Recommended music: Twilight by Electric Light Orchestra. I think there was one day in the past week where I sang it in my head for around 3 hours. I rewatched Daicon IV for the first time in a while. I enjoy a lot of older anime and stuff I recognize stuff Like Kamen Rider but 99% of the characters in that video are still a mystery to me. I wonder if something like that was done today, using characters that were introduced in pop culture between then and now, how many more would I be able to recognize. Obviously Gundam would still be in it.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 47: Three Battles, Two Secrets, One Loss.

In the training facility that Green won in Peter's competition, a battle was taking place between his Horsea and Red's Pidgeotto. The two teenager's weren't the only people there. It was the New Year's Eve which was another free day but after having such a big party recently, there was no way to celebrate this holiday too. That didn't stop a group of people from getting together in order to spend some time with each other but also with their Pokemon.

"Hmm." Alex, who instead of observing the battle was looking around the room, reached a thought and immediately put it into words directed towards Angie "Hey, how about lending me Tarieli?"

"What?" the girl was surprised at this sudden question, especially since they haven't talked to each other since arriving at the training facility.

"Wait. That may have sounded weird."

"I would be more worried if it came from someone like Peter but still… What do you mean by "lend"?"

"Just take a look at this group we've assembled here."

"I don't remember assembling anyone. I think they all came here by themselves."

"Please, focus."

"Are you implying that I'm not focused? I've responded in some way to everything you said so far so that at least proves that I'm listening to what you're saying."

"Yes, but this response and the previous one were just interruptions. You became kind of smug recently. More so than when you would keep silent and let me and Peter argue."

"I don't know what you mean."

Alex stared at her, trying to decipher if she was serious or if she was trying to make a fool out of him but he realized that this would make him fall even more into her pace and he didn't want to lose his train of thought.

"What I'm talking about is our battle against Darkness Gang. We know the location of their base and although the boss is acting like we're waiting for them to become careless, it's obvious that he's already preparing for something. I don't know what that is but when I looked at this group I think that they would be able to do whatever task is given to them."

"Why do you think that?"

"Team Rocket is made up mostly out of a bunch of outcasts. The people working under me… It's not hard to make them listen to my orders but because all of them care mostly about themselves it's hard to just send them out and expect them to do good. If it's like a group of five people, you can give them an order and they will try to do that but once something goes wrong they'll panic."

"So you think that a group made up of people who… get along with each other would be more effective."

"That's it. Mary is great at reading the situation and while Roger isn't exceptionally skilled he's probably the most loyal underling I have. Red and Green don't belong to any of our factions so I'm hoping that they would join me for whatever this mission is. Then there's that Nets boy. He's not a field agent but Doctor Humane seems to have great hopes for him…"

The Admin stopped listing people for a while when he came to the next person.

"I'm not even sure what Otari's role is… But anyway, that means that the only person present who's not a member of my faction or a "free agent" is Tarieli who works under you."

"What about Archer?"

"I asked him to join the team I'm trying to put together but since he considers himself Green's rival he'd rather work with Peter and use that as a chance to show off."

"So he's... "

"Dumb." the two of them said in unison.

"Yeah. Pretty much." added Alex "So, what's your answer?"

Angie looked at Tarieli before saying "I'll have to ask her what she thinks about it."

Alex was so taken back by what she said that he swallowed some saliva which made him cough.

"I… You… Yeah. You do that."

Angie's face showed concern for her fellow Admin even though she didn't say anything and just watched him leave the room. She kept looking at the door for a while, until she saw a bright light coming from the other direction. She turned around and saw that Green's Horsea evolved into a Seadra.

"Still think you can defeat us?" Green asked his opponent.

"I'm certain that Pidgeotto is also close to evolving but I think we'll manage even without that. Instead of trying to attack Seadra while its in it's element I should try to bring it into Pidgeotto's domain. Pidgeotto, use Whirlwind!"

"No! You idi…"

Green didn't have time to finish. The bird's move caused Seadra to return to its pokeball, and opened the one containing Jigglypuff. Thanks to its peculiar body the pink Pokemon was able to float on water after landing in the pool from which Seadra was fighting.

