On'na Boss, Miyamoto, Agatha... The old times are returning.

by lord Martiya

P.S.: I was almost forgetting: in my profile there's a poll about Butch's final fate. If you want him dead, jailed, or something like that, you can vote.

TALE 08: VS CELEBI

If you believe that my crusade against Team Rocket began after knowing my nightmare, you're wrong. Why should I believe that a similar nightmare about my father was a memory? I took the Pokebot only because it was fast, not for the weaponry.

My objective was run to the Viridian Forest Ruins and try to discover what was happened in the past. But TR was waiting for me, and in the same moment I exited the Pokebot it was destroyed by an Hyperbeam from Tulip, Domino's Primeape.

I found myself surrounded by a company, and Domino, with all her party out, said: How obvious... Now, Enrico, can you give us those two Snag Machines, the blueprints and the Pokemons you stole?

"What Pokemons?" I asked.

"Vicious' ones. Let me see..." Domino looked on the list and read: "A Noctowl, a Weavile, a Scizor, a Magmortar, an Electivire and a Tyranitar. Wow, that team rocks..."

"I had totally forgotten about the..."

Then I laughed with gusto, because, in the same moment that Domino did, I understood that Rose, while so sick, managed to stole Vicious' Pokemons.

"Ooookaay, forgot the Pokemons." she said. "Now, let see about those Snag Machines... Wrong answer."

I let my party exit. Well, Ambrosio was stuck in a nearby pound, but with his attacks, especially the mighty Draco Meteor, he could help. But I was only calling their attention, waiting what was about to happen. And then it happened: the Rockets and their Pokemons were attacked by their own shadows.

"Uh... I forgot to mention, this part of the forest is haunted." I said recalling all my Pokemon but Aureliano.

"Do you really believe me so gullible?" Domino replied. "DON'T PANIC! TAKE THE TOWEL(1)! GIOVANNA, EARTHQUAKE!"

The Earthquake hit all the Rockets and the entire horde of Gastlys, Haunters, Gengars, Misdreavuses, Mismagiuses, Shuppets, Banettes, Duskulls, Dusclops, Dusknoirs, Drifloons, Drifblims, Shedinjas, Sableyes, Froslasses, Rotoms and even Spiritombs, besides other Ghost Pokemons, who were attacking them from their own shadows. Judging from her face (covered by her mask, but, you know, this means nothing), I believe that she understood who was the enemy, but I don't know her thinking because the enemy immediatly showed: she was, as you surely imagined, Agata of the Indigo Plateau Elite Four.

"Good call, twerpette." she said after appearing near her shoulder, terrifying the Rockets and surprising me (I failed to locate her). "As sign of appreciation, I'll let you yourselves to go away. You know, I'm here for those Snag Machines and the Blueprints..."

"Tulip, Cross Chop!" Domino replied, only to have her Pokemon frozed by an Ice Punch from Agata's Gengar.

"Last chanche, retire."

"You could have your party still fresh, but you're too outnumbered from us!"

"You know the best thing of Shedinjas? If you don't hit them with something supereffective, they're undefeatable."

"Crap..."

Domino and her people were tricked by Agata's experience, and now were mixed with very angry and near-immortal Pokemon with Shadow Claws ready. I tried to Fly away (that's the reason Aureliano is so strong and fast: I trained him to carry me at high speed, and when he don't carry me...) in the confusion, but I encountered a swarm of Drifloons, Gastlys, Zubats and Golbats, all leaded by Agata's party Crobat, blocking my way, so I had to land. The clash was about to begin when a childish voice asked to stop the fight.

The intruder was a girl of my age but short enough to be believed younger. She was wearing black pants and vest with a brown jersey and a straw hat hiding her ponytail, so she could be mistake for a boy. And seeing her, Domino said: "Rockets, do you remember my orders, don't panic and take the towel? Well... TRASH THE TOWEL AND RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!"

Domino ran away screaming "THE SOVEREIGN OF THE FOREST!! WAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!", followed by her party carrying Tulip.

Why? Well, when I was in TR I had the habit of use my spare time to live in Viridian Forest, and, while being a Viridian's Gym Trainer with my Trainer's badge and the style, I was accepted by the trainers of the Forests and their leader, that girl, nicknamed Yellow de Viridian Grove and infamous as 'Sovereign of Viridian Forest'. She was infamous for two things: her total lacking of common sense, that often leaded her to do attacks a bit too powerful, yes, she's the same who did that thing, and her narcolepsy that make her sleep in the worst possible moment. I told all of this to Domino, and I told also that every single Pokemon of Viridian Forest obey her, so Domino escaped, fearing to be eated alive by Caterpies.

