13 I deserve an oscar for cringe and lies

In hindsight, pissing off a person who has both the clout and legality to destroy a person's life may not be the best idea I've had

' Do I regret it? Yes. Does it include what I said about Erica? No '

So here I am, being stared at by two highly angered ladies of power. I could apologize and make nice, but that would establish me as nothing but a spoilt lucky kid. Now I may be just that, but I don't admit it and I sure as hell won't admit it to them.

" You want me to show you guys rocket info scattered in the pokenet, a process highly dependable on luck as I'm not that skilled and avoid monitoring from the league and the rockets alongside other equally formidable entities on it and all of that from a laptop that officer Jenny uses for her work? "

While Psy is still trying to stop my 'condescending way of talking' I'm just staring at the ladies while contemplating the shitshow I'm in just because I put my foot in my mouth 

' And I still can't stop it '

A sigh and I'm speaking while thinking of all the ways I could try and pull this off

" Any chance of possible discovery by any on the net is a possible chance for them to take the data you have stored in it "

Jenny raised a very nice question at that point " My device is tailored for my position, that alone should make it more secure than whatever you have been using "

I shrug at that " Sure it's secure, I mean it's not like the pokenet is filled with malware and viruses under the pretenses of ads, cookies and sites, few of which are probes left behind by people with exemplary behavior. But that's okay after all the laptop's more secure than mine, it's so secure that my lack of skills won't hinder it and the obstacles on the net won't even see it coming. "

Jenny slumps slightly at that " It's that vulnerable? "

" I'm 70% sure that people have left backdoors on some devices and league sites, I do it because I don't have any deep things to hide even if they get in. "

They just deadpan at that

" In short if you want to see rocket things get me a device that's been active for months, but doesn't have any confidential data or private info in it. The more common it is the better the chance of encountering only slightly skilled hackers, the better ones go for the best devices "

After a tense second they complied and got me such a device. I mean Jenny commandeered one of the previous models they had in her department which had decent specs.

" This isn't so bad, Now let's all pray for good luck"

' Jirachi, help me out here a little. I'll bring you some things when you're awake, if I'm still alive '

After that I got to work with Ken Tsurugi, a new addition watching over me alongside Erica and Jenny. He was one of the people who worked in the cybersecurity department of the league and was highly interested when Erica called him and told him what was happening.

Thankfully she didn't inform him what was happening till he was here, so hey that's something. 

I just rolled my eyes at Erica and got to workshop with Ken despite knowing this was her trying to trip me up or take advantage

' Objectively speaking, it's just logical and good for her. It's just I'm the victim of her decision this time '

Thankfully as tough as it is, it's not as tough as it is going to be after Porygon arrives. That was a gamechanger in so many ways

Fortunately for me, Jirachi heard my prayers. ' Glory to you starborn'

And found a few rocket info, grunts at best. Basically, it was profiling of publicly known rockets, several people had posts about them that had gone so cold that it was a wonder that it was still alive, but with enough time we were able to find out a few more up-to-date info about the known grunts. Hell, we were even able to find out a few possible locations of where they were.

That wasn't the only thing that had happened over the last hour.

Ramsey appeared not long after I had started, full of nerves as he reported to the occupants of the room that what I had said was true

Cue a slightly smug look at them only to recoil at the furious gazes of the women in the room. Erica looked like she was already planning executions while Jenny looked like she was preparing ropes for the hanging.

' It was scary '

With an order to Jenny to choose officers whom she could trust for assault Erica left for her gym for her trainers, notify the league and request reinforcements. She nodded at me, said to keep at it as she wanted that info when she gets back in an hour 

30 minutes ago Jenny left after ensuring we were protected as well. While we've been working all this time we're still nervous about what's going to happen. 

We know that the league is going to come down like a flock of Fearows but the chance for a flawless victory isn't still 100% as they don't really have that much info on the current base. 

' Hopefully everything goes right on our side.'

Exactly one hour and 32 minutes after she left, Jenny stepped into the room again with her Arcanine by her side but there were also unexpected additions. Jenny at least looked like she was in a battle with the dust on her, Erica still had her perfume on, she looked like she was going to an interview instead of a person who was the main force of assaulting a base.

But the giant that walked into the room revealed that she wasn't the sole elite. 

" HAH, So this is the brat, eh? "

The booming voice was accompanied by a man of muscle who towered over everyone without even trying, a Raichu and Jolteon walked alongside him. 

As soon as I saw who was coming in I was excited, it was noticed by Erika who snorted. But I didn't care about her amusement because it was Surge, excitement when seeing him is the norm unlike excitement when seeing Erika when you're not in danger is abnormal.