"Don't tell me you forgot how Whirlwind works."

"Does that mean I won?"

"Of course not!" Green didn't find Red's joke to be funny.

"But if you're using a second Pokemon… Pidgeotto, use U-Turn!"

The bird flew at Jigglypuff and, although the opponent managed to dodge the attack, Red wasn't worried since Pidgeotto still returned to her pokeball and made Raichu appear on the battlefield.

"Of course. An electric Pokemon when my Jigglypuff is swimming in water. Don't I get like an automatic win since this was supposed to be a one on one?"

Green didn't receive an answer. When he looked towards the audience he saw that everyone was focused on something else. Tarieli was telling Roger about one of the missions she took part in as the man kept writing down anything that sounded like something he could use to improve himself. Otari was busy consuming the cookies prepared by Mary while the girl herself seemed more interested in eating up Nets who couldn't stop blushing since he wasn't used to the opposite sex taking interest in him.

"Damn it." he said before turning back to Red "But you have to promise me that you'll replace that Whirlwind with something else."

"Okay. I can do that. As for now… Raichu, use Thunderbolt!"

. . .

It was a couple days later, during dinnertime. Nets was busy in the laboratory and Green kept spending most of his time in the training facility which left Red in the company of Otari and Roger. That was still a little too much but Angie managed to get over her anxiousness and approached their table.

"Oh, hi. Do you want to eat with us? We have a couple free seats." said Red.

"No. I just… This is for you." the girl said while handing him a small plate with a piece of chocolate cake "I know you like it but they don't allow more than a piece per person so you can have mine."

Red wanted to ask her how she knew that about him but seeing that she looked worried he opted to do something that would boost her confidence.

"Thanks a lot. Is it because of what I said?"

"I don't know about being friends and things like that but… I want to put in a little effort once in a while and see how that feels. Is that a problem?"

"Not at all."

"Well then… I'll be going."

"The offer still stands."

"What? Oh. No, no. I promised Tarieli that I would eat with her."

"Alright. Maybe I'll see you later."

"Yeah. Maybe." the girl responded before walking away.

"I wish that I could have this kind of relationship with Alex." Roger commented, almost spitting out the mac and cheese he filled his mouth with.

"I don't think you do." Otari said quietly.

The others weren't sure if he said something so they returned to their meals.

. . .

A week later, Red was lying on his bed and using a paw-shaped toy to play with Eevee. It was pretty late and he was ready to go to sleep but Nets kept writing something on his computer ever since he came back from the laboratory.

"Will it take you much longer?" he asked his friend.

At first Nets just glanced at him, but after looking back at the computer, he decided to turn the device off.

"I'm sorry. I'm just stressed by all of this. I've never been in the field. I know I'm going to drag you down so I'm trying to prepare myself as much as I can so I don't get in your way so much. Maybe at least one of my inventions will come in handy."

"How is writing on a computer going to prepare you for the mission? Not to mention that we still don't know when it will be happening and what's the plan. The Admins decided some things between themselves but the boss still didn't give them any orders."

"Oh. There's a lot of ways that this will help me… or rather help us."

"I wrote my will."

"I hope that's a joke. What else?"

"I wrote down all the things I should bring with myself on this mission but since it's still such an unknown I keep thinking of new scenarios which makes me add other stuff I feel could be useful."

"Is the list longer than ten things?"

"Yes. It's actually…"

"Doesn't matter how many. Find the ten most useful things and keep those. Get rid of the rest. Don't go like "I may need a canoe, I'll better jot that down"."

"Alright. Anything else?"

Red closed his eyes in order to have better focus but was immediately taken out of his thoughts by the sound of the computer being turned on again.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I need to write down what you said, revise my list… and maybe put you in my will."

"You know what will be better?"

"What?"

"Field training."

"Field training?"

"Yeah. I'll try to arrange it so you, me and one of the Admins go and see how you'll behave out in the field. That way we'll know your shortcomings and you'll be able to work on them before the big mission happens."

"I'm not so sure… but I'll give it a try… Should I write a seperate will in case I die on this field training thing?" he said while turning towards the computer.

