Flinky: Hello world! Now, this chapter is one week late, and I'm sorry for that. Writer's block is starting to get to me (and still is). I'd say an update once every other week.

Red: And you were doing so well with the last chapter's length.

Flinky: Quite frankly, I don't count battles as moving the plot forward. I can use it to show personalities, or just someone's Pokémon, but explaining the fight bit by bit doesn't show Red's progress through Kanto.

Red: I'm right here; you can just say "your progress through Kanto."

Flinky: Whatever. Now, Queenspeller is reviewing just about every chapter (thanks for that by the way (I mean that non-sarcastically)). Quite frankly, one of the biggest things you've pointed out (like Giovanni knowing about Red catching Charmander, or Eevee evolving into Umbreon during the day) I left intentionally vague. A lot of these things will be clarified in later chapters, but for now, you just have to sit tight.


Red's Pokemon (On Hand):

Ignite (Charmeleon)
Moves: Flamethrower, Metal Claw, Dig, Smokescreen

Spark (Pikachu)
Moves: Thunderbolt, Discharge, Quick Attack, Nuzzle

Blade (Scyther)
Moves: X-Scizor, Wing Attack, Bug Buzz (egg move), Slash

Storm (Pidgeotto)
Moves: Wing Attack, Gust, Quick Attack, Steel Wing

Shadow (Zoroark)
Moves: Night Daze, Foul Play, Night Slash, Furry Swipes

Blacklight (Umbreon)
Moves: Shadow Ball, Psychic, Bite, Assurance


"Red is in this building."

We looked at each other.

"Well, so what?" I said.

"What?" Blue looked at me like I was crazy.

"We have his apprentice, a science nerd, someone who knows almost as much Pokémon knowledge as their grandfather, a healer, and someone specifically created to be a better version of him. It's five on one. Even if he has backup, we can probably stall for long enough to figure something out."

Everyone looked at each other again, but this time with determination in their eyes.

"Let's do it!" I yelled.

Gold had Leaf heal his Pokémon. She didn't do as good a job as Nurse Joy, but his Pokémon can fight if it need be. I just used some revives without opening the balls.

We went down an elevator Gold claimed led to the meeting floor. Everyone was on edge. We all had a Pokémon ready if things went south.

The elevator dinged. The doors slowly opened. The first thing we heard was "Flamethrower."

The second thing we heard was "Hydro Pump!"

I opened my eyes to see Gold's Feraligatr in a duel with a Charizard. I slid past the collision, followed by Leaf, Blue, and Michael.

As I suspected, the Charizard belonged to Red.

Eventually, the clash was over and the two Pokémon were face to face. Red was there with a smirk, while Gold had a determined look.

"Well, I figured it was only an amount of time before they made you a traitor," Red said.

"You did it to me first you know," Gold responded.

"No matter. Now, do you want to give yourselves in peacefully, or do you want to make me have one of my Pokémon take you in?"

"I have a better idea," I said, walking up to Red. This is something I would never do unless the situation called for it, but I see no other choice. Even though my chances of this working are slim, given Red's in his early 20's while I'm 16.

I punched Red straight in the jaw. And it looked like it hurt. A lot. Red's Charizard started coming up to me before Red put his hand up.

"Not yet Charizard. Now, Fire, you have never gotten into a real fight before, huh? Well, time that I show you what-"

I punched him in the gut. He doubled over, before regaining his composure.

"Hmm, a rebellious teenager in a totalitarian society who lived with his poor parents never got into a fight? Makes sense to me," I said, sarcastically.

"You son of a bitch…"

Red threw a punch at me, but I dodged it easily.

"Screw this. Charizard, let him have it!"

Red's Charizard readied a Flamethrower. I dove behind Red and used him as a shield, forcing Charizard to stop the attack. I took off his belt (I think this is the third time I've done this to Red) and tossed Gold Charizard's Pokéball. Charizard tried to avoid the beam, but Gold was able to return him to his ball.

"Well, you got me down. What are you going to do now?" Red asked. "You know they'll send for me, and you have no chance of beating me in a real battle. You can't do anything with me but let me go."

Ugh… he's right. I could separate him from his Pokémon though, but they'll realize something is up and escape.

"Guys, he's right," I said. "Under normal circumstances. However, Bill has been working on his device that freed Leaf about ten chapters ago."

Red just laughed. "Really? That thing? It doesn't work on people like me. You think Team Rocket wouldn't have found out and run tests? That thing only works for a week after the person was converted."

I think he's bluffing, but I'll confirm later.

"Now Fire, like I said before, you can't do anything but leave me here."

Ugh… it's true. we can't even keep him down for long enough for Bill to send us the device.

