More SS time, folkies. Yes, I just said that. Yes, I can be as strange as I like in my intro paragraphs—it's what's for dinner. Anywho, mimes miming my mime are getting mimey, so I'll jump right into the chapter.
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“Tribo’s a young adult now,” Ryan reminded Juliet. “It is beginning to display signs of its full potential. I say we start using it now.”
“No, we will not,” Juliet said firmly, still holding Tribo like it was a child. Despite the normalcy in humans of young adults wishing to separate themselves from their caretakers, Tribo didn’t seem to share these feelings. “Get out of here, Tribo’s already had a long day of more battle tests.”
“It should be having more,” Ryan didn’t leave. Instead, he stood against the wall of the room. He idly glanced at some of the computer screens. They showed some of the new data for Tribo. He couldn’t admit to thinking that such power was controllable, but that wasn’t his decision.
“Tribo is a Pokémon,” Juliet reminded Ryan firmly. “It is not a machine. We have our plans for Tribo, rest assured. However, they will be according to my schedule, not yours. Do not make me take this above your head to Giovanni.”
Ryan looked indignant. For some reason, the redundancy of saying “to Giovanni” irked him greatly. Juliet was an incompetent leader, to say the least. Her compassion for Tribo could very well be its downfall if impartial people like he or any other Elite had any say.
“Very well,” Ryan stepped forward. He opened the door, and before leaving, added, “Mark my words, though. Start treating Tribo like what it really is, instead of like a common Pokémon.”
Ryan closed the door just as Tribo was hissing at him quite aggressively. He frowned. According to the new data, if Tribo had wanted to, Ryan would have been on the floor, unmoving, before he could have even closed the door. It scared him. Mewtwo, their previous genetic project, had at least possessed controls, failsafes. Its cyber armour proved in the end to be a useless restraint, but at least there had been precautions.
With Tribo, there was nothing.
Ryan walked down the hall and got himself lost. He needed the time to think.
Kenneth was having less than Ryan’s luck with Juliet in keeping Archie in line. Archie was convinced that his efforts alone made the capture possible. Kenneth looked across the table at Archie. Stein was beside Kenneth, giving Archie a similar stare.
“Team Rocket’s involvement in this matter is over,” Archie repeated. “You will leave us now and get back to that base we know is on the island over there.”
Archie pointed in the general direction of Beta Site. Kenneth was unsurprised that Archie knew this. In fact, it was Stein’s agent Hanai who let them know. But for all Archie knew, Beta Site was just for keeping tabs on the Orange Islands. Team Aqua knew nothing about Tribo.
“What are you going to do?” Kenneth asked, smiling wryly. “Hit us with your newly-acquired legendary? I’d laugh.”
“We could,” Archie said thoughtfully. “We could just fight you off the island as well. We outnumber you about three to one.”
“What my… associate is trying to say,” Stein reiterated, “Is that it would be a very… interesting choice if you were to try something like that.”
Archie stood up and put his hands on the table. Kenneth stretched like a cat and Stein crossed his arms, looking bored. Archie’s expression fumbled, obviously not expecting both Rocket Executives to look exasperated.
“We won’t take this,” Archie said simply. “Kyogre is ours.”
“I caught it,” Kenneth blinked. “If anything, I should be making that claim.”
Kenneth held up the Master Ball to illustrate his point. Archie tried to look disinterested in it, but failed.
“We should go inform our agents that we’re not welcome here,” Stein stood up to leave. “Once we’re away, you should find life much easier.”
“No, no,” Archie said all too quickly.
“Then you’ll accept Rocket aid?” Stein asked, sitting back down. He indicated Archie’s seat. Archie sat down as well.
“You’re aware that we won’t even document your being here,” Archie scowled.
Kenneth glanced at Stein. He was completely dumbstruck—he’d been going over and over with Stein the measures that Team Rocket would have to go to in order to keep their involvement a secret, and Archie was just doing their work for them.
Stein was a bit quicker on the uptake than Kenneth, and replied, “Do what you will, Team Rocket’s record doesn’t need to be marred by this.”
