116 Chapter 113

Blue Oak was the eldest grandson of Professor Oak, and a former Champion of the Kanto region. He was an excellent trainer, surpassing all of his peers save one; another Kanto region Champion, Red Fires.

Blue Oak had one of the most embarrassing records in the world, the record of being the shortest reigning Champion in the world, at 6 hours in total. The closest to this embarrassing record was over 50 days, that too dozens of years ago.

This was due to the special circumstances in Kanto a few years ago. Due to an unfortunate incident on Mt Silver and a huge unrest in the Johto region immediately after Team Rocket's leader's disappearance, many of the foremost elites of both the regions had huge damage to their strengths. The Elite Four of Kanto saw 3 members retire in quick succession, and three decently strong trainers ascended shortly after. Lance Blackthorn, Lorelai Kanna, and Bruno Siba joined Agatha as the members of the Elite Four, while the champion seat was temporarily left vacant. After the turmoil calmed down, both Red and Blue decided to challenge the Elite Four to win the position of Champion.

The only condition to occupy the position of Champion was to defeat the Elite Four in succession, but there was no defined order to avoid the process from being complicated. Unknown to each other, Blue and Red challenged the Elite Four in different orders.

Blue was the first to defeat the Elite Four, and was declared the Champion. But no sooner had he beaten the final Elite Four member Agatha and occupied the Champion post, Red defeated Lance to also be eligible for the post of Champion.

Red challenged Blue for the position. Technically, Blue was allowed to postpone the challenge, as the rules allow a challenge for the post of Champion from an eligible candidate to be put off for up to a month.

But Blue was too proud to back down, and immediately accepted the challenge after healing his Pokemon. After an intense battle, Blue lost, and was dethroned from the Champion's post only 6 hours after he occupied it.

Just because he lost to Red and held an embarrassing record didn't mean he was weak. Blue Oak was still an elite trainer, who could easily become an Elite Four member or Champion if he so desired even now.

"Sup Alex. Gramps told me quite a lot about you" said Blue.

"Good morning Blue. I never expected to meet you here" greeted Alex as he entered.

Alex went in and sat down in front of Blue. He took a sip of the coffee already laid in front of him and asked, "Well. It seems that it's confirmed to be Giovanni. He didn't use much of his strength against me, but it's definitely him. What now?"

"Well, it's complicated," said Blue. "No one was ready for him to come back, especially at this time. It is possible that he came now because he heard rumours of what was about to go down, and thus hurried back" said Blue.

"What was about to go down?" asked Alex, vaguely remembering a detail about the Viridian City Gym from the games in his previous life.

"Well, it's probably not a secret anyone, but I was going to take over the Viridian City Gym. This city has way too much significance for the entire Kanto region, and Giovanni's influence here is one of the main reasons the Alliance was so cautious against him. Over the years he was gone, most of his influence here was whittled down. I was supposed to be the final blow. A Gym Inspector squad was scheduled to arrive here yesterday and purge the Gym by dismissing everyone there appointed by Giovanni, and I was to take over. But I guess Giovanni, during his excursion in the remote parts of Mt Silver, did maintain contact with the civilized world, and still has spies high enough to catch wind of this pretty secretive operation. Thus, he came back minutes before the Gym Inspectors were supposed to arrive, and showed himself off. The whole plan screeched to a halt after the possibility he might be back was revealed" said Blue.

"A plan that was in the works for two years came to a halt at the mere possibility of his presence?" asked Alex with disbelief.

"Actually, according to some credible sources, while the majority of Team Rocket dissolved into relative chaos after his disappearance, the core of what once was the biggest crime syndicate in the world went into hiding. We were hopeful that they absconded and decided to start over, but now it looks like they just went into hiding waiting for their leader's return. Now, with most of the organisation being destroyed, only the absolute core remaining can enjoy the resources and connections available to him, which used to be scattered across a huge organisation" said Blue seriously.

"That sounds very bad" said Alex.

"It's not that bad yet. While I spoke about the consolidation and concentration of resources, the Team Rocket now is not a huge threat as it once used to be. We have cracked down on a large number of their members, activities, businesses, and resources. While there may be some cards Giovanni is hiding, we are not completely helpless either. Unlike when the organisation was first built, now the crackdown towards such activities will be much more severe. So there is almost no possibility of Team Rocket reaching what they were a few years earlier. What was once an empire is now just a powerful fort. It is not easy to breach, but it can't cause as much trouble as it did before either" said Blue confidently.