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This was my entry for the competition and, following Aladar's example, I'm posting as a seperate thread so you lovely people can let me know what you think!
EDIT: Hello there user who is reading this one shot waaaaaaaaaaay after it was first posted - comments are still appreciated!
Here it is! Beware, British spellings ahoy!
Two's Company
Silver sat in the corridor waiting for his father to return, absolutely outraged that this was happening soon after his return. Silver had essentially lived alone with his mother in Viridian City for a great number of years while his father, the great Giovanni, had been off being a criminal overlord. At the time, Silver’s parents had still been together, but his father never had time for the family, so they may as well have been separated. Eventually, Silver left home to go on a journey through Johto, a region that he had always idolised, mainly because it was far away enough that he could get away from his mother, but near enough that he could come crying to her if things went badly. It took Silver a while to get to Johto in the first place, even longer to actually obtain a Pokémon and then he spent a fair amount of time travelling through the region, but eventually, Silver returned and when he did, his father had retired from his criminal enterprises and disbanded Team Rocket. Not only that, but in the time Silver had been gone; Team Rocket had been reformed and disbanded all over again. Silver didn’t particularly care about the details of what happened regarding his father’s criminal organisation, he had just been glad to have him back.
All that happened just one month ago and then earlier this morning, all this peace was ruined when Giovanni received an urgent contact from an old colleague of his telling him that there was a great danger in the Goldenrod Underground, the HQ that they had been using, and that only Giovanni himself was powerful enough to have any hope at sorting it out. Silver knew that this was no false alarm either, as this colleague was one of the former Rocket Executives involved in the recent reformation of Team Rocket. Upon receiving the message, Giovanni had asked Silver and former Rocket Executive, Richard, to accompany him to Goldenrod City to deal with the problem. It was obvious why Giovanni had chosen these two people in particular. Silver had proven himself as a truly spectacular Trainer during his time away from home and was an extremely reliable back up to have. Richard, as previously stated, was a former Rocket Executive, and a loyal one at that, so loyal in fact, that in the time since Giovanni first disbanded Team Rocket, Richard became almost a family butler – and was happy to have that role too, not only that, but he was a powerful Trainer. If anything went wrong against this ‘great danger’, then Giovanni had ample back up. Not that he would need it, Silver considered himself to be one of the best Trainers there was and he had met only three Trainers in his life who he considered to have superior talent even to him, and his father was one of them, no matter what the danger, Giovanni was not going to lose.
Silver and Richard sat in silence for a few moments longer. It was obvious that they were both beginning to have slight doubts about Giovanni’s success which they had previously been so certain about. Silver couldn’t help but wonder why the three of them didn’t go in together and completely obliterate whatever this ‘great danger’ was – no matter how great this danger, it wasn’t going to be greater than the Giovanni, Silver, Richard trio. Silver began to speak when the door next to their seats cracked open, for a moment Silver thought it might be the deadly opponent that his father had been facing but when he looked up he saw the familiar face of Giovanni come out and smile reassuringly.
“You dealt with it, then?” Silver asked his father.
“Yes,” replied Giovanni, “It all went according to plan, it’s just us now.”
Silver didn’t ask what his father faced when he was in the room, he was just happy to have him back, the three of them left the Underground and headed back towards the station, where they’d get the first Magnet Train back into Kanto and be back home in Viridian in no time.
*********************************************************************
That morning was like any of the mornings Giovanni had experienced for the last month. He woke up to a loving wife, who had become all the more beautiful in the time he had spent away from her; perhaps it’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder after all. Not only that, but he woke with the knowledge that his strong, independent son was in the next room, he had never been as proud of another human being than he was of his son, Silver. Giovanni knew that one day, perhaps not all that far away, Silver would surpass him in strength and, if all went to plan, he would use that strength for better things than Giovanni did. Giovanni knew that he was happier than he ever had been in his life and his only regret was that he didn’t make it happen sooner.
However, that morning he received an urgent communication that would change everything. The message came from Professor Ivan Cornell, former Head of Research and Development of Team Rocket and one of the three Executives who assisted in its revival in Johto. The message explained that he had developed something horrible for use in the war against the world that Team Rocket had planned while it was at its peak in Johto, however after being beaten by a young boy, the Executive in charge of the operation had, for reasons understood only by the leader himself, called it all off, leaving Professor Cornell’s horrible project useless. Cornell went on to explain that he could not bring himself to simply destroy that which he had spent so long to create, so he simply allowed it to live on in a cryogenic chamber, in the hope that one day it would be useful. Unfortunately, rather than becoming useful, it somehow managed to free itself from its chamber and, as super soldiers were prone to do, it attempted to kill everyone in the building. Luckily, very few people remained in the Underground at that time, but it did successfully kill a fair number of Grunts before Cornell was able to lock it in one of the Underground chambers. Cornell’s message went on to detail how he could not imagine anyone but Giovanni himself taking on the beast he created with even a glimmer of hope for success and how if left unchecked, this monster was sure to escape and ravage destruction across the land. Giovanni had half a mind to ignore the problem and hope it went away, but decided that he had to accept responsibility for it – it was him who originally founded Team Rocket all those years ago, if he had not done that, then this would never have happened.
Giovanni made preparations and that day asked his son, Silver and his one faithful Executive from his Team Rocket days, Richard to accompany him to the Goldenrod Underground where he would take care of the problem. He requested that they wait outside and only intervene if absolutely necessary, Giovanni was a proud man and he was determined to clean up his own mess. With the aid of the Magnet Train, it didn’t take very long at all to get into Goldenrod and they were at the door of the Underground within two hours of leaving.
“Wait here,” instructed Giovanni to both Silver and Richard.
Neither of them said anything in response, it was obvious that if they had said anything it would’ve been an objection, but it was obvious also that neither of them dared to contradict the great Giovanni and so he walked in alone, as planned.
“Hello?” called out Giovanni when he entered the room, not really sure what he was looking for, “Is anyone there?”
Giovanni had his hand gripped tight around his Rhyperior’s Poké Ball, ready to send out his first Pokémon at a moment’s notice, when he heard a chilling voice replying to his call.
“Greetings,” came the voice, “I wondered how long it would take you.”
“Who are you?” demanded Giovanni, unable to see his opponent due to the lack of light in the Underground.
When Giovanni did see who was with him, it chilled him to the core, out of the shadows stepped his exact double, a second Giovanni.
*********************************************************************
Professor Cornell stood by the cryogenic chamber and once again impatiently explained the project to his colleague, the new head of Team Rocket, Keane.
“You’ve said many times that you can’t wait until Giovanni returns and relieves you of the stresses of leadership, correct?” asked Cornell, rhetorically.
“Yes, that’s correct,” answered Keane, still unsure of what Cornell was suggesting.
