Hard Enough

“Hey Sabrina, you heard about the incident, I take it?” I said in greeting to my… ex-girlfriend.

“... Brock, where are you?” she said in a calm, neutral tone that I had not heard in years. I swallowed as alarm bells rang in my head.

“Uhmm, I’m flying back to Pewter to check things over at the gym and handle the reporters. I just finished raiding the Rocket base they launched their operation from.”

“And where is that?” she said, again, perfectly calm. I wasn’t fooled. She might not emote well but she knew wrath wonderfully. Still waters could hide deep pools after all.

"Sabrina, take a breath. First of all I’m fine. My family is fine, my gym is fine. The Rockets didn’t get anything and the processes I’d set up in case this ever happened worked perfectly. The weaker pokemon faded away and let the stronger pokemon handle the battle.”

“... I’d like to see you?” she said, and there was the barest hint of a quiver.

I nudged Zephyr to descend. “I’m landing now and I’ll send you my location,” I said, worried about how she was obviously stressing out. When I landed, I pinged her with my location. I barely had a moment to raise Zephyr’s pokeball to return him when Sabrina appeared in a flash of light behind us.

“NOCT!” hooted Zephyr as he launched himself skyward only to come down in his defensive position with his feathers fluffed up and his wings bared.

Sabrina spared him a glance, and he sheepishly blinked at her before straightening out to begin preening his feathers as if nothing had just happened.

“Zephyr is still afraid of me?” she said with a minute frown.

I shook my head. “Most people or pokemon find it scary having someone suddenly behind them.” She stared at me, and I shrugged. “Most people.”

She nodded before flicking her eyes up and down my body. I could feel small taps and nudges across my body as she used her psychic powers to check me over further. I let her with a roll of my eyes as my hair was ruffled. When she reached my forearms and legs, where I had tanked the rocks from that one grunt’s cheapshot, her eyes narrowed and the nearby trees trembled.

I raised my hand and pulled back the torn sleeve to show her the unblemished skin underneath. “Hey, I’m fine. Some guy tried to use a Rock Throw on me.” Sabrina blinked slowly and I grinned. "I know, right?!”

She shook her head, causing her hair to flick from side to side. “When two fools fight, can there be a victor?”

She was still prodding me with her psychic touches, trying to determine if I was injured anywhere. She’d reached my fingers, and it was a decidedly strange feeling. I was further distracted by watching her hair, so it took me a moment to realise she was criticising me.

“Hey! … I don’t think that’s fair! I had back up and I was more than able to handle that situation!” I said with a frown.

She raised an eyebrow at me. “I was at the gym. You only took Dennis with you?”

I shook my head, "No, that’s not true. I also had Karen and her team of Ace trainers.”

“Karen… who’s that?” she tilted her head.

I stared at her. “She’s that girl that I mentioned as part of the Guardians…” Sabrina blinked languidly. “You’ve fought her before? Twice? She thought she’d beat you easily with her dark type pokemon?”

Sabrina kept her head tilted to the side but there was a faint thoughtful look. “That was the girl that challenged me twice? She was very… annoying,” Sabrina said, settling on the word.

I bobbed my head up and down. "Yeah, I’ve spoken about her before. She joined in with my baseball coaching. She’s the one that mostly talks with me and works with me to develop my Dark Aura.”

“Hmmm is that so?” Sabrina said, eyeing me with a hint of suspicion. Her psychic touches turned into prods as she poked me in the back of the head and sides but still gently.

“Yeah, anyway, she’s going to take point in this cause it will keep most of the attention off me… for a given value of most,”I said, only to squirm as she found a ticklish spot.

“Does that hurt?” Sabrina said, reaching towards my ribs where she’d ‘touched’. I turned my body and put my hands around my ribs protectively. She narrowed her eyes. “Brock, if you are hurt it does not serve to hide your injuries.”

I coughed. “It’s not that I’m hurt, it’s just that… it was ticklish…” I said sheepishly.

Sabrina blinked, and for a second, her lips twitched upwards. Then I felt something brush against my ribs. “Heh!” I said before I could stop myself.

I twisted away and eyed her. “Stop that!”

She coughed, but her smile was much more noticeable. “I am merely checking you over,” she said. Her eyes were zeroed in on the spot that had caused the reaction, and I could see her tucking that little fact away in her mind.