" So, I hear I got you to thank for an occasion to put the fear of god into those rockets? "

" That'll be me. I got to say, I'm a big fan of yours "

His booming laugh filled the room though Erika cut in by that point to enquire what we had gotten upto this point, though not before ensuring Ramsey and Elaine were okay. Thus after a boring but slightly rewarding short session, which I'm glad to say I got approval from Erika back, followed by Surge's several pointed questions about the way we did and the discussion that started it all.

' By this point, I should admit that Ken was truly shocked, which isn't that surprising. Locating grunts is very different from discovering a hidden executive. Though Surge really wanted to know about the rocket hunters, I mean they could exist in real life or I may have to create it or come up with something to make their sudden demise probable '

I have a lot of work ahead of me. 

I promised to get Surge if I ever passed their test and was able to finally get real data rather than filtered and missing data. Surge relented but was adamant in his view that I do my best to get in this group.

' I'm sure that in their minds as the filtered truth I heard was enough to discover the base here and a hidden executive, then the unfiltered must be even more explosive. Now the dilemma is whether I should really kick up the hornet's nest and reveal Giovanni or to remain silent. '

" What do you want to do Kid? "

" Battler, travel the world, the usual schtick "

He grins at that 

" You got any sponsors yet brat? "

" The police department and Celadon gym, unless both of them have changed their mind? "

I looked to them to see if they had changed their mind, I mean I can only ultimately choose one sponsor but It's very nice to have options. 

' Though despite the all-rounder experience offered by the police, I was more leaning towards Celadon gym. No offense intended, but I'm sure even if their handling of grass types will be greater than others, the rest of the Pokemon won't be suffering mediocre treatment. '

After all, there is no guarantee that the police treatment will be better than mediocre, especially as they are the more common fallbacks for everyone. 

Thankfully neither woman was rescinding their offers for which I'm thankful and ensured they knew it as well.

After that, I turned to Surge and just shrugged which was greeted by a smirk as he said that he would also sponsor me if I acted and I quote 'A good boy'

To which I just rolled my eyes, though in my defense I swallowed every insult that came up alongside the automatic raising of my hand to flip him the bird.

But I decided to speak the truth one more time, despite the consequences this is going to bring because the sooner the rockets are dealt with, the better for me. Even though it's going to derail the plot

' Let's not forget that Ash fought Giovanni and knew him to be team rocket leader. I guess I'm just quickening the process '

" Honestly speaking, there are many who believe and say with conviction that the rocket leader is also a gym leader in Kanto"

Needless to say, that killed the mood and I continued before they could interrupt me

" I'm not speaking about the minor leaders either, I'm speaking about one of the eight pillars of our region "

" Brat, what you're saying is nothing short of treason "

" It's not treason if it's the truth Lt. Surge. "

At this Ken cuts in with a very good question

" Eric, Do you know who the leader of Team Rocket is? "

At that question, every other eye sharpens

" Not 100% sure that he is the leader but we have a majority against him. "

" Out with it "

" I mentioned the rocket hunters to you, I told you guys how intensive their scanning is. They test you guys, a few of them would wreck the bases of a rocket with the hope that the upper bastards would come. That is where the rumor originally started, it's said that one time the upper bastard who came was a gym leader "

Jenny just impatiently asks me to get to the damn point and I oblige

"They have failsafes before they engage in the destruction of bases. It started with hidden cameras, microphones and the like. But the bastards learned from each encounter just as the hunters did, but they slipped up, or better yet a hunter was more cunning once. They conscripted a nearby Pokemon and ensured that they would know the truth. "

" And? "

" The hunter and her team were killed but not before they told the Pokemon something the bastard believed to be the last mutterings of a dead woman "

I took a deep breath and let it out 

" The Pokemon was told that she should have remained in the forest and taken over her mom's job, that way she would at least have been buried underground "

Surge immediately got it by the way his face clouded up, despite not knowing what the mother or forest meant.

" Giovanni? "

While the other two blanched I just nodded and kept speaking

" The rumor is Team Rocket existed before the war, that it was just a low-key organization. That the current team rocket leader inherited the organization from his parent. It was really hard to find out but they did, lo and behold mention of 'Madame Boss' who was known to hate Pokemon but whose son had a talent for battling, a son who earned merits throughout the war thanks to his gift. "

After a few back-and-forth questions ensuring that I did speak what I spoke and that was the popular rumor that the organization worked on Jenny just collapsed on her chair, Ken didn't even aim for a chair and just collapsed.

Surge despite his anger was still full of questions though

" If they knew it was him, then why the hell wouldn't they say anything to the rest of us? "

" They did not trust you, they could not trust you. Surge these are people who grew tired of depending on you, they didn't expect Giovanni, and that ensured that they couldn't trust you "

" But still, they could have tried " I answer Erica with a pointed statement

" Would you? Would you put yourself and your team at risk? Would you go forward with it even when you know that this could finally hint to Team Rocket that the hunters were more than a bunch of random skilled trainers with a vendetta against them? " 

She just lost her voice at that.