Chapter 12- Team Rocket's Executives

"To Plague's promotion and finally joining us as a fellow Executive! To us for finally having another Executive to share our workload!"

I can only let out an amused smile as Petrel took the lead and toasted to my promotion to Executive. With us are Archer and Proton. Giovanni and Ariana aren't here because they are busy taking care of Silver and I've been given a day off since Giovanni and Ariana want some alone time with their son. It's rare that all the Executives are free at the same time, so Petrel had called for a gathering for all the Executives at his house in Saffron.

In name, this gathering is for the other Executives to celebrate me joining their ranks. Personally, I think Petrel wants me and the other Executives to know each other better now that we are of the same rank. I had worked under Petrel long enough to know how he is as a person, but not Archer and Proton.

From what I can see, Petrel lives in a small common looking apartment that you will never associate a high-ranking Executive like him to live in. He earns a lot as one of the highest ranking members of Team Rocket but the place he lives in is for the average Kanto citizen. As far as I can tell from the layout of Petrel's home, he lives alone. There is a small picture frame which displays a picture of him and a small girl with the same shade of purple hair like his, which I guess is probably his daughter. The picture looks old, so the little girl might not be so little anymore.

Proton merely let out a grunt at Petrel's words and Archer just laughed out loud, but we toasted anyway. Together, we are some of the strongest and most dangerous individuals in the largest terrorist organisation known to the world. It is surprisingly normal how we are having a normal gathering like this in Petrel's own home in this ordinary looking place.

"You need to show us how you straight up give the middle finger to Falkner and… what's his name? Ah, whatever! That hotshot Ranger! Yeah, you need to show us how you stole two Mega Stones right under their noses! Argh! I should have been there to see it!"

"Everything is written in the report." Proton stated coolly as he gulped down his drink.

"But I want to see it!" Petrel exclaimed, face a little flush from the amount of alcohol we had been drinking. "Plague is like a magician! You should see the number of illusions and tricks he can pull off at the drop of the hat! There's a damn good reason why he was my right hand man before he got himself promoted! His tricks never get boring!"

"Really?" Archer asked with obvious curiosity.

"Tales of my exploits had been greatly exaggerated." I downplayed Petrel's claim as I refilled the drinks in our glasses. "Besides, petty tricks are all I'm capable of. Among the four of us, I'm undoubtedly the weakest in strength."

That is not a lie. Petrel, Archer, and Proton are all trainers that are on the level of Gym Leaders at the very least. Archer scares me the most. His strength is nothing to joke about. Like Giovanni, he is so strong that I have no idea how strong he truly is from just a glance. Archer never takes part in battles until he absolutely has to, so his true strength is still a mystery to me even till now.

Each and every Executive has their own designated responsibility. Petrel is in charge of infiltration, the division which I was a part of. Any places that we need our eyes and ears in Petrel is the man for the job. Proton is in charge of manpower. His duties largely deal with amassing and training Team Rocket's army, including recruiting more members and getting more pokemon. If there are any threats to the organisation that are too strong for Team Rocket and need to be put down he will be called for the job. In a sense, his job is similar to mine in several aspects. Archer is in charge of the finances and making plans for Team Rocket's expansion. He is the first member to make it to Executive among us.

Since Proton and Archer had done well in amassing the needed number of pokemon, Rocket grunts, and funds required for Team Rocket's further expansion, Giovanni and Ariana are considering letting me be in charge of handling the information network of the organisation. Team Rocket has grown too big and there is a need for a new department whose sole job is to handle all the information going in and out of the organisation. That used to be Ariana's job, but her main role was to supervise the R&D department. Keeping an eye on the organisation's information network was just something she does when she's free. Now with me in their ranks as a fellowExecutive, this will allow her to take a break and focus on other matters that need her attention in the R&D department.

I personally suspect this new arrangement is there because Giovanni and Ariana just want to spend more time with Silver now that they have a son. Shifting Ariana's job to me probably sounds like a perfect plan to them since not only Ariana can get her break, I now do not need to go out to the field as often due to my body's deteriorating condition. I get to rest more often since I can easily do my new job from the Fuschia hideout without needing to take a step outside. The only time I will need to be sent out is when things get dire.

It is a welcomed change for me as well. My body is obviously not working as well as I remember it to be. Slowly, but surely, it is starting to fail me. I'm starting to get tired more easily whereas I could easily go on missions after missions without rest just a few years before. I'm slowly becoming incapable of keeping up with the workload that I am used to in my heydays as the Rocket's Exterminator.

