Invisible by Marvech93

Chapter 26 The fall

And this is where it goes downhill...

Warnings: violence and language

Chapter 26: The Fall

Blue sighed tiredly when he opened the door to his office, not in the slightest eager to deal with the mountain of paperwork that was still waiting for him after his long time off. It was 11 pm and he had trouble finding sleep so he figured he might as well get up and use his time for something more useful than tossing and turning. The gym leader walked over to his chair dressed simply in a light blue shirt and black pants. He looked out pensively out the window on his right for a moment, trying to convince himself that he was not procrastinating.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a deep, unfamiliar voice coming from somewhere behind him: "Imagine my surprise..." the unknown owner of the masculine voice said with a distinctive nonchalance. Blue quickly spun around and immediately spotted the man standing in the doorway at the other side of the room, his heart beating fast from being startled out of his thoughts. The gym was supposed to be empty. He did not expect a visitor. "...when I found out that the person who took over my gym was that little brat from Pallet Town who won my Earth Badge," the intruder finished, sliding his hands into the pockets of his expensive-looking black suit.

Blue's hand instinctively went to his pokéball belt. The last part of that sentence had immediately clarified who he had in front of him. The former owner of the Viridian City gym, Giovanni, a man Blue now knew used to also be the boss of Team Rocket thanks to Red. Except Team Rocket was supposed to have been disbanded years ago. The wanted criminal was apparently completely fine with being recognized upfront, as evidenced by the blood red 'R' insignia sown on his blazer, which was a thing Blue was positive was not a good sign.

Blue had only seen him once over eleven years ago when he had challenged him for his Earth Badge and had become the first one to beat his ground type pokémon in years. He remembered him only vaguely yet he recognized his looks and mannerism instantly. Just like all the pictures he had seen of the crook in the newspaper, Giovanni still had his impeccably combed short hair (although it was visibly greying), his perfectly ironed suit, his pale, boogeyman-like face and his confident, arrogant smirk that was not unlike Blue's own. There had been a lot of rumors lately about the return of the supposedly disbanded criminal organization but Blue just had it confirmed right now in front of him that it was true. Whatever brought Giovanni to sneak into his office, it couldn't be good. And he probably wasn't alone.

"Get out of my office," Blue ordered coldly, running his index finger over Blastoise's pokéball, ready to send him into action at the first sign of a threat.

The blonde trainer furrowed his brow suspiciously when the older man simply snickered without budging. "Now, now," he jeered, "there is no need for such hostility. I have only come to get back what is rightfully mine."

He thinks I'm Red, Blue realized. His friend had told him all about his altercation with Team Rocket as well as his discovery that the mysterious psychic pokémon that was hiding away in Cerulean Cave was a genetically engineered killing machine that the criminal organization had created. Red had beaten Giovanni and his henchmen and the latter had all but vanished for more than a decade. Red had also gone and captured their escaped monster but Blue knew now that he hadn't kept it. The creature was being safely contained in a high-security research facility since Red had left his champion position. Now, Team Rocket wanted it back. And they thought he was the one who had it.

It was only natural that they would go after the last person they knew for a fact had been in possession of the powerful pokémon. Or at the very least, the one they thought was the person. Giovanni didn't realize yet that he had come after the wrong guy. The 'brat from Pallet Town' he was looking for wasn't him but it was not surprising he had mistaken him for Red. Though they didn't exactly look alike, Giovanni had only ever seen him once, for the duration of their battle and seen Red twice; all of it over a decade ago. Team Rocket had most likely zeroed-in on him because he was the same age, was from the same hometown as their intended target, was one of the only two to have earned the Earth Badge in a long time and had become a champion afterward. Their similarities in that aspect were damning and making them easy to mix up to an outsider who knew them as kids only. He wondered if they had found Red and gone after him, yet. Blue wasn't exactly difficult to find. He was a well known public figure now, while Red still maintained a secluded, discreet lifestyle. Though he was fully aware of the potential danger of the situation he was in, Blue figured it would be for the greater good if he kept on making Giovanni believe he was his person of interest for as long as he could. If he could only find a way to contact Red without him noticing...