His very first memory was the rundown shack, that sorry excuse of a building that he once called home. The place where he once lived with his father in a slum. They are Johtonians, yet the very first memories he had were of Kanto where he was raised. They are not rich, his father worked as a miner that mined those precious stones that people covet so much. Kanto had always been full of those shiny things that people love.

Being a miner is a dangerous job. Even with the help of pokemon, things are never safe. The job also doesn't pay well due to a lack of labour laws that guarantee a minimum wage for his father, all because he is a Johtonian working in the Kanto region. His father and his fellow Johtonian miners had always been on the receiving end of exploitation by their Kantonian employers.

His mother left his father the moment he was born because to her, she felt that there isn't any future in following his father. Even he, her son, didn't mean a thing to her. She left without hesitation the moment he was born, that was what his father told him. It was always him, his father, and his father's drowzee. It had always been the three of them. This is his family.

His family's poverty was something that can only be experienced, not described. The thing he recalled most often regarding his childhood was that he only had one meal a day most of the time. Just some plain rice and maybe some vegetables. That was how little his father brought home.

Hunger. Never ending hunger. Those were the most vivid memories of his childhood.

Even then, his father managed to somehow send him to school, saying that receiving education is the only way for him to not follow his path, for him to have a chance to live a better life. He didn't disappoint his father, consistently scoring the best grades in class.

It was then he found out that he is different from others. He could always see and understand what others could not. He skipped grades because he is just that smart. He made his father proud and it made him happy to see him proud of him.

Things started to change when he reached eight years of age. He had skipped grades and was already in middle school. He's the youngest in the class and because of that, often subjected to the ostracisation and bullying from his older peers. Nobody did anything to help him because there wasn't a point in helping him. There's nothing he could do because he's too small and too young.

He's also too poor. He doesn't have any sort of background, influence, or power to protect himself from harm. Eventually, these experiences made him realise that the only way to protect oneself is to have the needed power in his grasp.

Despite the ostracisation and verbal bully he received on a daily basis, he never minded it that much because back then, he didn't care. It was until after he scored full marks on a test that some of the class bullies cornered him in a deserted alley after class.

All because he scored better than them.

It was then his father finally knew that he had been bullied in school all along. The bruises and cuts on his body were too hard to hide. Needless to say, his father was livid. Not only because he had kept mum about the treatment he received in school, but also because the bullies had dared to hit him.

"The world never favours the poor and powerless, Kain. You have to fight back if you want to survive." His father reprimanded him when he was helping to dress his wounds using whatever little money they painstakingly saved to buy the needed medication.

"I don't care how you do it. Rob, pillage, steal, exploit, whatever. You are smart enough to do what I cannot. Just remember that it's either us or them. Anyone not on our side is an enemy, there's no need to be lenient to them. This is the only way we can protect ourselves because we don't have the power to. We don't have a life of luxury. We don't have anyone else to back us up or hear our voice. That's why we have to do whatever it takes to survive. Remember, it's only us."

"Dad? Isn't that a little too harsh?"

"You naive fool!" His father smacked him on the back of the head, painfully. "If those assholes nearly broke your arm this time, what about the next time?! If you are not going to do something about it one day I will return home to see you in a body bag! What then?!"

"But surely there is some good in everyone?" Undeterred, he continued to ask. "Like how your language is so foul but you are so nice."

"Don't be stupid. It's only because you are my son." His father scoffed before pulling on his ear to make him squirm in pain. "I'll say this again, it's either you or them. I may not be as smart as you, but this is one piece of wisdom that I can impart. For slum rats like us, anyone not on our side is an enemy because nobody will ever care whether we live or die. Get that in your head if you want to survive in this hell."

With that, his father left to prepare dinner. His father's drowzee slowly patted him on the shoulder in a show of comfort.

Is it really either him or them?

At that point in time, he doesn't know.


Time would prove that his father was right. The bullying and ostracisation only got worse after that day because the bullies faced no repercussions for their actions. The school doesn't take any action. Nobody stood up for him. It's only him against his bullies.

