Chapter 6- The Porygon Business

"Don't you have better things to do than to come and bother me?"

I lazily poked the tip of porygon's snout with a finger, pushing it back into the computer screen and watch it disappear into cyberspace. How humans managed to give a sentient A.I. a physical body that can emulate those of a snatural occurring pokemon is beyond me, but you have to give credit to human ingenuity when it is due. The porygon species really is one of the greatest inventions to ever grace this planet.

As per what I also remember from my past life, Team Rocket really has a hideout in Celadon that operates behind the facade of the infamous Game Corner. Even the location of the secret switch is the same, hidden behind an innocent looking poster.

The Game Corner rakes in a lot of money for our organisation simply by giving people a location to fully indulge in one of the most horrid vices known to man. To attract trainers to spend their entire life savings here, rare pokemon are often offered as prizes. The Game Corner do give out the rare dratinis from time to time, and when we have some in stock, porygons as well. The Game Corner is one of the few licensed distributors of porygons in the world, surprisingly enough.

Imagine that, a gambling den somehow earning the license to distribute porygons. I really wonder how Team Rocket did that. Did corruption spread so deep within the Government that anything is now possible for Team Rocket?

That is also why I'm here at Celadon. I'm going to uncover every dirty secret Team Rocket is hiding.

I am given a personal office here in the Celadon hideout since I am an Elite Officer. This hideout is one of the most heavily protected hideouts owned by the organisation. The presence of porygons said it all. They are a unique species of pokemon in the sense that they are literal gods when they are in cyberspace. They can do whatever they want in a short amount of time and no one save for another porygon can stop them.

Maybe I should get myself a porygon and name him Ultron, just to see the world burn.

I have to be really careful of my actions here if I don't want to raise suspicions of the porygons Team Rocket uses to help run the daily operations of not only the Celadon hideout, but also the many others spread throughout the entire Indigo. I don't know the exact number of porygons Team Rocket uses to fortify their network here, but I have no doubt there will always be porygons watching our every move using the numerous security cameras scattered throughout the underground maze.

There is one porygon that kept coming to bother me whenever I am doing my work. I even double checked and found out that yes, it is always the same porygon. I don't know what I did to garner its attention, but it seemed to be a young one. That might explain its endless curiosity for anything that caught its attention.

Speaking of the devil, the porygon's snout poked through the screen of my computer again.

"Nope. Go back, you little nosy parker. I have work to do. Go play with someone else."

I used my finger to push the snout back into my screen. I had lost count on just how many times this porygon had visited me in the short four hours I was here sorting through and updating the list of Team Rocket's clients based on several factors. The factors can range from anything from their size, history, net worth, our past dealings, and so on and so forth.

The snout poked through again.

"If you are so free, then help me sort through the client list. Remove all clients that haven't been transacting with us for the past five years and put them on a separate list."

The list is long. I cannot stress this enough. I expected the porygon to take an hour or two at the very least, so that it might give it something to do and not bother me again for that blissful one hour. Guess what?

It finished the job in just a few seconds.

"Thank you." I said as I downloaded a copy on a flash drive. I'm not going to question my good luck since that porygon just saved me hours of work. Heck, I should have just dumped this job on it in the first place.

The porygon poked its snout through again and this time I patted it with a hand.

"And good job. Say, why do you keep visiting me anyway? Don't you have other things to do?"

There was a weird digital like sound that sounded through my computer's speakers, as if telling me that, yes, it really doesn't have anything to do.

If this porygon is going to be this helpful, then I am going to take full advantage of it. It seems to enjoy doing tasks thrown at it anyway. Serving others seems to be a core part of the program code that created the porygon species, if my sources were right. I will have to double check that fact later.

"Well, if you really are free and have nothing better to do, help me through a few things, okay?"

Maybe bringing Team Rocket down from within Celadon is not going to be as hard as I thought. Especially with an overly helpful and naive porygon running around.

Porygons are made, and only a few places on the planet that can legally manufacture them. Porygons don't come cheap due to how complex and costly the entire process is.

However, Team Rocket managed to somehow steal the secrets of manufacturing porygon. They have their own secret factory to produce this living A.I. It is how they can keep producing porygons regularly to attract trainers from all over the world to try their luck in getting one on their team. The porygons come out clean upon inspection, which I still have no clue how that was achieved since that area is not under my jurisdiction. I won't know until I snooped around some more. If I want to bring Team Rocket down, I will have to find out just how they did it.