“Yeah, sure you are. I’m perfectly fi—” I stopped as I recalled how she’d reacted to that particular wording back during that whole Lance drama. Her eyes had narrowed slightly. “I’m well. Healthy and fit.”

She tilted her head. “But something still bothers you?”

I clicked my tongue for a moment before nodding slowly. “Yeah. The people who did this. We caught them, but the person behind them… they’re the ones I want to do something about.”

“You know who they are?” she said. I hesitated for a second too long and Sabrina leaned in. “Brock? Do you know who they are?”

I sighed and glanced around. “This is probably best explained sitting down.”

I claimed a spot under a tree with a nice-looking patch of soft grass, only for Sabrina to claim the spot right next to me. I gave her a look as she inched towards me. She was less than subtle as she adjusted herself until she was leaning into me.

She raised an eyebrow. “Yes, Brock?”

Zephyr started laughing at me and I raised his pokeball to return him, leaving just Sabrina and I in the clearing. I sighed and tried to ignore how nice it was to have her leaning into me.

“I’ve known for a while that Giovanni has been in charge of Team Rocket… or suspicions really. He just seemed too… well off compared to everyone else. He’s a gym leader for the prestige it brings him and control, not for the duty of seeing trainers ready for the League.”

“... It is strange that only a few pass his challenge each year,” Sabrina mused. “I… had always thought he simply used as strong a pokemon as he feasibly could. He doesn’t accept anything less than people that have six badges to their name.”

“That’s some of it, but he’s sitting on the Viridian Gym. It’s the final stopping point for a lot of people if they want to stick to the cultural route of unification that is undisputed. He should still be facing a sizeable number of trainers and you know how some trainers are.”

Sabrina shivered slightly, which said more than words could.

I nodded. “Yeah exactly. The normal ones will just keep coming at you until they can eke out a win. Sometimes by just ramming their heads at the problem.”

“Sometimes literally,” said Sabrina. I opened my mouth for that story only to shake my head. That wasn’t what I should be focusing on right now.

“Right well, the numbers were probably the… no. That’s a lie. I’ve always been suspicious of the man. The numbers were something that stood out to me, however. With my inclusion to the Guardians I have a lot more information that I can pick through… well a ton of things honestly.” I rubbed my chin.

“The Guardians know a lot about the man. Did you know that during the war he fought on the front lines until he was injured? When he healed up he found a position as a quartermaster and he always seemed to have extra rations or supplies for people that worked with him.”

I had a suspicion about that. Had he been stealing the supplies and then gifting it on as something only he could deliver? Was he giving people something they were already owed? The Guardians sadly didn’t have those answers, but it stood out to me as something someone would do if they had no issues with corruption. It was never picked up on as the man had a clean service record and was praised for his battling ability. He was never suspected of corruption or theft. But what if it was just a trading of favours?

Small little things that would have been harmless, until they started to build up and up and up. Then again, that was my just thoughts on what evils Giovanni could have done. There was no evidence.

There never seemed to be evidence. Just a slew of praise and then advancement for the man.

His ascension to Gym Leader had been something that had the backing of the local council, once more with glowing praise and he ran a tight ship with no incidents in Viridian. This gave Viridian its reputation as the safest town in all of Indigo.

Part of me wondered if that wasn’t just because he had all the angles covered. If you operated in Viridian he’d know.

I told Sabrina all of this and she sat and listened to me without commenting. She simply thought on my words and frowned slightly.

“So he is highly connected, and you don’t think you can just strip him of his position? If I went with you we could…” Sabrina trailed off at the shake of my head.

“I… I don’t think I could beat him… even with you at my side. The Guardians are a fairly broad organisaiton but from what I’ve gathered, they're sort of passive as long as Kanto itself is stronger. Giovanni, as messed up as it is, is part of Kanto. Hopefully, this raid will be a wake-up call to them.”

I also wasn’t confident in our victory considering that Giovanni would have access to Mewtwo… “Plus he still has all of Team Rocket, which has Rocket Executives, who are Ace trainer equivalents as far as I can tell, and countless grunts he’d be able to call on. If they were all Proton’s level I don’t think they’d be too much of an issue depending on how many there are.” I shrugged.