He had been successful in avoiding his bullies thus far but even the most patient man has his limits. It got too much for him to handle. Fear turned into hatred, hatred turned into conviction. He could not stand seeing his bullies. The mere sight of their faces was enough for him to want to erase them from existence.

One day, he finally snapped. If the world could not tolerate his presence simply because he was different, he would reshape the world in his image so that he will have a place to stay.

"Dad."

"Yea?" His father replied while trying to scrub his miner clothes clean.

"Can I borrow drowzee?"

"What do you want him for?"

"I learnt a little about his species in class today. There's something I want to try."

"And what is that?"

"To see if he can help me stop my bullies from harassing me."

It was then he saw it, the proud smile on his father's face.

"Guess you finally decided to heed my words, eh, brat? Fine, take him with you tomorrow. I'll be fine alone."

"Won't it be unsafe for you to do your work without drowzee helping you?"

"I will be fine." His father emphasised. "Just take drowzee with you and do what you need to do. Remember, it's-"

"Us or them."

"Atta boy. Now go and sleep. You still have class tomorrow."


It would be a lie to say that he never once dreamt about becoming a pokemon trainer. Not only will he attain fame and glory should he succeed, it is a good chance to change his family's situation for the better. Being a trainer is a lucrative job and the barriers to entry are low. He will be turning eleven one day, old enough to be a trainer. He just isn't sure if he is suited for it.

Might as well try it out with his father's drowzee first.

His interest in pokemon was sparked when his homeroom teacher talked a little about pokemon and pokemon moves in class the previous day. One of the moves his teacher talked about was Hypnosis, a move he is sure that drowzee could use. He had immediately gone to the library after class that day searching for anything relating to the move, Hypnosis. It was then he learnt more about that move.

Hypnosis is basically a move that uses a unique form of psychic wave to plant a hypnotic suggestion into the target's mind to lull them into a deep sleep. It was then he started to theorise the basis behind how that move even worked in the first place.

What if the hypnotic suggestion implanted is not about making the target fall into a deep sleep? What if the suggestion could be modified to be something else? If that's possible, it would mean that he could possibly control every single thought and action of another person through drowzee.

He got excited simply by thinking about the possibilities this one move could bring. With this, he could make the bullying come to a stop. And so, he asked his father to lend him his drowzee for a day. The only way to check if his suspicions are true is to test it out.

And so, he tried his hand in training pokemon by trying to train drowzee in what he envisioned it could do.

A week later, his bullies all mysteriously jumped down the school building. There were no leads to follow. All evidence led everyone to believe that they did it on their own will. The suicide note left behind was the final nail in the coffin and the police closed the case just like that. They aren't paid enough to deal with this kind of menial affairs, that was how lacksidal Kanto's law enforcement was at that point in time.

When he got home that day, his father only ruffled his head fondly and splurged a little to get him an ice cream, something that he could only eat a few times every year. He shared it with drowzee and his father. A cone of ice cream, shared and eaten by all three of them, family.

Ice cream never felt more delicious.


"You want to try becoming a trainer?"

"Yes."

It was a decision he came to after much thinking. It's been over two years ever since that day where he and drowzee orchestrated the perfect murder. He doesn't feel a thing about it but he does not like committing the act either. He never used drowzee to hypnotise anyone else after that day because there wasn't a need to.

In these two years, he had given a lot of thought to many things. Despite how Kantonians had treated him and his father, he felt that they were not at fault. If anything, the system is at fault. The entire Indigo system is flawed to begin with. He had once decided that if the world could not tolerate him because he was different, because he is too smart, then he will change the world so that he can be a part of it.

For that, he needs power. The easiest way to do it is to become a trainer. If he can become the strongest, if he can become Champion, he can change things for the better. People like his father will no longer be exploited. People like them will no longer need to live in slums and eat only one meal per day. People like him will no longer be ostracised.

