"They are ours now."
The captain of the ship tried to resist, but a firm stomp of my feet to his hand got him to yell in pain. Around me, my men are busy working moving the batch of cargo from this ship to our own one. There are many exotic and rare pokemon from other regions that are kept in their pokeballs within the crates we are moving.
They belong to Team Rocket now.
"Now that we have the time." I spoke lazily as I drew my dagger from its holster and did a lazy twirl of it with my fingers. "Who was the one that gave you the bright idea to betray us? Hm?"
The captain of the ship zipped his mouth shut, but I have ways to make him spill all his dirty secrets no matter what he did. I always do. They always spill, eventually. It is just a matter of finding their weakness, their Achilles' heel.
There was a fall of the blade and a splash of blood.
"Oopsie. One finger gone."
The captain continues to scream as the little pinky on his right hand is now gone, dropped on the floor like trash. I leaned my face closer to the man's.
"We were supposed to be trading partners." I stressed. "And the last thing that partners should do is to betray each other. Team Rocket doesn't tolerate traitors."
"Hi! My name's Jane! Operative 2043 Code name: Pikachu, at your service! It's nice to meet you, partner! What's your name?"
Putting away the memory of me slitting Jane's throat with the same dagger in the furthest part of my mind, I flicked my dagger and stabbed it in the centre of the man's palm. He continue to scream in pain.
"So, spill. Or your daughter is next. Blue Apricot Elementary School is not that far from here."
The captain visibly panicked.
"You-!"
I sliced off another finger. I really don't have the patience for this. I want to get out of here as soon as possible.
"Spill."
"T-The cops." The captain finally blurted out as he tried to endure the pain, his voice now a pained whimper. "T-They promised me a reward if I managed to get ahold of the true identities of your execs or if I managed to intercept your cargo and deliver it to them instead so that they can do their investigations. T-That's all I know, I swear!"
'He seems to be telling the truth.'
Mentally thanking my exeggutor, I released the captain's hands from the bottom of my boots.
"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" I stated without a care in the world as I picked up a nearby cloth to wipe my dagger clean. "We should have done this all along as partners, telling each other the truth."
"P-Please let my daughter go!" The captain got onto his knees and started to beg, ignoring his bleeding and de-fingered hand. "S-She's only eight! She doesn't know-"
"Then maybe you shouldn't have signed yourself up for this career in the first place."
A purplish paw flew out from my shadows and punched through the captain's chest in one blow. Ninetales thoughtfully erected a shield of Reflect that prevented the blood from spraying all over me. Gengar slowly made her appearance known as she left my shadow, her mouth opening wider and wider until she swallowed the dead man whole.
He really made the wrong career choice.
"Sir, everything is accounted for and loaded up on our ship." One of the grunts reported to me with a salute. "Our next orders?"
I gave the grunt a disinterested look.
"Like we planned. Make this look like an accident. I don't have to teach you how to do that, do I?"
I hopped on to our boat and watched as the grunts did all the work with practiced ease while I personally went through the list in the meanwhile, doing some random checks on the physical cargo to ensure that everything is as it should be. You cannot fully trust the grunts here, not in a place like Team Rocket.
"Sir, the preparations are complete."
"Then light it up and we can all go home."
Our boat sped away as the ship we had just ransacked burst into flames, and we all watch as it slowly sunk into the bottom of the vast sea.
No evidence left behind. The cops can suspect us for all they like, but they will never get the proof they want.
"P-Please let my daughter go! S-She's only eight! She doesn't know-"
I closed my eyes and said a prayer in my mind. He's lucky that I am the one doing the exterminating today and there was no one else around us to listen in when I was doing the interrogation. At least, the little girl would live. If it were up to somebody else, his entire family would have mysteriously died in an 'accident'.
If only he didn't make the wrong career choice, a little girl wouldn't have to lose her father today.
To prevent anyone from tracking us down, the cargo was moved through several ships at certain points before docking itself at the port in Vermillion. By then, everything and everyone had became clean and legal, and we are now masquerading as employees of a certain shipping company that is in actuality a front for Team Rocket to do their shady business in exporting and importing pokemon.