When he didn't receive an answer to his question, he looked back at Red and saw that the boy and his Pokemon were already asleep.

. . .

Meanwhile, in another part of Kanto, in a snowy field, two young women were engaging in a Pokemon battle. Blue was using her Graveler against Janine's Arbok.

"You can do better than that!" the kunoichi was trying to encourage her friend.

"Koga accepted me as his apprentice and he's willing to allow me to join the Gym leaders in their eventual battle against Team Rocket but if I can't even beat his daughter then there's no way I'm going to try and challenge him to a rematch." thought Blue "I impressed him by acting reckless and that's also how I dealt with the situation in the Safari Zone but if I keep thinking what Red would do if he was in my place I'm going to end up so injured that I won't be able to act when it's finally time to save him. I have to strike a balance."

"I trust you Grimm! Use Sandstorm!"

"What is she planning? Arbok is still underground because of Dig. This won't blind him, only the two of… Oh. That's what she meant."

Graveler shot out a cloud of sand that started to move around carried by strong winds, making it impossible to see what was happening inside.

"Now, use Earthquake!"

Even though she couldn't see her Pokemon because of the sand, Blue could feel the tremors caused by its move.

"Be careful Arbok! They want you to try and escape so that…"

"Rock Blast!" Blue ordered before adding "Janine, you better duck!"

Even though the rock type Pokemon could see better than them there was still a chance that he would interpret one of their shadows as Arbok and try to throw a rock at them. Two rocks flew outside the sandstorm and landed while kicking up snow. Soon after that, the cloud of sand started to disappear and the girls began to stand up.

"You did it, Grimm!"

Blue's Pokemon managed to hit Arbok with two other rocks, thus earning himself the victory. The girl tried to hug him but got a reminder of how hard and rough his body was.

"You managed to defeat one of my Pokemon for the first time. That's quite a feat, but there's still two more." said Janine.

"Wait. Three Pokemon. I defeated your Arbok and fought against your Golbat before. Does that mean that you have exactly the same team as your father?"

"Well… Not exactly. I use different moves but there's also the fact that my third Pokemon isn't a Weezing. But you're not strong prepared to face it yet. First let's have a battle of Golbats. How about it?"

"Alright. Come back, Grimm. Go, Ken!"

"Appear, Golbat!"

Both girls sent out their poisonous bats and took a step back.

"Air Cutter!" they shouted out simultaneously.

. . .

Resse was sitting at her desk in Team Rocket's main base and looking at some data on her computer, when suddenly the doors to the room were thrown inside, landing in the middle of the room and scaring her enough to have her fall from her chair.

"Ugh. He warned me that something like this would happen and I was foolish enough not to take his words seriously." she said to herself while getting up and dusting off her clothes "Now the question is; which one of them is it?"

"Hey, boss! You've been ignoring my calls so I came in person!" Peter shouted after stepping into the room.

Resse recognized the look he had when he would fuse with his Haunter but wasn't intimidated in the slightest.

"As you can see, he's not here. Would you care to leave a message? Or better yet, fix these doors and get the hell out."

"What? So not only is he avoiding my calls but now he's also hiding from me?"

"You think too highly of yourself."

"Where is he?"

"I'm not allowed to disclose that information. If the boss needs anything of you, he'll contact you yourself. That applies to all of you. Tell that to the other Admins so that I don't have to deal with more people knocking down my doors."

"I don't care what kind of order he gave you. If I don't get to do something about Darkness Gang I'm going to go insane."

"Because you've been so well adjusted before?"

"You may have a low opinion of me but right now you're the one who's acting unreasonable. It's obvious that in this situation…"

The Admin stopped momentarily as he reached for one of his knives and threw it at a button the secretary was about to press. She quickly pulled her hand away after feeling a spark of electricity land on it, then gave the man an annoyed look.

"...you should be more scared." the man finished.

"You don't know anything about me, do you?" the woman asked while stepping out from behind the desk "All three of you Admins have something wrong with you and there are probably many others who would be more suitable to lead Team Rocket troops, but Giovanni believes in power. Since I'm someone he shares with the secrets he keeps even from you three… Do you get where I'm going with this?"

