This is most troubling.
It had been a week since he had received anonymous tip offs about Team Rocket. He had brushed it aside at first because what the given information stated sounded absolutely ludicrous. Giovanni as the true leader of Team Rocket? He is one of the best role models in Indigo on what a Gym Leader should be. Whoever is telling him this should make a better effort in crafting their lies.
The fact that there is a little note at the end of the note telling him not to inform the Indigo President about this doesn't sit right with him too, even if he himself never liked the egoistic man that kept thinking that only he is able to make the right decisions in running Indigo, going so far as to constantly meddle with things pokemon related even if his expertise is not in pokemon related affairs. Kain was not even given that power in the first place, just that he had been in his seat for such a long period of time that his power and influence is not something that can be easily ignored. It was what allowed him to constantly meddle in affairs in both the League and the Government.
Despite not believing in the given information initially, Lance decided to keep this bit of information to himself, not informing Kain about this like what the informant had pleaded in the note. Lance doesn't have a favourable impression of the meddlesome President in the first place anyway.
He had initially wanted to just bury the note somewhere under the big pile of paperwork he had not yet completed, but something, a sixth sense maybe, keeps urging him that there may be some truth to this.
So, he decided to do some digging, if only to soothe his own mind.
Using his authority as the Indigo Champion, Lance secretly accessed the classified files on personal information on Viridian's Gym Leader. Giovanni came out clean as far as he can tell, but that was until Lance decided to check his financial statements that are hidden away from the public eye as all high-ranking members of the Indigo League are entitled to.
And there are really some really dubious transactions going on in there. He doesn't need to be an accountant to know that something fishy is going on. Lance even compared Giovanni's financials to the other Gym Leaders and Elite Four members of the Indigo League, and none of them had transactions as dubious as Giovanni's, meaning that what Giovanni is doing with his money is definitely something fishy even for a Gym Leader.
If Giovanni really is the true leader of Team Rocket, then he might have been a little careless in covering his tracks. Then again, no one is supposed to read through such classified information about Indigo's Gym Leaders and the only person who is allowed to do so is the Indigo Champion, namely Lance himself, and why will Lance do so? He barely had enough time to complete his paperwork and duties as their Champion. Why will he snoop through his Gym Leaders' financial statements when he had better things to do?
When he thinks about it from this perspective, Lance can understand why Giovanni had made such a mistake if the Ground Specialist really is the leader of Team Rocket. He is starting to wish that he never received that tipoff. The headache he is experiencing is not worth the trouble.
He then started to receive anonymous tip offs one after the other for consecutive days ever since he received the first tip off. He has no idea how the innocuous slips of paper and hard drives found his way into his office table undetected when his office is constantly guarded with the highest level of security available. No matter what he did, Lance is just unable to catch this mysterious informant. He even left a note behind for the informant to request a face-to-face meeting with him or her, hoping that he will read it if he ever came back for a visit. He knows for certain that the informant had read the note he left behind because the note could not be found when a new hard drive and note appeared on his table the moment he left his office for a quick toilet break, which confused him to no end because how on earth did his mysterious informant did what he or she did in that short amount of time?
The only thing that gave him a little peace of mind was that this informant seems to be working for the League's cause, so he left the breach in security as it is and didn't tell a single soul about it.
The information he received also worries him. If the information provided is accurate, then Team Rocket will be launching the biggest attack in the nation's history on their national day. Indigo Plateau itself will be attacked and there's no way to cancel the event because it is a nationwide event. It cannot be simply cancelled without a very good reason. If they do somehow cancel it, then it will definitely raise suspicions on Team Rocket's end, which will jeopardise the safety of his mysterious informant, which subsequently meant that ending Team Rocket once and for all will definitely be a lot harder in the future.
According to the mysterious informant, Team Rocket has too many bases littered across Indigo and the supposed true goals of Team Rocket is a legitimate cause for concern. If Team Rocket are to suddenly start an uprising, there will be utter chaos and countless casualties. No matter how he thought about it, Lance felt that to uproot Team Rocket in one decisive blow the attack on their bases must be swift and decisive. Team Rocket must not be allowed the chance to stage a counterattack or to bunker down, hide, and wait for a chance to regrow anew. The extermination must be as thorough as possible and must be completed in one go. That also means that the Indigo forces under his command will definitely be stretched very thin to cover every single identified base of Team Rocket.
