Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 43: Color of Me.
It was the morning on the eve of Bonding Day and Red and Nets were in their room, the latter sitting at his desk and writing on his computer and the former observing him while lying on his belly on the bed.
"Can you remind me why did you ask me to do it again?" Nets asked.
"I'm just not good with this kind of stuff. Besides, Blaine said that it's okay for you to take a break." Red responded.
"You say "take a break" but this is still basically work. It's just... sillier. But I think I'mmm... done." the red-headed boy said while dramatically making the last click.
"Let me see!"
Red jumped on his feet and off the bed and quickly approached the computer in order to assess his roommate's work.
"Yes. Yes. This is good. I already have a couple ideas about where to put up these posters and I'll try to find some other places so now we just need to print them and I'm off."
"How can you be so energetic? Didn't you just get cured from some rare disease?"
"Yeah, but I only had it for like a day or less. Besides, I need to hurry up. I've already spent the last couple days working out food and decorations for the Bonding Day party but that's still a limited number of people that know it'll be happening. I can't really make an official announcement since Angie said that the boss wouldn't like it so this is the only way to let people know about it and about the gift exchange. By the way, you're in, right?"
"Yeah, yeah. Most people are still working today so I wrote that any interested parties should meet with you at the cafeteria tomorrow morning. After that they'll have the rest of the day to go buy a gift and then the party is in the evening."
"Um... Do you... I really hope it's not just like four of us there tomorrow."
"Aren't you getting along well with the Admins?"
"I feel like if I invite Peter then everyone will be afraid to come and I didn't want to single him out so I didn't ask any of them personally. Besides, Angie seems to avoid me after our last mission and Alex is spending a lot of time in his room so I don't want do disturb him."
"So I assume for now it's you, me, Green and Otari."
"Kinda. I didn't ask Green yet because I think he has something going on but he'll be there tomorrow during breakfast so I'll just ask him then since other people will already be asking us about it."
"If you say so..."
. . .
In another part of the base, Peter was in deep thought as he walked through the corridors. After hearing the details of Angie's mission he thought that there should be an immediate follow-up in the form a large scale attack on the Darkness Gang's base. He wasn't usually the one to bring such matters up but the other two Admins seemed kind of distracted after their latest missions so neither of them brought up the topic. He had no choice but to do it himself but after contacting Giovanni he didn't get the response he wanted.
"What the hell is he thinking? We're in luck that they haven't become suspicious after our people got inside their base. He said that we have other people observing the base and these Darkness assholes haven't made any suspicious moves yet but we can't be sure that they're not preparing something. I guess he's so fixated on getting M2 back that he's not able to pay attention to anything else and I can't count on the other idiots to back me up. If I try to do something on my own, it's either not going to be enough and I'll f #k it up or it's going to be too much and I'll piss of the boss. There has to be something in-between..."
The Admin didn't notice that he went the wrong way and ended up at one of the training facilities. He looked at the device next to the door which could be used in order to reserve the room. He noticed that one person booked it for the whole day which shouldn't be normally allowed. This piqued his curiosity enough to make him investigate it further. It turned out that the one who did that was Green. And it wasn't just for that day. One could make reservations for the next seven days and indeed it turned out that each slot was held by Green.
"What the hell is he doing?" Peter said out loud while looking at the doors, battling himself over whether he should check or not.
He turned around and started walking away but stopped after only a dozen steps and went back towards the facility.
"If it's something suspicious I should investigate it in case it blows up in our faces later." he thought as he entered the room.
"Don't slow down! Keep it up!" Peter heard Green's voice before he could understand what was going.
The teenager was standing in the middle of the room and observing the performance of his Nidorina, Vulpix and Horsea who were using ranged attacks in order to hit paper plates which were being shot out from three machines on wheels constantly moving around the room in order to make targeting harder. It took the Admin only a couple glances to see that the Pokemon were exhausted, however he kept observing for a while in hopes of understanding what was the goal of this exercise. All three of the Pokemon were hitting their marks perfectly but it was clear that it would get harder if they were going to try doing it for an extended amount of time.
"This can't be the only thing he wanted this place for, can it?" Peter questioned Green's objectives.
The trainer's eyes were focused on his Pokemon's attacks so it took him a while to notice that someone entered the room.
After confirming the identity of his guest, he gave the Pokemon an order "Alright, everyone. Let's take a break."
After stopping their practice, the monsters quickly moved towards a corner of the room where bowls of food and water were waiting for them. Meanwhile, their trainer approached the Team Rocket member.
"Did you need something from me?"
Peter wondered if an honest answer would be a good choice but he came to the conclusion that he didn't want Green to think that he actually cared about what he was doing so he bent the truth a little "I heard from some people that you were hogging this facility to yourself. I had to distract myself from the lack of action and came here to check if this was anything that someone should be concerned about, and after seeing what you're doing here I'm still not sure."
"I'm just training here."
Peter waited a bit, thinking that there would be more to the boy's statement but when he didn't hear anything else, he got a little annoyed.
"I see that Alex hasn't taught you proper etiquette during your mission together. I'm your superior so when addressing me don't just f #$%^g try to dismiss me. Explain yourself properly or I can make it so you'll never use this facility again."
