Don't Give Me Diamonds

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 049: Give me Intelligence

Ash drove through the nearly empty streets of Vermilion City, bordering the coast. "Pika!" Pikachu pointed at an elegant structure that looked like a miniature palace painted in shades of blue. It had an ocean theme to it with seashells embedded into the walls, the paint created the illusion of an underwater castle. A large sign held by a mermaid statue read 'Squisito' in golden letters.

The mermaid had a blue-green fish tail with a yellow star on the hip. She was wearing a pink seashell bra and a pearl necklace, earrings and hair clips. Her face was partially covered by her red hair. She reminded Ash of Misty.

"Good job Pikachu, it looks like this is the place, I should have guessed it would be fancy," Ash's little indigo car looked out of place among the few luxurious cars in the nearly empty parking lot. He exited the car with Pikachu on his shoulders and entered the restaurant through the front door.

There was a large tank on the right with a few small water pokemon swimming inside, mostly Goldeen, Seaking and Magikarp. The left side was lined with several smaller tanks holding Krabby, Kingler, Shellder and Cloyster. On the wall facing towards the street there were various paintings depicting water pokemon. The opposite wall was made of glass, showing a clear view of the beach.

"Sir," a man dressed in a formal suit with his royal blue hair impeccably brushed back, addressed Ash. The man stood behind a polished brown wood podium at the entrance of the restaurant. On the podium there was a list on white paper lined with gold, a gold plated pen and a little golden bell. "This is a formal restaurant; you can't come in dressed like that. As for your Pikachu, please make sure he at least wears a bow tie."

"Um... I'm here to pick up a delivery?" Ash finally noticed the critical look directed at him. "It's for Lando Ackbar."

Upon mentioning the name, the man's face changed from disapproving to forcefully cheerful, "ah yes, you must be Mr. Ash Ketchum, correct?" The man picked up the little bell and rung it. A lavender haired waitress, dressed formally, rushed over, "Mr. Ash Ketchum is here to pick up the delivery Mr. Lando Ackbar ordered. Please inform the chef."

"Yes, right away!" The slightly nervous waitress hurried off to the kitchen, entering a small door between two tanks containing a Shellder and a Krabby.

Before the waitress with long lavender hair returned, several people in similar attires recalled the pokemon in the tanks into pokeballs and let other pokemon into the tanks. They were also water types, but some were from different regions. They headed out to the beach and let the pokemon that had previously been in the tanks out to play there, as if to keep the atmosphere interesting by occasionally switching the pokemon in the tanks.

The waitress finally returned, carrying four bags. The bags were made of heat enclosing fabric in four different shades of blue with golden lining. The name Squisito was written in golden letters on each of them. "Here is the food, please let Mr. Ackbar know that we hope he enjoys it!"

"I will, thanks," Ash took the bags and soon after, the waitress returned to her job. It looked like Lando had told them to put it on his tab. The waitress seemed a little less nervous when Ash finally started to leave.

Ash noticed the waitress whispering something to the man at the podium, but didn't hear them clearly. He thought he heard the phrases "the other business" and "even the champion," spoken with disapproval and a hint of fear. Ash didn't know what that was about, but assumed it was unimportant and disregarded it as if he had not heard.

Ash returned to his car with the bags, placing them on the passenger seat next to Pikachu, "hold on to them."

Pikachu nodded, "pika." He hoped that Lando remembered to order something for him.

Ash tried to start his car but it didn't work. "Gotta change that battery," he remembered, "Pikachu, it looks like the battery needs another charge." Pikachu followed Ash out of the car. Ash opened it exposing the engine and hoped his battery wouldn't be fried completely after another of Pikachu's charges, "be gentle."

"Pikachu!" Pikachu aimed a relatively small amount of electricity at the battery, and kept it going for a few seconds.

"Alright, let's try again," Ash closed the lid on top of the engine and went back inside the car. Thankfully, the car started immediately after the battery was charged, "good, it worked!" He knew he couldn't keep on doing that forever, eventually, the battery would give out. He still kept procrastinating to change it though. The battery was in a more or less sufficiently working condition for the time being.

xoxox xox xoxox

Ash made it back to the Vermilion City hospital uneventfully and took the food up to Lando's room. A nurse had tried to stop him, but her sentence was cut off by another, who pointed out he was with Mr. Ackbar's friends. As soon as she heard, the first nurse quickly excused herself.

Ash moved the bag's handles from his hand to forearm and reached for the door, opening it without knocking, he didn't think too much of the action. The room had changed since Ash was last there and for a moment he thought he was in the wrong place. Yet the Waterflower sisters were all there crowded around Lando, so that had to be the right room. They were listening to his endless speech, which sounded a little more coherent with each passing minute.

Ash set the bags quietly on the white table in a corner of the room, next to a glass vase holding a dozen red roses. The room was filled with various gifts, flowers, pokemon plush toys, fruit baskets, cards, letters and wrapped boxes. They must have been held back by security and just recently brought up to the room after passing inspection. "I'm back," Ash announced.

"Ash!" Daisy squealed at the top of her lungs, with similar reactions following from Violet and Lily, "Ash!" "Ash!"

The three women crowded around Ash, pulling him into a suffocating group hug that threatened to choke him to death. Fortunately, Misty interfered, "give him some breathing room!"

When Daisy, Violet and Lily finally let him go, Ash took a deep breath. He began to recover the normal color of his face, instead of being slightly blue from the lack of oxygen. "Wow, you must really be hungry."

"Oh you silly baby brother," Daisy pinched his cheek, catching Ash off guard.

"It's not about the food," Violet took Ash's hat off and ruffled his already messy hair. She passed the hat to Lily.

"It's about Misty and you," Lily put Ash's hat back on his head, pulling it down over his face.

Ash adjusted his hat and blinked in confusion, "Misty and me? But you already knew about us."

While her sisters giggled, Misty clarified, "Lily noticed the ring and brought it to everyone's attention. They wouldn't stop asking about it so I had to tell them. Sorry I couldn't get them to wait until you came back."

"It's okay," Ash smiled, "Does this mean you'll tease me as your little brother from now on?" The three oldest Waterflower sisters nodded in unison. "I guess I can live with that," Ash laughed.

"Splendid!" Lando suddenly cheered, "then we shall raise our swords to combat the evil Team Rocket as brothers in arms!"

Daisy sighed, her previous gloomy mood surfacing, "just when I thought the pain killers were like clearing out."

"Yeah!" Ash couldn't forgive Team Rocket this time.

"Don't encourage crazy things!" Daisy elbowed Ash. Hopefully, when the pain killers dissolved from his system, Lando would be a little more rational and let the police handle things.

xoxox xox xoxox

The tension was heavy in the Viridian Rocket base. Laiki was feeling terribly frustrated, more so than ever before. She was not only a nurse, but also an information gatherer and Team Rocket's enemies had been hiding under her nose for far too long. She let out an exasperated breath as she sat on her desk at the Viridian gym's secret underground structure. The pokemon in the medical facility watched her. They were unable to turn their eyes away from the human that irradiated tension and stress.

She looked over the list of the people who had been identified as traitors. The boss was very displeased with the situation and its unpredictability. The list held several names that Laiki would have never guessed would be traitors. They were effective and hard working, they were not recruited after the disbandment of rival gangs and they had lost nothing to Team Rocket. Every aspect of their past life was free of any reason to hold a grudge. It didn't make any sense, why would seemingly loyal Rockets suddenly turn into traitors?

The clues were leading Laiki in circles. She thought that it was an outside job with a few infiltrators involved, but it was looking more like an inside job by the second. The involvement of an outside group in the situation was very likely, but they were not the only ones. If that was the case, who would want to rebel and why?

Those were not the only worries in Laiki's mind. Akira had disappeared shortly after the attack at Vermilion City went public. Laiki feared that she would do something crazy on her own. She hoped that Akira was aware that those who attacked were not real Rockets, but rather traitors acting without Giovanni's consent.

Laiki hoped that Akira didn't try to get vengeance on her own and make things worse. Being a famous singer, Akira was well known, as was her link to Team Rocket. It served to enhance her rebellious image and help her sell more songs. If she took action, then the link between the attack and the real Team Rocket, albeit a lie, would be undeniable. Akira was known to be a Rocket and labeling someone so famous as a traitor wouldn't be enough to convince the police or the underworld.

They might assume Team Rocket really was senselessly causing trouble. They would theorize that a violent direct take over was on its way, instead of the slow and steady take over that was the truth. With Akira's added attention from the media, Team Rocket's business associates would surely be driven to the edge. They would start seriously doubting the Rockets' trust, putting a strain on business.

Worse yet, they might assume Giovanni simply couldn't control Team Rocket. Laiki wondered if that would make the boss throw the slow and steady take over plan out the window and blow up all of Kanto in a fit of rage. "Arg!" She felt like banging her head on her desk. She knew about a portion of Akira's secret past, though some details were lost in time.

She knew that Akira had grown up in that orphanage at Vermilion City until the age of fourteen. For reasons unknown to Laiki, she was not adopted, despite being a healthy, cute little girl, with a melodious voice. Maybe someone prevented her adoption for some reason. Akira was later adopted by a man who became her agent. Evidently, he only wanted to make money off her talent. She ultimately ran away and joined Team Rocket, though she still continued her music career.

Mirta, the woman who was in charge of the orphanage, was killed during the attack. Naturally, Akira would be thirsty for revenge. Mirta had taken care of her since she was a baby. At least the reason why the attack took place in that specific event made sense. They must have gathered information about Akira and decided to use her fame against Team Rocket to get more media coverage. Plus Ackbar Inc. was an important business partner. It was like catching two Pidgey, with one pokeball, though that was only a saying. The enemy must be expecting Akira to do something. They might keep pushing her if she didn't; she had to be found.

Laiki eyed her little cell phone warily, she didn't know how safe it was, but this was urgent. She couldn't contact the boss and assumed he must have gone out to face the restless media once again. She instead called Comet and left a short message, "bring back Akira," and hung up quickly. There was a possibility that Comet might not receive the message at all, but Laiki had no other way to contact him.

Many questions still remained. Laiki theorized that maybe someone within Team Rocket wanted to overthrow the boss, but she didn't know who. It tortured her that she couldn't figure it out. She felt wrong not knowing what was going on around her. She was used to knowing even what was not her business.

She refreshed the screen of her laptop computer and looked at the Kanto News' official website. There was something new there. It was a report concerning comments made by Ash Ketchum, the Indigo League champion of two years ago. Wait, Ketchum? That was Delia's lastname. Someone as nosy as Laiki would care to learn such a detail. In contrast, Comet would settle for hearing exciting stories were everyone only had a first name and no history beyond what was contained in the tale.

She took note of the many comments posted on the page before she even viewed the video. She had many theories swimming in her head. There was something odd about the comments on the page that Laiki's critical eyes noticed right away. Too many people were demanding a press conference to be given by the gym leader. The commenter names were different, but they came from the same place. Thanks to Team Rocket's custom browser, codenamed Ninetails, she could easily track the IP address of each comment. Even if she wasn't a computer expert, it only took a few clicks. The IP address of each comment was the same and Laiki knew she was on to something. She quickly played the video.

Ash was defending Giovanni. He was not from Team Rocket, but the traitors did have allies outside. Plus this matched the strategy Laiki had theorized about, using famous people to give the situation more attention. Many people were looking forward to seeing Ash and Ritchie battle and that was exactly what happened recently. Their fame had increased lately. "A trap," Laiki concluded. Someone was trying to take out the boss and establish control over Team Rocket. It was someone ruthless enough to cause a big commotion. By that line of thought they would want to get rid of Giovanni in public and a press conference would be the perfect chance. Ash's comments should motivate people to ease up on the accusations against the Viridian gym leader, but only a few comments were in Giovanni's favor. Their IP was different.

Laiki knew that the boss suspected Ash. He told her about it while giving her a quick disapproving scolding for being unable to locate the traitors before the chaos exploded. This proved that the boss was correct; Ash was with the enemy. Delia, a relative of Ash, though Laiki didn't know what their relation was, had to be a spy. She had to tell the boss right away, or at least, as soon as the press released him. She had a feeling that he would be able to see something else in those clues that eluded her.

xoxox xox xoxox

At Giovanni's mansion, Pixel sat in the guest room with Delia. The Rocket was researching the recent events on her little computer with Delia watching the screen. She came across the video of Ash defending Giovanni and noticed that Delia paled. "You know him? I mean other than as a famous pokemon trainer."

Delia remained silent for a moment before replying, "I don't know him personally."

Pixel didn't believe her and her doubts increased when she further researched Ash Ketchum. She found that he was from Pallet Town. There was a world of information online, but people wouldn't find anything among the spam unless they knew how to search. "You do know him; he's from Pallet Town too." Pixel had never been to Pallet Town, she only knew where it was located on a map. She didn't know it was the kind of little town where everyone knew everyone, yet she still found Delia's denial suspicious.

Delia shook her head and remained silent. Pixel took on a thoughtful expression. She felt as if she stumbled upon something important. Before she could say anything else, the door to the guest room was opened. A woman with a tray of food entered, "Pixel? I thought you left." She placed the tray of food on the desk.

"I didn't want to open the door without permission," Pixel admitted, she did have a keycard hidden. Delia looked towards the door, but found two men guarding it. She knew she wouldn't be able to get past them so she didn't even try.

"Well," the cook continued, she was short and had pale orange hair, with a few white strands. She looked very similar to her sister, who worked as a Rocket scout. "You can leave now, unless you want to stay and keep our guest company." Delia frowned; she wasn't a guest, she was being held there against her will.

"I think I'll give her some space," Pixel headed for the door with her little computer on hand. She slipped out past the two men. Delia knew the girl's curiosity was awakened and that she would research Ash.

xoxox xox xoxox

Pixel sat in one of the large luxurious living rooms of Giovanni's mansion. The theme of this particular room was gold. Several paintings hung on the walls in golden frames, filled with similar shades. A Sandshrew looked towards the sky, with glowing skin. The sunlight was too strong and golden to be realistic. Yet the painting had a certain charm to it. Somehow it didn't look blindingly bright. Despite the background consisting of golden sand, the pokemon still stood out.

Another painting showed a group of Pikachu surrounded by an autumn scenery. They were playing in a pile of golden leaves, their golden fur perfectly glossy. In a similar autumn environment, another painting depicted a group of Kakuna and Beedrill. The most stunning painting in the room was definitely Zapdos. It was much larger than the others, taking up practically an entire wall. The legendary pokemon of lightning had his wings spread far left and right. Electricity surrounded him as if it would fly out of the painting.

The couch was covered in a detailed golden fabric. It was shiny, but somehow not too bright. It all contrasted perfectly with the dark neutral colors of the walls and carpet. Pixel focused on her research and came across a picture of Ash. He was in some kind of formal event sponsored by Ackbar Inc. He held a Pikachu wearing a tuxedo top. Next to Ash there was a red haired woman in a dress, her arm linked with his. Pixel looked further into it. Many connections lay hidden just below the surface. They were waiting to be discovered if only someone would search for them.

She found out that the red haired woman was Misty Waterflower, of the Cerulean City gym. That information didn't hold any leads to uncovering whatever mystery was out there. She researched Delia, but found little about her. Delia had been careful, claiming to be camera shy after Ash became better known. She wasn't the only Ketchum in Kanto, so the champion didn't need to automatically be linked to her unless there were other elements that led to that connection.

She paused and looked at the picture one more time. There was a certain familiarity about the photo. Pixel felt as if she had seen Ash before, but not in the Indigo League or the recent tournament. Maybe he reminded her of someone, but she didn't know who. She knew she wasn't supposed to be calling anyone, but this could be important so she took the risk and called Laiki.

"Pixel? What is it? Did something happen?" Laiki asked hurriedly.

"No, sorry to call like this, is the line safe?" Pixel inquired unsure.

"I don't know; you know a lot more about these things than me!" Laiki was still missing vital pieces to the ever growing puzzle. She wanted to find them as soon as possible. She needed to tell Giovanni what she came up with, but he was still busy with the press.

"Just do an image search for Ash Ackbar," Pixel left it at that, Laiki would surely find that same picture.

"Got it, I have to go," Laiki was unaware that Delia was at Giovanni's mansion with Pixel. If she knew, she would have urgently asked her friend to get information from her.

Regardless, getting information from Delia was exactly what Pixel intended to do. If she just asked a few key questions, Delia might tell her something. She got the feeling Delia was not a bad person. Maybe if Pixel could talk her into believing it was for the best, she would reveal the truth.

xoxox xox xoxox

At the Viridian Rocket base, Laiki did an image search for Ash Ackbar. That was not the lastname of the champion, so Laiki wondered what this was about. When the picture of Ackbar Inc.'s formal party appeared on the screen, Laiki knew she found what Pixel wanted her to find. She remembered the picture Binks had shown her long ago, the copy of the same picture Luke had shown Comet.

She imagined the two images overlapping, the first semi-transparent over the second. When Ash didn't have his hat and had his hair so perfectly brushed back, he looked like a younger Giovanni. Was it a coincidence or something more? Even if the line might not be safe, Laiki had to discuss this further.

xoxox xox xoxox

Delia didn't waste any time as soon as she was left alone in the guest room. She threw the pillows on the floor and pulled the sheets off the large bed, immediately getting to work on tying them together. She tugged strongly on the ends to make sure they would support her and tied them to the handle of the window. She threw her improvised rope down, after checking to make sure there was no one watching. Thankfully, the people who were outside earlier had finished their tasks and were gone.

Reminding herself not to look down, Delia exited the room through the window. She held on to the sheets with one hand and to the windowsill with the other. The glass opened towards the inside and the sheets tied to the window's handle would close it with the weight. It was inevitable, Delia couldn't think of another place to safely tie the sheets. Of course, she wanted to escape as noiselessly as possible. Holding on to the windowsill she pulled the glass closed with the sheet. After giving it one final tug for reassurance, she started to climb down.

She went as fast as she could, hoping no one went out or looked out one of the windows near her path. Finally, Delia reached the end of the sheets and hopped down safely to the ground. She didn't even take a moment to catch her breath before she started to run as fast as she could towards the tall gates. With some difficulty, she managed to climb over them, though she ripped her dress a little and had a painful fall. Fortunately, nothing was sprained or broken. She made it to the other side of the fence without any major injuries. It was ironic and she mentally scolded herself for it: her destination was the Viridian Gym.

xoxox xox xoxox

Pixel returned to the guest room where Delia was being held captive. She had asked the butler to stand guard at the door just in case. She opened the door and immediately noticed something was very wrong. The pillows were on the floor and the sheets were missing. "Oh no!" She rushed to the window, the only possible escape route. She pulled it open and found the sheets tied together, leading down from the window, "she's gone!"

"What?" The butler rushed into the room, "I can't believe this, the boss is going to be so angry at us!"

"You mean at you!" Pixel argued, "it was the mansion's staff's job to keep her here, not mine!"

"Weren't you the one checking to make sure the alarms were working properly?" The butler countered.

"And they are," Pixel retorted, "the alarms go off when someone breaks in, not when someone breaks out!" She pushed past him out of the room, "I have no time for this. Even if it's not my fault, I'm going to find her."

Pixel ran out of the mansion and spotted something shiny on the ground below the escape route. She picked it up and realized it was a diamond earring. "Delia must have dropped this." She threw out a pokeball with a lightning bolt sticker on it.

"Pikachu," a female Pikachu emerged from the red beam of the pokeball. She had a blue bow on her left ear and long fur atop her head.

"Peachy, track down the owner of this earring!" Pixel held out the earring for Peachy to get its scent. She wasn't really a pokemon expert since she didn't grow up among them.

"Pika!" After sniffing the earring, Peachy took a deep breath, examining the scents in the air. She dashed around the mansion towards a window on its side.

"Why would Delia go this way?" Pixel wondered as she followed her pokemon.

Peachy went inside through the open window leading to the kitchen. The cook saw her come in. "Hello there Peachy, have you come for a snack?"

"Peachy!" Pixel called after her Pikachu, "this is no time to be a glutton, the boss' guest slash prisoner has escaped!"

The cook gasped, "she's gone?" As the cook stared at Pixel in shock, Peachy dashed towards a pie that was set to cool on the counter. She picked up a near by fork and began to devour it. She ate a lot and did it fast, but somehow she was neat.

"Yes and we're going to find her, Peachy return!" Pixel called back her Pikachu, leaving a half eaten pie where she was. Perhaps not all pokemon were experts on tracking scents, though Peachy was certainly good at finding food.

Pixel ran towards the front gates of the mansion, which were still closed. A shred of fabric was caught on one of the points that the fence's bars culminated in. It was the same color as Delia's dress. She hurried to unlock the gates and ran out. Maybe Delia had gone back to Pallet Town. Pixel's cell phone rang and she answered it while running, briefly glancing at the caller ID. "Sorry Laiki, I can't talk now, I'm chasing someone!"

"Oh, sorry, sorry, focus on that!" Laiki quickly hung up. Sometimes the truth is staring at you, but you don't see it until it shouts at your face.

To be Continued

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 050: Give me Bravery

Laiki heard voices from the tunnels just outside of the medical area. She rushed out to see that Giovanni was walking down the long underground hallway of the Viridian headquarters, talking to another Rocket. It took the press long enough to let him go, "boss!" She hurried to tell him what she had found so far.

"Has Akira been found yet?" Giovanni immediately inquired, it was part of Laiki's job to be informed. She had a natural talent for it, so it might as well be put to use.

"Not yet," Laiki replied, surprised at the question. 'How does he know about that? I haven't explained my theory yet,' she thought.