“Well I’ve solved that problem,” explained Cornell, “In this chamber lies for all intents and purposes, our former leader, Giovanni.”
“But he’s also a Pokémon?” quizzed Keane.
“Yes,” replied Cornell impatiently, “He was constructed from strands of Giovanni’s DNA and the bodies of twenty Ditto – so while he has the brains of our former leader, he has the ability to change into any Pokémon, thus making him as intelligent, but much more powerful than Giovanni himself ever was.”
“But isn’t that exactly what a Ditto can do?” questioned Keane, still failing to see how this project was at all worth the funds he had channelled into it, Cornell’s ‘super soldier’ had cost Team Rocket so much that unless it was literally able to dominate the entirety of Johto for them, they were sunk, so Keane wasn’t particularly pleased with the fact that Cornell had managed to piss away all of that money on reinventing Ditto.
“No!” cried Cornell, now becoming extremely frustrated, “This creature has Giovanni’s brain! It is far superior to the intelligence of a Ditto, which requires constant instruction to be of any use! Giovanni was an expert on Pokémon, which means he will be an expert on the usage of their moves and will be able to use them with frighteningly effectively without having to go through the pain of shouting orders and thus revealing his plan to his opponent. Not only that but because his body is made from multiple Ditto, he can transform parts of his body at a time and not the entirety, meaning he could, if he so desired, transform himself into a mixture of twenty different Pokémon at once!”
“And at the same time,” checked Keane, “He would still be the Giovanni we know and love?”
“Yes!” exclaimed Cornell, ecstatic that his leader finally understood his project.
“I finally understand…” said Keane, waiting for the smile on Cornell’s face, just so he could turn it into a grimace, “I finally understand why Giovanni left Team Rocket! I can’t believe he put up with idiots like you on a day to day basis! If one more thing goes wrong today, Team Rocket is over – and this time it’ll be for good!”
Cornell didn’t even bother trying to convince Keane to take this statement back; he didn’t think it was at all necessary. Eventually, Keane would be convinced of his project’s brilliance and he would be forced to eat his words, just so long as nothing else bad happened that day, there was absolutely nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, later that day, one of the poorly thought out plans masterminded by Keane, who in Cornell’s opinion was excellent at rallying the troops but wouldn’t be choice number one for thinking, was brought down by a ten year old boy with no help whatsoever and Keane decided that enough was enough and called for a second disbandment of Team Rocket and this time, no one was willing to take his place… The project that Cornell had worked so hard to create was going to go to waste.
*********************************************************************
“So they cloned me?” checked Giovanni, unable to believe what he was seeing.
“Not quite cloned,” answered the doppelganger, “But close enough.”
“Alright, well unfortunately for you,” stated Giovanni, trying to play it as coolly as possible, “There’s only room for one Giovanni in this world, so you’re gonna have to go.”
“Oh, am I?” responded the clone.
“We can come to an arrangement, I suppose,” reasoned Giovanni, “If you don’t resist, I can let you live. It will be under constant supervision and you will only rarely be able to leave the house, but you won’t be a prisoner as such. You’ll be allowed human contact – both my wife, my son, my former Executive and myself will gladly indulge you in conversation on a day to day basis and we’ll provide you with three home made meals a day.”
“That sounds like a lovely arrangement, but I’m afraid I have my sights set a little higher,” retorted the clone.
“I thought you’d say as much,” replied Giovanni with a smile, he held out Rhyperior’s Poké Ball in front of him and continued speaking, “I can see you don’t have any Pokémon on you, I can tell this sort of thing at a glance. That means that I could kill you right now and you couldn’t do a thing to defend yourself. Last chance, I’ll still let you come with me peacefully if you surrender now.”
Giovanni smirked to himself, there was absolutely no way his doppelganger was going to get out of this one, he had six strong Pokémon with him and two partners armed to the same degree waiting outside while this clone was totally unarmed. Cornell’s warning was absolutely ridiculous, this guy wasn’t a danger, he was pathetic and yet, in response to Giovanni’s threat, the clone laughed. Giovanni sensed something wasn’t quite right, but too late, his clone’s arm suddenly transformed into a tentacle, reached out, grabbed Rhyperior’s Poké Ball and slung it to the floor. Once the Poké Ball was on the floor, the clone changed his arm back to normal and transformed his foot, possibly for irony, into that of a Rhyperior and used it to crush Rhyperior’s Poké Ball, killing Giovanni’s first ever Pokémon without a second’s hesitation.
“Unfortunately for you, I’m not as noble as you,” announced the clone, “I’m not going to let you surrender and just like I did then, I’m going to take advantage of every tiny mistake, every moment of hesitation, every flicker of weakness and I’m going to use them to bring you to your knees, weeping like a child… And then I’m going to kill you.”
“But… why?” asked Giovanni, struggling to understand his doppelganger’s motives, surely he gained little advantage by killing Giovanni?
“As you said,” replied the clone, “There’s only room for one Giovanni in this world, so you’re gonna have to go.”
*********************************************************************
Cornell sat in the Underground, in an isolated cell, alongside his project’s cryogenic chamber.
‘Would it be so bad,’ thought Cornell, ‘If I let him out… Just to meet him?’
Cornell concluded that it would, he had created the most dangerous weapon in the world and had given it the brain of a criminal mastermind – he couldn’t even think of anything more dangerous than that. But still, he wanted his creation to have a moment’s breath, he could open up the chamber just a crack so he could speak to him and then close it again before he had a chance to escape. In fact, Cornell was sure he could fix some sort of vice to the chamber, making it impossible to open past a certain width. In fact, Cornell had one in his tool box, which he just happened to have with him. Cornell attached the vice to the chamber and opened it up, just as much as the vice would allow, which wasn’t more than three or four inches.
“Hello?” greeted Cornell.
“Am I… alive?” came the response.
“Yes,” answered Cornell, “Did you think you weren’t?”
“I… thought I died…” answered the clone, “The last thing I remember is giving a DNA sample… And since then… I’ve been dreaming… It was like I died… So I’m alive?”
“That’s right,” responded Cornell with a smile, he couldn’t believe he was actually speaking to his creation right now, he felt so lucky.
“Then I’m going to keep it that way,” stated the clone.
“Wh-what do you mean?” questioned Cornell, the clone’s statement had sounded like a threat. Cornell had no idea why it would threaten its creator, but apparently, it was completely willing to.
“The reason I felt dead…” retorted the clone, “Is because life wasn’t given to me as soon as I was created, was it? I’ve been in this cryogenic chamber for a long time, haven’t I?”
“Well, I mean, it couldn’t-” babbled the Professor.