"Ugh. You're a pain in the…" Green stopped himself before he would say something that would warrant a harsh reaction from the Admin and started from the beginning after calming down "I'm preparing for the fight against Darkness Gang. I'm saying "fight" because judging by the missions me and Red have went on so far, nothing ever goes easy for you. Unless we're the factor that causes shit to go wrong. I definitely see that possibility."
"We're not going to attack them. Not yet at least. Even if and when we do, you can't be sure that you're going to be part of that."
Green approached Peter so quickly that the Admin already had a knife in his hand before realizing that the boy didn't want to attack him.
"I need to be." Green said while looking Peter in the eyes.
"What the hell did Darkness Gang do to piss you off like this? Not that I care. It just would be nice to know how I could hurt you in the future if the need arises." Peter's words were only slightly sarcastic.
"It'… I heard from Red about what he saw there and it became clear that they are responsible for something that we suspected Team Rocket to be guilty of."
"You mean the experiments."
"Not only that. The Pokemon they use are kidnapped ones. Probably from all over Kanto. There must be a reason they're better… research subjects than wild ones."
"Yeah. What you're saying makes sense but… there are a couple things that don't fit."
They stared at each other for a while until Peter threw his hands up in the air.
"Well, that would be enough. I'll be wasting my time by trying to talk to you about it anymore. Whatever your problem is, I'm not one to help people and you'd probably prefer to chat about it with one of your friends."
"Maybe…"
"You have a minute to leave this facility. I'm revoking your right to use it."
"What the hell?! Why?!"
"If you can't be honest with your superior then I can't trust that you won't be using this facility for some nefarious means."
"Damn you! I knew you were an asshole but I didn't know you could be so fricking petty!"
"Bite me, b #$h!"
"Alright, I'll tell you the truth!"
"Don't care anymore. If you want to use this place again then you'll have to… hmmm… win a Pokemon fight."
"You make it sound like you're not the one I'll be fighting against."
"I have a guy who wanted to prove himself to me. I'll use this as an opportunity to do so. Two Pidgey's with one pokeball, as they say."
"I'm pretty sure no one actually says that." Green pointed out, but he did it quietly since he didn't want to annoy the Admin even more.
. . .
Red was walking around the base, finding the best spots to put up his posters but, because he still didn't know the place well enough, he got lost a couple times and had to retrace his steps in order to know where he's been. As he was walking back after reaching a dead end, he heard a couple voices near a place he hung up one of the posters and decided to hide himself and eavesdrop in order to gauge their interest.
"What the hell is this?" one of the people asked.
"It's that Red guy again. He got special treatment since the moment he joined and now he's trying to pull s #t like this." said another one.
There was a third person who sounded a little more sympathetic "I feel kinda sorry for him. He's trying to do something for others but he completely missed the mark with this one. I haven't celebrated Bonding Day ever since I left home but the atmosphere in this place is just…"
"It doesn't fit." the first person said after seeing that the third was struggling with their words.
"Yeah, that's it."
It looked like there was nothing else any of them had to say about the matter so the group went on their way. Red walked up to the poster with a worried face.
"This sure doesn't fill me with optimism. But that's just a couple people out of hundreds. There definitely will be someone who will want to join." he reassured himself while touching the poster "Alright. I still have more of them to put up."
. . .
"I'm here! I'm here!" Nets announced while running through the doors of the laboratory he was working in.
He made enough noise to make a couple heads turn towards him which was enough to make him bow down to show that he was sorry for distracting other scientists from their work. One of these people was Blaine who was walking around the room and checking if each of his coworkers was careful not to cause problems for others with whatever they were working on. After what happened to Mewtwo, he couldn't stop being overly careful so he didn't feel like he could leave this task to anyone else, especially considering the fact that a lot of the scientists were working on their personal projects and someone less knowledgeable than him would take too much time trying to understand whatever each person was doing instead of focusing on safety. He was ending his morning rounds so he took that chance to approach Nets in order to have a talk with him.
"I thought you wouldn't be coming back today."
"I only took time off to help Red with his posters. Now that that's done I can… Oh, I almost forgot. He gave me one of them and told me to put it up somewhere around here. It probably would be best to have it by the exit so that everyone will pass it while leaving. Of course, only if you have nothing against it, sir."
"No problem. I even have an idea regarding that."
"Yeah? What is it?" Nets asked while taping the piece of paper to the wall near the doors.
Blaine went up to a stand from where he could communicate with each and every person in the room thanks to communicators build into every work station. He clicked the button that would cause a glowing red light to appear next to every scientist in the room besides him and Nets. This was done in order to let them leave whatever they were doing in a state that wouldn't cause any danger. He looked around the room to see if he had everyone's attention before speaking up.
"My fellow scientists, I don't know how many of you have heard of him but there's a Team Rocket member by the name of Red who is preparing a Bonding Day party and gift exchange. Please, hear me out before going back to your work."
He couldn't see everyone from where he was standing but he made sure that at least the people in his view were willing to listen to what he had to say.