"We don't need anymore publicity so she better keep a low profile. Track down Ash's location. He has something to do with this; the reporters mentioned what he said. He must be trying to play innocent. It has to be a trap, someone is pushing for a press conference and it's too suspicious," Giovanni theorized.

Laiki stood with her mouth open, unable to find something to say that the boss didn't already know. "Ketchum," she finally came up with something. She was feeling frustrated that it had taken her hours of analyzing information and going around in mental circles before she could come up with a solid theory. It wasn't fair that the boss had figured out that much while dealing with a million other things at the same time. At least she could point out one new detail and hope it was enough until she could make up for her past shortcomings.

"Delia? Yes, I need to interrogate her; I'm going to do that now. Inform me immediately if you find something, and you better find new information soon," Giovanni warned with a stern tone and continued on his way.

"No, I mean yes," Laiki rushed after him, "what I'm trying to say is that Ketchum is Ash's last name, the same as Delia." Laiki didn't know how much meaning that piece of information could have. She wasn't going to risk making Giovanni angrier by revealing that she had seen a picture were Ash looked like him. She left out that detail, even if she couldn't look at Giovanni anymore without thinking of the similarities.

Giovanni paused as if the fact put things in a whole new perspective. Delia wasn't the only Ketchum in Kanto thus in any other situation the detail could be ignored. Yet the timing suggested that this wasn't a coincidence. If Ash was Delia's relative and was anything like Delia, he wouldn't approve of the Vermilion attack. On the other hand, if he was the culprit, the fact that they were related might make Delia less likely to stand against him and more likely to believe in his act of innocence.

Giovanni didn't know how they were related, but it didn't matter. That wasn't the point, though the detail bothered him. It was as if he had subconsciously realized something that he was still consciously unaware of. He decided not to waste time trying to guess what was going on. He intended to go straight to his only available source of information, Delia. "Continue researching Ash and the traitors, find out everything."

"Yes, boss!" Laiki hurried back into the medical facilities and to her desk. She would continue examining the data and trying to find new information.

xoxox xox xoxox

On the road near Giovanni's mansion, a seemingly normal dark green car drove by next to Delia. The car accelerated and made a sharp turn in front of her. It came to a screeching halt blocking her path. A tall man stepped out of the car. He had short dark wine colored hair and cold gray eyes. He was wearing a Team Rocket uniform. Inside the car at the driver's seat, there was a woman with shoulder length pink hair and lavender eyes. She was also wearing a Team Rocket uniform, both in the classic black style with red lined white gloves and boots and black hats.

"Have you come to take me to Giovanni?" Delia glared at the man standing before her, showing no fear.

The man grinned maliciously, "yes, so please don't oppose any resistance. The boss is waiting for you."

"Fine," Delia didn't resist, "I was going to see him anyway," she got into the back of the car and the man went in sitting next to her.

The pink haired woman began to drive again. The atmosphere felt odd, as if it was distinctly wicked. Delia looked out the window of the car and wondered if she had made a grave mistake.

xoxox xox xoxox

Giovanni made his way through the streets of Viridian City, heading back to the mansion. The dark green car that took Delia away had already left the area when Giovanni drove by. Pixel stayed away from the roads, assuming Delia had taken the most hidden path. As a result Giovanni didn't see the Rocket girl searching for Delia.

He arrived at the mansion and spotted a suspicious shred of fabric still stuck to the top of the fence's bars. He knew right away that something was amiss, especially when he caught sight of the open window to the room where Delia had been. There were no tell-tale sheets anywhere to be seen, but the scene was suspicious enough. Giovanni hurried to get out of the car and rushed into the mansion where someone was about to get an earful.

xoxox xox xoxox

Meanwhile, Delia watched as the scenery outside the car changed, they passed the Viridian Gym and left Viridian City. The Rockets, which Delia suspected to be false, kept going towards Pewter City. She still hoped that they were real Rockets and that Giovanni was simply not at Viridian.

Seeing her discomfort, the tall man on the seat next to her spoke, "the boss has left Viridian, for safety reasons," he assured, though he didn't sound sincere.

"I see," Delia tried to hide her discomfort, getting into the car had been a bad idea, but what could she had done? If she didn't willingly go with them, they would have taken her by force. At least this way she still had the element of surprise in her favor. They might not expect her to try to escape. She would wait until she saw an opportunity to make a run for it.

The dark green car stopped at a traffic light. Its windows were tinted and the cars next to it didn't see the black uniforms with red Rs of two of its three occupants. The streets were not particularly crowded, but there were enough people around. Delia observed the tall man from the corner of her eyes. He was watching her, his arms tense as if waiting to grab her if she tried to run away.

The red traffic light would only last a few seconds so Delia had to act fast. She unlocked the door and pushed it open, but the man grabbed her arm, "you're not going anywhere!"

Delia screamed at the top of her lungs, which caught the attention of the passer-bys. The woman driving the car stomped on the gas pedal and made a hasty get away. The force of the sudden motion threw Delia and the man back. She took the opportunity to slip away just enough to reach out and grab a handful of the woman's pink hair. She pulled it with all her might.

The woman screamed and lost control of the car. It slid into the sidewalk as panicked people jumped out of the way. The car crashed into a store front, Delia recognized the store. It was the same one that did business with Team Rocket in the past. It was the store where she had gone to find Leah before they went to a cafe, where Leah told Delia about her hopes of finding Han alive.

The impact of the car crash made Delia fall to the floor on the back of the car. She was at a perfect angle to kick the man's face and scramble out. She hoped that the store was still in good terms with the real Team Rocket.

The echo of a gunshot was heard and Delia realized her kidnappers were armed. She had been lucky to have the opportunity to trick them into lowering their guard by pretending she believed they were taking her to Giovanni.

Instead of stopping to get help from the people in the store, Delia ran away across the street. Cars screeched as they stopped in her path. The angry man's bullets missed her by a hair. "Idiot, stop shooting, we need her alive!" The pink haired woman yelled, chasing after Delia along with the wine haired man. The furious man didn't stop shooting until his gun ran out of bullets. Catching Delia wasn't made any easier by the fact that she ran across the street from one side to another. The cars kept getting in the way of her pursuers as they came to narrow stops before hitting them.

"Stop right there!" Jenny's voice resonated above the panicked screams of the people of Pewter City. She chased after the group, speeding in her motorcycle. When she was close enough, she sent out her loyal Arcanine. That man had opened fire on a street full of innocent people in broad daylight, so she felt she had the right to be a little rougher than she usually would be. "Arcanine, flame thrower on the man in the Team Rocket uniform!"

The pokemon obeyed, sending a well aimed blast of fire to collide with the tall man. He yelled in pain and dropped rolling on the street, trying to put out the flames. Jenny caught up to him and handcuffed him before he could recover from his pained daze. Back up soon arrived as well.

"Captain Jenny!" A younger office ran towards her. He and his partner had just arrived on the scene in a police car.

"Take this man to the station," she addressed the rookies. "As for the rest of you," there were two other police cars and another motorcycle, "don't let the others get away! Arrest the woman in the Team Rocket uniform and bring the other woman to the station for questioning." The officers, led by Jenny continued the pursuit.

Delia looked back to see that she was no longer being chased. After the man was caught by Jenny and her Arcanine, the pink haired woman gave up on chasing her. The false Rocket instead focused on trying to escape from the police. Delia saw Brock's pokemon breeding center ahead and dashed towards it.

xoxox xox xoxox

While the chase was occurring in Pewter City, Pixel arrived at Pallet Town. She was exhausted from all the running. "I have to find her," she paused after every step to take in big breaths. She walked slowly into the town, wondering how to go about her search.

Not too far from where Pixel stood, there was a little grocery store. It was the only one in Pallet Town. A young man with brown hair and a white lab coat exited the shop carrying two white plastic grocery bags. The generic bags had the words 'thank you' written in blue. He saw the girl in the black uniform with the red R and recognized her as a member of Team Rocket. "Are you here to steal the pokemon from the research lab?" He accused.

"No," Pixel tried to sound natural, "I'm just visiting a friend. Do you happen to know where Delia lives?"

"I don't think she would ever be friends with anyone from Team Rocket," Gary Oak, former pokemon trainer turned pokemon researcher glared suspiciously. He really wished he hadn't left all his pokemon back at the lab while he went to get some groceries.

Pixel didn't like where this was going, she was supposed to be keeping a low profile. "Oh well, I'll just come back another day," she began to run away.

"Come back here, I'm turning you in to the police!" Gary dropped his grocery bags and chased after her.

Pixel was not a very fast runner, plus she was tired. She knew she would be caught easily. Instead of uselessly continuing her efforts to run away, she turned to face her opponent and sent out her Charmander, "go Pyro, ember!" She wanted to make the man stop chasing her, not seriously hurt him.

Pyro obeyed, having no complaints about attacking another male, be it human or pokemon. He would have his doubts if it were a pretty girl.

Gary's lab coat caught on fire, but he was quick to take it off and stomp out the flames. The distraction was enough for the girl to run away along with her Charmander.

"If you chase me I'll have to hurt you, just leave me alone!" Pixel yelled as she breathlessly dashed away.

Gary knew he wouldn't be able to take on her pokemon, without pokemon of his own. Instead of uselessly chasing after the Rocket girl, he ran back to the lab to get his pokeballs. He would track her down from the air on one of his flying pokemon and capture her for the police. He wouldn't allow anything like what happened in Vermilion City to be repeated in Pallet Town.

xoxox xox xoxox

At Pewter City, Brock sat in front of the TV watching Akira sing and dance. He had been busy taking care of the pokemon at first and later went inside to watch the music channel. He occasionally changed the channel to a random sitcom when a video came on that didn't interest him. He would check back after a couple of minutes to see if the next music video featured a pretty girl. He was blissfully unaware of the events that took place on the other side of Kanto. Suddenly, he heard a panicked voice calling his name at the door that led to his living area.

Brock rushed to open the door and found Ash's mother. Her breathing was heavy and fast, her face was red from all the running and her dress was torn. She had shallow cuts and darkening bruises all over her body and she looked like she was ready to collapse. Shocked into silence, Brock led her inside. He made sure to lock the door.

The appearance of the living room was simple with white walls and gray furniture. It contrasted with the bright colors of the posters and framed pictures of Brock's various crushes. A poster of Akira was prominently featured. By the time Delia managed to catch her breath, Brock had brought her a cool glass of water, which she accepted, drinking it slowly, "thank you."

"What happened to you?" Brock was seriously worried. Delia was not only his best friend's mother, but also a mother figure to him. His own mother had often been absent and Delia had always been supportive. Seeing her like that was very difficult for him. He remembered his worries about the Viridian gym leader's resemblance to the man who had tried to capture Mewtwo. If Delia had lost contact with Giovanni many years ago, there was no telling how much he could have changed during that time. "Did he hurt you?" Brock asked softly but seriously, "was it Giovanni?"

"Of course not!" Delia slammed the glass hard on the coffee table, causing it to crack. She continued in a defensive tone, "he wouldn't hurt me." 'Other people maybe, pokemon yes, but not me, not physically at least,' she thought.

"Sorry!" Brock jumped back, "I meant no offense."

Delia calmed down, examining the cracked glass on the stone coffee table, "I'm sorry I snapped at you. Giovanni might be in danger, I'm worried about him." The traitors must have seen her with Giovanni and tried to use her as a hostage.

Delia's cell phone rang all of a sudden, it had been deactivated before, but it was working again. Giovanni had to be calling her, she was sure it must be him, "Giovanni?"

"You shouldn't have run away," Giovanni was driving towards Pewter City, following the tracking device on Delia's cell phone.

Delia froze and tears started running down her face. A lot was going on and on top of everything Giovanni said the same thing she heard him saying in dreams long ago. When Ash was still small, she would dream that Giovanni went to find her at Pallet Town. "I'm sorry," she sobbed, "I had to," she wasn't only talking about leaving the mansion.

"Delia?" Was she with the enemy? Did she know what happened in Vermilion City? Giovanni was full of questions. "What's happening?"

"Nothing, I'm alright now," Delia didn't want to say too much; she didn't want to get Brock involved. From the corner of her eyes, she watched Brock leave the living room, as if to respect her privacy. He was a nice man and she truly hoped that he would one day achieve his dream of finding someone to share his life with. If only he could learn to control his flirty tendencies maybe it wouldn't be so difficult. "I'm at Rock On, the pokemon breeding center at Pewter City. It's right next to the gym. The owner is a friend, he doesn't know any secrets, so please don't get him involved," she whispered quietly.

"Stay there, I'm on my way. Turn your cell phone off; don't use it unless it's an emergency." Communication was necessary even at a risk, but Giovanni would no longer need to track Delia if she waited for him. He had many things to ask, but he had to do that in person. He would make sure not to leave her alone to run off again, he had to get to the bottom of everything. Giovanni turned and took an alternate route on his way to Rock On. He moved away from the main streets to avoid a traffic jam ahead. The police had closed a road and was redirecting traffic due to an accident. Giovanni didn't suspect Delia's involvement in it. He did notice that the affected store was one of the places that did business with Team Rocket.

"Okay, I'll see you soon," after turning off her cell phone, Delia sat in silence until Brock returned.

Brock had noticed the red R on Delia's little black cell phone. He wanted to ask about it, but he didn't want her to get defensive again. "These clothes are from my sister, I asked her to bring some," he voiced quietly, not sure how to handle the situation. "The bathroom is down the hall and to the right, if you want to get cleaned up and changed."

Delia stood up and took the clothes, "thank you." She made herself look calm, though she still felt guilty at Brock's worried expression.

After Delia disappeared down the hall, Brock decided to call Ash. He had thought about tagging along with him and Misty so he could see Misty's sisters, but decided against it in the end. His excuse was that he had to return to the breeding center. His siblings took turns taking care of it when Brock was away. In truth, he just didn't want to be reminded that Misty's sisters were not single. Lily had recently come out of a painful break up, but Brock was unaware of that. Had he known, he would have immediately gone to Cerulean City and offered to comfort her.

Before he made the call, Brock paused seeing his best friend's image on the TV screen. Ash's picture floated on the upper right corner of the screen, next to a woman who sat behind a desk giving a report. Brock had lowered the volume when he went to get the door, but the images and quiet murmurs still remained in the background. He quickly turned the volume up as the news anchor, Ameda, finished speaking. The screen changed to a video of Ash defending the Viridian City gym leader. He knew Delia might take some time to compose herself, but he had to call Ash before she returned. He didn't want to hear any objections about it, so he quickly made the call, focusing on that rather than the TV.

"Hi Brock," Ash greeted, having seen his name on the caller ID of his cell phone. "You're not going to believe all the things that are going on. Did you hear about Vermilion City?"

Brock wasn't sure what Ash was talking about, but he had an important message to communicate. "Ash," Brock sounded worried. Ash knew right away this wasn't simply one of his random calls to vent about his latest rejection. "Stay calm, don't panic," such serious words were sure to have the opposite effect. "I think there's something bad going on with your mom. I think Team Rocket is involved." He wouldn't throw another accusation at Giovanni, not after seeing that news bulletin about Ash. If both Ash and his mother defended him so much, Brock would just have to believe them.

To be Continued

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 051: Give me Communication

Ash, Lando and the Waterflower sisters were at the Vermilion City hospital, when Ash received Brock's call. "I have to go," Ash suddenly exclaimed, taking everyone by surprise. "Thanks for telling me Brock, I'm on my way," he ended the call before Brock could say anything more. "Let's go Pikachu," he picked up the yellow electric pokemon, glanced meaningfully at Misty and rushed out of the room.

"Ash, what's going on?" Misty hurried out of Lando's room after him. Lando's head was finally starting to clear up for real. He and the Waterflower sisters were worried and perplexed by Ash's sudden reaction.

"I don't know, but Brock just called me saying mom's in trouble," Ash hastily explained in alarm. Misty was walking beside him down the hall towards the elevator. "I don't really understand, but it looks like Team Rocket is involved." A theory occurred to Ash, "maybe Team Rocket is behind the false accusations to Giovanni. They must be trying to frame him for something and mom got caught in the middle of that."

Ash slammed his finger repeatedly against the elevator's button. Daisy watched from the door to Lando's room up the hall. Violet was standing mid way down the hall and hurried to Ash and Misty. "Everything will be alright," Misty reassured more so to Ash than her sisters. "I'll call later." The elevator finally opened and Ash and Misty got in leaving the other Waterflower sisters to stay at the Vermilion hospital.

xoxox xox xoxox

In Pallet Town, Gary rushed into his grandfather's house. The elderly professor Oak was fast asleep sitting on the couch in front of the TV, which displayed a documentary about pokemon. "I'm going to track down an evil Rocket and protect Pallet Town. I might not be back for a while," Gary rushed past his grandfather and got six of his pokemon from the lab. He ran out again as he hastily explained.

Professor Oak drowsily woke up at the voice. It puzzled him how Gary could be so energetic after staying up all night dealing with that loud mouth insomniac Electabuzz. He didn't quite catch what his grandson was saying, but Gary was already out the door before he could inquire about it. The young seemed to have an infinite supply of energy.

xoxox xox xoxox

On the road from Pallet to Viridian a voice called out, "Pixel!" Upon hearing her nickname, Pixel stopped running. She looked at the expensive neon-cyan colored convertible car that stopped on the side of the road next to her.

The hood of the car was up and the windows were tinted like mirrors. The driver soon lowered the mirror glass and Pixel immediately recognized her. "Akira?" She was surprised to see Akira there, despite being unaware of her connections to the incident in Vermilion City.

"Get in, I don't think you should be running around in plain sight with all that's been going on," Akira invited.

"Thanks," Pixel got into the passenger's seat and Akira continued on her way. "Some guy saw me in Pallet Town. I don't think he had any pokemon, that's how I managed to get away. Don't tell anyone about that. I was looking for someone who escaped from the boss' mansion. Have you seen a woman with long brown hair around here?"

"I haven't," Akira's voice was monotonous, rather than cheerful as it usually was. "Have you seen a little dark green car?"

"No..." Pixel observed her friend, "are you worried about Team Rocket?" She would think Akira of all people would be able to handle the pressure. Pixel perceived her as being very brave.

"I lost them," Akira frowned, "listen Pixel, I don't want you involved so I'm just going to drop you off at HQ." She drove towards Viridian City in a hurry.

"What's going on?" Something was wrong with Akira, Pixel could guess that much. It was more than just stress.

"I can't tell you," Akira admitted, "there are some things I'm going to do that the boss may not approve of. I don't care, I want them dead."

"What?" The situation was obviously more serious than Pixel had imagined, "who?"

"I've said too much as it is," Akira went silent, her expression a mix of frustration, anger and sadness.

"Akira," Pixel insisted, "what are you planning? Why are you doing this? You're not one of them are you? One of the traitors?"

Akira gripped the steering wheel tightly, "don't even think of it. They are the ones I'm going to kill," despite having intended to remain silent, it was all too much to keep bottled up. "Don't you see? The boss isn't going to kill them because he needs someone to blame. He'll capture them and they'll take the blame. Then Team Rocket will be off the hook, but that's not enough for me!"

"I don't think it will be that simple," Pixel quietly voiced, "but why do you want them dead? I know you really like Team Rocket. If you just said they are necessary, then why?"

"It's not about Team Rocket!" Akira growled, "it's about Mirta and revenge. They killed Mirta so I'll kill them. She was the only one who knew, the only one who could tell me. In the end, she left me with only a small clue, but it doesn't matter anymore. Mirta raised me and protected me. She had a reason to keep me in the orphanage for so many years. She feared I would be discovered, but I still don't fully understand what that means. When I was a teenager I decided to leave. I wanted to live my life, but I couldn't let go of my past." Akira stopped; they were just outside Viridian City. Abundant tears ran down her face and her vision was a blur.

"Akira..." Pixel didn't know what to do to comfort her friend. She couldn't even make sense of the things Akira was saying.

"That's not my name," Akira whispered almost inaudibly. Her hands still gripped the steering wheel, her forehead resting on top of it. She felt Pixel's hand on her shoulder but could draw no comfort from it. What Akira wanted the most was to understand her origin. She feared she would never obtain it. "It's just a name my agent gave me," he adopted her, but he could not be called a father. "Secura, my real name is Secura. It mean's 'to heal', Mirta was a very hopeful person. She thought everything could be healed in time. She kept me at the orphanage to protect me. She didn't really explain much about it. She only gave me a clue; she told me my mother was a Rocket."

In the sky above Akira's car, Gary flew away riding on his Pidgeot. He saw a few cars below. Among them there was a very brightly colored one in neon-cyan that stood out. He didn't see the Rocket girl anywhere. He didn't want to go further away from Pallet Town; it would be left unguarded without him. Gary resolved to return to town for the time being. She got away, but he would capture her if she returned.

xoxox xox xoxox

At Pewter City, Delia was looking out the window at Rock On. She watched as Giovanni's car stopped in front of the structure and he got out. She was opening the front door before he had time to get within a few feet of it. Brock had been asking questions as delicately and casually as he could and Delia had been giving him excuses. She didn't want to reveal anything that might get him involved in Team Rocket's problems.

"What happened to you?" Giovanni paused in front of the door. Delia was clearly in a hurry to leave, it made everything all the more suspicious.

She had changed out of her torn clothes, now wearing jeans and a yellow t-shirt. The clothes were borrowed from Yolanda, one of Brock's sisters. However, despite having gotten cleaned up, she still had her bruises from her battle to escape her kidnappers. "I'll explain on the way." She glanced back inside where Brock stood, looking concerned and worried. "Everything is fine now, sorry to barge in on you like that. Just forget it ever happened," Delia gave him a bright smile, though it was obviously forced.

