"Former Pokémon Master, and Rocket Co. CEO, Giovanni has been convicted on 46 separate counts, including felony murder, loan sharking, money laundering, racketeering, trafficking, tax evasion, and much more. Rocket Co., sometimes called "Team Rocket" due to its partner status as Silph Co.'s primary engineering team, has been rumored to have been involved in several corporate corruption scandals.
"However, the company's savvy legal team was able to deflect all attempts to prove these in a court of law until now. Several members of Rocket Co. as well as government liaisons expected to be working with them, are currently under intense investigation. Giovanni has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole."
"Shame, ain't it?" The young man said, straw hanging from the corner of his mouth as he sucked on a glass of iced lemon berry tea.
The barista behind the counter across from him perched a hand on her hip, a slender brow hitching upward in skepticism. "Please Trev, like you give a damn about what happens to some rich CEO."
Trev's eyes flicked from the floating television screen down to Frenchie, who stood below it, boring her unamused eyes into him. "Yeah. You right. But it's not him I care about. The shame is all that money he's leaving on the table. He probably spent his life building that up, and for what?"
Frenchie chuckled, her eyes rolling as she ferried an order of steaming bacon and eggs to a customer at the far end of the bar. They were in the Viridian Cafe, one of Kanto sector's most homey establishments. It was known for its vintage Eastern-style decor with pastoral, rustic ambiance and earthy tones that set it apart from a city otherwise clad in vibrant chromaticism and gritty metalwork. Set on level 67 it was far too low for natural to reach them, but the overheads mimicked it with an ethereal amber glow.
When Frenchie arrived back to Trev, she set her forearms on the counter and leaned toward him, mischief in her eyes. "Know what I think?"
Her feminine proximity inspired one of Trev's winning smiles. One of the smiles that tended to get him in trouble with women. "Nah, what do you think, Frenchie?"
"I think his Momma and Daddy was probably corrupt and rich already, and he just rode along on their coattails," she said, self-assurance belying her words. Francesca Green, Frenchie for short, was sure in everything she said... because she never said anything that she wasn't sure of. That was on account of her penchant to not speak unless what she was speaking about, actually mattered.
It was one of her many charms. Frenchie was smart progressive-minded, and very easy on the eyes. She was blessed with mocha skin that took on a golden quality when the light hit it from the right angle. The thick, springy natural afro that crowned her head gave her a royal quality and it always smelled saccharine like the natural product she kept it moisturized with. She was the kind of alluring that didn't have to try.
"Whatchu trying to say? Rocket Big Boss didn't make it to the top on the strength of his own ambition? He might've been a bad dude but I think you gotta give him more credit than that," Trev said with his brows raised in challenge.
Frenchie stared at him for an instant and Trev could see the rebuttal forming in her mind, but he also liked to think that she had a habit of stealing admiring glances from him, too. There was that one time that she'd admitted that he was "annoyingly attractive" when Trev was challenging his own looks against her boyfriend's.
He was about the same shade of skin tone as her with a solid build that could probably be honed to chiseled if actually kept up with any lifting regimen. He had chestnut eyes that matched his hair color and a dimpled smile that he flashed way too often because he knew the effect it was capable of. Usually, it got mirrored smiles from the ladies.
"I don't have to give him anything. You know the easiest way to get that kind of money? Generational wealth. Get born into a rich family and guess what? Opportunity," Frenchie said. Behind her, a pair of vines snaked up from beneath the counter and wrapped with prehensile precision, around the base of a plate of food in the window. They then lifted it and began toting it down to a waiting customer a few stools away from Trev.
"C'mon, you know what I'm saying. Even if his people had some money it don't mean they made him a billionaire. He had to put in some work to get to that level," Trev said.
"You implying that hard work makes you rich? I come here every day and bust my ass for my little check." She held up her hands, indicating their emptiness. "Still not a billionaire. But I bet if I put in the same energy and had a couple million gi in seed money... I'd be rich too." She put a set of used dishes in the tub behind her. The two mysterious vines from behind the counter brought over their own sullied plates as well. "And I'd do it without sending myself to jail for the rest of my life."
