"Jasmine! Long time no see! How's it going?"
"Hello, Flint." Jasmine greeted with a smile. "Glad to see that you are doing well."
The two of them continued to walk further into the Dragon's Den in Blackthorn, the location of the secret meeting between the Pillars of Indigo and the other representatives, excluding Giovanni. They are both a little early this evening but that is fine. It will give them some time to catch up with each other about what is going on in their lives.
"Where's Volk?"
"He reached here a lot earlier than we did." Jasmine informed. "Saying something about needing to discuss with Lance first before this meeting was held. He will most likely brief us about the final plan he and Lance agreed on later during the meeting."
"Hn, the lazyass, leading a meeting among Indigo's Pillars." Flint cannot help but snicker at the thought. "Back in the days he would loathe even participating in any Pillar meeting and here he is, leading a meeting of an international scale."
"Funny how fate works sometimes." Jasmine agreed with an amused smile. They both walked into the inner chambers of the Dragon's Den, a place with absolute secrecy due to the protection of the Wataru Clan. Right here, they would not need to worry about having their meeting being listened in or Giovanni's men finding out that they were actually meeting in secret.
It seems that they weren't the earliest. There are already people in the meeting room.
"Hello. It's nice to see you."
"Good evening, Erika." Jasmine returned the greeting as Flint waved an enthusiastic hello back at the Celadon Gym Leader.
"Name's Flint! Nice to meetcha!"
"Guess we are the earlybirds, eh?" Morty said as he nudged Falkner with his elbow. "Get it? Earlybirds? Haha!"
"Lame." Falkner replied with a snort, but Morty only laughed even louder.
"Am I the first foreign representative to be here? I would have thought Luc would be earlier than me cos, you know, Psychic Specialist." Flint commented as he looked around the meeting room. Nope. His fellow colleague is not present.
"From past experience, Psychic Specialists tend to arrive right on the dot. Teleport is too useful a move to not exploit."
That unfamiliar voice got everyone to look towards the entrance of the room, only for them to not see anybody through the opened door.
"Huh? Who's there?"
A lanky man wearing a black formal suit walked into the room in the next instance, his back a little hunched and his hands in his pockets. A liepard accompanied him as its gaze swept across the room, as if assessing if there are any threats present.
Another voice called up from beyond the opened door. This time, the voice belongs to a female.
"Hey Grimsley! Wait up! It's too dark in here and I cannot see a thing!"
"Get one of your pokemon to light the way up for you." Grimsley replied in mild irritation. Soon, a yellow-haired woman stumbled into the meeting room with a pair of emolgas that are hitching a ride on her shoulders.
"This is why nobody likes you, Grimsley! Will it kill you to be a little more helpful?!" Elesa, the Gym Leader of Nimbasa, exclaimed comically while pointing an accusing finger at the Unova Dark Specialist, who merely snorted and took a seat at the corner of the room, far away from the front.
"Jeez, now my hair is all ruined." Elesa lamented as her fingers combed through her hair. She soon spotted the people already present in the room and greeted them cheerily.
"Hello! I'm pretty sure we already know each other by name, but I'm Elesa! It's nice to see you! And please ignore Grimsley! He's too mean! And oh, this is Mimi and Nana! Say hi!"
The two emolgas squeaked a greeting at the Pillars present, who returned the greeting with their own.
"Your hair is really smooth and nice." Erika pointed out in curiosity. "Which brand of shampoo and conditioner did you use?"
Elesa's eyes visibly brightened up.
"Oh, it's pretty simple to take care of your hair! You just have to-"
Naturally, the men in the room tuned out the conversation as the ladies present began to have an engaging conversation about hair care products. People started to trickle in one after the other and the Indigo Pillars soon caught a glimpse on which Pillars from the foreign regions are here to assist them.
Drake and Steven from Hoenn. Flint and Lucian from Sinnoh. Grimsley and Elesa from Unova. Siebold and Valarie from Kalos. Alola's representative is Samson Oak, who is not a battler, so he isn't here for this meeting where the agenda is to discuss the battle plans against Team Rocket. There are also other notable figures present, like the previous Elite Four members Lorelei and Agatha. The previous Indigo Champion, Professor Samuel Oak, is here as well. Alongside him is a renowned PWL agent, Agent Looker.
The room went silent when the current Indigo Champion made his appearance. With him is a person that they all recognised, Volkner of Sunyshore. Jasmine's lips curled up slightly into a small smile upon spotting her husband. Unlike most of the people present who are surprised at Volkner's appearance, she knows the reason for him being here.