Indigo is flawed. Somehow, nobody other than him could see this truth. Not his father, not his classmates, not his neighbours, and not even his teachers, the people who are supposed to educate them about the world. Only he could see what others could not, it had always been this way, because he is born with a brilliant mind that nobody else possesses. His views are always different, his opinions are always different, his ways of doing things are always different and it's human nature for people to not want others to be different from them. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down, he knows this better than anyone else.

In that case, he will create a world where people will not be afraid of sticking out. He will change the world for the better, one step at a time. Only he can do this, because only he saw the Indigo for what it really is. Only he will do this, because only he experienced the dark side of Indigo.

So, he will become a trainer to change things for the better.

Applying to be a trainer wasn't hard. All he had to do after that is to wait until he became of age to be eligible to pick a starter pokemon from the nearest Pokemon Gym to their house.

However, his father had his own opinions when it comes to picking his starter pokemon.

"The pokemon the League offers are shit." His father all but spat out. "I had seen people being given rattatas. Fucking rattatas. No, if my son is about to go out there to explore the world as a trainer he sure as hell aren't going to be travelling with a fucking ratttata. I will get you a starter pokemon. A good one."

"But getting our own pokemon on our own accord will mean buying our own pokeballs." He quickly stopped his father before he could continue. "And pokeballs aren't cheap. We cannot afford it."

"We can afford it." His father said in a stern voice that he knew meant that there is no way his father is going to budge on this matter. "I will find a way to afford one and then drowzee and I will find and catch a pokemon that is a hundred, no, a thousand times better than a rattata."

"Dad-"

"I will do it, using whatever it takes, because you are my son, because we only have each other left in this fucked up world. It's either us or them, and I won't entrust your safety to a pathetic rattata. This is final."

With that, his father left the house with drowzee, leaving him with strict instructions to not leave the house and to do his homework because his exams are coming soon.

And so, he burned the worn down kerosene lamp because electricity is too expensive, diligently doing his homework while waiting for his father and drowzee to come home. He will make his father proud by being the best there ever is. He will change the world for the better so that he can finally be a part of it. He will create a world that he always dreamt about in his sleep, where people will not be afraid to be different, where people need not hide their talents.

This is the Indigo that he envisioned, the Indigo that he will make a reality. He will do it, using whatever it takes, because only he can see what others could not see and do what others could not do.

He is Kain Briggs, the person who will change Indigo and revolutionise the world.

Using whatever it takes.


"What happened?"

That was the only thing he managed to get out of his mouth as he stood in the morgue, staring blankly at his father's mangled corpse. His right eyeball is missing, the left side of his face chewed off. He is lacking several fingers on his hands and there are obvious bite marks on his chest.

"Is this man your father?" Ignoring his question, the policeman continued with his own questioning. Kain could only nod, still not believing what had happened.

"Good. Now all I need is for you to sign this document here to confirm that you had identified him to be your father. After that, you are free to go."

He stared listlessly at the document pushed to him, and then back at the police officer.

"What happened."

"He trespassed into a nature reserve and got mauled to death by wild pokemon for his stupid act. There's a damn good reason why the Keep Out sign was placed there for a reason. You are lucky to even get a somewhat complete corpse of your father. It's the nidokings' mating season and they are fucking vicious and protective of their young."

"I see." He held back a sob as his words emerged as a choke. With a swift motion of his hand, he signed his name on the piece of paper. All that he needs to know, he now knows.

"These are what we found on your father. His drowzee's pokeball is in there, and the drowzee had been healed by the nurses." The police officer shoved a small bag into his small arms. He opened up the bag, spotting drowzee's pokeball and another dented and crushed pokeball. Slowly, and hesitantly, he reached out to hold onto the pokeball that his father had no doubt splurge his entire meagre savings on to buy for him.

And then, he broke down, holding onto that dented and unusable pokeball as he cried and mourned for the only person who had loved him in this merciless world.

"I'll say this again, it's either you or them. I may not be as smart as you, but this is one piece of wisdom that I can impart."