"At first it may sound like something that you wouldn't want to take part in. I assume that all of you would rather fully dedicate yourself to whatever project you're working on right now. What you're probably not considering is that this is a great opportunity. A change of pace, allowing your mind to move in other ways than the track it's on right now. If you're feeling like you're really close to your goal, a short break wouldn't do you harm, but if you're stuck in a rut, if you have problems thinking up a solution, this will be a good way to clear your mind and return to your work with a fresh view. I'm not going to order anyone so do whatever you like. So far I'm sure that at least me and Nets are going to attend. If you are interested, there is a poster by the doors that explains all that you need to know. That is all. You may continue to do whatever it was you were doing when I interrupted you."
"Wow. Thanks." Nets was struggling to find the right words since he didn't care about the party as much as Red but still knew that what Blaine did would have a better effect than just hoping that someone would look at the poster.
"Oh, no. It's me who should be thankful. I meant what I said. I do think this will help out a lot of our colleagues so I took the chance and used Red's idea. I wonder if all of his… You're roommates. What do you think about him?"
"In what sense?"
"Just your general opinion."
"I think he's great. I was a little suspicious at first but it turned out that he's a genuinely good guy, which, of course, does seem out of norm when I consider most of the other people I met ever since I joined Team Rocket."
"I see. Now that you've said that, I can't help but wonder; what was your reason for joining?"
"It may seem a little selfish but what I wanted was a fast track. My family didn't have enough money to send me to a good school and the stuff we were learning in my town was extremely boring. It's surprisingly hard to become a scientist. I try not to pry too much into what Team Rocket members are doing out there in the world and just focus on helping out with whatever I can. And it finally paid. I get to work with newest equipment and see amazing minds at work every day. If I tried to do it the traditional way I would still a long way away from reaching something like this."
"I wonder how many people in Team Rocket are like you and Red."
"So you know why Red joined, sir? He didn't really want to talk about it so I didn't ask but I must admit that I'm a little curious."
"No, no. I don't know what he planned to achieve. I just meant that I get a similar vibe from you too."
Nets scratched his head while looking down before saying "I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not."
"Just assume that it is."
"Alright. Then, if you don't have anything else to say then I'll start working."
"Oh, yeah. Go ahead."
. . .
Green was being led by Peter to where his battle would take place. The fact that they had a long way to a facility that in his mind should have been close to the one he was using made him think about how badly the base layout was planned but also about how it could stay undetected while being so enormous.
The room they arrived in looked similar to the one where he and Red had their fights against Peter, except that it was bigger and had doors leading to other places. After arriving, they had to wait around quarter of an hour for his opponent to arrive. Finally, a young, handsome man, with short blue hair and sharp eyes, appeared before them. Green was surprised by this man's clothes. He assumed that he was a field agent and all of them besides Admins had to wear standard uniforms, but this person wore loose gray pants and a vest in the same color over a long-sleeved black shirt, although he still had Team Rocket's logo on his vest so it didn't seem like his costume was supposed to serve as a disguise. His shoes looked too fancy to be comfortable. This weird look made Green worried about what sort of person his opponent would turn out to be.
"Good day to you, Admin Peter." the man said while bowing slightly before looking at Green "And you must be my opponent. Good. Great even. My name is Archer and that means that when I take aim, I always hit the target."
Green gave a slight smile and introduced himself but this facade of niceness was used to hide his thoughts "Oh my god. It's another weirdo."
"Alright. Enough of these pleasantries. Let's start the competition." Peter said while taking a step towards the two of them.
"I… Damn it. I constantly catch you saying things in a weird way and I can't help but feel that you're about to pull something every time I hear you do it." Green couldn't help but voice his worries "Why did you say "competition"? It's going to be something more than a fight, isn't it?"
"Well, that was obvious." stated Archer.
Green was thinking "Maybe to you" but didn't want to say it since he felt that it would only open a door that would allow the blue-haired man to also get on his nerves.
"Okay. So what will this competition consist of? Is that a better question?"
"There's three rooms here. You'll be using a different Pokemon in each room. If one of you wins in both of the side rooms then he wins the competition but if there's a tie we'll end it with a battle in the main room." Peter explained "And about the other parts… You'll get it once you see the rooms."
As he started walking towards one of the other rooms, Peter came to a realization "I proposed this thing because that idiot was pissing me off but now that I have to oversee it, it feels like a pain in the ass."
The first room they went to was more narrow than the main one while also being a couple times longer. Most of the walls, the floor and the ceiling were covered with white circles that looked like they could be easily pulled off and have something hidden behind them. Near the entrance was a machine that Peter approached since without putting it to use the competition wouldn't be at all challenging.
"I'll tell you once. Pick a Pokemon. That Pokemon is going to race against your opponent's Pokemon. You'll be racing too. There and back here. The team who makes it first wins. No other rules."
"No other rules, huh?" Green said while staring at the other side of the room "Which means there's definitely traps. The one who would deal with this the best is… him."
"If you've made your choices then get on the starting line instead of grinning like idiots." Peter ordered after seeing both contestants smiling with satisfaction after picking their Pokemon "Alright. At three you summon your Pokemon and start moving. Got that?"
The two trainers lined up, their hands already on the pokeballs, waiting anxiously for Peter's signal.
"Oneee…" the Admin began while already pushing some buttons and switches on the machine "Three!"
Even though he planned to see them confused by how suddenly the race started, it almost seemed like they were expecting him to do something like that since both opened their pokeballs almost instantly.