If Kenneth’s expression could have said words, it would have said, “Stein, you idiot!” for what Stein had just said. He could tell that the man meant to dissuade Archie from any lingering documentation, but the line came off like Stein was actively trying to hide their involvement in this.
“Don’t like working with Team Aqua, eh?” Archie sneered. He crossed his arms and stared across the table at Stein. “Don’t like to admit to working with a group of common pirates?”
“We tend not to associate with such… ruffians, to be certain,” Stein’s appearance hammered home his point. Archie looked for all intents and purposes like a pirate, while Stein’s immaculate manner and trim uniform gave him almost the look of a high-profile businessman.
“We’ve gotten off track,” Kenneth remembered that he needed to let it be known that Team Aqua had Kyogre. “We’ll allow you to use Kyogre for operations of our authorization. You can’t go flooding the world, after all.”
Kenneth hoped that Archie wouldn’t be as stupid as to try and use Kyogre against Team Rocket. If he did, then Kenneth would simply have to give Juliet a call and enlist Tribo’s aid yet again. Either way, his end of forcing the appearance of a lax in security and ousting Roland would be met.
“All right,” Archie sneered. Kenneth could tell that Archie was only pretending to be miffed—as a master of faked appearances, Kenneth just knew these things. “In that case, our first objective will be of course to eradicate Team Magma.”
“We figured as such,” Stein nodded. He didn’t even pause before adding, “This is why we’ve devoted Rocket resources to finding out which Magma base Maxie is currently at. We have the location.”
Archie looked almost delighted. Kenneth resisted the urge to groan loudly at having to deal with such an amateur. Though Kenneth himself wasn’t usually very serious, he never acted like a clown in front of people he wouldn’t benefit by.
“I have to go notify the rest of my team-mates,” Kenneth stood up. Stein blinked. Kenneth said nothing more as he left the collapsible shelter both Teams had deemed to be the main conference area.
Taking a few deep breaths and reminding himself that he had indeed been forced to work with greater amateurs, Kenneth set off to find Mikhail or Izumi. Yuusuke, he’d heard, had taken to cleaning out the Aquas in their relaxed, but still played for money, poker games. Kenneth certainly didn’t want to disrupt any activity that was financially draining on Team Aqua.
The sun was bright for the time of day, and Kenneth didn’t like it. Deskbound too long, he’d lost somewhat his ability to deal with temperature. His jet-black Team Rocket uniform—made of a different, heavier, material than the standard field uniform—was almost stifling. Very comfortable at room temperatures, it didn’t fare well in the thirty-five to forty degree range.
Eventually finding Izumi lying facedown in the Rocket quarters shelter, doing a very good impersonation of a cadaver, Kenneth closed the door and simply said “business.” This caused Izumi to revive almost instantly, albeit groggily.
“What this time?” Izumi asked. Like Kenneth, she was growing tired of dealing with the Aquas. At the surface they seemed to be a well-run, competent team, but every Rocket could tell by now that they were only marginally better than Cassidy and Butch, the two washout failures in the same league as Jessie and James.
“Good news and better news,” Kenneth harrumphed as he sat down on one of the beds—Yuusuke’s, he noticed. “The good news is that they don’t suspect a thing.”
“Really?” Izumi asked, sitting up. “I shouted at Archie earlier that we were playing him like a fiddle, and he just blinked and told me he was glad we could let him have Kyogre at any time now.”
Kenneth laughed. He could tell he’d rubbed off on his team over the years. Izumi was in a foul mood, to be certain, but it was refreshing to hear a decent joke from someone he could respect.
“The better news,” Kenneth continued, his tone darker, “Is that we didn’t count on Archie to be as incompetent as he is. We’re going to have a hard time separating Kyogre from them without them going public.”
“Me ‘n Yuusuke warned you,” Izumi reminded Kenneth. “Mikhail did, too, after about a second of thought.”
“Don’t worry, Adair’s got a plan,” Kenneth told Izumi. “It’s kind of embarrassing to be upstaged by the man. I mean, looking at him you wouldn’t think he’s got a lot going on upstairs, but we’ve got a deceptively simple plan cooked up.”