That's not even talking about how Team Rocket managed to create a pokemon said to be on the level of a Legendary Pokemon and actually have the means to restrain and control it. The M2 Bind that allows Team Rocket to control this pokemon known as Mewtwo is definitely going to be a huge problem. The M2 Bind must be destroyed at all costs.
And then comes the problem of dealing with Giovanni and how to keep him out of the loop.
Lance groaned and covered his face with his palm. It is 4:16 am in the morning and he had not slept a wink. He is not paid enough to deal with this shit. What possessed him to be Indigo's Champion again?
He drank the fourth cup of coffee to keep himself awake and put down his mug at the corner of his office desk. There's no way he can do this alone. The information provided seems to be accurate so far, he himself had personally gone to confirm some of these facts in secret, conducting random spot checks in places the mysterious informant had stated where Team Rocket's secret bases are. He is not sure if he should be elated or worried that the information provided is accurate as far as he can verify.
On one hand, this is a chance to end Team Rocket for good. On the other hand, this is a huge scandal for Indigo. A renowned Gym Leader of theirs is the leader of the strongest terrorist organisation in the world. The media will have a field day with this. Shame will befall on him and Indigo but this isn't the crux of the problem. He can handle a little shame. The real problem is how deep the corruption within Indigo had really penetrated without anyone, him included, realising.
The corruption, the dirty dealings, everything has to go for something like this to never appear again. He needs to find people that he knows he can trust to help him. Thankfully, he has a handful of such people by his side.
Hopefully, his mysterious informant is right.
The silence that followed was uncomfortable.
It wasn't easy to do things in such a secretive manner but that was why Lance enlisted Koga's help, who is someone Lance knew he can trust without question. The Elite Four member that hailed from an ancient clan of ninjas was instrumental in helping him pass the secret message along to call for a secret gathering of Indigo's elites and to meet in Blackthorn, his hometown, without alerting anyone else that Lance doesn't want to alert, especially Giovanni. There is no other place that Lance knew of that can guarantee the secrecy needed for such a meeting other than the Dragon's Den, an area under his clan's jurisdiction.
In front of him are the nineteen people that made up the Gym Leaders and Elite Four members of the Indigo, excluding Giovanni. Before this, he had taken some time to run a detailed check on all of them, to make absolutely sure that none of them were Giovanni's allies. Thankfully, they seemed to be clean.
None of them spoke a word, not after what Lance revealed to them.
"Are you sure about this?"
The first to break the silence was Falkner.
"I wouldn't call for such a meeting otherwise, Falkner. This is a huge accusation to make. I wouldn't do so if I don't have good reasons to believe in what I am saying." Lance sighed.
"I know this sounds a little ridiculous, but could this be related to the prophecy?" Erika asked softly in her usual polite self.
"There is a chance that Giovanni may be a key player in that particular prophecy." Sabrina admitted. "But I never received such a vision telling me so. Then again, it's not like I can see everything even as a psychic. No psychic can claim to do that."
The prophecy that foretold the end of the world. A prophecy that scares the leaders of every region so much that they all hid the prophecy from the public, only whispering about it behind closed doors. The Gym Leaders and the Elite Four were only let in on it recently after a solution was proposed. Everyone was frantically searching for a way to help dispel the prophecy foresaw by a group of highly trained psychic pokemon that had a 100% accuracy in their track record thus far in foretelling prophecies. It was only recently that the Pokemon World League, or PWL in short, in which the Indigo League is a part of, decided to set up a task force known as the International Police to try their hand in preventing the prophecy from happening.
"At least we are all around to do something about this." Surge grunted. "Never liked Giovanni anyway. I told you that he's suspicious as heck but none of you believed me. It isn't paranoia when it is true."
"Giovanni has armies in places of interest. The ports at Olivine and Vermillion, the heart of our regions in Saffron and Goldenrod, and that is not counting the remaining bases that Team Rocket had set up in both regions. This is going to be tough."
"No shit Bugsy."
"Will it kill you to show some manners?" Misty chided Surge, an annoyed expression on her face.
