The Empire: Episode 1 (Complex/Medium/Medium)

Pokemon Attempted: Scyther (Complex), Cottonee (Medium), Gligar (Medium)
Total Suggested Characters: 30k + 10k + 10k = 50k
Story Length in Characters: 65,205
Warning: Some minor violence and implied violence.

The Empire
Episode 1

---“Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a crook,” Michael said.

“Most kids want to be athletes or presidents, couldn’t you have picked something a little nobler?” she replied.

“I’m taking everything I can see. If I can reach it, it’s mine. If I can’t reach it then I chase it. There will always be someone out to take what’s not theirs; to lie, cheat and steal their way to the top. It might as well be me.”---​

Ch 1
Michael Reece was raised during the golden age of criminality in the Kanto region. As a child he watched Team Rocket grunts walk around his home of Saffron City like they owned the place, wishing he was old enough to wear a big, red R on his chest. He ran errands for the team’s footmen, bringing guards lunch in return for a few bucks, or sometimes trinkets they had stolen from other trainers earlier that day.
Michael was a popular kid among the low-level members locally, but in the big scheme of Giovanni’s empire he was just a drop in the bucket. For most of his childhood, Saffron belonged to Team Rocket. But the real action was happening elsewhere in the region, and he desperately wanted in on it.
However, his dream was cut short when the kid showed up and humiliated Giovanni in front of the entire world, effectively erasing Team Rocket from the map. Then a few years later Team Rocket rose like a phoenix across the mountains in Johto, ready to prey on fresh soil when another child stood up to stop them once more. The Rocket banner never flew again, and Michael had no more heroes.
Giovanni was weak, he thought, to be bested by mere children and have his criminal empire shattered in a fraction of the time that it took to build it up. Michael spent his years as a young man thinking of how he would have done it differently. He wouldn’t rely on an army of henchmen to do his bidding and protect him. He would become the strongest. He would deal with the threats himself. As they say, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.
By the time Team Rocket had fallen, Michael was already headed down the “wrong” path. To him, however, it was the only path he had ever wanted. He ran smalltime gambling games for those who were kicked out of the Game Corner, forged counterfeit bike vouchers, and had a sizable following of other young men to back him up.
Most importantly, he was a strong Pokémon trainer. Unlike the rest of his cronies, Michael took the time to train several Pokémon and ensure that they were in prime condition. It was a rough town and he associated with rough people. Team Rocket leftovers, thieves and killers were a typical audience for his illegal activities, and he knew that if he wasn’t strong enough as a trainer, he would simply be pushed out of the way by someone who was.
His main partner and oldest friend was Bouncer, his Scyther. Unlike Team Rocket and many of the men in his crew, Michael obtained his Pokémon legitimately. He believed that trust was an important factor in raising an effective partner, no matter how you planned to employ their skills.
He met Bouncer in the last days of Team Rocket’s reign over Kanto. As part of a propaganda parade, Team Rocket led a small train of glass cases holding Pokémon through the main streets of Saffron. They were mostly rarities from Kanto and Johto that they had swiped up from traveling trainers and seized from the Safari Zone after taking it over. The bright green Scyther caught Michael’s eye immediately, simply because he looked so strong. Judging by the marks on the Pokémon’s body, he had put up quite a fight when Team Rocket had captured or stolen him. He had a hardness about him that Michael had never seen in a Pokémon, and he was immediately drawn to him.
The rest of the Pokémon were exotic, sure, but were mostly malnourished and weak, tired from trying to outfight or outrun Team Rocket’s grunts. The Scyther had a focused will, and Michael sensed it from the moment he saw him.
The parade was mostly to show the citizens of Saffron the might of Team Rocket, and that no Pokémon, wild or owned, was safe from them. These kinds of events rarely drew much of a crowd other than delinquents like Michael, and as such were usually poorly secured.
The grunts who were too new or too weak to be out in the field on missions were assigned to guard duty in Saffron, and the weakest of those were assigned to events such as these. Most of them were barely above Team Rocket’s minimum age, and whatever stolen Pokémon they were given as their sign-on bonus was probably the first one they had ever owned.
Michael showed up to nearly every event they held and knew the drill by heart. After the few grunts had reached the end of the line, they stopped for a smoke break and a game of cards at a local Rocket safehouse while they waited for the transport trucks to pick up the Pokémon. Michael knew that once they had been shown off they would just end up in the hands of incompetent grunts somewhere, and he could not bear to see such a high-quality specimen go to waste on such an undeserving trainer. Michael had wanted a Pokémon of his own for as long as he remembered, but in Rocket-occupied Saffron it was virtually impossible.
As the Pokémon showcase reached its end and the rest of the crowd dissipated, Michael followed them down the backstreets casually to avoid suspicion. The guards barely took notice of him and eventually disappeared into the safehouse. The train of cases was very simple, just a series of trailers with secure glass boxes sitting on top that were pulled by a truck. There was usually about an hour long window of time between the end of the tour and the transport truck’s arrival, so Michael analyzed the situation carefully.
He eventually walked past the cases, one by one, on his way to the cab of the truck. Most of the Pokémon were too weak to notice him and did not even react. Others flinched at his approaching footsteps, hoping that he wasn’t another grunt with a temper. The Scyther, however, watched Michael carefully. His scythes were bound by an elastic band that he couldn’t cut through, and his wings were tied together as well to prevent flying. Despite his situation, he simply sat through the torment of the grunts and had not tried to fight them since they had captured him.
Michael wanted more than anything to stop and admire the Pokémon up close, but knew that he was operating on short time. He opened the passenger side door of the truck and looked around for anything that might free the case. Each case had a hinge on both sides and cracked open like an egg, with a latch on top to keep it sealed. They were designed to all unlock remotely at once, but the device to open them was nowhere in sight.
As Michael tore the inside of the truck cab apart, he was startled by a male voice and the shutting of a door. He caught a glimpse of movement in the rearview mirror and slid into the small space behind the truck’s two seats.
A grunt slowly walked over to the cab with a cigarette in his mouth and opened the door, taking a seat in the driver seat that Michael was hiding behind. As he sat down, Michael noticed a small remote control clipped to his belt with various buttons. One of them, he thought, was surely the release, but he had no idea how to sneak it off of the guard without him noticing.
The grunt yawned and reached across the passenger seat, opening the glovebox and sifting through it. He was looking for a few more dollars to gamble inside as they passed the time, and was clearly quite tired. He was young, just a few years older than Michael, but was a fairly small man. Michael could already be mistaken for an older man, and was around the same size as the grunt.
The clock was ticking as the man found his money and stretched over to shut the glovebox. Michael wasn’t sure if he outweighed the grunt, but he knew from the looks of him that he was tougher. He put a strong arm around the grunt’s neck and squeezed tightly as he kicked and reached out for his hidden attacker.
“Shut up already,” Michael said as he tightened his grip around the man’s neck. The grunt coughed and struggled for air as his consciousness slipped away. His face turned blue and his tongue hung from his mouth as his flailing subsided. Michael let go, knowing he would be unconscious for long enough to break the Pokémon out.
He didn’t know what would happen to the rest of the Pokémon after he freed them. He didn’t really care, and most looked too weak to even escape their cases. He wondered what kind of move the Scyther would make once the release was freed.
Michael could not manage to unhook the remote control from the grunt’s uniform, so he began to press buttons, unsure of what they might do.
The first button, to his surprise, turned on the exterior lights of the safehouse. He had intended to work under the cover of darkness in case a quick escape was in order. Panicking, Michael wildly went down the remote pressing everything until finally he heard the latches release and the cases crack open with a slam. He knew he didn’t have much time before the rest of the grunts heard the commotion and came outside.
As soon as he saw them open he bolted out of the vehicle and ran to the Scyther’s cage. The Pokémon looked surprised and quickly rose to his feet, but was too weak to stand and staggered to his knees. Michael approached the case and heard the voices of several grunts getting closer to the door. Unable to untie or cut the binds, he hoisted the Scyther over his shoulder and ran for the nearest alley. As he sprinted down the narrow street with the weakened Pokémon on his back, the grunts burst outside to see the cases all opened.
“What the… is Tom drunk or something?” one grunt said as he walked toward the cab of the truck. He quickly realized that the other grunt had been knocked out and spread the word to the rest of his crew. Michael and Scyther were far too quick, however, and had escaped back to the outskirts of town before an alarm was even sounded.
Over the next few weeks Michael nursed the Pokémon back to full strength and kept him hidden from Team Rocket. He stopped visiting the grunts on guard duty and disappeared from the public for the most part. A short time later the kid and his fearsome team of Pokémon ousted Giovanni and the rest of Team Rocket from Saffron, allowing Michael and his Scyther to leave his house.
The Scyther was unsure of Michael at first, but he was impressed and grateful that he had managed to free him. Originally the Pokémon’s only desire was to escape, but over time he grew fond of Michael. No matter how rough Michael was toward his peers, he was not fond of using abuse to win over the loyalty of Pokémon. He respected Giovanni as a leader and excellent criminal, but despised the practices he used to keep his army of stolen Pokémon in line.
Michael eventually began training the Scyther as his own Pokémon, and it became clear to both of them how strong the other was. With a strong partner by his side, Michael was able to facilitate several illegal activities now that Team Rocket had been wiped out. There was a hole to fill and he did not want to wait while someone else filled it, taking all of the profits and benefits that came with it.
The Scyther quickly learned Michael’s trade, and became the muscle behind Michael’s criminal mind. During meetings with other crooks like him, Scyther would guard the door to make sure nobody got out or in without his say so, earning him the nickname Bouncer.
Michael was able to start recruiting other men since Team Rocket’s grip on the city had been lifted, and had begun to make a name, and a small fortune, for himself.