“This should be good.”
“Oh, it is, it is. So we’re going to attack a ‘Magma base’, or so they think, right?” Kenneth almost laughed telling the plan to Izumi. “What Team Aqua doesn’t know, and won’t know, and officially neither will we, is that this ‘base’ is actually the Stardust City gym in Idama. You know, the Neo League.”
Izumi’s expression was blank. “What’s so special there?”
Kenneth facefaulted. When he got back up, he explained surprisingly calmly, “Stardust City is the home of Charlie Evans. The kid’s a Pokémon League gym leader, officially a representative in a foreign League, but anybody with half an eye and a quarter of an ear can tell you that good old Lance has him there just to keep tabs on good old Pat Lopf.”
“Who?”
Kenneth again facefaulted. “Pat Lopf. The administrative head of the Neo League. He’s not a trainer at all like Lance is; he’s just a bureaucrat. Thing is, though, that he’s been wanting to expand the Neo League, see, and Lance and the Pokémon League don’t like this too much. So they have Charlie Evans there to keep tabs on him. Thing is, though, that Evans is the strongest trainer in the world.”
Izumi blinked.
“I have no idea why I have to explain this,” Kenneth said, “It’s common knowledge. Anyways, this Evans guy, his Pokémon are strong. We’re talking ‘six on one without batting an eye’ strong. So we trick Team Magma into attacking him.”
“And he beats up Kyogre, who runs,” Izumi finished. “It’s about as good as the rest of this plan.”
Kenneth lay down on the bed he was sitting on and looked at the drab ceiling. “Honestly, woman, you’re going to be the death of me yet.”
Izumi groaned and went to leave. “I think I’ll go watch Yuusuke make Team Aqua poorer. It’s a less depressing sight.”
“Oi!” Kenneth called in indignation as Izumi left. He wasn’t depressing at all, or so he’d claim at great length.
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That's it for this week, folks. Next chapter goes up when it goes up. Until then, remember that remember that remember that remember that remember that remember that remember that... JUST REMEMEBER THAT. Or something.
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“Tribo’s a young adult now,” Ryan reminded Juliet. “It is beginning to display signs of its full potential. I say we start using it now.”
“No, we will not,” Juliet said firmly, still holding Tribo like it was a child. Despite the normalcy in humans of young adults wishing to separate themselves from their caretakers, Tribo didn’t seem to share these feelings. “Get out of here, Tribo’s already had a long day of more battle tests.”
“It should be having more,” Ryan didn’t leave. Instead, he stood against the wall of the room. He idly glanced at some of the computer screens. They showed some of the new data for Tribo. He couldn’t admit to thinking that such power was controllable, but that wasn’t his decision.
“Tribo is a Pokémon,” Juliet reminded Ryan firmly. “It is not a machine. We have our plans for Tribo, rest assured. However, they will be according to my schedule, not yours. Do not make me take this above your head to Giovanni.”
Ryan looked indignant. For some reason, the redundancy of saying “to Giovanni” irked him greatly. Juliet was an incompetent leader, to say the least. Her compassion for Tribo could very well be its downfall if impartial people like he or any other Elite had any say.
“Very well,” Ryan stepped forward. He opened the door, and before leaving, added, “Mark my words, though. Start treating Tribo like what it really is, instead of like a common Pokémon.”
Ryan closed the door just as Tribo was hissing at him quite aggressively. He frowned. According to the new data, if Tribo had wanted to, Ryan would have been on the floor, unmoving, before he could have even closed the door. It scared him. Mewtwo, their previous genetic project, had at least possessed controls, failsafes. Its cyber armour proved in the end to be a useless restraint, but at least there had been precautions.
With Tribo, there was nothing.
Ryan walked down the hall and got himself lost. He needed the time to think.
Kenneth was having less than Ryan’s luck with Juliet in keeping Archie in line. Archie was convinced that his efforts alone made the capture possible. Kenneth looked across the table at Archie. Stein was beside Kenneth, giving Archie a similar stare.
