Disclaimer: Welcome to the wonderful world that is Pokémon. Of course everything related to Pokémon is owned and licensed by Nintendo, and I'm sure the author of this story will do his best to treat Nintendo and Pokémon with as much respect as possible. Now, the characters in this story are all original except for professor Oak, Ash, Gary, Misty, Brock, several Jenny's and Joy's and some other weirdo's that wander around in the game and/or series and of course, the Pokémon.

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Chapter 20 – The funeral

Viridian had seen a lot these past days, but when the helicopter landed on the roof of Viridian Gym, everyone paid attention. They had a good idea why it was here, but most trainers that came to pay homage to the late Gym leader had flown on their Pokémon. As the rotors slowly came to a stop, a man with long black hair and a black leather coat jumped out and ran, head down, to staircase on the roof, followed by a blonde man, also in black.

Anthony Vermoné, AKA Tony Hunter, age 21, known Rocket Affiliate, last where abouts: unknown, no criminal record.

Tom Kerlinger, age 26, known Rocket Affiliate, logistics, last where abouts: Cianwood, Johto, criminal record: suspect of computer virus crippling police database, 3 months probation.

"Where the fuck were you guys?" Dave asked when Tony and Tom entered the gym, the funeral starts in forty-five minutes!"

"Big deal," Tony shrugged, "we still got time enough."

"Which is the time that ceremony guy asked you'd be there upfront!"

"Oh fuck! I forgot about him!"

"Don't worry, I'll drive."

Tony quickly shot in the waiting car and Dave drove off.

David Waterson, age 29, known Rocket Affiliate, ex-military, last where abouts: Pewter, Kanto, criminal record: dishonourable discharge from army for insubordination and misconduct.

"Subjects are moving away from the gym, recommend following."

Dave arrived at the church, just outside of Viridian. Tony jumped out of the car and made his way to a side entrance of the church.

"You're late!"

Tony turned around as he closed the door.

"Lucas," Tony smiled as he saw his father's right-hand waiting for him, "I'm sorry, but I had to stop in Cerulean and ran into an old friend. But I'm here now, still on time," Tony quickly glanced to his wristwatch and saw there were still thirty five minutes before the service started, "well, sorta."

"Do you have a hair band?"

Tony blinked.

"I'm sorry?"

"A hair band," Lucas repeated, "so you can tie your hair in a pony tail."

"Uhm, yeah, why?"

"Do it."

With that said, Lucas turned around and motioned Tony to follow.

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Lucas opened the door, leading to the front portal of the church and held it open for Tony.

"One more thing," he said as Tony passed, "we need to have a word after the service. It's about… your father."

"What? He's dead?"

"No time for jokes," Lucas hissed, "this is serious. And show some respect, he was your father after all."

Tony sighed as he glared at the now closed door.

"Anthony, how good to see you again."

Tony turned around and saw an old man with greyish hair, combed stylish backwards, sadly grin.

"It's a shame it has to be under these circumstances."

"I know, grandpa," Tony sighed as he hugged his grandfather, "I'm sorry I didn't came to visit more often."

"No you're not," the man laughed, "just like Max. Are you, Max?"

With this he turned to the young boy sitting in the corner of the room with his arms crossed. The boy huffed and stood up. Slowly he walked towards Tony and a slight smile crept over Tony's face as he noticed the boy had his long red hair also in a ponytail.

Vito Vermoné, age 67, no know affiliates, last where abouts: Viridian, no criminal records, alleged mob affiliate.

Maximilian Vermoné, age 14, known Rocket affiliate, last where abouts: Celadon, criminal record: shoplifting, vandalism, alleged arson…

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he hissed.

"Maximilian, language please," Vito scolded his youngest grandson.

Max glanced at his grandfather and then continued.

"And what the fuck are you smiling at anyway?"

"You got a pony tail," Tony chuckled, "Lucas asked you to do that?"

"Yeah," the boy admitted, slightly embarrassed, "he found my walkman in my bag and figured I would try to listen to it, under the cover of my hair."