“Maybe if we had all the Gym Leaders… but I think some of his connections might include our fellow Gym Leaders,” I sighed, slumping a little as I did.

Sabrina stayed silent but leaned in and tapped me on the shoulder. “You’re talking about Blaine?”

I bobbed my head in a side-to-side action. “Him and Grey.”

“Grey?”

I nodded. “He was quick to speak up for Giovanni a lot, and he was also quick to put himself next to Giovanni during our last meetings… It felt like he was almost in his pocket.”

Sabrina tilted her head. “I… also got that impression, but I thought that was my psychic abilities only being able to read his barest of surface emotions due to his mental protection.”

I shrugged. “You don’t just need psychic abilities to read a person.”

“Hmmm,” Sabrina said, watching me closely as she twirled a leaf down in front of us.

I paused for a moment before picking up where we'd left off in our conversation. "Grey, I don’t think, is at our level... But I’ll have to wait and see how strong he actually is. He’s running a Steel-type gym, so he should have some strong pokemon but we both know that strength isn’t everything.”

“Blaine is strong,” Sabrina said.

“Yeah, he is a former Elite Four member... but I don’t think he’s only dangerous for his pokemon abilities but also his mind.” I worked my jaw and considered how to brooch the next issue.

“The information I have on Giovanni is good, but there’s an interesting tidbit that the Guardians don’t possess much information about his parents. Giovanni’s father is unknown while his mother was noted as the boss of Rocket before Giovanni. She was said to merely run it like a business but she was also highly elusive and careful in her dealings. They have conflicting pictures of her. The only other thing they have in regards to her is that she had a standing bounty on any and all information of Legendary pokemon.”

“...” Sabrina glanced up at me but remained quiet.

“Specifically the Psychic pokemon known as Mew. A Psychic pokemon thought to have tremendous power, enough to cause massive storms and fire giant psychic attacks.”

“What does it look like?” said her interest clear to me.

“It’s said to be pink… or blue,” I added after recalling the strange mew that appeared in the cartoon credits or had that been a shiny? I pushed those thoughts aside. “The point I wanted to make is that Blaine has been working on the genetic fossil resurrection machine. A machine which only needs a strand of intact DNA from a fossil to create a pokemon.”

“And if they could get a strand of Mew DNA…” Sabrina sat up. “Do you think they could control a Legendary?”

“I think when you’re focused enough, in this world, you can achieve great things if you put your mind to it. Great things... which doesn't mean they have to be only good in nature."

I gritted my teeth. “They probably have enough money to throw at the issue and the ego to try. They aren’t going to care if they should.”

Sabrina nodded before tilting her head. “Have you spoken to the other people in the Guardians about this?”

I splayed out my hands. “With what evidence? I’m new to them and should be working with them through their methods. To them, Giovanni is someone that is a known quantity. He invests money and builds places up, which all seems good, but it comes with a price.” I rubbed a hand through my hair and caught the leaf that Sabrina was playing with in front of my face deftly.

“I've mentioned my suspicions before. I think I just want to do something about him… but I’m not sure what. He’s dangerous.” I said with a sigh, releasing the leaf to float off in the breeze.

“...but you still told me?” Sabrina said. There was an implied ‘because you trusted me’ in her words. The small pause told me that much.

“Yeah…” I blushed. “I didn’t want you to get hurt doing anything against Giovanni without knowing the risks.”

She tapped me on the nose. "Hmmm, you trusted me.”

I glanced down and found her watching me with a sincere smile. “Yeah, I do.”

She sighed happily and laid her head on my shoulder. “Good.”

“Sorry…” I could feel her glance at me with a silent question. “For tearing off like I did. I should have thought to call you, but a lot of the time it just feels like a me issue and not something I should drag you into…” I licked my lips. “Also, I was pretty mad. I wanted to chase them down.”

“And hurt them?” she said, her words were quiet and oh so careful.

I blinked in surprise. “What? No!” I said, surprised at what she thought I would do. “Or well… I wanted them locked up. So I wanted to hurt their organisation, but not them as people.”