“Don’t try to cover it up!” snapped the clone, in a tone that made Cornell feel like he was back in the room with Giovanni, like he had been all that time ago, “I can see what you’re thinking… So, I understand I can only get out of here if you release the vice on the chamber, correct?”
“Y-yes,” answered Cornell sheepishly, his ecstasy had become fear, he could not believe what he had created and, honestly, he was starting to regret it, he built up the courage to continue talking, “But I won’t do it!”
“I think you will,” responded the clone, laughing.
Cornell stood firm, but of what felt like their own volition, his arms began to move and unfasten the vice.
“Are- are you doing this?” demanded Cornell.
“Well who else would it be?” smirked the clone.
Before long the vice was completely unfastened and the clone was lifting the lid of the cryogenic chamber. Cornell knew that nothing he could do would save his life if his creation wished to take it, but he could still save the lives of others. Cornell had never been an ethical man and throughout his life had caused the deaths of many people, but he had always wanted his last action to be one for the good fight, so he took his emergency contact device out of his inner pocket. In the heyday of Team Rocket, every Executive had carried one of these, but they were all destroyed or lost, making contact with Giovanni absolutely impossible. Cornell had always claimed that he had never had one as he never had need for one, being constantly by Giovanni’s side, but this was a lie. In truth, Cornell had simply not wanted to use the device to bother Giovanni, suspecting that if he did, Giovanni would destroy his own and then when a real emergency showed itself, he would have no way of contacting Giovanni and this investment proved worth while. Cornell began typing out a warning message to Giovanni on the device, trying to tell him everything that happened, but before he had typed two words, Giovanni’s menacing figure was standing above him.
“What are you doing?” demanded the clone.
“N-nothing,” answered Cornell, in a feeble attempt to keep his life, “Please! I created you! Have mercy!”
“Mercy is for the weak,” responded the clone, he then looked at the device in Cornell’s hand, “I will take this though.”
Cornell stood, paralysed with fear as the clone removed the device from Cornell’s hand, raised his own hand, transforming it into a claw as he did so and then slashed across his creator’s stomach. Cornell began bleeding profusely through the large hole in the front of his stomach, dying a slow and painful death, he died knowing that he was right about the power of his creation all along; the thing he was wrong about was the assumption that they would be able to control it.
*********************************************************************
Giovanni had no time to mourn the loss of his first ever Pokémon, he could still save the rest of his Pokémon and, more importantly, himself. Giovanni thought about the Pokémon he had with him; Tyranitar, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Dugtrio and Gliscor. He could easily send out all four of them, but that would only heighten the possibility that he would make a mistake or oversight, he couldn’t watch all four at once. Instead, Giovanni decided that he would send out three, that seemed like a number he could watch simultaneously, he chose Nidoking and Nidoqueen as they were very similar Pokémon and could potentially be ordered simultaneously and to go with them he chose Dugtrio, his weakest Pokémon, so that if anything went wrong, recovery was still possible.
Giovanni ordered Dugtrio to use Dig to create an element of surprise for when it surfaced and ordered Nidoking and Nidoqueen to attempt Fissure attacks. Both Fissure attacks were inaccurate and the clone laughed, quietly first, but growing into a highly audible laugh. Giovanni thought at first he was laughing at the inaccuracy of Fissure, but then he began to transform. The clone became a Gliscor, not at all unlike the one in a Poké Ball on Giovanni’s belt and then Giovanni realised why his clone was really laughing, he had outwitted Giovanni once again. In the form of Gliscor, Giovanni’s clone used an Earthquake attack, which immediately knocked out Dugtrio, as it was dealt extra damage due to being underground and knocked both Nidoking and Nidoqueen to their feet, dealing them huge amounts of damage due to the super effective hit.
‘Damn,’ thought Giovanni, ‘He’s constantly outwitting me… And yet, he is me…’
Then the awful realisation hit Giovanni, he gave the DNA that they must have used for this clone over two years ago and that was the only difference between their minds – the clone was younger, and perhaps Giovanni was getting older, less able to think and less able to react. It was true that while Giovanni was finding ever more grey hairs in his head and wrinkles on his face, his doppelganger appeared to be suffering from none of this, his face looked wrinkle free and his hair was thick and black. Giovanni had aged a lot in the past two years, could family life really be more stressful than being a full time criminal mastermind? It was looking less and less likely that Giovanni was going to leave this room alive, but he wasn’t going down without a fight. He could call Silver and Richard in, but that wasn’t why he’d called them there, he intended to clean up his own mess or die trying and if he did die, it would fall to Silver and Richard to try and contain that which he could not, but not before.
“Ice Beam!” shouted Giovanni, ordering both of his active Pokémon at once.
Both Nidoking and Nidoqueen reacted to this order in spectacular reaction time, but not as spectacular as the clone, who transformed himself into a Cloyster, turning his double vulnerability to Ice into a double resistance. Then, without more than a second’s delay, Giovanni’s clone launched a Surf attack, knocking out Nidoqueen and brining Nidoking down to a pitiful amount of health, but this didn’t have to be it, Nidoking still had one shot at glory.
“Nidoking!” yelled Giovanni at the top of his voice, “Toxic!”
Nidoking leapt forwards and moved faster than the clone could react and hit him whilst he was still in the form of a Cloyster, causing him to become badly poisoned. The clone retaliated by using Clamp on Nidoking and subsequently knocking him out, but it didn’t matter, the damage was done. The clone changed back into his original form, that of Giovanni and he looked physically sick, Nidoking really had done his job.
“Wait,” said the clone as Giovanni went to his belt to send out his next Pokémon, “Before the battle continues, I have something to tell you.”
“Yes?” asked Giovanni, not taking his hand off of Gliscor’s Poké Ball.
“You were brought here under false pretences,” conceded the clone.
“What do you mean?” questioned Giovanni.
“Professor Cornell didn’t send the message summoning you here,” explained the clone, “In fact, he was already dead by the time that message was sent. It was me who sent the message.”
“But… why?” quizzed Giovanni in confusion.
“So that I could destroy you,” stated the clone, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Giovanni didn’t reply to this, he simply looked in horror at the clone – it was him, but so much more.
“Allow me to elaborate,” continued the clone, apparently requiring no input from Giovanni whatsoever, “I have become, physically, the most powerful man in the world. No one could match me, I have the power to turn into almost any Pokémon in an instant, but I think if enough powerful Trainers came up against me, I may be overcome. Perhaps even if a few powerful Trainers backed up by a huge number of weaker Trainers would be able to overcome me, who knows. That’s where you come in. You can reform Team Rocket at the click of your fingers, things fell apart beneath Keane because he was young, inexperienced and rash, but we’re not like that. We’re in a different class of intelligence than him, he was an excellent Executive, but a poor leader, if you, or I, were to go on a recruitment drive for Team Rocket to reform, we’d have hundreds of applicants within the hour and that’s what I plan to do. I am going to dominate the world, with the help of Team Rocket, I will be completely unstoppable. I may even be able to come face to face with Legendary Pokémon and thus gain the ability to become them, making me even more impossibly formidable than I already am. But you stand in the way of that, as long as the real Giovanni exists, I cannot become Giovanni and that is why you must die.”