Ch 2
“Listen, they gotta have some serious cash up in that big building, man! The CEO of that place is worth millions, you’re telling me a heist there wouldn’t be worth it?” said a man sitting at a table, flicking cigarette ash into a tray in a dim room.
“It’s not a bank, Jacky. Nobody goes in there and buys stuff; they just design it all and sell it in bulk to stores. All their money is in stocks and big check payments written by the Pokemarts,” said Michael, not looking up as he studied a map of the Kanto region.
Jacky was one of Michael’s oldest crew members, but not one of the brightest. He had been pitching a heist of the Silph Company building for weeks, only to be shot down by Michael each time.
“We keep robbing trucks and hitting the Pokemarts. We have enough income to keep everybody paid from that, and we still get a big cut for ourselves. It’s easy money, Jacky. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke, ya know?”
Michael looked up from his map now. He had been tracking their robberies and break-ins across the city and was afraid they were being too careless. It was true that his men were good at what they did. They got in and got out, and never got caught. Michael was afraid of leaving a pattern for the authorities to follow, though, and had been struggling to come up with a plan to bring in more income in a less obvious way.
“Well you’ve been telling us we gotta try something new, right? Why not go big or go home, man,” Jacky said.
“No, Jack. That place could have a vault full of nuggets and I wouldn’t want to rob it. We don’t have that kind of manpower, we all know that,” he said as he stood up from behind his desk, walking around to where Jacky was sitting. He put a hand on his shoulder and continued, “Big things are coming, just trust me. I’m going to make you and everybody else you work with rich, count on it.”
Jacky looked at him for a long time with his cigarette hanging from his mouth. Michael believed in dressing for his job and wore a cheap but sleek black suit. Jacky, being a street man for the most part, wore jeans and a light jacket, with his brown, greasy hair pulled back with a bandana.
“Man, you’re too smooth sometimes. You always know what to say,” he stood up and smiled as Michael put his hands in his pockets and walked with him to the door. “Or maybe I’m just stupid?”
“Big things, Jacky. Just wait,” Michael winked and shut the door as his associate walked out and past Bouncer.
The Pokémon entered the room after Jacky’s departure and Michael returned to his map. It was covered with rough notes detailing hits on certain Pokemarts, how often they had been hit within a certain amount of time, and other potential places to rob.
The truth was, Saffron was getting too hot for Michael’s small but growing organization. He was making a modest living through his various illegitimate enterprises, but like most criminals he wanted more. He wanted to be successful, but he also wanted to be different. Giovanni was a strong trainer and a genius businessman, but he wasn’t strong enough to protect his livelihood. Michael swore that if he ever reached that level of power and success, he would not have it taken from him.
He looked out his office window and realized it was already well after dark. He locked up his office and returned Bouncer to his Pokeball before heading down the street toward his apartment. Michael took a detour from his normal route home, as he often did, and entered a small restaurant.
He came in just before closing and walked up to a lone waitress who had just begun putting the chairs up on the tables for the night.
“Didn’t I tell you last time not to come lurking around here five minutes to closing?” she said with a smirk.
“Relax, I’m not ordering anything. I just came to catch up, maybe keep a pretty waitress company while she closes shop,” he replied with a confident gaze.
“You’re such a talker. Sit down, I’ll get you coffee,” she stopped what she was doing and walked to the door to turn the “Open” sign over as Michael retrieved two chairs from a table and placed them on the ground.
The waitress returned from the back with two cups of coffee and sat with Michael in the lonely restaurant.
“So what kind of job do you work where you don’t get off until nine every night?” she asked.
“Maybe I’m a waiter,” he said.
“I don’t know any waiters who wear suits and carry their Pokémon to work with them every day,” she said with a nervous grin.
“I don’t want to bore you. It’s mostly business and numbers, managerial stuff. What about you? How’s this gig holding up?”
“It’s still here. I didn’t plan on staying as long as I have, but I guess the money’s decent and the opportunities are slim right now. No reason to quit for the time being,” she said. They sipped their coffee quietly for a while before she lightly placed a hand on his.
“I really want to know,” she said, steadily looking into Michael’s eyes.
“Know what?” he asked, playing dumb.
“What you do. You walk in here every few days with your fancy clothes and this whole mysterious stranger thing going on, and you never tell me anything. I think I deserve to know a little by now,” she was almost leaning out of her seat at this point. Her voice was a whisper, even though they were the only two in the restaurant.
“You know, there’s something I’ve been waiting to learn from you, too,” he said, smiling. “What’s your name?”
She grinned, defeated. She wasn’t sure what it was about him, but she found herself playing hard to get. She didn’t even know if he was interested in her, but he brought out things in her that most men she knew could not.
“Fine. Cheryl,” she spat out. “Now come on, fill me in already!”
Cheryl. The name fit her well. She was tall and slim with short, fiery hair. It was red with streaks of blonde throughout, and was cut short around her head. She had shocking blue eyes and rarely wore makeup, and Michael had never seen her without her work apron on.
“Cheryl,” he said, savoring the word.
“Yes, you win. Your turn.”
“Like I said, I’m a businessman. I run a few things here and there around town, but I’m mostly involved with the Saffron City Pokemarts,” he said as he looked down at his coffee before taking a lengthy sip.
“What, like sales? You run some kind of company that supplies the Pokemarts? Why is that some big secret? Lots of guys like that eat lunch here.”
“Actually, we’re usually on the receiving end of the deal. We… obtain their supplies and sell them elsewhere at a cheaper price,” he said, trying to remain composed. It was the first time he had ever spoken about his illegitimate businesses with someone outside of his organization, and he felt uncomfortable.
“So what, you buy off the old stuff they can’t get rid of and take it somewhere else?” she inquired.
“Something like that. I think I’ve probably said enough for one cup of coffee, though,” he winked and stood up, placing his empty cup on the counter. As he put his blazer back on, Cheryl’s eyes caught the inner lining where he kept his Pokeballs.
“Is it a rough line of work or something?” she asked, looking at the red and white spheres.
“It never hurts to have a few friends backing you up. Thanks for the coffee, Cheryl. You’ll see me around.”
He turned and walked out the exit as she fumbled for the words she wanted to say. She knew that something was different about him, but couldn’t place it. She knew he would be back, however. He always came back eventually, and every time she tried to get a little more out of him, and he tried to get a little closer to her.
As he walked to his apartment he wrestled with what he had just done. She was smart enough, he thought, and would figure it out eventually. He had said too much, and she wouldn’t want to speak to him anymore.
But he also thought about the restaurant where she worked. Though it had been her that drew him there in the first place, he quickly fell in love with the business. His organization lacked a crucial piece that stopped them from being truly successful. They were bringing in income from all over the city, but had no way of proving that they actually earned it. What they needed was a legitimate business located in the middle of where they normally operated that could pose as the source of all their earnings.
Until then he was basically waiting on the authorities to come snooping around with questions about how a man who, for all intents and purposes, is unemployed can live so lavishly.
He entered his apartment and didn’t bother turning the lights on. He waded through the darkness to his bedroom and placed his Pokeballs in a stand on his bedside table. His apartment was decorated with expensive looking furniture, but was truthfully a rather modest home. It gave the impression of wealth and success that he need to impress his coworkers and opponents, but his modest earnings as of late were just enough to keep the lights on.
The restaurant, he thought, will turn this all around.