“Good,” she said, patting me on the chest. “I’ve been reading your books as well for when the Guardians contact me, and I was worried you might have let the dark aura affect you.” She patted me again. “You can be very cold when you’re in action. Sometimes I wonder…”

I glanced down at her, “What?”

"No, it’s nothing,” she said as she used her power to raise my arm to encircle her. I let it happen and tugged her in closer before letting the issue rest.

We stayed like that for a little while. The wind moved through the clearing, and I remembered a time before all the drama occurred in my life when I’d been on the road and we’d sit next to each other like this and just enjoy the moment. It felt nostalgic, and I found myself missing those moments.

“This is nice, like when we were on our journey,” Sabrina said, mirroring my thoughts.

“I was just thinking that,” I said.

She glanced up. “... I still can’t read your thoughts.”

“Oh…” I said. What else could I say about that? She didn’t say anything more but we didn’t return to the quiet, instead, she sat up.

“So what do you want to do now?” She tilted her head and shifted so she could watch me better. If this had been anyone else, I might have thought they were showing themselves off but not Sabrina. She didn’t act that way.

I shook my head slightly. “Well what I want to do is…” I coughed. "Well, I want to slug Giovanni in the face, but I'm never going to be able to get away with that. I want… I want my family and my gym to be safe places. So…”

I grasped the air in front of me. "It just seems like he's a little too... big for me to do anything about..." I said lamely.

“Brock, when some issues are too large to deal with completely, we should break them into smaller, manageable pieces.”

“That’s… actually good advice. Thanks,” I said.

“I got it from a book,” said Sabrina factually.

“Oh,” I coughed. “Of course you did.”

I smiled as I considered the issue. The Guardians were hesitant to deal with Giovanni, which honestly suited the man far too much for my liking. Previous actions of protecting Kanto didn’t mean he had not done it for self-serving purposes. He was now deeply entrenched. He also most likely had a few Gym Leaders supporting him. Not to mention the whole Mewtwo issue. So… where did that leave me?

With a big man that had a lot of friends. I shook my head. No, I couldn’t think like that. If I did nothing he might think he could get away with things like this. It was like I told the kids. Don’t start fights but don’t be pushed around either. Stand up for yourself. So… how did I do that?

“I want to warn him off… or get him to back off and realise he can’t just do what he wants with me,” I said aloud.

“And how would you do that?” Sabrina asked curiously.

I raised my hand to scrub at my face. My eyes caught on the torn threads of my sleeve where a Rocket Grunt had Rock Throw’d me. I blinked and felt an idea forming in my head.

“What’s the heaviest rock you can throw?” I said as a plan formed in my mind.

Sabrina didn’t say anything. Instead, her eyes glowed and a rock the size of house rose up above the treeline. I hummed, watching her twist and float the rock around. A rock that heavy…

I really shouldn’t. I really, really, shouldn’t.

Fuck it, I was gonna do it.

I told Sabrina what I wanted to do and her smile turned vicious and pleased. Like a Meowth that had just caught and roasted a pidgey to go with its cream.

My smile was dark as Sabrina teleported us close to Viridian Gym to begin the plan.

“Can you sense Giovanni?” I said as I called up my dark energy.

“No, there are currently only two trainers at the gym and some cleaners. I shall avoid them,” said Sabrina as she lifted up a rock the size of a small caravan.

“Yeah, that’d be good,” I said.

We were far enough out that it should be impossible to spot us. Still, it wasn’t the cameras that I was worried about. It was having to deal with Mewtwo who would later be housed in Giovanni’s gym. I doubted that was the case right now but I still needed to be careful.

If Giovanni wasn’t here though chances were reduced that Mewtwo was here.

I was rolling the dice with where Mewtwo might be.

Just in case I was wrong about Mewtwo’s location, and he was at the Viridian gym I channelled my dark energy and held it around myself and tried to will it around Sabrina.

Sabrina sighted up on the Viridian Gym and threw her rock before picking up another one.

When we got back to Pewter Gym there were a number of reporters standing around the back of the gym. The police had blocked it off with crime scene tape and were holding the reporters back while Rocko and Celia stood nearby.

Stephen and Bianca were being interviewed to the side by a pair of police. Bianca kept gesticulating at the Purugly with strange-looking eyes that must have been her Ditto. More than a few reporters had cameras and microphones pointed directly at her.

