Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 33: The Most Dangerous Game.
Another meeting of Team Rocket Admins was about to begin but because one of them was absent it has been running a little late.
"I swear that I will kill him if he keeps us waiting even a minute longer." Peter commented about Alex being late.
"Killing him isn't an option listed in any part of the Team Rocket rulebook... but I'm sure I can find the harshest punishment possible for making the boss wait for our video conference." Angie added, even though the previous person wasn't talking at her.
Blaine, who was also allowed to sit in on the meeting, kept quiet, although in his mind he kept on wondering how Giovanni could keep control of Team Rocket if his immediate subordinates seemingly all hated each other.
"Hey. Sorry for being late but..." Alex tried to get his excuse in right after going through the door but stopped when he felt something fly past him.
He touched his head and noticed that part of the hair was missing. He turned around and saw a knife sticking out of the wall. He looked at the gathered and immediately understood that Peter was the one responsible since he didn't even bother to pull back his hand after throwing the weapon. Alex would try to confront him but the fact that the other Admin could throw the knife with such force that it would embed itself in the metal wall made him a little hesitant. He couldn't however allow himself to lose composure so he pretended to style the hair with his hand as if he was expecting to get this haircut.
"What's the meaning of this? And I don't mean you being late. You're acting even weirder than usual." Angie said to him.
"Whaa? When have I ever acted weird? That's a mistake. No. Not me. And as for being late, I have a great explanation."
"Let's hear it." Blaine decided to take control of the situation before it would go out of control.
"This meeting, like always, is supposed to be about our plans and accomplishments. I imagine we'll also discuss the progress on getting M2 out of that cave. Of course first we'll have to connect with the boss. But instead of just talking about what I achieved, I thought it'd be a good idea to show you."
"What the hell does that mean?" Peter asked.
"You'll see. Come inside." Alex said while opening the door for two other Team Rocket members.
"Hey, everyone. How have you been?" Red stuttered a little because, even to someone as carefree as him, being placed in front of two people whose plans he thwarted in the past seemed a little awkward.
Peter, who was using one hand to hold up his head as he slumped over the desk, almost hit his head when he slipped up after witnessing this surprise. Angie instinctively pulled herself as far away from the door as she could, all the while sounding like she wanted to say something but only giving out incomprehensible noises.
"This clearly has to be a dream. Something like this wouldn't happen in real life. Yes. Now that I think about it, the juice that I drank before bed tasted funny. That's why my aim was off. If it was real life, the knife would hit that idiot in the forehead." Peter tried to rationalize what was happening but he was talking so fast that even Blaine, who was closest to him, couldn't make out most of the words.
After spending some time panicking, Angie looked at everyone's faces and realized how foolish they must look. Even though she wasn't prepared for something like this, it was her duty as an Admin of Team Rocket to deal with this to the best of her ability. She calmed herself down and was about to stand up when Blaine beat her to the punch and approached the group by the door.
"I haven't been to many of these meetings since I prefer talking to the boss one on one but I'm pretty sure that you aren't supposed to bring your subordinates with you." he said to Alex and got a closer look at the boys while waiting for an explanation.
"They aren't just my "subordinates". Actually, they've only been part of Team Rocket for like 10 days or so. I was the only Admin in the base at that time and I decided to keep it secret from the others until I was done preparing."
"I'm not sure I follow... Don't I know you from somewhere?" the scientist asked while looking at Green who kept silent and turned his head, embarrassed that they were being shown off like rare stones or other collectibles.
"He's the grandson of Professor Oak. His name is Green. That's already something interesting but Red here has a bigger connection to Team Rocket. He interfered with our plans several times in the last couple months. He played a big role in trapping M2 in Cerulean Cave."
That last bit of information left Blaine speechless. He didn't want to show how shocked he was after hearing that so he sought help by looking towards the other Admins, hoping that one of them would have something to say about the situation.
"Ohh... I don't know how you did this but it seems even a fool like you can be useful if he tries. I'm sure that the boss will be delighted to see me spill his blood after learning that he was the one who delayed us this much." Peter talked while slowly moving towards them, preparing to reach for the knife stuck in the wall.
"You'll do nothing of the sort."
The voice sent shivers down the long-haired Admin's back. The others felt similarly intimidated. Everyone besides Red and Green recognized it immediately and turned towards the wall opposite of the seating area and saw that the communication screen was on and they could see Giovanni sitting in behind the desk in his office, looking at them one by one, causing the Admins to involuntarily bow their heads. Blaine was a little calmer but he also lowered his head after adjusting glasses. He couldn't however keep himself from worrying that the boss would get offended by the fact that the two new members didn't seem too keen to show him respect in any way. Green quickly understood that it would be a good idea to follow the others' lead but Red couldn't focus on what seemed to be reasonable. Instead, he walked forward to get a better look at the man leading the organization he's been fighting against for all these months.
"So you're Giovanni."
The boss seemed to ignore him and instead glanced a the bowing Team Rocket members as if he was hoping to learn something by watching them but gave up since he couldn't see their faces with their heads so low. Additionally, none of them wanted to risk trying to pull down Red since it would mean that they themselves would have to raise their heads which they wouldn't do without Giovanni demanding it.
"Leave us alone." the man demanded.
"B-but..." Angie was so shocked by that order that she couldn't help wanting to learn the reason but she couldn't come up with a good way to ask.
"I don't want to hear any "buts", even from you..."
"Yes, sir." she answered after calming down and proceeded to leave the room, the others following in her footsteps.
Green wasn't sure if he was supposed to do it too so he lingered a bit until Alex pulled him away. The door closed behind them but they were still too nervous to talk. They took some time to calm down and although they were wondering what Giovanni could want to talk about with Red, there was nothing they could do. Instead, Blaine decided to focus on learning some other things.
"Were we already connected? What happened there?"
"I panicked and initiated the video call." Angie confessed while shyly holding up a hand.
"You made things more complicated than they needed to be." Alex complained although he looked a little afraid of Peter who kept staring at him with angry eyes.
"Wouldn't the same thing happen even if you called him after explaining to everyone why you brought us with you?" Green asked, making everyone remember that he was there with them.
"And what, pray tell, was the point of all this? Why do you have Professor Oak's grandson with you? And that other boy?" asked Blaine.
"Red has been the proverbial thorn in our side for way too long. He even managed to get inside one of our bases. I couldn't just let him go and as much as I enjoy giving my underlings a smack when they annoy me, I'm not into killing people just because I can't deal with them like Mr. Stabbity Stab over here." Alex explained, looking at Peter during the last part "But letting him rot in a cell would be a big waste of his potential. Even if we managed to get M2 back, taking control over the world won't be as simple as most of our people seem to think. We need capable people to deal with anyone who would try to oppose us. Red is a better trainer than any of our henchmen and I came to learn that Green also isn't too bad. That's why I decided to make them part of Team Rocket. I took precautions to make sure that they couldn't easily betray us but I'm also hoping that they will see that we aren't actually as bad as people think us to be. I thought this was important enough to discuss it with the boss."
"That... actually makes sense." the scientist noted.
"Does it?" Peter and Green asked almost simultaneously before looking at each other with disdain.
"I'm against it." Angie said while putting up her hand "This isn't in line with the rules of Team Rocket. I'm sure that the boss also realized this and is coming up with a proper way to deal with that Red boy right now."
"That's weird. I thought you also were inte..." Alex didn't finish his sentence because the girl stopped him by standing on his foot and giving him a mean look.
"I probably shouldn't be saying this without knowing what Giovanni's decision is going to be but I would like to get to know you, Green." Blaine turned towards the boy and adjusted his glasses "I've met your grandfather on a couple occasions but we're both such busy men that we didn't have time to discuss the things we're working on properly. Wellll... There's also the matter of the "thing" I was working on not being completely legal. I'm sure that being his grandson you must have at least a little insight into his work. I would greatly enjoy discussing it. If you visit me in our laboratories, there's also a chance that you may begin to view Team Rocket in a slightly better light. There are some parts of what we do that I don't completely agree with and I realize that talking about "doing it for the greater good" would make me seem like a mad scientist, the likes of which you can see in every science fiction movie, but if someone like you, who clearly has no sympathy for us, can begin to understand why we're doing what we're doing, then that would give me hope that other people would also come to realize that we aren't so bad."
"Alright."
"Wha-? That's all you're going to say?" Alex was surprised.
"I wanted to come up with an insult that would imply that I'm smarter than you. It would most likely make at least one of you angry, thus proving my point and giving me a bit of satisfaction but... I don't really care." he said, visibly not showing any interest in the situation he found himself in, instead finding another thing that interested him "Aren't you also a Gym leader?"
"Yes. I'm the leader of the Cinnabar Island Pokemon Gym, although I've been a bit preoccupied lately so I have an assistant who gives out the badges to people who go through a short quiz that tests their Pokemon knowledge." Blaine responded.
"Is there any more Gym leaders who are part of Team Rocket?" Green inquired.
"Are there?" Alex wondered "I mean, we didn't learn that Professor Humane was one until recently."
Angie and Peter also showed interest in the matter and all of them turned their curious eyes towards Blaine who felt a little intimidated.
"No. Of course not. There was a possible third one but the boss and him didn't see eye to eye. However, I cannot wait for the day when the other Gym leaders join us in changing this world. We're getting closer and closer to that moment. I'm positive."
"Is there a short way you could explain why... Just... why?" Green asked Blaine but after that his eyes travelled between the other people.
"You mean why we're doing this? I could explain it but... I don't think it would be short." Blaine answered.
"Until you officially become one of us... If you do... Only then will we have enough trust to talk about such matters." Angie added.
"You don't really need to know. Each of us is doing it for a different reason and we don't really care about why the others are doing it. I've never heard why these two are part of the organization and I don't really care as long as I get what was promised to me." said Alex.
"Even if the boss allows you guys to join, we're not going to become anything close to friends. Even if you work for me, if there's a chance that you dying will bring me what I want then I won't hesitate to stab you in the back." stated Peter who got so bored by waiting that he sat on the floor with his back against a wall.
Green saw that every single one of them was a loner which led to him wondering what they could have in common if Giovanni's goal was something all of them desired to see fulfilled. And what about the boss himself? This whole thing was clearly the work of his life? The only thing that was clear was that he hoped to somehow change the world and that he didn't plan on doing it an exactly peaceful manner since he created something as powerful as M2 in order to do it. Did any of the others know what was going in his mind or were his thoughts similarly hidden? Blaine was the only one who used his name but it was in a conversation with them and not to the bosses face. There was however another one that seemed even more suspicious. He was sure that he heard him saying something that made it sound like Angie was more important than the other Admins. There was almost no chance that the girl would tell him the reason, even if she knew it, but it was better than waiting there in an awkward silence.
"Hey, what..."
He was interrupted by the sound of the opening door. Red peeked from inside the room and looked at them one by one as if he was trying to see if none of them went missing during these couple minutes.
"Come inside." he announced with a smile, leaving them all temporarily astonished.
It seemed like his conversation with the boss went well but no one expected this kind of reaction, and although Green was his friend, even he couldn't come up with what Red could have done to convince someone who could be called his nemesis to allow them to stay part of Team Rocket. The fact that Red wanted to stay also left him wondering if he had some planned or was he just going along with what they wanted until he would have a chance to get back his Pokemon and escape this place.
"What are you waiting for?" Red asked and Green noticed that he was so absorbed by his thoughts that he was the only one still outside the room.
After everyone was finally inside, the door closed behind them and they started to sit down. Although there was a fourth seat added to the usual three to accommodate Blaine, there were none for Red and Green. The former hopped onto Alex's desk although making sure not to obscure his view, while the latter stood against a wall, near the door.
"Congratulations, Alex." Giovanni spoke up after everyone made themselves comfortable.
"Wh... I mean... Yes. Thank you. I guess this means that Red explained everything to you?" the Admin didn't know if he should be satisfied seeing as the boss's face didn't change, so he decided that it would be safer to ask Red, about what they talked about, once they left the room.
"I know that the rest of you probably have something to announce to me but first I'd like Blaine to step up. I want to hear the news about what the science division has achieved so far concerning M2."
"There's not much to say." the scientist was being truthful "I could explain what we're doing but the science behind it something so new that some of the stuff we're working with don't even have proper names. Thanks to having other samples of the original, we were able to use the cloning process that created Mewtwo in order to change the DNA in the samples to the same one that Mewtwo has. Or, at least, we're really close. We didn't have time to do proper tests once it fully matured so we can't be completely sure. We only have a couple chances in order to get it as close as possible. Once we do that, they'll serve in enabling a link with Mewtwo through the machine we're building. It may be impossible to break through that barrier but as long as we keep the link up and the machine close, we should be able to create a temporary gap in the field. The only problem after that is how we're going to make sure that it doesn't run away again."
"I already have other people working on that."
"What?!" Blaine sounded shocked, a fact he immediately noted and regretted although he tried to hide it afterwards "I didn't hear anything about this."
"I didn't want to put all of the hard work on you. If you want, I'll arrange it so you'll be able to contact the science division working in the headquarter. Maybe there's some way you could help each other."
"Y.. Yes." the scientist answered timidly, suddenly feeling awkward that he was the center of attention and begging in his mind that Giovanni would quickly turn to someone else.
"So... What were the rest of you doing while Alex was busy with getting these young men to join us?" the boss asked while looking in the general direction of Peter and Angie, probably not caring which one of them would answer first.
Angie felt that she needed to redeem herself even though she didn't know how her previous actions were percieved by Giovanni but the moment she was about to open her mouth, Peter started talking "I was thinking about trying to steal the masterball. I've heard rumors about Silph Co. trying to develop a pokeball that would be able to capture a Pokemon without the need for a battle. One of my underlings is in a relationship with Silph employee. He's low in the ranking but he unknowingly provided us with the info that the masterball prototype is about to be finished. I'll need to do this thing solo since getting through their security with force could prove harder than sneaking in. The idea is that once we get it, we'll use it to capture M2. This should make this a little easier, right?"
"It certainly would. I have one objection."
"Yes?" Peter didn't like the tone used by the boss but he would never mention it.
"You won't be doing it alone. I want either Red or Green to go with you."
Peter clenched his fists which didn't escape Giovanni's attention but the Admin still tried to keep calm when asking "What's the reason for this?"
"They passed Alex's test but I feel like they should do something to gain your recognition."
"Did... Did he do something for you to be willing to give them a chance?" Peter asked while glancing at Red.
"That's not something for you to know." the boss answered simply and immediately turned to Angie, signifying that he didn't want to talk with Peter any longer "What have you been busy with, my dear?"
Green raised his brow while hearing how Giovanni referred to the female Admin, even if his voice still didn't show any emotion.
"I've had my people gathering information about Darkness Gang for the last couple months and I think we're close to finding their headquarters. When I learn its whereabouts, I'm going to investigate it personally and try to learn as much as I can before initiating an attack that will get rid of them. From what we heard, their strongest fighter, Faust, is dead. That will make it a lot easier."
"Good. However, I want you to also involve one of the new members in your plans. Understand?"
"Yes, Sir." she saluted him.
"She'll have to get in line." said Alex "You may have thought that I would be satisfied with just bringing in these fine additions but I have something else I want to focus on until we're ready to take back M2. This kinda concerns you, Blaine."
"Does it now?" the scientist seemed curious.
"There's a laboratory on Cinnabar Island that deals with analyzing fossils, right?"
"That's true."
"Well, I heard that they got a big batch of them and these aren't just your regular fossils. They have this machine that can revive ancient Pokemon. I'm not just talking about stealing them. We have a couple of them that we got from the mountains near Lavender Town and as someone who has a slight interest in science, I want to compare how different the actual ancient Pokemon are to their relatives that survived to this day. If we can take the best of both and breed them, then we may have something great on our hands pretty soon."
"That sounds fine. You were already thinking about taking one of the boys with you?"
"I'm already great buddies with Red so I'll be happy to get to know Green a little better." he said while giving the latter a sly smirk.
"Then I'll take Red with me." interjected Peter "If he messes this up..."
"It looks like you'll have to wait your turn, Angie." the boss noted.
"Wh... No, no. It's not like I was excited about working with them or anything of the sort. I still have time so I'm fine for now. I'll take one of them with me once they return from their earlier missions but only because you asked me to."
"Of course. Now, if that's all, then I bid you farewell." the boss said before disconnecting without giving the Admins a chance to react to his words.
With everything that happened during the meeting, most of them couldn't help but feel at least a bit awkward about how things were going. If they were to discuss it amongst themselves, it would be hard to even find a good starting point.
The only one who didn't seem bothered was Red who quickly got off the desk and looked at Alex "So? What's for dinner?"
. . .
After ending the call, Giovanni leaned back in his chair. To a regular person he wouldn't look any different than normal but his secretary could read little hints given off by his body movement. The fact that she was there to hear the whole conversation, including what remained a secret from Admins, made her curious enough to break the silence.
"I don't want to sound rude but... Why did you decide to trust that boy?"
"Trust him, Resse? No. I simply chose to believe in the good in him. If he's willing to try and understand us... understand me... then I want to give him a chance. This works in our favor because if we ever find out that he lied, he can become useful to us in a completely different way. It's like we're playing chess and cards at the same time and we have to guess if he's a pawn or a joker."
I finished this chapter fairly quickly, mostly because I took a day off in order to visit a dentist, but it's shorter than what you're probably used to at this point. The following two chapters could end up being even shorter since I wanted to show each Team Rocket mission separately. There's some other stuff that I was thinking about putting in them. Blue will return soon and then the chapters will probably get longer again, although I could be speaking absolute bullcrap.
I purposefully left out the most interesting part of the meeting out of the story and I don't plan to show it in the future but you'll come to understand what happened as you read on. There was still a lot of stuff going and some of it still may seem mysterious but with the upcoming chapters I want to make it clearer why the Admins and Blaine behave in certain ways while also giving focus to the color kids. That's why I always had the Admins in the section below. Once Blaine and Giovanni show off their Pokemon, I'll probably add them there. I'll try to never have too many characters there but these 8 will continue playing important roles in several upcoming chapters.
The title comes from a short story by Richard Connell. It refers to what's Giovanni talking about at the end, both the game he's playing with Red and Red himself.
Red. Team: Nidorino.
Stasis: Eevee, Charmeleon, Raichu, Gloom, Gyarados, Pidgeotto.
Badges: 4
Green. Team: Jynx.
Stasis: Venusaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee, Vulpix, Horsea.
Badges: 3
Blue. Team: Weepinbell(Bell), Blastoise(Tori), Zubat(?), Graveler(?).
Badges: 3
Alex. Team: Ditto, Vaporeon, Jolteon, ?.
Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash.
Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.