Giovanni began to silently theorize about the situation. The young man at Rock On was the same one he had seen with Ash before. It solidified his theory that Delia was being used by the enemy. She didn't do her job of spying on him and getting information, so they hurt her. He watched her get into the passenger seat of his car with Persian jumping on her lap to be petted. Giovanni paused, typed a small message into his little cell phone and sent it, hoping that it made it through the system despite its recent malfunctions.

He felt a different kind of anger towards the enemies. With the suspicion that the one at Rock On had hurt Delia it took every ounce of will power he had not to march in there for an immediate violent vengeance. Such rash actions would only bring trouble for Team Rocket, for himself, and for Delia. Delia didn't see the message and she didn't think too much of it when she saw Giovanni typing something in his cell phone. Soon after, he shut it off again.

xoxox xox xoxox

At the Viridian Rocket base, Laiki received an email marked as high priority. A small icon on the bottom right of her computer screen next to the time flashed to alert her of it. She opened the email immediately, realizing it was from Giovanni. First there was a password composed of random letters and numbers. The password was correct confirming that this was a real order from Giovanni. If he was putting her on field duty it meant he got tired of waiting for her to figure things out. The thought frustrated her as an information gatherer, but she was at least trusted with a mission. At least that proved that the boss knew she wasn't a traitor.

Next to the password there was the order, 'code red, Rock On, Pewter, plan 3'. Translated, the spy movie style gibberish meant that an establishment called Rock On located in Pewter City was discovered to be an enemy base. It had to be secretly taken over. The order required immediate action, thus Laiki left her theories for later. She got ready to put a squad together and storm Rock On. She knew she better not mess up that mission. Field work was not her forte, but she wouldn't have to worry about combat if she was well armed.

A few minutes later Laiki was in the weapons storage room when Pixel rushed in looking for her, "Laiki!"

Laiki tried to even her breathing and heartbeats, which jumped in speed when she was startled. "Don't pop out of nowhere like that, especially when I'm holding a bazooka!" She scolded, setting the bazooka aside. She was in good shape in terms of looks, but her fighting capabilities were that of an average person, she needed to be armed. "What are you doing here? Did something happen? Who were you chasing? Did anyone see you come to HQ?" Laiki took another look at the bazooka. She decided it was too large to work given the secrecy of the mission, plus it was uncomfortably heavy. "Now that I think about it, how did you get inside this room?"

"I know all the pass codes for the Viridian HQ. I took them from the system with Prism's help back when I was in hacking training. Don't tell anyone, it's not like I've done anything bad with this information," Pixel hurriedly excused herself. She then replied to the rest of Laiki's questions in a similar rush. "I was chasing Delia; the boss had her locked up in his mansion. She got away and I lost track of her. Some guy from Pallet Town saw me, but I got away from him. No one saw me come into HQ. Akira gave me a ride and dropped me off in the forest so I rushed over here through one of the secret doors."

"Delia? Akira?" Laiki froze, almost dropping the revolver she held. "You know where they are? You've spoken to them recently?"

Laiki's tone hinted to Pixel that she was aware that something must be going on. Maybe she had some answers, "yes, Akira is heading to Saffron City. She must be passing through Pewter City by now. I don't really understand what's going on, but Akira was a mess. She kept saying something about getting revenge for Mirta. She said her mother was a Rocket and that her real name was Secura."

"Mirta was killed in the Vermilion City attack," Laiki began to explain. "She worked at the orphanage. That's where Akira or Secura grew up. The name is not really a secret, though I'm already used to calling her Akira. Mirta raised Akira so I can understand that she wants revenge. If she does something, it'll be troublesome for Team Rocket. Things are already a big enough mess. As for her mother being a Rocket, I have no idea who her parents could be."

"I didn't know Akira grew up there. So that's what she meant when she said the boss wouldn't kill them because he needed someone to blame. It was about the fake Rockets." Pixel concluded. "She also mentioned looking for a little green car."

Laiki had been staying up to date with the news through the internet. "There was an accident involving a green car that crashed into a store in Pewter City. A Rocket was arrested after he started trying to shoot an unknown woman who ran out of the car after the accident. His accomplice got away. I didn't have time to wait for visuals. I only read the bulletin before they published anything else. I'm not sure what the people looked like, just that two of them were dressed as Rockets."

Laiki continued, "where is Delia now? How much does Akira know? I thought she was in Vermilion, what business does she have in Saffron?" Laiki could feel the beginnings of a strong headache. "When I last saw the boss, he was heading to the mansion to interrogate Delia. Something needs to be done about Akira and the communication system is still malfunctioning. I also have a mission to tend to... too many things at once!"

Laiki took a deep breath. "I have to go on my mission, but I can't leave the base to fall apart. I'll get my teammates and go. But before that, I'll help you round up a squad here too. You can clean up the base. I'm beginning to suspect that the ones who are supposed to be cleaning the viruses off our satellite mainframe are taking too long. It's too suspicious, no more of that innocent until proven guilty stuff. We can't wait for the boss to do everything; we'll have to show him we're capable agents."

"Clean up?" It was chasing Delia which made Pixel run into Akira. That led her to return to the Viridian headquarters and placed her into her current position. From that point on, the chain of events that made her regain her confidence would be inevitably set into motion. If not for getting locked up with Delia, Pixel would be on break and half way to Cerulean City in a taxi to attend a sci-fi convention.

"You don't have a choice. The boss gave me an important mission and I have to go, but things can't be left as they are here." Determined, Laiki exited the weapons storage room.

xoxox xox xoxox

After leaving Rock On, Giovanni and Delia were on the road to Cerulean City. He intended for Delia to stay there, if he could get her to stay in one place. "Don't run away again, you're just going to get hurt," he warned. "After this, I don't think you'll want to cooperate with them anymore."

"Cooperate with who?" Delia had caught a glimpse of the deadly glare Giovanni had given Brock. She saw how Brock paled as if Giovanni was draining away his very life with his eyes. "You're not trying to say you think Brock hurt me, are you? It's not like that."

"Then who did?" Giovanni inquired urgently.

"After I escaped from your mansion two people dressed in Team Rocket uniforms came to find me. At first I thought they were real Rockets that were taking me to you. After I got into their car I realize they were not real Rockets. I tried to escape from the car when they stopped at a traffic light. I caught them by surprise because they thought they still had me fooled. I guess that's why the man didn't have time to use his gun at that point," Delia realized.

"You were kidnapped by armed traitors?" Giovanni didn't know the situation was like that. He didn't think the traitors would go after Delia, let alone in such a way.

"Yes, but I got away." Delia explained, "when I tried to escape the man who was in the back of the car with me stopped me. I managed to throw the door open and yell for help. The people on the street realized I was being kidnapped. The woman driving tried to get away before the police was alerted."

Delia continued, "I kept trying to get the man to let me go and was finally able to grab the woman's hair. I pulled it as hard as I could. She was driving really fast and lost control of the car. She crashed into a store and the man and I felt the impact in the back of the car too. Fortunately, other then a few bruises and cuts there were no big injuries. I escaped thanks to the crash and ran across the street from side to side. I was trying to lose those two between the cars. That's when I realized that man was armed. He started shooting at me and hit a few cars. I don't think anyone got injured, but there was a lot of property damage."

"Jenny arrived and sent out her Arcanine. Arcanine attacked the man, but I kept running. When I finally looked back, the woman wasn't chasing me anymore. She must have given up after the police showed up. I didn't want to be taken in for questioning so I hid at Rock On. Brock doesn't know anything, so please don't get him mixed up in this. He's a good boy and I don't want him to be in unnecessary danger," Delia's face was filled with worry. She could almost feel the rush of adrenaline returning to her. This time she was all too conscious of the fact that she wasn't an invincible vigilante.

Giovanni took in all the information. He was not fully conscious about how his expression had turned into a grin for a moment, before becoming serious again. "I almost forgot that you are capable of defending yourself well. That was still very dangerous. What about Team Rockets enemies, what can you tell me about them?"

"Nothing, I honestly don't know what in the world is going on!" Delia emphasized, "why have you been acting so strange?"

"You're not a spy," Giovanni realized, "you just have bad timing. Is that all? It doesn't make sense."

"You're the one who's not making any sense," Delia argued.

"I'm having problems with some traitors. You happen to show up with some secret information to give me concerning Ash, but you didn't tell me in the end. It was all too suspicious, enough games, tell me the truth. Is Ash involved with Team Rocket's enemies? That man from Rock On was with Ash before, is he involved in this? Is the redhead girl in it too?" Giovanni finally asked all the questions directly, looking completely serious.

"It's not like that," Delia was shocked, "Team Rocket has tried to steal Ash's pokemon in the past. They have tried to cause trouble and he stopped them, but that's just because he was there. He was involved without trying. It's not like he goes around picking a fight with Team Rocket. He definitely would never be involved in anything like what happened in Vermilion City. Don't you even dare think that way of him!"

Delia felt as if her voice was being choked by a pain in her heart. She pushed herself to continue, "is that why you asked me to stay with you? You thought I was trying to cause trouble? You thought I was trying to do something that would harm you? Is that what it was all about? Obtaining information from me, that's all you wanted? I don't know what's worse, that you used me or that you thought I would try to hurt you... No, the worse thing is that you thought such terrible things of Ash. He's completely innocent. My timing was bad, this is... terrible," Delia finished in a whisper.

To be Continued

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 052: Give me Pride

Laiki rushed down the underground tunnels of the Viridian Rocket headquarters followed by Pixel. "You can't just leave me like this. I'll mess up and there will go my chances of ever cashing in on the better missions!"

"If you mess up, you'll be dead," the grin on Laiki's face never faded. She added when she saw Pixel's stubborn sarcastic look, "I'm not kidding, arm yourself. This is war and the enemy has infiltrated our fortress."

They arrived at an underground garage where several normal looking cars were stored, they were anything but normal. Most of them were black, the classic color of spy movie cars, the kind that was loaded with missiles. Five Rocket grunts followed after the two girls. Three of them got into one of the cars. They waited for Laiki, their squad leader, to take the driver's seat.

"What about the squad you said you would help me put together," Pixel eyed the other two grunts standing next to her with distrust, "we need more allies."

The garage was dimly lit, with gray walls and floors. There was a ramp going up to the ceiling, where a secret door opened leading to the Viridian Forest. "You'll have to make due. I know you have some Rocket fire in you, now is your time to show it." As Laiki opened the door on the ceiling two people and a pokemon fell in. The man and woman were wearing Team Rocket uniforms. The pokemon was a Meowth. "Jessie? James?"

"You know them?" Pixel observed them with suspicion, "why were you up there?"

"We're here to bring important information!" Jessie announced. She honestly didn't know what possessed her to rush to Viridian City after having given up on contacting Giovanni by phone. She told herself the only reason she was there to help the one who had fired them, was because James wouldn't stop whining about it.

"That's right, we know all about Neo Rocket. We're ready to help take them down." James knew that deep down Jessie couldn't stand the idea of Team Rocket falling apart any more than he could. Their Rocket pride pushed them to do their part to save Team Rocket as soon as possible. Besides, Meowth kept worrying about the boss and they had to shut him up somehow.

"Jessie and James... Those two are not Rockets anymore, but I don't think they would ever be traitors. They have real Rocket pride, even if they're incompetent," Laiki explained.

"Hey!" Jessie and James called out in unison; they didn't go all the way from Saffron to Viridian to be criticized.

"Pixel, here's the rest of your squad. The boss will probably have my head for this, but as an agent of a higher rank I'm ordering you to work with these two," Laiki decided and grimacing she prepared to leave, "why does the juicy information arrive when I have to go?" She started up the car and headed up the ramp towards the forest calling out, "Jessie, James, take care of the rookie for me."

"I've been a Rocket for some time; I'm not a rookie anymore!" Pixel argued, but Laiki was already gone. The term rookie still somehow fit despite the time she had spent in Team Rocket. She still getting adjusted and finding her place, so she came off as a rookie. The car sped through the secret forest paths, off to take over Rock On in Pewter City.

"What about me?" Meowth pouted, feeling ignored.

"Alright you two," Pixel noticed Meowth's frown deepening, "three," she corrected, "I can access the secret equipment rooms, but you guys need to give me some information first. What is that Neo Rocket you mentioned? Either way, whoever the traitors are, I'm pretty sure they know they're being hunted, so they'll be prepared."

Jessie grinned, taking command of the mission, "just follow my lead and we'll clean out all the traitors in no time." She had always wanted to command an important mission like this.

xoxox xox xoxox

On the road towards Cerulean City, the atmosphere in Giovanni's car was tense. He had more questions than ever about Ash and his obvious importance to Delia. She was upset and it was all because of his incorrect theory. He shouldn't have made the assumption that she was a spy; it only made things more complicated. He decided to take a moment to think and choose his words carefully. Then he saw a neon-cyan colored car ahead. He knew it was Akira's car and he knew she could cause trouble for Team Rocket if he let her go. He followed the car while he tried to come up with something to say to Delia.

Akira noticed she was being followed. Hiding would not be easy in the light traffic. She recognized the custom made black car as being one of Giovanni's cars and sped up, zigzagging to get past the cars ahead.

Giovanni followed her. He knew he had been seen, but he couldn't let her get away. She would make things more difficult for Team Rocket.

Delia looked up at the road ahead. Giovanni had obviously started chasing someone; it had to be that neon-cyan car. She held on to Persian tightly, "who is that?"

"Akira," Giovanni focused on the road and on not crashing with the other cars.

Akira had to get away; she needed to meet her informant at Saffron City without being followed. She recklessly switched lanes, passing in front of the opposing flow of traffic. A car came to a screeching halt, with the one behind it, crashing into it.

Giovanni drove after her, passing in front of the accident. He would have to make up a story about his car having been stolen to avoid his reputation as the gym leader being stained.

Akira left the main road, turning towards the mountains north-east of Pewter City. She drove as fast as she could without losing control of the car in the narrow mountain paths. To her surprise, Giovanni accelerated in pursuit.

Akira tried to hurry and took a sharp turn on the mountain's side. Her car skittered to the side, unable to stay on the dirt road. It slid down the mountain, though luckily, it didn't overturn. The neon-cyan car came to a stop at the bottom of the mountain, crashing into some rocks near a small stream. Akira battled to get out of the car, pushing the airbag aside and stumbling out. She fell with a sharp pain on her left leg. She was bleeding black blood.

Giovanni stopped on top of the mountain side road. "I can't let her get away. We're also being followed." He noticed the seemingly normal bronze car following them from a distance when the pursuit began. It took a different route at the base of the mountain. The digital display of the speedometer changed to Akira's image below. There was a red circle with a cross targeting her. The words 'lock on' flashed red on the screen.

"You're not going to shoot a missile at her, are you?" Delia asked in alarm. She was ready to stop Giovanni if those were his intentions.

"Relax, it's just a net. I need to capture her alive and interrogate her," Giovanni assured. He pressed the bottom to fire the net. A cannon extended from the car's front, shooting the net at Akira below.

Akira screamed and fell to the ground again when the net landed on her. Despite the pain she continued struggling to get away. With a small pocket knife, she tried to cut the net open as fast as she could. She could see Giovanni was already on his way down the cliff followed by Delia and Persian.

"You should have just waited in the car," Giovanni argued as he tried to hurry before Akira escaped. He lost his footing and fell down the cliff. He got up, a little scratched and bruised, but otherwise alright.

"No way, I'm helping you catch her and taking care of her injuries when we get her back in the car," Delia hurried down the cliff. She stumbled down and fell into Giovanni, but he was able to catch her.

A sudden explosion resonated from the top of the mountain. From the angle at the top, the ones that triggered the explosion didn't see that Giovanni and Delia were out of the car. The explosion had to be the work of their pursuers in the bronze car.

A large boulder was set lose from the mountain and it fell on top of Giovanni's car, the damage was extensive. The weapons system short circuited and several missiles where shot on their own. One of the missiles fell between Akira and Giovanni. Giovanni, Delia and Persian took cover behind some rocks and Akira hurried to get away. She had freed herself from the net right on time.

The aftershock of the missile pushed Akira into the little stream ahead. It was too small and gentle to drown in, but the water was tinted black. The color dissolved as it was carried by the stream. She was in bad shape, but Akira wasn't going to give up. She struggled to get away despite her injuries, leaving a trail of black blood in her path.

The black car was consumed by fire when the rest of its weapons exploded within it. Giovanni, Delia and Persian got away from the falling rocks, debris and sparks on the mountain side. They dashed towards Akira, but were stopped by a sudden gunshot that just barely missed Giovanni. He and Delia, along with Persian, took cover behind the rock formations again. "We're surrounded," Giovanni realized.

Two men and a woman approached from different directions, all of them armed. Akira lay still on the ground until a man and woman were close to her. Then she suddenly took out a hidden gun and opened fire, killing them both at point blank.

"Giovanni, she shot them!" Delia cried.

"I know," what Giovanni didn't understand was why Akira didn't use her gun sooner. She had a good chance to shoot him when he was going down the cliff. In truth, Akira didn't want Team Rocket to fall apart without its leader. She only wanted revenge on the false Rockets who killed Mirta.

Only one man remained, he moved fast towards Akira with full intentions of killing her. It all happened in a split second; the man aimed his gun at Akira and she did not react fast enough. Giovanni shot a well aimed bullet at the man's hand, making him drop the gun in pain. Akira took the opportunity to shoot the man in the head before collapsing of blood loss.

Amidst the chaos, the sound of a helicopter was heard. "The police!" It was the worse timing possible. Giovanni couldn't let himself be seen like this. He grabbed Delia's hand, running towards a cave on the mountain side hastily. They dashed through the dark tunnels with Persian following them.

"Giovanni, those people who got shot might still be alive. Akira is injured but alive. We have to do something," Delia struggled to get free, but Giovanni wouldn't let her go.

"They're dead; no one can survive a bullet at point blank. I don't want to leave Akira in the hands of the police, but I have no choice. Besides, what can we do? It's for a different reason than you, but I didn't want them dead either." He needed information and someone to blame. "The police will help them. If there's anything that can be done, they can do it a lot better than we could."

Delia stopped struggling, instead running along with Giovanni, gripping his hand tightly. "I wish this hadn't happen." They approached the end of the tunnel in the area north west of Cerulean City. They exited the tunnel cautiously, there didn't seem to be anyone out there. The old burnt ruins of a structure were seen near by. Delia recognized it, "it's our old hide out. There was a terrible massacre on that day when the Tempest Gang burned everything. So many pokemon passed away that day, today is a catastrophe too."

Giovanni had not set foot in his old hideout in many years. The ruins were all but forgotten when Team Rocket took over the Viridian gym. He searched around the floor until he found a secret door, leading to a small basement. "We should stay here for a little while. It's not safe to go out there yet." The secret underground room was nothing special, but it would keep them hidden.

Delia took one last look at the darkening skies before going down to the secret room with Giovanni and Persian. She felt as if the darkness would consume her. The day was ending and the sun was sadly setting. Darkness invaded the atmosphere in more ways than one.

xoxox xox xoxox

Meanwhile, at the Vermilion City hospital, Lando was arguing on the phone. "I don't care if it's late!" He yelled into his cell phone, "I don't care about what the board of executives says either. I want all business to be halted immediately!" The pain killers had finally left his system sufficiently so that his anger and frustration surfaced full force. He growled in agitation and ended the call. "Daisy, darling, I must go to Ackbar Inc. headquarters right now. I need to take care of a few things."

"But it's the evening and we've had such a rough day," Daisy argued with worry.

Lando looked terribly ashamed, as if he hid a dark secret. "I don't understand what's happening, but I must get to the bottom of this. I need to know why he betrayed us," Lando got up from his bed, despite Daisy's efforts to convince him to rest at least until the next day.

"What are you talking about?" Daisy insisted on knowing. Violet and Lily watched the argument uncomfortable and concerned.

"Daisy, my sweet," Lando simply couldn't look into her eyes. "I'm sorry, but Ackbar Inc. is not an honest company. I didn't want you or your family to know about this, but I can't hide it anymore. When I was very young I was ill and desperately needed surgery. It was a life or death situation. A few years before that, a pokemon epidemic spread through the land and the discovery of the antidote marked its end. Large companies rushed to buy the limited supply of antidote from the mafia. They had it before it was officially released. Waiting for legal approval would have meant the death of many pokemon, so no one ever pressed charges."

Lando continued, "my father's company sold supplies for pokemon only at the time. He had been struggling to stay in the market and didn't have the money to pay for the antidote. Even if reselling it would surely bring a benefit, he couldn't afford the merchandise in the first place. Because of that, his company went down and never recovered. Later, when my life was in danger, father made a deal with the mafia. That same man who was selling the antidote before, agreed to let my father borrow the money he needed to pay for my surgery. In exchange Ackbar Inc. would follow his orders from that day forward."

"My father agreed," Lando revealed, "he didn't have a choice. Things were not as bad as he expected. Business was expanded and many medical discoveries were made. Both pokemon and humans were helped. In the end, that deal had a positive effect for Ackbar Inc. and for all of Kanto. So many lives were saved because of the products we developed with the help of their scientists," he left out the part about pokemon experimentation as part of the development of their products. His father had tried to paint the picture as positively as he could when he son became old enough to know.

