Ohmygosh, I did not intend for it to be this long until I returned to this story, but here I am. Oops. I wrote the first half of this back in like April, and didn't come back to it today. Apparently people are still finding this since it has views? I'll try to get moving on the next chapter sooner rather than later.
Thank you AgentBrian and Ri2 for reviewing! As far as other characters moving in, I have a few ideas on who I want, but it won't be for a little while. I'm still feeling out the current ones, plus poor Cyrus needs time to adjust XD I absolutely have every intention of continuing this whenever inspiration strikes, but in terms of an update schedule, I tend to be very, very sporadic. I promise I will try to be better, though. Archie and Maxie's over the top personalities are thanks to some old Tumblr blogs I revisited recently, haha.
Enjoy!
Archie frowned at the small, chunky black cube sitting on the wooden stand. He couldn't deny it any longer. Their TV was old.
The picture was fuzzy and half the time the channels wouldn't even connect properly. It'd been more than two months. Sure, he'd gone longer without a functional TV before, but that was different. That was back when he was trying to manage an entire team and when a blue legendary Pokémon that could control the forces of nature was the center of his world. TV was the last thing on his mind back then. Unfortunately, that time had passed, and boredom was his biggest enemy now; even Maxie couldn't compete with that as he sat next to him, glaring at the flashing screen.
They needed a new TV.
"That's it!" Archie stood up and turned off the TV, eliciting a small protest from Maxie. In the kitchen, Cyrus stared, then moved slightly behind the fridge out of view searching its contents.
Giovanni, at the kitchen table, sighed. "What is it now, Archie?"
Archie threw his hands up in the air. "Do you not see this thing? It's garbage! We need a new TV."
"We've been over this. We can not afford a new television. Not until any of us secure jobs."
Maxie also stood. "Giovanni, I'm afraid Archie is correct. We simply cannot continue like this, jobless or not. We need a way to stay up on current affairs. We must be vigilant in the event our former members are attempting to signal us."
Giovanni stared him down. "Don't you have Tabitha on speed dial?"
"That's not the point," Maxie answered primly.
Giovanni looked tired. "My former executives are already covering most of our rent for now, but I do not want to rely on them much longer. Archer will show up any day if he finds our situation is worse than I've let on. I'm trying to keep him at an arm's length. He still hasn't gotten over Team Rocket's second downfall in this city."
"Isn't that why you chose this location?" Archie asked cheerfully. "Because you know he's too traumatized to come back here?"
"I- That's not the point," Giovanni said hastily. "The TV stays."
Archie grumbled, but knew better than to say anything. Besides, he had a plan.
Later that night, Archie crept downstairs. It was silent, finally. Cyrus had a weird tendency to stay up until three in the morning sometimes. Archie didn't know what he did, but it usually looked mechanical, and Cyrus for some reason ignored every question Archie asked when he saw him working one time.
Archie walked up to the offending TV, stubbing his toe on the coffee table and swearing loudly in the process.
He listened. No new noise upstairs.
He got into position. This was a delicate operation, one where everything needed to go perfectly.
The lights flipped on, temporarily blinding him in the flash. Archie cursed.
"You know, it looks much more suspicious if you're doing this in the dark."
Archie went rigid. Of course Maxie had to be the one to find him like this, unplugged cords in hand, arms wrapped around the television. It wasn't a good look.
Maxie sniffed. "No wonder Team Aqua was defeated so easily if this is the best plan their leader can come up with."
It was late, and Archie didn't care to get into another fight with Maxie. That would come in the morning, when it was Archie's turn to make weekend breakfast. He was going with soup. Maxie hated soup. Archie smiled smugly to himself, knowing he'd win in the end.
He ignored the insult. "Are you gonna tell Giovanni?" Archie said mockingly.
"Not this time. This time I'm here to help." Maxie joined him.
Archie's eyes widened. A truce! It was temporary, but he could hardly believe it. "You just want to be able to watch Keeping Up with the Kangaskhans," Archie said, not wanting Maxie to see his surprise.