The woman took off her jacket, leaving her in a long-sleeved white shirt, and used a rubber band to tie her hair into a ponytail. Once she got rid of her top and moved closer, it became noticeable that her belt had three pokeballs attached to it.

"Now… How shall I crush you?"

"This isn't what I expected coming here but battling you may prove more fun than just torturing you to get the answers I want." the man said while making Haunter separate from his body by simply willing it.

"For this battle… This one will do fine." Resse said, choosing one of the pokeballs "I may be a secretary but it's no secret that victory will be mine."

She threw the pokeball, revealing that the Pokemon she picked was a Venomoth.

"Dark Pulse!" the Admin didn't waste any time and immediately gave his Pokemon an order.

A wave of purple energy shot out from Haunter's body in all directions. All that Resse needed to do was make eye contact with her Pokemon for it to know that it should just avoid the attack any way it wanted to. The energy couldn't reach too far before disappearing and the woman could quickly give the bug a command.

"Quiver Dance."

Venomoth spun around, making shining particles appear around its body for a moment.

"You should have attacked back instead of raising your Pokemon's stats! Shadow Ball!"

"You talk too much."

Haunter launched the attack at Venomoth but since the bug just increased its speed, and the distance between them was even greater than before, dodging it didn't prove too hard.

"Follow up with Shadow Punch!"

Haunter clenched its hand and flew at the opponent. After closing the distance a bit, it punched the air, creating a purple imprint of its fist that started flying at the opponent. Venomoth tried avoiding it at first but when the attack turned around mid-air it became clear that it would follow it forever.

"Another Quiver Dance." Resse commanded.

"Wait. What?"

Peter didn't understand her decision but her Pokemon listened and was able to finish the move right before Shadow Punch reached its target. This made the bug fall a little before regaining control and using its wings to raise back up.

"I've already shown most of my arsenal but she hasn't attacked once. I can't read this b #$%'s face but it's obvious that this is part of some bigger plan. I wanted to use Sucker Punch at some point but it would be pointless if she chose Quiver Dance again." Peter thought to himself.

"That's what she wants me to think! Dark Pulse!"

"Fly up and counter with Psybeam!"

"Got you." Peter said quietly before giving another command "Sucker Punch!"

Once Haunter would start its second move the Admin could be certain that it would land but the problem arose when it became clear that thanks to its increased speed Venomoth could move in close and fire its attack before Haunter finished emitting Dark Pulse. The Psybeam hit Haunter but that wasn't the end of Resse's counterattack.

"Ominous Wind."

Venomoth flapped its wings, creating a purple wind that whipped the ghost type and pushed it back towards the room's entrance.

Resse was surprised when Peter's reaction to this was to slap himself in the face. The man realized that he was too hot-headed since before the battle began. He was certain that his judgement would be better if he cleared his head. There was also another way.

"Let's join again." he said to Haunter.

The Pokemon flew up and charged at its trainer. His eyes once again became surrounded by dark marks and his angry pout turned into a smile full of fangs.

"What does he hope to accomplish? I already know of this tactic." thought Resse.

The man started running towards Venomoth, hiding both hands beneath his cape. Resse came to the conclusion that he hoped she would hesitate to use her Pokemon to attack a human but she wasn't about to let herself be defeated because of something like that.

"Acrobatics." she ordered.

Even though she wasn't opposed to hurting him, she didn't want to damage him too much. She thought about how she would explain the situation to Giovanni if she accidentally killed Peter. The move she picked allowed her Pokemon to avoid any potential counter while delivering several small attacks. After being hit for the first time, Peter made one of Haunter's hands appear and try to grab Venomoth, but the bug already flew around him and attacked from the other side, only for another attempt from Haunter's second arm to also miss. Venomoth kept moving in unpredictable ways and avoiding the ghostly hands. Peter didn't want to look Resse in the eyes, worrying that she would be able to predict what he wanted to do which was to lull her into a false sense of security. He bided his time and randomly chose when to strike back, hoping that it would be too sudden and make his opponent unable to react in time. Right as Venomoth was moving out of the range of one of Haunter's hands, Peter used one of his own hands to throw a knife at the bug's wing. It didn't hurt his opponent too much but managed to push it back a little and make it look back to see what just touched it. That was enough of an opening for the other ghostly hand to deliver a Shadow Punch.