Ch 3
“So, Cheryl, you understand why we had to accept,” said an elderly man across the table from Cheryl, sitting beside his wife.
“I’m just confused. You guys have turned buyers away before and then some guy you don’t know comes by and you take his first offer?” she asked hotly.
“Well, it was quite generous. He said he loved the location, and that he used to come here as a boy,” the wife replied.
“So his men said. The buyer didn’t actually even show up, we don’t even know what he looks like!” the restaurant’s owner said with a hearty laugh. “The guy sent two slick representatives in with a big case of money. More than I’ve seen in person in my whole life!”
“So no questions asked, he just gets the place?”
“Yes, as it is. Staff included. He requested that we don’t change a thing to make it seamless as possible. Now, you aren’t obligated to stay, of course, but he did mention quite a sizeable pay raise for the help,” he said.
“Well, um, I guess we’ll see how it goes. This is a lot to take in. Where will you two go?” Cheryl asked.
“We’re retiring to a small mountain village in Hoenn. We’ve talked about it before and it seems like the opportunity just landed in our laps. We really do wish you the best, Cheryl. You’ve always been a good help to us.”
“Th-thank you. Thanks for the opportunity you’ve given me.”
Cheryl wasn’t sure whether to feel sad or bewildered at the speed at which everything was happening. She wasn’t that close to her employers, but they had been kind to her in an unkind city. She opened the restaurant like normal, waiting for a glimpse of her new boss.
Around midday, just before the lunch rush, Cheryl recognized Michael’s familiar face outside. He was gazing at the storefront with a smile, and she immediately realized what had happened.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” she asked, bursting out the front door of the restaurant.
“Surprised?” he asked, still looking at the building.
“I mean, a little bit. So what, you’re in the restaurant business now?”
“Sadly, I won’t be too involved here. I’ll still work from my main headquarters across town, but like always you’ll see me from time to time,” he said, finally averting his gaze from the building toward Cheryl.
“Why this place, though? Sentiment or something?” she asked, trying to find a hint of emotion in his face.
“I think it will be very beneficial for both of us, Cheryl. My first order of business is making you the head manager. You’ll have a few more responsibilities, but no more waiting tables. We can iron out the details later, but I can tell you that it includes a raise and a lot less work,” he explained as they walked inside.
To Cheryl’s surprise, he led her to the back office of the building and unlocked it with a key. It had been cleared out and redecorated overnight with standard office equipment. A desk, computer, file cabinets and the like filled the impeccably organized office that had been a shuffled up mess only a night before.
“All yours. It could use some personalization, of course, but I think you should be good to go as far as work is concerned,” he said as he shut the door. “I know this is a bit abrupt, but I need you to keep things running as smoothly as possible. Nothing has changed except the signature on your paycheck. Like I said, this will be better for the both of us in the long run.”
With that, he left the restaurant and walked down the street toward his office. In the days leading up to his purchase of the restaurant, he and his crew had organized a substantial heist. After several weeks of abstaining from largescale crime in Saffron, his men had struck the Celadon Department Store for an enormous sum.
They took what cash was in the building itself, and also took as much high-value merchandise with them as they could and sold it later in Saffron for a cheaper price. The whole heist fetched them the market value of the restaurant, enough to pay his crew, and enough to throw a little extra to the owners to move out quickly and quietly.
Leading up to the heist, Michael had been nervous. It was the first time his crew had operated outside of Saffron, and was easily the largest job they had ever pulled. He designed the plan himself, as was normal, and sent Jacky and a small group of men to do the actual dirty work.
The men ambushed and incapacitated the night shift guards before they headed in, then simply drove through the gate as if they were headed to work. Ready to get home, the day shift guards waved them through without incident. Once inside they were able to take anything they wanted with no resistance, and made it out without a single incident.
The job had opened Michael’s eyes in a way. Originally the plan was to pull the heist to raise capital so that his crew’s Saffron City work could continue without raising as much suspicion. However, he now saw what he was capable of as a leader. He had crossed over from a smalltime, city-level crook to a regional threat.
The heist had made the regional news, and was the first major report of criminal activity since Team Rocket had fallen. In a way, Michael felt he was picking up a torch that was hurriedly dropped on Giovanni’s way out.
He was not the leader of an empire yet, though. Giovanni was a mastermind, where Michael was still simply a student. This heist, however, had awakened something inside Michael. He realized fully that he had potential to truly rule something. Saffron City, though the biggest city in Kanto, suddenly seemed so small. He thought about how much money he earned each week from his various jobs in Saffron, then thought about how he could double and triple that by expanding to new cities.
There was no one to stop him now. People with aspirations to be true criminals like Giovanni had been scared away by the kid, for fear of being punished and chased away like he was. The kid, however, was gone now. From what Michael had heard, he was living in a chain of islands to the south, far from Kanto.
Giovanni was gone as well. Michael had asserted himself as the king of Kanto crime with the Celadon heist. Having been defeated twice already, Michael was sure that Giovanni would not show himself again, at least not here. He was confident now that if any other opponent rose up to challenge him, he was strong enough to put them down.