He left the police station with the scant few belongings of his father. From then onwards, it's only him and drowzee.

It's just them against this merciless world.

From then on, he swore to never become a trainer. From then on, he never trusted another person ever again, because it has always been him or them. Other than drowzee, he never trusted any pokemon ever again, because pokemon took away the one and only person who would ever care and love him.

It's him and drowzee against the world, and it will forever remain this way.


It took years, but he finally attained the power to start changing Indigo for the better, to build the world that he had always dreamt of. He can never be Champion because he swore to never become a pokemon trainer, but he became something better.

Using whatever it takes, he became President of Indigo at twenty-two years of age, the youngest to be appointed into office in Indigo's history. He had walked a bloody path, but it had led him to greatness nevertheless.

He had become a lot jaded ever since his father's death, but his naive dream had never changed, not even once. He will shape Indigo into a nation where talents can bloom to their full potential and people will not need to experience what he did, simply because they are born different. He will create an utopia for geniuses like him where they do not need to hide their talents.

His father's drowzee is now a hypno, but it is still there standing loyally beside him like always. The only other being that he will ever trust is hypno, because it had been there for him since the very start. Starting from the day where they orchestrated the perfect murder, they are partners. His father is still looking after him through hypno.

"Let's go, hypno, we have much to do."

In the following twenty years, he set out what he had always wanted to do. He wants Indigo to be better, to be stronger, to be the utopia that he had always dreamt about since he was a naive child. He held no illusions that it will be easy, he knows that it will be a long and arduous process that will take decades to accomplish, he knows that he has to play dirty and approve of shady dealings behind closed doors because many things are out of his control for now.

For that very reason, he had realised very early on that for his dream to come true, a few things must be in order.

Firstly, he has to hold onto his seat of power and position as President long enough for him to see his endeavours come into fruition. He has to remain President for as long as it takes, using whatever it takes. He has to take control of everything he could possibly need to take control over. Secondly, Kanto needs a drastic makeover because the conditions are just that bad. Johto is fine as it is, Kanto is not.

However, he also knows very early on that he cannot please everybody. It's just not possible. As such, to make sure that his judgements are never wrong in his quest to create his version of Indigo, he created a self-imposed rule that he will abide by whenever he has to make important decisions as President of Indigo.

Everything that is done, it must be for the greater good. If he abides by this rule, this way, he will always make the right decision.

Twenty years down the road, Kanto had improved. With that, Indigo as a nation had progressed. He is still not satisfied enough with the results, but it is already a lot better than what he had experienced as a child.

Improving Kanto into what it is today wasn't easy. Since Kanto had always needed money and money doesn't come from nowhere, what he did was to allow Johto to use Kanto's resources for their own needs, and then direct a large part of Johto's fruits of labour back into Kanto in order to fund their improvement.

The way he improved Kanto is one that people will not agree to due to some inevitable exploitation but it is the best way, even the end results said so. Within twenty years Kanto had swiftly grown into a region known for birthing the smartest people and the most brilliant minds. Kanto is now a place where people who dabbled in science will flock to, where people who are different from others, geniuses in every sense of the word, will gather and share their ideas. They have no need to fear that they are different because everybody around them is different. They have no need to fear that nobody could understand the way they see things because this is where intellectuals gather. They have the needed brain cells to comprehend what they each envision.

Little by little, his dream is slowly becoming a reality. It would not have been possible if he hadn't lived by his father's words, that it's either him or them. It was how he secretly got rid of all his political opponents and slowly consolidated his own political power. His hypno was also instrumental in helping him in creating their dream world. People might not agree with his methods should they learn of it, but he is firm in his beliefs that his decisions are the right ones, because he had always done everything with the greater good in mind.

It's all for the greater good.


Over the years, he slowly had more contact with the darkness of Indigo, something which he can never allow to let fester. As the President of Indigo, he has to make sure that people with dangerous ideologies that threaten the sovereignty of Indigo cannot be allowed to live.

For the greater good, to keep Indigo's darkness at bay, this is a necessary evil.