“I understand,” replied Giovanni coolly, “What you’re saying is it’s not just my life that’s at stake, it’s that of millions of people around the globe. That just makes it all the more important that I win this fight.”
Giovanni was pleased with himself, he had managed to keep his clone talking, thus allowing the poison to take greater and greater effect, and it was obvious that it was starting to hurt him. Giovanni thought about delaying sending out his next Pokémon, but then he thought that might be pushing things, his clone did say he would take advantage of every mistake to crush him and he did openly say that he intended to kill him. Giovanni went to send out Gliscor, but then he saw something so disheartening he couldn’t help but stop completely dead. His clone transformed into a Chansey and used Heal Bell, clearing up the poison, followed by Softboiled, restoring the health which Giovanni’s Pokémon had worked so hard to whittle away.
Giovanni felt like breaking down and crying, but he knew he couldn’t, if he did, that would be the last thing he did and if these were going to be his last moments, he’d live them with pride. He had to come up with a plan, something which Giovanni was very good at, but only ever from positions of pre-existing superiority, Giovanni rarely considered himself the underdog. There was only one Trainer he had ever considered his superior and even he would have been totally outclassed by his current opponent, the only way Giovanni could win was if he was tactically perfect. Instead of sending out Gliscor, as he had originally intended, Giovanni decided to send out Tyranitar. Hopefully, his clone would pounce upon Tyranitar’s double weakness to Fighting, little would he know that Giovanni would still have one hand on Gliscor’s Poké Ball, ready to pounce on him with a Flying type attack. If all went to plan, it would just be a matter of maintaining the advantage from that point, which with the wide variety of Types which the two Pokémon could deal with between them, shouldn’t really be too much trouble.
Predictably, as soon as Tyranitar was on the field, the clone took the form of a Machamp, the strongest Fighting Pokémon and began striking at Tyranitar with an awesome Cross Chop, but before the attack landed, Giovanni sent out Gliscor who immediately intervened with an Aerial Ace attack, knocking the clone off his feet. As he hit the floor, the clone transformed again, this time becoming a Weavile, clearly ready to strike back against Gliscor with an Ice attack, but Giovanni didn’t give him that chance.
“Stone Edge!” shouted Giovanni to Tyranitar.
Tyranitar ran towards its opponent and attack brutally, preventing him from standing once again. Again, the clone transformed, this time becoming a Golem, probably in an attempt to take advantage of Tyranitar and Gliscor’s respective Ground and Rock weaknesses, but Giovanni was going to make him regret it.
“Double Earthquake!” shouted Giovanni, Gliscor’s Earthquake would probably cause a fair amount of damage to Tyranitar, but the two together might just be enough to take out the clone.
Tyranitar and Gliscor obediently carried out their master’s orders, knocking the clone to the floor, leaving him lying still and unmoving, he began to transform once again, but this time into the all too familiar form of Giovanni.
“I think that’s it,” stated Giovanni calmly, he then turned to Tyranitar, “Pick him up and return him to the cryogenic chamber, where he belongs.”
Tyranitar obediently picked up the clone, slinging him over its shoulder and began to trundle towards the miraculously intact cryogenic chamber.
Giovanni dusted himself off and returned Gliscor to his Poké Ball, happy that he had finally defeated his most fearsome opponent to date, when suddenly he heard a roar, it was obvious that it was Tyranitar that made the noise, but it wasn’t his usual cry, it sounded like a screech of terror. Giovanni turned to see the clone, once again in the form of a Machamp, back on his feet, slugging Tyranitar and knocking it to the ground.
“No!” yelled Giovanni at the top of his voice, he could not believe this was happening, he had lost yet another Pokémon.
“No mercy!” shouted the clone, transforming back into a Weavile whilst doing so. The clone ran over Tyranitar’s body, running the blade of one hand across it, slicing it clean in half. That was a second Pokémon that had been killed rather than just knocked out, today Giovanni had lost his two most powerful Pokémon, including his first Pokémon ever and still his opponent showed no sign of slowing down.
Giovanni grabbed Gliscor’s Poké Ball back of his belt, but it was too slow, he couldn’t compete with the speed of a Weavile. The clone shot an Ice Beam, frighteningly accurately at the Poké Ball in Giovanni’s hand, thankfully this time it was not destroyed, but it was frozen solid, making it entirely unusable, Giovanni was now completely defenceless.
Giovanni was a proud man and did not hold his arms up or attempt to defend himself in anyway as his opponent, in the form of a Weavile, sprinted up towards him, angling blades towards his chest and neck. Giovanni knew that he didn’t have long left and he intended to live out the short remainder of his life with dignity, however he could not help but flinch as his opponent stormed towards him and flung a blade right up to his face, stopping only centimetres before it cut his face apart. When Giovanni opened his eyes he saw the familiar figure of himself standing in front of him.
“I thought I would give you the honour of being killed by a human,” explained the clone, “You’ve been a lot of fun, but I’m afraid your time is up.”
“I thought as much,” replied Giovanni.
“Do you have any last requests?” asked the clone.
“I would appreciate it if you could give my surviving Pokémon to my son, Silver,” answered Giovanni honestly, “But I suppose you’ll want to use them?”
“No,” replied the clone, “I can do that. Your Gliscor has died of hypothermia, but I’ll give Silver your Nidoking, Nidoqueen and Dugtrio. Is that all?”
“Sometimes…” responded Giovanni, “Mercy is worthwhile.”
“Incorrect!” shouted the clone in response, Giovanni’s two or three years of seniority obviously made a surprising amount of difference, but then that’s not all that surprising, Giovanni did recall being a very angry man when he was the leader of Team Rocket. The clone transformed his right arm back into the blade it had just been and looked Giovanni in the eye.
“I’m sorry it had to end this way for you,” said the clone, truly apologetic and stabbed Giovanni through the stomach, the clone held his blade in place for a few seconds until he felt the last of Giovanni’s life pass out of his body. He picked up the three Poké Balls on Giovanni’s belt, put them on his own and strolled out of the room as if nothing had happened.
As he walked out of the room he caught the eye of his son, Silver, who looked not only physically older than when he had last seen him, but also mentally, the boy had grown a lot and the new Giovanni had missed it all, but there was going to be time to catch up and he would ensure that his son would be living a life of luxury before long.
“You dealt with it then?” asked the boy.
