It's funny watching how the instructors in Team Rocket train the new recruits, because everyone was once a recruit. You cannot help but compare what they are going through with what you went through.

So, I decide that watching this will be my highlight of the day from where I am on the second floor of the building, leaning on the railings with ninetales and houndoom by my side.

"Stand up! Rockets don't fall! They don't die! They never surrender!"

Funny. I had seen many Rockets flee at the first sign of danger. Nobody really took this part of the lesson to heart. It's always about every man for himself.

"Hang in there, Jayce. We are nearly there. Once we complete this we will be full-fledged Rockets! We will be one step closer to our objective!"

Once upon a time, I had someone who stuck by me in this hellhole through thick and thin. It was how I managed to pull through with my mind still sane.

Many of the so-called recruits below are still impressionable kids. Children that still have that innocent smiles on their faces. They wouldn't have them for long. It's the instructors' job to train them into perfect ruthless soldiers that will kill without hesitation upon receiving instruction from their superiors.

How did Team Rocket get their hands on so many children?

Why, the slums, of course. When you are at the lowest point in your life and had nowhere to go, isn't it human nature to pledge your loyalty to the one who gave you a helping hand out of gratitude? Revere the saviour who pulled you out of that hopeless pit? That's how Team Rocket operates, by giving kindness to people who had nothing to lose and in return, these people will risk their life and limbs to do anything they were asked to do.

I saw one of the child recruits helping another to stand. While such an act is admirable, it isn't in Team Rocket. The organisation doesn't need anyone who cannot pull their own weight. Team Rocket is a place where only the strongest and smartest survive. There's no place for the weak and kind-hearted, not here in the largest terrorist organisation in the world.

Very often, the kindest always dies first, because they put the lives of others above their own. They naively put the lives of selfish people, people that has no notion of conscience in their hearts, above their own. That's how they die, death by kindness.

I had emphasised many times to the President that for Team Rocket to be gone for good, something must be done for those trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty. The Government cannot continue to turn a blind eye towards this issue, because Team Rockets fester in the cracks of society where not enough effort had been put into to mend it. I'm willing to bet that's how other infamous terrorist organisations around the world operates too, even if I had only briefly met one or two myself when we did our rare international business dealings. We tend to stick to our own respective regions because the seas in this world is so dangerous to navigate it is not even remotely funny.

I wonder how many ships had sank like Titanic ever since the respective regions that made up the Pokemon World League opened up their borders? Probably too many to count.

I continue to watch the training below from where I am. My mind is wandering elsewhere, wandering to the past where I wasn't alone in this hellhole, where she is still around to brighten up my dark life.

She wanted to be a singer and start a band with me, maybe roping a few more like minded people along the way. It sounds like a great way to live, in my opinion. Then again, any way of living is still better than living the life of a terrorist.

Her dream would forever remain unfulfilled, because she was too kind. She was never suited for this life.

Her death made me think of things that I never thought before once my head was cleared. Over the years, I am getting more and more certain that the brief moment of hesitation that I had, that something that made me stood rooted to the floor instead of running to help her escape, consequences be damned, when she was first caught and dragged across the floor, is definitely not natural. It's like there's a block interfering with my mind and I'm going to find out what that is.

But not here. I need to first ensure that I'm alone and unwatched before I run my own tests to verify my suspicions. I cannot trust anyone. Not the special agents and the secret operatives from the Government, and definitely not anyone from Team Rocket no matter how nice and genuine they appear to be.

After all, I'm supposed to exterminate them. That's my only purpose for being here. I have no true allies and all that surrounds me are my enemies.

My only true allies are not even humans. They are my pokemon.

"My, my, I thought that no one would be here in this boring place."

Someone's voice snapped me back to reality. I looked back up to see Executive Ariana in front of me, hips cocked to a side and a hand on it with that usual cocky smirk on her face.