Their gaze met for a short second, and they both exchanged brief smiles before their attention was brought back to the Indigo Champion once again.
"Thank you all for being here on time. To our foreign dignitaries, thank you for lending us your aid in this period of troubling times." Lance bowed his head down in respect at the last part before straightening his back once more.
"While I would love to meet with everyone here under better circumstances, unfortunately, we were brought together this time to remove a blight that will jeopardise the safety of the world if no further actions are taken. I shall not waste anymore time."
Lance gestured towards Volkner, who walked up a step upon the cue.
"As you would have already recognised, this is Volkner of Sunyshore, one of the foremost international experts in combating crimes. He will be here to aid us in this time of need as well."
"I won't say I am the foremost expert, but well, yeah, good evening to all of you." Jasmine had to hold in a giggle upon her husband's awkward introduction. Volkner walked up to the front as the screen behind him began to project certain images, no doubt with the help from Jarvis.
"The agenda for this meeting is simple. Lance and I will run you guys through what we know about Team Rocket, our plans for them, and how we are going to allocate our manpower. If you guys have any disagreements or have anything to clarify, please do so. We will start by running you guys through the notable Rockets that we know of and what to look out for if you guys face them in battle, followed by-"
Jasmine let out a small smile as she watched her husband hard at work, getting the meeting going in the most efficient manner possible, the typical Volkner way.
If it's him, then they can do this.
"-move on to the Executives. First up, Executive Ariana, real name Alice Riana. Giovanni's wife and de facto leader of Team Rocket in his absence. We don't have any updated information about her capabilities as a trainer and the type of pokemon she uses. However, it is noted that she is very likely a Rock Specialist, so whoever is facing her will need to expect anything to happen. She was a member of the Space Shuttle Columbia Project and now she's in charge of the R&D department of Team Rocket, including the Mewtwo Project."
The screen flickered to the portrait of another figure on the screen.
"Next big shot in Team Rocket, Executive Archer. Real name Arawn Jaecar, believed to be dead the entire time until his existence was recently proven to be real. His father, Elias Jaecar, used to be Giovanni's most trusted friend and a core member of SKIP until the extermination led by our dear President Briggs. We can safely assume that Archer's in this for revenge or to continue his father's legacy, maybe both."
Volkner used a laser pointer to direct everyone's attention to certain details on the screen.
"Archer is in charge of Team Rocket's finances and expansion plans as far as we know. He is noted by our informant to be the strongest Executive in terms of raw power, and also Giovanni's and Arianna's right hand man and most trusted Executive. His nickname in certain circles is the 'Relentless Hunter' due to his ability to always hunt down his targets. A Dragon Specialist that is very possibly on the Elite Four level, that is all our mysterious informant could find out about Archer. What we do know from our informant, however, is that Archer will be leading the siege on Olivine that day. This means that we can prepare for him."
The screen flickered to display the image of another Executive of Team Rocket.
"Another troublesome fellow, this guy. Some of you may know or heard of him. Executive Proton, real name Olwen Lummiki. Ice Specialist and at one point, Johto's most infamous boogeyman and serial killer, the Iceman. He has deep seated hatred towards Johto and Johtonian politicians in general and was once marked as a Level 10 threat in Indigo. When someone was needed to put him down, Giovanni volunteered for the job and thereafter reported that he had neutralised Proton. Well, now we know that isn't the case. Our informant had also noted that Proton is in charge of Team Rocket's manpower and did list out several pokemon that Proton is known to use. Not only that, it is almost confirmed that Proton will be assigned to Goldenrod on that day, so Whitney will have to prepare herself to face him."
"Got it. Thanks."
"No problem. Moving on." Volkner made a flipping motion with his hand and the screen changed once more, showing yet the picture of another Team Rocket Executive. "This is the Executive which we have the most information on. Executive Petrel, real name Henrik Amon. Poison Specialist and one of Indigo's best trainers in his generation. Some people call him by his moniker, the Toxic Mask. This guy also used to be the undefeated reigning champion of the underworld for three years until he suddenly joined Team Rocket for reasons unknown, although it is suspected by our informant that his deceased daughter may be the reason. He's noted to be very adept at infiltration and has the ability to create lifelike disguises extremely quickly, and that is why he is in charge of Team Rocket's infiltration department. Our informant had also gotten the full list of the pokemon Petrel is known to use and his favoured battle tactics but unfortunately, unable to find out where he will be assigned to that day. So, I suggest that everyone memorise what you know about Petrel after this meeting is over because he could be anywhere on the big day. This is the only guy which we can properly prepare ourselves against if we managed to find him."