"Aight, aight..." Trev said in the concession as he nabbed one of the grapes from his fruit salad. Before he could pop it in his mouth, an oversized bird with cobalt blue feathers leaped on his shoulder, demanding the tiny morsel. "Damn, Kofi, can a brother eat?" Of course, the unspoken answer was "no." Not without his Corvisquire. If Trev was eating, then Kofi was eating too.
"Why are you worried about that man's money anyways, Trev? Aren't you still looking for a job?" Frenchie asked.
Trev narrowed his eyes at her as he offered Kofi the grape. A feathered head crested with blue plumage and a sharp beak plucked it from his fingers without hesitation. "How many times do I have to tell you? I have a job."
"Could've fooled me, all the hours you spend here," Frenchie said, rolling her eyes.
"I'm freelance. I make my own hours." The reality was, that he was a private investigator who often had nothing to investigate. He worked for a firm that could provide him with jobs but he tended to turn down the smaller ones citing that he was too busy with "personal projects," which left him with very little money and a lot of free time... most of the time.
"Freelance sounds like a fancy way of saying 'unemployed,'" Frenchie said, with an accusatory gaze.
Trev sucked his teeth. "C'mon French, you ain't gotta do me like that. Plus, I've been busy." Kofi let out a squawk of agreement.
"Apparently, not busy enough not to come here to annoy me all shift," she said with a half smirk as she arched a slender eyebrow.
"Oh, I always have time for that," he said, flashing that winning smile once again. "How's pre-med studies going?"
Frenchie sighed and crossed her arms tight across her chest, leaning against the back counter. "I'm Unpaid. Overworked. And I'm missing hours here, so... great. Helps that Sammy's off on her Journey."
"Hey, it'll all pay off in the end. Trust the process." Trev said, trying to be encouraging. "Sammy call in for any updates yet?"
"She did!" Frenchie said, her face splitting with a bright smile as she retrieved her phone. After a series of thumb taps a shimmering, holographic image of a teenage girl with long braided hair flickered to life above the device.
The girl was hugging a blue-skinned creature with a round face that had a ribbed fin sprouting from its head. It looked vaguely like a fish but the four stubby legs and yellow spiked protrusions from its cheeks where gills might have been, hinted at something else. "She caught a Mudkip! Day one!"
Trev's eyes widened and surprise, and... maybe a little confusion. Whatever a 'Mudkip' was, that picture was his first time seeing one. "Wow. Congrats to the lil sis then?"
"Yes! Do you know how powerful a Mudkip can be?! and it's sooo cuuuuute." Frenchie said, cheesing so hard at the image she almost blushed. "Her first Pokémon was water-type too. It was an Azurill. I was a little worried because I'm 100% sure she picked it because it was cute more than battle-capable and when you put all that money towards League sponsorship you want to make sure you're giving yourself the best chance but... she used it to catch a Mudkip! So now she's got cute and capable!" She was speaking a million miles a minute.
Trev tried to appear like he had any clue as to what she was talking about but in reality... he had no idea. He wasn't a Pokémon guy. Kofi was his buddy sure, but beyond knowing that his species was Corvisquire, he knew little else. He knew that Frenchie's sister, Sammy, was going on a journey or something where she could catch a bunch of the creatures to try to become a master but... that was about the extent of his knowledge.
"Looks like she's killin' it out there. I'm sure she'll make it," Trev offered in reassurance.
"Yeah... I hope so," Frenchie said. She then put her phone away and the picture disappeared. "What about you, what has you so busy?" The vines that had been walking the plates back and forth suddenly descended behind the counter again. "Thank you, Ivy," Frenchie said, speaking down to the Ivysaur that Trev knew was back there.
"I had this gig that was taking up all my free time, but I just closed it out last night... and this morning the firm's check came through," he said.
Frenchie's brows hitched upward. "So, what, you ballin' now or something?"
