Chapter 7: Planning and their execution

Morning

Kanto

Pallet Town

"Ahhhhh" Red stretched and inhaled deeply, "nice to be back home after so long" he commented in a content manner, after stroking his aerodactyl's head a few times he recalled the Pokemon back inside a capsule and took a look around the quaint hamlet. Although it was small, this area enjoyed great popularity since Professor Oak and the current reigning champion both hailed from this town. Sneakers crunched grass underfoot as both Green and his black haired friend entered the vicinity. Their sight was set to the laboratory situated on the opposite outskirts of the town. With a determined gaze, Green strode first whilst Red ambled behind. With a smile on his face and arms folded behind his back, he walked in taking in the sights. A few rows of red tiled homes and a single paved path ran in the middle, taking the route, he came across the facility, glass doors slid open, and he observed his brown haired companion already in a heated discussion with his grandfather. Despite being quite old, he still dominated the research field and back in the days, he was a formidable Pokemon trainer as well. Glancing at the screens and shelves filled with Pokemon, statistics and other research, he made it all the way to the back and greeted the elderly professor.

"Good morning Professor Oak, nice day isn't it?"

"I need information on Mewtwo and Mew" Green insisted, "grandfather, please give them to me."

"Green..." the elder wearily sighed and sat on a worn armchair, he reached for a steaming mug of coffee which was placed on his desk, after taking a lengthy sip of the scalding liquid, he exhaled once more and eyed the duo who came to visit.

"Red...For Mew's sake could you two please stop what you two have started? Kidnapping...Who in their right mind kidnaps children Green?! They had a bright career before them and leave it up to you two to ruin it! You people can steal legendries, information, research, important artifacts belonging to the creation trio...Whatever you like and want but seriously, forcing them against their will in your convoluted little world is going too far! You will pay for this, both of you, and you will pay dearly." Tired eyes peered sternly at the two young men who were both looking at the floor in shame. The whirring of computers and drone of machines were suddenly very loud in their ears.

"I just want data on Mewtwo and Mew, I... We have a goal we want to accomplish, nothing will deter us. I don't regret the path I've taken Grandpa and neither has Red, in a few days the children will warm up."

"You were never the one to listen were you? Still arrogant. Anyway, if you still contribute to the research of Pokemon and how to better understand them and release this information to the general public and interested trainers, I'll support you." Getting up, he went to an ancient looking portable computer and booted it up. After what seemed like an eternity, Oak stuck a flash drive into one of the ports and began copying it to the drive. Green crossed the floor to a bookcase situated right at the back of the room and skimmed through some of the titles, he took down a few tomes and returned, his Grandfather handed the flash drive to him and flashed an exhausted smile.

"Did you visit Daisy?" he asked.

"No, I don't have time today" the adolescent replied in a distracted manner "more importantly...You are overworking yourself again, get rest or you will ruin your health."

"I'd probably get a good night's sleep if the news stopped showing me your organization's atrocious deeds" the man chuckled "Red, are you also busy?"

"Yes Professor, we'll visit again someday and hopefully stay by for lunch" waving, the ruby eyed male followed his friend out the door. Seeing them leave, Oak set the mug down closed his eyes and uttered a slight groan. It echoed around the empty laboratory.

Late morning

Celadon city

Dex Criminal's hideout, Execution's room

"Oshawott use Tackle" The water pokemon ran on little feet and aimed at its opponent grinning across the room, as it tried to slam it, the creature did a back flip and sent it tumbling back to its trainer. Lack-2 gritted his teeth and glanced at Gold who was busy playing pool with a couple of his other Pokemon and at the same time, flirting with a dark blue haired girl who was glaring at him. Forcing his attention to his pokemon, he was given an unpleasant surprise when Oshawott lay at his feet panting and drained of energy, he was unable to battle even though he hadn't fainted.

False swipe, he thought and eyed the mauve monkey with distaste. Ambipom showed teeth and nimbly swung to his trainer; said person removed his goggles and turned to Lack-2 with a wide, mischievous smile.

"If this is how you are going to treat your new junior Gold, then I won't complain if he decides to break a few of your teeth" Crystal hissed from her position.

"Relax" he drawled, "by the way Crystal, you look really pretty today, wanna go on a date?" ignoring the gaping Lack-2 he winked at his friend, red faced, the female trainer kicked him and he soared across the room, colliding with Sapphire's sand bag along the way, holding his stomach, he groaned.