“Team Rocket’s involvement in this matter is over,” Archie repeated. “You will leave us now and get back to that base we know is on the island over there.”
Archie pointed in the general direction of Beta Site. Kenneth was unsurprised that Archie knew this. In fact, it was Stein’s agent Hanai who let them know. But for all Archie knew, Beta Site was just for keeping tabs on the Orange Islands. Team Aqua knew nothing about Tribo.
“What are you going to do?” Kenneth asked, smiling wryly. “Hit us with your newly-acquired legendary? I’d laugh.”
“We could,” Archie said thoughtfully. “We could just fight you off the island as well. We outnumber you about three to one.”
“What my… associate is trying to say,” Stein reiterated, “Is that it would be a very… interesting choice if you were to try something like that.”
Archie stood up and put his hands on the table. Kenneth stretched like a cat and Stein crossed his arms, looking bored. Archie’s expression fumbled, obviously not expecting both Rocket Executives to look exasperated.
“We won’t take this,” Archie said simply. “Kyogre is ours.”
“I caught it,” Kenneth blinked. “If anything, I should be making that claim.”
Kenneth held up the Master Ball to illustrate his point. Archie tried to look disinterested in it, but failed.
“We should go inform our agents that we’re not welcome here,” Stein stood up to leave. “Once we’re away, you should find life much easier.”
“No, no,” Archie said all too quickly.
“Then you’ll accept Rocket aid?” Stein asked, sitting back down. He indicated Archie’s seat. Archie sat down as well.
“You’re aware that we won’t even document your being here,” Archie scowled.
Kenneth glanced at Stein. He was completely dumbstruck—he’d been going over and over with Stein the measures that Team Rocket would have to go to in order to keep their involvement a secret, and Archie was just doing their work for them.
Stein was a bit quicker on the uptake than Kenneth, and replied, “Do what you will, Team Rocket’s record doesn’t need to be marred by this.”
If Kenneth’s expression could have said words, it would have said, “Stein, you idiot!” for what Stein had just said. He could tell that the man meant to dissuade Archie from any lingering documentation, but the line came off like Stein was actively trying to hide their involvement in this.
“Don’t like working with Team Aqua, eh?” Archie sneered. He crossed his arms and stared across the table at Stein. “Don’t like to admit to working with a group of common pirates?”
“We tend not to associate with such… ruffians, to be certain,” Stein’s appearance hammered home his point. Archie looked for all intents and purposes like a pirate, while Stein’s immaculate manner and trim uniform gave him almost the look of a high-profile businessman.
“We’ve gotten off track,” Kenneth remembered that he needed to let it be known that Team Aqua had Kyogre. “We’ll allow you to use Kyogre for operations of our authorization. You can’t go flooding the world, after all.”
Kenneth hoped that Archie wouldn’t be as stupid as to try and use Kyogre against Team Rocket. If he did, then Kenneth would simply have to give Juliet a call and enlist Tribo’s aid yet again. Either way, his end of forcing the appearance of a lax in security and ousting Roland would be met.
“All right,” Archie sneered. Kenneth could tell that Archie was only pretending to be miffed—as a master of faked appearances, Kenneth just knew these things. “In that case, our first objective will be of course to eradicate Team Magma.”
“We figured as such,” Stein nodded. He didn’t even pause before adding, “This is why we’ve devoted Rocket resources to finding out which Magma base Maxie is currently at. We have the location.”
Archie looked almost delighted. Kenneth resisted the urge to groan loudly at having to deal with such an amateur. Though Kenneth himself wasn’t usually very serious, he never acted like a clown in front of people he wouldn’t benefit by.
“I have to go notify the rest of my team-mates,” Kenneth stood up. Stein blinked. Kenneth said nothing more as he left the collapsible shelter both Teams had deemed to be the main conference area.
Taking a few deep breaths and reminding himself that he had indeed been forced to work with greater amateurs, Kenneth set off to find Mikhail or Izumi. Yuusuke, he’d heard, had taken to cleaning out the Aquas in their relaxed, but still played for money, poker games. Kenneth certainly didn’t want to disrupt any activity that was financially draining on Team Aqua.