The Rockets tried to escape, but... Well, Yellow went asleep and in dreamtalking ordered to attack the Rockets, so they were attacked and captured by an horde of Caterpies, Butterfrees, Weedles, Beedrills, Pidgeys, Pidgeottos, Spearows, Pikachus, etc.

"Crazy twerp..." commented Agata. "Now, Mr. Paolucci, give me the blueprints and one of the Snag Machine. You can keep the other."

"Good. Ten million Pokemon Dollars, please." I replied.

"Can you repeat the last part? I though to have heard bad. Twerpish age..."

"Twenty million Pokemon Dollars, please."

"... Good. Wait a moment, I prepare the check..."

"In cash. Low denomination. Better coins, if possible."

"DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT I GO AROUND WITH TWENTY MILLIONS?!"

"Obviously, not. That's why I'll remain here to wait for you or your assistant."

Agata looked at me in a very scaring manner, then laughed and phoned to her assistant that I was really as Rose described me and to bring 'twenty cash'. Then I saw a light and appeared in an unknown building.

"Mom, I'm not a brat!" exclaimed a strangely familiar voice coming from a closed room.

"Your so-called 'Rocket Gang' is a brat play, so you're a brat." answered another one, a feminine one.

I turned to the room, and on the door I saw writed "Office of the Allmighty Lady President of Team Rocket". If I was in a manga, I would sweatdrop. I Aura-readed the room, and understood why the first voice was familiar: it was my father's one, in younger version. That explained everything: apparently a Celebi decided to help my search with time travel.

He and his mother, my grandmother, were talking about Team Rocket objectives. The 'Allmighty Lady President of Team Rocket', the woman that I saw in that portrait, wanted cash for a research, an illegal one, while my father believed that the World Governement would use the forbidden weapons to not let her doing that research, so it was better conquer the world first.

Then a woman, the 'Older Jesse', arrived. I managed to hide myself, having sensed her Aura, similar to Jesse's one, long before she arrives, and she entered in the boss' room, where she received an order: going to the Andes and retrieve Mew DNA or, if possible, a living Mew. I also heard that 'Older Jesse' was indeed Jesse's mother, and that she put her and Jesse's twin sister(2) for adoption. After that, Jesse's mother, the famous (in Team Rocket) Bonnie Parker(3), and my father were dismissed. After they went out of sight I exited my hideout. Finding my grandma waiting for me and smiling. She t... Uh? Do you really know her exact words? OK. She said: "Bondì, puto. Me imagin ti ghe xe mè nievo, giu-"

Hey, you asked for her exact words, and she talked to me in Candracan(4)! OK, I'll translate, she said: "Hi, kid. I suppose you're my grandson, right? Oh, don't be silly. You know, you have a wonderful Aura, but you're not so expert, while I am. That stupid twerp" she used the word 'twerp', not one of its Candracan counterpart like my favourite 'snarociòxo'. Team Rocket gergo, I suppose "is really a brat and clearly he will remain so... Please, come in my office."

"And if I refuse?" I replied.

She snapped her fingers, and I was literally KICKED in the office by a Dusclops.

"Please, sit." she said, and that time I preferred obey: I could sense that the office was full of Ghost Pokemon. "I have only a question for you: do you know where mankind come from?"

"According to my father, mankind naturally evolved on this planet." I answered.

"But you don't believe it, right? You're more intelligent than your brattish father. The only thing that I can concede him is that he's better than me at raising children. I wonder where I failed with him..."

"How can you know that I'm your grandson?"
"Aura reading. Your father is really undertalented in this, something very strange in our family, so he always fail to recognize Aura, but I am a true Aura Guardian like my father before me and his father before him and his mother before her and etcetera etcetera. From Aura reading you can understood various thing, like who're the parents of somebody, if you know them, or that Giovanni will not properly train you and that I somehow managed to correct the thing. My sister is Dark City Gym Leader, I'll leave her something for you, the gloves you're wearing and a book. Well, the gloves are a decision that I just made, but from Aura reading and normal observation I understood various things. Like that's time you go in another time. Good luck, heir."