"Ah, I knew this 25 year old scotch would hit all the right spots!" Petrel sighed in contentment after he downed another glass of the whisky. "Good thing I've been saving it up all this while!"

"It will be forever a mystery how you keep getting your hands on all the good stuff." Archer shook his head in amusement as he downed another glass as well. Honestly, I've never liked Archer all that much ever since Jane's death but he is not too bad of a person once you get to know him better on a personal level. Proton still doesn't talk much as per usual, but he is less stand-offish behind closed doors.

"We should have a battle someday." Proton commented as he looked at me. "If even Giovanni praised you, then you must be good."

"Hey! Give poor old Plague a break!" Petrel came to my defense as he slammed his empty glass on the table top. "How about we finish the battle from before, eh? It's time we decide a winner between the two of us! The Toxic Mask versus the Iceman! Come on!"

"I'm pretty sure I won-"

"Like hell you did! Your ice types fell to my super cool poison types when you used the finishing move! It was a double knockout!"

"Does it really matter who is stronger than who among us?" I questioned.

"No, but it's rare to find worthy opponents when you are at our level." Archer answered smoothly. "All Executives are expected to possess the strength of a Gym Leader at the very least. It's an unspoken rule. If you aren't good enough you won't be promoted to Executive. I've never seen you fight but if Giovanni decides to promote you and be one of us, you must be extremely strong."

"I'm not strong." I politely correct the misconception that Archer has. "I'm simply dangerous. There's a difference between the two. Dark Specialists are not known for having overwhelming firepower that you guys have. To be a good Dark Specialist is not to be strong, but to be dangerous."

"Ah, I see. Now that's something informative."

"Proton don't have firepower! He has ice powers! Get it? Firepower and Ice Specialist? Hah!" Petrel laughed at his own joke which did not incite any form of laughter from us.

"Your jokes are colder than mine." Proton grumbled as he poured himself another drink.

"You guys are all no fun!" Petrel pointed an accusing finger at us. "Live a little!"

"Your jokes are toxic."

"Wait…" Petrel's eyes grew wider at Proton's response. "Olwen… you make puns?!"

"Why wouldn't I?" Proton narrowed his eyes. So his real name is Olwen, huh? Good to know.

"Arawn!" Petrel put his hands on Archer's shoulders and shook him excitedly. "Olwen is starting to crack jokes! The Iceman is melting! We succeeded! This is so cool!"

"Yes, yes." Archer, no, Arawn, placated Petrel with practiced ease. "Now stop shaking me, Henrik."

"Come to think about it, I still do not know what your real name is." Olwen turned to look at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, me too." Henrik replied as he stroked his goatee. "Come on, Plague! Now that we are all Executives we are all each other's friends and brothers! Don't be shy!"

My mind froze for a short while. Archer, Proton, and Petrel seem like they are genuinely being nice and they look like they have a very tightly knitted bond with each other like what real friends will have. They are including me into their little group?

"I guess as the earliest member to join I will get the ball rolling." Archer said as he started to introduce himself, not giving me much time to think. "My real name is Arawn Jaecar. I'm from Lavender."

"Olwen Lummiki. Pewter." Proton stated.

"Henrik Amon!" Petrel jabbed a thumb at himself as he said that. "I'm from Saffron as you can see!"

"Jacob Myers." I said after a short moment of consideration. The best name I could give is the official identity that I have in the Government database. Any less and it may raise suspicions if anyone did a background check on me. "I'm from Viridian, but I don't really spend much time there."

"None of us really spent any time in our hometowns once we became a Rocket." Henrik waved it off flippantly. "Too many things to do. I mean, we are planning to take down an entire region. Nice to have you with us, Jacob!"

"Thanks for having me." I responded politely. Right now, I cannot see them as bloodthirsty criminals no matter how much I try. They are all surprisingly nice and normal. Just what pushed them to become a Rocket? I've seen many scums during my work as the Rocket's Exterminator, I know one when I see one but the three of them don't behave like one behind closed doors.

"Hey, how's Mewtwo like?" Henrik inquired curiously. "The ultimate weapon, is he anything you imagined it to be when you first heard of its existence? Cool, eh? That we have something like Mewtwo on our side?"

"It certainly is beyond my wildest expectations for the organisation to have something like Mewtwo." I admitted truthfully. "I originally imagined Mewtwo to be extremely violent, but I see none of that in our telepathic conversations. Right now Mewtwo behaves like an overly curious child."

"Is that so? Interesting." Arawn mused. "I heard that the only person Mewtwo would willingly talk to is you. It's reassuring that there is finally someone in the organisation that could potentially tame Mewtwo."

"I still think we should just work on catching Kanto's legendary birds." Olwen spoke up. "I myself am interested in facing Articuno in battle."

"For an Ice Specialist you are surprisingly hot-headed, eh?"

"Shut up, Henrik."

"Olwen is not wrong." Archer said with a chuckle. "With Mewtwo at our disposal, we can actually work on capturing the legendary birds and further bolster our military might. We can then have four legendaries on our side."

"Taming them aside, can legendaries even be contained in pokeballs?" Henrik questioned. "Nobody has tried before, have they?"

"That's why we will find out. If not, we can always create our own brand of pokeballs specifically to capture them. If we can create something like Mewtwo, I'm sure we can create pokeballs with the sole purpose of capturing legendaries too. I heard Ariana is working on the possibility of working with Team Galactic for this very purpose. Like us, their goals involve capturing legendary and mythical pokemon."

"Why Team Galactic?" I asked. "They are not the only organisation wanting to capture legendaries and mythicals."

"But they have the most advanced technological know-how when it comes to this field." Arawn patiently explained. "Team Galactic have some of the brightest engineers in the field of pokemon capture despite the large cut in size they suffered thanks to Volkner of Sunyshore."

"The crazy guy who is responsible for reducing Team Galactice by more than half their original size in just a year or two, right?" Henrik shuddered at the thought. "Crazy fellow alright. Glad he isn't working for the fucking Indigo."

Henrik's right. I've heard about Volkner and his contributions to Sinnoh. Every terrorist in the world would have. For a person to single handedly wipe out more than 50% of a terrorist group as large as Team Galactic is unheard of. The remaining Sinnoh's Thirteen Pillars took care of the rest. Team Galactic is still a threat to Sinnoh but it is now merely a shell of its former self from the damage they suffered thanks to Volkner. After doing what he did to Team Galactic, Volkner had resigned from his position of Gym Leader about a year ago and promptly disappeared from the public's eye. Nobody knew where he is now but his name alone still strikes fear in the underworld. He had struck such a deep rooted fear within Sinnoh's underworld that I've heard that the people there simply avoided anything that might have ties or relations to Volkner.

"It will be problematic if there is someone like Volkner within Indigo." Olwen agreed with a nod of his head. "But Indigo are made up of corrupt shits unlike Sinnoh, so even someone like him will have trouble to have free reign to do what he wants if he does intend to go against the organisation. Both the Sinnoh League and Government does give him a surprising amount of freedom to deal with the Galactic problem."

"To be fair, he did earn the trust that the Sinnoh League gave him." Henrik said. "As far as I'm able to find out, Sunyshore's GDP tripled during his time there as Gym Leader and he is the reason why Sunyshore went from the poorest city in Sinnoh to one of the most prosperous and safest cities in the world. If only any of Kanto's Gym Leaders are like him, we wouldn't need to be here."

"He did choose a good successor too. Riley Slyde, a Generalist. I heard that Riley was his apprentice. He actually trained a Generalist to be a decent Pillar." Olwen said with a smirk. "Now I really want to fight against Volkner."

"Nah, don't. You will most definitely lose." Henrik waved a lazy hand at Olwen's direction, which earned him a scowl. "Only the boss would stand a chance against someone like Volkner."

"True." Arawn nodded in agreement. "It's no secret that Volkner is at least on the level of an Elite Four in terms of strength. He was supposed to replace Bertha until his untimely resignation."

"Was there a reason for it? His resignation?" I asked curiously. I never cared much about affairs outside the Indigo so while I know about Volkner, I don't know much. If only the Indigo had somebody like Volkner, maybe things in Indigo might not have evolved into what it became today.

"No clue." Olwen shook his head. "His resignation took the entire world by surprise. It was too sudden and came out of literally nowhere. Nobody had seen him after that."

"Man, if only the organisation had someone like him, we would be unstoppable." Henrik gave a dramatic sigh as he said that.

"If only the Indigo had someone like him to have the courage to do what is right, none of us would have been here." Olwen corrected with an ugly scowl. "Fucking Johtonians."

"Fucking Johtonians." Henrik agreed solemnly and his eyes travelled to the small photo frame of him and the little girl. "Poor Carrie."

"There, there." Arawn gave Henrik a comforting pat on his shoulder. "We've been over this, Henrik. Carrie wouldn't want you to continue moping."

"I cannot wait for the day where we can finally go out into the light and just wage an all out war against Indigo." Olwen said with a predatory grin. "I'm going to grind them all into dust, Thirteen Pillars in the way or not."

"Patience, Olwen. Patience. You don't see me being too hasty when it comes to my quest for revenge, do you?"

"Tch. The sooner Kain and Lance go down, the better. Kanto is better off without them."

"I understand Kain, but why Lance?" I asked from where I was sitting.

"Olwen just hates Johtonians in general." Henrik shrugged. "What about you, Jacob? Olwen and Arawn both want revenge, I want whatever that happened to my little girl to not ever happen to anyone else again, what about you?"

I know that there is a lot to their individual history that they are not telling, but it would not be wise to probe any further when it's obviously such a sensitive topic for them. At least I now know that Henrik had a daughter and Johtonians are the reason why she isn't around anymore. Olwen and Arawn had probably lost people close to them too from what I can infer and like Henrik, Johtonians are the reason.

That explains the hate they are emitting.

"I guess I just want all the bad things to stop. Especially all the fighting that we have to do simply because we are Team Rocket." I admitted truthfully. "The fighting gets tiring after a while but it's impossible to stop once you are involved. It's a vicious cycle, a cycle brought about by poverty and greed. Poverty was what pushed me into becoming a criminal in order to survive. The organisation's goal is to improve the quality of life and standard of living of Kantonians and it is something that I really want to see done. I don't want to see another Plague emerge simply because Indigo cannot get their shit together."

"Well said." Henrik raised a glass in my direction as he did a little hiccup, obviously getting more and more drunk by the minute. Glad to see my lying skills still have the same effect that I desire it to be. "I sure as hell don't want to see another me running around doing what I am doing because of what I experienced."

"None of us asked for what happened to us to happen." Olwen scoffed. "Fucking Johtonians, always above the law. Fuck them. Fuck the Kanto ban. Fuck everything they have done. The First Champion shouldn't have bothered to annex both Johto and Kanto to establish the Indigo. We can do just fine on our own."

"Technically speaking, the First Champion wasn't a Kantonian and neither was he a Johtonian. He was from the Indigo Plateau, remember?" Arawn said as he waved a finger at us as if he is a teacher educating ignorant students. "Indigo Plateau is located in the middle of both regions, an area of neutrality during those chaotic times. It was when the numerous wars of both regions implicated his homeland that he finally decided to act and conquer both regions for the sake of peace."

"Fat load of help that did." Olwen snorted. "Look at Kanto now. Look at Indigo now. If it wasn't for the organisation Indigo would have been in shambles by now."

"Well, at least we played an important part in Kanto's development. I can die happy knowing I did that." Henrik said with a small smile on his face as he swirled the contents of his glass lazily. "Now, no more little girls will need to die because Kanto does not have access to the best medical treatment."

"No more families will need to be torn apart because of unjust policies." Olwen agreed.

"People wouldn't need to be afraid of doing the right thing for their motherland. People will no longer be killed because they are working for their motherland's best interests." Arawn said with a sigh. "I can still remember it, SKIP's glorious days."

"Huh, sometimes I still have trouble believing that you are that old." Henrik glanced at Arawn.

"I'm not that old." Arawn snapped back. "I was only a kid when SKIP fell. Giovanni and Ariana took me in after they found me before the Indigo did. In fact, you are older than me, aren't you?!"

"Am I? Wait, how old am I this year again?"

"How can you forget your own age?!"

The lighthearted banter continued and I watched on, content to just listen. For the first time in my life, I have people that I can genuinely refer to as my friends. Like me, they are all criminals and they each undoubtedly have their own individual sad history from what little they let slip in the conversations. They had all definitely suffered under the Johtonian rule and this is what makes them so loyal to Team Rocket, because they are given a second chance to change things for the better through the organisation.

Like me, I'm sure that even they do not want another version of ourselves walking about in Kanto because of Kain's inability to make things right.

So this is what it feels like to have friends, huh? To have people who really cares about you and your opinions. It really is a pity that I will have to betray their trust in me.

It's times like this that I really wish that I'm not a spy.

Name: Jayce

Official Identity: Jacob Myers

Indigo Government Identity: Operative 2046, Code Name: Gengar

Indigo Government Rank: Special Agent

Team Rocket Identity: Executive Plague

Team Rocket Rank: Executive

Pokemon Team:

1. Ninetales, female

2. Exeggutor, male

3. Weavile, male

4. Honchkrow, female

5. Gengar, female

6. Houndoom, male

7. Umbreon, male

8. Hydreigon, male

9. Drapion, female

10. Zoroark, male

11. Bisharp, male

12. Shiftry, male

13. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless