*** *** Character traits *** *** 12. Giovanni Age: 40 Gender: Male Looks: Tends to grin slightly, and he only hides the grin when he gets soberly angry. Bald head that still has a little bit of black hair left on the back of the head, broad and tall build. Face scarred and burned seriously from what happened with Mewtwo. Gray jacket and trousers. Friends: He seems to like Jameson and the late Richard's style, but nobody really trusts him. Enemies: ? Personality: Gets angry at appropriate times. Otherwise, he suppresses all hormonal urges to be happy or angry or down. *** *** *** *** Chapter 14 Route 1- 0:00 Misty and Giovanni were at the middle of the highway between Pallet town and Veridian city, Misty sitting down beside the road and Giovanni standing beside a rock. Golduck was sleeping beside Misty, but it seemed almost like it had one eye open, it was so protective. Giovanni looked down at the rock, and kicked it hard. That's it, Misty thought, Giovanni's finally lost it. Misty stood up surprised when she found out that Giovanni wasn't kicking the rock out of anger, and that was when the rock simply fell down and uncovered a hole with a ladder mounted on it. Golduck woke up, and stood up to attention, facing Giovanni. Misty cocked an eyebrow. "Giovanni, now it's time to explain things." Giovanni was standing up, rubbing his chin and wondering about how to express the situation to Misty. "Misty, there is something I want from one particular rocket." But Misty was persistent. She wanted the information shaken out of Giovanni quickly and specifically, so Giovanni sighed and decided to continue, "I let a rocket named Turin 'borrow' one of my Alakazams before I left team rocket. He has used them for many things in service of team rocket's underground base. I left team rocket a little while ago and Turin has kept my Alakazam. I have to either take my Alakazam or kill Turin trying." Misty backed off a little. "Isn't that dangerous?" Giovanni shrugged a little. "If I'm not back within 24 hours, leave this place and forget about me. I want you to watch this exit for me." Giovanni handed Misty a gun and some rubber gloves. Misty put the rubber gloves on, and very reluctantly handled the gun. Misty was about to ask Giovanni why he was going in without a weapon, but he was already gone, in the hole, climbing down a ladder. Underground rocket base- 0:05 Giovanni reached the bottom of the ladder with well-hid nervousness. If he were to die, he would most likely kill trying to live, and he was content with that. The bottom of the ladder was in a small, poorly-lit gray room with a door facing the ladder. Nobody was at the bottom of the ladder to guard the door beside it, but there was probably a pok,mon or human that would ambush Giovanni if he opened the door without saying the password. The password changed every week, so Giovanni didn't know how to get past the door, so he simply stood by it and waited for someone to emerge... About 1 hour later Giovanni heard someone speak from behind the door. It was a male voice, and it sounded like a password: "Chansey, 2, 3, 4, listen up and listen well... I am the Walurus, you are the Eggmen." Assuming that it was a password, Giovanni opened the door, pretending that he was a guard. Someone small and with a black rocket shirt emerged. Giovanni closed the door behind the man, and Giovanni's arm grabbed the small man's neck, and Giovanni twisted his neck until it broke. Letting go of the dead man, Giovanni searched through the man's clothes and found a silenced pistol, which Giovanni equipped. Giovanni looked at the door. "Chansey, 2, 3, 4, listen up and listen well... I am the Walurus, you are the Eggmen." The door opened. Giovanni passed through and found a guard standing beside the door that he opened. Giovanni shot him, and he didn't scream, just fall lifeless to the ground. Giovanni stood beside the dead man to find a long hallway and, above the dead man, a bloodied vent system that was large enough for him to crawl through, and Giovanni opened it with his hands and stepped inside, closing it behind him. Soon enough, Giovanni was getting more and more tired as he drifted further and further into the vents. Better call it a day, he thought. Giovanni lay down from his crawling position and holstered his weapon into his clothes. Slowly and forcefully, Giovanni slept. Saffron city- 8:00 22 year-old Sabrina walked over to the gym's mess hall after her usual nap. As usual, she arrived and sat down at the same table as 'Nob' Yakamura, one of the gym's psychics, who always woke up early. Nob was eating an unusual breakfast like he normally did, this time it was from a brown bag with a large 'M' on it. "Want some?" Nob asked. "I bought some fries for you." Sabrina shrugged. "Okay. Thank you, Nob. I'll take it." Sabrina took some fries and ate them quietly. Sabrina was unusually restless. This was strange, because it was a usual day. Maybe it was because nobody was in the room but Nob and her. "I have a secret to tell you, Sabrina." Nob was bowing his head down. "What is it, Nob?" Nob looked up, his eyes suddenly completely white. "I'm not Nob. I'm Turin Trent, controlling Nob with my Alakazam. We know what you did at the Chansey ordeal." Sabrina stood up, backed off and began to retreat, but it was too late. Turin/Nob motioned his hands a little, making Sabrina fly