Green's choice for the challenge was Hitmonlee while Archer revealed that he had an Electrode. They both were confident enough to take the fraction of a second needed to see each other's Pokemon before beginning the race. After doing that, Archer quickly jumped on top of his Pokemon which started rolling forward, making it so that the trainer had to keep balancing to not fall off.
"Isn't he just making it harder on himself?" Green was amazed by Archer's plan, enough to forget for a while that he also needed to start advancing "Let's get moving."
He took a couple steps before realizing that whatever Peter had planned has already begun. He heard it first before experiencing it but still was too slow to avoid it. A part of the wall moved towards him and hit his knee, making him fall down. Another similar trap was about to hit him from the other side but at that moment he was too focused on the pain to notice it. Hitmonlee was a little further than him but the Pokemon recognized the danger and blocked the attack with his leg. After realizing that he got protected, Green understood that he had to keep moving in spite of pain or he would just be putting himself in a position where he would get hurt even more.
Archer, who was quite a ways ahead, glanced back at his opponent, who started running again, and smiled.
"I knew that this was the perfect course of action." he thought "Electrode is fast enough to avoid these obstacles without trouble so as long as I manage to balance on top of it, I won't have to worry about anything."
Just as he finished that thought, a part of the floor rose and lifted up Electrode. Archer's feet left the Pokemon and for a moment he was sure that he would either hit the ceiling or fall onto the floor but it seemed like he was exceptionally lucky since another obstacle appeared from above and he was able to grab it and stop himself. He was about to praise the star he was born under when he realized that this was a more elaborate trap. He let go as fast as he could and avoided streams of fire which shot out in four directions. Electrode positioned itself below him to soften his landing.
"What was Admin Peter thinking? I haven't thought about it until now but now It's clear. While Pokemon can deal with surprises like that, a human could easily get injured or even die. He tricked us!"
In his anger Archer forgot about moving forward and looked towards Peter only to see his view blocked by Hitmonlee jumping over his head.
"What is he…?" he forgot his previous thought since seeing the Fighting type Pokemon leave his trainer behind was too confusing for him.
He didn't take into account the fact that Hitmonlee had extremely stretchy and powerful legs. He could travel great distances by simply jumping. It was a little harder to do in an enclosed space but not impossible. He left one of his legs behind and Green grabbed onto it before being pulled forward like a pebble shot out of a slingshot. At first Archer assumed that his opponent's plan was just to be pulled along by his Pokemon but Hitmonlee didn't stop his leg. Green knew the extent of his partners abilities and knew that if he was able to avoid further obstacles then he would be able to reach the end of the room if Hitmonlee allowed his leg to travel further. This put him in greater danger and needed for the Pokemon to remain in place for a couple seconds but would give them a big advantage if it worked.
About two minutes later, Archer arrived back at the start, completely unharmed but out of breath, and looked at Green who has been waiting there for some time, but was in a worse shape, having his clothes and hair singed and bleeding from one of his legs and cheeks.
"Damn it. Both of you survived." Peter pretended like he was planning for them not to hear these words while fishing for an angry reaction but the trainers managed to keep their cool.
"What's next? I want to get this over with as quickly as possible." Green said, annoying the other two in different ways.
The group moved to another room which served a similar purpose to the place Green was using before he was interrupted. The machines used for shooting plates weren't mobile but there was more of them and they were in various places instead of just on the floor. They still looked like they could at least rotate so the path of the flying plates wouldn't be always the same. The room had various pillars, spires, steps and ledges which in some cases could help reach a plate and in other ones would stand in the way.
"Alright, so… shoot the flying stuff. That's about it. They're different colors and it looks like the white ones are worth one point, the yellow ones are worth two, and the red ones are worth five. Let's say that you have three minutes to do this." Peter explained before locking himself inside a booth from where he could activate the plates but which was also meant to protect him from any attacks that would fly his way.
He deliberately didn't point out to the competitors that they could also hide themselves there since he hoped to see them go through more pain.
"Horsea is more precise but without water and with a time limit my best choice is Vulpix." Green quickly analyzed the situation before summoning the Pokemon he decided on.
Archer deliberated a little longer before also making his choice. Green had to do a double take after seeing the Pokemon since it was one he didn't recognize. Even without using the pokedex he could tell that it wasn't native to Kanto. It was a black and orange dog with what looked like pieces of armor on its ankles, back and forehead. Green knew that there were many Pokemon in other regions that couldn't be found in Kanto but because his grandfather's research was focused on the native ones, he never felt the need to learn about other ones. Archer noticed Green trying to take a look at the Pokemon without seeming too shocked.
"It's a Houndour. You may be thinking that it's a Pokemon from another region. While It's true that it started appearing in different parts of the world, the first ones were discovered in Kanto. The one who found them was a professor from Johto so they are counted as Pokemon from that region. If you ask me, that doesn't make much sense but…"
The blue-haired man suddenly stopped talking and ran past Green with Houndour following him. The teenager looked around and saw that the next part of the competition has already begun. He was mad at himself for not suspecting that Peter would try to have some fun by starting the trial without any signal to the people taking part in it. By the time he realized what was happening, Houndour already got its first point by using Ember and its trainer was looking around hoping to see another target. He didn't have to wait long since a bunch of differently-colored plates started appearing all around the room. When the Admin gave his explanation earlier, he thought about whether to focus only on the ones that would earn him more points or should he use his Pokemon's speed in order to get as many as he could, no matter the color. It looked like Green has already made his decision since Archer could see his opponent running up a set of stairs in order to give Vulpix a jumping point from which it could use Flamethrower while spinning in order to hit everything in its range.