The holographic projector Lance had brought in is currently showing everyone the huge list of information that Kain has on Team Rocket, but yet chose not to tell anyone else about it. Naturally, nobody is happy about the fact that they, the Pillars of their respective regions, are being kept in the dark about things that hindered their work.
Then there is also the fact that the information Lance came across showed indisputable proof that the poverty problem that had been consistently plaguing the Kanto region since it was founded was the main reason Team Rocket could thrive. It is a problem that they, as members of Indigo's Pillars, have no jurisdiction over and left it to the Government under the leadership of Kain to solve. However, it is obvious that whatever Kain is doing, it is either not enough, or only exacerbated the problem in the long run.
"The fact that the President knew so much about Team Rocket when we didn't, and yet chose not to inform us about it is worrying too. Why would he withhold so much critical information from us? A problem of this nature is something the League should handle, not the Government! He is meddling in things he shouldn't be involved in!" Janine seethed with an ugly scowl on her face. Things might not have escalated to this degree if the Indigo President had been forthcoming with his findings.
"The result we have today is because of my failure. If only I recognised the problems our citizens faced sooner…" Lance muttered as he clenched his fists. Yes, economic and social policies that had nothing to do with pokemon are out of his jurisdiction as the Indigo Champion, but if he had been more proactive in getting the Indigo President to do something about the economic inequality sooner, maybe things may not have progressed to this state.
"You couldn't have known. You tried your best." Clair said encouragingly. Lance can only offer a weak smile in return.
"How long has it been since you know about this, Lance?" Brock asked. "About both Kain and Team Rocket."
"It's been about a week now." Lance replied. "I wanted to inform you guys sooner but I also wanted to verify the information myself before calling for this meeting. I wanted to be absolutely sure that this was a grave cause for concern and that I am not slandering Giovanni or Kain. The dirt we now have on Kain aside, these information we have here about Team Rocket, they are extremely detailed information. It's the kind of information that one would need to be a core member of the criminal organisation to get your hands on, that has to be the only explanation. I didn't put much thought into it at first until I went to verify some of the facts myself. It was then I started to take this matter very seriously because everything that this informant had passed to me so far is all true."
"Informant?"
"Don't ask. I don't even know who this informant is either. Things just appeared on my office table and no matter what I did I just never caught this mysterious informant."
When Lance first started receiving all this information it baffled him too. He is Lance, the Champion of Indigo. He knows the current efforts being put to stop Team Rocket on his end and none of it could possibly bore such results. The information just found its way to him somehow day after day. No matter what he did, he could not trace it back to his mysterious informant. No matter how much he tried, he could never understand how the various hard disks and thumbdrives that contained those vital information found their way to his office desk without anyone realising. He is the Champion. The security of his office located in the Indigo League HQ is of the highest quality and his mysterious informant somehow bypassed all of it with ease.
Still, it warms his heart that somewhere out there, there is somebody working hard to bring Team Rocket down like what he is doing. If only he could know who that person is. That person is a hero in his eyes. The only request from his mysterious informant is that he or she pleaded with him to not let Kain know about this.
It made sense when he received so much damning evidence about Kain from his mysterious informant, detailing many of his dirty deeds that made him seethe. It was enough to convince Lance that Kain will definitely botch this up than to be of help. Still, there is nothing Lance can do at this moment. Indigo National Day is coming up within the month and it will not reflect well on them if such a scandal was to be revealed to the public so close to their nation's founding. Especially so when this year, Indigo actually has foreign guests spectating the proceedings, something that hasn't been done until now. He will have to wait until National Day is over before he secretly brings Kain to justice and interrogates him just what the hell he had been doing behind everybody's backs.
Then just two days before, he received urgent and crucial information from his mysterious informant yet again. This time, it is an extremely detailed plan about the taking over of the Indigo, starting from an all-out attack on the Indigo Plateau that will immediately spread to the Johto region.
This piece of information was what finally convinced him that he really needs to call a meeting among Indigo's Pillars to discuss their next course of action.
Team Rocket is not just planning to start a war, they are planning to start a massacre and conquer the entire Indigo. It is horrifying to even look at it. Team Rocket plans to start doing so during National Day itself. However, the information regarding Team Rocket's plans that was given to Lance was incomplete, so Lance guesses that his mysterious informant must not have been able to get anything more than this. Still, that is more than enough for him to make preparations, for the Indigo League to make preparations.