"I got enough to take you out somewhere special. How about you take me up on that date?" Trev propositioned with that deep dimpled smile. Frenchie is on a date probably at least once a day. She always declined.
Frenchie scoffed in laughter. "You must want Piers to whoop your ass."
Trev sucked his teeth. "Girl, you know I ain't scared of your 'boyfriend'" he over-enunciated the last word to the point of mockery.
"You should be. You know he's already askin' why this 'dusty dude' always be hangin' around me at the bar when I'm on shift. So, you better find yourself a girl, so he can stop wondering if you're sniffing after me."
Trev chuckled. "Girl, please. One day you're gonna realize what you're missing," he said, as he made a smug motion towards himself with his hands.
"Mhmm, why don't you show one of these other girls what they have been missing? I see a few cute faces in here," Frenchie said as she took stock of the little café.
Trev followed her gaze, taking a quick look at the late-morning crowd. Viridian Café wasn't particularly busy during this hour. The early breakfast and coffee rush had subsided and what was left were remote workers, college students, and freelance slackers like him. Despite its lower-level location, the little spot had grown in popularity over time, but it still managed to keep its quiet air of subtle class. That's why Trev enjoyed it. That, and Frenchie. They'd become close over the years.
"Please, I can pull anyone in here," Trev said, with a "too-confident" bravado, never being one to shy away from a challenge.
The door to the café opened, disturbing its quiet as the sounds of a tumultuous crowd invaded from the outside. Frenchie turned to see several people trying to squeeze through the door. Even Ivy leaped up to poke her toad-like head over the counter to view the scene with bulbous orange-red eyes, the flower rooted in her back peaking over the edge "So, that means I can pick, then?" Frenchie asked.
Trev, who'd only given this new crowd a passing glance, shrugged. "Yeah, go 'head. Take your pick."
For a moment, the flock seemed to part with the aid of a couple of helpful gentlemen, who allowed for a 20-something-ish, eye-catchingly beautiful, dark-skinned woman to enter. Behind her, people held their phones up, snapping photos and taking videos from whatever angle they could manage. Fans, no doubt.
Trev wasn't one to keep up with the news of the Pokémon trainer's world, but you'd have to have been under a rock for the last half-decade to have not at least heard the name, Amber Renée Carter. While she wasn't the top trainer in the city, she was a consistent top 10 contender and famous for it.
Pokémon trainers were far and wide across the world. At a young age, usually in the early teens, children were encouraged to take expensive, League-sponsored journeys that revolved around catching and training Pokémon. The strength of a Pokémon was usually attributed to how well a trainer trained that Pokémon and how often those Pokémon were able to defeat others in battle.
Trev didn't know much about the Pokémon League but he always found it discriminatory that the trainers received so much fame while it was the creatures that did the actual battling. But the Pokémon themselves did gain at least some level of recognition along the way.
For example, Amber's Raichu was one of the most popular Pokémon in the League, praised for being one of the fastest to ever step foot in an arena. Matches often ended seconds after they began when her Raichu was involved.
While it was interesting to see two Pokémon step into a ring and fight one another to incapacitation, Trev had never been so much a fan of it that he followed the League news. But he did know who Amber was, and he was speechless with respect to how jaw-droppingly gorgeous she was in person.
"Her," Frenchie's voice interrupted Trev's thoughts.
"What?" Trev whipped his head around to face Frenchie.
"You said I can pick. Go ask Renée out."
Kofi made a throaty noise that could only be described as an avian scoff.
"I thought her name was Amber?" Trev said, trying to hide his mortification concerning the task she'd just assigned him.
"She prefers Renée. Now stop trying to ignore me. Go ask her out," Frenchie said, crossing her arms with a devious smirk.
Trev glanced back to Renée who was taking another selfie with a fan before she put a hand up to deny any further requests. She seemed to be settling down with a few of her friends. Turning back to Frenchie, he shook his head. "You trippin' French. She probably got security waiting outside ready to tackle dudes just like me."
A slim vine suddenly whipped from Ivy's back and wrapped around the order tablet by the register and deposited the device in front of Trev. The leafy toad Pokémon grunted, a smile pulled back on her face.