But because Team Rocket can produce porygons on their own, their main base, Celadon hideout, is teeming with them. It is going to be a hassle to bypass all of them and I don't even know for sure how many there are. Not to mention, they are constantly watching everyone within the hideout. I cannot act as freely as I did in the other hideouts that I used to be posted at.

The opportunity came when I was given the job to do a routine check on the illegal porygon factory Team Rocket owned. It is a job that only high ranking members trusted by the Executives are allowed to embark on.

As I soon found out, the illegal factory is located at the edge of Saffron City, disguised as an ordinary IT company. The disguised members of Team Rocket working there immediately stood at attention the moment I entered. Many are obviously nervous at my presence.

The reason why I am called the Exterminator is because it is my job to get rid of any and all traitors and threats within and outside the organisation. You can say that my primary job within Team Rocket is like those of an internal auditor, only with all the killing and gore involved. I do go on other missions like infiltration, stealing, assassination, raids, etc etc, but my primary job had always been to get rid of any traitors that resides within Team Rocket and to eliminate outside threats that can pose a danger to the organisation.

It is a job given only to those that are trusted by the organisation without question. Not many had earned that throughout the organisation's history. Ever since I killed Jane with my own two hands, someone who many within the organisation knows was very close to me, I earned myself the title of Exterminator. My job is simple: Exterminate any and all people that goes against Team Rocket.

I am where I am now because of her sacrifice.

"Who's in charge?" I asked the moment I walked into a private room, ninetales and houndoom walking by my side. Ninetales is still her own aloof self, houndoom is busy glaring and snarling at anyone who looks his way, getting them to avert their gazes elsewhere.

"I am. Team Captain Edgar reporting for duty, Sir."

A green haired man who is a little on the short side took a few steps forward and saluted me. He led me to a secret book keeping room, where all the true financial statements and every single transaction, legal or otherwise, are being recorded.

"I hope I don't uncover anything that isn't supposed to be there, Team Captain." I spoke nonchalantly as I accessed the computer, already typing furiously on the keyboard to access the required files. "Or things that are supposed to be there, but aren't there."

"I checked everything myself, Sir." The Team Captain spoke confidently. "Every single one of us here serves the organisation with undying loyalty."

"Ah, I'm sorry. My words came out wrong, I'm afraid." I waved it off. "It's my job to be suspicious of people, you see. It's an unglamorous job and one that is not well-liked, but someone has to do it. I hope you understand."

"You are who people look up to, Sir. To protect the interests of the organisation even if it means killing your closest partner is not something everyone can do. No one had ever suspected Helen of being a traitor, but not only did you find out, you exposed her in front of everyone. Your loyalty to the organisation is admirable."

Outwardly, I didn't have any visible reaction. Inwardly, it is taking all of my willpower to not command houndoom to burn him to ashes this very instant. Helen was Jane's codename in Team Rocket.

Nobody speaks of her like this.

"That's why I am one of the few who are entrusted with this task." I spoke without missing a beat, subtly nudging houndoom with my foot for him to stay down and not give anything away. Thankfully, he got the memo.

Like the gengar currently residing in my shadows, houndoom's previous trainer was Jane.

Edgar excused himself after a short while to continue to do his job, leaving me to do my own auditing. I plugged in a flash drive into the computer.

"Nosy, you there?"

A familiar looking snout poked through the computer screen. I had asked Petrel if I could take along with me a porygon of my choosing to help me with this job, and he agreed because there is no reason to refuse and he trusts me enough. Obviously, I chose Nosy since fate had brought us together.

The one thing I found out is that the little nosy parker can be carried around in a flash drive, it seems. What a wonder.

I do need to differentiate this porygon from the other ones running around in Team Rocket's cyber network, so I gave him the nickname of Nosy since he is such a nosy parker. Nosy isn't mine, he's technically wild and probably programmed to serve Team Rocket. I will have to find some time to quietly look at his source code in detail to find out more about Nosy without raising questions. I am currently trying to see if it is possible to get Nosy on my side. If I could do it, it would mean a step closer for me in bringing Team Rocket down. Bringing Nosy with me is a risk that I am willing to take.

"Help me do an initial filter of the transaction records for the past year. Anything that stands out or you think is an anomaly with a variance of more than 20%, mark it out for me. I will be going through the physical books."

Many times, the dirty little secrets are always hidden on hardcopy. Nosy can handle all the digital documents while I go through the illegal books kept by the members working in this factory.

"And Nosy? Find me some background music."

A few seconds later, some rock n roll music of Nosy's choosing played in the room I'm in. I'm going to be stuck here for the next few days anyway. Might as well enjoy myself while I'm at it.