"Recover and use Ominous Wind!" Peter's plan did surprise Resse but she was quick in her decision making, although she was audibly louder which was the indication that she began to lose control of the flow of the battle.

The secretary made a crucial mistake. She focused on the fact that Venomoth was hurt by Haunter's attack, somehow completely ignoring that it happened only because Peter used his own body. One could chalk it up to how fast everything was happening. The Admin threw another knife with his other hand around two seconds after the first one hit Venomoth. The bug was moving quickly but it still was in the middle of pulling itself back from being hit. The second knife wasn't aimed at it, but was made to look like it would hit Resse. If the woman would try to avoid it and moved in the wrong direction she could have been hit by it but otherwise the blade would have missed her by a couple centimeters. The bug didn't know that. Using Quiver Dance it was able to spin around in such a way that it would block the attack with the back of its wing, leaving itself completely open. It was hit by a double Shadow Punch. Peter grabbed two more knives and put them in front of the bug's wings, preventing it from being knocked back or flying away.

"Acrobatics!" for the first time in this battle, Resse shouted her order at the top of her lungs.

"Can't escape." said Peter.

Haunter used Dark Pulse. Even after having increased its speed three times, Venomoth wasn't able to avoid the move while in such close proximity. It managed to pull its wings free but the attack still hit it. A Shadow Ball immediately followed and pushed the bug all the way to the end of the room where it smashed into the water tank. Even though the glass was reinforced, it cracked a little, and the Goldeens inside scattered. Resse looked at her unconscious Pokemon but didn't show any sadness. She returned it to its pokeball and immediately grabbed another one.

"Still want to keep going? I'm not opposed but here's something to think about; you don't know how many knives are still hidden in my cape."

The secretary hesitated a little, glanced at her pokeball and looked like she still wanted to throw it but she got interrupted.

"That's enough. You've made a fine mess of this place."

"That's a relief. I didn't replace the knives I've lost during a recent battle so I had only one left. That probably wouldn't be enough, and this b #$h wasn't afraid of my bluff." Peter thought as he turned towards the entrance and looked at Giovanni standing there.

"I'm sorry, sir. Not only was it wrong of me to ignore your warning but I also allowed myself to be defeated by… him." Resse said while bowing slightly.

"Don't worry. I saw the entire thing and I'm glad to have such strong people working for me."

"You saw? What do you…?"

The woman started looking around, even though she was sure that she would have noticed any hidden camera long ago. She still couldn't see anything that looked like one but that didn't make her any less nervous.

"Don't be so scared. I don't have any weird tendencies… Besides, the smell is enough to tell…"

The woman blushed and lowered her head. Peter didn't understand what they were talking about but he didn't care to learn. All that was important to him was that he could finally have the boss listen to what he had to say to him.

"Where have you been? Oh, wait. I don't really care. What's important is that I want to crush the Darkness Gang."

"You will have a chance to. But before that, I will have to punish you for making such a ruckus, even if I predicted that you would do something like this."

"First, tell me when and how we're going to attack. If you think you can predict what I'm going to do then you probably know that a bad answer will…"

Peter suddenly felt a stinging sensation in his cheek. He didn't expect Giovanni to slap him. His first reaction was to retaliate, but the moment he tried to do that he was stopped by two sharp things, one in front and one behind him. Giovanni summoned his Beedrill which put one of its stingers against Peter's chest. Meanwhile, Resse grabbed one of the previously thrown knives and was ready to stab him in the back.

"You should know better than to act like that. Nothing you can say will intimidate me. Now, for our plan of attack. I was going to contact all three of you as soon as I could but I'll tell you the short version for now." Giovanni said while gesturing towards Resse and Beedrill to pull back "Angie wasn't the only one searching for Darkness Gang's base. I had other people do it too. The one found by Angie is their headquarters but actually there are two more places."

"So we didn't do anything because you wanted to hit all locations at the same time."