Ah, that was going to be… well it was going to be all over the news. Team Rocket had access to a never seen before pokemon.

Rachel found me from my spot by the window. “Brock!” she said, rushing over to me only to pause as Sabrina remained standing next to me. She gaped at Sabrina before blushing.

Sabrina blinked before huffing. I coughed to pull Rachel out of whatever fantasy she’d dredged up. “What's up Rachel?”

“Oh! Right! There are all these reporters, and there’s all the damage, and you couldn’t be found, and some woman turned up that said she’d been with you, and only Celia could vouch for her!” she spoke in a great rush of words.

“Karen, right?” I said after thinking about it for a bit. Rachel nodded her head.

“Yeah, she was with me having a spar with some of my pokemon.” I raised a hand. “We’re going to focus on how she helped me fight them off before leading a daring pursuit of Team Rocket.”

Rachel tilted her head, and I could imagine the question marks forming above her head.

“We’re trying to give her the story and fame. I don’t want or need it.” Rachel gaped as though she couldn’t understand the desire not to… Oh right. I put a hand on her shoulder. ”We’re already going to be in the news and probably overshadow her without trying.”

Rachel sighed in relief as though someone had threatened to take away a box of Growlithe puppies only for another box to show up for her. Sabrina coughed, and it sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

Rachel turned to her. “Why is Gym Leader Sabrina here!?”

“I was checking up on Brock,” said Sabrina. She gave Rachel a smile. Huh, was that progress? She was being friendly from the get go?

“I might have to do that more often in future,” said Sabrina.

I blinked. My eyes slid from Rachel to Sabrina. She’d picked something up from Rachel. What was it? Or was I just imagining the ominous undertones of what Sabrina had just said? No, there had definitely been some undertones.

“Sabrina… what’s wrong?” I said carefully.

“Nothing,” she said before patting me on the side of the face while looking at Rachel. Rachel’s eyes widened.

This felt very… territorial of Sabrina. I caught her hand before it could withdraw. “Sabrina, nothing is happening between Rachel and I.”

Sabrina nodded in agreement with me. “No, of course not.” She patted my hand with her other hand and then slipped out of my hold. “I’ll be back later,” she said placidly before teleporting away.

I sighed and looked at Rachel, who had wide eyes. She beamed at me. “You and Gym Leader Sabrina!?” she gushed.

I sighed. “No, just… it’s complicated! And no.”

Rachel smirked in a manner that screamed ‘Suuuuuuuure’ In a loud disbelieving way.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Let’s just… deal with the press. What do I need to be aware of?”

Rachel perked up and began to spew out a deluge of information that I was aware of as well as the significance of having such a large criminal act performed against a gym. Apparently, this hadn’t happened in decades and the only comparison people had was to the war… which might get worse with what Sabrina and I had just done.

Oh well. It’d just make the shot across Giovanni’s bow all the louder, hopefully.

Giovanni took a deep pull of his cigar. In his other hand, he raised a martini glass towards the newly raised High Gym Leader Yuji of the Orange islands.

The man raised a glass of his own from the other side of the pool of the new resort that Givanni had just finalised the purchase of. Pummelo was a small town in terms of Kanto sizes, but it had a wonderful tropical island and was ripe for further development. With the local authority approving many of their development plans Giovanni could see a bright future for business and tourism in the area. He might even bring Yuji into the fold with an Executive position.

Make him a leader unto himself of the Orange Archipelago operations? Giovanni liked the idea of that but it wouldn’t do to count his Exeggcute before he could scramble them. Still, the future was looking bright.

A buzzing drew his attention to his pocket, where he’d deposited his transceiver; unlike the thin models that people wore on the wrist, his was a multifunction tool and when he flicked it, a face appeared on the screen. Around him, a small field of privacy was created, allowing him to talk without fear of anyone overhearing him.

“Yes?” he said without preamble.

The face on the other side smiled waxenly. “Sir there has been a… development with the Pewter City Gym. One of the Executives ordered a raid on the Gym.”

“...What?!” said Giovanni sharply as he felt his brow twitch. Did they not watch that boy’s match against Lance of all people? Or was that the problem? Too much greed for them to resist? “Who?” he said instead to his secretary.

“Executive Sham sir.”