And, huh, who knew that porygons actually had good taste in music?

It's only after auditing the illegal factory did I finally know how Team Rocket's porygon business is really done.

When the porygon species was first created, Team Rocket had somehow stole the original source code without anyone knowing. This was how they first managed to mass produce porygons in the first place.

But how do they make sure that their porygons come out clean when they introduced them into the market? The pokemon given out as prizes in the Game Corner are subjected to random checks by Kanto's very own police force. That includes porygons.

The answer is actually laughably simple. Collaboration, or better known as corruption.

If anyone did a check on the porygons held at the Game Corner, the manufacturing code indicates that they are manufactured from Silph Co., one of the few approved manufacturers of porygons in the world. If they trace back further, there will be records in Silph Co.'s books that the porygon subjected to the check is indeed manufactured in Silph Co.

Since Silph Co does not belong to Team Rocket, this is not supposed to be possible, right?

Not unless you have someone high up in the corporate ladder within Silph Co. who is also secretly working for Team Rocket. That someone receives money from us as bribes and in return, he works for us. Maybe it was how Team Rocket managed to effortlessly capture the entire building in the original games. It would make a lot of sense.

In any case, that guy in Silph Co. which Team Rocket bribed to work for them is the one responsible for making sure that any illegally manufactured porygons made by Team Rocket came out clean. Of course, that guy isn't alone. There are also other undercover Team Rocket members working in Silph Co. that helped him out. I now have the entire list of these people.

Oh boy, Silph Co. is so going to have a field day with this when I finally expose Team Rocket to the world. Every big corporation in Indigo will be having one when the big day finally arrives.

I cannot claim to be the best when it comes to programming even if my knowledge in the field is good enough for me to accomplish many things, like hacking into most protected websites unseen and undetected. In any case, in the few undisturbed days that I spent in the factory helping Team Rocket audit the factory's accounts, I had the time to see and understand just what made up the program code of porygons when I looked it up during my free time. There's no way I can make my own porygon just from seeing the full code because it is just that complex, but fortunately, my skills in programming is good enough to understand what I am seeing.

It's interesting.

Porygons, at their very core, are artificial intelligence. They are initially made with the intention of using them to help humans in the area of space exploration since they don't need to breathe. Whoever first created these pokemon must be an idealistic genius with a heart of gold because he programmed these creatures to help humanity. That very idea of 'helping humanity' is a core part of the porygon's code that makes porygons, porygons. Take that part of the code out and the A.I. will never work. It is a failsafe that the original creator of the porygon input into his creation to ensure that his work will never be misused. So far, no one had managed to create a working porygon without that failsafe.

Guess someone in this world did better than Tony Stark when it comes to building an A.I to save the world. Here, we have porygons. In the MCU verse which I can now only vaguely remember, we have Ultron.

Pokemon beats MCU, hands down, in the artificial intelligence department, period.

However, even with all the failsafe in place, all it takes to make porygons work for Team Rocket is a little bit of misdirection.

Porygons are programmed to help humans. They derive joy from helping us do our chores. To not let a porygon help its master is akin to torture for them. They will literally stress themselves out if they have nothing to do. It may be why Nosy kept coming back to disturb me, because it had nothing to do as a young porygon since all the chores were probably taken by the older porygons already running rampant in the cybernetwork in Celadon base.

Using that unique trait of porygons, Team Rocket's scientists input a different code, almost like some sort of malware, on top of the original one to allow our own manufactured porygons to recognise us as their masters, to never betray the organisation. That's how Team Rocket secretly amassed the warriors to make up their little cyber army. Even the Indigo League did not have one as impressive as theirs.

It's honestly worrying.

So, next question. How do Team Rocket make a profit out of manufacturing porygons?

Let's say the factory produces ten porygons every month. Out of the ten, about three goes to the Game Corner. These porygons are untouched with no malware installed on them so that they can come out clean during the random inspections done by the police. Another two might be assigned to help out in one of Team Rocket's numerous hideouts. These porygons usually stay in Celadon's cybernetwork because only the most important and physically secure hideouts are allowed to have porygons working for them there. It is also in Celadon that these porygons are input with the malware to make them work for us. If their help is needed elsewhere, they travel to wherever they are needed through the internet.

The remaining five will be sold on the black market to the highest bidder. It is also where the greatest source of revenue of Team Rocket's porygon business comes from. Whether the porygons are inputted with the malware depends on the situation. Team Rocket spies on other corporations or targets of interest by selling our buyers porygons that are secretly installed with the program code of our own creation. It is how Team Rocket is able to keep an eye on all of our allies and sometimes, enemies.