"Just appeared on your office table? That clearly means a security breach at HQ itself!"
"Can we focus on the bigger picture at hand here?!"
"Well, it's not like we can just cancel the proceedings! It's National Day!"
Surge is right. They really need to focus on the bigger picture at hand here. Who the informant really is is not that important anymore, not when they now know that it is extremely likely that an attack of a scale none of them had ever seen before is about to be launched on Indigo, starting from the Indigo Plateau on Indigo National Day itself.
Thankfully, this time, it's like this informant had dug up everything about Team Rocket. From their size, numbers, list of known bases in every part of both regions, their business dealings, notable members, battle plans, everything the informant could find or know. Regarding the upcoming attack on Indigo Plateau on National Day, his informant only added two words as his suggestion.
Counter Ambush.
"Counter Ambush." Lance spoke up. "Our only way forward to solve this crisis in order to protect our people and take out Team Rocket at the same time is to prepare a counter ambush."
It made sense to Lance. National Day has always been a big event that has been carefully prepared at least half a year in advance. Tickets sold to the public to watch the proceedings had long since sold out and many things had been fixed in stone. The safety of the people attending the celebration is of utmost priority at Indigo Plateau because it is where the literal shit will first hit the fan. The fact that everything will be broadcasted live on TV on that day is worrying enough. The Rocket members scattered across the various cities will use that as the cue to riot across Johto when some sort of signal can be seen through TV. The signal absolutely cannot be sent out or seen on TV, whatever that signal will be.
However, despite how much he wants to cancel the entire National Day proceedings and conduct the operation to clean up Team Rocket immediately, right now, Lance knows it is not possible.
Not when they have to keep Kain in the dark, the person who had done many unspeakable things behind everyone's backs for the sake of his own ideals. Not when in order to net as many Team Rocket members as possible and stamp them out for good, they have to wait for the day where all the Team Rocket members will gather together and unfortunately, such an opportunity will only be available on National Day itself. Not when they cannot alert Team Rocket to the fact that the League already caught wind of their plans and is preparing a nasty surprise for them. Not when they cannot alert Giovanni, who is one of their own and yet also the true leader behind this rebellion.
So, counter ambush it is. It is the most effective way to spring the trap Team Rocket had set before springing their own surprise back at those terrorists.
What worries Lance is that Team Rocket knows seemingly everything about Indigo's Pillars and has devised ways to neutralise each of them. It made him boil in rage when he knew that Giovanni was the true leader behind that organisation all along. He was spying on them as a fellow member of the Indigo Thirteen Pillars and nobody realised it.
He had played them all for suckers.
"I agree with Lance. National Day is coming up really soon." Chuck noted with crossed arms. "We could respond to the situation by doing a large scale military operation just right before National Day, but we do need time to plan everything out in order to properly take down Team Rocket and Giovanni for good and that's not taking into account our meddlesome President that may or may not make things difficult for us if he knows about it. Whatever we want to do, we have no choice but to do it on National Day itself because postponing it till after National Day is not an option."
"I agree." Koga voiced out. "Considering the unprecedented scale of it, we should take some time to properly plan the entire operation out, which will definitely take more than just a few days given the size of Team Rocket. National Day itself will be when Team Rocket's guard is at their lowest because they are sure they will succeed. It is also the perfect time to strike and take them out."
"Then there is the problem of protecting the civilians who will be there at the proceedings during the celebration." Whitney voiced out. "How are we going to go about protecting them when everything is going to be so chaotic? There will be too many of them for us to protect!"
"I'm sure we can figure something out." Pryce easily diffused the situation before raising another point. "What I'm worried about is the worst case scenario of the various Team Rocket factions suddenly trying to take over the various cities they are stationed at as they had apparently planned. Our forces will be stretched very thin even if we mobilise all of them."
"If we want it to be a surprise, mobilising all our forces has to be done before the big day, and that is also a very suspicious thing in itself." Will said. "How are we going to hoodwink Giovanni and Kain regarding that issue? And that's not taking into account that there might be Rocket or Kain's spies hidden within the ranks."