"Good thinking," Tony congratulated his younger brother, "I wish I came up with that."

"Well, since Lucas asked for a pony tail, I think he thought you did come up with it."

Tony sighed and sank onto his knees to look his brother in the eye.

"What the fuck happened to us?" Tony said.

"Language, Tony, please." Vito scolded again.

"I don't just mean between you and me," Tony ignored his grandfather, "but to this family. How come we're so fu… screwed up?"

"I guess that has to wait until after the service," Vito interrupted Tony, "people are coming."

"See anyone you know?"

"Nah, mostly trainers and stuff. Look, that's that army guy trainer from Vermillion."

"I heard he had a crush on Giovanni."

"What? Get the fuck outta here."

"Nah, it's true! That was the news through the grapevine."

"The guy's a decorated lieutenant of the US army!"

"So?"

"Those guy's aren't gay!"

"I'm not saying it's true, it's just what I heard."

"Yeah, well, I think it's a load of bull."

"It's just what I heard."

"And I say it's a load of… hold up, there, that guy! Quickly."

Dexter Thomas, age 42, known Rocket affiliate, former renowned Pokémon expert, last where abouts: Celadon, no criminal record.

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It was a nice funeral, Tony had to admit. Well, he thought it had been a nice funeral. To be honest, he hadn't really paid attention. All he knew was that there had been a lot of people, some Pokémon trainers, some Gym leaders, and even the Elite Four (or so he was told by Max, he hadn't noticed any faces, just a lot of hands to shake), but the faces he did notice, he vaguely recalled as Rockets. Well, of course they were gonna be there, he thought, their big boss is getting buried. Although he did think it took too long. Now he could understand why Max had wanted to listen to his walkman during the sermon. After the sermon they brought the casket to the graveyard, as slight drizzle started. Tony couldn't help himself when he cracked a smile. Drizzles were necessary for good funerals, at least, that's what television had taught him. As the casket was lowered into the ground, the rain started to come down harder, but neither him, nor his brother tried to shield themselves from the pouring rain. Soon the clouds burst and almost everybody ran for cover. Only Tony and Max remained with the open grave.

"I can't believe he's really gone," Tony broke the silence.

"It seems so… unreal," Max said, "I mean…"

"I know," Tony sighed, "he acted like he was gonna live forever. I think neither of us ever thought he would die."

"He never had any worries for the future. I mean, what now of Team Rocket? It's not like he ever trained us to take his place."

"Well, he did do an effort to involve me. And we know how that ended."

"Yeah," Max smirked, "you chasing some skirt and falling of a boat."

"I did not fall off, I was pushed. And I didn't chase a skirt."

"That's not what I heard."

"Who told you?"

"Tom and Dave," Max said, "they told me some idiot pushed you off because you got lucky and he didn't."

"Well, that's true," Tony nodded, "how come you know those two?"

"I was there when they told dad," Max shrugged, "after that I somehow kept my eye on them."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Max shrugged again, "guess they were the only thing I had of you. Well, besides Prince."

Prince, his Persian, Tony thought. Guess he had to make it now official and claim the Pokémon as his own.

"How is Prince?"

"Dad took care of it as it was his own. Guess it was also the only thing he had of you. Only that he took better care of it than he would of you, or me for that matter."

"You don't know you have it until you don't have it anymore."

"Guess we're gonna start missing dad now?"

Tony thought about this for a moment.

"I don't know," he finally said, "but for the moment? I don't think so."

"Nah, me neither."

Max looked sideways at his older brother.

"What do you think is gonna happen to Team Rocket now?"

"Don't know," Tony shrugged, "never really thought about running the gig. To be honest, I sorta always figured you'd run the show. When you were older of course."

"Yeah, me too."

"Well, aren't you ambitious." Tony laughed.

"Fuck you," Max retorted, "everyone knew I took more after dad than you."

"That's true," Tony sighed.

"Don't really know if that's a good thing," Max muttered.

"True as well," Tony nodded.

Both stood silently as they watched the grave.

"We should start thinking about going inside." Max suddenly said.

