The New Normal – 3-3 – Interlude – Giovanni
Giovanni hung up the call from Petrel and frowned deeply. The news that he had heard from Petrel was concerning, as he had just been informed that John was seemingly on the warpath and trying to reach him. Giovanni cursed his unluckiness once again. His friendship with John was finally on the rise after the recent events, and now this whole debacle with Team Rocket was threatening to bring this all down. He remembered, and now regretted, previously mentioning to John that he had such a team in storage for such purposes, and John must have remembered that admission from him and probably blamed him for the current incident.
Giovanni was willing to shoulder any blame for the greater good of Kanto, but this incident wasn't even his fault to begin with! That was what was the truly enraging part about it. He didn't form Team Rocket, his late mother did, he just kept them around as an emergency plan in case Johto needed to be dealt with through other means. They were often just a drain on his resources, though they were occasionally useful when dumb muscle was all that was needed.
And now they dare to bite the hand that fed them before they ran off and abandoned their given duties?! It was disgraceful that these supposed 'warriors' of Kanto would abandon their obligations like this. Giovanni vowed to himself that he would put the Poison that was Proton into the Ground for leading his men astray if he ever got his hands on him.
His Pokémon would make sure that there was nothing left to bury but dust and ash.
Giovanni had spent the last day or two with Archer, going through all their files on Team Rocket to try and figure out where Proton was. Giovanni initially hoped that he could remove Team Rocket before they ever became a threat to his plans and Kanto, but now that seemed like an impossible dream.
Despite Archer and his subordinates' due diligence, Proton had managed to sneak away with an unknown number of resources and issued Pokémon, though at least Giovanni had some idea of the members that left with them. It was more than he expected, but less than he feared. Archer predicted that, if left unchecked, Team Rocket would be able to run rampant throughout Indigo unless they were forcefully stopped. And, to make matters worse, even with all the intelligence available to him, he still had no idea where Proton had run off to.
Giovanni wasn't that concerned about the crimes they would commit, so long as that didn't affect his interests in Kanto or risk the exposure of his underground activities, but he WAS more troubled about whether Proton could link anything back to himself. Archer assured him that they didn't know about him, but Giovanni wasn't satisfied and had demanded that everything be checked to ensure that there was no plausible connection between him and the now rogue Team Rocket.
Fortunately, their intense search found nothing that could be used to link back to him, and, as the only person who knew about the connection between Giovanni and Team Rocket, Archer swore himself to secrecy once again. He trusted Archer, just like he trusted Ariana and Petrel. They were his trio of loyal subordinates that answered directly to him, and he's known them all for the longest time. They've all pledged their lives to him, to Kanto, and he knew that it was impossible for them to consider betraying him.
At times like these, he was grateful for their loyalty.
But now he had wasted enough time trying in vain to curtail Team Rocket before they exposed themselves to the public, and it was too late to stop them. Team Rocket was out and running around like idiots as they led a chaotic mess of attacks across Indigo and bringing way too much attention onto themselves. Their attacks were disorganized, inefficient, and reckless. Proton was making a complete mess of his once honourable organisation!
Within days, the media was already made aware, and now more importantly, John was certainly wary of them and calling for Giovanni to demand some answers from him. And Giovanni knew that if he answered incorrectly, then this may be the end of their friendship.
Giovanni wasn't confident that he was able to provide the answers that John sought.
A.N Some more foreshadowing and build-up! As I mentioned before, John's relationship with Giovanni is going to be very important moving into the future, so I chose to spend extra time delving into his perspective.
And to anyone who wants to support me, please check out my p atreon at CartecTNN where you can read 8 advanced chapters! Thanks to those who have supported me already!