“Yes,” replied the man who was now Giovanni, “It all went according to plan, it’s just us now.”
EDIT: Hello there user who is reading this one shot waaaaaaaaaaay after it was first posted - comments are still appreciated!
Here it is! Beware, British spellings ahoy!
Two's Company
Silver sat in the corridor waiting for his father to return, absolutely outraged that this was happening soon after his return. Silver had essentially lived alone with his mother in Viridian City for a great number of years while his father, the great Giovanni, had been off being a criminal overlord. At the time, Silver’s parents had still been together, but his father never had time for the family, so they may as well have been separated. Eventually, Silver left home to go on a journey through Johto, a region that he had always idolised, mainly because it was far away enough that he could get away from his mother, but near enough that he could come crying to her if things went badly. It took Silver a while to get to Johto in the first place, even longer to actually obtain a Pokémon and then he spent a fair amount of time travelling through the region, but eventually, Silver returned and when he did, his father had retired from his criminal enterprises and disbanded Team Rocket. Not only that, but in the time Silver had been gone; Team Rocket had been reformed and disbanded all over again. Silver didn’t particularly care about the details of what happened regarding his father’s criminal organisation, he had just been glad to have him back.
All that happened just one month ago and then earlier this morning, all this peace was ruined when Giovanni received an urgent contact from an old colleague of his telling him that there was a great danger in the Goldenrod Underground, the HQ that they had been using, and that only Giovanni himself was powerful enough to have any hope at sorting it out. Silver knew that this was no false alarm either, as this colleague was one of the former Rocket Executives involved in the recent reformation of Team Rocket. Upon receiving the message, Giovanni had asked Silver and former Rocket Executive, Richard, to accompany him to Goldenrod City to deal with the problem. It was obvious why Giovanni had chosen these two people in particular. Silver had proven himself as a truly spectacular Trainer during his time away from home and was an extremely reliable back up to have. Richard, as previously stated, was a former Rocket Executive, and a loyal one at that, so loyal in fact, that in the time since Giovanni first disbanded Team Rocket, Richard became almost a family butler – and was happy to have that role too, not only that, but he was a powerful Trainer. If anything went wrong against this ‘great danger’, then Giovanni had ample back up. Not that he would need it, Silver considered himself to be one of the best Trainers there was and he had met only three Trainers in his life who he considered to have superior talent even to him, and his father was one of them, no matter what the danger, Giovanni was not going to lose.
Silver and Richard sat in silence for a few moments longer. It was obvious that they were both beginning to have slight doubts about Giovanni’s success which they had previously been so certain about. Silver couldn’t help but wonder why the three of them didn’t go in together and completely obliterate whatever this ‘great danger’ was – no matter how great this danger, it wasn’t going to be greater than the Giovanni, Silver, Richard trio. Silver began to speak when the door next to their seats cracked open, for a moment Silver thought it might be the deadly opponent that his father had been facing but when he looked up he saw the familiar face of Giovanni come out and smile reassuringly.
“You dealt with it, then?” Silver asked his father.
“Yes,” replied Giovanni, “It all went according to plan, it’s just us now.”
Silver didn’t ask what his father faced when he was in the room, he was just happy to have him back, the three of them left the Underground and headed back towards the station, where they’d get the first Magnet Train back into Kanto and be back home in Viridian in no time.
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That morning was like any of the mornings Giovanni had experienced for the last month. He woke up to a loving wife, who had become all the more beautiful in the time he had spent away from her; perhaps it’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder after all. Not only that, but he woke with the knowledge that his strong, independent son was in the next room, he had never been as proud of another human being than he was of his son, Silver. Giovanni knew that one day, perhaps not all that far away, Silver would surpass him in strength and, if all went to plan, he would use that strength for better things than Giovanni did. Giovanni knew that he was happier than he ever had been in his life and his only regret was that he didn’t make it happen sooner.
However, that morning he received an urgent communication that would change everything. The message came from Professor Ivan Cornell, former Head of Research and Development of Team Rocket and one of the three Executives who assisted in its revival in Johto. The message explained that he had developed something horrible for use in the war against the world that Team Rocket had planned while it was at its peak in Johto, however after being beaten by a young boy, the Executive in charge of the operation had, for reasons understood only by the leader himself, called it all off, leaving Professor Cornell’s horrible project useless. Cornell went on to explain that he could not bring himself to simply destroy that which he had spent so long to create, so he simply allowed it to live on in a cryogenic chamber, in the hope that one day it would be useful. Unfortunately, rather than becoming useful, it somehow managed to free itself from its chamber and, as super soldiers were prone to do, it attempted to kill everyone in the building. Luckily, very few people remained in the Underground at that time, but it did successfully kill a fair number of Grunts before Cornell was able to lock it in one of the Underground chambers. Cornell’s message went on to detail how he could not imagine anyone but Giovanni himself taking on the beast he created with even a glimmer of hope for success and how if left unchecked, this monster was sure to escape and ravage destruction across the land. Giovanni had half a mind to ignore the problem and hope it went away, but decided that he had to accept responsibility for it – it was him who originally founded Team Rocket all those years ago, if he had not done that, then this would never have happened.
Giovanni made preparations and that day asked his son, Silver and his one faithful Executive from his Team Rocket days, Richard to accompany him to the Goldenrod Underground where he would take care of the problem. He requested that they wait outside and only intervene if absolutely necessary, Giovanni was a proud man and he was determined to clean up his own mess. With the aid of the Magnet Train, it didn’t take very long at all to get into Goldenrod and they were at the door of the Underground within two hours of leaving.
“Wait here,” instructed Giovanni to both Silver and Richard.
Neither of them said anything in response, it was obvious that if they had said anything it would’ve been an objection, but it was obvious also that neither of them dared to contradict the great Giovanni and so he walked in alone, as planned.
“Hello?” called out Giovanni when he entered the room, not really sure what he was looking for, “Is anyone there?”
Giovanni had his hand gripped tight around his Rhyperior’s Poké Ball, ready to send out his first Pokémon at a moment’s notice, when he heard a chilling voice replying to his call.
“Greetings,” came the voice, “I wondered how long it would take you.”
“Who are you?” demanded Giovanni, unable to see his opponent due to the lack of light in the Underground.
When Giovanni did see who was with him, it chilled him to the core, out of the shadows stepped his exact double, a second Giovanni.
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Professor Cornell stood by the cryogenic chamber and once again impatiently explained the project to his colleague, the new head of Team Rocket, Keane.
“You’ve said many times that you can’t wait until Giovanni returns and relieves you of the stresses of leadership, correct?” asked Cornell, rhetorically.
“Yes, that’s correct,” answered Keane, still unsure of what Cornell was suggesting.
