Chapter 64; Enemies on the move
Ariana's communicator beeped but she rejected the call. She was rather busy.
She returned her attention to the scene in front of her; the tied up dr Leeds was being struck over and over in the belly with a crowbar.
"Enough" she said to the grunt who was wielding the crowbar as she approached the doctor.
"Please no more! This is insanity! Who the hell tortures without asking questions?!" the doctor begged.
Ariana remained cold and indifferent to his begging.
"Oh just making sure you know we are serious about those questions before asking them. So am I to assume I have your attention?"
Dr Leeds nodded in a desperate panic.
"Excellent" Ariana smiled menacingly "now. A few weeks ago you treated a young trainer travelling with Sonic the hedgehog for electrical injuries. Am I right?"
Dr Leeds took a few seconds to process the question, as Sonic being mentioned by name and not by title didn't click right away. Ariana got impatient and snapped her fingers.
The grunt wielding the crowbar smacked the doctor on the back this time, causing him to swing back and forth as he was tied up by his wrists from the ceiling. As the doctor screamed in pain and even coughed up blood Ariana repeated the question with a much more menacing voice.
"Yes…" he said, entirely out of breath "I did…"
"Tell me everything. What was he treated for? What was the significance of his injuries? Did he display any inexplicable action during his treatment?"
Dr Leeds hesitated as he couldn't understand how they knew of that. Ariana was about to snap her fingers again.
"Wait!" he screamed "he…" he whispered before coughing and continuing "his… his metabolism was off the charts. That's all".
Ariana sized him up for a moment then snapped her fingers again. The grunt struck again. Bone cracking sound filled the room as the doctor's leg was broken. His scream of pain followed.
"Maybe i wasn't clear enough. I said tell me everything" Ariana repeated, ice cold.
The doctor took heavy deep breaths trying to calm himself down long enough to speak actual words.
"He… he… when we were treating him… his two tails started rotating so fast he lifted off the table…"
Ariana didn't respond to that but silently thought it checked out.
"Do you have any physical evidence of this?"
"…No"
Ariana could tell he was lying. She pressed a button on her communicator and a female voice answered.
"We're in position ma'am? Do we go in?"
"Hold your positions for now but verify them for me".
"We're outside dr Leeds' house"
The doctor's eyes almost popped out of their eye sockets.
"Is the family home?"
"Yes ma'am".
"And what are they doing?" Ariana asked with the hint of a smile.
"The wife is cooking while the two kids are doing their homework. Wait… oh ok, she just went over to look at their work".
"Excellent. Maintain your position until you're instructed otherwise" Ariana said and hang up, turning back to dr Leeds.
"I am a very generous woman doctor. But I also have a short fuse. And currently it's close to its shortest ever. Therefore I will only ask this question one more time" she approached him staring daggers.
"Do you have any physical evidence of the supposed display of flight Sonic the hedgehog's friend displayed? And for your family's sake you better tell me the truth".
Dr Leeds truthfully didn't want to give up Sonic and his friends but in all honesty, he didn't have a choice. His family was everything to him.
My laptop…" he answered after a few moments "I… I ran some tests on him".
Ariana silently went towards the grunt holding the laptop. Holding it for her as there was no desk to put it on, she quickly found it the file the videos were stored in.
Pressing play, she saw Tails indeed lifting himself from the table while still unconscious as well as shooting electricity out of his hand. That last one was new and seemed eerily similar to the lightning phenomenon Sonic had displayed at silph co.
Regardless, these videos needed to be examined carefully. But more importantly, they need to be examined ASAP.
She contacted Archer.
"You got anything?" his voice was heard.
"I got the information we were looking for. Turns out agent Cassidy wasn't lying or talking nonsense".
Pause.
More pause.
"I see" Archer's voice again echoed in the mostly silent room, the only exception being dr Leeds' heavy breathing.
"Very well. Wrap everything up and return to the hideout immediately".
"What about the doctor?" Ariana asked.
A long pause.
"Get rid of him".
Ariana kept her composure but was taken aback.
"Sir?"