After that, the light, again. And I found myself behind a rock on a mountain road in the Andes, near a group of trainer old leaded by my father. It appeared that some year passed, because he was older.

"Giovanni, tell me again why we are about to kill that woman." told him a woman that I recognized as Rose's mother in face of her strange earrings, similar to triangles of reduced Pokeballs.

"Because if she manage to bring back something related to Mew Team Rocket will become too influent, and we won't took it over from my mother." my father answered. "Delia, you know, my mother is a bit crazy, but she's not stupid, and if she manage to have all that money she will corrupt the right people and secure her position unless somebody won't undeniably prove that she's Team Rocket boss, and our plan will be crushed."

"Why another avalanche?" a trainer asked. A trainer that I recognized as the would-be Iron Masked Crusader, nicknamed Vicious. "Last time she survived."

"According to her report, she was saved by a Pokemon. She was saved by Articuno. If Marie will confirm that Articuno is nowhere in sight, we'll act."

A woman who looked alike my sister, my would-be MOTHER, arrived riding a Pidgeot.

"So, Marie?" my father asked.

"No Articuno in the area." my mother replied. "Let's kill he..."

Then, I attacked the Pidgeot, KOing her with Federico's Earthquake. I know, a Flying-type is supposed to be immune to Earth-type attacks, but that's only because they can fly, and if the Earthquake is delivered on the back of the Flying-type, the immunity is invalidated.

"Who are you?!" shouted Vicious to me while Federico returned on my side.

"You can ask him later." my mother said glaring at me. "Before that, I'll grant him the troubles that he asked for."

My mother unleashed a little oversized Snorlax, really furious at me and Federico for what we did to the Pidgeot.

"Body Slam on him until he beg for his life." my mother ordered.

Her Snorlax tried to reduce the distance to obey to the order, but I made Federico counterattack with his prized Toxic. Yes, it was already powerful enough to KO a non-Poison type in few seconds. As anticipated, the Snorlax coughed abruptly from the poisoned smoke. Then, as NOT anticipated, it used Body Slam and nearly hit Federico.

"Immunity(5)." my mother explained. "Mega Punch."

Her Snorlax attacked with a very powerful Mega Punch, narrowly blocked by Federico, who then hit her with a Dynamic Punch while being hit by a Mega Kick. Both of them were in a very bad shape. Then, Snorlax used a Rest-Sleep Talk combo, restoring all the HP and attacking. Federico and I were lucky that he used Belly Drum, but she was still in better shape than Federico. Before she used Snore or awake, I made Federico using Horn Drill, managing to score the hit and win before being really in trouble.

At that point Vicious tried to grab one of his Pokeballs. Only to discover that during the match I released Snyer and made use him Thief to steal all of their Pokeballs.

"I suppose that now we'll remain here for a while." I said. "And the first who try to run away will have a very ugly scar in an embarassing point of Snyer's choice."

"CHARLIE! USE HEAT WAVE!" Rose's mother ordered.

Well, that woman was tricky like her daughter: the pointing down-'Pokeballs' of her earrings were ACTUAL POKEBALLS, placed there to surprise the enemy. And we were really caught in the surprise effect by the Shiny Charizard she released while Snorlax flied back for the hit of the Horn Drill. Snyer evaded with his superior speed and I managed to defend myself with a sort of Aura Sphere (thanks to the special gloves received from my grandmother via Sabrina and her friend), but Federico was hit and fainted. Before I or Rose's mother could order something to his Pokemon, Snyer and Charlie begin a Slash battle. When Charlie managed to score an hit he seemed to win, but he was then hit back with Payback.

Then we heard a motor noise. Rose's mother rided her Charizard and flied in air, while the others screamed and leveled themself on the mountain's side. Understanding that something was about to happen I recalled Snyer and flied in the air with Aureliano. Then Jesse's mother arrived. She was pursuing a Mew, riding an old Pokapp KS750(6) with a Poison Stinging-Arbok in the sidecar.

"I SWEAR, I'LL CATCH YOU!!" Bonnie shouted.

"She's totally crazy..." Rose's mother whispered.

"Poor bike..." I said.

Yes, poor bike: it was obvious that the Mew would destroy it when he was pissed off enough. However, after seeing that I decided that she didn't need protection, so I gave back the stolen Pokeballs, just in time for Celebi next appearance (that time he appeared before me, so I managed to see him) and the next time travel.