"Wait. Since there are no rules, doesn't that mean that we can attack each other?" the man thought while his Pokemon was doing its best to imitate Vulpix's moves, even though doing that with Ember brought less impressive results.
"I can't shake off the feeling that I'm doing something dishonorable but… Houndour, blind them with Smog!"
Green could see the purple clouds, created by the dog, from the corner of his eye but there wasn't enough time to get away before they enveloped him and his partner.
"No hard feelings, okay?" Archer said while signaling Houndour to attack Vulpix who they could discern thanks to its feet poking out from below the smoke.
"Why would I have any?" Green's voice came from a surprising direction.
Archer looked behind himself and saw both of his opponents, before looking back and realizing that Houndour's attack hit a copy of Vulpix created by the move Substitute.
"You didn't really think we would just stand in a cloud of poison and wait for you to end us, did you?"
"That was a smart thing to do but… Bite!"
The dog launched itself toward the fox and grabbed its neck in its mouth.
"You could have used that chance to defeat us. Why waste it?"
"Oh. That's easy. Even if I lose this part I won't lose the whole thing and I thought that prolonging this so that we'll have to do the third room would piss off Peter and I'm all about that."
"So you're giving up. Well, that's a bit disappointing but I guess I'll have to take it."
"Better shoot down more plates since he may want to give me the victory on a technicality even if I give up." Green pointed out while putting Vulpix back in the pokeball.
Archer took his advice and spent another half a minute making sure that he would surpass Green's score.
When Peter left his hiding spot and appeared before the competitors he was trying his hardest not to show how irritated he was by their actions.
"I wanted to enjoy seeing them struggle and bicker but surprisingly these two are… There's still a way for me to do this but I'll need to put in some effort." he thought while leading them to the main room.
"This place is a regular battlefield." Green said quietly while looking around for any surprises that the Admin could try to spring on them "So he'll just have us do a one on one battle, huh?"
"The two of you stay on this side." Peter told them before walking to the opposite side of the room.
"This is a little worrisome." stated Archer.
"Yeah. I also don't like the looks of it." Green chimed in.
"We'll have ourselves a double… or rather, a three-way battle. I'll use two Pokemon while you guys use one each. The moment one of you defeats one of my Pokemon, that person wins. You're allowed to attack each other's Pokemon. Even if one of you gets defeated, the other one will still have to win if he wants to get what he desires."
"So that was his plan. This will be harder than a normal battle but he'll have it easier than us." Green thought while trying to decide which of his remaining Pokemon would be the best choice for this trial.
Finally, all three trainers made their choices.
"Go, Jigglypuff!"
"I choose Parasect!"
"Let's give them a scare as we trample them. Gengar. Dodrio."
After everyone summoned their Pokemon there was a long pause during which each trainer struggled not to make the first move in fear of leaving their partner open to attacks from two other opponents after picking one of the three as a target.
"It looks like I'm gonna have to start this shit." Peter announced, effectively focusing the other trainers' attention on himself "Agility."
Thanks to the fact that Green and Archer were expecting an attack, Dodrio was able to freely use a move that increased its speed, without being interrupted.
"I want to say that he got the advantage before the battle even began but the truth is that for him this has been going ever since he told me to come with him. The way he acts makes it hard to tell if he's crazy or if he's just putting on a facade but I'm starting to think that among the Admins he may be the smartest one." Green's impression of Peter started to change.
These thoughts took up enough of his attention to make it seem like he was giving Archer time to try and take control of the situation.
"Parasect, use Sludge Bomb!"
Immediately after giving his command, the blue-haired man was ready to give another one, knowing that Dodrio would be easily able to avoid the attack but at the same time hoping that he could predict its path and cut it off. To his surprise, instead of the bird running away, Gengar jumped in front of it and took on the full force of the poison, coming out mostly unscathed.
"Shadow Ball!" Green yelled out.
The boy wanted to use the fact that the two Pokemon were grouped up. Gengar couldn't back away because it would run into Dodrio while, even though the attack wouldn't damage it, the bird couldn't give space to its partner since it would be leaving itself open to Parasect. The ghost took the hit and got pushed into the other Pokemon, making them both fall onto the floor. It looked like there would be enough time for Green to use a more risky attack but, before he could issue his order, an unexpected thing happened.
"X-Scissor!"
Since they started closer to each other than to Peter's Pokemon, Parasect didn't have to move too much in order to reach Jigglypuff.
"Was that what he wanted?" instead of trying to come up with a way to deal with the current problem, Green focused on the idea that Archer's actions was something that the Admin could have predicted and steered them towards.
The attack sent Jigglypuff flying and, while Parasect was moving towards it in order to follow up with something more, Peter's Pokemon used the situation to recover.