For that goal, over the years as the President of Indigo, he had secretly done and approved of many dirty deeds that he is not proud to admit. People may say that such an arrangement is immoral, but when one sits on his seat and is tasked with the duty to protect Indigo and her people, you would find that you will have to make many hard decisions behind closed doors in order to keep Indigo standing.

After a while, you will find that there are no such things as the right decisions, only the best decisions.

Behind its glamour and the fact of being the first true nation to ever be united and came into existence in history, Indigo is a nation riddled with problems. The disparity in which the natural resources are distributed across the two regions is a glaringly huge problem and this leads to a poverty gap between Johto and Kanto, something which his predecessors had all never managed to solve during their time. Now, this problem is passed on to him to handle.

This rich-poor divide that lasted for five hundred years left a mark on Indigo that will never truly go away. Johto has the ideal environment and resources to flourish. Good weather conditions, large amount of arable land suitable for agricultural purposes that can be found almost everywhere, the ease in building the necessary infrastructure to facilitate ease of transport between cities and towns due to the generally flat land, thereby making it easier to conduct business and trades and stimulating Johto's economy. Naturally clear segregation of wild pokemon habitats and human settlements which made it easier to plan and divide the use of land for specific purposes.

Basically, whatever Johto needs to build an empire, an utopia, it has them. Johto is a region that is blessed with everything. Johto never had a problem in being self-sufficient and only once a region can be self-sufficient can its people then have the spare energy to think of how to further improve their lives and be even better.

Over the span of five hundred years, there are a lot of things which Johtonians have done to improve their standard of living and quality of life. Johto always had the better things, be it education, healthcare, and other necessities. Just Johto's literacy rate alone is at 99.6%, the highest among all the seven regions, because the accumulated wealth and wise management of resources over five hundred years enabled it to do so. Because of this, many politicians in modern history are often Johtonians because from a young age, they have greater access to what they need in order to go further in life. You can say that the ruling body of Johto's pioneers had created a benign cycle that keeps feeding upon itself that benefits Johtonians. When you look at things in this manner, Johto flourishing into what it is today isn't surprising.

Keeping that in mind, the stark differences you can observe when comparing Kanto to Johto is as clear as day is to night.

If you look at the overall landmass, Kanto is bigger than Johto. However, half of Kanto's lands are mountainous areas that cannot be used or lived on. The north of Kanto is built on mountainous areas because there isn't much of a choice. There is nowhere else to live. The reason why settlements like Pewter City, Cerulean City, and Lavender Town even exist is because those are the only places left in Kanto that were not occupied when ancient civilisations began to sprout and grow in the Kanto region.

The south of Kanto is the area which is more ideal to conduct economic activities because of the flatter and more arable land which allows agriculture and trade to take place but even then, there are too many forests in between these plots of land. Clearing these forests is also not an option because once you overdo it and deprive wild pokemon of their homes, they will naturally vent their rage on the nearest human settlement. Unlike Johto, the segregation between wild pokemon habitats and human settlements in Kanto had also never been that clear because both pokemon and humans are forced to live alongside each other very closely, mostly due to a lack of space thanks to the constant presence of the largely inhabitable mountainous areas. If this delicate balance is disrupted, it will be detrimental to Kanto as a whole.

As such, Kanto is not an ideal place to build a nation given its natural conditions. In fact, it is a plot of land that any smart ruler would never want to build their civilisation on. That isn't to say Kanto is a region that is extremely unlivable, but trying to properly manage the region is obviously a lot harder than Johto. The conditions are just that unfavourable.

Over the centuries of economic disparity, Johto had grown to be too rich and too influential ever since the merger of both regions into Indigo. This indirectly affected Indigo's political scene. By the time he became President at least 70% of the politicians that helped him govern Indigo were Johtonians.

Due to this, there are no checks in place or rather, the sheer impossibility of putting any sort of checks on Johtonian politicians because everytime something of that nature was brought up it would be quickly shut down through a majority vote.