"I have a long list of Team Rocket members with me from my informant, including those who had infiltrated the League forces. The list is a lot longer than the copy in the League's database." Lance offered. "We can use this to do a preemptive strike by taking the spies down just hours before the proceeding happens, right before they can do anything on the big day. This will be a job for the most trusted men I have in STAR. That way, we can quickly mobilise all our forces without Kain and Giovanni knowing. Even if they do realise that something is wrong, it will be too late for them to react."
Lance cleared his throat before continuing.
"I will have all our forces on standby days before National Day on the excuse of 'turbulent times', seeing what had happened in Lilycove about half a year ago and the attack on the Johto National Park. That wouldn't be too suspicious to anyone. We can quickly mobilise them at a moment's notice after we rooted all the spies."
"The timing has to be right. Too early and it will raise suspicions. Too late and we might not be able to do anything. Mobilising everyone takes time too." Falkner contributed.
"The elite forces of the STAR, Rangers, and Police will definitely have to be utilised." Lance added. "Thankfully, a significant portion of them will be there at Indigo Plateau on the big day and they are not strangers to emergency missions. I will assign them emergency missions the moment we take care of the Rocket members infesting Indigo Plateau on the big day, so that's one concern down."
"We will have to draft up a list of emergency missions to be handed out right on the day itself then, for the sake of secrecy. Everyone not in the know will have to fly by the seat of their pants on that big day, which is like, more than 90% of our forces?" Morty questioned.
"Most likely." Jasmine said with a sigh.
"I don't want to sound pessimistic, but are we enough?" Erika said politely as she raised her concern. "Sounds to me that we really need any kind of help we can get right now."
"The other regions' representatives will be here too on that day, right?" Sabrina offered. "They are either their region's Thirteen Pillars or accomplished experts in their own field. What if we ask them for help?"
"Are you crazy?! Letting foreigners meddle with our own politics?!" Clair exclaimed.
"We do need all the help we can get, right?!"
"It's an option. Sorry to say, but at this point we are pretty much in a fucked up spot." Lance said as he dragged a tired palm across his face. "If we have to swallow our pride to ask for external help in exchange for Indigo's safety, then I'll do it without a second thought. The safety of Indigo and her people is of our utmost priority, do not forget that."
A cough sounded out from the back and everyone turned towards the source. Blaine stood up from where he sat beside Pryce.
"Lance, is this the full extent you know about Team Rocket and Giovanni? Is this all your mysterious informant told you? Especially about Mewtwo?"
"Yes…?" Lance replied with uncertainty.
"I see." Blaine sighed. "I should have known that Giovanni is the leader of Team Rocket. How could I be so naïve? I knew something within him changed when we both stepped down as Elite Four members, I should have kept an eye on him."
"If even Sabrina cannot foretell this future, then I doubt you are at fault." Pryce snorted.
"No, this is different." Blaine waved Pryce's assurance off before turning back to face his colleagues. "I guess this is not the time to be holding onto secrets. I have a revelation to make and hopefully, Giovanni isn't insane enough to continue where we left off previously."
That got everyone's attention immediately.
"Come on, old man, don't tell me you were in cahoots with Giovanni?"
Blaine turned to Whitney with a weary look on his face and she paled at the silent confirmation.
"I really hope this is just needless paranoia but in light of the current situation, I think everyone here has a right to know about the organisation Giovanni had created more than twenty years ago, and what me and Fuji had attempted in secret right before Giovanni and I stepped down as Elite Four members. Giovanni had always been obsessed with possessing a deterrence. For all of our sakes, I really hope that Project Rebirth has not been completed."
Name: Skye Bale, 16, Female
Known affiliation: Indigo Ranger Force, Johto Region, 9th Ranger Regiment, 1st Ranger Regiment
Rank: Staff Sergeant
Code Name: Zephyr
Pokemon Team:
1. Pidgeot (Crown), male
2. Gliscor (Glide), male
3. Skarmory (Dia), female
4. Crobat (Beats), male
5. Jumpluff (Cotton), female
6. Dragonite (Tino), female
7. Noivern (Echo), male
8. Emolga, (Emi), female
9. Hawlucha (Hawk), male
10. Sigilyph (Cosmo), female
11. Aerodactyl (Aria), female
12. Masquerain (Heli), male
