POKÉMON: WARRIOR'S DESIRE
Once again, computer trouble is pretty prominent with me, so bear with me. Trust me, I love writing this (and writing in general) too much to just discard it.
Usual disclaimers apply. These characters do not belong to me.
TIME: Sometime in the future, before the start of the tournament
LOCATION: Team Rocket Headquarters, Viridian City
High above the bustling metropolis that is Viridian City, atop the highest story of the Montgomery Building, the tallest building in all of Kanto, lay the central nervous system of the notorious Team Rocket. Within the plush office – which dominates most of the 85th floor – is the one man who has been the leader of Team Rocket for the past 20 years. He was once thought to have not only been killed, but have his operations of Team Rocket ceased and the organization disbanded. This was only a façade, as the Rockets moved back into the underground from which they started. For the past three years they have been lying in wait for an opportunity to return as the most feared name in the entire world. While they have advocated stealing Pokémon to further their purposes, they are not ones to refrain from things such as armed robbery, murder, terrorism, and the like. No matter. As long as Team Rocket controls the world when it’s all said and done, that is all he cares about.
He is Salvatore Arturo Giovanni.
It is high noon in Viridian, and Giovanni is sitting in his large, plush, executive chair, facing the huge window that allows him to look over the entire city. In one hand is a brandy snifter, half-full of its namesake liquor. The other is gently scratching the side of his Persian’s neck. He is dressed in his favorite amber double-breasted Armani suit, an article of clothing that has been subject to ridicule (behind his back, of course; had he found out people has been busting his suit, they’re more or less screwed). As he takes a sip of brandy, he starts to contemplate the future of the world under the control of his beloved Team Rocket.
That thought in mind, he turned around, and pressed a button on his intercom. “Has the literature been sent out?” he asked the secretary outside his office.
“Yes sir,” the woman replied. “We have reason to believe it has been received by all the major trainers in Kanto and Jhoto, including resident Pokémon masters and the Gym leaders.”
“Excellent. Make sure everything goes according to plan.” He released the button, and finished off his brandy. Flipping through a few pages in his day planner, Giovanni came across the noon timeslot for today. Ah, yes, I have that luncheon to attend, he thought. Buttoning up all the buttons on his suit jacket and straightening it out, he pushed in his chair and walked to the door.
He didn’t get far, as he was cut off by the buzzing of his intercom.
Grumbling inward, he sulked over to his desk. “This had better be good,” he said in a hard tone. The voice on the other end was that of a security guard.
“We have an intruder, sir!” he shouted. “Someone’s attempting to force their way into the building! Ground level!”
Giovanni rolled his eyes. “Well what are you telling me for? Take care of it!”
TIME: Simultaneously
LOCATION: Ground floor, main lobby
“Hey, you can’t come in here! Stop – aaagh!”
The low-level security officer was greeted with a kick right to the chops from the intruder. As he buried his boot into the small of the down guard’s back, he looked around and saw other Rocket executives running for cover, screams and a hail of documents in their wake.
He was carrying a 9mm and a handful of backup ammo on his belt, along with three Pokéballs. By his side was a tan-furred cat Pokémon with a gold coin charm in the middle of his forehead. They were more afraid of the maniac with the gun than just who the maniac was.
Petty thief? No. Disgruntled former employee? Yeah, that sounds about right.
James von Malice marched toward the elevator, Meowth trailing closely behind him. James’ mind was set on one thing and one thing alone – exterminating Giovanni and getting back his partner, Jessie. Three years ago, with the decline of Team Rocket came the decline of his and Jessica Wesley’s status in the group. Their failures and their inability to stop “the twerp” from tearing through Team Rocket and many of its members sent to jail ruined their once spotless reputation. But that wasn’t all. Jessie and James were now subjected to piss poor treatment from the higher-ups, and it showed in the lousy assignments and the way they were ostracized in front of the others. It all cumulated in a violent dressing down of Giovanni – right to his face – by Jessie and James, and their subsequent resignation from Team Rocket. But they didn’t get too far. Days after their “treason”, a bounty was placed on both of their heads. In a long fought struggle, Jessie was abducted, and James and Meowth were left badly beaten and with no Jessie.
Now they were back and determined to find their partner.