Maxie's cheeks turned pink. "Be that as it may, we need a new TV. We cannot consider making a comeback of any sort if we're relying on yesterday's news the neighbors keep throwing out. There is no way around it."
Archie smirked. Maxie had no more intention of reuniting Magma than he did Aqua. It was just a flimsy excuse to cover up his love of trashy reality TV.
Archie backed away and watched in amusement while Maxie struggled to push the television from the stand. After recieving a death glare, he went over and easily pushed the TV over with an expert shove.
The one thing they'd forgotten?
Gravity is loud.
A huge boom resonated through the entire house house, shaking the floorboards and sending books tumbling off the shelves of Maxie's collection of books on dirt.
Archie and Maxie looked at each other, then raced to the bedroom as fast as they could, diving under the covers, hoping Giovanni wasn't out of bed yet.
They heard him traipsing down the stairs a moment later, grumbling to himself.
Archie and Maxie breathed a sigh of relief. They peeked at each other, eyes just above the blankets. Then, both recoiled in horror and jumped out of bed.
Somehow, in the chaos, they'd gotten mixed up in the dark and switched sides. Archie ran back over to the blue half, shoving Maxie aside with a hushed roar. Maxie went flying over to his bed.
Downstairs, Giovanni cursed.
Both smiled. Their job was done.
Archie came downstairs the next morning, casual. The TV lay in ruin where he had left it only hours ago. Giovanni and Cyrus were already awake.
Archie got to work on the soup.
"Care to explain?" Giovanni asked, frustrated once Maxie joined and they were all there.
Archie pretended to be caught off guard. "What happened?" He jumped back in shock for good measure.
"The television!" Maxie feigned surprise.
Giovanni glowered. "I know you two had something to do with this."
"Now why would we destroy our only source of entertainment?" Archie asked innocently, knowing his acting was much, much better than Maxie's.
"It's true," Maxie added with what Archie considered an unconvincing air of false sophistication. "Why, just yesterday you told us we couldn't get a new TV until jobs were secured. We'd never risk losing our best connection to the outside world."
Giovanni grumbled to himself.
An hour later, once soup had been served with Maxie sufficiently displeased, the four of them stood in front of Goldenrod's famed department store, glancing upward to take it all in.
Archie snorted. Sure, it was big, but did it have anything on Lilycove'sdepartment store? He doubted it. There, it was possible to get on the roof! That, and it was located conveniently close to his old secret hideout. Grunts were constantly being sent over in droves to bring back gallon after gallon of delicious lemonade. Team Aqua ran on lemonade. That and rum. Archie smiled fondly at the memories. The allusion to pirates wasn't merely so they got to rock cool uniforms.
His brow furrowed however, as they entered the store. The days of lemonade and rum were long behind him now. Admittedly, it was probably for the best, considering mixing the two made for an atrocious, highly nauseating concoction. At least he wouldn't have to chase down Matt and Shelly over it anymore. At least Shelly couldhandleher liquor. Matt was a disaster. Archie found himself reminiscing about the time they had to get him down from the ceiling.
The TVs were on the second floor. In the hot, sweaty elevator, Archie tugged on his disguise. They needed to remain incognito as much as possible whenever they went out. Sure, Giovanni had the biggest prize on his head in Johto, but Archie wasn't about to slip up and be the first one caught. That would be so humiliating if he lost to Maxie, who currently sported a long blond wig to cover up his distinctive hair.
Fortunately, since 95% of the time his hair was covered in a bandana even when he slept, Archie didn't have to deal with that nonsense. All the same, he wore a hat with a master ball on it, just in case anyone forgot he was the greatest. He'd paired it with a cape, much to Giovanni's disdain because it reminded him of that Lance fellow. The cape was even purple! Blue's cousin, yes, but Archie was still quite certain he was utterly unrecognizable in his current get up.