"Gold, I want you to take Red back up," I commanded. "Blindfold him, then leave him somewhere in the forest. Put his Poké Balls somewhere far away. That should keep him down for long enough to take Celadon."

"You sure?" Gold asked.

"Yes. There's just no other way."

"Okay then…"

Gold tied him up with some rope and dragged him into the elevator. I waved goodbye to Gold as we proceeded further down the hideout.

-Celadon Base Security-

"No...No no no no no…"

A Team Rocket officer was staring at the monitor in front of him.

"That kid took down Gold and Red! Those two are the strongest trainers for MILES!"

"Sir, technically Fire Red is now stronger than Gold," a grunt said.

"DO I LOOK LIKE I WANT TO BE CORRECTED RIGHT NOW!"

"No sir, sorry to bother you."

"Come now Ken. No need to raise your voice at this man."

Everyone recognized that voice, and turned around to see if it was real. Sure enough, Lord Giovanni was standing before them.

"I am so sorry sir."

"No need to say sorry unless it's in front of the public. Now, I heard there was a security breach that is spiraling out of control."

"Uhh… Yes sir. It's 0013 again."

Giovanni's expression hardened.

"Fire, Blue, Leaf, and Michael," Giovanni said with venom in his voice. "What did they do?"

"Um… They haven't done anything but take out our countermeasures."

"What were these 'countermeasures'?"

"Red and Gold…"

"And you said they 'took them out'?"

"Yes… Fire beat Gold and I believe they knocked Red unconscious."

"So, with an ARTICUNO, Gold couldn't beat A HYPERACTIVE CHILD!"

"Yes, and we believe Gold is now fighting for that group."

"Alright… You followed protocol, so I have a nice surprise for you," Giovanni said. "You're all...FIRED! GET OUT OF HERE! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"

The room cleared out in twenty seconds flat.

Giovanni said into his earpiece "I want security group B down here. Group A is… busy…"

Amidst all the commotion, Giovanni didn't notice the camera feed of four teenagers outside a door that read "RESTRICTED ACCESS: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY."

-Red's POV-

"RESTRICTED ACCESS: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY."

Yep. This is where we need to go.

Like always, Leaf's Ditto turned into a key, allowing us to enter.

There was one large file on top of a pedestal in the center of the room.

Blue was about to run up and get it when I stopped him.

"Do you really think that there wouldn't be security in here?" I asked.

"Oh yea… right…"

I looked through my bag for anything that could be of use, but sadly, i don't carry secret agent gear everywhere I go.

"Okay guys, I have a really advanced plan to get that file and get out," I said. Everyone looked at me. "Leaf holds the door open, I grab it and sprint out."

If I know anything about Team Rocket, they're least prepared for the most obvious solution.

Once Blue and Michael cleared out, I picked up the folder. The second I did so, alarms went off and metal bars were going down over the exit. Leaf had her Pokémon help to keep the bars up so I could escape.

I slid underneath the lowering cage into the hallway. I jammed the folder into my backpack and we ran off to the elevator.

Hopefully, the grunts will still be investigating the room while we go through the facility.

"So Red," Michael asked. "What are we going to do here? I mean, we have secrets, freed Gold…"

"Yea, but we need to destroy this place," I said. "We're going down to the bottom floor where we'll cave in the place. My idea is if a strong Earthquake attack were to hit the building, it would be destroyed. We can escape with a Pokémon who knows Dig, then we're home free."

"Well, you've given this some thought," Michael said.

"Of course. Now let's cave this place in."

The elevator dinged and came into a plain room which looks like it's used for meetings. It has swivel chairs surrounding a large table, with a projector screen at the end. No matter what it's for, it's going down.

I exchanged Storm for Driver.

"Go, Driver!" I yelled.

"Ditto!" Leaf called.

"Let's do it, Magnectric!" Michael said.

"Growlithe, let's go!"

I passed my Dig TM between Michael and Blue, who both needed it. Meanwhile, Leaf's Ditto transformed into Driver.

"Guys, on three, use Earthquake, then Dig, got it?"

All four Pokémon nodded their heads.

"Alright. One, two, three."

-?-

"EARTHQUAKE! EVACUATE THE BUILDING!"

There were hundreds of grunts running up the stairs, while Giovanni was with several other admins in the elevator.

"Sir, do you think-"

"Yes, it's 0013," Giovanni replied, irritated. "I don't think we'll be able to take this place back. Damn Red…"

"Well, what are we going to do now?"

"Look, there's a bigger problem now. If they were to take Celadon, rebels will control half of Kanto. We can't have that."

"But sir, we've tried to take back Pewter and Cerulean, and both attempts ended in defeat."