"Am I overthinking this?" Green was filled with doubt while each Pokemon besides his was preparing to do something "I was focused on other things so I didn't have time to about it but isn't it weird? Peter truly seems like just a big asshole but the way he did things so far… By not winning the competition when I could have done it before, I only made it so he could set the rules for this third part that would be disadvantageous to both me and Archer. He encouraged us to fight between ourselves, probably knowing that Archer would be the one to try doing it. But why does this competition exist in the first place? That's what doesn't make sense. If he wanted to forbid me from using the training facility, Peter could just do it. So while he may enjoy seeing me struggle, his true target is Archer."
While the blue-haired man was about to give his next command, he got surprised by Green approaching him. He was a little worried that the other trainer might have been mad at him for pulling a dirty move, so he took a step back and raised his arms a little, not sure how he would do in a fist fight if that was what Green wanted from him.
"Who are you? You're not a regular Team Rocket member." the brown-haired boy wanted clarity, not fisticuffs.
"What does it matter to you?"
"Just tell me. And do it fast before…" while talking Green looked towards the battlefield and did so at exactly the right moment to give his Pokemon an order "Rollout!"
Jigglypuff started moving by quickly spinning its body, not in order to attack but to avoid a Focus Blast sent its way by Gengar. Seeing what happened, Green and Archer could understand that Peter must have sent his other Pokemon after Parasect. Dodrio was running at the bug, and seeing that his Pokemon wasn't fast enough to dodge, Archer decided that it would be best to endure it.
"X-Scissor!"
Dodrio's spinning beaks hit Parasect's crossed pincers which were shining brightly. The two Pokemon tried to push each other back but it was clear that it wasn't what their trainers intended. Green forgot for a moment that he was also part of that battle and looked back towards Jigglypuff who was making circles around Gengar, keeping a safe distance and waiting for an order.
"Either he overestimated himself or he underestimated us. He could win in a one on one battle or if he had us fighting between ourselves like he planned to but right now It's easy to distract him with one part of the fight and attack his other Pokemon." Green went over the current situation in his head before giving Jigglypuff a command "Roll at the opponent!"
Seeing the pink ball approaching it, Gengar instinctively jumped up, not realizing that he was playing straight into Green's hands.
"Shadow Ball!"
Jigglypuff made a quick turn in order to be able to stop below Gengar and shoot its attack at it.
Meanwhile, in another part of the room, Dodrio and Parasect, ordered by their trainers, pushed their attacks to the side so that they could end their deadlock. The bird's beaks slid atop the bug's pincers, scraping them before stabbing it in the face. Before the attack could deal too much damage, Parasect's claws hit the left and right head, pushing them apart and wreaking the attack enough to make the middle one decide that their whole body should move back before since Parasect could easily do a follow up attack.
"It looks like we have a short while before they regroup." Archer said to Green while signaling to his Parasect to back off for a while when their opponents were trying to gather their wits "I don't know why you want to know it but I'm not really anyone special. It's about my father."
"Your father?" Green asked while making sure that Jigglypuff was rolling around at a safe distance from their opponents.
"Even though Team Rocket's boss is rich, his money wouldn't be enough to fund such a big organization for all these years. My father is one of his benefactors. He's not part of Team Rocket but he invested a lot of money into it."
"But then why are… Ugh. It looks like there's not enough time to discuss it. What's important right now is that we have better chances of winning if we work together. It all depends on whether you'll be able to keep up."
Falling for Green's words, Archer responded "Keep up? I'll be the one leading us to victory!"
Peter was able to hide his concern about his opponents joining forces and focus in order to come up with a battle plan better suited for the situation.
"Dodrio, Quick Attack!"
The flying type Pokemon started running towards its foes.
"Gengar, Focus Blast!"
The Admin's plan was to have the bird distract the opposition with its swift movements which would make it harder to dodge the ghost's attack.
"Jigglypuff, Rollout!"
By turning into a ball and rolling near Dodrio's feet, the pink Pokemon limited its rival's mobility. This meant that instead of it just flying in their general direction, the path of Focus Blast could be predicted and intercepted.
"X-Scissor and a big jump!"
Parasect crossed its pincers at the right time and struck the ball of energy, sending it back towards Gengar. It wasn't hard for the ghost to avoid it, but neither it nor its trainer could suspect what the second part of Archer's command meant. Parasect seemingly disappeared and when Gengar started looking around to find it, it appeared once again, out of nowhere. Even Green couldn't completely understand what happened although he saw the bug somehow flying through the air before swooping down in order to strike Gengar's back.
Since the two Pokemon were already close it would be wasteful for Archer not to use that opportunity to strike again, and so he yelled "Giga Drain! That should hold it in place. And after that another X-Scissor!"
Two vines appeared from below Parasect's hat and grabbed Gengar's arms before starting to suck out its energy but when it was about to use its next move it realized that it wasn't able to.
"What is going on?!" Archer was in shock.
"It's probably an ability! Don't worry about it! Fight!" Green advised him before turning towards his part of the battle.
"it's small so it's hard to get it but it doesn't make sense that it would take Dodrio that long to catch that stupid pink ball… s?"
Peter felt the need to rub his eyes since it seemed like he was seeing double but after he did it the number of opponents multiplied even more.
"What the hell?"