Many people view democracy as a measure that promotes equality and fairness but very often, democracy does not always lead to the best outcome, not when the vast politicians in the Indigo Government are using the system as a tool to further their own gains. Democracy is simply a tool to give the ignorant masses the illusion of equality and fairness, that is democracy in a nutshell. Reality is often sadder than it seems. The masses are often ignorant of what the real threat is. They tend to let their irrational emotions cloud their judgement when making their decisions in casting their votes instead of listening to their logical reasoning. It is what allowed the toxic culture plaguing the Indigo Government and Kanto to prosper even further.

Hence, it came as no surprise that Kantonians and Johtonians are not equally represented in the political scene. The number of Johto politicians in the cabinet far outweighs those from Kanto. This is where the crux of the Kanto-Johto problem truly started.

Looking at that, it's not hard to see what such an arrangement will eventually lead to.

Corruption

He doesn't know who he can trust to help him in governing Indigo within this corrupted pit of vipers, because it's hard to pinpoint who has been corrupted and who is not. It's always like this, he always lacked information. Politics is a game of chess without rules. Backstabbing is commonplace. Information is worth their weight in gold. You can rise as easily as you can fall.

To him, the urgent problem that needs to be solved isn't about how politicians get elected into their seats of power in Indigo. In his opinion, the most urgent and tricky business to deal with are the few powerful elites back then who were high up in places where even he as the President cannot carelessly touch for every single action he took, no matter how minor, can bring about drastic circumstances.

And if he were to be ousted out of office through some shady back dealings because he went against what these powerful elites wanted, there would really be no one else to solve the poverty problem for Kanto. He is the only one left who is willing to do the right thing as Indigo President to save Kantonians from the unseen danger.

He has to do this. Only he can do this and he can only trust himself to do this right. There is nobody else left in which he can fully trust.

The strong will always prey on the weak. Even as President, he is not immune to this law of the jungle. If he wants to truly complete what he had in mind for Indigo, to bridge the gap between Kanto and Johto, to help Kanto stand up on her own and be self-sufficient without relying on their mineral deposits, then he cannot be brought down from his seat of power as President until he finished what he set out to do.

It's like his father said, it's either him or them. In this backstabbing hellhole that is politics, even more so.

For his dream to be able to become a reality, he needs to be able to have everything under his control. To do that, he needs accurate information on everything that he needs to know to make his decisions. That was what spurred him to start on Project Illusion in the first place. SKIP's existence had only cemented his beliefs because it was almost too late when he caught wind of the existence of such an entity.

That was the final straw. His dream for Indigo, an utopia where people need not fear to be different from each other cannot become a reality if the two regions separated from each other. Indigo will never be Indigo if that ever happened. All of his hard work, everything that he had been working for the realisation of his dream had nearly shattered. The sovereignty of Indigo had been threatened in the most fatal way because he lacked information.

If he has to do the right thing using whatever it takes, even if it means doing it all by himself, then so be it.

In order to do what is right, he had to do whatever it takes to bring these people down that are corrupting not just Kanto's politics and financial system, but Indigo as well. Indigo cannot be allowed to rot from within any further. To remove this blight that is infecting his beloved country, he had decided that he needs an army in which he can fully trust to do his bidding and complete every single task without fail.

He will create his own information network which answers to him and only him. He has to be very careful on who he trusts to be his aide. He has to be very careful on who he uses to work for him. The only person who he can ever fully trust will be himself.

Thus, Project Illusion was started. Over the years, many people who once held onto great positions of power with the sole intention of exploiting the helpless lower and middle class had mysteriously got themselves replaced with people he doesn't necessarily trust, but knows are morally inclined enough to not do certain things. Project Illusion made that possible, even if this project could not really be counted as a success due to the fact that only one operative is left now. The rest of them had all perished in this line of work over the years while fulfilling his orders.

Project Illusion is both a success and a failure. 359 children were trained in total. Now, only one is left and has survived to adulthood. That operative is Operative 2046, the perfect operative who he knows he can trust without question and is able to complete each and every of his missions spectacularly.