“Well I’ve solved that problem,” explained Cornell, “In this chamber lies for all intents and purposes, our former leader, Giovanni.”
“But he’s also a Pokémon?” quizzed Keane.
“Yes,” replied Cornell impatiently, “He was constructed from strands of Giovanni’s DNA and the bodies of twenty Ditto – so while he has the brains of our former leader, he has the ability to change into any Pokémon, thus making him as intelligent, but much more powerful than Giovanni himself ever was.”
“But isn’t that exactly what a Ditto can do?” questioned Keane, still failing to see how this project was at all worth the funds he had channelled into it, Cornell’s ‘super soldier’ had cost Team Rocket so much that unless it was literally able to dominate the entirety of Johto for them, they were sunk, so Keane wasn’t particularly pleased with the fact that Cornell had managed to piss away all of that money on reinventing Ditto.
“No!” cried Cornell, now becoming extremely frustrated, “This creature has Giovanni’s brain! It is far superior to the intelligence of a Ditto, which requires constant instruction to be of any use! Giovanni was an expert on Pokémon, which means he will be an expert on the usage of their moves and will be able to use them with frighteningly effectively without having to go through the pain of shouting orders and thus revealing his plan to his opponent. Not only that but because his body is made from multiple Ditto, he can transform parts of his body at a time and not the entirety, meaning he could, if he so desired, transform himself into a mixture of twenty different Pokémon at once!”
“And at the same time,” checked Keane, “He would still be the Giovanni we know and love?”
“Yes!” exclaimed Cornell, ecstatic that his leader finally understood his project.
“I finally understand…” said Keane, waiting for the smile on Cornell’s face, just so he could turn it into a grimace, “I finally understand why Giovanni left Team Rocket! I can’t believe he put up with idiots like you on a day to day basis! If one more thing goes wrong today, Team Rocket is over – and this time it’ll be for good!”
Cornell didn’t even bother trying to convince Keane to take this statement back; he didn’t think it was at all necessary. Eventually, Keane would be convinced of his project’s brilliance and he would be forced to eat his words, just so long as nothing else bad happened that day, there was absolutely nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, later that day, one of the poorly thought out plans masterminded by Keane, who in Cornell’s opinion was excellent at rallying the troops but wouldn’t be choice number one for thinking, was brought down by a ten year old boy with no help whatsoever and Keane decided that enough was enough and called for a second disbandment of Team Rocket and this time, no one was willing to take his place… The project that Cornell had worked so hard to create was going to go to waste.
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“So they cloned me?” checked Giovanni, unable to believe what he was seeing.
“Not quite cloned,” answered the doppelganger, “But close enough.”
“Alright, well unfortunately for you,” stated Giovanni, trying to play it as coolly as possible, “There’s only room for one Giovanni in this world, so you’re gonna have to go.”
“Oh, am I?” responded the clone.
“We can come to an arrangement, I suppose,” reasoned Giovanni, “If you don’t resist, I can let you live. It will be under constant supervision and you will only rarely be able to leave the house, but you won’t be a prisoner as such. You’ll be allowed human contact – both my wife, my son, my former Executive and myself will gladly indulge you in conversation on a day to day basis and we’ll provide you with three home made meals a day.”
“That sounds like a lovely arrangement, but I’m afraid I have my sights set a little higher,” retorted the clone.
“I thought you’d say as much,” replied Giovanni with a smile, he held out Rhyperior’s Poké Ball in front of him and continued speaking, “I can see you don’t have any Pokémon on you, I can tell this sort of thing at a glance. That means that I could kill you right now and you couldn’t do a thing to defend yourself. Last chance, I’ll still let you come with me peacefully if you surrender now.”
Giovanni smirked to himself, there was absolutely no way his doppelganger was going to get out of this one, he had six strong Pokémon with him and two partners armed to the same degree waiting outside while this clone was totally unarmed. Cornell’s warning was absolutely ridiculous, this guy wasn’t a danger, he was pathetic and yet, in response to Giovanni’s threat, the clone laughed. Giovanni sensed something wasn’t quite right, but too late, his clone’s arm suddenly transformed into a tentacle, reached out, grabbed Rhyperior’s Poké Ball and slung it to the floor. Once the Poké Ball was on the floor, the clone changed his arm back to normal and transformed his foot, possibly for irony, into that of a Rhyperior and used it to crush Rhyperior’s Poké Ball, killing Giovanni’s first ever Pokémon without a second’s hesitation.
“Unfortunately for you, I’m not as noble as you,” announced the clone, “I’m not going to let you surrender and just like I did then, I’m going to take advantage of every tiny mistake, every moment of hesitation, every flicker of weakness and I’m going to use them to bring you to your knees, weeping like a child… And then I’m going to kill you.”
“But… why?” asked Giovanni, struggling to understand his doppelganger’s motives, surely he gained little advantage by killing Giovanni?
“As you said,” replied the clone, “There’s only room for one Giovanni in this world, so you’re gonna have to go.”
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Cornell sat in the Underground, in an isolated cell, alongside his project’s cryogenic chamber.
‘Would it be so bad,’ thought Cornell, ‘If I let him out… Just to meet him?’
Cornell concluded that it would, he had created the most dangerous weapon in the world and had given it the brain of a criminal mastermind – he couldn’t even think of anything more dangerous than that. But still, he wanted his creation to have a moment’s breath, he could open up the chamber just a crack so he could speak to him and then close it again before he had a chance to escape. In fact, Cornell was sure he could fix some sort of vice to the chamber, making it impossible to open past a certain width. In fact, Cornell had one in his tool box, which he just happened to have with him. Cornell attached the vice to the chamber and opened it up, just as much as the vice would allow, which wasn’t more than three or four inches.
“Hello?” greeted Cornell.
“Am I… alive?” came the response.
“Yes,” answered Cornell, “Did you think you weren’t?”
“I… thought I died…” answered the clone, “The last thing I remember is giving a DNA sample… And since then… I’ve been dreaming… It was like I died… So I’m alive?”
“That’s right,” responded Cornell with a smile, he couldn’t believe he was actually speaking to his creation right now, he felt so lucky.
“Then I’m going to keep it that way,” stated the clone.
“Wh-what do you mean?” questioned Cornell, the clone’s statement had sounded like a threat. Cornell had no idea why it would threaten its creator, but apparently, it was completely willing to.
“The reason I felt dead…” retorted the clone, “Is because life wasn’t given to me as soon as I was created, was it? I’ve been in this cryogenic chamber for a long time, haven’t I?”
“Well, I mean, it couldn’t-” babbled the Professor.
“Don’t try to cover it up!” snapped the clone, in a tone that made Cornell feel like he was back in the room with Giovanni, like he had been all that time ago, “I can see what you’re thinking… So, I understand I can only get out of here if you release the vice on the chamber, correct?”
