Game Corner Attendant

A/N: The Game Corner Attendant is also not the main character. Just in case there was any confusion ;)

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She's a Game Corner Attendant. And that means she knows how to keep her eyes open, and her mouth shut. Now, an ignorant person might think this seemed like a rather odd job description for what she was ostensibly hired to do. After all, if you're an Attendant at the Celadon City Game Corner, don't you need to be able to talk to be capable of delivering good customer service?

And don't get her wrong, she was good at that too. She was a hard worker, and if anyone needed her help with anything relating to her job, they would get it.

… But the Game Corner had a secret, you see. A secret that every employee of said Game Corner new about. They weren't all part of Team Rocket, mind you. In fact, most Game Corner employees weren't. There needed to be a separation after all. They couldn't have attendants with warrants out for their arrest, or who had committed crimes and were being hunted by the police, now could they?

No, they couldn't. Which was why she wasn't a proper member of Team Rocket, and why her record as it stood, was squeaky clean. Still, she would have to be a blind idiot to not know about the Team Rocket Hideout that lay beneath the Game Corner. After all, it wasn't like the Rockets were particularly subtle about it. They had a uniformed Rocket Grunt guarding the secret switch behind the poster next to the hidden entrance… and they were constantly coming in and out in full uniform as well at all hours of the day.

But that was none of her business, now, was it? She was just an attendant, and so her job was to keep her eyes open, and her mouth shut, at least where it pertained to the Rockets. Still, that didn't mean she was unobservant. Far from it, in fact. So yes, she'd see the trio of Rocket Grunts who hurried out of the Game Corner a little earlier. She'd noticed how wet behind their ears they all seemed. A threesome of real rookies, to be sure.

Maybe a real threesome, considering how chummy they all looked. Two gals, one guy… not the usual Rocket Makeup, considering most Rockets were men. Maybe they had something going on. It wasn't like she knew their lives… but it was fun to hypothesize about, right?

Still, because she was observant, she also noticed the guy coming back alone. That had set her imagination off in a whole other direction. Maybe he'd offed his fellow grunts in a power play of insane proportions. Maybe their bodies were somewhere in Celadon's back alleys, desecrated and attracting flies and just waiting to be discovered.

… Okay, so probably not. And maybe she was kind of a sick fuck. So, sue her, these were her own private thoughts. Not like anyone else could hear them, right?

When the pink-haired male Grunt came back and re-entered the Hideout, she didn't think anything of it. She only really took notice when he came back AGAIN and started scrounging around on the floor for Game Corner Coins.

It happened, after all. Coins got dropped all the time, whether from loose Coin Cases or from Jackpots. If you didn't get your Coin Case in position in time, then some of the coins were doomed to roll away as the Jackpot went crazy and all that.

But here was the thing… you couldn't play in the Game Corner without a Coin Case. It was the one hard and fast rule. No Coin Case, no slots. That was the rule even for the Rockets, and especially for the Grunts. Orders from on high, as her direct superior had told her. Rocket Grunts were allowed to gamble in the Game Corner just like everyone else… IF they had a Coin Case.

So, when she sees this newbie recruit starting to scrounge for coins, she's ready to call out to him, to call him out and take him to task. It's one of the few times when she's expected to NOT keep her mouth shut after all. But then she notices the Coin Case, and clicks her teeth shut, catching the words in her mouth before they can leave.

Sure, he's scrounging for coins off the floor, but if he's got a Coin Case, then he's allowed to do what he's doing. A Rocket Grunt like him wouldn't have the money to buy coins legitimately anyways, and she does briefly wonder where he even got the Coin Case from… but it's not her problem, now is it?

She does watch him for a little bit longer, but once he's scrounged up enough coins for a few dozen plays, he stops and moves to one of the slot machines. Top machine on the fourth row, specifically. He zeroes in on it as if in a trance, and she furrows her brow at him for a moment, before ultimately dismissing him from her mind.

Does it surprise her, that one of the Rockets' latest recruits is a gambling addict? Considering the sort of people that being a Rocket Grunt attracts, no it does not. And really, it's not her problem. Usually, members of Team Rocket are smart enough to play out of uniform, but he's got the Coin Case. Someone else can take him to task for the other stuff.

Turning her attention to other matters, the Game Corner Attendant has just barely managed to get the strange Rocket Grunt out of her head when the familiar sound of a Jackpot rings through the Game Corner, signifying that someone has just won three hundred coins in one go.

It's the largest single amount that one can win at the slots, not counting doubling up by getting both the Jackpot and one or more of the other combinations on top of it. Still, it's not that rare… there are probably a dozen or so Jackpots every day. Nevertheless, it's enough of an interesting event that she lifts her head, just to see who managed it. Would it be one of their regulars or…?

The pink-haired Rocket Grunt holds his Coin Case under the slot machine rather woodenly, collecting the three hundred coin jackpot that he just won. It takes about thirty seconds for the machine to stop dispensing coins, at which point he stands up. A couple of the other patrons have glanced over at the sound of the jackpot, but upon seeing the Team Rocket colors, they all looked away. It was sort of an open secret, who really ran the Game Corner… and no one who came in to enjoy the slot machines wanted to rock that boat even slightly.

As such, only the Game Corner Attendant is still watching when the Rocket Grunt, instead of simply taking his jackpot and leaving, moves… one machine over, to the second slot machine from the top on the fourth row. Her lips thin out as he sits down again and starts playing once more, like it's no one's business but his own.

… And maybe it is no one's business but his own. He has a Coin Case. She has no reason to get involved, right? A glance to her left shows her fellow Attendant studiously ignoring the Grunt. So, she supposed she should too.

But then it happens again. The second Jackpot is just as loud and disruptive as the first. Ringing out through the Game Corner, the Rocket Grunt gets lucky AGAIN on the second machine, collecting another three hundred coins, right there in front of them all. There's another round of glances, and another round of ducked heads from the Game Corner's patrons.

He switches back to the other machine. He keeps playing. He gets another jackpot in less than five minutes. She's aware that her jaw is open, at this point. Aware that she would be catching flies, if the Game Corner wasn't fairly well-kept and all around air-conditioned to keep from attracting pests of any sort.

What the fuck is happening? How is he doing this? Nine hundred coins collected, the Rocket Grunt goes back to the second machine and just keeps on playing until his next jackpot. And it does arrive, like clockwork. It's not quite every five minutes, she quickly realizes. No, watching him closely, the Attendant is able to equate it more in terms of how many coins he puts in.

It's about a hundred coins. Every hundred coins or so, he usually pulls another jackpot, gaining three hundred more coins, before moving to the other machine to repeat the feat. Over and over and over again. He plays like a machine.

No one in the Game Corner except for her seems willing to look at him anymore. They're all keeping their heads down, or their eyes fixed straight ahead, on their own slots. And yet… besides his playing, besides his jackpots, the Game Corner is eerily quiet. They're all listening, even if they're too afraid to look over. No one is actually playing anymore… no, they're all surreptitiously watching him without watching him.

A couple leave. Perhaps because they're angry, or simply frightened by the Rocket Grunt. She couldn't say for sure, all she can say is that by Jackpot Number Fifteen, SHE'S pretty sure she's had enough. Jackpot Sixteen is just adding insult to injury, and at that point, she's ready to go over there and finally say something to the Grunt.

This can't be allowed, right? The big shots in Team Rocket can't possibly want something like this to happen, right? Not only is the Grunt destroying the integrity of the Game Corner, but he's also upsetting their patrons, frightening their regulars, and driving off actual paying customers, who bought their Coin Cases instead of likely 'finding' them somewhere, and who actually bought coins to play with from her colleague, rather than scrounging them up off the ground.

Lips thinning out, the Attendant goes to push off the counter and walk over, only for a hand on her arm to stop her. Her fellow attendant isn't looking anywhere near the Rocket who keeps winning Jackpots, but he nevertheless shakes his head ever so slightly to tell her not to. For a moment, she almost listens… but then there's another telltale chime and ring as the Rocket Grunt gets his seventeenth Jackpot.

She's about to shake her coworker's hand off of her in disgust and go over there anyways when the pink-haired Rocket Grunt suddenly meets her eyes, purely by happen stance. His gaze is… startlingly empty. It's like there's no one home. Or if there is, they're so far gone that they don't feel things like normal people.

… She knows the kind of people Team Rocket attracts, but a shiver goes down her spine all the same, looking into those eyes. For a long moment, it's as though someone has stepped on her grave.

Then, he gives a slow, languid blink… and turns and leaves the Game Corner behind, over three thousand coins stuffed into his Coin Case.

The place is silent for a beat longer, before the whole building almost seems to breathe a collective sigh of relief. There's another beat, as everyone looks around, trying to gauge if anyone else is going to acknowledge what the fuck just happened, or if they're going to pretend like it's all perfectly fine. When no one speaks up, some actual play starts again, with patrons returning to their slot machines and actually putting coins in once more, trying their luck and having fun. As was the Game Corner promise.

Beside her, her coworker lets out a relieved sigh of his own and takes his hand off of her arm. He looks like he's about to say something, but before he can… another jackpot sounds out, startling everyone in the building.

All eyes zip back over to the two machines the Rocket Grunt had been abusing, to see an old man who had been further down that row had moved up and taken his place… and managed to recreate whatever fucking magic the Rocket Grunt had seemingly been working on those two machines at the top of the fourth row.

The Game Corner Attendant exchanges a glance with her colleague, able to see her own concern reflected in the panic growing in his eyes. Not good. Not good at all.

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The Prize Corner is a completely separate building form the Game Corner, situated right next to it in fact, but nevertheless totally split off. As such, the workers inside have no idea what's just happened next door.

When the Rocket Grunt walks in and goes up to the middle one, he exchanges glances with his fellow coworkers but then paints a smile on his face, giving the pink-haired young man a nod.

"Ho there! We exchange coins with prizes. What are you looking for, exactly?"

Setting his Coin Case on the counter, the Rocket opens it up to reveal thousands of coins. Eyebrows lifting, the Attendant follows his finger as the Grunt points behind him.

"That one and that one."

A quick scan with his eyes shows that the Rocket has enough for his purchases, just barely. Nodding amicably, he collects the two Pokeballs in question.

"Abra and Dratini. Good choices! That'll be one hundred and eighty, and twenty-eight hundred."

The transaction is completed a moment later, and the Rocket Grunt leaves with a significantly lightened Coin Case, but also two more Pokeballs on his belt to go with the two he'd already had there.

As far as they were concerned, the kid must have gotten lucky. They'd hear the crazy story a little later. For now, it was just business as usual at Celadon City's Prize Corner.

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A/N: There are other ways of cheesing the system and gaming shit so that you've got an Uber Powerful Pokemon Team despite being a lowly Team Rocket Grunt. However, they all require you spend tens if not hundreds of hours grinding first. And that didn't really fit in a living, breathing story where time continued on whether you liked it or not.

That said, the two slot machines at the top of the fourth row in Fire Red's Game Corner do indeed give Jackpots every one hundred coins or so. Makes it super easy to farm up the necessary coins in about an hour for an early level 19 Dratini!

As always, feedback and comments are greatly appreciated!

Also, the next two chapters are up on my P atreon for early access!