When he first laid eyes on his perfect operative he was only a child. An infant. When he first saw the child in Pallet Town many years ago he knew immediately that like him, that child was special.

Under other circumstances there's no way he will be there at Pallet Town. He's the President of Indigo. There are better things for him to do then to pay a visit to one of the most rural areas of Kanto, Pallet Town. However, that period of time was when he was focusing all of his efforts in hunting down the remnants of SKIP, personally. That operation alone brought him to many places that he usually wouldn't visit due to time constraints.

It was then he saw the newborn child in the arms of his mother who was walking down the street. He saw how dark type pokemon, wild or in captivity, were curiously observing the mother-son pair from afar as the woman walked past them. He is not a trainer but he doesn't need to be one to know that this is clearly unnatural.

Like how he was different, that child is also different. That child could be everything that he once dreamed of, a powerful pokemon trainer that can change the world. His political power is already growing stronger day by day. If he has a powerful trainer on his side who will do his every bidding and adhere to his every wish, one strong enough to be Champion, then there will be nobody to oppose his rule and decisions. He can finally have free reign to recreate Indigo in his image, to build an utopia.

And so, he made his decision. He first needs to find out who this child really is.

Unnatural things must be investigated, any uncertain elements must either be in his control or eliminated, that is how he usually does things. It was how he even managed to find out about SKIP's existence in the first place. And so, he secretly ordered his closest subordinates to observe the mother-son pair and report to him what they found out.

He had his answer within the day. The woman is a Kantonian. That child is her son. From the reports, it was confirmed that the person which the dark types were attracted to was the baby, not the adult.

At that moment, he knew that he had to get the child on his side at all costs, because a human having such a strong affinity with pokemon is an extremely rare occurrence. Coincidentally, that period of time was also when he was already planning to build his own secret army of spies to do his bidding, to be his eyes and ears and help him know what is going on throughout the entire region. He initially had his doubts on creating such a secret and forbidden unit but SKIP's existence had solidified his belief that the Indigo's existing unit of spies and secret operatives wouldn't be enough. Not only are they incompetent, they are morally bound by the oath set since the time of the First Indigo Champion to not do certain things, things that are not glamorous but necessary.

To prevent another dangerous organisation like SKIP from springing up again in the future, he needs to take preventive measures. He needs to know relevant information in the shortest time possible. He needs his own secret army which he can trust to follow his will and do his bidding. SKIP had made him absolutely sure that this is necessary.

It's all for the greater good.

He knows what kind of backlash will occur should people find out what he is doing. Thus, this secret army of spies absolutely cannot be known to anyone else other than those who he can trust. As far as trust could go, in any case. These spies must be absolutely loyal to him and only him, because he cannot trust anyone else to be let in on what he is planning to do and ruin his political career.

There are a few ways to instill absolute loyalty in his spy army. It was where his hypno's skill with Hypnosis came in. To mold his army to only do his bidding, he is certain that this sense of loyalty must be instilled into his operatives since young, which means that he would have to train and use children.

This arrangement is a high risk, high reward endeavour that will not produce any results until the long term. He knows this better than anyone else. It's hard to tell whether the children he ordered his closest subordinates to abduct for him will be suited for this life because some people are naturally born to be more talented in doing certain things and it may not be spy work. He knows that many of the selected children would probably not live till adulthood because of the danger he will be subjecting them to, but it is something that he is still willing to see through.

For the greater good of Indigo, it will have to be done.

And it was at that time he came across another curious piece of information, that the newborn child that caught his interest that day is the son of Grimsley. Grimsley's wife is a Kantonian and was from Pallet Town, which explains their presence in Pallet that day.

It was then everything made sense to him.

Of course, the children of accomplished parents are more likely to go further in life. He had seen it with his own eyes when he was living in the slums of his father. A child of a homeless man will most likely also become another homeless man. A child born from successful parents will most likely become successful later on in life. It's in their blood, in the pedigree, carved into their genes. This world is unfair to begin with. Certain people are simply born to be more blessed than others, born with gifts that many others could only hope but never acquire.