"Get rid of him. He's a loose end now. We can't afford any loose ends".
Ariana turned to the grunt with the crowbar and, silent and ice cold, run her finger on her throat.
The doctor's eyes widened.
"Wait! Please! I gave you what you wanted! I g…" was all he managed to scream out before getting struck on the back of the head with the crowbar, hard, relentlessly and repeatedly.
Ariana turned around. The necessity of this didn't mean she enjoyed the view.
"What about his family sir?"
"Let them be. They pose no threat to us".
"Understood. Over and out" she said as she closed her eyes and crossed her arms on her chest waiting for the job to be finished.
Archer hang up and returned to managing the hideout.
That was his reality for the last 2 months. Leading team rocket to survive. Ever since discovering their fall he had taken immediate action.
At first he had to locate a good hideout, somewhere close enough to civilization to keep it packed up with supplies, but remote so they would get there unnoticed and remain unnoticed during their stay. His search had led him to Johto. And eventually here, in Mahogany town.
Reaching the main room, Archer looked around at what they had managed to build. A grunt informed him that the experiment for the lake of rage was ready to begin and if they had the green light. Archer confirmed this and left to check on agents Butch and Cassidy.
As he walked towards the infirmary, grunts saluting him as he walked by, his mind was engulfed by hatred for Sonic and his allies, being forced to live underground because of them. There was no other way to not be found.
His mind then travelled back to the day the hedgehog took everything from tem rocket.
That day he was on one of the sevii islands, specifically island 5 in that location's warehouse. He was checking the inventory of the warehouse when he received the worst news imaginable; Sonic the hedgehog had found the boss again. And he had prevailed again, this time alone against project two.
He had immediately dropped everything, leaving a message to Ariana and setting off for Johto at once. Leaving behind hundreds of captured Pokemon in the warehouse on island 5. Sometimes he wondered whether those pokemon were still there.
As Archer was walking through the hideout, making sure the grunts remained focused on team rocket's goals and no got any funny ideas of leaving, all the while heading for the infirmary, he recalled the message.
"To all team rocket personnel. This is code red. The boss has fallen at the hedgehog's hands. Project two has escaped. Team Rocket has been compromised and none of us are safe. Evade capture at all costs and await orders from the boss. Team rocket will blast off again. This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds".
Archer wasn't sure of what happened after he fled, but it was of no importance. By the time the police would have found the warehouse it would be too late.
As Archer suspected but had no way of knowing, the police did find the building. The message had been destroyed and, to the police's confusion, all the Pokemon had escaped. Unbeknownst to everyone but team Sonic, that was the work of project two, aka Mewtwo who had found Ariana's message to Petrel, and delivered it to Sonic, sparking his pursuit of team rocket.
Mewtwo had not been fast enough as before his arrival, Ariana had gotten to the warehouse first to inform Archer of the fall of team rocket, only to find his message and leave a subsequent message for Petrel. The very message Mewtwo found.
Archer of course had no idea that was the case. Ariana and he had randomly met up with Petrel in Mahogany town where the new hideout was. Archer was glad to see him and just thought he had followed Ariana's instructions.
As the team rocket admin was now approaching the infirmary he was sent a message by agent Cassidy, claiming she was ready to get back in action. Archer ordered her to come to his office to discuss what she could offer team rocket in her state and with her partner still recovering.
Entering his office to wait out the arrival of Cassidy for their talk and the return of Ariana, he left Petrel, who was at the whirl islands, a message to be available on the next few hours for a video call. Invaluable information was on its way.
As Archer waited patiently, he found himself struggling with what he believed was his failure to be there for the boss in Kanto.
Archer's story in team rocket was one of quick ascension through the ranks, achieving the rank of admin and one of the bosses 3 right hands in mere months.
The rapid promotion was the result of two factors. First, was his immense loyalty to Giovanni. His boss had saved him from his previous life. At least from Archer's point of view.
Growing up as a child, Archer idolized his parents, his father in particular. But his father believed in a strict upbringing, seeing his own son as more of a personal project rather than his son.
