The Road to our Destiny

Chapter 43

Giovanni has had a cruel, mischievous grin on his face over the last several days. From the window in his office, he has been watching Dr. Zager, and his people slowly build the machine he desires for his future plans involving Arceus. As he pets his Persian while watching, a twisted sense of giddiness fills his body with every bit of progress, his minions make to reach his ultimate goal. He lifts his free hand and half closes it, imagining he's holding the Gieldanstone while Arceus is positioned where he wants it to be inside the large contraption.

His moment of daydreaming is interrupted, however, when he hears a beeping sound coming from his intercom. He groans softly in annoyance and turns around to his desk to answer it.

"Yes, Matori, what is it?" He asks.

"Agent Basker has arrived, sir," Matori answers through the speakers. "He wishes to speak with you privately before he joins Dr. Zager and his team."

Giovanni frowns seriously and slowly takes a deep breath before he begrudgingly says, "Send him in."

"Yes, boss," Matori replies.

The door opens to reveal Agent Basker entering the room, wearing a long, black coat with a red R on the upper left side. The cyborg man walks over to Giovanni's desk and salutes, firmly saying, "Sir!"

"Agent Basker, you took longer to return than ordered," Giovanni says plainly. "I hope you have a reason to not already be helping Dr. Zager on the project."

"Yes, sir, I do," Agent Basker says confidently. "I made some concerning discoveries before leaving Kalos that I feel I must discuss with you privately. Specifically, discoveries involving the team you sent to find the Gieldanstone."

Giovanni frowns, suspicious that Agent Basker is childishly trying to defy his decision for Jessie, James, and Meowth to be on their mission just like Matori.

"Go on," he says.

Agent Basker nods and rolls up the left sleeve of his coat to reveal his robot arm. He takes out a long cable from inside the palm of his mechanical hand and extends it before attaching it to the back of Giovanni's computer. His red mechanical eye starts blinking rapidly as a holographic screen appears in front of the leader of Team Rocket, showing a crowd of people with a man in a lab coat is giving medals to a couple of teenagers.

"What is this? What am I looking at?" Giovanni asks impatiently.

"This is news footage of these kids being declared the heroes of Kalos," Agent Basker says. "From several sources, I've been told that they are the people who are actually responsible for Team Flare's defeat."

"So? There's no proof that they defeated them, and Jessie, James, and Meowth didn't," Giovanni rebukes.

"Except for this security footage I eventually found outside of Team Flare headquarters," Agent Basker says.

The image changes to a helicopter where a professor and two of the teenagers, a short red-haired girl and a honey blonde girl with a Braixen infiltrate the base, followed by a TV crew. It cuts to a clip inside the building where the group is blocked by a pair of Team Flare members. Suddenly, the TV crew jump in to remove their clothes to reveal Jessie, James, and Meowth in their Team Rocket uniforms. James is saying something to the honey blonde girl, and she nods before leaving in the other direction with the red-haired girl and the professor.

The image then changes to other videos involving a little girl calming down a raging Zygarde, a boy in a blue jumpsuit using a robot to destroy Team Flare's machine and even the Hoenn Champion, Steven Stone taking down several of Team Flare's Pokemon with his Pokemon. With each video, it slowly becomes clear to Giovanni that the Team Rocket Trio barely did anything to defeat Team Flare or Lysander. When the videos are over, the hologram turns off, and Giovanni turns to Agent.