"Exactly."

"The plan is probably for each Admin to take care of one base?"

"No."

Peter managed to calm down a little after the boss began his explanation but his way of talking made him angry once again.

"Then what?!"

"I've already arranged to have the two other places taken care of. The one that's left is the HQ. As you probably already know, if our force isn't big enough we won't stand a chance of defeating them. On the other hand, we're getting close to retrieving M2 and making my dream a reality. We're going to need a lot of troops for that. I don't want to have too many get injured or die in battle against Darkness Gang, so my plan is this; while you're going to attack them with what's basically a small army, it will be just a distraction. A small, hand-picked group will attack from another direction. Your goal will be to defeat Faust, as well as the three remaining officers."

"You said "your goal". Does that mean me or all Admins?"

"All of you. Your group shouldn't be bigger than twenty people. I hope you'll manage to reach an agreement about who should be part of it." after a short pause he added "Dismissed. I don't really feel like punishing you more than that slap."

Peter looked like he had some more questions but he got most of what he wanted to hear so he decided to settle on that. He could leave his worries for when Giovanni would explain the situation to all three of them. The Admin left the room and the boss walked towards his desk. Since he didn't say anything, Resse felt like she should follow him. The man sat down in his chair and looked at the water tank. While most Goldeen went to hide, one of them looked unamused by what it witnessed. After focusing her eyes on it, Resse realized why that was, but she didn't want to think about it. Despite feeling weird about the whole situation, there was something that worried her even more.

"Excuse me, sir, but wasn't there a fourth location?"

"Yes."

"I assume that you're going to deal with that one personally?"

Sensing the hesitation in her voice, the man looked her in the eyes and asked "Do you think that's a bad idea?"

"I don't doubt you but… I do worry about you… sir."

"Not counting our loss of M2, since I'm sure we're going to recover it, I've only ever lost once. That loss was so big that even if I manage to win at everything else I'll never make up for it, but I decided that I'm never going to lose again. This won't be any different."


Darkness Gang arc has begun. This chapter is more of a prologue, but there was also chapter 41 so I think it's okay to call this the beginning. It was good transition chapter, I think. I put various stuff in here so that I wouldn't have to deal with that later but it came out feeling kinda natural. I wanted Green's Horsea to evolve around this time but I didn't know if it would be used against Darkness Gang so this was a good place. Same with Blue's Golbat. It's an off-page evolution to show the passage of time. She also finally used her Graveler and you got to learn it's name(it's another stupid joke).

Did anyone remember Resse from her previous... uhh... 2 appearances? I knew when I created her that I wanted her to have at least one Pokemon but before I wrote this chapter there were no plans when it would appear or what Pokemon it would be? I basically went through a list of fully evolved Pokemon that I haven't used in the story so far and didn't have a big role for in the future. Of these, Venomoth was the best match for her.

I like writing battles where humans get involved and the Haunter possessing Peter is one of of my favorite concepts. I'm sorry if you're into more traditional Pokemon battles. I read somewhere that some people don't like action scenes in fiction at all and would rather have a fight last one sentence and get more focus on the story but... this is Pokemon. Battles are at its core, right? And I do my best to make them entertaining.

We learned a little more about Giovanni and how he deals with insubordination and you can probalby tell that he's going to be more active in this arc. I don't have it planned out exactly but I wouldn't write some of the stuff in this chapter if I didn't have at least a general idea.

I made a pervy joke in the chapter. I hope you can forgive that, and if you didn't notice it then forget I said anything and don't look for it.

Red. Team: Eevee, Gyarados, Pidgeotto, Raichu, ?, ?.

At hand but not officially his: Scyther.

At Team Rocket Base: ?.

Badges: 4

Green. Team: Venusaur, Jigglypuff, Nidorina, Hitmonlee, Vulpix, Seadra.

At Team Rocket Base: Jynx.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Weepinbell(Bell), Blastoise(Tori), Golbat(Ken), Graveler(Grimm), Ponyta(Dasher), Electabuzz(Buzz).

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon.

Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash, Seaking.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, Gengar.

Blaine. Team: Magmar, ?, ?.