Everyone had changed out of the Rocket uniform and hid it away before the port's security did their routine check on the ship. Once they were satisfied, we were given the green light and they left. Another Rocket member in charge of this area, also disguised, took the job over from me and I went about my way, now dressed in casual clothes and walking without a care in the world on the streets in broad daylight, my ninetales beside me.
Contrary to popular belief, Rockets don't wear their uniforms in public wherever they go. In fact, we don't often do that. We are not stupid. Many of us are hidden in plain sight, blending in just like your regular joe. We could be your next door neighbour, the florist a street away from your house. We could even be your childrens' homeroom teacher or the nurse in the pokemon center tending to your sick and injured pokemon.
Team Rocket is everywhere in the Indigo. Nowhere is safe.
And this, is the organisation that I am tasked to take down all by myself. Fucking crazy. The President must have lost his mind when he sent me on this impossible mission.
I took a stroll along Route 11, enjoying the sights and declining any challenges trainers on the route made at me the moment they spotted ninetales. I'm not in the mood today. I had finally earned myself a day off and I want to just relax and think.
Just how on earth am I going to take down Team Rocket? Assuming that I had gotten indisputable proof that Giovanni is the true leader behind this organisation, what next? Reporting it back to the Indigo Government isn't the be-all and end-all solution. Action needs to be taken immediately and knowing the bastard that is the Indigo President, he would probably miss the golden opportunity when it arises.
From the moment I got the indisputable proof that I need, I will need to act on my own if I ever want to get out of Team Rocket. I am almost certain that the Indigo Government will find ways to get rid of me once my purpose is fulfilled. I would know, I had been given the job to get rid of discarded tools too many times to know the direction where the story of my life is going to head next. I could be a script writer by now since this particular plot is so commonly used.
No one wants to risk anyone tattling all their dirty little secrets simply because they failed to tie up loose ends. Being nice and sentimental gets you nowhere in this dark world. The logical option will be to silence the one that knows all your secrets when their purpose has been fulfilled because there is no more benefit in keeping them around anymore.
So, who? If the Indigo Government cannot be trusted because it is where the President has the greatest influence, then who? The Indigo League? I never had the chance to interact with anyone high up in the League on a personal level. I don't know who I can trust and Giovanni is part of the League himself. One wrong move and I'm done for.
I sat on the edge of the Silence Bridge on Route 12, enjoying the sea breeze like what many of the fishermen in the location is doing. Families are having picnics nearby as they fish, enjoying their interaction with mother nature. If there's one good thing about this world, it's that the people here places a lot of importance in protecting the environment. The air here is always fresh. The waters are always clean.
Takes my mind away from all the gloom and doom, even if it is just for a short moment.
"Jane would love this place." I murmured as I stroked ninetales on her head, who is now resting her head on my lap and had closed her eyes to take a quick nap. She let out a soft purr from her throat. I can feel gengar shifting in my shadows at my words.
There is a soft pitter-patter of small feet to my left. I turned my head slightly and saw a little girl looking at ninetales with awe and curiosity in her eyes.
"Gwen!" A woman, presumably the girl's mother, quickly ran up and held her child back when she tried to reach out a hand to touch ninetales. She sent me a brief apologetic look before berating her daughter. "You cannot just touch other people's pokemon without permission!"
"But mummy!" The little girl looked back up at her mother and pointed a finger at my ninetales, as if that action explained everything. "It's a ninetales! I've never seen a real one before!"
"Grabbing a tail of a ninetales will curse you." I spoke with a hint of amusement lining my voice. Is this what I am protecting at the cost of my life and sanity? This childish innocence? Is this what Jane had given her life up for?
The little girl did a gasp and covered her mouth with her hands.
"What? Really? How?"
"I dunno, even this lady here never let me touch her tails directly when I'm her trainer, but I'm allowed to groom the fur on it with a comb. Maybe you should ask a pokemon researcher? How about Professor Oak?"
