An overcast sky hung over Cerulean City, dropping a lazy drizzle on the city below. It was just heavy enough to make everything moist and damp but not enough for anything but the most anemic puddles, a slick sheen over the streets, sidewalks, and buildings. The citizens continued on about their business, taking care not to slip, but otherwise seemingly unaware of the rain.
Archer, however, made sure to double check his reflection in the window to check that his hair dye wasn't running and slipped into the café.
The Rocket executive looked around, noting with approval that it had the optimal level of business, enough customers to hide in but not too many to keep track of. He placed an order at the counter and then sat down at a booth.
The café wasn't controlled by Team Rocket. Instead, it was owned by a former smuggler who allowed groups to host clandestine meetups in the café, meetings that were guaranteed to be hidden from the police, the gym, and the League. All in exchange for a generous fee, of course.
The cafe was a favored meeting place for smugglers coming in from the north ports and even if someone had noticed Archer's activities, they would likely chalk them up to mere smuggling.
Still, Archer and his men had to be careful. If they let anything slip that betrayed their allegiance to Team Rocket, the café owner herself would turn them in, especially after what happened in Saffron. Team Rocket had good ties with the southern smugglers and some of the groups that ran between Kanto and Johto. Every other smuggling group hated Team Rocket's guts, both for ideological reasons and because Team Rocket was occasionally violent competition.
Archer took another glance around the café, making sure that the only suspicious personnel were the people he was meeting. None of the customers seemed to be anything other than civilians but one could never be too sure.
Slowly the other members of Team Rocket he was meeting filed in. Three more people joined him at his booth.
"It's nice to see you," said the first to arrive.
"We haven't all gathered, since what? Violet City?" the second asked.
"Ecruteak actually," the third said.
"I trust we've all found some nice hiking trails since then?" Archer asked, plastering a pleasant plastic smile across his face.
"Oh, lots," the second replied.
To anyone listening in, the following discussion did seem to be about hiking trails, and from a certain point of view, that was what they were actually discussing, if one considered the clandestine movements of armed forces to be hiking. The three scouts went over the possible routes they had found and what they had noticed about the gym patrols.
Archer was nodding along, memorizing the information so he could write it down when he got back to a secure location. When the scouts were finished with their reports Archer asked, "What about the 'rocky' paths?"
"Oh, I found one or two," the second scout said. "But it turns out that there are a lot of aggressive pokémon on those paths, and they're no pushovers. Though, 'luckily' someone might find you if you get into trouble."
Translation: The scout didn't know if the underground paths were monitored by the city's sensors. Team Rocket would need to go through other channels if they wanted that information.
"And what about on the way down?" Archer asked, leaning back and sipping his drink. After Saffron he and the other executives agreed that securing their exit routes was of extra importance.
It was too bad they couldn't use the café more often, Archer reflected, continuing to sip his drink while the scouts went on. The coffee was actually pretty good.
"And those are the most promising routes," Archer concluded over the video call. Giovanni nodded, leaning back in his swivel chair in a hidden office deep underneath the Viridian City Gym. Archer was calling over a secure line from a secret outpost in the mountains around Cerulean City.
"Very good," Giovanni nodded.
"I'll be scouting them in person over the next three days and will have my final recommendation for you by then," Archer finished. "But there's one problem with the underground routes. The scout wasn't able to confirm whether or not they were monitored by the city's sensors."
"I expect that will fall to me," Giovanni sighed. "Shame. The Cerulean gym leaders are always tiresome to deal with. I don't know what's worse. Daisy's petty dislike of me or the general unprofessionalism of the trio."
"Sorry boss," Archer said with a shrug.
"No, no," Giovanni said, waving away his concerns. "This is my duty. Putting up with those… children is nothing compared to the work that you and your men have done."
"Yessir."
"Anyway, I'll be waiting for that report. Good work," Giovanni said before hanging up.
He set about reviewing and signing a pile of papers on his desk, only to be interrupted by a beeping from his pokégear before he could finish the first item. He sighed, pulled out the device, and checked the alert. Giovanni glared over at the clock and then sighed.
"Where does the time go?" he asked, getting up.