"I didn't know what that man from the mafia hoped to accomplish beyond monetary benefits. It was as if he were doing a good deed by taking control and guiding medical science towards great new discoveries. I understand now, Ackbar Inc. was pushed to the top so that he could control Kanto's medical supplies. I've had enough of this," Lando's pain and anger was reflected in his eyes, "regardless of what happened in the past, I can't forgive this. Team Rocket will not continue being benefited by Ackbar Inc., even if it drives the company to bankruptcy," and even if Kanto's health system collapses.

"I must know why the leader of Team Rocket betrayed the Ackbar family. He was the one with whom my father made that deal. We did what he asked, business had been going well. He had no reason to attack us!" Lando firmly declared, "the Ackbar clan might be powerless in comparison to the Roketto clan, but I can't ignore this. My beloved Daisy, that is why we can't get married. Since the time my father died, I became the new head of a mafia group. Until today, we operated serving the most powerful mafia group there is. Now we're about to go to war with them. I'm sorry; I have to avenge my father. I must, even if it means going against the man who saved my life years ago for his own benefit."

"Lando..." Daisy gasped in surprised, while Violet and Lily were shocked to silence. "It doesn't matter! I don't care if you're a gangster. I don't even care if you're like a low rank gangster, I still love you."

xoxox xox xoxox

In the ruins of the old Team Rocket hideout, Giovanni, Delia and Persian sat on the floor. The little underground room was in total darkness. Giovanni's cell phone wasn't working at all anymore. Silence invaded the room for a few long moments. Finally, Giovanni quietly requested, "tell me about Ash."

Delia had wanted to hear something like that from him for a long time, but the situation was different now. "Before that I want you to tell me the whole truth about what's going on. I will answer all your questions soon. Please be honest with me. Regardless of what happened, in the end, you have the right to know. I've kept the secret long enough."

"Alright, I'll tell you," he knew he didn't have to tell her to keep it a secret. This whole mess would have been less complicated if he hadn't doubted her in the first place. "For the most part, things have been going well for Team Rocket. Every now and then there would be a little trouble, but it was nothing big. Then I found out about some traitors that were keeping strong pokemon and several other resources to themselves."

Delia wanted to tell him that pokemon were not just resources but stopped herself from interrupting.

Giovanni continued, "I suspected they were planning something big. At first I thought the traitors were actually infiltrators from an outside organization that held a grudge against Team Rocket. Later, another theory emerged that this was all an inside job. I thought they were traitors within Team Rocket trying to take over. Although it was still evident they had connections on the outside."

"You showed up when all of this was happening, when everything was full of uncertainty," Giovanni explained. "You told me you had something to say and kept hinting without telling me. I started to find it suspicious. At first I didn't know what to think of your sudden visit. Then everything appeared to fall into place. I thought you were sent to spy on me by the enemy because of our past. I thought you were unsure about what you should do. That you were debating if you should reveal the truth or not."

Delia felt a fresh stab of pain but didn't say anything. She knew it; she was being used. She didn't care anymore. She couldn't walk away from this. Besides, somehow she still saw a glimmer of hope, though she couldn't quite understand why.

Giovanni's expression remained unseen in the darkness of the little underground room. Delia honestly couldn't imagine it. "Because of how you spoke of Ash and his presence when there was an explosion underground, I thought I was right. I thought he was the one who sent you to spy on me. While we were at the mansion I got an emergency call and began to think that your true purpose was to serve as a distraction to make me lower my guard. That's why I locked you up and left to try to get things under control. I found out that Ash had defended me when he was interviewed by a reporter. All those accusations surfaced as the enemy's way to pressure the police into taking action. I thought it was a trick," Giovanni finished, "Do you know about Vermilion? That's how everything became public and complicated."

"Yes, I saw what happened on the news while I was at the mansion," Delia confirmed. She asked about something else that bothered her. "Why is Akira's blood black instead of red? Has she been experimented on? I thought that after what happened to Aayla there would be no more human experiments."

"I can honestly tell you I have no idea about Akira," Giovanni was also puzzled about that strange detail, but he didn't disregard the possibility of a mutation. He knew there had been human experimentation in the past, but Akira wasn't supposed to be one the subjects. "If she was experimented on, it was done without my knowledge."

Delia found that she could believe him. Giovanni was obviously confused about it too. Yet she knew there was more to it.

To be Continued

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 053: Give me Truth

In an undisclosed location, at an unspecified time... The boy looked at the pictures on the screen. There were nothing but bits and pieces left to be discovered. These particular files were deemed useless for the purpose of his mission. He was still curious and wanted to look at those files, to learn their destiny. He had been told the files were not recordings of history, merely agent profiles. He wanted to learn about the organization's past so he opened them.

The screen became black with a red R and a semi-robotic voice was heard, "I don't recognize this system, you must not have authorization to view these files. Goodbye!" The screen went blank.

"What? There was a security virus on those?" The boy tried to restart the futuristic computer but it didn't work. He was amazed that such an ancient virus would render his technology useless so easily.

"Brat boy, what did you do?" An angry female voice called from a different room in the underground base, "the system's locked up!"

"Oops..." The boy glanced at his pokemon. "I think this is a great time to go out and train, don't you?" He hurried to make his escape.

xoxox xox xoxox

On the road to Saffron City, in the present time. Akira lay on the back of a yellow mini-van feeling pained and sore all over her body, especially her left leg. Despite that, she drifted off to sleep.

She had been taken away by the police and the paramedics they called. She received first aid, though the paramedics were curious and unnerved by the unnatural color of her blood. They thought it was due to some kind of drug. In truth, it was the color it had been for Akira's whole life. She never tried to get any kind of lab tests for it, she was afraid to find something terrible.

When she was with the paramedics, she pretended to still be lightheaded. She had woken up completely shortly after her bleeding stopped. She acted as if she couldn't move to make them lower their guard. Then she made a hasty escape from the ambulance as soon as it entered Pewter City.

The ambulance was being escorted by the police, but it didn't matter. Several people on the streets recognized Akira and were quick to help her, even if they didn't know what was going on.

Akira jumped from the back of the ambulance to the top of the police car that was following it closely. The car stopped immediately, so the impact was not too hard when she fell off. She struggled to her feet, leaning on her good leg and calling out for help. Those who recognized her rushed to her, pushing the officers away. One person called another and as they made their get away, the number of fans that gathered grew.

The police officers were able to detain many of them with charges of helping Akira. She was accused of murder, but she escaped. The yellow mini-van driven by her fans would take her to Saffron City, to her informant. For the time being, she could rest.

xoxox xox xoxox

Silence had once again invaded the little underground room in the ruins of the old Team Rocket hideout. Confused by the situation Giovanni found himself thinking of various things. Perhaps it was a distraction to escape thinking of Delia and the effect his false accusation had.

Binks had a brilliant mind on occasion, but more often than not lately, he lost himself to his hallucinations. Even so, he had made many discoveries over the years. Giovanni was convinced that the Mewtwo experiment had failed when the laboratory exploded. Many scientists died on that day, but Binks and a few others were rescued barely alive.

Binks eventually recovered. The only ones who knew of his existence in the world of the living were Giovanni, Laiki, and those who worked directly with him. All of them were to keep it a secret. Binks' experiments were slow at times, though they brought great medical discoveries. Overall it was best if no attention was directed at him. It was convenient to be able to pretend he was dead.

Maybe seeing Delia would awaken Binks' consciousness. She could be a reminder of good memories of the past. Perhaps then Binks would become more productive. At the rate he was going, he would succumb to insanity completely and a valuable resource would be lost. "Binks is still alive," Giovanni tried to break the silence with good news. "When this is over, if you want, you can see him. You can visit Luke too and I'm sure Archer, Ariana, Proton and Petrel will be happy to catch up with you." Delia would need a reminder that not everyone's story had a tragic ending if she was going to help deal with Binks.

"Binks' sister, Laiki, is a Rocket. Luke's son, Comet, is in the team too. He was the one who brought us breakfast at the gym. I'm sure you must have seen the resemblance. You can see all of them when this ends, if you want." Giovanni didn't know why he assumed that Delia would want to stay. Subconsciously he didn't want her to leave again. He kept telling himself to focus on Team Rocket and Delia's possible contribution to it. If he focused on that then the sour thoughts akin to guilt might stop pestering him.

"Of course I want to!" Delia exclaimed. One thing didn't make sense though, "Binks has a sister that's a Rocket too?" What she really wanted to know was why Comet told her that Binks had died. She tried to get Giovanni to elaborate about Binks without revealing that Comet had spoken to her earlier.

"Yes, her name is Laiki and they're nothing alike," Giovanni replied, "Binks isn't very social so I wouldn't be surprised if people don't think that he's in the team anymore. He communicates with his sister often though." Most of the time, she was the only person whose name he could remember for more than a few minutes.

"I want to see them all when this is over," Delia didn't think Comet had lied about Binks on purpose, maybe someone lied to him and Laiki never clarified. Maybe she was the one who lied about her brother. It made Delia think about what could possibly be happening with Binks.

"You can," more than ever, Giovanni would need business to run smoothly after the mess was cleaned up. It would take a lot of time and effort to recover. A new medical discovery from Binks would be useful. He needed a new medicine to sell, something to appease the business relation with Ackbar. In part Giovanni didn't want to trust Delia with anything concerning Team Rocket, but at the same time he knew he could as long as certain key points were kept quiet. "I've told you a lot of things," his curiosity about Ash surfaced again.

"I appreciate it," Delia knew that meant that Giovanni wanted her to give him some information too. She had promised she would. "Also, thanks for offering to introduce me to everyone later." Delia could see the faded light of hope again and at the same time the alarms went off in her head. "Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, are you sure you want me around. You only wanted me around for information before." Delia stopped herself; she didn't want to get into an argument. She didn't want to feel hurt again.

"Your return was sudden," Giovanni reminded, "isn't it only natural that I would find it suspicious?" He reasoned, "I know now that it wasn't like that. Can't you just forget about that?"

Delia sighed, "I suppose I could forget about it. I can't blame you for suspecting me after the way I left and suddenly returned." She wanted to stop herself from saying things she deemed to be unnecessary, but she couldn't. "It really hurt, I was being stupid, but I thought you actually wanted me back. I waited in Pallet Town for so long. I kept hoping that you never came because it was for the best. At the same time I hoped that you came looking for me." Delia tried to calm herself, "forget about it, that's not what I came to tell you."

Unexpectedly, he hugged her, he was sure he would never forgive her for leaving. He was certain that he was only doing what he thought was best for Team Rocket. That was all that he thought about. She would help make Binks productive. She would help train his pokemon like she used to. She would be perfect in the process of fixing his good image. Let them be seen together, he didn't care if they talked about him as long as they weren't talking about Team Rocket. With that in mind, he would make sure she stayed. He thought that was all there was to it, yet he wasn't entirely convinced. Other thoughts floated in the back of his mind. They were thoughts about having missed her, but he pushed such troublesome musings away.

"Stop it," she tried to sound angry but found she could not. "Let go, I know... I know you don't love me anymore. I believe you used to. I'm really sorry I left like that."

He didn't let her go and she stopped resisting, "it's alright now," she didn't believe him, but he didn't let go. "I want you to stay with me."

"I will," she shouldn't have agreed, he wasn't asking her to stay for the right reasons and she knew it. She hoped that whatever reasons he may have would change in time if she was patient enough.

xoxox xox xoxox

While many seemingly individual, yet connected events occurred all over Kanto, Comet was out investigating. He had left shortly after Giovanni returned to the Viridian gym after locking Delia in his mansion. His investigation of the events that occurred in Vermilion City had led him to discover unexpected things. However, he was conscious that what he had found was only the tip of the iceberg. There was much more left to be uncovered.

He knew there was trouble at headquarters. Giovanni had previously told him to continue with his mission even if for some reason communications ceased. Comet followed that order and continued investigating. He thought about gathering information from a group that conducted illegal pokemon tournaments. They took bets for their extreme battles. He suspected that the group was linked to the false Rockets that attacked the donation ceremony at Vermilion City. The group was based on Saffron City. To seek more information, Comet had left Vermillion and gone to Saffron.

Comet's suspicions grew when he saw someone in a Team Rocket uniform talking to one of the tournament managers. He followed them out of their battle area in the basement of an apartment building. The basement could only be entered from an alley. A dark long coat covered Comet's Team Rocket uniform. He followed the suspects like a detective in a movie.

The false Rocket put on a jacket, zipping it up to hide the red R on his black shirt. The other man, involved in the illegal tournament business was wearing normal clothes, nothing about him really stood out. The enemies noticed they were being followed, but continued on their way.

Finally, the enemies reached the Saffron city hall and went inside. There were rumors that the Saffron City mayor was involved with the group conducting the illegal tournaments. The mayor was a very mysterious person who remained solid in office despite the lack of public appearances. That group, though not an official ally, was in good terms with Team Rocket. Maybe it was all an act.

Comet followed the suspicious men into city hall where they openly faced him. They made it clear they had been aware they were being followed all along. "The lady will see you now, Rocket grunt," the man from the illegal pokemon tournament group spoke bitterly.

Comet knew it had to be a trap, but he couldn't let this opportunity pass him by. He refused to run away, retreating like a coward. He walked past the secretary who paid him no mind. He made his way down a hall with abstract paintings lining the walls. He followed the two men, until they reached an elevator. The false Rocket removed his black hat. His dark green, near-black hair was cut very short. He tossed the hat and the jacket on the couch of a small lobby. The room was empty of people save for them. The door to the mayor's office was in front of them. Comet didn't know what to expect to find behind the polished dark red wood.

The false Rocket sat down, "you take care of business first. I'll go in with the report later," his cold bronze eyes glared at Comet.

The manager from the illegal tournaments grinned cruelly, "this won't take too long," his bright yellow hair reached down a little beyond his shoulders framing his handsome face. His gray eyes were just as cruel as the other man's gaze.

The door to the mayor's office suddenly opened. The color red predominated even more inside, in much brighter shades than the dark reds of the lobby. The lobby was furnished with maroon couches and plastic potted plants in near-black, red-tinted pots. A man and woman exited the office. They appeared to be around the age of Comet's father and they looked surprised when they saw him. It was as if they recognized him, but Comet was certain he had never met them before.

The man's hair was a pale green to match his eyes, while the woman had lavender hair and stunning red eyes. She whispered, "too young," to which the man nodded and pushed away whatever thoughts had caused him to look surprised.

The older man glanced at the two younger men, "take care of your business here and continue as planned," he headed towards the elevator with the woman.

Comet wondered what that was about. He soon focused on his current situation when he was called inside the office and told to sit down. The carpet and furniture were red and the office was dimly lit. The false Rocket had stayed out in the lobby and the manager of the illegal tournaments stood beside Comet watching him closely.

"Leave us," the woman behind the desk commanded. She was shrouded in shadows and her face was hard to see.

The blond man opened his mouth to protest. He wanted to point out the danger of leaving her alone with this intruder. Yet he was unable to find his voice in her threatening presence.

"Go now, there's no need to worry about me," as if to emphasize her point, she released a Ninetales from a pokeball. The majestic pokemon stood beside the woman behind the desk. The Ninetales was proud and strong, glaring at the young man sitting in front of her.

The blond man nodded and exited the office, closing the door behind him.

"You're a brave one coming in here like this," the woman grinned. She folded her hands on the desk in front of her a little out of the shadowy spot where she sat. Her nails were long and crimson.

"You're brave to let me in here like this," Comet retorted. He had his Gyarados to count on against that Ninetales. As for his Meowth, Purry, she had run off again. It was as if she wanted to conduct her own investigation. Comet was used to her coming and going on a whim.

"If Giovanni has done nothing, I can only conclude he doesn't know the true identity of the group managing the illegal pokemon tournaments here in Saffron City. To think they even appear to be on good terms with Team Rocket," she laughed and twisted a strand of long hair around her fingers. "I think Giovanni suspects something about that group's present and perhaps about me. Surely he doesn't realize how their past is linked to his. Either way he has no proof." Comet squinted at the darkness with curiosity, but still couldn't see her face.

"You didn't exist back then. A long time ago, Team Rocket had a rival called the Tempest Gang. By the time you came into the world they were all locked up in jail. Years later they were released. Giovanni doesn't care; he doesn't consider them a threat. There are other groups though. There is a group of traitors in Team Rocket who want the organization to themselves. If they banded together even then they wouldn't be able to take Team Rocket easily. Even so, they could do some damage, especially if Giovanni gets cocky and lowers his guard. He's always been too overconfident for his own good. I fear that one of these days he might get himself killed."

"What are you getting at, lady? What are you planning?" Comet was getting impatient; he knew he had stumbled upon something big. This mysterious lady was the secret mayor of Saffron City. Everyone knew she existed but no one ever saw her. She was obviously a figure of great influence behind the scenes. She seemed to assume he didn't know anything about Tempest. Comet knew about them because of the stories his father told him.

"I brought the two groups together. The remnants of Tempest who got out of jail started to round up allies. I protected them here in Saffron City and set them up to meet with Neo Rocket, the traitors that want to take Team Rocket for themselves. They are planning to replace Giovanni. Or rather I should say they want to kill Giovanni, then replace him," the lady smiled mischievously. "Ah the things I know, the connections I have. I could be quite troublesome if I wanted," she laughed.

"Are you one of them too? Are you from the original Tempest Gang?" Comet demanded to know.

"Does it really make a difference who I am? What will you do? You're surrounded, I have my darling Nien," she glanced at the Ninetales, "and my men are right outside. Do you think you can take them all on? Oh, but you're a smart boy, aren't you? You know what's good for you. I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse. Neo Rocket and the Tempest Gang are negotiating to become one. I just spoke to the leaders of Tempest and the leader of Neo Rocket will step into this office soon. I'll have to talk him into accepting the name of Tempest when they merge. That was one of the conditions," the lady chuckled.

She paused, observing Comet's relaxed expression. She appeared to be above being affected by anything, but seemed to be amused by everything. "The world is full of deception. What you think you know may be something else entirely. Sometimes sacrifices must be made and bridges burned, sometimes before they are even built and sometimes after years of existing. Even so, no matter what, it seems some traces can never be fully erased." She was speaking in riddles as if mocking the whole city because they didn't know who she was. "Join us, leave Team Rocket or die. As insurance that you sincerely wish to join us, I expect you to provide me with information."

xoxox xox xoxox

All the secrecy that had been kept for years was about to be broken in the ruins of the old Team Rocket hideout. Delia took a deep breath, still remaining close to Giovanni. "First of all, let me clarify again that Ash is not involved with any of this chaos and neither am I. My timing was only an unfortunate coincidence. For the longest time, for his whole life, I kept Ash wondering about the answers until he seemed to accept the lack of answers. At least that's what I thought. I realized that he really did want to know and I promised to tell him."

Giovanni listened in silence, still puzzled about where Delia was going with all that.

She continued, "a lot happened after that promise. There was the tournament with all its surprises. Soon after he left the stadium, Ash got engaged to Misty. She's the redhead young woman who was with him that day. With all that was going on, I guess he decided to leave his questions for later. He must have recognized you, I'm sure he did. On the day before the tournament he saw a picture of us together from many years ago. He knows we used to be together, but I'm sure he knows of nothing beyond that. He's not aware of the truth, he would have said something if he was."

"What is that truth?" Giovanni asked; he couldn't hide his need to know any more.

Delia took a deep breath; her speedy heartbeats were so loud she could hear them. "Ash is the reason why I left all those years ago. It was so he could live a peaceful life. Ash is our son."

To be Continued

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 054: Give Me Honor

At the Viridian Rocket base, Pixel read over the list Jessie had given her. "Are these all of them?" Pixel, Jessie, James, Meowth and a pair of Rocket grunts made their way to the weapons supply room.

"There might be more, these are only the ones we know of, that is the first page," Jessie explained running down the long underground halls. "The second half of the list is something else entirely; I got it in the mail. It was the strangest thing, but strange things had been happening ever since we moved to Saffron City."

"I thought we were just lucky," James commented.

"When have we ever been lucky?" Jessie had been driven to stop believing in luck a long time ago. "It's clear that someone in Saffron is controlling things from the shadows. If I had to take a guess, that person is using this whole thing to weaken Team Rocket. But they can't allow someone else to take control either. The competition must be eliminated. This is just a theory, but I think the answer is in Saffron City."

"Then it's convenient for that mysterious person that Team Rocket wins this time? The media coverage is making things difficult and business will be terribly affected. With Team Rocket left like that, it would be the perfect time for the true enemy to move in," Pixel reasoned.

"The one behind this doesn't want any competition when it comes to taking over Team Rocket," Jessie theorized. "The Neo Rockets probably have no idea they're being manipulated. In fact," Jessie added bitterly, "we're probably dancing to the tune they're playing for us right now, but we don't have a choice. We need to take care of things here, then get the rest of them. Whatever conspiracy is going on, I think it will be revealed soon, but first we need to clean the base."

"Agreed, one thing at a time if we're going to win," Pixel looked left and right down the long underground metal halls. Confirming that the coast was clear, she entered a number on the little keypad on the wall. "When Laiki and I left the weapons storage room I entered a secret number that switched all the access codes. Not everyone knows the second set of access codes, but I'm sure they're figuring that out right now. Let's hurry, take as much as you can, they must have detected this room being opened."

Jessie grinned and picked up a bazooka. She realized it felt heavier and deadlier than any other bazookas she had held. "This is different from the equipment we used in the past. Someone could get killed with this."

Pixel grinned, "welcome to the dark side." In her mind she was an invincible super villain, or at least an almost invincible minion of an almost invincible mafia lord. Ironically she had never actually had the need to injure anyone, at least not yet.

"Watch yourself rookie," despite her warning, Jessie's confidence didn't fail. "Don't worry too much though; you're with experienced agents now."