Neat, huh?

However, the scientists in Team Rocket must be slacking. Nosy comes out clean when I run a check on it. Nothing out of the ordinary popped up when I scanned it. I even ran different types of checks a few times and every single time Nosy comes out clean. It hasn't been modified by Team Rocket yet. Nosy had somehow been missed.

In that case, don't mind if I do.

Using Team Rocket's own program code as a base, I modified it a little so that Nosy only recognise me as its master. It doesn't even matter if Nosy got caught by another trainer, because the code itself will only ever allow me to be recognised by Nosy as its master. Now, I have another option that I can use to bring Team Rocket down. I have a brilliant A.I. that is absolutely loyal to me working for my cause.

Is what I did manipulative? I know. Immoral? Yeah. Do I care?

No.

You cannot afford to care about such trivial things if you are working in Team Rocket. Furthermore, I am also a secret agent of the Government tasked to remove the blight that is Team Rocket from the region. Sacrifices will always have to be made. Morals is never an issue in this regard.

Results are.

"Team Captain, is this all of your men?"

"Yes, Sir." Edgar answered a firm reply as he and his men stood in one straight line, back straight, in front of me. We are now in the room which I had been using for the past few days to conduct my audit.

"Well, congratulations. Nothing suspicious turned up when it comes to the porygon business."

"We are loyal to Team Rocket. Everything is for the glory of Team Rocket." Edgar replied. His men followed his example and began to chant his last sentence. Team Rocket might as well be a cult at this point with how often they are repeating this phrase.

"I know." I replied as I adjusted the breton cap that I always wore on my head. "Except that-"

My shiftry, which had been beside me all this time, pounced on one of Edgar's men upon my silent signal, pinning him down onto the floor. He is one of the two pokemon given to me as a reward by Ariana. The other one is a bisharp.

"Sir!" Edgar cried out in worry upon the sudden turn of events. "What's-"

"Last year, December twelfth." I picked up a book that recorded all of Team Rocket's illegal transactions and read it off from there. "The physical record of the transaction we have with Team Magma from Hoenn does not tally with the records in our database. Not only that, someone attempted to cover it up and I would have missed it if Executive Petrel didn't task me to host them here in Kanto last year. I knew from memory the exact goods we were transacting with them."

I snapped the book shut. The sound reverberated loudly across the now eerily silent room.

"One missing Up-Grade." I hissed. "I don't have to tell you how strict we control the flow of such items out there on the market, do I? There is a damn good reason why we don't want too many porygon-2s running around."

Edgar and the rest of his men immediately fell on their knees, trembling all over. They now know that they are in deep shit. It doesn't matter if they weren't the ones doing it and the only traitor is the guy shiftry is currently pinning down. The porygon business is a very important business for Team Rocket. Because of the sensitive nature of the porygon business, when someone on the team gets into trouble, everyone gets into trouble.

"What was it that you told me when I first came here? I checked everything myself, Sir. Every single one of us here serves the organisation with undying loyalty." I repeated Edgar's words back at him as I sat comfortably on my chair, legs crossed in a relaxed manner while sipping on some warm tea. "You want to say that again?"

"I-I have no idea-"

"Then maybe you should have been more diligent."

On my cue, shiftry slammed the traitor's head into the ground. Not enough to kill him or knock him out, but enough to make him feel a lot of pain. I then turned my attention on him.

"Do I need to work my magic on you and get you to spill everything, or are you going to confess truthfully?"

"M-My mother needed urgent medical treatment, Sir!" The traitor begged from his position. My heart goes out to him, really, but I cannot help him. If I show even a shred of mercy and it somehow got the Executives to get suspicious of me, then everything I had done so far would have been for nothing. The only way to get concrete proof that Giovanni really is the true leader of Team Rocket is to somehow get myself promoted to Executive.

As Team Rocket's Exterminator, I cannot show any mercy when I am on my job. Not without a very good reason to.

"I-I don't h-have the money! I really needed the money!" The man continues to beg. "I-I can pay it all back! Dock it from my pay! Send me out on missions to redeem myself! Demote me! But please! Don't kill me! If I die, there is no one else to look after my mother! Please! I beg you!"

I let out an audible and long sigh before walking up to the man before lowering myself so that we can see each other better. I pulled at his hair to get him to raise his head to look at me from where he is on the floor, still pinned down by shiftry.

This person really is an idiot.

"Team Rocket does not tolerate traitors. It does not matter how big or small the action may be nor does it matter for what intentions you reaped the organisation's benefit for your own. We don't do charity. The only punishment for traitors is death. I thought we made that very clear the very first day you join."