"Your Dodrio was using a mix of Agility and Quick Attack. That's why I told Jigglypuff to combine Rollout with Mimic. The resulting effect is a ball that moves so fast that it leaves afterimages. It's a more powerful version of a move that's Red's specialty, and since he always comes up with names for them… Archer, are you ready?!"
"Of course! Make sure to watch this Admin Peter since It's the move you missed before!"
The long-haired man felt tempted to do that but, seeing as it looked like his opponents hoped for a simultaneous victory, he felt torn between which one he should deal with. The other trainers weren't about to give him enough time to think the matter over.
"I call this one Air Force Bug!"
"It sounds kinda corny but as a one time move let's go with it! Pachinko Machine!"
Parasect threw the weakened Gengar on the floor and leapt into air at same time as Jigglypuff started attacking Dodrio by masking itself with its afterimages. The bug type Pokemon moved almost like a bird, raising to a great height before dropping quickly and descending like a pendulum that reached its highest point. Meanwhile, the pink Pokemon moved so fast that it was able to bounce off itself and make it look like each of Dodrio's heads was being hit by a different opponent at the same time. The two Pokemon delivered they finishing moves. Parasect's pincer struck Gengar and sent it crashing into a wall as the bug finished executing its Aerial Ace. At exactly the same moment, a trio of Jigglypuff delivered unavoidable downward strikes that made each of the bird's heads slam against the floor.
To add more flair to his triumph, Green shouted out "Fever Mode!"
Peter understood that his plan worked against him, leading to his loss but the fact that he would have to keep both his promises made him so angry that he couldn't think clearly for a while. The other trainers already returned their Pokemon to their balls and were waiting for him to do the same.
"Alright. I'm calm." The Admin said after putting his Pokemon away.
"I don't want to do this but I have to congratulate you, assholes. I'll make it so you can lead your own handpicked team and arrange missions as you see fit." He told Archer before turning to Green "And you're free to use that training facility as much as you like even though from what I saw you don't need it. That actually goes for both of you. It annoys me how much you want to show off. I don't care why you do it but you're acting like idiots. I… F #k this. It's not my job to tell you what to do."
He left the room, not suspecting that his angry ramblings actually had an influence on the two young men.
"So what was all of this about?" Green asked after the doors closed behind Peter.
"I should be asking you the same question. You took part in this competition in order to get access to a training facility? You're already plenty strong. How much stronger do you want to get?"
"How about you answer me first? You mentioned your father. Did he make you join Team Rocket?"
"Oh no. That was my own decision. You see, my father, he's a really harsh man. He expects greatness from all of his children. A bunch of my older siblings have chosen different fields they could excel at in order to avoid being chosen to inherit the family fortune since that would mean that the person picked to do so would be the new head of the family, but in name only. There's various clauses that essentially add up to having a stressful job where every little mistake will be seen and judged by our father. That's why I joined Team Rocket. People know that my father is an important person so they'll either stay out of my way or try to help me in order to raise their own status. I used that to my advantage and even an Admin can't just flat out refuse a request from me. That's why this whole farce happened. Now I'm closer to the top and soon my father will hear about my endeavors and I'm sure that will please him greatly."
"Wow." Green said while staring at the other trainer with wide eyes "You're really pathetic."
"What?" Green's words were so unexpected that for a second Archer thought that he misheard him.
"I thought that it would be something where we're similar but… yeah. We are opposites."
As he was getting ready to live the room, he got stopped by Archer's Parasect who jumped over his head, while gently touching his neck, before landing in front of him, blocking his path.
"You think I will just let you go after you insulted me like that?" Archer asked "Who the hell do you think you are?"
"I don't know. Probably no one. Although meeting someone like you makes me feel like I'm getting there."
"What are you even talking about? Say it in a way I'll understand!"
"There's simply no need for you to understand. It may seem like an asshole kind of move… to Red and to that lady… but everything I'm doing is done for myself."
"But what is it that you're doing?!"
"I'm trying to become the best trainer. Well, that's part of it. The bigger picture is that I'm doing the opposite of what you've done. You've chosen an easy way to impress your father. I have a grandpa who's pretty famous. From the beginning there was no reason for me to try to do anything. I could just be his grandson and some of that fame would go to me. But that's just too easy. I bear him no ill will but I had to leave on an adventure in order to make it on my own. I started doubting myself a little, thinking that there are people out there who are able to do more than me because they're able to sacrifice themselves for others, but then there are assholes like you who are not only selfish but also lazy. My drive to be the best is the edge I have over someone like you."
"You're thinking too highly of yourself! You don't know how stressful it… Gah! Parasect!"
"Leaf Storm." Green uttered the name of an attack before his Pokemon was even completely materialized.
Venusaur created a tornado of leaves that cut up Parasect while also carrying it up before sending it into the floor.
"Well, this thing…" Green had trouble finding the right words "…You could say that I chose the easy way out by using a fully rested Pokemon against an exhausted one but I can say that I would have won either way and just wanted to do it quickly. I guess this kind of explanation won't make you happy but maybe it'll make you try a little harder. Either way, I don't care."
"Okay. Then let me show you that choosing the easy way out has no relation to my skills as a trainer."
"I saw plenty of what you can do already but if you think you'll be able to surprise me, this may be beneficial to me."
"Great. Now that I've got your attention, I choose Magmar!"