Giovanni drew up his cigar and took a furious puff. “She’s enjoyed my mother’s favour for too long. She needs to understand that I run the organisation now!” he gritted out. “Strip her of her rights and access immediately and tell her she will report to me for reallocation.” Giovanni exhaled a cloud of smoke.

When he drew in another breath, he scrutinised the woman on the other side of the line. “What were the results of this “raid”?”

“One of the lower-ranked executives, Proton, led the attack. From what footage we did get, the pokemon were alone at the time and fell back, but did so with discipline. Gym Leader Brock has obviously planned for this as a possibility. We saw Gym Leader Brock emerge from the plateau at the centre of the free range area he has.”

The woman adjusted her glasses. “Gym Leader Brock should have been on a training exercise with his gym trainers but instead responded within minutes of the raid’s start. He was sighted with another woman…” Giovanni raised an eyebrow and wondered why his secretary made a special emphasis on that before waving for her to continue.

“We have identified her as Ace trainer Karen. She came second to Lance a number of years ago but rebuffed any sponsor deals when they were offered to her by us or others.”

“Hmmm,” said Giovanni. They'd picked up a number of successful trainers and been able to lead them to various positions thanks to their sponsorship. Yuji was merely the most recent example. “What then?”

“The raid was soundly run off as far as we can tell. Gym Leader Brock spotted our flying camera and sent his Aerodactyl to engage with it… we have yet to recover the camera or pokemon.”

“Hmmm, very well, where is Proton? I will talk with him. I assume he…” Giovanni trailed off as The secretary winced. Giovanni pointedly set his martini glass down before he reflexively crushed it.

He could tell he wasn’t going to like the answer to his next question. “What happened to Executive Proton?”

The secretary coughed. “He has been taken into custody along with all of the members that were at the Pewter facility.”

Giovanni’s brow furrowed. “How?!”

“Apparently Ace trainer Karen was able to pursue our escape vehicle without being detected and then led a counter-attack on the facility. It’s…it’s all on the news now sir?” she said in a rush.

Giovanni turned from the poolside and stormed into his private office. He snapped the phone shut as he did so. He dimmed the lights and activated a television to watch as the Kanto news covered a ‘special’. On it, Gym Leader Brock was smiling like nothing was wrong. His slightly ruffled appearance and the sizeable hole in his gym’s surrounding wall made it clear that wasn’t the case.

“—thank the police for their timely follow-up with securing the gym alongside Pewter Gym’s own trainers. I want to assure everyone watching at home that the damage to the gym is purely cosmetic. No pokemon were seriously injured or stolen from us.”

The young man rubbed the back of his head. “I would also like to thank Nurse Joy for taking care of what few injuries there were!”

“Gym Leader Brock! Was it true that you were in the gym with a woman?” shouted one reporter before the others could even open their mouths. It didn’t stop a cry of ‘Another one!’ from being called out by a few reporters.

Brock was unphased by the looks of envy that were shot his way. “The trainer in question was Ace Trainer Karen. We were putting our pokemon through a friendly sparring match to see how they would be before the next circuit starts up. They took point after Team Rocket were repelled from our gym.” Brock then made a show of stepping to the side and directing questions to a grey-haired woman that Giovanni thought he recognised from somewhere.

‘Karen’ took over for a while, and Giovanni listened furiously as she spoke of following the Rocket blimp in hot pursuit and alerting the police after setting up observers. They then moved in when it became obvious the perps were attempting to flee. Giovanni made a note to have the Pewter informants protected in some manner as well as discreetly thank them for doing their jobs. It seemed they would have been enough, but Karen appeared to be a wily woman… His eyes flicked back to Brock who had remained standing off to the side. Still present but no longer the centre of attention to many of the reporters.

He doubted that would remain the case for long. When Karen referenced the police, a Jenny stepped forward, but Karen notably held the centre spot, and Jenny had to edge around her to gain the reporters’ attention.

“Officer Jenny! What do you say to the allegations that this recent raid is a show of rising crime levels?”

“The police force is working tirelessly to protect and serve the citizens!” said Jenny sternly.

Giovanni rolled his eyes at the cliche answer. Stick a Jenny from anywhere in front of a camera and you usually got the same dogma. That family bred true, and he wouldn’t be surprised if “police” was the first word of baby Jenny’s across the world. Linear thinkers, the lot of them.