"Time for the check in already?" Arianna asked as Giovanni came into the lab. Technicians were busy, rushing to and fro, sparks flying as they worked with complex electronics and machine parts.
"Lost track of time as well?" Giovanni asked.
"There's not enough in the day."
"True, and yet that's all the more reason I need a progress report," Giovanni said.
"The masterball substitute is behind schedule," Arianna admitted with a grimace. "Our initial design had problems that weren't apparent until assembly. And after that, the tech we've gotten from that private individual in the south was not meant to work with our systems. We've had to develop specialized interfaces to get them hooked up."
"Any problems with the tech itself?" Giovanni asked.
"No," Arianna shook her head. "Materials are high quality, no manufacturing defects, no wear and tear. It's only the integration that's a problem."
"That's fortunate," Giovanni said. They had certainly paid Lawrence the Third enough to expect a little quality from his product.
"Using the Silph blueprints we've managed to rig up an emitter array that no pokémon should be able to overcome," Arianna continued. "Though I don't think the containment fields we got from the south are up to the standard, at least not without the miniaturization that Silph had achieved for their masterball."
"Is it expected to stand up to the parameters supplied?" Giovanni asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or can you only provide a stop-gap solution by the deadline?"
"It should hold," Arianna reassured him. "But the margin isn't as wide as I would like. You'll want to use the control helmet as soon as humanly possible."
"Will the substitute be portable?" Giovanni asked.
"Current projections are that we'll be able to assemble it onsite in three minutes, but we hope to have that cut down to one by the deadline," Arianna replied.
"The target should remain asleep unless something drastic happens in the meantime," Giovanni reassured her. "But after the target has been restrained, will we be able to move it out?"
"Yes," Arianna nodded. "But once again, use of the helmet as soon as possible is recommended. Given the forces we'll be dealing with-"
"It would be best to have the helmet equipped in a controlled setting-"Giovanni interrupted.
"Not if we risk that thing getting loose," Arianna interrupted him in turn. "We can avoid a delay if we need to recalibrate the helmet and the control system. We cannot afford this thing getting loose."
"Very well," Giovanni sighed. "I'll keep that under advisement."
"That covers everything," Arianna said. "If you need more detail there will be a formal report in a few days."
"I will await it," Giovanni said and then glanced down at his watch. "Oh, so much work, so little time…"
"Busy day yourself?"
"I've had to handle the logistics for the processing of the pokémon we took from Saffron," Giovanni said. "We've adapted the control helmets for any pokémon with a hint of psychic ability, which saves us the expense of conditioning them. But between the limited number of helmets and the number of pokémon without any psychic ability-"
"We've got to use the old classics," Arianna nodded as she followed along. "And Re-Conditioning wasn't equipped for the sudden surge?"
"We intended to return the less useful pokémon after we had finished cataloging them, but we weren't able to complete that before we were driven out of the city," Giovanni explained. "As it happened, we were able to transfer all of our seized assets out of the city during the evacuation. We'll have to figure out what we should do with the pokémon who are useless for our purposes, while processing the most useful."
"Do we have enough shock collars and drug implants lying around?"
"No, but we can manufacture or acquire a sufficient amount in short order," Giovanni answered with a shrug. "It's the allocation that's the killer. I must figure out not only which pokémon will be the most useful for the upcoming operation, but also those who can be conditioned in time."
"Can't we just use Dr. Namba's techniques?" Arianna suggested. "No need to train them, just send them into a blind rage in the middle of enemy territory."
"Dr. Namba is still refining his process and his progress has stalled because I've requested that he adapt his findings to produce a different result," Giovanni said. "No, we'll just have to process both the most useful for special tasks, and the most easily broken so that we have some more cannon fodder to throw at the League."
"If I recall correctly, that was a standard tactic to tank their morale back during the Unification War," Arianna smirked. "It's nice to see the classics in action."
"You'll have your chance soon enough," Giovanni sighed. "And if you'll excuse me, I must return to my paperwork."
AN: I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading.
Just the usual look into what Team Rocket's doing. Buffer is getting better, but still not good enough to go back to weekly releases.
Next chapter will be released on May 18th 2022
Don't forget to review! Concrit is welcome!