Giovanni wore a police uniform in hopes of people steering clear of him, and Cyrus, much to his dismay, was forced to take the only costume they had left at the moment: a harlequin one. Archie assured him it could've been worse, as Maxie had been forced to dress as a beauty thanks to the long wig. None of them could properly figure out how to hide his mullety hairstyle under the wig, and the rock star outfit just looked ridiculous on him. Archie supposed they could've given Cyrus that one or considered buying him a new one entirely with their limited funds, but personally he thought the harlequin one suited him best.
The only downside to the dragon tamer look he was going for was the costume showed zero skin, Archie realized. He was sweltering.
TVs upon TVs upon TVs greeted them as the elevator chimed open.
Archie couldn't conceal his excitement.
Giovanni tried to warn them about staying on budget and not going over the top and blah blah blah, but Archie wasn't hearing it. He made a beeline for the largest TV in the place, one roughly the length of their Mothim-eaten couch and twice as tall.
"This one!" he shouted, pointing. Arceus, if only they would show that Kyogre special again! It would look magnificent on the big screen. Sure, there was footage of him making a total fool of himself included in it, but hey, at least he was famous.
"No," Giovanni said flatly. "That is out of the question."
Archie pouted. Back in his old base, they had a TV the size of an entire wall. Technically, it was a projector that cast a very dim image, and they could only watch old movies on it, and it hadn't lasted long, but it had been soworth it. Days before Team Aqua's downfall, Matt had stumbled into it stone-cold sober, smashing it to bits in his clumsiness. Perhaps that should've been a warning sign the end was near.
He moved to the next largest TV, still ten times larger than the one he and Maxie had obliterated. "How about this one then?"
Maxie joined them. Cyrus had disappeared, probably to go hide off in a corner somewhere. Archie shook his head. His antisocial attitude was really something they were going to have to work on.
"Now come on," Maxie chided smugly. "Do you really think that's going to fit in our living room?"
Archie thought. "We could put it in the kitchen."
"Absolutely not." Giovanni walked over to one of the tiniest, most modest TVs they had. "This would be more realistic."
Even Maxie was beside himself. "Th-That's smaller than our original TV!" he sputtered.
"Had you not broken it, we wouldn't be having this problem," Giovanni replied darkly.
Archie had had enough. This was not going the way it was supposed to.
Giovanni had the credit card; he was in charge of finances. Therefore, Archie did the only thing that made sense.
He pounced on the Rocket boss.
Giovanni shouted, flailing wildly as he slammed into the ground. Maxie tried to help pin him, but his gangly, nerdy frame was little help. All the same, he tried to hold up his end of the truce as the three of them rolled all over the floor in their struggle.
"L-Let go of me!"
"Give us the card!"
"Never!"
It was an odd sight: a dragon tamer and a beauty viciously tackling a police officer to the ground. Many onlooked, bemused and uncertain. At the desk, the cashier called for security. Another associate rushed to pull them away from what appeared to be an innocent off-duty law enforcement official.
That was enough for Archie and Maxie, who scrambled off Giovanni and out the door as soon as they heard the Growlithes coming.
Giovanni stood up, brushing himself off. Cyrus rejoined him, bringing with him a decently sized TV with a receipt taped to the box in a cart.
"How'd it go?" he asked idly. It'd been impossible for him not to overhear the commotion.
"Not quite as planned," Giovanni commented, still a tad disoriented. "The card?" Cyrus wordlessly handed it back to him.
Knowing Archie and Maxie were bound to be a nuisance, before leaving Giovanni had given Cyrus the credit card, with strict instructions on which model to buy. Cyrus had bought the TV unnoticed, silently slinking away to the safety of the register, while Giovanni sacrificed himself to wrangle their resident problem children, a task that turned out to be much more hazardous than anticipated. They were worse than executives, those two. In the end, all had gone according to plan.
Sort of.
Giovanni glanced at the TV, already imagining the chaos that would take place trying to set it up. He shuddered.
"Well," he said finally to a bored Cyrus while studying the fancy new millennium flatscreen TV. "At least we're out of the wretched 90s."