“Is this not the worst criminal event in years!? Surely you can see that these scum are growing bolder!” another reporter followed up.

Giovanni sat back and felt himself starting to relax and, dare he say it, enjoy the show.

Jenny opened her mouth, only for a loud ringing to occur. A number of people jostled about, and there were a number of scowls on people’s faces as they turned, only for them to pause as Brock raised his transceiver up and answered it.

“Brock! There’s been another…” the volume of the call dropped away but Giovanni leaned forward, and so did all of the reporters as Brock spoke with someone.

Nothing but the first part came through but the call was short and Brock gestured to the front when he hung up, his face a stern visage where before he’d been smiling.

He raised a hand and cleared his throat. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid I just received news that my Gym was not the only site attacked today.”

The reporters all gasped, and Jenny looked stunned. Giovanni raised an eyebrow.

Somewhere else of his had been attacked?

Had another Team Rocket Executive realised how much attention Sham was going to draw and decided to perform a dual operation? He’d applaud them if successful but only after making it abundantly clear they needed to inform him of operations regarding the gyms of Indigo going forwards.

Brock continued. “It appears that while Pewter city has been able to stave off the advances of Team Rocket, a more destructive raid has taken place against the Viridian Gym. It appears that multiple entry points have been created and at this point, no representatives can be found to comment on what has been stolen.”

Giovanni bolted upright. “WHAT!?” he bellowed.

Jenny hurriedly tried to cut Brock off but Brock ignored her silent pleas to stop talking.

Brock looked right into the camera as he spoke. “I’d like to extend an offer of support to Gym Leader Giovanni—” Giovanni didn’t hear anything else. Instead, he had lifted the transceiver on his desk and stabbed the autodial for his gym.

When the trainer on duty answered, Giovanni practically snarled as he spoke, “Report!”

The woman swallowed. “Ah… I only just got here and was about to call you, sir! Uhm the report is that ah… it seems a number of boulders have been rammed through the doors… the entire front and rear entrances are exposed, with some internal doorways being torn open as well… I’m sorry sir but the cameras didn’t pick anything up!”

“Hnnnn,” Giovanni said as a vein throbbed in his forehead. “I will be returning immediately. Have things ready for my arrival, Juliette,” he said before hanging up on the woman.

Giovanni stared straight ahead at the television. On it, Brock continued to talk only for him to step back from the reporters and let a now much more frazzled-looking Jenny step forward.

Giovanni’s mind ran in circles. Executive Sham had been acting without orders and most likely wanted to present her operation as a fait accompli. Was someone else acting within the organisation? He’d need to scour the Executives, Sham most of all. Was she a patsy or a lurking threat to his control of the organisation?

On the television, reporters levelled their microphones at Jenny.

“Officer Jenny! What can you say to that!? Nothing like this has occurred since the war! Can we expect more raids and criminal acts?!”

Giovanni found himself stumped as he recalled that yes, things had been that bad at the start of the war when he was a boy. The situation was much more different than then however. But then again… What if this was an international incident? Giovanni felt an old fear clench his heart. Was this someone attacking the perceived strongest gym in Kanto?

This… This was big. Team Rocket’s raid had suddenly gone from an easily dealt with spot fire to a potential inferno.

This would cause a lot of changes… to everything!

Team Rocket would need more single cells and more deniability. Some plans would have to be scrapped and others… other more silent operations would need to be re-examined. Trainers looking for backing would need to be more tightly monitored and screened going forwards. That didn’t mean that it should stop, indeed, perhaps it should be intensified.

A message came through an hour later as he was boarding an express jet back to Kanto. Giovanni glanced at it and rubbed his chin in thought.

“So, Brock is going to host a Gym Leader’s meeting at his Gym?” Giovanni said with a hum of thought. He accepted a drink from the flight stewardess before waving her away. He didn’t need her lingering near him as he thought over what this would mean.

It seemed the boy wasn’t going to wait for anyone else to call the meeting. And with two gyms attacked a meeting would have had to have been called eventually. Giovanni stared out over the ocean as the flight accelerated north to Kanto. He had a lot to do and very little time to do it.