AN: Surprise:AN
While Ash was waiting for the start of his journey in the wilds in south-west Kanto things were stirring elsewhere.
It was appropriate that the facility was literally underground, as the organization that owned it had been forced underground in the figurative sense as well. Few knew where it was. The organization who had once almost conquered Kanto was no longer able to rely on strength to protect themselves. Secrecy was their watchword now.
Once Team Rocket had been presumed itself to be the heir to the legacy of civilization in Kanto, the heir to the legacy of old world that had been shattered in the Great War that had engulfed the planet. Now they were criminals, subsisting on theft, and hiding from their foes.
Yet, they still had pride. Red Rs were emblazoned all over the interior of the facility, over walls, machinery, and uniforms.
There were few grunts here. Transporting them was a logistical headache; the grunts had to kept asleep when being sent to the underground facility so that they couldn't reveal its location. Instead, the place was for the high-ranking members of Team Rocket. Elite trainers, top scientists, and executives resided in the underground facility.
On one particular day many of the executives, heads of their divisions, were gathered in a conference room.
It looked like any other conference room. A long table covered in coffee cups and notepads. A projector. People sitting every which way and making small talk while they waited for the meeting to begin. The only thing that set it apart from any other meeting was the uniforms. They were primarily black with white, or white with black, except for the red Rs emblazoned on their chests.
A man walked in, a persian pacing in beside him. Unlike the others he was not wearing a uniform, instead he was dressed in a charcoal gray suit. He was a large man, but fit; if one looked closely, they could see the occasional hint of muscle concealed by the suit. He had slick jet-black hair and black eyes that glinted with a dangerous light. He was Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket.
"I see we could all could make it today. Good. Then let us begin." Giovanni addressed the room, taking his place at the head of the table. "Today is an important day in the history of our organization. Today marks the day where we begin to move out of the shadows. We once more begin moving towards the day when we shall take our rightful place as the rulers of Kanto, and from there, re-unite the country and the world itself!"
He held out a remote, pressed a button, and the projector turned on.
"Operation Stolen Fire." Giovanni said to the assembled executives, standing before said title. "Most details will be released on a need-to-know basis, but I can share the broad operational details."
"First, two efforts will begin concurrently." Giovanni continued and the presentation moved onto another slide. "One, we will gather as much psychic power as we can. Stealing trained pokémon is a priority, but we will also collect wild pokémon with any degree of psychic power in bulk. Caterpies from the Viridian Forest, for example, are a good candidate. With a little effort they can be turned into butterfrees with mild psychic potential, and are very common."
"Two, we will track down some persons of interest and eliminate them." Giovanni went on, gesturing as the slides changed again. "The identities of these individuals are need to know only. However, I can assure you that none of them have ever been directly affiliated with us."
"While those are ongoing, we will prepare Operation: Thought-Leech," Giovanni went on, turning to look at one executive in particular. "Archer is responsible for that operation."
The executive in question, a man in a white Rocket uniform with pale green hair stood up.
"While I can't share too much information about Operation: Thought-Leech," Archer said to the room as the presentation clicked onwards, "I can tell you that it will be of immense symbolic value to Team Rocket. Everyone should prepare whatever active combat forces they have for a possible return to Saffron City. I will have more details on this in a little bit."
Smirks and raised fists met that announcement, along with various calls of affirmation or anticipation.
"However," Archer continued, turning to address another executive "with the advent of Operation: Stolen Fire, Operation: Thought-Leech has taken a secondary position to Operation: Totality under Ariana."
Archer sat down, and the executive he had addressed in turn, a woman with chestnut red hair stood up.
"Operation: Totality is a top-secret operation of the utmost priority that will take place in Saffron City after Operation: Thought-Leech begins," she said to the room. "Its success is critical to the success of Operation: Stolen Fire. I will be requisitioning resources from each of your divisions to make sure that it works out. I'll have more details for you in a few minutes."
She sat down and Giovanni began speaking again.
"While Operation: Totality is technically the only thing absolutely required for the success of Stolen Fire, our other operations are still critical, as they will greatly increase the odds that Stolen Fire will succeed. And, if we can make Stolen Fire succeed then we will have acquired an asset that will allow us to dominate Kanto." Giovanni told the assembled executives. "So, I will need everyone to give Ariana all the resources she needs."
"Well," one of the executives spoke up, "she can have my zoroark, but my office printer is off-limits."
"I'll get it one day," Ariana replied with a smile. "Just you wait."
There were scattered chuckles from around the room and a small smile from Giovanni.
"Now, onto the specifics of the non-classified parts of the operation," Giovanni said. "We'll need to figure out who can provide what when it comes to acquiring psychic muscle. I'll also need the Research Division to work with Tracking to identify the persons of interest so we can eliminate them."
"As long as research doesn't have another mix up like the Jen and Jan thing again." The head of tracking said. "We killed ten secretaries named Jen before they told us that our target was a Jan. The Acquisition Department's Blackmailing and Extortion team was on our ass for a month about that."
"Well, you got to kill one of your exes, so you couldn't have been too mad."
"And I sent you a bottle of saké as thanks. But you didn't send me anything for having to put up with Acquisitions…"
"Luckily for you both, we have more precise information on our targets this time," Giovanni interrupted. "So, you shouldn't need to strain yourself by killing extra people."
"Thanks boss."
Later, after the meeting had concluded, Giovanni retired to a darkened sitting room. It came complete with a fireplace already hosting a small fire. He poured himself a small glass of an alcohol expensive enough that generally only the few who could afford it had heard of it and then took a seat, his persian curling up beside him.
The leader of Team Rocket took a sip from the glass and then stared into the fire. He sat there for a while, deep in his own thoughts, until two more people entered the room, Archer and Ariana. Giovanni took no notice until Ariana cleared her throat.
"Apologies," the boss said, turning his head, "I didn't notice you enter. Feel free to have a seat."
"Thanks boss," Archer said, taking a seat. "I know you can't share everything with us, but we've got some questions we felt like we couldn't ask at the meeting."
"And I would rather not risk violating classification- "Ariana began, before Giovanni interrupted.
"It's fine. I understand. I'll tell you what I think is safe," Giovanni answered. "Keep in mind that I've asked several of the other executives and department heads to keep some operation details from me, so there are some things that I cannot answer even if I wanted to."
"That's fine," Archer said. "I'm not worried about operational details. Rather I'm worried about timing. I've got a couple of guesses as to the end goal of what Stolen Fire might, and what Operation: Totality might be after-"
"Oh? How'd you do that?" Ariana asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Ariana, I've got people all over Saffron in preparation for Operation: Thought-Leech, especially in Silph Co. I know about a certain project they've been working on." Archer answered. "But I also know that there's been no news on that front. The thing's stalled, or so I thought."
"I see." Giovanni gave a small grin. "Yes, it is quite suspicious. There's been no word of a breakthrough on the Masterball project on the official records of Silph Co and yet, that's only thing that's worth targeting for Operation: Totality."
"So, Ariana is going after Masterball technology," Archer said. "But why wasn't there anything in the official records?"
"As far as I can tell, they judged it a security risk to record the true progress of the project in their official documents," Giovanni informed him. "I'm sorry I didn't inform you about the alternate source of- "
"Boss, you got a hole in your side and nearly got caught by the League pulling my three-quarters dead ass out of that swamp," Archer interrupted. "You don't need to apologize to me for anything."
"Seven-eighths dead," Ariana added. "I remember all the blood I had to clean off my uniform after that day."
"Yes, I remember," Giovanni said, smirking. "I believe that I promoted you both simply so we could avoid the cost of cleaning those two uniforms. Anyway, I have a few personal sources of information in Silph Co., but to be honest they didn't know about the advances in Masterball technology until I told them to dig for it."
"Did you have them dig on a hunch?" Ariana asked, her eyes narrowing. "Or was there something else."
"Yes, there was," Giovanni said, his smirk vanishing. "We received an 'anonymous' tip about the breakthroughs."
"Not actually 'anonymous' I take it," Archer said, leaning back in his seat.
"No, it was," Giovanni answered. "We still have no concrete evidence as to the source of the information. But we were able to find out that other organization were told about it as well. Team Magma, Team Aqua, and Team Galactic."
There was silence for several seconds while Archer and Ariana mulled over the information.
"Someone's trying to start something," Archer finally said. "But who?"
"Do we know if any of those teams have any current designs on Masterball technology?" Ariana asked.
"I don't know," Giovanni replied. "I've increased our counter-espionage efforts and had several wilderness outposts set up in Kanto and Johto in case they decide to make any efforts against us. But they're not my biggest concern."
"Your biggest concern is whoever leaked the information in the first place," Archer concluded. "And we've got no idea who they are?"
"Nothing concrete," Giovanni answered. "But I suspect that they're based in Unova. There's been a power vacuum in the underworld for too long in that region. Someone must have taken power by now, but there's been no word on who. And as long as I'm speculating without concrete information, then I'm also guessing that they've been there for longer than we thought, keeping up the appearance of a power vacuum so that they can operate un-detected."
"So, what are we going to do about them boss?" Archer asked.
"Nothing yet," Giovanni answered. "If we can pull of Operation: Stolen Fire, then it won't matter who they are, or what they're up to. With the power we will achieve, nothing will be able to stop us."
AN:
I'd like to thank BlackCatSpecialist92G10 for beta reading this chapter.
It was too short for the weekly update, but I wanted this chunk to be it's own chapter, so I'm releasing it today.
Minor edits as of 6/8/2020
:AN