Knowing that the special child is a child of an Elite Four from a foreign nation makes him realise that the best method to possibly pick out the most talented children to make up his secret army would be through looking at their pedigree. Children of accomplished people in their respective fields, especially those of trainers, would be optimal because these children are those with higher chances of surviving whatever he will be subjecting them to.

He will have to readjust his plans a little, especially in how they select the children which they will be abducting to kickstart Project Illusion. It's all for the greater good, for the sake of making Indigo an utopia.

Thus, Project Illusion took a new direction. Young children belonging to selected accomplished trainers were abducted from their homes. Any and all memories they had prior to the abduction were either altered or wiped out by his hypno. Abducting some of these children can prove to be tricky due to who their parents might be, but his operatives still succeeded in doing so without leaving a single trace behind. In total, three hundred and fifty nine children were assembled over the years within the age range from a week old to three years old. Old enough to start shaping them to his liking but not old enough to remember who they were before they became a part of Project Illusion.

And even if they did remember, his hypno will see to it that they will never recall a thing about who they were. It is a necessary evil.

It's all for the greater good.

He left the children's education to a trusted operative who shares the same view as him in protecting Indigo. All in all, only twenty operatives were let in on Project Illusion when it first started. Five perished in the line of duty while amassing his new army. Three were terminated by his hypno when they had second doubts and wanted to whistleblow. The remaining thirteen worked for him until they all eventually sacrificed their lives in protecting Indigo, but not before grooming those children to be mission ready and ready to only listen to his orders.

It was then he had his perfect information network, his spy army, even if they were only children. Project Illusion was initially a success because it bore results that he never thought possible. With his 359 spies, he was able to make better and more informed decisions. He was able to tell apart traitors from allies and it helped him in his endeavour to root out the corruption from Indigo. Everything was going fine, until a new threat suddenly sprang up from literally nowhere.

Team Rocket.

It was then everything started to go downhill again. Team Rocket's growth was too aggressive and they were too good at staying hidden. No matter who he sent to infiltrate the terrorist group to bring it down from within, it never succeeded. His spies always got found out over time.

Team Rocket is simply too good at what they do. They are too dangerous to let be. They must be stopped, using whatever it takes.

He had thought that all was lost when his spies rapidly perished in the line of duty one after the other, until he had his perfect operative.

Operative 2046, codename Gengar, is the very epitome of what he expects from his own personal spy. With him around, bringing Team Rocket down is no longer a pipedream. It can be done. All they need is time.

He had always known that this child was special. He was proven right once again, that he could see what others could not. He had recognised from when this child was an infant that he was special, time had proven once again that he was right.

Only he could see what others could not, only he could do what others could not. That is him, Kain Briggs.

Over time, he will see to it that Team Rocket will go down. Any abnormalities that could possibly threaten the sovereignty of the Indigo and his dream of an utopia, no matter how big or small, must be exterminated with extreme prejudice. That is his duty as the President of Indigo. He will not risk anything when it comes to this issue, no matter how small that risk may be because the biggest of infernos always started out as a small ember.

To do the right thing using whatever it takes, that is his duty as Indigo President. This is the only way he knows to protect his beloved country and his dream. Only he can trust himself to do what is right because there is nobody else in which he can trust to do the right thing.

He is Kain Briggs, the President of Indigo. He will protect Indigo using whatever it takes. His decisions may not always be the right ones, but it will always be the best ones.

Everything, anything, as long as it is for the greater good, it will be done.

For the greater good, it will be done.


Character and Pokemon List:

Name: Jayce

Age: 22

Official Identity: Jacob Myers

Real identity: Oldest son to Grimsley Dandolos

Indigo Government Identity: Operative 2046, Code Name: Gengar

Indigo Government Rank: Special Agent

Team Rocket Identity: Executive Plague

Team Rocket Rank: Executive

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

13. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless