"Let's run through the process one more time, people," Archer said, clapping his hands together. He was standing in the middle of a small control room filled with two rows of consoles and a screen that covered an entire wall. Various technicians from Team Rocket sat around, either watching what was unfolding on the screen or focused on their consoles.
On the screen was a live feed of what was happening in their outpost near the Indigo Plateau region. Displayed there was Sabrina lay face down on the ground, a few stray wisps of darkness rising from her neck before dissipating into nothing. Her pokemon were gathered around her as Archer spoke.
"The initial implant has been successfully delivered," the technician at the front of the room said. "It will integrate itself over the C-One vertebrae, and then dissolve its excess mass into her bloodstream, reducing the size so that it will be difficult to discover with standard medical imaging equipment."
"After the integration is complete," another technician continued, "it will go into standby mode, listening for a signal on a classified frequency. After that, the implant will give us brief control over the gym leader."
"Is there any particular reason you're having us run through this again?" A third technician asked. "Our part in this operation is over."
"Just making sure that everyone's on the same page," Archer replied. "Okay people, good job. You're all on in-base leave for the next couple weeks, so go relax."
"Sure, thing boss," the first technician said. "Good luck with the next part."
"Let's hope luck isn't required," Archer said.
The staff filed out of the control room, Archer being the last to leave.
He went off to a nearby breakroom to grab lunch and a nap. A couple of hours later he emerged and began heading off to his next big destination. Archer passed through tiled hallways lit by fluorescent lights, passing by labs and industrial rooms, and then crossed over into carpeted corridors with meeting rooms and office spaces. He entered a conference room, the same one that Giovanni had been using for their previous meetings.
Inside a group of Team Rocket scientists and engineers were waiting, along with Giovanni himself. The small-talk ceased as Archer walked to the front of the room and picked up a remote.
"I believe congratulations are in order," Giovanni commented," for successfully completing the previous stage of the operation."
"That was the easy part, Boss," Archer said before turning on the projector. "Now let's move on to the hard parts."
"Operation Thought-Leech has reached its critical stage," Archer began. "The control implant has been installed and will soon integrate itself with the target's nervous system. On its own it will allow us a very brief window of control, which we will take advantage of to install the fruit of your labors."
A sleek, shiny, brow-grey helmet with a black visor-like eyepiece appeared on the screen.
"The psychic control helmet," Archer continued. "The marvelous technology that you've developed that will allow us to remotely control psychic entities, whether they be human or pokemon-"
"Yes, we're aware," one of the scientists said, rolling her eyes. "We've been working on this for years after all."
"Just making sure everyone's on the same page," Archer said.
"I think you can skip the introduction," Giovanni said dryly. "I'm fairly confident that we're all familiar with the basics."
"If you insist," Archer sighed, rapidly clicking through several slides. "If we're making this short, then I can reveal that our target is the gym leader Sabrina, as many of you have previously guessed. A package containing one of the helmets has already been delivered at the Saffron City gym. While we have no agents installed in that facility, we were able to leverage our access to some League systems in order to get the helmet placed in a hidden location. Using a recently discovered vulnerability in their network, we have access to their CCTV."
"When we can confirm that Sabrina will be able to retrieve the helmet in under sixty seconds," Archer continued, "we will activate the implant to force her to do so. Once she dons the helmet, it will link up with the implant and we will be able to not only remotely control her, but through her we will be able to control all psychic entities linked to her, such as her pokemon. With any luck, we may be able to get many of the gym trainers and their pokemon to link with her before she dons the helmet."
"After that, we will move to subdue the rest of the gym, and after that, we'll hand things off to Arianna and the crew of Operation Totality." Archer concluded. "Now, I'm going to run through a few possible failure scenarios and how we can prepare for them…"
"Thank you for the presentation," Giovanni said after the meeting had ended. The scientists and engineers had already left and Archer was just cleaning up. "You've done some great work recently."
"You always say that, Boss," Archer replied, throwing away a few notecards.
"Because it's always true," Giovanni said, smiling. "Go take some R&R. You should have some time before we're ready for the next stage."
"No can-do Boss," Archer shook his head. "Too many things going on. I have to stay on top of them in case there's an emergency."
"Then make sure to get some rest when you can," Giovanni clapped the other man on the back. "Good luck."
"Thanks, Boss. Talk to you later," Archer gave Giovanni a two fingered salute and then sauntered off.
Giovanni briefly watched him go and then sighed. He turned around, clasped his hands behind his back, and then began to slowly walk in the other direction.
He slowly meandered through the base, head down, brows drawn together, forehead wrinkled. Over the course of the better part of an hour he passed through several different sections, traversing through more offices, a medical wing, an industrial center, heading deeper into the bowels of the base, into deserted dimly lit sections, where dust and darkness ruled.
Eventually he came to a stop in front of a large set of double doors, free of dust. Giovanni looked at them and then sighed. He opened the doors.
"So nice of you to come visit," a scratchy voice greeted him. "I was wondering if you had forgotten about me down here. Left to rot with all the other obsolete equipment."
"It's your choice to stay down here, Mother," Giovanni replied as he stepped into the room.
The room was as dimly lit as the bottom levels. A single pool of faint light illuminated the center of the room where a woman sat in an office chair behind a simple wooden desk, wearing a red blazer, red skirt, and stockings. Her hair was gray with hints of the raven black that it had once been. An opera cigarette holder stuck out of the corner of her mouth, wisps of smoke rising to the ceiling.
"The light bothers my eyes, boy," the woman said, taking a puff and then let the cigarette holder dangle between two of her fingers. "You know that."
"And I also know that you keep yourself occupied down here," Giovanni replied, glancing around the room. "You what, run a smuggling ring, manage disturbing counterfeit goods, have two insider trading operations going, and still make time to play with your latest boy toy from here."
"Don't talk about Robbie that way," his mother chided. "I'd take my relationship with him more seriously if I weren't so close to expiring."
"If the saying 'the good die young' has any truth to it, then you're probably immortal, mother," Giovanni found a chair in one of the dark corners of the room and pulled it out so that he could sit across from his mother.
"And you're still a brat I see," his mother replied. "You get that from your father you know, rest his soul."
"I'm sure you saw to it yourself," Giovanni replied, fist tightening for the briefest of instances.
"I had nothing to do with that, as you should very well know," his mother replied, tapping some of the ash off of her cigarette into an ashtray. "You have access to everything I did after you pushed me out."
"I have access to everything you recorded," Giovanni shot back. "There's a difference as you very well know."
His mother took a long drag on her cigarette before responding. "If you're not going to believe me now, after all these years, then I don't know what to say. And I don't know why you're here. Surely there's too much going on for you to come down here to have the same old fight with little old me."
"You're right on that account," Giovanni sighed, leaning back in his chair and pinching the bridge of his nose. Silence reigned for a small time before he spoke again.
"I've been having….. shall we say, misgivings about what we are about to do," Giovanni confessed.
"What kind of misgivings?"
"I'm not quite sure to be honest," Giovanni said, brows furrowed. "My resolve should be strong enough to disregard such vague feelings and yet I still feel troubled."
"Then maybe your resolve isn't as strong as you believe," his mother replied, taking another puff on her cigarette. "What's disquieted you, my brat boy?"
"Perhaps it is merely anticipation," Giovanni said. "What we've been after for so many years is almost within our grasp. It's exciting to say the least, though overwhelming might be more accurate."
"So, you think it is mere anticipation? Nerves?" His mother scoffed at that. "No, I think the problem lies elsewhere. I believe that you are having second thoughts about the value of your prize."
"Nonsense," now it was Giovanni who scoffed.
"You've done this before my brat boy," his mother said, leaning back in her chair. "I know you hesitated before pushing me out of the top spot, for this exact reason. That's why I was almost able to stop you. Too often you set your sights on a prize without really reflecting on its worth."
"You think I'm questioning the value of overthrowing the League? The value of ruling Kanto and eventually the rest of the old country?" Giovanni shot his mother a dark look. "That's complete tripe, Mother."
"Is it though?" she asked. "Be honest with yourself. How many of your people will die for this?"
"Hopefully none."
"Oh, please. You know that's improbable to the point of being impossible. Some of your people will die to achieve this. I know some already have."
"That's true," Giovanni sighed. "But for what's coming up-"
"You've already decided that at least some of your people are disposable," his mother said, cutting him off. "You'll use them as bait, you'll send them right into the jaws of the enemy, or you'll simply watch as they have to weather danger on their own. This is something that you've been doing before this latest scheme of yours and it's something that you'll continue to do as long as you're in charge of Team Rocket."
"True," Giovanni sighed.
"And have you thought about the civilians who will be caught in the crossfire?" His mother continued. "No matter how successful your operation is, there will still be pockets of resistance."
"The civilians…" Giovanni began, taking a deep breath. But then he quit talking.
More minutes of quiet passed, interrupted only by Giovanni's mother taking the occasional puff of her cigarette.
"I think that might be what's bothering me," Giovanni said eventually. "Today Kanto is happy and safe. The people are prospering. Civilization is flourishing. Infant mortality rates are returning to pre-Great War levels. Communication with the wider world is slowly being restored. Who am I to interfere with that?"
"So, you think the League has proven to be a worthy ruler?" His mother raised a single eyebrow.
"It appears to have done right by its people at the very least," Giovanni replied.
"In other words, 'Yes'." The woman shook her head and looked up at the ceiling. "I thought we had fallen low before, but this, this really takes the cake."
"Isn't this the world your parents wanted to build back during the Unification War?" Giovanni folded his hands together and stared down at the table. "Isn't this why they fought against the warlords?"
"You honestly think this world is what we were trying to build?" His mother sounded almost angry, honestly angry instead of caustic, a state that Giovanni could rarely remember her being in. "Oh, my brat boy, you should have never taken the mantle of leadership if you believe that. Have you always been this lost or have you forgotten something?"
"I think I have forgotten something," Giovanni replied, not meeting her eyes. "It seemed so clear when I was younger. Now I look out on a happy land and everything's muddled."
"Fine," his mother said flatly. "We've lost. The League wins. Team Rocket shall throw itself into the dustbin of history and we'll all share in the moral culpability of surrendering to evil in the name of prosperity."
"Surrendering to evil in the name of prosperity?" Giovanni almost flinched back. "Where are you getting that from?"
"When you suggested that you had no right to interfere," his mother told him. "That means you're willing to at least tolerate what they do. And what they do is evil."
"They'd say the same about us," Giovanni said. "But they've proven themselves at least."
"So, you agree with their practices then?"
"I wouldn't go that far. I'd say that I'm willing to tolerate them instead."
"Being willing to tolerate their practices implies that you have some degree of respect for their practices." His mother took another puff.
"Their practices have delivered results."
"So, you're saying that from a utilitarian perspective that the League has proven themselves?" His mother raised an eyebrow.
"I guess I am."
"Your analysis is too simplistic then," his mother stated. "Even ignoring deontological concerns, your conclusion is actually that currently the League is doing a satisfactory job providing for its citizens. Have you thought about the long-term effects of their policies? Have you done discrete analysis of their individual policies?"
"I have in the past, but now I don't see the point. Taken in aggregate it's working."
"Then I guess you agree with the practice of handing control of a city's military to the strongest thug around?" His mother asked.
"The gym system?" Now Giovanni raised an eyebrow. "No, I don't agree with it, but I do agree with its results."
"With its current results you mean," his mother said. "The gym system is a mask to cover up the fact that the region is still ruled by warlords."
"Most of the authority has reverted to the civilian governments," Giovanni rebutted. "I should know, I have to deal with the Viridian City Council often enough."
"And yet you can always manage to get your way when dealing with them," his mother rebutted.
"I can be persuasive, Mother," Giovanni rolled his eyes. "I do manage a large organization with multiple departments and factions. I've picked up a few tricks."
"Oh, that may be true my brat boy, but what recourse does the Viridian City Council have if you decide to ignore them?" His mother asked. "What could they do to compel you to obey?"
"They control my gym's official budget," Giovanni pointed out.
"I'm sure the threat of budget cuts must terrify you," his mother rolled her eyes. "They have no way of stopping you from seeking out alternate forms of funding. They have no way to leash you if you decide to go on a figurative or literal rampage. They do not have a monopoly on violence. They lead at your sufferance."
"Were I to go on a rampage the City Council could ask the League for reinforcements," Giovanni countered.
"Who holds more sway with the League; you or the city?"
"True," Giovanni said, leaning back in his seat. "But, let us assume that I'm going on a literal rampage in this scenario. In that case the League would respond. The Elite Four might be called in."
"Yes, the four kings of Kanto might be called in to quell a rebelling vassal," Giovanni's mother tapped some ash off the tip of her cigarette.
"They aren't kings," Giovanni said, without any conviction.
"Aren't they?" His mother asked.
Giovanni was silent.
"Kingship has taken many forms throughout history," his mother continued. "Kingship isn't about power or inheritance. Some kings have been weak, some have been elected, some have shared rulership with co-monarchs. It's about occupying an honored and exalted spot on the top of the pile."
"That description does fit the Elite Four," Giovanni murmured.
"Yes," his mother hissed, taking a long drag on her cigarette. "They sit on their thrones in the Indigo Plateau and receive praise and exaltation from their subjects below. The four greatest warlords in the region, the four kings. And there's almost nothing those below can do to oppose them, as my parents found out."
"Yes, the lack of any effective collar on the military forces is certainly an issue," Giovanni agreed. "But it's been stable thus far. The Elite Four and the gym leaders have been mainly focused on personal power in the form of their teams, rather than abusing their positions."
"And you're willing to trust that the arrangement will last forever?" His mother asked.
"No," Giovanni shook his head. "I think I just needed to be reminded about exactly how bad it is."
"And let's not forget where such systems might lead," his mother continued. "Military power is concentrated in the gyms. Gym leaders attempt to keep their gyms in the family, passing them on to their children, or to hand-picked gym trainers. The children of gym leaders and gym trainers go on to become trainers in their own right. Do you see where this is going?"
"You mean the beginning of a warrior caste?" Giovanni replied. "Yes, I have worried about that before. But again, the arrangement seems to have produced results."
"That's because the warrior caste hasn't finished forming," his mother told him. "But once it has solidified, you'll start seeing tensions, inefficiencies, and the eventual decay that attend caste systems. And both are followed by an atrocity you have already witnessed: child soldiers."
"Yes," Giovanni agreed. "Society thinks nothing of sending lone children out into the world to become warriors. Even if they never join a gym or become official League trainers, trainers with enough badges can still be called to fight in emergencies."
"Oh, it's not even just on behalf of the League," his mother said. "Twelve-year-old children trusted with deadly power can get into enough trouble on their own. No one needs to direct them into a mess. But the League enables it."
"You're right," Giovanni said, thinking back on the reports from the Viridian Forest, where children had become embroiled in a battle to the death with his own forces; children who were only out in the forest because of the League.
"Now, compare what we've talked about to the improvements you intend to make," his mother commanded, leaning back in her seat and gently puffing on her cigarette. It was growing short. Soon she'd need another.
"Well, for one, our society would be less militarized," Giovanni explained. "Children would not be pressured into becoming pokemon trainers, especially not at such a young age. We would quit the practice of relying on warlords and champions to lead our forces and instead return to a meritocracy based on skills such as command and tactics."
"We would also become more centralized; the region and eventually the nation would become less entangled in petty municipal politics." Giovanni went on. "And we would reduce our reliance on pokemon, returning to the industrial practices humanity had before the Great War."
"Allowing for greater growth in terms of population and the economy," his mother nodded.
"We would of course reform the various systems of civic participation," Giovanni continued. "We would require that anyone who can have a say in directing society had served society for some time, either in the government or the military. All current members of Team Rocket would have voting privileges for their service in overthrowing the League."
"A way to clamp down on demagogy and to prevent reactionaries from trying to restore the old regime," his mother continued to nod.
"Indeed," Giovanni said. "When that's been organized, we can leverage our industrial capabilities to expand to other nations and eventually return the world to the pre-Great War paradigm. Under our lead the world will be united and we can continue to advance as a species and achieve our destiny.
"Yes, that's the world we fought for," his mother said. "You've finally remembered, my brat boy."
Giovanni smiled. "Thank you, mother. I needed this. I needed to be reminded of what I'm fighting for."
"You've vanquished your doubts?"
"Yes," Giovanni stood up and clasped his hands behind his back. "There will be a price for the people of Kanto and the nation, but it will be worth it in the end. The League cannot be allowed to stand."
"Good. We at least agree on that my brat boy." His mother said, putting out her cigarette. "Now leave me to my exile. I don't think we've got much more to say to each other."
Giovanni nodded in agreement and then left without another word.
AN: I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading.
And here we have the obligatory "villains talking the flaws in something while ignoring their own biases and flaws" scene. I've sort of had some variation of this scene in mind since the beginning, but it was still harder to write than I anticipated.
The next chapter should be released on the 3rd of February 2021, provided the internet still exists then. Going to try and spend all of January writing to rebuild my buffer.
Don't forget to leave a review!