The screen then moved onto the next slide. This time, however, there is no concrete picture of the Rocket in question, but merely an incomplete facial composite.
"And then we have our mystery guy, Executive Plague. He's a total mystery. Real name, unknown. Facial features, a facial composite that the interpol only managed to piece out very recently and even then we aren't even sure if it is accurate at all. Specialisation, dark types. History and background, also unknown. His role in the organisation is assassination and espionage and he is in charge of Team Rocket's information network. That is all we know about him from our informant. Anything further than that is mere speculation on our part that we think is most likely accurate, but we cannot say for sure either."
The screen then changed to the pictures that captured the aftermath of the attack on Johto National Park, one that Jasmine remembered very well when she first saw it on TV months before.
"Someone among us over here may have very well faced this Executive Plague in battle before. The Indigo Pillars would have already known, but during the attack on the Johto National Park, a Rocket managed to steal two mega stones. One from Falkner, and another from a prominent Ranger from Johto's 1st Ranger Regiment, who were both there on the scene. The investigations conducted on the interpol's end gave us very good reasons to believe that the Rocket Falkner had faced is this unknown Executive Plague. Falkner, do you recall what pokemon the Rocket used?"
"Clear as day. I believe he used his entire team against us during our fight." Falkner replied, fists clenched. "A hydreigon, zoroark, honchkrow, ninetales, bisharp, shiftry, weavile, houndoom, umbreon, drapion. That was what me, Pyral, which is the Ranger you mentioned earlier, and my sister, who also happened to be there on that day, confirmed with each other. He is a Dark Specialist and he will definitely fit the description of this Executive Plague. I couldn't see his face very clearly that day because most of it was covered by his cap and he was wearing a high collar shirt, but the facial outline does fit with the facial composite shown here."
"That matches what we found out from your sister's end as well." Volkner nodded, and Falkner had an obvious look of surprise upon hearing those words but quickly composed himself. "Not only that, upon further investigation by the interpol, we managed to link several Rocket operations to this guy on the screen. If the guy Falkner faced was indeed Plague, which the interpol thinks should be true, then we will have a clearer picture on his capabilities."
The screen changed to show pictures of different locations.
"The attack on a secret research facility at Blackthorn and the poaching of a wild mamoswine from Cherrygrove Nature Reserve. The Rocket responsible for the operation is confirmed to be the same one for the attack on the park. From there, we figured out that this Rocket is in actuality a master of the move, Hypnosis, and had been designated a Level 9 threat after the attack on the Blackthorn research facility just for the illegal usage of Hypnosis alone. His threat level had been upped to Level 10 after the attack on the park. Basically, this guy could hypnotise anyone without us the wiser and control them from the shadows, making him a very tricky opponent to deal with."
That got everyone's undivided attention immediately. Hypnosis is a move that very few trainers could train their pokemon to master, but those that could often attract attention of all sorts to themselves because like what Volkner had mentioned, a true master of Hypnosis can easily place anyone under their control without anyone knowing, even the victims themselves.
"We also found out certain bits of information through… what I would refer to as less reliable means. Ever heard of Pokemon Testimonies? They are very rarely used so don't be too embarrassed to admit that you had never heard of it before."
Upon spotting several shakes of heads in the room, Volkner began to elaborate.
"Alright, Pokemon Testimonies is in essence, treating a pokemon who is a witness to a crime scene as though it is a human witness, and taking testimonies from it through the help of a trusted psychic type. However, not all pokemon are eligible to be witnesses because some of them are not as bright or reliable and their testimonies could not be fully trusted, hence the rarity of using Pokemon Testimonies. But in this case we don't really have much of an option because what we know about this guy is severely limited."
Volkner then jabbed a thumb back to the screen behind him.
"So what the interpol further confirmed through Pokemon Testimonies was that Plague very likely has another two pokemon that he never used during his fight against Falkner, and that is an exeggutor and a gengar. The last information we dug up was that this person's real name, very likely, is Jayce."
"Very likely? If you know that he is called Jayce, you could just scroll through the Indigo's database to narrow down the search." Surge grunted out.
"We tried. There's no such person who fits any of the descriptions about Plague with the name of Jayce." Volkner replied. "I have a feeling that he may be using another identity to hide within the Indigo. Given Team Rocket's influence and capabilities, it's not a far stretch to imagine that such a thing is possible in their attempt to hide their Executives from the law. Just look at how Archer and Proton had evaded detection all these years when they were believed to be dead. And- yes, Elesa. You have a question?"
Everyone turned towards Elesa, who had her hand raised up to catch Volkner's attention.