"True," Tony nodded.

Neither of them moved.

"To be honest, I have no idea how things got so fucked up between us." Max said.

"To be honest?" Tony grinned, "I think it's his fault," he said with a nod towards the grave."

"Probably," Max nodded, "he was good at fucking things up for other people, but he did a fine job fucking things up for us."

"Hope it's not too late to unfuck everything."

"Is that even a word?"

"Don't know," Tony shrugged, "but I sincerely hope so."

(AN: according to spellchecker, it isn't)

"How did dad die anyway?" Tony asked.

"Don't know," Max shrugged, "all I know is that all of a sudden he was dead. No information was given."

"Lucas?"

"Amongst other people," Max grinned, "ah, speak of the devil."

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Lucas came quickly, just not running, with a large umbrella to the two brothers.

"What are you still doing here?" he hissed, "everyone else is already gone and it's pouring!"

"Really?" Tony looked up to the dark sky, "hadn't really noticed."

Tony laid his hand on his brothers shoulder.

"Anyway, we were paying our respect," he said as he shot a grim look at Lucas, "after all, he was our father."

"No times for jokes," Lucas said, "you are needed for the reading of the will."

"Fine," Tony sighed as he slightly firmed his grip on Max's shoulder, "we'll come along."

"Just your attendance is required."

"Ever since my memory loss I've taken a drastic turn in my life," Tony said, "and one of those is that I will rekindle my relation with my brother. He's coming with me."

"Fine," Lucas caved, "but you better hurry."

"They're going back."

"Finally! This is practically a storm!"

"Better call in headquarters that our girl can come over to take over."

"I don't think she'll appreciate it if you call her "girl", given her record."

"Whatever. Just call, okay?"

"I gotta call? You call!"

"Fine!"

They hastily returned to the gym. Lucas led them to Giovanni's private office where a large television stood. The only other person in the room was a man in a black suit with brown greyish hair and square glasses.

"This is Dexter Thomas, he was, and still is in certain circles, an authority on Pokémon. He worked together with professor Oak in the past on several occasions."

"Before he turned to the dark side, right?" Tony grinned as he shook hands with the man.

"Uhm, yes," Dexter admitted with a hint of embarrassment on his face, "but when I joined Team Rocket, things were very different than now."

"Weren't they always," Tony sighed as he took a seat, facing the television.

"Now then," Lucas said as he stepped forward to the television, "Giovanni was murdered a couple of days ago by the Dark Squad, due to certain… plans he had recently started working on."

"They started to have a problem with the competition?" Tony ventured.

"No, in the time they have existed, the Dark Squad have taken over more and more of our… activities. Since most of the Dark Squad exists of old members, they had no problem to take over. The reason they tried to kill him, was that they had found out he was trying to bring back an old… plan of his to wipe out the Dark Squad once and for all. And this they wanted to stop, and, as recent information has told us, try to take it as their own to wipe us out."

"You said tried to kill him," Max said, "which would mean that this wasn't the first attempt."

"Correct," Lucas nodded, "that's why Giovanni made this tape as his last will and testimony."

Lucas pushed the play-button on the VCR beneath the television and Giovanni's face came on the screen.

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"By the time you see this, I will be dead."

Giovanni suddenly grinned.

"I know it sounds cliché, but it's the grim truth. The past several days I've survived a couple of assassination attempts. No doubt the Dark Squad is behind them. This must mean they have found out my plan to exterminate them. I don't know how. I assume they have inside information, just as they have infiltrated in many of our branches. It doesn't matter for the moment. All I know is that they may not succeed in their attempt to find what I'm looking for first. That's why you must take over Team Rocket. It's funny, I always assumed Max would follow in my footsteps…"

Tony and Max exchanged a glance and both grinned.

"… but he's still too young. I don't care what you do with the organisation after all this is over, but you have to succeed. Several years ago, I hired a group of genetics to make me the perfect Pokémon. Thanks to the DNA of Mew that we stumbled on, this was possible and it gave us Mewtwo, the strongest psychic Pokémon to date."