Ch 4
Several weeks had passed since the purchase of the restaurant. Michael Reece had also grown more aggressive with his growing criminal organization, having pulled largescale jobs in most of Kanto’s major cities. The money was good, but Michael found himself loving the power most of all.
As his jobs grew more numerous, more men were hired to pull them. He personally interviewed them to see if they were up to his standards, and then he quickly tested them by immediately giving them an assignment. One such assignment had been given early on the morning that a vehicle owned by Michael Reece came screeching to a halt outside his office.
A bleeding man was being carried by each arm by Jacky and another one of Michael’s close associates. Michael furiously opened the front door and hurried them inside, signaling another of his goons to drive the vehicle around back to avoid causing a scene.
The man was taken into one of the building’s makeshift conference rooms and laid onto a table. When Michael entered, Jacky was pacing the floor with his hand covering his mouth, and the other man, Tyke, was leaning over the bloody man on the table.
“What exactly possessed you to bring someone in his shape directly to my front doorstep?” asked Michael, shouting just inches away from Jacky’s face.
“We didn’t know what else to do, Mike. It happened so fast that we didn’t even see the guy who did it. Nothing like this ever happened before so we just figured we’d bring him straight to you, ya know, since you always know what to do,” Jacky rattled off, clearly shaken.
Michael pushed him aside and approached the man, who lay on the table. His shirt had been torn apart to reveal a small knife protruding from between two of his lower ribs. A string was tied around the handle of the knife, which had a piece of folded paper attached to it. Michael removed the paper and studied the wound.
“Wipe that knife down, but leave it how it is. He didn’t get anything vital with that one, he’ll be fine. Drop him off in front of the hospital and get out, they’ll fix him up,” he said to Jacky. He then turned to the recruit, who looked up from the table with a look of terror. “Do not say a word to them. Do not speak my name. You were walking down the street and a man stuck you and took your wallet. That’s all you remember.”
Shaking, the man nodded before being lifted up by the two men and carried out the back exit of the building. Michael went to the bathroom and washed his hands of the man’s blood. He returned to his office and locked the door, leaving Bouncer outside with strict orders to stop anyone from entering.
He sat at his desk and unfolded the mysterious paper that had been attached to the assailant’s knife. It was a neatly written note with no signature, and showed that this had been an intentional act.
“Kanto isn’t your playground, Reece. Some of this territory has been claimed a lot longer than you’ve been in business. This was a warning. Stay in Saffron, for your own good.”
Michael thought about the note, and realized that this should have been foreseen. Every business has competition, and illegitimate ones such as Michael’s drew more aggressive forms of rivalry. What befuddled Michael, however, was that whoever had written the note seemed to imply that he had a grasp on the area where Michael was operating. Having been sure that Giovanni had systematically put every other crime lord out of business during his rise, Michael was unsure of who could still be out there that had kept a criminal organization up and running.
The scare tactic certainly had its effect on Michael and his crew, but he refused to simply roll over for whoever his mysterious opponent was. Money still had to be made and jobs still had to be pulled; business wasn’t halting because of a guy with a knife.
A few days after the attack, the victim was brought to Michael’s office once he was released from the hospital. He sat across Michael’s desk, a new one carved from high quality wood and finished with a fine stain. Michael’s office and home had become much more luxurious since the expansion out of Saffron, giving him the look and feel of a man who was truly making a living for himself and everyone he employed.
Bouncer sat patiently outside the office door, eyeing anyone who happened to walk past the hallway leading to the office. The Pokémon could sense that it was a tense time for Michael, and wondered what would be in store for him in the near future.
“Tell me everything you remember,” Michael said, staring coldly at the man, who shrank down in his large leather armchair.
“There’s not much to tell. I got knocked over and the next thing I knew I was in a puddle of blood. I didn’t even feel the knife go in,” he said, averting his eyes from Michael’s. His hand drifted to the bandage that covered his healing wound.
“Did you get a glimpse of the person who did it? Anything at all, like his face, or better yet some kind of patch or logo that could tell us who he was affiliated with?” Michael asked. He was speaking fast, desperate for knowledge about the person who had the guts to challenge him in the region that he thought he owned.
“No sir, it wasn’t a person; it was a Pokémon,” he said, now looking up at Michael.
“Interesting,” he replied. “Sounds like something that Team Rocket might have pulled, using their Pokémon to do the dirty work where their footmen were too incompetent. Surely you saw the trainer somewhere?”
“I looked around, but I don’t think there was one. I never heard it sneak up on me, but I saw it dash away. It was a little black blur, and I swear I felt a cold wind follow it away. It ran down a street and I lost it, but I didn’t see anybody else around.”
“A Sneasel,” Michael replied. “Fast, deadly little beasts. The legend goes that they used to travel in threes to prey on unsuspecting people. Each one had a job; the first’s was to knock the person over, the second was to cut flesh from their leg, and the third was to sew it up to look like nothing had happened. The victim simply thought they tripped and fell in the night.”
The man sat silently and watched Michael pace behind his desk, pondering the new information he had been given. Slowly he began to realize who he might be up against. It wasn’t a new crime lord, but more likely a leftover boss who was appointed by Giovanni in Team Rocket, and who was now leading his own organization.
“Where exactly were you when you got attacked?” Michael asked.
“Right where you sent me, boss. I had just gotten to Fuchsia City to scout things out, and I was checking the Pokemart out when I was hit. City looks good and ripe, that’s for sure. Sounds like somebody else has their eye on it to me, boss.”
“What would you think about going back for another look?” Michael stopped pacing and turned to face the man, who stared back blankly.
“I mean, I got the message loud and clear. They see me there again and it might not be a couple days in the hospital for me,” he said. Michael’s expression didn’t change as he put his palms on the table, leaning toward the man.
“This might sound harsh, but that’s exactly what I intend to happen.”

Ch 5
Michael’s goon stood anxiously at the very corner he had been attacked at only a few days before. Though he was scared, he was playing it as cool as he possibly could. He was mimicking everything he had done on his first venture to the city. It had been a scouting mission to see the potential for possible enterprises in the city. He walked back and forth in front of the Pokemart, eyeing it and keeping a watch for his attacker.
Michael and Jacky were waiting inconspicuously down the road in a plain looking van, watching their crewmember. It had been some time since they planted him on the corner, and Michael was beginning to wonder if his opponent was a step ahead of him.
“I don’t know, Mike. Maybe we’re being too obvious about this whole thing. I mean, sending the same guy back to the same Pokemart when he’s still licking his wounds?” Jacky said.
“Being underestimated is a stronger tool than you realize, Jacky,” Michael responded. “You had better be quick with that thing. This whole scene is going to play out in a flash, so get ready.”
Jacky nodded and readied his tool. It was an air-powered gun that lobbed a heavy net at high speed, used for capturing a fast-moving target. He cracked the back door of the van for a quick exit as Michael watched through the windshield.
“Jacky get ready, something’s happening,” he said. A small blur had leapt from one rooftop to that of the Pokemart where Michael’s henchman was standing out front. Clear as day, Michael spotted the Sneasel as it prepared to leap down onto the man.
“Now!”
Jacky erupted from the van and lifted the gun up to his shoulder just as the Sneasel made his leap. The Pokémon was no rookie and immediately realized what was happening, but luckily for Jacky and Michael he was in midair by the time the net was fired. The man ducked as the net whizzed overhead, pinning the Sneasel to the wall. The Pokémon swiped and stabbed at the fabric with its razor-like claws, but it was trapped.
The three men quickly moved across to the Pokémon who had worn himself out attempting to escape. They hastily unpinned the net from the wall and tied it, and were back in the van and heading toward Saffron in the blink of an eye.
“Just leave that thing in there until we get to headquarters. It’ll shred us all to pieces if we even think about opening that up,” Michael said.
As they drove, Michael eyed the Pokémon. It was certainly tough and experienced, and bravely stared right back at his captor. Michael was drawn to the Pokémon’s wrists, which featured markings that indicated it had been bound for a long period of time at some point. This was common on Pokémon stolen by Team Rocket, and if this Pokémon belonged to someone from the organization, it had certainly been owned by a stronger trainer than a grunt.
The evidence Michael needed was slowly falling into place, like grains of sand through an hourglass. He knew what his opponent was, he just needed to know who. Unfortunately for him, most of the executives of Team Rocket stayed out of the spotlight. Most of them actually went back to working day jobs after Team Rocket’s collapse. This particular boss, however, had taken things upon himself to keep their Fuchsia City operation alive.
Michael had heard rumors about what kind of business Team Rocket conducted in Fuchsia during their prime. The town featured a small port, which allowed them to ship contraband into town in bulk. The organization paid off the warden of the city’s prized Safari Zone to keep quiet, which gave them the perfect cover to smuggle in illegal Pokémon in large numbers. The ship brought them right up to the Safari Zone doors, all under the guise of releasing them into the park for tourists to try and catch. In reality, the Pokémon were going straight into the hands of Rocket grunts. The operation was one of Giovanni’s more successful ones, and he managed to bring exotic and powerful Pokémon from faraway regions straight into his pocket.
The men arrived in Saffron under the cover of darkness, and put the Sneasel into holding in their headquarters. Michael had all the information he needed, and now only needed a plan to meet this mysterious Team Rocket leftover.