James wasn’t wearing his Team Rocket uniform; in fact, he hasn’t worn it since his resignation. He was dressed in black shoes, slacks, and a blue silk shirt, the same shade as his hair. A platinum ring with a Celtic cross adorned his left middle finger, and a gold magnetic bracelet was around his right wrist. He holstered his gun, out of fear that his fists would tense so much he may shoot someone or something not meant to be shot.
The elevator had card key locks on it, meaning that unauthorized personnel weren’t allowed to access certain parts of the building. Hoping it would still work, James pulled out his wallet and swiped his key card. The indicator light glowed red and buzzed loudly.
“Damn it all!” James shouted, throwing the useless key card to the side. “My key doesn’t work; Meowth, see what you can do with it.”
“No problem,” Meowth said, going to work. Using a screwdriver bit off his Swiss Army knife, he unscrewed the security panel, exposing the insides. He was about ready to hook up a small device that would allow him to override the access code and allow them to use the elevator, but the sound of gunfire stopped him.
“Look out!” James shouted, hitting the ground. He was using the reception desk for cover, cringing as bullets struck the large barrier. Drawing his gun, James pressed the barrel right between his eyes, exhaled deeply, and sprung up.
Normally, a lone 9mm doesn’t have much of a chance against security guards armed with machine pistols. But while the grunts were lousy shots, James was a crack marksman.
James popped into view and fired three shots, each striking a guard in at least the neck up. Two got it in the neck, while the third was right in the middle of his forehead. All three were dead before they hit the ground.
“You holding out alright, Jimmy?” Meowth asked, seeing his partner quickly snap down back behind the desk.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said. “What’s the story with the door?”
Meowth held out the damaged equipment, most of its components split apart from the ricocheting bullets. “We can’t open it the easy way,” he said, throwing the useless scraps of metal and plastic aside. “We’ll just have to force our way in!” He ran at the security device again, and with a loud yell, slashed at it with his sharp claws. It exploded as Meowth landed, and James assisted in pushing the door open. He returned a few more shots, resulting in another downed security officer. As the doors closed, James and Meowth hid against the sidewalls the best they could, avoiding as much gunfire as they can.
“Phew...that was close,” Meowth huffed. One look around the mirrored back wall of the elevator showed the places where bullets struck the mirror, resulting in large cracks throughout the surface.
“These elevators don’t go all the way up to the top floor,” James explained. “We’ll probably have to get out around the 50th floor or so and find another route.” He exhaled deeply, catching his breath.
Suddenly, the elevator stopped.
“What’s going on?” James said in a panic. Meowth leapt up on the back of James’ head, clamping his paws around his mouth.
“Be quiet!” he said in a loud whisper. “It may be more guards!”
Just as he said that, a handful of grunts stormed out to the elevator drop-off points on the 29th floor. Waiting for the up arrow to light up on one of the four doors, they all emptied their clips on the elevator door. They were riddled with holes, and as the doors opened, they stormed inside, only to find...
No one.
“What?!” one of them shouted.
“Where’d they go?”
“They had to have been in here!”
“They didn’t send up a decoy, did they?”
The seven grunts stood around the now-disabled elevator car, scratching their heads. It was impossible to think that they were wrong. Besides, it’s not like they would’ve been able to survive such a hellish attack...right?
What they didn’t know is that James and Meowth had escaped. They climbed up through the top of the car and were looking down on the unsuspecting thugs. James watched them for a moment before motioning to Weezing, whom James had withdrew just as the gunfire rained in. Also, James screwed a silencer onto the end of his gun, readying the next part of his assault.
“Alright, Weezing,” James said quietly, “Use your Smog attack on those goons!”
“Weezing!” {Copy that!} Weezing groaned. Its mouths opened wide, and a thick discharge of black smoke poured into the car, and onto the grunts. They hacked and coughed, unable to breathe, and one of them collapsed as a result. Taking the opening, James took aim, and emptied the rest of his clip into the car, taking down four more guards.
“What’s going on?!” one of the remaining guards shouted. That’s when James attacked.
