Ch 27: Debriefing

"Welcome back, Mr. Snake," Sir greeted in a very unwelcoming tone that alerted Snake that this encounter would not be without stress. Snake shut the doors of Sir's office behind him as he stepped back onto the expensive Ursaring-skinned carpet and obediently sat on one of the small chairs placed in front of Sir's gigantic desk. The second chair facing Sir was already occupied by none other than Evan Hunter, who had similar enough facial features to Adam that a jolt of panic struck Snake's heart as he sat beside Evan, but he relaxed quickly, hoping no one caught it. "You left me a very interesting voicemail."

"Yes, Boss-"

"Sir."

"...Sir. Yes, Sir. I really need to clear up a few things with you about what's been going on, and-" Snake's eyes shifted toward Evan, who had a front-row seat to Snake's uncomfort. "-I thought they were rather personal-"

"Evan is on track to very soon becoming my head general in all affairs," Sir defended with a guarded, bored voice. "Thus, he has my authority to be present for and judge all meetings and affairs regarding our top priorities. And, Mr. Snake, you happen to be a top priority."

Snake wanted to roll his eyes, knowing full well that Sir was spouting total bullshit and saw Snake as little more than a nuisance, let alone a top priority. He's just trying to coax my ego, he wants me to just blindly obey every misguided, idiotic order he ever gives us, Snake raged in his mind. But to argue so blatantly with Sir was death, so Snake bit his tongue and played along. For a little bit.

"Now, then," Sir continued, a dry smile on his chiseled face. "About this voicemail. Do elaborate."

"Okay," Snake replied quickly, and honestly, because he knew if he had any prolonged moments of hesitation while he thought up a lie to spare the truth, Sir would catch it. "I admit I disobeyed your direct orders, Sir, yes. That was stupid of me and I know that makes you mad, rightfully. But to my credit, I did not act with any of your direct resources, I used my own and Marvin Blooms, and only after learning that Adam was the one who took out our poachers. I spent so much time tracking this child down and ensuring he was the threat to Anonymous that I always knew him to be! I just want to see him dead, Sir!"

"You spent exactly how much time studying and researching on this Adam Hunter instead of training your team up, aiding in the recruiting in Gord and Exeter, focusing on the greater picture?" Sir replied, a definite sharp tone in his words, as if he was jabbing them at Snake. "Because wouldn't all of this have been avoided if you had simply had more pokemon on your team than a mindless, weak Arbok? What are you, a novice? What kind of Anonymous member are you? You better hope for your sake that you've got a solid team of six right now after just telling me you wasted the past Arceus-knows-how-many months on Evan's far inferior younger brother?"

"Miles," Snake said in a pitiful, sheepish voice. Sir's eyebrows cocked straight up at that, his eyes bulging.

"Mr. Snake, watch what-" Sir interrupted, but Snake plowed through.

"Miles, fuck man, can we get serious with each other for two minutes, please? We're fuckin' brothers, Miles. Can you cut the act for one minute with me? This is why I wanted to be alone."

Evan, who had remained quiet and listening this whole time, was watching with piqued interest over the turns this conversation was taking, his head swiveling from one man back to the other.

"Brother-in-laws," Sir or Miles replied defensively, looking at Evan as if to make sure Evan knew Miles was not tainted with Snake's bloodline. Miles then looked back at Snake, visibly furious. "And I have already discussed with you in one conversation where I clearly explained to you that it would only be one conversation that our personal lives outside of the base will never come into play here. And look what you fucking did, Larry."

"Larry?" Evan confirmed with a grin, watching Snake's reaction. Snake's middle finger confirmed his real name was indeed Larry. "Makes Snake seem okay."

"You forced my hand, Miles. It's the only way to make you listen, man. I'm sorry, but how many times are you going to let this little sack of shit get away with disrespecting us? I confirmed that the kid took out our poachers who do half our inventory for half the cost! The kid took out one of your members, Marvin Bloom! He robbed me of my ear, of my ability to listen to music in peace, to be a normal human! I think Linda's going to leave me and it's all because of this fucking missing ear! I cannot sleep in peace until that kid-" Snake turned directly to Evan, who Snake was sure would defend his brother, just to show how serious he was. "-your little bitch brother...is hanging from a tree."

Evan was unfazed, as was Miles, who remained sitting pensively in his armchair with his fingers crossed together while Snake sat in his chair on the verge of tears, an emotional wreck.

"You've convinced me, Snake," Sir said, settling back into his role as Snake's boss instead of a pretty but unintelligent woman named Linda's handsome older brother who decided to take a chance and go against every bit of good judgement he had, and let Larry join Anonymous during a key period of weakness in the organizations rankings. Sir had never had the chance to fire the guy since you're in the team for life, but Sir didn't even particularly like Snake or even find his battling prowess ever all that impressive. While normally he could just have him executed, it would crush Linda's heart. Instead, it came to a point where Sir even had to donate one of his own pokemon to carry the dead weight of Snake's skill level. "I can see you are passionate about this and it's haunting you. So take it out on Evan's brother, neither of us are concerned with the boy at this point. There are much bigger fish to fry as the league comes up, and time is of the essence. But you are to deal with it alone. No more involving other members in your agendas. I need them for mine. Do you understand me, Mr. Snake?"

Snake nodded, temporarily shedding away the Larry persona. "Thank you, Sir. I promise I will track this kid down and make sure he never interferes with us again."

Sir nodded and gestured for Snake to exit, who understood. Evan broke into a waterfall of words as the door shut behind Snake.

"He's actually been hitting the Anonymous gym pretty hard a lot whenever he wasn't out, from what I hear. He has a solid team of six and he's been winning most of his battles against other members in the training course so he's definitely been upping his game. And you know, I've actually taken a glance at my brother's gym record since I've had access to it and he seems to be taking his time getting a full roster. He only has two gym badges even though he's basically been battling for almost a year now. Honestly, it's anyone's game if my brother duked it out with Snake, I would think. Could not call how that one would go."

"Snake has his priorities, and you have yours," Sir cut Evan short, as Sir was clearly not interested in pursuing that topic of conversation any longer. "I believe the time has come for us to move forward with Phase 2 in our plans to take over this island, my dear boy. It's just a matter of how soon we can take down the remaining Elite 3 as well as Ava before we can move onto Phase 3."

Evan's eyes gleamed at the words of his leader's encouragement and belief that Evan could go toe to toe with the top battlers on the island, and it was as if just hearing these things made them so, filling Evan with a fiery confidence not unlike his younger brother sometimes displayed.

"Just tell me what you need me to do, Sir."