Ch 6
For the moment, Michael thought, things would stay quiet. Fuchsia was to go untouched by his men, and even jobs in Saffron and Celadon became less frequent. He desired a meeting with his new business rival, and letting them have free range over the region would perhaps soften them up for him.
Michael left his office for lunch and walked down a familiar street toward a familiar destination that he had not visited for some time. His one legitimate business in Saffron City, the Slowpoke Café, greeted him across the street. He walked through the crowded restaurant where he spotted Cheryl taking orders at a table on the other side of the business. He casually took a seat at a barstool and waited.
“Look who decided to drop in, mister mysterious himself,” she said with a light grin. “Business or personal?”
“I guess it can’t be both, can it?” he replied as she brought him a coffee.
“So what brings you by? As you can see, I haven’t let the place burn down yet,” she said, proudly looking around the packed café.
“Seems like just the opposite. I’ve never seen this place so busy. Seems like I made the right choice putting you in charge.”
“I practically ran the place anyway. I know what I’m doing,” she said.
“I can tell,” he replied, looking around. “I’m glad you’re here.”
His eyes fell on her and lingered there. She felt frozen by his gaze, but composed herself.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Michael. Please, please call me Michael,” he said, faking a shudder. “My crew calls me that, you don’t have to.”
“Ah, your crew. So you’re some kind of pirate then?” she joked.
“You’re not too far off. Actually, can we move this to your office?” he asked. She nodded and they escaped the noise of the restaurant and hid away in the back.
“What do you need?” she asked, sitting at her desk which was still as neat as when Michael had had it organized for her.
“It’s probably time I fill you in a bit more. I think that I can trust you, Cheryl, and I hope I’m not misplacing that trust.”
She saw that he was clearly uncomfortable, and she was intrigued. Michael had always been so charming and sure of himself in her presence, and it was a demeanor she had never seen him wear. An excitement came over her, having wondered what more there was to her mysterious employer for some time.
“You can trust me, Michael,” she said, trying to look as strong as she could for fear of him doubting her.
“I run an organization based in Saffron City. I have a large number of men at my disposal and work off the grid exclusively, apart from this restaurant. My enterprises are, you could say, frowned upon by the authorities. Recently, my organization has ventured into other cities in Kanto and has grown too large to be ignored, which leads us to the purchase of this restaurant. I needed a way to make my money look legally earned, and this place was perfect. And I must say, with how busy you’ve got this place you’ve certainly made it look a lot more convincing,” he said. He was red in the face, but watched her face for a reaction. She was quiet for a long time, and then frowned.
“So you’re some kind of criminal then?” she asked. Michael panicked, wondering if he had jumped the gun and informed her too soon.
“Cheryl, I don’t want you to worry. You aren’t in any danger of being associated. As far as the authorities are concerned, you’re just a manager at a restaurant,” he said.
“Yeah, but I mean, you’re a dangerous man, right?” she said, a hint of fear in her eye. “Like, if you wanted me gone you could snap your fingers and I’d be on a boat to Kalos?”
Michael smirked at her naivety and looked down, composing himself before he continued.
“I never cause harm to people unless they directly get in my way. It’s bad for business. Hurting, killing and making people vanish are not in my line of work. I primarily deal in gambling and the acquisition and resale of products. Basically, I take a slice out of the big pie that corporations like the Pokemart Company have all to themselves. You could think of me like Robin Hood, maybe.”
“Yeah, but the money goes straight into your pocket,” she shot back hotly.
“And my crew’s. But yes, that’s true. I’m in my line of work to make money, Cheryl. I’ve seen how lucrative this can be, and I know that I can truly rise to the top. I’m good at what I do,” he said.
“And what happens when somebody bigger and better than you takes you down? You’ll get chased out of every region you go to, just like that Giovanni guy,” she said.
“Well, I’ve learned from him. And I think I can be better than him. Giovanni was far too naïve, and thought he was untouchable. He never saw that kid coming, and he paid a hefty price for it. I know that if I plan on being on the top, and I do, I have to be strong. The strongest.”
Cheryl struggled to take everything she was hearing in. He had seemed like such a nice man, and she supposed that he still was. But still, she had been raised like most people to know that stealing and cheating and lying were all wrong, and that was the basis for his entire operation.
“I don’t really know what to say, honestly. What do I even do? I’m going to be honest, Michael – if that’s even your name – I liked you a lot. I looked forward to your visits. I looked for you, hoping would stop by for coffee,” she said.
“That doesn’t have to change. I saw something in you, which is what drew me to this place. I think that your skills and talents are being wasted, and I think you could help me immensely,” he said, looking intently into her fierce blue eyes.
“I don’t know. It’s hard to agree to something that feels so dirty,” she said, crossing her arms and sinking into her chair.
Michael stood up, checking his watch. He pushed his chair up to her desk as she looked away from him, still thinking about everything she had just learned.
“I’ll give you some time to think,” he said. He pulled a business card from his inner jacket pocket and slid it across her desk. “That has my direct line and address if you feel like getting in touch. My men know your face and won’t stop you from visiting.”
He turned and exited the room and headed back to his office. The meeting had shaken him, and he wondered if he had misplayed by telling her everything so soon. He knew he had let his personal feelings cloud his judgment, and wondered if he would pay for it. For all he knew, she could run to the police right now; she could give them his business card if she wanted. However, he shook off his thoughts as he entered his headquarters. There were plans to be made.

Ch 7
Michael sat at his desk, studying a map of Fuchsia City. He was closing in on an attempt at meeting the crime boss of the city, and wanted everything to go as smoothly as possible. As he combed over the streets and buildings labeled on the map, he heard a commotion outside. Bouncer was buzzing about something, and he found it odd that the Pokémon had not scared whoever it was away by now. He opened the door to see Bouncer blocking the door from Cheryl.
“Bouncer, stand down,” he said, producing a Pokeball from inside his jacket and recalling his partner. “I’m so sorry, Cheryl. I guess I forgot to tell my most important guard about you.”
“It’s fine, he didn’t try to hurt me. I guess I’m not that threatening,” she said nervously. Michael closed the door behind them and led her to a leather armchair across from his desk.
“I’m glad to see you stopped by. I had begun to think you were with the police, coming up with a way to sting my operation,” he said, laughing lightly. “I guess that’s still a possibility, I didn’t check you for a wire.”
“Very funny. I thought you trusted me?” she replied.
“All jokes aside, I’m glad you’re here. I hope you have an answer for me,” he said.
“Well, maybe I do. But I’m still a bit cloudy on what exactly I’m saying yes or no to. Is this some kind of paid position in your organization, or…” she trailed off. “You’re good at hiding what you really mean, you know.”
“Maybe I’m just bad at communicating what I really want,” he said, offering a smile to the tense situation.
“I guess what I’m wondering is if this is a job or something more personal,” she said, unable to hide a smile that crept onto her face.
“I would hope it could be both,” he said. He felt a strange sensation of nervousness, and yet also relief.
“My, my. You’re efficient, aren’t you?” she said, leaning closer toward him.
“You’re special, Cheryl. I think you can improve both me and my business. I want you to be a part of it all.”
They looked at each other silently for only a moment, but after the words escaped his lips he felt as if there had been a passage of decades. He would be an old man before she ever made her mind up.
“I would like that, Michael. I would like that a lot,” she said, reaching across the table and placing her hand on his. “Have you ever been to Unova?”
The sudden change of topic rattled him, awakening him from the ecstasy of her approval.
“Unova? No, I’ve never traveled outside of Kanto, believe it or not,” he replied. She stood up from her chair and reached into her purse, drawing out a familiar looking red and white orb.
“I grew up there. We moved here when I was a teenager, and my parents moved back a few years ago. I miss them a lot, and I hope one day I can go back,” she said, gazing off into the distance. “I think maybe you’ll be able to go with me one day. You can show me things I’ve never seen, and maybe I can take you somewhere new as well.”
She pressed the button on the front of her Pokeball. A flash of light illuminated the dim office, and a small white and green Pokémon appeared in Cheryl’s arms.
“This is Peach, my Cottonee,” she said, looking admiringly down at her friend who nuzzled against her chest. “My parents sent her over to me as a reminder of home. Where I grew up there were fields full of these beautiful creatures, entire moving meadows of pure white cotton.”
She stepped toward him around his desk and reached forward, grabbing gently onto his sleeve. He felt helpless in her presence and had never spoken to another person like this before.
“I want you to see that, Michael.”