"Executive Ariana." I greeted back in a salute since she is of a higher rank than me. My rank of Elite Officer is just a rank below those of an Executive. I had met all of the Executives ever since my promotion to Elite Officer.

Never liked any of them.

"Plague, right? At ease, Elite Officer Plague. I'm just passing by." She waved it off casually with a hand and I relaxed my posture. Ariana is the Executive that the true leader of Team Rocket is the closest to, or at least that's what the rumour mills say.

Ariana joined me as she too watched the happenings below, with me standing behind her like a subordinate should in the presence of their superiors.

"Petrel was impressed at how you completed the latest mission. He had good things to say about you."

"I'm just doing my job, ma'am." I replied with an even tone that gave nothing away.

"And he also told me this would be your default response to any praise sent your way. I see that he's right."

Ariana turned back to face me, her hands crossed across her chest.

"The files said that you are good at infiltration. Is that true?"

"I'm only moderately good at it. The last time I did an infiltration mission was years ago to topple Marowak Skull, ma'am."

"Ah, I knew your name sounded familiar." Ariana's eyes twinkled a little mischievously. "And how humble of you. Give yourself some credit. You are the reason why we are now the greatest organisation of Kanto's underworld. You are the Rocket who managed to do what we couldn't. The exterminator that culled all who stands in our way and remove all traitors. A disease that toppled our enemies, like a plague."

I stood there in silence, not really knowing what to say to that.

"I'm going to have to borrow you from Petrel for a ahort while. I need someone of your skills and experience for a certain scouting mission. You are not on any active missions right now, are you?"

"No, ma'am."

"Good." Ariana turned to make her leave, her heels clicking audibly against the floor along the quiet corridor. "I'm going to speak to Petrel for a bit, then I will meet you in my office."

I gave her my salute when she made her exit, only relaxing when she left.

I'm just passing by, my ass. I knew she was not the type to appear before someone without any good reason.

I turned around and walked in the opposite way that she left. I will need to soon decide if this mission Ariana is sending me on is worth informing the Government about. Every single interaction I have with them holds a risk that I might be discovered, so it is not a decision I make lightly.

Hopefully, nobody needs to die this time round.


This mission is interesting, at the very least.

Someone in Team Rocket had gotten wind that the Government had a secret facility somewhere conducting pokemon research. What they are researching about eludes us, which is why I was sent to find out. Anything that is being hidden there, Ariana wants to know every single detail about it.

Team Rocket is crazily rich. The organisation has many false companies and fronts that they use to appear in public squeaky clean, in which money laundering can safely take place and wash the blood off the illegally made profit before they reappear back in public again. Using that kind of connections, Team Rocket managed to forge a new identity for me and somehow helped me to gain access to the facility as one of the workers there.

As a janitor.

Unlike what one usually sees in the movies, infiltration missions are often not as glamorous as one would imagine it to be.

It would be suspicious if a janitor possesses many rare and powerful pokemon, so I only brought gengar with me. Even then, she hides in my shadows, not making an appearance unless my life is at stake. There are areas that I am not allowed to enter as a janitor, but I always find my way in somehow.

I had already been here for two weeks. During this time, I had already memorised the layout of the entire place and sneaked into the prohibited areas a few times undetected. What I found out was interesting, but nothing that personally really interests me.

Apparently, the Indigo League had recently found a group of prehistoric pokemon living in some remote corner of the region, untouched by time and civilization. Any prehistoric pokemon that are currently roaming about are those who had been brought back to life through fossils. Finding one that is naturally born and raised in the wild is supposed to be non-existent, much less a colony of them.

No wonder everything is hush-hush.

I don't know how important the Government or the League values this research. I will have to find a time to check in with the President by contacting the few special agents on his side that knows of my existence. Ariana has been getting impatient, so I cannot dawdle for too long lest she gets suspicious.

Prehistoric pokemon can be trained to be insanely powerful, but they also fetch a very high price as fossils and even higher as a live specimen. I cannot help but wonder what Team Rocket plans to do with these naturally occurring prehistoric pokemon if they ever get their hands on them. Just imagine how high they can sell for in the black market. Would Team Rocket choose to make a quick buck by selling them in underground auctions? Maybe rope them into their pokemon army?

Thankfully, this facility is a League sponsored one, which means that I have full access to whatever is in here. It is a perk that comes with being a secret operative for the Government. I am given my own code that can secretly override any and all computers that belongs to the Government or the League, allowing me to contact them easily.

Getting the best of both worlds is probably the only great perk of being a double agent. Other than that? It sucks big time.

The secrecy of the facility meant that most of the staff live in the facility themselves to reduce the chance of information leakage. Thus, when night fell and everyone had fallen asleep. I got out of bed and secretly snuck my way into the control room with gengar's help without raising the alarms.

Knocking out the person keeping watch in the control room was easy with Hypnosis. Hypnosis is a very underrated move for covert operations. An amateur uses it to put their foes to sleep, an expert in the move can use it to control people, read minds, alter memories, or even plant subtle mental suggestions that no one can ever detect.

I'm starting to suspect that someone had placed a mental suggestion within my own mind somehow without me realising it. It's the only possible explanation I had on why I didn't run towards Jane to rescue her when I could, and should. I clearly remembered that all I wanted to do was to get her out of there, but suddenly I couldn't move and I couldn't think, like my brain had forcefully shut down at the mere thought of it and my body just froze.

And if someone had really did that to me like I had suspected, there will be hell to pay.

After ensuring that I am wearing gloves so that my fingerprints would not be left behind, I keyed in the code that override all protocols in the control room. With this, the entire control room is now mine to use and control. All conversations and communications are secured, out of reach of the Rockets. Doing a video call is the stupidest thing one can do on a covert mission no matter the security employed, so I quickly typed in my question and hopefully the President is still awake to see it.

[Gengar]: TR target: Facility, naturally occurring prehistoric pokemon. Allow or interfere? Please advise.

Come on, don't keep me waiting too long. An extra second here is an extra element of risk for me.

There is a blink of the screen that signifies the quick reply to my message.

[Arceus]: Allow. Research value is not as much as it seems, but do leave the researchers alive if possible.

Yeah, the President calls himself Arceus of all pokemon names to use. He really has a god complex, easily seen from the way he does things.

Bastard.

[Gengar]: Roger. Gengar out.

I have my instructions. The President himself just doomed this facility and the people here. I have no idea who will be sent here to wipe this place clean. Hopefully the staff here will be alive when Team Rocket is done with it.

After logging out and turning the screens in the control room back to normal, I put the man back in his chair and exited the room, leaving no clues behind. He will come back to his senses when the sound of the door clicking shut entered his ears, breaking him out of the trance like what gengar had programmed it to be. He will have no recollection of what went on the moment he was caught in Hypnosis since his memories and perception of time had been altered through it.

Doing such things got a little easier with time when I got used to it, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

I really hate this job.


"Splendid work, Plague. This information is really what we needed. Leader will be pleased at knowing this."

I saluted back at Ariana at the praise given to me before going back to standing at attention. It took me awhile to legally quit my job as a janitor at the facility without raising any suspicions, but I managed it in the end. A few subtle Hypnosis here and there on the right people did the trick.

Ariana opened up a drawer and took out two pokeballs.

"I am pleased at your work, and I believe I can say the same for my fellow Executives if they learnt what you had just accomplished. Team Rocket rewards those who had worked hard for our cause. These are yours now, Elite Officer."

I took the two pokeballs presented to me. I have no idea what these pokemon are, but I will find out later.

"You are dismissed for now. I will call for you again when your help is needed once more." Ariana waved me away with a hand before ending the conversation in a sultry voice.

"For the glory of Team Rocket."

I repeated the phrase spoken out of habit.

"For the glory of Team Rocket."


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

11. Bisharp, male

12. Shiftry, male