"I, um, how do I say this? I believed that I might have met this person before, he left quite an impression."
Everyone's eyes widened in disbelief. Elesa didn't seem to notice the reactions as she continued talking.
"So, Grimsley and I were here in Johto for the PWL meeting. We ended up being the first foreign delegation to arrive, reaching Olivine quite a number of days earlier than expected. I decided to go do some sightseeing by myself and ended up visiting the famous Miltank farm on Route 39. It was where I met this guy."
Elesa pointed towards the screen at the end of her sentence. More specifically, the facial composite of Executive Plague.
"Are you certain?" Lance asked, a mixture of excitement and concern on his face.
"Fairly certain. It's hard to forget those eyes of his, it's too unique, and he does have a gengar and weavile that is extremely well-trained and obviously on the higher spectrum of Elite level pokemon, similar to this Executive Plague." Elesa nodded in agreement before frowning. "But there comes the contradiction. I am also very certain that he is not a criminal. In fact, his actions, mannerisms, everything about him tells me that he is a secret agent working for Indigo, but it doesn't look like you guys know him at all, which is very weird."
The Indigo Pillars began to exchange glances and murmurs with each other. Seeing as how nobody seems to believe her, Elesa offered an alternative as an afterthought.
"In light of the situation, I am willing to subject myself to a memory extraction through my alolan raichu. You guys can view that portion of my memories during your free time and decide if the guy I met really has the same eyes as the ones we see here on screen. Although… judging from the way you Indigo Pillars looked at each other just now and the murmurs, you guys know something we foreign Pillars don't, do you?"
"If the Indigo Pillars really know certain information that is crucial to this operation that we don't, I would prefer if you inform us about it. I don't like the idea of being kept in the dark for an operation with stakes as large as this." Steven Stone, who had been silent all this while, spoke up.
Blaine was the first to make a reply.
"I believe that most of our foreign dignitaries might not have known this tidbit of information yet, but as the Indigo Pillars would have already known, Indigo was warned of this coming crisis through an informant that we never knew about. To date, we still don't know who that person is, but we do know that he or she must have infiltrated very deep within Team Rocket' ranks to get such detailed information. If Elesa's words are indeed correct, then I believe we might just have located the source of the leak on Team Rocket's end."
"And why would a Rocket leak out such information to Indigo on purpose? Doesn't it all seem fishy?" Siebold voiced out, his words being backed up by some members present in the room.
"Then this person might be Kain's spy, the one that we have been searching for quite a while now."
The voice of Professor Samuel Oak could be heard in the room, cutting everyone off.
"Kain's spy? As in, President Briggs?" Siebold questioned with a slight frown on his face.
"Yes. Long story short, we recently found out that Kain used to have an army of spies, child spies. It was an illegal project involving the kidnapping of children all across Indigo to make up his spy army, many of them were from prominent families and abducted at a very young age so that they would never remember their roots. Even Agatha's and my granddaughter weren't spared, as we have recently found out."
That earned several shocked gasps from the occupants in the room.
"Samuel. Do not reveal unnecessary information." Agatha gritted out, her hand holding tightly onto her walking cane.
"Sorry." Samuel apologised before continuing. "When we dug further, we found out that all of Kain's spies were marked as killed in action except for one whose personal information could not be found no matter how we tried. All we know is that it is very likely that this particular spy had been sent to infiltrate Team Rocket and the only identification we can pin on him or her is Operative 2046, codename: Gengar."
"Hold on." Brock put a temporary pause to the conversation, allowing everyone some time to regather their thoughts. "Are we speculating a little too much here? I am not doubting Elesa or anyone's words, but to suddenly believe that Plague is our informant based on speculations and gut feelings alone… Sorry, but I am not comfortable with this. What if our speculations are way off the mark? I still feel that until we have concrete confirmation that Plague is indeed our secret informant, we should treat him as a Rocket."
"I second that." Drake nodded. "It will be too foolish and naive on our part to treat someone who is on the side of our enemy as a potential ally, even if we know that we have an ally somewhere within their ranks. If Plague truly is on our side, his actions will tell us the truth on that day itself. Until then, we should assume that he is an enemy."
"I agree with Brock and Drake." Lance spoke up, capturing everyone's attention as well. "While I do want to know who our informant is in order to prevent friendly fire, I am not taking any unnecessary risks when Indigo's safety is at stake. Until we can prove that Plague is indeed our informant or not, we should assume he is an ene-"
"When was it?"