Ch 8
Michael’s inner businessman was disappointed with his behavior, but Michael himself was truthfully happier than he had been in ages. He was showing Cheryl the ropes of the business, personally introducing her to all of his enterprises in Saffron City. She learned quickly, and Michael was pleased to see that his men respected her.
Michael eventually found himself explaining the situation with Fuchsia City to her over dinner at his apartment. She stayed with him there now, though even Jacky and his closest associates were not aware of this.
“Whoever this guy is, he sounds like he’s been around the block a bit more than you – no offense,” she said.
“None taken, it’s the truth. He’s a leftover Team Rocket executive of some kind, from what I’ve gathered. That so-called empire was mostly a joke now that I look back, but they still had their fair share of talented members. My biggest problem is that I don’t know who I’m looking for. My money is that whoever it is would be set up in the Safari Zone, maybe even in the warden’s position.”
“Sounds to me like you need to get someone over there to check it out,” she said, poking at what was left of her meal.
“I’ve tried. Somehow he knows my men, and the place is business as usual when they show up. I know that they’re dealing illegal Pokémon there, though.”
“Maybe you don’t need a man to do this job,” she said, smirking as she looked at Michael over the top of her wine glass.
“You know, you’ve never left Saffron with me. Unless he has some kind of intricate spy network here, he wouldn’t know anything about you,” Michael said excitedly. “That being said, are you up for it?”
“I’ve been itching, Michael. I want to help you. Remember? When this whole thing started we said this would be a business arrangement as well as a personal one. I want to fulfill that,” she said.
The two met with Jacky the first thing the next morning. Bouncer posted guard outside of Michael’s office as they went over the plan one last time.
“She goes into the Safari Zone and asks what kinds of rare Pokémon they have, okay? They’ll give the same spiel about how they have the rarest Kanto-native Pokémon that they always give our guys, but the catch is that they won’t know she’s with us. She’ll keep prodding them and mention their special selection, and hopefully that will lead us to the guy,” Michael explained.
“I don’t know, Mike. We’ve been buzzing around that Safari Zone for weeks now, and I think it might be just a little too hot. I don’t think they’re opening up about their side business to anyone anytime soon,” Jacky replied. Even he, who always preferred plain street clothes, dressed in expensive suits now. Michael had fulfilled his promise, and was making everyone who worked for him rich.
“You would be surprised how far a pretty face can go,” Cheryl said, patting Jacky on the back.
“Confident one, isn’t she?” he said, looking from her to Michael.
“She’s right, though. This is our best option right now. I want this guy, Jacky. Think about what we can do with him gone! That Safari Zone is a gold mine. We will be the richest men in Kanto once I sit at that man’s desk and call it my own.”
“Well, Mike, you’ve always known better than me. I’d be crazy not to trust you now, I guess,” he said, then turned to Cheryl. “I wish you the best of luck too, Cheryl. You’ve done good for Mike and everybody else. You’re gonna go far.”
Jacky smiled at them and left the room. Bouncer entered behind him and Michael recalled him to his Pokeball. Cheryl looked excited and took Michael’s hands.
“So when do I go?” she asked.
“As soon as you can. You’ll have to make the trip by yourself, I’m afraid. If they see me or anyone else that works for me, they’ll know something is up immediately. I know you can do this,” he said, kissing her on the forehead.
Cheryl set off that very afternoon, just after lunch with Michael at the Slowpoke Café. He felt anxious at her departure, having not been away from her since she came back to him with her answer so many days ago.
She arrived in Fuchsia and went straight to the Safari Zone, which was relatively quiet during the weekday.
“Welcome to the world-famous Kanto Safari Zone, ma’am,” said a greeter when she walked in. “25 Safari Balls and all day to catch however many rare Pokémon you can find, all for a low price of $500.”
“My, that truly is a steal. I’ve been in Kanto for years now and have just never found the time to visit this place,” Cheryl said. “You see, I’m from Unova. And to be honest, I’ve been getting a little homesick as of late. I can’t spend the money or the time to make a trip that far, so I thought I would try my luck here. Maybe you folks have some Pokémon that are only found back home?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. The Kanto Safari Zone specializes in gathering rare Pokémon from the Kanto region, such as Kangaskhan, Chansey and even Dratini. We like to keep things local, but I assure you that you wouldn’t be disappointed if you took a stroll around the park grounds.”
“Hm, well to be frank I’m just not that fond of the native species here. So many bugs and big, smelly beasts in these parts. I was looking for something more delicate that could keep me company at home. Are you sure there’s nothing like that here? I’ve heard you have quite the selection, and I’m willing to pay the price,” Cheryl said with a wink.
“Actually,” said the Safari Zone worker, leaning across the counter, “I can help you out. My boss is here and he can show you the, uh, extra rare stock. One minute.”
The man disappeared through a door behind the counter and returned with a man in a blue suit far too fine to wear to a job at the Safari Zone. Even the warden was expected to be out in the field with the Pokémon from time to time, and Cheryl suspected that this was her man.
“Good afternoon, ma’am. I hear that you’re from Unova! I visited there as a boy, it’s a fine region. I also hear that you’re looking for something special. Would you care to come back to my office to further discuss what you’re in search of?” he said. His eyes were dark, with a somehow reddish tint to them. His dark hair was slicked back tight to his head, and he walked with his hands clasped behind his back.
“That would be lovely, you have my thanks,” she responded, and happily followed him through the door.
They walked down a long hallway that was decorated with photographs of rare Pokémon that the Safari Zone had featured over its many years as a Kanto attraction. An enormous glass case with a complete skeleton of a Rhyhorn lined one wall, and a floor-to-ceiling portrait of a mother Kangaskhan and her child was featured across from it. Finally, the trio arrived at a door, which the man opened and walked through. The greeter motioned for Cheryl to follow.
To her surprise, she was immediately taken by both arms by men who were waiting just inside the room. The man in the blue suit turned around slowly, still clasping his hands, and grinned as he looked at Cheryl, who struggled to free herself from the men.
“Did you actually think I didn’t know who you were? We’ve known exactly who you were since Reece bought that hole of a restaurant. In fact, we have a folder in our files all for you. I mean, I knew that Reece was a rookie and all, but this is truly special. He just delivered his significant other straight to his biggest enemy,” he said smugly.
“You think you’re his biggest enemy? Ha! You’re trash. Why do you think he sent me? You aren’t worth his time. He steps on bugs like you every day, and it just happened to be your turn.”
The man called her bluff and laughed, stepping toward her.
“You have no idea how much trouble you’re in, do you?” he asked, brushing aside a lock of hair from her face.
She had played it cool so far, but for the first time she truly felt scared. Michael had shown her kindness and lulled her into a false sense of security. She stupidly assumed that other criminals were just like him, but she now understood that it got far worse outside of Saffron City.
“The only thing left for me to decide is what part of you to send to him,” the man said, eliciting a scream from Cheryl and laughs from his henchmen.
“He won’t let you hurt me,” Cheryl said, panicking.
“We’ll see. I hope he tries, it’s about time I met him. I’ve been wanting to deal with this little rat personally anyway.”