"I KNOW! Just… they need to be killed. Screw publicity. We need to kill Fire Red. When he dies, the groups dies as well."

"Uhh, not to question your plans, but I think he can escape death too."

"What do you mean?"

"You know that Umbreon he has? It was killed during the Mewtwo incident, yet it was used in the battle against Gold."

"He… brought a Pokémon back from… the DEAD?! Arceus, I hate that boy."

The rest of the ride was in an awkward silence. As they stepped into the casino, the stairs collapsed, killing three grunts.

"Give this to the public" Giovanni said, pointing at the dead grunts. "They'll eat it up."

"Yes sir!"

-Red's POV-

"Well, that went well," I said, holding up the file.

"Let's read it!" Blue said.

"Of course."

I opened it up and looked at the pages.

"Warp 2. This is Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket. Assuming the warp worked correctly, a past version of myself will receive this document. If I know myself, I would be highly doubtful about whether or not this is legit. As evidence, I will describe what we have never said to anyone else…"

It went into some story from Giovanni's past, which didn't seem that important.

"Now, in this timeline, an agent was able to capture a Celebi and deliver it to me. I will write these documents describing the future, so that you may be able to change it for the glory of Team Rocket."

This was getting interesting.

"First of all, Research the trainer from Pallet Town known as Red. He will become a major obstacle in your path to greatness. Make all operations revolve around him not noticing. Below is a list of activities he has interrupted: Moon Stone collection, TM theft in Cerulean City, catching Cubone in Lavender Town, and the take down of Silph Co. Red cannot discover these activities."

That was all that was on the first page. Everyone was shocked, myself included. I turned the page to see this:

"Warp 3. This is Giovanni, who has received the letter. At first, I completely disregarded this as nothing more than a psychic trying to bring Team Rocket down, but after the events played out, I realized this was not faked. We made sure to wait until after Red has left Saffron City before the bring-down of Silph. This allowed us to obtain a Master Ball, but it was lost in a police raid on July 17th, 2049. I will take steps to insure both files are received by another past form of me."

The list went on, talking about familiar and non-familiar events, such as Mt. Moon, the base under the casino, and, most importantly, Mewtwo. There seemed to be a whole page about him, starting with this:

"Warp 2: This is a special page dedicated to the Pokémon known as Mewtwo. He is very difficult to control, but if we know the steps he's going to take, I think he will be a valuable asset. In this timeline, he destroyed the laboratory he was made in, before I tamed him personally. It worked well, until he went looking where he wasn't supposed to…"

Apparently Mewtwo is very important to them. According to this, I think they actually did worse with Mewtwo now than in past attempts.

Eventually, there was one documenting a time when just Kanto and parts of Johto were under Giovanni's control, but they didn't stop there. The remaining few discussed complete world domination, until there was one last file.

"Warp 11. It's over. We now control the world! Team Rocket is in command!"

There was a space, as if Giovanni wrote the bottom part at another time.

"Something entirely new has happened that has never came up before in previous files. A group of trainers is standing in the way. They are known by Fire Red, and Blue Oak. Although there was a Red and a Blue mentioned in previous files, these two are completely different. The biggest issue is that their unpredictable. Additionally, we did not capture a Celebi this time, thanks to the meddling of Fire Red. We now have no idea where it is, and there is little chance of sending this file back. I am, however, writing this in the event we do find one, but the odds are slim."

"Oh my Arceus," Leaf said.

Blue and I looked at eachother. Things are starting to fall into place. Why a group of teenagers is such a threat to Team Rocket. How Team Rocket even came to power in the first place. And why Blue and I were made.

"Alright, what's going on here?" Michael asked. "Leaf and I both know you're keeping something from us."

I guess it's better to tell them…

Blue and I explained how Arceus created us to stop Team Rocket.

"Well, that actually makes more sense than some of the other stuff you do," Leaf commented.

"Yea, but now, I think I get the picture," I said

"About what?" Michael asked.

"When Arceus created us, we drastically changed the timeline. And by stopping them from capturing Celebi, this is the final, or true timeline. Giovanni can't warn his past self about us now."

"But when did we stop him from getting his hand on a Celebi?" Blue asked.

"I think it was around the time I caught Storm and we tied up that grunt that I didn't want to torture. That's the only operation we stopped that we didn't know the purpose of."

"I guess that makes sense…" Blue said.

"But, what do we do now?" Michael asked.

"The folder provides us with answers about what he isn't and is going to do, and we can use that." I said. "But for right now, it's time to take Celadon City!"


Flinky: There it is. Huge secret on Giovanni and how he came to power.

Red: Didn't you say you had writer's block up in the intro, and you do this?

Flinky: Yea, well, I had the idea in my head for a while...