James kept giving Jessie a knowing grin and he couldn't help it but to comment, "I knew you missed being a Rocket as much as I did, if not more." The remark earned James a smack on the back of the head from Jessie.

"I just hope we get the chance to do something heroic," Meowth's eyes shone with anticipation. "Then the boss will give us a big reward and say, 'for saving Team Rocket and my life I'll hire you again and give you the biggest raise you can imagine. From now on it's going to be only the best for Meowth and his friends."

"This is no time for your fantasies. We have traitors to catch!" Jessie was well armed with a pair of guns on her belt and a bazooka on her back. She carried a lot of extra ammunition as well. "I really hope it doesn't come to this, real Rockets fight with the power of pokemon."

"Then we'll just have to restore Team Rocket to how it should be!" James cheered; he was similarly armed to Jessie, just in case. "Our pokemon are strong, we can do it. By the way, speaking of pokemon, what did you do with the egg Flareon laid before we came? You ran off with it and returned without it. Then you drove over here taking weird shortcuts like a maniac. I was too busy fearing for my life to ask."

"Don't worry about it," Jessie assured, "the egg is with auntie, she'll take care of it."

"I have a question, if someone else gave you the second page of the list and you compiled the first yourselves, how did you do it?" Pixel inquired.

"It's because Neo Rocket offered us to join them, but we refused. They thought we would join in since we weren't in the best terms with the boss before. I think they just wanted to use James to access his family's money and use it for their cause," Jessie explained bitterly. The thought of someone taking advantage of James bothered her. Either way, his parents kept the fortune and were not keen on sharing since he married Jessie.

"Or they could have thought we're awesome and tried to get us to join," James added with a more pleasant tone. "They didn't understand that part of being awesome is being loyal."

"Save any other questions for later, let's focus on the battle now," Jessie urged. "The Neo Rockets were planning to gather in Kanto and this is the main base of the region. The majority of Team Rocket is actually still loyal, but there are enough traitors to make a noticeable difference. I think their ultimate goal is to get rid of the boss to establish their power over Team Rocket. They must assume that the loyal Rockets will change their minds and follow them if they take out the boss." Jessie explained, she was ready to head into battle. The Rocket grunts followed quietly, hoping that they wouldn't regret remaining loyal to Giovanni.

xoxox xox xoxox

Things had taken a complicated turn at Rock On in Pewter City. Yolanda backed away to the wall. Four members of Team Rocket had snuck in and detained her. The blond woman who led them was currently interrogating her. Yolanda didn't know what they were talking about.

"Don't play dumb, I know this place is a secret base for Team Rocket's enemies!" Laiki insisted, aiming her gun at the frightened girl.

"I really don't know what you're talking about," Yolanda cried. "This is a pokemon breeding center. It belongs to my brother. I'm taking care of the pokemon while he's out. He doesn't have any connections with you people or your enemies, I'm sure of it!"

The three Rocket grunts returned to the living room where Laiki was holding Yolanda hostage. "We didn't find anything suspicious at all," one of the grunts informed, "this isn't an enemy base."

"That's weird," Laiki mused with worry, "here I am with an elite squadron," she motioned towards her weapons rather than the grunts, "ready to storm the enemy base and take over with sheer power. Then what do I find? A girl who honestly doesn't seem to know about the situation and no incriminating evidence."

Laiki gave it some thought, the order she received came from the boss. His cell phone had since been rendered useless. Pixel was sure the geeks on the traitors' side would collapse the communication system eventually and her guess was right. The enemy would rather have no method of spying if it meant risking false information and giving their opponents a chance to slip encoded messages past them.

A thought occurred to Laiki. The password was so that she would know the order was from the boss, even if his voice was not heard. But why didn't he just give her a quick call? Messages were useful when sneaking around quietly. What was making him hide the message? Maybe he was in trouble.

That couldn't be it, if the enemy had Giovanni, then the battle should have been over. "This doesn't make sense, but I have a bad feeling." The three grunts looked at Laiki with puzzlement, 'the boss is still a human being. Even if he seems like so much more to us most of the time. It must have been a mistake,' she mused. 'Giovanni is a stubborn person,' Laiki thought, 'I can't imagine anyone being able to force the password out of him by any means. He could have been tricked or someone could have obtained the code in some other way. Perhaps the boss just sent the wrong information by mistake. Maybe the mistake was mine and my true mission was to investigate and be ready for the worse. The worse case scenario wasn't confirmed as I assumed.'

Laiki took one last look at Yolanda, who was still frightened. "Sorry about that. Well boys, it seems there was a mistake. The Rock On enemy hide out was nothing but a false alarm. Let's head back to HQ, that's where we're really needed."

"Wait! What's going on?" Yolanda suddenly demanded to know. She wanted those people gone, but she couldn't stop herself from asking.

"I can't tell you that. If you knew, then I would have a real reason to storm this place," Laiki smiled innocently. "Oh and by the way, Team Rocket doesn't go around attacking people at random. Don't get the wrong impression. You're perfectly safe as long as you don't pick a fight with us, don't hinder our business and don't try to keep a strong pokemon to yourself. We would also appreciate it if you kept this whole misunderstanding a secret. Do it for the sake of everyone's safety, if you know what I mean."

Yolanda nodded slowly; she felt that she had no choice. The Rockets left Rock On without any casualties. Yolanda watched from the window as the seemingly normal car with tinted glass drove away.

xoxox xox xoxox

In the little underground room of the old Team Rocket hideout, Delia remained quiet. She was waiting for Giovanni to say something. She wished there was some light so she could see his expression. "I'm sorry," she cried, speaking hurriedly and breaking the thick silence. "So many things happened and it looked like Team Rocket was getting worse. So many of our friends were hurt and even died. I didn't know for how long that would continue or if it would ever end. I thought the only way Ash could live in peace was if I left. Despite our disagreements, I was prepared to stay if it was just me. I don't regret having Ash, he's our son and I love him so much. He reminds me of you a lot sometimes. You both want to be the best, you're both stubborn, you both like powerful pokemon, you both never give up and so many other things."

"Ash looks a lot like you when he brushes his hair back. His hair is just as stubborn as yours when it comes to staying in place without putting a million things in it. Most of the time he wears a hat. Oh, and you both like chocolate cake, I guess a lot of people do, but yeah, you still like it, right?" Delia stopped herself, she was rambling. It must already be a lot to take in, she didn't want to make the overload worse. "Um... Giovanni... are you mad at me?"

"Yes," he replied after a moment, though he didn't sound angry. He sounded surprised and confused. For once his voice completely lacked his usual mask of neutrality. He told himself this didn't change anything. Ash had existed for years and nothing had changed. The only difference was that he didn't know. He wanted to know just who was Ash beyond what little he knew about him. The need to battle him resurfaced again, much stronger then it had been during the tournament. Giovanni couldn't explain it.

"Alright, that's okay, you can be mad at me. I guess I did kind of cheat you out of a lot of visits by keeping the secret," Delia breathed deeply. "You do understand that I thought it was for the best, don't you? Ash is... well, you should meet him for yourself and see. He doesn't know about you. He knows you as the Viridian gym leader and I'm pretty sure he admires you. He doesn't know anything about your connection to Team Rocket. If you want to tell him, I'll leave that up to you. Please wait until things calm down if you decide to tell him the whole truth and let me prepare him first."

Giovanni closed his eyes in thought; everything was darkness in the little underground room anyway. "I'll get things under control first, then we'll talk." It was a strange overwhelming feeling, too many things were happening at once.

Delia breathed in relief, "I'll help out in any way I can. Please count me as an ally," she paused. She felt that Giovanni would probably want to have some time to let things sink in before more questions started to surface. "Should we wait here until tomorrow?"

"No, that's not necessary," Giovanni had too much to think about as it was. He made himself focus on his problems with Team Rocket; there would be time for everything else later. Still, thoughts of Delia kept resurfacing. Why would she still want to help? What about Ash? He couldn't deny he wanted to know more. "We've waited long enough. Let's walk the rest of the way to Cerulean City. We can get communication and transportation there."

Quietly and with a heavy atmosphere, Giovanni, Delia and Persian made their way out of the little underground room. They walked in silence, which made Delia feel uncomfortable. She thought about what to say, but was interrupted by an explosion near by.

A familiar voice called out, "Pikachu, no!"

"That was Ash!" Delia started running towards a source of light up ahead, where the voice had come from.

The light was a fire on Ash's little indigo car, "I'm on it!" Misty called out her Starmie. "Water gun, put out that fire!" The solution was effective as Starmie's water successfully extinguished the flames in the car.

"Misty," Ash frowned, "you drowned the engine."

"It's better than letting the fire reach the fuel tank and the whole car exploding. Besides, there's not much left of the engine anyway," Misty waved away the smoke coming from the little car. It had been rendered useless.

"My poor car, it was my first car, it was my only car. It took me such a long time to save up for it and now it's gone," Ash gave his dear car a moment of silence.

"Pikapi," Pikachu looked at Ash with sadness and guilt.

Ash hugged the little yellow electric pokemon, "it's alright Pikachu, it's not your fault. I was the one who told you to keep recharging the battery instead of changing it like I should have."

Delia and Giovanni arrived and witness the scene. It reminded Giovanni of something that happened before he met Delia. At the time, Aayla had just recently joined Team Rocket.

That night long ago, Giovanni, Luke, Leah, Aayla and Binks were all in Giovanni's car, which he intended to replace soon. "Dude Giovanni, like tell me again like why you're getting rid of this car. I like still don't totally get it, you know?" Luke happened to like the car. It was brown and he thought it looked like a giant chocolate bar.

"Because it won't last much longer," Giovanni tried to explain it again, "the battery keeps giving out and the newbie has to recharge it with Electabuzz."

"When will I have a name other then newbie?" Aayla grumbled from the back of the car. She was sandwiched uncomfortably between Leah and Binks. She sometimes forgot Leah was there until she tried to move and bumped into her. As for Binks, she elbowed him on occasion, simply because she felt like it.

"When you earn it," Giovanni answered, "it doesn't look like Electabuzz will last too long either. Lately there have been less pokemon around. There's a rumor that some kind of epidemic is starting. It's only a rumor but it could be true."

"But dude, can't you like change the battery? I'll like miss this car, you know?" Luke insisted upon his argument that the car should be kept.

"You can have it after I get a new one," Giovanni offered, knowing very well that Luke would love the idea.

"Thanks dude! You're like totally awesome, man!" Luke's cheering was interrupted when the engine failed and the car shut down.

"I think it's more than the battery that's wrong with it," Giovanni theorized. He wasn't in the mood to tinker with the car. He felt like getting a new car, maybe he could find an orange one to steal, though the color wasn't too common. He tried to turn the car back on, but it didn't work.

"Time for another recharge?" Aayla didn't even wait for an answer before shoving Binks aside and exiting the car. She opened it up, frowning at the smoke that came from the engine. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"It worked fine before, just give it a quick recharge," Giovanni needed to get to Pewter City. Once he was there he would have a new car and the old one would be Luke's problem.

"If you say so," Aayla sent out Electabuzz. The large yellow pokemon looked as if he had no energy left. It was a side effect of the illegal power-ups he had been given before. Ever since Aayla joined Team Rocket she stopped giving Electabuzz any of those substances. The gang leader, Giovanni, forbade it. He claimed it was more of a liability than a help in the long run. Electabuzz was still suffering from the symptoms of withdrawal. "Electabuzz, give the battery another electric charge."

With a lot of effort, the weakened Electabuzz obeyed. The electricity wasn't much, but the car's battery had all the mistreatment it could take. The result was a chain reaction that set the engine aflame.

"My car!" Luke cried out at the top of his lungs. He jumped out of the front passenger seat and hurried to put out the fire. It was technically still Giovanni's car, but it was close enough to becoming his. "Like put out the fire Poliwag, water gun, man!" The car that Luke affectionately referred to as a giant chocolate bar met a grim fate that night.

Years later, Ash's car suffered a similar tragedy. "Ash!" Delia called out to her son as she, Giovanni and Persian approached.

"Mom!" Ash rushed to her and hugged her, noticing Giovanni's presence as well. "The Viridian gym leader is here too!" He observed them as well as he could in the light of the full moon and stars. "Were you two in a battle, did Team Rocket attack you? I've heard the accusations, but I don't believe a word of them. Team Rocket attacked you, didn't they?"

Delia was at a loss for words, "something like that?" She looked at Giovanni, hoping that he would have some kind of believable excuse. Their bruised appearance was in truth the result of being kidnapped and falling off a cliff respectively.

Giovanni had been looking at Ash curiously. Ash was more focused on his mother and didn't really notice. Giovanni snapped into attention upon hearing Delia's cue for him to come up with an excuse. "I think they might have only been pretending to be Team Rocket. There have been rumors about a battle between gangs. Something about Team Rocket's rivals trying to get the police to go after the Rockets."

Ash gave this new possibility some thought as did Misty. "That makes a lot of sense," she commented.

"Yeah," Ash agreed, "what happened at Vermilion City, you've heard about it, right? It's not Team Rocket's usual style. There was nothing to gain for them. Then the really bad gang isn't Team Rocket, it's their rivals. The police will figure it out eventually if they stop Team Rocket and the crimes don't stop, but a lot of things could happen before then."

Giovanni found that Ash's logic was easier to guide than he expected. Maybe keeping the secret of Team Rocket from him to avoid further complications would not be difficult after all. Besides, he was telling the truth about Team Rocket and their enemies. "It's more serious than that. Team Rocket and their enemies cancel each other out, so to speak. If one was left alone, it could be very dangerous," he bent the truth, Giovanni didn't think any other gang was strong enough to truly stand up against Team Rocket.

Misty gasped as the gym leader's theory became clear to her, "that means that the police is being used. If they spend all their resources taking out Team Rocket, they'll be left exposed for when that other gang openly emerges."

"This is just a theory," Giovanni voiced with fake concern, "but if it's true, it may happen that way."

"That's how it seems to be, the gangs keep each other at bay. The police would have to stop them all at once to get anywhere and that would be next to impossible. It's dangerous to allow the balance of power to shift too suddenly," Delia added, she always knew a lot more than she let on. She was secretive in many ways and most people tended to assume she knew little.

"Wow, I guess I never thought about it that way," Ash was surprised at his mother's conclusion. He understood the logic in it. "Then that other gang must be stopped. Team Rocket wasn't so bad by comparison, so the other group should be stopped first. Anyway, I'm just glad you're both safe. We'll figure out the rest as we go along, right Misty?"

Misty thought she shouldn't encourage Ash's tendency to rush in without a plan too much, "yeah, but we need to be careful."

Ash nodded in agreement and looked at Giovanni. The gym leader couldn't help it but to wonder if Ash knew who he was. It was soon proven he didn't, "can we still have our pokemon battle?"

"Is that all you think about?" Misty face palmed.

"Of course we can battle," hearing Giovanni's reply, Delia decided it was good. Maybe a pokemon battle was just what they needed to understand each other in their own way, as long as it remained friendly. "Not here and now," Giovanni clarified.

"Right," Delia continued, "and since we're all here together talking I might as well formally introduce everyone," she tried to make it sound as natural as she could, with Giovanni putting up a very good act despite his curiosity. It reminded her of the past, when he put up an act for Professor Oak. Things were different and at the same time similar.

To be Continued

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 055: Give Me Comrades

Things seemed to be running as smoothly as possible within the circumstances for Delia, Giovanni, Ash and Misty. Ash called Brock to let him know he found his mother and she was alright. He noticed that when he pressed the button to end the call at Vermilion, he held it down for a little too long and turned his cell phone off. Unknown to Ash, Brock had tried to call him again, but couldn't get through.

"Ash! Are you alright? I've been trying to call you this whole time," Brock answered his cell phone with a worried tone as soon as he saw Ash's name on the screen.

"We're fine; I'm calling you to let you know. I ran into mom and Giovanni, they're both safe. Team Rocket, or rather, Team Rocket's rivals pretending to be Team Rocket, attacked them. They got away, so don't worry. Actually, I haven't heard the whole story yet, I just wanted to give you a call first. Misty's here with us too and our pokemon of course. My car will probably never run again. I guess I pushed my luck too far having Pikachu recharge the battery," Ash explained hurriedly. He was about to continue venting about his car, he really needed it.

Brock interrupted, "you're all alright? Giovanni is there too?" He reminded himself that he was giving Giovanni the benefit of the doubt. Delia and Ash seemed to trust him. The attack Ash mentioned could be used to explain Delia's state when she arrived. Who knows what happened and how many times they went after her. Her little black cell phone with the red R was still present in Brock's mind. He decided to disregard it as an unimportant detail. It was just a cell phone, it didn't mean anything. Maybe she just couldn't find one with her own initial. A red R usually meant Team Rocket, but there could be exceptions.

"Yeah, we're fine," Ash assured, Brock still sounded very alarmed.

"What was that about someone pretending to be Team Rocket?" Brock spoke as if it was urgent. "do you know what's going on?" He explained what had happened to him, "I was worried, so I went to find Delia. I thought she might be in Viridian City. I couldn't find her and I couldn't contact you. Yolanda was taking care of Rock On while I was in Viridian. She called me to say Team Rocket was there. Apparently they thought Rock On was an enemy base and searched the place. They held her hostage and asked her a lot of things she didn't understand. When they realized it was all a mistake, they left. They didn't even steal anything!"

Ash's face was visibly surprised at Brock's revelation. The expression was not missed by Delia, Giovanni and Misty, though they couldn't hear Brock. "It sounds like there really is a war between gangs. Some other group is pretending to be Team Rocket so the police will go after the real Team Rocket. Then they can take over when Team Rocket and the police are left weakened by their battle. Team Rocket must be really serious about stopping their rivals."

"So this is their battle... I thought what happened at Vermilion City was too much for Team Rocket. I didn't know about it at first. Later I heard about the attack when they aired the news bulletin again." Brock was feeling frustrated with how innocent people were being caught in the battle between Team Rocket and their rivals. "I'm going to stay here just in case they come back. Yolanda doesn't want to call the police..."

"Why not?" Ash asked when Brock went silent in doubt. "You should call the police and tell them what happened." From the corner of his eyes, Ash caught Giovanni shaking his head. Ash thought about what they had discussed concerning the balance of power, "on second thought, you shouldn't call the police right now. Let the two gangs fight each other. Then the police will arrest them when they're weak."

"If you say so," Brock mused over Ash's words, "alright, I won't call the police. I guess there's no choice but to give the situation some time and stay alert." Brock was still uneasy, but he decided to trust Ash.

"Yeah, take care of your siblings. I think we'll spend the night at Misty's place," Cerulean City was the closest to them. Ash glanced at Misty, who nodded in approval. "I'll call you again tomorrow." Since the engine of Ash's car would never run again, they would walk the rest of the way to Cerulean City.

"Alright, be careful," Brock sounded exhausted with stress.

Giovanni was caught in the situation. He didn't want to blow his cover so soon. He was heading to Cerulean City anyway; he had to find a working phone that he could use in private. He would decide if he could stay there until the next day after he communicated with his agents. He didn't have a solid plan. It looked like he would have to improvise as he used to do long ago.

After a long walk, Ash, Misty, Delia and Giovanni made it to the Cerulean City gym. The gym was closed, with all its lights off in the quiet of the night. Misty fished for her keys in her bag. She pulled them out by the Horsea keychain. "It looks like we have the place to ourselves," Misty announced as she led the group inside. She wasn't really expecting her sisters to have returned. "What a day..."

"I'm hungry," Ash announced. When something exciting or worrying happened, it always made him hungry in the end.

Delia and Misty laughed; at least Ash was being himself. They took it as a good sign. Ash was a ray of familiarity in the uncertainty that lay ahead. "I have been meaning to ask for a cake recipe," Misty joked.

"Then lets do it," Delia didn't care if it was late at night. She didn't care she had realized that she needed to learn more recipes before she could truly call herself a chef. Cooking still helped her relax and she didn't feel like going to sleep. Besides, if she was going to become a more skilled cook, the sooner she started practicing, the better.

"Really? Right now?" Misty was taken by surprise, especially when Delia nodded, confirming that it wasn't a joke.

"That's a great idea!" Ash's mouth began to water at the thought.

"Pika!" Pikachu nodded in agreement while Giovanni and Persian watched the scene quietly.

"We might not have all the ingredients," Delia theorized looking thoughtful, "isn't there a little convenience store near here that's open twenty-four seven?"

"Yes, there is, they have a lot of things. Let's go," the distraction was welcomed by Misty. She felt she needed to focus her mind on something simple and cheerful, such as learning a new recipe. She wanted to clear her head of the day's stress.

Giovanni caught on then, thinking that he should have caught on sooner. Delia was giving him the perfect chance to establish communication with headquarters without interruptions. "Do you mind if I use the phone? My cell phone isn't working for some reason."

"No problem, it's right over here," Misty led him to where the video phone was, in a corner of the living room. "They must be worried about you in Viridian City," the gym leader obviously held an important position there. Perhaps he was more important to the city than an average gym leader would be.

"Thanks, I should at least let them know we're alright," Giovanni continued his nice act perfectly. He had practiced it many times in the public eye. He wondered how well he would be able to act after the truth about Ash fully sunk in. Several times he had to make himself stop staring, noticing familiarities he didn't know how he missed before. Fortunately, Ash and Misty were too tired to notice.

The growling of Ash's stomach was perfectly timed to Delia's plan, "we should get the ingredients. Ash, come help us carry the bags." With a casual excuse, Delia led the young couple and Pikachu outside. They departed towards the little convenience store near the gym. Giovanni was left alone with Persian to go about his business in private.

xoxox xox xoxox

At the Viridian Rocket headquarters below the gym, the hunt for traitors continued. "What is the meaning of this?" Two traitorous Rockets found themselves surrounded in the main computer room of the base.

The two men contrasted greatly with each other, one was tall and muscular. The other's physique resembled Binks, thin and fragile. The thin one had short light hair, nearly white, despite being no older than his mid twenties. He had big glasses and a white lab coat over his black Team Rocket uniform. The coat had a small red R on a pocket carrying an assortment of pens. "You're in trouble; we're higher ranked than all of you!" His threat was ineffective due to his frightened shaking. His blue-gray eyes kept looking for an escape route but found none.

The tall man glared, seemingly unfazed by the heavily armed group standing before him. "So Giovanni's grunts are fighting back?" That man also wore a Team Rocket uniform, the shirt was sleeveless revealing his muscular arms. He had dark skin, short curly black hair and brown eyes. "You don't happen to know where Giovanni is, do you?" In order to take control of Team Rocket, Neo Rocket grouped in Kanto, Team Rocket's main base of operations.

Their plan had been to broadcast Giovanni's defeat and subsequent death on TV. They would set the stage for that by forcing him to offer a press conference. The defeat of the leader would put Neo Rocket on top, or so they thought. They expected to gain the support of the rest of Team Rocket with fear. To back them up they had New Tempest. The reestablished gang was Team Rocket's rival in the past. Neo Rocket didn't care for world domination or secrecy. They only wanted power and riches.

Neo Rocket was planning to unite with New Tempest under the name of Tempest. The name of their gang wasn't really important to Neo Rocket anyway. The tall man chuckled cruelly despite the situation he and his cowering ally were in. "Where is he hiding? Where did Giovanni run off to? That coward!"

Jessie and James were offended, their expressions furious. James was just as angry as Jessie was, but she had a special talent for looking absolutely terrifying when she was enraged. Before they could say anything, Meowth jumped forward. He wildly attacked the man who had dared to insult Giovanni, trying to tare him apart with his claws.

The man pushed Meowth off. Meowth went on the attack again, relentlessly scratching until the man threw him against the wall harshly. "Meowth can't take on this guy alone," Jessie threw out a pokeball and Flareon appeared from its red beam. Jessie knew that she was eager to get some action as soon as possible after having laid her egg.

"If you're not going to shoot I'll have to take those weapons away from you," the tall man's shirt had been ripped to shreds and he had many cuts in his upper body. He jumped to take Jessie's weapons, but Flareon let out a massive fire blast without even waiting for Jessie's command. Badly burnt, the man stumbled back. His geeky comrade squealed in a high pitched fearful voice.

Pixel glared at the weak geek, "you give a bad name to geeks everywhere," she huffed angrily, "we're not all wimps!"

The muscular man struggled to fight back despite the injured state he was in. He was knocked back again by Flareon's fire. The sound of approaching foot steps was heard announcing the arrival of more traitorous Rockets. Their appearance was that of typical grunts, with the standard Team Rocket uniforms. Their faces were shrouded in shadows by their black hats. "Get down!" James called out. He pushed Pixel to one side and dived to the other, dragging Jessie down along with him. A missile zoomed over them, exploding when it hit the tall man.

The traitorous grunts at the door cursed loudly. They meant to take out the loyal Rockets, but instead the missile hit one of their own. The skinny geek squeaked in fear again and began to cry.

"You're really asking for it! Flareon fire blast that bazooka!" Jessie commanded. Flareon let out a battle cry, shooting a powerful flame from her mouth. The blast of fire collided with the bazooka held by the traitorous Rocket grunts, causing it to explode.

"Go Wheezing; hold them with your sludge attack!" James scrambled to his feet along with Jessie and sent out his pokemon. Wheezing's attack was effective in its purpose. It detained the injured traitorous grunts in a sticky mess at the door. The two loyal grunts that accompanied Jessie, James and Pixel watched in awe.

"Shut up already!" Pixel lost her patience and kicked the crying geek on the ribs. The action only caused him to wail louder. "That's it, go Peachy, thunderbolt this idiot into silence!" The Pikachu emerged from her pokeball and followed the command. She electrocuted the thin man into fainting.

"You have a Pikachu, very convenient," James commented. He and Jessie had developed a strong perception of Pikachu in general thanks to Ash's Pikachu.

"Indeed," Jessie agreed, "Meowth, get up, we need to make sure these guys can't cause any more trouble and-" Jessie paused, watching as the two loyal Rocket grunts made themselves useful.

The loyal Rocket grunts handcuffed the traitors' hands and feet to prevent them from causing trouble should they escape the sludge. "Don't forget about us," one of the grunts spoke.

"We can detain the traitors here, just keep bringing them over," the other grunt offered.

"That's a good idea," Pixel agreed, "and watch my back while you're at it. I need to figure out what they were doing to the system." Pixel was already sitting in front of the large screen of the main computer. There were also two other screens left and right of her. There was a large keyboard in front of her. It included not only the alphabet, numbers and the usual keys a computer would have, but also abundant extra keys. The additional keys were labeled with different symbols, pictures and abbreviations.

"It looks like they were trying to crack the code to launch the big missiles," Pixel announced as she examined the system. "Fortunately, they didn't have enough time to crack it. Not even the top ranked Rocket geeks know how to crack this program. It was made by one of the Rocket executives, or so I heard. Only the top executives and the boss know the password."

"The bad news is that the general system suffered some extensive damage," Pixel informed. "Especially the communications software and satellite control programs. The system will have to be reformatted to be on the safe side. This is well beyond my current level, but I guess I'll have to try. By the way, is your Meowth alright?"

Meowth had gotten back on his feet, but looked dizzy, "I'm fine, thanks for asking. It's just that all that stuff on the screen is making me dizzy."

"I don't consider myself to be an expert yet, but I think I can at least make a bit of a difference for now. I can't really fix it, but I can try to reduce the damage. I'll work on it, unless I should join the frontlines again?" Pixel looked at Jessie, the self appointed leader of their squad.

"Make sure they're not planning to launch any more missiles. Then see if you can reestablish at least some basic communication," Jessie decided. "We need to detain the traitors somewhere. Your pokemon and those two," she pointed at the two loyal grunts, "can stay here and guard the prisoners while you work. James, our pokemon and I are tough enough to finish the cleanup ourselves."

"Alright, Peachy, Pyro," Pixel let her Charmander out of his pokeball as well. "Guard the prisoners! You two," she looked at the grunts, "try to keep the big guy that got hurt alive; alive and tied up that is. We might get some info out of them later." She then addressed Jessie, James and Meowth, "good luck!"

Meowth reminded Pixel a little of Purry, except Purry wouldn't have allowed her opponents to push her away. She would have aimed for the throat. Purry was also a lot tougher and didn't need much provocation to be violent. On second thought, maybe all that they really had in common was their species. Pixel hoped that wherever Purry was, she was alright, the same for Comet and Laiki.

xoxox xox xoxox

At the Cerulean gym, Giovanni received an unexpected visitor. "Boss," the voice came accompanied by a tapping sound on the living room window. Giovanni stepped away from the video phone for a moment and opened it to find Comet. "I knew it was you I saw. I couldn't contact anyone, I'm glad you're alright."

"What are you doing here and what's the meaning of that?" Giovanni pointed at the green T on Comet's black shirt. The uniform was very similar to Team Rocket's uniform. The most noticeable difference was that the red R was replaced with a green T.

"The enemies are actually two groups. One group is made from people who used to be from the Tempest Gang. The others are traitors that want Team Rocket for themselves, the Neo Rockets. They intend to unite under the name of Tempest. I'm only pretending to join them so I can spy on them," Comet explained. "There is someone who seems to be partially controlling them, the Saffron City mayor. It looks like she's more of a mediator then their boss. I get the impression that the mysterious mayor has her own agenda. Sorry, I couldn't find out her identity, it seems no one knows who she is, even in Saffron City."

"Tempest returned after all these years," Giovanni had not heard that name in a long time. What bothered him the most were the traitors. Team Rocket was a big organization and a few traitors would appear from time to time. He hated that they organized themselves well enough to cause trouble this time. "Those traitors are worse than Tempest, they'll pay for this," Giovanni was angry and frustrated with the situation. He was sick of waiting to do things without bringing more unnecessary attention to Team Rocket. It was time to show them his power; he would solve the problem himself.

"I just got to Cerulean City on a mission for Tempest. I'm still in the process of proving my loyalty. I just hope they don't realize that the information I gave them about Team Rocket were lies. We're going to break into the Pokemon Center and steal the pokemon there. Some Neo Rockets will be there too, not all the uniforms have been changed to Tempest yet," Comet explained. "I'm sure you know where I'm going with this."

"This is an opportunity for me to clear my name," Giovanni caught on right away. "With all the false accusations going around, it's only natural that I would want to conduct my own investigation. It is something the good gym leader of Viridian City would do. I tracked down the villains to this city and happened to be near the Pokemon Center when they broke in. Most of them will be captured, save for a few that will manage to escape," Comet would be among them. "Make sure that your presence is known so that it doesn't look suspicious when I conveniently arrive."

"You can count on me! I guess this means we'll have to battle. We're planning to break into the Pokemon Center at midnight," Comet always got excited when he thought about pokemon battles. He would make sure to put up a fight, but at the same time make Tempest look bad.

"I'll be there," Giovanni assured, he really needed to let some stress out in a pokemon battle. "For now, return to your Tempest duties before they find you."

"Yes, sir!" Comet hopped out the window again and disappeared into the night.

Outside, Purry was waiting for Comet. She had caught up to him as he was leaving Saffron City. Comet departed towards Cerulean City alone with Purry in his little brown car. Luke had given it to him as a tribute to the original chocolate bar Giovanni used to have. "I'll need your help, Purry. I have an idea."

To be Continued

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 056: Give me Satisfaction

The main computer system at the Viridian Rocket headquarters detected an incoming call. It managed to pass through the system with the limited glitch filled functions that Pixel was able to partially restore. Curious about it, she put it through, even if it could be a transmission from the enemy. If it was, she would pretend she was on their side and get information. To her surprise the video call was from Giovanni, "boss!"

Giovanni had seen this girl before, Pixel or something like that. She was a low ranked agent a step above a grunt. "What's happening at headquarters, why are you answering this call?"

"I'm not sure who you were trying to contact, but the communications system collapsed. Neo Rocket, the traitors, caused it. I was trying to restore it. Some other agents and I are cleaning up HQ, catching the traitors and stuff." Pixel wasn't sure how Giovanni would take the news about Jessie and James. She didn't feel good about having to be the one to give him the report about that particular detail.

Giovanni had many things to ask. Before he could, someone else appeared on the screen behind Pixel. The girl turned around to look at the man who had arrived. "I'll take it from here, rookie."

"Archer," Giovanni recognized the new arrival.

Pixel blinked and looked back and forth between Giovanni and Archer before finally moving out of the way to stand behind Archer.

Archer opened a window of code on the screen beside the one containing Giovanni's video call and began to fix things in the system. "I'll have the communications system up and running soon. I'll come up with some better security for the future. I hope you don't mind, but after the communications system collapsed, the four of us decided to move on our own," Archer was referring to Ariana, Proton, Petrel and himself. "I just arrived at the Viridian headquarters. Before you say it, don't worry, the other regions are safe. We're not neglecting our duties by coming to Kanto."

More people entered the Viridian control room. It was a group of Rocket grunts led by Ariana and Petrel. "We secured the detention facilities. We can move the prisoners there now, get to it!" The grunts got to work while Ariana noticed just who was on the screen. "Don't try to do everything on your own so much, you can count on us." Without waiting for Giovanni's reply, Ariana left along with the grunts and Petrel.

"I should go with them, right?" Pixel looked around, unsure of what to do.

"You were trying to fix things, weren't you?" Archer took his own miniature lucky seven computer and handed it to Pixel. It had many programs that were custom made and not found anywhere else. "Plug it in and follow my lead so we can fix this faster."

"Yes, sir!" Pixel jumped at the opportunity to do something high tech with someone so high ranked.

"If something goes wrong in the other regions," Giovanni didn't have to finish for the message to get through.

"I know, I know, don't worry. The enemies are not many in comparison to the number of loyal members. They gathered in Kanto to take you out, the other regions are fine," Archer insisted. "Watch your back, the enemy might get desperate and attack you. It's clear they want you dead. Proton went to Saffron City to investigate who's behind this. He got a lead from Miyamoto's daughter when we got here."

"She was fired a long time ago!" That was the last thing Giovanni needed, help from someone he fired.

Archer sighed and paused his rapid typing to massage his temples for a moment. He guessed it would be a headache to deal with this issue and he was right. Giovanni was a great leader ninety-nine percent of the time. When he got especially stubborn, prideful or reckless, he was not easy to deal with. Archer resumed his typing as he spoke, "Giovanni, please be reasonable. The information from Miyamoto's daughter is the best clue we have right now. Her partner is here as well. They're helping clean up headquarters. I'm not fully aware of what's going on, but we're going to find out. We'll be careful," Archer paused, sending something to Pixel, "debug this code for me, rookie, you should be able to catch most of the bugs by logic."

"Yes, sir!" Pixel chirped and started reading through the code. She was looking for endless loops, missing variables and contradictory conditions, running try catch scripts.

xoxox xox xoxox

"We're back!" Delia cheerfully and loudly announced as she entered the Cerulean gym with Misty, Ash and Pikachu. Albeit she tried to take her time at the store, Ash kept complaining. He wanted to go back so that the cake would be ready soon and he could eat it.

In the living room, Giovanni finished the call quickly, "we'll talk later. You and the others better not let anything slip out of place in your regions. I'll take care of the enemy myself. Don't call me back at this number."

"What are you going to-" Archer's question was cut off as the call was ended.

xoxox xox xoxox

The loud sound of a gunshot echoed in the underground Rocket base at Viridian. The bullet passed between Jessie and James. "My hair!" Jessie screamed as she saw a few strands of red land at her feet. Fortunately, Flareon's flame thrower melted the gun in the traitor's hand before he could shoot again.

Another traitor tried to sneak up on Jessie and James from behind. Her gun met the same fate as her partner's thanks to Growlie. The pokemon was still recovering, but would never accept being left out of the fight. "Well done Growlie! Wheezing, sludge!"

At the same time Jessie commanded, "Arbok, bind!" The strategy was effective. Flareon and Growlie would take care of the weapons. Then Arbok and Wheezing would restrain the traitors until they could be handcuffed and taken away. Laiki had returned to headquarters along with the three grunts that went to Rock On with her. They joined the traitor hunt and were investigating another area of the large underground headquarters.

Further ahead there was a fork in the underground metal corridors. It went in three different directions. Jessie and James came from one side, while Ariana and Petrel appeared from the other. From the third hallway, Butch and Cassidy ran towards Jessie and James. They couldn't see Ariana and Petrel from their angle. "What's going on here? We returned to HQ to find that it's a war zone! Weren't you fired? Is this your doing?" Cassidy accused Jessie.

"Cassidy!" Jessie growled the name in a poisonous voice.

"And Batch," James knew there was a possibility that they would run into those two. He was hoping they didn't.

"It's Butch!" The green haired man corrected in indignation. No one ever seemed to get his name right.

"Cassidy, Botch," Ariana came into view at the point where the three underground hallways met. Butch considered pointing out that was not his name, but Ariana was very high ranked so he remained silent. "Since you're here, make yourselves useful hunting down the traitors. Here's a copy of the list of suspects." Ariana handed Cassidy a paper.

"Yes ma'am, but what about them?" Cassidy glared at Jessie. She was looking forward to hearing the Rocket executive sentence them to a harsh punishment.

"They are on our side and have worked quite well in the mission to secure headquarters," Ariana's words left Cassidy in frozen shock. Butch kept looking back and forth between Cassidy, Ariana, Jessie and James. He was overwhelmed by confusion.

"Meowth, that's right!" Meowth cheered making his presence known, with a look of satisfaction. Jessie had the biggest grin out of all of them.

"You know what Gio will say," Petrel reminded Ariana quietly.

"Let's give them a little reward for their loyalty. I'll leave Giovanni to Arch. Maybe he can talk him into taking them back. Keep an eye on the hunt; I'm going to see how Arch is doing," Ariana announced. She hurried down the metal hall, her footsteps echoing lightly.

xoxox xox xoxox

Later, Ash was in the Cerulean gym's kitchen along with Giovanni, Delia and Misty. "Then the real bad guys, Tempest, are going to attack the Cerulean Pokemon Center at midnight?" Ash summarized for confirmation. Misty was mixing some cake batter while Delia measured ingredients and added them to a bowl.

"If my sources are correct; I don't want to jump to any conclusions. With all those false accusations I had to investigate and try to clear my name," Giovanni explained.

Ash was too excited to question Giovanni's theory. Ash didn't even ask about his sources, he had time to call for an update while they were gone. Misty was curious about that detail, but the safety of the pokemon was more important. Maybe Giovanni had hired a detective or something. At least Ash was distracted enough so that he stopped eating the chocolate chips for a few minutes. Otherwise they might run out before they could be added to the cake.

"Yes, that makes sense," Ash reached for the open bag of chocolate chips once again. He found it wasn't on the counter anymore.

On the floor, Pikachu and Persian were having a tug of war with the bag. It was torn in half with chocolate chips falling all over the floor. Persian hissed in indignation and jumped on Giovanni's lap. He demanded attention to be consoled for the loss of the chocolate chips. He was not eating anything from the floor. Pikachu shrugged and began to gather the chocolate chips in a piece of the plastic bag. Persian didn't want them anymore so he had them all to himself.

Ash reached for the other bag of chocolate chips that was yet to be opened. Delia took it away and gave him a bowl full of batter to mix. "Don't eat it, you have to wait until it's baked," she warned. She wasn't sure where Giovanni was going with his sudden revelation that the Cerulean Pokemon Center was suspected to be in danger. She didn't think it was anything particularly bad, so she didn't try to stop his plans.

"Since it's not certain, there's no need to cause a commotion. Besides, if they see the police, they might run away," Giovanni reasoned, leading the logic exactly as he wanted.

Ash nodded in agreement, "that's why we have to catch them in the act, right?" He assumed Giovanni intended to go to the Pokemon Center and was asking him to come along by revealing this information.

"Exactly," it was risky to take anyone along with him. Yet having extra witnesses on his side would also be beneficial. "I'm planning to have a look around the area when it's close to midnight. I don't want to cause any trouble if this suspicion turns out to be wrong."

"Okay, then we'll have a look around. If nothing happens, it's alright, but if it does, we'll stop them!" Ash cheered.

Delia decided not to worry about the situation too much. "You'll be like vigilantes?" She grinned, reminding Giovanni of her past wish.

"Yes, exactly!" Ash loved the idea, "you'll come too, right Misty?"

Misty agreed with determination, "count me in! We can't let them steal the pokemon."

"I'll be going as well," Delia happily announced, even if it was part of some act or plan Giovanni had, she still enjoyed the idea. She liked pretending that Giovanni and Ash were righteous vigilantes like in her fantasies from long ago. Even if the dream only lasted a little while, she would grant herself that much.

"But mom, you don't have any pokemon with you," Ash pointed out.

"I know, Mimey is back home. He knows how to look after himself, so he'll be fine. There's plenty of food left in the refrigerator that only needs to be put in the microwave and he makes great sandwiches. I bet he's keeping the house very clean. He must have finished the laundry a long time ago," Delia mused aloud.

This came as no surprise for Ash and Misty, but Giovanni had to ask, "who is Mimey?"

"My Mr. Mime," Delia replied with a smile. "I should introduce him to you, Persian and your other pokemon later."

"Your Mr. Mime does chores?" Not even Giovanni had thought about having pokemon servants. He thought they wouldn't be able to do the chores properly.

"Oh yes, he's very helpful and he always looks like he's having fun," Delia fell into the conversation naturally. She was pleased that they could talk about something casual. "Mimey helps with the dishes, the laundry, cleaning the house, watering the garden and works as a waiter at my little restaurant." The cake batters were finished and placed into round molds. One of the batters was dark, thick and chocolaty. Another was paler than the first and had chocolate dots. The last was less in a mount, only a thin disk in a yellow color.

"You were always good at getting pokemon to do what you wanted," Giovanni recalled, he gave her two pokeballs. "If you insist on coming along, you'll need some pokemon. You should take Cloyster and Kingler back." The only pokemon he was carrying were his original team. He didn't have any of his newer pokemon on hand, but the ones he had would have to be enough.

Delia smiled, holding the two pokeballs containing her pokemon from long ago. "Just like before," she whispered.

It was ironic; they would be facing Tempest, their enemies of the past. They would probably only find new members in that night's mission, but it was still Tempest. The Cerulean City Pokemon Center was also the place where they first met. Giovanni discreetly glanced at Ash and Misty. It was enough to remind Delia that they had an audience and she shouldn't reveal too much.

Delia reacted by changing the subject and explaining for how long the cake batters had to be left in the oven. Not even the thought of food distracted Ash enough to stop him from asking Giovanni, "what do you mean take Cloyster and Kingler back?"

Giovanni didn't mean to let that slip, he lowered his guard and it just happened. He didn't realize until that moment that his stress had been reduced, despite the circumstances. Yet he still had a feeling of numb confusion. It was obvious that Archer and the others wanted to be trusted to handle the situation at Viridian City. He would give them that and take care of his own mission in Cerulean City. Then he would put an end to the situation one way or another.

