrow at her words before deciding to humor her and play along with her confusion. I just shook my head and motioned to one of the newer cells, a set of metal bars enclosed in a cinderblock wall. "There's a bit of modern architecture for you, apprentice. Cinderblocks and metal." I gave her a grin before shaking my head and motioning across the room to a forgotten white metal door. My apprentice eyed the door in confusion before turning back to me, a thin line drawn on her face from squinting against the light.
"This might as well be the Middle Ages, sir."
"That would be because the place known as the dungeon only refers to the place we keep insolent Rockets who do not follow orders." My eyes lifted back towards the door and I dully motioned towards it with a wave of my hand. "We keep our guests in the actual prisons, which are behind the door there." I suddenly gave the Champion a quick kick in the leg with my shoe and the black-haired teen jolted to move towards the door, his eyes trained on the stone below. He let out a grunt as his eyes caught a bit of rubbish, but I kept him moving towards our destination.
The boy stopped dead as he found himself face-to-face with industry's strongest door, a steel alloy mixed with a plethora of other metals, alloys and minerals until it could withstand even a thousand Earthquake attacks and Fire Blasts combined, white as snow and towering above his head. I simply stepped ahead of him and swiped a keycard on a nearby panel, the earlier satisfaction I held now hidden away in my chest. A harsh ringing overwhelmed the air and my apprentice's hands shot to her ears, her pain clearly visible in her clenched teeth.
The door slowly opened and suddenly bright, white light raced to slam against our eyes, forcing the two beside me to squint and tilt away from the light. I just shook my head and gave our new guest a quick shove inside, leaving my apprentice to follow whenever she decided to step up. I closed my eyes to help them adjust to the bright area and then slowly gazed upon the newest construction of the base—minus my own training wing, of course.
The room was only white. It was almost a similar shade to the hospital wing, only this one being an unnerving white that reminded one of a morgue. White walls of the same metal structure of the door stood ten feet high, looming over the newest inhabitant and making the defeated Champion feel even more insignificant. Across the room rested a lonesome cell enclosed in enhanced fiberglass, guaranteed to withstand even the worst of disasters and Pokémon attacks. I motioned towards the enclosure and stepped ahead, pushing against the broken teenager to signal him to follow us. The floors, a matching shade of the same bleached white, echoed our every step, amplifying it until it became a strain on my eardrums. I just gave the boy another shove ahead with a frown, trying to move him along.
"This is his cell?" Hazel eyes shifted uncomfortably at the appraisal of the Champion's new home. A small sound of thought slipped out only seconds before she bit her lip, narrowed her eyes and turned back to me. I just stared at her out of the corner of my eye, waiting for her words. "It looks like a...a..." She coughed and motioned to the miniature air vents on the floor and ceiling. I gave them a quick stare and frowned, trying to piece together what in the world she could be trying to communicate. They look like...what... I nearly bit my own lip when my brain quickly reminded me of a more nefarious use of such things.
Oh.
I just let out a chuckle, ignoring the horror in her eyes. I gave her a wave of dismissal and grinned her way, watching how her lip quivered with withheld emotions. "Not to worry, apprentice." I slowly reached out for the pristine reflections in front of us, connecting my palm with the redheaded leader before me and watched as the door glowed a faint green and retracted the seamless door. I motioned for the black-haired teen to walk in and halfheartedly watched him stumble in, defeated and willing. Once he was glaring at us from the confines of glass I just turned back to her and shrugged.
"Team Rocket prefers Pokémon to do the dirty work, but we wouldn't stoop to Koffing torture chambers." I mockingly held my nose and leaned forwards, watching as her expression switched from faint worry to a blank stare. "It tends to mess with the applicators after a while, and we can't waste men on such things as backfired gasses." I released my nose and then turned back to the so-called Champion with a grin. "Besides, it's far too explosive."
"So what are you going to do with me now, Rocket," Hibiki suddenly spat with a fury in his eyes.
A faint lift of interest lit my eyes as I just laughed at him and stared him down, focusing on the way his legs quivered under him and his sweaty hair stuck to the sides of his head. "I'm afraid I cannot reveal that sort of information to you, Hibiki Gold." His teeth clenched in anger as stood in the doorway, my apprentice standing beside me with narrowed, watchful eyes. "This is not some sort of Saturday morning cartoon where the boss blabs his plans to such a pitiful excuse of a hero such as yourself." I lifted a hand to my chest in a mocking display as I gave him a bow of farewell. "My plans are my own to know, not yours."
As soon as I stood up, the door to his cell slammed shut.
Kotone stared through the glass with readable eyes, filled with a silent fury and hidden pain. My hand fell to my side as I narrowed my eyes, watching on as she slowly moved her lips with silent words. I cannot let you stand in my way. I easily read her lips with a practiced talent as she just glared at the boy inside the glass cage. I will become a Rocket, and no one is going to stop me from getting what I want. Not even you, Hibiki. I just shook my head at her bitterness and turned away, heading for the blended door of white.
"Apprentice," I called out. Kotone snapped out of her trance with a noticeable jump and turned towards me, her eyes still narrowed from glaring at Team Rocket's guest. I quickly motioned towards the door with my head, signalling that it was our time to leave. The girl looked back at the trapped teen before rushing away with obedient strides, her hands clenched at her sides. I just smirked at my fortunes and opened the door for us to leave, my mind filled with convoluted thoughts.
I have the Champion in my hands. My footsteps were swallowed by the slamming door of white before rising once again to an echoed pitch. First, I'm handed one of the best battlers I've ever seen in my life as a new recruit and suddenly I find that she's some prized person in the Champion's eyes. Now the Champion is in my prison and helpless to do anything due to his own recklessness. I just chuckled at the thought and let my hand reach out beside me, relishing in the cold embrace of the stone wall of the aged staircase.
The League will start to worry once they realize he hasn't contacted them, a familiar voice whispered in my mind. The voice, harsh and cold slipped in my veins as all other sounds slipped out of focus. Lance, Bruno and the others...they will find out eventually that their Champion is missing. They had correspondence at one point. What are you going to do if they find Team Rocket's base?
They would never think to look in the depths of Viridian City's underground. I fought to reassure myself of our security as I could feel a disgusting, cold clench of my chest. We've been here for three generations and yet not a soul has found us. How could anyone find us now?
Hibiki Gold found you, the voice hissed. He found your base and infiltrated our very ranks, albeit sloppily. He could have left a trail to our very doors, you fool. We could be sitting Psyducks at this very moment while the League sharpens their fangs and readies an attack. Are you going to just wait and see what happens, just as the past leader did with the boy with the eyes of blood?
I growled and ignored the words jumbled in my mind. My feet stopped just as the light of familiar overhead lights of the golden Grand Chamber flooded the drab darkness of stone. I could feel my apprentice stop beside my with abrupt steps, confused and direct. I narrowed my eyes and took a quick glance at my belt. Six shining, polished spheres reflected a worried face and stormy silver eyes before I even had a chance to hide my thoughts. I took a deep breath and suddenly the face reflected back at me was much more familiar, a stoic leader with no fears at all. It was right then that I knew what I was going to do.
"Get a move on, apprentice!" I turned to face the girl and found her jolting at my voice, her face melting back into a well-known determination. "We might have captured our intruder, but that does not mean we're safe to be idle." I found myself grabbing her wrist with a growl and pulling her along, ignoring her squeak of shock. I leaped into the shimmer of splendor and fumbled on the crimson carpet, trying to think on my feet.
We have to move. We have to move. That one sentence echoed in my mind as I looked back and glimpsed the great throne slip back into place, concealing the secret lower floors of the base. I then snapped back to the closed doors with a glare and found myself dashing for them with no regard to the blurred questions my apprentice was releasing to the air. Do something and fast. Do something and fast.
I released my apprentice from my grasp and let my feet rush ahead, my hand now needed for something far more important than leading a girl along. Shaking fingers slipped into my pocket and clenched a cold surface with a strange sort of desperation before yanking it out of its hiding place and lifting it to my sight. My communicator shimmered in the passing overhead lights, the screen glowing with the many options technology could offer. I gave a quick glance back and found Kotone still following me, her face now serious and almost angry. I nodded at the sight and turned my attention back to the device in my hand, focusing on what I had to do.
With a few quick taps of my thumb, the wonderful option known as a call-all button was activated, and the countless speakers that covered the walls of the base rumbled to life. I took a quick breath before lifting the communicator to my mouth and shouting words that would mark the start of my plan to protect my operations.