"Jeez super strict woman! Can't you take a joke?!" Huffing, she glowered at him then looked at Lack-2, imparting a small smile at the child trainer, she left the chamber. Now it was only him and Gold in the room. Seeing the older male in pain, he first sprayed oshawott down with a potion, recalled his partner and swaggered to his senior with hands deep inside his pockets and a smug grin.

"I think we're going to be best friends senior Gold" he commented and helped the adolescent up. Gold took off his peak cap and ran a hand through his short messy hair and upon hearing Lack-2's words he smirked with understanding, beckoning the youngster over to his prized pool table, the duo began a game and a conversation consisting of how many girls and woman they managed to woo. About an hour later, Sapphire entered to see the newbie and Gold sitting in a corner of the room, near the suit of rusting armor. They were playing cards and snickering in a disturbing manner.

"Is Red back?" she called over her shoulder and released her blaziken.

"Nope" floated the reply "why don't you ask prissy boy to help you train for now?"

"Ruby's busy doing his nails or something, says he's not in the mood to get his clothes sweaty." Turning around, she made her way to the sand bag and started training with her pokemon; the loud thumps prompted Lack-2 to look at her in slight awe.

"That's Sapphire" Gold explained with his eyes still on his cards, he tried to sneak a glance at ambipom's cards but the Pokemon held it out of reach, "she is the only female trainer in our department and she packs a punch, word of warning, don't try anything with her, she's worse than Crystal when it comes to hitting people and Arceus forbid, she might rework you facial structure if she feels like it. I call her Cave-gal from time to time...And hah! I win!"

The young boy stared in shock, this person was sneaky, he saw Gold steal a knowing glance with his ambipom.

"You cheated or your ambipom did" Lack-2 accused and threw his cards "not cool."

"The universe does not spin on cool, you have to grab opportunities when they present it to you...hey Dia, give me a rice-ball I'm starving." A chubby teenager had walked it whilst eating something and as he was about to head to one of the computers, his senior called him, with an easygoing smile on his face; the youth ambled towards them and began dishing out food from the small backpack. Lack-2 was showered with a rice-ball, a few snacks, a cake, some poffins and Pokeblocks and before long, the three of them had begun to eat right there on the floor, the newest member scrutinized his elders sharply, there was no strain amongst them and as expected the teenager referred to Gold with respect, around mid-afternoon when the streaming sunlight and full stomachs were making the three males a bit sleepy, Sapphire stalked to them and sat down, stretching her legs.

"He's still not back" she grumbled, "senior Gold, please spar with me for a whi-" unfortunately, she did not get to finish her sentence as Black had just bowled in screaming something incomprehensible, picking an empty instant noodles cup up, the Hoenn trainer hurled it at him, it struck him squarely on his head and he managed to calm down.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked with barely contained wrath.

"Musharna" he added inattentively "can't find my pokemon, I need it to eat my dreams." Lack-2 sputtered out the soda he was drinking.

What?

"It's probably by White; she is currently in Strategy's room sorting out some documents Green faxed over." Black was already running out the door before she managed to complete her sentences.

"And there he goes again..." Diamond finished.

"He uses his pokemon to...to eat his dreams? How is that even possible? He's not asleep!" Lack-2, bewildered beyond belief had put his drink down and was cleaning up the stains on his shirt.

"Don't know how it works, but it does." Gold answered "Black can't think straight unless he's got musharna sucking his extra brain waves in, seems like White is the same. Both of them can work for extremely long periods of time without tiring, we send him on missions which require long hours and precision, once his head is empty, his thought process go on par with Green's...And that is saying something."

"What is our department's...Execution's job anyway? We don't kill anything do we?" The thought made the newbie shudder and his eyes were drawn to the large banner and the two crossed swords depicted on it.

"Yeah...we put an end to all the legendries we capture" Gold replied in a remorseless tone. Lack-2's entire body petrified and he peeked at the other faces around him to see if his senior was perhaps joking, Sapphire had an emotionless look on her somewhat pretty face and Diamond was snacking on berries along with his munchlax.

"You...You kill pokemon...Legendary pokemon...How...HOW COULD YOU!" Jumping up to his feet, the boy howled angrily "they balance the fate of the world! Time, space and everything exist because they govern it...Wha-"

"Pipe down kid" Gold picked his ear in an apathetic manner "I was making a joke! Sheesh, well, you passed the first criteria anyway." his irises slid to the Sinnoh trainer who was spacing out "we can definitely agree Dia is the black sheep amongst us."

