Chapter 34
"Breaking news: the charred body of a man found in the highest floor of the pokémon league administrations tower earlier this morning has been identified as the CEO of the Johto pokémon league administration. After he had failed to show up for a board meeting, the executives entered his office to find a badly burned body, which was later identified as the corpse of the CEO. For more coverage on this unfolding drama please tune in at 6 o'clock."
Giovanni grinned as he watched the local news on a television screen in his limousine. The storm had finally died down, and the sun shone from between the now parting clouds. Roads throughout the region were covered in deep puddles and were dangerously slippery due to how much rain had fallen. Floods had affected much of the low lying areas of Johto and thousands of people had been displaced from their homes. The damage caused by the strong winds and floods was evaluated to be at over nine billion pokedollars and dozens of people had perished in the harsh weather.
Giovanni watched the beautiful scenery of Johto roll past as his limousine sped down the road toward the temporary headquarters of Team Rocket. After the mewtwos had damaged the actual headquarters by destroying the weapon, repairs had to made, and at a rather high cost too. Such a loss of money on a single project had not been seen since two imbecilic members of Team Rocket managed to accidentally destroy the Pokémon World theme park, which Giovanni had spent millions on. The blasted mewtwos were a serious threat to Team Rocket's goals; their creation had done nothing but caused harm to Team Rocket.
"I must find a way to destroy those pesky creatures…" Giovanni thought to himself as his limousine finally drove through the gates of the temporary headquarters…
Puddles. Puddles everywhere. The heavy rain had left the forest atop Mount Quena in a rather muddy state with hundreds of small pools of water littering the landscape. Mateusz and Joasia floated over the boggy ground to avoid getting covered in the rich brown mud, as Mateusz had learned a few weeks earlier, getting soaked in mud could make you ill. The forest looked very different after the heavy rain; the leaves on the trees were somehow greener than they were before, the wooden boughs somehow a richer brown.
Small creeks of water flowing through the forest and into the lake had appeared during the deluge, taking with them fallen branches from trees that had borne the brunt of the wind.
"So much destruction… all from one storm," Joasia marvelled at the extent of the damage the storm had caused as she looked around.
"Well, Mewtwo did say it was going to be a big one," Mateusz chuckled as they quickly approached the edge of Mount Quena.
The pair reached the towering crater walls of Mount Quena and began to fly up the rocky slope. Small landslides had taken place during the storm, making some parts of the crater walls far steeper than before. The two mewtwos reached the top of the crater wall and came to a rest on top of the wall.
"You told me Mewtwo said he'd meet us here, so where is he?" Joasia inquired.
"I don't know, but it's not like him to be tardy," Mateusz answered as he glanced around.
"But I'm not tardy," Mewtwo's voice sounded in their heads, causing them to look all around.
Mewtwo floated down from above them and landed on the crater wall near where they stood, smirking at their mistake.
"So, why did you want to meet us here then?" Joasia asked with her arms folded.
"I wanted to talk to you both about something," Mewtwo responded as he looked them both in the eye, "We are going to go on a journey to a human city, I know you probably don't want to go, but it would be a good training exercise for you to come with me. You'd be able to practice stealth and should we be spotted, memory wiping,"
Joasia immediately looked quite opposed to the idea and began to frown.
"I refuse to go," she said bluntly as memories of humans she had been around in the past surfaced.
There was an awkward pause as Mewtwo and Joasia gazed into each other's eyes, which was soon broken by Mateusz.
"I'll come," he quietly said.
"Fine, Mateusz you can come with me, and Joasia, you may stay here, but I would prefer it if you'd come as well, you need to practise using your abilities or risk having a higher chance of losing a fight against Team Rocket or anyone else in future because you have not had as much time to practise as you needed to become familiar with your abilities," Mewtwo warned.
"Ugh… Fine…" Joasia relented with a slightly bitter tone, "When do we leave and how long will the whole journey take us?"
"It should take us no longer than three days for the round trip, we will be leaving in two hours," Mewtwo replied before abruptly flying off.
"He certainly doesn't like informing you he's leaving before he goes off and does who knows what," Mateusz commented dryly.
"It seems to be that way. Now, what do you think we should do for the next couple of hours?" Joasia asked with a smile that hinted at mischievous intentions.
"I know what you're thinking, and no, we're not going to try and prank Mew again, it didn't work last time," Mateusz said in reference to an event that had taken place the previous day whilst they had been couped up in the caves.
They had attempted to dunk Mew in one of the underground pools that were littered throughout the cave system beneath Mount Quena's surface, but he had just teleported out of the way when they had tried to grab him, taunting them as he fled.
"Oh alright then, so what would you have us do, then?" Joasia demanded an alternative as she folded her arms, tail swaying from side to side.