“Y-yes,” answered Cornell sheepishly, his ecstasy had become fear, he could not believe what he had created and, honestly, he was starting to regret it, he built up the courage to continue talking, “But I won’t do it!”
“I think you will,” responded the clone, laughing.
Cornell stood firm, but of what felt like their own volition, his arms began to move and unfasten the vice.
“Are- are you doing this?” demanded Cornell.
“Well who else would it be?” smirked the clone.
Before long the vice was completely unfastened and the clone was lifting the lid of the cryogenic chamber. Cornell knew that nothing he could do would save his life if his creation wished to take it, but he could still save the lives of others. Cornell had never been an ethical man and throughout his life had caused the deaths of many people, but he had always wanted his last action to be one for the good fight, so he took his emergency contact device out of his inner pocket. In the heyday of Team Rocket, every Executive had carried one of these, but they were all destroyed or lost, making contact with Giovanni absolutely impossible. Cornell had always claimed that he had never had one as he never had need for one, being constantly by Giovanni’s side, but this was a lie. In truth, Cornell had simply not wanted to use the device to bother Giovanni, suspecting that if he did, Giovanni would destroy his own and then when a real emergency showed itself, he would have no way of contacting Giovanni and this investment proved worth while. Cornell began typing out a warning message to Giovanni on the device, trying to tell him everything that happened, but before he had typed two words, Giovanni’s menacing figure was standing above him.
“What are you doing?” demanded the clone.
“N-nothing,” answered Cornell, in a feeble attempt to keep his life, “Please! I created you! Have mercy!”
“Mercy is for the weak,” responded the clone, he then looked at the device in Cornell’s hand, “I will take this though.”
Cornell stood, paralysed with fear as the clone removed the device from Cornell’s hand, raised his own hand, transforming it into a claw as he did so and then slashed across his creator’s stomach. Cornell began bleeding profusely through the large hole in the front of his stomach, dying a slow and painful death, he died knowing that he was right about the power of his creation all along; the thing he was wrong about was the assumption that they would be able to control it.
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Giovanni had no time to mourn the loss of his first ever Pokémon, he could still save the rest of his Pokémon and, more importantly, himself. Giovanni thought about the Pokémon he had with him; Tyranitar, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Dugtrio and Gliscor. He could easily send out all four of them, but that would only heighten the possibility that he would make a mistake or oversight, he couldn’t watch all four at once. Instead, Giovanni decided that he would send out three, that seemed like a number he could watch simultaneously, he chose Nidoking and Nidoqueen as they were very similar Pokémon and could potentially be ordered simultaneously and to go with them he chose Dugtrio, his weakest Pokémon, so that if anything went wrong, recovery was still possible.
Giovanni ordered Dugtrio to use Dig to create an element of surprise for when it surfaced and ordered Nidoking and Nidoqueen to attempt Fissure attacks. Both Fissure attacks were inaccurate and the clone laughed, quietly first, but growing into a highly audible laugh. Giovanni thought at first he was laughing at the inaccuracy of Fissure, but then he began to transform. The clone became a Gliscor, not at all unlike the one in a Poké Ball on Giovanni’s belt and then Giovanni realised why his clone was really laughing, he had outwitted Giovanni once again. In the form of Gliscor, Giovanni’s clone used an Earthquake attack, which immediately knocked out Dugtrio, as it was dealt extra damage due to being underground and knocked both Nidoking and Nidoqueen to their feet, dealing them huge amounts of damage due to the super effective hit.
‘Damn,’ thought Giovanni, ‘He’s constantly outwitting me… And yet, he is me…’
Then the awful realisation hit Giovanni, he gave the DNA that they must have used for this clone over two years ago and that was the only difference between their minds – the clone was younger, and perhaps Giovanni was getting older, less able to think and less able to react. It was true that while Giovanni was finding ever more grey hairs in his head and wrinkles on his face, his doppelganger appeared to be suffering from none of this, his face looked wrinkle free and his hair was thick and black. Giovanni had aged a lot in the past two years, could family life really be more stressful than being a full time criminal mastermind? It was looking less and less likely that Giovanni was going to leave this room alive, but he wasn’t going down without a fight. He could call Silver and Richard in, but that wasn’t why he’d called them there, he intended to clean up his own mess or die trying and if he did die, it would fall to Silver and Richard to try and contain that which he could not, but not before.
“Ice Beam!” shouted Giovanni, ordering both of his active Pokémon at once.
Both Nidoking and Nidoqueen reacted to this order in spectacular reaction time, but not as spectacular as the clone, who transformed himself into a Cloyster, turning his double vulnerability to Ice into a double resistance. Then, without more than a second’s delay, Giovanni’s clone launched a Surf attack, knocking out Nidoqueen and brining Nidoking down to a pitiful amount of health, but this didn’t have to be it, Nidoking still had one shot at glory.
“Nidoking!” yelled Giovanni at the top of his voice, “Toxic!”
Nidoking leapt forwards and moved faster than the clone could react and hit him whilst he was still in the form of a Cloyster, causing him to become badly poisoned. The clone retaliated by using Clamp on Nidoking and subsequently knocking him out, but it didn’t matter, the damage was done. The clone changed back into his original form, that of Giovanni and he looked physically sick, Nidoking really had done his job.
“Wait,” said the clone as Giovanni went to his belt to send out his next Pokémon, “Before the battle continues, I have something to tell you.”
“Yes?” asked Giovanni, not taking his hand off of Gliscor’s Poké Ball.
“You were brought here under false pretences,” conceded the clone.
“What do you mean?” questioned Giovanni.
“Professor Cornell didn’t send the message summoning you here,” explained the clone, “In fact, he was already dead by the time that message was sent. It was me who sent the message.”
“But… why?” quizzed Giovanni in confusion.
“So that I could destroy you,” stated the clone, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Giovanni didn’t reply to this, he simply looked in horror at the clone – it was him, but so much more.
“Allow me to elaborate,” continued the clone, apparently requiring no input from Giovanni whatsoever, “I have become, physically, the most powerful man in the world. No one could match me, I have the power to turn into almost any Pokémon in an instant, but I think if enough powerful Trainers came up against me, I may be overcome. Perhaps even if a few powerful Trainers backed up by a huge number of weaker Trainers would be able to overcome me, who knows. That’s where you come in. You can reform Team Rocket at the click of your fingers, things fell apart beneath Keane because he was young, inexperienced and rash, but we’re not like that. We’re in a different class of intelligence than him, he was an excellent Executive, but a poor leader, if you, or I, were to go on a recruitment drive for Team Rocket to reform, we’d have hundreds of applicants within the hour and that’s what I plan to do. I am going to dominate the world, with the help of Team Rocket, I will be completely unstoppable. I may even be able to come face to face with Legendary Pokémon and thus gain the ability to become them, making me even more impossibly formidable than I already am. But you stand in the way of that, as long as the real Giovanni exists, I cannot become Giovanni and that is why you must die.”