Understandably, Lack-2 was confused; nevertheless he gingerly sat down on the floor again.

"What I was saying, is that all of us have one trait in common...well except Diamond here, we are all hotheaded" the eldest trainer in the room proudly stated and Sapphire, mortified, blushed a bit. "We all possess a special ability to get riled up and let our pokemon do the talkin-"

"Our team leader does not look like someone who flies into a rage easily" Lack-2 cut in.

"Once upon a time, when he was around your age, senior Red was also hot-blooded, seems like the cooled down a lot. Anyway, as I was saying, we represent the public image of our organization; we capture legendary pokemon and keep them in a special holding cell situated deep inside the base. Execution basically does most of the work here and as you noticed" he pointed to the large windows "this room is situated above ground, hence the natural light. We have to go out a lot and sometimes we are summoned in emergencies so, instead of having to navigate through a maze, we can directly leave the base through our room."

The neophyte nodded in understanding.

"Is capturing legendries our only job?" he queried.

"Nope" Saph answered this time "we also battle and provide cover in case one of our other team mates needs help. We fight off annoying trainers and the police if they arrive on the scene. Most of the time we work with different trainers from the other departments. Did you see Crystal? The woman with blue hair? Even though she is not in our team, she's the best Pokemon capturer out there, if we are having trouble, she comes in. Although we are sorted into separate departments, ultimately we end up working together...Ah! Senior Red, you are finally back! What took you so long?"

"Hi guys, uh, let's see...Green dragged me all the way to Cerulean cave to inspect something." the trainer announced and the others gaped at him, his clothes were slashed in several places and one of the wounds on his face was dribbling blood. Noticing the strange looks, he wiped his face with wrist, the band encircling his arm soaking up the blood.

"Give Lack-2 a tour of the base, seems like he is a bit more comfortable with us today" he smiled and Gold trying to ease the tense atmosphere hugged the boy to him and exclaimed that he was going to take the youngster as an apprentice.

"Nice, hey Saph, did you ask Green already?" the girl grumbled a negative response "you should ask him before he decides to train someone else."

The girl inclined her head and got up. The rest of the posse also lifted themselves up and was about to leave the room when Diamond was recalled, he shuffled back and the others were waved away. Shutting the doors the teenager approached nervously, when his leader had entered, Dia had become slightly afraid, wherever Red had gone, it was a dangerous place.

"Say, do you want me to train you?" Red asked, he was taking off his tattered jacket and trying to clean himself up, a box of tissues was on the table and several crumpled, red pigmented pieces lay at his feet.

It took a few minutes for the adorable glutton to process what his commander had proposed.

"But...Saph is going to get mad at me..." he pointed out and nibbled on a biscuit, his blue eyes were glazed over, it was a dream come true.

"Saph will only be able to unlock her full potential with Green, believe it or not, he's adept in martial arts, since she practices as well and I thought Green would be a perfect teacher for her."

"I'd be honored Mister Red...are you hungry?"

The metallic doors hissed open and Whi-2 cast a shy look at her senior. The girl looked sculpted out of marble, pale skin covered with an obviously expensive dress reaching her knees. Ring's decorated slim fingers and after adjusting the pink scarf around her neck, she elegantly waltzed in the hanger-esque area. Whi-2 followed nervously and gasped. In containers, tubes and cages were the missing legendary Pokemon the news kept reporting about. She had concluded these creatures were being mishandled but it seems as if their natural habitat was perfectly reconstructed in their holding cells. Her eyes almost popped out when she saw a blizzard raging in one of the glass prisons and a blue, long tailed bird merrily flapping about inside it. The duo continued to walk around the area in a leisurely pace and she keenly surveyed the Pokemon. Moving further, she saw her classmate and a few people standing around a circular tube and made her way there.

Lack-2 was at a loss for words. When Gold brought him to this place, he did not know what to expect but certainly not this. The mythical Pokemon seemed absolutely happy in their synthetic environments. His two seniors dragged him over to the pride of the holding cell and when he saw the purple Pokemon, his legs felt weak. It had never crossed his flirtatious mind that these criminals would have Mewtwo in their possession.

His mind was boggled.

He turned around on hearing footsteps and beheld Whi-2 bouncing over with a smile on her face.

She's already cozy with them, and here I am trying my best to put up a cheerful facade...Dear Reshiram, I HATE these people.

"Is this the real Pokemon? The one from Cerulean cave?" he quizzed.

"No, we managed to get a few cells from him; Mewtwo here is a clone of the original clone of Mew. Meaning he is a copy of the Mewtwo residing in Cerulean cave and that Pokemon is made from the DNA of Mew, Team Rocket was responsible for the original one by the way. Green's a genius..." Gold tapped a finger and the Pokemon opened its eyes and glared angrily.

"There...there is nothing wrong with him right?" next to Lack-2, Whi-2's trembling voice enquired.

"He's perfect!" The older trainer exclaimed and a resounding thump alerted the group to Mewtwo smashing his thick tail on the glass.

"...Except for the anger management issues..."

"Can we get a move on?" Lack-2 said and retreated from the wrathful creature "this place is making me dizzy" taking out his phone, which was another gift from his leader, he checked the time and stalked off to the entrance. "I want to see the rest of the place."

Green scowled when the merry group, including Whi-2 and Platina, burst into his room, chattering like zubats in a cave, they swept around the room, peered here and there and like a whirlwind, they left. Next they stepped in Constellate's room and Lack-2 immediately appreciated the soft lighting and lavish indoor decoration in the chamber. He spied a black haired youth fast asleep on one of the cream colored leather sofas and with a yell, Sapphire vaulted over and smacked him awake. With a moan, the teenager got up and rubbed his eyes and lethargically muttered a greeting.

"I'm Ruby" he mumbled, "and I need my beauty sleep, it's good for the skin" imparting this snippet of useless advice, he tried to lumber off towards his bedroom, alas, his female friend yanked him back by pulling on to his cap, in doing so, the white furred hat came off and his hair was parted haphazardly. The two new member's eyes were invariably drawn to the large, rather ugly scar blemishing his forehead; it was at odds with his handsome appearance. Now fully awake, the youth snatched his hat back and fixed it firmly on his head.

"Don't pull my cap off again" he stated in a heated manner.

The makeshift team dispersed and Whi-2 saw Gold going down to a platform situated in the middle of the spacious room. Ruby and Sapphire were sitting on another couch situated near a screen, the duo had started to bicker and play games. Platina disappeared to who knows where and having nothing to do, she went over to Lack-2 who was furiously typing on his phone, as she approached, he spun around and stowed his gadget away with a coy smile on his face.

"What were you doing?"

"You senior, Platina looks like a doll, I was just taking down some notes and pictures" he grinned.

"Oh..."

He noticed her dispirited response.

"Missing home?" he inquired with a somber tone.

"Yeah..." she dragged her sneakers on the laminated floor "but Ms. Blue is a really nice person" she beamed "she treats me like a younger sister."

"Seriously, that trickster of a woman?...I'd stay far away from her if I were you, it's thanks to her we are in this mess in the first place...well whatever, at least I got apprenticed to a famous trainer." he puffed out his chest and deflated seconds after when Blue strode in the room, he frowned and took in her appearance, she was wearing a small white hat atop her long luxurious locks.

"Is Silver here?" she demanded and from the sunken platform, a male, about Gold's age came up. Lack-2 noticed his shoulder length red hair was hiding a gaunt and sallow face.

"You needed me sis?"

"Yes I needed you" she stepped closer to him and inspected his appearance with a critical eye, "where are you situated?"

"An island in Unova..." he trailed off when Blue's eyes widened in disbelief.

"No wonder you look like this" she hissed "I'm going to give Green a piece of my mind! What is he sending you there for? You are part of my team!" Fuming, she turned her heel and marched off, tossing back her hair.

"..." Gold stared at his best friend.

"If you don't have anything to say Gold, I'm going to bed."

"...I'm going to break all of your Proteam Omega DVD's..." En route to his personal room, Silver twitched and stilled for a moment, then promptly vanished from the scene.

Middle of the night

Kanto

Dex criminal's hideout, Diamond's room.

He couldn't sleep; instead he stared at his ceiling taking in the countless luminous diamonds decorating it. Red's proposal still rang in his mind. Dia knew he was different from the others; he was slow whilst all his other team mates were frighteningly fast. Maybe that's why his commander approached him...He was dragging the team down. Uncomfortably, the teenager shifted under his duvet and finally threw it off; he lay on the bed shivering with only his morbid ruminations to keep him company. If he was slowing them down, why doesn't Red transfer him to another department? He thought for a while and decided he won't do very well either. Strategy was all about brains, quick reflexes and understanding whilst Constellate was for those who could quickly adapt to bizarre situations and were capable of disguising and thinking on the fly...