"We could just relax on the shores of the lake for a while, unless you'd rather do something else," Mateusz suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Hm, yeah I suppose. It would be good to rest, after all, we are going on a three day trek fairly shortly," Joasia agreed with a smile as they began to head towards the lake…
"We need more information on that creature, what we have just isn't enough," the head scientist addressed the rest of the people who sat on the conference table.
"And how do you propose we gain more, this creature is immensely powerful," Team Rocket's army commander asked.
"I was hoping our lead strategist might be able to help us with that," the head scientist responded as he looked across the table at the strategist.
The head strategist appeared to be deep in thought, and did not respond.
"Ahem…" Giovanni coughed.
The man with scruffy black hair broke from his state of thought and shifted his attention to Giovanni.
"Well, do you think you could come up with a strategy to gain more information on the mewtwo that assisted our two mewtwos in their escape from our research base?" Giovanni asked the blue-eyed man.
"Hm… Yes, I suppose I could, but I'll need time, a few hours should suffice. I will also need all information and security camera tapes we currently have of this creature you speak of," the strategist replied.
"I will have the information brought to your office shortly after this meeting," Giovanni responded to the man's request with a nod before addressing the whole table, "Now, is there anything else in need of discussion before this meeting comes to a close?"
The following silence answered Giovanni's question fairly quickly and he dismissed the group of Team Rocket leaders and specialists abruptly...
"Why are you always at work, mummy?" a small child asked his mother who had just arrived home to find her son still awake at a late hour.
"Because my child, I must be at work to ensure the business runs smoothly. One day, you shall inherit the business from me, and you will be the boss. Then you will understand why it is necessary for the boss to be there at their business," the child's mother explained her relative absence in the child's life, "You should be in bed. It's late. Now go,"
"But mummy, I hardly ever see you," the child complained as tears began to well up in his eyes.
"Hm, maybe I can take you to work with me tomorrow then. How does that sound?" the mother asked the child.
"Really? I can come?" the brown haired child looked for confirmation as he stopped crying.
"Yes, of course you can come. It'll give you an excuse to wear that little orange suit you were given by your late father," his mother responded with a smile.
"Why is daddy late? Is that why I haven't seen him for a while?" the child asked with a confused look on his face.
His mother laughed a little after he had asked the question like only a child could, "No son, he's not really late for anything, it's just a term that adults use to describe someone who is, well, permanently asleep,"
"So daddy isn't coming back?" the child questioned his mother with a curious look on his face.
"I'm afraid not. But as long as you have memory of him, that's what matters," the mother said as she motioned for the child to go to bed.
"One last thing, mummy, what do they call you at work?" the inquisitive child asked.
"They call me Madame Boss. Now go to sleep, or you won't be able to get up so you can come to work with me!" the child's mother said before the child finally headed up the stairs to his room…
Giovanni awoke from his dream in cold sweat and breathing heavily. He had dreamed of his childhood for the fourth time that week, each dream becoming more vivid than the last. In this dream he had been able to recognise his mother's face. His early childhood memories of his mother were fond, but as he had grown older, they became hostile towards each other and no longer saw each other. He remembered having an argument with his mother when he was seventeen for which neither of them apologised for, causing a split in their relationship.
It had still been sad for him when his mother had died despite the wedge that seemed to have been driven between them because she was the only family member he had left at the time. Since then he had married for a short period of time and had a son, but he had somehow managed to distance his wife and child too. Every person he had ever called family was either dead or didn't want to be around him. Thinking about his past made Giovanni uncomfortable as he realised how lonely he really was.
"Tch, I never really needed them anyway." Giovanni thought for a moment but he felt a pang in his heart.
Giovanni forced his eyes shut and slowly drifted back off to sleep, ghosts of the past finally leaving his mind in peace…
"Wake up, Mateusz. It's almost time to leave," a gentle voice sounded in Mateusz's head.
Mateusz felt someone shaking him and half opened his eyes. Joasia was attempting to wake him up by shaking his shoulders. Mateusz fully opened his eyes as they adjusted to the sunlight and sat up as he stretched and yawned.
"How long have I been asleep for?" Mateusz wearily asked.
"About an hour," Joasia replied with a grin before giving him a light kiss on the cheek.
"Sheesh, I don't even remember falling asleep in the first place. I must have been quite relaxed then," Mateusz chuckled.
The pair had laid on the shores of the lake talking to each other, but soon the sun had made Mateusz feel sleepy and he had closed his eyes for what he had described as 'just resting'.
"Mewtwo is going to want us to leave in about half an hour, so I decided it might be best to wake you up," Joasia informed Mateusz of the time they had left until they were going to begin their journey to a human city.
"Well, maybe we better go find him then" Mateusz responded as he rose to his feet…