After the smoke cleared, James dropped in feet first into the car and slammed his feet into the guard before landing. The guard stumbled back to his feet, and was met with a knee to the gut, followed by an uppercut from James. He took a swing at the supposed traitor, while James ducked out of the way, and kicked him in the stomach, then stomped on his instep, and drove his elbow into the back of his head, flooring him. The other remaining guard ran up behind James, and clubbed him in the back with the butt of his gun. He then ran at the compromised James, but his would-be victim fell to a knee, grabbed his leg, and dropped him to the ground in a fireman’s carry. The gun dropped from his hand, sliding across the highly polished floor. The grunt attacked again, but James calmly blocked the blow, and fired several hard jabs at his chin. A left hook sent him reeling, which is when James bolted forward, and speared the goon so hard that he went flying through a plate glass window, plummeting to the street below, to his death.
James nearly lost his balance as he watched the grunt fall, but Meowth grabbed him and pulled him back in. After recalling Weezing, James paused to discard the empty magazine in his gun, and load another one. As he walked down the hallway, he picked up the discarded machine gun, and holstered his 9mm.
“They’ll have the elevators closely guarded,” James said flatly. “We better stick to the stairs as much as possible.”
“Are you kidding?” Meowth argued. “We’re gonna walk up 60-some flights-a-stairs?”
“Well chances are, if we try using the elevators again, they’re gonna be waiting for us! We can’t afford to take any chances, Meowth. It’s much too risky!”
“Speaking of risks...look out!” More of the cookie-cutter-like guards flooded the hallway, and James acted fast. He snatched a Pokéball off his belt, and called out Victreebel. Thankfully, it didn’t snack on his head, as usual.
“Victreebel,” James shouted, “use your Reflect attack!”
The giant plant tube Pokémon screeched, and an orange shield of light materialized in front of them. The bullets reflected off the barrier, not harming James or his Pokémon. A grunt lobbed a grenade over the energy shield, unknown to James. Meowth acted more quickly, and threw the grenade back at the attackers.
After that melee subsided, James recalled Victreebel, and quickly turned down the nearest hallway, returning fire with the machine gun he earlier picked up. After it was out of ammo and he was out of firing range, he tossed the useless gun aside, and ran into said stairwell. It was an emergency stairway, used whenever there was a fire emergency, or in this case, when the elevators were unreliable.
Taking a long look up the spiraling stairs, James and Meowth started to run up the stairs. Meowth was having trouble keeping up with his taller, faster, longer-legged accomplice, so after getting him to stop, Meowth hitched a ride on James’ shoulder for the next 30 or 40 floors. By the time he hit the 70th floor, he heard shouts coming from above. Yet again, more grunts were dispatched to take care of von Malice.
The two hid under the higher flights of stairs from the gunfire, James poking out to take shots at the attackers. Four shots came from James, and four guards went down. Another shot grazed one’s ear, and he fell from his perch with a loud yell. He slammed headfirst on the concrete stairs not far away from James and Meowth.
James shuddered.
Opening up the door of the 70th floor stairwell, Meowth informed James that the coast was clear. He and Meowth stepped out of the stairwell, finding a floor of office buildings like the ones on other floors of the building. It was quiet. Too quiet.
“Look over there,” Meowth whispered. There, about to use his key card on an elevator was a long-haired young man in a suit. Quietly, James snuck up on him, yanked his hair hard and slammed his elbow into the back of his head simultaneously. James and Meowth moved his unconscious body out of the way just as the elevator doors opened.
“Looks like this guy’s going straight to the top – literally,” Meowth said. Each employee is issued key cards in proportion to how much seniority they have, and how important they are. Higher ranked employees are allowed access to the higher floors of the Montgomery building. The key card he had gave him access to the personal floor of Giovanni. And now, James had that same access.
Surely, security had informed Giovanni of the approaching intruder. At least, they should have, considering the ride up to the top floor was uneventful. The secretary at the large desk outside Giovanni’s office offered no resistance as James strode past, and kicked down the doors to the office.
Giovanni snapped around and got a good look at the angry James and Meowth standing at the entrance to his office. He was surprised for a moment, but his shocked expression soon turned into a wicked smirk...one that made James’ blood turn.
“Well, well, well...” Giovanni said in a low voice. “Look who it is.” James and Meowth squinted as Giovanni snickered to himself. His Persian growled beside him, focusing on Meowth. “I was beginning to think you would never get here.”
“Where’s Jessie?” James demanded in a calm voice, his fingers curling, itching to draw his gun.
“Either you’re good, or my security isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” he said, ignoring the question. “Both are equally unbelievable, don’t you agree, James?”
“Answer the question!” James said in a louder tone. “Where is Jessie?”