Grimsley's scratchy voice interrupted the meeting, a hint of fury underlying it. Everyone turned towards the Unova Elite Four member, only to see his face contorted in anger.
"Grimsley?"
"About twenty-two years ago, I had a son who was abducted from me. Here, in Kanto, in Pallet Town. I was out and away for a short while, leaving my wife and in-laws back home to take care of my newborn son. When I returned, everything was on fire. My in-laws perished in that fire and I nearly lost my wife to it too. However, I could not find our son, not even a corpse. That fire was clearly not natural and ignited on purpose, so my son has to be abducted. I just do not have any concrete proof. Not only that, my son was very special, he has a very strong yet unnatural affinity towards dark types that attracts all dark types to him like a magnet. Even at a week old it was obvious that he could go very far as a Dark Specialist should he choose to follow my path. That kind of natural talent is extremely valuable. I wouldn't put it past anyone to try and kidnap my son for their own gains."
Grimsley stood up and angrily marched up to the front. His liepard, responding to his trainer's rage, hissed out loud as it followed after Grimsley, snarling angrily the entire time.
Grimsley grabbed Samuel by the collar of his shirt and pulled him up, their faces now only inches apart. The people around them had to actually try and separate them but the hiss of warning from Grimsley's liepard reminded them that they should all back off unless they wanted a fierce battle from the feline.
"Grimsley! Put him down! Gosh! What would Alder-"
"Shut up, Elesa." Grimsley snapped back. "Your turn will come later. This is possibly MY SON that we are talking about here! I don't give a flying fuck about Indigo, not when Indigo had the audacity to kill my in-laws and abduct my son to be a goddamn tool!"
The room fell into uneasy silence as Grimsley snarled at Samuel's face, who looked very calm in face of Grimsley's anger.
"That unresolved murder and kidnapping, my son's natural talent with dark types, Kain's stupid child spies project, and now this Rocket who so happens to be a Dark Specialist that could go up against Falkner of all people with a possibility of him being a double agent working for the Indigo. And then those eyes. Look carefully, Samuel, look at those eyes! You should recognise them too since my wife used to work under you. Those eyes, they look almost exactly the same as my wife's! This is no damn coincidence. When was it? Kain's spy army project, WHEN DID IT START?!"
"About twenty two years ago, it was the same period of time where Samuel and I lost our children to a rhyhorn stampede that we just found out was incited on purpose, and where one of our granddaughters went missing and never to be found again. She was the one we had lost and is confirmed to be killed in action." Agatha spoke up from where she was seated beside Samuel. "Not only that, if this Plague is indeed our informant and working for Kain, which means that he is very likely your son, then according to the secret files we secretly stole from Kain, your son and our granddaughter were partners. They have to have known each other, that is all we know. You can put Samuel down now."
"Tch."
Grimsley unceremoniously released Samuel from his grip, letting the aged professor drop back down onto his chair. Grimsley's furious glare slowly turned to Lance.
"We will be having words after this meeting is over, Champion."
"We will." Lance agreed with a nod of his head before turning back to Volkner. "Volkner, if you would continue with the meeting."
"Right…" Volkner trailed off before he moved onto the next slide and pointedly ignored the silent tension hanging within the meeting room. "That was an… unexpected turn of events, but now that we are done informing you guys about the Executives, let's move onto the manpower allocation on the big day itself. I'm saying this in advance, the information we have on hand about Team Rocket's plan to conquer Johto on National Day is incomplete. We will be working with incomplete information here, so just keep that in mind and be prepared for things to not go the way we expect them to be. Now, there are a total of seven key places of interests that we have to take note of on the big day…"
Pokemon and trainer list:
Volkner Tide: Ex Gym Leader of Sunyshore, Electric Specialist
Titles, Accolades and Achievements: Tie for First Place with Flint in the 521st Lily of the Valley Conference, Sinnoh's strongest Electric Specialist, The Sun of Sunyshore, The Yellow Flash
Pokemon Team:
1. Electivire (Franky), male
2. Luxray (Simba), male
3. Jolteon (Jo), female
4. Magnezone (ISpy), genderless
5. Gallade (Myst), male
6. Rhyperior (Tec), male
7. Probopass (North), female
8. Gyarados (Puddle), male
9. Raichu (Squeaky), female
10. Pachirisu (Scrat), male
11. Heliolisk (Bask), male
12. Ampharos (Fluffy), female
13. Vikavolt (Vik), female
14. Eelektross (Whirr), male
15. Lanturn (Glowy), female
16. Rotom (Prime), genderless
17. Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
18. Alolan Golem, (Toss), male
19. Electrode (Boomer), genderless