I gave a few seconds to let my words sink in.

"If you were honest with us, maybe we could have done something to help you. We do have staff benefits, you know that? Free dental, subsidised loans for hard working members who really needed the cash, sometimes if the economy is good everyone gets a year end bonus. Why did you think that pocketing the profits of an Up-Grade was a good idea, you moron?"

Because of his stupid move, I now have to stain my hands with blood again. I wasn't kidding when I said that Team Rocket has staff benefits. How else did you think they managed to secure their employees' loyalty? In fact, Team Rocket is damn good at employee retention, to the point that I sincerely think corporations worldwide should actually learn from them in this area.

The team Team Rocket of now is beyond a terrorist organisation. They are a corporation that is slowly transforming into a nation. A massive underground corporation that not only has its roots spread over various sectors of Indigo's many industries and politics, but also owning their own private army.

Team Rocket arguably has the power to topple the entire Indigo. Whether it is possible is still debatable as of now, but at the rate that they are growing, they can readily do so by the next decade.

I don't have much time left.

The man is now whimpering in fear and regret after hearing my words. My eyes softened as I asked him my next question.

"Does your mother know that you are a Rocket?"

"N-No."

"How old is she?"

"S-Seventy-Eight this year."

I stuck my hands in his pockets and pulled out his phone before putting it in his hand.

"On the account that you were a loyal member until you pulled that stupid move, I can give you the benefit to say your last words to your mother. This is the only kindness I can show you. You have five minutes. Spend it well."

Everyone else remained silent for the next five minutes when the man spent his last moments speaking to his only remaining family through the phone. The elderly woman on the other end of the line would never know that this is the last time she will ever speak to her son.

This tragedy could have been easily avoided. What a pity.

"T-Thank you." The man rasped out when he finally finished his call. I merely nodded in affirmation before doing a hand gesture. Without warning, shiftry suddenly slit his throat, giving the man a quick and painless death.

I may be an Exterminator, but I am capable of mercy too. My own brand of mercy.

"Clean the mess up. Make his death look like an accident." I instructed the other members in the room. "Let's not break his mama's heart more than it would already be."

"Yes, Sir."

"I cannot hear you."

"Yes, Sir!"

I turned back to Edgar, who is still kneeling on the floor with the rest of his men. From the grim look on his face, he knew that he is next. Since he is the Team Captain in charge of this facility, anything that happened here is his responsibility.

"I will have to report your failure to the Executives, Team Captain. Sadly, you know Executive Petrel isn't a very forgiving person. I don't know what he has in store for you, but I suggest that it is better for you to assume the worst to happen. You have a family, do you not? A loving wife and two beautiful children living just at the other end of the city? Spend some time with them while you still can. You never know when it would be your last."

A subtle reminder and threat to him that I am watching his every move, and that his life is not the only ones in danger if he tried to do anything stupid.

"I-I understand, Sir."

I turned to leave, my pokemon following me. I paused when I was just about to exit the room. It's best to make things clear to save me future troubles.

"And oh, please don't do anything stupid like trying to run away from the organisation. Because if you do, I will most likely be the one sent to eliminate you. If that were to happen, I will have no choice but to show you why I am called the organisation's Exterminator."

I turned back to look at Edgar in the eye.

"By exterminate, I mean erasing every single person that you ever known or loved. How painful that will be for them depends on how much you annoyed me in your futile attempts to escape. Please don't make things more troublesome for me than it already is."

"Y-Yes, Sir."

I exit the factory with my mood ruined. It's not like I enjoy killing people, but when you are working for the largest terrorist group in the world, such things are unavoidable.

When I'm certain that there is no one around me, I held my phone up and spoke to the porygon residing in it.

"Nosy? Drop 3,000,000 pokedollars from my bank account into the moron's mother. Make sure that it cannot be traced back to me."

The Government at least had a conscience to pay me for my services. I also earn quite a sum from the Government as their secret operative. I never did get the chance to spend a single penny from it because I was never given a break. Might as well use it to do some good.

There, now my mood is a little better.

Just a little.

AN: Since people are asking, yes, RE's world is happening in the same world as RftS, and also all the other pokemon fics I have. Hope this clears things up.

Hope you guys enjoy the story thus far.

Name: Jayce

Indigo Government Identity: Operative 2046, Code Name: Gengar

Indigo Government Rank: Special Agent

Team Rocket Identity: Elite Officer Plague

Team Rocket Rank: Elite Officer

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, (Nosy), genderless