up several feet to the ceiling and back down to the floor, breaking her neck. Sabrina was dead. Underground rocket base- 9:00 Giovanni woke up in the vents undisturbed, yawning and bringing his gun back up again. Continuing to crawl, Giovanni thought that the vents could be nearly endless, when he found a vent opening up into the ceiling of a large, bright room. Giovanni looked down at the room and found a crowd of rockets. Giovanni brought out his gun and stared at the crowd. Giovanni couldn't help but mutter, "I wander freely as a shroud, which gloats o'er light ground and shale, when all at once I saw a crowd, a host of all the rocketeers." The crowd of rockets were gathering around Jessie, who was standing up on a high platform. "Rockets," she reported, "we have a spy in our midst. The bodies of blackshirts Hansel and Erin were found near the ladder to the surface. We can't let the spy vanish off into nowhere unharmed. Because of this, we are setting out a search party for the area around the base and in the base, and we are also going to cure and hypnotize all the prisoners-" the crowd started to roar as Jessie continued, "hypnotize all the prisoners and send them out under the command of our psychic pok,mon for a helpful addition to the search party." The whiteshirts and blackshirts were completely silent, but the lower ranks were in uproar. However, Jessie was to be obeyed. Giovanni knew that was going to happen, and he shrugged it off quickly. If I find my Alakazam, Giovanni thought, it would wake up all the prisoners. And then the distraction would make well his escape. Now, Giovanni thought, where would Alakazam be? Probably in the computer core, Giovanni assumed, thinking, because the core is where Alakazam would be able to relay its helpful abilities to the rockets. If that place is the meeting room, the core would be way up ahead. Giovanni holstered his weapon and continued crawling. Pallet town- 13:35 Cassidy walked over to Ash's house with a grin. This is going to be great, she thought, Ash Ketchum, one of team rocket's greatest adversaries and it's my job to kill him? And it's an easy enough mission, too... Cassidy was undercover as a postal worker, carrying the heavy package over to the house, which she could already see. Cassidy seen Ash walking around with a girl about his age in the street beside his house. Well, Ash, Cassidy mused, guess it's your last hurrah. Ash kissed and waved goodbye to the girl as she left. Cassidy froze. Better not make myself seem too conspicuous, she thought. Ash walked over to the door to his house, opened it, and closed it behind him. Ash and the girl were now both gone, so it was time for Cassidy to make her move. Cassidy walked over to the house, conscious about her assignment and attentive. Casually, Cassidy walked up to the door of Ash's house and placed the package at the door, leaving with a smile on her face. Hey, she thought, this is going to work. Route 1- 14:55 Long after her sleep, Misty cautiously waited beside the rock for someone to emerge. I don't know why Giovanni had to get me into this, Misty mused, I've never handled a gun before in my life because I never had to. Leaning against the rock in a sitting position, with the silence-point of the pistol aiming at the air, Misty looked at the highway with deep concern that a police car would come up. Instead, something else came to view. It was not a police car, but it was a truck. It was what was in it that was bad. What was in it-was a bunch of girls jammed into the back, and someone in the driving seat who Misty hoped wasn't what she thought he was. The truck stopped. The driver came out the door, looking devilish but sober. It was Gary. Gary, followed by all the girls. They didn't cheer Gary, strangely enough, but instead they just looked at Misty. "What's a league top 4 lady doing with a pistol in hand beside a hole? I wonder..." Gary stood his ground. Misty suddenly remembered that the reason why she came to Cerulean city in the first place was to challenge Gary to a pok,mon battle. However, now was not the time. Misty thought carefully about what to say next. "What are you doing here, Gary?" Misty blurted out those words, already regretting saying them. "Well, I'm off to Cerulean city to meet some women that are better-looking than you. I'll challenge them to a pok,mon match-and a flirting contest. Who are they? Your sisters, of course!" Gary had a lot of nerve to speak like that to an armed person. However, Misty sat down by the rock she was sitting on previously, seeming undisturbed and not talking back. Gary didn't mind this. "Well, why are yo-" But he was interrupted by the sounds of feet hitting metal, which made everyone stop thinking for a second and look at where the sounds came from-from within the hole. Someone with an orange shirt with a bright red "R" in the center emerged from the hole, bringing out a pistol with him. He didn't seem to see Misty. He noticed Gary. The young rocket raised his weapon, and he aimed it at Gary's head. "State your name and designation." "What?" Gary looked questioning for once. "You have 10 seconds before I shoot. 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5..." Misty raised her gun in front of her and prepared to fire. Although she never handled a weapon before, now was the crucial moment to use one. "... 4... 3... 2..."