That one made me appear not later than a few months, near Rose's mother riding Charlie and keeping a crying baby with herself. Then the Sniny Weavile on Charlie's tail launched an Ice Beam, hitting a Noctowl and making him fall in a block of ice.

"Hey, what's happening?" I asked, following her.

"Uh? Well, that's explain why Vici's Noctowl stopped enough to be scored..." she said seeing me. "Well, I just quitted Rocket's Gang. Or I should be Team Rocket, now..."

"I just arrived in Kanto. What's happened to Team Rocket?"
"Well, Giovanni, the TR boss' son, managed to publicy uncover her mother's activity and tell the Governement the location of TR HQ in Viridian Forest, all without being discovered. The HQ was attacked by the entire Trainer's Militia of Kanto and even by National Guard armoured units. His mother is presumed dead in the attack, and in the chaos he took over Team Rocket. I couldn't stand with this, so I kept this orphaned girl with me and now I'm returning home, to Pallet Town. I'm Delia Vandom, nice to meet ya. What's your name?"

"Uh... I'm Enrico, Enrico de Viridian Grove."

Then Aureliano shouted(7) 'Snarociòxo a ore zhincue! Snarociòxo a ore une!', warning of somebody trying to intercept us outside my Aura-reading area. T... Uh? Well, he said 'Twerp at five hour! Twerp at one hour' in Candracan, I trained him to use Candracan because during my TR period I didn't thinked to ever go in Candraca and almost nobody in Kanto and Jotho but Altomare(8)'s citizens can understand it, so a possible foe wouldn't understand the warning. As I was saying, the one behind us was my mother with her Pidgeot (she healed from the injuries of Federico's Earthquake), and the other was a trainer on a Salamence. Then the Salamence used Hyper Beam on Pidgeot. The attack missed, but my mother retired.

"That's so him..." Rose's mother said.

I used my scope (yes, I have one, I always have a scope with me), identifying him as Scottie Ketchum, the would-be 'Silver Bullet'.

"You're safe now." I said. "Goodbye."

"Wait!" she said. "Do you know a good name for this girl?"

"Uh... Rose?"

"I buy it. Thanks for everyt-"

Then Celebi decided that I had to return to my present, and I appeared near Agata.

"I hope you learned something from your time travel." she said. "Any question?"

"Was this TR headquarter?" I asked.

"And two floors up there were the Office of the Allmighty Lady President of Team Rocket."

"What's happened to my grandma?"

"She was shot by a sniper who tried to kill one of her bodyguard by one mile. She's presumed dead. Her body was never found, but it's presumed to be buried by her Pokemons, also never found by the soldiers."

"Mrs. Parker whereabouts?"

Agata pointed in Indigo Plateau's direction, where her helper was arriving. And with my scope I recognized her as Bonnie Parker: when she discovered that Giovanni was TR leader she imagined what was happened and the Ideal Image of Team Rocket, as she's famous in TR, joined Pokemon G-Men in a vendetta. And was unlucky enough to be assigned to work as assistant to the creepy Agata. Well, at least I was wrong on a thing: that Mew was never pissed off enough to destroy her motorbike, I discovered this seeing her arriving on her bike with my money.

footnotes

(1)If you can tell me to who's this homage, you'll win a spoiler of your choiche.

(2)I know, Jesse is supposed to be an only child. But not here.

(3)Sorry, but I couldn't use her original name because it would be absurd having Jesse and her sister with English names and their mother called Miyamoto (Giovanni's daughter have a French name, but that's like her mother), so I chose another name. Every other data about her will remain like in the original. I named the character following TR English names pattern of famous criminals, in this case Bonnie from the infamous bandit couple Bonnie & Clyde. Will Clyde Barrow appear? I don't know...

(4)Main language spoken in the region of Candraca, from where Giovanni and his mother come from in this fanfic. I choose to use a strict Venetian Language to represent it because I publish this fanfic also in Italian, so I needed something DIFFERENT from Italian, and because I'm not able to create a fictional language on my own.

(5)One of two Abilities that a Snorlax can come with, prevents poisoning. And negate the effect of Toxic.

(6)Another homage to a motorcycle, this time to the famous Zündapp KS750, also famous as the standard Wehrmacht sidecar of WWII, maybe the most famous motorbike with sidecar in history.

(7)It's not a talking Pokemon. Simply Murkrows can be trained to repeat words, and this one was trained to repeat some words in particular conditions.

(8)Location of Pokemon Heroes, it's a city who looks very similar to Venice.