Archer never felt any warmth from his parents despite them being his idols. His mother tried to and was successful a lot of times, teaching him to always take care of those close to him.
But her fear of her husband kept her from helping her son develop emotionally more. The roots had been planted but that was pretty much it.
Growing up, Archer stopped idolizing his father and started rebelling. His father would always force him into whatever he believed would give him a successful future and an esteemed career and by extension fame to his name.
Regardless of how much Archer tried to rebel, it was pointless. The more he struggled, the more his father's strictness would close in around him, choking him. Archer had a business mind from a young age, and his ideas could have made the family a lot of money, had it not been for his father's lack of a heart and his mother's inability to help him grow into anything other than a cold hearted follower to whoever was the top dog.
That was when an acquaintance of Archer's father approached the young adult. A man who would come to be not only someone for Archer to idolize but one who would give him the one thing he always desired.
Freedom. True freedom.
That man's name was Giovanni.
Running away from home, Archer quickly found himself in the Kanto region, becoming a member of team rocket albeit just a grunt. At first he wasn't perfectly ok with harming Pokemon as his family used to have a pet pidgeotto around.
But as time went on he found himself easily letting go of such trivial facts as the well-being of Pokemon. Whatever order he was given, his purpose was clear. Carry it out to perfection no matter what it took.
By the time Archer was an executive, whatever emotion of kindness and mercy he had left for Pokemon, despite his mother's efforts to help in his emotional development vanished. His cold heart became devoid of any semblance of sentiment.
Executive Archer no longer had kindness, he had respect. He didn't have compassion, only loyalty. Loyalty to team rocket. But most of all loyalty and respect for his boss, Giovanni.
"Yes" Archer thought in total silence "he is the only one worth of my respect".
Giovanni had seen the young man's potential to be of assistance to team rocket right away. But he wasn't a fool. From the first day, he had placed counter measures in place. Archer was smart and he was cunning. Therefore he could pose a threat someday.
Little did Giovanni know then that there was no danger then, or ever would be, from Archer.
The latter's respect and desire to make his new boss and role model notice him, had Archer slowly become one of team rocket's best. The lessons his parents had taught him also proved somewhat useful.
Archer believed in team rocket working together with each other for the betterment of the group and therefore was someone the grunts would get behind in order to carry out a task successfully for the boss.
Giovanni admired the young executive's potential and effectiveness but disagreed with his idea of working together. His view of a perfect team rocket was a pyramid with him at the top. It was also in his interest if the grunts backstabbed one another to gain favor with him. That took away their attention from his place at the summit of the pyramid.
Furthermore Giovanni still didn't entirely trust Archer. The young man could inspire others to work together and act as one while Giovanni ruled by fear. Both inside and outside of team rocket.
One event however convinced him not only to stop seeing Archer as a threat but also proved his loyalty to such an extent that Giovanni thought it only fair to reward him with the rank of admin and one of his three right hands.
During the end of Archer's time as an executive, the three admins of team rocket were Ariana, Petrel and a half pint asshole named Carr. Carr was one of the strongest enforcers in team rocket under Giovanni, his only equal being their assault hound, the iron masked marauder.
As it always happened, the power went to Carr's head. While betraying the boss never even cross his mind, he bragged to everyone about it, especially the grunts he would push around, claiming they should show him more respect as in his words "I could become the boss if I wanted to. So behave fools!"
Archer didn't like this one bit. Neither the mistreatment of the team's assets, nor the declaration that this half pint arrogant idiot could ever hold a candle to the boss.
And on a fateful night, Carr made the big mistake of trying to push Archer around. And Archer wasn't having any of this.
Fighting Carr in a pokemon battle, he utterly pummeled him down. Carr himself, having been away from the battlefield ever since acquiring the position of admin, as team rocket was at its peak and therefore unrivalled, could neither believe not accept such a defeat.
Archer, his patience lost, and unwilling to allow the midget to continue make a mockery of the boss, had his raticate slash Carr's throat open. Standing victorious over the dying former admin, Archer wore a cold, apathetic look and spoke only three words.