"Oh, I know him! He always teaches fun pokemon stuff on the radio every Friday! I can ask him this Friday during the Q&A session! He always knows how to answer questions on pokemon!" The girl bounced up and down happily on her feet. "Hey mister! Are you here for a picnic too like mummy and I? Or are you here to fish like daddy always do? He's working right now, but he told me he will bring me to go fishing when he comes back!"
I gave a thoughtful hum.
"I'm just here to look at the sea and think about my life choices."
"Think about life choices?"
More like the lack thereof.
"Adult stuff. You will know when you grow older. Don't ever grow up if you don't want to be in my shoes. Stay young forever."
"I want to be a pokemon trainer when I grow up!" The girl shared her dreams with me as she sat down beside me, leaving her legs suspended in the air and kicking it childishly as we watch the blue sea ahead of us. Her mother had gone to sit down under a nearby tree about twenty meters away once she saw that her child is not up to any mischief.
If there is one thing here that I find different, it is that parents in this world are more trusting towards strangers. Social interactions are highly encouraged, especially when it comes to the topic of pokemon. How that way of life came about eludes me and I never cared to find out why.
"Nice dream to have." I answered truthfully and I can feel gengar moving subtly in my shadows. Hopefully she doesn't burp her meal out from earlier and scare the girl. No one wants to see a half-digested corpse popping out from the shadows and I have no idea how to explain myself if that happens.
"What kind of trainer do you want to be?"
"Uh, I don't know?" The little girl tilted her head to a side. "But maybe a Water Specialist like Misty? She's so beautiful! And cool! And so strong too! She made water types look so pretty! I want to be like Misty!"
"Then you would need a water type if you want to be like her."
"Yup! But mummy say buying a pokemon can be really expensive and there are no trainers in our family, so I will have to wait until I am old enough to receive one from the League."
I look down at the waters below, which are clear enough to allow me to see about ten meters down until the visibility diminish. I saw a particular pokemon resting in the waters beneath our feet that I think might make a great companion for her.
"How about I catch one for you right now?"
The girl visibly perked up.
"Really?! Can you?!"
"I am a trainer. What do you think?" I huffed. I don't have a water type to fish it out, but that kind of handicap never stopped me before. "But you have to promise me to take really good care of it. Give it the love and attention it needs, okay? I'm not accepting any objections."
"Mm!"
Ninetales cracked open an eye and her eyes glowed a blue hue. Even without moving, a horsea underneath the bridge was forcefully ejected out from the sea and struggled in midair, hovering right in front of us thanks to ninetales' Extrasensory. A toss of a pokeball later, the water type was caught.
"Take good care of it now." I said as I passed the pokeball into the girl's hands and stood up. It's time to take my leave.
"I will! Thank you!" The girl beamed as she waved me goodbye, horsea's pokeball held close to her chest. Ninetales and I walked away towards the direction of Lavender Town with me still deep in thought.
"P-Please let my daughter go!"
"You can rest in peace now." I spoke in a volume that only I can hear as ninetales and I continue our stroll alone.
"S-She's only eight! She doesn't know-"
"Your daughter is doing fine. She doesn't know what you really do for a living."
"Hey mister! Are you here for a picnic too? Or are you here to fish like daddy always do? He's working right now, but he told me he will bring me to go fishing when he comes back!"
"Bringing her to go fishing when you are back? You really made the wrong career choice. You are not coming back, but at least with a pokemon companion by her side, she won't be truly alone. Who knows? Maybe she will grow strong enough to defeat me someday and bring me to justice."
I had done a lot of evil in the name of the greater good against my will, but today, even if it is something small, at least I'm able to do some good this time on my own volition.
And that is all it takes to make my day.
Name: Jayce
Indigo Government Identity: Operative 2046, Code Name: Gengar
Indigo Government Rank: Special Agent
Team Rocket Identity: Elite Officer Plague
Team Rocket Rank: Elite Officer
Pokemon Team:
1. Ninetales, female
2. Exeggutor, male
3. Weavile, male
4. Honchkrow, female
5. Gengar, female
6. Houndoom, male
7. Umbreon, male
8. Hydreigon, male
9. Drapion, female
10. Zoroark, male