"All Rockets report to the fifteenth floor for an emergency meeting! I repeat, all Rockets report to the fifteenth floor for an emergency meeting! This is not a drill! Everyone report to floor fifteen for an emergency meeting!"
It took only fifteen minutes to board the nearest elevator and rush to the fifteenth floor before my head exploded from the pressure in my temples.
By the time I had arrived, the whole room was soaked in black uniforms and hats. Every inch of the floor was occupied, leaving not a single speck of tile to be seen. All eyes fixed on my apprentice and I as I fought down the worry I had felt only moments earlier and calmly walked ahead to the stage at the head of the room. Kotone watched me go with a bit of unease showing in her eyes before walking to the crowd of people, her footsteps leading her straight towards the very graduate she had faced in her recent battling test. I looked away just in time to climb the steps to the podium and stand in front of the crowd.
To my somewhat relief, all of my executives were already in their respective areas, holding charge over four of the types of Rockets in the base. Archer had already calmed the elites, making them stand tall with their hands behind their backs as he often did himself. The guards, surveillance and general informers were standing beside Petrel, their sharp eyes fixed on my face and burning in my skin. Arianna was calmly beside the capture crews, locators and other Pokémon acquisition groups with a smile on her red lips, watching for my next move. Proton, as usual, was leading the armsmen of Team Rocket, the only group that still carried physical weapons such as pistols on the outside. The rest of the mess, our battlers, general members and maintenance took the front row, anxiously shifting around with wide eyes. The sight of my entire organization in an orderly standing brought some sort of calm to my nerves, allowing me to clear my throat and speak to the assembly.
"Members of Team Rocket," I began. "As many of you are sure to remember, three years ago was a rough time for all of us." My words left my mouth with a calculated plan, even though I would normally shun or even punish such mentions of this terrible timeframe. "During this time, a boy with eyes the color of blood nearly eliminated us, fighting us with the power of a Kanto Champion."
The group let out grumbles of unease and anger at the mention of the boy in red, the very plague that had nearly wiped out Team Rocket for good. I could see in the eyes of the veteran members that the pride they held within them for their job was still there, lingering in the memories of pulling through such a turbulent time. I took this as a good sign and continued with my speech, watching their reactions carefully.
"But with that time we gained new strength, with new systems and a better environment for all Rockets." My eyes shifted over the crowd and watched as the members in black let out cheers at my oh so cleverly worded mention of ridding the organization of its biggest setback, a selfish man with a cowardly heart. My vision stopped on my apprentice, her hazel eyes staring straight at me and giving me an encouraging smile. I kept focusing on her as I talked, recalling what she meant for the future of Team Rocket.
"With this new strength comes our most recent victory." I slowly reached into my pockets once again and pulled out a secret prize I had taken from the captive below us, my fingers running against soft silk and a cold gemstone. With a quick lift of my hand I revealed an embellished ribbon to the crowd, one that Johto natives would recognize as the victory ribbon of the Johto Elite Four. The room fell silent at my offering as my face suddenly broke into a grin.
"We have captured the very Champion of Johto himself, Hibiki Gold!"
The result was instantaneous. Cheers rose from the group as the news rang in the air, lingering in their ears and whipping them into a frenzy. My executives exchanged knowing, victorious glances with each other before joining in with the cheers, upholding their image as the leaders of their districts. The loudest groups, the elites and the battlers, let out proud, rumbling whoops of pure joy as their previous goals of beating the Champion had now been achieved by their collected whole, bringing them a sweet victory.
The only one who didn't seem to cheer was my apprentice, even as the girl beside her jumped up and down and cheered with the masses. Instead, the brunette stared down at herself, her vision pointed to the belt on her waist that was still covered in her team of eight. A bit of curiosity peaked in the back of my mind, wondering just how she felt about the events that had occurred in the Grand Chamber. I did not feel a doubt towards her loyalty, oddly enough. Instead, I felt a strange sort of likeness to her previous choice. However, now was not the time for such thoughts.
I pushed the curiosity away and instead lowered my smile and ribbon, watching as the group slowly looked back to their leader. I tucked the fine award away and lifted a hand to the crowd as if it were a scale, showing a visual representation of my next point.
"However, this was not a simple capture mission." My eyes narrowed as I recalled the way he had slipped in through my ranks and donned our uniform to invade our very heart. "Instead, his capture was the result of a failed infiltration mission from the Pokémon League."
Shock and roars of anger rumbled up in the air as their moods swung to more violent ones. They exchanged furious yells of protest over this, yelling out in disgust at such an action. I lifted my left hand to silence them, my eyes narrowing on the crowd. With a quick clearing of my throat I went on with my words, eager to reach the true objective of this meeting.
"With such a thing right under our noses, we now have a new threat to our security." All eyes stared at my face as I gave them a harsh glare that I was known for. The silence that filled the room was well needed, for this was something I wanted them to understand more than anything. "We had faced a youth before and lost to him, but this time will be different in more ways than one."
"This time, we face the threat of facing the very Elite Four themselves. If the Champion knew where our base was, the rest of their pack could very well be informed of our location. We could very well see Lance and his followers storming our base and starting a fight in our very homes," I hissed. These words were hard for me to swallow on my own, let alone admit to the mass before me. However, if I held such a thing a secret I knew that I would be no better than the fool who had lied about the dangers of the boy in red. I was going to be better than that moron. I had to be.
"If a war is what they're after," I paused. I looked over my organization with a critical eye, trying to judge our chances. At the present moment, I knew that things would not be very good for Team Rocket. I was going to change that and fast. "Then it's a war they'll have!" My voice rose high above their heads as the assembly exploded with cheers of agreement.
"We're going to give them the worst, bloodiest war they could ask for!" I found a strange sort of pride rise within my chest as I watched them, joyously cheering for Team Rocket's future. "We will rise above them as the Rockets we are and leave them destroyed on the ground! Team Rocket shall prevail! We shall not die!"
"We shall not die!" The Rockets before me roared back with a violent enthusiasm, ready to take on even the strongest of two continents. Their voices became one, unified cheer that shook the very room. Yelling at the top of their lungs, they were more than ready to attack. "We shall rise!"
I grinned for a fraction of a heartbeat before pointing to Archer and starting with my plan. "The elite members are going to train all of the base in specific things such as infiltration, spying, battling, firearms and physical training. We have to spread our talents around the base to make sure every single Rocket is ready to face the Ace Trainers and other League members that might join the Elite Four! We will be going up against all types, from Bug to Dragon! We must all prepare our teams and face them head-on! I expect to see the most vicious Pokémon known to man ready to fight! There will be no standard team of Radicate and Weezing in this war! We will attack with all sorts and on all sides!"
Yowls of pride rose from the elite members, honor shining on their faces. I knew that with such talented, veteran members leading the weakest ones, we could strengthen the whole. I abruptly looked down at my apprentice and found her smiling at my words. Her eyes lifted from her belt and exposed proud, vibrant hazels that looked healthier than they had in days. I felt a bit of pride stir within myself at the thought before I looked over my organization and felt that feeling multiply ten-fold.
We will all have to train to prepare for this. The Elite Four will be sure to attack us for capturing the Champion. We will not fall again. I closed my eyes and listened to the cheers of the crowd slowly drift into actual words, a singular voice that rose above the clamor of thousands of individuals.
"Long live Team Rocket! Long live Team Rocket!"
Team Rocket will live. We shall become victorious and triumph over all. We will destroy the Elite Four and rid ourselves of our only threat. A flash of red and blue filled my mind as I thought of my previous goal, the desire to capture the Eon Pokémon. Such legendary power would secure victory, but it would be too difficult to obtain before their arrival. No, I will win this war without the help of legendary beasts. I will show them all that Team Rocket is nothing to be messed with.
We will start this war and end it in victory.
Author's Note: I am a terrible updater and I know it. I took a break for a few months at the tailend there, but I still didn't work on this project. I'm sorry for the delay. However, I'm proud of the chapter I have for you today. It's been a while since we've dived in to the Rocket Base, eh? I hope the wait hasn't chilled your love for the story!
Here we see a bit more about Hibiki's infiltration. Such a thing is no small detail, that is for sure. He was a big idiot in just bringing that Murkcrow with him, though. Anyone who would only bring a messenger Pokémon and then stick around is a big fool.
It looks like Team Rocket is going to be in for a big battle! The League VS Team Rocket...what an idea. Giovanni as you know was part of the League at one point, so perhaps his son will not be far behind in terms of skill level. As for the basic grunts...they are going to need a lot of training...and I mean a lot of training.