Tony slightly winced. He had no love for psychic Pokémon after his experience with the Natu.

"Unfortunately things went very wrong and Mewtwo escaped the lab, completely wrecking it. None survived. He's been on the loose ever since and was nowhere to be found. I reluctantly gave up looking for him. Until the Dark Squad emerged. It seems now that the only way to eradicate them is unleashing Mewtwo on them. It seems however that the Dark Squad has found this out and they too are looking for him. According to our sources our former top hunter is the leader of their task force. I believe you've met him, Vincent Jaeger."

Tony nodded, he knew Jaeger. He gave him the assignment to capture the red Gyarados which held the plans of some Pokémon luring device designed by Franklin Masterson. He didn't like him very much.

"Lucas will give you the full details on Mewtwo when you see this tape. Use every resource our organisation has to offer to find and capture Mewtwo yourself. I have arranged that professor Thomas will assist you closely. He's an expert on Pokémon and will be of great value. After you've caught Mewtwo, you can do with Team Rocket as you please. Just find Mewtwo and keep him out of the hands of the Dark Squad. It's power is awesome and is far too dangerous in their hands. That is all I ask of you. I know you can do this. I have faith in you."

Giovanni pushed a button and the screen went black.

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Lucas turned the television off and gave Tony a large file.

"Here is everything we know of Mewtwo, including the DNA structures we used to create him."

"Structures?" Tony asked, "as in multiple structures? Not just Mew's?"

"Mew's DNA wasn't enough, so Giovanni supplied more DNA strains to improve him. All information is in the file. Read it thoroughly."

"Will do," Tony nodded and then turned to Dexter, "so, you have to help me, don't you?"

"I do," Dexter nodded, "and I must say, from what I've heard of you, I'd be happy to help you."

"Good to hear. Now let's get out of here," Tony said as he stood up, "it's late and I need a shower."

"They're coming out!"

"Finally! Where's our girl? Ah, there she is, guess she can handle everything now."

"Wait! Look who's here!"

"Where? Well, that's a revolting development. Well, nothing we can do anymore. Time for us to go home."

"Finally. I think I started to develop sores on my butt."

"Way too much information."

"Welcome back, Tony."

Tony looked up and shielded his eyes from the rain. A young woman holding a dark-blue umbrella walked up.

"Officer Jenny," he smiled without much enthusiasm, "what a pleasure to see you here."

"There was a time you called me Susan," the woman said.

"Yeah," Tony sighed, "but that was before the betrayal and all that."

"I was just doing my job," Susan said with an angry glare, "besides, I'm not with the force anymore."

"You quit?" Tony played surprised, "Because of me? Ah, that's nice."

"Not because of you," Susan shot back, "but partially, yes."

"So, miss Jenny, how may I help you?"

"Just wanted to see how you were doing," she said, "and maybe help you out."

"Help me out?" Tony raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you wanted to hunt Pokémon, didn't you? Wasn't that the reason why you took that ridiculous alias?"

"Hey, it's not ridiculous," Tony said, "and besides, I don't need your help for the moment."

"Well, if you do, here's my phone number."

She gave Tony a card and then turned around. Tony put the card in his pocket and looked at her walking away.

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A short distance further, underneath some trees, a young woman sweeping her red hair from her eyes, watched the scene thoughtfully.

"Now, why is a police officer so close with the new head of Team Rocket? Intriguing."

With a frown the lieutenant of the Dark Squad turned around and started to walk away, trying to fit this new information into her plans.

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Tony left the shower and turned his radio a bit louder. He let himself fall on the bed and grabbed the file Lucas had given him.

"Now Mewtwo, let's see who your parents were."

He flipped through the pages until he found the list of DNA donors. It wasn't a very long list. In fact there were only two donors. His eyes grew wide when he saw what DNA they used besides Mew's.

"No fucking way!" he shouted, "that sick fuck!"

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AN: I know this chapter is long overdue, but I've been busy lately and have a hard time figuring out how to wrap all this up… come to think of it, I might not be able to tie up all loose ends, but I'll try somehow…