“I understand,” replied Giovanni coolly, “What you’re saying is it’s not just my life that’s at stake, it’s that of millions of people around the globe. That just makes it all the more important that I win this fight.”
Giovanni was pleased with himself, he had managed to keep his clone talking, thus allowing the poison to take greater and greater effect, and it was obvious that it was starting to hurt him. Giovanni thought about delaying sending out his next Pokémon, but then he thought that might be pushing things, his clone did say he would take advantage of every mistake to crush him and he did openly say that he intended to kill him. Giovanni went to send out Gliscor, but then he saw something so disheartening he couldn’t help but stop completely dead. His clone transformed into a Chansey and used Heal Bell, clearing up the poison, followed by Softboiled, restoring the health which Giovanni’s Pokémon had worked so hard to whittle away.
Giovanni felt like breaking down and crying, but he knew he couldn’t, if he did, that would be the last thing he did and if these were going to be his last moments, he’d live them with pride. He had to come up with a plan, something which Giovanni was very good at, but only ever from positions of pre-existing superiority, Giovanni rarely considered himself the underdog. There was only one Trainer he had ever considered his superior and even he would have been totally outclassed by his current opponent, the only way Giovanni could win was if he was tactically perfect. Instead of sending out Gliscor, as he had originally intended, Giovanni decided to send out Tyranitar. Hopefully, his clone would pounce upon Tyranitar’s double weakness to Fighting, little would he know that Giovanni would still have one hand on Gliscor’s Poké Ball, ready to pounce on him with a Flying type attack. If all went to plan, it would just be a matter of maintaining the advantage from that point, which with the wide variety of Types which the two Pokémon could deal with between them, shouldn’t really be too much trouble.
Predictably, as soon as Tyranitar was on the field, the clone took the form of a Machamp, the strongest Fighting Pokémon and began striking at Tyranitar with an awesome Cross Chop, but before the attack landed, Giovanni sent out Gliscor who immediately intervened with an Aerial Ace attack, knocking the clone off his feet. As he hit the floor, the clone transformed again, this time becoming a Weavile, clearly ready to strike back against Gliscor with an Ice attack, but Giovanni didn’t give him that chance.
“Stone Edge!” shouted Giovanni to Tyranitar.
Tyranitar ran towards its opponent and attack brutally, preventing him from standing once again. Again, the clone transformed, this time becoming a Golem, probably in an attempt to take advantage of Tyranitar and Gliscor’s respective Ground and Rock weaknesses, but Giovanni was going to make him regret it.
“Double Earthquake!” shouted Giovanni, Gliscor’s Earthquake would probably cause a fair amount of damage to Tyranitar, but the two together might just be enough to take out the clone.
Tyranitar and Gliscor obediently carried out their master’s orders, knocking the clone to the floor, leaving him lying still and unmoving, he began to transform once again, but this time into the all too familiar form of Giovanni.
“I think that’s it,” stated Giovanni calmly, he then turned to Tyranitar, “Pick him up and return him to the cryogenic chamber, where he belongs.”
Tyranitar obediently picked up the clone, slinging him over its shoulder and began to trundle towards the miraculously intact cryogenic chamber.
Giovanni dusted himself off and returned Gliscor to his Poké Ball, happy that he had finally defeated his most fearsome opponent to date, when suddenly he heard a roar, it was obvious that it was Tyranitar that made the noise, but it wasn’t his usual cry, it sounded like a screech of terror. Giovanni turned to see the clone, once again in the form of a Machamp, back on his feet, slugging Tyranitar and knocking it to the ground.
“No!” yelled Giovanni at the top of his voice, he could not believe this was happening, he had lost yet another Pokémon.
“No mercy!” shouted the clone, transforming back into a Weavile whilst doing so. The clone ran over Tyranitar’s body, running the blade of one hand across it, slicing it clean in half. That was a second Pokémon that had been killed rather than just knocked out, today Giovanni had lost his two most powerful Pokémon, including his first Pokémon ever and still his opponent showed no sign of slowing down.
Giovanni grabbed Gliscor’s Poké Ball back of his belt, but it was too slow, he couldn’t compete with the speed of a Weavile. The clone shot an Ice Beam, frighteningly accurately at the Poké Ball in Giovanni’s hand, thankfully this time it was not destroyed, but it was frozen solid, making it entirely unusable, Giovanni was now completely defenceless.
Giovanni was a proud man and did not hold his arms up or attempt to defend himself in anyway as his opponent, in the form of a Weavile, sprinted up towards him, angling blades towards his chest and neck. Giovanni knew that he didn’t have long left and he intended to live out the short remainder of his life with dignity, however he could not help but flinch as his opponent stormed towards him and flung a blade right up to his face, stopping only centimetres before it cut his face apart. When Giovanni opened his eyes he saw the familiar figure of himself standing in front of him.
“I thought I would give you the honour of being killed by a human,” explained the clone, “You’ve been a lot of fun, but I’m afraid your time is up.”
“I thought as much,” replied Giovanni.
“Do you have any last requests?” asked the clone.
“I would appreciate it if you could give my surviving Pokémon to my son, Silver,” answered Giovanni honestly, “But I suppose you’ll want to use them?”
“No,” replied the clone, “I can do that. Your Gliscor has died of hypothermia, but I’ll give Silver your Nidoking, Nidoqueen and Dugtrio. Is that all?”
“Sometimes…” responded Giovanni, “Mercy is worthwhile.”
“Incorrect!” shouted the clone in response, Giovanni’s two or three years of seniority obviously made a surprising amount of difference, but then that’s not all that surprising, Giovanni did recall being a very angry man when he was the leader of Team Rocket. The clone transformed his right arm back into the blade it had just been and looked Giovanni in the eye.
“I’m sorry it had to end this way for you,” said the clone, truly apologetic and stabbed Giovanni through the stomach, the clone held his blade in place for a few seconds until he felt the last of Giovanni’s life pass out of his body. He picked up the three Poké Balls on Giovanni’s belt, put them on his own and strolled out of the room as if nothing had happened.
As he walked out of the room he caught the eye of his son, Silver, who looked not only physically older than when he had last seen him, but also mentally, the boy had grown a lot and the new Giovanni had missed it all, but there was going to be time to catch up and he would ensure that his son would be living a life of luxury before long.
“You dealt with it then?” asked the boy.
“Yes,” replied the man who was now Giovanni, “It all went according to plan, it’s just us now.”
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Either way, this was a good read.