"For the boss".
Giovanni had learnt of this as soon as it happened. And that was the proof he could finally safely trust Archer.
Archer could have seized the opportunity to take control of team rocket. But instead he had declared his loyalty to Giovanni.
"The perfect tool" Giovanni had thought in glee as he awarded Archer the rank of admin.
Back in the present, Archer heard faint footsteps from the corridor leading to the office. Next came a knock on the door.
"Enter".
And in entered agent Cassidy. Immediately, before even 3 seconds had passed, Archer had decided she wasn't in any shape to return to the field. She still looked exhausted and obviously still recovering.
"Sir" she managed to salute.
"Take a sit agent" Archer simply said, setting the formalities aside.
Cassidy obeyed.
As Archer waited for her to get comfortable, he recalled reading her file when he took over team rocket, after Ariana had brought him everyone's files.
Unlike most higher-ups the files of Cassidy and her partner agent Butch didn't contain a lot. One thing they were missing was any background at all. Archer remembered them joining as grunts during his time as an executive.
There were a couple of missions that gave him a few chances to evaluate them. From the closeness of their cooperation he could tell they had joined team rocket together. Furthermore they exhibited an unusual amount of brutality and lack of empathy for Pokemon, somewhat on par to their newest executive in the present, Proton.
Of course Archer wrote about that in his reports to Giovanni. As a result Butch and Cassidy entered his radar and soon enough they achieved the rank of agent.
"Agents" Archer thought in the present "in other words grunts strong enough to go on their own. Our best of the best" he paused his line of thought momentarily "and team Sonic rose to the challenge like it was nothing".
Cassidy finally managed to get comfortable enough to speak.
"Sir… I have come to ask… to be assigned on a mission".
Archer didn't answer right away.
"Agent you're still healing. You need to take it easy for now".
"I…" she tried to say as she coughed "I got to get back out there sir. I got to make the hedgehog and his cronies pay for what they did to Butch".
Archer's fingers touched each other as he clasped his hands together, pondering whether she would be able to handle the news.
"Admin Ariana has just completed the interrogation of dr Jefferson Leeds".
"The doctor who treated the fox's injuries?" Cassidy almost jumped from her seat.
"Precisely. We managed to obtain valuable info regarding our enemies" Archer continued as he leaned forward.
"Turns out you really were not hallucinating agent"
Cassidy's eyes bulged. She couldn't believe it. She couldn't even believe whether she wanted to believe what they had seen that day.
"You mean… I'm not insane sir? The fox could really fly?"
"Yes. Ariana described it very faintly but the tests showed the accidental electrocution from Raikou altered several parts of his DNA. His twin tails can move so fast due to insanely quick metabolism that they can now rotate like helicopter blades. In other words one of our enemies is now a metabeing".
Cassidy's pupils were dancing in her eyes as she was processing the info. And Archer wasn't done yet.
"And that is only the first of his two abilities".
Cassidy's pupils stopped dancing.
"The fox can shoot small amounts of electricity out of his fingers. Not lethal electricity but certainly strong enough to paralyze and/or knock someone out".
Cassidy slumped back in the chair. That couldn't be. That was how they lost. That was how the fox had freed Raikou while it was guarded by 10 grunts.
"Which means agent" Archer concluded "that facing them head on has become more dangerous and a greater risk than ever before. There's still a lot we need to look into regarding the fox of course but from now on, we will have to play defensively only, wait for the perfect opportunity to call our boss back to us. Only he can take care of the hedgehog while the rest of us take care of his crew".
Silence echoed in the room as Cassidy didn't utter a word.
She wanted to shout, to scream to blame everyone and everything for her partner having almost died due to pneumonia. But it was not anybody's fault in specific. The circumstances had led them there. Archer was right.
Everyone in team rocket had a reason to hate Sonic the hedgehog and wanting to see him fall. But trying to do so was suicide.
Proton's failure proved it. The iron masked marauder's failure proved it. And now her failure proved it. It was time to let go.
"Unless you have anything to say you are free to go agent".
