Rapture

Inspiration

Blue took in the site of the captured phantom. It looked scared and meek.

“No… it wasn’t meant to be caught like this… Why…?”

Red laughed “Like you haven’t tried to capture Mew before; you’re just jealous that I captured a Pokémon you were never able to!”

Blue took another look at the saddened Mew and deep down just knew something wasn’t right here… “Just look at it Red… Has any other Pokémon you’ve caught ever looked like that?”

Red took a deep look at the Mew and grinned, “It’s because Mew only understands half of its purpose now…” Both Mew and Gary looked at Red questioningly.

“What are you talking about?”

“Mew has a destined purpose you know? And Mew knows Team Rocket intends to use him for that purpose… What he doesn’t understand is why.” Red patted Mew’s head consolingly.

Blue shook his head, “You’re not making any sense, what the hell are you talking about?”

Red’s eyes shifted over to glance in Blue’s direction, “Don’t tell me the grandson of the famed Professor Oak has no idea what Mew’s potential is…”

Blue looked to the ground not saying a thing.

“Fine, keep to yourself then…” Red held the Poké Ball up, “Return!” Mew began to glow and was transferred back into the ball.

The two boys from Pallet just stared at each other in silence for another for another minute. “Fine keep to yourself, you rot in here alone for as long as you want…” Red waved and left.

“And so the trail has gone cold…” Giovanni spoke softly as Sabrina delivered the news.

“I’m sorry sir, but apparently the bunker our spies had been monitoring was set up just to act as a decoy… We have no idea now where they have actually gone.” Sabrina reported.

“That Samuel is still as sly as ever… Going to all that effort to hide the girl from me… no matter…” Giovanni checked a few items on his PDA and looked to be making notes of the matter at hand. “What of the other items on the table?”

“With our targets in hiding it should be a simple task now to bring down Northern Kanto’s defenses and secure a trade route to Sinnoh.” Koga went over his analysis of the changes in both Pewter and Cerulean Cities since their last violent advance. “Security has definitely been reinforced in the areas in question… There are more police forces as well as allied trainers returning to both cities. After closely monitoring the Pokémon activity in the areas I can safely say that our rigorous training schedule has put our troops on a much more advanced level than the trainers in Northern Kanto. There should be no reason left we cannot cleanly sweep the area with a second assault. The Cerulean gym leader has even been quite reclusive since the last attack indicating the forces are not fully recovered.”

“Excellent…” Giovanni looked over the photos and video feeds of the areas. “What about our remote lab facilities?”

“With Blaine still comatose Cinnabar Island was easily converted into a new Team Rocket facility. All of Blaine’s technological developments are now property of Team Rocket… unfortunately all of your requested experiments involving reanimation of deanimated fossilized Pokémon have failed…” Giovanni nodded waving Sabrina on to the next topic.

“Special plane clothes ops have been stationed in the areas in which we have facilities in place to be able to guard and respond at a moment’s notice,” Surge pushed his reports forward. “So far we have yet to have a single suspicious incident reported at any of our new facilties.”

“Fortunate indeed…” Giovanni took the report from Surge and pushed it aside. “What of our other priority items?”

Sabrina cleared her throat, “I believe I have located the whereabouts of one of the phantom Pokémon. Jirachi has apparently been in captivity for some time and is currently owned by a malicious group in Hoenn whose operations are headed by Guile Hideout, or also known as the “Armored Man”. We have sent several negotiators to make some kind of arrangement of acquisition or trade.”

“Excellent… What of the other phantoms?” All three generals looked down as no reports had come through for quite some time on the other Pokémon.

Just then the door to the conference room was slammed open and Red strode in looking more confident than usual, “Oh good I’m not too late!” the boy smiled.

Koga scowled disapprovingly at the boy, “Just very late, I’m surprised you came back at all…”

“I made sure everyone who needed to know I was going to be late was aware,” Red winked at Giovanni who smiled smugly back at him.

Koga shook his head in defeat, “Do you have anything important for the meeting… Red?”

“As a matter of fact…” Red slyly approached the table and set his hand upon its smooth surface, “I think you may have all just been talking about this…” Red grinned and stepped back leaving a Poké Ball perched and still in the center.

The generals started whispering amongst themselves wondering if the balls contents could truly be what Red was insinuating it was. Giovanni smiled confidently and reached over to press the release button on the ball. In a flash of light Mew appeared before the five occupants of the room and floated about slowly.

“Amazing…” Sabrina was the first to express her admiration of Red to accomplish this feat on his own.

Surge and Koga eventually nodded and conceded that Red had accomplished something they had all failed to do time and time again.

“Most excellent… One down… three to go…” Giovanni grinned wider, his plans finally taking shape… Now it was only a matter of time…

Giovanni turned off the drill as he finished mounting the final bracket. Red handed him the Plaque with the Aerodactyl fossil seated securely behind a protective layer of glass. On the plaque with it was a photo and tribute to the fallen Pokémon.

Giovanni hung the plaque high on the wall and after straightening it out took a step back to admire it with Red. He put his arm around the boy’s shoulder and kissed the top of his head. “I still have a group of scientists working on Blain’s defossilizer trying to uncover some means of restoring Aero for you. So far they haven’t been able to restore a Pokémon with its previous memories and abilities intact. If they find a way though there’s no reason…”

“You shouldn’t worry about it,” Red interrupted him. “I need to stop being careless… and this is my reminder…” Red closed his eyes and took in a deep sigh.

A faint smile crossed Giovanni’s face, “Alright, but in that case you’re going to need a new dedicated flyer. We do have several Pidgeot available of course but I thought perhaps a Dragonite or Skarmony would better suit you?”

A grin finally came over Red and he chuckled, “Actually I already had the perfect idea for a new flyer.”

The same grin crossed over Giovanni, “Oh?”

“Yes but I’m going to need Rayquaza’s help to set the example…”

Giovanni nodded, “I’m liking this already…” Giovanni pinned Red against his own bed and began to kiss him vigorously.

Red laughed, but looked a little uncomfortable, “I know it turns you on and all when I have a good idea, but it’s still early and we both have things to do before bed.”

Giovanni noticed something seemed odd about Red’s tone of voice, but decided not to bring it up, “Alright, I’ll let you get to work. Come see me tonight.”

Red smiled and cupped Giovanni’s face and kissed him softly on the lips, “Yes boss,” he laughed.

Giovanni let Red be and returned to his office. Once alone red sank to the floor and buried his face in his hands. He couldn’t tell Giovanni how he felt… Not yet… Not after what Surge did to him so fresh in his memory. He took a deep breath just wanting a little more time to sort everything out… then things would be normal again.

Eying his belt through his fingers, Red grabbed it in a rush along with Rayquaza’s ball to put his plans into action. The best way Red could think of to get over the conflicts in his head was to train even harder. Maybe then he could prove his worth again…


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