“Oh, come now, who do you think you are to just barge in here and demand things from me?”
His patience destroyed, James drew his gun and aimed it at his former boss. “Answer me!” he shouted, his throat sore.
For a few moments, Giovanni remained still, not even blinking. James’ finger slowly pulled on the trigger until it was just a millimeter away from firing. That’s when he heard another click come from behind him. Someone had snuck up behind James and aimed a gun at the back of his head. And judging by the tone of voice, he knew exactly who it was.
“Drop the gun, or I’ll show you some real malice.” The voice was that of Butch Salem, another Team Rocket special agent and James’ most hated enemy.
Realizing he was beat, and mentally cursing himself for slacking off, the gun tumbled out of James’ hand onto the floor. He slowly put his hands up, not breaking eye contact with Giovanni, his face never changing its expression.
“Get your ass over here,” Giovanni demanded. Butch kicked James in the back, making him lurch forward, now a yard away from Giovanni.
“What’s the matter? So afraid to take me on yourself that you had to have Botch over there gets me from behind? I always thought you were the one who gets it from behind from him.”
Angered, Butch fired at the ground by James’ foot, causing him to flinch. “Your only warning shot,” Butch declared.
“No shit.” He looked back at Giovanni. “Where’s Jessie? I’m not going to ask you again!”
“She’s right here,” Giovanni answered, in a jovial tone. He motioned to a wall, and as the hidden door slid open, Jessie entered. Or rather, dragged out.
Jessie was clad in her old Team Rocket uniform, which was now a bit dirty. Butch’s partner, Cassidy O’Brien had her arm around Jessie’s neck and a gun in her free hand. She practically threw Jessie forward, and she hit the floor on all fours.
“Jessie!” James shouted. He was about to run over and tackle-hug her, when Butch’s gun clicked again, freezing him in his tracks. “Let her go!” he shouted to Giovanni.
“I must remind you, you are in no position to make demands of me, von Malice,” Giovanni said, returning to his chair. Jessie was forced to her feet, and now Jessie, James and Meowth stood before their old boss. “But since you put on such an exciting display against security, I’m willing to make you a deal.”
“What kind of deal?”
“Simple. Some time in the near future, there’s going to be a martial arts tournament sanctioned by the World Pokémon League.”
“Is this your idea?” Jessie asked.
“Yes. I have an operative in the League that took care of everything down to the last detail. All that awaits is the start of the tournament itself.”
“So, where do I come in?” James asked.
“Not just you, but both of you. You’re both going to enter the Lord of the Fight tournament. The winner of this tournament will be able to ask of the League anything he or she desires. If either of you win, you will get the same deal...even if you ask for your freedom.”
“Freedom?” Meowth asked.
“From you...that means, we never even have to hear the name ‘Team Rocket’ if we don’t want to?”
“That is correct. However...” He stood, and leaned forward on his desk. “The only way I will allow that to come to pass is if either one of you doesn’t lose a single match.”
“What?” Jessie shouted. “That’s nuts! Everyone in the world’s going to want to enter this, including the best, right? How are we to survive against – ”
“I’ll do it.” James’ declaration cut off Jessie. He looked at her, calming her panicked air. “It’s the only way we’ll be able to be truly free from these imbeciles, Jessie. We don’t have any other choice.”
“Then it’s settled.” Giovanni rose, motioning for a few more grunts to take the three away. “You’ll have months to prepare for the tournament, you two. I suggest you use your time wisely.” Once Jessie, James and Meowth were hauled off and the doors closed, he addressed Butch and Cassidy. “You will enter as well, you two. See to it that they lose. Badly, if possible. And if you can, see to it they don’t make it out of the tournament alive.”
“No problem, boss,” Butch replied.
“We won’t lose to the likes of them,” Cassidy added. The three of them chuckled, each picturing how they see the three of them falling for the devious trap Giovanni had planned.
NAME: James von Malice
STYLE: Boxing, Freestyle Wrestling, and Rocketto Dan assassination techniques
DOB: 18 September 1977
HEIGHT: 6’0”
WEIGHT: 166 lbs.
HOBBY: Hot-air ballooning
FAVORITE FOOD: Ice-cream sandwiches
MOST IMPORTANT: His bottle cap collection
LIKES: Skeet-shooting, growing roses
DISLIKES: Maltreatment