She nodded got up.
"Sir" she saluted and left Archer alone.
After Cassidy's departure, Archer received a message from Petrel, asking if the meeting was happening. Archer texted back to be patient, Ariana would take a bit to return. Safety was the top priority.
Archer then let his mind relax for a moment. Managing the team took its toll on him, especially since grunts kept demanding out due to fear.
The rocket admin couldn't help but be impressed from a certain point of view. Giovanni had established team rocket based on fear of him. Once you were in, there was no out. And since they would call him back, anyone who fled would face his wrath. But the fear of team Sonic was somehow greater.
Thankfully for Archer he had a supporter; Proton. Although his legs were still somewhat hurting, he had recovered enough to walk again. And he didn't let himself take it easy. He threw himself into work, determined to have his revenge against team Sonic no matter the cost.
When Archer had read Proton's file for the first time, he had actually felt the urge to throw up. Proton was a straight up psychopath.
From a young age, he didn't display any emotion. He was described as a cold and heartless kid. But of course that wasn't all. As a teenager, Proton had gotten into trouble in school for twisting the neck of a spearow that annoyed him, leaving it paralyzed and braindead. The poor spearow had to be put down as there was no hope for it.
When asked why his only response was "because I can". His voice at the time was calm and cold but his face revealed a psychotic, sadistic pleasure at the suffering of the innocent flying type pokemon.
His lack of emotion was the primary reason Archer had selected him to lead the campaign into the slowpoke well. Some of the grunts did struggle with it to a small extent but not him.
Proton was so his main weapon against the desire of the grunts to quit due to fear of team Sonic.
He was going around the headquarters bragging about how he was the most faithful to the boss and his battle scars proved it. He also claimed he would gladly lay his life down for Giovanni in the face of team Sonic. Although extreme, he was inspiring the grunts to fight the fear.
Archer however was careful to keep him on a short leash as the more time he spent in the headquarters instead of helping the cause or pursuing their enemies, the more his psychosis turned him into a ravaging animal.
"If those 3 menaces come knocking, he will be the perfect tool against them" Archer smiled. Even if they beat him, he would buy the team time to escape. And hopefully even cripple team Sonic in any way. Any member would do.
Another message arrived. This time from Ariana. They had returned. Satisfied, Archer ordered her immediately to his office so they could hold their meeting.
Messaging Petrel it was time, his face appeared on the screen of Archer's computer.
"About time. We're busy here. Those whirls are too hard to cross safely. So make this quick".
"Ariana will be arriving any second now".
"Even seconds matter right now Archer. One grunt on patrol saw the three maniacs travel to Cianwood city lately. It took everything I had to convince them to remain calm".
"Have you got the defensive measures set in place?"
"Yes".
"Good. Then just stick to the plan and you'll all be fine".
Petrel gave Archer a dirty look.
"Easy for you to say. Still hiding in HQ. Come here and lead us if you're a man".
"I'll pretend you didn't say that" Archer answered calm. A leader needed to control their emotions after all.
That was admin Petrel's nature always; antagonistic, brash, a man of action. And very adept in physical combat to Archer's surprise when he first found out.
Petrel's headstrong nature brought him to conflict with his surroundings ever since he was a teenager. He would often solve problems with his fists or pokemon battling instead if talking. Though admittedly he preferred the fists.
While under Giovanni, Archer and Petrel got along well enough to not have any friction. Each one worked on his field of expertise, Archer in managing team rocket under Giovanni's instructions and Petrel going out doing all the work.
Some would think that Petrel would be hard for Giovanni to control based on how he and Archer interacted in the present. But Archer was no Giovanni.
Giovanni didn't tolerate insubordination but was smart enough to know he had to first teach this to his underlings before delivering any consequences.
Petrel had talked back to Giovanni once when tasked with a somewhat risky mission. He complained that it wasn't fair that the boss just gave the orders and just hang back and relaxed.
Giovanni had reacted surprisingly calm. He calmly got up, walked to the center of the room… and proceeded to sweep Petrel's pokemon team with his Persian.
When Petrel still didn't give Giovanni his proper respect, Giovanni proceeded to completely humiliate him. Removing the upper part of his suit, he was revealed to he insanely muscular. Petrel had flinched but didn't give in.
Half a minute later, Giovanni had absolutely pummeled Petrel. Difference in physique and in strength, and adding Giovanni's technique to the mix, brought Petrel near death.
Giovanni had immediately ordered him healed and when he was better, he let Petrel know the beating was the consequences of his disrespect. Giovanni was his boss and he had proved it.
"Behave from now on" he had warned Petrel as witnessed by Archer who was standing by "because I do not tolerate disrespect. Consider yourself lucky I only demonstrated today".
From that day on, Petrel never spoke back again. Only performed his tasks without talking back.
Before Petrel could, back in the present, continue the argument, Ariana finally walked in.
As she approached the desk, holding Dr Leeds' laptop, Archer smiled.
Successful as always. Ariana just seemed to have a gift for succeeding.
Ariana was considered a child prodigy when she was younger. However her college professor father always tried to keep her down, insecure at the possibility his own daughter would surpass him in brilliance one day.
Of course it didn't take long for a teenage Ariana to be recruited by Giovanni, once he realized her brilliance. As a student she had picked managing for a career, but her tactics, which relied too much on logic and were so focused on yielding the desired results, as well as her deep desire to get back at her father for holding her back, had earned her the nickname 'the robo girl'. But unlike Proton she was no robot or a psycho. She had feelings. And a need to belong.
Feelings Giovanni played on to recruit her, giving her a place to belong.
And belong she did. Her tactics were always near perfect.
Giovanni had found the perfect right hands. Ariana, the planner. Petrel the one to carry out the plan. And lastly Archer, the middle ground, smart enough to understand Ariana's tactics and visionary enough to envision the best way of carrying them out via Petrel. Sometimes taking place in the carrying out of course.
But all that had begun falling apart the day Ariana had encountered Sonic the hedgehog.
Her plan to defeat him was almost foolproof. And that cursed inexplicable way the hedgehog's pikachu had defeated nidoking had signaled the beginning of the end.
After all for all his greatness, Giovanni had one flaw; Arrogance. He dismissed this threat. Archer wouldn't make the same mistake.
That was the reason they were playing it safe. Because Archer knew that the hedgehog and his crew were dangerous.
Question was, just how dangerous.
That question was now going to be answered as the meeting began.
"I've brought the intel sir".
"Good. And the good doctor?"
"Can't talk even if he wanted to".
"Excellent. Now… the info".
Ariana opened the laptop and prepared the files. Archer connected his computer with the doctor's laptop and shared the screen with Petrel.
The three admins watched the videos in absolute silence. Archer was intrigued not only by the display of flight from Tails, but also by what that meant.
The fox could fly sure. But according to agent Cassidy's report, he had performed crazy tricks while airborne, including carrying the hedgehog back on the track.
There was a lot to be researched to be prepared to handle him.
"That's quite a lot to unpack" Archer said in deep thought "but good work nonetheless. Flawless plan as always".
"Sir" Ariana nodded.
"So what about me? Does this change how we proceed here?"
"So far no. Keep up the good work. Maybe pick up the pace if you can".
Petrel gave Archer another dirty look before saluting saying a "sir" and hanging up.
"Anything for me sir?" Ariana asked after Petrel hang up.
"Go run some checks at the lake of rage project. Let me know if you can make any betterments to the plan".
"Yes sir" Ariana saluted and left.
Archer was left alone after that, deciding to take a short while to put his mind back in order before continuing with his day of managing the team.
"The whirl islands plan has to work… otherwise we will only have the lake of rage project to work on in preparations for the grand day" he thought.
Getting up, he decided to take a page from Petrel's book and get into the action regarding a possible emergency.
"Better be prepared right? Can't risk allowing the three nuisances to come knocking without being prepared right?"
The grand day was fast approaching. The satellite was nearly in place. He had to make sure they would be there to take advantage of it.