Code Black

Delia was beyond terrified. Her head was covered, and gagged and bound she found herself dragged from a helicopter onto a stone rooftop that grazed her knees when they dropped her. The cloth bag on her head was finally removed and she choked, sucking sweet, cool air into her lungs. It was night time now, and the whistle of wind that blew up and over them chilled her to the very core. Oh Legendaries what were they going to do with her?

A figure she found familiar and yet had never met was there to greet her; a slender older woman with silver hair. Her expression was cold, similar to the sort Giovanni would use to scare his underlings. If it was Sa'lu's intention to scare Delia, then it was definitely working.

"Delia," the woman greeted her, making her shudder. How could she know her name? Delia was nobody of interest, especially to this Shadow Dragon Master. "Take those ropes off her," she next addressed her three agents; those who called themselves 'The Shadow Triad'. "This is not how we treat a special guest in our household."

Taking her under the arms, they pulled Delia to her feet and loosed her bonds. Then in a single sweep of her hand, Sa'lu dismissed them, leaving Delia alone to face this demon of a woman.

"I hope they didn't rough you up too much, Delia. I hear you and your little companions put up quite a fight."

Delia said nothing, she couldn't. Her fear had since frozen her in place so that all she could do was stare. "W…wh…what do you want with me?" she finally stuttered through chattering teeth.

"Oh Delia," Sa'lu's expression became soft, the sort that hid the proverbial knife behind her back. "There is no need to be afraid. So long as you do as you're told, then you'll be fine, my dear. You're here because you happen to be a valuable negotiation piece in this little chess match between myself and your darling husband."

"You plan on using me to bribe Giovanni?" Delia was mortified.

"Yes."

Giovanni was a ruthless business man who never took well to a bribe, not when he was normally the one doing the blackmailing. He made a point of ensuring that everyone in his organisation was dispensable so that this sort of thing would never happen. Would this extend to his own wife too? What about Ash?

The very thought of her son hit Delia with an iron fist and she paled.

"But enough of this negativity," Sa'lu seemed to brush away Delia's anxieties, as though irrelevant. "Come inside and join me by the fireplace. You must be chilled to the core. I have someone here who will be desperately happy to see you."

Castelia City was beautiful at this time of the evening. The dark blues of the night's sky met with the dull, yellow glow of city buildings. The architecture here was predominantly modern, though in this part of town, the elegance of the high class social scene denoted the fact that Team Rocket's latest investment had been a costly one.

While I'd been gallivanting about with Lance, Giovanni's head of staff; Archer along with his wife Ariana, had arrived in Castelia to buy out an entire luxury hotel in preparation for the Boss's arrival. It couldn't have come too soon. For the past week now wave after wave of Team Rocket arrivals stepped foot on Unova shores, and the helicopter was simply too small to contain us all.

Residing in the heart of the Unova capital, this would prove to be our new home base, and was to stand as a testament of Team Rocket's ever growing presence in Unova.

But while a stronger Team Rocket served as reassurance, there was still something that niggled at the back of my mind. Like the calm before a storm.

None of Giovanni's scouts had been able to infiltrate this 'so-called Team Plasma' let alone find any traces of it. Some had even began to doubt their very existence. Though I knew better, and it disturbed me that even now, as we invaded their shores, they did nothing to stop us. Did they know something we didn't? Did they have a special weapon up their sleeves? Super Powerful Pokémon? All I knew for sure was that we couldn't take them likely. Not while they had Sa'lu possibly leading their ranks.

I stepped away from the window and took in the remainder of my messy quarters. Clothes and bedding had been thrown about the floor and bed. The ensuite bathroom door was closed and the sounds of a running shower indicated that I wasn't alone here.

The phone on my bedside table told me that it was just after eight; nearly time for me to report to the helicopter and begin my shift. With a new meteonite fragment on hand, we'd taken to working in shifts around the clock, scouring the desert in search for its parent.

I checked the phone for any missed calls but there was nothing, and I frowned.

"What's up?" Naked, Lance stepped from the bathroom, running his hands through soggy, shoulder length hair. It looked so strange down… and yet familiar somehow.

"It's Delia," I whispered. "She hasn't contacted me. I'm getting worried."

"Have you tried calling her?"

I nodded, "I keep getting her message bank. And her GPS readout still says she's in the vicinity of the Pokémon centre. If she's waiting for Ash…" I stopped, blinking and suddenly realised that I'd said too much.

Lance's eyebrow rose.

"Never mind."

"You said Ash. There is only one Ash I know, and judging from the look on your face, I'd say it's the same one you're thinking of. Is Ash Delia's son?" The next question was on his lips, why did they have Team Rocket looking out for them like this?

I said nothing, leaving it to Lance to connect the dots as he started to dress.

"Ash is Giovanni's son isn't he."

"Bingo," I replied. "Meaning if we lose tabs on either one of them, I can guarantee heads will roll."

Lance was slowly shaking his head, a semi-amused smirk creeping its way across his face. "What have I married into?"

And I had to snort. "Welcome to the Mafia, Dragon Master." Then something tweaked. "Silver!" I blurted suddenly.

Lance's head shot up at this, "What?"

I approached him with a bewildered stare, wondering how I'd not seen it before. Carefully running my fingers through his wet hair, I toyed with it; parting it and letting loose strands hang over his eyes.

"What are you doing?" Lance demanded.

"You look just like Silver. In my dream where I saw him, he had hair styled just like this."

Still a little skeptical of what I'd told him, Lance's eyebrow rose. "Are you sure you didn't just see me in your dream?"

"I'm positive," I argued. "It was Silver. Older but still Silver."

I stepped away and allowed Lance to finish dressing. He ran a hand through his hair and ruffled it until it began to stand on end again.

"Where are you off to anyway?" I questioned.

"Investigating a phenomenon in the city square," he replied, snapping back to G-Man mode. "A Venipede stampede if you can call it that. They normally live in the desert. So I wouldn't be surprised if Team Rocket has something to do with their sudden exodus."

"Sure," I said, "blame Team Rocket."

His glower stated the fact that he had every intention of pinning this on us and our activities. After all, he happened to be standing in the heart of a newly established Team Rocket facility.

Clipping his Pokéballs to his belt, he gave me a brief kiss before making his way out to the balcony. I watched him take off on his Dragonite, then giving my phone another glance; I headed downstairs to start my shift.

The Team Rocket helicopter hovered over the desert, a brilliant beam of light pulsing from it as we slowly scanned every rocky outcrop and every valley for the source of the meteonite signature.

Inside, the small stone fragment Jessie and James had managed to obtain from the Museum in Nacrene City glowed an eerie purple. Every so often sparks of electricity would snap from it, as though to lash out at the glass sphere that contained it.

Mewtwo, Giovanni's most prized clone experiment, worked tirelessly at feeding the machine with his psychic energy. The Legendary had been working at it for days now and it was obvious by the strain his body had taken, that he was beyond exhausted. Large bags formed under his eyes that had since lost their blue hue and become bloodshot. His fur was messy and mattered, and his skin seemed to just hang off his bones. The energy it took for him to keep this operation going was eating away at his body bit by bit. If we didn't find this stupid rock soon, then this would surely mean the death of him.

"Sensor readings?" Jessie's question snapped me from my daze, and I shifted in my seat at the piloting station. We were running on auto-pilot so my job was to simply keep an eye on it.

"None yet," Jessie's partner James replied, not taking his gaze off the computer monitor.

All eyes were focused on various data readouts, with the exception of our overseer; Pierce who curiously watched Dr. Zager.

"Well, Dr. Zager?"

"Excellent," Zager grinned, "If we're able to maintain these coordinates."

Pierce shot me a look, but it was Meowth who was sitting next to me that replied. "Coordinates holdin' at one two one six."

"We've picked up something!" James's exclamation grabbed our attention and Pierce hurried over to his post to gain a better look.

"Oh my!"

The readout was blinking brightly with a great, yellow ball of energy located just beneath us.

"Yes!" Zager's eyes immediately lit up. "I've found it! The meteonite."

This was it. Our search was over!

A flash of light grabbed my attention, and leaning over to glance out the cockpit window, I soon came to realise that the entire ground below us was pulsating. I could feel a strange energy forcing its way into my head and causing every hair on my body to stand on end.

"Guys," I said with a holler. "I think you should see this!"

All at once I was joined by a crowd of bodies, all eagerly peering over my workstation.

"This is it!" Pierce beamed. "Kair, get in contact with Headquarters. Tell them we have a code black."

"Professor Juniper! We've detected an unknown energy flow."

Juniper's gaze was fixated on the screen before her. Her lab was in shambles but she hardly took note. Every member of her staff was on deck, working tirelessly through the night in attempt to figure out the sudden fluctuation of energy that now seemed to stretch out right across the continent. Her beloved Unova.

"Trace it back to its source." She was beyond tired.

"Right," her staff worked to fulfil her orders and for a moment there was silence in the lab.

"Professor," the voice of her lab assistant shattered the calm. "A second energy source has been detected in the Desert Resort. The two energy sources are now merging and the numbers are off the charts!" his voice raised with his desperation.

"Now what?" Juniper frowned, the puzzlement evident on her face. "Something of major proportions is happening in the Desert Resort."

Meanwhile; somewhere over Unova airspace a cargo plane began its descent.

Giovanni sat perched in his chair, an eye on his computer monitor, and another on the orange sunrise that greeted him; a sunrise over a land that was soon to fall under the dominion of Team Rocket.

The pilot's face appeared on his screen, announcing that their arrival was now imminent. Once on the ground, the final phases of Giovanni's plan would be set into motion.

The meteonite. It would be his. Exclusively for the power and glory of Team Rocket!