The fire type Pokemon appeared in front of Venusaur. Green could tell from the look in Archer's eyes that the blue-haired man truly believed he could change his opinion with this battle. That made him want to also take it seriously.
. . .
Having finished putting up the posters, Red went to his room and spent some time cutting pieces of paper which would be used to determine who would give a gift to whom, although the number he ended up with was definitely too optimistic. As he was thinking about it, he heard the door open and saw Green come inside. He laid down on Nets' bed and closed his eyes.
"You know that you got in the wrong room, right?" Red asked.
"No. I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to apologize." Green said while turning only his head towards the other boy.
"I don't recall anything you would need to apologize for."
"I guess you didn't notice. I was angry at you. I was angry because you weren't but for different reasons than I should have been."
"You're confusing me more with each word you say."
"I mean the Darkness Gang situation. I expected you to steal a helicopter and attack their base as soon as you were fine but you had almost no reaction when telling me what you saw there."
"You were let down because I did something unpredictable?"
"Well, being unpredictable is your specialty, but this time… What is it?"
"I was angry. That's why I lashed out and got myself and others into trouble. Giovanni clearly has some kind of plan and I trust him enough to wait but if I just sat around thinking about it, I would probably get angrier and do something stupid. That's why I found something else to occupy me, but you can bet that once Giovanni's plan goes into motion, I'll be part of it."
Green was satisfied with this answer. At first he was embarrassed about the way he reacted but if he didn't start his trainings he wouldn't have his talk with Archer which was what prompted him to visit Red.
"I'll keep the training room. I'll try not to overdo it but if some of my Pokemon evolve before we attack Darkness Gang then they'll do better once the time of our attack arrives." as he thought these things, Green's eyes wandered around the room and ended up on the pieces of paper that Red had cut.
"What are those? That's right. You said that you found something else to do. What is it?"
Red explained what he has been doing that day and his plan for tomorrow. Green kept nodding as if he thought about doing something similar himself.
"I think it may be a bigger success than you suspect." he told his friend.
"You think so?"
"Yeah. I don't know if Nets will be able to convince the other scientists, but as for the other members, there's four people you need to convince and everyone else will follow."
"I don't think it will work out with the Admins. But wait… Who's the fourth person?"
"Everyone will be there during breakfast. Let's get there early and split up. You go to Alex and Angie while I'll talk with Peter and one other guy. Getting even one of them will influence a lot of others."
"I was kinda down after hearing those people before but seeing that you're so into it, I can't fall behind. Let's do this!"
The two friends celebrated by bumping their fists.
The next chapter finally arrived. For these 3 chapters I forced myself not to split them apart, otherwise you would probably get each of them in like 2 parts. I just really liked the phrase "Trilogy of Colors". At first each chapter was supposed to be called "Color of blank(insert a type of emotion)" but that would be too simple of a naming sense, besides, my plans evolved and I slightly changed what each chapter focused on for each of the main characters. Red's chapter was "rage" but it expanded to all his emotions, Blue's was "sadness" but since she was leaving that sadness behind I wanted a more positive title, and Green's was "envy" because part of what he was going through was supposed to concern Red but I went in another direction.
Out of the three, Red is the one who shows his emotions through actions, Blue does it through words and thoughts, but Green is the one who doesn't like to share and even if he does he goes about it in a roundabout way. The problem he's dealing with is so unique to him that he doesn't feel the need to share it with anyone else. He thought that Archer may be the one he could open to but he was mistaken. Green doesn't like the way Archer goes about things but none of them is inherently right or wrong. They're quite similar but different circumstances forged them into having different ways of thinking.
I'm glad I didn't make Archer an asshole. He has his pride but he's not going to be unnecesarily mean. To tell the truth, I didn't plan to have him in this chapter and wanted to instead have Green and Peter learn about each other and have them say something that would help the other one but I realized that Peter would never act like that. That makes me wonder how I'm going to tell his story. Archer was chosen because I realized that I have no plans to use him even if I get to Johto. Now that he's here, I can have him make other appearances in this arc, like the upcoming Bonding Day chapter/s.
It's been almost a year since Team Rocket Arc started. I know I don't release these chapters often enough but I feel like we may be able to go into the next big story arc this year, depending on how long the upcoming confrontation with Darkness Gang is going to take.
Since the gift giving will be random, do you have any predictions about who will recieve a gift from who? Or even what they will be giving? I'm not asking because I didn't yet come up with it myself. No. That's totally not it.
Also, you're probably gettign blasted 24/7 but here's a reminder to stay home, wash hands and take care of yourself.
Red. Team: Eevee, Charmeleon, Raichu, Gloom, Pidgeotto, Nidorino.
At hand but not officially his: Scyther.
At Team Rocket Base: Gyarados.
Badges: 4
Green. Team: Venusaur, Jigglypuff, Nidorina, Hitmonlee, Vulpix, Horsea.
At Team Rocket Base: Jynx.
Badges: 3
Blue. Team: Weepinbell(Bell), Blastoise(Tori), Zubat(Ken), Graveler(?), Ponyta(Dasher), Electabuzz(Buzz).
Badges: 3
Alex. Team: Ditto, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon.
Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash, Seaking.
Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, Gengar.