Frenchie's grin mirrored her Pokémon's. "Ivy suggests that you go take her order, then."
Minutes later, Trev was standing over the ladies' table, tablet in hand, apron tied around his waist. Kofi was perched on his shoulder, watching curiously. Renée and her friends peered up at him, expectantly. He thought he'd had his lines laid out well enough, but now that he was here...
"So..." one of the friends- a strawberry blonde with pigtailed braids, beat him to the punch "You want to take our orders or just stare at us?" All three girls started laughing.
The brown-skinned girl with blue-dyed hair next to the first nudged her friend with a playful shove. "Oh my gosh, leave him alone, Lily. Let him do his job."
Lily chuckled, "I'm just saying, looks like he's starstruck or something." She peered up at him, crossing her legs. "What you never seen a Pokémon Master in person before?"
Renée finally spoke up. "Ya'll do this all the time. Can you stop? Please?" Despite the friendly smile, Trev could detect the irritation in her voice. She looked at him with deep, golden eyes. "I'm sorry my friends are just giving you a hard time. We're just here for coffee."
Trev again, found it hard to speak. Part of it was the fame, he had to admit, but the other part was her pure beauty. She had a rounded face with eyes like precious metal, and she wore her hair in an elaborate tapestry of braids. Meanwhile, her clothes were fashionably casual with yellows that did well to bring out her eyes.
Somehow, the six Pokéballs lining her waist did even more to fill out her appearance. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that only masters were authorized to carry six Pokémon and those six were usually well-trained to extraordinary levels.
"Oh uhh, yeah, what kinda coffee can I get you?" Trev asked after an awkward pause.
"Really?" Lily said. "You don't know a Pokémon Master's drink of choice? You can literally search it online."
"Lily!" The second girl said again.
"What Violet? It's true. Shouldn't they be searching that stuff up on that little tablet thing they have?" Lily said motioning towards the order device in Trev's hand.
"Girl hush," Renée said before putting on a polite smile and addressing Trev again. "I'm sorry, don't pay them any attention, umm..." her eyes flitted down to his chest, seeming to search for identification of some kind.
"Trev," he quickly filled in for her, "And uh..." Time to prove to Frenchie that he wasn't afraid of any challenge. He tried on his trademark smile, "...your order was the only one I was really interested in anyways," he said, letting his voice drop into a low timbre.
Violet's jaw dropped.
A smile curled in on Lily's lips and she seemed to look him up and down in a whole new light before looking back at Renée. "Guurrrrl..."
Renée for her part, tried to suppress a smile and a blush. She cleared her throat. "Well... I'd like a Chai Tea Latte, with just a sprinkle of cinnamon and honey."
"My pleasure," Trev said.
"Oh, he laying it on thick," Violet said, mock fanning her face.
Renée rolled her eyes, "He's just taking my order."
"I wouldn't mind taking your number, too," Trev said, going in for the kill.
"There it is," Lily said, accentuating the statement with a point of her finger.
Renée leaned back, eyes wide in legitimate surprise. "Oh, uhm..." her eyes seemed to search between her friends, who themselves seemed to approve highly from the looks on their faces. "How about..." she seemed to hesitate for a moment. "I give you my autograph, instead?"
And there was the rejection. Not that he was going to give up that easily. He chuckled. "Oooh... so you think I'm just a casual fan trying to fulfill the fantasy of dating his favorite Pokémon Master?"
"Maybe?" said, with a questioning shrug.
"And what if I am?"
Renée looked away, eyes smiling as hard as her lips. "Okay 'Trev'... how about I take your number, instead?"
Okay, so maybe just a half-rejection. "Bet," he said, as he retrieved a pen and scribbled his information down on a napkin. He slid it towards her. "And don't lose that. It could be worth a million gi one day." He winked at her before taking his leave from the table. He couldn't say he was angry with that outcome.
He turned back to Frenchie and caught the look of shock coloring her features. The corners of his lips tugged into a smile. This might have been a challenge that he could call... a win.