Ch 9
As always, Michael was first to arrive at the headquarters the next morning. Cheryl was due to arrive after staying the night at a hotel in Fuchsia, and he looked forward to her return. To his surprise, he walked up to a small package on the doorstep of his building. He carried it inside and unwrapped it curiously, thinking that whatever was inside was as light as air.
Finally, to his horror, he unwrapped it fully and saw its contents. A lock of red and blonde hair was all that filled the package, and upon seeing it Michael went into a rage. He shoved everything off of his desk, shattering glass on the floor and tearing papers. He asked himself how he could be so stupid, but quickly realized he had to do something about this. Before he could even tell Jacky or anyone else, he set off toward Fuchsia City.
Michael’s mind was a blank rage as he arrived. He released Bouncer from his Pokeball as he approached the Safari Zone, who followed closely buzzing through the air. He burst through the door and the startled greeter stood up.
“Sir, you can’t have Pokémon in h-“
Without a word, Bouncer dashed across the room and pinned the man to the wall. Michael continued past the counter and through the door, looking at Bouncer before he entered.
“False Swipe, Bouncer,” he said. The Pokémon slashed at the man, striking him hard with the blunt side of his massive scythe and knocking him out. Bouncer followed Michael down the lengthy hallway.
He opened the door to the man in blue’s office, seeing Cheryl bound and gagged in a chair behind him. He was seated calmly at his desk, clearly waiting for Michael’s arrival. His henchmen were nowhere in sight, leaving just the three of them in the spacey, circular office. The room was decorated with more glass cases filled with skeletons of Pokémon who were featured in the Safari Zone.
“Aha! You finally arrived. I was beginning to think you decided you didn’t care for this one as much as she seems to think you do. Looks like she was right,” he smirked and turned to her, dragging a bony white finger along her jawline, causing her to wince silently.
“Keep your hands off of her,” he shouted. The man calmly looked back to Michael and sat on the corner of his desk.
“You don’t even know who I am, do you? I’ve known you ever since that adorable little Celadon heist your boys pulled. I’ve known everything about you. Not only you, but everyone you work for. And yes, everyone you love,” he said coldly, motioning toward Cheryl.
“You’re some leftover garbage from Team Rocket that Giovanni forgot to get rid of on his way out,” Michael spat.
“Did you figure that out all by yourself? Maybe you’re smarter than I thought. But by the way you burst in here all alone, I’m guessing that isn’t the case.”
“You look pretty alone to me. It seems even from what I can tell,” Michael said. He tried to seem intimidating in any way he could, but he was struggling to keep himself from visibly shaking.
“Oh, I am. I’m very alone. Not only am I going to get rid of you, I’m going to embarrass you. I don’t need an army to do my work like that joke of a leader Giovanni. I was always stronger than he was, and now I’m in my rightful position. All that’s left before I take over the rest of Kanto is getting rid of you,” he said. The man pulled a Pokeball out of his jacket and tossed it, revealing a purple winged Pokémon.
The room was big enough for the Gligar to soar freely, and he taunted Michael from above before landing on his master’s shoulder. Bouncer boldly stepped in front of Michael and readied himself for battle.
“Take him to the ground, Bouncer. Quick Attack!” Michael shouted. Bouncer was a blur as he bolted through the air, knocking the Gligar right off of the man’s shoulder. Surprised at Bouncer’s quickness, the man retreated behind his desk.
“Gligar, use Aerial Ace!” he shouted. The Pokémon seemingly disappeared before striking Bouncer across the abdomen, knocking him backward. To the man’s surprise again, Bouncer shrugged the blow off. “I’ll give you this much, that Scyther of yours can battle.”
“Steel Wing, Bouncer!” Michael commanded, feeling confident now that he was in battle. The Scyther’s wings hardened as he spiraled through the air toward the Gligar. His entire weight smashed into the Pokémon, sending him flying against the office wall. Scyther vibrated his wings, sending dust off of them as the Gligar twitched beneath a pile of broken glass. The man returned him to his Pokeball and laughed quietly.
“It’s a shame. He was my most recent addition. I was planning on showing him how to eliminate an enemy by using you as an example. I guess he can learn when I get rid of your little girlfriend.”
He reached inside his jacket pocket again and produced another Pokeball. This time a metallic, red and black Pokémon emerged into the office.
“Bisharp, use Iron Head and finish this scum,” he said.
Bouncer was a fast Pokémon, but he was unprepared for the speed of the much more experienced Bisharp. The Pokémon rushed forward and grabbed both of Bouncer’s arms, pressing him against the wall. His steely head glinted in the light as he smashed it into Bouncer, causing him to crumple into a pile on the floor. The Pokémon then looked up from his defeated enemy and straight at Michael. To their surprise, however, he tossed another Pokeball.
“Just like Giovanni,” Michael said with a laugh. “You underestimated your enemy.”
A shimmering light filled the room as Michael’s second Pokémon appeared. His Gallade confidently stepped forward and challenged the Bisharp.
“Gallade, end this. Close Combat!” Michael said, stepping toward his enemies.
The Pokémon was too fast and strong for the Bisharp to handle or even try to counter. He pummeled into the enemy and delivered a rapid volley of heavy punches to the Pokémon’s frame. The man, seeing that his Pokémon had been defeated, fumbled in his jacket pocket for another Pokeball, but Gallade and Michael were too quick. With a precise strike, Gallade sliced the man’s jacket, causing his Pokeballs to spill onto the floor. Gallade then rushed toward him and pressed him against the wall as Michael stepped forward.
“You will never see Kanto again,” he said simply before turning to Cheryl.
He unbound and embraced her, holding her as tightly as he could. She was sobbing and clutching him as Gallade kept an iron grip on the man.
“I’ll never put you in danger again, Cheryl. I’m so sorry,” he said, struggling to fight back tears himself.
“I just want to go back home, to Saffron,” she said.
He nodded and sent her away. By now, Bouncer was back on his feet, though he still looked weak. He accompanied Cheryl on her way out, and she made it to a phone where she contacted Jacky.
“O-okay, you win. I didn’t expect you to be so competent,” the man stuttered.
“You kidnapped the woman I love. What would you do to a person who did that?” Michael angrily asked.
“Look, letting me go could work out for the both of us, Reece. I’ve been around the block. I know how things work, and I worked directly under the greatest criminal this region has ever seen. You could learn a lot from me. Think of it as a favor,” he said, forcing a smile.
“Gallade, I’m going to check on Cheryl. Clean up, then meet me outside,” Michael said, bending down to pick up the Pokeballs the man had lost on the floor.
As Michael left the room and walked down the hallway toward the lobby, he heard the man’s scream. Gallade soon emerged from the room and rejoined Michael, Cheryl and Bouncer. After a short time, Jacky arrived and met them.
“I knew this wasn’t a good idea. Are you okay, Cheryl?” he asked. She offered a weak nod and leaned against Michael.
“Jacky, he needs to disappear,” Michael said, shooting a glance down the hall toward the man’s office.
“I take it he won’t be putting up a fight?” Jacky asked.
“He won’t be a problem. We’re heading back to Saffron,” Michael responded, leading Cheryl outside and returning his two Pokémon to their balls.
---
Once they had returned safely to Saffron, the couple went back to Michael’s apartment. Both of them collapsed on his bed, still shaken from the ordeal.
“I guess this is what I signed up for,” Cheryl said faintly.
“You have every right to leave. I put you through something you never should have been a part of. I wouldn’t blame you,” he said.
“I don’t want to go. I love you, Michael. I don’t think you can do this alone,” she said, looking up at him.
“You almost died, Cheryl. You nearly died and you’re worried about me and my business?” he asked, looking at her in shock.
“Michael, the better man won. You were right; you really are strong. You proved that today. You’re the king now. Kanto is yours. I wouldn’t leave you to deal with that all alone,” she said, managing a smile.
“I love you too, Cheryl,” he said, kissing her. “I’m ready to see Unova.”

Author's Notes

Spoiler

First story, yay! The conversation that opens the story is at an undetermined point in time after Michael and Cheryl are together. It's just used as a setting to give the reader an idea of Michael's personality and motivations. Also don't hold me to any canonical inaccuracies. I just placed the story a couple of years after the events of RBY and roughly rolled with it. The timeline might be off in places, but the events in those games are just used as a setup for the events in this story. Also the formatting bugs me a lot and might be easier to just read in Microsoft Word or something. I couldn't get it to format correctly when transitioning to the forum. Any questions, please contact me here or on AIM!

 

@Unk: Hey Unk! I noticed you mentioned you had some trouble with the formatting. I did the same thing with my first story, hah! All you need to do is put in an extra line after every paragraph. It looks a little odd in Word, but that'll make it look right on the forums.

Edit: 'Tis not a claim. You're in good hands! vvvv

 

I'll claim this if Elrond's post above isn't a claim, haha.

 

MADE IT IN BEFORE THE HIATUS PHEW

First off, welcome to the URPG! It’s always great to see new writers here. I’ve tried to make this grade pretty concise since this is your first foray into the wonderful world of URPG Stories, but if you have any questions/extra stuff, don’t hesitate to ask! ^^

THE QUICK BEGINNING STUFF

It’s always important to start your story off strong—keep your readers hooked from the beginning and all that good stuff. I think that the epitaph-esque/dialogue quote-y thing was a solid start, and it was simultaneously intriguing while outlining the motivations of your main character. This is great! Not much else to say here because I wanted to focus more on how you organized your plot.

THE PLOTTY STUFF

Wow, so you definitely cover a lot of ground here. Michael’s a Walter White-esque guy who’s trying to make a criminal syndicate the size of Kanto (and even bigger), but he’s still a human being with feelings. And this is only the first chapter of his rise to glory!

That’s a really cool premise for a story right there, and I think you’re capitalizing on it wonderfully. Overall, you have two pretty distinct parts here—Michael establishing his empire (Chapters 1-4ish) and Michael defending his fledging empire from an external rival (Chapters 5ish-9). The story really hits its stride in the second half, while the first half feels a little slow. (I put the “ish” around Chapters 4/5 because Chapter 4 really straddles the middle, for reasons to be explained in a sec).

Let’s break that down a bit. The first half of your plot is mostly retelling a bunch of stuff. There’s a ton of exposition, and there’s only a few areas in particular (Michael rescuing Bouncer, Michael meeting Cheryl) that you start to go into detail and flesh out fully with dialogue, action, and things happening. The rest of the first half of the plot is mostly told as a recap—a Wikipedia summary of a book rather than a book, if you will. On top of that, the plot starts doing backflips to paint Michael in a better light: he’s better than Giovanni, who apparently never considered training his Pokémon better; he’s so attractive that random waitresses get butterflies in their stomachs when he talks to them; he’s even got lines like this:

mentioned paragraphs before you start detailing how Michael strangles a guy to steal Bouncer just because Michael deems himself more worthy than whatever grunt would have the Scyther instead (not to get into a moral debate about whether or not stealing from bad people is bad, but I would hardly call it obtaining a Pokémon “legitimately”).

Similarly to a Wiki summary, there’s very little tension driving the first half of the story. There’s not much of a threat to Michael’s dominance, especially when you mention how inferior Team Rocket is to Michael at least once a chapter (and when they think that good propaganda involves having a long train of rare Pokémon guarded by awful grunts), and even more so when they fall at the end of Chapter 1. For the next two/three chapters, there’s basically nothing stopping Michael from growing except his own inhibitions and Jacky being a derp (which was comedic and not a bad thing)—neither of which are really threatening to him. Without an opposing force, your protagonist seems capable of doing anything, which makes for a pretty dull story. There’s no struggle, there’s no tension, there’s no meat to the story outside of a laundry list of activities that Michael does to prove his awesomeness.

This is where the second half of your story really shines. In introducing a shadowy villain to oppose Michael, you’ve simultaneously made the plot more interesting while opening up opportunities for Michael to react under pressure. He doesn’t seem undefeatable anymore, and you’re able to make both him and his nascent crime syndicate vulnerable and compelling in a few sentences by having Michael’s men dump a bleeding grunt on his doorstep. This was a great shift from a slow recap of an uninterrupted rise to power to a quick, action-packed, Bond-style adventure of espionage and evil. Simply having an antagonizing force made your story six million times more tense—there were suddenly consequences to Michael’s actions, and people around him were starting to get hurt, and it was possible that he might actually fail.

A good story doesn’t have to have the world constantly in the threat of danger or about to blow up or something, but you don’t want it to be a cakewalk for your protagonist for too long, either. This isn’t to say that you bring out the Big Bad right away—a lot of stories use smaller things/bosses early on to generate conflict before attacking the final villain (For instance, much of the conflict in The Avengers comes from the Avengers not working together well, while Loki is in the background for a fair amount until the climax, In Harry Potter, each book has some smaller villains, with mundane annoyances like “Professor Snape and Malfoy don’t like me D:” growing into “my professor is actually half of a Dark Wizard” and eventually blooming into “I am the Chosen One and Voldemort will kill everyone if I don’t stop him”). Tl;dr: it’s important to introduce some sort of antagonist, be it a rival operation or a conflict of morals or something, early enough in the story that you can keep things exciting until you pull out the big guns.

THE MECHANICAL STUFF

You’ve got the basics of how to grammar down solid, which is great. I’ll just go ahead and second what Elrond pointed out—you’ve got these big blocks of text all that take up the whole page because of a formatting mishap. Basically, forums and most online writing things use single space/no indent (how this grade is formatted), while most high school papers use double space/first line indent (how you would probably write an English paper) (And, random fun fact, actual books typically feature a mix between the two). For the former, which is easier to read here and definitely recommended, you just want to hit enter twice when you start a new paragraph. And, if you wanna be super pro, I typically just change the settings on my MS Word/Google Doc/word processing engine of choice, if you’re writing on that—just switch the paragraphing from double space to single space and change the indent from “first line” to “none.” Easy fix!

Otherwise, yarp you’ve got the basic grammar stuff down and there’s not much else to say here.

THE PRETTY STUFF

I want to say this up front. Your action scenes are great—they were tense, typically had high stakes, and were integrated well into the storyline. Your dialogue was also pretty fantastic, and it read very elegantly while still portraying the basic elements of the character who was speaking.

One of the areas in which you struggled a bit, though, was with the slower parts. I mentioned this a bit in the previous section—retelling a story versus telling one—but we can dig into the specifics of how to expand on that here.

“The slower parts,” or the parts where things aren’t getting decapitated by Gallade or jumped by Sneasel, are a little harder to write, but they’re crucial because they outline relationships between characters when they aren’t in life-or-death situations. For instance, you have this great, tense scene where Michael breaks into a van to rescue the Scyther, and there’s suspense and stealth and it’s generally a very exciting read. We get to see a bit about the Scyther’s character (he’s resilient but battered at the moment), and we can see the lengths that Michael will go to get something that he wants. That scene is great! But when it comes to showing the subsequent relationship that develops between Michael and the Scyther in the days that come:

These are pretty lacking compared to the action-packed scene from before, and I felt a little let-down. You’ve said quite a few times during the story that Michael and Bouncer are quite close to one another, but there aren’t really that many times where they interact.

This concept simplifies to a pretty central adage that you’ll probably hear a lot: show, don’t tell. Rather than telling us that “the Scyther was unsure of Michael at first,” try showing it instead—maybe a scene showing the start of this really great relationship beginning, like Scyther snapping at him uneasily or not eating food that Michael offers or trying to run away. Having a solid scene makes it a lot easier for readers to imagine how a relationship works rather than just saying “this is how X and Y behave with each other.”

I’d offer similar advice for your pairings between Cheryl and Michael. These two are definitely a lot more fleshed out, but they go from “hello well-dressed sir who frequents my restaurant” to “come see Unova with me I don’t care that you’re a crime lord I’ll do your dirty work” mighty fast. We hardly get a grasp of who Cheryl is before we’re told that she’s intentionally playing hard to get because she likes him so much.

My advice here would be to give some of those quieter bits as much focus as you give your action scenes. Imagine if, rather than having your climactic final battle between Gligar and Scyther, you had “Gligar and Bouncer fought, and after a while, Bouncer won.” Feels silly, right?

Basically, take a step back and look at all the moments and relationships in your story. You don’t need to expand on all of them, but pick a few of the “and over [time], X and Y [grew closer together/became friends/whatever]” and dig into that a bit more. You can write really great scenes when you put your mind to it—your action scenes are on point, for example—and if you give your character-building bit as much focus as your plot-building bits, you’ll have a nicer, rounder story with more fluid and realistic characters.

THE LENGTH STUFF

Yup, your story fits nicely within the suggested parameters for the capture you’re going for. Also, good job on going above the bare minimum—your plot was definitely complicated enough to merit more characters.

THE ENDING STUFF

One important thing to consider when writing a story to capture a Pokémon is the importance of that Pokémon. A good rule of thumb is typically to ask yourself, “If I didn’t have [Target Pokémon] in my story, would the plot be wildly different?” It’s best to have a pretty neutral (“yeah, the plot would probably be a tad different”) to positive (“story would collapse without [Target Pokémon]) answer.

For instance, Bouncer the Scyther is pretty important. He gets some good screentime, a little characterization, a nice backstory, and features heavily in the climax. The Gligar is also fairly central to the climax of the story, and he’s the main Pokémon used by the antagonist and has a nice battle. The Cottonee, though, appears for only for a few paragraphs and isn’t mentioned again. You could argue that Peach symbolizes, like, Michael and Cheryl’s collective desire to go to/conquer Unova, or a more peaceful world, or (if we really stretch) the cementing of their relationship, but even those aspects aren’t terribly central to the story (except for the last one, but that’s a bit of a reach). If we removed Peach from the story, would anything change?

For what it’s worth, I think the rest of your story was strong enough to save you here. Keep in mind, however, that as you start reaching for higher-level captures, your target Pokémon definitely have to play important roles in the plot (or you can get creative with symbolism, but that’s a lesson for a different day), m’kay?

Okay. So I just made a massive essay commenting on the pros and cons of your story. Take a step back and breathe.

All this being said, this is an excellent and truly ambitious first attempt at a story. You clearly have an epic vision for Michael’s criminal exploits in the future, and I look forward to reading more from you in the future. You definitely have a strong grasp of storytelling, and this is a great foundation for what is shaping up to be a fantastic action series. A quick recap of things to consider for future works:

=Try to do less retelling and more showing for things that happen.
=Your dialogue is great! Use it more! Expand those scenes!
=Try to introduce tension/interesting things early in the story.
=Clean up that formatting/hit the enter key twice.
=If you’re trying to capture a Pokémon, make sure that it plays (at least) a mildly important role.
=Keep being awesome!

Oh, and because I haven’t officially said it anywhere, Scyther, Cottonee, and Gligar captured. Congratulations on a great first story, and keep up the great work! ^^