Chapter 43

Giovanni has had a cruel, mischievous grin over the last several days. From the window in his office, he has been watching Dr. Zager, and his people slowly build the machine he desires for his future plans involving Arceus. As he pets his Persian while watching, a twisted sense of giddiness fills his body with every bit of progress, his minions make to reach his ultimate goal. He lifts his free hand and half closes it, imagining he's holding the Gieldanstone while Arceus is positioned where he wants it to be inside the large contraption.

His moment of daydreaming is interrupted, however, when he hears a beeping sound coming from his intercom. He groans softly in annoyance and turns around to his desk to answer it.

"Yes, Matori, what is it?" He asks.

"Agent Basker has arrived, sir," Matori answers through the speakers. "He wishes to speak with you privately before he joins Dr. Zager and his team."

Giovanni frowns seriously and slowly takes a deep breath before begrudgingly saying, "Send him in."

"Yes, boss," Matori replies.

The door opens to reveal Agent Basker entering the room, wearing a long, black coat with a red R on the upper left side. The cyborg man walks over to Giovanni's desk and salutes, firmly saying, "Sir!"

"Agent Basker, you took longer to return than ordered," Giovanni says plainly. "I hope you have a reason to not already be helping Dr. Zager on the project."

"Yes, sir, I do," Agent Basker says confidently. "I made some concerning discoveries before leaving Kalos that I feel I must discuss with you privately. Specifically, discoveries involving the team you sent to find the Gieldanstone."

Giovanni frowns, suspicious that Agent Basker is childishly trying to defy his decision for Jessie, James, and Meowth to be on their mission just like Matori.

"Go on," he says.

Agent Basker nods and rolls up the left sleeve of his coat to reveal his robot arm. He takes out a long cable from inside the palm of his mechanical hand and extends it before attaching it to the back of Giovanni's computer. His red mechanical eye starts blinking rapidly as a holographic screen appears in front of the leader of Team Rocket, showing a crowd of people with a man in a lab coat is giving medals to a couple of teenagers.

"What is this? What am I looking at?" Giovanni asks impatiently.

"This is news footage of these kids being declared the heroes of Kalos," Agent Basker says. "From several sources, I've been told that they are the people who are actually responsible for Team Flare's defeat."

"So? There's no proof that they defeated them, and Jessie, James, and Meowth didn't," Giovanni rebukes.

"Except for this security footage I eventually found outside of Team Flare headquarters," Agent Basker says.

The image changes to a helicopter where a professor and two of the teenagers, a short red-haired girl and a honey blonde girl with a Braixen infiltrate the base, followed by a TV crew. It cuts to a clip inside the building where the group is blocked by a pair of Team Flare members. Suddenly, the TV crew jump in to remove their clothes to reveal Jessie, James, and Meowth in their Team Rocket uniforms. James is saying something to the honey blonde girl, and she nods before leaving in the other direction with the red-haired girl and the professor.

The image then changes to other videos involving a little girl calming down a raging Zygarde, a boy in a blue jumpsuit using a robot to destroy Team Flare's machine and even the Hoenn Champion, Steven Stone taking down several of Team Flare's Pokemon with his Pokemon. With each video, it slowly becomes clear to Giovanni that the Team Rocket Trio barely did anything to defeat Team Flare or Lysander. When the videos are over, the hologram turns off, and Giovanni turns to Agent.

"So, you are trying to prove that those three are not to be trusted," he says bluntly.

"I think I would be a fool to be silent about this, sir," Agent Basker replies. "Not only did they lie about single-handedly defeating Team Flare, but they seemed to have allied with some trainers and the Hoenn regional champion. I can't inherently prove that they are traitors, but they clearly mislead you if not all of Team Rocket into thinking we as an organization deserve credit for our rival organization's defeat. And the fact that they have also claimed to have been responsible for the defeat of Team Plasma and Team Galactic raises the question of how trustworthy they are. I think they deserve just punishment for their deception. Don't you?"

Giovanni is silent. He keeps a hard frown on his face as he stares at his cyborg minion. After a few seconds, Giovanni takes a deep breath before he answers.

"Not yet," he says.

"Sir?" Agent Basker questions.

"Don't misjudge my response for mercy, Trent," Giovanni says seriously. "I will see to it that those three fools will be dealt with severely in time, but not now. For all their humiliating faults, they still have their uses."

"But they tricked you, sir," Agent Basker says.

"Deceit is part of what we do here," Giovanni says firmly. "Besides, regardless of what they've done, they're still the only ones with a solid lead to my Gieldenstone. I can't interfere with that. Not even for my pride. And don't forget, it's thanks to them that you have your chance to have your payback against your old rival. Would you want to risk that, Trent."

Agent Basker holds his tongue and flares at his boss bitterly at being called by his former name again. He looks away and stays silent for a moment.

"No," he grumbles. "I wouldn't gamble with that over anything."

Giovanni nods, and he turns his chair to go back to looking through his glass window when Agent Basker clears his throat.

"There is one other thing, sir," he says. "I know how this will sound to you at first, but please hear me out."

Giovanni frowns again, restraining himself from loudly insulting the younger man. He turns his chair around to face Agent Basker again and waits for him to explain himself.

"Before I flew back to Kalos, I contacted some of our agents in the International Police, and they confirm that there are little to no records of any Team Rocket units around when Team Galactic and Team Plasma were disbanded," he begins. "But while I was looking through the files, I found a connection."

"A connection?" Giovanni asks, impatiently.

"Yes, sir," Agent Basker says. "As I was looking through the files, I realized that the defeat of Team Flare, Team Phasma, Team Galactic, and even the defeats of Team Magma and Team Aqua have one little element in common. You might find this silly that I feel it necessary to bring this up to you, but all of them involved a certain trainer. Specifically, a raven-haired boy with a Pikachu."

Agent Basker's eye starts blinking again, and the hologram shows an image of a teenage boy that fits the description and a cheerful Pikachu standing on his right shoulder. Giovanni studies the picture and instantly recognizes the boy.

"You fool," he growls. "I could have seen the logic behind your claims concerning Timothy Durbin, but this tells me you've gotten desperate. I battled with this boy in Unova when he was trying to stop me from obtaining Meloetta. His Pikachu didn't stand a chance against Persian. That pathetic rat didn't even put a scratch on my Pokemon."

"Meoooowww," Persian purrs proudly.

"When I was knocked out of my senses while obtaining the Forces of Nature, Dr. Zager, Jessie, James, and Meowth told me that boy and his Pikachu destroyed the temple I was using to control the three genies," Giovanni continues. "I decided they were out of their mind for believing that that particular trainer and his Pikachu could obtain such power and so are you."

"So did I when Dr. Zager told me what happened that day," Agent Basker says. "But now I'm not so sure. I've been studying the files as carefully as possible, rereading them heaven knows how many times to make sure I wasn't mistaken. Every single one of our former rivals were either defeated or disbanded in some way or another by this boy and his Pikachu. The more I read about it, the more I grew worried that there is some power that this trainer has that could possibly make him so powerful with his Pikachu or any of this Pokemon. My concerns grew more when I looked into the security footage at the Kalos League Stadium, and I was shocked to find that even Lysandre was very intrigued by his power because of the unique bond he shared with his Greninja."

"Unique bond?" Giovanni questions, still not impressed.

Agent Basker downloads more content through his robotic arm, and the hologram machine shows the raven-haired boy competing at the Kalos League. He is using a Greninja against another boy with pine-green hair with his Mega Sceptile. Giovanni watches the footage disinterested until the Greninja starts to transform. Within the blink of an eye, the Greninja has changed into a form that is like a mixture of itself and the boy. Giovanni looks in surprise and watches more intently all the way to the end when the Greninja ultimately takes down the Mega Sceptile.

"What...what happened?" Giovanni asks.

"It's something called Bond Phenomenon," Agent Basker answers plainly. "Apparently, the boy and his Greninja sync up, and it transforms the Pokemon into this form, and it seems to make it even more powerful."

Giovanni keeps his shocked face for a moment before he turns to Agent Basker skeptically again.

"And you think this boy might be someone to be concerned with over our plan?" He asks.

"Lysandre thought so," Agent Basker answers plainly.

With his cyborg eye blinking a few more times, a video appears showing Lysandre, the boy and his Pokemon. Lysandre appears to be taking a great interest in the boy and his Pokemon.

The video then cuts to show news footage from a helicopter. Lysandre and an older boy are standing on top of Lumiose Tower while the raven-haired boy and his Pokemon are bound in restraining devices and lifted into the air. From the audio, he can hear Lysandre say that he can't let the raven-haired boy go, and he's one of the chosen ones.

When the video is over, the hologram projector turns off. Giovanni stares at where the image of the boy used to be before turning to Agent.

"I see the logic in your supposition," Giovanni says. "That being said, it is unwise to take the words of a fool like Lysandre to heart. He was a loose cannon crazy enough to think the world is ugly and must be destroyed anew for the benefit of Pokemon. He deserved to be destroyed by the very Pokemon he was using for his psychotic goals."

"No argument there, sir, but I don't think it's inherently frivolous to be cautious with this trainer," Agent Basker says seriously. "I even spoke with Butch and Cassidy on my way up here, and they've told me that they've had their best plans ruined by that boy and his friends."

Giovanni frowns again and says, "That just proves how incompetent even the very best of Team Rocket can be."

"All the more reason to respectfully ask that you think about it," Agent Basker says. "You've said it yourself that there must be no loose ends with this one chance to obtain the most ancient and powerful of all Pokemon. I think that should include the trainer who has stopped Team Rocket multiple times and took part in the permanent disbanding of our rivals."

Giovanni says nothing for a minute. The leader of Team Rocket merely glares at the cyborg man, still skeptical of what was shown to him. Finally, Giovanni lets out of a long sigh and gives the cyborg a brief nod.

"I'll consider looking into it for now," he says.

Agent Basker nods back, satisfied until Giovanni speaks again.

"Now get down there and start aiding Dr. Zager at once," he says firmly. "I want it finished soon if you ever want your petty vengeance."

Agent Basker frowns and nods sharply before he exits the room. Giovanni pinches the area between his eyes before turning to his Persian.

"We are surrounded by pathetic fools, my pet," he says as he starts petting it again. "I should have known better than to believe those three dolts when they claimed they vanquished our enemies. And the crackbrained idea that we have to worry about some boy insults me."

"Meeerooowww," Persian growls, sharing its master's displeasure.

Giovanni nods at his Pokemon and scoffs. But as the room grows silent, the cruel man begins to think hard about what Agent Basker said. After a moment of debating, he goes on his computer, and the hologram projector turns on again to show another video of the raven-haired boy and his Pikachu battling together.

"Then again, if he can somehow cause so much trouble, then perhaps there is a chance that he will be a variable against my plans," he says. "There may be something very special about this boy, and I will make sure that whatever it is won't stand in my way."