The sun was bright for the time of day, and Kenneth didn’t like it. Deskbound too long, he’d lost somewhat his ability to deal with temperature. His jet-black Team Rocket uniform—made of a different, heavier, material than the standard field uniform—was almost stifling. Very comfortable at room temperatures, it didn’t fare well in the thirty-five to forty degree range.
Eventually finding Izumi lying facedown in the Rocket quarters shelter, doing a very good impersonation of a cadaver, Kenneth closed the door and simply said “business.” This caused Izumi to revive almost instantly, albeit groggily.
“What this time?” Izumi asked. Like Kenneth, she was growing tired of dealing with the Aquas. At the surface they seemed to be a well-run, competent team, but every Rocket could tell by now that they were only marginally better than Cassidy and Butch, the two washout failures in the same league as Jessie and James.
“Good news and better news,” Kenneth harrumphed as he sat down on one of the beds—Yuusuke’s, he noticed. “The good news is that they don’t suspect a thing.”
“Really?” Izumi asked, sitting up. “I shouted at Archie earlier that we were playing him like a fiddle, and he just blinked and told me he was glad we could let him have Kyogre at any time now.”
Kenneth laughed. He could tell he’d rubbed off on his team over the years. Izumi was in a foul mood, to be certain, but it was refreshing to hear a decent joke from someone he could respect.
“The better news,” Kenneth continued, his tone darker, “Is that we didn’t count on Archie to be as incompetent as he is. We’re going to have a hard time separating Kyogre from them without them going public.”
“Me ‘n Yuusuke warned you,” Izumi reminded Kenneth. “Mikhail did, too, after about a second of thought.”
“Don’t worry, Adair’s got a plan,” Kenneth told Izumi. “It’s kind of embarrassing to be upstaged by the man. I mean, looking at him you wouldn’t think he’s got a lot going on upstairs, but we’ve got a deceptively simple plan cooked up.”
“This should be good.”
“Oh, it is, it is. So we’re going to attack a ‘Magma base’, or so they think, right?” Kenneth almost laughed telling the plan to Izumi. “What Team Aqua doesn’t know, and won’t know, and officially neither will we, is that this ‘base’ is actually the Stardust City gym in Idama. You know, the Neo League.”
Izumi’s expression was blank. “What’s so special there?”
Kenneth facefaulted. When he got back up, he explained surprisingly calmly, “Stardust City is the home of Charlie Evans. The kid’s a Pokémon League gym leader, officially a representative in a foreign League, but anybody with half an eye and a quarter of an ear can tell you that good old Lance has him there just to keep tabs on good old Pat Lopf.”
“Who?”
Kenneth again facefaulted. “Pat Lopf. The administrative head of the Neo League. He’s not a trainer at all like Lance is; he’s just a bureaucrat. Thing is, though, that he’s been wanting to expand the Neo League, see, and Lance and the Pokémon League don’t like this too much. So they have Charlie Evans there to keep tabs on him. Thing is, though, that Evans is the strongest trainer in the world.”
Izumi blinked.
“I have no idea why I have to explain this,” Kenneth said, “It’s common knowledge. Anyways, this Evans guy, his Pokémon are strong. We’re talking ‘six on one without batting an eye’ strong. So we trick Team Magma into attacking him.”
“And he beats up Kyogre, who runs,” Izumi finished. “It’s about as good as the rest of this plan.”
Kenneth lay down on the bed he was sitting on and looked at the drab ceiling. “Honestly, woman, you’re going to be the death of me yet.”
Izumi groaned and went to leave. “I think I’ll go watch Yuusuke make Team Aqua poorer. It’s a less depressing sight.”
“Oi!” Kenneth called in indignation as Izumi left. He wasn’t depressing at all, or so he’d claim at great length.
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That's it for this week, folks. Next chapter goes up when it goes up. Until then, remember that remember that remember that remember that remember that remember that remember that... JUST REMEMEBER THAT. Or something.