Giovanni focused on Ash's question. The fact that he was his son was something Giovanni had been trying not to think about too much, but couldn't help it but to think about it constantly. It was decided that, if things went as planned, Ash would not know the whole truth until after Team Rocket's business was settled. Giovanni determined that what was said was only a small harmless fact after all. "Cloyster and Kingler were originally Delia's pokemon. She had them since they were Shellder and Krabby. They evolved with Delia as their trainer. After I became the Viridian gym leader, she gave them to me," Giovanni explained.

"Really?" Ash was surprised, as was Misty. "Mom, why didn't you tell me you trained a gym leader's pokemon in the past? That's really cool!"

Delia remembered her little adventure at the beach years ago. "A lot of things happened in the past, a lot of adventures. I'll tell you one day." Delia felt guilty making Ash continue to wait for information.

Ash was excited and didn't know how closely Delia's story about her past was linked to his questions of his father. Those questions had been momentarily left in the back of his mind. He assumed all the things that could have happened between his mother and Giovanni took place before his parents met. "Why don't you tell me about it now?"

"Because it's almost midnight," Giovanni informed, looking at the blinking green time display on the black microwave. It sat atop the blue kitchen counter quietly announcing that it was forty minutes past eleven.

xoxox xox xoxox

The communication systems repair process continued in the Viridian Rocket headquarters. "Okay rookie, test the functions I sent you individually, then together. Make a copy of them and purposely try to mess with them. See how long it takes you to mess up the copy," Archer instructed.

"I'm on it!" Pixel chirped happily. She was having trouble keeping up with Archer, but she was still enjoying her current mission as his assistant. She found a new determination to gain more knowledge about technology.

"How are things going?" Ariana entered the control room. She placed her hands on Archer's shoulders and leaned forward to look at the screen. Her head was right next to his. Pixel saw them from the corner of her eyes in her position sitting right of Archer. They were half covered by one of the three big screens around Archer.

"The communications system is repaired. I'm implementing some extra security measures. Giovanni has entrusted Team Rocket to us for the time being. I wonder what he'll do," Archer couldn't stop thinking about it.

"We'll just have to trust him in return," Ariana concluded. "I'm sure we'll still get an earful when he comes back. You know how prideful he is and it's obvious he's been holding back. He's probably run off to show that he's more than just a figure of authority that sits in the shadows while his agents do all the work. Relax Arch, he won't do anything too drastic. At least not something that will bring negative consequences to Team Rocket."

"Avoiding consequences and doing something drastic are different things," Archer pointed out, his expression thoughtful. "He might do something drastic to avoid consequences."

"You're not really worried," Ariana grinned, "in fact, you sound more like you're looking forward to it."

"Maybe I want to see him in action," Archer smiled with a look of confidence in his eyes. "How are those codes coming along, rookie?"

Pixel took a moment to reply. She had been listening to the conversation and didn't expect to be addressed at that moment, "no bugs so far."

"Good," the sound of more typing was heard as Archer's fingers moved on the keyboard. "Ari, can you send someone to check the physical state of the security system?"

"Sure," Ariana left the control room once more.

xoxox xox xoxox

It was mid night and everything was silent outside of the Cerulean City Pokemon Center. Comet and four others broke in quietly through the back door. Three of the five, including Comet, were wearing the Tempest uniform. The other two were wearing Team Rocket uniforms. Purry had snuck inside through a window and was making her way to nurse Joy's room.

The door to the nurse's room was left partially open. The faint brightness of a tiny Togepi shaped nightlight could be seen inside. Joy was sleeping peacefully in her bed with a man slumbering next to her with light snores. There was a small crib in a corner of the room where a pink haired baby girl slept.

Purry jumped on the bed, waking the couple. Before they could catch her, she dashed out of the room. "A pokemon?" The man was still half asleep and didn't really see which pokemon it was.

"I wonder why it went out of its pokeball," Joy walked over to the door and turned on the light in the hallway. The pokemon that stood at the end of the hall was a Meowth. Joy had not seen her before. "A wild pokemon?" She approached the Meowth slowly, her bare feet stepping noiselessly on the floor. "Come here girl," she knelt down, her long pink night gown brushing against the floor. "Come on, don't be scared."

Purry hissed loudly with her tail standing up straight. Joy was startled and stumbled back, falling into a sitting position on the floor. Her husband helped her to her feet and they watched the pokemon dash away.

"She might cause trouble with the other pokemon," Joy's husband, Otoshi, was concerned. "She has a lot of fight in her, like Marowak." His long black hair was out of its usual ponytail, reaching down to his mid back. It blended in with the dark shades of green of his loose yukata-style pajamas.

"Are you thinking about catching her?" Joy didn't really need an answer, seeing her husband's grin.

"Marowak will enjoy this battle," he returned to their room and got Marowak's pokeball. He released his long time companion from it out in the hall. "A wild Meowth snuck into the Pokemon Center, let's challenge her."

"Marowak!" The pokemon eagerly agreed, even if he had been woken up in the middle of the night.

The sound of something being knocked over was heard from further into the Pokemon Center. The sound was followed by the baby's small startled voice from the room behind the couple. "It must have been that Meowth," Joy correctly guessed. She was unaware of the quiet thieves that had broken into her home. "I'll go take care of the baby. I hope she falls asleep again soon."

"Don't worry, we'll catch that Meowth," Otoshi assured. He went off to find the Meowth with Marowak.

To be Continued

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 057: Give me Heroes

The noise of something being broken echoed in the quiet of the night at the Cerulean City Pokemon Center. "What was that?" The noise startled the thieves from Tempest and Neo Rocket that were hastily putting pokeballs into sacks.

Before anyone could come up with a possible answer to the grunt's worried question, Purry ran past them in the darkness. "Come back here!" Otoshi followed the Meowth, who he thought was wild. He turned the light on, illuminating the large storage room where pokemon were kept in their pokeballs. The thieves were caught in the act, "is this what that wild Meowth wanted me to see? Thank you honorable Meowth, I shall grant you a duel later. Marowak, we can't let these thieves get away!"

xoxox xox xoxox

The noises coming from inside the Pokemon Center were mostly lost in its large halls, but some of the sound waves reached outside. "Something's happening!" Ash alerted.

Ash, Misty, Giovanni, Delia and their pokemon were walking around the Pokemon Center, examining the area. Giovanni noticed that the backdoor was conveniently left open, "we can go in through here." No one questioned the fact that they were technically trespassing, there were other more important things happening at the time.

The group ran through the dark halls of the Pokemon Center until they saw light coming from the storage room. "Marowak, we can't let these thieves get away!"

"Let's see you deal with this!" One of the grunts sent out a pokemon and the action was repeated by the others. Tangela, Grimer, Zubat, Voltorb and Gyarados were sent into battle, the last one belonging to Comet.

Ash was the first to reach the door to the storage room and saw the one who spoke, "Otoshi!" Misty occasionally went back to Cerulean City to make sure her sisters were okay and they weren't just giving away cascade badges to everyone without a battle. Otoshi and Ash had coincidentally met at the Pokemon Center around a year ago.

The samurai, who remembered how Ash had helped him recover his Indigo League badges years ago, was glad to see Ash again. At the time Brock was also traveling with Ash and Misty. His heart was broken again when he found out that another nurse Joy would be getting married very soon. Ash, Misty and Brock went to the wedding and Brock cried through most of it, albeit the other guests didn't notice his pain and assumed he was just very emotional with happiness for the couple. A year later, Otoshi and Joy had a baby girl who looked just like her mother.

"Ash! Your timing is quite convenient, but I think Marowak and I can handle this," Otoshi sent his pokemon on the attack, "Marowak, use bonemerang!"

"Marowak!" Marowak threw his bone club; it spun in the air and knocked Zubat down. Zubat fell on top of Voltorb, who self destructed in anger.

"Two for one, this is no challenge at all!" Otoshi was confident in Marowak's abilities.

"I guess it was nothing you can't handle, but we did come all this way," Ash looked confident as well.

"It would be rude of me not to share, and you were polite enough to ask first," Otoshi nodded and grinned, "go ahead."

"Alright! Pikachu, let's finished this, thunderbolt!" Ash victoriously called out.

"Gyarados, return!" Comet called his pokemon back into his pokeball just in time to avoid Pikachu's attack. His pokemon was not weak enough to fall so easily even with a type disadvantage, but he wanted to make Tempest look bad.

"Pikachu!" The electric attack was extremely strong and it knocked out Tangela and Grimer instantly. They too were recalled into their pokeballs as the unconscious Zubat and Voltorb had been. One of the Tempest grunts backed away into a corner and whispered hurriedly into a little cell phone.

"I can't let you do this, go Gyarados!" Comet called out Gyarados once more. He couldn't count on Purry for that battle since she had been pretending to be a wild pokemon.

"Are you going to battle or retreat?" Ash questioned impatiently.

Delia recognized Comet but didn't say anything, though she was shocked by his next course of action. "Gyarados, hyper beam, your target is that man!" Comet pointed at Otoshi.

Otoshi didn't expect to be attacked directly and was caught off guard, but Marowak jumped in front of him and protected his trainer. "Marowak!" Otoshi rushed to his pokemon's side, he had taken a direct hit. However, Comet had previously instructed his pokemon not show their true power while they were pretending to be with Tempest, so the attack wasn't as effective as it could have been.

"Maro... wak..." Marowak struggled to get up, he could still fight.

"That was a cheap shot!" Ash called out in anger.

"Yeah, that attack was cowardly!" Misty added with the same rage. "I'll give your pokemon an opponent, Gyarados, I choose you!" Misty's own Gyarados emerged from his pokeball, ready to battle against Comet's Gyarados.

Delia frowned and gave Comet a disapproving look; she wouldn't guess he was like that from the short time she had spent with him. Luke had not been that way. In truth that was not Comet's usual battling style, but since he was purposely trying to make Tempest look bad, part of his act included fighting dirty. "Giovanni," Delia reproached, she had a feeling that he must know what was going on and the explanation as to why Comet had a green T on his shirt instead of a red R. Giovanni made no reply and Delia silently assumed everything must be an act.

The two Gyarados were locked in battle, firing hydro pumps and hyper beams at each other. The shelves with pokeballs were knocked over and all those present were soaking wet. "While those two are busy, how about I introduce you to another pokemon?" Comet sent out another pokemon, a Scyther emerged from the pokeball's red beam.

"Tauros, take down!" A new voice called out as a woman in a Team Rocket uniform arrived. The Tauros dashed towards Misty's Gyarados, who would not be able to avoid the attack and continue fighting Comet's Gyarados at the same time.

"Gyarados, watch out!" Misty called out in vain.

"Marowak!" Otoshi didn't have time to voice the name of an attack, but Marowak was quick to react. He slammed his bone club down on Tauros' head, stopping his rampage.

"It's you!" Delia recognized the pink haired woman with the Tauros as one of the people who had tried to kidnap her.

"Scyther, slice that Marowak to pieces with X Scissor!" Comet commanded.

"Two against one is not fair, Pikachu, use thunderbolt on Scyther!" Ash sent out his most trusted pokemon.

"Scyther, forget the attack and dodge the electricity!" Comet called out at the last second, holding Scyther's pokeball ready just in case. However, Scyther was able to narrowly dodge the attack.

"You were going to recall him weren't you?" Ash accused, "that's cheating!"

"The Tempest Gang doesn't play by the rules!" Comet retorted with the cruelest and most mocking tone he could muster.

Delia looked at Giovanni who had been watching everything play out. "I'm not standing by any longer."

"Good, because you and I have unfinished business!" The pink haired woman threatened.

"We're here, we're here, what did we miss?" Another group of five grunts arrived as well; they were all wearing Tempest uniforms. The Tempest grunt with the Zubat had called for reinforcements while the others battled. That brought the Tempest total to eleven, counting Comet, though four of them were already out of pokemon.

"Don't just stand there, attack!" The pink haired woman commanded the recently arrived grunts.

"I haven't train you in a long time, but please try your best Cloyster!" Delia sent out her pokemon from long ago.

"Go Hitmonlee, it's payback time, you should have just come with us quietly!" The pink haired woman sent out her second pokemon. She held a strong grudge against Delia, blaming her for her partner's arrest. The informant, a mysterious person from Saffron City, had requested Delia to be taken to her alive and unharmed, but the woman didn't care anymore. "Hitmolee, revenge!" It was a fitting opening move.

Cloyster's shell closed and the pokemon stayed still even after Hitmonlee's attack had harmlessly ceased, unable to penetrate his strong shell. "Cloyster, what's wrong?" They had been reluctant to play with her in the mansion's yard. It was true that she had not seen Giovanni's pokemon or her own past pokemon in many years, but were they really so neglected during that time?

"Don't be stubborn and listen to Delia," Giovanni ordered and Cloyster immediately opened his shell.

"We have a lot to do," Delia remarked, her displeasure clear in her voice. "For now, please help me Cloyster," playing with her was one thing, but in order to battle for her with all their might, Delia would have to regain the trust she lost when she gave her pokemon away to Giovanni. "Aurora beam!" The beam hit its target, weakening Hitmonlee and the battle continued with Cloyster on the offensive, showing that he was still very powerful, even if he was a little doubtful.

Hitmonlee was not fairing well and his trainer seemed to have all but forgotten her Tauros. The Tauros was soon defeated by Otoshi's Marowak. The pink haired woman recalled both the Tauros and Hitmonlee, glaring at the new group of grunts to do something.

The five Tempest grunts sent out more pokemon to join the battle: Parasect, Exeggutor, Hitmonchan, Hypno and Alakazam. Everything had spiraled into chaos, Giovanni didn't expect the battle to be organized, but he didn't expect it to get this messy. He had no more time to observe, "I might as well join the chaos, Golem, Machamp, Rhydon, earthquake!"

The three pokemon materialized in red beams and combined their attacks into a massive earthquake that threatened to make the Pokemon Center fall apart. "This is crazy!" One of the Tempest grunts from the first group cried out.

"We have to retreat!" A Neo Rocket grunt agreed.

"Don't be so cowardly!" Comet scolded them. Scyther had been avoiding Pikachu's attacks, being recalled into his pokeball if it was too late to dodge, then being sent out again. The two Gyarados rendered each other unconscious and were called back into their pokeballs.

"Pika!" Pikachu couldn't stay on his feet because of the Earthquake. Scyther was flying and his trainer could have taken the opportunity to attack. Unknown to Ash, Comet had decided that Giovanni's interference was a signal that the battle had to end soon and no further dirty tricks were necessary.

Why didn't he attack and why did he look so familiar? "You're that waiter!" Ash realized, "you look different when you're not wearing lime green... But that's not the point, I'm not letting any of you get away!" With the ability to fly, Charizard should be fine, even with the Earthquake. Go Char-" Ash was interrupted before he could release Charizard from his pokeball when a seemingly wild Meowth jumped on his head and got away with his hat. Purry was feeling bored not to be included in the battle. "Come back here!" It was very hard to chase after her with the ground shaking. On the bright side it was also difficult for the grunts to escape.

Golem, Machamp and Rhydon were starting to look tired, but Giovanni would not allow the attack to cease, "don't stop now, keep using earthquake!" Marowak and Pikachu were becoming too dizzy, thus their respective trainers picked them up and held them, with Ash momentarily postponing the recovery of his hat to protect Pikachu. Delia called Cloyster back into his pokeball and Persian jumped on Giovanni's back. Helpless against the massive earthquake, Parasect, Exeggutor, Hitmonchan, Hypno and Alakazam finally fell unconscious and Golem, Machamp and Rhydon at last stopped the earthquake attack. The ground continued to vibrate for a while, albeit much more gently.

The sound of sirens was heard outside and Comet retreated, leaving the grunts behind. "Next time Tempest will take down Team Rocket for sure!" Comet jumped on Scyther's back.

Purry jumped on Comet's shoulders, still in possession of Ash's hat. "My hat!" Ash rushed after them as Comet exited through a window, riding on Scyther.

"Nobody move!" Jenny dashed into the storage room, "you, near the window, freeze!"

"They stole my hat!" Ash tried to get out through the window, but Jenny hurried to stop him.

"Wait, it's a misunderstanding, Ash is not with the bad guys!" Misty tried to explain.

In the mist of the chaos another earthquake took place, though it was a natural one. It made Ash fall to the floor as he tried to climb out the window. "Stop that!" Jenny shouted, thinking that it was being caused by the pokemon.

"That's not the pokemon," as if to prove his point, Giovanni returned his pokemon to their pokeballs. The earthquake ceased after a few seconds, "that happens sometimes, when strong pokemon use earthquake at the same time. The Earth reacts, but it's nothing to worry about." It had been a long time since his original pokemon were able to create that effect. Giovanni had assumed they simply couldn't do it anymore, but something seemed to motivate them to try harder to win that battle.

"Everyone please calm down," nurse Joy stood at the door among the flow of officers that arrested the people in uniforms and watched the others suspiciously. "It's okay, Ash has no connection to any gangs." Joy held the baby protectively in her arms, glad that the police had finally arrived. She had called them as soon as she realized what was going on.

"Exactly, if he says he only wants his hat back, that is all there is to it," Otoshi added.

Ash looked out the window but saw no sign of the hat thieves, "they're gone, but I won't give up, I'll definitely find it!"

"What's so special about a hat?" Giovanni couldn't help it but to ask. The hat in question looked very old, it was about time Ash replaced it. Better yet, he could stop wearing hats and learn to keep his hair under control.

"It's a Pokemon League collectable item; I've had it for years! I have other hats at home, but that one is special. I decided to wear it for luck in the Viridian City tournament. I had to send a million post cards to win it and I have to get it back!"

Ash attempted to continue his search and rescue mission for his hat, but Delia stopped him. "It's okay, I'm sure your hat will be returned to you." Delia reasoned that Comet must still be working for Giovanni, infiltrating Tempest. She looked at Giovanni insistently, "right?"

Giovanni wasn't sure what Delia was expecting him to say, but he found Ash's attachment to a simple hat to be ridiculous. Even if it was a collector's item, it was still just a hat. "Right..." he decided to agree; maybe she just wanted someone to support her statement. He didn't know why Ash would believe it, unless he was as much of an idealist as Delia, which was probably the case.

"Cheer up, Ash," Misty encouraged, with Pikachu adding in a few words in his own language. "You got your hat back the last time a pokemon stole it."

"Yeah, but I didn't lose sight of it like this and Team Rocket wasn't involved," Ash frowned.

"Karma is strong, that's what I've learned," Otoshi voiced, "your hat will be returned."

Delia nodded in agreement, "Giovanni will find it for you."

"What?" Giovanni certainly didn't expect that and neither did anyone else.

"Just ask your friend the detective for some help," Delia grinned.

It made Giovanni wonder if this was some sort of strange revenge she was using to annoy him. If that was the case she accomplished her goal because he was annoyed. He hid that fact, seeing as everyone was staring at him waiting for his reply. "I'll see what I can do."

Since everyone was trying to cheer him up, Ash thought perhaps he shouldn't make such a big fuss. Even if it was his beloved hat and he missed it terribly, Ash calmed down for the time being, "thank you."

xoxox xox xoxox

By the time Ash, Misty, Delia Giovanni and their pokemon returned to the Cerulean gym, the cake was ready to be taken out of the oven. "Let it cool, it's too hot right now, besides, I have to put the layers together and decorate it," Delia warned Ash, who clearly wanted to start eating immediately.

Several of them felt guilty for the state the Pokemon Center was left in. The walls, floor and ceiling were cracked, with parts of the ceiling having collapsed. The building would have to go through heavy maintenance. The structure was too unstable and not safe to live in, Joy and her family would be temporarily staying at their good friend Jenny's house. The pokeballs would be kept in the police station for safety.

Joy and Otoshi assured them that all that mattered was that everyone was safe and none of the pokemon were stolen. Plus they blamed Tempest entirely for the situation, believing the story about the Rockets being agents of Tempest using Team Rocket's identity falsely. As for Ash, Misty, Delia and Giovanni, they were heroes and that information would surely reach public knowledge.

"Giovanni, I know it's late but could you please leave a message for your detective friend so that he gets to work on finding the hat first thing tomorrow?" Delia smiled sweetly.

The part about having connections with a detective fit the situation of being better informed than expected, but Giovanni was still annoyed with the entire hat situation. "Alright, I'll leave a message," he checked his cell phone, which was now working, "looks like I finally have a signal," he began to type a message for Comet.

"It was probably the cell phone company having problems, that happens to me too," Ash commented, while eyeing the cake hungrily. "Thanks again for helping me find my hat."

"You're welcome," Giovanni tried his best not to sound annoyed or sarcastic. Despite all his public relations acting experience, he wasn't sure if he was successful.

"It's really special," Ash continued to explained, noticing that Giovanni wasn't quite convinced about the importance of the hat. "It's something that only I have and I can't stand the thought of it being taken away. It's rare, it's unique and it's mine." If power was added to the equation Giovanni could relate to it. Ash noticed the change in Giovanni's expression from forced understanding to truly knowing what he meant. Though he wasn't too observant, that was one of those rare moments, "you understand now, don't you? I'm glad," he smiled. "It was also interesting to see why I heard you were called Giovanni of the Earth. I thought it was because of the Earth badge, but there's more to it. It's because even the Earth itself responds to your pokemon, isn't it?"

"Something like that," Giovanni found that the pokemon were acting differently, but he didn't fully understand why.

Delia's pokemon felt betrayed to have been left with another trainer, who didn't appreciate them as much as she did. Delia had trained Giovanni's pokemon in the past, but even if they might have felt abandoned by her sudden departure, they were his pokemon from the start. It was not the same; they didn't feel that she had an obligation towards them. They were happy to see Delia again and tried to earn her attention by battling like they used to before they became unmotivated after years of neglect. Persian was treated well, so even if he had missed Delia, he was most attached to Giovanni and had no reason to feel bitter.

Giovanni's cell phone beeped with an incoming text message and Ash froze hopefully, "there's no way the hat could have been found that fast," Giovanni looked at the screen. Comet would surely be confused by his strange request to send the stolen hat to him. Comet's message assured that the hat was already on its way via secure express mail and no one from Tempest or Neo Rocket saw him send it. The whole thing somehow felt like a spy movie. "It's just an automatic reply saying my message was received."

"Oh..." Ash knew it was silly to hope for such immediate results. His mood took a turn for the better when Delia began to put the finishing touches on the cake, once it had cooled.

Delia covered the cake with frosting, placing the chocolate chip cookie flavored part on the dish first, then the pure chocolate layer and after covering it with more sugary white frosting, she place the cheese cake on top for an unusual but delicious combination. She added some extra caramel to the top and finally added little balls of cookies and cream ice-cream on top, so that there would be one ball on each piece when it was cut.

"I have to take a picture of it!" Misty announced as she ran off to find her camera.

After the pictures were taken, Ash could wait no longer, "I'm hungry," he emphasized. He watched impatiently as Misty got some plates and spoons and Delia began to cut the cake. The rest of the pokemon were let out of their pokeballs for the treat too.

The cake was served and they began to eat, including the pokemon. "Slow down, Ash," Delia reminded.

"It's delicious!" Ash loudly exclaimed.

"This is the cake I want," Misty assumed the perfect elements for her wedding would come to her when she saw them. "The cake for our wedding, I take it that's okay with you, Ash?"

"Mmm-hmm," Ash nodded in the middle of savoring a bite.

"Would you bake it?" Misty asked Delia hopefully, though she knew the answer that would come.

"Of course!" Delia couldn't be happier to have been asked to bake their wedding cake, though they didn't even have a date planned out to hold the ceremony yet. She looked at Giovanni with curiosity, "like it?"

"It's the best thing I've ever tasted," though Giovanni was in the middle of his good gym leader act, Delia could easily tell that he wasn't lying. She felt a strange sense of pride in knowing that with a little creativity and perseverance she was able to make something that he liked more than what his chefs made. It was also very nice that they could eat together like this. She hoped that even after Ash eventually learned the truth, they could do this again.

To be Continued

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 058: Give me Resolve

The next day, Ash made his way through the Cerulean gym around ten in the morning. He was still sleepy, but he got up anyway. He didn't know why, it was as if something was about to happen. He didn't know if it concerned him or not. He found Misty feeding the pokemon. "Morning," the greeting was accentuated with a yawn.

"Good morning sleepy head," Misty teased as Ash gave her a kiss. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and rested his head sleepily on her shoulder.

"I think Goldeen will be happier here." Goldeen shyly observed the other pokemon. Another Goldeen and a pair of Seaking approached her curiously. Soon, she was swimming around with the other water pokemon. It was the Goldeen that was given to Ash at the Viridian tournament.

"It looks like she's already making friends," Misty smiled. "Your mom volunteered to make breakfast." The scent of pancakes from the kitchen confirmed that she must be almost done.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ash cheered, he was feeling a little more awake at the thought of breakfast.

In the kitchen, they found Delia setting the table and greeted her with "good morning" and "pika pika." Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulders and gave Delia the sweetest smile.

"Good morning," Delia replied, "and yes, Pikachu, you can have pancakes soon."

Misty sat down next to Ash. She tried to brush his hair with her hands; it was sticking out in every direction. "Did you sleep well?" She gave him a small kiss.

"After all the excitement I could hardly sleep," Ash admitted. "Wait a minute," he realized that someone was missing, "where's Giovanni? Is he still sleeping?"

"He had to leave," Delia gave Ash a weak smile, but forced her tone of voice to remain somewhat cheerful. She woke up before Ash and Misty did, by then Giovanni was already gone. "You two were sleeping, he asked me to say goodbye. Someone came to pick him up from Viridian City," it was a lie and Delia didn't feel good about it. She didn't know what else to say to avoid suspicion. She wondered what Giovanni could be doing. She knew it had to be related to Team Rocket and he didn't want to involve Delia.

"What about our battle?" Ash pouted. He had been looking forward to battling Giovanni. That wasn't the only situation in his mind, "what about my hat?"

"Ash, please be patient, everything will work out," though it wasn't her intention, Delia wondered if she was accidentally lying again.

xoxox xox xoxox

At the Viridian Rocket headquarters, Jessie rested her back against the cold metal underground tunnel and slid down to the floor. James repeated the motion next to her. Their exhausted pokemon were resting in their pokeballs, except Meowth. He snuck into Giovanni's office and was napping on his chair. "We did it, we've searched this place upside down and caught every traitor that was here. I heard they did some really tough searches in the other bases just in case too. The rest of them are hiding somewhere else." Jessie closed her eyes. The cold hard floor wasn't comfortable at all, but she was so tired she was about to fall asleep.

"We helped Team Rocket," James tilted his head towards Jessie and closed his eyes. He wondered what would happen to them after the boss heard what they did. Would they truly return to Team Rocket? Was it worth it? They were too tired to think about that at the moment.

"Hey you two, get up!" Ariana commanded, she crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. "I give you points for being loyal despite your situation, but I can't blame Giovanni for thinking you're incompetent. Why are you sleeping here? That makes you look weak!"

Jessie and James jumped to their feet, "yes, ma'am!"

Ariana laughed, revealing that she was only pretending to be angry at them. "You've done well, but it's not up to me to allow you to return to Team Rocket or not. For now, you should go home so you're not in the path of Giovanni's rage when he returns. Unless you really want to stay for the rest of the battle," she challenged.

Jessie and James looked at Ariana's serious expression, at each other's confused faces, then back at Ariana. "It's not over?" Jessie finally voiced.

"Of course not, we just got the traitors and infiltrators. The rest of the enemy gang is still out there, who knows what they'll do. We need to be prepared to defend the base, just in case." Ariana wasn't expecting a confrontation to occur too soon, unless Giovanni provoked it to get things over with. If not, then the enemy would probably lay low for a while. It was an opportunity to be sneaky and put an end to their plans.

"We're staying," Jessie decided without giving it too much thought. Her determination was unbreakable.

"Yeah, we're Rockets. This is who we are and we're not going to run away!" James added with the same determination.

"Good, but you're not in any shape to battle right now, if it comes to that. Your pokemon are exhausted as well," Ariana reasoned, "go to the infirmary, the others are resting with their pokemon there. I suggest, no, I order you to do the same."

"Yes, ma'am!" Jessie and James eagerly saluted and did as they were told. The order to rest was very welcomed.

xoxox xox xoxox

At the Cerulean City gym, the atmosphere was full of uncertainty. "What are we going to do now?" Ash asked between big bites of food. He was devouring his pancakes almost as fast as Pikachu. The yellow electric pokemon could eat a lot when it came to pancakes. Though the humans found it odd, no one stopped Pikachu from putting ketchup on the pancakes.

"I don't know," Misty's words carried a deeper meaning than simply not having a plan for the day. "I'm going to call my sisters." She went to use the phone in the living room, which left Ash in the kitchen with Delia. Misty purposely went away in case they wanted a little mother-son moment.

"Are you going back to Pallet Town?" Ash inquired curiously.

"Yes," Delia didn't know what else she could possibly do. The question caught her off guard. She remembered that Ash's car was no more, its remains having been left behind the previous night. Replacing the engine would be more expensive than what the car was worth anyway. "I'll take a few buses until I get there, don't worry about me."

The memory of Ash's car invaded his mind at the mention of transportation. His expression turned grim. "I guess I'll be taking a few buses and walking in the near future too." He used to walk everywhere. After getting used to moving from one city to another in a matter of hours rather than days, he really missed his car. All her sisters had their own cars, but Misty never felt the necessity to get one despite having a license. She always traveled with Ash anyway.

"It's not so bad," Delia smiled trying to lighten the mood. The weight of uncertainty was still upon her. She wondered when and if Giovanni would contact her. He left without saying anything, she woke up and he was already gone. She understood Team Rocket's situation kept him busy, but that only worried her more.

"I suppose..." Ash let out a breath. He remembered why he had initially asked his mother if she was going back to Pallet Town. The question wasn't originally about transportation, "I thought you might go to Viridian City. I guess the less people are involved the better. Is it safe in Pallet Town?"

Delia didn't want Ash to worry about her. Yet there wasn't anything solid she could ascertain to provide reassurance. "I'm sure I'll be fine. They were after Giovanni more so than me. He'll lead them away and I'm sure he'll be okay too. He's a strong pokemon trainer. Everything will work out."

"I hope so," Ash still felt gloomy. He had no direct part in the Team Rocket situation and didn't fully understand it. It made him more uneasy to think about Tempest. He wanted to do something but didn't know what. To top it all up, he didn't have a hat. People would probably give him weird looks on the street due to his hair being nearly impossible to be kept in place. He brushed his hands against it helplessly, it wasn't cooperating.

Watching her son, Delia actually considered asking Giovanni about what he used to keep his hair in place without ending up with a built in helmet. That had happened to Ash once, due to excessive hair gel. Then she told herself to stop thinking of such little details. She couldn't run away from the big picture and the fact that she and Ash might not see Giovanni again any time soon if ever. He was supposed to take her to meet certain people, but Delia didn't know if she should believe him. She wondered if she should just stay away, but couldn't leave things as they were.

"What does that mean? Daisy! Don't hang up!" Misty's voice came from the living room sounding very upset. Ash and Delia left the kitchen and rushed to her.

They found Misty still sitting in front of the video phone. Her expression was distressed. She was trying to call Daisy again, but the call didn't go through. "What happened?" Ash asked.

"Daisy didn't explain it clearly. She said something about the mafia, but she wasn't making any sense. She told me not to worry if Ackbar Inc. was on the news. I don't know what's going on, but it looks bad. She sounded as if she didn't understand it either. Team Rocket, the mafia, Ackbar Inc., it's all connected somehow," Misty's worries grew by the second. "I'm calling Violet, maybe she can explain things. It seems they've all gone their separate ways for now."

Ash and Delia watched silently as Misty dialed the number of Violet's cell phone. It rang several times until finally Violet's voice was heard, "Lily?" She had not been paying attention to the name on the cell phone's screen.

"It's Misty," The device was set to voice only, though cell phones with video phone capabilities were no longer rare. Misty didn't like the way Violet sounded and she wished she could see her expression. "Do you know what's happening with Daisy?"

"Ask her yourself, I'm like not talking to her!" Violet yelled. The sound of screeching tires, a horn and angry words indicated that she was driving recklessly.

"Violet, are you driving? Pull over for a second and explain what's going on, please!" Misty nearly begged. As if the recent attack on Vermilion City wasn't enough, Daisy had started going on about the mafia. She was making no sense and on top of everything, something was clearly wrong with Violet.

"I don't have time for this. I'll have to like save Kenobi myself," the sound of police sirens was heard. Violet's reckless driving didn't go unnoticed. "I have to go, don't call me, I'll be busy."

The call was ended. With Violet's cell phone turned off, Misty could no longer reach her. "What in the world is going on?" The youngest Waterflower yelled out in frustration.

Ash hugged her supportively, "maybe Lily knows, let's try to call her."

Misty nodded and dialed the number. She waited holding her breath until Lily's face came on the screen. What little of the background that could be perceived indicated that she was in a fancy room with predominant sandy colors. Her eyes were red, she had been crying. "Misty?" She didn't expect her youngest sister to call.

"Lily, what's happening? Please tell me!" Misty insisted desperately.

Lily nodded; she could see Ash and Delia behind her sister. It was alright, they were trust worthy people. "Misty, I'm scared. I like didn't know what to do so I just tried not to think about it. This can't be happening." Tears flooded Lily's face as her denial gave out.

"Lily!" Misty wanted to jump into the screen and appear on the other side. The hardships that her sisters were enduring hurt her, even more so because the situation was in many ways unknown to her.

Lily shook her head and evened her breathing, "Lando is... No, Mr. Ackbar, his father, was like involved with the mafia, with Team Rocket. Years ago, when Lando was very young, he was like sick and his father was able to save him thanks to some business deals he made with Team Rocket. It was like the only way to get the money he needed for his son's surgery. Ackbar became a mafia clan, they like served the Roketto, Team Rocket."

Ash stared at the screen with his anger and frustration building up. Team Rocket's name kept coming up in bad situations lately. Even if that other gang, Tempest, was apparently worse, Team Rocket was still bad.

"You're saying that Team Rocket and this Roketto clan from the mafia are the same?" Misty watched as her sister nodded, giving it some time to sink in. "The Ackbar family is involved with them, in debt?" Misty's voice gave out. She pushed it to work again seconds later, "Lando, Daisy's fiance is involved with the mafia, with Team Rocket, because he's part of the Ackbar clan..."

"I don't know a lot, but they can't just like break away," Lily replied with hushed sobs. Delia bit her lip and remained silent. The connections Team Rocket had ran far and deep. She wasn't expecting another of their connections to come out so close. "Team Rocket betrayed Ackbar, they attacked."

"Wasn't that Tempest?" Misty's question confused Lily. "Team Rocket's rival has been causing trouble in Team Rocket's name to gain more enemies for them."

Lily's eyes widened as she considered the possibility of everything being a big misunderstanding or a setup. "Then Ackbar going to war with Team Rocket might be like a really big mistake."

"This just keeps getting more complicated," Misty was feeling helpless with the situation.

"Lily, you should tell Daisy and Lando about Tempest," Ash suggested, he didn't know what other course of action to take beyond clarifying things. "Team Rocket is bad, but fighting with them is probably what Tempest wants Ackbar to do. Tempest is worse than Team Rocket; we can't let them get their way."

The pieces fell into place perfectly when Misty thought about it, "Tempest is using Ackbar to weaken Team Rocket." In that situation Ackbar would become a sacrifice for Tempest's purpose. "You have to warn Daisy and Lando!"

"I'll tell them, right away!" Lily exclaimed.

"What about Violet?" Misty quickly asked before Lily hung up. "I called her and she was driving somewhere, recklessly by the sound of it."

Lily's expression darkened further, "Kenobi is missing, that's why he like didn't call Violet. She thought he was like helping his father, the Viridian mayor. The mayor called Violet asking if Kenobi was with her. No one knows what happened to him. Daisy and Violet argued because of the Antilles family being like suspected of supporting Team Rocket."

Delia had a bad feeling about Kenobi's disappearance. His father, Rune Antilles, was involved with Team Rocket and had a relatively important position. Kenobi might have been taken prisoner by the Rocket traitors or even by Tempest. "For now, you should tell Daisy to convince Lando not to challenge Team Rocket," Delia suggested. "Tempest is the main enemy. I'm sure information about Kenobi will turn up."

"Alright, I'll do that," Lily nodded; her expression was stressed and worried.

xoxox xox xoxox

In Saffron City, the sun was obstructed by tall buildings that created a shadowy darkness in the alley. The entrance to the secret battle arena was closed and would not open for business until noon. Regardless, Proton knocked on the door. His face was shrouded in additional darkness by the shade of his black hat. The red R on his chest was clearly visible. He made no attempt to hide the symbol of Team Rocket, carrying it with real pride.

"We're closed, come back later," a gruff voice replied from beyond the locked door.

Proton grinned and glanced at the rope that extended from the roof of the neighboring building. "I think not. You see, I have an urgent message from the boss of Team Rocket."

The shuffling of feet was heard from beyond the wooden door. Hushed voices echoed in the basement and a few clangs of metal were heard. The muffled words were angry but indistinguishable.

Proton held a small explosive; he retrieved a lighter from his pocket and lit the fuse attached to the black dynamite stick with a red R. Without a second to waste, he hurried to climb up the rope to the roof of the building and pulled the rope up.

A tall figure burst through the door with a crowbar in hand. The guard was immediately thrown back by the force of the explosion. He fell into his allies behind him, knocking them down like dominos.

A man and woman pushed past the dazed guards despite their warnings to stay back. "Up here," Proton threw a black enveloped down. The paper fell slowly; it swayed from side to side above the glare of the couple below. The woman outstretched her hand and caught the black envelope, noticing the red R on it.

The guards had recovered and intended to pursue the Rocket. The man raised his hand in a signal for them to stop. His female companion seemed to be glaring a hole through the black paper with shiny red ink. "It seems he wants a showdown." She looked up at Proton, "tell your boss that we accept his challenge!" They would get their revenge on Giovanni for putting them in jail years ago when they took over the Viridian gym.

Proton grinned and did a mock salute. He tossed down another small explosive and watched in amusement as the enemies scrambled inside. "They're like cowardly Diglett." With a low chuckle he dashed away and jumped to the roof of another building near by. Behind that building, he made it to the emergency stairs. The thin metal staircase screeched with each hasty step he took.

He made it down to a much wider alleyway that led towards the main road. An orange sports car was waiting for him there. Proton got in and the car sped away. "They accepted the challenge. I guess we can expect them to prepare an ambush in the meeting place."

"You know what to do," Giovanni was planning to end the problem with the same strategy as the enemy. They wanted to take over Team Rocket by getting rid of the leader, so it would be a battle between the leaders.

"I've got your back," Proton ascertained. "This plan is risky, I like it." Proton's voice didn't lack in confidence.

"It will work," Giovanni affirmed, "the others better do their job. Ackbar is being troublesome." He felt frustrated that he didn't act faster. The situation with Ackbar was most likely a misunderstanding. Giovanni assumed that Bane's son had taken over command of the company. Apparently, Lando didn't realize what was going on. He must have the wrong idea thinking that Team Rocket attacked for no reason. None the less, he would be punished for his troublesome mistaken conclusion.

Giovanni also received word that Kenobi was missing. That issue had to be solved before his battle to avoid a troublesome hostage situation. Kenobi had more loyalty to Team Rocket than Rune. It was true loyalty based on something more than fear. Perhaps Giovanni would push Rune to retire after the next office term ended. Then Kenobi could take his place as a more competent Viridian mayor.

xoxox xox xoxox

On that same morning, Comet reported to the mysterious Saffron City mayor. Her office was dimly lit, covered in red. The same Ninetales sat regally beside the lady. The unidentified lady carried an elegant royal air and looked menacing in the shadows. "The operation last night at the Cerulean City Pokemon Center was a terrible failure."

Comet shifted uncomfortably and fingered Gyarados' pokeball on his belt, all part of his act. "I apologize for that, ma'am," he gave her a remorseful look, keeping his head low.

"Not only did you fail to steal any pokemon, but most of the agents involved were arrested. I find it odd that you could escape," the lady had a mocking grin. "You didn't seem to be the cowardly type who runs away at the first sign of danger."

Comet tried to remain focus on his act, "the situation was... overwhelming." He made a few hurried nervous sounding excuses, as if he was truly regretful of how things went. "They called for help, some strong trainers arrived and-"

"The Viridian City gym leader," the lady interrupted. She leaned back on her large red leather chair. She sunk deeper into the shadows and her expression was nearly impossible to perceive. She was satisfied, "I have seen the news. That wasn't the only thing mentioned on the news though. The production of medical supplies in Kanto seems to have been paralyzed. The hospitals and clinics will be alright for a while, but by next week the difference will become noticeable."

Far from sounding concerned, the lady sounded proud, "Ackbar Inc. didn't control each and every medicine and medical tool on the market, but they control a piece of each so it's all the same. Even if another company tried to produce something, they cannot if one key material is missing. The medical industry is dependant on Ackbar. At the same time Ackbar is dependant on the transport of cargo handled by Antilles. The cargo company is run by a board of executives, but the mayor of Viridian City is the owner." More so Giovanni was the owner; Rune was only there to help hide the monopoly the Rocket leader administrated.

The lady chuckled fondly, "the take over was easy. The previous cargo company was left weakened after an incident that resulted in lawsuits and boycott. The event involved one of their ships being hijacked by terrorists. The S.S. Lapras, I believe that was the ship's name, if memory serves. Antilles' cargo company, Antilles Oceanus, is also the main source of imported food in Kanto. As for the local produce, I'm sure Team Rocket has ties to that area of business too. Team Rocket also holds many shares in the stock market and has vastly influential representatives in several boards of executives in many areas. Plus they have the big guns, but their weapons manufacturing is top secret," she grinned mischievously.

"You're well informed..." Comet commented suspiciously. He didn't expect the mysterious Saffron City mayor to reveal so much or to know it in the first place.

The lady laughed as if she had heard something very amusing. "Team Rocket is not trying to take over Kanto, they already have! The same goes for the Orange Islands and Johto. As for the other regions, their market control of food and medicines is at least eighty percent. Only a few products can be made without some Team Rocket involvement. Soon their control will reach the same level as Kanto. Until that control extends throughout the world, it must remain a secret. There will be minimal rebellions and resistance when the time comes."

"By the time they realize what is happening, they will be under Team Rocket's firm rule! Furthermore, if they try to fight back, they'll only hurt themselves. The world will depend on Team Rocket. Any hopes of ending their rule, will be suicide," the lady's laughter echoed. "I thought it was impossible to take over the whole world. If he plays his cards right, he might just do it!"

After more laughter, her expression turned serious. "Things like our current situation with Neo Rocket and Tempest will get in the way. Giovanni needs to pay attention to those details. He needs to learn, it's for his own good. Dear boy, you've done exactly what I wanted you to do. Now it's time for your final mission..."

To be Continued

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