He could not do any of those either.

The first time he beheld Red, he was awed. The older trainer had just helped him out of a sticky situation, (he was trying to catch a pokemon and almost fell off a cliff) and since then, he was worshipped. A few months following the event, the trainer had again visited him and asked him to join their organization. Giddy with pride and pleasure, he accepted it without second thought, besides his best friends was also joining. The problem started after Red claimed him, he was the weakest in the team and his seniors had comforted him with the knowledge that he was the youngest. When Black was recruited, his insecurities had popped up once more. He often talked to Pearl and Platina, but they did not comprehend his dilemma. Sure Pearl would train with him and give him advice, Platina would present him with the latest training equipment yet...Yet he was still not on par with them. The only thing he could do well was cook and he found solace in it. Strangely he never picked up animosity from his companions and over the years, Red had begun to give him special attention. This action from his idolized leader both flattered and humiliated him.

He turned and tossed in his bed, curling up into a little ball.

Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, his Poketch, situated on the bed stand rang out a ditty. Sluggishly he fumbled for it and brought it closer to his face...

Nice, a meeting in the middle of the night requested by none other than...than his leader...

His leader...

Quickly scrambling up, he put on his clothes, threw on a jacket and stumbled out in the corridor; he could see the others exiting their rooms, some sporting bedraggled looks. On the far end, the new member floundered around in a haze of confusion. As Gold came out of his room, he grabbed the confounded trainer and they all proceeded to rush to their base chamber. They poured in and occupied various positions inside. The amber eyed trainer still kept a firm grip on his self-proclaimed student.

"Sorry to call you out in the middle of the night...Green has informed me some legendries need to be captured..."

His fog of confusion melted away at those words and he stiffened and stood to attention, the other members do not look baffled so they must be used to this. Lack-2 wondered if he was going to be dispatched as well, a seed of confidence bloomed in his chest, seems like he'll be out of here sooner than he thought.

Red picked a small remote up and pressed a button. From a long rectangular opening overhead, a huge screen descended, it beeped to life and showed a map of Johto and a few places were marked with a pulsating letter X. The department head pointed to a marker situated in the middle of the sea, next to what appeared to be whirlpools and spoke:

"Whirl Islands, I want Gold, Crystal and Black there. Your task is to capture Lugia." A picture of the pokemon flashed on screen, "you'll probably have to dive in the sea so take water types with you and beware, Lugia is extremely powerful and it can control the weather...Legends says he can conjure up storms lasting forty days...so I sent Crystal along, she'll make short work of the capture process...hopefully" he chuckled in an idiotic manner. "Next," moved his hands and tapped on an X flashing over a tower "Diamond, Sapphire and White will be going to the Bell tower, formerly known as the Tin tower to catch Ho-oh. Since the bird Pokemon needs to be summoned, White will be given the Rainbow wing and Clear bell by Team S to summon it, Dia and Saph has to capture it when it appears."

He took a step back and pressed another button on the remote and in response; a different map was laid out on the screen.

"Finally, and since Ruby urgently needs to visit his parents, he and I will first go to Hoenn and then to the Ilex in Johto forest to capture Celebi, who, due to the data cracked by Emerald, is known to have been visiting its shrine in recent days. If we don't get him now...Well it's going to take another long spell for him to appear. Is everyone clear on their tasks?"

Muted replies were heard throughout the room.

"Good, we leave before dawn, get ready, pack your things and snatch as much sleep as you can." The ruby eyed trainer called out to the dispersing crowd. Lack-2 found himself being hauled by Gold and he followed mindlessly, seems like his hope of escaping this place had just been crushed.

Back in his room, Dia began sorting out clothes and equipment and stuffing them in a little backpack. He was exhausted. Zipping up his bag, his eyes drifted towards a shelf displaying toys from his favorite animation. Getting up from the carpet, he took them down and crawled on the bed.

He spent the rest of the night playing with those figurines.

A/N: And here is another chapter, please enjoy. Much thanks to Jack54311 for reviewing. Virtual tacos to you...do you even like tacos? Anyway, read and review. It makes me happy. And feel free to ask any questions, I'll answer them without spoiling the story as much as possible.